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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00, 9633.39, 9608.48.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-02-20]
Volume: 44925260237, RSI (14-day): 50.70, 50-day EMA: 9147.17, 200-day EMA: 8566.34
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1616.60, Gold RSI: 72.87
Oil Price: 53.78, Oil RSI: 51.53
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off: Bitcoin has dipped back below the psychological area of support near the $10,000 level amid a 20-minute sell-off that took the markets by surprise.
At around 21:30 UTC on Feb. 19, the price ofbitcoin(BTC) fell more than 4.5 percent from $10,086 to $9,610, according to CoinDesk’s BPI data, despite the technical signs appearing to favor thebulls.
On exchanges like Bitstamp and Coinbase, prices dropped to as low as $9,280 before quickly being snatched up by opportunistic buyers looking to capitalize on the fall. BTC is now changing hands at around $9,719.
Related:Oil Prices Are Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin
“I’m a long holder and even I’m shook,” said BTC investor and podcast host Brad Mills in a recenttweet.
“That usually means too much exposure,” he added.
Indeed, the sell-off caught many traders unawares as the price of BTC shed much of the gains achieved over the last few days, with BTC’s price rising out of a prior area of resistance near $9,483 on Feb. 17 to above $10,000 a day later.
So far sellers are intent on keeping prices below hourly resistances near $9,793. That will be a telling sign should prices remain below that level in the coming days, towards the end of the weekly closing session on Feb. 24.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020
Yassine Elmandjra, a crypto analyst at Ark Invest, said in a recenttweetthat today marks BTC’s fifth-largest hourly price drop in history.
“The only other time we’ve seen a greater dollar price drop is at the December 2017 peak,” Elmandjra said.
Other notable cryptocurrencies are also down, with the likes ofXRP(XRP),ether(ETH) andbitcoin cash(BCH) down between 5.5 and 8.1 percent over a 24-hour period. Tezos, on the other hand, is still trending up 5.46 percent on a 24-hour basis and one of the only crypto in the top 20 to still be in the green, Messari data shows.
UPDATE (Feb. 20, 00:25 UTC):Co-founder and managing partner atKenetic, Jehan Chu, told CoinDesk that “today’s sell-off was nothing more than short-term profit-taking in a market gaining steam. Pullbacks like this are common and we can expect oscillations, but this year’s upward and dominant trajectory for bitcoin is clear.”
• Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months
• OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay) || Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off: Bitcoin has dipped back below the psychological area of support near the $10,000 level amid a 20-minute sell-off that took the markets by surprise. At around 21:30 UTC on Feb. 19, the price of bitcoin (BTC) fell more than 4.5 percent from $10,086 to $9,610, according to CoinDesks BPI data, despite the technical signs appearing to favor the bulls . On exchanges like Bitstamp and Coinbase, prices dropped to as low as $9,280 before quickly being snatched up by opportunistic buyers looking to capitalize on the fall. BTC is now changing hands at around $9,719. Related: Oil Prices Are Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin Im a long holder and even Im shook, said BTC investor and podcast host Brad Mills in a recent tweet . That usually means too much exposure, he added. Indeed, the sell-off caught many traders unawares as the price of BTC shed much of the gains achieved over the last few days, with BTCs price rising out of a prior area of resistance near $9,483 on Feb. 17 to above $10,000 a day later. So far sellers are intent on keeping prices below hourly resistances near $9,793. That will be a telling sign should prices remain below that level in the coming days, towards the end of the weekly closing session on Feb. 24. Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020 Yassine Elmandjra, a crypto analyst at Ark Invest, said in a recent tweet that today marks BTCs fifth-largest hourly price drop in history. The only other time weve seen a greater dollar price drop is at the December 2017 peak, Elmandjra said. Other notable cryptocurrencies are also down, with the likes of XRP (XRP), ether (ETH) and bitcoin cash (BCH) down between 5.5 and 8.1 percent over a 24-hour period. Tezos, on the other hand, is still trending up 5.46 percent on a 24-hour basis and one of the only crypto in the top 20 to still be in the green, Messari data shows. UPDATE (Feb. 20, 00:25 UTC): Co-founder and managing partner at Kenetic , Jehan Chu, told CoinDesk that todays sell-off was nothing more than short-term profit-taking in a market gaining steam. Pullbacks like this are common and we can expect oscillations, but this years upward and dominant trajectory for bitcoin is clear . Related Stories Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay) || Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off: Bitcoin has dipped back below the psychological area of support near the $10,000 level amid a 20-minute sell-off that took the markets by surprise.
At around 21:30 UTC on Feb. 19, the price ofbitcoin(BTC) fell more than 4.5 percent from $10,086 to $9,610, according to CoinDesk’s BPI data, despite the technical signs appearing to favor thebulls.
On exchanges like Bitstamp and Coinbase, prices dropped to as low as $9,280 before quickly being snatched up by opportunistic buyers looking to capitalize on the fall. BTC is now changing hands at around $9,719.
Related:Oil Prices Are Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin
“I’m a long holder and even I’m shook,” said BTC investor and podcast host Brad Mills in a recenttweet.
“That usually means too much exposure,” he added.
Indeed, the sell-off caught many traders unawares as the price of BTC shed much of the gains achieved over the last few days, with BTC’s price rising out of a prior area of resistance near $9,483 on Feb. 17 to above $10,000 a day later.
So far sellers are intent on keeping prices below hourly resistances near $9,793. That will be a telling sign should prices remain below that level in the coming days, towards the end of the weekly closing session on Feb. 24.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020
Yassine Elmandjra, a crypto analyst at Ark Invest, said in a recenttweetthat today marks BTC’s fifth-largest hourly price drop in history.
“The only other time we’ve seen a greater dollar price drop is at the December 2017 peak,” Elmandjra said.
Other notable cryptocurrencies are also down, with the likes ofXRP(XRP),ether(ETH) andbitcoin cash(BCH) down between 5.5 and 8.1 percent over a 24-hour period. Tezos, on the other hand, is still trending up 5.46 percent on a 24-hour basis and one of the only crypto in the top 20 to still be in the green, Messari data shows.
UPDATE (Feb. 20, 00:25 UTC):Co-founder and managing partner atKenetic, Jehan Chu, told CoinDesk that “today’s sell-off was nothing more than short-term profit-taking in a market gaining steam. Pullbacks like this are common and we can expect oscillations, but this year’s upward and dominant trajectory for bitcoin is clear.”
• Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months
• OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay) || OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay): The bitcoin payments startup OpenNode just gained access to Apple Pay, according to the startup’s head of marketing, Ryan Flowers.
This could be a boon for the small subset ofmerchantswho want to hold bitcoin, because it allows people to spend dollars through their regular fintech accounts yet still have those dollars exchanged to bitcoin for the merchant to receive.
The customer’s fiat payment goes through OpenNode’s partner, Wyre, converting tobitcoin(BTC) and depositing in the merchant’s wallet. Merchants can sign up to be part of the private feature release,currently in beta, before it goes live across the platform in a few months.
Related:Oil Prices Are Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin
“They [shoppers] put the card information into the widget that OpenNode is using, in some cases the card information may already be stored, for example with your Apple Pay,” said Jack Jia, Wyre’s director of institutional sales. “So all the user does is click the ‘Buy with Apple Pay’ button” to make a purchase with fiat that the merchant receives as bitcoin.
The same back-end rails that offer indirect access to Apple Pay accounts, which both OpenNode and Wyre declined to name, also work for most debit cards. Now shoppers can spend fiat at online stores and choose for the merchant to receive bitcoin. This assumes shoppers are willing to take a few extra seconds to benefit the merchant, rather than checking out without the bitcoin button. So this might only suit merchants with a devoted customer base.
“Our merchants keep some, or most, of their payments in bitcoin. Merchants want exposure to bitcoin,” OpenNode CEO Afnan Rahman said of the 5,000 merchants registered with the startup so far. “This year a lot of luxury goods businesses are signing up.”
OpenNode’s Flowers said shoppers are reluctant to spend bitcoin because of the volatility, but demand among merchants for receiving the cryptocurrency hasn’t dwindled. In particular, Rahman said the company has seen the most uptick in 2020 from merchants in India, South Korea, Japan and China.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020
He said OpenNode processes “a couple million” dollars worth of bitcoin a month for such diehard merchants. The startup will initially deploy the Apple Pay feature with less than a dozen merchant testers.
“We’re rolling it out slowly to make sure the rate of chargebacks isn’t high,” Flowers said, describing contested payments credit-card companies return to consumers.
By this time next year, Wyre and OpenNode hope to complement this feature with a “full-suite treasury management tool for merchants,” Jia said. By relying onWyre, which has a money transmitter license, OpenNode will offer merchants a bitcoin savings account where they can earn interest and pay out invoices. Jia said this would be “offering the same functions as a bank,” with the option to cash out bitcoin to a personal wallet.
“We’re not looking at revenue right now as much as building up infrastructure,” Jia said, referencing debit cards and Apple Pay. “These are all layers on top of the banking system, so connecting those networks to the bitcoin network through infrastructure is more important right now.”
Apple didn’t offer any comments by press time.
• Norwegian Air May Allow Customers to Pay With Crypto as Soon as Spring
• Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months || OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay): The bitcoin payments startup OpenNode just gained access to Apple Pay, according to the startup’s head of marketing, Ryan Flowers. This could be a boon for the small subset of merchants who want to hold bitcoin, because it allows people to spend dollars through their regular fintech accounts yet still have those dollars exchanged to bitcoin for the merchant to receive. The customer’s fiat payment goes through OpenNode’s partner, Wyre, converting to bitcoin (BTC) and depositing in the merchant’s wallet. Merchants can sign up to be part of the private feature release, currently in beta , before it goes live across the platform in a few months. Related: Oil Prices Are Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin “They [shoppers] put the card information into the widget that OpenNode is using, in some cases the card information may already be stored, for example with your Apple Pay,” said Jack Jia, Wyre’s director of institutional sales. “So all the user does is click the ‘Buy with Apple Pay’ button” to make a purchase with fiat that the merchant receives as bitcoin. The same back-end rails that offer indirect access to Apple Pay accounts, which both OpenNode and Wyre declined to name, also work for most debit cards. Now shoppers can spend fiat at online stores and choose for the merchant to receive bitcoin. This assumes shoppers are willing to take a few extra seconds to benefit the merchant, rather than checking out without the bitcoin button. So this might only suit merchants with a devoted customer base. “Our merchants keep some, or most, of their payments in bitcoin. Merchants want exposure to bitcoin,” OpenNode CEO Afnan Rahman said of the 5,000 merchants registered with the startup so far. “This year a lot of luxury goods businesses are signing up.” OpenNode’s Flowers said shoppers are reluctant to spend bitcoin because of the volatility, but demand among merchants for receiving the cryptocurrency hasn’t dwindled. In particular, Rahman said the company has seen the most uptick in 2020 from merchants in India, South Korea, Japan and China. Story continues Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020 He said OpenNode processes “a couple million” dollars worth of bitcoin a month for such diehard merchants. The startup will initially deploy the Apple Pay feature with less than a dozen merchant testers. “We’re rolling it out slowly to make sure the rate of chargebacks isn’t high,” Flowers said, describing contested payments credit-card companies return to consumers. By this time next year, Wyre and OpenNode hope to complement this feature with a “full-suite treasury management tool for merchants,” Jia said. By relying on Wyre , which has a money transmitter license, OpenNode will offer merchants a bitcoin savings account where they can earn interest and pay out invoices. Jia said this would be “offering the same functions as a bank,” with the option to cash out bitcoin to a personal wallet. “We’re not looking at revenue right now as much as building up infrastructure,” Jia said, referencing debit cards and Apple Pay. “These are all layers on top of the banking system, so connecting those networks to the bitcoin network through infrastructure is more important right now.” Apple didn’t offer any comments by press time. Related Stories Norwegian Air May Allow Customers to Pay With Crypto as Soon as Spring Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months || OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay): The bitcoin payments startup OpenNode just gained access to Apple Pay, according to the startup’s head of marketing, Ryan Flowers.
This could be a boon for the small subset ofmerchantswho want to hold bitcoin, because it allows people to spend dollars through their regular fintech accounts yet still have those dollars exchanged to bitcoin for the merchant to receive.
The customer’s fiat payment goes through OpenNode’s partner, Wyre, converting tobitcoin(BTC) and depositing in the merchant’s wallet. Merchants can sign up to be part of the private feature release,currently in beta, before it goes live across the platform in a few months.
Related:Oil Prices Are Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin
“They [shoppers] put the card information into the widget that OpenNode is using, in some cases the card information may already be stored, for example with your Apple Pay,” said Jack Jia, Wyre’s director of institutional sales. “So all the user does is click the ‘Buy with Apple Pay’ button” to make a purchase with fiat that the merchant receives as bitcoin.
The same back-end rails that offer indirect access to Apple Pay accounts, which both OpenNode and Wyre declined to name, also work for most debit cards. Now shoppers can spend fiat at online stores and choose for the merchant to receive bitcoin. This assumes shoppers are willing to take a few extra seconds to benefit the merchant, rather than checking out without the bitcoin button. So this might only suit merchants with a devoted customer base.
“Our merchants keep some, or most, of their payments in bitcoin. Merchants want exposure to bitcoin,” OpenNode CEO Afnan Rahman said of the 5,000 merchants registered with the startup so far. “This year a lot of luxury goods businesses are signing up.”
OpenNode’s Flowers said shoppers are reluctant to spend bitcoin because of the volatility, but demand among merchants for receiving the cryptocurrency hasn’t dwindled. In particular, Rahman said the company has seen the most uptick in 2020 from merchants in India, South Korea, Japan and China.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020
He said OpenNode processes “a couple million” dollars worth of bitcoin a month for such diehard merchants. The startup will initially deploy the Apple Pay feature with less than a dozen merchant testers.
“We’re rolling it out slowly to make sure the rate of chargebacks isn’t high,” Flowers said, describing contested payments credit-card companies return to consumers.
By this time next year, Wyre and OpenNode hope to complement this feature with a “full-suite treasury management tool for merchants,” Jia said. By relying onWyre, which has a money transmitter license, OpenNode will offer merchants a bitcoin savings account where they can earn interest and pay out invoices. Jia said this would be “offering the same functions as a bank,” with the option to cash out bitcoin to a personal wallet.
“We’re not looking at revenue right now as much as building up infrastructure,” Jia said, referencing debit cards and Apple Pay. “These are all layers on top of the banking system, so connecting those networks to the bitcoin network through infrastructure is more important right now.”
Apple didn’t offer any comments by press time.
• Norwegian Air May Allow Customers to Pay With Crypto as Soon as Spring
• Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months || 7 of Wall Street's Most Heavily Shorted Stocks: Getty Images "Short interest" is one of the most interesting pieces of stock data that you might pay little or no attention to. But this little metric of negative sentiment, while popular among traders, can be valuable even to buy-and-hold investors who never want to place a single bearish bet. If you believe a stock will rise, you buy it. Easy. But what if you're bearish on a company's prospects and want to profit off that belief? A popular technique is short selling: To sell a stock short, you borrow shares so you can immediately turn around and sell them. You wait for shares to fall in price, then buy them back and return those shares to the lender. Your profit is the difference between the price you sold and the price you bought back. But that gamble can go wrong - to the delight of bullish investors. Short sellers incur losses when the stock's price goes higher. Also, time is against you when you short a stock, because you pay interest when you borrow shares. If you want to exit your short trade, you have to buy back shares, which in turn drives the stock price higher. That might force other short sellers to cut their losses, leading to a virtuous cycle of buying called a "short squeeze." That's why short interest (how many shares are currently sold short to bet against a company) matters. There's no concrete level, but anything above 10% of the float, which is the number of shares available for public trading, is worth watching. If you're a conservative, buy-and-hold investor who hates volatility, you might want to avoid stocks with high short interest. If you're an aggressive investor, however, you might consider buying these stocks in the hope that a small bit of positive news will trigger a short squeeze, netting large returns in a short time. Here, we'll look at seven heavily shorted stocks to watch. These companies have short interest ranging anywhere from 14% to 96%, and many of them are the kinds of hot-moving growth stocks that are typical among short-selling targets. Story continues SEE ALSO: The 20 Best Stocks to Buy for 2020 Hormel Getty Images Market value: $28.5 billion % of float sold short: 14.2% Wait. That Hormel ( HRL , $48.26)? Yes. This is the same Hormel that slings Spam, Skippy peanut butter and Natural Choice deli meat, and that's frequently included in top consumer staples stocks lists . And it's the same Hormel you know from the Dividend Aristocrats - 64 dividend stocks that have grown their payouts for at least a quarter-century. (HRL boasts 54 consecutive dividend hikes.) So, why the relatively high short interest in this blue-chip stock? Hormel has been feeling the effects of an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in China, a massive pork market. The company recently reported a 3% year-over-year decline in its 2019 full-year earnings, and higher input costs in China, as well as Brazil, were among the reasons cited. Despite this weakness, as well as additional worries about the Chinese market brought about by the coronavirus outbreak, HRL shares slowly but surely continue to climb. The stock is up only 12% over the past year, versus 21% for the broader market, but Hormel nonetheless sits at all-time highs. As a result, HRL shares are fairly expensive, at 26 times analysts' estimates for forward-looking profits and nearly 3 times trailing 12-month sales. Hormel hardly looks like a stock on the brink of disaster. Short sellers simply might believe that HRL is overextended and pricing in a perfect-case scenario that may or may not play out. SEE ALSO: 11 S&P 500 Stocks That Could Soar 20% or More in 2020 Tesla Getty Images Market value: $155.7 billion % of float sold short: 15.6% A year ago, most of the headlines surrounding electric-vehicle maker Tesla ( TSLA , $858.40) had to do with the fact that its shares hadn't gone anywhere in two years, that it was heavily in debt and short on cash, and that Elon Musk might be a significant PR danger to his own company. Fast-forward to today. TSLA stock has more than doubled since the start of 2020. Shares have more than quintupled since bottoming out in July 2019. Some of that action has been attributed to more bullish developments, including the opening of a Gigafactory in China and rising global vehicle deliveries that set quarterly records. In fact, Tesla has already experienced something of a short squeeze. Tesla's short interest was more than 30% as recently as half a year ago, but many short sellers were forced to exit their positions by purchasing shares. You can chalk up some of the more recent gains to "fear of missing out" (FOMO). This is when people find out about a stock or other investment that's soaring, so they pile in simply because they don't want to miss out on "the next big thing," regardless of whether its fundamental financials are attractive or not. This is similar to what happened during the 2017 spike in Bitcoin. But Tesla also is being driven by pure optimism in a company that is not only changing the face of the automotive industry, but has numerous growth opportunities across several markets. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi on Feb. 18 called Tesla the "ultimate 'possibility' stock" and wrote that it has "significant addition optionality" in the battery, solar and self-driving industries. He hiked his price target from $325 per share to $730, which is well below current levels, but it's difficult to value the stock using traditional metrics. Sacconaghi even writes that TSLA isn't "unprecedentedly expensive," and that given its excellent growth, "the scarcity of such a profile inevitably commands a premium, especially in this market." The flip side? If this is a bubble, the pain could be severe for those who buy at the top. Numerous analysts have piled in with Sell and Hold calls over the past few weeks, citing price targets anywhere between $300 and $800. This is a difficult call, even for the pros. SEE ALSO: The 15 Best Tech Stocks to Buy for 2020 Chewy Getty Images Market value: $11.5 billion % of float sold short: 22.5% Chewy ( CHWY , $28.92) is among a growing number of pure-play pet stocks that are banking on continued growth in what people, here and abroad, are willing to spend to keep their furry friends healthy and happy. Chewy, for the uninitiated, sells pet food, toys and other supplies online, and it has built up a very faithful following. Roughly 90% of its revenue comes from repeat customers, which tells you just how sticky the offering is. In fact, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Chewy combine to account for 90% of online spending on pet supplies, both with a roughly equal share. And that, perhaps, is the fear. Chewy, which went public in June 2019 at $22 per share, has grown its revenues by 146% between its fiscal years ended in 2017 and 2019. But it continues to sustain considerable losses, and analysts don't see that changing anytime soon. Moreover, Amazon - which is an existential threat to dozens of companies - already matches Chewy in the space and could be an even larger risk should it make a concerted effort to dominate online pet sales. CHWY stock has mostly been listless since its first day of trading, when it popped to around $35 per share. But shares did show signs of life in December after the company's quarterly revenues beat analyst expectations. Still, a healthy population of bears continues to bet against the pet retailer, indicating real doubt about its near-term prospects - but providing fuel for a short squeeze should its next quarterly results prove its doubters wrong. SEE ALSO: 13 Super Small-Cap Stocks to Buy for 2020 and Beyond Virgin Galactic Getty Images Market value: $5.9 billion % of float sold short: 29.1% Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ( SPCE , $30.30) pulled off an initial public offering (IPO) in late October 2019, becoming the first commercial spaceflight company to trade on the public exchanges. It's ultimately a space tourism firm, but Virgin Galactic also could profit off the expansion of its own technologies in this utterly experimental space. The offering really didn't make waves early on; in fact, SPCE lost more than a third of its value over its first month or so of trading. But speculative traders and growing interest in this space race among Virgin, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, have driven shares 162% higher in 2020. It's up 38% in the past five trading days alone. This, for a company that hasn't even gotten off the ground yet (it says it's preparing for its final stages of test flights). It plans on selling tickets at $250,000 a pop when it finally does, but it still expects to be unprofitable for at least the next two years. In this case, Virgin's gains aren't a product of shorts getting squeezed out - bearish investors are growing in number as the stock shoots higher. It's possible they think a $6 billion market value is too much for a company that hasn't launched a single commercial flight - in an industry that UBS, in 2019, projected would hit $3 billion by 2030 . The bulls would argue that the potential is much bigger, and that Virgin Galactic's leadership and board - which includes numerous airline and aerospace executives, and even a former NASA chief of staff - put SPCE in an enviable position to profit off the final frontier. SEE ALSO: 5 Defense Stocks to Buy to Toughen Up Your Portfolio Dillard's Getty Images Market value: $1.6 billion % of float sold short: 66.7% Betting against department stores has been a winning proposition. Investors who bet against the likes of JCPenney ( JCP ), Macy's ( M ) and Sears ( SHLDQ ) have done quite well for themselves over the past five years. Dillard's ( DDS , $63.22), however, has been a chore. Dillard's is a primarily mall-based retailer that operates roughly 260 primary locations as well as 30 clearance centers across 29 states. As you'd expect, that number has dwindled over the past few years, but the company has been surprisingly stable. Revenues actually grew year-over-year in the fiscal year ended February 2019, and the year before that. Same-store sales - an important retail metric that typically measures revenues in stores open at least a year - have been flat through the first nine months of its fiscal 2020. Shares haven't been great, but they're up 11% over the past three years - light-years ahead of the 50%-95% declines for its aforementioned peers. And Dillard's has even managed to more than double its dividend since 2017. Nonetheless, short bets have exploded over the past five years, with short interest surging from just 4% of DDS's float in 2015 to about two-thirds of the float today. And perhaps for good reason. The analyst community expects Dillard's to finish fiscal 2020 with a 1.4% decline in revenues and a 34% hit to profits. They expect DDS to essentially stand still, operationally, in fiscal 2021. Dillard's might indeed carve out a place in this market for itself, but just note that you won't get paid to hang around to find out. Despite its recent dividend growth, DDS shares yield less than 1% at current prices. SEE ALSO: 16 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying and Selling Peloton Getty Images Market value: $7.6 billion % of float sold short: 84.0% Peloton ( PTON , $27.08) is an exercise equipment company, but one that's utilizing technology and subscription services to the fullest. Its $2,250 exercise bikes and $4,300 treadmills not only command a lot of money up front, but also boast screens that display video classes and other content from its $40-per-month subscription plan. While the company famously took flack for its cringe-worthy Christmas ad , the real concern is skepticism over just how much it can wring out of a limited market. In October 2019, MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni wrote that if Peloton could penetrate 10% of U.S. households with incomes above $150,000, it would reach 1.5 million households. The problem? It had already sold 564,000 units in the U.S. as of June 30. As a result, Peleton hasn't done much since coming public in September 2019 at $29 per share, and in fact, it currently trades below its IPO price. The analyst community is quite bullish, with 16 of 18 analysts tracked by TipRanks doling out Buy-equivalent ratings over the past three months, and a price target of $37.12 that implies 37% upside from current prices. Numerous pros came out in support of the stock after fiscal Q2 earnings were released in February, citing optimism about Peloton's great engagement, subscriber growth (96% year-over-year) and raised subscriber and revenue guidance. But short sellers have gathered en masse. They've typically used 60% to 70% of the float to bet against PTON stock over its brief publicly traded life, but that has grown to 84% currently. Their concern? For one, revenue growth, while still red-hot, is slowing - fiscal Q2 sales, while up 77%, decelerated from more than 100% growth in the previous quarter. Also, Douglas C. Lane managing partner Sarat Sethi told CNBC's Squawk Box that cash burn continues to be an issue. If the bears are wrong, however, the resulting short squeeze could be powerful. SEE ALSO: 10 Insider Trading Stocks: What Execs and Directors Are Buying GameStop Getty Images Market value: $267.6 million % of float sold short: 96.1% Video game retailer GameStop ( GME , $4.06) has long had a healthy short crowd, typically occupying anywhere between 25% and 50% of its available shares over the past half-decade. They've been rewarded, too. GME shares have plunged by nearly 90% since the start of 2015, and there's little to indicate that a turnaround is right around the corner. GameStop has been bled out by a number of trends. Big-box stores such as Best Buy ( BBY ), Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ) have all bitten into GameStop's sales over the years. Online retailers such as Amazon haven't added to the pain. But the industry itself is turning against GameStop, increasingly shifting toward direct downloads or streaming options and away from physical discs and cartridges. GameStop's revenues have waffled over the past decade, but they're certainly headed in the wrong direction of late. The company posted $9.4 billion in sales in fiscal 2015; analysts expect just $6.5 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending this month. GME finally eliminated its dividend in June to save precious cash that in theory could be used to turn things around. Shares have plunged by 33% in 2020 alone, largely on the back of miserable holiday-season sales results. GameStop said global revenues for the nine-week holiday period ended Jan. 4 declined by 27.5% year-over-year, and it lowered its full-year revenue outlook. "The accelerated decline in new hardware and software sales coming out of Black Friday and throughout the month of December was well below our expectations, reflective of overall industry trends," GameStop CEO George Sherman said in a release. This isn't a case of short sellers waiting for a stock to fall from the sky. Think of this more as vultures starting to circle. With GME already this low, the shorts are literally betting on the company's worst-case scenario: bankruptcy. SEE ALSO: 9 Dividend Stocks That Are Waving Red Flags EDITOR'S PICKS The 20 Best Stocks to Buy for 2020 13 Super Small-Cap Stocks for 2020 and Beyond 16 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying and Selling Copyright 2020 The Kiplinger Washington Editors || 7 of Wall Street's Most Heavily Shorted Stocks: Getty Images "Short interest" is one of the most interesting pieces of stock data that you might pay little or no attention to. But this little metric of negative sentiment, while popular among traders, can be valuable even to buy-and-hold investors who never want to place a single bearish bet. If you believe a stock will rise, you buy it. Easy. But what if you're bearish on a company's prospects and want to profit off that belief? A popular technique is short selling: To sell a stock short, you borrow shares so you can immediately turn around and sell them. You wait for shares to fall in price, then buy them back and return those shares to the lender. Your profit is the difference between the price you sold and the price you bought back. But that gamble can go wrong - to the delight of bullish investors. Short sellers incur losses when the stock's price goes higher. Also, time is against you when you short a stock, because you pay interest when you borrow shares. If you want to exit your short trade, you have to buy back shares, which in turn drives the stock price higher. That might force other short sellers to cut their losses, leading to a virtuous cycle of buying called a "short squeeze." That's why short interest (how many shares are currently sold short to bet against a company) matters. There's no concrete level, but anything above 10% of the float, which is the number of shares available for public trading, is worth watching. If you're a conservative, buy-and-hold investor who hates volatility, you might want to avoid stocks with high short interest. If you're an aggressive investor, however, you might consider buying these stocks in the hope that a small bit of positive news will trigger a short squeeze, netting large returns in a short time. Here, we'll look at seven heavily shorted stocks to watch. These companies have short interest ranging anywhere from 14% to 96%, and many of them are the kinds of hot-moving growth stocks that are typical among short-selling targets. Story continues SEE ALSO: The 20 Best Stocks to Buy for 2020 Hormel Getty Images Market value: $28.5 billion % of float sold short: 14.2% Wait. That Hormel ( HRL , $48.26)? Yes. This is the same Hormel that slings Spam, Skippy peanut butter and Natural Choice deli meat, and that's frequently included in top consumer staples stocks lists . And it's the same Hormel you know from the Dividend Aristocrats - 64 dividend stocks that have grown their payouts for at least a quarter-century. (HRL boasts 54 consecutive dividend hikes.) So, why the relatively high short interest in this blue-chip stock? Hormel has been feeling the effects of an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in China, a massive pork market. The company recently reported a 3% year-over-year decline in its 2019 full-year earnings, and higher input costs in China, as well as Brazil, were among the reasons cited. Despite this weakness, as well as additional worries about the Chinese market brought about by the coronavirus outbreak, HRL shares slowly but surely continue to climb. The stock is up only 12% over the past year, versus 21% for the broader market, but Hormel nonetheless sits at all-time highs. As a result, HRL shares are fairly expensive, at 26 times analysts' estimates for forward-looking profits and nearly 3 times trailing 12-month sales. Hormel hardly looks like a stock on the brink of disaster. Short sellers simply might believe that HRL is overextended and pricing in a perfect-case scenario that may or may not play out. SEE ALSO: 11 S&P 500 Stocks That Could Soar 20% or More in 2020 Tesla Getty Images Market value: $155.7 billion % of float sold short: 15.6% A year ago, most of the headlines surrounding electric-vehicle maker Tesla ( TSLA , $858.40) had to do with the fact that its shares hadn't gone anywhere in two years, that it was heavily in debt and short on cash, and that Elon Musk might be a significant PR danger to his own company. Fast-forward to today. TSLA stock has more than doubled since the start of 2020. Shares have more than quintupled since bottoming out in July 2019. Some of that action has been attributed to more bullish developments, including the opening of a Gigafactory in China and rising global vehicle deliveries that set quarterly records. In fact, Tesla has already experienced something of a short squeeze. Tesla's short interest was more than 30% as recently as half a year ago, but many short sellers were forced to exit their positions by purchasing shares. You can chalk up some of the more recent gains to "fear of missing out" (FOMO). This is when people find out about a stock or other investment that's soaring, so they pile in simply because they don't want to miss out on "the next big thing," regardless of whether its fundamental financials are attractive or not. This is similar to what happened during the 2017 spike in Bitcoin. But Tesla also is being driven by pure optimism in a company that is not only changing the face of the automotive industry, but has numerous growth opportunities across several markets. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi on Feb. 18 called Tesla the "ultimate 'possibility' stock" and wrote that it has "significant addition optionality" in the battery, solar and self-driving industries. He hiked his price target from $325 per share to $730, which is well below current levels, but it's difficult to value the stock using traditional metrics. Sacconaghi even writes that TSLA isn't "unprecedentedly expensive," and that given its excellent growth, "the scarcity of such a profile inevitably commands a premium, especially in this market." The flip side? If this is a bubble, the pain could be severe for those who buy at the top. Numerous analysts have piled in with Sell and Hold calls over the past few weeks, citing price targets anywhere between $300 and $800. This is a difficult call, even for the pros. SEE ALSO: The 15 Best Tech Stocks to Buy for 2020 Chewy Getty Images Market value: $11.5 billion % of float sold short: 22.5% Chewy ( CHWY , $28.92) is among a growing number of pure-play pet stocks that are banking on continued growth in what people, here and abroad, are willing to spend to keep their furry friends healthy and happy. Chewy, for the uninitiated, sells pet food, toys and other supplies online, and it has built up a very faithful following. Roughly 90% of its revenue comes from repeat customers, which tells you just how sticky the offering is. In fact, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Chewy combine to account for 90% of online spending on pet supplies, both with a roughly equal share. And that, perhaps, is the fear. Chewy, which went public in June 2019 at $22 per share, has grown its revenues by 146% between its fiscal years ended in 2017 and 2019. But it continues to sustain considerable losses, and analysts don't see that changing anytime soon. Moreover, Amazon - which is an existential threat to dozens of companies - already matches Chewy in the space and could be an even larger risk should it make a concerted effort to dominate online pet sales. CHWY stock has mostly been listless since its first day of trading, when it popped to around $35 per share. But shares did show signs of life in December after the company's quarterly revenues beat analyst expectations. Still, a healthy population of bears continues to bet against the pet retailer, indicating real doubt about its near-term prospects - but providing fuel for a short squeeze should its next quarterly results prove its doubters wrong. SEE ALSO: 13 Super Small-Cap Stocks to Buy for 2020 and Beyond Virgin Galactic Getty Images Market value: $5.9 billion % of float sold short: 29.1% Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ( SPCE , $30.30) pulled off an initial public offering (IPO) in late October 2019, becoming the first commercial spaceflight company to trade on the public exchanges. It's ultimately a space tourism firm, but Virgin Galactic also could profit off the expansion of its own technologies in this utterly experimental space. The offering really didn't make waves early on; in fact, SPCE lost more than a third of its value over its first month or so of trading. But speculative traders and growing interest in this space race among Virgin, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, have driven shares 162% higher in 2020. It's up 38% in the past five trading days alone. This, for a company that hasn't even gotten off the ground yet (it says it's preparing for its final stages of test flights). It plans on selling tickets at $250,000 a pop when it finally does, but it still expects to be unprofitable for at least the next two years. In this case, Virgin's gains aren't a product of shorts getting squeezed out - bearish investors are growing in number as the stock shoots higher. It's possible they think a $6 billion market value is too much for a company that hasn't launched a single commercial flight - in an industry that UBS, in 2019, projected would hit $3 billion by 2030 . The bulls would argue that the potential is much bigger, and that Virgin Galactic's leadership and board - which includes numerous airline and aerospace executives, and even a former NASA chief of staff - put SPCE in an enviable position to profit off the final frontier. SEE ALSO: 5 Defense Stocks to Buy to Toughen Up Your Portfolio Dillard's Getty Images Market value: $1.6 billion % of float sold short: 66.7% Betting against department stores has been a winning proposition. Investors who bet against the likes of JCPenney ( JCP ), Macy's ( M ) and Sears ( SHLDQ ) have done quite well for themselves over the past five years. Dillard's ( DDS , $63.22), however, has been a chore. Dillard's is a primarily mall-based retailer that operates roughly 260 primary locations as well as 30 clearance centers across 29 states. As you'd expect, that number has dwindled over the past few years, but the company has been surprisingly stable. Revenues actually grew year-over-year in the fiscal year ended February 2019, and the year before that. Same-store sales - an important retail metric that typically measures revenues in stores open at least a year - have been flat through the first nine months of its fiscal 2020. Shares haven't been great, but they're up 11% over the past three years - light-years ahead of the 50%-95% declines for its aforementioned peers. And Dillard's has even managed to more than double its dividend since 2017. Nonetheless, short bets have exploded over the past five years, with short interest surging from just 4% of DDS's float in 2015 to about two-thirds of the float today. And perhaps for good reason. The analyst community expects Dillard's to finish fiscal 2020 with a 1.4% decline in revenues and a 34% hit to profits. They expect DDS to essentially stand still, operationally, in fiscal 2021. Dillard's might indeed carve out a place in this market for itself, but just note that you won't get paid to hang around to find out. Despite its recent dividend growth, DDS shares yield less than 1% at current prices. SEE ALSO: 16 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying and Selling Peloton Getty Images Market value: $7.6 billion % of float sold short: 84.0% Peloton ( PTON , $27.08) is an exercise equipment company, but one that's utilizing technology and subscription services to the fullest. Its $2,250 exercise bikes and $4,300 treadmills not only command a lot of money up front, but also boast screens that display video classes and other content from its $40-per-month subscription plan. While the company famously took flack for its cringe-worthy Christmas ad , the real concern is skepticism over just how much it can wring out of a limited market. In October 2019, MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni wrote that if Peloton could penetrate 10% of U.S. households with incomes above $150,000, it would reach 1.5 million households. The problem? It had already sold 564,000 units in the U.S. as of June 30. As a result, Peleton hasn't done much since coming public in September 2019 at $29 per share, and in fact, it currently trades below its IPO price. The analyst community is quite bullish, with 16 of 18 analysts tracked by TipRanks doling out Buy-equivalent ratings over the past three months, and a price target of $37.12 that implies 37% upside from current prices. Numerous pros came out in support of the stock after fiscal Q2 earnings were released in February, citing optimism about Peloton's great engagement, subscriber growth (96% year-over-year) and raised subscriber and revenue guidance. But short sellers have gathered en masse. They've typically used 60% to 70% of the float to bet against PTON stock over its brief publicly traded life, but that has grown to 84% currently. Their concern? For one, revenue growth, while still red-hot, is slowing - fiscal Q2 sales, while up 77%, decelerated from more than 100% growth in the previous quarter. Also, Douglas C. Lane managing partner Sarat Sethi told CNBC's Squawk Box that cash burn continues to be an issue. If the bears are wrong, however, the resulting short squeeze could be powerful. SEE ALSO: 10 Insider Trading Stocks: What Execs and Directors Are Buying GameStop Getty Images Market value: $267.6 million % of float sold short: 96.1% Video game retailer GameStop ( GME , $4.06) has long had a healthy short crowd, typically occupying anywhere between 25% and 50% of its available shares over the past half-decade. They've been rewarded, too. GME shares have plunged by nearly 90% since the start of 2015, and there's little to indicate that a turnaround is right around the corner. GameStop has been bled out by a number of trends. Big-box stores such as Best Buy ( BBY ), Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ) have all bitten into GameStop's sales over the years. Online retailers such as Amazon haven't added to the pain. But the industry itself is turning against GameStop, increasingly shifting toward direct downloads or streaming options and away from physical discs and cartridges. GameStop's revenues have waffled over the past decade, but they're certainly headed in the wrong direction of late. The company posted $9.4 billion in sales in fiscal 2015; analysts expect just $6.5 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending this month. GME finally eliminated its dividend in June to save precious cash that in theory could be used to turn things around. Shares have plunged by 33% in 2020 alone, largely on the back of miserable holiday-season sales results. GameStop said global revenues for the nine-week holiday period ended Jan. 4 declined by 27.5% year-over-year, and it lowered its full-year revenue outlook. "The accelerated decline in new hardware and software sales coming out of Black Friday and throughout the month of December was well below our expectations, reflective of overall industry trends," GameStop CEO George Sherman said in a release. This isn't a case of short sellers waiting for a stock to fall from the sky. Think of this more as vultures starting to circle. With GME already this low, the shorts are literally betting on the company's worst-case scenario: bankruptcy. SEE ALSO: 9 Dividend Stocks That Are Waving Red Flags EDITOR'S PICKS The 20 Best Stocks to Buy for 2020 13 Super Small-Cap Stocks for 2020 and Beyond 16 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying and Selling Copyright 2020 The Kiplinger Washington Editors || On-Chain Activity Suggests Bitcoin Price Volatility Will Continue, Thanks to ‘Whales’: Bitcoin’s(BTC) price volatility spiked in January and could further increase over the near term because “whales” have surfaced.
The cryptocurrency’s annualized volatility grew roughly eight percentage points in January to a three-month high of 58.2 percent,according toKraken’s monthly report.
Volatility rose as bitcoin’s price rallied from lows near $6,850 on Jan. 3 to a three-month high of $9,570 on Jan. 31. The cryptocurrency closed out January with 30 percent gains, registering its best January performance since 2013.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020
With the price rally, whales – those buyers of large numbers of coins – seem to have woken from their long slumber. The number of whale addresses – ones with balances ranging from 1K BTC to 10k BTC – ticked higher in the second half of January, as noted by Kraken’s researchers.
The number of whale addresses increased from 2,000 to 2,030, marking a transition to an “accumulation” phase from the “wait and see” phase seen in the last four months of 2019.
Historically, that transition has injected volatility into the bitcoin market. For instance, whales began accumulating coins in September 2018 and entered wait-and-watch mode in early 2019. Meanwhile, the annualized volatility bottomed out below 20 percent by mid-November and skyrocketed to 100 percent by the end of December.
On similar lines, the spike in price volatility in the second quarter of 2019 was preceded by accumulation by large wallets.
Related:Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months
The peculiar behavior could be associated with whales having the resources to affect the market with large orders.
“During the accumulation phase, whales eat into market liquidity,” Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CRUXPay and CoinSwitch.co told CoinDesk. “That affects the supply-demand ratio and causes volatility to re-enter the market.”
Sudden price swings have been observed during whales’ accumulation period. The cryptocurrency’s sharp rise from $4,100 to $5,100, seen on April 2, 2019, was reportedlycaused byan order worth about $100 million spread across three exchanges.
Whale action has also led to big price sell-offs in the past; a bitcoin flash crash from $12,600 to $12,100 in less than 15 minutes on July 9, 2019, wastriggered bya massive sell order of 6,500 BTC on cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
Singhal added that HODLers – addresses with balances ranging from 10 BTC to 100 BTC – also influence liquidity and volatility. According to historical data, volatility tends to rise once the 10 to 100 BTC cohort concludes accumulation.
As the growth in the number of addresses with 10 to 100 BTC topped out in November 2018, volatility kicked in and rose sharply from 20 percent to 100 percent. A similar divergence between the two metrics was seen during the four months to mid-July 2019.
Currently, the 10 to 100 BTC cohort is in the accumulation phase, having bottomed out in November. The number of addresses have increased from 135,000 to 137,500 over the past three months.
“Family offices, high-net-worth individuals and proprietary trading accounts have been building BTC positions continuously in the 10 to 100 range. It’s a sign of growing adoption of bitcoin as an investment,” Gabor Gurbacs,digital asset strategist/director at VanEck/MVIS, told CoinDesk.
If HODLers exit the accumulation phase and whales continue to snap up coins over the coming weeks, the demand supply-imbalance could worsen, resulting in a big jump in volatility.
“The problem, however, is that it is difficult to predict how long these periods of accumulation for HODLers will last,” said Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data.
The ongoing accumulation by HODLers could last at least for a few more weeks, with the cryptocurrency set to undergo mining reward halving in three months.
The rewards per block mined on bitcoin’s blockchain will be reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC at some point in May. Essentially, miners would have fewer bitcoins to sell after May, and that could lead to a supply deficit.
In the past,markets have priced inthe impending supply cut by rallying to a new market cycle top (the highest point from the preceding bear market low) in the calendar year of reward halving, but on a date before the event.
Thus, if history were to repeat itself, bitcoin could rise above the June 2019 high of $13,880 before May. With such strong bullish expectations dominating the market sentiment, HODLers are unlikely to end accumulation anytime soon.
However, that does not necessarily mean volatility would crash, as whales are also likely to continue accumulating coins ahead of the reward halving.
“If the whales shift to accumulating bitcoin while HODLers are still within their current phase, it would suggest an additional increase in demand for BTC at near the same as the mining supply is scheduled to be cut in half in early May,” Abendschein told CoinDesk. “This imbalance has the potential to not only see a spike in volatility, but also in price.”
• Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off
• OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay) || On-Chain Activity Suggests Bitcoin Price Volatility Will Continue, Thanks to Whales: Bitcoins (BTC) price volatility spiked in January and could further increase over the near term because whales have surfaced. The cryptocurrencys annualized volatility grew roughly eight percentage points in January to a three-month high of 58.2 percent, according to Krakens monthly report. Volatility rose as bitcoins price rallied from lows near $6,850 on Jan. 3 to a three-month high of $9,570 on Jan. 31. The cryptocurrency closed out January with 30 percent gains, registering its best January performance since 2013. Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020 With the price rally, whales those buyers of large numbers of coins seem to have woken from their long slumber. The number of whale addresses ones with balances ranging from 1K BTC to 10k BTC ticked higher in the second half of January, as noted by Krakens researchers. Whale addresses and volatility The number of whale addresses increased from 2,000 to 2,030, marking a transition to an accumulation phase from the wait and see phase seen in the last four months of 2019. Historically, that transition has injected volatility into the bitcoin market. For instance, whales began accumulating coins in September 2018 and entered wait-and-watch mode in early 2019. Meanwhile, the annualized volatility bottomed out below 20 percent by mid-November and skyrocketed to 100 percent by the end of December. On similar lines, the spike in price volatility in the second quarter of 2019 was preceded by accumulation by large wallets. Related: Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months The peculiar behavior could be associated with whales having the resources to affect the market with large orders. During the accumulation phase, whales eat into market liquidity, Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CRUXPay and CoinSwitch.co told CoinDesk. That affects the supply-demand ratio and causes volatility to re-enter the market. Sudden price swings have been observed during whales accumulation period. The cryptocurrencys sharp rise from $4,100 to $5,100, seen on April 2, 2019, was reportedly caused by an order worth about $100 million spread across three exchanges. Story continues Whale action has also led to big price sell-offs in the past; a bitcoin flash crash from $12,600 to $12,100 in less than 15 minutes on July 9, 2019, was triggered by a massive sell order of 6,500 BTC on cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Singhal added that HODLers addresses with balances ranging from 10 BTC to 100 BTC also influence liquidity and volatility. According to historical data, volatility tends to rise once the 10 to 100 BTC cohort concludes accumulation. HODLers and volatility As the growth in the number of addresses with 10 to 100 BTC topped out in November 2018, volatility kicked in and rose sharply from 20 percent to 100 percent. A similar divergence between the two metrics was seen during the four months to mid-July 2019. Currently, the 10 to 100 BTC cohort is in the accumulation phase, having bottomed out in November. The number of addresses have increased from 135,000 to 137,500 over the past three months. Family offices, high-net-worth individuals and proprietary trading accounts have been building BTC positions continuously in the 10 to 100 range. Its a sign of growing adoption of bitcoin as an investment, Gabor Gurbacs , digital asset strategist/director at VanEck/MVIS, told CoinDesk. If HODLers exit the accumulation phase and whales continue to snap up coins over the coming weeks, the demand supply-imbalance could worsen, resulting in a big jump in volatility. The problem, however, is that it is difficult to predict how long these periods of accumulation for HODLers will last, said Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data. The ongoing accumulation by HODLers could last at least for a few more weeks, with the cryptocurrency set to undergo mining reward halving in three months. The rewards per block mined on bitcoins blockchain will be reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC at some point in May. Essentially, miners would have fewer bitcoins to sell after May, and that could lead to a supply deficit. In the past, markets have priced in the impending supply cut by rallying to a new market cycle top (the highest point from the preceding bear market low) in the calendar year of reward halving, but on a date before the event. Thus, if history were to repeat itself, bitcoin could rise above the June 2019 high of $13,880 before May. With such strong bullish expectations dominating the market sentiment, HODLers are unlikely to end accumulation anytime soon. However, that does not necessarily mean volatility would crash, as whales are also likely to continue accumulating coins ahead of the reward halving. If the whales shift to accumulating bitcoin while HODLers are still within their current phase, it would suggest an additional increase in demand for BTC at near the same as the mining supply is scheduled to be cut in half in early May, Abendschein told CoinDesk. This imbalance has the potential to not only see a spike in volatility, but also in price. Related Stories Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay) || On-Chain Activity Suggests Bitcoin Price Volatility Will Continue, Thanks to ‘Whales’: Bitcoin’s(BTC) price volatility spiked in January and could further increase over the near term because “whales” have surfaced.
The cryptocurrency’s annualized volatility grew roughly eight percentage points in January to a three-month high of 58.2 percent,according toKraken’s monthly report.
Volatility rose as bitcoin’s price rallied from lows near $6,850 on Jan. 3 to a three-month high of $9,570 on Jan. 31. The cryptocurrency closed out January with 30 percent gains, registering its best January performance since 2013.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 20, 2020
With the price rally, whales – those buyers of large numbers of coins – seem to have woken from their long slumber. The number of whale addresses – ones with balances ranging from 1K BTC to 10k BTC – ticked higher in the second half of January, as noted by Kraken’s researchers.
The number of whale addresses increased from 2,000 to 2,030, marking a transition to an “accumulation” phase from the “wait and see” phase seen in the last four months of 2019.
Historically, that transition has injected volatility into the bitcoin market. For instance, whales began accumulating coins in September 2018 and entered wait-and-watch mode in early 2019. Meanwhile, the annualized volatility bottomed out below 20 percent by mid-November and skyrocketed to 100 percent by the end of December.
On similar lines, the spike in price volatility in the second quarter of 2019 was preceded by accumulation by large wallets.
Related:Bitcoin Traps Buyers With Biggest Daily Price Loss in Three Months
The peculiar behavior could be associated with whales having the resources to affect the market with large orders.
“During the accumulation phase, whales eat into market liquidity,” Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CRUXPay and CoinSwitch.co told CoinDesk. “That affects the supply-demand ratio and causes volatility to re-enter the market.”
Sudden price swings have been observed during whales’ accumulation period. The cryptocurrency’s sharp rise from $4,100 to $5,100, seen on April 2, 2019, was reportedlycaused byan order worth about $100 million spread across three exchanges.
Whale action has also led to big price sell-offs in the past; a bitcoin flash crash from $12,600 to $12,100 in less than 15 minutes on July 9, 2019, wastriggered bya massive sell order of 6,500 BTC on cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
Singhal added that HODLers – addresses with balances ranging from 10 BTC to 100 BTC – also influence liquidity and volatility. According to historical data, volatility tends to rise once the 10 to 100 BTC cohort concludes accumulation.
As the growth in the number of addresses with 10 to 100 BTC topped out in November 2018, volatility kicked in and rose sharply from 20 percent to 100 percent. A similar divergence between the two metrics was seen during the four months to mid-July 2019.
Currently, the 10 to 100 BTC cohort is in the accumulation phase, having bottomed out in November. The number of addresses have increased from 135,000 to 137,500 over the past three months.
“Family offices, high-net-worth individuals and proprietary trading accounts have been building BTC positions continuously in the 10 to 100 range. It’s a sign of growing adoption of bitcoin as an investment,” Gabor Gurbacs,digital asset strategist/director at VanEck/MVIS, told CoinDesk.
If HODLers exit the accumulation phase and whales continue to snap up coins over the coming weeks, the demand supply-imbalance could worsen, resulting in a big jump in volatility.
“The problem, however, is that it is difficult to predict how long these periods of accumulation for HODLers will last,” said Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data.
The ongoing accumulation by HODLers could last at least for a few more weeks, with the cryptocurrency set to undergo mining reward halving in three months.
The rewards per block mined on bitcoin’s blockchain will be reduced from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC at some point in May. Essentially, miners would have fewer bitcoins to sell after May, and that could lead to a supply deficit.
In the past,markets have priced inthe impending supply cut by rallying to a new market cycle top (the highest point from the preceding bear market low) in the calendar year of reward halving, but on a date before the event.
Thus, if history were to repeat itself, bitcoin could rise above the June 2019 high of $13,880 before May. With such strong bullish expectations dominating the market sentiment, HODLers are unlikely to end accumulation anytime soon.
However, that does not necessarily mean volatility would crash, as whales are also likely to continue accumulating coins ahead of the reward halving.
“If the whales shift to accumulating bitcoin while HODLers are still within their current phase, it would suggest an additional increase in demand for BTC at near the same as the mining supply is scheduled to be cut in half in early May,” Abendschein told CoinDesk. “This imbalance has the potential to not only see a spike in volatility, but also in price.”
• Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off
• OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay) || Financial Services: The Coming Cataclysm: Alex Tapscott is a venture capital investor, co-author (with Don Tapscott) of “ Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies is Changing the World ” and co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute in Toronto. The following excerpt, written by Alex Tapscott, is from his new book “ Financial Services Revolution .” Facebook’s foray into cryptocurrencies should surprise no student of technology. After all, the digital revolution has transformed nearly every aspect of our lives, except banking. Financial intermediaries depend more or less on pre-internet technologies. Libra is simply the latest innovation to punch holes in the old model, establishing the battle lines for the future of our digital economy. The stakes are high: The next era of commerce, economic activity and money is uncertain. Computer scientists are rewiring the economic power grid, and software engineers are re-coding the order of human affairs, exposing our lack of understanding of fundamental concepts like privacy, free speech and the role of large corporations in our lives. As the digital landlords of this new economy – Facebook, Google and others – challenge the supremacy of big banks, decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) force us to confront our understanding of money, value, and the fortress of regulations erected around these concepts, originally to protect those who used the system, and now to preserve the status quo. This is ultimately a struggle for control, as many parties – totalitarian governments in China and elsewhere, legacy financial institutions, big social media companies and other digital conglomerates, technology upstarts and other stakeholders – vie for even greater influence. Related: No, Concentration Among Miners Isn’t Going to Break Bitcoin Human beings have become increasingly comfortable with software and technology replacing human actors in many industries and many facets of daily life. Finance is the largest, most consequential and thus far most immovable industry of them all. The legacy banking system, digital conglomerates like Facebook, free and open cryptocurrency platforms such as bitcoin and, of course, governments are heading inexorably for a collision of historic proportions. The crash will be cataclysmic. Prepare for impact. Story continues Crypto assets and open finance “They say that software is eating the world. Soon, tokens will be eating the world,” said Tyler Winklevoss. He’s right. Blockchain is the first native digital for value: We can use it to program virtually every asset under the sun. In the latest edition of “Blockchain Revolution,” we provided a taxonomy of these assets to help the reader understand their many differences. They were cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, Zcash , litecoin ), platform tokens ( ether , ATOMs, EOS ), utility tokens (Augur’s REP), securities tokens (theDAO, Munchee’s MUN, Vocean’s crypto bond), natural asset tokens (carbon, water, air), crypto collectibles, stablecoins, and crypto fiat currencies (the Petro, China’s forthcoming crypto yuan). In this section, we are going to focus on digitization of existing financial assets in the form of securities tokens and fiat-backed stablecoins. This is the world of open finance, which differs from decentralized finance, which we discuss later. Open finance refers to the opening of traditionally closed, analog and proprietary systems to blockchain and digital assets. Open finance will prove to be an opportunity and challenge for incumbents, regulators and market actors everywhere. Consider equities. The global “stock market” is really a loosely knitted patchwork of local and regional exchanges, banks, broker dealers, custodians, clearinghouses, regulators, asset managers, fund administrators and other market participants and intermediaries. Though order books and market making are largely digitized, the underlying function of how these different parties actually clear, settle, custody and register ownership of assets is antiquated. Related: Don’t Obsess Over Crypto End Users, We Still Need Developers to Build the Back End Blythe Masters, former managing director of J.P. Morgan, the investment bank, and former CEO of Digital Asset, told us: Bear in mind that financial infrastructures have not evolved in decades. The front end has evolved but not the back end. It’s been an arms race in technology investment oriented toward speeding up transaction execution so that, nowadays, competitive advantages are measured in nanoseconds. She was referring to high-frequency trading: “The irony is that post-trade infrastructure hasn’t really evolved at all.” Blockchain holds the potential to reduce radically the cost, complexity and friction in markets by allowing market participants to connect, clear and settle peer to peer instantaneously. 0x, an open protocol that enables P2P exchange of assets on the Ethereum blockchain, is a pioneer in this regard. Though not all the assets traded on this exchange are financial, some are. So far, 0x has conducted over 713,000 transactions worth $750 million [as of 9/2019]. As underlying platforms like Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, EOS,and others scale, so, too, will the capacity of the applications and financial business use cases that employ them. tZERO, a subsidiary of publicly traded Overstock, has made great strides in this area as well. In the summer of 2019, Overstock announced that shareholders of the publicly traded company would receive dividends as a digital token listed on tZERO. Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock, said of the move, “Five years ago, we set out to create a parallel universe: a legal, blockchain-based capital market. We’ve succeeded.” Byrne has reasons to be optimistic that this parallel universe of digital assets will create challenges and opportunities for new entrants and incumbents alike. Securities tokens not only reduce friction, cost, and complexity. They also enable broader participation in capital markets, because they lower barriers and they allow us to imagine building liquid marketplaces for a wide variety of assets, from real estate to private equity and venture capital (VC). Greater transparency, market depth, and liquidity should improve price, access, and the overall healthy functioning of markets. Not all assets will work as tokens. But we see tokenization working when several conditions are satisfied: 1. Is there an established or untapped demand for an asset? 2. Do people or institutions want to buy the asset but can’t currently? 3. Are there high barriers to transferability or liquidity in an asset? 4. Are transaction costs high, spread too wide or are other barriers so prohibitive that market participants choose to avoid the asset class altogether? 5. Is blockchain required to digitize the asset — that is, the asset simply isn’t workable in a traditional system? 6. Is the industry highly consolidated or highly fragmented? If the answer is yes to a majority of these questions, then the asset is a likely candidate for securities tokens, and a highly fragmented market should make experimentation or innovation easier. Tokenized equity, debt and real estate already exist. We may eventually see tokenized sports teams, music catalogues, wine portfolios, fine art and event tickets, to name a few. Securities tokens may help improve access to wealth creation for average people by lowering barriers to entry and expanding investment options. This opportunity is not without challenges: it lacks technology, business, market and regulatory infrastructure. Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital, believes that securities regulators “took the idea of the rich get richer and … wrote it into law. They took the best performing assets with the best returns and put them behind a firewall.” He was referring to the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933, which limited many investment opportunities to high-net-worth individuals. He called it a “violation of the American dream.” If these kinds of investment opportunities remain limited to the richest of the rich, then we haven’t really democratized the benefits of blockchain-based financial innovation. The lines defining “financial services” will begin to blur as everything becomes an asset and everyone becomes a market participant. Consider Props. Props is a native digital token created by the popular video application YouNow, though it can work inside any application. YouNow was granted special authorization by the SEC to do a Regulation A offering of its token, approved in July, and already launched. Think of Props as stock options for the gig economy, for people like Uber drivers, homeowners who let their houses on Airbnb, or content creators. On YouNow, these people can earn money by sharing something on the platform. Otherwise, they can’t participate directly in the value creation from the growth of currently popular platforms such as Uber or Airbnb. Similarly, Uber drivers may get paid for completing a ride, but they don’t get a piece of the $75 billion that Uber is worth. The so-called “sharing economy” is really an “aggregation economy,” where powerful platforms capture most of the value, and contributors get the crumbs. With Props, contributors to platforms like YouNow, and soon perhaps Uber, Airbnb and others, can get paid for their contributions and earn Props tokens. The supply of Props is finite and grows at a predictable rate, and so the more apps using the native token, and the more people earning and holding them, the higher the value of Props. Any application can plug into the Props application programming interface (API) and allow contributors to start earning real value in Props. Founders and investors will no longer be the sole beneficiaries of platform growth. In the context of financial services, we can view Props both as a new payment rail for organizing contributors in a network and as an incentive mechanism, like equity, for staying on the platform and adding value to it. Already, 200,000 people are using Props on YouNow with 100,000 Props transactions per day. The plan is to add more apps as time goes on. As Props becomes ubiquitous, other applications may be compelled to offer it to contributors—and, voilà, a new digital economy is born. This new cornucopia of digital tokens will need common standards, with groups like the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) helping to lead the charge. Marley Gray of Microsoft, who is a key contributor to the EEA’s Token Alliance, told us that common standards “remove the obstacles for defining assets. Blockchain should be just like using the payments network today. People should just use it.” He added, “You don’t need to understand the blockchain to use tokens. Let’s get to the point where we are actually driving business value. Let’s abstract this, make it common. Commoditizing tokens so any industry or company can create them.” If different assets exist inside of silos that don’t speak to one another, then tokenization will have limited impact. Only through common standards and interoperability can tokenization reach its full potential. Fiat-backed stablecoins, such as Tether, USDC, and Libra are other examples of open finance. Not all stablecoins are backed dollar for dollar by reserves; and some, such as DAI created by MakerDao, exist entirely in the crypto asset world. Already, stablecoins have exploded in value, and for good reason. They offer an easy way to move value peer to peer instantaneously at a fraction of the cost of traditional payment systems like Venmo. Consider the findings of TradeBlock, a provider of digital currency trading tools for institutional investors: [T]he aggregate total on-chain transfer volume across the largest stablecoins has now surpassed Venmo’s total payment volume. … [F]ees associated with sending stablecoins across the Ethereum network were dwarfed by merchant fees and fees from associated Venmo services. Across the five largest ERC-20 tokens, customers spent just $827,000 in Ethereum network fees to transfer more than $37 billion. Over this same period, fees and fees on associated services paid to Venmo are expected to reach $150 million. Given this explosive growth, Facebook, Walmart and JPMorgan – and perhaps Google and Amazon – are including stablecoins in their growth plans . Cameron Winkelvoss said, “We are going to see many companies issuing coins,” adding that “a company like Facebook with its size and stature is very encouraging in validating the general idea of better and new payment rails powered by crypto. Whether it’s Libra or not [that succeeds], time will tell.” Consider Amazon: “You can pretty much get a package anywhere in the world. What you can’t do is get paid for that product. Amazon Coin could create the ability to extend the payment system to the edges of the earth.” No doubt, Libra is but the opening volley in this new competition among the world’s tech behemoths. Pompliano believes Libra is a positive development but that it is also good for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He said, “It’s the token density theory. If you set up a restaurant across the street from another restaurant, traffic at both restaurants typically goes up. Everyone’s foot traffic increases as you add density. So with each legitimate crypto that gets created and gets added it increases the overall value proposition of bitcoin.” Ryan Selkis, founder of Messari, summed it up simply by saying Libra will act as a “lead blocker” for other crypto assets. Not everyone is so optimistic about corporate coins. “I’m not afraid of nuclear meltdowns or terrorist attacks. The only thing I’m afraid of is Facebook’s cryptocurrency,” said Ethan Buchman, co-creator of Cosmos. “Facebook perfected digital colonialism. While the early colonialist companies enslaved bodies, Facebook enslaves minds. This will be [its] historical legacy.” With Facebook settling with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for $5 billion and with the SEC for $100 million while getting grilled by lawmakers, its road to launch Libra will be a hard one, and Facebook’s leaders will need to earn back the trust of those they let down. That’s a daunting challenge. Still, the technology has its own momentum, which makes it unlikely at this point to be derailed. Financial markets – from stocks to bonds and everything in between – will be unrecognizable. Incumbents that bet big on blockchain will survive this coming revolution. Financialization and digitization of everything If land was the most important asset of the agrarian age, and oil was the most important asset of the industrial age, then data is the most important asset of the digital age. Information is the foundation of our digital economy and the lifeblood of some of the world’s largest and most profitable companies, such as Facebook and Google. Consider the reordering of the world’s most valuable companies over the last 20 years (see below). In this period, data has replaced oil as the main driver of business value in the world, and information behemoths have displaced the industrial giants. We create all this data, yet we don’t own it – the digital landlords do. This is problematic because it means we can’t use that data to better organize our lives, we can’t monetize it, and it can fall into the wrong hands. Information is one example of an asset that has had no open, transparent marketplace where stakeholders can discover price or exchange its value. This is part of a much broader problem that the digital age has exacerbated. Many assets have been outside market forces and susceptible to overuse or capture by large intermediaries. Like water, air or the oceans, powerful companies exploit the data and, in turn, the people who created it. In a major research report for the Blockchain Research Institute, technology theorist [and CoinDesk’s very own] Michael Casey suggested that tokenization and digital scarcity brought about by crypto assets represents a solution: Blockchain technology, and the cryptocurrencies, tokens and other digital assets that it has engendered, may be moving us toward a model of programmable money that incorporates an automated internal governance of common resources and encourages collaboration among communities. Digital scarcity, when applied to these tokens treats our increasingly digitized world differently from the pre-digital one. It raises the possibility that our money may itself become the tool for achieving common outcomes. Developers of new decentralized applications are tokenizing all manner of resources – electricity and bandwidth for example, but also human qualities such as audience attention for online content or fact checkers honestly. … Once a community associates scarce tokens with rights to these resources, it can develop controls over token usage that help manage public goods. It’s dynamic money whose role extends beyond that of a unit of exchange, money that’s a direct tool for achieving community objectives. In his report, Casey lays out a new taxonomy for these tokens and suggests at least five different types: media, identity, honesty, decentralized computing and the environment. The potential is very significant for these tokens to enable new economies around assets that were either previously in the commons (such as the environment) or captured asymmetrically (such as our identities) by a few large technology intermediaries. Moreover, we can tokenize everything of value to ensure creators receive fair compensation. Now, individuals can capture the value from the data they produce in their online selves, choosing to keep it private or provide informed consent for its use, making money in the process. Individual artists can receive fair payment for the music they create as their songs roam the Internet collecting royalties. People can enter agreements enforced by smart contracts and verified by oracles in prediction markets. These capabilities will no doubt spread from the trivial (sports betting) to more meaningful markets like derivatives markets. The lines defining “financial services” will begin to blur as everything becomes an asset and everyone becomes a market participant. Related Stories Policymakers Shouldn’t Fear Digital Money: So Far It’s Maintaining the Dollar’s Status CoinDesk’s New Opinion Section: The Future of the Financial System Is Up for Debate || Financial Services: The Coming Cataclysm: Alex Tapscott is a venture capital investor, co-author (with Don Tapscott) of “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies is Changing the World” and co-founder of theBlockchain Research Institutein Toronto. The following excerpt, written by Alex Tapscott, is from his new book “Financial Services Revolution.”
Facebook’s foray into cryptocurrencies should surprise no student of technology. After all, the digital revolution has transformed nearly every aspect of our lives, except banking. Financial intermediaries depend more or less on pre-internet technologies. Libra is simply the latest innovation to punch holes in the old model, establishing the battle lines for the future of our digital economy.
The stakes are high: The next era of commerce, economic activity and money is uncertain. Computer scientists are rewiring the economic power grid, and software engineers are re-coding the order of human affairs, exposing our lack of understanding of fundamental concepts like privacy, free speech and the role of large corporations in our lives. As the digital landlords of this new economy – Facebook, Google and others – challenge the supremacy of big banks, decentralized cryptocurrencies likebitcoin(BTC) force us to confront our understanding of money, value, and the fortress of regulations erected around these concepts, originally to protect those who used the system, and now to preserve the status quo. This is ultimately a struggle for control, as many parties – totalitarian governments in China and elsewhere, legacy financial institutions, big social media companies and other digital conglomerates, technology upstarts and other stakeholders – vie for even greater influence.
Related:No, Concentration Among Miners Isn’t Going to Break Bitcoin
Human beings have become increasingly comfortable with software and technology replacing human actors in many industries and many facets of daily life. Finance is the largest, most consequential and thus far most immovable industry of them all. The legacy banking system, digital conglomerates like Facebook, free and open cryptocurrency platforms such as bitcoin and, of course, governments are heading inexorably for a collision of historic proportions. The crash will be cataclysmic. Prepare for impact.
“They say that software is eating the world. Soon, tokens will be eating the world,” said Tyler Winklevoss. He’s right. Blockchain is the first native digital for value: We can use it to program virtually every asset under the sun. In the latest edition of “Blockchain Revolution,” we provided a taxonomy of these assets to help the reader understand their many differences. They were cryptocurrencies (bitcoin,Zcash,litecoin), platform tokens (ether, ATOMs,EOS), utility tokens (Augur’s REP), securities tokens (theDAO, Munchee’s MUN, Vocean’s crypto bond), natural asset tokens (carbon, water, air), crypto collectibles, stablecoins, and crypto fiat currencies (the Petro, China’s forthcoming crypto yuan).
In this section, we are going to focus on digitization of existing financial assets in the form of securities tokens and fiat-backed stablecoins. This is the world of open finance, which differs from decentralized finance, which we discuss later. Open finance refers to the opening of traditionally closed, analog and proprietary systems to blockchain and digital assets. Open finance will prove to be an opportunity and challenge for incumbents, regulators and market actors everywhere.
Consider equities. The global “stock market” is really a loosely knitted patchwork of local and regional exchanges, banks, broker dealers, custodians, clearinghouses, regulators, asset managers, fund administrators and other market participants and intermediaries. Though order books and market making are largely digitized, the underlying function of how these different parties actually clear, settle, custody and register ownership of assets is antiquated.
Related:Don’t Obsess Over Crypto End Users, We Still Need Developers to Build the Back End
Blythe Masters, former managing director of J.P. Morgan, the investment bank, and former CEO of Digital Asset, told us:
Bear in mind that financial infrastructures have not evolved in decades. The front end has evolved but not the back end. It’s been an arms race in technology investment oriented toward speeding up transaction execution so that, nowadays, competitive advantages are measured in nanoseconds.
She was referring to high-frequency trading: “The irony is that post-trade infrastructure hasn’t really evolved at all.” Blockchain holds the potential to reduce radically the cost, complexity and friction in markets by allowing market participants to connect, clear and settle peer to peer instantaneously.
0x, an open protocol that enables P2P exchange of assets on the Ethereum blockchain, is a pioneer in this regard. Though not all the assets traded on this exchange are financial, some are. So far, 0x has conducted over 713,000 transactions worth $750 million [as of 9/2019]. As underlying platforms like Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, EOS,and others scale, so, too, will the capacity of the applications and financial business use cases that employ them. tZERO, a subsidiary of publicly traded Overstock, has made great strides in this area as well. In the summer of 2019, Overstock announced that shareholders of the publicly traded company would receive dividends as a digital token listed on tZERO. Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock,saidof the move, “Five years ago, we set out to create a parallel universe: a legal, blockchain-based capital market. We’ve succeeded.” Byrne has reasons to be optimistic that this parallel universe of digital assets will create challenges and opportunities for new entrants and incumbents alike.
Securities tokens not only reduce friction, cost, and complexity. They also enable broader participation in capital markets, because they lower barriers and they allow us to imagine building liquid marketplaces for a wide variety of assets, from real estate to private equity and venture capital (VC). Greater transparency, market depth, and liquidity should improve price, access, and the overall healthy functioning of markets.
Not all assets will work as tokens. But we see tokenization working when several conditions are satisfied:
1. Is there an established or untapped demand for an asset?
2. Do people or institutions want to buy the asset but can’t currently?
3. Are there high barriers to transferability or liquidity in an asset?
4. Are transaction costs high, spread too wide or are other barriers so prohibitive that market participants choose to avoid the asset class altogether?
5. Is blockchain required to digitize the asset — that is, the asset simply isn’t workable in a traditional system?
6. Is the industry highly consolidated or highly fragmented?
If the answer is yes to a majority of these questions, then the asset is a likely candidate for securities tokens, and a highly fragmented market should make experimentation or innovation easier. Tokenized equity, debt and real estate already exist. We may eventually see tokenized sports teams, music catalogues, wine portfolios, fine art and event tickets, to name a few. Securities tokens may help improve access to wealth creation for average people by lowering barriers to entry and expanding investment options.
This opportunity is not without challenges: it lacks technology, business, market and regulatory infrastructure. Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital, believes that securities regulators “took the idea of the rich get richer and … wrote it into law. They took the best performing assets with the best returns and put them behind a firewall.” He was referring to the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933, which limited many investment opportunities to high-net-worth individuals. He called it a “violation of the American dream.” If these kinds of investment opportunities remain limited to the richest of the rich, then we haven’t really democratized the benefits of blockchain-based financial innovation.
The lines defining “financial services” will begin to blur as everything becomes an asset and everyone becomes a market participant.
Consider Props. Props is a native digital token created by the popular video application YouNow, though it can work inside any application. YouNow was granted special authorization by the SEC to do a Regulation A offering of its token, approved in July, and already launched. Think of Props as stock options for the gig economy, for people like Uber drivers, homeowners who let their houses on Airbnb, or content creators. On YouNow, these people can earn money by sharing something on the platform. Otherwise, they can’t participate directly in the value creation from the growth of currently popular platforms such as Uber or Airbnb. Similarly, Uber drivers may get paid for completing a ride, but they don’t get a piece of the $75 billion that Uber is worth. The so-called “sharing economy” is really an “aggregation economy,” where powerful platforms capture most of the value, and contributors get the crumbs.
With Props, contributors to platforms like YouNow, and soon perhaps Uber, Airbnb and others, can get paid for their contributions and earn Props tokens. The supply of Props is finite and grows at a predictable rate, and so the more apps using the native token, and the more people earning and holding them, the higher the value of Props. Any application can plug into the Props application programming interface (API) and allow contributors to start earning real value in Props. Founders and investors will no longer be the sole beneficiaries of platform growth. In the context of financial services, we can view Props both as a new payment rail for organizing contributors in a network and as an incentive mechanism, like equity, for staying on the platform and adding value to it. Already, 200,000 people are using Props on YouNow with 100,000 Props transactions per day. The plan is to add more apps as time goes on. As Props becomes ubiquitous, other applications may be compelled to offer it to contributors—and, voilà, a new digital economy is born.
This new cornucopia of digital tokens will need common standards, with groups like the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) helping to lead the charge. Marley Gray of Microsoft, who is a key contributor to the EEA’s Token Alliance, told us that common standards “remove the obstacles for defining assets. Blockchain should be just like using the payments network today. People should just use it.” He added, “You don’t need to understand the blockchain to use tokens. Let’s get to the point where we are actually driving business value. Let’s abstract this, make it common. Commoditizing tokens so any industry or company can create them.”
If different assets exist inside of silos that don’t speak to one another, then tokenization will have limited impact. Only through common standards and interoperability can tokenization reach its full potential. Fiat-backed stablecoins, such as Tether, USDC, and Libra are other examples of open finance. Not all stablecoins are backed dollar for dollar by reserves; and some, such as DAI created by MakerDao, exist entirely in the crypto asset world. Already, stablecoins have exploded in value, and for good reason. They offer an easy way to move value peer to peer instantaneously at a fraction of the cost of traditional payment systems like Venmo. Consider thefindingsof TradeBlock, a provider of digital currency trading tools for institutional investors:
[T]he aggregate total on-chain transfer volume across the largest stablecoins has now surpassed Venmo’s total payment volume. … [F]ees associated with sending stablecoins across the Ethereum network were dwarfed by merchant fees and fees from associated Venmo services. Across the five largest ERC-20 tokens, customers spent just $827,000 in Ethereum network fees to transfer more than $37 billion. Over this same period, fees and fees on associated services paid to Venmo are expected to reach $150 million.
Given this explosive growth, Facebook, Walmart and JPMorgan – and perhaps Google and Amazon – are including stablecoins in theirgrowth plans.
Cameron Winkelvoss said, “We are going to see many companies issuing coins,” adding that “a company like Facebook with its size and stature is very encouraging in validating the general idea of better and new payment rails powered by crypto. Whether it’s Libra or not [that succeeds], time will tell.” Consider Amazon: “You can pretty much get a package anywhere in the world. What you can’t do is get paid for that product. Amazon Coin could create the ability to extend the payment system to the edges of the earth.” No doubt, Libra is but the opening volley in this new competition among the world’s tech behemoths.
Pompliano believes Libra is a positive development but that it is also good for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He said, “It’s the token density theory. If you set up a restaurant across the street from another restaurant, traffic at both restaurants typically goes up. Everyone’s foot traffic increases as you add density. So with each legitimate crypto that gets created and gets added it increases the overall value proposition of bitcoin.” Ryan Selkis, founder of Messari, summed it up simply by saying Libra will act as a “lead blocker” for other crypto assets.
Not everyone is so optimistic about corporate coins. “I’m not afraid of nuclear meltdowns or terrorist attacks. The only thing I’m afraid of is Facebook’s cryptocurrency,” said Ethan Buchman, co-creator of Cosmos. “Facebook perfected digital colonialism. While the early colonialist companies enslaved bodies, Facebook enslaves minds. This will be [its] historical legacy.” With Facebook settling with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for $5 billion and with the SEC for $100 million while getting grilled by lawmakers, its road to launch Libra will be a hard one, and Facebook’s leaders will need to earn back the trust of those they let down. That’s a daunting challenge.
Still, the technology has its own momentum, which makes it unlikely at this point to be derailed. Financial markets – from stocks to bonds and everything in between – will be unrecognizable. Incumbents that bet big on blockchain will survive this coming revolution.
If land was the most important asset of the agrarian age, and oil was the most important asset of the industrial age, then data is the most important asset of the digital age. Information is the foundation of our digital economy and the lifeblood of some of the world’s largest and most profitable companies, such as Facebook and Google. Consider the reordering of the world’s most valuable companies over the last 20 years (see below). In this period, data has replaced oil as the main driver of business value in the world, and information behemoths have displaced the industrial giants.
We create all this data, yet we don’t own it – the digital landlords do. This is problematic because it means we can’t use that data to better organize our lives, we can’t monetize it, and it can fall into the wrong hands.
Information is one example of an asset that has had no open, transparent marketplace where stakeholders can discover price or exchange its value. This is part of a much broader problem that the digital age has exacerbated. Many assets have been outside market forces and susceptible to overuse or capture by large intermediaries. Like water, air or the oceans, powerful companies exploit the data and, in turn, the people who created it.
In a major research report for the Blockchain Research Institute, technology theorist [and CoinDesk’s very own] Michael Casey suggested that tokenization and digital scarcity brought about by crypto assets represents a solution:
Blockchain technology, and the cryptocurrencies, tokens and other digital assets that it has engendered, may be moving us toward a model of programmable money that incorporates an automated internal governance of common resources and encourages collaboration among communities. Digital scarcity, when applied to these tokens treats our increasingly digitized world differently from the pre-digital one. It raises the possibility that our money may itself become the tool for achieving common outcomes.
Developers of new decentralized applications are tokenizing all manner of resources – electricity and bandwidth for example, but also human qualities such as audience attention for online content or fact checkers honestly. … Once a community associates scarce tokens with rights to these resources, it can develop controls over token usage that help manage public goods. It’s dynamic money whose role extends beyond that of a unit of exchange, money that’s a direct tool for achieving community objectives.
In his report, Casey lays out a new taxonomy for these tokens and suggests at least five different types: media, identity, honesty, decentralized computing and the environment.
The potential is very significant for these tokens to enable new economies around assets that were either previously in the commons (such as the environment) or captured asymmetrically (such as our identities) by a few large technology intermediaries. Moreover, we can tokenize everything of value to ensure creators receive fair compensation. Now, individuals can capture the value from the data they produce in their online selves, choosing to keep it private or provide informed consent for its use, making money in the process. Individual artists can receive fair payment for the music they create as their songs roam the Internet collecting royalties. People can enter agreements enforced by smart contracts and verified by oracles in prediction markets. These capabilities will no doubt spread from the trivial (sports betting) to more meaningful markets like derivatives markets.
The lines defining “financial services” will begin to blur as everything becomes an asset and everyone becomes a market participant.
• Policymakers Shouldn’t Fear Digital Money: So Far It’s Maintaining the Dollar’s Status
• CoinDesk’s New Opinion Section: The Future of the Financial System Is Up for Debate || Tim Draper puts $1M into the Aragon blockchain project to create digital courts: In the murky world of crypto and blockchain, taking disputes to a traditional court would either land both the plaintiff and the defendant in jail or confuse the court to the point of total befuddlement. You can just imagine the scenario: “What is a DAO?” “It’s a decentralized autonomous organization, your honor.” “Please speak in English!” Meanwhile, blockchain-native "communities," such as they are, find it almost impossible to settle disagreements using traditional courts. And it turns out capitalism runs on the law. So this limits the amount of business they can do on the internet. Oh, the irony. A few years ago a project called Aragon came along. Aragon provided the framework and tools needed to create decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) ranging from structures created for thousands of users to simple ones designed for just a handful of people. Its so-called “court system” can handle "subjective disputes that require the judgment of human jurors," according to them. This is all well and good, but they also require genuine investors who know what they are doing. Today to the company is announcing a small investment from Tim Draper, the billionaire VC who has previously backed Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase and Baidu, but also went heavily into crypto a few years back. Draper Associates is buying into the Aragon network’s ANT token to the tune of $1 million. Not a lot in the "normal" tech investing world, but quite a lot in terms of the still very nascent blockchain world. Draper is the latest addition to Aragon’s backers, which include New York-based firms Placeholder and CoinFund, and Silicon Valley-based firm BoostVC. Draper is a big proponent of cryptocurrencies, and bought nearly 30,000 bitcoins from the government auction of seized assets from Silk Road in 2014, making him an even more wealthy man, and also a relatively smart predictor of the blockchain world. Aragon, founded by entrepreneurs Luis Cuende and Jorge Izquierdo, aims to create what they call the world’s first “digital jurisdiction,” providing tools for the management of digital organizations, as well as an online dispute resolution service. Story continues So far it counts more than 1,000 organizations created on its platform since its launch in late 2018. So it’s not unlike registering a company on a database but also having a trusted third party in the case of legal disputes. Aragon’s token, ANT, is used for the governance of the network. The network’s dispute resolution service, Aragon Court, has 247 real-world, human jurors on the platform, and counting. Presumably, they are independent. The Aragon Court started operating on February 10th. “You don’t get to create a new jurisdiction every day. After Aragon, the governing of the world will never be the same,” said Draper in a statement. Draper is known for being a promoter of government innovation, launching the Six Californias initiative and being involved in Estonia’s eResidency program. Tim Draper will also join Aragon’s advisory board and continue supporting the project. ANT holders can use their tokens to participate in Aragon Court. More than one million ANT has already been deposited ahead of its launch. “Aragon aims to become the internet’s de facto jurisdiction, and Aragon Court is its backbone. We are extremely excited to work with Tim. If there is someone who can advise on building a new jurisdiction, it’s Tim,” said Cuende, whose previous startup in the Bitcoin industry was backed by Draper, too. Aragon has also announced Aragon Chain, a blockchain built specifically for Aragon, after issues with Ethereum have arisen. || Tim Draper puts $1M into the Aragon blockchain project to create digital courts: In the murky world of crypto and blockchain, taking disputes to a traditional court would either land both the plaintiffandthe defendant in jail or confuse the court to the point of total befuddlement. You can just imagine the scenario:
“What is a DAO?”
“It’s a decentralized autonomous organization, your honor.”
“Please speak in English!”
Meanwhile, blockchain-native "communities," such as they are, find it almost impossible to settle disagreements using traditional courts. And it turns out capitalism runs on the law. So this limits the amount of business they can do on the internet. Oh, the irony.
A few years ago a project calledAragoncame along. Aragon provided the framework and tools needed to create decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) ranging from structures created for thousands of users to simple ones designed for just a handful of people. Its so-called “court system” can handle "subjective disputes that require the judgment of human jurors," according to them.
This is all well and good, but they also require genuine investors who know what they are doing.
Today to the company is announcing a small investment fromTim Draper,the billionaire VC who has previously backed Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase and Baidu, but also went heavily into crypto a few years back.
Draper Associates is buying into the Aragon network’s ANT token to the tune of $1 million. Not a lot in the "normal" tech investing world, but quite a lot in terms of the still very nascent blockchain world. Draper is the latest addition to Aragon’s backers, which include New York-based firms Placeholder and CoinFund, and Silicon Valley-based firm BoostVC.
Draper is a big proponent of cryptocurrencies, and bought nearly 30,000 bitcoins from the government auction of seized assets from Silk Road in 2014, making him an even more wealthy man, and also a relatively smart predictor of the blockchain world.
Aragon, founded by entrepreneurs Luis Cuende and Jorge Izquierdo, aims to create what they call the world’s first “digital jurisdiction,” providing tools for the management of digital organizations, as well as an online dispute resolution service.
So far it counts more than 1,000 organizations created on its platform since its launch in late 2018. So it’s not unlike registering a company on a database but also having a trusted third party in the case of legal disputes.
Aragon’s token, ANT, is used for the governance of the network. The network’s dispute resolution service, Aragon Court, has 247 real-world, human jurors on the platform, and counting. Presumably, they are independent. The Aragon Court started operating on February 10th.
“You don’t get to create a new jurisdiction every day. After Aragon, the governing of the world will never be the same,” said Draper in a statement.
Draper is known for being a promoter of government innovation, launching theSix Californiasinitiative and being involved in Estonia’s eResidency program. Tim Draper will also join Aragon’s advisory board and continue supporting the project.
ANT holders can use their tokens to participate in Aragon Court. More than one million ANT has already been deposited ahead of its launch.
“Aragon aims to become the internet’s de facto jurisdiction, and Aragon Court is its backbone. We are extremely excited to work with Tim. If there is someone who can advise on building a new jurisdiction, it’s Tim,” said Cuende, whose previous startup in the Bitcoin industry was backed by Draper, too.
Aragon has also announced Aragon Chain, a blockchain built specifically for Aragon, after issues with Ethereum have arisen. || Tim Draper Buys 2.5% of Aragon Tokens, Becomes Governance Whale: Venture capitalist Tim Draper has taken a 1 million ANT stake (worth about $760,000 at press time) in Aragon, a decentralized governance project that began on ethereum. The move, disclosed in a press release Wednesday, gives Draper control of about 2.5 percent of Aragon’s total token supply. Draper is a long-time crypto evangelist and serial project backer. The Switzerland-based Aragon Association is attempting to build a digital judicial system for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and its own Aragon network. Any ANT holder with 1,000 tokens can participate in “Aragon Court,” which went into session for the first time on Feb. 10 with a controversial mock trial of ethereum classic dev Yaz Khoury. Related: Hedera’s Token Price Spikes Prematurely After Google Joins the Network’s Governing Council Aragon Association Executive Director Luis Cuende said Draper came on board after seeing the Aragon court go live. “I think the recent launch of Aragon Court and the realization that Aragon can be to governance what bitcoin (BTC) is to money” prompted Draper to join, Cuende said. Draper did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Draper’s eponymous VC firm had previously invested in Cuende’s email immutability startup Stampery . Cuende said that relationship helped Draper get involved Aragon. Related: Zcash’s Funding Vote and the Woes of Decentralized Governance Draper will also sit on Aragon’s advisory board, according to Cuende. Related Stories Roger Ver’s Mining Pool Pulls Support for Bitcoin Cash Dev Fund Over Chain Split Threat Bitcoin Cash Miners Propose Controversial Soft Fork for Zcash-Style Development Fund || Tim Draper Buys 2.5% of Aragon Tokens, Becomes Governance Whale: Venture capitalist Tim Draper has taken a 1 million ANT stake (worth about $760,000 at press time) in Aragon, a decentralized governance project that began on ethereum.
The move, disclosed in a press release Wednesday, gives Draper control of about 2.5 percent of Aragon’s total token supply. Draper is a long-time crypto evangelist and serial project backer.
The Switzerland-based Aragon Association is attempting to build a digital judicial system for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and its own Aragon network. Any ANT holder with 1,000 tokens can participate in “Aragon Court,” which went into session for the first time on Feb. 10 witha controversial mock trialof ethereum classic dev Yaz Khoury.
Related:Hedera’s Token Price Spikes Prematurely After Google Joins the Network’s Governing Council
Aragon Association Executive Director Luis Cuende said Draper came on board after seeing the Aragon court go live.
“I think the recent launch of Aragon Court and the realization that Aragon can be to governance whatbitcoin(BTC) is to money” prompted Draper to join, Cuende said.
Draper did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Draper’s eponymous VC firm had previously invested in Cuende’s email immutability startupStampery. Cuende said that relationship helped Draper get involved Aragon.
Related:Zcash’s Funding Vote and the Woes of Decentralized Governance
Draper will also sit on Aragon’s advisory board, according to Cuende.
• Roger Ver’s Mining Pool Pulls Support for Bitcoin Cash Dev Fund Over Chain Split Threat
• Bitcoin Cash Miners Propose Controversial Soft Fork for Zcash-Style Development Fund || Blockstation Builds Disclosure Tool for Security Token Issuers on Jamaica Stock Exchange: Blockstation, a Canadian digital asset trading systems firm, has built a fast-track disclosure filing process for companies hoping to list security tokens on the Jamaican Stock Exchange (JSE).
Announced Tuesday alongside JSE’s launch of a tokenized Initial Public Offering (IPO) platform, Blockstation’s new tool, called the Smart Listing Accelerator Process (SLAP), is designed to streamline the filing of required regulatory disclosures and prospectuses, said CTO and co-founder Jai Waterman.
Waterman said SLAP “lowers the barrier to entry” for companies that want security token offerings (STOs) but do not know how to sift through the corresponding paperwork.
Related:Jamaica Stock Exchange to Pilot Bitcoin and Ether Trading
The companies may not realize how many disclosure requirements the JSE – and its regulator, the Financial Services Commission – have to inform the public about an investment’s risks.
“Full disclosure needs to be there in order to make sure that these investors know what they’re getting in to, and that they’re protected,” said Waterman.
Every potential risk has to be laid out in the company’s prospectus. SLAP helps companies do so with a veritable “library” of business risk factors – far more than any one capital-seeking company could guess to include, according to Waterman.
“There’s hundreds of risks that people are not necessarily thinking of,” he said. “When you see that huge library, you’re like, ‘oh you know what, that kind of applies to us.’ So you can take that concept and make it specific to your business.”
Related:Jamaica Stock Exchange Plans to List Security Tokens
Building out their filings on SLAP, companies can tailor their prospectus and have a lawyer review the result. Once the filings are finished the companies can submit directly to JSE and FSC.
Four companies have already begun the regulatory filing process with SLAP, Waterman said.
The new service is the latest advancement in JSE and Blockstation’s digital asset partnership. Since joining forces inAugust 2018, the pair have developed and launched acryptocurrency trading platform. They announced their plan to list security tokens inearly 2019.
• Jamaica Stock Exchange to Trade Crypto Assets in 2018 || Altcoin season 2.0: why bitcoin has been outgunned by crypto rivals since new year: When bitcoin wastrading atthe dizzying heights of almost US$20,000 (£15,360) in December 2017, it was the peak of the previous bull run in cryptocurrencies. It was a classic bubble, in line withthe work onsuch phenomena by the American financial economist Hyman Minsky, and investors should arguably have seen it coming. It was not until late 2018 that bitcoin finally bottomed out at slightly above US$3,000, though for many the “crypto winter” dragged on for much of 2019 as well.
Several ups and downs later, the bull market looks to be back. Since the turn of the year, bitcoin has climbed from just over US$7,000 to the low US$10,000s. Few asset classes can boast a rise of about 40% in six weeks, though bitcoin enthusiasts like to point out that bitcoin is thebest performingasset of the past decade – however choppy the journey along the way.
Having said that, bitcoin is certainly not where you would have made most money if you had bought cryptocurrencies at the start of January. There have been even greater price gains from leading altcoins such as ethereum (+119%), ripple (+58%), bitcoin cash (+109%) and bitcoin SV (+222%). So what explains their superior performance?
These four altcoins are the largest cryptocurrencies on the market after bitcoin, representing an aggregate US$51 billion market capitalisation (the value of each coin multiplied by the number of coins on the market). This is still fairly small compared with bitcoin’s US$178 billion market cap, but clearly the gap has been narrowing.
Cryptocurrency aficionados compare bitcoin and the altcoins in terms of bitcoin dominance. This refers to bitcoin’s market size compared with the rest of the altcoins put together. During the early weeks of 2020, it fell slightly from 68% to 64%. As the chart below shows, this is a shift from what has happened for most of the past couple of years.
Bitcoin dominance
For years, there has tended to be a statistically significant correlation between the performance of bitcoin and the altcoins: when bitcoin rises or falls in price, most altcoins tend to do likewise. You can track this using online tools, such asCoinpredictor.io.
Despite this correlation, altcoins have tended to underperform bitcoin ever since the previous bull market petered out in winter 2017-18. Bitcoin dominance was only 39% at the beginning of 2018, whereas it had risen to 70% by July 2019 and stayed around that range for most of the rest of the year.
This suggests that bitcoin has acted as a safe harbour for many investors still smarting from the bubble and pop of 2017, which was fuelled by an explosion of initial coin offerings or ICOs from new currencies entering the market. Those who didn’t get out of cryptocurrencies altogether probably felt the need to consolidate around an asset they trusted. Bitcoin was the obvious choice as the longest established and most widely traded asset in this class, and also the gateway cryptocurrency for many investors – their first dip of a toe in the water en route to an altcoin purchase.
Other writers have pointed out that during 2019,the price correlationbetween bitcoin and the altcoins declined. As many other cryptocurrency projects failed to live up to the heady expectations of a year or two before, investors perhaps traded them for bitcoin in a “flight to quality” – a little like traditional investorsswitching to the likes of goldwhen the stock market dives.
The tilt back towards altcoins in the first weeks of 2020 may be the start of another bull-run, driven by a renewed confidence or understanding in the space. Recent favourable commercial developments have bolstered prices, such as JP Morgan’spositive progresswith the interbank payments systemthat it runson the ethereum network.
The rise of the altcoins is also possibly being fuelled in part by an increasing number of coins entering the market.According to coinmarketcap, it now staggeringly numbers over 5,000. All other things being equal, this should reduce bitcoin dominance – this may be feeding through now that confidence has risen in the sector as a whole.
There has also been a sector-wide boost from Coinbase, the largest cryptoasset exchange in the US. Coinbase is making a play for institutional investors byexpanding its abilityto store digital coins on their behalf outside the US. Known in the jargon as custodial solutions, Coinbase’s offering hasjust receivedtwo major industry kitemarks from leading accounting firm Grant Thornton, so may be attracting more institutional money into the sector.
Another factor may be eagerly awaited initiatives from leading players such as theethereum 2.0 launch, which looks set for July 2020. This major upgrade to the second-largest crypto network, which underpins many cryptocurrencies and enterprises in this space, is expected to make a big difference to transaction speeds among other things.
One big question is whether bitcoin will start outperforming the altcoins againthanks tothe so-called “halvening”, which is expected in May. This is the moment roughly every four years when the reward to bitcoin miners is halved, thereby reducing the number of new bitcoins available to sell on the market.
Writers such as Jemima Kelly in the Financial Timesmake a strong casethat this won’t raise the bitcoin price because the number of coins in circulation will still be rising and the event is built into the system so should be accounted for in the price already. Yet in a young market, which is comparatively thinly traded and has no uniform global regulation, the positive sentiment around this event may have more effect on the price than the fundamentals.
We havepreviously arguedin The Conversation that the chances of bitcoin replacing the global financial system have probably ended, now that many countries and multinationals, such as Facebook, are planning to launch cryptocurrencies of their own. All the same, the latest bull market is more evidence that bitcoin is likely to persist on the peripheries, probably along with the cream of the altcoins.
Whether those altcoins can continue to outperform their bitcoin matriarch is a difficult question to answer, but they are showing encouraging signs of life.Naysayerswho havepredictedtheirsteady demisemay have spoken too soon.
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Gavin Brown is a non-executive director and co-founder of Winterbar Associates Limited, a start-up digital assets fund which has yet to launch. It would not benefit directly from this article but does have an interest in digital asset investments such as bitcoin which leverage blockchain technology.
Whilst Richard Whittle has received no direct funding for this article, the background research was conducted as part of his ESRC-funded PhD. || Altcoin season 2.0: why bitcoin has been outgunned by crypto rivals since new year: 'We have you surrounded!' Wit Olszewski When bitcoin was trading at the dizzying heights of almost US$20,000 (£15,360) in December 2017, it was the peak of the previous bull run in cryptocurrencies. It was a classic bubble, in line with the work on such phenomena by the American financial economist Hyman Minsky, and investors should arguably have seen it coming. It was not until late 2018 that bitcoin finally bottomed out at slightly above US$3,000, though for many the “crypto winter” dragged on for much of 2019 as well. Several ups and downs later, the bull market looks to be back. Since the turn of the year, bitcoin has climbed from just over US$7,000 to the low US$10,000s. Few asset classes can boast a rise of about 40% in six weeks, though bitcoin enthusiasts like to point out that bitcoin is the best performing asset of the past decade – however choppy the journey along the way. Having said that, bitcoin is certainly not where you would have made most money if you had bought cryptocurrencies at the start of January. There have been even greater price gains from leading altcoins such as ethereum (+119%), ripple (+58%), bitcoin cash (+109%) and bitcoin SV (+222%). So what explains their superior performance? Bitcoin dominance These four altcoins are the largest cryptocurrencies on the market after bitcoin, representing an aggregate US$51 billion market capitalisation (the value of each coin multiplied by the number of coins on the market). This is still fairly small compared with bitcoin’s US$178 billion market cap, but clearly the gap has been narrowing. Cryptocurrency aficionados compare bitcoin and the altcoins in terms of bitcoin dominance. This refers to bitcoin’s market size compared with the rest of the altcoins put together. During the early weeks of 2020, it fell slightly from 68% to 64%. As the chart below shows, this is a shift from what has happened for most of the past couple of years. Bitcoin dominance For years, there has tended to be a statistically significant correlation between the performance of bitcoin and the altcoins: when bitcoin rises or falls in price, most altcoins tend to do likewise. You can track this using online tools, such as Coinpredictor.io . Story continues Despite this correlation, altcoins have tended to underperform bitcoin ever since the previous bull market petered out in winter 2017-18. Bitcoin dominance was only 39% at the beginning of 2018, whereas it had risen to 70% by July 2019 and stayed around that range for most of the rest of the year. This suggests that bitcoin has acted as a safe harbour for many investors still smarting from the bubble and pop of 2017, which was fuelled by an explosion of initial coin offerings or ICOs from new currencies entering the market. Those who didn’t get out of cryptocurrencies altogether probably felt the need to consolidate around an asset they trusted. Bitcoin was the obvious choice as the longest established and most widely traded asset in this class, and also the gateway cryptocurrency for many investors – their first dip of a toe in the water en route to an altcoin purchase. Other writers have pointed out that during 2019, the price correlation between bitcoin and the altcoins declined. As many other cryptocurrency projects failed to live up to the heady expectations of a year or two before, investors perhaps traded them for bitcoin in a “flight to quality” – a little like traditional investors switching to the likes of gold when the stock market dives. Flight to altcoins? The tilt back towards altcoins in the first weeks of 2020 may be the start of another bull-run, driven by a renewed confidence or understanding in the space. Recent favourable commercial developments have bolstered prices, such as JP Morgan’s positive progress with the interbank payments system that it runs on the ethereum network. The rise of the altcoins is also possibly being fuelled in part by an increasing number of coins entering the market. According to coinmarketcap , it now staggeringly numbers over 5,000. All other things being equal, this should reduce bitcoin dominance – this may be feeding through now that confidence has risen in the sector as a whole. There has also been a sector-wide boost from Coinbase, the largest cryptoasset exchange in the US. Coinbase is making a play for institutional investors by expanding its ability to store digital coins on their behalf outside the US. Known in the jargon as custodial solutions, Coinbase’s offering has just received two major industry kitemarks from leading accounting firm Grant Thornton, so may be attracting more institutional money into the sector. Another factor may be eagerly awaited initiatives from leading players such as the ethereum 2.0 launch , which looks set for July 2020. This major upgrade to the second-largest crypto network, which underpins many cryptocurrencies and enterprises in this space, is expected to make a big difference to transaction speeds among other things. One big question is whether bitcoin will start outperforming the altcoins again thanks to the so-called “halvening”, which is expected in May. This is the moment roughly every four years when the reward to bitcoin miners is halved, thereby reducing the number of new bitcoins available to sell on the market. Writers such as Jemima Kelly in the Financial Times make a strong case that this won’t raise the bitcoin price because the number of coins in circulation will still be rising and the event is built into the system so should be accounted for in the price already. Yet in a young market, which is comparatively thinly traded and has no uniform global regulation, the positive sentiment around this event may have more effect on the price than the fundamentals. We have previously argued in The Conversation that the chances of bitcoin replacing the global financial system have probably ended, now that many countries and multinationals, such as Facebook, are planning to launch cryptocurrencies of their own. All the same, the latest bull market is more evidence that bitcoin is likely to persist on the peripheries, probably along with the cream of the altcoins. Whether those altcoins can continue to outperform their bitcoin matriarch is a difficult question to answer, but they are showing encouraging signs of life. Naysayers who have predicted their steady demise may have spoken too soon. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article . The Conversation Gavin Brown is a non-executive director and co-founder of Winterbar Associates Limited, a start-up digital assets fund which has yet to launch. It would not benefit directly from this article but does have an interest in digital asset investments such as bitcoin which leverage blockchain technology. Whilst Richard Whittle has received no direct funding for this article, the background research was conducted as part of his ESRC-funded PhD.
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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9686.44, 9663.18, 9924.52, 9650.17, 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49, 8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 231.21, 227.09, 230.62, 230.28, 234.53, 235.14, 234.34, 232.76, 239.14, 236.69, 236.06, 237.55, 237.29, 238.73, 238.26, 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31, 249.51, 251.99, 254.32, 262.87, 270.64, 261.64, 263.44, 269.46, 266.27, 274.02, 276.50, 281.65, 283.68, 285.30, 293.79, 304.62, 313.86, 328.02, 314.17, 325.43, 361.19, 403.42, 411.56, 386.35, 374.47, 386.48, 373.37, 380.26, 336.82, 311.08, 338.15, 336.75, 332.91, 320.17, 330.75, 335.09, 334.59, 326.15, 322.02, 326.93, 324.54, 323.05, 320.05, 328.21, 352.68, 358.04, 357.38, 371.29, 377.32, 362.49, 359.19, 361.05, 363.18, 388.95, 388.78, 395.54, 415.56, 417.56, 415.48, 451.94, 435.00, 433.76, 444.18, 465.32, 454.93, 456.08, 463.62.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-12-18]
Volume: 60220100, RSI (14-day): 72.61, 50-day EMA: 373.28, 200-day EMA: 302.15
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1066.20, Gold RSI: 45.05
Oil Price: 34.73, Oil RSI: 29.98
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Where do the presidential candidates stand on encryption? A handy guide: Photo: Getty Images In the wake of terrorist attacks here and abroad, candidates in the 2016 presidential race have shifted their attention to issues of national security. Many have proposed aggressive measures to confront ISIS, including bombing it “back to the Stone Age” (Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas) and banning Muslims from entering the country altogether (Donald Trump ) . But very few have articulated a clear position on how to prevent terrorist recruitment and plotting online. CNN’s Tuesday night Republican debate brought many of these issues to the table, raising questions about surveillance, who owns the Internet and — paramount to the tech world — encryption . Encryption — a way to encode information so that only the sender and the intended recipient can read it — has been central to a security versus privacy debate dubbed the Crypto Wars that dates back to the early 1990s. For years, intelligence officials have pointed to the technology as a significant obstacle in tracking nefarious activity online. Those complaints have only grown more insistent since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Recently, FBI Director James Comey even suggested that major tech companies reconsider their business structure to intercept and pass on encrypted information when needed. And those pressures are sure to increase after French counterterrorism investigators announced that encrypted apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram may have been used to plot the Nov. 13 Paris attack. Virtually all tech companies and cryptographers argue that building any type of “backdoor” into these secure communications would undermine the purpose of the technology entirely, ultimately compromising public privacy and driving consumers to use unregulated international products. It’s something our next president will most definitely have to weigh in on. And though not every presidential candidate has offered a firm stance on the debate, they’ve definitely dropped hints. Below, a survey of those candidates who have acknowledged the issue of encryption and what they think about it. Story continues Democrats: Hillary Clinton The current Democratic frontrunner has discussed encryption regulation several times, though we still don’t know how she feels about it. In a conversation with Re/code’s Kara Swisher in June, she said Silicon Valley needs to sit down with legislators and have a “real conversation” about ways to get around encryption to combat online terrorist activity. Then she waffled, admitting it was a “hard choice” and that “there are really strong, legitimate arguments on both sides.” During a speech at the Brookings Institution in December, Clinton threw around more vague platitudes, requesting an “urgent dialogue” between industry giants and law enforcement officials about tackling terrorists online, appealing to Silicon Valley to “disrupt ISIS.” Her voting record, however, offers a clearer picture of her stance on privacy tech. As a New York senator in 2001, Clinton supported the Patriot Act , which authorized expanded government surveillance to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit card records and track Internet activity. As provisions under that act were set to expire this year, she endorsed a bill that re-upped and modified that surveillance program, ending the NSA’s bulk metadata collection but maintaining other forms of surveillance. At the same time, she said the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which allows the sharing of Internet traffic information between the government and tech companies, “ doesn’t go far enough ,” in protecting us from foreign hackers. So, it seems Clinton has a history of siding with the surveyors, and not the surveilled. Bernie Sanders Maintaining a steadfast focus on economic and social justice issues during his presidential campaign, Sanders hasn’t spent much time battling mass surveillance. But his record signals that he’s much more concerned than Clinton about protecting citizen’s privacy. Just as he voted against the Patriot Act, he rejected the USA Freedom Act this June, arguing that it didn’t “go far enough in protecting our privacy rights.” “I worry that we are moving toward an Orwellian form of society, where Big Brother — whether in the corporate world, or the government — knows too much information about the private lives of innocent people,” he told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in June. Though that’s not an outright condemnation of building back doors into encrypted communications for the purpose of government surveillance, it’s very close. Martin O’Malley Photo: Cheryl Senter/AP The Democratic Party’s third wheel addressed encryption, however noncommittally, in an op-ed for the New York Daily News , calling for “greater public-private collaboration on how we can prevent terrorists from exploiting encryption, which has enabled them to ‘go dark’ well before they strike.” Ultimately that concern for security is likely what pushed O’Malley to support the USA Freedom Act . However, he said he “would like to see us go further” when it comes to limiting the government’s ability to conduct surveillance on citizens. So it seems he’s conflicted in this area. Republicans: Jeb Bush: Photo: John Locher/AP Jeb Bush more or less condemned the use of encryption in August: “If you create encryption, it makes it harder for the American government to do its job — while protecting civil liberties — to make sure that evildoers aren’t in our midst,” he said at an event sponsored by a military contractor-affiliated group named Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security . Rand Paul Paul has positioned himself as one of the most tech-savvy candidates of the 2016 presidential race, hosting hack-a-thons and accepting donations via Bitcoin . So it’s no surprise that he has a lot to say about the proposal to limit encryption. In an interview with Yahoo News’ Olivier Knox in November, he supported public use of the technology and echoed the security concerns of many cryptographers and activists. “The head of the FBI came out with this recently, he says, ‘Oh, we’re going to ban encryption.’ And it’s like we want to build a backdoor into Facebook and a backdoor into Apple products,” Paul said at the Yahoo Politics Digital Democracy Conference . “A backdoor means that the government can look at your stuff, look at your information, your conversations. … The moment you build an opening — and I’m not an expert on coding or anything, but the moment you give a vulnerability to a code that someone can get into your source code, not only can the government, but so can your enemies, so can foreign governments.” This comes as no surprise, as Paul has challenged the provisions of the Patriot Act in the past, and recently compared banning encryption to banning guns . Carly Fiorina Photo: John Locher/AP During the first GOP debate, Carly Fiorina was asked whether Google and Apple should cooperate with the U.S. government to weaken encryption so criminals can’t hide behind it. In response, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO made up a new word . “We need to tear down cyberwalls,” she said, referring, one can only assume, to encryption. “We could have detected and repelled some of those cyberattacks” if we had passed “a law [that] has been sitting, languishing, sadly, on Capitol Hill.” Just this week, she clarified her stance in an interview with Breitbart News . “You can’t outlaw encryption,” she said. “Encryption protects American consumers from identity theft, and all the rest of it. But we have to be able to work around it when necessary to give our investigators the information they need.” Fiorina reiterated this strategy, which some experts say is wholly infeasible, at the debate on Tuesday, solidifying her willingness to compromise the security of encryption in the wake of terrorist threats. Lindsey Graham Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Graham followed up on Fiorina’s remarks at the first Republican debate by declaring “if I have to tear down a cyberwall, I’ll tear down a cyberwall.” But the South Carolina senator’s past comments about technology may be reason to question whether he knows what tearing down that cyberwall would entail. In March, Graham said he’d never sent an email . Adding: “I don’t know what that makes me.” In this case, it makes him a person who probably doesn’t know much about the encryption debate. However, those who contribute to his campaign can rest assured that the governor’s website processes each credit card transaction “using encrypted code.” John Kasich Tuesday’s debate gave the Ohio governor an opportunity to blame encryption for our lack of prior intelligence in terrorist attacks. “There is a big problem, it’s called encryption,” he said. “The people in San Bernardino were communicating with people who the FBI had been watching, but because their phone was encrypted, because intelligence officials could not see who they were talking to, it was lost. … We need to be able to penetrate these people when they’re involved in these plots and these plans, and we have to give the local authorities the ability to penetrate in this route. Encryption is a major problem and Congress has got to deal with this, and so does the president, to keep us safe.” Kasich’s suggestion that we could not access the San Bernardino shooters’ phone conversations because their phone was encrypted is somewhat misleading. Kasich was referring to a CBS News tweet that quoted a “senior law enforcement official” who said investigators had found “levels of built-in encryption” in Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik’s phones. Virtually all modern phones in the United States come out of the box with “levels of built-in encryption,” otherwise criminals would be able to intercept your calls whenever your phone connected to a cellular tower. Not to mention, if your phone was stolen, anyone would be able to access your sensitive information. Whether Kasich is confused by that point, or simply using it as an example to explain why all encryption is dangerous, is unclear. But there’s no question that he’s willing to significantly downgrade the security of devices to be sure nothing gets past intelligence officials. George Pataki During Tuesday night’s undercard debate, the former New York governor said that, as president, he would pass “a law on tech firms to prevent encryption.” In clarifying his position, he provided suggestions similar to Fiorina’s. “Companies are entitled to encrypt and protect their knowledge and their intelligence,” he said. “But what we need is a backdoor for law enforcement to be able — when they can establish that that communication poses a risk to our safety and engages in terrorism — to get a court order and go in and access those communications. Allow the companies to continue encryption, provide an entryway for law enforcement when they can prove to a court that there’s a sufficient risk, when there’s an attack upon us, that they have the right to look at those messages.” Marco Rubio Photo: John Locher/AP Rubio has made it clear that he wants the federal government and the private sector to share more information as a way to prevent cyber- and terrorist attacks. He’s also publicly supported the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . And during Tuesday’s debate, he doubled down on his commitment to mass surveillance. “We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools,” the Florida senator said , criticizing the limits on metadata collection in the USA Freedom Act. Rubio’s willingness to expand programs that collect the private information of Americans signals an apparent willingness to compromise encryption for the same reasons. Ted Cruz Photo: John Locher/AP The Texas senator has towed a libertarian line when it comes to surveillance legislation in the past. As a candidate whose campaign runs on an explicit distrust of big government, it makes sense that Cruz would vote for the USA Freedom Act — a move that has earned him scorn from Rubio. During Tuesday’s debate, he argued that the bill’s mandate to transfer mass phone data collection from the NSA to phone companies actually gave more tools to pinpoint terror threats. However, cybersecurity activists worry that Cruz is uneducated on the intricacies of these policies, after an Oct. 15 video surfaced of the senator admitting to a crowd in Iowa that he was unfamiliar with CISA — a bill that critics say allows companies to monitor their customers and share their information with the government without warrant. Donald Trump Photo: John Locher/AP Trump has made many a reference to building walls, and some of them even appear to be cyber in nature. Though the Republican presidential frontrunner has not explicitly addressed encryption issues, he has suggested we shut off ISIS’ Internet connection, and expressed concern that the group is “using the Internet better than we are,” despite the fact that it “was our idea.” During the debate, he elaborated as best he could. “I wanted to get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they’re doing,” he said . “You talk freedom of speech, you talk freedom of anything you want. I don’t want them using our Internet to take our young impressionable youth.” Trump could be referring to the issue of encryption, or something much simpler. But anyone who’s willing to ban a world religion from the country might be willing to do the same for an essential element of consumer technology. Ben Carson Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters The retired brain surgeon has made virtually no mention of encryption on the campaign trail. But when it comes to assuring potential donors that their credit card information is safe, his website has a whole page on it: “Carson America uses a secure socket layer (SSL) with the highest level of encryption commercially available for www.bencarson.com on pages where online visitors register or make a secure online donation using their credit card.” That being said, Carson has said he’s open to the surveillance of mosques, churches and schools. Who knows whether that would entail the compromise of encryption technology? Chris Christie Photo: John Locher/AP In early 2015, Christie signed a law that required health insurance companies in New Jersey to encrypt client information, signaling he understands its importance. Still, the New Jersey governor has made his support for the NSA and government surveillance very clear, praising the provisions in the Patriot Act, and calling for the extension of intelligence-gathering capabilities. The fact that he’s publicly criticized Edward Snowden, and sparred with Rand Paul about these issues suggests he’d overhaul encryption if that meant even a hint of access to potential terrorist activity. Rick Santorum Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Though the former senator from Pennsylvania has made no explicit mention of encryption, his voting record speaks for itself. Santorum voted for the Patriot Act in 2001, and said he’d do it again today. He’s also criticized Paul’s stance on the issue, saying “hopefully Rand Paul won’t prevail, that the Senate will do what it must do, which is to keep our defenses up and follow through with a plan that balances the interests,” Santorum replied. “It’s always a [balance] between security and freedom, and that’s in every aspect of our [lives].” That balance would likely mean that he’d prefer the government has access to encrypted communication for the sake of national security. Mike Huckabee Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Huckabee, though not the race’s expert on online surveillance, has most definitely been vocal about the issue. He’s been known to publicly criticize unregulated monitoring by the NSA , arguing that the Patriot Act has gone too far. The former Arkansas governor has even said he’d repeal “Obama’s warrantless NSA spying program” if he became president. However, his comments about cybersecurity have caused experts to question his technological knowledge of the government’s digital capabilities in general. So, though he’s made no explicit mention of encryption, it’s possible that he, like so many other candidates, might not understand it. Related: Following Paris attacks, encryption services face new scrutiny Here’s the manual ISIS uses to teach its soldiers about encryption How encryption works and why people are so freaked out about it || Where do the presidential candidates stand on encryption? A handy guide: Photo: Getty Images In the wake of terrorist attacks here and abroad, candidates in the 2016 presidential race have shifted their attention to issues of national security. Many have proposed aggressive measures to confront ISIS, including bombing it “back to the Stone Age” (Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas) and banning Muslims from entering the country altogether (Donald Trump ) . But very few have articulated a clear position on how to prevent terrorist recruitment and plotting online. CNN’s Tuesday night Republican debate brought many of these issues to the table, raising questions about surveillance, who owns the Internet and — paramount to the tech world — encryption . Encryption — a way to encode information so that only the sender and the intended recipient can read it — has been central to a security versus privacy debate dubbed the Crypto Wars that dates back to the early 1990s. For years, intelligence officials have pointed to the technology as a significant obstacle in tracking nefarious activity online. Those complaints have only grown more insistent since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Recently, FBI Director James Comey even suggested that major tech companies reconsider their business structure to intercept and pass on encrypted information when needed. And those pressures are sure to increase after French counterterrorism investigators announced that encrypted apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram may have been used to plot the Nov. 13 Paris attack. Virtually all tech companies and cryptographers argue that building any type of “backdoor” into these secure communications would undermine the purpose of the technology entirely, ultimately compromising public privacy and driving consumers to use unregulated international products. It’s something our next president will most definitely have to weigh in on. And though not every presidential candidate has offered a firm stance on the debate, they’ve definitely dropped hints. Below, a survey of those candidates who have acknowledged the issue of encryption and what they think about it. Story continues Democrats: Hillary Clinton The current Democratic frontrunner has discussed encryption regulation several times, though we still don’t know how she feels about it. In a conversation with Re/code’s Kara Swisher in June, she said Silicon Valley needs to sit down with legislators and have a “real conversation” about ways to get around encryption to combat online terrorist activity. Then she waffled, admitting it was a “hard choice” and that “there are really strong, legitimate arguments on both sides.” During a speech at the Brookings Institution in December, Clinton threw around more vague platitudes, requesting an “urgent dialogue” between industry giants and law enforcement officials about tackling terrorists online, appealing to Silicon Valley to “disrupt ISIS.” Her voting record, however, offers a clearer picture of her stance on privacy tech. As a New York senator in 2001, Clinton supported the Patriot Act , which authorized expanded government surveillance to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit card records and track Internet activity. As provisions under that act were set to expire this year, she endorsed a bill that re-upped and modified that surveillance program, ending the NSA’s bulk metadata collection but maintaining other forms of surveillance. At the same time, she said the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which allows the sharing of Internet traffic information between the government and tech companies, “ doesn’t go far enough ,” in protecting us from foreign hackers. So, it seems Clinton has a history of siding with the surveyors, and not the surveilled. Bernie Sanders Maintaining a steadfast focus on economic and social justice issues during his presidential campaign, Sanders hasn’t spent much time battling mass surveillance. But his record signals that he’s much more concerned than Clinton about protecting citizen’s privacy. Just as he voted against the Patriot Act, he rejected the USA Freedom Act this June, arguing that it didn’t “go far enough in protecting our privacy rights.” “I worry that we are moving toward an Orwellian form of society, where Big Brother — whether in the corporate world, or the government — knows too much information about the private lives of innocent people,” he told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in June. Though that’s not an outright condemnation of building back doors into encrypted communications for the purpose of government surveillance, it’s very close. Martin O’Malley Photo: Cheryl Senter/AP The Democratic Party’s third wheel addressed encryption, however noncommittally, in an op-ed for the New York Daily News , calling for “greater public-private collaboration on how we can prevent terrorists from exploiting encryption, which has enabled them to ‘go dark’ well before they strike.” Ultimately that concern for security is likely what pushed O’Malley to support the USA Freedom Act . However, he said he “would like to see us go further” when it comes to limiting the government’s ability to conduct surveillance on citizens. So it seems he’s conflicted in this area. Republicans: Jeb Bush: Photo: John Locher/AP Jeb Bush more or less condemned the use of encryption in August: “If you create encryption, it makes it harder for the American government to do its job — while protecting civil liberties — to make sure that evildoers aren’t in our midst,” he said at an event sponsored by a military contractor-affiliated group named Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security . Rand Paul Paul has positioned himself as one of the most tech-savvy candidates of the 2016 presidential race, hosting hack-a-thons and accepting donations via Bitcoin . So it’s no surprise that he has a lot to say about the proposal to limit encryption. In an interview with Yahoo News’ Olivier Knox in November, he supported public use of the technology and echoed the security concerns of many cryptographers and activists. “The head of the FBI came out with this recently, he says, ‘Oh, we’re going to ban encryption.’ And it’s like we want to build a backdoor into Facebook and a backdoor into Apple products,” Paul said at the Yahoo Politics Digital Democracy Conference . “A backdoor means that the government can look at your stuff, look at your information, your conversations. … The moment you build an opening — and I’m not an expert on coding or anything, but the moment you give a vulnerability to a code that someone can get into your source code, not only can the government, but so can your enemies, so can foreign governments.” This comes as no surprise, as Paul has challenged the provisions of the Patriot Act in the past, and recently compared banning encryption to banning guns . Carly Fiorina Photo: John Locher/AP During the first GOP debate, Carly Fiorina was asked whether Google and Apple should cooperate with the U.S. government to weaken encryption so criminals can’t hide behind it. In response, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO made up a new word . “We need to tear down cyberwalls,” she said, referring, one can only assume, to encryption. “We could have detected and repelled some of those cyberattacks” if we had passed “a law [that] has been sitting, languishing, sadly, on Capitol Hill.” Just this week, she clarified her stance in an interview with Breitbart News . “You can’t outlaw encryption,” she said. “Encryption protects American consumers from identity theft, and all the rest of it. But we have to be able to work around it when necessary to give our investigators the information they need.” Fiorina reiterated this strategy, which some experts say is wholly infeasible, at the debate on Tuesday, solidifying her willingness to compromise the security of encryption in the wake of terrorist threats. Lindsey Graham Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Graham followed up on Fiorina’s remarks at the first Republican debate by declaring “if I have to tear down a cyberwall, I’ll tear down a cyberwall.” But the South Carolina senator’s past comments about technology may be reason to question whether he knows what tearing down that cyberwall would entail. In March, Graham said he’d never sent an email . Adding: “I don’t know what that makes me.” In this case, it makes him a person who probably doesn’t know much about the encryption debate. However, those who contribute to his campaign can rest assured that the governor’s website processes each credit card transaction “using encrypted code.” John Kasich Tuesday’s debate gave the Ohio governor an opportunity to blame encryption for our lack of prior intelligence in terrorist attacks. “There is a big problem, it’s called encryption,” he said. “The people in San Bernardino were communicating with people who the FBI had been watching, but because their phone was encrypted, because intelligence officials could not see who they were talking to, it was lost. … We need to be able to penetrate these people when they’re involved in these plots and these plans, and we have to give the local authorities the ability to penetrate in this route. Encryption is a major problem and Congress has got to deal with this, and so does the president, to keep us safe.” Kasich’s suggestion that we could not access the San Bernardino shooters’ phone conversations because their phone was encrypted is somewhat misleading. Kasich was referring to a CBS News tweet that quoted a “senior law enforcement official” who said investigators had found “levels of built-in encryption” in Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik’s phones. Virtually all modern phones in the United States come out of the box with “levels of built-in encryption,” otherwise criminals would be able to intercept your calls whenever your phone connected to a cellular tower. Not to mention, if your phone was stolen, anyone would be able to access your sensitive information. Whether Kasich is confused by that point, or simply using it as an example to explain why all encryption is dangerous, is unclear. But there’s no question that he’s willing to significantly downgrade the security of devices to be sure nothing gets past intelligence officials. George Pataki During Tuesday night’s undercard debate, the former New York governor said that, as president, he would pass “a law on tech firms to prevent encryption.” In clarifying his position, he provided suggestions similar to Fiorina’s. “Companies are entitled to encrypt and protect their knowledge and their intelligence,” he said. “But what we need is a backdoor for law enforcement to be able — when they can establish that that communication poses a risk to our safety and engages in terrorism — to get a court order and go in and access those communications. Allow the companies to continue encryption, provide an entryway for law enforcement when they can prove to a court that there’s a sufficient risk, when there’s an attack upon us, that they have the right to look at those messages.” Marco Rubio Photo: John Locher/AP Rubio has made it clear that he wants the federal government and the private sector to share more information as a way to prevent cyber- and terrorist attacks. He’s also publicly supported the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . And during Tuesday’s debate, he doubled down on his commitment to mass surveillance. “We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools,” the Florida senator said , criticizing the limits on metadata collection in the USA Freedom Act. Rubio’s willingness to expand programs that collect the private information of Americans signals an apparent willingness to compromise encryption for the same reasons. Ted Cruz Photo: John Locher/AP The Texas senator has towed a libertarian line when it comes to surveillance legislation in the past. As a candidate whose campaign runs on an explicit distrust of big government, it makes sense that Cruz would vote for the USA Freedom Act — a move that has earned him scorn from Rubio. During Tuesday’s debate, he argued that the bill’s mandate to transfer mass phone data collection from the NSA to phone companies actually gave more tools to pinpoint terror threats. However, cybersecurity activists worry that Cruz is uneducated on the intricacies of these policies, after an Oct. 15 video surfaced of the senator admitting to a crowd in Iowa that he was unfamiliar with CISA — a bill that critics say allows companies to monitor their customers and share their information with the government without warrant. Donald Trump Photo: John Locher/AP Trump has made many a reference to building walls, and some of them even appear to be cyber in nature. Though the Republican presidential frontrunner has not explicitly addressed encryption issues, he has suggested we shut off ISIS’ Internet connection, and expressed concern that the group is “using the Internet better than we are,” despite the fact that it “was our idea.” During the debate, he elaborated as best he could. “I wanted to get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they’re doing,” he said . “You talk freedom of speech, you talk freedom of anything you want. I don’t want them using our Internet to take our young impressionable youth.” Trump could be referring to the issue of encryption, or something much simpler. But anyone who’s willing to ban a world religion from the country might be willing to do the same for an essential element of consumer technology. Ben Carson Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters The retired brain surgeon has made virtually no mention of encryption on the campaign trail. But when it comes to assuring potential donors that their credit card information is safe, his website has a whole page on it: “Carson America uses a secure socket layer (SSL) with the highest level of encryption commercially available for www.bencarson.com on pages where online visitors register or make a secure online donation using their credit card.” That being said, Carson has said he’s open to the surveillance of mosques, churches and schools. Who knows whether that would entail the compromise of encryption technology? Chris Christie Photo: John Locher/AP In early 2015, Christie signed a law that required health insurance companies in New Jersey to encrypt client information, signaling he understands its importance. Still, the New Jersey governor has made his support for the NSA and government surveillance very clear, praising the provisions in the Patriot Act, and calling for the extension of intelligence-gathering capabilities. The fact that he’s publicly criticized Edward Snowden, and sparred with Rand Paul about these issues suggests he’d overhaul encryption if that meant even a hint of access to potential terrorist activity. Rick Santorum Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Though the former senator from Pennsylvania has made no explicit mention of encryption, his voting record speaks for itself. Santorum voted for the Patriot Act in 2001, and said he’d do it again today. He’s also criticized Paul’s stance on the issue, saying “hopefully Rand Paul won’t prevail, that the Senate will do what it must do, which is to keep our defenses up and follow through with a plan that balances the interests,” Santorum replied. “It’s always a [balance] between security and freedom, and that’s in every aspect of our [lives].” That balance would likely mean that he’d prefer the government has access to encrypted communication for the sake of national security. Mike Huckabee Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Huckabee, though not the race’s expert on online surveillance, has most definitely been vocal about the issue. He’s been known to publicly criticize unregulated monitoring by the NSA , arguing that the Patriot Act has gone too far. The former Arkansas governor has even said he’d repeal “Obama’s warrantless NSA spying program” if he became president. However, his comments about cybersecurity have caused experts to question his technological knowledge of the government’s digital capabilities in general. So, though he’s made no explicit mention of encryption, it’s possible that he, like so many other candidates, might not understand it. Related: Following Paris attacks, encryption services face new scrutiny Here’s the manual ISIS uses to teach its soldiers about encryption How encryption works and why people are so freaked out about it || Natural Gas At 10-Year Low: One Way To Play Further Downside: • Gas is trading at its lowest level since 1999, driven by worries about weak demand.
• At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the January Nymex price stood around $1.804 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Wednesday afternoon.
• Is there further downside left? If so, how can traders play it?
Bull spreads might offer an interesting option.
What Are Bull Spreads?
Spreads "offer built-in floor and ceiling levels that define the lowest and highest points at which the trade can settle," Nadex . In other words, traders know how much they can gain or lose from the outset, thus limiting the risk.
Related Link:Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin
How To Trade Natural Gas With Bull Spreads
In the following example, the underlying natural gas futures market is trading around 1.9 and a trader decides to consider a daily Bull Spread.
This trader believes the price of natural gas will fall in the short-term, so he chooses a Daily Bull Spread that looks something like:Natural Gas 1.000-2.000 (2:30PM).
Since this trader believes the natural gas future will be below 1.9 at 2:30 p.m., he chooses to Sell the contact. Thus, he selects two contracts at the bid price of 1.9. "Each pip the price moves is worth $1 per point," Nadex explains. His Maximum Profit and Loss are displayed automatically. His trade's "floor" is 1.000 and his "ceiling" is 2.000.
He will then monitor the trade and, when his position expires at 2:30 p.m., the difference between Nadex's calculated expiration value and his opening price of 1.9 will determine his profit or loss.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.
See more from Benzinga
• Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Natural Gas At 10-Year Low: One Way To Play Further Downside: Gas is trading at its lowest level since 1999, driven by worries about weak demand. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the January Nymex price stood around $1.804 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Wednesday afternoon. Is there further downside left? If so, how can traders play it? Bull spreads might offer an interesting option. What Are Bull Spreads? Spreads "offer built-in floor and ceiling levels that define the lowest and highest points at which the trade can settle," Nadex . In other words, traders know how much they can gain or lose from the outset, thus limiting the risk. Related Link: Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin How To Trade Natural Gas With Bull Spreads In the following example, the underlying natural gas futures market is trading around 1.9 and a trader decides to consider a daily Bull Spread. This trader believes the price of natural gas will fall in the short-term, so he chooses a Daily Bull Spread that looks something like: Natural Gas 1.000-2.000 (2:30PM) . Since this trader believes the natural gas future will be below 1.9 at 2:30 p.m., he chooses to Sell the contact. Thus, he selects two contracts at the bid price of 1.9. "Each pip the price moves is worth $1 per point," Nadex explains. His Maximum Profit and Loss are displayed automatically. His trade's "floor" is 1.000 and his "ceiling" is 2.000. He will then monitor the trade and, when his position expires at 2:30 p.m., the difference between Nadex's calculated expiration value and his opening price of 1.9 will determine his profit or loss. Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above. See more from Benzinga Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Kenya’s central bank is taking out newspapers ads to warn against buying Bitcoin: The safest way to transfer money. The Central Bank of Kenya took out local newspaper ads this week to warn citizens of the dangers of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. CBK – “Bitcoin and similar products are not legal tender nor are they regulated in Kenya” #statusquo pic.twitter.com/mdmkxTGMUx — Winter soldier (@Neloversion) December 15, 2015 Among the concerns it raises: Once again, Norway has been voted the best country in the world for humans Virtual currencies are traded in exchange platforms that tend to be unregulated all over the world. Consumers may therefore lose their money without having any legal redress in the event these exchanges collapse or close business. The public should therefore desist from transacting in Bitcoin and similar products. The CBK isn’t just following the lead of other governments that have warned citizens to steer clear of the unregulated virtual currency. It also is wading into a widening spat between the country’s dominant telecom, Safaricom, and an upstart remittances company that uses Bitcoin, called Bitpesa. Bitpesa and another start up, Lipisha, are both suing Safaricom for intimidation and cessation of service without notice for blocking their access to Safaricom’s widely used mobile money platform, Mpesa. The day before the central bank’s ad appeared, a Kenyan High Court judge ruled that Safaricom does not have to grant Bitpesa and its partner access while the court case proceeds. Ironically, the fight is between two companies that are both using technology to improve life for Africa’s emerging but still disadvantaged middle and working classes. Mpesa enables customers—including millions who are “unbanked”—to transfer, use, or store cash on their cell phones. It has helped raise the rate of Kenyan adults with access to formal financial services from to 67% in 2014, up from 41% in 2009. The platform also is being used for a range of other projects, from improving healthcare to giving rural areas access to solar power . Story continues Bitpesa, founded by former development professionals working in micro-finance, aims to reduce the high cost of money transfers for Africans living and working away from home. Africans spend double the global average rate to send remittances. Through Bitpesa, users can transfer bitcoin and then convert it into Kenyan shillings. The two-year-old company has raised more than $1.7 million from investors. “We were fans of the innovation that Safaricom first shared with Kenya and the region back in 2007-2009, and we watched as other companies built upon this first mobile money network, with iterations taking the technology to places Safaricom alone could never go,” Bitpesa co-founder Elizabeth Rossiello wrote in a Dec. 14 blog post . The debate over how to regulate Bitcoin also encapsulates the competing interests of innovation and status quo in a country that is dubbed East Africa’s “Silicon Savannah.” Safaricom, founded in 1997, is one of the country’s most established telecom firms and its largest mobile network provider. It has defended its decision to block Bitpesa by saying the startup does not meet anti-money-laundering laws. (Bitpesa counters that it does not fall under such regulations.) Observers point out the fact that Safaricom is also entering the remittances industry with a partnership between South Africa’s MTN Group and its parent company Vodafone that will allow users in both networks , which covers most of east and central Africa, to transfer money across the region on their phones. One of Bitpesa’s board members and investors, Joseph Mucheru has been nominated to be the country’s cabinet secretary for information and communications technology. He has said that once he is sworn in he will divest from the company, but his views are clear. He told a local newspaper , “It will be a sad day if we fail to embrace this because we are afraid. Kenya cannot be the tech hub of Africa if our own regulations stifle innovation.” But at least for now, Kenya’s central bank seems to think the caution is worth the tradeoff. Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Most of the information we spread online is quantifiably “bullshit” This simple negotiation tactic brought 195 countries to consensus || Kenya’s central bank is taking out newspapers ads to warn against buying Bitcoin: The safest way to transfer money. The Central Bank of Kenya took out local newspaper ads this week to warn citizens of the dangers of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. CBK – “Bitcoin and similar products are not legal tender nor are they regulated in Kenya” #statusquo pic.twitter.com/mdmkxTGMUx — Winter soldier (@Neloversion) December 15, 2015 Among the concerns it raises: Once again, Norway has been voted the best country in the world for humans Virtual currencies are traded in exchange platforms that tend to be unregulated all over the world. Consumers may therefore lose their money without having any legal redress in the event these exchanges collapse or close business. The public should therefore desist from transacting in Bitcoin and similar products. The CBK isn’t just following the lead of other governments that have warned citizens to steer clear of the unregulated virtual currency. It also is wading into a widening spat between the country’s dominant telecom, Safaricom, and an upstart remittances company that uses Bitcoin, called Bitpesa. Bitpesa and another start up, Lipisha, are both suing Safaricom for intimidation and cessation of service without notice for blocking their access to Safaricom’s widely used mobile money platform, Mpesa. The day before the central bank’s ad appeared, a Kenyan High Court judge ruled that Safaricom does not have to grant Bitpesa and its partner access while the court case proceeds. Ironically, the fight is between two companies that are both using technology to improve life for Africa’s emerging but still disadvantaged middle and working classes. Mpesa enables customers—including millions who are “unbanked”—to transfer, use, or store cash on their cell phones. It has helped raise the rate of Kenyan adults with access to formal financial services from to 67% in 2014, up from 41% in 2009. The platform also is being used for a range of other projects, from improving healthcare to giving rural areas access to solar power . Story continues Bitpesa, founded by former development professionals working in micro-finance, aims to reduce the high cost of money transfers for Africans living and working away from home. Africans spend double the global average rate to send remittances. Through Bitpesa, users can transfer bitcoin and then convert it into Kenyan shillings. The two-year-old company has raised more than $1.7 million from investors. “We were fans of the innovation that Safaricom first shared with Kenya and the region back in 2007-2009, and we watched as other companies built upon this first mobile money network, with iterations taking the technology to places Safaricom alone could never go,” Bitpesa co-founder Elizabeth Rossiello wrote in a Dec. 14 blog post . The debate over how to regulate Bitcoin also encapsulates the competing interests of innovation and status quo in a country that is dubbed East Africa’s “Silicon Savannah.” Safaricom, founded in 1997, is one of the country’s most established telecom firms and its largest mobile network provider. It has defended its decision to block Bitpesa by saying the startup does not meet anti-money-laundering laws. (Bitpesa counters that it does not fall under such regulations.) Observers point out the fact that Safaricom is also entering the remittances industry with a partnership between South Africa’s MTN Group and its parent company Vodafone that will allow users in both networks , which covers most of east and central Africa, to transfer money across the region on their phones. One of Bitpesa’s board members and investors, Joseph Mucheru has been nominated to be the country’s cabinet secretary for information and communications technology. He has said that once he is sworn in he will divest from the company, but his views are clear. He told a local newspaper , “It will be a sad day if we fail to embrace this because we are afraid. Kenya cannot be the tech hub of Africa if our own regulations stifle innovation.” But at least for now, Kenya’s central bank seems to think the caution is worth the tradeoff. Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Most of the information we spread online is quantifiably “bullshit” This simple negotiation tactic brought 195 countries to consensus || Kenya’s central bank is taking out newspapers ads to warn against buying Bitcoin: The safest way to transfer money. The Central Bank of Kenya took out local newspaper ads this week to warn citizens of the dangers of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. CBK – “Bitcoin and similar products are not legal tender nor are they regulated in Kenya” #statusquo pic.twitter.com/mdmkxTGMUx — Winter soldier (@Neloversion) December 15, 2015 Among the concerns it raises: Once again, Norway has been voted the best country in the world for humans Virtual currencies are traded in exchange platforms that tend to be unregulated all over the world. Consumers may therefore lose their money without having any legal redress in the event these exchanges collapse or close business. The public should therefore desist from transacting in Bitcoin and similar products. The CBK isn’t just following the lead of other governments that have warned citizens to steer clear of the unregulated virtual currency. It also is wading into a widening spat between the country’s dominant telecom, Safaricom, and an upstart remittances company that uses Bitcoin, called Bitpesa. Bitpesa and another start up, Lipisha, are both suing Safaricom for intimidation and cessation of service without notice for blocking their access to Safaricom’s widely used mobile money platform, Mpesa. The day before the central bank’s ad appeared, a Kenyan High Court judge ruled that Safaricom does not have to grant Bitpesa and its partner access while the court case proceeds. Ironically, the fight is between two companies that are both using technology to improve life for Africa’s emerging but still disadvantaged middle and working classes. Mpesa enables customers—including millions who are “unbanked”—to transfer, use, or store cash on their cell phones. It has helped raise the rate of Kenyan adults with access to formal financial services from to 67% in 2014, up from 41% in 2009. The platform also is being used for a range of other projects, from improving healthcare to giving rural areas access to solar power . Story continues Bitpesa, founded by former development professionals working in micro-finance, aims to reduce the high cost of money transfers for Africans living and working away from home. Africans spend double the global average rate to send remittances. Through Bitpesa, users can transfer bitcoin and then convert it into Kenyan shillings. The two-year-old company has raised more than $1.7 million from investors. “We were fans of the innovation that Safaricom first shared with Kenya and the region back in 2007-2009, and we watched as other companies built upon this first mobile money network, with iterations taking the technology to places Safaricom alone could never go,” Bitpesa co-founder Elizabeth Rossiello wrote in a Dec. 14 blog post . The debate over how to regulate Bitcoin also encapsulates the competing interests of innovation and status quo in a country that is dubbed East Africa’s “Silicon Savannah.” Safaricom, founded in 1997, is one of the country’s most established telecom firms and its largest mobile network provider. It has defended its decision to block Bitpesa by saying the startup does not meet anti-money-laundering laws. (Bitpesa counters that it does not fall under such regulations.) Observers point out the fact that Safaricom is also entering the remittances industry with a partnership between South Africa’s MTN Group and its parent company Vodafone that will allow users in both networks , which covers most of east and central Africa, to transfer money across the region on their phones. One of Bitpesa’s board members and investors, Joseph Mucheru has been nominated to be the country’s cabinet secretary for information and communications technology. He has said that once he is sworn in he will divest from the company, but his views are clear. He told a local newspaper , “It will be a sad day if we fail to embrace this because we are afraid. Kenya cannot be the tech hub of Africa if our own regulations stifle innovation.” But at least for now, Kenya’s central bank seems to think the caution is worth the tradeoff. Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Most of the information we spread online is quantifiably “bullshit” This simple negotiation tactic brought 195 countries to consensus || ATM Market Worth $24.92 Billion by 2022: Grand View Research, Inc.: SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 14, 2015) - The globalATM marketis expected to reach USD 24.92 billion by 2022, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising demand for automated wireless communication devices along with growing security standards are estimated to drive the industry.
Enhanced security standards for safer online, and physical financial transactions has led to a significant rise in use of these services. Further, continuation of strict security standards and safer modes of financial transactions are expected to have a substantial impact on the industry growth.
Automation of the basic financial transactions and technological advancements increasing at alarming rate would increase mobile transcations among the customers. Linkage of ATMs with wiireless devices would facilitate the customers to complete the transcations securely.
Browse full research report with TOC on "ATM Market Analysis By Solution (Managed Services, Deployment) And Segment Forecasts To 2022" at:http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/atm-market
Rising competition amongst the banks to increase the penetration, would lead to its huge installation base, thus offering lucrative growth opportunities for the industry. In order to reduce the frauds, manufacturers and financial institutions are opting for anti-skimming, biometric devices, and voice recognition systems.
Further key findings from the report suggest:
• ATM deployment solutions industry accounted for over 70% of the overall revenue in 2014. They comprise installed machines at varied locations such as worksite, onsite, offsite and mobile segment. The deployment revenue comprises of installed machines and services as well as its maintenance. Rise in installation base and increasing maintenance activities are estimated to drive segment growth.
• ATM managed services market is estimated to exhibit considerable growth, growing at a CAGR of over 11.0% from 2015 to 2022. It contributes significantly towards strengthening the infrastructure for multichannel delivery for better customer retention, acquisition and cross selling opportunities.
• North America ATM market dominated in terms of revenue in 2014, and is expected to significantly lose share by 2022. Adoption of smart machines across countries such as U.S. is estimated to impel growth across this region. Increasing trend of trading in digital currency is driving demand for Bitcoin ATMs across the region.
• Asia Pacific ATM industry is expected to grow at a substantial growth rate of over 12% from 2015 to 2022. Rising demand for self-service machines and ever increasing customer base across regions such as China and India are estimated to drive the regional demand over the next seven years. Additionally, increasing trend of outsourcing its related activities by financial institutions is projected to positively impact growth across this region.
• ATM market share is occupied by companies such as NCR Corporation, Diebold Inc, Wincor Nixdorf, Euronet Worldwide and Nautilus Hyosung. Product innovations and strategic partnerships with the manufacturers are some of the notable strategies adopted by the vendors. For instance, In October 2014, Diebold launched a new 5500 series of with advanced security features such as biometric finger-vein readers and security camera provisioning.
Grand View Research has segmented the ATM market on the basis of solution and region:
• ATM Solution Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)Managed ServicesDeploymentOnsiteOffsiteWorksiteMobile
• ATM Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRoW
Browse related reports by Grand View Research:
• Online Media Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/online-media-market
• Electronic Contract Manufacturing Services Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/the-global-electronic-contract-manufacturing-services-market
• Customer Relation Management (CRM) Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/customer-relation-management-crm-market
• Data Management System (DBMS) Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dbms-market
About Grand View Research
Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
Read Our Blogs -mediafound.org,ni2014.org || DA Davidson Favors Lifeway Foods Over Dean Foods: • On Thursday, DA Davidson analyst Eric M. Gottlieb explained why he prefersLifeway Foods, Inc.(NASDAQ:LWAY) overDean Foods Co(NYSE:DF).
• In two separate reports, the expert issued a Buy rating on Lifeway and a Neutral rating on Dean.
• In addition, the analyst issued a 12–18 month price target of $14 and a 5-year price target of $25 for the former, and a 12–18 month price target of $19 and a 5-year price target of $21 for the latter.
While the company has been around for almost 30 years, analyst Eric Gottlieb at DA Davidson believes that it is “just starting to gain momentum.”
The report pointed out a few issues related to the Buy thesis. First off, Gottlieb feels that “mainstream America, with their changing views on healthy living, appears now more ready than ever for kefir,” a product similar to a drinkable yogurt. However, the mass is still uneducated regarding the product’s benefits.
Related Link:Dean Foods Falling After Morgan Stanley Downgrade
Secondly, Gottlieb stated that the company’s new Wisconsin production facility unlocks further potential. Moreover, since “Lifeway Foods has already begun executing its plan to increase awareness, production capability, and distribution,” it’s only a matter of time before sales explode as its markets expand.
Dean Foods
On the other hand, Gottlieb does not see so much potential in Dean Foods. The expert noted that, while branded initiatives should help the company deliver wider and more stable margins, a declining milk demand dampens its growth prospects. “Milk prices should remain manageable in FY2016, which should provide at least a short-term opportunity for some success, while the operational turnaround continues to add benefits. Looking further out, milk prices will likely be cyclical and create periods of outperformance and underperformance,” the note expounded.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.
Image Credit:
Latest Ratings for LWAY
[{"Dec 2015": "Mar 2015", "DA Davidson": "Imperial Capital", "Initiates Coverage on": "Upgrades", "": "In-line", "Buy": "Outperform"}, {"Dec 2015": "Nov 2014", "DA Davidson": "Imperial Capital", "Initiates Coverage on": "Maintains", "": "", "Buy": "In-line"}]
View More Analyst Ratings for LWAYView the Latest Analyst Ratings
See more from Benzinga
• 16 Stocks Moving In Friday's After-Hours Session
• Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin
• Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || DA Davidson Favors Lifeway Foods Over Dean Foods: On Thursday, DA Davidson analyst Eric M. Gottlieb explained why he prefers Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWAY ) over Dean Foods Co (NYSE: DF ). In two separate reports, the expert issued a Buy rating on Lifeway and a Neutral rating on Dean. In addition, the analyst issued a 12–18 month price target of $14 and a 5-year price target of $25 for the former, and a 12–18 month price target of $19 and a 5-year price target of $21 for the latter. Lifeway Foods While the company has been around for almost 30 years, analyst Eric Gottlieb at DA Davidson believes that it is “just starting to gain momentum.” The report pointed out a few issues related to the Buy thesis. First off, Gottlieb feels that “mainstream America, with their changing views on healthy living, appears now more ready than ever for kefir,” a product similar to a drinkable yogurt. However, the mass is still uneducated regarding the product’s benefits. Related Link: Dean Foods Falling After Morgan Stanley Downgrade Secondly, Gottlieb stated that the company’s new Wisconsin production facility unlocks further potential. Moreover, since “Lifeway Foods has already begun executing its plan to increase awareness, production capability, and distribution,” it’s only a matter of time before sales explode as its markets expand. Dean Foods On the other hand, Gottlieb does not see so much potential in Dean Foods. The expert noted that, while branded initiatives should help the company deliver wider and more stable margins, a declining milk demand dampens its growth prospects. “Milk prices should remain manageable in FY2016, which should provide at least a short-term opportunity for some success, while the operational turnaround continues to add benefits. Looking further out, milk prices will likely be cyclical and create periods of outperformance and underperformance,” the note expounded. Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above. Image Credit: Story continues Latest Ratings for LWAY Dec 2015 DA Davidson Initiates Coverage on Buy Mar 2015 Imperial Capital Upgrades In-line Outperform Nov 2014 Imperial Capital Maintains In-line View More Analyst Ratings for LWAY View the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga 16 Stocks Moving In Friday's After-Hours Session Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5 © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 4 stocks to watch after volatile week: After a rough week for U.S. stocks, "Fast Money" traders looked at companies that may hold upside into next year.
The major averages all lost more than 3 percent this week, with the Nasdaq(NASDAQ: .IXIC)taking the biggest hit, falling about 4 percent.
Amid the struggles, trader Tim Seymour looked to retail giant Wal-Mart(NYSE: WMT), the worst performer in the Dow in 2015. It has fallen 30 percent this year, mostly on disappointing guidance.
Considering the stock's price and strong same-store sales growth in the third quarter, Wal-Mart looks "defensive," he said.
Trader Brain Kelly touted BlackBerry(Toronto Stock Exchange: BB-CA), another beaten down stock which has plunged 30 percent this year. He said the company has started to "pick up a little momentum" on sales, and should benefit as a player in the connected car space.
Other traders saw continued upside for names beating broader markets this year. Shares of tobacco company Reynolds American(NYSE: RAI)— which have climbed 38 percent this year to trade around $44.50 — could "easily" rise to $55, said trader David Seaburg.
Trader Guy Adami saw upside for MasterCard(NYSE: MA), which he said has "tailwinds" moving into next year and gets a boost from a recent increase in capital return. The stock has climbed 10 percent this year.
Disclosures:
Tim Seymour
Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO.
David Seaburg
No conflict
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || 4 stocks to watch after volatile week: After a rough week for U.S. stocks, "Fast Money" traders looked at companies that may hold upside into next year. The major averages all lost more than 3 percent this week, with the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: .IXIC) taking the biggest hit, falling about 4 percent. Amid the struggles, trader Tim Seymour looked to retail giant Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) , the worst performer in the Dow in 2015. It has fallen 30 percent this year, mostly on disappointing guidance. Considering the stock's price and strong same-store sales growth in the third quarter, Wal-Mart looks "defensive," he said. Trader Brain Kelly touted BlackBerry (Toronto Stock Exchange: BB-CA) , another beaten down stock which has plunged 30 percent this year. He said the company has started to "pick up a little momentum" on sales, and should benefit as a player in the connected car space. Other traders saw continued upside for names beating broader markets this year. Shares of tobacco company Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) — which have climbed 38 percent this year to trade around $44.50 — could "easily" rise to $55, said trader David Seaburg. Trader Guy Adami saw upside for MasterCard (NYSE: MA) , which he said has "tailwinds" moving into next year and gets a boost from a recent increase in capital return. The stock has climbed 10 percent this year. Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg No conflict Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance View comments || Your first trade for Monday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day.
Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares MSCI Japan ETF(NYSE Arca: EWJ).
David Seaburg was a seller of Twitter(TWTR).
Brian Kelly was a buyer of gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1).
Guy Adami was a buyer of silver(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @SI.1).
Trader disclosure: On December 11. 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg: No conflict. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Your first trade for Monday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (NYSE Arca: EWJ) . David Seaburg was a seller of Twitter ( TWTR ) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of gold (CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1) . Guy Adami was a buyer of silver (CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @SI.1) . Trader disclosure: On December 11. 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg: No conflict. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin: By now, Bitcoin needs no introduction. The digital asset has become the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, and people are already getting used to using it and trading it every day.
But, are there other ways to capitalize from the fluctuations of the currency? An innovative way to trade the popular cryptocurrency uses binary options.
The Playbook
Do you think the Bitcoin will continue to surge? Or will it lose value going forward?
Whatever your thoughts on the issue are, binary options might offer an interesting way to play the events with relatively low collateral.
Related Link:Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It
What Are Binary Options?
Investing via binary options is just that: playing a binary event. “Binary options are limited risk contracts based on a simple yes/no market proposition like will the markets go up by the end of the trading week,” binary options trading site Nadex .
How To Trade Bitcoin With Binary Options
Via binary options, traders can partake in the popular Bitcoin market with “limited risk, short-term contracts in a transparent, regulated marketplace.”
At Nadex, investors can find unique daily and weekly Bitcoin binary option contracts, based off the Tera Bitcoin Price Index.
Below is an example of how to trade Bitcoin using binary options.
A standard Bitcoin Binary Option may look something like: Bitcoin > 440 (3:00PM)
This means that this contact suggests the underlying price of Bitcoin will be above $440 at 3:00 p.m. If you think the answer is yes, buying the binary option might be the way to go. If you think the answer is no, you would sell the contract.
Investors should note that the price at which they would buy or sell the contracts is not the actual price of Bitcoin, but rather a value between zero and 100.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.
Image Credit:
See more from Benzinga
• Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5
• BMO Notes What's Holding HP Inc Back
• Vetr Crowd Downgrades Republic Airways Amid Airline Weakness
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin: By now, Bitcoin needs no introduction. The digital asset has become the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, and people are already getting used to using it and trading it every day. But, are there other ways to capitalize from the fluctuations of the currency? An innovative way to trade the popular cryptocurrency uses binary options. The Playbook Do you think the Bitcoin will continue to surge? Or will it lose value going forward? Whatever your thoughts on the issue are, binary options might offer an interesting way to play the events with relatively low collateral. Related Link: Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It What Are Binary Options? Investing via binary options is just that: playing a binary event. Binary options are limited risk contracts based on a simple yes/no market proposition like will the markets go up by the end of the trading week, binary options trading site Nadex . How To Trade Bitcoin With Binary Options Via binary options, traders can partake in the popular Bitcoin market with limited risk, short-term contracts in a transparent, regulated marketplace. At Nadex, investors can find unique daily and weekly Bitcoin binary option contracts, based off the Tera Bitcoin Price Index. Below is an example of how to trade Bitcoin using binary options. A standard Bitcoin Binary Option may look something like: Bitcoin > 440 (3:00PM) This means that this contact suggests the underlying price of Bitcoin will be above $440 at 3:00 p.m. If you think the answer is yes, buying the binary option might be the way to go. If you think the answer is no, you would sell the contract. Investors should note that the price at which they would buy or sell the contracts is not the actual price of Bitcoin, but rather a value between zero and 100. Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above. Image Credit: See more from Benzinga Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5 BMO Notes What's Holding HP Inc Back Vetr Crowd Downgrades Republic Airways Amid Airline Weakness © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin: By now, Bitcoin needs no introduction. The digital asset has become the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, and people are already getting used to using it and trading it every day.
But, are there other ways to capitalize from the fluctuations of the currency? An innovative way to trade the popular cryptocurrency uses binary options.
The Playbook
Do you think the Bitcoin will continue to surge? Or will it lose value going forward?
Whatever your thoughts on the issue are, binary options might offer an interesting way to play the events with relatively low collateral.
Related Link:Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It
What Are Binary Options?
Investing via binary options is just that: playing a binary event. “Binary options are limited risk contracts based on a simple yes/no market proposition like will the markets go up by the end of the trading week,” binary options trading site Nadex .
How To Trade Bitcoin With Binary Options
Via binary options, traders can partake in the popular Bitcoin market with “limited risk, short-term contracts in a transparent, regulated marketplace.”
At Nadex, investors can find unique daily and weekly Bitcoin binary option contracts, based off the Tera Bitcoin Price Index.
Below is an example of how to trade Bitcoin using binary options.
A standard Bitcoin Binary Option may look something like: Bitcoin > 440 (3:00PM)
This means that this contact suggests the underlying price of Bitcoin will be above $440 at 3:00 p.m. If you think the answer is yes, buying the binary option might be the way to go. If you think the answer is no, you would sell the contract.
Investors should note that the price at which they would buy or sell the contracts is not the actual price of Bitcoin, but rather a value between zero and 100.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.
Image Credit:
See more from Benzinga
• Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5
• BMO Notes What's Holding HP Inc Back
• Vetr Crowd Downgrades Republic Airways Amid Airline Weakness
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
[Social Media Buzz]
Current price: 417.74€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-12-18 12:00:02 CET || BTC: $463.00, S: $14.12, G: $1066.40 | Act: 24,217 Open: 3559 BTC: 54,879.7 | Total: $25,418,586 http://goo.gl/U94Tki #bitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 12 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,000.10 #bitcoin #btc || LIVE: Profit = $1,058.92 (10.89 %). BUY B23.37 @ $460.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $462.00 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org || Current pric...
|
462.32, 442.68, 438.64, 436.57, 442.40, 454.98, 455.65, 417.27, 422.82, 422.28
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10855.37, 11011.10, 11790.92, 13016.23, 11182.81, 12407.33, 11959.37, 10817.16, 10583.13, 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-09-20]
Volume: 14734189639, RSI (14-day): 46.52, 50-day EMA: 10320.11, 200-day EMA: 8762.21
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1507.30, Gold RSI: 52.97
Oil Price: 58.09, Oil RSI: 53.64
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Solar ETF Beams as Traders Reconsider Oil Volatility: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
Solar stocks and sector exchange traded funds have brightened up this week after an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil production raised questions over the world's reliance on fossil fuels, along with signs of ongoing growth in the solar industry.
TheInvesco Solar ETF (TAN)was among the best non-leveraged ETF performers on Thursday, rising 2.9%. TAN also strengthened 4.5% over the past week on the heels of a spike in crude oil prices.
Attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities over the weekend disrupted half of the Kingdom's overall crude production or 5% of the world's global supply. As crude oil prices spiked, investors may have turned to solar energy as a potential alternative.
Along with the macro worries over oil, the solar industry is also enjoying strengthening fundamentals, with increased demand for solar panels. According to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables research, the portion of U.S. large-scale solar pipeline attributed to commercial and industrial offtakers continues to expand,GreenTechMediareported.
The contracted pipeline of solar panel projects stood at a historic 37.9 gigawatts, and WoodMac senior solar analyst Colin Smith highlighted the growth in corporate solar deals as “particularly striking."
“In an industry where we’re seeing continued year-over-year growth, to have corporate market share grow even faster than that is quite impressive,” Smith said.
The contracted pipeline of utility-scale solar follows a record-high procurement of 15 gigawatts in 2018 with over 6 gigawatts of solar capacity added to the five-year forecast since last quarter,CleanTechnicareported.
“It’s no surprise that the U.S. solar pipeline is surging as costs continue to fall and solar becomes the lowest cost option for utilities, corporations and families,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA, told CleanTechnica. “However, as we push for solar to represent 20% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030, smart policies like an extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit will be critical to reach this goal.”
For more information on the renewables space, visit ourrenewable energy category.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Solar ETF Beams as Traders Reconsider Oil Volatility: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. Solar stocks and sector exchange traded funds have brightened up this week after an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil production raised questions over the world's reliance on fossil fuels, along with signs of ongoing growth in the solar industry. The Invesco Solar ETF ( TAN ) was among the best non-leveraged ETF performers on Thursday, rising 2.9%. TAN also strengthened 4.5% over the past week on the heels of a spike in crude oil prices. Attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities over the weekend disrupted half of the Kingdom's overall crude production or 5% of the world's global supply. As crude oil prices spiked, investors may have turned to solar energy as a potential alternative. Along with the macro worries over oil, the solar industry is also enjoying strengthening fundamentals, with increased demand for solar panels. According to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables research, the portion of U.S. large-scale solar pipeline attributed to commercial and industrial offtakers continues to expand, GreenTechMedia reported. The contracted pipeline of solar panel projects stood at a historic 37.9 gigawatts, and WoodMac senior solar analyst Colin Smith highlighted the growth in corporate solar deals as particularly striking." In an industry where were seeing continued year-over-year growth, to have corporate market share grow even faster than that is quite impressive, Smith said. The contracted pipeline of utility-scale solar follows a record-high procurement of 15 gigawatts in 2018 with over 6 gigawatts of solar capacity added to the five-year forecast since last quarter, CleanTechnica reported. Its no surprise that the U.S. solar pipeline is surging as costs continue to fall and solar becomes the lowest cost option for utilities, corporations and families, Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA, told CleanTechnica. However, as we push for solar to represent 20% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030, smart policies like an extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit will be critical to reach this goal. Story continues For more information on the renewables space, visit our renewable energy category . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October In the Know: Where Markets Stand in the Late-Cycle U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies, But It May All Work Out in the End Vegan ETF Talk With ETF Trends Tom Lydon On CNBC ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon Talks Spike in Crude Oil Prices on CNBC READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || SEC Chair, Commissioners to Talk Crypto at Congress Hearing Next Week: The U.S. House Financial Services Committee plans to question the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about cryptocurrencies and Facebook’s Libra project next week, among a host of other topics.
According toa calendar noticeon the House of Representatives’ website, the committee will hold a one-panel hearing with SEC ChairmanJay Clayton, as well as Commissioners Robert Jackson, Elad Roisman, Allison Lee and “Crypto Mom”Hester Pierceon Sept. 24 in the Rayburn House Office Building.
The hearingwill cover theSEC‘s actions around the cryptocurrency space, as well as private markets vs. public markets; public company disclosures; enforcement; and fiduciary responsibilities.
Related:Byrne Sells Overstock Stake to Buy Crypto and Battle ‘Deep State’
While the notice does not specify which areas the committee might focus on, it does note that the SEC published its analysis of whether a token is an investment contract using the three prongs of the Howey test, and it includes a general definition of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are a type of investment company, which can be redeemed by the fund like mutual funds, but also allow investors to trade throughout the day on an exchange at market prices,” the notice reads, adding:
“If an asset is an investment company and not exempt from registration, it must comply with regulations designed to minimize conflicts of interest, including regular disclosure of their financial condition and investment policies to investors.”
The SEC is currently reviewing two bitcoin ETF proposals, filed byBitwise Asset Managementand Wilshire Phoenix (a third ETF proposal by VanEck and SolidXwas withdrawn earlier this week).
Related:Square Crypto Hires Lightning, Libra Developers for ‘Bitcoin Dream Team’
The notice also addressesFacebook‘sLibracrypto project, which was first announced in June 2019. Libra, as envisioned, would act as a stablecoin backed bya basket of global currencies, which currently includes the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound and Singapore dollar.
The cryptocurrency will be overseen by a governing council of 100 members, of which 28 have already signed tentative agreements to join (it is worth noting that Facebook and its subsidiary Calibra are two of the members). The Libra Association will be based in Geneva, Switzerland, though Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)has expressed uneasewith this plan.
Thursday’s notice hints at possible securities implications for Libra’s companion token, which would be distributed to members of the association, writing:
“The Libra Investment Token could amount to a security since it is intended to be sold to investors to fund startup costs and would provide them with dividends. The Libra token itself may also be a security, but Facebook does not intend to pay dividends and it is unclear if investors would have a ‘reasonable expectation of profits.’ However, the offer of Libra could be integrated into the offering of the Libra Investment Token, thereby deeming both securities.”
“Like ETFs, Libra would be redeemable by certain authorized resellers and bought and sold in the open market,” the notice concluded.
The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing specifically about Libra in July, a day after the Senate Banking Committee held its own. At the time, lawmakers questioned Facebook blockchain lead and Calibra CEO David Marcus about how the project would operate and whether it would impact the U.S. or global economies, among other areas of concern.
Maxine Waters image via House Financial Services Committee hearing
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• Binance Is Pitching Its Stablecoin as a Government-Friendly Libra Competitor || SEC Chair, Commissioners to Talk Crypto at Congress Hearing Next Week: The U.S. House Financial Services Committee plans to question the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about cryptocurrencies and Facebook’s Libra project next week, among a host of other topics. According to a calendar notice on the House of Representatives’ website, the committee will hold a one-panel hearing with SEC Chairman Jay Clayton , as well as Commissioners Robert Jackson, Elad Roisman, Allison Lee and “Crypto Mom” Hester Pierce on Sept. 24 in the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will cover the SEC ‘s actions around the cryptocurrency space, as well as private markets vs. public markets; public company disclosures; enforcement; and fiduciary responsibilities. Related: Byrne Sells Overstock Stake to Buy Crypto and Battle ‘Deep State’ While the notice does not specify which areas the committee might focus on, it does note that the SEC published its analysis of whether a token is an investment contract using the three prongs of the Howey test, and it includes a general definition of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are a type of investment company, which can be redeemed by the fund like mutual funds, but also allow investors to trade throughout the day on an exchange at market prices,” the notice reads, adding: “If an asset is an investment company and not exempt from registration, it must comply with regulations designed to minimize conflicts of interest, including regular disclosure of their financial condition and investment policies to investors.” The SEC is currently reviewing two bitcoin ETF proposals, filed by Bitwise Asset Management and Wilshire Phoenix (a third ETF proposal by VanEck and SolidX was withdrawn earlier this week ). Libra concerns Related: Square Crypto Hires Lightning, Libra Developers for ‘Bitcoin Dream Team’ The notice also addresses Facebook ‘s Libra crypto project, which was first announced in June 2019. Libra, as envisioned, would act as a stablecoin backed by a basket of global currencies , which currently includes the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound and Singapore dollar. Story continues The cryptocurrency will be overseen by a governing council of 100 members, of which 28 have already signed tentative agreements to join (it is worth noting that Facebook and its subsidiary Calibra are two of the members). The Libra Association will be based in Geneva, Switzerland, though Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has expressed unease with this plan. Thursday’s notice hints at possible securities implications for Libra’s companion token, which would be distributed to members of the association, writing: “The Libra Investment Token could amount to a security since it is intended to be sold to investors to fund startup costs and would provide them with dividends. The Libra token itself may also be a security, but Facebook does not intend to pay dividends and it is unclear if investors would have a ‘reasonable expectation of profits.’ However, the offer of Libra could be integrated into the offering of the Libra Investment Token, thereby deeming both securities.” “Like ETFs, Libra would be redeemable by certain authorized resellers and bought and sold in the open market,” the notice concluded. The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing specifically about Libra in July, a day after the Senate Banking Committee held its own. At the time, lawmakers questioned Facebook blockchain lead and Calibra CEO David Marcus about how the project would operate and whether it would impact the U.S. or global economies, among other areas of concern. Maxine Waters image via House Financial Services Committee hearing Related Stories SEC Charges Token Sale Platform ICOBox With Securities Violations Binance Is Pitching Its Stablecoin as a Government-Friendly Libra Competitor || Hedera Hashgraph launches public mainnet beta: UPDATE: This article has been corrected to remove a reference to Ethereum's state bloat problem. Hedera Hashgraph , a new type of distributed ledger technology that promises speeds and transaction costs that leave Ethereum and Bitcoin in the dust, announced today the public launch of its mainnet beta. The mainnet beta is open to anyone from the general public, following a closed beta that was previously only accessible to developers who were building on the platform. Hedera’s beta will throttle speeds to 10,000 transactions per second and plans to increase them throughout the rest of 2019, a strategy it said is better for security. Ethereum , by comparison, can handle roughly 15 transactions per second. Hedera’s beta will also offer a smart contract and file storage service, although transactions on these services are throttled to 10 transactions a second. Developers can also now run mirror nodes, which provide public records of all the consensus decisions on the ledger. Hedera Hashgraph thanks in part to the network doing away with validating transactions, thanks to something called a directed acyclic graph (DAG). With a DAG, the idea is that the network actually gets faster at verifying transactions as the network grows. The mainnet public beta goes live with 25 dapps , including AdsDax, a decentralized advertising platform that’s conducted two million transactions on Hedera’s network; Certara, a company that’s running a mirror node to analyze transactions of Hedera, with the hope of applying insight to the healthcare industry; and Hash.hash.info, a blockchain explorer for Hedera. Dr. Nikolaos Siafakas of Hash-hash.info, said that “Hedera Hashgraph’s high throughput allowed us to introduce novel ways of analyzing network performance; we incorporated a browser mini-game to generate a large stream of real-time transactions, which in effect allowed us to test the network performance from an end user's point of view.” To boost development of new dapps, Hedera runs a dedicated developer advocacy program and provides real-time services online to developers, hosts regular meetups for developers around the world. "Our developers are our best ambassadors," Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera Hashgraph, told Decrypt. Story continues What’s the catch? Well, it’s not really decentralized. Currently, Hedera Hashgraph is a permissioned network, meaning that while anyone can build on the platform, only certain parties are eligible to run nodes, manage consensus, and maintain the network, for the safety of the network. As activity grows on the platform, Hedera will transition into a public, permissionless network, allowing anyone to run a node. Hedera Hashgraph, though, is run by the Hedera Governing Council , a network of ultra-rich companies, including Boeing, IBM, and Deutsche Telekom. They control the codebase, a move CEO Harmon told Decrypt is for "the safety of the network". To stop the power going to any one company in the governing council, Hedera said it’s implemented a one-company-one-vote system, and companies on the governing council change every couple years. But that doesn’t mean poorer companies won’t pander to larger ones. For instance, the United Nations operates on a one-nation-one-vote policy, but smaller countries often vote to make larger countries happy. Hedera's CEO, Harmon, told Decrypt that the companies are "far less likely that the council members would collude or form alliances if they're cross-sector, geo-distributed, and distributed across time". Yet Harmon seems to have forgotten the power of email, the international nature of all of the companies (Boeing literally flies airplanes) , and the shared interest of all of these companies: profit. It’s too early to know how things will turn out, but it’s a clear departure from the libertarian ideals of Bitcoin. The recently announced Hedera Consensus Service will be publicly available later this year and is expected to deliver similar performance and speed to Hedera’s cryptocurrency service. || Hedera Hashgraph launches public mainnet beta: UPDATE: This article has been corrected to remove a reference to Ethereum's state bloat problem.
Hedera Hashgraph, a new type of distributed ledger technology that promises speeds and transaction costs that leaveEthereumandBitcoinin the dust, announced today the public launch of its mainnet beta. The mainnet beta is open to anyone from the general public, following a closed beta that was previously only accessible to developers who were building on the platform.
Hedera’s beta will throttle speeds to 10,000 transactions per second and plans to increase them throughout the rest of 2019, a strategy it said is better for security.Ethereum, by comparison, can handle roughly 15 transactions per second. Hedera’s beta will also offer a smart contract and file storage service, although transactions on these services are throttled to 10 transactions a second. Developers can also now run mirror nodes, which provide public records of all the consensus decisions on the ledger.
Hedera Hashgraph thanks in part to the network doing away with validating transactions, thanks to something called a directed acyclic graph (DAG). With a DAG, the idea is that the network actually gets faster at verifying transactions as the network grows.
The mainnet public beta goes live with25 dapps, including AdsDax, a decentralized advertising platform that’s conducted two million transactions on Hedera’s network; Certara, a company that’s running a mirror node to analyze transactions of Hedera, with the hope of applying insight to the healthcare industry; and Hash.hash.info, a blockchain explorer for Hedera.
Dr. Nikolaos Siafakas of Hash-hash.info, said that “Hedera Hashgraph’s high throughput allowed us to introduce novel ways of analyzing network performance; we incorporated a browser mini-game to generate a large stream of real-time transactions, which in effect allowed us to test the network performance from an end user's point of view.”
To boost development of new dapps, Hedera runs a dedicated developer advocacy program and provides real-time services online to developers, hosts regular meetups for developers around the world. "Our developers are our best ambassadors," Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera Hashgraph, toldDecrypt.
What’s the catch? Well, it’s not really decentralized. Currently, Hedera Hashgraph is a permissioned network, meaning that while anyone can build on the platform, only certain parties are eligible to run nodes, manage consensus, and maintain the network, for the safety of the network. As activity grows on the platform, Hedera will transition into a public, permissionless network, allowing anyone to run a node.
Hedera Hashgraph, though, is run by the Hedera Governing Council, a network of ultra-rich companies, including Boeing, IBM, and Deutsche Telekom. They control the codebase, a move CEO Harmon toldDecryptis for "the safety of the network".
To stop the power going to any one company in the governing council, Hedera said it’s implemented a one-company-one-vote system, and companies on the governing council change every couple years. But that doesn’t mean poorer companies won’t pander to larger ones. For instance, the United Nations operates on a one-nation-one-vote policy, but smaller countries often vote to make larger countries happy.
Hedera's CEO, Harmon, toldDecryptthat the companies are "far less likely that the council members would collude or form alliances if they're cross-sector, geo-distributed, and distributed across time". Yet Harmon seems to have forgotten the power of email, the international nature of all of the companies (Boeing literallyflies airplanes), and the shared interest of all of these companies: profit. It’s too early to know how things will turn out, but it’s a clear departure from the libertarian ideals of Bitcoin.
The recently announced Hedera Consensus Service will be publicly available later this year and is expected to deliver similar performance and speed to Hedera’s cryptocurrency service. || NBA player to tokenize $34 million contract, sell shares in ICO-like sale: Sports andcrypto—an unlikely partnership that seemingly grows closer by the day.
Late last week,The Athleticreportedthat Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie is taking his latest contract extension, worth $34 million, and turning it into a securitized “digital investment vehicle.”
In other words, Dinwiddie is launching anSTOin himself, offering investors a piece of his own contract.
According to a Fox Newsreport, the point guard plans to sell thousands of digital tokens tied to the contract and use the money to make other investments and develop new streams of income. Those who buy in will be paid back principal and interest, according to the report.
On the day of the announcement,Dinwiddietweeted simply:
Why would the professional basketball player do this? Dinwiddie’s contract is set to pay out over the next three years. Rather than wait to get the money he’s owed, the STO allows him to get his moneynow—from investors. And, according toThe Athletic,Dinwiddie is creating a whole new company to set it all up.
The scenario is, perhaps surprisingly, not a new idea. A venture a few years back calledFantexsought to do something similar. The California-based company provided “athlete tracking stocks” linked to various professional football players in the NFL and was planning a second IPO in 2017 (the first occurred the year prior). The offering never made it to market, however, according to the Financial Times, and the firm has struggled to attract interest.
But others in the sports world have managed to make some headway in the crypto space. Last August, the Dallas Mavericks madea surprising announcementthat they would soon accept Bitcoin as a means of payment for both event tickets and merchandise. The Mavericks became the second NBA team to do so, withthe Sacramento Kingsbeing the first in early 2014. || NBA player to tokenize $34 million contract, sell shares in ICO-like sale: Sports and crypto an unlikely partnership that seemingly grows closer by the day. Late last week, The Athletic reported that Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie is taking his latest contract extension, worth $34 million, and turning it into a securitized digital investment vehicle. In other words, Dinwiddie is launching an STO in himself, offering investors a piece of his own contract. According to a Fox News report , the point guard plans to sell thousands of digital tokens tied to the contract and use the money to make other investments and develop new streams of income. Those who buy in will be paid back principal and interest, according to the report. On the day of the announcement, Dinwiddie tweeted simply: $btc Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) September 13, 2019 Why would the professional basketball player do this? Dinwiddies contract is set to pay out over the next three years. Rather than wait to get the money hes owed, the STO allows him to get his money now from investors. And, according to The Athletic, Dinwiddie is creating a whole new company to set it all up. The scenario is, perhaps surprisingly, not a new idea. A venture a few years back called Fantex sought to do something similar. The California-based company provided athlete tracking stocks linked to various professional football players in the NFL and was planning a second IPO in 2017 (the first occurred the year prior). The offering never made it to market, however, according to the Financial Times, and the firm has struggled to attract interest. But others in the sports world have managed to make some headway in the crypto space. Last August, the Dallas Mavericks made a surprising announcement that they would soon accept Bitcoin as a means of payment for both event tickets and merchandise. The Mavericks became the second NBA team to do so, with the Sacramento Kings being the first in early 2014. || Draper-backed Unstoppable Domains is giving away $250,000 in grants: Imagine creating a website that you controlled entirely, could never be shut down by a third party, and also served as your personal cryptocurrency wallet address. That’s what the San Francisco-based, blockchain startup Unstoppable Domains is trying to build, and it’s putting up a significant chunk of change to do it. The Tim Draper-backed company , which aims to build "uncensorable websites" for both individuals and businesses on the Zilliqa blockchain , recently unveiled the second wave of recipients for its $250,000 Blockchain Domain Grant Program . The grants aim to fund digital wallet companies who agree to integrate the firm’s .zil domains into their infrastructure. The latest recipients of the grant money include Coinomi, a multi-asset wallet platform; CoinRequest, a digital wallet that aims to simplify daily cryptocurrency transactions, and Viewblock, a blockchain domain explorer. Each company will receive part of a $250,000 pool of funds to support their development teams and integrate Unstoppable Domains’ Zilliqa-based products. Unstoppable Domains raises $4 million to make “uncensorable websites” a reality The Blockchain Domain Grant Program, which began in late July, operates through a community voting system. Unstoppable Domains’ users vote publicly to select which applicants should receive funds. From there, the firm’s executives tally up the votes and announce the winners. Members taking part can vote for as many as 10 applicants at a time. Unstoppable Domains launched in late 2018 with financial help from organizations like Boost VC, Draper Associates and the Ethereum Foundation. Its mission is to replace complicated BTC and cryptocurrency addresses—typically comprised of several letters and numbers—with easier, “human readable” addresses, not unlike the goals of the Ethereum Name Service . Typically, users seeking payment to their cryptocurrency accounts are often required to copy their wallet addresses and forward them to the sending party. If a single letter or number is off, or not included in the message, the funds being sent can be lost permanently or sent to an incorrect address. Story continues The company’s primary goal is creating .zil domains. Addresses are simplified into a word or phrase of a user’s choosing (i.e. their first and last name) followed by .zil. A user can then send crypto funds to that address without worrying about the money being lost or stolen. Brad Kam—co-founder and head of business for Unstoppable Domains—told Decrypt that one of the primary benefits of having a .zil domain is that a user can attach all their crypto wallets to the address, thereby directing all future payments to a single source and easing the transaction process. The .zil domain “is cryptocurrency agnostic, so users can connect any cryptocurrency address to their domain,” he said . “Blockchain domains provide a system that can easily work across any crypto application. The more wallets that support blockchain domains, the more currencies that can be sent to a single domain.” In addition, .zil domains provide companies with unique, blockchain-based websites that cannot be compromised or seized by third parties. Purchasing a domain from a company like GoDaddy or HostGator means that, in certain cases, your domain can be taken back by the selling party. At the moment, more than 90,000 individuals and businesses have pre-ordered .zil domains, many of which went live over the weekend, according to Kam. “Blockchain domains benefit parties by providing owners with full control over their assets,” Kam said. “Your keys, your domain.” || Draper-backed Unstoppable Domains is giving away $250,000 in grants: Imagine creating a website that you controlled entirely, could never be shut down by a third party,andalso served as your personalcryptocurrencywallet address.
That’s what the San Francisco-based,blockchainstartup Unstoppable Domains is trying to build, and it’s putting up a significant chunk of change to do it.
The Tim Draper-backedcompany, which aims to build "uncensorable websites" for both individuals andbusinesses on the Zilliqa blockchain, recently unveiled the second wave of recipients for its $250,000Blockchain Domain Grant Program. The grants aim to fund digital wallet companies who agree to integrate the firm’s .zil domains into their infrastructure.
The latest recipients of the grant money include Coinomi, a multi-asset wallet platform; CoinRequest, a digital wallet that aims to simplify daily cryptocurrency transactions, and Viewblock, a blockchain domain explorer. Each company will receive part of a $250,000 pool of funds to support their development teams and integrate Unstoppable Domains’ Zilliqa-based products.
The Blockchain Domain Grant Program, which began in late July, operates through a community voting system. Unstoppable Domains’ users vote publicly to select which applicants should receive funds. From there, the firm’s executives tally up the votes and announce the winners. Members taking part can vote for as many as 10 applicants at a time.
Unstoppable Domains launched in late 2018 with financial help from organizations like Boost VC, Draper Associates and the Ethereum Foundation. Its mission is to replace complicated BTC and cryptocurrency addresses—typically comprised of several letters and numbers—with easier, “human readable” addresses, not unlike the goals of theEthereum Name Service.
Typically, users seeking payment to their cryptocurrency accounts are often required to copy their wallet addresses and forward them to the sending party. If a single letter or number is off, or not included in the message, the funds being sent can be lost permanently or sent to an incorrect address.
The company’s primary goal is creating .zil domains. Addresses are simplified into a word or phrase of a user’s choosing (i.e. their first and last name) followed by .zil. A user can then send crypto funds to that address without worrying about the money being lost or stolen.
Brad Kam—co-founder and head of business for Unstoppable Domains—toldDecryptthat one of the primary benefits of having a .zil domain is that a user can attach all their crypto wallets to the address, thereby directing all future payments to a single source and easing the transaction process.
The .zil domain “is cryptocurrency agnostic, so users can connect any cryptocurrency address to their domain,” he said.“Blockchain domains provide a system that can easily work across any crypto application. The more wallets that support blockchain domains, the more currencies that can be sent to a single domain.”
In addition, .zil domains provide companies with unique, blockchain-based websites that cannot be compromised or seized by third parties. Purchasing a domain from a company like GoDaddy or HostGator means that, in certain cases, your domain can be taken back by the selling party.
At the moment, more than 90,000 individuals and businesses have pre-ordered .zil domains, many of which went live over the weekend, according to Kam.
“Blockchain domains benefit parties by providing owners with full control over their assets,” Kam said. “Your keys, your domain.” || Stock Market Today: Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin?: It was a very quiet day in the stock market today, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing close to flat on Thursday. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ) fell 1 basis point, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA: DIA ) dropped 0.2% and the PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ ) rallied almost 0.2%. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips We’ve had a lot of news to digest lately, even though the stock market continues to chop around close to its high. The SPY ETF actually made a new all-time high on Thursday, albeit briefly. However, we’ve now seen significant moves in bonds, gold, high-growth tech stocks and have seen the S&P 500 break out of its August trading range. Further, investors heard from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday that it will cut interest rates. To top it all off, U.S.-China trade war headline risks are still possible. It’s been a complex couple of weeks. It also has some investors wondering what asset class will make the next big move. Will it be bitcoin? Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin? chart of bitcoin in the stock market today Bitcoin bounced hard off its $9,600 lows today, but the charts do not look all that great. The cryptocurrency is below most of its major moving averages, with the exception of the 200-day. Worse though, it’s making a series of lower highs as resistance squeezes it against support down near $9,360. This pattern is known as a descending triangle, a bearish technical setup where investors are looking for resistance to break the asset price below support. In this case, a break below $9,360 support could send bitcoin down to its 200-day moving average, currently near $8,000. 8 Dividend Stocks to Buy for a Recession If bitcoin can hurdles its 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving averages, as well as downtrend resistance — which would require a move north of $10,500 presently — then we have a breakout on our hands. The best setup for investors may be to wait and see which one comes first, and then place their respective trades. That’s opposed to guessing whether it will breakout or breakdown. Investors can also trade bitcoin via the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCMKTS: GBTC ), shown below. Movers in the Stock Market Today Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) stock hit new all-time highs after the company announced a $40 billion buyback plan and upped its dividend by 11% to 51 cents per share. While the payout remains stubbornly low — yielding just under 1.5% — keep in mind that MSFT stock is up nearly 150% over the past three years. In 2019 alone, it’s up about 25%. Story continues It continues to lead mega-cap tech in market cap too, now trading with a $1.1 trillion valuation. Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Model 3 received the top safety rating from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. That’s the first of Tesla’s four vehicles to receive the designation, if we’re including the original Roadster. Airbnb says the company will go public in 2020 after earlier announcing that it generated $2 billion in revenue in the second quarter. While there were rumblings of a 2019 IPO at one point, there’s little surprise this one isn’t coming this year. The lackluster response from the public for Uber (NYSE: UBER ), Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT ), Slack (NYSE: WORK ) and certainly We didn’t help matters. Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU ) tumbled more than 13% on Wednesday and was set for another nauseating run on Thursday. In pre-market trading, shares were down more than 5% at one point. However, after the company announced several new streaming products, shares ended the day higher, climbing 3% on Thursday. Let’s see if the recent lows can stick. Otherwise, this may just be a dead-cat bounce before more lows are made. Splitting Up? According to reports, AT&T (NYSE: T ) is reportedly weighing whether to divest its DirecTV unit. This could come via spinoff or potentially a combination with Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH ). AT&T acquired the asset in 2015 for nearly $50 billion. The asset generates solid cash flow for AT&T, but with its bloated balance sheet and the continual loss of subscribers due to cord-cutting, DirecTV is a business that investors bemoan. AT&T has since said it’s not considering the move, but shares still rallied roughly 1% on the day. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell . As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long ROKU and T. More From InvestorPlace 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid 8 Dividend Stocks to Buy for a Recession 10 Companies Making Their CEOs Rich The 7 Best S&P 500 Stocks of 2019 So Far The post Stock Market Today: Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin? appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || Stock Market Today: Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin?: It was a very quiet day in the stock market today, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing close to flat on Thursday. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ) fell 1 basis point, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA: DIA ) dropped 0.2% and the PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ ) rallied almost 0.2%. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips We’ve had a lot of news to digest lately, even though the stock market continues to chop around close to its high. The SPY ETF actually made a new all-time high on Thursday, albeit briefly. However, we’ve now seen significant moves in bonds, gold, high-growth tech stocks and have seen the S&P 500 break out of its August trading range. Further, investors heard from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday that it will cut interest rates. To top it all off, U.S.-China trade war headline risks are still possible. It’s been a complex couple of weeks. It also has some investors wondering what asset class will make the next big move. Will it be bitcoin? Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin? chart of bitcoin in the stock market today Bitcoin bounced hard off its $9,600 lows today, but the charts do not look all that great. The cryptocurrency is below most of its major moving averages, with the exception of the 200-day. Worse though, it’s making a series of lower highs as resistance squeezes it against support down near $9,360. This pattern is known as a descending triangle, a bearish technical setup where investors are looking for resistance to break the asset price below support. In this case, a break below $9,360 support could send bitcoin down to its 200-day moving average, currently near $8,000. 8 Dividend Stocks to Buy for a Recession If bitcoin can hurdles its 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving averages, as well as downtrend resistance — which would require a move north of $10,500 presently — then we have a breakout on our hands. The best setup for investors may be to wait and see which one comes first, and then place their respective trades. That’s opposed to guessing whether it will breakout or breakdown. Investors can also trade bitcoin via the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCMKTS: GBTC ), shown below. Movers in the Stock Market Today Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) stock hit new all-time highs after the company announced a $40 billion buyback plan and upped its dividend by 11% to 51 cents per share. While the payout remains stubbornly low — yielding just under 1.5% — keep in mind that MSFT stock is up nearly 150% over the past three years. In 2019 alone, it’s up about 25%. Story continues It continues to lead mega-cap tech in market cap too, now trading with a $1.1 trillion valuation. Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Model 3 received the top safety rating from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. That’s the first of Tesla’s four vehicles to receive the designation, if we’re including the original Roadster. Airbnb says the company will go public in 2020 after earlier announcing that it generated $2 billion in revenue in the second quarter. While there were rumblings of a 2019 IPO at one point, there’s little surprise this one isn’t coming this year. The lackluster response from the public for Uber (NYSE: UBER ), Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT ), Slack (NYSE: WORK ) and certainly We didn’t help matters. Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU ) tumbled more than 13% on Wednesday and was set for another nauseating run on Thursday. In pre-market trading, shares were down more than 5% at one point. However, after the company announced several new streaming products, shares ended the day higher, climbing 3% on Thursday. Let’s see if the recent lows can stick. Otherwise, this may just be a dead-cat bounce before more lows are made. Splitting Up? According to reports, AT&T (NYSE: T ) is reportedly weighing whether to divest its DirecTV unit. This could come via spinoff or potentially a combination with Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH ). AT&T acquired the asset in 2015 for nearly $50 billion. The asset generates solid cash flow for AT&T, but with its bloated balance sheet and the continual loss of subscribers due to cord-cutting, DirecTV is a business that investors bemoan. AT&T has since said it’s not considering the move, but shares still rallied roughly 1% on the day. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell . As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long ROKU and T. More From InvestorPlace 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid 8 Dividend Stocks to Buy for a Recession 10 Companies Making Their CEOs Rich The 7 Best S&P 500 Stocks of 2019 So Far The post Stock Market Today: Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin? appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || Stock Market Today: Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin?: It was a very quiet day in the stock market today, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing close to flat on Thursday. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ) fell 1 basis point, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA: DIA ) dropped 0.2% and the PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ ) rallied almost 0.2%. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips We’ve had a lot of news to digest lately, even though the stock market continues to chop around close to its high. The SPY ETF actually made a new all-time high on Thursday, albeit briefly. However, we’ve now seen significant moves in bonds, gold, high-growth tech stocks and have seen the S&P 500 break out of its August trading range. Further, investors heard from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday that it will cut interest rates. To top it all off, U.S.-China trade war headline risks are still possible. It’s been a complex couple of weeks. It also has some investors wondering what asset class will make the next big move. Will it be bitcoin? Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin? chart of bitcoin in the stock market today Bitcoin bounced hard off its $9,600 lows today, but the charts do not look all that great. The cryptocurrency is below most of its major moving averages, with the exception of the 200-day. Worse though, it’s making a series of lower highs as resistance squeezes it against support down near $9,360. This pattern is known as a descending triangle, a bearish technical setup where investors are looking for resistance to break the asset price below support. In this case, a break below $9,360 support could send bitcoin down to its 200-day moving average, currently near $8,000. 8 Dividend Stocks to Buy for a Recession If bitcoin can hurdles its 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving averages, as well as downtrend resistance — which would require a move north of $10,500 presently — then we have a breakout on our hands. The best setup for investors may be to wait and see which one comes first, and then place their respective trades. That’s opposed to guessing whether it will breakout or breakdown. Investors can also trade bitcoin via the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCMKTS: GBTC ), shown below. Movers in the Stock Market Today Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) stock hit new all-time highs after the company announced a $40 billion buyback plan and upped its dividend by 11% to 51 cents per share. While the payout remains stubbornly low — yielding just under 1.5% — keep in mind that MSFT stock is up nearly 150% over the past three years. In 2019 alone, it’s up about 25%. Story continues It continues to lead mega-cap tech in market cap too, now trading with a $1.1 trillion valuation. Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Model 3 received the top safety rating from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. That’s the first of Tesla’s four vehicles to receive the designation, if we’re including the original Roadster. Airbnb says the company will go public in 2020 after earlier announcing that it generated $2 billion in revenue in the second quarter. While there were rumblings of a 2019 IPO at one point, there’s little surprise this one isn’t coming this year. The lackluster response from the public for Uber (NYSE: UBER ), Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT ), Slack (NYSE: WORK ) and certainly We didn’t help matters. Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU ) tumbled more than 13% on Wednesday and was set for another nauseating run on Thursday. In pre-market trading, shares were down more than 5% at one point. However, after the company announced several new streaming products, shares ended the day higher, climbing 3% on Thursday. Let’s see if the recent lows can stick. Otherwise, this may just be a dead-cat bounce before more lows are made. Splitting Up? According to reports, AT&T (NYSE: T ) is reportedly weighing whether to divest its DirecTV unit. This could come via spinoff or potentially a combination with Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH ). AT&T acquired the asset in 2015 for nearly $50 billion. The asset generates solid cash flow for AT&T, but with its bloated balance sheet and the continual loss of subscribers due to cord-cutting, DirecTV is a business that investors bemoan. AT&T has since said it’s not considering the move, but shares still rallied roughly 1% on the day. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell . As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long ROKU and T. More From InvestorPlace 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid 8 Dividend Stocks to Buy for a Recession 10 Companies Making Their CEOs Rich The 7 Best S&P 500 Stocks of 2019 So Far The post Stock Market Today: Breakout or Breakdown for Bitcoin? appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || Factors to Consider When Looking Into Smart Beta ETFs: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. As investors consider incorporating smart beta exchange traded funds into a diversified investment portfolio, it is important to look at foundational concepts and the innovative approaches to make a more informed decision in factor allocation. On the recent webcast, Factor Investing 101: An Actionable Guide for Every Investor , Matthew Cohen, Senior ETF Specialist, Principal Global Investors, outlined the growth of smart beta ETF as more investors look to the benefits of the alternative index-based strategies. Strategic beta equity ETFs seen assets grow to $300 billion at the end of 2018, compared to $66 billion in 2012. More investors are targeting these types of ETFs that capture factor returns systematically as many look to increase returns, reduce risk, reduce cost, outperform fundamental managers, substitute passive managers and improve benchmarking. "If you're not familiar with strategic beta, it’s simply a way of systematically investing. Managers build a rules-based framework based to capture returns. Because it’s systematic, it’s also low-cost," Cohen said. Mustafa Sagun, Chief Investment Officer, Principal Global Equities, explained that smart beta strategies simply cover factors that are drivers of return. For example, many may be familiar with the size and value factor premia. "Factor investing is not new. We’ve been following factor performance for decades from the Capital Asset Pricing Model in 1964 through the multi factor academic insights of the 1990s to the proverbial 'Factor Zoo' in 2011. Academics and asset managers are exploring new ways to tap into returns using factors," Sagun said. To be categorized as a factor, it must be academic or theoretically viable, it needs to be persistent, it must be tradable but cannot be arbitraged away fully, and it must be time varying. "Not all factor-solutions are the same. This criteria allows you to do proper due-diligence in factors," Sagun added Story continues The value, quality, momentum, size and volatility factors are among the most well-known equity factors utilized in smart beta ETF strategies. Momentum identifies stocks appreciating in value. Value looks for cheap stocks relative to fundamentals like book yield, earning yield or cash-flow yield, Quality stocks have healthy balance sheets and exhibit steady profitability. Smaller stocks tend to outperform larger stocks over time. Lastly, volatility or low-volatility tilts or overweights stocks that exhibit low volatility. When investing in these various factors, investors may notice that specific factors may outperform over short-term periods since they will act differently in differing market conditions. No single factor dominates or outperforms when looking at extended periods. "Each performs differently, which leads many to consider combining them in portfolios for their return and diversification benefits," Sagun said. Nevertheless, over the long haul, we find that these various factors are attractive for long-term investors with positive cumulative factor performance. Sagun attributes this long-term outperformance to three characteristics: risk premia or compensation for additional risk, behavioral psychology or irrationality when investing, and market inefficiencies or certain restrictions in the marketplace. Alternatively, investors may consider combining factors into a multi-factor strategy as a way to drive excess returns and potentially limit individual factor risks to smooth out the ride so to speak. Investors who are interested in factor-based strategies have a number to choose from. For example at Principal, investors can look to the Principal Contrarian Value Index ETF ( PVAL ) , Principal Sustainable Momentum Index ETF ( PMOM ) , Principal Shareholder Yield Index ETF ( PY ) and Principal Price Setters Index ETF ( PSET ) for targeted single-factor exposures. Additionally, options like the Principal U.S. Mega-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF ( USMC ) and Principal U.S. Small-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF (PSC) incorporate multiple factors. "Factor indexing can enhance your passive, cap-weighted indexes or traditional fundamental active management. Combining factors - the right factors, the right way - delivers diversification and return benefits," Cohen added. Financial advisors who want to learn more about factor investing can register for the Thursday, September 19 webcast here . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October In the Know: Where Markets Stand in the Late-Cycle U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies, But It May All Work Out in the End Vegan ETF Talk With ETF Trends’ Tom Lydon On CNBC ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon Talks Spike in Crude Oil Prices on CNBC READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Factors to Consider When Looking Into Smart Beta ETFs: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
As investors consider incorporating smart beta exchange traded funds into a diversified investment portfolio, it is important to look at foundational concepts and the innovative approaches to make a more informed decision in factor allocation.
On the recent webcast,Factor Investing 101: An Actionable Guide for Every Investor, Matthew Cohen, Senior ETF Specialist, Principal Global Investors, outlined the growth of smart beta ETF as more investors look to the benefits of the alternative index-based strategies. Strategic beta equity ETFs seen assets grow to $300 billion at the end of 2018, compared to $66 billion in 2012. More investors are targeting these types of ETFs that capture factor returns systematically as many look to increase returns, reduce risk, reduce cost, outperform fundamental managers, substitute passive managers and improve benchmarking.
"If you're not familiar with strategic beta, it’s simply a way of systematically investing. Managers build a rules-based framework based to capture returns. Because it’s systematic, it’s also low-cost," Cohen said.
Mustafa Sagun, Chief Investment Officer, Principal Global Equities, explained that smart beta strategies simply cover factors that are drivers of return. For example, many may be familiar with the size and value factor premia.
"Factor investing is not new. We’ve been following factor performance for decades from the Capital Asset Pricing Model in 1964 through the multi factor academic insights of the 1990s to the proverbial 'Factor Zoo' in 2011. Academics and asset managers are exploring new ways to tap into returns using factors," Sagun said.
To be categorized as a factor, it must be academic or theoretically viable, it needs to be persistent, it must be tradable but cannot be arbitraged away fully, andit must be time varying.
"Not all factor-solutions are the same. This criteria allows you to do proper due-diligence in factors," Sagun added
The value, quality, momentum, size and volatility factors are among the most well-known equity factors utilized in smart beta ETF strategies. Momentum identifies stocks appreciating in value. Value looks for cheap stocks relative to fundamentals like book yield, earning yield or cash-flow yield, Quality stocks have healthy balance sheets and exhibit steady profitability. Smaller stocks tend to outperform larger stocks over time. Lastly, volatility or low-volatility tilts or overweights stocks that exhibit low volatility.
When investing in these various factors, investors may notice that specific factors may outperform over short-term periods since they will act differently in differing market conditions. No single factor dominates or outperforms when looking at extended periods.
"Each performs differently, which leads many to consider combining them in portfolios for their return and diversification benefits," Sagun said.
Nevertheless, over the long haul, we find that these various factors are attractive for long-term investors with positive cumulative factor performance. Sagun attributes this long-term outperformance to three characteristics: risk premia or compensation for additional risk, behavioral psychology or irrationality when investing, and market inefficiencies or certain restrictions in the marketplace.
Alternatively, investors may consider combining factors into a multi-factor strategy as a way to drive excess returns and potentially limit individual factor risks to smooth out the ride so to speak.
Investors who are interested in factor-based strategies have a number to choose from. For example at Principal, investors can look to thePrincipal Contrarian Value Index ETF (PVAL) ,Principal Sustainable Momentum Index ETF (PMOM) ,Principal Shareholder Yield Index ETF (PY) andPrincipal Price Setters Index ETF (PSET) for targeted single-factor exposures. Additionally, options like thePrincipal U.S. Mega-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF (USMC) andPrincipal U.S. Small-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF (PSC)incorporate multiple factors.
"Factor indexing can enhance your passive, cap-weighted indexes or traditional fundamental active management. Combining factors - the right factors, the right way - delivers diversification and return benefits," Cohen added.
Financial advisors who want to learn more about factor investing canregister for the Thursday, September 19 webcast here.
POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM
• SPY ETF Quote
• VOO ETF Quote
• QQQ ETF Quote
• VTI ETF Quote
• JNUG ETF Quote
• Top 34 Gold ETFs
• Top 34 Oil ETFs
• Top 57 Financials ETFs
• Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October
• In the Know: Where Markets Stand in the Late-Cycle
• U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies, But It May All Work Out in the End
• Vegan ETF Talk With ETF Trends’ Tom Lydon On CNBC
• ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon Talks Spike in Crude Oil Prices on CNBC
READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || BitPay adds support for Ethereum: Global payments provider BitPay announced today that businesses can use its services to accept Ethereum. This adds to BitPay’s current offerings of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, as well as dollar-pegged stablecoins USDC, Gemini Dollar, and Paxos Standard token.
Users now can store and use Ethereum in a BitPay wallet, and those who have BitPay pre-paid Visa debit cards can top up their balances.
"It is exciting to see BitPay leading the way in integrating Ethereum into global payment systems,” Vitalik Buterin, founder and creator of Ethereum, said in a press release. “This truly opens up a new world of possibilities for the Ethereum ecosystem,” he continued.
BitPay is one of the world’s largest crypto payment providers. Since its founding in 2011, it has raised over $70 million in funding andprocessed over $2.8 billion to date, most of which in Bitcoin. Last month, BitPayannouncedit had integrated its services intoBlockchain, a Bitcoin wallet and block explorer provider that has over 41 million users.
BitPay’s USP is that customers can buy things in Bitcoin, but have transactions settled in the business’s currency of choice. The Hong Kong Free Press accepted crypto payments in BitPay to help fund its impartial media coverage of the protests this summer.
Coincidentally, Tom Grundy, the founder and editor-in-chief of HKFP told users last week to “never use BitPay” after he complained that donated funds were suspended.
“Truly the worst experience you can imagine — poor reputation, abysmal communication, horrible customer service,veryhigh fees. Almost any alternative will be better,” hetweeted. || BitPay adds support for Ethereum: Global payments provider BitPay announced today that businesses can use its services to accept Ethereum. This adds to BitPays current offerings of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, as well as dollar-pegged stablecoins USDC, Gemini Dollar, and Paxos Standard token. Users now can store and use Ethereum in a BitPay wallet, and those who have BitPay pre-paid Visa debit cards can top up their balances. "It is exciting to see BitPay leading the way in integrating Ethereum into global payment systems, Vitalik Buterin, founder and creator of Ethereum, said in a press release. This truly opens up a new world of possibilities for the Ethereum ecosystem, he continued. BitPay is one of the worlds largest crypto payment providers. Since its founding in 2011, it has raised over $70 million in funding and processed over $2.8 billion to date , most of which in Bitcoin. Last month, BitPay announced it had integrated its services into Blockchain , a Bitcoin wallet and block explorer provider that has over 41 million users. BitPays USP is that customers can buy things in Bitcoin, but have transactions settled in the businesss currency of choice. The Hong Kong Free Press accepted crypto payments in BitPay to help fund its impartial media coverage of the protests this summer. Coincidentally, Tom Grundy, the founder and editor-in-chief of HKFP told users last week to never use BitPay after he complained that donated funds were suspended. Truly the worst experience you can imagine poor reputation, abysmal communication, horrible customer service, very high fees. Almost any alternative will be better, he tweeted . View comments || Lightning Wallet Zap Launches in-App OTC Desk for Bitcoin Buyers: Wallet developer Jack Mallers, the founder of Zap Solutions, wants to improve the Lightning Network’s user experience.
To achieve that goal, Zap is launching a dollar-denominated bitcoin buying feature inside its lightning-friendly mobile and desktop wallet. Zap is kicking off the feature with an invitation-only beta release in late September.
“We’ve architected the [wallet] codebase so that we can release a version that doesn’t include know-your-customer information,” Mallers told CoinDesk. “The KYC stuff is only pulled in when you want to buy or sell bitcoin. You download [Zap], link it to your debit card. KYC is just email, name and address. Then buy bitcoin, sent to you via lightning, that’s almost instantly spendable.”
Related:Square Crypto Hires Lightning, Libra Developers for ‘Bitcoin Dream Team’
To be clear, this feature isn’t mandatory and anonymous users will still be able to connect the wallet to their own remote nodes via Tor. But for prospective buyers, Mallers managed to make this option without becoming an exchange by operating a backend over-the-counter desk that buys the bitcoin from exchanges on wallet users’ behalf and then places it directly to the users’ personal custody.
“Zap acts as a gateway, it can absorb the order and execute on any of the exchanges,” Mallers said, referring to both the system and open-source code. “If anyone comes up with a cooler wallet they should be able to follow this regulatory framework. … It should be trivial to copy and paste what I did into their own wallet.”
Mallers said he is currently applying for a money transmitter license in each state and planning to go global in 2020. (As a first step, Zap Solutions registered as a money services business with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Sept. 19, according to apublic filing.)
“Our licensing allows us to serve any user group between small consumer orders to large institutional orders,” he added.
Related:Bitcoin Price Dips to $9.6K as Bear Cross Looms
Beyond the American market, a Palestinian bitcoin user in Ramallah, who asked to remain anonymous, told CoinDesk that he is currently translating Arabic tutorials for the wallet.
“The banking system is trash over here. You can’t open a bank account unless you already have a job,” the Palestinian Zap user said. “Also, if you deposit or receive more than $4,000, you get a call from the authorities asking you to explain why. I have a sister over in the U.S. and I want to send her $100 for the holidays but it costs $20 with MoneyGram.”
Like most Palestinian users, this Zap contributor can’t use traditional exchanges because such platforms don’t work with Palestinian banks. He said it’s hard to use decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, and grassroots networks because the West Bank’s bitcoin market liquidity is so limited that traders can charge high premiums.
“Zap and lightning will help us save on bitcoin fees,” he added, speaking about the wallet’s “huge” utility for Palestinians
Future initiatives for Zap include efforts to expand functionality even further.
Mallers said that Zap is working with the payment processor BTCPay Server to eventually allow merchants indirectly to convert bitcoin payments to other currencies if they choose.
“One of the biggest issues with Lightning is there is nowhere to use it,” Mallers said. “Zap has many merchant partnerships in the pipeline that will be announced as we roll out.”
The anonymous Ramallah-based Zap user said that any online merchants could be a boon for Palestinian users.
“Every day I see people line up for someone with a credit card from Israeli banks to shop because most sites don’t accept Palestinian cards,” he said. “[With bitcoin] they don’t have to deal with Palestinian banks with bad customer service, and also can avoid censorship by the Israelis.”
Going global with merchant support will take time. Since the hassle of opening lightning channels is often a hurdle for bitcoin newcomers, the Zap support team will manage channels for now.
To accommodate that ambitious plan, Mallers is expanding his self-funded startup from a staff of five to roughly a dozen people by the end of 2019. Plus, Zap is partnering with industry incumbents like the financial services firm CMT Digital, in order to tackle both legal and technical hurdles.
CMT Digital CEO Colleen Sullivan told CoinDesk:
“CMT Digital and Zap are cooperating to determine the fiat on-ramps for the Zap wallet. We believe that making the purchase of bitcoin easily and instantly accessible directly through the Zap wallet will help accelerate growth of the Lightning Network. This will, in turn, help with scalability of the Bitcoin protocol by allowing for additional capabilities and use cases.”
Zap is hardly the only company that allows users to purchase bitcoin using the lighting network. For example, the lightning-centric exchange startupSparkswapfacilitates such purchases with self-custody via itsdesktop app.
Zap, however, does have a unique business model that doesn’t rely on transaction fees for retail users. In part, this is made possible by support from Mallers’ parents, Bill and Brooke, the legendary “Bitcoin Mom” who runs a bitcoin-friendlycannabis dispensaryin Colorado. As such, Zap won’t need to prioritize transaction fees for retail users, or other standard monetization ploys, any time soon.
“As a family, we are extremely proud to bring the first regulated fiat-to-lightning ramps to bitcoin,” Mallers said.
Brady Dale contributed reporting.
Image: Jack Mallers speaks at Bitcoin 2019 in San Francisco, via Jack Mallers
• Bitcoin May Be Building for Move as Price Volatility Nears 5-Month Low
• Ether, XRP Rise to 1-Month Highs While Bitcoin Falls || Lightning Wallet Zap Launches in-App OTC Desk for Bitcoin Buyers: Wallet developer Jack Mallers, the founder of Zap Solutions, wants to improve the Lightning Network’s user experience.
To achieve that goal, Zap is launching a dollar-denominated bitcoin buying feature inside its lightning-friendly mobile and desktop wallet. Zap is kicking off the feature with an invitation-only beta release in late September.
“We’ve architected the [wallet] codebase so that we can release a version that doesn’t include know-your-customer information,” Mallers told CoinDesk. “The KYC stuff is only pulled in when you want to buy or sell bitcoin. You download [Zap], link it to your debit card. KYC is just email, name and address. Then buy bitcoin, sent to you via lightning, that’s almost instantly spendable.”
Related:Square Crypto Hires Lightning, Libra Developers for ‘Bitcoin Dream Team’
To be clear, this feature isn’t mandatory and anonymous users will still be able to connect the wallet to their own remote nodes via Tor. But for prospective buyers, Mallers managed to make this option without becoming an exchange by operating a backend over-the-counter desk that buys the bitcoin from exchanges on wallet users’ behalf and then places it directly to the users’ personal custody.
“Zap acts as a gateway, it can absorb the order and execute on any of the exchanges,” Mallers said, referring to both the system and open-source code. “If anyone comes up with a cooler wallet they should be able to follow this regulatory framework. … It should be trivial to copy and paste what I did into their own wallet.”
Mallers said he is currently applying for a money transmitter license in each state and planning to go global in 2020. (As a first step, Zap Solutions registered as a money services business with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Sept. 19, according to apublic filing.)
“Our licensing allows us to serve any user group between small consumer orders to large institutional orders,” he added.
Related:Bitcoin Price Dips to $9.6K as Bear Cross Looms
Beyond the American market, a Palestinian bitcoin user in Ramallah, who asked to remain anonymous, told CoinDesk that he is currently translating Arabic tutorials for the wallet.
“The banking system is trash over here. You can’t open a bank account unless you already have a job,” the Palestinian Zap user said. “Also, if you deposit or receive more than $4,000, you get a call from the authorities asking you to explain why. I have a sister over in the U.S. and I want to send her $100 for the holidays but it costs $20 with MoneyGram.”
Like most Palestinian users, this Zap contributor can’t use traditional exchanges because such platforms don’t work with Palestinian banks. He said it’s hard to use decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, and grassroots networks because the West Bank’s bitcoin market liquidity is so limited that traders can charge high premiums.
“Zap and lightning will help us save on bitcoin fees,” he added, speaking about the wallet’s “huge” utility for Palestinians
Future initiatives for Zap include efforts to expand functionality even further.
Mallers said that Zap is working with the payment processor BTCPay Server to eventually allow merchants indirectly to convert bitcoin payments to other currencies if they choose.
“One of the biggest issues with Lightning is there is nowhere to use it,” Mallers said. “Zap has many merchant partnerships in the pipeline that will be announced as we roll out.”
The anonymous Ramallah-based Zap user said that any online merchants could be a boon for Palestinian users.
“Every day I see people line up for someone with a credit card from Israeli banks to shop because most sites don’t accept Palestinian cards,” he said. “[With bitcoin] they don’t have to deal with Palestinian banks with bad customer service, and also can avoid censorship by the Israelis.”
Going global with merchant support will take time. Since the hassle of opening lightning channels is often a hurdle for bitcoin newcomers, the Zap support team will manage channels for now.
To accommodate that ambitious plan, Mallers is expanding his self-funded startup from a staff of five to roughly a dozen people by the end of 2019. Plus, Zap is partnering with industry incumbents like the financial services firm CMT Digital, in order to tackle both legal and technical hurdles.
CMT Digital CEO Colleen Sullivan told CoinDesk:
“CMT Digital and Zap are cooperating to determine the fiat on-ramps for the Zap wallet. We believe that making the purchase of bitcoin easily and instantly accessible directly through the Zap wallet will help accelerate growth of the Lightning Network. This will, in turn, help with scalability of the Bitcoin protocol by allowing for additional capabilities and use cases.”
Zap is hardly the only company that allows users to purchase bitcoin using the lighting network. For example, the lightning-centric exchange startupSparkswapfacilitates such purchases with self-custody via itsdesktop app.
Zap, however, does have a unique business model that doesn’t rely on transaction fees for retail users. In part, this is made possible by support from Mallers’ parents, Bill and Brooke, the legendary “Bitcoin Mom” who runs a bitcoin-friendlycannabis dispensaryin Colorado. As such, Zap won’t need to prioritize transaction fees for retail users, or other standard monetization ploys, any time soon.
“As a family, we are extremely proud to bring the first regulated fiat-to-lightning ramps to bitcoin,” Mallers said.
Brady Dale contributed reporting.
Image: Jack Mallers speaks at Bitcoin 2019 in San Francisco, via Jack Mallers
• Bitcoin May Be Building for Move as Price Volatility Nears 5-Month Low
• Ether, XRP Rise to 1-Month Highs While Bitcoin Falls || Lightning Wallet Zap Launches in-App OTC Desk for Bitcoin Buyers: Wallet developer Jack Mallers, the founder of Zap Solutions, wants to improve the Lightning Network’s user experience. To achieve that goal, Zap is launching a dollar-denominated bitcoin buying feature inside its lightning-friendly mobile and desktop wallet. Zap is kicking off the feature with an invitation-only beta release in late September. “We’ve architected the [wallet] codebase so that we can release a version that doesn’t include know-your-customer information,” Mallers told CoinDesk. “The KYC stuff is only pulled in when you want to buy or sell bitcoin. You download [Zap], link it to your debit card. KYC is just email, name and address. Then buy bitcoin, sent to you via lightning, that’s almost instantly spendable.” Related: Square Crypto Hires Lightning, Libra Developers for ‘Bitcoin Dream Team’ To be clear, this feature isn’t mandatory and anonymous users will still be able to connect the wallet to their own remote nodes via Tor. But for prospective buyers, Mallers managed to make this option without becoming an exchange by operating a backend over-the-counter desk that buys the bitcoin from exchanges on wallet users’ behalf and then places it directly to the users’ personal custody. “Zap acts as a gateway, it can absorb the order and execute on any of the exchanges,” Mallers said, referring to both the system and open-source code. “If anyone comes up with a cooler wallet they should be able to follow this regulatory framework. … It should be trivial to copy and paste what I did into their own wallet.” Mallers said he is currently applying for a money transmitter license in each state and planning to go global in 2020. (As a first step, Zap Solutions registered as a money services business with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Sept. 19, according to a public filing. ) “Our licensing allows us to serve any user group between small consumer orders to large institutional orders,” he added. Related: Bitcoin Price Dips to $9.6K as Bear Cross Looms Story continues Beyond the American market, a Palestinian bitcoin user in Ramallah, who asked to remain anonymous, told CoinDesk that he is currently translating Arabic tutorials for the wallet. “The banking system is trash over here. You can’t open a bank account unless you already have a job,” the Palestinian Zap user said. “Also, if you deposit or receive more than $4,000, you get a call from the authorities asking you to explain why. I have a sister over in the U.S. and I want to send her $100 for the holidays but it costs $20 with MoneyGram.” Like most Palestinian users, this Zap contributor can’t use traditional exchanges because such platforms don’t work with Palestinian banks. He said it’s hard to use decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, and grassroots networks because the West Bank’s bitcoin market liquidity is so limited that traders can charge high premiums. “Zap and lightning will help us save on bitcoin fees,” he added, speaking about the wallet’s “huge” utility for Palestinians Future growth Future initiatives for Zap include efforts to expand functionality even further. Mallers said that Zap is working with the payment processor BTCPay Server to eventually allow merchants indirectly to convert bitcoin payments to other currencies if they choose. “One of the biggest issues with Lightning is there is nowhere to use it,” Mallers said. “Zap has many merchant partnerships in the pipeline that will be announced as we roll out.” The anonymous Ramallah-based Zap user said that any online merchants could be a boon for Palestinian users. “Every day I see people line up for someone with a credit card from Israeli banks to shop because most sites don’t accept Palestinian cards,” he said. “[With bitcoin] they don’t have to deal with Palestinian banks with bad customer service, and also can avoid censorship by the Israelis.” Going global with merchant support will take time. Since the hassle of opening lightning channels is often a hurdle for bitcoin newcomers, the Zap support team will manage channels for now. To accommodate that ambitious plan, Mallers is expanding his self-funded startup from a staff of five to roughly a dozen people by the end of 2019. Plus, Zap is partnering with industry incumbents like the financial services firm CMT Digital, in order to tackle both legal and technical hurdles. CMT Digital CEO Colleen Sullivan told CoinDesk: “CMT Digital and Zap are cooperating to determine the fiat on-ramps for the Zap wallet. We believe that making the purchase of bitcoin easily and instantly accessible directly through the Zap wallet will help accelerate growth of the Lightning Network. This will, in turn, help with scalability of the Bitcoin protocol by allowing for additional capabilities and use cases.” Zap is hardly the only company that allows users to purchase bitcoin using the lighting network. For example, the lightning-centric exchange startup Sparkswap facilitates such purchases with self-custody via its desktop app . Zap, however, does have a unique business model that doesn’t rely on transaction fees for retail users. In part, this is made possible by support from Mallers’ parents, Bill and Brooke, the legendary “Bitcoin Mom” who runs a bitcoin-friendly cannabis dispensary in Colorado. As such, Zap won’t need to prioritize transaction fees for retail users, or other standard monetization ploys, any time soon. “As a family, we are extremely proud to bring the first regulated fiat-to-lightning ramps to bitcoin,” Mallers said. Brady Dale contributed reporting. Image: Jack Mallers speaks at Bitcoin 2019 in San Francisco, via Jack Mallers Related Stories Bitcoin May Be Building for Move as Price Volatility Nears 5-Month Low Ether, XRP Rise to 1-Month Highs While Bitcoin Falls
[Social Media Buzz]
Análisis de las principales métricas del Bitcoin (Criptotendencia)
Tomar las decisiones adecuadas en el mercado es una cuestión de información, y por eso aquí en CriptoTendencia te damos las mejores ci...
https://t.co/c7cxOWPpHi
#Calibra #CARDANO https://t.co/IG60DdvsTN || Even China – with one of the more repressive governments in the world – has tried to ban bitcoin. Yet trading still flourishes there. Russia, Vietnam, and Colombia have all tried and failed, too...🤔 || It has been suggested...
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10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3614.23, 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48, 3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60, 3815.49, 3857.30, 3654.83, 3923.92, 3820.41, 3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85, 4035.30, 3678.92, 3687.37, 3661.30, 3552.95, 3706.05, 3630.68, 3655.01, 3678.56, 3657.84, 3728.57, 3601.01, 3576.03, 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-03-08]
Volume: 10638638944, RSI (14-day): 55.98, 50-day EMA: 3807.43, 200-day EMA: 4825.59
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1297.00, Gold RSI: 46.39
Oil Price: 56.07, Oil RSI: 54.76
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Crypto Spring Blooms? Bitcoin Transactions Hit Highest Level in 13 Months: A key Bitcoin metric just surged to its highest mark since the beginning of 2018. | Source: Shutterstock Positive news has been stretched thin during the “Crypto Winter,” but there are now genuine signs that the ice is beginning to thaw . With Bitcoin showing remarkable resiliency and price stability in a world that wants to write it off, there are many fundamentals to which believers in the world’s largest cryptocurrency like to pay attention. One of these metrics just went through the roof. The SFOX Crypto Volatility Report: February 2019 was released today, and in this report, analysts try to gauge the health of crypto markets by looking at the following three metrics: price momentum, market sentiment, and the continued advancement of the sector. The report on Thursday ultimately concluded a bullish outlook in general for the cryptocurrency sector. Celebrity Endorsements Shouldn’t Matter to Crypto Investors Noting first of all that a significant amount of help from high-profile individuals supported prices across the board, the firm wrote: “Some of the ‘hype’ that we mentioned was absent from the month of January appeared to resurface in February amidst pro-crypto statements from tech personalities (e.g., Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey) and crypto pundits ‘calling the bottom’ of Crypto Winter.” Read the full story on CCN.com . || Crypto Spring Blooms? Bitcoin Transactions Hit Highest Level in 13 Months: Positive news has been stretched thin during the“Crypto Winter,”but there are now genuine signs that theice is beginning to thaw. With Bitcoin showing remarkable resiliency andprice stabilityin a world that wants to write it off, there are many fundamentals to which believers in the world’s largest cryptocurrency like to pay attention. One of these metrics just went through the roof.
TheSFOX Crypto Volatility Report: February 2019was released today, and in this report, analysts try to gauge the health of crypto markets by looking at the following three metrics: price momentum, market sentiment, and the continued advancement of the sector. The report on Thursday ultimately concluded a bullish outlook in general for the cryptocurrency sector.
Noting first of all that a significant amount of help from high-profile individuals supported prices across the board, the firm wrote:
“Some of the ‘hype’ that we mentioned was absent from the month of January appeared to resurface in February amidst pro-crypto statements from tech personalities (e.g., Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey) and crypto pundits ‘calling the bottom’ of Crypto Winter.” || Crypto Spring Blooms? Bitcoin Transactions Hit Highest Level in 13 Months: Positive news has been stretched thin during the“Crypto Winter,”but there are now genuine signs that theice is beginning to thaw. With Bitcoin showing remarkable resiliency andprice stabilityin a world that wants to write it off, there are many fundamentals to which believers in the world’s largest cryptocurrency like to pay attention. One of these metrics just went through the roof.
TheSFOX Crypto Volatility Report: February 2019was released today, and in this report, analysts try to gauge the health of crypto markets by looking at the following three metrics: price momentum, market sentiment, and the continued advancement of the sector. The report on Thursday ultimately concluded a bullish outlook in general for the cryptocurrency sector.
Noting first of all that a significant amount of help from high-profile individuals supported prices across the board, the firm wrote:
“Some of the ‘hype’ that we mentioned was absent from the month of January appeared to resurface in February amidst pro-crypto statements from tech personalities (e.g., Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey) and crypto pundits ‘calling the bottom’ of Crypto Winter.” || Crypto Mixed; France Suggests Ban on Privacy Coins: Prices of major digital coins were mixed on Friday morning in Asia. Investing.com – With regulations on cryptocurrencies being formulated and suggested around the world, prices of major digital coins were mixed on Friday morning in Asia. Bitcoin slid 0.07% to 3,876.9 by 10:24 PM ET (03:24 AM GMT). The coin still lingered at one-week highs after surviving a mid-week dive to around $3,700. Ethereum also went down 13.64% to $135.97, and XRP traded 1.72% lower to $0.31167 over the last 24 hours. Litecoin was the only gainer, increasing 0.09% to 55.92. Going full steam, the coin has surged 22.14% over the past week. The crypto market cap stayed flat at around $133 billion. It added $7 billion so far from the beginning of this week. The most notable news in the industry this morning was France’s announcement that it might push forward a ban on anonymous cryptocurrencies. Eric Woerth, the head of the Finance Committee of France’s National Assembly, proposed a ban on these private coins. “It would also have been appropriate to propose a ban on the dissemination and trade in [cryptocurrencies built] to ensure complete anonymity by preventing any identification procedure by design,” said Woerth. He cited private coins such as Monero, PIVX, DeepOnion, Zcash, saying the purpose of creating these coins is to bypass any possibility of identifying the holders. He said “regulation has not gone that far.” Japanese regulators made a similar move last April, when they suggested a ban on trading anonymity-oriented altcoins Dash and Monero. France is not considered crypto-friendly, at least to date. Last year, French parliament blocked amendments to ease crypto-related taxation, and its central bank would not support tobacco kiosks’ sale of Bitcoin. In other news, Israel’s securities regulators published final recommendations on crypto regulation that suggested disclosure requirements for crypto offerings that qualify as securities. The regulators said that such offerings should be controlled like crowdfunding. Story continues Related Articles US SEC to Clarify Cryptocurrency Related Regulations in Meetings with Startups Auscoin Scam Busted; Sam Karagiozis Arrested on Drug Trafficking Charges New York Times Posts ‘Blockchain Exploration’ Job Listing, Removes It Hours Later || Crypto Mixed; France Suggests Ban on Privacy Coins: Prices of major digital coins were mixed on Friday morning in Asia. Investing.com – With regulations on cryptocurrencies being formulated and suggested around the world, prices of major digital coins were mixed on Friday morning in Asia. Bitcoin slid 0.07% to 3,876.9 by 10:24 PM ET (03:24 AM GMT). The coin still lingered at one-week highs after surviving a mid-week dive to around $3,700. Ethereum also went down 13.64% to $135.97, and XRP traded 1.72% lower to $0.31167 over the last 24 hours. Litecoin was the only gainer, increasing 0.09% to 55.92. Going full steam, the coin has surged 22.14% over the past week. The crypto market cap stayed flat at around $133 billion. It added $7 billion so far from the beginning of this week. The most notable news in the industry this morning was France’s announcement that it might push forward a ban on anonymous cryptocurrencies. Eric Woerth, the head of the Finance Committee of France’s National Assembly, proposed a ban on these private coins. “It would also have been appropriate to propose a ban on the dissemination and trade in [cryptocurrencies built] to ensure complete anonymity by preventing any identification procedure by design,” said Woerth. He cited private coins such as Monero, PIVX, DeepOnion, Zcash, saying the purpose of creating these coins is to bypass any possibility of identifying the holders. He said “regulation has not gone that far.” Japanese regulators made a similar move last April, when they suggested a ban on trading anonymity-oriented altcoins Dash and Monero. France is not considered crypto-friendly, at least to date. Last year, French parliament blocked amendments to ease crypto-related taxation, and its central bank would not support tobacco kiosks’ sale of Bitcoin. In other news, Israel’s securities regulators published final recommendations on crypto regulation that suggested disclosure requirements for crypto offerings that qualify as securities. The regulators said that such offerings should be controlled like crowdfunding. Story continues Related Articles US SEC to Clarify Cryptocurrency Related Regulations in Meetings with Startups Auscoin Scam Busted; Sam Karagiozis Arrested on Drug Trafficking Charges New York Times Posts ‘Blockchain Exploration’ Job Listing, Removes It Hours Later || Stolen Bitcoin ATM Owners Suspect Memphis Robbery Was Inside Job: Tennessee-basedBitKing LLC, a Bitcoin ATM provider who started operating last November with just one machine in downtown Memphis, has suffered their first burglary. After the story wentviral on Reddit, CCN reached out toSean Pezeshk, the company’s primary operator, for more information about the stolen machine.
The Bitcoin ATM was the thief’s only target, even though there were plenty of other luxury items in the store. | Source: Shutterstock
Pezeshk, who together with Josh Roberts runs BitKing, says that on a recent Tuesday night, the ATM, which is normally located atRailgartenon Central Avenue in Memphis, was hijacked.The ATMwas the only target, even though the thief could have stolen expensive liquor and other items. The burglar stole the ATM shortly after the last employee left. BitKing believes they were watching the place closely.
It was located the next morning at a nearby dog park. Memphis police are investigating the robbery, but unfortunately, they don’t have much to go on. Obviously, fingerprints from the device would be inconclusive at trial – and they didn’t find many hits from that anyway.
The bar has a security system, but the ATM is located in an area where no cameras pointed. The bar’s glass door was broken in pursuit of the ATM. BitKing had no insurance on the device, but the manufacturer,General Bytes, is “super friendly,” Pezeshk said. The company is going to do its best to keep the repair costs low, but some parts are not made by General Bytes, such as the cash receiver.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Stolen Bitcoin ATM Owners Suspect Memphis Robbery Was Inside Job: The Memphis Bitcoin ATM theft may have been an inside job, the company said. | Source: BitKing/Reddit Tennessee-based BitKing LLC , a Bitcoin ATM provider who started operating last November with just one machine in downtown Memphis, has suffered their first burglary. After the story went viral on Reddit , CCN reached out to Sean Pezeshk , the company’s primary operator, for more information about the stolen machine. The Bitcoin ATM Was The Target bitcoin atm thief The Bitcoin ATM was the thief’s only target, even though there were plenty of other luxury items in the store. | Source: Shutterstock Pezeshk, who together with Josh Roberts runs BitKing, says that on a recent Tuesday night, the ATM, which is normally located at Railgarten on Central Avenue in Memphis, was hijacked. The ATM was the only target, even though the thief could have stolen expensive liquor and other items. The burglar stole the ATM shortly after the last employee left. BitKing believes they were watching the place closely. It was located the next morning at a nearby dog park. Memphis police are investigating the robbery, but unfortunately, they don’t have much to go on. Obviously, fingerprints from the device would be inconclusive at trial – and they didn’t find many hits from that anyway. The bar has a security system, but the ATM is located in an area where no cameras pointed. The bar’s glass door was broken in pursuit of the ATM. BitKing had no insurance on the device, but the manufacturer, General Bytes , is “super friendly,” Pezeshk said. The company is going to do its best to keep the repair costs low, but some parts are not made by General Bytes, such as the cash receiver. Read the full story on CCN.com . View comments || Stolen Bitcoin ATM Owners Suspect Memphis Robbery Was Inside Job: Tennessee-basedBitKing LLC, a Bitcoin ATM provider who started operating last November with just one machine in downtown Memphis, has suffered their first burglary. After the story wentviral on Reddit, CCN reached out toSean Pezeshk, the company’s primary operator, for more information about the stolen machine.
The Bitcoin ATM was the thief’s only target, even though there were plenty of other luxury items in the store. | Source: Shutterstock
Pezeshk, who together with Josh Roberts runs BitKing, says that on a recent Tuesday night, the ATM, which is normally located atRailgartenon Central Avenue in Memphis, was hijacked.The ATMwas the only target, even though the thief could have stolen expensive liquor and other items. The burglar stole the ATM shortly after the last employee left. BitKing believes they were watching the place closely.
It was located the next morning at a nearby dog park. Memphis police are investigating the robbery, but unfortunately, they don’t have much to go on. Obviously, fingerprints from the device would be inconclusive at trial – and they didn’t find many hits from that anyway.
The bar has a security system, but the ATM is located in an area where no cameras pointed. The bar’s glass door was broken in pursuit of the ATM. BitKing had no insurance on the device, but the manufacturer,General Bytes, is “super friendly,” Pezeshk said. The company is going to do its best to keep the repair costs low, but some parts are not made by General Bytes, such as the cash receiver.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || LocalBitcoins: What it is and how to use it: LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange network. The marketplace is designed to provide digital currency investors with a simple solution to share money with others in a decentralised manner. The platform allows people from different countries to exchange local currencies into Bitcoin. The company’s mission is straightforward: to allow the general public the ability to buy and sell crypto in a simple manner. LocalBitcoins’ goal is to bring Bitcoin to every country, person, and device globally. The LocalBitcoins website also serves as a social network platform for traders and investors to hang out and build long-term relationships. Unlike any other exchange, LocalBitcoins allows people to interact directly with fellow traders, making this platform a popular place for investors and long-term traders who want to build strong, trusting relationships with their buyers. How does LocalBitcoins work? The primary service of the platform is to give users the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin. It also posts trades to maximise a user’s profits. To make these trades, the platform automatically bases them geographically. However, it provides a tab for users to be able to trade with partners all over the world. LocalBitcoins also comes with a simple trade advertising platform to ensure a trader’s high-value opportunities are meeting their target audience. This allows traders to receive higher and better profits from their trades. However, these advertisements do come at a cost. For a trader to be able to advertise their campaign, it will cost them 1% of the total capital exchange in the trade. Also, campaigns cannot be run unless a trader has more than 0.04 BTC in their LocalBitcoins wallet. LocalBitcoins has created a P2P Bitcoin exchange site that allows buyers and sellers to have peace of mind that they can agree on the terms of a transaction with the safety of having a third party service to protect them. Is LocalBitcoins right for you? Every exchange is different and provides different services for traders. With this in mind, it is important to understand the pros and cons of each exchange to ensure you are choosing the best option. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of LocalBitcoins. Story continues Advantages To become a member and user of LocalBitcoins, all you have to do is enter your email and go through the verification process. This makes it very easy for first-time traders to sign up and start using the platform. With this in mind, the community it provides is also a great way for beginners to learn and grow from other traders. This element separates it from other exchanges as it has a ‘human’ feature – something that many do not have. This community allows users to seek out help from others if they feel they need it, and share tips and tricks about the trading world. LocalBitcoins was one of the first P2P Bitcoin exchange sites created, and it is still one of the largest today by far. This track record should provide you with enough information about its legitimacy. Another key element the platform offers is its online forums. These are available for users to write reviews and tips covering the best opportunities to trade, who to avoid, and advice for the less experienced. This is also a place for like-minded people to have general discussions about the community and recent news. Another advantage of this platform is the security and privacy it provides. It allows users to buy and sell online and offline in a secure manner. The exchange also provides users with a variety of security measures and payment options that allow customers to have flexibility within their transactions. Disadvantages Even though there are several security measures in place, such as ID verification before large transactions and the ability to select who can view and interact with your trades, exchange sites are known for attracting negative activity, including hacks and people stealing assets. However, the platform ensures it has a large support team to help users make their accounts secure against hacking. Because LocalBitcoins has a P2P decentralised nature, it is up to the users to verify the credibility of other traders and their transactions. This leads to general risks when conducting anonymous transactions. Another disadvantage of the platform is the speed of the delivery and transaction times. The time is reliant on the seller being able to confirm the payment, which can sometimes take hours. Alongside this, the platform is known for being quite expensive. Because it attracts such high demand in the marketplace with cash deposits, the exchange creates privacy features. These features mean the platform is free to charge a premium on all cash deposits. Final thoughts If you are a trader who is looking to maximise profits and learn from a large network of professionals, then LocalBitcoins is the place for you. It is the oldest and largest peer-to-peer crypto network on the market, and this information alone should give you the incentive to try it out. For guides on cryptocurrencies , exchanges , and blockchain technology , click here . Make sure you take a look at all the latest crypto and blockchain news . The post LocalBitcoins: What it is and how to use it appeared first on Coin Rivet . || LocalBitcoins: What it is and how to use it: LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange network. The marketplace is designed to provide digital currency investors with a simple solution to share money with others in a decentralised manner. The platform allows people from different countries to exchange local currencies into Bitcoin. The company’s mission is straightforward: to allow the general public the ability to buy and sell crypto in a simple manner. LocalBitcoins’ goal is to bring Bitcoin to every country, person, and device globally. The LocalBitcoins website also serves as a social network platform for traders and investors to hang out and build long-term relationships. Unlike any other exchange, LocalBitcoins allows people to interact directly with fellow traders, making this platform a popular place for investors and long-term traders who want to build strong, trusting relationships with their buyers. How does LocalBitcoins work? The primary service of the platform is to give users the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin. It also posts trades to maximise a user’s profits. To make these trades, the platform automatically bases them geographically. However, it provides a tab for users to be able to trade with partners all over the world. LocalBitcoins also comes with a simple trade advertising platform to ensure a trader’s high-value opportunities are meeting their target audience. This allows traders to receive higher and better profits from their trades. However, these advertisements do come at a cost. For a trader to be able to advertise their campaign, it will cost them 1% of the total capital exchange in the trade. Also, campaigns cannot be run unless a trader has more than 0.04 BTC in their LocalBitcoins wallet. LocalBitcoins has created a P2P Bitcoin exchange site that allows buyers and sellers to have peace of mind that they can agree on the terms of a transaction with the safety of having a third party service to protect them. Is LocalBitcoins right for you? Every exchange is different and provides different services for traders. With this in mind, it is important to understand the pros and cons of each exchange to ensure you are choosing the best option. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of LocalBitcoins. Story continues Advantages To become a member and user of LocalBitcoins, all you have to do is enter your email and go through the verification process. This makes it very easy for first-time traders to sign up and start using the platform. With this in mind, the community it provides is also a great way for beginners to learn and grow from other traders. This element separates it from other exchanges as it has a ‘human’ feature – something that many do not have. This community allows users to seek out help from others if they feel they need it, and share tips and tricks about the trading world. LocalBitcoins was one of the first P2P Bitcoin exchange sites created, and it is still one of the largest today by far. This track record should provide you with enough information about its legitimacy. Another key element the platform offers is its online forums. These are available for users to write reviews and tips covering the best opportunities to trade, who to avoid, and advice for the less experienced. This is also a place for like-minded people to have general discussions about the community and recent news. Another advantage of this platform is the security and privacy it provides. It allows users to buy and sell online and offline in a secure manner. The exchange also provides users with a variety of security measures and payment options that allow customers to have flexibility within their transactions. Disadvantages Even though there are several security measures in place, such as ID verification before large transactions and the ability to select who can view and interact with your trades, exchange sites are known for attracting negative activity, including hacks and people stealing assets. However, the platform ensures it has a large support team to help users make their accounts secure against hacking. Because LocalBitcoins has a P2P decentralised nature, it is up to the users to verify the credibility of other traders and their transactions. This leads to general risks when conducting anonymous transactions. Another disadvantage of the platform is the speed of the delivery and transaction times. The time is reliant on the seller being able to confirm the payment, which can sometimes take hours. Alongside this, the platform is known for being quite expensive. Because it attracts such high demand in the marketplace with cash deposits, the exchange creates privacy features. These features mean the platform is free to charge a premium on all cash deposits. Final thoughts If you are a trader who is looking to maximise profits and learn from a large network of professionals, then LocalBitcoins is the place for you. It is the oldest and largest peer-to-peer crypto network on the market, and this information alone should give you the incentive to try it out. For guides on cryptocurrencies , exchanges , and blockchain technology , click here . Make sure you take a look at all the latest crypto and blockchain news . The post LocalBitcoins: What it is and how to use it appeared first on Coin Rivet . || LocalBitcoins: What it is and how to use it: LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange network. The marketplace is designed to provide digital currency investors with a simple solution to share money with others in a decentralised manner. The platform allows people from different countries to exchange local currencies into Bitcoin. The company’s mission is straightforward: to allow the general public the ability to buy and sell crypto in a simple manner. LocalBitcoins’ goal is to bring Bitcoin to every country, person, and device globally. The LocalBitcoins website also serves as a social network platform for traders and investors to hang out and build long-term relationships. Unlike any other exchange, LocalBitcoins allows people to interact directly with fellow traders, making this platform a popular place for investors and long-term traders who want to build strong, trusting relationships with their buyers. How does LocalBitcoins work? The primary service of the platform is to give users the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin. It also posts trades to maximise a user’s profits. To make these trades, the platform automatically bases them geographically. However, it provides a tab for users to be able to trade with partners all over the world. LocalBitcoins also comes with a simple trade advertising platform to ensure a trader’s high-value opportunities are meeting their target audience. This allows traders to receive higher and better profits from their trades. However, these advertisements do come at a cost. For a trader to be able to advertise their campaign, it will cost them 1% of the total capital exchange in the trade. Also, campaigns cannot be run unless a trader has more than 0.04 BTC in their LocalBitcoins wallet. LocalBitcoins has created a P2P Bitcoin exchange site that allows buyers and sellers to have peace of mind that they can agree on the terms of a transaction with the safety of having a third party service to protect them. Is LocalBitcoins right for you? Every exchange is different and provides different services for traders. With this in mind, it is important to understand the pros and cons of each exchange to ensure you are choosing the best option. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of LocalBitcoins. Story continues Advantages To become a member and user of LocalBitcoins, all you have to do is enter your email and go through the verification process. This makes it very easy for first-time traders to sign up and start using the platform. With this in mind, the community it provides is also a great way for beginners to learn and grow from other traders. This element separates it from other exchanges as it has a ‘human’ feature – something that many do not have. This community allows users to seek out help from others if they feel they need it, and share tips and tricks about the trading world. LocalBitcoins was one of the first P2P Bitcoin exchange sites created, and it is still one of the largest today by far. This track record should provide you with enough information about its legitimacy. Another key element the platform offers is its online forums. These are available for users to write reviews and tips covering the best opportunities to trade, who to avoid, and advice for the less experienced. This is also a place for like-minded people to have general discussions about the community and recent news. Another advantage of this platform is the security and privacy it provides. It allows users to buy and sell online and offline in a secure manner. The exchange also provides users with a variety of security measures and payment options that allow customers to have flexibility within their transactions. Disadvantages Even though there are several security measures in place, such as ID verification before large transactions and the ability to select who can view and interact with your trades, exchange sites are known for attracting negative activity, including hacks and people stealing assets. However, the platform ensures it has a large support team to help users make their accounts secure against hacking. Because LocalBitcoins has a P2P decentralised nature, it is up to the users to verify the credibility of other traders and their transactions. This leads to general risks when conducting anonymous transactions. Another disadvantage of the platform is the speed of the delivery and transaction times. The time is reliant on the seller being able to confirm the payment, which can sometimes take hours. Alongside this, the platform is known for being quite expensive. Because it attracts such high demand in the marketplace with cash deposits, the exchange creates privacy features. These features mean the platform is free to charge a premium on all cash deposits. Final thoughts If you are a trader who is looking to maximise profits and learn from a large network of professionals, then LocalBitcoins is the place for you. It is the oldest and largest peer-to-peer crypto network on the market, and this information alone should give you the incentive to try it out. For guides on cryptocurrencies , exchanges , and blockchain technology , click here . Make sure you take a look at all the latest crypto and blockchain news . The post LocalBitcoins: What it is and how to use it appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rebound Following Inventory Draw: Natural gas prices moved higher on Thursday, rising following a slightly larger than expected draw in natural gas inventories. The final inventory estimate from Estimize was 140 Bcf, and Thursday’s decline of 149 BCF took stockpiles down to the lower end of the average range for this time of year. Inventories are well below the 5-year average range, but prices are below the 5-year average range. This is mainly because production remain at elevated levels. The weather is expected to be colder than normal through out the west and mid-west, but warmer than normal throughout most of the east coast during the next 2-weeks. The colder than normal weather will buoy prices in California and Chicago, but the NYMEX contract is in Henry Hub Louisiana, which will not see a spike due to colder than normal weather.
Natural gas prices rebounded on Thursday, bouncing off support near the 10-day moving average at 2.83. Resistance is seen near former support at 2.87, and then the February highs at 2.91. Positive momentum is decelerating as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) histogram is printing in the black with a declining trajectory which points to consolidation. The fast stochastic is whipsawing in overbought territory. The current reading on the fast stochastic is 87, above the overbought trigger level of 80 which could foreshadow a correction.
The Department of Energy on Thursday reported that working gas in storage was 1,390 Bcf as of Friday, March 1, 2019. This represents a net decrease of 149 Bcf from the previous week. Expectations according to Estimize were that natural gas stockpiles would decline by 140 Bcf. Stocks were 243 Bcf less than last year at this time and 464 Bcf below the five-year average of 1,854 Bcf. The 5-year average price of natural gas is $3.12, which puts current prices well below the 5-year average price for this time of year. At 1,390 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• AUD/USD Price Forecast – Aussie looking for support
• USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar consolidates against yen awaiting jobs figure
• Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Crypto Bulls Struggle To Break Free From Consolidation
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – March 7, 2019 Forecast
• Asia Mixed As Trade Concern Lingers, ECB Restimulates EU Economy, Huawei Sues U.S.
• GBP/USD Price Forecast – British pound pulls back || Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rebound Following Inventory Draw: Natural gas prices moved higher on Thursday, rising following a slightly larger than expected draw in natural gas inventories. The final inventory estimate from Estimize was 140 Bcf, and Thursday’s decline of 149 BCF took stockpiles down to the lower end of the average range for this time of year. Inventories are well below the 5-year average range, but prices are below the 5-year average range. This is mainly because production remain at elevated levels. The weather is expected to be colder than normal through out the west and mid-west, but warmer than normal throughout most of the east coast during the next 2-weeks. The colder than normal weather will buoy prices in California and Chicago, but the NYMEX contract is in Henry Hub Louisiana, which will not see a spike due to colder than normal weather. Technical Analysis Natural gas prices rebounded on Thursday, bouncing off support near the 10-day moving average at 2.83. Resistance is seen near former support at 2.87, and then the February highs at 2.91. Positive momentum is decelerating as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) histogram is printing in the black with a declining trajectory which points to consolidation. The fast stochastic is whipsawing in overbought territory. The current reading on the fast stochastic is 87, above the overbought trigger level of 80 which could foreshadow a correction. Natural Gas Inventories Decline More than Expected The Department of Energy on Thursday reported that working gas in storage was 1,390 Bcf as of Friday, March 1, 2019. This represents a net decrease of 149 Bcf from the previous week. Expectations according to Estimize were that natural gas stockpiles would decline by 140 Bcf. Stocks were 243 Bcf less than last year at this time and 464 Bcf below the five-year average of 1,854 Bcf. The 5-year average price of natural gas is $3.12, which puts current prices well below the 5-year average price for this time of year. At 1,390 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range. Story continues This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: AUD/USD Price Forecast – Aussie looking for support USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar consolidates against yen awaiting jobs figure Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Crypto Bulls Struggle To Break Free From Consolidation E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – March 7, 2019 Forecast Asia Mixed As Trade Concern Lingers, ECB Restimulates EU Economy, Huawei Sues U.S. GBP/USD Price Forecast – British pound pulls back || Why You Shouldn’t Worry about Crypto Whales Crashing the Bitcoin Price: According to Chainalysis, crypto whales don't actually pose any real threat to the Bitcoin price. | Source: Shutterstock In a very informative webinar produced by Chainalysis today , the blockchain research firm made the surprising claim that crypto “whales” – individuals with more than $56 million in Bitcoin – pose no serious risk to the price of Bitcoin . What Constitutes a ‘Crypto Whale?’ bitcoin nest egg Chainalysis defines a Bitcoin whale as an investor sitting on at least $56 million worth of BTC at current prices. | Source: Shutterstock In the presentation titled “Who are Today’s Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash Whales?,” Chainalysis breaks down the types of whales into several categories including “criminal whales,” “early adopter whales,” and “trading whales.” One item of interest: Bitcoin Cash whales, on average, hold about 250% of the crypto that regular Bitcoin whales hold. The company defines a BCH whale at about twice the rate they categorize a BTC whale. So, to be a whale by their definition, you must hold at least 15,000 BTC. To be a Bitcoin Cash whale, you must hold at least 30,000 BCH. Early adopter holdings have dropped from 9% of all Bitcoin in circulation to roughly 5% today. The presenter told viewers that inflation via mining is only part of the reason for this – some whales did sell part of their holdings during bull runs. The company sees this as a sign of health for the crypto economy. They note that “trading whales” have the most positive effect of the whale classes – they provide a “stabilizing effect.” Read the full story on CCN.com . || Why You Shouldn’t Worry about Crypto Whales Crashing the Bitcoin Price: In a very informative webinarproduced by Chainalysis today, the blockchain research firm made the surprising claim that crypto “whales” – individuals with more than $56 million in Bitcoin – pose no serious risk to theprice of Bitcoin.
Chainalysis defines a Bitcoin whale as an investor sitting on at least $56 million worth of BTC at current prices. | Source: Shutterstock
In the presentation titled “Who are Today’s Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash Whales?,” Chainalysis breaks down the types of whales into several categories including “criminal whales,” “early adopter whales,” and “trading whales.”
One item of interest:Bitcoin Cashwhales, on average, hold about 250% of the crypto that regularBitcoinwhales hold. The company defines a BCH whale at about twice the rate they categorize a BTC whale. So, to be a whale by their definition, you must hold at least 15,000 BTC. To be a Bitcoin Cash whale, you must hold at least 30,000 BCH.
Early adopter holdings have dropped from 9% of all Bitcoin in circulation to roughly 5% today. The presenter told viewers that inflation via mining is only part of the reason for this – some whales did sell part of their holdings during bull runs. The company sees this as a sign of health for the crypto economy. They note that “trading whales” have the most positive effect of the whale classes – they provide a “stabilizing effect.”
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Why You Shouldn’t Worry about Crypto Whales Crashing the Bitcoin Price: In a very informative webinarproduced by Chainalysis today, the blockchain research firm made the surprising claim that crypto “whales” – individuals with more than $56 million in Bitcoin – pose no serious risk to theprice of Bitcoin.
Chainalysis defines a Bitcoin whale as an investor sitting on at least $56 million worth of BTC at current prices. | Source: Shutterstock
In the presentation titled “Who are Today’s Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash Whales?,” Chainalysis breaks down the types of whales into several categories including “criminal whales,” “early adopter whales,” and “trading whales.”
One item of interest:Bitcoin Cashwhales, on average, hold about 250% of the crypto that regularBitcoinwhales hold. The company defines a BCH whale at about twice the rate they categorize a BTC whale. So, to be a whale by their definition, you must hold at least 15,000 BTC. To be a Bitcoin Cash whale, you must hold at least 30,000 BCH.
Early adopter holdings have dropped from 9% of all Bitcoin in circulation to roughly 5% today. The presenter told viewers that inflation via mining is only part of the reason for this – some whales did sell part of their holdings during bull runs. The company sees this as a sign of health for the crypto economy. They note that “trading whales” have the most positive effect of the whale classes – they provide a “stabilizing effect.”
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Crypto Bulls Struggle To Break Free From Consolidation: Cryptocurrency market continues to trade range-bound in the global market today and nothing much has really changed in the last 24 hours. Crypto bulls are continuing their attempt to breach the upper level of price range limitations that is hindering the next level of sharp gains. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum saw multiple dead cat bounce each of which saw price breach critical resistance levels, however, this clearly shows that while bulls have some level of strength that enables them to hold onto ongoing rally, they clearly lack fundamental support that is strong enough to help push bulls above critical price levels.
For the majority of the day, Bitcoin and all other major legacy crypto coins traded with positive bias across the day. Despite price action suggesting that bulls lacked the strength necessary to make a clear bullish breakout and sustain a positive price rally, gains from top crypto coins helped raise net worth of crypto assets currently circulating in the market to more than $130 billion USD which is the highest since February 24. As of writing this article, BTC/USD pair is trading at $3894.2 up by 0.61% on the day while ETH/USD pair is trading at $137.87 down by 0.61% on the day. Moving forward, the path with the least resistance is towards upside for both Bitcoin and Ethereum as both crypto coins show stability in the short term.
When looking from a technical perspective, price action in hourly intra-day charts are well above 20, 50 & 100 SMA’s and momentum indicator Stochastic RSI is moving near a neutral level with slight towards oversold region which supports theory above that bitcoin is likely to trade positive in near term but has little chance for bullish breakout. For Ethereum, price in hourly charts is moving inline with 20, 50 & 100 SMA’s in one hour chart and above 20, 50 SMA’s but below 100 SMA line in 4-hour chart while Stochastic RSI is seeing the signal line well near oversold region which suggests that price action could be stable above $135 handle but has high resistance around $137.50 which needs to be scaled with stable rally for ETH to aim $140 handle in near future.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Crude Oil Price Update – Needs to Build Support Over $56.65 to Extend Rally
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – March 7, 2019 Forecast
• GBP/USD Price Forecast – British pound pulls back
• Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets finding support
• S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock markets find buyers at lower levels
• Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural gas markets soften || Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Crypto Bulls Struggle To Break Free From Consolidation: Cryptocurrency market continues to trade range-bound in the global market today and nothing much has really changed in the last 24 hours. Crypto bulls are continuing their attempt to breach the upper level of price range limitations that is hindering the next level of sharp gains. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum saw multiple dead cat bounce each of which saw price breach critical resistance levels, however, this clearly shows that while bulls have some level of strength that enables them to hold onto ongoing rally, they clearly lack fundamental support that is strong enough to help push bulls above critical price levels.
For the majority of the day, Bitcoin and all other major legacy crypto coins traded with positive bias across the day. Despite price action suggesting that bulls lacked the strength necessary to make a clear bullish breakout and sustain a positive price rally, gains from top crypto coins helped raise net worth of crypto assets currently circulating in the market to more than $130 billion USD which is the highest since February 24. As of writing this article, BTC/USD pair is trading at $3894.2 up by 0.61% on the day while ETH/USD pair is trading at $137.87 down by 0.61% on the day. Moving forward, the path with the least resistance is towards upside for both Bitcoin and Ethereum as both crypto coins show stability in the short term.
When looking from a technical perspective, price action in hourly intra-day charts are well above 20, 50 & 100 SMA’s and momentum indicator Stochastic RSI is moving near a neutral level with slight towards oversold region which supports theory above that bitcoin is likely to trade positive in near term but has little chance for bullish breakout. For Ethereum, price in hourly charts is moving inline with 20, 50 & 100 SMA’s in one hour chart and above 20, 50 SMA’s but below 100 SMA line in 4-hour chart while Stochastic RSI is seeing the signal line well near oversold region which suggests that price action could be stable above $135 handle but has high resistance around $137.50 which needs to be scaled with stable rally for ETH to aim $140 handle in near future.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Crude Oil Price Update – Needs to Build Support Over $56.65 to Extend Rally
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – March 7, 2019 Forecast
• GBP/USD Price Forecast – British pound pulls back
• Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets finding support
• S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock markets find buyers at lower levels
• Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural gas markets soften || Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast Crypto Bulls Struggle To Break Free From Consolidation: Cryptocurrency market continues to trade range-bound in the global market today and nothing much has really changed in the last 24 hours. Crypto bulls are continuing their attempt to breach the upper level of price range limitations that is hindering the next level of sharp gains. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum saw multiple dead cat bounce each of which saw price breach critical resistance levels, however, this clearly shows that while bulls have some level of strength that enables them to hold onto ongoing rally, they clearly lack fundamental support that is strong enough to help push bulls above critical price levels. Technicals Hint that a Breach above Psychological Resistance Levels is Unlikely in Near Future For the majority of the day, Bitcoin and all other major legacy crypto coins traded with positive bias across the day. Despite price action suggesting that bulls lacked the strength necessary to make a clear bullish breakout and sustain a positive price rally, gains from top crypto coins helped raise net worth of crypto assets currently circulating in the market to more than $130 billion USD which is the highest since February 24. As of writing this article, BTC/USD pair is trading at $3894.2 up by 0.61% on the day while ETH/USD pair is trading at $137.87 down by 0.61% on the day. Moving forward, the path with the least resistance is towards upside for both Bitcoin and Ethereum as both crypto coins show stability in the short term. When looking from a technical perspective, price action in hourly intra-day charts are well above 20, 50 & 100 SMAs and momentum indicator Stochastic RSI is moving near a neutral level with slight towards oversold region which supports theory above that bitcoin is likely to trade positive in near term but has little chance for bullish breakout. For Ethereum, price in hourly charts is moving inline with 20, 50 & 100 SMAs in one hour chart and above 20, 50 SMAs but below 100 SMA line in 4-hour chart while Stochastic RSI is seeing the signal line well near oversold region which suggests that price action could be stable above $135 handle but has high resistance around $137.50 which needs to be scaled with stable rally for ETH to aim $140 handle in near future. Please let us know what you think in the comments below. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Update Needs to Build Support Over $56.65 to Extend Rally Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis March 7, 2019 Forecast GBP/USD Price Forecast British pound pulls back Gold Price Forecast Gold markets finding support S&P 500 Price Forecast Stock markets find buyers at lower levels Natural Gas Price Forecast Natural gas markets soften View comments || Iron Gate Wine now accepts Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payments: Iron Gate Wine has announced it will now be accepting Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payments, allowing customers to purchase wine using crypto through payment service provider BitPay. Iron Gate Wine is a leading online retailer of private and rare wine collections. It is based in upstate New York and ships wine across the world. The wine it provides is sourced from private collectors throughout the US and Canada. It currently has over 2,500 unique wines available for purchase. A press release from Iron Gate Wine details how the processing system provided by BitPay will “allow buyers from all over the world to shop for vintage wine from the cellars of private collectors using this new form of currency”. Iron Gate Wine head honcho Warren Porter commented: “Our research has shown that the adoption of cryptocurrency is on the rise, and we want our customers to be able to use whatever payment they prefer. “We view Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash as a currency not unlike the dollar or euro and know that our customers would like the option of spending it on this luxury item.” Sonny Singh, chief commercial officer at BitPay, also spoke on the announcement, saying: “Bitcoin is a global currency and will allow international buyers to purchase wine cheaper and more quickly than credit cards and bank wires.” Interested in reading more about businesses accepting Bitcoin? Discover how a new local medical practice in Detroit has begun accepting Bitcoin payments. The post Iron Gate Wine now accepts Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payments appeared first on Coin Rivet .
[Social Media Buzz]
After the terrible incident happened, Cryptopia exchange’s website will be back online tomorrow as read #Toqqn #ico #crypto #bitcoin #ethereum #blockchain #btc || con #bitcoin solo tu autorizas la salida de dinero, ninguna persona, institucion, gobierno puede controlar tu dinero ni sacarlo para cobrar comisiones ni cargos por no tener montos minimos. Long bitcion, Short the banks. || $NEXCF Press NexTech Releases Updated UX For Its Patent-Pending Web-Enabled AR Platform https://t.co/WHq9YUwqCR
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3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 39371.04, 40797.61, 40254.55, 38356.44, 35566.66, 33922.96, 37316.36, 39187.33, 36825.37, 36178.14, 35791.28, 36630.07, 36069.80, 35547.75, 30825.70, 33005.76, 32067.64, 32289.38, 32366.39, 32569.85, 30432.55, 33466.10, 34316.39, 34269.52, 33114.36, 33537.18, 35510.29, 37472.09, 36926.07, 38144.31, 39266.01, 38903.44, 46196.46, 46481.11, 44918.18, 47909.33, 47504.85, 47105.52, 48717.29, 47945.06, 49199.87, 52149.01, 51679.80, 55888.13, 56099.52, 57539.95, 54207.32, 48824.43, 49705.33, 47093.85, 46339.76, 46188.45, 45137.77, 49631.24, 48378.99, 50538.24, 48561.17, 48927.30, 48912.38, 51206.69, 52246.52, 54824.12, 56008.55, 57805.12, 57332.09, 61243.09, 59302.32, 55907.20, 56804.90, 58870.89, 57858.92, 58346.65, 58313.64, 57523.42, 54529.14, 54738.95, 52774.27, 51704.16, 55137.31, 55973.51, 55950.75, 57750.20, 58917.69, 58918.83, 59095.81, 59384.31, 57603.89, 58758.55, 59057.88, 58192.36.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-04-06]
Volume: 66058027988, RSI (14-day): 56.04, 50-day EMA: 53197.48, 200-day EMA: 35633.92
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1741.50, Gold RSI: 51.76
Oil Price: 59.33, Oil RSI: 46.50
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Global Chip Shortage a Temporary Problem, But in Extraordinary Times: Okay, the chip shortage is not exactly a new story; it has been developing over the past year. Ever since the pandemic hit for the first time last spring, we were headed for major inventory imbalances across the supply chain, which often feels like shortages. A recent Reuters article lays out the causes of the chip shortage rather well, but I’m summarizing it here: It was actually a chain of events, starting with the pandemic that forced people to operate from home. So suddenly, we had demand for computers and consumer electronics going through the roof. This naturally caused chipmakers to adjust their supply to focus on these markets. However, as everything opened up, there was still the need for social distancing. So people ended up buying more cars than they normally would (in aggregate). Now, this is where the chip shortage first started showing up because chipmakers couldn’t accommodate them. Add into that mix a fire at a Renesas factory (supplier of 30% of MCUs used in cars); severe weather in parts of Texas, which limited supply from other major auto chip suppliers Infineon and NXP; chip-guzzling 5G devices that launched during this time; new game consoles from Microsoft and Sony that also launched during this time; record bitcoin mining; and U.S. sanctions on China, which led to stockpiling by China and troubled the entire Asia supply chain, which is highly integrated across a number of Asian economies, including South Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. What we have as a result of all this is inventory shortage at manufacturers of automobiles as well as a range of consumer electronics products, including smartphones, refrigerators and microwaves. A report from IHS Markit offers hope for the auto industry. The research firm expects the MCU shortage to recover gradually, with supply improving in the second quarter, meeting demand in the second and recovering first-half shortfalls in the fourth quarter. Story continues While all players will be impacted, Japanese manufacturers are likely to be somewhat insulated because of inventories at their distributors. Overall auto output forecast was maintained at 84.6 million units, although the situation remains dynamic and could change as we move forward. The Chip Market Reinvents Itself Even as all these tensions continue, major changes are afoot on the manufacturing side. Intel’s INTC new CEO surprised some of us folks with the announcement that it would continue its internal manufacturing (including 2 new fabs by 2024). However, it will use outside foundries when required and also offer foundry services as a separate business unit. So Intel appears to be playing nice with the government while it also tries to generate the volumes necessary to maintain such a model. As American technology companies are being encouraged to use locally produced components, Intel’s supply should have some takers in Apple, NVIDIA NVDA, Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet and the like. Not to be outdone, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSM) announced last week that it would invest $100 billion over the next three years to scale up its manufacturing operations and fund the development of new chip technologies. “TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner,” the company said, in a response to local media reports. According to CEO C.C. Wei, despite running its fabs at over 100% utilization over the past year, TSM is unable to meet demand. It remains on a major hiring spree, has new fabs under construction and has decided to suspend wafer price reductions for a year beginning in 2022. This is hardly surprising since it caters to companies like Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices AMD, Apple and NVIDIA. Samsung, the other major semiconductor manufacturer, that’s planning to move beyond memory chips, expects to spend $116 billion over 10 years (from 2019). The Steel Mills of the Future The only concern, if you can call it that is the possibility of an inventory glut three to four years down the line. In this context, it’s worth noting that competition has reached entirely new levels as the U.S. attempts to regain some of its lost territory. The Semiconductor Industry Association, (SIA) recently said that semiconductor manufacturing in the country had gone from 37% of global chip supply in 1990 to just 12% in 2020. The industry group urged the government to take appropriate measures to rectify the situation. In this scenario, it would be disastrous to miss a design cycle and get cut out of all the new products that will launch at an accelerated pace in the next few years. Absorbing losses from weaker pricing seems like a lesser evil. So everyone is likely to go full throttle. Without a doubt, semiconductor fabs are the steel mills of the future, considering their role in AI. Semiconductors will increasingly be embedded into every conceivable device and also into our own bodies by the end of decade. But for now, the markets into which they’ve already made their way are screaming out for them. So it’s a good time to invest in chip stocks, as long as you’re following tried and tested strategies. So look for Zacks Ranks of #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) and check out the specific sub-industry. Remember, not all players are made the same, nor will they all fare the same way in the same situation, nor will all their valuations be attractive. So here’s a list that I would recommend- AMAT and ASML are obvious beneficiaries of these trends, but their rich valuations keep me on the sidelines. Formfactor FORM looks like a safer bet. Himax Technologies HIMX, Micron MU, Texas Instruments (TXN), Xilinx XLNX and STMicroelectronics STM are also looking good. Stocks with extremely attractive valuations (based on their performance over the past year) are AMD and NVDA, so they are also worth snapping up. There are also some attractive stocks in the analog/mixed signal group: Max Linear MXL, MACOM Technology Solutions MTSI and NXP Semiconductors NXPI are examples. Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report FormFactor, Inc. (FORM) : Free Stock Analysis Report STMicroelectronics N.V. (STM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX) : Free Stock Analysis Report NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI) : Free Stock Analysis Report MaxLinear, Inc (MXL) : Free Stock Analysis Report MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (MTSI) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Global Chip Shortage a Temporary Problem, But in Extraordinary Times: Okay, the chip shortage is not exactly a new story; it has been developing over the past year. Ever since the pandemic hit for the first time last spring, we were headed for major inventory imbalances across the supply chain, which often feels like shortages.
A recent Reuters article lays out the causes of the chip shortage rather well, but I’m summarizing it here:
It was actually a chain of events, starting with the pandemic that forced people to operate from home. So suddenly, we had demand for computers and consumer electronics going through the roof. This naturally caused chipmakers to adjust their supply to focus on these markets.
However, as everything opened up, there was still the need for social distancing. So people ended up buying more cars than they normally would (in aggregate). Now, this is where the chip shortage first started showing up because chipmakers couldn’t accommodate them.
Add into that mix a fire at a Renesas factory (supplier of 30% of MCUs used in cars); severe weather in parts of Texas, which limited supply from other major auto chip suppliers Infineon and NXP; chip-guzzling 5G devices that launched during this time; new game consoles from Microsoft and Sony that also launched during this time; record bitcoin mining; and U.S. sanctions on China, which led to stockpiling by China and troubled the entire Asia supply chain, which is highly integrated across a number of Asian economies, including South Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
What we have as a result of all this is inventory shortage at manufacturers of automobiles as well as a range of consumer electronics products, including smartphones, refrigerators and microwaves.
A report from IHS Markit offers hope for the auto industry. The research firm expects the MCU shortage to recover gradually, with supply improving in the second quarter, meeting demand in the second and recovering first-half shortfalls in the fourth quarter.
While all players will be impacted, Japanese manufacturers are likely to be somewhat insulated because of inventories at their distributors. Overall auto output forecast was maintained at 84.6 million units, although the situation remains dynamic and could change as we move forward.
The Chip Market Reinvents Itself
Even as all these tensions continue, major changes are afoot on the manufacturing side.
Intel’s INTC new CEO surprised some of us folks with the announcement that it would continue its internal manufacturing (including 2 new fabs by 2024). However, it will use outside foundries when required and also offer foundry services as a separate business unit.
So Intel appears to be playing nice with the government while it also tries to generate the volumes necessary to maintain such a model. As American technology companies are being encouraged to use locally produced components, Intel’s supply should have some takers in Apple, NVIDIA NVDA, Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet and the like.
Not to be outdone, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSM) announced last week that it would invest $100 billion over the next three years to scale up its manufacturing operations and fund the development of new chip technologies. “TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner,” the company said, in a response to local media reports.
According to CEO C.C. Wei, despite running its fabs at over 100% utilization over the past year, TSM is unable to meet demand. It remains on a major hiring spree, has new fabs under construction and has decided to suspend wafer price reductions for a year beginning in 2022. This is hardly surprising since it caters to companies like Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices AMD, Apple and NVIDIA.
Samsung, the other major semiconductor manufacturer, that’s planning to move beyond memory chips, expects to spend $116 billion over 10 years (from 2019).
The Steel Mills of the Future
The only concern, if you can call it that is the possibility of an inventory glut three to four years down the line. In this context, it’s worth noting that competition has reached entirely new levels as the U.S. attempts to regain some of its lost territory. The Semiconductor Industry Association, (SIA) recently said that semiconductor manufacturing in the country had gone from 37% of global chip supply in 1990 to just 12% in 2020. The industry group urged the government to take appropriate measures to rectify the situation.
In this scenario, it would be disastrous to miss a design cycle and get cut out of all the new products that will launch at an accelerated pace in the next few years. Absorbing losses from weaker pricing seems like a lesser evil. So everyone is likely to go full throttle.
Without a doubt, semiconductor fabs are the steel mills of the future, considering their role in AI. Semiconductors will increasingly be embedded into every conceivable device and also into our own bodies by the end of decade.
But for now, the markets into which they’ve already made their way are screaming out for them. So it’s a good time to invest in chip stocks, as long as you’re following tried and tested strategies.
So look for Zacks Ranks of #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) and check out the specific sub-industry. Remember, not all players are made the same, nor will they all fare the same way in the same situation, nor will all their valuations be attractive.
So here’s a list that I would recommend-
AMAT and ASML are obvious beneficiaries of these trends, but their rich valuations keep me on the sidelines. Formfactor FORM looks like a safer bet.
Himax Technologies HIMX, Micron MU, Texas Instruments (TXN), Xilinx XLNX and STMicroelectronics STM are also looking good.
Stocks with extremely attractive valuations (based on their performance over the past year) are AMD and NVDA, so they are also worth snapping up.
There are also some attractive stocks in the analog/mixed signal group: Max Linear MXL, MACOM Technology Solutions MTSI and NXP Semiconductors NXPI are examples.
Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything
Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.
Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.
See 3 crypto-related stocks now >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportMicron Technology, Inc. (MU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportIntel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFormFactor, Inc. (FORM) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSTMicroelectronics N.V. (STM) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis ReportXilinx, Inc. (XLNX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportHimax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMaxLinear, Inc (MXL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (MTSI) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals: For the first time in the countrys history, South Korean prosecutors have sold bitcoin confiscated from criminals , CoinDesk Korea reported. The sale turned a profit of around 12.3 billion won (around US$10.9 million), which has been transferred to the national treasury. On April 1, the Suwon District Prosecutors Office announced it had sold 191 bitcoin confiscated in April 2017 from the operator of the illegal pornography site, AVSNOOP, identified thus far as Ahn (assumedly his surname) at around 64,260,000 won ($57,000) per coin. In South Korea, producing, selling and distributing pornography is prohibited by law . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for April 6, 2021 Authorities originally confiscated 216 BTC from Ahn, but only 191 were determined to be of criminal origin by the Korean Supreme Court in a ruling in May 2018. It was the first time a South Korean court acknowledged cryptocurrency as intangible assets and gave the authorities the right to confiscate crypto acquired through, or used for, illicit activity. While the U.S. government has been auctioning bitcoin since 2014 , Korean prosecutors have held on to the confiscated bitcoin for the past four years due to legal ambiguity surrounding cryptocurrency. According to South Koreas Yonhap News Agency , prosecutors moved to liquidate the confiscated bitcoin on March 25, the exact day when the countrys crypto legislation went into effect. The revised legislation classifies crypto as virtual assets. When prosecutors confiscated Ahns bitcoin in April 2017, it was worth around 270 million won (around $240,000). The amount when sold on March 25 is over 45 times that. Ahn operated AVSNOOP from May 2014 to when he was arrested in April 2017. He served 18 months behind bars and was released in October 2018. It looks like he will receive the remaining 25 BTC determined to be legit. Related Stories South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals || South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals: For the first time in the country’s history, South Korean prosecutors have soldbitcoinconfiscated from criminals, CoinDesk Korea reported. The sale turned a profit of around 12.3 billion won (around US$10.9 million), which has been transferred to the national treasury.
On April 1, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office announced it had sold “191 bitcoin confiscated in April 2017 from the operator of the illegal pornography site, AVSNOOP, identified thus far as ‘Ahn’ (assumedly his surname) at around 64,260,000 won ($57,000) per coin.”
In South Korea, producing, selling and distributing pornography isprohibited by law.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for April 6, 2021
Authorities originally confiscated 216 BTC from Ahn, but only 191 were determined to be “of criminal origin” by the Korean Supreme Court in a ruling in May 2018. It was the first time a South Korean court acknowledged cryptocurrency as “intangible assets” and gave the authorities the right to confiscate crypto acquired through, or used for, illicit activity.
While the U.S. government has been auctioning bitcoinsince 2014, Korean prosecutors have held on to the confiscated bitcoin for the past four years due to legal ambiguity surrounding cryptocurrency. According to South Korea’sYonhap News Agency, prosecutors moved to liquidate the confiscated bitcoin on March 25, the exact day when the country’scrypto legislationwent into effect. The revised legislation classifies crypto as “virtual assets.”
When prosecutors confiscated Ahn’s bitcoin in April 2017, it was worth around 270 million won (around $240,000). The amount when sold on March 25 is over 45 times that.
Ahn operated AVSNOOP from May 2014 to when he was arrested in April 2017. He served 18 months behind bars and was released in October 2018. It looks like he will receive the remaining 25 BTC determined to be legit.
• South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals
• South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals
• South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals || South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals: For the first time in the country’s history, South Korean prosecutors have soldbitcoinconfiscated from criminals, CoinDesk Korea reported. The sale turned a profit of around 12.3 billion won (around US$10.9 million), which has been transferred to the national treasury.
On April 1, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office announced it had sold “191 bitcoin confiscated in April 2017 from the operator of the illegal pornography site, AVSNOOP, identified thus far as ‘Ahn’ (assumedly his surname) at around 64,260,000 won ($57,000) per coin.”
In South Korea, producing, selling and distributing pornography isprohibited by law.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for April 6, 2021
Authorities originally confiscated 216 BTC from Ahn, but only 191 were determined to be “of criminal origin” by the Korean Supreme Court in a ruling in May 2018. It was the first time a South Korean court acknowledged cryptocurrency as “intangible assets” and gave the authorities the right to confiscate crypto acquired through, or used for, illicit activity.
While the U.S. government has been auctioning bitcoinsince 2014, Korean prosecutors have held on to the confiscated bitcoin for the past four years due to legal ambiguity surrounding cryptocurrency. According to South Korea’sYonhap News Agency, prosecutors moved to liquidate the confiscated bitcoin on March 25, the exact day when the country’scrypto legislationwent into effect. The revised legislation classifies crypto as “virtual assets.”
When prosecutors confiscated Ahn’s bitcoin in April 2017, it was worth around 270 million won (around $240,000). The amount when sold on March 25 is over 45 times that.
Ahn operated AVSNOOP from May 2014 to when he was arrested in April 2017. He served 18 months behind bars and was released in October 2018. It looks like he will receive the remaining 25 BTC determined to be legit.
• South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals
• South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals
• South Korean Prosecutors Sell (and Profit Off) Bitcoin Taken From Criminals || Buy Resurgent PEP Stock for Dividend and More Before Q1 Earnings?: PepsiCo PEP shares have popped 12% since March 4 to double its industry and the S&P 500. The beverage and packaged food power is coming off a strong 2020 and PEP’s growth outlook appears even better. This means investors might want to consider buying PepsiCo stock with it set to release its first quarter fiscal 2021 financial results on April 15. PepsiCo’s Pitch PepsiCo’s offerings include its namesake brand, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, Quaker, Tropicana, and SodaStream. The range of areas and items makes its portfolio more diverse than beverage rival Coca-Cola KO, and it continues to try to innovate and better adapt to changing consumer habits. PEP landed a partnership with Beyond Meat BYND in January that creates “a joint venture to develop, produce and market innovative snack and beverage products made from plant-based protein.” The deal helps PepsiCo better position itself to enter a fast-growing market. And the space could be a real game-changer if consumers buy into Beyond Meat’s broader sustainability pitch. The company’s wide stable of products helped PepsiCo’s 2020 revenue jump 5% to come in at $70.4 billion. This topped FY19’s 4% sales expansion and marked the firm’s best top line growth since fiscal 2011, as consumers gravitated to its offerings during the pandemic that saw retailers like Target TGT and Walmart WMT thrive. Other Fundamentals Looking ahead, Zacks estimates call for PEP’s FY21 revenue to climb 7% higher to $75.2 billion, with FY22 set to jump another 4.5%. At the bottom end, PEP’s adjusted earnings are projected to climb by 9.4% this year and another 8% next year. And the company has consistently beaten our quarterly EPS estimates. Meanwhile, PEP shares have jumped 37% in the last five years to crush the Consumer Staples sector’s 5% and Coca-Cola’s 13% climb. As we mentioned at the start, PepsiCo stock has jumped 12% since early March and it closed regular trading Monday at $143.16 a share. Despite the recent positivity, PEP sits about 4% below its late-December records. Story continues On the valuation front, PEP trades at a solid discount to the Beverages industry and its rival KO in terms of both forward earnings and sales. Plus, the company’s 2.9% dividend yield doubles the S&P 500 and crushes the recently-rising 30-year U.S. Treasury’s 2.4%. And PepsiCo executives are set to raise its annualized dividend by 5%, starting with the June 2021 dividend payment. Bottom Line PepsiCo’s earnings revisions activity helps it earn a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at the moment. The consumer staples giant also lands “B” grades for Value, Growth, and Momentum in our Style Scores system. Therefore, investors might want to consider adding it to their portfolio for stability, dividends, and more. Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Target Corporation (TGT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Buy Resurgent PEP Stock for Dividend and More Before Q1 Earnings?: PepsiCo PEPshares have popped 12% since March 4 to double its industry and the S&P 500. The beverage and packaged food power is coming off a strong 2020 and PEP’s growth outlook appears even better. This means investors might want to consider buying PepsiCo stock with it set to release its first quarter fiscal 2021 financial results on April 15.
PepsiCo’s Pitch
PepsiCo’s offerings include its namesake brand, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, Quaker, Tropicana, and SodaStream. The range of areas and items makes its portfolio more diverse than beverage rival Coca-Cola KO, and it continues to try to innovate and better adapt to changing consumer habits.
PEP landed a partnership with Beyond Meat BYND in January that creates “a joint venture to develop, produce and market innovative snack and beverage products made from plant-based protein.” The deal helps PepsiCo better position itself to enter a fast-growing market. And the space could be a real game-changer if consumers buy into Beyond Meat’s broader sustainability pitch.
The company’s wide stable of products helped PepsiCo’s 2020 revenue jump 5% to come in at $70.4 billion. This topped FY19’s 4% sales expansion and marked the firm’s best top line growth since fiscal 2011, as consumers gravitated to its offerings during the pandemic that saw retailers like Target TGT and Walmart WMT thrive.
Other Fundamentals
Looking ahead, Zacks estimates call for PEP’s FY21 revenue to climb 7% higher to $75.2 billion, with FY22 set to jump another 4.5%. At the bottom end, PEP’s adjusted earnings are projected to climb by 9.4% this year and another 8% next year. And the company has consistently beaten our quarterly EPS estimates.
Meanwhile, PEP shares have jumped 37% in the last five years to crush the Consumer Staples sector’s 5% and Coca-Cola’s 13% climb. As we mentioned at the start, PepsiCo stock has jumped 12% since early March and it closed regular trading Monday at $143.16 a share. Despite the recent positivity, PEP sits about 4% below its late-December records.
On the valuation front, PEP trades at a solid discount to the Beverages industry and its rival KO in terms of both forward earnings and sales. Plus, the company’s 2.9% dividend yield doubles the S&P 500 and crushes the recently-rising 30-year U.S. Treasury’s 2.4%. And PepsiCo executives are set to raise its annualized dividend by 5%, starting with the June 2021 dividend payment.
Bottom Line
PepsiCo’s earnings revisions activity helps it earn a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at the moment. The consumer staples giant also lands “B” grades for Value, Growth, and Momentum in our Style Scores system. Therefore, investors might want to consider adding it to their portfolio for stability, dividends, and more.
Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change EverythingBlockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.See 3 crypto-related stocks now >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTarget Corporation (TGT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportWalmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportPepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || 4 Stocks with Promise in the Recovering Internet Services Industry: While the pandemic has not had the same effect on all players in the extremely diverse Internet – Services industry, those players that were adversely impacted are also climbing out of the blues.
However, since this is a capital intensive industry with high fixed cost of operation and the fairly constant need to expand capacity, it takes longer to recover from any drop in demand.
Because of the increased digitization and greater reliance on digital services over the past few months, a number of players have been able to recoup their losses to stage strong comebacks. Valuation hasn’t kept up in all cases.
Our picks are Etsy Inc, Internet Initiative Japan Inc., Cango Inc. and Crexendo Inc.
About The Industry
Internet - Services companies are primarily those that rely on huge software and hardware infrastructure, referred to as their properties, to deliver various services to consumers. Therefore, consumers can avail the services by accessing these properties with their personal connected devices from almost anywhere in the world.
Companies in the sector generally operate two models: an ad based model where the service is offered free and an ad free model where they charge for the service. Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Baidu (BIDU) and Akamai (AKAM) are some of the larger players in the space while Dropbox (DBX), Etsy (ETSY), Shopify (SHOP), ANGI Homeservices, Uber, Lyft and Trivago are some of the emerging players.
COVID has brought mixed fortune for the industry because the wide range of services provided by this group has meant that some services were used more while others were used less. So things that helped people stay home for work, business or pleasure (as provided by companies like Etsy, Shopify, 21Vianet and CooTek) were positively affected, while those that depended on people moving out of their homes (as provided by companies like Uber and Lyft) or those that depended on strangers entering homes (as provided by ANGI Homeservices) were negatively impacted. The situation could improve in the next few months as vaccines reach more people.
Factors Shaping The Industry
• Traffic acquisition is one of the most important drivers of revenue, so companies invest in advertising or building communities that can draw more users to their online properties and get them to spend more time there, much like a store owner would try to keep a prospective buyer within the store. Some large players, including those providing infrastructure services, grow by tying up with other such large players for access to their customers. Since the personal touch is absent in an online store, many rely on cookies and other technologies to track users, collect data on them and profile them in order to better understand their needs.
• As these companies have grown over time, some of them have collected such a wealth of information on their users that the data itself is now helping them build artificial intelligence (AI) to lower cost and generate new technologies and services. As a result, ad-based services are no longer considered free in some parts of the world and the EU in particular has framed a complex law in GDPR that requires service providers to acquire explicit permission from users before collecting their data.
• The installed base of connected devices continues to grow beyond PCs and smartphones to IoT, automotive and more, creating additional opportunities for targeting. The ownership of multiple devices automatically drives people to use these services more as they increasingly automate routine chores.
While not all businesses are built on the same scale or have the same customer reach, the scope for growth is huge. For companies that are already pursuing research in AI, the prospects are even brighter.
Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Uncertain Prospects
The Zacks Internet - Services industry is housed within the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector. It carries a Zacks Industry Rank #151, which places it among the bottom 40% of more than 250 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates near-term challenges.Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
The industry’s positioning in the bottom 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is because of its relatively slow recovery from the pandemic. However, its aggregate earnings estimate revisions for 2021 and 2022 are encouraging, with estimates jumping significantly in October before stabilizing in the next few months and then again in February to stabilize thereafter. The aggregate estimates for 2021 and 2022 are up an average 32.9% and 13.7%, respectively from last year.
Before we present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock-market performance and valuation picture.
Industry Leads on Stock Market Performance
While moving more or less in line with the broader Zacks Computer and Technology Sector through most of the past year, the Internet Services industry remains well ahead of the S&P 500 index.
The industry has soared 77.5% during this period compared to the broader sector’s 70.4% gain and the S&P 500 index’s 53.6% gain.
One-Year Price Performance
Industry’s Current Valuation
On the basis of forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is a commonly used multiple for valuing technology companies, we see that the industry is currently trading at a 30.11X multiple, which is relatively close to its median value of 29.76X over the past year indicating that there is further room for upside. However, the multiple is above the S&P 500’s 22.67X and the sector’s 27.87X, suggesting overvaluation.
Forward 12 Month Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio
4 Stocks With Promise
Etsy, Inc. (ETSY): Etsy sells around 85 million products through the Etsy.com and Reverb.com ecommerce marketplaces in the U.S., UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, France and India. It also offers other services including payments processing, advertising and shipping labels.
The pandemic has been a big boon to practically all ecommerce companies and ETSY is no different. Management is confident that the current momentum in the business can help drive the company toward its longer-term growth strategy of greater differentiation and competitiveness.
After a solid 80% beat in the December quarter, the current year EPS estimate of this Zacks Rank #1 stock increased 38.9% from $1.98 to $2.75.
The shares are up 348.2% over the past year.
Price and Consensus: ETSY
Internet Initiative Japan, Inc. (IIJIY): The company offers a comprehensive range of Internet access and other network services mainly to enterprise customers and also to other Internet service providers in Japan.
It is seeing very strong demand at enterprise customers that t expects will continue through the current year and beyond. This is allowing it to leverage its existing infrastructure to generate very strong double-digit growth in gross, operating and net profits. The strength in demand has encouraged management to raise the revenue and profit projections for 2021 as well.
So after solidly beating earnings estimates in the December quarter, the EPS estimate for the current year increased 25.8% from 66 cents to 83 cents.
The shares of this #1-ranked company are up 58.1% over the past year.
Price and Consensus: IIJIY
Cango Inc. ADR (CANG): The company provides an automotive transaction service platform connecting dealers, financial institutions, car buyers and other industry participants primarily in China.
The company is seeing strong growth in car sales, financing services and after-market sales/services, which management attributes to the company’s strong technological platform, focus on customer experience, vast dealership network and deep industry knowledge including supply chain issues.
CANG beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 14.2% in the last quarter, after which the current year EPS estimate increased 21.1% from 38 cents to 46 cents.
The shares of this Zacks Rank #2 company are up 65.0% over the past year.
Price and Consensus: CANG
Crexendo Inc. (CXDO): This is an ecommerce application service provider focused on cloud communications, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), call center, collaboration services and other cloud-based business services that facilitate the provision of enterprise-class cloud services to businesses of all sizes.
The company is seeing relatively strong demand in its UCaaS business and profitability is now steady. Following an equity offering in Sep 2020 and a subsequent acquisition, management proceeded to build its sales teams. The company is now well positioned to generate strong organic growth even as it pursues accretive acquisitions.
The company’s December quarter earnings of 39 cents were way ahead of the the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a 2 cent EPS. However current-year estimates haven’t changed since.
The shares of this Zacks Rank #2 company have moved up 41.7% over the past year.
Price and Consensus: CXDO
Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything
Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.
Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.
See 3 crypto-related stocks now >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTrivago N.V. ADS (TRVG) : Free Stock Analysis ReportShopify Inc. (SHOP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportInternet Initiative Japan, Inc. (IIJIY) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFacebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEtsy, Inc. (ETSY) : Free Stock Analysis ReportCrexendo Inc. (CXDO) : Free Stock Analysis ReportCango Inc. Sponsored ADR (CANG) : Free Stock Analysis ReportBaidu, Inc. (BIDU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAngi Inc. (ANGI) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || 4 Stocks with Promise in the Recovering Internet Services Industry: While the pandemic has not had the same effect on all players in the extremely diverse Internet – Services industry, those players that were adversely impacted are also climbing out of the blues. However, since this is a capital intensive industry with high fixed cost of operation and the fairly constant need to expand capacity, it takes longer to recover from any drop in demand. Because of the increased digitization and greater reliance on digital services over the past few months, a number of players have been able to recoup their losses to stage strong comebacks. Valuation hasn’t kept up in all cases. Our picks are Etsy Inc, Internet Initiative Japan Inc., Cango Inc. and Crexendo Inc. About The Industry Internet - Services companies are primarily those that rely on huge software and hardware infrastructure, referred to as their properties, to deliver various services to consumers. Therefore, consumers can avail the services by accessing these properties with their personal connected devices from almost anywhere in the world. Companies in the sector generally operate two models: an ad based model where the service is offered free and an ad free model where they charge for the service. Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Baidu (BIDU) and Akamai (AKAM) are some of the larger players in the space while Dropbox (DBX), Etsy (ETSY), Shopify (SHOP), ANGI Homeservices, Uber, Lyft and Trivago are some of the emerging players. COVID has brought mixed fortune for the industry because the wide range of services provided by this group has meant that some services were used more while others were used less. So things that helped people stay home for work, business or pleasure (as provided by companies like Etsy, Shopify, 21Vianet and CooTek) were positively affected, while those that depended on people moving out of their homes (as provided by companies like Uber and Lyft) or those that depended on strangers entering homes (as provided by ANGI Homeservices) were negatively impacted. The situation could improve in the next few months as vaccines reach more people. Story continues Factors Shaping The Industry Traffic acquisition is one of the most important drivers of revenue, so companies invest in advertising or building communities that can draw more users to their online properties and get them to spend more time there, much like a store owner would try to keep a prospective buyer within the store. Some large players, including those providing infrastructure services, grow by tying up with other such large players for access to their customers. Since the personal touch is absent in an online store, many rely on cookies and other technologies to track users, collect data on them and profile them in order to better understand their needs. As these companies have grown over time, some of them have collected such a wealth of information on their users that the data itself is now helping them build artificial intelligence (AI) to lower cost and generate new technologies and services. As a result, ad-based services are no longer considered free in some parts of the world and the EU in particular has framed a complex law in GDPR that requires service providers to acquire explicit permission from users before collecting their data. The installed base of connected devices continues to grow beyond PCs and smartphones to IoT, automotive and more, creating additional opportunities for targeting. The ownership of multiple devices automatically drives people to use these services more as they increasingly automate routine chores. While not all businesses are built on the same scale or have the same customer reach, the scope for growth is huge. For companies that are already pursuing research in AI, the prospects are even brighter. Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Uncertain Prospects The Zacks Internet - Services industry is housed within the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector. It carries a Zacks Industry Rank #151, which places it among the bottom 40% of more than 250 Zacks industries. The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates near-term challenges.Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. The industry’s positioning in the bottom 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is because of its relatively slow recovery from the pandemic. However, its aggregate earnings estimate revisions for 2021 and 2022 are encouraging, with estimates jumping significantly in October before stabilizing in the next few months and then again in February to stabilize thereafter. The aggregate estimates for 2021 and 2022 are up an average 32.9% and 13.7%, respectively from last year. Before we present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock-market performance and valuation picture. Industry Leads on Stock Market Performance While moving more or less in line with the broader Zacks Computer and Technology Sector through most of the past year, the Internet Services industry remains well ahead of the S&P 500 index. The industry has soared 77.5% during this period compared to the broader sector’s 70.4% gain and the S&P 500 index’s 53.6% gain. One-Year Price Performance Industry’s Current Valuation On the basis of forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is a commonly used multiple for valuing technology companies, we see that the industry is currently trading at a 30.11X multiple, which is relatively close to its median value of 29.76X over the past year indicating that there is further room for upside. However, the multiple is above the S&P 500’s 22.67X and the sector’s 27.87X, suggesting overvaluation. Forward 12 Month Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio 4 Stocks With Promise Etsy, Inc. (ETSY) : Etsy sells around 85 million products through the Etsy.com and Reverb.com ecommerce marketplaces in the U.S., UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, France and India. It also offers other services including payments processing, advertising and shipping labels. The pandemic has been a big boon to practically all ecommerce companies and ETSY is no different. Management is confident that the current momentum in the business can help drive the company toward its longer-term growth strategy of greater differentiation and competitiveness. After a solid 80% beat in the December quarter, the current year EPS estimate of this Zacks Rank #1 stock increased 38.9% from $1.98 to $2.75. The shares are up 348.2% over the past year. Price and Consensus: ETSY Internet Initiative Japan, Inc. (IIJIY) : The company offers a comprehensive range of Internet access and other network services mainly to enterprise customers and also to other Internet service providers in Japan. It is seeing very strong demand at enterprise customers that t expects will continue through the current year and beyond. This is allowing it to leverage its existing infrastructure to generate very strong double-digit growth in gross, operating and net profits. The strength in demand has encouraged management to raise the revenue and profit projections for 2021 as well. So after solidly beating earnings estimates in the December quarter, the EPS estimate for the current year increased 25.8% from 66 cents to 83 cents. The shares of this #1-ranked company are up 58.1% over the past year. Price and Consensus: IIJIY Cango Inc. ADR (CANG) : The company provides an automotive transaction service platform connecting dealers, financial institutions, car buyers and other industry participants primarily in China. The company is seeing strong growth in car sales, financing services and after-market sales/services, which management attributes to the company’s strong technological platform, focus on customer experience, vast dealership network and deep industry knowledge including supply chain issues. CANG beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 14.2% in the last quarter, after which the current year EPS estimate increased 21.1% from 38 cents to 46 cents. The shares of this Zacks Rank #2 company are up 65.0% over the past year. Price and Consensus: CANG Crexendo Inc. (CXDO) : This is an ecommerce application service provider focused on cloud communications, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), call center, collaboration services and other cloud-based business services that facilitate the provision of enterprise-class cloud services to businesses of all sizes. The company is seeing relatively strong demand in its UCaaS business and profitability is now steady. Following an equity offering in Sep 2020 and a subsequent acquisition, management proceeded to build its sales teams. The company is now well positioned to generate strong organic growth even as it pursues accretive acquisitions. The company’s December quarter earnings of 39 cents were way ahead of the the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a 2 cent EPS. However current-year estimates haven’t changed since. The shares of this Zacks Rank #2 company have moved up 41.7% over the past year. Price and Consensus: CXDO Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Trivago N.V. ADS (TRVG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Shopify Inc. (SHOP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Internet Initiative Japan, Inc. (IIJIY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Etsy, Inc. (ETSY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Crexendo Inc. (CXDO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cango Inc. Sponsored ADR (CANG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Angi Inc. (ANGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show: When Paul Tudor Jones bet 1% to 2% of his assets on bitcoin in May it was unclear where the billionaire had bought his crypto, or how. The industry remained uncertain if his investment was direct. After all, his hedge fund had started flirting with bitcoin futures only days before. But in the year since, his firm, the $44.5 billion Tudor Investment Corporation, has indeed established rails for direct crypto ownership. It secured custodial ties with institutional powerhouses Coinbase and Bakkt, according to new filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Coinbase Custody Trust Company, Bakkt Trust Company and Tagomi Trading LLC (the institutional brokerage firm Coinbase bought in May 2020 ) all provide custodial services to Tudor Jones’ family-only hedge fund, the documents state. Related: Crypto Trading App Atani Raises $6.25M The filings provide a rare glimpse into the hush-hush world of institutional crypto dealmaking, where well-heeled clients pile into an asset class bankers once deemed absurd. Many, like Tudor Jones, see bitcoin as an inflation hedge, and their ranks are swelling in the pandemic economy. They’re also playing a key role in the 2020-2021 bull market. On-chain data shows whales bought over 500,000 BTC in the final months of 2020, according to Chainalysis. Against this backdrop are service providers like Coinbase that occasionally tout their institutional clients as they race to capture yet more hedge funders’ dollars. But Coinbase, which did not comment for this article, never revealed its links to Paul Tudor Jones. Representatives for Tudor Group and Bakkt did not respond to CoinDesk’s requests for comment. A family affair Related: New Privacy Coin Iron Fish Launches Testnet With $5.3M in Funding For now, Tudor Jones appears to be restricting direct crypto exposure to a small corner of his clients. “Tudor Family Fund II,” which is open to relatives and close associates of the macro king, was the only one of Tudor Investment Corp.’s eight hedge funds to disclose crypto custodians on the firm’s annual Form ADV, filed March 31. Story continues Not even the $27 billion Tudor BVI Global Fund, which last year presaged Tudor Jones’ bitcoin romance when it jumped into crypto futures in early May, has any industry tie-ups, according to similar Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Tudor Jones family fund was worth $1 billion at last check but the chances of all that being bitcoin are slim to none. The exclusive fund maintains a vast network of partners in the custodian and prime brokerage space – names like Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse – that suggest broad exposure to the global markets. But a wider swath of Tudor clients nonetheless appears poised for direct crypto exposure, according to the asset manager’s latest regulatory risk brochure. It included an entire section on the risks of investing in crypto for the first time in its four-decade history. “Certain Clients are permitted to enter into cryptocurrency transactions as described in the relevant Offering Materials,” the document states, through “direct investment on a spot basis or indirect investment” in crypto derivatives. Notably, the firm is not holding itself to crypto futures contracts. The document does not specify what it means by “certain clients.” However, in a section describing what investment strategies are only available to “proprietary accounts” like the family fund, it does not list cryptocurrency transactions. Institutional service providers Tudor Investment Corp. is not the first big-name asset manager to loudly tout its crypto bets while keeping its custody links more quiet. Britain’s Ruffer Investment pulled a similar strategy when it bought $745 million in bitcoin last November without revealing who was holding the coins. (CoinDesk later revealed Coinbase as the custodian.) The soon-to-be publicly traded Coinbase has expanded well beyond its roots as a retail exchange. The firm has served headline-grabbing clients like Ruffer, Tesla and MicroStrategy. The acquisition of Tagomi, the keystone of Coinbase’s institutional offering, was announced in May 2020. The deal closed in August 2020. Related Stories Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show || Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show: When Paul Tudor Jones bet1% to 2%of his assets onbitcoinin May it was unclear where the billionaire had bought his crypto, or how. The industry remained uncertain if his investment was direct. After all, his hedge fund had startedflirtingwith bitcoin futures only days before.
But in the year since, his firm, the $44.5 billion Tudor Investment Corporation, has indeed established rails for direct crypto ownership. It secured custodial ties with institutional powerhouses Coinbase and Bakkt, according to new filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Coinbase Custody Trust Company, Bakkt Trust Company and Tagomi Trading LLC (the institutional brokerage firm Coinbase bought inMay 2020) all provide custodial services to Tudor Jones’ family-only hedge fund, the documents state.
Related:Crypto Trading App Atani Raises $6.25M
The filings provide a rare glimpse into the hush-hush world of institutional crypto dealmaking, where well-heeled clients pile into an asset class bankers once deemed absurd. Many, like Tudor Jones, see bitcoin as an inflation hedge, and their ranks are swelling in the pandemic economy.
They’re also playing a key role in the 2020-2021 bull market. On-chain data shows whales bought over 500,000 BTC in the final months of 2020, according to Chainalysis.
Against this backdrop are service providers like Coinbase that occasionallytouttheir institutional clients as they race to capture yet more hedge funders’ dollars. But Coinbase, which did not comment for this article, never revealed its links to Paul Tudor Jones.
Representatives for Tudor Group and Bakkt did not respond to CoinDesk’s requests for comment.
Related:New Privacy Coin Iron Fish Launches Testnet With $5.3M in Funding
For now, Tudor Jones appears to be restricting direct crypto exposure to a small corner of his clients. “Tudor Family Fund II,” which is open to relatives and close associates of the macro king, was the only one of Tudor Investment Corp.’s eight hedge funds to disclose crypto custodians on the firm’s annual Form ADV, filed March 31.
Not even the $27 billion Tudor BVI Global Fund, which last yearpresaged Tudor Jones’ bitcoin romancewhen it jumped into crypto futures in early May, has any industry tie-ups, according to similar Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The Tudor Jones family fund was worth $1 billion at last check but the chances of all that being bitcoin are slim to none. The exclusive fund maintains a vast network of partners in the custodian and prime brokerage space – names like Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse – that suggest broad exposure to the global markets.
But a wider swath of Tudor clients nonetheless appears poised for direct crypto exposure, according to the asset manager’s latest regulatory risk brochure. It included an entire section on the risks of investing in crypto for the first time in its four-decade history.
“Certain Clients are permitted to enter into cryptocurrency transactions as described in the relevant Offering Materials,” the document states, through “direct investment on a spot basis or indirect investment” in crypto derivatives. Notably, the firm is not holding itself to crypto futures contracts.
The document does not specify what it means by “certain clients.” However, in a section describing what investment strategies are only available to “proprietary accounts” like the family fund, it does not list cryptocurrency transactions.
Tudor Investment Corp. is not the first big-name asset manager to loudly tout its crypto bets while keeping its custody links more quiet.
Britain’s Ruffer Investment pulled a similar strategy when it bought $745 million in bitcoin last November without revealing who was holding the coins. (CoinDesk laterrevealedCoinbase as the custodian.)
The soon-to-be publicly traded Coinbase has expanded well beyond its roots as a retail exchange. The firm has served headline-grabbing clients like Ruffer, Tesla and MicroStrategy.
The acquisition of Tagomi, the keystone of Coinbase’s institutional offering, wasannouncedin May 2020. The deal closed in August 2020.
• Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show
• Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show || Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show: When Paul Tudor Jones bet1% to 2%of his assets onbitcoinin May it was unclear where the billionaire had bought his crypto, or how. The industry remained uncertain if his investment was direct. After all, his hedge fund had startedflirtingwith bitcoin futures only days before.
But in the year since, his firm, the $44.5 billion Tudor Investment Corporation, has indeed established rails for direct crypto ownership. It secured custodial ties with institutional powerhouses Coinbase and Bakkt, according to new filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Coinbase Custody Trust Company, Bakkt Trust Company and Tagomi Trading LLC (the institutional brokerage firm Coinbase bought inMay 2020) all provide custodial services to Tudor Jones’ family-only hedge fund, the documents state.
Related:Crypto Trading App Atani Raises $6.25M
The filings provide a rare glimpse into the hush-hush world of institutional crypto dealmaking, where well-heeled clients pile into an asset class bankers once deemed absurd. Many, like Tudor Jones, see bitcoin as an inflation hedge, and their ranks are swelling in the pandemic economy.
They’re also playing a key role in the 2020-2021 bull market. On-chain data shows whales bought over 500,000 BTC in the final months of 2020, according to Chainalysis.
Against this backdrop are service providers like Coinbase that occasionallytouttheir institutional clients as they race to capture yet more hedge funders’ dollars. But Coinbase, which did not comment for this article, never revealed its links to Paul Tudor Jones.
Representatives for Tudor Group and Bakkt did not respond to CoinDesk’s requests for comment.
Related:New Privacy Coin Iron Fish Launches Testnet With $5.3M in Funding
For now, Tudor Jones appears to be restricting direct crypto exposure to a small corner of his clients. “Tudor Family Fund II,” which is open to relatives and close associates of the macro king, was the only one of Tudor Investment Corp.’s eight hedge funds to disclose crypto custodians on the firm’s annual Form ADV, filed March 31.
Not even the $27 billion Tudor BVI Global Fund, which last yearpresaged Tudor Jones’ bitcoin romancewhen it jumped into crypto futures in early May, has any industry tie-ups, according to similar Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The Tudor Jones family fund was worth $1 billion at last check but the chances of all that being bitcoin are slim to none. The exclusive fund maintains a vast network of partners in the custodian and prime brokerage space – names like Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse – that suggest broad exposure to the global markets.
But a wider swath of Tudor clients nonetheless appears poised for direct crypto exposure, according to the asset manager’s latest regulatory risk brochure. It included an entire section on the risks of investing in crypto for the first time in its four-decade history.
“Certain Clients are permitted to enter into cryptocurrency transactions as described in the relevant Offering Materials,” the document states, through “direct investment on a spot basis or indirect investment” in crypto derivatives. Notably, the firm is not holding itself to crypto futures contracts.
The document does not specify what it means by “certain clients.” However, in a section describing what investment strategies are only available to “proprietary accounts” like the family fund, it does not list cryptocurrency transactions.
Tudor Investment Corp. is not the first big-name asset manager to loudly tout its crypto bets while keeping its custody links more quiet.
Britain’s Ruffer Investment pulled a similar strategy when it bought $745 million in bitcoin last November without revealing who was holding the coins. (CoinDesk laterrevealedCoinbase as the custodian.)
The soon-to-be publicly traded Coinbase has expanded well beyond its roots as a retail exchange. The firm has served headline-grabbing clients like Ruffer, Tesla and MicroStrategy.
The acquisition of Tagomi, the keystone of Coinbase’s institutional offering, wasannouncedin May 2020. The deal closed in August 2020.
• Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show
• Coinbase and Bakkt Are Behind Paul Tudor Jones’ Bitcoin Bets, SEC Documents Show || Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022: So far this year, publicly traded Marathon Patent Group (Nasdaq: MARA) has mined 196BTCworth $11.5 million at current prices, and the firm plans to expand its bitcoin mining fleet to more than 100,000 ASICs by the end of January 2022.
The newly mined coins bring Marathon’s bitcoin treasury up to 5,134.2 BTC (roughly $300 million), per an announcement. Marathon’s stockjumped7% on the news and closed at $56.56.
Also in Q1, Marathon received 10,300 top-of-the-line Bitmain s-19 Pros, which are more powerful than most other hardware on the market.
Related:Coinbase, Fidelity, Square Form Crypto Lobbying Group
The Las Vegas-based firm will receive recurring shipments from Bitmain throughout the year with the goal of having over 100,000 ASICs online by the end of January 2022, giving Marathon’s operations anestimated hashrate of 10.3 exahashesper second (EH/s). These purchases come after the company raised hundreds of millions fromstock offeringsand otherfinancingover the past year.
Marathon’s aggressive expansion is in step with the other big names in the mining industry. New machines are just now coming online after heavy demand dammed-up the ASIC supply chain, and Bitcoin’s mining difficultyrecently hit an all-time high in responseto the flood of hashrate. (Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is a self-correcting algorithm that makes mining bitcoin harder or easier depending on market conditions.)
Compass Mining CEO Whit Gibbs previously told CoinDesk this trend shows no signs of stopping this year. Marathon’s mammoth ASIC orders gives proof to that.
“The pending flood of hashrate about to enter the market will only continue pushing bitcoin’s mining difficulty higher, which should track with bitcoin’s price,” Gibbs said.
• Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022
• Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022
• Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022 || Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022: So far this year, publicly traded Marathon Patent Group (Nasdaq: MARA) has mined 196 BTC worth $11.5 million at current prices, and the firm plans to expand its bitcoin mining fleet to more than 100,000 ASICs by the end of January 2022. The newly mined coins bring Marathon’s bitcoin treasury up to 5,134.2 BTC (roughly $300 million), per an announcement. Marathon’s stock jumped 7% on the news and closed at $56.56. Also in Q1, Marathon received 10,300 top-of-the-line Bitmain s-19 Pros, which are more powerful than most other hardware on the market. Related: Coinbase, Fidelity, Square Form Crypto Lobbying Group The Las Vegas-based firm will receive recurring shipments from Bitmain throughout the year with the goal of having over 100,000 ASICs online by the end of January 2022, giving Marathon’s operations an estimated hashrate of 10.3 exahashes per second (EH/s). These purchases come after the company raised hundreds of millions from stock offerings and other financing over the past year. Marathon’s aggressive expansion is in step with the other big names in the mining industry. New machines are just now coming online after heavy demand dammed-up the ASIC supply chain, and Bitcoin’s mining difficulty recently hit an all-time high in response to the flood of hashrate. (Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is a self-correcting algorithm that makes mining bitcoin harder or easier depending on market conditions.) Compass Mining CEO Whit Gibbs previously told CoinDesk this trend shows no signs of stopping this year. Marathon’s mammoth ASIC orders gives proof to that. “The pending flood of hashrate about to enter the market will only continue pushing bitcoin’s mining difficulty higher, which should track with bitcoin’s price,” Gibbs said. Related Stories Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022 Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022 Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022 || Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022: So far this year, publicly traded Marathon Patent Group (Nasdaq: MARA) has mined 196BTCworth $11.5 million at current prices, and the firm plans to expand its bitcoin mining fleet to more than 100,000 ASICs by the end of January 2022.
The newly mined coins bring Marathon’s bitcoin treasury up to 5,134.2 BTC (roughly $300 million), per an announcement. Marathon’s stockjumped7% on the news and closed at $56.56.
Also in Q1, Marathon received 10,300 top-of-the-line Bitmain s-19 Pros, which are more powerful than most other hardware on the market.
Related:Coinbase, Fidelity, Square Form Crypto Lobbying Group
The Las Vegas-based firm will receive recurring shipments from Bitmain throughout the year with the goal of having over 100,000 ASICs online by the end of January 2022, giving Marathon’s operations anestimated hashrate of 10.3 exahashesper second (EH/s). These purchases come after the company raised hundreds of millions fromstock offeringsand otherfinancingover the past year.
Marathon’s aggressive expansion is in step with the other big names in the mining industry. New machines are just now coming online after heavy demand dammed-up the ASIC supply chain, and Bitcoin’s mining difficultyrecently hit an all-time high in responseto the flood of hashrate. (Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is a self-correcting algorithm that makes mining bitcoin harder or easier depending on market conditions.)
Compass Mining CEO Whit Gibbs previously told CoinDesk this trend shows no signs of stopping this year. Marathon’s mammoth ASIC orders gives proof to that.
“The pending flood of hashrate about to enter the market will only continue pushing bitcoin’s mining difficulty higher, which should track with bitcoin’s price,” Gibbs said.
• Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022
• Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022
• Marathon Patent Mined 196 Bitcoin in Q1, Sees Having 100K+ Miners Online by Early 2022 || Dow, S&P Reach New All-Time Highs; Nasdaq Within 3%: At the closing bell for the first trading day of a new week, both the Dow and S&P 500 have set new all-time highs: +1.12% (374 points) and +1.44% (58 points), respectively. The Nasdaq finished up at its highest level in eight weeks, +1.67%, on strength in the Tech sector and Tesla TSLA . The index is now within 3% of its own all-time high. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.49% on the day. New Services economic prints came out this morning after the regular trading session opened, with March PMI Services revised up to 60.4 today from 60.0 in its preliminary read, as well as 20 basis points higher than consensus. This marks the fastest output of growth since July 14th of last year, while new businesses expanded the most in six years. This also measured the highest input cost inflation ever recorded (the survey began in October 2009). It’s all-time high was 61.0 in mid-2014. ISM Services for March came in even stronger: 63.7% on the headline was the highest month-over-month jump on record (this survey began in the mid-1990s), from 55.3% reported for February. The segment growth by category read like catapults: Business Activity 69.4% vs. 55.5% a month ago; New Orders 67.2% vs. 51.9%; Employment 57.2% vs. 52.7; and Pricing 74.0% vs. 71.8%. The two segments that came in lower were Inventories: 54.0% vs. 58.9% and New Exports: 55.5% vs. 57.6%. Bitcoin gained a modest 2% on the day, while the yield on the 10-year bond remained flat at 1.71%. After a couple weeks of accelerating rates on the 10-year, which temporarily shook investors out of their bullish stance, this has now plateaued at a level still 30 basis points below what the Fed targets as optimum inflation. In other words, economic data is firing on all cylinders at the moment — what’s not to like? For the remainder of the week, we’ll see new reads on Job Openings, the Trade Deficit, minutes from the last FOMC meeting and Consumer Credit — all for February. There will also be a fresh Producer Price Index (PPI) for March at the end of the week, and of course Thursday’s Jobless Claims. Aside from costs of material goods going and staying higher, pushing price points higher and limiting overall growth, there appears to be very little to take issue with at present. Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>> Story continues Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research Reports Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || Dow, S&P Reach New All-Time Highs; Nasdaq Within 3%: At the closing bell for the first trading day of a new week, both the Dow and S&P 500 have set new all-time highs: +1.12% (374 points) and +1.44% (58 points), respectively. The Nasdaq finished up at its highest level in eight weeks, +1.67%, on strength in the Tech sector andTesla TSLA. The index is now within 3% of its own all-time high. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.49% on the day.New Services economic prints came out this morning after the regular trading session opened, with MarchPMI Servicesrevised up to 60.4 today from 60.0 in its preliminary read, as well as 20 basis points higher than consensus. This marks the fastest output of growth since July 14th of last year, while new businesses expanded the most in six years. This also measured the highest input cost inflation ever recorded (the survey began in October 2009). It’s all-time high was 61.0 in mid-2014.ISM Servicesfor March came in even stronger: 63.7% on the headline was the highest month-over-month jump on record (this survey began in the mid-1990s), from 55.3% reported for February. The segment growth by category read like catapults: Business Activity 69.4% vs. 55.5% a month ago; New Orders 67.2% vs. 51.9%; Employment 57.2% vs. 52.7; and Pricing 74.0% vs. 71.8%. The two segments that came in lower were Inventories: 54.0% vs. 58.9% and New Exports: 55.5% vs. 57.6%.Bitcoingained a modest 2% on the day, while the yield on the10-year bondremained flat at 1.71%. After a couple weeks of accelerating rates on the 10-year, which temporarily shook investors out of their bullish stance, this has now plateaued at a level still 30 basis points below what the Fed targets as optimum inflation. In other words, economic data is firing on all cylinders at the moment — what’s not to like?For the remainder of the week, we’ll see new reads on Job Openings, the Trade Deficit, minutes from the last FOMC meeting and Consumer Credit — all for February. There will also be a fresh Producer Price Index (PPI) for March at the end of the week, and of course Thursday’s Jobless Claims. Aside from costs of material goods going and staying higher, pushing price points higher and limiting overall growth, there appears to be very little to take issue with at present.Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.
Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.
See 3 crypto-related stocks now >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research ReportsInvesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research ReportsSPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || Stock Market Today: Jobs Jubilee Drives Fresh Highs in Dow, S&P 500: Getty Images Wall Street had a full three days to digest the March jobs report, and it's clear investors liked what they saw. The Labor Department reported Friday, a stock-market holiday , that the U.S. added 916,000 jobs last month – a massive beat of economists' expectations for 647,000 additions. It also was a significant jump from February's 468,000 new jobs – a number that itself was revised upward by nearly 100,000. SEE MORE 21 Top Stock Picks the Analysts Love for 2021 The report "emphasizes the strong recovery that is beginning to take shape in the service sector of the economy," says Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management. "With 280k jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector added, it is a clear signal that pockets of the economy that have been hit by pandemic restrictions are starting to come back to life." Further bolstering that case was the Institute for Supply Management's March service reading, which rose to 63.7 from 55.3 in February, shattering expectations for a 59.0 reading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.1%) hit a record high of 33,527, led by gains in Walgreens ( WBA , +3.7%), Intel ( INTC , +3.1%) and Walmart ( WMT , +2.8%). The S&P 500 also recorded a new high-water mark, up 1.4% to 4,077. Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. Other action in the stock market today: The small-cap Russell 2000 improved by 0.5% to 2,264. Global COVID outbreaks and an OPEC+ vote to increase production sent U.S. crude oil futures 4.5% lower to $58.69 per barrel. Gold futures were marginally higher to $1,728.80 per ounce. Bitcoin prices finished 0.2% higher on Monday to reach $59,006. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) stock chart for 040521 YCharts SEE MORE 7 Big Pharmaceutical Stocks for Bigger Income FAANGs Start to Look Sharper, Too The Nasdaq Composite remains a few hundred points shy of its February highs, but it still had itself a day, climbing 1.7% to 13,705. Story continues The tech-heavy index was propelled in part by Tesla ( TSLA ), which jumped 4.4% along with several other electric vehicle stocks Monday. Wedbush technology analyst Dan Ives upgraded Tesla to "Outperform" and raised his price target to $1,000 amid several drivers, including EV-friendly initiatives in President Joe Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan . Also heading higher were all of the "FAANGs," best among them Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL , +4.2%) and Facebook ( FB , +3.4%) – welcome news for the group of mega-cap tech and tech-adjacent stocks that easily outstripped the major indices in 2020 but have collectively simmered this year, underperforming the S&P 500 on average. Most of the analyst community remains bullish on the group, though each of these large companies has a more difficult row to hoe in 2021. Should you buy the FAANGs now? Consider the challenges faced by each of these five widely held stocks in the months ahead – and what, if anything, they're doing to fight back. SEE MORE 65 Best Dividend Stocks You Can Count On in 2021 || Stock Market Today: Jobs Jubilee Drives Fresh Highs in Dow, S&P 500: Getty Images Wall Street had a full three days to digest the March jobs report, and it's clear investors liked what they saw. The Labor Department reported Friday, a stock-market holiday , that the U.S. added 916,000 jobs last month – a massive beat of economists' expectations for 647,000 additions. It also was a significant jump from February's 468,000 new jobs – a number that itself was revised upward by nearly 100,000. SEE MORE 21 Top Stock Picks the Analysts Love for 2021 The report "emphasizes the strong recovery that is beginning to take shape in the service sector of the economy," says Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management. "With 280k jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector added, it is a clear signal that pockets of the economy that have been hit by pandemic restrictions are starting to come back to life." Further bolstering that case was the Institute for Supply Management's March service reading, which rose to 63.7 from 55.3 in February, shattering expectations for a 59.0 reading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.1%) hit a record high of 33,527, led by gains in Walgreens ( WBA , +3.7%), Intel ( INTC , +3.1%) and Walmart ( WMT , +2.8%). The S&P 500 also recorded a new high-water mark, up 1.4% to 4,077. Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. Other action in the stock market today: The small-cap Russell 2000 improved by 0.5% to 2,264. Global COVID outbreaks and an OPEC+ vote to increase production sent U.S. crude oil futures 4.5% lower to $58.69 per barrel. Gold futures were marginally higher to $1,728.80 per ounce. Bitcoin prices finished 0.2% higher on Monday to reach $59,006. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) stock chart for 040521 YCharts SEE MORE 7 Big Pharmaceutical Stocks for Bigger Income FAANGs Start to Look Sharper, Too The Nasdaq Composite remains a few hundred points shy of its February highs, but it still had itself a day, climbing 1.7% to 13,705. Story continues The tech-heavy index was propelled in part by Tesla ( TSLA ), which jumped 4.4% along with several other electric vehicle stocks Monday. Wedbush technology analyst Dan Ives upgraded Tesla to "Outperform" and raised his price target to $1,000 amid several drivers, including EV-friendly initiatives in President Joe Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan . Also heading higher were all of the "FAANGs," best among them Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL , +4.2%) and Facebook ( FB , +3.4%) – welcome news for the group of mega-cap tech and tech-adjacent stocks that easily outstripped the major indices in 2020 but have collectively simmered this year, underperforming the S&P 500 on average. Most of the analyst community remains bullish on the group, though each of these large companies has a more difficult row to hoe in 2021. Should you buy the FAANGs now? Consider the challenges faced by each of these five widely held stocks in the months ahead – and what, if anything, they're doing to fight back. SEE MORE 65 Best Dividend Stocks You Can Count On in 2021 || Bitcoins Lightning Network Now Has 10K Active Nodes and $69M in Locked Value: The number of nodes on Bitcoins Lightning network has nearly doubled year over year, according to public data . The Lightning Network a layer atop the Bitcoin blockchain that uses its own special rules to facilitate cheaper, faster transactions had about 5,335 public nodes in April 2020. Now that number sits at 10,348, a roughly 94% increase. This figure only includes nodes with public connections, however, and the real number is likely higher when factoring nodes with private connections. As Bitcoins on-chain fees grow alongside bitcoin s price, scaling technologies like Lightning offer users a cheaper and faster way to transact. If bitcoin will ever be used as a day-to-day currency, a scaling solution like Lightning is paramount, and avid bitcoiners even use the network today to purchase goods and services. Related: Coinbase, Fidelity, Square Form Crypto Lobbying Group Consider this Iranian Lightning user who used bitcoin to buy a PlayStation Now pass that is otherwise restricted by sanctions: With Bitcoins Lightning network seeing more activity than ever, the total number of payment channels on the network (the two-way payment avenues that power Lightnings plumbing) is now over 45,000. The Lightning Network currently holds 1,185 BTC, worth some $69 million. Lightning Network adoption Though introduced in 2017, the past two years have been critical for Lightnings growth. At the end of 2020, crypto exchange Kraken announced it would support the feature. Before Kraken, the only prominent exchanges to adopt Lightning were Bitfinex and the bitcoin-only River Financial. Exchange integrations make it cheaper for their customers to deposit and withdraw bitcoin, often paying cents in fees instead of the single or double-digit dollar amounts they may pay Bitcoins main network. Related: Crypto Options Exchange Deribit Launches Bitcoin Volatility Index Since Krakens announcement, the U.K.s CoinCorner , Vietnams oldest exchange and OKCoin followed suit with their own Lightning integrations. Story continues In addition, Jack Mallers Strike a Venmo-esque payment app that uses Lightning to settle USD and other fiat balances came out of beta this year and is forthcoming full rollouts in a number of markets. With businesses adding Lightning, the networks liquidity and routing capabilities are improving. User-friendly apps like Strike are also making it easier to onboard users to what has historically been an even more unwieldy technology for the uninitiated than Bitcoin. Related Stories Bitcoins Lightning Network Now Has 10K Active Nodes and $69M in Locked Value Bitcoins Lightning Network Now Has 10K Active Nodes and $69M in Locked Value
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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56048.94, 58323.95, 58245.00, 59793.23, 60204.96, 59893.45, 63503.46, 63109.70, 63314.01, 61572.79
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02, 9525.75, 9439.12, 9700.41, 9461.06, 10167.27, 9529.80, 9656.72, 9800.64, 9665.53, 9653.68, 9758.85, 9771.49, 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58, 9190.85, 9137.99, 9228.33, 9123.41, 9087.30, 9132.49, 9073.94, 9375.47, 9252.28, 9428.33, 9277.97, 9278.81, 9240.35, 9276.50, 9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84, 9132.23, 9151.39, 9159.04, 9185.82, 9164.23, 9374.89, 9525.36, 9581.07, 9536.89, 9677.11, 9905.17, 10990.87, 10912.82, 11100.47, 11111.21, 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05, 11675.74, 11878.11, 11410.53, 11584.93, 11784.14, 11768.87, 11865.70, 11892.80, 12254.40, 11991.23, 11758.28, 11878.37.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-08-20]
Volume: 20175242945, RSI (14-day): 60.58, 50-day EMA: 10786.12, 200-day EMA: 9378.48
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1933.80, Gold RSI: 50.63
Oil Price: 42.58, Oil RSI: 58.19
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises: South Africa’s financial watchdog is investigating Mirror Trading International (MTI), a purportedly lucrative crypto trading network that Texas state regulators last month declared as a fraud. At the very least, the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) intoned in its Tuesday announcement that MTI is operating a financial service without a license. MTI told FSCA its bots conduct high-frequency derivatives trades with client’s pooled bitcoin , consistently generating 10% monthly returns. But FSCA said it “has much greater concern” about the legitimacy of MTI’s purported business model. It said in a statement that such a consistent high yield “seems far-fetched and unrealistic.” Regulators are now parsing through statements made by a former platform broker for MTI that may contradict MTI’s self-descriptions. MTI has “partially cooperated” in the inquiry, according to FSCA, and informed clients of the investigation. FSCA recommended that all clients jump ship post-haste: “We recommend that clients request refunds into their own accounts as soon as possible.” MTI CEO Johann Steynberg denied the trading club is a scam in a letter to investors obtained by the news site Bitcoin.com . FSCA’s inquiry comes just over a month after the Texas State Securities Board ordered MTI and its associates to “cease and desist” what it called a multi-level marketing scam. Related Stories Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises || Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises: South Africa’s financial watchdog is investigating Mirror Trading International (MTI), a purportedly lucrative crypto trading network that Texas state regulators last month declared as a fraud.
• At the very least, the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) intoned in itsTuesday announcementthat MTI is operating a financial service without a license.
• MTI told FSCA its bots conduct high-frequency derivatives trades with client’s pooledbitcoin, consistently generating 10% monthly returns.
• But FSCA said it “has much greater concern” about the legitimacy of MTI’s purported business model. It said in a statement that such a consistent high yield “seems far-fetched and unrealistic.”
• Regulators are now parsing through statements made by a former platform broker for MTI that may contradict MTI’s self-descriptions.
• MTI has “partially cooperated” in the inquiry, according to FSCA, and informed clients of the investigation. FSCA recommended that all clients jump ship post-haste: “We recommend that clients request refunds into their own accounts as soon as possible.”
• MTI CEO Johann Steynberg denied the trading club is a scamin a letter to investorsobtained by the news siteBitcoin.com.
• FSCA’s inquiry comes just over a month after theTexas State Securities Board orderedMTI and its associates to “cease and desist” what it called a multi-level marketing scam.
• Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises
• Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises
• Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises
• Mirror Trading Clients Should Take Their Money and Run, South African Regulator Advises || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD).
Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.com.
ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BC
About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance.
ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers.
ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services.
For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com.
Contact:
Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected]
For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com
SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/602490/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 / ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com . ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BC About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . Contact: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/602490/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD).
Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.com.
ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BC
About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance.
ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers.
ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services.
For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com.
Contact:
Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected]
For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com
SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/602490/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising: Bitcoin traders are hitting the sell button. On Ethereum, DeFi is boosting fees again. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $11,658 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 2.6% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,613-$12,100 BTC below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin traded as low as $11,613 Tuesday. Traders continued selling the world’s oldest cryptocurrency after it hit a 2020 high of $12,485 on Monday . For the time being, it may struggle to break much higher from that. Read More: Bitcoin’s Bull Run Is Slowing – Pullback Now Expected Related: Tron Loses 23% of Its $4.3B USDT Reserves to DeFi Hotbed Ethereum “Too much resistance at $12,000,” said over-the-counter crypto trader Alessandro Andreotti. “So it’s just going to go sideways for a while.” Katie Stockton, analyst for Fairlead Strategies, expects a weaker bitcoin market ahead. “There are signs of short-term upside exhaustion supporting continuation of today’s pullback over the next week or two,” said Stockton. Traders In the bitcoin options market don’t expect too drastic a pullback, however, as most strikes are well over $10,000. Many traders remain bullish despite the recent price drop, seeing the decline as a bit of a respite before rising. “Last year’s high was $13,852,” noted Rupert Douglas of institutional crypto broker Koine. “We are going to test that, but whether we have a significant pullback to around $10,000 first is a tough call,“ Douglas added. First it must get over that $12,000 hurdle, and traders like Andreotti see that level as all that stands in the way of a return to bullish territory. “I believe that in the next attempt at breaking $12,000 we could have the next major support as high as $13,500,” added Andreotti. Related: First Mover: Collapsing Bitcoin Futures Premium Offers Glimpse of New Digital Money Market Story continues Read More: SpaceChain Secured Transfer From International Space Station Ethereum’s gas pain The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was down Wednesday, trading around $398 and slipping 5.8% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More: $200M Staked in YAM-Inspired DeFi Protocol in Under 12 Hours After jumping to an average all-time high of $6.68 on Aug. 13, Ethereum fees dropped briefly below $3. However, they are now rising again, currently at $3.59, according to data from aggregator Glassnode. The fees are required to make transactions on the network, including trading on decentralized exchanges, or DEXs. Peter Chan, a trader at firm OneBit Quant, says the network’s fee costs, also known as gas, are problematic for Ethereum’s DeFi market. “Everyone in DeFi was all over the place, including us, the last couple of days due to the insane gas cost,” he said. The bearish market trend, in addition to the fees, are problematic for the ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies, Chan told CoinDesk. “DeFi coins are going downhill now.” Read More: Blockchain Firm HOPR Releases Mixnet Hardware Node for Ethereum Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly in the red Wednesday. One notable winner as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): chainlink (LINK) + 0.43% Read More: Money Legos Turn ‘Exuberant’ as Chainlink Stripped of ‘DeFi’ Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): tron (TRX) – 10% litecoin (LTC) – 9.9% eos (EOS) – 9.6% Read More: Barclays’ Former Russian Bank Has Issued a Token-Collateralized Loan Equities: Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the green 0.26% as Japanese export numbers for July were better than expected . In Europe, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.60% as British Airways owner IAG stock gained 7.6% on attempts to speed up airport quarantine rules . The United States’ S&P 500 slipped 0.10% as the Federal Reserve remained cautious on the economic outlook amid the coronavirus pandemic . Read More: UK Regulator Grants License to Digital Security Exchange Archax Commodities: Oil is up 0.66%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $42.80. Gold was in the red 3% and at $1,940 as of press time. Read More: Riot Supercharges Mining With 8,000 More Rigs as Bitcoin Price Soars Treasurys: U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Wednesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year, in the red 2.6%. Read More: Binance-Owned WazirX Announces DeFi Project With Matic Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising: Bitcoin traders are hitting the sell button. On Ethereum, DeFi is boosting fees again.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $11,658 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 2.6% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,613-$12,100
• BTC below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin traded as low as $11,613 Tuesday. Traders continued selling the world’s oldest cryptocurrency after it hit a2020 high of $12,485 on Monday. For the time being, it may struggle to break much higher from that.
Read More:Bitcoin’s Bull Run Is Slowing – Pullback Now Expected
Related:Tron Loses 23% of Its $4.3B USDT Reserves to DeFi Hotbed Ethereum
“Too much resistance at $12,000,” said over-the-counter crypto trader Alessandro Andreotti. “So it’s just going to go sideways for a while.”
Katie Stockton, analyst for Fairlead Strategies, expects a weaker bitcoin market ahead. “There are signs of short-term upside exhaustion supporting continuation of today’s pullback over the next week or two,” said Stockton. Traders In the bitcoin options market don’t expect too drastic a pullback, however, as most strikes are well over $10,000.
Many traders remain bullish despite the recent price drop, seeing the decline as a bit of a respite before rising. “Last year’s high was $13,852,” noted Rupert Douglas of institutional crypto broker Koine. “We are going to test that, but whether we have a significant pullback to around $10,000 first is a tough call,“ Douglas added.
First it must get over that $12,000 hurdle, and traders like Andreotti see that level as all that stands in the way of a return to bullish territory. “I believe that in the next attempt at breaking $12,000 we could have the next major support as high as $13,500,” added Andreotti.
Related:First Mover: Collapsing Bitcoin Futures Premium Offers Glimpse of New Digital Money Market
Read More:SpaceChain Secured Transfer From International Space Station
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was down Wednesday, trading around $398 and slipping 5.8% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More:$200M Staked in YAM-Inspired DeFi Protocol in Under 12 Hours
After jumping to an average all-time high of $6.68 on Aug. 13, Ethereum fees dropped briefly below $3. However, they are now rising again, currently at $3.59, according to data from aggregator Glassnode. The fees are required to make transactions on the network, including trading on decentralized exchanges, or DEXs.
Peter Chan, a trader at firm OneBit Quant, says the network’s fee costs, also known as gas, are problematic for Ethereum’s DeFi market. “Everyone in DeFi was all over the place, including us, the last couple of days due to the insane gas cost,” he said. The bearish market trend, in addition to the fees, are problematic for the ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies, Chan told CoinDesk. “DeFi coins are going downhill now.”
Read More:Blockchain Firm HOPR Releases Mixnet Hardware Node for Ethereum
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in the red Wednesday. One notable winner as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• chainlink(LINK) + 0.43%
Read More:Money Legos Turn ‘Exuberant’ as Chainlink Stripped of ‘DeFi’
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• tron(TRX) – 10%
• litecoin(LTC) – 9.9%
• eos(EOS) – 9.6%
Read More:Barclays’ Former Russian Bank Has Issued a Token-Collateralized Loan
Equities:
• Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the green 0.26% asJapanese export numbers for July were better than expected.
• In Europe, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.60% asBritish Airways owner IAG stock gained 7.6% on attempts to speed up airport quarantine rules.
• The United States’ S&P 500 slipped 0.10% as theFederal Reserve remained cautious on the economic outlook amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Read More:UK Regulator Grants License to Digital Security Exchange Archax
Commodities:
• Oil is up 0.66%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $42.80.
• Gold was in the red 3% and at $1,940 as of press time.
Read More:Riot Supercharges Mining With 8,000 More Rigs as Bitcoin Price Soars
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Wednesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year, in the red 2.6%.
Read More:Binance-Owned WazirX Announces DeFi Project With Matic
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising: Bitcoin traders are hitting the sell button. On Ethereum, DeFi is boosting fees again.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $11,658 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 2.6% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,613-$12,100
• BTC below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin traded as low as $11,613 Tuesday. Traders continued selling the world’s oldest cryptocurrency after it hit a2020 high of $12,485 on Monday. For the time being, it may struggle to break much higher from that.
Read More:Bitcoin’s Bull Run Is Slowing – Pullback Now Expected
Related:Tron Loses 23% of Its $4.3B USDT Reserves to DeFi Hotbed Ethereum
“Too much resistance at $12,000,” said over-the-counter crypto trader Alessandro Andreotti. “So it’s just going to go sideways for a while.”
Katie Stockton, analyst for Fairlead Strategies, expects a weaker bitcoin market ahead. “There are signs of short-term upside exhaustion supporting continuation of today’s pullback over the next week or two,” said Stockton. Traders In the bitcoin options market don’t expect too drastic a pullback, however, as most strikes are well over $10,000.
Many traders remain bullish despite the recent price drop, seeing the decline as a bit of a respite before rising. “Last year’s high was $13,852,” noted Rupert Douglas of institutional crypto broker Koine. “We are going to test that, but whether we have a significant pullback to around $10,000 first is a tough call,“ Douglas added.
First it must get over that $12,000 hurdle, and traders like Andreotti see that level as all that stands in the way of a return to bullish territory. “I believe that in the next attempt at breaking $12,000 we could have the next major support as high as $13,500,” added Andreotti.
Related:First Mover: Collapsing Bitcoin Futures Premium Offers Glimpse of New Digital Money Market
Read More:SpaceChain Secured Transfer From International Space Station
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was down Wednesday, trading around $398 and slipping 5.8% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More:$200M Staked in YAM-Inspired DeFi Protocol in Under 12 Hours
After jumping to an average all-time high of $6.68 on Aug. 13, Ethereum fees dropped briefly below $3. However, they are now rising again, currently at $3.59, according to data from aggregator Glassnode. The fees are required to make transactions on the network, including trading on decentralized exchanges, or DEXs.
Peter Chan, a trader at firm OneBit Quant, says the network’s fee costs, also known as gas, are problematic for Ethereum’s DeFi market. “Everyone in DeFi was all over the place, including us, the last couple of days due to the insane gas cost,” he said. The bearish market trend, in addition to the fees, are problematic for the ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies, Chan told CoinDesk. “DeFi coins are going downhill now.”
Read More:Blockchain Firm HOPR Releases Mixnet Hardware Node for Ethereum
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in the red Wednesday. One notable winner as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• chainlink(LINK) + 0.43%
Read More:Money Legos Turn ‘Exuberant’ as Chainlink Stripped of ‘DeFi’
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• tron(TRX) – 10%
• litecoin(LTC) – 9.9%
• eos(EOS) – 9.6%
Read More:Barclays’ Former Russian Bank Has Issued a Token-Collateralized Loan
Equities:
• Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the green 0.26% asJapanese export numbers for July were better than expected.
• In Europe, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.60% asBritish Airways owner IAG stock gained 7.6% on attempts to speed up airport quarantine rules.
• The United States’ S&P 500 slipped 0.10% as theFederal Reserve remained cautious on the economic outlook amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Read More:UK Regulator Grants License to Digital Security Exchange Archax
Commodities:
• Oil is up 0.66%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $42.80.
• Gold was in the red 3% and at $1,940 as of press time.
Read More:Riot Supercharges Mining With 8,000 More Rigs as Bitcoin Price Soars
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Wednesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year, in the red 2.6%.
Read More:Binance-Owned WazirX Announces DeFi Project With Matic
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Sinks to $11.6K as Ether’s Gas Keeps Rising || Is the Postal Service Working On Blockchain-Based Voting?: Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics Last year, the U.S. Postal Service applied for a patent that describes a blockchain -based "secure voting system." Last week, it became public record. The system , if approved, would involve mailing citizens a computer-readable code that validates both identity and ballot information, all while maintaining anonymity. It could also account for most of President Trump's unfounded claims about mail-in voting fraud. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is in the crosshairs of a mail-in voting clash, with President Donald Trump blocking supplementary funding for the independent mail agency—which has financially suffered throughout the COVID-19 pandemic—and Democrats likening the move to "sabotage." It all adds up to disaster for the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. The USPS has warned all 50 states and Washington, D.C. that mail-in ballots might not arrive to election offices in a timely manner for counting, and mail-sorting machines are disappearing from facility lines with little to no explanation. Dive deeper. ➡ Read best-in-class tech features and get unlimited access to Pop Mech , starting now. Now, the USPS appears to be working on a 21st-century alternative to traditional absentee ballots: blockchain-based mail-in voting. If true, it could ease Trump's fears about voting fraud . The Postal Service filed a patent application on February 7, 2019 for a "secure voting system." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) made the application public on August 13, following a routine 18-month quiet period. The new-age voting system, if approved and implemented, would use a combination of traditional mail and machine-readable code. Specifically, the USPS would deliver registered voters a barcode of sorts that confirms identity and ballot information when uploaded online. "The system separates voter identification and votes to ensure vote anonymity, and stores votes on a distributed ledger in a blockchain," the inventors explain in the patent abstract. Story continues Photo credit: USPS/USPTO Popular Mechanics reached out to the USPS for comment regarding the patent application. A spokesperson said the agency had no comment at this time. Blockchain technology is the underlying decentralized network that makes cryptocurrencies—or forms of digital money, like Bitcoin and Ethereum—possible. It uses a disparate network of computers to "mine" the currency. Because cryptocurrencies aren't issued by governments, and due to blockchain's distributed network, the digital currency is theoretically immune to malfeasance. This aligns with some of the claims in the patent application: Voters generally wish to be able to vote for elected officials or on other issues in a manner that is convenient and secure. Further, those holding elections wish to be able to ensure that election results have not been tampered with and that the results actually correspond to the votes that were cast. In some embodiments, a blockchain allows the tracking of the various types of necessary data in a way that is secure and allows others to easily confirm that data has not been altered. But because patents can take years to come to fruition as legitimate products or services—if at all, because the intellectual property sometimes never sees the light of day—this technology certainly won't be used in the 2020 election. And, because the patent application is provisional, there's always the chance the USPTO may not grant the patent at all. In the meantime, most registered voters are entitled to a mail-in ballot, one way or another, for the 2020 election, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center , a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that promotes "health, security, and opportunity for all Americans." In almost all states, voters who are concerned about the coronavirus pandemic are eligible to request a mail-in ballot from their election officials or will receive one automatically. Due to COVID-related concerns, voters in some states will be automatically mailed a mail ballot application to encourage you to vote that way. However, Trump has expressed currently unsubstantiated concerns that mail-in voting is ripe for fraud. In particular, the president has conveyed doubts that the person who cast the vote is actually the person whose name is on the ballot, and a general concern that the ballots could be tampered with once mailed. With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020 You Might Also Like This Device Can Send Messages Without Cell Service The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born || Is the Postal Service Working On Blockchain-Based Voting?: Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics Last year, the U.S. Postal Service applied for a patent that describes a blockchain -based "secure voting system." Last week, it became public record. The system , if approved, would involve mailing citizens a computer-readable code that validates both identity and ballot information, all while maintaining anonymity. It could also account for most of President Trump's unfounded claims about mail-in voting fraud. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is in the crosshairs of a mail-in voting clash, with President Donald Trump blocking supplementary funding for the independent mail agency—which has financially suffered throughout the COVID-19 pandemic—and Democrats likening the move to "sabotage." It all adds up to disaster for the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. The USPS has warned all 50 states and Washington, D.C. that mail-in ballots might not arrive to election offices in a timely manner for counting, and mail-sorting machines are disappearing from facility lines with little to no explanation. Dive deeper. ➡ Read best-in-class tech features and get unlimited access to Pop Mech , starting now. Now, the USPS appears to be working on a 21st-century alternative to traditional absentee ballots: blockchain-based mail-in voting. If true, it could ease Trump's fears about voting fraud . The Postal Service filed a patent application on February 7, 2019 for a "secure voting system." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) made the application public on August 13, following a routine 18-month quiet period. The new-age voting system, if approved and implemented, would use a combination of traditional mail and machine-readable code. Specifically, the USPS would deliver registered voters a barcode of sorts that confirms identity and ballot information when uploaded online. "The system separates voter identification and votes to ensure vote anonymity, and stores votes on a distributed ledger in a blockchain," the inventors explain in the patent abstract. Story continues Photo credit: USPS/USPTO Popular Mechanics reached out to the USPS for comment regarding the patent application. A spokesperson said the agency had no comment at this time. Blockchain technology is the underlying decentralized network that makes cryptocurrencies—or forms of digital money, like Bitcoin and Ethereum—possible. It uses a disparate network of computers to "mine" the currency. Because cryptocurrencies aren't issued by governments, and due to blockchain's distributed network, the digital currency is theoretically immune to malfeasance. This aligns with some of the claims in the patent application: Voters generally wish to be able to vote for elected officials or on other issues in a manner that is convenient and secure. Further, those holding elections wish to be able to ensure that election results have not been tampered with and that the results actually correspond to the votes that were cast. In some embodiments, a blockchain allows the tracking of the various types of necessary data in a way that is secure and allows others to easily confirm that data has not been altered. But because patents can take years to come to fruition as legitimate products or services—if at all, because the intellectual property sometimes never sees the light of day—this technology certainly won't be used in the 2020 election. And, because the patent application is provisional, there's always the chance the USPTO may not grant the patent at all. In the meantime, most registered voters are entitled to a mail-in ballot, one way or another, for the 2020 election, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center , a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that promotes "health, security, and opportunity for all Americans." In almost all states, voters who are concerned about the coronavirus pandemic are eligible to request a mail-in ballot from their election officials or will receive one automatically. Due to COVID-related concerns, voters in some states will be automatically mailed a mail ballot application to encourage you to vote that way. However, Trump has expressed currently unsubstantiated concerns that mail-in voting is ripe for fraud. In particular, the president has conveyed doubts that the person who cast the vote is actually the person whose name is on the ballot, and a general concern that the ballots could be tampered with once mailed. With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020 You Might Also Like This Device Can Send Messages Without Cell Service The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born || bitFlyer Now Offers Cryptocurrency Exchange to Hawaii, As Part of Pilot Program to Promote Innovation: HONOLULU, HI / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 /bitFlyer USA, has announced that its cryptocurrency exchange will soon be available to customers in Hawaii.
The exchange will be offered in the Hawaii through the newly formed Digital Currency Innovation Lab, a partnership formed between the state ofHawaii's Department of Financial InstitutionsandHawaii Technology Development Corporation(HTDC). The pilot program is the first regulatory sandbox of its kind in the state and will allow cryptocurrency service providers to do business in Hawaii without obtaining a state money transmitter license for a period of two years.
Hawaii residents will now have the ability to easily buy and sell bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with USD through bitFlyer's intuitive "Direct Buy/Sell" platform, as well as their iOS or Android mobile apps.
Additionally, bitFlyer Lightning, the exchange's professional-grade trading platform, is available for sophisticated traders and institutional investors.
Yuzo Kano, CEO / Founder of bitFlyer USA, said: "Since many Japanese people live in or travel to Hawaii, it is the state that serves as a bridge between Japan and the US. Offering our service here is very significant as an exchange that originates in Japan. We are very happy to see Hawaiians using the world's best cryptocurrency exchange."
As the only exchange in the world licensed to operate in the US, Japan, and Europe, and the fourth exchange to receive the New York BitLicense, bitFlyer has been at the forefront of regulatory partnerships since its founding, and is excited to join the State of Hawaii in promoting innovation. The program will create a secure environment for Hawaii residents looking to access cryptocurrencies in a safe way, and will also provide regulators with the right tools and insights to develop thoughtful regulations.
Len Higashi, acting executive director of HTDC, added, "We congratulate bitFlyer on its successful admission into the Digital Currency Innovation Lab. We look forward to its participation to create a more vibrant virtual currency community in Hawaii."
The sandbox initiative marks the return of crypto exchanges to Hawaii, with the ultimate goal of seeing exchanges such as bitFlyer promoted to full licensees in the future.
Joel Edgerton, COO of bitFlyer USA, said: "We are happy to partner with the State of Hawaii to bring our world-class services here. Now residents in Hawaii have access to a trusted, licensed exchange to support their Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading."
Launched in San Francisco in 2017, bitFlyer USA now operates in 48 states and territories. bitFlyer, Inc. was formed in Tokyo in 2014 and has been Japan's largest exchange by volume for many years, with millions of customers around the globe.
About bitFlyer USA:bitFlyer USA is a subsidiary of bitFlyer Holdings, Inc., a leading bitcoin and blockchain company based in Japan. Its US office is located in San Francisco, California, where bitFlyer USA operates an exchange platform for US traders to buy and sell bitcoin and other digital currencies for US dollars safely, with low fees and latency. bitFlyer USA is licensed to engage in Virtual Currency Business Activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
CONTACT:Dan [email protected]+972-545-464-238
SOURCE:bitFlyer
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/602397/bitFlyer-Now-Offers-Cryptocurrency-Exchange-to-Hawaii-As-Part-of-Pilot-Program-to-Promote-Innovation || bitFlyer Now Offers Cryptocurrency Exchange to Hawaii, As Part of Pilot Program to Promote Innovation: HONOLULU, HI / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 / bitFlyer USA , has announced that its cryptocurrency exchange will soon be available to customers in Hawaii. The exchange will be offered in the Hawaii through the newly formed Digital Currency Innovation Lab, a partnership formed between the state of Hawaii's Department of Financial Institutions and Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC). The pilot program is the first regulatory sandbox of its kind in the state and will allow cryptocurrency service providers to do business in Hawaii without obtaining a state money transmitter license for a period of two years. Hawaii residents will now have the ability to easily buy and sell bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with USD through bitFlyer's intuitive "Direct Buy/Sell" platform, as well as their iOS or Android mobile apps. Additionally, bitFlyer Lightning, the exchange's professional-grade trading platform, is available for sophisticated traders and institutional investors. Yuzo Kano, CEO / Founder of bitFlyer USA, said: "Since many Japanese people live in or travel to Hawaii, it is the state that serves as a bridge between Japan and the US. Offering our service here is very significant as an exchange that originates in Japan. We are very happy to see Hawaiians using the world's best cryptocurrency exchange." As the only exchange in the world licensed to operate in the US, Japan, and Europe, and the fourth exchange to receive the New York BitLicense, bitFlyer has been at the forefront of regulatory partnerships since its founding, and is excited to join the State of Hawaii in promoting innovation. The program will create a secure environment for Hawaii residents looking to access cryptocurrencies in a safe way, and will also provide regulators with the right tools and insights to develop thoughtful regulations. Len Higashi, acting executive director of HTDC, added, "We congratulate bitFlyer on its successful admission into the Digital Currency Innovation Lab. We look forward to its participation to create a more vibrant virtual currency community in Hawaii." Story continues The sandbox initiative marks the return of crypto exchanges to Hawaii, with the ultimate goal of seeing exchanges such as bitFlyer promoted to full licensees in the future. Joel Edgerton, COO of bitFlyer USA, said: "We are happy to partner with the State of Hawaii to bring our world-class services here. Now residents in Hawaii have access to a trusted, licensed exchange to support their Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading." Launched in San Francisco in 2017, bitFlyer USA now operates in 48 states and territories. bitFlyer, Inc. was formed in Tokyo in 2014 and has been Japan's largest exchange by volume for many years, with millions of customers around the globe. About bitFlyer USA: bitFlyer USA is a subsidiary of bitFlyer Holdings, Inc., a leading bitcoin and blockchain company based in Japan. Its US office is located in San Francisco, California, where bitFlyer USA operates an exchange platform for US traders to buy and sell bitcoin and other digital currencies for US dollars safely, with low fees and latency. bitFlyer USA is licensed to engage in Virtual Currency Business Activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. CONTACT: Dan Edelstein [email protected] +972-545-464-238 SOURCE: bitFlyer View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/602397/bitFlyer-Now-Offers-Cryptocurrency-Exchange-to-Hawaii-As-Part-of-Pilot-Program-to-Promote-Innovation || Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy: Institutional demand for stablecoins may cool because yield on “carry trades” has been cut in half since Monday. The annualized rolling one-month futures basis shot as high as 28% at the start of the week on the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, the biggest in terms of open interest. That was the highest premium since February, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew . That premium, however, dropped to 14% in under 48 hours. In other words, the carry strategy, if initiated now and held until next Friday, will yield an annualized return of 14%, down from 28% on Monday. Related: First Mover: Collapsing Bitcoin Futures Premium Offers Glimpse of New Digital Money Market Carry trading, or cash and carry arbitrage, is a market-neutral strategy, one that seeks to profit from both increasing and decreasing prices in one or more markets. It involves buying the asset in the spot market and simultaneously selling a futures contract against it when the futures contract is trading at a premium to the spot price. See also: Bitcoin Price Holds Below $12K Even as Hashrate Hits All-Time High The premium, however, evaporates as the futures contract nears expiration and on the day of the settlement, the futures price converges with the spot price. Should futures draw high premiums, savvy traders initiate a carry strategy and lock in fixed returns. Futures markets usually trade at a premium to the spot market and the spread tends to widen during price rallies. The annualized premium rose roughly from 9% to 27% in the last two weeks of July as bitcoin’s price rose from $9,000 to $12,000 and it remained near that level going into August. Related: It's Now Cheaper to Buy One Bitcoin Than to Buy a Single DeFi Token YFI Traders could have locked in an annualized profit of 28% on Monday by buying bitcoin in the spot market and selling the front month futures contract on OKEx. Doing that trade now would still profit, but by only half as much. The decline in the carry strategy yield could also mean a cut in demand for dollar-backed stablecoins like tether ( USDT ). “Stablecoins are widely used as funding currencies and there has been a high demand for these dollar-backed cryptocurrencies from institutions,” Skew CEO Emmanuel Goh told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. Indeed, the carry trade has been one of the main reasons for the surge in stablecoin issuance seen this year. On Monday, the annualized cost of borrowing tether on the decentralized finance protocol Compound was 6.94%. Assuming carry traders borrowed USDT from Compound on Monday, holding the carry strategy until the August expiry, due next Friday, would generate a net yield of about 21% in annualized terms. (return of 28% from cash and carry adjusted for tether’s borrowing cost of 6.94%). Story continues See also: First Mover: Money Legos Turn ‘Exuberant’ as Chainlink Stripped of ‘DeFi’ If the same strategy were executed at press time by borrowing USDT, the net yield would be 6.3%. That’s because the cost of borrowing USDT is now 7.68% and the OKEx futures are trading at a premium of 14%. Put simply, carry trades have become far less attractive. As such, institutional demand for stablecoins could soften, as noted by Skew. The premium has declined sharply in the past 48 hours, possibly due to bitcoin’s failed breakout above $12,000 and resulting concern of deeper price pullbacks. The decline in premium may have been compounded by increased selling in futures as more traders piled into the cash and carry trade. Whenever futures trade at discount to spot prices, traders execute reverse cash and carry trade by buying futures and taking a short position in the spot market. Related Stories Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy View comments || Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy: Institutional demand for stablecoins may cool because yield on “carry trades” has been cut in half since Monday.
The annualized rolling one-month futures basis shot as high as 28% at the start of the week on the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, the biggest in terms of open interest. That was the highest premium since February, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firmSkew.
That premium, however, dropped to 14% in under 48 hours. In other words, the carry strategy, if initiated now and held until next Friday, will yield an annualized return of 14%, down from 28% on Monday.
Related:First Mover: Collapsing Bitcoin Futures Premium Offers Glimpse of New Digital Money Market
Carry trading, or cash and carry arbitrage, is a market-neutral strategy, one that seeks to profit from both increasing and decreasing prices in one or more markets. It involves buying the asset in the spot market and simultaneously selling a futures contract against it when the futures contract is trading at a premium to the spot price.
See also:Bitcoin Price Holds Below $12K Even as Hashrate Hits All-Time High
The premium, however, evaporates as the futures contract nears expiration and on the day of the settlement, the futures price converges with the spot price. Should futures draw high premiums, savvy traders initiate a carry strategy and lock in fixed returns.
Futures markets usually trade at a premium to the spot market and the spread tends to widen during price rallies. The annualized premium rose roughly from 9% to 27% in the last two weeks of July asbitcoin’sprice rose from $9,000 to $12,000 and it remained near that level going into August.
Related:It's Now Cheaper to Buy One Bitcoin Than to Buy a Single DeFi Token YFI
Traders could have locked in an annualized profit of 28% on Monday by buying bitcoin in the spot market and selling the front month futures contract on OKEx. Doing that trade now would still profit, but by only half as much.
The decline in the carry strategy yield could also mean a cut in demand for dollar-backed stablecoins like tether (USDT).
“Stablecoins are widely used as funding currencies and there has been a high demand for these dollar-backed cryptocurrencies from institutions,” Skew CEO Emmanuel Goh told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. Indeed, the carry trade has been one of the main reasons for the surge in stablecoin issuance seen this year.
On Monday, the annualizedcost of borrowing tetheron the decentralized finance protocol Compound was 6.94%. Assuming carry traders borrowed USDT from Compound on Monday, holding the carry strategy until the August expiry, due next Friday, would generate a net yield of about 21% in annualized terms. (return of 28% from cash and carry adjusted for tether’s borrowing cost of 6.94%).
See also:First Mover: Money Legos Turn ‘Exuberant’ as Chainlink Stripped of ‘DeFi’
If the same strategy were executed at press time by borrowing USDT, the net yield would be 6.3%. That’s because the cost of borrowing USDT is now 7.68% and the OKEx futures are trading at a premium of 14%. Put simply, carry trades have become far less attractive. As such, institutional demand for stablecoins could soften,as noted bySkew.
The premium has declined sharply in the past 48 hours, possibly due to bitcoin’s failed breakout above $12,000 and resulting concern of deeper price pullbacks. The decline in premium may have been compounded by increased selling in futures as more traders piled into the cash and carry trade.
Whenever futures trade at discount to spot prices, traders execute reverse cash and carry trade by buying futures and taking a short position in the spot market.
• Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy
• Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy || Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy: Institutional demand for stablecoins may cool because yield on “carry trades” has been cut in half since Monday.
The annualized rolling one-month futures basis shot as high as 28% at the start of the week on the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, the biggest in terms of open interest. That was the highest premium since February, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firmSkew.
That premium, however, dropped to 14% in under 48 hours. In other words, the carry strategy, if initiated now and held until next Friday, will yield an annualized return of 14%, down from 28% on Monday.
Related:First Mover: Collapsing Bitcoin Futures Premium Offers Glimpse of New Digital Money Market
Carry trading, or cash and carry arbitrage, is a market-neutral strategy, one that seeks to profit from both increasing and decreasing prices in one or more markets. It involves buying the asset in the spot market and simultaneously selling a futures contract against it when the futures contract is trading at a premium to the spot price.
See also:Bitcoin Price Holds Below $12K Even as Hashrate Hits All-Time High
The premium, however, evaporates as the futures contract nears expiration and on the day of the settlement, the futures price converges with the spot price. Should futures draw high premiums, savvy traders initiate a carry strategy and lock in fixed returns.
Futures markets usually trade at a premium to the spot market and the spread tends to widen during price rallies. The annualized premium rose roughly from 9% to 27% in the last two weeks of July asbitcoin’sprice rose from $9,000 to $12,000 and it remained near that level going into August.
Related:It's Now Cheaper to Buy One Bitcoin Than to Buy a Single DeFi Token YFI
Traders could have locked in an annualized profit of 28% on Monday by buying bitcoin in the spot market and selling the front month futures contract on OKEx. Doing that trade now would still profit, but by only half as much.
The decline in the carry strategy yield could also mean a cut in demand for dollar-backed stablecoins like tether (USDT).
“Stablecoins are widely used as funding currencies and there has been a high demand for these dollar-backed cryptocurrencies from institutions,” Skew CEO Emmanuel Goh told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. Indeed, the carry trade has been one of the main reasons for the surge in stablecoin issuance seen this year.
On Monday, the annualizedcost of borrowing tetheron the decentralized finance protocol Compound was 6.94%. Assuming carry traders borrowed USDT from Compound on Monday, holding the carry strategy until the August expiry, due next Friday, would generate a net yield of about 21% in annualized terms. (return of 28% from cash and carry adjusted for tether’s borrowing cost of 6.94%).
See also:First Mover: Money Legos Turn ‘Exuberant’ as Chainlink Stripped of ‘DeFi’
If the same strategy were executed at press time by borrowing USDT, the net yield would be 6.3%. That’s because the cost of borrowing USDT is now 7.68% and the OKEx futures are trading at a premium of 14%. Put simply, carry trades have become far less attractive. As such, institutional demand for stablecoins could soften,as noted bySkew.
The premium has declined sharply in the past 48 hours, possibly due to bitcoin’s failed breakout above $12,000 and resulting concern of deeper price pullbacks. The decline in premium may have been compounded by increased selling in futures as more traders piled into the cash and carry trade.
Whenever futures trade at discount to spot prices, traders execute reverse cash and carry trade by buying futures and taking a short position in the spot market.
• Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy
• Stablecoin Demand May Drop if Traders Abandon Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Strategy || MEMRI Cyber Jihad Lab (CJL) Impact: MEMRI's Ongoing Work - And Major Report On Terrorist Use Of Cryptocurrency - Preceded U.S. Government's Seizure Of Millions In Cryptocurrency From Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas Donation Campaigns: The U.S. Government's "Largest Ever Seizure Of Cryptocurrency In The Terrorism Context" WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 / On August 13, 2020, the U.S. government announced that it had seized about $2 million in Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrency from accounts that had sent or received funds for three foreign terrorist organizations: Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades. Also seized were over 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites, and four Facebook accounts associated with cryptocurrency schemes. The action involved the U.S. Department of Justice, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Departments of Treasury and Homeland Security, as well as the FBI. According to the Department of Justice announcement, this was "the government's largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the terrorism context" and involved "the solicitation of cryptocurrency donations from around the world." Seizure Follows Publication Of MEMRI CJL Report On Terrorist Use Of Cryptocurrency This government action against the terrorist groups followed the publication of research by the MEMRI Cyber Jihad Lab (CJL), which was established 15 years ago. It came a year after the publication, in August 2019, of the CJL's seminal report, The Coming Storm: Terrorists Using Cryptocurrency , documenting two years of research, led by MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky and the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) team, on jihadi use of cryptocurrency, including in fundraising campaigns for purchasing weapons and supporting jihad. MEMRI was the first organization to publish research on this subject and to conduct briefings on it at the highest level of the U.S. government and worldwide. Since the report's release, MEMRI has been briefing government agencies in the U.S. and abroad on its contents, including the Department of the Treasury, and has also continued to publish reports on the subject. Story continues The MEMRI CJL report includes a preface by Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Vincent R. Stewart, former Deputy Commander of the United States Cyber Command and current Special Advisor and Chairman of the MEMRI Board of Advisors. In his preface, he wrote: "This study is the first significant research of its kind to show the scope of cryptocurrency use by terrorist organizations and their supporters, for fundraising and for financing attacks, purchasing equipment, supporting fighters and their families, and more. MEMRI research shows that over the past five years, this has developed from encouragement on jihadi blogs to donate "millions of dollars" in bitcoin to ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and many others to terrorist groups and their supporters soliciting donations in various cryptocurrencies on social media." ( Read the report here .) U.S. Officials: The Government's Actions Deprive Terrorists Of Millions Of Dollars On the dismantling of the terrorist cryptocurrency financing John Demers, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division, said: "Today's actions deprive Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS of millions of dollars they solicited to buy weapons and train terrorists. By raising cryptocurrency on social media, these terrorists tried to bring terrorist financing into the current age. But these actions show that law enforcement remains a step ahead of them." Attorney General William Barr said: "Our enemies use modern technology, social media platforms and cryptocurrency to facilitate their evil and violent agendas... We will prosecute their money laundering, terrorist financing and violent illegal activities wherever we find them." Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said: "Terrorist networks have adapted to technology, conducting complex financial transactions in the digital world, including through cryptocurrencies... Today's actions demonstrate our ongoing commitment to holding malign actors accountable for their crimes." ABOUT MEMRI Exploring the Middle East and South Asia through their media, ( MEMRI ) bridges the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends. Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, ( MEMRI ) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI's main office is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in various world capitals. MEMRI research is translated into English, French, Polish, Japanese, Spanish and Hebrew. Please support MEMRI today to help us continue to provide such timely translations and research. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible. You may donate online at www.memri.org/donate , mail a check to MEMRI, P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837, or phone us at 202-955-9070. Cyber & Jihad Lab (CJL) - https://www.memri.org/cjlab Contact Information: MEMRI [email protected] 202-955-9070 www.memri.org SOURCE: Middle East Media Research Institute View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/602473/MEMRI-Cyber-Jihad-Lab-CJL-Impact-MEMRIs-Ongoing-Work--And-Major-Report-On-Terrorist-Use-Of-Cryptocurrency--Preceded-US-Governments-Seizure-Of-Millions-In-Cryptocurrency-From-Al-Qaeda-ISIS-Hamas-Donation-Campaigns || MEMRI Cyber Jihad Lab (CJL) Impact: MEMRI's Ongoing Work - And Major Report On Terrorist Use Of Cryptocurrency - Preceded U.S. Government's Seizure Of Millions In Cryptocurrency From Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas Donation Campaigns: The U.S. Government's "Largest Ever Seizure Of Cryptocurrency In The Terrorism Context" WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 / On August 13, 2020, the U.S. government announced that it had seized about $2 million in Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrency from accounts that had sent or received funds for three foreign terrorist organizations: Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades. Also seized were over 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites, and four Facebook accounts associated with cryptocurrency schemes. The action involved the U.S. Department of Justice, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Departments of Treasury and Homeland Security, as well as the FBI. According to the Department of Justice announcement, this was "the government's largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the terrorism context" and involved "the solicitation of cryptocurrency donations from around the world." Seizure Follows Publication Of MEMRI CJL Report On Terrorist Use Of Cryptocurrency This government action against the terrorist groups followed the publication of research by the MEMRI Cyber Jihad Lab (CJL), which was established 15 years ago. It came a year after the publication, in August 2019, of the CJL's seminal report, The Coming Storm: Terrorists Using Cryptocurrency , documenting two years of research, led by MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky and the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) team, on jihadi use of cryptocurrency, including in fundraising campaigns for purchasing weapons and supporting jihad. MEMRI was the first organization to publish research on this subject and to conduct briefings on it at the highest level of the U.S. government and worldwide. Since the report's release, MEMRI has been briefing government agencies in the U.S. and abroad on its contents, including the Department of the Treasury, and has also continued to publish reports on the subject. Story continues The MEMRI CJL report includes a preface by Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Vincent R. Stewart, former Deputy Commander of the United States Cyber Command and current Special Advisor and Chairman of the MEMRI Board of Advisors. In his preface, he wrote: "This study is the first significant research of its kind to show the scope of cryptocurrency use by terrorist organizations and their supporters, for fundraising and for financing attacks, purchasing equipment, supporting fighters and their families, and more. MEMRI research shows that over the past five years, this has developed from encouragement on jihadi blogs to donate "millions of dollars" in bitcoin to ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and many others to terrorist groups and their supporters soliciting donations in various cryptocurrencies on social media." ( Read the report here .) U.S. Officials: The Government's Actions Deprive Terrorists Of Millions Of Dollars On the dismantling of the terrorist cryptocurrency financing John Demers, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division, said: "Today's actions deprive Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS of millions of dollars they solicited to buy weapons and train terrorists. By raising cryptocurrency on social media, these terrorists tried to bring terrorist financing into the current age. But these actions show that law enforcement remains a step ahead of them." Attorney General William Barr said: "Our enemies use modern technology, social media platforms and cryptocurrency to facilitate their evil and violent agendas... We will prosecute their money laundering, terrorist financing and violent illegal activities wherever we find them." Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said: "Terrorist networks have adapted to technology, conducting complex financial transactions in the digital world, including through cryptocurrencies... Today's actions demonstrate our ongoing commitment to holding malign actors accountable for their crimes." ABOUT MEMRI Exploring the Middle East and South Asia through their media, ( MEMRI ) bridges the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends. Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, ( MEMRI ) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI's main office is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in various world capitals. MEMRI research is translated into English, French, Polish, Japanese, Spanish and Hebrew. Please support MEMRI today to help us continue to provide such timely translations and research. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible. You may donate online at www.memri.org/donate , mail a check to MEMRI, P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837, or phone us at 202-955-9070. Cyber & Jihad Lab (CJL) - https://www.memri.org/cjlab Contact Information: MEMRI [email protected] 202-955-9070 www.memri.org SOURCE: Middle East Media Research Institute View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/602473/MEMRI-Cyber-Jihad-Lab-CJL-Impact-MEMRIs-Ongoing-Work--And-Major-Report-On-Terrorist-Use-Of-Cryptocurrency--Preceded-US-Governments-Seizure-Of-Millions-In-Cryptocurrency-From-Al-Qaeda-ISIS-Hamas-Donation-Campaigns || The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’: Katie Ananina is building her citadel, and selling others on the dream.
For the past year, the Russian emigre has jumped among the U.S. cities of Miami, Houston, San Francisco and Denver, plus Puerto Rico, random islands in the Caribbean and Guadalajara, Mexico, trying to find the right location to establish a base camp. It’s part of her lifestyle as well as her job.
Ananina is the founder ofPlan B Passport, a business that works primarily with Bitcoiners to obtain legal residency status in their choice of six tax-haven nations. It’s an offshoot of Migronis Citizenship, a resettlement business, which itself has five offices globally.
Related:Bitcoin Can't Be a Safe Haven and 100x Leverage Is the Reason Why
See also:Kirk Phillips – Crypto Taxes: Still Confused After All These Years
“You go to the butcher that has the best meat, and farmer for the best fruits and vegetables, so do you shop for the lifestyle that you want?” Ananina said, dialing in from Guadalajara in April where she was awaiting an anarcho-capitalist meetup. “If it suits you better to own a passport from a tax haven, why wouldn’t you do that, right?”
While tax avoidance has been around since the first tax was levied, the crypto-rich – empowered by a technology that pays no heed to borders and driven by an ideology critical of all centralized authorities – are bringing it to the next level.
Like its larger parent company, Plan B offers information on “how to legally optimize” one’s tax strategies by moving lives, possessions or assets to the “best jurisdictions,” according to its website. Ananina also hosts free 20-minute consultations and the occasional web seminar. Recently, she’s been looking for ways to break into the private islandreal estatemarket, thinking thenouveau richeof the coming bull run will be able to afford such luxuries.
Related:Digital Assets Are More Recession-Proof Than You Might Think
This open approach to tax avoidance is perfectly legal. And given that multinationals often shuffle money around to avoid paying billions in taxes, you could argueit’s normalthese days.
“A lot of people are doing it. Like, more than you would think,” Ananina said.
Ronen Palan, an Israeli-born economist and Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at the City University London who studies tax havens and offshore finance, agreed it’s becoming more popular among the ultra-wealthy, but said it’s difficult to determine exactly how many individuals are eschewing their tax burdens by moving abroad. “People don’t usually identify themselves as tax evaders,” he said.
“The actual number of people that physically relocate is a small portion of those that avoid paying taxes,” Palan said over Zoom. But it’s common enough for there to be an established term: “We call these individualsPNTs, ‘permanently not there.’”
“Wealthy individuals, you find they have three houses, three domiciles, to ensure they are never in one country sufficiently long to become a tax resident,” he said. There’s also a growing number of people willing to drop even thepretense of a residence.
At the individual and family level, many of today’s expatriates and tax arbitrageurs follow the obscure advice of the libertarian financial adviser Harry D. Schultz. He coined the term “Three Flag Theory” to describe a strategic approach to life and citizenship where people “plant flags” in different countries based on their favorable tax, regulatory and economic frameworks.
See also:Generation C: Preston Byrne – The Libertarian
Proponents get as many passports as necessary or obtain legal permanent residence status in tax haven nations, offering them the chance to shuffle capital and business documentation around. They become citizens of the world, or perpetual travelers, to maximize their profits and minimize their obligations to the state.
You can have one foot in New York and one in the Cayman Islands and have responsibilities to no one but yourself, Palan said. While the roots to this “lifestyle” may be found in libertarianism – Bill Maurer, director of UC Irvine’s Institute for Money, called it “late capitalist nomadism” – Palan said it’s less complicated: “Many people enjoy the benefits of states. But they don’t like paying taxes.”
Others have taken Schultz’s theory and run with it. Frank M. Ahearn, author New York Times best-seller “How to Disappear,” translated it to “six flag theory.” Today, it’s common to see at least one flag representing an “electronic haven in cyberspace,” referring to a country with lenient regulations for maintaining private or corporate servers.
“Considering that the theory was first circulated over 30 years ago, you would think that by now most governments would have caught up with it and closed all the loopholes that enable it,” said Marc Gras, managing director of Far Horizon Capital, a company that works with businesses to relocate. “They have not.”
While western nations continue to fail to close the gaps, poorer countries, primarily in the global south, but also wealthy nations like Monaco are attracting high-net-worth individuals with simplified immigration policies and lenient definitions of residency. The ideal “haven nation” will enable visa-free travel with a number of countries, and have limitations on taxing income earned outside their borders. Many have low, or non-existent, tax policies on wealth and capital gains.
“Countries are literally competing for your wealth,” Ananina said. It’s why she’s excited to do the work her career enables.
“I’ve been looking at my past and feel like my whole life has been preparing me forbitcoin, anarchy and flag theory,” she said. “If I can’t be absolutely stateless, I will hold some papers that will help me lead the life that I want to live. I will get as many papers as I can and it’s going to give me more freedom,” she said.
Ananina is not alone in her pro-bitcoin, anti-state and very online convictions. One of the Bitcoin network’s earliest advocates, Roger Ver, is also a follower of Flag Theory and an example of living to maximize one’s personal autonomy – understood by having zero debts to the state.
See also:Roger Ver – The Gold Rush Begins: The Day Bitcoin Topped the US Dollar
“Go where you’re treated best,” Ver said during a recent phone call. Ver has been a Kittician, a citizen of St. Kitts & Nevis, since 2014 after leaving the United States for good in 2006.
“From the moment they tossed me in prison, I knew I was never going to live in the U.S. again,” he said. (Ver wasconvicted in 2002for selling explosives over eBay.) “The day I was allowed to leave, I left. It took a further eight years to renounce my citizenship.”
He said many of his “cryptocurrency friends” are citizens of the small Caribbean island nation, population 52,441. Though he’s clear “citizen” doesn’t necessarily mean “his neighbors” have ever stepped foot on the island. “About two years ago, there were about 100 of us that met up,” he said. “We spent the afternoon pounding on our laptops in tropical paradise.”
Ver said he gets queried on how to move abroad at least once a week. His advice? Deal with reputable agents “that know the people and the process,” he said. Speaking from the experience of being scammed twice for “substantial sums of money,” he said, “unscrupulous people will try to trick you. … You want feet on the ground.”
A veritable cottage industry of businesses like Ananina’s Plan B has sprung up to prevent situations like Ver’s.
These businesses work with government’s “citizenship by investment” units, so people can pay a fee, fill out a few forms and claim their benefits. While the process varies by nation, in most cases, citizenship can be bought for six figures. “It’s not cheap,” Ver said.
Read more:A Former Beauty Queen Raised $12M to ‘Revolutionize’ Cannabis. The Courts Can’t Find Her
While Plan B Passport is likely the first to cater exclusively to the crypto-rich, many companies view it as a profitable new sector within the “immigration industry.”
Migronis has helped resettle approximately 500 people since August 2012, Martyn Kovalko, head of marketing for the firm, said over email. Of those clients, about 10% came from the crypto community before Plan B was spun out, he estimated.
Far Horizon also boasts early crypto investors, exchanges and initial coin offering (ICO) operators among their clientele, Gras said. While he declined to name names, he did confirm many “have accumulated substantial amounts of cryptocurrencies.”
It’s not difficult to imagine a perpetual traveller holding non-state-backed currencies, or someone into crypto thinking favorably of Flag Theory.
“One could say that the Flag Theory concept and bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies) were both originally based out of libertarian principles such as freedom, autonomy and a disinclination to accept authority and centralized power,” Gras said.
See also:‘Voluntarily Homeless’ Man Lives Off Bitcoin, Android Tablet and a Solar Charger
The concepts amplify one another. Distributive tools like the internet have led to an interest in the philosophy, Gras said, adding the number of flag theorists “stand at a record high.” And crypto has only made it easier to escape the boundaries of the state. Moving hundreds of thousands of dollars through the banking system is bound to raise an eye, according to Ronen Palan.
“There are various rules, particularly anti-money laundering rules, that have been introduced which require compliance. Essentially, banks have to know who owns the account and the source of the money,” Palan said. “They ask questions.”
But with bitcoin’s “radical ownership,” people can move their wealth instantly without checking in with compliance officers, Ananina said. “You don’t have to worry about selling your assets in the U.S. or figuring out how to move them through the banking system to an offshore account,” she said. “You just pick up ‘calculator,’ move to another country and you have your wealth with you.”
While jet-setting may appeal to some, there’s a certain type of Bitcoiner who prefers to stay close to home, building out local systems independent of, and adversarial to, the state.
Justine, who goes by MsHodl on Twitter, is doing that in the Sierra Nevadas, the mountain range straddling the border between California and Nevada. She’s refurbishing an old farmstead owned by her family, with help from her stepfather and mother, and the occasional electrician and plumber.
“I was dreaming of a citadel before I heard the word,” Justine said. “Citadel” is used in the Bitcoin community to refer to an idyllic version of tomorrow where individuals come together voluntarily to work and live off the land. The idea is to build systems that can exist with minimal contact with governments and corporations. When discussing the practicality of building a citadel on an unimproved private island, Katie Ananina said, “We’re anarchists, we do not care about running water.”
Citadels are both the antithesis and corollary of the concept of the “digital nomad” that the largertech sectorhas embraced. Bitcoiners build citadels to shield their vast troves of wealth from governmental overreach – and thehordes of no-coiners– but they are also purposefully situated somewhere specific, somewhereworth defending.
While Justine agrees with people who flee the state to avoid their taxes, she said financial autonomy is just one aspect of self-sovereignty. To become truly independent, sometimes it means settling down and building. “Ultimate freedom comes with a lot of responsibility, and taking ownership,” she said.
See also:Jeff Dorman – What I Learned the First Time I Lost a Million Dollars
The owner of a small business in the United States, Justine says she dutifully pays her taxes. “I work as hard as humanly possible to pay as little as possible, and find every loophole,” she said. “We live in an abusive relationship with the government and taxes are one part of it. But you can’t avoid it when you have something to lose.”
• The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’
• The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’ || The Bitcoiners Who Live Permanently Not There: Katie Ananina is building her citadel, and selling others on the dream. For the past year, the Russian emigre has jumped among the U.S. cities of Miami, Houston, San Francisco and Denver, plus Puerto Rico, random islands in the Caribbean and Guadalajara, Mexico, trying to find the right location to establish a base camp. Its part of her lifestyle as well as her job. Ananina is the founder of Plan B Passport , a business that works primarily with Bitcoiners to obtain legal residency status in their choice of six tax-haven nations. Its an offshoot of Migronis Citizenship, a resettlement business, which itself has five offices globally. Related: Bitcoin Can't Be a Safe Haven and 100x Leverage Is the Reason Why See also: Kirk Phillips Crypto Taxes: Still Confused After All These Years You go to the butcher that has the best meat, and farmer for the best fruits and vegetables, so do you shop for the lifestyle that you want? Ananina said, dialing in from Guadalajara in April where she was awaiting an anarcho-capitalist meetup. If it suits you better to own a passport from a tax haven, why wouldnt you do that, right? While tax avoidance has been around since the first tax was levied, the crypto-rich empowered by a technology that pays no heed to borders and driven by an ideology critical of all centralized authorities are bringing it to the next level. Like its larger parent company, Plan B offers information on how to legally optimize ones tax strategies by moving lives, possessions or assets to the best jurisdictions, according to its website. Ananina also hosts free 20-minute consultations and the occasional web seminar. Recently, shes been looking for ways to break into the private island real estate market, thinking the nouveau riche of the coming bull run will be able to afford such luxuries. Related: Digital Assets Are More Recession-Proof Than You Might Think Story continues This open approach to tax avoidance is perfectly legal. And given that multinationals often shuffle money around to avoid paying billions in taxes, you could argue its normal these days. A lot of people are doing it. Like, more than you would think, Ananina said. Ronen Palan, an Israeli-born economist and Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at the City University London who studies tax havens and offshore finance, agreed its becoming more popular among the ultra-wealthy, but said its difficult to determine exactly how many individuals are eschewing their tax burdens by moving abroad. People dont usually identify themselves as tax evaders, he said. The actual number of people that physically relocate is a small portion of those that avoid paying taxes, Palan said over Zoom. But its common enough for there to be an established term: We call these individuals PNTs , permanently not there. Wealthy individuals, you find they have three houses, three domiciles, to ensure they are never in one country sufficiently long to become a tax resident, he said. Theres also a growing number of people willing to drop even the pretense of a residence . Flag theory At the individual and family level, many of todays expatriates and tax arbitrageurs follow the obscure advice of the libertarian financial adviser Harry D. Schultz. He coined the term Three Flag Theory to describe a strategic approach to life and citizenship where people plant flags in different countries based on their favorable tax, regulatory and economic frameworks. See also: Generation C: Preston Byrne The Libertarian Proponents get as many passports as necessary or obtain legal permanent residence status in tax haven nations, offering them the chance to shuffle capital and business documentation around. They become citizens of the world, or perpetual travelers, to maximize their profits and minimize their obligations to the state. You can have one foot in New York and one in the Cayman Islands and have responsibilities to no one but yourself, Palan said. While the roots to this lifestyle may be found in libertarianism Bill Maurer, director of UC Irvines Institute for Money, called it late capitalist nomadism Palan said its less complicated: Many people enjoy the benefits of states. But they dont like paying taxes. Others have taken Schultzs theory and run with it. Frank M. Ahearn, author New York Times best-seller How to Disappear, translated it to six flag theory . Today, its common to see at least one flag representing an electronic haven in cyberspace, referring to a country with lenient regulations for maintaining private or corporate servers. Considering that the theory was first circulated over 30 years ago, you would think that by now most governments would have caught up with it and closed all the loopholes that enable it, said Marc Gras, managing director of Far Horizon Capital, a company that works with businesses to relocate. They have not. While western nations continue to fail to close the gaps, poorer countries, primarily in the global south, but also wealthy nations like Monaco are attracting high-net-worth individuals with simplified immigration policies and lenient definitions of residency. The ideal haven nation will enable visa-free travel with a number of countries, and have limitations on taxing income earned outside their borders. Many have low, or non-existent, tax policies on wealth and capital gains. Countries are literally competing for your wealth, Ananina said. Its why shes excited to do the work her career enables. Ive been looking at my past and feel like my whole life has been preparing me for bitcoin , anarchy and flag theory, she said. If I cant be absolutely stateless, I will hold some papers that will help me lead the life that I want to live. I will get as many papers as I can and its going to give me more freedom, she said. Ananina is not alone in her pro-bitcoin, anti-state and very online convictions. One of the Bitcoin networks earliest advocates, Roger Ver, is also a follower of Flag Theory and an example of living to maximize ones personal autonomy understood by having zero debts to the state. See also: Roger Ver The Gold Rush Begins: The Day Bitcoin Topped the US Dollar Go where youre treated best, Ver said during a recent phone call. Ver has been a Kittician, a citizen of St. Kitts & Nevis, since 2014 after leaving the United States for good in 2006. From the moment they tossed me in prison, I knew I was never going to live in the U.S. again, he said. (Ver was convicted in 2002 for selling explosives over eBay.) The day I was allowed to leave, I left. It took a further eight years to renounce my citizenship. He said many of his cryptocurrency friends are citizens of the small Caribbean island nation, population 52,441. Though hes clear citizen doesnt necessarily mean his neighbors have ever stepped foot on the island. About two years ago, there were about 100 of us that met up, he said. We spent the afternoon pounding on our laptops in tropical paradise. Ver said he gets queried on how to move abroad at least once a week. His advice? Deal with reputable agents that know the people and the process, he said. Speaking from the experience of being scammed twice for substantial sums of money, he said, unscrupulous people will try to trick you.
You want feet on the ground. A veritable cottage industry of businesses like Ananinas Plan B has sprung up to prevent situations like Vers. These businesses work with governments citizenship by investment units, so people can pay a fee, fill out a few forms and claim their benefits. While the process varies by nation, in most cases, citizenship can be bought for six figures. Its not cheap, Ver said. Read more: A Former Beauty Queen Raised $12M to Revolutionize Cannabis. The Courts Cant Find Her While Plan B Passport is likely the first to cater exclusively to the crypto-rich, many companies view it as a profitable new sector within the immigration industry. Migronis has helped resettle approximately 500 people since August 2012, Martyn Kovalko, head of marketing for the firm, said over email. Of those clients, about 10% came from the crypto community before Plan B was spun out, he estimated. Far Horizon also boasts early crypto investors, exchanges and initial coin offering (ICO) operators among their clientele, Gras said. While he declined to name names, he did confirm many have accumulated substantial amounts of cryptocurrencies. Crypto links Its not difficult to imagine a perpetual traveller holding non-state-backed currencies, or someone into crypto thinking favorably of Flag Theory. One could say that the Flag Theory concept and bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies) were both originally based out of libertarian principles such as freedom, autonomy and a disinclination to accept authority and centralized power, Gras said. See also: Voluntarily Homeless Man Lives Off Bitcoin, Android Tablet and a Solar Charger The concepts amplify one another. Distributive tools like the internet have led to an interest in the philosophy, Gras said, adding the number of flag theorists stand at a record high. And crypto has only made it easier to escape the boundaries of the state. Moving hundreds of thousands of dollars through the banking system is bound to raise an eye, according to Ronen Palan. There are various rules, particularly anti-money laundering rules, that have been introduced which require compliance. Essentially, banks have to know who owns the account and the source of the money, Palan said. They ask questions. But with bitcoins radical ownership, people can move their wealth instantly without checking in with compliance officers, Ananina said. You dont have to worry about selling your assets in the U.S. or figuring out how to move them through the banking system to an offshore account, she said. You just pick up calculator, move to another country and you have your wealth with you. Citadels While jet-setting may appeal to some, theres a certain type of Bitcoiner who prefers to stay close to home, building out local systems independent of, and adversarial to, the state. Justine, who goes by MsHodl on Twitter, is doing that in the Sierra Nevadas, the mountain range straddling the border between California and Nevada. Shes refurbishing an old farmstead owned by her family, with help from her stepfather and mother, and the occasional electrician and plumber. I was dreaming of a citadel before I heard the word, Justine said. Citadel is used in the Bitcoin community to refer to an idyllic version of tomorrow where individuals come together voluntarily to work and live off the land. The idea is to build systems that can exist with minimal contact with governments and corporations. When discussing the practicality of building a citadel on an unimproved private island, Katie Ananina said, Were anarchists, we do not care about running water. Citadels are both the antithesis and corollary of the concept of the digital nomad that the larger tech sector has embraced. Bitcoiners build citadels to shield their vast troves of wealth from governmental overreach and the hordes of no-coiners but they are also purposefully situated somewhere specific, somewhere worth defending . While Justine agrees with people who flee the state to avoid their taxes, she said financial autonomy is just one aspect of self-sovereignty. To become truly independent, sometimes it means settling down and building. Ultimate freedom comes with a lot of responsibility, and taking ownership, she said. See also: Jeff Dorman What I Learned the First Time I Lost a Million Dollars The owner of a small business in the United States, Justine says she dutifully pays her taxes. I work as hard as humanly possible to pay as little as possible, and find every loophole, she said. We live in an abusive relationship with the government and taxes are one part of it. But you cant avoid it when you have something to lose. Related Stories The Bitcoiners Who Live Permanently Not There The Bitcoiners Who Live Permanently Not There || The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’: Katie Ananina is building her citadel, and selling others on the dream.
For the past year, the Russian emigre has jumped among the U.S. cities of Miami, Houston, San Francisco and Denver, plus Puerto Rico, random islands in the Caribbean and Guadalajara, Mexico, trying to find the right location to establish a base camp. It’s part of her lifestyle as well as her job.
Ananina is the founder ofPlan B Passport, a business that works primarily with Bitcoiners to obtain legal residency status in their choice of six tax-haven nations. It’s an offshoot of Migronis Citizenship, a resettlement business, which itself has five offices globally.
Related:Bitcoin Can't Be a Safe Haven and 100x Leverage Is the Reason Why
See also:Kirk Phillips – Crypto Taxes: Still Confused After All These Years
“You go to the butcher that has the best meat, and farmer for the best fruits and vegetables, so do you shop for the lifestyle that you want?” Ananina said, dialing in from Guadalajara in April where she was awaiting an anarcho-capitalist meetup. “If it suits you better to own a passport from a tax haven, why wouldn’t you do that, right?”
While tax avoidance has been around since the first tax was levied, the crypto-rich – empowered by a technology that pays no heed to borders and driven by an ideology critical of all centralized authorities – are bringing it to the next level.
Like its larger parent company, Plan B offers information on “how to legally optimize” one’s tax strategies by moving lives, possessions or assets to the “best jurisdictions,” according to its website. Ananina also hosts free 20-minute consultations and the occasional web seminar. Recently, she’s been looking for ways to break into the private islandreal estatemarket, thinking thenouveau richeof the coming bull run will be able to afford such luxuries.
Related:Digital Assets Are More Recession-Proof Than You Might Think
This open approach to tax avoidance is perfectly legal. And given that multinationals often shuffle money around to avoid paying billions in taxes, you could argueit’s normalthese days.
“A lot of people are doing it. Like, more than you would think,” Ananina said.
Ronen Palan, an Israeli-born economist and Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at the City University London who studies tax havens and offshore finance, agreed it’s becoming more popular among the ultra-wealthy, but said it’s difficult to determine exactly how many individuals are eschewing their tax burdens by moving abroad. “People don’t usually identify themselves as tax evaders,” he said.
“The actual number of people that physically relocate is a small portion of those that avoid paying taxes,” Palan said over Zoom. But it’s common enough for there to be an established term: “We call these individualsPNTs, ‘permanently not there.’”
“Wealthy individuals, you find they have three houses, three domiciles, to ensure they are never in one country sufficiently long to become a tax resident,” he said. There’s also a growing number of people willing to drop even thepretense of a residence.
At the individual and family level, many of today’s expatriates and tax arbitrageurs follow the obscure advice of the libertarian financial adviser Harry D. Schultz. He coined the term “Three Flag Theory” to describe a strategic approach to life and citizenship where people “plant flags” in different countries based on their favorable tax, regulatory and economic frameworks.
See also:Generation C: Preston Byrne – The Libertarian
Proponents get as many passports as necessary or obtain legal permanent residence status in tax haven nations, offering them the chance to shuffle capital and business documentation around. They become citizens of the world, or perpetual travelers, to maximize their profits and minimize their obligations to the state.
You can have one foot in New York and one in the Cayman Islands and have responsibilities to no one but yourself, Palan said. While the roots to this “lifestyle” may be found in libertarianism – Bill Maurer, director of UC Irvine’s Institute for Money, called it “late capitalist nomadism” – Palan said it’s less complicated: “Many people enjoy the benefits of states. But they don’t like paying taxes.”
Others have taken Schultz’s theory and run with it. Frank M. Ahearn, author New York Times best-seller “How to Disappear,” translated it to “six flag theory.” Today, it’s common to see at least one flag representing an “electronic haven in cyberspace,” referring to a country with lenient regulations for maintaining private or corporate servers.
“Considering that the theory was first circulated over 30 years ago, you would think that by now most governments would have caught up with it and closed all the loopholes that enable it,” said Marc Gras, managing director of Far Horizon Capital, a company that works with businesses to relocate. “They have not.”
While western nations continue to fail to close the gaps, poorer countries, primarily in the global south, but also wealthy nations like Monaco are attracting high-net-worth individuals with simplified immigration policies and lenient definitions of residency. The ideal “haven nation” will enable visa-free travel with a number of countries, and have limitations on taxing income earned outside their borders. Many have low, or non-existent, tax policies on wealth and capital gains.
“Countries are literally competing for your wealth,” Ananina said. It’s why she’s excited to do the work her career enables.
“I’ve been looking at my past and feel like my whole life has been preparing me forbitcoin, anarchy and flag theory,” she said. “If I can’t be absolutely stateless, I will hold some papers that will help me lead the life that I want to live. I will get as many papers as I can and it’s going to give me more freedom,” she said.
Ananina is not alone in her pro-bitcoin, anti-state and very online convictions. One of the Bitcoin network’s earliest advocates, Roger Ver, is also a follower of Flag Theory and an example of living to maximize one’s personal autonomy – understood by having zero debts to the state.
See also:Roger Ver – The Gold Rush Begins: The Day Bitcoin Topped the US Dollar
“Go where you’re treated best,” Ver said during a recent phone call. Ver has been a Kittician, a citizen of St. Kitts & Nevis, since 2014 after leaving the United States for good in 2006.
“From the moment they tossed me in prison, I knew I was never going to live in the U.S. again,” he said. (Ver wasconvicted in 2002for selling explosives over eBay.) “The day I was allowed to leave, I left. It took a further eight years to renounce my citizenship.”
He said many of his “cryptocurrency friends” are citizens of the small Caribbean island nation, population 52,441. Though he’s clear “citizen” doesn’t necessarily mean “his neighbors” have ever stepped foot on the island. “About two years ago, there were about 100 of us that met up,” he said. “We spent the afternoon pounding on our laptops in tropical paradise.”
Ver said he gets queried on how to move abroad at least once a week. His advice? Deal with reputable agents “that know the people and the process,” he said. Speaking from the experience of being scammed twice for “substantial sums of money,” he said, “unscrupulous people will try to trick you. … You want feet on the ground.”
A veritable cottage industry of businesses like Ananina’s Plan B has sprung up to prevent situations like Ver’s.
These businesses work with government’s “citizenship by investment” units, so people can pay a fee, fill out a few forms and claim their benefits. While the process varies by nation, in most cases, citizenship can be bought for six figures. “It’s not cheap,” Ver said.
Read more:A Former Beauty Queen Raised $12M to ‘Revolutionize’ Cannabis. The Courts Can’t Find Her
While Plan B Passport is likely the first to cater exclusively to the crypto-rich, many companies view it as a profitable new sector within the “immigration industry.”
Migronis has helped resettle approximately 500 people since August 2012, Martyn Kovalko, head of marketing for the firm, said over email. Of those clients, about 10% came from the crypto community before Plan B was spun out, he estimated.
Far Horizon also boasts early crypto investors, exchanges and initial coin offering (ICO) operators among their clientele, Gras said. While he declined to name names, he did confirm many “have accumulated substantial amounts of cryptocurrencies.”
It’s not difficult to imagine a perpetual traveller holding non-state-backed currencies, or someone into crypto thinking favorably of Flag Theory.
“One could say that the Flag Theory concept and bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies) were both originally based out of libertarian principles such as freedom, autonomy and a disinclination to accept authority and centralized power,” Gras said.
See also:‘Voluntarily Homeless’ Man Lives Off Bitcoin, Android Tablet and a Solar Charger
The concepts amplify one another. Distributive tools like the internet have led to an interest in the philosophy, Gras said, adding the number of flag theorists “stand at a record high.” And crypto has only made it easier to escape the boundaries of the state. Moving hundreds of thousands of dollars through the banking system is bound to raise an eye, according to Ronen Palan.
“There are various rules, particularly anti-money laundering rules, that have been introduced which require compliance. Essentially, banks have to know who owns the account and the source of the money,” Palan said. “They ask questions.”
But with bitcoin’s “radical ownership,” people can move their wealth instantly without checking in with compliance officers, Ananina said. “You don’t have to worry about selling your assets in the U.S. or figuring out how to move them through the banking system to an offshore account,” she said. “You just pick up ‘calculator,’ move to another country and you have your wealth with you.”
While jet-setting may appeal to some, there’s a certain type of Bitcoiner who prefers to stay close to home, building out local systems independent of, and adversarial to, the state.
Justine, who goes by MsHodl on Twitter, is doing that in the Sierra Nevadas, the mountain range straddling the border between California and Nevada. She’s refurbishing an old farmstead owned by her family, with help from her stepfather and mother, and the occasional electrician and plumber.
“I was dreaming of a citadel before I heard the word,” Justine said. “Citadel” is used in the Bitcoin community to refer to an idyllic version of tomorrow where individuals come together voluntarily to work and live off the land. The idea is to build systems that can exist with minimal contact with governments and corporations. When discussing the practicality of building a citadel on an unimproved private island, Katie Ananina said, “We’re anarchists, we do not care about running water.”
Citadels are both the antithesis and corollary of the concept of the “digital nomad” that the largertech sectorhas embraced. Bitcoiners build citadels to shield their vast troves of wealth from governmental overreach – and thehordes of no-coiners– but they are also purposefully situated somewhere specific, somewhereworth defending.
While Justine agrees with people who flee the state to avoid their taxes, she said financial autonomy is just one aspect of self-sovereignty. To become truly independent, sometimes it means settling down and building. “Ultimate freedom comes with a lot of responsibility, and taking ownership,” she said.
See also:Jeff Dorman – What I Learned the First Time I Lost a Million Dollars
The owner of a small business in the United States, Justine says she dutifully pays her taxes. “I work as hard as humanly possible to pay as little as possible, and find every loophole,” she said. “We live in an abusive relationship with the government and taxes are one part of it. But you can’t avoid it when you have something to lose.”
• The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’
• The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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11592.49, 11681.83, 11664.85, 11774.60, 11366.13, 11488.36, 11323.40, 11542.50, 11506.87, 11711.51
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00, 9633.39, 9608.48, 9686.44, 9663.18, 9924.52, 9650.17, 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49, 8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45, 8869.67, 8787.79, 8755.25, 9078.76, 9122.55.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-03-06]
Volume: 40826885651, RSI (14-day): 48.44, 50-day EMA: 9099.46, 200-day EMA: 8637.28
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1670.80, Gold RSI: 64.23
Oil Price: 41.28, Oil RSI: 23.19
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Ethereums ProgPoW Debate Is About Much More Than Mining: What do we talk about when we talk about progressive proof-of-work (ProgPoW) on Ethereum? On the surface, ProgPoW is a proposed update to the mining algorithm of the worlds second-largest blockchain by market cap that would theoretically favor less well-resourced miners. At its core, though, ProgPoW has become a flashpoint for how Ethereum makes big decisions. The developers have effectively become the legislative body of the decentralized nation-state that is Ethereum. And if they make a decision that makes enough miners angry, it could split the chain (again). Related: Bitcoins Price Steady over $9,000 as Sentiment Stays Positive The ProgPoW debate reignited on Friday, Feb. 21 in the Ethereum Core Developers call when Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1057 the code change involving ProgPoW moved forward, surprising many in the greater Ethereum world, such that Vitalik Buterin himself called it ninja re-approved. ProgPoW could drive a split on Ethereum if it goes forward, potentially similar to what happened after the DAO hack in 2016, which led to the creation of ethereum classic (ETC). But ethereum (and its native currency, ETH) is worth vastly more now than it was then. Much more is at stake. The next big decision regarding ProgPoW will be made at the Ethereum Core Developers meeting on Friday at 14:00 UTC (those interested can watch it live on YouTube ; well be there). If the developers who preside over the blockchain decide to move ProgPoW forward, it wont happen for weeks, however. The current plan is to allocate a whole hour to ProgPoW, according to the final agenda for tomorrows call, with spokespeople from both sides making their case. ProgPoW revisited Related: Ethereums ProgPoW Call Features Frustration but Little Progress The Ethereum ecosystem has been talking about ProgPoW for a long time. In January 2019 it looked close to happening and then fell apart. Least Authority, a cloud storage company founded by Zcashs Zooko Wilcox that has a sideline in security audits, was one of the auditors that found ProgPoW did what it billed itself as doing. Story continues Nevertheless, the proposal didnt move. Which brings us back to the core question: How does Ethereum make big decisions? Theoretically, Ethereum governance comes down to the miners. The people running mining rigs can run whatever code they want and when enough miners are on a given fork of Ethereum code, thats the official code. But heres the catch: The code comes from the core developers, but the core developers have no power to force that code on miners. On the other hand, the miners are unlikely to ever be coordinated well enough to tell the developers what to do. So developers have all the writing power and miners have all the execution power. Except, there are many barely relevant blockchains out there that are mined and dont have much value. It takes more than mining to give a chain value. It takes adoption. So in that way, people businesses and individuals using Ethereum to track intellectual property rights, raise funds in a distributed way and make piles of asset-backed loans have the final say. Case in point: Ethereum Classic is the original chain of Ethereum and yet Ethereum dwarfs it in real value. Thats because the community voted with its feet and made Ethereum the legitimate chain after the two split in summer 2016 . So it isnt really the miners who have final say, because they are only going to keep working on the chain that has value. And the people give it value. (Well, sort of the people. More on that below.) So who is really in charge of Ethereum? Its tough to say! Decision-making is quite distributed, and the question is whether or not that distribution has yielded stability or stasis. I think this is more kind of a referendum on the Ethereum governance process, Spencer Noon, an investor at DTC Capital and a ProgPoW opponent, told CoinDesk. Frankly, contentious issues like this, contentious anything, this is how you harden your governance. If it didnt happen with ProgPoW this would have come up with some other issue. How EIPs work Ethereum developers have a process for deciding what to add to the blockchains official codebase (for mining and other things as well). Its called the EIP process. Basically, the core developers decide by consensus whether or not to go forward with major and minor changes and then it becomes real when the miners implement it. Hudson Jameson, who serves as an interface between the core devs and all of Ethereums many fans wrote on Reddit recently, We rely on the core developers to be altruistic and listen to the community. I consider my role as a developer-community liaison who helps the protocol devs know what the community is thinking. Developers never really meant to get in the middle of the philosophical questions, and yet thats where they are. The EIP process as written on the Ethereum Foundation website actually addresses this: The EIPs process and AllCoreDevs call were not designed to address contentious non-technical issues, but, due to the lack of other ways to address these, often end up entangled in them. Eric Conner of Gnosis wrote an evaluation of the decision-making process and suggested there should be an official way of discussing these matters. To that end, Jameson told CoinDesk key stakeholders are working on an updated EIP process that will incorporate more kinds of input, which may enable more people to get heard. What is a fork and how does it happen? A fork happens when theres no consensus between miners about which chain to mine on a blockchain. Little forks happen all the time when two miners think theyve both found a block, but pretty soon the network will coalesce around the work of one miner and the miner working on the other block will have just wasted some time. Too bad for the losing miner but also no big deal. That miner will quit and join everyone else. The world will not notice, because they will stop mining that forked chain. When miners dont coalesce around one chain, though, that becomes a contentious fork. Code updates can engender such forks. When a new set of code gets released, if some miners upgrade to it and some refuse to, the group that refuses will create a new copy of the chain. Now every wallet has become two wallets. Your private key will work in two places! Crypto has been through this tumult a bunch of times now, so all the big players know the drill. But still, it engenders unexpected work, vitriol, confused oracles (see DeFi below) and general market chaos. Is there any significant precedent for a minority of miners bringing users with them? Yes. Bitcoin had this brutal debate about block size which culminated in 2017. No need to go into it here, but it resulted in a fork that led to the creation of bitcoin cash (BCH) . Not wanting to see two currencies, Coinbase, for example, did not acknowledge the bitcoin cash fork for several months. But other exchanges did acknowledge bitcoin cash, and while it never became bitcoin it did end up proving to have more value than many expected it would have, which left Coinbase users feeling as though they had been penalized for using Coinbase. So Coinbase eventually relented and listed BCH , which meant BTC users on the app got a nice airdrop by the time it showed up. So in that way, exchanges legitimize chain splits. So now youve got two chains! What does that matter? More on that below. Either way, theres discussion underway in terms of how to better reflect the various stakeholders views in a given debate, especially a contentious one. Any choice thats made about the officialness of given discussion could limit voices, however, because some channels may not be active or might even be blocked in some parts of the world. What language is used to have official Ethereum conversation? What time are the discussions? These are all important questions for global software and decentralized governance. And, of course, increasing complexity is also going to implicitly advantage one constituency: the status quo. The more people get involved with overseeing any process the easier it becomes to just leave everything as it is. What is the point of the ProgPoW upgrade? Preventing centralization. Under Ethereums current Ethash algorithm, application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs) are very powerful, meaning they mine ETH at a lower price than graphics processing units (GPUs). Ethereum-specialized ASICs, which have been around since 2018 , are very expensive. Deep-pocketed organizations are the ones most likely to run them, threatening a concentration of hash power that could lead to questions about the trustworthiness of the chain. Kristy-Leigh Minehan , a developer who specializes in software for hardware, is one of three developers who put together the ProgPoW code, and the only one not working pseudonymously. She spoke to CoinDesk and said there are several hacks against Ethash, several of which are also described in Least Authoritys audit. Minehan is quick to point out the term ASIC isnt super helpful, because in a way every computing device is an ASIC of one kind or another. Minehan contends that software should be designed for the hardware you want to favor, not against hardware you dont like. ProgPoW is designed to use all the capabilities of GPUs, which are machines that can do several things (rather than Ethereum-specific ASICs, which can only mine ETH). Basically, Minehan wrote early in the debate , Ethereum can be more decentralized if it favors GPUs because GPU owners have options. Heres the reasoning: When there are many devices in the world that can do many different things (such as GPUs), that situation better decentralizes Ethereum because those machines can switch back and forth to contributing to the security of the network. They will contribute when their owners deem that it makes sense for them to do so. But they can also do other things with those devices. This is key. When the network starts to be dominated by big rigs that can only do one thing, there wont be this network that can switch in and out of working for Ethereum when and if it makes sense. The concern is that one day there could be enough Ethereum ASICs out there that people stop mining with GPUs, which would probably mean Ethereum would have a higher hash rate but fewer players, and its the number of players that increases the security from the whims of centralization, not the hash rate. But arent ASICs inevitable? Probably. Maybe? Minehan argues that the key difference here is that prior algorithms have not been designed with GPU hardware in mind, as mentioned above. ASICs gain efficiency by stripping things out. Is the ProgPoW update related to Eth 2.0 ? No. Definitely not. The heart and soul of the next generation of Ethereum is proof-of-stake (PoS) and ProgPoW is all about PoW. But when PoS kicks in, a PoW chain will still run as a shard, for at least a couple more years. Judging by the way everything else goes on Ethereum (especially as the chain becomes more valuable) a few more years could become many more years. The first objection most opponents make to ProgPoW is that the imminence of Eth 2.0 mitigates the need. That was the same excuse used in March 2018, Minehan told CoinDesk. We cannot tie Eth 1.0 features to Eth 2.0 features. These are separate teams. Miners will continue to earn fresh ETH on the PoW chain as long as that shard runs, but then again, they wont be as powerful. So maybe centralization wouldnt matter as much? Unless it would. Dont you envy the core devs? But will Eth 2.0 ever actually happen? Probably. Last summer it was expected to go live this quarter , then it became July 2020 but who can say? Stakeholders get very touchy about this question when asked. Nothing ever comes out on time, after all, and thats usually OK. Heres where I think the real debate is, its not miners versus dapps. Its really Eth 1.0 versus Eth 2.0, Minehan said. Why not just give GPU miners what they want in the meantime? Whats the fear? Breaking DeFi. Decentralized finance is big. As weve previously reported, theres roughly $1 billion in crypto assets locked up in various DeFi projects. When theres a contentious fork, it creates two of everything, bringing us back to the two-chain question. Just as every ETH becomes two ETH on two chains, a hard fork would copy every smart contract (and the balances in them!) at the block where the fork happened. So, as an example, every loan on Compound would become two loans on two different chains. Two chains might really screw with oracles, the eyeballs on the network that help DeFi software know what to do. Oracle shenanigans were a problem very recently . The real issue, though, is for something like USDC, which promises one real dollar for each USDC ERC-20 token. What does it do when there are two chains with two copies of all those tokens? That said, Dragonfly Capitals Haseeb Qureshi wrote a post with crypto veteran Leland Lee arguing that Ethereum is now unforkable . The piece argues that big players in DeFi, especially MakerDAO, will have the power to pick the chain that has value after a fork. In other words, there will never really be a fork because companies like MakerDAO and Circle (which runs CENTRE with Coinbase, and CENTRE runs USDC) will always be able to say this is the real chain and that one isnt. In fact, MakerDAO can hit its emergency eject button on the unwanted chains copied smart contracts and force everything to liquidate. Well call this the distributed-ledger equivalent of taking your smart-contract ball and going home to the preferred chain. If you imagine the movie version of this saga, the minority chain looks like an abandoned metropolis, Qureshi and Lee wrote. If one chain lives and the other pretty much dies, whats the harm? CoinDesk has to be honest here: Thats not super clear. After all, if DeFi rallies to one chain and not the other, its less likely that a company like Coinbase (to return to our example from bitcoin cashs split from bitcoin) would actually need to deal with the second chain. So there could be a contentious fork, but then its possible that so few adherents would remain on the lesser fork that even they would abandon it. For what its worth, Ethereum Classic has already considered ProgPoW and decided not to pursue it. Who wants ProgPoW anyway? This seems to be the split: The mining hash power on Ethereum voted overwhelmingly for ProgPoW but they arent talking about it publicly much, other than these guys . Recently there have also been some proponents on GitHub, too. The entrepreneurs, who are vocal, do not want ProgPoW, because they fear the consequences of a contentious split. The EthHub podcast did a great job representing this view . Our own podcast, The Breakdown, also did a great analysis of the online conversation last week, concluding that Ethereum has entered a conservative era. OK, but which side is Vitalik on? For all intents and purposes, ethereums creator seems to be against it (though he hasnt said definitively). He did, however, scold core developers for bringing the issue back, because the sudden return, he tweeted , did *not* help make people trust the governance or feel safe. The dispute seems to have taken the core developers somewhat by surprise. Ethereums hard fork coordinator, James Hancock, said on the Feb. 21 dev call, I have not seen any evidence that there is an ideological [rift] or people willing to step up to actually have a network split and if Im wrong about that Ill resign as hard fork coordinator. Despite all the controversy, Hancock could still be right. None of the vocal opponents of ProgPoW are miners, and it takes miners to split the chain. Nevertheless, as of this writing, online sentiment seems to lean toward a Biden nomination
I mean ProgPoW stalling again. So Hancock was right but not in the way he meant. To wade even deeper into this topic, Jameson wrote a more detailed explainer focused on game-theoretical and technical elements. For his part, Jameson comes down against ProgPoW in the end. In sum To recap: If developers are Ethereums reluctant legislators, then miners are its distributed, decentralized executive branch. Unlike in a real nation-state, Ethereums executive arm can split itself and make a new chunk of land with copies of all the houses (wallets) and cities (smart contracts) that make this country great. They can do that at any time. The denizens of Ethereum can choose to simultaneously live on both virtual landmasses, too, but theres a decent chance that the leaders of the cities (entrepreneurs) are powerful enough in the DeFi era that they can persuade citizens to only live on one. Its fair to say, though, that most of these entrepreneurs would rather just not have to deal with it. CoinDesk will be on the call Friday and will report back as soon as its over. Related Stories The Team Behind CryptoKitties Is One Step Closer to Leaving Ethereum A New York Power Plant Is Mining $50K Worth of Bitcoin a Day || Ethereum’s ProgPoW Debate Is About Much More Than Mining: What do we talk about when we talk about progressive proof-of-work (ProgPoW) on Ethereum?
On the surface,ProgPoWis a proposed update to the mining algorithm of the world’s second-largest blockchain by market cap that would theoretically favor less well-resourced miners.
At its core, though, ProgPoW has become a flashpoint for how Ethereum makes big decisions. The developers have effectively become the legislative body of the decentralized nation-state that is Ethereum. And if they make a decision that makes enough miners angry, it could split the chain (again).
Related:Bitcoin’s Price Steady over $9,000 as Sentiment Stays Positive
The ProgPoW debate reignited on Friday, Feb. 21 in the Ethereum Core Developers call when Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1057 – the code change involving ProgPoW – moved forward, surprising many in the greater Ethereum world, such that Vitalik Buterin himselfcalled it“ninja re-approved.”
ProgPoW could drive a split on Ethereum if it goes forward, potentially similar to what happened after theDAO hackin 2016, which led to the creation ofethereum classic(ETC). Butethereum(and its native currency, ETH) is worth vastly more now than it was then. Much more is at stake.
The next big decision regarding ProgPoW will be made at the Ethereum Core Developersmeeting on Fridayat 14:00 UTC (those interested can watch itlive on YouTube; we’ll be there). If the developers who preside over the blockchain decide to move ProgPoW forward, it won’t happen for weeks, however.
The current plan is to allocate a whole hour to ProgPoW, according to the final agenda for tomorrow’s call, with spokespeople from both sides making their case.
Related:Ethereum’s ProgPoW Call Features Frustration but Little Progress
The Ethereum ecosystem has been talking about ProgPoW for a long time.In January 2019it looked close to happening and then fell apart. Least Authority, a cloud storage company founded by Zcash’s Zooko Wilcox that has a sideline in security audits, was one of the auditors thatfound ProgPoW didwhat it billed itself as doing.
Nevertheless, the proposal didn’t move.
Which brings us back to the core question: How does Ethereum make big decisions?
Theoretically, Ethereum governance comes down to the miners. The people running mining rigs can run whatever code they want and when enough miners are on a given fork of Ethereum code, that’s the official code.
But here’s the catch: The code comes from the core developers, but the core developers have no power to force that code on miners. On the other hand, the miners are unlikely to ever be coordinated well enough to tell the developers what to do. So developers have all the writing power and miners have all the execution power.
Except, there are many barely relevant blockchains out there that are mined and don’t have much value. It takes more than mining to give a chain value. It takes adoption. So in that way, people – businesses and individuals using Ethereum to track intellectual property rights, raise funds in a distributed way and make piles of asset-backed loans – have the final say.
Case in point: Ethereum Classic is the original chain of Ethereum and yet Ethereum dwarfs it in real value. That’s because the community voted with its feet and made Ethereum the “legitimate” chain after the two splitin summer 2016.
So it isn’treallythe miners who have final say, because they are only going to keep working on the chain that has value. Andthe peoplegive it value. (Well, sort of the people. More on that below.)
So who is really in charge of Ethereum? It’s tough to say! Decision-making is quite distributed, and the question is whether or not that distribution has yielded stability or stasis.
“I think this is more kind of a referendum on the Ethereum governance process,” Spencer Noon, an investor at DTC Capital and a ProgPoW opponent, told CoinDesk. “Frankly, contentious issues like this, contentious anything, this is how you harden your governance. If it didn’t happen with ProgPoW this would have come up with some other issue.”
Ethereum developers have a process for deciding what to add to the blockchain’s official codebase (for mining and other things as well). It’s called the “EIP process.”
Basically, the core developers decide by consensus whether or not to go forward with major and minor changes and then it becomes real when the miners implement it.
Hudson Jameson, who serves as an interface between the core devs and all of Ethereum’s many fanswrote on Redditrecently, “We rely on the core developers to be altruistic and listen to the community. I consider my role as a developer-community liaison who helps the protocol devs know what the community is thinking.”
Developers never really meant to get in the middle of the philosophical questions, and yet that’s where they are.The EIP processas written on the Ethereum Foundation website actually addresses this:
“The EIPs process and AllCoreDevs call were not designed to address contentious non-technical issues, but, due to the lack of other ways to address these, often end up entangled in them.”
Eric Conner of Gnosis wrotean evaluationof the decision-making process and suggested there should be an official way of discussing these matters.
To that end, Jameson told CoinDesk key stakeholders are working on an updated EIP process that will incorporate more kinds of input, which may enable more people to get heard.
A fork happens when there’s no consensus between miners about which chain to mine on a blockchain. Little forks happen all the timewhen two miners thinkthey’ve both found a block, but pretty soon the network will coalesce around the work of one miner and the miner working on the other block will have just wasted some time.
Too bad for the losing miner but also no big deal. That miner will quit and join everyone else. The world will not notice, because they will stop mining that forked chain. When miners don’t coalesce around one chain, though, that becomes a contentious fork.
Code updates can engender such forks.
When a new set of code gets released, if some miners upgrade to it and some refuse to, the group that refuses will create a new copy of the chain. Now every wallet has become two wallets. Your private key will work in two places!
Crypto has been through this tumult a bunch of times now, so all the big players know the drill. But still, it engenders unexpected work, vitriol, confused oracles (see DeFi below) and general market chaos.
Yes.
Bitcoin had this brutaldebate about “block size”which culminated in 2017. No need to go into it here, but it resulted in a fork thatled to the creation of bitcoin cash (BCH). Not wanting to see two currencies, Coinbase, for example, did not acknowledge the bitcoin cash fork for several months.
But other exchanges did acknowledge bitcoin cash, and while it never became “bitcoin” it did end up proving to have more value than many expected it would have, which left Coinbase users feeling as though they had been penalized for using Coinbase.
So Coinbase eventually relented andlisted BCH, which meant BTC users on the app got a nice airdrop by the time it showed up. So in that way, exchanges legitimize chain splits. So now you’ve got two chains! What does that matter? More on that below.
Either way, there’s discussion underway in terms of how to better reflect the various stakeholders’ views in a given debate, especially a contentious one.
Any choice that’s made about the “officialness” of given discussion could limit voices, however, because some channels may not be active or might even be blocked in some parts of the world. What language is used to have official Ethereum conversation? What time are the discussions? These are all important questions for global software and decentralized governance.
And, of course, increasing complexity is also going to implicitly advantage one constituency: the status quo. The more people get involved with overseeing any process the easier it becomes to just leave everything as it is.
Preventing centralization.
Under Ethereum’s currentEthashalgorithm, application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs) are very powerful, meaning they mine ETH at a lower price than graphics processing units (GPUs).
Ethereum-specialized ASICs, which have been aroundsince 2018, are very expensive. Deep-pocketed organizations are the ones most likely to run them, threatening a concentration of hash power that could lead to questions about the trustworthiness of the chain.
Kristy-Leigh Minehan, a developer who specializes in software for hardware, is one of three developers who put together the ProgPoW code, and the only one not working pseudonymously. She spoke to CoinDesk and said there are several hacks against Ethash, several of which are also described in Least Authority’s audit.
Minehan is quick to point out the term “ASIC” isn’t super helpful, because in a way every computing device is an ASIC of one kind or another. Minehan contends that software should be designed for the hardware you want to favor, not against hardware you don’t like.
ProgPoW is designed to use all the capabilities of GPUs, which are machines that can do several things (rather than Ethereum-specific ASICs, which can only mine ETH).
Basically,Minehan wrote early in the debate, Ethereum can be more decentralized if it favors GPUs because GPU owners have options.
Here’s the reasoning: When there are many devices in the world that can do many different things (such as GPUs), that situation better decentralizes Ethereum because those machines can switch back and forth to contributing to the security of the network. They will contribute when their owners deem that it makes sense for them to do so. But they can also do other things with those devices. This is key.
When the network starts to be dominated by big rigs that can only do one thing, there won’t be this network that can switch in and out of working for Ethereum when and if it makes sense.
The concern is that one day there could be enough Ethereum ASICs out there that people stop mining with GPUs, which would probably mean Ethereum would have a higher hash rate but fewer players, and it’s the number of players that increases the security from the whims of centralization, not the hash rate.
Probably. Maybe?
Minehan argues that the key difference here is that prior algorithms have not been designed with GPU hardware in mind, as mentioned above. ASICs gain efficiency by stripping things out.
No. Definitely not.
The heart and soul of the next generation of Ethereum is proof-of-stake (PoS) and ProgPoW is all about PoW.
But when PoS kicks in, a PoW chain will still run as a shard, for at least a couple more years. Judging by the way everything else goes on Ethereum (especially as the chain becomes more valuable) a few more years could become “many more years.”
The first objection most opponents make to ProgPoW is that the imminence of Eth 2.0 mitigates the need. “That was the same excuse used in March 2018,” Minehan told CoinDesk. “We cannot tie Eth 1.0 features to Eth 2.0 features. These are separate teams.”
Miners will continue to earn fresh ETH on the PoW chain as long as that shard runs, but then again, they won’t be as powerful. So maybe centralization wouldn’t matter as much?
Unless it would. Don’t you envy the core devs?
Probably. Last summer it was expected togo live this quarter, then itbecame July 2020but who can say?
Stakeholders get very touchy about this question when asked. Nothing ever comes out on time, after all, and that’s usually OK.
“Here’s where I think the real debate is, it’s not miners versus dapps. It’s really Eth 1.0 versus Eth 2.0,” Minehan said.
Breaking DeFi.
Decentralized finance is big. As we’ve previously reported, there’s roughly$1 billion in crypto assetslocked up in various DeFi projects. When there’s a contentious fork, it creates two of everything, bringing us back to the two-chain question. Just as every ETH becomes two ETH on two chains, a hard fork would copy every smart contract (and the balances in them!) at the block where the fork happened. So, as an example, every loan on Compound would become two loans on two different chains.
Two chains might really screw with oracles, the eyeballs on the network that help DeFi software know what to do. Oracle shenanigans were a problemvery recently.
The real issue, though, is for something like USDC, which promises one real dollar for each USDC ERC-20 token. What does it do when there are two chains with two copies of all those tokens?
That said, Dragonfly Capital’s Haseeb Qureshi wrote a post with crypto veteran Leland Lee arguing thatEthereum is now unforkable. The piece argues that big players in DeFi, especially MakerDAO, will have the power to pick the chain that has value after a fork.
In other words, there will never really be a fork because companies like MakerDAO and Circle (which runs CENTRE with Coinbase, and CENTRE runs USDC) will always be able to say this is the real chain and that one isn’t. In fact, MakerDAO can hit its emergency eject button on the unwanted chain’s copied smart contracts and force everything to liquidate. We’ll call this the distributed-ledger equivalent of taking your smart-contract ball and going home to the preferred chain.
“If you imagine the movie version of this saga, the minority chain looks like an abandoned metropolis,” Qureshi and Lee wrote.
CoinDesk has to be honest here: That’s not super clear.
After all, if DeFi rallies to one chain and not the other, it’s less likely that a company like Coinbase (to return to our example from bitcoin cash’s split from bitcoin) would actually need to deal with the second chain.
So there could be a contentious fork, but then it’s possible that so few adherents would remain on the lesser fork thateven theywould abandon it.
For what it’s worth, Ethereum Classic hasalready considered ProgPoWand decided not to pursue it.
This seems to be the split: The mining hash power on Ethereumvoted overwhelmingly for ProgPoWbut they aren’t talking about it publicly much, other thanthese guys. Recently there have also beensome proponentson GitHub, too.
The entrepreneurs, who are vocal, do not want ProgPoW, because they fear the consequences of a contentious split. The EthHub podcast did a great jobrepresenting this view.
Our own podcast, The Breakdown, also dida great analysisof the online conversation last week, concluding that Ethereum has entered a conservative era.
For all intents and purposes, ethereum’s creator seems to be against it (though he hasn’t said definitively). He did, however, scold core developers for bringing the issue back, because the sudden return,he tweeted, “did *not* help make people trust the governance or feel safe.”
The dispute seems to have taken the core developers somewhat by surprise.
Ethereum’s hard fork coordinator, James Hancock,saidon the Feb. 21 dev call, “I have not seen any evidence that there is an ideological [rift] or people willing to step up to actually have a network split and if I’m wrong about that I’ll resign as hard fork coordinator.”
Despite all the controversy, Hancock could still be right. None of the vocal opponents of ProgPoW are miners, and it takes miners to split the chain.
Nevertheless, as of this writing, online sentiment seems to lean toward a Biden nomination… I mean ProgPoW stalling again. So Hancock was right but not in the way he meant.
To wade even deeper into this topic, Jameson wrotea more detailedexplainer focused on game-theoretical and technical elements. For his part, Jameson comes down against ProgPoW in the end.
To recap: If developers are Ethereum’s reluctant legislators, then miners are its distributed, decentralized executive branch.
Unlike in a real nation-state, Ethereum’s executive arm can split itself and make a new chunk of land with copies of all the houses (wallets) and cities (smart contracts) that make this country great. They can do that at any time.
The denizens of Ethereum can choose to simultaneously live on both virtual landmasses, too, but there’s a decent chance that the leaders of the cities (entrepreneurs) are powerful enough in the DeFi era that they can persuade citizens to only live on one.
It’s fair to say, though, that most of these entrepreneurs would rather just not have to deal with it. CoinDesk will be on the call Friday and will report back as soon as it’s over.
• The Team Behind CryptoKitties Is One Step Closer to Leaving Ethereum
• A New York Power Plant Is Mining $50K Worth of Bitcoin a Day || Omni Core team releases protocol update to fix doubled transaction bug: Omni Core a portable Omni layer implementation based on the Bitcoin Core codebase has released version 0.8.0 to fix a bug that caused some transactions to occur twice. "A consensus affecting issue in an earlier version of Omni Core has been identified, which may cause some transactions to be executed twice," said an official blog post. "This has been addressed and fixed in this release." According to the blog post, the bug originated from a 2019 update of Omni Core 0.6 and affects all 0.6 and higher versions. As a result of it, the system could credit and debit the same tokens more than once and consequently leave some accounts' total balances higher or lower than they actually are. "The first startup of the 0.8.0 release will trigger a full reparse of all blocks, after which balances will be restored to their correct state," the blog post said. "This will remove additional tokens credited by this error and any transactions which include them. This step can take several hours or more than a day." The team has identified seven blocks which might have been executed twice (619141, 618465, 614732, 599587, 591848, 589999, and 578141) and outlined two methods with which exchanges, wallet operators, and integrators can use on top of Omni Core to search for affected transactions. Additionally, they can use Omni Core to track transaction histories, according to the post. || Omni Core team releases protocol update to fix doubled transaction bug: Omni Core – a portable Omni layer implementation based on the Bitcoin Core codebase – has released version 0.8.0 to fix a bug that caused some transactions to occur twice.
"A consensus affecting issue in an earlier version of Omni Core has been identified, which may cause some transactions to be executed twice," said anofficial blog post."This has been addressed and fixed in this release."
According to the blog post, the bug originated from a 2019 update of Omni Core 0.6 and affects all 0.6 and higher versions. As a result of it, the system could credit and debit the same tokens more than once and consequently leave some accounts' total balances higher or lower than they actually are.
"The first startup of the 0.8.0 release will trigger a full reparse of all blocks, after which balances will be restored to their correct state," the blog post said. "This will remove additional tokens credited by this error and any transactions which include them. This step can take several hours or more than a day."
The team has identified seven blocks which might have been executed twice (619141, 618465, 614732, 599587, 591848, 589999, and 578141) and outlined two methods with which exchanges, wallet operators, and integrators can use on top of Omni Core to search for affected transactions. Additionally, they can use Omni Core to track transaction histories, according to the post. || South Korean Lawmakers Greenlight Strict Crypto AML Bill: South Korean lawmakers voted Thursday to place tough new requirements on cryptocurrency exchanges, adding legitimacy to the countrys sprawling crypto economy and potentially triggering a market consolidation down the road. As reported by CoinDesk Korea , the legislation an amendment to Koreas existing Financial Information Act shores up South Koreas anti-money-laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) framework for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The act requires all VASPs to register with regulators and partner with a single bank for deposits and withdrawals. This linkage of virtual wallets and real-world bank accounts both of which must be registered to a users actual name will make it easy for regulators to track the movement of illicit funds. Related: Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants Additionally, VASPs must get their systems certified by the Korean Internet Security Agency, a costly and often lengthy process that only six companies and exchanges have so far cleared. That could squeeze out Koreas smaller players who cannot afford to take on the regulatory burden, CoinDesk Korea reports. Exchanges may attempt to consolidate, raising funds and banding together to meet the new requirements. But it could also be a death knell for gray-area projects trying to take advantage of investors, particularly initial coin offerings (ICO), which must follow the registration requirements under the new law. If this passes in Korea, blockchain companies and cryptocurrency will officially be regulated but accepted in Korea. Bad news for scammy ICOs and exchanges. Good news for blockchain professionals in Korea, tweeted Doo Wan Nam, who works with MakerDAO. Related: Binance Throws Weight Behind Shyft Network in Travel Rule Standards Race The legislation is the latest example of a country working to comply with new global AML and CFT directives in the virtual asset space. Ever since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued guidelines for policing VASPs , regulators have been racing to clamp down on potential illicit activity in their jurisdiction. Story continues South Koreas president has 15 days to sign the amendment into law. Some provisions will take effect one year after its signed, and the full law will come into effect six months after that. Related Stories Hong Kong to Consider Additional FATF-Style Regulations for Crypto Exchanges Iranian General Advocates Crypto Use for Skirting Sanctions: Report || South Korean Lawmakers Greenlight Strict Crypto AML Bill: South Korean lawmakers voted Thursday to place tough new requirements on cryptocurrency exchanges, adding legitimacy to the country’s sprawling crypto economy – and potentially triggering a market consolidation down the road.
As reported byCoinDesk Korea, the legislation – an amendment to Korea’s existing Financial Information Act – shores up South Korea’s anti-money-laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) framework for virtual asset service providers (VASPs).
The act requires all VASPs to register with regulators and partner with a single bank for deposits and withdrawals. Thislinkage of virtual walletsand real-world bank accounts – both of which must be registered to a user’s actual name – will make it easy for regulators to track the movement of illicit funds.
Related:Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants
Additionally, VASPs must get their systems certified by the Korean Internet Security Agency, a costly and often lengthy process that only six companies and exchanges have so far cleared.
That could squeeze out Korea’s smaller players who cannot afford to take on the regulatory burden, CoinDesk Korea reports. Exchanges may attempt to consolidate, raising funds and banding together to meet the new requirements.
But it could also be a death knell for gray-area projects trying to take advantage of investors, particularly initial coin offerings (ICO), which must follow the registration requirements under the new law.
“If this passes in Korea, blockchain companies and cryptocurrency will officially be regulated but accepted in Korea. Bad news for scammy ICOs and exchanges. Good news for blockchain professionals in Korea,”tweetedDoo Wan Nam, who works with MakerDAO.
Related:Binance Throws Weight Behind Shyft Network in ‘Travel Rule’ Standards Race
The legislation is the latest example of a country working to comply with new global AML and CFT directives in the virtual asset space. Ever since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)issued guidelines for policing VASPs, regulators have been racing to clamp down on potential illicit activity in their jurisdiction.
South Korea’s president has 15 days to sign the amendment into law. Some provisions will take effect one year after it’s signed, and the full law will come into effect six months after that.
• Hong Kong to Consider Additional FATF-Style Regulations for Crypto Exchanges
• Iranian General Advocates Crypto Use for Skirting Sanctions: Report || Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants: South Korea gets legal recognition for crypto, New York power plant minesBTCand the end of the intranet era for enterprise blockchain?
For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
It was another good day for global crypto as South Korea votes to formally integrate the industry into the existing financial system, opening the market to new players and potentially improving services for crypto companies.
Related:FluffyPony on Encryption, Clearview and How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy
In New York state, meanwhile, a recently renovated power plant is taking advantage of low-cost energy with 7,000 bitcoin miners. This is part of a larger trend of U.S.-based mining in 2020.
In a very different part of the industry, a new partnership involving ConsenSys, EY and Microsoft suggests the intranet era of enterprise blockchain might be coming to a close.
Finally, the new governor of the Bank of England says, be prepared to lose money if you buy bitcoin.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• Gender and Income: Binance US and Stellar CEOs Debunk Myths for International Women’s Day
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020
• South Korean Lawmakers Greenlight Strict Crypto AML Bill || Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants: South Korea gets legal recognition for crypto, New York power plant minesBTCand the end of the intranet era for enterprise blockchain?
For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
It was another good day for global crypto as South Korea votes to formally integrate the industry into the existing financial system, opening the market to new players and potentially improving services for crypto companies.
Related:FluffyPony on Encryption, Clearview and How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy
In New York state, meanwhile, a recently renovated power plant is taking advantage of low-cost energy with 7,000 bitcoin miners. This is part of a larger trend of U.S.-based mining in 2020.
In a very different part of the industry, a new partnership involving ConsenSys, EY and Microsoft suggests the intranet era of enterprise blockchain might be coming to a close.
Finally, the new governor of the Bank of England says, be prepared to lose money if you buy bitcoin.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• Gender and Income: Binance US and Stellar CEOs Debunk Myths for International Women’s Day
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020
• South Korean Lawmakers Greenlight Strict Crypto AML Bill || Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants: South Korea gets legal recognition for crypto, New York power plant mines BTC and the end of the intranet era for enterprise blockchain? For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . It was another good day for global crypto as South Korea votes to formally integrate the industry into the existing financial system, opening the market to new players and potentially improving services for crypto companies. Related: FluffyPony on Encryption, Clearview and How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy In New York state, meanwhile, a recently renovated power plant is taking advantage of low-cost energy with 7,000 bitcoin miners. This is part of a larger trend of U.S.-based mining in 2020. In a very different part of the industry, a new partnership involving ConsenSys, EY and Microsoft suggests the intranet era of enterprise blockchain might be coming to a close. Finally, the new governor of the Bank of England says, be prepared to lose money if you buy bitcoin. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Gender and Income: Binance US and Stellar CEOs Debunk Myths for International Women’s Day Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020 South Korean Lawmakers Greenlight Strict Crypto AML Bill || Bitcoin Stays Above $9,000 in US Trading: The price ofbitcoin(BTC) broke above $9,000 on a bullish run at 9:00 UTC (4:00 a.m. EST). The world’s leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 4 percent in the past 24 hours, with a high reaching $9,150 on exchanges including Coinbase.
The last time bitcoin traded above $9,000 was on Feb. 26.
An uptrend started taking shape at 0:00 UTC Thursday as prices broke out of asteady $8,600 to $8,800 range. Bitcoin quickly surpassed its 50-day moving average at that time on higher buying volume than the same period yesterday.
Related:Bitcoin’s $9,000 Price Stays Steady as Sentiment Stays Positive
The bullish run comes amid positive news regarding cryptocurrency from India’s Supreme Court. Adecision allowing Indian banks to work with cryptocurrency firmsreverses an April 2018 prohibition on providing such services to the country of over one billion people.
“The reckless ban on Indian banks working with cryptocurrency companies a few years ago was a big setback for Indian startups short term and the Indian economy long term,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a recenttweet.
Bitcoin hasn’t been in the $9,000 price range since Feb. 26. Year to date, bitcoin is up 26 percent, outperforming the S&P 500’s 5 percent decline since Jan. 1.
Many other cryptocurrencies are up today, particularly bitcoin forks, withbitcoin gold(BTG) up 15 percent,bitcoin SV(BSV) in the green 9 percent andbitcoin cash(BCH) ahead 7 percent.
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020
• Bitcoin Maintains Gains as Global Equities Slide, US Yield Hits Record Lows
• How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017’s Bull Run || Bitcoin Stays Above $9,000 in US Trading: The price of bitcoin (BTC) broke above $9,000 on a bullish run at 9:00 UTC (4:00 a.m. EST). The worlds leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 4 percent in the past 24 hours, with a high reaching $9,150 on exchanges including Coinbase. The last time bitcoin traded above $9,000 was on Feb. 26. An uptrend started taking shape at 0:00 UTC Thursday as prices broke out of a steady $8,600 to $8,800 range . Bitcoin quickly surpassed its 50-day moving average at that time on higher buying volume than the same period yesterday. Related: Bitcoins $9,000 Price Stays Steady as Sentiment Stays Positive The bullish run comes amid positive news regarding cryptocurrency from Indias Supreme Court. A decision allowing Indian banks to work with cryptocurrency firms reverses an April 2018 prohibition on providing such services to the country of over one billion people. The reckless ban on Indian banks working with cryptocurrency companies a few years ago was a big setback for Indian startups short term and the Indian economy long term, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a recent tweet . Bitcoin hasnt been in the $9,000 price range since Feb. 26. Year to date, bitcoin is up 26 percent, outperforming the S&P 500s 5 percent decline since Jan. 1. Many other cryptocurrencies are up today, particularly bitcoin forks, with bitcoin gold (BTG) up 15 percent, bitcoin SV (BSV) in the green 9 percent and bitcoin cash (BCH) ahead 7 percent. Related Stories Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020 Bitcoin Maintains Gains as Global Equities Slide, US Yield Hits Record Lows How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017s Bull Run || Bitcoin Stays Above $9,000 in US Trading: The price ofbitcoin(BTC) broke above $9,000 on a bullish run at 9:00 UTC (4:00 a.m. EST). The world’s leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 4 percent in the past 24 hours, with a high reaching $9,150 on exchanges including Coinbase.
The last time bitcoin traded above $9,000 was on Feb. 26.
An uptrend started taking shape at 0:00 UTC Thursday as prices broke out of asteady $8,600 to $8,800 range. Bitcoin quickly surpassed its 50-day moving average at that time on higher buying volume than the same period yesterday.
Related:Bitcoin’s $9,000 Price Stays Steady as Sentiment Stays Positive
The bullish run comes amid positive news regarding cryptocurrency from India’s Supreme Court. Adecision allowing Indian banks to work with cryptocurrency firmsreverses an April 2018 prohibition on providing such services to the country of over one billion people.
“The reckless ban on Indian banks working with cryptocurrency companies a few years ago was a big setback for Indian startups short term and the Indian economy long term,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a recenttweet.
Bitcoin hasn’t been in the $9,000 price range since Feb. 26. Year to date, bitcoin is up 26 percent, outperforming the S&P 500’s 5 percent decline since Jan. 1.
Many other cryptocurrencies are up today, particularly bitcoin forks, withbitcoin gold(BTG) up 15 percent,bitcoin SV(BSV) in the green 9 percent andbitcoin cash(BCH) ahead 7 percent.
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020
• Bitcoin Maintains Gains as Global Equities Slide, US Yield Hits Record Lows
• How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017’s Bull Run || Unstoppable Domains Chrome Extension Lets Users Browse Ethereum-Based Sites: Unstoppable Domains, a censorship-resistant web developer, has released a Google Chrome extension in its bid to open up web 3.0.
The extension will give users access to .crypto domain names directly from the Chrome browser, currently the most-used web browser. Developed by Unstoppable Domains, .crypto domains are smart contracts on the Ethereum network, meaning to take down a site an attacker would have to take down the overall network.
The new tool closely follows Unstoppable Domains’eponymous browser launch, unveiled at the ETHDenver conference in late February.
Related:The Domain Startups Building an Uncensorable Internet on Top of Ethereum
But the two-year-old ethereum-based startup –backed by $4 millionin Tim Draper seed funding and driven by its founders’ goal to get ahead of global censorship – always aimed higher than being a browser builder, according to founder Brad Kam.
“We don’t intend to be a browser company, nor do we want to be a browser company,” said founder Brad Kam. “We want browsers to support the decentralized web and we wanted to provide a developer tool that could help inspire that.”
Releasing a chrome browser extension will help Unstoppable Domains’ visibility and likely market penetration, too.
Kam declined to say how many times the Unstoppable browser had been downloaded since its launch a few weeks back, but it surely pales in comparison to Chrome’s global dominance; the Google release represented58 percent of the marketin March, according to W3counter.com.
Related:Google Reinstates Bitcoin Rewards Game Suspended for ‘Deceptive Practices’
A Chrome extension comes with risks. Google has been known to lash out at crypto applications, content and extensions in the past: it took the Meta Mask wallet down last year only to reinstate it, without explanation.
While Kam admits there’s no way to stop this type of censorship, he insists that he’s not concerned.
“Even if Chrome were to do that, which would be unfortunate, that would make it slightly less convenient for some users, but it would not stop the decentralized web,” he said.
• Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game
• Coinbase Hires Google VP as Chief Product Officer || Unstoppable Domains Chrome Extension Lets Users Browse Ethereum-Based Sites: Unstoppable Domains, a censorship-resistant web developer, has released a Google Chrome extension in its bid to open up web 3.0. The extension will give users access to .crypto domain names directly from the Chrome browser, currently the most-used web browser. Developed by Unstoppable Domains, .crypto domains are smart contracts on the Ethereum network, meaning to take down a site an attacker would have to take down the overall network. The new tool closely follows Unstoppable Domains’ eponymous browser launch , unveiled at the ETHDenver conference in late February. Related: The Domain Startups Building an Uncensorable Internet on Top of Ethereum But the two-year-old ethereum-based startup – backed by $4 million in Tim Draper seed funding and driven by its founders’ goal to get ahead of global censorship – always aimed higher than being a browser builder, according to founder Brad Kam. “We don’t intend to be a browser company, nor do we want to be a browser company,” said founder Brad Kam. “We want browsers to support the decentralized web and we wanted to provide a developer tool that could help inspire that.” Releasing a chrome browser extension will help Unstoppable Domains’ visibility and likely market penetration, too. Kam declined to say how many times the Unstoppable browser had been downloaded since its launch a few weeks back, but it surely pales in comparison to Chrome’s global dominance; the Google release represented 58 percent of the market in March, according to W3counter.com. Related: Google Reinstates Bitcoin Rewards Game Suspended for ‘Deceptive Practices’ A Chrome extension comes with risks. Google has been known to lash out at crypto applications, content and extensions in the past: it took the Meta Mask wallet down last year only to reinstate it, without explanation. While Kam admits there’s no way to stop this type of censorship, he insists that he’s not concerned. “Even if Chrome were to do that, which would be unfortunate, that would make it slightly less convenient for some users, but it would not stop the decentralized web,” he said. Related Stories Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game Coinbase Hires Google VP as Chief Product Officer || Arweave's permaweb stops coronavirus censorship, raises $8M: The Chinese government has been removing criticism of its coronavirus response from apps like Weibo, the local equivalent of Twitter. But before it can, that content is being saved, decentralized and highlighted thanks to Arweave's permaweb. Today it's announcing another $8.3 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. Arweave has developed a new type of blockchain based on Moore's Law of the declining cost of data storage. Users pay upfront for a hundred years of storage at less than a cent per megabyte, and the interest that accrues will cover the dwindling storage cost forever. More than one million pieces of data are now stored on the permaweb, and nearly 200 apps have been developed. That includes perma-apps like WeiBlocked , which crawls Weibo for content likely to be censored. It indexes these posts and decentralizes them in the storage of hundreds of Arweave nodes operated around the world. WeiBlocked later checks back to see if the content has been censored, and then highlights them on its permaweb site you can access from a standard web browser. "By censoring it, it puts it out of the control of the censor," says Arweave founder Sam Williams. It's like the Streisand Effect in product form. The act of censorship actually causes the sensitive content to become increasingly visible. The more the Chinese government tries to hide information about Dr. Li Wenliang, an early coronavirus whistleblower who was pressured into silence by Chinese police and later died of the sickness, the more attention it receives. Williams tells me he's excited that WeiBlocked is "Putting the censorship protection of the network into practice." Funding the immutable future The potential to become the unmutable layer of the internet attracted the new $8.3 million in funding just four months after Arweave raised its last $5 million from Andreessen Horowitz, USV and Multicoin Capital. Along with video chat apps, Arweave is one of the startups benefiting from the unfortunate ripple effects of the tragic coronavirus. Story continues How Arweaves Permaweb cheaply hosts sites & apps forever Rather than providing traditional equity in exchange for cash, Arweave sold investors some of its cache of its blockchain's tokens. These are what users spend to store data on the Arweave permaweb. There's only a finite number in the market, so as demand for everlasting storage increases, so does the value of the tokens. Investors could later sell their stake to generate returns. Arweave founder Sam Williams But what's especially interesting is how Arweave is employing these token economics to build out its developer ecosystem. "We can invest fiat dollars into developers, increasing usage of the network, thereby increasing the value of the tokens," Williams explains. "That makes it sustainable so we can do it in the future, endlessly investing in the ecosystem." As long as investments in developers cause Arweave's token stash to accrue more value than the size of the investment, it will always have more to deploy. "We can make it recurring, indefinitely." Regarding the new $8.3 million, the startup writes, " This money is for you, the Arweave community. The founding team now sees it as our primary role to dispense these funds carefully to the community." Specifically, it will dispense Arweave Grants to fund proposals for startups, projects, organizations and marketing initiatives that will grow permaweb usage. It's also launching Arweave Boost , which gives $50,000 worth of free storage to startups and projects trying to build on the permaweb. Both resources come with technical guidance and mentorship from Arweave and its investors. With more than 500 nodes in operation, Arweave supports decentralized blogging platforms, indestructible documents, a social network called FEEDweave and apps that can keep running even if their owners go out of business. Unlike Bitcoin, where miners are rewarded for storing or verifying just the latest block, Arweave's blockchain incentivizes storage of old blocks on unused server space. "WeiBlocked maintains an up-to-date list of politically sensitive search phrases and hashtags that are being censored in Weibo searches," its creators Aidan O'Kelly and Sam Rahimi tell TechCrunch. "WeiBlocked makes use of the 'permaweb' capabilities of the Arweave blockchain . . . This makes it impossible to block users within China from viewing the content in the WeiBlocked archive, as there is no one host or IP that can be blocked by the firewall (or attacked by CCP hackers)." Williams believes Arweave has hit a tipping point, with a functioning economy that means the network will keep running even without his company's involvement. "I find it increasingly easy to sleep at night. We're just focused on pushing adoption and the question is 'how fast' not 'if.' It's a truly decentralized network now." There's always the risk of some yet-undiscovered code problems, or another permanent approach to the web undercutting Arweave. But with countries like Russia pushing new attempts to wall themselves off from the outside internet, there's increasing need for Arweave's network. "Activity is exploding, expectably around where censorship resistance can be valuable." Next, the permaweb community wants to safeguard itself from even a disruption of internet connectivity itself. There's an initiative to make Arweave work over high-frequency radio. Through a Morse code-like system, sensitive content could be smuggled out of a country via radio, indexed, and kept accessible forever. || Arweave's permaweb stops coronavirus censorship, raises $8M: The Chinese government has been removing criticism of its coronavirus response from apps like Weibo, the local equivalent of Twitter. But before it can, that content is being saved, decentralized and highlighted thanks toArweave'spermaweb. Today it'sannouncinganother $8.3 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.
Arweavehas developed a new type of blockchain based on Moore's Law of the declining cost of data storage. Users pay upfront for a hundred years of storage at less than a cent per megabyte, and the interest that accrues will cover the dwindling storage cost forever. More than one million pieces of data are now stored on the permaweb, and nearly 200 apps have been developed.
That includes perma-apps likeWeiBlocked, which crawls Weibo for content likely to be censored. It indexes these posts and decentralizes them in the storage of hundreds of Arweave nodes operated around the world. WeiBlocked laterchecks back to see if the content has been censored, and then highlights them on its permaweb site you can access from a standard web browser. "By censoring it, it puts it out of the control of the censor," says Arweave founder Sam Williams.
It's like the Streisand Effect in product form. The act of censorship actually causes the sensitive content to become increasingly visible. The more the Chinese government tries to hide information about Dr. Li Wenliang, an early coronavirus whistleblower who was pressured into silence by Chinese police and later died of the sickness, the more attention it receives. Williams tells me he's excited that WeiBlocked is "Putting the censorship protection of the network into practice."
The potential to become the unmutable layer of the internet attracted the new $8.3 million in funding just four months after Arweave raised its last $5 million fromAndreessen Horowitz,USV and Multicoin Capital. Along with video chat apps, Arweave is one of the startups benefiting from the unfortunate ripple effects of the tragic coronavirus.
How Arweave’s Permaweb cheaply hosts sites & apps forever
Rather than providing traditional equity in exchange for cash, Arweave sold investors some of its cache of its blockchain's tokens. These are what users spend to store data on the Arweave permaweb. There's only a finite number in the market, so as demand for everlasting storage increases, so does the value of the tokens. Investors could later sell their stake to generate returns.
Arweave founder Sam Williams
But what's especially interesting is how Arweave is employing these token economics to build out its developer ecosystem. "We can invest fiat dollars into developers, increasing usage of the network, thereby increasing the value of the tokens," Williams explains. "That makes it sustainable so we can do it in the future, endlessly investing in the ecosystem." As long as investments in developers cause Arweave's token stash to accrue more value than the size of the investment, it will always have more to deploy. "We can make it recurring, indefinitely."
Regarding the new $8.3 million, the startup writes, "This money is for you, the Arweave community.The founding team now sees it as our primary role to dispense these funds carefully to the community." Specifically, it will dispenseArweave Grantsto fund proposals for startups, projects, organizations and marketing initiatives that will grow permaweb usage. It's also launchingArweave Boost, which gives $50,000 worth of free storage to startups and projects trying to build on the permaweb. Both resources come with technical guidance and mentorship from Arweave and its investors.
With more than 500 nodes in operation, Arweave supports decentralized blogging platforms, indestructible documents, a social network calledFEEDweaveand apps that can keep running even if their owners go out of business. Unlike Bitcoin, where miners are rewarded for storing or verifying just the latest block, Arweave's blockchain incentivizes storage of old blocks on unused server space.
"WeiBlocked maintains an up-to-date list of politically sensitive search phrases and hashtags that are being censored in Weibo searches," its creators Aidan O'Kelly and Sam Rahimi tell TechCrunch. "WeiBlocked makes use of the 'permaweb' capabilities of the Arweave blockchain . . . This makes it impossible to block users within China from viewing the content in the WeiBlocked archive, as there is no one host or IP that can be blocked by the firewall (or attacked by CCP hackers)."
Williams believes Arweave has hit a tipping point, with a functioning economy that means the network will keep running even without his company's involvement. "I find it increasingly easy to sleep at night. We're just focused on pushing adoption and the question is 'how fast' not 'if.' It's a truly decentralized network now."
There's always the risk of some yet-undiscovered code problems, or another permanent approach to the web undercutting Arweave. But with countries like Russia pushing new attempts to wall themselves off from the outside internet, there's increasing need for Arweave's network. "Activity is exploding, expectably around where censorship resistance can be valuable."
Next, the permaweb community wants to safeguard itself from even a disruption of internet connectivity itself. There's an initiative to make Arweave work over high-frequency radio. Through a Morse code-like system, sensitive content could be smuggled out of a country via radio, indexed, and kept accessible forever. || How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017’s Bull Run: Although the bitcoin market’s recent volatility may feel familiar to industry veterans, the circumstances are very different in 2020 than they were whenbitcoin(BTC) surged to nearly $20,000 in late 2017.
Namely, there’s now Wall Street infrastructure for sophisticated bitcoin trading and holding, fromFidelity InvestmentstoBakkt. For another example, the brokerage startupTagomi, co-founded in 2018 by Union Square Ventures alum Jennifer Campbell and backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, also offers institutional investors the options for trading between platforms without moving the price. Until recently, limitedprice spreadsrestricted market activity.
“During the last bull run there were a lot of trading desks with a pretty website, but behind the scenes there was a lot of sausage making,” Campbell said, describing how some funds literally just operated with one person’s personal exchange account.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020
These days, over in San Francisco, deliberately conservative exchanges like the bitcoin-focused startupRiver Financialhave attracted talent such as Union Bank of Switzerland alum Zev Mintz. Mintz said the combination of a robust lending market with margin trading will be a “huge driver” of liquidity in 2020, as well as the growing “payments system” use case.
Indeed, merchant adoption remains modest yet consistent, according toCoinbase. Meanwhile, OKEx Financial Markets Director Lennix Lai said derivatives now make up nearly 66 percent of the platform’s daily global volume, more than $2 billion in options alone.
Yet, it’s not the sheer number of trading platforms that differentiates this prospective bull run. Incumbents like BitMEX and Binance continue to churn volumes that dwarf those of OKEx.
“We were getting questions all the time about what can we do, can we buy bitcoin?” Mintz said of his former clients at UBS. “A lot of what I’m going to be doing in the next year [at River Financial] is building on some of these [dollar-cost-averaging] tools, giving users more insights and analytics into how their holdings are working and being as transparent as possible.”
Related:Crypto Exchange OKCoin Appoints New CEO to Drive US Expansion
These days, Campbell says, it’s easier to give more accurate price information from a variety of exchange platforms, in addition to “better ways for people to margin for shorts and lends.”
“The over-the-counter market has changed a lot. … It was really a couple of guys pressing ‘buy’ behind the scenes,” she said, comparing 2017 to 2020. “It’s moved from a dealer-driven market to one where people know how to execute trades through a prime broker, using algorithms or other strategies.”
It’s the presence of both Wild West options and regulator-friendly alternatives that differentiates 2020.
It’s cheaper now than it’s ever been to move large bitcoin trades in and out of a market.
By spreading trades across exchanges, institutional buyers avoid tipping the scales against their trades on platforms with limited spreads.
“A lot of the trading strategies that were too expensive before are now possible,” said Tagomi’s Campbell. “A lot of the strategies before were just arbitraging between exchanges, but that very quickly got subpoenaed away.”
She declined to comment on the startup’s work with more than 40 hedge funds, family offices and other institutional clients. Yet, Tagomi’s warm relations with companies like Facebook and Bakkt suggest the long-prophesied arrival of institutional investors, which bitcoin advocates claimed in previous years would boost bitcoin prices “to the moon,” may have already started as a whisper, not a bang.
For example, Lai estimated that 1 percent of OKEx’s clients in 2020 are the institutional traders that drive nearly 70 percent of the platform’s volumes.
The 2017 bitcoin market was retail driven. The cryptocurrency market, in general, may still be predominantly retail but bitcoin is much less so than before. OKEx’s Lai explained the appeal of bitcoin derivatives, trusting a company for traditional guarantees, attracts buyers who aren’t yet comfortable with independent custody of bitcoin itself. This can be especially true in emerging markets like India, where theSupreme Courtrecently ruled banks can work with crypto businesses and thedemand for derivatives is surging.
“Because the volatility of bitcoin is particularly higher than a regular asset class,” Lai said. “Traders feel more safe that way, they deposit a lot more money.”
If bitcoin doesn’t become amass-marketproduct, then investor interest may eventually simmer down. (For his part, River Financial’s Mintz envisions bitcoin for “everyday payments” thanks to the Lightning Network.)
Still, it looks as though institutions around the world now routinely trade millions of dollars worth of bitcoin every day. That’s no longer a rare “whale call,” it’s the status quo.
“Those are the two components that are really important,” Mintz said, regarding how institutional interest and retail usage must coincide to drive demand beyond speculative trading. Institutions can now choose whether to trade bitcoin itself or representative options, both at scale.
“When you’re shorting on our platform, you’re actually borrowing bitcoin from someone else,” Tagomi’s Campbell added. “There’s physical bitcoin being exchanged. The same thing with margins … it’s all backed by physical assets, which is very different than trading futures [in 2017].”
• India’s Central Bank Plans to Fight Supreme Court Crypto Ruling
• Exchange Technology Developer AlphaPoint Raises $5.6M in Latest Funding Round || How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017s Bull Run: Although the bitcoin markets recent volatility may feel familiar to industry veterans, the circumstances are very different in 2020 than they were when bitcoin (BTC) surged to nearly $20,000 in late 2017. Namely, theres now Wall Street infrastructure for sophisticated bitcoin trading and holding, from Fidelity Investments to Bakkt . For another example, the brokerage startup Tagomi , co-founded in 2018 by Union Square Ventures alum Jennifer Campbell and backed by Peter Thiels Founders Fund, also offers institutional investors the options for trading between platforms without moving the price. Until recently, limited price spreads restricted market activity. During the last bull run there were a lot of trading desks with a pretty website, but behind the scenes there was a lot of sausage making, Campbell said, describing how some funds literally just operated with one persons personal exchange account. Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020 These days, over in San Francisco, deliberately conservative exchanges like the bitcoin-focused startup River Financial have attracted talent such as Union Bank of Switzerland alum Zev Mintz. Mintz said the combination of a robust lending market with margin trading will be a huge driver of liquidity in 2020, as well as the growing payments system use case. Indeed, merchant adoption remains modest yet consistent, according to Coinbase . Meanwhile, OKEx Financial Markets Director Lennix Lai said derivatives now make up nearly 66 percent of the platforms daily global volume, more than $2 billion in options alone. Yet, its not the sheer number of trading platforms that differentiates this prospective bull run. Incumbents like BitMEX and Binance continue to churn volumes that dwarf those of OKEx. We were getting questions all the time about what can we do, can we buy bitcoin? Mintz said of his former clients at UBS. A lot of what Im going to be doing in the next year [at River Financial] is building on some of these [dollar-cost-averaging] tools, giving users more insights and analytics into how their holdings are working and being as transparent as possible. Story continues Related: Crypto Exchange OKCoin Appoints New CEO to Drive US Expansion These days, Campbell says, its easier to give more accurate price information from a variety of exchange platforms, in addition to better ways for people to margin for shorts and lends. The over-the-counter market has changed a lot.
It was really a couple of guys pressing buy behind the scenes, she said, comparing 2017 to 2020. Its moved from a dealer-driven market to one where people know how to execute trades through a prime broker, using algorithms or other strategies. Its the presence of both Wild West options and regulator-friendly alternatives that differentiates 2020. Whale szn Its cheaper now than its ever been to move large bitcoin trades in and out of a market. By spreading trades across exchanges, institutional buyers avoid tipping the scales against their trades on platforms with limited spreads. A lot of the trading strategies that were too expensive before are now possible, said Tagomis Campbell. A lot of the strategies before were just arbitraging between exchanges, but that very quickly got subpoenaed away. She declined to comment on the startups work with more than 40 hedge funds, family offices and other institutional clients. Yet, Tagomis warm relations with companies like Facebook and Bakkt suggest the long-prophesied arrival of institutional investors, which bitcoin advocates claimed in previous years would boost bitcoin prices to the moon, may have already started as a whisper, not a bang. For example, Lai estimated that 1 percent of OKExs clients in 2020 are the institutional traders that drive nearly 70 percent of the platforms volumes. The 2017 bitcoin market was retail driven. The cryptocurrency market, in general, may still be predominantly retail but bitcoin is much less so than before. OKExs Lai explained the appeal of bitcoin derivatives, trusting a company for traditional guarantees, attracts buyers who arent yet comfortable with independent custody of bitcoin itself. This can be especially true in emerging markets like India, where the Supreme Court recently ruled banks can work with crypto businesses and the demand for derivatives is surging . Because the volatility of bitcoin is particularly higher than a regular asset class, Lai said. Traders feel more safe that way, they deposit a lot more money. If bitcoin doesnt become a mass-market product, then investor interest may eventually simmer down. (For his part, River Financials Mintz envisions bitcoin for everyday payments thanks to the Lightning Network.) Still, it looks as though institutions around the world now routinely trade millions of dollars worth of bitcoin every day. Thats no longer a rare whale call , its the status quo. Those are the two components that are really important, Mintz said, regarding how institutional interest and retail usage must coincide to drive demand beyond speculative trading. Institutions can now choose whether to trade bitcoin itself or representative options, both at scale. When youre shorting on our platform, youre actually borrowing bitcoin from someone else, Tagomis Campbell added. Theres physical bitcoin being exchanged. The same thing with margins
its all backed by physical assets, which is very different than trading futures [in 2017]. Related Stories Indias Central Bank Plans to Fight Supreme Court Crypto Ruling Exchange Technology Developer AlphaPoint Raises $5.6M in Latest Funding Round || How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017’s Bull Run: Although the bitcoin market’s recent volatility may feel familiar to industry veterans, the circumstances are very different in 2020 than they were whenbitcoin(BTC) surged to nearly $20,000 in late 2017.
Namely, there’s now Wall Street infrastructure for sophisticated bitcoin trading and holding, fromFidelity InvestmentstoBakkt. For another example, the brokerage startupTagomi, co-founded in 2018 by Union Square Ventures alum Jennifer Campbell and backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, also offers institutional investors the options for trading between platforms without moving the price. Until recently, limitedprice spreadsrestricted market activity.
“During the last bull run there were a lot of trading desks with a pretty website, but behind the scenes there was a lot of sausage making,” Campbell said, describing how some funds literally just operated with one person’s personal exchange account.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for March 6, 2020
These days, over in San Francisco, deliberately conservative exchanges like the bitcoin-focused startupRiver Financialhave attracted talent such as Union Bank of Switzerland alum Zev Mintz. Mintz said the combination of a robust lending market with margin trading will be a “huge driver” of liquidity in 2020, as well as the growing “payments system” use case.
Indeed, merchant adoption remains modest yet consistent, according toCoinbase. Meanwhile, OKEx Financial Markets Director Lennix Lai said derivatives now make up nearly 66 percent of the platform’s daily global volume, more than $2 billion in options alone.
Yet, it’s not the sheer number of trading platforms that differentiates this prospective bull run. Incumbents like BitMEX and Binance continue to churn volumes that dwarf those of OKEx.
“We were getting questions all the time about what can we do, can we buy bitcoin?” Mintz said of his former clients at UBS. “A lot of what I’m going to be doing in the next year [at River Financial] is building on some of these [dollar-cost-averaging] tools, giving users more insights and analytics into how their holdings are working and being as transparent as possible.”
Related:Crypto Exchange OKCoin Appoints New CEO to Drive US Expansion
These days, Campbell says, it’s easier to give more accurate price information from a variety of exchange platforms, in addition to “better ways for people to margin for shorts and lends.”
“The over-the-counter market has changed a lot. … It was really a couple of guys pressing ‘buy’ behind the scenes,” she said, comparing 2017 to 2020. “It’s moved from a dealer-driven market to one where people know how to execute trades through a prime broker, using algorithms or other strategies.”
It’s the presence of both Wild West options and regulator-friendly alternatives that differentiates 2020.
It’s cheaper now than it’s ever been to move large bitcoin trades in and out of a market.
By spreading trades across exchanges, institutional buyers avoid tipping the scales against their trades on platforms with limited spreads.
“A lot of the trading strategies that were too expensive before are now possible,” said Tagomi’s Campbell. “A lot of the strategies before were just arbitraging between exchanges, but that very quickly got subpoenaed away.”
She declined to comment on the startup’s work with more than 40 hedge funds, family offices and other institutional clients. Yet, Tagomi’s warm relations with companies like Facebook and Bakkt suggest the long-prophesied arrival of institutional investors, which bitcoin advocates claimed in previous years would boost bitcoin prices “to the moon,” may have already started as a whisper, not a bang.
For example, Lai estimated that 1 percent of OKEx’s clients in 2020 are the institutional traders that drive nearly 70 percent of the platform’s volumes.
The 2017 bitcoin market was retail driven. The cryptocurrency market, in general, may still be predominantly retail but bitcoin is much less so than before. OKEx’s Lai explained the appeal of bitcoin derivatives, trusting a company for traditional guarantees, attracts buyers who aren’t yet comfortable with independent custody of bitcoin itself. This can be especially true in emerging markets like India, where theSupreme Courtrecently ruled banks can work with crypto businesses and thedemand for derivatives is surging.
“Because the volatility of bitcoin is particularly higher than a regular asset class,” Lai said. “Traders feel more safe that way, they deposit a lot more money.”
If bitcoin doesn’t become amass-marketproduct, then investor interest may eventually simmer down. (For his part, River Financial’s Mintz envisions bitcoin for “everyday payments” thanks to the Lightning Network.)
Still, it looks as though institutions around the world now routinely trade millions of dollars worth of bitcoin every day. That’s no longer a rare “whale call,” it’s the status quo.
“Those are the two components that are really important,” Mintz said, regarding how institutional interest and retail usage must coincide to drive demand beyond speculative trading. Institutions can now choose whether to trade bitcoin itself or representative options, both at scale.
“When you’re shorting on our platform, you’re actually borrowing bitcoin from someone else,” Tagomi’s Campbell added. “There’s physical bitcoin being exchanged. The same thing with margins … it’s all backed by physical assets, which is very different than trading futures [in 2017].”
• India’s Central Bank Plans to Fight Supreme Court Crypto Ruling
• Exchange Technology Developer AlphaPoint Raises $5.6M in Latest Funding Round || South Korea passes one of the world’s first comprehensive cryptocurrency laws: The South Korean National Assemblypassed new legislation todaythat will provide a framework for the regulation and legalization of cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges.
In a unanimous vote during a special session of the legislature convenedamidst the country’s worsening novel coronavirus situation, the representatives passed an amendment to the country’s financial services laws that would authorize Korea’s financial regulators to effectively oversee the nascent industry and develop rules around anti-money laundering among other processes.
South Korea has been on the forefront of the cryptocurrency boom and bust over the past few years, and it’s one of the few countries with wide-scale adoption of the technology. Surveys at the height of the crypto craze in 2017 showed thatmore than a third of the country’s workers were active investors in cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Ethereum and other systems. The country’s largest city, Seoul,led a government initiative to introduce its own cryptocurrency— S-coin — that was designed to capture the zeitgeist of the frenzy.
During that period, South Korea’s governmentmoved quickly to push new regulations and clamp down on the spread of blockchain, which caused large gyrations in the price of Bitcoin as investors observed how the country’s investors would react.
Today’s vote in the legislature just a few years later is a relatively quick turnaround for regulators, and shows the increasing acceptance of blockchain and, more specifically, cryptocurrencies in the context of financial services both locally and across the world. One of the country’s largest technology companies, Kakao, hascontinued to invest in blockchain initiatives, and the local ecosystem remains relatively robust in innovation in the sector.
The passage of the cryptocurrency legislation is a victory for the Korean startup ecosystem, but other major questions remain about the sector.
Among the most heated topics today is the fate of Tada (타다), the indigenous ride-hailing startup that competes with the traditional and regulated taxi industry. Since the company’s launch in late 2018, the company has faced constant threats of shut down by regulators, before a reprieve a few weeks ago by the country’s top constitutional court approved its operations.
Yet, in the same special session that saw the cryptocurrency bill pass, the National Assembly a day agoapproved in committeea bill that would effectively ban Tada and mandate that it receive an operating license from the government. Expect further action on Tada in the weeks ahead.
As for the cryptocurrency law, its passage and presumed signing by South Korean president Moon Jae-in starts a months-long rulemaking process that will also provide time for existing startups and exchanges to transition into the law’s new regulatory apparatus.
Korea’s parliamentary elections are coming up in just a few weeks (on April 15th), and, while the situation around the novel coronavirus is taking a lion’s share of the local headlines, votes on tech measures are a way for representatives to position themselves on other salient issues before voters decide.
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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8909.95, 8108.12, 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 610.89, 612.13, 610.20, 612.51, 613.02, 617.12, 619.11, 616.75, 618.99, 641.07, 636.19, 636.79, 640.38, 638.65, 641.63, 639.19, 637.96, 630.52, 630.86, 632.83, 657.29, 657.07, 653.76, 657.59, 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13, 709.85, 723.27, 715.53, 716.41, 705.05, 702.03, 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-12-30]
Volume: 187474000, RSI (14-day): 79.50, 50-day EMA: 803.00, 200-day EMA: 672.34
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1150.00, Gold RSI: 42.56
Oil Price: 53.72, Oil RSI: 64.01
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Forget about Dow 20K: Bitcoin's about to hit $1,000: Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, is on its way to a major milestone thanks to a confluence of positive factors.
With just a couple trading days left in the year, bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=)looks poised to break the $1,000 barrier — quite an achievement for a product considered close to dead not that long ago amid a series of embarrassing headlines. The price has surged 122 percent in 2016, making it one of the top trades of the year.
The increase has been driven by a number of factors.
China and India both have been big buyers as part of a broader global landscape that has pushed bitcoin's acceptance further along. Chinese investors have bought bitcoins as the yuan has lost its value, while the surge in India has been driven thanks to the government's decision to retire some currency denominations.
"It is one tool that many people around the world use to try to preserve wealth," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex who writes a widely followed daily newsletter that was likely the first on Wall Street to discuss bitcoin several years ago. "Bitcoin has gone from being just a nerd's version of gold years ago to now being another thing people do to try to hold onto their wealth."
Indeed, the total value of bitcoins in circulation now is about $15.5 billion, based on more than 16 million bitcoins.
Bitcoin has been one of the investment stories of the year. Only two stocks in the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)— Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA)and Oneok(NYSE: OKE)— have delivered better returns. No nonleveraged exchange-traded fund has beaten bitcoins, with the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining(NYSE Arca: XME)fund coming closest with a 110 percent gain this year. Of currency trades, the best has been the euro's 16 percent gain against the British pound.
Still, mainstream acceptance remains elusive and investors shy away due to the cryptocurrency's volatility.
"Not yet," Colas said when asked if bitcoin had achieved legitimacy as a system of payment or currency. "It will be mainstream when you can walk into a bank and order a bitcoin account. We're not close to that yet."
Still, both usage and acceptance are growing, even if still not widespread.
Some 45,000 businesses now accept bitcoins as payment, according to Coinbase. Among them are Dell, PayPal and Time. In a recent Twitter exchange with users, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he was surprised by the demand for bitcoin payment integration for the peer-to-peer lodging app. (An active Reddit forumon the topic opened earlier this week.)
Bitcoin prices fell in morning trade Thursday, though it continued to flirt with a record high.
While Wall Street waits for the Dow(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI)to top 20,000, bitcoin eclipsing $1,000 could well come first.
"It's hard to say what was the breakthrough year or if we've had a breakthrough year yet," Colas said. "Certainly in price terms, this has been a pretty impressive year. But in terms of broad mass market adoption, it's still to come."
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Forget about Dow 20K: Bitcoin's about to hit $1,000: Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, is on its way to a major milestone thanks to a confluence of positive factors.
With just a couple trading days left in the year, bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=)looks poised to break the $1,000 barrier — quite an achievement for a product considered close to dead not that long ago amid a series of embarrassing headlines. The price has surged 122 percent in 2016, making it one of the top trades of the year.
The increase has been driven by a number of factors.
China and India both have been big buyers as part of a broader global landscape that has pushed bitcoin's acceptance further along. Chinese investors have bought bitcoins as the yuan has lost its value, while the surge in India has been driven thanks to the government's decision to retire some currency denominations.
"It is one tool that many people around the world use to try to preserve wealth," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex who writes a widely followed daily newsletter that was likely the first on Wall Street to discuss bitcoin several years ago. "Bitcoin has gone from being just a nerd's version of gold years ago to now being another thing people do to try to hold onto their wealth."
Indeed, the total value of bitcoins in circulation now is about $15.5 billion, based on more than 16 million bitcoins.
Bitcoin has been one of the investment stories of the year. Only two stocks in the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)— Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA)and Oneok(NYSE: OKE)— have delivered better returns. No nonleveraged exchange-traded fund has beaten bitcoins, with the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining(NYSE Arca: XME)fund coming closest with a 110 percent gain this year. Of currency trades, the best has been the euro's 16 percent gain against the British pound.
Still, mainstream acceptance remains elusive and investors shy away due to the cryptocurrency's volatility.
"Not yet," Colas said when asked if bitcoin had achieved legitimacy as a system of payment or currency. "It will be mainstream when you can walk into a bank and order a bitcoin account. We're not close to that yet."
Still, both usage and acceptance are growing, even if still not widespread.
Some 45,000 businesses now accept bitcoins as payment, according to Coinbase. Among them are Dell, PayPal and Time. In a recent Twitter exchange with users, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he was surprised by the demand for bitcoin payment integration for the peer-to-peer lodging app. (An active Reddit forumon the topic opened earlier this week.)
Bitcoin prices fell in morning trade Thursday, though it continued to flirt with a record high.
While Wall Street waits for the Dow(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI)to top 20,000, bitcoin eclipsing $1,000 could well come first.
"It's hard to say what was the breakthrough year or if we've had a breakthrough year yet," Colas said. "Certainly in price terms, this has been a pretty impressive year. But in terms of broad mass market adoption, it's still to come."
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Forget about Dow 20K: Bitcoin's about to hit $1,000: Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, is on its way to a major milestone thanks to a confluence of positive factors. With just a couple trading days left in the year, bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) looks poised to break the $1,000 barrier — quite an achievement for a product considered close to dead not that long ago amid a series of embarrassing headlines. The price has surged 122 percent in 2016, making it one of the top trades of the year. The increase has been driven by a number of factors. China and India both have been big buyers as part of a broader global landscape that has pushed bitcoin's acceptance further along. Chinese investors have bought bitcoins as the yuan has lost its value, while the surge in India has been driven thanks to the government's decision to retire some currency denominations. "It is one tool that many people around the world use to try to preserve wealth," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex who writes a widely followed daily newsletter that was likely the first on Wall Street to discuss bitcoin several years ago. "Bitcoin has gone from being just a nerd's version of gold years ago to now being another thing people do to try to hold onto their wealth." Indeed, the total value of bitcoins in circulation now is about $15.5 billion, based on more than 16 million bitcoins. Bitcoin has been one of the investment stories of the year. Only two stocks in the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) — Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Oneok (NYSE: OKE) — have delivered better returns. No nonleveraged exchange-traded fund has beaten bitcoins, with the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining (NYSE Arca: XME) fund coming closest with a 110 percent gain this year. Of currency trades, the best has been the euro's 16 percent gain against the British pound. Still, mainstream acceptance remains elusive and investors shy away due to the cryptocurrency's volatility. "Not yet," Colas said when asked if bitcoin had achieved legitimacy as a system of payment or currency. "It will be mainstream when you can walk into a bank and order a bitcoin account. We're not close to that yet." Story continues Still, both usage and acceptance are growing, even if still not widespread. Some 45,000 businesses now accept bitcoins as payment, according to Coinbase. Among them are Dell, PayPal and Time. In a recent Twitter exchange with users, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he was surprised by the demand for bitcoin payment integration for the peer-to-peer lodging app. ( An active Reddit forum on the topic opened earlier this week.) Bitcoin prices fell in morning trade Thursday, though it continued to flirt with a record high. While Wall Street waits for the Dow (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) to top 20,000, bitcoin eclipsing $1,000 could well come first. "It's hard to say what was the breakthrough year or if we've had a breakthrough year yet," Colas said. "Certainly in price terms, this has been a pretty impressive year. But in terms of broad mass market adoption, it's still to come." More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Trump's pick for budget chief loves gold and bitcoin: mark mulvaney (Rep. Mick Mulvaney.AP Images) The man in line to bring together President-elect Donald Trump's federal budget is a big believer in gold, according to financial disclosures. Mick Mulvaney, Trump's pick to lead the Office of Budget and Management, owns significant amounts of precious metals and gold-mining stocks based on financial disclosures compiled by Bloomberg . According to the filings, Mulvaney held $50,000 to $100,000 in precious metals at the end of 2015. In addition, the South Carolina congressman holds stock in numerous gold and silver mining corporations totaling $252,000 to $855,000, according to the filing. Bloomberg found that Mulvaney had sold significant amounts of the gold miners' stock in early 2016, citing financial filings from the end of June. The heavy investments into gold is not surprising given past criticism by Mulvaney of the Federal Reserve. In a speech obtained by Mother Jones , Mulvaney told the John Birch Society, a group that believes the only legal forms of currency are gold and silver coins , that the Fed had "effectively devalued the dollar" and "choke[d] off economic growth." In the same speech, Mulvaney also praised bitcoin, saying the cryptocurrency could not be "manipulated" by the government. Gold-mining stocks have had an up-and-down year. VanEck's Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF the largest gold-mining sector exchange-traded fund in which Mulvaney had an investment ($15,001 to $50,000) is up 45% year-to-date but is down roughly 35% from its 2016 high in August. The dollar has strengthened by a little over 5% since the US presidential election, while gold has fallen by roughly 10%. Bitcoin has been surging in the past week, hitting its highest level since November 2013 on Thursday . Check out the full Bloomberg report here» NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider Sears and Kmart are closing more stores see if your store is on the list How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65 The internet is flummoxed by this optical illusion of 6 girls with only 5 pairs of legs || Trump's pick for budget chief loves gold and bitcoin: (Rep. Mick Mulvaney.AP Images)
The man in line to bring together President-elect Donald Trump's federal budget is a big believer in gold, according to financial disclosures.
Mick Mulvaney, Trump's pick to lead the Office of Budget and Management, owns significant amounts of precious metals and gold-mining stocks based on financial disclosurescompiled by Bloomberg.
According to the filings, Mulvaney held $50,000 to $100,000 in precious metals at the end of 2015. In addition, the South Carolina congressman holds stock in numerous gold and silver mining corporations totaling $252,000 to $855,000, according to the filing.
Bloomberg foundthat Mulvaney had sold significant amounts of the gold miners' stock in early 2016, citing financial filings from the end of June.
The heavy investments into gold is not surprising given past criticism by Mulvaney of the Federal Reserve. In a speechobtained by Mother Jones, Mulvaney told the John Birch Society, a group that believes theonly legal forms of currency are gold and silver coins, that the Fed had "effectively devalued the dollar" and "choke[d] off economic growth."
In the same speech, Mulvaney also praised bitcoin, saying the cryptocurrency could not be "manipulated" by the government.
Gold-mining stocks have had an up-and-down year. VanEck's Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF — the largest gold-mining sector exchange-traded fund in which Mulvaney had an investment ($15,001 to $50,000) — is up 45% year-to-date but is down roughly 35% from its 2016 high in August.
The dollar has strengthened by a little over 5% since the US presidential election, while gold has fallen by roughly 10%. Bitcoin has been surging in the past week, hitting itshighest level since November 2013 on Thursday.
NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates
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• Sears and Kmart are closing more stores — see if your store is on the list
• How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65
• The internet is flummoxed by this optical illusion of 6 girls with only 5 pairs of legs || How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?: After a strong showing in 2015, Bitcoin investors experienced another strong year of performance from the popular cryptocurrency in 2016. Bitcoin followed up an impressive +26.3 percent gain in 2015 with a +119.8 percent gain in 2016. A large part of Bitcoin’s gains has come in the final weeks of the year. Since December 16, the price of Bitcoin has spiked 20.0 percent to $967.94.
Tech-savvy investorscan buy Bitcoin directly by downloading a Bitcoin Wallet app from Circle, Coinbase, Xapo or other popular services and simply linking their bank account to the app. In addition to these digital wallet apps, investors can buy shares ofBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC), which is a trust that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and trades on the OTC market. Each share of the trust represents on tenth of a Bitcoin. The trust is up 93.6 percent in 2016.
The Winklevoss twins have also filed for a Bitcoin ETF that may be approved in 2017. The twins have made a number of tweaks to the proposed ETF since they first filed in order to convince the SEC of the safety and security of the fund. If approved, the Bitcoin ETF would be the first direct way for investors to bet on Bitcoin on a major U.S. public market.
See more from Benzinga
• Should You Be Buying 2016 Market Leaders Or Laggards Heading Into 2017?
• NVIDIA's Pullback Might Not Last Very Long
• 2016: TV Media's Year In Review
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?: After a strong showing in 2015, Bitcoin investors experienced another strong year of performance from the popular cryptocurrency in 2016. Bitcoin followed up an impressive +26.3 percent gain in 2015 with a +119.8 percent gain in 2016. A large part of Bitcoins gains has come in the final weeks of the year. Since December 16, the price of Bitcoin has spiked 20.0 percent to $967.94. Tech-savvy investors can buy Bitcoin directly by downloading a Bitcoin Wallet app from Circle, Coinbase, Xapo or other popular services and simply linking their bank account to the app. In addition to these digital wallet apps, investors can buy shares of Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC ), which is a trust that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and trades on the OTC market. Each share of the trust represents on tenth of a Bitcoin. The trust is up 93.6 percent in 2016. The Winklevoss twins have also filed for a Bitcoin ETF that may be approved in 2017. The twins have made a number of tweaks to the proposed ETF since they first filed in order to convince the SEC of the safety and security of the fund. If approved, the Bitcoin ETF would be the first direct way for investors to bet on Bitcoin on a major U.S. public market. See more from Benzinga Should You Be Buying 2016 Market Leaders Or Laggards Heading Into 2017? NVIDIA's Pullback Might Not Last Very Long 2016: TV Media's Year In Review © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?: After a strong showing in 2015, Bitcoin investors experienced another strong year of performance from the popular cryptocurrency in 2016. Bitcoin followed up an impressive +26.3 percent gain in 2015 with a +119.8 percent gain in 2016. A large part of Bitcoin’s gains has come in the final weeks of the year. Since December 16, the price of Bitcoin has spiked 20.0 percent to $967.94.
Tech-savvy investorscan buy Bitcoin directly by downloading a Bitcoin Wallet app from Circle, Coinbase, Xapo or other popular services and simply linking their bank account to the app. In addition to these digital wallet apps, investors can buy shares ofBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC), which is a trust that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and trades on the OTC market. Each share of the trust represents on tenth of a Bitcoin. The trust is up 93.6 percent in 2016.
The Winklevoss twins have also filed for a Bitcoin ETF that may be approved in 2017. The twins have made a number of tweaks to the proposed ETF since they first filed in order to convince the SEC of the safety and security of the fund. If approved, the Bitcoin ETF would be the first direct way for investors to bet on Bitcoin on a major U.S. public market.
See more from Benzinga
• Should You Be Buying 2016 Market Leaders Or Laggards Heading Into 2017?
• NVIDIA's Pullback Might Not Last Very Long
• 2016: TV Media's Year In Review
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 2016: The Volatility Year That Wasn’t: Sometimes how we feel about the market bears absolutely no resemblance to reality. When I look back at 2016, I’m exhausted. And when I talk to many advisors, I hear similar comments: “What a year!” they say. “We had such an awful winter, and then all the craziness around the election!” But the reality is that this was actually one of the most placid years in recent history. Here’s the actual, 30-day realized volatility of the S&P 500 for the last 10 years: What this excellent chart from Bloomberg suggests is that our current market is in one of the lowest volatility periods we’ve seen in ages, and while we’ve had some spikes, particularly in the spring, it’s just about as boring a market as you can get. Of course, you can’t actually trade this chart; instead, what you can trade, sort of, is the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX—a derivative calculation based on the implied volatility of strips of S&P 500 options. Here’s what the VIX chart looks like over the past 10 years: Even the quickest glance suggests these are pretty good proxies for each other, and while they’re not identical, they even “base” around the same number: 10 for low-vol periods, 80 for crazy spikes. And using options is actually sensible, because for a sophisticated investor, making a specific bet on volatility would most easily be done with options. You want to bet the S&P 500 is going to spike in either direction? Options players have a plan for you— a straddle . Think we’re range-bound and want to bet on it? The wonderfully named Iron Condor is for you. Managing volatility is in fact what options are designed to do, so that’s why the CBOE uses the real-world expressions of sentiment from options traders to compute the VIX. The Contango Conundrum Like options themselves, there’s nothing inherently bullish or bearish about the VIX itself. Using either options or futures contracts on the VIX index, investors can bet on either increasing or decreasing volatility. Story continues The problem is that in a low-volatility environment like we’ve been in, most investors are going to guess that future volatility will be higher than today’s volatility, and thus they will bid up the price of the futures contracts themselves. A lot. Here’s what the futures curve looks like right now for the VIX: With VIX at 12, buying the front-month futures contract will cost you 14. To put that in perspective, that means that, if VIX remains at 12, you can expect to lose $2 for every $14 invested in a single month. That $2-a-month decay continues from the first to the second month as well. That means even if you’re right, and VIX is going to rise, you’re facing a 14.2% head wind every month . That’s a 396% head wind every year. Of course, the contango isn’t always this bad, but it’s generally been sharply upward-sloping all year long. If you think that means investing in a long VIX-futures-based ETF for the last year has been tough, you’re right. The top three worst-performing ETFs over the last year all track near-month VIX futures contracts: the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) , the VelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN (VIIX) and the ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (VIXY) . ‘Force Of Nature’ For Investors The reason you can’t see three ETF lines on the chart is because these funds are, for all intents and purposes, identical in their returns. The problem is contango: It’s a force of nature, and there’s no getting around it as a futures investor. While this isn’t a pretty chart, it’s worth noting that these funds have done exactly what they said they were going to do day after day. If you went into the month of June with a position in one of these funds, you were up over 25% in a matter of days as you caught the pre-Brexit spike in volatility. But remember, the VIX was never intended as some sort of “long only” asset to invest in—it’s a measurement of the state of the market, just like humidity is a measurement of the state of the atmosphere. Investors can, and do, capitalize on it in other ways, either by shorting funds like this to capture contango, or investing in the suite of inverse products, such as the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV) or the ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY) , that take the opposite bets: Again, two strategies following the same basic strategy—taking the “sell” side of the VIX futures trade. These funds not only profit from contango, they’ve also benefited from relatively calm fluctuations in the VIX itself, which means the daily-rebalance effect common to most leveraged and inverse funds hasn’t cut into returns. Of course, just like June was a great time to be in the long ETFs, it was murderous for these funds: If you got the timing wrong, you could have been down more than 35% in a matter of days when volatility spiked. What’s In An (Inverse) Name? Honestly, at ETF.com, we can end up trapped a bit by our own analytical framework. As a matter of course, we exclude leveraged and inverse funds from things like performance charts, because otherwise, every list would be nothing but the most levered version of whatever theme was hot (or awful) at the time. But in the case of VIX, that leads to some missed opportunities for analysis. A long bet on the VIX is no different than a short bet on the VIX in theoretical terms. VIX is mean-reverting by definition, unlike any other investment I can think of in finance. So to my mind, this bizarre year, or relatively calm markets but high anxiety, has made VIX ETFs both the worst and nearly the-best-performing products in the market. At the time of writing, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Dave Nadig at [email protected] . Recommended Stories Tuesday Hot Reads: 2 Trends That Favor ETFs In 2017 2016: The Volatility Year That Wasn’t Worst Performing ETFs Of The Year Friday Hot Reads: 2016 A Vintage Year For Bitcoin Wednesday Hot Reads: JPMorgan Readies Fixed Income ETF Arsenal Permalink | © Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved || 2016: The Volatility Year That Wasn’t: Sometimes how we feel about the market bears absolutely no resemblance to reality. When I look back at 2016, I’m exhausted. And when I talk to many advisors, I hear similar comments: “What a year!” they say. “We had such an awful winter, and then all the craziness around the election!”
But the reality is that this was actually one of the most placid years in recent history. Here’s the actual, 30-day realized volatility of the S&P 500 for the last 10 years:
What this excellent chart from Bloomberg suggests is that our current market is in one of the lowest volatility periods we’ve seen in ages, and while we’ve had some spikes, particularly in the spring, it’s just about as boring a market as you can get.
Of course, you can’t actually trade this chart; instead, what you can trade, sort of, is the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX—a derivative calculation based on the implied volatility of strips of S&P 500 options. Here’s what the VIX chart looks like over the past 10 years:
Even the quickest glance suggests these are pretty good proxies for each other, and while they’re not identical, they even “base” around the same number: 10 for low-vol periods, 80 for crazy spikes.
And using options is actually sensible, because for a sophisticated investor, making a specific bet on volatility would most easily be done with options. You want to bet the S&P 500 is going to spike in either direction? Options players have a plan for you—a straddle. Think we’re range-bound and want to bet on it? The wonderfully namedIron Condoris for you.
Managing volatility is in fact what options are designed to do, so that’s why the CBOE uses the real-world expressions of sentiment from options traders to compute the VIX.
The Contango Conundrum
Like options themselves, there’s nothing inherently bullish or bearish about the VIX itself. Using either options or futures contracts on the VIX index, investors can bet on either increasing or decreasing volatility.
The problem is that in a low-volatility environment like we’ve been in, most investors are going to guess that future volatility will be higher than today’s volatility, and thus they will bid up the price of the futures contracts themselves. A lot. Here’s what the futures curve looks like right now for the VIX:
With VIX at 12, buying the front-month futures contract will cost you 14. To put that in perspective, that means that, if VIX remains at 12, you can expect to lose $2 for every $14 invested in a single month. That $2-a-month decay continues from the first to the second month as well.
That means even if you’re right, and VIX is going to rise, you’re facing a 14.2% head windevery month. That’s a 396% head wind every year. Of course, thecontangoisn’t always this bad, but it’s generally been sharply upward-sloping all year long.
If you think that means investing in a long VIX-futures-based ETF for the last year has been tough, you’re right. The top three worst-performing ETFs over the last year all track near-month VIX futures contracts: theiPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX), theVelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN (VIIX)and theProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (VIXY).
‘Force Of Nature’ For Investors
The reason you can’t see three ETF lines on the chart is because these funds are, for all intents and purposes, identical in their returns. The problem is contango: It’s a force of nature, and there’s no getting around it as a futures investor.
While this isn’t a pretty chart, it’s worth noting that these funds have done exactly what they said they were going to do day after day. If you went into the month of June with a position in one of these funds, you were up over 25% in a matter of days as you caught the pre-Brexit spike in volatility.
But remember, the VIX was never intended as some sort of “long only” asset to invest in—it’s a measurement of the state of the market, just like humidity is a measurement of the state of the atmosphere.
Investors can, and do, capitalize on it in other ways, either by shorting funds like this to capture contango, or investing in the suite of inverse products, such as theVelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV)or theProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY), that take the opposite bets:
Again, two strategies following the same basic strategy—taking the “sell” side of the VIX futures trade. These funds not only profit from contango, they’ve also benefited from relatively calm fluctuations in the VIX itself, which means the daily-rebalance effect common to most leveraged and inverse funds hasn’t cut into returns.
Of course, just like June was a great time to be in the long ETFs, it was murderous for these funds: If you got the timing wrong, you could have been down more than 35% in a matter of days when volatility spiked.
What’s In An (Inverse) Name?
Honestly, at ETF.com, we can end up trapped a bit by our own analytical framework. As a matter of course, we exclude leveraged and inverse funds from things like performance charts, because otherwise, every list would be nothing but the most levered version of whatever theme was hot (or awful) at the time. But in the case of VIX, that leads to some missed opportunities for analysis.
A long bet on the VIX is no different than a short bet on the VIX in theoretical terms. VIX is mean-reverting by definition, unlike any other investment I can think of in finance. So to my mind, this bizarre year, or relatively calm markets but high anxiety, has made VIX ETFs both the worstandnearly the-best-performing products in the market.
At the time of writing, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Dave Nadig [email protected].
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Permalink| © Copyright 2016ETF.com.All rights reserved || Hyperledger Wraps up 2016 By Welcoming Eight New Members: SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - December 28, 2016) -Hyperledger Project, a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that eight new members have joined the project to help create an open standard for distributed ledgers for a new generation of transactional applications. Last month, Hyperledgerannouncedit reached 100 active members in less than one year, a huge milestone for the open source project, hosted by The Linux Foundation.
"This year has been full of growth for the project," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. "Not only did we exceed 100 members, Hyperledger met significant development milestones thanks to the community's hard work. As 2016 was a year of exploration, R&D and prototyping, we're excited for 2017 to be the year we start to see case studies of the technology in production environments."
Hyperledger aims to enable organizations to build robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by creating an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework and code base. The latest members include: CA Technologies, Factom Foundation, Hashed Health, Koscom, LedgerDomain, Lykke, Sovrin Foundation and Swisscom.
New Member Quotes:
CA Technologies
"To compete today, every company needs to foster innovation that delivers real business value. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the way many of CA's customers do business," said Otto Berkes, chief technology officer, CA Technologies. "We're honored to be a part of Hyperledger and look forward to collaborating with other members to help shape open standards for blockchain. It's an exciting time for this because blockchain is not just about Bitcoin anymore, and the range of potential applications with it is vast for of our customers. This partnership will help us influence what that future looks like for both CA and our customers as they embark on their digital transformation journey."
Factom Foundation
"We are honored to have been selected to join the Hyperledger Project," said Paul Snow, Founder, Factom Foundation. "We are looking forward to helping build the open source framework for securing data and systems with our blockchain solution."
Hashed Health
"Hashed Health is a healthcare technology innovation company focused on accelerating the commercialization of meaningful new blockchain and distributed ledger-based technologies," said John Bass, Hashed Health CEO. "Hashed is proud to be a member of the Hyperledger Project, sharing its commitment to creating the foundation for scalable, reliable blockchain solutions."
Koscom
"We consider blockchain technology as the next generation infrastructure in the Korean capital market. As an industry leader with 40 years' experience in the financial IT field, we are looking to leverage this industry disruptive technology," said Chung Youn Dae, CEO, Koscom. "We will constantly explore the ways to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem, as we collaborate with the Hyperledger community. We also hope to better serve out customers in a more secure and efficient way by integrating blockchain technology and our own Fintech platform."
LedgerDomain
"LedgerDomain delivers next generation supply chain solutions, harnessing permissioned blockchains to assure supply chain integrity and finished product authenticity through to the consumer for the benefit of all. This highly transparent, trustworthy approach is built upon an industrial-strength Hyperledger Fabric backbone," said Dr. Victor Dods, LedgerDomain. "We're proud to be a part of Hyperledger and its growing community."
Lykke
"We're looking forward to being part of the Hyperledger project," said Richard Olsen, Lykke founder and CEO. "Our company is building a digital asset exchange. Right now, we're implemented on the Bitcoin blockchain settlement layer, with Ethereum to come within the next few months, but our involvement with Hyperledger isn't just the next step forward. Providing decentralized settlement on the Hyperledger blockchain with multisignature wallets and atomic swap transactions will benefit both of our user communities."
Swisscom
"We are very proud to be Switzerland's first connection to Hyperledger," said Johannes Höhener, VP, Swisscom's Fintech Cluster. "We look forward to working with a highly professional community on cutting-edge blockchain developments. Our membership and participation will shape our capabilities to develop blockchain solutions -- for our clients and Switzerland."
The success of Hyperledger is due to the support of the developer community and member companies. Learn how your organization can contribute to the project here:https://www.hyperledger.org/about/join
About Hyperledger
The Hyperledger project is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger as a Collaborative Project under the foundation. To learn more, visit:www.hyperledger.org || Hyperledger Wraps up 2016 By Welcoming Eight New Members: SAN FRANCISCO, CA --(Marketwired - December 28, 2016) - Hyperledger Project , a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that eight new members have joined the project to help create an open standard for distributed ledgers for a new generation of transactional applications. Last month, Hyperledger announced it reached 100 active members in less than one year, a huge milestone for the open source project, hosted by The Linux Foundation. "This year has been full of growth for the project," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. "Not only did we exceed 100 members, Hyperledger met significant development milestones thanks to the community's hard work. As 2016 was a year of exploration, R&D and prototyping, we're excited for 2017 to be the year we start to see case studies of the technology in production environments." Hyperledger aims to enable organizations to build robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by creating an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework and code base. The latest members include: CA Technologies, Factom Foundation, Hashed Health, Koscom, LedgerDomain, Lykke, Sovrin Foundation and Swisscom. New Member Quotes: CA Technologies "To compete today, every company needs to foster innovation that delivers real business value. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the way many of CA's customers do business," said Otto Berkes, chief technology officer, CA Technologies. "We're honored to be a part of Hyperledger and look forward to collaborating with other members to help shape open standards for blockchain. It's an exciting time for this because blockchain is not just about Bitcoin anymore, and the range of potential applications with it is vast for of our customers. This partnership will help us influence what that future looks like for both CA and our customers as they embark on their digital transformation journey." Story continues Factom Foundation "We are honored to have been selected to join the Hyperledger Project," said Paul Snow, Founder, Factom Foundation. "We are looking forward to helping build the open source framework for securing data and systems with our blockchain solution." Hashed Health "Hashed Health is a healthcare technology innovation company focused on accelerating the commercialization of meaningful new blockchain and distributed ledger-based technologies," said John Bass, Hashed Health CEO. "Hashed is proud to be a member of the Hyperledger Project, sharing its commitment to creating the foundation for scalable, reliable blockchain solutions." Koscom "We consider blockchain technology as the next generation infrastructure in the Korean capital market. As an industry leader with 40 years' experience in the financial IT field, we are looking to leverage this industry disruptive technology," said Chung Youn Dae, CEO, Koscom. "We will constantly explore the ways to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem, as we collaborate with the Hyperledger community. We also hope to better serve out customers in a more secure and efficient way by integrating blockchain technology and our own Fintech platform." LedgerDomain "LedgerDomain delivers next generation supply chain solutions, harnessing permissioned blockchains to assure supply chain integrity and finished product authenticity through to the consumer for the benefit of all. This highly transparent, trustworthy approach is built upon an industrial-strength Hyperledger Fabric backbone," said Dr. Victor Dods, LedgerDomain. "We're proud to be a part of Hyperledger and its growing community." Lykke "We're looking forward to being part of the Hyperledger project," said Richard Olsen, Lykke founder and CEO. "Our company is building a digital asset exchange. Right now, we're implemented on the Bitcoin blockchain settlement layer, with Ethereum to come within the next few months, but our involvement with Hyperledger isn't just the next step forward. Providing decentralized settlement on the Hyperledger blockchain with multisignature wallets and atomic swap transactions will benefit both of our user communities." Swisscom "We are very proud to be Switzerland's first connection to Hyperledger," said Johannes Höhener, VP, Swisscom's Fintech Cluster. "We look forward to working with a highly professional community on cutting-edge blockchain developments. Our membership and participation will shape our capabilities to develop blockchain solutions -- for our clients and Switzerland." The success of Hyperledger is due to the support of the developer community and member companies. Learn how your organization can contribute to the project here: https://www.hyperledger.org/about/join About Hyperledger The Hyperledger project is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger as a Collaborative Project under the foundation. To learn more, visit: www.hyperledger.org || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: Soccer fan masks (General view of a fan with Jamie Vardy masks on the seats before the match.Reuters/Reuters Staff) Here is what you need to know. Dow 20,000 is in the crosshairs . The Dow Jones Industrial Average booked a fractional gain on Tuesday, finishing at 19,945.04. The index is set to open higher by 0.1% near 19,971. Bitcoin is up again . The cryptocurrency is up about 3% at $958, and trading at its best level since November 2013. Bitcoin has gained $135, or 16.4%, over the past week. Toshiba crashes after warning of a multi-billion dollar writedown . Shares of the chips-to-construction group tumbled 20% on Wednesday after the company warned it might need to take a larger than expected writedown on its acquisition of Chicago Bridge & Iron. Delta cancels an order from Boeing . Delta Air Lines has canceled an order for 18 Boeing widebody 787 Dreamliner jets, with a list price of $4 billion, that was inherited from its takeover of Northwest Airlines, the Seattle Times says. BP is buying gas stations in Australia . The London-based oil giant has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for Woolworths' 527 retail fuel outlets in Australia, according to Bloomberg. Qualcomm got hit with an $854 million fine by South Korea . The Korea Fair Trade Commission, South Korea's antitrust regulator, has ruled that Qualcomm hindered competition as a result of its business practices of patent licensing and smartphone modem chip sales, Reuters reports. Panasonic is investing in a Tesla production facility . Panasonic will invest $256 million in a Tesla production facility that makes photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, Reuters reports. CEO pay is rising in the UK, but "economic profit" isn't . A report released by the CFA Institute showed CEO pay in the UK has climbed 82% in the last 13 years, but the average company generated less than a 1% return for investors. Stock markets around the world are up . Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.8%) paced the gains overnight and Britain's FTSE (+0.4%) leads in Europe. Story continues US economic data trickles out. Pending home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.56%. More From Business Insider Alt-right movement descends into civil war after leading figure is booted from Trump inauguration event 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60 Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: (General view of a fan with Jamie Vardy masks on the seats before the match.Reuters/Reuters Staff)
Here is what you need to know.
Dow 20,000 is in the crosshairs.The Dow Jones Industrial Average booked a fractional gain on Tuesday, finishing at 19,945.04. The index is set to open higher by 0.1% near 19,971.
Bitcoin is up again.The cryptocurrency is up about 3% at $958, and trading at its best level since November 2013. Bitcoin has gained $135, or 16.4%, over the past week.
Toshiba crashes after warning of a multi-billion dollar writedown.Shares of thechips-to-construction group tumbled 20% on Wednesday after the company warned it might need to take a larger than expected writedown on its acquisition ofChicago Bridge & Iron.
Delta cancels an order from Boeing.Delta Air Lines has canceled an order for 18Boeing widebody 787 Dreamliner jets, with a list price of $4 billion, that was inherited from its takeover of Northwest Airlines, the Seattle Times says.
BP is buying gas stations in Australia.The London-based oil giant has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for Woolworths' 527 retail fuel outlets in Australia, according to Bloomberg.
Qualcomm got hit with an $854 million fine by South Korea.TheKorea Fair Trade Commission, South Korea's antitrust regulator, has ruled that Qualcomm hindered competition as a result of itsbusiness practices of patent licensing and smartphone modem chip sales, Reuters reports.
Panasonic is investing in a Tesla production facility.Panasonic will invest $256 million in a Tesla production facility that makesphotovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, Reuters reports.
CEO pay is rising in the UK, but "economic profit" isn't.A report released by the CFA Institute showed CEO pay in the UK has climbed 82% in the last 13 years, but the average company generated less than a 1% return for investors.
Stock markets around the world are up.Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.8%) paced the gains overnight and Britain's FTSE (+0.4%) leads in Europe.
US economic data trickles out.Pending home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.56%.
More From Business Insider
• Alt-right movement descends into civil war after leading figure is booted from Trump inauguration event
• 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60
• Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now || STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know: traffic jam (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Stocks did virtually nothing as skeleton crews returned after the Christmas holiday. All of the major indices managed to scrape into the green, but still finished little changed. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high. And now, for the scoreboard: Dow: 19,945.04, +11.23, (0.06%) S&P 500: 2,268.88, +5.09, (0.22%) Nasdaq: 5,487.44, +24.75, (0.45%) US 10-year yield: +2.4 basis points at 2.561% 1. Bitcoin soars . The cryptocurrency rallied 4% to $935, its best level in three years. Bitcoin has gained about 30% since the US election. 2. Consumer confidence jumps to its best level since August 2001 . Monthly data released by the Conference Board showed the Consumer Confidence Index hit 113.7 in December, its highest level since July 2007. Increasing expectations for the future were the sole reason for the move. 3. US home prices hit a post-financial crisis high . Home prices gained 5.6% annually in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The biggest gains were seen in Seattle, Denver, and Portland. ADDITIONALLY: The most important driver of the stock market will change in 2017 Bailing out the world's oldest bank is getting more expensive Vietnam could be 'sowing the seeds of the next crisis 'The market will correctly judge his administration on policy, not 3 a.m. tweets' The Fed has given Trump cover to unwind a key Wall Street rule NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60 The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain in the last 70 years STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know: (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Stocks did virtually nothing as skeleton crews returned after the Christmas holiday.
All of the major indices managed to scrape into the green, but still finished little changed. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high.
And now, for the scoreboard:
• Dow:19,945.04, +11.23, (0.06%)
• S&P 500:2,268.88, +5.09, (0.22%)
• Nasdaq:5,487.44, +24.75, (0.45%)
• US 10-year yield:+2.4 basis points at 2.561%
1.Bitcoin soars. The cryptocurrency rallied 4% to $935, its best level in three years. Bitcoin has gained about 30% since the US election.
2.Consumer confidence jumps to its best level since August 2001. Monthly data released by the Conference Board showed the Consumer Confidence Index hit 113.7 in December, its highest level since July 2007. Increasing expectations for the future were the sole reason for the move.
3.US home prices hit a post-financial crisis high. Home prices gained 5.6% annually in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The biggest gains were seen in Seattle, Denver, and Portland.
ADDITIONALLY:
The most important driver of the stock market will change in 2017
Bailing out the world's oldest bank is getting more expensive
Vietnam could be 'sowing the seeds of the next crisis
'The market will correctly judge his administration on policy, not 3 a.m. tweets'
The Fed has given Trump cover to unwind a key Wall Street rule
NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates
More From Business Insider
• 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60
• The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain in the last 70 years
• STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || 7 ETF Areas to Hog the Limelight in 2017: As 2016 comes to a close, Brexit, Donald Trumps win as the U.S. president and the OPEC output cut deal are clearly the highlights of the year. However, there are plenty of other events that havent been able to leave a mark but could prove to be game-changers next year. In view of this, we intend to highlight a few areas (and their impact on the ETF world) that are likely to draw investors attention in 2017. Oil The global investing world is expected to be busy analyzing the progress of the OPEC output cut deal since the start of 2017. On November 30, OPEC decided to slash production by about 1.2 million barrels a day from January for six months. Plus, on December 10, OPEC also cut their first deal with non-OPEC since 2001 to reduce output next year. The pact will likely result in an aggregate supply cut of 1.7 million barrels a day. Some analysts like Goldman now believe that oil can scale higher to about $60 early next year from the current $50 plus level. However, there are people who expect the deal to be not as effective as it seems now. Even if OPEC manages to be true to the deal, U.S. shale oil production will likely gain traction, bringing back oversupply into the market and weighing on oil prices. All these should keep oil ETFs like United States Oil USO, Brent crude ETF United States Brent Oil BNO and energy ETFs like Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF XLE on investors radar (read: How Effective is the OPEC Deal for an Oil ETF Rally?) Trump vs Fed Trump has raised hopes of fiscal reflation and taken stocks to a new height. If he keeps all his promises after taking presidential office and inflationary expectations continue to surge, the Fed might be able to implement the three forecasted rate hikes in 2017 (read: Sole Fed Hike of 2016 Put These ETFs in Focus). And if the Fed opts for faster rate hikes next year, bond ETFs like iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond TLT and dividend ETFs like SPDR S&P Dividend ETF SDY may face pressure. Meanwhile, ProShares High YieldInterest Rate Hedged ETF HYHG or inverse bond ETFs like Barclays Inverse US Treasury Aggregate ETN TAPR are poised to benefit (read: Hedged & Inverse Bond ETFs to the Rescue if Rates Rise). Story continues Global Inflation Inflationary outlook is finally shoring up in developed economies, albeit slowly. Prolonged easy money policies by global central banks, the OPEC move and the Trump effect made it happen. Expectations of a spurt in global inflation are now at the highest level in over 12 years. Global TIPS ETF PIMCO Global Advantage Inflation-Linked Bond Active ETF ILB w ill thus be on the watch list of investors (read: Will 2017 Be a Year of Global Reflation & TIPS ETFs?). Commodity Now thats tricky! If the greenback retains its strength, commodity investing should take a backseat as these are priced in the U.S. dollar. However, several industrial metals should do well on better demand-supply dynamics. This is especially possible given the recovery in the global manufacturing activities including the all-important China, which consumes a major portion of the global industrial metals. So, ETFs like iPath Pure Beta Aluminum ETN FOIL, iPath Pure Beta Copper ETN CUPM and iPath Bloomberg Tin SubTR ETN JJT will likely grab the spotlight. Cyber Security Cyber security breaches are on the rise of late. This has compelled companies to invest billions of dollars annually to counter such attacks. Most recently, the hack on Yahoo which revealed data from over 1 billion accounts once again stressed on the need for cybersecurity and has put First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF CIBR and PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF HACK in focus. India Indias pro-growth political changes in 2014 had shaped it into a hot investing zone. Most economic episodes also went in favor of Asias third-largest economy, including a drastic fall in inflation arising from the oil price crash and an improvement in current account deficit. Moreover, due to cooling inflation, the Indian central bank (RBI) resorted to rate cuts several times in the last one and a half years. However, most recently, in order to put a check on tax evasion and counterfeit notes, high-denomination bank notes were withdrawn in India. This resulted in cash crunch and growth forecast cuts by some analysts. Fitch rating reduced Indias GDP forecast to 6.9% from the prior estimate of 7.4% for the current financial year. But then, Moody's indicated that Indian companies will likely witness the strongest profit growth over 18 months. Now it would be interesting to see if India ETFs like WisdomTree India Earnings ETF EPI can survive the threats from demonetization in 2017 (read: What Lies Ahead for India ETFs?). Bitcoin Even if we are yet to have a bitcoin ETF, one is expected to hit the market in 2017. Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has filed for one to make it easy for investors to bet on this soaring digital currency. As per CNBC, bitcoin is a very volatile asset but doesnt have a strong correlation with other classes. Bitcoins value has beaten the $800 mark for the first time since February 2014. India's demonetization also gave a boost to bitcoin trading volumes. Moreover, trading volumes in China have been solid with the government taking proactive measures against illegal money transfer. With this, investors expect to see an approval of the first bitcoin ETF in 2017. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ISHARS-20+YTB (TLT): ETF Research Reports US-OIL FUND LP (USO): ETF Research Reports PURFDS-ISE CYBR (HACK): ETF Research Reports US BRENT OIL FD (BNO): ETF Research Reports SPDR-EGY SELS (XLE): ETF Research Reports PIMCO-GA ILBETF (ILB): ETF Research Reports IPATH-PB ALUMNM (FOIL): ETF Research Reports SPDR-SP DIV ETF (SDY): ETF Research Reports IPATH-BB TIN (JJT): ETF Research Reports FT-NDQ CYBERSEC (CIBR): ETF Research Reports BARCLY-INV USTC (TAPR): ETF Research Reports WISDMTR-IN EARN (EPI): ETF Research Reports IPATH-PB COPPER (CUPM): ETF Research Reports PRO-HI YLD IRH (HYHG): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || 7 ETF Areas to Hog the Limelight in 2017: As 2016 comes to a close, Brexit, Donald Trump’s win as the U.S. president and the OPEC output cut deal are clearly the highlights of the year. However, there are plenty of other events that haven’t been able to leave a mark but could prove to be game-changers next year.
In view of this, we intend to highlight a few areas (and their impact on the ETF world) that are likely to draw investors’ attention in 2017.
Oil
The global investing world is expected to be busy analyzing the progress of the OPEC output cut deal since the start of 2017. On November 30, OPEC decided to slash production by about 1.2 million barrels a day from January for six months. Plus, on December 10, OPEC also cut their first deal with non-OPEC since 2001 to reduce output next year.
The pact will likely result in “an aggregate supply cut of 1.7 million barrels a day.” Some analysts like Goldman now believe that oil can scale higher to about $60 early next year from the current $50 plus level.
However, there are people who expect the deal to be not as effective as it seems now. Even if OPEC manages to be true to the deal, U.S. shale oil production will likely gain traction, bringing back oversupply into the market and weighing on oil prices.
All these should keep oil ETFs likeUnited States OilUSO, Brent crude ETFUnited States Brent OilBNO and energy ETFs likeEnergy Select Sector SPDR ETFXLE on investors radar (read: How Effective is the OPEC Deal for an Oil ETF Rally?)
Trump vs Fed
Trump has raised hopes of fiscal reflation and taken stocks to a new height. If he keeps all his promises after taking presidential office and inflationary expectations continue to surge, the Fed might be able to implement the three forecasted rate hikes in 2017 (read: Sole Fed Hike of 2016 Put These ETFs in Focus).
And if the Fed opts for faster rate hikes next year, bond ETFs likeiShares 20+ Year Treasury BondTLT and dividend ETFs likeSPDR S&P Dividend ETFSDY may face pressure. Meanwhile,ProShares High Yield—Interest Rate Hedged ETFHYHG or inverse bond ETFs likeBarclays Inverse US Treasury Aggregate ETNTAPRare poised to benefit (read: Hedged & Inverse Bond ETFs to the Rescue if Rates Rise).
Global Inflation
Inflationary outlook is finally shoring up in developed economies, albeit slowly. Prolonged easy money policies by global central banks, the OPEC move and the Trump effect made it happen. Expectations of a spurt in global inflation are now at the highest level in over 12 years. Global TIPS ETF –PIMCO Global Advantage Inflation-Linked Bond Active ETF ILB– will thus be on the watch list of investors (read: Will 2017 Be a Year of Global Reflation & TIPS ETFs?).
Commodity
Now that’s tricky! If the greenback retains its strength, commodity investing should take a backseat as these are priced in the U.S. dollar. However, several industrial metals should do well on better demand-supply dynamics. This is especially possible given the recovery in the global manufacturing activities including the all-important China, which consumes a major portion of the global industrial metals. So, ETFs likeiPath Pure Beta Aluminum ETNFOIL,iPath Pure Beta Copper ETNCUPM andiPath Bloomberg Tin SubTR ETNJJT will likely grab the spotlight.
Cyber Security
Cyber security breaches are on the rise of late. This has compelled companies to invest billions of dollars annually to counter such attacks. Most recently, the hack on Yahoo which revealed data from over 1 billion accounts once again stressed on the need for cybersecurity and has putFirst Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETFCIBR andPureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETFHACK in focus.
India
India’s pro-growth political changes in 2014 had shaped it into a hot investing zone. Most economic episodes also went in favor of Asia’s third-largest economy, including a drastic fall in inflation arising from the oil price crash and an improvement in current account deficit. Moreover, due to cooling inflation, the Indian central bank (RBI) resorted to rate cuts several times in the last one and a half years.
However, most recently, in order to put a check on tax evasion and counterfeit notes, high-denomination bank notes were withdrawn in India. This resulted in cash crunch and growth forecast cuts by some analysts. Fitch rating reduced India’s GDP forecast to 6.9% from the prior estimate of 7.4% for the current financial year.
But then, Moody's indicated that Indian companies will likely witness “the strongest profit growth over 18 months.” Now it would be interesting to see if India ETFs likeWisdomTree India Earnings ETFEPI can survive the threats from demonetization in 2017 (read: What Lies Ahead for India ETFs?).
Bitcoin
Even if we are yet to have a bitcoin ETF, one is expected to hit the market in 2017. Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has filed for one to make it easy for investors to bet on this soaring digital currency. As per CNBC, “bitcoin is a very volatile asset” but doesn’t have a strong correlation with other classes. Bitcoin’s value has beaten the $800 mark for the first time since February 2014.
India's demonetization also gave a boost to bitcoin trading volumes. Moreover, trading volumes in China have been solid with the government taking proactive measures against illegal money transfer. With this, investors expect to see an approval of the first bitcoin ETF in 2017.
Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?
Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportISHARS-20+YTB (TLT): ETF Research ReportsUS-OIL FUND LP (USO): ETF Research ReportsPURFDS-ISE CYBR (HACK): ETF Research ReportsUS BRENT OIL FD (BNO): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-EGY SELS (XLE): ETF Research ReportsPIMCO-GA ILBETF (ILB): ETF Research ReportsIPATH-PB ALUMNM (FOIL): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-SP DIV ETF (SDY): ETF Research ReportsIPATH-BB TIN (JJT): ETF Research ReportsFT-NDQ CYBERSEC (CIBR): ETF Research ReportsBARCLY-INV USTC (TAPR): ETF Research ReportsWISDMTR-IN EARN (EPI): ETF Research ReportsIPATH-PB COPPER (CUPM): ETF Research ReportsPRO-HI YLD IRH (HYHG): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || 2 big banks are backing a startup doing for global trade what Google did for advertising: Tradeshift Christian Lanng (Tradeshift founder and CEO Christian Lanng.Tradeshift) LONDON — Santander announced a few weeks ago that it is making an undisclosed investment in Tradeshift, a Danish fintech company. The Spanish bank joins HSBC, American Express, and CreditEase, China's biggest online lender, in backing the six-year-old company. What do they all see in it? "What we do is a fairly new thing," founder and CEO Christian Lanng told Business Insider in an interview. "We provide essentially a network to connect companies that do business together." Tradeshift's platform is a little like Salesforce but for managing global trade networks. Lanng explains: "We work with some of the largest companies in the world like DHL and the NHS. We help them connect their global supply chain. "In the case of DHL, it’s hundreds of thousands of suppliers around the world who are connected. Once they’re connected they can then do business with them and that means all of the invoicing, purchasing, risk assessment of suppliers, collaboration." Lanng adds: "Any new business process you want to roll out is essentially just an app sitting on top of the platform. Say I would love to do corporate social responsibility management or track carbon in my supply chain, it’s just an app you activate and deploy. It’s a whole new approach to managing your business and business processes." The cloud-based platform works with over 800,000 companies across 190 countries and counts 75 Fortune 500 businesses as customers. What we can do here is make financing much more relevant to you and we can make sure that the lender that is the best fit for you gets in front of you. As well as simply looking like a shrewd investment for the likes of HSBC and Santander, Tradeshift offers banks the opportunity to pitch for business. Lanng says: "In the old days, it made sense for the bank to have a branch next to the marketplace because it’s a physical location. In 2016, it makes sense for the branch to have branches where the trade is, which is now virtual. So on our platform." Story continues He adds: "What Google did was make advertising much more relevant for you. What we can do here is make financing much more relevant to you and we can make sure that the lender that is the best fit for you gets in front of you." Google targets ads based on what you are searching for and have searched for in the past, giving it a good idea of the type of things you might like. Tradeshift similarly gets an overview of how businesses are working and interacting, meaning it can offer up financing when it is most needed and the right type of financing. Lanng says: "When the supplier receives that big purchase order from lets say DHL, that’s a really good time to go to them and say would you like some really cheap financing for the next 6 months to finance your fulfillment of that purchase order." Tradershift does not provide any financing itself, however. Lanng says: "Our approach has been to take a marketplace approach. We say, 'look, we will let anybody provide services on top of our platform, we will take a small fee for providing data, and we will obviously help place the funding with firms who have the need.'" Deutsche Bank recently made the bold call that the world has reached "peak globalisation," predicting a decline in global trade as nations become more inward looking. Bad news for Tradeshift? Lanng is skeptical. "It’s very naive or very early on to call peak global trade," he says. "I think global trade patterns will change but it won’t peak," he said. "I think you will start to see a lot of nations just starting to tap into global trade now. You’re seeing a whole ascendant South East Asia. You’re seeing a whole new phenomenon which I think is extremely interesting and that is Chinese consumers buying more from Western suppliers. We’re working on a huge project right now around connecting Western suppliers into the Chinese market, a reverse of the flow you saw before. "If you’re looking at a 3 to 5-year perspective maybe [it’s declining]," he says. "If you’re looking at 30, 40, 50-year perspective, not at all." Still, Donald Trump has also vowed to bring jobs back to America from China and Brexit may well herald a decline in international trade, which is already wobbling. Surely this will at least mean some short-term pain for Tradeshift? Again, Lanng takes a contrarian view. "Our goal is lowering the friction and if there are more barriers internationally then actually we can provide an even more valuable service because we can help navigate those," he says. It’s very naive or very early on to call peak global trade. "One theme we’ve been talking about for the last 3 years is: be very careful because your supply chain and your business is set up for a market that predicts stability," Lanng says. "The way you source your goods, the way you run your supply chain, the way you roll out your IT systems are all built on the idea that things are going to remain the same. "The problem that you have is when there’s change in the market like Brexit, Trump, TTP being torn up, these companies now have a very high cost of change. "Now there’s a premium on agility in supply chains and lowering your cost of change and being flexible. This is what we’re selling to customers. If you’re buying SAP you’re buying something that is extremely robust but extremely brittle in some other ways. But if you’re buying Tradeshift you’re buying something that’s extremely flexible because it’s set up as a network, it’s easy to reconfigure, you can update some of our processes on the fly." Investors are siding with Lanng. Tradeshift was valued at over $500 million in its latest funding round earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. NOW WATCH: Why Korean parents are paying for their kids to get plastic surgery More From Business Insider Bitcoin is surging Here's why 2017 will be a turning point for the UK marketplace lending industry The price of bitcoin is at a 2016 high || 2 big banks are backing a startup doing for global trade what Google did for advertising: (Tradeshift founder and CEO Christian Lanng.Tradeshift)
LONDON — Santander announced a few weeks ago that it is making an undisclosed investment in Tradeshift, a Danish fintech company.
The Spanish bank joins HSBC, American Express, and CreditEase, China's biggest online lender, in backing the six-year-old company. What do they all see in it?
"What we do is a fairly new thing," founder and CEO Christian Lanng told Business Insider in an interview. "We provide essentially a network to connect companies that do business together."
Tradeshift's platform is a little like Salesforce but for managing global trade networks. Lanng explains: "We work with some of the largest companies in the world like DHL and the NHS. We help them connect their global supply chain.
"In the case of DHL, it’s hundreds of thousands of suppliers around the world who are connected. Once they’re connected they can then do business with them and that means all of the invoicing, purchasing, risk assessment of suppliers, collaboration."
Lanng adds: "Any new business process you want to roll out is essentially just an app sitting on top of the platform. Say I would love to do corporate social responsibility management or track carbon in my supply chain, it’s just an app you activate and deploy. It’s a whole new approach to managing your business and business processes."
The cloud-based platform works with over 800,000 companies across 190 countries and counts 75 Fortune 500 businesses as customers.
What we can do here is make financing much more relevant to you and we can make sure that the lender that is the best fit for you gets in front of you.
As well as simply looking like a shrewd investment for the likes of HSBC and Santander, Tradeshift offers banks the opportunity to pitch for business.
Lanng says: "In the old days, it made sense for the bank to have a branch next to the marketplace because it’s a physical location. In 2016, it makes sense for the branch to have branches where the trade is, which is now virtual. So on our platform."
He adds: "What Google did was make advertising much more relevant for you. What we can do here is make financing much more relevant to you and we can make sure that the lender that is the best fit for you gets in front of you."
Google targets ads based on what you are searching for and have searched for in the past, giving it a good idea of the type of things you might like.
Tradeshift similarly gets an overview of how businesses are working and interacting, meaning it can offer up financing when it is most needed and the right type of financing.
Lanng says: "When the supplier receives that big purchase order from lets say DHL, that’s a really good time to go to them and say would you like some really cheap financing for the next 6 months to finance your fulfillment of that purchase order."
Tradershift does not provide any financing itself, however. Lanng says: "Our approach has been to take a marketplace approach. We say, 'look, we will let anybody provide services on top of our platform, we will take a small fee for providing data, and we will obviously help place the funding with firms who have the need.'"
Deutsche Bank recently made the bold call thatthe world has reached "peak globalisation,"predicting a decline in global trade as nations become more inward looking. Bad news for Tradeshift? Lanng is skeptical.
"It’s very naive or very early on to call peak global trade," he says. "I think global trade patterns will change but it won’t peak," he said.
"I think you will start to see a lot of nations just starting to tap into global trade now. You’re seeing a whole ascendant South East Asia. You’re seeing a whole new phenomenon which I think is extremely interesting and that is Chinese consumers buying more from Western suppliers. We’re working on a huge project right now around connecting Western suppliers into the Chinese market, a reverse of the flow you saw before.
"If you’re looking at a 3 to 5-year perspective maybe [it’s declining]," he says. "If you’re looking at 30, 40, 50-year perspective, not at all."
Still, Donald Trump has also vowed to bring jobs back to America from China and Brexit may well herald a decline in international trade, which is already wobbling. Surely this will at least mean some short-term pain for Tradeshift?
Again, Lanng takes a contrarian view. "Our goal is lowering the friction and if there are more barriers internationally then actually we can provide an even more valuable service because we can help navigate those," he says.
It’s very naive or very early on to call peak global trade.
"One theme we’ve been talking about for the last 3 years is: be very careful because your supply chain and your business is set up for a market that predicts stability," Lanng says.
"The way you source your goods, the way you run your supply chain, the way you roll out your IT systems are all built on the idea that things are going to remain the same.
"The problem that you have is when there’s change in the market like Brexit, Trump, TTP being torn up, these companies now have a very high cost of change.
"Now there’s a premium on agility in supply chains and lowering your cost of change and being flexible. This is what we’re selling to customers. If you’re buying SAP you’re buying something that is extremely robust but extremely brittle in some other ways. But if you’re buying Tradeshift you’re buying something that’s extremely flexible because it’s set up as a network, it’s easy to reconfigure, you can update some of our processes on the fly."
Investors are siding with Lanng. Tradeshift wasvalued at over $500 million in its latest funding round earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
NOW WATCH:Why Korean parents are paying for their kids to get plastic surgery
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is surging
• Here's why 2017 will be a turning point for the UK marketplace lending industry
• The price of bitcoin is at a 2016 high
[Social Media Buzz]
$955.54 at 19:15 UTC [24h Range: $931.00 - $970.35 Volume: 10479 BTC] || BTC: $959.82, S: $16.14, G: $1157.00 | Act: 23,644 Open: 4174 BTC: 53,205.9 | Total: $51,078,337 http://goo.gl/U94Tki #bitcoin || ByzCoin videos:
USENIX Security 2016: https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity16/technical-sessions/presentation/kogias …
Scaling Bitcoin 2016 [around 25:00]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO-1rQbdZuk … || Buying bitcoins can be delicious at https://Bittylicious.com/refer/2465 £803.00...
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963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 58232.32, 55859.80, 56704.57, 49150.54, 49716.19, 49880.54, 46760.19, 46456.06, 43537.51, 42909.40, 37002.44, 40782.74, 37304.69, 37536.63, 34770.58, 38705.98, 38402.22, 39294.20, 38436.97, 35697.61, 34616.07, 35678.13, 37332.86, 36684.93, 37575.18, 39208.77, 36894.41, 35551.96, 35862.38, 33560.71, 33472.63, 37345.12, 36702.60, 37334.40, 35552.52, 39097.86, 40218.48, 40406.27, 38347.06, 38053.50, 35787.25, 35615.87, 35698.30, 31676.69, 32505.66, 33723.03, 34662.44, 31637.78, 32186.28, 34649.64, 34434.34, 35867.78, 35040.84, 33572.12, 33897.05, 34668.55, 35287.78, 33746.00, 34235.20, 33855.33, 32877.37, 33798.01, 33520.52, 34240.19, 33155.85, 32702.03, 32822.35, 31780.73, 31421.54, 31533.07, 31796.81, 30817.83, 29807.35, 32110.69, 32313.11, 33581.55, 34292.45, 35350.19, 37337.54, 39406.94, 39995.91, 40008.42, 42235.55, 41626.20, 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-08-06]
Volume: 38226483046, RSI (14-day): 68.04, 50-day EMA: 37073.14, 200-day EMA: 38715.70
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1760.00, Gold RSI: 33.19
Oil Price: 68.28, Oil RSI: 40.84
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Asian Stocks Down, but Make Small Moves Ahead of Latest U.S. Jobs Report: By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly down on Friday morning, with U.S. counterparts ending the previous session on a record close thanks to strong earnings. However, concerns about the spread of COVID-19 cases globally eased slightly.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 inched up 0.05% by 10:33 PM ET (2:33 AM GMT), even as shares in Nintendo Co (OTC:NTDOY). Ltd. (T:7974) fell after a profit miss.
South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.34% as Kakao Bank made its market debut, and in Australia, the ASX 200 inched down 0.02%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.26%.
China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.37% while the Shenzhen Component was down 0.23%. Shares in liquor and e-cigarette companies tumbled on Thursday as they could be next in line for stricter curbs, following sectors such as private education and technology.
Shares in Kuaishou Technology (HK:1024) saw a record fall after a post-listing lockup on sales expired.
U.S. Treasuries continued their retreat, while theBank of Englandindicated inflations concerns as it handed down its policy decision on Thursday. TheReserve Bank of Indiais due to hand its own decision down later in the day.
Investors digested a second weekly drop in U.S. jobless claims, with 385,000 claims submitted during the past week. However, the focus is now squarely on the latest U.S. jobs report, includingnon-farm payrolls, due later in the day.
Data that is weaker than expected could exacerbate concerns about the economic recovery from COVID-19, with the opposite likely benefitting reflation trades linked to economic reopening if investors look past the argument that the U.S. Federal Reserve could begin asset tapering sooner than expected.
“While uncertainty over monetary policy is likely to cause further bouts of volatility, we believe the Fed’s move toward tapering is unlikely to prompt a reversal of the equity rally,” UBS Group AG (SIX:UBSG) chief investment officer for global wealth management Mark Haefele said in a note, which added cyclical and value sectors can climb.
Fed GovernorChristopher Waller, the latest official to speak, said he is positive about the economic outlook and that asset tapering could begin sooner than expected. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari also said that he expects a strong job market in the fall, but warned that COVID-19 and its Delta variant remained a threat to global recovery.
The debate has even extended to the U.S. Senate, with senator Joe Manchin urging Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to begin asset tapering as the U.S. economy is at risk of overheating and saddling Americans with “unavoidable inflation taxes.”
The spread of the COVID-19 Delta strain continues to hamper the global economic recovery, with companies including Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)., BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK). and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)&Co. delaying plans for their employees to return to the office. The market also continues to monitor the latest outbreaks in both China and the U.S.
In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin climbed back above $40,000 while Ether maintained its own rally after announcing a software upgrade that quickens the pace at which tokens are minted.
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Asian Stocks Down, but Make Small Moves Ahead of Latest U.S. Jobs Report
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Asian shares fall as Delta variant casts shadow over growth || Asian Stocks Down, but Make Small Moves Ahead of Latest U.S. Jobs Report: By Gina Lee Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly down on Friday morning, with U.S. counterparts ending the previous session on a record close thanks to strong earnings. However, concerns about the spread of COVID-19 cases globally eased slightly. Japan’s Nikkei 225 inched up 0.05% by 10:33 PM ET (2:33 AM GMT), even as shares in Nintendo Co (OTC:NTDOY). Ltd. (T:7974) fell after a profit miss. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.34% as Kakao Bank made its market debut, and in Australia, the ASX 200 inched down 0.02%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.26%. China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.37% while the Shenzhen Component was down 0.23%. Shares in liquor and e-cigarette companies tumbled on Thursday as they could be next in line for stricter curbs, following sectors such as private education and technology. Shares in Kuaishou Technology (HK:1024) saw a record fall after a post-listing lockup on sales expired. U.S. Treasuries continued their retreat, while the Bank of England indicated inflations concerns as it handed down its policy decision on Thursday. The Reserve Bank of India is due to hand its own decision down later in the day. Investors digested a second weekly drop in U.S. jobless claims, with 385,000 claims submitted during the past week. However, the focus is now squarely on the latest U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls , due later in the day. Data that is weaker than expected could exacerbate concerns about the economic recovery from COVID-19, with the opposite likely benefitting reflation trades linked to economic reopening if investors look past the argument that the U.S. Federal Reserve could begin asset tapering sooner than expected. “While uncertainty over monetary policy is likely to cause further bouts of volatility, we believe the Fed’s move toward tapering is unlikely to prompt a reversal of the equity rally,” UBS Group AG (SIX:UBSG) chief investment officer for global wealth management Mark Haefele said in a note, which added cyclical and value sectors can climb. Story continues Fed Governor Christopher Waller , the latest official to speak, said he is positive about the economic outlook and that asset tapering could begin sooner than expected. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari also said that he expects a strong job market in the fall, but warned that COVID-19 and its Delta variant remained a threat to global recovery. The debate has even extended to the U.S. Senate, with senator Joe Manchin urging Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to begin asset tapering as the U.S. economy is at risk of overheating and saddling Americans with “unavoidable inflation taxes.” The spread of the COVID-19 Delta strain continues to hamper the global economic recovery, with companies including Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)., BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK). and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)&Co. delaying plans for their employees to return to the office. The market also continues to monitor the latest outbreaks in both China and the U.S. In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin climbed back above $40,000 while Ether maintained its own rally after announcing a software upgrade that quickens the pace at which tokens are minted. Related Articles Asian Stocks Down, but Make Small Moves Ahead of Latest U.S. Jobs Report U.S. FTC says Facebook misused privacy decree to shut down ad research Asian shares fall as Delta variant casts shadow over growth || Philipp Plein Becomes First Major Fashion Brand to Accept Crypto Payments: Philipp Plein will become the first major fashion brand to accept cryptocurrency as payment. The popular, global label, named for its German designer but based in Switzerland, will accept 15 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether , the company said Tuesday. Crypto payments will be accepted both in Philipp Plein bricks-and-mortar retail stores and online. The brand has partnered with Coinify , a crypto payments platform owned by Voyager Digital. Related: Senador de Uruguay propone proyecto de ley para regular el uso de criptomonedas Philipp Plein’s crypto payments is part of a larger trend in the fashion industry toward crypto adoption, with historic brands like Burberry releasing collectible NFTs and luxury brand conglomerate LVMH piloting blockchain-based authentication services. A few luxury and beauty brands, including watchmakers Hublot and Franck Muller , are accepting cryptocurrency for payment. The often- controversial brand, which is known for its over-the-top aesthetic , has long been an early adopter of technology in the fashion world and was one of the first brands to develop an in-house, e-commerce platform. “I believe that cryptocurrencies are the future and my team and I have made a major commitment in time and resources, performing all necessary system modifications to adopt this new type of currency,” Plein said in a press release. Related Stories Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze Bitcoin Returns Above $40K; Faces Resistance at $45K-$50K View comments || Philipp Plein Becomes First Major Fashion Brand to Accept Crypto Payments: Philipp Plein will become the first major fashion brand to accept cryptocurrency as payment.
The popular, global label, named for its German designer but based in Switzerland, will accept 15 cryptocurrencies, includingbitcoinandether, the companysaidTuesday.
Crypto payments will be accepted both in Philipp Plein bricks-and-mortar retail stores and online. The brand has partnered withCoinify, a crypto payments platform owned by Voyager Digital.
Related:Senador de Uruguay propone proyecto de ley para regular el uso de criptomonedas
Philipp Plein’s crypto payments is part of a larger trend in the fashion industry toward crypto adoption, with historic brands likeBurberryreleasing collectible NFTs and luxury brand conglomerate LVMHpilotingblockchain-based authentication services.
A few luxury and beauty brands, including watchmakersHublot and Franck Muller, are accepting cryptocurrency for payment.
The often-controversialbrand, which is known for its over-the-topaesthetic, has long been an early adopter of technology in the fashion world and was one of the first brands to develop an in-house, e-commerce platform.
“I believe that cryptocurrencies are the future and my team and I have made a major commitment in time and resources, performing all necessary system modifications to adopt this new type of currency,” Plein said in a press release.
• Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite
• Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze
• Bitcoin Returns Above $40K; Faces Resistance at $45K-$50K || Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?: Jirapong Manustrong / iStock.com It’s fairly common knowledge that cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital medium of exchange that isn’t issued by a government or bank. Most people are probably familiar with Bitcoin by now, and you might have heard of Ethereum, too. But those are just two of the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies vying to be the next big thing. Beyond Bitcoin: Looking at Some Crypto Financial Jargon See: 10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out With that many out there, you might be wondering where they all come from? No bank and no government means no printing and no minting — but none is needed. Although you can spend it like regular money, cryptocurrency is born from an entirely different process altogether. Find Out: What Is Chainlink and Why Is It Important in the World of Cryptocurrency? All Cryptocurrency Is Software Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are “mined.” Others are not. More on that in a moment. Read More: Millennials Own More Crypto Than Any Other Generation No matter the origination process, all cryptocurrency is software that is created by code. That code determines absolutely every function associated with the cryptocurrency, from the way data are stored and how transactions are recorded to the distribution of mining rewards and the maximum supply of tokens to be produced. Take a Look: The 10 Wildest Things Selling as NFTs In almost all cases, the code is public and the software used to generate a given cryptocurrency is decentralized, just like the cryptocurrency itself. That public, decentralized software is hosted on individual computers all over the world instead of on a central server. Algorithms, Cryptography and Blockchain Are at the Heart of It All When cryptocurrencies are designed to be used as money, transactions are stored on a special kind of secure database called a blockchain, which serves as a ledger of all coded transactions. Think of it as a checkbook for cryptocurrency. Discover: Should Crypto and NFTs Be Part of Your Retirement Plan? Story continues Once entered into the blockchain, no one can ever change an entry in the database without meeting specific conditions. Everyone involved can see the public record of all transitions. Blockchain technology, therefore, allows cryptocurrency to achieve its three most important defining features: Transparency Decentralization Immutability The part of the code that represents what end-users know as “tokens” or “coins” is just a string of numbers stored on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are generated by algorithms, and those algorithms rely on cryptography — hence the name cryptocurrency. More Economy Explained: Ethereum: All You Need To Know To Decide If This Crypto Is Worth the Investment Most Cryptocurrency Is Mined In most cases, the algorithms that fuel the cryptocurrency factory are written to award tokens to computers that add transactions to the blockchain. That process is known as mining. Miners use special hardware and the cryptocurrency’s public, decentralized software to add transactions to blockchains. Read: What Are Altcoins — and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks? In exchange for providing that critical blockchain maintenance, miners get paid in new cryptocurrency tokens. Most cryptocurrency coins or tokens are created this way. Technically, anyone can be a miner, but it’s a largely fruitless endeavor for most. It’s complicated, competitive, expensive if you fail — which is highly likely — and it gobbles up an enormous amount of power. But Some Is Not Some cryptocurrency was never designed to replace fiat currency like the dollar. In other words, it was never meant to be used as money. This kind of non-mineable, unspendable cryptocurrency is usually generated to reward early investors in a new cryptocurrency launch, called an ICO (initial coin offering). The Economy and Your Money: All You Need To Know In other cases, a new cryptocurrency can be created through a deviation in a blockchain called a hard fork. Hard forks occur when blockchain protocols change so significantly that a new, unique branch is formed on the chain that is incompatible with the old chain. Bitcoin Cash, for example, was formed through a hard fork on the original Bitcoin blockchain. Proof of Work and Proof of Stake Verification is at the core of crypto. Unlike fiat currency, the value of cryptocurrency is not based on trust. It’s based on one of two verification techniques: proof of work and proof of stake. Bitcoin Cash (BCH): The Most Important Things You Need To Know About It Most transactions are verified through proof of work. Algorithms create complex math problems that miners race to solve using special hardware. By solving the puzzle, a miner verifies a group of transactions called a block, which is then added to the larger blockchain ledger. The miner who pulls it off first is rewarded with cryptocurrency. Proof of stake was developed to reduce the amount of power needed to verify transactions. With this method, someone has to prove they have skin in the game in order to check transactions and compete for rewards. Users have to “stake” their own existing cryptocurrency by locking it up in a communal vault to be allowed to verify transactions. The more you stake, the more transactions you’re allowed to verify and the more cryptocurrency you can earn. More From GOBankingRates What Money Topics Do You Want Covered: Ask the Financially Savvy Female 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security 20 Home Renovations That Will Hurt Your Home’s Value What Income Level Is Considered Middle Class in Your State? Last updated: June 7, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? || Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?: It’s fairly common knowledge thatcryptocurrencyis a decentralized digital medium of exchange that isn’t issued by a government or bank. Most people are probably familiar with Bitcoin by now, and you might have heard of Ethereum, too. But those are just two of the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies vying to be the next big thing.
Beyond Bitcoin:Looking at Some Crypto Financial JargonSee:10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out
With that many out there, you might be wondering where they all come from?
No bank and no government means no printing and no minting — but none is needed. Although you can spend it like regular money, cryptocurrency is born from an entirely different process altogether.
Find Out:What Is Chainlink and Why Is It Important in the World of Cryptocurrency?
Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are “mined.” Others are not. More on that in a moment.
Read More:Millennials Own More Crypto Than Any Other Generation
No matter the origination process, all cryptocurrency is software that is created by code.That code determines absolutely every function associated with the cryptocurrency, from the way data are stored and how transactions are recorded to the distribution of mining rewards and the maximum supply of tokens to be produced.
Take a Look:The 10 Wildest Things Selling as NFTs
In almost all cases, the code is public and the software used to generate a given cryptocurrency is decentralized, just like the cryptocurrency itself. That public, decentralized software is hosted on individual computers all over the world instead of on a central server.
When cryptocurrencies are designed to be used as money, transactions are stored on a special kind of secure database called a blockchain, which serves as a ledger of all coded transactions. Think of it as a checkbook for cryptocurrency.
Discover:Should Crypto and NFTs Be Part of Your Retirement Plan?
Once entered into the blockchain, no one can ever change an entry in the database without meeting specific conditions. Everyone involved can see the public record of all transitions.
Blockchain technology, therefore, allows cryptocurrency to achieve its three most important defining features:
• Transparency
• Decentralization
• Immutability
The part of the code that represents what end-users know as “tokens” or “coins” is just a string of numbers stored on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are generated by algorithms, and those algorithms rely on cryptography — hence the name cryptocurrency.
More Economy Explained:Ethereum: All You Need To Know To Decide If This Crypto Is Worth the Investment
In most cases, the algorithms that fuel the cryptocurrency factory are written to award tokens to computers that add transactions to the blockchain. That process is known as mining. Miners use special hardware and the cryptocurrency’s public, decentralized software to add transactions to blockchains.
Read:What Are Altcoins — and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks?
In exchange for providing that critical blockchain maintenance, miners get paid in new cryptocurrency tokens. Most cryptocurrency coins or tokens are created this way.
Technically, anyone can be a miner, but it’s a largely fruitless endeavor for most. It’s complicated, competitive, expensive if you fail — which is highly likely — and it gobbles up an enormous amount of power.
Some cryptocurrency was never designed to replace fiat currency like the dollar. In other words, it was never meant to be used as money. This kind of non-mineable, unspendable cryptocurrency is usually generated to reward early investors in a new cryptocurrency launch, called an ICO (initial coin offering).
The Economy and Your Money:All You Need To Know
In other cases, a new cryptocurrency can be created through a deviation in a blockchain called a hard fork. Hard forks occur when blockchain protocols change so significantly that a new, unique branch is formed on the chain that is incompatible with the old chain. Bitcoin Cash, for example, was formed through a hard fork on the original Bitcoin blockchain.
Verification is at the core of crypto. Unlike fiat currency, the value of cryptocurrency is not based on trust. It’s based on one of two verification techniques: proof of work and proof of stake.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH):The Most Important Things You Need To Know About It
Most transactions are verified through proof of work. Algorithms create complex math problems that miners race to solve using special hardware. By solving the puzzle, a miner verifies a group of transactions called a block, which is then added to the larger blockchain ledger. The miner who pulls it off first is rewarded with cryptocurrency.
Proof of stake was developed to reduce the amount of power needed to verify transactions. With this method, someone has to prove they have skin in the game in order to check transactions and compete for rewards. Users have to “stake” their own existing cryptocurrency by locking it up in a communal vault to be allowed to verify transactions. The more you stake, the more transactions you’re allowed to verify and the more cryptocurrency you can earn.
More From GOBankingRates
• What Money Topics Do You Want Covered: Ask the Financially Savvy Female
• 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security
• 20 Home Renovations That Will Hurt Your Home’s Value
• What Income Level Is Considered Middle Class in Your State?
Last updated: June 7, 2021
This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? || Blockchain-Based Music Streaming Service Audius Up to 5M Monthly Users: Audius – a music streaming platform that runs on the Ethereum blockchain – hit a major milestone on Thursday, as five million people a month now use the platform to stream music, making it one of the largest consumer applications on any blockchain. Blockchain technology has been touted by many in the community as a way to make the monetization of art and music fairer in the digital age by giving creators more ownership of their work, as well as by clarifying the licensing and metadata issues that cause music to be taken down from online platforms. Audius’ rapid expansion is a sign that artists and fans alike are increasingly finding value in blockchain-based streaming. According to Audius co-founders Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning, most of Audius’ approximately 100,000 artists have small and midsized audiences. But major players in the music industry such as Skrillex, deadmau5 and Weezer are also using Audius to get music – including works-in-progress and unreleased music – out to their fans. Related: Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite Audius, which launched in 2019, operates closer to a decentralized version of music streaming service SoundCloud than to Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming company. Creators are not paid directly by Audius based on streams, but instead are given the infrastructure needed to monetize their work in the way they see fit, including through sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Creators and community members can also be rewarded for contributing to the platform with Audius’ native token, AUDIO. Related Stories Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze Philipp Plein Becomes First Major Fashion Brand to Accept Crypto Payments Market Wrap: Ethereum Hard Fork Rally Outperforms Bitcoin || Blockchain-Based Music Streaming Service Audius Up to 5M Monthly Users: Audius– a music streaming platform that runs on the Ethereum blockchain – hit a major milestone on Thursday, as five million people a month now use the platform to stream music, making it one of the largest consumer applications on any blockchain.
Blockchain technology has been touted by many in the community as a way to make the monetization of art and music fairer in the digital age by giving creators more ownership of their work, as well as by clarifying the licensing and metadata issues that cause music to be taken down from online platforms. Audius’ rapid expansion is a sign that artists and fans alike are increasingly finding value in blockchain-based streaming.
According to Audius co-founders Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning, most of Audius’ approximately 100,000 artists have small and midsized audiences. But major players in the music industry such as Skrillex, deadmau5 and Weezer are also using Audius to get music – including works-in-progress and unreleased music – out to their fans.
Related:Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite
Audius, which launched in 2019, operates closer to a decentralized version of music streaming service SoundCloud than to Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming company. Creators are not paid directly by Audius based on streams, but instead are given the infrastructure needed to monetize their work in the way they see fit, including through sales ofnon-fungible tokens(NFTs).
Creators and community members can also be rewarded for contributing to the platform with Audius’ native token, AUDIO.
• Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze
• Philipp Plein Becomes First Major Fashion Brand to Accept Crypto Payments
• Market Wrap: Ethereum Hard Fork Rally Outperforms Bitcoin || Class Action Lawsuit Deadline: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP Reminds Investors of Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Coinbase Global Inc.: RADNOR, Pa., Aug. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) (“Coinbase”) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired CoinbaseClass A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and prospectus (collectively, the “Offering Materials”) for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock, whereby Coinbase began trading as a public company on or around April 14, 2021 (the “Offering”).
Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired Coinbase Class A common stockpursuant and/or traceable to the Offering may,no later than September 20, 2021, seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail [email protected];orclickhttps://www.ktmc.com/coinbase-global-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=coinbase
According to the complaint, Coinbase “powers the cryptoeconomy,” offering a “trusted platform” for sending and receiving Bitcoin and other digital assets built using blockchain technology to approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries.
On April 14, 2021, Coinbase filed its prospectus on a Form 424B4, which forms part of the registration statement. Coinbase registered for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock by registered shareholders. According to the registration statement, the resale of Coinbase’s stock was not underwritten by any investment bank and the registered stockholders would purportedly elect whether or not to sell their shares. Such sales, if any, would be brokerage transactions on the NASDAQ, and Coinbase would purportedly not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the registered stockholders. Thus, Coinbase’s operations would continue to be financed with cash flow from operating activities and net proceeds from the sale of convertible preferred stock. As of December 31, 2020, Coinbase had cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion, exclusive of restricted cash and customer custodial funds.
The complaint alleges that one month later, the high-flying promise of Coinbase came to a screaming halt, as Coinbase conceded the need to raise capital and revealed performance issues that prevented users’ ability to trade cryptocurrencies. On May 17, 2021, Coinbase announced its plans to raise about $1.25 billion via a convertible bond sale. Then, on May 19, 2021, Coinbase revealed technical problems, including “delays . . . due to network congestion” affecting those who want to get their money out.
Following this news, Coinbase’s share price fell $23.44 per share, nearly 10%, over two consecutive trading sessions, to close at $224.80 per share on May 19, 2021. By the time the complaint was filed, Coinbase stock traded as low as $208.00 per share, a decline from its April 14, 2021 opening price of $381.00 per share.
The complaint alleges that the Offering Materials were false and misleading and omitted to state that, at the time of the Offering: (1) Coinbase required a sizeable cash injection; (2) Coinbase’s platform was susceptible to service-level disruptions, which were increasingly likely to occur as Coinbase scaled its services to a larger user base; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, the defendants’ positive statements about Coinbase’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
Coinbase investors may,no later than September 20, 2021, seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visitwww.ktmc.com.
CONTACT:
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLPJames Maro, Jr., Esq.280 King of Prussia RoadRadnor, PA 19087(844) 887-9500 (toll free)[email protected] || Class Action Lawsuit Deadline: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP Reminds Investors of Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Coinbase Global Inc.: RADNOR, Pa., Aug. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) (“Coinbase”) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired Coinbase Class A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and prospectus (collectively, the “Offering Materials”) for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock, whereby Coinbase began trading as a public company on or around April 14, 2021 (the “Offering”) . Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired Coinbase Class A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the Offering may, no later than September 20, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail at [email protected] ; or click https://www.ktmc.com/coinbase-global-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=coinbase According to the complaint, Coinbase “powers the cryptoeconomy,” offering a “trusted platform” for sending and receiving Bitcoin and other digital assets built using blockchain technology to approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. On April 14, 2021, Coinbase filed its prospectus on a Form 424B4, which forms part of the registration statement. Coinbase registered for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock by registered shareholders. According to the registration statement, the resale of Coinbase’s stock was not underwritten by any investment bank and the registered stockholders would purportedly elect whether or not to sell their shares. Such sales, if any, would be brokerage transactions on the NASDAQ, and Coinbase would purportedly not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the registered stockholders. Thus, Coinbase’s operations would continue to be financed with cash flow from operating activities and net proceeds from the sale of convertible preferred stock. As of December 31, 2020, Coinbase had cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion, exclusive of restricted cash and customer custodial funds. The complaint alleges that one month later, the high-flying promise of Coinbase came to a screaming halt, as Coinbase conceded the need to raise capital and revealed performance issues that prevented users’ ability to trade cryptocurrencies. On May 17, 2021, Coinbase announced its plans to raise about $1.25 billion via a convertible bond sale. Then, on May 19, 2021, Coinbase revealed technical problems, including “delays . . . due to network congestion” affecting those who want to get their money out. Story continues Following this news, Coinbase’s share price fell $23.44 per share, nearly 10%, over two consecutive trading sessions, to close at $224.80 per share on May 19, 2021. By the time the complaint was filed, Coinbase stock traded as low as $208.00 per share, a decline from its April 14, 2021 opening price of $381.00 per share. The complaint alleges that the Offering Materials were false and misleading and omitted to state that, at the time of the Offering: (1) Coinbase required a sizeable cash injection; (2) Coinbase’s platform was susceptible to service-level disruptions, which were increasingly likely to occur as Coinbase scaled its services to a larger user base; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, the defendants’ positive statements about Coinbase’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Coinbase investors may, no later than September 20, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com . CONTACT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP James Maro, Jr., Esq. 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (844) 887-9500 (toll free) [email protected] View comments || Market Wrap: Ethereum Hard Fork Rally Outperforms Bitcoin: Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was in the spotlight on Thursday as the latesthard fork upgrade, which wasa dubbed “London,” officially activated on the Ethereum blockchain network. The upgrade contributed to bullish price action as ether rose about 5% over the past 24 hours, compared with a 3% rise in bitcoin during the same period.
Despite ETH’s rally, some analysts expect widespread institutional adoption to take a few years. Institutional interest boosted bitcoin’s investment appeal over the past year, which contributed to a crypto rally during the fourth quarter of 2020.
“I think Ethereum might flip the bitcoin market cap in the long term, but not this year,” CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, said in aninterviewwith WuBlockchain.
Related:Senador de Uruguay propone proyecto de ley para regular el uso de criptomonedas
“I met Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and other big institutional asset management firms in Miami a few weeks ago and they said they’re still struggling explaining what Ethereum/DeFi(decentralized finance) is to their bosses,” Ju said.
Cryptocurrencies:
• Bitcoin(BTC) $41143, +2.83%
• Ether(ETH) $2806.8, +4.11%
Traditional markets:
• S&P 500: 4429, +0.6%
• Gold: $1814.2, +0.21%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.217%, compared with 1.16% on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, some institutions remain active across the crypto market either directly or indirectly. On July 22, Fidelity Investments acquired a7.4% stakein crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings for about $20 million.
Related:Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite
On Thursday, French asset manager Melanion Capital wonregulatory approvalto launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of bitcoin and several crypto-related stocks.
Also on Thursday, Invesco, a U.S.-based asset manager,filedwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list an ETF with indirect exposure to bitcoin via futures and other investment vehicles.
Large institutions are easing into the crypto market with a bitcoin-first approach. It will likely take some time, however, before investors fully embrace altcoins such as ether as regulatory hurdles must be cleared first.
Ether was initially steady after the London hard forkwas activated, but itstarted rallyingabout an hour later. As of press time, ether was changing hands at around $2,807, up from about $2,600 right before the changes took effect, CoinDesk 20 data shows.
Many crypto traders are focused on one component of the upgrade, called Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which changes the network’s fee structure so that a certain amount of the cryptocurrency’s supply will be “burned,” or removed from circulation. The bet is that the blockchain’s net issuance of new units of the cryptocurrency will slow as a result of the change, ultimately helping to set a floor under the price.
Analysts at Stack Funds and elsewhere have compared the London hard fork and implementation ofEIP 1559to the Bitcoin blockchain’s “halvings” that occur every four years in the sense that major changes in the cryptocurrency’s supply growth are deployed at specific moments in the blockchain’s lifecycle. Some investors believe Bitcoin’s halving events in the past havehelped to increase the priceof the underlying cryptocurrency.
As of 15:06 UTC, some 585 ETH of fees had been burned, or roughly 43% of the block rewards issued since the Ethereum hard fork took effect at data block No. 12,965,000, according to the websiteultrasound.money.
Ether is now above the 100-day moving average for the first time since June. The price rally has cleared a significant technical hurdle, although the price could find some resistance at the $3,000 level.
ETH’s rally has outperformed bitcoin after a few months of consolidation. The ETH/BTC ratio is testing initial resistance at 0.06, but could see further upside as momentum improves.
Similar to stocks, bitcoin is approaching aseasonally weakperiod, which could encourage buyers to take profits. The table below shows, on average, relatively weak returns in August over an eight-year period. September tends to be the worst month. Buying picks up in October and February.
Seasonal patterns can vary, especially as bitcoin departed from its historical trends when it tumbled in May.
The margin assets for bitcoin futures trading has been shifting from bitcoin to stablecoins, according to Delphi Digital, a research company that focuses on digital assets. The shift has become especially significant as cash margined open interest soared after bitcoin’s price crashed in May.
“The most important implication of this is that longs don’t have the added boost of holding both spot BTC and BTC futures while it goes up, but they’re no longer exposed to deeper losses when their position turns against them (because their margin is in stablecoins, not BTC),” Delphi wrote. “For shorts, they can take advantage of downtrends without their margin value eroding, but they lack protection when BTC moves up.”
• TRU soared following TrustToken’s fundraising news:The price of TRU, the native token of TrustToken’s DeFi lending protocol TrueFi, rose 414% to $0.863. CoinDeskreportedthat TrustToken had raised $12.5 million in a new funding round led by BlockTower Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. TRU is trading at $0.65 as of press time. (Bankman-Fried is a billionaire, who also founded the FTX crypto exchange.)
• HUSD reserves all held in cash:The reserves backing HUSD, the eighth-largest stablecoin by market cap, areall held in cashin money market accounts in the United States, the token’s issuer, Stable Universal, told CoinDesk. It’s the first time the issuer has released such information. (EideBailly, an accounting firm, publishes monthly attestations that the HUSD token is backed 1-to-1 with dollars, but has never provided a reserve composition.) The disclosure comes at a time when more stablecoin issuers have started revealing the breakdown of their reserves, as investors and regulators demand more transparency.
• Are Web 3.0 Tokens the next hot trade?Data tracked by Messari and published by Arca Chief Investment Officer Jeff Dormanshowsthe cryptocurrency sub-sector of “Web 3.0 tokens” gained 22% in the week ended Aug. 1, outshining bitcoin and every other sub-sector, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, rallied 10%. Web 3.0 tokens refer to digital assets associated with visions of a decentralized internet.
• Mark Cuban’s NFT platform completes Polygon integration:Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s NFT platform, Lazy.com, hasjoinedforces with Polygon, an Ethereum-scaling product, to offer cheaper transactions. Polygon’s NFT-centric and gaming hub Polygon Studios announced the integration on Thursday, stating it would help drive mainstream adoption of digital collectibles. Users can now connect their Polygon wallet to Lazy.com, which also supports NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Chainlink Unveils Crypto ‘Keepers’:Chainlink, the market-leading provider of data feeds to blockchain-based smart contracts, isexpandingits services to include decentralized off-chain computation – a job done by a network of node operators known as “Chainlink Keepers.” Chainlink Labs is also standing up cross-blockchain bridges that come with an anti-fraud risk monitoring component.
• JPMorgan Launches In-House Bitcoin Fund for Private Bank Clients
• CFTC Commissioner Says SEC Lacks Authority Over Commodities, Including ‘Crypto Assets’
• Hedge Fund Billionaire Steven Cohen’s Point72 Leads $21M Funding Round in Messari
• Coinbase Is Expanding Its Payment and Cash-Out Methods
• New York City to Explore Blockchain for Preventing Deed Fraud in Land Sales
• Invesco Files With SEC for Bitcoin Strategy ETF
Notable winners of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
aave(AAVE) +10.92%
uniswap(UNI) +8.39%
algorand(ALGO) +2.09%
Notable losers:
stellar(XLM) -1.68%
chainlink(LINK) -0.85%
dogecoin(DOGE) -0.63%
• Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze
• Ether Options Activity Increases as London Hard Fork Goes Live, $50K Call Most Popular || Market Wrap: Ethereum Hard Fork Rally Outperforms Bitcoin: Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was in the spotlight on Thursday as the latesthard fork upgrade, which wasa dubbed “London,” officially activated on the Ethereum blockchain network. The upgrade contributed to bullish price action as ether rose about 5% over the past 24 hours, compared with a 3% rise in bitcoin during the same period.
Despite ETH’s rally, some analysts expect widespread institutional adoption to take a few years. Institutional interest boosted bitcoin’s investment appeal over the past year, which contributed to a crypto rally during the fourth quarter of 2020.
“I think Ethereum might flip the bitcoin market cap in the long term, but not this year,” CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, said in aninterviewwith WuBlockchain.
Related:Senador de Uruguay propone proyecto de ley para regular el uso de criptomonedas
“I met Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and other big institutional asset management firms in Miami a few weeks ago and they said they’re still struggling explaining what Ethereum/DeFi(decentralized finance) is to their bosses,” Ju said.
Cryptocurrencies:
• Bitcoin(BTC) $41143, +2.83%
• Ether(ETH) $2806.8, +4.11%
Traditional markets:
• S&P 500: 4429, +0.6%
• Gold: $1814.2, +0.21%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.217%, compared with 1.16% on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, some institutions remain active across the crypto market either directly or indirectly. On July 22, Fidelity Investments acquired a7.4% stakein crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings for about $20 million.
Related:Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite
On Thursday, French asset manager Melanion Capital wonregulatory approvalto launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of bitcoin and several crypto-related stocks.
Also on Thursday, Invesco, a U.S.-based asset manager,filedwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list an ETF with indirect exposure to bitcoin via futures and other investment vehicles.
Large institutions are easing into the crypto market with a bitcoin-first approach. It will likely take some time, however, before investors fully embrace altcoins such as ether as regulatory hurdles must be cleared first.
Ether was initially steady after the London hard forkwas activated, but itstarted rallyingabout an hour later. As of press time, ether was changing hands at around $2,807, up from about $2,600 right before the changes took effect, CoinDesk 20 data shows.
Many crypto traders are focused on one component of the upgrade, called Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which changes the network’s fee structure so that a certain amount of the cryptocurrency’s supply will be “burned,” or removed from circulation. The bet is that the blockchain’s net issuance of new units of the cryptocurrency will slow as a result of the change, ultimately helping to set a floor under the price.
Analysts at Stack Funds and elsewhere have compared the London hard fork and implementation ofEIP 1559to the Bitcoin blockchain’s “halvings” that occur every four years in the sense that major changes in the cryptocurrency’s supply growth are deployed at specific moments in the blockchain’s lifecycle. Some investors believe Bitcoin’s halving events in the past havehelped to increase the priceof the underlying cryptocurrency.
As of 15:06 UTC, some 585 ETH of fees had been burned, or roughly 43% of the block rewards issued since the Ethereum hard fork took effect at data block No. 12,965,000, according to the websiteultrasound.money.
Ether is now above the 100-day moving average for the first time since June. The price rally has cleared a significant technical hurdle, although the price could find some resistance at the $3,000 level.
ETH’s rally has outperformed bitcoin after a few months of consolidation. The ETH/BTC ratio is testing initial resistance at 0.06, but could see further upside as momentum improves.
Similar to stocks, bitcoin is approaching aseasonally weakperiod, which could encourage buyers to take profits. The table below shows, on average, relatively weak returns in August over an eight-year period. September tends to be the worst month. Buying picks up in October and February.
Seasonal patterns can vary, especially as bitcoin departed from its historical trends when it tumbled in May.
The margin assets for bitcoin futures trading has been shifting from bitcoin to stablecoins, according to Delphi Digital, a research company that focuses on digital assets. The shift has become especially significant as cash margined open interest soared after bitcoin’s price crashed in May.
“The most important implication of this is that longs don’t have the added boost of holding both spot BTC and BTC futures while it goes up, but they’re no longer exposed to deeper losses when their position turns against them (because their margin is in stablecoins, not BTC),” Delphi wrote. “For shorts, they can take advantage of downtrends without their margin value eroding, but they lack protection when BTC moves up.”
• TRU soared following TrustToken’s fundraising news:The price of TRU, the native token of TrustToken’s DeFi lending protocol TrueFi, rose 414% to $0.863. CoinDeskreportedthat TrustToken had raised $12.5 million in a new funding round led by BlockTower Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. TRU is trading at $0.65 as of press time. (Bankman-Fried is a billionaire, who also founded the FTX crypto exchange.)
• HUSD reserves all held in cash:The reserves backing HUSD, the eighth-largest stablecoin by market cap, areall held in cashin money market accounts in the United States, the token’s issuer, Stable Universal, told CoinDesk. It’s the first time the issuer has released such information. (EideBailly, an accounting firm, publishes monthly attestations that the HUSD token is backed 1-to-1 with dollars, but has never provided a reserve composition.) The disclosure comes at a time when more stablecoin issuers have started revealing the breakdown of their reserves, as investors and regulators demand more transparency.
• Are Web 3.0 Tokens the next hot trade?Data tracked by Messari and published by Arca Chief Investment Officer Jeff Dormanshowsthe cryptocurrency sub-sector of “Web 3.0 tokens” gained 22% in the week ended Aug. 1, outshining bitcoin and every other sub-sector, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, rallied 10%. Web 3.0 tokens refer to digital assets associated with visions of a decentralized internet.
• Mark Cuban’s NFT platform completes Polygon integration:Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s NFT platform, Lazy.com, hasjoinedforces with Polygon, an Ethereum-scaling product, to offer cheaper transactions. Polygon’s NFT-centric and gaming hub Polygon Studios announced the integration on Thursday, stating it would help drive mainstream adoption of digital collectibles. Users can now connect their Polygon wallet to Lazy.com, which also supports NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Chainlink Unveils Crypto ‘Keepers’:Chainlink, the market-leading provider of data feeds to blockchain-based smart contracts, isexpandingits services to include decentralized off-chain computation – a job done by a network of node operators known as “Chainlink Keepers.” Chainlink Labs is also standing up cross-blockchain bridges that come with an anti-fraud risk monitoring component.
• JPMorgan Launches In-House Bitcoin Fund for Private Bank Clients
• CFTC Commissioner Says SEC Lacks Authority Over Commodities, Including ‘Crypto Assets’
• Hedge Fund Billionaire Steven Cohen’s Point72 Leads $21M Funding Round in Messari
• Coinbase Is Expanding Its Payment and Cash-Out Methods
• New York City to Explore Blockchain for Preventing Deed Fraud in Land Sales
• Invesco Files With SEC for Bitcoin Strategy ETF
Notable winners of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
aave(AAVE) +10.92%
uniswap(UNI) +8.39%
algorand(ALGO) +2.09%
Notable losers:
stellar(XLM) -1.68%
chainlink(LINK) -0.85%
dogecoin(DOGE) -0.63%
• Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze
• Ether Options Activity Increases as London Hard Fork Goes Live, $50K Call Most Popular || Market Wrap: Ethereum Hard Fork Rally Outperforms Bitcoin: Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was in the spotlight on Thursday as the latest hard fork upgrade , which wasa dubbed “London,” officially activated on the Ethereum blockchain network. The upgrade contributed to bullish price action as ether rose about 5% over the past 24 hours, compared with a 3% rise in bitcoin during the same period. Despite ETH’s rally, some analysts expect widespread institutional adoption to take a few years. Institutional interest boosted bitcoin’s investment appeal over the past year, which contributed to a crypto rally during the fourth quarter of 2020. “I think Ethereum might flip the bitcoin market cap in the long term, but not this year,” CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, said in an interview with WuBlockchain. Related: Senador de Uruguay propone proyecto de ley para regular el uso de criptomonedas “I met Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and other big institutional asset management firms in Miami a few weeks ago and they said they’re still struggling explaining what Ethereum/ DeFi (decentralized finance) is to their bosses,” Ju said. Latest prices Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC) $41143, +2.83% Ether (ETH) $2806.8, +4.11% Traditional markets: S&P 500: 4429, +0.6% Gold: $1814.2, +0.21% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.217%, compared with 1.16% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, some institutions remain active across the crypto market either directly or indirectly. On July 22, Fidelity Investments acquired a 7.4% stake in crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings for about $20 million. Related: Rising Ether-Bitcoin Price Ratio Shows Crypto Risk Appetite On Thursday, French asset manager Melanion Capital won regulatory approval to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of bitcoin and several crypto-related stocks. Also on Thursday, Invesco, a U.S.-based asset manager, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list an ETF with indirect exposure to bitcoin via futures and other investment vehicles. Story continues Large institutions are easing into the crypto market with a bitcoin-first approach. It will likely take some time, however, before investors fully embrace altcoins such as ether as regulatory hurdles must be cleared first. Ethereum London hard fork Ether was initially steady after the London hard fork was activated , but it started rallying about an hour later. As of press time, ether was changing hands at around $2,807, up from about $2,600 right before the changes took effect, CoinDesk 20 data shows. Many crypto traders are focused on one component of the upgrade, called Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which changes the network’s fee structure so that a certain amount of the cryptocurrency’s supply will be “burned,” or removed from circulation. The bet is that the blockchain’s net issuance of new units of the cryptocurrency will slow as a result of the change, ultimately helping to set a floor under the price. Analysts at Stack Funds and elsewhere have compared the London hard fork and implementation of EIP 1559 to the Bitcoin blockchain’s “halvings” that occur every four years in the sense that major changes in the cryptocurrency’s supply growth are deployed at specific moments in the blockchain’s lifecycle. Some investors believe Bitcoin’s halving events in the past have helped to increase the price of the underlying cryptocurrency. As of 15:06 UTC, some 585 ETH of fees had been burned, or roughly 43% of the block rewards issued since the Ethereum hard fork took effect at data block No. 12,965,000, according to the website ultrasound.money . Ether technicals Ether is now above the 100-day moving average for the first time since June. The price rally has cleared a significant technical hurdle, although the price could find some resistance at the $3,000 level. ETH’s rally has outperformed bitcoin after a few months of consolidation. The ETH/BTC ratio is testing initial resistance at 0.06, but could see further upside as momentum improves. Bitcoin seasonality Similar to stocks, bitcoin is approaching a seasonally weak period, which could encourage buyers to take profits. The table below shows, on average, relatively weak returns in August over an eight-year period. September tends to be the worst month. Buying picks up in October and February. Seasonal patterns can vary, especially as bitcoin departed from its historical trends when it tumbled in May. Stablecoins as collateral The margin assets for bitcoin futures trading has been shifting from bitcoin to stablecoins, according to Delphi Digital, a research company that focuses on digital assets. The shift has become especially significant as cash margined open interest soared after bitcoin’s price crashed in May. “The most important implication of this is that longs don’t have the added boost of holding both spot BTC and BTC futures while it goes up, but they’re no longer exposed to deeper losses when their position turns against them (because their margin is in stablecoins, not BTC),” Delphi wrote. “For shorts, they can take advantage of downtrends without their margin value eroding, but they lack protection when BTC moves up.” Altcoin roundup TRU soared following TrustToken’s fundraising news: The price of TRU, the native token of TrustToken’s DeFi lending protocol TrueFi, rose 414% to $0.863. CoinDesk reported that TrustToken had raised $12.5 million in a new funding round led by BlockTower Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. TRU is trading at $0.65 as of press time. (Bankman-Fried is a billionaire, who also founded the FTX crypto exchange.) HUSD reserves all held in cash: The reserves backing HUSD, the eighth-largest stablecoin by market cap, are all held in cash in money market accounts in the United States, the token’s issuer, Stable Universal, told CoinDesk. It’s the first time the issuer has released such information. (EideBailly, an accounting firm, publishes monthly attestations that the HUSD token is backed 1-to-1 with dollars, but has never provided a reserve composition.) The disclosure comes at a time when more stablecoin issuers have started revealing the breakdown of their reserves, as investors and regulators demand more transparency. Are Web 3.0 Tokens the next hot trade? Data tracked by Messari and published by Arca Chief Investment Officer Jeff Dorman shows the cryptocurrency sub-sector of “Web 3.0 tokens” gained 22% in the week ended Aug. 1, outshining bitcoin and every other sub-sector, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, rallied 10%. Web 3.0 tokens refer to digital assets associated with visions of a decentralized internet. Mark Cuban’s NFT platform completes Polygon integration: Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s NFT platform, Lazy.com, has joined forces with Polygon, an Ethereum-scaling product, to offer cheaper transactions. Polygon’s NFT-centric and gaming hub Polygon Studios announced the integration on Thursday, stating it would help drive mainstream adoption of digital collectibles. Users can now connect their Polygon wallet to Lazy.com, which also supports NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain. Chainlink Unveils Crypto ‘Keepers’: Chainlink, the market-leading provider of data feeds to blockchain-based smart contracts, is expanding its services to include decentralized off-chain computation – a job done by a network of node operators known as “Chainlink Keepers.” Chainlink Labs is also standing up cross-blockchain bridges that come with an anti-fraud risk monitoring component. Relevant news: JPMorgan Launches In-House Bitcoin Fund for Private Bank Clients CFTC Commissioner Says SEC Lacks Authority Over Commodities, Including ‘Crypto Assets’ Hedge Fund Billionaire Steven Cohen’s Point72 Leads $21M Funding Round in Messari Coinbase Is Expanding Its Payment and Cash-Out Methods New York City to Explore Blockchain for Preventing Deed Fraud in Land Sales Invesco Files With SEC for Bitcoin Strategy ETF Other markets Notable winners of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): aave (AAVE) +10.92% uniswap (UNI) +8.39% algorand (ALGO) +2.09% Notable losers: stellar (XLM) -1.68% chainlink (LINK) -0.85% dogecoin (DOGE) -0.63% Related Stories Binance Smart Chain Beats Ethereum by Some Metrics Thanks to Latest ‘GameFi’ Craze Ether Options Activity Increases as London Hard Fork Goes Live, $50K Call Most Popular || Sphere 3D Announces Agreement to Acquire Exclusive Rights for Assignment of Cryptocurrency Mining Assets: Agreement includes the rights to secure up to 220,000 miners on pre-negotiated terms and a lease for a 200,000 square foot carbon neutral facility for Bitcoin Mining Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2021) - Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY) (" Sphere 3D " or the " Company "), a company delivering containerization, virtualization, and data management solutions, announces it has entered into an agreement (the " Agreement ") with Hertford Advisors Ltd. (" Hertford "), a privately-held company that provides turnkey mining solutions, to provide a six month exclusive right to assume all of Hertford's rights to a number of bitcoin mining agreements (the "Bitcoin Agreements"). The Company has successfully assumed and executed the first Bitcoin Agreement directly with the manufacturer, for the purchase of up to 60,000 new bitcoin mining machines (" miners "), with deliveries to commence in November 2021 and continue over the course of the next ten months. Upon completion of delivery, this will give Sphere 3D 5.7 Exahash of computing power. "This is a significant milestone for Sphere 3D as we look to the future," says Peter Tassiopoulos, Sphere 3D's CEO. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to place Sphere 3D as a leader in the space with state of the art miners, in a very competitive market where time to delivery is paramount. We continue to look for ways to increase shareholder value while remaining true to our commitment to ESG principles. We believe that this series of transactions could have significant revenue and cost synergies across our value chain." Details of the Transactions In exchange for the assignment of the contracts from Hertford, for which Sphere 3D has the right, but not the obligation, to complete, and subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and execution of definitive agreements, Sphere 3D will issue to Hertford Common Shares, as well as shares of a new series of preferred stock in the Company, based upon the achievement of certain milestones. Those milestones include the assumption of two additional contracts, outside of the 60,000 miner agreement previously mentioned in this release, for the purchase of up to an additional 160,000 miners (for a total of 220,000), and the right to complete negotiations to secure a long-term contract for a 200,000 square foot crypto mining facility to be supplied with up to 1GW of carbon-neutral power and 1GW of power from the grid as backup, for which the lessor will contractually agree to offset all carbon emissions when grid power is utilized. If all contracts are executed, Sphere 3D will have 21.5 Exahash computing power. Upon assignment of the contracts, the Company will issue an aggregate of 4,500,000 Common Shares to Hertford Advisors, Ltd. Additional consideration will be granted as other key milestones are achieved. The shares issued by the Company shall be subject to lock up and leak out agreements, with the initial release starting six months after issuance of the securities, and continuing until two years following the issuance of the securities. Story continues As previously disclosed, the Company entered into a definitive merger agreement with Gryphon on June 3, 2021, which is expected to close in the 4th Quarter 2021. Gryphon is committed to 100% renewable Bitcoin mining and currently holds 720 PH/s computing power. This agreement secures access to additional mining capacity and creates new revenue opportunities within Sphere 3D's existing business. About Sphere 3D Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY) has a portfolio of brands, including HVE ConneXions, Unified ConneXions and SnapServer®, dedicated to helping customers achieve their IT goals. For more information on Sphere 3D, please visit www.sphere3d.com . No Offer or Solicitation This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell, the solicitation of an offer to sell or an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Forward-Looking Statements Any statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the proposed merger and other contemplated transactions (including statements relating to satisfaction of the conditions to and consummation of the proposed merger, the expected ownership of the combined company and the ability of the combined company to raise additional capital to complete its purchase of the Hertford assigned equipment contracts and the Gryphon business and opportunities relating to or resulting from the merger), and statements regarding the nature, potential approval and commercial success of Gryphon and its product line and the miners provided by Hertford, risks related to Gryphon's ability to correctly estimate and manage its operating expenses and its expenses associated with the proposed merger pending closing; the ability of Gryphon to report accurate audited financials, the ability to install and integrate the miners provided by Hertford, the effects of having shares of capital stock traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market, Gryphon's management team's ability to execute the post-merger operations, Gryphon's and the post-merger combined company's financial resources and cash expenditures. Forward-looking statements are usually identified by the use of words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "ideal," "may," "potential," "will," "could" and similar expressions. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors and risks. These factors, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks relating to the completion of the purchase of the miners from Hertford, including to raise additional capital to finance the ongoing operations of the business and the need for stockholder approval in connection with the issuance of Common Shares; risks relating to the completion of the Gryphon merger, including the need for stockholder approval and the satisfaction of closing conditions; risks related to Sphere 3D' ability to correctly estimate and manage its operating expenses and its expenses associated with the proposed merger pending closing; the cash balances of the combined company following the closing of the merger; the ability of Sphere 3D to remain listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market; the risk that as a result of adjustments to the exchange ratio, Sphere 3D shareholders, Gryphon stockholders or Hertford stockholder could own more or less of the combined company than is currently anticipated. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Sphere 3D, Gryphon's and Hertford's views as of the date hereof. Sphere 3D, Gryphon and Hertford anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause their respective views to change. However, while Sphere 3D, Gryphon and Hertford may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Sphere 3D, Gryphon and Hertford specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Sphere 3D's, Gryphon's or Hertford's views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof. Investor Contact Kurt Kalbfleisch +1-858-495-4211 [email protected] To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/92236 || Sphere 3D Announces Agreement to Acquire Exclusive Rights for Assignment of Cryptocurrency Mining Assets: Agreement includes the rights to secure up to 220,000 miners on pre-negotiated terms and a lease for a 200,000 square foot carbon neutral facility for Bitcoin Mining
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2021) - Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY) ("Sphere 3D" or the "Company"), a company delivering containerization, virtualization, and data management solutions, announces it has entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") with Hertford Advisors Ltd. ("Hertford"), a privately-held company that provides turnkey mining solutions, to provide a six month exclusive right to assume all of Hertford's rights to a number of bitcoin mining agreements (the "Bitcoin Agreements").
The Company has successfully assumed and executed the first Bitcoin Agreement directly with the manufacturer, for the purchase of up to 60,000 new bitcoin mining machines ("miners"), with deliveries to commence in November 2021 and continue over the course of the next ten months. Upon completion of delivery, this will give Sphere 3D 5.7 Exahash of computing power.
"This is a significant milestone for Sphere 3D as we look to the future," says Peter Tassiopoulos, Sphere 3D's CEO. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to place Sphere 3D as a leader in the space with state of the art miners, in a very competitive market where time to delivery is paramount. We continue to look for ways to increase shareholder value while remaining true to our commitment to ESG principles. We believe that this series of transactions could have significant revenue and cost synergies across our value chain."
Details of the Transactions
In exchange for the assignment of the contracts from Hertford, for which Sphere 3D has the right, but not the obligation, to complete, and subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and execution of definitive agreements, Sphere 3D will issue to Hertford Common Shares, as well as shares of a new series of preferred stock in the Company, based upon the achievement of certain milestones. Those milestones include the assumption of two additional contracts, outside of the 60,000 miner agreement previously mentioned in this release, for the purchase of up to an additional 160,000 miners (for a total of 220,000), and the right to complete negotiations to secure a long-term contract for a 200,000 square foot crypto mining facility to be supplied with up to 1GW of carbon-neutral power and 1GW of power from the grid as backup, for which the lessor will contractually agree to offset all carbon emissions when grid power is utilized. If all contracts are executed, Sphere 3D will have 21.5 Exahash computing power. Upon assignment of the contracts, the Company will issue an aggregate of 4,500,000 Common Shares to Hertford Advisors, Ltd. Additional consideration will be granted as other key milestones are achieved. The shares issued by the Company shall be subject to lock up and leak out agreements, with the initial release starting six months after issuance of the securities, and continuing until two years following the issuance of the securities.
As previously disclosed, the Company entered into a definitive merger agreement with Gryphon on June 3, 2021, which is expected to close in the 4th Quarter 2021. Gryphon is committed to 100% renewable Bitcoin mining and currently holds 720 PH/s computing power. This agreement secures access to additional mining capacity and creates new revenue opportunities within Sphere 3D's existing business.
About Sphere 3D
Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY) has a portfolio of brands, including HVE ConneXions, Unified ConneXions and SnapServer®, dedicated to helping customers achieve their IT goals. For more information on Sphere 3D, please visitwww.sphere3d.com.
No Offer or Solicitation
This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell, the solicitation of an offer to sell or an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the proposed merger and other contemplated transactions (including statements relating to satisfaction of the conditions to and consummation of the proposed merger, the expected ownership of the combined company and the ability of the combined company to raise additional capital to complete its purchase of the Hertford assigned equipment contracts and the Gryphon business and opportunities relating to or resulting from the merger), and statements regarding the nature, potential approval and commercial success of Gryphon and its product line and the miners provided by Hertford, risks related to Gryphon's ability to correctly estimate and manage its operating expenses and its expenses associated with the proposed merger pending closing; the ability of Gryphon to report accurate audited financials, the ability to install and integrate the miners provided by Hertford, the effects of having shares of capital stock traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market, Gryphon's management team's ability to execute the post-merger operations, Gryphon's and the post-merger combined company's financial resources and cash expenditures. Forward-looking statements are usually identified by the use of words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "ideal," "may," "potential," "will," "could" and similar expressions. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors and risks. These factors, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks relating to the completion of the purchase of the miners from Hertford, including to raise additional capital to finance the ongoing operations of the business and the need for stockholder approval in connection with the issuance of Common Shares; risks relating to the completion of the Gryphon merger, including the need for stockholder approval and the satisfaction of closing conditions; risks related to Sphere 3D' ability to correctly estimate and manage its operating expenses and its expenses associated with the proposed merger pending closing; the cash balances of the combined company following the closing of the merger; the ability of Sphere 3D to remain listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market; the risk that as a result of adjustments to the exchange ratio, Sphere 3D shareholders, Gryphon stockholders or Hertford stockholder could own more or less of the combined company than is currently anticipated. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Sphere 3D, Gryphon's and Hertford's views as of the date hereof. Sphere 3D, Gryphon and Hertford anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause their respective views to change. However, while Sphere 3D, Gryphon and Hertford may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Sphere 3D, Gryphon and Hertford specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Sphere 3D's, Gryphon's or Hertford's views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof.
Investor Contact
Kurt [email protected]
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/92236 || Gensler’s Preference for Bitcoin Futures Products Is Likely Bad News for a Spot BTC ETF: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s comments this week have some digital asset managers realizing that the excitement in the first half of the year for a truebitcoinexchange-traded fund (ETF) may have been premature.
Inremarksat the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday, Gensler noted that he would be partial to ETFs based on bitcoin futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
“I think his comments are pretty clear that a pure spot bitcoin ETF isn’t coming soon and that futures products would potentially be considered,” Steven McClurg, chief investment officer for Valkyrie, which hasfiled an applicationwith the SEC for a bitcoin ETF. “I think it’s certainly going to direct our conversations and our product road map.”
Related:SEC Charges So-Called DeFi Company for Allegedly Fraudulent $30M Offering
While many in the crypto world suspected that Gensler would favor investment vehicles that include bitcoin futures,this is the first time that Gensler has confirmed his preference explicitly, said James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Some industry participants have said that this could lead to a spate of applications that include bitcoin futures. On Thursday, Atlanta-based asset manager Invescoappliedfor an ETF that would include exposure to futures, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Canadian bitcoin ETFs. (Grayscale is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company.)
The benefit of prioritizing bitcoin futures over bitcoin spot ETFs is unclear, McClurg said.
“It’s a really bizarre world where you can launch a bitcoin ETF in Canada, U.S. people can buy it through their brokerages, and you can create a U.S. ETF that includes Canadian ETFs, but a bitcoin ETF isn’t available in the U.S.,” McClurg said.
Related:CFTC Commissioner Says SEC Lacks Authority Over Commodities, Including ‘Crypto Assets’
Gensler may believe that an investment vehicle based on federally regulated bitcoin futures may offer more regulatory cushion than one based on bitcoin from spot exchanges that are regulated on a state-by-state basis, Seyffart noted.
“I don’t really buy that, because … there’s a definitive relationship between spot bitcoin and the futures market, so no matter what you do here, there’s going to be some overlap [in] related markets,” Seyffart said. “I think the biggest thing here is that it’s basically a delay.”
Bitcoin futures products would not only be more complex and costly to manage, but the market may not want them, Seyffart said.
Historically, institutions have flocked to closed-end funds such as GBTC over trading bitcoin futures on the CME, Seyffart said.
“Bitcoin futures are growing and they’re growing at a healthy clip, but they still don’t see anywhere near GBTC trading,” Seyffart said. “We’re talking about $25 billion in GBTC after a drawdown and trading at a discount.”
Aside fromsurveysshowing that investors want a bitcoin ETF, MicroStrategy’s stockacting as a proxyfor a bitcoin ETF is also evidence that the market wants an investment vehicle based on bitcoin’s spot price, Seyffart added. MicroStrategy is a software company that holds a large amount of bitcoin in its treasury.
Commodity futures also have the potential to trade with a negative premium, Valkyrie’s McClurg said.
“I would argue that [a futures ETF is] not as safe for retail investors given that futures don’t always accurately track what’s happening in the spot market,” McClurg said.
After Gensler’s comments this week, it’s likely that the SEC will continue to approve bitcoin futures mutual fund applications and then approve ETFs based on bitcoin futures, Seyffart said.
“The benefit of the mutual fund is that if they get out of control or the size gets too big or whatever happens, you can close a mutual fund, but you can’t close an ETF,” Seyffart said.
ETF providerTeucriumis the only issuer to have filed an application for an exchange-traded product (ETP) based solely on bitcoin futures, Seyffart added. But Teucrium has only filed its S-1 and has yet to kick off a review period at the SEC by filing a Form 19b-4.
The SEC has 240 days after an issuer files its 19b-4 to make a decision on an application. The first expiration of one of those regulatory windows is coming in November withVanEck’s 19b-4, and Seyffart said he expects the SEC to reject VanEck’s application and possibly other applications throughout the rest of the year and early 2022.
VanEck was one of the first issuers to file for a bitcoin futures ETP before bitcoin futures existed, and hasfiledfor a bitcoin futures mutual fund, according to Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital-asset strategy at VanEck.
“Managing futures is expensive and the margin requirements are extremely high at an exchange level like the CME,” Gurbacs said. “You also have to roll the futures contracts every month which incurs costs and adds volatility.”
Gurbacs would not comment on VanEck’s future strategy, but said he expects to see more bitcoin futures-based ETF applications in the future despite the costs and complexity associated with futures.
• Invesco Files With SEC for Bitcoin Strategy ETF
• What’s Really Behind SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s Crypto Speech || Gensler’s Preference for Bitcoin Futures Products Is Likely Bad News for a Spot BTC ETF: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s comments this week have some digital asset managers realizing that the excitement in the first half of the year for a truebitcoinexchange-traded fund (ETF) may have been premature.
Inremarksat the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday, Gensler noted that he would be partial to ETFs based on bitcoin futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
“I think his comments are pretty clear that a pure spot bitcoin ETF isn’t coming soon and that futures products would potentially be considered,” Steven McClurg, chief investment officer for Valkyrie, which hasfiled an applicationwith the SEC for a bitcoin ETF. “I think it’s certainly going to direct our conversations and our product road map.”
Related:SEC Charges So-Called DeFi Company for Allegedly Fraudulent $30M Offering
While many in the crypto world suspected that Gensler would favor investment vehicles that include bitcoin futures,this is the first time that Gensler has confirmed his preference explicitly, said James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Some industry participants have said that this could lead to a spate of applications that include bitcoin futures. On Thursday, Atlanta-based asset manager Invescoappliedfor an ETF that would include exposure to futures, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Canadian bitcoin ETFs. (Grayscale is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company.)
The benefit of prioritizing bitcoin futures over bitcoin spot ETFs is unclear, McClurg said.
“It’s a really bizarre world where you can launch a bitcoin ETF in Canada, U.S. people can buy it through their brokerages, and you can create a U.S. ETF that includes Canadian ETFs, but a bitcoin ETF isn’t available in the U.S.,” McClurg said.
Related:CFTC Commissioner Says SEC Lacks Authority Over Commodities, Including ‘Crypto Assets’
Gensler may believe that an investment vehicle based on federally regulated bitcoin futures may offer more regulatory cushion than one based on bitcoin from spot exchanges that are regulated on a state-by-state basis, Seyffart noted.
“I don’t really buy that, because … there’s a definitive relationship between spot bitcoin and the futures market, so no matter what you do here, there’s going to be some overlap [in] related markets,” Seyffart said. “I think the biggest thing here is that it’s basically a delay.”
Bitcoin futures products would not only be more complex and costly to manage, but the market may not want them, Seyffart said.
Historically, institutions have flocked to closed-end funds such as GBTC over trading bitcoin futures on the CME, Seyffart said.
“Bitcoin futures are growing and they’re growing at a healthy clip, but they still don’t see anywhere near GBTC trading,” Seyffart said. “We’re talking about $25 billion in GBTC after a drawdown and trading at a discount.”
Aside fromsurveysshowing that investors want a bitcoin ETF, MicroStrategy’s stockacting as a proxyfor a bitcoin ETF is also evidence that the market wants an investment vehicle based on bitcoin’s spot price, Seyffart added. MicroStrategy is a software company that holds a large amount of bitcoin in its treasury.
Commodity futures also have the potential to trade with a negative premium, Valkyrie’s McClurg said.
“I would argue that [a futures ETF is] not as safe for retail investors given that futures don’t always accurately track what’s happening in the spot market,” McClurg said.
After Gensler’s comments this week, it’s likely that the SEC will continue to approve bitcoin futures mutual fund applications and then approve ETFs based on bitcoin futures, Seyffart said.
“The benefit of the mutual fund is that if they get out of control or the size gets too big or whatever happens, you can close a mutual fund, but you can’t close an ETF,” Seyffart said.
ETF providerTeucriumis the only issuer to have filed an application for an exchange-traded product (ETP) based solely on bitcoin futures, Seyffart added. But Teucrium has only filed its S-1 and has yet to kick off a review period at the SEC by filing a Form 19b-4.
The SEC has 240 days after an issuer files its 19b-4 to make a decision on an application. The first expiration of one of those regulatory windows is coming in November withVanEck’s 19b-4, and Seyffart said he expects the SEC to reject VanEck’s application and possibly other applications throughout the rest of the year and early 2022.
VanEck was one of the first issuers to file for a bitcoin futures ETP before bitcoin futures existed, and hasfiledfor a bitcoin futures mutual fund, according to Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital-asset strategy at VanEck.
“Managing futures is expensive and the margin requirements are extremely high at an exchange level like the CME,” Gurbacs said. “You also have to roll the futures contracts every month which incurs costs and adds volatility.”
Gurbacs would not comment on VanEck’s future strategy, but said he expects to see more bitcoin futures-based ETF applications in the future despite the costs and complexity associated with futures.
• Invesco Files With SEC for Bitcoin Strategy ETF
• What’s Really Behind SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s Crypto Speech || Gensler’s Preference for Bitcoin Futures Products Is Likely Bad News for a Spot BTC ETF: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s comments this week have some digital asset managers realizing that the excitement in the first half of the year for a true bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) may have been premature. In remarks at the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday, Gensler noted that he would be partial to ETFs based on bitcoin futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). “I think his comments are pretty clear that a pure spot bitcoin ETF isn’t coming soon and that futures products would potentially be considered,” Steven McClurg, chief investment officer for Valkyrie, which has filed an application with the SEC for a bitcoin ETF. “I think it’s certainly going to direct our conversations and our product road map.” Related: SEC Charges So-Called DeFi Company for Allegedly Fraudulent $30M Offering While many in the crypto world suspected that Gensler would favor investment vehicles that include bitcoin futures , this is the first time that Gensler has confirmed his preference explicitly, said James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Some industry participants have said that this could lead to a spate of applications that include bitcoin futures. On Thursday, Atlanta-based asset manager Invesco applied for an ETF that would include exposure to futures, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Canadian bitcoin ETFs. (Grayscale is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company.) The benefit of prioritizing bitcoin futures over bitcoin spot ETFs is unclear, McClurg said. “It’s a really bizarre world where you can launch a bitcoin ETF in Canada, U.S. people can buy it through their brokerages, and you can create a U.S. ETF that includes Canadian ETFs, but a bitcoin ETF isn’t available in the U.S.,” McClurg said. Related: CFTC Commissioner Says SEC Lacks Authority Over Commodities, Including ‘Crypto Assets’ Story continues Gensler may believe that an investment vehicle based on federally regulated bitcoin futures may offer more regulatory cushion than one based on bitcoin from spot exchanges that are regulated on a state-by-state basis, Seyffart noted. “I don’t really buy that, because … there’s a definitive relationship between spot bitcoin and the futures market, so no matter what you do here, there’s going to be some overlap [in] related markets,” Seyffart said. “I think the biggest thing here is that it’s basically a delay.” Bitcoin futures products would not only be more complex and costly to manage, but the market may not want them, Seyffart said. Historically, institutions have flocked to closed-end funds such as GBTC over trading bitcoin futures on the CME, Seyffart said. “Bitcoin futures are growing and they’re growing at a healthy clip, but they still don’t see anywhere near GBTC trading,” Seyffart said. “We’re talking about $25 billion in GBTC after a drawdown and trading at a discount.” Aside from surveys showing that investors want a bitcoin ETF, MicroStrategy’s stock acting as a proxy for a bitcoin ETF is also evidence that the market wants an investment vehicle based on bitcoin’s spot price, Seyffart added. MicroStrategy is a software company that holds a large amount of bitcoin in its treasury. Commodity futures also have the potential to trade with a negative premium, Valkyrie’s McClurg said. “I would argue that [a futures ETF is] not as safe for retail investors given that futures don’t always accurately track what’s happening in the spot market,” McClurg said. After Gensler’s comments this week, it’s likely that the SEC will continue to approve bitcoin futures mutual fund applications and then approve ETFs based on bitcoin futures, Seyffart said. “The benefit of the mutual fund is that if they get out of control or the size gets too big or whatever happens, you can close a mutual fund, but you can’t close an ETF,” Seyffart said. ETF provider Teucrium is the only issuer to have filed an application for an exchange-traded product (ETP) based solely on bitcoin futures, Seyffart added. But Teucrium has only filed its S-1 and has yet to kick off a review period at the SEC by filing a Form 19b-4. The SEC has 240 days after an issuer files its 19b-4 to make a decision on an application. The first expiration of one of those regulatory windows is coming in November with VanEck’s 19b-4 , and Seyffart said he expects the SEC to reject VanEck’s application and possibly other applications throughout the rest of the year and early 2022. VanEck was one of the first issuers to file for a bitcoin futures ETP before bitcoin futures existed, and has filed for a bitcoin futures mutual fund, according to Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital-asset strategy at VanEck. “Managing futures is expensive and the margin requirements are extremely high at an exchange level like the CME,” Gurbacs said. “You also have to roll the futures contracts every month which incurs costs and adds volatility.” Gurbacs would not comment on VanEck’s future strategy, but said he expects to see more bitcoin futures-based ETF applications in the future despite the costs and complexity associated with futures. Related Stories Invesco Files With SEC for Bitcoin Strategy ETF What’s Really Behind SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s Crypto Speech || One cryptocurrency to rule them all! They launch the JRR Token inspired by 'The Lord of the Rings': It is not news that digital currencies are in full swing and it is not surprising that many want to join the trend by creating their own 'crypto'. This time, the novelty is the launch of a cryptocurrency inspired by the 'Lord of the Rings' saga and its author, JRR Tolkien , which they have christened with the word game JRR Token . Under the slogan "The only token that governs them all" , the new digital currency is based on Binance Smartchain . On their website , the creators of JRR Token claim that the cryptocurrency is "accessible and fully transparent" with its community, with "generous" benefits for those who invest and for charitable donations. The starting price is quite attractive: 1,070 per unit, of which they promise a supply of 19 trillion tokens. In addition, their launch offer is very tempting, as they will give away 300 million JRR to the first users who sign up for their application. It may interest you: Get to know Xoycoin, the Mexican cryptocurrency linked to Ethereum in which you can invest from 20 pesos The JRR Token already has the support of actor Billy Boyd , who played the hobbit Peregrin 'Pippin' Took in the 'Lord of the Rings' movies. Frodo's ex-adventure partner Sam and Merry posted a video on Twitter in which, while not expressly inviting to buy the cryptocurrency, he did predict that its value will skyrocket "all the way to the moon and back ." "JRR Token has been created with the aim of having a stable and sustainable cryptocurrency that can be embraced by all the adventurous spirits of the world," said 'Pippin'. JRR Token was created with a mind to have a stable and sustainable cryptocurrency that could be embraced by adventurous spirits around the World. Don't believe us? Well here is what Peregrin "Pippin" Took thinks. #crypto #JrrToken #tothemoon #cryptocurrency #BSCGems #Binance #bnb pic.twitter.com/kyotWgfjpJ - JRR Token (@TheTokenOfPower) August 2, 2021 The occurrence has not gone unnoticed by fans of 'The Lord of the Rings' , who immediately started a heated debate on social networks. Story continues “This is absolutely embarrassing. It is the opposite of all the themes in his [Tolkien's] work. Cryptocurrencies is Fëanorian arrogance in a big way. It's what Saruman would do , "said an outraged tweeter. Also read: The arrival of shitcoins? A toilet pays you for your waste To which the @TheTokenOfPower account replied: “Saruman was trying to unify Middle-earth under a centralized government where the fellowship wanted decentralization. The cryptocurrency is literally a decentralized network ” . Saruman was trying to unify Middle Earth under centralized rule where as the fellowship wanted decentralization. Cryptocurrency is literally a decentralized network…. - JRR Token (@TheTokenOfPower) August 4, 2021 “Tolkien's anti-materialist vision, by which he glorified the wonders of living things and the ordinary — 'stone, wood, and iron; trees and grass; homes and fire; bread and wine ', as he would write in' On Fairy Tales', his 1947 essay - they fit in with the values of the counterculture, ” wrote another user. We recommend: It was not Bitcoin mining! All 3,800 PlayStation played FIFA to get prizes and resell them The creators responded to the above tweet arguing that "[Tolkien] also believed in decentralization and abhorred centralized power. Cryptocurrencies are a decentralized platform that hands over power to the people ." He also believed in decentralization and appalled centralized rule. Cryptocurrency is a decentralized platform which gives the people the power. - JRR Token (@TheTokenOfPower) August 4, 2021 The new cryptocurrency JRR Token may be a highly debatable idea for devotees of the 'Lord of the Rings' saga and JRR Tolkien , but there is no doubt that in marketing terms it served its goal: to go viral and generate conversation. As for investing in this digital currency , it can be as good or bad idea as it was to buy Dogecoin in its early days, when it seemed just a joke inspired by the Doge puppy meme and no one suspected that it would become Elon Musk's favorite, who would make it rise like foam. See also: Cryptocurrencies rebound, should you invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin right now? || One cryptocurrency to rule them all! They launch the JRR Token inspired by 'The Lord of the Rings': It is not news that digital currencies are in full swing and it is not surprising that many want to join the trend by creating their own 'crypto'. This time, the novelty is the launch of a cryptocurrency inspired by the 'Lord of the Rings' saga and its author, JRR Tolkien , which they have christened with the word game JRR Token . Under the slogan "The only token that governs them all" , the new digital currency is based on Binance Smartchain . On their website , the creators of JRR Token claim that the cryptocurrency is "accessible and fully transparent" with its community, with "generous" benefits for those who invest and for charitable donations. The starting price is quite attractive: 1,070 per unit, of which they promise a supply of 19 trillion tokens. In addition, their launch offer is very tempting, as they will give away 300 million JRR to the first users who sign up for their application. It may interest you: Get to know Xoycoin, the Mexican cryptocurrency linked to Ethereum in which you can invest from 20 pesos The JRR Token already has the support of actor Billy Boyd , who played the hobbit Peregrin 'Pippin' Took in the 'Lord of the Rings' movies. Frodo's ex-adventure partner Sam and Merry posted a video on Twitter in which, while not expressly inviting to buy the cryptocurrency, he did predict that its value will skyrocket "all the way to the moon and back ." "JRR Token has been created with the aim of having a stable and sustainable cryptocurrency that can be embraced by all the adventurous spirits of the world," said 'Pippin'. JRR Token was created with a mind to have a stable and sustainable cryptocurrency that could be embraced by adventurous spirits around the World. Don't believe us? Well here is what Peregrin "Pippin" Took thinks. #crypto #JrrToken #tothemoon #cryptocurrency #BSCGems #Binance #bnb pic.twitter.com/kyotWgfjpJ - JRR Token (@TheTokenOfPower) August 2, 2021 The occurrence has not gone unnoticed by fans of 'The Lord of the Rings' , who immediately started a heated debate on social networks. Story continues “This is absolutely embarrassing. It is the opposite of all the themes in his [Tolkien's] work. Cryptocurrencies is Fëanorian arrogance in a big way. It's what Saruman would do , "said an outraged tweeter. Also read: The arrival of shitcoins? A toilet pays you for your waste To which the @TheTokenOfPower account replied: “Saruman was trying to unify Middle-earth under a centralized government where the fellowship wanted decentralization. The cryptocurrency is literally a decentralized network ” . Saruman was trying to unify Middle Earth under centralized rule where as the fellowship wanted decentralization. Cryptocurrency is literally a decentralized network…. - JRR Token (@TheTokenOfPower) August 4, 2021 “Tolkien's anti-materialist vision, by which he glorified the wonders of living things and the ordinary — 'stone, wood, and iron; trees and grass; homes and fire; bread and wine ', as he would write in' On Fairy Tales', his 1947 essay - they fit in with the values of the counterculture, ” wrote another user. We recommend: It was not Bitcoin mining! All 3,800 PlayStation played FIFA to get prizes and resell them The creators responded to the above tweet arguing that "[Tolkien] also believed in decentralization and abhorred centralized power. Cryptocurrencies are a decentralized platform that hands over power to the people ." He also believed in decentralization and appalled centralized rule. Cryptocurrency is a decentralized platform which gives the people the power. - JRR Token (@TheTokenOfPower) August 4, 2021 The new cryptocurrency JRR Token may be a highly debatable idea for devotees of the 'Lord of the Rings' saga and JRR Tolkien , but there is no doubt that in marketing terms it served its goal: to go viral and generate conversation. As for investing in this digital currency , it can be as good or bad idea as it was to buy Dogecoin in its early days, when it seemed just a joke inspired by the Doge puppy meme and no one suspected that it would become Elon Musk's favorite, who would make it rise like foam. See also: Cryptocurrencies rebound, should you invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin right now?
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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44555.80, 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9269.99, 9733.72, 9328.20, 9377.01, 9670.74, 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02, 9525.75, 9439.12, 9700.41, 9461.06, 10167.27, 9529.80, 9656.72, 9800.64, 9665.53, 9653.68, 9758.85, 9771.49, 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58, 9190.85, 9137.99, 9228.33, 9123.41, 9087.30, 9132.49, 9073.94, 9375.47, 9252.28, 9428.33, 9277.97, 9278.81, 9240.35, 9276.50, 9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84, 9132.23, 9151.39, 9159.04, 9185.82, 9164.23, 9374.89, 9525.36, 9581.07, 9536.89, 9677.11, 9905.17, 10990.87, 10912.82, 11100.47, 11111.21, 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05, 11675.74, 11878.11.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-08-10]
Volume: 26114112569, RSI (14-day): 71.25, 50-day EMA: 10270.64, 200-day EMA: 9121.40
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 2024.40, Gold RSI: 75.03
Oil Price: 41.94, Oil RSI: 58.10
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Crypto Long & Short: 51% Attacks and Open-Source Value: Human ingenuity finds a way around limitations. Sometimes these limitations are obstacles in the way of progress and creative thinking comes up with new paths. Sometimes these limitations are a lack of knowledge, and experimentation pushes the boundaries of the possible. And sometimes the limitations are rules, which a few believe don’t apply to them and which some take as a motivating challenge.
We see examples of the above every minute of our daily lives. It’s in the race to find a vaccine, the diplomaticposturing over privacy,the anguish of finding a way around unemployment, even your toddler’s determination to not eat the spinach. We also see it every day in crypto – it’s in theTwitter hack,therush to developbetter payments systems, thescramble to raisefunds. The list goes on.
You’re readingCrypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head of research, Noelle Acheson, it goes out every Sunday and offers a recap of the week – with insights and analysis – from a professional investor’s point of view.You can subscribe here.
Related:Ethereum Classic's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
Last week threw up a couple of examples that not only exhibit increasingly frequent manipulations of protocol rules, they also highlight one of crypto’s core value propositions.
Ethereum Classicis the original Ethereum blockchain maintained by stakeholders that refused to jump over to the fork that corrected for The DAO hack in 2016. Over the past few days it has sufferednot one,buttwo51% attacks.
A 51% attack happens when enough mining computing power (also known as hashpower) colludes to alter previously processed blocks and determine new ones, allowing attackers to block some transactions and reverse others. Ina 51% attack,malicious miners could create a competing blockchain that allows the same coins to be spent twice.
This maneuver is relatively frequent in smaller blockchains such as Ethereum Classic (ETC), which has a market cap ofapproximately $830 millionat time of writing. Ethereum’s (ETH) market cap, for comparison, is currentlyaround $44 billion.The attacks are usually brief, and then business carries on as usual. But two in the space of one week has prompted some commentatorsto questionthe blockchain’s survival.The amounts lost are not inconsiderable. In the first attack, the malicious miner(s) managed to double-spend a little over 800,000 ETC (about $5.6 million) after paying about $204,000 to acquire the necessary hash power. In the second attack, the double-spendwas at least$1.6 million.This is more than a lesson for investors to be wary of smallerproof-of-work blockchains.It also puts to rest the notion that open-source software, such as the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain, is vulnerable to copies. And it is a clear example of why network security is a fundamental part of an asset’s value.
Related:Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges
Ina recent essay,Lex Sokolin hinted at the potential power of large open-source networks, and the capacity for innovative economies to build competitive moats. This can apply tomultinational platforms,as well as to individual blockchains. “Finally,” he wrote, “we can see where copying a product without having an existing commercial community doesn’t have any positive effect. Take, for example, the forking of Bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash (BCH), or any other 50 or so clones of the coin. Or alternately, even the more contested forks like Ethereum Classic do not really compete for the dominant spot given the much smaller market presence.”
In other words, copies can be made, and Bitcoin/Ethereum forks can be spun up relatively easily. Somehave even suggestedthat this could weaken Bitcoin’s hard cap value proposition – the limit isn’t really 21 million, the reasoning goes, if other networks based on the same blockchain can choose the limit they want. But this unfounded concern overlooks the value of the community behind a network. However convinced you may be that bitcoin cash (for example) has superior characteristics, people prefer to trade and transact with bitcoin because that is where the volume is.
You can copy an open-source technology. But what gives a technology value is the community and network support from users.
In the case of crypto assets, the community and network support are more than just transaction volume generators. They have a material influence on the network’s development and security, which further enhances the asset’s value.
The greater the transaction volume of a blockchain, the more interesting it is for miners, who earn a fee on transactions. And the greater the potential demand for an asset, the greater the value of the rewards miners earn from processing blocks. So, a network with strong prospects for growth in volume and value will attract a wider pool of miners.
A wider pool of miners makes it much harder for any one bad actor to engineer a 51% attack. In the case of Bitcoin, the computing power needed to successfully manipulate a meaningful number of blocks would beprohibitively expensive.For smaller blockchains, it’srelatively cheap.This is why it is important to keep an eye on the health of the Bitcoin mining industry. It is currently struggling, and not just because therecent halvingreduced miners’ income in BTC terms by almost 50%. The activity is stillconcentrated in China,where miners aregrappling with overcapacityand a much longer wait to recoup initial investment.Internal troublesat one of the industry’s largest hardware suppliers are not helping.Miners dropping out would weaken Bitcoin’s security, which could negatively affect its value, which could cause more miners to drop out, and so on in an unfortunate spiral. But more miners joining the network could increase security and value, and encourage more participation, further boosting the value.
A glitch in this pattern is the regularly scheduled halving event, which reduces the block subsidy by 50%. Unless the value of BTC and/or transaction fees rise to offset the difference, mining will be less profitable for some and unprofitable for many, which could negatively impact security. Some have argued that as miners’ rewards become more dependent on fees, the networkwill be more vulnerableto 51% attacks.
So far, Bitcoin’s hashrate – a good proxy for the health of the mining industry – is stronger than ever, in spite of the reduced income, which should reassure investors that a 51% attack is not a significant risk for market’s largest network.
Ethereum’s current hashrate is also robust, unlike that of Ethereum Classic.
One mystery is why ETC’s price has not plunged as a result of the hacks. Over the week, it has fallen 10%, a paltry amount given the attention these hacks are getting, not to mention the blow to investor confidence. A possible explanation could be that the likelihood of 51% attacks is already priced in. In other words, ETC already carries a significant discount for its lack of security. Its performance since the beginning of 2019 is less than one fifth that of its much larger sibling. And a decline of 10% in a week when the ETH price rose by almost 15% is telling.
Ethereum’splanned move awayfrom a proof-of-work blockchain will change its security equation, removing the threat to mining but no doubt introducing other possible attack vectors. However, attacks can make a network stronger, if and only if there is a large and active community of stakeholders willing to invest resources into development, growth and preventing future attacks.
An active community creates value, which grows the active community, in a virtuous cycle. In anessay for CoinDesk this week,Nic Carter points out that Bitcoin’s patronage system signals one of the network’s strongest advantages: investment in and by its stakeholders. Also this week, OKCoin awarded itslargest individual grantso far to Bitcoin’s second-most prolific contributor to the core code.
These “patronages” have at their root the recognition that a strong network benefitsallparticipants. This is difficult to replicate in smaller networks, where issued coins tend to be held in concentrated pockets and the businesses that could profit are few. It is even more difficult to replicate in traditional open-source technologies, where network effects are harvested by private businesses and profits flow towards size.
In crypto, the network effects are enjoyed by the whole community, not just for-profit businesses.
The difference between crypto and other technologies is that Bitcoin, Ethereum and others are more than technology networks, they are alsovaluenetworks. And what gives these networks their value?
That’s what 51% attacks on smaller networks teaches us. That it’s not the technology, and it’s not even the alleged revolutionary potential of some of the functionalities. It’s the community that gives value. That comprises the body of work so far, the energy and time invested every day, the creativity and the intellect, the conviction and the sense that what everyone is working on is bigger than any one business or individual.
Attacks will happen, and networks and people will come and go. But an immense body of people working together to build networks that are not controlled by anyone and that distribute value in unusual and sometimes intangible ways – that is here to stay. Because people have throughout history shown that resilience comes from collective effort supporting powerful ideas.
As explosions wreakheartbreaking damageto an area that can ill afford it, as geopolitical tensionsmuscle their way intothe use of social media and communication platforms, and withno agreement in sighton a fifth coronavirus U.S. relief bill, markets seem to be getting increasingly nervous about the international balance of capital flows.
Gold breezing past $2,000 for the first time ever is itself news, as well as a symptom of growing market unease. Tentatively encouragingemployment figuresare welcome, but have not soothed the nervous vibe, asconcerns about inflationandthe dollar’s roleas a global reserve currency seem to be gathering steam.
In bitcoin, could it be that volatility is back? After weeks of trading within a relatively narrow band, bitcoin broke out last weekend, climbing 5% to almost $12,000, only to sharply drop 8% in a matter of minutes. Sigh, it’s starting to feel almost normal again.
Bitcoin’s recent rally has given it a strong lead over other asset groups in terms of year-to-date performance, with even gold left far behind. And even reasonable commentators are starting totalk about a “bull market.”
Goldman Sachshas appointed a new headof digital assets, and is boosting the team.TAKEAWAY:Matthew McDermott has taken over from Justin Schmidt, and has brought on board Oli Harris, former head of digital assets for JPMorgan. That does not mean that we’ll see a Goldman Sachs crypto trading desk in the near future (although it isn’t ruled out) – the short-term focus seems to be on the impact that blockchain technologies can have on capital markets, with a Goldman Sachs stablecoin possibly on the cards. This in itself is exciting, as few other legacy institutions have the necessary clout to give capital markets a meaningful nudge along the road to greater efficiency.
Coin Metrics points out that thenumber of addresseson the bitcoin blockchain that hold more than $10 worth of BTC isat its highest level ever,14% higher than at the peak of the 2017 bubble.TAKEAWAY:Using the dollar-based price may be intuitively easier to visualize, but it can also distort the growth. If the BTC price rises, the number of addresses with a certain dollar balance will also rise, even if holders do not buy more bitcoin. The number is considerably higher than at the end of 2017, however, which is notable, since the BTC price was much higher then. In other words, therehasbeen strong growth in the number of holders of small amounts of bitcoin over the past two-and-a-half years.
This chart using data fromGlassnodeshows that the number of unique addresses holding less than 1 BTC has easily outstripped larger holdings, confirming a dispersion of ownership – more small savers are accumulating positions.
The conversation is getting louder. I’m surprised by how fast bitcoin is making its way into“mainstream” financial discourse(whatever that means in these strange times, of course). First, we had Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente)start to put bitcoinin front of his 1.7 million followers. Then we had “Rich Dad” himself (@theRealKiyosaki)recommend that his1.4 million followers buy bitcoin “and get richer.” And we also saw publicly traded business intelligence company MicroStrategy casuallysay in a recent earnings callthat it was thinking of investing $250 million of its excess cash into “alternative assets” such as, you guessed it, bitcoin.
While we continue to receive news ofcrypto funds closing down,such asNeural Capital,which lost half its money since launching in 2017, there are alsosome that are doing well.TAKEAWAY: Electric Capitalclosed its second venture fund at $110 million, more than three times the raise for its first fund just two years ago. Traders and investors watching the spot and derivative markets for signs of institutional-sized volume are missing indicators that institutional capital is already here. 90% of Electric’s raise was from institutions, including university endowments.
Grayscale Investments* has publicly filed aForm 10 Registration Statementwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in order to designate Grayscale Ethereum Trust as an SEC reporting company.TAKEAWAY:This would reduce the statutory holding period from 12 months to six (starting 90 days after designation, and contingent on other Securities Act requirements being satisfied), which could enhance the appeal to a broader range of investors. Many active investors are likely to prefer the shorter lock-up, and some institutions are unable to hold assets that are not registered with the SEC. Also, greater liquidity could reduce the premium that retail investors pay – this has been falling anyway, from over 900% in early June to just (?!) 180% at time of writing. (*Grayscale Investments is owned by DCG, also parent of CoinDesk.)
Podcast episodes worth listening to:
• The History, Present and Future of Central Banks, Feat. George Selgin– Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown
• Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough on Stagflation, Bitcoin and the Devalued Dollar– Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown
• How Canaccord Genuity is approaching the cryptoasset market– Matt Walsh, Castle Island Ventures
• Why The Travel Rule Is One Of The Most Significant Regulations In Crypto– Laura Shin, Unconfirmed
• SLP198 Caitlin Long – What Are Austrian Economists Missing About Money And Banking?– Stehpan Livera Podcast
• Crypto Long & Short: 51% Attacks and Open-Source Value
• Crypto Long & Short: 51% Attacks and Open-Source Value || Crypto Long & Short: 51% Attacks and Open-Source Value: Human ingenuity finds a way around limitations. Sometimes these limitations are obstacles in the way of progress and creative thinking comes up with new paths. Sometimes these limitations are a lack of knowledge, and experimentation pushes the boundaries of the possible. And sometimes the limitations are rules, which a few believe don’t apply to them and which some take as a motivating challenge. We see examples of the above every minute of our daily lives. It’s in the race to find a vaccine, the diplomatic posturing over privacy, the anguish of finding a way around unemployment, even your toddler’s determination to not eat the spinach. We also see it every day in crypto – it’s in the Twitter hack, the rush to develop better payments systems, the scramble to raise funds. The list goes on. Y ou’re reading Crypto Long & Short , a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head of research, Noelle Acheson, it goes out every Sunday and offers a recap of the week – with insights and analysis – from a professional investor’s point of view. You can subscribe here . Related: Ethereum Classic's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week Last week threw up a couple of examples that not only exhibit increasingly frequent manipulations of protocol rules, they also highlight one of crypto’s core value propositions. Ethereum Classic is the original Ethereum blockchain maintained by stakeholders that refused to jump over to the fork that corrected for The DAO hack in 2016. Over the past few days it has suffered not one, but two 51% attacks. A 51% attack happens when enough mining computing power (also known as hashpower) colludes to alter previously processed blocks and determine new ones, allowing attackers to block some transactions and reverse others. In a 51% attack, malicious miners could create a competing blockchain that allows the same coins to be spent twice. Story continues This maneuver is relatively frequent in smaller blockchains such as Ethereum Classic ( ETC ), which has a market cap of approximately $830 million at time of writing. Ethereum’s ( ETH ) market cap, for comparison, is currently around $44 billion. The attacks are usually brief, and then business carries on as usual. But two in the space of one week has prompted some commentators to question the blockchain’s survival. The amounts lost are not inconsiderable. In the first attack, the malicious miner(s) managed to double-spend a little over 800,000 ETC (about $5.6 million) after paying about $204,000 to acquire the necessary hash power. In the second attack, the double-spend was at least $1.6 million. This is more than a lesson for investors to be wary of smaller proof-of-work blockchains. It also puts to rest the notion that open-source software, such as the Bitcoin ( BTC ) blockchain, is vulnerable to copies. And it is a clear example of why network security is a fundamental part of an asset’s value. Size matters Related: Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges In a recent essay, Lex Sokolin hinted at the potential power of large open-source networks, and the capacity for innovative economies to build competitive moats. This can apply to multinational platforms, as well as to individual blockchains. “Finally,” he wrote, “we can see where copying a product without having an existing commercial community doesn’t have any positive effect. Take, for example, the forking of Bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ), or any other 50 or so clones of the coin. Or alternately, even the more contested forks like Ethereum Classic do not really compete for the dominant spot given the much smaller market presence.” In other words, copies can be made, and Bitcoin/Ethereum forks can be spun up relatively easily. Some have even suggested that this could weaken Bitcoin’s hard cap value proposition – the limit isn’t really 21 million, the reasoning goes, if other networks based on the same blockchain can choose the limit they want. But this unfounded concern overlooks the value of the community behind a network. However convinced you may be that bitcoin cash (for example) has superior characteristics, people prefer to trade and transact with bitcoin because that is where the volume is. You can copy an open-source technology. But what gives a technology value is the community and network support from users. Security in numbers In the case of crypto assets, the community and network support are more than just transaction volume generators. They have a material influence on the network’s development and security, which further enhances the asset’s value. The greater the transaction volume of a blockchain, the more interesting it is for miners, who earn a fee on transactions. And the greater the potential demand for an asset, the greater the value of the rewards miners earn from processing blocks. So, a network with strong prospects for growth in volume and value will attract a wider pool of miners. A wider pool of miners makes it much harder for any one bad actor to engineer a 51% attack. In the case of Bitcoin, the computing power needed to successfully manipulate a meaningful number of blocks would be prohibitively expensive. For smaller blockchains, it’s relatively cheap. This is why it is important to keep an eye on the health of the Bitcoin mining industry. It is currently struggling, and not just because the recent halving reduced miners’ income in BTC terms by almost 50%. The activity is still concentrated in China, where miners are grappling with overcapacity and a much longer wait to recoup initial investment. Internal troubles at one of the industry’s largest hardware suppliers are not helping. Miners dropping out would weaken Bitcoin’s security, which could negatively affect its value, which could cause more miners to drop out, and so on in an unfortunate spiral. But more miners joining the network could increase security and value, and encourage more participation, further boosting the value. A glitch in this pattern is the regularly scheduled halving event, which reduces the block subsidy by 50%. Unless the value of BTC and/or transaction fees rise to offset the difference, mining will be less profitable for some and unprofitable for many, which could negatively impact security. Some have argued that as miners’ rewards become more dependent on fees, the network will be more vulnerable to 51% attacks. So far, Bitcoin’s hashrate – a good proxy for the health of the mining industry – is stronger than ever, in spite of the reduced income, which should reassure investors that a 51% attack is not a significant risk for market’s largest network. Ethereum’s current hashrate is also robust, unlike that of Ethereum Classic. One mystery is why ETC’s price has not plunged as a result of the hacks. Over the week, it has fallen 10%, a paltry amount given the attention these hacks are getting, not to mention the blow to investor confidence. A possible explanation could be that the likelihood of 51% attacks is already priced in. In other words, ETC already carries a significant discount for its lack of security. Its performance since the beginning of 2019 is less than one fifth that of its much larger sibling. And a decline of 10% in a week when the ETH price rose by almost 15% is telling. Ethereum’s planned move away from a proof-of-work blockchain will change its security equation, removing the threat to mining but no doubt introducing other possible attack vectors. However, attacks can make a network stronger, if and only if there is a large and active community of stakeholders willing to invest resources into development, growth and preventing future attacks. In this together An active community creates value, which grows the active community, in a virtuous cycle. In an essay for CoinDesk this week, Nic Carter points out that Bitcoin’s patronage system signals one of the network’s strongest advantages: investment in and by its stakeholders. Also this week, OKCoin awarded its largest individual grant so far to Bitcoin’s second-most prolific contributor to the core code. These “patronages” have at their root the recognition that a strong network benefits all participants. This is difficult to replicate in smaller networks, where issued coins tend to be held in concentrated pockets and the businesses that could profit are few. It is even more difficult to replicate in traditional open-source technologies, where network effects are harvested by private businesses and profits flow towards size. In crypto, the network effects are enjoyed by the whole community, not just for-profit businesses. The difference between crypto and other technologies is that Bitcoin, Ethereum and others are more than technology networks, they are also value networks. And what gives these networks their value? That’s what 51% attacks on smaller networks teaches us. That it’s not the technology, and it’s not even the alleged revolutionary potential of some of the functionalities. It’s the community that gives value. That comprises the body of work so far, the energy and time invested every day, the creativity and the intellect, the conviction and the sense that what everyone is working on is bigger than any one business or individual. Attacks will happen, and networks and people will come and go. But an immense body of people working together to build networks that are not controlled by anyone and that distribute value in unusual and sometimes intangible ways – that is here to stay. Because people have throughout history shown that resilience comes from collective effort supporting powerful ideas. Anyone know what’s going on yet? As explosions wreak heartbreaking damage to an area that can ill afford it, as geopolitical tensions muscle their way into the use of social media and communication platforms, and with no agreement in sight on a fifth coronavirus U.S. relief bill, markets seem to be getting increasingly nervous about the international balance of capital flows. Gold breezing past $2,000 for the first time ever is itself news, as well as a symptom of growing market unease. Tentatively encouraging employment figures are welcome, but have not soothed the nervous vibe, as concerns about inflation and the dollar’s role as a global reserve currency seem to be gathering steam. In bitcoin, could it be that volatility is back? After weeks of trading within a relatively narrow band, bitcoin broke out last weekend, climbing 5% to almost $12,000, only to sharply drop 8% in a matter of minutes. Sigh, it’s starting to feel almost normal again. Bitcoin’s recent rally has given it a strong lead over other asset groups in terms of year-to-date performance, with even gold left far behind. And even reasonable commentators are starting to talk about a “bull market.” CHAIN LINKS Goldman Sachs has appointed a new head of digital assets, and is boosting the team. TAKEAWAY: Matthew McDermott has taken over from Justin Schmidt, and has brought on board Oli Harris, former head of digital assets for JPMorgan. That does not mean that we’ll see a Goldman Sachs crypto trading desk in the near future (although it isn’t ruled out) – the short-term focus seems to be on the impact that blockchain technologies can have on capital markets, with a Goldman Sachs stablecoin possibly on the cards. This in itself is exciting, as few other legacy institutions have the necessary clout to give capital markets a meaningful nudge along the road to greater efficiency. Coin Metrics points out that the number of addresses on the bitcoin blockchain that hold more than $10 worth of BTC is at its highest level ever, 14% higher than at the peak of the 2017 bubble. TAKEAWAY: Using the dollar-based price may be intuitively easier to visualize, but it can also distort the growth. If the BTC price rises, the number of addresses with a certain dollar balance will also rise, even if holders do not buy more bitcoin. The number is considerably higher than at the end of 2017, however, which is notable, since the BTC price was much higher then. In other words, there has been strong growth in the number of holders of small amounts of bitcoin over the past two-and-a-half years. This chart using data from Glassnode shows that the number of unique addresses holding less than 1 BTC has easily outstripped larger holdings, confirming a dispersion of ownership – more small savers are accumulating positions. The conversation is getting louder. I’m surprised by how fast bitcoin is making its way into “mainstream” financial discourse (whatever that means in these strange times, of course). First, we had Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) start to put bitcoin in front of his 1.7 million followers. Then we had “Rich Dad” himself (@theRealKiyosaki) recommend that his 1.4 million followers buy bitcoin “and get richer.” And we also saw publicly traded business intelligence company MicroStrategy casually say in a recent earnings call that it was thinking of investing $250 million of its excess cash into “alternative assets” such as, you guessed it, bitcoin. While we continue to receive news of crypto funds closing down, such as Neural Capital, which lost half its money since launching in 2017, there are also some that are doing well. TAKEAWAY: Electric Capital closed its second venture fund at $110 million, more than three times the raise for its first fund just two years ago. Traders and investors watching the spot and derivative markets for signs of institutional-sized volume are missing indicators that institutional capital is already here. 90% of Electric’s raise was from institutions, including university endowments. Grayscale Investments * has publicly filed a Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in order to designate Grayscale Ethereum Trust as an SEC reporting company. TAKEAWAY: This would reduce the statutory holding period from 12 months to six (starting 90 days after designation, and contingent on other Securities Act requirements being satisfied), which could enhance the appeal to a broader range of investors. Many active investors are likely to prefer the shorter lock-up, and some institutions are unable to hold assets that are not registered with the SEC. Also, greater liquidity could reduce the premium that retail investors pay – this has been falling anyway, from over 900% in early June to just (?!) 180% at time of writing. (*Grayscale Investments is owned by DCG, also parent of CoinDesk.) Podcast episodes worth listening to: The History, Present and Future of Central Banks, Feat. George Selgin – Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough on Stagflation, Bitcoin and the Devalued Dollar – Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown How Canaccord Genuity is approaching the cryptoasset market – Matt Walsh, Castle Island Ventures Why The Travel Rule Is One Of The Most Significant Regulations In Crypto – Laura Shin, Unconfirmed SLP198 Caitlin Long – What Are Austrian Economists Missing About Money And Banking? – Stehpan Livera Podcast Related Stories Crypto Long & Short: 51% Attacks and Open-Source Value Crypto Long & Short: 51% Attacks and Open-Source Value || Links Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin: Chainlinks link token, driven by the increased popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi), has surged past bitcoin, becoming the most traded cryptocurrency of the past 24 hours on Coinbase Pro, the biggest crypto exchange in the U.S. Link s 24-hour trading volume on Coinbase Pro is $163 million nearly 70% higher than bitcoins trading volume of $96.48 million, according to data source Messari . However, links 24-hour aggregate global volume of $3.13 billion still amounts to just 17% of bitcoin s global overall volume of $17.53 billion. Spike in volumes lends credibility to recent price rally. Links price jumped to a lifetime of $14.38 early Sunday. The sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market value has gained 68% in the last seven days alone. The tokens staggering 700% year-to-date gain makes bitcoins 61% price gain look meager by comparison. All 184,330 link addresses are now making profit on their investment, according to data source IntoTheBlock. Links meteoric rise looks to have been fueled by increased usage of Chainlinks price oracles in the ever-expanding DeFi space. Price oracles act as a bridge between cryptocurrency smart contracts and off-chain data feeds. Related Stories Links Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin Links Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin Links Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin Links Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin || Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin: Chainlink’s link token, driven by the increased popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi), has surged past bitcoin, becoming the most traded cryptocurrency of the past 24 hours on Coinbase Pro, the biggest crypto exchange in the U.S.
• Link’s 24-hour trading volume on Coinbase Pro is $163 million – nearly 70% higher than bitcoin’s trading volume of $96.48 million, according to data sourceMessari.
• However, link’s 24-hour aggregateglobal volumeof $3.13 billion still amounts to just 17% ofbitcoin‘s global overall volume of $17.53 billion.
• Spike in volumes lends credibility to recent price rally.
• Link’s price jumped to a lifetime of $14.38 early Sunday.
• The sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market value has gained 68% in the last seven days alone.
• The token’s staggering 700% year-to-date gain makes bitcoin’s 61% price gain look meager by comparison.
• All 184,330 link addresses are now making profit on their investment,according todata source IntoTheBlock.
• Link’s meteoric rise looks to have beenfueled byincreased usage of Chainlink’s price oracles in the ever-expanding DeFi space.
• Price oracles act as a bridge between cryptocurrency smart contracts and off-chain data feeds.
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin || Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin: Chainlink’s link token, driven by the increased popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi), has surged past bitcoin, becoming the most traded cryptocurrency of the past 24 hours on Coinbase Pro, the biggest crypto exchange in the U.S.
• Link’s 24-hour trading volume on Coinbase Pro is $163 million – nearly 70% higher than bitcoin’s trading volume of $96.48 million, according to data sourceMessari.
• However, link’s 24-hour aggregateglobal volumeof $3.13 billion still amounts to just 17% ofbitcoin‘s global overall volume of $17.53 billion.
• Spike in volumes lends credibility to recent price rally.
• Link’s price jumped to a lifetime of $14.38 early Sunday.
• The sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market value has gained 68% in the last seven days alone.
• The token’s staggering 700% year-to-date gain makes bitcoin’s 61% price gain look meager by comparison.
• All 184,330 link addresses are now making profit on their investment,according todata source IntoTheBlock.
• Link’s meteoric rise looks to have beenfueled byincreased usage of Chainlink’s price oracles in the ever-expanding DeFi space.
• Price oracles act as a bridge between cryptocurrency smart contracts and off-chain data feeds.
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin
• Link’s Trading Volume on Coinbase Surpasses That of Bitcoin || Bitcoins Stolen Revolution: Evan Shapiro is CEO and co-founder of O(1) Labs , the team behind Coda Protocol , a lightweight chain that affords all participants fully P2P, permissionless access from any device. Who controls Bitcoin? A hint: Its not you. And its a far cry from the decentralized utopia many claim it to be. Systems of power are rapidly asserting control over Bitcoin. And their incentives are not your incentives. As an industry, were at a critical juncture, and we have to choose. We either demand that the properties of user ownership and censorship resistance pioneered by Bitcoin persist. Or, we accept the facade of false-decentralization that has been erected by a centralized regime. Our revolution is being stolen, but its not too late to take it back. Related: Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges First, lets take a look at who controls the Bitcoin blockchain. Sixty-five percent of its hashrate is in one country: China. Globally, about 10 different organizations control 90% of the hashpower. The big pools are all linked together with dedicated networking connections. If I described to you a council of 10 companies dictating the future of a product, and more than half are in China and beholden to a centralized government, would you call that decentralized? No, but thats the state of Bitcoin today. See also: Justin S. Wales Why Bitcoin Is Protected by the First Amendment Maybe you dont care. Maybe you say, even a 51% attack would be fine by me, because they are still economically aligned in the best interest of the protocol. Youd be very wrong, but you wouldnt be the first person to assume that a centralized power could represent your interests well. There are countless examples in history of misplaced trust in a centralized authority. Some of those authorities were beloved revolutionaries, leaders, countrymen and members of their community. Everyone thought, They love their country, they wont do anything to cause it harm. Story continues Robert Mugabe, the former dictator of Zimbabwe for 30 years, started his career as a beloved political revolutionary. He was instrumental in gaining independence from colonial rule. At the time, it would have been hard to think of someone who loved his country more. But that was at the beginning, before he amassed centralized authority. He ended his career causing mass starvation and social upheaval because of brutal, misinformed and, ultimately, failed social and monetary policies. Related: Bitcoin Transaction Fees Dropped 58% Last Week as Congestion Eased The problem is never just a single leader, its the system in which they are operating. Without checks against centralized power, what remains is to trust it will all be ok. And it never is. So, why would this time be any different? Because Bitcoin is somehow inherently different? Because the person, or people, who created it had revolutionary ideas? Come on. Crypto was supposed to protect us from this, but instead, its given us new names with the same misaligned incentives. The analog of social and monetary policies for cryptocurrency is the rules of the protocol. When discussion turns to updating (or not updating) these rules, control suddenly becomes very important. Important decisions, such as whether to scale the network as congestion gets increasingly worse, or to update the inflation schedule when block rewards disappear in 2021, will be left to a small council of miners. In turn, they can use those opportunities to make decisions in their favor, to consolidate power, to siphon more value off the network, to gain favor of local governments, or any other number of things people in positions of power do to maintain their advantage. Perhaps their intentions are good. Maybe they dont even want to be in that position? We have no way of knowing. And thats the problem. When youre one of 10 players who meets regularly to determine the future of gold 2.0 and you are de facto controlled by the Chinese government maybe you wont be the unbiased party you aspire to be. We have no option but to trust that everything will work out OK. So, after over a decade of Herculean efforts, billions of dollars invested and the hopes of an entire generation of developers and technologists, were essentially back in the same place we started at before cryptocurrency. The other half of the puzzle is that even outside of centralizing consensus, you are rarely, if ever, as sovereign as you think. Institutions oversee every step. When you make a bitcoin transaction on Coinbase or Binance, you dont make the actual transaction. Coinbase and Binance does. You dont directly use crypto anymore than you own your own data on Facebook. Youre a customer of a new breed of big tech. See also: Nic Carter Bitcoins Patronage System Is an Unheralded Strength This isnt Coinbase, Binance or any other exchanges fault. They have provided a level of access to millions of users that would be impossible otherwise. This is how it has to be right now, because crypto is so hard to actually use. Connecting to the network is completely inaccessible to anyone without access to server hardware and deep technical knowledge. Access to this revolutionary technology is locked behind some heavy and high gates. Until we can remove these barriers, big tech exchanges are the only option. You may not be a customer of Goldman Sachs or Bank of America (yet), but youre dealing with the same type of players with a different face, setting the rules to maximize profit from you for their shareholders, and collecting every mouse click and transaction. Crypto was supposed to protect us from this, but instead its given us new names with the same misaligned incentives. Crypto wasnt supposed to be like this. We wanted a permissionless system where users set the rules. We wanted a revolution. We got a new financial toy for a small handful of wealthy companies and individuals. Some may say thats exciting. But I say crypto can be more. If this is the peak of crypto impact, were in for a sad reality when we wake up and realize that all we did was transfer financial power from an old guard of centralized institutions, to a new guard playing the same game. This revolution isnt over, but we urgently need to steal it back. Related Stories Bitcoins Stolen Revolution Bitcoins Stolen Revolution || Bitcoin’s Stolen Revolution: Evan Shapirois CEO and co-founder ofO(1) Labs, the team behindCoda Protocol, a lightweight chain that affords all participants fully P2P, permissionless access from any device.
Who controls Bitcoin?
A hint: It’s not you. And it’s a far cry from the decentralized utopia many claim it to be. Systems of power are rapidly asserting control over Bitcoin. And their incentives are not your incentives. As an industry, we’re at a critical juncture, and we have to choose. We either demand that the properties of user ownership and censorship resistance pioneered by Bitcoin persist. Or, we accept the facade of false-decentralization that has been erected by a centralized regime. Our revolution is being stolen, but it’s not too late to take it back.
Related:Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges
First, let’s take a look at who controls the Bitcoin blockchain. Sixty-five percent of its hashrate is in one country: China. Globally, about 10 different organizations control 90% of the hashpower. The big pools are all linked together with dedicated networking connections. If I described to you a council of 10 companies dictating the future of a product, and more than half are in China and beholden to a centralized government, would you call that decentralized? No, but that’s the state of Bitcoin today.
See also: Justin S. Wales –Why Bitcoin Is Protected by the First Amendment
Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you say, “even a 51% attack would be fine by me, because they are still economically aligned in the best interest of the protocol.” You’d be very wrong, but you wouldn’t be the first person to assume that a centralized power could represent your interests well. There are countless examples in history of misplaced trust in a centralized authority. Some of those authorities were beloved revolutionaries, leaders, countrymen and members of their community. Everyone thought, “They love their country, they won’t do anything to cause it harm.”
Robert Mugabe, the former dictator of Zimbabwe for 30 years, started his career as a beloved political revolutionary. He was instrumental in gaining independence from colonial rule. At the time, it would have been hard to think of someone who loved his country more. But that was at the beginning, before he amassed centralized authority. He ended his career causing mass starvation and social upheaval because of brutal, misinformed and, ultimately, failed social and monetary policies.
Related:Bitcoin Transaction Fees Dropped 58% Last Week as Congestion Eased
The problem is never just a single leader, it’s the system in which they are operating. Without checks against centralized power, what remains is to trust it will all be ok. And it never is. So, why would this time be any different? Because Bitcoin is somehow inherently different? Because the person, or people, who created it had revolutionary ideas? Come on.
Crypto was supposed to protect us from this, but instead, it’s given us new names with the same misaligned incentives.
The analog of social and monetary policies for cryptocurrency is the rules of the protocol. When discussion turns to updating (or not updating) these rules, control suddenly becomes very important. Important decisions, such as whether to scale the network as congestion gets increasingly worse, or to update the inflation schedule when block rewards disappear in 2021, will be left to a small council of miners.
In turn, they can use those opportunities to make decisions in their favor, to consolidate power, to siphon more value off the network, to gain favor of local governments, or any other number of things people in positions of power do to maintain their advantage. Perhaps their intentions are good. Maybe they don’t even want to be in that position? We have no way of knowing. And that’s the problem.
When you’re one of 10 players who meets regularly to determine the future of gold 2.0 – and you arede factocontrolled by the Chinese government – maybe you won’t be the unbiased party you aspire to be. We have no option but to trust that everything will work out OK. So, after over a decade of Herculean efforts, billions of dollars invested and the hopes of an entire generation of developers and technologists, we’re essentially back in the same place we started at before cryptocurrency.
The other half of the puzzle is that even outside of centralizing consensus, you are rarely, if ever, as sovereign as you think. Institutions oversee every step. When you make abitcointransaction on Coinbase or Binance, you don’t make the actual transaction. Coinbase and Binance does. You don’t directly “use” crypto anymore than you own your own data on Facebook. You’re a customer of a new breed of big tech.
See also: Nic Carter –Bitcoin’s Patronage System Is an Unheralded Strength
This isn’t Coinbase, Binance or any other exchanges’ fault. They have provided a level of access to millions of users that would be impossible otherwise. This is how it has to be right now, because crypto is so hard to actually use. Connecting to the network is completely inaccessible to anyone without access to server hardware and deep technical knowledge. Access to this revolutionary technology is locked behind some heavy and high gates.
Until we can remove these barriers, big tech exchanges are the only option. You may not be a customer of Goldman Sachs or Bank of America (yet), but you’re dealing with the same type of players with a different face, setting the rules to maximize profit from you for their shareholders, and collecting every mouse click and transaction. Crypto was supposed to protect us from this, but instead it’s given us new names with the same misaligned incentives.
Crypto wasn’t supposed to be like this. We wanted a permissionless system where users set the rules. We wanted a revolution. We got a new financial toy for a small handful of wealthy companies and individuals.
Some may say that’s exciting. But I say crypto can be more. If this is the peak of crypto impact, we’re in for a sad reality when we wake up and realize that all we did was transfer financial power from an old guard of centralized institutions, to a new guard playing the same game. This revolution isn’t over, but we urgently need to steal it back.
• Bitcoin’s Stolen Revolution
• Bitcoin’s Stolen Revolution || Bitcoin’s Stolen Revolution: Evan Shapirois CEO and co-founder ofO(1) Labs, the team behindCoda Protocol, a lightweight chain that affords all participants fully P2P, permissionless access from any device.
Who controls Bitcoin?
A hint: It’s not you. And it’s a far cry from the decentralized utopia many claim it to be. Systems of power are rapidly asserting control over Bitcoin. And their incentives are not your incentives. As an industry, we’re at a critical juncture, and we have to choose. We either demand that the properties of user ownership and censorship resistance pioneered by Bitcoin persist. Or, we accept the facade of false-decentralization that has been erected by a centralized regime. Our revolution is being stolen, but it’s not too late to take it back.
Related:Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges
First, let’s take a look at who controls the Bitcoin blockchain. Sixty-five percent of its hashrate is in one country: China. Globally, about 10 different organizations control 90% of the hashpower. The big pools are all linked together with dedicated networking connections. If I described to you a council of 10 companies dictating the future of a product, and more than half are in China and beholden to a centralized government, would you call that decentralized? No, but that’s the state of Bitcoin today.
See also: Justin S. Wales –Why Bitcoin Is Protected by the First Amendment
Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you say, “even a 51% attack would be fine by me, because they are still economically aligned in the best interest of the protocol.” You’d be very wrong, but you wouldn’t be the first person to assume that a centralized power could represent your interests well. There are countless examples in history of misplaced trust in a centralized authority. Some of those authorities were beloved revolutionaries, leaders, countrymen and members of their community. Everyone thought, “They love their country, they won’t do anything to cause it harm.”
Robert Mugabe, the former dictator of Zimbabwe for 30 years, started his career as a beloved political revolutionary. He was instrumental in gaining independence from colonial rule. At the time, it would have been hard to think of someone who loved his country more. But that was at the beginning, before he amassed centralized authority. He ended his career causing mass starvation and social upheaval because of brutal, misinformed and, ultimately, failed social and monetary policies.
Related:Bitcoin Transaction Fees Dropped 58% Last Week as Congestion Eased
The problem is never just a single leader, it’s the system in which they are operating. Without checks against centralized power, what remains is to trust it will all be ok. And it never is. So, why would this time be any different? Because Bitcoin is somehow inherently different? Because the person, or people, who created it had revolutionary ideas? Come on.
Crypto was supposed to protect us from this, but instead, it’s given us new names with the same misaligned incentives.
The analog of social and monetary policies for cryptocurrency is the rules of the protocol. When discussion turns to updating (or not updating) these rules, control suddenly becomes very important. Important decisions, such as whether to scale the network as congestion gets increasingly worse, or to update the inflation schedule when block rewards disappear in 2021, will be left to a small council of miners.
In turn, they can use those opportunities to make decisions in their favor, to consolidate power, to siphon more value off the network, to gain favor of local governments, or any other number of things people in positions of power do to maintain their advantage. Perhaps their intentions are good. Maybe they don’t even want to be in that position? We have no way of knowing. And that’s the problem.
When you’re one of 10 players who meets regularly to determine the future of gold 2.0 – and you arede factocontrolled by the Chinese government – maybe you won’t be the unbiased party you aspire to be. We have no option but to trust that everything will work out OK. So, after over a decade of Herculean efforts, billions of dollars invested and the hopes of an entire generation of developers and technologists, we’re essentially back in the same place we started at before cryptocurrency.
The other half of the puzzle is that even outside of centralizing consensus, you are rarely, if ever, as sovereign as you think. Institutions oversee every step. When you make abitcointransaction on Coinbase or Binance, you don’t make the actual transaction. Coinbase and Binance does. You don’t directly “use” crypto anymore than you own your own data on Facebook. You’re a customer of a new breed of big tech.
See also: Nic Carter –Bitcoin’s Patronage System Is an Unheralded Strength
This isn’t Coinbase, Binance or any other exchanges’ fault. They have provided a level of access to millions of users that would be impossible otherwise. This is how it has to be right now, because crypto is so hard to actually use. Connecting to the network is completely inaccessible to anyone without access to server hardware and deep technical knowledge. Access to this revolutionary technology is locked behind some heavy and high gates.
Until we can remove these barriers, big tech exchanges are the only option. You may not be a customer of Goldman Sachs or Bank of America (yet), but you’re dealing with the same type of players with a different face, setting the rules to maximize profit from you for their shareholders, and collecting every mouse click and transaction. Crypto was supposed to protect us from this, but instead it’s given us new names with the same misaligned incentives.
Crypto wasn’t supposed to be like this. We wanted a permissionless system where users set the rules. We wanted a revolution. We got a new financial toy for a small handful of wealthy companies and individuals.
Some may say that’s exciting. But I say crypto can be more. If this is the peak of crypto impact, we’re in for a sad reality when we wake up and realize that all we did was transfer financial power from an old guard of centralized institutions, to a new guard playing the same game. This revolution isn’t over, but we urgently need to steal it back.
• Bitcoin’s Stolen Revolution
• Bitcoin’s Stolen Revolution || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – August 9th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 1.59% on Saturday. Reversing a 1.52% fall from Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $11,764. It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning intraday low $11,523 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level at $11,304, Bitcoin rose to a mid-day intraday high $11,796. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,878, Bitcoin fell back to a low $11,601. Avoiding sub-$11,600 levels, Bitcoin moved back through to $11,700 levels to deliver the upside on the day. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $11,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a bullish day for the majors on Saturday. Cardano’s ADA and Tezos led the way, with gains of 5.74% and 9.84% respectively. Binance Coin (+2.64%), Ethereum (+4.67%), Litecoin (+2.15%), and Tron’s TRX (+3.19%) also found strong support. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.61%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.25%), EOS (+1.89%), Monero’s XMR (+1.08%), Ripple’s XRP (+0.40%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.97%) trailed the pack. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $322.88bn to a Thursday high $355.09bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $349.48bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Tuesday low 61.24% before rising to a Friday high 63.16%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 62.15%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.08% to $11,755. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $11,777.1 before falling to a low $11,746.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Cardano’s ADA and Tezos led the way down, with losses of 1.23% and 1.38% respectively. Story continues Binance Coin (-0.75%), EOS (-0.11%), Litecoin (-0.21%), Monero’s XMR and Stellar’s Lumen (-0.44%) also saw red. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.80%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.80%), Ethereum (+0.06%), Ripple’s XRP (+0.09%), and Tron’s TRX (+0.47%) found early support. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the $11,694 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $11,866. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Saturday’s high $11,796. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Saturday’s high would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could eye the second major resistance level at $11,967. A fall through the $11,694 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $11,593 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$11,400 support levels. The second major support level at $11,421 should limit the downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Signs of Exhaustion Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Better Jobs Report Gives Investors Good Excuse to Book Profits European Equities: A Week in Review – 08/08/20 Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Show Signs of Resistance Again The Weekly Wrap – A First Weekly Rise for the Greenback in 7-Weeks… EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – August 8th, 2020 || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – August 9th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 1.59% on Saturday. Reversing a 1.52% fall from Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $11,764.
It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning intraday low $11,523 before finding support.
Steering clear of the first major support level at $11,304, Bitcoin rose to a mid-day intraday high $11,796.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,878, Bitcoin fell back to a low $11,601.
Avoiding sub-$11,600 levels, Bitcoin moved back through to $11,700 levels to deliver the upside on the day.
The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $11,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.
Across the rest of the majors, it was a bullish day for the majors on Saturday.
Cardano’s ADA and Tezos led the way, with gains of 5.74% and 9.84% respectively.
Binance Coin (+2.64%), Ethereum (+4.67%), Litecoin (+2.15%), and Tron’s TRX (+3.19%) also found strong support.
Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.61%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.25%), EOS (+1.89%), Monero’s XMR (+1.08%), Ripple’s XRP (+0.40%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.97%) trailed the pack.
In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $322.88bn to a Thursday high $355.09bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $349.48bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Tuesday low 61.24% before rising to a Friday high 63.16%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 62.15%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.08% to $11,755. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $11,777.1 before falling to a low $11,746.0.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day.
Cardano’s ADA and Tezos led the way down, with losses of 1.23% and 1.38% respectively.
Binance Coin (-0.75%), EOS (-0.11%), Litecoin (-0.21%), Monero’s XMR and Stellar’s Lumen (-0.44%) also saw red.
Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.80%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.80%), Ethereum (+0.06%), Ripple’s XRP (+0.09%), and Tron’s TRX (+0.47%) found early support.
Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the $11,694 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $11,866.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Saturday’s high $11,796.
Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Saturday’s high would likely cap any upside.
In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could eye the second major resistance level at $11,967.
A fall through the $11,694 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $11,593 into play.
Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$11,400 support levels. The second major support level at $11,421 should limit the downside.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Signs of Exhaustion
• Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Better Jobs Report Gives Investors Good Excuse to Book Profits
• European Equities: A Week in Review – 08/08/20
• Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Show Signs of Resistance Again
• The Weekly Wrap – A First Weekly Rise for the Greenback in 7-Weeks…
• EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – August 8th, 2020 || Bitcoin is still the crypto of choice for darknet marketplaces: A survey conducted by The Block Research has found that bitcoin remains the cryptocurrency of choice for payments and withdrawals for many darknet marketplaces.
The Block's Steven Zheng found that among the 49 darknet markets surveyed, about 98% of them support bitcoin.
Monero is the second-most popular cryptocurrency — it's used by 45% of markets — with litecoin and bitcoin cash drawing support from 29% and 12% of the survey markets, respectively. The results largely mirror those gleaned duringa 2019 survey, though in that case, ETH was third-most popular at the time.
A report published earlier this year by Bitfury Crystal found that darknet entities are turning to transaction mixers — which help obscure the provenance of funds —in increasing numbers.
Read The Block Research's full reporthere.
© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Bitcoin is still the crypto of choice for darknet marketplaces: A survey conducted by The Block Research has found that bitcoin remains the cryptocurrency of choice for payments and withdrawals for many darknet marketplaces. The Block's Steven Zheng found that among the 49 darknet markets surveyed, about 98% of them support bitcoin. Monero is the second-most popular cryptocurrency it's used by 45% of markets with litecoin and bitcoin cash drawing support from 29% and 12% of the survey markets, respectively. The results largely mirror those gleaned during a 2019 survey , though in that case, ETH was third-most popular at the time. A report published earlier this year by Bitfury Crystal found that darknet entities are turning to transaction mixers which help obscure the provenance of funds in increasing numbers . Read The Block Research's full report here . © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Bitcoin is still the crypto of choice for darknet marketplaces: A survey conducted by The Block Research has found that bitcoin remains the cryptocurrency of choice for payments and withdrawals for many darknet marketplaces.
The Block's Steven Zheng found that among the 49 darknet markets surveyed, about 98% of them support bitcoin.
Monero is the second-most popular cryptocurrency — it's used by 45% of markets — with litecoin and bitcoin cash drawing support from 29% and 12% of the survey markets, respectively. The results largely mirror those gleaned duringa 2019 survey, though in that case, ETH was third-most popular at the time.
A report published earlier this year by Bitfury Crystal found that darknet entities are turning to transaction mixers — which help obscure the provenance of funds —in increasing numbers.
Read The Block Research's full reporthere.
© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market: From positive price indicators to a new all time high in smallholder addresses, this is the evidence a new bull run might be starting.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode is sponsored byCrypto.com,BitstampandNexo.io.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 10, 2020
This week’s Breakdown Weekly Recap is all about that vibe you’ve been feeling – that inescapable notion a new crypto bull market is afoot.
See also:How Real Is Bitcoin’s Rally? 8 Interpretations of Bitcoin’s Massive Surge
• Rising gold price
• Recirculation of crypto money out of zombie protocols
• New growth in small holder addresses
• Demand from emerging market p2p markets
It’s just possible this newbitcoinbull market isn’t just starting to be seen in narratives, but is also showing up in numbers.
Monday |Rage Against the Economic Machine: The Best of the Breakdown July 2020
Related:How the Purpose of Public Markets Has Changed
Tuesday |Can Social Media Be Redeemed? Feat. Bobby Goodlatte
Wednesday |Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough on Stagflation, Bitcoin and the Devalued Dollar
Thursday |The History, Present and Future of Central Banks, Feat. George Selgin
Friday |11 Numbers That Tell the Story of the Economy Right Now
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
• The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market
• The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market || The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market: From positive price indicators to a new all time high in smallholder addresses, this is the evidence a new bull run might be starting. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com , Bitstamp and Nexo.io . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 10, 2020 This week’s Breakdown Weekly Recap is all about that vibe you’ve been feeling – that inescapable notion a new crypto bull market is afoot. See also: How Real Is Bitcoin’s Rally? 8 Interpretations of Bitcoin’s Massive Surge NLW looks at the evidence: Rising gold price Recirculation of crypto money out of zombie protocols New growth in small holder addresses Demand from emerging market p2p markets It’s just possible this new bitcoin bull market isn’t just starting to be seen in narratives, but is also showing up in numbers. This week on The Breakdown: Monday | Rage Against the Economic Machine: The Best of the Breakdown July 2020 Related: How the Purpose of Public Markets Has Changed Tuesday | Can Social Media Be Redeemed? Feat. Bobby Goodlatte Wednesday | Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough on Stagflation, Bitcoin and the Devalued Dollar Thursday | The History, Present and Future of Central Banks, Feat. George Selgin Friday | 11 Numbers That Tell the Story of the Economy Right Now For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market || The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market: From positive price indicators to a new all time high in smallholder addresses, this is the evidence a new bull run might be starting.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode is sponsored byCrypto.com,BitstampandNexo.io.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 10, 2020
This week’s Breakdown Weekly Recap is all about that vibe you’ve been feeling – that inescapable notion a new crypto bull market is afoot.
See also:How Real Is Bitcoin’s Rally? 8 Interpretations of Bitcoin’s Massive Surge
• Rising gold price
• Recirculation of crypto money out of zombie protocols
• New growth in small holder addresses
• Demand from emerging market p2p markets
It’s just possible this newbitcoinbull market isn’t just starting to be seen in narratives, but is also showing up in numbers.
Monday |Rage Against the Economic Machine: The Best of the Breakdown July 2020
Related:How the Purpose of Public Markets Has Changed
Tuesday |Can Social Media Be Redeemed? Feat. Bobby Goodlatte
Wednesday |Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough on Stagflation, Bitcoin and the Devalued Dollar
Thursday |The History, Present and Future of Central Banks, Feat. George Selgin
Friday |11 Numbers That Tell the Story of the Economy Right Now
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
• The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market
• The Mounting Evidence of a New Bitcoin Bull Market || Decentralized Tech Will Be Ready for Humanity’s Next Crisis: Ben Goertzel is founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a blockchain-based AI marketplace project.
The global need for scalable, usable decentralized information technologies has never been more acute than right now, mid-pandemic.
Forced digitalization is driving most of the world’s population further into the grip of big tech companies. As more of life goes online, more of the world’s data goes into their hands, and a higher percentage of human thoughts and behaviors are guided by their self-serving algorithms.
Related:Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges
Effective management of the pandemic cries out for integrated analysis of medical data and data on human movement and interaction. However, integrated doesn’t have to mean centralized. Indeed, the centralized nature of many track-and-trace appshas been their doom, rendering them mostly non-functional due their incompatibility with Google and Apple’s latest privacy-respecting features.
See also:For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple
A recent survey done by my colleagues at Humanity+, a nonprofit that advocates for ethical use of technology, showed that, of the attendees at their online event, 61% were not comfortable with governments collecting their physiological and medical data, even in a pandemic context. But 92% would rather their medical data be stored on a blockchain, than centralized government databases.
We should have a global, decentralized system for collecting medical, movement, interaction and lifestyle data from everyone on the planet – and methods to analyze it in a secure, anonymous way. Statistical and AI analysis should be guided democratically by everyone contributing data. While policy could be set by sophisticated agent-based modeling leveraging this data, without sacrificing privacy.
Related:The Fourth Era of Blockchain Governance
We are not so far off from realizing such a system. A number of relevant tools were created by the 1,000+ developers participating in theCOVIDathondecentralized-AI hackathon against COVID this spring. Part of my AI team at SingularityNET set aside their work temporarily to focus on building theRejuve COVID Appthat identifies infections early based on data from smartphone peripherals like fitbits and digital thermometers as well as relevant policy decisions like the opening/closing of schools and restaurants.
It’s clear that the centralized systems currently running the planet are not to be trusted to coordinate the next growth phase of humanity
However valuable these efforts are, the decentralized software ecosystem is not at the point where it can be used as the default for carrying out all aspects of pandemic management.
COVID-19 will be beaten relatively soon, and my hope is that decentralized tools will play a role in the solution, even if not a dominant one. This is unlikely to be the last nor worst pandemic, nor the last nor worst crisis, to hit humanity. I’m hopeful the decentralized tools being built today will be pivotal in whatever comes next.
The web went from idea to reality in the space of a decade. While Vannevar Bush’smemex(1950s) and Ted Nelson’sXanadu(1960s) pre-visioned the web, the core tech was not yet mature enough. Likewise in the mid-1990s when I and other developers were attempting to build decentralized, strong-encrypted systems across the Internet.
Decentralized IT may now be, roughly, where internet tech was right after the dot-com crash. Although the speculative bubble popped, the tech built while it was inflating throughout the 1990s laid the groundwork for the Net-centric world we have today.
See also:Is Bitcoin in 2020 Really Like the Early Internet?
Bitcoin’s innovation of a “blockchain” combines strong encryption and distributed consensus. Ethereum adds to this with the successful implementation of general-purpose smart contracts. This goes a long way in terms of transitioning the vision of secure, decentralized computing platforms toward practical realization.
Likewise, the proliferation of ERC-20 tokens (and similar tokens), initial coin offerings and initial exchange offerings were speculative, but reflected a genuine flourishing of creativity.
The crypto entrepreneurs of 2016-2018 were, for the first time in human history, starting to think through the myriad details of real-world information and value processing without a small elite group of owners or controllers.
There was a sense we were soon going to see the old centralized ways of doing things fall by the wayside, in favor of new approaches with robust democratic governance, with respect for data sovereignty and true independence from big tech, with agile potential for bypassing state restrictions.
Businesses were soon to diminish their reliance on centralized databases and big tech cloud providers, and interlock their operations with global decentralized networks. Consumers were shortly going to begin making everyday online purchases using cryptocurrencies, and own, manage and monetize their own purchasing histories, tastes and experiences, medical records and so forth via secure blockchain-based information wallets.
Very few of the projects that originated in this period – including my own project, SingularityNET – have progressed as quickly as they hoped.
But let’s not forget Ray Kurzweil’s message: We live in an era of exponential advance. The transition we’re seeing in the blockchain world right now is much like the transition from the post-dot-com crash to Web 2.0. But due to accelerating change, this transition is going to happen much faster.
Companies and protocols that never stopped building are laying the groundwork for a decentralization revolution.
Brave browser is a fine Web browser with a functioning token ecosystem integrated. Decentraland has made real progress toward tokenizing the metaverse.Minds.com(with a token currently not publicly traded) comprises a viable alternative to the ridiculously corrupt and stained Facebook.
Ocean Protocol’s software framework allows organizations with big data to leverage a blockchain-based marketplace of AI tools to analyze their data locally, without having to upload it anywhere.
See also:SingularityNET, Ocean, Algorand, Triffic, Enigma Add To Fight Against Coronavirus
Cardano has, step by step, made incredible progress at deploying the key functions of a large-scale public blockchain in a programming language (Haskell) amenable to formal proofs of correctness, and in the spirit ofkirik.ioand others, has pioneered a new approach to smart contracts.
Algorand has rolled out an extremely scalable blockchain platform suited for payments and fintech applications. Augur, the first Ethereum ICO, has releasedversion twoof its decentralized online betting platform.
SingularityNET has been up and running in a scalable beta of its decentralized AI network for more than a year now. Certainly we lag far behind the Googles and Microsofts of the world in terms of traction. But we have a few tricks up our sleeve, and it may be that by sometime next year we have an AI network in some important senses more powerful than anything these companies have to offer.
This is the nature of evolution. The best blockchain projects among those that have survived the crypto winter have solved hard problems and are on the way to solving even more. It’s clear that the centralized systems currently running the planet are not to be trusted to coordinate the next growth phase of humanity and its tech, nor to cope with the next global tragedy.
COVID-19 is not going to be the last crisis to hit our species, and if we want to cope with the next one better than we’re doing right now, we desperately need the tools that today’s blockchain projects are bringing toward maturity.
See also: Ben Goertzel –AI for Everyone: Super-Smart Systems That Reward Data Creators
• Decentralized Tech Will Be Ready for Humanity’s Next Crisis
• Decentralized Tech Will Be Ready for Humanity’s Next Crisis || Decentralized Tech Will Be Ready for Humanity’s Next Crisis: Ben Goertzel is founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a blockchain-based AI marketplace project. The global need for scalable, usable decentralized information technologies has never been more acute than right now, mid-pandemic. Forced digitalization is driving most of the world’s population further into the grip of big tech companies. As more of life goes online, more of the world’s data goes into their hands, and a higher percentage of human thoughts and behaviors are guided by their self-serving algorithms. Related: Blockchain Bites: Inside Cosmos, Bitcoin at $200B, DeFi Surges Effective management of the pandemic cries out for integrated analysis of medical data and data on human movement and interaction. However, integrated doesn’t have to mean centralized. Indeed, the centralized nature of many track-and-trace apps has been their doom , rendering them mostly non-functional due their incompatibility with Google and Apple’s latest privacy-respecting features. See also: For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple A recent survey done by my colleagues at Humanity+, a nonprofit that advocates for ethical use of technology, showed that, of the attendees at their online event, 61% were not comfortable with governments collecting their physiological and medical data, even in a pandemic context. But 92% would rather their medical data be stored on a blockchain, than centralized government databases. We should have a global, decentralized system for collecting medical, movement, interaction and lifestyle data from everyone on the planet – and methods to analyze it in a secure, anonymous way. Statistical and AI analysis should be guided democratically by everyone contributing data. While policy could be set by sophisticated agent-based modeling leveraging this data, without sacrificing privacy. Related: The Fourth Era of Blockchain Governance We are not so far off from realizing such a system. A number of relevant tools were created by the 1,000+ developers participating in the COVIDathon decentralized-AI hackathon against COVID this spring. Part of my AI team at SingularityNET set aside their work temporarily to focus on building the Rejuve COVID App that identifies infections early based on data from smartphone peripherals like fitbits and digital thermometers as well as relevant policy decisions like the opening/closing of schools and restaurants. Story continues It’s clear that the centralized systems currently running the planet are not to be trusted to coordinate the next growth phase of humanity However valuable these efforts are, the decentralized software ecosystem is not at the point where it can be used as the default for carrying out all aspects of pandemic management. COVID-19 will be beaten relatively soon, and my hope is that decentralized tools will play a role in the solution, even if not a dominant one. This is unlikely to be the last nor worst pandemic, nor the last nor worst crisis, to hit humanity. I’m hopeful the decentralized tools being built today will be pivotal in whatever comes next. Hype cycles The web went from idea to reality in the space of a decade. While Vannevar Bush’s memex (1950s) and Ted Nelson’s Xanadu (1960s) pre-visioned the web, the core tech was not yet mature enough. Likewise in the mid-1990s when I and other developers were attempting to build decentralized, strong-encrypted systems across the Internet. Decentralized IT may now be, roughly, where internet tech was right after the dot-com crash. Although the speculative bubble popped, the tech built while it was inflating throughout the 1990s laid the groundwork for the Net-centric world we have today. See also: Is Bitcoin in 2020 Really Like the Early Internet? Bitcoin’s innovation of a “blockchain” combines strong encryption and distributed consensus. Ethereum adds to this with the successful implementation of general-purpose smart contracts. This goes a long way in terms of transitioning the vision of secure, decentralized computing platforms toward practical realization. Likewise, the proliferation of ERC-20 tokens (and similar tokens), initial coin offerings and initial exchange offerings were speculative, but reflected a genuine flourishing of creativity. The crypto entrepreneurs of 2016-2018 were, for the first time in human history, starting to think through the myriad details of real-world information and value processing without a small elite group of owners or controllers. There was a sense we were soon going to see the old centralized ways of doing things fall by the wayside, in favor of new approaches with robust democratic governance, with respect for data sovereignty and true independence from big tech, with agile potential for bypassing state restrictions. Businesses were soon to diminish their reliance on centralized databases and big tech cloud providers, and interlock their operations with global decentralized networks. Consumers were shortly going to begin making everyday online purchases using cryptocurrencies, and own, manage and monetize their own purchasing histories, tastes and experiences, medical records and so forth via secure blockchain-based information wallets. Very few of the projects that originated in this period – including my own project, SingularityNET – have progressed as quickly as they hoped. But let’s not forget Ray Kurzweil’s message: We live in an era of exponential advance. The transition we’re seeing in the blockchain world right now is much like the transition from the post-dot-com crash to Web 2.0. But due to accelerating change, this transition is going to happen much faster. Revolution rising Companies and protocols that never stopped building are laying the groundwork for a decentralization revolution. Brave browser is a fine Web browser with a functioning token ecosystem integrated. Decentraland has made real progress toward tokenizing the metaverse. Minds.com (with a token currently not publicly traded) comprises a viable alternative to the ridiculously corrupt and stained Facebook. Ocean Protocol’s software framework allows organizations with big data to leverage a blockchain-based marketplace of AI tools to analyze their data locally, without having to upload it anywhere. See also: SingularityNET, Ocean, Algorand, Triffic, Enigma Add To Fight Against Coronavirus Cardano has, step by step, made incredible progress at deploying the key functions of a large-scale public blockchain in a programming language (Haskell) amenable to formal proofs of correctness, and in the spirit of kirik.io and others, has pioneered a new approach to smart contracts. Algorand has rolled out an extremely scalable blockchain platform suited for payments and fintech applications. Augur, the first Ethereum ICO, has released version two of its decentralized online betting platform. SingularityNET has been up and running in a scalable beta of its decentralized AI network for more than a year now. Certainly we lag far behind the Googles and Microsofts of the world in terms of traction. But we have a few tricks up our sleeve, and it may be that by sometime next year we have an AI network in some important senses more powerful than anything these companies have to offer. This is the nature of evolution. The best blockchain projects among those that have survived the crypto winter have solved hard problems and are on the way to solving even more. It’s clear that the centralized systems currently running the planet are not to be trusted to coordinate the next growth phase of humanity and its tech, nor to cope with the next global tragedy. COVID-19 is not going to be the last crisis to hit our species, and if we want to cope with the next one better than we’re doing right now, we desperately need the tools that today’s blockchain projects are bringing toward maturity. See also: Ben Goertzel – AI for Everyone: Super-Smart Systems That Reward Data Creators Related Stories Decentralized Tech Will Be Ready for Humanity’s Next Crisis Decentralized Tech Will Be Ready for Humanity’s Next Crisis || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – August 8th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, fell by 1.52% on Friday. Reversing a 0.20% gain from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $11,580.0. It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin rose to an early morning intraday high $11,900 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,914, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $11,326. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $11,581 and the second major support level at $11,402. Finding late support, however, Bitcoin broke back through the second major support level to end the day at $11,580. The first major support level at $11,581 pinned Bitcoin back late in the day. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $11,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a bearish day for the majors on Friday. Bitcoin Cash SV (-4.48%), Cardano’s ADA (-3.93%), Ethereum (-3.93%), Litecoin (-3.10%), Stellar’s Lumen (-3.44%), and Tezos (-4.53%) led the way down. Binance Coin (-1.85%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-2.15%), EOS (-2.54%), Monero’s XMR (-1.10%), Ripple’s XRP (-2.87%), and Tron’s TRX (-1.83%) saw relatively modest losses on the day. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $323.88bn to a Thursday high $355.09bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $342.33bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell from a Monday high 62.46% to a Tuesday low 61.24%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 62.69%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.17% to $11,599.6. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $11,523.0 before rising to a high $11,608.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Binance Coin (-1.02%), Cardano’s ADA (-0.09%), EOS (-0.38%), Monero’s XMR (-0.80%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.02%), Tezos (-0.74%), and Tron’s TRX (-0.90%) saw red. Story continues It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however. Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.22% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through the $11,600 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $11,878. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $11,800 levels. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $11,900 would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could eye the second major resistance level at $12,176. Failure to move through the $11,600 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $11,304 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$11,000 levels. The second major support level at $11,028 should limit any downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Melt-Up Continues While Metals Warn of Risks Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Finally Acknowledging Gravity Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Grind Sideways Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Signs of Exhaustion Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Bearish Engulfing Candlestick Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise Forming Bull Flag Pattern || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – August 8th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, fell by 1.52% on Friday. Reversing a 0.20% gain from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $11,580.0.
It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin rose to an early morning intraday high $11,900 before hitting reverse.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,914, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $11,326.
Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $11,581 and the second major support level at $11,402.
Finding late support, however, Bitcoin broke back through the second major support level to end the day at $11,580.
The first major support level at $11,581 pinned Bitcoin back late in the day.
The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $11,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.
Across the rest of the majors, it was a bearish day for the majors on Friday.
Bitcoin Cash SV (-4.48%), Cardano’s ADA (-3.93%), Ethereum (-3.93%), Litecoin (-3.10%), Stellar’s Lumen (-3.44%), and Tezos (-4.53%) led the way down.
Binance Coin (-1.85%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-2.15%), EOS (-2.54%), Monero’s XMR (-1.10%), Ripple’s XRP (-2.87%), and Tron’s TRX (-1.83%) saw relatively modest losses on the day.
In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $323.88bn to a Thursday high $355.09bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $342.33bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance fell from a Monday high 62.46% to a Tuesday low 61.24%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 62.69%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.17% to $11,599.6. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $11,523.0 before rising to a high $11,608.0.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day.
Binance Coin (-1.02%), Cardano’s ADA (-0.09%), EOS (-0.38%), Monero’s XMR (-0.80%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.02%), Tezos (-0.74%), and Tron’s TRX (-0.90%) saw red.
It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however.
Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.22% to lead the way.
Bitcoin would need to move through the $11,600 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $11,878.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $11,800 levels.
Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $11,900 would likely cap any upside.
In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could eye the second major resistance level at $12,176.
Failure to move through the $11,600 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $11,304 into play.
Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$11,000 levels. The second major support level at $11,028 should limit any downside.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Melt-Up Continues While Metals Warn of Risks
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Finally Acknowledging Gravity
• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Grind Sideways
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Signs of Exhaustion
• Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Bearish Engulfing Candlestick
• Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise Forming Bull Flag Pattern
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
11410.53, 11584.93, 11784.14, 11768.87, 11865.70, 11892.80, 12254.40, 11991.23, 11758.28, 11878.37
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 450.30, 446.72, 447.98, 459.60, 458.54, 458.55, 460.48, 450.89, 452.73, 454.77, 455.67, 455.67, 457.57, 454.16, 453.78, 454.62, 438.71, 442.68, 443.19, 439.32, 444.15, 445.98, 449.60, 453.38, 473.46, 530.04, 526.23, 533.86, 531.39, 536.92, 537.97, 569.19, 572.73, 574.98, 585.54, 576.60, 581.65, 574.63, 577.47, 606.73, 672.78, 704.38, 685.56, 694.47, 766.31, 748.91, 756.23, 763.78, 737.23, 666.65, 596.12, 623.98, 665.30, 665.12, 629.37, 655.28, 647.00, 639.89, 673.34, 676.30, 703.70, 658.66, 683.66, 670.63, 677.33, 640.56, 666.52, 650.96, 649.36, 647.66, 664.55, 654.47, 658.08, 663.26, 660.77, 679.46, 673.11, 672.86, 665.68, 665.01, 650.62, 655.56, 661.28, 654.10, 651.78, 654.35, 655.03, 656.99, 655.05, 624.68.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-07-31]
Volume: 110818000, RSI (14-day): 38.53, 50-day EMA: 640.19, 200-day EMA: 521.43
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Gold Consolidation Continues Ahead Of Fed Meeting: At 2 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve is set to release its decision following this month’s meeting, but the market doesn’t seem to be expecting much. “In another era, there would be massive pressure on the FOMC to raise rates but no-one expects anything from today’s meeting,” Societe Generale analyst Kit Juckes explained. “Still, some acknowledgement of the improved economic backdrop is likely in the statement and the market will go on slowly raising the odds of a 2016 rate hike.” Related Link: Oil & Stocks Have Decoupled, But Daily Returns Remain Correlated Since breaking out to new highs in late June, the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD ) has been drifting downward throughout the month of July. Since July 1, GLD is now down 1.4 percent, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY ) is up 2.9 percent. GLD’s trading range has been particularly narrow over the last 10 sessions, having not traded higher than $127.50 or lower than $125.11 during that stretch. GLD investors are hoping that the Fed’s policy announcement will be the catalyst that will propel GLD out of its consolidation phase and into the next leg up of its rally. GLD is up more than 25 percent-plus since December when the ETF found support at the $100 level. Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email [email protected] with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned. See more from Benzinga What Does The Blowout June Jobs Report Mean For Investors? Citi Research Sees Safety In Small Caps Looking For Safe Havens? Buy Gold! Buy Treasuries! Buy...Bitcoin? © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Gold Consolidation Continues Ahead Of Fed Meeting: At 2 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve is set to release its decision following this month’s meeting, but the market doesn’t seem to be expecting much.
“In another era, there would be massive pressure on the FOMC to raise rates but no-one expects anything from today’s meeting,” Societe Generale analystKit Juckesexplained. “Still, some acknowledgement of the improved economic backdrop is likely in the statement and the market will go on slowly raising the odds of a 2016 rate hike.”
Related Link:Oil & Stocks Have Decoupled, But Daily Returns Remain Correlated
Since breaking out to new highs in late June, theSPDR Gold Trust (ETF)(NYSE:GLD) has been drifting downward throughout the month of July. Since July 1, GLD is now down 1.4 percent, while theSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSE:SPY) is up 2.9 percent.
GLD’s trading range has been particularly narrow over the last 10 sessions, having not traded higher than $127.50 or lower than $125.11 during that stretch.
GLD investors are hoping that the Fed’s policy announcement will be the catalyst that will propel GLD out of its consolidation phase and into the next leg up of its rally. GLD is up more than 25 percent-plus since December when the ETF found support at the $100 level.
Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email [email protected] with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card!
Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.
See more from Benzinga
• What Does The Blowout June Jobs Report Mean For Investors?
• Citi Research Sees Safety In Small Caps
• Looking For Safe Havens? Buy Gold! Buy Treasuries! Buy...Bitcoin?
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Direxion Adds News ETFs, Reverse Splits 4 ETFs, Forward Splits 5 ETFs: Direxion, the second-largest issuer of inverse and leveraged exchange traded funds, announced Wednesday it has added two new ETFs to its existing lineup of leveraged and inverse ETFs. The Direxion Daily European Financials Bull 2X Shares (Ticker: EUFL) seeks to achieve 200% of the daily performance of the MSCI Europe Financials Index. Meanwhile, The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 1X Shares (Ticker: MELT) seeks to achieve 100% of the inverse of the daily performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. Direxion_Daily Sylvia Jablonski, Managing Director at Direxion, said the company had recently seen instability in European markets, with the post-Brexit effect yet to subside as political and economic uncertainties remain. The launch of the European Financials leveraged ETF is timely, as market reaction to the EU situation presents the chance for bullish traders to magnify their short-term perspective, Jablonski said. Our new Gold Miners bear ETF will complement the existing suite of ETFs tracking that space, to give traders another option for taking advantage of short-term opportunities. Direxion Announces Reverse and Forward Share Splits of Nine Leveraged ETFs Direxion also announced it will execute reverse share splits for four of its leveraged exchange-traded funds, as well as forward share splits for another five leveraged ETFs. The total market value of the shares outstanding will not be affected as a result of these splits, except with respect to the redemption of fractional shares, as outlined below. Four Reverse Splits Direxion will execute a 1-for-4 reverse split of the Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bear 3X Shares (GASX) . The firm will also execute a 1-for-5 reverse split of the Direxion Daily S&P Oil & Gas Exp. & Prod. Bear 3X Shares (DRIP) , Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares (DUST) and Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares (JDST) . The splits are effective at the open of the market on Aug. 25, 2016. Story continues A summary of the four ETFs undergoing reverse splits is as follows (please note the CUSIP changes, effective Aug. 25, 2016): Direxion_Reverse_Splits As a result of this reverse split, every four or five shares of a Fund will be exchanged for one share as indicated in the table above. Accordingly, the total number of the issued and outstanding shares for the Funds will decrease by the approximate percentage indicated above. In addition, the per share net asset value (NAV) and next days opening market price will be approximately four- or five-times higher for the Funds. Shares of the Funds will begin trading on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the NYSE Arca) on a split-adjusted basis on Aug. 25, 2016. The next days opening market value of the Funds issued and outstanding shares, and thus a shareholders investment value, will not be affected by the reverse split. Trending on ETF Trends Nasdaq Adds Big Q2 Haul of New ETP Listings, Switches ARK Launches ETF Solely Focused on 3D Printing SolidX Reveals Plan to Launch a Bitcoin ETF A Big Day for ETFs as 5 Sponsors Launch New Products OLearys OShares Seeks Big Additions to its ETF Lineup Five Forward Splits Additionally, Direxion will execute forward splits of the Direxion Daily Brazil Bull 3X Shares (BRZU) , Direxion Daily Real Estate Bull 3X Shares (DRN) , Direxion Daily 20+ Treasury Bull 3X Shares (TMF) , Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares (NUGT) and the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares (JNUG) . After the close of the markets on Aug. 24, 2016 (the Payable Date), each Fund will affect a split of its issued and outstanding shares as follows: Direxion_Daily_Markets As a result of these share splits, shareholders of each Fund will receive an additional four, five or 10 shares for each share held of the applicable Fund as indicated in the table above. Accordingly, the number of each Funds issued and outstanding shares will increase by the approximate percentage indicated above. All share splits will apply to shareholders of record as of the close of NYSE Arca, Inc. (the NYSE Arca) on Aug. 23, 2016 (the Record Date), payable after the close of the NYSE Arca on the Payable Date. Shares of the Funds will begin trading on the NYSE Arca on a split-adjusted basis on Aug. 25. 2016 (the Ex-Date). Related: Direxions New Bearish Junk Bond ETF to Hedge Market Risks On the Ex-Date, the opening market value of each Funds issued and outstanding shares, and thus a shareholders investment value, will not be affected by the share split. However, the per share net asset value (NAV) and opening market price on the Ex-Date will be approximately one-fourth, one-fifth or one-tenth for the Funds. The tables below illustrate the effect of a hypothetical 4-for-1, 5-for-1 and 10-for-1 split on a shareholders investment. Click here to read the full story on ETF Trends. The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product. || Direxion Adds News ETFs, Reverse Splits 4 ETFs, Forward Splits 5 ETFs: Direxion, the second-largest issuer of inverse and leveraged exchange traded funds, announced Wednesday it has added two new ETFs to its existing lineup of leveraged and inverse ETFs.
The Direxion Daily European Financials Bull 2X Shares (Ticker: EUFL) seeks to achieve 200% of the daily performance of the MSCI Europe Financials Index.
Meanwhile, The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 1X Shares (Ticker: MELT) seeks to achieve 100% of the inverse of the daily performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index.
Sylvia Jablonski, Managing Director at Direxion, said the company had recently seen instability in European markets, with the post-Brexit effect yet to subside as political and economic uncertainties remain.
“The launch of the European Financials leveraged ETF is timely, as market reaction to the EU situation presents the chance for bullish traders to magnify their short-term perspective,” Jablonski said. “Our new Gold Miners bear ETF will complement the existing suite of ETFs tracking that space, to give traders another option for taking advantage of short-term opportunities.”
Direxion Announces Reverse and Forward Share Splits of Nine Leveraged ETFs
Direxion also announced it will execute reverse share splits for four of its leveraged exchange-traded funds, as well as forward share splits for another five leveraged ETFs. The total market value of the shares outstanding will not be affected as a result of these splits, except with respect to the redemption of fractional shares, as outlined below.
Four Reverse Splits
Direxion will execute a 1-for-4 reverse split of the Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bear 3X Shares (GASX) . The firm will also execute a 1-for-5 reverse split of the Direxion Daily S&P Oil & Gas Exp. & Prod. Bear 3X Shares (DRIP) , Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares (DUST) and Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares (JDST) . The splits are effective at the open of the market on Aug. 25, 2016.
A summary of the four ETFs undergoing reverse splits is as follows (please note the CUSIP changes, effective Aug. 25, 2016):
As a result of this reverse split, every four or five shares of a Fund will be exchanged for one share as indicated in the table above. Accordingly, the total number of the issued and outstanding shares for the Funds will decrease by the approximate percentage indicated above. In addition, the per share net asset value (“NAV”) and next day’s opening market price will be approximately four- or five-times higher for the Funds. Shares of the Funds will begin trading on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “NYSE Arca”) on a split-adjusted basis on Aug. 25, 2016.
The next day’s opening market value of the Funds’ issued and outstanding shares, and thus a shareholder’s investment value, will not be affected by the reverse split.
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O’Leary’s O’Shares Seeks Big Additions to its ETF Lineup
Five Forward Splits
Additionally, Direxion will execute forward splits of the Direxion Daily Brazil Bull 3X Shares (BRZU) , Direxion Daily Real Estate Bull 3X Shares (DRN) , Direxion Daily 20+ Treasury Bull 3X Shares (TMF) , Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares (NUGT) and the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares (JNUG) .
After the close of the markets on Aug. 24, 2016 (the “Payable Date”), each Fund will affect a split of its issued and outstanding shares as follows:
As a result of these share splits, shareholders of each Fund will receive an additional four, five or 10 shares for each share held of the applicable Fund as indicated in the table above. Accordingly, the number of each Fund’s issued and outstanding shares will increase by the approximate percentage indicated above.
All share splits will apply to shareholders of record as of the close of NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “NYSE Arca”) on Aug. 23, 2016 (the “Record Date”), payable after the close of the NYSE Arca on the Payable Date. Shares of the Funds will begin trading on the NYSE Arca on a split-adjusted basis on Aug. 25. 2016 (the “Ex-Date”).
Related:Direxion’s New Bearish Junk Bond ETF to Hedge Market Risks
On the Ex-Date, the opening market value of each Fund’s issued and outstanding shares, and thus a shareholder’s investment value, will not be affected by the share split. However, the per share net asset value (“NAV”) and opening market price on the Ex-Date will be approximately one-fourth, one-fifth or one-tenth for the Funds. The tables below illustrate the effect of a hypothetical 4-for-1, 5-for-1 and 10-for-1 split on a shareholder’s investment.
Click hereto read the full story on ETF Trends.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product. || After mass shooting, German police focus on 'dark net' crime: By Frank Siebelt WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) - German police will do more to fight crime committed on the "dark net", they said on Wednesday, days after a gunman killed nine people with a weapon bought on that hidden part of the internet. "We see that the dark net is a growing trading place and therefore we need to prioritise our investigations here," Holger Muench, head of Germany's Federal Police (BKA), told journalists as he presented the latest annual report on cyber crime. The dark net, which is only accessible via special web browsers, is increasingly used to procure drugs, weapons and counterfeit money, allowing users to trade anonymously and pay with digital currencies such as Bitcoin, the BKA said. The man who killed nine people at a shopping mall in Munich on Friday was a local 18-year-old obsessed with mass killings who had bought his reactivated 9mm Glock 17 pistol on the dark web, Bavarian officials said. The BKA said it had taken five market places in the dark net out of circulation last year. Muench said the BKA did not just want to take the sites offline but also catch criminals using them. Cyber crime cost Germany 40.5 million euros ($44.5 million) last year, the BKA's report said, a rise of 2.8 percent. Most of the more than 45,000 cases involved computer fraud. Muench said the figures only represented a small part of the true size of cyber crime. "If we look ahead we see little relief," he said. "Cyber crime is still a growing phenomenon - you could say almost a growing business, even a growing industry." Police solved 32.8 percent of cyber crime last year, Muench said, adding that many crimes do not get past the exploratory phase and others go unnoticed or are not reported. ($1 = 0.9098 euros) (Writing and additional reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) || After mass shooting, German police focus on 'dark net' crime: By Frank Siebelt WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) - German police will do more to fight crime committed on the "dark net", they said on Wednesday, days after a gunman killed nine people with a weapon bought on that hidden part of the internet. "We see that the dark net is a growing trading place and therefore we need to prioritise our investigations here," Holger Muench, head of Germany's Federal Police (BKA), told journalists as he presented the latest annual report on cyber crime. The dark net, which is only accessible via special web browsers, is increasingly used to procure drugs, weapons and counterfeit money, allowing users to trade anonymously and pay with digital currencies such as Bitcoin, the BKA said. The man who killed nine people at a shopping mall in Munich on Friday was a local 18-year-old obsessed with mass killings who had bought his reactivated 9mm Glock 17 pistol on the dark web, Bavarian officials said. The BKA said it had taken five market places in the dark net out of circulation last year. Muench said the BKA did not just want to take the sites offline but also catch criminals using them. Cyber crime cost Germany 40.5 million euros ($44.5 million) last year, the BKA's report said, a rise of 2.8 percent. Most of the more than 45,000 cases involved computer fraud. Muench said the figures only represented a small part of the true size of cyber crime. "If we look ahead we see little relief," he said. "Cyber crime is still a growing phenomenon - you could say almost a growing business, even a growing industry." Police solved 32.8 percent of cyber crime last year, Muench said, adding that many crimes do not get past the exploratory phase and others go unnoticed or are not reported. ($1 = 0.9098 euros) (Writing and additional reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) || Your first trade for Wednesday, July 27: The "Fast Money" traders shared their first moves for the market open.
Dan Nathan was a seller of Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL). The iPhone maker had reported an earnings beat after Tuesday's close.
Brian Kelly was a seller of the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF(NYSE Arca: XME).
Karen Finerman was a buyer of Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)which is due to report quarterly numbers after Wednesday's close.
Guy Adami was a buyer of Valero(NYSE: VLO).
Trader disclosure: On July 26, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, GLD, MOS, POT, SLV, US Dollar UUP; he is short CHF=, EUR=, JPY=. Karen Finerman is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, DRII, DRII calls, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, DRII, DRII calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Dan Nathan is Long JD Aug call spread, Long TWTR, IWM long Sept put, XLF long Aug put spread, XLK long Sept Put spread, FXI long Aug put spread, SMH long Aug put spread, long PYPL call calendar, long C Aug put spread, XOP Sept put spread, TGT long Aug calls, TSLA long Aug put, BAC long Sept put, Long FEZ Nov put spread.Guy Adamiis long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
BGC Financial's Colin Gillis: No disclosures.
SunTrust's Robert Peck:An affiliate of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. has received compensation for non-securities servicesfrom Twitter (TWTR) within the last 12 months.
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• Personal Finance || Your first trade for Wednesday, July 27: The " Fast Money " traders shared their first moves for the market open. Dan Nathan was a seller of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) . The iPhone maker had reported an earnings beat after Tuesday's close. Brian Kelly was a seller of the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (NYSE Arca: XME) . Karen Finerman was a buyer of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) which is due to report quarterly numbers after Wednesday's close. Guy Adami was a buyer of Valero (NYSE: VLO) . Trader disclosure: On July 26, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, GLD, MOS, POT, SLV, US Dollar UUP; he is short CHF=, EUR=, JPY=. Karen Finerman is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, DRII, DRII calls, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, DRII, DRII calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Dan Nathan is Long JD Aug call spread, Long TWTR, IWM long Sept put, XLF long Aug put spread, XLK long Sept Put spread, FXI long Aug put spread, SMH long Aug put spread, long PYPL call calendar, long C Aug put spread, XOP Sept put spread, TGT long Aug calls, TSLA long Aug put, BAC long Sept put, Long FEZ Nov put spread. Guy Adamiis long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. BGC Financial's Colin Gillis: No disclosures. SunTrust's Robert Peck: An affiliate of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. has received compensation for non-securities services from Twitter (TWTR) within the last 12 months. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Europe's first regulated asset-backed bitcoin product launches in Gibraltar: (Corrects headline and lead to make clear is Europe's first regulated asset-backed bitcoin product, not first regulated bitcoin product. Adds detail on regulated derivative product in 5th paragraph)
By Jemima Kelly
LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Europe's first regulated asset-backed bitcoin product - an exchange-traded instrument that will invest exclusively in the digital currency - begins trading this week on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse.
The Web-based currency can be used to send money instantly around the world, free of charge and with no need for third-party checks. It is accepted by several major online retailers and is used in more than 200,000 daily transactions.
Its value has been highly volatile, peaking at more than$1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. It has since stabilised somewhat, trading at around $655 on Monday, up more than 50 percent this year.
BitcoinETI will be available through regulated brokerages across Europe, and settlement will be handled through Clearstream and Euroclear, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange said, rather than via bitcoin's shared ledger system - the blockchain.
One regulated bitcoin exchange-traded product already exists in Europe, though it is a derivative rather than asset-backed: XBT Provider's exchange-traded note tracks the price of bitcoin and is traded on the Nasdaq OMX in Stockholm.
In the United States, where regulation of bitcoin and financial technology more broadly tends to be more onerous, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss - entrepreneurs who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea - have been waiting for approval for a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund for three years.
Their proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would be the first ETF issued by a U.S. entity that invests solely in bitcoin.
Another ETF issued by New York-based ARK Investment Management last year became the first ETF to invest in bitcoin, but it also invests in other fintech companies.
The new European ETI, issued by Gibraltar-based iStructure PCC and sponsored by one of its subsidies, Revoltura, comes as a result of talks between stakeholders, including the Financial Services Commission - Gibraltar's regulator - and the British Overseas Territory's government.
"By listing the ETI on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, which is an EU-regulated market, we are able to bring a high level of transparency and liquidity to investors," said Revoltura CEO Ransu Salovaara.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Europe's first regulated asset-backed bitcoin product launches in Gibraltar: (Corrects headline and lead to make clear is Europe's first regulated asset-backed bitcoin product, not first regulated bitcoin product. Adds detail on regulated derivative product in 5th paragraph) By Jemima Kelly LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Europe's first regulated asset-backed bitcoin product - an exchange-traded instrument that will invest exclusively in the digital currency - begins trading this week on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse. The Web-based currency can be used to send money instantly around the world, free of charge and with no need for third-party checks. It is accepted by several major online retailers and is used in more than 200,000 daily transactions. Its value has been highly volatile, peaking at more than$1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. It has since stabilised somewhat, trading at around $655 on Monday, up more than 50 percent this year. BitcoinETI will be available through regulated brokerages across Europe, and settlement will be handled through Clearstream and Euroclear, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange said, rather than via bitcoin's shared ledger system - the blockchain. One regulated bitcoin exchange-traded product already exists in Europe, though it is a derivative rather than asset-backed: XBT Provider's exchange-traded note tracks the price of bitcoin and is traded on the Nasdaq OMX in Stockholm. In the United States, where regulation of bitcoin and financial technology more broadly tends to be more onerous, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss - entrepreneurs who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea - have been waiting for approval for a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund for three years. Their proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would be the first ETF issued by a U.S. entity that invests solely in bitcoin. Another ETF issued by New York-based ARK Investment Management last year became the first ETF to invest in bitcoin, but it also invests in other fintech companies. Story continues The new European ETI, issued by Gibraltar-based iStructure PCC and sponsored by one of its subsidies, Revoltura, comes as a result of talks between stakeholders, including the Financial Services Commission - Gibraltar's regulator - and the British Overseas Territory's government. "By listing the ETI on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, which is an EU-regulated market, we are able to bring a high level of transparency and liquidity to investors," said Revoltura CEO Ransu Salovaara. (Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Meet the Reddit-like social network that rewards bloggers in bitcoin: In the digital currency world, people love to talk about the “killer app,” a use for the technology that would bring it truly mainstream and compel the people who are dubious about Bitcoin to buy in. Many are still waiting for it, and say bitcoin needs it to succeed in the long run. Ned Scott believes he’s got it. Scott is the cofounder and CEO of Steemit , a social network that runs on a new cryptocurrency called steem. Scott, a former analyst at food-industry private equity firm Gellert Group, and Dan Larimer, founder of BitShares, launched the network and the currency in April. Since that time, its market cap has ballooned from $2,000 to $300 million. The platform is very young, and has its problems, but it shows impressive potential. Steemit works like Reddit, which Scott cites as an overt influence but says he hasn’t used. Steemit users publish a blog post—it could be any length, any topic at all—and other users can “upvote” it. The twist: Every upvote represents a small amount of steem power. Think of steem power as a representation of influence, because the more you have, the more power your upvote has to move someone else’s post up when you upvote it. Steem power can be converted to steem dollars, which at the moment trade for about $3.25 USD each. That’s tiny, sure, but more steem is created from more activity on Steemit, and the $300 million market cap of steem is enough to rank it No. 3 among all cryptocurrencies , according to CoinMarketCap, behind only bitcoin and ether, the currency of the Ethereum network . Steemit’s ‘trending’ forum “It’s internet points, like you have on Reddit, but now those points have real market value,” says Scott. “People are earning money for doing the things they were doing for free before. People spend all this time creating free content for social media companies, and now they can be rewarded.” That sounds pretty good. And indeed, multiple Steemit users say they have cashed out more than $10,000 from posting on Steemit. The site pays you 24 hours after a post; 75% of the steem power goes to the writer, 25% to the curators—that is, those who upvoted the post, in different amounts according to their influence. Steemit made its first cumulative payout on July 4, amounting to $1.3 million USD. Steemit says it has seen more than 700 new signups every day for the past week. Heidi Chakos, a travel blogger, says she paid off her credit card bill this month entirely with money she made on Steemit. The Indiana resident is currently traveling around the world in two-week spurts, and she posts about her adventures; one recent post about Tahiti earned 660 upvotes, or $8,930 in steem power . Chakos previously used a Squarespace blog for her posts, but now posts solely on Steemit. “For others, it all might seem farfetched at first,” she says, “but in my experience, once you explain ceryptocurrency to people, they get exited about it. I think Steemit is going to blow Facebook out of the water.” Story continues At this point, that’s likely a stretch. But as a test, I posted on Steemit. It was nothing special: I wrote that I’m a Yahoo Finance writer and I was exploring Steemit to write a news story about it. My post quickly amassed 61 votes , which translates to $75.04 in steem power. The system cashed that out to me in half steem power, half steem, so I have 37.5 steem dollars in my wallet, which translates to $120. Not bad. If all of that sounds rather complicated, Scott insists that users don’t need to worry about how the system works to use it and make money. It is an argument many have made about the bitcoin blockchain, comparing it to the HTTP technology that powers web pages, or the SMTP protocol that makes e-mail work. “You don’t need a high level of understanding to sign up,” he says. “Digital currency is moving into a stage similar to the automobile: it gets you from point A to point B. People post, they get money, and their lives are better. They don’t need to know the way it works or worry too much about the specifics in order to post, enjoy it, and get rewarded.” The problem is that withdrawing money isn’t such an easy process to learn for a bitcoin layperson: First you must convert your steem dollars to bitcoin, then, if you want fiat currency, convert your bitcoin to US dollars. Chakos says that wasn’t so hard. She used the exchange web site Bittrex to convert steem dollars to bitcoin, then sent that bitcoin from Bittrex to her Coinbase account, then transferred bitcoin from Coinbase to US dollars in her bank account. “It took like 30 minutes,” she says. In addition to the learning curve, Steem suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack earlier this month, resulting in the theft of $85,000 worth of steem. It was, on a much smaller scale, not unlike a hack of the DAO network last month, which runs on the Ethereum blockchain; that theft amounted to $50 million worth of the cryptocurrency ether. Along with security concerns are the usual fears about Ponzi schemes or pump-and-dumps that come with cryptocurrency engines. Steemit has high hopes it will become so ubiquitous it can serve as the de facto content-creation system, even on other platforms as a plug-in, through a steem widget for WordPress (coming soon) and other blogs. “And then bloggers don’t have to change their habits or leave their blog,” he says. The ambition matches what another bitcoin reward company, ChangeTip, wants to do; it calls itself a “love button for the Internet.” The social tool lets you send someone a tip, in bitcoin, for a blog post you enjoyed. But Scott says, “Tipping comes with friction” such as how much to tip, and when it’s appropriate for the writer to accept. Steem, he argues, makes more sense for the internet because, “It’s more like someone’s influence. And the more someone has, the more they can promote their own posts up the blockchain, and the more they can promote other people. It’s something that eventually publishers and brands will want to use to promote their own content.” But is it the “killer app?” — Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @ readDanwrite . Read more: Why Ethereum is the hottest new thing in digital currency The latest Bitcoin price hike is not all about Brexit British bitcoin market sent incredible signals ahead of Brexit Here’s why 21 Inc. is the most exciting bitcoin company right now View comments || Meet the Reddit-like social network that rewards bloggers in bitcoin: In the digital currency world, people love to talk about the “killer app,” a use for the technology that would bring it truly mainstream and compel the people who are dubious about Bitcoin to buy in. Many are still waiting for it, and say bitcoin needs it to succeed in the long run. Ned Scott believes he’s got it.
Scott is the cofounder and CEO ofSteemit, a social network that runs on a new cryptocurrency called steem. Scott, a former analyst at food-industry private equity firm Gellert Group, and Dan Larimer, founder of BitShares, launched the network and the currency in April. Since that time, its market cap has ballooned from $2,000 to $300 million. The platform is very young, and has its problems, but it shows impressive potential.
Steemit works like Reddit, which Scott cites as an overt influence but says he hasn’t used. Steemit users publish a blog post—it could be any length, any topic at all—and other users can “upvote” it. The twist: Every upvote represents a small amount of steem power. Think of steem power as a representation of influence, because the more you have, the more power your upvote has to move someone else’s post up when you upvote it. Steem power can be converted to steem dollars, which at the moment trade for about $3.25 USD each.
That’s tiny, sure, but more steem is created from more activity on Steemit, and the $300 million market cap of steem is enough to rank itNo. 3 among all cryptocurrencies, according to CoinMarketCap, behind only bitcoin andether, the currency of the Ethereum network.
“It’s internet points, like you have on Reddit, but now those points have real market value,” says Scott. “People are earning money for doing the things they were doing for free before. People spend all this time creating free content for social media companies, and now they can be rewarded.”
That sounds pretty good. And indeed, multiple Steemit users say they have cashed out more than $10,000 from posting on Steemit. The site pays you 24 hours after a post; 75% of the steem power goes to the writer, 25% to the curators—that is, those who upvoted the post, in different amounts according to their influence. Steemit made its first cumulative payout on July 4, amounting to $1.3 million USD. Steemit says it has seen more than 700 new signups every day for the past week.
Heidi Chakos, a travel blogger, says she paid off her credit card bill this month entirely with money she made on Steemit. The Indiana resident is currently traveling around the world in two-week spurts, and she posts about her adventures; one recent post about Tahitiearned 660 upvotes, or $8,930 in steem power. Chakos previously used a Squarespace blog for her posts, but now posts solely on Steemit. “For others, it all might seem farfetched at first,” she says, “but in my experience, once you explain ceryptocurrency to people, they get exited about it. I think Steemit is going to blow Facebook out of the water.”
At this point, that’s likely a stretch. But as a test, I posted on Steemit. It was nothing special: I wrote that I’m a Yahoo Finance writer and I was exploring Steemit to write a news story about it.My post quickly amassed 61 votes, which translates to $75.04 in steem power. The system cashed that out to me in half steem power, half steem, so I have 37.5 steem dollars in my wallet, which translates to $120. Not bad.
If all of that sounds rather complicated, Scott insists that users don’t need to worry about how the system works to use it and make money. It is an argument many have made about the bitcoin blockchain, comparing it to the HTTP technology that powers web pages, or the SMTP protocol that makes e-mail work. “You don’t need a high level of understanding to sign up,” he says. “Digital currency is moving into a stage similar to the automobile: it gets you from point A to point B. People post, they get money, and their lives are better. They don’t need to know the way it works or worry too much about the specifics in order to post, enjoy it, and get rewarded.”
The problem is that withdrawing money isn’t such an easy process to learn for a bitcoin layperson: First you must convert your steem dollars to bitcoin, then, if you want fiat currency, convert your bitcoin to US dollars.
Chakos says that wasn’t so hard. She used the exchange web site Bittrex to convert steem dollars to bitcoin, then sent that bitcoin from Bittrex to her Coinbase account, then transferred bitcoin from Coinbase to US dollars in her bank account. “It took like 30 minutes,” she says.
In addition to the learning curve, Steem suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack earlier this month, resulting in the theft of $85,000 worth of steem. It was, on a much smaller scale, not unlike a hack of the DAO network last month, which runs on the Ethereum blockchain; that theft amounted to $50 million worth of the cryptocurrency ether. Along with security concerns arethe usual fears about Ponzi schemesor pump-and-dumps that come with cryptocurrency engines.
Steemit has high hopes it will become so ubiquitous it can serve as the de facto content-creation system, even on other platforms as a plug-in, through a steem widget for WordPress (coming soon) and other blogs. “And then bloggers don’t have to change their habits or leave their blog,” he says.
The ambition matches what another bitcoin reward company, ChangeTip, wants to do; it calls itself a “love button for the Internet.” The social tool lets you send someone a tip, in bitcoin, for a blog post you enjoyed. But Scott says, “Tipping comes with friction” such as how much to tip, and when it’s appropriate for the writer to accept.
Steem, he argues, makes more sense for the internet because, “It’s more like someone’s influence. And the more someone has, the more they can promote their own posts up the blockchain, and the more they can promote other people. It’s something that eventually publishers and brands will want to use to promote their own content.”
But is it the “killer app?”
—
Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.
Read more:
Why Ethereum is the hottest new thing in digital currency
The latest Bitcoin price hike is not all about Brexit
British bitcoin market sent incredible signals ahead of Brexit
Here’s why 21 Inc. is the most exciting bitcoin company right now || Europe's first regulated bitcoin product launches in Gibraltar: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's first regulated bitcoin product - an asset-backed exchange-traded instrument that will invest exclusively in the digital currency - begins trading this week on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse. The Web-based currency can be used to send money instantly around the world, free of charge and with no need for third-party checks. It is accepted by several major online retailers and is used in more than 200,000 daily transactions. Its value has been highly volatile, peaking at more than$1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. It has since stabilised somewhat, trading at around $655 on Monday, up more than 50 percent this year. BitcoinETI will be available through regulated brokerages across Europe, and settlement will be handled through Clearstream and Euroclear, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange said, rather than via bitcoin's shared ledger system - the blockchain. In the United States, where regulation of bitcoin and financial technology more broadly tends to be more onerous, twins Cameron and Tyles Winklevoss - entrepreneurs who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea - have been waiting for approval for a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund for three years. Their proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would be the first ETF issued by a U.S. entity that invests solely in bitcoin. Another ETF issued by New York-based ARK Investment Management last year became the first ETF to invest in bitcoin, but it also invests in other fintech companies. The new European ETI, issued by Gibraltar-based iStructure PCC and sponsored by one of its subsidies, Revoltura, comes as a result of talks between stakeholders, including the Financial Services Commission - Gibraltar's regulator - and the British Overseas Territory's government. "By listing the ETI on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, which is an EU-regulated market, we are able to bring a high level of transparency and liquidity to investors," said Revoltura CEO Ransu Salovaara. (Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Europe's first regulated bitcoin product launches in Gibraltar: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's first regulated bitcoin product - an asset-backed exchange-traded instrument that will invest exclusively in the digital currency - begins trading this week on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse. The Web-based currency can be used to send money instantly around the world, free of charge and with no need for third-party checks. It is accepted by several major online retailers and is used in more than 200,000 daily transactions. Its value has been highly volatile, peaking at more than$1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. It has since stabilised somewhat, trading at around $655 on Monday, up more than 50 percent this year. BitcoinETI will be available through regulated brokerages across Europe, and settlement will be handled through Clearstream and Euroclear, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange said, rather than via bitcoin's shared ledger system - the blockchain. In the United States, where regulation of bitcoin and financial technology more broadly tends to be more onerous, twins Cameron and Tyles Winklevoss - entrepreneurs who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea - have been waiting for approval for a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund for three years. Their proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would be the first ETF issued by a U.S. entity that invests solely in bitcoin. Another ETF issued by New York-based ARK Investment Management last year became the first ETF to invest in bitcoin, but it also invests in other fintech companies. The new European ETI, issued by Gibraltar-based iStructure PCC and sponsored by one of its subsidies, Revoltura, comes as a result of talks between stakeholders, including the Financial Services Commission - Gibraltar's regulator - and the British Overseas Territory's government. "By listing the ETI on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, which is an EU-regulated market, we are able to bring a high level of transparency and liquidity to investors," said Revoltura CEO Ransu Salovaara. (Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Europe's first regulated bitcoin product launches in Gibraltar: By Jemima Kelly
LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Europe's first regulated bitcoin product - an asset-backed exchange-traded instrument that will invest exclusively in the digital currency - begins trading this week on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse.
The Web-based currency can be used to send money instantly around the world, free of charge and with no need for third-party checks. It is accepted by several major online retailers and is used in more than 200,000 daily transactions.
Its value has been highly volatile, peaking at more than$1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. It has since stabilised somewhat, trading at around $655 on Monday, up more than 50 percent this year.
BitcoinETI will be available through regulated brokerages across Europe, and settlement will be handled through Clearstream and Euroclear, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange said, rather than via bitcoin's shared ledger system - the blockchain.
In the United States, where regulation of bitcoin and financial technology more broadly tends to be more onerous, twins Cameron and Tyles Winklevoss - entrepreneurs who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea - have been waiting for approval for a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund for three years.
Their proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would be the first ETF issued by a U.S. entity that invests solely in bitcoin.
Another ETF issued by New York-based ARK Investment Management last year became the first ETF to invest in bitcoin, but it also invests in other fintech companies.
The new European ETI, issued by Gibraltar-based iStructure PCC and sponsored by one of its subsidies, Revoltura, comes as a result of talks between stakeholders, including the Financial Services Commission - Gibraltar's regulator - and the British Overseas Territory's government.
"By listing the ETI on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, which is an EU-regulated market, we are able to bring a high level of transparency and liquidity to investors," said Revoltura CEO Ransu Salovaara.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Europe's first regulated bitcoin product launches in Gibraltar: By Jemima Kelly LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Europe's first regulated bitcoin product - an asset-backed exchange-traded instrument that will invest exclusively in the digital currency - begins trading this week on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse. The Web-based currency can be used to send money instantly around the world, free of charge and with no need for third-party checks. It is accepted by several major online retailers and is used in more than 200,000 daily transactions. Its value has been highly volatile, peaking at more than$1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. It has since stabilised somewhat, trading at around $655 on Monday, up more than 50 percent this year. BitcoinETI will be available through regulated brokerages across Europe, and settlement will be handled through Clearstream and Euroclear, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange said, rather than via bitcoin's shared ledger system - the blockchain. In the United States, where regulation of bitcoin and financial technology more broadly tends to be more onerous, twins Cameron and Tyles Winklevoss - entrepreneurs who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea - have been waiting for approval for a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund for three years. Their proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would be the first ETF issued by a U.S. entity that invests solely in bitcoin. Another ETF issued by New York-based ARK Investment Management last year became the first ETF to invest in bitcoin, but it also invests in other fintech companies. The new European ETI, issued by Gibraltar-based iStructure PCC and sponsored by one of its subsidies, Revoltura, comes as a result of talks between stakeholders, including the Financial Services Commission - Gibraltar's regulator - and the British Overseas Territory's government. "By listing the ETI on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, which is an EU-regulated market, we are able to bring a high level of transparency and liquidity to investors," said Revoltura CEO Ransu Salovaara. (Editing by Hugh Lawson) View comments
[Social Media Buzz]
1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$622.00/$623.32 #Bitstamp
$620.00/$622.83 #BTCe
⇢$-3.32/$0.83
$624.28/$624.29 #Coinbase
⇢$0.96/$2.29 || Digatrade is live, buy your BTC today! Current price Digatrade Live Order Book @ USD$625.00 / CAD$816.00 || #MaryJane #MARYJ $ 0.001629 (-3.61 %) 0.00000258 BTC (0.00 %) || #Anoncoin/#ANC price now: $ 0.189536, that's -0.00 % change in 1hour. -1.80 % past day, and -1.66 % in the past week! #Bitcoin is $ 632.50 || BTCTurk 1859 TL BTCe 623.943 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 628.6...
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606.27, 547.47, 566.35, 578.29, 575.04, 587.78, 592.69, 591.05, 587.80, 592.10
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00, 9633.39, 9608.48, 9686.44, 9663.18, 9924.52, 9650.17, 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49, 8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45, 8869.67, 8787.79, 8755.25, 9078.76, 9122.55, 8909.95, 8108.12, 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48, 5225.63, 5238.44, 6191.19, 6198.78, 6185.07, 5830.25, 6416.31, 6734.80, 6681.06, 6716.44, 6469.80, 6242.19, 5922.04, 6429.84, 6438.64, 6606.78, 6793.62, 6733.39, 6867.53, 6791.13, 7271.78, 7176.41, 7334.10, 7302.09, 6865.49, 6859.08, 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-04-16]
Volume: 46783242377, RSI (14-day): 54.15, 50-day EMA: 7154.52, 200-day EMA: 7959.17
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1720.40, Gold RSI: 60.99
Oil Price: 19.87, Oil RSI: 34.60
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Solana Blockchain Adds Korean Stablecoin Terra for Better Payments: Solana, a blockchain that aims to function at web-scale, is integrating its first stablecoin. Announced Wednesday, Solana is partnering with Terra , the stablecoin initiated by one of South Koreas e-commerce giants, TMON, as a way to cut credit card transaction fees out of retail profit margins. By bringing stablecoins onto our network, we aim to dramatically expand the design space for developers, opening the door to novel applications that require price-stable payments, the Solana team wrote in a draft blog post shared with CoinDesk in advance. Its our hope by prioritizing support for stablecoins with Terra that we can accelerate the DeFi ecosystem within Solana. Related: Libra Scales Back Global Currency Ambitions in Concession to Regulators Despite skepticism when they were new , stablecoins have proven to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the cryptocurrency industry, though questions persist about the business model in an environment of negligible interest rates following COVID-19. Terra, built on Tendermint , the technology underpinning interoperability project Cosmos , is eyeing bridges like the one with Solana as part of its growth strategy. The Terra team wrote: As we continue to grow, we expect demand to expand into new regions and new blockchain ecosystems beyond our own. Anticipating this, we recognize the priority of building bridges and relationships to grow the reach of Terras stablecoins within the Solana ecosystem. The Solana project is quite new. Though its white paper came out in 2017, it only went live late last year, following a Series A round led by Multicoin Capital in July 2019. Solana has since been looking for partnerships to expand its reach. Related: Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric Terra is one of many payment providers available to e-commerce users in South Korea, primarily through its payment app, Chai. In a blog post, Terra said it recently crossed 1 million daily active users and $3 million in daily transaction volume. Story continues The advantage to vendors using Chai is that payment fees amount to only 0.5 percent, much less than typical credit card fees. Nevertheless, one knowledgeable source in Korea told CoinDesk that Chai still does not have nearly the user base of legacy payment platforms in the country. Binance led a $32 million round backing Terra in 2018 . Solana recently completed a token auction on CoinList on March 24 and was listed on Binance . Related Stories G20 Watchdog Warns Nations to Mitigate Risks Posed by Libra-Like Stablecoins Chicagos Trading Firms Look to DeFi With New Alliance || Solana Blockchain Adds Korean Stablecoin Terra for Better Payments: Solana, a blockchain that aims to function at “web-scale,” is integrating its first stablecoin.
Announced Wednesday, Solana is partnering withTerra, the stablecoin initiated by one of South Korea’s e-commerce giants, TMON, as a way to cutcredit card transaction feesout of retail profit margins.
“By bringing stablecoins onto our network, we aim to dramatically expand the design space for developers, opening the door to novel applications that require price-stable payments,” the Solana team wrote in a draft blog post shared with CoinDesk in advance. “It’s our hope by prioritizing support for stablecoins with Terra that we can accelerate the DeFi ecosystem within Solana.”
Related:Libra Scales Back Global Currency Ambitions in Concession to Regulators
Despite skepticism whenthey were new, stablecoins have proven to be one ofthe fastest-growing sectorsof the cryptocurrency industry, though questions persist about the business model in an environment of negligible interest rates following COVID-19.
Terra, built onTendermint, the technology underpinning interoperability projectCosmos, is eyeingbridgeslike the one with Solana as part of its growth strategy.
The Terra team wrote: “As we continue to grow, we expect demand to expand into new regions and new blockchain ecosystems beyond our own. Anticipating this, we recognize the priority of building bridges and relationships to grow the reach of Terra’s stablecoins within the Solana ecosystem.”
The Solana project is quite new. Though its white paper came out in 2017, it only went live late last year, following a Series A roundled by Multicoin Capitalin July 2019. Solana has since beenlooking for partnershipsto expand its reach.
Related:Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric
Terra is one of many payment providers available to e-commerce users in South Korea, primarily through its payment app, Chai. In a blog post, Terra said it recently crossed 1 million daily active users and $3 million in daily transaction volume.
The advantage to vendors using Chai is that payment fees amount to only 0.5 percent, much less than typical credit card fees. Nevertheless, one knowledgeable source in Korea told CoinDesk that Chai still does not have nearly the user base of legacy payment platforms in the country.
Binance led a $32 million round backing Terrain 2018. Solana recently completed a token auction on CoinListon March 24and was listedon Binance.
• G20 Watchdog Warns Nations to Mitigate Risks Posed by Libra-Like Stablecoins
• Chicago’s Trading Firms Look to DeFi With New ‘Alliance’ || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/15/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: New Elliott Wave Predictions Put Targets Near 6K
Bitcoin has had a tough few sessions this week falling from a high of 7,466 to around 6,750 where the price is today. It had been worse at one stage when the pair was trading at 6,555 and now that level is the support target for the bears.
If that wave low does break to the downside then there are some Fibonacci expansion targets to watch. The 261.8% and 38.2% extension confluence pretty close to the 6K area. Often when Fib zones match up with round numbers they can act as a magnet for price.
Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD At Risk Of A $100 Return
Ethereum price is trading in the red by 0.95% on Wednesday.
ETH/USD is moving within a very tight range block, subject to a breakout.
The price to move into a definitive trend needs to break down $200 to the upside, or $150 to the downside.
Litecoin Price Forecast: LTC/USD Largely At Risk Trading Underneath Bearish Flag
Litecoin price is trading in negative territory by 2.30 % in the session on Wednesday.
LTC/USD is moving within a narrowing nature, sitting just above critical support at $40.
The coming range breakout will likely be trend defining, with risks tilting to the downside.
Image sourced from Pixabay
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/14/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/13/20
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/9/2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/15/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: New Elliott Wave Predictions Put Targets Near 6K Bitcoin has had a tough few sessions this week falling from a high of 7,466 to around 6,750 where the price is today. It had been worse at one stage when the pair was trading at 6,555 and now that level is the support target for the bears. If that wave low does break to the downside then there are some Fibonacci expansion targets to watch. The 261.8% and 38.2% extension confluence pretty close to the 6K area. Often when Fib zones match up with round numbers they can act as a magnet for price. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD At Risk Of A $100 Return Ethereum price is trading in the red by 0.95% on Wednesday. ETH/USD is moving within a very tight range block, subject to a breakout. The price to move into a definitive trend needs to break down $200 to the upside, or $150 to the downside. Litecoin Price Forecast: LTC/USD Largely At Risk Trading Underneath Bearish Flag Litecoin price is trading in negative territory by 2.30 % in the session on Wednesday. LTC/USD is moving within a narrowing nature, sitting just above critical support at $40. The coming range breakout will likely be trend defining, with risks tilting to the downside. Image sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/14/2020 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/13/20 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/9/2020 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/15/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: New Elliott Wave Predictions Put Targets Near 6K
Bitcoin has had a tough few sessions this week falling from a high of 7,466 to around 6,750 where the price is today. It had been worse at one stage when the pair was trading at 6,555 and now that level is the support target for the bears.
If that wave low does break to the downside then there are some Fibonacci expansion targets to watch. The 261.8% and 38.2% extension confluence pretty close to the 6K area. Often when Fib zones match up with round numbers they can act as a magnet for price.
Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD At Risk Of A $100 Return
Ethereum price is trading in the red by 0.95% on Wednesday.
ETH/USD is moving within a very tight range block, subject to a breakout.
The price to move into a definitive trend needs to break down $200 to the upside, or $150 to the downside.
Litecoin Price Forecast: LTC/USD Largely At Risk Trading Underneath Bearish Flag
Litecoin price is trading in negative territory by 2.30 % in the session on Wednesday.
LTC/USD is moving within a narrowing nature, sitting just above critical support at $40.
The coming range breakout will likely be trend defining, with risks tilting to the downside.
Image sourced from Pixabay
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/14/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/13/20
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/9/2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500: You know things are weird when bitcoin is getting less volatile and stocks aren’t. After surging about a month ago during a frantic sell-off, the 30-day volatility of daily returns from the leading cryptocurrency has dropped in recent days, and is almost back to where it was before the panic started in early March. Meanwhile, the volatility of the S&P 500 index of large U.S. stocks, which also skyrocketed in March as the coronavirus paralyzed the world’s economies, has plateaued. Related: Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Rises 70% as Institutions Return to Market What’s causing the S&P to continue its volatility run while even bitcoin is returning to its version of normal? The mixed performance of various stocks within the bellwether index is part of a problem. “The interesting game now is not S&P 500, but some of the top stocks inside. Just check Tesla and Amazon, they are moving much better than S&P on average,” said Maksim Balashevich CEO of Santiment, a firm that analyzes market data. To be clear, over the long term bitcoin remains the more volatile investment by a wide margin. And risk assets of all stripes remain subject to wilder swings than usual. Read more: Chainlink’s Link Token Outperforms Bitcoin as Business Wins Fuel Hype Cycle Related: First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters “Investors are generally looking for stability and volatile assets will be sold no matter what they are,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at crypto investment brokerage Bequant, regarding the S&P 500’s fraught performance. Balashevich noted that an index like the S&P 500 doesn’t account for the divergent fortunes of different sectors in a pandemic, where leisure stocks perform badly but online retailers make gains. Crypto beats such a blunt instrument in this environment, he argued. “I would bet for BTC and ETH,” he said. The S&P 500 will keep struggling as the economy is in a split.” Story continues Today’s price action Prices for bitcoin (BTC) slipped 1 percent in 24 hour trading Wednesday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. Trading for the world’s oldest cryptocurrency has dipped below its 50-day moving average on spot exchanges like Coinbase. The price for 1 BTC has been attempting to break back above its 10-day moving average but has been stuck in the $6,700 range for the past eight hours of trading as of 21:00 UTC (5:00 p.m. EDT) April 15. Recent data suggest that many investors are holding onto bitcoin rather than participating as active sellers in the market. Over-the-counter (OTC) trading activity can be an indicator of this as well. “I do get much less sellers contacting me now, so a jump to maybe $7,500 or $8,000 would give a push to the OTC market in bitcoin,” said Henrik Kugelberg,” a Sweden-based crypto OTC trader. An influx of stablecoin activity could provide a boost, as often issuance in that market translates into purchases of free-floating assets such as bitcoin and ether, creating price bumps. Other analysts see pessimistic signals amid a return to calmer markets since March’s steep dip in prices to below $4,000 at one point. “Starting to feel a bit more bearish given we failed around the $7,200 level, likely to test $6,500 in the next day or so,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank. “If it fails we’ll likely squeeze lower off the back of Asian volumes, which I think people will use as an opportunity to get into the market,” he added. The Nikkei 225 stock index, an indicator for Asia, fell by less than a percent Wednesday, its first time in the red this week as major gains in transportation offset selling in other sectors . Other markets Most major digital assets are mixed on CoinDesk’s big board for the day. Ether (ETH) dipped less than 1 percent. Big losers include iota (IOTA) in the red at 2.9 percent and litecoin (LTC) losing 1.7 percent. One asset flashing green is lisk (LSK) up 4 percent All price changes are from 21:15 UTC (5:15 p.m. EDT) Tuesday. See also: More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests Elsewhere, gold is sideways today, slipping less than 1 percent after a massive uptrend movement since April 9. Gold has been soundly beating bitcoin’s performance this year, up double digit percentage points since the start of 2020 whereas bitcoin is down 5 percent on the year. The FTSE 100 index ended Wednesday down 2.9 percent with weak oil demand i s affecting companies like BP and Shell in the European markets. The S&P 500 index of large U.S. stocks slipped 2.2 percent as the Federal Reserve’s beige book analysis of economic activity noted sharp contraction Wednesday. Also notable is that U.S. Treasury bonds experienced selling Wednesday, with two-year, ten-year and thirty-year yields all down sharply. Most notable was 10-year Treasurys, in the red more than 15 percent on the day. Related Stories Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500: You know things are weird when bitcoin is getting less volatile and stocks aren’t.
After surging about a month ago during a frantic sell-off, the 30-day volatility of daily returns from the leading cryptocurrency has dropped in recent days, and is almost back to where it was before the panic started in early March.
Meanwhile, the volatility of the S&P 500 index of large U.S. stocks, which also skyrocketed in March as the coronavirus paralyzed the world’s economies, has plateaued.
Related:Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Rises 70% as Institutions Return to Market
What’s causing the S&P to continue its volatility run while even bitcoin is returning to its version of normal? The mixed performance of various stocks within the bellwether index is part of a problem.
“The interesting game now is not S&P 500, but some of the top stocks inside. Just check Tesla and Amazon, they are moving much better than S&P on average,” said Maksim Balashevich CEO of Santiment, a firm that analyzes market data.
To be clear, over the long term bitcoin remains the more volatile investment by a wide margin. And risk assets of all stripes remain subject to wilder swings than usual.
Read more:Chainlink’s Link Token Outperforms Bitcoin as Business Wins Fuel Hype Cycle
Related:First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters
“Investors are generally looking for stability and volatile assets will be sold no matter what they are,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at crypto investment brokerage Bequant, regarding the S&P 500’s fraught performance.
Balashevich noted that an index like the S&P 500 doesn’t account for the divergent fortunes of different sectors in a pandemic, where leisure stocks perform badly but online retailers make gains. Crypto beats such a blunt instrument in this environment, he argued.
“I would bet for BTC and ETH,” he said. The S&P 500 will keep struggling as the economy is in a split.”
Prices forbitcoin(BTC) slipped 1 percent in 24 hour trading Wednesday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
Trading for the world’s oldest cryptocurrency has dipped below its 50-day moving average on spot exchanges like Coinbase. The price for 1 BTC has been attempting to break back above its 10-day moving average but has been stuck in the $6,700 range for the past eight hours of trading as of 21:00 UTC (5:00 p.m. EDT) April 15.
Recent data suggest thatmany investors are holding onto bitcoinrather than participating as active sellers in the market. Over-the-counter (OTC) trading activity can be an indicator of this as well.
“I do get much less sellers contacting me now, so a jump to maybe $7,500 or $8,000 would give a push to the OTC market in bitcoin,” said Henrik Kugelberg,” a Sweden-based crypto OTC trader.
An influx of stablecoin activity could provide a boost, as often issuance in that market translates into purchases of free-floating assets such as bitcoin and ether, creating price bumps.
Other analysts see pessimistic signals amid a return to calmer markets since March’s steep dip in prices to below $4,000 at one point.
“Starting to feel a bit more bearish given we failed around the $7,200 level, likely to test $6,500 in the next day or so,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank.
“If it fails we’ll likely squeeze lower off the back of Asian volumes, which I think people will use as an opportunity to get into the market,” he added. The Nikkei 225 stock index, an indicator for Asia, fell by less than a percent Wednesday, its first time in the red this week asmajor gains in transportation offset selling in other sectors.
Most major digital assets are mixed on CoinDesk’s big board for the day.Ether(ETH) dipped less than 1 percent. Big losers includeiota(IOTA) in the red at 2.9 percent andlitecoin(LTC) losing 1.7 percent. One asset flashing green islisk(LSK) up 4 percent All price changes are from 21:15 UTC (5:15 p.m. EDT) Tuesday.
See also:More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests
Elsewhere, gold is sideways today, slipping less than 1 percent after a massive uptrend movement since April 9. Gold has beensoundly beating bitcoin’s performance this year,up double digit percentage points since the start of 2020 whereas bitcoin is down 5 percent on the year.
The FTSE 100 index ended Wednesday down 2.9 percent with weak oil demand is affecting companies like BP and Shellin the European markets.
The S&P 500 index of large U.S. stocks slipped 2.2 percent as the Federal Reserve’s beige book analysis of economic activitynoted sharp contractionWednesday.
Also notable is that U.S. Treasury bonds experienced selling Wednesday, with two-year, ten-year and thirty-year yields all down sharply. Most notable was 10-year Treasurys, in the red more than 15 percent on the day.
• Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX
• Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500: You know things are weird when bitcoin is getting less volatile and stocks aren’t.
After surging about a month ago during a frantic sell-off, the 30-day volatility of daily returns from the leading cryptocurrency has dropped in recent days, and is almost back to where it was before the panic started in early March.
Meanwhile, the volatility of the S&P 500 index of large U.S. stocks, which also skyrocketed in March as the coronavirus paralyzed the world’s economies, has plateaued.
Related:Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Rises 70% as Institutions Return to Market
What’s causing the S&P to continue its volatility run while even bitcoin is returning to its version of normal? The mixed performance of various stocks within the bellwether index is part of a problem.
“The interesting game now is not S&P 500, but some of the top stocks inside. Just check Tesla and Amazon, they are moving much better than S&P on average,” said Maksim Balashevich CEO of Santiment, a firm that analyzes market data.
To be clear, over the long term bitcoin remains the more volatile investment by a wide margin. And risk assets of all stripes remain subject to wilder swings than usual.
Read more:Chainlink’s Link Token Outperforms Bitcoin as Business Wins Fuel Hype Cycle
Related:First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters
“Investors are generally looking for stability and volatile assets will be sold no matter what they are,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at crypto investment brokerage Bequant, regarding the S&P 500’s fraught performance.
Balashevich noted that an index like the S&P 500 doesn’t account for the divergent fortunes of different sectors in a pandemic, where leisure stocks perform badly but online retailers make gains. Crypto beats such a blunt instrument in this environment, he argued.
“I would bet for BTC and ETH,” he said. The S&P 500 will keep struggling as the economy is in a split.”
Prices forbitcoin(BTC) slipped 1 percent in 24 hour trading Wednesday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
Trading for the world’s oldest cryptocurrency has dipped below its 50-day moving average on spot exchanges like Coinbase. The price for 1 BTC has been attempting to break back above its 10-day moving average but has been stuck in the $6,700 range for the past eight hours of trading as of 21:00 UTC (5:00 p.m. EDT) April 15.
Recent data suggest thatmany investors are holding onto bitcoinrather than participating as active sellers in the market. Over-the-counter (OTC) trading activity can be an indicator of this as well.
“I do get much less sellers contacting me now, so a jump to maybe $7,500 or $8,000 would give a push to the OTC market in bitcoin,” said Henrik Kugelberg,” a Sweden-based crypto OTC trader.
An influx of stablecoin activity could provide a boost, as often issuance in that market translates into purchases of free-floating assets such as bitcoin and ether, creating price bumps.
Other analysts see pessimistic signals amid a return to calmer markets since March’s steep dip in prices to below $4,000 at one point.
“Starting to feel a bit more bearish given we failed around the $7,200 level, likely to test $6,500 in the next day or so,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank.
“If it fails we’ll likely squeeze lower off the back of Asian volumes, which I think people will use as an opportunity to get into the market,” he added. The Nikkei 225 stock index, an indicator for Asia, fell by less than a percent Wednesday, its first time in the red this week asmajor gains in transportation offset selling in other sectors.
Most major digital assets are mixed on CoinDesk’s big board for the day.Ether(ETH) dipped less than 1 percent. Big losers includeiota(IOTA) in the red at 2.9 percent andlitecoin(LTC) losing 1.7 percent. One asset flashing green islisk(LSK) up 4 percent All price changes are from 21:15 UTC (5:15 p.m. EDT) Tuesday.
See also:More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests
Elsewhere, gold is sideways today, slipping less than 1 percent after a massive uptrend movement since April 9. Gold has beensoundly beating bitcoin’s performance this year,up double digit percentage points since the start of 2020 whereas bitcoin is down 5 percent on the year.
The FTSE 100 index ended Wednesday down 2.9 percent with weak oil demand is affecting companies like BP and Shellin the European markets.
The S&P 500 index of large U.S. stocks slipped 2.2 percent as the Federal Reserve’s beige book analysis of economic activitynoted sharp contractionWednesday.
Also notable is that U.S. Treasury bonds experienced selling Wednesday, with two-year, ten-year and thirty-year yields all down sharply. Most notable was 10-year Treasurys, in the red more than 15 percent on the day.
• Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX
• Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric || Chainlink’s Link Token Outperforms Bitcoin as Business Wins Fuel Hype Cycle: Chainlink’s link token is outperformingbitcoinby leaps and bounds as the oracle network’s various use cases garners investor attention, leading to a self-feeding bullish cycle.
Link rose by 31 percent in the first quarter and was trading near $3.20 at press time, representing a 42 percent month-to-date (MTD) increase, according to data sourceMessari.
The cryptocurrency was registering a bigger MTD price gain of 62 percent over the weekend, when it was trading at a one-month high of $3.66.
Related:Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX
While the 14th largest cryptocurrency is extending itsQ1 ascent, bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency, has eked out just 5 percent gains so far this month, having shed 10 percent of its value in the first quarter.
This being the cryptocurrency market, hype has played a role in the run-up.
“Link has a strong fan base that constantly promotes or ‘shills’ the project to potential buyers. This often creates a positive reinforcement cycle, further driving up the price,” Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data, told CoinDesk.
See also:More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests
Related:Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric
But recently Chainlink has given those promoters something to talk about: its association with a new project called the Baseline Protocol and partnerships in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, which havegeneratedhype for the project.
Chainlink is a system of oracles built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. An oracle is a third-party information source that supplies data to blockchains. If someone buys insurance against an earthquake or hurricane, for example, an oracle would tell the smart contract when such a disaster occurs so it can pay the policyholder. The link token, in turn, is used to pay Chainlink node operators for providing these services.
The Baseline Protocol,formed byEY and Consensys in collaboration with Microsoft in March, is an open source initiative that combines advances in blockchain, cryptography and messaging with the goal of delivering secure and private business processes at low cost through the public Ethereum mainnet.
Chainlink joined forces with the founders in developing the eponymous baseline protocol.
See also:Inside China’s Plan to Power Global Blockchain Adoption
“People are incredibly excited for Chainlink to help usher in an era of mainnet enterprise applications as a part of initiatives like the Baseline Protocol,” said Vance Spencer, co-founder of technology company Framework Ventures, which is one of the largest private holders of LINK tokens.
Some observers think Chainlink would serve best in such baseline protocols as a facilitator or oracle for all moving parts in the new business network and could continue to benefit from the ongoing shift in focus from base layer chains to the middleware services that provide security for data feeds.
“The boundaries between classically defined smart contracts and oracles have started to dissolve,” Spencer said. “This has reframed narratives surrounding smart contracts, pushing expectations of trustlessness and, therefore, valuation from base layer blockchains to the oracles that service them. Chainlink is by far the best of breed approach, team and product in a space that we increasingly see as winner-take-all.”
The DeFi industry turned to Chainlink, which draws asset prices from multiple sources to inform smart contracts, aftermultiple hackson lending platform bZx in February exposed risks arising from using a single source for such data.
“Link has gained some notoriety due to the protocol’s variety of use cases, particularly their decentralized price reference data feeds, which are used by various DeFi protocols such as Synthetix and bZx,” Abendschein said.
bZx attackers were able to manipulate asset prices and make sizable money mainly because the platform used Kyber Network as a single oracle, or supplier of asset prices.
An attacker’s job becomes difficult with the use of multiple price inputs as manipulation on one platform does not meaningfully affect the end result of the transaction.
See also:Morgan Creek Invests in Startup Bringing Bitcoin to DeFi
Lending platforms bZx, Aave, Celsuis network and Synthetix havepartneredwith Chainlink for secure oracle solutions.
Chainlinkclaimsits decentralized oracle network can vastly expand the functionality of DeFi smart contracts, increase the variety of products offered, and make the market more enticing for regulated players to participate within. If that proves true, the cryptocurrency could continue to outperform bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies.
That said, bitcoin is still an anchor for the cryptocurrency markets. As a result, a sell-off in bitcoin, if any, would likely derail Link’s bullish move.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500
• More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests || Chainlink’s Link Token Outperforms Bitcoin as Business Wins Fuel Hype Cycle: Chainlink’s link token is outperformingbitcoinby leaps and bounds as the oracle network’s various use cases garners investor attention, leading to a self-feeding bullish cycle.
Link rose by 31 percent in the first quarter and was trading near $3.20 at press time, representing a 42 percent month-to-date (MTD) increase, according to data sourceMessari.
The cryptocurrency was registering a bigger MTD price gain of 62 percent over the weekend, when it was trading at a one-month high of $3.66.
Related:Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX
While the 14th largest cryptocurrency is extending itsQ1 ascent, bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency, has eked out just 5 percent gains so far this month, having shed 10 percent of its value in the first quarter.
This being the cryptocurrency market, hype has played a role in the run-up.
“Link has a strong fan base that constantly promotes or ‘shills’ the project to potential buyers. This often creates a positive reinforcement cycle, further driving up the price,” Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data, told CoinDesk.
See also:More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests
Related:Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric
But recently Chainlink has given those promoters something to talk about: its association with a new project called the Baseline Protocol and partnerships in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, which havegeneratedhype for the project.
Chainlink is a system of oracles built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. An oracle is a third-party information source that supplies data to blockchains. If someone buys insurance against an earthquake or hurricane, for example, an oracle would tell the smart contract when such a disaster occurs so it can pay the policyholder. The link token, in turn, is used to pay Chainlink node operators for providing these services.
The Baseline Protocol,formed byEY and Consensys in collaboration with Microsoft in March, is an open source initiative that combines advances in blockchain, cryptography and messaging with the goal of delivering secure and private business processes at low cost through the public Ethereum mainnet.
Chainlink joined forces with the founders in developing the eponymous baseline protocol.
See also:Inside China’s Plan to Power Global Blockchain Adoption
“People are incredibly excited for Chainlink to help usher in an era of mainnet enterprise applications as a part of initiatives like the Baseline Protocol,” said Vance Spencer, co-founder of technology company Framework Ventures, which is one of the largest private holders of LINK tokens.
Some observers think Chainlink would serve best in such baseline protocols as a facilitator or oracle for all moving parts in the new business network and could continue to benefit from the ongoing shift in focus from base layer chains to the middleware services that provide security for data feeds.
“The boundaries between classically defined smart contracts and oracles have started to dissolve,” Spencer said. “This has reframed narratives surrounding smart contracts, pushing expectations of trustlessness and, therefore, valuation from base layer blockchains to the oracles that service them. Chainlink is by far the best of breed approach, team and product in a space that we increasingly see as winner-take-all.”
The DeFi industry turned to Chainlink, which draws asset prices from multiple sources to inform smart contracts, aftermultiple hackson lending platform bZx in February exposed risks arising from using a single source for such data.
“Link has gained some notoriety due to the protocol’s variety of use cases, particularly their decentralized price reference data feeds, which are used by various DeFi protocols such as Synthetix and bZx,” Abendschein said.
bZx attackers were able to manipulate asset prices and make sizable money mainly because the platform used Kyber Network as a single oracle, or supplier of asset prices.
An attacker’s job becomes difficult with the use of multiple price inputs as manipulation on one platform does not meaningfully affect the end result of the transaction.
See also:Morgan Creek Invests in Startup Bringing Bitcoin to DeFi
Lending platforms bZx, Aave, Celsuis network and Synthetix havepartneredwith Chainlink for secure oracle solutions.
Chainlinkclaimsits decentralized oracle network can vastly expand the functionality of DeFi smart contracts, increase the variety of products offered, and make the market more enticing for regulated players to participate within. If that proves true, the cryptocurrency could continue to outperform bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies.
That said, bitcoin is still an anchor for the cryptocurrency markets. As a result, a sell-off in bitcoin, if any, would likely derail Link’s bullish move.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500
• More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests || Chainlinks Link Token Outperforms Bitcoin as Business Wins Fuel Hype Cycle: Chainlinks link token is outperforming bitcoin by leaps and bounds as the oracle networks various use cases garners investor attention, leading to a self-feeding bullish cycle. Link rose by 31 percent in the first quarter and was trading near $3.20 at press time, representing a 42 percent month-to-date (MTD) increase, according to data source Messari . The cryptocurrency was registering a bigger MTD price gain of 62 percent over the weekend, when it was trading at a one-month high of $3.66. Related: Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX While the 14th largest cryptocurrency is extending its Q1 ascent , bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency, has eked out just 5 percent gains so far this month, having shed 10 percent of its value in the first quarter. This being the cryptocurrency market, hype has played a role in the run-up. Link has a strong fan base that constantly promotes or shills the project to potential buyers. This often creates a positive reinforcement cycle, further driving up the price, Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data, told CoinDesk. See also: More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests Related: Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric But recently Chainlink has given those promoters something to talk about: its association with a new project called the Baseline Protocol and partnerships in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, which have generated hype for the project. Enterprise applications Chainlink is a system of oracles built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. An oracle is a third-party information source that supplies data to blockchains. If someone buys insurance against an earthquake or hurricane, for example, an oracle would tell the smart contract when such a disaster occurs so it can pay the policyholder. The link token, in turn, is used to pay Chainlink node operators for providing these services. The Baseline Protocol, formed by EY and Consensys in collaboration with Microsoft in March, is an open source initiative that combines advances in blockchain, cryptography and messaging with the goal of delivering secure and private business processes at low cost through the public Ethereum mainnet. Story continues Chainlink joined forces with the founders in developing the eponymous baseline protocol. See also: Inside Chinas Plan to Power Global Blockchain Adoption People are incredibly excited for Chainlink to help usher in an era of mainnet enterprise applications as a part of initiatives like the Baseline Protocol, said Vance Spencer, co-founder of technology company Framework Ventures, which is one of the largest private holders of LINK tokens. Some observers think Chainlink would serve best in such baseline protocols as a facilitator or oracle for all moving parts in the new business network and could continue to benefit from the ongoing shift in focus from base layer chains to the middleware services that provide security for data feeds. The boundaries between classically defined smart contracts and oracles have started to dissolve, Spencer said. This has reframed narratives surrounding smart contracts, pushing expectations of trustlessness and, therefore, valuation from base layer blockchains to the oracles that service them. Chainlink is by far the best of breed approach, team and product in a space that we increasingly see as winner-take-all. Dominating DeFi The DeFi industry turned to Chainlink, which draws asset prices from multiple sources to inform smart contracts, after multiple hacks on lending platform bZx in February exposed risks arising from using a single source for such data. Link has gained some notoriety due to the protocols variety of use cases, particularly their decentralized price reference data feeds, which are used by various DeFi protocols such as Synthetix and bZx, Abendschein said. bZx attackers were able to manipulate asset prices and make sizable money mainly because the platform used Kyber Network as a single oracle, or supplier of asset prices. An attackers job becomes difficult with the use of multiple price inputs as manipulation on one platform does not meaningfully affect the end result of the transaction. See also: Morgan Creek Invests in Startup Bringing Bitcoin to DeFi Lending platforms bZx, Aave, Celsuis network and Synthetix have partnered with Chainlink for secure oracle solutions. Chainlink claims its decentralized oracle network can vastly expand the functionality of DeFi smart contracts, increase the variety of products offered, and make the market more enticing for regulated players to participate within. If that proves true, the cryptocurrency could continue to outperform bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies. That said, bitcoin is still an anchor for the cryptocurrency markets. As a result, a sell-off in bitcoin, if any, would likely derail Links bullish move. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500 More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests || Andrew Yang Says Current Stimulus Payments to Americans Aren’t Enough: Andrew Yang isn’t satisfied with the one-time $1,200 stimulus checks going to 80 million Americans today. He wants the federal government to continue paying out $2,000 monthly checks until the crisis is well and truly over.
The ex-presidential contender, basic income advocate and crypto community favorite thinks the pandemic is too bleak to be worrying overly about the national debt.
“When the house is on fire, you don’t worry that much about the water you’re using to put it out,” he said as part of aweb chat with Axios. “We have the equivalent of a $21 trillion fire on our hands, and we have to do everything we can to help people get through this.”
Related:This App Tracks the Impact of Your Donation to Combat Coronavirus
See also:CoinDesk’s “Most Influential” profile of Andrew Yang
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Rep Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced legislation Tuesday to deliver $,2000 monthly payments until employment returns to pre-COVID-19 levels. Khanna represents California’s 17th Congressional District, which is located in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The payments would cost billions of dollars but, when asked if this was too expensive, Yang dismissed the idea that cost should be at the forefront of considerations right now.
“We have mass graves and people doing really heartbreaking things to try and keep themselves safe, but [it] can get even worse if you have people literally facing mass deprivation,” said Yang. “And they’re not sure how they’re even going to put food on the table. So this, to me, is a necessary investment in the preservation of our economy and society.”
Related:What the Economy Will Look Like 6 Months From Now, Feat. Ryan Selkis
Yang added there are dozens of legislators who are going to be pushing forward a plan like the one he’s proposing, and he’s in touch with members of Congress, Democratic Party presidential contender Joe Biden’s team and others who are going to be “pushing forward a plan that’s essentially identical to what I’m championing right here.”
See also:Yang 2020 and the Search for the Next Crypto Candidate
Asked specifically if Biden would back this plan, Yang demurred, saying Biden, the former U.S. vice president, was a very smart, practical leader who k”nows we need to do everything we can to provide for people” in a time of crisis.
The Biden campaign has not responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment by press time.
Ryan’s and Khanna’s Emergency Money for the People Act pushes for more sustained direct cash payments to American adults. Every American adult age 16 and older earning less than $130,000 annually would receive at least $2,000 per month as part of the bill.
“A one-time, $1,200 check isn’t going to cut it,”said Khanna in a statement.“Americans need sustained cash infusions for the duration of this crisis in order to come out on the other side alive, healthy and ready to get back to work. Members on both sides of the aisle are finally coming together around the idea of sending money out to people. Rep. Ryan and I are urging leadership to include this bill in the fourth COVID relief package to truly support the American working class.”
The coronavirus crisis has spurred what could be considered the first federal universal basic income experiment in the U.S., but whether it’s only a one-time payment remains to be seen.
• Bailouts Don’t Save the Economy. They Prop Up Companies That Should Be Allowed to Fail
• Another Bitcoin Mining Firm Warns COVID-19 Pandemic May Harm Its Business || US Agencies Publish List of North Korea’s Alleged Crypto Crimes: The United States government, in a new warning on Wednesday, outlined an aggressive set of countermeasures it said could stymie North Korea’s highly lucrative and often cryptocurrency-dependent global cybercrime campaigns.
Pointing toa laundry list of cyber assaultsallegedly initiated by North Korean state actors, the U.S. departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security plus the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)arguedthat cutting the Hermit Kingdom’s money flow – said to be billions of dollars raised over the past two yearsincluding $1.5 billion in crypto– is vital to stopping the rogue regime’s development of weapons of mass destruction.
“We strongly urge governments, industry, civil society and individuals to take all relevant actions” to stop future attacks from occurring, the agencies said. This includes implementing tough anti-money-laundering frameworks for digital currency, expelling North Korean IT workers, following best cyber practices, and communicating with law enforcement.
Related:FBI Warns COVID-19 Scammers Are Targeting Crypto Holders
Together, these steps could help mitigate a threat the U.S. government is calling “Hidden Cobra.” The crypto focus of this criminal pattern of activity dates back to at least May 2017, when theWannaCry ransomware attackinfected hundreds of thousands of computers and demandedbitcoinas ransom. World governments have blamed North Koreans for the hack.
Since then, the U.S. agencies assert, Hidden Cobra’s perpetrators have mounted increasingly sophisticated and diverse cyber campaigns – including multiple plots entirely dependent on digital currency. Cryptojacking has collectively raised $25,000 inmoneroand money laundering has washed hundreds of millions in stolen exchange funds that would otherwisehave fallen under sanctions.
Those campaigns are only expected to rise in prominence. The country isexpected to boostits monero activities in 2020 and its$1.5 billion crypto money launderingnetwork is also believed to be ongoing.
“The DPRK also uses cyber capabilities to steal from financial institutions, and has demonstrated a pattern of disruptive and harmful cyber activity that is wholly inconsistent” with international cyberspace norms, according to the U.S. agencies.
Related:Cryptopia Users Win Victory in Court Case Over Crypto Assets Worth Over $100M
U.S officials have maintained a zero-tolerance policy for even the appearance of assisting the North’s crypto operations. Virgil Griffith, an Ethereum developer, wasindicted in early 2020for attending a North Korean crypto conference where he is accused of describing how blockchain systems can be used to evade sanctions.
North Korea has stronglydenied allegationsof stealing up to $2 billion dollars in fiat and crypto, calling the accusations “nothing but a sort of a nasty game.” The rest of the worlddisagrees.
• ‘Ship-to-Ship’ Trade and Other Secrets of North Korea’s Illicit $1.5B Crypto Stash
• FBI Used Bitcoin Trail to Catch Russian Rapper Accused of Money Laundering || US Agencies Publish List of North Korea’s Alleged Crypto Crimes: The United States government, in a new warning on Wednesday, outlined an aggressive set of countermeasures it said could stymie North Korea’s highly lucrative and often cryptocurrency-dependent global cybercrime campaigns. Pointing to a laundry list of cyber assaults allegedly initiated by North Korean state actors, the U.S. departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security plus the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) argued that cutting the Hermit Kingdom’s money flow – said to be billions of dollars raised over the past two years including $1.5 billion in crypto – is vital to stopping the rogue regime’s development of weapons of mass destruction. “We strongly urge governments, industry, civil society and individuals to take all relevant actions” to stop future attacks from occurring, the agencies said. This includes implementing tough anti-money-laundering frameworks for digital currency, expelling North Korean IT workers, following best cyber practices, and communicating with law enforcement. Related: FBI Warns COVID-19 Scammers Are Targeting Crypto Holders Together, these steps could help mitigate a threat the U.S. government is calling “Hidden Cobra.” The crypto focus of this criminal pattern of activity dates back to at least May 2017, when the WannaCry ransomware attack infected hundreds of thousands of computers and demanded bitcoin as ransom. World governments have blamed North Koreans for the hack. Since then, the U.S. agencies assert, Hidden Cobra’s perpetrators have mounted increasingly sophisticated and diverse cyber campaigns – including multiple plots entirely dependent on digital currency. Cryptojacking has collectively raised $25,000 in monero and money laundering has washed hundreds of millions in stolen exchange funds that would otherwise have fallen under sanctions . Those campaigns are only expected to rise in prominence. The country is expected to boost its monero activities in 2020 and its $1.5 billion crypto money laundering network is also believed to be ongoing. Story continues “The DPRK also uses cyber capabilities to steal from financial institutions, and has demonstrated a pattern of disruptive and harmful cyber activity that is wholly inconsistent” with international cyberspace norms, according to the U.S. agencies. Related: Cryptopia Users Win Victory in Court Case Over Crypto Assets Worth Over $100M U.S officials have maintained a zero-tolerance policy for even the appearance of assisting the North’s crypto operations. Virgil Griffith, an Ethereum developer, was indicted in early 2020 for attending a North Korean crypto conference where he is accused of describing how blockchain systems can be used to evade sanctions. North Korea has strongly denied allegations of stealing up to $2 billion dollars in fiat and crypto, calling the accusations “nothing but a sort of a nasty game.” The rest of the world disagrees . Related Stories ‘Ship-to-Ship’ Trade and Other Secrets of North Korea’s Illicit $1.5B Crypto Stash FBI Used Bitcoin Trail to Catch Russian Rapper Accused of Money Laundering || Blockchain Bites: DLT’s Great Leap Forward, Bitcoin Hoarders and a16z’s New Fund: China is taking charge in the digitization of the world economy.
Yesterday, it revealed a testing environment for its DC/EP central bank digital currency (CBDC), which may one day supplant physical cash in the second-largest economy. Further, high-ranking officials set April 25 for the launch of its national blockchain platform, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), which will enable developers to plug in and code blockchain applications on a centralized platform.
You’re readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.Here’s the story:
Related:First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters
Crypto’s Great Leap Forward
• China will launch its national blockchain platform, part ofthe country’s grand strategy to lead the digital transformationof the world economy, on April 25. Led by the State Information Center, the BSN enables companies and software developers to build blockchain-based applications as easily as assembling Lego sets (at least in theory). “The move is very much like the ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’ in which China provides other countries with infrastructure and gains some first-mover advantage,” said China hand James Cooper, director of international legal studies at California Western School of Law.
• The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), one of the nation’s four state-owned banking giants, released an interface for whitelisted users to test the country’s CBDC. A front-end interface shows how users could potentially interact with China’s CBDC, known as DC/EP, including paying via a QR code, receiving and sending payments and initiating transactions by touching another user’s phone.
Black Thursday Fallout
• Aclass-action lawsuithas been filed against the Maker Foundation on behalf of investors who lost funds following a protocol failure on March 12, or Black Thursday, which resulted in the loss of $8.325 million in investors’ money. Plaintiffs expect that 1,000 individuals will join the suit seeking payments equivalent to each investor’s lost funds, plus the cost of punitive damages weighed at $20 million, including interest and additional costs.
Mining Shifts
• Riot Blockchain, one of the few publicly traded bitcoin mining companies in the U.S., hasexecuted a co-location miningservices contract with a crypto data center Coinmint. Announced Tuesday, the Colorado-based firm will send a portion of its S17 bitcoin mining machines from its facilities in Oklahoma City to Coinmint’s power plant in Upstate New York.
• Hut 8 Mining Group, a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining firm, is concerned aboutcoronavirus-related delays of new machine deliveriesfrom potential suppliers such as Bitmain and MicroBT.
Funding Development
• One of China’s largest decentralized finance platforms has raised a$1.5 million seed roundled by Multicoin Capital and joined by Huobi Capital and CMB International . Announced Tuesday, the dForce Foundation has completed will earmark the funds for staffing and new DeFi product launches in 2020.
• Sources told the Financial Times that Andreessen Horowitz israising another crypto fund,reportedly targeted at $450 million. Citing two sources with knowledge, FT says a16z has yet to close the fund but may do so soon. The size of the fund is not capped.
• The Algorand Foundation has earmarked250 million ALGO tokens– worth about $50 million at press time – for a grant program that aims to spur development of its proof-of-stake ecosystem.
Related:First Mover: Gold Is Crushing Bitcoin, but Inflation May Bring the Cryptocurrency a Boost
Inking Deals
• TradeStation isplugging into crypto exchangeErisX’s order book to provide its pro and institutional clients with deeper liquidity and tighter spreads when trading digital assets. This integration comes on the heels of Fidelity Digital Asset taping ErisX’s technology last week.
• Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchangeKuCoin has teamed with DigitalBits,a blockchain protocol layer focused on branded crypto assets, for the launch of a new kind of OTC desk. The new partnership seeks to simplify that process for businesses, and further allows them to access larger quantities of tokens to power operations such as wallet authentications, transaction fees and staking.
• Medici Land Governance (MLG) – a subsidiary of Overstock’s venture arm, Medici Ventures – has inked a deal to build ablockchain-based land registryfor a second Wyoming county. Under the arrangement, MLG’s record-keeping platform will allow for the storage of mortgages, warranty deeds and titles, as well as providing provenance on land ownership in Carbon County, Wyoming.
Crypto Gaming
• Blockchain gaming platform Enjin isopening its walletto Chinese users ahead of a planned expansion into the Asian nation. In an announcement on Monday, the project said its wallet for its Enjin (ENJ) cryptocurrency is now “certified and compliant” by the nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Cryptojacking
• Google removed 49 Chrome extensions that mimicked legitimate crypto wallets to steal user’s private keys and mnemonic phrases. (ZDNet)
Decentralized Media
• A group of developers are revisiting designs for an anonymous news site called Zboard, which will use the Zcash blockchain to allow users to anonymously post uncensorable articles. (Decrypt)
• MIT Technology Review willnow stream its annual conference,which accounts for a third of the media site’s revenue, according to CEO Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau.
• Ripple open sourced its doc tool Dactyl. (Ripple)
CoinDesk Live is back! Twice a week, the Lockdown Edition will feature timely discussions and public AMAs via Zoom – and shared on your favorite social platform, Twitter – with key speakers from the Consensus: Distributed agenda. Here you’ll get a preview of the content we have planned for our first fully virtual, fully free (!) conference happening May 11-15.
Register to jointhe first CoinDesk Live with Alex McDougall, co-founder and chief investment officer at Bicameral Ventures, on Thursday, April 16, at 4:00 p.m. EST / 1:00 p.m. PST. Thenjoin us at Consensus: DistributedMay 11-15. There’s already more than 200 sessions and tons of interactive networking opportunities.
Stacking Sats?Investors areaccumulating bitcoinahead of next month’s miner reward halving, recent data suggests. The seven-day moving average of the total number of bitcoin held in exchange addresses fell to 2,214,365 on April 14 – the lowest level since last June – according to numbers from blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode.
Digital GoldIs physical gold leaving digital gold behind? Thegap between gold and bitcoin returnshas frustrated traders who predict that trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related emergency aid and monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other authorities will eventually lead to inflation, argue CoinDesk’s Brad Keoun and Omkar Godbole in the latest First Mover newsletter. You cansubscribe here.
CoinDesk ResearchMarch 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which assets outperformed, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event. Read thefull report.
CoinDesk Research WebinarMarch 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum. On Wednesday, April 15 at 2pm ET, CoinDesk Research hosts a webinar to review and discuss our analysis.Sign up here.
Not More COVID-19 NewsThe coronavirus pandemic may be dominating headlines, but crypto is advancing untethered by the crisis. From regulation-related shutdowns to a human IPO and G20 warnings about stablecoins, NLW breaks down a set of crypto trend stories that really aren’t about COVID-19 on thelatest episode of The Breakdown.
Blockchain Bitesis CoinDesk’s daily news roundup of the most important stories in blockchain tech from this site and around the web. You cansubscribe here.
• Blockchain Bites: The Global Lockdown, Privacy Preserving Cryptography and Bitmain’s Cash Rebates
• First Mover: Bitcoin Market Goes Into ‘Backwardation’ Despite Fed’s Trillions || Blockchain Bites: DLT’s Great Leap Forward, Bitcoin Hoarders and a16z’s New Fund: China is taking charge in the digitization of the world economy.
Yesterday, it revealed a testing environment for its DC/EP central bank digital currency (CBDC), which may one day supplant physical cash in the second-largest economy. Further, high-ranking officials set April 25 for the launch of its national blockchain platform, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), which will enable developers to plug in and code blockchain applications on a centralized platform.
You’re readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.Here’s the story:
Related:First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters
Crypto’s Great Leap Forward
• China will launch its national blockchain platform, part ofthe country’s grand strategy to lead the digital transformationof the world economy, on April 25. Led by the State Information Center, the BSN enables companies and software developers to build blockchain-based applications as easily as assembling Lego sets (at least in theory). “The move is very much like the ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’ in which China provides other countries with infrastructure and gains some first-mover advantage,” said China hand James Cooper, director of international legal studies at California Western School of Law.
• The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), one of the nation’s four state-owned banking giants, released an interface for whitelisted users to test the country’s CBDC. A front-end interface shows how users could potentially interact with China’s CBDC, known as DC/EP, including paying via a QR code, receiving and sending payments and initiating transactions by touching another user’s phone.
Black Thursday Fallout
• Aclass-action lawsuithas been filed against the Maker Foundation on behalf of investors who lost funds following a protocol failure on March 12, or Black Thursday, which resulted in the loss of $8.325 million in investors’ money. Plaintiffs expect that 1,000 individuals will join the suit seeking payments equivalent to each investor’s lost funds, plus the cost of punitive damages weighed at $20 million, including interest and additional costs.
Mining Shifts
• Riot Blockchain, one of the few publicly traded bitcoin mining companies in the U.S., hasexecuted a co-location miningservices contract with a crypto data center Coinmint. Announced Tuesday, the Colorado-based firm will send a portion of its S17 bitcoin mining machines from its facilities in Oklahoma City to Coinmint’s power plant in Upstate New York.
• Hut 8 Mining Group, a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining firm, is concerned aboutcoronavirus-related delays of new machine deliveriesfrom potential suppliers such as Bitmain and MicroBT.
Funding Development
• One of China’s largest decentralized finance platforms has raised a$1.5 million seed roundled by Multicoin Capital and joined by Huobi Capital and CMB International . Announced Tuesday, the dForce Foundation has completed will earmark the funds for staffing and new DeFi product launches in 2020.
• Sources told the Financial Times that Andreessen Horowitz israising another crypto fund,reportedly targeted at $450 million. Citing two sources with knowledge, FT says a16z has yet to close the fund but may do so soon. The size of the fund is not capped.
• The Algorand Foundation has earmarked250 million ALGO tokens– worth about $50 million at press time – for a grant program that aims to spur development of its proof-of-stake ecosystem.
Related:First Mover: Gold Is Crushing Bitcoin, but Inflation May Bring the Cryptocurrency a Boost
Inking Deals
• TradeStation isplugging into crypto exchangeErisX’s order book to provide its pro and institutional clients with deeper liquidity and tighter spreads when trading digital assets. This integration comes on the heels of Fidelity Digital Asset taping ErisX’s technology last week.
• Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchangeKuCoin has teamed with DigitalBits,a blockchain protocol layer focused on branded crypto assets, for the launch of a new kind of OTC desk. The new partnership seeks to simplify that process for businesses, and further allows them to access larger quantities of tokens to power operations such as wallet authentications, transaction fees and staking.
• Medici Land Governance (MLG) – a subsidiary of Overstock’s venture arm, Medici Ventures – has inked a deal to build ablockchain-based land registryfor a second Wyoming county. Under the arrangement, MLG’s record-keeping platform will allow for the storage of mortgages, warranty deeds and titles, as well as providing provenance on land ownership in Carbon County, Wyoming.
Crypto Gaming
• Blockchain gaming platform Enjin isopening its walletto Chinese users ahead of a planned expansion into the Asian nation. In an announcement on Monday, the project said its wallet for its Enjin (ENJ) cryptocurrency is now “certified and compliant” by the nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Cryptojacking
• Google removed 49 Chrome extensions that mimicked legitimate crypto wallets to steal user’s private keys and mnemonic phrases. (ZDNet)
Decentralized Media
• A group of developers are revisiting designs for an anonymous news site called Zboard, which will use the Zcash blockchain to allow users to anonymously post uncensorable articles. (Decrypt)
• MIT Technology Review willnow stream its annual conference,which accounts for a third of the media site’s revenue, according to CEO Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau.
• Ripple open sourced its doc tool Dactyl. (Ripple)
CoinDesk Live is back! Twice a week, the Lockdown Edition will feature timely discussions and public AMAs via Zoom – and shared on your favorite social platform, Twitter – with key speakers from the Consensus: Distributed agenda. Here you’ll get a preview of the content we have planned for our first fully virtual, fully free (!) conference happening May 11-15.
Register to jointhe first CoinDesk Live with Alex McDougall, co-founder and chief investment officer at Bicameral Ventures, on Thursday, April 16, at 4:00 p.m. EST / 1:00 p.m. PST. Thenjoin us at Consensus: DistributedMay 11-15. There’s already more than 200 sessions and tons of interactive networking opportunities.
Stacking Sats?Investors areaccumulating bitcoinahead of next month’s miner reward halving, recent data suggests. The seven-day moving average of the total number of bitcoin held in exchange addresses fell to 2,214,365 on April 14 – the lowest level since last June – according to numbers from blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode.
Digital GoldIs physical gold leaving digital gold behind? Thegap between gold and bitcoin returnshas frustrated traders who predict that trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related emergency aid and monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other authorities will eventually lead to inflation, argue CoinDesk’s Brad Keoun and Omkar Godbole in the latest First Mover newsletter. You cansubscribe here.
CoinDesk ResearchMarch 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which assets outperformed, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event. Read thefull report.
CoinDesk Research WebinarMarch 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum. On Wednesday, April 15 at 2pm ET, CoinDesk Research hosts a webinar to review and discuss our analysis.Sign up here.
Not More COVID-19 NewsThe coronavirus pandemic may be dominating headlines, but crypto is advancing untethered by the crisis. From regulation-related shutdowns to a human IPO and G20 warnings about stablecoins, NLW breaks down a set of crypto trend stories that really aren’t about COVID-19 on thelatest episode of The Breakdown.
Blockchain Bitesis CoinDesk’s daily news roundup of the most important stories in blockchain tech from this site and around the web. You cansubscribe here.
• Blockchain Bites: The Global Lockdown, Privacy Preserving Cryptography and Bitmain’s Cash Rebates
• First Mover: Bitcoin Market Goes Into ‘Backwardation’ Despite Fed’s Trillions || Blockchain Bites: DLT’s Great Leap Forward, Bitcoin Hoarders and a16z’s New Fund: China is taking charge in the digitization of the world economy. Yesterday, it revealed a testing environment for its DC/EP central bank digital currency (CBDC), which may one day supplant physical cash in the second-largest economy. Further, high-ranking officials set April 25 for the launch of its national blockchain platform, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), which will enable developers to plug in and code blockchain applications on a centralized platform. You’re reading Blockchain Bites , the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here . Here’s the story: Top Shelf Related: First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters Crypto’s Great Leap Forward China will launch its national blockchain platform, part of the country’s grand strategy to lead the digital transformation of the world economy, on April 25. Led by the State Information Center, the BSN enables companies and software developers to build blockchain-based applications as easily as assembling Lego sets (at least in theory). “The move is very much like the ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’ in which China provides other countries with infrastructure and gains some first-mover advantage,” said China hand James Cooper, director of international legal studies at California Western School of Law. The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), one of the nation’s four state-owned banking giants, released an interface for whitelisted users to test the country’s CBDC. A front-end interface shows how users could potentially interact with China’s CBDC, known as DC/EP, including paying via a QR code, receiving and sending payments and initiating transactions by touching another user’s phone. Black Thursday Fallout A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Maker Foundation on behalf of investors who lost funds following a protocol failure on March 12, or Black Thursday, which resulted in the loss of $8.325 million in investors’ money. Plaintiffs expect that 1,000 individuals will join the suit seeking payments equivalent to each investor’s lost funds, plus the cost of punitive damages weighed at $20 million, including interest and additional costs. Story continues Mining Shifts Riot Blockchain, one of the few publicly traded bitcoin mining companies in the U.S., has executed a co-location mining services contract with a crypto data center Coinmint. Announced Tuesday, the Colorado-based firm will send a portion of its S17 bitcoin mining machines from its facilities in Oklahoma City to Coinmint’s power plant in Upstate New York. Hut 8 Mining Group, a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining firm, is concerned about coronavirus-related delays of new machine deliveries from potential suppliers such as Bitmain and MicroBT. Funding Development One of China’s largest decentralized finance platforms has raised a $1.5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital and joined by Huobi Capital and CMB International . Announced Tuesday, the dForce Foundation has completed will earmark the funds for staffing and new DeFi product launches in 2020. Sources told the Financial Times that Andreessen Horowitz is raising another crypto fund, reportedly targeted at $450 million. Citing two sources with knowledge, FT says a16z has yet to close the fund but may do so soon. The size of the fund is not capped. The Algorand Foundation has earmarked 250 million ALGO tokens – worth about $50 million at press time – for a grant program that aims to spur development of its proof-of-stake ecosystem. Related: First Mover: Gold Is Crushing Bitcoin, but Inflation May Bring the Cryptocurrency a Boost Inking Deals TradeStation is plugging into crypto exchange ErisX’s order book to provide its pro and institutional clients with deeper liquidity and tighter spreads when trading digital assets. This integration comes on the heels of Fidelity Digital Asset taping ErisX’s technology last week. Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has teamed with DigitalBits, a blockchain protocol layer focused on branded crypto assets, for the launch of a new kind of OTC desk. The new partnership seeks to simplify that process for businesses, and further allows them to access larger quantities of tokens to power operations such as wallet authentications, transaction fees and staking. Medici Land Governance (MLG) – a subsidiary of Overstock’s venture arm, Medici Ventures – has inked a deal to build a blockchain-based land registry for a second Wyoming county. Under the arrangement, MLG’s record-keeping platform will allow for the storage of mortgages, warranty deeds and titles, as well as providing provenance on land ownership in Carbon County, Wyoming. Crypto Gaming Blockchain gaming platform Enjin is opening its wallet to Chinese users ahead of a planned expansion into the Asian nation. In an announcement on Monday, the project said its wallet for its Enjin (ENJ) cryptocurrency is now “certified and compliant” by the nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Cryptojacking Google removed 49 Chrome extensions that mimicked legitimate crypto wallets to steal user’s private keys and mnemonic phrases. ( ZDNet ) Decentralized Media A group of developers are revisiting designs for an anonymous news site called Zboard, which will use the Zcash blockchain to allow users to anonymously post uncensorable articles. ( Decrypt ) MIT Technology Review will now stream its annual conference, which accounts for a third of the media site’s revenue, according to CEO Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau. Ripple open sourced its doc tool Dactyl. ( Ripple ) CoinDesk Live CoinDesk Live is back! Twice a week, the Lockdown Edition will feature timely discussions and public AMAs via Zoom – and shared on your favorite social platform, Twitter – with key speakers from the Consensus: Distributed agenda. Here you’ll get a preview of the content we have planned for our first fully virtual, fully free (!) conference happening May 11-15. Register to join the first CoinDesk Live with Alex McDougall, co-founder and chief investment officer at Bicameral Ventures, on Thursday, April 16, at 4:00 p.m. EST / 1:00 p.m. PST. Then join us at Consensus: Distributed May 11-15. There’s already more than 200 sessions and tons of interactive networking opportunities. Market Intel Stacking Sats? Investors are accumulating bitcoin ahead of next month’s miner reward halving, recent data suggests. The seven-day moving average of the total number of bitcoin held in exchange addresses fell to 2,214,365 on April 14 – the lowest level since last June – according to numbers from blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode. Digital Gold Is physical gold leaving digital gold behind? The gap between gold and bitcoin returns has frustrated traders who predict that trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related emergency aid and monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other authorities will eventually lead to inflation, argue CoinDesk’s Brad Keoun and Omkar Godbole in the latest First Mover newsletter. You can subscribe here. CoinDesk Research March 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which assets outperformed, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event. Read the full report . CoinDesk Research Webinar March 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum. On Wednesday, April 15 at 2pm ET, CoinDesk Research hosts a webinar to review and discuss our analysis. Sign up here. The Breakdown Not More COVID-19 News The coronavirus pandemic may be dominating headlines, but crypto is advancing untethered by the crisis. From regulation-related shutdowns to a human IPO and G20 warnings about stablecoins, NLW breaks down a set of crypto trend stories that really aren’t about COVID-19 on the latest episode of The Breakdown. Who Won #CryptoTwitter? Blockchain Bites is CoinDesk’s daily news roundup of the most important stories in blockchain tech from this site and around the web. You can subscribe here . Related Stories Blockchain Bites: The Global Lockdown, Privacy Preserving Cryptography and Bitmain’s Cash Rebates First Mover: Bitcoin Market Goes Into ‘Backwardation’ Despite Fed’s Trillions || The number of accounts trading CME bitcoin futures grew in Q1 amid March slowdown: CME Group's bitcoin futures product saw a surge in new account trading in Q1 of 2020, the firm revealed exclusively to The Block. Launched at the end of 2017, CME's bitcoin futures product is among the most noteworthy US-regulated bitcoin-tied financial products. The beginning of the year was marked by a surge in notional volumes with open interest above $1 billion at the end of February, as shown by data from Skew. Still, activity slowed down following a March 12-13 sell-off, which resulted in steep losses for traders across the market and dried up liquidity across crypto derivatives markets. According to data collected by The Block's Larry Cermak earlier this month, the notional value of CME's average daily volume for bitcoin futures dropped by over 50% to $242 million in March, as compared to $493 million in February. As of this Tuesday, notional volumes for the product stood at $85 million, whereas open interest stood at $190 million. Still, zooming out quarter one can be viewed as a success, examining certain numbers. The firm saw the average daily notional value of volume for its bitcoin futures product grow 111% from 4Q 2019, according to research from The Block. A spokeswoman said number of contracts traded is a more important metric as the firm makes money on a per contract basis. "Notional volume and average volumes really fell around mid-March," Thom Thompson of John Lothian News said, noting that exchanges make money not on the size of notional volume but in the number of contracts that trade on a given venue. As for new client accounts, CME said it saw 567 new accounts that began trading CME's bitcoin futures. That is more than double the amount of new accounts that started trading in Q4 of 2019. It's a notable development, given that, as The Block reported in early March, institutional investors appeared to be shunning the product amid a broader sell-off in equities. "While liquidity can shift during times of heightened volatility, clients managed their bitcoin price risk in increasing numbers at CME Group during the first quarter of 2020," CME's Tim McCourt told The Block. "For example, average daily volume in Bitcoin futures contracts grew 116 percent to 9,427 contracts, equivalent to 47,135 bitcoin, during Q1," he added. This post and its headline have been updated for clarity regarding CME's bitcoin futures trading volumes. It also was updated to include a quote from derivatives expert Thom Thompson of John Lothian News. View comments || The number of accounts trading CME bitcoin futures grew in Q1 amid March slowdown: CME Group's bitcoin futures product saw a surge in new account trading in Q1 of 2020, the firm revealed exclusively to The Block. Launched at the end of 2017, CME's bitcoin futures product is among the most noteworthy US-regulated bitcoin-tied financial products. The beginning of the year was marked by a surge in notional volumes with open interest above $1 billion at the end of February, as shown by data from Skew. Still, activity slowed down following a March 12-13 sell-off, which resulted in steep losses for traders across the market and dried up liquidity across crypto derivatives markets. According to data collected by The Block's Larry Cermak earlier this month, the notional value of CME's average daily volume for bitcoin futures dropped by over 50% to $242 million in March, as compared to $493 million in February. As of this Tuesday, notional volumes for the product stood at $85 million, whereas open interest stood at $190 million. Still, zooming out quarter one can be viewed as a success, examining certain numbers. The firm saw the average daily notional value of volume for its bitcoin futures product grow 111% from 4Q 2019, according to research from The Block. A spokeswoman said number of contracts traded is a more important metric as the firm makes money on a per contract basis. "Notional volume and average volumes really fell around mid-March," Thom Thompson of John Lothian News said, noting that exchanges make money not on the size of notional volume but in the number of contracts that trade on a given venue. As for new client accounts, CME said it saw 567 new accounts that began trading CME's bitcoin futures. That is more than double the amount of new accounts that started trading in Q4 of 2019. It's a notable development, given that, as The Block reported in early March, institutional investors appeared to be shunning the product amid a broader sell-off in equities. "While liquidity can shift during times of heightened volatility, clients managed their bitcoin price risk in increasing numbers at CME Group during the first quarter of 2020," CME's Tim McCourt told The Block. "For example, average daily volume in Bitcoin futures contracts grew 116 percent to 9,427 contracts, equivalent to 47,135 bitcoin, during Q1," he added. This post and its headline have been updated for clarity regarding CME's bitcoin futures trading volumes. It also was updated to include a quote from derivatives expert Thom Thompson of John Lothian News. View comments || Morgan Creek Invests in Startup Bringing Bitcoin to DeFi: Bitcoin advocate Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is betting the top cryptocurrency might have more of a role to play in the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
Pompliano’s Morgan Creek Digital was one of the investors in a $2.45 million seed round forAtomic Loans, a Canadian startup looking to createbitcoin-backed lending instruments.
Announced Wednesday, the seed round was led by Initialized Capital – an investor in Coinbase – with participation also coming from the founders of blockchain protocol provider Bison Trails and ConsenSys, a prominent financial backer in the ethereum ecosystem. ConsenSys previously invested in the startup’s pre-seed round in 2019.
Related:Grayscale Says It Raised a Record $500M in First Quarter
The idea behind Atomic Loans is to allow bitcoin holders to leverage the dollar value of their assets on the Ethereum protocol. A user can borrow Ethereum-based stablecoins using bitcoin as collateral and redeem at any time. The funding will be spent on further research and development, the project said.
See also:Pompliano Joins Board of Blockchain-Based Lending Firm After $103M Raise
Pompliano has built a reputation on espousing a strongly bullish attitude towards cryptocurrencies, and in particular bitcoin. He is a regular panelist on various U.S. market shows, often advocating for greater crypto adoption among traditional investors. He claimed on NBC’s “Shark Tank” last August to holdhalf his net worthin bitcoin.
In a statement, Pompliano said: “Atomic Loans is building the decentralized financial infrastructure that uses Bitcoin how it was intended.” Such initiatives, he added, help prove the original cryptocurrency would form the basis for an “alternate financial system.”
Related:Chinese DeFi Platform dForce Raises $1.5M From Multicoin, Huobi Capital
Although bitcoin has so far played a minor role in DeFi, other teams are trying to leverage its $123 billion market value. Projects such as Wanchain, Wrapped Bitcoin and Trustless Bitcoin have all focused on creating Ethereum wrappers for bitcoin.
The main difference with Atomic Loans is users can lock in their holding’s dollar value, giving them the option to benefit from any possible upside. Brett Gibson, a partner at Initialized Capital, said the startup gave DeFi simple access to the “largest and most valuable crypto-asset.”
“Atomic Loans is leveraging their deep expertise in Bitcoin scripting and atomic swaps to create a useful DeFi product that works on the Bitcoin blockchain directly without requiring complex synthetics on other blockchains.”
See also:Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi
It’s unclear how large an equity stake Morgan Creek now has in the startup. CoinDesk reached out for comment but had not had a response by press time.
• MakerDAO Users Sue Stablecoin Issuer Following ‘Black Thursday’ Losses
• Crypto Long & Short: DeFi and Traditional Finance Are Forming an Unlikely Friendship
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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7096.18, 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32, 7117.21, 7429.72, 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-12-29]
Volume: 22445257702, RSI (14-day): 51.87, 50-day EMA: 7616.12, 200-day EMA: 8254.58
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Mxc Leverage and ETF Launch Simultaneously - Major Coins Is Booming: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 28, 2019 /Recently, MXC Exchange launched a leveraged ETF product - the 3x leverage Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) for BTC, ETH and EOS. Both long and short ones are available, and there is no forced liquidation. Crypto investors say "this is a product that will help users magnify their returns".
According to the statistics, most retail crypto investors have only small positions on major currencies in their investment portfolios. This is due to the fact that major currencies are typically less volatile than altcoins. Instead, some small projects with high potentials are more popular among retail investors because their price are more volatile. Therefore, the bad coins drive out good ones. Compared with mainstream currency, altcoins are more prone to market situations where commodities are overpriced and they can not be purchased.
Small circulating amount and pool underlying technologies are the defects of altcoins. Focusing on the latitude of "speculation", leveraged ETF can boost the development of mainstream currency while meeting the fluctuation demand and the utilization rate of its own funds (multiplied).
If someone is very confident about the market trend of mainstream currencies, they can use long or short ETF to gain profits.
Some users may already know something about leveraged ETF and some even have never heard of it. Next, MXC Exchange will explain in detail the use of ETF:
Now leveraged ETF on MXC Exchange supports the following products:
BTC3L/USDT、BTC3S/USDT、ETH3L/USDT、ETH3S/USDT、EOS3L/USDT、EOS3S/USDT。
BTC3L refers to 3-times buy (long) of BTC. The "L" here stands for "Long". In the same sense, BTC3S refers to 3-times sell (short) of BTC. The "S" here stands for "Short".
For example, if a user has bought BTC3L product, and the price of BTC (the underlying asset of BTC3L) now increases by 10%, then the leverage ETF product - BTC3L will correspondingly rise by 30%. On the contrary, if BTC falls by 10%, the BTC3L will also decreased by 30%.
In addition, BTC3S reversed ETF is also called "short ETF" or "bearish ETF". It provides the opposite performance of an index. Reverse ETF can also do 3-times leverage to amplify the performance caused by index drop. For example, if the price of BTC falls by 5%, then BTC3S will rise by 15%. If the price of BTC increases by 5%, BTC3S will falls by 15%.
Nevertheless, as for the primary investors with poor risk resistance, they should avoid using leverage and reverse ETF. If investors are confident in their judgment of market trends, such as the upgrade of Ethereum, the halving of bitcoin production, and the impact of Voice on EOS launch, leveraged ETF is a relatively practical tool.
In addition, unlike contract of high leverages, there is no forced liquidation for leveraged ETF products. There is a rebalancing system designed by the team of MXC Exchange. This system can adjust the investment portfolios for the leverage ETF products periodically to ensure the generally constant leverage times. Generally, the rebalance will be carried out in every 24 hours. Under special circumstances when price of the underlying asset undergoes great fluctuation which surpass the largest setting value (At the beginning, that is 15% for the losing side. In the future, the value may be different.), the team will carry out the rebalancing mechanism to control the risks of the investment portfolios.
The rebalancing mechanism is available for the losing side to protect the traders' interest. If the BTC rises by 15%, the rebalancing system will work for the trader of BTC3S product.
According to the ETF intraday price rise and fall calculation table provided by the rebalancing mechanism of MXC Exchange, the double opening of long and short positions may have the special effect of avoid risks or even making small profits:
For example, suppose people spend $100 for BTC3L, and $100 for BTC3S. When the BTC increases by 100%, their BTC3L will increases by 300% (that's $300). There is still remain $5.21 of their BTC3S product. After the deduction of the cost, people still earn $105.21. Though it is uncommon to witness the 100% gain of BTC, people cannot get rid of the possibility.
In general, when a bull market starts, people can also configure some leveraged ETF products since it will magnify user's returns and maximize the asset use rate, which are totally different from altcoins.
In 2019, the competition among exchanges are fiercer than before. However, MXC Exchange has established a good reputation in the industry with its high-quality services and smooth trading experience. In addition, the innovative launch of the leveraged ETF products for major currencies like BTC, ETH, and EOS directly meets the demand of large number of users.
Leveraged ETF is a product for both long-term and short-term investment of major currencies.
Organization: MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTDEmail:[email protected]
Lily800-2365-8932Website:www.mxc.com
SOURCE:MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTD
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/571542/Mxc-Leverage-and-ETF-Launch-Simultaneously--Major-Coins-Is-Booming || Mxc Leverage and ETF Launch Simultaneously - Major Coins Is Booming: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 28, 2019 / Recently, MXC Exchange launched a leveraged ETF product - the 3x leverage Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) for BTC, ETH and EOS. Both long and short ones are available, and there is no forced liquidation. Crypto investors say "this is a product that will help users magnify their returns". According to the statistics, most retail crypto investors have only small positions on major currencies in their investment portfolios. This is due to the fact that major currencies are typically less volatile than altcoins. Instead, some small projects with high potentials are more popular among retail investors because their price are more volatile. Therefore, the bad coins drive out good ones. Compared with mainstream currency, altcoins are more prone to market situations where commodities are overpriced and they can not be purchased. Small circulating amount and pool underlying technologies are the defects of altcoins. Focusing on the latitude of "speculation", leveraged ETF can boost the development of mainstream currency while meeting the fluctuation demand and the utilization rate of its own funds (multiplied). If someone is very confident about the market trend of mainstream currencies, they can use long or short ETF to gain profits. Some users may already know something about leveraged ETF and some even have never heard of it. Next, MXC Exchange will explain in detail the use of ETF: Now leveraged ETF on MXC Exchange supports the following products: BTC3L/USDT 、 BTC3S/USDT 、 ETH3L/USDT 、 ETH3S/USDT 、 EOS3L/USDT 、 EOS3S/USDT 。 BTC3L refers to 3-times buy (long) of BTC. The "L" here stands for "Long". In the same sense, BTC3S refers to 3-times sell (short) of BTC. The "S" here stands for "Short". For example, if a user has bought BTC3L product, and the price of BTC (the underlying asset of BTC3L) now increases by 10%, then the leverage ETF product - BTC3L will correspondingly rise by 30%. On the contrary, if BTC falls by 10%, the BTC3L will also decreased by 30%. Story continues In addition, BTC3S reversed ETF is also called "short ETF" or "bearish ETF". It provides the opposite performance of an index. Reverse ETF can also do 3-times leverage to amplify the performance caused by index drop. For example, if the price of BTC falls by 5%, then BTC3S will rise by 15%. If the price of BTC increases by 5%, BTC3S will falls by 15%. Nevertheless, as for the primary investors with poor risk resistance, they should avoid using leverage and reverse ETF. If investors are confident in their judgment of market trends, such as the upgrade of Ethereum, the halving of bitcoin production, and the impact of Voice on EOS launch, leveraged ETF is a relatively practical tool. In addition, unlike contract of high leverages, there is no forced liquidation for leveraged ETF products. There is a rebalancing system designed by the team of MXC Exchange. This system can adjust the investment portfolios for the leverage ETF products periodically to ensure the generally constant leverage times. Generally, the rebalance will be carried out in every 24 hours. Under special circumstances when price of the underlying asset undergoes great fluctuation which surpass the largest setting value (At the beginning, that is 15% for the losing side. In the future, the value may be different.), the team will carry out the rebalancing mechanism to control the risks of the investment portfolios. The rebalancing mechanism is available for the losing side to protect the traders' interest. If the BTC rises by 15%, the rebalancing system will work for the trader of BTC3S product. According to the ETF intraday price rise and fall calculation table provided by the rebalancing mechanism of MXC Exchange, the double opening of long and short positions may have the special effect of avoid risks or even making small profits: For example, suppose people spend $100 for BTC3L, and $100 for BTC3S. When the BTC increases by 100%, their BTC3L will increases by 300% (that's $300). There is still remain $5.21 of their BTC3S product. After the deduction of the cost, people still earn $105.21. Though it is uncommon to witness the 100% gain of BTC, people cannot get rid of the possibility. In general, when a bull market starts, people can also configure some leveraged ETF products since it will magnify user's returns and maximize the asset use rate, which are totally different from altcoins. In 2019, the competition among exchanges are fiercer than before. However, MXC Exchange has established a good reputation in the industry with its high-quality services and smooth trading experience. In addition, the innovative launch of the leveraged ETF products for major currencies like BTC, ETH, and EOS directly meets the demand of large number of users. Leveraged ETF is a product for both long-term and short-term investment of major currencies. Organization: MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTD Email: [email protected] Lily 800-2365-8932 Website: www.mxc.com SOURCE: MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTD View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/571542/Mxc-Leverage-and-ETF-Launch-Simultaneously--Major-Coins-Is-Booming || How to use prepaid cards to buy cryptocurrency: Prepaid cards are a simple and convenient way of paying for goods and services with the money you actually own. It’s now possible to use prepaid cards to buy cryptocurrency at many of the major exchanges. The fees charged tend to be higher than for bank transfers, but there are several reasons why some people are turning to prepaid cards. If you’re thinking of buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, or another digital currency with a prepaid card, read on to discover the steps you need to go through. What is a prepaid card? Prepaid cards, also known as everyday cards, work in a similar way to a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. You load them with cash when you first buy them and top them up when the cash starts to run out. Unlike a credit card, a major advantage of a prepaid card is you can’t run up debts on them. They only allow you to buy goods or services with the money you actually own. This makes them a useful budgeting tool and it means you don’t have to go through a credit checking process when you apply for one. Another benefit of not having a credit facility is that if you fall victim to a scam, your losses are limited to the amount of money on your card. Prepaid cards that have the MasterCard or Visa logo on them can be used anywhere that accepts these card scheme networks. Why use a prepaid card to buy crypto? A bank transfer is generally considered the best way to buy crypto because the fees are cheaper and it carries less risk than paying by card. For some people, however, paying by card is an easier and more convenient option. Using a card enables you to buy crypto instantly, whereas with a bank transfer it can take around three to five days for the crypto to reach your account. Many crypto exchanges accept traditional debit and credit card payments, but these have their drawbacks. Buying cryptocurrency with a credit card is an especially risky strategy. According to a survey by LendEDU, more than a fifth of investors who used a credit card to buy Bitcoin didn’t pay off their purchases straight away. Story continues Planning to use profits from Bitcoin – or any other cryptocurrency – to pay off a card balance is risky because there is a high chance the value of Bitcoin will plummet. Equally, many banks offer overdraft facilities alongside debit cards, which means you can essentially use them like a credit card by borrowing from the bank. A prepaid card enables you to buy crypto with a card but without the risk of spending more money than you have and being unable to pay it back. How to use a prepaid card to buy crypto There are lots of cryptocurrency exchanges that enable you to buy crypto with a prepaid card. The process is pretty much the same as buying crypto with a debit or credit card – you just need to make sure you’ve loaded your prepaid card with sufficient funds. When you’re comparing exchanges, one of the main things to look out for is how much they charge for card purchases. Fees are typically between 4% and 5%, whereas with a bank transfer, the fee could be less than 1%. Once you’ve selected an exchange, the first step is to download and install a wallet that supports your chosen cryptocurrency. You’ll then need to register for an account at the exchange – a process which will most likely include providing ID documents to prove it is you. Once you’re registered, you can select your preferred payment method option – in this case credit/debit card – and add your prepaid card. It’s worth noting that some exchanges don’t support cards without an associated billing address. When your card is added, you can then buy your chosen coins using the cash on your prepaid card. It’s important to withdraw your crypto and transfer it to your digital wallet to keep it safe and secure. Conclusion Using a prepaid card isn’t the cheapest way of buying cryptocurrency, but it’s an appealing option for those seeking a fast, simple, and convenient method of making purchases without spending more money than you own. The post How to use prepaid cards to buy cryptocurrency appeared first on Coin Rivet . || How to use prepaid cards to buy cryptocurrency: Prepaid cards are a simple and convenient way of paying for goods and services with the money you actually own. It’s now possible to use prepaid cards to buy cryptocurrency at many of the major exchanges. The fees charged tend to be higher than for bank transfers, but there are several reasons why some people are turning to prepaid cards. If you’re thinking of buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, or another digital currency with a prepaid card, read on to discover the steps you need to go through. What is a prepaid card? Prepaid cards, also known as everyday cards, work in a similar way to a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. You load them with cash when you first buy them and top them up when the cash starts to run out. Unlike a credit card, a major advantage of a prepaid card is you can’t run up debts on them. They only allow you to buy goods or services with the money you actually own. This makes them a useful budgeting tool and it means you don’t have to go through a credit checking process when you apply for one. Another benefit of not having a credit facility is that if you fall victim to a scam, your losses are limited to the amount of money on your card. Prepaid cards that have the MasterCard or Visa logo on them can be used anywhere that accepts these card scheme networks. Why use a prepaid card to buy crypto? A bank transfer is generally considered the best way to buy crypto because the fees are cheaper and it carries less risk than paying by card. For some people, however, paying by card is an easier and more convenient option. Using a card enables you to buy crypto instantly, whereas with a bank transfer it can take around three to five days for the crypto to reach your account. Many crypto exchanges accept traditional debit and credit card payments, but these have their drawbacks. Buying cryptocurrency with a credit card is an especially risky strategy. According to a survey by LendEDU, more than a fifth of investors who used a credit card to buy Bitcoin didn’t pay off their purchases straight away. Story continues Planning to use profits from Bitcoin – or any other cryptocurrency – to pay off a card balance is risky because there is a high chance the value of Bitcoin will plummet. Equally, many banks offer overdraft facilities alongside debit cards, which means you can essentially use them like a credit card by borrowing from the bank. A prepaid card enables you to buy crypto with a card but without the risk of spending more money than you have and being unable to pay it back. How to use a prepaid card to buy crypto There are lots of cryptocurrency exchanges that enable you to buy crypto with a prepaid card. The process is pretty much the same as buying crypto with a debit or credit card – you just need to make sure you’ve loaded your prepaid card with sufficient funds. When you’re comparing exchanges, one of the main things to look out for is how much they charge for card purchases. Fees are typically between 4% and 5%, whereas with a bank transfer, the fee could be less than 1%. Once you’ve selected an exchange, the first step is to download and install a wallet that supports your chosen cryptocurrency. You’ll then need to register for an account at the exchange – a process which will most likely include providing ID documents to prove it is you. Once you’re registered, you can select your preferred payment method option – in this case credit/debit card – and add your prepaid card. It’s worth noting that some exchanges don’t support cards without an associated billing address. When your card is added, you can then buy your chosen coins using the cash on your prepaid card. It’s important to withdraw your crypto and transfer it to your digital wallet to keep it safe and secure. Conclusion Using a prepaid card isn’t the cheapest way of buying cryptocurrency, but it’s an appealing option for those seeking a fast, simple, and convenient method of making purchases without spending more money than you own. The post How to use prepaid cards to buy cryptocurrency appeared first on Coin Rivet . || MXC launched PoS pool, more "Cloud Miners" work on MXC Exchange: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 27, 2019 /With the development of network technology and the richness of network products, a new group of the netizen is emerging-they are called "Cloud Players". With the convenience provided by the network, they can enjoy the happiness of others without walking out of their room.
In the crypto world, there is also an emerging group of "Cloud Miners". While the old miners are busy for purchasing rocket-high-price mine machines and the high-performance servers, mining by consuming a large amount of electric power and earning the few token rewards by contributing the mere TPS as the node of projects, the "Cloud Miners" have already started cloud mining and Staking, to break the door of the traditional mining world.
What is Staking and how to participate?
Briefly speaking, Staking is proof of staking---It gains earnings by pledge the tokens of your own via proof of right. What is different is that the dividend earners do not have to purchase the dear network server, set complex mining programs, pack trading information, maintain the normal operation of the network, or participate in community governance like the miners in the past time. What they just have to do is simply to deposit the token or coin to the designated exchange, wallet or PoS pool. With time goes by, the token deposited will generate interest (usually the interest is the same as the token deposited).
In other words, it is more likely that you deposit your money into a bank, and the bank will pay you the interest after a period of time. If we put aside the variation of the exchange rate, you are earning the money without any loss.
Since PoS became popular with EOS being the supernode, there are a large number of projects supporting PoS now like Suter, DOS, SERO, etc. some even with an estimated annualized rate as high as 50%. Staking has become an irrevocable trend in the cryptocurrency market.
To some extent, the scale and coverage of cloud computation power and online PoS have greatly surpassed the expectations for the small and delicate mining fields. Their influence is already closed to those Internet magnates of great scale. With competition intensifying, the factors of fundraising scale and speed & quality of block generation has become as important as the sight of investment and the judgment of details; building a profitable cloud mining system has become as important as the success of the project.
Currently, we can join PoS via the following ways:
1) PoS Pool of Exchanges
As one of the world's leading blockchain companies, MXC Exchange has long been established by its PoS businesses. There are two kinds of PoS on MXC PoS Pool, one of them is the Savings. Users who have the position of the token supported by the Savings, like PCX, BHD or VSYS, are able to join it and gain dividends with an estimated annualized interest rate from 66.66% to 1.88%. There is no lock for Savings, so users can trade or withdrawal at any time.
The other kind is the PoS Stakings. The tokens in Stakings will be locked for a certain period of time, but its interest rate is usually higher than Savings. For example, the annualized interest rate of SUTER is as high as 50%, nevertheless, it has a relatively longer locking period-locking at least for 30 days.
However, there are also tokens with a high-interest rate but a short locking period. For example, DOS has an annualized interest rate of 48% with a minimum locking period of only 5 days. Users can diversify their investment by joining these high yields but lower risk programs.
2) HashQuark
HashQuark is a mining pool focusing on the public chain of PoS, DPoS, and other consensus mechanisms. It has a professional background and rich experience. In addition to Cosmos, HashQuark has become the creation node and supernode of many public chains including IRISnet, Cybex, CyberMiles, V-SYSTEMS, VeChain, etc. and users of imToken have the opportunity to obtain higher and stable Staking income.
There are many PoS validators on the market, but HashQuark is first-class in terms of security risk control and team background.
To solve the security problem, HashQuark and SlowMist, the top-notch security agency, jointly launched Cosmos's certifier defense solution. It has a complete solution for DDoS attacks, node intrusions, software and hardware crash, and leakage of node-related keys. Besides, HashQuark adheres to the traditional bank-level internal risk control standards by setting up dedicated network lines to ensure security.
It is worth mentioning that HashQuark was funded and established by Hong Kong Fintech company HashKey Group, and Xiao Feng, chairman of HashQuark, is also the chairman of HashKey Group.
3) Cobo Wallet
The Cobo wallet was founded by Shenyu. The reason why it stands out among a large number of wallets, on the one hand, is based on its good reputation in the industry, on the other, it is its unique deposit-to-gain-interest function, which is what we call PoS. At present, Such projects as DASH, VET, DCR are available on the Cobo wallet.
In the words of Shenyu: "The wallet is a pure technology investment and there are no ways for profit. Besides, there are a lot of asset security issues." But when it combines with PoS Staking, a business logic that has never been imagined has formed.
In addition, there are a large number of cloud PoW miners in the industry who are rushing to the mining industry day and night.
Cloud Computing Power is Becoming a Trend
In the initial stage of Bitcoin mining, personal computers were able to mine. It was the era of "everyone mining". However, with the development of the industry, the scattered miners shifted and converged into mining pools which gathered distributed computing power. Mining has become professional and large-scale industrial entities, and the threshold for personal mining is becoming increasingly high.
Compared to PoS staking, PoW cloud mining has actually sprung up as early as 2013, and its business logic is relatively complete. In the entire cloud computing power ecosystem, there are chip manufacturers and mining machine manufacturers in the upstream, mines and mining pools in the midstream, and miners in the downstream. The mining machine manufacturer sells the mining machine to the miners, and the coins mined by the miners are sold in the secondary market. This relatively primitive operation method may be the only few self-consistent business models other than an exchange.
With the gradual scale of PoW mining, intensive large computing power will become more and more common, and an individual miner will become virtually very hard to survive. Cloud computing products, however, provide an effective way to lower the threshold of the mining industry.
This will allow more people to share the results of the mining industry's growth, and at the same time allow a wider user group to participate in this industry, and further implement the spirit of the blockchain.
Nowadays, both PoS and PoW mining has entered the era of scale and intensiveness. Some merchants are laying large-scale mines in areas with low electricity costs (even setting up small power stations themselves). With a scale economy, the price of the mining machine is lower. Besides, the merchants choose to build the machines at well-designed rooms in areas of the best geographical and temperature advantages to improve energy efficiency. Though these measures, the revenue of users is greatly improved.
Cloud computing power helps mining companies access online traffic and industry resources such as mines and mining pools. They obtain profit by leasing computing power to users. These are the "cloud players" in the blockchain industry.
If mining can become a booster for the industry, its impact on the entire industry is undoubtedly huge. In addition to policy bottlenecks, the number of participants is also an important aspect that hinders the development of the industry. Perhaps the mining industry can attract more people to enter the blockchain industry through tangible benefits.
Contact information
Name: Jed LiCompany Name: MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTDEmail:[email protected]:www.mxc.com
SOURCE:MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTD
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/571465/MXC-launched-PoS-pool-more-Cloud-Miners-work-on-MXC-Exchange || MXC launched PoS pool, more "Cloud Miners" work on MXC Exchange: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 27, 2019 / With the development of network technology and the richness of network products, a new group of the netizen is emerging-they are called "Cloud Players". With the convenience provided by the network, they can enjoy the happiness of others without walking out of their room. In the crypto world, there is also an emerging group of "Cloud Miners". While the old miners are busy for purchasing rocket-high-price mine machines and the high-performance servers, mining by consuming a large amount of electric power and earning the few token rewards by contributing the mere TPS as the node of projects, the "Cloud Miners" have already started cloud mining and Staking, to break the door of the traditional mining world. What is Staking and how to participate? Briefly speaking, Staking is proof of staking---It gains earnings by pledge the tokens of your own via proof of right. What is different is that the dividend earners do not have to purchase the dear network server, set complex mining programs, pack trading information, maintain the normal operation of the network, or participate in community governance like the miners in the past time. What they just have to do is simply to deposit the token or coin to the designated exchange, wallet or PoS pool. With time goes by, the token deposited will generate interest (usually the interest is the same as the token deposited). In other words, it is more likely that you deposit your money into a bank, and the bank will pay you the interest after a period of time. If we put aside the variation of the exchange rate, you are earning the money without any loss. Since PoS became popular with EOS being the supernode, there are a large number of projects supporting PoS now like Suter, DOS, SERO, etc. some even with an estimated annualized rate as high as 50%. Staking has become an irrevocable trend in the cryptocurrency market. To some extent, the scale and coverage of cloud computation power and online PoS have greatly surpassed the expectations for the small and delicate mining fields. Their influence is already closed to those Internet magnates of great scale. With competition intensifying, the factors of fundraising scale and speed & quality of block generation has become as important as the sight of investment and the judgment of details; building a profitable cloud mining system has become as important as the success of the project. Story continues Currently, we can join PoS via the following ways: 1) PoS Pool of Exchanges As one of the world's leading blockchain companies, MXC Exchange has long been established by its PoS businesses. There are two kinds of PoS on MXC PoS Pool, one of them is the Savings. Users who have the position of the token supported by the Savings, like PCX, BHD or VSYS, are able to join it and gain dividends with an estimated annualized interest rate from 66.66% to 1.88%. There is no lock for Savings, so users can trade or withdrawal at any time. The other kind is the PoS Stakings. The tokens in Stakings will be locked for a certain period of time, but its interest rate is usually higher than Savings. For example, the annualized interest rate of SUTER is as high as 50%, nevertheless, it has a relatively longer locking period-locking at least for 30 days. However, there are also tokens with a high-interest rate but a short locking period. For example, DOS has an annualized interest rate of 48% with a minimum locking period of only 5 days. Users can diversify their investment by joining these high yields but lower risk programs. 2) HashQuark HashQuark is a mining pool focusing on the public chain of PoS, DPoS, and other consensus mechanisms. It has a professional background and rich experience. In addition to Cosmos, HashQuark has become the creation node and supernode of many public chains including IRISnet, Cybex, CyberMiles, V-SYSTEMS, VeChain, etc. and users of imToken have the opportunity to obtain higher and stable Staking income. There are many PoS validators on the market, but HashQuark is first-class in terms of security risk control and team background. To solve the security problem, HashQuark and SlowMist, the top-notch security agency, jointly launched Cosmos's certifier defense solution. It has a complete solution for DDoS attacks, node intrusions, software and hardware crash, and leakage of node-related keys. Besides, HashQuark adheres to the traditional bank-level internal risk control standards by setting up dedicated network lines to ensure security. It is worth mentioning that HashQuark was funded and established by Hong Kong Fintech company HashKey Group, and Xiao Feng, chairman of HashQuark, is also the chairman of HashKey Group. 3) Cobo Wallet The Cobo wallet was founded by Shenyu. The reason why it stands out among a large number of wallets, on the one hand, is based on its good reputation in the industry, on the other, it is its unique deposit-to-gain-interest function, which is what we call PoS. At present, Such projects as DASH, VET, DCR are available on the Cobo wallet. In the words of Shenyu: "The wallet is a pure technology investment and there are no ways for profit. Besides, there are a lot of asset security issues." But when it combines with PoS Staking, a business logic that has never been imagined has formed. In addition, there are a large number of cloud PoW miners in the industry who are rushing to the mining industry day and night. Cloud Computing Power is Becoming a Trend In the initial stage of Bitcoin mining, personal computers were able to mine. It was the era of "everyone mining". However, with the development of the industry, the scattered miners shifted and converged into mining pools which gathered distributed computing power. Mining has become professional and large-scale industrial entities, and the threshold for personal mining is becoming increasingly high. Compared to PoS staking, PoW cloud mining has actually sprung up as early as 2013, and its business logic is relatively complete. In the entire cloud computing power ecosystem, there are chip manufacturers and mining machine manufacturers in the upstream, mines and mining pools in the midstream, and miners in the downstream. The mining machine manufacturer sells the mining machine to the miners, and the coins mined by the miners are sold in the secondary market. This relatively primitive operation method may be the only few self-consistent business models other than an exchange. With the gradual scale of PoW mining, intensive large computing power will become more and more common, and an individual miner will become virtually very hard to survive. Cloud computing products, however, provide an effective way to lower the threshold of the mining industry. This will allow more people to share the results of the mining industry's growth, and at the same time allow a wider user group to participate in this industry, and further implement the spirit of the blockchain. Nowadays, both PoS and PoW mining has entered the era of scale and intensiveness. Some merchants are laying large-scale mines in areas with low electricity costs (even setting up small power stations themselves). With a scale economy, the price of the mining machine is lower. Besides, the merchants choose to build the machines at well-designed rooms in areas of the best geographical and temperature advantages to improve energy efficiency. Though these measures, the revenue of users is greatly improved. Cloud computing power helps mining companies access online traffic and industry resources such as mines and mining pools. They obtain profit by leasing computing power to users. These are the "cloud players" in the blockchain industry. If mining can become a booster for the industry, its impact on the entire industry is undoubtedly huge. In addition to policy bottlenecks, the number of participants is also an important aspect that hinders the development of the industry. Perhaps the mining industry can attract more people to enter the blockchain industry through tangible benefits. Contact information Name: Jed Li Company Name: MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTD Email: [email protected] Website: www.mxc.com SOURCE: MXC PRO FOUNDATION LTD View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/571465/MXC-launched-PoS-pool-more-Cloud-Miners-work-on-MXC-Exchange || PreMarket Prep Recap: Who Let The Bulls Out?: For the final PreMarket Prep of 2019, we invited a few of our favorite guests from the year to share a bullish pick and bearish pan for 2020. To say the sentiment was overwhelmingly bullish for the broad market would be a gross understatement. Herer's what our guests are forecasting, with timestamps from each guest appearance in parentheses. JC Parets, All Star Charts (14:05) Pick - Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN ) will go “at least 50% higher,” Parets said. That would put the issue at $2,803 by the end of 2020. Pan - 20 Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ: TLT ). Parets sees a major rise in interest rates, with the 10-year Treasury rate going from its current rate of 1.9% to 3%. This would have a very negative effect on bonds and utilities. Chirstian Fromhertz, Tribeca Trade Group (27:00) Pick - Emerging markets or MSCI Emerging Market ETF (NYSE: EEM ). Fromhertz said it’s time for emerging markets to play “catch-up” to the U.S. markets. Pan - GameStop Corp . (NYSE: GME ) Anne-Marie Baiynd, The Trading Book (36:25) Pick - Cyberark Software Ltd (NASDAQ: CYBR ), or more broadly, the Prime Cyber Security ETF (NYSE: HACK ). Baiynd is betting on companies increasing their spending on cybersecurity, and she likes the $118 level Cyberark is ending 2019 at. Pan - Bitcoin or the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTC: GBTC ). While she likes cryptocurrency as an idea, Baiynd said governments will eventually step in and squash them out in favor of fiat currency. Dan Forman, Executive Director At Olivetree Financial (45:10) Pick - Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ: AMBA ). Forman sees Ambarella as a direct play on surveillance technology and self-driving cars. Pan - Forman said he would shy away from legacy technology issues such as Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (NYSE: HPE ) that have “zero growth.” Kenny Glick, Hitthebid.com (53:45) Pick - Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (NASDAQ: QQQ ). Sticking with a fund he's been long since the financial crisis, Glick sees the QQQ rising to $250 next year. Story continues Pan - United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X ). Glick says U.S. Steel is “Going to zero.” It's a classic “revenge trade” for him, emanating from a previous long trade earlier in the year. Listen to the full segments with each guest in the podcast below, or watch the clip on Youtube here. PreMarket Prep is a daily trading show hosted by prop trader Dennis Dick and former floor trader Joel Elconin. You can watch PreMarket Prep live every day from 8-9 a.m. ET here. The replay can be found on Benzinga's YouTube channel, and the podcast is on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Tunein. 0 See more from Benzinga PreMarket Prep Recap: Qiagen Pulls The Rug Out From Investors Banking On A Deal, Bad Data Equals Bad Price Action For Spectrum Pharmaceuticals PreMarket Prep Recap: The Importance Of PRs, FedEx Downgrade And Interviews With A Tesla Bear And Bull PreMarket Prep Recap: $TSLAQ Crowd Continues To Be Punished, Eli Lilly's Incredible Friday Open © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || PreMarket Prep Recap: Who Let The Bulls Out?: For the final PreMarket Prep of 2019, we invited a few of our favorite guests from the year to share a bullish pick and bearish pan for 2020. To say the sentiment was overwhelmingly bullish for the broad market would be a gross understatement.
Herer's what our guests are forecasting, with timestamps from each guest appearance in parentheses.
JC Parets,All Star Charts(14:05)
Pick-Amazon.com Inc(NASDAQ:AMZN) will go “at least 50% higher,” Parets said. That would put the issue at $2,803 by the end of 2020.
Pan-20 Year Treasury Bond ETF(NASDAQ:TLT). Parets sees a major rise in interest rates, with the 10-year Treasury rate going from its current rate of 1.9% to 3%. This would have a very negative effect on bonds and utilities.
Chirstian Fromhertz,Tribeca Trade Group(27:00)
Pick-Emerging markets or MSCI Emerging Market ETF(NYSE:EEM). Fromhertz said it’s time for emerging markets to play “catch-up” to the U.S. markets.
Pan-GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME)
Anne-Marie Baiynd,The Trading Book(36:25)
Pick-Cyberark Software Ltd(NASDAQ:CYBR), or more broadly, thePrime Cyber Security ETF(NYSE:HACK). Baiynd is betting on companies increasing their spending on cybersecurity, and she likes the $118 level Cyberark is ending 2019 at.
Pan- Bitcoin or theGrayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC)(OTC:GBTC). While she likes cryptocurrency as an idea, Baiynd said governments will eventually step in and squash them out in favor of fiat currency.
Dan Forman, Executive Director At Olivetree Financial (45:10)
Pick-Ambarella Inc(NASDAQ:AMBA). Forman sees Ambarella as a direct play on surveillance technology and self-driving cars.
Pan- Forman said he would shy away from legacy technology issues such asHewlett-Packard Enterprises(NYSE:HPE) that have “zero growth.”
Kenny Glick,Hitthebid.com(53:45)
Pick-Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1(NASDAQ:QQQ). Sticking with a fund he's been long since the financial crisis, Glick sees the QQQ rising to $250 next year.
Pan-United States Steel Corporation(NYSE:X). Glick says U.S. Steel is “Going to zero.” It's a classic “revenge trade” for him, emanating from a previous long trade earlier in the year.
Listen to the full segments with each guest in the podcast below, or watch the clip on Youtube here.
PreMarket Prep is a daily trading show hosted by prop trader Dennis Dick and former floor trader Joel Elconin. You can watch PreMarket Prep live every day from 8-9 a.m. ET here. The replay can be found on Benzinga's YouTube channel, and the podcast is on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Tunein.
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• PreMarket Prep Recap: The Importance Of PRs, FedEx Downgrade And Interviews With A Tesla Bear And Bull
• PreMarket Prep Recap: $TSLAQ Crowd Continues To Be Punished, Eli Lilly's Incredible Friday Open
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Litecoin Soars 100% In Bullish Trade: Investing.com - Litecoin was trading at $420,890.159 by 14:01 (19:01 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, up 99.99% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since December 27.
The move upwards pushed Litecoin's market cap up to $2.652B, or 1.34% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Litecoin's market cap was $14.099B.
Litecoin had traded in a range of $39.763 to $421,092.541 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Litecoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 3.33%. The volume of Litecoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $3.185B or 3.93% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $39.4474 to $421,092.5313 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Litecoin is still down 0.05% from its all-time high of $421,092.53 set on December 27.
Bitcoin was last at $7,272.5 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.13% on the day.
Ethereum was trading at $125.40 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 2.72%.
Bitcoin's market cap was last at $133.207B or 67.09% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $13.943B or 7.02% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
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Chinese Regulators Worry About Crypto Resurgence, Issue New Warning || Litecoin Soars 100% In Bullish Trade: Investing.com - Litecoin was trading at $420,890.159 by 14:01 (19:01 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, up 99.99% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since December 27. The move upwards pushed Litecoin's market cap up to $2.652B, or 1.34% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Litecoin's market cap was $14.099B. Litecoin had traded in a range of $39.763 to $421,092.541 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Litecoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 3.33%. The volume of Litecoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $3.185B or 3.93% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $39.4474 to $421,092.5313 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Litecoin is still down 0.05% from its all-time high of $421,092.53 set on December 27. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $7,272.5 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.13% on the day. Ethereum was trading at $125.40 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 2.72%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $133.207B or 67.09% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $13.943B or 7.02% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Twitch Users Can Now Tip Streamers With MenaPay Stablecoin Litecoin Jumps 27% In a Green Day Chinese Regulators Worry About Crypto Resurgence, Issue New Warning || Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover: Bitcoin failed to deliver the Christmas cheer many were expecting as a strong push back from $7,400 saw the worlds most dominant cryptocurrency looking dangerously like spending the remainder of the festive period battling to stay above $7,000. Things had appeared decidedly buoyant on Christmas Eve as $7,600 looked like it was going to be the springboard that would propel BTC above $8,000 in time for its 11 th birthday. However, the ghost of Christmas past saw history repeating itself as trading volume suddenly rose late on Christmas Eve driving downward movement and quickly knocking £300 off the price. Within 24 hours, Bitcoin was unsteady on its feet and the defence of $7,200 began. As most people were sleeping off Christmas Day dinner, BTC was trying to shake off its own hangover as it picked up from a Yuletide low of $7,125 to propel towards a slightly healthier-looking $7,325. The Boxing Day sales spirit looked to be offering further recovery, as the previous days leftovers helped the price shift up a gear to $7,350. But, like a cheap Christmas toy, it didnt last long. Bitcoin began this morning below $7,200, and even briefly crashed under $7,100 before retracing quickly up to $7.2k a line that looks likely to be revisited time and time again as the market fights hard for ground above $7,000. Put an ear to the trading communities and youll hear equal echoes of bear trap and bull trap as those looking for some seasonal shorts place their bets. One thing this does betray though, is a definite lift in trading volume a key indicator that theres plenty of life in the market, even in the holiday period. Fools errand That boost of activity will often suggest a lift in price but, as always with BTC, predicting the future is a fools errand. That said, a deep look at the market over the last 12 hours or so tells us theres clearly some buying volume offering enough enthusiasm to take BTC back above the realms of $7.5k, but theres also enough push-back to stamp those endeavours down below $7,000, should the momentum be present. In fact, a quick straw poll of online experts and troll boxes would suggest most of the smart money is on a price drop and the portents are certainly giving a nod of approval to that possibility. Of course, theres also a likelihood that the two forces could mirror one anothers efforts and simply spend the remainder of 2019 in a fruitless tug-of-war over $7,200. Either way, its fair to say Bitcoin will end the year the way it began jittery and twitching with no real clue of where its going. Story continues What to watch out for in 2020
Top five crypto trends to watch out for in 2020 By Christina Comben December 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover: Bitcoin failed to deliver the Christmas cheer many were expecting as a strong push back from $7,400 saw the worlds most dominant cryptocurrency looking dangerously like spending the remainder of the festive period battling to stay above $7,000. Things had appeared decidedly buoyant on Christmas Eve as $7,600 looked like it was going to be the springboard that would propel BTC above $8,000 in time for its 11 th birthday. However, the ghost of Christmas past saw history repeating itself as trading volume suddenly rose late on Christmas Eve driving downward movement and quickly knocking £300 off the price. Within 24 hours, Bitcoin was unsteady on its feet and the defence of $7,200 began. As most people were sleeping off Christmas Day dinner, BTC was trying to shake off its own hangover as it picked up from a Yuletide low of $7,125 to propel towards a slightly healthier-looking $7,325. The Boxing Day sales spirit looked to be offering further recovery, as the previous days leftovers helped the price shift up a gear to $7,350. But, like a cheap Christmas toy, it didnt last long. Bitcoin began this morning below $7,200, and even briefly crashed under $7,100 before retracing quickly up to $7.2k a line that looks likely to be revisited time and time again as the market fights hard for ground above $7,000. Put an ear to the trading communities and youll hear equal echoes of bear trap and bull trap as those looking for some seasonal shorts place their bets. One thing this does betray though, is a definite lift in trading volume a key indicator that theres plenty of life in the market, even in the holiday period. Fools errand That boost of activity will often suggest a lift in price but, as always with BTC, predicting the future is a fools errand. That said, a deep look at the market over the last 12 hours or so tells us theres clearly some buying volume offering enough enthusiasm to take BTC back above the realms of $7.5k, but theres also enough push-back to stamp those endeavours down below $7,000, should the momentum be present. In fact, a quick straw poll of online experts and troll boxes would suggest most of the smart money is on a price drop and the portents are certainly giving a nod of approval to that possibility. Of course, theres also a likelihood that the two forces could mirror one anothers efforts and simply spend the remainder of 2019 in a fruitless tug-of-war over $7,200. Either way, its fair to say Bitcoin will end the year the way it began jittery and twitching with no real clue of where its going. Story continues What to watch out for in 2020
Top five crypto trends to watch out for in 2020 By Christina Comben December 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover: Bitcoin failed to deliver the Christmas cheer many were expecting as a strong push back from $7,400 saw the worlds most dominant cryptocurrency looking dangerously like spending the remainder of the festive period battling to stay above $7,000. Things had appeared decidedly buoyant on Christmas Eve as $7,600 looked like it was going to be the springboard that would propel BTC above $8,000 in time for its 11 th birthday. However, the ghost of Christmas past saw history repeating itself as trading volume suddenly rose late on Christmas Eve driving downward movement and quickly knocking £300 off the price. Within 24 hours, Bitcoin was unsteady on its feet and the defence of $7,200 began. As most people were sleeping off Christmas Day dinner, BTC was trying to shake off its own hangover as it picked up from a Yuletide low of $7,125 to propel towards a slightly healthier-looking $7,325. The Boxing Day sales spirit looked to be offering further recovery, as the previous days leftovers helped the price shift up a gear to $7,350. But, like a cheap Christmas toy, it didnt last long. Bitcoin began this morning below $7,200, and even briefly crashed under $7,100 before retracing quickly up to $7.2k a line that looks likely to be revisited time and time again as the market fights hard for ground above $7,000. Put an ear to the trading communities and youll hear equal echoes of bear trap and bull trap as those looking for some seasonal shorts place their bets. One thing this does betray though, is a definite lift in trading volume a key indicator that theres plenty of life in the market, even in the holiday period. Fools errand That boost of activity will often suggest a lift in price but, as always with BTC, predicting the future is a fools errand. That said, a deep look at the market over the last 12 hours or so tells us theres clearly some buying volume offering enough enthusiasm to take BTC back above the realms of $7.5k, but theres also enough push-back to stamp those endeavours down below $7,000, should the momentum be present. In fact, a quick straw poll of online experts and troll boxes would suggest most of the smart money is on a price drop and the portents are certainly giving a nod of approval to that possibility. Of course, theres also a likelihood that the two forces could mirror one anothers efforts and simply spend the remainder of 2019 in a fruitless tug-of-war over $7,200. Either way, its fair to say Bitcoin will end the year the way it began jittery and twitching with no real clue of where its going. Story continues What to watch out for in 2020
Top five crypto trends to watch out for in 2020 By Christina Comben December 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Crypto Taxes — A Game Of Big Cats And Many Mice: This year, the media storm that the whole crypto space had been in for the better part of 2017 has felt more like a soft and calm summer breeze. This might be because the meteoric rise in attention and value of blockchain projects has made way for an equally meteoric fall in 2018, also in attention and value. This, in turn, might have lead to mistrust and disinterest of many formerly enthused—and probably formerly rich—tech journalists.
This radio silence, save for a few sprinkled bits of negativity, makes one thing very surprising: bitcoin was one of the highest performing assets of 2019. Even including the recent downturn, the asset has about doubled in value this year.
This is great news for everyone who joined at the beginning of this year. But what happens when you want to spend some of your gains? When converting bitcoin back to fiat (or USD), you have to pay taxes on your gains.
So far, the IRS has been fairly lenient in the monitoring and prosecution of Crypto tax evasion. However, the wind is changing. There is a yearly potential of more than 10 billion USD in untapped tax revenue that the IRS might be missing out on.
To drive this point home, imagine that you bought all bitcoin on December 1, 2018, and have sold everything exactly one year later (ignoring the impossibility of this feat). How many taxes would you have to pay?
According to Coinmarketcap, the market cap of Bitcoin on Dec 1, 2018, was around 70 billion USD. One year later, on Dec 1 of 2019, it was closer to 140 billion USD. Therefore, the gains you would have realized would be around 70 billion USD. Even when calculating with a low tax rate of around 15%, that would leave around 10 Billion USD in taxes. While you would be pretty annoyed at that bill, there is one agency that would be very happy to take that money. Ten billion USD in taxes is a lot of gains for the IRS.
And since blockchains are public and cannot be altered or manipulated by design, all transactions connected to a name at any point in time can be indisputably identified.
Paired with the media talking about illegal action such as drug and weapons trading, it is not surprising that the IRS has taken note. Going after illegal drug and weapon markets sounds much more positive than looking for tax evasion.
In its annual report of 2019, which is only about 75 pages long, the words “bitcoin” and “crypto” are mentioned a total of 43 times. After a recap of the last 100 years and a letter of the Chief, the first topic on the agenda of the report is that of “cyber crimes”. In it, the IRS talks about tools that other agencies and NGOs are already using such as “Digital currency identification (bitcoin wallets, etc.)” and “extraction of data from proprietary financial software (tax preparation, accounting, payroll, point of sale systems, custom databases, etc.)”
This means that the IRS is going to take taxation of cryptos much more seriously.
With the attention that this is getting, it is to be expected that they will get to each and every relevant transaction and address sooner or later.
It is, therefore, becoming more and more important to file your taxes correctly. To make sure that you get to the bottom of your tax report before the IRS does, you can use one of the available coin tracking platforms.Accointingas one of them also offers a tax report that can be automatically generated and saves a lot of time and effort in calculating your yearly gains.
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• The 5 Biggest Trends In Cryptocurrency For 2020
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Crypto Taxes — A Game Of Big Cats And Many Mice: This year, the media storm that the whole crypto space had been in for the better part of 2017 has felt more like a soft and calm summer breeze. This might be because the meteoric rise in attention and value of blockchain projects has made way for an equally meteoric fall in 2018, also in attention and value. This, in turn, might have lead to mistrust and disinterest of many formerly enthused—and probably formerly rich—tech journalists. This radio silence, save for a few sprinkled bits of negativity, makes one thing very surprising: bitcoin was one of the highest performing assets of 2019. Even including the recent downturn, the asset has about doubled in value this year. This is great news for everyone who joined at the beginning of this year. But what happens when you want to spend some of your gains? When converting bitcoin back to fiat (or USD), you have to pay taxes on your gains. So far, the IRS has been fairly lenient in the monitoring and prosecution of Crypto tax evasion. However, the wind is changing. There is a yearly potential of more than 10 billion USD in untapped tax revenue that the IRS might be missing out on. To drive this point home, imagine that you bought all bitcoin on December 1, 2018, and have sold everything exactly one year later (ignoring the impossibility of this feat). How many taxes would you have to pay? According to Coinmarketcap, the market cap of Bitcoin on Dec 1, 2018, was around 70 billion USD. One year later, on Dec 1 of 2019, it was closer to 140 billion USD. Therefore, the gains you would have realized would be around 70 billion USD. Even when calculating with a low tax rate of around 15%, that would leave around 10 Billion USD in taxes. While you would be pretty annoyed at that bill, there is one agency that would be very happy to take that money. Ten billion USD in taxes is a lot of gains for the IRS. And since blockchains are public and cannot be altered or manipulated by design, all transactions connected to a name at any point in time can be indisputably identified. Story continues Paired with the media talking about illegal action such as drug and weapons trading, it is not surprising that the IRS has taken note. Going after illegal drug and weapon markets sounds much more positive than looking for tax evasion. In its annual report of 2019, which is only about 75 pages long, the words “bitcoin” and “crypto” are mentioned a total of 43 times. After a recap of the last 100 years and a letter of the Chief, the first topic on the agenda of the report is that of “cyber crimes”. In it, the IRS talks about tools that other agencies and NGOs are already using such as “Digital currency identification (bitcoin wallets, etc.)” and “extraction of data from proprietary financial software (tax preparation, accounting, payroll, point of sale systems, custom databases, etc.)” This means that the IRS is going to take taxation of cryptos much more seriously. With the attention that this is getting, it is to be expected that they will get to each and every relevant transaction and address sooner or later. It is, therefore, becoming more and more important to file your taxes correctly. To make sure that you get to the bottom of your tax report before the IRS does, you can use one of the available coin tracking platforms. Accointing as one of them also offers a tax report that can be automatically generated and saves a lot of time and effort in calculating your yearly gains. Show Advertiser Disclosure See more from Benzinga The 5 Biggest Trends In Cryptocurrency For 2020 © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Flying Cars, Hyperloops and the Other 2020 Tech Predictions That Didn’t Pan Out: (Bloomberg) -- Predicting the future is hard, even for the people with the most power to influence it. In 2013, Jeff Bezos said he expected Amazon.com Inc. would be delivering packages by drone in four to five years. Here we are seven years later, the flying delivery robots Bezos envisioned are still at the testing stage and have just started to get regulatory approval in the U.S. Corporate fortune telling is a common practice in the technology industry, and executives tend to choose round numbers as deadlines for their technological fantasies. So, as 2019 draws to a close and we approach a new decade, let’s take a look back at how some of the tech industry’s predictions for 2020 fared. 1. Computer chips will consume almost no energy Gordon Moore was famous for his foresight about the development of cheaper and more advanced computers. Intel Corp., the company he co-founded, stayed in the prognostication game years after Moore retired, with mixed results. In 2012, Intel predicted a form of ubiquitous computing that would consume almost zero energy by 2020. The date is almost here, and phones still barely last a day before needing a recharge. The i9, Intel’s latest top-of-the-line computer chip, requires 165 watts of energy. That’s more than twice as much as a 65-inch television. 2. Nine out of 10 people over age 6 will own a mobile phone In 2014, Ericsson Mobility estimated that 90% of people on earth over 6 years old would own a mobile phone by 2020. This is a hard one to measure, but a visit to developing countries suggests we are nowhere close. Research firm Statista puts global penetration at 67%. One milestone achieved this decade is the number of mobile subscriptions exceeded the world’s population for the first time, according to data compiled by the World Bank. The statistic is skewed by people who use multiple devices. Concern about the potential harmful effects of video game and social-media overuse by children may mean this never happens. There's now a national movement in the U.S. encouraging parents to wait until kids are in the eighth grade (age 13) before letting them have a smartphone. Story continues 3. Jet.com will break even Jet.com was an embodiment of the startup unicorn, before that was even a term. Marc Lore started the online retailer after selling his previous company to Amazon. Jet would challenge Lore’s former employer by offering cheaper prices on products with a subscription that substantially undercut Prime. To do that, Jet quickly started burning through the more than $700 million it had raised from venture capitalists, and critics said the startup had no path to profitability. In response, Lore said on Bloomberg TV in 2015 that Jet would break even by 2020. Walmart Inc. swooped in a year after that interview and bought Jet for $3.3 billion. According to news site Vox, Walmart is projecting a loss of more than $1 billion this year for its U.S. e-commerce division, now led by Lore. 4. The first 60-mile hyperloop ride will take place In 2013, Elon Musk outlined his vision for a new “fifth mode of transportation” that would involve zipping people through tubes at speeds as fast as 800 miles per hour. Several tech entrepreneurs heeded Musk’s call and went to work on such systems inspired by the billionaire’s specifications. In 2015, one of the leading startups predicted a hyperloop spanning about 60 miles would be ready for human transport by 2020. Rob Lloyd, then the CEO of Hyperloop Technologies, told Popular Science: “I’m very confident that’s going to happen.” It hasn’t. His company, now called Virgin Hyperloop One, has a 1,600-foot test track in California and hopes to build a 22-mile track in Saudi Arabia someday. Musk has since experimented with hyperloops of his own, and even he has had to scale back his ambitions. Musk’s Boring Co. is building a so-called Loop system in Las Vegas, starting with a nearly mile-long track that consists of a narrow tunnel and Tesla cars moving at up to 155 miles per hour. 5. Google’s cloud business will eclipse advertising Selling cloud services became a big business for Amazon, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. over the last decade. Google executive Urs Hölzle saw the shift coming and in 2015 predicted Google’s cloud revenue would supersede advertising by 2020. Alphabet Inc.’s Google has inched closer to Amazon Web Services since then, but it’ll take a lot to outgrow Google’s cash cow. The cloud is expected to represent almost 15% of revenue for Google this year, compared with 85% for ads. 6. Huawei will make a ‘superphone’ Here’s what Huawei Technologies Co. said in 2015 predicting a “superphone” by 2020, according to ZDNet: “Inspired by the biological evolution, the mobile phone we currently know will come to life as the superphone,” said Shao Yang, a strategy marketing president of Huawei. “Through evolution and adaptation, the superphone will be more intelligent, enhancing and even transforming our perceptions, enabling humans to go further than ever before.” It’s not entirely clear what that means, but it probably hasn’t happened yet. In the interim, Huawei found itself in the middle of a trade war, and the Chinese company is focusing largely on mid-priced phones for its domestic market. 7. Toyota will make fully self-driving cars Auto and tech companies alike became convinced this decade that computers would soon be able to drive cars more reliably than people. In 2015, Toyota Motor Corp. made a companywide bet that it would have autonomous highway-driving cars on the road by 2020. It didn’t take long for the hype cycle to veer off course. In 2018, a pedestrian died after colliding with an Uber self-driving car. In 2020, Toyota’s Lexus brand will introduce a car capable of driving autonomously on the highway, but executives acknowledged that auto companies “are revising their timeline for AI deployment significantly.” 8. A Bitcoin will be worth $1 million John McAfee, the controversial computer antivirus mogul and an influential voice in the cryptocurrency community, predicted the price of Bitcoin would reach $1 million by the end of 2020. McAfee posted the estimate in November 2017, about three weeks before a crash would erase 83% of value over the next year. Bitcoin has recovered somewhat, but the current price of about $7,200 is far from McAfee’s magic number. Like other Bitcoin bulls, McAfee is standing by his unlikely prediction. If he’s wrong, McAfee said he’ll eat an intimate body part. 9. Dyson will sell an electric car It was barely two years ago when the maker of blowdryers and vacuum cleaners said it would sell an electric car by 2020. Dyson canceled the project this year, calling it “not commercially viable.” 10. Uber will deploy flying cars When Uber Technologies Inc. pledged to deliver on a promise of the Jetsons, it gave itself just three years to do so. The company still intends to hold flight demonstrations in 2020, but it’s safe to say you will not be able to hail a flying Uber in the next year. The company continues to explore the concept with regulators. This year, Uber added a form of flying vehicle that’s not particularly cutting edge: It’s booking helicopter rides in New York City. Last Friday, Uber said it was working with a startup, Joby Aviation, to develop “aerial ride-sharing” and set a deadline of 2023. Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted: “Getting closer ...” --With assistance from Ian King. To contact the author of this story: Mark Milian in San Francisco at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Pollack at [email protected], Alistair BarrTom Giles For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || Flying Cars, Hyperloops and the Other 2020 Tech Predictions That Didn’t Pan Out: (Bloomberg) -- Predicting the future is hard, even for the people with the most power to influence it. In 2013, Jeff Bezos said he expected Amazon.com Inc. would be delivering packages by drone in four to five years. Here we are seven years later, the flying delivery robots Bezos envisioned are still at the testing stage and have just started to get regulatory approval in the U.S.
Corporate fortune telling is a common practice in the technology industry, and executives tend to choose round numbers as deadlines for their technological fantasies. So, as 2019 draws to a close and we approach a new decade, let’s take a look back at how some of the tech industry’s predictions for 2020 fared.
1. Computer chips will consume almost no energy
Gordon Moore was famous for his foresight about the development of cheaper and more advanced computers. Intel Corp., the company he co-founded, stayed in the prognostication game years after Moore retired, with mixed results. In 2012, Intel predicted a form of ubiquitous computing that would consume almost zero energy by 2020. The date is almost here, and phones still barely last a day before needing a recharge. The i9, Intel’s latest top-of-the-line computer chip, requires 165 watts of energy. That’s more than twice as much as a 65-inch television.
2. Nine out of 10 people over age 6 will own a mobile phone
In 2014, Ericsson Mobility estimated that 90% of people on earth over 6 years old would own a mobile phone by 2020. This is a hard one to measure, but a visit to developing countries suggests we are nowhere close. Research firm Statista puts global penetration at 67%. One milestone achieved this decade is the number of mobile subscriptions exceeded the world’s population for the first time, according to data compiled by the World Bank. The statistic is skewed by people who use multiple devices. Concern about the potential harmful effects of video game and social-media overuse by children may mean this never happens. There's now a national movement in the U.S. encouraging parents to wait until kids are in the eighth grade (age 13) before letting them have a smartphone.
3. Jet.com will break even
Jet.com was an embodiment of the startup unicorn, before that was even a term. Marc Lore started the online retailer after selling his previous company to Amazon. Jet would challenge Lore’s former employer by offering cheaper prices on products with a subscription that substantially undercut Prime. To do that, Jet quickly started burning through the more than $700 million it had raised from venture capitalists, and critics said the startup had no path to profitability. In response, Lore said on Bloomberg TV in 2015 that Jet would break even by 2020. Walmart Inc. swooped in a year after that interview and bought Jet for $3.3 billion. According to news site Vox, Walmart is projecting a loss of more than $1 billion this year for its U.S. e-commerce division, now led by Lore.
4. The first 60-mile hyperloop ride will take place
In 2013, Elon Musk outlined his vision for a new “fifth mode of transportation” that would involve zipping people through tubes at speeds as fast as 800 miles per hour. Several tech entrepreneurs heeded Musk’s call and went to work on such systems inspired by the billionaire’s specifications. In 2015, one of the leading startups predicted a hyperloop spanning about 60 miles would be ready for human transport by 2020. Rob Lloyd, then the CEO of Hyperloop Technologies, told Popular Science: “I’m very confident that’s going to happen.” It hasn’t. His company, now called Virgin Hyperloop One, has a 1,600-foot test track in California and hopes to build a 22-mile track in Saudi Arabia someday. Musk has since experimented with hyperloops of his own, and even he has had to scale back his ambitions. Musk’s Boring Co. is building a so-called Loop system in Las Vegas, starting with a nearly mile-long track that consists of a narrow tunnel and Tesla cars moving at up to 155 miles per hour.
5. Google’s cloud business will eclipse advertising
Selling cloud services became a big business for Amazon, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. over the last decade. Google executive Urs Hölzle saw the shift coming and in 2015 predicted Google’s cloud revenue would supersede advertising by 2020. Alphabet Inc.’s Google has inched closer to Amazon Web Services since then, but it’ll take a lot to outgrow Google’s cash cow. The cloud is expected to represent almost 15% of revenue for Google this year, compared with 85% for ads.
6. Huawei will make a ‘superphone’
Here’s what Huawei Technologies Co. said in 2015 predicting a “superphone” by 2020, according to ZDNet: “Inspired by the biological evolution, the mobile phone we currently know will come to life as the superphone,” said Shao Yang, a strategy marketing president of Huawei. “Through evolution and adaptation, the superphone will be more intelligent, enhancing and even transforming our perceptions, enabling humans to go further than ever before.” It’s not entirely clear what that means, but it probably hasn’t happened yet. In the interim, Huawei found itself in the middle of a trade war, and the Chinese company is focusing largely on mid-priced phones for its domestic market.
7. Toyota will make fully self-driving cars
Auto and tech companies alike became convinced this decade that computers would soon be able to drive cars more reliably than people. In 2015, Toyota Motor Corp. made a companywide bet that it would have autonomous highway-driving cars on the road by 2020. It didn’t take long for the hype cycle to veer off course. In 2018, a pedestrian died after colliding with an Uber self-driving car. In 2020, Toyota’s Lexus brand will introduce a car capable of driving autonomously on the highway, but executives acknowledged that auto companies “are revising their timeline for AI deployment significantly.”
8. A Bitcoin will be worth $1 million
John McAfee, the controversial computer antivirus mogul and an influential voice in the cryptocurrency community, predicted the price of Bitcoin would reach $1 million by the end of 2020. McAfee posted the estimate in November 2017, about three weeks before a crash would erase 83% of value over the next year. Bitcoin has recovered somewhat, but the current price of about $7,200 is far from McAfee’s magic number. Like other Bitcoin bulls, McAfee is standing by his unlikely prediction. If he’s wrong, McAfee said he’ll eat an intimate body part.
9. Dyson will sell an electric car
It was barely two years ago when the maker of blowdryers and vacuum cleaners said it would sell an electric car by 2020. Dyson canceled the project this year, calling it “not commercially viable.”
10. Uber will deploy flying cars
When Uber Technologies Inc. pledged to deliver on a promise of the Jetsons, it gave itself just three years to do so. The company still intends to hold flight demonstrations in 2020, but it’s safe to say you will not be able to hail a flying Uber in the next year. The company continues to explore the concept with regulators. This year, Uber added a form of flying vehicle that’s not particularly cutting edge: It’s booking helicopter rides in New York City. Last Friday, Uber said it was working with a startup, Joby Aviation, to develop “aerial ride-sharing” and set a deadline of 2023. Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted: “Getting closer ...”
--With assistance from Ian King.
To contact the author of this story: Mark Milian in San Francisco at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Pollack at [email protected], Alistair BarrTom Giles
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – 27/12/19: Bitcoin rose by 0.17% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 0.78% fall from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $7,232.4.
A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to a mid-morning low $7,195.7 before making a move.
Steering clear of the first major support level at $7,124.13, Bitcoin rallied to an early evening intraday high $7,465.0.
Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $7,305.13 and the second major resistance level at $7,390.17.
A late sell-off saw Bitcoin slide back to a late intraday low $7,181.8 before finding support.
Steering clear of the first major support level, Bitcoin moved back through to $7,200 levels to end the day in the green.
The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of Bitcoin continuing to hold onto $7,000 levels.
For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend.
Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a mixed day for the majors.
Tezos and Litecoin bucked the trend on the day, with the pair falling by 2.62% and by 0.30% respectively.
The rest of the pack saw green, with Bitcoin Cash ABC rising by 1.73% to lead the way.
Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.20), EOS (+1.65%), Stellar’s Lumen (+1.22%), and Tron’s TRX (+1.44%) also saw solid gains.
It was a more muted day for the rest, however. Binance Coin rose by 0.46%, with Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP up by 0.42% and 0.61% respectively.
Through the current week, the crypto total market cap hit a Monday high $200.48bn before sliding to a low $189.60bn on Thursday. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $190.61bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance continued to sit at 68% levels on Thursday. Trading volumes continued to fall short of $90bn levels seen on Monday, however. At the time of writing, volumes were at $75bn levels.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.31% to $7,255.0. A relatively bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $7,224.5 to a high $7,275.1.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, EOS led the way early on, rallying by 1.67%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.20%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.38%), and Tezos (+1.04%) also found strong support.
Binance Coin (+0.45%), Ethereum (+0.65%), Litecoin (+0.48%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.22%) saw more modest gains.
Bucking the trend early, however, were Ripple’s XRP (-0.01%) and Tron’s TRX (-0.12%).
Bitcoin would need to move through to $7,295 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,404.33.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $7,300 levels.
Barring an extended rally, the first major resistance level and Thursday’s high $7,465.0 would likely continue to cap any upside on the day.
Failure to move through to $7,295 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse.
A fall back through the morning low $7,224.5 would bring the first major support level at $7,121.13 into play.
Barring a broad-based sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $7,009.87.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• Gold Price Prediction – Gold Continues to Trend Higher || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – 27/12/19: Bitcoin rose by 0.17% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 0.78% fall from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $7,232.4. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to a mid-morning low $7,195.7 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $7,124.13, Bitcoin rallied to an early evening intraday high $7,465.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $7,305.13 and the second major resistance level at $7,390.17. A late sell-off saw Bitcoin slide back to a late intraday low $7,181.8 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level, Bitcoin moved back through to $7,200 levels to end the day in the green. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of Bitcoin continuing to hold onto $7,000 levels. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a mixed day for the majors. Tezos and Litecoin bucked the trend on the day, with the pair falling by 2.62% and by 0.30% respectively. The rest of the pack saw green, with Bitcoin Cash ABC rising by 1.73% to lead the way. Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.20), EOS (+1.65%), Stellar’s Lumen (+1.22%), and Tron’s TRX (+1.44%) also saw solid gains. It was a more muted day for the rest, however. Binance Coin rose by 0.46%, with Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP up by 0.42% and 0.61% respectively. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap hit a Monday high $200.48bn before sliding to a low $189.60bn on Thursday. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $190.61bn. Bitcoin’s dominance continued to sit at 68% levels on Thursday. Trading volumes continued to fall short of $90bn levels seen on Monday, however. At the time of writing, volumes were at $75bn levels. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.31% to $7,255.0. A relatively bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $7,224.5 to a high $7,275.1. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, EOS led the way early on, rallying by 1.67%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.20%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.38%), and Tezos (+1.04%) also found strong support. Binance Coin (+0.45%), Ethereum (+0.65%), Litecoin (+0.48%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.22%) saw more modest gains. Bucking the trend early, however, were Ripple’s XRP (-0.01%) and Tron’s TRX (-0.12%). For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through to $7,295 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,404.33. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $7,300 levels. Barring an extended rally, the first major resistance level and Thursday’s high $7,465.0 would likely continue to cap any upside on the day. Failure to move through to $7,295 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse. A fall back through the morning low $7,224.5 would bring the first major support level at $7,121.13 into play. Barring a broad-based sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $7,009.87. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: European Equities: Futures Point Northwards Fueled by Trade Optimism Trump Impeached in the House! Is It Time for Gold Now? Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Rally Significantly U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis – Closing Price Reversal Top Confirmed, 96.850 Next Downside Target Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Testing Major Retracement Zone at $1512.40 to $1526.40; Ripe for Closing Price Reversal Top Gold Price Prediction – Gold Continues to Trend Higher || Twitter Bug Exposed Millions of User Phone Numbers: A security researcher was able to use a bug in the Twitter Android app to identify millions of Twitter users, connecting their phone numbers to their Twitter IDs. The exploit could expose failures in the company’s two-factor authentication system and give other security developers pause.
According to aTechCrunchreport, the researcher,Ibrahim Balic, created randomized lists of phone numbers and sent them to Twitter.
“If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return,” he said.
Related:New Ransomware Tactic: Pay Us or the World Sees Your Keys
The user data allowed Balic to find phone numbers for many major Twitter “celebrities” including the private number of a “senior Israeli politician.”
“Upon learning of this bug, we suspended the accounts used to inappropriately access people’s personal information. Protecting the privacy and safety of the people who use Twitter is our number one priority and we remain focused on rapidly stopping spam and abuse originating from use of Twitter’s APIs,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
The bug exposed user accounts when Balic uploaded millions of phone numbers and asked Twitter to match them with users. Typically this interface is used only when new users install the app on their phone but, using a set of API calls, Balic was able to spoof this behavior. The resulting breach of privacy – essentially connecting real numbers to real Twitter handles – could reduce the efficacy of two-factor authentication schemes popular on financial applications and wallets.
Image via Shutterstock.
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[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 237.28, 237.41, 237.10, 233.35, 230.19, 222.93, 225.80, 225.87, 224.32, 224.95, 225.62, 222.88, 228.49, 229.05, 228.80, 229.71, 229.98, 232.40, 233.54, 236.82, 250.90, 249.28, 249.01, 244.61, 245.21, 243.94, 246.99, 244.30, 240.51, 242.80, 243.59, 250.99, 249.01, 257.06, 263.07, 258.62, 255.41, 256.34, 260.89, 271.91, 269.03, 266.21, 270.79, 269.23, 284.89, 293.11, 310.87, 292.05, 287.46, 285.83, 278.09, 279.47, 274.90, 273.61, 278.98, 275.83, 277.22, 276.05, 288.28, 288.70, 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59, 287.72, 284.65, 281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47, 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51, 257.98, 211.08, 226.68, 235.35, 232.57, 230.39, 228.17, 210.49.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-08-24]
Volume: 59220700, RSI (14-day): 27.77, 50-day EMA: 258.76, 200-day EMA: 259.71
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1153.40, Gold RSI: 64.76
Oil Price: 38.24, Oil RSI: 21.62
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
The 'Wolf of WhatsApp' wants to sell you penny stocks: (Paramount)The “pump and dump” scam is a classic stock trick.
Someone ruthlessly promotes a stock they hold, driving up the price based on artificial interest, and then sells before everyone realizes the interest was just manufactured.
Oftentimes, those stocks are “penny stocks,” which don’t trade on an exchange and are worth only a few cents a share.
Real life “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort was famous for perfecting the pump and dumpto the tune of millions of dollarsfor himself and his posse.
But on Friday a new cadre of penny stock villains struck, this time on the popular messaging app WhatsApp.
I first noticed the scam when a friend of mine posted this screenshot on Facebook along with the caption,“Umm...What? Someone got the serious wrong number on Whatsapp.”
(Facebook)
But I didn’t put the pieces of the scam together untilThe Awl’sJohn Herrmanpointed out that the spam seemed to be part of a coordinated pump and dump scheme.
AVRN is the stock sign for Avra, Inc., which is a digital currency (think Bitcoin) company.
And the scam seems to have been dastardly effective. As you can see from this chart from Yahoo Finance, the stock for Avra shot up at around 11 a.m. before crashing shortly thereafter:
(Yahoo Finance)
Some people were clearly fooled, and assuming the scammers timed it right and didn’t totally bungle the operation, they probably made some cash.
This isn’t the first time that potential pump and dumpers have used an innovative messaging medium to cut through the noise.Last month,Twitter shares spikedbased on a phony report on awebsite made to look like Bloomberg.com. The story had said that Twitter was fielding an offer to be taken over for $31 billion.
NOW WATCH:The story behind the famously offensive twitter account that parodies Wall Street culture
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• It's no longer all about ads — Here's how publishers, streaming sites, and apps are using subscriptions to boost revenues || The 'Wolf of WhatsApp' wants to sell you penny stocks: Leo DiCaprio Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount) The “pump and dump” scam is a classic stock trick. Someone ruthlessly promotes a stock they hold, driving up the price based on artificial interest, and then sells before everyone realizes the interest was just manufactured. Oftentimes, those stocks are “penny stocks,” which don’t trade on an exchange and are worth only a few cents a share. Real life “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort was famous for perfecting the pump and dump to the tune of millions of dollars for himself and his posse. But on Friday a new cadre of penny stock villains struck, this time on the popular messaging app WhatsApp. I first noticed the scam when a friend of mine posted this screenshot on Facebook along with the caption, “ Umm...What? Someone got the serious wrong number on Whatsapp.” Screen Shot 2015 08 21 at 5.38.03 PM (Facebook) But I didn’t put the pieces of the scam together until The Awl’s John Herrman pointed out that the spam seemed to be part of a coordinated pump and dump scheme. AVRN is the stock sign for Avra, Inc., which is a digital currency (think Bitcoin) company. And the scam seems to have been dastardly effective. As you can see from this chart from Yahoo Finance, the stock for Avra shot up at around 11 a.m. before crashing shortly thereafter: Screen Shot 2015 08 21 at 5.25.46 PM (Yahoo Finance) Some people were clearly fooled, and assuming the scammers timed it right and didn’t totally bungle the operation, they probably made some cash. This isn’t the first time that potential pump and dumpers have used an innovative messaging medium to cut through the noise. Last month, Twitter shares spiked based on a phony report on a website made to look like Bloomberg.com . The story had said that Twitter was fielding an offer to be taken over for $31 billion. NOW WATCH: The story behind the famously offensive twitter account that parodies Wall Street culture More From Business Insider Here's what to expect from the next iPhone's camera, according to a person who's making it Make no mistake — this is the opening of the 'China Decade' It's no longer all about ads — Here's how publishers, streaming sites, and apps are using subscriptions to boost revenues || What to watch on Monday: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final thoughts of the day.
Steve Grasso was watching the S&P 500(CME:Index and Options Market: .INX)'s technical levels.
David Seaburg was a buyer of TWTR(NYSE: TWTR).
Brian Kelly had his eye on the DXY(Exchange: .DXY).
Guy Adami was also watching key levels of the S&P 500(CME:Index and Options Market: .INX).
Trader disclosure: OnAugust 21, 2015the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; DAX, DXGE, ITB, TAN, TSL, TWTR call spread, U.S. Dollar; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, Euro, Ruble, Yen, Yuan. Today he bought DAX, DXGE, US Dollar. Today he sold VIX and Euro. Today he closed his CAC40 short position. Today he shorted Euro and Yen.Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. SteveGrasso is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, FIT, KBH, MJNA, MU, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX. His kids are long EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. His firm and some of its partners are long WLL, DNR, DVN, TWTR, NE, NEM, OXY, RIG, TSE, VALE.
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• Personal Finance || What to watch on Monday: The " Fast Money " traders gave their final thoughts of the day. Steve Grasso was watching the S&P 500 (CME:Index and Options Market: .INX) 's technical levels. David Seaburg was a buyer of TWTR (NYSE: TWTR) . Brian Kelly had his eye on the DXY (Exchange: .DXY) . Guy Adami was also watching key levels of the S&P 500 (CME:Index and Options Market: .INX) . Trader disclosure: On August 21, 2015 the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; DAX, DXGE, ITB, TAN, TSL, TWTR call spread, U.S. Dollar; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, Euro, Ruble, Yen, Yuan. Today he bought DAX, DXGE, US Dollar. Today he sold VIX and Euro. Today he closed his CAC40 short position. Today he shorted Euro and Yen. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, FIT, KBH, MJNA, MU, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX. His kids are long EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. His firm and some of its partners are long WLL, DNR, DVN, TWTR, NE, NEM, OXY, RIG, TSE, VALE. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Inside the 'conspiracy' that forced Dov Charney out of American Apparel: This is the story of how Dov Charney, founder of American Apparel, was kicked out of his own company. Sources inside the board meeting describe how Dov Charney's own directors ambushed him with a secret plot to remove him from the company. The board collected personal, texts, emails, and photos to create a dossier of Charney's habit of using company computers to "graphically document his sexual liaisons,” and used that as a bargaining chip against him. A secret internal investigation of Charney was conducted after the company was forced to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by a model he had been sleeping with. The company's CFO hatched a secret plan to sell the company without Charney's permission - but accidentally left a copy of the plan on an office photocopier. The company filed an SEC disclosure stating it wanted Charney to continue as chief when insiders knew the board was already discussing his removal. Charney signed up a hedge fund, Standard General, to back him in his fight to keep control of the company — but ultimately concluded the fund betrayed him. And Charney's prediction on the day he was fired came true: Without him, the company went into a death spiral. Dov Charney American Apparel (Dov Charney poses at The NASDAQ Stock Market in Times Square to ring the closing bell on September 15, 2006, in New York City.Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images) Dov Charney was feeling pretty good when he entered the conference room high up inside the Skadden Arps offices in Times Square. He was going to tell his board of directors — perched at eye level with the rooftops of Manhattan’s forest of midtown skyscrapers — that for the first time in years American Apparel's troubles were behind it. It was June 18, 2014, and, as CEO, Charney had just generated a record year of revenues for the fashion retailer — $634 million, an increase of 3%. And same-store sales were up 3%, too. He had also fixed problems at a massive product-distribution center that had crippled the company’s supply lines for months, crushing sales and driving up expenses. Story continues His lawyers had settled or dismissed several lawsuits from former employees and models alleging that Charney had sexually harassed them. One suit, which alleged Charney kept a model locked in his house for sex, turned out to be bogus. And he had staged a public offering of new stock that had raised $28.5 million, saving the company from bankruptcy. There was nothing but good news to deliver. So Charney, carrying a new running shoe he had designed, began the meeting with a presentation about how he was going to launch a line of sneakers. He laid about six of them out on the table. Within seconds he was interrupted by Allan Mayer, American Apparel’s board chairman. Mayer pushed the shoes aside. “Look, there’s something else we want to talk about,” Mayer said, according to a source who was in the room. He passed a couple of pieces of paper over the table to Charney. It was a termination letter. The board was firing Charney, the company's founder and CEO, who had led American Apparel for 25 years. The memo, later filed in court, alleged a long list of misdeeds by Charney: It said he allowed an employee to publish a blog defaming other former employees; he had given severance packages to several employees in order to stop them from suing; he refused to attend sexual-harassment training; he used company money for personal expenses, such as providing travel for family members. All of the above had significantly increased the company’s legal and insurance bills, the letter alleged: “You engaged in conduct that repeatedly put yourself in a position to be sued by numerous former employees for claims that include harassment, discrimination and assault.” “It was clear he was totally blindsided by this — he didn’t have a clue,” one person who was in the room says. Charney went ballistic: “This company will fall apart if I’m not running it!” Dov Charney (Dov Charney paces inside a conference room in the Skadden Arps building after learning that the board wants him out.Dov Charney) Hedge funds and porn stars This story is based on multiple accounts from people close to Charney, the board, American Apparel employees, and the company’s major shareholders. Several lawsuits have been filed over Charney’s removal, and evidence alleged in that litigation has been used to tell this story, too. Business Insider has also seen confidential documents, emails, photos, and texts associated with the litigation. Because of the fierce fighting — Charney has filed four lawsuits, and two employees and the company have all filed one each — no one wanted to talk on the record for this story. But people had plenty to say privately. What follows is an account of how the tide inside American Apparel began to turn against Charney in January 2014. It details how the board held secret discussions for weeks as it agonized over whether to get rid of him. It describes how his CFO allegedly sketched out a plan to oust Charney, and how that sketch was then obtained by Charney’s loyalists and used as evidence of the coup. (The plan has since been described in court filings.) And it describes how Charney was persuaded to sign a disastrous settlement that left him with no job and no control of the company, despite being the largest shareholder. American Apparel (Thomas Alleman) Today, Charney is distraught, enraged, humiliated, and vengeful. For years, he was the crown prince of the sexiest fashion company in America. He socialized with the hedge fund executives who funded his company. He did photo shoots with porn stars. His marketing budget was one of the largest in the retail-apparel business. His ads made headlines because they used ordinary women instead of professional models, and because they walked the line in terms of nudity. His girlfriends were the women in those ads, and many of them were decades younger (he is 46). He was a millionaire. He owned a beautiful house, high on a hill in Silver Lake, with a balcony overlooking the Los Angeles skyline. He was an impish, mad genius whose real life was like a male midlife-crisis fantasy. In person, Charney is by turns infuriating, charming, arrogant. He can cycle through manic and depressive phases within a single sentence. His retail empire was built with his own hands, in round-the-clock workdays, across three decades. Everyone who knows him agrees the success of American Apparel is 100% because of Charney. He is the epitome of hard work, old-school Jewish garment-trade moxie, and the American dream, all rolled into one. But that wasn’t enough to protect him. Secret dossier of sexual liaisons Allan Mayer (Board chairman Allan Mayer.WorldCommForumDavos / YouTube) It started with a board-commissioned investigation into Charney’s activities as CEO, conducted without his knowledge, which lasted four months. That probe eventually led to the creation of a dossier that has yet to be made public. It has been seen by only a few people inside the company, but two board members recently described some of it in court filings, and it is explosive. It allegedly details “Charney’s use of electronic storage media belonging to the Company for personal purposes to graphically document his sexual liaisons,” some of which occurred in his office. The company has alleged in court that it includes his personal, texts, emails, and photos. It also allegedly includes evidence of a police complaint filed by one model who claims she was sexually assaulted by Charney — a claim he denies. He was never charged. Charney believes he is the victim of a conspiracy, a palace coup in which his board filed false disclosures to the SEC saying they supported him as CEO while they were actually maneuvering to oust him. Charney also argues that the investigation was biased because it was conducted by people who wanted him out, and that he has never been charged with any crime or found guilty or liable for any of the accusations against him. Dov Charney (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni ) The board has yet to make the photos and messages public. In March, the SEC said it is investigating the company and its termination of Charney. The board denies wrongdoing. The outcome of the federal investigation could be crucial in determining whether Charney can get his company back. Since he was ousted, sales at the company have gone into free fall and it again faces bankruptcy . 'All of you are cowards — every single one of you' american apparel charney_apres_ski_ad (Charney, in one of his own ads.American Apparel) In the conference room in New York, Charney began to read the termination letter and make line-by-line protests against its allegations. After about an hour he texted Iris Alonzo, a longtime creative director who was working in the hallway outside, oblivious to what was happening to her boss. The text said something like "don't go anywhere, this is getting weird with these guys." Charney left the conference room, and the pair took a walk down a corridor to another Skadden conference room, where they shut the door. "They're trying to fire me, it's completely illegal, they don't know what they're doing, they have no idea how the company functions," Charney told her, according to sources who heard about it later. "They're out of their minds," Alonzo said. "We are going to get the whole company behind you, the entire management team is behind you." Charney and Alonzo spent the next 11 hours on the upper floors of the Skadden tower, begging, pleading and arguing with the board to reverse its position. While Charney raged at his directors, the company’s security team was instructed to shut down his email, cancel his access to the HQ building in Los Angeles, and cut off service to his corporate mobile phone, sources told us. At one point, during a break in the debate, Alonzo went into the conference room where the board was holed up. She was furious. “Jesus — this is crazy! Who do you think is going to run this company? You’d need five people to replace Dov,” she said, according to someone who was there. “You’re ripping the heart out of the company — you’re going to destroy the company. You don’t know this business, you haven’t spent more than an hour in the factory cumulatively in the last five years. Who are you, and what do you think you know?” She ended her tirade by saying, “All of you are cowards — every single one of you.” Allan Mayer asked her to leave. 'Tense bunch of hours' Everyone who spoke to Business Insider described the exchanges between Charney and the board as painful to hear. Although Mayer and David Danziger, another board member, had led the movement to prepare Charney’s ouster, they were acutely aware that this was Charney’s company. dov charney american apparel (An ad from Charney's early days at American Apparel.American Apparel) The company was his entire life’s work. “It was a tense bunch of hours. We sat in that room going well into the evening. There was a lot of discussion going back and forth, and none of us really knew how it was going to end,” one person said. There was nothing Charney could do. The other members of the board had agreed the night before — without telling him — that he would be fired, a source who knew about it says. The letter was already drawn up and dated. The board meeting had only one real purpose: to present Charney with an ultimatum, according to confidential documents seen by Business Insider: Charney could either accept a $4.5 million severance package and the new title of “creative director,” for which he would also be paid $500 per hour. It would not look as if he had been fired, merely moved into a new position with the company. The price of that package was that he had to sign over the voting rights to his 47 million shares, and resign as CEO. Or the board would remove him. "We all love you, and we know you are the hardest-working guy in the room," Danziger told Charney. "But we need to reposition the company and this is going to be good for you and the company." Said Robert Greene, another director, presumably referring to the value of Charney’s stock, if it went up: "You are a genius. You will get over $100 million out of this and start up a new business. (Their conversation was later repeated in court filings.) If he did not accept, the board told him, he would be fired “for cause” and walk out with nothing except his existing stock. The implication, from Charney’s point of view, was that there would be a storm of bad publicity. And, two sources told Business Insider, the dirt that the board referred to in its termination letter — the stuff about the sexual harassment and the misuse of corporate money — would be made public if he did not go quietly. Naked video leaked During another break, an increasingly desperate Charney called John Luttrell, his CFO, to see if he knew what to do. Luttrell expressed shock at the news. That was an odd reaction from Luttrell, three sources told us, because Mayer — the board chairman — had asked Luttrell earlier in secret if he was prepared to step up as the interim CEO if they got rid of Charney. Charney, who hired Luttrell in 2011 because he had previously been CFO at Old Navy and Wet Seal, later came to believe Luttrell was the mastermind who had first proposed getting rid of him, months earlier, in February of that year. Sources close to Luttrell regard this conspiracy theory as nonsense. On a bathroom break, Charney also called Minho Roth, an investor who held about 15% of the company's total shares. "I'm having a breakdown," Charney told Roth, according to someone within earshot. "These guys are trying to fire me!" By the end of the call Charney felt reassured: They'd put their shares together, kick out the existing board members, and make Charney CEO again. Charney owned about 27% of the company, and with Roth’s 15% they needed only a couple of other investors to join them. Charney’s belief that Roth would back him would become crucial later in his fight to regain control of the company, court documents show. Minho Roth 5T (Minho Roth, left, of FiveT Capital.Tomorrow-Focus.De / press handout) So Charney refused the "creative director" option. Sometime around 9 p.m., a statement went out to the press. The board suspended him immediately and declared its intent to fire him , after a 30-day contractual-notice period. Charney naked (A still from a video that was leaked showing Charney naked.ABC News / YouTube) At the same time, a new video of Charney appeared on the internet. It showed him dancing naked in his Los Angeles house, apparently filmed by a friend. No one knows how it got there, or why it was leaked at precisely that time. Charney believes it was a deliberate coincidence designed to humiliate him. By the next day, Luttrell had been named CEO, replacing Charney, who was technically “suspended.” 'Up against a wall' Most people don’t know that American Apparel came very close to bankruptcy in March 2014. The only official reference to it is in the company’s annual report for 2013, and it’s written in the generic boilerplate legalese that disguises the seriousness of what the company was required to warn: “We have experienced negative cash flows from operating activities in the past, and our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to enable us to service our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs.” The company was running on fumes. american apparel (Charney has always been very proud making his merchandise in his own factory in the US, and not outsourcing it from Asia.American Apparel) The problems went back years, and historically the company has lurched from crisis to crisis. Charney may have built the company, but he was never able to install a mature operational infrastructure to keep the company running smoothly. Part of the board's case against Charney was that he never hired or retained the kind of management bench strength that a company of its size needed. A lot of the company's problems were, ultimately, the responsibility of Charney. In 2009, for instance, there was an immigration audit of American Apparel's factory, and up to 1,800 people working without legal permission lost their jobs. The manufacturing base of the company had to be rebuilt from scratch. As sales fell, Charney ended up lending his own company $8.5 million in cash (and charging 6% interest). A company with a more robust HR department would never have hired those workers in the first place. Then, over the next few years, the company got stuck in an increasingly punitive debt cycle. In 2009, it received an $80 million loan from Lion Capital at 15% interest . In 2013, it did another deal with Lion, which carried an upper interest rate of 20% . Those are ridiculous interest rates, higher than many credit cards. Yet Charney signed off on them. In 2013, Charney let himself be persuaded into building a new product-distribution center in La Mirada, California, which cost $5 million. It was supposed to automate the way orders were sent out and thus make deliveries to stores and wholesalers faster and cheaper. Previously, product had been shipped directly from the factory with workers carrying it around, by hand, in cardboard boxes and trolleys, “like the 1950s,” a source said. The distribution center was CFO John Luttrell’s idea. It would require a capital expenditure of about $5 million but once running would save the company millions every year. Charney didn't believe the company had the resources to do it properly. But he said yes to it anyway, to avoid a conflict with the CFO he hired. Charney dog Screen Shot 2015 08 10 at 9.56.07 PM (Charney and his dog at home in LA.ABC News / YouTube) La Mirada turned into a disaster. The system for ordering the products didn’t communicate with the system for picking the products and packing them in boxes. "It couldn’t ship," a source who saw it told Business Insider. "It couldn’t ship a package!" "When I showed up at the distribution center it was such a sight, it was a mountain, a mountain of apparel — T-shirts and socks and belts and every single SKU that we had was in the center of the building on tables in boxes," a source who saw it said. "It was a like a bad laundry day 1,000 times over, just this enormous mountain. I think it was over 100,000 units just left in the center." american apparel (A shot of the chaos inside La Mirada.YouTube / Ana Zai) In the summer of 2013 Charney moved into the distribution center — literally building himself a bedroom there so he could work day and night — and spent about three months fixing the place. He got it up and running, but it cost American Apparel a further $15 million in expenses and lost sales , according to the company’s annual report. The company still booked a record year of revenues, but the loss on the bottom line was $106 million. By January 2014 it was clear to Charney that the company would not have enough cash to meet a $13.7 million interest payment on a bond it had issued the year before. The company had reported only $8 million in the bank at the close of 2013, a razor-thin margin for a business with a turnover of $634 million. If it were not for the La Mirada center, and the costs of fixing it, the company would have had about $20 million more on hand — more than enough to meet the $13.7 million debt payment. american apparel la mirada (YouTube / Ana Zai) In Q1 2014, sales decreased 1% to $137.1 million, and same-store sales went down 7%. Charney was losing control of the situation. "We were in one of our periodic liquidity crunches, and the company desperately needed to raise capital in March with an April deadline," a source familiar with the refinancing told Business Insider. "We were really up against the wall." 'I've known Dov a long time, and he often hears what he wants to hear' So Charney and Luttrell came to an agreement with the board: They would sell about 60 million new shares, and use the money to pay off the debt. With a bit of luck, if sales rose again in 2014, the debts would become less of a problem. The deal came with a downside for Charney: He owned 43% of the stock, a stake big enough to give him absolute control of the company. But the new stock sale would dilute his stake down to about 27%. LA Factory american apparel (American Apparel's LA factory.ABC News / YouTube) Charney, not wanting to lose his controlling percentage, asked the board for a guarantee that over time his stake would increase back up to 43%. Charney believes he had extracted this promise from the board before the equity was sold. But that’s not quite what happened. Rather, Charney was simply allowed to believe that he would regain control. "I’ve known Dov a long time and he often hears what he wants to hear," one source says. Charney was told "the board won’t consider anything until after the capital raise, but if you come to the board with a plan that’s all worked out and includes some performance metrics, the board will consider it." In other words, the board merely told Charney they would think about restoring his stake. The sale went ahead, and it netted $28.5 million — enough to keep the wolf from the door. But for the first time in years, Charney no longer had ownership control of the company. Charney house (Charney's house in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.ABC News) He was vulnerable. But he wasn't concerned because American Apparel’s seven board members — his bosses, technically — had mostly been picked by Charney himself, and he was the chairman. The board was regarded by outside investors as a cozy, pro-Charney place. These were the people who had heard years ago from the media that Charney was having sex with the models he recruited to appear in the company’s ad campaigns. They did nothing, even when some of the models sued. One, Irene Morales, appeared on TV to accuse Charney of locking her inside an apartment, and still the board made no moves against him. At other companies, the CEO would have been pushed out long ago if that happened. One source told us, jokingly, that the directors were so inactive the only changes they ever asked for in the company’s SEC disclosures were to update their biographies. That was why Charney felt confident that before the board meeting in the Skadden tower. Compared to the last few years, he had good news, and they should have been on his side. Charney turns a single T-shirt into a $600 million empire Charney young (A young Charney in his LA factory.YouTube / ABC News) Charney started his company as a student in the 1980s, carrying boxes of T-shirts across the border in trucks and on trains from America to Canada, where he lived (hence “American” Apparel). By the early 1990s his business had morphed into something more serious. It was still a one-man operation, but Charney showed up with his boxes of T-shirts at every regional US fashion trade show, promoting them to anyone who would listen. In the early '90s he was pushing a "Girly-T" shirt for girls. This was a sexy tight-fitted top. He called his brand "Classic Girl." The shirt came in one size. "I saw him at every single trade show," says someone who knew him then. "If there was a trade show happening, he was there. It was like, one T-shirt style, in two or three colors, in one size. It was a medium, one-sized T. He was like, 'Don’t worry, it will fit a woman from zero to size 8.' I was like, ‘I don’t get it.’ But he sold it.” American Apparel Catalogue Page 4 5. January 1997 (American Apparel) In the early '90s the fashion was grunge: baggy jeans and huge flannel shirts. By contrast, Charney’s shirt was a figure-hugging, fitted look. Charney guessed right. The "girly" T-shirt became a top-seller through the late '90s and early 2000s, morphing later into the "baby-doll" shirt which was cropped even shorter, as the trend for baggy clothes went away. The line developed, from a single shirt into American Apparel — 237 retail stores in 20 countries, and 10,000 employees. In 2005, Charney began selling leggings. The last time leggings were trendy was in the late '80s and early '90s. Back then, leggings were fundamentally underwear and worn underneath a skirt or with denim shorts and boots. Charney’s idea was to push leggings as outerwear, an alternative to jeans, without the skirt or shorts on top. Again, it was a prescient call. Women were apparently ready to wear butt-revealing underwear as outerwear. Leggings remain one of American Apparel’s best-selling wardrobe basics. Charney’s brilliance as a trendspotter is his ability to figure out exactly what teenage girls are willing to wear in order to most horrify their parents — and then sell that to them. This is the effect it had on sales, according to a document filed in the litigation: sales american apparel (Company sales in millions of dollars.Court documents) Another sex scandal In 2011, American Apparel ran into another crisis. Charney was sued by four women who alleged sexual assault or sexual harassment. Alyssa Ferguson, Kimbra Lo, Tesa Lubans DeHaven, and Irene Morales were all former employees or models for the company. In response, American Apparel published three blog posts detailing private photos, emails, and text messages sent between Charney and the women. Charney's termination letter alleges he knew these blogs were going to be published. The posts, which a source said the company officially promoted, appeared on services like Blogger and WordPress. They indicated that at some point the relationships were consensual, and not abusive as the lawsuits claimed. The photos on them were "not safe for work": In the case of Morales, emails and photos indicated she'd had a consensual sexual relationship with Charney for an extended period. In the case of Lo, a large batch of nude photos was published showing her obviously not being assaulted by Charney. The links were emailed to journalists who regularly covered the company. This PR retaliation, using personal, intimate photos was an unheard-of tactic for a publicly traded corporation. Companies usually prefer to litigate quietly until such cases go away. kimbra lo today.w1200.h630 (Kimbra Lo.Today Show) So the suits became huge news. Morales and Lo appeared on NBC's "Today" show to press their case. The company called it a “shakedown.” For a while, the cases went quiet. They were kicked out of the courts and sent to binding arbitration, a confidential nonjudicial process governed by the terms of American Apparel’s employment contracts. Some of Charney’s biggest defenders within the company are women. They regarded the plaintiffs as cynically taking advantage of consensual relations with Charney that had not turned out to their satisfaction. Charney was single and dated a lot of women, and while that was not to everyone’s taste it wasn’t a crime, these female employees say. They sympathize with Charney. Three female employees spoke to Business Insider. One said, “He has really been taken advantage of by women, who have taken advantage of the legal system, and the kind of power a woman can have in a sexual situation. I’ve known almost every woman who has filed against Dov and it’s digusting. It’s such a hard thing for someone to defend themselves about. Everyone thinks he’s a pervert ... he’s got this reputation he’ll never be able to live down, and for him to speak out and deny it, it’s almost impossible [for him].” The headlines were scandalous, but the board didn’t think it needed to act. “There was a lot of rumor and innuendo. You don’t fire the CEO of a public company based on rumor,” a source said. And the legal cases kept coming to nothing, another source said: “There had never been a finding of fact. He always denied them very convincingly. He was an easy target because he was very unconventional and outspoken. He was an easy target for allegations that weren’t necessarily based on anything real. At the time, there was nothing solid for the board to act on. No court of law, civil or criminal, had ever found he had committed an act that he had been accused of.” But that changed in the early part of 2014. A model wins an arbitration hearing At some point after the New Year of 2014, someone went to board chairman Allan Mayer and director David Danziger, who were both on the board’s audit committee, and told them to take another look at the legal settlements that were being made in the harassment cases. A pattern had emerged in the litigation: The cases would be filed in court. Charney’s lawyers would argue that the women had signed employment contracts that required “binding arbitration,” like an employment case and not a state court case. Arbitration is a non-public labor management process that generally produces much smaller damages awards than a trial by jury does. The process is also conducted in private, shielding it from the media. Once inside arbitration, Charney’s lawyers would then show that the women had signed agreements releasing Charney and the company from all legal claims. These releases helped the company get the cases thrown out completely, two sources close to the board say. Business Insider spoke to two employees who said they had signed such releases. They signed them after receiving bonuses or pay raises, and didn’t think they were unusual. Many people in the company were asked to sign releases promising they had no reason to sue the company, in order to get paid. In 2014, the strategy stopped working. More than one case ended up being settled. In 2014 and 2015, American Apparel paid a total of about $4.5 million to settle claims, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ferguson was awarded $1.8 million, according to court documents. (The sum is disputed by Charney’s lawyers who say most of the settlements were paid through insurance, at the insistence of the company’s insurance company.) Two other settlements were made that were confidential. irene morales (Irene Morales.Today Show) In the spring of 2014 — just as it was dawning on top management that the company was not going to be able to make its April bond payment — American Apparel paid at least $200,000, plus legal bills, to settle with Irene Morales, sources say, and court documents suggest the total may have reached $700,000. Morales was the 17-year-old model who had alleged she had been briefly locked inside Charney’s house – with the New York Post calling her a “sex slave.” But the settlement wasn’t over Morales’ sex claims. Those were rejected. Rather, the arbitration judge decided that the blogs which published her personal communications with Charney amounted to an impersonation of Morales. Sources told Business Insider that American Apparel staff had decided to create the posts based on advice from the company’s lawyers. They were written with Charney's knowledge, according to the board's termination letter (and a source told the New York Times the same thing ). Charney was getting massacred in the media. It seemed only fair to hit back with the truth — the women’s own sexy texts and emails to Charney, sources close to Charney say. Charney resisted the plan, according to a lawyer who advised the company. That lawyer was deposed during the litigation, according to a court document seen by Business Insider: "Everybody close to him was pressuring him. Everybody. ... I mean, Dov was sitting on photographs and e-mails … that completely refuted their allegations and he was not releasing them for personal reasons. They were private. He only did it after Kimbra Lo made her appearance [on TV], and after that the media coverage was just out of control." The legal advice — to publish the blogs – turned out to have huge unforeseen consequences for Charney: It made the company “vicariously liable” for the posts, the arbitration judge said. That finding of vicarious liability and the settlement that went with it — along with the news that staff were routinely being asked to file claims releases — was the turning point, two sources close to the board told Business Insider. "It was really outrageous, anytime someone got a raise or bonus or was leaving the company and getting severance, in order to get a paycheck they had to sign a release of all claims against the company," a source familiar with the board's thinking said. "If the board had been aware of that we would have put a stop to it." So, in March 2014 the board assigned Jones Day, a law firm, to investigate Charney without telling him. It had to be secret because if Charney had known, the board believes, he would have interfered or stopped the probe. Jones Day pulled all the legal files on Charney and began quietly interviewing employees. What they found was not good. Someone finds a secret plan to fire the CEO sitting in the office printer’s out-tray The legal bill for the Morales case was the least of American Apparel’s problems. A 2013 bond offering had left the company owing 13% interest with a 2% payment-in-kind, or PIK, on roughly $200 million in debt, due in April 2014. (A PIK is a type of deterrent provision installed in risky loans when the lender believes the borrower might not be able to make the basic interest payments.) So CFO John Luttrell attended the ICR XChange conference at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida, in January of 2014, to listen to new financing ideas. ICR is intended to provide a meeting place where analysts, companies and bankers can float investment plans, no matter how wildly speculative they may be. Luttrell could not have been a more different personality than Charney. Luttrell was an older, bookish accountant who preferred to spend time on his ranch in Sonoma, with his dog Jon-Jon and his horses. He arrived at the office with his shirt half-untucked, sources say, a crime at the fashion company. He was quiet and would leave the office early or work from home on Fridays, sources say, while Charney often worked late into the night. He didn’t fit in. The ICR conference — with its talk of bonds and cashflow and balance sheets — was much more Luttrell’s speed. marc cooper (Marc Cooper.Peter J Solomon) At the conference, Luttrell allegedly spoke to two investment bankers from Peter J. Solomon. Marc Cooper, one of the Solomon bankers, was overheard telling Luttrell that “American Apparel could be sold, but not with Dov Charney in the way,” according to court papers. Luttrell floated the idea past Charney, calling him one morning to ask if he would ever consider taking $100 million for his stake in the company. Charney wasn’t interested. On February 14, Luttrell sketched out a plan, typing it into a Word document. It was titled "Notes to David Danziger," the board member. Much of it has been quoted in court documents. Those who have seen the document say it contained a bullet-pointed list of problems with Charney, "who was incapable of managing a $700 million business." It ended with a proposed plan: "Remove CEO and replace with an interim replacement. Put the Company up for sale. Engage Peter Solomon." "This piece of paper had Dov’s name on it, other people’s names, some points of why maybe he shouldn’t be in charge, what’s been going on, the financials and La Mirada," says a source who read it. "Points of how things weren’t right there. Dov was to blame for La Mirada, Dov had hired people that shouldn’t be in charge of things, the financials, basically a rap sheet blaming Dov for a lot of things that had gone wrong with the company. It was two pages and the last point, on the last page, was 'solution - Jay Solomon taking over American Apparel.'" The paper also named people who had allegedly slept with Charney, three sources told Business Insider. In fairness to Lutrell, the idea that American Apparel might be better off without Charney was not an unusual belief in the investor community. The stock had peaked at $15 in late 2007, but by 2014 it was worth less than a dollar and in danger of being de-listed from NASDAQ, all under Charney's reign. CFOs have a duty to shareholders, and one way to boost the stock would be to shop the company with a new, turnaround CEO. That may not have been to Charney's taste, but it's not an unreasonable argument. Luttrell kept the memo a secret for months. Charney believes he used it as a primer to persuade board members like Danziger and Mayer that the company would be better off if it was sold without Charney. Why American Apparel (American Apparel) The note was discovered by accident, sitting on a company printer by an employee loyal to Charney. News of its existence spread quickly within the company's gossip mill. "Woah, where did you get this?" Charney said when he received a copy of it, according to sources inside the company. "This is crazy!" The employee also told Luttrell’s secretary that she had it. Immediately, Luttrell came over. "Has anyone else seen this?" he said. He was told no. "OK, keep it that way," he said. Luttrell then took the note and walked off, according to employees who witnessed the action. Tensions between Luttrell and Charney were coming to a head even before the note was printed. Luttrell “was just telling the chairman of the audit committee [David Danziger] that he was fed up, he wasn’t going to issue another '10-Q’ as long as Dov was CEO,” according to a source who overheard the conversation. A 10-Q is the quarterly earnings statement that all public companies must file with the SEC. If a company fails to file, it appears to investors that something must be very wrong — and that usually tanks the stock. Refusing to file a 10-Q is the most serious threat a CFO can make, short of going to the SEC as a whistleblower. The spring 2014 10-Q was filed on time, however. The company’s next SEC disclosure was much more crucial, and Charney now alleges in court documents that the company filed false information inside it — a potentially criminal offense under US law that can carry a prison sentence, if proven to be true. American Apparel Catalogue. January 1997 (American Apparel) On April 28, 2014, the company filed its “proxy” form, a notice to the SEC announcing its annual shareholders meeting, scheduled for June 18 at Skadden in New York. The form specifically recommended that Charney stay on as combined chairman and CEO. Charney believes that statement is false because the board had already assigned Jones Day in March to investigate him, and because John Luttrell’s February note shows he wanted Charney fired. Sources close to the board see it differently. Luttrell’s note is meaningless, they say. Even if Luttrell wanted Charney out, there were six other board members who needed to make that decision. "This notion that John is somehow been pulling the strings since February is nonsense," one person says. And the board wasn’t going to make a decision until after Jones Day finished investigating. When the proxy was filed, no decision had yet been made, they say, and thus it is not false. Jones Day only presented its findings to the board after the proxy was filed. "I can’t tell you how close to the wire we were even on making the final decision. So timing a had a lot to do with everything," one source says. And it wasn’t Luttrell’s note that persuaded the board Charney had to go — it was the legal liabilities arising from the sexual harassment suits, the board now says. The war room in Hell’s Kitchen Charney balcony Screen Shot 2015 08 10 at 9.55.14 PM (The view from the balcony at Charney's house.ABC News) After he was fired, Charney decided not return to LA. He was locked out of the building anyway. He chose instead to stay at an apartment in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, with Iris Alonzo, turning it into a war room from which he would fight the board. He immediately began working on a plan to get his company back — after all, he still had 27% of its stock. He needed more investors to come over to his side. If he could put together the votes from 51% of the stock, he could force the board to make him CEO again. He called Minho Roth of FiveT capital, a longtime Charney supporter who owned about 15% of the stock. Charney was confident that Roth would be on board because of their previous phone call the night he was fired. But Roth had talked to David Danziger, the board member, on June 20. Roth wanted to know why Charney had been fired two days earlier. But Danziger wouldn’t go into details, hinting ominously that “Roth that would understand the decision if he knew what the board knew,” Danziger later wrote in a court document. american apparel in bed with the boss 0 adbig 2 (Iris Alonzo (left) and Charney appear in an American Apparel ad.American Apparel) Roth decided then he would not support Charney in the fight . This devastated Charney, who believes that Danziger scared Roth away by slandering him, an accusation that Danziger is disputing in court. Charney turned next to Standard General, a hedge fund that had offered to lend the company money back in March (before the company chose instead to sell the stock that diluted Charney’s controlling stake). Charney had a series of phone conversations with Robert Lavan, an analyst at Standard General, including one while he was on vacation, climbing Machu Picchu in Peru. When Lavan got down from the mountain and got a signal on his phone, he discovered that Charney was freaking out about the “conspiracy” to fire him and frighten away his investors. Lavan tried to reassure him: He would fly back to New York, and the guys from Standard General would see what they could do. Lavan sent Charney a picture of himself on the summit of the Peruvian mountain with its ancient ruins in the background. “If I could do this, we can definitely take back APP,” his email said. Robert Lavan Macchu Screen (The photo of himself that Robert Lavan sent Charney from Peru.Court documents) A day or so later, Lavan and another Standard General member, David Glazek, came over to the Hell’s Kitchen apartment to find a dishevelled-looking Charney who had not slept properly for nearly a week. They hammered out a deal: It was basically a cash loan with warrants attached that required Standard General be paid back with Charney’s stock. The terms were complicated, but essentially Standard General would lend Charney a massive amount of money — up to $20 million — and Charney would use that money to buy stock, building a combined stake up to 51%. Charney’s stock would be the collateral for the loan. In addition, they signed an agreement about how to control the voting rights to the stock. The agreement gave Charney and Standard General “negative control,” meaning that one party could veto the vote if they didn’t like what the other one was doing. The deal was signed at 2 a.m. in the morning. On its face, this was good news for Charney. He began buying the stock, adding to his warchest. If he could get 51% with Standard General’s backing, he would be able fly back to LA, kick out the board, and declare victory. Charney only realized later that he had made a horrendous mistake. The poison pill Charney war room (Charney later made a war room in his LA house, too.ABC News) For a while it looked like Charney might succeed. He built a stake back up to around 43%. But the board wasn’t stupid. As soon as they realized Charney was getting close to ownership control again, they adopted a “poison pill.” Basically, the pill was a policy that promised to reward any investor with extra, free stock if anyone accumulated more than a certain percentage of the whole. That meant the more stock Charney bought, the more diluted he would become. The board also declared that Charney’s pact with Standard General was invalid. (It probably didn’t have that power but the declaration was enough to potentially tie up Standard General in litigation for months.) So Standard General approached the board and said, “hey, can we work this out?” They came to an agreement: Standard General would get three seats on the seven-member board, and two more seats jointly agreed with the company. Charney would resign from the board. That basically gave Standard General control of the company. They also agreed that the board would let another outside company, FTI, complete a second, more thorough, investigation of Charney, and his suitability to be CEO. Charney thought this new agreement was a huge betrayal. The company spent $10.4 million to fund lawyers for the probe ( according to its annual report ), which operated like a prosecution; Charney ended up using his own money to hire lawyers to defend himself against it. And in addition to not being CEO, his stock was now controlled by a hedge fund who could veto his votes. He was completely screwed. A kabuki dance in Central Park soo kim (A poster that pro-Charney workers made protesting Soo Kim and Standard General's presence on the board.American Apparel union drive campaign) Charney believes he was hoodwinked into this agreement by Soo Kim, Standard General’s managing partner, he has alleged in court documents. Kim allegedly achieved this by calling Charney at 5 a.m. on the morning of June 30, and insisting that he meet “at a private location in Central Park” where “no one could hear us talking” to discuss signing a deal with the board, Charney claims in court papers. Charney rolled out of bed and took an Uber car uptown. At about 5:30 a.m., Charney found Kim in “freak out mode” near the park, according to Charney’s lawsuit. One of Standard General’s limited partner investors, PAAMCO, had pulled $300 million from Standard General because it did not want to be associated with Charney, the suit claims. “Kim was scratching himself ‘to a bleed’ in panic”, the suit claims. According to the lawsuit, Kim persuaded him that the second investigation was merely a “kabuki dance” and that once it was over, the dust would settle and Charney would be quietly re-installed at Standard General’s request. Charney agreed to sit tight, thinking he would become CEO later. It didn’t happen. Needless to say, Standard General does not agree with Charney’s version of events. This wasn’t a secret meeting in the park, sources say. Their office faces the park, from 5th Avenue and 59th Street. Kim and Charney met for coffee outside the office and happened to sit down on a park bench. And it wasn’t called because Kim was trying to string Charney along — Kim was angry at Charney because he kept telling the media that Standard General was backing him no matter what. That was wrong, Kim told Charney. They would only back him if the investigation cleared him. From Standard General’s point of view, the board’s investigation into Charney was the unknown variable in the deal. They had no idea what dirt the board was holding. There were two possible outcomes to the investigation, and in either Standard General had something to gain: Either the investigation would exonerate Charney, in which case Standard General would be able re-install him as CEO. Or it would show that Charney had committed misdeeds that would prevent him from being CEO. In the second scenario, Standard General would at least retain its seats on the board, allowing it to safeguard the massive amount of stock it now controlled but could do nothing with. Maybe, in that scenario, the stock would go up. The disagreement was that Charney believed Standard General would back him as CEO regardless of how the investigation turned out. The new investigation was bogus — it was being done at the behest of people who had already decided he should fired — and Standard General knew that, Charney believed. Why else would he have signed the “negative control” deal? Why else would they have loaned him the money? Charney’s argument is irrelevant, sources told Business Insider, because even if Standard General backed Charney unconditionally there is no way he could be CEO if there was a trove of evidence against him alleging he misused corporate funds and exploited female employees for sex. American Apparel was already being forced to take awful interest rates on its debt because traditional lenders didn’t like the rumors surrounding Charney. What if the rumors were true? What if the files from the investigation became public? You just cannot be a CEO of a publicly traded company with that hanging over you. The probe was essentially out of Standard General’s hands, these sources argue. With the agreement between Standard General and the board signed, Charney’s fight to regain his company officially reached a legal “standstill.” On December 15, the board reviewed FTI’s findings, and fired Charney a second time. This time it wasn’t technical. He was gone for good. Investigators discover Charney’s private porn stash Charney home Screen Shot 2015 08 10 at 9.56.57 PM (Charney at home, as seen in an ABC News story about him.ABC News) Charney believes his legal battle — or perhaps the SEC probe — will result in him getting his company back. But the board has made it clear that it is holding a sword over Charney’s head: After the two investigations by Jones Day and FTI, the company took possession of a private company server that was used by Charney to store his personal archive of photos. It allegedly includes a ton of sleazy communications between Charney and his female models and employees. The investigation also allegedly found evidence that corporate money was misused. Charney denies that, and believes the company is trying to smear him. Charney launched four lawsuits against the company, its board, and Standard General in an attempt to get his company back. On August 13, 2015, two board members filed papers in one of the cases giving more detail about what the investigations found about Charney. David Danziger alleges that Charney was fired in part due to “Charney’s use of electronic storage media belonging to the Company for personal purposes to graphically document his sexual liaisons.” Chairperson Colleen Brown goes into even more detail. The company "discovered videos and photographs of Mr. Charney engaged in all manner of sexual behavior with numerous models and employees, which for some incredible reason had been saved by Mr. Charney to the Company's network server by him with the use of his Company computer,” she alleges. “These emails and text messages reveal that Mr. Charney repeatedly sent illicit messages to employees. He sent messages that included pornographic videos (or links thereto), pornographic photographs and other nude pictures. Additionally, he frequently engaged in inappropriate sexual banter, infantilizing women and referring to himself as ‘Daddy,’“ she alleges. Her filing then quotes from those messages, and they allegedly describe Charney’s sexual fantasies in lurid, four-lettered detail. The server was supposed to be for Charney’s private use, and contained his personal photos. The historic photo archives of fashion and media companies can often be valuable. Hugh Hefner has one, for instance, and it’s probably worth a lot of money. Founder archives can be sold for hundreds of thousands in media deals. There are rumors that Entourage's Adrian Grenier wants to make a movie of Charney's life , so all those old pictures could be part of that. Charney will likely argue that he had an agreement with the company that the server be kept separate and private: the messages on it were consensual, and not intended to be seen by the public, and it is thus unfair for the company to break that agreement and publish them. There’s an implicit threat from the company here, too: the subtext directed at Charney seems to be, go away or all this information will become public, including the photos. Charney’s prediction comes true American Apparel appointed Paula Schneider as its new CEO in December. She has cleaned house. A dozen or so of Charney’s internal loyalists have lost their jobs. Paula Schneider (American Apparel's new CEO, Paula Schneider.ABC News) Since then, the prediction Charney made about the company at the board meeting in 2014 — that it would collapse without him — has come true: American Apparel is in a death spiral. The company moved away from its overtly sexual marketing toward a positioning that focuses more on the clothes. Its ads are now less offensive to many, but less distinctive, also. Sales are down, collapsing 17.2% to $134.4 million in Q2, as a result. That followed a 9% decline the quarter before. On August 11, the company disclosed it was not able to file an earnings report for Q2 because it might be unable to make payments on a credit line it has with Capital One. Failing to file a 10-Q on time is always a bad sign. The company may be nearly bankrupt and will definitely need more financing, it said, “Whether or not any such transactions or agreements were implemented or successful, the Company's existing and any new investors could suffer substantial or total losses of their investment in its common stock.” They may have gotten rid of Charney, but the price for that may ultimately be the destruction of the entire company. NOW WATCH: The ugly secret behind why J. Crew's sales have tanked More From Business Insider Bitcoin splits in 2 NASA has a job opening for someone to defend Earth from aliens — and it pays a six-figure salary 50 must-have tech accessories under $50 || Inside the 'conspiracy' that forced Dov Charney out of American Apparel: • This is the story of how Dov Charney, founder of American Apparel, was kicked out of his own company.
• Sources inside the board meeting describe how Dov Charney's own directors ambushed him with a secret plot to remove him from the company.
• The board collected personal, texts, emails, and photos to create a dossier of Charney's habit of using company computers to "graphically document his sexual liaisons,” and used that as a bargaining chip against him.
• A secret internal investigation of Charney was conducted after the company was forced to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by a model he had been sleeping with.
• The company's CFO hatched a secret plan to sell the company without Charney's permission - but accidentally left a copy of the plan on an office photocopier.
• The company filed an SEC disclosure stating it wanted Charney to continue as chief when insiders knew the board was already discussing his removal.
• Charney signed up a hedge fund, Standard General, to back him in his fight to keep control of the company — but ultimately concluded the fund betrayed him.
• And Charney's prediction on the day he was fired came true: Without him, the company went into a death spiral.
(Dov Charney poses at The NASDAQ Stock Market in Times Square to ring the closing bell on September 15, 2006, in New York City.Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images)
Dov Charney was feeling pretty good when he entered the conference room high up inside the Skadden Arps offices in Times Square.
He was going to tell his board of directors — perched at eye level with the rooftops of Manhattan’s forest of midtown skyscrapers — that for the first time in years American Apparel's troubles were behind it.
It was June 18, 2014, and, as CEO, Charney had just generated a record year of revenues for the fashion retailer — $634 million, an increase of 3%. And same-store sales were up 3%, too.
He had also fixed problems at a massive product-distribution center that had crippled the company’s supply lines for months, crushing sales and driving up expenses.
His lawyers had settled or dismissed several lawsuits from former employees and models alleging that Charney had sexually harassed them. One suit, which alleged Charney kept a model locked in his house for sex, turned out to be bogus.
And he had staged a public offering of new stock that had raised $28.5 million, saving the company from bankruptcy.
There was nothing but good news to deliver.
So Charney, carrying a new running shoe he had designed, began the meeting with a presentation about how he was going to launch a line of sneakers. He laid about six of them out on the table.
Within seconds he was interrupted by Allan Mayer, American Apparel’s board chairman. Mayer pushed the shoes aside.
“Look, there’s something else we want to talk about,” Mayer said, according to a source who was in the room. He passed a couple of pieces of paper over the table to Charney.
It was a termination letter.
The board was firing Charney, the company's founder and CEO, who had led American Apparel for 25 years.
The memo, later filed in court, alleged a long list of misdeeds by Charney:
It said he allowed an employee to publish a blog defaming other former employees; he had given severance packages to several employees in order to stop them from suing; he refused to attend sexual-harassment training; he used company money for personal expenses, such as providing travel for family members.
All of the above had significantly increased the company’s legal and insurance bills, the letter alleged: “You engaged in conduct that repeatedly put yourself in a position to be sued by numerous former employees for claims that include harassment, discrimination and assault.”
“It was clear he was totally blindsided by this — he didn’t have a clue,” one person who was in the room says.
Charney went ballistic: “This company will fall apart if I’m not running it!”
(Dov Charney paces inside a conference room in the Skadden Arps building after learning that the board wants him out.Dov Charney)
This story is based on multiple accounts from people close to Charney, the board, American Apparel employees, and the company’s major shareholders.
Several lawsuits have been filed over Charney’s removal, and evidence alleged in that litigation has been used to tell this story, too.
Business Insider has also seen confidential documents, emails, photos, and texts associated with the litigation. Because of the fierce fighting — Charney has filed four lawsuits, and two employees and the company have all filed one each — no one wanted to talk on the record for this story.
But people had plenty to say privately.
What follows is an account of how the tide inside American Apparel began to turn against Charney in January 2014. It details how the board held secret discussions for weeks as it agonized over whether to get rid of him. It describes how his CFO allegedly sketched out a plan to oust Charney, and how that sketch was then obtained by Charney’s loyalists and used as evidence of the coup. (The plan has since been described in court filings.) And it describes how Charney was persuaded to sign a disastrous settlement that left him with no job and no control of the company, despite being the largest shareholder.
(Thomas Alleman)
Today, Charney is distraught, enraged, humiliated, and vengeful.
For years, he was the crown prince of the sexiest fashion company in America. He socialized with the hedge fund executives who funded his company. He did photo shoots with porn stars. His marketing budget was one of the largest in the retail-apparel business. His ads made headlines because they used ordinary women instead of professional models, and because they walked the line in terms of nudity.
His girlfriends were the women in those ads, and many of them were decades younger (he is 46). He was a millionaire. He owned a beautiful house, high on a hill in Silver Lake, with a balcony overlooking the Los Angeles skyline.He was an impish, mad geniuswhose real life was like a male midlife-crisis fantasy.
In person, Charney is by turns infuriating, charming, arrogant. He can cycle through manic and depressive phases within a single sentence. His retail empire was built with his own hands, in round-the-clock workdays, across three decades. Everyone who knows him agrees the success of American Apparel is 100% because of Charney. He is the epitome of hard work, old-school Jewish garment-trade moxie, and the American dream, all rolled into one.
But that wasn’t enough to protect him.
(Board chairman Allan Mayer.WorldCommForumDavos / YouTube)
It started with a board-commissioned investigation into Charney’s activities as CEO, conducted without his knowledge, which lasted four months. That probe eventually led to the creation of a dossier that has yet to be made public.
It has been seen by only a few people inside the company, but two board members recently described some of it in court filings, and it is explosive.
It allegedly details “Charney’s use of electronic storage media belonging to the Company for personal purposes to graphically document his sexual liaisons,” some of which occurred in his office.
The company has alleged in court that it includes his personal, texts, emails, and photos. It also allegedly includes evidence of a police complaint filed by one model who claims she was sexually assaulted by Charney — a claim he denies. He was never charged.
Charney believes he is the victim of a conspiracy, a palace coup in which his board filed false disclosures to the SEC saying they supported him as CEO while they were actually maneuvering to oust him.
Charney also argues that the investigation was biased because it was conducted by people who wanted him out, and that he has never been charged with any crime or found guilty or liable for any of the accusations against him.
(REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni )
The board has yet to make the photos and messages public.
In March, the SECsaid it is investigatingthe company and its termination of Charney. The board denies wrongdoing. The outcome of the federal investigation could be crucial in determining whether Charney can get his company back.
Since he was ousted, sales at the company have gone into free fall and itagain faces bankruptcy.
(Charney, in one of his own ads.American Apparel)
In the conference room in New York, Charney began to read the termination letter and make line-by-line protests against its allegations.
After about an hour he texted Iris Alonzo, a longtime creative director who was working in the hallway outside, oblivious to what was happening to her boss. The text said something like "don't go anywhere, this is getting weird with these guys."
Charney left the conference room, and the pair took a walk down a corridor to another Skadden conference room, where they shut the door.
"They're trying to fire me, it's completely illegal, they don't know what they're doing, they have no idea how the company functions," Charney told her, according to sources who heard about it later.
"They're out of their minds," Alonzo said. "We are going to get the whole company behind you, the entire management team is behind you."
Charney and Alonzo spent the next 11 hours on the upper floors of the Skadden tower, begging, pleading and arguing with the board to reverse its position.
While Charney raged at his directors, the company’s security team was instructed to shut down his email, cancel his access to the HQ building in Los Angeles, and cut off service to his corporate mobile phone, sources told us.
At one point, during a break in the debate, Alonzo went into the conference room where the board was holed up. She was furious.
“Jesus — this is crazy! Who do you think is going to run this company? You’d need five people to replace Dov,” she said, according to someone who was there. “You’re ripping the heart out of the company — you’re going to destroy the company. You don’t know this business, you haven’t spent more than an hour in the factory cumulatively in the last five years. Who are you, and what do you think you know?”
She ended her tirade by saying, “All of you are cowards — every single one of you.”
Allan Mayer asked her to leave.
Everyone who spoke to Business Insider described the exchanges between Charney and the board as painful to hear. Although Mayer and David Danziger, another board member, had led the movement to prepare Charney’s ouster, they were acutely aware that this was Charney’s company.
(An ad from Charney's early days at American Apparel.American Apparel)
The company was his entire life’s work.
“It was a tense bunch of hours. We sat in that room going well into the evening. There was a lot of discussion going back and forth, and none of us really knew how it was going to end,” one person said.
There was nothing Charney could do. The other members of the board had agreed the night before — without telling him — that he would be fired, a source who knew about it says. The letter was already drawn up and dated.
The board meeting had only one real purpose: to present Charney with an ultimatum, according to confidential documents seen by Business Insider:
Charney could either accept a $4.5 million severance package and the new title of “creative director,” for which he would also be paid $500 per hour. It would not look as if he had been fired, merely moved into a new position with the company.
The price of that package was that he had to sign over the voting rights to his 47 million shares, and resign as CEO.
Or the board would remove him.
"We all love you, and we know you are the hardest-working guy in the room," Danziger told Charney. "But we need to reposition the company and this is going to be good for you and the company."
Said Robert Greene, another director, presumably referring to the value of Charney’s stock, if it went up: "You are a genius. You will get over $100 million out of this and start up a new business. (Their conversation was later repeated in court filings.)
If he did not accept, the board told him, he would be fired “for cause” and walk out with nothing except his existing stock.
The implication, from Charney’s point of view, was that there would be a storm of bad publicity. And, two sources told Business Insider, the dirt that the board referred to in its termination letter — the stuff about the sexual harassment and the misuse of corporate money — would be made public if he did not go quietly.
During another break, an increasingly desperate Charney called John Luttrell, his CFO, to see if he knew what to do. Luttrell expressed shock at the news. That was an odd reaction from Luttrell, three sources told us, because Mayer — the board chairman — had asked Luttrell earlier in secret if he was prepared to step up as the interim CEO if they got rid of Charney.
Charney, who hired Luttrell in 2011 because he had previously been CFO at Old Navy and Wet Seal, later came to believe Luttrell was the mastermind who had first proposed getting rid of him, months earlier, in February of that year.
Sources close to Luttrell regard this conspiracy theory as nonsense.
On a bathroom break, Charney also called Minho Roth, an investor who held about 15% of the company's total shares.
"I'm having a breakdown," Charney told Roth, according to someone within earshot. "These guys are trying to fire me!"
By the end of the call Charney felt reassured: They'd put their shares together, kick out the existing board members, and make Charney CEO again. Charney owned about 27% of the company, and with Roth’s 15% they needed only a couple of other investors to join them.
Charney’s belief that Roth would back him would become crucial later in his fight to regain control of the company, court documents show.
(Minho Roth, left, of FiveT Capital.Tomorrow-Focus.De / press handout)
So Charney refused the "creative director" option. Sometime around 9 p.m., a statement went out to the press. The board suspended him immediately anddeclared its intent to fire him, after a 30-day contractual-notice period.
(A still from a video that was leaked showing Charney naked.ABC News / YouTube)
At the same time, a new video of Charney appeared on the internet. It showed him dancing naked in his Los Angeles house, apparently filmed by a friend. No one knows how it got there, or why it was leaked at precisely that time. Charney believes it was a deliberate coincidence designed to humiliate him.
By the next day, Luttrell had been named CEO, replacing Charney, who was technically “suspended.”
Most people don’t know that American Apparel came very close to bankruptcy in March 2014.
The only official reference to it is in the company’s annual report for 2013, and it’s written in the generic boilerplate legalese that disguises the seriousness of what the company was required to warn:
“We have experienced negative cash flows from operating activities in the past, and our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to enable us to service our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs.”
The company was running on fumes.
(Charney has always been very proud making his merchandise in his own factory in the US, and not outsourcing it from Asia.American Apparel)
The problems went back years, and historically the company has lurched from crisis to crisis.
Charney may have built the company, but he was never able to install a mature operational infrastructure to keep the company running smoothly.
Part of the board's case against Charney was that he never hired or retained the kind of management bench strength that a company of its size needed. A lot of the company's problems were, ultimately, the responsibility of Charney.
In 2009, for instance, there was an immigration audit of American Apparel's factory, and up to 1,800 people working without legal permission lost their jobs.
The manufacturing base of the company had to be rebuilt from scratch.
As sales fell,Charney ended up lending his own company $8.5 million in cash(and charging 6% interest).
A company with a more robust HR department would never have hired those workers in the first place.
Then, over the next few years, the company got stuck in an increasingly punitive debt cycle. In 2009, it receivedan $80 million loan from Lion Capital at 15% interest. In 2013, it did anotherdeal with Lion, which carried an upper interest rate of 20%. Those are ridiculous interest rates, higher than many credit cards. Yet Charney signed off on them.
In 2013, Charney let himself be persuaded into building a new product-distribution center in La Mirada, California, which cost $5 million. It was supposed to automate the way orders were sent out and thus make deliveries to stores and wholesalers faster and cheaper. Previously, product had been shipped directly from the factory with workers carrying it around, by hand, in cardboard boxes and trolleys, “like the 1950s,” a source said.
The distribution center was CFO John Luttrell’s idea. It would require a capital expenditure of about $5 million but once running would save the company millions every year. Charney didn't believe the company had the resources to do it properly. But he said yes to it anyway, to avoid a conflict with the CFO he hired.
(Charney and his dog at home in LA.ABC News / YouTube)
La Mirada turned into a disaster.
The system for ordering the products didn’t communicate with the system for picking the products and packing them in boxes. "It couldn’t ship," a source who saw it told Business Insider. "It couldn’t ship a package!"
"When I showed up at the distribution center it was such a sight, it was a mountain, a mountain of apparel — T-shirts and socks and belts and every single SKU that we had was in the center of the building on tables in boxes," a source who saw it said. "It was a like a bad laundry day 1,000 times over, just this enormous mountain. I think it was over 100,000 units just left in the center."
(A shot of the chaos inside La Mirada.YouTube / Ana Zai)
In the summer of 2013 Charney moved into the distribution center — literally building himself a bedroom there so he could work day and night — and spent about three months fixing the place.
He got it up and running, but it cost American Apparel a further$15 million in expenses and lost sales, according to the company’s annual report. The company still booked a record year of revenues, but the loss on the bottom line was $106 million.
By January 2014 it was clear to Charney that the company would not have enough cash to meet a $13.7 million interest payment on a bond it had issued the year before. The company had reported only $8 million in the bank at the close of 2013, a razor-thin margin for a business with a turnover of $634 million.
If it were not for the La Mirada center, and the costs of fixing it, the company would have had about $20 million more on hand — more than enough to meet the $13.7 million debt payment.
(YouTube / Ana Zai)
In Q1 2014, sales decreased 1% to $137.1 million, and same-store sales went down 7%. Charney was losing control of the situation.
"We were in one of our periodic liquidity crunches, and the company desperately needed to raise capital in March with an April deadline," a source familiar with the refinancing told Business Insider. "We were really up against the wall."
So Charney and Luttrell came to an agreement with the board: They would sell about 60 million new shares, and use the money to pay off the debt. With a bit of luck, if sales rose again in 2014, the debts would become less of a problem.
The deal came with a downside for Charney: He owned 43% of the stock, a stake big enough to give him absolute control of the company. But the new stock sale would dilute his stake down to about 27%.
(American Apparel's LA factory.ABC News / YouTube)
Charney, not wanting to lose his controlling percentage, asked the board for a guarantee that over time his stake would increase back up to 43%. Charney believes he had extracted this promise from the board before the equity was sold.
But that’s not quite what happened. Rather, Charney was simply allowed to believe that he would regain control.
"I’ve known Dov a long time and he often hears what he wants to hear," one source says. Charney was told "the board won’t consider anything until after the capital raise, but if you come to the board with a plan that’s all worked out and includes some performance metrics, the board will consider it."
In other words, the board merely told Charney they wouldthinkabout restoring his stake. The sale went ahead, and it netted $28.5 million — enough to keep the wolf from the door.
But for the first time in years, Charney no longer had ownership control of the company.
(Charney's house in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.ABC News)
He was vulnerable. But he wasn't concerned because American Apparel’s seven board members — his bosses, technically — had mostly been picked by Charney himself, and he was the chairman.
The board was regarded by outside investors as a cozy, pro-Charney place. These were the people who had heard years ago from the media that Charney was having sex with the models he recruited to appear in the company’s ad campaigns. They did nothing, even when some of the models sued.
One, Irene Morales, appeared on TV to accuse Charney of locking her inside an apartment, and still the board made no moves against him. At other companies, the CEO would have been pushed out long ago if that happened.
One source told us, jokingly, that the directors were so inactive the only changes they ever asked for in the company’s SEC disclosures were to update their biographies.
That was why Charney felt confident that before the board meeting in the Skadden tower. Compared to the last few years, he had good news, and they should have been on his side.
(A young Charney in his LA factory.YouTube / ABC News)
Charney started his company as a student in the 1980s, carrying boxes of T-shirts across the border in trucks and on trains from America to Canada, where he lived (hence “American” Apparel).
By the early 1990s his business had morphed into something more serious. It was still a one-man operation, but Charney showed up with his boxes of T-shirts at every regional US fashion trade show, promoting them to anyone who would listen.
In the early '90s he was pushing a "Girly-T" shirt for girls. This was a sexy tight-fitted top. He called his brand "Classic Girl." The shirt came in one size.
"I saw him at every single trade show," says someone who knew him then. "If there was a trade show happening, he was there. It was like, one T-shirt style, in two or three colors, in one size. It was a medium, one-sized T. He was like, 'Don’t worry, it will fit a woman from zero to size 8.' I was like, ‘I don’t get it.’ But he sold it.”
(American Apparel)
In the early '90s the fashion was grunge: baggy jeans and huge flannel shirts. By contrast, Charney’s shirt was a figure-hugging, fitted look. Charney guessed right. The "girly" T-shirt became a top-seller through the late '90s and early 2000s, morphing later into the "baby-doll" shirt which was cropped even shorter, as the trend for baggy clothes went away.
The line developed, from a single shirt into American Apparel — 237 retail stores in 20 countries, and 10,000 employees.
In 2005, Charney began selling leggings. The last time leggings were trendy was in the late '80s and early '90s. Back then, leggings were fundamentally underwear and worn underneath a skirt or with denim shorts and boots.
Charney’s idea was to push leggings as outerwear, an alternative to jeans, without the skirt or shorts on top. Again, it was a prescient call. Womenwereapparently ready to wear butt-revealing underwear as outerwear. Leggings remain one of American Apparel’s best-selling wardrobe basics.
Charney’s brilliance as a trendspotter is his ability to figure out exactly what teenage girls are willing to wear in order to most horrify their parents — and then sell that to them.
This is the effect it had on sales, according to a document filed in the litigation:
(Company sales in millions of dollars.Court documents)
In 2011, American Apparel ran into another crisis.
Charney was sued by four womenwho alleged sexual assaultor sexual harassment. Alyssa Ferguson, Kimbra Lo, Tesa Lubans DeHaven, and Irene Moraleswere all former employeesor models for the company.
In response, American Apparel published three blog posts detailing private photos, emails, and text messages sent between Charney and the women. Charney's termination letter alleges he knew these blogs were going to be published.
The posts, which a source said the company officially promoted, appeared on services like Blogger and WordPress. They indicated that at some point the relationships were consensual, and not abusive as the lawsuits claimed. The photos on them were "not safe for work": In the case of Morales, emails and photos indicated she'd had a consensual sexual relationship with Charney for an extended period.
In the case of Lo, a large batch of nude photos was published showing her obviously not being assaulted by Charney. The links were emailed to journalists who regularly covered the company.
This PR retaliation, using personal, intimate photos was an unheard-of tactic for a publicly traded corporation. Companies usually prefer to litigate quietly until such cases go away.
(Kimbra Lo.Today Show)
So the suits became huge news. Morales and Lo appeared on NBC's "Today" show to press their case. The company called it a “shakedown.”
For a while, the cases went quiet. They were kicked out of the courts and sent to binding arbitration, a confidential nonjudicial process governed by the terms of American Apparel’s employment contracts.
Some of Charney’s biggest defenders within the company are women. They regarded the plaintiffs as cynically taking advantage of consensual relations with Charney that had not turned out to their satisfaction.
Charney was single and dated a lot of women, and while that was not to everyone’s taste it wasn’t a crime, these female employees say. They sympathize with Charney.
Three female employees spoke to Business Insider.
One said, “He has really been taken advantage of by women, who have taken advantage of the legal system, and the kind of power a woman can have in a sexual situation. I’ve known almost every woman who has filed against Dov and it’s digusting. It’s such a hard thing for someone to defend themselves about. Everyone thinks he’s a pervert ... he’s got this reputation he’ll never be able to live down, and for him to speak out and deny it, it’s almost impossible [for him].”
The headlines were scandalous, but the board didn’t think it needed to act.
“There was a lot of rumor and innuendo. You don’t fire the CEO of a public company based on rumor,” a source said.
And the legal cases kept coming to nothing, another source said:
“There had never been a finding of fact. He always denied them very convincingly. He was an easy target because he was very unconventional and outspoken. He was an easy target for allegations that weren’t necessarily based on anything real. At the time, there was nothing solid for the board to act on. No court of law, civil or criminal, had ever found he had committed an act that he had been accused of.”
But that changed in the early part of 2014.
At some point after the New Year of 2014, someone went to board chairman Allan Mayer and director David Danziger, who were both on the board’s audit committee, and told them to take another look at the legal settlements that were being made in the harassment cases.
A pattern had emerged in the litigation: The cases would be filed in court. Charney’s lawyers would argue that the women had signed employment contracts that required “binding arbitration,” like an employment case and not a state court case. Arbitration is a non-public labor management process that generally produces much smaller damages awards than a trial by jury does. The process is also conducted in private, shielding it from the media.
Once inside arbitration, Charney’s lawyers would then show that the women had signed agreements releasing Charney and the company from all legal claims. These releases helped the company get the cases thrown out completely, two sources close to the board say.
Business Insider spoke to two employees who said they had signed such releases. They signed them after receiving bonuses or pay raises, and didn’t think they were unusual. Many people in the company were asked to sign releases promising they had no reason to sue the company, in order to get paid.
In 2014, the strategy stopped working.
More than one case ended up being settled. In 2014 and 2015, American Apparelpaid a total of about $4.5 millionto settle claims, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ferguson was awarded $1.8 million, according to court documents. (The sum is disputed by Charney’s lawyers who say most of the settlements were paid through insurance, at the insistence of the company’s insurance company.)
Two other settlements were made that were confidential.
(Irene Morales.Today Show)
In the spring of 2014 — just as it was dawning on top management that the company was not going to be able to make its April bond payment — American Apparel paid at least $200,000, plus legal bills, to settle with Irene Morales, sources say, and court documents suggest the total may have reached $700,000. Morales was the 17-year-old model who had allegedshe had been briefly lockedinside Charney’s house – with the New York Post calling her a “sex slave.”
But the settlement wasn’t over Morales’ sex claims. Those were rejected. Rather, the arbitration judge decided that the blogs which published her personal communications with Charney amounted to an impersonation of Morales.
Sources told Business Insider that American Apparel staff had decided to create the posts based on advice from the company’s lawyers. They were written with Charney's knowledge, according to the board's termination letter (anda source told the New York Times the same thing). Charney was getting massacred in the media. It seemed only fair to hit back with the truth — the women’s own sexy texts and emails to Charney, sources close to Charney say.
Charney resisted the plan, according to a lawyer who advised the company. That lawyer was deposed during the litigation, according to a court document seen by Business Insider: "Everybody close to him was pressuring him. Everybody. ... I mean, Dov was sitting on photographs and e-mails … that completely refuted their allegations and he was not releasing them for personal reasons. They were private. He only did it after Kimbra Lo made her appearance [on TV], and after that the media coverage was just out of control."
The legal advice — to publish the blogs – turned out to have huge unforeseen consequences for Charney: It made the company “vicariously liable” for the posts, the arbitration judge said.
That finding of vicarious liability and the settlement that went with it — along with the news that staff were routinely being asked to file claims releases — was the turning point, two sources close to the board told Business Insider.
"It was really outrageous, anytime someone got a raise or bonus or was leaving the company and getting severance, in order to get a paycheck they had to sign a release of all claims against the company," a source familiar with the board's thinking said. "If the board had been aware of that we would have put a stop to it."
So, in March 2014 the board assigned Jones Day, a law firm, to investigate Charney without telling him. It had to be secret because if Charney had known, the board believes, he would have interfered or stopped the probe. Jones Day pulled all the legal files on Charney and began quietly interviewing employees.
What they found was not good.
The legal bill for the Morales case was the least of American Apparel’s problems.
A 2013 bond offering had left the company owing 13% interest with a 2% payment-in-kind, or PIK, on roughly $200 million in debt, due in April 2014. (A PIK is a type of deterrent provision installed in risky loans when the lender believes the borrower might not be able to make the basic interest payments.)
So CFO John Luttrell attended the ICR XChange conference at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida, in January of 2014, to listen to new financing ideas. ICR is intended to provide a meeting place where analysts, companies and bankers can float investment plans, no matter how wildly speculative they may be.
Luttrell could not have been a more different personality than Charney. Luttrell was an older, bookish accountant who preferred to spend time on his ranch in Sonoma, with his dog Jon-Jon and his horses. He arrived at the office with his shirt half-untucked, sources say, a crime at the fashion company. He was quiet and would leave the office early or work from home on Fridays, sources say, while Charney often worked late into the night.
He didn’t fit in.
The ICR conference — with its talk of bonds and cashflow and balance sheets — was much more Luttrell’s speed.
(Marc Cooper.Peter J Solomon)
At the conference, Luttrell allegedly spoke to two investment bankers from Peter J. Solomon. Marc Cooper, one of the Solomon bankers, was overheard telling Luttrell that “American Apparel could be sold, but not with Dov Charney in the way,” according to court papers.
Luttrell floated the idea past Charney, calling him one morning to ask if he would ever consider taking $100 million for his stake in the company. Charney wasn’t interested.
On February 14, Luttrell sketched out a plan, typing it into a Word document. It was titled "Notes to David Danziger," the board member. Much of it has been quoted in court documents. Those who have seen the document say it contained a bullet-pointed list of problems with Charney, "who was incapable of managing a $700 million business." It ended with a proposed plan: "Remove CEO and replace with an interim replacement. Put the Company up for sale. Engage Peter Solomon."
"This piece of paper had Dov’s name on it, other people’s names, some points of why maybe he shouldn’t be in charge, what’s been going on, the financials and La Mirada," says a source who read it. "Points of how things weren’t right there. Dov was to blame for La Mirada, Dov had hired people that shouldn’t be in charge of things, the financials, basically a rap sheet blaming Dov for a lot of things that had gone wrong with the company. It was two pages and the last point, on the last page, was 'solution - Jay Solomon taking over American Apparel.'"
The paper also named people who had allegedly slept with Charney, three sources told Business Insider.
In fairness to Lutrell, the idea that American Apparel might be better off without Charney was not an unusual belief in the investor community. The stock had peaked at $15 in late 2007, but by 2014 it was worth less than a dollar and in danger of being de-listed from NASDAQ, all under Charney's reign. CFOs have a duty to shareholders, and one way to boost the stock would be to shop the company with a new, turnaround CEO. That may not have been to Charney's taste, but it's not an unreasonable argument.
Luttrell kept the memo a secret for months. Charney believes he used it as a primer to persuade board members like Danziger and Mayer that the company would be better off if it was sold without Charney.
(American Apparel)
The note was discovered by accident, sitting on a company printer by an employee loyal to Charney. News of its existence spread quickly within the company's gossip mill.
"Woah, where did you get this?" Charney said when he received a copy of it, according to sources inside the company. "This is crazy!"
The employee also told Luttrell’s secretary that she had it. Immediately, Luttrell came over. "Has anyone else seen this?" he said. He was told no. "OK, keep it that way," he said. Luttrell then took the note and walked off, according to employees who witnessed the action.
Tensions between Luttrell and Charney were coming to a head even before the note was printed. Luttrell “was just telling the chairman of the audit committee [David Danziger] that he was fed up, he wasn’t going to issue another '10-Q’ as long as Dov was CEO,” according to a source who overheard the conversation.
A 10-Q is the quarterly earnings statement that all public companies must file with the SEC. If a company fails to file, it appears to investors that something must be very wrong — and that usually tanks the stock. Refusing to file a 10-Q is the most serious threat a CFO can make, short of going to the SEC as a whistleblower.
The spring 2014 10-Q was filed on time, however.
The company’s next SEC disclosure was much more crucial, and Charney now alleges in court documents that the company filed false information inside it — a potentially criminal offense under US law that can carry a prison sentence, if proven to be true.
(American Apparel)
On April 28, 2014, the company filed its “proxy” form, a notice to the SEC announcing its annual shareholders meeting, scheduled for June 18 at Skadden in New York. The form specifically recommended that Charney stay on as combined chairman and CEO.
Charney believes that statement is false because the board had already assigned Jones Day in March to investigate him, and because John Luttrell’s February note shows he wanted Charney fired.
Sources close to the board see it differently. Luttrell’s note is meaningless, they say. Even if Luttrell wanted Charney out, there were six other board members who needed to make that decision.
"This notion that John is somehow been pulling the strings since February is nonsense," one person says.
And the board wasn’t going to make a decision until after Jones Day finished investigating. When the proxy was filed, no decision had yet been made, they say, and thus it is not false. Jones Day only presented its findings to the board after the proxy was filed. "I can’t tell you how close to the wire we were even on making the final decision. So timing a had a lot to do with everything," one source says.
And it wasn’t Luttrell’s note that persuaded the board Charney had to go — it was the legal liabilities arising from the sexual harassment suits, the board now says.
(The view from the balcony at Charney's house.ABC News)
After he was fired, Charney decided not return to LA. He was locked out of the building anyway. He chose instead to stay at an apartment in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, with Iris Alonzo, turning it into a war room from which he would fight the board. He immediately began working on a plan to get his company back — after all, he still had 27% of its stock.
He needed more investors to come over to his side. If he could put together the votes from 51% of the stock, he could force the board to make him CEO again.
He called Minho Roth of FiveT capital, a longtime Charney supporter who owned about 15% of the stock. Charney was confident that Roth would be on board because of their previous phone call the night he was fired. But Roth had talked to David Danziger, the board member, on June 20. Roth wanted to know why Charney had been fired two days earlier. But Danziger wouldn’t go into details, hinting ominously that “Roth that would understand the decision if he knew what the board knew,” Danziger later wrote in a court document.
(Iris Alonzo (left) and Charney appear in an American Apparel ad.American Apparel)
Roth decided thenhe would not support Charney in the fight.
This devastated Charney, who believes that Danziger scared Roth away by slandering him, an accusation that Danziger is disputing in court.
Charney turned next to Standard General, a hedge fund that had offered to lend the company money back in March (before the company chose instead to sell the stock that diluted Charney’s controlling stake). Charney had a series of phone conversations with Robert Lavan, an analyst at Standard General, including one while he was on vacation, climbing Machu Picchu in Peru.
When Lavan got down from the mountain and got a signal on his phone, he discovered that Charney was freaking out about the “conspiracy” to fire him and frighten away his investors. Lavan tried to reassure him: He would fly back to New York, and the guys from Standard General would see what they could do. Lavan sent Charney a picture of himself on the summit of the Peruvian mountain with its ancient ruins in the background. “If I could do this, we can definitely take back APP,” his email said.
(The photo of himself that Robert Lavan sent Charney from Peru.Court documents)
A day or so later, Lavan and another Standard General member, David Glazek, came over to the Hell’s Kitchen apartment to find a dishevelled-looking Charney who had not slept properly for nearly a week. They hammered out a deal: It was basically a cash loan with warrants attached that required Standard General be paid back with Charney’s stock. The terms were complicated, but essentially Standard General would lend Charney a massive amount of money — up to $20 million — and Charney would use that money to buy stock, building a combined stake up to 51%. Charney’s stock would be the collateral for the loan.
In addition, they signed an agreement about how to control the voting rights to the stock. The agreement gave Charney and Standard General “negative control,” meaning that one party could veto the vote if they didn’t like what the other one was doing.
The deal was signed at 2 a.m. in the morning.
On its face, this was good news for Charney. He began buying the stock, adding to his warchest. If he could get 51% with Standard General’s backing, he would be able fly back to LA, kick out the board, and declare victory.
Charney only realized later that he had made a horrendous mistake.
(Charney later made a war room in his LA house, too.ABC News)
For a while it looked like Charney might succeed. He built a stake back up to around 43%. But the board wasn’t stupid. As soon as they realized Charney was getting close to ownership control again, they adopted a “poison pill.” Basically, the pill was a policy that promised to reward any investor with extra, free stock if anyone accumulated more than a certain percentage of the whole. That meant the more stock Charney bought, the more diluted he would become. The board also declared that Charney’s pact with Standard General was invalid. (It probably didn’t have that power but the declaration was enough to potentially tie up Standard General in litigation for months.)
So Standard General approached the board and said, “hey, can we work this out?”
They came to an agreement: Standard General would get three seats on the seven-member board, and two more seats jointly agreed with the company. Charney would resign from the board. That basically gave Standard General control of the company.
They also agreed that the board would let another outside company, FTI, complete a second, more thorough, investigation of Charney, and his suitability to be CEO.
Charney thought this new agreement was a huge betrayal. The company spent $10.4 million to fund lawyers for the probe (according to its annual report), which operated like a prosecution; Charney ended up using his own money to hire lawyers to defend himself against it.
And in addition to not being CEO, his stock was now controlled by a hedge fund who could veto his votes.
He was completely screwed.
(A poster that pro-Charney workers made protesting Soo Kim and Standard General's presence on the board.American Apparel union drive campaign)
Charney believes he was hoodwinked into this agreement by Soo Kim, Standard General’s managing partner, he has alleged in court documents.
Kim allegedly achieved this by calling Charney at 5 a.m. on the morning of June 30, and insisting that he meet “at a private location in Central Park” where “no one could hear us talking” to discuss signing a deal with the board, Charney claims in court papers.
Charney rolled out of bed and took an Uber car uptown. At about 5:30 a.m., Charney found Kim in “freak out mode” near the park, according to Charney’s lawsuit. One of Standard General’s limited partner investors, PAAMCO, had pulled $300 million from Standard General because it did not want to be associated with Charney, the suit claims. “Kim was scratching himself ‘to a bleed’ in panic”, the suit claims. According to the lawsuit, Kim persuaded him that the second investigation was merely a “kabuki dance” and that once it was over, the dust would settle and Charney would be quietly re-installed at Standard General’s request.
Charney agreed to sit tight, thinking he would become CEO later.
It didn’t happen.
Needless to say, Standard General does not agree with Charney’s version of events. This wasn’t a secret meeting in the park, sources say. Their office faces the park, from 5th Avenue and 59th Street. Kim and Charney met for coffee outside the office and happened to sit down on a park bench. And it wasn’t called because Kim was trying to string Charney along — Kim was angry at Charney because he kept telling the media that Standard General was backing him no matter what. That was wrong, Kim told Charney. They would only back him if the investigation cleared him.
From Standard General’s point of view, the board’s investigation into Charney was the unknown variable in the deal. They had no idea what dirt the board was holding.
There were two possible outcomes to the investigation, and in either Standard General had something to gain:
• Either the investigation would exonerate Charney, in which case Standard General would be able re-install him as CEO.
• Or it would show that Charney had committed misdeeds that would prevent him from being CEO. In the second scenario, Standard General would at least retain its seats on the board, allowing it to safeguard the massive amount of stock it now controlled but could do nothing with. Maybe, in that scenario, the stock would go up.
The disagreement was that Charney believed Standard General would back him as CEO regardless of how the investigation turned out. The new investigation was bogus — it was being done at the behest of people who had already decided he should fired — and Standard General knew that, Charney believed. Why else would he have signed the “negative control” deal? Why else would they have loaned him the money?
Charney’s argument is irrelevant, sources told Business Insider, because even if Standard General backed Charney unconditionally there is no way he could be CEO if there was a trove of evidence against him alleging he misused corporate funds and exploited female employees for sex. American Apparel was already being forced to take awful interest rates on its debt because traditional lenders didn’t like the rumors surrounding Charney. What if the rumors were true? What if the files from the investigation became public? You just cannot be a CEO of a publicly traded company with that hanging over you.
The probe was essentially out of Standard General’s hands, these sources argue.
With the agreement between Standard General and the board signed, Charney’s fight to regain his company officially reached a legal “standstill.”
On December 15, the board reviewed FTI’s findings, and fired Charney a second time. This time it wasn’t technical.
He was gone for good.
(Charney at home, as seen in an ABC News story about him.ABC News)
Charney believes his legal battle — or perhaps the SEC probe — will result in him getting his company back.
But the board has made it clear that it is holding a sword over Charney’s head: After the two investigations by Jones Day and FTI, the company took possession of a private company server that was used by Charney to store his personal archive of photos. It allegedly includes a ton of sleazy communications between Charney and his female models and employees. The investigation also allegedly found evidence that corporate money was misused.
Charney denies that, and believes the company is trying to smear him.
Charney launched four lawsuits against the company, its board, and Standard General in an attempt to get his company back. On August 13, 2015, two board members filed papers in one of the cases giving more detail about what the investigations found about Charney.
David Danziger alleges that Charney was fired in part due to “Charney’s use of electronic storage media belonging to the Company for personal purposes to graphically document his sexual liaisons.”
Chairperson Colleen Brown goes into even more detail. The company "discovered videos and photographs of Mr. Charney engaged in all manner of sexual behavior with numerous models and employees, which for some incredible reason had been saved by Mr. Charney to the Company's network server by him with the use of his Company computer,” she alleges.
“These emails and text messages reveal that Mr. Charney repeatedly sent illicit messages to employees. He sent messages that included pornographic videos (or links thereto), pornographic photographs and other nude pictures. Additionally, he frequently engaged in inappropriate sexual banter, infantilizing women and referring to himself as ‘Daddy,’“ she alleges.
Her filing then quotes from those messages, and they allegedly describe Charney’s sexual fantasies in lurid, four-lettered detail.
The server was supposed to be for Charney’s private use, and contained his personal photos. The historic photo archives of fashion and media companies can often be valuable. Hugh Hefner has one, for instance, and it’s probably worth a lot of money. Founder archives can be sold for hundreds of thousands in media deals. There are rumors thatEntourage's Adrian Grenier wants to make a movie of Charney's life, so all those old pictures could be part of that. Charney will likely argue that he had an agreement with the company that the server be kept separate and private: the messages on it were consensual, and not intended to be seen by the public, and it is thus unfair for the company to break that agreement and publish them.
There’s an implicit threat from the company here, too: the subtext directed at Charney seems to be, go away or all this information will become public, including the photos.
American Apparel appointed Paula Schneider as its new CEO in December. She has cleaned house. A dozen or so of Charney’s internal loyalists have lost their jobs.
(American Apparel's new CEO, Paula Schneider.ABC News)
Since then, the prediction Charney made about the company at the board meeting in 2014 — that it would collapse without him — has come true: American Apparel is in a death spiral. The company moved away from its overtly sexual marketing toward a positioning that focuses more on the clothes. Its ads are now less offensive to many, but less distinctive, also.
Sales are down, collapsing 17.2% to $134.4 million in Q2, as a result. That followed a 9% decline the quarter before.
On August 11, the company disclosed it was not able to file an earnings report for Q2 because it might be unable to make payments on a credit line it has with Capital One. Failing to file a 10-Q on time is always a bad sign.
The company may be nearly bankrupt and will definitely need more financing, it said, “Whether or not any such transactions or agreements were implemented or successful, the Company's existing and any new investors could suffer substantial or total losses of their investment in its common stock.”
They may have gotten rid of Charney, but the price for that may ultimately be the destruction of the entire company.
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Uberupdatedits mobile app so that customers in New York City, Los Angels, Toronto, Austin, Chicago, Barcelona and San Francisco can easily access the UberEATS ordering screen from the home page.
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© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 3 names to watch on biotech beatdown: The cholesterol drug space is set to get a little more crowded, and "Fast Money" traders believe one company should benefit most. Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) could get approval for its new cholesterol treatment as early as next week. The medicine would compete with one already offered by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) . Amgen shed more than 3 percent, closing at about $161 per share Thursday amid a broader selloff in the sector. If it loses more ground to $150 a share, investors may want to scoop it up as it brings the new drug to market, said trader Dan Nathan. "Amgen is the sort of stock that you want to buy if it gets too oversold," he said. Read More Buy the biotech bounce: Technician Regeneron remains a "great company," but its valuation seems too lofty, added trader Guy Adami. He would also prefer Amgen shares. Trader Brian Kelly pointed to the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ: IBB) , which plunged 4 percent on Thursday to close below $351. If the fund dips down to $340, he would look to buy in. Disclosures: Dan Nathan Dan is long QQQ sept put, JOY sept calls, TWTR, PG, BA sept put spread, COST aug put spread, TJX aug put, MSFT aug / nov put spread, GOOGL Sept put spread, XRT sept put spread. Today he sold to close SLB puts. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TSL, the VIX, TWTR call spread, Euro; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, CAC40, Ruble, Yuan. Karen Finerman Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE calls, BABA puts, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, M call spreads, SUNE call spreads, GAP puts, KORS puts, SUNE puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || 3 names to watch on biotech beatdown: The cholesterol drug space is set to get a little more crowded, and"Fast Money"traders believe one company should benefit most.
Amgen(NASDAQ: AMGN)could get approval for its new cholesterol treatment as early as next week. The medicine would compete with one already offered by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: REGN).
Amgen shed more than 3 percent, closing at about $161 per share Thursday amid a broader selloff in the sector. If it loses more ground to $150 a share, investors may want to scoop it up as it brings the new drug to market, said trader Dan Nathan.
"Amgen is the sort of stock that you want to buy if it gets too oversold," he said.
Read MoreBuy the biotech bounce: Technician
Regeneron remains a "great company," but its valuation seems too lofty, added trader Guy Adami. He would also prefer Amgen shares.
Trader Brian Kelly pointed to the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF(NASDAQ: IBB), which plunged 4 percent on Thursday to close below $351. If the fund dips down to $340, he would look to buy in.
Disclosures:
Dan Nathan
Dan is long QQQ sept put, JOY sept calls, TWTR, PG, BA sept put spread, COST aug put spread, TJX aug put, MSFT aug / nov put spread, GOOGL Sept put spread, XRT sept put spread. Today he sold to close SLB puts.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TSL, the VIX, TWTR call spread, Euro; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, CAC40, Ruble, Yuan.
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE calls, BABA puts, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, M call spreads, SUNE call spreads, GAP puts, KORS puts, SUNE puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• Personal Finance || Could this split be the end of bitcoin?: With a market valued currently at more than $3 billion, and hundreds of millions invested in related technologies, a lot is riding on bitcoin(: BTC=). But the digital token some say could replace government-backed currencies is facing a crisis that experts warn could potentially render it worthless.
Over the weekend, two well-known bitcoin developers "forked" the technology, releasing software that will allow the community to split away from the core program. This contentious split arose overa long-running squabblebetween developers that started as a disagreement about the way data is packaged, and morphed into a philosophical question about the future of the technology.
That very future-as CNBC predicted in July-could conceivably be threatened by the new software-called Bitcoin XT.
"Contentious hard forks are bad for Bitcoin," the semi-official site Bitcoin.org's David Harding wrote ina policy post. A "hard" fork such as XT is not backwards-compatible with other versions of the software, meaning that any divergence in adoption is more difficult to reconcile.
"At the very best, a contentious hard fork will leave people who chose the losing side of the fork feeling disenfranchised. At the very worst, it will make bitcoins permanently lose their value. In between are many possible outcomes, but none of them are good," the post continued.
Here's the gist of the squabble: Bitcoin transactions are packaged into blocks before being recorded on bitcoin's permanent ledger. Developers disagree over what the maximum size of those blocks should be. On one hand, smaller means more security, but on the other hand bigger means that bitcoin technology can more easily scale into wider adoption and noncurrency applications.
And beyond just the technical matter, the fight comes down to a more human dilemma: Who gets to decide which way the whole community, which is effectively leaderless, has to go?
Mike Hearn, one of the developers behind XT,wrote in a lengthy postexplaining the fork that the current limitations of the original software are blocking the growth of bitcoin and its blockchain currency. He disputed Bitcoin.org's assessment of worst-case scenarios, and said that the fork may be the best way to save the currency from becoming irrelevant.
Read MoreThe details of the debate can be found here.
"There's no reason to believe a hard fork would make bitcoins permanently lose their value. On the contrary, it should increase them, as it'd prove the system is robust against poor decisions by any one group of developers," Hearn said in an email to CNBC. "By asking Bitcoin users to believe that a contentious fork can destroy the system, all they're really saying is that the community must obey the wishes of a tiny group of developers regardless of whether those wishes are bad or not."
The way the XT fork works is that miners (who process transactions by solving complex math problems) can vote for whether they want to switch to the new system or stick with the core program. After Jan. 11, 2016, once 75 percent of mining power is voting for the fork, a two-week waiting period begins, and then the new rules take effect.
Several polls and projections have indicated that miners may favor the primary XT change-making the maximum size for a "block" of data eight megabytes instead of one megabyte-so a fork could be in the future.
Still, several core developers of the technology-who have taken over maintenance and growth of the technology from mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto-have come out against the change, and online discussions seem to indicate an ideological split in the community.
Those core developers against the block size increase either did not respond to request for comment from CNBC or denied via a representative.
But Adam Back, who developed one of the key algorithms behind bitcoin and still works with core developers, said the complaints about XT are manyfold, including worries that a 75 percent activation vote is too low, and that some of the other changes to the program are not sufficiently secure.
Back said the community is actively working on finding solutions (with developer workshops scheduled) to the block size problem, and that jumping ahead of the normal review system is "a little puzzling" and "kind of disappointing."
One major expert in the communitywrote in a Reddit postthat XT "represents a somewhat reckless approach, which in the name of advancement shatters existing structures, fragments the community and spins the ecosystem into chaos."
Read MoreBitcoin firm raises $116M, including Qualcomm investment
Hearn, however, told CNBC he thinks that assessment is "completely wrong," and that the XT approach has been debated for month with every objection considered. After all, the development of the potentially world-changing Bitcoin technology has been largely developedwithoutmuch structure, he said.
"You can't shatter something that doesn't exist. Unfortunately a whole lot of people in the bitcoin community who aren't [closely] involved haven't fully realized or accepted how ad-hoc the Bitcoin Core project truly is," Hearn said, adding that "underlying contradictions and inability to make decisions" are actually the major problems that XT seeks to address.
Hearn's desire to alter the decision-making process behind bitcoin would see him and XT co-developer Gavin Andresen jointly managing the technology, rather than a group of developers. Back acknowledged that the emergence of XT partially stems from resentment about other developers' ideas being shot down, but he said he believed a distributed power structure works best.
"It's intentionally a decentralized process. People are worried that with $4 billion on the line someone could be blackmailed or could intentionally insert a bug," Back said. "They didn't think about the risks of being the sole maintainer of $4 billion of other people's money.... They're not thinking ahead far enough about the implications for all of this." (Thetotal value of all existing Bitcoinswas about $4 billion at the beginning of August; it's closer to $3.4 billion now.)
As for concerns that his actions could spin the multibillion-dollar ecosystem into chaos, Hearn said he is in fact saving the technology.
"[Andresen] and myself have said since the start that Bitcoin is a risky experiment. I'm sure everyone who invested knew that," Hearn wrote. "But if they invested, they presumably invested in the hope that Bitcoin would take off and become really mainstream. Right now, the only way to get there is via Bitcoin XT. So they should consider helping us out to ensure the outcome they would like."
Investor Roger Ver-so-called "Bitcoin Jesus"-is one of several prominent voices in the community to voice his approval of the XT project.
Additionally, a statement from all of the Chinese mining pools-which account for much of the power in the network-came out in favor of a block size increase. Still, Hearn could not say how he thought the community would swing, but underscored his contention that a vote for the core software could stymie future growth.
"Well, Bitcoin will still exist no matter what happens. But obviously if there's no chance of growth and the community decides to follow the Bitcoin Core developers (without even knowing who exactly is in that group), then a whole lot of other developers and entrepreneurs will leave," Hearn said. "Because you can't build a successful business on an infrastructure with no chances of growth."
All of this occurs against a background of increasing corporate and financial interest in bitcoin and its backing blockchain technology.
Bitcoin runs on a blockchain that is more secure and decentralized than any of its competitors because of its large user base and its comparatively lengthy history. If those users were to splinter, then the entire enterprise could be compromised.
Read MoreWhy is it called the 'blockchain?'
Hearn wrote in his explanation of the fork that there are few risks of breaking the community: If less than 75 percent votes for XT, then nothing changes, and if more than 75 percent is in favor, then the rest of the marketplace will follow suit so as not to be left behind.
"We don't think the sky will fall if the chain forks. We think people on the small-blocks side of the chain will upgrade and continue on the bigger-blocks side. There will be plenty of time for them to know about the change and prepare," he wrote.
Still, if a sizable minority decides to hold out against XT and its bigger blocks, then presplit bitcoins could be spent twice-violating one of the key facets of the digital currency, and potentially harming trust.
Back warned that the results of the fork could be disastrous. Anti-XT programs have sprung up to corrupt the vote, so even if it appears that there's been a 75 percent majority, the community could still be split 50-50.
"If you get some kind of 50-50 split," Back explained, "you have two ledgers, not accepting each other's blocks ... inconsistent ledgers and exchanges that were out hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars."
"Nobody wants it to go there, but the Bitcoin XT thing is teetering into a dangerous situation and dynamic," he added. "The safest thing to do is to stop that dynamic well before activation."
Jeff Garzik, another bitcoin core developer who has expressed support for bigger blocks, told CNBC in June that creating a contentious fork would be the "worst of all possible options."
As Hearn said in his letter to the community: "So this is it. Here we are."
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• Personal Finance || Could this split be the end of bitcoin?: With a market valued currently at more than $3 billion, and hundreds of millions invested in related technologies, a lot is riding on bitcoin (: BTC=) . But the digital token some say could replace government-backed currencies is facing a crisis that experts warn could potentially render it worthless. Over the weekend, two well-known bitcoin developers "forked" the technology, releasing software that will allow the community to split away from the core program. This contentious split arose over a long-running squabble between developers that started as a disagreement about the way data is packaged, and morphed into a philosophical question about the future of the technology. That very future- as CNBC predicted in July -could conceivably be threatened by the new software-called Bitcoin XT. "Contentious hard forks are bad for Bitcoin," the semi-official site Bitcoin.org's David Harding wrote in a policy post . A "hard" fork such as XT is not backwards-compatible with other versions of the software, meaning that any divergence in adoption is more difficult to reconcile. "At the very best, a contentious hard fork will leave people who chose the losing side of the fork feeling disenfranchised. At the very worst, it will make bitcoins permanently lose their value. In between are many possible outcomes, but none of them are good," the post continued. Here's the gist of the squabble: Bitcoin transactions are packaged into blocks before being recorded on bitcoin's permanent ledger. Developers disagree over what the maximum size of those blocks should be. On one hand, smaller means more security, but on the other hand bigger means that bitcoin technology can more easily scale into wider adoption and noncurrency applications. And beyond just the technical matter, the fight comes down to a more human dilemma: Who gets to decide which way the whole community, which is effectively leaderless, has to go? Story continues Mike Hearn, one of the developers behind XT, wrote in a lengthy post explaining the fork that the current limitations of the original software are blocking the growth of bitcoin and its blockchain currency. He disputed Bitcoin.org's assessment of worst-case scenarios, and said that the fork may be the best way to save the currency from becoming irrelevant. Read More The details of the debate can be found here. "There's no reason to believe a hard fork would make bitcoins permanently lose their value. On the contrary, it should increase them, as it'd prove the system is robust against poor decisions by any one group of developers," Hearn said in an email to CNBC. "By asking Bitcoin users to believe that a contentious fork can destroy the system, all they're really saying is that the community must obey the wishes of a tiny group of developers regardless of whether those wishes are bad or not." The way the XT fork works is that miners (who process transactions by solving complex math problems) can vote for whether they want to switch to the new system or stick with the core program. After Jan. 11, 2016, once 75 percent of mining power is voting for the fork, a two-week waiting period begins, and then the new rules take effect. Several polls and projections have indicated that miners may favor the primary XT change-making the maximum size for a "block" of data eight megabytes instead of one megabyte-so a fork could be in the future. Still, several core developers of the technology-who have taken over maintenance and growth of the technology from mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto-have come out against the change, and online discussions seem to indicate an ideological split in the community. Those core developers against the block size increase either did not respond to request for comment from CNBC or denied via a representative. But Adam Back, who developed one of the key algorithms behind bitcoin and still works with core developers, said the complaints about XT are manyfold, including worries that a 75 percent activation vote is too low, and that some of the other changes to the program are not sufficiently secure. Back said the community is actively working on finding solutions (with developer workshops scheduled) to the block size problem, and that jumping ahead of the normal review system is "a little puzzling" and "kind of disappointing." One major expert in the community wrote in a Reddit post that XT "represents a somewhat reckless approach, which in the name of advancement shatters existing structures, fragments the community and spins the ecosystem into chaos." Read More Bitcoin firm raises $116M, including Qualcomm investment Hearn, however, told CNBC he thinks that assessment is "completely wrong," and that the XT approach has been debated for month with every objection considered. After all, the development of the potentially world-changing Bitcoin technology has been largely developed without much structure, he said. "You can't shatter something that doesn't exist. Unfortunately a whole lot of people in the bitcoin community who aren't [closely] involved haven't fully realized or accepted how ad-hoc the Bitcoin Core project truly is," Hearn said, adding that "underlying contradictions and inability to make decisions" are actually the major problems that XT seeks to address. Hearn's desire to alter the decision-making process behind bitcoin would see him and XT co-developer Gavin Andresen jointly managing the technology, rather than a group of developers. Back acknowledged that the emergence of XT partially stems from resentment about other developers' ideas being shot down, but he said he believed a distributed power structure works best. "It's intentionally a decentralized process. People are worried that with $4 billion on the line someone could be blackmailed or could intentionally insert a bug," Back said. "They didn't think about the risks of being the sole maintainer of $4 billion of other people's money.... They're not thinking ahead far enough about the implications for all of this." (The total value of all existing Bitcoins was about $4 billion at the beginning of August; it's closer to $3.4 billion now.) As for concerns that his actions could spin the multibillion-dollar ecosystem into chaos, Hearn said he is in fact saving the technology. "[Andresen] and myself have said since the start that Bitcoin is a risky experiment. I'm sure everyone who invested knew that," Hearn wrote. "But if they invested, they presumably invested in the hope that Bitcoin would take off and become really mainstream. Right now, the only way to get there is via Bitcoin XT. So they should consider helping us out to ensure the outcome they would like." Investor Roger Ver- so-called "Bitcoin Jesus" -is one of several prominent voices in the community to voice his approval of the XT project. Roger Ver tweet. Additionally, a statement from all of the Chinese mining pools-which account for much of the power in the network-came out in favor of a block size increase. Still, Hearn could not say how he thought the community would swing, but underscored his contention that a vote for the core software could stymie future growth. "Well, Bitcoin will still exist no matter what happens. But obviously if there's no chance of growth and the community decides to follow the Bitcoin Core developers (without even knowing who exactly is in that group), then a whole lot of other developers and entrepreneurs will leave," Hearn said. "Because you can't build a successful business on an infrastructure with no chances of growth." All of this occurs against a background of increasing corporate and financial interest in bitcoin and its backing blockchain technology. Bitcoin runs on a blockchain that is more secure and decentralized than any of its competitors because of its large user base and its comparatively lengthy history. If those users were to splinter, then the entire enterprise could be compromised. Read More Why is it called the 'blockchain?' Hearn wrote in his explanation of the fork that there are few risks of breaking the community: If less than 75 percent votes for XT, then nothing changes, and if more than 75 percent is in favor, then the rest of the marketplace will follow suit so as not to be left behind. "We don't think the sky will fall if the chain forks. We think people on the small-blocks side of the chain will upgrade and continue on the bigger-blocks side. There will be plenty of time for them to know about the change and prepare," he wrote. Still, if a sizable minority decides to hold out against XT and its bigger blocks, then presplit bitcoins could be spent twice-violating one of the key facets of the digital currency, and potentially harming trust. Back warned that the results of the fork could be disastrous. Anti-XT programs have sprung up to corrupt the vote, so even if it appears that there's been a 75 percent majority, the community could still be split 50-50. "If you get some kind of 50-50 split," Back explained, "you have two ledgers, not accepting each other's blocks ... inconsistent ledgers and exchanges that were out hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars." "Nobody wants it to go there, but the Bitcoin XT thing is teetering into a dangerous situation and dynamic," he added. "The safest thing to do is to stop that dynamic well before activation." Jeff Garzik, another bitcoin core developer who has expressed support for bigger blocks, told CNBC in June that creating a contentious fork would be the "worst of all possible options." As Hearn said in his letter to the community: "So this is it. Here we are." More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Pot-Friendly Candidates Emerge In 2016 Election: Marijuana will play an unprecedented role in the 2016 Presidential race as the drug has never before been regarded by the public in such a favorable light.
In previous elections, marijuana was used as a weapon and candidate after candidate denied using, or liking the drug at all. However, this year pot is expected to come up several times on the campaign train, but as an issue rather than a shameful allegation.
A Big Issue?
It remains to be seen just how important a candidate's stance on marijuana legalization will be when it comes to the election. Most candidates have been vague about their views on the drug, saying that the Obama administration's decision to let states decide for themselves whether or not marijuana should be legalized has provided a good framework to see just how a legal marijuana market will affect the United States.
Related Link:How Every Presidential Candidate Wants To Change The Economy
Pot Friendly
Candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul havevoiced their supportfor the marijuana market, saying that it should be each state's right to determine the laws governing marijuana. Paul also became the first candidate toturn to marijuana industry groupsfor campaign support. Others, like Chris Christie claim they will take a hardline against marijuana and reverse states' decisions to legalize the drug.
Unknown
Others, like Hillary Clinton, have taken a wishy-washy view— saying that they'd like to see how things go in Colorado and Oregon before making a firm decision or avoiding the issue all together. However, this week, Bernie Sanders appeared to be planning to take a stand on marijuana and many speculate that stand will be pro-legalization. On Tuesday, Sanders spoke out against the war on drugs and promised voters that his campaign would release his marijuana platform in a month.
See more from Benzinga
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• One Man's Journey Around The World Using Only Bitcoin
• What The Fed Minutes Could Say About A September Rate Hike
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Pot-Friendly Candidates Emerge In 2016 Election: Marijuana will play an unprecedented role in the 2016 Presidential race as the drug has never before been regarded by the public in such a favorable light. In previous elections, marijuana was used as a weapon and candidate after candidate denied using, or liking the drug at all. However, this year pot is expected to come up several times on the campaign train, but as an issue rather than a shameful allegation. A Big Issue? It remains to be seen just how important a candidate's stance on marijuana legalization will be when it comes to the election. Most candidates have been vague about their views on the drug, saying that the Obama administration's decision to let states decide for themselves whether or not marijuana should be legalized has provided a good framework to see just how a legal marijuana market will affect the United States. Related Link: How Every Presidential Candidate Wants To Change The Economy Pot Friendly Candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have voiced their support for the marijuana market, saying that it should be each state's right to determine the laws governing marijuana. Paul also became the first candidate to turn to marijuana industry groups for campaign support. Others, like Chris Christie claim they will take a hardline against marijuana and reverse states' decisions to legalize the drug. Unknown Others, like Hillary Clinton, have taken a wishy-washy view— saying that they'd like to see how things go in Colorado and Oregon before making a firm decision or avoiding the issue all together. However, this week, Bernie Sanders appeared to be planning to take a stand on marijuana and many speculate that stand will be pro-legalization. On Tuesday, Sanders spoke out against the war on drugs and promised voters that his campaign would release his marijuana platform in a month. See more from Benzinga Despite Record Profits, Turbulence Ahead For The Airline Industry One Man's Journey Around The World Using Only Bitcoin What The Fed Minutes Could Say About A September Rate Hike © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Google vs Apple: Which will be better in 11 years?: Google went public 11 years ago, and early buyers have done alright for themselves. Class A shares have enjoyed a a split-adjusted gain of nearly 1,300 percent since their first close.
"Fast Money" traders believe the company's prospects looks just as promising in the 11 years to come. They contended that Google(GOOGL)holds more upside than technology giant Apple(AAPL), currently the largest company in the world by market capitalization.
"I'd rather go with Google, which has multiple revenue streams and they've also shown to be a much better venture capitalist" through acquisitions, said trader Brian Kelly.
Kelly expressed concern about Apple's possible reliance on the iPhone for growth in a "saturated" smartphone market. He noted that Google has branched out through acquisitions like YouTube and internal investments.
Trader Karen Finerman-who owns Google personally and Apple through her firm Metropolitan Capital Advisors-also touted the variety of businesses at Google and its "moon shot" projects. The company later this year will set up a new operating structure under a holding company Alphabet, which will house its newer projects like Internet service, health services and self-driving cars.
Read MoreGoogle's Alphabet move was brilliant
Google looks more appealing as it seems "very hard to be replicated," added trader Guy Adami. Trader Tim Seymour-who owns both stocks-also prefers Google, saying it holds a place as "one of the most important companies in the world."
Disclosures:
Tim Seymour
Tim Seymour is long AAPL, T, BAC, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JPM, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TSL, the VIX, TWTR call spread, Euro; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, Yuan. Today he bought Euro.
Today he sold US dollar. Today he closed his short position in Yen.
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, BABA puts, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, SUNE call spreads, KORS puts, SUNE puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• Personal Finance || Google vs Apple: Which will be better in 11 years?: Google went public 11 years ago, and early buyers have done alright for themselves. Class A shares have enjoyed a a split-adjusted gain of nearly 1,300 percent since their first close. "Fast Money" traders believe the company's prospects looks just as promising in the 11 years to come. They contended that Google ( GOOGL ) holds more upside than technology giant Apple ( AAPL ) , currently the largest company in the world by market capitalization. "I'd rather go with Google, which has multiple revenue streams and they've also shown to be a much better venture capitalist" through acquisitions, said trader Brian Kelly. Kelly expressed concern about Apple's possible reliance on the iPhone for growth in a "saturated" smartphone market. He noted that Google has branched out through acquisitions like YouTube and internal investments. Trader Karen Finerman-who owns Google personally and Apple through her firm Metropolitan Capital Advisors-also touted the variety of businesses at Google and its "moon shot" projects. The company later this year will set up a new operating structure under a holding company Alphabet, which will house its newer projects like Internet service, health services and self-driving cars. Read More Google's Alphabet move was brilliant Google looks more appealing as it seems "very hard to be replicated," added trader Guy Adami. Trader Tim Seymour-who owns both stocks-also prefers Google, saying it holds a place as "one of the most important companies in the world." Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, T, BAC, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JPM, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TSL, the VIX, TWTR call spread, Euro; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, Yuan. Today he bought Euro. Today he sold US dollar. Today he closed his short position in Yen. Karen Finerman Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, BABA puts, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, SUNE call spreads, KORS puts, SUNE puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance View comments || Greece could soon get 1,000 bitcoin ATMs: Bitcoin(: BTC=)ATMs could spring up across Greece as soon as October as citizens and businesses become increasingly desperate to move their money despite capital controls.
BTCGreece, which bills itself as the country's first bitcoin exchange, plans to eventually install 1,000 ATMs nationwide, in partnership with European bitcoin platform, Cubits.
Thanos Marinos, the founder of BTCGreece, told CNBC on Wednesday that a soft launch was on the cards for October.
"It is part of my vision to create a block chain ecosystem in Greece," he told CNBC. "If all goes as expected with no major issues we will launch first ATMs October 2015."
Bitcoin is adecentralized digital currency that can be used around the world. Transactions are listed in a shared public ledger called the block chain.
The digital currency has been touted as one way to to circumvent Greek capital controls. These have been in place since June and limit domestic investors to withdrawing no more than 60 euros ($66) per day from Greek banks, making life extremely tough for companies that need to pay or receive bills. Greek individuals and businesses are also forbidden from moving money to bank accounts abroad.
The ATMs envisaged by Marinos could allow users to convert fiat currency into bitcoin and potentially vice versa.
As yet, BTCGreece has no ATMs in Greece. However, Marinos said he had already received requests from 300 shops for bitcoin ATMs.
"We want to do it cautiously," he told CNBC, adding that BTCGreece would announce more partnerships next week.
Bitcoin rallied in Juneamid reports that Greeks were flocking to the currency in order to circumvent the controls. However, the currency's decentralized nature makes it challenging to say how many Greeks currently use it.
Bitcoin ATMs have already been installed in other countries, predominately in the U.S. and Western European countries like the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain.
"There has been a focus on bitcoin and Greece and the economic instability there," Akif Khan, chief commercial officer at digital commerce company, Bitnet, told CNBC on Wednesday.
"So in one sense it will be an interesting experiment to see if Greeks do gravitate towards bitcoin as one of the tools in their financial toolkit to try and cope."
Read MoreTrack Bitcoin versus the euro(Unknown: BTCEUR=)
Belfast-based Khan added that Greece's regulatory environment was conducive to introducing ATMs.
"In principle, putting bitcoin ATMs into Greece is just as feasible as in any other European country... Greece does not have a prohibitive regulatory environment in this regard," he told CNBC.
-By CNBC'sKaty Barnato. Follow her@KatyBarnato.
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• Personal Finance || Greece could soon get 1,000 bitcoin ATMs: Bitcoin (: BTC=) ATMs could spring up across Greece as soon as October as citizens and businesses become increasingly desperate to move their money despite capital controls. BTCGreece, which bills itself as the country's first bitcoin exchange, plans to eventually install 1,000 ATMs nationwide, in partnership with European bitcoin platform, Cubits. Thanos Marinos, the founder of BTCGreece, told CNBC on Wednesday that a soft launch was on the cards for October. "It is part of my vision to create a block chain ecosystem in Greece," he told CNBC. "If all goes as expected with no major issues we will launch first ATMs October 2015." Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that can be used around the world . Transactions are listed in a shared public ledger called the block chain. The digital currency has been touted as one way to to circumvent Greek capital controls. These have been in place since June and limit domestic investors to withdrawing no more than 60 euros ($66) per day from Greek banks, making life extremely tough for companies that need to pay or receive bills. Greek individuals and businesses are also forbidden from moving money to bank accounts abroad. The ATMs envisaged by Marinos could allow users to convert fiat currency into bitcoin and potentially vice versa. As yet, BTCGreece has no ATMs in Greece. However, Marinos said he had already received requests from 300 shops for bitcoin ATMs. "We want to do it cautiously," he told CNBC, adding that BTCGreece would announce more partnerships next week. Bitcoin rallied in June amid reports that Greeks were flocking to the currency in order to circumvent the controls. However, the currency's decentralized nature makes it challenging to say how many Greeks currently use it. Bitcoin ATMs have already been installed in other countries, predominately in the U.S. and Western European countries like the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain. "There has been a focus on bitcoin and Greece and the economic instability there," Akif Khan, chief commercial officer at digital commerce company, Bitnet, told CNBC on Wednesday. Story continues "So in one sense it will be an interesting experiment to see if Greeks do gravitate towards bitcoin as one of the tools in their financial toolkit to try and cope." Read More Track Bitcoin versus the euro (Unknown: BTCEUR=) Belfast-based Khan added that Greece's regulatory environment was conducive to introducing ATMs. "In principle, putting bitcoin ATMs into Greece is just as feasible as in any other European country... Greece does not have a prohibitive regulatory environment in this regard," he told CNBC. -By CNBC's Katy Barnato . Follow her @KatyBarnato . More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance
[Social Media Buzz]
Current price: 189.48€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-25 00:40:02 CEST || Current price: 139.95£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-24 16:00:03 BST || Try fatguyslim at https://LocalBitcoins.com/ad/165494?ch=w7m … only £149.00 per BTC. (BPI +8.38%) #buy #bitcoin #banktrans || #BTC £140.61 ($221.55) #LTC £2.00 ($3.15) #ETH £0.83 ($1.30) #DASH £1.61 ($2.53) #BANX £1.06 ($1.67) MSC £1.55 ($2.44) || Current price: 199.44€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-24 09:00:03 CEST || 1 #bitcoin 666.6 TL, 221.786 $, 2...
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221.61, 225.83, 224.77, 231.40, 229.78, 228.76, 230.06, 228.12, 229.28, 227.18
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39, 5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53, 5399.37, 5572.36, 5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14, 5247.35, 5350.73, 5402.70, 5505.28, 5768.29, 5831.17, 5795.71, 5746.81, 5829.50, 5982.46, 6174.53, 6378.85, 7204.77, 6972.37, 7814.92, 7994.42, 8205.17, 7884.91, 7343.90, 7271.21, 8197.69, 7978.31, 7963.33, 7680.07, 7881.85, 7987.37, 8052.54, 8673.22, 8805.78, 8719.96, 8659.49, 8319.47, 8574.50, 8564.02, 8742.96, 8209.00, 7707.77, 7824.23, 7822.02, 8043.95, 7954.13, 7688.08, 8000.33, 7927.71, 8145.86.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-06-12]
Volume: 19034432883, RSI (14-day): 55.15, 50-day EMA: 7295.25, 200-day EMA: 5780.36
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1331.90, Gold RSI: 65.29
Oil Price: 51.14, Oil RSI: 27.17
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Traditional Exchanges Pull Back From Reg A+ IPOs Due to Fraud Concerns: Traditional exchanges are holding off on Reg A+ initial public offerings (IPOs) following problematic offerings like that of purported cryptocurrency firm Longfin Corp., the Wall Street Journal (WSJ)reportedon June 10.
Earlier in June, theUnited StatesSecurities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC)filedfraud charges against Longfin. The SEC claimed that Longfin fabricated 90% of its revenue and sold over 400,000 shares of Longfin that it did not have the funds to back in a scheme to secure its spot on the Nasdaq.
The complaint also reportedly stated that the SEC granted Longfin’s Reg A+ offering based on the supposition that the company was principally managed and run in the U.S., when the company’s operations, assets and management were in fact all offshore.
Now, Nasdaq Inc. and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are reportedly shying away from IPOs conducted by companies using Reg A+, a provision that allows firms to have lower accounting and disclosure standards than conventional offerings.
Moreover, Nasdaq has submitted a proposal to the SEC for a rule change that would preclude companies from listing on the exchange under Reg A+ unless they have been in business for no less than two years.
Speaking to WSJ, David Feldman, a partner with law firm Duane Morris LLP, said that a NYSE official told him earlier this year, that the exchange was not interested in new Reg A+ listings at the time.
A Nasdaq spokesman told WSJ that “we continuously examine our listing standards for all companies. We identified a need to enhance the rules in this area and align with our commitment to investor protection."
According to WSJ, between 2015 and 2018, companies raised around $1.5 billion in 157 offerings under Reg A+, while only a small part of those deals were carried on exchanges. In April of this year, decentralized computing network Blockstackappliedwith the SEC to launch a $50 million token sale under the Reg A+ framework. If approved, the offering would involve the sale of 295 million Stacks tokens.
That same month, the SECpublishedthe “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets” which aims to help market participants ascertain whether or not a digital asset is deemed to be an investment contract, and therefore a security.
• SEC Chairman: Other Market Protections Needed Before Bitcoin ETF Approval
• SEC Sues Kik for Conducting Allegedly Unregistered $100 Million ICO in 2017
• Australian Securities Regulator Releases Cryptocurrency, Mining, ICO Guidelines
• Bittrex to Expand to Euro Markets, Lowers Trading Fees for US Customers || Traditional Exchanges Pull Back From Reg A+ IPOs Due to Fraud Concerns: Traditional exchanges are holding off on Reg A+ initial public offerings ( IPOs ) following problematic offerings like that of purported cryptocurrency firm Longfin Corp., the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on June 10. Earlier in June, the United States Securities and Exchange Commissions ( SEC ) filed fraud charges against Longfin. The SEC claimed that Longfin fabricated 90% of its revenue and sold over 400,000 shares of Longfin that it did not have the funds to back in a scheme to secure its spot on the Nasdaq. The complaint also reportedly stated that the SEC granted Longfins Reg A+ offering based on the supposition that the company was principally managed and run in the U.S., when the companys operations, assets and management were in fact all offshore. Now, Nasdaq Inc. and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are reportedly shying away from IPOs conducted by companies using Reg A+, a provision that allows firms to have lower accounting and disclosure standards than conventional offerings. Moreover, Nasdaq has submitted a proposal to the SEC for a rule change that would preclude companies from listing on the exchange under Reg A+ unless they have been in business for no less than two years. Speaking to WSJ, David Feldman, a partner with law firm Duane Morris LLP, said that a NYSE official told him earlier this year, that the exchange was not interested in new Reg A+ listings at the time. A Nasdaq spokesman told WSJ that we continuously examine our listing standards for all companies. We identified a need to enhance the rules in this area and align with our commitment to investor protection." According to WSJ, between 2015 and 2018, companies raised around $1.5 billion in 157 offerings under Reg A+, while only a small part of those deals were carried on exchanges. In April of this year, decentralized computing network Blockstack applied with the SEC to launch a $50 million token sale under the Reg A+ framework. If approved, the offering would involve the sale of 295 million Stacks tokens. Story continues That same month, the SEC published the Framework for Investment Contract Analysis of Digital Assets which aims to help market participants ascertain whether or not a digital asset is deemed to be an investment contract, and therefore a security. Related Articles: SEC Chairman: Other Market Protections Needed Before Bitcoin ETF Approval SEC Sues Kik for Conducting Allegedly Unregistered $100 Million ICO in 2017 Australian Securities Regulator Releases Cryptocurrency, Mining, ICO Guidelines Bittrex to Expand to Euro Markets, Lowers Trading Fees for US Customers || Pan-African Insurer Old Mutual Will Not Insure Mining Rigs: Old Mutual, a legacy, pan-African insurance company, announced it will not insure equipment used for cryptocurrency mining, according to a statement released June 10. The company cites the expense, risk, and speculative nature of the industry.
Africa contributes less than 10 percent of the total bitcoin hash rate, according toBitcoin Magazine. Many advocates for the fledgling industry think strict regulations, costly electricity prices, and mining rig price tags are preventing it fromdeveloping— a problem that will only get worse if miners cannot take out protection on their gear.
Old Mutual is not the first to ban coverage for mining equipment or price premiums outside the reach of manyhobbyists. Cryptocurrencies are often considered an asset class with a differentrisk profilethan other forms of capital, and may carry premiums that reflect that risk.
Ethereum Startups Team to Offer ‘Banking-Grade’ Wallet Security
Following extensive research, as well as an in-depth review of claims from clients that have incurred losses to equipment used for cryptocurrency mining, Old Mutual said it has begun advising its branches not to insure any businesses involved with the industry.
“We have chosen not to provide cover for this type of risk as it is quite tricky to conduct a proper risk analysis of an unregulated fledgling industry that is already on the radar of financial authorities due to the unfortunate association with money laundering and cyber crime,” said Old Mutual insurance expert Christelle Colman.
The insurer notes crypto mining operations typically utilize high-cost computers, servers and other equipment modified to run heftier application-specific integrated circuit devices that can overload the computer’s central processing units or graphic processing units. Furthermore, running a system continually, which the company alleges is industry practice, introduces risks of overheating and other malfunctions.
“Even doing a comprehensive inventory of the insured equipment is difficult because the value of the highly modified computer equipment is typically inflated and almost impossible to verify as it is usually imported from obscure suppliers in the Far East,” said Colman.
Munich Re Insures Curv’s Crypto Wallet To the Tune of $50 Million
Old Mutual is also concerned about the volatile, unregulated nature of the industry, which is often associated with speculative trading companies — prone to going bust — or worse, cyber crime.
Although insurers have come down on protecting mining equipment, CoinBase recentlyannouncedit has taken out $255 million for coins held in hot wallets on behalf of their customers — signaling willingness by insurance companies to enter other crypto sectors.
• Huobi Cloud Aims for 80 More Exchange Partners in Bid for Revenue Growth
• Bakkt Acquires Crypto Custodian, Partners With BNY Mellon on Key Storage || Pan-African Insurer Old Mutual Will Not Insure Mining Rigs: Old Mutual, a legacy, pan-African insurance company, announced it will not insure equipment used for cryptocurrency mining, according to a statement released June 10. The company cites the expense, risk, and speculative nature of the industry. Africa contributes less than 10 percent of the total bitcoin hash rate, according to Bitcoin Magazine . Many advocates for the fledgling industry think strict regulations, costly electricity prices, and mining rig price tags are preventing it from developing — a problem that will only get worse if miners cannot take out protection on their gear. Old Mutual is not the first to ban coverage for mining equipment or price premiums outside the reach of many hobbyists . Cryptocurrencies are often considered an asset class with a different risk profile than other forms of capital, and may carry premiums that reflect that risk. Ethereum Startups Team to Offer ‘Banking-Grade’ Wallet Security Following extensive research, as well as an in-depth review of claims from clients that have incurred losses to equipment used for cryptocurrency mining, Old Mutual said it has begun advising its branches not to insure any businesses involved with the industry. “We have chosen not to provide cover for this type of risk as it is quite tricky to conduct a proper risk analysis of an unregulated fledgling industry that is already on the radar of financial authorities due to the unfortunate association with money laundering and cyber crime,” said Old Mutual insurance expert Christelle Colman. The insurer notes crypto mining operations typically utilize high-cost computers, servers and other equipment modified to run heftier application-specific integrated circuit devices that can overload the computer’s central processing units or graphic processing units. Furthermore, running a system continually, which the company alleges is industry practice, introduces risks of overheating and other malfunctions. “Even doing a comprehensive inventory of the insured equipment is difficult because the value of the highly modified computer equipment is typically inflated and almost impossible to verify as it is usually imported from obscure suppliers in the Far East,” said Colman. Story continues Munich Re Insures Curv’s Crypto Wallet To the Tune of $50 Million Old Mutual is also concerned about the volatile, unregulated nature of the industry, which is often associated with speculative trading companies — prone to going bust — or worse, cyber crime. Although insurers have come down on protecting mining equipment, CoinBase recently announced it has taken out $255 million for coins held in hot wallets on behalf of their customers — signaling willingness by insurance companies to enter other crypto sectors. Related Stories Huobi Cloud Aims for 80 More Exchange Partners in Bid for Revenue Growth Bakkt Acquires Crypto Custodian, Partners With BNY Mellon on Key Storage || Former US Senator Rick Santorum Joins Catholic-Focused Cryptocurrency Project: FormerUnited StatesSenator Rick Santorum has joined the board of a Catholic community-orientedcryptocurrencyproject, according to a press releasepublishedon June 4.
The former senator and Republican presidential candidate is now a board member of the Catholic community-oriented cryptocurrency project dubbed Cathio.
The platform is designed to address the needs of the Catholic economy by ensuring lower costs, greater transaction visibility, and improved security for the community.
Santorum was a noted cultural conservative in U.S. politics, who strongly opposed abortion and same-sex marriage on his failed presidential campaigns in 2012 and 2016. Santorum argued that Cathio will also help better engage the youth:
"Millennials don't carry cash, they date on apps and watch on-demand entertainment. We have to be there, we have to learn from successful tech companies, and we have to provide a universal solution that makes it easy for younger generations to engage with the Church."
According to former Ambassador to the Holy See and Cathio Advisor Jim Nicholson, Cathio will not only save the Church money, but will also boost transparency of financialtransactionsand the connectivity of people, including greater donor development and promotion.
Commenting on the initiative, Cathio CEO Matthew Marcolinitoldthe Financial Times that “when somebody’s doing the wrong thing, or if thegovernmenthas a question, or if there’s any investigation into any wrongdoing, being able to track that information could be helpful for the Church.” However, when asked how to identify wrongdoers while keeping everyone else's donations anonymous, Marcolini stated:
“The better question to ask isn’t so much about tracking and visibility and everything. But it’s focusing on how to bring millennials and Gen Xers into the fold to help them cultivate a culture of philanthropy or a culture of giving.”
Religionhas intersected with the cryptocurrency space in various instances around the world. Last November,Switzerland-based fintech firm X8 AGreceiveda certification from the Shariyah Review Bureau for itsEthereum-basedstablecoin. The debate over whether cryptocurrencies are Sharia-compliant is centered on their compatibility with the Islamic prohibition on monetary speculation.
By contrast, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of theRussianOrthodox Churchcondemnedthe new asset class last January. “This innovation is representative of the entire banking system, where real assets are converted into virtual ones. This paves the way for usury, which the church has always spoken out against, but can do nothing about — we all have to keep our money in banks,” Alfeyev said.
• Report: Robinhood Using Crypto Trade Execution Services From Jump Trading
• Susquehanna’s Digital Asset Head Bart Smith: Bitcoin Is Certainly Speculative and Risky
• Craig Wright Ordered to Personally Appear at Bitcoin Theft Mediation
• Is Bitcoin's Increasing Anonymity a Threat to Privacy Coins? || Former US Senator Rick Santorum Joins Catholic-Focused Cryptocurrency Project: Former United States Senator Rick Santorum has joined the board of a Catholic community-oriented cryptocurrency project, according to a press release published on June 4. The former senator and Republican presidential candidate is now a board member of the Catholic community-oriented cryptocurrency project dubbed Cathio. The platform is designed to address the needs of the Catholic economy by ensuring lower costs, greater transaction visibility, and improved security for the community. Santorum was a noted cultural conservative in U.S. politics, who strongly opposed abortion and same-sex marriage on his failed presidential campaigns in 2012 and 2016. Santorum argued that Cathio will also help better engage the youth: "Millennials don't carry cash, they date on apps and watch on-demand entertainment. We have to be there, we have to learn from successful tech companies, and we have to provide a universal solution that makes it easy for younger generations to engage with the Church." According to former Ambassador to the Holy See and Cathio Advisor Jim Nicholson, Cathio will not only save the Church money, but will also boost transparency of financial transactions and the connectivity of people, including greater donor development and promotion. Commenting on the initiative, Cathio CEO Matthew Marcolini told the Financial Times that “when somebody’s doing the wrong thing, or if the government has a question, or if there’s any investigation into any wrongdoing, being able to track that information could be helpful for the Church.” However, when asked how to identify wrongdoers while keeping everyone else's donations anonymous, Marcolini stated: “The better question to ask isn’t so much about tracking and visibility and everything. But it’s focusing on how to bring millennials and Gen Xers into the fold to help them cultivate a culture of philanthropy or a culture of giving.” Story continues Religion has intersected with the cryptocurrency space in various instances around the world. Last November, Switzerland- based fintech firm X8 AG received a certification from the Shariyah Review Bureau for its Ethereum -based stablecoin . The debate over whether cryptocurrencies are Sharia-compliant is centered on their compatibility with the Islamic prohibition on monetary speculation. By contrast, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned the new asset class last January. “This innovation is representative of the entire banking system, where real assets are converted into virtual ones. This paves the way for usury, which the church has always spoken out against, but can do nothing about — we all have to keep our money in banks,” Alfeyev said. Related Articles: Report: Robinhood Using Crypto Trade Execution Services From Jump Trading Susquehanna’s Digital Asset Head Bart Smith: Bitcoin Is Certainly Speculative and Risky Craig Wright Ordered to Personally Appear at Bitcoin Theft Mediation Is Bitcoin's Increasing Anonymity a Threat to Privacy Coins? || ‘It Feels Like Family’: Bitcoiners Gather for Security Conference in Amsterdam: A swift breeze swept across the canal and into a small Amsterdam pub, where about 30 bitcoiners sat drinking beers and registering for Breaking Bitcoin 2019. It smelled like rain.
From a British mom who works from home as a “bitcoin hobbyist,” to a ripped Kiwi technologist with a thick beard, people who work with bitcoin gathered to joke about Crypto Twitter and nodes.
They were in Amsterdam for one of the most prestigious security conferences in the blockchain industry. But on this rainy Friday, they had also come for something more.
No Man’s Land: Bitcoin Price Locked in $600 Range for 7th Day
“It feels like family,” the hobbyist trader said.
Many of them paid for beers and snacks with bitcoin, using a lighting-friendly wallet and a point-of-sale device developed by the Amsterdam-based startupBitonic, founded in 2012.
“We may have lost some of the market,” Bitonic’s head of strategy, Daan Kleiman, told CoinDesk about the decision to focus purely on bitcoin, “but we have the freedom to make our own decisions without the pressure from venture capital. This makes our growth very natural and healthy in this complex market with a lot of scams and unrealistic promises.”
But growth wasn’t the main focus the following weekend at the conference itself. Instead, the panels and presentations at Breaking Bitcoin 2019 explored the premier cryptocurrency’s vulnerabilities, from political attack vectors to security holes.
Fraud-Fighting ‘Watchtowers’ to Arrive in Next Bitcoin Lightning Release
At the operational end of the spectrum, there was bitcoin advocate Udi Wertheimer, who revealed Wasabi Wallet’s privacy features could actually be leveraged to de-anonymize users. (The wallet’s creator promptlyrepliedon Twitter to discuss issues from the presentation.)
Then there were the higher-level challenges, such as the economic and social risks of bitcoin. On a panel exploring the topic, vagabond bitcoin consultant Felix Weis said if the majority of bitcoin users continue to trust custodians and exchanges to hold the private keys to their assets, then such companies could gain disproportionate sway over the technology’s evolution.
Each talk left the audience feeling that addressing this specific issue could bring bitcoin one step closer to long-lasting value. And although building a sustainable-yet-decentralized form of money is still an ambitious goal, at best, nothing excites bitcoiners quite like a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
Despite how few people spend bitcoin today, with Chainalysis estimating merchant activity represents only1.3 percentof bitcoin activity, many developers at the conference in Amsterdam use bitcoin for freelance work on open source projects.
Such was the case with both Weis and Lightning Labs co-founder Olaoluwa Osuntokun, who paid contributors to his startup’s implementation of the bitcoin scaling solutionlightning. From Osuntokun’s perspective, regulation presents a larger barrier to bitcoin adoption than the small pool of users.
“The biggest risk likely comes from state-level actors attempting to stifle the development of software related to bitcoin,” Osuntokun told CoinDesk. “Network-level partitioning attacks, and attempts to control the import/export of mining equipment.”
Wassim Alsindi, Aaron van Wirdum, Felix Weis and Max Hillebrand speak during the second day of Breaking Bitcoin 2019. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk)
During the social risks panel with Weis, Bitcoin Magazine editor Aaron van Wirdum concurred that new regulations like the upcoming requirement by theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF)– which could force companies to share customer data across jurisdictions any time users send money from one exchange or custodian to another – presents a salient risk to bitcoin users’ privacy and the ability of companies to uphold a cypherpunk ethos.
Yet the vibe at Breaking Bitcoin was optimistic, even exuberant. Along those lines, several conference attendees were independent researchers presenting prospective solutions to small, specific problems with using bitcoin.
“I’ve progressed from someone who was excited about [bitcoin],” Seoul Bitcoin Meetup founder Ruben Somen told CoinDesk, “to someone who explains it at meetups, to now potentially contributing something.”
Somen was there presenting his idea for abitcoin-related protocolfor instant off-chain transactions without the hassle of lightning channels.
To conclude his presentation, in a way that epitomized the conference’s gamification of criticism, Somen answered audience questions poking holes in his proposal. After all, as Bitcoin Core developer Matt Corallo said during a panel about lightning:
“Bitcoin is still in beta … decentralization is an experiment.”
Olaoluwa Osuntokun (right) plays a lightning-based game by Donnerlab while onlookers bid from mobile wallets to play the next round. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk)
• Michael Ford Named Newest Bitcoin Core Code Maintainer
• 100 Bitcoin Users Perform What Might Be Largest ‘CoinJoin’ Transaction Ever || ‘It Feels Like Family’: Bitcoiners Gather for Security Conference in Amsterdam: A swift breeze swept across the canal and into a small Amsterdam pub, where about 30 bitcoiners sat drinking beers and registering for Breaking Bitcoin 2019. It smelled like rain.
From a British mom who works from home as a “bitcoin hobbyist,” to a ripped Kiwi technologist with a thick beard, people who work with bitcoin gathered to joke about Crypto Twitter and nodes.
They were in Amsterdam for one of the most prestigious security conferences in the blockchain industry. But on this rainy Friday, they had also come for something more.
No Man’s Land: Bitcoin Price Locked in $600 Range for 7th Day
“It feels like family,” the hobbyist trader said.
Many of them paid for beers and snacks with bitcoin, using a lighting-friendly wallet and a point-of-sale device developed by the Amsterdam-based startupBitonic, founded in 2012.
“We may have lost some of the market,” Bitonic’s head of strategy, Daan Kleiman, told CoinDesk about the decision to focus purely on bitcoin, “but we have the freedom to make our own decisions without the pressure from venture capital. This makes our growth very natural and healthy in this complex market with a lot of scams and unrealistic promises.”
But growth wasn’t the main focus the following weekend at the conference itself. Instead, the panels and presentations at Breaking Bitcoin 2019 explored the premier cryptocurrency’s vulnerabilities, from political attack vectors to security holes.
Fraud-Fighting ‘Watchtowers’ to Arrive in Next Bitcoin Lightning Release
At the operational end of the spectrum, there was bitcoin advocate Udi Wertheimer, who revealed Wasabi Wallet’s privacy features could actually be leveraged to de-anonymize users. (The wallet’s creator promptlyrepliedon Twitter to discuss issues from the presentation.)
Then there were the higher-level challenges, such as the economic and social risks of bitcoin. On a panel exploring the topic, vagabond bitcoin consultant Felix Weis said if the majority of bitcoin users continue to trust custodians and exchanges to hold the private keys to their assets, then such companies could gain disproportionate sway over the technology’s evolution.
Each talk left the audience feeling that addressing this specific issue could bring bitcoin one step closer to long-lasting value. And although building a sustainable-yet-decentralized form of money is still an ambitious goal, at best, nothing excites bitcoiners quite like a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
Despite how few people spend bitcoin today, with Chainalysis estimating merchant activity represents only1.3 percentof bitcoin activity, many developers at the conference in Amsterdam use bitcoin for freelance work on open source projects.
Such was the case with both Weis and Lightning Labs co-founder Olaoluwa Osuntokun, who paid contributors to his startup’s implementation of the bitcoin scaling solutionlightning. From Osuntokun’s perspective, regulation presents a larger barrier to bitcoin adoption than the small pool of users.
“The biggest risk likely comes from state-level actors attempting to stifle the development of software related to bitcoin,” Osuntokun told CoinDesk. “Network-level partitioning attacks, and attempts to control the import/export of mining equipment.”
Wassim Alsindi, Aaron van Wirdum, Felix Weis and Max Hillebrand speak during the second day of Breaking Bitcoin 2019. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk)
During the social risks panel with Weis, Bitcoin Magazine editor Aaron van Wirdum concurred that new regulations like the upcoming requirement by theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF)– which could force companies to share customer data across jurisdictions any time users send money from one exchange or custodian to another – presents a salient risk to bitcoin users’ privacy and the ability of companies to uphold a cypherpunk ethos.
Yet the vibe at Breaking Bitcoin was optimistic, even exuberant. Along those lines, several conference attendees were independent researchers presenting prospective solutions to small, specific problems with using bitcoin.
“I’ve progressed from someone who was excited about [bitcoin],” Seoul Bitcoin Meetup founder Ruben Somen told CoinDesk, “to someone who explains it at meetups, to now potentially contributing something.”
Somen was there presenting his idea for abitcoin-related protocolfor instant off-chain transactions without the hassle of lightning channels.
To conclude his presentation, in a way that epitomized the conference’s gamification of criticism, Somen answered audience questions poking holes in his proposal. After all, as Bitcoin Core developer Matt Corallo said during a panel about lightning:
“Bitcoin is still in beta … decentralization is an experiment.”
Olaoluwa Osuntokun (right) plays a lightning-based game by Donnerlab while onlookers bid from mobile wallets to play the next round. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk)
• Michael Ford Named Newest Bitcoin Core Code Maintainer
• 100 Bitcoin Users Perform What Might Be Largest ‘CoinJoin’ Transaction Ever || ‘It Feels Like Family’: Bitcoiners Gather for Security Conference in Amsterdam: A swift breeze swept across the canal and into a small Amsterdam pub, where about 30 bitcoiners sat drinking beers and registering for Breaking Bitcoin 2019. It smelled like rain. From a British mom who works from home as a “bitcoin hobbyist,” to a ripped Kiwi technologist with a thick beard, people who work with bitcoin gathered to joke about Crypto Twitter and nodes. They were in Amsterdam for one of the most prestigious security conferences in the blockchain industry. But on this rainy Friday, they had also come for something more. No Man’s Land: Bitcoin Price Locked in $600 Range for 7th Day “It feels like family,” the hobbyist trader said. Many of them paid for beers and snacks with bitcoin, using a lighting-friendly wallet and a point-of-sale device developed by the Amsterdam-based startup Bitonic , founded in 2012. “We may have lost some of the market,” Bitonic’s head of strategy, Daan Kleiman, told CoinDesk about the decision to focus purely on bitcoin, “but we have the freedom to make our own decisions without the pressure from venture capital. This makes our growth very natural and healthy in this complex market with a lot of scams and unrealistic promises.” But growth wasn’t the main focus the following weekend at the conference itself. Instead, the panels and presentations at Breaking Bitcoin 2019 explored the premier cryptocurrency’s vulnerabilities, from political attack vectors to security holes. Fraud-Fighting ‘Watchtowers’ to Arrive in Next Bitcoin Lightning Release At the operational end of the spectrum, there was bitcoin advocate Udi Wertheimer, who revealed Wasabi Wallet’s privacy features could actually be leveraged to de-anonymize users. (The wallet’s creator promptly replied on Twitter to discuss issues from the presentation.) Then there were the higher-level challenges, such as the economic and social risks of bitcoin. On a panel exploring the topic, vagabond bitcoin consultant Felix Weis said if the majority of bitcoin users continue to trust custodians and exchanges to hold the private keys to their assets, then such companies could gain disproportionate sway over the technology’s evolution. Story continues Each talk left the audience feeling that addressing this specific issue could bring bitcoin one step closer to long-lasting value. And although building a sustainable-yet-decentralized form of money is still an ambitious goal, at best, nothing excites bitcoiners quite like a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Users and limitations Despite how few people spend bitcoin today, with Chainalysis estimating merchant activity represents only 1.3 percent of bitcoin activity, many developers at the conference in Amsterdam use bitcoin for freelance work on open source projects. Such was the case with both Weis and Lightning Labs co-founder Olaoluwa Osuntokun, who paid contributors to his startup’s implementation of the bitcoin scaling solution lightning . From Osuntokun’s perspective, regulation presents a larger barrier to bitcoin adoption than the small pool of users. “The biggest risk likely comes from state-level actors attempting to stifle the development of software related to bitcoin,” Osuntokun told CoinDesk. “Network-level partitioning attacks, and attempts to control the import/export of mining equipment.” Wassim Alsindi, Aaron van Wirdum, Felix Weis and Max Hillebrand speak during the second day of Breaking Bitcoin 2019. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk) During the social risks panel with Weis, Bitcoin Magazine editor Aaron van Wirdum concurred that new regulations like the upcoming requirement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – which could force companies to share customer data across jurisdictions any time users send money from one exchange or custodian to another – presents a salient risk to bitcoin users’ privacy and the ability of companies to uphold a cypherpunk ethos. Yet the vibe at Breaking Bitcoin was optimistic, even exuberant. Along those lines, several conference attendees were independent researchers presenting prospective solutions to small, specific problems with using bitcoin. “I’ve progressed from someone who was excited about [bitcoin],” Seoul Bitcoin Meetup founder Ruben Somen told CoinDesk, “to someone who explains it at meetups, to now potentially contributing something.” Somen was there presenting his idea for a bitcoin-related protocol for instant off-chain transactions without the hassle of lightning channels. To conclude his presentation, in a way that epitomized the conference’s gamification of criticism, Somen answered audience questions poking holes in his proposal. After all, as Bitcoin Core developer Matt Corallo said during a panel about lightning: “Bitcoin is still in beta … decentralization is an experiment.” Olaoluwa Osuntokun (right) plays a lightning-based game by Donnerlab while onlookers bid from mobile wallets to play the next round. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk) Related Stories Michael Ford Named Newest Bitcoin Core Code Maintainer 100 Bitcoin Users Perform What Might Be Largest ‘CoinJoin’ Transaction Ever || How to Win Any Argument About the Stock Market: Bitcoin is one of the best performing assets of 2019, more than doubling in price since the end of 2018. Yet from the start of 2018, prices are still down nearly 50%. However, since year-end 2016, Bitcoin is up almost 700%. But from peak prices seen at the height of the Bitcoin craze in December 2017, the price is down more than 60%. Since the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the S&P 500 has delivered annual returns of just 5.3%. Yet since March 2009, returns are more than 16% per year. Go back to November 2007 and returns are a more pedestrian 7.3% annually. Yet going back to 1995, returns are close to 10% per year, dead on the long-term averages. Gold has been sucking wind for a number of years now, down 30% since peaking in 2011. But if you were to go back to the start of 2000, gold is up 360%. However, since 1980 gold has lost money on a real, inflation-adjusted basis. Yet since the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971, the price is up nearly 8% per year. I could continue but you get the point. There will always be ammunition for both sides of the bull and bear debate in almost every security or market imaginable for the simple fact that markets are cyclical. That means you can win any argument about the markets by simply changing your start or end dates to suite your stance. There are, however, some lessons investors can glean from these wild swings in price: Dont try to predict tops and bottoms It can be fun to play these games where you cite performance from the absolute peak or trough in price but the truth is no one is good enough to always buy at market bottoms just like no one is bad enough to always buy at market tops. As investor and philanthropist Bernard Baruch once observed, Dont try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This cant be doneexcept by liars. Most of the time markets are somewhere in the middle, not approaching a generational top or bottom. And its important to remember that market tops and bottoms always look much easier to call with the benefit of hindsight. Story continues Short-term market moves are a function of emotion and trends rather than fundamentals so trying forecast the markets in the short-term is really a function of guessing the direction of human emotions. I cant predict my own mood tomorrow morning, let alone the collective mood of millions of market participants. Diversify your buys and sells Its often said that diversification is the one free lunch in finance but this idea extends beyond your mix of asset classes and investment strategies. One way to avoid the temptation to predict market highs and lows is to diversify across time in the markets by dollar cost averaging your purchases and sales periodically into and out of your investments. Methodically investing over time isnt as exciting as waiting for the fat pitch to put your money to work but it spreads your risk by ensuring youll never put all your money to work in the market at the worst possible moment. Dollar cost averaging a set amount into the market also allows you to buy more shares when stocks are falling and fewer shares when stocks are rising. You wont invest all your money at the market bottom with this strategy but you will invest some at or near the market bottom which is better than most people can say. Stop dreaming Do you know how much money you would have if you would have invested $10,000 into Amazon at their IPO in 1997? The data says you would now have more than $9.6 million. But reality says you would probably have more like $30,000. After rising nearly 100-fold during the dot-com bubble, Amazon shares came back to earth with a thud, falling almost 95% from their highs by the time the washout was over. Even if you had the good fortune of buying the stock around its IPO price, human nature dictates you would have sold after seeing your stock price fall 80%, and then get chopped in half and more from there. Even at the lows following the dot-com flameout that still would have been good for a two-bagger, growing your money to around $30,000. But even then, most investors would have sold out well before the bottom. Its fun to play the IPO lottery game in your head but it does investors no good to constantly dream about finding that winning ticket. Chances are even if you picked the right numbers, you wouldnt be able to stick with them over the long haul to collect your winnings. Using precise price points with specific start and end dates are a wonderful way to make a point when discussing markets. But no one actually makes all of their buys and sells by top-ticking or bottom-fishing in the markets. Ben Carlson is the director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is the author of A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in any Investment Plan. More must-read stories from Fortune : A red flag to investors: The stock market may be hitting the triple top The Renault deal is dead , but Fiat Chrysler still needs a partner Many economists think the next recession will be before the 2020 election The S&P 500 has performed far worse under Trump than Obama Listen to our new audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily Dont miss the daily Term Sheet , Fortune s newsletter on deals and dealmakers. || How to Win Any Argument About the Stock Market: Bitcoin is one of the best performing assets of 2019, more than doubling in price since the end of 2018. Yet from the start of 2018, prices are still down nearly 50%. However, since year-end 2016, Bitcoin is up almost 700%. But from peak prices seen at the height of the Bitcoin craze in December 2017, the price is down more than 60%.
Since the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the S&P 500 has delivered annual returns of just 5.3%. Yet since March 2009, returns are more than 16% per year. Go back to November 2007 and returns are a more pedestrian 7.3% annually. Yet going back to 1995, returns are close to 10% per year, dead on the long-term averages.
Gold has been sucking wind for a number of years now, down 30% since peaking in 2011. But if you were to go back to the start of 2000, gold is up 360%. However, since 1980 gold has lost money on a real, inflation-adjusted basis. Yet since the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971, the price is up nearly 8% per year.
I could continue but you get the point. There will always be ammunition for both sides of the bull and bear debate in almost every security or market imaginable for the simple fact that markets are cyclical. That means you can win any argument about the markets by simply changing your start or end dates to suite your stance.
There are, however, some lessons investors can glean from these wild swings in price:
It can be fun to play these games where you cite performance from the absolute peak or trough in price but the truth is no one is good enough to always buy at market bottoms just like no one is bad enough to always buy at market tops. As investor and philanthropist Bernard Baruch once observed, “Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can’t be done—except by liars.”
Most of the time markets are somewhere in the middle, not approaching a generational top or bottom. And it’s important to remember that market tops and bottoms always look much easier to call with the benefit of hindsight.
Short-term market moves are a function of emotion and trends rather than fundamentals so trying forecast the markets in the short-term is really a function of guessing the direction of human emotions. I can’t predict my own mood tomorrow morning, let alone the collective mood of millions of market participants.
It’s often said that diversification is the one free lunch in finance but this idea extends beyond your mix of asset classes and investment strategies. One way to avoid the temptation to predict market highs and lows is to diversify across time in the markets by dollar cost averaging your purchases and sales periodically into and out of your investments.
Methodically investing over time isn’t as exciting as waiting for the fat pitch to put your money to work but it spreads your risk by ensuring you’ll never put all your money to work in the market at the worst possible moment.
Dollar cost averaging a set amount into the market also allows you to buy more shares when stocks are falling and fewer shares when stocks are rising. You won’t invest all your money at the market bottom with this strategy but you will invest some at or near the market bottom which is better than most people can say.
Do you know how much money you would have if you would have invested $10,000 intoAmazonat their IPO in 1997? The data says you would now have more than $9.6 million. But reality says you would probably have more like $30,000.
After rising nearly 100-fold during the dot-com bubble, Amazon shares came back to earth with a thud, falling almost 95% from their highs by the time the washout was over. Even if you had the good fortune of buying the stock around its IPO price, human nature dictates you would have sold after seeing your stock price fall 80%, and then get chopped in half and more from there.
Even at the lows following the dot-com flameout that still would have been good for a two-bagger, growing your money to around $30,000. But even then, most investors would have sold out well before the bottom.
It’s fun to play the IPO lottery game in your head but it does investors no good to constantly dream about finding that winning ticket. Chances are even if you picked the right numbers, you wouldn’t be able to stick with them over the long haul to collect your winnings.
Using precise price points with specific start and end dates are a wonderful way to make a point when discussing markets. But no one actually makes all of their buys and sells by top-ticking or bottom-fishing in the markets.
Ben Carlson is the director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is the author of A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in any Investment Plan.
—A red flag to investors: The stock market may behitting the “triple top”
—TheRenault deal is dead, but Fiat Chrysler still needs a partner
—Many economists thinkthe next recessionwill be before the 2020 election
—TheS&P 500 has performed far worseunder Trump than Obama
—Listen to our new audio briefing,Fortune500 Daily
Don’t miss the dailyTerm Sheet,Fortune‘s newsletter on deals and dealmakers. || Beaxy Launches Crypto Trading Platform Despite Hack of Employee Last Month: Beaxy has announced the launch of its cryptocurrency trading platform on June 11 in a press release shared with Cointelegraph. In the release, the company said it was now live in 43 United States states and 185 countries. According to Beaxy, an exclusive partnership with OneMarketData delivers trading capabilities across nine order types, with transaction speeds of 225,000 per second per trading pair. The launch follows two years of development, and the platform says it has more than 60,000 pre-registered users. Separately, in May, Beaxy CEO Artak Hamazaspyan had uploaded a statement to Twitter confirming that the exchange had been hacked on May 22. Although the attackers attempted to steal valuable information, he claimed “no KYC data was compromised, no code was compromised, and no funds were stolen.” In a candid admission, he added: “This was not the first attack on Beaxy, it will not be the last. For example, we were also attacked the day we opened beta.” Despite the technical hiccups in May, Beaxy’s CEO, Artak Hamazaspyan, said: “I couldn’t be happier with the product this incredible team has built. Through prioritizing user experience, security, regulatory guidance and seamless functionality, I am confident we’ve built a best-in-class trading platform.” On May 8, Binance — one of the largest crypto exchanges by trading volume — suffered a major security breach that enabled hackers to withdraw 7,000 bitcoins ( BTC ) worth $54.6 million at press time. Last week, crypto wallet provider Komodo revealed it had effectively hacked itself to stop fraudsters stealing user funds worth $13 million. Related Articles: $1.5M in Stolen Bitcoin From 2016 Bitfinex Hack Changes Address Crypto Market Outlook Downgraded to ‘Uncertain’ in New SFOX Volatility Report Cryptocurrency Broker Client Reportedly Aims to Acquire 25% of All Bitcoin Supply Is Bitcoin's Increasing Anonymity a Threat to Privacy Coins? || Beaxy Launches Crypto Trading Platform Despite Hack of Employee Last Month: Beaxy has announced the launch of itscryptocurrencytrading platform on June 11 in a press release shared with Cointelegraph.
In the release, the company said it was now live in 43United Statesstates and 185 countries. According to Beaxy, an exclusive partnership with OneMarketData delivers trading capabilities across nine order types, with transaction speeds of 225,000 per second per trading pair.
The launch follows two years of development, and the platform says it has more than 60,000 pre-registered users.
Separately, in May, Beaxy CEO Artak Hamazaspyan haduploadeda statement to Twitter confirming that the exchange had been hacked on May 22.
Although the attackers attempted to steal valuable information, he claimed “noKYCdata was compromised, no code was compromised, and no funds were stolen.” In a candid admission, he added:
“This was not the first attack on Beaxy, it will not be the last. For example, we were also attacked the day we opened beta.”
Despite the technical hiccups in May, Beaxy’s CEO, Artak Hamazaspyan, said:
“I couldn’t be happier with the product this incredible team has built. Through prioritizing user experience, security, regulatory guidance and seamless functionality, I am confident we’ve built a best-in-class trading platform.”
On May 8,Binance— one of the largestcrypto exchangesby trading volume —suffereda majorsecuritybreach that enabled hackers to withdraw 7,000 bitcoins (BTC) worth $54.6 million at press time.
Last week,crypto walletproviderKomodorevealedit had effectively hacked itself to stop fraudsters stealing user funds worth $13 million.
• $1.5M in Stolen Bitcoin From 2016 Bitfinex Hack Changes Address
• Crypto Market Outlook Downgraded to ‘Uncertain’ in New SFOX Volatility Report
• Cryptocurrency Broker Client Reportedly Aims to Acquire 25% of All Bitcoin Supply
• Is Bitcoin's Increasing Anonymity a Threat to Privacy Coins? || Visa Launches Global Cross-Border Network Based on Certain Aspects of Blockchain: United States’paymentgiantVisahas launched a cross-border payment network derived from some aspects ofblockchaintechnology,Reutersreports June 11.
The network, called “Visa B2B Connect,” is designed to facilitate international payments made by global financial institutions by enabling directinterbankingtransactionsbetween businesses and beneficiaries.
According to the report, the network already covers 30 trade channels worldwide to enable faster and cheaper cross-border payments, and is expected to expand to 90 markets by the end of 2019.
Visa B2B Connect is partially based on blockchain technology, containing elements ofHyperledger, the open source distributed ledger technology (DLT) developed by a group led by theLinux Foundation, the report notes.
Specifically, certain aspects of blockchain tech were reportedly used due to its capability to transfer more data on a payment than any existing payment system, global head of Visa Business Solutions Kevin Phalen said in the report.
The new network is a result of collaboration with tech global giantIBM, as well as e-payment operator Bottomline Technologies and fintech firm FIS. In order to develop the product, Visa was reportedly initially working withcryptographicledger systems builder Chain.
Recently, Visa alsopartneredwith the fintech operator ofJapanesemessaging app LINE — LINE Pay Corporation — in order to develop new blockchain and digital payments solutions.
Earlier this year, software startup DataLightreleaseda report claiming that bitcoin (BTC) has a potential to replace global payment systems such as Visa andMasterCardwithin ten years.
• State Farm and USAA Test Blockchain Platform for Insurance Claims Process
• VP of Largest Brazilian Bank: Local Banks to Soon Introduce Unique Blockchain Platform
• Japan’s LINE Pay and Visa Partner on New Blockchain, Digital Payments Solutions
• Blockchain for Retail: Use Cases and Potential Applications || Former Wall Street Exec Tone Vays: There Is No Evidence That the Crypto Winter Is Now Over: FormerWall Streetexecutive and currentblockchainresearcherTone Vayshas expressed skepticism about the fact thatcryptowinter is over. Vays made his comments in an interview with Cointelegraph on June 10.
Vays, a formerfinancialanalyst atUnited States’bankinggiantJPMorgan, revealed that he does not trust the recent rally in the crypto markets, claiming that he has not observed “too much external money coming into the space.”
The blockchain consultant argued that the recent reverse of a long-lasting bear market was supported by internal capital, stating that there is evidence of enough accumulation by those who preferred to hold their crypto instead of selling it out. According to Vays, if that internal capital “gets scared again,” crypto prices would drop as fast as they rose.
While claiming that he would rather be safe than sorry in terms of investing in crypto, Vays still argued that “everyone should have some bitcoin.”
In the interview, Vays has also commented on his March $250,000beton Twitter that bitcoin (BTC) will fall below the $2,000 price point before the 2024bitcoin halving.
Occurring every 210,000 blocks, the bitcoin halving is a process of dividing the number of generated rewards per block in order to maintain the total supply of the biggest cryptocurrency, which is capped at 21 million. This process isexpectedto end between March and June 2024 at block 840,000.
In regards to his bet, Vays said in the interview that it has become unlikely that bitcoin can dip below $2,000 “at this point,” although he added that it is still possible.
Meanwhile, bitcoin has been seeing a major bullish move since April 2019, when its pricesurgedfrom around $4,000 to almost $9,000 in end of May. At press time, the oldest cryptocurrency is trading at $7,834, down around 1.7% over the past 24 hours, according to data fromCoinMarketCap.
Recently, a co-founder ofHong Kong-based blockchain investment firm Keneticpredictedthat bitcoin will hit $30,000 by the end of 2019.
• CEO of Major American VC Firm Digital Currency Group: Crypto Winter Is Ending
• Bitcoin Briefly Breaks $8,000 as US Stock Market Sees Slight losses
• What Is a Satoshi, the Smallest Unit on the Bitcoin Blockchain?
• Bitcoin Price Dips Back Under $8K as Top Cryptos See Moderate Losses || Former Wall Street Exec Tone Vays: There Is No Evidence That the Crypto Winter Is Now Over: Former Wall Street executive and current blockchain researcher Tone Vays has expressed skepticism about the fact that crypto winter is over. Vays made his comments in an interview with Cointelegraph on June 10. Vays, a former financial analyst at United States’ banking giant JPMorgan , revealed that he does not trust the recent rally in the crypto markets, claiming that he has not observed “too much external money coming into the space.” The blockchain consultant argued that the recent reverse of a long-lasting bear market was supported by internal capital, stating that there is evidence of enough accumulation by those who preferred to hold their crypto instead of selling it out. According to Vays, if that internal capital “gets scared again,” crypto prices would drop as fast as they rose. While claiming that he would rather be safe than sorry in terms of investing in crypto, Vays still argued that “everyone should have some bitcoin.” In the interview, Vays has also commented on his March $250,000 bet on Twitter that bitcoin ( BTC ) will fall below the $2,000 price point before the 2024 bitcoin halving . Occurring every 210,000 blocks, the bitcoin halving is a process of dividing the number of generated rewards per block in order to maintain the total supply of the biggest cryptocurrency, which is capped at 21 million. This process is expected to end between March and June 2024 at block 840,000. In regards to his bet, Vays said in the interview that it has become unlikely that bitcoin can dip below $2,000 “at this point,” although he added that it is still possible. Meanwhile, bitcoin has been seeing a major bullish move since April 2019, when its price surged from around $4,000 to almost $9,000 in end of May. At press time, the oldest cryptocurrency is trading at $7,834, down around 1.7% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap . Recently, a co-founder of Hong Kong -based blockchain investment firm Kenetic predicted that bitcoin will hit $30,000 by the end of 2019. Related Articles: CEO of Major American VC Firm Digital Currency Group: Crypto Winter Is Ending Bitcoin Briefly Breaks $8,000 as US Stock Market Sees Slight losses What Is a Satoshi, the Smallest Unit on the Bitcoin Blockchain? Bitcoin Price Dips Back Under $8K as Top Cryptos See Moderate Losses || What is the relationship between blockchain and artificial intelligence?: It seems that every few years or so, new technologies enter the hype cycle and are touted as the next big game changer. Around 10 years ago it was 3D printing. Then, with the creation of Bitcoin, hype emerged regarding the underlying blockchain technology. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken some of that spotlight and has joined the hype train. Blockchain and artificial intelligence could connect the world of the future through the Internet of Things. Decentralise everything It is argued that we are currently in the midst of a fourth Industrial Revolution thanks to the advances in technology. Blockchain is just one part of this, and so is artificial intelligence. AI arguably has the potential to remove the necessity for many of the jobs in today’s society. Such arguments have been made by both left-wing and right-wing commentators such as David Graeber and his “bullsh*t jobs” argument. Dr Ben Goertzel, CEO of Singularity, recently spoke to my colleague Jordan Heal, and much of what they discussed regarding AI has many crossovers with blockchain technology, namely decentralisation. Goertzel stated Singularity “should be a decentralised protocol owned by everyone and no-one”. This follows a similar ideology to blockchains. If a blockchain is centralised, then the use case is null and void. Data mining Blockchain is sometimes referred to as a slow, inefficient database. While this has an element of truth, there are many projects that are attempting to harness blockchain for economic means such as Bitcoin, and others that store data on the blockchain. Two projects with such aims include Siacoin and Storj. With centralised entities storing their data on a database, there is always the risk of being hacked no matter how high quality your security is. Run a search on Google for data breaches and you’ll see many large companies have been affected with personal data being leaked. By storing this data on a blockchain, it should be theoretically possible to discourage attackers as blockchains prove much harder to hack provided they have enough hashing power. Under a decentralised storage system, AI could then analyse the data, thereby improving its own knowledge for the benefit of us. Story continues Currently, having so much data stored on a database benefits companies such as Facebook who can then use that data to build a picture of its users to target them with advertising. Both blockchain and artificial intelligence can have anarchist underpinnings of decentralisation, returning power to the community instead of a centralised corporation. Blockchain and artificial intelligence – A new paradigm? Should AI truly take hold as Dr Ben Goertzel argues, then with many jobs becoming obsolete, it may necessitate a new economic paradigm and a change of mentality from both the state and its citizens. Whether Bitcoin or blockchain technology can be helpful in this regard is still being debated today. Commentator and podcaster Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano has recently argued that Bitcoin could help solve the inequality that is currently prevalent in the United States. Were Graeber’s and Goertzel’s ideas to come to fruition, with the job market losing so many jobs, this income equality could be heightened. Pomp argues that Bitcoin can solve this issue. Conclusion New technologies bring with them a lot of hype and promise, but it is possible for them to change the way human society functions. The computer changed the way we work and led to the creation of the internet, which allowed us all to become more connected, for good and for bad. Mobile phones have only added to this sense of connectedness. It is clear that new technologies can be revolutionary. Despite both blockchain and AI being talked about as possible game changers, it is too early to guarantee this. Until we can verify their use case through real-world applications, we cannot trust those that are promising us the world. With that being said, both blockchain and AI seem to be entering an almost symbiotic partnership of decentralisation, attempting to revolutionise the way that we as citizens will interact with our governments, each other, and the world. The post What is the relationship between blockchain and artificial intelligence? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || What is the relationship between blockchain and artificial intelligence?: It seems that every few years or so, new technologies enter the hype cycle and are touted as the next big game changer. Around 10 years ago it was 3D printing. Then, with the creation of Bitcoin, hype emerged regarding the underlying blockchain technology. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken some of that spotlight and has joined the hype train. Blockchain and artificial intelligence could connect the world of the future through the Internet of Things. Decentralise everything It is argued that we are currently in the midst of a fourth Industrial Revolution thanks to the advances in technology. Blockchain is just one part of this, and so is artificial intelligence. AI arguably has the potential to remove the necessity for many of the jobs in today’s society. Such arguments have been made by both left-wing and right-wing commentators such as David Graeber and his “bullsh*t jobs” argument. Dr Ben Goertzel, CEO of Singularity, recently spoke to my colleague Jordan Heal, and much of what they discussed regarding AI has many crossovers with blockchain technology, namely decentralisation. Goertzel stated Singularity “should be a decentralised protocol owned by everyone and no-one”. This follows a similar ideology to blockchains. If a blockchain is centralised, then the use case is null and void. Data mining Blockchain is sometimes referred to as a slow, inefficient database. While this has an element of truth, there are many projects that are attempting to harness blockchain for economic means such as Bitcoin, and others that store data on the blockchain. Two projects with such aims include Siacoin and Storj. With centralised entities storing their data on a database, there is always the risk of being hacked no matter how high quality your security is. Run a search on Google for data breaches and you’ll see many large companies have been affected with personal data being leaked. By storing this data on a blockchain, it should be theoretically possible to discourage attackers as blockchains prove much harder to hack provided they have enough hashing power. Under a decentralised storage system, AI could then analyse the data, thereby improving its own knowledge for the benefit of us. Story continues Currently, having so much data stored on a database benefits companies such as Facebook who can then use that data to build a picture of its users to target them with advertising. Both blockchain and artificial intelligence can have anarchist underpinnings of decentralisation, returning power to the community instead of a centralised corporation. Blockchain and artificial intelligence – A new paradigm? Should AI truly take hold as Dr Ben Goertzel argues, then with many jobs becoming obsolete, it may necessitate a new economic paradigm and a change of mentality from both the state and its citizens. Whether Bitcoin or blockchain technology can be helpful in this regard is still being debated today. Commentator and podcaster Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano has recently argued that Bitcoin could help solve the inequality that is currently prevalent in the United States. Were Graeber’s and Goertzel’s ideas to come to fruition, with the job market losing so many jobs, this income equality could be heightened. Pomp argues that Bitcoin can solve this issue. Conclusion New technologies bring with them a lot of hype and promise, but it is possible for them to change the way human society functions. The computer changed the way we work and led to the creation of the internet, which allowed us all to become more connected, for good and for bad. Mobile phones have only added to this sense of connectedness. It is clear that new technologies can be revolutionary. Despite both blockchain and AI being talked about as possible game changers, it is too early to guarantee this. Until we can verify their use case through real-world applications, we cannot trust those that are promising us the world. With that being said, both blockchain and AI seem to be entering an almost symbiotic partnership of decentralisation, attempting to revolutionise the way that we as citizens will interact with our governments, each other, and the world. The post What is the relationship between blockchain and artificial intelligence? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Ledger Nano X crypto wallet review: Improved in every way: Ledger Nano X
$119
View Product
The Good
Wireless • Large screen • Supports a huge number of cryptocurrencies
The Bad
Pricey • Could be more intuitive
The Bottom Line
The Ledger Nano X is a great cryptocurrency hardware wallet. It fixes all the issues that its predecessor had, but does so at twice the price -- which is still alright if you're serious about crypto.
⚡ Mashable Score4.0
😎 Cool Factor4.0
📘Learning Curve3.5
💪Performance4.5
💵 Bang for the Buck3.5
If you're serious about cryptocurrency, one gadget that you simply must have is a hardware cryptocurrency wallet. One of the most popular such wallets is Ledger's Nano S — a USB flash drive-sized, practical device that supports nearly every cryptocurrency you can think of.Read more...
More aboutReviews,Bitcoin,Ethereum,Cryptocurrency, andLedger || Ledger Nano X crypto wallet review: Improved in every way: Twitter Facebook Ledger Nano X $119 View Product The Good Wireless • Large screen • Supports a huge number of cryptocurrencies The Bad Pricey • Could be more intuitive The Bottom Line The Ledger Nano X is a great cryptocurrency hardware wallet. It fixes all the issues that its predecessor had, but does so at twice the price -- which is still alright if you're serious about crypto. ⚡ Mashable Score 4.0 😎 Cool Factor 4.0 📘Learning Curve 3.5 💪Performance 4.5 💵 Bang for the Buck 3.5 If you're serious about cryptocurrency, one gadget that you simply must have is a hardware cryptocurrency wallet. One of the most popular such wallets is Ledger's Nano S — a USB flash drive-sized, practical device that supports nearly every cryptocurrency you can think of. Read more... More about Reviews , Bitcoin , Ethereum , Cryptocurrency , and Ledger
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8230.92, 8693.83, 8838.38, 8994.49, 9320.35, 9081.76, 9273.52, 9527.16, 10144.56, 10701.69
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58, 9190.85, 9137.99, 9228.33, 9123.41, 9087.30, 9132.49, 9073.94, 9375.47, 9252.28, 9428.33, 9277.97, 9278.81, 9240.35, 9276.50, 9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84, 9132.23, 9151.39, 9159.04, 9185.82, 9164.23, 9374.89, 9525.36, 9581.07, 9536.89, 9677.11, 9905.17, 10990.87, 10912.82, 11100.47, 11111.21, 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05, 11675.74, 11878.11, 11410.53, 11584.93, 11784.14, 11768.87, 11865.70, 11892.80, 12254.40, 11991.23, 11758.28, 11878.37, 11592.49, 11681.83, 11664.85, 11774.60, 11366.13, 11488.36, 11323.40, 11542.50, 11506.87, 11711.51, 11680.82, 11970.48, 11414.03, 10245.30, 10511.81, 10169.57, 10280.35.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-09-06]
Volume: 37071460174, RSI (14-day): 36.77, 50-day EMA: 10994.17, 200-day EMA: 9674.19
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
U.S Mortgage Rates Steady ahead of the Tech Sector Sell-off…: Mortgage rates steadied in the week ending 3rdSeptember, following the previous week’s 8 basis point fall, delivering a 3rdrise in 4-weeks.
30-year fixed rates rose by 2 basis points to 2.93%, partially reversing an 8 basis point fall to 2.91% in the week prior.
Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were down by 56 basis points.
30-year fixed rates were also down by 201 basis points since November 2018’s most recent peak of 4.94%.
It was a busy 1sthalf of the week on the economic data front.
Key stats included August’s private sector PMIs and ADP nonfarm employment change figures, together with the weekly jobless claims.
It was a mixed bag for the week, in spite of the uptick in mortgage rates.
Looking at the ISM private PMIs, manufacturing sector growth picked up in August, with the pace of job shedding easing.
By contrast, the all-important ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI fell from 58.1 to 56.9. While the decline was not an alarming one, it reflected a speed bump in the COVID-19 recovery nonetheless.
Looking at the labor market numbers, it was also a mixed bag ahead of Friday’s official labor market numbers.
According to the ADP, nonfarm employment rose by 428k in August, coming up short of a forecasted 950k rise. In July, 1,011k jobs had been added.
By contrast, the weekly jobless claims provided some comfort. In the week ending 28thAugust, initial jobless claims stood at 881k. This was down considerably from the previous week’s 1,011k.
All in all, a jump in the U.S equity markets in the early part of the week to fresh record highs drove rates northwards.
The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 3rdSeptember were quoted byFreddie Macto be:
• 30-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 2.93% in the week. Rates were down from 3.49% from a year ago. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.8 points.
• 15-year fixed rates fell by 4 basis points to 2.42% in the week. Rates were down from 3.00% compared with a year ago. The average fee increased from 0.7 points to 0.8 points.
• 5-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 2.93% in the week. Rates were down by 37 points from last year’s 3.30%. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.2 points.
According to Freddie Mac,
• Mortgage rates have remained flat or at near-record lows for the last month.
• However, there are some interesting compositional shifts as the 10-year Treasury rate increased modestly, while mortgage rates declined.
• Spreads may decline even further. The rise in Treasury rates will make it difficult for mortgage rates to fall much more over the next few weeks, however.
For the week ending 28thAugust,rateswere quoted to be:
• Average interest rates for 30-year fixed, backed by the FHA, increased from 3.16% to 3.19%. Points increased from 0.29 to 0.34 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
• Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances decreased from 3.11% to 3.08%. Points fell from 0.38 to 0.36 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
• Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances remained unchanged for a 2ndweek at 3.41. Points increased from 0.35 to 0.38 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased by 2% in the week ending 28thAugust. In the week prior, the index had fallen by 6.5%.
The Refinance Index fell by 3% from the previous week and was 40% higher than the same week a year ago. In the week prior, the index had slid by 10%.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased from 62.6% to 62.5% in the week ending 28thAugust. In the week prior, the share had declined from 64.6% to 62.6%.
According to the MBA,
• Both conventional and government refinancing activity decreased last week. This was despite 30-year fixed and 15-year fixed mortgage rates falling to near historical lows.
• Mortgage rates have remained below 3.5% for 5-months now, and it’s possible that refinance demand is slowing. There may not be another significant rise in demand without another material fall in mortgage rates.
• Purchase applications were unchanged over the week and were 28% higher than a year ago. It was the 15thstraight week of year-over-year increases.
• Lenders are reporting that strong demand for home buying is coming from a delayed activity from the spring. Households are also reportedly seeking more space in less densely populated areas.
It’s a relatively quiet 1sthalf of the week on the U.S economic calendar.
Key stats include August’s inflation and the JOLTs job opening numbers along with the weekly jobless claims figures.
With the U.S on holiday on Monday, expect any chatter from Washington to also influence.
Away from the U.S, trade data from China will also provide rates with direction in the week…
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – September 5th, 2020
• Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next
• US Stock Market Overview – Stock as Volatility Continues to Rise
• European Equities: A Week in Review – 04/09/20
• Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver Gives Back Early Gains for the Week
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again || U.S Mortgage Rates Steady ahead of the Tech Sector Sell-off
: Mortgage rates steadied in the week ending 3 rd September, following the previous weeks 8 basis point fall, delivering a 3 rd rise in 4-weeks. 30-year fixed rates rose by 2 basis points to 2.93%, partially reversing an 8 basis point fall to 2.91% in the week prior. Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were down by 56 basis points. 30-year fixed rates were also down by 201 basis points since November 2018s most recent peak of 4.94%. Economic Data from the Week It was a busy 1 st half of the week on the economic data front. Key stats included Augusts private sector PMIs and ADP nonfarm employment change figures, together with the weekly jobless claims. It was a mixed bag for the week, in spite of the uptick in mortgage rates. Looking at the ISM private PMIs, manufacturing sector growth picked up in August, with the pace of job shedding easing. By contrast, the all-important ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI fell from 58.1 to 56.9. While the decline was not an alarming one, it reflected a speed bump in the COVID-19 recovery nonetheless. Looking at the labor market numbers, it was also a mixed bag ahead of Fridays official labor market numbers. According to the ADP, nonfarm employment rose by 428k in August, coming up short of a forecasted 950k rise. In July, 1,011k jobs had been added. By contrast, the weekly jobless claims provided some comfort. In the week ending 28 th August, initial jobless claims stood at 881k. This was down considerably from the previous weeks 1,011k. All in all, a jump in the U.S equity markets in the early part of the week to fresh record highs drove rates northwards. Freddie Mac Rates The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 3 rd September were quoted by Freddie Mac to be : 30-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 2.93% in the week. Rates were down from 3.49% from a year ago. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.8 points. 15-year fixed rates fell by 4 basis points to 2.42% in the week. Rates were down from 3.00% compared with a year ago. The average fee increased from 0.7 points to 0.8 points. Story continues 5-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 2.93% in the week. Rates were down by 37 points from last years 3.30%. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.2 points. According to Freddie Mac, Mortgage rates have remained flat or at near-record lows for the last month. However, there are some interesting compositional shifts as the 10-year Treasury rate increased modestly, while mortgage rates declined. Spreads may decline even further. The rise in Treasury rates will make it difficult for mortgage rates to fall much more over the next few weeks, however. Mortgage Bankers Association Rates For the week ending 28 th August, rates were quoted to be : Average interest rates for 30-year fixed, backed by the FHA, increased from 3.16% to 3.19%. Points increased from 0.29 to 0.34 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances decreased from 3.11% to 3.08%. Points fell from 0.38 to 0.36 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances remained unchanged for a 2 nd week at 3.41. Points increased from 0.35 to 0.38 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased by 2% in the week ending 28 th August. In the week prior, the index had fallen by 6.5%. The Refinance Index fell by 3% from the previous week and was 40% higher than the same week a year ago. In the week prior, the index had slid by 10%. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased from 62.6% to 62.5% in the week ending 28 th August. In the week prior, the share had declined from 64.6% to 62.6%. According to the MBA, Both conventional and government refinancing activity decreased last week. This was despite 30-year fixed and 15-year fixed mortgage rates falling to near historical lows. Mortgage rates have remained below 3.5% for 5-months now, and its possible that refinance demand is slowing. There may not be another significant rise in demand without another material fall in mortgage rates. Purchase applications were unchanged over the week and were 28% higher than a year ago. It was the 15 th straight week of year-over-year increases. Lenders are reporting that strong demand for home buying is coming from a delayed activity from the spring. Households are also reportedly seeking more space in less densely populated areas. For the week ahead Its a relatively quiet 1 st half of the week on the U.S economic calendar. Key stats include Augusts inflation and the JOLTs job opening numbers along with the weekly jobless claims figures. With the U.S on holiday on Monday, expect any chatter from Washington to also influence. Away from the U.S, trade data from China will also provide rates with direction in the week
This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EOS, Ethereum and Ripples XRP Daily Tech Analysis September 5th, 2020 Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, Youll Be Surprised to Hear Whats Next US Stock Market Overview Stock as Volatility Continues to Rise European Equities: A Week in Review 04/09/20 Silver Weekly Price Forecast Silver Gives Back Early Gains for the Week Gold Weekly Price Forecast Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD).
Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.com.ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH
About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance.
ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers.
ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services.
For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com.
Contact:
Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected]
For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com
SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/604959/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2020 / ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com. ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . Contact: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/604959/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD).
Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.com.ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH
About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance.
ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers.
ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services.
For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com.
Contact:
Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected]
For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com
SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/604959/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 5th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 3.13% on Friday. Partially reversing a 10.80% tumble from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $10,484.7. It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning low $10,095 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,620, Bitcoin rallied to a late intraday high $10,644.0. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $11,090, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$10,500 levels. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day for the majors on Friday. Tron’s TRX bucked the trend once more, sliding by 11.42% to partially reverse Thursday’s 15.94% breakout. It was a bullish day for the rest of the majors, however. EOS led the way, rallying by 14.50%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+6.93%), Cardano’s ADA (+7.45%), Monero’s XMR (+5.53%), and Tezos (+7.20%) also found strong support. Binance Coin (+3.04%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+3.58%), Ethereum (+1.50%), Litecoin (+1.22% Ripple’s XRP (+3.82%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+1.83%) trailed the front runners. In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Tuesday high $379.05bn before sliding to a Thursday low $303.72bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $322.50bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Wednesday low 58.79% before rising to a Thursday high 60.77%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 59.75%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.40% to $10,443.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $10,593.0 before falling to a low $10,442.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.17%), Ethereum (-0.35%), and Litecoin (-1.34%) joined Bitcoin in the red. Story continues It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however. At the time of writing, EOS was up by 1.55% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the $10,365 pivot level to support a run at the first major resistance level at $10,764. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $10,644.0. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could test resistance at $11,000 before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $11,043. Failure to avoid a fall through the $10,365 pivot would bring the first major support level at $10,086 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$10,000 levels on the day. The second major support level sits at $9,687. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 5th, 2020 USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Rallies Into Resistance USD/CAD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Fails To Continue Its Rebound Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Continue to Show Current Area Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next The Weekly Wrap – A Busy Economic Calendar Delivered Support for the Greenback || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 5th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 3.13% on Friday. Partially reversing a 10.80% tumble from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $10,484.7. It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning low $10,095 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,620, Bitcoin rallied to a late intraday high $10,644.0. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $11,090, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$10,500 levels. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day for the majors on Friday. Tron’s TRX bucked the trend once more, sliding by 11.42% to partially reverse Thursday’s 15.94% breakout. It was a bullish day for the rest of the majors, however. EOS led the way, rallying by 14.50%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+6.93%), Cardano’s ADA (+7.45%), Monero’s XMR (+5.53%), and Tezos (+7.20%) also found strong support. Binance Coin (+3.04%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+3.58%), Ethereum (+1.50%), Litecoin (+1.22% Ripple’s XRP (+3.82%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+1.83%) trailed the front runners. In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Tuesday high $379.05bn before sliding to a Thursday low $303.72bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $322.50bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Wednesday low 58.79% before rising to a Thursday high 60.77%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 59.75%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.40% to $10,443.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $10,593.0 before falling to a low $10,442.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.17%), Ethereum (-0.35%), and Litecoin (-1.34%) joined Bitcoin in the red. Story continues It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however. At the time of writing, EOS was up by 1.55% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the $10,365 pivot level to support a run at the first major resistance level at $10,764. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $10,644.0. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could test resistance at $11,000 before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $11,043. Failure to avoid a fall through the $10,365 pivot would bring the first major support level at $10,086 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$10,000 levels on the day. The second major support level sits at $9,687. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 5th, 2020 USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Rallies Into Resistance USD/CAD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Fails To Continue Its Rebound Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Continue to Show Current Area Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next The Weekly Wrap – A Busy Economic Calendar Delivered Support for the Greenback || US Stock Market Overview – Stock as Volatility Continues to Rise: US stocks continued to experience volatility during the first week of September. The VIX volatility index climbed to the highest level since June. Most of the focus was directed to the US jobs numbers, which continue to rebound since tumbling in March and April. The question is whether the decelerating in jobs will weigh on stocks. Large-cap tech stocks continued to fall on Friday as large bets in the options markets that tech stocks would rise were unwound.
The VIX volatility index continues to climb, rising to the highest levels since June. Ahead of the jobs report, the Nasdaq was down by more than 1% which followed a 5% decline on Thursday. For the week, sectors were mixed, driven down by energy shares.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4%. The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March. Expectations were for a rise of 1.32 million jobs and the jobless rate to decline to 9.8% from 10.2% in July.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise as Weather Concerns Remain
• The Weekly Wrap – A Busy Economic Calendar Delivered Support for the Greenback
• Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Pull Back
• Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Give Up Early Gains
• EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – September 5th, 2020
• Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next || US Stock Market Overview – Stock as Volatility Continues to Rise: US stocks continued to experience volatility during the first week of September. The VIX volatility index climbed to the highest level since June. Most of the focus was directed to the US jobs numbers, which continue to rebound since tumbling in March and April. The question is whether the decelerating in jobs will weigh on stocks. Large-cap tech stocks continued to fall on Friday as large bets in the options markets that tech stocks would rise were unwound. The VIX volatility index continues to climb, rising to the highest levels since June. Ahead of the jobs report, the Nasdaq was down by more than 1% which followed a 5% decline on Thursday. For the week, sectors were mixed, driven down by energy shares. Payrolls Rise in Line with Expectations but Unemployment Rate Falls Nonfarm payrolls rose by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4%. The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March. Expectations were for a rise of 1.32 million jobs and the jobless rate to decline to 9.8% from 10.2% in July. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise as Weather Concerns Remain The Weekly Wrap – A Busy Economic Calendar Delivered Support for the Greenback Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Pull Back Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Give Up Early Gains EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – September 5th, 2020 Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next || Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
• Bitcoincollapsed near Triple Fib Amplitude Arcs – is this a sign of pending reversal for other assets?
• It is very likely that Bitcoin price levels will fall below the May through July levels, near $9k in an attempt to identify new support levels. The $8k level would be the next downside price target. Beyond that, possibly $7k or even $6k.
• GoldandSilverwill move lower before going higher as a potential price collapse in Bitcoin suggests general market fear is hitting all global assets.
• As other assets decline in valuation levels, the US Dollar will likely be viewed as the strongest currency to own and rise.
Many of you are familiar with my team’s advanced study of Fibonacci Price Theory and our use of our proprietary Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc indicators. This technical analysis theory is a combination of Nikola Tesla’s Mechanical Resonance theory and traditional Fibonacci Price Theory. We believe the innate frequency of price action (once found), can be used to identify future critical inflection points in price. In this case with Bitcoin, three unique Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs aligned within 5 days to present a very real price inflection point. The recent collapse in the price of Bitcoin may be inherently related to the frequency of price from past peaks and troughs using our advanced Fibonacci Price Theory.
We found it interesting that Bitcoin prices stayed below $10k through most of June and July, when other Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs crossed price, then began to move higher after the last Price Amplitude Arc completed near July 20, 2020. After that Fibonacci Arc completed, the only Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs present in the future were the Triple Fibonacci Arcs shown on this Daily Bitcoin chart (below).
Our team also believes that once Bitcoin cleared the previous Fibonacci Arcs, a bit of a “reprieve” took place in price where a moderate upside price rally too place. As we neared the Triple Fibonacci Arcs, price activity muted and reversed. Could it be that price reacts to frequency levels we are not seeing on the charts?
The Weekly BitCoin chart, below, highlights many of the origination points (peaks and troughs) of the Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs. We anchor them to price peaks or troughs as a way to use and study them, measuring critical price waves (up or down) using Eclipse drawing tools, then drag them and anchor them to current or past peaks or troughs. Then we study the levels to determine if the frequency of price validity is accurate or not. If we believe we have drawn a Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc that is valid, we’ll keep in on the chart for future reference.
We believe this current Triple Fibonacci Arc pattern may be present in other symbols given how theUS stock marketshave reversed recently. It may be that these critical price inflection points operate across major indexes like tides in the ocean work across multiple ports and harbors. When a big or critical Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc hits, we believe it results in a broad market reaction.
If this breakdown in Bitcoin Continues, the $8k level would be the next downside price target. Beyond that, possibly $7k and maybe as low as $6k. We will have to see how Bitcoin reacts to this Triple Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc and how deep price corrects at this time. It is very likely that Bitcoin price levels will fall below the May through July levels, near $9k in an attempt to identify new support levels.
We also believe Gold and Silver will move lower as a price collapse in Bitcoin suggests general market fear it hitting all global assets. The US Dollar may attempt to form support as well because of this move. As other assets decline in valuation levels, some primary currency will likely be viewed as the strongest alternative asset – this will likely be the US Dollar. Eventually, after what we believe could be a moderate downtrend in Gold and Silver, precious metals will begin to move dramatically higher as foreign currency and Bitcoin prices continue to fall. Capital will always seek out the best, least risky, investment solutions at times of chaos and risk. If Bitcoin becomes highly volatile and continues to fall, then alternate assets present very real opportunities.
Isn’t it time you learned how I can help you better understand technical analysis as well as find and execute better trades? If you look back at past research, you will see that my incredible team and our proprietary technical analysis tools have shown you what to expect from the markets in the future. Do you want to learn how to profit from these expected moves? If so, sign up for myActive ETF Swing Trade Signalstoday!
If you have a buy-and-hold or retirement account and are looking for long-term technical signals for when to buy and sell equities, bonds, precious metals, or sit in cash then be sure to subscribe to myPassive Long-Term ETF Investing Signalsto stay ahead of the market and protect your wealth!
Chris VermeulenChief Market StrategistTechnical Traders Ltd.
NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: Our free research does not constitute a trade recommendation or solicitation for our readers to take any action regarding this research. It is provided for educational purposes only.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• European Equities: A Week in Review – 04/09/20
• Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next
• GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Gives Up Gains
• Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver Gives Back Early Gains for the Week
• Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise as Weather Concerns Remain
• E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Technical Bounce Could Lead to Test of 11803.75 || Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, Youll Be Surprised to Hear Whats Next: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Bitcoin collapsed near Triple Fib Amplitude Arcs is this a sign of pending reversal for other assets? It is very likely that Bitcoin price levels will fall below the May through July levels, near $9k in an attempt to identify new support levels. The $8k level would be the next downside price target. Beyond that, possibly $7k or even $6k. Gold and Silver will move lower before going higher as a potential price collapse in Bitcoin suggests general market fear is hitting all global assets. As other assets decline in valuation levels, the US Dollar will likely be viewed as the strongest currency to own and rise. Many of you are familiar with my teams advanced study of Fibonacci Price Theory and our use of our proprietary Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc indicators. This technical analysis theory is a combination of Nikola Teslas Mechanical Resonance theory and traditional Fibonacci Price Theory. We believe the innate frequency of price action (once found), can be used to identify future critical inflection points in price. In this case with Bitcoin, three unique Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs aligned within 5 days to present a very real price inflection point. The recent collapse in the price of Bitcoin may be inherently related to the frequency of price from past peaks and troughs using our advanced Fibonacci Price Theory. We found it interesting that Bitcoin prices stayed below $10k through most of June and July, when other Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs crossed price, then began to move higher after the last Price Amplitude Arc completed near July 20, 2020. After that Fibonacci Arc completed, the only Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs present in the future were the Triple Fibonacci Arcs shown on this Daily Bitcoin chart (below). Our team also believes that once Bitcoin cleared the previous Fibonacci Arcs, a bit of a reprieve took place in price where a moderate upside price rally too place. As we neared the Triple Fibonacci Arcs, price activity muted and reversed. Could it be that price reacts to frequency levels we are not seeing on the charts? Story continues The Weekly BitCoin chart, below, highlights many of the origination points (peaks and troughs) of the Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs. We anchor them to price peaks or troughs as a way to use and study them, measuring critical price waves (up or down) using Eclipse drawing tools, then drag them and anchor them to current or past peaks or troughs. Then we study the levels to determine if the frequency of price validity is accurate or not. If we believe we have drawn a Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc that is valid, well keep in on the chart for future reference. We believe this current Triple Fibonacci Arc pattern may be present in other symbols given how the US stock markets have reversed recently. It may be that these critical price inflection points operate across major indexes like tides in the ocean work across multiple ports and harbors. When a big or critical Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc hits, we believe it results in a broad market reaction. If this breakdown in Bitcoin Continues, the $8k level would be the next downside price target. Beyond that, possibly $7k and maybe as low as $6k. We will have to see how Bitcoin reacts to this Triple Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc and how deep price corrects at this time. It is very likely that Bitcoin price levels will fall below the May through July levels, near $9k in an attempt to identify new support levels. We also believe Gold and Silver will move lower as a price collapse in Bitcoin suggests general market fear it hitting all global assets. The US Dollar may attempt to form support as well because of this move. As other assets decline in valuation levels, some primary currency will likely be viewed as the strongest alternative asset this will likely be the US Dollar. Eventually, after what we believe could be a moderate downtrend in Gold and Silver, precious metals will begin to move dramatically higher as foreign currency and Bitcoin prices continue to fall. Capital will always seek out the best, least risky, investment solutions at times of chaos and risk. If Bitcoin becomes highly volatile and continues to fall, then alternate assets present very real opportunities. Isnt it time you learned how I can help you better understand technical analysis as well as find and execute better trades? If you look back at past research, you will see that my incredible team and our proprietary technical analysis tools have shown you what to expect from the markets in the future. Do you want to learn how to profit from these expected moves? If so, sign up for my Active ETF Swing Trade Signals today! If you have a buy-and-hold or retirement account and are looking for long-term technical signals for when to buy and sell equities, bonds, precious metals, or sit in cash then be sure to subscribe to my Passive Long-Term ETF Investing Signals to stay ahead of the market and protect your wealth! Chris Vermeulen Chief Market Strategist Technical Traders Ltd. NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: Our free research does not constitute a trade recommendation or solicitation for our readers to take any action regarding this research. It is provided for educational purposes only. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: European Equities: A Week in Review 04/09/20 Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, Youll Be Surprised to Hear Whats Next GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast British Pound Gives Up Gains Silver Weekly Price Forecast Silver Gives Back Early Gains for the Week Natural Gas Price Prediction Prices Rise as Weather Concerns Remain E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis Technical Bounce Could Lead to Test of 11803.75 || Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
• Bitcoincollapsed near Triple Fib Amplitude Arcs – is this a sign of pending reversal for other assets?
• It is very likely that Bitcoin price levels will fall below the May through July levels, near $9k in an attempt to identify new support levels. The $8k level would be the next downside price target. Beyond that, possibly $7k or even $6k.
• GoldandSilverwill move lower before going higher as a potential price collapse in Bitcoin suggests general market fear is hitting all global assets.
• As other assets decline in valuation levels, the US Dollar will likely be viewed as the strongest currency to own and rise.
Many of you are familiar with my team’s advanced study of Fibonacci Price Theory and our use of our proprietary Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc indicators. This technical analysis theory is a combination of Nikola Tesla’s Mechanical Resonance theory and traditional Fibonacci Price Theory. We believe the innate frequency of price action (once found), can be used to identify future critical inflection points in price. In this case with Bitcoin, three unique Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs aligned within 5 days to present a very real price inflection point. The recent collapse in the price of Bitcoin may be inherently related to the frequency of price from past peaks and troughs using our advanced Fibonacci Price Theory.
We found it interesting that Bitcoin prices stayed below $10k through most of June and July, when other Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs crossed price, then began to move higher after the last Price Amplitude Arc completed near July 20, 2020. After that Fibonacci Arc completed, the only Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs present in the future were the Triple Fibonacci Arcs shown on this Daily Bitcoin chart (below).
Our team also believes that once Bitcoin cleared the previous Fibonacci Arcs, a bit of a “reprieve” took place in price where a moderate upside price rally too place. As we neared the Triple Fibonacci Arcs, price activity muted and reversed. Could it be that price reacts to frequency levels we are not seeing on the charts?
The Weekly BitCoin chart, below, highlights many of the origination points (peaks and troughs) of the Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arcs. We anchor them to price peaks or troughs as a way to use and study them, measuring critical price waves (up or down) using Eclipse drawing tools, then drag them and anchor them to current or past peaks or troughs. Then we study the levels to determine if the frequency of price validity is accurate or not. If we believe we have drawn a Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc that is valid, we’ll keep in on the chart for future reference.
We believe this current Triple Fibonacci Arc pattern may be present in other symbols given how theUS stock marketshave reversed recently. It may be that these critical price inflection points operate across major indexes like tides in the ocean work across multiple ports and harbors. When a big or critical Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc hits, we believe it results in a broad market reaction.
If this breakdown in Bitcoin Continues, the $8k level would be the next downside price target. Beyond that, possibly $7k and maybe as low as $6k. We will have to see how Bitcoin reacts to this Triple Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc and how deep price corrects at this time. It is very likely that Bitcoin price levels will fall below the May through July levels, near $9k in an attempt to identify new support levels.
We also believe Gold and Silver will move lower as a price collapse in Bitcoin suggests general market fear it hitting all global assets. The US Dollar may attempt to form support as well because of this move. As other assets decline in valuation levels, some primary currency will likely be viewed as the strongest alternative asset – this will likely be the US Dollar. Eventually, after what we believe could be a moderate downtrend in Gold and Silver, precious metals will begin to move dramatically higher as foreign currency and Bitcoin prices continue to fall. Capital will always seek out the best, least risky, investment solutions at times of chaos and risk. If Bitcoin becomes highly volatile and continues to fall, then alternate assets present very real opportunities.
Isn’t it time you learned how I can help you better understand technical analysis as well as find and execute better trades? If you look back at past research, you will see that my incredible team and our proprietary technical analysis tools have shown you what to expect from the markets in the future. Do you want to learn how to profit from these expected moves? If so, sign up for myActive ETF Swing Trade Signalstoday!
If you have a buy-and-hold or retirement account and are looking for long-term technical signals for when to buy and sell equities, bonds, precious metals, or sit in cash then be sure to subscribe to myPassive Long-Term ETF Investing Signalsto stay ahead of the market and protect your wealth!
Chris VermeulenChief Market StrategistTechnical Traders Ltd.
NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: Our free research does not constitute a trade recommendation or solicitation for our readers to take any action regarding this research. It is provided for educational purposes only.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• European Equities: A Week in Review – 04/09/20
• Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next
• GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Gives Up Gains
• Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver Gives Back Early Gains for the Week
• Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise as Weather Concerns Remain
• E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Technical Bounce Could Lead to Test of 11803.75 || Square, BitGo, And Cyclebit: The State Of Crypto Payments: The following is a contributed article from a content partner of Benzinga
Discussions surrounding cryptocurrency payment platforms have captured the attention of investors worldwide, specifically on whether digital currencies are useful in the retail sector. For instance, the growth and widespread adoption of ‘stable-coins’ has nudged 20,000 merchants to accept crypto payments. The list of parties interested in crypto-transactions, however, is not merely limited to small businesses; we have seen that corporations like Microsoft, Overstock, Namecheap, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CheapAir, Travala, and Expedia have all shifted their attention.
The $250 Billion crypto payment market, though broad, can be best understood by examining three major categories:P2P Retail Payments, Crypto Custody, and Merchant Plugin and Gateways.
Square’s Cash App -A Leader In P2P Crypto Retail Payments
Since January, the stock market value ofSquare, Inc.(NYSE:SQ) has risen in value by 148%; last year alone, the stock grew by 137%. As claimed by analysts, one should anticipate that if Square’s Cash App continues to perform, its SQ stock price could increase by 400% within 4 to 5 years, matching the capitalization of companies like PayPal. Undoubtedly, the firm has garnered the interest of investors. Most importantly, however, it has demonstrated an ability to generate profit, as evidenced by its Q2 earnings report for 2020, which revealed that Cash App’s gross profit grew by 167%, totalling to $281 million.
One explanation for CashApp’s popularity may be attributed to Bitcoin, as the platform allows its users to buy, sell, and transfer it. This is especially significant, as it has been consistently demonstrated that younger users’ favour this means of payment. As a result, Square’s Bitcoin gross profit jumped by 711%.
The list of features offered by Cash App goes on. One new idea currently under pilot testing would allow members of its ‘Cash App P2P Payments’ service to obtain small, short-term loans. 1000 users were offered such loans, ranging from $20 - $200, to be paid back within four weeks at a 5% flat interest rate. Whether successful or not, this attempt to explore possibilities by Square is an indicator of its willingness to expand their business model.
Offering small loans is expected to broaden Cash App’s lending efforts, and could eventually become a more complete financial payment solution when compared to PayPal. As such, Square Capital, the firm's lending arm, has been able to support merchants with micro-finance schemes for years, and is even approved to operate as a bank.
Just as important to analyse, however, are Cash App’s competitors. For instance, Coinbase offers its members the ability to borrow cash against their Bitcoin holdings, and is preparing an IPO to launch a waitlist for customers. Users will be able to borrow up to 30% of $20,000 of their Bitcoin holdings at an 8% APR, which is less competitive than the majority of competing crypto lending solutions. Yet given US regulatory limitations, this solution is expected to receive a lot of adoption, since there will be no special applications or credit checks required.
Other key competitors like Venmo and Zelle have furthered their respective lending programs, suggesting that they too see the potential of P2P payment platforms. Yet the main difference between Cash App and its competitors lies in its Bitcoin transactions and growing lending schemes.
BitGo -Institutional Digital Asset Custody Firm
BitGo operates in the crypto-sector as a security and digital-asset trust firm. Showing its intent to compete, they have recently announced the acquisition of “Excess Specie Insurance”, enabling users to purchase their own dedicated excess limits above BitGo’s $100 million insurance policy, ensuring an additional layer of protection to crypto holdings. Until recently, BitGo was covering up to $100 million worth of digital assets held in their accounts with the security firms, but is now backed by investors such as Goldman Sachs and Galaxy Digital Ventures.
One distinctive feature offered by BitGo is ‘Wrapped Bitcoin’, an ERC-20 token with a 1-1 peg to Bitcoin. It currently secures 46,000 BTC, worth more than $500 million through custodial patchwork. Yet the Palo Alto-based company hasn’t stopped there; its product portfolio has expanded to offer institutional digital asset lending services. BitGo is currently lendingBitcoin(BTC),Ether(ETH),Litecoin(LTC) and stablecoins.
In its most recent endeavour, BitGo has applied to become a qualified crypto custodian in New York State. As such, they expect “a dramatic increase in market demand for its products and services from banks, pension funds, hedge funds and other fiduciaries”, according to an announcement published on August 25th.
Yet another area of growth within the industry are gateway platforms that enable merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments in exchange for their services.
Cyclebit;Accelerating Crypto Payment Solutions For Merchants
Cyclebit is a new firm that differentiates itself by offering zero-fee tools to retailers, allowing them to accept cryptocurrencies for in-store, online, and on-the-go purchases. Cyclebit hosts 20 of the most popular cryptocurrencies, connecting merchants to a broader customer base. The company is currently processing 1 million transactions a month, featuring a $1 billion annual turnover.
Cyclebitis one of the largest mPOS and e-commerce software providers in Eastern Europe, with a range of solutions being used by the largest insurance, logistics and retail businesses in Canada, USA, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Europe. Among the company's clients are online marketplaces, insurance and logistics companies like Ozon, Lamoda, Delivery Club, Pony Express, and DPD.
Included in its product suite is ‘Cycle-Online’, an innovative e-commerce solution for processing online crypto payments. This allows users to accept crypto payments anywhere in the world with full protection against volatility, chargebacks, and ID theft. Another solution is the tap2go application, designed to allow any Android smartphone with an NFC module to act as a terminal for receiving contactless payments. The app complies with PCI DSS Level 1 security standards, and thus has immense potential on CIS markets like Russia, where payments using Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay now make up almost 80% of all contactless transactions.
Despite the many benefits of crypto payments for merchants and consumers, including limited fees, improved privacy, and diminished reliance on centralized authorities, there remain barriers to overcome. Taxation or liquidity barriers for smaller-cap crypto projects are but two examples. What remains clear, however, is the enormous potential of the industry available for the players who enter first. For now, analysts wait in anticipation to see who will succeed.
See more from Benzinga
• Level01 On Why DeFi Is Here To Stay
• Is Dash Price On The Verge Of A Bull Break? Golden Cross And 3 Key Indicators Suggest As Much
• The 5 Hottest DeFi Projects To Watch In Asia
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Square, BitGo, And Cyclebit: The State Of Crypto Payments: The following is a contributed article from a content partner of Benzinga Discussions surrounding cryptocurrency payment platforms have captured the attention of investors worldwide, specifically on whether digital currencies are useful in the retail sector. For instance, the growth and widespread adoption of stable-coins has nudged 20,000 merchants to accept crypto payments. The list of parties interested in crypto-transactions, however, is not merely limited to small businesses; we have seen that corporations like Microsoft, Overstock, Namecheap, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CheapAir, Travala, and Expedia have all shifted their attention. The $250 Billion crypto payment market, though broad, can be best understood by examining three major categories: P2P Retail Payments, Crypto Custody, and Merchant Plugin and Gateways. Squares Cash App - A Leader In P2P Crypto Retail Payments Since January, the stock market value of Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ ) has risen in value by 148%; last year alone, the stock grew by 137%. As claimed by analysts, one should anticipate that if Squares Cash App continues to perform, its SQ stock price could increase by 400% within 4 to 5 years, matching the capitalization of companies like PayPal. Undoubtedly, the firm has garnered the interest of investors. Most importantly, however, it has demonstrated an ability to generate profit, as evidenced by its Q2 earnings report for 2020, which revealed that Cash Apps gross profit grew by 167%, totalling to $281 million. One explanation for CashApps popularity may be attributed to Bitcoin, as the platform allows its users to buy, sell, and transfer it. This is especially significant, as it has been consistently demonstrated that younger users favour this means of payment. As a result, Squares Bitcoin gross profit jumped by 711%. The list of features offered by Cash App goes on. One new idea currently under pilot testing would allow members of its Cash App P2P Payments service to obtain small, short-term loans. 1000 users were offered such loans, ranging from $20 - $200, to be paid back within four weeks at a 5% flat interest rate. Whether successful or not, this attempt to explore possibilities by Square is an indicator of its willingness to expand their business model. Story continues Offering small loans is expected to broaden Cash Apps lending efforts, and could eventually become a more complete financial payment solution when compared to PayPal. As such, Square Capital, the firm's lending arm, has been able to support merchants with micro-finance schemes for years, and is even approved to operate as a bank. Just as important to analyse, however, are Cash Apps competitors. For instance, Coinbase offers its members the ability to borrow cash against their Bitcoin holdings, and is preparing an IPO to launch a waitlist for customers. Users will be able to borrow up to 30% of $20,000 of their Bitcoin holdings at an 8% APR, which is less competitive than the majority of competing crypto lending solutions. Yet given US regulatory limitations, this solution is expected to receive a lot of adoption, since there will be no special applications or credit checks required. Other key competitors like Venmo and Zelle have furthered their respective lending programs, suggesting that they too see the potential of P2P payment platforms. Yet the main difference between Cash App and its competitors lies in its Bitcoin transactions and growing lending schemes. BitGo - Institutional Digital Asset Custody Firm BitGo operates in the crypto-sector as a security and digital-asset trust firm. Showing its intent to compete, they have recently announced the acquisition of Excess Specie Insurance, enabling users to purchase their own dedicated excess limits above BitGos $100 million insurance policy, ensuring an additional layer of protection to crypto holdings. Until recently, BitGo was covering up to $100 million worth of digital assets held in their accounts with the security firms, but is now backed by investors such as Goldman Sachs and Galaxy Digital Ventures. One distinctive feature offered by BitGo is Wrapped Bitcoin, an ERC-20 token with a 1-1 peg to Bitcoin. It currently secures 46,000 BTC, worth more than $500 million through custodial patchwork. Yet the Palo Alto-based company hasnt stopped there; its product portfolio has expanded to offer institutional digital asset lending services. BitGo is currently lending Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and stablecoins. In its most recent endeavour, BitGo has applied to become a qualified crypto custodian in New York State. As such, they expect a dramatic increase in market demand for its products and services from banks, pension funds, hedge funds and other fiduciaries, according to an announcement published on August 25th. Yet another area of growth within the industry are gateway platforms that enable merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments in exchange for their services. Cyclebit; Accelerating Crypto Payment Solutions For Merchants Cyclebit is a new firm that differentiates itself by offering zero-fee tools to retailers, allowing them to accept cryptocurrencies for in-store, online, and on-the-go purchases. Cyclebit hosts 20 of the most popular cryptocurrencies, connecting merchants to a broader customer base. The company is currently processing 1 million transactions a month, featuring a $1 billion annual turnover. Cyclebit is one of the largest mPOS and e-commerce software providers in Eastern Europe, with a range of solutions being used by the largest insurance, logistics and retail businesses in Canada, USA, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Europe. Among the company's clients are online marketplaces, insurance and logistics companies like Ozon, Lamoda, Delivery Club, Pony Express, and DPD. Included in its product suite is Cycle-Online, an innovative e-commerce solution for processing online crypto payments. This allows users to accept crypto payments anywhere in the world with full protection against volatility, chargebacks, and ID theft. Another solution is the tap2go application, designed to allow any Android smartphone with an NFC module to act as a terminal for receiving contactless payments. The app complies with PCI DSS Level 1 security standards, and thus has immense potential on CIS markets like Russia, where payments using Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay now make up almost 80% of all contactless transactions. Despite the many benefits of crypto payments for merchants and consumers, including limited fees, improved privacy, and diminished reliance on centralized authorities, there remain barriers to overcome. Taxation or liquidity barriers for smaller-cap crypto projects are but two examples. What remains clear, however, is the enormous potential of the industry available for the players who enter first. For now, analysts wait in anticipation to see who will succeed. See more from Benzinga Level01 On Why DeFi Is Here To Stay Is Dash Price On The Verge Of A Bull Break? Golden Cross And 3 Key Indicators Suggest As Much The 5 Hottest DeFi Projects To Watch In Asia © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Markets Pullback to Recent Break Out: TheS&P 500has rallied a bit to reach towards the 3600 level before getting absently hammered on Thursday and Friday. At this point in time, the market looks as if it is trying to find its footing, and I think that it is only a matter of time before we do find those buyers. At this point, I think that there is massive support between here and the 3200 level, which I think is the short term bottom. However, it is also possible that we go sideways in the short term, as the market has seen a bit of an over exuberance when it comes to buying, and now it is likely that the market grind sideways to digest the gains, as we had come so far in such a short amount of time.
Ultimately, I do think that the S&P 500 continues to react to the Federal Reserve and all of its efforts, so a pullback here is probably going to end up being a buying opportunity. Granted, I recognize that the stock markets are completely divorced from reality, but that has been the case for 12 years so I do not see how this should suddenly change now. With this, liquidity continues to force money into the market, but ultimately it is difficult to short in that scenario, despite the fact that any person can see that we are overdone. I think it nice pullback from here makes sense but it should be noted that the 3400 level is showing itself as resilient as well.
For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again
• E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Technical Bounce Could Lead to Test of 11803.75
• USD/CAD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Fails To Continue Its Rebound
• EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro Gives Back Initial Push
• S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Looking for Support
• Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next || Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again: Gold markets initially tried to rally during the course of the week but continue to see trouble at the $2000 level, which of course is a large, round, psychologically significant figure. If we were to break above that level, it would obviously be very bullish, but at this point I do not think that happens anytime soon. The market breaking above there obviously has gold looking for the $2100 level, but it is going to take some type of shock to the system to get gold flying like that. Gold Price Predictions Video 07.09.20 The US dollar has been strengthening, and as the employment numbers in the United States came out a little better than anticipated, we could start to see a little bit of a reversal in the fortunes of the greenback, at least on a temporary basis. If that is going to be the case, then gold will certainly selloff. Underneath the current trading area though, I think that the $1800 level is an extraordinarily supportive area, and I would become aggressively long of this market. If we were to break down significantly below there, then the uptrend is over, and the US dollar skyrockets again. While it does sound a little drastic, that is essentially how this market is behaving these days. As central banks around the world continue to buy gold, so I do think that longer-term goes higher but we have clearly gotten a bit ahead of ourselves as of late. The markets are trying to tell us this, so if we are a longer-term trader, we know that we have an opportunity to pick up gold “on the cheap” if it does drop. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Gives Up Gains Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Pulls Back US Stock Market Overview – Stock as Volatility Continues to Rise Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Pull Back Into the Weekend || Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again: Gold marketsinitially tried to rally during the course of the week but continue to see trouble at the $2000 level, which of course is a large, round, psychologically significant figure. If we were to break above that level, it would obviously be very bullish, but at this point I do not think that happens anytime soon. The market breaking above there obviously has gold looking for the $2100 level, but it is going to take some type of shock to the system to get gold flying like that.
The US dollar has been strengthening, and as the employment numbers in the United States came out a little better than anticipated, we could start to see a little bit of a reversal in the fortunes of the greenback, at least on a temporary basis. If that is going to be the case, then gold will certainly selloff. Underneath the current trading area though, I think that the $1800 level is an extraordinarily supportive area, and I would become aggressively long of this market. If we were to break down significantly below there, then the uptrend is over, and the US dollar skyrockets again. While it does sound a little drastic, that is essentially how this market is behaving these days.
As central banks around the world continue to buy gold, so I do think that longer-term goes higher but we have clearly gotten a bit ahead of ourselves as of late. The markets are trying to tell us this, so if we are a longer-term trader, we know that we have an opportunity to pick up gold “on the cheap” if it does drop.
For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Gives Up Gains
• Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again
• GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Pulls Back
• US Stock Market Overview – Stock as Volatility Continues to Rise
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Pull Back Into the Weekend || Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off: Tether disputes allegations of market manipulation brought in court, Vitalik Buterin issues a proposal for Ethereum’s high gas fees and Voatz weighed in on whether a longstanding federal law over computer access is overly broad.
Tether disputesTether and affiliate exchange group iFinex havecalled for a market manipulation lawsuit to be dismissedbecause plaintiffs, they say, cannot prove $3 billion worth of unbacked stablecoins actually entered the market. Five crypto traders are suing the companies for incurred monetary losses after buying cryptocurrencies at prices they claim were inflated by Tether’s manipulation of the market. Plaintiffs claim Tether issued billions of dollars worth of dollar-backed cryptos, which Bitfinex then used to purchase cryptocurrencies on the open market to prop prices up during market downturns. Defendants’ lawyers argue the claimUSDTis not properly backed is based on “unfounded allegations, and that it hasn’t been proven cryptocurrency prices were indeed artificial at the time in question.
New pairsBitMEXannounced plans to introduce futures markets for two cryptocurrencies,chainlink(LINK) andtezos(XTZ), the first new coins to appear on the exchange in over two years. These two cryptos have seen triple-digit year-to-date returns. BitMEX last listed a new token in June 2018, when it announced a TRON/BTC futures market. Shortly before that announcement, the exchange removed six altcoin futures markets, includingethereum classic(ETC),zcash(ZEC), andmonero(XMR). Notably, the new altcoin futures will trade against tether (USDT) instead ofbitcoin(BTC). In Friday’s announcement, BitMEX said the reason for this is because “USDT pairs account for over 60% of overall altcoin volume.”
Related:
Fee fixes?Ethereum co-founderVitalik Buterin released an improvement proposal(EIP 2929) Tuesday in a bid to ameliorate soaring network fees. Average network fees reached $15.21 on Wednesday, up 660% from $2 a month ago. The surge in fees is likely being driven by the growing use and number of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Buterin’s proposal would make “heavy” contracts, which update the Ethereum state, more expensive by a factor of three. This repricing proposal could break some smart contracts already operating on Ethereum, Buterin wrote, adding developers “have had years of warning” about potential changes. Necessary consensus to vote the proposal in could take weeks or months.
International regulationBank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey saidregulators have to come together for a “global response” to stablecoinissuance. Speaking Thursday, he said the international nature of stablecoins, which can be based in one country and operate in another, meant failure to coordinate could result in confusion and regulatory fragmentation. While admitting stablecoins could reduce frictional costs, even becoming the primary means for purchasing goods and services, regulators must ensure they maintain their 1:1 backing with fiat currencies. Further, Bailey called bitcoin unsuitable for payments and multi-asset backed crypto-dollars like libra premature. The BoE is actively researching a “digital pound.”
Quickening researchBrazil’s chief central banker Roberto Campos Neto said Wednesday that his countrycould be ready for a digital currency(CBDC) by 2022. By that time, the Banco Central president said, Brazil will have an interoperable instant payments system and a “credible” and “convertible” international currency – “all the ingredients to have a digital currency,” he said at a Bloomberg event covered by local outlet Correio Braziliense. Campos Neto also was reported to have said that CBDCs are the consequence of fast-digitizing financial systems such as Brazil’s.
• Craig Wright Trial Over a Fortune in Bitcoin Moved to 2021(Dan Palmer/CoinDesk)
• BitClub Promoter Pleads Guilty for Role in $722M Fraudulent Mining Scheme(Zack Voell/CoinDesk)
• US Air Force and Raytheon Are Studying How Distributed Ledgers Could Help Command the Skies(Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
• SEC Faces Stiff Test in Regulating DeFi, Says Hester Peirce(Robert Stevens/Decrypt)
• DeFi Protocols Don’t Do “Lending”(Jake Chervinsky/Bankless)
Is the CFAA overly broad?Blockchain voting startup Voatzweighed in on a longstanding ruling about improper access to a “protected computer.”
Related:Money Reimagined: Defanging FAANG
Appearing in a “friend of the court” brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, the startup argued that bug bounty programs concerning cybersecurity should be operated under strict supervision.
The case, Van Buren v. United States, is centered around whether it is a federal crime for someone to access a computer “for an improper purpose,” if they already have permission to access other files on that computer.
Nathan Van Buren, the petitioner in the case, is a former Georgia police officer who was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is often used to prosecute computer hackers. Enacted before the establishment of the internet, the CFAA prohibits accessing a “computer” without permission as well as the unauthorized deletion, alteration or blocking of privately stored data.
Some, likeprominent lawyer Tor Eklend,believe the law is overly broad and outdated.
For his part, Van Buren claims a lower court ruling upholding his conviction could be taken to mean that “any ‘trivial breach’” of a computer system could be a federal crime. He was given permission to look up a license plate for an acquaintance.
In its brief, Voatz says the CFAA does not need to be narrowed, and some breaches of computer systems are necessary.
However, the firm argues researchers looking into potential vulnerabilities should specifically check with the companies they are evaluating prior to doing so, and should only proceed with authorization from the companies.
Late last year, a University of Michigan student or students participating in a security course likely accessed Voatz’ systems. In its brief, Voatz said the “students’ ill-advised activity” was reported to West Virginia officials, prompting an FBI investigation, because the company could not distinguish between their research and an actual hostile attack.
“Regardless of the particulars, however, the West Virginia incident illustrates the harm caused by attacking, or ‘researching,’ critical infrastructure without proper access or authorization especially in the middle of an election,” Voatz wrote.
Non-malicious researchers trying to break into digital tools “imposes significant additional costs” to organizations, Voatz said, and could harm public confidence.
Reasons whyBitcoin prices fell below $11,000 yesterday for the first time in a month.
First Mover Editor Bradley Keounspoke to market analysts for their take on why the market tanked.Here are the three most common responses.
1. Bitcoin is tracking traditional markets
• “There could be an overlap between equity sellers and digital currency sellers. The largest equity market decliners this morning are tech stocks, including retail trading darlings, Tesla and the FAANG names [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet, once Google]. It is unclear if this will push into a continued broader crash in equity markets, which could put more pressure on digital currencies, or if it is just a short-term correction,” John Todaro, director of institutional research at the cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock, said.
2. DeFi sell-offs cascaded into bitcoin
• The total value locked (TVL) in all DeFi applications dropped to $9.1 billion from $9.5 billion, over the past few days, according to the website DeFi Pulse. This may be related to drops in both ether and bitcoin’s price.
• “Also, an aggressive unwind of the very crowded trade across Uniswap token related positions in the wake of a number of tokens, namely PIZZA and HOTDOG, dramatically collapsed from $6,000 to $1 in a mere few hours. This is likely because the same assets (bitcoin, ether and others) are used aggressively to structure collateralized positions,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the crypto prime broker BeQuant, said.
3. Miners sold some of their bitcoin
• Blockchain-data analysis firm CryptoQuant found major bitcoin-mining pools have increased the amount of bitcoin they’re transferred out, potentially as a de-risking maneuver.
• “Miners are good traders. I think they are just looking for selling opportunities, not capitulation. I think it’s going to be the war of miners between those who want a bitcoin price rally and those who don’t. Some Chinese miners already realize their mining profitability (ROI), and they might not want new mining competitors joining the industry because of the bull market,” Ki Young Yu, founder of CryptoQuant, said.
Risk off?Bitcoin isn’t likely to seea quick rebound from the double-digit price dropover the last two days, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reports. Bitcoin fell by over 10% on Thursday to $10,006, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, the biggest single-day percentage decline since March 12 when prices crashed around 40% amid a major sell-off across the equities markets. Though up slightly, Matthew Dibb, Stack COO, thinks bitcoin will track traditional assets during “this ‘risk-off’ period.” “Macro factors are currently at play,” Dibbs said.
Wallet forksWasabi Wallet hashard-forked the wallet Thursday to address a vulnerabilityfor a hypothetical attack the team assumes has never been carried out. Discovered by a team member at Trezor, a leading maker of hardware wallets, the vulnerability would have interfered with the wallet’s implementation of CoinJoin, a privacy protocol. Users need to upgrade to the latest version of the wallet if they want to continue using the CoinJoin feature. “The flaw’s discovery is another example of the open-source community’s camaraderie and cooperation,” CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports.
Stablecoin opportunityNic Carter, a CoinDesk columnist and partner at Castle Island Ventures, believes the billion-dollar stablecoin marketpresents an opportunity for the United States, not a threat.“If the U.S. chooses to marginalize crypto-dollars and punish their issuers, not only will they suppress a burgeoning American industry, they will also push users into even less accountable alternatives,” he writes.
DeFi degensThe latest edition of The Breakdown looks at theburgeoning DeFi market and its “degenerate” players.
• Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off
• Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off || Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off: Tether disputes allegations of market manipulation brought in court, Vitalik Buterin issues a proposal for Ethereum’s high gas fees and Voatz weighed in on whether a longstanding federal law over computer access is overly broad.
Tether disputesTether and affiliate exchange group iFinex havecalled for a market manipulation lawsuit to be dismissedbecause plaintiffs, they say, cannot prove $3 billion worth of unbacked stablecoins actually entered the market. Five crypto traders are suing the companies for incurred monetary losses after buying cryptocurrencies at prices they claim were inflated by Tether’s manipulation of the market. Plaintiffs claim Tether issued billions of dollars worth of dollar-backed cryptos, which Bitfinex then used to purchase cryptocurrencies on the open market to prop prices up during market downturns. Defendants’ lawyers argue the claimUSDTis not properly backed is based on “unfounded allegations, and that it hasn’t been proven cryptocurrency prices were indeed artificial at the time in question.
New pairsBitMEXannounced plans to introduce futures markets for two cryptocurrencies,chainlink(LINK) andtezos(XTZ), the first new coins to appear on the exchange in over two years. These two cryptos have seen triple-digit year-to-date returns. BitMEX last listed a new token in June 2018, when it announced a TRON/BTC futures market. Shortly before that announcement, the exchange removed six altcoin futures markets, includingethereum classic(ETC),zcash(ZEC), andmonero(XMR). Notably, the new altcoin futures will trade against tether (USDT) instead ofbitcoin(BTC). In Friday’s announcement, BitMEX said the reason for this is because “USDT pairs account for over 60% of overall altcoin volume.”
Related:
Fee fixes?Ethereum co-founderVitalik Buterin released an improvement proposal(EIP 2929) Tuesday in a bid to ameliorate soaring network fees. Average network fees reached $15.21 on Wednesday, up 660% from $2 a month ago. The surge in fees is likely being driven by the growing use and number of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Buterin’s proposal would make “heavy” contracts, which update the Ethereum state, more expensive by a factor of three. This repricing proposal could break some smart contracts already operating on Ethereum, Buterin wrote, adding developers “have had years of warning” about potential changes. Necessary consensus to vote the proposal in could take weeks or months.
International regulationBank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey saidregulators have to come together for a “global response” to stablecoinissuance. Speaking Thursday, he said the international nature of stablecoins, which can be based in one country and operate in another, meant failure to coordinate could result in confusion and regulatory fragmentation. While admitting stablecoins could reduce frictional costs, even becoming the primary means for purchasing goods and services, regulators must ensure they maintain their 1:1 backing with fiat currencies. Further, Bailey called bitcoin unsuitable for payments and multi-asset backed crypto-dollars like libra premature. The BoE is actively researching a “digital pound.”
Quickening researchBrazil’s chief central banker Roberto Campos Neto said Wednesday that his countrycould be ready for a digital currency(CBDC) by 2022. By that time, the Banco Central president said, Brazil will have an interoperable instant payments system and a “credible” and “convertible” international currency – “all the ingredients to have a digital currency,” he said at a Bloomberg event covered by local outlet Correio Braziliense. Campos Neto also was reported to have said that CBDCs are the consequence of fast-digitizing financial systems such as Brazil’s.
• Craig Wright Trial Over a Fortune in Bitcoin Moved to 2021(Dan Palmer/CoinDesk)
• BitClub Promoter Pleads Guilty for Role in $722M Fraudulent Mining Scheme(Zack Voell/CoinDesk)
• US Air Force and Raytheon Are Studying How Distributed Ledgers Could Help Command the Skies(Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
• SEC Faces Stiff Test in Regulating DeFi, Says Hester Peirce(Robert Stevens/Decrypt)
• DeFi Protocols Don’t Do “Lending”(Jake Chervinsky/Bankless)
Is the CFAA overly broad?Blockchain voting startup Voatzweighed in on a longstanding ruling about improper access to a “protected computer.”
Related:Money Reimagined: Defanging FAANG
Appearing in a “friend of the court” brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, the startup argued that bug bounty programs concerning cybersecurity should be operated under strict supervision.
The case, Van Buren v. United States, is centered around whether it is a federal crime for someone to access a computer “for an improper purpose,” if they already have permission to access other files on that computer.
Nathan Van Buren, the petitioner in the case, is a former Georgia police officer who was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is often used to prosecute computer hackers. Enacted before the establishment of the internet, the CFAA prohibits accessing a “computer” without permission as well as the unauthorized deletion, alteration or blocking of privately stored data.
Some, likeprominent lawyer Tor Eklend,believe the law is overly broad and outdated.
For his part, Van Buren claims a lower court ruling upholding his conviction could be taken to mean that “any ‘trivial breach’” of a computer system could be a federal crime. He was given permission to look up a license plate for an acquaintance.
In its brief, Voatz says the CFAA does not need to be narrowed, and some breaches of computer systems are necessary.
However, the firm argues researchers looking into potential vulnerabilities should specifically check with the companies they are evaluating prior to doing so, and should only proceed with authorization from the companies.
Late last year, a University of Michigan student or students participating in a security course likely accessed Voatz’ systems. In its brief, Voatz said the “students’ ill-advised activity” was reported to West Virginia officials, prompting an FBI investigation, because the company could not distinguish between their research and an actual hostile attack.
“Regardless of the particulars, however, the West Virginia incident illustrates the harm caused by attacking, or ‘researching,’ critical infrastructure without proper access or authorization especially in the middle of an election,” Voatz wrote.
Non-malicious researchers trying to break into digital tools “imposes significant additional costs” to organizations, Voatz said, and could harm public confidence.
Reasons whyBitcoin prices fell below $11,000 yesterday for the first time in a month.
First Mover Editor Bradley Keounspoke to market analysts for their take on why the market tanked.Here are the three most common responses.
1. Bitcoin is tracking traditional markets
• “There could be an overlap between equity sellers and digital currency sellers. The largest equity market decliners this morning are tech stocks, including retail trading darlings, Tesla and the FAANG names [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet, once Google]. It is unclear if this will push into a continued broader crash in equity markets, which could put more pressure on digital currencies, or if it is just a short-term correction,” John Todaro, director of institutional research at the cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock, said.
2. DeFi sell-offs cascaded into bitcoin
• The total value locked (TVL) in all DeFi applications dropped to $9.1 billion from $9.5 billion, over the past few days, according to the website DeFi Pulse. This may be related to drops in both ether and bitcoin’s price.
• “Also, an aggressive unwind of the very crowded trade across Uniswap token related positions in the wake of a number of tokens, namely PIZZA and HOTDOG, dramatically collapsed from $6,000 to $1 in a mere few hours. This is likely because the same assets (bitcoin, ether and others) are used aggressively to structure collateralized positions,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the crypto prime broker BeQuant, said.
3. Miners sold some of their bitcoin
• Blockchain-data analysis firm CryptoQuant found major bitcoin-mining pools have increased the amount of bitcoin they’re transferred out, potentially as a de-risking maneuver.
• “Miners are good traders. I think they are just looking for selling opportunities, not capitulation. I think it’s going to be the war of miners between those who want a bitcoin price rally and those who don’t. Some Chinese miners already realize their mining profitability (ROI), and they might not want new mining competitors joining the industry because of the bull market,” Ki Young Yu, founder of CryptoQuant, said.
Risk off?Bitcoin isn’t likely to seea quick rebound from the double-digit price dropover the last two days, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reports. Bitcoin fell by over 10% on Thursday to $10,006, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, the biggest single-day percentage decline since March 12 when prices crashed around 40% amid a major sell-off across the equities markets. Though up slightly, Matthew Dibb, Stack COO, thinks bitcoin will track traditional assets during “this ‘risk-off’ period.” “Macro factors are currently at play,” Dibbs said.
Wallet forksWasabi Wallet hashard-forked the wallet Thursday to address a vulnerabilityfor a hypothetical attack the team assumes has never been carried out. Discovered by a team member at Trezor, a leading maker of hardware wallets, the vulnerability would have interfered with the wallet’s implementation of CoinJoin, a privacy protocol. Users need to upgrade to the latest version of the wallet if they want to continue using the CoinJoin feature. “The flaw’s discovery is another example of the open-source community’s camaraderie and cooperation,” CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports.
Stablecoin opportunityNic Carter, a CoinDesk columnist and partner at Castle Island Ventures, believes the billion-dollar stablecoin marketpresents an opportunity for the United States, not a threat.“If the U.S. chooses to marginalize crypto-dollars and punish their issuers, not only will they suppress a burgeoning American industry, they will also push users into even less accountable alternatives,” he writes.
DeFi degensThe latest edition of The Breakdown looks at theburgeoning DeFi market and its “degenerate” players.
• Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off
• Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off || Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off: Tether disputes allegations of market manipulation brought in court, Vitalik Buterin issues a proposal for Ethereum’s high gas fees and Voatz weighed in on whether a longstanding federal law over computer access is overly broad. Top shelf Tether disputes Tether and affiliate exchange group iFinex have called for a market manipulation lawsuit to be dismissed because plaintiffs, they say, cannot prove $3 billion worth of unbacked stablecoins actually entered the market. Five crypto traders are suing the companies for incurred monetary losses after buying cryptocurrencies at prices they claim were inflated by Tether’s manipulation of the market. Plaintiffs claim Tether issued billions of dollars worth of dollar-backed cryptos, which Bitfinex then used to purchase cryptocurrencies on the open market to prop prices up during market downturns. Defendants’ lawyers argue the claim USDT is not properly backed is based on “unfounded allegations, and that it hasn’t been proven cryptocurrency prices were indeed artificial at the time in question. New pairs BitMEX announced plans to introduce futures markets for two cryptocurrencies, chainlink (LINK) and tezos (XTZ), the first new coins to appear on the exchange in over two years. These two cryptos have seen triple-digit year-to-date returns. BitMEX last listed a new token in June 2018, when it announced a TRON/BTC futures market. Shortly before that announcement, the exchange removed six altcoin futures markets, including ethereum classic (ETC), zcash (ZEC), and monero (XMR). Notably, the new altcoin futures will trade against tether (USDT) instead of bitcoin (BTC). In Friday’s announcement, BitMEX said the reason for this is because “USDT pairs account for over 60% of overall altcoin volume.” Related: Fee fixes? Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released an improvement proposal (EIP 2929) Tuesday in a bid to ameliorate soaring network fees. Average network fees reached $15.21 on Wednesday, up 660% from $2 a month ago. The surge in fees is likely being driven by the growing use and number of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Buterin’s proposal would make “heavy” contracts, which update the Ethereum state, more expensive by a factor of three. This repricing proposal could break some smart contracts already operating on Ethereum, Buterin wrote, adding developers “have had years of warning” about potential changes. Necessary consensus to vote the proposal in could take weeks or months. Story continues International regulation Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey said regulators have to come together for a “global response” to stablecoin issuance. Speaking Thursday, he said the international nature of stablecoins, which can be based in one country and operate in another, meant failure to coordinate could result in confusion and regulatory fragmentation. While admitting stablecoins could reduce frictional costs, even becoming the primary means for purchasing goods and services, regulators must ensure they maintain their 1:1 backing with fiat currencies. Further, Bailey called bitcoin unsuitable for payments and multi-asset backed crypto-dollars like libra premature. The BoE is actively researching a “digital pound.” Quickening research Brazil’s chief central banker Roberto Campos Neto said Wednesday that his country could be ready for a digital currency (CBDC) by 2022. By that time, the Banco Central president said, Brazil will have an interoperable instant payments system and a “credible” and “convertible” international currency – “all the ingredients to have a digital currency,” he said at a Bloomberg event covered by local outlet Correio Braziliense. Campos Neto also was reported to have said that CBDCs are the consequence of fast-digitizing financial systems such as Brazil’s. Quick bites Craig Wright Trial Over a Fortune in Bitcoin Moved to 2021 (Dan Palmer/CoinDesk) BitClub Promoter Pleads Guilty for Role in $722M Fraudulent Mining Scheme (Zack Voell/CoinDesk) US Air Force and Raytheon Are Studying How Distributed Ledgers Could Help Command the Skies (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk) SEC Faces Stiff Test in Regulating DeFi, Says Hester Peirce (Robert Stevens/Decrypt) DeFi Protocols Don’t Do “Lending” (Jake Chervinsky/Bankless) At stake Is the CFAA overly broad? Blockchain voting startup Voatz weighed in on a longstanding ruling about improper access to a “protected computer.” Related: Money Reimagined: Defanging FAANG Appearing in a “friend of the court” brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, the startup argued that bug bounty programs concerning cybersecurity should be operated under strict supervision. The case, Van Buren v. United States, is centered around whether it is a federal crime for someone to access a computer “for an improper purpose,” if they already have permission to access other files on that computer. Nathan Van Buren, the petitioner in the case, is a former Georgia police officer who was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is often used to prosecute computer hackers. Enacted before the establishment of the internet, the CFAA prohibits accessing a “computer” without permission as well as the unauthorized deletion, alteration or blocking of privately stored data. Some, like prominent lawyer Tor Eklend, believe the law is overly broad and outdated. For his part, Van Buren claims a lower court ruling upholding his conviction could be taken to mean that “any ‘trivial breach’” of a computer system could be a federal crime. He was given permission to look up a license plate for an acquaintance. In its brief, Voatz says the CFAA does not need to be narrowed, and some breaches of computer systems are necessary. However, the firm argues researchers looking into potential vulnerabilities should specifically check with the companies they are evaluating prior to doing so, and should only proceed with authorization from the companies. Late last year, a University of Michigan student or students participating in a security course likely accessed Voatz’ systems. In its brief, Voatz said the “students’ ill-advised activity” was reported to West Virginia officials, prompting an FBI investigation, because the company could not distinguish between their research and an actual hostile attack. “Regardless of the particulars, however, the West Virginia incident illustrates the harm caused by attacking, or ‘researching,’ critical infrastructure without proper access or authorization especially in the middle of an election,” Voatz wrote. Non-malicious researchers trying to break into digital tools “imposes significant additional costs” to organizations, Voatz said, and could harm public confidence. Market intel Reasons why Bitcoin prices fell below $11,000 yesterday for the first time in a month. First Mover Editor Bradley Keoun spoke to market analysts for their take on why the market tanked. Here are the three most common responses. 1. Bitcoin is tracking traditional markets “There could be an overlap between equity sellers and digital currency sellers. The largest equity market decliners this morning are tech stocks, including retail trading darlings, Tesla and the FAANG names [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet, once Google]. It is unclear if this will push into a continued broader crash in equity markets, which could put more pressure on digital currencies, or if it is just a short-term correction,” John Todaro, director of institutional research at the cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock, said. 2. DeFi sell-offs cascaded into bitcoin The total value locked (TVL) in all DeFi applications dropped to $9.1 billion from $9.5 billion, over the past few days, according to the website DeFi Pulse. This may be related to drops in both ether and bitcoin’s price. “Also, an aggressive unwind of the very crowded trade across Uniswap token related positions in the wake of a number of tokens, namely PIZZA and HOTDOG, dramatically collapsed from $6,000 to $1 in a mere few hours. This is likely because the same assets (bitcoin, ether and others) are used aggressively to structure collateralized positions,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the crypto prime broker BeQuant, said. 3. Miners sold some of their bitcoin Blockchain-data analysis firm CryptoQuant found major bitcoin-mining pools have increased the amount of bitcoin they’re transferred out, potentially as a de-risking maneuver. “Miners are good traders. I think they are just looking for selling opportunities, not capitulation. I think it’s going to be the war of miners between those who want a bitcoin price rally and those who don’t. Some Chinese miners already realize their mining profitability (ROI), and they might not want new mining competitors joining the industry because of the bull market,” Ki Young Yu, founder of CryptoQuant, said. Risk off? Bitcoin isn’t likely to see a quick rebound from the double-digit price drop over the last two days, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reports. Bitcoin fell by over 10% on Thursday to $10,006, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, the biggest single-day percentage decline since March 12 when prices crashed around 40% amid a major sell-off across the equities markets. Though up slightly, Matthew Dibb, Stack COO, thinks bitcoin will track traditional assets during “this ‘risk-off’ period.” “Macro factors are currently at play,” Dibbs said. Tech pod Wallet forks Wasabi Wallet has hard-forked the wallet Thursday to address a vulnerability for a hypothetical attack the team assumes has never been carried out. Discovered by a team member at Trezor, a leading maker of hardware wallets, the vulnerability would have interfered with the wallet’s implementation of CoinJoin, a privacy protocol. Users need to upgrade to the latest version of the wallet if they want to continue using the CoinJoin feature. “The flaw’s discovery is another example of the open-source community’s camaraderie and cooperation,” CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports. Op-ed Stablecoin opportunity Nic Carter, a CoinDesk columnist and partner at Castle Island Ventures, believes the billion-dollar stablecoin market presents an opportunity for the United States, not a threat. “If the U.S. chooses to marginalize crypto-dollars and punish their issuers, not only will they suppress a burgeoning American industry, they will also push users into even less accountable alternatives,” he writes. Podcast corner DeFi degens The latest edition of The Breakdown looks at the burgeoning DeFi market and its “degenerate” players. Who won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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10369.56, 10131.52, 10242.35, 10363.14, 10400.92, 10442.17, 10323.76, 10680.84, 10796.95, 10974.91
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6589.62, 6556.10, 6502.59, 6576.69, 6622.48, 6588.31, 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58, 6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35, 6487.16, 6475.74, 6495.84, 6476.29, 6474.75, 6480.38, 6486.39, 6332.63, 6334.27, 6317.61, 6377.78, 6388.44, 6361.26, 6376.13, 6419.66, 6461.01, 6530.14, 6453.72, 6385.62, 6409.22, 6411.27, 6371.27, 6359.49, 5738.35, 5648.03, 5575.55, 5554.33, 5623.54, 4871.49, 4451.87, 4602.17, 4365.94, 4347.11, 3880.76, 4009.97, 3779.13, 3820.72, 4257.42, 4278.85, 4017.27, 4214.67, 4139.88, 3894.13, 3956.89, 3753.99, 3521.10, 3419.94, 3476.11, 3614.23, 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48, 3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60, 3815.49, 3857.30, 3654.83, 3923.92, 3820.41.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-12-29]
Volume: 4991655917, RSI (14-day): 47.92, 50-day EMA: 4289.67, 200-day EMA: 5909.04
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin Price Begins a New Ascent Inside Giant Bear Pennant: Bitcoin price on Friday surged more than 7% against the US Dollar on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe. The bitcoin-to-dollar rate noted sudden spikes at the beginning of the US session after spending the day inside a narrow trading range. The move occurred just near $3,600, the resistance of said narrow range, giving the market a minor breakout scenario in its own way. The US Dollar fell broadly Friday as investors predicted Federal Reserve policy to be bearish for the greenback next year. The conclusion got derived from the Fed funds futures which showed that the odds that the central bank would raise interests by the end of Q4 2019 are less than 1%., showing a 32% decline. It now looks that some part of dollar weakness is heading inside the bitcoin space, because the digital assets is unable to provide any interim fundamental to expain the rally. Bitcoin is likely to retest $4,000 as its potential resistance, while eyeing the pre-Christmas peak of $4,236 on Coinbase. Technically, the price is seemingly coming to the end of a bear pennat formation, a brief pause of consolidation before bitcoin reasserts itself towards further downside action. The theory comes closer to the currenct price action while compliment the RSI momentum price indicator which, once again, is showing signs of aggressive reversals from 55-60 neutral range. Bitcoin/Dollar Intraday Targets The hourly chart has put Bitcoin already inside its oversold area, according to the RSI inidcator. It has allowed us to begin the day with a short trade, while keeping our parameters fixed between $3,903 as interim resistance and $3,824 as interim support. That said, we are first entering a short towards $3,824 on a bounce back from $3,903. At the same time, we are maintaining our stop loss just $5 above the entry point to ensure we keep the risk low. If bitcoin attempts a break above $3,903, then we will switch our strategy and open a long position towards $4,000, our psychological upside target. A stop loss just $5 below the entry point will meanwhile minimize our losses in case the bias reverses. Story continues Coming to the $3,824-support, a bounce back would signal us to open a quick long towards $3,903 while placing a stop loss order at $3,819. In the event of a breakdown action, we will open a short position towards $3,571 with a stop loss just $10 above the entry point. Featured image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView . The post Bitcoin Price Begins a New Ascent Inside Giant Bear Pennant appeared first on CCN . || Bitcoin Price Begins a New Ascent Inside Giant Bear Pennant: Bitcoin price on Friday surged more than 7% against the US Dollar on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe.
The bitcoin-to-dollar rate noted sudden spikes at the beginning of the US session after spending the day inside a narrow trading range. The move occurred just near $3,600, the resistance of said narrow range, giving the market a minor breakout scenario in its own way.
The US Dollar fell broadly Friday as investors predicted Federal Reserve policy to be bearish for the greenback next year. The conclusion got derived from the Fed funds futures which showed that the odds that the central bank would raise interests by the end of Q4 2019 are less than 1%., showing a 32% decline.
It now looks that some part of dollar weakness is heading inside the bitcoin space, because the digital assets is unable to provide any interim fundamental to expain the rally. Bitcoin is likely to retest $4,000 as its potential resistance, while eyeing the pre-Christmas peak of $4,236 on Coinbase.
Technically, the price is seemingly coming to the end of a bear pennat formation, a brief pause of consolidation before bitcoin reasserts itself towards further downside action. The theory comes closer to the currenct price action while compliment the RSI momentum price indicator which, once again, is showing signs of aggressive reversals from 55-60 neutral range.
The hourly chart has put Bitcoin already inside its oversold area, according to the RSI inidcator. It has allowed us to begin the day with a short trade, while keeping our parameters fixed between $3,903 as interim resistance and $3,824 as interim support.
That said, we are first entering a short towards $3,824 on a bounce back from $3,903. At the same time, we are maintaining our stop loss just $5 above the entry point to ensure we keep the risk low.
If bitcoin attempts a break above $3,903, then we will switch our strategy and open a long position towards $4,000, our psychological upside target. A stop loss just $5 below the entry point will meanwhile minimize our losses in case the bias reverses.
Coming to the $3,824-support, a bounce back would signal us to open a quick long towards $3,903 while placing a stop loss order at $3,819. In the event of a breakdown action, we will open a short position towards $3,571 with a stop loss just $10 above the entry point.
Featured image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postBitcoin Price Begins a New Ascent Inside Giant Bear Pennantappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Begins a New Ascent Inside Giant Bear Pennant: Bitcoin price on Friday surged more than 7% against the US Dollar on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe.
The bitcoin-to-dollar rate noted sudden spikes at the beginning of the US session after spending the day inside a narrow trading range. The move occurred just near $3,600, the resistance of said narrow range, giving the market a minor breakout scenario in its own way.
The US Dollar fell broadly Friday as investors predicted Federal Reserve policy to be bearish for the greenback next year. The conclusion got derived from the Fed funds futures which showed that the odds that the central bank would raise interests by the end of Q4 2019 are less than 1%., showing a 32% decline.
It now looks that some part of dollar weakness is heading inside the bitcoin space, because the digital assets is unable to provide any interim fundamental to expain the rally. Bitcoin is likely to retest $4,000 as its potential resistance, while eyeing the pre-Christmas peak of $4,236 on Coinbase.
Technically, the price is seemingly coming to the end of a bear pennat formation, a brief pause of consolidation before bitcoin reasserts itself towards further downside action. The theory comes closer to the currenct price action while compliment the RSI momentum price indicator which, once again, is showing signs of aggressive reversals from 55-60 neutral range.
The hourly chart has put Bitcoin already inside its oversold area, according to the RSI inidcator. It has allowed us to begin the day with a short trade, while keeping our parameters fixed between $3,903 as interim resistance and $3,824 as interim support.
That said, we are first entering a short towards $3,824 on a bounce back from $3,903. At the same time, we are maintaining our stop loss just $5 above the entry point to ensure we keep the risk low.
If bitcoin attempts a break above $3,903, then we will switch our strategy and open a long position towards $4,000, our psychological upside target. A stop loss just $5 below the entry point will meanwhile minimize our losses in case the bias reverses.
Coming to the $3,824-support, a bounce back would signal us to open a quick long towards $3,903 while placing a stop loss order at $3,819. In the event of a breakdown action, we will open a short position towards $3,571 with a stop loss just $10 above the entry point.
Featured image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postBitcoin Price Begins a New Ascent Inside Giant Bear Pennantappeared first onCCN. || There May Be (Some) Tax Relief Options if You Sold Your Bitcoin at a Loss: For investors whose first time investing in bitcoin was in 2018 or after late 2017, there is a high likelihood that they have incurred substantial losses for the fiscal year of 2018 if they haven’t sold yet. On December 17, 2017, bitcoin hit an all-time high at over $19,000. Thereafter, it has fallen over 80 percent and now hovers at around $4,000 at the time of writing. While losing money is never the end goal, there are certain measures investors can take in order to minimize their taxable income by utilizing their capital losses incurred from bitcoin during the current year and going forward.
Before diving into what measures can be taken, it is first necessary to address how the regulatory bodies who set these precedences view bitcoin and similar assets. Although this piece is centered on the U.S. regulatory requirements applied to bitcoin, it is worth noting that many other countries have similar regulations internationally.
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), bitcoin is considered personal property. As such, any tax laws applicable to the sale of a house or car, or more similarly, a security, will also apply to the digital currency.
Specifically, the IRS refers to taxes levied on the sale of an asset as capital gains tax, for which there are two types. Long-term capital gains tax applies to profits on assets held over a year, while short-term capital gains taxes apply to assets held for less than a year. Short-term capital gains are taxed at the same rate as an individual’s ordinary income tax rate, which in 2018 was somewhere between 10 percent and 37 percent, depending on your level of income. On the other hand, in 2018, the long-term capital gains tax rates are either 0 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent. The applicable rate used for the calculation is dependent on the level of income.
However, in this article we are discussing the opposite of gains, as there are probably very few who profited in 2018’s bear market. Capital gains tax rates are relevant to taxing profits but not losses. The good news is the IRS allows individuals to lower their taxable income by applying these losses.
Plenty of people bought bitcoin during the bull run last year. Some “bought the dip” at various points on the way back down, only to see the price slide even lower. And many discouraged investors sold their BTC at a loss along the way. For those short-term investors, there is the opportunity to claim back some of those losses.
Similarly, if an investor bought bitcoin any time between late September (the last time prices were this low) and December of 2017, it is likely they have losses for 2018 that can be used to lower their taxable income if they choose to sell now. This would lower the amount of taxes they will owe from the given year, as long as the asset isn’t bought back within 30 days (i.e. wash sale).
According to the IRS, the maximum amount by which an individual can offset their taxable income for a single year is $3,000. But, if an investor lost more than $3,000, the remaining losses can be carried over to following years up to $3,000 per year.
As an example, if an investor bought 1 BTC in late December at $17,000 and sold it at $4,000 today, they would recognize a loss of $13,000. The investor, who is assumed to have regular taxable income, can reduce their 2018 taxable income by a maximum of $3,000. The remaining unused portion of the capital loss in this situation is $10,000. The IRS allows $3,000 of that leftover $10,000 to be carried over into the next year to offset any capital gains that may be recognized at the end of 2019.
While selling bitcoin at a loss could reduce taxable income in the short term, many proponents of bitcoin would be quick to point out that the case for holding onto the digital asset is much stronger than selling for such a marginal and temporary opportunity to save a few dollars in taxes.
There are many who believe that bitcoin will eventually become a store of value, or sound money, and that the best days of bitcoin’s price are yet to come.
However, it is unpredictable when, or even if, bitcoin will accomplish this feat. Because it is impossible to predict the short-term price movement of bitcoin, it could be argued that the case for holding for a very long time (commonly referred to as HODLing) points toward a much higher future price of bitcoin that would make selling today, for a relatively small, offsettable loss, a much greater loss in years to come.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. As always, contact a tax professional to be sure that you are acting in compliance with your local tax laws.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || There May Be (Some) Tax Relief Options if You Sold Your Bitcoin at a Loss: There May Be (Some) Tax Relief Options if You Sold Your Bitcoin at a Loss For investors whose first time investing in bitcoin was in 2018 or after late 2017, there is a high likelihood that they have incurred substantial losses for the fiscal year of 2018 if they haven’t sold yet. On December 17, 2017, bitcoin hit an all-time high at over $19,000. Thereafter, it has fallen over 80 percent and now hovers at around $4,000 at the time of writing. While losing money is never the end goal, there are certain measures investors can take in order to minimize their taxable income by utilizing their capital losses incurred from bitcoin during the current year and going forward. Before diving into what measures can be taken, it is first necessary to address how the regulatory bodies who set these precedences view bitcoin and similar assets. Although this piece is centered on the U.S. regulatory requirements applied to bitcoin, it is worth noting that many other countries have similar regulations internationally. Bitcoin Is Property According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), bitcoin is considered personal property. As such, any tax laws applicable to the sale of a house or car, or more similarly, a security, will also apply to the digital currency. Specifically, the IRS refers to taxes levied on the sale of an asset as capital gains tax, for which there are two types. Long-term capital gains tax applies to profits on assets held over a year, while short-term capital gains taxes apply to assets held for less than a year. Short-term capital gains are taxed at the same rate as an individual’s ordinary income tax rate, which in 2018 was somewhere between 10 percent and 37 percent, depending on your level of income. On the other hand, in 2018, the long-term capital gains tax rates are either 0 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent. The applicable rate used for the calculation is dependent on the level of income. However, in this article we are discussing the opposite of gains, as there are probably very few who profited in 2018’s bear market. Capital gains tax rates are relevant to taxing profits but not losses. The good news is the IRS allows individuals to lower their taxable income by applying these losses. Story continues If You Sold Your Bitcoin at a Loss Plenty of people bought bitcoin during the bull run last year. Some “bought the dip” at various points on the way back down, only to see the price slide even lower. And many discouraged investors sold their BTC at a loss along the way. For those short-term investors, there is the opportunity to claim back some of those losses. Similarly, if an investor bought bitcoin any time between late September (the last time prices were this low) and December of 2017, it is likely they have losses for 2018 that can be used to lower their taxable income if they choose to sell now. This would lower the amount of taxes they will owe from the given year, as long as the asset isn’t bought back within 30 days (i.e. wash sale). According to the IRS, the maximum amount by which an individual can offset their taxable income for a single year is $3,000. But, if an investor lost more than $3,000, the remaining losses can be carried over to following years up to $3,000 per year. As an example, if an investor bought 1 BTC in late December at $17,000 and sold it at $4,000 today, they would recognize a loss of $13,000. The investor, who is assumed to have regular taxable income, can reduce their 2018 taxable income by a maximum of $3,000. The remaining unused portion of the capital loss in this situation is $10,000. The IRS allows $3,000 of that leftover $10,000 to be carried over into the next year to offset any capital gains that may be recognized at the end of 2019. The Case for Hodling While selling bitcoin at a loss could reduce taxable income in the short term, many proponents of bitcoin would be quick to point out that the case for holding onto the digital asset is much stronger than selling for such a marginal and temporary opportunity to save a few dollars in taxes. There are many who believe that bitcoin will eventually become a store of value, or sound money, and that the best days of bitcoin’s price are yet to come. However, it is unpredictable when, or even if, bitcoin will accomplish this feat. Because it is impossible to predict the short-term price movement of bitcoin, it could be argued that the case for holding for a very long time (commonly referred to as HODLing) points toward a much higher future price of bitcoin that would make selling today, for a relatively small, offsettable loss, a much greater loss in years to come. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. As always, contact a tax professional to be sure that you are acting in compliance with your local tax laws. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || There May Be (Some) Tax Relief Options if You Sold Your Bitcoin at a Loss: For investors whose first time investing in bitcoin was in 2018 or after late 2017, there is a high likelihood that they have incurred substantial losses for the fiscal year of 2018 if they haven’t sold yet. On December 17, 2017, bitcoin hit an all-time high at over $19,000. Thereafter, it has fallen over 80 percent and now hovers at around $4,000 at the time of writing. While losing money is never the end goal, there are certain measures investors can take in order to minimize their taxable income by utilizing their capital losses incurred from bitcoin during the current year and going forward.
Before diving into what measures can be taken, it is first necessary to address how the regulatory bodies who set these precedences view bitcoin and similar assets. Although this piece is centered on the U.S. regulatory requirements applied to bitcoin, it is worth noting that many other countries have similar regulations internationally.
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), bitcoin is considered personal property. As such, any tax laws applicable to the sale of a house or car, or more similarly, a security, will also apply to the digital currency.
Specifically, the IRS refers to taxes levied on the sale of an asset as capital gains tax, for which there are two types. Long-term capital gains tax applies to profits on assets held over a year, while short-term capital gains taxes apply to assets held for less than a year. Short-term capital gains are taxed at the same rate as an individual’s ordinary income tax rate, which in 2018 was somewhere between 10 percent and 37 percent, depending on your level of income. On the other hand, in 2018, the long-term capital gains tax rates are either 0 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent. The applicable rate used for the calculation is dependent on the level of income.
However, in this article we are discussing the opposite of gains, as there are probably very few who profited in 2018’s bear market. Capital gains tax rates are relevant to taxing profits but not losses. The good news is the IRS allows individuals to lower their taxable income by applying these losses.
Plenty of people bought bitcoin during the bull run last year. Some “bought the dip” at various points on the way back down, only to see the price slide even lower. And many discouraged investors sold their BTC at a loss along the way. For those short-term investors, there is the opportunity to claim back some of those losses.
Similarly, if an investor bought bitcoin any time between late September (the last time prices were this low) and December of 2017, it is likely they have losses for 2018 that can be used to lower their taxable income if they choose to sell now. This would lower the amount of taxes they will owe from the given year, as long as the asset isn’t bought back within 30 days (i.e. wash sale).
According to the IRS, the maximum amount by which an individual can offset their taxable income for a single year is $3,000. But, if an investor lost more than $3,000, the remaining losses can be carried over to following years up to $3,000 per year.
As an example, if an investor bought 1 BTC in late December at $17,000 and sold it at $4,000 today, they would recognize a loss of $13,000. The investor, who is assumed to have regular taxable income, can reduce their 2018 taxable income by a maximum of $3,000. The remaining unused portion of the capital loss in this situation is $10,000. The IRS allows $3,000 of that leftover $10,000 to be carried over into the next year to offset any capital gains that may be recognized at the end of 2019.
While selling bitcoin at a loss could reduce taxable income in the short term, many proponents of bitcoin would be quick to point out that the case for holding onto the digital asset is much stronger than selling for such a marginal and temporary opportunity to save a few dollars in taxes.
There are many who believe that bitcoin will eventually become a store of value, or sound money, and that the best days of bitcoin’s price are yet to come.
However, it is unpredictable when, or even if, bitcoin will accomplish this feat. Because it is impossible to predict the short-term price movement of bitcoin, it could be argued that the case for holding for a very long time (commonly referred to as HODLing) points toward a much higher future price of bitcoin that would make selling today, for a relatively small, offsettable loss, a much greater loss in years to come.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. As always, contact a tax professional to be sure that you are acting in compliance with your local tax laws.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Provides Alternative Blockchain for $Weed Currency Owners Via an Ethereum Erc20 Smart Contract: 2018 Year in Review: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / ACCESSWIRE / December 28, 2018 / First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF ) today begins providing an alternative vehicle to own and transfer WEED (COIN:WEED) tokens utilizing the Ethereum eco system. First Bitcoin Capital originally generated WEED [1] (as a commemorative cryptocurrency that may be utilized to solve banking problems in the cannabis sector) on the Bitcoin Blockchain via the Omni protocols. While the Omni smart contract has proven to be a viable vehicle based on the success of Tether (COIN:USDT), the second most actively traded cryptocurrency, having a secondary means to hold, transfer and receive tokenized WeeD[2] presents more flexibility for ownership that opens the doors to additional crypto exchange platforms. No new WEED coins will be added to the total supply. The total supply on Ethereum mirrors the original supply on Bitcoin Blockchain, however, when an owner elects to convert their Omni tokens to Ethereum tokens 1:1 ratio (minimum 10000 tokens per conversion ) the surrendered tokens will be held in trust, only to be used if/when an ERC20 weed token holder elects to reverse swap their ERC20s to Omni tokens. The ERC20 weed contract can be read here: https://etherscan.io/token/0xb2930de1808e7b1c5369ca24df4996c1ad1f3440#readContract First Bitcoin Capital expects to witness additional WeeD token listings emerge on crypto exchanges, utilizing the ERC20 version in early 2019. We also anticipate adaptation of WeeD as a medium of exchange to solve some of the banking problems vexing the Cannabis industry in 2019. Through our recently launched 420WiFi proximity marketing for cannabis dispensaries business, we plan to begin capitalizing on the loyalty program opportunities presented therein utilizing $Weed coins as a means to gain greater customer satisfaction. A precedent has successfully been set for allowing a cryptocurrencies to trade on various exchanges under two separate blockchains. MobileGo (COIN:MGO), for example, trades on crypto exchanges throughout the world as both an Ethereum Blockchain ERC20 token and a Waves Blockchain token. Story continues Holders of Omni WEED tokens wishing to convert their holdings to the ERC20 version (WeeD) should email their requests to [email protected] providing the address in which their Omni weed tokens are held together with the ETH wallet address to which they wish their ERC20 WeeD tokens sent. 2018 Year in Review To our shareholders, We are extremely proud of the milestones we achieved during the year 2018. Each milestone represents the dedication to the work our team provided throughout each project. During the year, First Bitcoin Capital Corp: Began developing the first blockchain based supply chain management tool for the oil and gas industry called PetroBLOQ. The company developed Petroleum Coin (Coin:OIL) as a managed Ethereum smart contract token to be utilized in petroleum industry. Advanced the development of www.altcoinmarketcap.com which involves Altcoin (COIN:ALT) tracking thousands of cryptocurrencies and is designed to compete with a popular website, coinmarketcap.com. The company allocated 25,000,000 $WEED tokens towards our CANNABLOQ project, an industry based website dedicated to educate those whom may benefit from cannabis therapy. The Company completed purchase of PERKSCOIN from www.CannaSOS.com ICO - one of the best known social media cannabis companies. The company completed and published audited financial statements for the years ending 2016 and 2017 and began the up-listing process. The company redeveloped our main website to make it easier for shareholders to stay updated with company projects and moved it to: www.firstbitcoin.io. The company launched 420WIFI, a location-based marketing and analytics platform that provides WiFi as a free digital marketing tool to retain and reward customers at local cannabis doctors and dispensaries nationwide. This opens the door for us to employ some of our loyalty coins, including WEED, as a loyalty incentive., For more information, please visit www.420wifi.com . The company signed a Joint Venture Agreement with DigiCrypts Blockchain Solutions inc, which also does business as DIGiMax Global Solutions. The purpose of the Joint Venture is to facilitate the funding of Security Token Offerings (STO's) for clients of both First Bitcoin Capital and DigiCrypts, primarily as consultants providing non-registered advice and, when registered, as a Registered Broker Dealer in the Jurisdiction of the Western United States (west of the Mississippi River), including Alaska and Hawaii. The company completed the pilot test for three check cashing kiosks in CA. The company subsequently placed the kiosks in Oklahoma and has begun earning from these kiosks. Please visit our website for the locations of our check cashing machines. For the path ahead, we will continue our efforts to up-list and to be listed on several international stock exchanges. Our lawyers recently advised us that regulators may require 3 years of audited financials, and since we are so close to the end of 2018 this has delayed the listing process so we now anticipate to achieve exchange listings during the first quarter of 2019. We will continue to aggressively develop our 420 WIFI business as well as our dozens of cryptocurrency projects now in their various stages of development during the coming year 2019. About First Bitcoin Capital Corp First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) ( BITCF ) ( BITCF ) began developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange - www.CoinQX.com (in Beta) in early 2014. We saw this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies and in developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and BlockChain-centered Company, we provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and BlockChain technologies. Connect on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/BITCF/ https://twitter.com/1stBitCapital https://www.linkedin.com/company/first-bitcoin-capital-corp/ For more information visit: www.firstbitcoin.io Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com . Contact us via: [email protected] or visit http://www.firstbitcoin.io [1] WEED refers to Bitcoin-Blockchain Token [2] WeeD refers to ERC20 Ethereum Token SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Provides Alternative Blockchain for $Weed Currency Owners Via an Ethereum Erc20 Smart Contract: 2018 Year in Review: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / ACCESSWIRE / December 28, 2018 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK:BITCF) today begins providing an alternative vehicle to own and transfer WEED (COIN:WEED) tokens utilizing the Ethereum eco system. First Bitcoin Capital originally generated WEED [1] (as a commemorative cryptocurrency that may be utilized to solve banking problems in the cannabis sector) on the Bitcoin Blockchain via the Omni protocols. While the Omni smart contract has proven to be a viable vehicle based on the success of Tether (COIN:USDT), the second most actively traded cryptocurrency, having a secondary means to hold, transfer and receive tokenized WeeD[2] presents more flexibility for ownership that opens the doors to additional crypto exchange platforms.
No new WEED coins will be added to the total supply. The total supply on Ethereum mirrors the original supply on Bitcoin Blockchain, however, when an owner elects to convert their Omni tokens to Ethereum tokens 1:1 ratio (minimum 10000 tokens per conversion ) the surrendered tokens will be held in trust, only to be used if/when an ERC20 weed token holder elects to reverse swap their ERC20s to Omni tokens.
The ERC20 weed contract can be read here:
https://etherscan.io/token/0xb2930de1808e7b1c5369ca24df4996c1ad1f3440#readContract
First Bitcoin Capital expects to witness additional WeeD token listings emerge on crypto exchanges, utilizing the ERC20 version in early 2019. We also anticipate adaptation of WeeD as a medium of exchange to solve some of the banking problems vexing the Cannabis industry in 2019. Through our recently launched 420WiFi proximity marketing for cannabis dispensaries business, we plan to begin capitalizing on the loyalty program opportunities presented therein utilizing $Weed coins as a means to gain greater customer satisfaction.
A precedent has successfully been set for allowing a cryptocurrencies to trade on various exchanges under two separate blockchains. MobileGo (COIN:MGO), for example, trades on crypto exchanges throughout the world as both an Ethereum Blockchain ERC20 token and a Waves Blockchain token.
Holders of Omni WEED tokens wishing to convert their holdings to the ERC20 version (WeeD) should email their requests [email protected] the address in which their Omni weed tokens are held together with the ETH wallet address to which they wish their ERC20 WeeD tokens sent.
2018 Year in Review
To our shareholders,
We are extremely proud of the milestones we achieved during the year 2018. Each milestone represents the dedication to the work our team provided throughout each project.
During the year, First Bitcoin Capital Corp:
• Began developing the first blockchain based supply chain management tool for the oil and gas industry called PetroBLOQ.
• The company developed Petroleum Coin (Coin:OIL) as a managed Ethereum smart contract token to be utilized in petroleum industry.
• Advanced the development of www.altcoinmarketcap.com which involves Altcoin (COIN:ALT) tracking thousands of cryptocurrencies and is designed to compete with a popular website, coinmarketcap.com.
• The company allocated 25,000,000 $WEED tokens towards our CANNABLOQ project, an industry based website dedicated to educate those whom may benefit from cannabis therapy.
• The Company completed purchase of PERKSCOIN fromwww.CannaSOS.comICO - one of the best known social media cannabis companies.
• The company completed and published audited financial statements for the years ending 2016 and 2017 and began the up-listing process.
• The company redeveloped our main website to make it easier for shareholders to stay updated with company projects and moved it to: www.firstbitcoin.io.
• The company launched 420WIFI, a location-based marketing and analytics platform that provides WiFi as a free digital marketing tool to retain and reward customers at local cannabis doctors and dispensaries nationwide. This opens the door for us to employ some of our loyalty coins, including WEED, as a loyalty incentive., For more information, please visitwww.420wifi.com.
• The company signed a Joint Venture Agreement with DigiCrypts Blockchain Solutions inc, which also does business as DIGiMax Global Solutions. The purpose of the Joint Venture is to facilitate the funding of Security Token Offerings (STO's) for clients of both First Bitcoin Capital and DigiCrypts, primarily as consultants providing non-registered advice and, when registered, as a Registered Broker Dealer in the Jurisdiction of the Western United States (west of the Mississippi River), including Alaska and Hawaii.
• The company completed the pilot test for three check cashing kiosks in CA. The company subsequently placed the kiosks in Oklahoma and has begun earning from these kiosks. Please visit our website for the locations of our check cashing machines.
For the path ahead, we will continue our efforts to up-list and to be listed on several international stock exchanges. Our lawyers recently advised us that regulators may require 3 years of audited financials, and since we are so close to the end of 2018 this has delayed the listing process so we now anticipate to achieve exchange listings during the first quarter of 2019. We will continue to aggressively develop our 420 WIFI business as well as our dozens of cryptocurrency projects now in their various stages of development during the coming year 2019.
About First Bitcoin Capital Corp
First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) (BITCF) (BITCF) began developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange - www.CoinQX.com (in Beta) in early 2014. We saw this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies and in developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and BlockChain-centered Company, we provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and BlockChain technologies.
Connect on social media at:
https://www.facebook.com/BITCF/https://twitter.com/1stBitCapitalhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/first-bitcoin-capital-corp/For more information visit:www.firstbitcoin.io
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.
Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.firstbitcoin.io
[1]WEEDrefers to Bitcoin-Blockchain Token
[2]WeeDrefers to ERC20 Ethereum Token
SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Provides Alternative Blockchain for $Weed Currency Owners Via an Ethereum Erc20 Smart Contract: 2018 Year in Review: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / ACCESSWIRE / December 28, 2018 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK:BITCF) today begins providing an alternative vehicle to own and transfer WEED (COIN:WEED) tokens utilizing the Ethereum eco system. First Bitcoin Capital originally generated WEED [1] (as a commemorative cryptocurrency that may be utilized to solve banking problems in the cannabis sector) on the Bitcoin Blockchain via the Omni protocols. While the Omni smart contract has proven to be a viable vehicle based on the success of Tether (COIN:USDT), the second most actively traded cryptocurrency, having a secondary means to hold, transfer and receive tokenized WeeD[2] presents more flexibility for ownership that opens the doors to additional crypto exchange platforms.
No new WEED coins will be added to the total supply. The total supply on Ethereum mirrors the original supply on Bitcoin Blockchain, however, when an owner elects to convert their Omni tokens to Ethereum tokens 1:1 ratio (minimum 10000 tokens per conversion ) the surrendered tokens will be held in trust, only to be used if/when an ERC20 weed token holder elects to reverse swap their ERC20s to Omni tokens.
The ERC20 weed contract can be read here:
https://etherscan.io/token/0xb2930de1808e7b1c5369ca24df4996c1ad1f3440#readContract
First Bitcoin Capital expects to witness additional WeeD token listings emerge on crypto exchanges, utilizing the ERC20 version in early 2019. We also anticipate adaptation of WeeD as a medium of exchange to solve some of the banking problems vexing the Cannabis industry in 2019. Through our recently launched 420WiFi proximity marketing for cannabis dispensaries business, we plan to begin capitalizing on the loyalty program opportunities presented therein utilizing $Weed coins as a means to gain greater customer satisfaction.
A precedent has successfully been set for allowing a cryptocurrencies to trade on various exchanges under two separate blockchains. MobileGo (COIN:MGO), for example, trades on crypto exchanges throughout the world as both an Ethereum Blockchain ERC20 token and a Waves Blockchain token.
Holders of Omni WEED tokens wishing to convert their holdings to the ERC20 version (WeeD) should email their requests [email protected] the address in which their Omni weed tokens are held together with the ETH wallet address to which they wish their ERC20 WeeD tokens sent.
2018 Year in Review
To our shareholders,
We are extremely proud of the milestones we achieved during the year 2018. Each milestone represents the dedication to the work our team provided throughout each project.
During the year, First Bitcoin Capital Corp:
• Began developing the first blockchain based supply chain management tool for the oil and gas industry called PetroBLOQ.
• The company developed Petroleum Coin (Coin:OIL) as a managed Ethereum smart contract token to be utilized in petroleum industry.
• Advanced the development of www.altcoinmarketcap.com which involves Altcoin (COIN:ALT) tracking thousands of cryptocurrencies and is designed to compete with a popular website, coinmarketcap.com.
• The company allocated 25,000,000 $WEED tokens towards our CANNABLOQ project, an industry based website dedicated to educate those whom may benefit from cannabis therapy.
• The Company completed purchase of PERKSCOIN fromwww.CannaSOS.comICO - one of the best known social media cannabis companies.
• The company completed and published audited financial statements for the years ending 2016 and 2017 and began the up-listing process.
• The company redeveloped our main website to make it easier for shareholders to stay updated with company projects and moved it to: www.firstbitcoin.io.
• The company launched 420WIFI, a location-based marketing and analytics platform that provides WiFi as a free digital marketing tool to retain and reward customers at local cannabis doctors and dispensaries nationwide. This opens the door for us to employ some of our loyalty coins, including WEED, as a loyalty incentive., For more information, please visitwww.420wifi.com.
• The company signed a Joint Venture Agreement with DigiCrypts Blockchain Solutions inc, which also does business as DIGiMax Global Solutions. The purpose of the Joint Venture is to facilitate the funding of Security Token Offerings (STO's) for clients of both First Bitcoin Capital and DigiCrypts, primarily as consultants providing non-registered advice and, when registered, as a Registered Broker Dealer in the Jurisdiction of the Western United States (west of the Mississippi River), including Alaska and Hawaii.
• The company completed the pilot test for three check cashing kiosks in CA. The company subsequently placed the kiosks in Oklahoma and has begun earning from these kiosks. Please visit our website for the locations of our check cashing machines.
For the path ahead, we will continue our efforts to up-list and to be listed on several international stock exchanges. Our lawyers recently advised us that regulators may require 3 years of audited financials, and since we are so close to the end of 2018 this has delayed the listing process so we now anticipate to achieve exchange listings during the first quarter of 2019. We will continue to aggressively develop our 420 WIFI business as well as our dozens of cryptocurrency projects now in their various stages of development during the coming year 2019.
About First Bitcoin Capital Corp
First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) (BITCF) (BITCF) began developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange - www.CoinQX.com (in Beta) in early 2014. We saw this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies and in developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and BlockChain-centered Company, we provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and BlockChain technologies.
Connect on social media at:
https://www.facebook.com/BITCF/https://twitter.com/1stBitCapitalhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/first-bitcoin-capital-corp/For more information visit:www.firstbitcoin.io
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.
Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.firstbitcoin.io
[1]WEEDrefers to Bitcoin-Blockchain Token
[2]WeeDrefers to ERC20 Ethereum Token
SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp || How Mexican Cartels Use Chinese Crypto Brokers to Launder Drug Money: bitcoin drugs dark web cryptocurrency crypto Law enforcement agencies in the United States have expressed worries that Chinese crypto channels are increasingly being used to launder money by Mexican drug cartels and other transnational organized crime groups. This comes at a time when the size of Chinese exports such as chemicals and other ingredients used in making hard drugs to the U.S. has been growing, per Asia Times. According to a senior official at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Paul Knierim, a notable increase in money launderers from Asia has subsequently been observed: The shift toward Chinese and Asian money launderers is believed to be, in part, due to the natural relationship created by the large volume of both licit and illicit trade goods and chemicals imported from China. The use of an Asian money broker simplifies the money laundering process and streamlines the purchase of precursor chemicals and paraphernalia utilized in manufacturing drugs for street sales. Growing Sophistication In a report issued a few weeks ago, the DEA pointed out that in the last eight years, a steady decline in the amount of cash seized throughout the United States had been recorded and this could mean that more discreet techniques of moving illicit cash were being employed. Specifically, the DEA cited the Chinese Underground Banking Systems (CUBS) as a key laundering channel. The CUBS money brokers, the DEA noted, was turning to bitcoin both to launder money for drug traffickers and to assist Chinese nationals interested in moving amounts exceeding the allowed annual limit of US$50,000 outside the country: CUBS money brokers sell Bitcoin to drug traffickers for cash earned from drug sales in the US, Australia, and Europe. This drug cash is then sold to Chinese nationals in exchange for Bitcoin the Chinese nationals use to transfer the value of their assets outside of China. To avoid detection and traceability, these bitcoin trades are conducted over the counter with the Chinese brokers relying on foreign-based exchanges which have lax Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering policies. Story continues Multi-Agency Problem bitcoin money laundering crypto drug Besides the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also blamed Chinese transnational criminal organizations for the rise in the use of cryptocurrencies to launder money. This was made clear during a U.S. congressional hearing earlier in the month. But while using cryptocurrencies to launder money may offer some advantages, the extent to which they can be used is limited due to the fact that, with the exception of privacy coins such as Monero and Zcash , transactions are transparent since they can be viewed on the respective blockchains. Globally, the money laundering turnover is estimated to reach US$2 trillion, and the use of cryptocurrencies in cleaning illicit cash is tiny compared to other channels. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post How Mexican Cartels Use Chinese Crypto Brokers to Launder Drug Money appeared first on CCN . || How Mexican Cartels Use Chinese Crypto Brokers to Launder Drug Money: Law enforcement agencies in theUnited Stateshave expressed worries that Chinese crypto channels are increasingly being used to launder money by Mexican drug cartels and other transnational organized crime groups.
This comes at a time when the size of Chinese exports such as chemicals and other ingredients used in making hard drugs to the U.S. has been growing,perAsia Times. According to a senior official at the U.S.Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA), Paul Knierim, a notable increase in money launderers from Asia has subsequently been observed:
The shift toward Chinese and Asian money launderers is believed to be, in part, due to the natural relationship created by the large volume of both licit and illicit trade goods and chemicals imported from China. The use of an Asian money broker simplifies the money laundering process and streamlines the purchase of precursor chemicals and paraphernalia utilized in manufacturing drugs for street sales.
In a report issued a few weeks ago, the DEA pointed out that in the last eight years, a steady decline in the amount of cash seized throughout the United States had been recorded and this could mean that more discreet techniques of moving illicit cash were being employed.
Specifically, the DEA cited the Chinese Underground Banking Systems (CUBS) as a key laundering channel. The CUBS money brokers, the DEA noted, was turning to bitcoin both to launder money for drug traffickers and to assist Chinese nationals interested in moving amounts exceeding the allowed annual limit of US$50,000 outside the country:
CUBS money brokers sell Bitcoin to drug traffickers for cash earned from drug sales in the US, Australia, and Europe. This drug cash is then sold to Chinese nationals in exchange for Bitcoin the Chinese nationals use to transfer the value of their assets outside of China.
To avoid detection and traceability, thesebitcointrades are conducted over the counter with the Chinese brokers relying on foreign-basedexchangeswhich have lax Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering policies.
Besides the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S.Department of Homeland Securityhas also blamed Chinese transnational criminal organizations for the rise in the use of cryptocurrencies to launder money. This was made clear during a U.S. congressional hearing earlier in the month.
But while using cryptocurrencies to launder money may offer some advantages, the extent to which they can be used is limited due to the fact that, with the exception of privacy coins such asMoneroandZcash, transactions are transparent since they can be viewed on the respective blockchains.
Globally, the money laundering turnover is estimated to reach US$2 trillion, and the use of cryptocurrencies in cleaning illicit cash istinycompared to other channels.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postHow Mexican Cartels Use Chinese Crypto Brokers to Launder Drug Moneyappeared first onCCN. || Abrupt Recovery: Bitcoin up 7% in Minutes, Ethereum Rises 13% from Day’s Low: Within nine minutes, theBitcoin pricesurged from $3,625 to $3,900, by 7.5 percent. Other crypto assets likeEthereum (ETH)followed, recording a 13 percent upswing from the day’s low.
AlthoughBitcoinand the rest of the crypto market only recovered to Thursday levels, the unforeseen turnaround of the short-term trend of crypto assets led traders to regain confidence in the market.
In the grand scheme of things, the increase in the Bitcoin price from mid-$3,000 to $4,000 will realistically have little to no impact on the short-term trend of the dominant cryptocurrency. But, in a period of uncertainty and doubt, minor rallies can ignite the declining confidence of investors.
Many analysts have said throughout the past week that until Bitcoin breaks out ofmajor resistance levelsin the $5,000 to $6,000 range, a mid-term trend reversal cannot be confirmed.
Mark Dow, a trader who shorted Bitcoin from its all-time high at $19,500 all the way down to $3,500, went as far to say that the inability of the asset to recover beyond $6,000 could result in a further drop of BTC below $3,120, its yearly low.
Wild volatility in a low price range is expected until the cryptocurrency establishes a strong bottom and undergoes gradual recovery throughout the months to come.
But, the abrupt recovery from low levels below the $4,000 mark suggests that investors generally consider the $3,000 to $3,500 range to be the bottom of the asset and are placing big buy walls around $3,500 to accumulate the asset.
Su Zhu, the CEO of an FX hedge fund, previously noted that a big buy wall was set at $3,300 by Bitcoin investors on major fiat-to-crypto exchanges in the likes ofCoinbaseandBitstamp.
The investor said on December 13:
10% down from here ($3,300), buy walls on @Coinbase are now the largest (in BTC notional ) since mid-2015. Similar for Bitstamp. To break lower will require filling these fiat-backed bids. Either 1) more BTC borrow to come online 2) KYC-able off-ramp selling. Derivatives selling will just lead to funding becoming very negative as it has been.
The buy wall at $3,300 prevented the asset from falling to its yearly low once again, setting up a strong support level in the low range of the $3,000 region.
The possibility of Bitcoin establishing a new yearly low certainly exists, and some analysts havesuggesteda potential drop of the asset to $2,000.
But, in the short-term, ahigh volatility ratein the range of $3,500 to $4,500 is expected, as long as the asset does not break out of resistance levels in the high $5,000 region, which could result in a proper trend reversal.
Currently, the volume of the cryptocurrency market remains relatively low, which may prevent a promising rally above $5,000 for Bitcoin. The volume of the crypto market is hovering at around $15 billion, down $5 billion from mid-December.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts fromTradingView.
The postAbrupt Recovery: Bitcoin up 7% in Minutes, Ethereum Rises 13% from Day’s Lowappeared first onCCN. || Abrupt Recovery: Bitcoin up 7% in Minutes, Ethereum Rises 13% from Day’s Low: Within nine minutes, theBitcoin pricesurged from $3,625 to $3,900, by 7.5 percent. Other crypto assets likeEthereum (ETH)followed, recording a 13 percent upswing from the day’s low.
AlthoughBitcoinand the rest of the crypto market only recovered to Thursday levels, the unforeseen turnaround of the short-term trend of crypto assets led traders to regain confidence in the market.
In the grand scheme of things, the increase in the Bitcoin price from mid-$3,000 to $4,000 will realistically have little to no impact on the short-term trend of the dominant cryptocurrency. But, in a period of uncertainty and doubt, minor rallies can ignite the declining confidence of investors.
Many analysts have said throughout the past week that until Bitcoin breaks out ofmajor resistance levelsin the $5,000 to $6,000 range, a mid-term trend reversal cannot be confirmed.
Mark Dow, a trader who shorted Bitcoin from its all-time high at $19,500 all the way down to $3,500, went as far to say that the inability of the asset to recover beyond $6,000 could result in a further drop of BTC below $3,120, its yearly low.
Wild volatility in a low price range is expected until the cryptocurrency establishes a strong bottom and undergoes gradual recovery throughout the months to come.
But, the abrupt recovery from low levels below the $4,000 mark suggests that investors generally consider the $3,000 to $3,500 range to be the bottom of the asset and are placing big buy walls around $3,500 to accumulate the asset.
Su Zhu, the CEO of an FX hedge fund, previously noted that a big buy wall was set at $3,300 by Bitcoin investors on major fiat-to-crypto exchanges in the likes ofCoinbaseandBitstamp.
The investor said on December 13:
10% down from here ($3,300), buy walls on @Coinbase are now the largest (in BTC notional ) since mid-2015. Similar for Bitstamp. To break lower will require filling these fiat-backed bids. Either 1) more BTC borrow to come online 2) KYC-able off-ramp selling. Derivatives selling will just lead to funding becoming very negative as it has been.
The buy wall at $3,300 prevented the asset from falling to its yearly low once again, setting up a strong support level in the low range of the $3,000 region.
The possibility of Bitcoin establishing a new yearly low certainly exists, and some analysts havesuggesteda potential drop of the asset to $2,000.
But, in the short-term, ahigh volatility ratein the range of $3,500 to $4,500 is expected, as long as the asset does not break out of resistance levels in the high $5,000 region, which could result in a proper trend reversal.
Currently, the volume of the cryptocurrency market remains relatively low, which may prevent a promising rally above $5,000 for Bitcoin. The volume of the crypto market is hovering at around $15 billion, down $5 billion from mid-December.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts fromTradingView.
The postAbrupt Recovery: Bitcoin up 7% in Minutes, Ethereum Rises 13% from Day’s Lowappeared first onCCN. || Abrupt Recovery: Bitcoin up 7% in Minutes, Ethereum Rises 13% from Day’s Low: bitcoin price ethereum price rally Within nine minutes, the Bitcoin price surged from $3,625 to $3,900, by 7.5 percent. Other crypto assets like Ethereum (ETH) followed, recording a 13 percent upswing from the day’s low. Although Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market only recovered to Thursday levels, the unforeseen turnaround of the short-term trend of crypto assets led traders to regain confidence in the market. In the grand scheme of things, the increase in the Bitcoin price from mid-$3,000 to $4,000 will realistically have little to no impact on the short-term trend of the dominant cryptocurrency. But, in a period of uncertainty and doubt, minor rallies can ignite the declining confidence of investors. Can Bitcoin and Ethereum Sustain Momentum? Many analysts have said throughout the past week that until Bitcoin breaks out of major resistance levels in the $5,000 to $6,000 range, a mid-term trend reversal cannot be confirmed. Mark Dow, a trader who shorted Bitcoin from its all-time high at $19,500 all the way down to $3,500, went as far to say that the inability of the asset to recover beyond $6,000 could result in a further drop of BTC below $3,120, its yearly low. Wild volatility in a low price range is expected until the cryptocurrency establishes a strong bottom and undergoes gradual recovery throughout the months to come. But, the abrupt recovery from low levels below the $4,000 mark suggests that investors generally consider the $3,000 to $3,500 range to be the bottom of the asset and are placing big buy walls around $3,500 to accumulate the asset. Su Zhu, the CEO of an FX hedge fund, previously noted that a big buy wall was set at $3,300 by Bitcoin investors on major fiat-to-crypto exchanges in the likes of Coinbase and Bitstamp . The investor said on December 13: 10% down from here ($3,300), buy walls on @Coinbase are now the largest (in BTC notional ) since mid-2015. Similar for Bitstamp. To break lower will require filling these fiat-backed bids. Either 1) more BTC borrow to come online 2) KYC-able off-ramp selling. Derivatives selling will just lead to funding becoming very negative as it has been. The buy wall at $3,300 prevented the asset from falling to its yearly low once again, setting up a strong support level in the low range of the $3,000 region. What Investors Can Expect The possibility of Bitcoin establishing a new yearly low certainly exists, and some analysts have suggested a potential drop of the asset to $2,000. But, in the short-term, a high volatility rate in the range of $3,500 to $4,500 is expected, as long as the asset does not break out of resistance levels in the high $5,000 region, which could result in a proper trend reversal. Story continues Currently, the volume of the cryptocurrency market remains relatively low, which may prevent a promising rally above $5,000 for Bitcoin. The volume of the crypto market is hovering at around $15 billion, down $5 billion from mid-December. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts from TradingView . The post Abrupt Recovery: Bitcoin up 7% in Minutes, Ethereum Rises 13% from Day’s Low appeared first on CCN . View comments || Take Five: The Year of the Bear! World markets themes for the week ahead: (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/BEAR HUGS
After swallowing markets from Germany to China, the bears reached U.S. shores in December.
Markets there are fighting back but the outlook is not great. For one, growing numbers of global indices have notched up the 20 percent peak-to-trough drop denoting a bear market. U.S. stocks, which seemed invincible until mid-year, have posted the worst December performance since the Great Depression. Second, the world economic outlook is steadily darkening and upcoming PMI data should confirm that.
Sure, the U.S. economy is still expanding nicely. But when high-growth, investor-darling tech stocks fall prey, it shows optimism about growth is fizzling. And segments such as the Russell 2000 small-cap benchmark are stuck deep in the bears' lair. Small firms often carry higher debt loads than larger peers so falling share prices highlight credit risks.
In Europe, Germany's DAX fell to the bears in early December and the euro zone bank and auto sectors are down a whopping 40 percent and 36 percent respectively from this year's peaks. This week, the leading pan-European equity index confirmed it too had entered bear territory, following Wall Street's Christmas Eve shakeout.
- How bears are taking over world stock markets
- After Fed selloff, is a U.S. bear market next?
- China's factory activity seen shrinking for first time since 2016
https://tmsnrt.rs/2RcN2S6
https://tmsnrt.rs/2A3z63h
2/ PART OF THE JOB
U.S. President Donald Trump had several things going in his favor as he headed into 2018, and the two he most frequently trumpeted were the roaring stock market and booming jobs market. As we leave the year, the picture has changed somewhat, with U.S. stocks enduring their worst month since the financial crisis. But ... he still has that strong jobs market. December's non-farm payrolls data is due on Friday (it will be reported despite the government shutdown) and the 178,000 new jobs estimated to have been created will push total U.S. employment over the 150 million mark for the first time ever.
And as employment expansions go, this one is starting to rival some of the biggest in the past 40 years or so. Since hitting a post-crisis low in February 2010, more than 20 million jobs have been created. Under Trump's watch, more than 4 million have been added. Assuming this pace is maintained, the current run will, by this time next year, surpass the 21.1 million jobs created between December 1982 and June 1990 under the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.
It will still take some time to catch up with the 1990s, however. Between May 1991 and February 2001, more than 24.5 million jobs were created, most of that under Bill Clinton's presidency.
U.S. job growth slows in November, monthly wage gains modest
https://tmsnrt.rs/2AiHmw8
3/A YEN FOR SAFETY
As 2018 fades, Japanese policymakers' hearts must be sinking. The yen has zoomed to eight-month highs versus the dollar, stocks sank into bear territory and 10-year bond yields sank below zero for the first time since Sept 2017.
All the data, from price growth to industrial output and retail sales, shows disinflationary clouds gathering -- yet again. By all accounts, Japanese funds are retreating from U.S. equity and bond investments, driven out by prohibitive hedging costs. That, along with an inflow of safety-seeking foreign cash, could lift the yen further. So any dreams the BOJ might harbor of ending stimulus are receding further into the future.
Here's a thought though. Could the yen's safe-haven status come into question? After all, Japan's export-focused economy is vulnerable to a trade war, and an upcoming sales tax hike rekindles memories of 2014, when a similar measure hurt the economy. And notwithstanding dovish BOJ signals, officials privately acknowledge the demerits of prolonged easing, notably the hit to financial institutions from negative interest rates.
- Japan factory output falls, sales slow as risks to economy rise
- Japan bond yields fall deeper into negative as domestic, foreign money rushes in
- Japan's cabinet approves record $900 bln budget, aims to soften sales tax blow
https://tmsnrt.rs/2S8LwOk
4/ SENTENDO L'AMORE
Investors are back in love with Italy, where a budget deal with the EU has put 10-year bond yields on track for their biggest monthly fall since July 2015. They affirmed their love at this year's last bond auction, agreeing to lend 10-year cash to the government at 2.70 percent -- in November they held out for 3.24 percent.
But Italy will test the relationship again next month, when it sells 27 billion euros' worth of new bonds.
January will be Italy's heaviest month for bond sales in 2019. Sales are typically heavy at the start of a year, but the difference this time is that the European Central Bank will not be buying. After ending its asset purchase program, it will reinvest the proceeds of maturing debt but has allocated a smaller share of the pie to Rome next year.
In total next year, Italy hopes to sell bonds worth 250-260 billion euros. So will private creditors step into the breach? Perhaps not -- local retail investors gave the cold shoulder to a specially targeted bond last month. With the ECB backstop fading, a weak economy and still-high political risk, Italy may find it still needs to woo its investors if it is to stay afloat next year.
- Italy budget deal pushes bond auction yields back to pre-selloff levels
- Italy needs to woo private bond buyers as ECB bows out
- Italy's bond market cheers budget deal with EU
https://tmsnrt.rs/2R5PrxY
5/ DOLLAR DARLING
As bears maul equities, where does one hide? The answer seemingly is: the dollar. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's monthly investor survey showed the greenback regaining the "most crowded trade" crown, snatching it back from the FAANG/BAT tech stocks group. The dollar dash is unsurprising -- it's liquid, U.S. yields are high and the U.S. economy is growing faster than other developed countries.
A word of caution though. Investors following the "most crowded trade" bandwagon have fallen flat on their faces in recent years. They went into 2017 loaded up with dollars but the greenback fell relentlessly after that, ending the year with a near-10 percent loss.
In December 2017, the most crowded trade, according to the BAML survey, was Bitcoin -- a 70 percent rout ensued in 2018. We can rule out a fall of that kind for the dollar. But the U.S. yield curve suggests an economic slowdown is ahead, if not recession. So notwithstanding the robust labor market, the Fed may struggle to raise interest rates much more. An investor exodus from U.S. stocks and bonds would not be good news for the dollar.
- King Dollar's reign faces challenges in 2019
- Investors gloomiest in a decade about world economy - BAML
- Fed still the only hiker in town, but dollar refuses to play ball: McGeever
https://tmsnrt.rs/2R9NaSj
(Reporting by Dan Burns in New York and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Josephine Mason, Helen Reid, Abhinav Ramnarayan, Dhara Ranasinghe, Ritvik Carvalho in London; Compiled by Sujata Rao; Editing by Catherine Evans) || Take Five: The Year of the Bear! World markets themes for the week ahead: (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/BEAR HUGS
After swallowing markets from Germany to China, the bears reached U.S. shores in December.
Markets there are fighting back but the outlook is not great. For one, growing numbers of global indices have notched up the 20 percent peak-to-trough drop denoting a bear market. U.S. stocks, which seemed invincible until mid-year, have posted the worst December performance since the Great Depression. Second, the world economic outlook is steadily darkening and upcoming PMI data should confirm that.
Sure, the U.S. economy is still expanding nicely. But when high-growth, investor-darling tech stocks fall prey, it shows optimism about growth is fizzling. And segments such as the Russell 2000 small-cap benchmark are stuck deep in the bears' lair. Small firms often carry higher debt loads than larger peers so falling share prices highlight credit risks.
In Europe, Germany's DAX fell to the bears in early December and the euro zone bank and auto sectors are down a whopping 40 percent and 36 percent respectively from this year's peaks. This week, the leading pan-European equity index confirmed it too had entered bear territory, following Wall Street's Christmas Eve shakeout.
- How bears are taking over world stock markets
- After Fed selloff, is a U.S. bear market next?
- China's factory activity seen shrinking for first time since 2016
https://tmsnrt.rs/2RcN2S6
https://tmsnrt.rs/2A3z63h
2/ PART OF THE JOB
U.S. President Donald Trump had several things going in his favor as he headed into 2018, and the two he most frequently trumpeted were the roaring stock market and booming jobs market. As we leave the year, the picture has changed somewhat, with U.S. stocks enduring their worst month since the financial crisis. But ... he still has that strong jobs market. December's non-farm payrolls data is due on Friday (it will be reported despite the government shutdown) and the 178,000 new jobs estimated to have been created will push total U.S. employment over the 150 million mark for the first time ever.
And as employment expansions go, this one is starting to rival some of the biggest in the past 40 years or so. Since hitting a post-crisis low in February 2010, more than 20 million jobs have been created. Under Trump's watch, more than 4 million have been added. Assuming this pace is maintained, the current run will, by this time next year, surpass the 21.1 million jobs created between December 1982 and June 1990 under the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.
It will still take some time to catch up with the 1990s, however. Between May 1991 and February 2001, more than 24.5 million jobs were created, most of that under Bill Clinton's presidency.
U.S. job growth slows in November, monthly wage gains modest
https://tmsnrt.rs/2AiHmw8
3/A YEN FOR SAFETY
As 2018 fades, Japanese policymakers' hearts must be sinking. The yen has zoomed to eight-month highs versus the dollar, stocks sank into bear territory and 10-year bond yields sank below zero for the first time since Sept 2017.
All the data, from price growth to industrial output and retail sales, shows disinflationary clouds gathering -- yet again. By all accounts, Japanese funds are retreating from U.S. equity and bond investments, driven out by prohibitive hedging costs. That, along with an inflow of safety-seeking foreign cash, could lift the yen further. So any dreams the BOJ might harbor of ending stimulus are receding further into the future.
Here's a thought though. Could the yen's safe-haven status come into question? After all, Japan's export-focused economy is vulnerable to a trade war, and an upcoming sales tax hike rekindles memories of 2014, when a similar measure hurt the economy. And notwithstanding dovish BOJ signals, officials privately acknowledge the demerits of prolonged easing, notably the hit to financial institutions from negative interest rates.
- Japan factory output falls, sales slow as risks to economy rise
- Japan bond yields fall deeper into negative as domestic, foreign money rushes in
- Japan's cabinet approves record $900 bln budget, aims to soften sales tax blow
https://tmsnrt.rs/2S8LwOk
4/ SENTENDO L'AMORE
Investors are back in love with Italy, where a budget deal with the EU has put 10-year bond yields on track for their biggest monthly fall since July 2015. They affirmed their love at this year's last bond auction, agreeing to lend 10-year cash to the government at 2.70 percent -- in November they held out for 3.24 percent.
But Italy will test the relationship again next month, when it sells 27 billion euros' worth of new bonds.
January will be Italy's heaviest month for bond sales in 2019. Sales are typically heavy at the start of a year, but the difference this time is that the European Central Bank will not be buying. After ending its asset purchase program, it will reinvest the proceeds of maturing debt but has allocated a smaller share of the pie to Rome next year.
In total next year, Italy hopes to sell bonds worth 250-260 billion euros. So will private creditors step into the breach? Perhaps not -- local retail investors gave the cold shoulder to a specially targeted bond last month. With the ECB backstop fading, a weak economy and still-high political risk, Italy may find it still needs to woo its investors if it is to stay afloat next year.
- Italy budget deal pushes bond auction yields back to pre-selloff levels
- Italy needs to woo private bond buyers as ECB bows out
- Italy's bond market cheers budget deal with EU
https://tmsnrt.rs/2R5PrxY
5/ DOLLAR DARLING
As bears maul equities, where does one hide? The answer seemingly is: the dollar. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's monthly investor survey showed the greenback regaining the "most crowded trade" crown, snatching it back from the FAANG/BAT tech stocks group. The dollar dash is unsurprising -- it's liquid, U.S. yields are high and the U.S. economy is growing faster than other developed countries.
A word of caution though. Investors following the "most crowded trade" bandwagon have fallen flat on their faces in recent years. They went into 2017 loaded up with dollars but the greenback fell relentlessly after that, ending the year with a near-10 percent loss.
In December 2017, the most crowded trade, according to the BAML survey, was Bitcoin -- a 70 percent rout ensued in 2018. We can rule out a fall of that kind for the dollar. But the U.S. yield curve suggests an economic slowdown is ahead, if not recession. So notwithstanding the robust labor market, the Fed may struggle to raise interest rates much more. An investor exodus from U.S. stocks and bonds would not be good news for the dollar.
- King Dollar's reign faces challenges in 2019
- Investors gloomiest in a decade about world economy - BAML
- Fed still the only hiker in town, but dollar refuses to play ball: McGeever
https://tmsnrt.rs/2R9NaSj
(Reporting by Dan Burns in New York and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Josephine Mason, Helen Reid, Abhinav Ramnarayan, Dhara Ranasinghe, Ritvik Carvalho in London; Compiled by Sujata Rao; Editing by Catherine Evans) || Take Five: The Year of the Bear! World markets themes for the week ahead: (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. 1/BEAR HUGS After swallowing markets from Germany to China, the bears reached U.S. shores in December. Markets there are fighting back but the outlook is not great. For one, growing numbers of global indices have notched up the 20 percent peak-to-trough drop denoting a bear market. U.S. stocks, which seemed invincible until mid-year, have posted the worst December performance since the Great Depression. Second, the world economic outlook is steadily darkening and upcoming PMI data should confirm that. Sure, the U.S. economy is still expanding nicely. But when high-growth, investor-darling tech stocks fall prey, it shows optimism about growth is fizzling. And segments such as the Russell 2000 small-cap benchmark are stuck deep in the bears' lair. Small firms often carry higher debt loads than larger peers so falling share prices highlight credit risks. In Europe, Germany's DAX fell to the bears in early December and the euro zone bank and auto sectors are down a whopping 40 percent and 36 percent respectively from this year's peaks. This week, the leading pan-European equity index confirmed it too had entered bear territory, following Wall Street's Christmas Eve shakeout. - How bears are taking over world stock markets - After Fed selloff, is a U.S. bear market next? - China's factory activity seen shrinking for first time since 2016 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RcN2S6 https://tmsnrt.rs/2A3z63h 2/ PART OF THE JOB U.S. President Donald Trump had several things going in his favor as he headed into 2018, and the two he most frequently trumpeted were the roaring stock market and booming jobs market. As we leave the year, the picture has changed somewhat, with U.S. stocks enduring their worst month since the financial crisis. But ... he still has that strong jobs market. December's non-farm payrolls data is due on Friday (it will be reported despite the government shutdown) and the 178,000 new jobs estimated to have been created will push total U.S. employment over the 150 million mark for the first time ever. Story continues And as employment expansions go, this one is starting to rival some of the biggest in the past 40 years or so. Since hitting a post-crisis low in February 2010, more than 20 million jobs have been created. Under Trump's watch, more than 4 million have been added. Assuming this pace is maintained, the current run will, by this time next year, surpass the 21.1 million jobs created between December 1982 and June 1990 under the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. It will still take some time to catch up with the 1990s, however. Between May 1991 and February 2001, more than 24.5 million jobs were created, most of that under Bill Clinton's presidency. U.S. job growth slows in November, monthly wage gains modest https://tmsnrt.rs/2AiHmw8 3/A YEN FOR SAFETY As 2018 fades, Japanese policymakers' hearts must be sinking. The yen has zoomed to eight-month highs versus the dollar, stocks sank into bear territory and 10-year bond yields sank below zero for the first time since Sept 2017. All the data, from price growth to industrial output and retail sales, shows disinflationary clouds gathering -- yet again. By all accounts, Japanese funds are retreating from U.S. equity and bond investments, driven out by prohibitive hedging costs. That, along with an inflow of safety-seeking foreign cash, could lift the yen further. So any dreams the BOJ might harbor of ending stimulus are receding further into the future. Here's a thought though. Could the yen's safe-haven status come into question? After all, Japan's export-focused economy is vulnerable to a trade war, and an upcoming sales tax hike rekindles memories of 2014, when a similar measure hurt the economy. And notwithstanding dovish BOJ signals, officials privately acknowledge the demerits of prolonged easing, notably the hit to financial institutions from negative interest rates. - Japan factory output falls, sales slow as risks to economy rise - Japan bond yields fall deeper into negative as domestic, foreign money rushes in - Japan's cabinet approves record $900 bln budget, aims to soften sales tax blow https://tmsnrt.rs/2S8LwOk 4/ SENTENDO L'AMORE Investors are back in love with Italy, where a budget deal with the EU has put 10-year bond yields on track for their biggest monthly fall since July 2015. They affirmed their love at this year's last bond auction, agreeing to lend 10-year cash to the government at 2.70 percent -- in November they held out for 3.24 percent. But Italy will test the relationship again next month, when it sells 27 billion euros' worth of new bonds. January will be Italy's heaviest month for bond sales in 2019. Sales are typically heavy at the start of a year, but the difference this time is that the European Central Bank will not be buying. After ending its asset purchase program, it will reinvest the proceeds of maturing debt but has allocated a smaller share of the pie to Rome next year. In total next year, Italy hopes to sell bonds worth 250-260 billion euros. So will private creditors step into the breach? Perhaps not -- local retail investors gave the cold shoulder to a specially targeted bond last month. With the ECB backstop fading, a weak economy and still-high political risk, Italy may find it still needs to woo its investors if it is to stay afloat next year. - Italy budget deal pushes bond auction yields back to pre-selloff levels - Italy needs to woo private bond buyers as ECB bows out - Italy's bond market cheers budget deal with EU https://tmsnrt.rs/2R5PrxY 5/ DOLLAR DARLING As bears maul equities, where does one hide? The answer seemingly is: the dollar. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's monthly investor survey showed the greenback regaining the "most crowded trade" crown, snatching it back from the FAANG/BAT tech stocks group. The dollar dash is unsurprising -- it's liquid, U.S. yields are high and the U.S. economy is growing faster than other developed countries. A word of caution though. Investors following the "most crowded trade" bandwagon have fallen flat on their faces in recent years. They went into 2017 loaded up with dollars but the greenback fell relentlessly after that, ending the year with a near-10 percent loss. In December 2017, the most crowded trade, according to the BAML survey, was Bitcoin -- a 70 percent rout ensued in 2018. We can rule out a fall of that kind for the dollar. But the U.S. yield curve suggests an economic slowdown is ahead, if not recession. So notwithstanding the robust labor market, the Fed may struggle to raise interest rates much more. An investor exodus from U.S. stocks and bonds would not be good news for the dollar. - King Dollar's reign faces challenges in 2019 - Investors gloomiest in a decade about world economy - BAML - Fed still the only hiker in town, but dollar refuses to play ball: McGeever https://tmsnrt.rs/2R9NaSj (Reporting by Dan Burns in New York and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Josephine Mason, Helen Reid, Abhinav Ramnarayan, Dhara Ranasinghe, Ritvik Carvalho in London; Compiled by Sujata Rao; Editing by Catherine Evans) || Take Five: The Year of the Bear! World markets themes for the week ahead: (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. 1/BEAR HUGS After swallowing markets from Germany to China, the bears reached U.S. shores in December. Markets there are fighting back but the outlook is not great. For one, growing numbers of global indices have notched up the 20 percent peak-to-trough drop denoting a bear market. U.S. stocks, which seemed invincible until mid-year, have posted the worst December performance since the Great Depression. Second, the world economic outlook is steadily darkening and upcoming PMI data should confirm that. Sure, the U.S. economy is still expanding nicely. But when high-growth, investor-darling tech stocks fall prey, it shows optimism about growth is fizzling. And segments such as the Russell 2000 small-cap benchmark are stuck deep in the bears' lair. Small firms often carry higher debt loads than larger peers so falling share prices highlight credit risks. In Europe, Germany's DAX fell to the bears in early December and the euro zone bank and auto sectors are down a whopping 40 percent and 36 percent respectively from this year's peaks. This week, the leading pan-European equity index confirmed it too had entered bear territory, following Wall Street's Christmas Eve shakeout. - How bears are taking over world stock markets - After Fed selloff, is a U.S. bear market next? - China's factory activity seen shrinking for first time since 2016 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RcN2S6 https://tmsnrt.rs/2A3z63h 2/ PART OF THE JOB U.S. President Donald Trump had several things going in his favor as he headed into 2018, and the two he most frequently trumpeted were the roaring stock market and booming jobs market. As we leave the year, the picture has changed somewhat, with U.S. stocks enduring their worst month since the financial crisis. But ... he still has that strong jobs market. December's non-farm payrolls data is due on Friday (it will be reported despite the government shutdown) and the 178,000 new jobs estimated to have been created will push total U.S. employment over the 150 million mark for the first time ever. Story continues And as employment expansions go, this one is starting to rival some of the biggest in the past 40 years or so. Since hitting a post-crisis low in February 2010, more than 20 million jobs have been created. Under Trump's watch, more than 4 million have been added. Assuming this pace is maintained, the current run will, by this time next year, surpass the 21.1 million jobs created between December 1982 and June 1990 under the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. It will still take some time to catch up with the 1990s, however. Between May 1991 and February 2001, more than 24.5 million jobs were created, most of that under Bill Clinton's presidency. U.S. job growth slows in November, monthly wage gains modest https://tmsnrt.rs/2AiHmw8 3/A YEN FOR SAFETY As 2018 fades, Japanese policymakers' hearts must be sinking. The yen has zoomed to eight-month highs versus the dollar, stocks sank into bear territory and 10-year bond yields sank below zero for the first time since Sept 2017. All the data, from price growth to industrial output and retail sales, shows disinflationary clouds gathering -- yet again. By all accounts, Japanese funds are retreating from U.S. equity and bond investments, driven out by prohibitive hedging costs. That, along with an inflow of safety-seeking foreign cash, could lift the yen further. So any dreams the BOJ might harbor of ending stimulus are receding further into the future. Here's a thought though. Could the yen's safe-haven status come into question? After all, Japan's export-focused economy is vulnerable to a trade war, and an upcoming sales tax hike rekindles memories of 2014, when a similar measure hurt the economy. And notwithstanding dovish BOJ signals, officials privately acknowledge the demerits of prolonged easing, notably the hit to financial institutions from negative interest rates. - Japan factory output falls, sales slow as risks to economy rise - Japan bond yields fall deeper into negative as domestic, foreign money rushes in - Japan's cabinet approves record $900 bln budget, aims to soften sales tax blow https://tmsnrt.rs/2S8LwOk 4/ SENTENDO L'AMORE Investors are back in love with Italy, where a budget deal with the EU has put 10-year bond yields on track for their biggest monthly fall since July 2015. They affirmed their love at this year's last bond auction, agreeing to lend 10-year cash to the government at 2.70 percent -- in November they held out for 3.24 percent. But Italy will test the relationship again next month, when it sells 27 billion euros' worth of new bonds. January will be Italy's heaviest month for bond sales in 2019. Sales are typically heavy at the start of a year, but the difference this time is that the European Central Bank will not be buying. After ending its asset purchase program, it will reinvest the proceeds of maturing debt but has allocated a smaller share of the pie to Rome next year. In total next year, Italy hopes to sell bonds worth 250-260 billion euros. So will private creditors step into the breach? Perhaps not -- local retail investors gave the cold shoulder to a specially targeted bond last month. With the ECB backstop fading, a weak economy and still-high political risk, Italy may find it still needs to woo its investors if it is to stay afloat next year. - Italy budget deal pushes bond auction yields back to pre-selloff levels - Italy needs to woo private bond buyers as ECB bows out - Italy's bond market cheers budget deal with EU https://tmsnrt.rs/2R5PrxY 5/ DOLLAR DARLING As bears maul equities, where does one hide? The answer seemingly is: the dollar. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's monthly investor survey showed the greenback regaining the "most crowded trade" crown, snatching it back from the FAANG/BAT tech stocks group. The dollar dash is unsurprising -- it's liquid, U.S. yields are high and the U.S. economy is growing faster than other developed countries. A word of caution though. Investors following the "most crowded trade" bandwagon have fallen flat on their faces in recent years. They went into 2017 loaded up with dollars but the greenback fell relentlessly after that, ending the year with a near-10 percent loss. In December 2017, the most crowded trade, according to the BAML survey, was Bitcoin -- a 70 percent rout ensued in 2018. We can rule out a fall of that kind for the dollar. But the U.S. yield curve suggests an economic slowdown is ahead, if not recession. So notwithstanding the robust labor market, the Fed may struggle to raise interest rates much more. An investor exodus from U.S. stocks and bonds would not be good news for the dollar. - King Dollar's reign faces challenges in 2019 - Investors gloomiest in a decade about world economy - BAML - Fed still the only hiker in town, but dollar refuses to play ball: McGeever https://tmsnrt.rs/2R9NaSj (Reporting by Dan Burns in New York and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Josephine Mason, Helen Reid, Abhinav Ramnarayan, Dhara Ranasinghe, Ritvik Carvalho in London; Compiled by Sujata Rao; Editing by Catherine Evans) || Bitcoin Price Suddenly Spikes $300 to Avoid Retest of 2018 Low: The price of bitcoin is up over $300 from today’s low and now has its sight set on a key technical hurdle that, if surpassed, could spark a stronger rally, analysis suggests.
At 15:00 UTC, bitcoin’s price began its ascent, invalidating what was a narrow trading range between $3,580 and $3,630. The move occurred just above previous resistance from Dec. 18 near $3,550 – a level that now appears to have successfully flipped to support as a result of the latest boost.
It now looks like bitcoin bulls want to revive and extend their rally from just eight days ago when prices were pushed above $4,000 but ultimately failed thanks to a holiday sell-off from a peak of $4,236 on Dec. 24.
Bulls Under Pressure After Bitcoin Price Retreats from $4K
At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at an average price of $3,842 according to CoinDesk pricing data.
The daily chart shows price reacting positively to multiple technical hurdles.Â
As can be seen, the price bounced on a confluence of support including the likes of the daily Bollinger band basis line, 61.8% Fibonacci retracement, as well as the prior support and resistance area near $3,500 (green zone).Â
Backed By Volume, Bitcoin’s Eyes $4.4K Price Target
In order for bulls to now extend the rally towards $5,000, bitcoin’s price must scale the neckline of the widely observed inverse head and shoulders pattern – an indicator of bullish reversal.
The pattern can be described as three successive troughs, the middle or “head” of which is the deepest.
If bitcoin can find acceptance above the neckline, the reversal pattern should take effect, potentially sending the price towards $5,200 which is measured by adding the depth of inverse head and shoulders “head” to the anticipated breakout point.
The hourly chart further depicts the most recent bullish development. We can see that a bear flag (a bearish continuation pattern) had formed inside of a falling wedge, a bullish reversal pattern.Â
It’s safe to say bitcoin’s latest boost has invalidated the bear flag and price now has different resistances in its immediate path in the form of moving averages (MA’s).
As can be seen, price was able to close the last hour above the 100 hour MA – an encouraging sign for the short term bulls, but the stronger 200 hour MA has yet to be conquered.Â
The relative strength index on the hourly chart is now considerably overbought, so consolidation or a minor pullback in the near term may be the most likely course of action.
• The daily chart depicts an inverse head and shoulders pattern that could yield a rally to $5,000 and perhaps beyond if its neckline is successfully scaled.Â
• The hourly bear flag has been invalidated, further easing the bearish concerns for now.
• Acceptance below the most recent higher low of $3,567 will invalidate the bullish reversal set up and likely bring the most recent lows of $3,130 into play – prices as per Coinbase.Â
Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin imagevia Shutterstock; charts byTrading View
• Why Traders Say Volume Is Crypto Price Indicator of Choice
• Saying Goodbye to the Blockchain Romantics || Bitcoin Price Suddenly Spikes $300 to Avoid Retest of 2018 Low: The price of bitcoin is up over $300 from todays low and now has its sight set on a key technical hurdle that, if surpassed, could spark a stronger rally, analysis suggests. At 15:00 UTC, bitcoins price began its ascent, invalidating what was a narrow trading range between $3,580 and $3,630. The move occurred just above previous resistance from Dec. 18 near $3,550 a level that now appears to have successfully flipped to support as a result of the latest boost. It now looks like bitcoin bulls want to revive and extend their rally from just eight days ago when prices were pushed above $4,000 but ultimately failed  thanks to a holiday sell-off from a peak of $4,236 on Dec. 24. Bulls Under Pressure After Bitcoin Price Retreats from $4K At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at an average price of $3,842 according to CoinDesk pricing data. Daily chart The daily chart shows price reacting positively to multiple technical hurdles. As can be seen, the price bounced on a confluence of support including the likes of the daily Bollinger band basis line, 61.8% Fibonacci retracement, as well as the prior support and resistance area near $3,500 (green zone). Backed By Volume, Bitcoins Eyes $4.4K Price Target In order for bulls to now extend the rally towards $5,000, bitcoins price must scale the neckline of the widely observed inverse head and shoulders pattern an indicator of bullish reversal. The pattern can be described as three successive troughs, the middle or head of which is the deepest. If bitcoin can find acceptance above the neckline, the reversal pattern should take effect, potentially sending the price towards $5,200 which is measured by adding the depth of inverse head and shoulders head to the anticipated breakout point. Hourly chart The hourly chart further depicts the most recent bullish development. We can see that a bear flag (a bearish continuation pattern) had formed inside of a falling wedge, a bullish reversal pattern. Story continues Its safe to say bitcoins latest boost has invalidated the bear flag and price now has different resistances in its immediate path in the form of moving averages (MAs). As can be seen, price was able to close the last hour above the 100 hour MA an encouraging sign for the short term bulls, but the stronger 200 hour MA has yet to be conquered. The relative strength index on the hourly chart is now considerably overbought, so consolidation or a minor pullback in the near term may be the most likely course of action. View The daily chart depicts an inverse head and shoulders pattern that could yield a rally to $5,000 and perhaps beyond if its neckline is successfully scaled. The hourly bear flag has been invalidated, further easing the bearish concerns for now. Acceptance below the most recent higher low of $3,567 will invalidate the bullish reversal set up and likely bring the most recent lows of $3,130 into play prices as per Coinbase. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View Related Stories Why Traders Say Volume Is Crypto Price Indicator of Choice Saying Goodbye to the Blockchain Romantics
[Social Media Buzz]
BTC,ETH,XRP
Last: 3825.73, 136.10, 0.37
High: 3892.00, 139.11, 0.38
Low: 3756.20, 126.04, 0.36
%: 0.01% , 0.08% , 0.03%
Total USDT: 53.89, 10.02, 0.01
#BTC #bitcoin #ETH #XRP #ripple #crypto #cryptocurrency #pricepic.twitter.com/K8MG9dxRwN || 24H
2018/12/29 10:00 (2018/12/28 10:00)
LONG : 26757.32 BTC (+1169.19 BTC)
SHORT : 31737.67 BTC (-46.18 BTC)
LS比 : 45% vs 54% (44% vs 55%) || Dec 29, 2018 10:31:00 UTC | 3,888.70$ | 3,398.90€ | 3,062.20£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/Kmb04LCmbj || 24H
20...
|
3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50, 44555.80, 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79, 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42, 44883.91, 45201.46, 46063.27, 44963.07, 47092.49, 48176.35, 47783.36, 47267.52, 48278.36, 47260.22, 42843.80, 40693.68, 43574.51, 44895.10, 42839.75, 42716.59, 43208.54, 42235.73, 41034.54, 41564.36, 43790.89, 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98, 53967.85, 54968.22, 54771.58, 57484.79, 56041.06, 57401.10, 57321.52, 61593.95, 60892.18, 61553.62, 62026.08, 64261.99, 65992.84, 62210.17, 60692.27, 61393.62, 60930.84, 63039.82, 60363.79, 58482.39, 60622.14, 62227.96.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-10-29]
Volume: 36856881767, RSI (14-day): 59.74, 50-day EMA: 54472.27, 200-day EMA: 45964.02
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1783.00, Gold RSI: 51.15
Oil Price: 83.57, Oil RSI: 66.43
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin trumps gold for investors as inflation fears rise: Everywhere you look prices are rising:petrol is at an all-time high,pub bosses say a pint will soon cost 30p more,energy bills are set to leap by hundreds of pounds next year, andmortgages are getting more expensive. What’s a person to do?
For those who can afford it,goldhas traditionally been the best defence againstinflation. The precious metal’s scarcity means it holds its value even as hard currencies lose there’s.
This strategy has worked for years — but now it’s losing its shine. $10 billion has been pulled from gold funds this yearas investors increasingly turn to a newer alternative: bitcoin.
“We believe the perception ofbitcoinas a better inflation hedge than gold is the main reason for the current upswing, triggering a shift away from gold ETFs into bitcoin funds since September,” analysts at JPMorgan said in a note last week as bitcoin hita new record at almost $67,000. The US investment bank thinks ongoing inflation will support bitcoin’s price until at least the new year.
“Government backed fiat money is intentionally designed to lose value over time in order to promote consumerism,” says Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics and a long-time cryptocurrency advocate. “Bitcoin, on the other hand, was created as a deflationary asset, which is intended to rise in value over time.”
Bitcoin was created in the furnace of the financial crisis. The person or people who designed the original code — pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto has still not been unmasked — limited the lifetime supply of bitcoin to 21 million. This built-in limit was a repost to quantitative easing: in 2008 when bitcoin was created, central banks were printing hundreds of billions to prop up the financial system, devaluing currencies around the world at the same time.
Bitcoin’s 21 million limit should in theory help it hold its value. That makes it a potential hedge against inflation just like gold.
Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones said this month that bitcoin was his preferred way to guard against inflation, telling CNBC it was “winning the race against gold”. Carl Icahn, another billionaire investor, told the same TV station bitcoin could be a good bet if inflation runs “rampant”.
Not everyone is convinced though.
“Cryptocurrencies have come to the fore during a decade of ultra-accommodative monetary – including waves of massive money printing by central banks – and a benign inflation backdrop,” says Jason Hollands, managing director of Best Invest. “Bitcoin has therefore yet to be tested during a period of high and sustained inflation, and higher yields.”
Inflation leads to higher interest rates. That, in turn, should create more attractive investment opportunities. At least part of bitcoin’s price is underpinned by the fact that many holders — or HODLers as they dub themselves — don’t sell. If yields start to rise elsewhere, some could be tempted to ditch bitcoin and park their capital elsewhere.
Then there is bitcoin’s volatility.
“I would not say Bitcoin is a good investment as an inflation hedge as it’s far too volatile,” says Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown. “When it’s rising sharply, it’s obviously attractive and can lure speculators into a false sense of security, but as we’ve seen it has a tendency to drop dramatically.”
Bitcoin rose by 60% in just four months at the start of this year before promptly halving. In the last few weeks, it had boomed again. Clearly, it’s not for the faint hearted.
“In my view there are much more tried and tested ways to hedge against inflation, such as investing in baskets of commodities, equity sectors like financials and raw materials, as well as infrastructure projects where inflation-adjustments are built into the contracts,” Hollands says.
Streeter says: “If investors do want to hold crypto as a defensive strategy, it should be just at the fringes of their portfolios with money they can afford to lose.”
Read More
Bitcoin hits $50,000 as Bank of America says cryptocurrency just in the ‘first inning’
Ex-Chancellor Philip Hammond joins crypto startup Copper
SoftBank backs crypto crime tracking firm Elliptic in $60 million round || Bitcoin trumps gold for investors as inflation fears rise: Everywhere you look prices are rising:petrol is at an all-time high,pub bosses say a pint will soon cost 30p more,energy bills are set to leap by hundreds of pounds next year, andmortgages are getting more expensive. What’s a person to do?
For those who can afford it,goldhas traditionally been the best defence againstinflation. The precious metal’s scarcity means it holds its value even as hard currencies lose there’s.
This strategy has worked for years — but now it’s losing its shine. $10 billion has been pulled from gold funds this yearas investors increasingly turn to a newer alternative: bitcoin.
“We believe the perception ofbitcoinas a better inflation hedge than gold is the main reason for the current upswing, triggering a shift away from gold ETFs into bitcoin funds since September,” analysts at JPMorgan said in a note last week as bitcoin hita new record at almost $67,000. The US investment bank thinks ongoing inflation will support bitcoin’s price until at least the new year.
“Government backed fiat money is intentionally designed to lose value over time in order to promote consumerism,” says Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics and a long-time cryptocurrency advocate. “Bitcoin, on the other hand, was created as a deflationary asset, which is intended to rise in value over time.”
Bitcoin was created in the furnace of the financial crisis. The person or people who designed the original code — pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto has still not been unmasked — limited the lifetime supply of bitcoin to 21 million. This built-in limit was a repost to quantitative easing: in 2008 when bitcoin was created, central banks were printing hundreds of billions to prop up the financial system, devaluing currencies around the world at the same time.
Bitcoin’s 21 million limit should in theory help it hold its value. That makes it a potential hedge against inflation just like gold.
Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones said this month that bitcoin was his preferred way to guard against inflation, telling CNBC it was “winning the race against gold”. Carl Icahn, another billionaire investor, told the same TV station bitcoin could be a good bet if inflation runs “rampant”.
Not everyone is convinced though.
“Cryptocurrencies have come to the fore during a decade of ultra-accommodative monetary – including waves of massive money printing by central banks – and a benign inflation backdrop,” says Jason Hollands, managing director of Best Invest. “Bitcoin has therefore yet to be tested during a period of high and sustained inflation, and higher yields.”
Inflation leads to higher interest rates. That, in turn, should create more attractive investment opportunities. At least part of bitcoin’s price is underpinned by the fact that many holders — or HODLers as they dub themselves — don’t sell. If yields start to rise elsewhere, some could be tempted to ditch bitcoin and park their capital elsewhere.
Then there is bitcoin’s volatility.
“I would not say Bitcoin is a good investment as an inflation hedge as it’s far too volatile,” says Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown. “When it’s rising sharply, it’s obviously attractive and can lure speculators into a false sense of security, but as we’ve seen it has a tendency to drop dramatically.”
Bitcoin rose by 60% in just four months at the start of this year before promptly halving. In the last few weeks, it had boomed again. Clearly, it’s not for the faint hearted.
“In my view there are much more tried and tested ways to hedge against inflation, such as investing in baskets of commodities, equity sectors like financials and raw materials, as well as infrastructure projects where inflation-adjustments are built into the contracts,” Hollands says.
Streeter says: “If investors do want to hold crypto as a defensive strategy, it should be just at the fringes of their portfolios with money they can afford to lose.”
Read More
Bitcoin hits $50,000 as Bank of America says cryptocurrency just in the ‘first inning’
Ex-Chancellor Philip Hammond joins crypto startup Copper
SoftBank backs crypto crime tracking firm Elliptic in $60 million round || Bitcoin trumps gold for investors as inflation fears rise: A mock bitcoin in front of US dollars (REUTERS) Everywhere you look prices are rising: petrol is at an all-time high , pub bosses say a pint will soon cost 30p more , energy bills are set to leap by hundreds of pounds next year , and mortgages are getting more expensive . Whats a person to do? For those who can afford it, gold has traditionally been the best defence against inflation . The precious metals scarcity means it holds its value even as hard currencies lose theres. This strategy has worked for years but now its losing its shine. $10 billion has been pulled from gold funds this year as investors increasingly turn to a newer alternative: bitcoin. We believe the perception of bitcoin as a better inflation hedge than gold is the main reason for the current upswing, triggering a shift away from gold ETFs into bitcoin funds since September, analysts at JPMorgan said in a note last week as bitcoin hit a new record at almost $67,000 . The US investment bank thinks ongoing inflation will support bitcoins price until at least the new year. Government backed fiat money is intentionally designed to lose value over time in order to promote consumerism, says Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics and a long-time cryptocurrency advocate. Bitcoin, on the other hand, was created as a deflationary asset, which is intended to rise in value over time. Bitcoin was created in the furnace of the financial crisis. The person or people who designed the original code pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto has still not been unmasked limited the lifetime supply of bitcoin to 21 million. This built-in limit was a repost to quantitative easing: in 2008 when bitcoin was created, central banks were printing hundreds of billions to prop up the financial system, devaluing currencies around the world at the same time. Bitcoins 21 million limit should in theory help it hold its value. That makes it a potential hedge against inflation just like gold. Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones said this month that bitcoin was his preferred way to guard against inflation, telling CNBC it was winning the race against gold. Carl Icahn, another billionaire investor, told the same TV station bitcoin could be a good bet if inflation runs rampant. Story continues Not everyone is convinced though. Cryptocurrencies have come to the fore during a decade of ultra-accommodative monetary including waves of massive money printing by central banks and a benign inflation backdrop, says Jason Hollands, managing director of Best Invest. Bitcoin has therefore yet to be tested during a period of high and sustained inflation, and higher yields. Inflation leads to higher interest rates. That, in turn, should create more attractive investment opportunities. At least part of bitcoins price is underpinned by the fact that many holders or HODLers as they dub themselves dont sell. If yields start to rise elsewhere, some could be tempted to ditch bitcoin and park their capital elsewhere. Then there is bitcoins volatility. I would not say Bitcoin is a good investment as an inflation hedge as its far too volatile, says Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown. When its rising sharply, its obviously attractive and can lure speculators into a false sense of security, but as weve seen it has a tendency to drop dramatically. Bitcoin rose by 60% in just four months at the start of this year before promptly halving. In the last few weeks, it had boomed again. Clearly, its not for the faint hearted. In my view there are much more tried and tested ways to hedge against inflation, such as investing in baskets of commodities, equity sectors like financials and raw materials, as well as infrastructure projects where inflation-adjustments are built into the contracts, Hollands says. Streeter says: If investors do want to hold crypto as a defensive strategy, it should be just at the fringes of their portfolios with money they can afford to lose. Read More Bitcoin hits $50,000 as Bank of America says cryptocurrency just in the first inning Ex-Chancellor Philip Hammond joins crypto startup Copper SoftBank backs crypto crime tracking firm Elliptic in $60 million round || Mortgages get more expensive after Budget & gloomy inflation forecast: Mortgagesare already getting more expensive just one day afterRishi Sunak’s big-spending Budgetwas unveiled prompting interest rate fears.
Inflation is expected to reach 4.4 per cent next year stoked byBrexit supply chain bottlenecksand rising energy prices, theOffice for Budget Responsibilitywarned.
They added inflation could hit the highest rate seen in the UK for three decades as the Liberal Democrats warned of the biggest shock to the housing market since the 2008 financial crash.
Experts are now warning families to cut unnecessary spending and make mortgage overpayments now to avoid higher rates later.
Barclays said it was upping rates by up to 0.35 percentage points on a variety of fixed-rate mortgages with Halifax revealing rises of up to 0.20 percentage points on some products from November 1.
HSBC also warned its rates would increase, and NatWest has hiked rates on a range of its fixed mortgages by 0.1 percentage points since Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled his Budget on Wednesday.
TSB said they would be increasing their rates tomorrow.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused the Chancellor of creating “the perfect storm”, as families face “the worst time in a generation to be a homeowner”.
He said: “British homeowners face the toxic cocktail of interest rate rises, house prices surges, and council tax hikes just around the corner.
“This ghastly forecast should send a shiver down the Chancellor’s spine. The way he brushed off the cost of living crisis in the budget was careless and completely out of touch with the country. If he can’t get a grip on this cost of living crisis, how on earth is he going to cope with a mortgage crisis?
“People who work hard and play by the rules deserve a fair deal. Enough is enough, it is time to scrap the tax hikes and solve this cost of living crisis to defuse this ticking mortgage timebomb.”
Mortgage expert Lewis Shaw called for calmbut told MailOnlinethat people should “talk to a broker, cut back on unnecessary spending, and make overpayments on your mortgage whilst rates are low”.
It came as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the poorest face “real pain” and middle earners will lose out on a deeper analysis of Mr Sunak’s Budget.
The Chancellor had claimed it was a strategy to “usher in a new age of optimism”, but the leading economic think tank warned the public “may not get much feelgood factor”.
Instead IFS director Paul Johnson said living standards for many will fall with high inflation, rising taxes and poor growth being “undermined more by Brexit than by the pandemic”.
His warning came as the Resolution Foundation said the poorest fifth will be around £280 a year worse off despite the Chancellor softening the blow of his Universal Credit (UC) cut.
Researchers at the living standards think tank said three-quarters of households on the welfare scheme will be worse off despite the new tapering rules announced in the Budget.
Taxes will reach the highest level since the post-war recovery in 1950 and be £3,000 higher for the average UK household compared with when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019, they added.
Read More
Bitcoin trumps gold for investors as inflation fears rise
Rush to remortgage as cheap deals disappear ahead of rates rise
Where to find the cheapest mortgages before interest rates rise || Mortgages get more expensive after Budget & gloomy inflation forecast: Houses in London (PA Archive) Mortgages are already getting more expensive just one day after Rishi Sunak’s big-spending Budget was unveiled prompting interest rate fears. Inflation is expected to reach 4.4 per cent next year stoked by Brexit supply chain bottlenecks and rising energy prices, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned. They added inflation could hit the highest rate seen in the UK for three decades as the Liberal Democrats warned of the biggest shock to the housing market since the 2008 financial crash. Experts are now warning families to cut unnecessary spending and make mortgage overpayments now to avoid higher rates later. Barclays said it was upping rates by up to 0.35 percentage points on a variety of fixed-rate mortgages with Halifax revealing rises of up to 0.20 percentage points on some products from November 1. HSBC also warned its rates would increase, and NatWest has hiked rates on a range of its fixed mortgages by 0.1 percentage points since Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled his Budget on Wednesday. TSB said they would be increasing their rates tomorrow. Rushi Sunak leaves No 11 today for his Budget speech (Jeremy Selwyn) Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused the Chancellor of creating “the perfect storm”, as families face “the worst time in a generation to be a homeowner”. He said: “British homeowners face the toxic cocktail of interest rate rises, house prices surges, and council tax hikes just around the corner. “This ghastly forecast should send a shiver down the Chancellor’s spine. The way he brushed off the cost of living crisis in the budget was careless and completely out of touch with the country. If he can’t get a grip on this cost of living crisis, how on earth is he going to cope with a mortgage crisis? “People who work hard and play by the rules deserve a fair deal. Enough is enough, it is time to scrap the tax hikes and solve this cost of living crisis to defuse this ticking mortgage timebomb.” Mortgage expert Lewis Shaw called for calm but told MailOnline that people should “talk to a broker, cut back on unnecessary spending, and make overpayments on your mortgage whilst rates are low”. Story continues It came as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the poorest face “real pain” and middle earners will lose out on a deeper analysis of Mr Sunak’s Budget. The Chancellor had claimed it was a strategy to “usher in a new age of optimism”, but the leading economic think tank warned the public “may not get much feelgood factor”. Instead IFS director Paul Johnson said living standards for many will fall with high inflation, rising taxes and poor growth being “undermined more by Brexit than by the pandemic”. His warning came as the Resolution Foundation said the poorest fifth will be around £280 a year worse off despite the Chancellor softening the blow of his Universal Credit (UC) cut. Researchers at the living standards think tank said three-quarters of households on the welfare scheme will be worse off despite the new tapering rules announced in the Budget. Taxes will reach the highest level since the post-war recovery in 1950 and be £3,000 higher for the average UK household compared with when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019, they added. Read More Bitcoin trumps gold for investors as inflation fears rise Rush to remortgage as cheap deals disappear ahead of rates rise Where to find the cheapest mortgages before interest rates rise || TikTok tests a more direct way for users to tip creators: TikTok is testing a new tipping feature that would give creators another way to receive gifts from their followers. The company already allows its most popular users to receive tips when live streaming, and now it's trying out something more direct.
The existence of the feature was first spotted by TikTok creatorJera Beanand later more widely shared by consultant (and formerThe Next Webwriter)Matt Navarra. Per the clip Bean posted, those who TikTok has enrolled in the test can apply to get a Tips button on their profile page.
They need at least 100,000 followers and an account that’s in good standing for consideration. Notably, TikTok is not taking a cut of those tips. It’s possible that could change when and if the company rolls out the feature more widely.
TikTok toldTechCrunchit has been testing the tool with a limited number of users. “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience,” a spokesperson for the company said.
TikTok is far from the only social media platform to allow tipping. Twitter has had a“tip jar”feature since the start of May. More recently, it added the ability for users to send and receiveBitcoin tips. The push into tipping comes as companies look for ways to keep creators on their platforms. || TikTok tests a more direct way for users to tip creators: TikTok is testing a new tipping feature that would give creators another way to receive gifts from their followers. The company already allows its most popular users to receive tips when live streaming, and now it's trying out something more direct. TikTok is rolling out a Tips feature to some creators h/t jera.bean https://t.co/fmrfuxdkrG pic.twitter.com/hufl2qopk2 — Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) October 27, 2021 The existence of the feature was first spotted by TikTok creator Jera Bean and later more widely shared by consultant (and former The Next Web writer) Matt Navarra . Per the clip Bean posted, those who TikTok has enrolled in the test can apply to get a Tips button on their profile page. They need at least 100,000 followers and an account that’s in good standing for consideration. Notably, TikTok is not taking a cut of those tips. It’s possible that could change when and if the company rolls out the feature more widely. TikTok told TechCrunch it has been testing the tool with a limited number of users. “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience,” a spokesperson for the company said. TikTok is far from the only social media platform to allow tipping. Twitter has had a “tip jar” feature since the start of May. More recently, it added the ability for users to send and receive Bitcoin tips . The push into tipping comes as companies look for ways to keep creators on their platforms. View comments || Cannabis Manufacturer WeedGenics Now Accepting New Potential Investors: Forget Bitcoin, Doge, and Other Crypto, Investing in the "Green Rush" Is More Than Just a Trend
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With the volatility of cryptocurrency at the mercy of fluxing from a single tweet or influencer interview, there's a surefire investment opportunity that will continue to grow thanks to one of the forerunners in the cannabis "Green Rush":WeedGenics.
As legalization expands across the United States, the cannabis industry is a tangible investment thanks to continuing expansion opportunities. With a proven track record of cultivating premium THC products for more than 10 years, both the industry and mainstream business worlds have taken note ofWeedGenics. The company was even recently named "One of the 20 Innovative Companies to know in 2021" by "Global Business Leaders Magazine."
Thanks to a new 150,000-square-foot grow in Southern California, plus the original 52,000-square-foot Southern Nevada facility,WeedGenics' is the manufacturing partner of choice for premium medical marijuana products thanks to its unique extraction process. The company also oversees the selection of products and merchandise for 29 dispensaries and primarily focuses on cultivating plants to assist those living with PTSD, phantom pain, cancer, night tremors, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more.
An investment inWeedGenicswill continue to grow exponentially as the company is already working towards additional facilities beyond the California and Nevada markets. For more information, visitWeedGenics.comor [email protected].
Related Images
Image 1: WeedGenics Grow FacilityThe WeedGenics 150,000 square-foot Southern California cultivation and manufacturing facility
This content was issued through thepress release distribution service at Newswire.com.
Attachment
• WeedGenics Grow Facility || Cannabis Manufacturer WeedGenics Now Accepting New Potential Investors: Forget Bitcoin, Doge, and Other Crypto, Investing in the "Green Rush" Is More Than Just a Trend WeedGenics Grow Facility WeedGenics Grow Facility WeedGenics Grow Facility LAS VEGAS, Oct. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With the volatility of cryptocurrency at the mercy of fluxing from a single tweet or influencer interview, there's a surefire investment opportunity that will continue to grow thanks to one of the forerunners in the cannabis "Green Rush": WeedGenics . As legalization expands across the United States, the cannabis industry is a tangible investment thanks to continuing expansion opportunities. With a proven track record of cultivating premium THC products for more than 10 years, both the industry and mainstream business worlds have taken note of WeedGenics . The company was even recently named "One of the 20 Innovative Companies to know in 2021" by "Global Business Leaders Magazine." Thanks to a new 150,000-square-foot grow in Southern California, plus the original 52,000-square-foot Southern Nevada facility, WeedGenics ' is the manufacturing partner of choice for premium medical marijuana products thanks to its unique extraction process. The company also oversees the selection of products and merchandise for 29 dispensaries and primarily focuses on cultivating plants to assist those living with PTSD, phantom pain, cancer, night tremors, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more. An investment in WeedGenics will continue to grow exponentially as the company is already working towards additional facilities beyond the California and Nevada markets. For more information, visit WeedGenics.com or email [email protected] . Related Images Image 1: WeedGenics Grow Facility The WeedGenics 150,000 square-foot Southern California cultivation and manufacturing facility This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com . Attachment WeedGenics Grow Facility || Fintech Focus For October 29, 2021: Quote To Start The Day:“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
Source: Sam Walton
One Big Thing In Fintech:Voyager Digital(OTC:VYGVF), one of the fastest-growing, publicly-traded cryptocurrency platforms in the United States, today announced a $75 million investment from Alameda Research ("Alameda").
Source:Voyager
Other Key Fintech Developments:
• Matt Damon in cryptocampaign.
• Flutterwaveaddspassageways.
• AmExaddedto digital checking. (NYSE:AXP)
• Clio hasunveiledpayments tech.
• Confluenceaddednew solution.
• Visainvestedin Deserve fintech. (NYSE:V)
• LiquidityBooklaunchesproduct.
• MeshintrosSaaS for payments.
• CoinListadded$100M funding.
• BBVA, 500 Globalcreatedtech. (NYSE:BBVA)
• CAPEX.comintroducesQuantX.
• Cion no longer in stealthmode.
• Klarna, Stripe arepartneringup.
• Ondatosecuredseed fundings.
• Quicknodeadds$35M Series A.
• Circlelooksto more compliance.
• MOEXaddedstocks, fast data.
• Companiescompetingon BNPL.
• Washington National, FISteam.
• SkyBridgeoffersKraken equity.
• Anchoragesurpasses$2B value.
• Umbrellalauncheson Polygon.
• Wells Fargohonesdigital offer. (NYSE:WFC)
Watch Out For This:An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that shorts the price of Bitcoin futures contracts might soon be available on Wall Street.
Source:Decrypt
Interesting Reads:
• Stripetargetingcarbon removal.
• TikTokteststipping functionality.
• Indiafortifiesborders with China.
• AI spywaretakingover schools.
• Facebookchangesname, ticker.
Market Moving Headline:Amazon Inc(NASDAQ:AMZN) shares dropped more than 4% in extended trading on Thursday after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for the third quarter and delivered disappointing guidance for the critical holiday period.
Source:CNBC
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• Fintech Focus For October 28, 2021
• How Justin Becker Grew To 3.8M TikTok Followers In Less Than A Year — And You Can, Too
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Fintech Focus For October 29, 2021: Fintech Header Quote To Start The Day: “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Source: Sam Walton One Big Thing In Fintech: Voyager Digital (OTC: VYGVF ), one of the fastest-growing, publicly-traded cryptocurrency platforms in the United States, today announced a $75 million investment from Alameda Research ("Alameda"). Source: Voyager Other Key Fintech Developments: Matt Damon in crypto campaign . Flutterwave adds passageways. AmEx added to digital checking. (NYSE: AXP ) Clio has unveiled payments tech. Confluence added new solution. Visa invested in Deserve fintech. (NYSE: V ) LiquidityBook launches product. Mesh intros SaaS for payments. CoinList added $100M funding. BBVA, 500 Global created tech. (NYSE: BBVA ) CAPEX.com introduces QuantX. Cion no longer in stealth mode . Klarna, Stripe are partnering up. Ondato secured seed fundings. Quicknode adds $35M Series A. Circle looks to more compliance. MOEX added stocks, fast data. Companies competing on BNPL. Washington National, FIS team . SkyBridge offers Kraken equity. Anchorage surpasses $2B value. Umbrella launches on Polygon. Wells Fargo hones digital offer. (NYSE: WFC ) Watch Out For This: An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that shorts the price of Bitcoin futures contracts might soon be available on Wall Street. Source: Decrypt Interesting Reads: Stripe targeting carbon removal. TikTok tests tipping functionality. India fortifies borders with China. AI spyware taking over schools. Facebook changes name, ticker. Market Moving Headline: Amazon Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN ) shares dropped more than 4% in extended trading on Thursday after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for the third quarter and delivered disappointing guidance for the critical holiday period. Source: CNBC See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Fintech Focus For October 28, 2021 How Justin Becker Grew To 3.8M TikTok Followers In Less Than A Year — And You Can, Too © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Facebook Goes All in on Metaverse With Name Change: Facebook has followed through with its promise to change its name. Mark Zuckerberg’s company will now go by the name Meta as a signal that the famous CEO wants to move beyond social media platforms and into the metaverse, a virtual world in which science and technology converge. Indeed, Zuckerberg stated that the company’s new mission will be “metaverse first, not Facebook first.” The company still plans on helping people to connect but just doing it in the metaverse this time. It will be a “hybrid” experience of being online, three dimensional and the physical world. While the name of the parent company is changing, the popular app brands will remain intact, including “Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.” Meta will pour $10 billion into helping to build the metaverse. Zuckerberg had recently tipped his hand to a rebranding as well as his desire to participate in the metaverse. And while the company is already behind its own version of a stablecoin, Diem, market leaders suggest it would not be too farfetched to see Meta come fact to face with bitcoin in the future. 🚨 Wow big live news! Mark Zuckerberg just announced #Meta … a whole new brand for @Facebook . Facebook is now "metaverse first"! It's pretty impressive tech and commitment from the largest social network. At some point, Meta will meet #Bitcoin . That's my prediction. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/NKb9KQQtEX — Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) October 28, 2021 Facebook’s name change comes as the brand has been under fire from a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who has been shedding light on her view of the tainted corporate culture in testimony to U.S. Senators. Story continues The Metaverse Frontier Facebook unveiled its new Meta brand at the Facebook Connect 2021 all-digital event . Meta is a reflection of Zuckerberg’s bullish outlook on the metaverse. Zuckerberg stated, “Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.” Meta Stock Not only is Facebook’s name changing, but so too is its ticker symbol. The company will now trade under the stock symbol MVRS, effective Dec. 1. Meta will also overhaul the way that it reports its financial results, comprising two separate segments dubbed Family of Apps and Reality Labs, starting in Q4. Investors cheered the move, sending the stock 1.5% higher in response to the name change. The rebranding of Facebook into a metaverse-focused entity comes as Donald Trump’s new social media empire, Trump Media and Technology Group, is poised to launch. Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp , the SPAC entity that will bring Trump’s company public, soared 12% on the day, showing investors are not spooked by the competition. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Continue to Reach Towards All-Time Highs A Busy Economic Calendar Puts the EUR, the Greenback, and the Loonie in Focus USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Falls on Weak GDP Print Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – October 29th, 2021 Gold Price Prediction – Prices Grind Higher as the Dollar Drops European Equities: Eurozone GDP and Inflation and U.S Stats in Focus || Invesco Launches ESG-Tilted Nasdaq ETFs: Invesco introduced ESG versions of its two main Nasdaq-100-based ETFs, although the differences between the original ETFs and their new counterparts are fairly minimal.
TheInvesco ESG Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQMG)and theInvesco ESG Nasdaq Next Gen 100 ETF (QQJG)both rolled out on the Nasdaq Wednesday, sporting expense ratios of 0.20%.
The new funds share the same base index as their older siblings, theInvesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM)and theInvesco Nasdaq Next Gen 100 ETF (QQQJ), which are up 19.56% and 12.95%, respectively, year-to-date. The Nasdaq-100 follows the 100 largest capitalization nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq stock market, while the Next Gen index follows the next 100 largest companies that are eligible for the prime index but aren’t included yet.
QQQM shares the same index as the popular $196 billionInvesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), but is structured as a ’40 Act fund rather than a unit investment trust.
QQMG and QQJC employ screens to remove companies that derive at least 5% of their revenues from carbon-fuel production, nuclear energy, firearms, pornography and the production of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.
The funds also use rankings from Sustainalytics that estimate a company’s unmanaged ESG risks, banning any company that ranks 40 or higher on the scale running from zero to 100.
For that ESG twist, Invesco is charging a premium of 5 basis points over QQQM’s and QQQJ’s 0.15% expense ratios.
However, the differences between the two funds are not particularly stark. QQQM and its ESG counterpart QQMG have the same top 10 holdings, consisting of Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Adobe, Tesla and two classes of Alphabet stock. The funds have different weightings per each company, but those stocks represent 53% of QQQM and 54% of QQMJ.
Nick Kalivas, Invesco’s head of factor and core product strategy, said while the constituents of the newly launched ETFs are similar to their existing counterparts, the weights assigned to each stock is altered based on further ESG ratings.
Attractive Choice
He argues that change in weighting strategy makes the ETFs an attractive choice for customers who are looking for a product that already aligned with some ESG principles due to the nature of its constituent companies.
“A lot of the Nasdaq-100 at its starting point is pretty ESG friendly,” he said. “Then you're making these kinds of improvements to that through a fine-tuning ESG-based methodology.”
Just six firms were eliminated from the Nasdaq-100 based on QQMJ’s criteria: three electric utilities, Honeywell, Analog Devices Inc. and Peloton. The latter was excluded because Sustainalytics has yet to issue a report on the company.
The next-gen ETFs are more diverse from each other, as Roku and Trade Desk Inc. are in QQQJ’s top 10 holdings and are replaced by Tractor Supply Co. and Trimble in QQJG. QQQJ’s top 10 holdings account for just over 21% of the fund’s weight, while QQJG’s top 10 accounts for nearly a quarter.
The ESG filters removed 10 stocks from QQJG’s holdings in all: Four are casinos or betting platforms, three are pharmaceutical firms and the remainder are Beyond Meat, Vimeo and Alliant Energy. Beyond Meat was disqualified by Sustainalytics for having a business risk score of 47.5, breaching the ceiling of 40 for inclusion in the index.
(Use ourstock finder toolto find an ETF’s allocation to a certain stock.)
Contact Dan Mika [email protected], and follow him onTwitter
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Permalink| © Copyright 2021ETF.com.All rights reserved || Invesco Launches ESG-Tilted Nasdaq ETFs: Invesco introduced ESG versions of its two main Nasdaq-100-based ETFs, although the differences between the original ETFs and their new counterparts are fairly minimal. The Invesco ESG Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQMG) and the Invesco ESG Nasdaq Next Gen 100 ETF (QQJG) both rolled out on the Nasdaq Wednesday, sporting expense ratios of 0.20%. The new funds share the same base index as their older siblings, the Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM) and the Invesco Nasdaq Next Gen 100 ETF (QQQJ) , which are up 19.56% and 12.95%, respectively, year-to-date. The Nasdaq-100 follows the 100 largest capitalization nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq stock market, while the Next Gen index follows the next 100 largest companies that are eligible for the prime index but aren’t included yet. QQQM shares the same index as the popular $196 billion Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) , but is structured as a ’40 Act fund rather than a unit investment trust. QQMG and QQJC employ screens to remove companies that derive at least 5% of their revenues from carbon-fuel production, nuclear energy, firearms, pornography and the production of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis. The funds also use rankings from Sustainalytics that estimate a company’s unmanaged ESG risks, banning any company that ranks 40 or higher on the scale running from zero to 100. For that ESG twist, Invesco is charging a premium of 5 basis points over QQQM’s and QQQJ’s 0.15% expense ratios. However, the differences between the two funds are not particularly stark. QQQM and its ESG counterpart QQMG have the same top 10 holdings, consisting of Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Adobe, Tesla and two classes of Alphabet stock. The funds have different weightings per each company, but those stocks represent 53% of QQQM and 54% of QQMJ. Nick Kalivas, Invesco’s head of factor and core product strategy, said while the constituents of the newly launched ETFs are similar to their existing counterparts, the weights assigned to each stock is altered based on further ESG ratings. Story continues Attractive Choice He argues that change in weighting strategy makes the ETFs an attractive choice for customers who are looking for a product that already aligned with some ESG principles due to the nature of its constituent companies. “A lot of the Nasdaq-100 at its starting point is pretty ESG friendly,” he said. “Then you're making these kinds of improvements to that through a fine-tuning ESG-based methodology.” Just six firms were eliminated from the Nasdaq-100 based on QQMJ’s criteria: three electric utilities, Honeywell, Analog Devices Inc. and Peloton. The latter was excluded because Sustainalytics has yet to issue a report on the company. The next-gen ETFs are more diverse from each other, as Roku and Trade Desk Inc. are in QQQJ’s top 10 holdings and are replaced by Tractor Supply Co. and Trimble in QQJG. QQQJ’s top 10 holdings account for just over 21% of the fund’s weight, while QQJG’s top 10 accounts for nearly a quarter. The ESG filters removed 10 stocks from QQJG’s holdings in all: Four are casinos or betting platforms, three are pharmaceutical firms and the remainder are Beyond Meat, Vimeo and Alliant Energy. Beyond Meat was disqualified by Sustainalytics for having a business risk score of 47.5, breaching the ceiling of 40 for inclusion in the index. (Use our stock finder tool to find an ETF’s allocation to a certain stock.) Contact Dan Mika at [email protected] , and follow him on Twitter Recommended Stories VanEck To Launch Bitcoin Futures ETF Can AI Enhance ETF Portfolios? Hot Reads: Cathie Wood Welcomes Shorts Bond ETFs Drive $23B Of Inflows Permalink | © Copyright 2021 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads to $61K Ahead of Options Expiry: Bitcoin rose toward $61,000 on Thursday, albeit within a choppy trading range. Analysts have mixed views about the short-term direction of BTC’s price, which is up about 2% over the past 24 hours. On Wednesday , El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele tweeted that his government had “bought the dip,” adding an additional 420 BTC to the treasury, the equivalent of around $25 million. That purchase was one reason behind today’s price bounce. Bitcoin’s price has whipsawed over the past few days after failing to sustain the all-time high around $66,900 last week. “Some believe what is happening is a quick balancing process and preparation before the push for new highs, while others think it’s the beginning of a broader correction that will take BTC to $45K-$50K,” FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Kuptsikevich also mentioned that technical price indicators are retreating from overbought levels, which could lower the odds of a sustained correction. Latest prices Bitcoin (BTC): $61,471, +3.82% Ether (ETH): $4,274, +6.64% S&P 500: $4,596, +0.98% Gold: $1,798, +0.09% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.56% Other analysts are cautiously optimistic and expect the current pullback to attract greater buying interest for the remainder of the year. “We think the risk-on trade is going to be accelerating in the fourth quarter ... [B]ecause crypto has the most volatility, we are extremely bullish on what crypto will do,” Eddie Ghabour, managing partner at Key Advisors Group , said during an interview with CoinDesk “Despite this quick dip from the highs, the market feels relatively calm and perhaps even slightly optimistic that this is just a dip before a larger rally into year end,” crypto trading firm QCP Capital wrote in a Telegram announcement. Bitcoin option expiry A full $3.1 billion of BTC options are set to mature on Friday, which could be a source of volatility. Currently, the top volume contracts have been around the $60,000 strike price, with calls outweighing puts. Story continues Calls (bullish position) give the options buyer the right to purchase the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined price, whereas puts (bearish position) provides the right to sell. “Long [traders] stand to benefit should BTC maintain current levels [around $60K] and put option volume remains subdued,” FundStrat wrote in a Thursday newsletter. Ether outperforms Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, returned above $4,000 on Thursday. ETH is up about 4% over the past 24 hours, extending its outperformance versus BTC. The chart below shows the ETH/BTC ratio, which is currently testing 0.069 resistance – a level where ether previously lagged bitcoin. However, indicators suggest the ratio is not yet overbought, which means ETH/BTC could see further upside toward 0.08 over the next few days. Altcoin roundup Dogecoin (DOGE) hits two-month high as shiba inu (SHIB) lags: Two of the most popular meme coins are competing for the ninth spot on the list of top digital assets by market capitalization. Some traders are profiting from the action by taking spread trades . So far, diverging price trends are helping DOGE consolidate its position as the ninth-biggest coin, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reported . SHIB attracts momentum traders: “I’m [trading SHIB] because of the momentum swings that you see in the crypto space but it’s money that I’m willing to lose and have it go down to zero,” Key Advisors Group’s Ghabour said during an interview with CoinDesk. Momentum traders enter and exit trades based on the strength or weakness of price trends. Polkadot (DOT) solves blockchain pain points: “Polkadot presents a strong investment opportunity given the technology was developed to address the issues inherent in blockchain,” Richard Byworth, CEO of crypto research firm EQONEX wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Adoption trends can be observed from usage and behavior on the Substrate framework , which can provide a basis for expected adoption trends on the live version of Polkadot, or mainnet. For example, from July 12 to Oct. 11, daily transfers (the act of sending funds from one account to another) averaged above 10,000, indicating a significant increase in the adoption of the network, according to a report by EQONEX. Relevant news SEC Will Not Approve Leveraged Bitcoin ETF: Report Crypto Miners Are ‘Stockpiling’ Bitcoin Amid Recent Rally, Kraken Says El Salvador ‘Buys the Dip,’ Acquires 420 Additional Bitcoin ‘Crypto AWS’ Alchemy Hits $3.5B Valuation in $250M Round Led by A16z Other markets Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): Dogecoin (DOGE): +26% Polygon (MATIC): +13% EOS: +5% Notable losers: The Graph (GRT): -3% Aave (AAVE): -1.89% || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads to $61K Ahead of Options Expiry: Bitcoin rose toward $61,000 on Thursday, albeit within a choppy trading range. Analysts have mixed views about the short-term direction of BTC’s price, which is up about 2% over the past 24 hours.
OnWednesday, El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele tweeted that his government had “bought the dip,” adding an additional 420 BTC to the treasury, the equivalent of around $25 million. That purchase was one reason behind today’s price bounce. Bitcoin’s price has whipsawed over the past few days after failing to sustain the all-time high around $66,900 last week.
“Some believe what is happening is a quick balancing process and preparation before the push for new highs, while others think it’s the beginning of a broader correction that will take BTC to $45K-$50K,”FxProanalyst Alex Kuptsikevich, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Kuptsikevich also mentioned that technical price indicators are retreating from overbought levels, which could lower the odds of a sustained correction.
• Bitcoin (BTC): $61,471, +3.82%
• Ether (ETH): $4,274, +6.64%
• S&P 500: $4,596, +0.98%
• Gold: $1,798, +0.09%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.56%
Other analysts are cautiously optimistic and expect the current pullback to attract greater buying interest for the remainder of the year. “We think the risk-on trade is going to be accelerating in the fourth quarter ... [B]ecause crypto has the most volatility, we are extremely bullish on what crypto will do,” Eddie Ghabour, managing partner atKey Advisors Group, said during an interview with CoinDesk
“Despite this quick dip from the highs, the market feels relatively calm and perhaps even slightly optimistic that this is just a dip before a larger rally into year end,” crypto trading firm QCP Capital wrote in a Telegram announcement.
A full $3.1 billion of BTC options are set to mature on Friday, which could be a source of volatility. Currently, the top volume contracts have been around the $60,000 strike price, with calls outweighing puts.
Calls (bullish position) give the options buyer the right to purchase the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined price, whereas puts (bearish position) provides the right to sell.
“Long [traders] stand to benefit should BTC maintain current levels [around $60K] and put option volume remains subdued,”FundStratwrote in a Thursday newsletter.
Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, returned above $4,000 on Thursday. ETH is up about 4% over the past 24 hours, extending its outperformance versus BTC.
The chart below shows the ETH/BTC ratio, which is currently testing 0.069 resistance – a level where ether previously lagged bitcoin. However, indicators suggest the ratio is not yet overbought, which means ETH/BTC could see further upside toward 0.08 over the next few days.
• Dogecoin (DOGE) hits two-month high as shiba inu (SHIB) lags:Two of the most popular meme coins are competing for the ninth spot on the list of top digital assets by market capitalization. Some traders are profiting from the action by takingspread trades. So far, diverging price trends are helping DOGE consolidate its position as the ninth-biggest coin, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbolereported.
• SHIB attracts momentum traders:“I’m [trading SHIB] because of the momentum swings that you see in the crypto space but it’s money that I’m willing to lose and have it go down to zero,” Key Advisors Group’s Ghabour said during an interview with CoinDesk. Momentum traders enter and exit trades based on the strength or weakness of price trends.
• Polkadot (DOT) solves blockchain pain points:“Polkadot presents a strong investment opportunity given the technology was developed to address the issues inherent in blockchain,” Richard Byworth, CEO of crypto research firm EQONEX wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Adoption trends can be observed from usage and behavior on theSubstrate framework, which can provide a basis for expected adoption trends on the live version of Polkadot, or mainnet. For example, from July 12 to Oct. 11, daily transfers (the act of sending funds from one account to another) averaged above 10,000, indicating a significant increase in the adoption of the network, according to areportby EQONEX.
• SEC Will Not Approve Leveraged Bitcoin ETF: Report
• Crypto Miners Are ‘Stockpiling’ Bitcoin Amid Recent Rally, Kraken Says
• El Salvador ‘Buys the Dip,’ Acquires 420 Additional Bitcoin
• ‘Crypto AWS’ Alchemy Hits $3.5B Valuation in $250M Round Led by A16z
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• Dogecoin (DOGE): +26%
• Polygon (MATIC): +13%
• EOS: +5%
Notable losers:
• The Graph (GRT): -3%
• Aave (AAVE): -1.89% || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads to $61K Ahead of Options Expiry: Bitcoin rose toward $61,000 on Thursday, albeit within a choppy trading range. Analysts have mixed views about the short-term direction of BTC’s price, which is up about 2% over the past 24 hours.
OnWednesday, El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele tweeted that his government had “bought the dip,” adding an additional 420 BTC to the treasury, the equivalent of around $25 million. That purchase was one reason behind today’s price bounce. Bitcoin’s price has whipsawed over the past few days after failing to sustain the all-time high around $66,900 last week.
“Some believe what is happening is a quick balancing process and preparation before the push for new highs, while others think it’s the beginning of a broader correction that will take BTC to $45K-$50K,”FxProanalyst Alex Kuptsikevich, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Kuptsikevich also mentioned that technical price indicators are retreating from overbought levels, which could lower the odds of a sustained correction.
• Bitcoin (BTC): $61,471, +3.82%
• Ether (ETH): $4,274, +6.64%
• S&P 500: $4,596, +0.98%
• Gold: $1,798, +0.09%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.56%
Other analysts are cautiously optimistic and expect the current pullback to attract greater buying interest for the remainder of the year. “We think the risk-on trade is going to be accelerating in the fourth quarter ... [B]ecause crypto has the most volatility, we are extremely bullish on what crypto will do,” Eddie Ghabour, managing partner atKey Advisors Group, said during an interview with CoinDesk
“Despite this quick dip from the highs, the market feels relatively calm and perhaps even slightly optimistic that this is just a dip before a larger rally into year end,” crypto trading firm QCP Capital wrote in a Telegram announcement.
A full $3.1 billion of BTC options are set to mature on Friday, which could be a source of volatility. Currently, the top volume contracts have been around the $60,000 strike price, with calls outweighing puts.
Calls (bullish position) give the options buyer the right to purchase the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined price, whereas puts (bearish position) provides the right to sell.
“Long [traders] stand to benefit should BTC maintain current levels [around $60K] and put option volume remains subdued,”FundStratwrote in a Thursday newsletter.
Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, returned above $4,000 on Thursday. ETH is up about 4% over the past 24 hours, extending its outperformance versus BTC.
The chart below shows the ETH/BTC ratio, which is currently testing 0.069 resistance – a level where ether previously lagged bitcoin. However, indicators suggest the ratio is not yet overbought, which means ETH/BTC could see further upside toward 0.08 over the next few days.
• Dogecoin (DOGE) hits two-month high as shiba inu (SHIB) lags:Two of the most popular meme coins are competing for the ninth spot on the list of top digital assets by market capitalization. Some traders are profiting from the action by takingspread trades. So far, diverging price trends are helping DOGE consolidate its position as the ninth-biggest coin, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbolereported.
• SHIB attracts momentum traders:“I’m [trading SHIB] because of the momentum swings that you see in the crypto space but it’s money that I’m willing to lose and have it go down to zero,” Key Advisors Group’s Ghabour said during an interview with CoinDesk. Momentum traders enter and exit trades based on the strength or weakness of price trends.
• Polkadot (DOT) solves blockchain pain points:“Polkadot presents a strong investment opportunity given the technology was developed to address the issues inherent in blockchain,” Richard Byworth, CEO of crypto research firm EQONEX wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Adoption trends can be observed from usage and behavior on theSubstrate framework, which can provide a basis for expected adoption trends on the live version of Polkadot, or mainnet. For example, from July 12 to Oct. 11, daily transfers (the act of sending funds from one account to another) averaged above 10,000, indicating a significant increase in the adoption of the network, according to areportby EQONEX.
• SEC Will Not Approve Leveraged Bitcoin ETF: Report
• Crypto Miners Are ‘Stockpiling’ Bitcoin Amid Recent Rally, Kraken Says
• El Salvador ‘Buys the Dip,’ Acquires 420 Additional Bitcoin
• ‘Crypto AWS’ Alchemy Hits $3.5B Valuation in $250M Round Led by A16z
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• Dogecoin (DOGE): +26%
• Polygon (MATIC): +13%
• EOS: +5%
Notable losers:
• The Graph (GRT): -3%
• Aave (AAVE): -1.89% || MicroStrategy Adds Almost 9,000 Bitcoins to Its Holdings in Third Quarter: MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), the business-intelligence software company that holds so much bitcoin on its balance sheet that it has become something of a proxy for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, said it added almost 9,000 bitcoins to its holdings in the the third quarter, bringing its total to 114,042. The company said it purchased the bitcoin by “successfully raising capital in the quarter through our at-the-market equity offering.” At current prices, the value of its bitcoin holdings is just over $7 billion; MicroStrategy’s entire market capitalization is roughly $7.4 billion. The carrying value of MicroStrategy’s bitcoin was $2.406 billion, which reflects cumulative impairment losses of $754.7 million. Under accounting rules for digital assets, companies must report an impairment if the asset’s price goes below the company’s purchase price at any time during the quarter. The company said it will “continue to evaluate opportunities to raise additional capital to execute on our bitcoin strategy.” CEO Michael Saylor said on MicroStrategy’s earnings conference call that the company is committed to buying bitcoin and doesn’t have plans to sell. Saylor called bitcoin a “great” long-term investment for shareholders. Saylor is open to partnerships that may allow MicroStrategy to buy more bitcoin. Saylor said that the last three months have displayed “extremely dramatic” developments for bitcoin, including more institutional adoption and continuing regulatory discussions. Bitcoin-linked ETF’s are another “checkbox” for institutional investors, Saylor said. Saylor added there’s a “profound game-changing dynamic here with big tech and bitcoin,” touting such examples as Square’s Cash App and Twitter’s tip option. Overall, MicroStrategy reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.86 on revenues of $128.0 million for the quarter, beating analyst estimates for adjusted EPS of $0.64 and revenues of $127.5 million, according to FactSet. Shares of MicroStrategy were rising 1.3% postmarket to about $727 on Thursday. On Thursday, Saylor also retweeted a previous tweet of his from Oct. 28, 2020, revealing that he personally owned 17,732 bitcoin that he purchased for an average price of just under $10,000. He added the comment that “you do not sell your #bitcoin,” implying that he still owned all those coins. At current prices, they would be worth roughly $1.1 billion. You do not sell your #bitcoin . https://t.co/zMGyYU1iRp — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 28, 2021 UPDATE (Oct. 28, 22:23 UTC): Adds commentary from earnings conference call. UPDATE (Oct. 29, 12:42 UTC): Adds information about Saylor’s bitcoin holdings. View comments || MicroStrategy Adds Almost 9,000 Bitcoins to Its Holdings in Third Quarter: MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), the business-intelligence software company that holds so much bitcoin on its balance sheet that it has become something of a proxy for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, said it added almost 9,000 bitcoins to its holdings in the the third quarter, bringing its total to 114,042. The company said it purchased the bitcoin by “successfully raising capital in the quarter through our at-the-market equity offering.” At current prices, the value of its bitcoin holdings is just over $7 billion; MicroStrategy’s entire market capitalization is roughly $7.4 billion. The carrying value of MicroStrategy’s bitcoin was $2.406 billion, which reflects cumulative impairment losses of $754.7 million. Under accounting rules for digital assets, companies must report an impairment if the asset’s price goes below the company’s purchase price at any time during the quarter. The company said it will “continue to evaluate opportunities to raise additional capital to execute on our bitcoin strategy.” CEO Michael Saylor said on MicroStrategy’s earnings conference call that the company is committed to buying bitcoin and doesn’t have plans to sell. Saylor called bitcoin a “great” long-term investment for shareholders. Saylor is open to partnerships that may allow MicroStrategy to buy more bitcoin. Saylor said that the last three months have displayed “extremely dramatic” developments for bitcoin, including more institutional adoption and continuing regulatory discussions. Bitcoin-linked ETF’s are another “checkbox” for institutional investors, Saylor said. Saylor added there’s a “profound game-changing dynamic here with big tech and bitcoin,” touting such examples as Square’s Cash App and Twitter’s tip option. Overall, MicroStrategy reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.86 on revenues of $128.0 million for the quarter, beating analyst estimates for adjusted EPS of $0.64 and revenues of $127.5 million, according to FactSet. Shares of MicroStrategy were rising 1.3% postmarket to about $727 on Thursday. On Thursday, Saylor also retweeted a previous tweet of his from Oct. 28, 2020, revealing that he personally owned 17,732 bitcoin that he purchased for an average price of just under $10,000. He added the comment that “you do not sell your #bitcoin,” implying that he still owned all those coins. At current prices, they would be worth roughly $1.1 billion. You do not sell your #bitcoin . https://t.co/zMGyYU1iRp — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 28, 2021 UPDATE (Oct. 28, 22:23 UTC): Adds commentary from earnings conference call. UPDATE (Oct. 29, 12:42 UTC): Adds information about Saylor’s bitcoin holdings. View comments || MicroStrategy Adds Almost 9,000 Bitcoins to Its Holdings in Third Quarter: MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), the business-intelligence software company that holds so much bitcoin on its balance sheet that it has become something of a proxy for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, said it added almost 9,000 bitcoins to its holdings in the the third quarter, bringing its total to 114,042. The company said it purchased the bitcoin by “successfully raising capital in the quarter through our at-the-market equity offering.” At current prices, the value of its bitcoin holdings is just over $7 billion; MicroStrategy’s entire market capitalization is roughly $7.4 billion. The carrying value of MicroStrategy’s bitcoin was $2.406 billion, which reflects cumulative impairment losses of $754.7 million. Under accounting rules for digital assets, companies must report an impairment if the asset’s price goes below the company’s purchase price at any time during the quarter. The company said it will “continue to evaluate opportunities to raise additional capital to execute on our bitcoin strategy.” CEO Michael Saylor said on MicroStrategy’s earnings conference call that the company is committed to buying bitcoin and doesn’t have plans to sell. Saylor called bitcoin a “great” long-term investment for shareholders. Saylor is open to partnerships that may allow MicroStrategy to buy more bitcoin. Saylor said that the last three months have displayed “extremely dramatic” developments for bitcoin, including more institutional adoption and continuing regulatory discussions. Bitcoin-linked ETF’s are another “checkbox” for institutional investors, Saylor said. Saylor added there’s a “profound game-changing dynamic here with big tech and bitcoin,” touting such examples as Square’s Cash App and Twitter’s tip option. Overall, MicroStrategy reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.86 on revenues of $128.0 million for the quarter, beating analyst estimates for adjusted EPS of $0.64 and revenues of $127.5 million, according to FactSet. Shares of MicroStrategy were rising 1.3% postmarket to about $727 on Thursday. On Thursday, Saylor also retweeted a previous tweet of his from Oct. 28, 2020, revealing that he personally owned 17,732 bitcoin that he purchased for an average price of just under $10,000. He added the comment that “you do not sell your #bitcoin,” implying that he still owned all those coins. At current prices, they would be worth roughly $1.1 billion. You do not sell your #bitcoin . https://t.co/zMGyYU1iRp — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 28, 2021 UPDATE (Oct. 28, 22:23 UTC): Adds commentary from earnings conference call. UPDATE (Oct. 29, 12:42 UTC): Adds information about Saylor’s bitcoin holdings. View comments
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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61888.83, 61318.96, 61004.41, 63226.40, 62970.05, 61452.23, 61125.68, 61527.48, 63326.99, 67566.83
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 632.83, 657.29, 657.07, 653.76, 657.59, 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13, 709.85, 723.27, 715.53, 716.41, 705.05, 702.03, 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83, 907.68, 777.76, 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94, 886.62.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-01-18]
Volume: 225676992, RSI (14-day): 50.69, 50-day EMA: 855.49, 200-day EMA: 713.84
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1211.30, Gold RSI: 66.32
Oil Price: 51.08, Oil RSI: 45.96
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Endurance Insurance Introduces New Cyber Extortion Response Service: PEMBROKE, Bermuda - January 17, 2017 - Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (ENH), a Bermuda-based specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, announced today that the company has introduced a new service enabling its insureds to better respond to ransomware and similar extortion events. Endurance`s Breach Assist Counsel, Mullen Coughlin LLC, a recognized leader in incident response legal services, coordinates with leading providers of forensic and response services to assist Endurance`s clients in the event of a data breach or other data security incident. Kivu Consulting, a computer forensic company, has been providing computer forensic investigation services as part of that network and will now also offer extortion response services.
Mullen Coughlin`s and Kivu`s expert teams work with ransomware victims to guide them as they respond to malicious attacks, including arranging for payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, analyzing and testing decryption keys to ensure they are effectively and safely applied without further compromising the company`s network, and preparing documentation for reporting events to appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Brad Gow, Senior Vice President, Endurance Pro, commented "Companies faced with ransomware are often ill equipped to obtain Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency under tight deadlines. By providing our policyholders with access to experts to guide them through the payment and decryption processes, we assist them to minimize disruption to their business operations and execute the crisis response in a manner that best protects our insured from future harm."
Mr. Christopher Sparro, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Insurance added, "We are excited about this new service as we continue to evolve our cyber response capabilities, adding innovative products and services for our clients. Mullen Coughlin and Kivu are two members of a selected team of best-in-class preferred vendors that our breach response team can access to assist our insureds to quickly and professionally respond to breaches."
Mr. John Mullen, Partner, Mullen Coughlin, stated, "Rapid growth in ransomware attacks is impacting both small and large organizations. Given the increasing complexity of the attacks, some targets have experienced multiple extortions if they don`t effectively manage the initial response. We are extremely pleased to be offering these technical support services as they are a natural complement to the cyber extortion coverage that Endurance provides their clients."
About Endurance Specialty Holdings
Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance. Through its operating subsidiaries, Endurance writes agriculture, professional lines, property, marine and energy, and casualty and other specialty lines of insurance and catastrophe, property, casualty, professional lines and specialty lines of reinsurance. We maintain excellent financial strength as evidenced by the ratings of A (Excellent) from A.M. Best (XV size category), A (Strong) from Standard and Poor`s and A2 from Moody`s on our principal operating subsidiaries. Endurance`s headquarters are located at Waterloo House, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda and its mailing address is Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., Suite No. 784, No. 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda. For more information about Endurance, please visitwww.endurance.bm.
About Mullen Coughlin
Mullen Coughlin LLC is a law firm uniquely dedicated to servicing insured organizations of every size and from every industry faced with data privacy crises, security incidents, and risks. Having handled thousands of such events, our accessible and motivated attorneys possess experience and talent with respect to the complicated and constantly changing risks to the security of information systems and data as well as the complex state, federal, and international laws imposing requirements on organizations. Founded by John Mullen, Chris DiIenno, Jim Prendergast, and Jennifer Coughlin, Mullen Coughlin is the largest team of experienced attorneys - currently 17 - uniquely focused on providing tailored data privacy and security incident response services under the umbrella of cyber insurance, as well as pre-breach planning and compliance, breach response, regulatory investigation and management, and privacy litigation defense. Mullen Coughlin services organizations from every sector, including: Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Education, Government and Non-Profit and Professional Services. We think of ourselves as ".first, focused, and finest" when it comes to cyber counsel.
ContactInvestor RelationsPhone: +1 441 278 0988Email: [email protected]
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This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd via GlobeNewswireHUG#2071736 || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase gets money transmitter license in New York: NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Department of Financial Services announced on Monday that it had granted a virtual currency and money transmitter license to bitcoin exchange Coinbase. Coinbase is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries. The announcement was made by Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, who said the agency was continuing "New York's long record of being responsive to technological innovation." DFS said it had conducted a comprehensive review of Coinbase's applications, including the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection, and cyber security policies. Coinbase, which is subject to ongoing supervision by DFS, offers services for buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing bitcoin. "At Coinbase, our first priority is to ensure that we operate the most secure and compliant digital currency exchange in the world," said Brian Armstrong, Coinbase chief executive officer and co-founder. Aside from Coinbase, DFS has granted money transmitter licenses to Ripple and Circle Internet Financial and trust charters to Gemini Trust Company, founded by the Winklevoss brothers, as well as itBit Trust Company. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Tom Brown) || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase gets money transmitter license in New York: NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Department of Financial Services announced on Monday that it had granted a virtual currency and money transmitter license to bitcoin exchange Coinbase. Coinbase is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries. The announcement was made by Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, who said the agency was continuing "New York's long record of being responsive to technological innovation." DFS said it had conducted a comprehensive review of Coinbase's applications, including the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection, and cyber security policies. Coinbase, which is subject to ongoing supervision by DFS, offers services for buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing bitcoin. "At Coinbase, our first priority is to ensure that we operate the most secure and compliant digital currency exchange in the world," said Brian Armstrong, Coinbase chief executive officer and co-founder. Aside from Coinbase, DFS has granted money transmitter licenses to Ripple and Circle Internet Financial and trust charters to Gemini Trust Company, founded by the Winklevoss brothers, as well as itBit Trust Company. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Tom Brown) || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase gets money transmitter license in New York: NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Department of Financial Services announced on Monday that it had granted a virtual currency and money transmitter license to bitcoin exchange Coinbase. Coinbase is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries. The announcement was made by Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, who said the agency was continuing "New York's long record of being responsive to technological innovation." DFS said it had conducted a comprehensive review of Coinbase's applications, including the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection, and cyber security policies. Coinbase, which is subject to ongoing supervision by DFS, offers services for buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing bitcoin. "At Coinbase, our first priority is to ensure that we operate the most secure and compliant digital currency exchange in the world," said Brian Armstrong, Coinbase chief executive officer and co-founder. Aside from Coinbase, DFS has granted money transmitter licenses to Ripple and Circle Internet Financial and trust charters to Gemini Trust Company, founded by the Winklevoss brothers, as well as itBit Trust Company. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Tom Brown) || Is Warren Buffett Wrong About Bitcoin?: - By Nicholas Kitonyi
The future of the cryptocurrency industry is still clouded with doubt sinceWarren Buffett(Trades,Portfolio) has been one of the biggest critics of the market. Bitcoin is, by far, the leading unit in the cryptocurrency market and based on Buffett's comments over time, it is fair to say the legendary investor does not value it at all, let alone imagine a bright future ahead.
• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with IBM. Click here to check it out.
• IBM 15-Year Financial Data
• The intrinsic value of IBM
• Peter Lynch Chart of IBM
In 2014, just after bitcoin hit an all-time high, Buffett warned investors to stay away from it, saying it was nothing more than a mirage. In response to a question regarding cryptocurrency by Dan Gilbert, the Quicken Loans founder, he said:
"It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view."
When asked about bitcoin's future on CNBC's Squawk Box, Buffett said, "Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically."
True to his word, bitcoin lost more than 80% of its value within the following year (falling from more than $1,000 a coin in December 2013 to about $200 in January 2015). After a 12-month hiatus in 2015 however, bitcoin has since recovered to rally close to the $1,000 level.
As demonstrated in the chart above, bitcoin's price appears to have picked up momentum over the last 12 months in a trend that took it to above $1,000 at the start of the year. Unlike the previous rally that took the price to an all-time high, this time around the trend has been more stable, with significant trackbacks and rebounds.
In 2013, the price of bitcoin spiked from a trading price of under $250 per unit to more than $1,000 within a couple of months as traders bought bullishly in a frenzy.
Now, based on the current Bitcoin price and its fluctuations over the last three years, it is safe to say the cryptocurrency has stabilized. As such, it looks as though bitcoin can be billed to have succeeded thus far. This is backed by the fact that several other companies, including BitGold and OneCoin, have launched their own types of cryptocurrencies.
This also shows people are putting trust in the infrastructure used by cryptocurrency companies to generate and manage the exchange of such currencies.
Blockchain, the infrastructure that supports bitcoin and several other applications, looks set to continue growing given the success of bitcoin thus far. Therefore, major technology companies likeInternational Business Machines(IBM) andMicrosoft Corp.(MSFT)are looking to capitalizeon the current bullish outlook of this technology and, as per recent reports, some are making huge investments in the market.
Blockchain is a new software technology that allows businesses to work together with trust and transparency. The network allows all parties involved access to an encrypted digital record of transactions that cannot be changed.
The technology can be applied in a variety of industries, especially in the financial sector. As of 2016, the blockchain market was valued at $210 million, but is projected to grow to more than $2 billion within the next five years.
Some of the biggest concerns facing bitcoin are issues regarding the security of transactions and its ability to deal with cases of money laundering. If more industries like the banking sector continue to use the same technology used by bitcoin however, this might work out to be a vote of approval for using bitcoin as a currency.
Nonetheless, this still does not answer Buffett's question on bitcoin. His keynote view was the fact that bitcoin is nothing more than a means of transmitting money, which means it is hard for it to gain intrinsic value over time.
However, when you assess Bitcoin as a currency, then we do know that all currencies have a certain value allocated to them. Paper currencies rely on the economic performance of a given country to gain or lose value. On the other hand, bitcoin is not tied to any individual country, which again raises the question of where the value creation comes from.
It is simple. The U.S. dollar does not strengthen against other currencies because of the strength of the U.S. economy, but rather because of the stability investors believe it possesses. As such, bitcoin traders have been betting on the cryptocurrency market believing it can provide the most stable currency in the future. That is why bitcoin has been rallying over the last 12 months.
Conclusion
In summary, Buffett might be right in the end about bitcoin's valuation being unreal. Given the current advances in the payments market and the growing use of internet banking across the world however, it is clear the cryptocurrency market remains to be a potential disruptor with bitcoin at the center of it all.
Disclosure: I have no position in any stock mentioned in this article.
Start afree 7-day trial of Premium Membershipto GuruFocus.
This article first appeared onGuruFocus.
• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with IBM. Click here to check it out.
• IBM 15-Year Financial Data
• The intrinsic value of IBM
• Peter Lynch Chart of IBM || Is Warren Buffett Wrong About Bitcoin?: - By Nicholas Kitonyi The future of the cryptocurrency industry is still clouded with doubt since Warren Buffett ( Trades , Portfolio ) has been one of the biggest critics of the market. Bitcoin is, by far, the leading unit in the cryptocurrency market and based on Buffett's comments over time, it is fair to say the legendary investor does not value it at all, let alone imagine a bright future ahead. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with IBM. Click here to check it out. IBM 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of IBM Peter Lynch Chart of IBM In 2014, just after bitcoin hit an all-time high, Buffett warned investors to stay away from it, saying it was nothing more than a mirage. In response to a question regarding cryptocurrency by Dan Gilbert, the Quicken Loans founder, he said: "It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view." When asked about bitcoin's future on CNBC's Squawk Box, Buffett said, "Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically." True to his word, bitcoin lost more than 80% of its value within the following year (falling from more than $1,000 a coin in December 2013 to about $200 in January 2015). After a 12-month hiatus in 2015 however, bitcoin has since recovered to rally close to the $1,000 level. As demonstrated in the chart above, bitcoin's price appears to have picked up momentum over the last 12 months in a trend that took it to above $1,000 at the start of the year. Unlike the previous rally that took the price to an all-time high, this time around the trend has been more stable, with significant trackbacks and rebounds. Story continues In 2013, the price of bitcoin spiked from a trading price of under $250 per unit to more than $1,000 within a couple of months as traders bought bullishly in a frenzy. Now, based on the current Bitcoin price and its fluctuations over the last three years, it is safe to say the cryptocurrency has stabilized. As such, it looks as though bitcoin can be billed to have succeeded thus far. This is backed by the fact that several other companies, including BitGold and OneCoin, have launched their own types of cryptocurrencies. This also shows people are putting trust in the infrastructure used by cryptocurrency companies to generate and manage the exchange of such currencies. Blockchain, the infrastructure that supports bitcoin and several other applications, looks set to continue growing given the success of bitcoin thus far. Therefore, major technology companies like International Business Machines ( IBM ) and Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) are looking to capitalize on the current bullish outlook of this technology and, as per recent reports, some are making huge investments in the market. Blockchain is a new software technology that allows businesses to work together with trust and transparency. The network allows all parties involved access to an encrypted digital record of transactions that cannot be changed. The technology can be applied in a variety of industries, especially in the financial sector. As of 2016, the blockchain market was valued at $210 million, but is projected to grow to more than $2 billion within the next five years. Some of the biggest concerns facing bitcoin are issues regarding the security of transactions and its ability to deal with cases of money laundering. If more industries like the banking sector continue to use the same technology used by bitcoin however, this might work out to be a vote of approval for using bitcoin as a currency. Nonetheless, this still does not answer Buffett's question on bitcoin. His keynote view was the fact that bitcoin is nothing more than a means of transmitting money, which means it is hard for it to gain intrinsic value over time. However, when you assess Bitcoin as a currency, then we do know that all currencies have a certain value allocated to them. Paper currencies rely on the economic performance of a given country to gain or lose value. On the other hand, bitcoin is not tied to any individual country, which again raises the question of where the value creation comes from. It is simple. The U.S. dollar does not strengthen against other currencies because of the strength of the U.S. economy, but rather because of the stability investors believe it possesses. As such, bitcoin traders have been betting on the cryptocurrency market believing it can provide the most stable currency in the future. That is why bitcoin has been rallying over the last 12 months. Conclusion In summary, Buffett might be right in the end about bitcoin's valuation being unreal. Given the current advances in the payments market and the growing use of internet banking across the world however, it is clear the cryptocurrency market remains to be a potential disruptor with bitcoin at the center of it all. Disclosure : I have no position in any stock mentioned in this article. Start a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus. This article first appeared on GuruFocus . Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with IBM. Click here to check it out. IBM 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of IBM Peter Lynch Chart of IBM || Is Warren Buffett Wrong About Bitcoin?: - By Nicholas Kitonyi
The future of the cryptocurrency industry is still clouded with doubt sinceWarren Buffett(Trades,Portfolio) has been one of the biggest critics of the market. Bitcoin is, by far, the leading unit in the cryptocurrency market and based on Buffett's comments over time, it is fair to say the legendary investor does not value it at all, let alone imagine a bright future ahead.
• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with IBM. Click here to check it out.
• IBM 15-Year Financial Data
• The intrinsic value of IBM
• Peter Lynch Chart of IBM
In 2014, just after bitcoin hit an all-time high, Buffett warned investors to stay away from it, saying it was nothing more than a mirage. In response to a question regarding cryptocurrency by Dan Gilbert, the Quicken Loans founder, he said:
"It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view."
When asked about bitcoin's future on CNBC's Squawk Box, Buffett said, "Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically."
True to his word, bitcoin lost more than 80% of its value within the following year (falling from more than $1,000 a coin in December 2013 to about $200 in January 2015). After a 12-month hiatus in 2015 however, bitcoin has since recovered to rally close to the $1,000 level.
As demonstrated in the chart above, bitcoin's price appears to have picked up momentum over the last 12 months in a trend that took it to above $1,000 at the start of the year. Unlike the previous rally that took the price to an all-time high, this time around the trend has been more stable, with significant trackbacks and rebounds.
In 2013, the price of bitcoin spiked from a trading price of under $250 per unit to more than $1,000 within a couple of months as traders bought bullishly in a frenzy.
Now, based on the current Bitcoin price and its fluctuations over the last three years, it is safe to say the cryptocurrency has stabilized. As such, it looks as though bitcoin can be billed to have succeeded thus far. This is backed by the fact that several other companies, including BitGold and OneCoin, have launched their own types of cryptocurrencies.
This also shows people are putting trust in the infrastructure used by cryptocurrency companies to generate and manage the exchange of such currencies.
Blockchain, the infrastructure that supports bitcoin and several other applications, looks set to continue growing given the success of bitcoin thus far. Therefore, major technology companies likeInternational Business Machines(IBM) andMicrosoft Corp.(MSFT)are looking to capitalizeon the current bullish outlook of this technology and, as per recent reports, some are making huge investments in the market.
Blockchain is a new software technology that allows businesses to work together with trust and transparency. The network allows all parties involved access to an encrypted digital record of transactions that cannot be changed.
The technology can be applied in a variety of industries, especially in the financial sector. As of 2016, the blockchain market was valued at $210 million, but is projected to grow to more than $2 billion within the next five years.
Some of the biggest concerns facing bitcoin are issues regarding the security of transactions and its ability to deal with cases of money laundering. If more industries like the banking sector continue to use the same technology used by bitcoin however, this might work out to be a vote of approval for using bitcoin as a currency.
Nonetheless, this still does not answer Buffett's question on bitcoin. His keynote view was the fact that bitcoin is nothing more than a means of transmitting money, which means it is hard for it to gain intrinsic value over time.
However, when you assess Bitcoin as a currency, then we do know that all currencies have a certain value allocated to them. Paper currencies rely on the economic performance of a given country to gain or lose value. On the other hand, bitcoin is not tied to any individual country, which again raises the question of where the value creation comes from.
It is simple. The U.S. dollar does not strengthen against other currencies because of the strength of the U.S. economy, but rather because of the stability investors believe it possesses. As such, bitcoin traders have been betting on the cryptocurrency market believing it can provide the most stable currency in the future. That is why bitcoin has been rallying over the last 12 months.
Conclusion
In summary, Buffett might be right in the end about bitcoin's valuation being unreal. Given the current advances in the payments market and the growing use of internet banking across the world however, it is clear the cryptocurrency market remains to be a potential disruptor with bitcoin at the center of it all.
Disclosure: I have no position in any stock mentioned in this article.
Start afree 7-day trial of Premium Membershipto GuruFocus.
This article first appeared onGuruFocus.
• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with IBM. Click here to check it out.
• IBM 15-Year Financial Data
• The intrinsic value of IBM
• Peter Lynch Chart of IBM || Major banks develop small business blockchain solution: Why EMEA Banks are exploring Blockchain (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Fintech Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . In further evidence of firms' growing focus on blockchain-based solutions that target particular pain points in the financial services industry, seven large European banks have signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a blockchain-based, cross-border trade finance platform for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to Finextra. Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale, and UniCredit intend to work together on the platform, dubbed Digital Trade Chain (DTC), and plan to launch it in seven European markets: Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. DTC aims to simplify trade finance for small enterprises. The platform will be based on a blockchain solution originally commissioned by Belgium-based KBC and built by Belgian IT firm Cegeka, which has already been tested to proof of concept (POC) stage. The banks point out that while many larger businesses use letters of credit to speed up and reduce the risks around the trade finance process, this solution is often not appropriate for or not available to smaller businesses. The new platform will function as an alternative to letters of credit for SMBs. It will work by connecting the parties involved — typically, the buyer, buyer's bank, seller, seller's bank, and transporters — on a single blockchain platform, accessible both online and via mobile. They claim that using blockchain technology makes it easier to register payments, track shipments, and improve accountability. Moreover, the banks say, keeping all records attached to a transaction on the shared blockchain will reduce time spent on paperwork and administrative tasks, thus speeding up the order-to-settlement process. That KBC's competitors have agreed to collaborate on a solution it originated is promising. That KBC's rival retail banks have agreed to further develop DTC suggests not only that the POC is promising enough to convince leading financial institutions to invest in it, but also that interbank rivalry may be less of an obstacle to developing user networks than previously thought. For a blockchain solution to be viable, it has to be widely adopted by many players in the sector. Initially it was thought by many that for this to happen, the solution would have to be built from scratch by a large group of FSIs. However, this latest group effort indicates that major firms are not fundamentally opposed to working on a solution initially developed by a rival institution. Story continues Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander . That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping. As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain. Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence , Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years. Here are some key takeaways from the report: Spending on capital markets applications of blockchain is expected to grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, according to Aite Group, to reach $400 million that year. Banks and major financial institutions are working both collaboratively and independently to develop blockchain tech. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, like R3 CEV or Chain. And many are investing in the technology on their own as well. Putting blockchain to use for real-world transactions is likely not that far off. If working groups' tests are successful, firms could be using it to transact real value as early as the end of this year and we could see widespread industry application within the next few years. In full, the report: Examines the funding increases that are pouring into blockchain Assesses why blockchain is becoming so popular and what factors are driving up increased research and development Explains in full how blockchain technology work and what assets make it valuable and vulnerable Identifies pain points in the financial industry and profiles how various firms are using blockchain to solve them Demonstrates the challenges to mainstream adoption and their potential solutions To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of blockchain technology. More From Business Insider Canadian Mint joins gold-trading blockchain network Blockchain platform race heats up Blockchain and IoT devices could revolutionize the supply chain || Major banks develop small business blockchain solution: Why EMEA Banks are exploring Blockchain (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Fintech Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . In further evidence of firms' growing focus on blockchain-based solutions that target particular pain points in the financial services industry, seven large European banks have signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a blockchain-based, cross-border trade finance platform for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to Finextra. Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale, and UniCredit intend to work together on the platform, dubbed Digital Trade Chain (DTC), and plan to launch it in seven European markets: Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. DTC aims to simplify trade finance for small enterprises. The platform will be based on a blockchain solution originally commissioned by Belgium-based KBC and built by Belgian IT firm Cegeka, which has already been tested to proof of concept (POC) stage. The banks point out that while many larger businesses use letters of credit to speed up and reduce the risks around the trade finance process, this solution is often not appropriate for or not available to smaller businesses. The new platform will function as an alternative to letters of credit for SMBs. It will work by connecting the parties involved — typically, the buyer, buyer's bank, seller, seller's bank, and transporters — on a single blockchain platform, accessible both online and via mobile. They claim that using blockchain technology makes it easier to register payments, track shipments, and improve accountability. Moreover, the banks say, keeping all records attached to a transaction on the shared blockchain will reduce time spent on paperwork and administrative tasks, thus speeding up the order-to-settlement process. That KBC's competitors have agreed to collaborate on a solution it originated is promising. That KBC's rival retail banks have agreed to further develop DTC suggests not only that the POC is promising enough to convince leading financial institutions to invest in it, but also that interbank rivalry may be less of an obstacle to developing user networks than previously thought. For a blockchain solution to be viable, it has to be widely adopted by many players in the sector. Initially it was thought by many that for this to happen, the solution would have to be built from scratch by a large group of FSIs. However, this latest group effort indicates that major firms are not fundamentally opposed to working on a solution initially developed by a rival institution. Story continues Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander . That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping. As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain. Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence , Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years. Here are some key takeaways from the report: Spending on capital markets applications of blockchain is expected to grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, according to Aite Group, to reach $400 million that year. Banks and major financial institutions are working both collaboratively and independently to develop blockchain tech. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, like R3 CEV or Chain. And many are investing in the technology on their own as well. Putting blockchain to use for real-world transactions is likely not that far off. If working groups' tests are successful, firms could be using it to transact real value as early as the end of this year and we could see widespread industry application within the next few years. In full, the report: Examines the funding increases that are pouring into blockchain Assesses why blockchain is becoming so popular and what factors are driving up increased research and development Explains in full how blockchain technology work and what assets make it valuable and vulnerable Identifies pain points in the financial industry and profiles how various firms are using blockchain to solve them Demonstrates the challenges to mainstream adoption and their potential solutions To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of blockchain technology. More From Business Insider Canadian Mint joins gold-trading blockchain network Blockchain platform race heats up Blockchain and IoT devices could revolutionize the supply chain || Your first trade for Monday, January 17: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day.
Brian Kelly is a buyer of Tesla.
Steve Grasso is a buyer of Nvidia.
Guy Adami is a buyer of Amazon.
Tim Seymour is a buyer of the iShares MSCI Emerging Market ETF (EEM).
Trader disclosure: On(DATE HERE)the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:
GUY ADAMIis long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
STEVE GRASSO'S FIRM IS LONG: AGN, BIIB, CHK, COG, CUBA, DIA, FCX, GLD, ICE, KDUS, MFIN, MJNA, MSFT, NE, REGN, RIG, SPY, TITXF, VIRT,WDR, WLL, ZNGA. GRASSO IS LONG: CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, SPY, T, TWTR. GRASSO'S KIDS OWN: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. NO SHORTS.
BRIAN KELLY islong: FCX, TSLA, SLV, Bitcoin
TIM SEYMOUR is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, C, CLF, CVX, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWN, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, SQ,T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: EEM, SPY, XRT;
Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EEM, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, TCEHY, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM || Your first trade for Monday, January 17: The " Fast Money " traders gave their final trades of the day. Brian Kelly is a buyer of Tesla. Steve Grasso is a buyer of Nvidia. Guy Adami is a buyer of Amazon. Tim Seymour is a buyer of the iShares MSCI Emerging Market ETF (EEM). Trader disclosure: On (DATE HERE) the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: GUY ADAMI is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. STEVE GRASSO 'S FIRM IS LONG: AGN, BIIB, CHK, COG, CUBA, DIA, FCX, GLD, ICE, KDUS, MFIN, MJNA, MSFT, NE, REGN, RIG, SPY, TITXF, VIRT,WDR, WLL, ZNGA. GRASSO IS LONG: CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, SPY, T, TWTR. GRASSO'S KIDS OWN: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. NO SHORTS. BRIAN KELLY is long: FCX, TSLA, SLV, Bitcoin TIM SEYMOUR i s long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, C, CLF, CVX, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWN, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, SQ,T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: EEM, SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EEM, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, TCEHY, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM || Flow Partners with Manchester United To Bring the 'FA Cup Trophy' To The Caribbean: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 16, 2017) - 2017 is already gearing up to be a great one for football fans across the region, as Flow and Manchester United -- current FA Cup holders -- team up to give Caribbean fans unprecedented access to the famous trophy. The trophy will arrive in Trinidad on January 16, where it will be on show at the Flow Sports Headquarters and will be showcased at activities for fans over a two-day period. On January 18, the trophy will be taken to Barbados, then on to Jamaica from January 19 - 21 and will end the tour of the Caribbean in the Cayman Islands from January 21 to 24. Dwight Yorke, Manchester United Ambassador, who himself lifted the FA Cup in 1999 with United's glorious treble-winning team, will join Flow as a special guest on the final leg of the tour to make a special announcement about the soon to be launched skills-development initiative for young footballers -- another Flow/Manchester United partnership. "This is all for our customers who are lovers of the beautiful game," said Garfield Sinclair , newly appointed President, Flow Caribbean . "We are the Home of Sports in the Caribbean and our relationship with Manchester United enables us to give our football fans this amazing opportunity to get up close to the FA Cup, which for some, is a once in a lifetime event. This certainly underscores Flow's commitment to give sports fans more of what they want." As the FA Cup makes its way around the Caribbean, fans will have the opportunity to take photos and create personal memories of these exciting events. Fans will also get a chance to participate in activities and win prizes from Flow and Manchester United . About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. Story continues C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at http://www.cwc.com/ , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3099050 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3099052 || Flow Partners with Manchester United To Bring the 'FA Cup Trophy' To The Caribbean: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 16, 2017) - 2017 is already gearing up to be a great one for football fans across the region, asFlowandManchester United-- currentFA Cupholders-- team up to give Caribbean fans unprecedented access to thefamous trophy.
The trophy will arrive in Trinidad on January 16, where it will be on show at theFlow SportsHeadquarters and will be showcased at activities for fans over a two-day period. On January 18, the trophy will be taken to Barbados, then on to Jamaica from January 19 - 21 and will end the tour of the Caribbean in the Cayman Islands from January 21 to 24. Dwight Yorke, Manchester United Ambassador, who himself lifted the FA Cup in 1999 with United's glorious treble-winning team, will join Flow as a special guest on the final leg of the tour to make a special announcement about the soon to be launched skills-development initiative for young footballers -- another Flow/Manchester United partnership.
"This is all for our customers who are lovers of the beautiful game," saidGarfield Sinclair, newly appointedPresident, Flow Caribbean. "We arethe Home of Sports in the Caribbeanand our relationship with Manchester United enables us to give our football fans this amazing opportunity to get up close to the FA Cup, which for some, is a once in a lifetime event. This certainly underscores Flow's commitment to give sports fans more of what they want."
As theFA Cupmakes its way around the Caribbean, fans will have the opportunity to take photos and create personal memories of these exciting events. Fans will also get a chance to participate in activities and win prizes from Flow andManchester United.
About C&W Communications
C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region.
Learn more athttp://www.cwc.com/, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter.
About Liberty Global
Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points.
Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets.
For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com.
Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3099050Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3099052 || Yuan Eyes on China 4Q GDP, Davos Forum: DailyFX.com - Yuan Eyes on China 4Q GDP, Davos Forum Fundamental Forecast for the Yuan: Neutral Yuan, FX Policy Force Major Bitcoin Volatility USD/CNH: Is a New Trend Setting In? Check out DailyFX analysts' top trading ideas for 2017 This week, the offshore Yuan remained stronger than the onshore Yuan and the PBOC’s guidance. On Friday, the USD/CNY closed at 6.8984, slightly weaker than the Yuan fix set on Friday of 6.8909; the USD/CNH traded at 6.8419 as of 3:30pm EST, 0.8% stronger than the onshore pair. Looking forward, the headline event on China’s economic calendar will be the 2016-4Q Gross Domestic Product (GDP) print that is scheduled to release at 21:00 EST on January 19th. China’s Deputy Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told a week ago that he is confident that the economy will maintain a 6.7% growth, as in the previous three quarters, or above this level. A consensus forecast from Bloomberg agreed with a 6.7% increase. The GDP print itself seems less likely to turn into a surprise on Thursday. More importantly, traders will want to take a close look at the breakdown of China’s major sectors, in the effort to find out more clues on the economic outlook in 2017. Also, Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next Tuesday, which is expected to attract global attention. China’s industrial sector has shown improvements in the third quarter with multiple enhanced indicators: Both the official PMI and Caixin PMI reads in the fourth quarter stayed above 50, in the expansion territory. In specific, the Caixin PMI in December 2016 hit 53.5, the highest level in 45 months. Electricity consumption by the industrial sector, a major component in Keqiang Index , grew from October to November (December read is not available yet). In terms of investment, total investment picked up from a 16-year low of 8.1% reached in July 2016 to 8.3% in both October and November. Also, companies began to increase borrowing according to the December New Yuan Loans report: newly issued corporate medium-term to long-term loans increased to $695.4 trillion, rising +71% month-over-month or +50% year-over-year; this indicates that companies may have started to expand their businesses. In 2017, the Chinese government will maintain proactive fiscal policy with increasing expenditures and tax cuts, which are expected to further support domestic industries. Story continues On the other hand, China has been facing growing challenges in international trade, including the weak global demand as well as rising trade disputes with major partners. In December 2016, China’s exports plunged -6.1% in Dollar terms, not only worse than a -3.8% forecast from Bloomberg but also marking the largest fall since 2009. Based on the breakdown of trading figures provided by China’s Customs, the growth of China’s exports to U.S. slowed down by -2.1% in December in Yuan terms and the growth of imports from U.S. slowed down by -13.5%. Trump’s pick on trade could put China on an even more difficult spot. This is one of the major risks that may impact the country’s growth. According to China Academy of Social Science, a leading Chinese think tank, the economic expansion is expected to drop to 6.5% in 2017 , which means it may provide limited support to the Chinese Yuan. Next week, Chinese President Xi will attend Davos’ Forum as the first Chinese president. When there is a major national event for China, Yuan volatility tends to drop, such as what was seen during the G20 meetings in China last September. Also, at the Davos’ meeting, President Xi may address major Chinese policies as well as comment on China’s global role, both worth keeping an eye on. Currently, the USD/CNH is waiting for justifications for a new trend ; China’s economic outlook and policy in 2017 may provide more clues. original source DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets. Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from IG . || Yuan Eyes on China 4Q GDP, Davos Forum: DailyFX.com -
Fundamental Forecast for the Yuan:Neutral
• Yuan, FX Policy Force Major Bitcoin Volatility
• USD/CNH: Is a New Trend Setting In?
• Check outDailyFX analysts' top trading ideas for 2017
This week, the offshore Yuan remained stronger than the onshore Yuan and the PBOC’s guidance. On Friday, the USD/CNY closed at 6.8984, slightly weaker than the Yuan fix set on Friday of 6.8909; the USD/CNH traded at 6.8419 as of 3:30pm EST, 0.8% stronger than the onshore pair.
Looking forward, the headline event on China’s economic calendar will be the 2016-4Q Gross Domestic Product (GDP) print that is scheduled to release at 21:00 EST on January 19th. China’s Deputy Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told a week ago that he is confident that the economy will maintain a 6.7% growth, as in the previous three quarters, or above this level. A consensus forecast from Bloomberg agreed with a 6.7% increase. The GDP print itself seems less likely to turn into a surprise on Thursday. More importantly, traders will want to take a close look at the breakdown of China’s major sectors, in the effort to find out more clues on the economic outlook in 2017. Also, Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next Tuesday, which is expected to attract global attention.
China’s industrial sector has shown improvements in the third quarter with multiple enhanced indicators: Both the official PMI and Caixin PMI reads in the fourth quarter stayed above 50, in the expansion territory. In specific, the Caixin PMI in December 2016 hit 53.5, the highest level in 45 months. Electricity consumption by the industrial sector,a major component in Keqiang Index, grew from October to November (December read is not available yet). In terms of investment, total investment picked up from a 16-year low of 8.1% reached in July 2016 to 8.3% in both October and November. Also, companies began to increase borrowing according to the December New Yuan Loans report: newly issued corporate medium-term to long-term loans increased to $695.4 trillion, rising +71% month-over-month or +50% year-over-year; this indicates that companies may have started to expand their businesses. In 2017, the Chinese government will maintain proactive fiscal policy with increasing expenditures and tax cuts, which are expected to further support domestic industries.
On the other hand, China has been facing growing challenges in international trade, including the weak global demand as well as rising trade disputes with major partners. In December 2016, China’s exports plunged -6.1% in Dollar terms, not only worse than a -3.8% forecast from Bloomberg but also marking the largest fall since 2009. Based on the breakdown of trading figures provided by China’s Customs, the growth of China’s exports to U.S. slowed down by -2.1% in December in Yuan terms and the growth of imports from U.S. slowed down by -13.5%. Trump’s pick on trade could put China on an even more difficult spot. This is one of the major risks that may impact the country’s growth. According to China Academy of Social Science, a leading Chinese think tank,the economic expansion is expected to drop to 6.5% in 2017, which means it may provide limited support to the Chinese Yuan.
Next week, Chinese President Xi will attend Davos’ Forum as the first Chinese president. When there is a major national event for China, Yuan volatility tends to drop, such as what was seen during the G20 meetings in China last September. Also, at the Davos’ meeting, President Xi may address major Chinese policies as well as comment on China’s global role, both worth keeping an eye on. Currently,the USD/CNH is waiting for justifications for a new trend; China’s economic outlook and policy in 2017 may provide more clues.
original source
DailyFXprovides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts fromIG. || Bitcoin is making a comeback: Overnight selling pushed bitcoin down by more than 6% to a low of $776.95, but buying on Friday has wiped away those losses. The cryptocurrency was up 2.06%, or $16.60, at $817.34 a coin as of 12:36 p.m. ET. The early selling still did not pass Thursday's low of $752.46, a sign that bitcoin could be putting in a near-term bottom. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to the year, climbing by more than 20% in the first four trading days, reaching a 2017 high of $1,161.88 a coin, before tumbling by more than 35% as China began investigating bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. Bitcoin (Investing.com) NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decided to raise rates More From Business Insider Bitcoin is charging higher Why you should take advantage of this widely ignored part of Amazon to save money Bitcoin is getting demolished || Bitcoin is making a comeback: Overnight selling pushed bitcoin down by more than 6% to a low of $776.95, but buying on Friday has wiped away those losses. The cryptocurrency was up 2.06%, or $16.60, at $817.34 a coin as of 12:36 p.m. ET.
The early selling still did not pass Thursday's low of $752.46, a sign that bitcoin could be putting in a near-term bottom. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to the year, climbing by more than 20% in the first four trading days, reaching a 2017 high of $1,161.88 a coin, before tumbling by more than 35% as China beganinvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues.
(Investing.com)
NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decided to raise rates
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is charging higher
• Why you should take advantage of this widely ignored part of Amazon to save money
• Bitcoin is getting demolished || Bitcoin is making a comeback: Overnight selling pushed bitcoin down by more than 6% to a low of $776.95, but buying on Friday has wiped away those losses. The cryptocurrency was up 2.06%, or $16.60, at $817.34 a coin as of 12:36 p.m. ET.
The early selling still did not pass Thursday's low of $752.46, a sign that bitcoin could be putting in a near-term bottom. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to the year, climbing by more than 20% in the first four trading days, reaching a 2017 high of $1,161.88 a coin, before tumbling by more than 35% as China beganinvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues.
(Investing.com)
NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decided to raise rates
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is charging higher
• Why you should take advantage of this widely ignored part of Amazon to save money
• Bitcoin is getting demolished || China's media is about to go to 'war' Russia style: (Reuters)
China is consolidating its overseas news network, CCTV, and giving it a makeover,according to the Associated Press.The network will be called CGTN.
At the same time, Xinhua, China's official state news network, will consolidate a bunch of outlets under a new umbrella to focus itsfinancial-reportingefforts. China Securities Journal, Shanghai Securities News, Economic Information Daily and Xinhua Publishing House will all now be housed underChina Fortune Media Corporation Group.
Xinhua says this is an effort to deepen "the central authority's reforms of the cultural system" and "increasing mainstream media's influence in the area of financial information."
This move shows China following the example of Russia's state-backed international network, RT. China wants more control over its story — specifically the story of its economy — being told around the world, in similar fashion to how RT acts to spread Russia's viewpoint across the globe.
Chinese media has always been tightly controlled by the state, but under Xi Jinping that has taken on a whole new meaning. Around this last time last year, Xiwas visiting newsroomsensuring that journalists and executives had sworn their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
"All news media run by the Party must work to speak for the Party's will and its propositions and protect the Party's authority and unity," Xi was quoted as saying. Xi has called for this ideological uniformity when it comes to all kinds of thought from education at all levels to Chinese think tanks.
CCTV has been around since 1958 and has been available globally and available in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Russian for years, and it has a bureau in DC.
In 2011, I toured their DC facilities as part of a Columbia Journalism project researching global media networks — Iran's Press TV, France's France 24, Qatar's Al Jazeera, Russia's Russia Today (RT), and China's CCTV. The Columbia group found CCTV's content mostly boring but inoffensive: Officials doing ribbon-cutting ceremonies at new infrastructure projects and Chinese cultural content.
Of course until 2008 RT operated in much the same way. It was meant to be a friendly introduction to Russia. After President George W. Bush became vocal about his opposition to Russia's incursion into neighboring former Soviet state Georgia, however, things changed. RT's directive then morphed into challenging the US as a superpower and questioning the legitimacy of its government.
In an interview withGermany's Der Spiegel in 2013,RT'sEditor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said that during the Georgia conflict Western media "acted as if they were Georgia's ministry of defense."
A year later she referred to what her network does as fighting in"a media war."
With China's focus on the financial world, it appears its aims will not be exactly like Russia's: China could be seeking to spread its economic message, while RT tends more toward the geopolitical. The Chinese economy is under strain thanks to years of exploding debt (now approaching 280% of GDP) and currency leaving the country at an eye-popping rate ($82 billion in December). This move will shore up China's economic messaging not just at home but also abroad.
NOW WATCH:Here's the massive gap in average income between the top 1% and the bottom 99% in every state
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• Bitcoin plunged again
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• Bitcoin is still dropping || China's media is about to go to 'war' Russia style: xi jinping screen (Reuters) China is consolidating its overseas news network, CCTV, and giving it a makeover, according to the Associated Press. The network will be called CGTN. At the same time, Xinhua, China's official state news network, will consolidate a bunch of outlets under a new umbrella to focus its financial-reporting efforts. China Securities Journal, Shanghai Securities News, Economic Information Daily and Xinhua Publishing House will all now be housed under China Fortune Media Corporation Group. Xinhua says this is an effort to deepen "the central authority's reforms of the cultural system" and "increasing mainstream media's influence in the area of financial information." This move shows China following the example of Russia's state-backed international network, RT. China wants more control over its story specifically the story of its economy being told around the world, in similar fashion to how RT acts to spread Russia's viewpoint across the globe. Chinese media has always been tightly controlled by the state, but under Xi Jinping that has taken on a whole new meaning. Around this last time last year, Xi was visiting newsrooms ensuring that journalists and executives had sworn their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. "All news media run by the Party must work to speak for the Party's will and its propositions and protect the Party's authority and unity," Xi was quoted as saying. Xi has called for this ideological uniformity when it comes to all kinds of thought from education at all levels to Chinese think tanks. CCTV has been around since 1958 and has been available globally and available in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Russian for years, and it has a bureau in DC. In 2011, I toured their DC facilities as part of a Columbia Journalism project researching global media networks Iran's Press TV, France's France 24, Qatar's Al Jazeera, Russia's Russia Today (RT), and China's CCTV. T he Columbia group found CCTV's content mostly boring but inoffensive: Officials doing ribbon-cutting ceremonies at new infrastructure projects and Chinese cultural content. Story continues Of course until 2008 RT operated in much the same way. It was meant to be a friendly introduction to Russia. After President George W. Bush became vocal about his opposition to Russia's incursion into neighboring former Soviet state Georgia, however, things changed. RT's directive then morphed into challenging the US as a superpower and questioning the legitimacy of its government. In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel in 2013, RT's Editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said that during the Georgia conflict Western media " acted as if they were Georgia's ministry of defense." A year later she referred to what her network does as fighting in "a media war." With China's focus on the financial world, it appears its aims will not be exactly like Russia's: China could be seeking to spread its economic message, while RT tends more toward the geopolitical. The Chinese economy is under strain thanks to years of exploding debt (now approaching 280% of GDP) and currency leaving the country at an eye-popping rate ($82 billion in December). This move will shore up China's economic messaging not just at home but also abroad. NOW WATCH: Here's the massive gap in average income between the top 1% and the bottom 99% in every state More From Business Insider Bitcoin plunged again Lincoln is outperforming the luxury auto market Bitcoin is still dropping
[Social Media Buzz]
$869.00 at 19:15 UTC [24h Range: $851.74 - $915.99 Volume: 12310 BTC] || #Bitcoin
Ultima: R$ 2952.62 Alta: R$ 3077.99 Baixa: R$ 2951.00
Fonte: Foxbit || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$870.51/$871.33 #Bitstamp
$869.00/$869.99 #BTCe
⇢$-2.33/$-0.52
$872.10/$881.37 #Coinbase
⇢$0.77/$10.86 || 18Jan2017 06:00 UTC #Bitcoin live spots - #XBTUSD @ 904.78550 $ - #XBTEUR @ 845.55100 € || #ChainCoin #CHC $0.000096 (-3.76%) 0.00000011 BTC (0.00%) || 827.55 Eur | +0.14% | Kraken | 19/01/17 00:03 #Bitcoin || $868....
|
899.07, 895.03, 921.79, 924.67, 921.01, 892.69, 901.54, 917.59, 919.75, 921.59
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00, 9633.39, 9608.48, 9686.44, 9663.18, 9924.52, 9650.17, 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-02-27]
Volume: 45470195695, RSI (14-day): 37.35, 50-day EMA: 9204.36, 200-day EMA: 8622.90
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1640.00, Gold RSI: 66.83
Oil Price: 47.09, Oil RSI: 27.11
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
SEC commissioner Hester Peirce files dissent to agency’s rejection of bitcoin ETF proposal: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again rejected a bitcoin exchange-traded fund – and one of the agency's commissioners has publicly disagreed with the move. On Wednesday, the SEC rejected the proposed rule change , as submitted by NYSE Arca, that would have allowed the listing and trade of the United States Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust from the New York-based firm Wilshire Phoenix. As in the past, the agency cited market manipulation fears and a lack of surveillance-sharing agreements. Peirce notably broke with her fellow commissioners in the summer of 2018 when the SEC rejected a proposed rule change that would have allowed the listing of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust on the Bats BZX Exchange. In her latest published dissenting statement , Peirce stated that "the Commission once again disapproved a proposed rule change that would give American investors access to bitcoin through a product listed and traded on a national securities exchange subject to the Commission's regulatory framework." She went on to write:: "This order is the latest in a long string of disapproval orders that the Commission has issued regarding bitcoin-related products. This line of disapprovals leads me to conclude that this Commission is unwilling to approve the listing of any product that would provide access to the market for bitcoin and that no filing will meet the ever-shifting standards that this Commission insists on applying to bitcoin-related products—and only to bitcoin-related products." Specifically, Peirce's dissent falls into two buckets: that the SEC has created a "unique, heightened standard" for proposals that related to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and that the SEC's overall mindset "impedes institutionalization and innovation." "The Commission's approach to these bitcoin exchange-traded products is frustrating because it evinces a stubborn stodginess in the face of innovation," she concluded in her dissent. "The irony is that, in taking this approach, the Commission wanders into the unbounded, dangerous territory of merit regulation for which the Commission is ill-equipped. Because the Commission’s order applies an inappropriate standard under Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, I respectfully dissent." || SEC commissioner Hester Peirce files dissent to agency’s rejection of bitcoin ETF proposal: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again rejected a bitcoin exchange-traded fund – and one of the agency's commissioners has publicly disagreed with the move.
On Wednesday, the SECrejected the proposed rule change, as submitted by NYSE Arca, that would have allowed the listing and trade of the United States Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust from the New York-based firm Wilshire Phoenix. As in the past, the agency cited market manipulation fears and a lack of surveillance-sharing agreements.
Peirce notablybroke with her fellow commissionersin the summer of 2018 when the SEC rejected a proposed rule change that would have allowed the listing of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust on the Bats BZX Exchange.
Inher latest published dissenting statement, Peirce stated that "the Commission once again disapproved a proposed rule change that would give American investors access to bitcoin through a product listed and traded on a national securities exchange subject to the Commission's regulatory framework."
She went on to write::
"This order is the latest in a long string of disapproval orders that the Commission has issued regarding bitcoin-related products. This line of disapprovals leads me to conclude that this Commission is unwilling to approve the listing of any product that would provide access to the market for bitcoin and that no filing will meet the ever-shifting standards that this Commission insists on applying to bitcoin-related products—and only to bitcoin-related products."
Specifically, Peirce's dissent falls into two buckets: that the SEC has created a "unique, heightened standard" for proposals that related to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and that the SEC's overall mindset "impedes institutionalization and innovation."
"The Commission's approach to these bitcoin exchange-traded products is frustrating because it evinces a stubborn stodginess in the face of innovation," she concluded in her dissent. "The irony is that, in taking this approach, the Commission wanders into the unbounded, dangerous territory of merit regulation for which the Commission is ill-equipped. Because the Commission’s order applies an inappropriate standard under Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, I respectfully dissent." || Bitcoin Drove Half of Square’s Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter: Very close to half the revenue on Square’s Cash App in the fourth quarter came from bitcoin.
Jack Dorsey’s payments company reported onbitcoin(BTC) profits as part of its fourth-quarter 2019 revenue results, in a shareholder letterreleased Wednesday. It reported bitcoin revenue of $178 million between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, with gross profits of $3 million, up 50 percent over the prior two quarters.
Non-bitcoin revenue on Cash App in the fourth quarter was $183 million.
Related:Bitcoin Sees Corrective Price Bounce After Hitting One-Month Lows
The company reported a year-end profit of $8 million on $516 million in yearly bitcoin revenue.
On Wednesday’s investor call, Dorsey said a Cash App redesign made it easier for new users to discover other services.
“The peer-to-peer transfers network continues to be our best acquisition channel,” Dorsey said. “Those new to the app then go on to discover bitcoin” and other in-app products, he said.
Later in the call, Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said once a Cash user starts using the app’s bitcoin orInvestingfeatures, they tend to generate two-to-three times the revenue of regular users.
Related:Over $190M in Bitcoin Liquidated on BitMEX Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off
“We are able to efficiently acquire customers, keep them engaged and show them additional ways we can continue to add value,” Ahuja said.
Square rolled out bitcoin services on its Cash Appacross the U.S.in the summer of 2018. It serves as the buyer and seller of bitcoin for its customers. In June 2019, it started allowing customersto deposit bitcoininto the app.
During the third quarter of 2018, Square yielded only $43 million in bitcoin revenue through its Cash App, making today’s results indicate very strong growth in interest in the original cryptocurrency among the app’s users.
Ultimately, Square spent $174.4 million bitcoin services in the fourth quarter, for a total of $508 million for 2019. That’s compared to $164.8 million for 2018.
The Cash App as a whole drove $361 million in revenue in Q4. Square’s total revenue for Q4 2019 was $1.31 billion. Square’s profits for the year were $1.9 billion.
The company is projecting up to $715 million in transaction and bitcoin costs for Q1 2020.
Much of the bitcoin community has been watching to see what other contributions Square will make to the ecosystem. In January, the Square Crypto team announced it would focus on building out a software development kit to make it easier forapplications to integratebitcoin’s lightning network.
Given Dorsey’s involvement with Twitter, the crypto community has long anticipated some kind of integration between the site and bitcoin. So far, neither Dorsey nor Square has done anything to substantiate such hopes.
Still, analysts view the growth in Square’s bitcoin business as positive. Square stock wasup 6 percentafter the earnings report was released.
“If Square succeeds in growing its bitcoin business across the globe, especially in areas where fiat currency is not easily and readily accepted by merchants, and in hyperinflationary countries, the company will have a major advantage over its payment processing competitors,” Gartner analyst Avivah Litan told CoinDesk. “It will be able to grow its payment business among some of the fastest-growing and most promising economies of the world, located mainly in Africa.”
• February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k
• Bitcoin Erases 38% of 2020 Price Rally as Bears Gain Strength || Bitcoin Drove Half of Squares Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter: Very close to half the revenue on Squares Cash App in the fourth quarter came from bitcoin. Jack Dorseys payments company reported on bitcoin (BTC) profits as part of its fourth-quarter 2019 revenue results, in a shareholder letter released Wednesday . It reported bitcoin revenue of $178 million between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, with gross profits of $3 million, up 50 percent over the prior two quarters. Non-bitcoin revenue on Cash App in the fourth quarter was $183 million. Related: Bitcoin Sees Corrective Price Bounce After Hitting One-Month Lows The company reported a year-end profit of $8 million on $516 million in yearly bitcoin revenue. On Wednesdays investor call, Dorsey said a Cash App redesign made it easier for new users to discover other services. The peer-to-peer transfers network continues to be our best acquisition channel, Dorsey said. Those new to the app then go on to discover bitcoin and other in-app products, he said. Later in the call, Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said once a Cash user starts using the apps bitcoin or Investing features, they tend to generate two-to-three times the revenue of regular users. Related: Over $190M in Bitcoin Liquidated on BitMEX Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off We are able to efficiently acquire customers, keep them engaged and show them additional ways we can continue to add value, Ahuja said. Square rolled out bitcoin services on its Cash App across the U.S. in the summer of 2018. It serves as the buyer and seller of bitcoin for its customers. In June 2019, it started allowing customers to deposit bitcoin into the app. During the third quarter of 2018 , Square yielded only $43 million in bitcoin revenue through its Cash App, making todays results indicate very strong growth in interest in the original cryptocurrency among the apps users. Ultimately, Square spent $174.4 million bitcoin services in the fourth quarter, for a total of $508 million for 2019. Thats compared to $164.8 million for 2018. Story continues The Cash App as a whole drove $361 million in revenue in Q4. Squares total revenue for Q4 2019 was $1.31 billion. Squares profits for the year were $1.9 billion. The company is projecting up to $715 million in transaction and bitcoin costs for Q1 2020. Grand plans Much of the bitcoin community has been watching to see what other contributions Square will make to the ecosystem. In January, the Square Crypto team announced it would focus on building out a software development kit to make it easier for applications to integrate bitcoins lightning network. Given Dorseys involvement with Twitter, the crypto community has long anticipated some kind of integration between the site and bitcoin. So far, neither Dorsey nor Square has done anything to substantiate such hopes. Still, analysts view the growth in Squares bitcoin business as positive. Square stock was up 6 percent after the earnings report was released. If Square succeeds in growing its bitcoin business across the globe, especially in areas where fiat currency is not easily and readily accepted by merchants, and in hyperinflationary countries, the company will have a major advantage over its payment processing competitors, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan told CoinDesk. It will be able to grow its payment business among some of the fastest-growing and most promising economies of the world, located mainly in Africa. Related Stories February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k Bitcoin Erases 38% of 2020 Price Rally as Bears Gain Strength || Bitcoin Drove Half of Square’s Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter: Very close to half the revenue on Square’s Cash App in the fourth quarter came from bitcoin.
Jack Dorsey’s payments company reported onbitcoin(BTC) profits as part of its fourth-quarter 2019 revenue results, in a shareholder letterreleased Wednesday. It reported bitcoin revenue of $178 million between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, with gross profits of $3 million, up 50 percent over the prior two quarters.
Non-bitcoin revenue on Cash App in the fourth quarter was $183 million.
Related:Bitcoin Sees Corrective Price Bounce After Hitting One-Month Lows
The company reported a year-end profit of $8 million on $516 million in yearly bitcoin revenue.
On Wednesday’s investor call, Dorsey said a Cash App redesign made it easier for new users to discover other services.
“The peer-to-peer transfers network continues to be our best acquisition channel,” Dorsey said. “Those new to the app then go on to discover bitcoin” and other in-app products, he said.
Later in the call, Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said once a Cash user starts using the app’s bitcoin orInvestingfeatures, they tend to generate two-to-three times the revenue of regular users.
Related:Over $190M in Bitcoin Liquidated on BitMEX Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off
“We are able to efficiently acquire customers, keep them engaged and show them additional ways we can continue to add value,” Ahuja said.
Square rolled out bitcoin services on its Cash Appacross the U.S.in the summer of 2018. It serves as the buyer and seller of bitcoin for its customers. In June 2019, it started allowing customersto deposit bitcoininto the app.
During the third quarter of 2018, Square yielded only $43 million in bitcoin revenue through its Cash App, making today’s results indicate very strong growth in interest in the original cryptocurrency among the app’s users.
Ultimately, Square spent $174.4 million bitcoin services in the fourth quarter, for a total of $508 million for 2019. That’s compared to $164.8 million for 2018.
The Cash App as a whole drove $361 million in revenue in Q4. Square’s total revenue for Q4 2019 was $1.31 billion. Square’s profits for the year were $1.9 billion.
The company is projecting up to $715 million in transaction and bitcoin costs for Q1 2020.
Much of the bitcoin community has been watching to see what other contributions Square will make to the ecosystem. In January, the Square Crypto team announced it would focus on building out a software development kit to make it easier forapplications to integratebitcoin’s lightning network.
Given Dorsey’s involvement with Twitter, the crypto community has long anticipated some kind of integration between the site and bitcoin. So far, neither Dorsey nor Square has done anything to substantiate such hopes.
Still, analysts view the growth in Square’s bitcoin business as positive. Square stock wasup 6 percentafter the earnings report was released.
“If Square succeeds in growing its bitcoin business across the globe, especially in areas where fiat currency is not easily and readily accepted by merchants, and in hyperinflationary countries, the company will have a major advantage over its payment processing competitors,” Gartner analyst Avivah Litan told CoinDesk. “It will be able to grow its payment business among some of the fastest-growing and most promising economies of the world, located mainly in Africa.”
• February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k
• Bitcoin Erases 38% of 2020 Price Rally as Bears Gain Strength || Stocks Fall as Virus Volatility Grips Wall Street: Markets Wrap: (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell for a fifth day, the longest losing streak since August, while Treasury 10-year note yields dropped to another record low as investors weathered a barrage of reports on the widening coronavirus outbreak. The S&P 500 closed down 0.4%, after plunging more than 3% each of the previous two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 122 points after tumbling almost 2,000 points on Monday and Tuesday, while the Nasdaq Composite rose. European shares pared losses to close mostly higher, while Asian equities finished in the red. Oil dropped below $50 a barrel and gold edged higher. “No one has any idea the depth and duration of the coronavirus’ negative impact on the global economy and corporate earnings,” said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell. President Donald Trump and federal health officials plan to brief the U.S. public Wednesday on efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Health officials in Nassau County on New York’s Long Island are monitoring 83 people who have visited mainland China or may have come in contact with the virus. Earlier, German and American officials warned of a pandemic. Diageo Plc and Danone SA said that the outbreak will hit sales in China. The first cases in Greece and in South America emerged, while Spain locked down a seaside resort hotel with about 1,000 guests and workers inside. Risk assets are struggling to rebound as coronavirus cases steadily climb outside the epicenter in China. South Korea said its national total rose to more than 1,000, while American health officials Tuesday warned that they expect the epidemic to spread in the U.S. Traders may be looking out for further signs of policy accommodation after American central bankers said they are closely monitoring the spreading virus, though it’s “still too soon” to say whether it will change the outlook. “People are taking a step back and reviewing the data and seeing how much this coronavirus is progressing,” said Michael Reynolds, investment strategy officer at Glenmede Trust Co. Story continues Elsewhere, a gauge of high-yield credit risk for European issuers rose for a fifth day. Industrial metals and minerals mostly dropped, including copper and iron ore. Bitcoin slumped for a third day. These are some key events coming up: Earnings keep rolling in from companies including: Baidu Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Dell Technologies Inc. on Thursday; and London Stock Exchange Group Plc on Friday.The Bank of Korea announces its policy decision on Thursday, with rising risks of an interest-rate cut.U.S. jobless claims, GDP and durable goods data are out Thursday.Japan industrial production, jobs, and retail sales figures are due on Friday. These are major moves in markets: To contact the reporters on this story: Claire Ballentine in New York at [email protected];Vildana Hajric in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at [email protected], Dave Liedtka For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2020 Bloomberg L.P. || Stocks Fall as Virus Volatility Grips Wall Street: Markets Wrap: (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell for a fifth day, the longest losing streak since August, while Treasury 10-year note yields dropped to another record low as investors weathered a barrage of reports on the widening coronavirus outbreak. The S&P 500 closed down 0.4%, after plunging more than 3% each of the previous two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 122 points after tumbling almost 2,000 points on Monday and Tuesday, while the Nasdaq Composite rose. European shares pared losses to close mostly higher, while Asian equities finished in the red. Oil dropped below $50 a barrel and gold edged higher. “No one has any idea the depth and duration of the coronavirus’ negative impact on the global economy and corporate earnings,” said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell. President Donald Trump and federal health officials plan to brief the U.S. public Wednesday on efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Health officials in Nassau County on New York’s Long Island are monitoring 83 people who have visited mainland China or may have come in contact with the virus. Earlier, German and American officials warned of a pandemic. Diageo Plc and Danone SA said that the outbreak will hit sales in China. The first cases in Greece and in South America emerged, while Spain locked down a seaside resort hotel with about 1,000 guests and workers inside. Risk assets are struggling to rebound as coronavirus cases steadily climb outside the epicenter in China. South Korea said its national total rose to more than 1,000, while American health officials Tuesday warned that they expect the epidemic to spread in the U.S. Traders may be looking out for further signs of policy accommodation after American central bankers said they are closely monitoring the spreading virus, though it’s “still too soon” to say whether it will change the outlook. “People are taking a step back and reviewing the data and seeing how much this coronavirus is progressing,” said Michael Reynolds, investment strategy officer at Glenmede Trust Co. Story continues Elsewhere, a gauge of high-yield credit risk for European issuers rose for a fifth day. Industrial metals and minerals mostly dropped, including copper and iron ore. Bitcoin slumped for a third day. These are some key events coming up: Earnings keep rolling in from companies including: Baidu Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Dell Technologies Inc. on Thursday; and London Stock Exchange Group Plc on Friday.The Bank of Korea announces its policy decision on Thursday, with rising risks of an interest-rate cut.U.S. jobless claims, GDP and durable goods data are out Thursday.Japan industrial production, jobs, and retail sales figures are due on Friday. These are major moves in markets: To contact the reporters on this story: Claire Ballentine in New York at [email protected];Vildana Hajric in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at [email protected], Dave Liedtka For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2020 Bloomberg L.P. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/26/2020: Bitcoin is in free fall once again as crypto sentiment takes a dive
Bitcoin is struggling like all of the crypto majors on Wednesday afternoon and is currently over 7% lower.
The next support zone on the way down is at 8,300.00 and beyond that the psychological 8K.
The market is now consistently making lower lows and lower highs and the market is looking pretty heavy.
Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD heading for the big psychological 0 price mark
Ethereum price is trading in the red by 6.30% in the session on Wednesday.
ETH/USD is exposed to a free-fall down to the psychological $200.
The bears have broken down a critical area of support, which was noted at $250-40 price range.
Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD floodgates are open for greater downside
Litecoin price is trading in negative territory by 14.50% in the session on Wednesday.
LTC/USD is now running towards its third consecutive session firmly in the red.
Critical demand is being broken down at the range of $70-65 via the daily.
Image Sourced from Pixabay
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/25/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/24/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/20/2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/26/2020: Bitcoin is in free fall once again as crypto sentiment takes a dive Bitcoin is struggling like all of the crypto majors on Wednesday afternoon and is currently over 7% lower. The next support zone on the way down is at 8,300.00 and beyond that the psychological 8K. The market is now consistently making lower lows and lower highs and the market is looking pretty heavy. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD heading for the big psychological 0 price mark Ethereum price is trading in the red by 6.30% in the session on Wednesday. ETH/USD is exposed to a free-fall down to the psychological $200. The bears have broken down a critical area of support, which was noted at $250-40 price range. Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD floodgates are open for greater downside Litecoin price is trading in negative territory by 14.50% in the session on Wednesday. LTC/USD is now running towards its third consecutive session firmly in the red. Critical demand is being broken down at the range of $70-65 via the daily. Image Sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/25/2020 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/24/2020 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/20/2020 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/26/2020: Bitcoin is in free fall once again as crypto sentiment takes a dive
Bitcoin is struggling like all of the crypto majors on Wednesday afternoon and is currently over 7% lower.
The next support zone on the way down is at 8,300.00 and beyond that the psychological 8K.
The market is now consistently making lower lows and lower highs and the market is looking pretty heavy.
Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD heading for the big psychological 0 price mark
Ethereum price is trading in the red by 6.30% in the session on Wednesday.
ETH/USD is exposed to a free-fall down to the psychological $200.
The bears have broken down a critical area of support, which was noted at $250-40 price range.
Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD floodgates are open for greater downside
Litecoin price is trading in negative territory by 14.50% in the session on Wednesday.
LTC/USD is now running towards its third consecutive session firmly in the red.
Critical demand is being broken down at the range of $70-65 via the daily.
Image Sourced from Pixabay
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/25/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/24/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/20/2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k: At around 13:00 UTC,bitcoin’s(BTC) price began dropping steadily, contributing to a 7 percent slide over the past 24 hours. Exchanges including Coinbase and Bitstamp saw declines in prices from $9,270 to below $8,700.
Crossing below the $9,000 price level is a new low for February 2020. Bitcoin has not traded below the $9,000 threshold since Jan. 27, when it began a march to new highs in the $10,500 range.
A flood of sell orders are sinking prices, as Coinbase hourly charts over the past 24 hours show.
Related:Bitcoin Sees Corrective Price Bounce After Hitting One-Month Lows
The sharp bitcoin drop comes as the traditional financial markets are recovering from a major selloff. In the U.S., the S&P 500 is off 5. 5 percent since the start of the week on fear the coronavirus could slow the global economy. Equities recovered a bit Wednesday, with the index showing a modest gain of half a percent by the midday.
The traditional safe haven, gold, has been relatively steady. Its price has stayed in the $1,600 range so far this week and made a small gain Wednesday, up over $6 to $1,641 per troy ounce at press time.
“The fact that BTC could not rally in the face of the advance by gold prices and drop in equities was a ‘tell,’’” professional commodities trader Peter Brandt wrote in a recenttweet.
Other notable cryptocurrencies are also down, includingbitcoin cash(BCH),ether(ETH) andXRP(XRP), with 24-hour losses of 11 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively, on Wednesday at 17:45 UTC.
• Over $190M in Bitcoin Liquidated on BitMEX Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off
• Bitcoin Drove Half of Square’s Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter
• Coinbase Wallet Adds Short, Customizable Addresses to Simplify Sending Cryptos || February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k: At around 13:00 UTC,bitcoin’s(BTC) price began dropping steadily, contributing to a 7 percent slide over the past 24 hours. Exchanges including Coinbase and Bitstamp saw declines in prices from $9,270 to below $8,700.
Crossing below the $9,000 price level is a new low for February 2020. Bitcoin has not traded below the $9,000 threshold since Jan. 27, when it began a march to new highs in the $10,500 range.
A flood of sell orders are sinking prices, as Coinbase hourly charts over the past 24 hours show.
Related:Bitcoin Sees Corrective Price Bounce After Hitting One-Month Lows
The sharp bitcoin drop comes as the traditional financial markets are recovering from a major selloff. In the U.S., the S&P 500 is off 5. 5 percent since the start of the week on fear the coronavirus could slow the global economy. Equities recovered a bit Wednesday, with the index showing a modest gain of half a percent by the midday.
The traditional safe haven, gold, has been relatively steady. Its price has stayed in the $1,600 range so far this week and made a small gain Wednesday, up over $6 to $1,641 per troy ounce at press time.
“The fact that BTC could not rally in the face of the advance by gold prices and drop in equities was a ‘tell,’’” professional commodities trader Peter Brandt wrote in a recenttweet.
Other notable cryptocurrencies are also down, includingbitcoin cash(BCH),ether(ETH) andXRP(XRP), with 24-hour losses of 11 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively, on Wednesday at 17:45 UTC.
• Over $190M in Bitcoin Liquidated on BitMEX Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off
• Bitcoin Drove Half of Square’s Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter
• Coinbase Wallet Adds Short, Customizable Addresses to Simplify Sending Cryptos || February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k: At around 13:00 UTC, bitcoin’s (BTC) price began dropping steadily, contributing to a 7 percent slide over the past 24 hours. Exchanges including Coinbase and Bitstamp saw declines in prices from $9,270 to below $8,700. Crossing below the $9,000 price level is a new low for February 2020. Bitcoin has not traded below the $9,000 threshold since Jan. 27, when it began a march to new highs in the $10,500 range. A flood of sell orders are sinking prices, as Coinbase hourly charts over the past 24 hours show. Related: Bitcoin Sees Corrective Price Bounce After Hitting One-Month Lows The sharp bitcoin drop comes as the traditional financial markets are recovering from a major selloff. In the U.S., the S&P 500 is off 5. 5 percent since the start of the week on fear the coronavirus could slow the global economy. Equities recovered a bit Wednesday, with the index showing a modest gain of half a percent by the midday. The traditional safe haven, gold, has been relatively steady. Its price has stayed in the $1,600 range so far this week and made a small gain Wednesday, up over $6 to $1,641 per troy ounce at press time. “The fact that BTC could not rally in the face of the advance by gold prices and drop in equities was a ‘tell,’’” professional commodities trader Peter Brandt wrote in a recent tweet . Other notable cryptocurrencies are also down, including bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP), with 24-hour losses of 11 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively, on Wednesday at 17:45 UTC. Related Stories Over $190M in Bitcoin Liquidated on BitMEX Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off Bitcoin Drove Half of Square’s Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter Coinbase Wallet Adds Short, Customizable Addresses to Simplify Sending Cryptos || CoinDesk Explains SIM Jacking: Today we’re breaking down SIM card attacks in a way even your grandpa can understand , presented in both audio and full-text format. For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . In the pantheon of crypto hacks, “SIM jacking” is one of the worst. The hack, which is less a hack and more social engineering, is basically a form of identity theft, with the attacker swapping a victim’s SIM card remotely, usually with the help of your cell-phone carrier, and then breaking into that victim’s email, crypto, bank accounts, basically all the stuff you definitely don’t want someone to break into. And the consequences can be dire, it’s also netted attackers tens of millions in loot over the past few years. Related: Is Bitcoin a Safe Haven or ‘Schmuck Insurance’? It’s audacious but it’s also preventable, with a little awareness. In this episode of CoinDesk Explains, CoinDesk editors Adam B. Levine and John Biggs explain the attack, what it could mean for you, how it works and what you can do to prevent it in a way that even John could understand. Special thanks to security guru Ralph Echemendia for the advice in today’s podcast. For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . Transcript Adam : In the pantheon of crypto hacks, “SIM jacking” is one of the worst. The hack, which is less a hack and more social engineering, is basically a form of identity theft, with the attacker swapping a victim’s SIM card remotely, usually with the help of your cell-phone carrier, and then breaking into your email, crypto, bank accounts, basically all the stuff you definitely don’t want someone to break into. It’s audacious but it’s also preventable with a little awareness. And the consequences can be dire, it’s also netted attackers tens of millions in loot over the past few years. Story continues Related: 6 Explanations for Crypto’s Fascination With Coronavirus John: Welcome to CoinDesk Explains, an occasional series from the Markets Daily team where we break down and explore the complex world of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. I’m John Biggs… Adam: …and I’m Adam B. Levine. In today’s tightly connected world it always sucks to lose your phone, but when you add “your money” to that sentence it’s even more painful. So this time we’re talking about how some people have lost their phones [and], with the help of some clever social engineering, sometimes tens of millions of dollars along with it. Adam : So John, you experienced this firsthand, right? John : Absolutely. Back in 2017 some jackass swapped their SIM card with mine, I guess by calling T-Mobile and pretending to be me. They were like, “Hello, this is John Biggs, I upgraded my phone or something and need you to transfer service to my new phone.” Now, clearly this was not me calling, but T-Mobile must have believed them and made it happen. AND NOW A DRAMATIC RE-ENACTMENT, FEATURING JOHN BIGGS AS THE PHONE COMPANY REP AND ADAM B. LEVINE AS THE FAKE JOHN BIGGS. John : Thanks for calling your phone company, how can I help you today? Adam: Hi, yeah, I’m John Biggs and I need you to activate my new SIM card. John : I’m happy to help you with that. Can you verify your account with your Social Security number, your blood type and your shoe size? Adam: Actually no, I’m in a big hurry and just need you to help me out. John: I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you if you can’t verify your account. Adam: Darn, OK, I’ll call back later. TWO HOURS LATER John: Hello, this is another rep from your phone company. How can I help you? Adam: Hi, I’m John Biggs and need you to activate my new phone. John: Can you verify your account? Adam: Nope. John: That’s fine, let me make that change now. END John : It’s pretty much that easy. The real trick is that if you don’t succeed with the first rep, you can call back basically an unlimited number of times until your phone company support slips up, forgets security protocol and agrees to make the change. And these guys are really clever, with like crying baby sounds in the background and stuff. Adam : That’s the social engineering part. Nobody is actually hacking or attacking your phone itself, they’re taking advantage of the fact that T-Mobile support wants to help you, or at least not get yelled at by you too much. So when somebody calls up and pretends to be you, they can wind up helping someone trying to steal from you instead. So what happened? John: Yeah, my carrier bought it alright, and helped them out by activating their new phone with my current number. That, in turn, shut off network services to my phone and, moments later, allowed the hacker to change most of my Gmail passwords, my Facebook password and to text on my behalf. Adam: Ok, so now they have your cell phone, they get your phone calls, they get your text messages and you don’t. But how does that get them the ability to change all those passwords? John: Just about every service out there from Gmail to Facebook to Coinbase to BYNANCE are concerned that you’re not going to do a good job of managing your passwords. So they did something even more insecure by adding two-factor authentication via text message. A lot of companies have stopped this, but it’s still a huge hole. Adam : So when your phone became their phone, now they were the ones who could reset your password. John : That’s right. All of the two-factor notifications went, by default, to my phone number, which was now their phone number, so I received none of the notifications and in about two minutes I was locked out of my digital life. Adam : Ouch. John: Yeah… I noticed all of this at about 10 p.m. and I was lucky. I knew what was happening and called T-Mobile. By 10:30 p.m. I reset my old SIM and began the process of changing all of my passwords and hardening my two-factor accounts and T-Mobile account. Adam : Did they get anything? John : So, this is a funny story. A week before I was talking to someone in crypto on Facebook. I forget what about. So a few days after that I got a message from that guy on Facebook Messenger saying, “Hey, I’m in a really bad financial situation and I can’t get to my crypto. Can you send me six bitcoin right and I’ll send you eight tomorrow?” And I’m like “Huh, that sounds like a good deal!” Adam : Did you send the bitcoin? John : Luckily, no, but that was the MO. When I was locked out of my accounts, the hackers pretended to be me and asked my friends to send them bitcoin. One of them texted one of my friends and said, “If I don’t get this crypto right now they’ll pull the plug on my dad at the hospital.” They had figured out my dad was sick. And the crypto friend was like “Uh, yeah, that’s not how hospitals work.” Adam : That’s awful. There was also the case of Nicholas Truglia, a 21-year-old New Yorker who hijacked multiple phones and actually stole millions of dollars. According to court documents, Truglia is alleged to have stolen from his father and even a dead man. Most notably, Truglia got Michael Terpin, a cryptocurrency investor. He used one of these socially engineered SIM swaps with Terpin’s phone to steal $24 million in crypto, which led to Terpin opening a $ 200 million lawsuit against his cell phone provider, AT&T. John : How much did this guy have? According to court documents, he had a number of Trezors. “One had over $40 million in cash value of various cryptos, and the other one had over $20 million cash value of various cryptos.” It’s nuts. Adam : So how do you fight back? John: My buddy Ralph, CEO of Seguru and Oliver Stone’s tech guy, has some ideas. I talked to him today about protecting yourself from SIM hacks. Adam: So two-factor everything, but not with text messages. John: Definitely. Never depend on your phone for security. It’s just too dangerous. Always use non-SMS-based 2-factor control. Adam: Have you gotten hacked recently? Zohn: <SUDDENLY DIALING IN FROM A TELEPHONE> Not that I can tell. Adam: Wait, are you calling from your phone? Zohn: Yeah… Trust me, Adam. Trust me. By the way, Adam, can I borrow two bitcoin until tomorrow? I’ll pay you back three bitcoin in the morning. <THE SOUND OF FAILURE> Related Stories Crypto News Roundup for Feb. 25, 2020 Caitlin Long on Coronavirus, Crypto Custody and Building a Bank || CoinDesk Explains SIM Jacking: Today we’re breaking down SIM card attacks in a way even your grandpa can understand,presented in both audio and full-text format.
For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublicaorRSS.
In the pantheon of crypto hacks, “SIM jacking” is one of the worst. The hack, which is less a hack and more social engineering, is basically a form of identity theft, with the attacker swapping a victim’s SIM card remotely, usually with the help of your cell-phone carrier, and then breaking into that victim’s email, crypto, bank accounts, basically all the stuff you definitely don’t want someone to break into. And the consequences can be dire, it’s also netted attackers tens of millions in loot over the past few years.
Related:Is Bitcoin a Safe Haven or ‘Schmuck Insurance’?
It’s audacious but it’s also preventable, with a little awareness.
In this episode of CoinDesk Explains, CoinDesk editors Adam B. Levine and John Biggs explain the attack, what it could mean for you, how it works and what you can do to prevent it in a way that even John could understand. Special thanks to security guruRalph Echemendiafor the advice in today’s podcast.
For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublicaorRSS.
Adam: In the pantheon of crypto hacks, “SIM jacking” is one of the worst. The hack, which is less a hack and more social engineering, is basically a form of identity theft, with the attacker swapping a victim’s SIM card remotely, usually with the help of your cell-phone carrier, and then breaking into your email, crypto, bank accounts, basically all the stuff you definitely don’t want someone to break into. It’s audacious but it’s also preventable with a little awareness. And the consequences can be dire, it’s also netted attackers tens of millions in loot over the past few years.
Related:6 Explanations for Crypto’s Fascination With Coronavirus
John:Welcome to CoinDesk Explains, an occasional series from the Markets Daily team where we break down and explore the complex world of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. I’m John Biggs…
Adam:…and I’m Adam B. Levine. In today’s tightly connected world it always sucks to lose your phone, but when you add “your money” to that sentence it’s even more painful.
So this time we’re talking about how some people have lost their phones [and], with the help of some clever social engineering, sometimes tens of millions of dollars along with it.
Adam: So John, you experienced this firsthand, right?
John: Absolutely. Back in 2017 some jackass swapped their SIM card with mine, I guess by calling T-Mobile and pretending to be me. They were like, “Hello, this is John Biggs, I upgraded my phone or something and need you to transfer service to my new phone.” Now, clearly this was not me calling, but T-Mobile must have believed them and made it happen.
AND NOW A DRAMATIC RE-ENACTMENT, FEATURING JOHN BIGGS AS THE PHONE COMPANY REP AND ADAM B. LEVINE AS THE FAKE JOHN BIGGS.
John: Thanks for calling your phone company, how can I help you today?
Adam:Hi, yeah, I’m John Biggs and I need you to activate my new SIM card.
John: I’m happy to help you with that. Can you verify your account with your Social Security number, your blood type and your shoe size?
Adam:Actually no, I’m in a big hurry and just need you to help me out.
John:I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you if you can’t verify your account.
Adam:Darn, OK, I’ll call back later.
TWO HOURS LATER
John:Hello, this is another rep from your phone company. How can I help you?
Adam:Hi, I’m John Biggs and need you to activate my new phone.
John:Can you verify your account?
Adam:Nope.
John:That’s fine, let me make that change now.
END
John: It’s pretty much that easy. The real trick is that if you don’t succeed with the first rep, you can call back basically an unlimited number of times until your phone company support slips up, forgets security protocol and agrees to make the change. And these guys are really clever, with like crying baby sounds in the background and stuff.
Adam: That’s the social engineering part. Nobody is actually hacking or attacking your phone itself, they’re taking advantage of the fact that T-Mobile support wants to help you, or at least not get yelled at by you too much. So when somebody calls up and pretends to be you, they can wind up helping someone trying to steal from you instead. So what happened?
John:Yeah, my carrier bought it alright, and helped them out by activating their new phone with my current number. That, in turn, shut off network services to my phone and, moments later, allowed the hacker to change most of my Gmail passwords, my Facebook password and to text on my behalf.
Adam:Ok, so now they have your cell phone, they get your phone calls, they get your text messages and you don’t. But how does that get them the ability to change all those passwords?
John:Just about every service out there from Gmail to Facebook to Coinbase to BYNANCE are concerned that you’re not going to do a good job of managing your passwords. So they did something even more insecure by adding two-factor authentication via text message. A lot of companies have stopped this, but it’s still a huge hole.
Adam: So when your phone became their phone, now they were the ones who could reset your password.
John: That’s right. All of the two-factor notifications went, by default, to my phone number, which was now their phone number, so I received none of the notifications and in about two minutes I was locked out of my digital life.
Adam: Ouch.
John:Yeah… I noticed all of this at about 10 p.m. and I was lucky. I knew what was happening and called T-Mobile. By 10:30 p.m. I reset my old SIM and began the process of changing all of my passwords and hardening my two-factor accounts and T-Mobile account.
Adam: Did they get anything?
John: So, this is a funny story. A week before I was talking to someone in crypto on Facebook. I forget what about. So a few days after that I got a message from that guy on Facebook Messenger saying, “Hey, I’m in a really bad financial situation and I can’t get to my crypto. Can you send me six bitcoin right and I’ll send you eight tomorrow?”
And I’m like “Huh, that sounds like a good deal!”
Adam: Did you send the bitcoin?
John: Luckily, no, but that was the MO. When I was locked out of my accounts, the hackers pretended to be me and asked my friends to send them bitcoin. One of them texted one of my friends and said, “If I don’t get this crypto right now they’ll pull the plug on my dad at the hospital.” They had figured out my dad was sick. And the crypto friend was like “Uh, yeah, that’s not how hospitals work.”
Adam: That’s awful.
There was also the case of Nicholas Truglia, a 21-year-old New Yorker who hijacked multiple phones and actually stole millions of dollars. According to court documents, Truglia is alleged to have stolen from his father and even a dead man.
Most notably, Truglia got Michael Terpin, a cryptocurrency investor. He used one of these socially engineered SIM swaps with Terpin’s phone to steal $24millionin crypto, which led to Terpin opening a $200million lawsuit against his cell phone provider, AT&T.
John: How much did this guy have? According to court documents, he had a number of Trezors. “One had over $40 million in cash value of various cryptos, and the other one had over $20 million cash value of various cryptos.” It’s nuts.
Adam: So how do you fight back?
John:My buddy Ralph, CEO of Seguru and Oliver Stone’s tech guy, has some ideas. I talked to him today about protecting yourself from SIM hacks.
Adam:So two-factor everything, butnotwith text messages.
John:Definitely. Never depend on your phone for security. It’s just too dangerous. Always use non-SMS-based 2-factor control.
Adam:Have you gotten hacked recently?
Zohn:<SUDDENLY DIALING IN FROM A TELEPHONE> Not that I can tell.
Adam:Wait, are you calling from your phone?
Zohn:Yeah… Trust me, Adam. Trust me. By the way, Adam, can I borrow two bitcoin until tomorrow? I’ll pay you back three bitcoin in the morning.
<THE SOUND OF FAILURE>
• Crypto News Roundup for Feb. 25, 2020
• Caitlin Long on Coronavirus, Crypto Custody and Building a Bank || Bitcoin set to test 200 MA as it breaks below $9,000: Bitcoin looks set to test the daily 200 moving average at $8,770 after sliding down towards the crucial $9,000 level of support. It is now 15% down from its four-month high of $10,500 with the sell-off being reflected across all cryptocurrency markets. The next logical stopping point for Bitcoin if $9,000 is to break with conviction is the region between $8,830 and $8,870 where the often-visited $8,450 line could be on the cards. The ongoing correction will be painful to take for Bitcoin bulls who were of the belief that it would surge to a new all-time high in light of Mays block reward halving and the global coronavirus crisis. Trillions of dollars have been wiped from global markets as the coronavirus begins to spread across mainland Europe. Many thought that this would have a positive effect on the price of Bitcoin as it is often considered as a safe haven asset like gold. However, the sell-off for Bitcoin has been more severe than expected, which could indicate the start of a short-term downtrend. There is also a diagonal line of support that could be relevant over the coming months as it propped price up throughout the start and end of 2019. The trendline is currently at around $7,860, which could be a key area for Bitcoin to bounce back towards the $8,400 level. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen BTCtoJPY Euro BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Heres an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. The post Bitcoin set to test 200 MA as it breaks below $9,000 appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin set to test 200 MA as it breaks below $9,000: Bitcoin looks set to test the daily 200 moving average at $8,770 after sliding down towards the crucial $9,000 level of support. It is now 15% down from its four-month high of $10,500 with the sell-off being reflected across all cryptocurrency markets. The next logical stopping point for Bitcoin if $9,000 is to break with conviction is the region between $8,830 and $8,870 where the often-visited $8,450 line could be on the cards. The ongoing correction will be painful to take for Bitcoin bulls who were of the belief that it would surge to a new all-time high in light of Mays block reward halving and the global coronavirus crisis. Trillions of dollars have been wiped from global markets as the coronavirus begins to spread across mainland Europe. Many thought that this would have a positive effect on the price of Bitcoin as it is often considered as a safe haven asset like gold. However, the sell-off for Bitcoin has been more severe than expected, which could indicate the start of a short-term downtrend. There is also a diagonal line of support that could be relevant over the coming months as it propped price up throughout the start and end of 2019. The trendline is currently at around $7,860, which could be a key area for Bitcoin to bounce back towards the $8,400 level. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen BTCtoJPY Euro BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Heres an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. The post Bitcoin set to test 200 MA as it breaks below $9,000 appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin set to test 200 MA as it breaks below $9,000: Bitcoin looks set to test the daily 200 moving average at $8,770 after sliding down towards the crucial $9,000 level of support. It is now 15% down from its four-month high of $10,500 with the sell-off being reflected across all cryptocurrency markets. The next logical stopping point for Bitcoin if $9,000 is to break with conviction is the region between $8,830 and $8,870 where the often-visited $8,450 line could be on the cards. The ongoing correction will be painful to take for Bitcoin bulls who were of the belief that it would surge to a new all-time high in light of Mays block reward halving and the global coronavirus crisis. Trillions of dollars have been wiped from global markets as the coronavirus begins to spread across mainland Europe. Many thought that this would have a positive effect on the price of Bitcoin as it is often considered as a safe haven asset like gold. However, the sell-off for Bitcoin has been more severe than expected, which could indicate the start of a short-term downtrend. There is also a diagonal line of support that could be relevant over the coming months as it propped price up throughout the start and end of 2019. The trendline is currently at around $7,860, which could be a key area for Bitcoin to bounce back towards the $8,400 level. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen BTCtoJPY Euro BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Heres an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. The post Bitcoin set to test 200 MA as it breaks below $9,000 appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Wednesday's Market Minute: Bitcoin Has A Crucial Role To Play In This Economy: Right now the imminent threat to the global economy is the impact of spreading coronavirus. In the financial markets, there is another potential complication and risk forming: that market participants overestimate the likelihood that the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates due to the virus. With bonds rallying and Fed funds futures traders pricing in an emergency cut or two by June, investors are playing a risky game assuming the Fed will respond to a biological force the same way as they did last year during the U.S./China trade war. If these cuts are priced in but do not actually come to fruition, just about every asset class apart from cyclical stocks will likely respond negatively. I believe Bitcoin has the potential to give investors the clearest message about the Fed's direction. The cryptocurrency has traded both as a risk and risk-off asset in the past, because both groups have been tied to the assumption of lower rates. But no asset class needs cuts more than Bitcoin. Its entire story, if you really believe in its potential as a store of value, is as a controlled-supply alternative currency in a world where central bank extravagance has eroded away the buying power of fiat currencies. The deeper and more frivolous the Fed cuts are, the better its future looks. But since stocks really started getting hammered this week, Bitcoin has done very little, even as the implied odds of Fed cuts – a figure determined by bond market action – are soaring. If bitcoin drops while those odds are climbing, it suggests Bitcoin’s hopes of being a store of value are getting squashed by risk-off sentiment. Or, it means Bitcoin is sniffing something out about the Fed that the bond market has not yet. I’m not sure which is more exciting. Image by MichaelWuensch from Pixabay See more from Benzinga Tuesday's Market Minute: Bracing For A Rebound Monday's Market Minute: Risk-Off Sentiment As Coronavirus Concerns Continue Friday's Market Minute: Coronavirus Outlook Remains Cloudy © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Wednesday's Market Minute: Bitcoin Has A Crucial Role To Play In This Economy: Right now the imminent threat to the global economy is the impact of spreading coronavirus. In the financial markets, there is another potential complication and risk forming: that market participants overestimate the likelihood that the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates due to the virus.
With bonds rallying and Fed funds futures traders pricing in an emergency cut or two by June, investors are playing a risky game assuming the Fed will respond to a biological force the same way as they did last year during the U.S./China trade war. If these cuts are priced in but do not actually come to fruition, just about every asset class apart from cyclical stocks will likely respond negatively. I believe Bitcoin has the potential to give investors the clearest message about the Fed's direction. The cryptocurrency has traded both as a risk and risk-off asset in the past, because both groups have been tied to the assumption of lower rates. But no asset class needs cuts more than Bitcoin.
Its entire story, if you really believe in its potential as a store of value, is as a controlled-supply alternative currency in a world where central bank extravagance has eroded away the buying power of fiat currencies. The deeper and more frivolous the Fed cuts are, the better its future looks. But since stocks really started getting hammered this week, Bitcoin has done very little, even as the implied odds of Fed cuts – a figure determined by bond market action – are soaring.
If bitcoin drops while those odds are climbing, it suggests Bitcoin’s hopes of being a store of value are getting squashed by risk-off sentiment. Or, it means Bitcoin is sniffing something out about the Fed that the bond market has not yet. I’m not sure which is more exciting.
Image byMichaelWuenschfromPixabay
See more from Benzinga
• Tuesday's Market Minute: Bracing For A Rebound
• Monday's Market Minute: Risk-Off Sentiment As Coronavirus Concerns Continue
• Friday's Market Minute: Coronavirus Outlook Remains Cloudy
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45, 8869.67, 8787.79, 8755.25, 9078.76, 9122.55, 8909.95, 8108.12
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 269.03, 266.21, 270.79, 269.23, 284.89, 293.11, 310.87, 292.05, 287.46, 285.83, 278.09, 279.47, 274.90, 273.61, 278.98, 275.83, 277.22, 276.05, 288.28, 288.70, 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59, 287.72, 284.65, 281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47, 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51, 257.98, 211.08, 226.68, 235.35, 232.57, 230.39, 228.17, 210.49, 221.61, 225.83, 224.77, 231.40, 229.78, 228.76, 230.06, 228.12, 229.28, 227.18, 230.30, 235.02, 239.84, 239.85, 243.61, 238.17, 238.48, 240.11, 235.23, 230.51, 230.64, 230.30, 229.09, 229.81, 232.98, 231.49, 231.21, 227.09, 230.62, 230.28, 234.53, 235.14, 234.34, 232.76, 239.14, 236.69, 236.06, 237.55, 237.29, 238.73.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-10-03]
Volume: 16482700, RSI (14-day): 55.56, 50-day EMA: 238.81, 200-day EMA: 250.93
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Small Businesses Turn To Online Lenders: The tech sector has reached into a new industry over the past year, as more firms rush tomake loansto small businesses. Despite the U.S.'s recovery since the financial crisis, banks have been cautious about doling out small business loans.
In 2008, banks held $711 in small business loans; that figure has decreased significantly to just $599 billion as of the second quarter of 2015. For that reason, there has been a gap in the marketplace as entrepreneurs look for ways to fund their growing companies.
Lending To Well Known Firms
While small business owners might be required to make a pitch to a bank or private investor in order to secure funding, some companies are using their existing relationships with entrepreneurs in order to make loans.
Intuit Inc.(NASDAQ:INTU) together withOn Deck Capital Inc(NYSE:ONDK) havelaunched a financing productthat allows users of the firm's QuickBooks to secure small loans.
Related Link:Intuit And OnDeck To Launch 0M Small Business Lending Fund
The firm is able to use existing data from the user to determine how risky the loan would be, making it easier to deliver lower-rate loans for businesses with strong financials.
Knowledge Is Power
Other firms have created similar programs that use data gathered from customers in order to determine whether a loan is worthwhile.
Online lender Kabbage Inc. has partnered withUnited Parcel Service, Inc.(NYSE:UPS) to make loans using the firm's shipping history as a gauge of how many orders they're fulfilling.PayPal Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:PYPL) similarly uses vendors' transaction history to determine whether a loan would be high-risk.
High Interest Rates
However, such loans can be difficult for small business owners to repay. As online lenders become plentiful, many are jockeying for clients by offering more money at higher rates.
The ease of borrowing money online has also given rise to a slew of cash advance firms that are able to approve huge sums of money quickly, but charge annual percentage rates of more than 100 percent.
Image Credit: Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
• Logistics Firms Prepare For 3D Printing's Future
• The Biggest Losers From Monday's Market Meltdown
• Louis C.K. Embraces Bitcoin
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Small Businesses Turn To Online Lenders: The tech sector has reached into a new industry over the past year, as more firms rush to make loans to small businesses. Despite the U.S.'s recovery since the financial crisis, banks have been cautious about doling out small business loans. In 2008, banks held $711 in small business loans; that figure has decreased significantly to just $599 billion as of the second quarter of 2015. For that reason, there has been a gap in the marketplace as entrepreneurs look for ways to fund their growing companies. Lending To Well Known Firms While small business owners might be required to make a pitch to a bank or private investor in order to secure funding, some companies are using their existing relationships with entrepreneurs in order to make loans. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU ) together with On Deck Capital Inc (NYSE: ONDK ) have launched a financing product that allows users of the firm's QuickBooks to secure small loans. Related Link: Intuit And OnDeck To Launch 0M Small Business Lending Fund The firm is able to use existing data from the user to determine how risky the loan would be, making it easier to deliver lower-rate loans for businesses with strong financials. Knowledge Is Power Other firms have created similar programs that use data gathered from customers in order to determine whether a loan is worthwhile. Online lender Kabbage Inc. has partnered with United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS ) to make loans using the firm's shipping history as a gauge of how many orders they're fulfilling. PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL ) similarly uses vendors' transaction history to determine whether a loan would be high-risk. High Interest Rates However, such loans can be difficult for small business owners to repay. As online lenders become plentiful, many are jockeying for clients by offering more money at higher rates. The ease of borrowing money online has also given rise to a slew of cash advance firms that are able to approve huge sums of money quickly, but charge annual percentage rates of more than 100 percent. Story continues Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Logistics Firms Prepare For 3D Printing's Future The Biggest Losers From Monday's Market Meltdown Louis C.K. Embraces Bitcoin © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || As California's Drought Drags On, Winners And Losers Emerge: California's severe drought is dragging through its fourth year, leaving the state to continue finding ways to cut back on water usage.
Many of California's biggest businesses have been hard hit by the shortage, but other firms are using the crisis as an opportunity.
Agriculture
Water usage in agriculture is essential, so regulations cutting back on the amount farmers can use each day have been detrimental to the industry. This is especially true for poultry processors who use gallons of water to sanitize and clean each chicken. California's poultry farms process about 3 percent of the U.S. total, adding up to a great deal of water use.
Related Link:California Drought Stocks To Look At
Organics Suffer
Farms throughout California have been required toreduce their water useby 25 percent and cut back on outdoor watering – something that has taken a toll on the state's crops, especially those that are organic.
As organic crops are typically more difficult to grow and require more resources, prices have risen to cope with smaller yields in the wake of the shortage.
However, for companies likeMonsanto Company(NYSE:MON),E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co(NYSE:DD) andSyngenta AG (ADR)(NYSE:SYT), the drought has had the opposite effect. The shortage of water has created a demand for seeds that have been genetically modified to increase crop yields and reduce costs for farmers.
Cutting Back Is A Big Business
California residents have also been subjected to strict water usage limits, making everyday tasks like watering their lawns or even showering more complicated.
However, businesses who help track and cut down on water consumption have seen a boost in sales, as meters are installed and efficient usage gadgets are put to use.Mueller Water Products, Inc.(NYSE:MWA), a company that makes water meters, andRexnord Corp(NYSE:RXN), which focuses on efficient plumbing systems, are both expecting the drought to boost sales and increase their bottom lines.
Image Credit:Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
• Is Europe Recovering Or Not?
• In An Effort To Shore Up Cyberdefense, The FBI Looks To Teens
• Europol Highlights Bitcoin Use Among Criminals
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || As California's Drought Drags On, Winners And Losers Emerge: California's severe drought is dragging through its fourth year, leaving the state to continue finding ways to cut back on water usage. Many of California's biggest businesses have been hard hit by the shortage, but other firms are using the crisis as an opportunity. Agriculture Water usage in agriculture is essential, so regulations cutting back on the amount farmers can use each day have been detrimental to the industry. This is especially true for poultry processors who use gallons of water to sanitize and clean each chicken. California's poultry farms process about 3 percent of the U.S. total, adding up to a great deal of water use. Related Link: California Drought Stocks To Look At Organics Suffer Farms throughout California have been required to reduce their water use by 25 percent and cut back on outdoor watering – something that has taken a toll on the state's crops, especially those that are organic. As organic crops are typically more difficult to grow and require more resources, prices have risen to cope with smaller yields in the wake of the shortage. However, for companies like Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON ), E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE: DD ) and Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE: SYT ), the drought has had the opposite effect. The shortage of water has created a demand for seeds that have been genetically modified to increase crop yields and reduce costs for farmers. Cutting Back Is A Big Business California residents have also been subjected to strict water usage limits, making everyday tasks like watering their lawns or even showering more complicated. However, businesses who help track and cut down on water consumption have seen a boost in sales, as meters are installed and efficient usage gadgets are put to use. Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE: MWA ), a company that makes water meters, and Rexnord Corp (NYSE: RXN ), which focuses on efficient plumbing systems, are both expecting the drought to boost sales and increase their bottom lines. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Is Europe Recovering Or Not? In An Effort To Shore Up Cyberdefense, The FBI Looks To Teens Europol Highlights Bitcoin Use Among Criminals © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI.QB) Today Announced Cancellation of Over 15% of Its Free Trading Shares: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 1, 2015 /MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI) today announced cancellation of 21,183,000 Common shares representing 10.9% of its issued and outstanding share total and 15.75% of its free trading shares.
As previously disclosed, on July 11, 2012, the Company issued 42,385,500 units at $0.01/unit, each unit consisting of one common share and one fourth of one common share warrant exercisable at $0.50 and one half of a common share warrant with an exercise price of $1.00. All warrants associated with these units have since expired and none were exercised before expiration.
On October 1, 2015 we have cancelled and returned to treasury 21,183,000 Common Shares, pursuant to Return to Treasury Agreements entered into with certain shareholders. The shareholders voluntarily agreed to cancel the shares and return them to treasury for consideration of promissory notes totaling $155,915. The notes are due and payable upon completion of a financing by our company in excess of $375,000.
Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "In addition to the over 100,000,000 convertible preferred shares that were cancelled last week, today's share cancellation brings the total reduction to over 42% of the Company's previous fully diluted share total. By significantly reducing the Company's free trading shares, we believe we have further increased the Company's potential to access capital and grow its business."
MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.
MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of BitcoinATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth.
About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies
Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence.
Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: "I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting."
Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK).
MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is MJMI.QB.
Website:www.marilynjean.comPress Contact:[email protected]
SOURCE:MarilynJean Interactive || MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI.QB) Today Announced Cancellation of Over 15% of Its Free Trading Shares: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 1, 2015 / MarilynJean Interactive ( MJMI ) today announced cancellation of 21,183,000 Common shares representing 10.9% of its issued and outstanding share total and 15.75% of its free trading shares. As previously disclosed, on July 11, 2012, the Company issued 42,385,500 units at $0.01/unit, each unit consisting of one common share and one fourth of one common share warrant exercisable at $0.50 and one half of a common share warrant with an exercise price of $1.00. All warrants associated with these units have since expired and none were exercised before expiration. On October 1, 2015 we have cancelled and returned to treasury 21,183,000 Common Shares, pursuant to Return to Treasury Agreements entered into with certain shareholders. The shareholders voluntarily agreed to cancel the shares and return them to treasury for consideration of promissory notes totaling $155,915. The notes are due and payable upon completion of a financing by our company in excess of $375,000. Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "In addition to the over 100,000,000 convertible preferred shares that were cancelled last week, today's share cancellation brings the total reduction to over 42% of the Company's previous fully diluted share total. By significantly reducing the Company's free trading shares, we believe we have further increased the Company's potential to access capital and grow its business." MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of BitcoinATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth. Story continues About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: "I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting." Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is MJMI.QB. Website: www.marilynjean.com Press Contact: [email protected] SOURCE: MarilynJean Interactive || Your Old Credit Card’s Now Obsolete. Now What?: (Rob Pegoraro/Yahoo Tech)
Something weird has been happening to our wallets: Computers have invaded them, one credit card at a time.
This overdue migration from cards with magnetic stripes on the back to “EMV” cards that add a tiny computer chip on the front reached a semi-important point Thursday: the “liability shift,” a rebalancing of powers between card issuers and merchants in the U.S. that may change who eats the cost of a bogus transaction.
For most of us, Liability Shift Day should be the most boring holiday ever. Only a minority of debit and credit cards have EMV chips (“EMV” stands for“Europay, MasterCard and Visa,” the three parents of the system), and the share ofretailers taking chip paymentsis even smaller.
But over time, things will change. Here’s how:
How exactly do I pay with a chip?
Instead of swiping a card with that satisfying flick of the wrist, you pop the card into a slot in a card terminal. Then you leave it there as the chip generates a one-time code (like the three- or four-digit number on your card for online purchases), the terminal processes the transaction, and you sign to complete it.
In my experience, that takes a few seconds longer than a mag-stripe card—assuming the stripe was able to read on the first try, which we all know doesn’t always happen.
Where can I pay with the chip?
Your chip transactions may be confined to major merchants like Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. It’s not enough to see a “point of sale” terminal with an EMV slot; that part may be inactive.
For example, my neighborhood’s Whole Foods accepts Apple Pay and other phone payments but not EMV. Spokesman Michael Silverman said the chain plans to fix that across its stores… by the end of 2016.
A complete upgrade across U.S. retail will take longer. On a conference call Wednesday, Visa vice president Stephanie Ericksen said 314,000 establishments take chip payments, up from 55,000 last September—but that’s out of a total of maybe 6 million to 8 million.
How do I get EMV versions of my cards?
If you haven’t already been issued chipped versions of your cards—those in my wallet reached that blessed statein July—you’ll have to ask your issuer what the holdup is.
While you wait, you might as well use that time to shop around and see if you can switch to a card withbetter cash-back or travel rewards.
Will chip cards stop data breaches?
Sorry, no. With EMV, your card number and expiration date still get sent in the clear to the store and beyond. If somebody hacks the terminal or the software upstream, they can still go to town with your card.
“It does not take care of making sure that the data is protected as it travels through the various layers of payment systems,” explained Erik Vlugt, a vice president at the payment-processing firmVeriFone.
EMV cards also remain usable if lost or stolen unless they’re further secured with a PIN. That’s common with European but not U.S. cards. (More on that later.)
So what security problem does EMV actually solve?
Chip cards can’t be cloned the way stripe cards can. Counterfeiting is a huge problem, accounting for37 percent of all U.S. credit-card fraud in 2014—second only after “card not present” theft staged online or over the phone, according to the research firmAite Group.
Crooks have had a clear economic incentive to clone cards, security researcher Brian Krebs noted ina 2014 explainer: A counterfeiter “walks into a big box store and walks out with high-priced electronics or gift cards that he can easily turn into cash.”
Who pays with the liability shift?
Definitely not you — just like today, fraud isn’t your problem as long as you report it. But merchants can pay more, subject to various rules. AsNational Retail Federationgeneral counsel Mallory Duncan summed up in an e-mail: “Whomever has the more evolved equipment (in a counterfeit situation) wins.”
That is, if the bank issued a chip card, the crook shows up with a counterfeit version of it, and the merchant doesn’t process chip transactions, the merchant is liable to eat the cost. But it can get complicated: “There are scenarios where both parties accept a certain percentage of the responsibility,” MasterCard product-delivery head Carolyn Balfany said over e-mail.
Note, too, that retailers already pay for some fraudulent transactions, as you can see inVisa’s “chargeback” rules. In turn, all of us pay in the form of slightly higher prices, same as we collectively pay for the“shrinkage”of shoplifting and employee theft.
What if a store doesn’t take EMV?
Good luck judging a store’s security, although some modern payment gadgets likeSquare’s card readersdo encrypt card numbers automatically.
If you can use your phone to pay for things, do it. Apple Pay and Android Pay do“tokenization,”meaning they generate a new card number for each transaction. Or you could pay with cash,Bitcoin,bartered chickens, or any other mutually agreeable medium of value.
What about chip-and-PIN?
You may have read that chip-and-PIN cards are more secure because you have to type a number matching the one stored on the chip. But that’s not why they exist: When EMV cards arrived in Europe, many establishments didn’t have online access to verify transactions with issuers and so needed authentication that worked offline.
U.S. banks have avoided PIN because, hey, who wants to remember another number? (A few months ago, Underwriters Laboratories innovations director Maarten Bron said he’d seentoo many chip-and-PIN holders write down their PIN on the back of their cards.)
International travelers have complained that signature EMV cards don’t work at kiosks in Europe. Visa’s rules now require those unattended terminals to waive the PIN; it says that in a recent test across five EU states,90 percent of signature-card transactions worked.
So how do we stop online fraud?
Payment-processing systems can ensure they have nothing worth stealing by not keeping card numbers intact—what Visa calls “devaluing” that data.
In that respect, the slow adoption of EMV security could give lagging merchants a chance to jump to an Apple Pay level of security. SaidPCI Security Standards Councilchief technology office Troy Leach: “We’re hoping that they buy the next generation of security, which is encryption and tokenization.”
I hope he’s right. But I won’t be too surprised if five years from now, a shop with connectivity issues still has to dust off a“knuckle buster”card imprinter to take my payment on a slip of carbon paper.
[email protected]; follow him on Twitter at@robpegoraro. || Your Old Credit Cards Now Obsolete. Now What?: (Rob Pegoraro/Yahoo Tech) Something weird has been happening to our wallets: Computers have invaded them, one credit card at a time. This overdue migration from cards with magnetic stripes on the back to EMV cards that add a tiny computer chip on the front reached a semi-important point Thursday: the liability shift, a rebalancing of powers between card issuers and merchants in the U.S. that may change who eats the cost of a bogus transaction. For most of us, Liability Shift Day should be the most boring holiday ever. Only a minority of debit and credit cards have EMV chips (EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the three parents of the system ), and the share of retailers taking chip payments is even smaller. But over time, things will change. Heres how: How exactly do I pay with a chip? Instead of swiping a card with that satisfying flick of the wrist, you pop the card into a slot in a card terminal. Then you leave it there as the chip generates a one-time code (like the three- or four-digit number on your card for online purchases), the terminal processes the transaction, and you sign to complete it. In my experience, that takes a few seconds longer than a mag-stripe cardassuming the stripe was able to read on the first try, which we all know doesnt always happen. Where can I pay with the chip? Your chip transactions may be confined to major merchants like Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. Its not enough to see a point of sale terminal with an EMV slot; that part may be inactive. For example, my neighborhoods Whole Foods accepts Apple Pay and other phone payments but not EMV. Spokesman Michael Silverman said the chain plans to fix that across its stores
by the end of 2016. A complete upgrade across U.S. retail will take longer. On a conference call Wednesday, Visa vice president Stephanie Ericksen said 314,000 establishments take chip payments, up from 55,000 last Septemberbut thats out of a total of maybe 6 million to 8 million. Story continues How do I get EMV versions of my cards? If you havent already been issued chipped versions of your cardsthose in my wallet reached that blessed state in July youll have to ask your issuer what the holdup is. While you wait, you might as well use that time to shop around and see if you can switch to a card with better cash-back or travel rewards . Will chip cards stop data breaches? Sorry, no. With EMV, your card number and expiration date still get sent in the clear to the store and beyond. If somebody hacks the terminal or the software upstream, they can still go to town with your card. It does not take care of making sure that the data is protected as it travels through the various layers of payment systems, explained Erik Vlugt, a vice president at the payment-processing firm VeriFone . EMV cards also remain usable if lost or stolen unless theyre further secured with a PIN. Thats common with European but not U.S. cards. (More on that later.) So what security problem does EMV actually solve? Chip cards cant be cloned the way stripe cards can. Counterfeiting is a huge problem, accounting for 37 percent of all U.S. credit-card fraud in 2014 second only after card not present theft staged online or over the phone, according to the research firm Aite Group . Crooks have had a clear economic incentive to clone cards, security researcher Brian Krebs noted in a 2014 explainer : A counterfeiter walks into a big box store and walks out with high-priced electronics or gift cards that he can easily turn into cash. Who pays with the liability shift? Definitely not you just like today, fraud isnt your problem as long as you report it. But merchants can pay more, subject to various rules. As National Retail Federation general counsel Mallory Duncan summed up in an e-mail: Whomever has the more evolved equipment (in a counterfeit situation) wins. That is, if the bank issued a chip card, the crook shows up with a counterfeit version of it, and the merchant doesnt process chip transactions, the merchant is liable to eat the cost. But it can get complicated: There are scenarios where both parties accept a certain percentage of the responsibility, MasterCard product-delivery head Carolyn Balfany said over e-mail. Note, too, that retailers already pay for some fraudulent transactions, as you can see in Visas chargeback rules . In turn, all of us pay in the form of slightly higher prices, same as we collectively pay for the shrinkage of shoplifting and employee theft. What if a store doesnt take EMV? Good luck judging a stores security, although some modern payment gadgets like Squares card readers do encrypt card numbers automatically. If you can use your phone to pay for things, do it. Apple Pay and Android Pay do tokenization, meaning they generate a new card number for each transaction. Or you could pay with cash, Bitcoin , bartered chickens , or any other mutually agreeable medium of value. What about chip-and-PIN? You may have read that chip-and-PIN cards are more secure because you have to type a number matching the one stored on the chip. But thats not why they exist: When EMV cards arrived in Europe, many establishments didnt have online access to verify transactions with issuers and so needed authentication that worked offline. U.S. banks have avoided PIN because, hey, who wants to remember another number? (A few months ago, Underwriters Laboratories innovations director Maarten Bron said hed seen too many chip-and-PIN holders write down their PIN on the back of their cards .) International travelers have complained that signature EMV cards dont work at kiosks in Europe. Visas rules now require those unattended terminals to waive the PIN; it says that in a recent test across five EU states, 90 percent of signature-card transactions worked . So how do we stop online fraud? Payment-processing systems can ensure they have nothing worth stealing by not keeping card numbers intactwhat Visa calls devaluing that data. In that respect, the slow adoption of EMV security could give lagging merchants a chance to jump to an Apple Pay level of security. Said PCI Security Standards Council chief technology office Troy Leach: Were hoping that they buy the next generation of security, which is encryption and tokenization. I hope hes right. But I wont be too surprised if five years from now, a shop with connectivity issues still has to dust off a knuckle buster card imprinter to take my payment on a slip of carbon paper. Email Rob at [email protected] ; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro . || Bitcoin Gains Deeper Foothold In Latin America Through MercadoLibre: Latin America's version ofeBay Inc(NASDAQ:EBAY), MercadoLibre, hasannouncedthat it will be integrating bitcoin payments into its services. The move represents a big win for the cryptocurrency community, which has long promoted bitcoin usage in regions like Latin America where a large percentage of the population are still unbanked.
Bitcoin Improves Service
MercadoLibre sent anemail notificationto users announcing its plans to integrate bitcoin and saying that the decision will give merchants a wider reach and customers more options. The site is planning to make bitcoin integration subtle and said that merchants won't see much change to their user experience other than a note in their transaction history saying which payments were made via digital currencies.
Related Link: Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell
Not Quite Yet
While MercadoLibre has announced its plans, it is still unclear how the rollout will take place. The site currently serves 13 Latin American countries and it is unknown how many will receive a bitcoin option. The site will also have to deal with the changing regulations regarding bitcoin payments as the cryptocurrency evolves and spreads across the globe.
Latin American Potential
Bitcoin has long been touted as a good option for countries where much of the population has limited access to banking facilities. Bitcoin has also proven to be a viable alternative for those living in a country where the currency is prone to volatility. For that reason, many believe that bitcoin's expansion into Latin America is an important step forward. However, the cryptocurrency is likely to face some obstacles there as well since over half of the population doesn't have access to the Internet.
See more from Benzinga
• Traditional Energy Firms Likely To Back Bush On New Policy Proposal
• Next Generation Connected Cars To Have Wireless Updates
• Google Toes The Line Between Safe And Realistic With Autonomous Cars
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Gains Deeper Foothold In Latin America Through MercadoLibre: Latin America's version of eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY ), MercadoLibre, has announced that it will be integrating bitcoin payments into its services. The move represents a big win for the cryptocurrency community, which has long promoted bitcoin usage in regions like Latin America where a large percentage of the population are still unbanked. Bitcoin Improves Service MercadoLibre sent an email notification to users announcing its plans to integrate bitcoin and saying that the decision will give merchants a wider reach and customers more options. The site is planning to make bitcoin integration subtle and said that merchants won't see much change to their user experience other than a note in their transaction history saying which payments were made via digital currencies. Related Link: Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell Not Quite Yet While MercadoLibre has announced its plans, it is still unclear how the rollout will take place. The site currently serves 13 Latin American countries and it is unknown how many will receive a bitcoin option. The site will also have to deal with the changing regulations regarding bitcoin payments as the cryptocurrency evolves and spreads across the globe. Latin American Potential Bitcoin has long been touted as a good option for countries where much of the population has limited access to banking facilities. Bitcoin has also proven to be a viable alternative for those living in a country where the currency is prone to volatility. For that reason, many believe that bitcoin's expansion into Latin America is an important step forward. However, the cryptocurrency is likely to face some obstacles there as well since over half of the population doesn't have access to the Internet. See more from Benzinga Traditional Energy Firms Likely To Back Bush On New Policy Proposal Next Generation Connected Cars To Have Wireless Updates Google Toes The Line Between Safe And Realistic With Autonomous Cars © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Gains Deeper Foothold In Latin America Through MercadoLibre: Latin America's version ofeBay Inc(NASDAQ:EBAY), MercadoLibre, hasannouncedthat it will be integrating bitcoin payments into its services. The move represents a big win for the cryptocurrency community, which has long promoted bitcoin usage in regions like Latin America where a large percentage of the population are still unbanked.
Bitcoin Improves Service
MercadoLibre sent anemail notificationto users announcing its plans to integrate bitcoin and saying that the decision will give merchants a wider reach and customers more options. The site is planning to make bitcoin integration subtle and said that merchants won't see much change to their user experience other than a note in their transaction history saying which payments were made via digital currencies.
Related Link: Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell
Not Quite Yet
While MercadoLibre has announced its plans, it is still unclear how the rollout will take place. The site currently serves 13 Latin American countries and it is unknown how many will receive a bitcoin option. The site will also have to deal with the changing regulations regarding bitcoin payments as the cryptocurrency evolves and spreads across the globe.
Latin American Potential
Bitcoin has long been touted as a good option for countries where much of the population has limited access to banking facilities. Bitcoin has also proven to be a viable alternative for those living in a country where the currency is prone to volatility. For that reason, many believe that bitcoin's expansion into Latin America is an important step forward. However, the cryptocurrency is likely to face some obstacles there as well since over half of the population doesn't have access to the Internet.
See more from Benzinga
• Traditional Energy Firms Likely To Back Bush On New Policy Proposal
• Next Generation Connected Cars To Have Wireless Updates
• Google Toes The Line Between Safe And Realistic With Autonomous Cars
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Amazon Turns To The Sharing Economy With Part-Time 'Flex' Service: This holiday season there has been much concern over how firms will cope with the lack of seasonal employees. As unemployment rates have fallen dramatically across the United States, there is a much smaller pool of part-time employees, leaving many firms to decide whether to pay more and sacrifice margins or brave the shopping season without extra hands.
Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) is one such firm which will likely feel the effects of fewer employees as the company's one-day shipping promises often attract droves of last-minute shoppers. However, the e-commerce giant is hoping to fill the gap usingthe sharing economy.
Related Link:What Could Amazon And Lear Mean For Detroit?
Sharing Economy
In Seattle, Amazon has been piloting a new program which allows everyday people to become Amazon delivery representatives in their free time. Much like Uber, Amazon is tapping into the sharing economy in order to fill a need without taking on new employees. The service, called Amazon Flex, allows people to pick up packages from Amazon warehouses and deliver them to customers' homes for a reasonable $20 per hour.
On Demand Workers
The program is expected to catch on quickly as the rise of on-demand workers has been huge over the past year. College students, part-time workers and low paid employees are often looking for ways to earn extra cash in their free time and programs like Amazon Flex allow them to do so without locking them in to set hours. Not only does it give the delivery people a bit of extra income, but it significantly reduces Amazon's shipping costs and allows the company to offer its customers faster delivery times even when the hiring pool is shrinking.
See more from Benzinga
• Boeing's Muilenburg Sees Space, Drones And China In Company's Future
• Bank Of America Prepares For Bitcoin Revolution
• Logistics Firms Prepare For 3D Printing's Future
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Amazon Turns To The Sharing Economy With Part-Time 'Flex' Service: This holiday season there has been much concern over how firms will cope with the lack of seasonal employees. As unemployment rates have fallen dramatically across the United States, there is a much smaller pool of part-time employees, leaving many firms to decide whether to pay more and sacrifice margins or brave the shopping season without extra hands. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) is one such firm which will likely feel the effects of fewer employees as the company's one-day shipping promises often attract droves of last-minute shoppers. However, the e-commerce giant is hoping to fill the gap using the sharing economy . Related Link: What Could Amazon And Lear Mean For Detroit? Sharing Economy In Seattle, Amazon has been piloting a new program which allows everyday people to become Amazon delivery representatives in their free time. Much like Uber, Amazon is tapping into the sharing economy in order to fill a need without taking on new employees. The service, called Amazon Flex, allows people to pick up packages from Amazon warehouses and deliver them to customers' homes for a reasonable $20 per hour. On Demand Workers The program is expected to catch on quickly as the rise of on-demand workers has been huge over the past year. College students, part-time workers and low paid employees are often looking for ways to earn extra cash in their free time and programs like Amazon Flex allow them to do so without locking them in to set hours. Not only does it give the delivery people a bit of extra income, but it significantly reduces Amazon's shipping costs and allows the company to offer its customers faster delivery times even when the hiring pool is shrinking. See more from Benzinga Boeing's Muilenburg Sees Space, Drones And China In Company's Future Bank Of America Prepares For Bitcoin Revolution Logistics Firms Prepare For 3D Printing's Future © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Patients To Benefit From Latest Tech Trends: For years, the medical industry has evolved alongside the tech space as new technology gave doctors the ability to treat patients in ways they never thought possible. Now, the latest trends in the tech space are making their way to patients to help treat illnesses and aid in recovery in new and innovative ways. Virtual Reality Virtual reality headsets have been a hot topic this year after Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB )-owned firm Oculus revealed an affordable, consumer friendly version of the technology. Many said the latest developments in VR are likely to benefit the medical community by providing new doctors with training simulations, but therapists say there is a use-case for the goggles in treating mental health patients as well. Related Link: Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset Virtual Reality Experiences Therapists and counselors say that using virtual reality to put patients in difficult situations could help them deal with some of their problems in a safe environment. The technology could be used for all kinds of mental health patients from those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to people with debilitating fear or anxiety. Not only would virtual reality give existing patients a new way to cope with their problems, but the new technique could encourage those suffering from mental disorders to attend therapy. Big Data Another growing field in the tech space has been data analysis and consumer products firm Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) intends to put that information into the hands of patients. Together with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM ) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Johnson & Johnson said it plans to create a new app that will use health data to give patients a virtual coach. The app will use artificial intelligence to sort through thousands of data points in order to predict patient outcomes and give users treatment suggestions. Initially, the company plans to release one such app geared toward knee-replacement patients and its effectiveness will be measured by the rate of hospital re-admissions, but eventually the service could be offered to a wide range of patients. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Facebook Looks To Take Over TV Advertising Net Neutrality Gets Tricky When You Talk About Global Access Bank Of America Prepares For Bitcoin Revolution © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Patients To Benefit From Latest Tech Trends: For years, the medical industry has evolved alongside the tech space as new technology gave doctors the ability to treat patients in ways they never thought possible. Now, the latest trends in the tech space are making their way to patients to help treat illnesses and aid in recovery in new and innovative ways.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality headsets have been a hot topic this year afterFacebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB)-owned firm Oculus revealed an affordable, consumer friendly version of the technology.
Many said the latest developments in VR are likely to benefit the medical community by providing new doctors with training simulations, but therapists say there is ause-casefor the goggles in treating mental health patients as well.
Related Link:Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset
Virtual Reality Experiences
Therapists and counselors say that using virtual reality to put patients in difficult situations could help them deal with some of their problems in a safe environment. The technology could be used for all kinds of mental health patients from those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to people with debilitating fear or anxiety.
Not only would virtual reality give existing patients a new way to cope with their problems, but the new technique could encourage those suffering from mental disorders to attend therapy.
Big Data
Another growing field in the tech space has been data analysis and consumer products firmJohnson & Johnson(NYSE:JNJ) intends toput that informationinto the hands of patients.
Together withInternational Business Machines Corp.(NYSE:IBM) andApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL), Johnson & Johnson said it plans to create a new app that will use health data to give patients a virtual coach.
The app will use artificial intelligence to sort through thousands of data points in order to predict patient outcomes and give users treatment suggestions. Initially, the company plans to release one such app geared toward knee-replacement patients and its effectiveness will be measured by the rate of hospital re-admissions, but eventually the service could be offered to a wide range of patients.
Image Credit: Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
• Facebook Looks To Take Over TV Advertising
• Net Neutrality Gets Tricky When You Talk About Global Access
• Bank Of America Prepares For Bitcoin Revolution
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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In the last hour, 8 people won 1.00 BTC playing Bitcoin lottery at http://10xbtc.com , the easiest BTC lottery, 160BTC Jackpot || BTCTurk 714.41 TL BTCe 236.45 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 239.52 $ Cavirtex 312.61 $ CEXIO 241.00 $ Bitcoin.de 213.30 € #Bitcoin #btc || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$237.80/$238.09 #Bitstamp
$234.77/$235.00 #BTCe
⇢$-3.32/$-2.80
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⇢$0.98/$1.29 || Current price: 239.38$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-10-03 09:00:04 EDT || In the last 10 mins, there were arb o...
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238.26, 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31, 249.51
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10690.40, 10005.00, 10301.10, 9813.07, 9664.73, 10366.70, 10725.60, 10397.90, 10951.00, 11086.40, 11489.70, 11512.60, 11573.30, 10779.90, 9965.57, 9395.01, 9337.55, 8866.00, 9578.63, 9205.12, 9194.85, 8269.81, 8300.86, 8338.35, 7916.88, 8223.68, 8630.65, 8913.47, 8929.28, 8728.47, 8879.62, 8668.12, 8495.78, 8209.40, 7833.04, 7954.48, 7165.70, 6890.52, 6973.53, 6844.23, 7083.80, 7456.11, 6853.84, 6811.47, 6636.32, 6911.09, 7023.52, 6770.73, 6834.76, 6968.32, 7889.25, 7895.96, 7986.24, 8329.11, 8058.67, 7902.09, 8163.42, 8294.31, 8845.83, 8895.58, 8802.46, 8930.88, 9697.50, 8845.74, 9281.51, 8987.05, 9348.48, 9419.08, 9240.55, 9119.01, 9235.92, 9743.86, 9700.76, 9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94, 8441.49, 8504.89, 8723.94, 8716.79, 8510.38, 8368.83, 8094.32, 8250.97, 8247.18, 8513.25, 8418.99.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-05-21]
Volume: 5154990080, RSI (14-day): 45.09, 50-day EMA: 8717.18, 200-day EMA: 8821.06
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1290.20, Gold RSI: 35.14
Oil Price: 72.24, Oil RSI: 67.24
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
After 6 Years as a Shareholder, Here's Why I Just Sold My Intel Stock: On May 15, I finally did something that I had hoped that I'd never do: I put in a market order in to sell the entirety of my stake in chip giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) . Within an instant, a position that I'd started building in 2012 and added substantially to in 2013 was gone. Intel is a company that I wanted to own for Warren Buffett's ideal holding period: forever. But, after careful consideration , I decided that this wasn't a stock that I wanted in my portfolio any longer. A wafer of Intel processors. Image source: Intel. Here's why. Some background Although Intel's financial execution over the last few years has been solid, deeper down the company's technology execution has been quite poor. To understand what I'm talking about when I say that Intel's technology execution has been poor, I need to explain some basic concepts. A computer processor, such as the one that's powering the device that you're reading this on, is ultimately judged by the following criteria: How fast is it? How power efficient is it? Does it have a competitive set of features and technologies integrated to support the device maker's vision for what the device can do? Is it economical to build? These characteristics depend on two key factors. First is the manufacturing technology that the chip is built on, which has a great influence on 2 and 4 than it does on 1 and 3. The better the performance, power, and area of a chip manufacturing technology, the better the products built using that technology will be. The second -- and arguably more important -- factor is the architecture of the chip. A modern computer or data center chip usually has many different pieces of technology built into it, such as processor cores, graphics cores, memory controllers, and so on. The quality of each of these individual technologies, as well as the technologies that connect them all together, has a huge impact on the performance, power efficiency, and capabilities that a chip delivers. Story continues Historically, Intel operated on a so-called tick-tock development model . In a "tick" year, Intel would deliver a substantial manufacturing technology improvement and a modest architectural enhancement. In "tock" years, the company would make minor enhancements to the underlying manufacturing technology but make big changes to the design of the processor. This product development rhythm led to a sustained cadence of leadership products that was hard for others to match. Beginning in 2016, this tick-tock methodology fell apart. Since Intel couldn't bring its 10-nanometer technology into production for the second half of 2016 as it was supposed to, it rolled out a family of chips known as Kaby Lake. The Kaby Lake processors used the same basic Skylake architecture but were manufactured using a performance-enhanced version of its 14-nanometer technology, known as 14nm+. Then, in the second half of 2017, Intel introduced two products: Kaby Lake Refresh for notebooks and Coffee Lake for desktops. Kaby Lake Refresh was built using the company's 14nm+ technology while the Coffee Lake chips utilized a further-enhanced 14nm++ technology. Both Kaby Lake Refresh and Coffee Lake increased core counts relative to their predecessors, but they, once again, used the same architecture as Skylake. Earlier this year, Intel brought Coffee Lake to high-performance notebook computers (Kaby Lake Refresh was targeted at more mainstream products) and later this year, Kaby Lake Refresh will be replaced by a product known as Whiskey Lake . This should, yet again, be based on the company's Skylake architecture. This lack of architectural innovation on Intel's part isn't because Intel can't build newer, better chip designs, but because its newer chip designs were developed to be manufactured on the company's 10-nanometer technology. Since 10-nanometer tech has been delayed by multiple years, so too has Intel's architectural and product innovation. Now, I don't want to blame Intel's manufacturing group for the entirety of these problems. Intel's product development groups should have had the foresight to plan around potential problems with its 10-nanometer technology, especially given the significant difficulties the company faced in bringing its 14-nanometer technology to market. Why I sold Intel The reason I sold Intel stock is simple: I think the company's product competitiveness as a result of these seemingly endless 10-nanometer delays will take a large hit as Intel's product innovation continues at a snail's pace while competitors move much more quickly because they have access to more capable chip manufacturing partners and technology . I think that loss of competitiveness will manifest itself across Intel's core businesses in the form of both market segment share loss and gross profit margin erosion as the company tries, potentially in vain, to stem that market segment share loss. In fact, over the last year or so, Intel has been losing share in markets like gaming desktop processors and premium notebook computers, and has even begun losing share in the data center processor market. I think that share loss could potentially accelerate as a result of Intel's botched execution around its 10-nanometer technology. Now, I might have been willing to weather that storm if Intel management had made a compelling case to investors as to how it intends to reassert its leadership and, at a minimum, stop losing share (though, ideally, they should have a plan to recapture lost share). But right now, Intel is still publicly maintaining that the delays in its 10-nanometer products and its "architectural innovations" on 14 nanometer (which are practically nonexistent) will allow it to deliver "leadership products." It's almost as if management is oblivious to the share that it has been losing in certain segments and in denial that this share loss could continue into the foreseeable future. Or, perhaps worse, Intel is fully aware of the potential negative business impact that its 10-nanometer fumbles will have and its corporate communications team is carefully crafting messages that are, on the surface, designed to keep investors in the dark and keep the stock price as high as possible for as long as it can. In either case, until Intel starts showing dramatically improved product and technology execution, I think the upside in Intel stock is minimal and the potential downside rather substantial. That's a poor risk/reward proposition and, consistent with that view, I sold my Intel stock. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Ashraf Eassa has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || After 6 Years as a Shareholder, Here's Why I Just Sold My Intel Stock: On May 15, I finally did something that I had hoped that I'd never do: I put in a market order in to sell the entirety of my stake in chip giantIntel(NASDAQ: INTC). Within an instant, a position that I'd started building in 2012 and added substantially to in 2013 was gone.
Intel is a company that I wanted to own for Warren Buffett's ideal holding period: forever. But, aftercareful consideration, I decided that this wasn't a stock that I wanted in my portfolio any longer.
Image source: Intel.
Here's why.
Although Intel's financial execution over the last few years has been solid, deeper down the company's technology execution has been quite poor.
To understand what I'm talking about when I say that Intel's technology execution has been poor, I need to explain some basic concepts.
A computer processor, such as the one that's powering the device that you're reading this on, is ultimately judged by the following criteria:
1. How fast is it?
2. How power efficient is it?
3. Does it have a competitive set of features and technologies integrated to support the device maker's vision for what the device can do?
4. Is it economical to build?
These characteristics depend on two key factors. First is the manufacturing technology that the chip is built on, which has a great influence on 2 and 4 than it does on 1 and 3. The better the performance, power, and area of a chip manufacturing technology, the better the products built using that technology will be.
The second -- and arguably more important -- factor is the architecture of the chip. A modern computer or data center chip usually has many different pieces of technology built into it, such as processor cores, graphics cores, memory controllers, and so on. The quality of each of these individual technologies, as well as the technologies that connect them all together, has a huge impact on the performance, power efficiency, and capabilities that a chip delivers.
Historically, Intel operated on a so-calledtick-tock development model. In a "tick" year, Intel would deliver a substantial manufacturing technology improvement and a modest architectural enhancement. In "tock" years, the company would make minor enhancements to the underlying manufacturing technology but make big changes to the design of the processor. This product development rhythm led to a sustained cadence of leadership products that was hard for others to match.
Beginning in 2016, this tick-tock methodology fell apart. Since Intel couldn't bring its 10-nanometer technology into production for the second half of 2016 as it was supposed to, it rolled out a family of chips known as Kaby Lake. The Kaby Lake processors used the same basic Skylake architecture but were manufactured using a performance-enhanced version of its 14-nanometer technology, known as 14nm+.
Then, in the second half of 2017, Intel introduced two products: Kaby Lake Refresh for notebooks and Coffee Lake for desktops. Kaby Lake Refresh was built using the company's 14nm+ technology while the Coffee Lake chips utilized a further-enhanced 14nm++ technology. Both Kaby Lake Refresh and Coffee Lake increased core counts relative to their predecessors, but they, once again, used the same architecture as Skylake.
Earlier this year, Intel brought Coffee Lake to high-performance notebook computers (Kaby Lake Refresh was targeted at more mainstream products) and later this year, Kaby Lake Refresh will be replaced by a product known asWhiskey Lake. This should, yet again, be based on the company's Skylake architecture.
This lack of architectural innovation on Intel's part isn't because Intel can't build newer, better chip designs, but because its newer chip designs were developed to be manufactured on the company's 10-nanometer technology. Since 10-nanometer tech has been delayed by multiple years, so too has Intel's architectural and product innovation.
Now, I don't want to blame Intel's manufacturing group for the entirety of these problems. Intel's product development groups should have had the foresight to plan around potential problems with its 10-nanometer technology, especially given the significant difficulties the company faced in bringing its 14-nanometer technology to market.
The reason I sold Intel stock is simple: I think the company's product competitiveness as a result of these seemingly endless 10-nanometer delays will take a large hit as Intel's product innovation continues at a snail's pace while competitors move much more quickly because they have access tomore capable chip manufacturing partners and technology.
I think that loss of competitiveness will manifest itself across Intel's core businesses in the form of both market segment share loss and gross profit margin erosion as the company tries, potentially in vain, to stem that market segment share loss.
In fact, over the last year or so, Intel has been losing share in markets likegaming desktop processorsand premium notebook computers, and has even begun losing share in the data center processor market. I think that share loss could potentially accelerate as a result of Intel's botched execution around its 10-nanometer technology.
Now, I might have been willing to weather that storm if Intel management had made a compelling case to investors as to how it intends to reassert its leadership and, at a minimum, stop losing share (though, ideally, they should have a plan to recapture lost share). But right now, Intel is still publicly maintaining that the delays in its 10-nanometer products and its "architectural innovations" on 14 nanometer (which are practically nonexistent) will allow it to deliver "leadership products." It's almost as if management is oblivious to the share that it has been losing in certain segments and in denial that this share loss could continue into the foreseeable future.
Or, perhaps worse, Intel is fully aware of the potential negative business impact that its 10-nanometer fumbles will have and its corporate communications team is carefully crafting messages that are, on the surface, designed to keep investors in the dark and keep the stock price as high as possible for as long as it can.
In either case, until Intel starts showing dramatically improved product and technology execution, I think the upside in Intel stock is minimal and the potential downside rather substantial. That's a poor risk/reward proposition and, consistent with that view, I sold my Intel stock.
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• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
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Ashraf Eassahas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Do Match Investors Need to Worry About Facebook?: Although there's a lot to recommend the proposed new dating feature from Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) -- enough that Match (NASDAQ: MTCH) should not just shrug it off -- ultimately the social networking platform won't prove as much of a threat as feared. Although specifics are still vague, let's take a closer look at what Facebook is proposing to understand why Match will still own the dating scene for a long time to come. Woman smiling down at smartphone, which has cartoon hearts coming out Image source: Getty Images. A private affair From what we learned from Facebook's annual F8 conference, Dating , as the feature will be called, will have dating profiles with photos of prospective dates that Facebook users will have to opt into. You'll access it through your existing Facebook account, not through a separate app, but current friends on the platform won't be able to see a person's dating profile and they won't be matched up with someone they're friends with. Dating is also reportedly going to be free. Considering the fires from privacy breaches Facebook is still trying to tamp down, it's with a bit of hubris that at a conference in which it spent a lot of time explaining why it should still be trusted with your personal information, it announced a dating feature that will use an algorithm to connect that data to another person's data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg did note, however, that the new feature was being designed with "privacy and safety in mind from the beginning." While privacy concerns might be a hurdle for Facebook to get over, it's not as though Facebook was especially hard hit financially by its numerous breaches -- even the latest one, which sparked Zuckerberg's apology tour. Also, people interested in finding an online date are already willing to divulge information about themselves they might not otherwise find themselves willing to. And the fact that it will be free will at least initially make it an attractive option, particularly because Match's Tinder is pushing its freemium model. Story continues Match can hold its own So it's not as though Match investors can just scoff at Facebook's ambitious plan . It has features that will appeal to at least a number of the social network's 2.2 billion monthly active users. Yet there are enough factors that weigh in Match's favor that it ultimately shouldn't be a concern. First, Facebook users are older than Tinder's. According to Statista, 35% of those on Tinder are between 18 and 24 years of age with another 25% between 25 and 34, while 58% of those on Facebook are 25 to 34. Although that suggests a lot of overlap, Business Insider found that users aged 45 to 54 are the ones who spend the most time on Facebook, representing 21% of the total time spent on the platform. There is also the question of whether someone will want to use Facebook, a platform meant for connecting with family and friends, for also finding hookups, regardless of Zuckerberg's contention that Dating is for developing long-term relationships. Compartmentalizing activities It's also been found that people tend to use three dating apps, so that even if Facebook ended up being one of them, at least one would likely be Tinder or one of Match's other properties. Also, there is an existing relationship between Match and Facebook in that a person can sign up with or log into Tinder using their Facebook profile, though Match says some 75% choose some other method. That alone suggests that people want to keep their personal interactions with friends and family separate from their dating activities, so Facebook users might not be as receptive to a dating feature as you would think. And let's not forget that Facebook has dabbled in dating over the years. The "poke" feature never really went anywhere, and was always rather an odd thing when you got one from someone you didn't know, while its "graph search function" that allowed users to input search parameters to find profiles of people that meet certain criteria has faded away. It was seen as a way to disrupt the dating scene, but never impacted Tinder. Facebook also offers a Discover People option as well as a meetup function that allows people to connect and opens up a Messenger chat between them. None of these options has had any discernible impact on Match. It's possible a specific feature designed to create connections between like-minded people will have more success, but it seems that with Match and its Tinder subsidiary being the dominant force on the dating scene, they have nothing to worry about from Facebook. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Rich Duprey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends Match Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Do Match Investors Need to Worry About Facebook?: Although there's a lot to recommend the proposed new dating feature fromFacebook(NASDAQ: FB)-- enough thatMatch(NASDAQ: MTCH)should not just shrug it off -- ultimately the social networking platform won't prove as much of a threat as feared.
Although specifics are still vague, let's take a closer look at what Facebook is proposing to understand why Match will still own the dating scene for a long time to come.
Image source: Getty Images.
From what we learned from Facebook's annual F8 conference,Dating, as the feature will be called, will have dating profiles with photos of prospective dates that Facebook users will have to opt into. You'll access it through your existing Facebook account, not through a separate app, but current friends on the platform won't be able to see a person's dating profile and they won't be matched up with someone they're friends with. Dating is also reportedly going to be free.
Considering the fires from privacy breaches Facebook is still trying to tamp down, it's with a bit of hubris that at a conference in which it spent a lot of time explaining why it should still be trusted with your personal information, it announced a dating feature that will use an algorithm to connect that data to another person's data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg did note, however, that the new feature was being designed with "privacy and safety in mind from the beginning."
While privacy concerns might be a hurdle for Facebook to get over, it's not as though Facebook was especially hard hit financially by its numerous breaches -- even the latest one, which sparked Zuckerberg's apology tour. Also, people interested in finding an online date are already willing to divulge information about themselves they might not otherwise find themselves willing to.
And the fact that it will be free will at least initially make it an attractive option, particularly because Match's Tinder is pushing its freemium model.
So it's not as though Match investors can just scoff at Facebook'sambitious plan. It has features that will appeal to at least a number of the social network's 2.2 billion monthly active users.
Yet there are enough factors that weigh in Match's favor that it ultimately shouldn't be a concern. First, Facebook users are older than Tinder's. According to Statista, 35% of those on Tinder are between 18 and 24 years of age with another 25% between 25 and 34, while 58% of those on Facebook are 25 to 34. Although that suggests a lot of overlap,Business Insiderfound that users aged 45 to 54 are the ones who spend the most time on Facebook, representing 21% of the total time spent on the platform.
There is also the question of whether someone will want to use Facebook, a platform meant for connecting with family and friends, for also finding hookups, regardless of Zuckerberg's contention that Dating is for developing long-term relationships.
It's also been found that people tend to use three dating apps, so that even if Facebook ended up being one of them, at least one would likely be Tinder or one of Match's other properties. Also, there is an existing relationship between Match and Facebook in that a person can sign up with or log into Tinder using their Facebook profile, though Match says some 75% choose some other method.
That alone suggests that people want to keep their personal interactions with friends and family separate from their dating activities, so Facebook users might not be as receptive to a dating feature as you would think.
And let's not forget that Facebook has dabbled in dating over the years. The "poke" feature never really went anywhere, and was always rather an odd thing when you got one from someone you didn't know, while its "graph search function" that allowed users to input search parameters to find profiles of people that meet certain criteria has faded away. It was seen as a way to disrupt the dating scene, but never impacted Tinder.
Facebook also offers a Discover People option as well as a meetup function that allows people to connect and opens up a Messenger chat between them. None of these options has had any discernible impact on Match.
It's possible a specific feature designed to create connections between like-minded people will have more success, but it seems that with Match and its Tinder subsidiary being the dominant force on the dating scene, they have nothing to worry about from Facebook.
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• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
Rich Dupreyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends Match Group. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – FOMC Minutes Likely to Set the Tone This Week: The Dollar/Yen reached its highest level since January 23 last week with the rally primarily driven by the widening spread between U.S. Government Bond yields and Japanese Government Bond yields. The catalyst behind the widening interest rate differential was solid U.S. economic data, rising U.S. Treasury yields and expectations for further rate hikes later this year. The USD/JPY settled at 110.759, up 1.407 or +1.29%. Weekly USD/JPY To put it another way, the rally since the March 26 bottom at 104.600 is essentially being fueled by the divergence between the monetary policies of the hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve and the dovish Bank of Japan. In economic news, Japan’s economy contracted more than expected at the start of this year, breaking the longest run of growth seen for decades, in a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reflationary ‘Abenomics’ policies. Wednesday’s data marked the end to eight straight quarters of economic expansion, which was the longest sequence of growth since a 12-quarter run between April-June 1986 and January-March 1989 during the asset-inflated bubble economy. The economy shrank by 0.6 percent on an annualized basis, a much more severe contraction than the median estimate for an annualized 0.2 percent. Fourth quarter growth was revised to an annualized 0.6 percent, down from the 1.6 percent estimated earlier. In the U.S. last week, the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury note hit a new multiyear high, returning to a level not seen since 2011. The 10-year yield briefly hit 3.128 percent, its highest level since July 8, 2011 when the note yielded as high as 3.184 percent. The 30-year bond yield also briefly hit a new high; it topped 3.2640 percent overnight, its highest level since October 3, 2014 when the 30-year yielded as high as 3.276 percent. Forecast There are no major reports in Japan this week. Most eyes will be on the FOMC Meeting Minutes on Wednesday. The Fed minutes should contain no surprises especially after the hawkish comments from several Fed officials last week. Investors will be looking for any comments on whether the Fed is considering three more rate hikes in 2018. They’re also going to be looking for any comments or concerns about an inversion of the yield curve. Story continues To recap last week’s Fed comments: Loretta Mester, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland expressed support for the gradual increase in U.S. interest rates. John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said that the Fed’s era of market hand-holding is nearing an end and that he thinks the time is approaching to phase out forward guidance. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic says he’s aware of the dangers of an inverted yield curve, which in the past has been viewed as a sign of impending recession. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan cautioned against speeding up the pace of interest-rate increases by the U.S. central bank, in part due to concerns over a narrowing spread between short-term borrowing costs and longer-term yields. Traders will also get the opportunity to respond to U.S. data on Core Durable Goods Orders and a speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday. The USD/JPY should continue to rise if investors keep betting that the Federal Reserve will stay the course and raise rates three times this year. Rising inflation, which threatens Treasury prices because it erodes the purchasing power of their fixed payments, puts upward pressure on rates. After the Fed already approved a one-quarter point-hike in March, the market is now pricing in a 95 percent chance of a June increase, and a 72 percent chance for September. December is a question mark. But if it becomes relevant then the USD/JPY should surge to the upside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – FOMC Minutes Likely to Set the Tone This Week U.S Mortgage Rates on the Move and It’s Going to Hurt Bitcoin falls again for the week DAX Index Fundamental Analysis – week of May 21, 2018 US stock markets pulled back slightly during the week U.S. Dollar Bolstered by Upbeat Outlook for World’s Largest Economy || USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – FOMC Minutes Likely to Set the Tone This Week: The Dollar/Yen reached its highest level since January 23 last week with the rally primarily driven by the widening spread between U.S. Government Bond yields and Japanese Government Bond yields. The catalyst behind the widening interest rate differential was solid U.S. economic data, rising U.S. Treasury yields and expectations for further rate hikes later this year.
TheUSD/JPYsettled at 110.759, up 1.407 or +1.29%.
To put it another way, the rally since the March 26 bottom at 104.600 is essentially being fueled by the divergence between the monetary policies of the hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve and the dovish Bank of Japan.
In economic news, Japan’s economy contracted more than expected at the start of this year, breaking the longest run of growth seen for decades, in a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reflationary ‘Abenomics’ policies.
Wednesday’s data marked the end to eight straight quarters of economic expansion, which was the longest sequence of growth since a 12-quarter run between April-June 1986 and January-March 1989 during the asset-inflated bubble economy.
The economy shrank by 0.6 percent on an annualized basis, a much more severe contraction than the median estimate for an annualized 0.2 percent. Fourth quarter growth was revised to an annualized 0.6 percent, down from the 1.6 percent estimated earlier.
In the U.S. last week, the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury note hit a new multiyear high, returning to a level not seen since 2011.
The 10-year yield briefly hit 3.128 percent, its highest level since July 8, 2011 when the note yielded as high as 3.184 percent. The 30-year bond yield also briefly hit a new high; it topped 3.2640 percent overnight, its highest level since October 3, 2014 when the 30-year yielded as high as 3.276 percent.
There are no major reports in Japan this week. Most eyes will be on the FOMC Meeting Minutes on Wednesday. The Fed minutes should contain no surprises especially after the hawkish comments from several Fed officials last week. Investors will be looking for any comments on whether the Fed is considering three more rate hikes in 2018. They’re also going to be looking for any comments or concerns about an inversion of the yield curve.
To recap last week’s Fed comments:
Loretta Mester, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland expressed support for the gradual increase in U.S. interest rates.
John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said that the Fed’s era of market hand-holding is nearing an end and that he thinks the time is approaching to phase out forward guidance.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic says he’s aware of the dangers of an inverted yield curve, which in the past has been viewed as a sign of impending recession.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan cautioned against speeding up the pace of interest-rate increases by the U.S. central bank, in part due to concerns over a narrowing spread between short-term borrowing costs and longer-term yields.
Traders will also get the opportunity to respond to U.S. data on Core Durable Goods Orders and a speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday.
The USD/JPY should continue to rise if investors keep betting that the Federal Reserve will stay the course and raise rates three times this year. Rising inflation, which threatens Treasury prices because it erodes the purchasing power of their fixed payments, puts upward pressure on rates.
After the Fed already approved a one-quarter point-hike in March, the market is now pricing in a 95 percent chance of a June increase, and a 72 percent chance for September. December is a question mark. But if it becomes relevant then the USD/JPY should surge to the upside.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• U.S. Dollar Bolstered by Upbeat Outlook for World’s Largest Economy || Forget ConocoPhillips, Check Out These High-Yielding Dividend Stocks Instead: Oil driller ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is benefiting from rising oil prices and rewarding investors with dividend hikes. However, the company's drilling-focused business hasn't been able to sustain a high dividend in the past, cutting the payment in 2016 amid low oil prices. This suggests that dividend investors will end up disappointed if highly volatile oil prices fall again. Here are two stocks with higher yields today and strong histories of rewarding investors through good times and bad: ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) . 1. The energy patch's real dividend play Exxon is one of the largest oil and natural gas companies in the world. It has increased its dividend every year for 36 consecutive years, an incredible record given the highly cyclical nature of the energy patch. Its current yield is roughly 4.2%, well above ConocoPhillips' 1.6%. A more impressive dividend history and a higher yield is a good start, but there's more to like than that. A woman with dollar signs coming out of her fingers that she is holding over a rising bar chart Image source: Getty Images. For example, while Conoco is focused only on drilling, Exxon's business is diversified across drilling, chemicals, and refining. Although the latter two businesses aren't as large as the drilling operation, they provide an offset when oil prices are low. For example, in 2015, when Exxon's oil business experienced a 75% earnings drop, its downstream earnings more than doubled. The increase in earnings at the chemicals and refining businesses was largely related to lower input costs (falling oil prices). That wasn't enough to completely offset the impact from declining oil prices, but it softened the blow considerably. ConocoPhillips doesn't have that balance. That said, Exxon is an industry laggard today. Its oil production has fallen over the last two years, and its return on capital employed figures have dropped into the middle of the pack after years of leading the industry. This is an opportunity for long-term investors to pick up a high yield while others are thinking short term. Exxon has a series of projects that should alleviate the production drop, including a plan to expand onshore U.S. oil and gas drilling, offshore oil in Guyana and Brazil, and natural gas in Mozambique. Meanwhile, the company is planning on taking control of more projects so it can put its expertise in running large projects to better use, and increase its return on capital employed numbers. Story continues COP Dividend Per Share (Quarterly) Chart COP Dividend Per Share (Quarterly) data by YCharts . The plans are solid, but Exxon is a giant ship, and it will take a little time to turn it . If you're a dividend investor, forget about ConocoPhillips and pick up Exxon's much larger yield. Once Exxon starts to turn the corner , investors are likely to reward it with a higher price, and the fat yield available today will be gone. 2. This consumer giant isn't getting much respect The next dividend stock to consider hails from outside of the oil patch: Procter & Gamble. The stock's yield is currently around 3.9%, the high end of its historical range. The dividend has been increased annually for an incredible 62 consecutive years. It has a long history of successfully creating and marketing consumer products, including megabrands like Pampers, Tide, and Bounty. There are three big issues facing Procter & Gamble today. The first is a shift in consumer habits, as people move toward products deemed to be healthier and more natural. The company is aware of the trend and has been introducing new versions of its products to compete. The second issue is pricing competition from new delivery methods, notably in the razor category. Procter & Gamble took the one-time hit of lowering pricing in its industry-leading Gillette line, a price cut that will anniversary this year. It also introduced new delivery methods (a subscription service) to match new industry entrants. A graphic showing that Procter & Gamble went from 170 brands to 65. Procter & Gamble radically changed its portfolio to improve margins. Image source: The Procter & Gamble Company. The third issue is a bit larger: Procter & Gamble recently reshaped its business by selling off smaller, underperforming brands to focus on its best assets. The benefits of this change have been overshadowed by industrywide headwinds, leaving investors concerned that Procter & Gamble has lost its way. However, one of the main goals of the move was to improve margins. That's happened, with operating margin increasing from 18.5% in fiscal 2015 to 21.5% in fiscal 2017. It's true that industry headwinds have left organic growth weaker than hoped, but the streamlining effort is far from a failed effort . History suggests that P&G will work through the current industry malaise and remain a dominant consumer products company. Investors willing to think long term while others are thinking short term will not only be rewarded with a fat dividend yield, but likely a higher stock price, as well, when Procter & Gamble's efforts to adjust with the times start to bear more fruit. Think long-term Investors tend to focus on the here and now a little too much, forgetting that the future is often more important. In the case of ConocoPhillips, rising oil prices are attracting investors since the driller is a direct play on the space -- with a focus on returning cash to investors via a growing dividend. But the next oil downturn is likely to lead to a dividend cut, since the company isn't diversified like higher-yielding ExxonMobil. Exxon, meanwhile, is investing for the long term and will, eventually, resolve the investor concerns that have its stock in a funk. Procter & Gamble hails from a totally different industry than ConocoPhillips, but it's being hit by the same short-term investor mentality. Yes, the consumer products company is dealing with headwinds, but it is addressing them. History suggests it will be successful, and early results from its business overhaul are actually showing some promise. While investors are punishing the stock, pushing the yield to relative highs, you can get on board and benefit. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Reuben Gregg Brewer owns shares of ExxonMobil and Procter & Gamble. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Forget ConocoPhillips, Check Out These High-Yielding Dividend Stocks Instead: Oil drillerConocoPhillips(NYSE: COP)is benefiting from rising oil prices and rewarding investors with dividend hikes. However, the company's drilling-focused business hasn't been able to sustain a high dividend in the past, cutting the payment in 2016 amid low oil prices. This suggests that dividend investors will end up disappointed if highly volatile oil prices fall again. Here are two stocks with higher yields today and strong histories of rewarding investors through good times and bad:ExxonMobil Corporation(NYSE: XOM)andThe Procter & Gamble Company(NYSE: PG).
Exxon is one of the largest oil and natural gas companies in the world. It has increased its dividend every year for 36 consecutive years, an incredible record given the highly cyclical nature of the energy patch. Its current yield is roughly 4.2%, well above ConocoPhillips' 1.6%. A more impressive dividend history and a higher yield is a good start, but there's more to like than that.
Image source: Getty Images.
For example, while Conoco is focused only on drilling, Exxon's business is diversified across drilling, chemicals, and refining. Although the latter two businesses aren't as large as the drilling operation, they provide an offset when oil prices are low. For example, in 2015, when Exxon's oil business experienced a 75% earnings drop, its downstream earnings more than doubled. The increase in earnings at the chemicals and refining businesses was largely related to lower input costs (falling oil prices). That wasn't enough to completely offset the impact from declining oil prices, but it softened the blow considerably. ConocoPhillips doesn't have that balance.
That said, Exxon is an industry laggard today. Its oil production has fallen over the last two years, and its return on capital employed figures have dropped into the middle of the pack after years of leading the industry. This is an opportunity for long-term investors to pick up a high yield while others are thinking short term. Exxon has a series of projects that should alleviate the production drop, including a plan to expand onshore U.S. oil and gas drilling, offshore oil in Guyana and Brazil, and natural gas in Mozambique. Meanwhile, the company is planning on taking control of more projects so it can put its expertise in running large projects to better use, and increase its return on capital employed numbers.
COP Dividend Per Share (Quarterly)data byYCharts.
The plans are solid, butExxon is a giant ship, and it will take a little time to turn it. If you're a dividend investor, forget about ConocoPhillips and pick up Exxon's much larger yield.Once Exxon starts to turn the corner, investors are likely to reward it with a higher price, and the fat yield available today will be gone.
The next dividend stock to consider hails from outside of the oil patch: Procter & Gamble. The stock's yield is currently around 3.9%, the high end of its historical range. The dividend has been increased annually for an incredible 62 consecutive years. It has a long history of successfully creating and marketing consumer products, including megabrands like Pampers, Tide, and Bounty.
There are three big issues facing Procter & Gamble today. The first is a shift in consumer habits, as people move toward products deemed to be healthier and more natural. The company is aware of the trend and has been introducing new versions of its products to compete. The second issue is pricing competition from new delivery methods, notably in the razor category. Procter & Gamble took the one-time hit of lowering pricing in its industry-leading Gillette line, a price cut that will anniversary this year. It also introduced new delivery methods (a subscription service) to match new industry entrants.
Procter & Gamble radically changed its portfolio to improve margins. Image source: The Procter & Gamble Company.
The third issue is a bit larger: Procter & Gamble recentlyreshaped its business by selling off smaller, underperforming brandsto focus on its best assets. The benefits of this change have been overshadowed by industrywide headwinds, leaving investors concerned that Procter & Gamble has lost its way. However, one of the main goals of the move was to improve margins. That's happened, with operating margin increasing from 18.5% in fiscal 2015 to 21.5% in fiscal 2017. It's true that industry headwinds have left organic growth weaker than hoped, butthe streamlining effort is far from a failed effort.
History suggests that P&G will work through the current industry malaise and remain a dominant consumer products company. Investors willing to think long term while others are thinking short term will not only be rewarded with a fat dividend yield, but likely a higher stock price, as well, when Procter & Gamble's efforts to adjust with the times start to bear more fruit.
Investors tend to focus on the here and now a little too much, forgetting that the future is often more important. In the case of ConocoPhillips, rising oil prices are attracting investors since the driller is a direct play on the space -- with a focus on returning cash to investors via a growing dividend. But the next oil downturn is likely to lead to a dividend cut, since the company isn't diversified like higher-yielding ExxonMobil. Exxon, meanwhile, is investing for the long term and will, eventually, resolve the investor concerns that have its stock in a funk.
Procter & Gamble hails from a totally different industry than ConocoPhillips, but it's being hit by the same short-term investor mentality. Yes, the consumer products company is dealing with headwinds, but it is addressing them. History suggests it will be successful, and early results from its business overhaul are actually showing some promise. While investors are punishing the stock, pushing the yield to relative highs, you can get on board and benefit.
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Reuben Gregg Brewerowns shares of ExxonMobil and Procter & Gamble. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 3 Dividend Stocks I'd Buy Right Now: A recent spike in interest rates has made dividend stocks a bit less attractive as income investments. Yet there are still many high-quality options available for investors seeking a mix of capital gains and above-average yields. Below, I'll highlight three of these dividend payers that you might want to add to your watchlist. A jar of coins with the labed "dividends." Image source: Getty Images. Garmin isn't lost Garmin 's (NASDAQ: GRMN) dividend lacks the steady track record that many investors prefer. The GPS device maker only recently raised its payout after holding it steady for almost three years. However, if you can accept that checkered past you might find plenty to like about this stock. Garmin has endured a few major hits to its portfolio in recent years, including a shift away from car dashboard navigation devices and consumer adoption of high-end fitness devices. Yet its wide product offering has allowed overall sales to continue marching higher as more focused companies like Fitbit struggled with big declines. Garmin has also demonstrated a knack for anticipating changing consumer trends, and its steady flow of innovative products is driving significant profitability gains . CEO Cliff Pemble and his team believe gross margin will tick up to 59% of sales this year, up from 58% last year and 56% in fiscal 2016. That success would give executives room for another modest dividend boost even though the stock today yields over 3.5%. McDonald's is back on top McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) growth turnaround has attracted most of investors' attention lately. And there are good reasons for that focus. The fast food giant is back at the top of its industry and grabbing market share from a wide range of competitors. Friends sharing a fast food meal. Image source: Getty Images. I'd add two big financial factors to that sales momentum as reasons to like this stock today. First, McDonald's is planning to invest $2.4 billion into the business this year on high-return areas like store remodeling and digital sales infrastructure. That's a level of spending that almost no peer could match or hope to maintain. It's just another investment year for McDonald's, though. Story continues Second, profitability has improved by over 10 percentage points since 2012 and stands to rise even further from its current 40% perch. The chain has sold off thousands of its company-owned locations to franchisees and replaced food sales with higher-margin rent, fees, and royalty payments. That financial strategy has more room to impact results as the company-owned restaurant base falls to around 5% in the next few years from 8% today. As a result, the outlook is bright for McDonald's $4 annual dividend that currently yields about 2.6%. Home Depot has a bright future At some point there will be a pullback in the cyclical home improvement market, and that slump will likely stall Home Depot 's (NYSE: HD) multiyear expansion. But there's no reason to think that downturn is imminent -- or even close. Sure, the retailer's sales growth slowed to a 4% rate at the start of 2018. But executives explained how that decline was tied to seasonal products like gardening equipment that didn't sell well during an unusually long winter. CEO Craig Menear and his team backed up that explanation by affirming their full-year targets after noting that sales gains shot up to a double-digit pace as soon as warmer weather arrived in early May. Over the longer term, assuming just a steady rebound in home improvement spending, investors can look forward to this retailer reaching a sales base of as high as $120 billion by 2020 even as its market-leading profitability rises to 15% of sales. Home Depot's highly efficient business, and its conservative plans to keep a steady store base, meanwhile, should translate into plenty of excess cash that the retailer can direct toward higher dividend payments in the coming years. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Demitrios Kalogeropoulos owns shares of Home Depot and McDonald's. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Fitbit. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $110 calls on Home Depot. The Motley Fool recommends Home Depot. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 3 Dividend Stocks I'd Buy Right Now: A recent spike in interest rates has made dividend stocks a bit less attractive as income investments. Yet there are still many high-quality options available for investors seeking a mix of capital gains and above-average yields.
Below, I'll highlight three of these dividend payers that you might want to add to your watchlist.
Image source: Getty Images.
Garmin's(NASDAQ: GRMN)dividend lacks the steady track record that many investors prefer. The GPS device maker only recentlyraised its payoutafter holding it steady for almost three years. However, if you can accept that checkered past you might find plenty to like about this stock.
Garmin has endured a few major hits to its portfolio in recent years, including a shift away from car dashboard navigation devices and consumer adoption of high-end fitness devices. Yet its wide product offering has allowed overall sales to continue marching higher as more focused companies likeFitbitstruggled with big declines. Garmin has also demonstrated a knack for anticipating changing consumer trends, and its steady flow of innovative products isdriving significant profitability gains. CEO Cliff Pemble and his team believe gross margin will tick up to 59% of sales this year, up from 58% last year and 56% in fiscal 2016. That success would give executives room for another modest dividend boost even though the stock today yields over 3.5%.
McDonald's(NYSE: MCD)growth turnaround has attracted most of investors' attention lately. And there are good reasons for that focus. The fast food giant is back at the top of its industry andgrabbing market sharefrom a wide range of competitors.
Image source: Getty Images.
I'd add two big financial factors to that sales momentum as reasons to like this stock today. First, McDonald's is planning to invest $2.4 billion into the business this year on high-return areas like store remodeling and digital sales infrastructure. That's a level of spending that almost no peer could match or hope to maintain. It's just another investment year for McDonald's, though.
Second, profitability has improved by over 10 percentage points since 2012 and stands to rise even further from its current 40% perch. The chain has sold off thousands of its company-owned locations to franchisees andreplaced food saleswith higher-margin rent, fees, and royalty payments. That financial strategy has more room to impact results as the company-owned restaurant base falls to around 5% in the next few years from 8% today. As a result, the outlook is bright for McDonald's $4 annual dividend that currently yields about 2.6%.
At some point there will be a pullback in the cyclical home improvement market, and that slump will likely stallHome Depot's(NYSE: HD)multiyear expansion. But there's no reason to think that downturn is imminent -- or even close.
Sure, the retailer's sales growth slowed to a 4% rate at the start of 2018. But executives explained how that decline was tied to seasonal products like gardening equipment that didn't sell well during an unusually long winter. CEO Craig Menear and his team backed up that explanation byaffirming their full-year targetsafter noting that sales gains shot up to a double-digit pace as soon as warmer weather arrived in early May.
Over the longer term, assuming just a steady rebound in home improvement spending, investors can look forward to this retailer reaching a sales base of as high as $120 billion by 2020 even as its market-leading profitability rises to 15% of sales. Home Depot's highly efficient business, and its conservative plans to keep a steady store base, meanwhile, should translate into plenty of excess cash that the retailer can direct toward higher dividend payments in the coming years.
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Demitrios Kalogeropoulosowns shares of Home Depot and McDonald's. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Fitbit. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $110 calls on Home Depot. The Motley Fool recommends Home Depot. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Mobile Simpsons Game Adds Bitcoin Mining, Annoying Blockchain Evangelist in Latest Update: simpsons Krusty has lost everything on bitcoin! The March Towards Mass Adoption Bitcoin is taking further steps towards mass adoption, now featuring in the popular freemium game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out . In the game, Homer has neglected his work, playing mobile games instead of monitoring Springfield nuclear power station. In the new quest, called Crypto Cool , added to the game this week, the player is first tasked with getting Martin to mention blockchain numerous times, without ever explain what it is. At one point during the dialogue, he says “I mined some bitcoin with my computer, and then the value went through the roof” and also says he had never heard of blockchain “until last week. But now I act like I’m an expert on it!” Once you’ve completed this task, you will also be asked to encourage three youngsters to mine bitcoin on their computers. The Simpsons : Tapped Out game adds an interesting new update. 👍 #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/kbveN2jmT4 — Armin van Bitcoin ⚡ (@ArminVanBitcoin) May 15, 2018 Bitcoin Mainstream Adoption Notably, it isn’t the first time bitcoin has been mentioned in the popular cartoon’s universe. In a 2013 episode , when Krusty is asked by Lisa whether he is broke, he responds by saying that “all it takes is bad luck at the ponies, worse luck in the bitcoin markets…” In a 2014 episode, bully Jimbo Jones is pictured on a billboard saying that he accepts bitcoin payments. Being mentioned on the Simpsons represents a degree of mass media attention and a step towards mass adoption, which many investors and proponents of bitcoin believe to be critical to its long term success. Other shows have started to mention bitcoin more often, too. It was mentioned in Family Guy in 2014 and Supernatural in the same year. It has also been mentioned in Almost Human, House of Cards, Person of Interest, and the Good Wife. Story continues Tapped Out The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a mobile game available for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire. It was launched in 2012 and is published by gaming giant EA Mobile. EA estimates that it has made more than $130 million since its launch, and while critics initially hit out at the game’s use of the Freemium model, alleging that the in-game micro-transactions required that players invest large sums of money to progress, it has continued to perform for EA, albeit at a reduced rate. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Mobile Simpsons Game Adds Bitcoin Mining, Annoying Blockchain Evangelist in Latest Update appeared first on CCN . || Mobile Simpsons Game Adds Bitcoin Mining, Annoying Blockchain Evangelist in Latest Update: simpsons Krusty has lost everything on bitcoin! The March Towards Mass Adoption Bitcoin is taking further steps towards mass adoption, now featuring in the popular freemium game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out . In the game, Homer has neglected his work, playing mobile games instead of monitoring Springfield nuclear power station. In the new quest, called Crypto Cool , added to the game this week, the player is first tasked with getting Martin to mention blockchain numerous times, without ever explain what it is. At one point during the dialogue, he says “I mined some bitcoin with my computer, and then the value went through the roof” and also says he had never heard of blockchain “until last week. But now I act like I’m an expert on it!” Once you’ve completed this task, you will also be asked to encourage three youngsters to mine bitcoin on their computers. The Simpsons : Tapped Out game adds an interesting new update. 👍 #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/kbveN2jmT4 — Armin van Bitcoin ⚡ (@ArminVanBitcoin) May 15, 2018 Bitcoin Mainstream Adoption Notably, it isn’t the first time bitcoin has been mentioned in the popular cartoon’s universe. In a 2013 episode , when Krusty is asked by Lisa whether he is broke, he responds by saying that “all it takes is bad luck at the ponies, worse luck in the bitcoin markets…” In a 2014 episode, bully Jimbo Jones is pictured on a billboard saying that he accepts bitcoin payments. Being mentioned on the Simpsons represents a degree of mass media attention and a step towards mass adoption, which many investors and proponents of bitcoin believe to be critical to its long term success. Other shows have started to mention bitcoin more often, too. It was mentioned in Family Guy in 2014 and Supernatural in the same year. It has also been mentioned in Almost Human, House of Cards, Person of Interest, and the Good Wife. Story continues Tapped Out The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a mobile game available for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire. It was launched in 2012 and is published by gaming giant EA Mobile. EA estimates that it has made more than $130 million since its launch, and while critics initially hit out at the game’s use of the Freemium model, alleging that the in-game micro-transactions required that players invest large sums of money to progress, it has continued to perform for EA, albeit at a reduced rate. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Mobile Simpsons Game Adds Bitcoin Mining, Annoying Blockchain Evangelist in Latest Update appeared first on CCN . || Mobile Simpsons Game Adds Bitcoin Mining, Annoying Blockchain Evangelist in Latest Update: simpsons Krusty has lost everything on bitcoin! The March Towards Mass Adoption Bitcoin is taking further steps towards mass adoption, now featuring in the popular freemium game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out . In the game, Homer has neglected his work, playing mobile games instead of monitoring Springfield nuclear power station. In the new quest, called Crypto Cool , added to the game this week, the player is first tasked with getting Martin to mention blockchain numerous times, without ever explain what it is. At one point during the dialogue, he says “I mined some bitcoin with my computer, and then the value went through the roof” and also says he had never heard of blockchain “until last week. But now I act like I’m an expert on it!” Once you’ve completed this task, you will also be asked to encourage three youngsters to mine bitcoin on their computers. The Simpsons : Tapped Out game adds an interesting new update. 👍 #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/kbveN2jmT4 — Armin van Bitcoin ⚡ (@ArminVanBitcoin) May 15, 2018 Bitcoin Mainstream Adoption Notably, it isn’t the first time bitcoin has been mentioned in the popular cartoon’s universe. In a 2013 episode , when Krusty is asked by Lisa whether he is broke, he responds by saying that “all it takes is bad luck at the ponies, worse luck in the bitcoin markets…” In a 2014 episode, bully Jimbo Jones is pictured on a billboard saying that he accepts bitcoin payments. Being mentioned on the Simpsons represents a degree of mass media attention and a step towards mass adoption, which many investors and proponents of bitcoin believe to be critical to its long term success. Other shows have started to mention bitcoin more often, too. It was mentioned in Family Guy in 2014 and Supernatural in the same year. It has also been mentioned in Almost Human, House of Cards, Person of Interest, and the Good Wife. Story continues Tapped Out The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a mobile game available for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire. It was launched in 2012 and is published by gaming giant EA Mobile. EA estimates that it has made more than $130 million since its launch, and while critics initially hit out at the game’s use of the Freemium model, alleging that the in-game micro-transactions required that players invest large sums of money to progress, it has continued to perform for EA, albeit at a reduced rate. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Mobile Simpsons Game Adds Bitcoin Mining, Annoying Blockchain Evangelist in Latest Update appeared first on CCN . || Barron's Picks And Pans: Bitcoin, Bogle, Lowe's, Procter & Gamble And More: In this weekend'sBarron'scover story, Jack Bogle shares his views on the future of the fund industry.
• Other featured articles offer consumer staples stocks that may be bargains and drone stocks hitting turbulence.
• Also, the prospects for cryptocurrency, a home superstore operator and a streaming platform provider.
"Jack Bogle's Battle" by Leslie P. Norton suggests that if one man can be held responsible for today's market — for better or worse — it is Vanguard founder Jack Bogle. See how the inventor of the index fund responds to a growing chorus of critics, and he also weighs in on the future of the fund industry. In a companion article, Bogle answers lightning round questions.
Lawrence C. Strauss's "Why Coke, PepsiCo, and P&G Look Like Bargains" examines why investors are ignoring the comeback prospects of consumer-staples giants such asProcter & Gamble Co(NYSE:PG). See why, despite weak top-line growth, less brand loyalty, rising costs and other headwinds, one bull sees the best opportunities since 2001.
In "Bitcoin's Price Drop Doesn't Scare the Big Money," Avi Salzman points out that Coindesk's annual conference showed that the financial industry is still drawn to blockchain and bitcoin, even though the latter has plunged 58 percent from its December highs, Warren Buffett has compared it to rat poison, few people use it for everyday purchases and the regulatory outlook is uncertain.
Shares of big-box store operatorLowe's Companies, Inc.(NYSE:LOW) got hammered last time it reported earnings, according to "Fixing Up Lowe's" by Ben Levisohn. See why, with shares off more than 7 percent this year, low expectations and big changes on the way, Barron's thinks that the stock probably has limited downside.
See also:The Complete List Of The 2018 Benzinga Global Fintech Award Winners
In Tiernan Ray's "Roku Shares: A Bet on the Channel Guide to TV's Future," see why one small streaming platform provider has carved out a unique niche in TV's still-enormous advertising market. And find out why, given the company's recent growth, Barron's believes that shares ofRoku Inc(NASDAQ:ROKU) look relatively cheap.
"Drone Stocks Hit Turbulence" by Bill Alpert suggests that those sputtering sounds heard overhead last week were shares of military drone makersAeroVironment, Inc.(NASDAQ:AVAV) andKratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc(NASDAQ:KTOS). Did hype carry these stocks to valuations out of sync with larger defense rivals?
Also in this week's Barron's:
• Larry Kudlow and Trump economic policy
• How to play China now
• Five smart places to park cash
• The global debt boom
• What Trump's critics are missing
• Sports betting stocks poised to rise
• ETFs to ride the bullish oil cycle
At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.
Keep up with all the latest breaking news and trading ideas by following Benzinga on Twitter.
See more from Benzinga
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© 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Barron's Picks And Pans: Bitcoin, Bogle, Lowe's, Procter & Gamble And More: In this weekend'sBarron'scover story, Jack Bogle shares his views on the future of the fund industry.
• Other featured articles offer consumer staples stocks that may be bargains and drone stocks hitting turbulence.
• Also, the prospects for cryptocurrency, a home superstore operator and a streaming platform provider.
"Jack Bogle's Battle" by Leslie P. Norton suggests that if one man can be held responsible for today's market — for better or worse — it is Vanguard founder Jack Bogle. See how the inventor of the index fund responds to a growing chorus of critics, and he also weighs in on the future of the fund industry. In a companion article, Bogle answers lightning round questions.
Lawrence C. Strauss's "Why Coke, PepsiCo, and P&G Look Like Bargains" examines why investors are ignoring the comeback prospects of consumer-staples giants such asProcter & Gamble Co(NYSE:PG). See why, despite weak top-line growth, less brand loyalty, rising costs and other headwinds, one bull sees the best opportunities since 2001.
In "Bitcoin's Price Drop Doesn't Scare the Big Money," Avi Salzman points out that Coindesk's annual conference showed that the financial industry is still drawn to blockchain and bitcoin, even though the latter has plunged 58 percent from its December highs, Warren Buffett has compared it to rat poison, few people use it for everyday purchases and the regulatory outlook is uncertain.
Shares of big-box store operatorLowe's Companies, Inc.(NYSE:LOW) got hammered last time it reported earnings, according to "Fixing Up Lowe's" by Ben Levisohn. See why, with shares off more than 7 percent this year, low expectations and big changes on the way, Barron's thinks that the stock probably has limited downside.
See also:The Complete List Of The 2018 Benzinga Global Fintech Award Winners
In Tiernan Ray's "Roku Shares: A Bet on the Channel Guide to TV's Future," see why one small streaming platform provider has carved out a unique niche in TV's still-enormous advertising market. And find out why, given the company's recent growth, Barron's believes that shares ofRoku Inc(NASDAQ:ROKU) look relatively cheap.
"Drone Stocks Hit Turbulence" by Bill Alpert suggests that those sputtering sounds heard overhead last week were shares of military drone makersAeroVironment, Inc.(NASDAQ:AVAV) andKratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc(NASDAQ:KTOS). Did hype carry these stocks to valuations out of sync with larger defense rivals?
Also in this week's Barron's:
• Larry Kudlow and Trump economic policy
• How to play China now
• Five smart places to park cash
• The global debt boom
• What Trump's critics are missing
• Sports betting stocks poised to rise
• ETFs to ride the bullish oil cycle
At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.
Keep up with all the latest breaking news and trading ideas by following Benzinga on Twitter.
See more from Benzinga
• Benzinga's Bulls & Bears Of The Week: Dropbox, GE, Microsoft, Twitter And More
© 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Barron's Picks And Pans: Bitcoin, Bogle, Lowe's, Procter & Gamble And More: In this weekend's Barron's cover story, Jack Bogle shares his views on the future of the fund industry. Other featured articles offer consumer staples stocks that may be bargains and drone stocks hitting turbulence. Also, the prospects for cryptocurrency, a home superstore operator and a streaming platform provider. " Jack Bogle's Battle " by Leslie P. Norton suggests that if one man can be held responsible for today's market — for better or worse — it is Vanguard founder Jack Bogle. See how the inventor of the index fund responds to a growing chorus of critics, and he also weighs in on the future of the fund industry. In a companion article, Bogle answers lightning round questions. Lawrence C. Strauss's " Why Coke, PepsiCo, and P&G Look Like Bargains " examines why investors are ignoring the comeback prospects of consumer-staples giants such as Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE: PG ). See why, despite weak top-line growth, less brand loyalty, rising costs and other headwinds, one bull sees the best opportunities since 2001. In " Bitcoin's Price Drop Doesn't Scare the Big Money ," Avi Salzman points out that Coindesk's annual conference showed that the financial industry is still drawn to blockchain and bitcoin, even though the latter has plunged 58 percent from its December highs, Warren Buffett has compared it to rat poison, few people use it for everyday purchases and the regulatory outlook is uncertain. Shares of big-box store operator Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW ) got hammered last time it reported earnings, according to " Fixing Up Lowe's " by Ben Levisohn. See why, with shares off more than 7 percent this year, low expectations and big changes on the way, Barron's thinks that the stock probably has limited downside. See also: The Complete List Of The 2018 Benzinga Global Fintech Award Winners In Tiernan Ray's "Roku Shares: A Bet on the Channel Guide to TV's Future," see why one small streaming platform provider has carved out a unique niche in TV's still-enormous advertising market. And find out why, given the company's recent growth, Barron's believes that shares of Roku Inc (NASDAQ: ROKU ) look relatively cheap. Story continues "Drone Stocks Hit Turbulence" by Bill Alpert suggests that those sputtering sounds heard overhead last week were shares of military drone makers AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV ) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc (NASDAQ: KTOS ). Did hype carry these stocks to valuations out of sync with larger defense rivals? Also in this week's Barron's: Larry Kudlow and Trump economic policy How to play China now Five smart places to park cash The global debt boom What Trump's critics are missing Sports betting stocks poised to rise ETFs to ride the bullish oil cycle At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities. Keep up with all the latest breaking news and trading ideas by following Benzinga on Twitter. See more from Benzinga Benzinga's Bulls & Bears Of The Week: Dropbox, GE, Microsoft, Twitter And More © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Oil CEOs: Higher Oil Prices Haven’t Increased Our Appetite for M&A: Oil prices have been scorching hot over the past year, up nearly 50% and recently reaching into the $70s. Because of that, oil companies are flush with cash. However, after getting burned by plowing all their money into more wells in the past,they're holding backthese days. That leaves them with an interesting dilemma of what to do with the gusher of free cash flow they're generating at current prices.
One thing a couple of oil company CEOs made clear on their first-quarter conference calls is that they have no desire to use that money for large-scale acquisitions. Instead, they're focusing on a variety of other options for their windfalls that they believe will create more value for investors over the long term.
Image source: Getty Images.
EOG Resources(NYSE: EOG)is cashing in on higher oil prices. The company repositioned its business to deliver strong oil growth along with some free cash flow, as long as oil was around $50 a barrel. Meanwhile, with crude well above that level now, the company is in the position to generate substantial free cash flow this year, which gives it lots of financial flexibility.
However, on the company'sfirst-quarter conference call, CEO Bill Thomas had this to say concerning its flexibility: "Let me be clear on one point. We have no interest in expensive corporate M&A; [mergers and acquisitions] in any commodity price environment." That's because "EOG is an organic exploration company" and as such, it only plans to expand its opportunity set through "low-cost organic leasing and low-cost tactical property additions," not by paying up to buy other companies.
Instead of making deals, the company plans to use its growing excess cash flow to "reduce total debt outstanding by $3 billion over the next several years," which would cut it about 50%. In addition to that, EOG "will target dividend growth above our historical 19% compounded annual rate." The company firmly believes that by allocating its excess cash to shoring up its balance sheet, boosting the dividend, and leasing land in compelling locations, it will create more value for shareholders over the long term than it could by acquiring another company.
Image source: Getty Images.
Marathon Oil(NYSE: MRO)CEO Lee Tillman feels the same way. He stated on the company's first-quarter call that: "Our financial flexibility is at the top of our peer group and was further strengthened by receipt of proceeds from Libya and our final Canadian oil sands payment. This flexibility allows us to pursue multiple high-return uses of free cash, but we are taking a disciplined approach and we are not considering large-scale M&A."
Instead of pursuing an acquisition, the company could repurchase shares, since it already has a $1.5 billion authorization in place. In addition to that, it could look to boost its "already competitive $170 million annual dividend."
Meanwhile, like EOG, Marathon plans to organically grow its opportunity set by leasing land in compelling new plays. Tillman pointed out that, "We have successfully added quality operated locations in theNorthern Delawarethrough trades and a small bolt-on and have captured over 250,000 acres across multiple onshore exploration plays, including a material position in the emerging Louisiana Chalk at less than $900 an acre."
The company plans to continue going down this route because it "offer[s] the potential to generate outsized full cycle returns."
The reason a growing number of CEOs in the oil patch are choosing to avoid M&A is that those transactions tend to destroy more value than they create because companies need to pay a high premium to buy competitors. EOG Resources, on the other hand, has found that it can generate higher returns by investing its capital into finding new resource plays early in their lifecycle rather than paying up to buy those properties after others have de-risked them.
It's an approach that Marathon and others are now starting to follow given EOG's success. That growing focus on generating returns for investors instead of empire building could enable these oil stocks to outperform their acquisitive peers over the long term.
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• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
Matthew DiLallohas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Oil CEOs: Higher Oil Prices Haven’t Increased Our Appetite for M&A: Oil prices have been scorching hot over the past year, up nearly 50% and recently reaching into the $70s. Because of that, oil companies are flush with cash. However, after getting burned by plowing all their money into more wells in the past, they're holding back these days. That leaves them with an interesting dilemma of what to do with the gusher of free cash flow they're generating at current prices. One thing a couple of oil company CEOs made clear on their first-quarter conference calls is that they have no desire to use that money for large-scale acquisitions. Instead, they're focusing on a variety of other options for their windfalls that they believe will create more value for investors over the long term. Oil pumps at dusk. Image source: Getty Images. We have no interest in M&A EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) is cashing in on higher oil prices. The company repositioned its business to deliver strong oil growth along with some free cash flow, as long as oil was around $50 a barrel. Meanwhile, with crude well above that level now, the company is in the position to generate substantial free cash flow this year, which gives it lots of financial flexibility. However, on the company's first-quarter conference call , CEO Bill Thomas had this to say concerning its flexibility: "Let me be clear on one point. We have no interest in expensive corporate M&A; [mergers and acquisitions] in any commodity price environment." That's because "EOG is an organic exploration company" and as such, it only plans to expand its opportunity set through "low-cost organic leasing and low-cost tactical property additions," not by paying up to buy other companies. Instead of making deals, the company plans to use its growing excess cash flow to "reduce total debt outstanding by $3 billion over the next several years," which would cut it about 50%. In addition to that, EOG "will target dividend growth above our historical 19% compounded annual rate." The company firmly believes that by allocating its excess cash to shoring up its balance sheet, boosting the dividend, and leasing land in compelling locations, it will create more value for shareholders over the long term than it could by acquiring another company. Story continues An oil field at sunset. Image source: Getty Images. We're not considering M&A either Marathon Oil (NYSE: MRO) CEO Lee Tillman feels the same way. He stated on the company's first-quarter call that: "Our financial flexibility is at the top of our peer group and was further strengthened by receipt of proceeds from Libya and our final Canadian oil sands payment. This flexibility allows us to pursue multiple high-return uses of free cash, but we are taking a disciplined approach and we are not considering large-scale M&A." Instead of pursuing an acquisition, the company could repurchase shares, since it already has a $1.5 billion authorization in place. In addition to that, it could look to boost its "already competitive $170 million annual dividend." Meanwhile, like EOG, Marathon plans to organically grow its opportunity set by leasing land in compelling new plays. Tillman pointed out that, "We have successfully added quality operated locations in the Northern Delaware through trades and a small bolt-on and have captured over 250,000 acres across multiple onshore exploration plays, including a material position in the emerging Louisiana Chalk at less than $900 an acre." The company plans to continue going down this route because it "offer[s] the potential to generate outsized full cycle returns." A better way to create value The reason a growing number of CEOs in the oil patch are choosing to avoid M&A is that those transactions tend to destroy more value than they create because companies need to pay a high premium to buy competitors. EOG Resources, on the other hand, has found that it can generate higher returns by investing its capital into finding new resource plays early in their lifecycle rather than paying up to buy those properties after others have de-risked them. It's an approach that Marathon and others are now starting to follow given EOG's success. That growing focus on generating returns for investors instead of empire building could enable these oil stocks to outperform their acquisitive peers over the long term. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matthew DiLallo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || The Financial Mistake Americans Regret the Most: When it comes to money matters, we all have our share of regrets. Some people wish they hadn't taken on quite so much student debt . Others lament taking on too much house and struggling with their bills as a result. But if there's one mistake Americans are really bemoaning, it's not saving for retirement early enough. That's the latest from a Bankrate survey , which found that while workers on a whole are in bad shape retirement-wise, an estimated 40% of older employees don't have any retirement savings at all. If you're looking to retire comfortably, you should know that Social Security alone won't pay your bills. Rather, you'll need savings of your own to maintain a reasonable standard of living. So no matter where you are in your career, it's time to start saving as much as you can, as soon as you can. Otherwise, there's a good chance you'll be kicking yourself down the line. Closeup of man with serious expression IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. The importance of saving early If you're fairly young, you may be wondering what the rush is to save for retirement. After all, you have your whole career ahead of you. But it's this line of thinking that's already gotten so many older workers into trouble. Remember, while your income might go up as you progress in your career, thereby opening the door to more savings opportunities, your expenses are likely to follow suit. Therefore, if you think your 20s or 30s are a bad time to start building a nest egg, what with your nagging student loan and credit card payments, just wait until your 40s and 50s, when mortgage costs, home repairs, and college tuition for your own kids start eating up a large chunk of your income. The point here is that there's really no period of life during which saving for retirement will be easy, so rather than keep putting it off, just decide that you're willing to make some sacrifices in exchange for a financially stable future. And if you start early enough, those sacrifices don't have to be huge. Story continues Imagine you're 30 years old with the intention of retiring at age 67. If you commit to saving $300 a month during that time, and you invest your savings at an average annual 7% return, which is actually a bit below the stock market's average, by the time you leave the workforce, you'll be sitting on $577,000, which is far more than what the typical worker has saved today. But watch what happens when you wait 10 years to start saving. Suddenly, you'll need to sock away $650 per month to reach that same total, because you'll be giving your money less time to grow. And $650 is a lot harder to swing than $300. To further illustrate the importance of saving for retirement as early in your career as possible, check out the following table, which shows how a series of relatively small contributions can make a major difference over time: $50 $171,000 $100 $343,000 $200 $686,000 $300 $1.03 million $400 $1.37 million $500 $1.7 million TABLE AND CALCULATIONS BY AUTHOR. Thanks to the power of compounding , giving yourself a lengthy savings window can produce some serious growth. But if you wait too long to start saving, you'll only have two choices: part with a lot more money each month, or retire with less. Neither is ideal. Of course, this doesn't mean all is lost if you're older and don't have much money in your retirement plan. If you're willing to ramp up your contributions and perhaps extend your career to work a bit longer, you can catch up to a certain degree. Case in point: Socking away $1,000 a month for 10 years will leave you with $166,000 to work with in retirement, assuming that same 7% average annual return. Is that a tremendous sum? Not really, given that your retirement might easily last 20 years or longer. But it's better than retiring with little to no money. While you can't go back in time and change your savings habits, you can take steps to put away as much money as possible for the remainder of your career, however long that happens to be. And if you're still fairly young with several decades ahead of you, seize the opportunity to amass a solid level of wealth in time for your golden years. You'll be thankful you did. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || The Financial Mistake Americans Regret the Most: When it comes to money matters, we all have our share of regrets. Some people wish they hadn't taken on quite so muchstudent debt. Others lament taking ontoo much houseand struggling with their bills as a result. But if there's one mistake Americans arereallybemoaning, it's not saving for retirement early enough. That's the latest from aBankrate survey, which found that while workers on a whole are in bad shape retirement-wise, an estimated 40% of older employees don't have any retirement savings at all.
If you're looking to retire comfortably, you should know thatSocial Security alonewon't pay your bills. Rather, you'll need savings of your own to maintain a reasonable standard of living. So no matter where you are in your career, it's time to start saving as much as you can, as soon as you can. Otherwise, there's a good chance you'll be kicking yourself down the line.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
If you're fairly young, you may be wondering what the rush is to save for retirement. After all, you have your whole career ahead of you. But it's this line of thinking that's already gotten so many older workers into trouble. Remember, while your income might go up as you progress in your career, thereby opening the door to more savings opportunities, your expenses are likely to follow suit. Therefore, if you think your 20s or 30s are a bad time to start building a nest egg, what with your nagging student loan and credit card payments, just wait until your 40s and 50s, when mortgage costs, home repairs, and college tuition for your own kids start eating up a large chunk of your income.
The point here is that there's really no period of life during which saving for retirement will be easy, so rather than keep putting it off, just decide that you're willing to make some sacrifices in exchange for a financially stable future. And if you start early enough, those sacrifices don't have to be huge.
Imagine you're 30 years old with the intention of retiring at age 67. If you commit to saving $300 a month during that time, and you invest your savings at an average annual 7% return, which is actually a bit below the stock market's average, by the time you leave the workforce, you'll be sitting on $577,000, which is far more than what the typical worker has saved today. But watch what happens when you wait 10 years to start saving. Suddenly, you'll need to sock away $650 per month to reach that same total, because you'll be giving your money less time to grow. And $650 is a lot harder to swing than $300.
To further illustrate the importance of saving for retirement as early in your career as possible, check out the following table, which shows how a series of relatively small contributions can make a major difference over time:
[{"$50": "$100", "$171,000": "$343,000"}, {"$50": "$200", "$171,000": "$686,000"}, {"$50": "$300", "$171,000": "$1.03 million"}, {"$50": "$400", "$171,000": "$1.37 million"}, {"$50": "$500", "$171,000": "$1.7 million"}]
TABLE AND CALCULATIONS BY AUTHOR.
Thanks to the power ofcompounding, giving yourself a lengthy savings window can produce some serious growth. But if you wait too long to start saving, you'll only have two choices: part with a lot more money each month, or retire with less. Neither is ideal.
Of course, this doesn't mean all is lost if you're older and don't have much money in your retirement plan. If you're willing to ramp up your contributions and perhaps extend your career to work a bit longer, you can catch up to a certain degree. Case in point: Socking away $1,000 a month for 10 years will leave you with $166,000 to work with in retirement, assuming that same 7% average annual return. Is that a tremendous sum? Not really, given that your retirement might easily last 20 years or longer. But it's better than retiring with little to no money.
While you can't go back in time and change your savings habits, youcantake steps to put away as much money as possible for the remainder of your career, however long that happens to be. And if you're still fairly young with several decades ahead of you, seize the opportunity to amass a solid level of wealth in time for your golden years. You'll be thankful you did.
More From The Motley Fool
• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
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#trading #futures #commodities #eurusd #gold #oil #dowjones #Trump #FED #OPEC #dollar #euro #ECB #Bitcoin #BITCOINFUTURES #MiFIDI8 #FederalReservepic.twitter.com/FqoisCqlkt || #Bitcoin #BTC 2.79%
#Ethereum #ETH 1.00%
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Datos ult. 24hspic.twitter.com/mnc66kqrIZ || May ...
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8041.78, 7557.82, 7587.34, 7480.14, 7355.88, 7368.22, 7135.99, 7472.59, 7406.52, 7494.17
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 575.47, 572.30, 575.54, 598.21, 608.63, 606.59, 610.44, 614.54, 626.32, 622.86, 623.51, 606.72, 608.24, 609.24, 610.68, 607.16, 606.97, 605.98, 609.87, 609.23, 608.31, 597.15, 596.30, 602.84, 602.62, 600.83, 608.04, 606.17, 604.73, 605.69, 609.73, 613.98, 610.89, 612.13, 610.20, 612.51, 613.02, 617.12, 619.11, 616.75, 618.99, 641.07, 636.19, 636.79, 640.38, 638.65, 641.63, 639.19, 637.96, 630.52, 630.86, 632.83, 657.29, 657.07, 653.76, 657.59, 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13, 709.85, 723.27, 715.53, 716.41, 705.05, 702.03, 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-11-28]
Volume: 61888600, RSI (14-day): 56.56, 50-day EMA: 699.57, 200-day EMA: 615.03
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1190.60, Gold RSI: 28.81
Oil Price: 47.08, Oil RSI: 51.49
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Tips on How to Protect Your Private Information On Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Americans will line up around stores and standby their computers or smartphones to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, but protecting their private information should also be priority for shoppers. During the holiday season many shoppers are harmed by failing to take simple precautions, says Gene Richardson, COO of Experts Exchange , a network for technology professionals. In Store Vs. Online Retail stores are one of the top areas identity thieves go after, Richardson said in an email to the IBTimes. A large number of some of the biggest identity thefts in the past few years were at large retail stores, he says. Long lines and busy cashiers could potentially put your private information at risk. “All the clerk cares about is getting you through the line as fast as they can so they can deal with the next customer and hope that none of you are angry,” says Richardson. “So, if there is a hiccup with your transaction, they will take “backup” paths to complete your transaction like entering your credit card number by hand.” Richardson, who is also the former head of the data security teams IBM, Charles Schwab and Motorola, says customers should never give their credit card to someone to perform a transaction by entering a card number. “Hand transactions are a huge risk for identity theft,” he says. Customers should also avoid buying if a cashier’s computer is down or too busy, unless it’s with cash, or try to go back later. Credit card scanners are also a threat to customers, as some of them may be rigged to copy a person’s information so that a duplicate credit card can be made. People may be less exposed to this action in large retail stores, but the risk is higher in smaller boutiques shops, says Richardson. Customers should also make sure their credit card number is not printed on receipts and should instead have XXX's where the number is displayed. But online purchases can be riskier because of all the extra information customers hand over, like their name, address, phone number, credit card information, expiration date and CSV. Story continues “They ask for so much more information from you to validate who you are than a purchase in a retail store,” says Richardson. “You have no control of who or where that information is going.” Tips to Protect Yourself Here are Richardson’s tips for shoppers on how they can protect themselves on Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Ensure that the website address is secure and has a valid encryption certificate. It will usually display a “locked, green” indicator in front of the website name. If it doesn’t have that, it does not have a higher level of security that has been guaranteed by a known entity like Verisign, Symantec and others. Ensure your system has the most recent recommended system and security patches. Always use a credit card that is not tied directly to your personal bank account(s), even if you are using PayPal, Bitcoin or some other payment method. Never give anything other than name, address and phone number. You should not need to answer security or privacy questions when making a purchase or checking out. If they ask, see if you can checkout as a “guest” instead. Monitor your credit through a third party for identify theft and have SMS and email alerts sent to you immediately. Set-up alerts with your credit card company that send both SMS and emails when any purchases are made and the credit card was not scanned (meaning, it wasn’t in someone’s hand when the charge was made). Set them as low as $25 per purchase. Also, set-up alerts for total purchases over $500 in a billing period to protect multiple $24.99 purchases. And if possible, a maximum amount of purchases allowed in a billing period such as $1500 before card will get declined. Ensure that you have a reputable Antivirus program running on your computer and that your browser has an Ad blocking plug-in. (Richardson recommends Norton, McAfee or ESET.) Ensure that the network your computer/device is on is secure and you know who has access to your network. This is usually done with your router. You want to lock down your router so that traffic can be initiated from the inside-out but you do not want traffic to be initiated from the outside-in. If you are using a WiFi connection, make sure that network is also secure and requires a password to join. If it is a public WiFi network that doesn’t require a password, then the traffic coming from your device can be monitored and stolen. (Link to onsite how-to article?) Any passwords that you use should be strong, hard to guess ones. Or, even better, hard to guess, but easy to remember . Don’t click on unfamiliar links to sites advertising sales, coupons, etc. Use two-factor authentication/verification, if it is offered. Shopping on Mobile Devices One in 10 mobile apps that are found through searching “Black Friday” are blacklisted as malicious, according to cyber security company RiskIQ An estimated 30 percent of purchases will be made on mobile devices, RiskIQ says. Shopping on mobile devices can substantially increase the risk of encountering phishing pages, malicious apps, and viruses that infect customers’ smartphones and tablets to steal money and private information. There are also fake apps out there that contain malware that can steal customers’ data or lock the device until the user pays a ransom, says RiskIQ. Other malicious apps may ask consumers to use their Facebook or Gmail logins, which could compromise their private information. Tips For Safe Shopping on Mobile Devices Here are some tips from RiskIQ: Ensure that you are only downloading apps from official app stores such as Google or Apple Be wary of applications that ask for suspicious permissions, like access to contacts, text messages, administrative features, stored passwords, or credit card info. Just because an app appears to have a good reputation doesn’t make it so. Rave reviews can be forged, and a high amount of downloads can simply indicate a threat actor was successful in fooling a lot of victims. Before downloading an app, be sure to take a look at the developer—if it’s not a brand you recognize or has a strange appearance or spelling, think twice. You can even do a Google search on the developer for more clues about its reputation. Make sure to take a deep look at each app. New developers, or developers that leverage free email services (e.g., @gmail) for their developer contact, can be enormous red flags— threat actors often use these services to produce mass amounts of malicious apps in a short period. Also, poor grammar in the description highlights the haste of development and the lack of marketing professionalism that are hallmarks of mobile malware campaigns. Check website addresses after following links on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media channels to be sure you end up on the true website of the retailer you want. Look for the “S” in HTTPS when you visit shopping sites. Beware of shopping sites that do not use HTTPS in their website addresses or do not display the symbol of a lock next to the web address. Secure sites use HTTPS, and without that, you’re dealing with unsecured connections or weak encryption of personal data. Never provide your credit card information unless you are in a secure online shopping portal. Sites that ask for it in return for “coupons” or to win “free” merchandise are almost always scams. Protect Yourself From a Major Headache For those who might not want to go through the hassle of setting up credit card alerts on purchases or locking down their router, it’s important to remember that it can and save consumers from a major headache. “Identity theft could cost you several thousand dollars in actual money and can cost you a lot more in your personal time and future anticipated losses cleaning up after the fact,” Richardson said. “The impact of identity theft could last years as you personally have to work to call all your creditors to fix your credit, loss of credibility for future purchases of a home, car, etc. as your credit scores will have been impacted, the effect on future employment opportunities as background checks are run and many, many more,” he added. Related Articles $100 Off HTC Vive On Black Friday and Cyber Monday American Consumers Prep For Cyber Monday || Tips on How to Protect Your Private Information On Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Americans will line up around stores and standby their computers or smartphones to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, but protecting their private information should also be priority for shoppers. During the holiday season many shoppers are harmed by failing to take simple precautions, says Gene Richardson, COO of Experts Exchange , a network for technology professionals. In Store Vs. Online Retail stores are one of the top areas identity thieves go after, Richardson said in an email to the IBTimes. A large number of some of the biggest identity thefts in the past few years were at large retail stores, he says. Long lines and busy cashiers could potentially put your private information at risk. “All the clerk cares about is getting you through the line as fast as they can so they can deal with the next customer and hope that none of you are angry,” says Richardson. “So, if there is a hiccup with your transaction, they will take “backup” paths to complete your transaction like entering your credit card number by hand.” Richardson, who is also the former head of the data security teams IBM, Charles Schwab and Motorola, says customers should never give their credit card to someone to perform a transaction by entering a card number. “Hand transactions are a huge risk for identity theft,” he says. Customers should also avoid buying if a cashier’s computer is down or too busy, unless it’s with cash, or try to go back later. Credit card scanners are also a threat to customers, as some of them may be rigged to copy a person’s information so that a duplicate credit card can be made. People may be less exposed to this action in large retail stores, but the risk is higher in smaller boutiques shops, says Richardson. Customers should also make sure their credit card number is not printed on receipts and should instead have XXX's where the number is displayed. But online purchases can be riskier because of all the extra information customers hand over, like their name, address, phone number, credit card information, expiration date and CSV. Story continues “They ask for so much more information from you to validate who you are than a purchase in a retail store,” says Richardson. “You have no control of who or where that information is going.” Tips to Protect Yourself Here are Richardson’s tips for shoppers on how they can protect themselves on Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Ensure that the website address is secure and has a valid encryption certificate. It will usually display a “locked, green” indicator in front of the website name. If it doesn’t have that, it does not have a higher level of security that has been guaranteed by a known entity like Verisign, Symantec and others. Ensure your system has the most recent recommended system and security patches. Always use a credit card that is not tied directly to your personal bank account(s), even if you are using PayPal, Bitcoin or some other payment method. Never give anything other than name, address and phone number. You should not need to answer security or privacy questions when making a purchase or checking out. If they ask, see if you can checkout as a “guest” instead. Monitor your credit through a third party for identify theft and have SMS and email alerts sent to you immediately. Set-up alerts with your credit card company that send both SMS and emails when any purchases are made and the credit card was not scanned (meaning, it wasn’t in someone’s hand when the charge was made). Set them as low as $25 per purchase. Also, set-up alerts for total purchases over $500 in a billing period to protect multiple $24.99 purchases. And if possible, a maximum amount of purchases allowed in a billing period such as $1500 before card will get declined. Ensure that you have a reputable Antivirus program running on your computer and that your browser has an Ad blocking plug-in. (Richardson recommends Norton, McAfee or ESET.) Ensure that the network your computer/device is on is secure and you know who has access to your network. This is usually done with your router. You want to lock down your router so that traffic can be initiated from the inside-out but you do not want traffic to be initiated from the outside-in. If you are using a WiFi connection, make sure that network is also secure and requires a password to join. If it is a public WiFi network that doesn’t require a password, then the traffic coming from your device can be monitored and stolen. (Link to onsite how-to article?) Any passwords that you use should be strong, hard to guess ones. Or, even better, hard to guess, but easy to remember . Don’t click on unfamiliar links to sites advertising sales, coupons, etc. Use two-factor authentication/verification, if it is offered. Shopping on Mobile Devices One in 10 mobile apps that are found through searching “Black Friday” are blacklisted as malicious, according to cyber security company RiskIQ An estimated 30 percent of purchases will be made on mobile devices, RiskIQ says. Shopping on mobile devices can substantially increase the risk of encountering phishing pages, malicious apps, and viruses that infect customers’ smartphones and tablets to steal money and private information. There are also fake apps out there that contain malware that can steal customers’ data or lock the device until the user pays a ransom, says RiskIQ. Other malicious apps may ask consumers to use their Facebook or Gmail logins, which could compromise their private information. Tips For Safe Shopping on Mobile Devices Here are some tips from RiskIQ: Ensure that you are only downloading apps from official app stores such as Google or Apple Be wary of applications that ask for suspicious permissions, like access to contacts, text messages, administrative features, stored passwords, or credit card info. Just because an app appears to have a good reputation doesn’t make it so. Rave reviews can be forged, and a high amount of downloads can simply indicate a threat actor was successful in fooling a lot of victims. Before downloading an app, be sure to take a look at the developer—if it’s not a brand you recognize or has a strange appearance or spelling, think twice. You can even do a Google search on the developer for more clues about its reputation. Make sure to take a deep look at each app. New developers, or developers that leverage free email services (e.g., @gmail) for their developer contact, can be enormous red flags— threat actors often use these services to produce mass amounts of malicious apps in a short period. Also, poor grammar in the description highlights the haste of development and the lack of marketing professionalism that are hallmarks of mobile malware campaigns. Check website addresses after following links on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media channels to be sure you end up on the true website of the retailer you want. Look for the “S” in HTTPS when you visit shopping sites. Beware of shopping sites that do not use HTTPS in their website addresses or do not display the symbol of a lock next to the web address. Secure sites use HTTPS, and without that, you’re dealing with unsecured connections or weak encryption of personal data. Never provide your credit card information unless you are in a secure online shopping portal. Sites that ask for it in return for “coupons” or to win “free” merchandise are almost always scams. Protect Yourself From a Major Headache For those who might not want to go through the hassle of setting up credit card alerts on purchases or locking down their router, it’s important to remember that it can and save consumers from a major headache. “Identity theft could cost you several thousand dollars in actual money and can cost you a lot more in your personal time and future anticipated losses cleaning up after the fact,” Richardson said. “The impact of identity theft could last years as you personally have to work to call all your creditors to fix your credit, loss of credibility for future purchases of a home, car, etc. as your credit scores will have been impacted, the effect on future employment opportunities as background checks are run and many, many more,” he added. Related Articles $100 Off HTC Vive On Black Friday and Cyber Monday American Consumers Prep For Cyber Monday || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Announces Appointment of Bitcoin Protocol Development Expert Patrick Dugan to the Company’s Board of Directors. Additional Developments Announced: VANCOUVER, B.C. / ACCESSWIRE / November 23, 2016 / First Bitcoin Capital Corp is pleased to announce that leading bitcoin protocol development expert in the crypto currency field Patrick Dugan has joined the company's Board of Directors. A serial entrepreneur with several years of experience in blockchain, finance, ecommerce and game development, Mr. Dugan has extensive knowledge of complex securitization structures and trading strategies. Mr. Dugan brings 9 years of trading experience, with over 3 years in cryptocurrency trading, averaging 50% annual returns. He served as a consultant on social game economics, and market making operations for exchanges. Mr. Dugan has served for the last year and a half as operations manager for the Omni Layer Foundation (previously Mastercoin), and has been involved in the issuance of the world's first bearer bonds on the Bitcoin blockchain. "Patrick Dugan is well known in the international crypto-currency space," the company said. "He brings a wealth of strategic experience in finance and blockchain business development. We look forward to his contributions as a member of our Board as we advance the development of the world’s first on-blockchain REIT offering." Mrs. Dugan said he seeks to bring to First Bitcoin Capital his expertise in bitcoin and blockchain protocol and assist new or existing initiatives that plan to build upon and take advantage of the capabilities offered by the Omni Layer protocol. BITCF has thus far utilized the Omni Layer Protocol to launch 6 cryptocurrencies such as symbols, PRES, TESLA, HILL, GARY, BURN, and OTX. Furthermore, in conjunction with BITCF expanding ownership of its common shares onto its own blockchain (BIT) and trading on foreign international cryptocurrency exchanges, the company invites its shareholders to exercise an option to convert their paper certificates into digital shares. Shareholders need only surrender their certificates with instruction to deliver those shares to the BIT wallet address they provide to the company. Story continues About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. "Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies." At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.BITCoinCapitalcorp.com company website. www.CoinQX.com Cryptocurrency Exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.com real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.cc providing mining pool management services. www.2016coin.org online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL and $GARY $BURN coins. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release .Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com . Contact us via: [email protected] or visit http://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Announces Appointment of Bitcoin Protocol Development Expert Patrick Dugan to the Company’s Board of Directors. Additional Developments Announced: VANCOUVER, B.C. / ACCESSWIRE / November 23, 2016 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp is pleased to announce that leading bitcoin protocol development expert in the crypto currency field Patrick Dugan has joined the company's Board of Directors.
A serial entrepreneur with several years of experience in blockchain, finance, ecommerce and game development, Mr. Dugan has extensive knowledge of complex securitization structures and trading strategies.
Mr. Dugan brings 9 years of trading experience, with over 3 years in cryptocurrency trading, averaging 50% annual returns. He served as a consultant on social game economics, and market making operations for exchanges.
Mr. Dugan has served for the last year and a half as operations manager for the Omni Layer Foundation (previously Mastercoin), and has been involved in the issuance of the world's first bearer bonds on the Bitcoin blockchain.
"Patrick Dugan is well known in the international crypto-currency space," the company said. "He brings a wealth of strategic experience in finance and blockchain business development. We look forward to his contributions as a member of our Board as we advance the development of the world’s first on-blockchain REIT offering."
Mrs. Dugan said he seeks to bring to First Bitcoin Capital his expertise in bitcoin and blockchain protocol and assist new or existing initiatives that plan to build upon and take advantage of the capabilities offered by the Omni Layer protocol. BITCF has thus far utilized the Omni Layer Protocol to launch 6 cryptocurrencies such as symbols, PRES, TESLA, HILL, GARY, BURN, and OTX.
Furthermore, in conjunction with BITCF expanding ownership of its common shares onto its own blockchain (BIT) and trading on foreign international cryptocurrency exchanges, the company invites its shareholders to exercise an option to convert their paper certificates into digital shares. Shareholders need only surrender their certificates with instruction to deliver those shares to the BIT wallet address they provide to the company.
About the company:
First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. "Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies." At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets.
www.BITCoinCapitalcorp.comcompany website.
www.CoinQX.comCryptocurrency Exchange, registered with FINCEN.
www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site.
www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services.
www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL and $GARY $BURN coins.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release .Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.
Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com
SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Announces Appointment of Bitcoin Protocol Development Expert Patrick Dugan to the Company’s Board of Directors. Additional Developments Announced: VANCOUVER, B.C. / ACCESSWIRE / November 23, 2016 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp is pleased to announce that leading bitcoin protocol development expert in the crypto currency field Patrick Dugan has joined the company's Board of Directors.
A serial entrepreneur with several years of experience in blockchain, finance, ecommerce and game development, Mr. Dugan has extensive knowledge of complex securitization structures and trading strategies.
Mr. Dugan brings 9 years of trading experience, with over 3 years in cryptocurrency trading, averaging 50% annual returns. He served as a consultant on social game economics, and market making operations for exchanges.
Mr. Dugan has served for the last year and a half as operations manager for the Omni Layer Foundation (previously Mastercoin), and has been involved in the issuance of the world's first bearer bonds on the Bitcoin blockchain.
"Patrick Dugan is well known in the international crypto-currency space," the company said. "He brings a wealth of strategic experience in finance and blockchain business development. We look forward to his contributions as a member of our Board as we advance the development of the world’s first on-blockchain REIT offering."
Mrs. Dugan said he seeks to bring to First Bitcoin Capital his expertise in bitcoin and blockchain protocol and assist new or existing initiatives that plan to build upon and take advantage of the capabilities offered by the Omni Layer protocol. BITCF has thus far utilized the Omni Layer Protocol to launch 6 cryptocurrencies such as symbols, PRES, TESLA, HILL, GARY, BURN, and OTX.
Furthermore, in conjunction with BITCF expanding ownership of its common shares onto its own blockchain (BIT) and trading on foreign international cryptocurrency exchanges, the company invites its shareholders to exercise an option to convert their paper certificates into digital shares. Shareholders need only surrender their certificates with instruction to deliver those shares to the BIT wallet address they provide to the company.
About the company:
First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. "Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies." At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets.
www.BITCoinCapitalcorp.comcompany website.
www.CoinQX.comCryptocurrency Exchange, registered with FINCEN.
www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site.
www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services.
www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL and $GARY $BURN coins.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release .Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.
Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com
SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || John Reid Confirmed as CEO of Cable and Wireless: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Nov 21, 2016) - John Reid has been confirmed as Chief Executive Officer ofC&W Communications("C&W", or the "Company") effective November 7, 2016. C&W serves 18 countries and is one of the largest full service telecommunications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Company was recently acquired byLiberty Globalplc "Liberty Global", the world's largest international TV and broadband company.
"This is a time of meaningful change and development for C&W, and I am excited for the expertise and continuity that John brings to this growing region," said Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global. Reid is tasked with aligning the former UK-based company with Liberty's Latin America and Caribbean ("LiLAC Group") division, while strengthening the Company's growth opportunities, in particular triple-play, mobile data and fixed-mobile convergence, and seizing on the significant business-to-business and wholesale opportunities in the region.
"I am honored to lead C&W Communications into the next phase of our development. I look forward to achieving our growth objectives, creating greater value for our stakeholders, and transforming our employee and customer experience," Reid said.
Reid, a Canadian national, is uniquely positioned to take C&W to its next chapter as he has over 28 years of telecommunications and cable television experience, and has spearheaded complex integrations and pioneered a culture of transformation and engagement, first in Canada, and during the past 11 years, across the Caribbean. Prior to his role as Interim CEO of C&W, Reid served as C&W's President, Consumer Division and was part of the executive leadership team at C&W that achieved in excess of $100m in synergies in less than 18 months following the Columbus transaction.
At Columbus, where he was President and Chief Operating Officer, he led the Company to become a leader and innovator in the broadband and entertainment industry across the Caribbean and Latin America. Prior to Columbus John held various roles with Canadian MSO Persona, holding the position of Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer.
John holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, serves as the Chairman of Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), a 49% subsidiary of C&W, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Caribbean Tales.
About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region.
Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter.
About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Liberty Global invests in the infrastructure that empowers its customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Liberty Global's scale and commitment to innovation enables it to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect its 29 million customers who subscribe to 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. Liberty Global also serves over 10 million mobile subscribers and offers WiFi service across seven million access points.
Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for its European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets.
For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com.
Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3082861 || John Reid Confirmed as CEO of Cable and Wireless: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Nov 21, 2016) - John Reid has been confirmed as Chief Executive Officer of C&W Communications ("C&W", or the "Company") effective November 7, 2016. C&W serves 18 countries and is one of the largest full service telecommunications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Company was recently acquired by Liberty Global plc "Liberty Global", the world's largest international TV and broadband company. "This is a time of meaningful change and development for C&W, and I am excited for the expertise and continuity that John brings to this growing region," said Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global. Reid is tasked with aligning the former UK-based company with Liberty's Latin America and Caribbean ("LiLAC Group") division, while strengthening the Company's growth opportunities, in particular triple-play, mobile data and fixed-mobile convergence, and seizing on the significant business-to-business and wholesale opportunities in the region. "I am honored to lead C&W Communications into the next phase of our development. I look forward to achieving our growth objectives, creating greater value for our stakeholders, and transforming our employee and customer experience," Reid said. Reid, a Canadian national, is uniquely positioned to take C&W to its next chapter as he has over 28 years of telecommunications and cable television experience, and has spearheaded complex integrations and pioneered a culture of transformation and engagement, first in Canada, and during the past 11 years, across the Caribbean. Prior to his role as Interim CEO of C&W, Reid served as C&W's President, Consumer Division and was part of the executive leadership team at C&W that achieved in excess of $100m in synergies in less than 18 months following the Columbus transaction. At Columbus, where he was President and Chief Operating Officer, he led the Company to become a leader and innovator in the broadband and entertainment industry across the Caribbean and Latin America. Prior to Columbus John held various roles with Canadian MSO Persona, holding the position of Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. Story continues John holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, serves as the Chairman of Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), a 49% subsidiary of C&W, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Caribbean Tales. About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Liberty Global invests in the infrastructure that empowers its customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Liberty Global's scale and commitment to innovation enables it to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect its 29 million customers who subscribe to 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. Liberty Global also serves over 10 million mobile subscribers and offers WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for its European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3082861
[Social Media Buzz]
#UFOCoin #UFO $0.000007 (0.14%) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00%) || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000007 (0.50%) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00%) || 1 KOBO = 0.00000139 BTC
= 0.0010 USD
= 0.3140 NGN
= 0.0138 ZAR
= 0.1018 KES
#Kobocoin 2016-11-28 12:00 pic.twitter.com/hs6BtYMRAV || Current value of DOGE in BTC: Vircurex: 0.0000003 -- Volume: Today's trend: stable at 11/28/16 00:00 || #CannabisCoin #CANN $0.002581 (-1.04%) 0.00000350 BTC (-1.00%) || 1 BTC Price: BTC-e 731.032 USD Bitstamp 731.00 USD Coinbase 730.90 U...
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735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 29001.72, 29374.15, 32127.27, 32782.02, 31971.91, 33992.43, 36824.36, 39371.04, 40797.61, 40254.55, 38356.44, 35566.66, 33922.96, 37316.36, 39187.33, 36825.37, 36178.14, 35791.28, 36630.07, 36069.80, 35547.75, 30825.70, 33005.76, 32067.64, 32289.38, 32366.39, 32569.85, 30432.55, 33466.10, 34316.39, 34269.52, 33114.36, 33537.18, 35510.29, 37472.09, 36926.07, 38144.31, 39266.01, 38903.44, 46196.46, 46481.11, 44918.18, 47909.33, 47504.85, 47105.52, 48717.29, 47945.06, 49199.87, 52149.01, 51679.80, 55888.13, 56099.52, 57539.95, 54207.32, 48824.43, 49705.33, 47093.85, 46339.76, 46188.45, 45137.77, 49631.24, 48378.99, 50538.24, 48561.17, 48927.30, 48912.38, 51206.69, 52246.52, 54824.12, 56008.55, 57805.12, 57332.09, 61243.09, 59302.32, 55907.20, 56804.90, 58870.89, 57858.92, 58346.65, 58313.64, 57523.42, 54529.14, 54738.95, 52774.27, 51704.16, 55137.31, 55973.51, 55950.75, 57750.20, 58917.69.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-03-30]
Volume: 54414116432, RSI (14-day): 60.72, 50-day EMA: 51419.31, 200-day EMA: 33960.57
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1683.90, Gold RSI: 32.96
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[Recent News (last 7 days)]
NCLA Comments Warn Against Treasury’s Proposed Crypto Surveillance Rule as Unconstitutional: Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets, Docket Number FINCEN-2020-0020-0001 Washington, D.C., March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Treasury Department’s planned “crackdown” on cryptocurrency holders’ private wallets is an unconstitutional power grab that would lead to a massive collection of people’s personal information. The unlawful requirements laid out by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of Treasury, would likely force privacy-sensitive digital assets out of the U.S. banking system. The proposed rule represents a radical—and unlawful—extension of FinCEN’s financial surveillance. To forestall FinCEN’s large-scale state intrusion into private digital transactions, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, today filed its comments objecting to FinCEN’s Proposed Rule, Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets . If FinCEN moves forward with its proposal in its current form, digital assets would fall into the “monetary instruments” category of regulated currencies. That designation would mean a vast expansion of the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) record-keeping and currency transaction reporting requirements—to collect private data of Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s users, among others. Besides transaction reports, the proposed rule sets in motion a chain reaction of personal information mandatory disclosure. Whenever a financial institution makes a transaction involving digital assets worth more than $3,000 with a person—even an individual holding them in an “unhosted” wallet—it must keep detailed records concerning both the customer and the counterparty. Even existing BSA requirements for traditional banks do not require this level of disclosure about counterparties. NCLA argues that the proposed rule exceeds appropriate constitutional limits by empowering FinCEN to exercise Congress’ exclusive legislative power. First, in reclassifying digital assets, FinCEN is not filling in details in existing law, but rather is writing new rules, on new subjects, with criminal consequences. Second, the proposed rule is not within the Executive Branch’s inherent powers, for it creates whole new types of criminal liability—a uniquely legislative prerogative. Story continues Furthermore, the proposed rule violates the Fourth Amendment by extending the BSA’s reach to require production of sensitive financial information from those who have never voluntarily disclosed it to a financial institution, and who, like cryptocurrency owners, have been excluded from the BSA’s reach. It would unconstitutionally require disclosure of private information to law enforcement without any suspicion of wrongdoing. NCLA urges FinCEN to recognize constitutional limits on its authority and to halt its unlawful rulemaking. NCLA released the following statement: “FinCEN’s proposed rule unlawfully attempts to transform the agency’s limited authority to regulate banks into permission to engage in the mass financial surveillance of innocent individuals who merely use digital assets. FinCEN ought to recognize that its proposal would be grossly unconstitutional and promptly scrap this rule.” — Caleb Kruckenberg, Litigation Counsel, NCLA For more information about this issue visit here . ABOUT NCLA NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights. ### Attachment PRESS RELEASE_FinCEN_Comments_ FINAL CONTACT: Judy Pino, Communications Director New Civil Liberties Alliance 202-869-5218 [email protected] || NCLA Comments Warn Against Treasury’s Proposed Crypto Surveillance Rule as Unconstitutional: Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets, Docket Number FINCEN-2020-0020-0001
Washington, D.C., March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Treasury Department’s planned “crackdown” on cryptocurrency holders’ private wallets is an unconstitutional power grab that would lead to a massive collection of people’s personal information. The unlawful requirements laid out by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of Treasury, would likely force privacy-sensitive digital assets out of the U.S. banking system. The proposed rule represents a radical—and unlawful—extension of FinCEN’s financial surveillance.
To forestall FinCEN’s large-scale state intrusion into private digital transactions, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, today filed itscommentsobjecting to FinCEN’s Proposed Rule,Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets.
If FinCEN moves forward with its proposal in its current form, digital assets would fall into the “monetary instruments” category of regulated currencies. That designation would mean a vast expansion of the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) record-keeping and currency transaction reporting requirements—to collect private data of Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s users, among others. Besides transaction reports, the proposed rule sets in motion a chain reaction of personal information mandatory disclosure. Whenever a financial institution makes a transaction involving digital assets worth more than $3,000 with a person—even an individual holding them in an “unhosted” wallet—it must keep detailed records concerning both the customer and the counterparty. Even existing BSA requirements for traditional banks do not require this level of disclosure about counterparties.
NCLA argues that the proposed rule exceeds appropriate constitutional limits by empowering FinCEN to exercise Congress’ exclusive legislative power. First, in reclassifying digital assets, FinCEN is not filling in details in existing law, but rather is writing new rules, on new subjects, with criminal consequences. Second, the proposed rule is not within the Executive Branch’s inherent powers, for it creates whole new types of criminal liability—a uniquely legislative prerogative.
Furthermore, the proposed rule violates the Fourth Amendment by extending the BSA’s reach to require production of sensitive financial information from those who have never voluntarily disclosed it to a financial institution, and who, like cryptocurrency owners, have been excluded from the BSA’s reach. It would unconstitutionally require disclosure of private information to law enforcement without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
NCLA urges FinCEN to recognize constitutional limits on its authority and to halt its unlawful rulemaking.
NCLA released the following statement:
“FinCEN’s proposed rule unlawfully attempts to transform the agency’s limited authority to regulate banks into permission to engage in the mass financial surveillance of innocent individuals who merely use digital assets. FinCEN ought to recognize that its proposal would be grossly unconstitutional and promptly scrap this rule.”
— Caleb Kruckenberg, Litigation Counsel, NCLA
For more information about this issue visithere.
ABOUT NCLA
NCLAis a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholarPhilip Hamburgerto protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
###
Attachment
• PRESS RELEASE_FinCEN_Comments_ FINAL
CONTACT: Judy Pino, Communications Director New Civil Liberties Alliance 202-869-5218 [email protected] || Nuvei Adds Payment Solution for Nearly 40 Cryptocurrencies: Adding to its current stack of innovative payment methods, fintech provider Nuvei now offers support for the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies MONTREAL and LONDON, March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuvei Corporation (“Nuvei” or the “Company”) (TSX: NVEI and NVEI.U), the global payment technology partner of thriving brands, today announced it has added pay-in and payout support for nearly 40 of the world’s leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, NEO, Ripple and more . Now, eCommerce merchants can join the cryptocurrency revolution, offering innovative payment methods to access more customers around the world, even in previously hard to reach countries. Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies has steadily increased, with the current estimated global market capitalization reaching approximately $1.6 trillion , according to CoinMarketCap. As the number of cryptocurrency holders continues to expand, merchants stand to grow their overall market share by accepting it as another alternative payment method (APM). With consumer shopping habits trending increasingly more global – thanks to the ease of purchasing from any site in any country – supporting cryptocurrencies represents a sizable market opportunity for merchants to attract more buyers worldwide. Additionally, cryptocurrency payments are increasingly becoming more significant for industries offering large ticket and high volume goods and services. “We’re excited to provide yet another pioneering solution that empowers our clients, large and small, with frictionless payment experiences and a greater opportunity to partake in a global marketplace,” said Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s chairman and CEO. “Nuvei continuously strives to offer the most relevant payment mediums for our clients and their customers. Our cryptocurrency support provides convenient, secure and instant transaction processing through a single integration.” Active in over 200 global markets, Nuvei enables access to the most popular cryptocurrencies in addition to supporting nearly 150 local currencies and over 455 APMs. Merchants can now further conduct business across borders, as well as beyond the bounds of the fiat ecosystem. This provides the Company’s merchants with greater reach to consumers worldwide, and the agility to meet demand for additional payment preferences. They also benefit from enhanced security, privacy and integrity of transactions inherent with cryptocurrencies. With the addition of cryptocurrencies to its platform, Nuvei can now also facilitate transactions for the world’s growing interest in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – certifiably singular digital files that represent tangible and intangible items, underpinned by blockchain technology. NFTs include digital artwork, videos, collectibles and other one-of-a-kind assets for cryptocurrency art enthusiasts and investors. As of this year, total sales of NFTs have surpassed $174 million, according to NonFungible.com , which monitors the cryptocurrency collectible market. Story continues To discover Nuvei’s cryptocurrency payment solution, visit: https://nuvei.com/payment-solutions/cryptocurrency-payments/ . About Nuvei We are Nuvei (TSX: NVEI and NVEI.U), the global payment technology partner of thriving brands. We provide the intelligence and technology businesses need to succeed locally and globally, through one integration – propelling them further, faster. Uniting payment technology and consulting, we help businesses remove payment barriers, optimize operating costs and increase acceptance rates. Our proprietary platform offers direct connections to all major payment card schemes in over 200 markets worldwide, supports 455 local and alternative payment methods, nearly 150 currencies and 40 cryptocurrencies. Our purpose is to make our world a local marketplace. For more information, visit www.nuvei.com . Contact: Nuvei Investor Relations [email protected] Nuvei Public Relations [email protected] View comments || Nuvei Adds Payment Solution for Nearly 40 Cryptocurrencies: Adding to its current stack of innovative payment methods, fintech provider Nuvei now offers support for the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies MONTREAL and LONDON, March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuvei Corporation (“Nuvei” or the “Company”) (TSX: NVEI and NVEI.U), the global payment technology partner of thriving brands, today announced it has added pay-in and payout support for nearly 40 of the world’s leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, NEO, Ripple and more . Now, eCommerce merchants can join the cryptocurrency revolution, offering innovative payment methods to access more customers around the world, even in previously hard to reach countries. Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies has steadily increased, with the current estimated global market capitalization reaching approximately $1.6 trillion , according to CoinMarketCap. As the number of cryptocurrency holders continues to expand, merchants stand to grow their overall market share by accepting it as another alternative payment method (APM). With consumer shopping habits trending increasingly more global – thanks to the ease of purchasing from any site in any country – supporting cryptocurrencies represents a sizable market opportunity for merchants to attract more buyers worldwide. Additionally, cryptocurrency payments are increasingly becoming more significant for industries offering large ticket and high volume goods and services. “We’re excited to provide yet another pioneering solution that empowers our clients, large and small, with frictionless payment experiences and a greater opportunity to partake in a global marketplace,” said Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s chairman and CEO. “Nuvei continuously strives to offer the most relevant payment mediums for our clients and their customers. Our cryptocurrency support provides convenient, secure and instant transaction processing through a single integration.” Active in over 200 global markets, Nuvei enables access to the most popular cryptocurrencies in addition to supporting nearly 150 local currencies and over 455 APMs. Merchants can now further conduct business across borders, as well as beyond the bounds of the fiat ecosystem. This provides the Company’s merchants with greater reach to consumers worldwide, and the agility to meet demand for additional payment preferences. They also benefit from enhanced security, privacy and integrity of transactions inherent with cryptocurrencies. With the addition of cryptocurrencies to its platform, Nuvei can now also facilitate transactions for the world’s growing interest in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – certifiably singular digital files that represent tangible and intangible items, underpinned by blockchain technology. NFTs include digital artwork, videos, collectibles and other one-of-a-kind assets for cryptocurrency art enthusiasts and investors. As of this year, total sales of NFTs have surpassed $174 million, according to NonFungible.com , which monitors the cryptocurrency collectible market. Story continues To discover Nuvei’s cryptocurrency payment solution, visit: https://nuvei.com/payment-solutions/cryptocurrency-payments/ . About Nuvei We are Nuvei (TSX: NVEI and NVEI.U), the global payment technology partner of thriving brands. We provide the intelligence and technology businesses need to succeed locally and globally, through one integration – propelling them further, faster. Uniting payment technology and consulting, we help businesses remove payment barriers, optimize operating costs and increase acceptance rates. Our proprietary platform offers direct connections to all major payment card schemes in over 200 markets worldwide, supports 455 local and alternative payment methods, nearly 150 currencies and 40 cryptocurrencies. Our purpose is to make our world a local marketplace. For more information, visit www.nuvei.com . Contact: Nuvei Investor Relations [email protected] Nuvei Public Relations [email protected] View comments || Roadman Announces Its First Stablecoin, SATO ("SATO"), that Adopts the AMPL Algorithm & Liquidity Pool Launching with iCashRewards: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 29, 2021 /Roadman Investments Corp. (TSXV:LITT)(OTC PINK:RMANF) ("Roadman" or the "Company") licensee A3Com Solutions Corp. ("A3Com") is pleased to announce that it is entering into strategic partnerships with SATO, a next generation of Stablecoin.
iCashRewards is very happy to partner with SATO to apply SATO to the iCashRewards ecosystem that combines the utility token ("iCashToken") with the rewards of a loyalty point that rebates customers for use of iCashRewards eCommerce shopping platform and services. iCashToken is planning to merge with SATO. Each user from iCashRewards can redeem their iCash Loyalty points ( iCashPoints) with Sato. One iCashToken can be exchanged with 1 SATO. Each SATO is priced at $1.00, and the exchange will be effective from March 31 to April 15, 2021. Going forward, iCashPoints can continue to redeemed cash, USDT, BTC as well as SATO.USDT. SATO is planning to list on various exchanges on April 14, 2021.
Background
The crypto industry has seen the rise of various Stablecoins in the last few years. These Stablecoins have been built in different ways. USDC, HUSD, TrueUSD are backed by fiat USD DAI, Frax, OUSD are collateral based.
SATO is a Stablecoin that is neither fiat backed or collateral based. It is purely algorithmic and relies on market forces of supply and demand to maintain its price.
Current Status of Stablecoin Market:
Compared with many DeFi projects that attract users to speculate simply by relying on high mining returns, the future application scenarios of algorithmic stablecoins have more room for imagination. Currently, the entire algorithmic stablecoin market is still in a stage where its value is heavily underestimated, which is similar to the collateralized stablecoins such as MakerDao in early 2019. It is expected that the market will break out.
AMPL, Basis Cash, ESD, Frax
At present, the market value of DeFi is growing rapidly and there are countless projects. However, there are still no more than ten products that are available for use in the algorithmic stablecoin market. The well-known algorithmic stablecoins include AMPL, Basic Cash, ESD and Frax. Among them, only the prices of AMPL and Frax can be maintained around 1 USD. Although AMPL's algorithm has been modified several times by latecomers, it is still in the leading position of algorithmic stablecoins, which is similar to the position of PoW in the main chain. Therefore, the current single currency inflation & deflation model (rebase) of AMPL has been tested by the market.
What is SATO?
SATO is a next generation algorithmic stable coin. SATO relies on the invisible market forces of supply and demand to maintain its price stability. USD and collateral backed Stablecoins have various flaws and are not suited to the crypto ecosystem.
USD backed Stablecoins rely on the broken monetary infrastructure of central banks to provide stability. As a result, the Stablecoin's stability is derived from the backed currency itself. Similarly, collateral backed Stablecoins use other Stablecoins with USD backed collateral. Thus, the underlying system is still reliant on the flaws of USD backed Stablecoins.
SATO doesn't rely on any centralized fiat currency such as USD. It can maintain its price stability algorithmically via smart contracts.
"We are very excited to see the users from iCashRewards have the ability to redeem the first DeFi revolutionary stablecoin SATO ("SATO") and a Roadman subsidiary will mine the SATO through the SATO's liquidity pool once it is opened. We like the name "SATO" as it is an inspiration from Satoshi Nakamoto, a name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation," states Luke Montaine, CEO of Roadman Investments.
About iCashRewards
iCashRewards, ("iCash"), a next-generation social e-commerce video marketing and reward platform. iCashRewards is a leading provider of on-line and virtual reality shopping experiences, connecting merchants and consumers across the globe. iCashRewards is reinventing marketing using blockchain technology for loyalty rewards to disrupt traditional loyalty industries and continuously innovate in the digital marketing industry. iCashRewards is a web and mobile plug-in that gives online shoppers rewards in the form of cash back, SATO, BTC or USDT. There are over 150 brands through its portalwww.iCashRewards.io. Sign up toiCashRewards.iotoday to receive 100 loyalty points and SATO.
About Roadman Licensee A3Com Solutions Corp.
A3Com Solutions Corp.("A3Com") is a Vancouver-based startup, Blockchain & AI-focused software development company focusing on e-commerce and mobile reward platforms, consumer loyalty, and digital marketing. A3Com's featured platform is iCashRewards, which connects merchants and consumers worldwide. Roadman has a first right of refusal to purchase 100% of A3Com after Roadman reaches 500,000 users oniCashRewards.io.
About Roadman Investments Corp.
Roadman Investments Corp. ("Roadman") is a Canadian Venture Capital, Investment and Advisory Firm that strives to actively drive innovation and accelerate growth for its shareholders. Roadman invests capital into private and public companies that offer excellent growth opportunities.
For more information on iCashRewards or A3Com, visitwww.iCashRewards.ioand follow iCashRewards on:
Twitter:https://twitter.com/iCashloyalty
Telegram:https://t.me/iCashRewards_EN
Medium:https://icashrewards.medium.com/
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/icashrewards
Youtube:https://bit.ly/2zaJE39
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/iCashRewards/
TikTok :https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeJTt5Vs
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/iCashrewards.io
Contacts
A3Com Contacts:Fanny TravisTel: 604.689.0618Email:[email protected]
Roadman Contacts
Luke MontaineTel:[email protected]
Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, completing a transaction with A3Com, other statements relating to the financial and business prospects of the Company, and other matters.
Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved), and variations of such words, and similar expressions are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statement are necessarily based upon a number of factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements express or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of metals, anticipated costs and the ability to achieve goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, the loss of key directors, employees, advisors or consultants, increase in costs, litigation, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations and fees charged by service providers. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE:Roadman Investments Corp.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/637997/Roadman-Announces-Its-First-Stablecoin-SATO-SATO-that-Adopts-the-AMPL-Algorithm-Liquidity-Pool-Launching-with-iCashRewards || Roadman Announces Its First Stablecoin, SATO ("SATO"), that Adopts the AMPL Algorithm & Liquidity Pool Launching with iCashRewards: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 29, 2021 / Roadman Investments Corp. (TSXV:LITT)(OTC PINK:RMANF) ("Roadman" or the "Company") licensee A3Com Solutions Corp. ("A3Com") is pleased to announce that it is entering into strategic partnerships with SATO, a next generation of Stablecoin. iCashRewards is very happy to partner with SATO to apply SATO to the iCashRewards ecosystem that combines the utility token ("iCashToken") with the rewards of a loyalty point that rebates customers for use of iCashRewards eCommerce shopping platform and services. iCashToken is planning to merge with SATO. Each user from iCashRewards can redeem their iCash Loyalty points ( iCashPoints) with Sato. One iCashToken can be exchanged with 1 SATO. Each SATO is priced at $1.00, and the exchange will be effective from March 31 to April 15, 2021. Going forward, iCashPoints can continue to redeemed cash, USDT, BTC as well as SATO.USDT. SATO is planning to list on various exchanges on April 14, 2021. Background The crypto industry has seen the rise of various Stablecoins in the last few years. These Stablecoins have been built in different ways. USDC, HUSD, TrueUSD are backed by fiat USD DAI, Frax, OUSD are collateral based. SATO is a Stablecoin that is neither fiat backed or collateral based. It is purely algorithmic and relies on market forces of supply and demand to maintain its price. Current Status of Stablecoin Market: Compared with many DeFi projects that attract users to speculate simply by relying on high mining returns, the future application scenarios of algorithmic stablecoins have more room for imagination. Currently, the entire algorithmic stablecoin market is still in a stage where its value is heavily underestimated, which is similar to the collateralized stablecoins such as MakerDao in early 2019. It is expected that the market will break out. AMPL, Basis Cash, ESD, Frax At present, the market value of DeFi is growing rapidly and there are countless projects. However, there are still no more than ten products that are available for use in the algorithmic stablecoin market. The well-known algorithmic stablecoins include AMPL, Basic Cash, ESD and Frax. Among them, only the prices of AMPL and Frax can be maintained around 1 USD. Although AMPL's algorithm has been modified several times by latecomers, it is still in the leading position of algorithmic stablecoins, which is similar to the position of PoW in the main chain. Therefore, the current single currency inflation & deflation model (rebase) of AMPL has been tested by the market. Story continues What is SATO? SATO is a next generation algorithmic stable coin. SATO relies on the invisible market forces of supply and demand to maintain its price stability. USD and collateral backed Stablecoins have various flaws and are not suited to the crypto ecosystem. USD backed Stablecoins rely on the broken monetary infrastructure of central banks to provide stability. As a result, the Stablecoin's stability is derived from the backed currency itself. Similarly, collateral backed Stablecoins use other Stablecoins with USD backed collateral. Thus, the underlying system is still reliant on the flaws of USD backed Stablecoins. SATO doesn't rely on any centralized fiat currency such as USD. It can maintain its price stability algorithmically via smart contracts. "We are very excited to see the users from iCashRewards have the ability to redeem the first DeFi revolutionary stablecoin SATO ("SATO") and a Roadman subsidiary will mine the SATO through the SATO's liquidity pool once it is opened. We like the name "SATO" as it is an inspiration from Satoshi Nakamoto, a name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation," states Luke Montaine, CEO of Roadman Investments. About iCashRewards iCashRewards, ("iCash"), a next-generation social e-commerce video marketing and reward platform. iCashRewards is a leading provider of on-line and virtual reality shopping experiences, connecting merchants and consumers across the globe. iCashRewards is reinventing marketing using blockchain technology for loyalty rewards to disrupt traditional loyalty industries and continuously innovate in the digital marketing industry. iCashRewards is a web and mobile plug-in that gives online shoppers rewards in the form of cash back, SATO, BTC or USDT. There are over 150 brands through its portal www.iCashRewards.io . Sign up to iCashRewards.io today to receive 100 loyalty points and SATO. About Roadman Licensee A3Com Solutions Corp. A3Com Solutions Corp.("A3Com") is a Vancouver-based startup, Blockchain & AI-focused software development company focusing on e-commerce and mobile reward platforms, consumer loyalty, and digital marketing. A3Com's featured platform is iCashRewards, which connects merchants and consumers worldwide. Roadman has a first right of refusal to purchase 100% of A3Com after Roadman reaches 500,000 users on iCashRewards.io . About Roadman Investments Corp. Roadman Investments Corp. ("Roadman") is a Canadian Venture Capital, Investment and Advisory Firm that strives to actively drive innovation and accelerate growth for its shareholders. Roadman invests capital into private and public companies that offer excellent growth opportunities. For more information on iCashRewards or A3Com, visit www.iCashRewards.io and follow iCashRewards on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/iCashloyalty Telegram: https://t.me/iCashRewards_EN Medium: https://icashrewards.medium.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icashrewards Youtube: https://bit.ly/2zaJE39 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iCashRewards/ TikTok : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeJTt5Vs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iCashrewards.io Contacts A3Com Contacts: Fanny Travis Tel: 604.689.0618 Email: [email protected] Roadman Contacts Luke Montaine Tel: [email protected] Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, completing a transaction with A3Com, other statements relating to the financial and business prospects of the Company, and other matters. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved), and variations of such words, and similar expressions are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statement are necessarily based upon a number of factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements express or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of metals, anticipated costs and the ability to achieve goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, the loss of key directors, employees, advisors or consultants, increase in costs, litigation, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations and fees charged by service providers. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Roadman Investments Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/637997/Roadman-Announces-Its-First-Stablecoin-SATO-SATO-that-Adopts-the-AMPL-Algorithm-Liquidity-Pool-Launching-with-iCashRewards || Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call: • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $57,626.86 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 4.38% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $54,826.06-$58,353.53 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC trades between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin proved resilient to the latest instability in traditional markets, as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose above $58,000 briefly Monday, well above last week’s low around $50,000.
The divergence offers a reminder of how bitcoin, which traded lightly in sync with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks for most of last year, is now more or less back to doing its own thing: The 90-day correlation between the two has dropped to zero.
Some U.S. stocks went throughan unprecedented sell-offon Friday after the forced liquidation of more than $20 billion in holdings linked to Bill Hwang’s family office, Archegos Capital Management. On Monday, stocks were mixed as traders weighed the potential fallout on Wall Street.
Related:Meet the DeFi Data Firm Backed by Mark Cuban
“We are still getting reports of continual liquidation by prime brokers on the Street,” Annabelle Huang, partner at Hong Kong-based market maker Amber Group, said. “But from a crypto-centric perspective, we observed 208.8K BTC ($11.05 billion worth) was withdrawn from Coinbase in the past four months, which is a bullish sign for bitcoin and the crypto market.”
The stock market in general has struggled in the recent weeks. The Nasdaq Composite is down 7% from a intraday record on Feb. 16.
Bitcoin, still considered an alternative asset and a risky one by many investors, traveled lower with the stock market, down by 18.0% to $50,458.10 on Thursday from its all-time high at $61,556.59 on March 13.
Yet, the quick recovery to near $58,000 demonstrates stronger confidence from investors in the oldest and largest cryptocurrency. Thenext level of price resistanceis seen at around $60,000.
Related:Tether Attestation is a Step Towards Transparency
“Exchange outflows have increased this week, indicating market participants are moving crypto assets into cold storage or private custody,” the digital-asset data firm TradeBlock wrote in its weekly newsletter on Monday. “Private-wallet custody typically indicates a pattern of longer-term holding.” TradeBlock is owned by CoinDesk.
Moreover, bitcoin received another price boost from Visa after the payment giantannounced its supportforUSDC, the second-biggest stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.
There’s no direct link in the deal to bitcoin, but the announcement was seen by traders as a fresh sign of growing institutional and mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Read More:Bitcoin Breaks Out, Near $58K, After Visa Adds Support for Stablecoin USDC
• Ether(ETH) trading around $1815.06 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 8.33% over the previous 24 hours.
• Ether’s 24-hour range: $1665.63-$1839.80 (CoinDesk 20)
• Ether trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
“Ether is rising from short-term oversold territory along with bitcoin following a swift about 18% pullback below minor resistance from February,” Katie Stockton, a market technician at Fairlead Strategies, wrote in her weekly newsletter on Monday. “After a few weeks of additional consolidation, we expect a buying opportunity to unfold once overbought conditions are worked off.”
CoinDeskreportedMonday that a sharp drop in an obscure data point from cryptocurrency options markets – the spread between the one-month implied volatility (IV) for ether and bitcoin – suggests traders may be shifting their primary focus back to bitcoin after several weeks of focusing on ether and other altcoins.
And while the link between Visa’s deal and bitcoin is tangential and abstract, there’s a direct and concrete connection to ether. Visa processed the landmark cryptocurrency payment transaction directly on the Ethereum blockchain; Crypto.com sent a USDC stablecoin transaction over the network to an account at Anchorage custody under Visa’s name.
Read More:Ether-Bitcoin Implied Volatility Spread Points to a Macro-Driven Market
Other digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in green Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• omg network(OMG) + 10.1%
• algorand(ALGO) + 8.41%
• tezos(XTZ) + 7.16%
• kyber network(KNC) + 6.98%
• litecoin(LTC) + 6.81%
No major losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More:Visa Settles USDC Transaction on Ethereum, Plans Rollout to Partners
Equities:
• Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the green 0.71%.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe was down by 0.07%.
• The S&P 500 in the United States closed in the red 0.087%.
Commodities:
• Oil was up 0.97%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.56.
• Gold was in the red 1.13% and at $1711.00 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday in the green 1.714%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call || Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call: Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $57,626.86 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 4.38% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $54,826.06-$58,353.53 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians. Bitcoin proved resilient to the latest instability in traditional markets, as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose above $58,000 briefly Monday, well above last week’s low around $50,000. The divergence offers a reminder of how bitcoin, which traded lightly in sync with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks for most of last year, is now more or less back to doing its own thing: The 90-day correlation between the two has dropped to zero. Some U.S. stocks went through an unprecedented sell-off on Friday after the forced liquidation of more than $20 billion in holdings linked to Bill Hwang’s family office, Archegos Capital Management. On Monday, stocks were mixed as traders weighed the potential fallout on Wall Street. Related: Meet the DeFi Data Firm Backed by Mark Cuban “We are still getting reports of continual liquidation by prime brokers on the Street,” Annabelle Huang, partner at Hong Kong-based market maker Amber Group, said. “But from a crypto-centric perspective, we observed 208.8K BTC ($11.05 billion worth) was withdrawn from Coinbase in the past four months, which is a bullish sign for bitcoin and the crypto market.” The stock market in general has struggled in the recent weeks. The Nasdaq Composite is down 7% from a intraday record on Feb. 16. Bitcoin, still considered an alternative asset and a risky one by many investors, traveled lower with the stock market, down by 18.0% to $50,458.10 on Thursday from its all-time high at $61,556.59 on March 13. Yet, the quick recovery to near $58,000 demonstrates stronger confidence from investors in the oldest and largest cryptocurrency. The next level of price resistance is seen at around $60,000. Story continues Related: Tether Attestation is a Step Towards Transparency “Exchange outflows have increased this week, indicating market participants are moving crypto assets into cold storage or private custody,” the digital-asset data firm TradeBlock wrote in its weekly newsletter on Monday. “Private-wallet custody typically indicates a pattern of longer-term holding.” TradeBlock is owned by CoinDesk. Moreover, bitcoin received another price boost from Visa after the payment giant announced its support for USDC , the second-biggest stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. There’s no direct link in the deal to bitcoin, but the announcement was seen by traders as a fresh sign of growing institutional and mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies. Read More: Bitcoin Breaks Out, Near $58K, After Visa Adds Support for Stablecoin USDC Ether rising Ether (ETH) trading around $1815.06 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 8.33% over the previous 24 hours. Ether’s 24-hour range: $1665.63-$1839.80 (CoinDesk 20) Ether trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. “Ether is rising from short-term oversold territory along with bitcoin following a swift about 18% pullback below minor resistance from February,” Katie Stockton, a market technician at Fairlead Strategies, wrote in her weekly newsletter on Monday. “After a few weeks of additional consolidation, we expect a buying opportunity to unfold once overbought conditions are worked off.” CoinDesk reported Monday that a sharp drop in an obscure data point from cryptocurrency options markets – the spread between the one-month implied volatility (IV) for ether and bitcoin – suggests traders may be shifting their primary focus back to bitcoin after several weeks of focusing on ether and other altcoins. And while the link between Visa’s deal and bitcoin is tangential and abstract, there’s a direct and concrete connection to ether. Visa processed the landmark cryptocurrency payment transaction directly on the Ethereum blockchain; Crypto.com sent a USDC stablecoin transaction over the network to an account at Anchorage custody under Visa’s name. Read More: Ether-Bitcoin Implied Volatility Spread Points to a Macro-Driven Market Other digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly in green Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): omg network (OMG) + 10.1% algorand (ALGO) + 8.41% tezos (XTZ) + 7.16% kyber network (KNC) + 6.98% litecoin (LTC) + 6.81% No major losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More: Visa Settles USDC Transaction on Ethereum, Plans Rollout to Partners Other markets Equities: Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the green 0.71%. The FTSE 100 in Europe was down by 0.07%. The S&P 500 in the United States closed in the red 0.087%. Commodities: Oil was up 0.97%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.56. Gold was in the red 1.13% and at $1711.00 as of press time. Treasurys: The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday in the green 1.714%. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call || Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call: • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $57,626.86 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 4.38% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $54,826.06-$58,353.53 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC trades between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin proved resilient to the latest instability in traditional markets, as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose above $58,000 briefly Monday, well above last week’s low around $50,000.
The divergence offers a reminder of how bitcoin, which traded lightly in sync with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks for most of last year, is now more or less back to doing its own thing: The 90-day correlation between the two has dropped to zero.
Some U.S. stocks went throughan unprecedented sell-offon Friday after the forced liquidation of more than $20 billion in holdings linked to Bill Hwang’s family office, Archegos Capital Management. On Monday, stocks were mixed as traders weighed the potential fallout on Wall Street.
Related:Meet the DeFi Data Firm Backed by Mark Cuban
“We are still getting reports of continual liquidation by prime brokers on the Street,” Annabelle Huang, partner at Hong Kong-based market maker Amber Group, said. “But from a crypto-centric perspective, we observed 208.8K BTC ($11.05 billion worth) was withdrawn from Coinbase in the past four months, which is a bullish sign for bitcoin and the crypto market.”
The stock market in general has struggled in the recent weeks. The Nasdaq Composite is down 7% from a intraday record on Feb. 16.
Bitcoin, still considered an alternative asset and a risky one by many investors, traveled lower with the stock market, down by 18.0% to $50,458.10 on Thursday from its all-time high at $61,556.59 on March 13.
Yet, the quick recovery to near $58,000 demonstrates stronger confidence from investors in the oldest and largest cryptocurrency. Thenext level of price resistanceis seen at around $60,000.
Related:Tether Attestation is a Step Towards Transparency
“Exchange outflows have increased this week, indicating market participants are moving crypto assets into cold storage or private custody,” the digital-asset data firm TradeBlock wrote in its weekly newsletter on Monday. “Private-wallet custody typically indicates a pattern of longer-term holding.” TradeBlock is owned by CoinDesk.
Moreover, bitcoin received another price boost from Visa after the payment giantannounced its supportforUSDC, the second-biggest stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.
There’s no direct link in the deal to bitcoin, but the announcement was seen by traders as a fresh sign of growing institutional and mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Read More:Bitcoin Breaks Out, Near $58K, After Visa Adds Support for Stablecoin USDC
• Ether(ETH) trading around $1815.06 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 8.33% over the previous 24 hours.
• Ether’s 24-hour range: $1665.63-$1839.80 (CoinDesk 20)
• Ether trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
“Ether is rising from short-term oversold territory along with bitcoin following a swift about 18% pullback below minor resistance from February,” Katie Stockton, a market technician at Fairlead Strategies, wrote in her weekly newsletter on Monday. “After a few weeks of additional consolidation, we expect a buying opportunity to unfold once overbought conditions are worked off.”
CoinDeskreportedMonday that a sharp drop in an obscure data point from cryptocurrency options markets – the spread between the one-month implied volatility (IV) for ether and bitcoin – suggests traders may be shifting their primary focus back to bitcoin after several weeks of focusing on ether and other altcoins.
And while the link between Visa’s deal and bitcoin is tangential and abstract, there’s a direct and concrete connection to ether. Visa processed the landmark cryptocurrency payment transaction directly on the Ethereum blockchain; Crypto.com sent a USDC stablecoin transaction over the network to an account at Anchorage custody under Visa’s name.
Read More:Ether-Bitcoin Implied Volatility Spread Points to a Macro-Driven Market
Other digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in green Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• omg network(OMG) + 10.1%
• algorand(ALGO) + 8.41%
• tezos(XTZ) + 7.16%
• kyber network(KNC) + 6.98%
• litecoin(LTC) + 6.81%
No major losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More:Visa Settles USDC Transaction on Ethereum, Plans Rollout to Partners
Equities:
• Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the green 0.71%.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe was down by 0.07%.
• The S&P 500 in the United States closed in the red 0.087%.
Commodities:
• Oil was up 0.97%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.56.
• Gold was in the red 1.13% and at $1711.00 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday in the green 1.714%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Gain After Visa Deal as Stocks Struggle With Archegos Margin Call || Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020: Flows into digital asset investment products declined by roughly $79 million to $21 million during the seven-day period through March 26, the lowest since October, according to a new report by CoinShares , a digital asset investment firm. Slowing investor appetite for cryptocurrency funds reflects sideways price action in bitcoin ( BTC ). The cryptocurrency has traded between $50,000 and $60,000 over the past week. “Investor appetite for digital assets has waned in recent weeks as volatility remains high and the price trades sideways,” CoinShares wrote in the report. “We have recently witnessed a significant reduction in inflows, and in some cases outflows, for the larger and longer-established pre-2016 investment products,” according to the report. “We believe this is due to investors sitting on multi-year gains taking profits.” Investment flows in the U.S. are slowing, while Europe and Canada continue to hold up. Trading volumes in digital-asset investment products declined to $788 million per day last week, versus an average $900 million per day so far in 2021. Bitcoin received the largest inflows, according to the report, “but Ethereum on a market capitalization basis (as we’ve seen in previous weeks) remains more popular with inflows of $5 million.” Related Stories Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 || Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020: Flows into digital asset investment products declined by roughly $79 million to $21 million during the seven-day period through March 26, the lowest since October, according to a new report by CoinShares , a digital asset investment firm. Slowing investor appetite for cryptocurrency funds reflects sideways price action in bitcoin ( BTC ). The cryptocurrency has traded between $50,000 and $60,000 over the past week. “Investor appetite for digital assets has waned in recent weeks as volatility remains high and the price trades sideways,” CoinShares wrote in the report. “We have recently witnessed a significant reduction in inflows, and in some cases outflows, for the larger and longer-established pre-2016 investment products,” according to the report. “We believe this is due to investors sitting on multi-year gains taking profits.” Investment flows in the U.S. are slowing, while Europe and Canada continue to hold up. Trading volumes in digital-asset investment products declined to $788 million per day last week, versus an average $900 million per day so far in 2021. Bitcoin received the largest inflows, according to the report, “but Ethereum on a market capitalization basis (as we’ve seen in previous weeks) remains more popular with inflows of $5 million.” Related Stories Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 Cryptocurrency Fund Flows Now at Lowest Since October 2020 || ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral: Uniswap’s latest plansmay be public, but that isn’t stopping rivals from building alternatives.
Integral, a new automated market maker (AMM) designed with a baked-in order book, went live early Monday. The protocol’s asset pools have attracted $239 million as of press time as savvy decentralized finance (DeFi) traders race for early token rewards.
The project – built by four Harvard friends and a cast of industry bigwigs – is hoping to syphon liquidity away from decentralized exchanges like Uniswap with its approach to impermanent loss and order book mirroring. Integral’s team members think their design can not only quote better prices but provide fairer returns for liquidity providers (LPs).
Related:Cuban, Chamath Back NFT Marketplace SuperRare's $9M Series A
“Our primary research question was: ‘What would be the final form of AMMs?’ And the answer: ‘One that eats other exchanges’ liquidity,’” Integral wrote in documents shared with CoinDesk, adding:
“Whenever another exchange tries to beat us with better liquidity, we mirror this liquidity onto ourselves until we regain the world’s best liquidity again. This process can be thought of as a continuous vampire attack until all world liquidity is integrated by us.”
Vampire attackswere made famous by SushiSwap, a clone of Uniswap created by the pseudonymous developer Chef Nomi. During that time, the platform offered token rewards for liquidity moved from Uniswap to SushiSwap. It now seems Integral is taking the idea one step farther by “mirroring” liquidity onto itself to gain adoption.
The founding team of nine, which has requested to remain nameless, is being advised by Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee, Gauntlet founder Tarun Chitra, Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner and Framework Ventures co-founders Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer.
Related:CME Announces Launch of Micro Bitcoin Futures in May
Integral relies on two features to market itself as a competitor toUniswap, whose latest version typically does $1.25 billion in 24-hour trading volume.
First, Integral uses Uniswap’s own price oracles, but with a five-minute delay. The team thinks the time delay will decrease instances of impermanent loss, where assets contributed to a DEX’s pool bleed out value. That bleeding is the result of how AMMs quote prices – by balancing asset reserves against one another and having arbitrage traders add or remove assets based on price movements off the exchange.
This rebalancing, in certain situations, can lead to LPs losing value instead of gaining it. It’s thought a time delay will force traders to other platforms while still offering competitive prices.
Second, Integral will mirror snapshots of Binance’s order book onto the AMM to artificially create depth accompanied by Uniswap’s (delayed) prices. By doing so, Integral can experiment with different price curves relative to other AMMs.
Integral expects to be a home for whales, at least for the time being, given the need for liquidity to on-board to the exchange. Four pools will be supported:ETH/DAI, ETH/WBTC, ETH/USDCand ETH/USDT.
To this end, the Integral team raised 11 ETH in a Gitcoin grant to deploy the project on the Ethereum blockchain.
• ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral
• ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral || ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral: Uniswap’s latest plans may be public, but that isn’t stopping rivals from building alternatives. Integral , a new automated market maker (AMM) designed with a baked-in order book, went live early Monday. The protocol’s asset pools have attracted $239 million as of press time as savvy decentralized finance (DeFi) traders race for early token rewards. The project – built by four Harvard friends and a cast of industry bigwigs – is hoping to syphon liquidity away from decentralized exchanges like Uniswap with its approach to impermanent loss and order book mirroring. Integral’s team members think their design can not only quote better prices but provide fairer returns for liquidity providers (LPs). Related: Cuban, Chamath Back NFT Marketplace SuperRare's $9M Series A “Our primary research question was: ‘What would be the final form of AMMs?’ And the answer: ‘One that eats other exchanges’ liquidity,’” Integral wrote in documents shared with CoinDesk, adding: “Whenever another exchange tries to beat us with better liquidity, we mirror this liquidity onto ourselves until we regain the world’s best liquidity again. This process can be thought of as a continuous vampire attack until all world liquidity is integrated by us.” Vampire attacks were made famous by SushiSwap, a clone of Uniswap created by the pseudonymous developer Chef Nomi. During that time, the platform offered token rewards for liquidity moved from Uniswap to SushiSwap. It now seems Integral is taking the idea one step farther by “mirroring” liquidity onto itself to gain adoption. The founding team of nine, which has requested to remain nameless, is being advised by Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee, Gauntlet founder Tarun Chitra, Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner and Framework Ventures co-founders Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer. Integral’s scheme Related: CME Announces Launch of Micro Bitcoin Futures in May Story continues Integral relies on two features to market itself as a competitor to Uniswap , whose latest version typically does $1.25 billion in 24-hour trading volume. First, Integral uses Uniswap’s own price oracles, but with a five-minute delay. The team thinks the time delay will decrease instances of impermanent loss, where assets contributed to a DEX’s pool bleed out value. That bleeding is the result of how AMMs quote prices – by balancing asset reserves against one another and having arbitrage traders add or remove assets based on price movements off the exchange. This rebalancing, in certain situations, can lead to LPs losing value instead of gaining it. It’s thought a time delay will force traders to other platforms while still offering competitive prices. Second, Integral will mirror snapshots of Binance’s order book onto the AMM to artificially create depth accompanied by Uniswap’s (delayed) prices. By doing so, Integral can experiment with different price curves relative to other AMMs. Integral expects to be a home for whales, at least for the time being, given the need for liquidity to on-board to the exchange. Four pools will be supported: ETH / DAI , ETH/WBTC, ETH/ USDC and ETH/ USDT . To this end, the Integral team raised 11 ETH in a Gitcoin grant to deploy the project on the Ethereum blockchain. Related Stories ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral || On-Chain Indicators Say It's Time To Go All In On Bitcoin, Crypto Quant Analyst Claims: Ki Young Ju, head of on-chain analytics platform Crypto Quant, thinks it's time to go “all in” on Bitcoin.
What Happened:When Bitcoin dipped to $53,000 on March 23, the analystsurmisedthat the bull run wasn’t over yet. He explained that while he was ready to buy the dip, he would patiently wait till on-chain supply/demand indicators say "all-in."
“I think it's time,”saidJu referring to his comments last week, adding that the crypto market is getting better in terms of supply and demand.
Why It Matters:Earlier this month, Ju said that he believed Bitcoin would take some time to get another leg up in terms of demand and supply.
There were two main factors that led to this. The first one was too many Bitcoin holdings in U.S dollars compared to stablecoin holdings on spot exchanges, meaning that selling pressure was high on spot exchanges. Another was the fact that Bitcoin’s market cap was too big to get another leg up solely by leveraging the stablecoin market cap.
Now that these indicators have stabilized, the Crypto Quant analyst believes that another price run could be underway for the market-leading cryptocurrency.
Ju also noted, “Relatively many stablecoins across exchanges thanks to the rise of USDC,”referringto USDC’s circulating supply and exchange holdings that renew at an all-time high day after day.
Earlier today,Visa Inc(NYSE:V)saidit would allow payments to be settled via cryptocurrencies using USDC.
Price Action:Bitcoin gained close to 4% overnight, as it traded around $57,757 at the time of writing. Trading volume in the leading cryptocurrency was also up by 7.6%, according to data fromCoinMarketCap.
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• Cathie Wood On Bitcoin: ' Trillion Is Nothing Compared To Where This Will Ultimately Be'
• Visa Allows Payments To Be Settled With Crypto Using Ethereum Network
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || On-Chain Indicators Say It's Time To Go All In On Bitcoin, Crypto Quant Analyst Claims: Ki Young Ju, head of on-chain analytics platform Crypto Quant, thinks it's time to go “all in” on Bitcoin.
What Happened:When Bitcoin dipped to $53,000 on March 23, the analystsurmisedthat the bull run wasn’t over yet. He explained that while he was ready to buy the dip, he would patiently wait till on-chain supply/demand indicators say "all-in."
“I think it's time,”saidJu referring to his comments last week, adding that the crypto market is getting better in terms of supply and demand.
Why It Matters:Earlier this month, Ju said that he believed Bitcoin would take some time to get another leg up in terms of demand and supply.
There were two main factors that led to this. The first one was too many Bitcoin holdings in U.S dollars compared to stablecoin holdings on spot exchanges, meaning that selling pressure was high on spot exchanges. Another was the fact that Bitcoin’s market cap was too big to get another leg up solely by leveraging the stablecoin market cap.
Now that these indicators have stabilized, the Crypto Quant analyst believes that another price run could be underway for the market-leading cryptocurrency.
Ju also noted, “Relatively many stablecoins across exchanges thanks to the rise of USDC,”referringto USDC’s circulating supply and exchange holdings that renew at an all-time high day after day.
Earlier today,Visa Inc(NYSE:V)saidit would allow payments to be settled via cryptocurrencies using USDC.
Price Action:Bitcoin gained close to 4% overnight, as it traded around $57,757 at the time of writing. Trading volume in the leading cryptocurrency was also up by 7.6%, according to data fromCoinMarketCap.
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• Cathie Wood On Bitcoin: ' Trillion Is Nothing Compared To Where This Will Ultimately Be'
• Visa Allows Payments To Be Settled With Crypto Using Ethereum Network
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || This Addition To Cathie Wood's ARKX Fund Is Drawing Big Bets From Options Traders: Kratos Defense & Security Solutions(NASDAQ:KTOS) is the third top holding of Cathie Wood’sARK Space Exploration and Innovation ETF,and options traders are betting Kratos stock will make a big move in the coming weeks.
The ETF is set to launch Tuesday on the Cboe BRX exchange under the ticker "ARKX."
The Kratos Trades:At 9:47 a.m. Monday, a trader executed a call sweep of 288 Kratos options with a $22.50 strike price expiring on May 21. The trade represented a $138,200 bullish bet for which the trader paid $4.80 per option contract.
At 9:52 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 367 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $16,500 bullish bet for which the trader paid 45 cents per option contract.
At 10:14 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 210 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $10,400 bullish bet for which the trader paid 50 cents per option contract.
At 10:14 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 287 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $15,700 bullish bet for which the trader paid 55 cents per option contract.
At 10:18 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 151 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $11,300 bullish bet for which the trader paid 75 cents per option contract.
At 10:20 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 393 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $31,400 bet for which the trader paid 80 cents per option contract.
Together, the traders are betting $223,500 that the share price of Kratos is going higher.
Why It’s Important:When a sweep order occurs, it indicates the trader wanted to get into a position quickly and is anticipating an imminent large move in stock price.
A sweeper pays market price for the call options instead of placing a bid, which sweeps the order books of multiple exchanges to fill the order immediately.These types of call option orders are usually made by institutions, and retail investors can find watching for sweepers useful because it indicates “smart money” has entered into a position.
What Kratos Has To Offer:Kratos, a national security and communications company, has developed a number of products for use in space including systems, networks, satellites and signals.
On Monday, Kratos announced that the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized Kratos’ autonomous truck-mounted attenuator.
Kratos refers to the technology as an “infrastructure gamechanger” in the release.
It’s no wonder Wood’s space and innovation focused ETF has bought shares of the company.
So far Wood has purchased 2,203 shares of Kratos at a cost of $57,322. The stock makes up 5.62% of the ETF’s holdings.
Options traders could be betting the stock is set to increase in the near future. Other top holdings includeTrimble Inc(NASDAQ:TRMB) andARK's 3D Printing ETF(NYSE:PRNT).
KTOS Price Action:Shares of Kratos were up 6.3% at $27.66 at last check.
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• Mortgage Your House With Mogo, Get Bitcoin Reward: Why This Matters
• Score Media and Caesars Entertainment To Provide Sports Betting In Illinois
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || This Addition To Cathie Wood's ARKX Fund Is Drawing Big Bets From Options Traders: Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ: KTOS ) is the third top holding of Cathie Wood’s ARK Space Exploration and Innovation ETF, and options traders are betting Kratos stock will make a big move in the coming weeks. The ETF is set to launch Tuesday on the Cboe BRX exchange under the ticker "ARKX." The Kratos Trades: At 9:47 a.m. Monday, a trader executed a call sweep of 288 Kratos options with a $22.50 strike price expiring on May 21. The trade represented a $138,200 bullish bet for which the trader paid $4.80 per option contract. At 9:52 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 367 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $16,500 bullish bet for which the trader paid 45 cents per option contract. At 10:14 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 210 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $10,400 bullish bet for which the trader paid 50 cents per option contract. At 10:14 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 287 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $15,700 bullish bet for which the trader paid 55 cents per option contract. At 10:18 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 151 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $11,300 bullish bet for which the trader paid 75 cents per option contract. At 10:20 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep of 393 Kratos options with a $30 strike price expiring on April 16. The trade represented a $31,400 bet for which the trader paid 80 cents per option contract. Together, the traders are betting $223,500 that the share price of Kratos is going higher. Why It’s Important: When a sweep order occurs, it indicates the trader wanted to get into a position quickly and is anticipating an imminent large move in stock price. A sweeper pays market price for the call options instead of placing a bid, which sweeps the order books of multiple exchanges to fill the order immediately. These types of call option orders are usually made by institutions, and retail investors can find watching for sweepers useful because it indicates “smart money” has entered into a position. Story continues What Kratos Has To Offer: Kratos, a national security and communications company, has developed a number of products for use in space including systems, networks, satellites and signals. On Monday, Kratos announced that the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized Kratos’ autonomous truck-mounted attenuator. Kratos refers to the technology as an “infrastructure gamechanger” in the release. It’s no wonder Wood’s space and innovation focused ETF has bought shares of the company. So far Wood has purchased 2,203 shares of Kratos at a cost of $57,322. The stock makes up 5.62% of the ETF’s holdings. Options traders could be betting the stock is set to increase in the near future. Other top holdings include Trimble Inc (NASDAQ: TRMB ) and ARK's 3D Printing ETF (NYSE: PRNT ). KTOS Price Action: Shares of Kratos were up 6.3% at $27.66 at last check. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Mortgage Your House With Mogo, Get Bitcoin Reward: Why This Matters Score Media and Caesars Entertainment To Provide Sports Betting In Illinois © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Mortgage Your House With Mogo, Get Bitcoin Reward: Why This Matters: Mogo Inc(NASDAQ:MOGO) has extended itsBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) cashback program to include MogoMortgage, according to a Mondaypress release.
What Happened:The program, which Mogo initially offered as part of its Mogo Visa Platinum Prepaid Card and digital spending account, will allow customers to get a new mortgage with Mogo or refinancing an existing mortgage to receive up to $3,100 in bitcoin. The bitcoin would be deposited to the customers' bitcoin and rewards accounts.
Why It Matters:As aVancouver-based fintech company, Mogo is unique because it is the only mortgage, personal loan and investment services business that allows its customers to directly invest in bitcoin. With the mortgage market in Canada estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion, Mogo hopes to gain market share by offering its clients the ability to buy bitcoin securely through its services to help customers increase their wealth.
“Unlike traditional reward programs, bitcoin rewards have the unique characteristic of being an asset class that can rise in value over time — $3,100 invested in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth over $350,000 today,” said David Feller, founder and CEO at Mogo.
To calm customer fears around directly investing in bitcoin, Mogo hopes its mortgage reward program will also draw in new but more crypto-weary customers.
“Given the volatility and speculative nature of bitcoin, there’s an increasing number of Canadians who are looking for ways to participate without risking their own money, and our bitcoin rewards program meets this demand, Mogo said in the release.
What’s More:The move comes as more companies and banks are offering customers options to invest and pay for products using bitcoin. RecentlyMorgan Stanley(NYSE:MS)announcedit would offer its wealthiest clients the ability to invest in certain cryptocurrencies, and last weekTesla Inc(NASDAQ:TSLA)announcedit would allow customers to pay for electric vehicles using bitcoin.
Related Link:Why Buying A Tesla With Bitcoin Isn't Really A Good Idea — For Now
(Photo byDmitry DemidkoonUnsplash)
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• 5 Canadian Tech Companies To Watch As US Companies Continue to Seek M&A
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Mortgage Your House With Mogo, Get Bitcoin Reward: Why This Matters: Mogo Inc(NASDAQ:MOGO) has extended itsBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) cashback program to include MogoMortgage, according to a Mondaypress release.
What Happened:The program, which Mogo initially offered as part of its Mogo Visa Platinum Prepaid Card and digital spending account, will allow customers to get a new mortgage with Mogo or refinancing an existing mortgage to receive up to $3,100 in bitcoin. The bitcoin would be deposited to the customers' bitcoin and rewards accounts.
Why It Matters:As aVancouver-based fintech company, Mogo is unique because it is the only mortgage, personal loan and investment services business that allows its customers to directly invest in bitcoin. With the mortgage market in Canada estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion, Mogo hopes to gain market share by offering its clients the ability to buy bitcoin securely through its services to help customers increase their wealth.
“Unlike traditional reward programs, bitcoin rewards have the unique characteristic of being an asset class that can rise in value over time — $3,100 invested in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth over $350,000 today,” said David Feller, founder and CEO at Mogo.
To calm customer fears around directly investing in bitcoin, Mogo hopes its mortgage reward program will also draw in new but more crypto-weary customers.
“Given the volatility and speculative nature of bitcoin, there’s an increasing number of Canadians who are looking for ways to participate without risking their own money, and our bitcoin rewards program meets this demand, Mogo said in the release.
What’s More:The move comes as more companies and banks are offering customers options to invest and pay for products using bitcoin. RecentlyMorgan Stanley(NYSE:MS)announcedit would offer its wealthiest clients the ability to invest in certain cryptocurrencies, and last weekTesla Inc(NASDAQ:TSLA)announcedit would allow customers to pay for electric vehicles using bitcoin.
Related Link:Why Buying A Tesla With Bitcoin Isn't Really A Good Idea — For Now
(Photo byDmitry DemidkoonUnsplash)
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• 5 Canadian Tech Companies To Watch As US Companies Continue to Seek M&A
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Mortgage Your House With Mogo, Get Bitcoin Reward: Why This Matters: Mogo Inc (NASDAQ: MOGO ) has extended its Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) cashback program to include MogoMortgage, according to a Monday press release . What Happened: The program, which Mogo initially offered as part of its Mogo Visa Platinum Prepaid Card and digital spending account, will allow customers to get a new mortgage with Mogo or refinancing an existing mortgage to receive up to $3,100 in bitcoin. The bitcoin would be deposited to the customers' bitcoin and rewards accounts. Why It Matters: As a Vancouver-based fintech company , Mogo is unique because it is the only mortgage, personal loan and investment services business that allows its customers to directly invest in bitcoin. With the mortgage market in Canada estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion, Mogo hopes to gain market share by offering its clients the ability to buy bitcoin securely through its services to help customers increase their wealth. “Unlike traditional reward programs, bitcoin rewards have the unique characteristic of being an asset class that can rise in value over time — $3,100 invested in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth over $350,000 today,” said David Feller, founder and CEO at Mogo. To calm customer fears around directly investing in bitcoin, Mogo hopes its mortgage reward program will also draw in new but more crypto-weary customers. “Given the volatility and speculative nature of bitcoin, there’s an increasing number of Canadians who are looking for ways to participate without risking their own money, and our bitcoin rewards program meets this demand, Mogo said in the release. What’s More: The move comes as more companies and banks are offering customers options to invest and pay for products using bitcoin. Recently Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) announced it would offer its wealthiest clients the ability to invest in certain cryptocurrencies, and last week Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA ) announced it would allow customers to pay for electric vehicles using bitcoin. Story continues Related Link: Why Buying A Tesla With Bitcoin Isn't Really A Good Idea — For Now (Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash ) See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga 5 Canadian Tech Companies To Watch As US Companies Continue to Seek M&A © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
58918.83, 59095.81, 59384.31, 57603.89, 58758.55, 59057.88, 58192.36, 56048.94, 58323.95, 58245.00
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80, 7096.18, 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32, 7117.21, 7429.72, 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87, 7795.60, 7807.06, 8801.04, 8658.55, 8864.77, 8988.60, 8897.47, 8912.65, 9003.07, 9268.76, 9951.52, 9842.67, 9593.90, 8756.43, 8601.80, 8804.48, 9269.99, 9733.72, 9328.20, 9377.01, 9670.74, 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02, 9525.75, 9439.12, 9700.41, 9461.06, 10167.27, 9529.80, 9656.72, 9800.64, 9665.53, 9653.68, 9758.85, 9771.49, 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58, 9190.85, 9137.99, 9228.33, 9123.41, 9087.30, 9132.49, 9073.94, 9375.47, 9252.28, 9428.33, 9277.97, 9278.81, 9240.35, 9276.50.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-07-12]
Volume: 14452361907, RSI (14-day): 49.75, 50-day EMA: 9221.97, 200-day EMA: 8655.91
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin Gold devs say they stopped an ‘extremely long’ block reorganization attack: Bitcoin Gold's developer team has prevented an "extremely long attack chain" against the network according to a Friday announcement.
According to the development team, an attacker rented hash power from mining service provider NiceHash on July 1 and secretly mined an alternative chain — essentially creating a new transaction history for the network — for nearly ten days, mining over 1,300 blocks in the process. On July 10, the attacker released thesecret chainin an attempt to collect over 8,000 bitcoin gold, worth more than $75K at press time.
The attacker was thwarted, however, as the Bitcoin Gold teamdetectedthe attack early on and alerted mining pools and exchanges about the potential attack. The team also privately supplied these entities with a new updated version of the Bitcoin Gold network, which implemented a checkpoint at block 640,650—the most recent "honest block" before the attack. This new code, run by pools and exchanges, automatically rejected the attacker's chain when it was released on July 10.
Bitcoin Gold has a history of reorg attacks. The network faced a $70,000 attack in January 2020 and an $18M attack in May 2018.
© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Bitcoin Gold devs say they stopped an ‘extremely long’ block reorganization attack: Bitcoin Gold's developer team has prevented an "extremely long attack chain" against the network according to a Friday announcement.
According to the development team, an attacker rented hash power from mining service provider NiceHash on July 1 and secretly mined an alternative chain — essentially creating a new transaction history for the network — for nearly ten days, mining over 1,300 blocks in the process. On July 10, the attacker released thesecret chainin an attempt to collect over 8,000 bitcoin gold, worth more than $75K at press time.
The attacker was thwarted, however, as the Bitcoin Gold teamdetectedthe attack early on and alerted mining pools and exchanges about the potential attack. The team also privately supplied these entities with a new updated version of the Bitcoin Gold network, which implemented a checkpoint at block 640,650—the most recent "honest block" before the attack. This new code, run by pools and exchanges, automatically rejected the attacker's chain when it was released on July 10.
Bitcoin Gold has a history of reorg attacks. The network faced a $70,000 attack in January 2020 and an $18M attack in May 2018.
© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Bitcoin Gold devs say they stopped an extremely long block reorganization attack: Bitcoin Gold's developer team has prevented an "extremely long attack chain" against the network according to a Friday announcement. According to the development team, an attacker rented hash power from mining service provider NiceHash on July 1 and secretly mined an alternative chain essentially creating a new transaction history for the network for nearly ten days, mining over 1,300 blocks in the process. On July 10, the attacker released the secret chain in an attempt to collect over 8,000 bitcoin gold, worth more than $75K at press time. The attacker was thwarted, however, as the Bitcoin Gold team detected the attack early on and alerted mining pools and exchanges about the potential attack. The team also privately supplied these entities with a new updated version of the Bitcoin Gold network, which implemented a checkpoint at block 640,650the most recent "honest block" before the attack. This new code, run by pools and exchanges, automatically rejected the attacker's chain when it was released on July 10. Bitcoin Gold has a history of reorg attacks. The network faced a $70,000 attack in January 2020 and an $18M attack in May 2018. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || The Mixed Signals Economy: The Breakdown Weekly Recap: Jobless claims are down, coronavirus cases are up and the markets simply don’t know what to do.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode is sponsored byBitstampandCiphertrace.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for July 13, 2020
On The Breakdown’s Weekly Recap, NLW explores:
• The final tally on the TikTok Doge viral campaign
• The growing geopolitical tension between China and the U.S. and where it’s manifesting
• Positive economic indicators in reduced jobless claims
• Negative economic indicators in growing COVID-19 casesanddeaths
• Whybitcoinis moving sideways
• Why Treasury yields are down
• Why gold is up
Monday |China Stocks Surge and NYC Real Estate Craters: 5 Stories Shaping Markets Today
Tuesday |Central Banks Cannot Print Jobs: Understanding Real Economic Recovery, Feat. Daniel Lacalle
Wednesday |TikTok Let the Doge Out: Why TikTok Doge Is Everything About 2020 Finance in One Story
Related:Does COVID-19 Have the World Rethinking Dollar Supremacy?
Thursday |Inequality, Social Chaos, Bankruptcy Rallies: The Best Insights From FinTwit June 2020
Friday |You Can’t Fight Outrage Culture With More Outrage, Feat. Michael Krieger
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
• The Mixed Signals Economy: The Breakdown Weekly Recap
• The Mixed Signals Economy: The Breakdown Weekly Recap || The Mixed Signals Economy: The Breakdown Weekly Recap: Jobless claims are down, coronavirus cases are up and the markets simply don’t know what to do. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for July 13, 2020 On The Breakdown’s Weekly Recap, NLW explores: The final tally on the TikTok Doge viral campaign The growing geopolitical tension between China and the U.S. and where it’s manifesting Positive economic indicators in reduced jobless claims Negative economic indicators in growing COVID-19 cases and deaths Why bitcoin is moving sideways Why Treasury yields are down Why gold is up This week on The Breakdown: Monday | China Stocks Surge and NYC Real Estate Craters: 5 Stories Shaping Markets Today Tuesday | Central Banks Cannot Print Jobs: Understanding Real Economic Recovery, Feat. Daniel Lacalle Wednesday | TikTok Let the Doge Out: Why TikTok Doge Is Everything About 2020 Finance in One Story Related: Does COVID-19 Have the World Rethinking Dollar Supremacy? Thursday | Inequality, Social Chaos, Bankruptcy Rallies: The Best Insights From FinTwit June 2020 Friday | You Can’t Fight Outrage Culture With More Outrage, Feat. Michael Krieger For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories The Mixed Signals Economy: The Breakdown Weekly Recap The Mixed Signals Economy: The Breakdown Weekly Recap View comments || Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of Ethereum’s 2014 Premine: The following is excerpted from Camila Russo’s“The Infinite Machine,”an in-depth history of Ethereum, which goes on sale July 14.
The sale started on July 22 at midnight in Switzerland. The website they put together for the sale had a real-time counter of the amount ofethersold, and the team watched with relief as the numbers ticked up. More than 7 million ether, or about $2.2 million, were sold just in the first 12 hours. It had been a long, hard wait since December and January, when most of them started working for the project. Everyone was worn out, and most were broke.
“We have been promising that the sale would arise in two weeks for six months, and many team members have endured substantial hardships because of expectations that we set regarding when we would be able to provide funding,” Vitalik [Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder] wrote in a blog post announcing the sale. “We certainly miscalculated the sheer difficulty of navigating the relevant legal processes in the United States and Switzerland, as well as the surprisingly intricate technical issues surrounding setting up a secure sale website and cold wallet system.”
Related:Marlin Releases Open-Source ‘Layer 0’ Transaction Relayer for Ethereum
See also:What is Ethereum?
At the start of the sale and for fourteen days the price was set so that one bitcoin bought 2,000 ether. At the end of the 14-day period the amount would decline linearly to a final rate of 1,337 ether, which meant that one ether was worth 0.0007479bitcoinor about 30 cents at bitcoin prices in September 2014.
While prices for the sale were fixed, the amount that would be issued was not, so purchasers could buy as much ether as they wanted to. When investors sent their bitcoin to the EthSuisse wallet address, though, they didn’t immediately get ether in return. They got an Ethereum wallet and password that would allow them to access their ether when the platform launched. It was a way to reduce the speculative nature of the sale, and have the token be traded only once it could be actually used.
The Ethereum network launch was targeted for the (Northern Hemisphere) winter of 2014-15. The Ethereum team would create ether according to the amount raised in the sale when the first block in the Ethereum blockchain was mined. There was a second pool of ether that would be issued for the cofounders and other early team members, which would be 9.9 percent of the amount raised, and a third pool of ether of the same size would be created for the Ethereum Foundation.
Related:Introducing the CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most in Crypto
This type of cryptocurrency issuance is known as a “premine,” as the coins are created before the network is generating tokens on its own, like Bitcoin does to reward its miners. The concept is controversial, as some enthusiasts will argue Satoshi Nakamoto gave anyone who was interested the same opportunity to gain bitcoin when the network was launched, as he announced when mining would begin and published the software beforehand. In the case of Bitcoin, the total supply of coins is created by miners. Ethereum and other projects that premine their coins are criticized because control of the cryptocurrency’s supply is potentially more centralized among “insiders” who participated in the presale and could manipulate the price or influence governance decisions. Before Ethereum, almost any cryptocurrency project that had a premine would be quickly written off as a scam. Ethereum didn’t entirely change that, and it’s still criticized because of it, but it did help legitimize the concept.
Podcast host and Bitcoin enthusiast Matt Odell brought up these criticisms in October 2018 and Vitalik responded on Twitter, “I personally am really proud to have helped set the precedent of small premines being legitimate. It’s an appalling idea that people operating boxes burning huge piles of electricity are somehow the only ones who should be allowed to gain from crypto seignorage revenue.”
See also: Osho Jha –Staking Will Turn Ethereum Into a Functional Store of Value
The sale documents said that once the Ethereum blockchain launched and the premined ether was issued, miners would generate new ether initially at an annual rate of 26% of the amount of ether issued in the crowdsale – the issuance rate isn’t fixed and is capped at 18 million ETH minted per year. That means the supply of ether would grow over time but at a decreasing rate. The increasing supply means that large holders’ stakes will gradually decline relative to the total supply and ownership will tend to be more decentralized, while a declining growth rate avoids flooding the market with ether and pushing down its price. An uncapped supply for Ethereum also ensures that those supporting the network will always be rewarded with new ether. That’s another difference with Bitcoin, which is designed to have a fixed supply of 21 million.
The Ethereum documents and Vitalik’s blog posts said they give no guarantees of ether’s future value but the chart they showed in the terms-and-conditions document, with a downward sloping line to represent the ether supply growth rate, surely gave prospective buyers reason to be hopeful.
Bitcoin continued to trickle in, and on the seventh day of the crowdsale, Tuesday, July 29, Ken [Seiff] decided to make the plunge. He had moved back to New York from San Francisco just four days earlier. He and his wife were staying at the Ludlow Hotel in the East Village while the moving trucks were on their way from the West Coast with their belongings, and their children were staying at their grandparents’ in Florida to avoid the majority of the move.
He was working at one of his venture fund’s investor’s offices until he got his own place. It had been a fairly typical day. He had been in meetings with investors and portfolio companies since the early morning and had come back to his borrowed desk in the evening to return calls and get to his outstanding emails.
Bitcoin was about $580 that day, and each bitcoin purchased 2,000 ether, making the cost of 1 ether about $0.29, Ken calculated. Used to thinking in venture capital terms, Ken equated Bitcoin to a later stage, Series D investment, while Ethereum was a seed investment. That meant ether had more room to grow, but also a higher likelihood of failure. Ethereum, with its ability to support all kinds of blockchain applications, also had the potential of being even bigger than Bitcoin, Ken thought.
He had gone through these arguments many times in his head, but he revisited them as he went to the Ethereum.org white and gray website. At the center was the amount of ether sold so far. To the left of that number was the amount of days left in the sale and to the right was the amount of days left at the current price, an interface that not so subtly said “hurry up and give us your bitcoin.” Below those numbers was a black button that said, “Buy Ether,” along with links to the terms and conditions, the purchase agreement, the white paper, and the intended use of revenue. He had already gone over those documents but he skimmed through them once more. “Ownership of ETH carries no rights . . . purchases are non-refundable . . . cryptofuel . . . distributed applications,” he read and took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.”
His heart beat faster, and he had no idea what to expect when he clicked the “Buy Ether” button. A new page with a three-step process appeared. Step 1, the website told him, “Enter the amount to purchase in either Bitcoin or Ether.” The minimum was 0.01 bitcoin and the maximum was 500,000 bitcoin. The cap was in place to prevent buyers from owning a disproportionately large stake of the total ether sold and the terms and conditions said “EthSuisse will restrict any single entity, person, corporation, or group from controlling more than 12.5% of the total ETH sold by the end of the Genesis Sale” – but it’s unclear from the documentation exactly how they’d be able to keep track, since all that was needed to buy ether was an email address. Also, EthSuisse would be dissolved right after the sale.
Ken wasn’t planning on giving up 500,000 bitcoin, but it was a substantial amount of his personal wealth that he had decided to bet on Ethereum. He typed in the amount. Step 2 was to type in his email address, and Step 3 was to create a passphrase that would be used to encrypt and access his wallet. He checked everything a million times and clicked on “Continue.” Step 4 told him to “move his mouse around the screen to generate a random wallet, and once you’re done you will be moved on to the next screen.” “This is so weird,” he thought, as he complied, his anxiety surging when he realized there was no back button. Next, he clicked on a button that downloaded an Ethereum wallet to his computer, and then there was a Bitcoin wallet address and QR code for him to send his bitcoin to. He went to his Bitcoin wallet, copied the address – a jumbled-up string of numbers and letters – and letting out a muffled scream, “Aaaahhh!” he clicked send.
And just like that, he had parted with half of his perfectly good bitcoin, which were now traveling into some cryptographic maze. “Into the ether!” he couldn’t help thinking. This was one of the scariest moments of his life. There were no charge-backs in blockchain. If he copied the wrong address, or messed up one of the steps, there would be no way of getting his bitcoin back. In the world of crypto, there was no arbiter (that was the whole point), and when the roughly 10 minutes it takes to confirm transactions in the Bitcoin network were up, the transfer would be permanent and virtually immutable. He sat back, and just stared at his laptop screen for a while. It was done.
See also:Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act
Thousands of other people must have been thinking the same thing as they sent their bitcoin into what seemed like the dark void of the Ethereum sale. It’s hard to say exactly how many, but the blockchain shows more than 6,600 transactions going into EthSuisse’s Bitcoin address. The total number of people who participated is likely much smaller, though, as big buyers probably split their purchases into several different wallets.
By the end of the sale, people behind those jumbled addresses had bought more than 60 million ether, which at around 30 cents per coin amounted to $18.3 million. It was a huge success. There had been only five similar crowdsales done by cryptocurrency projects before Ethereum’s Genesis Sale and the second-largest raise had been by Maidsafe for $6 million. It was also a success compared with crowdsales in general. Seven months later, Mihai [Alisie] would publish a blog post that said, “according to Wikipedia, Ethereum is rated as the second-biggest crowdfunded project in the history of the internet, sitting proudly next to the first occupant that raised over $70 [million], but over the course of years, not 42 days.”
Mihai had turned 27 during the sale on July 25, and the Ethereum team that was still in Zug [Switzerland] decorated the house with colorful banners and took the chance to celebrate both Mihai growing older and the bitcoin that was flowing in. All the laptops in the house had the website permanently open, so that as they had their drinks and ate birthday cake, the big number at the center of the page that showed the pile of ether they had sold was quietly and steadily ticking up.
Now anyone could be an investor in one of the most cutting-edge technology companies out there. All they needed was an internet connection and at least 0.01 bitcoin.
“I have to admit that we all had high hopes, but no one was anticipating that in 24 hours we would surpass any previous initiative in the space. In any case, it was one of the most fulfilling birthday presents ever and proof that we weren’t crazy, or that there are many other crazy people out there and we’d found each other,” Mihai wrote.
The Ethereum team had actually written down what those high hopes were. In a document called “Intended Use of Revenue,” they included three scenarios: one in case they got $9 million or less in the sale, $9 million to $22.5 million was the second one, and more than $22.5 million was the third. The very worst case for them already meant beating all other previous cryptocurrency crowdsales. In all cases, $1.8 million was allocated to expenses incurred before the sale and $1 million was to be set aside for a legal contingency fund. Of the rest, 76.5 percent went to the developers, 13.5 percent went to communications and community outreach, and 10 percent went to research.
The total supply of ETH started out at 72 million as 5.9 million (the stipulated 9.9 percent of the 60 million raised) was created for 83 early contributors and an equal amount was issued for the foundation. Vitalik got the biggest share of the contributors’ endowment at about 553,000 ether. Stephan Tual, who was leading communications in London, would later make a big stink with an angry post on Reddit, leaking information about how much specific people had gotten, especially when he didn’t think they’d contributed much to the effort.
Vitalik had designed a whole system for calculating allocations based on the date individuals had joined the project and the hours they contributed to it. The foundation wasn’t allowed to invest in the crowdsale, so that it wouldn’t get a disproportionate stake and raise the centralization red flag, and it could only withdraw 5,000 bitcoin while the presale was running to speed up development. The limit was put in place to avoid any suggestion that the foundation was reinvesting the bitcoin it got to inflate volume.
See also:Ethereum Has Become Bitcoin’s Top Off-Chain Destination
But there was no rule about the endowment recipients buying up more ETH in the sale, as long as they didn’t break the rule of owning more than 12.5 percent of the total supply. Still, there was no way of enforcing that limit. There was a big incentive for cofounders to buy more in the sale, as the amount they would get as part of the endowment depended on the total raised. Put simply, whatever money they put in they’d essentially get more free money back. Those who had lent money to Ethereum also got paid back their loans plus 25 to 50 percent of interest, depending on when they were made. Vitalik had lent more than half the money he had to the foundation and didn’t have many funds left to put in. Joe Lubin is rumored to be the biggest holder of ETH to come out of the crowdsale, though he says that’s not the case.
Critics in the BitcoinTalk forum and elsewhere didn’t go quiet when they saw Ethereum’s success. With no proof to support their claims, they posited that volume was being manipulated by the foundation and the Ethereum team to draw in more buyers. How else to explain why Ethereum’s volume was so much higher than other crowdsales?
Preston Byrne, an attorney focusing on early-stage companies and cryptocurrency businesses, published an April 2018 blog post stating that “most of the ether sold in the 2014 token pre-sale in exchange for bitcoin may have been paid out to one person or, more likely, a handful of close associates working in concert,” because the chart showing the flow of bitcoin was unnaturally even, and almost exactly the same as the chart of a mathematical power function. Something so perfect, he suggested, signaled the work of a bot. Byrne said it was highly suspicious that “the initial two week-period of the Ethereum pre-sale looks more than merely typical, there’s very little randomness in it – it looksperfect,” and, “unless Vitalik subtly managed to telepathically hack everyone’s brains so buyers would participate in the pre-sale in an organized fashion,” it’s likely that enough ether to move markets is concentrated in not a lot of people. Research firm Chainalysis later confirmed the suspicion that ether distribution is concentrated. Only 376 holders control 33 percent of the circulating ether supply, a May 2019 report found.
One anonymous cryptocurrency researcher who goes by the online name of Hasu did further analysis of the sale after Byrne’s post. He found the two bumps in demand during the sale, one at the beginning and one at the end of the 42-week period, are an expected consequence of people buying right before the ether price increased. Still, like Byrne, he didn’t find an explanation for “why the graph looks so damn smooth.”
While Vitalik hopes there was no manipulation by insiders, and says he didn’t engage in such practices, he says ultimately he has no way of knowing whether some may have done it. As for himself, he barely had enough money to invest as he had spent most of it bootstrapping Ethereum.
See also:Why This Dev Built a ‘Centralized Ethereum’ on Top of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
Incentives for early contributors to participate in the sale and get others to do so, and the unnaturally even chart patterns, point to possible manipulation during the ether sale. But the amount of money raised was also a reflection of an intensely anticipated project led by a teenager hailed as a genius coder, building the next-generation blockchain.
A whole new financing model had been tested. One where a ragtag group of feuding hackers with no business plan and no live product, let alone users or revenue, could raise millions of dollars from thousands of people from all over the world. Before, anyone who wanted to buy stock in big tech firms like Facebook or Google would need a U.S. bank account; things got even more complicated for those who wanted to invest in startups that hadn’t gone to the public markets to raise funds. Now anyone could be an investor in one of the most cutting-edge technology companies out there. All they needed was an internet connection and at least 0.01 bitcoin.
Ken followed up with Gavin in January to see how the launch was coming along. They had promised the platform (and therefore Ken’s ether) would be live around that time.
On January 3, 2015, Ken Seiff <[redacted]> wrote:
Hey Gav,Happy new year! Hope you have an amazing year.
On January 6, 2015, Gav Wood <[redacted]> wrote:
Hey Ken,yeah you too! Was a fairly amazing year as far as they go:) Going fairly well, looking forward to a release more or less on schedule, depending on the outcome of our external security audit, which is beginning right now. We’re looking at an incremental roll-out rather than a big-bang release as originally planned, so there should be various news and improvements coming out over the year.Gav—Never put down to incompetence that which can be adequately explained by self-interest.
On January 6, 2015, Ken Seiff <[redacted]> wrote:
Haha. Can’t tell you how many times I have seen that exact change in plans. Welcome to startup hell. That which doesn’t break you makes you stronger.Very excited to see what you guys deliver over the coming few years.It’s going to be massively disruptive.
From “THE INFINITE MACHINE” by Camila Russo.Copyright © 2020 by Camila Russo. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Business, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
• Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of Ethereum’s 2014 Premine
• Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of Ethereum’s 2014 Premine || Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of Ethereum’s 2014 Premine: The following is excerpted from Camila Russo’s “The Infinite Machine,” an in-depth history of Ethereum, which goes on sale July 14. The sale started on July 22 at midnight in Switzerland. The website they put together for the sale had a real-time counter of the amount of ether sold, and the team watched with relief as the numbers ticked up. More than 7 million ether, or about $2.2 million, were sold just in the first 12 hours. It had been a long, hard wait since December and January, when most of them started working for the project. Everyone was worn out, and most were broke. “We have been promising that the sale would arise in two weeks for six months, and many team members have endured substantial hardships because of expectations that we set regarding when we would be able to provide funding,” Vitalik [Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder] wrote in a blog post announcing the sale. “We certainly miscalculated the sheer difficulty of navigating the relevant legal processes in the United States and Switzerland, as well as the surprisingly intricate technical issues surrounding setting up a secure sale website and cold wallet system.” Related: Marlin Releases Open-Source ‘Layer 0’ Transaction Relayer for Ethereum See also: What is Ethereum? At the start of the sale and for fourteen days the price was set so that one bitcoin bought 2,000 ether. At the end of the 14-day period the amount would decline linearly to a final rate of 1,337 ether, which meant that one ether was worth 0.0007479 bitcoin or about 30 cents at bitcoin prices in September 2014. While prices for the sale were fixed, the amount that would be issued was not, so purchasers could buy as much ether as they wanted to. When investors sent their bitcoin to the EthSuisse wallet address, though, they didn’t immediately get ether in return. They got an Ethereum wallet and password that would allow them to access their ether when the platform launched. It was a way to reduce the speculative nature of the sale, and have the token be traded only once it could be actually used. Story continues The Ethereum network launch was targeted for the (Northern Hemisphere) winter of 2014-15. The Ethereum team would create ether according to the amount raised in the sale when the first block in the Ethereum blockchain was mined. There was a second pool of ether that would be issued for the cofounders and other early team members, which would be 9.9 percent of the amount raised, and a third pool of ether of the same size would be created for the Ethereum Foundation. Related: Introducing the CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most in Crypto This type of cryptocurrency issuance is known as a “premine,” as the coins are created before the network is generating tokens on its own, like Bitcoin does to reward its miners. The concept is controversial, as some enthusiasts will argue Satoshi Nakamoto gave anyone who was interested the same opportunity to gain bitcoin when the network was launched, as he announced when mining would begin and published the software beforehand. In the case of Bitcoin, the total supply of coins is created by miners. Ethereum and other projects that premine their coins are criticized because control of the cryptocurrency’s supply is potentially more centralized among “insiders” who participated in the presale and could manipulate the price or influence governance decisions. Before Ethereum, almost any cryptocurrency project that had a premine would be quickly written off as a scam. Ethereum didn’t entirely change that, and it’s still criticized because of it, but it did help legitimize the concept. Podcast host and Bitcoin enthusiast Matt Odell brought up these criticisms in October 2018 and Vitalik responded on Twitter, “I personally am really proud to have helped set the precedent of small premines being legitimate. It’s an appalling idea that people operating boxes burning huge piles of electricity are somehow the only ones who should be allowed to gain from crypto seignorage revenue.” See also: Osho Jha – Staking Will Turn Ethereum Into a Functional Store of Value The sale documents said that once the Ethereum blockchain launched and the premined ether was issued, miners would generate new ether initially at an annual rate of 26% of the amount of ether issued in the crowdsale – the issuance rate isn’t fixed and is capped at 18 million ETH minted per year. That means the supply of ether would grow over time but at a decreasing rate. The increasing supply means that large holders’ stakes will gradually decline relative to the total supply and ownership will tend to be more decentralized, while a declining growth rate avoids flooding the market with ether and pushing down its price. An uncapped supply for Ethereum also ensures that those supporting the network will always be rewarded with new ether. That’s another difference with Bitcoin, which is designed to have a fixed supply of 21 million. The Ethereum documents and Vitalik’s blog posts said they give no guarantees of ether’s future value but the chart they showed in the terms-and-conditions document, with a downward sloping line to represent the ether supply growth rate, surely gave prospective buyers reason to be hopeful. Bitcoin continued to trickle in, and on the seventh day of the crowdsale, Tuesday, July 29, Ken [Seiff] decided to make the plunge. He had moved back to New York from San Francisco just four days earlier. He and his wife were staying at the Ludlow Hotel in the East Village while the moving trucks were on their way from the West Coast with their belongings, and their children were staying at their grandparents’ in Florida to avoid the majority of the move. He was working at one of his venture fund’s investor’s offices until he got his own place. It had been a fairly typical day. He had been in meetings with investors and portfolio companies since the early morning and had come back to his borrowed desk in the evening to return calls and get to his outstanding emails. Bitcoin was about $580 that day, and each bitcoin purchased 2,000 ether, making the cost of 1 ether about $0.29, Ken calculated. Used to thinking in venture capital terms, Ken equated Bitcoin to a later stage, Series D investment, while Ethereum was a seed investment. That meant ether had more room to grow, but also a higher likelihood of failure. Ethereum, with its ability to support all kinds of blockchain applications, also had the potential of being even bigger than Bitcoin, Ken thought. He had gone through these arguments many times in his head, but he revisited them as he went to the Ethereum.org white and gray website. At the center was the amount of ether sold so far. To the left of that number was the amount of days left in the sale and to the right was the amount of days left at the current price, an interface that not so subtly said “hurry up and give us your bitcoin.” Below those numbers was a black button that said, “Buy Ether,” along with links to the terms and conditions, the purchase agreement, the white paper, and the intended use of revenue. He had already gone over those documents but he skimmed through them once more. “Ownership of ETH carries no rights . . . purchases are non-refundable . . . cryptofuel . . . distributed applications,” he read and took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.” His heart beat faster, and he had no idea what to expect when he clicked the “Buy Ether” button. A new page with a three-step process appeared. Step 1, the website told him, “Enter the amount to purchase in either Bitcoin or Ether.” The minimum was 0.01 bitcoin and the maximum was 500,000 bitcoin. The cap was in place to prevent buyers from owning a disproportionately large stake of the total ether sold and the terms and conditions said “EthSuisse will restrict any single entity, person, corporation, or group from controlling more than 12.5% of the total ETH sold by the end of the Genesis Sale” – but it’s unclear from the documentation exactly how they’d be able to keep track, since all that was needed to buy ether was an email address. Also, EthSuisse would be dissolved right after the sale. Ken wasn’t planning on giving up 500,000 bitcoin, but it was a substantial amount of his personal wealth that he had decided to bet on Ethereum. He typed in the amount. Step 2 was to type in his email address, and Step 3 was to create a passphrase that would be used to encrypt and access his wallet. He checked everything a million times and clicked on “Continue.” Step 4 told him to “move his mouse around the screen to generate a random wallet, and once you’re done you will be moved on to the next screen.” “This is so weird,” he thought, as he complied, his anxiety surging when he realized there was no back button. Next, he clicked on a button that downloaded an Ethereum wallet to his computer, and then there was a Bitcoin wallet address and QR code for him to send his bitcoin to. He went to his Bitcoin wallet, copied the address – a jumbled-up string of numbers and letters – and letting out a muffled scream, “Aaaahhh!” he clicked send. And just like that, he had parted with half of his perfectly good bitcoin, which were now traveling into some cryptographic maze. “Into the ether!” he couldn’t help thinking. This was one of the scariest moments of his life. There were no charge-backs in blockchain. If he copied the wrong address, or messed up one of the steps, there would be no way of getting his bitcoin back. In the world of crypto, there was no arbiter (that was the whole point), and when the roughly 10 minutes it takes to confirm transactions in the Bitcoin network were up, the transfer would be permanent and virtually immutable. He sat back, and just stared at his laptop screen for a while. It was done. See also: Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act Thousands of other people must have been thinking the same thing as they sent their bitcoin into what seemed like the dark void of the Ethereum sale. It’s hard to say exactly how many, but the blockchain shows more than 6,600 transactions going into EthSuisse’s Bitcoin address. The total number of people who participated is likely much smaller, though, as big buyers probably split their purchases into several different wallets. By the end of the sale, people behind those jumbled addresses had bought more than 60 million ether, which at around 30 cents per coin amounted to $18.3 million. It was a huge success. There had been only five similar crowdsales done by cryptocurrency projects before Ethereum’s Genesis Sale and the second-largest raise had been by Maidsafe for $6 million. It was also a success compared with crowdsales in general. Seven months later, Mihai [Alisie] would publish a blog post that said, “according to Wikipedia, Ethereum is rated as the second-biggest crowdfunded project in the history of the internet, sitting proudly next to the first occupant that raised over $70 [million], but over the course of years, not 42 days.” Mihai had turned 27 during the sale on July 25, and the Ethereum team that was still in Zug [Switzerland] decorated the house with colorful banners and took the chance to celebrate both Mihai growing older and the bitcoin that was flowing in. All the laptops in the house had the website permanently open, so that as they had their drinks and ate birthday cake, the big number at the center of the page that showed the pile of ether they had sold was quietly and steadily ticking up. Now anyone could be an investor in one of the most cutting-edge technology companies out there. All they needed was an internet connection and at least 0.01 bitcoin. “I have to admit that we all had high hopes, but no one was anticipating that in 24 hours we would surpass any previous initiative in the space. In any case, it was one of the most fulfilling birthday presents ever and proof that we weren’t crazy, or that there are many other crazy people out there and we’d found each other,” Mihai wrote. The Ethereum team had actually written down what those high hopes were. In a document called “Intended Use of Revenue,” they included three scenarios: one in case they got $9 million or less in the sale, $9 million to $22.5 million was the second one, and more than $22.5 million was the third. The very worst case for them already meant beating all other previous cryptocurrency crowdsales. In all cases, $1.8 million was allocated to expenses incurred before the sale and $1 million was to be set aside for a legal contingency fund. Of the rest, 76.5 percent went to the developers, 13.5 percent went to communications and community outreach, and 10 percent went to research. The total supply of ETH started out at 72 million as 5.9 million (the stipulated 9.9 percent of the 60 million raised) was created for 83 early contributors and an equal amount was issued for the foundation. Vitalik got the biggest share of the contributors’ endowment at about 553,000 ether. Stephan Tual, who was leading communications in London, would later make a big stink with an angry post on Reddit, leaking information about how much specific people had gotten, especially when he didn’t think they’d contributed much to the effort. Vitalik had designed a whole system for calculating allocations based on the date individuals had joined the project and the hours they contributed to it. The foundation wasn’t allowed to invest in the crowdsale, so that it wouldn’t get a disproportionate stake and raise the centralization red flag, and it could only withdraw 5,000 bitcoin while the presale was running to speed up development. The limit was put in place to avoid any suggestion that the foundation was reinvesting the bitcoin it got to inflate volume. See also: Ethereum Has Become Bitcoin’s Top Off-Chain Destination But there was no rule about the endowment recipients buying up more ETH in the sale, as long as they didn’t break the rule of owning more than 12.5 percent of the total supply. Still, there was no way of enforcing that limit. There was a big incentive for cofounders to buy more in the sale, as the amount they would get as part of the endowment depended on the total raised. Put simply, whatever money they put in they’d essentially get more free money back. Those who had lent money to Ethereum also got paid back their loans plus 25 to 50 percent of interest, depending on when they were made. Vitalik had lent more than half the money he had to the foundation and didn’t have many funds left to put in. Joe Lubin is rumored to be the biggest holder of ETH to come out of the crowdsale, though he says that’s not the case. Critics in the BitcoinTalk forum and elsewhere didn’t go quiet when they saw Ethereum’s success. With no proof to support their claims, they posited that volume was being manipulated by the foundation and the Ethereum team to draw in more buyers. How else to explain why Ethereum’s volume was so much higher than other crowdsales? Preston Byrne, an attorney focusing on early-stage companies and cryptocurrency businesses, published an April 2018 blog post stating that “most of the ether sold in the 2014 token pre-sale in exchange for bitcoin may have been paid out to one person or, more likely, a handful of close associates working in concert,” because the chart showing the flow of bitcoin was unnaturally even, and almost exactly the same as the chart of a mathematical power function. Something so perfect, he suggested, signaled the work of a bot. Byrne said it was highly suspicious that “the initial two week-period of the Ethereum pre-sale looks more than merely typical, there’s very little randomness in it – it looks perfect, ” and, “unless Vitalik subtly managed to telepathically hack everyone’s brains so buyers would participate in the pre-sale in an organized fashion,” it’s likely that enough ether to move markets is concentrated in not a lot of people. Research firm Chainalysis later confirmed the suspicion that ether distribution is concentrated. Only 376 holders control 33 percent of the circulating ether supply, a May 2019 report found. One anonymous cryptocurrency researcher who goes by the online name of Hasu did further analysis of the sale after Byrne’s post. He found the two bumps in demand during the sale, one at the beginning and one at the end of the 42-week period, are an expected consequence of people buying right before the ether price increased. Still, like Byrne, he didn’t find an explanation for “why the graph looks so damn smooth.” While Vitalik hopes there was no manipulation by insiders, and says he didn’t engage in such practices, he says ultimately he has no way of knowing whether some may have done it. As for himself, he barely had enough money to invest as he had spent most of it bootstrapping Ethereum. See also: Why This Dev Built a ‘Centralized Ethereum’ on Top of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Incentives for early contributors to participate in the sale and get others to do so, and the unnaturally even chart patterns, point to possible manipulation during the ether sale. But the amount of money raised was also a reflection of an intensely anticipated project led by a teenager hailed as a genius coder, building the next-generation blockchain. A whole new financing model had been tested. One where a ragtag group of feuding hackers with no business plan and no live product, let alone users or revenue, could raise millions of dollars from thousands of people from all over the world. Before, anyone who wanted to buy stock in big tech firms like Facebook or Google would need a U.S. bank account; things got even more complicated for those who wanted to invest in startups that hadn’t gone to the public markets to raise funds. Now anyone could be an investor in one of the most cutting-edge technology companies out there. All they needed was an internet connection and at least 0.01 bitcoin. Ken followed up with Gavin in January to see how the launch was coming along. They had promised the platform (and therefore Ken’s ether) would be live around that time. On January 3, 2015, Ken Seiff <[redacted]> wrote: Hey Gav, Happy new year! Hope you have an amazing year. How is it going? Still planning for a Q1 Launch? Best regards, Ken Seiff On January 6, 2015, Gav Wood <[redacted]> wrote: Hey Ken, yeah you too! Was a fairly amazing year as far as they go:) Going fairly well, looking forward to a release more or less on schedule, depending on the outcome of our external security audit, which is beginning right now. We’re looking at an incremental roll-out rather than a big-bang release as originally planned, so there should be various news and improvements coming out over the year. Gav —Never put down to incompetence that which can be adequately explained by self-interest. On January 6, 2015, Ken Seiff <[redacted]> wrote: Haha. Can’t tell you how many times I have seen that exact change in plans. Welcome to startup hell. That which doesn’t break you makes you stronger. Very excited to see what you guys deliver over the coming few years. It’s going to be massively disruptive. From “THE INFINITE MACHINE” by Camila Russo. Copyright © 2020 by Camila Russo. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Business, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Related Stories Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of Ethereum’s 2014 Premine Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of Ethereum’s 2014 Premine || Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say: Bitcoin gold’s developer team announced Friday night that it foiled a 51 percent attack that it had known was coming for over a week.
• Bitcoin gold alerted exchanges and mining pools of the attack on July 2, and posted a notice to the community on July 10 noting that it was time for “everyone else to upgrade their nodes.”
• The team only revealed the attempted network takeover to the public after the unknown attacker, which had been mining blocks since July 1, released 1300 blocks late Friday night.
• Developers had circulated an update that featured a checkpoint at block 640650 on July 2. That checkpoint prevented the attacker’s chain from taking over the honest chain, they said Friday.
• “The majority of honest pool hashpower continues to mine on the honest chain,” website maintainer CryptoDJ saidin the post.
• According to the cryptocurrency’sofficial website, there are only 108 bitcoin gold nodes which are in the world. Nearly 30% of them are in Germany. Bitcoin Gold communications director Edward Iskra told CoinDesk that these only represent immediately responsive nodes, and not ones that don’t allow incoming connections.
• The price seems to have been unaffected by the attempted attack, trading between $9 and $10 since Tuesday, according to Bitfinex
UPDATE (July 11, 2020, 04:23 UTC):This article has been updated with additional information.
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say || Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say: Bitcoin gold’s developer team announced Friday night that it foiled a 51 percent attack that it had known was coming for over a week.
• Bitcoin gold alerted exchanges and mining pools of the attack on July 2, and posted a notice to the community on July 10 noting that it was time for “everyone else to upgrade their nodes.”
• The team only revealed the attempted network takeover to the public after the unknown attacker, which had been mining blocks since July 1, released 1300 blocks late Friday night.
• Developers had circulated an update that featured a checkpoint at block 640650 on July 2. That checkpoint prevented the attacker’s chain from taking over the honest chain, they said Friday.
• “The majority of honest pool hashpower continues to mine on the honest chain,” website maintainer CryptoDJ saidin the post.
• According to the cryptocurrency’sofficial website, there are only 108 bitcoin gold nodes which are in the world. Nearly 30% of them are in Germany. Bitcoin Gold communications director Edward Iskra told CoinDesk that these only represent immediately responsive nodes, and not ones that don’t allow incoming connections.
• The price seems to have been unaffected by the attempted attack, trading between $9 and $10 since Tuesday, according to Bitfinex
UPDATE (July 11, 2020, 04:23 UTC):This article has been updated with additional information.
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say
• Attempted 51% Attack on Bitcoin Gold Was Thwarted, Developers Say || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – July 11th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 0.60% on Friday. Following a 2.32% slide on Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,304.6. It was a bearish start to the day for Bitcoin. Bitcoin fell to an early morning intraday low $9,133.1 before finding support. Finding support at the first major support level at $9,132.03, Bitcoin rallied to a late intraday high $9,324.6. In spite of the late recovery, Bitcoin fell well short of the first major resistance level at $9,407.73. The late recovery, however, saw Bitcoin wrap up the day in positive territory. The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the early July pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday. Binance Coin (+2.73%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.00%), Monero’s XMR (+0.25%), and Tezos (+0.34%) bucked the trend on the day. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors. Cardano’s ADA led the way down, with a loss of 4.63%. Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.00%), XRP (-1.69%) Stellar’s Lumen (-0.99%), and Tron’s TRX (-2.02%) also struggled. EOS (-0.72%), Ethereum (-0.33%), and Litecoin (-0.02%) saw relatively modest losses on the day. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $254.55bn to a Wednesday high $274.58bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $267.03bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell from a Monday high 65.58% to a Thursday low 63.55%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 64.05%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.06% to $9,299.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $9,311.8 before falling to a low $9,294.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin Cash SV (-0.19%), Ethereum (-0.02%), and Litecoin (-0.02%) joined Bitcoin in the red. Story continues It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, with Stellar’s Lumen up by 3.53% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the $9,254 pivot level to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,375.6. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $9,324.6. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin should break out from the second major resistance level at $9,445.6 before any pullback. Failure to avoid a fall through the $9,254 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $9,183.6 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$9,000 levels. The second major resistance level at $9,062.6 should limit any downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Oil Price Rebound Supports Canadian Dollar Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Stabilize Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Finally Pierced Major Level The Weekly Wrap – Economic Data and COVID-19 Continued to Girate the Markets E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Blue Chips Jump on Bank Stocks Surge Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Rally Again || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – July 11th, 2020: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, rose by 0.60% on Friday. Following a 2.32% slide on Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,304.6.
It was a bearish start to the day for Bitcoin. Bitcoin fell to an early morning intraday low $9,133.1 before finding support.
Finding support at the first major support level at $9,132.03, Bitcoin rallied to a late intraday high $9,324.6.
In spite of the late recovery, Bitcoin fell well short of the first major resistance level at $9,407.73.
The late recovery, however, saw Bitcoin wrap up the day in positive territory.
The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the early July pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.
Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday.
Binance Coin (+2.73%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.00%), Monero’s XMR (+0.25%), and Tezos (+0.34%) bucked the trend on the day.
It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors.
Cardano’s ADA led the way down, with a loss of 4.63%.
Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.00%), XRP (-1.69%) Stellar’s Lumen (-0.99%), and Tron’s TRX (-2.02%) also struggled.
EOS (-0.72%), Ethereum (-0.33%), and Litecoin (-0.02%) saw relatively modest losses on the day.
In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $254.55bn to a Wednesday high $274.58bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $267.03bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance fell from a Monday high 65.58% to a Thursday low 63.55%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 64.05%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.06% to $9,299.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $9,311.8 before falling to a low $9,294.0.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day.
Bitcoin Cash SV (-0.19%), Ethereum (-0.02%), and Litecoin (-0.02%) joined Bitcoin in the red.
It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, with Stellar’s Lumen up by 3.53% to lead the way.
Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the $9,254 pivot level to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,375.6.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $9,324.6.
Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.
In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin should break out from the second major resistance level at $9,445.6 before any pullback.
Failure to avoid a fall through the $9,254 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $9,183.6 into play.
Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$9,000 levels. The second major resistance level at $9,062.6 should limit any downside.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• The Weekly Wrap – Economic Data and COVID-19 Continued to Girate the Markets
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Blue Chips Jump on Bank Stocks Surge
• Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Rally Again || Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200: A small bitcoin dip down to $9,100 recovered, but traders are unsure about further price appreciation. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $9,240 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), gaining 0.25% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,118-$9,245 BTC below 10-day and 50-day moving average, a bearish signal for market technicians. The market at $9,200 per bitcoin erased gains earlier in the week when the world’s oldest cryptocurrency popped to $9,400 Wednesday. “Two days ago, bitcoin rallied 1.9% then dropped 2.1% and is now flat. Just another failed breakout,” said Elie Le Rest, partner at quantitative trading firm ExoAlpha. Still, traders buying when prices dip isn’t providing enough momentum to significantly move the market higher, Le Rest added. “There’s less and less amplitude to move, so we should see in the next couple of days how this resolves.” Several traders pointed to $9,400, where momentum might turn into a bullish market. “The price of bitcoin again returned to the range of $9,000-$9,200 after the asset again failed to pass a key level at $9,392,” said Constatin Kogan, a partner at cryptocurrency fund BitBull Capital. Indeed, since the start of July bitcoin has struggled to break out of $9,000-$9,200 territory. Related: Compound Tops $1B in Crypto Loans as DeFi Farmers Keep Digging for Yield Josh Rager, a trader and adviser of crypto brokerage LevelInvest , says it will be hard to get back to Wednesday’s $9,400 price range for the time being. “I think bitcoin drops short of $9,400 to make another lower high on the trend,” he said. However, bets in the options market overwhelmingly favor bitcoin higher than $9,200, with options on $11,250 per BTC especially popular. Nonetheless, options volumes continued to trend down, changing the trader profile, noted Vishal Shah, founder of Alpha5. “This is only traders that play options on the high-end of the risk spectrum,” Shah said. Story continues Read More: Exchanges See Drop in Volumes as Bitcoin Volatility Approaches 2020 Low Related: Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing ExoAlpha’s Le Rest predicted a wide range where price might head into the weekend and beyond. “We’re pretty neutral as it could really go both ways – up to $9,450 on way to tackle $10,000 once again, or down to $8,200,” he said. Bitcoin locked in DeFi up 200% The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was flat Friday, trading around $239 and in the red 0.10% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Ether is up 84% in 2020, outperforming bitcoin’s 28% year-to-date gains. The amount of bitcoin on DeFi, which mostly runs on the Ethereum network, has risen from 5,000 to 15,000 BTC in the past month. That is a 200% increase, according to data aggregator DeFi Pulse. By locking bitcoin in DeFi, investors are able to earn a reward, or “yield,” without having to trade into another asset such as ether. In July’s low spot exchange volume environment, traders might be increasingly locking crypto rather than trading it. Read more: Nearly $60M in Bitcoin Moved to Ethereum in June Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): decred (DCR)+ 6% monero (XMR) + 3% lisk (LSK) + 0.55% Read More: Kyber Token’s Eightfold Increase Reveals Bet on Future Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): dogecoin (DOGE) – 14% cardano (ADA) – 3% stellar (XLM) – 2.5% Read More: What Is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained Equities: In Asia the Nikkei 225 ended the day down 1.06% as losses in the transportation and real estate sectors dragged the index lower. Europe’s FTSE 100 index closed in the green 0.80% as financial sector stocks led gains for the day . The U.S. S&P 500 index gained 1%, with record highs in tech stocks and optimistic news on a possible coronavirus treatment . Read More: Coinbase Plans First-Ever Investor Day Amid Talk It May Go Public Commodities: Oil is up 2.2%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.49. Gold is still around $1,800 Friday, flat in the red 0.10% at $1,799 per ounce. Read More: A Rare Glimpse Into How Crypto Is Really Used in Venezuela Treasurys: U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Friday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the two-year, in the green 2.9%. Read More: The Fed’s Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It? Related Stories Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200 Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200 || Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200: A small bitcoin dip down to $9,100 recovered, but traders are unsure about further price appreciation.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $9,240 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), gaining 0.25% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,118-$9,245
• BTC below 10-day and 50-day moving average, a bearish signal for market technicians.
The market at $9,200 per bitcoin erased gains earlier in the week when the world’s oldest cryptocurrency popped to $9,400 Wednesday. “Two days ago, bitcoin rallied 1.9% then dropped 2.1% and is now flat. Just another failed breakout,” said Elie Le Rest, partner at quantitative trading firm ExoAlpha. Still, traders buying when prices dip isn’t providing enough momentum to significantly move the market higher, Le Rest added. “There’s less and less amplitude to move, so we should see in the next couple of days how this resolves.”
Several traders pointed to $9,400, where momentum might turn into a bullish market. “The price of bitcoin again returned to the range of $9,000-$9,200 after the asset again failed to pass a key level at $9,392,” said Constatin Kogan, a partner at cryptocurrency fund BitBull Capital. Indeed, since the start of July bitcoin has struggled to break out of $9,000-$9,200 territory.
Related:Compound Tops $1B in Crypto Loans as DeFi Farmers Keep Digging for Yield
Josh Rager, a trader and adviser of crypto brokerageLevelInvest, says it will be hard to get back to Wednesday’s $9,400 price range for the time being. “I think bitcoin drops short of $9,400 to make another lower high on the trend,” he said.
However, bets in the options market overwhelmingly favor bitcoin higher than $9,200, with options on $11,250 per BTC especially popular.
Nonetheless, options volumes continued to trend down, changing the trader profile, noted Vishal Shah, founder of Alpha5. “This is only traders that play options on the high-end of the risk spectrum,” Shah said.
Read More:Exchanges See Drop in Volumes as Bitcoin Volatility Approaches 2020 Low
Related:Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing
ExoAlpha’s Le Rest predicted a wide range where price might head into the weekend and beyond. “We’re pretty neutral as it could really go both ways – up to $9,450 on way to tackle $10,000 once again, or down to $8,200,” he said.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was flat Friday, trading around $239 and in the red 0.10% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Ether is up 84% in 2020, outperforming bitcoin’s 28% year-to-date gains.
The amount of bitcoin on DeFi, which mostly runs on the Ethereum network, has risen from 5,000 to 15,000 BTC in the past month. That is a 200% increase, according to data aggregator DeFi Pulse.
By locking bitcoin in DeFi, investors are able to earn a reward, or “yield,” without having to trade into another asset such as ether. In July’s low spot exchange volume environment, traders might be increasingly locking crypto rather than trading it.
Read more:Nearly $60M in Bitcoin Moved to Ethereum in June
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• decred(DCR)+ 6%
• monero(XMR) + 3%
• lisk(LSK) + 0.55%
Read More:Kyber Token’s Eightfold Increase Reveals Bet on Future
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• dogecoin(DOGE) – 14%
• cardano(ADA) – 3%
• stellar(XLM) – 2.5%
Read More:What Is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained
Equities:
• In Asia the Nikkei 225 ended the day down 1.06% aslosses in the transportation and real estate sectorsdragged the index lower.
• Europe’s FTSE 100 index closed in the green 0.80%as financial sector stocks led gains for the day.
• The U.S. S&P 500 index gained 1%, withrecord highs in tech stocks and optimistic news on a possible coronavirus treatment.
Read More:Coinbase Plans First-Ever Investor Day Amid Talk It May Go Public
Commodities:
• Oil is up 2.2%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.49.
• Gold is still around $1,800 Friday, flat in the red 0.10% at $1,799 per ounce.
Read More:A Rare Glimpse Into How Crypto Is Really Used in Venezuela
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Friday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the two-year, in the green 2.9%.
Read More:The Fed’s Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It?
• Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200
• Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200 || Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200: A small bitcoin dip down to $9,100 recovered, but traders are unsure about further price appreciation.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $9,240 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), gaining 0.25% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,118-$9,245
• BTC below 10-day and 50-day moving average, a bearish signal for market technicians.
The market at $9,200 per bitcoin erased gains earlier in the week when the world’s oldest cryptocurrency popped to $9,400 Wednesday. “Two days ago, bitcoin rallied 1.9% then dropped 2.1% and is now flat. Just another failed breakout,” said Elie Le Rest, partner at quantitative trading firm ExoAlpha. Still, traders buying when prices dip isn’t providing enough momentum to significantly move the market higher, Le Rest added. “There’s less and less amplitude to move, so we should see in the next couple of days how this resolves.”
Several traders pointed to $9,400, where momentum might turn into a bullish market. “The price of bitcoin again returned to the range of $9,000-$9,200 after the asset again failed to pass a key level at $9,392,” said Constatin Kogan, a partner at cryptocurrency fund BitBull Capital. Indeed, since the start of July bitcoin has struggled to break out of $9,000-$9,200 territory.
Related:Compound Tops $1B in Crypto Loans as DeFi Farmers Keep Digging for Yield
Josh Rager, a trader and adviser of crypto brokerageLevelInvest, says it will be hard to get back to Wednesday’s $9,400 price range for the time being. “I think bitcoin drops short of $9,400 to make another lower high on the trend,” he said.
However, bets in the options market overwhelmingly favor bitcoin higher than $9,200, with options on $11,250 per BTC especially popular.
Nonetheless, options volumes continued to trend down, changing the trader profile, noted Vishal Shah, founder of Alpha5. “This is only traders that play options on the high-end of the risk spectrum,” Shah said.
Read More:Exchanges See Drop in Volumes as Bitcoin Volatility Approaches 2020 Low
Related:Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing
ExoAlpha’s Le Rest predicted a wide range where price might head into the weekend and beyond. “We’re pretty neutral as it could really go both ways – up to $9,450 on way to tackle $10,000 once again, or down to $8,200,” he said.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was flat Friday, trading around $239 and in the red 0.10% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Ether is up 84% in 2020, outperforming bitcoin’s 28% year-to-date gains.
The amount of bitcoin on DeFi, which mostly runs on the Ethereum network, has risen from 5,000 to 15,000 BTC in the past month. That is a 200% increase, according to data aggregator DeFi Pulse.
By locking bitcoin in DeFi, investors are able to earn a reward, or “yield,” without having to trade into another asset such as ether. In July’s low spot exchange volume environment, traders might be increasingly locking crypto rather than trading it.
Read more:Nearly $60M in Bitcoin Moved to Ethereum in June
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• decred(DCR)+ 6%
• monero(XMR) + 3%
• lisk(LSK) + 0.55%
Read More:Kyber Token’s Eightfold Increase Reveals Bet on Future
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• dogecoin(DOGE) – 14%
• cardano(ADA) – 3%
• stellar(XLM) – 2.5%
Read More:What Is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained
Equities:
• In Asia the Nikkei 225 ended the day down 1.06% aslosses in the transportation and real estate sectorsdragged the index lower.
• Europe’s FTSE 100 index closed in the green 0.80%as financial sector stocks led gains for the day.
• The U.S. S&P 500 index gained 1%, withrecord highs in tech stocks and optimistic news on a possible coronavirus treatment.
Read More:Coinbase Plans First-Ever Investor Day Amid Talk It May Go Public
Commodities:
• Oil is up 2.2%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.49.
• Gold is still around $1,800 Friday, flat in the red 0.10% at $1,799 per ounce.
Read More:A Rare Glimpse Into How Crypto Is Really Used in Venezuela
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Friday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the two-year, in the green 2.9%.
Read More:The Fed’s Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It?
• Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200
• Market Wrap: Traders Buy the Dip and Bitcoin Holds at $9,200 || Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App: The social payments app Bottlepay (née Bottle Pay) aims to relaunch in the next few weeks, after shuttering due to regulations in December 2019 . After restructuring the bitcoin wallet product to fit Europes anti-money laundering directive ( AMLD5 ), the British startup is offering an exchange wallet with social features on Reddit, Twitter and Discord . Bottlepay co-founder Pete Cheyne said there are over 1,000 people on the waitlist for the closed beta relaunch in August. Because were moving to an app-native product theres a lot more we can do, Cheyne said. Were also adding in the ability to have scheduled payments to buy more bitcoin. Related: Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing Read more: Bitcoin App Bottle Pay Shuts Down Over Impending EU Money-Laundering Laws Squares Cash App and others already offer this feature in the United States, but in Europe, where Bottlepay is focused, theres even an added feature that forwards the bitcoin to another wallet address if desired. This means users may choose custodial or non-custodial services. Lightning works in the background, without users having to manage channels, Cheyne added. There will be a small fee for exchanging between fiat and bitcoin, and vice versa.
There will also be tiers because people are interested in our app for different use cases. Bottlepay CEO Mark Webster said his team of 11 employees has constant funding from their angel investors, who previously traded equity for $2 million in 2019. Webster added the company wont support tokens in the near future, although it might someday. This year it is all about bitcoin. Related: Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New Record High 2 Months After Halving I think Lightning is at the core of the strategy, Webster said, referring to the bitcoin scaling solution . As consumer demand increases we can open more channels. Story continues Read more: WikiLeaks Shop Now Accepts Bitcoin Lightning Payments As part of this shift, Webster said he is hiring, not tightening his belt for the recession, hoping to grow the team to roughly 35 people by 2021. Cheyne said several of the hires so far have been for the marketing and legal teams, which did a vast restructuring of the product. The added hassle of know-your-customer requirements also created an opportunity for wallet features. You can store a fiat balance, Cheyne said. Scan a Lightning code and pay that from your pound or euro balance. For now, Bottlepay will only open the beta program to users in Europe. But Webster said the company hopes to open the beta to Americans and reactivate Telegram options by 2021. When it does, it may be one of the few fiat-friendly wallets that leverages Lightning without any hassle for the user. In some ways, this is comparable to the American Lightning-powered consumer app Strike . This time away has been valuable for the company to refine our strategy, Webster said. Were still extremely focused on Lightning. Related Stories Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App || Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App: The social payments appBottlepay(née Bottle Pay) aims to relaunch in the next few weeks, after shuttering due to regulations inDecember 2019.
After restructuring thebitcoinwallet product to fit Europe’s anti-money laundering directive (AMLD5), the British startup is offering an exchange wallet with social features onReddit, Twitter and Discord. Bottlepay co-founder Pete Cheyne said there are over 1,000 people on the waitlist for the closed beta relaunch in August.
“Because we’re moving to an app-native product there’s a lot more we can do,” Cheyne said. “We’re also adding in the ability to have scheduled payments to buy more bitcoin.”
Related:Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing
Read more:Bitcoin App Bottle Pay Shuts Down Over Impending EU Money-Laundering Laws
Square’sCash Appand others already offer this feature in the United States, but in Europe, where Bottlepay is focused, there’s even an added feature that forwards the bitcoin to another wallet address if desired. This means users may choose custodial or non-custodial services.
“Lightning works in the background, without users having to manage channels,” Cheyne added. “There will be a small fee for exchanging between fiat and bitcoin, and vice versa. … There will also be tiers because people are interested in our app for different use cases.”
Bottlepay CEO Mark Webster said his team of 11 employees has “constant funding” from their angel investors, who previously traded equity for$2 millionin 2019. Webster added the company won’t support tokens in the near future, although it might someday. This year it is all about bitcoin.
Related:Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New Record High 2 Months After Halving
“I think Lightning is at the core of the strategy,” Webster said, referring to thebitcoin scaling solution. “As consumer demand increases we can open more channels.”
Read more:WikiLeaks Shop Now Accepts Bitcoin Lightning Payments
As part of this shift, Webster said he is hiring, not tightening his belt for the recession, hoping to grow the team to roughly 35 people by 2021. Cheyne said several of the hires so far have been for the marketing and legal teams, which did a vast restructuring of the product. The added hassle of know-your-customer requirements also created an opportunity for wallet features.
“You can store a fiat balance,” Cheyne said. “Scan a Lightning code and pay that from your pound or euro balance.”
For now, Bottlepay will only open the beta program to users in Europe. But Webster said the company hopes to open the beta to Americans and reactivateTelegram optionsby 2021. When it does, it may be one of the few fiat-friendly wallets that leverages Lightning without any hassle for the user. In some ways, this is comparable to the American Lightning-powered consumer appStrike.
“This time away has been valuable for the company to refine our strategy,” Webster said. “We’re still extremely focused on Lightning.”
• Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App
• Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App || Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App: The social payments appBottlepay(née Bottle Pay) aims to relaunch in the next few weeks, after shuttering due to regulations inDecember 2019.
After restructuring thebitcoinwallet product to fit Europe’s anti-money laundering directive (AMLD5), the British startup is offering an exchange wallet with social features onReddit, Twitter and Discord. Bottlepay co-founder Pete Cheyne said there are over 1,000 people on the waitlist for the closed beta relaunch in August.
“Because we’re moving to an app-native product there’s a lot more we can do,” Cheyne said. “We’re also adding in the ability to have scheduled payments to buy more bitcoin.”
Related:Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing
Read more:Bitcoin App Bottle Pay Shuts Down Over Impending EU Money-Laundering Laws
Square’sCash Appand others already offer this feature in the United States, but in Europe, where Bottlepay is focused, there’s even an added feature that forwards the bitcoin to another wallet address if desired. This means users may choose custodial or non-custodial services.
“Lightning works in the background, without users having to manage channels,” Cheyne added. “There will be a small fee for exchanging between fiat and bitcoin, and vice versa. … There will also be tiers because people are interested in our app for different use cases.”
Bottlepay CEO Mark Webster said his team of 11 employees has “constant funding” from their angel investors, who previously traded equity for$2 millionin 2019. Webster added the company won’t support tokens in the near future, although it might someday. This year it is all about bitcoin.
Related:Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New Record High 2 Months After Halving
“I think Lightning is at the core of the strategy,” Webster said, referring to thebitcoin scaling solution. “As consumer demand increases we can open more channels.”
Read more:WikiLeaks Shop Now Accepts Bitcoin Lightning Payments
As part of this shift, Webster said he is hiring, not tightening his belt for the recession, hoping to grow the team to roughly 35 people by 2021. Cheyne said several of the hires so far have been for the marketing and legal teams, which did a vast restructuring of the product. The added hassle of know-your-customer requirements also created an opportunity for wallet features.
“You can store a fiat balance,” Cheyne said. “Scan a Lightning code and pay that from your pound or euro balance.”
For now, Bottlepay will only open the beta program to users in Europe. But Webster said the company hopes to open the beta to Americans and reactivateTelegram optionsby 2021. When it does, it may be one of the few fiat-friendly wallets that leverages Lightning without any hassle for the user. In some ways, this is comparable to the American Lightning-powered consumer appStrike.
“This time away has been valuable for the company to refine our strategy,” Webster said. “We’re still extremely focused on Lightning.”
• Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App
• Bitcoin App Bottlepay Is Back From the Dead With a New Lightning App || Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500: Bitcoin’sone-year correlation to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit record highs as the leading cryptocurrency continues to trade in lockstep with traditional financial markets.
The realized correlation, which measures the relationship between two assets, reached 0.367 on Thursday, up from -0.06 on January 1, according to data fromCoin Metrics. Bitcoin’s correlation to the benchmark index of U.S. stocks has made new all-time highs for the past three consecutive trading days. Before this, the previous high was on July 5, which lasted for one day.
It’s worth noting that a coefficient of 0.367 is not overwhelmingly strong, but correlations on shorter-term bases are significantly higher. The closer a correlation coefficient is to 1.0, the more likely two things are to move in the same direction.
Related:Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing
Bitcoin’s one-month correlation to the S&P, for example, reached a multi-year high of 0.79 on Wednesday, according to data fromSkew, indicating a much stronger short-term correlation trend as levels of investor uncertainty and expected volatility remain high. Analysts expect the trend to continue and even strengthen.
Bitcoin’s strong performance from March lows has fueled demand tobuyandtradebitcoin, even with the coronavirus pandemic battering the economy. Investors are increasingly looking for inflation hedges like gold or bitcoin amid aggressive expansionary monetary policy, which has also pushed equity prices higher at the same time.
See also:The Federal Reserve’s Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It?
Bitcoin has historically exhibited little to no correlation to traditional asset classes. But more consistent correlations are likely as the cryptocurrency space matures, according to Kevin Kelly, former equity analyst at Bloomberg and co-founder of cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital.
Related:Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New Record High 2 Months After Halving
“One of the biggest reasons we haven’t seen these develop already is the average investor profile is unlike traditional markets, where large institutional players dominate,” Kelly said in a letter to clients.
• Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500
• Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500 || Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500: Bitcoin’sone-year correlation to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit record highs as the leading cryptocurrency continues to trade in lockstep with traditional financial markets.
The realized correlation, which measures the relationship between two assets, reached 0.367 on Thursday, up from -0.06 on January 1, according to data fromCoin Metrics. Bitcoin’s correlation to the benchmark index of U.S. stocks has made new all-time highs for the past three consecutive trading days. Before this, the previous high was on July 5, which lasted for one day.
It’s worth noting that a coefficient of 0.367 is not overwhelmingly strong, but correlations on shorter-term bases are significantly higher. The closer a correlation coefficient is to 1.0, the more likely two things are to move in the same direction.
Related:Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing
Bitcoin’s one-month correlation to the S&P, for example, reached a multi-year high of 0.79 on Wednesday, according to data fromSkew, indicating a much stronger short-term correlation trend as levels of investor uncertainty and expected volatility remain high. Analysts expect the trend to continue and even strengthen.
Bitcoin’s strong performance from March lows has fueled demand tobuyandtradebitcoin, even with the coronavirus pandemic battering the economy. Investors are increasingly looking for inflation hedges like gold or bitcoin amid aggressive expansionary monetary policy, which has also pushed equity prices higher at the same time.
See also:The Federal Reserve’s Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It?
Bitcoin has historically exhibited little to no correlation to traditional asset classes. But more consistent correlations are likely as the cryptocurrency space matures, according to Kevin Kelly, former equity analyst at Bloomberg and co-founder of cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital.
Related:Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New Record High 2 Months After Halving
“One of the biggest reasons we haven’t seen these develop already is the average investor profile is unlike traditional markets, where large institutional players dominate,” Kelly said in a letter to clients.
• Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500
• Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500 || Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500: Bitcoins one-year correlation to the Standard & Poors 500 index hit record highs as the leading cryptocurrency continues to trade in lockstep with traditional financial markets. The realized correlation, which measures the relationship between two assets, reached 0.367 on Thursday, up from -0.06 on January 1, according to data from Coin Metrics . Bitcoins correlation to the benchmark index of U.S. stocks has made new all-time highs for the past three consecutive trading days. Before this, the previous high was on July 5, which lasted for one day. Its worth noting that a coefficient of 0.367 is not overwhelmingly strong, but correlations on shorter-term bases are significantly higher. The closer a correlation coefficient is to 1.0, the more likely two things are to move in the same direction. Related: Drop in Bitcoin 'Whale' Addresses Suggests Market May Be Decentralizing Bitcoins one-month correlation to the S&P, for example, reached a multi-year high of 0.79 on Wednesday, according to data from Skew , indicating a much stronger short-term correlation trend as levels of investor uncertainty and expected volatility remain high. Analysts expect the trend to continue and even strengthen. Bitcoins strong performance from March lows has fueled demand to buy and trade bitcoin, even with the coronavirus pandemic battering the economy. Investors are increasingly looking for inflation hedges like gold or bitcoin amid aggressive expansionary monetary policy, which has also pushed equity prices higher at the same time. See also: The Federal Reserves Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It? Bitcoin has historically exhibited little to no correlation to traditional asset classes. But more consistent correlations are likely as the cryptocurrency space matures, according to Kevin Kelly, former equity analyst at Bloomberg and co-founder of cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital. Story continues Related: Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sets New Record High 2 Months After Halving One of the biggest reasons we havent seen these develop already is the average investor profile is unlike traditional markets, where large institutional players dominate, Kelly said in a letter to clients. Related Stories Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500 Bitcoin Reaches Record High Correlation to S&P 500
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84, 9132.23, 9151.39, 9159.04, 9185.82, 9164.23, 9374.89, 9525.36
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 279.47, 274.90, 273.61, 278.98, 275.83, 277.22, 276.05, 288.28, 288.70, 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59, 287.72, 284.65, 281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47, 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51, 257.98, 211.08, 226.68, 235.35, 232.57, 230.39, 228.17, 210.49, 221.61, 225.83, 224.77, 231.40, 229.78, 228.76, 230.06, 228.12, 229.28, 227.18, 230.30, 235.02, 239.84, 239.85, 243.61, 238.17, 238.48, 240.11, 235.23, 230.51, 230.64, 230.30, 229.09, 229.81, 232.98, 231.49, 231.21, 227.09, 230.62, 230.28, 234.53, 235.14, 234.34, 232.76, 239.14, 236.69, 236.06, 237.55, 237.29, 238.73, 238.26, 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31, 249.51, 251.99.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-10-14]
Volume: 27462600, RSI (14-day): 68.08, 50-day EMA: 241.09, 200-day EMA: 250.30
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1180.10, Gold RSI: 68.34
Oil Price: 46.64, Oil RSI: 51.18
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Blockchain For Banks Could Be A Big Business: Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention over the past few years as more and more people took an interest in the technology. However, much of the buzz surrounding cryptocurrencies like bitcoin was negative after a spate of high profile scams and criminal cases involving the currency painted it as a tool for illicit activities. While bitcoin may never become a mainstream payment method, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that it runs on, has been touted as one of the most important developments of the decade. Related Link: Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise Banks On Board Traditional finance firms have been reluctant to embrace bitcoin as a currency, but blockchain is another story. Banks around the world including Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC ), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB ) have all taken an interest in blockchain , saying they could see the technology improving how they do business. Blockchain provides a secure way to facilitate transactions without involving a third party intermediary. Banks say this could be useful for everything from sending payments to setting up a smart contracts system. Implementing Blockchain While many banks are studying blockchain using task forces set up within their own company, several startups have emerged to help banks study the impact of blockchain on their operations. Blockstack, Eris Ltd and Coin Sciences are all private firms that offer companies blockchain solutions. They offer banks the ability to experiment with blockchain systems that meet their specific needs, rather than providing them with something that needs to be modified. See more from Benzinga Can Social Media Firms Compete With Amazon In The E-Commerce Space? Cyberweapons Replace Nuclear Threats In Global Arms Race Things Are Looking Brighter For Europe © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Blockchain For Banks Could Be A Big Business: Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention over the past few years as more and more people took an interest in the technology. However, much of the buzz surrounding cryptocurrencies like bitcoin was negative after a spate of high profile scams and criminal cases involving the currency painted it as a tool for illicit activities.
While bitcoin may never become a mainstream payment method, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that it runs on, has been touted as one of the most important developments of the decade.
Related Link:Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise
Banks On Board
Traditional finance firms have been reluctant to embrace bitcoin as a currency, but blockchain is another story. Banks around the world includingBank of America Corp(NYSE:BAC),Morgan Stanley(NYSE:MS) andDeutsche Bank(NYSE:DB) have alltaken an interest in blockchain, saying they could see the technology improving how they do business. Blockchain provides a secure way to facilitate transactions without involving a third party intermediary. Banks say this could be useful for everything from sending payments to setting up a smart contracts system.
Implementing Blockchain
While many banks are studying blockchain using task forces set up within their own company, several startups have emerged to help banks study the impact of blockchain on their operations. Blockstack, Eris Ltd and Coin Sciences are all private firms that offer companies blockchain solutions. They offer banks the ability to experiment with blockchain systems that meet their specific needs, rather than providing them with something that needs to be modified.
See more from Benzinga
• Can Social Media Firms Compete With Amazon In The E-Commerce Space?
• Cyberweapons Replace Nuclear Threats In Global Arms Race
• Things Are Looking Brighter For Europe
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || MarilynJean Interactive (OTCQB: MJMI) Sets Its Sights on $24B Philippines Remittance Market: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2015 /MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI) today announced it has entered into advanced discussions with a provider of Bitcoin-based remittance services.
The potential remittance partner is a fully licensed money services business on the cutting edge of the remittance space, using Bitcoin to effect low cost transfers, primarily to the Philippines. With a well-established brand, multiple Bitcoin ATMs, solid financial partnerships in the Philippines, MJMI's management is excited about the potential synergies that could result from this relationship.
In 2014, according to Focus Economics, remittances to the Philippines hit a record high, exceeding USD 24 Billion, accounting for roughly 8.5% of that country's GDP. Those funds came primarily from overseas workers sending funds home to their families. Traditional remittance companies charge upwards of 8% fees on the total funds being sent, in addition to less than favorable exchange rates and taking up to 3 days to clear for pick up. Using Bitcoin, transfers can be effected in virtually real time at a fraction of the cost to the user. Funds can be sent directly to the recipient's bank account or made available for pick up at a partner location or even via a card-less ATM withdrawal.
In a Bitcoin based remittance transaction, an overseas worker would deliver funds to a remittance provider. This service provider would buy Bitcoin on behalf of the customer and then transfer the coins, paying less than 1% to do so, to the selling partner in the recipient country. The selling partner would then sell the Bitcoins and then transfer the funds to the final recipient. Because there is a price difference between the buying and selling of the Bitcoins, it is possible for the two transfer partners to profit sufficiently from the Bitcoin trade to offer the transfer service for a significantly lower fee than any traditional currency (known as FIAT) based remittance service.
Bitcoin therefore offers the potential to completely alter the landscape of worldwide money transfers.
The two companies share a vision on the massive opportunities in this space as well as on the future direction of expansion, namely servicing the remittance markets in Mexico and India. In addition, both companies agree that acquiring and operating a Bitcoin exchange would allow the partners to offer a seamless, end to end solution to customers. More sophisticated clients could eventually use their own Bitcoin wallets to move money through a jointly designed system, allowing them to effect transactions from their mobile phone through a licensed and trustworthy remittance system.
Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We are very excited to be in advanced discussions with this potential remittance partner. They are at the forefront what we expect will be a massive shift in the way global remittances are effected. Their team shares our view that remittance fees are exorbitantly high and that current providers profit excessively by offering poor, often hidden, exchange rates. We believe that, in this area, Bitcoin has tremendous promise to disrupt a system that unfairly charges high rates to hard working people who have left their families to work overseas in hopes of providing them with a better life. We believe the growth potential in this sector is massive and that we are on the right track in terms of identifying the right partners who share our vision."
MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.
MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of Bitcoin ATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth.
About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies:
Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence.
Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: "I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting."
Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK).
MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is (MJMI).
Website:http://www.marilynjean.com/
Press Contact:[email protected]
SOURCE:MarilynJean Interactive || MarilynJean Interactive (OTCQB: MJMI) Sets Its Sights on $24B Philippines Remittance Market: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2015 / MarilynJean Interactive ( MJMI ) today announced it has entered into advanced discussions with a provider of Bitcoin-based remittance services. The potential remittance partner is a fully licensed money services business on the cutting edge of the remittance space, using Bitcoin to effect low cost transfers, primarily to the Philippines. With a well-established brand, multiple Bitcoin ATMs, solid financial partnerships in the Philippines, MJMI's management is excited about the potential synergies that could result from this relationship. In 2014, according to Focus Economics, remittances to the Philippines hit a record high, exceeding USD 24 Billion, accounting for roughly 8.5% of that country's GDP. Those funds came primarily from overseas workers sending funds home to their families. Traditional remittance companies charge upwards of 8% fees on the total funds being sent, in addition to less than favorable exchange rates and taking up to 3 days to clear for pick up. Using Bitcoin, transfers can be effected in virtually real time at a fraction of the cost to the user. Funds can be sent directly to the recipient's bank account or made available for pick up at a partner location or even via a card-less ATM withdrawal. In a Bitcoin based remittance transaction, an overseas worker would deliver funds to a remittance provider. This service provider would buy Bitcoin on behalf of the customer and then transfer the coins, paying less than 1% to do so, to the selling partner in the recipient country. The selling partner would then sell the Bitcoins and then transfer the funds to the final recipient. Because there is a price difference between the buying and selling of the Bitcoins, it is possible for the two transfer partners to profit sufficiently from the Bitcoin trade to offer the transfer service for a significantly lower fee than any traditional currency (known as FIAT) based remittance service. Story continues Bitcoin therefore offers the potential to completely alter the landscape of worldwide money transfers. The two companies share a vision on the massive opportunities in this space as well as on the future direction of expansion, namely servicing the remittance markets in Mexico and India. In addition, both companies agree that acquiring and operating a Bitcoin exchange would allow the partners to offer a seamless, end to end solution to customers. More sophisticated clients could eventually use their own Bitcoin wallets to move money through a jointly designed system, allowing them to effect transactions from their mobile phone through a licensed and trustworthy remittance system. Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We are very excited to be in advanced discussions with this potential remittance partner. They are at the forefront what we expect will be a massive shift in the way global remittances are effected. Their team shares our view that remittance fees are exorbitantly high and that current providers profit excessively by offering poor, often hidden, exchange rates. We believe that, in this area, Bitcoin has tremendous promise to disrupt a system that unfairly charges high rates to hard working people who have left their families to work overseas in hopes of providing them with a better life. We believe the growth potential in this sector is massive and that we are on the right track in terms of identifying the right partners who share our vision." MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of Bitcoin ATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth. About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies: Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: "I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting." Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is ( MJMI ). Website: http://www.marilynjean.com/ Press Contact: [email protected] SOURCE: MarilynJean Interactive || Identabit Challenges Bitcoin and BitShares: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / October 9, 2015 /Australian startup Thinking Active, led by New York software entrepreneur John Underwood, today revealed plans forIDentabit, an identity-based alternative to Bitcoin. Designed to liberate decentralized currencies, IDentabit enables regulatory acceptance and viral adoption by way of user association.
IDentabit has been a year in the making, made possible by a collaboration between Thinking Active and Virginia-based U.S. software partnerCryptonomex, Inc., led by Dan Larimer, principal architect of the Blockchain 2.0 project,BitShares.
BitShares was the first chain to introduce DACs (Decentralized Autonomous Corporations), smart contracts, a decentralized exchange, and DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake), a highly efficient, rapid, and scalable means of block confirmations.
"With the increased regulatory attention directed at Bitcoin, brought on by the stream of crime empowered by anonymity, we concluded that there was a need for a chain that enabled AML/CTF compliance, enhanced funds security, denial of crimes empowered by anonymity, and ensured security of transfer by way of user association," Underwood explained. "We realize that this is the beginning of a long journey, but believe the time is right to recognize the might and purpose of compliance."
"While we respect Bitcoin and the purpose of anonymity, we see benefits in offering the market a choice between anonymity and identity, a choice that enables growth across a broader range of use cases," Underwood said.
IDentabit is best described as a permission-based ledger that enables proof of reserve without subjecting transactions to public scrutiny. IDentabit addresses P2P/AML/CTF compliance, Privacy (zero public scrutiny), user issued funds transfer, and decentralized transparent governance. It also introduces sustainable funding by way of Proof of Appreciation, enabling progressive issuance that only occurs in conjunction with favorable market conditions.
While the concept of identified transactions is simple to appreciate, actually implementing identity by way of a decentralized blockchain is not a trivial problem. "We could not have found this solution without the combined perseverance of our respective teams," Underwood said.
Of equal importance to compliance is scale: using DPoS the team was able to benchmark transaction capacity that exceeds four times that of Mastercard's claimed 24,000 TPS. Underwood pointed out, "As disruptors, we need scale if we are going to replace existing payment networks with P2P transactions. While we understand Bitcoin can get beyond 7 TPS, none of us has time to wait for Bitcoin's organic crawl to address issues of speed and compliance."
The timing of IDentabit's release has been motivated by growing interest in blockchain technology by institutions collaborating with IBM and Ethereum. These teams are intent on building institutionalized identity-based alternatives.
Ironically to buy time, these projects depend on the crypto-community's loyalty to anonymity. This loyalty has led to widespread acceptance of an assumption that for decentralized currencies to be disruptive, digital currencies must put ideology before security and compliance. This blind assumption has, until now, blocked the innovation required to compete with emerging institutional alternatives.
"We believe that if we don't act now to protect decentralized currencies with an identity-ensured alternative to Bitcoin, we are handing the keys of change to the very organizations we sought to disrupt in the first place," Underwood said.
Contact Thinking Active:
John [email protected] Active 44 Market St , Level 6 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
SOURCE:Thinking Active || Identabit Challenges Bitcoin and BitShares: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / October 9, 2015 /Australian startup Thinking Active, led by New York software entrepreneur John Underwood, today revealed plans forIDentabit, an identity-based alternative to Bitcoin. Designed to liberate decentralized currencies, IDentabit enables regulatory acceptance and viral adoption by way of user association.
IDentabit has been a year in the making, made possible by a collaboration between Thinking Active and Virginia-based U.S. software partnerCryptonomex, Inc., led by Dan Larimer, principal architect of the Blockchain 2.0 project,BitShares.
BitShares was the first chain to introduce DACs (Decentralized Autonomous Corporations), smart contracts, a decentralized exchange, and DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake), a highly efficient, rapid, and scalable means of block confirmations.
"With the increased regulatory attention directed at Bitcoin, brought on by the stream of crime empowered by anonymity, we concluded that there was a need for a chain that enabled AML/CTF compliance, enhanced funds security, denial of crimes empowered by anonymity, and ensured security of transfer by way of user association," Underwood explained. "We realize that this is the beginning of a long journey, but believe the time is right to recognize the might and purpose of compliance."
"While we respect Bitcoin and the purpose of anonymity, we see benefits in offering the market a choice between anonymity and identity, a choice that enables growth across a broader range of use cases," Underwood said.
IDentabit is best described as a permission-based ledger that enables proof of reserve without subjecting transactions to public scrutiny. IDentabit addresses P2P/AML/CTF compliance, Privacy (zero public scrutiny), user issued funds transfer, and decentralized transparent governance. It also introduces sustainable funding by way of Proof of Appreciation, enabling progressive issuance that only occurs in conjunction with favorable market conditions.
While the concept of identified transactions is simple to appreciate, actually implementing identity by way of a decentralized blockchain is not a trivial problem. "We could not have found this solution without the combined perseverance of our respective teams," Underwood said.
Of equal importance to compliance is scale: using DPoS the team was able to benchmark transaction capacity that exceeds four times that of Mastercard's claimed 24,000 TPS. Underwood pointed out, "As disruptors, we need scale if we are going to replace existing payment networks with P2P transactions. While we understand Bitcoin can get beyond 7 TPS, none of us has time to wait for Bitcoin's organic crawl to address issues of speed and compliance."
The timing of IDentabit's release has been motivated by growing interest in blockchain technology by institutions collaborating with IBM and Ethereum. These teams are intent on building institutionalized identity-based alternatives.
Ironically to buy time, these projects depend on the crypto-community's loyalty to anonymity. This loyalty has led to widespread acceptance of an assumption that for decentralized currencies to be disruptive, digital currencies must put ideology before security and compliance. This blind assumption has, until now, blocked the innovation required to compete with emerging institutional alternatives.
"We believe that if we don't act now to protect decentralized currencies with an identity-ensured alternative to Bitcoin, we are handing the keys of change to the very organizations we sought to disrupt in the first place," Underwood said.
Contact Thinking Active:
John [email protected] Active 44 Market St , Level 6 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
SOURCE:Thinking Active || Identabit Challenges Bitcoin and BitShares: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / October 9, 2015 / Australian startup Thinking Active, led by New York software entrepreneur John Underwood, today revealed plans for IDentabit , an identity-based alternative to Bitcoin. Designed to liberate decentralized currencies, IDentabit enables regulatory acceptance and viral adoption by way of user association. IDentabit has been a year in the making, made possible by a collaboration between Thinking Active and Virginia-based U.S. software partner Cryptonomex , Inc., led by Dan Larimer, principal architect of the Blockchain 2.0 project, BitShares . BitShares was the first chain to introduce DACs (Decentralized Autonomous Corporations), smart contracts, a decentralized exchange, and DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake), a highly efficient, rapid, and scalable means of block confirmations. "With the increased regulatory attention directed at Bitcoin, brought on by the stream of crime empowered by anonymity, we concluded that there was a need for a chain that enabled AML/CTF compliance, enhanced funds security, denial of crimes empowered by anonymity, and ensured security of transfer by way of user association," Underwood explained. "We realize that this is the beginning of a long journey, but believe the time is right to recognize the might and purpose of compliance." "While we respect Bitcoin and the purpose of anonymity, we see benefits in offering the market a choice between anonymity and identity, a choice that enables growth across a broader range of use cases," Underwood said. IDentabit is best described as a permission-based ledger that enables proof of reserve without subjecting transactions to public scrutiny. IDentabit addresses P2P/AML/CTF compliance, Privacy (zero public scrutiny), user issued funds transfer, and decentralized transparent governance. It also introduces sustainable funding by way of Proof of Appreciation, enabling progressive issuance that only occurs in conjunction with favorable market conditions. While the concept of identified transactions is simple to appreciate, actually implementing identity by way of a decentralized blockchain is not a trivial problem. "We could not have found this solution without the combined perseverance of our respective teams," Underwood said. Of equal importance to compliance is scale: using DPoS the team was able to benchmark transaction capacity that exceeds four times that of Mastercard's claimed 24,000 TPS. Underwood pointed out, "As disruptors, we need scale if we are going to replace existing payment networks with P2P transactions. While we understand Bitcoin can get beyond 7 TPS, none of us has time to wait for Bitcoin's organic crawl to address issues of speed and compliance." Story continues The timing of IDentabit's release has been motivated by growing interest in blockchain technology by institutions collaborating with IBM and Ethereum. These teams are intent on building institutionalized identity-based alternatives. Ironically to buy time, these projects depend on the crypto-community's loyalty to anonymity. This loyalty has led to widespread acceptance of an assumption that for decentralized currencies to be disruptive, digital currencies must put ideology before security and compliance. This blind assumption has, until now, blocked the innovation required to compete with emerging institutional alternatives. "We believe that if we don't act now to protect decentralized currencies with an identity-ensured alternative to Bitcoin, we are handing the keys of change to the very organizations we sought to disrupt in the first place," Underwood said. Contact Thinking Active: John Underwood +61488008371 [email protected] Thinking Active 44 Market St , Level 6 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia SOURCE: Thinking Active View comments || Bitcoin exchange Gemini safe and legal: Founders: Bitcoin is often associated with illegal activity and the dark corners of the Internet. But the Winklevoss twins believe their new exchange will help investors get involved with the digital currency safely and legally.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for their legal spat with Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)founder Mark Zuckerberg, launched bitcoin exchange Gemini on Thursday. While the currency has received criticism for its role in exchanges such as online black market Silk Road, the brothers contend they have established sufficient safeguards to unlock its potential.
"We built with a security mentality from Day One," said Tyler Winklevoss.
Cameron Winklevoss added that Gemini has "the highest regulatory policies and capitalization requirements." The brothers said they implemented background checks and protections against money laundering.
Read MoreNY issues license to Winklevoss bitcoin venture
Specifically, they contended that their platform gives hedge funds and market makers a secure platform to dive into the digital currency.
Tyler Winklevoss also touched on Facebook, saying it is a "great company" and Zuckerberg deserves credit for its growth and success.
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Bitcoin exchange Gemini safe and legal: Founders: Bitcoin is often associated with illegal activity and the dark corners of the Internet. But the Winklevoss twins believe their new exchange will help investors get involved with the digital currency safely and legally. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for their legal spat with Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg, launched bitcoin exchange Gemini on Thursday. While the currency has received criticism for its role in exchanges such as online black market Silk Road, the brothers contend they have established sufficient safeguards to unlock its potential. "We built with a security mentality from Day One," said Tyler Winklevoss. Cameron Winklevoss added that Gemini has "the highest regulatory policies and capitalization requirements." The brothers said they implemented background checks and protections against money laundering. Read More NY issues license to Winklevoss bitcoin venture Specifically, they contended that their platform gives hedge funds and market makers a secure platform to dive into the digital currency. Tyler Winklevoss also touched on Facebook, saying it is a "great company" and Zuckerberg deserves credit for its growth and success. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Bitcoin exchange Gemini safe and legal: Founders: Bitcoin is often associated with illegal activity and the dark corners of the Internet. But the Winklevoss twins believe their new exchange will help investors get involved with the digital currency safely and legally.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for their legal spat with Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)founder Mark Zuckerberg, launched bitcoin exchange Gemini on Thursday. While the currency has received criticism for its role in exchanges such as online black market Silk Road, the brothers contend they have established sufficient safeguards to unlock its potential.
"We built with a security mentality from Day One," said Tyler Winklevoss.
Cameron Winklevoss added that Gemini has "the highest regulatory policies and capitalization requirements." The brothers said they implemented background checks and protections against money laundering.
Read MoreNY issues license to Winklevoss bitcoin venture
Specifically, they contended that their platform gives hedge funds and market makers a secure platform to dive into the digital currency.
Tyler Winklevoss also touched on Facebook, saying it is a "great company" and Zuckerberg deserves credit for its growth and success.
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Cable & Wireless Communications Scores With Exclusive Premier League Football Rights From Seasons 2016/17 to 2018/19: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 7, 2015) - Starting next season, the Premier League will have a new home in the Caribbean. Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) today announced that it has won the exclusive rights to broadcast live all 380 matches per season of the Premier League across 32 Caribbean countries from 2016/17 to 2018/19. Commencing in August 2016, the Premier League will be available on the Caribbean's newest sports network --Flow Sports.CWC was also awarded the mobile clip rights, allowing fans to follow the latest goals and action from the world's best football league on any mobile device.
The extensive coverage of live Premier League matches will form the centerpiece of Flow Sports' programming schedule. The network will be launched in November 2015, with content that includes coverage of international and regional football, cricket, rugby, tennis and athletics, as well as CWC's exclusive NFL and Rio 2016 Olympics coverage. Flow Sports will broadcast across the region from a new 4-K-ready, state-of-the-art facility in Trinidad, offering 24/7 sports coverage in HD.
Commenting on the exclusive rights award, John Reid, President of CWC's Consumer Division said: "We are thrilled to partner with the Premier League across the Caribbean. As the most popular league of the world's greatest sport, the Premier League will be at the heart of Flow Sports, the region's newest and largest sports network. We are excited as well to bring additional jobs, skills and investment into the Caribbean with our new Trinidad facility, truly showcasing the power of the new Cable & Wireless and our commitment to the region."
CWC's market research has shown that sports programming is a key decision driver for customers purchasing TV and broadband packages. Approximately 70% of customers identify as being 'sports fans,' with the Premier League dominating sports viewing in the Caribbean. Reid added: "As the region's leading quad play operator, we look forward to bringing Caribbean sports fans closer to the action with our innovations in mobile and online viewing. With our Flow ToGo application and access to mobile clips, fans won't miss any of the excitement that truly defines this tremendous sports asset. Flow Sports will be available in our basic subscription package, meaning more games for more fans, and instantly positioning Flow as the home of sports in the Caribbean."
Phil Bentley, Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless Communications said: "Following our merger with Columbus and our re-branding to Flow, the agreement with the Premier League is yet another example of the growing momentum building across the Caribbean, delivering significant additional revenue synergies through cross-selling and upselling, as well as improving customer loyalty. This is set to accelerate over the next few years."
Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League said: "We are very pleased that Cable & Wireless Communications has chosen to invest in Premier League broadcasting rights in the Caribbean.
"We look forward to welcoming them as a new partner and are sure they will do excellent job making the competition available to fans across the region."
About Cable & Wireless Communications:
Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over $2.4bn, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc. on 31 March 2015, CWC now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers.
Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 42,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity.
CWC has more than 7,000 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; TV 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes.
Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America.
For more information please visit:http://www.cwc.com
About the Premier League:
The Barclays Premier League is the most-watched, continuous, annual sporting event in the world. Last season 13.9 million fans attended matches with record average stadium occupancy of 95.9%. Across nine months of the year, 380 matches are viewed in 185 countries with coverage available in over 725 million households. || Cable & Wireless Communications Scores With Exclusive Premier League Football Rights From Seasons 2016/17 to 2018/19: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 7, 2015) - Starting next season, the Premier League will have a new home in the Caribbean. Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) today announced that it has won the exclusive rights to broadcast live all 380 matches per season of the Premier League across 32 Caribbean countries from 2016/17 to 2018/19. Commencing in August 2016, the Premier League will be available on the Caribbean's newest sports network -- Flow Sports . CWC was also awarded the mobile clip rights, allowing fans to follow the latest goals and action from the world's best football league on any mobile device. The extensive coverage of live Premier League matches will form the centerpiece of Flow Sports' programming schedule. The network will be launched in November 2015, with content that includes coverage of international and regional football, cricket, rugby, tennis and athletics, as well as CWC's exclusive NFL and Rio 2016 Olympics coverage. Flow Sports will broadcast across the region from a new 4-K-ready, state-of-the-art facility in Trinidad, offering 24/7 sports coverage in HD. Commenting on the exclusive rights award, John Reid, President of CWC's Consumer Division said: "We are thrilled to partner with the Premier League across the Caribbean. As the most popular league of the world's greatest sport, the Premier League will be at the heart of Flow Sports, the region's newest and largest sports network. We are excited as well to bring additional jobs, skills and investment into the Caribbean with our new Trinidad facility, truly showcasing the power of the new Cable & Wireless and our commitment to the region." CWC's market research has shown that sports programming is a key decision driver for customers purchasing TV and broadband packages. Approximately 70% of customers identify as being 'sports fans,' with the Premier League dominating sports viewing in the Caribbean. Reid added: "As the region's leading quad play operator, we look forward to bringing Caribbean sports fans closer to the action with our innovations in mobile and online viewing. With our Flow ToGo application and access to mobile clips, fans won't miss any of the excitement that truly defines this tremendous sports asset. Flow Sports will be available in our basic subscription package, meaning more games for more fans, and instantly positioning Flow as the home of sports in the Caribbean." Story continues Phil Bentley, Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless Communications said: "Following our merger with Columbus and our re-branding to Flow, the agreement with the Premier League is yet another example of the growing momentum building across the Caribbean, delivering significant additional revenue synergies through cross-selling and upselling, as well as improving customer loyalty. This is set to accelerate over the next few years." Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League said: "We are very pleased that Cable & Wireless Communications has chosen to invest in Premier League broadcasting rights in the Caribbean. "We look forward to welcoming them as a new partner and are sure they will do excellent job making the competition available to fans across the region." About Cable & Wireless Communications: Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over $2.4bn, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc. on 31 March 2015, CWC now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 42,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity. CWC has more than 7,000 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; TV 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information please visit: http://www.cwc.com About the Premier League: The Barclays Premier League is the most-watched, continuous, annual sporting event in the world. Last season 13.9 million fans attended matches with record average stadium occupancy of 95.9%. Across nine months of the year, 380 matches are viewed in 185 countries with coverage available in over 725 million households. || Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise: Bitcoin has suffered from several high-profile scandals which have branded the cryptocurrency as a tool for criminals and given the public reason to question its safety. However, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that bitcoin runs on, has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the past decade. Many believe that although bitcoin may eventually die out, blockchain will continue to gain support as more and more industries find use for the technology.
Blockchain Not Bitcoin
On Tuesday at Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit, blockchainreceived a nodfrom Blythe Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings. Masters remarked that while bitcoin was of no interest to her, blockchain had the potential to transform the finance space. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to revamp financial markets and make transactions faster and more streamlined, something Masters says is an important trend to watch.
Related Link:Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell
Support From The Finance Industry
Masters isn't alone in thinking blockchain has potential, a recent survey by Greenwich Associates showed that the majority of finance professionals agree. When asked whether blockchain can continue to thrive without bitcoin, 73 percent of the 55 participants said "yes." That attitude suggests that although bitcoin is struggling to gain mainstream approval, blockchain is already being considered a viable option for finance firms looking to improve their operations.
Several Applications
While financial markets have been at the forefront of discussions about the use of blockchain, other industries also see the technology as a potential game-changer. Blockchain would be able to facilitate online auctions as well as create smart contracts, something that could be applicable in several sectors.
See more from Benzinga
• Fuel Surcharges Give E-Commerce Firms More Reason To Be Creative About Logistics
• Tech Firms Caught Between Privacy And Law Enforcement
• Gemini Prepares To Open Its Doors
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise: Bitcoin has suffered from several high-profile scandals which have branded the cryptocurrency as a tool for criminals and given the public reason to question its safety. However, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that bitcoin runs on, has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the past decade. Many believe that although bitcoin may eventually die out, blockchain will continue to gain support as more and more industries find use for the technology.
Blockchain Not Bitcoin
On Tuesday at Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit, blockchainreceived a nodfrom Blythe Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings. Masters remarked that while bitcoin was of no interest to her, blockchain had the potential to transform the finance space. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to revamp financial markets and make transactions faster and more streamlined, something Masters says is an important trend to watch.
Related Link:Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell
Support From The Finance Industry
Masters isn't alone in thinking blockchain has potential, a recent survey by Greenwich Associates showed that the majority of finance professionals agree. When asked whether blockchain can continue to thrive without bitcoin, 73 percent of the 55 participants said "yes." That attitude suggests that although bitcoin is struggling to gain mainstream approval, blockchain is already being considered a viable option for finance firms looking to improve their operations.
Several Applications
While financial markets have been at the forefront of discussions about the use of blockchain, other industries also see the technology as a potential game-changer. Blockchain would be able to facilitate online auctions as well as create smart contracts, something that could be applicable in several sectors.
See more from Benzinga
• Fuel Surcharges Give E-Commerce Firms More Reason To Be Creative About Logistics
• Tech Firms Caught Between Privacy And Law Enforcement
• Gemini Prepares To Open Its Doors
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise: Bitcoin has suffered from several high-profile scandals which have branded the cryptocurrency as a tool for criminals and given the public reason to question its safety. However, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that bitcoin runs on, has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the past decade. Many believe that although bitcoin may eventually die out, blockchain will continue to gain support as more and more industries find use for the technology. Blockchain Not Bitcoin On Tuesday at Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit, blockchain received a nod from Blythe Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings. Masters remarked that while bitcoin was of no interest to her, blockchain had the potential to transform the finance space. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to revamp financial markets and make transactions faster and more streamlined, something Masters says is an important trend to watch. Related Link: Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell Support From The Finance Industry Masters isn't alone in thinking blockchain has potential, a recent survey by Greenwich Associates showed that the majority of finance professionals agree. When asked whether blockchain can continue to thrive without bitcoin, 73 percent of the 55 participants said "yes." That attitude suggests that although bitcoin is struggling to gain mainstream approval, blockchain is already being considered a viable option for finance firms looking to improve their operations. Several Applications While financial markets have been at the forefront of discussions about the use of blockchain, other industries also see the technology as a potential game-changer. Blockchain would be able to facilitate online auctions as well as create smart contracts, something that could be applicable in several sectors. See more from Benzinga Fuel Surcharges Give E-Commerce Firms More Reason To Be Creative About Logistics Tech Firms Caught Between Privacy And Law Enforcement Gemini Prepares To Open Its Doors © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments
[Social Media Buzz]
#RDD / #BTC on the exchanges:
Cryptsy: 0.00000003
Bittrex: 0.00000004
Average $8.0E-6 per #reddcoin
02:45:00 || Current price: 222.28€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-10-15 03:00:04 CEST || http://bit.ly/1gWVX43 Re: BITCOIN the PORN and GAMBLING future?: Quote from: pooya87 on Today at 11:35:00 AMQuote from… || #bitcoin #btc Bitcoin in Business: Smart Contracts: By http://Bitcoinist.net Oct 13, 2015 4:00 PM… http://goo.gl/fb/QSxwaC || 1 #bitcoin = $4150.00 MXN | $249.27 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 16.65...
|
254.32, 262.87, 270.64, 261.64, 263.44, 269.46, 266.27, 274.02, 276.50, 281.65
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 266.27, 274.02, 276.50, 281.65, 283.68, 285.30, 293.79, 304.62, 313.86, 328.02, 314.17, 325.43, 361.19, 403.42, 411.56, 386.35, 374.47, 386.48, 373.37, 380.26, 336.82, 311.08, 338.15, 336.75, 332.91, 320.17, 330.75, 335.09, 334.59, 326.15, 322.02, 326.93, 324.54, 323.05, 320.05, 328.21, 352.68, 358.04, 357.38, 371.29, 377.32, 362.49, 359.19, 361.05, 363.18, 388.95, 388.78, 395.54, 415.56, 417.56, 415.48, 451.94, 435.00, 433.76, 444.18, 465.32, 454.93, 456.08, 463.62, 462.32, 442.68, 438.64, 436.57, 442.40, 454.98, 455.65, 417.27, 422.82, 422.28, 432.98, 426.62, 430.57, 434.33, 433.44, 430.01, 433.09, 431.96, 429.11, 458.05, 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43, 435.69, 432.37, 430.31, 364.33, 387.54, 382.30, 387.17.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-01-18]
Volume: 54403900, RSI (14-day): 38.29, 50-day EMA: 410.87, 200-day EMA: 336.14
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Lead developer quits bitcoin saying it 'has failed': By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid by 10 percent on Friday after one of its lead developers, Mike Hearn, said in a blogpost that he was ending his involvement with the cryptocurrency and selling all of his remaining holdings because it had "failed". Hearn, one of five senior developers who has spent more than five years working on the web-based currency, said he would no longer be taking part in development. "Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly," Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium. Along with Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, Hearn has been locked for months in a battle with the other lead developers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged. Each block currently has a capacity of one megabyte, which Hearn says is "an entirely artificial capacity cap", and allows a maximum of just three payments to be processed per second. In August, Hearn and Andresen released a rival version of the current software, called Bitcoin XT, which would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, allowing up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. While that is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that Visa can process, it would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow. But the new software has not been adopted by the "mining" computers that secure the network, the majority of which are in China, according to Hearn. Hearn says the bitcoin network is about to run out of capacity as the volume of transactions increases. And when that happens, the network will become unreliable, with payments unable to be processed and vulnerable to fraud. "If an IT system runs out of capacity like that then all kinds of things go wrong – all hell breaks loose," he said in an interview with Reuters in late December. Story continues Hearn reckons the bitcoin community has "failed" in its governance of the crytocurrency's code. "What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked 'systemically important institutions' and 'too big to fail' has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people," he wrote. SUDDEN DEPARTURE Just months ago, in August, Hearn told Reuters that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on. "If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it," he said then. Bitcoin was trading at around $390 on the itBit exchange (BTC=ITBT) by 2000 GMT, down from $430 before Hearn's blog post was published. In his December interview, Hearn said that when people realised that the bitcoin network was at breaking point, the price would fall. "The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow," he said. "So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say: well maybe we've miscalculated (its) future value." Hearn is now working for the R3CEV consortium of banks working on using the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin in financial markets. Stephan Tual, the former chief operating officer of blockchain firm Ethereum, who now works at blockchain-based app developer Slock.it, also reckons bitcoin's future looks shaky. "Bitcoin is outdated technology - almost prehistoric by crypto standards," he said. "It's because of petty quarrels such as these that it hasn't been able to evolve in five years." Others were more upbeat. "I'm not ready to declare that Bitcoin has failed," wrote U.S. venture capitalist Fred Wilson. "Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) || Lead developer quits bitcoin saying it 'has failed': By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid by 10 percent on Friday after one of its lead developers, Mike Hearn, said in a blogpost that he was ending his involvement with the cryptocurrency and selling all of his remaining holdings because it had "failed". Hearn, one of five senior developers who has spent more than five years working on the web-based currency, said he would no longer be taking part in development. "Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly," Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium. Along with Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, Hearn has been locked for months in a battle with the other lead developers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged. Each block currently has a capacity of one megabyte, which Hearn says is "an entirely artificial capacity cap", and allows a maximum of just three payments to be processed per second. In August, Hearn and Andresen released a rival version of the current software, called Bitcoin XT, which would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, allowing up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. While that is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that Visa can process, it would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow. But the new software has not been adopted by the "mining" computers that secure the network, the majority of which are in China, according to Hearn. Hearn says the bitcoin network is about to run out of capacity as the volume of transactions increases. And when that happens, the network will become unreliable, with payments unable to be processed and vulnerable to fraud. "If an IT system runs out of capacity like that then all kinds of things go wrong – all hell breaks loose," he said in an interview with Reuters in late December. Story continues Hearn reckons the bitcoin community has "failed" in its governance of the crytocurrency's code. "What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked 'systemically important institutions' and 'too big to fail' has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people," he wrote. SUDDEN DEPARTURE Just months ago, in August, Hearn told Reuters that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on. "If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it," he said then. Bitcoin was trading at around $390 on the itBit exchange (BTC=ITBT) by 2000 GMT, down from $430 before Hearn's blog post was published. In his December interview, Hearn said that when people realised that the bitcoin network was at breaking point, the price would fall. "The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow," he said. "So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say: well maybe we've miscalculated (its) future value." Hearn is now working for the R3CEV consortium of banks working on using the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin in financial markets. Stephan Tual, the former chief operating officer of blockchain firm Ethereum, who now works at blockchain-based app developer Slock.it, also reckons bitcoin's future looks shaky. "Bitcoin is outdated technology - almost prehistoric by crypto standards," he said. "It's because of petty quarrels such as these that it hasn't been able to evolve in five years." Others were more upbeat. "I'm not ready to declare that Bitcoin has failed," wrote U.S. venture capitalist Fred Wilson. "Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) || Lead developer quits bitcoin saying it "has failed": By Jemima Kelly
LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid by 10 percent on Friday after one of its lead developers, Mike Hearn, said in a blogpost that he was ending his involvement with the cryptocurrency and selling all of his remaining holdings because it had "failed".
Hearn, one of five senior developers who has spent more than five years working on the web-based currency, said he would no longer be taking part in development.
"Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly," Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium.
Along with Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, Hearn has been locked for months in a battle with the other lead developers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged.
Each block currently has a capacity of one megabyte, which Hearn says is "an entirely artificial capacity cap", and allows a maximum of just three payments to be processed per second.
In August, Hearn and Andresen released a rival version of the current software, called Bitcoin XT, which would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, allowing up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. While that is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that Visa can process, it would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow.
But the new software has not been adopted by the "mining" computers that secure the network, the majority of which are in China, according to Hearn.
Hearn says the bitcoin network is about to run out of capacity as the volume of transactions increases. And when that happens, the network will become unreliable, with payments unable to be processed and vulnerable to fraud.
"If an IT system runs out of capacity like that then all kinds of things go wrong - all hell breaks loose," he said in an interview with Reuters in late December.
Hearn reckons the bitcoin community has "failed" in its governance of the crytocurrency's code.
"What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked 'systemically important institutions' and 'too big to fail' has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people," he wrote.
SUDDEN DEPARTURE
Just months ago, in August, Hearn told Reuters that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on. "If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it," he said then.
Bitcoin was trading at around $390 on the itBit exchange by 2000 GMT, down from $430 before Hearn's blog post was published.
In his December interview, Hearn said that when people realised that the bitcoin network was at breaking point, the price would fall.
"The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow," he said. "So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say: well maybe we've miscalculated (its) future value."
Hearn is now working for the R3CEV consortium of banks working on using the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin in financial markets.
Stephan Tual, the former chief operating officer of blockchain firm Ethereum, who now works at blockchain-based app developer Slock.it, also reckons bitcoin's future looks shaky.
"Bitcoin is outdated technology - almost prehistoric by crypto standards," he said. "It's because of petty quarrels such as these that it hasn't been able to evolve in five years."
Others were more upbeat.
"I'm not ready to declare that Bitcoin has failed," wrote U.S. venture capitalist Fred Wilson.
"Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) || Lead developer quits bitcoin saying it "has failed": By Jemima Kelly LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid by 10 percent on Friday after one of its lead developers, Mike Hearn, said in a blogpost that he was ending his involvement with the cryptocurrency and selling all of his remaining holdings because it had "failed". Hearn, one of five senior developers who has spent more than five years working on the web-based currency, said he would no longer be taking part in development. "Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly," Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium. Along with Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, Hearn has been locked for months in a battle with the other lead developers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged. Each block currently has a capacity of one megabyte, which Hearn says is "an entirely artificial capacity cap", and allows a maximum of just three payments to be processed per second. In August, Hearn and Andresen released a rival version of the current software, called Bitcoin XT, which would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, allowing up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. While that is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that Visa can process, it would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow. But the new software has not been adopted by the "mining" computers that secure the network, the majority of which are in China, according to Hearn. Hearn says the bitcoin network is about to run out of capacity as the volume of transactions increases. And when that happens, the network will become unreliable, with payments unable to be processed and vulnerable to fraud. "If an IT system runs out of capacity like that then all kinds of things go wrong - all hell breaks loose," he said in an interview with Reuters in late December. Story continues Hearn reckons the bitcoin community has "failed" in its governance of the crytocurrency's code. "What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked 'systemically important institutions' and 'too big to fail' has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people," he wrote. SUDDEN DEPARTURE Just months ago, in August, Hearn told Reuters that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on. "If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it," he said then. Bitcoin was trading at around $390 on the itBit exchange by 2000 GMT, down from $430 before Hearn's blog post was published. In his December interview, Hearn said that when people realised that the bitcoin network was at breaking point, the price would fall. "The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow," he said. "So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say: well maybe we've miscalculated (its) future value." Hearn is now working for the R3CEV consortium of banks working on using the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin in financial markets. Stephan Tual, the former chief operating officer of blockchain firm Ethereum, who now works at blockchain-based app developer Slock.it, also reckons bitcoin's future looks shaky. "Bitcoin is outdated technology - almost prehistoric by crypto standards," he said. "It's because of petty quarrels such as these that it hasn't been able to evolve in five years." Others were more upbeat. "I'm not ready to declare that Bitcoin has failed," wrote U.S. venture capitalist Fred Wilson. "Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) || Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin: PayPal was the hot new thing in payments when it launched in 1998, but in the era of digital currency, crowdfunding, micro-crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer lending, most people no longer see the company that way. So its newest board appointment is an effort to embrace the new landscape in digital payments. To that end, PayPal ( PYPL ) has named Wences Casares to its board of directors, the company announced on Wednesday. Casares is founder and CEO of Xapo, a wallet provider for the digital currency bitcoin, and before Xapo he founded Lemon, another digital wallet company. He is an unusual addition to a board that includes executives from AT&T ( T ), the American Red Cross, Enzon Pharmaceuticals ( ENZN ), and eBay ( EBAY ) cofounder Pierre Omidyar. It's likely a sign that PayPal is ready to embrace bitcoin and its technology. That's especially interesting considering that it is a company some bitcoin entrepreneurs often point to as "Web 1.0" and too slow because of its transfer delays and fees. One of the biggest selling points of bitcoin is the ability to send money to another country with little or no delay, and a fractional fee. "We’ve entered a period of unprecedented disruption in payments and financial services driven by the mass adoption of mobile technology and the digitization of cash," said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman in a statement . "Wences’ long and successful track record as international fintech entrepreneur with a focus on next-generation payment and crypto-currency is a perfect fit for PayPal at this time." PayPal declined to comment beyond the press release. Casares does not come without controversy. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded an Argentinian brokerage in 1997 and sold it to Banco Santander in 2000 for $750 million. Then he founded a Chilean videogame developer in 2002 and sold it to Activision ( ATVI ) in 2006. But he is currently being sued by LifeLock ( LOCK ), a $1.3 billion public company that offers online-identity protection. Story continues In December 2013 LifeLock acquired Casares's company Lemon for $42.6 million. In a lawsuit filed in August 2014, LifeLock says Casares built and launched Xapo, his current company, while working at Lemon, "developed by Lemon employees, in Lemon’s facilities, on Lemon’s computers, and on Lemon’s dime.” Casares and four Xapo employees (each of whom previously worked at Lemon) are named as defendants in LifeLock's suit. The company wants him to pay back “the value of the Xapo product attributable to Defendants’ misrepresentations, omissions, breaches of duty, and other wrongful conduct.” It does not specify an amount it is seeking, but assessing damages would involve placing a value on Xapo. Meanwhile, Casares has fought back, filing a cross-complaint of his own this past July, alleging poor management by LifeLock. (And LifeLock itself was forced to pay a $12 million fine to the FTC this past summer for false advertising of its product.) Some in the bitcoin community believe that LifeLock is upset that it overpaid for Lemon, while Casares has moved on to Xapo, which has raised $40 million in venture capital and might have more promise than Lemon ever did. What does all of this legal drama have to do with PayPal? Perhaps nothing—but if Casares is found guilty of the civil fraud that LifeLock alleges, it would be bad for not just Xapo, but now PayPal as well. Moreover, Fortune reported last year that some of Xapo's investors are angry that they were never made aware of the ongoing litigation against Casares. So PayPal has taken a risk in appointing Casares to its board, not only because of his current legal situation, but on a broader scale it has more strongly associated itself with bitcoin, an industry that is not without its negative headlines. (Just this week, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace that used bitcoin as its form of payment, appealed his recent life sentence.) Just over one year ago, PayPal made partnerships with some prominent bitcoin startups, like BitPay and Coinbase, but the noise of that move has since died down. PayPal now might want to explore a larger form of implementation around bitcoin, or it is intrigued by its underlying technology, the bitcoin blockchain, a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Financial heavyweights like JPMorgan and Nasdaq have both expressed interest in harnessing the blockchain. Or maybe PayPal wants to buy Xapo. || Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin: PayPal was the hot new thing in payments when it launched in 1998, but in the era of digital currency, crowdfunding, micro-crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer lending, most people no longer see the company that way. So its newest board appointment is an effort to embrace the new landscape in digital payments.
To that end, PayPal (PYPL) has named Wences Casares to its board of directors, the company announced on Wednesday. Casares is founder and CEO of Xapo, a wallet provider for the digital currency bitcoin, and before Xapo he founded Lemon, another digital wallet company. He is an unusual addition to a board that includes executives from AT&T (T), the American Red Cross, Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN), and eBay (EBAY) cofounder Pierre Omidyar.
It's likely a sign that PayPal is ready to embrace bitcoin and its technology. That's especially interesting considering that it is a company some bitcoin entrepreneurs often point to as "Web 1.0" and too slow because of its transfer delays and fees. One of the biggest selling points of bitcoin is the ability to send money to another country with little or no delay, and a fractional fee.
"We’ve entered a period of unprecedented disruption in payments and financial services driven by the mass adoption of mobile technology and the digitization of cash," said PayPal CEO Dan Schulmanin a statement. "Wences’ long and successful track record as international fintech entrepreneur with a focus on next-generation payment and crypto-currency is a perfect fit for PayPal at this time." PayPal declined to comment beyond the press release.
Casares does not come without controversy. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded an Argentinian brokerage in 1997 and sold it to Banco Santander in 2000 for $750 million. Then he founded a Chilean videogame developer in 2002 and sold it to Activision (ATVI) in 2006. But he is currently being sued by LifeLock (LOCK), a $1.3 billion public company that offers online-identity protection.
In December 2013 LifeLock acquired Casares's company Lemon for $42.6 million. In a lawsuit filed in August 2014, LifeLock says Casares built and launched Xapo, his current company, while working at Lemon, "developed by Lemon employees, in Lemon’s facilities, on Lemon’s computers, and on Lemon’s dime.” Casares and four Xapo employees (each of whom previously worked at Lemon) are named as defendants in LifeLock's suit. The company wants him to pay back “the value of the Xapo product attributable to Defendants’ misrepresentations, omissions, breaches of duty, and other wrongful conduct.” It does not specify an amount it is seeking, but assessing damages would involve placing a value on Xapo.
Meanwhile, Casares has fought back, filing a cross-complaint of his own this past July, alleging poor management by LifeLock. (And LifeLock itself was forced to pay a $12 million fine to the FTC this past summer for false advertising of its product.) Some in the bitcoin community believe that LifeLock is upset that it overpaid for Lemon, while Casares has moved on to Xapo, which has raised $40 million in venture capital and might have more promise than Lemon ever did.
What does all of this legal drama have to do with PayPal? Perhaps nothing—but if Casares is found guilty of the civil fraud that LifeLock alleges, it would be bad for not just Xapo, but now PayPal as well. Moreover, Fortunereported last yearthat some of Xapo's investors are angry that they were never made aware of the ongoing litigation against Casares.
So PayPal has taken a risk in appointing Casares to its board, not only because of his current legal situation, but on a broader scale it has more strongly associated itself with bitcoin, an industry that is not without its negative headlines. (Just this week, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace that used bitcoin as its form of payment, appealed his recent life sentence.) Just over one year ago, PayPal made partnerships with some prominent bitcoin startups, like BitPay and Coinbase, but the noise of that move has since died down.
PayPal now might want to explore a larger form of implementation around bitcoin, or it is intrigued by its underlying technology, the bitcoin blockchain, a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Financial heavyweights like JPMorgan and Nasdaq have both expressed interest in harnessing the blockchain.
Or maybe PayPal wants to buy Xapo. || Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin: PayPal was the hot new thing in payments when it launched in 1998, but in the era of digital currency, crowdfunding, micro-crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer lending, most people no longer see the company that way. So its newest board appointment is an effort to embrace the new landscape in digital payments.
To that end, PayPal (PYPL) has named Wences Casares to its board of directors, the company announced on Wednesday. Casares is founder and CEO of Xapo, a wallet provider for the digital currency bitcoin, and before Xapo he founded Lemon, another digital wallet company. He is an unusual addition to a board that includes executives from AT&T (T), the American Red Cross, Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN), and eBay (EBAY) cofounder Pierre Omidyar.
It's likely a sign that PayPal is ready to embrace bitcoin and its technology. That's especially interesting considering that it is a company some bitcoin entrepreneurs often point to as "Web 1.0" and too slow because of its transfer delays and fees. One of the biggest selling points of bitcoin is the ability to send money to another country with little or no delay, and a fractional fee.
"We’ve entered a period of unprecedented disruption in payments and financial services driven by the mass adoption of mobile technology and the digitization of cash," said PayPal CEO Dan Schulmanin a statement. "Wences’ long and successful track record as international fintech entrepreneur with a focus on next-generation payment and crypto-currency is a perfect fit for PayPal at this time." PayPal declined to comment beyond the press release.
Casares does not come without controversy. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded an Argentinian brokerage in 1997 and sold it to Banco Santander in 2000 for $750 million. Then he founded a Chilean videogame developer in 2002 and sold it to Activision (ATVI) in 2006. But he is currently being sued by LifeLock (LOCK), a $1.3 billion public company that offers online-identity protection.
In December 2013 LifeLock acquired Casares's company Lemon for $42.6 million. In a lawsuit filed in August 2014, LifeLock says Casares built and launched Xapo, his current company, while working at Lemon, "developed by Lemon employees, in Lemon’s facilities, on Lemon’s computers, and on Lemon’s dime.” Casares and four Xapo employees (each of whom previously worked at Lemon) are named as defendants in LifeLock's suit. The company wants him to pay back “the value of the Xapo product attributable to Defendants’ misrepresentations, omissions, breaches of duty, and other wrongful conduct.” It does not specify an amount it is seeking, but assessing damages would involve placing a value on Xapo.
Meanwhile, Casares has fought back, filing a cross-complaint of his own this past July, alleging poor management by LifeLock. (And LifeLock itself was forced to pay a $12 million fine to the FTC this past summer for false advertising of its product.) Some in the bitcoin community believe that LifeLock is upset that it overpaid for Lemon, while Casares has moved on to Xapo, which has raised $40 million in venture capital and might have more promise than Lemon ever did.
What does all of this legal drama have to do with PayPal? Perhaps nothing—but if Casares is found guilty of the civil fraud that LifeLock alleges, it would be bad for not just Xapo, but now PayPal as well. Moreover, Fortunereported last yearthat some of Xapo's investors are angry that they were never made aware of the ongoing litigation against Casares.
So PayPal has taken a risk in appointing Casares to its board, not only because of his current legal situation, but on a broader scale it has more strongly associated itself with bitcoin, an industry that is not without its negative headlines. (Just this week, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace that used bitcoin as its form of payment, appealed his recent life sentence.) Just over one year ago, PayPal made partnerships with some prominent bitcoin startups, like BitPay and Coinbase, but the noise of that move has since died down.
PayPal now might want to explore a larger form of implementation around bitcoin, or it is intrigued by its underlying technology, the bitcoin blockchain, a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Financial heavyweights like JPMorgan and Nasdaq have both expressed interest in harnessing the blockchain.
Or maybe PayPal wants to buy Xapo. || Now You Can Play The Lottery With Bitcoin: While bitcoin has faced several obstacles in its journey toward mainstream adoption, the cryptocurrency appears to be starting the New Year off on the right foot. Not only has bitcoin seen its value increase steadily over the past three months, but the coin has gained some fame, as merchants continue to adopt the cryptocurrency as a valid form of payment. The latest place consumers can find use for their bitcoins is the lottery, which has gotten a lot of attention recently due to its $1.6 billion Powerball Jackpot prize.
Bitcoin Payment
Mobile lottery ticket app Jackpocket has integrated bitcoin as a payment option within the app, meaning that people can purchase their Powerball tickets using the cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the app announced its bitcoin addition, which garnered a lot of attention for the coin, as the Powerball Jackpot also reached a record high on the same day.
Related Link:UPDATE: Winning Powerball Tickets Sold In California, Florida, Tennessee --ABC News
Bullish On Bitcoin
For Jackpocket, the move was a great way to reach another demographic of lottery players and represents the company's faith in bitcoin's success. Jackpocket CEO Peter Sullivanannouncedthe decision to incorporate bitcoin into the app saying that he and his team are "very bullish on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain in general."
Speedy Transactions
Not only will bitcoin add to Jackpocket's pool of potential users, but Sullivan says he hopes it will help speed up transaction times and reduce glitches. Heavy volumes of users trying to buy tickets have been hindered by regulations, according to Sullivan, and those issues have strained the app's relationship with credit card processors and banks.
Related Link:No Luck On Winning Powerball? Learn The Skill Of Trading
More Customers
It remains to be seen whether many Jackpocket users will use the bitcoin payment option, but Sullivan is hoping it will attract more affluent customers who have experience with technology, a group he says is likely to buy more tickets.
Image Credit: Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
• Google Is Seeking Autonomous Car Partnerships
• U.S. Automakers Struggle With Skeptical Investors
• Netflix Continues To Deliver On Promises That 2016 Will Be A Big Year
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Now You Can Play The Lottery With Bitcoin: While bitcoin has faced several obstacles in its journey toward mainstream adoption, the cryptocurrency appears to be starting the New Year off on the right foot. Not only has bitcoin seen its value increase steadily over the past three months, but the coin has gained some fame, as merchants continue to adopt the cryptocurrency as a valid form of payment. The latest place consumers can find use for their bitcoins is the lottery, which has gotten a lot of attention recently due to its $1.6 billion Powerball Jackpot prize. Bitcoin Payment Mobile lottery ticket app Jackpocket has integrated bitcoin as a payment option within the app, meaning that people can purchase their Powerball tickets using the cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the app announced its bitcoin addition, which garnered a lot of attention for the coin, as the Powerball Jackpot also reached a record high on the same day. Related Link: UPDATE: Winning Powerball Tickets Sold In California, Florida, Tennessee --ABC News Bullish On Bitcoin For Jackpocket, the move was a great way to reach another demographic of lottery players and represents the company's faith in bitcoin's success. Jackpocket CEO Peter Sullivan announced the decision to incorporate bitcoin into the app saying that he and his team are "very bullish on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain in general." Speedy Transactions Not only will bitcoin add to Jackpocket's pool of potential users, but Sullivan says he hopes it will help speed up transaction times and reduce glitches. Heavy volumes of users trying to buy tickets have been hindered by regulations, according to Sullivan, and those issues have strained the app's relationship with credit card processors and banks. Related Link: No Luck On Winning Powerball? Learn The Skill Of Trading More Customers It remains to be seen whether many Jackpocket users will use the bitcoin payment option, but Sullivan is hoping it will attract more affluent customers who have experience with technology, a group he says is likely to buy more tickets. Story continues Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Google Is Seeking Autonomous Car Partnerships U.S. Automakers Struggle With Skeptical Investors Netflix Continues To Deliver On Promises That 2016 Will Be A Big Year © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Now You Can Play The Lottery With Bitcoin: While bitcoin has faced several obstacles in its journey toward mainstream adoption, the cryptocurrency appears to be starting the New Year off on the right foot. Not only has bitcoin seen its value increase steadily over the past three months, but the coin has gained some fame, as merchants continue to adopt the cryptocurrency as a valid form of payment. The latest place consumers can find use for their bitcoins is the lottery, which has gotten a lot of attention recently due to its $1.6 billion Powerball Jackpot prize.
Bitcoin Payment
Mobile lottery ticket app Jackpocket has integrated bitcoin as a payment option within the app, meaning that people can purchase their Powerball tickets using the cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the app announced its bitcoin addition, which garnered a lot of attention for the coin, as the Powerball Jackpot also reached a record high on the same day.
Related Link:UPDATE: Winning Powerball Tickets Sold In California, Florida, Tennessee --ABC News
Bullish On Bitcoin
For Jackpocket, the move was a great way to reach another demographic of lottery players and represents the company's faith in bitcoin's success. Jackpocket CEO Peter Sullivanannouncedthe decision to incorporate bitcoin into the app saying that he and his team are "very bullish on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain in general."
Speedy Transactions
Not only will bitcoin add to Jackpocket's pool of potential users, but Sullivan says he hopes it will help speed up transaction times and reduce glitches. Heavy volumes of users trying to buy tickets have been hindered by regulations, according to Sullivan, and those issues have strained the app's relationship with credit card processors and banks.
Related Link:No Luck On Winning Powerball? Learn The Skill Of Trading
More Customers
It remains to be seen whether many Jackpocket users will use the bitcoin payment option, but Sullivan is hoping it will attract more affluent customers who have experience with technology, a group he says is likely to buy more tickets.
Image Credit: Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
• Google Is Seeking Autonomous Car Partnerships
• U.S. Automakers Struggle With Skeptical Investors
• Netflix Continues To Deliver On Promises That 2016 Will Be A Big Year
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 4 stocks to watch if market falls even more: U.S. stocks dropped Wednesday, continuing a rough start to the year for investors. "Fast Money" traders picked through the battered markets for names that could have potential ahead. The S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) slid 2.5 percent Wednesday and has lost 7.5 percent of its value this year. But opportunities still exist amid the weakness, traders said. Investors may want to avoid U.S. multinational companies that have significant exposure to a stronger dollar, contended trader Dan Nathan. Instead, he looked to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE Arca: XLU) , which he has previously described as a defensive play with the benefit of a dividend yield. Nathan has a stake in the fund as well as the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE Arca: UUP) , which he said could continue to rise with strength in the dollar. Trader Karen Finerman, meanwhile, pointed to U.S. consumers stocks that have endured recent losses. She owns Macy's (NYSE: M) shares, which have fallen 41 percent in the last year in trading that she described as "ridiculously overdone." The stock has climbed more than 10 percent already this year. Finerman also said that Home Depot (NYSE: HD) would look appealing on a price dip. The stock has fallen 8 percent this year. Disclosures: Pete Najarian Long AAPL, BAC, BKE, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls A, AAL, ABX, BAC, CHS, CMI, COP, DAL, EMR, GDX, GE, HAIN, HUN, LC, MOS, MSFT, NRF, NRG, PNR, POT, UAL, VZ, WYNN, YDKN, ZIOP, he is long puts FCX, MRO Dan Nathan Long MCD Feb Put Spread, long PFE buy-write, long TWTR March Risk Reversal, long UUP March call, long XLU Feb Call spread, long PYPL Jan Risk Reversal, long M Jan16 call spread, long NTAP Jan risk reversal, long QCOM feb calls, short SPY, long UUP, long WMT puts, long INTC JAN 32 puts. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY, DB Story continues Karen Finerman Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, KORS call spreads, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI. She is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, FL, FL calls, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MA, MOH, PLCE, URI, URI long puts, WFM, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || 4 stocks to watch if market falls even more: U.S. stocks dropped Wednesday, continuing a rough start to the year for investors. "Fast Money" traders picked through the battered markets for names that could have potential ahead.
The S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)slid 2.5 percent Wednesday and has lost 7.5 percent of its value this year. But opportunities still exist amid the weakness, traders said.
Investors may want to avoid U.S. multinational companies that have significant exposure to a stronger dollar, contended trader Dan Nathan. Instead, he looked to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE Arca: XLU), which he has previously described as a defensive play with the benefit of a dividend yield.
Nathan has a stake in the fund as well as the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund(NYSE Arca: UUP), which he said could continue to rise with strength in the dollar.
Trader Karen Finerman, meanwhile, pointed to U.S. consumers stocks that have endured recent losses. She owns Macy's(NYSE: M)shares, which have fallen 41 percent in the last year in trading that she described as "ridiculously overdone."
The stock has climbed more than 10 percent already this year.
Finerman also said that Home Depot(NYSE: HD)would look appealing on a price dip. The stock has fallen 8 percent this year.
Disclosures:
Pete Najarian
Long AAPL, BAC, BKE, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls A, AAL, ABX, BAC, CHS, CMI, COP, DAL, EMR, GDX, GE, HAIN, HUN, LC, MOS, MSFT, NRF, NRG, PNR, POT, UAL, VZ, WYNN, YDKN, ZIOP, he is long puts FCX, MRO
Dan Nathan
Long MCD Feb Put Spread, long PFE buy-write, long TWTR March Risk Reversal, long UUP March call, long XLU Feb Call spread, long PYPL Jan Risk Reversal, long M Jan16 call spread, long NTAP Jan risk reversal, long QCOM feb calls, short SPY, long UUP, long WMT puts, long INTC JAN 32 puts.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY, DB
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, KORS call spreads, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI. She is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, FL, FL calls, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MA, MOH, PLCE, URI, URI long puts, WFM, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
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[Social Media Buzz]
1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$385.09/$385.68 #Bitstamp
$386.28/$387.00 #BTCe
⇢$0.60/$1.91
$381.81/$381.82 #Coinbase
⇢$-3.87/$-3.27 || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges:
Cryptsy: 0.00000005
Bittrex: 0.00000006
Average $1.9E-5 per #reddcoin
00:00:00 || LIVE: Profit = $0.17 (0.40 %). BUY B0.11 @ $380.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $381.82 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org || Current price: 352.23€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2016-01-18 23:00:03 CET || Current price: 254.54£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2016...
|
380.15, 420.23, 410.26, 382.49, 387.49, 402.97, 391.73, 392.15, 394.97, 380.29
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 1027.34, 1038.15, 1061.35, 1063.07, 994.38, 988.67, 1004.45, 999.18, 990.64, 1004.55, 1007.48, 1027.44, 1046.21, 1054.42, 1047.87, 1079.98, 1115.30, 1117.44, 1166.72, 1173.68, 1143.84, 1165.20, 1179.97, 1179.97, 1222.50, 1251.01, 1274.99, 1255.15, 1267.12, 1272.83, 1223.54, 1150.00, 1188.49, 1116.72, 1175.83, 1221.38, 1231.92, 1240.00, 1249.61, 1187.81, 1100.23, 973.82, 1036.74, 1054.23, 1120.54, 1049.14, 1038.59, 937.52, 972.78, 966.72, 1045.77, 1047.15, 1039.97, 1026.43, 1071.79, 1080.50, 1102.17, 1143.81, 1133.25, 1124.78, 1182.68, 1176.90, 1175.95, 1187.87, 1187.13, 1205.01, 1200.37, 1169.28, 1167.54, 1172.52, 1182.94, 1193.91, 1211.67, 1210.29, 1229.08, 1222.05, 1231.71, 1207.21, 1250.15, 1265.49, 1281.08, 1317.73, 1316.48, 1321.79, 1347.89, 1421.60, 1452.82, 1490.09, 1537.67, 1555.45.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-05-05]
Volume: 946035968, RSI (14-day): 87.48, 50-day EMA: 1238.02, 200-day EMA: 1005.41
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1224.80, Gold RSI: 32.54
Oil Price: 46.22, Oil RSI: 30.91
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
David Pogue: The best service for fast, cheap transcriptions: We, the modern people, are tickled with our phones’ voice-recognition powers. We can ask questions! We can open apps with our voice!
You know who’s not so tickled? Anyone who records other people talking. Our phones are terrible at transcribing voices—converting them to text that we can edit.
I realize that most people don’t care about transcribing audio. But if you’re a reporter, producer, editor, author, YouTuber, filmmaker, student, documentarian, researcher, government agency, doctor, lawyer, or police officer, for example, you mightreallycare. Manual transcription of audio and video files is an excruciating, tedious, soul-sucking exercise, and we’ve doing it pretty much the same way for 50 years.
The world waits for a method that’s fast, cheap, and accurate. We want this:
But you can’t have that.
Until now, there have been only a few ways to convert a recording into text:
• Transcribe it manually.You do the typing yourself as you listen. Hit Play, Stop, Rewind, Play, Stop, Rewind, over and over. That’s accurate and cheap, but not fast. It’s a royal pain, especially if you have several long interviews to do.
• Transcribe it manually, with web assistance.This Chrome extensioncombines an audio player and a text editor, so at least you’re spared some of the back-and-forth between two apps as you type it out yourself. Still tedious.
• Let your phone transcribe it.Yeah, play the recording into your phone, as though you’re speaking to it. The results are terrible. There’s no punctuation, no paragraph breaks, and the result needs so much editing, you could have done the job yourself faster. Fast and cheap, but not accurate. (Same thing for the automatic transcription features of YouTube and Google Docs. The results are generally a mess.)
• Hire a web-based service to do it.Services likeRev.com,Scribie.com,Transcribeme.com, andVoiceBase.comemploy human transcriptionists to type out your audio. Usually, they charge between $1 and $3 per minute of recorded audio or video—more if you want same-day turnaround, and even more if you want the transcriber to add time codes, the names of who’s speaking, and the little “ums” and false starts. Bottom line, you’re looking at $60 to $150 per hour of audio. Accurate, but not fast or cheap.
• Hire a professional service.Professional news channels hire professional transcription services likeTranscript Associates,Audio Transcription Center, orProfessional Transcriptions. You get incredible quality—flawless transcriptions; “ums” and “uhhs” and dashes representing pauses; time codes typed in; the speakers’ names identified. And you get it in a matter of hours. But we’re talking $220 per hour of audio, or more. Accurate and fairly fast, but not what you’d call cheap.
This is a review of a new, fifth approach:Trint.com. (The name, we’re told, is a combo of “transcript” and “interview.”) It lands on a new point in that speed-cost-accuracy continuum by (a) automating the conversion instead of hiring humans, and (b) providing a slick, easy way for you to breeze through the results and correct the errors.
“The idea is to take the very best of automated speech recognition [ASR] and push it as far as it will go, then give the user a simple tool to get those last yards,” Trint founder Jeffrey Kofman told me. “By combining a text editor with an audio/video player, we let you quickly search, verify, and correct the output of our ASR.”
The cost is $15 per hour of video—about a quarter of the cost of even the cheapest human web-based services.
You sign up. You upload your audio or video file. You pay in advance: $15 for an hour of converted audio or video. (If you’re willing to commit to doing a lot of this, the cost comes down to $12 an hour.)
You wait maybe five minutes—an insanely short time—and then it’s done. You open the transcription right there in your browser, looking like this:
Already, what you get is good enough that you can search for words or highlight the good parts.
But while the system correctly detects sentences and adds periods, it adds no other punctuation. It makes no attempt to add commas, for example. So you wind up with phrases like “I went to you know the store and bought peaches plums and pickles.” No question marks, either.
Now you read through it, correcting the errors, adding punctuation and paragraph breaks, and identifying speaker names using a pop-up menu. The video above shows what this process is like.
What’s kind of wonderful is how the audio or video playback is integrated with the editing: Wherever you click your mouse, that bit plays back automatically. There’s no Play, Pause, Rewind cycle here; the system always knows what to play when. (You can turn this playback on or off with a keystroke, and also control the playback speed.)
So how long does this cleanup process work? I tried Trint on seven interviews, and the editing generally wound up equaling the length of the interview. Thirty-minute interview, 30 minutes to clean it up.
That will never fly in the professional world. CBS News won’t be using Trint any time soon. But doing the job yourself would take five to ten times the length of the original recording. And if you hired a professional service, you’d pay four to eight times as much.
(For many people, of course, a full cleanup isn’t necessary; often, the point of transcribing an interview is just to skim it to find the good parts. That’s where Trint really shines. It’s simple to read or search for text in a transcript, highlight the juicy parts, and even play back only the highlighted portions. In that case, you can clean up only those few bits.)
To compare the results, I submitted the same interview recording to Trint, to Rev.com ($1 a minute for 24-hour turnaround), and to a high-end pro service. Here’s what I got back:
There are some bugs left to squash in Trint. For example, copy and paste don’t work in the text editor. (I was editing an interview that contained the wordGISHWHESover and over again, a non-word that Trint never once transcribed correctly. I thought I could just paste it in over and over again, but no joy.) The company explains that if you went nuts, pasting in blobs of text, you’d throw off the software’s underlying links between the audio and the text.
Chrome extensions can trip up Trint, too. Every time I inserted a Return to break up a paragraph, some text would disappear. Turning off all my extensions fixed that.
You should also keep in mind that Trint requires clean, clear audio, in which your subject was miked. You can’t feed it the echoey recording of your kid’s school play, for example, and expect decent results. And, as you’d guess, thick accents dramatically impair the accuracy. (When you post the recording, you specify which accent the speaker has; that helps.)
The company acknowledges that it has some work to do, and says that it has big plans for Trint 2.0 this summer.
In the meantime, Trint is here now. It’s not this—
—but it’s this:
—and that’s a new spot on the time-cost-accuracy spectrum. It’s therefore a welcome new weapon in the fight against the costly, time-consuming, soul-sucking act of transcribing the human voice.
More from David Pogue:
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 3
The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update
Now I get it: Bitcoin
David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one
David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app
The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || David Pogue: The best service for fast, cheap transcriptions: We, the modern people, are tickled with our phones voice-recognition powers. We can ask questions! We can open apps with our voice! You know whos not so tickled? Anyone who records other people talking. Our phones are terrible at transcribing voicesconverting them to text that we can edit. I realize that most people dont care about transcribing audio. But if youre a reporter, producer, editor, author, YouTuber, filmmaker, student, documentarian, researcher, government agency, doctor, lawyer, or police officer, for example, you might really care. Manual transcription of audio and video files is an excruciating, tedious, soul-sucking exercise, and weve doing it pretty much the same way for 50 years. The world waits for a method thats fast, cheap, and accurate. We want this: The holy grail of transcription tools. Unattainable. But you cant have that. Until now, there have been only a few ways to convert a recording into text: Transcribe it manually. You do the typing yourself as you listen. Hit Play, Stop, Rewind, Play, Stop, Rewind, over and over. Thats accurate and cheap, but not fast. Its a royal pain, especially if you have several long interviews to do. Transcribe it manually, with web assistance. This Chrome extension combines an audio player and a text editor, so at least youre spared some of the back-and-forth between two apps as you type it out yourself. Still tedious. Let your phone transcribe it. Yeah, play the recording into your phone, as though youre speaking to it. The results are terrible. Theres no punctuation, no paragraph breaks, and the result needs so much editing, you could have done the job yourself faster. Fast and cheap, but not accurate. (Same thing for the automatic transcription features of YouTube and Google Docs. The results are generally a mess.) Hire a web-based service to do it. Services like Rev.com , Scribie.com , Transcribeme.com , and VoiceBase.com employ human transcriptionists to type out your audio. Usually, they charge between $1 and $3 per minute of recorded audio or videomore if you want same-day turnaround, and even more if you want the transcriber to add time codes, the names of whos speaking, and the little ums and false starts. Bottom line, youre looking at $60 to $150 per hour of audio. Accurate, but not fast or cheap. Hire a professional service. Professional news channels hire professional transcription services like Transcript Associates , Audio Transcription Center , or Professional Transcriptions . You get incredible qualityflawless transcriptions; ums and uhhs and dashes representing pauses; time codes typed in; the speakers names identified. And you get it in a matter of hours. But were talking $220 per hour of audio, or more. Accurate and fairly fast, but not what youd call cheap. Story continues No method gives you everything. This is a review of a new, fifth approach: Trint.com . (The name, were told, is a combo of transcript and interview.) It lands on a new point in that speed-cost-accuracy continuum by (a) automating the conversion instead of hiring humans, and (b) providing a slick, easy way for you to breeze through the results and correct the errors. The idea is to take the very best of automated speech recognition [ASR] and push it as far as it will go, then give the user a simple tool to get those last yards, Trint founder Jeffrey Kofman told me. By combining a text editor with an audio/video player, we let you quickly search, verify, and correct the output of our ASR. The cost is $15 per hour of videoabout a quarter of the cost of even the cheapest human web-based services. How it works You sign up. You upload your audio or video file. You pay in advance: $15 for an hour of converted audio or video. (If youre willing to commit to doing a lot of this, the cost comes down to $12 an hour.) You wait maybe five minutesan insanely short timeand then its done. You open the transcription right there in your browser, looking like this: Now the fun begins: Cleaning up the Trint transcription. Already, what you get is good enough that you can search for words or highlight the good parts. But while the system correctly detects sentences and adds periods, it adds no other punctuation. It makes no attempt to add commas, for example. So you wind up with phrases like I went to you know the store and bought peaches plums and pickles. No question marks, either. Now you read through it, correcting the errors, adding punctuation and paragraph breaks, and identifying speaker names using a pop-up menu. The video above shows what this process is like. Whats kind of wonderful is how the audio or video playback is integrated with the editing: Wherever you click your mouse, that bit plays back automatically. Theres no Play, Pause, Rewind cycle here; the system always knows what to play when. (You can turn this playback on or off with a keystroke, and also control the playback speed.) So how long does this cleanup process work? I tried Trint on seven interviews, and the editing generally wound up equaling the length of the interview. Thirty-minute interview, 30 minutes to clean it up. That will never fly in the professional world. CBS News wont be using Trint any time soon. But doing the job yourself would take five to ten times the length of the original recording. And if you hired a professional service, youd pay four to eight times as much. (For many people, of course, a full cleanup isnt necessary; often, the point of transcribing an interview is just to skim it to find the good parts. Thats where Trint really shines. Its simple to read or search for text in a transcript, highlight the juicy parts, and even play back only the highlighted portions. In that case, you can clean up only those few bits.) How does it compare? To compare the results, I submitted the same interview recording to Trint, to Rev.com ($1 a minute for 24-hour turnaround), and to a high-end pro service. Heres what I got back: Transcriptions compared. Its in beta There are some bugs left to squash in Trint. For example, copy and paste dont work in the text editor. (I was editing an interview that contained the word GISHWHES over and over again, a non-word that Trint never once transcribed correctly. I thought I could just paste it in over and over again, but no joy.) The company explains that if you went nuts, pasting in blobs of text, youd throw off the softwares underlying links between the audio and the text. Chrome extensions can trip up Trint, too. Every time I inserted a Return to break up a paragraph, some text would disappear. Turning off all my extensions fixed that. You should also keep in mind that Trint requires clean, clear audio, in which your subject was miked. You cant feed it the echoey recording of your kids school play, for example, and expect decent results. And, as youd guess, thick accents dramatically impair the accuracy. (When you post the recording, you specify which accent the speaker has; that helps.) The company acknowledges that it has some work to do, and says that it has big plans for Trint 2.0 this summer. In the meantime, Trint is here now. Its not this but its this: and thats a new spot on the time-cost-accuracy spectrum. Its therefore a welcome new weapon in the fight against the costly, time-consuming, soul-sucking act of transcribing the human voice. More from David Pogue: Inside the Worlds Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I Inside the Worlds Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2 Inside the Worlds Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 3 The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogues search for the worlds best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, hes davidpogue.com . On Twitter, hes @pogue . On email, hes [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . View comments || Hedge fund manager David Einhorn escalates battle with GM with UnlockGMValue.com site: David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital(NASDAQ: GLRE)cranked up the pressure on General Motors(NYSE: GM)on Thursday by launching a website that encourages shareholders to vote for the hedge fund's proposal.
GM rejected Greenlight's plan in March to appoint three directors to GM's board and divide the common stock into two classes. Now the hedge fund's newly launched website, UnlockGMValue.com, calls for investors to "VOTE GREEN CARD TODAY."
GM's annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for June 6.GM said in a statementthat Greenlight's proposal "creates an unacceptable level of risk."
Shares of the automaker fell about 1.5 percent in midday trade and are down more than 5 percent this year.
Website landing page
The proposal "would unlock tens of billions of dollars of shareholder value and was specifically designed not to change GM's business strategy, capital allocation priorities or financial policy," according to the website.
Greenlight owns 3.6 percent of GM common stock, making it the fifth largest public shareholder of the auto manufacturer.
The hedge fundreturned just 1 percent in the first quarter, trailing the S&P 500's 6 percent gain, according to the hedge fund's letter sent to shareholders last week.
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• US fintech charter imperiled as Curry leaves
• Bitcoin surges above $1,500 to record as more investors bet on 'digital gold' || Hedge fund manager David Einhorn escalates battle with GM with UnlockGMValue.com site: David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital (NASDAQ: GLRE) cranked up the pressure on General Motors (NYSE: GM) on Thursday by launching a website that encourages shareholders to vote for the hedge fund's proposal. GM rejected Greenlight's plan in March to appoint three directors to GM's board and divide the common stock into two classes. Now the hedge fund's newly launched website, UnlockGMValue.com, calls for investors to "VOTE GREEN CARD TODAY." GM's annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for June 6. GM said in a statement that Greenlight's proposal "creates an unacceptable level of risk." Shares of the automaker fell about 1.5 percent in midday trade and are down more than 5 percent this year. Website landing page The proposal "would unlock tens of billions of dollars of shareholder value and was specifically designed not to change GM's business strategy, capital allocation priorities or financial policy," according to the website. Greenlight owns 3.6 percent of GM common stock, making it the fifth largest public shareholder of the auto manufacturer. The hedge fund returned just 1 percent in the first quarter , trailing the S&P 500's 6 percent gain, according to the hedge fund's letter sent to shareholders last week. More From CNBC Why ‘fear and love’ could send gold on a 20 percent rally within months US fintech charter imperiled as Curry leaves Bitcoin surges above $1,500 to record as more investors bet on 'digital gold' || Bitcoin just soared to a new $1,600 high — but the first investor in Snapchat thinks it could hit $500,000 by 2030: (Jeremy Liew.Getty)
Bitcoin has been thetop-performing currencyin the world in six of the past seven years, climbing from zero to a new high value of about $1,600.
But the cryptocurrency isn't anywhere close to its potential, according to Jeremy Liew,the first investor in Snapchat, and Peter Smith, the CEO and cofounder of Blockchain.
In a presentation sent to Business Insider, the duo laid out their case for bitcoin exploding to $500,000 by 2030.
Their argument is based on increased interest in bitcoin, thanks to:
Remittance transfers, or electronic money transfers to foreign countries, havealmost doubledover the past 15 years to 0.76% of gross world product, data from the World Bank shows.
"Expats sending money home have found in bitcoin an inexpensive alternative, and we assume that the percentage of bitcoin-based remittances will sharply increase with greater bitcoin awareness," the two said.
Liew and Smith said increased political uncertainty in the UK, US, and developing nations would help elevate the level of interest in bitcoin.
"We believe bitcoin awareness, high liquidity, ease of transport, and continued market outperformance as geopolitical risks mount will make bitcoin a strong contender for investment at a consumer and investor level," the two said.
Liew and Smith said the percentage of noncash transactions would climb from 15% to 30% in the next 10 years as the world becomes more connected through smartphones.
The global smartphone penetration rate is 63%, and the total number of smartphone users is expected to increase by 1 billion by 2020. The GSMA, a trade body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, says90% of these userswill come from developing countries.
This would make it possible for nearly everyone to have a bank in their pocket, and that should provide a boost for bitcoin as well. Liew and Smith say bitcoin could account for 50% of all noncash transactions.
Here are the basic model drivers Liew and Smith used:
1. A bitcoin price of $1,000 in 2017.
2. Network users will grow by a factor of 61 from now until 2030."Put another way, we need a population of bitcoin users around a quarter of the Chinese population (or 5% of the global population) in 2030 to see bitcoin at $500k," Liew and Smith told Business Insider.Bitcoin's user network grew from 120,000 users in 2013 to 6.5 million users in 2017, or by a factor of about 54, and this could be just the beginning. Growth of that magnitude would mean 400 million users in 2030.
3. The average value of bitcoin held per user will hit $25,000."As institutional investor cash in bitcoin, sophisticated investors trading bitcoin, and bitcoin-based ETFs proliferate, we think the average bitcoin value held will increase to around $25k per Bitcoin holder," Liew and Smith said. Currently, with bitcoin's market cap of $16.4 billion, each of its 6.5 million users holds $2,515 worth of bitcoin on average.
4. Bitcoin's 2030 market cap is decided by the number of bitcoin holders multiplied by the average bitcoin value held.
5. Bitcoin's 2030 supply will be about 20 million.
6. Bitcoin's 2030 price and user count will total $500,000 and 400 million, respectively.The price was found by taking the $10 trillion market cap and dividing it by the fixed supply of 20 million bitcoin.
But a lot could go wrong, too. News surrounding bitcoin has been rather negative as of late.
China, which is responsible fornearly 100% of tradingin bitcoin, has beencracking downon trading. The three biggest exchanges recently announced a 0.2% fee on all transactions andblocked withdrawalsfrom trading accounts.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission also rejected two bitcoin exchange-traded funds and will rule on another one in the future. It's not expected to be approved.
However, Smith says bitcoin is still in its early stages.
"The SEC's ruling wasn't a surprise to us," he told Business Insider. He said that "getting that sort of approval" could take a long time.
"In the meantime, bitcoin is already simple to buy and hold, and as the asset continues to mature, we'll continue to see an increase in the development and deployment of surrounding products," he said.
(Markets Insider)
And while bitcoin hasn't been granted regulatory approval in the US, it is catching on elsewhere. On April 1, the cryptocurrency became alegal payment method in Japan.
Another threat to its future is developers who are threatening to set up a "hard fork," or alternative marketplace for bitcoin. This would result in the split of into bitcoin and bitcoin unlimited. However, Smith isn't worried.
"Bitcoin has strong economic incentives to prevent this," he said. "If the last two years of healthy contention and debate lead to a conclusion, it's that bitcoin is incredibly resilient and stable. In fact, the bitcoin blockchain has operated for seven-plus years with no downtime, a feat no other back-end system operating at this scale can claim."
But the cryptocurrency sees violent price swings uncommon among the more traditional currencies. Bitcoin rallied 20% in the first week of 2017 before crashing 35% on word that China was cracking down on trading.
The cryptocurrency has regained those losses and is trading up about 67% so far this year.
NOW WATCH:People are outraged by a Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner — here's how the company responded
More From Business Insider
• The price of Bitcoin just hit an all new high — here's how easy it is to buy your first one
• Bitcoin is closing in on $1,500
• Bitcoin busts out to an all-time high above $1,400 || Bitcoin just soared to a new $1,600 high but the first investor in Snapchat thinks it could hit $500,000 by 2030: Jeremy Liew (Jeremy Liew.Getty) Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency in the world in six of the past seven years, climbing from zero to a new high value of about $1,600. But the cryptocurrency isn't anywhere close to its potential, according to Jeremy Liew, the first investor in Snapchat , and Peter Smith, the CEO and cofounder of Blockchain. In a presentation sent to Business Insider, the duo laid out their case for bitcoin exploding to $500,000 by 2030. Their argument is based on increased interest in bitcoin, thanks to: Bitcoin-based remittances Remittance transfers, or electronic money transfers to foreign countries, have almost doubled over the past 15 years to 0.76% of gross world product, data from the World Bank shows. "Expats sending money home have found in bitcoin an inexpensive alternative, and we assume that the percentage of bitcoin-based remittances will sharply increase with greater bitcoin awareness," the two said. Uncertainty Liew and Smith said increased political uncertainty in the UK, US, and developing nations would help elevate the level of interest in bitcoin. "We believe bitcoin awareness, high liquidity, ease of transport, and continued market outperformance as geopolitical risks mount will make bitcoin a strong contender for investment at a consumer and investor level," the two said. Mobile penetration Liew and Smith said the percentage of noncash transactions would climb from 15% to 30% in the next 10 years as the world becomes more connected through smartphones. The global smartphone penetration rate is 63%, and the total number of smartphone users is expected to increase by 1 billion by 2020. The GSMA, a trade body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, says 90% of these users will come from developing countries. This would make it possible for nearly everyone to have a bank in their pocket, and that should provide a boost for bitcoin as well. Liew and Smith say bitcoin could account for 50% of all noncash transactions. Story continues Here are the basic model drivers Liew and Smith used: A bitcoin price of $1,000 in 2017. Network users will grow by a factor of 61 from now until 2030. "Put another way, we need a population of bitcoin users around a quarter of the Chinese population (or 5% of the global population) in 2030 to see bitcoin at $500k," Liew and Smith told Business Insider. Bitcoin's user network grew from 120,000 users in 2013 to 6.5 million users in 2017, or by a factor of about 54, and this could be just the beginning. Growth of that magnitude would mean 400 million users in 2030. The average value of bitcoin held per user will hit $25,000. "As institutional investor cash in bitcoin, sophisticated investors trading bitcoin, and bitcoin-based ETFs proliferate, we think the average bitcoin value held will increase to around $25k per Bitcoin holder," Liew and Smith said. Currently, with bitcoin's market cap of $16.4 billion, each of its 6.5 million users holds $2,515 worth of bitcoin on average. Bitcoin's 2030 market cap is decided by the number of bitcoin holders multiplied by the average bitcoin value held. Bitcoin's 2030 supply will be about 20 million. Bitcoin's 2030 price and user count will total $500,000 and 400 million, respectively. The price was found by taking the $10 trillion market cap and dividing it by the fixed supply of 20 million bitcoin. But a lot could go wrong, too. News surrounding bitcoin has been rather negative as of late. China, which is responsible for nearly 100% of trading in bitcoin, has been cracking down on trading. The three biggest exchanges recently announced a 0.2% fee on all transactions and blocked withdrawals from trading accounts. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also rejected two bitcoin exchange-traded funds and will rule on another one in the future. It's not expected to be approved. However, Smith says bitcoin is still in its early stages. "The SEC's ruling wasn't a surprise to us," he told Business Insider. He said that "getting that sort of approval" could take a long time. "In the meantime, bitcoin is already simple to buy and hold, and as the asset continues to mature, we'll continue to see an increase in the development and deployment of surrounding products," he said. Bitcoin (Markets Insider) And while bitcoin hasn't been granted regulatory approval in the US, it is catching on elsewhere. On April 1, the cryptocurrency became a legal payment method in Japan . Another threat to its future is developers who are threatening to set up a " hard fork ," or alternative marketplace for bitcoin. This would result in the split of into bitcoin and bitcoin unlimited. However, Smith isn't worried. "Bitcoin has strong economic incentives to prevent this," he said. "If the last two years of healthy contention and debate lead to a conclusion, it's that bitcoin is incredibly resilient and stable. In fact, the bitcoin blockchain has operated for seven-plus years with no downtime, a feat no other back-end system operating at this scale can claim." But the cryptocurrency sees violent price swings uncommon among the more traditional currencies. Bitcoin rallied 20% in the first week of 2017 before crashing 35% on word that China was cracking down on trading. The cryptocurrency has regained those losses and is trading up about 67% so far this year. NOW WATCH: People are outraged by a Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner here's how the company responded More From Business Insider The price of Bitcoin just hit an all new high here's how easy it is to buy your first one Bitcoin is closing in on $1,500 Bitcoin busts out to an all-time high above $1,400 || Bitcoin just soared to a new $1,600 high — but the first investor in Snapchat thinks it could hit $500,000 by 2030: (Jeremy Liew.Getty)
Bitcoin has been thetop-performing currencyin the world in six of the past seven years, climbing from zero to a new high value of about $1,600.
But the cryptocurrency isn't anywhere close to its potential, according to Jeremy Liew,the first investor in Snapchat, and Peter Smith, the CEO and cofounder of Blockchain.
In a presentation sent to Business Insider, the duo laid out their case for bitcoin exploding to $500,000 by 2030.
Their argument is based on increased interest in bitcoin, thanks to:
Remittance transfers, or electronic money transfers to foreign countries, havealmost doubledover the past 15 years to 0.76% of gross world product, data from the World Bank shows.
"Expats sending money home have found in bitcoin an inexpensive alternative, and we assume that the percentage of bitcoin-based remittances will sharply increase with greater bitcoin awareness," the two said.
Liew and Smith said increased political uncertainty in the UK, US, and developing nations would help elevate the level of interest in bitcoin.
"We believe bitcoin awareness, high liquidity, ease of transport, and continued market outperformance as geopolitical risks mount will make bitcoin a strong contender for investment at a consumer and investor level," the two said.
Liew and Smith said the percentage of noncash transactions would climb from 15% to 30% in the next 10 years as the world becomes more connected through smartphones.
The global smartphone penetration rate is 63%, and the total number of smartphone users is expected to increase by 1 billion by 2020. The GSMA, a trade body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, says90% of these userswill come from developing countries.
This would make it possible for nearly everyone to have a bank in their pocket, and that should provide a boost for bitcoin as well. Liew and Smith say bitcoin could account for 50% of all noncash transactions.
Here are the basic model drivers Liew and Smith used:
1. A bitcoin price of $1,000 in 2017.
2. Network users will grow by a factor of 61 from now until 2030."Put another way, we need a population of bitcoin users around a quarter of the Chinese population (or 5% of the global population) in 2030 to see bitcoin at $500k," Liew and Smith told Business Insider.Bitcoin's user network grew from 120,000 users in 2013 to 6.5 million users in 2017, or by a factor of about 54, and this could be just the beginning. Growth of that magnitude would mean 400 million users in 2030.
3. The average value of bitcoin held per user will hit $25,000."As institutional investor cash in bitcoin, sophisticated investors trading bitcoin, and bitcoin-based ETFs proliferate, we think the average bitcoin value held will increase to around $25k per Bitcoin holder," Liew and Smith said. Currently, with bitcoin's market cap of $16.4 billion, each of its 6.5 million users holds $2,515 worth of bitcoin on average.
4. Bitcoin's 2030 market cap is decided by the number of bitcoin holders multiplied by the average bitcoin value held.
5. Bitcoin's 2030 supply will be about 20 million.
6. Bitcoin's 2030 price and user count will total $500,000 and 400 million, respectively.The price was found by taking the $10 trillion market cap and dividing it by the fixed supply of 20 million bitcoin.
But a lot could go wrong, too. News surrounding bitcoin has been rather negative as of late.
China, which is responsible fornearly 100% of tradingin bitcoin, has beencracking downon trading. The three biggest exchanges recently announced a 0.2% fee on all transactions andblocked withdrawalsfrom trading accounts.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission also rejected two bitcoin exchange-traded funds and will rule on another one in the future. It's not expected to be approved.
However, Smith says bitcoin is still in its early stages.
"The SEC's ruling wasn't a surprise to us," he told Business Insider. He said that "getting that sort of approval" could take a long time.
"In the meantime, bitcoin is already simple to buy and hold, and as the asset continues to mature, we'll continue to see an increase in the development and deployment of surrounding products," he said.
(Markets Insider)
And while bitcoin hasn't been granted regulatory approval in the US, it is catching on elsewhere. On April 1, the cryptocurrency became alegal payment method in Japan.
Another threat to its future is developers who are threatening to set up a "hard fork," or alternative marketplace for bitcoin. This would result in the split of into bitcoin and bitcoin unlimited. However, Smith isn't worried.
"Bitcoin has strong economic incentives to prevent this," he said. "If the last two years of healthy contention and debate lead to a conclusion, it's that bitcoin is incredibly resilient and stable. In fact, the bitcoin blockchain has operated for seven-plus years with no downtime, a feat no other back-end system operating at this scale can claim."
But the cryptocurrency sees violent price swings uncommon among the more traditional currencies. Bitcoin rallied 20% in the first week of 2017 before crashing 35% on word that China was cracking down on trading.
The cryptocurrency has regained those losses and is trading up about 67% so far this year.
NOW WATCH:People are outraged by a Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner — here's how the company responded
More From Business Insider
• The price of Bitcoin just hit an all new high — here's how easy it is to buy your first one
• Bitcoin is closing in on $1,500
• Bitcoin busts out to an all-time high above $1,400 || UNBOXED: David Pogue gets a first look at the Samsung Galaxy 8: Yes, kids, it’s that time of year again: Another Samsung Galaxy phone is here! And it’s mostly phenomenal.
Starting at $726—that’s $77more than the equivalent iPhone 7—you get a waterproof, fast, rugged, gorgeous, expandable smartphone that packs a huge screen into a relatively small body. How? By filling the entire front, nearly edge to edge, with screen. No margins.
That also means no physical Home button. The Home button is now apictureon the screen. Works fine, except that where will the fingerprint reader go?
Samsung has opted to put it on the back of the phone—unfortunately, right next to the camera lens. Every time you try to unlock the phone with your finger, you’ll get finger grease on the lens. Oopsie!
The other bad news is Samsung’s philosophy of “there’s no such thing as too much.” The phone is laden with bloatware, including Samsung’s own, pointless duplicates of Android’s browser, photo manager, and so on. And there are, believe it or not, 55 setup steps before you can start using the phone.
That’s out of control.
You should also know that one of the mostdelicious new features of the S8isn’t yet activated: Bixby. That’s Samsung’s smarter version of Siri or Google Now. Once it’s turned on, Samsung says, when you press the dedicated Bixby button on the left edge of the phone, you’ll be able to say, “Email this photo to my mom,” for example, or “Put on my Party playlist and call me an Uber home.” (It will work with only 10 apps at the outset.)
But never mind all that: As long as you don’t mind its new tall, skinny shape (and the letterbox bars that therefore appear when you’re watching videos), you will adore this phone. The camera (basically the same one as on last year’s S7) is terrific. It now come with coolfeatures like Bixby Vision, which recognizes products by their packaging and offers to let you buy them; recognizes famous buildings and gives you information about them; and recognizes text in other languages and tries to translate them.
The phone also charges super fast—basically, 1 minute per percent. 30 minutes, 30%. A “wireless” charging stand is also available.
And you can log in with either a fingerprint, face recognition (people say you can fool it with a photo, but I wasn’t able to), or iris recognition (fails in bright sunlight).
And no, the Galaxy S8 won’t explode on you, like last year’s Note 7 fireball. The battery in the S8 is, alas, smaller than last year’s just for that reason; it will just get you through a day.
In other words, the new Galaxy is hot only in the sense of “lots of people will want it.”
For more,here’s Dan Howley’s full review.
More from David Pogue:
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 3
The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update
Now I get it: Bitcoin
David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one
David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app
The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || UNBOXED: David Pogue gets a first look at the Samsung Galaxy 8: Yes, kids, it’s that time of year again: Another Samsung Galaxy phone is here! And it’s mostly phenomenal. Starting at $726 —that’s $77 more than the equivalent iPhone 7 —you get a waterproof, fast, rugged, gorgeous, expandable smartphone that packs a huge screen into a relatively small body. How? By filling the entire front, nearly edge to edge, with screen. No margins. That also means no physical Home button. The Home button is now a picture on the screen. Works fine, except that where will the fingerprint reader go? Samsung has opted to put it on the back of the phone—unfortunately, right next to the camera lens. Every time you try to unlock the phone with your finger, you’ll get finger grease on the lens. Oopsie! The other bad news is Samsung’s philosophy of “there’s no such thing as too much.” The phone is laden with bloatware, including Samsung’s own, pointless duplicates of Android’s browser, photo manager, and so on. And there are, believe it or not, 55 setup steps before you can start using the phone. That’s out of control. You should also know that one of the most delicious new features of the S8 isn’t yet activated: Bixby. That’s Samsung’s smarter version of Siri or Google Now. Once it’s turned on, Samsung says, when you press the dedicated Bixby button on the left edge of the phone, you’ll be able to say, “Email this photo to my mom,” for example, or “Put on my Party playlist and call me an Uber home.” (It will work with only 10 apps at the outset.) But never mind all that: As long as you don’t mind its new tall, skinny shape (and the letterbox bars that therefore appear when you’re watching videos), you will adore this phone. The camera (basically the same one as on last year’s S7) is terrific. It now come with cool features like Bixby Vision , which recognizes products by their packaging and offers to let you buy them; recognizes famous buildings and gives you information about them; and recognizes text in other languages and tries to translate them. Story continues The phone also charges super fast—basically, 1 minute per percent. 30 minutes, 30%. A “wireless” charging stand is also available. And you can log in with either a fingerprint, face recognition (people say you can fool it with a photo, but I wasn’t able to), or iris recognition (fails in bright sunlight). And no, the Galaxy S8 won’t explode on you, like last year’s Note 7 fireball. The battery in the S8 is, alas, smaller than last year’s just for that reason; it will just get you through a day. In other words, the new Galaxy is hot only in the sense of “lots of people will want it.” For more, here’s Dan Howley’s full review . More from David Pogue: Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2 Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 3 The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || Big-name apps for Apple Watch seem to be disappearing: On Monday, AppleInsider noted that the latest updates for the Google ( GOOGL , GOOG ) Maps, eBay ( EBAY ), Amazon ( AMZN ), and Target ( TGT ) apps were missing one element they used to have: companion apps for the Apple Watch. Google later tweeted that it intends to bring the Apple Watch app back at some point. But the larger question remains: Whats going on? Are these changes a canary in the coal mine, indicating waning interest in developing for the Apple Watch? In the last year, the Up bands ceased production, the Pebble Watch is no more , and Fitbit laid off 6% of its staff ; maybe the world just isnt as excited about wearables as the industry had hoped. Or is this just a temporary hiccup that means nothing? The fact that these high-profile removals have gone largely unnoticed could be a sign that the apps simply were not widely used, says the AppleInsider story. On Tuesday, during Apples financial conference call, CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Watch sales have nearly doubled since last year (in six of our 10 top markets, whatever that means). Yet the company still doesnt disclose how many Watches it has sold. You still see few Apple Watches on wrists outside of the early-adopter and techie crowd, you still have to take the thing off to charge it every night, and (as a result) it still cant track your sleep, as the latest Fitbits do with astonishing accuracy. So which is it? A sign of impending doom, or a minor wobble in the timeline that means very little? Tune in five years from now to find out! More from David Pogue: Inside the Worlds Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I Inside the Worlds Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2 Inside the Worlds Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 3 The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogues search for the worlds best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, hes davidpogue.com . On Twitter, hes @pogue . On email, hes [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || Big-name apps for Apple Watch seem to be disappearing: On Monday,AppleInsidernoted that the latest updates for the Google (GOOGL,GOOG) Maps, eBay (EBAY), Amazon (AMZN), and Target (TGT) apps were missing one element they used to have: companion apps for the Apple Watch.
Google later tweeted that it intends to bring the Apple Watch app back at some point. But the larger question remains: What’s going on?
Are these changes a canary in the coal mine, indicating waning interest in developing for the Apple Watch? In the last year, theUp bands ceased production,thePebble Watch is no more, andFitbit laid off 6% of its staff; maybe the world just isn’t as excited about wearables as the industry had hoped.
Or is this just a temporary hiccup that means nothing? “The fact that these high-profile removals have gone largely unnoticed could be a sign that the apps simply were not widely used,” says the AppleInsider story.
On Tuesday, during Apple’s financial conference call, CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Watch sales have nearly doubled since last year (“in six of our 10 top markets,” whatever that means). Yet the company still doesn’t disclose how many Watches it has sold. You still see few Apple Watches on wrists outside of the early-adopter and techie crowd, you still have to take the thing off to charge it every night, and (as a result) it still can’t track your sleep, as the latest Fitbits do with astonishing accuracy.
So which is it? A sign of impending doom, or a minor wobble in the timeline that means very little?
Tune in five years from now to find out!
More from David Pogue:
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2
Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 3
The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update
Now I get it: Bitcoin
David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one
David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app
The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || Bitcoin Services Inc. Provides Shareholder Update: KALAMAZOO, MI / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2017 /Bitcoin Services Inc. (OTC PINK: BTSC) announced today that it began mining Monero in the 1st quarter of 2017. Monero is currently one of the top digital currencies with a market cap of over 300 mil USD. The Company is pleased to announce their earnings on May 12, 2017, and a launch of a new website in the upcoming weeks. In addition, Bitcoin Services Inc. has begun developing a new Crypto currency wallet that will let users safely store multiple digital currencies in one wallet. Bitcoin Services Inc. would also like to congratulate all Bitcoin users for reaching a historic all time high on April 2nd of 2017.
About Bitcoin Services Inc.:
Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of two separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin mining, and (2) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief, or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers, and effectively compete against similar companies.
CONTACT:
[email protected]
SOURCE: Bitcoin Services Inc. || Bitcoin Services Inc. Provides Shareholder Update: KALAMAZOO, MI / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2017 / Bitcoin Services Inc. (OTC PINK: BTSC) announced today that it began mining Monero in the 1st quarter of 2017. Monero is currently one of the top digital currencies with a market cap of over 300 mil USD. The Company is pleased to announce their earnings on May 12, 2017, and a launch of a new website in the upcoming weeks. In addition, Bitcoin Services Inc. has begun developing a new Crypto currency wallet that will let users safely store multiple digital currencies in one wallet. Bitcoin Services Inc. would also like to congratulate all Bitcoin users for reaching a historic all time high on April 2nd of 2017. About Bitcoin Services Inc.: Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of two separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin mining, and (2) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet. Safe Harbor Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief, or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers, and effectively compete against similar companies. Story continues CONTACT: [email protected] SOURCE : Bitcoin Services Inc. || Bitcoin Services Inc. Provides Shareholder Update: KALAMAZOO, MI / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2017 /Bitcoin Services Inc. (OTC PINK: BTSC) announced today that it began mining Monero in the 1st quarter of 2017. Monero is currently one of the top digital currencies with a market cap of over 300 mil USD. The Company is pleased to announce their earnings on May 12, 2017, and a launch of a new website in the upcoming weeks. In addition, Bitcoin Services Inc. has begun developing a new Crypto currency wallet that will let users safely store multiple digital currencies in one wallet. Bitcoin Services Inc. would also like to congratulate all Bitcoin users for reaching a historic all time high on April 2nd of 2017.
About Bitcoin Services Inc.:
Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of two separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin mining, and (2) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief, or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers, and effectively compete against similar companies.
CONTACT:
[email protected]
SOURCE: Bitcoin Services Inc. || U.S. SEC approves request to list quadruple-leveraged ETFs: (Adds NYSE comment) By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved a request to trade quadruple-leveraged exchange-traded funds, marking a first for the growing market for such products in the United States. The request to list ForceShares Daily 4X US Market Futures Long Fund, under the ticker UP, and ForceShares Daily 4X US Market Futures Short Fund, under the ticker DOWN, was filed by Intercontinental Exchange Inc's NYSE Arca exchange. One of the funds is designed to deliver 400 percent of the daily performance of S&P 500 stock index futures, while another fund will aim to deliver four times the inverse of that benchmark. That means a fund could go up 8 percent on a day the index it tracks falls by 2 percent. ETFs offering three times leverage already trade in the United States, but more reactive products have been limited to listing in Europe. "We're excited about it," said Sam Masucci, chief executive officer at Exchange Traded Managers Group LLC, which is distributing the product, though he said the product is "not going to be for everybody. "But for those people that are looking for the leveraged exposure to the S&P and they're not looking to do it by way of a futures product here you have a publicly listed security," Masucci said. Regulators' move to approve the products comes after a difficult time for sponsors of more exotic ETFs. Last year, the SEC presented draft rules that would restrict the use of derivatives, which was seen crimping some fund managers' ability to keep highly leveraged products on the market. In March, the agency ruled against an application by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to bring the first Bitcoin ETF to market, although the SEC recently said it would review that decision. The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm attorney Jay Clayton to head the SEC, a change in leadership that could prompt a change in tack by the agency through which investment products come to market. Douglas Yones, a top NYSE ETF official, said in an emailed statement that he hopes the approval "paves the way for us to work with other leveraged product issuers over the rest of the year." The product sponsor could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Leslie Adler & Simon Cameron-Moore) View comments || U.S. SEC approves request to list quadruple-leveraged ETFs: (Adds NYSE comment)
By Trevor Hunnicutt
NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved a request to trade quadruple-leveraged exchange-traded funds, marking a first for the growing market for such products in the United States.
The request to list ForceShares Daily 4X US Market Futures Long Fund, under the ticker UP, and ForceShares Daily 4X US Market Futures Short Fund, under the ticker DOWN, was filed by Intercontinental Exchange Inc's NYSE Arca exchange.
One of the funds is designed to deliver 400 percent of the daily performance of S&P 500 stock index futures, while another fund will aim to deliver four times the inverse of that benchmark. That means a fund could go up 8 percent on a day the index it tracks falls by 2 percent.
ETFs offering three times leverage already trade in the United States, but more reactive products have been limited to listing in Europe.
"We're excited about it," said Sam Masucci, chief executive officer at Exchange Traded Managers Group LLC, which is distributing the product, though he said the product is "not going to be for everybody.
"But for those people that are looking for the leveraged exposure to the S&P and they're not looking to do it by way of a futures product here you have a publicly listed security," Masucci said.
Regulators' move to approve the products comes after a difficult time for sponsors of more exotic ETFs.
Last year, the SEC presented draft rules that would restrict the use of derivatives, which was seen crimping some fund managers' ability to keep highly leveraged products on the market.
In March, the agency ruled against an application by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to bring the first Bitcoin ETF to market, although the SEC recently said it would review that decision.
The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm attorney Jay Clayton to head the SEC, a change in leadership that could prompt a change in tack by the agency through which investment products come to market.
Douglas Yones, a top NYSE ETF official, said in an emailed statement that he hopes the approval "paves the way for us to work with other leveraged product issuers over the rest of the year."
The product sponsor could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Leslie Adler & Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin/Dollar Hits All-time High, CNH/JPY Eyes Key Resistance: DailyFX.com -
Talking Points：
-Bitcoin against the U.S. Dollar soared to a new all-time high, driven by Japanese purchases.
- The CNH/JPY rose back to below the yearly open range low; Chinese Caixin PMI prints could add momentums.
-Read DailyFX latest trading guides fortheoutlookof the Japanese Yen in the second quarter.
To receive reports from this analyst,sign up for Renee Mu’ distribution list.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin against the U.S. Dollar set a new all-time highon Tuesday, touching 1481.73. This is mostly driven by the increasing demand in Japan according to bitcoinity.
After the Chinese regulator started to crack down illegal transactions through Chinese Bitcoin trading platforms, the ratio of Bitcoin trading volume in China to the world hasdropped to 20% in Marchfrom more than 90% previously. Then, Japan, overtaking China, becomes the largest Bitcoin trading country by volume.
From a technical point of view, the BTC/USD is currently right below a key resistance level, the top line of a parallel. Traders will want to be aware of a likely retracement around this level.
BTC/USD1-day
Prepared by Renee Mu.
CNH/JPY
The offshore Yuan against the Japanese Yen also approaches to a major resistance level. In the mid-March, the pair broke below the open range low of 16.31 and now is back to around this level.
CNH/JPY 1-day
Prepared by Renee Mu.
In the coming session, China will release the Caixin PMI prints for April. If those gauges come in to be better than expected, they may add momentum to the CNH/JPY and increase the odds of a breakout.
See the fullDailyFX Economic Calendar
YuanIndexes
- As of last Friday, the Chinese Yuan (CNY) has been losing to a basket of currencies for the third week, measured by both the CFETS Yuan Index and the BIS Yuan Index; it has beenfalling for the second week, measured by the SDR Yuan Index. In specific, the primary gauge for Yuan’s value to a basket of currencies, CFETS Yuan Index, has dropped to the lowest level since it was quoted in 2015, to 92.98 last Friday.
Data downloaded from Bloomberg; chart prepared by Renee Mu.
Market News
Sina News: China’s most important online media source, similar to CNN in the US. They also own a Chinese version of Twitter, called Weibo, with around 200 million active usersmonthly.
Chinese steel producers showed improved performance in the first quarter. 33 out of 36 steel companies that have released first-quarter annual reports revealed positive earnings in the first three months. The total profits of these listing steel companies soared to more than 11.0 billion yuan compared to a loss of -4.0 billion yuan in the first quarter last year.
- China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission hosted a conference, requiring steel and coal firms to cut excessive production. The annual target for steel companies in 2017 is to reduce 5.95 million tons of capacity; the target for coal companies is to cut 24.93 million tons of capacity. Amid the pressure on achieving these goals, the profits of Chinese steel and coal producers could drop again.
To receive reports from this analyst,sign up for Renee Mu’ distribution list.
original source
DailyFXprovides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts fromIG. || Bitcoin/Dollar Hits All-time High, CNH/JPY Eyes Key Resistance: DailyFX.com -
Talking Points：
-Bitcoin against the U.S. Dollar soared to a new all-time high, driven by Japanese purchases.
- The CNH/JPY rose back to below the yearly open range low; Chinese Caixin PMI prints could add momentums.
-Read DailyFX latest trading guides fortheoutlookof the Japanese Yen in the second quarter.
To receive reports from this analyst,sign up for Renee Mu’ distribution list.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin against the U.S. Dollar set a new all-time highon Tuesday, touching 1481.73. This is mostly driven by the increasing demand in Japan according to bitcoinity.
After the Chinese regulator started to crack down illegal transactions through Chinese Bitcoin trading platforms, the ratio of Bitcoin trading volume in China to the world hasdropped to 20% in Marchfrom more than 90% previously. Then, Japan, overtaking China, becomes the largest Bitcoin trading country by volume.
From a technical point of view, the BTC/USD is currently right below a key resistance level, the top line of a parallel. Traders will want to be aware of a likely retracement around this level.
BTC/USD1-day
Prepared by Renee Mu.
CNH/JPY
The offshore Yuan against the Japanese Yen also approaches to a major resistance level. In the mid-March, the pair broke below the open range low of 16.31 and now is back to around this level.
CNH/JPY 1-day
Prepared by Renee Mu.
In the coming session, China will release the Caixin PMI prints for April. If those gauges come in to be better than expected, they may add momentum to the CNH/JPY and increase the odds of a breakout.
See the fullDailyFX Economic Calendar
YuanIndexes
- As of last Friday, the Chinese Yuan (CNY) has been losing to a basket of currencies for the third week, measured by both the CFETS Yuan Index and the BIS Yuan Index; it has beenfalling for the second week, measured by the SDR Yuan Index. In specific, the primary gauge for Yuan’s value to a basket of currencies, CFETS Yuan Index, has dropped to the lowest level since it was quoted in 2015, to 92.98 last Friday.
Data downloaded from Bloomberg; chart prepared by Renee Mu.
Market News
Sina News: China’s most important online media source, similar to CNN in the US. They also own a Chinese version of Twitter, called Weibo, with around 200 million active usersmonthly.
Chinese steel producers showed improved performance in the first quarter. 33 out of 36 steel companies that have released first-quarter annual reports revealed positive earnings in the first three months. The total profits of these listing steel companies soared to more than 11.0 billion yuan compared to a loss of -4.0 billion yuan in the first quarter last year.
- China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission hosted a conference, requiring steel and coal firms to cut excessive production. The annual target for steel companies in 2017 is to reduce 5.95 million tons of capacity; the target for coal companies is to cut 24.93 million tons of capacity. Amid the pressure on achieving these goals, the profits of Chinese steel and coal producers could drop again.
To receive reports from this analyst,sign up for Renee Mu’ distribution list.
original source
DailyFXprovides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts fromIG. || The Google Home is the first voice assistant to know who's talking: You probably know what the Amazon Echo ( AMZN ) is, right? It’s the tall black cylinder that serves as a Siri for your home ( here’s my review ). From across the room, it can understand and field a huge number of queries—weather, sports, movies, facts—and connect to a huge number of services and home-automation products (Nest, Uber, Domino’s Pizza, etc.). A few months back, Google ( GOOG , GOOGL ), without a trace of shame, released its own, nearly identical cylinder, called Google Home ($130). Since Amazon had a five-year head start, it has remained the more capable cylinder. But last month, Google introduced a new feature that changes the game so much , it’s practically a different sport: Person recognition. That is, the Google Home now knows who is speaking, and can deliver the answer based on that person’s calendar, work commute, music playlists, Uber account, and so on. (It can distinguish up to six people in a household.) Training the thing to recognize a new voice is as simple as saying “OK Google” and “Hey Google” twice each into the companion phone app. Now, there are some important footnotes to this business—more on that in a moment. But in theory, here’s what multi-voice recognition is supposed to get you: “Hey Google, what’s next on my calendar?” It speaks your next appointment. (Requires, of course, that you keep your agenda on Google Calendar.) “OK Google, play my Relax playlist.” It begins to play the corresponding playlist from your Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, or Google Music account. “Hey Google: Add cranberry juice to my shopping list.” It adds that item to your shopping list, as maintained on Google Keep. “Hey Google, how does my commute look?” It speaks the current travel time to your place of work, based on current traffic conditions. (Requires that you’ve entered your home and work addresses in the app.) “OK Google: Give me the news.” It plays the latest news report from your preferred news source (NPR, for example). “OK Google, call me an Uber.” Summons the nearest Uber driver, using your Uber account. When you play a podcast, the Google Home remembers where you left off. The recommendation engines for services like YouTube and Spotify now keep everybody’s consumption habits separate, so your trash-action-movie habits don’t pollute your wife’s chick-flick history. Story continues In fact, Google says that all add-on features (third-party voice commands that Google calls Services and Amazon calls Skills) are automatically speaker-recognizing. They all store each family member’s history and preferences separately. Person recognition in practice All of that is the theory. In practice, there are a few problems left to solve. The first one is that the recognition just doesn’t work all the time. Too often, the Home responds by saying, “I wasn’t able to verify your voice.” She recommends that you re-train your voice. Actually, you’re lucky if she says that. In some cases, she doesn’t even let you know that she can’t identify you; instead, she just treats you as a guest, and you’ll never know what went wrong. Here’s what I mean: For days, I tried to get the shopping-list feature to work. “Add shaving cream to my shopping list,” I’d say—and that would work. Then my assistant Jan would try it. “Add peanut butter to my shopping list”—but it would add peanut butter to my shopping list, alongside the shaving cream. An emailed cry for help to Google revealed the answer: The company believes that most households maintain a single shopping list. So until you change your settings, everybody’s requests get dumped onto one common list. (To enable separate shopping lists, people 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 must open the Google Home app, create a new shopping list, and designate it as their Primary lists.) But even then it still might not work. If Google Home doesn’t recognize the speaker, she doesn’t say “I wasn’t able to verify the voice.” Instead, she dumps the shopping-list item onto the first person’s list. Baffling. I kept running into a similar problem with music. If you say, “Play my Party playlist,” Google Home starts playing soft jazz, which is what’s in your Spotify Party playlist. But if your teenager says “Play my Party playlist,” it doesn’t start playing his headbanger heavy-metal; it plays your soft jazz. Here again, that happens when Google Home isn’t sure who’s speaking. Instead of telling you, she just starts playing the first person’s music. How to fix the not-recognizing If you find that Google Home keeps not recognizing you, you’re supposed to open the app and repeat the “Hey Google”/”OK Google” training business. Two problems. First, it’s ridiculously hard to find that place in the app. (Hint: Tap the Menu icon in top left; tap More Settings; tap Shared Devices; tap “Teach it your voice again.”) Second problem: What Google doesn’t make clear is that you’re not re-training Google Home; you’re providing additional training. I had assumed that my new “Hey Google/OK Google” recordings would replace the original ones. But in fact, Google says, the more times you do this, the more accurate she’ll get. So maybe there’s hope for this voice-differentiation thing after all. Google vs. Amazon Most head-to-head comparisons of the Google Home and the Amazon Echo declare Amazon the winner, primarily because it does so many more things. It controls far more home-automation devices (“Alexa, make the downstairs two degrees cooler,” “Alexa, turn off the bedroom lights,” etc.). And software companies have created at least 7,000 Skills (add-on commands)—far more than the puny 215 available for Google. I have to say, though: Even though Amazon’s ecosystem puts Google’s to shame, its technology is not as good. Some examples: You can’t use any of Amazon’s Skills (add-on commands) until you open the app, find the one you want in a list, and turn it on manually. All of Google’s Services are ready and waiting to use at any time. Google Home communicates with Google Chromecast, a $35 dongle that plugs into your TV. You can say, “OK Google, play John Oliver on TV,” or “Hey Google, turn on subtitles,” or “OK Google, turn on Netflix.” Just say that! Out loud in the room! And boom, it’s now on your TV. This is pure magic. You can group multiple Google Homes as a single speaker system, so they all play the same thing simultaneously. You can use the popular If This, Then That (IFTT) website to create new commands of your own—and you can create wordings of your own (“Turn off all the lights”). With Amazon, you must goofily say “Alexa, trigger ‘Turn off all the lights.’” In general, most of the Alexa add-on commands are clunkier that way. If you have a Harmony universal remote, for example, you can just say “OK Google, turn on the TV.” But if you have an Echo, you have to say, “Alexa, trigger ‘Turn on the TV.’” Google Home can walk you through any of 5 million recipes from Bon Appetite, The New York Times, Food Network and so on. You say, “OK Google, next step,” and she speaks the next step in the instructions. Multi-person recognition . As you know. (Obviously, this feature won’t remain a Google exclusive for long. If Amazon isn’t working on its own similar feature, I’ll eat my hat.) Of course, there are Google Home limitations, too. You can’t create reminders or To Do lists by voice (you can on the Amazon). The Amazon can order products (from Amazon) and read Audible e-books; the Google can’t. Google Home is also bizarrely disconnected from Google’s own services. You can’t get it to read your Gmail aloud, or change or add calendar appointments by voice. There’s no integration with Google Docs, and no ability to supply Google Maps driving instructions or send them to your phone. And, of course, the Google Home costs $130. That’s cheaper than the full-size Amazon Echo ($180), but not as cheap as the compact Echo Dot ($50), which does exactly the same things but doesn’t have as rich-sounding a speaker. Multi-person But never mind all that. Because it can now determine who’s speaking (usually), the Google Home just got scarily smarter—and knowing your preferred music, calendar, shopping list, and preferences is only the tip of the iceberg. This feature could be the gateway to a whole universe of useful features. You could say, “turn off my bedroom lights,” and it’ll know whose bedroom. You can say, “where’s my phone?”, and it’ll ping your phone under the couch. You can say, “Send flowers to my wife,” and it’ll know whose wife. Which could, you know, kind of matter. So: Well done, Google. Your move, Amazon. More from David Pogue: Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2 The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || The Google Home is the first voice assistant to know who's talking: You probably know what the Amazon Echo ( AMZN ) is, right? It’s the tall black cylinder that serves as a Siri for your home ( here’s my review ). From across the room, it can understand and field a huge number of queries—weather, sports, movies, facts—and connect to a huge number of services and home-automation products (Nest, Uber, Domino’s Pizza, etc.). A few months back, Google ( GOOG , GOOGL ), without a trace of shame, released its own, nearly identical cylinder, called Google Home ($130). Since Amazon had a five-year head start, it has remained the more capable cylinder. But last month, Google introduced a new feature that changes the game so much , it’s practically a different sport: Person recognition. That is, the Google Home now knows who is speaking, and can deliver the answer based on that person’s calendar, work commute, music playlists, Uber account, and so on. (It can distinguish up to six people in a household.) Training the thing to recognize a new voice is as simple as saying “OK Google” and “Hey Google” twice each into the companion phone app. Now, there are some important footnotes to this business—more on that in a moment. But in theory, here’s what multi-voice recognition is supposed to get you: “Hey Google, what’s next on my calendar?” It speaks your next appointment. (Requires, of course, that you keep your agenda on Google Calendar.) “OK Google, play my Relax playlist.” It begins to play the corresponding playlist from your Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, or Google Music account. “Hey Google: Add cranberry juice to my shopping list.” It adds that item to your shopping list, as maintained on Google Keep. “Hey Google, how does my commute look?” It speaks the current travel time to your place of work, based on current traffic conditions. (Requires that you’ve entered your home and work addresses in the app.) “OK Google: Give me the news.” It plays the latest news report from your preferred news source (NPR, for example). “OK Google, call me an Uber.” Summons the nearest Uber driver, using your Uber account. When you play a podcast, the Google Home remembers where you left off. The recommendation engines for services like YouTube and Spotify now keep everybody’s consumption habits separate, so your trash-action-movie habits don’t pollute your wife’s chick-flick history. Story continues In fact, Google says that all add-on features (third-party voice commands that Google calls Services and Amazon calls Skills) are automatically speaker-recognizing. They all store each family member’s history and preferences separately. Person recognition in practice All of that is the theory. In practice, there are a few problems left to solve. The first one is that the recognition just doesn’t work all the time. Too often, the Home responds by saying, “I wasn’t able to verify your voice.” She recommends that you re-train your voice. Actually, you’re lucky if she says that. In some cases, she doesn’t even let you know that she can’t identify you; instead, she just treats you as a guest, and you’ll never know what went wrong. Here’s what I mean: For days, I tried to get the shopping-list feature to work. “Add shaving cream to my shopping list,” I’d say—and that would work. Then my assistant Jan would try it. “Add peanut butter to my shopping list”—but it would add peanut butter to my shopping list, alongside the shaving cream. An emailed cry for help to Google revealed the answer: The company believes that most households maintain a single shopping list. So until you change your settings, everybody’s requests get dumped onto one common list. (To enable separate shopping lists, people 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 must open the Google Home app, create a new shopping list, and designate it as their Primary lists.) But even then it still might not work. If Google Home doesn’t recognize the speaker, she doesn’t say “I wasn’t able to verify the voice.” Instead, she dumps the shopping-list item onto the first person’s list. Baffling. I kept running into a similar problem with music. If you say, “Play my Party playlist,” Google Home starts playing soft jazz, which is what’s in your Spotify Party playlist. But if your teenager says “Play my Party playlist,” it doesn’t start playing his headbanger heavy-metal; it plays your soft jazz. Here again, that happens when Google Home isn’t sure who’s speaking. Instead of telling you, she just starts playing the first person’s music. How to fix the not-recognizing If you find that Google Home keeps not recognizing you, you’re supposed to open the app and repeat the “Hey Google”/”OK Google” training business. Two problems. First, it’s ridiculously hard to find that place in the app. (Hint: Tap the Menu icon in top left; tap More Settings; tap Shared Devices; tap “Teach it your voice again.”) Second problem: What Google doesn’t make clear is that you’re not re-training Google Home; you’re providing additional training. I had assumed that my new “Hey Google/OK Google” recordings would replace the original ones. But in fact, Google says, the more times you do this, the more accurate she’ll get. So maybe there’s hope for this voice-differentiation thing after all. Google vs. Amazon Most head-to-head comparisons of the Google Home and the Amazon Echo declare Amazon the winner, primarily because it does so many more things. It controls far more home-automation devices (“Alexa, make the downstairs two degrees cooler,” “Alexa, turn off the bedroom lights,” etc.). And software companies have created at least 7,000 Skills (add-on commands)—far more than the puny 215 available for Google. I have to say, though: Even though Amazon’s ecosystem puts Google’s to shame, its technology is not as good. Some examples: You can’t use any of Amazon’s Skills (add-on commands) until you open the app, find the one you want in a list, and turn it on manually. All of Google’s Services are ready and waiting to use at any time. Google Home communicates with Google Chromecast, a $35 dongle that plugs into your TV. You can say, “OK Google, play John Oliver on TV,” or “Hey Google, turn on subtitles,” or “OK Google, turn on Netflix.” Just say that! Out loud in the room! And boom, it’s now on your TV. This is pure magic. You can group multiple Google Homes as a single speaker system, so they all play the same thing simultaneously. You can use the popular If This, Then That (IFTT) website to create new commands of your own—and you can create wordings of your own (“Turn off all the lights”). With Amazon, you must goofily say “Alexa, trigger ‘Turn off all the lights.’” In general, most of the Alexa add-on commands are clunkier that way. If you have a Harmony universal remote, for example, you can just say “OK Google, turn on the TV.” But if you have an Echo, you have to say, “Alexa, trigger ‘Turn on the TV.’” Google Home can walk you through any of 5 million recipes from Bon Appetite, The New York Times, Food Network and so on. You say, “OK Google, next step,” and she speaks the next step in the instructions. Multi-person recognition . As you know. (Obviously, this feature won’t remain a Google exclusive for long. If Amazon isn’t working on its own similar feature, I’ll eat my hat.) Of course, there are Google Home limitations, too. You can’t create reminders or To Do lists by voice (you can on the Amazon). The Amazon can order products (from Amazon) and read Audible e-books; the Google can’t. Google Home is also bizarrely disconnected from Google’s own services. You can’t get it to read your Gmail aloud, or change or add calendar appointments by voice. There’s no integration with Google Docs, and no ability to supply Google Maps driving instructions or send them to your phone. And, of course, the Google Home costs $130. That’s cheaper than the full-size Amazon Echo ($180), but not as cheap as the compact Echo Dot ($50), which does exactly the same things but doesn’t have as rich-sounding a speaker. Multi-person But never mind all that. Because it can now determine who’s speaking (usually), the Google Home just got scarily smarter—and knowing your preferred music, calendar, shopping list, and preferences is only the tip of the iceberg. This feature could be the gateway to a whole universe of useful features. You could say, “turn off my bedroom lights,” and it’ll know whose bedroom. You can say, “where’s my phone?”, and it’ll ping your phone under the couch. You can say, “Send flowers to my wife,” and it’ll know whose wife. Which could, you know, kind of matter. So: Well done, Google. Your move, Amazon. More from David Pogue: Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part I Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt: Part 2 The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email .
[Social Media Buzz]
1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$1528.60/$1529.78 #Bitstamp
$1455.00/$1457.05 #BTCe
⇢$-74.78/$-71.55
$1562.53/$1578.24 #Coinbase
⇢$32.75/$49.64 || Sigue el precio de $BTC en @Bitso. Actualmente $31,000.00 $MXN/ $BTC https://bitso.com pic.twitter.com/4pvDMukQHk || 1 KOBO = 0.00000458 BTC
= 0.0072 USD
= 2.2608 NGN
= 0.0966 ZAR
= 0.7405 KES
#Kobocoin 2017-05-06 00:00 || 1 BTC Price: BTC-e 1449.959 USD Bitstamp 1566.49 USD Coinbase 1602.14 USD #btc #bitcoin 2017-05-05 00:30 pic.twitter.com/zDIIg...
|
1578.80, 1596.71, 1723.35, 1755.36, 1787.13, 1848.57, 1724.24, 1804.91, 1808.91, 1738.43
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 386.55, 376.52, 376.62, 373.45, 376.03, 381.65, 379.65, 384.26, 391.86, 407.23, 400.18, 407.49, 416.32, 422.37, 420.79, 437.16, 438.80, 437.75, 420.74, 424.95, 424.54, 432.15, 432.52, 433.50, 437.70, 435.12, 423.99, 421.65, 410.94, 400.57, 407.71, 414.32, 413.97, 414.86, 417.13, 421.69, 411.62, 414.07, 416.44, 416.83, 417.01, 420.62, 409.55, 410.44, 413.76, 413.31, 418.09, 418.04, 416.39, 417.18, 417.95, 426.77, 424.23, 416.52, 414.82, 416.73, 417.96, 420.87, 420.90, 421.44, 424.03, 423.41, 422.74, 420.35, 419.41, 421.56, 422.48, 425.19, 423.73, 424.28, 429.71, 430.57, 427.40, 428.59, 435.51, 441.39, 449.42, 445.74, 450.28, 458.55, 461.43, 466.09, 444.69, 449.01, 455.10, 448.32, 451.88, 444.67, 450.30, 446.72.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-05-04]
Volume: 50407300, RSI (14-day): 53.75, 50-day EMA: 433.94, 200-day EMA: 392.30
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1273.30, Gold RSI: 57.68
Oil Price: 43.78, Oil RSI: 58.43
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Traders: How to play stumbles by Apple, Twitter: Two big-name technology stocks have stumbled recently, and "Fast Money" traders on Tuesday debated whether they could recover.
Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)shares climbed Tuesday, breaking an eight-day slide driven bydisappointing quarterly earnings, iPhone sales and guidance. Twitter(NYSE: TWTR)'s stock, meanwhile, fell 2.7 percent on the day, touching an all-time low during the session. The social media company alsogave a weak outlookwhen it posted quarterly results.
Apple shareholder Pete Najarian said he bought more of the stock last week despite the company's struggles.
"I believe in the company, I believe in where the direction is," he said, adding that long-term investors may benefit from eventual expansion in places like India.
While he noted that India offers "an amazing long-term growth opportunity," trader Dan Nathan believes Apple has more pain ahead. He contended it could slide even more from its current levels.
Turning to Twitter, Nathan said he has been long and "wrong" in the stock. He said the company has had trouble growing its audience but added it could still be a takeover target.
Najarian argued he would stay away from the stock altogether.
"It just is not showing us any life at all," he said.
Trader Brian Kelly acknowledged that Twitter has unique value. He said the company should focus on engaging with the users it has now rather than adding new users.
Disclosures:
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BAC, C, DRII, DRII calls, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY puts, URI. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, DRII, DRII calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, US Dollar; he is short Australian Dollar, BLK, CS, DB, Euro, EWA, EWH, FRC, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, Yuan, 5-Year Note Futures
Pete Najarian
Long AAPL, BAC, BMY, CSCO, DIS, DISCA, GE, KMI, KMI.A, KO, LUX, MRK, PEP, PFE, SAVE, VIAB, ZIOP Long Calls: AAL, AGN, AKS, AMJ, COP, EGO, EWZ, HAIN, HBAN, KATE, KBH, KMI, LLY, MSFT, MT, NLNK, SBUX, SLV, SPG, TCK, UAL, YHOO Long Puts: FCX, NOV, PBR, VLO
Dan Nathan
Long PFE Long TWTR, sept risk reversal WMT long May 65 puts GE long May 28 puts XHB long June put spread IWM long Sept 100 put XLB long June put spread XRT long June 45/38 put spread XLF long May/ Sept Put spread HYG long June put spread XLK long Sept Put spread
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Traders: How to play stumbles by Apple, Twitter: Two big-name technology stocks have stumbled recently, and "Fast Money" traders on Tuesday debated whether they could recover. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares climbed Tuesday, breaking an eight-day slide driven by disappointing quarterly earnings , iPhone sales and guidance. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) 's stock, meanwhile, fell 2.7 percent on the day, touching an all-time low during the session. The social media company also gave a weak outlook when it posted quarterly results. Apple shareholder Pete Najarian said he bought more of the stock last week despite the company's struggles. "I believe in the company, I believe in where the direction is," he said, adding that long-term investors may benefit from eventual expansion in places like India. While he noted that India offers "an amazing long-term growth opportunity," trader Dan Nathan believes Apple has more pain ahead. He contended it could slide even more from its current levels. Turning to Twitter, Nathan said he has been long and "wrong" in the stock. He said the company has had trouble growing its audience but added it could still be a takeover target. Najarian argued he would stay away from the stock altogether. "It just is not showing us any life at all," he said. Trader Brian Kelly acknowledged that Twitter has unique value. He said the company should focus on engaging with the users it has now rather than adding new users. Disclosures: Karen Finerman Karen is long BAC, C, DRII, DRII calls, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY puts, URI. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, DRII, DRII calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, US Dollar; he is short Australian Dollar, BLK, CS, DB, Euro, EWA, EWH, FRC, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, Yuan, 5-Year Note Futures Story continues Pete Najarian Long AAPL, BAC, BMY, CSCO, DIS, DISCA, GE, KMI, KMI.A, KO, LUX, MRK, PEP, PFE, SAVE, VIAB, ZIOP Long Calls: AAL, AGN, AKS, AMJ, COP, EGO, EWZ, HAIN, HBAN, KATE, KBH, KMI, LLY, MSFT, MT, NLNK, SBUX, SLV, SPG, TCK, UAL, YHOO Long Puts: FCX, NOV, PBR, VLO Dan Nathan Long PFE Long TWTR, sept risk reversal WMT long May 65 puts GE long May 28 puts XHB long June put spread IWM long Sept 100 put XLB long June put spread XRT long June 45/38 put spread XLF long May/ Sept Put spread HYG long June put spread XLK long Sept Put spread More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Why Shares of Fintech Lenders OnDeck and Lending Club Are Getting Crushed: OnDeck might not have been ready for the major leagues. Shares of OnDeck Capital were down 34% on Tuesday, to $5.50. That caps a tumble that has left the stock off 70% since its IPO nearly a year-and-a-half ago. The source of the pain on Tuesday for the online lender was its first quarter earnings. On Monday afternoon, OnDeck said it lost nearly $13 million in Q1, up from a loss of just over $5 million a year ago. The loss was also larger than analysts were expecting. The $13 million loss is far from life-threatening, though it is concerning. OnDeck blew through $28 million in cash in the first quarter, though it still has $170 million in the bank. The bigger concern is its business model. OnDeck makes loans to small businesses. And lending has been going well. Loans rose by $100 million in the past year. Originally the thought was OnDeck and others were going to eat the lunch of the large banks which are lumbering and weighed down by regulations. Historically it has sold many of those loans off to investors. Yet, in the first quarter the percentage of loans that OnDeck offloaded to investors fell to 26% from 40% a year ago. What’s more, the profits OnDeck got from selling the loans dropped. The problem is that the fintech lenders are having more difficulty finding buyers for their loans. And investors seem to be nervous this is not just an OnDeck problem. Shares of Lending Club dropped 10% on Tuesday on fears that it will report the same problem when it discloses what it earned in the first quarter next week. Other fintech lenders have been struggling with what to do about the fact that buyers for their loans--hedge funds and other investors--appear to be drying up. Another fintech lender SoFi has started a hedge fund with its own money to invest in the loans it is making. Putting the loans in a hedge fund makes the loans effectively disappear from their books, even though Sofi still owns the risk. The arrangement has reminded some of the types of deals Bear Stearns and others set up in the run up to the financial crisis . Story continues As long as the market and regulators treat OnDeck and its rivals as tech companies none of this might be a problem. But regulators have started to hint that they are going to take a closer look at fintech companies and whether they should be regulated like banks. If regulators decide they should be, then OnDeck and others will have to meet the same capital rules that banks do, which will put a ceiling on how much they can lend, if they can’t find genuine third-party investors willing to take a good deal of that risk off of their hands. At the same time, investors no longer seem willing, like they do with other tech stocks, like say Amazon, to stick around while OnDeck continues to have losses. That doesn’t mean the stock is cheap. OnDeck’s shares, after Tuesday’s drop, have a price-to-book ratio of 1.20. J.P. Morgan Chase , by comparison, which has invested in OnDeck, has a P/B ratio of 1.05. OnDeck’s shares would drop to $4.80 if it traded at a similar multiple. But even that might be generous. Bank of America’s P/B is 0.7. If OnDeck’s shares traded at that multiple, they would sink to $3.20. If OnDeck is going to be treated more like a bank, the problem is shares will likely trade like one too. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com This Millennial CEO Thinks the Loan System for Small Businesses Is Broken The Big Flaw Few are Talking About in Fintech Barclays Is Getting Into Bitcoin With Goldman-Backed Circle Slack Users Will Be Able to Pay One Another Using This Bot Japan Looks to Kickstart 'Fintech' Revolution || Why Shares of Fintech Lenders OnDeck and Lending Club Are Getting Crushed: OnDeck might not have been ready for the major leagues.
Shares of OnDeck Capital were down 34% on Tuesday, to $5.50. That caps a tumble that has left the stock off 70% since its IPO nearly a year-and-a-half ago. The source of the pain on Tuesday for the online lender was its first quarter earnings. On Monday afternoon, OnDeck said it lost nearly $13 million in Q1, up from a loss of just over $5 million a year ago. The loss was also larger than analysts were expecting.
The $13 million loss is far from life-threatening, though it is concerning. OnDeck blew through $28 million in cash in the first quarter, though it still has $170 million in the bank. The bigger concern is its business model.
OnDeck makes loans to small businesses. And lending has been going well. Loans rose by $100 million in the past year. Originally the thought was OnDeck and others were going to eat the lunch of the large banks which are lumbering and weighed down by regulations.
Historically it has sold many of those loans off to investors. Yet, in the first quarter the percentage of loans that OnDeck offloaded to investors fell to 26% from 40% a year ago. What’s more, the profits OnDeck got from selling the loans dropped.
The problem is that the fintech lenders are having more difficulty finding buyers for their loans. And investors seem to be nervous this is not just an OnDeck problem. Shares of Lending Club dropped 10% on Tuesday on fears that it will report the same problem when it discloses what it earned in the first quarter next week.
Other fintech lenders have been struggling with what to do about the fact that buyers for their loans--hedge funds and other investors--appear to be drying up. Another fintech lender SoFi has started a hedge fund with its own money to invest in the loans it is making. Putting the loans in a hedge fund makes the loans effectively disappear from their books, even though Sofi still owns the risk. The arrangementhas reminded some of the types of deals Bear Stearns and others set up in the run up to the financial crisis.
As long as the market and regulators treat OnDeck and its rivals as tech companies none of this might be a problem. But regulators have started to hint that they are going to take a closer look at fintech companies and whether they should be regulated like banks. If regulators decide they should be, then OnDeck and others will have to meet the same capital rules that banks do, which will put a ceiling on how much they can lend, if they can’t find genuine third-party investors willing to take a good deal of that risk off of their hands.
At the same time, investors no longer seem willing, like they do with other tech stocks, like say Amazon, to stick around while OnDeck continues to have losses. That doesn’t mean the stock is cheap. OnDeck’s shares, after Tuesday’s drop, have a price-to-book ratio of 1.20. J.P. Morgan Chase , by comparison, which has invested in OnDeck, has a P/B ratio of 1.05. OnDeck’s shares would drop to $4.80 if it traded at a similar multiple. But even that might be generous.
Bank of America’s P/B is 0.7. If OnDeck’s shares traded at that multiple, they would sink to $3.20. If OnDeck is going to be treated more like a bank, the problem is shares will likely trade like one too.
See original article on Fortune.com
More from Fortune.com
• This Millennial CEO Thinks the Loan System for Small Businesses Is Broken
• The Big Flaw Few are Talking About in Fintech
• Barclays Is Getting Into Bitcoin With Goldman-Backed Circle
• Slack Users Will Be Able to Pay One Another Using This Bot
• Japan Looks to Kickstart 'Fintech' Revolution || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. Story continues "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. View comments || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. Story continues "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. View comments || Australian says he created bitcoin, but some sceptical: By Byron Kaye and Jemima Kelly SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin on Monday but experts were divided over whether he really was the elusive person who has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto until now. Uncovering Nakamoto's real identity would solve a riddle dating back to the publication of the open source software behind the cryptocurrency in 2008, before its launch a year later. Bitcoin has since become the world's most commonly used virtual currency, attracting the interest of banks, speculators, criminals and regulators. Worth a total of $7 billion (5 billion pounds) at current levels, it fell more than 3 percent on Monday -- a normal intraday move for the volatile currency -- after the news, to below $440 from around $455, before recovering slightly. Some online commentators suggested bitcoin's creator could help resolve a bitter row among the currency's software developers that threatens its future. But Wright made no reference to the row in a BBC interview identifying himself as Nakamoto, and as the protocol bitcoin runs on is open-source and cannot be controlled by any one person, it is unclear whether he would be able to influence the way it develops. "I was the main part of it, other people helped me," Wright, who is now living in London, told the BBC. "Some people will believe, Some people won't, and to tell you the truth, I don't really care," he said. Many bitcoiners said Wright had not done enough to definitively prove that he was Nakamoto, who maintained his anonymity throughout his involvement with bitcoin, which he stepped away from in 2011. But Gavin Andresen, who Nakamoto chose to succeed him, published a blog post in which he described meeting Wright last month and said he is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the Australian is Nakamoto. Jon Matonis, a founding director of the Bitcoin Foundation now works as a bitcoin consultant, wrote a blog post on Monday which, like Andresens, supported Wrights claims. According to me, the proof is conclusive and I have no doubt that Craig Steven Wright is the person behind the Bitcoin technology, Nakamoto consensus, and the Satoshi Nakamoto name, Matonis wrote. He and Andresen also confirmed they had been responsible for their respective blog posts to Reuters directly. LEGACY Nakamoto's biggest likely legacy lies well beyond his control. The blockchain technology that underpins the currency could transform the way banks settle transactions, the way that property rights and other vital data are recorded, and provide a way for central banks to issue their own digital currencies. Story continues The BBC reported on Monday that Wright gave some technical proof demonstrating that he had access to blocks of bitcoins known to have been created by bitcoin's creator. Researchers believe Nakamoto may be holding up to one million of the more than 15 million bitcoins currently in circulation, which would make the creator worth around $440 million. In a blog post also dated Monday, Wright posted an example of a signature used by Nakamoto and an explanation of how bitcoin transactions are verified and thanked all those who had supported the project from its inception. "This incredible communitys passion and intellect and perseverance have taken my small contribution and nurtured it, enhanced it, breathed life into it," he wrote. However he did not state directly that he was Nakamoto. "Satoshi is dead," he said. "But this is only the beginning." Bitcoin expert Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Coin Center, said a new message cryptographically signed using the private key associated with the so-called Genesis block, the first ever "mined" would have been more convincing. The currency's "miners" are incentivised to process transactions every 10 minutes by a possible reward of bitcoins (25 currently), which is how new bitcoins are created. Wright also spoke with The Economist, but declined requests from the magazine to provide further proof that he was Nakamoto. His representatives told Reuters he would not be taking part in more media interviews for the time being. "Our conclusion is that Mr Wright could well be Mr Nakamoto, but that important questions remain," The Economist said. "Indeed, it may never be possible to establish beyond reasonable doubt who really created bitcoin. Hopes that bitcoin would become broadly used helped buoy its price to more than $1,000 in December 2013, when its market capitalisation was $13 billion compared with today's $7 billion. Wright told The Economist he would exchange bitcoin he owns slowly to avoid pushing down its price. HOME RAIDED In December, police raided Wright's Sydney home and office after Wired magazine named him as the probable creator of bitcoin and holder of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency. At the time he made no comment. The treatment of bitcoins for tax purposes in Australia has been the subject of considerable debate. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) ruled in December 2014 that cryptocurrency should be considered an asset, rather than a currency, for capital gains tax purposes. On Monday, the ATO said it had no comment while police were not immediately available for comment. If Wright is Nakamoto he "is now the leader of a movement", said Roberto Capodieci, a Singapore-based entrepreneur working on the blockchain, the technology underlying the currency. That movement ranges from libertarian enthusiasts to central banks experimenting with digital currencies, all of which pay homage in some way to Nakamoto's writings. (Additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, Matt Siegel in Sydney and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Nick Macfie, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Philippa Fletcher) View comments || Australian says he created bitcoin, but some sceptical: By Byron Kaye and Jemima Kelly SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin on Monday but experts were divided over whether he really was the elusive person who has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto until now. Uncovering Nakamoto's real identity would solve a riddle dating back to the publication of the open source software behind the cryptocurrency in 2008, before its launch a year later. Bitcoin has since become the world's most commonly used virtual currency, attracting the interest of banks, speculators, criminals and regulators. Worth a total of $7 billion (5 billion pounds) at current levels, it fell more than 3 percent on Monday -- a normal intraday move for the volatile currency -- after the news, to below $440 from around $455, before recovering slightly. Some online commentators suggested bitcoin's creator could help resolve a bitter row among the currency's software developers that threatens its future. But Wright made no reference to the row in a BBC interview identifying himself as Nakamoto, and as the protocol bitcoin runs on is open-source and cannot be controlled by any one person, it is unclear whether he would be able to influence the way it develops. "I was the main part of it, other people helped me," Wright, who is now living in London, told the BBC. "Some people will believe, Some people won't, and to tell you the truth, I don't really care," he said. Many bitcoiners said Wright had not done enough to definitively prove that he was Nakamoto, who maintained his anonymity throughout his involvement with bitcoin, which he stepped away from in 2011. But Gavin Andresen, who Nakamoto chose to succeed him, published a blog post in which he described meeting Wright last month and said he is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the Australian is Nakamoto. Jon Matonis, a founding director of the Bitcoin Foundation now works as a bitcoin consultant, wrote a blog post on Monday which, like Andresens, supported Wrights claims. According to me, the proof is conclusive and I have no doubt that Craig Steven Wright is the person behind the Bitcoin technology, Nakamoto consensus, and the Satoshi Nakamoto name, Matonis wrote. He and Andresen also confirmed they had been responsible for their respective blog posts to Reuters directly. LEGACY Nakamoto's biggest likely legacy lies well beyond his control. The blockchain technology that underpins the currency could transform the way banks settle transactions, the way that property rights and other vital data are recorded, and provide a way for central banks to issue their own digital currencies. Story continues The BBC reported on Monday that Wright gave some technical proof demonstrating that he had access to blocks of bitcoins known to have been created by bitcoin's creator. Researchers believe Nakamoto may be holding up to one million of the more than 15 million bitcoins currently in circulation, which would make the creator worth around $440 million. In a blog post also dated Monday, Wright posted an example of a signature used by Nakamoto and an explanation of how bitcoin transactions are verified and thanked all those who had supported the project from its inception. "This incredible communitys passion and intellect and perseverance have taken my small contribution and nurtured it, enhanced it, breathed life into it," he wrote. However he did not state directly that he was Nakamoto. "Satoshi is dead," he said. "But this is only the beginning." Bitcoin expert Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Coin Center, said a new message cryptographically signed using the private key associated with the so-called Genesis block, the first ever "mined" would have been more convincing. The currency's "miners" are incentivised to process transactions every 10 minutes by a possible reward of bitcoins (25 currently), which is how new bitcoins are created. Wright also spoke with The Economist, but declined requests from the magazine to provide further proof that he was Nakamoto. His representatives told Reuters he would not be taking part in more media interviews for the time being. "Our conclusion is that Mr Wright could well be Mr Nakamoto, but that important questions remain," The Economist said. "Indeed, it may never be possible to establish beyond reasonable doubt who really created bitcoin. Hopes that bitcoin would become broadly used helped buoy its price to more than $1,000 in December 2013, when its market capitalisation was $13 billion compared with today's $7 billion. Wright told The Economist he would exchange bitcoin he owns slowly to avoid pushing down its price. HOME RAIDED In December, police raided Wright's Sydney home and office after Wired magazine named him as the probable creator of bitcoin and holder of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency. At the time he made no comment. The treatment of bitcoins for tax purposes in Australia has been the subject of considerable debate. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) ruled in December 2014 that cryptocurrency should be considered an asset, rather than a currency, for capital gains tax purposes. On Monday, the ATO said it had no comment while police were not immediately available for comment. If Wright is Nakamoto he "is now the leader of a movement", said Roberto Capodieci, a Singapore-based entrepreneur working on the blockchain, the technology underlying the currency. That movement ranges from libertarian enthusiasts to central banks experimenting with digital currencies, all of which pay homage in some way to Nakamoto's writings. (Additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, Matt Siegel in Sydney and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Nick Macfie, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Philippa Fletcher) View comments || CME, ICE prepare pricing data that could boost bitcoin: By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - CME Group Inc (CME.O) and rival Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N) plan to publish new pricing data on bitcoin that they say will increase credibility and transparency for the controversial digital currency. Starting in the fourth quarter, the CME aims to begin publishing bitcoin prices about once a second during trading days and a daily settlement price based on transactions from several bitcoin spot exchanges, the company said on Monday. The owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other futures markets said the data will add "significant credibility to the nascent digital asset market." Bitcoin is a Web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. Despite being championed by some as the digital money of the future, it is often dismissed as a currency that is too volatile to invest in. The CME's pricing data "will lower uncertainty among market participants and would very likely reduce bitcoins traditionally high volatility" by aggregating information on transactions from multiple bitcoin markets, said Paul Chao, founder and chief executive officer of Ledger X, an institutional trading and clearing platform for bitcoin options. The New York Stock Exchange, owned by the ICE, is evaluating whether to include data from a number of exchanges for a daily settlement price it has published since May 2015, said Dwijen Gandhi, head of indexes for the NYSE. Currently the settlement price is based only on transaction data from U.S. market Coinbase. The NYSE also will soon launch a real-time pricing index to "provide additional transparency and insight into the bitcoin price," Gandhi said in a statement. The CME is planning to publish its settlement price at 4 p.m. London time (1500 GMT), the same time the NYSE publishes its settlement. The availability of more data from major exchange operators could promote the development of bitcoin derivatives contracts, said Gil Luria, a managing director for Wedbush Securities. Story continues "The more active exchanges like CME or ICE become, the easier, the more liquid it will become for traditional investors" to trade bitcoin, he said. The CME declined to say whether it wants to launch bitcoin futures. The ICE did not respond to a question on the matter. Earlier on Monday, Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself as the creator of bitcoin. Experts were divided over whether he really was the elusive person who has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto until now. (Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr) || CME, ICE prepare pricing data that could boost bitcoin: By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - CME Group Inc (CME.O) and rival Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N) plan to publish new pricing data on bitcoin that they say will increase credibility and transparency for the controversial digital currency. Starting in the fourth quarter, the CME aims to begin publishing bitcoin prices about once a second during trading days and a daily settlement price based on transactions from several bitcoin spot exchanges, the company said on Monday. The owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other futures markets said the data will add "significant credibility to the nascent digital asset market." Bitcoin is a Web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. Despite being championed by some as the digital money of the future, it is often dismissed as a currency that is too volatile to invest in. The CME's pricing data "will lower uncertainty among market participants and would very likely reduce bitcoins traditionally high volatility" by aggregating information on transactions from multiple bitcoin markets, said Paul Chao, founder and chief executive officer of Ledger X, an institutional trading and clearing platform for bitcoin options. The New York Stock Exchange, owned by the ICE, is evaluating whether to include data from a number of exchanges for a daily settlement price it has published since May 2015, said Dwijen Gandhi, head of indexes for the NYSE. Currently the settlement price is based only on transaction data from U.S. market Coinbase. The NYSE also will soon launch a real-time pricing index to "provide additional transparency and insight into the bitcoin price," Gandhi said in a statement. The CME is planning to publish its settlement price at 4 p.m. London time (1500 GMT), the same time the NYSE publishes its settlement. The availability of more data from major exchange operators could promote the development of bitcoin derivatives contracts, said Gil Luria, a managing director for Wedbush Securities. Story continues "The more active exchanges like CME or ICE become, the easier, the more liquid it will become for traditional investors" to trade bitcoin, he said. The CME declined to say whether it wants to launch bitcoin futures. The ICE did not respond to a question on the matter. Earlier on Monday, Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself as the creator of bitcoin. Experts were divided over whether he really was the elusive person who has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto until now. (Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr) || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. Story continues But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. Story continues "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) View comments || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on.
That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions.
"If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries."
Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions.
The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger.
Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other.
"Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology."
Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world.
But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes.
But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York.
Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin.
"It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York.
"It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said.
For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin.
"It's all about the blockchain," he said.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. Story continues "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) View comments || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N). "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs (GS.N), have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin (BTC=BTSP) is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. Story continues But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N). "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs (GS.N), have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin (BTC=BTSP) is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. Story continues But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on.
That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions.
"If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries."
Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions.
The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger.
Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other.
"Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology."
Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world.
But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes.
But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York.
Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin.
"It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York.
"It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said.
For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin.
"It's all about the blockchain," he said.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. Story continues "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) View comments || CME, ICE prepare pricing data that could boost bitcoin: (Adds comment from chief of Ledger X)
By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO, May 2 (Reuters) - CME Group Inc and rival Intercontinental Exchange Inc plan to publish new pricing data on bitcoin that they say will increase credibility and transparency for the controversial digital currency.
Starting in the fourth quarter, the CME aims to begin publishing bitcoin prices about once a second during trading days and a daily settlement price based on transactions from several bitcoin spot exchanges, the company said on Monday.
The owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other futures markets said the data will add "significant credibility to the nascent digital asset market."
Bitcoin is a Web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. Despite being championed by some as the digital money of the future, it is often dismissed as a currency that is too volatile to invest in.
The CME's pricing data "will lower uncertainty among market participants and would very likely reduce bitcoin's traditionally high volatility" by aggregating information on transactions from multiple bitcoin markets, said Paul Chao, founder and chief executive officer of Ledger X, an institutional trading and clearing platform for bitcoin options.
The New York Stock Exchange, owned by the ICE, is evaluating whether to include data from a number of exchanges for a daily settlement price it has published since May 2015, said Dwijen Gandhi, head of indexes for the NYSE. Currently the settlement price is based only on transaction data from U.S. market Coinbase.
The NYSE also will soon launch a real-time pricing index to "provide additional transparency and insight into the bitcoin price," Gandhi said in a statement.
The CME is planning to publish its settlement price at 4 p.m. London time (1500 GMT), the same time the NYSE publishes its settlement.
The availability of more data from major exchange operators could promote the development of bitcoin derivatives contracts, said Gil Luria, a managing director for Wedbush Securities.
"The more active exchanges like CME or ICE become, the easier, the more liquid it will become for traditional investors" to trade bitcoin, he said.
The CME declined to say whether it wants to launch bitcoin futures. The ICE did not respond to a question on the matter.
Earlier on Monday, Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself as the creator of bitcoin. Experts were divided over whether he really was the elusive person who has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto until now.
(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr) || CME, ICE prepare pricing data that could boost bitcoin: (Adds comment from chief of Ledger X) By Tom Polansek CHICAGO, May 2 (Reuters) - CME Group Inc and rival Intercontinental Exchange Inc plan to publish new pricing data on bitcoin that they say will increase credibility and transparency for the controversial digital currency. Starting in the fourth quarter, the CME aims to begin publishing bitcoin prices about once a second during trading days and a daily settlement price based on transactions from several bitcoin spot exchanges, the company said on Monday. The owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other futures markets said the data will add "significant credibility to the nascent digital asset market." Bitcoin is a Web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. Despite being championed by some as the digital money of the future, it is often dismissed as a currency that is too volatile to invest in. The CME's pricing data "will lower uncertainty among market participants and would very likely reduce bitcoin's traditionally high volatility" by aggregating information on transactions from multiple bitcoin markets, said Paul Chao, founder and chief executive officer of Ledger X, an institutional trading and clearing platform for bitcoin options. The New York Stock Exchange, owned by the ICE, is evaluating whether to include data from a number of exchanges for a daily settlement price it has published since May 2015, said Dwijen Gandhi, head of indexes for the NYSE. Currently the settlement price is based only on transaction data from U.S. market Coinbase. The NYSE also will soon launch a real-time pricing index to "provide additional transparency and insight into the bitcoin price," Gandhi said in a statement. The CME is planning to publish its settlement price at 4 p.m. London time (1500 GMT), the same time the NYSE publishes its settlement. The availability of more data from major exchange operators could promote the development of bitcoin derivatives contracts, said Gil Luria, a managing director for Wedbush Securities. Story continues "The more active exchanges like CME or ICE become, the easier, the more liquid it will become for traditional investors" to trade bitcoin, he said. The CME declined to say whether it wants to launch bitcoin futures. The ICE did not respond to a question on the matter. Earlier on Monday, Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself as the creator of bitcoin. Experts were divided over whether he really was the elusive person who has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto until now. (Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York, Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr)
[Social Media Buzz]
1 KOBO = 0.00000800 BTC
= 0.0036 USD
= 0.7163 NGN
= 0.0527 ZAR
= 0.3639 KES
#Kobocoin 2016-05-04 04:00 pic.twitter.com/AvTgBf9Jx0 || LIVE: Profit = $702.47 (8.77 %). BUY B19.40 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $449.61 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org || #BTA Price: Bittrex 0.00001985 BTC YoBit 0.00001711 BTC Bleutrade 0.00001805 BTC #BTA 2016-05-04 16:00 pic.twitter.com/9YAGoataTi || LIVE: Profit = $702.93 (8.77 %). BUY B19.40 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $449.61 (...
|
447.98, 459.60, 458.54, 458.55, 460.48, 450.89, 452.73, 454.77, 455.67, 455.67
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 240.36, 239.02, 236.12, 229.78, 237.33, 243.86, 241.83, 240.30, 242.16, 241.11, 236.38, 236.93, 237.60, 236.15, 236.80, 233.13, 231.95, 234.02, 235.34, 240.35, 238.87, 240.95, 237.11, 237.12, 237.28, 237.41, 237.10, 233.35, 230.19, 222.93, 225.80, 225.87, 224.32, 224.95, 225.62, 222.88, 228.49, 229.05, 228.80, 229.71, 229.98, 232.40, 233.54, 236.82, 250.90, 249.28, 249.01, 244.61, 245.21, 243.94, 246.99, 244.30, 240.51, 242.80, 243.59, 250.99, 249.01, 257.06, 263.07, 258.62, 255.41, 256.34, 260.89, 271.91, 269.03, 266.21, 270.79, 269.23, 284.89, 293.11, 310.87, 292.05, 287.46, 285.83, 278.09, 279.47, 274.90, 273.61, 278.98, 275.83, 277.22, 276.05, 288.28, 288.70, 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59, 287.72, 284.65.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-07-31]
Volume: 23629100, RSI (14-day): 54.58, 50-day EMA: 270.06, 200-day EMA: 260.69
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1094.90, Gold RSI: 31.11
Oil Price: 47.12, Oil RSI: 27.86
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Global Equity International Inc. Signed a Revised Agreement With AuthentaTrade, a Global Digital Currency Exchange Seeking Regulation in Europe and Asia: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) -Global Equity International Inc.(OTCQB:GEQU) and its fully owned subsidiary,Global Equity Partners Plc(GEP), a business consulting services firm and M&A specialist to SMEs worldwide, today announced that it has signed a revised consultancy agreement withAuthentaTrade, an innovative FINTECH company firm based in Seychelles and Cyprus (Website:http://www.authenta.trade/).
Global Equity International Inc., through its fully owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc., will assist AuthentaTrade with pre-IPO funding amounting to, but not limited to, US$32 million as well as a public listing of its shares on a recognized international stock exchange post pre-IPO funding. As part of the consultancy agreement, GEP will hold a meaningful equity position in AuthentaTrade (post IPO).
Peter Smith, CEO of Global Equity International Inc., said:"We are extremely excited about signing this revised agreement with AuthentaTrade as we believe that there is a lot of potential for the Company's proprietary solutions. We have met with the Authenta Team in Dubai on two occasions now and have already introduced them to various financial institutions in Dubai, some of which are interested in looking at the possibility of investing in the Company. This great addition to our portfolio of clients will undoubtedly bring good value to our Company in the long run."
Gwyn Jones, CEO of AuthentaTrade,stated:"We're working hard to fulfill the promise of Digital Currencies, especially Bitcoin, and believe there is a substantial opportunity to create 'banking-like' financial products, but with much lower transactional costs than in traditional banking. We look forward to working with GEP, and raising the funding we need to take AuthentaTrade, and our Bitcoin Exchange, to the next level."
About AuthentaTradeDevelopment began on the AuthentaTrade platform in early 2015. AuthentaTrade has assembled a team spearheaded by Gwyn Jones, a co-founder and former Vice President of Product Development, of "Vistaprint," a billion dollar ecommerce leader. AuthentaTrade's management is fascinated by Digital Currencies and their potential to bridge financial markets across the globe. There is a huge opportunity in Digital Currencies as a global transactional medium using a decentralized digital store of value.
AuthentaTrade will offer a suite of services for its clients including FOREX (both "Fiat" and "Digital" currencies) trading, banking and international payment solutions, along with proprietary regulated trading products designed by institutional traders that will help create an efficient market for participants.
AuthentaTrade has chosen to target European and Asian markets as management feels the clientele there will stand to gain the most from the regulated products soon to be introduced. The Asian market in particular has an appetite for speculative trading on volatility; their desire to transact plays into the new and explosive market of Digital Currencies such as Bitcoin.
About Global Equity International Inc.Global Equity International Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc, advises worldwide business leaders with their most critical decisions and opportunities pertaining to growth, capital needs, structure and the development of a global presence. With offices in Dubai and London, Global Equity Partners has developed significant relationships in the US, UK, Central Europe, the Middle East and South-east Asia to assist clients in realizing their full value and potential by bringing them to external capital and resources that place an emphasis on collaborative thinking. Furthermore, because Global Equity Partners has offices in key financial centers of the world, they are able to introduce their clients to a unique opportunity of listing their shares on one of the many stock exchanges worldwide.
Safe Harbor StatementThis press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to anticipated revenues, expenses, earnings, operating cash flows, the outlook for markets and the demand for products. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Suchstatements are based upon, among other things, assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management, including management's own knowledge and assessment of the Company's industry and competition. The Company refers interested persons to its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other SEC filings for a description of additional uncertainties and factors, which may affect forward-looking statements. The company assumes no duty to update its forward-looking statements. || Global Equity International Inc. Signed a Revised Agreement With AuthentaTrade, a Global Digital Currency Exchange Seeking Regulation in Europe and Asia: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) - Global Equity International Inc. ( OTCQB : GEQU ) and its fully owned subsidiary, Global Equity Partners Plc (GEP), a business consulting services firm and M&A specialist to SMEs worldwide, today announced that it has signed a revised consultancy agreement with AuthentaTrade , an innovative FINTECH company firm based in Seychelles and Cyprus (Website: http://www.authenta.trade/ ). Global Equity International Inc., through its fully owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc., will assist AuthentaTrade with pre-IPO funding amounting to, but not limited to, US$32 million as well as a public listing of its shares on a recognized international stock exchange post pre-IPO funding. As part of the consultancy agreement, GEP will hold a meaningful equity position in AuthentaTrade (post IPO). Peter Smith, CEO of Global Equity International Inc. , said: "We are extremely excited about signing this revised agreement with AuthentaTrade as we believe that there is a lot of potential for the Company's proprietary solutions. We have met with the Authenta Team in Dubai on two occasions now and have already introduced them to various financial institutions in Dubai, some of which are interested in looking at the possibility of investing in the Company. This great addition to our portfolio of clients will undoubtedly bring good value to our Company in the long run." Gwyn Jones, CEO of AuthentaTrade, stated: "We're working hard to fulfill the promise of Digital Currencies, especially Bitcoin, and believe there is a substantial opportunity to create 'banking-like' financial products, but with much lower transactional costs than in traditional banking. We look forward to working with GEP, and raising the funding we need to take AuthentaTrade, and our Bitcoin Exchange, to the next level." About AuthentaTrade Development began on the AuthentaTrade platform in early 2015. AuthentaTrade has assembled a team spearheaded by Gwyn Jones, a co-founder and former Vice President of Product Development, of "Vistaprint," a billion dollar ecommerce leader. AuthentaTrade's management is fascinated by Digital Currencies and their potential to bridge financial markets across the globe. There is a huge opportunity in Digital Currencies as a global transactional medium using a decentralized digital store of value. Story continues AuthentaTrade will offer a suite of services for its clients including FOREX (both "Fiat" and "Digital" currencies) trading, banking and international payment solutions, along with proprietary regulated trading products designed by institutional traders that will help create an efficient market for participants. AuthentaTrade has chosen to target European and Asian markets as management feels the clientele there will stand to gain the most from the regulated products soon to be introduced. The Asian market in particular has an appetite for speculative trading on volatility; their desire to transact plays into the new and explosive market of Digital Currencies such as Bitcoin. About Global Equity International Inc. Global Equity International Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc, advises worldwide business leaders with their most critical decisions and opportunities pertaining to growth, capital needs, structure and the development of a global presence. With offices in Dubai and London, Global Equity Partners has developed significant relationships in the US, UK, Central Europe, the Middle East and South-east Asia to assist clients in realizing their full value and potential by bringing them to external capital and resources that place an emphasis on collaborative thinking. Furthermore, because Global Equity Partners has offices in key financial centers of the world, they are able to introduce their clients to a unique opportunity of listing their shares on one of the many stock exchanges worldwide. Safe Harbor Statement This press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to anticipated revenues, expenses, earnings, operating cash flows, the outlook for markets and the demand for products. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon, among other things, assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management, including management's own knowledge and assessment of the Company's industry and competition. The Company refers interested persons to its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other SEC filings for a description of additional uncertainties and factors, which may affect forward-looking statements. The company assumes no duty to update its forward-looking statements. || BTCS Doubles Capacity at Its North Carolina Facility: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, doubled its operating capacity at its North Carolina facility from 1.5 megawatts ("mw") to 3 mw. "Using only 0.65mw of our capacity, and approximately 891 Th/s, we were able to earn 552 Bitcoins in the second quarter," stated Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS. "By increasing our operating capacity to 3mw, we've set the stage for significant growth in the quarters ahead, which we believe we can leverage even further through our pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech. The addition of Spondoolies' third-generation Application Specific Integrated Circuit ("ASIC") servers upon closing of the pending merger is expected to provide a 3x-5x efficiency improvement to our operations. We believe this should translate to a significant boost in our hashing power." BTCS estimates that it currently costs the Company approximately $100-$120 to earn each Bitcoin. Assuming the implementation of third-generation ASIC servers from Spondoolies at the Company's facility in North Carolina, the increased capacity of 3mw is expected to power a hash rate of between 13,000 and 29,000 Th/s. Allen continued, "Our refined focus on securing the blockchain minimizes risk and positions us to capitalize on the massive market potential of the blockchain across all industries. We believe we selected an ideal timing for market entry that allowed us to pass over the high-risk period of extreme volatility that knocked many smaller players out of the space. With this latest increase in capacity, we believe we are well positioned to become a dominant player for the long-term." About BTCS: The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger that has the ability to fundamentally impact, on a global basis, all industries that require trust and rely on or utilize record keeping. BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || BTCS Doubles Capacity at Its North Carolina Facility: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) -BTCS Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, doubled its operating capacity at its North Carolina facility from 1.5 megawatts ("mw") to 3 mw.
"Using only 0.65mw of our capacity, and approximately 891 Th/s, we were able to earn 552 Bitcoins in the second quarter," stated Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS. "By increasing our operating capacity to 3mw, we've set the stage for significant growth in the quarters ahead, which we believe we can leverage even further through our pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech. The addition of Spondoolies' third-generation Application Specific Integrated Circuit ("ASIC") servers upon closing of the pending merger is expected to provide a 3x-5x efficiency improvement to our operations. We believe this should translate to a significant boost in our hashing power."
BTCS estimates that it currently costs the Company approximately $100-$120 to earn each Bitcoin. Assuming the implementation of third-generation ASIC servers from Spondoolies at the Company's facility in North Carolina, the increased capacity of 3mw is expected to power a hash rate of between 13,000 and 29,000 Th/s.
Allen continued, "Our refined focus on securing the blockchain minimizes risk and positions us to capitalize on the massive market potential of the blockchain across all industries. We believe we selected an ideal timing for market entry that allowed us to pass over the high-risk period of extreme volatility that knocked many smaller players out of the space. With this latest increase in capacity, we believe we are well positioned to become a dominant player for the long-term."
About BTCS:The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger that has the ability to fundamentally impact, on a global basis, all industries that require trust and rely on or utilize record keeping. BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit:www.btcs.com
Forward-Looking Statements:Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || Costas Inc. Announces New Agreement Regarding Platforms for Digital Currency Transactions: CYPRESS, TX--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) - Costas Inc. (OTC PINK:CSSI) today announces the mutual termination and replacement of a previously announced Original Share Exchange Agreement with AuthentaTrade Inc., an Alberta, Canada corporation.
The initial agreement, in which Costas would acquire 48% of the shares AuthentaTrade in exchange for 250,000 shares of Costas, has not been completed and has been replaced by an agreement with AuthentaTrade Ltd. (a Republic of Seychelles corporation, "AuthentaTrade Seychelles"). AuthentaTrade Seychelles is currently in negotiations with an Asian based company that brings significant value to their business. Based on the value added in AuthentaTrade Seychelles, Costas has negotiated an increase in shares used as consideration in this new share swap agreement. Details on the letter of intent between AuthenaTrade Seychelles and the Asian based group will be released shortly.
Pursuant to the new agreement, Costas will own 48% of the AuthentaTrade Seychelles in exchange for 4,000,000 shares of Costas. The physical share exchange is expected to occur within the next 30 days. In addition, AuthentaTrade Seychelles shall remain liable to pay to Costas USD $200,000 as a debt owning.
AuthentaTrade Seychelles is in the business of developing a high security digital currency exchange. Costas believes that the management of digital currencies is a burgeoning market ripe with opportunity. To this accord, AuthentaTrade Seychelles is developing technology to simplify transactions in digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, while specifically addressing security concerns of the broader digital currency market.
AuthentaTrade Seychelles' operations in the Province of Alberta will cease, and will now be managed outside of Alberta. Costas advises that it is subject to a cease trade order issued by the Alberta Securities Commission for its jurisdiction of Alberta.
Safe Harbor Act Notice:
Statements contained herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management. Such statements reflect management's current views, are based on certain assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events, or performance may differ materially from the above forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors, and will be dependent upon a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the company's ability to obtain additional financing and the demand for the company's products. Any investment in the company would be extremely speculative and involve a high degree of risk and should not be pursued unless the investor could afford to lose their entire investment. Before investing, please review this filing, all past public filings with the SEC, all current Pinksheets.com filings and consult a registered broker dealer or contact the financial industry regulatory authority ("FINRA") for more information regarding locating a qualified party to assist in making an investment decision. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof or to reflect any change in the company's expectations with regard to these forward-looking statements or the occurrence of unanticipated events. Factors that may impact the company's success are more fully disclosed in the company's most recent public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the use of terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will," and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. || Costas Inc. Announces New Agreement Regarding Platforms for Digital Currency Transactions: CYPRESS, TX--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) - Costas Inc. ( OTC PINK : CSSI ) today announces the mutual termination and replacement of a previously announced Original Share Exchange Agreement with AuthentaTrade Inc., an Alberta, Canada corporation. The initial agreement, in which Costas would acquire 48% of the shares AuthentaTrade in exchange for 250,000 shares of Costas, has not been completed and has been replaced by an agreement with AuthentaTrade Ltd. (a Republic of Seychelles corporation, "AuthentaTrade Seychelles"). AuthentaTrade Seychelles is currently in negotiations with an Asian based company that brings significant value to their business. Based on the value added in AuthentaTrade Seychelles, Costas has negotiated an increase in shares used as consideration in this new share swap agreement. Details on the letter of intent between AuthenaTrade Seychelles and the Asian based group will be released shortly. Pursuant to the new agreement, Costas will own 48% of the AuthentaTrade Seychelles in exchange for 4,000,000 shares of Costas. The physical share exchange is expected to occur within the next 30 days. In addition, AuthentaTrade Seychelles shall remain liable to pay to Costas USD $200,000 as a debt owning. AuthentaTrade Seychelles is in the business of developing a high security digital currency exchange. Costas believes that the management of digital currencies is a burgeoning market ripe with opportunity. To this accord, AuthentaTrade Seychelles is developing technology to simplify transactions in digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, while specifically addressing security concerns of the broader digital currency market. AuthentaTrade Seychelles' operations in the Province of Alberta will cease, and will now be managed outside of Alberta. Costas advises that it is subject to a cease trade order issued by the Alberta Securities Commission for its jurisdiction of Alberta. Safe Harbor Act Notice: Statements contained herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management. Such statements reflect management's current views, are based on certain assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events, or performance may differ materially from the above forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors, and will be dependent upon a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the company's ability to obtain additional financing and the demand for the company's products. Any investment in the company would be extremely speculative and involve a high degree of risk and should not be pursued unless the investor could afford to lose their entire investment. Before investing, please review this filing, all past public filings with the SEC, all current Pinksheets.com filings and consult a registered broker dealer or contact the financial industry regulatory authority ("FINRA") for more information regarding locating a qualified party to assist in making an investment decision. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof or to reflect any change in the company's expectations with regard to these forward-looking statements or the occurrence of unanticipated events. Factors that may impact the company's success are more fully disclosed in the company's most recent public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the use of terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will," and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. || Rick Perry Voices Bitcoin Support: With bitcoin still struggling to gain mainstream approval, the cryptocurrency has been largely absent on the campaign trail for most of the 2016 Presidential hopefuls. However, Republican candidate Rick Perry remarked in a New York Observer interview that he is in support of "regulatory breathing room" for digital currencies, giving bitcoin enthusiasts a reason to pay attention to the former Texas governor. Progressive On Fintech In the interview, Perry framed his views on the economy as progressive, criticizing some of his opponents from the Democrat party for being too close-minded about new startups. His openness to startup growth appeared to extend to those in the digital currency world, as he remarked that digital currency firms shouldn't be stifled by regulators. Related Link: Could Mike Tyson Become The New Face For Bitcoin? What Does It Mean? The cryptocurrency community has latched on to Perry's "regulatory breathing room" comment, calling it a confirmation of his support for bitcoin. While Perry hasn't outwardly backed the currency, the phrase suggests that he would help support the growing industry should he make it to the White House. While most agree that more regulation is needed in order to make bitcoin a viable option for the general public, supporters of digital currencies say that too much regulatory interference would undermine the general principal of establishing cryptocurrencies in the first place. Bitcoin In The White House Perry isn't the only candidate to give bitcoin a nod; earlier this year fellow Republican candidate Rand Paul announced that he would accept bitcoin donations to his campaign. Paul's decision to appeal to bitcoin donors not only exposed him to a new source of campaign funds, but positioned him as a cryptocurrency-friendly candidate. See more from Benzinga NHTSA Comes Down Hard On Auto Industry; Fiat Chrysler Gets Slammed Privacy Emerges As Main Concern For EU Digital Market Overhaul Could Mike Tyson Become The New Face For Bitcoin? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Rick Perry Voices Bitcoin Support: With bitcoin still struggling to gain mainstream approval, the cryptocurrency has been largely absent on the campaign trail for most of the 2016 Presidential hopefuls.
However, Republican candidate Rick Perry remarked in aNew York Observerinterview that he is in support of "regulatory breathing room" for digital currencies, giving bitcoin enthusiasts a reason to pay attention to the former Texas governor.
Progressive On Fintech
In the interview, Perry framed his views on the economy as progressive, criticizing some of his opponents from the Democrat party for being too close-minded about new startups. His openness to startup growth appeared to extend to those in the digital currency world, as he remarked that digital currency firms shouldn't be stifled by regulators.
Related Link:Could Mike Tyson Become The New Face For Bitcoin?
What Does It Mean?
The cryptocurrency community has latched on to Perry's "regulatory breathing room" comment, calling it a confirmation of his support for bitcoin. While Perry hasn't outwardly backed the currency, the phrase suggests that he would help support the growing industry should he make it to the White House.
While most agree that more regulation is needed in order to make bitcoin a viable option for the general public, supporters of digital currencies say that too much regulatory interference would undermine the general principal of establishing cryptocurrencies in the first place.
Bitcoin In The White House
Perry isn't the only candidate to give bitcoin a nod; earlier this year fellow Republican candidate Rand Paul announced that he would accept bitcoin donations to his campaign. Paul's decision to appeal to bitcoin donors not only exposed him to a new source of campaign funds, but positioned him as a cryptocurrency-friendly candidate.
See more from Benzinga
• NHTSA Comes Down Hard On Auto Industry; Fiat Chrysler Gets Slammed
• Privacy Emerges As Main Concern For EU Digital Market Overhaul
• Could Mike Tyson Become The New Face For Bitcoin?
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Rick Perry Voices Bitcoin Support: With bitcoin still struggling to gain mainstream approval, the cryptocurrency has been largely absent on the campaign trail for most of the 2016 Presidential hopefuls.
However, Republican candidate Rick Perry remarked in aNew York Observerinterview that he is in support of "regulatory breathing room" for digital currencies, giving bitcoin enthusiasts a reason to pay attention to the former Texas governor.
Progressive On Fintech
In the interview, Perry framed his views on the economy as progressive, criticizing some of his opponents from the Democrat party for being too close-minded about new startups. His openness to startup growth appeared to extend to those in the digital currency world, as he remarked that digital currency firms shouldn't be stifled by regulators.
Related Link:Could Mike Tyson Become The New Face For Bitcoin?
What Does It Mean?
The cryptocurrency community has latched on to Perry's "regulatory breathing room" comment, calling it a confirmation of his support for bitcoin. While Perry hasn't outwardly backed the currency, the phrase suggests that he would help support the growing industry should he make it to the White House.
While most agree that more regulation is needed in order to make bitcoin a viable option for the general public, supporters of digital currencies say that too much regulatory interference would undermine the general principal of establishing cryptocurrencies in the first place.
Bitcoin In The White House
Perry isn't the only candidate to give bitcoin a nod; earlier this year fellow Republican candidate Rand Paul announced that he would accept bitcoin donations to his campaign. Paul's decision to appeal to bitcoin donors not only exposed him to a new source of campaign funds, but positioned him as a cryptocurrency-friendly candidate.
See more from Benzinga
• NHTSA Comes Down Hard On Auto Industry; Fiat Chrysler Gets Slammed
• Privacy Emerges As Main Concern For EU Digital Market Overhaul
• Could Mike Tyson Become The New Face For Bitcoin?
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 6 social trades on Facebook earnings: Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) topped quarterly expectations on most key metrics Wednesday, and CNBC "Fast Money" traders believe the results will give its stock enough leverage to keep inching higher. The social media giant topped analysts' estimates for earnings, revenue and monthly active users. Still, its shares traded down about 5 percent in extended hours and lingered in negative territory despite paring some losses. Read More Facebook quarterly results beat on most metrics Though the stock sat around $94 per share in the after-hours session, traders contended that it will not stay there long. "I think it's going to blast through $100," said trader Brian Kelly. Traders Dan Nathan and Guy Adami agreed that it would break that level. Adami said he was impressed with Facebook's 55 percent operating margin. Twitter Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) shares were pummeled on Wednesday, falling more than 14 percent a day after executives warned that user growth may stay sluggish for the foreseeable future. The social media company posted earnings and revenue that topped estimates Tuesday, but fell short of projections for monthly active user growth. Read More Twitter shares sink as execs warn on user growth Still, Twitter is a young company with a "unique" platform, said trader Tim Seymour. "If nothing else, someone is a lot closer to buying them," he said. LinkedIn Professional social network LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) reports quarterly earnings on Thursday. Its shares closed Wednesday 1.5 percent higher at $232. Adami contended that it could rise to $250 per share after earnings. "I think you stay with this one," Seymour added. Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, T, BAC, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JPM, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO. Dan Nathan Dan is long QQQ sept put, CMG July weekly put spread, JOY sept calls, TWTR, TWTR sept call spreads, SO, BA sept put spread, COST Aug put spread, TJX aug put , PG july weekly put, SLB aug 28th put spread. Story continues Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TLT, TSL, US dollar; he is short Oil, Ruble, Yuan and Yen. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || 6 social trades on Facebook earnings: Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)topped quarterly expectations on most key metrics Wednesday, and CNBC "Fast Money" traders believe the results will give its stock enough leverage to keep inching higher.
The social media giant topped analysts' estimates for earnings, revenue and monthly active users. Still, its shares traded down about 5 percent in extended hours and lingered in negative territory despite paring some losses.
Read MoreFacebook quarterly results beat on most metrics
Though the stock sat around $94 per share in the after-hours session, traders contended that it will not stay there long.
"I think it's going to blast through $100," said trader Brian Kelly.
Traders Dan Nathan and Guy Adami agreed that it would break that level. Adami said he was impressed with Facebook's 55 percent operating margin.
Twitter
Twitter(NYSE: TWTR)shares were pummeled on Wednesday, falling more than 14 percent a day after executives warned that user growth may stay sluggish for the foreseeable future. The social media company posted earnings and revenue that topped estimates Tuesday, but fell short of projections for monthly active user growth.
Read MoreTwitter shares sink as execs warn on user growth
Still, Twitter is a young company with a "unique" platform, said trader Tim Seymour.
"If nothing else, someone is a lot closer to buying them," he said.
LinkedIn
Professional social network LinkedIn(NYSE: LNKD)reports quarterly earnings on Thursday. Its shares closed Wednesday 1.5 percent higher at $232.
Adami contended that it could rise to $250 per share after earnings.
"I think you stay with this one," Seymour added.
Disclosures:
Tim Seymour
Tim Seymour is long AAPL, T, BAC, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JPM, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO.
Dan Nathan
Dan is long QQQ sept put, CMG July weekly put spread, JOY sept calls, TWTR, TWTR sept call spreads, SO, BA sept put spread, COST Aug put spread, TJX aug put , PG july weekly put, SLB aug 28th put spread.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TLT, TSL, US dollar; he is short Oil, Ruble, Yuan and Yen.
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Leading Global Bitcoin Adoption, HashingSpace Corporation Uplifts to the OTCQB: US Based Hashingspace Corporation Announced It Has Been Uplifted To A Higher Reporting Status On The OTC Market. Hashingspace Will Now Be Listed As OTCQB: HSHS. Hashingspace Provides Scalable Datacenter and Technology Infrastructure for the Global Adoption of Bitcoin Including Bitcoin Atms and Hosted ASIC Mining WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 29, 2015 / HashingSpace Corporation ( HSHS ), a company focused on the global adoption of Bitcoin, announced today that it has officially been uplifted to a higher reporting status. HashingSpace will no longer be listed on the Pink Sheets and has been moved to OTCQB status. HashingSpace Corporation submitted all the mandatory documents and has successfully met all of the initial requirements to receive this upgrade. The upgrade became official on July 23, 2015. "We are pleased to learn that we have been upgraded to a higher status," stated Terry Taylor, Chief Financial Officer of HashingSpace. "This upgrade reflects on our plan to bring better value to our shareholders. This shows that we are current in our SEC compliance reporting and will undergo an annual verification and certification process. Providing accurate information to our investors is a top priority." Included in our new OTCQB designation will be real-time level 2 quote display. Quotes can be found at www.otcmarkets.com . Weekly OTC Market Reports summarizing the activity in our security will be available. All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, is reported under the new upgrade, OTCQB: HSHS. HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include: - HASHHOSTING Servers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING - CLOUDHASH Cloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power - HASHMINING Our own Mining Farm - HASHATM Owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines - HASHWALLET Bitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions - HASHPOOL Public Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid) - HASHTICKER Free Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid) - HASHVAR A wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines Story continues About HashingSpace Corporation HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically. HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information. HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visit www.hashingspace.com . Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visit http://www.hashingspace.com or call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464). Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For more information please visit: http://www.hashingspace.com/ Company Contact: HashingSpace Corporation 5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900 Los Angeles, CA, 90036 855 – HASHING (427-4464) Investor Relations: Email: [email protected] SOURCE: HashingSpace Corporation || Leading Global Bitcoin Adoption, HashingSpace Corporation Uplifts to the OTCQB: US Based Hashingspace Corporation Announced It Has Been Uplifted To A Higher Reporting Status On The OTC Market. Hashingspace Will Now Be Listed As OTCQB: HSHS. Hashingspace Provides Scalable Datacenter and Technology Infrastructure for the Global Adoption of Bitcoin Including Bitcoin Atms and Hosted ASIC Mining
WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 29, 2015 /HashingSpace Corporation (HSHS), a company focused on the global adoption of Bitcoin, announced today that it has officially been uplifted to a higher reporting status. HashingSpace will no longer be listed on the Pink Sheets and has been moved to OTCQB status.
HashingSpace Corporation submitted all the mandatory documents and has successfully met all of the initial requirements to receive this upgrade. The upgrade became official on July 23, 2015.
"We are pleased to learn that we have been upgraded to a higher status," stated Terry Taylor, Chief Financial Officer of HashingSpace. "This upgrade reflects on our plan to bring better value to our shareholders. This shows that we are current in our SEC compliance reporting and will undergo an annual verification and certification process. Providing accurate information to our investors is a top priority."
Included in our new OTCQB designation will be real-time level 2 quote display. Quotes can be found atwww.otcmarkets.com.
Weekly OTC Market Reports summarizing the activity in our security will be available.
All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, is reported under the new upgrade, OTCQB: HSHS.
HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include:
- HASHHOSTINGServers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING- CLOUDHASHCloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power- HASHMININGOur own Mining Farm- HASHATMOwner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines- HASHWALLETBitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions- HASHPOOLPublic Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHTICKERFree Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHVARA wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines
About HashingSpace Corporation
HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically.
HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information.
HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visitwww.hashingspace.com.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visithttp://www.hashingspace.comor call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464).
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For more information please visit:http://www.hashingspace.com/
Company Contact:
HashingSpace Corporation5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900Los Angeles, CA, 90036855 – HASHING (427-4464)
Investor Relations:
Email:[email protected]
SOURCE:HashingSpace Corporation || Leading Global Bitcoin Adoption, HashingSpace Corporation Uplifts to the OTCQB: US Based Hashingspace Corporation Announced It Has Been Uplifted To A Higher Reporting Status On The OTC Market. Hashingspace Will Now Be Listed As OTCQB: HSHS. Hashingspace Provides Scalable Datacenter and Technology Infrastructure for the Global Adoption of Bitcoin Including Bitcoin Atms and Hosted ASIC Mining
WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 29, 2015 /HashingSpace Corporation (HSHS), a company focused on the global adoption of Bitcoin, announced today that it has officially been uplifted to a higher reporting status. HashingSpace will no longer be listed on the Pink Sheets and has been moved to OTCQB status.
HashingSpace Corporation submitted all the mandatory documents and has successfully met all of the initial requirements to receive this upgrade. The upgrade became official on July 23, 2015.
"We are pleased to learn that we have been upgraded to a higher status," stated Terry Taylor, Chief Financial Officer of HashingSpace. "This upgrade reflects on our plan to bring better value to our shareholders. This shows that we are current in our SEC compliance reporting and will undergo an annual verification and certification process. Providing accurate information to our investors is a top priority."
Included in our new OTCQB designation will be real-time level 2 quote display. Quotes can be found atwww.otcmarkets.com.
Weekly OTC Market Reports summarizing the activity in our security will be available.
All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, is reported under the new upgrade, OTCQB: HSHS.
HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include:
- HASHHOSTINGServers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING- CLOUDHASHCloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power- HASHMININGOur own Mining Farm- HASHATMOwner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines- HASHWALLETBitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions- HASHPOOLPublic Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHTICKERFree Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHVARA wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines
About HashingSpace Corporation
HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically.
HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information.
HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visitwww.hashingspace.com.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visithttp://www.hashingspace.comor call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464).
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For more information please visit:http://www.hashingspace.com/
Company Contact:
HashingSpace Corporation5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900Los Angeles, CA, 90036855 – HASHING (427-4464)
Investor Relations:
Email:[email protected]
SOURCE:HashingSpace Corporation || Mike Tyson stepping into the bitcoin ring: Mike Tyson is getting into the bitcoin (:BTC=) market, apparently sponsoring an ATM that allows users to convert real-world cash into the digital currency. Tyson, who was the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, tweeted on Saturday the link to a website advertising the "Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM" coming in August of this year. Tyson tweet. The site boasts that "Mike Tyson's fastest knock out in the ring was 30 seconds. The Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM can turn your cash into bitcoin in under 20 seconds." "I'm very proud to be a part of the Bitcoin revolution," Tyson said in a statement provided by his spokeswoman. "Digital currency is the future and the more I learn about it the more intrigued I become. Digital currency is going to level the playing ground for those that want alternatives for financial freedom." "No one knows better than I how uncertain the economy can be and at this juncture in my life it is imperative that I am proactive about my financial planning and for me it includes Bitcoin," he added. Still, tech news site SiliconAngle reported that Tyson himself may have been "suckered into a deal by a fast talker who has promised him millions if he gets involved and lends his name to the enterprise." It cited MikeTysonBitcoin.com's registration to a Peter Klamka, who is connected to Bitcoin Brands-a firm with a paltry $6,780 market cap according to Google Finance. Speaking to CNBC over the phone, Klamka disputed that account, saying that Bitcoin Brands has nothing to do with his Tyson venture, which operates under the moniker Bitcoin Direct LLC. This new firm (which Klamka says is a subsidiary of cattle company Conexus Cattle ( CNXS ) "for financing") seeks to create a whole suite of celebrity bitcoin-related products. He told CNBC that he came to the idea after previously working with celebrity credit cards tied to Kiss, Donald Trump and Hello Kitty. Read More Bitcoin's 'war' could threaten its survival The Tyson-branded bitcoin ATMs, which are slated to launch in two Las Vegas locations in about three weeks, will feature "Mike branding on the software" and will "hopefully have the ability to build a database of Mike's fans that are bitcoin users," Klamka said. The venture is a 50-50 split between Tyson and Bitcoin Direct, he added. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance View comments || Mike Tyson stepping into the bitcoin ring: Mike Tyson is getting into the bitcoin(:BTC=)market, apparently sponsoring an ATM that allows users to convert real-world cash into the digital currency.
Tyson, who was the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, tweeted on Saturday the link toa websiteadvertising the "Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM" coming in August of this year.
The site boasts that "Mike Tyson's fastest knock out in the ring was 30 seconds. The Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM can turn your cash into bitcoin in under 20 seconds."
"I'm very proud to be a part of the Bitcoin revolution," Tyson said in a statement provided by his spokeswoman. "Digital currency is the future and the more I learn about it the more intrigued I become. Digital currency is going to level the playing ground for those that want alternatives for financial freedom."
"No one knows better than I how uncertain the economy can be and at this juncture in my life it is imperative that I am proactive about my financial planning and for me it includes Bitcoin," he added.
Still, tech news siteSiliconAngle reportedthat Tyson himself may have been "suckered into a deal by a fast talker who has promised him millions if he gets involved and lends his name to the enterprise." It cited MikeTysonBitcoin.com's registration to a Peter Klamka, who is connected to Bitcoin Brands-a firm with a paltry $6,780 market cap according to Google Finance.
Speaking to CNBC over the phone, Klamka disputed that account, saying that Bitcoin Brands has nothing to do with his Tyson venture, which operates under the moniker Bitcoin Direct LLC.
This new firm (which Klamka says is a subsidiary of cattle company Conexus Cattle(CNXS)"for financing") seeks to create a whole suite of celebrity bitcoin-related products. He told CNBC that he came to the idea after previously working with celebrity credit cards tied to Kiss, Donald Trump and Hello Kitty.
Read MoreBitcoin's 'war' could threaten its survival
The Tyson-branded bitcoin ATMs, which are slated to launch in two Las Vegas locations in about three weeks, will feature "Mike branding on the software" and will "hopefully have the ability to build a database of Mike's fans that are bitcoin users," Klamka said.
The venture is a 50-50 split between Tyson and Bitcoin Direct, he added.
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• Personal Finance || BTCS Completes Name Change and Launches New Website: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 28, 2015) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), formerly known as Bitcoin Shop, Inc., a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, recently filed to change its name. The name change should be reflected in the coming weeks once it is processed by FINRA. "While our Company was initially focused solely on the digital currency space, we have since evolved our operations to position ourselves to be a leader in the much larger blockchain technology arena," stated Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS. "This refined strategic focus represents an exciting market opportunity, and changing our name to reflect this broader focus was an important step in our evolution." As Jemima Kelly of Reuters recently reported, "The data that can be secured by the blockchain is not restricted to bitcoin transactions. Any two parties could use it to exchange other information, including stock deals, legal contracts and property records, within minutes and with no need for a third party to verify it. Backers say it could cut out the middleman and help fight corruption, as the process by which the data is secured makes it virtually impossible to tamper with." The Company also unveiled its new corporate website ( www.btcs.com ) on Tuesday. The new site includes additionalinformation about the importance of blockchain technology and its disruptive application across a diverse array of industries. About BTCS: The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact, on a global basis, all industries that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || BTCS Completes Name Change and Launches New Website: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 28, 2015) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), formerly known as Bitcoin Shop, Inc., a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, recently filed to change its name. The name change should be reflected in the coming weeks once it is processed by FINRA. "While our Company was initially focused solely on the digital currency space, we have since evolved our operations to position ourselves to be a leader in the much larger blockchain technology arena," stated Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS. "This refined strategic focus represents an exciting market opportunity, and changing our name to reflect this broader focus was an important step in our evolution." As Jemima Kelly of Reuters recently reported, "The data that can be secured by the blockchain is not restricted to bitcoin transactions. Any two parties could use it to exchange other information, including stock deals, legal contracts and property records, within minutes and with no need for a third party to verify it. Backers say it could cut out the middleman and help fight corruption, as the process by which the data is secured makes it virtually impossible to tamper with." The Company also unveiled its new corporate website ( www.btcs.com ) on Tuesday. The new site includes additionalinformation about the importance of blockchain technology and its disruptive application across a diverse array of industries. About BTCS: The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact, on a global basis, all industries that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || Bitcoin Focused HashingSpace Corporation Announces New Ticker Symbol "HSHS", Files 8-K, and Completes Reverse Merger: US based HashingSpace Corporation ( HSHS ) is pleased to announce it has completed a reverse merger, and a ticker change from the old ticker MLSOD to HSHS. HashingSpace provides a wide range of services to the Bitcoin and blockchain communities including hosted ASIC mining and Bitcoin ATM's WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2015 / HashingSpace Corporation ( HSHS ), a Bitcoin ASIC mining and hosting company, announced today that it has completed a reverse merger transaction with Milestone International Corporation. HashingSpace completed its 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. HashingSpace will be traded on the OTC Markets with the symbol HSHS. The reverse merger was completed on July 10, 2015. HashingSpace Corporation merged with Milestone International Corporation as part of a reverse merger agreement for 120,000,000 shares of common stock, and 600,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock. US based HashingSpace Corporation's new ticker symbol (HSHS) reflects the company's growth strategy and brings value to our shareholders. HashingSpace provides hosted Bitcoin ASIC mining, Bitcoin cloud mining solutions, and Bitcoin ATM's, among other essential services, to the Bitcoin ecosystem. "This transaction enables HashingSpace to fully capitalize on our fast growth as a Bitcoin and blockchain services and hosting operation. The merger we completed helps our company position itself as a leader in the Bitcoin/blockchain services revolution," shared Timothy Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of HashingSpace Corporation. "This is another major step in the implementation of our business plan to become a major provider of crypto currency and transactional verification mining solutions." "We are pleased to receive approval from FINRA on our name and ticker change. We believe this ticker symbol change will foster a stronger and more recognizable brand for the company. The new symbol more accurately reflects who we are as a company. These changes reflect our expectations for future growth of the company and our desire to provide our shareholders with maximum value. It also helps our investors to see our strategic focus and long-term goals to become an industry leader in the Bitcoin services industry. We will continue to offer new Bitcoin innovations as we further build our brand and robust suite of services." Story continues All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, will be reported under the new ticker symbol, HSHS. HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include: - HASHHOSTING: Servers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING - CLOUDHASH: Cloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power - HASHMINING: Our own Mining Farm - HASHATM: Owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines - HASHWALLET: Bitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions - HASHPOOL: Public Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid) - HASHTICKER: Free Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid) - HASHVAR: A wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines About HashingSpace Corporation HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically. HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information. HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visit www.hashingspace.com . Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visit http://www.hashingspace.com or call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464). Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For more information please visit: http://www.hashingspace.com/ Company Contact: HashingSpace Corporation 5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900 Los Angeles, CA, 90036 855 HASHING (427-4464) Investor Relations: Email: [email protected] SOURCE: HashingSpace Corporation || Bitcoin Focused HashingSpace Corporation Announces New Ticker Symbol "HSHS", Files 8-K, and Completes Reverse Merger: US based HashingSpace Corporation (HSHS) is pleased to announce it has completed a reverse merger, and a ticker change from the old ticker MLSOD to HSHS. HashingSpace provides a wide range of services to the Bitcoin and blockchain communities including hosted ASIC mining and Bitcoin ATM's
WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2015 /HashingSpace Corporation (HSHS), a Bitcoin ASIC mining and hosting company, announced today that it has completed a reverse merger transaction with Milestone International Corporation. HashingSpace completed its 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. HashingSpace will be traded on the OTC Markets with the symbol HSHS. The reverse merger was completed on July 10, 2015.
HashingSpace Corporation merged with Milestone International Corporation as part of a reverse merger agreement for 120,000,000 shares of common stock, and 600,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock.
US based HashingSpace Corporation's new ticker symbol (HSHS) reflects the company's growth strategy and brings value to our shareholders. HashingSpace provides hosted Bitcoin ASIC mining, Bitcoin cloud mining solutions, and Bitcoin ATM's, among other essential services, to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
"This transaction enables HashingSpace to fully capitalize on our fast growth as a Bitcoin and blockchain services and hosting operation. The merger we completed helps our company position itself as a leader in the Bitcoin/blockchain services revolution," shared Timothy Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of HashingSpace Corporation. "This is another major step in the implementation of our business plan to become a major provider of crypto currency and transactional verification mining solutions."
"We are pleased to receive approval from FINRA on our name and ticker change. We believe this ticker symbol change will foster a stronger and more recognizable brand for the company. The new symbol more accurately reflects who we are as a company. These changes reflect our expectations for future growth of the company and our desire to provide our shareholders with maximum value. It also helps our investors to see our strategic focus and long-term goals to become an industry leader in the Bitcoin services industry. We will continue to offer new Bitcoin innovations as we further build our brand and robust suite of services."
All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, will be reported under the new ticker symbol, HSHS.
HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include:
- HASHHOSTING:Servers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING- CLOUDHASH:Cloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power- HASHMINING:Our own Mining Farm- HASHATM:Owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines- HASHWALLET:Bitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions- HASHPOOL:Public Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHTICKER:Free Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHVAR:A wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines
About HashingSpace Corporation
HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically.
HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information.
HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visitwww.hashingspace.com.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visithttp://www.hashingspace.comor call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464).
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For more information please visit:http://www.hashingspace.com/
Company Contact:
HashingSpace Corporation5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900Los Angeles, CA, 90036855 – HASHING (427-4464)
Investor Relations:
Email:[email protected]
SOURCE:HashingSpace Corporation
[Social Media Buzz]
In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 19 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $438.85 #bitcoin #btc || One Bitcoin now worth $285.43@bitstamp. High $289.00. Low $281.80. Market Cap $4.062 Billion #bitcoin || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges:
Cryptsy: 0.00000005
Bittrex: 0.00000006
Average $1.4E-5 per #reddcoin
00:00:02 || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges:
Cryptsy: 0.00000004
Bittrex: 0.00000006
Average $1.4E-5 per #reddcoin
02:30:00 || In the last 10 mins, there were ...
|
281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 277.22, 276.05, 288.28, 288.70, 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59, 287.72, 284.65, 281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47, 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51, 257.98, 211.08, 226.68, 235.35, 232.57, 230.39, 228.17, 210.49, 221.61, 225.83, 224.77, 231.40, 229.78, 228.76, 230.06, 228.12, 229.28, 227.18, 230.30, 235.02, 239.84, 239.85, 243.61, 238.17, 238.48, 240.11, 235.23, 230.51, 230.64, 230.30, 229.09, 229.81, 232.98, 231.49, 231.21, 227.09, 230.62, 230.28, 234.53, 235.14, 234.34, 232.76, 239.14, 236.69, 236.06, 237.55, 237.29, 238.73, 238.26, 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31, 249.51, 251.99, 254.32, 262.87, 270.64, 261.64, 263.44.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-10-19]
Volume: 25258800, RSI (14-day): 67.58, 50-day EMA: 245.01, 200-day EMA: 250.90
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1173.30, Gold RSI: 61.68
Oil Price: 45.89, Oil RSI: 48.23
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Is The Video Subscription Space Saturated?: The way consumers watch TV has changed drastically over the past few years as the popularity of Internet video sites like YouTube have skyrocketed. Dedicated streaming services like Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX ) and Hulu emerged and their warm reception from American viewers caused traditional broadcasters to rethink their own operations. Now, several big name networks have created their own online, subscription-based services in an effort to give customers more choices for web-based viewing. However, with so many fragmented viewing options out there, many are wondering if the space is starting to become crowded. The All Important Millennial The younger generation is increasingly switching to online viewing, a troublesome sign for traditional cable. Services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of content geared toward that demographic and have become popular choices for Millennials who are cutting the cord. Related Link: Why Netflix's Initial Selloff Was "Correct" However, in an effort to maintain a youthful audience, firms like NBC Universal and CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS ) have launched their own subscription services with content aimed at younger viewers. Stiff Competition NBC Universal recently unveiled a new streaming offering called Seeso, which will focus on comedy programming. The firm has been working together with non-traditional media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox to attract younger viewers, but the firm will have to compete with a host of other networks that are all doing the same thing. Dish Network's Sling TV, CBS' All Access service and Time Warner's HBO Now are just some of the many online subscription services that Seeso will have to compete with. Cutting The Cord While online viewing is gaining popularity, most agree that at the present moment there is no good way to cut the cord completely. Subscribing to the many online services that have saturated the streaming space would typically cost more than paying a traditional cable bill, so most consumers are choosing one or two online services to enhance their programming. That makes it difficult for new entrants like Seeso as more established names like Netflix are often a top choice. Story continues Image Credit: By Taro the Shiba Inu [ CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally 21 Inc's Bitcoin Computer Seeks To Redefine The Internet © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Is The Video Subscription Space Saturated?: The way consumers watch TV has changed drastically over the past few years as the popularity of Internet video sites like YouTube have skyrocketed.
Dedicated streaming services likeNetflix, Inc.(NASDAQ:NFLX) and Hulu emerged and their warm reception from American viewers caused traditional broadcasters to rethink their own operations.
Now, several big name networks have created their own online, subscription-based services in an effort to give customers more choices for web-based viewing. However, with so many fragmented viewing options out there, many are wondering if the space is starting to become crowded.
The All Important Millennial
The younger generation is increasingly switching to online viewing, a troublesome sign for traditional cable. Services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of content geared toward that demographic and have become popular choices for Millennials who are cutting the cord.
Related Link:Why Netflix's Initial Selloff Was "Correct"
However, in an effort to maintain a youthful audience, firms like NBC Universal andCBS Corporation(NYSE:CBS) have launched their own subscription services with content aimed at younger viewers.
Stiff Competition
NBC Universal recentlyunveileda new streaming offering called Seeso, which will focus on comedy programming. The firm has been working together with non-traditional media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox to attract younger viewers, but the firm will have to compete with a host of other networks that are all doing the same thing.
Dish Network's Sling TV, CBS' All Access service and Time Warner's HBO Now are just some of the many online subscription services that Seeso will have to compete with.
Cutting The Cord
While online viewing is gaining popularity, most agree that at the present moment there is no good way to cut the cord completely.
Subscribing to the many online services that have saturated the streaming space would typically cost more than paying a traditional cable bill, so most consumers are choosing one or two online services to enhance their programming. That makes it difficult for new entrants like Seeso as more established names like Netflix are often a top choice.
Image Credit: By Taro the Shiba Inu [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
See more from Benzinga
• Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset
• Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally
• 21 Inc's Bitcoin Computer Seeks To Redefine The Internet
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || October Treat: Junk Bonds and Gold ETFs Pop: The stock market rebound continued this week as the S&P 500 touched its highest level in nearly two months. TheSPDR S&P 500 (SPY | A-99)is now up 5.8 percent in October, a strong performance in a month that has historically been the second-worst of the year (after September).
Gold & Silver Miners Dominate Jump
On Monday, we highlighted thebest-performing exchange-traded funds of October. Those funds, comprising mostly copper and energy producers, are still doing well in the month.
However, a new group of ETFs have bullied their way into the top 10: gold and silver miners. In fact, precious-metals-related funds now make up six of the top 10 positions for October, as can be seen from the table below.
Top 10 ETF Of October
[{"Ticker": "SILJ", "Fund": "PureFunds ISE Junior Silver (Small Cap Miners/Explorers)", "Return (%)": "27.86"}, {"Ticker": "COPX", "Fund": "Global X Copper Miners", "Return (%)": "25.61"}, {"Ticker": "PLTM", "Fund": "First Trust ISE Global Platinum", "Return (%)": "25.30"}, {"Ticker": "CU", "Fund": "First Trust ISE Global Copper", "Return (%)": "25.23"}, {"Ticker": "SLVP", "Fund": "iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners", "Return (%)": "25.07"}, {"Ticker": "SGDM", "Fund": "Sprott Gold Miners", "Return (%)": "24.04"}, {"Ticker": "KWT", "Fund": "Market Vectors Solar Energy", "Return (%)": "23.29"}, {"Ticker": "RING", "Fund": "iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners", "Return (%)": "23.28"}, {"Ticker": "GDX", "Fund": "Market Vectors Gold Miners", "Return (%)": "22.60"}, {"Ticker": "SIL", "Fund": "Global X Silver Miners", "Return (%)": "22.41"}]
Considering the big jump in gold prices this month, the performance of these ETFs hasn't been surprising. The yellow metal hit the highest point since mid-June this week, leading theSPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100)to a gain of 5.7 percent in October.
Miners tend to be much more volatile than the underlying metal, which explains their significant outperformance. Yet even as these ETFs rally, investors haven't been too keen on buying into them.
None of the top 10 price performers saw significant inflows, and in fact, investors pulled out $429 million from theMarket Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX | C-79)during the first half of the month.
Investors Buying BondsWhile ETF investors haven't been too enthusiastic about miners, they did show interest in gold itself. So far this month, GLD has attracted $483 million in inflows, putting it just outside the top 10 inflows list for the month.
One salient theme that has emerged during October is the idea that the Federal Reserve will hold off on hiking interest rates this year due to global slowdown concerns and the recent string of weak U.S. economic data.
That's propelled gold higher, as well as bonds. In fact, bonds are the asset class that's attracted the most capital this month.
As can be seen from the table below, generated using theETF.com fund flows tool, a number of bond ETFs made the top 10 inflows list:
Source: ETF.com Fund Flows Tool
TheiShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF | A-51)was a big winner, with nearly $1 billion in inflows. To the extent that the Fed's overnight interest rate stays lower for longer, that puts pressure on the longer end of the yield curve as well (supporting bond prices).
Even more popular than IEF were corporate bond ETFs like the SPDR BarclaysHigh Yield Bond ETF (JNK | B-68)and theiShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77). In addition to support from low interest rates, corporate bonds benefited from speculation that defaults may not be as high as feared.
That's particularly true for the junk bond space, which was hammered in August and September, sending yields to their loftiest level since 2011. Investors may be seeing those yields as attractive now that the stock market has stabilized and the Fed looks to be on hold.
In addition to the bond ETFs, other funds that saw notable inflows were the tech-heavyPowerShares QQQ (QQQ | A-66)and the large-capiShares Russell 1000 Value (IWD | A-90).
In terms of sectors, investors liked theIndustrial Select SPDR (XLI | A-92)and theConsumer Discretionary Select SPDR (XLY | A-91).
Contact Sumit Roy [email protected].
Recommended Stories
• Gundlach: Sell Junk Bonds, Buy India
• Bitcoin Rally Benefiting ETFs
• NatGas Investing Not For Faint Of Heart
• October Treat: Junk Bonds & Gold ETFs Pop
• Twitter Chatter Packed In New Index
Permalink| © Copyright 2015ETF.com.All rights reserved || October Treat: Junk Bonds and Gold ETFs Pop: The stock market rebound continued this week as the S&P 500 touched its highest level in nearly two months. The SPDR S&P 500 (SPY | A-99) is now up 5.8 percent in October, a strong performance in a month that has historically been the second-worst of the year (after September). Gold & Silver Miners Dominate Jump On Monday, we highlighted the best-performing exchange-traded funds of October . Those funds, comprising mostly copper and energy producers, are still doing well in the month. However, a new group of ETFs have bullied their way into the top 10: gold and silver miners. In fact, precious-metals-related funds now make up six of the top 10 positions for October, as can be seen from the table below. Top 10 ETF Of October Ticker Fund Return (%) SILJ PureFunds ISE Junior Silver (Small Cap Miners/Explorers) 27.86 COPX Global X Copper Miners 25.61 PLTM First Trust ISE Global Platinum 25.30 CU First Trust ISE Global Copper 25.23 SLVP iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners 25.07 SGDM Sprott Gold Miners 24.04 KWT Market Vectors Solar Energy 23.29 RING iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners 23.28 GDX Market Vectors Gold Miners 22.60 SIL Global X Silver Miners 22.41 Considering the big jump in gold prices this month, the performance of these ETFs hasn't been surprising. The yellow metal hit the highest point since mid-June this week, leading the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100) to a gain of 5.7 percent in October. Miners tend to be much more volatile than the underlying metal, which explains their significant outperformance. Yet even as these ETFs rally, investors haven't been too keen on buying into them. None of the top 10 price performers saw significant inflows, and in fact, investors pulled out $429 million from the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX | C-79) during the first half of the month. Investors Buying Bonds While ETF investors haven't been too enthusiastic about miners, they did show interest in gold itself. So far this month, GLD has attracted $483 million in inflows, putting it just outside the top 10 inflows list for the month. Story continues One salient theme that has emerged during October is the idea that the Federal Reserve will hold off on hiking interest rates this year due to global slowdown concerns and the recent string of weak U.S. economic data. That's propelled gold higher, as well as bonds. In fact, bonds are the asset class that's attracted the most capital this month. As can be seen from the table below, generated using the ETF.com fund flows tool , a number of bond ETFs made the top 10 inflows list: Source: ETF.com Fund Flows Tool The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF | A-51) was a big winner, with nearly $1 billion in inflows. To the extent that the Fed's overnight interest rate stays lower for longer, that puts pressure on the longer end of the yield curve as well (supporting bond prices). Even more popular than IEF were corporate bond ETFs like the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK | B-68) and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77) . In addition to support from low interest rates, corporate bonds benefited from speculation that defaults may not be as high as feared. That's particularly true for the junk bond space, which was hammered in August and September, sending yields to their loftiest level since 2011. Investors may be seeing those yields as attractive now that the stock market has stabilized and the Fed looks to be on hold. In addition to the bond ETFs, other funds that saw notable inflows were the tech-heavy PowerShares QQQ (QQQ | A-66) and the large-cap iShares Russell 1000 Value (IWD | A-90) . In terms of sectors, investors liked the Industrial Select SPDR (XLI | A-92) and the Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR (XLY | A-91) . Contact Sumit Roy at [email protected] . Recommended Stories Gundlach: Sell Junk Bonds, Buy India Bitcoin Rally Benefiting ETFs NatGas Investing Not For Faint Of Heart October Treat: Junk Bonds & Gold ETFs Pop Twitter Chatter Packed In New Index Permalink | © Copyright 2015 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Caribbean's Next Top Model Set for Season 2 Premiere: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 15, 2015) - On October 19, young women from all over the Caribbean will begin chasing their dreams of success as career models, when the second season of Caribbean's Next Top Model (CNTM) makes its premiere on Flow TV. Cable and Wireless, which operates both the Flow and LIME brand, is the premium sponsor for the show's sophomore season, which will run for 11 episodes, starting on October 19.
The Caribbean reality show is based on the successful original production -- America's Next Top Model. This regional program follows the stories of young women seeking to launch a career in the competitive world of modelling, and is produced and presented by Wendy Fitzwilliam, a former Miss Universe, successful model and entrepreneur.
"We are extremely excited to be partnering with Wendy Fitzwilliam and her Caribbean's Next Top Model team," said John Reid, President of the C&W Communications, Consumer Group. "We are not just committed, but we are also proud to support Caribbean producers who generate quality local content for the region." Reid also noted that customers now have more options to access the exciting regional programme across multiple platforms, including their TV and other smart devices, where the mobile option was available. Customers in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Cayman, and Curacao will also be able to access the show at their convenience using Flow's Video on Demand (VOD) feature. Aside from the many viewing options, Flow customers, will also be able to participate in other exciting promotions including weekly SMS competition to win a new iPad, tablet, or other great prizes.
Commenting on the partnership, Fitzwilliam said, "It is so refreshing when a corporate entity recognises the need for support and undertakes the responsibility of enabling the development of Caribbean talent and content -- Flow has definitely got it right. With Flow you get more -- CNTM's fans will get a wholesome entertainment experience, one that is as interactive and engaging as possible. With Flow's quad play technology, viewers can truly enjoy the upcoming season to the fullest extent."
Caribbean Next Top Model will be broadcast simultaneously on the Flow TV platform across the region on Monday nights from October 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Curacao, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and at 8:30 p.m. -- in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas. As the season unfolds, each CNTM episode will first air on Flow TV and will then air on other stations, five days after the initial Flow airing.
Season Two of Caribbean's Next Top Model will premiere with a star-studded fashion event at the Betsy Hotel on South Beach, Miami on October 19.
About C&W Communications
Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers.
Through its business division, C&W provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity and a growing suite of wholesale managed services.
C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include: LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programs.
Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit:www.cwc.com. || Caribbean's Next Top Model Set for Season 2 Premiere: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 15, 2015) - On October 19, young women from all over the Caribbean will begin chasing their dreams of success as career models, when the second season of Caribbean's Next Top Model (CNTM) makes its premiere on Flow TV. Cable and Wireless, which operates both the Flow and LIME brand, is the premium sponsor for the show's sophomore season, which will run for 11 episodes, starting on October 19. The Caribbean reality show is based on the successful original production -- America's Next Top Model. This regional program follows the stories of young women seeking to launch a career in the competitive world of modelling, and is produced and presented by Wendy Fitzwilliam, a former Miss Universe, successful model and entrepreneur. "We are extremely excited to be partnering with Wendy Fitzwilliam and her Caribbean's Next Top Model team," said John Reid, President of the C&W Communications, Consumer Group. "We are not just committed, but we are also proud to support Caribbean producers who generate quality local content for the region." Reid also noted that customers now have more options to access the exciting regional programme across multiple platforms, including their TV and other smart devices, where the mobile option was available. Customers in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Cayman, and Curacao will also be able to access the show at their convenience using Flow's Video on Demand (VOD) feature. Aside from the many viewing options, Flow customers, will also be able to participate in other exciting promotions including weekly SMS competition to win a new iPad, tablet, or other great prizes. Commenting on the partnership, Fitzwilliam said, "It is so refreshing when a corporate entity recognises the need for support and undertakes the responsibility of enabling the development of Caribbean talent and content -- Flow has definitely got it right. With Flow you get more -- CNTM's fans will get a wholesome entertainment experience, one that is as interactive and engaging as possible. With Flow's quad play technology, viewers can truly enjoy the upcoming season to the fullest extent." Story continues Caribbean Next Top Model will be broadcast simultaneously on the Flow TV platform across the region on Monday nights from October 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Curacao, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and at 8:30 p.m. -- in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas. As the season unfolds, each CNTM episode will first air on Flow TV and will then air on other stations, five days after the initial Flow airing. Season Two of Caribbean's Next Top Model will premiere with a star-studded fashion event at the Betsy Hotel on South Beach, Miami on October 19. About C&W Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers. Through its business division, C&W provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity and a growing suite of wholesale managed services. C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include: LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programs. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . || Barclays Partnership With Chainalysis Ushers In New Era For Fintech: On Wednesday, at the culmination of the Barclays Accelerator program, Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE: BCS ) announced a new partnership with startup Chainalysis. The partnership is seen as an opportunity with the potential to further open up the traditional finance sector to bitcoin firms. Bitcoin businesses have long found it difficult to engage with banks, as traditional finance has been wary of the risks that come with dealing in cryptocurrencies. However, with one of the UK's largest banks onboarding Chainalysis to its compliance department, many see a union between cryptocurrencies and traditional finance on the horizon. Mitigating Risks Barclays' partnership with Chainalysis is expected to help the bank better understand and cope with the risks of dealing with bitcoin firms. The startup is expected to work together with Barclays to find ways for firms within the cryptocurrency industry to meet traditional banks' strict compliance standards. Related Link: Blockstream To Launch Sidechain Worries about money laundering and illegal transactions have kept many banks from dealing with the industry, but Chainalysis says it has developed several products that make it easier for banks to perform checks on bitcoin customers. Mutual Benefit The partnership between Barclays and Chainalysis is a big step for both firms. For Barclays, working with Chainalysis gives the bank a leg up against competitors as the firm is able to stay on top of evolving trends in the finch space. Chainalysis has gained major exposure from the deal, and the company says it hopes other finance institutions will follow suit and use some of Chainalysis' products as the cryptocurrency space continues to grow. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga AXA Interested In Bitcoin's Potential Barclays Becomes First Big U.K. Bank To Accept Bitcoin Emerging Market Shares Battered: Is It Time To Buy? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Barclays Partnership With Chainalysis Ushers In New Era For Fintech: On Wednesday, at the culmination of the Barclays Accelerator program,Barclays PLC (ADR)(NYSE:BCS)announceda new partnership with startup Chainalysis.
The partnership is seen as an opportunity with the potential to further open up the traditional finance sector to bitcoin firms.
Bitcoin businesses have long found it difficult to engage with banks, as traditional finance has been wary of the risks that come with dealing in cryptocurrencies. However, with one of the UK's largest banks onboarding Chainalysis to its compliance department, many see a union between cryptocurrencies and traditional finance on the horizon.
Mitigating Risks
Barclays' partnership with Chainalysis is expected to help the bank better understand and cope with the risks of dealing with bitcoin firms.
The startup is expected to work together with Barclays to find ways for firms within the cryptocurrency industry to meet traditional banks' strict compliance standards.
Related Link:Blockstream To Launch Sidechain
Worries about money laundering and illegal transactions have kept many banks from dealing with the industry, but Chainalysis says it has developed several products that make it easier for banks to perform checks on bitcoin customers.
Mutual Benefit
The partnership between Barclays and Chainalysis is a big step for both firms. For Barclays, working with Chainalysis gives the bank a leg up against competitors as the firm is able to stay on top of evolving trends in the finch space.
Chainalysis has gained major exposure from the deal, and the company says it hopes other finance institutions will follow suit and use some of Chainalysis' products as the cryptocurrency space continues to grow.
Image Credit: Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
• AXA Interested In Bitcoin's Potential
• Barclays Becomes First Big U.K. Bank To Accept Bitcoin
• Emerging Market Shares Battered: Is It Time To Buy?
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Blockchain For Banks Could Be A Big Business: Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention over the past few years as more and more people took an interest in the technology. However, much of the buzz surrounding cryptocurrencies like bitcoin was negative after a spate of high profile scams and criminal cases involving the currency painted it as a tool for illicit activities. While bitcoin may never become a mainstream payment method, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that it runs on, has been touted as one of the most important developments of the decade. Related Link: Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise Banks On Board Traditional finance firms have been reluctant to embrace bitcoin as a currency, but blockchain is another story. Banks around the world including Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC ), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB ) have all taken an interest in blockchain , saying they could see the technology improving how they do business. Blockchain provides a secure way to facilitate transactions without involving a third party intermediary. Banks say this could be useful for everything from sending payments to setting up a smart contracts system. Implementing Blockchain While many banks are studying blockchain using task forces set up within their own company, several startups have emerged to help banks study the impact of blockchain on their operations. Blockstack, Eris Ltd and Coin Sciences are all private firms that offer companies blockchain solutions. They offer banks the ability to experiment with blockchain systems that meet their specific needs, rather than providing them with something that needs to be modified. See more from Benzinga Can Social Media Firms Compete With Amazon In The E-Commerce Space? Cyberweapons Replace Nuclear Threats In Global Arms Race Things Are Looking Brighter For Europe © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Blockchain For Banks Could Be A Big Business: Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention over the past few years as more and more people took an interest in the technology. However, much of the buzz surrounding cryptocurrencies like bitcoin was negative after a spate of high profile scams and criminal cases involving the currency painted it as a tool for illicit activities.
While bitcoin may never become a mainstream payment method, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that it runs on, has been touted as one of the most important developments of the decade.
Related Link:Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise
Banks On Board
Traditional finance firms have been reluctant to embrace bitcoin as a currency, but blockchain is another story. Banks around the world includingBank of America Corp(NYSE:BAC),Morgan Stanley(NYSE:MS) andDeutsche Bank(NYSE:DB) have alltaken an interest in blockchain, saying they could see the technology improving how they do business. Blockchain provides a secure way to facilitate transactions without involving a third party intermediary. Banks say this could be useful for everything from sending payments to setting up a smart contracts system.
Implementing Blockchain
While many banks are studying blockchain using task forces set up within their own company, several startups have emerged to help banks study the impact of blockchain on their operations. Blockstack, Eris Ltd and Coin Sciences are all private firms that offer companies blockchain solutions. They offer banks the ability to experiment with blockchain systems that meet their specific needs, rather than providing them with something that needs to be modified.
See more from Benzinga
• Can Social Media Firms Compete With Amazon In The E-Commerce Space?
• Cyberweapons Replace Nuclear Threats In Global Arms Race
• Things Are Looking Brighter For Europe
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || MarilynJean Interactive (OTCQB: MJMI) Sets Its Sights on $24B Philippines Remittance Market: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2015 /MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI) today announced it has entered into advanced discussions with a provider of Bitcoin-based remittance services.
The potential remittance partner is a fully licensed money services business on the cutting edge of the remittance space, using Bitcoin to effect low cost transfers, primarily to the Philippines. With a well-established brand, multiple Bitcoin ATMs, solid financial partnerships in the Philippines, MJMI's management is excited about the potential synergies that could result from this relationship.
In 2014, according to Focus Economics, remittances to the Philippines hit a record high, exceeding USD 24 Billion, accounting for roughly 8.5% of that country's GDP. Those funds came primarily from overseas workers sending funds home to their families. Traditional remittance companies charge upwards of 8% fees on the total funds being sent, in addition to less than favorable exchange rates and taking up to 3 days to clear for pick up. Using Bitcoin, transfers can be effected in virtually real time at a fraction of the cost to the user. Funds can be sent directly to the recipient's bank account or made available for pick up at a partner location or even via a card-less ATM withdrawal.
In a Bitcoin based remittance transaction, an overseas worker would deliver funds to a remittance provider. This service provider would buy Bitcoin on behalf of the customer and then transfer the coins, paying less than 1% to do so, to the selling partner in the recipient country. The selling partner would then sell the Bitcoins and then transfer the funds to the final recipient. Because there is a price difference between the buying and selling of the Bitcoins, it is possible for the two transfer partners to profit sufficiently from the Bitcoin trade to offer the transfer service for a significantly lower fee than any traditional currency (known as FIAT) based remittance service.
Bitcoin therefore offers the potential to completely alter the landscape of worldwide money transfers.
The two companies share a vision on the massive opportunities in this space as well as on the future direction of expansion, namely servicing the remittance markets in Mexico and India. In addition, both companies agree that acquiring and operating a Bitcoin exchange would allow the partners to offer a seamless, end to end solution to customers. More sophisticated clients could eventually use their own Bitcoin wallets to move money through a jointly designed system, allowing them to effect transactions from their mobile phone through a licensed and trustworthy remittance system.
Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We are very excited to be in advanced discussions with this potential remittance partner. They are at the forefront what we expect will be a massive shift in the way global remittances are effected. Their team shares our view that remittance fees are exorbitantly high and that current providers profit excessively by offering poor, often hidden, exchange rates. We believe that, in this area, Bitcoin has tremendous promise to disrupt a system that unfairly charges high rates to hard working people who have left their families to work overseas in hopes of providing them with a better life. We believe the growth potential in this sector is massive and that we are on the right track in terms of identifying the right partners who share our vision."
MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.
MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of Bitcoin ATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth.
About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies:
Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence.
Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: "I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting."
Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK).
MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is (MJMI).
Website:http://www.marilynjean.com/
Press Contact:[email protected]
SOURCE:MarilynJean Interactive || MarilynJean Interactive (OTCQB: MJMI) Sets Its Sights on $24B Philippines Remittance Market: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2015 / MarilynJean Interactive ( MJMI ) today announced it has entered into advanced discussions with a provider of Bitcoin-based remittance services. The potential remittance partner is a fully licensed money services business on the cutting edge of the remittance space, using Bitcoin to effect low cost transfers, primarily to the Philippines. With a well-established brand, multiple Bitcoin ATMs, solid financial partnerships in the Philippines, MJMI's management is excited about the potential synergies that could result from this relationship. In 2014, according to Focus Economics, remittances to the Philippines hit a record high, exceeding USD 24 Billion, accounting for roughly 8.5% of that country's GDP. Those funds came primarily from overseas workers sending funds home to their families. Traditional remittance companies charge upwards of 8% fees on the total funds being sent, in addition to less than favorable exchange rates and taking up to 3 days to clear for pick up. Using Bitcoin, transfers can be effected in virtually real time at a fraction of the cost to the user. Funds can be sent directly to the recipient's bank account or made available for pick up at a partner location or even via a card-less ATM withdrawal. In a Bitcoin based remittance transaction, an overseas worker would deliver funds to a remittance provider. This service provider would buy Bitcoin on behalf of the customer and then transfer the coins, paying less than 1% to do so, to the selling partner in the recipient country. The selling partner would then sell the Bitcoins and then transfer the funds to the final recipient. Because there is a price difference between the buying and selling of the Bitcoins, it is possible for the two transfer partners to profit sufficiently from the Bitcoin trade to offer the transfer service for a significantly lower fee than any traditional currency (known as FIAT) based remittance service. Story continues Bitcoin therefore offers the potential to completely alter the landscape of worldwide money transfers. The two companies share a vision on the massive opportunities in this space as well as on the future direction of expansion, namely servicing the remittance markets in Mexico and India. In addition, both companies agree that acquiring and operating a Bitcoin exchange would allow the partners to offer a seamless, end to end solution to customers. More sophisticated clients could eventually use their own Bitcoin wallets to move money through a jointly designed system, allowing them to effect transactions from their mobile phone through a licensed and trustworthy remittance system. Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We are very excited to be in advanced discussions with this potential remittance partner. They are at the forefront what we expect will be a massive shift in the way global remittances are effected. Their team shares our view that remittance fees are exorbitantly high and that current providers profit excessively by offering poor, often hidden, exchange rates. We believe that, in this area, Bitcoin has tremendous promise to disrupt a system that unfairly charges high rates to hard working people who have left their families to work overseas in hopes of providing them with a better life. We believe the growth potential in this sector is massive and that we are on the right track in terms of identifying the right partners who share our vision." MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of Bitcoin ATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth. About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies: Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: "I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting." Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is ( MJMI ). Website: http://www.marilynjean.com/ Press Contact: [email protected] SOURCE: MarilynJean Interactive
[Social Media Buzz]
One Bitcoin now worth $263.00@bitstamp. High $269.63. Low $259.99. Market Cap $3.877 Billion #bitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 13 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $98.65 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #bitcoin = $4493.00 MXN | $272.77 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 16.47MXN http://www.bitapeso.com || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 12 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $61.67 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #bitcoin 756.97 TL, 26...
|
269.46, 266.27, 274.02, 276.50, 281.65, 283.68, 285.30, 293.79, 304.62, 313.86
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 1172.52, 1182.94, 1193.91, 1211.67, 1210.29, 1229.08, 1222.05, 1231.71, 1207.21, 1250.15, 1265.49, 1281.08, 1317.73, 1316.48, 1321.79, 1347.89, 1421.60, 1452.82, 1490.09, 1537.67, 1555.45, 1578.80, 1596.71, 1723.35, 1755.36, 1787.13, 1848.57, 1724.24, 1804.91, 1808.91, 1738.43, 1734.45, 1839.09, 1888.65, 1987.71, 2084.73, 2041.20, 2173.40, 2320.42, 2443.64, 2304.98, 2202.42, 2038.87, 2155.80, 2255.61, 2175.47, 2286.41, 2407.88, 2488.55, 2515.35, 2511.81, 2686.81, 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63, 2717.02, 2506.37, 2464.58, 2518.56, 2655.88, 2548.29, 2589.60, 2721.79, 2689.10, 2705.41, 2744.91, 2608.72, 2589.41, 2478.45, 2552.45, 2574.79, 2539.32, 2480.84, 2434.55, 2506.47, 2564.06, 2601.64, 2601.99, 2608.56, 2518.66, 2571.34, 2518.44, 2372.56, 2337.79, 2398.84, 2357.90.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-07-13]
Volume: 835769984, RSI (14-day): 41.35, 50-day EMA: 2410.90, 200-day EMA: 1703.42
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1216.30, Gold RSI: 36.39
Oil Price: 46.08, Oil RSI: 53.21
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Alphabet's Nest Cam IQ recognizes burglars' faces—for a steep price: Overall, the Internet of Things revolution has been a bust.
You know—all those coffee makers, garage-door openers, and washer-dryers that we can control with apps on our phones. Only a couple of categories seem even worth messing with: internet-connected thermostats, and home security cameras.
These are tiny WiFi cameras that you can plunk around your house—and then spy from your phone, wherever you go in the world. You can see who’s at the front door, see if the baby’s awake, see if the nanny is overfeeding your kids, or monitor your home for motion when you’re not paying attention.
Two years ago, Nest, which is a part of Google parent Alphabet (GOOG,GOOGL), introduced the Nest Cam ($200), which was a tweaked-up version of the former Dropcam, which Nest had bought for $550 million. Feel free to re-read that sentence.
The Nest Cam was a fine product, soon joined by a weatherproof model, Nest Cam Outdoor. In addition to the usual function—letting you see what’s going on back at home, and alerting you when there’s motion—they also have two-way audio, so that you can yell at the room by remote control when you see something amiss. You know: “Xerxes, DOWN! Off the couch. DOWN!”
Now there’s theNest Cam IQ,which raises the price by 50% to a nose-bleedy $300. (The earlier cameras remain available.) That extra $100 buys you improved picture and sound, plus facial recognition. That is, the camera learns what people in your home look like, using the same facial algorithms found in Google Photos. At that point, it can alert you only when astrangeris poking around your house.
As with the other Nest Cams, this one is super easy to set up. You create a Nest account, plug in the camera’s 10-foot power cord, and then use your phone to scan the barcode on the bottom of the camera. Suddenly, it’s set up. Its current camera view appears right in the same Nest app that you use to control your Nest thermostats and smoke detectors.
As before, you can’t actually make the physical lens move by remote control to pan around the room, as you can on some rival products. But youcanpan and zoom—with your fingers on the screen. Since the camera’s view is 130 degrees, you can actually see the entire room at once, and then zoom and pan to any part of the room.
Better yet, the new camera is actually a 4K camera, meaning that it has four times as many pixels as high definition. That feature doesn’t help with spying on your home or playing back recordings, since all of that still takes place in 1080p hi-def. Itisuseful when you’ve zoomed in with your fingers. A special button (hidden, alas, until you tap the screen) at that point harvests the extra pixels to sharpen up the image. I’m guessing it works best if you shout “Enhance!” as you tap, like they do on TV.
The 4K sensor also makes possible Supersight, a feature that’s supposed to auto-zoom and auto-track a face as it enters the frame, with the original full-room view as an inset.
In practice, it’s more like not-so-Super Sight. Sometimes it doesn’t kick in at all. Sometimes it pans so aggressively in the direction the thief is walking that it pans right past him. Seems like it’s expecting the evildoer to move at just the right speed, or it doesn’t really work.
As before, the picture and sound are delayed by a couple of seconds. Don’t try to practice your comic timing with the folks back at home over the Nest Cam.
The clarity of the image (and the sound), on the other hand, are terrific. Thanks to night vision, you even get 15 feet of incredible clarity in total darkness.
The original Nest Cam used to go off too often, triggered by cats and dogs, cars outside the window, and so on. It became the security camera that cried wolf; you wound up ignoring the notifications, or turning them off.
The IQ still sends a lot of false positives, but the facial recognition really helps.
In the first week of using the new camera, the phone app shows you the faces of people it spots passing through the room. You’re asked, “Do you know this person?” for each one. There will be repetitions during those first days, but eventually, the app will know who’s entitled to be in your home, and who’s not.
And sure enough: the IQ now lets you know only when someoneunauthorized is in your home. It’s a brilliant, important feature.
It is not, however, a Google invention. TheNetatmo Welcomecamera was the first with facial recognition (and, soon, dog and cat recognition)—and it costs $100 less.
The subscription news
All of the spying fun you’ve read about so far is free. Unfortunately, you have to pay a monthly fee to getthe good stuff. It’s $10 a month, or $100 a year.
Here’s what that gets you:
• Continuous, 24/7 recordings of everything that’s happened in your house, going back 10 days. Either on the phone or on the Nest website, you can catch something you missed with the camcorder, like your baby’s first steps or a pet’s funny trick. Freeze the frame on whoever keeps spilling food on the couch. Settle an argument (or prolong one) by proving who brought the subject up first. (Without the subscription, you get only a three-hour rewind window.)
• Share clips of all that, or make time-lapse videos of it
• Notifications of audio events like a dog barking or people talking
• Notifications when familiar faces are spotted
• Activity zones: Up to four parts of the room that you want the camera to ignore or pay particular attention to. (Unfortunately, facial recognition doesn’t respect these zones—it’s always on—so faces on a TV trigger alerts.)
(At least standard “I’ve spotted a face!” notifications are now included. The previous Nest cameras required a subscription even for that feature.)
I’ll just say it: I can’t stand monthly subscriptions. They’re an unnecessary money gouge. Especially when you remember that you need one subscription foreach camera(although additional subscriptions are half price).
Besides, plenty of rival cameras also store your recordings online for free, or onto a memory card. And some of them have cool features that the Nest doesn’t. And none of them cost as much:
• Netgear Arlo Pro ($228):Wireless and battery powered or wired. Weatherproof. Multi-camera discounts. Seven days’ worth of footage storage online for free; 30 days’ worth for $10 a month.
• iControl Piper nv ($270): No subscription plans (records 1,000 motion-triggered clips online for free), but no continuous recording, either. Also tracks outside temp and humidity levels, and issues weather warnings. Acts as a hub for smart-home devices.
• D-Link DCS-2530L Full HD 180-Degree Wi-Fi Camera ($132):Records to a memory card, so no subscription necessary.
• Samsung SmartCam PT ($160):You can pan and tilt the camera from afar, with auto-tracking of a person in the room. Records to a memory card, so no subscription necessary. Privacy mode: When you’re home, camera aims down and shuts off.
• Netatmo Welcome ($200):Face recognition. Stores clips on a memory card (no 24/7 recording).
Make no mistake: The Nest Cam IQ is a fantastic home-security camera. Simple to set up, easy to use, super smart facial recognition, and the best picture and sound on the market. For its core function, it’s among the best home-security cameras you can buy—and buy, and buy, and buy.
Correction: This post originally stated that Nest is owned by Google. In fact, it is owned by Google parent Alphabet. The error has been corrected.
More from David Pogue:
Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels
Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables
The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update
Now I get it: Bitcoin
David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app
The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || Alphabet's Nest Cam IQ recognizes burglars' facesfor a steep price: Overall, the Internet of Things revolution has been a bust. You knowall those coffee makers, garage-door openers, and washer-dryers that we can control with apps on our phones. Only a couple of categories seem even worth messing with: internet-connected thermostats, and home security cameras. Meet the WiFi home security cam. These are tiny WiFi cameras that you can plunk around your houseand then spy from your phone, wherever you go in the world. You can see whos at the front door, see if the babys awake, see if the nanny is overfeeding your kids, or monitor your home for motion when youre not paying attention. Two years ago, Nest, which is a part of Google parent Alphabet ( GOOG , GOOGL ), introduced the Nest Cam ($200), which was a tweaked-up version of the former Dropcam, which Nest had bought for $550 million. Feel free to re-read that sentence. The Nest Cam was a fine product, soon joined by a weatherproof model, Nest Cam Outdoor. In addition to the usual functionletting you see whats going on back at home, and alerting you when theres motionthey also have two-way audio, so that you can yell at the room by remote control when you see something amiss. You know: Xerxes, DOWN! Off the couch. DOWN! The Nest Cam IQ has a tilting neck and a speaker on the back. Now theres the Nest Cam IQ, which raises the price by 50% to a nose-bleedy $300. (The earlier cameras remain available.) That extra $100 buys you improved picture and sound, plus facial recognition. That is, the camera learns what people in your home look like, using the same facial algorithms found in Google Photos. At that point, it can alert you only when a stranger is poking around your house. This camera doesnt waste your time when it spots family members. Whats the same As with the other Nest Cams, this one is super easy to set up. You create a Nest account, plug in the cameras 10-foot power cord, and then use your phone to scan the barcode on the bottom of the camera. Suddenly, its set up. Its current camera view appears right in the same Nest app that you use to control your Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. Story continues The cameras image shows up in the same app that controls Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. As before, you cant actually make the physical lens move by remote control to pan around the room, as you can on some rival products. But you can pan and zoomwith your fingers on the screen. Since the cameras view is 130 degrees, you can actually see the entire room at once, and then zoom and pan to any part of the room. Better yet, the new camera is actually a 4K camera, meaning that it has four times as many pixels as high definition. That feature doesnt help with spying on your home or playing back recordings, since all of that still takes place in 1080p hi-def. It is useful when youve zoomed in with your fingers. A special button (hidden, alas, until you tap the screen) at that point harvests the extra pixels to sharpen up the image. Im guessing it works best if you shout Enhance! as you tap, like they do on TV. The 4K camera pays off when you want to zoom-and-enhance. The 4K sensor also makes possible Supersight, a feature thats supposed to auto-zoom and auto-track a face as it enters the frame, with the original full-room view as an inset. SuperSight is supposed to pan and zoom to follow the intruder. In practice, its more like not-so-Super Sight. Sometimes it doesnt kick in at all. Sometimes it pans so aggressively in the direction the thief is walking that it pans right past him. Seems like its expecting the evildoer to move at just the right speed, or it doesnt really work. As before, the picture and sound are delayed by a couple of seconds. Dont try to practice your comic timing with the folks back at home over the Nest Cam. The clarity of the image (and the sound), on the other hand, are terrific. Thanks to night vision, you even get 15 feet of incredible clarity in total darkness. Notifications The original Nest Cam used to go off too often, triggered by cats and dogs, cars outside the window, and so on. It became the security camera that cried wolf; you wound up ignoring the notifications, or turning them off. The IQ still sends a lot of false positives, but the facial recognition really helps. In the first week of using the new camera, the phone app shows you the faces of people it spots passing through the room. Youre asked, Do you know this person? for each one. There will be repetitions during those first days, but eventually, the app will know whos entitled to be in your home, and whos not. During the first week with your Nest, it tries to learn your familys faces. And sure enough: the IQ now lets you know only when someone un authorized is in your home. Its a brilliant, important feature. It is not, however, a Google invention. The Netatmo Welcome camera was the first with facial recognition (and, soon, dog and cat recognition)and it costs $100 less. The subscription news All of the spying fun youve read about so far is free. Unfortunately, you have to pay a monthly fee to get the good stuff . Its $10 a month, or $100 a year. Heres what that gets you: Continuous, 24/7 recordings of everything thats happened in your house, going back 10 days. Either on the phone or on the Nest website, you can catch something you missed with the camcorder, like your babys first steps or a pets funny trick. Freeze the frame on whoever keeps spilling food on the couch. Settle an argument (or prolong one) by proving who brought the subject up first. (Without the subscription, you get only a three-hour rewind window.) Share clips of all that, or make time-lapse videos of it Notifications of audio events like a dog barking or people talking Notifications when familiar faces are spotted Activity zones: Up to four parts of the room that you want the camera to ignore or pay particular attention to. (Unfortunately, facial recognition doesnt respect these zonesits always onso faces on a TV trigger alerts.) (At least standard Ive spotted a face! notifications are now included. The previous Nest cameras required a subscription even for that feature.) Ill just say it: I cant stand monthly subscriptions. Theyre an unnecessary money gouge. Especially when you remember that you need one subscription for each camera (although additional subscriptions are half price). Besides, plenty of rival cameras also store your recordings online for free, or onto a memory card. And some of them have cool features that the Nest doesnt. And none of them cost as much: Netgear Arlo Pro ($228): Wireless and battery powered or wired. Weatherproof. Multi-camera discounts. Seven days worth of footage storage online for free; 30 days worth for $10 a month. iControl Piper nv ($270) : No subscription plans (records 1,000 motion-triggered clips online for free), but no continuous recording, either. Also tracks outside temp and humidity levels, and issues weather warnings. Acts as a hub for smart-home devices. D-Link DCS-2530L Full HD 180-Degree Wi-Fi Camera ($132): Records to a memory card, so no subscription necessary. Samsung SmartCam PT ($160): You can pan and tilt the camera from afar, with auto-tracking of a person in the room. Records to a memory card, so no subscription necessary. Privacy mode: When youre home, camera aims down and shuts off. Netatmo Welcome ($200): Face recognition. Stores clips on a memory card (no 24/7 recording). Make no mistake: The Nest Cam IQ is a fantastic home-security camera. Simple to set up, easy to use, super smart facial recognition, and the best picture and sound on the market. For its core function, its among the best home-security cameras you can buyand buy, and buy, and buy. Correction: This post originally stated that Nest is owned by Google. In fact, it is owned by Google parent Alphabet. The error has been corrected. More from David Pogue: Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogues search for the worlds best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, hes davidpogue.com . On Twitter, hes @pogue . On email, hes [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || Swiss private bank Falcon introduces bitcoin asset management: By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi ZURICH (Reuters) - Wealthy clients of Swiss private bank Falcon will be able to store and trade bitcoins via their cash holdings with the bank from Wednesday, a move that signals the traction the virtual currency is gaining even in slow-changing asset management. The group's new blockchain asset management service is being offered in partnership with cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse. "We are proud to be the first-mover in the Swiss private banking area to provide blockchain asset management for our clients," Arthur Vayloyan, Falcon's global head of products and services, said in a statement. "Falcon is convinced that the time is right to enter this nascent market and it is our firm belief that this new product will fulfill our clients' future needs," he said. Bitcoin, the primary cryptocurrency, relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins. While some remain skeptical, investors have begun warming to the technology, wooed by its explosive performance and the potential that the currency can compete with gold and government-issued money as a store of value. Fidelity Investments said in May that clients with bitcoins and other virtual currencies held on digital asset exchange Coinbase would be able to see their holdings on the Fidelity website, making it one of just a handful of large financial services firms to integrate digital currencies into its website. The virtual currency hit a record of almost $3,000 last month but has fallen over 20 percent since then to $2,375 on Wednesday. Its value has still more than tripled in the last year. Falcon, one of the Swiss banks ensnared in the Malaysian corruption scandal surrounding the troubled 1MDB fund, said the new offering was part of its strategic repositioning. The Zurich-based bank said its bitcoin asset management product had regulatory approval from Swiss financial watchdog FINMA, which declined to comment on individual providers or products. "It has been a pleasure assisting Falcon in realising this new product, which is nothing less than a historic milestone for the entire crypto space," Bitcoin Suisse Chief Executive Niklas Nikolajsen said. (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Edmund Blair) || Swiss private bank Falcon introduces bitcoin asset management: By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi
ZURICH (Reuters) - Wealthy clients of Swiss private bank Falcon will be able to store and trade bitcoins via their cash holdings with the bank from Wednesday, a move that signals the traction the virtual currency is gaining even in slow-changing asset management.
The group's new blockchain asset management service is being offered in partnership with cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse.
"We are proud to be the first-mover in the Swiss private banking area to provide blockchain asset management for our clients," Arthur Vayloyan, Falcon's global head of products and services, said in a statement.
"Falcon is convinced that the time is right to enter this nascent market and it is our firm belief that this new product will fulfill our clients' future needs," he said.
Bitcoin, the primary cryptocurrency, relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins.
While some remain skeptical, investors have begun warming to the technology, wooed by its explosive performance and the potential that the currency can compete with gold and government-issued money as a store of value.
Fidelity Investments said in May that clients with bitcoins and other virtual currencies held on digital asset exchange Coinbase would be able to see their holdings on the Fidelity website, making it one of just a handful of large financial services firms to integrate digital currencies into its website.
The virtual currency hit a record of almost $3,000 last month but has fallen over 20 percent since then to $2,375 on Wednesday. Its value has still more than tripled in the last year.
Falcon, one of the Swiss banks ensnared in the Malaysian corruption scandal surrounding the troubled 1MDB fund, said the new offering was part of its strategic repositioning.
The Zurich-based bank said its bitcoin asset management product had regulatory approval from Swiss financial watchdog FINMA, which declined to comment on individual providers or products.
"It has been a pleasure assisting Falcon in realising this new product, which is nothing less than a historic milestone for the entire crypto space," Bitcoin Suisse Chief Executive Niklas Nikolajsen said.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Edmund Blair) || MORGAN STANLEY: 'Bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking': (FILE PHOTO - A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in TorontoThomson Reuters)
Theprice of bitcoinis up over 250% since last year, but acceptance of the cryptocurrency as a form of payment among top merchants has declined.
A research note out Wednesday by a group of analysts at Morgan Stanley led by James E Faucette said "bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking," despite its impressive appreciation.
According to the bank, last year bitcoin was accepted at five of a group of 500 top online merchants. Today, only three of those merchants accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
"The disparity between virtually no merchant acceptance and bitcoin’s rapid appreciation is striking," the analysts wrote.
The investment bank outlined three reasons for the decline in bitcoin acceptance among merchants.
The first reason has to do with the appreciation of bitcoin. Most owners of the cryptocurrency are unwilling to let go of their holdings to pay for goods because they expect the price of bitcoin to go up. This point underpins the bank's thesis thatbitcoin mainly functions as aninvestment vehiclerather than fiat currency that you could spend on goods and services.
Issues with bitcoin's scalability, which has made transactions slow and expensive, is another reason the bank thinks merchants find bitcoin unappealing as a form of payment.
Finally, there has been a lack of pressure from the people who run the bitcoin infrastructure, according to the bank, to push merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
"The ecosystem has focused more on value speculation rather than the foot leather-eating work of increasing acceptance - way easier to trade speculatively than convince new merchants to accept the cryptocurrency," the bank said.
The bank notes that, while many merchants are uninterested in accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, many find the technology that underpins the cryptocurrency as a tech they could use to improve their infrastructure.
NOW WATCH:This map reveals how much $100 is actually worth in your state
More From Business Insider
• Cryptocurrencies are continuing to fall after China's shock ICO ban
• Here's why China's crypto crackdown is 'bigger than most people think'
• There was a $20 billion cryptocurrency price correction over the weekend || MORGAN STANLEY: 'Bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking': (FILE PHOTO - A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in TorontoThomson Reuters)
Theprice of bitcoinis up over 250% since last year, but acceptance of the cryptocurrency as a form of payment among top merchants has declined.
A research note out Wednesday by a group of analysts at Morgan Stanley led by James E Faucette said "bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking," despite its impressive appreciation.
According to the bank, last year bitcoin was accepted at five of a group of 500 top online merchants. Today, only three of those merchants accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
"The disparity between virtually no merchant acceptance and bitcoin’s rapid appreciation is striking," the analysts wrote.
The investment bank outlined three reasons for the decline in bitcoin acceptance among merchants.
The first reason has to do with the appreciation of bitcoin. Most owners of the cryptocurrency are unwilling to let go of their holdings to pay for goods because they expect the price of bitcoin to go up. This point underpins the bank's thesis thatbitcoin mainly functions as aninvestment vehiclerather than fiat currency that you could spend on goods and services.
Issues with bitcoin's scalability, which has made transactions slow and expensive, is another reason the bank thinks merchants find bitcoin unappealing as a form of payment.
Finally, there has been a lack of pressure from the people who run the bitcoin infrastructure, according to the bank, to push merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
"The ecosystem has focused more on value speculation rather than the foot leather-eating work of increasing acceptance - way easier to trade speculatively than convince new merchants to accept the cryptocurrency," the bank said.
The bank notes that, while many merchants are uninterested in accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, many find the technology that underpins the cryptocurrency as a tech they could use to improve their infrastructure.
NOW WATCH:This map reveals how much $100 is actually worth in your state
More From Business Insider
• Cryptocurrencies are continuing to fall after China's shock ICO ban
• Here's why China's crypto crackdown is 'bigger than most people think'
• There was a $20 billion cryptocurrency price correction over the weekend || MORGAN STANLEY: 'Bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking': FILE PHOTO - A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in Toronto, May 8, 2014. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo (FILE PHOTO - A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in TorontoThomson Reuters) The price of bitcoin is up over 250% since last year, but acceptance of the cryptocurrency as a form of payment among top merchants has declined. A research note out Wednesday by a group of analysts at Morgan Stanley led by James E Faucette said "bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking," despite its impressive appreciation. According to the bank, last year bitcoin was accepted at five of a group of 500 top online merchants. Today, only three of those merchants accept bitcoin as a form of payment. "The disparity between virtually no merchant acceptance and bitcoin’s rapid appreciation is striking," the analysts wrote. The investment bank outlined three reasons for the decline in bitcoin acceptance among merchants. The first reason has to do with the appreciation of bitcoin. Most owners of the cryptocurrency are unwilling to let go of their holdings to pay for goods because they expect the price of bitcoin to go up. This point underpins the bank's thesis that bitcoin mainly functions as an investment vehicle rather than fiat currency that you could spend on goods and services. Issues with bitcoin's scalability, which has made transactions slow and expensive, is another reason the bank thinks merchants find bitcoin unappealing as a form of payment. Finally, there has been a lack of pressure from the people who run the bitcoin infrastructure, according to the bank, to push merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. "The ecosystem has focused more on value speculation rather than the foot leather-eating work of increasing acceptance - way easier to trade speculatively than convince new merchants to accept the cryptocurrency," the bank said. The bank notes that, while many merchants are uninterested in accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, many find the technology that underpins the cryptocurrency as a tech they could use to improve their infrastructure. Story continues NOW WATCH: This map reveals how much $100 is actually worth in your state More From Business Insider Cryptocurrencies are continuing to fall after China's shock ICO ban Here's why China's crypto crackdown is 'bigger than most people think' There was a $20 billion cryptocurrency price correction over the weekend || $12 billion wiped off value of bitcoin since record high 30 days ago as it floats near one-month low: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) hit a near one-month low on Wednesday and has seen more than $12 billion wiped off its value in the last 30 days, amid nervousness in the cryprocurrency market. The price of bitcoin fell to $2,272.32, its lowest level since June 15, when it slumped to $2,185.96, according to data from CoinDesk. The price did recover on Wednesday slightly to a high of $2,354.41. It's also significantly off the $3,025.47 all-time high reached on June 11 , just over a month ago. In this timeframe, its market capitalization or value has fallen by $12.2 billion. A major pullback is taking place at the moment in the cryptocurrency world after huge rallies. When bitcoin hit its record high in June, it had seen a more than 600 percent rally since the start of the year. Even with Wednesday's fall, it is still up nearly 450 percent year-to-date. That has raised concerns about the frothiness in the market at the moment, which could be part of the reason for the pullback. Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, earlier this week warned about a potential bubble in cryptocurrencies. "I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary," Turnill said, according to a Reuters report. Cryptocurrency traders are also uncertain with some unsure about the future trading pattern for bitcoin. "I'm waiting for more downside before I rebuy, but frankly I'm even having trouble telling what it's going to do, which probably reflects the uncertainty in the market itself," cryptocurrency trader Jason Hamilton, told CNBC via Twitter. Roy Sebag, who is the CEO of GoldMoney, a platform to let people buy and trade the precious metal, is also a notable investor in cryptocurrencies. But the entrepreneur told CNBC via a Twitter exchange that he sold most of his bitcoin holdings because the market has reached the top. TWEET 'Fork' debate back in focus The bitcoin community is also nervous about a planned change to the underlying code of the cryptocurrency's protocol. Bitcoin transactions are taking longer than ever to process because the size of transactions on the blockchain, which is the technology that underpins the cyrptocurrency, is limited. This so-called "scaling debate" has led to two separate proposals about how to increase the block size and speed up transactions. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin. Story continues But there is a big backlog in transactions and the speed at which these are processed is slowing. That's because the rules of bitcoin only allow a certain amount of transactions through in one block. One solution proposed by Bitcoin Core, a group of developers that guard bitcoin's code, suggests a solution known as SegWit, which is explained here . This would lead to a so-called "soft fork" which would increase the block size. But it could mean less fees for miners, which are the people who verify and process transactions on the blockchain. These miners are unhappy with SegWit and have suggested an alternative code change known as Bitcoin Unlimited. This would increase the block size significantly, but would also make their version of the bitcoin protocol incompatible with the original version. As a result, a "hard fork" would take place, splitting the bitcoin blockchain in two, and even resulting in two separate coins. Investors would theoretically then hold some of the original bitcoin tokens, as well as the new Bitcoin Unlimited. Each proposal requires large support from the participants in the bitcoin's ecosystem, but there is strong disagreement. BTCC is a massive bitcoin exchange in China which signaled support for the SegWit proposal. Its CEO Bobby Lee told CNBC that he is "confident" a solution will be found, but the uncertainty could be a reason why the bitcoin price has paused for breath. "Not everyone is on the same page, there are people worried, some may be selling bitcoin," Lee told CNBC by phone on Wednesday. WATCH: These are the unexpected winners of the cryptocurrency craze More From CNBC Samsung to back European start-ups with $150 million investment fund Bank alternative Revolut raises $66 million in venture capital investment; eyes expansion in Asia, US Digital currency ethereum crashes below $200 to hit 40-day low; down 50 percent since all-time high View comments || $12 billion wiped off value of bitcoin since record high 30 days ago as it floats near one-month low: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) hit a near one-month low on Wednesday and has seen more than $12 billion wiped off its value in the last 30 days, amid nervousness in the cryprocurrency market. The price of bitcoin fell to $2,272.32, its lowest level since June 15, when it slumped to $2,185.96, according to data from CoinDesk. The price did recover on Wednesday slightly to a high of $2,354.41. It's also significantly off the $3,025.47 all-time high reached on June 11 , just over a month ago. In this timeframe, its market capitalization or value has fallen by $12.2 billion. A major pullback is taking place at the moment in the cryptocurrency world after huge rallies. When bitcoin hit its record high in June, it had seen a more than 600 percent rally since the start of the year. Even with Wednesday's fall, it is still up nearly 450 percent year-to-date. That has raised concerns about the frothiness in the market at the moment, which could be part of the reason for the pullback. Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, earlier this week warned about a potential bubble in cryptocurrencies. "I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary," Turnill said, according to a Reuters report. Cryptocurrency traders are also uncertain with some unsure about the future trading pattern for bitcoin. "I'm waiting for more downside before I rebuy, but frankly I'm even having trouble telling what it's going to do, which probably reflects the uncertainty in the market itself," cryptocurrency trader Jason Hamilton, told CNBC via Twitter. Roy Sebag, who is the CEO of GoldMoney, a platform to let people buy and trade the precious metal, is also a notable investor in cryptocurrencies. But the entrepreneur told CNBC via a Twitter exchange that he sold most of his bitcoin holdings because the market has reached the top. TWEET 'Fork' debate back in focus The bitcoin community is also nervous about a planned change to the underlying code of the cryptocurrency's protocol. Bitcoin transactions are taking longer than ever to process because the size of transactions on the blockchain, which is the technology that underpins the cyrptocurrency, is limited. This so-called "scaling debate" has led to two separate proposals about how to increase the block size and speed up transactions. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin. Story continues But there is a big backlog in transactions and the speed at which these are processed is slowing. That's because the rules of bitcoin only allow a certain amount of transactions through in one block. One solution proposed by Bitcoin Core, a group of developers that guard bitcoin's code, suggests a solution known as SegWit, which is explained here . This would lead to a so-called "soft fork" which would increase the block size. But it could mean less fees for miners, which are the people who verify and process transactions on the blockchain. These miners are unhappy with SegWit and have suggested an alternative code change known as Bitcoin Unlimited. This would increase the block size significantly, but would also make their version of the bitcoin protocol incompatible with the original version. As a result, a "hard fork" would take place, splitting the bitcoin blockchain in two, and even resulting in two separate coins. Investors would theoretically then hold some of the original bitcoin tokens, as well as the new Bitcoin Unlimited. Each proposal requires large support from the participants in the bitcoin's ecosystem, but there is strong disagreement. BTCC is a massive bitcoin exchange in China which signaled support for the SegWit proposal. Its CEO Bobby Lee told CNBC that he is "confident" a solution will be found, but the uncertainty could be a reason why the bitcoin price has paused for breath. "Not everyone is on the same page, there are people worried, some may be selling bitcoin," Lee told CNBC by phone on Wednesday. WATCH: These are the unexpected winners of the cryptocurrency craze More From CNBC Samsung to back European start-ups with $150 million investment fund Bank alternative Revolut raises $66 million in venture capital investment; eyes expansion in Asia, US Digital currency ethereum crashes below $200 to hit 40-day low; down 50 percent since all-time high View comments || Bitcoin is giving gold a run for its money: trader: ByDavid Nelson, CFA
Stocks ended the shortened holiday week close to the flatline. Bonds and gold finished under pressure, as investors rotated out of traditional safe haven assets. US yields pushed higher on the heels of a better-than-expected jobs report coming in at 222k (above consensus at 185k).
German 10-year yields also rose, holding onto their post-election breakout last November.
Even Japanese 10-year yields—in a nearly two-decade slump—are threatening to break the downtrend line.
However, of more concern for asset allocators, is gold (GLD,GC=F)—the ultimate safe haven trade. This is the asset that’s supposed to protect us from all adversaries (e.g., inflation, geopolitical turmoil … even a nuclear event).
Early in the year, the yellow metal put in a bottom and, certainly on a short-term basis, gold bugs could rejoice. After the lows late December, gold shot up a quick 25%, and even after a rough couple of weeks, is still up close to 15% for 2017.
Despite its year-to-date strength, I find the breakdown last week concerning, as it comes in the face of dollar weakness, where there is a strong inverse correlation. Gold’s selloff after the election was textbook, as the US dollar climbed higher on hopes of the Trump agenda igniting the reflation trade.
The rise in gold after the bottom in December was in lockstep with the fall of the Greenback. However, starting in June, the ultimate safe haven trade has struggled even in the face of continued dollar weakness.
Benign inflation certainly hasn’t helped the gold price action. Central bankers are quick to tell us they expect inflation to meet their target, failing to recognize that cheap oil, which touches the cost of many products, is a secular—not cyclical—dynamic.
Geopolitical instability or military action often provides a lift in gold. However, following North Korea’s test launch of an ICBM near the Fourth of July break, gold barely budged, dashing hopes of a breakout.
Cryptocurrencies and, of course Bitcoin, have captured the attention of nearly every speculator on the planet. There’s no doubt the underlying technology, blockchain, is here to stay. Many banks, including JPMorgan (JPM), are exploring it as well as developing their own systems.
It wasn’t that long ago that I interviewed NASDAQ Vice Chair Sandy Frucher on iHeart Radio, where he told me to expect NASDAQ to embrace blockchain for its back office and clearing operations.
Gold has long been the alternative to fiat currencies—giving its holder a hard asset that retains value in the face of any geopolitical, inflationary, or economic challenge.
How much is that worth in the face of competition? Therein lies the concern. The first human interaction with gold likely took place nearly 3,000 years before Christ—so there’s some 5,000 years of history. It’s way too soon to write off gold as the alternative currency of choice, but competition usually means lower prices.
Bitcoin’s success will likely come at the expense of gold and provide another example of thezero-sum-game.
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Please contact your Belpointe investment advisor representative if there are any changes in your financial situation or investment objectives.
Investment advice is offered through Belpointe Asset Management, LLC. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Insurance products are offered through Belpointe Insurance, LLC and Belpointe Specialty Insurance, LLC. It is important to read our email disclosures available at this link:http://belpointe.com/disclosures. || Bitcoin is giving gold a run for its money: trader: How safe is the safe haven trade? By David Nelson, CFA Stocks ended the shortened holiday week close to the flatline. Bonds and gold finished under pressure, as investors rotated out of traditional safe haven assets. US yields pushed higher on the heels of a better-than-expected jobs report coming in at 222k (above consensus at 185k). US 10-year yield 5 years Source: Bloomberg German 10-year yields also rose, holding onto their post-election breakout last November. German 10-year yield 5 years Source: Bloomberg Will Japan be next? Even Japanese 10-year yieldsin a nearly two-decade slumpare threatening to break the downtrend line. Source: Bloomberg However, of more concern for asset allocators, is gold ( GLD , GC=F )the ultimate safe haven trade. This is the asset thats supposed to protect us from all adversaries (e.g., inflation, geopolitical turmoil
even a nuclear event). Early in the year, the yellow metal put in a bottom and, certainly on a short-term basis, gold bugs could rejoice. After the lows late December, gold shot up a quick 25%, and even after a rough couple of weeks, is still up close to 15% for 2017. Source: Bloomberg Despite its year-to-date strength, I find the breakdown last week concerning, as it comes in the face of dollar weakness, where there is a strong inverse correlation. Golds selloff after the election was textbook, as the US dollar climbed higher on hopes of the Trump agenda igniting the reflation trade. The rise in gold after the bottom in December was in lockstep with the fall of the Greenback. However, starting in June, the ultimate safe haven trade has struggled even in the face of continued dollar weakness. Benign inflation certainly hasnt helped the gold price action. Central bankers are quick to tell us they expect inflation to meet their target, failing to recognize that cheap oil, which touches the cost of many products, is a secularnot cyclicaldynamic. Geopolitical instability or military action often provides a lift in gold. However, following North Koreas test launch of an ICBM near the Fourth of July break, gold barely budged, dashing hopes of a breakout. Story continues Bitcoin the rising threat? Cryptocurrencies and, of course Bitcoin, have captured the attention of nearly every speculator on the planet. Theres no doubt the underlying technology, blockchain, is here to stay. Many banks, including JPMorgan ( JPM ), are exploring it as well as developing their own systems. Source: Bloomberg It wasnt that long ago that I interviewed NASDAQ Vice Chair Sandy Frucher on iHeart Radio, where he told me to expect NASDAQ to embrace blockchain for its back office and clearing operations. Gold has long been the alternative to fiat currenciesgiving its holder a hard asset that retains value in the face of any geopolitical, inflationary, or economic challenge. How much is that worth in the face of competition? Therein lies the concern. The first human interaction with gold likely took place nearly 3,000 years before Christso theres some 5,000 years of history. Its way too soon to write off gold as the alternative currency of choice, but competition usually means lower prices. Bitcoins success will likely come at the expense of gold and provide another example of the zero-sum-game . - Please contact your Belpointe investment advisor representative if there are any changes in your financial situation or investment objectives. Investment advice is offered through Belpointe Asset Management, LLC. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Insurance products are offered through Belpointe Insurance, LLC and Belpointe Specialty Insurance, LLC. It is important to read our email disclosures available at this link: http://belpointe.com/disclosures . || Bitcoin is giving gold a run for its money: trader: ByDavid Nelson, CFA
Stocks ended the shortened holiday week close to the flatline. Bonds and gold finished under pressure, as investors rotated out of traditional safe haven assets. US yields pushed higher on the heels of a better-than-expected jobs report coming in at 222k (above consensus at 185k).
German 10-year yields also rose, holding onto their post-election breakout last November.
Even Japanese 10-year yields—in a nearly two-decade slump—are threatening to break the downtrend line.
However, of more concern for asset allocators, is gold (GLD,GC=F)—the ultimate safe haven trade. This is the asset that’s supposed to protect us from all adversaries (e.g., inflation, geopolitical turmoil … even a nuclear event).
Early in the year, the yellow metal put in a bottom and, certainly on a short-term basis, gold bugs could rejoice. After the lows late December, gold shot up a quick 25%, and even after a rough couple of weeks, is still up close to 15% for 2017.
Despite its year-to-date strength, I find the breakdown last week concerning, as it comes in the face of dollar weakness, where there is a strong inverse correlation. Gold’s selloff after the election was textbook, as the US dollar climbed higher on hopes of the Trump agenda igniting the reflation trade.
The rise in gold after the bottom in December was in lockstep with the fall of the Greenback. However, starting in June, the ultimate safe haven trade has struggled even in the face of continued dollar weakness.
Benign inflation certainly hasn’t helped the gold price action. Central bankers are quick to tell us they expect inflation to meet their target, failing to recognize that cheap oil, which touches the cost of many products, is a secular—not cyclical—dynamic.
Geopolitical instability or military action often provides a lift in gold. However, following North Korea’s test launch of an ICBM near the Fourth of July break, gold barely budged, dashing hopes of a breakout.
Cryptocurrencies and, of course Bitcoin, have captured the attention of nearly every speculator on the planet. There’s no doubt the underlying technology, blockchain, is here to stay. Many banks, including JPMorgan (JPM), are exploring it as well as developing their own systems.
It wasn’t that long ago that I interviewed NASDAQ Vice Chair Sandy Frucher on iHeart Radio, where he told me to expect NASDAQ to embrace blockchain for its back office and clearing operations.
Gold has long been the alternative to fiat currencies—giving its holder a hard asset that retains value in the face of any geopolitical, inflationary, or economic challenge.
How much is that worth in the face of competition? Therein lies the concern. The first human interaction with gold likely took place nearly 3,000 years before Christ—so there’s some 5,000 years of history. It’s way too soon to write off gold as the alternative currency of choice, but competition usually means lower prices.
Bitcoin’s success will likely come at the expense of gold and provide another example of thezero-sum-game.
————————————————-
Please contact your Belpointe investment advisor representative if there are any changes in your financial situation or investment objectives.
Investment advice is offered through Belpointe Asset Management, LLC. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Insurance products are offered through Belpointe Insurance, LLC and Belpointe Specialty Insurance, LLC. It is important to read our email disclosures available at this link:http://belpointe.com/disclosures. || The Rise and Fall (And Rise and Fall) of Ethereum: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The big cryptocurrency story of 2017 is not Bitcoin . It’s Ethereum . The cryptocurrency, sometimes called ether and abbreviated as ETH, was first described in a paper by Bitcoin programmer Vitaly Buterin in 2013. The software was developed by a Swiss company in early 2014, and the market opened on July 22, 2014, less than three years ago. The Rise and Fall and Rise (and Fall) of Ethereum Source: Shutterstock Hacking and development disputes led to a split in the blockchain in July 2016. There are now two cryptocurrencies carrying the Ethereum name — ETH and Ethereum Classic, or ETC. Don’t be confused, many are. The market cap for ETH is $25.6 billion, but just $1.67 billion for ETC. The difference lies in the perceived superiority of Ethereum’s blockchain technology. The Ethereum blockchain can reportedly resist attack from hackers, and handle many simultaneous transactions, unlike rival Bitcoin, where clearing of trades can be difficult, time-consuming and costly. Another difference is that there’s something you can buy with Ethereum, startups launched through Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs . By offering stock for coins, rather than dollars, blockchain startups attracted capital that grows in value, and Ethereum speculators gained a bigger market. Should You Buy Bitcoin? 3 Pros, 3 Cons While the ICOs were meant to take speculation out of the currency, removing coins from circulation by turning them back into real money, they seem to have had the opposite effect. Retail investors around the world, seeing big profits in cryptocurrency investments, have piled in to Ethereum, like day traders in the 1990s. They have overwhelmed the liquidity of some Ethereum markets, creating flash crashes , and a bubble in companies that took coins as their start-up capital, as well as the coins themselves. Some of the companies that used ICOs for start-up capital are bound to fail, like old oil wildcatters with dry holes. Story continues The rush of institutions, including venture capitalists, into the business of Ethereum trading has only made the whole structure more volatile. The result was that the value of a single token peaked at nearly $400 in early June, plunged by one-third to $267 on July 27, rose briefly to $328 a few days later, and opened on July 6 at about $275. Ethereum boosters predict the currency will soon be worth $1,000 per token, but the short-term technical charts remained a mess as this was written. Vantiv’s WorldPay Buy The desire of credit card processors to get ahead of the fintech boom is leading to lots of mergers in the sector. The latest is Vantiv Inc (NYSE: VNTV ) agreeing to spend $10 billion to buy Worldpay Group , at 382 UK pence per Worldpay share. The deal is considered a “Brexit bargain,” but it’s also a defensive move by Vantiv, since WorldPay has a lot of small-business and e-commerce clients . That price may be why Square Inc (NYSE: SQ ) — a processor focused on small businesses that has never made money but did $1.7 billion in business during 2016, and $461.55 million in the March quarter — is up 80% so far this year and is now worth $9.3 billion, meaning its acquisition would likely come at an even higher price than Worldpay’s. Vitalik Buterin: 7 Things to Know About the Ethereum Co-Founder The biggest pure merchant processor, First Data Corp (NYSE: FDC ), currently has a $16.8 billion valuation with trailing-year revenue of $11.584 billion, and a profit. And Finally … The former CEO of Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE: BCS ), Anthony Jenkins, warns that banks which refuse to embrace fintech face a “Kodak moment” — a point where they suddenly become irrelevant to their customers. Jenkins was fired by Barclays in late 2015 and has since launched his own fintech start-up, 10X Banking , which aims to eliminate paperwork in areas like opening accounts and making loans. Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romance The Reluctant Detective Travels in Time , available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn . As of this writing, he owned no shares of companies mentioned in this story. To follow the value of cryptocurrencies, bookmark https://coinmarketcap.com/ . More From InvestorPlace The 10 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2017 7 High-Yield Dividend Stocks for Aggressive Investors 8 Mergers That Could Dethrone Amazon The post The Rise and Fall (And Rise and Fall) of Ethereum appeared first on InvestorPlace . || The Rise and Fall (And Rise and Fall) of Ethereum: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
The big cryptocurrency story of 2017 is notBitcoin. It’sEthereum. The cryptocurrency, sometimes called ether and abbreviated as ETH, was first described in a paper by Bitcoin programmer Vitaly Buterin in 2013. The software was developed by a Swiss company in early 2014, and the market opened on July 22, 2014, less than three years ago.
Source: Shutterstock
Hacking and development disputes led to a split in the blockchain in July 2016. There are now two cryptocurrencies carrying the Ethereum name — ETH and Ethereum Classic, or ETC. Don’t be confused, many are. The market cap for ETH is $25.6 billion, but just $1.67 billion for ETC.
The difference lies in the perceived superiority of Ethereum’s blockchain technology.
The Ethereum blockchain can reportedly resist attack from hackers, and handle many simultaneous transactions, unlike rival Bitcoin, where clearing of trades can be difficult, time-consuming and costly.
Another difference is that there’s something you can buy with Ethereum, startups launched through Initial Coin Offerings orICOs. By offering stock for coins, rather than dollars, blockchain startups attracted capital that grows in value, and Ethereum speculators gained a bigger market.
• Should You Buy Bitcoin? 3 Pros, 3 Cons
While the ICOs were meant to take speculation out of the currency, removing coins from circulation by turning them back into real money, they seem to have had the opposite effect. Retail investors around the world, seeing big profits in cryptocurrency investments, have piled in to Ethereum, like day traders in the 1990s. They have overwhelmed the liquidity of some Ethereum markets, creatingflash crashes, and a bubble in companies that took coins as their start-up capital, as well as the coins themselves. Some of the companies that used ICOs for start-up capital are bound to fail, like old oil wildcatters with dry holes.
The rush of institutions, including venture capitalists, into the business of Ethereum trading has only made the whole structure more volatile. The result was that the value of a single token peaked at nearly $400 in early June, plunged by one-third to $267 on July 27, rose briefly to $328 a few days later, and opened on July 6 at about $275.
Ethereum boosters predict the currency will soon be worth $1,000 per token, but the short-term technical charts remained a mess as this was written.
The desire of credit card processors to get ahead of the fintech boom is leading to lots of mergers in the sector. The latest isVantiv Inc(NYSE:VNTV) agreeing to spend $10 billion to buyWorldpay Group, at 382 UK pence per Worldpay share. The deal is considered a “Brexit bargain,” but it’s also a defensive move by Vantiv, since WorldPay hasa lot of small-business and e-commerce clients.
That price may be whySquare Inc(NYSE:SQ) — a processor focused on small businesses that has never made money but did $1.7 billion in business during 2016, and $461.55 million in the March quarter — is up 80% so far this year and is now worth $9.3 billion, meaning its acquisition would likely come at an even higher price than Worldpay’s.
• Vitalik Buterin: 7 Things to Know About the Ethereum Co-Founder
The biggest pure merchant processor,First Data Corp(NYSE:FDC), currently has a $16.8 billion valuation with trailing-year revenue of $11.584 billion, and a profit.
The former CEO ofBarclays PLC (ADR)(NYSE:BCS), Anthony Jenkins, warns that banks which refuse to embrace fintech facea “Kodak moment”— a point where they suddenly become irrelevant to their customers.
Jenkins was fired by Barclays in late 2015 and has since launched his own fintech start-up,10X Banking, which aims to eliminate paperwork in areas like opening accounts and making loans.
Dana Blankenhornis a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romanceThe Reluctant Detective Travels in Time, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him [email protected] follow him on Twitter at@danablankenhorn. As of this writing, he owned no shares of companies mentioned in this story. To follow the value of cryptocurrencies, bookmarkhttps://coinmarketcap.com/.
• The 10 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2017
• 7 High-Yield Dividend Stocks for Aggressive Investors
• 8 Mergers That Could Dethrone Amazon
The postThe Rise and Fall (And Rise and Fall) of Ethereumappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Chief of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox denies embezzlement as trial opens: By Thomas Wilson TOKYO (Reuters) - The 32-year-old chief executive of defunct Mt. Gox pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges relating to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash from what was once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange. French national Mark Karpeles filed the plea in response to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation at the Tokyo District Court, according to a pool report for foreign journalists. Mt. Gox once handled 80 percent of the world's bitcoin trades but filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing some 850,000 bitcoins - then worth around half a billion U.S. dollars - and $28 million in cash from its bank accounts. In its bankruptcy filing, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox blamed hackers for the lost bitcoins, pointing to a software security flaw. Mt. Gox subsequently said it had found 200,000 of the missing bitcoins. Karpeles was indicted for transferring 341 million yen ($3 million) from a Mt. Gox account holding customer funds to an account in his name during September to December 2013. The prosecution also alleged Karpeles boosted the balance of an account in his name in Mt. Gox's trading system. In its opening statement to the court, Karpeles' defense team did not dispute that the transfers took place, but denied they amounted to embezzlement. Karpeles told the court he was an information technology engineer. "I swear to God that I am innocent," he said in Japanese to the three-judge panel hearing his case, according to the pool report. LICENSED EXCHANGES The collapse of Mt. Gox badly damaged the image of virtual currencies, particularly among risk-averse Japanese investors and corporations. But the bankruptcy also prompted Japan's government to decide how to treat bitcoin, and preceded a push by local regulators to license virtual currency exchanges. Japan this year became the first country to regulate exchanges at the national level, part of a government effort to exploit financial technology as a means of stimulating the economy. Story continues Interest in bitcoin among Japan's legions of individual investors - encouraged by Tokyo's recognition of the virtual currency as legal tender - has spiked in recent months. Still, institutional investors remain wary, say those running virtual currency exchanges in Tokyo. Japanese firms are also unenthusiastic: Only 4 percent of large and mid-sized firms plan to use bitcoin in the near to medium term, showed a Reuters poll last month. The value of bitcoin is highly volatile. It hit a record high of $2,980 last month. Like other virtual currencies, such as Ethereum and Ripple, bitcoin has no central authority and relies instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new units to the system - technology known as blockchain. Bitcoin can be traded on exchanges in the same manner as stocks and bonds. It has also become a mode of payment for some retailers, and a way to transfer funds without the need for a third party. (Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Christopher Cushing) || Chief of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox denies embezzlement as trial opens: By Thomas Wilson
TOKYO (Reuters) - The 32-year-old chief executive of defunct Mt. Gox pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges relating to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash from what was once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange.
French national Mark Karpeles filed the plea in response to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation at the Tokyo District Court, according to a pool report for foreign journalists.
Mt. Gox once handled 80 percent of the world's bitcoin trades but filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing some 850,000 bitcoins - then worth around half a billion U.S. dollars - and $28 million in cash from its bank accounts.
In its bankruptcy filing, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox blamed hackers for the lost bitcoins, pointing to a software security flaw.
Mt. Gox subsequently said it had found 200,000 of the missing bitcoins.
Karpeles was indicted for transferring 341 million yen ($3 million) from a Mt. Gox account holding customer funds to an account in his name during September to December 2013. The prosecution also alleged Karpeles boosted the balance of an account in his name in Mt. Gox's trading system.
In its opening statement to the court, Karpeles' defense team did not dispute that the transfers took place, but denied they amounted to embezzlement.
Karpeles told the court he was an information technology engineer.
"I swear to God that I am innocent," he said in Japanese to the three-judge panel hearing his case, according to the pool report.
LICENSED EXCHANGES
The collapse of Mt. Gox badly damaged the image of virtual currencies, particularly among risk-averse Japanese investors and corporations.
But the bankruptcy also prompted Japan's government to decide how to treat bitcoin, and preceded a push by local regulators to license virtual currency exchanges.
Japan this year became the first country to regulate exchanges at the national level, part of a government effort to exploit financial technology as a means of stimulating the economy.
Interest in bitcoin among Japan's legions of individual investors - encouraged by Tokyo's recognition of the virtual currency as legal tender - has spiked in recent months.
Still, institutional investors remain wary, say those running virtual currency exchanges in Tokyo. Japanese firms are also unenthusiastic: Only 4 percent of large and mid-sized firms plan to use bitcoin in the near to medium term, showed a Reuters poll last month.
The value of bitcoin is highly volatile. It hit a record high of $2,980 last month.
Like other virtual currencies, such as Ethereum and Ripple, bitcoin has no central authority and relies instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new units to the system - technology known as blockchain.
Bitcoin can be traded on exchanges in the same manner as stocks and bonds. It has also become a mode of payment for some retailers, and a way to transfer funds without the need for a third party.
(Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Christopher Cushing) || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Acquires Control of World's First Crypto ETF Named AlphaBIT (COIN:ABC): VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 10, 2017 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) today invested its primary wallet (1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS) owning dozens of cryptocurrencies into AlphaBIT in exchange for controlling interest, e.g. 200,000,000 ABCs. AlphaBIT is a closed-end crypto-exchange traded fund (CETF).
This is BITCF's first venture into the Ethereum ecosystem, as ABC runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Management considers this acquisition significant for many reasons, including providing a vehicle for shareholders to transparently monitor some of the Company's assets. For example, atwww.alphabitcoinfund.com, each wallet address of each asset owned that has been included in coinmarketcap.com can be seen, along with its value and the total current illiquid values of all assets owned in this manner. Also found on this site is the current Net Asset Value (NAV) of each share of the 200,000,000 ABC that BITCF owns in ABC, as well as the market value of each crypto-share of AlphaBIT.
In order to capitalize on the pent-up demand for ETFs in this space, the Company has made this acquisition, the first of its kind ETF and the only vehicle that provides such an opportunity to speculators.
With a total of 210,000,000 ABC current and ever to be in outstanding, AlphaBIT utilizes the newest ERC20 Standard Token Ethereum protocols, which is the same as some of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies - as a smart contract - which was generated by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
This hybrid fund is in the process of utilizing proprietary AI robots to buy and sell many cryptocurrencies as a small part of its business model, which it hopes to increase as proven successful and greater funding allows.
The Company intends to register AlphaBIT with the SEC and subsequently cause its shares to trade on a non-crypto, more traditional stock market, such as NASDAQ, NYSE, or the London Stock Exchange.
About the Company
First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange -www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges), we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time, the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development:
• www.CoinQX.com- cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN.
• www.altcoinmarketcap.com- market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities.
• www.Alphabitcoinfund.comworld's first crypto ETF.
• www.strain.ID- cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain.
• www.iCoiNEWS.com- real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site.
• www.BITminer.cc- providing mining pool management services.
• www.2016coin.org- online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN - commemorative presidential election coins.
• www.bitcannpay.com- Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries.
• List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS
• Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe
• Third (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.
Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com.
SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Acquires Control of World's First Crypto ETF Named AlphaBIT (COIN:ABC): VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 10, 2017 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) today invested its primary wallet (1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS) owning dozens of cryptocurrencies into AlphaBIT in exchange for controlling interest, e.g. 200,000,000 ABCs. AlphaBIT is a closed-end crypto-exchange traded fund (CETF).
This is BITCF's first venture into the Ethereum ecosystem, as ABC runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Management considers this acquisition significant for many reasons, including providing a vehicle for shareholders to transparently monitor some of the Company's assets. For example, atwww.alphabitcoinfund.com, each wallet address of each asset owned that has been included in coinmarketcap.com can be seen, along with its value and the total current illiquid values of all assets owned in this manner. Also found on this site is the current Net Asset Value (NAV) of each share of the 200,000,000 ABC that BITCF owns in ABC, as well as the market value of each crypto-share of AlphaBIT.
In order to capitalize on the pent-up demand for ETFs in this space, the Company has made this acquisition, the first of its kind ETF and the only vehicle that provides such an opportunity to speculators.
With a total of 210,000,000 ABC current and ever to be in outstanding, AlphaBIT utilizes the newest ERC20 Standard Token Ethereum protocols, which is the same as some of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies - as a smart contract - which was generated by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
This hybrid fund is in the process of utilizing proprietary AI robots to buy and sell many cryptocurrencies as a small part of its business model, which it hopes to increase as proven successful and greater funding allows.
The Company intends to register AlphaBIT with the SEC and subsequently cause its shares to trade on a non-crypto, more traditional stock market, such as NASDAQ, NYSE, or the London Stock Exchange.
About the Company
First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange -www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges), we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time, the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development:
• www.CoinQX.com- cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN.
• www.altcoinmarketcap.com- market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities.
• www.Alphabitcoinfund.comworld's first crypto ETF.
• www.strain.ID- cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain.
• www.iCoiNEWS.com- real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site.
• www.BITminer.cc- providing mining pool management services.
• www.2016coin.org- online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN - commemorative presidential election coins.
• www.bitcannpay.com- Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries.
• List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS
• Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe
• Third (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.
Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com.
SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Acquires Control of World's First Crypto ETF Named AlphaBIT (COIN:ABC): VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 10, 2017 / First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) today invested its primary wallet (1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS) owning dozens of cryptocurrencies into AlphaBIT in exchange for controlling interest, e.g. 200,000,000 ABCs. AlphaBIT is a closed-end crypto-exchange traded fund (CETF). This is BITCF's first venture into the Ethereum ecosystem, as ABC runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Management considers this acquisition significant for many reasons, including providing a vehicle for shareholders to transparently monitor some of the Company's assets. For example, at www.alphabitcoinfund.com , each wallet address of each asset owned that has been included in coinmarketcap.com can be seen, along with its value and the total current illiquid values of all assets owned in this manner. Also found on this site is the current Net Asset Value (NAV) of each share of the 200,000,000 ABC that BITCF owns in ABC, as well as the market value of each crypto-share of AlphaBIT. In order to capitalize on the pent-up demand for ETFs in this space, the Company has made this acquisition, the first of its kind ETF and the only vehicle that provides such an opportunity to speculators. With a total of 210,000,000 ABC current and ever to be in outstanding, AlphaBIT utilizes the newest ERC20 Standard Token Ethereum protocols, which is the same as some of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies - as a smart contract - which was generated by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). This hybrid fund is in the process of utilizing proprietary AI robots to buy and sell many cryptocurrencies as a small part of its business model, which it hopes to increase as proven successful and greater funding allows. The Company intends to register AlphaBIT with the SEC and subsequently cause its shares to trade on a non-crypto, more traditional stock market, such as NASDAQ, NYSE, or the London Stock Exchange. About the Company First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange - www.CoinQX.com . We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges), we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time, the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development: Story continues www.CoinQX.com - cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.altcoinmarketcap.com - market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities. www.Alphabitcoinfund.com world's first crypto ETF. www.strain.ID - cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain. www.iCoiNEWS.com - real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.cc - providing mining pool management services. www.2016coin.org - online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN - commemorative presidential election coins. www.bitcannpay.com - Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries. List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe Third (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com . Contact us via: [email protected] or visit http://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com . SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Nvidia is set to dominate the '4th tectonic shift' in computing: (Facebook)
Decades of work have paid off forNvidia. The next computer revolution is here, and the company is set to dominate its competition, according to Jefferies.
"IBM dominated in the 1950's with the mainframe computer, DEC in the mid 1960's with the transition to mini-computers, Microsoft and Intel as PCs ramped, and finally Apple and Google as cell phones became ubiquitous," Mark Lipacis wrote in a note to clients. "We believe the next tectonic shift is happening now and NVDA stands to benefit the way these aforementioned tech giants did in prior transitions."
Nvidia has been working on itsCUDA computing platformand its graphics processing unit (GPU) technology for years. Traditionally, a computer has worked in a linear way, processing one task at a time on the central processing unit (CPU).
Shortly after GPUs were introduced in the 1990s, programmers began using them to break tasks into lots of smaller problems and solving them all at the same time on the GPU. This is called "parallel processing."
For certain types of problems, like rendering lots of graphics elements in a video game, GPUs were far superior to the single-minded CPU. They were slower at single tasks, but could handle lots of problems at the same time. Nvidia developed a programming platform, called CUDA, to take advantage of the way their GPUs could handle these multi-faceted problems. CUDA made it easy to break traditional problems into multiple parts that ran much faster on a GPU than the traditional CPU.
Fast forward to modern times where artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies are the hot trends. Companies like Google, Tesla and Amazon are using artificial intelligence toprogram self-driving cars,conquer ancient board gamesanddevelop smart personal assistants. Luckily for Nvidia, artificial intelligence and deep learning programs are perfectly suited to run on its GPUs and CUDA platform.
Jefferies thinks these two technologies give Nvidia a huge advantage over the competition.
"We see NVDA as a major beneficiary of the 4th Tectonic Shift in Computing, where serial processing (x86) architectures give way to massively parallel processing capabilities as the next wave of connected devices approach 10b units by 2022," Jefferies said.
As tech giants build out new data centers to handle their ballooning artificial intelligence research, they often turn to Nvidia to supply the hundreds or thousands of GPUs they need. MIT recently said Nvidia has spent around $3 billion to develop its current data center chip, and it's a move that has paid off for the company.MIT named Nvidia as the smartest company in the worldin 2017, in part, because of this investment.
Nvidia has beenmaking waves in the autonomous-car business as well.The company recently announced partnerships with Baidu, Volvo and Volkswagen to improve their self-driving car technologies and its technology is already being used in vehicles made by Tesla, Audi and Toyota.
Cryptocurrency mining is another example of a process that runs better on GPUs. Nvidia has been raking in profits in that area too, andone Wall Street bank thinks it will be just another sector that Nvidia will come to dominate.
Investors have been rewarding Nvidia as it takes the computer world by storm. Shares of Nvidia are up 48.55% this year.
While it might take some time before Nvidia's $87.04 billion market cap comes close to the companies that dominated the last computing revolution (Alphabet at $598.61 billion and Apple at $751.88 billion), Jefferies has faith in the company. The investment bank raised its price target to $180, up about 19% from Nvidia's current price.
(Markets Insider)
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[Social Media Buzz]
PRIMEIRO SITE DE LEILÃO DE BTC DO MUNDO E É DA http://www.bitneworderauction.com/users/register/kavinkpd … ARREMATEI O BTC HJ POR 1800.00 DOLARES O MELHOR SITE PARA COMPRAR BTC || #Monacoin 64.5円↓[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ]
#NEM #XEM 13.7円↓[Zaif]
#Bitcoin 266,175円↓[Zaif]
07/14 10:00
口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO || Potential #Bitcoin network disruption after July 31 at 05:00:00 GMT-0700 (PDT) https://twitter.com/zooko/status/885406086513033216 … || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$2330.16/$2338.00 #Bitstamp
...
|
2233.34, 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43, 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12, 2730.40
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48, 3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60, 3815.49, 3857.30, 3654.83, 3923.92, 3820.41, 3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85, 4035.30, 3678.92, 3687.37, 3661.30, 3552.95, 3706.05, 3630.68, 3655.01, 3678.56, 3657.84, 3728.57, 3601.01, 3576.03, 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-03-09]
Volume: 10796103518, RSI (14-day): 59.76, 50-day EMA: 3813.54, 200-day EMA: 4817.01
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, TRON, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 8: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
The market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange.
The CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey seems to be buying Bitcoin on a weekly basis. In a recent interview, he said that he had used up the$10,000weekly limit on Square’s CashApp on buying the leading cryptocurrency. This indicates that Dorsey has been buying Bitcoin around the current price levels.
Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (СFTC), has said that if blockchain technology was available in 2008, it could have helped the banks manage their data better.
According to Giancarlo, it could havehelpedthe regulators take a more timely and appropriate action to tackle the financial crisis. This implies that the nascent technology could play an important role during the next crisis, if and when it happens.
It is no surprise that various industries are exploring options to use blockchain technology to increase productivity. As a result, global blockchain spending in 2019 is expected to reach$2.9 billion, according to advisory services firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
The crypto markets have been attempting a recovery over the past few days. Can this continue and precede a new uptrend, or is this another bounce that will be sold into? Let’s look at the charts and analyze.
Bitcoin (BTC) has been inching higher for the past three days. While it is positive that the price has been moving up, the speed of the rise is worrying. The current small range action shows a lack of urgency to buy at these levels. At this pace, the bulls will find it difficult to scale above the psychological resistance of $4,000.
Should theBTC/USDpair pick up momentum and move up, forming large trending movements, the probability of a break out of the overhead resistance increases. On breaking out of $4,255, the double bottom formation will complete, which will have a pattern target of $5,273.91. The moving averages have started to turn up, and the RSI is also in the positive territory, which shows that the bulls have a slight edge.
But if the pair fails to break out of $4,255, it will extend its stay inside the range for a few more days. The trend will turn negative if the price plunges below $3,355, and the downtrend will resume below $3,236.09.
For now, traders can retain the stops on thelongpositions below $3,236.09. We shall suggest adding more positions if the price sustains above $4,255.
Ethereum (ETH) has been sandwiched between the 20-day EMA and $144.78 for the past two days. Both of the moving averages are flat, and the RSI is also close to the midpoint, which suggests consolidation in the short term.
A break out of $144.78 will indicate strength that can carry theETH/USDpair to the next overhead resistance of $167.32. If the price sustains above $167.32, it will complete an ascending triangle pattern, which has a target objective of $251.64.
Conversely, if the bears sink the price below 20-day EMA, a fall to 50-day SMA will be probable. If this support also crumbles, the slide can extend to $116.3. Therefore, traders can hold their remaininglongpositions with a stop loss of $125.
Ripple (XRP) has been trading close to the moving averages for the past two days. Both of the moving averages are flat, and the RSI is close to the center, which suggests that the range bound action between $0.27795 and $0.33108 is likely to continue for a few more days.
If theXRP/USDpair slides below $0.29282, it can drop to the bottom of the range at $0.27795. A breakdown from this will retest the low at $0.24508. If the price breaks down to new yearly lows, it will be a huge negative.
On the upside, the cryptocurrency will attract buyers if it sustains above $0.33108. We expect momentum above $0.33108 to push the price towards the resistance line of the descending channel. Traders can hold theirlongpositions with stops below $0.27795.
EOShas been struggling to scale above the resistance of $3.8723 for the past three days. However, a small positive is that it has not given up much ground. Both of the moving averages are sloping up, and the RSI is in the positive zone, which shows that the bulls have the upper hand.
A fall from the current levels should find support at the 20-day EMA, and below it at $3.1534. The trend will weaken if the bulls fail to defend the 20-day EMA, and it will turn negative on a plunge below $3.1534.
On the other hand, if theEOS/USDpair sustains above $3.8723, it can rise to the next overhead resistance of $4.4930. Traders can maintain their stops on the remaininglongpositions at $3.1.
Litecoin (LTC) broke out of $56.910 on March 7, but could not sustain the higher levels. If the price sustains above $56.910, it can move up to $61.5680, and above it to $65.5610.
Both of the moving averages are sloping up, and the RSI is also close to the overbought levels, which shows that the path of least resistance is to the upside. The only worrying factor is the negative divergence on the RSI.
If theLTC/USDpair doesn’t break out of $56.91 within a couple of days, it will be likely to attract profit booking that can drag it to the 20-day EMA. Therefore, traders can trail the stops on thelongpositions to $50 now, and raise them further if weakness sets in.
A breakdown of the 20-day EMA will be the first indication that the trend has weakened, and a fall to the 50-day SMA will probably follow.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) failed to reach the top of the $120–$140 range after bouncing off the support on March 4, which shows a lack of buying at higher levels. Currently, the bears are attempting to push the price back to the bottom of the range at $120. The flat moving averages, as well as the RSI close to 50 levels, point to a few more days of consolidation.
A breakdown of $120 can sink theBCH/USDpair to $105, and if this level also breaks, it can fall to $73.5. Conversely, a breakout above $140 can propel the pair to the next overhead zone of $157.95–$163.89. The traders can retain the stops on theirlongpositions at $116.
Binance Coin (BNB) scaled above our first target objective of $15 and reached a high of $15.9100517 on March 7. Currently, we see profit booking that has dragged the price back below $15. In a strong uptrend, the pullbacks usually last for one to three days.
However, the failure to sustain above $15 after breaking out of it, shows that the bulls are nervous at higher levels. Therefore, we suggest traders book profits on 40 percent of theirlongpositions on any pullback towards $15 and raise the stops on the rest to breakeven. Let’s avoid losing money if the price turns down sharply from the current levels.
If the bulls hold the price at $14 and resume the uptrend, a rally to $18 is probable. We anticipate a strong resistance at $18, but if this is crossed, theBNB/USDpair might retest the lifetime highs. This shows that the pair is extremely positive.
Our bullish view will be invalidated if the current pullback extends to the 20-day EMA and breaks it. However, we give a low probability of this occurring.
Stellar (XLM) is attempting to break out of the overhead resistance at $0.09285498. If successful, it will move up to $0.10. If the bulls scale above this level, we anticipate a rally to $0.13427050. Therefore, traders can buy above $0.10 and keep a stop loss at $0.08.
As this virtual currency has been an underperformer, we suggest using only 50 percent of the usual position size.
Conversely, if theXLM/USDpair turns down either from $0.09285498 or from $0.10, it can fall to $0.08184371. If this support also cracks, the pair will turn negative and can drop to the yearly low.
Both of the moving averages are flattening out, and the RSI is close to the midpoint. This suggests that the bears are losing momentum.
Tron (TRX) failed to sustain above the 20-day EMA on March 5 and 6, which is a bearish sign. The price is back at the support of $0.02306493. If the bears sink the cryptocurrency below this support, a fall to $0.02094452, and below that to $0.0183 will be probable.
The 20-day EMA has started to turn down, and the RSI has also dipped into the negative zone. This shows that the bears have the upper hand in the short term. As long as the price remains below the 20-day EMA, every pullback will be sold into.
Our bearish view will be negated if theTRX/USDpair rebounds sharply from $0.02306493 and rises above $0.02815521.
Bitcoin SV is attempting to break out of the overhead resistance at $71.412. If successful, it will move up to $77.035, above which, a rally to $102.580, followed by a move to $123.980 will be probable. Traders can attempt to ride this upward move by initiating long positions at $78, with a stop loss at $58.
However, if theBSV/USDpair fails to break out of $71.412, it will remain stuck in the range of $65.031–$71.412. There are many supports on the downside.
The pair will turn negative if the price plummets below $58.072. Both of the moving averages are flat, and the RSI is also near the midpoint. This shows that the pressure from bears has decreased, and a consolidation in the short term is likely.
The market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange. The charts for the analysis are provided byTradingView.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 6
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 1
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, February 27
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 4 || Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, TRON, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 8: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
The market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange.
The CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey seems to be buying Bitcoin on a weekly basis. In a recent interview, he said that he had used up the$10,000weekly limit on Square’s CashApp on buying the leading cryptocurrency. This indicates that Dorsey has been buying Bitcoin around the current price levels.
Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (СFTC), has said that if blockchain technology was available in 2008, it could have helped the banks manage their data better.
According to Giancarlo, it could havehelpedthe regulators take a more timely and appropriate action to tackle the financial crisis. This implies that the nascent technology could play an important role during the next crisis, if and when it happens.
It is no surprise that various industries are exploring options to use blockchain technology to increase productivity. As a result, global blockchain spending in 2019 is expected to reach$2.9 billion, according to advisory services firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
The crypto markets have been attempting a recovery over the past few days. Can this continue and precede a new uptrend, or is this another bounce that will be sold into? Let’s look at the charts and analyze.
Bitcoin (BTC) has been inching higher for the past three days. While it is positive that the price has been moving up, the speed of the rise is worrying. The current small range action shows a lack of urgency to buy at these levels. At this pace, the bulls will find it difficult to scale above the psychological resistance of $4,000.
Should theBTC/USDpair pick up momentum and move up, forming large trending movements, the probability of a break out of the overhead resistance increases. On breaking out of $4,255, the double bottom formation will complete, which will have a pattern target of $5,273.91. The moving averages have started to turn up, and the RSI is also in the positive territory, which shows that the bulls have a slight edge.
But if the pair fails to break out of $4,255, it will extend its stay inside the range for a few more days. The trend will turn negative if the price plunges below $3,355, and the downtrend will resume below $3,236.09.
For now, traders can retain the stops on thelongpositions below $3,236.09. We shall suggest adding more positions if the price sustains above $4,255.
Ethereum (ETH) has been sandwiched between the 20-day EMA and $144.78 for the past two days. Both of the moving averages are flat, and the RSI is also close to the midpoint, which suggests consolidation in the short term.
A break out of $144.78 will indicate strength that can carry theETH/USDpair to the next overhead resistance of $167.32. If the price sustains above $167.32, it will complete an ascending triangle pattern, which has a target objective of $251.64.
Conversely, if the bears sink the price below 20-day EMA, a fall to 50-day SMA will be probable. If this support also crumbles, the slide can extend to $116.3. Therefore, traders can hold their remaininglongpositions with a stop loss of $125.
Ripple (XRP) has been trading close to the moving averages for the past two days. Both of the moving averages are flat, and the RSI is close to the center, which suggests that the range bound action between $0.27795 and $0.33108 is likely to continue for a few more days.
If theXRP/USDpair slides below $0.29282, it can drop to the bottom of the range at $0.27795. A breakdown from this will retest the low at $0.24508. If the price breaks down to new yearly lows, it will be a huge negative.
On the upside, the cryptocurrency will attract buyers if it sustains above $0.33108. We expect momentum above $0.33108 to push the price towards the resistance line of the descending channel. Traders can hold theirlongpositions with stops below $0.27795.
EOShas been struggling to scale above the resistance of $3.8723 for the past three days. However, a small positive is that it has not given up much ground. Both of the moving averages are sloping up, and the RSI is in the positive zone, which shows that the bulls have the upper hand.
A fall from the current levels should find support at the 20-day EMA, and below it at $3.1534. The trend will weaken if the bulls fail to defend the 20-day EMA, and it will turn negative on a plunge below $3.1534.
On the other hand, if theEOS/USDpair sustains above $3.8723, it can rise to the next overhead resistance of $4.4930. Traders can maintain their stops on the remaininglongpositions at $3.1.
Litecoin (LTC) broke out of $56.910 on March 7, but could not sustain the higher levels. If the price sustains above $56.910, it can move up to $61.5680, and above it to $65.5610.
Both of the moving averages are sloping up, and the RSI is also close to the overbought levels, which shows that the path of least resistance is to the upside. The only worrying factor is the negative divergence on the RSI.
If theLTC/USDpair doesn’t break out of $56.91 within a couple of days, it will be likely to attract profit booking that can drag it to the 20-day EMA. Therefore, traders can trail the stops on thelongpositions to $50 now, and raise them further if weakness sets in.
A breakdown of the 20-day EMA will be the first indication that the trend has weakened, and a fall to the 50-day SMA will probably follow.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) failed to reach the top of the $120–$140 range after bouncing off the support on March 4, which shows a lack of buying at higher levels. Currently, the bears are attempting to push the price back to the bottom of the range at $120. The flat moving averages, as well as the RSI close to 50 levels, point to a few more days of consolidation.
A breakdown of $120 can sink theBCH/USDpair to $105, and if this level also breaks, it can fall to $73.5. Conversely, a breakout above $140 can propel the pair to the next overhead zone of $157.95–$163.89. The traders can retain the stops on theirlongpositions at $116.
Binance Coin (BNB) scaled above our first target objective of $15 and reached a high of $15.9100517 on March 7. Currently, we see profit booking that has dragged the price back below $15. In a strong uptrend, the pullbacks usually last for one to three days.
However, the failure to sustain above $15 after breaking out of it, shows that the bulls are nervous at higher levels. Therefore, we suggest traders book profits on 40 percent of theirlongpositions on any pullback towards $15 and raise the stops on the rest to breakeven. Let’s avoid losing money if the price turns down sharply from the current levels.
If the bulls hold the price at $14 and resume the uptrend, a rally to $18 is probable. We anticipate a strong resistance at $18, but if this is crossed, theBNB/USDpair might retest the lifetime highs. This shows that the pair is extremely positive.
Our bullish view will be invalidated if the current pullback extends to the 20-day EMA and breaks it. However, we give a low probability of this occurring.
Stellar (XLM) is attempting to break out of the overhead resistance at $0.09285498. If successful, it will move up to $0.10. If the bulls scale above this level, we anticipate a rally to $0.13427050. Therefore, traders can buy above $0.10 and keep a stop loss at $0.08.
As this virtual currency has been an underperformer, we suggest using only 50 percent of the usual position size.
Conversely, if theXLM/USDpair turns down either from $0.09285498 or from $0.10, it can fall to $0.08184371. If this support also cracks, the pair will turn negative and can drop to the yearly low.
Both of the moving averages are flattening out, and the RSI is close to the midpoint. This suggests that the bears are losing momentum.
Tron (TRX) failed to sustain above the 20-day EMA on March 5 and 6, which is a bearish sign. The price is back at the support of $0.02306493. If the bears sink the cryptocurrency below this support, a fall to $0.02094452, and below that to $0.0183 will be probable.
The 20-day EMA has started to turn down, and the RSI has also dipped into the negative zone. This shows that the bears have the upper hand in the short term. As long as the price remains below the 20-day EMA, every pullback will be sold into.
Our bearish view will be negated if theTRX/USDpair rebounds sharply from $0.02306493 and rises above $0.02815521.
Bitcoin SV is attempting to break out of the overhead resistance at $71.412. If successful, it will move up to $77.035, above which, a rally to $102.580, followed by a move to $123.980 will be probable. Traders can attempt to ride this upward move by initiating long positions at $78, with a stop loss at $58.
However, if theBSV/USDpair fails to break out of $71.412, it will remain stuck in the range of $65.031–$71.412. There are many supports on the downside.
The pair will turn negative if the price plummets below $58.072. Both of the moving averages are flat, and the RSI is also near the midpoint. This shows that the pressure from bears has decreased, and a consolidation in the short term is likely.
The market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange. The charts for the analysis are provided byTradingView.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 6
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 1
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, February 27
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 4 || Bitcoin Price Analysis: New High Paves Potential Reversal Setup: Bitcoin Price Analysis After days and days of consolidation, bitcoin finally managed to break a new high for the first time in almost two weeks. This new high, so far, has been short lived, however, as it was almost immediately sold into by eager bears: Figure_1 (2).png Figure 1: BTC-USD, 4-Hour Candles, New High Our current 4-hour candle is seeing a relatively easy retracement after days and days of an upward grind. We managed to close a new high, but it was quickly rejected and, depending on where the currently daily closes, could lead to a macro reversal setup known as a Swing Failure Pattern (SFP): Figure_2 (14).png Figure 2: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Potential SFP An SFP is characterized simply as a push to a new high that fails to close above the previous high. This is a tactic often used by large institutions to generate liquidity prior to a market reversal. In our case, since we are dealing with daily candles, this could mean we are in for a test of new lows in the mid $3,500s. If we manage to see a reversal, the first logical level to test is the $3,700 range. If we manage to close a candle below that and our prior low, we could be in for a nasty run to the low $3,000s: Figure_3 (13).png Figure 3: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Zone of Support The red zone outlined above has been our latest level of support over the last few weeks. It also proved to be a point of resistance in the past and represents a major pivot level in our current market structure. If we break below this level, it would represent a third failed attempt to hold support and could lead to a strong, powerful move to the downside. We never retested our macro low in the $3,000 level, so we could be in for a major move to test macro support. Three failed attempts to break out of our range (all three with very powerful rejections) show that our market is still very dominated by supply within our current range. Right now, our test of resistance is still fresh so its a bit early to make a macro market call. But one thing that is clear is the presence of supply. When we look at Figure 3 we can see large daily candles rejecting our tests of the $4,000s and so far we have yet to give a very strong test of macro support. So, it seems logical that after three failed attempts the likely course of action for the macro market would be a test of $3,000. Story continues As stated, the move is still fresh so we need to take it day by day. Keep an eye out for the level outlined in red as a close below this would likely confirm a strong continuation to the downside. We have many trapped bulls at our current level and a strong move to the downside could potentially squeeze them out of the positions. Summary: Bitcoin finally broke a new high but was rejected immediately. This rejection sets us for a reversal called a Swing Failure Pattern. The failure to close above the new high could mean the a liquidity run took place for large institutions to short the market. On a macro level, the market failed to break out of our multi-month range three times indicating supply dominance in the market. If we manage to see a strong continuation, we could easily see a test of the $3,000s before any meaningful upward progress is realized in the market. Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Inc related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Inc and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Bitcoin Price Analysis: New High Paves Potential Reversal Setup: After days and days of consolidation, bitcoin finally managed to break a new high for the first time in almost two weeks. This new high, so far, has been short lived, however, as it was almost immediately sold into by eager bears:
Figure 1: BTC-USD, 4-Hour Candles, New High
Our current 4-hour candle is seeing a relatively easy retracement after days and days of an upward grind. We managed to close a new high, but it was quickly rejected and, depending on where the currently daily closes, could lead to a macro reversal setup known as a Swing Failure Pattern (SFP):
Figure 2: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Potential SFP
An SFP is characterized simply as a push to a new high that fails to close above the previous high. This is a tactic often used by large institutions to generate liquidity prior to a market reversal. In our case, since we are dealing with daily candles, this could mean we are in for a test of new lows in the mid $3,500s. If we manage to see a reversal, the first logical level to test is the $3,700 range. If we manage to close a candle below that and our prior low, we could be in for a nasty run to the low $3,000s:
Figure 3: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Zone of Support
The red zone outlined above has been our latest level of support over the last few weeks. It also proved to be a point of resistance in the past and represents a major pivot level in our current market structure. If we break below this level, it would represent a third failed attempt to hold support and could lead to a strong, powerful move to the downside. We never retested our macro low in the $3,000 level, so we could be in for a major move to test macro support. Three failed attempts to break out of our range (all three with very powerful rejections) show that our market is still very dominated by supply within our current range.
Right now, our test of resistance is still fresh so it’s a bit early to make a macro market call. But one thing that is clear is the presence of supply. When we look at Figure 3 we can see large daily candles rejecting our tests of the $4,000s and so far we have yet to give a very strong test of macro support. So, it seems logical that after three failed attempts the likely course of action for the macro market would be a test of $3,000.
As stated, the move is still fresh so we need to take it day by day. Keep an eye out for the level outlined in red as a close below this would likely confirm a strong continuation to the downside. We have many trapped bulls at our current level and a strong move to the downside could potentially squeeze them out of the positions.
1. Bitcoin finally broke a new high but was rejected immediately. This rejection sets us for a reversal called a “Swing Failure Pattern.” The failure to close above the new high could mean the a liquidity run took place for large institutions to short the market.
2. On a macro level, the market failed to break out of our multi-month range three times — indicating supply dominance in the market.
3. If we manage to see a strong continuation, we could easily see a test of the $3,000s before any meaningful upward progress is realized in the market.
Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Inc related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Inc and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Bitcoin Price Analysis: New High Paves Potential Reversal Setup: After days and days of consolidation, bitcoin finally managed to break a new high for the first time in almost two weeks. This new high, so far, has been short lived, however, as it was almost immediately sold into by eager bears:
Figure 1: BTC-USD, 4-Hour Candles, New High
Our current 4-hour candle is seeing a relatively easy retracement after days and days of an upward grind. We managed to close a new high, but it was quickly rejected and, depending on where the currently daily closes, could lead to a macro reversal setup known as a Swing Failure Pattern (SFP):
Figure 2: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Potential SFP
An SFP is characterized simply as a push to a new high that fails to close above the previous high. This is a tactic often used by large institutions to generate liquidity prior to a market reversal. In our case, since we are dealing with daily candles, this could mean we are in for a test of new lows in the mid $3,500s. If we manage to see a reversal, the first logical level to test is the $3,700 range. If we manage to close a candle below that and our prior low, we could be in for a nasty run to the low $3,000s:
Figure 3: BTC-USD, Daily Candles, Zone of Support
The red zone outlined above has been our latest level of support over the last few weeks. It also proved to be a point of resistance in the past and represents a major pivot level in our current market structure. If we break below this level, it would represent a third failed attempt to hold support and could lead to a strong, powerful move to the downside. We never retested our macro low in the $3,000 level, so we could be in for a major move to test macro support. Three failed attempts to break out of our range (all three with very powerful rejections) show that our market is still very dominated by supply within our current range.
Right now, our test of resistance is still fresh so it’s a bit early to make a macro market call. But one thing that is clear is the presence of supply. When we look at Figure 3 we can see large daily candles rejecting our tests of the $4,000s and so far we have yet to give a very strong test of macro support. So, it seems logical that after three failed attempts the likely course of action for the macro market would be a test of $3,000.
As stated, the move is still fresh so we need to take it day by day. Keep an eye out for the level outlined in red as a close below this would likely confirm a strong continuation to the downside. We have many trapped bulls at our current level and a strong move to the downside could potentially squeeze them out of the positions.
1. Bitcoin finally broke a new high but was rejected immediately. This rejection sets us for a reversal called a “Swing Failure Pattern.” The failure to close above the new high could mean the a liquidity run took place for large institutions to short the market.
2. On a macro level, the market failed to break out of our multi-month range three times — indicating supply dominance in the market.
3. If we manage to see a strong continuation, we could easily see a test of the $3,000s before any meaningful upward progress is realized in the market.
Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Inc related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Inc and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Revolut Launches Auto-Exchange Feature for Select Crypto and Fiat Currencies: revolut2.jpg Revolut, a mobile finance and payment application based in the U.K., has launched a service that makes it possible for its clients to “auto-exchange” fiat and digital currencies on its platform. The new feature is intended to make it possible for users to protect themselves against volatilities in the crypto market. Per a company blog post, Revolut users can automatically exchange “fiat currencies, such as the US dollar (USD) to ether (ETH) or bitcoin (BTC), to XRP,” and vice versa, based on a predetermined target rate. Customers can set it up in simple steps. At the Rate s page in the app, you'll select the currencies, and then define the target price you want to exchange them for. The app takes it up from there. As soon as the current exchange rates match the target, the app will make the exchange automatically. If the prevailing exchange rate doesn’t hit the target price, however, there won't be a conversion. However, Revolut also warned of one caveat: Due to the probability of high exchange rate fluctuations, it is possible for achieved rates to differ slightly from the target rates. “Just remember we can’t guarantee that you’ll receive the rate you request, but we’ll try to get the price as close to your target as we can.“ Generally, the rule is that whenever there’s high market volatility, no trade will be executed once the exchange rate skews more than 0.75 percent and 5 percent on either side of your target rate for fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies respectively. In addition to that, the feature has a daily exchange cap. Customers can only make fiat exchanges that don't exceed €10,000 (approximately $11,198 USD) to digital assets daily. Also, customers can make no more than 30 auto-exchange transactions on the platform per day. So far there is a limited number of currencies available for conversion. The auto-exchange feature supports fiat currencies USD, EUR and GBP, and three digital assets: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and ripple (XRP). Story continues Revolut started offering trading services for cryptocurrencies back in July 2017. Then in 2018, the company drew comparisons with American trading platform Robinhood when it announced the imminent arrival of commission-free stock trading on its platform. The feature is expected to be released later this year. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Revolut Launches Auto-Exchange Feature for Select Crypto and Fiat Currencies: Revolut, a mobile finance and payment application based in the U.K., haslauncheda service that makes it possible for its clients to “auto-exchange” fiat and digital currencies on its platform.
The new feature is intended to make it possible for users to protect themselves against volatilities in the crypto market. Per a company blog post, Revolut users can automatically exchange “fiat currencies, such as the US dollar (USD) to ether (ETH) or bitcoin (BTC), to XRP,” and vice versa, based on a predetermined target rate.
Customers can set it up in simple steps. At theRates page in the app, you'll select the currencies, and then define the target price you want to exchange them for. The app takes it up from there.
As soon as the current exchange rates match the target, the app will make the exchange automatically. If the prevailing exchange rate doesn’t hit the target price, however, there won't be a conversion.
However, Revolut also warned of one caveat: Due to the probability of high exchange rate fluctuations, it is possible for achieved rates to differ slightly from the target rates.
“Just remember we can’t guarantee that you’ll receive the rate you request, but we’ll try to get the price as close to your target as we can.“
Generally, the rule is that whenever there’s high market volatility, no trade will be executed once the exchange rate skews more than 0.75 percent and 5 percent on either side of your target rate for fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies respectively.
In addition to that, the feature has a daily exchange cap. Customers can only make fiat exchanges that don't exceed €10,000 (approximately $11,198 USD) to digital assets daily. Also, customers can make no more than 30 auto-exchange transactions on the platform per day.
So far there is a limited number of currencies available for conversion. The auto-exchange feature supports fiat currencies USD, EUR and GBP, and three digital assets: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and ripple (XRP).
Revolutstartedoffering trading services for cryptocurrencies back in July 2017. Then in 2018, the company drew comparisons with American trading platformRobinhoodwhen it announced the imminent arrival of commission-free stock trading on its platform.
The feature is expected to bereleasedlater this year.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || GSR Markets missing $2M in bitcoin after poor escrow tricks: Disclaimer: These summaries are provided for educational purposes only byNelson RosarioandStephen Palley. They are not legal advice. These are our opinions only, aren’t authorized by any past, present or future client or employer. Also we might change our minds. We contain multitudes.
As always, Rosario summaries are “NMR” and Palley summaries are “SDP".
[related id=1]GSR Markets Limited v. Diana McDonald et al., Case 1:19-cv-01005-MLB, N.D. Ga., 3/1/19 [SDP]
A number of crypto lawsuits have involved escrow arrangements gone awry. This case seems to be the latest, with the added peculiarity that a lawyer is allegedly involved. In a nutshell, the plaintiffs allege that they wired $4 million to a lawyer’s trust account and expected to receive bitcoin in exchange, and that they haven’t received the bitcoin and that only half of their money was returned. The lawyer has since responded and says that she didn’t do anything wrong and that if there was a scam that she is a victim too.
It’s a little bit challenging to figure out exactly what happened here, and the plaintiff and the defendant present a different view of the facts. The pleadings are a tangled web of accusation and response. According to the plaintiff, “Valkyrie [one of the defendants] promised that it would provide Bitcoin to GSR Markets [plaintiff]in exchange for $4 million. In reliance on that promise, GSR Markets wired $4 million into the Wells Fargo IOLTA account (a fiduciary account) of McDonald and McDonald Law [also defendants]. After the bitcoin didn’t arrive, plaintiff says it demanded its money and only received half, while the defendants kept the other $2 million. Plaintiff is a Hong Kong company and all of the defendants are American.
Plaintiff says that it acted a broker for a company called Alivia Corporation Pty, Ltd. (“Alivia”). It also alleges that “[o]n January 3, 2019, Plaintiff wired $4,000,000 into the Account, expecting that it would immediately receive 1,000 Bitcoins from the Sellers. Based on that expectation, GSR Markets shorted those 1,000 Bitcoins, based on a purchase price of $3,635 per Bitcoin.” No bitcoin ever arrived, and Plaintiff says it also lost $380,000 in order to unwind its short position. Plaintiff says they got $2 million back but are still out of pocket $2 million.
Plaintiff asks for injunctive relief and also alleges fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against the law firm. The breach of fiduciary theory is premised on the the theory that “McDonald and McDonald Law were to hold Plaintiff’s funds in the Account in trust for Plaintiff. As such, they owed certain fiduciary duties to Plaintiff, including the duty to act in good faith and in the best interests of Plaintiff.” In addition to suing the lawyer and the seller, plaintiff also sued Wells Fargo bank — where the IOLTA account was held — for aiding and abetting fraud. Their lawyer also filed a complaint with the Georgia bar. The Court has entered a temporary restraining order freezing any funds held by the lawyer — IOLTA or not — at Wells Fargo Bank.
The lawyer has since filed a response and says that she didn’t owe a fiduciary duty to the buyer — that her duties only ran to the seller. She further says after wiring a portion of the funds to “unlock” a bitcoin wallet, the Seller “informed Defendant McDonald that there was a delay in delivery of the Bitcoin to GSR because of hacking issues affecting [its]storage systems.” She also claims that Plaintiff “confirmed delivery of 2000 “non-spendable” bitcoin, which probably … isn’t … actually … a thing.
Most cases have two sides and this one appears to be no different. I am not suggesting that this lawyer was in cahoots with a scammer. I would suggest, however, that it is a really questionable proposition for lawyers to act as escrow agents and use their trust accounts for bitcoin transactions, and even more so when they don’t clearly understand how the stuff works.
The Block is pleased to bring you expert cryptocurrency legal analysis courtesy of Stephen Palley (@stephendpalley) and Nelson M. Rosario (@nelsonmrosario). They summarize three cryptocurrency-related cases on a weekly basis and have given The Block permission to republish their commentary and analysis in full. Part I of this week's analysis, Crypto Caselaw Minute, is above.
Image Credit:Unsplash/oakie || GSR Markets missing $2M in bitcoin after poor escrow tricks: Disclaimer: These summaries are provided for educational purposes only by Nelson Rosario and Stephen Palley . They are not legal advice. These are our opinions only, aren’t authorized by any past, present or future client or employer. Also we might change our minds. We contain multitudes. As always, Rosario summaries are “NMR” and Palley summaries are “SDP". [related id=1]GSR Markets Limited v. Diana McDonald et al., Case 1:19-cv-01005-MLB, N.D. Ga., 3/1/19 [SDP] A number of crypto lawsuits have involved escrow arrangements gone awry. This case seems to be the latest, with the added peculiarity that a lawyer is allegedly involved. In a nutshell, the plaintiffs allege that they wired $4 million to a lawyer’s trust account and expected to receive bitcoin in exchange, and that they haven’t received the bitcoin and that only half of their money was returned. The lawyer has since responded and says that she didn’t do anything wrong and that if there was a scam that she is a victim too. It’s a little bit challenging to figure out exactly what happened here, and the plaintiff and the defendant present a different view of the facts. The pleadings are a tangled web of accusation and response. According to the plaintiff, “Valkyrie [one of the defendants] promised that it would provide Bitcoin to GSR Markets [plaintiff]in exchange for $4 million. In reliance on that promise, GSR Markets wired $4 million into the Wells Fargo IOLTA account (a fiduciary account) of McDonald and McDonald Law [also defendants]. After the bitcoin didn’t arrive, plaintiff says it demanded its money and only received half, while the defendants kept the other $2 million. Plaintiff is a Hong Kong company and all of the defendants are American. Plaintiff says that it acted a broker for a company called Alivia Corporation Pty, Ltd. (“Alivia”). It also alleges that “[o]n January 3, 2019, Plaintiff wired $4,000,000 into the Account, expecting that it would immediately receive 1,000 Bitcoins from the Sellers. Based on that expectation, GSR Markets shorted those 1,000 Bitcoins, based on a purchase price of $3,635 per Bitcoin.” No bitcoin ever arrived, and Plaintiff says it also lost $380,000 in order to unwind its short position. Plaintiff says they got $2 million back but are still out of pocket $2 million. Story continues Plaintiff asks for injunctive relief and also alleges fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against the law firm. The breach of fiduciary theory is premised on the the theory that “McDonald and McDonald Law were to hold Plaintiff’s funds in the Account in trust for Plaintiff. As such, they owed certain fiduciary duties to Plaintiff, including the duty to act in good faith and in the best interests of Plaintiff.” In addition to suing the lawyer and the seller, plaintiff also sued Wells Fargo bank — where the IOLTA account was held — for aiding and abetting fraud. Their lawyer also filed a complaint with the Georgia bar. The Court has entered a temporary restraining order freezing any funds held by the lawyer — IOLTA or not — at Wells Fargo Bank. The lawyer has since filed a response and says that she didn’t owe a fiduciary duty to the buyer — that her duties only ran to the seller. She further says after wiring a portion of the funds to “unlock” a bitcoin wallet, the Seller “informed Defendant McDonald that there was a delay in delivery of the Bitcoin to GSR because of hacking issues affecting [its]storage systems.” She also claims that Plaintiff “confirmed delivery of 2000 “non-spendable” bitcoin, which probably … isn’t … actually … a thing. Most cases have two sides and this one appears to be no different. I am not suggesting that this lawyer was in cahoots with a scammer. I would suggest, however, that it is a really questionable proposition for lawyers to act as escrow agents and use their trust accounts for bitcoin transactions, and even more so when they don’t clearly understand how the stuff works. The Block is pleased to bring you expert cryptocurrency legal analysis courtesy of Stephen Palley ( @stephendpalley ) and Nelson M. Rosario ( @nelsonmrosario ). They summarize three cryptocurrency-related cases on a weekly basis and have given The Block permission to republish their commentary and analysis in full. Part I of this week's analysis, Crypto Caselaw Minute, is above. Image Credit: Unsplash/oakie || Vitalik Buterin Proposes That Wallets Charge Gas Fee for Transactions: Ethereum (ETH) co-founderVitalik Buterinproposed that wallets charge a gas fee fortransactionsin order to support developers in atweeton March 8.
Gas is a unit for measuring the computational work of operating transactions orsmart contractsin the Ethereum network, wherein different kinds of transactions require a different volume of gas to execute. Gas price is the price of ETH a user wants to pay for every unit of gas measured ingwei, while gas limit represents the maximum amount of gas a user will pay for a transaction. In the tweet, Buterin stated:
“I propose we consider supporting a community norm that client/wallet devs can/should charge a 1 gwei/gas fee for txs sent through their wallet, we don't try to circumvent such fees, and we support protocol changes to make such fees easier (eg. abstraction enabling multisends)”
Buterin gave a broader picture of the proposed change, saying that increasing average user gas costs by around seven percent would raise up to $2 million per year in funding for wallet developers. Buterin further explained his position:
“To be clear, I am NOT advocating a norm *mandating* the 1 gwei fee. I am arguing for a norm discouraging overly complaining about and/or trying to circumvent the fee if/where it exists.”
One commentator on the thread pointed said, “Multibit [Bitcoin (BTC) wallet] tried this. It was an utter failure. Users were not willing to pay for something that was previously free. No one would upgrade. Eventually, the fee was removed. Without a good way to pay for support and engineering, development on the wallet stopped.”
In March 2018, Buterinstatedthat he had been trying to solve Bitcoin’s limited functionality with the creation of Ethereum. Buterin compared Bitcoin to a plot key calculator, stating that it does one thing and it does it well, while he believes Ethereum is more like a smartphone, which can run apps capable of doing almost everything, including acting as a plot key calculator.
Last month, Ethereum core devsimplementedthe Constantinople and St. Petersburg network upgrades, which went live on the main network at block 7,280,000, in accordance with the previouslyreleasedschedule. Constantinople is set to bring multiple efficiency improvements to the platform, including cheaper transaction fees for some operations on the Ethereum network.
• Top Cryptos See Minor Losses as Bitcoin Falls Towards $3,900
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• Ethereum Has More Than Twice as Many Core Devs per Month as Bitcoin, Report Says
• Crypto Markets See Mixed Signals, Gold Hovers Near Multi-Week Low || Crypto Markets Trade Sideways, Oil Demonstrates Slight Losses: Friday, March 8 — cryptocurrency markets are trading sideways, remaining relatively quiet with moderate losses throughout the top 20 coins, according to Coin360. COIN 360 Market visualization from Coin360 The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin ( BTC ) is up 0.5 percent during the past 24 hours, and is trading at around $3,942 at press time. BTC began the day at $3,921, hitting its highest mark at $3,947 in the middle of the day before reaching its current price. BTC Bitcoin 24-hour chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ethereum ( ETH ) is down by 0.06 percent on the day, trading around $138.69. The altcoin’s weekly chart shows a price slump to $125 on March 4, with a jump to $139 on March 6 as the intra-week high. ETH Ethereum 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The third largest cryptocurrency by market cap Ripple ( XRP ) is also down by 0.82 percent over the day, and is trading around $0.312 at press time. Over the past seven days XRP is down by 2.5 percent. XRP Ripple 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Binance Coin (BNB) has stood out among other top 20 coins, losing over seven percent on the day. The altcoin is trading at around $14.46, while its daily trading volume is around $2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap . On its weekly chart, BNB is still up 26.37 percent. BINANCE COIN CHARTS Binance Coin 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap During the last week, total market capitalization of all 2,102 coins on the CoinMarketCap list has demonstrated a gradual increase to the current price point of $133.9 billion, with a mild decrease to $125.1 billion on March 4. Total market Total market capitalization 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slumped by 58 cents, or 1.02 percent over the day, and is trading at around $56.08 at press time. CNBC reports that earlier today WTI lost more than 3 percent reaching the three-week low at $54.52. Brent Crude futures are down 0.77 percent, or 51 cent on the day, and are trading at around $65.79. The international benchmark for oil prices was reportedly on pace for a roughly 1 percent gain on the week. Story continues As MarketWatch reported today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 200 points, or 0.08 percent to the price point of $25,270, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.6 percent to trade at around $2,743. Related Articles: Crypto Markets See Mixed Signals, Gold Hovers Near Multi-Week Low Leading Social Investing Platform EToro Launches Crypto Services in 32 US States Crypto Markets Recover $5 Billion Lost on Monday, Bitcoin Tests $3,900 Support Crypto Markets See Major Losses, While Stocks Rise as US-China Talks Expected to End || Crypto Markets Trade Sideways, Oil Demonstrates Slight Losses: Friday, March 8 —cryptocurrencymarkets are trading sideways, remaining relatively quiet with moderate losses throughout the top 20 coins, according to Coin360.
Market visualization fromCoin360
The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) is up 0.5 percent during the past 24 hours, and is trading at around $3,942 at press time. BTC began the day at $3,921, hitting its highest mark at $3,947 in the middle of the day before reaching its current price.
Bitcoin 24-hour chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Ethereum (ETH) is down by 0.06 percent on the day, trading around $138.69. The altcoin’s weekly chart shows a price slump to $125 on March 4, with a jump to $139 on March 6 as the intra-week high.
Ethereum 7-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
The third largest cryptocurrency by market cap Ripple (XRP) is also down by 0.82 percent over the day, and is trading around $0.312 at press time. Over the past seven days XRP is down by 2.5 percent.
Ripple 7-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Binance Coin (BNB) has stood out among other top 20 coins, losing over seven percent on the day. The altcoin is trading at around $14.46, while its daily trading volume is around $2 billion, according toCoinMarketCap. On its weekly chart, BNB is still up 26.37 percent.
Binance Coin 7-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
During the last week, total market capitalization of all 2,102 coins on the CoinMarketCap list has demonstrated a gradual increase to the current price point of $133.9 billion, with a mild decrease to $125.1 billion on March 4.
Total market capitalization 7-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slumped by 58 cents, or 1.02 percent over the day, and istradingat around $56.08 at press time. CNBCreportsthat earlier today WTI lost more than 3 percent reaching the three-week low at $54.52.
Brent Crude futures are down 0.77 percent, or 51 cent on the day, and aretradingat around $65.79. The international benchmark foroilprices wasreportedlyon pace for a roughly 1 percent gain on the week.
As MarketWatchreportedtoday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 200 points, or 0.08 percent to the price point of $25,270, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.6 percent to trade at around $2,743.
• Crypto Markets See Mixed Signals, Gold Hovers Near Multi-Week Low
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• Crypto Markets Recover $5 Billion Lost on Monday, Bitcoin Tests $3,900 Support
• Crypto Markets See Major Losses, While Stocks Rise as US-China Talks Expected to End || Decentralized Exchange Hodl Hodl Is Launching a Bitcoin-Based Prediction Market: Hodl Hodl, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it is launching a prediction market on Bitcoin. Slated for launch in the spring of 2019, it would be the first Bitcoin-based prediction market to go live on Bitcoin’s mainnet.
A prediction market is a novel application of blockchain technology. The betting platforms allow users to secure odds, futures and outcomes with smart contracts. Two users place funds (traditionally, ether) into a smart contract to bet on futures for any given outcome; when the outcome arrives, the smart contract automatically pays out to the winner.
Most prediction markets are built on blockchains with a more flexible smart contract language, like Ethereum.Augur, for example,pioneeredthe model when it launched in July 2018 as the first decentralized prediction market to make use of Ethereum’s ERC-20 token contract. Other prediction markets havefollowed suit, including Gnosis on Ethereum and Bhodi on QTUM.
Despite Augur’s frontrunning status, Hodl Hodl believes that it can improve on aspects of the platform’s operations — specifically, in its solution to the “oracle problem:” How, for example, does the smart contract know who wins the World Cup, if bitcoin closed above $3,850 by midnight on March 8, or who won an election?
You need software and people (oracles) to feed this data to the smart contract. The inherent counterparty risk becomes an issue of trust and accuracy: How do you keep oracles honest and how do you verify their inputs? To mitigate this risk, Augur leverages decentralized oracles. Multiple users are in charge of inputting data/results to make sure that the reported results of an outcome are accurate and that the smart contract pays out to the winning prediction.
Decentralizing the sources of inputs, in theory, should ensure that every prediction market’s payout is consistent with real-world outcomes, but some opponents argue that there aren’t enough participants on these decentralized platform to prevent bad actors from gaming the system.
“We're approaching this slightly differently,” Roman Snitko, Hodl Hodl’s chief technology officer, toldBitcoin Magazine. “The oracle [is] the two parties participating in a contract. In case of a dispute, Hodl Hodl steps in with its third key and is able to influence the decision.” It is the company’s belief that, whereas a decentralized system for judging bet outcomes can be influenced by bad actors, a peer-to-peer contract might be more ironclad.
To contrast with the established model of prediction markets, on February 27, 2019, Hodl Hodlannouncedtheir own prediction market, the first to be built on the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, their oracle system, according to Snitko, “is not decentralized — we have a central server. But we're non-custodial. In the case of a prediction contract, both parties lock bitcoins in a 2-of-3 [key] escrow. Both of their keys are required to send the locked funds somewhere — unless they both sign the release transaction, bitcoins cannot be moved from there.”
Under this system, there is no incentive to try and dispute the outcome of a bet, as the funds will not be released if the two parties disagree. If someone fudges the results of an outcome and both parties claim the coins, a tiebreaker ensues.
“In case of a dispute,” said Snitko, “both parties may actually never come to a decision to unlock the funds, in which case Hodl Hodl can step in and use its third key along with one of the parties keys to unlock funds in their favor. Hodl Hodl cannot unilaterally move bitcoins to wherever it wishes to because we still need one of the user's keys (which we don't have) to sign the release transaction.” The company warns, however, that forcing the impartial mediator to step in may negatively impact a user’s ability to convince other users to enter new contracts.
One solution to this problem could be having a third party mediator who, unlike Hodl Hodl, is not a stakeholder in the situation in any regard. Snitko is entertaining the idea, tellingBitcoin Magazinethat “in the future we might have a user group called ‘mediators’ who would take on the role Hodl Hodl currently performs in case of a dispute — with a third key.” He added, however, “it's probably wrong to call that party an oracle, as the decision is not made by that single party.”
“At launch,” he said, “we want to keep it as simple as possible and then see what needs to be improved.”
Bitcoin Magazine asked Hodl Hodl to explain how its reputation system works but has not yet received a response.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Decentralized Exchange Hodl Hodl Is Launching a Bitcoin-Based Prediction Market: Hodl Hodl, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it is launching a prediction market on Bitcoin. Slated for launch in the spring of 2019, it would be the first Bitcoin-based prediction market to go live on Bitcoin’s mainnet.
A prediction market is a novel application of blockchain technology. The betting platforms allow users to secure odds, futures and outcomes with smart contracts. Two users place funds (traditionally, ether) into a smart contract to bet on futures for any given outcome; when the outcome arrives, the smart contract automatically pays out to the winner.
Most prediction markets are built on blockchains with a more flexible smart contract language, like Ethereum.Augur, for example,pioneeredthe model when it launched in July 2018 as the first decentralized prediction market to make use of Ethereum’s ERC-20 token contract. Other prediction markets havefollowed suit, including Gnosis on Ethereum and Bhodi on QTUM.
Despite Augur’s frontrunning status, Hodl Hodl believes that it can improve on aspects of the platform’s operations — specifically, in its solution to the “oracle problem:” How, for example, does the smart contract know who wins the World Cup, if bitcoin closed above $3,850 by midnight on March 8, or who won an election?
You need software and people (oracles) to feed this data to the smart contract. The inherent counterparty risk becomes an issue of trust and accuracy: How do you keep oracles honest and how do you verify their inputs? To mitigate this risk, Augur leverages decentralized oracles. Multiple users are in charge of inputting data/results to make sure that the reported results of an outcome are accurate and that the smart contract pays out to the winning prediction.
Decentralizing the sources of inputs, in theory, should ensure that every prediction market’s payout is consistent with real-world outcomes, but some opponents argue that there aren’t enough participants on these decentralized platform to prevent bad actors from gaming the system.
“We're approaching this slightly differently,” Roman Snitko, Hodl Hodl’s chief technology officer, toldBitcoin Magazine. “The oracle [is] the two parties participating in a contract. In case of a dispute, Hodl Hodl steps in with its third key and is able to influence the decision.” It is the company’s belief that, whereas a decentralized system for judging bet outcomes can be influenced by bad actors, a peer-to-peer contract might be more ironclad.
To contrast with the established model of prediction markets, on February 27, 2019, Hodl Hodlannouncedtheir own prediction market, the first to be built on the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, their oracle system, according to Snitko, “is not decentralized — we have a central server. But we're non-custodial. In the case of a prediction contract, both parties lock bitcoins in a 2-of-3 [key] escrow. Both of their keys are required to send the locked funds somewhere — unless they both sign the release transaction, bitcoins cannot be moved from there.”
Under this system, there is no incentive to try and dispute the outcome of a bet, as the funds will not be released if the two parties disagree. If someone fudges the results of an outcome and both parties claim the coins, a tiebreaker ensues.
“In case of a dispute,” said Snitko, “both parties may actually never come to a decision to unlock the funds, in which case Hodl Hodl can step in and use its third key along with one of the parties keys to unlock funds in their favor. Hodl Hodl cannot unilaterally move bitcoins to wherever it wishes to because we still need one of the user's keys (which we don't have) to sign the release transaction.” The company warns, however, that forcing the impartial mediator to step in may negatively impact a user’s ability to convince other users to enter new contracts.
One solution to this problem could be having a third party mediator who, unlike Hodl Hodl, is not a stakeholder in the situation in any regard. Snitko is entertaining the idea, tellingBitcoin Magazinethat “in the future we might have a user group called ‘mediators’ who would take on the role Hodl Hodl currently performs in case of a dispute — with a third key.” He added, however, “it's probably wrong to call that party an oracle, as the decision is not made by that single party.”
“At launch,” he said, “we want to keep it as simple as possible and then see what needs to be improved.”
Bitcoin Magazine asked Hodl Hodl to explain how its reputation system works but has not yet received a response.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Decentralized Exchange Hodl Hodl Is Launching a Bitcoin-Based Prediction Market: hodlhodl prediction.jpg Hodl Hodl, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it is launching a prediction market on Bitcoin. Slated for launch in the spring of 2019, it would be the first Bitcoin-based prediction market to go live on Bitcoin’s mainnet. A prediction market is a novel application of blockchain technology. The betting platforms allow users to secure odds, futures and outcomes with smart contracts. Two users place funds (traditionally, ether) into a smart contract to bet on futures for any given outcome; when the outcome arrives, the smart contract automatically pays out to the winner. Most prediction markets are built on blockchains with a more flexible smart contract language, like Ethereum. Augur , for example, pioneered the model when it launched in July 2018 as the first decentralized prediction market to make use of Ethereum’s ERC-20 token contract. Other prediction markets have followed suit , including Gnosis on Ethereum and Bhodi on QTUM. Despite Augur’s frontrunning status, Hodl Hodl believes that it can improve on aspects of the platform’s operations — specifically, in its solution to the “oracle problem:” How, for example, does the smart contract know who wins the World Cup, if bitcoin closed above $3,850 by midnight on March 8, or who won an election? You need software and people (oracles) to feed this data to the smart contract. The inherent counterparty risk becomes an issue of trust and accuracy: How do you keep oracles honest and how do you verify their inputs? To mitigate this risk, Augur leverages decentralized oracles. Multiple users are in charge of inputting data/results to make sure that the reported results of an outcome are accurate and that the smart contract pays out to the winning prediction. Decentralizing the sources of inputs, in theory, should ensure that every prediction market’s payout is consistent with real-world outcomes, but some opponents argue that there aren’t enough participants on these decentralized platform to prevent bad actors from gaming the system. “We're approaching this slightly differently,” Roman Snitko, Hodl Hodl’s chief technology officer, told Bitcoin Magazine . “The oracle [is] the two parties participating in a contract. In case of a dispute, Hodl Hodl steps in with its third key and is able to influence the decision.” It is the company’s belief that, whereas a decentralized system for judging bet outcomes can be influenced by bad actors, a peer-to-peer contract might be more ironclad. To contrast with the established model of prediction markets, on February 27, 2019, Hodl Hodl announced their own prediction market, the first to be built on the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, their oracle system, according to Snitko, “is not decentralized — we have a central server. But we're non-custodial. In the case of a prediction contract, both parties lock bitcoins in a 2-of-3 [key] escrow. Both of their keys are required to send the locked funds somewhere — unless they both sign the release transaction, bitcoins cannot be moved from there.” Story continues Under this system, there is no incentive to try and dispute the outcome of a bet, as the funds will not be released if the two parties disagree. If someone fudges the results of an outcome and both parties claim the coins, a tiebreaker ensues. “In case of a dispute,” said Snitko, “both parties may actually never come to a decision to unlock the funds, in which case Hodl Hodl can step in and use its third key along with one of the parties keys to unlock funds in their favor. Hodl Hodl cannot unilaterally move bitcoins to wherever it wishes to because we still need one of the user's keys (which we don't have) to sign the release transaction.” The company warns, however, that forcing the impartial mediator to step in may negatively impact a user’s ability to convince other users to enter new contracts. One solution to this problem could be having a third party mediator who, unlike Hodl Hodl, is not a stakeholder in the situation in any regard. Snitko is entertaining the idea, telling Bitcoin Magazine that “in the future we might have a user group called ‘mediators’ who would take on the role Hodl Hodl currently performs in case of a dispute — with a third key.” He added, however, “it's probably wrong to call that party an oracle, as the decision is not made by that single party.” “At launch,” he said, “we want to keep it as simple as possible and then see what needs to be improved.” Bitcoin Magazine asked Hodl Hodl to explain how its reputation system works but has not yet received a response. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . View comments || Canadian Federal Tax Agency Targets Bitcoin Investors: Canada Tax Q&A.jpg The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has apparently been specifically targeting bitcoin and crypto investors as part of its broader tax strategy to keep tabs on their cryptocurrency investments, including how they purchase these assets. Forbes reported on this story in early March, detailing some of the tactics of the CRA, which include audits and questionnaires. In addition to subjecting cryptocurrency investors to audits, many of these same users have also been sent “comprehensive questionnaires to fill out regarding their bitcoin-related activity over the past years.” Reportedly, some sixty audits are actively ongoing. These questionnaires have notably included in-depth sections inquiring into various services to obscure a user’s identity or transaction history. Known as mixing services, protocols such as CoinJoin increases a person’s privacy by allowing them to combine their transactions with several other users, putting several layers of obfuscation between a sender and receiver. When transactions are processed using tumblers and mixers like this, it becomes nearly impossible to tell who exactly sent or received what. Audited users were also asked several in-depth questions about their ability to purchase bitcoin and other crypto assets anonymously, directly referencing services such as Changely and ShapeShift. Notably, ShapeShift implemented KYC account registration at the end of 2018, no longer making it an anonymous exchange. Other anonymous services to exchange bitcoin include LocalBitcoins , utilizing non-custodial transactions. Some users leverage LocalBitcoins to buy crypto off the grid, settling trades using hard cash and organizing them off the site (these users will enter a trade on the site but use off-site methods of communication to settle it). When hard cash is used in this way, so long as the buyer and seller don’t log the trade on the website, there is no record of the buyer owning said crypto assets. Incredibly, the survey also asks users “to list all personal crypto asset addresses that are not associated with their custodial wallet accounts.” Story continues The CRA’s interest in such services seems to be related to their potential for avoiding government scrutiny. The CRA’s Project Oversight Director Jared Adams suggested on Twitter that these services could be used for money laundering. According to Forbes , the CRA has been running a dedicated cryptocurrency unit since 2017, with its goals ranging from the auditing of users to a general gathering of information on the crypto asset space. According to the CRA’s statements, the agency is “committed to helping taxpayers understand their tax obligations when using digital currencies, and to remind them that using digital currency does not exempt consumers from their tax obligations.” It went on to state that the audits are only aimed at “highest risk files,” and that they hope to “[promote] a fair tax system for all Canadians.” This attitude is exemplary of a recurring problem between cryptocurrencies and government agencies. The anonymity included in the technology by design makes it particularly difficult for tax agencies to collect accurate records on digital currencies, and this can cause friction in the space. Cryptocurrency research firm CoinCenter, for example, believes that the U.S.’s tax system for crypto is “broken” and that it shows a fundamental lack of understanding for how these assets function. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Canadian Federal Tax Agency Targets Bitcoin Investors: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has apparently been specifically targeting bitcoin and crypto investors as part of its broader tax strategy to keep tabs on their cryptocurrency investments, including how they purchase these assets.
Forbesreportedon this story in early March, detailing some of the tactics of the CRA, which include audits and questionnaires. In addition to subjecting cryptocurrency investors to audits, many of these same users have also been sent “comprehensive questionnaires to fill out regarding their bitcoin-related activity over the past years.” Reportedly, some sixty audits are actively ongoing.
Thesequestionnaireshave notably included in-depth sections inquiring into various services to obscure a user’s identity or transaction history. Known as mixing services, protocols such asCoinJoinincreases a person’s privacy by allowing them to combine their transactions with several other users, putting several layers of obfuscation between a sender and receiver. When transactions are processed using tumblers and mixers like this, it becomes nearly impossible to tell who exactly sent or received what.
Audited users were also asked several in-depth questions about their ability to purchase bitcoin and other crypto assets anonymously, directly referencing services such as Changely and ShapeShift. Notably, ShapeShiftimplemented KYCaccount registration at the end of 2018, no longer making it an anonymous exchange.
Other anonymous services to exchange bitcoin includeLocalBitcoins, utilizing non-custodial transactions. Some users leverage LocalBitcoins to buy crypto off the grid, settling trades using hard cash and organizing them off the site (these users will enter a trade on the site but use off-site methods of communication to settle it). When hard cash is used in this way, so long as the buyer and seller don’t log the trade on the website, there is no record of the buyer owning said crypto assets.
Incredibly, the survey also asks users “to list all personal crypto asset addresses that are not associated with their custodial wallet accounts.”
The CRA’s interest in such services seems to be related to their potential for avoiding government scrutiny. The CRA’s Project Oversight Director Jared Adamssuggestedon Twitter that these services could be used for money laundering. According toForbes, the CRA has been running a dedicated cryptocurrency unit since 2017, with its goals ranging from the auditing of users to a general gathering of information on the crypto asset space.
According to the CRA’s statements, the agency is “committed to helping taxpayers understand their tax obligations when using digital currencies, and to remind them that using digital currency does not exempt consumers from their tax obligations.” It went on to state that the audits are only aimed at “highest risk files,” and that they hope to “[promote] a fair tax system for all Canadians.”
This attitude is exemplary of a recurring problem between cryptocurrencies and government agencies. The anonymity included in the technology by design makes it particularly difficult for tax agencies to collect accurate records on digital currencies, and this can cause friction in the space. Cryptocurrency research firm CoinCenter, for example,believesthat the U.S.’s tax system for crypto is “broken” and that it shows a fundamental lack of understanding for how these assets function.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Canadian Federal Tax Agency Targets Bitcoin Investors: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has apparently been specifically targeting bitcoin and crypto investors as part of its broader tax strategy to keep tabs on their cryptocurrency investments, including how they purchase these assets.
Forbesreportedon this story in early March, detailing some of the tactics of the CRA, which include audits and questionnaires. In addition to subjecting cryptocurrency investors to audits, many of these same users have also been sent “comprehensive questionnaires to fill out regarding their bitcoin-related activity over the past years.” Reportedly, some sixty audits are actively ongoing.
Thesequestionnaireshave notably included in-depth sections inquiring into various services to obscure a user’s identity or transaction history. Known as mixing services, protocols such asCoinJoinincreases a person’s privacy by allowing them to combine their transactions with several other users, putting several layers of obfuscation between a sender and receiver. When transactions are processed using tumblers and mixers like this, it becomes nearly impossible to tell who exactly sent or received what.
Audited users were also asked several in-depth questions about their ability to purchase bitcoin and other crypto assets anonymously, directly referencing services such as Changely and ShapeShift. Notably, ShapeShiftimplemented KYCaccount registration at the end of 2018, no longer making it an anonymous exchange.
Other anonymous services to exchange bitcoin includeLocalBitcoins, utilizing non-custodial transactions. Some users leverage LocalBitcoins to buy crypto off the grid, settling trades using hard cash and organizing them off the site (these users will enter a trade on the site but use off-site methods of communication to settle it). When hard cash is used in this way, so long as the buyer and seller don’t log the trade on the website, there is no record of the buyer owning said crypto assets.
Incredibly, the survey also asks users “to list all personal crypto asset addresses that are not associated with their custodial wallet accounts.”
The CRA’s interest in such services seems to be related to their potential for avoiding government scrutiny. The CRA’s Project Oversight Director Jared Adamssuggestedon Twitter that these services could be used for money laundering. According toForbes, the CRA has been running a dedicated cryptocurrency unit since 2017, with its goals ranging from the auditing of users to a general gathering of information on the crypto asset space.
According to the CRA’s statements, the agency is “committed to helping taxpayers understand their tax obligations when using digital currencies, and to remind them that using digital currency does not exempt consumers from their tax obligations.” It went on to state that the audits are only aimed at “highest risk files,” and that they hope to “[promote] a fair tax system for all Canadians.”
This attitude is exemplary of a recurring problem between cryptocurrencies and government agencies. The anonymity included in the technology by design makes it particularly difficult for tax agencies to collect accurate records on digital currencies, and this can cause friction in the space. Cryptocurrency research firm CoinCenter, for example,believesthat the U.S.’s tax system for crypto is “broken” and that it shows a fundamental lack of understanding for how these assets function.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || 5 Ways to Play the Blockchain Boom: The winds of change have grown to gale force. Bitcoin mania set in towards the end of 2017, culminating with the trading of bitcoin futures contracts. The hysteria settled down a bit and the buzzwords of blockchain, cryptocurrency and bitcoin slowly eased out of the headlines. Until now...
The next phase in bitcoin is the legitimization of the asset class and the spread of blockchain technology. Behind the market’s recent headlines about trade wars with China, the land grab in the blockchain world has begun. It’s not companies changing their names to attract new investors, it’s well-established industries using the technology to cut costs, improve margins and boost their bottom lines. Huge corporations like Walmart, UnitedHealth, and BMW have been adapting blockchain technology to suit their needs. And it’s more than just concepts and budding partnerships, there are real-world applications for blockchain which are already making huge changes in industries across the world. The revolution is just beginning.
In this article, I’m going to make sure you’re not going to get hurt chasing fake blockchain companies and instead, steer you towards investment ideas which are still fundamentally sound and built around real, sustainable businesses. Legitimization is the new buzzword surrounding bitcoin nowadays. It’s got the power to take everyday companies and turn them into the next big thing.
When looking at the cryptocurrency ecosystem, you find that there are plenty of ways to invest in the blockchain. We can break down these stocks into a number of different categories.
1) The “Picks and Axes” and Miners
During the gold rush, the ones who really got rich were the ones selling the picks and axes. That is, the companies which provided the tools for the speculators to go out and try to find their fortunes. In the cryptocurrency world, this refers to the companies which make the chips and hardware used for mining operations. Examples would include a host of semiconductor companies.
Then there are the miners themselves. Miners confirm transactions from node to node by solving the cryptographic problem and are then rewarded in units of the cryptocurrency. Already we are seeing publicly traded companies which “mine” cryptocurrency. These companies mine the currency then immediately sell them on the open market and pass through the gains to shareholders. Think of them as you would a pipeline company in the energy sector. These companies are small now, but could become much larger in time.
Keep reading . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get In On the Blockchain Boom
This revolutionary, incorruptible "Internet of Money" is changing the way the world does business. According to experts, the blockchain is 10 times more valuable than the internet. And the boom is just getting started.
Some investors are ready to make fortunes –will you be one of them?
There’s no need to speculate on volatile cryptocurrencies. Zacks’ portfolio targets innovative companies driving the blockchain phenomenon. Only a limited number of investors can take part in our approach for massive profits. The door closesSunday, March 10.
See our blockchain stocks now >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Cloud Infrastructure
No other industry has been as dependent on the cloud for its development as blockchain has. The need to distribute a ledger across the world, with no centralized ownership or authority overseeing transactions plays into the strengths of the cloud. However, the cloud is still at risk here, as blockchain technology can distribute storage across the globe, fighting the centralized nature of traditional cloud services. Still, this industry can adapt the technology to benefit.
3) Payment Processing and Lending
Among the most disruptive industries for blockchain is payment processing. Rather than your traditional financial intermediary, blockchain technology allows for a distributed, open, public ledger where transactions are confirmed by other nodes in the chain for a fee that’s much smaller than your typical fees coming from more traditional processors.
Blockchain tech is also perfect for lending, allowing a lender to spread their risk across thousands of loans in an instant, no matter the size of the lender. We are just at the tip of the iceberg in this arena.
4) Investors, Business Development Companies and Consulting
There will be a wave of companies looking for ways to incorporate blockchain technology into their existing businesses. Already, large consulting companies are beginning to offer services helping companies to integrate the new tech. Gartner has even developed a site dedicated to this purpose.
Some publicly traded companies are acting as incubators for other budding cryptocurrencies. There are currently over 1,600 other cryptocurrencies in the world. These investors and business development companies invest in promising crypto companies before they hit the mainstream.
5) Futures and ETFs
The legitimization of Bitcoin continues as futures contracts have started trading on two large exchanges in the US. Soon there will also be officially regulated ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum. In the meantime, investors have been using GBTC as proxy. As mentioned before, Goldman Sachs is set to open its trading desk soon, adding further legitimacy to cryptocurrencies as an asset class.
Bottom Line
There's no doubt that blockchain will have a tremendous impact on almost every industry you can think of. In fact, experts predict that the space could soar +8,500% to $60 billion by 2024.
Just like the early days of the internet, some companies stand to make monster gains. Others will be a flash in the pan. That's why I invite you to look into our portfolio serviceBlockchain Innovators.
We cut through the gimmicks and hype to uncover strong, often little-known companies driving blockchain technology.
Right now, we're holding a selection of stocks from the groups I listed above. We're aiming for explosive profit potential and long-term sustained growth. Plus, I'm preparing to add more exciting stocks Monday.
One is a global transportation company rolling out blockchain to better serve its 180 million customers. The second is a mega-cap tech company with a track record for producing world-changing tools and applications.
Would you like to see these 2 new picks plus all the live recommendations in our portfolio?
If so, you can also download my Special Report,The Great Disruption: Blockchain in 2019 & Beyondas a bonus. It shows how blockchain technology could impact your portfolio in the very near future and spotlights 4 transforming industries that every investor should watch closely.
Please note that only a limited number of Zacks members can be allowed to take part. Entry to this service will close againSunday, March 10,so I suggest that you look into it right away.
See ourBlockchain Innovatorsstocks now >>
Good Investing,
Dave Bartosiak
Dave is Zacks' resident technical and momentum expert. A successful early crypto investor, he selects stocks and delivers exclusive commentary for our newest portfolio,Blockchain Innovators.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || 5 Ways to Play the Blockchain Boom: The winds of change have grown to gale force. Bitcoin mania set in towards the end of 2017, culminating with the trading of bitcoin futures contracts. The hysteria settled down a bit and the buzzwords of blockchain, cryptocurrency and bitcoin slowly eased out of the headlines. Until now... The next phase in bitcoin is the legitimization of the asset class and the spread of blockchain technology. Behind the markets recent headlines about trade wars with China, the land grab in the blockchain world has begun. Its not companies changing their names to attract new investors, its well-established industries using the technology to cut costs, improve margins and boost their bottom lines. Huge corporations like Walmart, UnitedHealth, and BMW have been adapting blockchain technology to suit their needs. And its more than just concepts and budding partnerships, there are real-world applications for blockchain which are already making huge changes in industries across the world. The revolution is just beginning. In this article, Im going to make sure youre not going to get hurt chasing fake blockchain companies and instead, steer you towards investment ideas which are still fundamentally sound and built around real, sustainable businesses. Legitimization is the new buzzword surrounding bitcoin nowadays. Its got the power to take everyday companies and turn them into the next big thing. When looking at the cryptocurrency ecosystem, you find that there are plenty of ways to invest in the blockchain. We can break down these stocks into a number of different categories. 1) The Picks and Axes and Miners During the gold rush, the ones who really got rich were the ones selling the picks and axes. That is, the companies which provided the tools for the speculators to go out and try to find their fortunes. In the cryptocurrency world, this refers to the companies which make the chips and hardware used for mining operations. Examples would include a host of semiconductor companies. Story continues Then there are the miners themselves. Miners confirm transactions from node to node by solving the cryptographic problem and are then rewarded in units of the cryptocurrency. Already we are seeing publicly traded companies which mine cryptocurrency. These companies mine the currency then immediately sell them on the open market and pass through the gains to shareholders. Think of them as you would a pipeline company in the energy sector. These companies are small now, but could become much larger in time. Keep reading . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get In On the Blockchain Boom This revolutionary, incorruptible "Internet of Money" is changing the way the world does business. According to experts, the blockchain is 10 times more valuable than the internet. And the boom is just getting started. Some investors are ready to make fortunes will you be one of them? Theres no need to speculate on volatile cryptocurrencies. Zacks portfolio targets innovative companies driving the blockchain phenomenon. Only a limited number of investors can take part in our approach for massive profits. The door closes Sunday, March 10. See our blockchain stocks now >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2) Cloud Infrastructure No other industry has been as dependent on the cloud for its development as blockchain has. The need to distribute a ledger across the world, with no centralized ownership or authority overseeing transactions plays into the strengths of the cloud. However, the cloud is still at risk here, as blockchain technology can distribute storage across the globe, fighting the centralized nature of traditional cloud services. Still, this industry can adapt the technology to benefit. 3) Payment Processing and Lending Among the most disruptive industries for blockchain is payment processing. Rather than your traditional financial intermediary, blockchain technology allows for a distributed, open, public ledger where transactions are confirmed by other nodes in the chain for a fee thats much smaller than your typical fees coming from more traditional processors. Blockchain tech is also perfect for lending, allowing a lender to spread their risk across thousands of loans in an instant, no matter the size of the lender. We are just at the tip of the iceberg in this arena. 4) Investors, Business Development Companies and Consulting There will be a wave of companies looking for ways to incorporate blockchain technology into their existing businesses. Already, large consulting companies are beginning to offer services helping companies to integrate the new tech. Gartner has even developed a site dedicated to this purpose. Some publicly traded companies are acting as incubators for other budding cryptocurrencies. There are currently over 1,600 other cryptocurrencies in the world. These investors and business development companies invest in promising crypto companies before they hit the mainstream. 5) Futures and ETFs The legitimization of Bitcoin continues as futures contracts have started trading on two large exchanges in the US. Soon there will also be officially regulated ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum. In the meantime, investors have been using GBTC as proxy. As mentioned before, Goldman Sachs is set to open its trading desk soon, adding further legitimacy to cryptocurrencies as an asset class. Bottom Line There's no doubt that blockchain will have a tremendous impact on almost every industry you can think of. In fact, experts predict that the space could soar +8,500% to $60 billion by 2024. Just like the early days of the internet, some companies stand to make monster gains. Others will be a flash in the pan. That's why I invite you to look into our portfolio service Blockchain Innovators. We cut through the gimmicks and hype to uncover strong, often little-known companies driving blockchain technology. Right now, we're holding a selection of stocks from the groups I listed above. We're aiming for explosive profit potential and long-term sustained growth. Plus, I'm preparing to add more exciting stocks Monday. One is a global transportation company rolling out blockchain to better serve its 180 million customers. The second is a mega-cap tech company with a track record for producing world-changing tools and applications. Would you like to see these 2 new picks plus all the live recommendations in our portfolio? If so, you can also download my Special Report, The Great Disruption: Blockchain in 2019 & Beyond as a bonus. It shows how blockchain technology could impact your portfolio in the very near future and spotlights 4 transforming industries that every investor should watch closely. Please note that only a limited number of Zacks members can be allowed to take part. Entry to this service will close again Sunday, March 10, so I suggest that you look into it right away. See our Blockchain Innovators stocks now >> Good Investing, Dave Bartosiak Dave is Zacks' resident technical and momentum expert. A successful early crypto investor, he selects stocks and delivers exclusive commentary for our newest portfolio, Blockchain Innovators. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research
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Mar 09, 2019 18:01:00 UTC | 3,930.60$ | 3,498.70€ | 3,019.60£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/lcNIsaqPH0 || ₿ #BTCTRY #Bitcoin = 21.009,97 #TL Güncelleme Saati : 23:00 || Mar 09, 2019 17:01:00 UTC | 3,940.00$ | 3,507.00€ | 3,026.80£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/NQwj05PzGQ || Mar 09, 2019 05:31:00 UTC | 3,890.10$ | 3,462.50€ | 2,989.10£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/Yb4grjkxOM || Bitcoin - BTC
Price: $3,902.67
Change in 1h: -0.12%
Market cap: $68,602,993,223.00
Ranking: 1
#Bitcoin #BTC || Cu...
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3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-12-28]
Volume: 21365673026, RSI (14-day): 48.62, 50-day EMA: 7624.01, 200-day EMA: 8262.94
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
PreMarket Prep Recap: Who Let The Bulls Out?: For the final PreMarket Prep of 2019, we invited a few of our favorite guests from the year to share a bullish pick and bearish pan for 2020. To say the sentiment was overwhelmingly bullish for the broad market would be a gross understatement. Herer's what our guests are forecasting, with timestamps from each guest appearance in parentheses. JC Parets, All Star Charts (14:05) Pick - Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN ) will go “at least 50% higher,” Parets said. That would put the issue at $2,803 by the end of 2020. Pan - 20 Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ: TLT ). Parets sees a major rise in interest rates, with the 10-year Treasury rate going from its current rate of 1.9% to 3%. This would have a very negative effect on bonds and utilities. Chirstian Fromhertz, Tribeca Trade Group (27:00) Pick - Emerging markets or MSCI Emerging Market ETF (NYSE: EEM ). Fromhertz said it’s time for emerging markets to play “catch-up” to the U.S. markets. Pan - GameStop Corp . (NYSE: GME ) Anne-Marie Baiynd, The Trading Book (36:25) Pick - Cyberark Software Ltd (NASDAQ: CYBR ), or more broadly, the Prime Cyber Security ETF (NYSE: HACK ). Baiynd is betting on companies increasing their spending on cybersecurity, and she likes the $118 level Cyberark is ending 2019 at. Pan - Bitcoin or the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTC: GBTC ). While she likes cryptocurrency as an idea, Baiynd said governments will eventually step in and squash them out in favor of fiat currency. Dan Forman, Executive Director At Olivetree Financial (45:10) Pick - Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ: AMBA ). Forman sees Ambarella as a direct play on surveillance technology and self-driving cars. Pan - Forman said he would shy away from legacy technology issues such as Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (NYSE: HPE ) that have “zero growth.” Kenny Glick, Hitthebid.com (53:45) Pick - Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (NASDAQ: QQQ ). Sticking with a fund he's been long since the financial crisis, Glick sees the QQQ rising to $250 next year. Story continues Pan - United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X ). Glick says U.S. Steel is “Going to zero.” It's a classic “revenge trade” for him, emanating from a previous long trade earlier in the year. Listen to the full segments with each guest in the podcast below, or watch the clip on Youtube here. PreMarket Prep is a daily trading show hosted by prop trader Dennis Dick and former floor trader Joel Elconin. You can watch PreMarket Prep live every day from 8-9 a.m. ET here. The replay can be found on Benzinga's YouTube channel, and the podcast is on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Tunein. 0 See more from Benzinga PreMarket Prep Recap: Qiagen Pulls The Rug Out From Investors Banking On A Deal, Bad Data Equals Bad Price Action For Spectrum Pharmaceuticals PreMarket Prep Recap: The Importance Of PRs, FedEx Downgrade And Interviews With A Tesla Bear And Bull PreMarket Prep Recap: $TSLAQ Crowd Continues To Be Punished, Eli Lilly's Incredible Friday Open © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || PreMarket Prep Recap: Who Let The Bulls Out?: For the final PreMarket Prep of 2019, we invited a few of our favorite guests from the year to share a bullish pick and bearish pan for 2020. To say the sentiment was overwhelmingly bullish for the broad market would be a gross understatement.
Herer's what our guests are forecasting, with timestamps from each guest appearance in parentheses.
JC Parets,All Star Charts(14:05)
Pick-Amazon.com Inc(NASDAQ:AMZN) will go “at least 50% higher,” Parets said. That would put the issue at $2,803 by the end of 2020.
Pan-20 Year Treasury Bond ETF(NASDAQ:TLT). Parets sees a major rise in interest rates, with the 10-year Treasury rate going from its current rate of 1.9% to 3%. This would have a very negative effect on bonds and utilities.
Chirstian Fromhertz,Tribeca Trade Group(27:00)
Pick-Emerging markets or MSCI Emerging Market ETF(NYSE:EEM). Fromhertz said it’s time for emerging markets to play “catch-up” to the U.S. markets.
Pan-GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME)
Anne-Marie Baiynd,The Trading Book(36:25)
Pick-Cyberark Software Ltd(NASDAQ:CYBR), or more broadly, thePrime Cyber Security ETF(NYSE:HACK). Baiynd is betting on companies increasing their spending on cybersecurity, and she likes the $118 level Cyberark is ending 2019 at.
Pan- Bitcoin or theGrayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC)(OTC:GBTC). While she likes cryptocurrency as an idea, Baiynd said governments will eventually step in and squash them out in favor of fiat currency.
Dan Forman, Executive Director At Olivetree Financial (45:10)
Pick-Ambarella Inc(NASDAQ:AMBA). Forman sees Ambarella as a direct play on surveillance technology and self-driving cars.
Pan- Forman said he would shy away from legacy technology issues such asHewlett-Packard Enterprises(NYSE:HPE) that have “zero growth.”
Kenny Glick,Hitthebid.com(53:45)
Pick-Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1(NASDAQ:QQQ). Sticking with a fund he's been long since the financial crisis, Glick sees the QQQ rising to $250 next year.
Pan-United States Steel Corporation(NYSE:X). Glick says U.S. Steel is “Going to zero.” It's a classic “revenge trade” for him, emanating from a previous long trade earlier in the year.
Listen to the full segments with each guest in the podcast below, or watch the clip on Youtube here.
PreMarket Prep is a daily trading show hosted by prop trader Dennis Dick and former floor trader Joel Elconin. You can watch PreMarket Prep live every day from 8-9 a.m. ET here. The replay can be found on Benzinga's YouTube channel, and the podcast is on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Tunein.
0
See more from Benzinga
• PreMarket Prep Recap: Qiagen Pulls The Rug Out From Investors Banking On A Deal, Bad Data Equals Bad Price Action For Spectrum Pharmaceuticals
• PreMarket Prep Recap: The Importance Of PRs, FedEx Downgrade And Interviews With A Tesla Bear And Bull
• PreMarket Prep Recap: $TSLAQ Crowd Continues To Be Punished, Eli Lilly's Incredible Friday Open
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Litecoin Soars 100% In Bullish Trade: Investing.com - Litecoin was trading at $420,890.159 by 14:01 (19:01 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, up 99.99% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since December 27.
The move upwards pushed Litecoin's market cap up to $2.652B, or 1.34% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Litecoin's market cap was $14.099B.
Litecoin had traded in a range of $39.763 to $421,092.541 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Litecoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 3.33%. The volume of Litecoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $3.185B or 3.93% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $39.4474 to $421,092.5313 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Litecoin is still down 0.05% from its all-time high of $421,092.53 set on December 27.
Bitcoin was last at $7,272.5 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.13% on the day.
Ethereum was trading at $125.40 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 2.72%.
Bitcoin's market cap was last at $133.207B or 67.09% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $13.943B or 7.02% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
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Chinese Regulators Worry About Crypto Resurgence, Issue New Warning || Litecoin Soars 100% In Bullish Trade: Investing.com - Litecoin was trading at $420,890.159 by 14:01 (19:01 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, up 99.99% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since December 27. The move upwards pushed Litecoin's market cap up to $2.652B, or 1.34% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Litecoin's market cap was $14.099B. Litecoin had traded in a range of $39.763 to $421,092.541 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Litecoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 3.33%. The volume of Litecoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $3.185B or 3.93% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $39.4474 to $421,092.5313 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Litecoin is still down 0.05% from its all-time high of $421,092.53 set on December 27. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $7,272.5 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.13% on the day. Ethereum was trading at $125.40 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 2.72%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $133.207B or 67.09% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $13.943B or 7.02% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Twitch Users Can Now Tip Streamers With MenaPay Stablecoin Litecoin Jumps 27% In a Green Day Chinese Regulators Worry About Crypto Resurgence, Issue New Warning || Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover: Bitcoin failed to deliver the Christmas cheer many were expecting as a strong push back from $7,400 saw the worlds most dominant cryptocurrency looking dangerously like spending the remainder of the festive period battling to stay above $7,000. Things had appeared decidedly buoyant on Christmas Eve as $7,600 looked like it was going to be the springboard that would propel BTC above $8,000 in time for its 11 th birthday. However, the ghost of Christmas past saw history repeating itself as trading volume suddenly rose late on Christmas Eve driving downward movement and quickly knocking £300 off the price. Within 24 hours, Bitcoin was unsteady on its feet and the defence of $7,200 began. As most people were sleeping off Christmas Day dinner, BTC was trying to shake off its own hangover as it picked up from a Yuletide low of $7,125 to propel towards a slightly healthier-looking $7,325. The Boxing Day sales spirit looked to be offering further recovery, as the previous days leftovers helped the price shift up a gear to $7,350. But, like a cheap Christmas toy, it didnt last long. Bitcoin began this morning below $7,200, and even briefly crashed under $7,100 before retracing quickly up to $7.2k a line that looks likely to be revisited time and time again as the market fights hard for ground above $7,000. Put an ear to the trading communities and youll hear equal echoes of bear trap and bull trap as those looking for some seasonal shorts place their bets. One thing this does betray though, is a definite lift in trading volume a key indicator that theres plenty of life in the market, even in the holiday period. Fools errand That boost of activity will often suggest a lift in price but, as always with BTC, predicting the future is a fools errand. That said, a deep look at the market over the last 12 hours or so tells us theres clearly some buying volume offering enough enthusiasm to take BTC back above the realms of $7.5k, but theres also enough push-back to stamp those endeavours down below $7,000, should the momentum be present. In fact, a quick straw poll of online experts and troll boxes would suggest most of the smart money is on a price drop and the portents are certainly giving a nod of approval to that possibility. Of course, theres also a likelihood that the two forces could mirror one anothers efforts and simply spend the remainder of 2019 in a fruitless tug-of-war over $7,200. Either way, its fair to say Bitcoin will end the year the way it began jittery and twitching with no real clue of where its going. Story continues What to watch out for in 2020
Top five crypto trends to watch out for in 2020 By Christina Comben December 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover: Bitcoin failed to deliver the Christmas cheer many were expecting as a strong push back from $7,400 saw the worlds most dominant cryptocurrency looking dangerously like spending the remainder of the festive period battling to stay above $7,000. Things had appeared decidedly buoyant on Christmas Eve as $7,600 looked like it was going to be the springboard that would propel BTC above $8,000 in time for its 11 th birthday. However, the ghost of Christmas past saw history repeating itself as trading volume suddenly rose late on Christmas Eve driving downward movement and quickly knocking £300 off the price. Within 24 hours, Bitcoin was unsteady on its feet and the defence of $7,200 began. As most people were sleeping off Christmas Day dinner, BTC was trying to shake off its own hangover as it picked up from a Yuletide low of $7,125 to propel towards a slightly healthier-looking $7,325. The Boxing Day sales spirit looked to be offering further recovery, as the previous days leftovers helped the price shift up a gear to $7,350. But, like a cheap Christmas toy, it didnt last long. Bitcoin began this morning below $7,200, and even briefly crashed under $7,100 before retracing quickly up to $7.2k a line that looks likely to be revisited time and time again as the market fights hard for ground above $7,000. Put an ear to the trading communities and youll hear equal echoes of bear trap and bull trap as those looking for some seasonal shorts place their bets. One thing this does betray though, is a definite lift in trading volume a key indicator that theres plenty of life in the market, even in the holiday period. Fools errand That boost of activity will often suggest a lift in price but, as always with BTC, predicting the future is a fools errand. That said, a deep look at the market over the last 12 hours or so tells us theres clearly some buying volume offering enough enthusiasm to take BTC back above the realms of $7.5k, but theres also enough push-back to stamp those endeavours down below $7,000, should the momentum be present. In fact, a quick straw poll of online experts and troll boxes would suggest most of the smart money is on a price drop and the portents are certainly giving a nod of approval to that possibility. Of course, theres also a likelihood that the two forces could mirror one anothers efforts and simply spend the remainder of 2019 in a fruitless tug-of-war over $7,200. Either way, its fair to say Bitcoin will end the year the way it began jittery and twitching with no real clue of where its going. Story continues What to watch out for in 2020
Top five crypto trends to watch out for in 2020 By Christina Comben December 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover: Bitcoin failed to deliver the Christmas cheer many were expecting as a strong push back from $7,400 saw the worlds most dominant cryptocurrency looking dangerously like spending the remainder of the festive period battling to stay above $7,000. Things had appeared decidedly buoyant on Christmas Eve as $7,600 looked like it was going to be the springboard that would propel BTC above $8,000 in time for its 11 th birthday. However, the ghost of Christmas past saw history repeating itself as trading volume suddenly rose late on Christmas Eve driving downward movement and quickly knocking £300 off the price. Within 24 hours, Bitcoin was unsteady on its feet and the defence of $7,200 began. As most people were sleeping off Christmas Day dinner, BTC was trying to shake off its own hangover as it picked up from a Yuletide low of $7,125 to propel towards a slightly healthier-looking $7,325. The Boxing Day sales spirit looked to be offering further recovery, as the previous days leftovers helped the price shift up a gear to $7,350. But, like a cheap Christmas toy, it didnt last long. Bitcoin began this morning below $7,200, and even briefly crashed under $7,100 before retracing quickly up to $7.2k a line that looks likely to be revisited time and time again as the market fights hard for ground above $7,000. Put an ear to the trading communities and youll hear equal echoes of bear trap and bull trap as those looking for some seasonal shorts place their bets. One thing this does betray though, is a definite lift in trading volume a key indicator that theres plenty of life in the market, even in the holiday period. Fools errand That boost of activity will often suggest a lift in price but, as always with BTC, predicting the future is a fools errand. That said, a deep look at the market over the last 12 hours or so tells us theres clearly some buying volume offering enough enthusiasm to take BTC back above the realms of $7.5k, but theres also enough push-back to stamp those endeavours down below $7,000, should the momentum be present. In fact, a quick straw poll of online experts and troll boxes would suggest most of the smart money is on a price drop and the portents are certainly giving a nod of approval to that possibility. Of course, theres also a likelihood that the two forces could mirror one anothers efforts and simply spend the remainder of 2019 in a fruitless tug-of-war over $7,200. Either way, its fair to say Bitcoin will end the year the way it began jittery and twitching with no real clue of where its going. Story continues What to watch out for in 2020
Top five crypto trends to watch out for in 2020 By Christina Comben December 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin set to test $7,000 in Christmas hangover appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Crypto Taxes — A Game Of Big Cats And Many Mice: This year, the media storm that the whole crypto space had been in for the better part of 2017 has felt more like a soft and calm summer breeze. This might be because the meteoric rise in attention and value of blockchain projects has made way for an equally meteoric fall in 2018, also in attention and value. This, in turn, might have lead to mistrust and disinterest of many formerly enthused—and probably formerly rich—tech journalists.
This radio silence, save for a few sprinkled bits of negativity, makes one thing very surprising: bitcoin was one of the highest performing assets of 2019. Even including the recent downturn, the asset has about doubled in value this year.
This is great news for everyone who joined at the beginning of this year. But what happens when you want to spend some of your gains? When converting bitcoin back to fiat (or USD), you have to pay taxes on your gains.
So far, the IRS has been fairly lenient in the monitoring and prosecution of Crypto tax evasion. However, the wind is changing. There is a yearly potential of more than 10 billion USD in untapped tax revenue that the IRS might be missing out on.
To drive this point home, imagine that you bought all bitcoin on December 1, 2018, and have sold everything exactly one year later (ignoring the impossibility of this feat). How many taxes would you have to pay?
According to Coinmarketcap, the market cap of Bitcoin on Dec 1, 2018, was around 70 billion USD. One year later, on Dec 1 of 2019, it was closer to 140 billion USD. Therefore, the gains you would have realized would be around 70 billion USD. Even when calculating with a low tax rate of around 15%, that would leave around 10 Billion USD in taxes. While you would be pretty annoyed at that bill, there is one agency that would be very happy to take that money. Ten billion USD in taxes is a lot of gains for the IRS.
And since blockchains are public and cannot be altered or manipulated by design, all transactions connected to a name at any point in time can be indisputably identified.
Paired with the media talking about illegal action such as drug and weapons trading, it is not surprising that the IRS has taken note. Going after illegal drug and weapon markets sounds much more positive than looking for tax evasion.
In its annual report of 2019, which is only about 75 pages long, the words “bitcoin” and “crypto” are mentioned a total of 43 times. After a recap of the last 100 years and a letter of the Chief, the first topic on the agenda of the report is that of “cyber crimes”. In it, the IRS talks about tools that other agencies and NGOs are already using such as “Digital currency identification (bitcoin wallets, etc.)” and “extraction of data from proprietary financial software (tax preparation, accounting, payroll, point of sale systems, custom databases, etc.)”
This means that the IRS is going to take taxation of cryptos much more seriously.
With the attention that this is getting, it is to be expected that they will get to each and every relevant transaction and address sooner or later.
It is, therefore, becoming more and more important to file your taxes correctly. To make sure that you get to the bottom of your tax report before the IRS does, you can use one of the available coin tracking platforms.Accointingas one of them also offers a tax report that can be automatically generated and saves a lot of time and effort in calculating your yearly gains.
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See more from Benzinga
• The 5 Biggest Trends In Cryptocurrency For 2020
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Crypto Taxes — A Game Of Big Cats And Many Mice: This year, the media storm that the whole crypto space had been in for the better part of 2017 has felt more like a soft and calm summer breeze. This might be because the meteoric rise in attention and value of blockchain projects has made way for an equally meteoric fall in 2018, also in attention and value. This, in turn, might have lead to mistrust and disinterest of many formerly enthused—and probably formerly rich—tech journalists. This radio silence, save for a few sprinkled bits of negativity, makes one thing very surprising: bitcoin was one of the highest performing assets of 2019. Even including the recent downturn, the asset has about doubled in value this year. This is great news for everyone who joined at the beginning of this year. But what happens when you want to spend some of your gains? When converting bitcoin back to fiat (or USD), you have to pay taxes on your gains. So far, the IRS has been fairly lenient in the monitoring and prosecution of Crypto tax evasion. However, the wind is changing. There is a yearly potential of more than 10 billion USD in untapped tax revenue that the IRS might be missing out on. To drive this point home, imagine that you bought all bitcoin on December 1, 2018, and have sold everything exactly one year later (ignoring the impossibility of this feat). How many taxes would you have to pay? According to Coinmarketcap, the market cap of Bitcoin on Dec 1, 2018, was around 70 billion USD. One year later, on Dec 1 of 2019, it was closer to 140 billion USD. Therefore, the gains you would have realized would be around 70 billion USD. Even when calculating with a low tax rate of around 15%, that would leave around 10 Billion USD in taxes. While you would be pretty annoyed at that bill, there is one agency that would be very happy to take that money. Ten billion USD in taxes is a lot of gains for the IRS. And since blockchains are public and cannot be altered or manipulated by design, all transactions connected to a name at any point in time can be indisputably identified. Story continues Paired with the media talking about illegal action such as drug and weapons trading, it is not surprising that the IRS has taken note. Going after illegal drug and weapon markets sounds much more positive than looking for tax evasion. In its annual report of 2019, which is only about 75 pages long, the words “bitcoin” and “crypto” are mentioned a total of 43 times. After a recap of the last 100 years and a letter of the Chief, the first topic on the agenda of the report is that of “cyber crimes”. In it, the IRS talks about tools that other agencies and NGOs are already using such as “Digital currency identification (bitcoin wallets, etc.)” and “extraction of data from proprietary financial software (tax preparation, accounting, payroll, point of sale systems, custom databases, etc.)” This means that the IRS is going to take taxation of cryptos much more seriously. With the attention that this is getting, it is to be expected that they will get to each and every relevant transaction and address sooner or later. It is, therefore, becoming more and more important to file your taxes correctly. To make sure that you get to the bottom of your tax report before the IRS does, you can use one of the available coin tracking platforms. Accointing as one of them also offers a tax report that can be automatically generated and saves a lot of time and effort in calculating your yearly gains. Show Advertiser Disclosure See more from Benzinga The 5 Biggest Trends In Cryptocurrency For 2020 © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Flying Cars, Hyperloops and the Other 2020 Tech Predictions That Didn’t Pan Out: (Bloomberg) -- Predicting the future is hard, even for the people with the most power to influence it. In 2013, Jeff Bezos said he expected Amazon.com Inc. would be delivering packages by drone in four to five years. Here we are seven years later, the flying delivery robots Bezos envisioned are still at the testing stage and have just started to get regulatory approval in the U.S. Corporate fortune telling is a common practice in the technology industry, and executives tend to choose round numbers as deadlines for their technological fantasies. So, as 2019 draws to a close and we approach a new decade, let’s take a look back at how some of the tech industry’s predictions for 2020 fared. 1. Computer chips will consume almost no energy Gordon Moore was famous for his foresight about the development of cheaper and more advanced computers. Intel Corp., the company he co-founded, stayed in the prognostication game years after Moore retired, with mixed results. In 2012, Intel predicted a form of ubiquitous computing that would consume almost zero energy by 2020. The date is almost here, and phones still barely last a day before needing a recharge. The i9, Intel’s latest top-of-the-line computer chip, requires 165 watts of energy. That’s more than twice as much as a 65-inch television. 2. Nine out of 10 people over age 6 will own a mobile phone In 2014, Ericsson Mobility estimated that 90% of people on earth over 6 years old would own a mobile phone by 2020. This is a hard one to measure, but a visit to developing countries suggests we are nowhere close. Research firm Statista puts global penetration at 67%. One milestone achieved this decade is the number of mobile subscriptions exceeded the world’s population for the first time, according to data compiled by the World Bank. The statistic is skewed by people who use multiple devices. Concern about the potential harmful effects of video game and social-media overuse by children may mean this never happens. There's now a national movement in the U.S. encouraging parents to wait until kids are in the eighth grade (age 13) before letting them have a smartphone. Story continues 3. Jet.com will break even Jet.com was an embodiment of the startup unicorn, before that was even a term. Marc Lore started the online retailer after selling his previous company to Amazon. Jet would challenge Lore’s former employer by offering cheaper prices on products with a subscription that substantially undercut Prime. To do that, Jet quickly started burning through the more than $700 million it had raised from venture capitalists, and critics said the startup had no path to profitability. In response, Lore said on Bloomberg TV in 2015 that Jet would break even by 2020. Walmart Inc. swooped in a year after that interview and bought Jet for $3.3 billion. According to news site Vox, Walmart is projecting a loss of more than $1 billion this year for its U.S. e-commerce division, now led by Lore. 4. The first 60-mile hyperloop ride will take place In 2013, Elon Musk outlined his vision for a new “fifth mode of transportation” that would involve zipping people through tubes at speeds as fast as 800 miles per hour. Several tech entrepreneurs heeded Musk’s call and went to work on such systems inspired by the billionaire’s specifications. In 2015, one of the leading startups predicted a hyperloop spanning about 60 miles would be ready for human transport by 2020. Rob Lloyd, then the CEO of Hyperloop Technologies, told Popular Science: “I’m very confident that’s going to happen.” It hasn’t. His company, now called Virgin Hyperloop One, has a 1,600-foot test track in California and hopes to build a 22-mile track in Saudi Arabia someday. Musk has since experimented with hyperloops of his own, and even he has had to scale back his ambitions. Musk’s Boring Co. is building a so-called Loop system in Las Vegas, starting with a nearly mile-long track that consists of a narrow tunnel and Tesla cars moving at up to 155 miles per hour. 5. Google’s cloud business will eclipse advertising Selling cloud services became a big business for Amazon, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. over the last decade. Google executive Urs Hölzle saw the shift coming and in 2015 predicted Google’s cloud revenue would supersede advertising by 2020. Alphabet Inc.’s Google has inched closer to Amazon Web Services since then, but it’ll take a lot to outgrow Google’s cash cow. The cloud is expected to represent almost 15% of revenue for Google this year, compared with 85% for ads. 6. Huawei will make a ‘superphone’ Here’s what Huawei Technologies Co. said in 2015 predicting a “superphone” by 2020, according to ZDNet: “Inspired by the biological evolution, the mobile phone we currently know will come to life as the superphone,” said Shao Yang, a strategy marketing president of Huawei. “Through evolution and adaptation, the superphone will be more intelligent, enhancing and even transforming our perceptions, enabling humans to go further than ever before.” It’s not entirely clear what that means, but it probably hasn’t happened yet. In the interim, Huawei found itself in the middle of a trade war, and the Chinese company is focusing largely on mid-priced phones for its domestic market. 7. Toyota will make fully self-driving cars Auto and tech companies alike became convinced this decade that computers would soon be able to drive cars more reliably than people. In 2015, Toyota Motor Corp. made a companywide bet that it would have autonomous highway-driving cars on the road by 2020. It didn’t take long for the hype cycle to veer off course. In 2018, a pedestrian died after colliding with an Uber self-driving car. In 2020, Toyota’s Lexus brand will introduce a car capable of driving autonomously on the highway, but executives acknowledged that auto companies “are revising their timeline for AI deployment significantly.” 8. A Bitcoin will be worth $1 million John McAfee, the controversial computer antivirus mogul and an influential voice in the cryptocurrency community, predicted the price of Bitcoin would reach $1 million by the end of 2020. McAfee posted the estimate in November 2017, about three weeks before a crash would erase 83% of value over the next year. Bitcoin has recovered somewhat, but the current price of about $7,200 is far from McAfee’s magic number. Like other Bitcoin bulls, McAfee is standing by his unlikely prediction. If he’s wrong, McAfee said he’ll eat an intimate body part. 9. Dyson will sell an electric car It was barely two years ago when the maker of blowdryers and vacuum cleaners said it would sell an electric car by 2020. Dyson canceled the project this year, calling it “not commercially viable.” 10. Uber will deploy flying cars When Uber Technologies Inc. pledged to deliver on a promise of the Jetsons, it gave itself just three years to do so. The company still intends to hold flight demonstrations in 2020, but it’s safe to say you will not be able to hail a flying Uber in the next year. The company continues to explore the concept with regulators. This year, Uber added a form of flying vehicle that’s not particularly cutting edge: It’s booking helicopter rides in New York City. Last Friday, Uber said it was working with a startup, Joby Aviation, to develop “aerial ride-sharing” and set a deadline of 2023. Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted: “Getting closer ...” --With assistance from Ian King. To contact the author of this story: Mark Milian in San Francisco at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Pollack at [email protected], Alistair BarrTom Giles For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || Flying Cars, Hyperloops and the Other 2020 Tech Predictions That Didn’t Pan Out: (Bloomberg) -- Predicting the future is hard, even for the people with the most power to influence it. In 2013, Jeff Bezos said he expected Amazon.com Inc. would be delivering packages by drone in four to five years. Here we are seven years later, the flying delivery robots Bezos envisioned are still at the testing stage and have just started to get regulatory approval in the U.S.
Corporate fortune telling is a common practice in the technology industry, and executives tend to choose round numbers as deadlines for their technological fantasies. So, as 2019 draws to a close and we approach a new decade, let’s take a look back at how some of the tech industry’s predictions for 2020 fared.
1. Computer chips will consume almost no energy
Gordon Moore was famous for his foresight about the development of cheaper and more advanced computers. Intel Corp., the company he co-founded, stayed in the prognostication game years after Moore retired, with mixed results. In 2012, Intel predicted a form of ubiquitous computing that would consume almost zero energy by 2020. The date is almost here, and phones still barely last a day before needing a recharge. The i9, Intel’s latest top-of-the-line computer chip, requires 165 watts of energy. That’s more than twice as much as a 65-inch television.
2. Nine out of 10 people over age 6 will own a mobile phone
In 2014, Ericsson Mobility estimated that 90% of people on earth over 6 years old would own a mobile phone by 2020. This is a hard one to measure, but a visit to developing countries suggests we are nowhere close. Research firm Statista puts global penetration at 67%. One milestone achieved this decade is the number of mobile subscriptions exceeded the world’s population for the first time, according to data compiled by the World Bank. The statistic is skewed by people who use multiple devices. Concern about the potential harmful effects of video game and social-media overuse by children may mean this never happens. There's now a national movement in the U.S. encouraging parents to wait until kids are in the eighth grade (age 13) before letting them have a smartphone.
3. Jet.com will break even
Jet.com was an embodiment of the startup unicorn, before that was even a term. Marc Lore started the online retailer after selling his previous company to Amazon. Jet would challenge Lore’s former employer by offering cheaper prices on products with a subscription that substantially undercut Prime. To do that, Jet quickly started burning through the more than $700 million it had raised from venture capitalists, and critics said the startup had no path to profitability. In response, Lore said on Bloomberg TV in 2015 that Jet would break even by 2020. Walmart Inc. swooped in a year after that interview and bought Jet for $3.3 billion. According to news site Vox, Walmart is projecting a loss of more than $1 billion this year for its U.S. e-commerce division, now led by Lore.
4. The first 60-mile hyperloop ride will take place
In 2013, Elon Musk outlined his vision for a new “fifth mode of transportation” that would involve zipping people through tubes at speeds as fast as 800 miles per hour. Several tech entrepreneurs heeded Musk’s call and went to work on such systems inspired by the billionaire’s specifications. In 2015, one of the leading startups predicted a hyperloop spanning about 60 miles would be ready for human transport by 2020. Rob Lloyd, then the CEO of Hyperloop Technologies, told Popular Science: “I’m very confident that’s going to happen.” It hasn’t. His company, now called Virgin Hyperloop One, has a 1,600-foot test track in California and hopes to build a 22-mile track in Saudi Arabia someday. Musk has since experimented with hyperloops of his own, and even he has had to scale back his ambitions. Musk’s Boring Co. is building a so-called Loop system in Las Vegas, starting with a nearly mile-long track that consists of a narrow tunnel and Tesla cars moving at up to 155 miles per hour.
5. Google’s cloud business will eclipse advertising
Selling cloud services became a big business for Amazon, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. over the last decade. Google executive Urs Hölzle saw the shift coming and in 2015 predicted Google’s cloud revenue would supersede advertising by 2020. Alphabet Inc.’s Google has inched closer to Amazon Web Services since then, but it’ll take a lot to outgrow Google’s cash cow. The cloud is expected to represent almost 15% of revenue for Google this year, compared with 85% for ads.
6. Huawei will make a ‘superphone’
Here’s what Huawei Technologies Co. said in 2015 predicting a “superphone” by 2020, according to ZDNet: “Inspired by the biological evolution, the mobile phone we currently know will come to life as the superphone,” said Shao Yang, a strategy marketing president of Huawei. “Through evolution and adaptation, the superphone will be more intelligent, enhancing and even transforming our perceptions, enabling humans to go further than ever before.” It’s not entirely clear what that means, but it probably hasn’t happened yet. In the interim, Huawei found itself in the middle of a trade war, and the Chinese company is focusing largely on mid-priced phones for its domestic market.
7. Toyota will make fully self-driving cars
Auto and tech companies alike became convinced this decade that computers would soon be able to drive cars more reliably than people. In 2015, Toyota Motor Corp. made a companywide bet that it would have autonomous highway-driving cars on the road by 2020. It didn’t take long for the hype cycle to veer off course. In 2018, a pedestrian died after colliding with an Uber self-driving car. In 2020, Toyota’s Lexus brand will introduce a car capable of driving autonomously on the highway, but executives acknowledged that auto companies “are revising their timeline for AI deployment significantly.”
8. A Bitcoin will be worth $1 million
John McAfee, the controversial computer antivirus mogul and an influential voice in the cryptocurrency community, predicted the price of Bitcoin would reach $1 million by the end of 2020. McAfee posted the estimate in November 2017, about three weeks before a crash would erase 83% of value over the next year. Bitcoin has recovered somewhat, but the current price of about $7,200 is far from McAfee’s magic number. Like other Bitcoin bulls, McAfee is standing by his unlikely prediction. If he’s wrong, McAfee said he’ll eat an intimate body part.
9. Dyson will sell an electric car
It was barely two years ago when the maker of blowdryers and vacuum cleaners said it would sell an electric car by 2020. Dyson canceled the project this year, calling it “not commercially viable.”
10. Uber will deploy flying cars
When Uber Technologies Inc. pledged to deliver on a promise of the Jetsons, it gave itself just three years to do so. The company still intends to hold flight demonstrations in 2020, but it’s safe to say you will not be able to hail a flying Uber in the next year. The company continues to explore the concept with regulators. This year, Uber added a form of flying vehicle that’s not particularly cutting edge: It’s booking helicopter rides in New York City. Last Friday, Uber said it was working with a startup, Joby Aviation, to develop “aerial ride-sharing” and set a deadline of 2023. Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted: “Getting closer ...”
--With assistance from Ian King.
To contact the author of this story: Mark Milian in San Francisco at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Pollack at [email protected], Alistair BarrTom Giles
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – 27/12/19: Bitcoin rose by 0.17% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 0.78% fall from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $7,232.4.
A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to a mid-morning low $7,195.7 before making a move.
Steering clear of the first major support level at $7,124.13, Bitcoin rallied to an early evening intraday high $7,465.0.
Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $7,305.13 and the second major resistance level at $7,390.17.
A late sell-off saw Bitcoin slide back to a late intraday low $7,181.8 before finding support.
Steering clear of the first major support level, Bitcoin moved back through to $7,200 levels to end the day in the green.
The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of Bitcoin continuing to hold onto $7,000 levels.
For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend.
Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a mixed day for the majors.
Tezos and Litecoin bucked the trend on the day, with the pair falling by 2.62% and by 0.30% respectively.
The rest of the pack saw green, with Bitcoin Cash ABC rising by 1.73% to lead the way.
Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.20), EOS (+1.65%), Stellar’s Lumen (+1.22%), and Tron’s TRX (+1.44%) also saw solid gains.
It was a more muted day for the rest, however. Binance Coin rose by 0.46%, with Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP up by 0.42% and 0.61% respectively.
Through the current week, the crypto total market cap hit a Monday high $200.48bn before sliding to a low $189.60bn on Thursday. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $190.61bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance continued to sit at 68% levels on Thursday. Trading volumes continued to fall short of $90bn levels seen on Monday, however. At the time of writing, volumes were at $75bn levels.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.31% to $7,255.0. A relatively bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $7,224.5 to a high $7,275.1.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, EOS led the way early on, rallying by 1.67%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.20%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.38%), and Tezos (+1.04%) also found strong support.
Binance Coin (+0.45%), Ethereum (+0.65%), Litecoin (+0.48%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.22%) saw more modest gains.
Bucking the trend early, however, were Ripple’s XRP (-0.01%) and Tron’s TRX (-0.12%).
Bitcoin would need to move through to $7,295 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,404.33.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $7,300 levels.
Barring an extended rally, the first major resistance level and Thursday’s high $7,465.0 would likely continue to cap any upside on the day.
Failure to move through to $7,295 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse.
A fall back through the morning low $7,224.5 would bring the first major support level at $7,121.13 into play.
Barring a broad-based sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $7,009.87.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• Gold Price Prediction – Gold Continues to Trend Higher || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – 27/12/19: Bitcoin rose by 0.17% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 0.78% fall from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $7,232.4. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to a mid-morning low $7,195.7 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $7,124.13, Bitcoin rallied to an early evening intraday high $7,465.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $7,305.13 and the second major resistance level at $7,390.17. A late sell-off saw Bitcoin slide back to a late intraday low $7,181.8 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level, Bitcoin moved back through to $7,200 levels to end the day in the green. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of Bitcoin continuing to hold onto $7,000 levels. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a mixed day for the majors. Tezos and Litecoin bucked the trend on the day, with the pair falling by 2.62% and by 0.30% respectively. The rest of the pack saw green, with Bitcoin Cash ABC rising by 1.73% to lead the way. Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.20), EOS (+1.65%), Stellar’s Lumen (+1.22%), and Tron’s TRX (+1.44%) also saw solid gains. It was a more muted day for the rest, however. Binance Coin rose by 0.46%, with Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP up by 0.42% and 0.61% respectively. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap hit a Monday high $200.48bn before sliding to a low $189.60bn on Thursday. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $190.61bn. Bitcoin’s dominance continued to sit at 68% levels on Thursday. Trading volumes continued to fall short of $90bn levels seen on Monday, however. At the time of writing, volumes were at $75bn levels. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.31% to $7,255.0. A relatively bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $7,224.5 to a high $7,275.1. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, EOS led the way early on, rallying by 1.67%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.20%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.38%), and Tezos (+1.04%) also found strong support. Binance Coin (+0.45%), Ethereum (+0.65%), Litecoin (+0.48%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.22%) saw more modest gains. Bucking the trend early, however, were Ripple’s XRP (-0.01%) and Tron’s TRX (-0.12%). For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through to $7,295 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,404.33. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $7,300 levels. Barring an extended rally, the first major resistance level and Thursday’s high $7,465.0 would likely continue to cap any upside on the day. Failure to move through to $7,295 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse. A fall back through the morning low $7,224.5 would bring the first major support level at $7,121.13 into play. Barring a broad-based sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $7,009.87. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: European Equities: Futures Point Northwards Fueled by Trade Optimism Trump Impeached in the House! Is It Time for Gold Now? Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Rally Significantly U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis – Closing Price Reversal Top Confirmed, 96.850 Next Downside Target Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Testing Major Retracement Zone at $1512.40 to $1526.40; Ripe for Closing Price Reversal Top Gold Price Prediction – Gold Continues to Trend Higher || Twitter Bug Exposed Millions of User Phone Numbers: A security researcher was able to use a bug in the Twitter Android app to identify millions of Twitter users, connecting their phone numbers to their Twitter IDs. The exploit could expose failures in the company’s two-factor authentication system and give other security developers pause.
According to aTechCrunchreport, the researcher,Ibrahim Balic, created randomized lists of phone numbers and sent them to Twitter.
“If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return,” he said.
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The user data allowed Balic to find phone numbers for many major Twitter “celebrities” including the private number of a “senior Israeli politician.”
“Upon learning of this bug, we suspended the accounts used to inappropriately access people’s personal information. Protecting the privacy and safety of the people who use Twitter is our number one priority and we remain focused on rapidly stopping spam and abuse originating from use of Twitter’s APIs,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
The bug exposed user accounts when Balic uploaded millions of phone numbers and asked Twitter to match them with users. Typically this interface is used only when new users install the app on their phone but, using a set of API calls, Balic was able to spoof this behavior. The resulting breach of privacy – essentially connecting real numbers to real Twitter handles – could reduce the efficacy of two-factor authentication schemes popular on financial applications and wallets.
Image via Shutterstock.
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• Nayuta Claims Its Android Lightning Wallet Is the First to Build in a Bitcoin Full Node || Twitter Bug Exposed Millions of User Phone Numbers: A security researcher was able to use a bug in the Twitter Android app to identify millions of Twitter users, connecting their phone numbers to their Twitter IDs. The exploit could expose failures in the company’s two-factor authentication system and give other security developers pause. According to a TechCrunch report, the researcher, Ibrahim Balic , created randomized lists of phone numbers and sent them to Twitter. “If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return,” he said. Related: New Ransomware Tactic: Pay Us or the World Sees Your Keys The user data allowed Balic to find phone numbers for many major Twitter “celebrities” including the private number of a “senior Israeli politician.” “Upon learning of this bug, we suspended the accounts used to inappropriately access people’s personal information. Protecting the privacy and safety of the people who use Twitter is our number one priority and we remain focused on rapidly stopping spam and abuse originating from use of Twitter’s APIs,” a Twitter spokesperson said. The bug exposed user accounts when Balic uploaded millions of phone numbers and asked Twitter to match them with users. Typically this interface is used only when new users install the app on their phone but, using a set of API calls, Balic was able to spoof this behavior. The resulting breach of privacy – essentially connecting real numbers to real Twitter handles – could reduce the efficacy of two-factor authentication schemes popular on financial applications and wallets. Image via Shutterstock. Related Stories Crypto-Mining Attacks Fell Sharply in 2019 but Ransomware Is Trending: Kaspersky Jack Dorsey Announces New Twitter Team: Square Crypto, but for Social Media Nayuta Claims Its Android Lightning Wallet Is the First to Build in a Bitcoin Full Node || YouTube Calls Crypto Purge a Mistake but Many Videos Still Missing: YouTube erroneously purged cryptocurrency education videos from its video-sharing platform this week but claims to have reinstated them, according to a spokesperson. Content creators, however, are telling a different story.
Responding to allegations it had intentionally deleted content from cryptocurrency education channels ChrisDunnTV, Crypto Tips, BTC Sessions and others in what apparently amounted to hundreds of missing videos, the spokesperson said YouTube made “the wrong call.”
“With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it. We also offer uploaders the ability to appeal removals and we will re-review the content,” the spokesperson said. YouTube has issued near-identical statements after previous inadvertent video purges.
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The spokesperson further stated YouTube has not changed any policies related to cryptocurrency videos.
In spite of this, some YouTubers claim their deleted videos remain inaccessible. Chris Dunn, who runs an investment education channel with 200,000 subscribers and a multi-year video library, says the purge has actually gotten worse since he successfully appealed his deletions.
“Today, YouTube not only took down the videos that they reinstated yesterday, but they took down at least one other video that they’d never taken down before,” Dunn said.
At press time a number of videos are still missing from Dunn’s channel and others that CoinDesk directly asked YouTube about, like Crypto Tips. YouTube has not yet responded to follow-up questions.
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The conflicting statements are sure to increase the furious speculation over why YouTube deleted the videos in the first place. Multiple theories abound. Dunn said he has no idea why it occurred – not all of his deleted videos had to do with crypto – but said it could be the work of someone “maliciously reporting” him and others or, perhaps, faulty video-flagging AI.
Dunn said YouTube flagged videos as “harmful or dangerous content” and the “sale of regulated goods.” Dunn told CoinDesk he does not sell products on his channel and does not monetize his videos with ads.
Regardless of the whether the purge was intentional or not, Dunn said he and other content creators have noticed YouTube target content it deems objectionable to itself or its advertisers.
He pointed to YouTube’s demonetization of violent political videos, likefootage of the Hong Kong protests, and its recent terms of service update, which features a throwaway account termination clause with potentially far-reaching ramifications.
“YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account’s access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable,” the Dec. 10 ToSupdatereads.
Dunn said he interprets that to mean YouTube can terminate creators who do not make it money.
He told CoinDesk he is seriously considering walking away from YouTube altogether. Contacted for additional comment Thursday, Dunn said he had a goodbye video ready to go and was only waiting for the situation to clear up.
Dunn’s plan, if he invokes that nuclear option is to move his content to “decentralized platforms” where no single entity exerts commercial control.
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• Startup Raises $20 Million to Build ‘YouTube on the Blockchain’ || YouTube Calls Crypto Purge a Mistake but Many Videos Still Missing: YouTube erroneously purged cryptocurrency education videos from its video-sharing platform this week but claims to have reinstated them, according to a spokesperson. Content creators, however, are telling a different story. Responding to allegations it had intentionally deleted content from cryptocurrency education channels ChrisDunnTV, Crypto Tips, BTC Sessions and others in what apparently amounted to hundreds of missing videos, the spokesperson said YouTube made the wrong call. With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When its brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it. We also offer uploaders the ability to appeal removals and we will re-review the content, the spokesperson said. YouTube has issued near-identical statements after previous inadvertent video purges. Related: PewDiePie Helps Blockchain Video Streaming Platform to 67% Hike in Users The spokesperson further stated YouTube has not changed any policies related to cryptocurrency videos. In spite of this, some YouTubers claim their deleted videos remain inaccessible. Chris Dunn, who runs an investment education channel with 200,000 subscribers and a multi-year video library, says the purge has actually gotten worse since he successfully appealed his deletions. Today, YouTube not only took down the videos that they reinstated yesterday, but they took down at least one other video that theyd never taken down before, Dunn said. At press time a number of videos are still missing from Dunns channel and others that CoinDesk directly asked YouTube about, like Crypto Tips. YouTube has not yet responded to follow-up questions. Related: Top YouTuber PewDiePie Joins Blockchain Live Streaming Platform The conflicting statements are sure to increase the furious speculation over why YouTube deleted the videos in the first place. Multiple theories abound. Dunn said he has no idea why it occurred not all of his deleted videos had to do with crypto but said it could be the work of someone maliciously reporting him and others or, perhaps, faulty video-flagging AI. Story continues Dunn said YouTube flagged videos as harmful or dangerous content and the sale of regulated goods. Dunn told CoinDesk he does not sell products on his channel and does not monetize his videos with ads. Regardless of the whether the purge was intentional or not, Dunn said he and other content creators have noticed YouTube target content it deems objectionable to itself or its advertisers. He pointed to YouTubes demonetization of violent political videos, like footage of the Hong Kong protests , and its recent terms of service update, which features a throwaway account termination clause with potentially far-reaching ramifications. YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google accounts access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable, the Dec. 10 ToS update reads. Dunn said he interprets that to mean YouTube can terminate creators who do not make it money. He told CoinDesk he is seriously considering walking away from YouTube altogether. Contacted for additional comment Thursday, Dunn said he had a goodbye video ready to go and was only waiting for the situation to clear up. Dunns plan, if he invokes that nuclear option is to move his content to decentralized platforms where no single entity exerts commercial control. Related Stories YouTube Accused of Negligence in BitConnect Fraud Lawsuit Startup Raises $20 Million to Build YouTube on the Blockchain || Holiday Spending up 14.6% as E-Commerce Beats Brick-and-Mortar: E-commerce sales hit record highs this year as Americans continue to move their holiday shopping online.
According to Mastercard’sSpendingPulse report, online retail grew 18.8% over last year’s holiday season. That’s enough to make online sales a record 14.6% of holiday shoppers total spend, the report says.
Online consumers this year spent 17% more on apparel, 8.8% more on jewelry, 10.7% more on electronics, and 6.9% more at department stores.
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Overall, holiday spending jumped 3.4% compared to 2018.
The strong numbers came in spite of 2019’s unusually short holiday season, commonly defined as the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Shoppers had six days fewer than they had in 2018.
Steve Sadove, an advisor for MasterCard, said in a press release that retailers adapted to the shortened season.
“Due to a later than usual Thanksgiving holiday, we saw retailers offering omnichannel sales earlier in the season, meeting consumers’ demand for the best deals across all channels and devices.”
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Interestingly – or ominously – retailers who accepted crypto or managed crypto payments were slow to respond when we asked them how their holiday shopping season went.eGifter, a gift card trading service, noted that it had not yet “crunched the numbers” on holiday sales but that “We saw growth in overall crypto sales,” said Bill Egan, the site’s VP of Marketing.
“We saw more gifting with crypto in 2019, compared to buy-for-self use cases in prior years,” he said.
Payment processor BitPay found the holidays quite inspiring as well.
“We saw twice our daily averages of processed volume leading up to the holiday,” said BitPay’s CMO, Bill Zielke.
It will be interesting to see what kind of statistics surface over the next few seasons as e-commerce becomes king and crypto payments come to the fore.
Photo byAdam NieściorukonUnsplash
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Under a law going into effect Jan. 1 requiring digital asset custodians to be licensed, each company that currently custodies crypto and targets German clients must announce to Germany’s Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) its intention to get a license before April 1 and submit an application before Nov. 1.
A clause allows current crypto custodians to keep serving German customers without being penalized if they declare their intent to apply, but those same companies are waiting on BaFin to release final regulations around the law.
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“As long as the legislation is not in place, BaFin is not going to think about how to cope or how to deal with the legislation,” said BaFin press officer Norbert Pieper. The regulator declined further comment and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance did not respond to request for comment by press time.
Pieper added: “There is no date foreseeable [yet] by which we’ll be able to communicate the results of our assessment. We will certainly communicate that on our website.”
While the final regulations haven’t been set yet, the new license requirement may not produce the same kind of exodus of crypto firms that New York saw after the BitLicense requirement, said Miha Grčar, head of business development at Bitstamp.
London-based Bitstamp, one of Europe’s largest crypto exchanges, plans to continue operating in Germany but declined to say whether it would apply for a license, said Grčar. Crypto firms could also use a white-labeled custody service to operate in Germany.
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Because the law is an “updated version of the existing banking regulation,” banks will likely have the most to gain from it, Grčar added. Companies that get the license will be German financial institutions, but not classified as banks.
The law also means that German regulators now see crypto as a “legitimate” industry, he said.
Ulli Spankowski, chief digital officer and managing director of the crypto custody subsidiary of German stock exchange Boerse Stuttgart, called Blocknox, sees the license as a step forward for “the professionalism of the industry.” The subsidiary has already advised BaFin that it plans to apply.
“There are other countries that won’t go for a full-fledged license,” he said. “If you want to get traditional, established players from the banking side, you need to give them this environment to feel safe.”
DLC group is taking advantage of the new regulatory framework by offering consulting services for firms interested in applying, and its own white-labeled crypto custody service.
Sven Hildebrandt, head of Distributed Ledger Consulting Group, is concerned some exchanges won’t understand the nuances of the new law.
“The law is only in German and no English translation of the law is out there,” he said. “What’s going to happen to exchanges? [Operating without a licence] is actually a felony and not a misdemeanor so that’s jail time.”
Hildebrandt predicts the costs of licensing will be similar to other German financial services licenses where firms will need two managing directors, an established German entity and 125,000 euros of starting capital. He also estimates installation will cost 250,000 to 350,000 euros and recurring yearly costs will be 350,000 euros.
Switzerland-based Crypto Storage AG, a subsidiary of Crypto Finance AG, is opening a branch in Germany to offer crypto custody to banks and then financial technology startups.
“Large banking houses will do custody business in the future,” Stijn Vander Straeten, CEO of Crypto Storage AG, said. “They are moving slowly, though. We’ll build it up now for a premium.”
Berlin-based solarisBank this monthopeneda subsidiary called solaris Digital Assets to offer crypto custody as a service. So far, the bank has a handful of customers testing the service with more than 40 companies in the pipeline, said Alexis Hamel, managing director of solaris Digital Assets.
In addition to waiting for details from BaFin, crypto firms are also waiting to see if the law can be passported to other European Union states.
“Germany is definitely at the forefront with the clearer regulation,” Hamel said. “We still need to see how other European countries level up.”
• 2020 Vision: 7 Trends Bringing Blockchain Into Focus in the Year Ahead
• Beyond Storage: How Custody Is Evolving to Meet Institutional Needs || Crypto Custodians Grapple With Germany’s New Rules: Crypto firms in Germany are getting ready to exist under a new regime. Under a law going into effect Jan. 1 requiring digital asset custodians to be licensed, each company that currently custodies crypto and targets German clients must announce to Germany’s Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) its intention to get a license before April 1 and submit an application before Nov. 1. A clause allows current crypto custodians to keep serving German customers without being penalized if they declare their intent to apply, but those same companies are waiting on BaFin to release final regulations around the law. Related: Crypto Firms Can Now Apply for a License in France “As long as the legislation is not in place, BaFin is not going to think about how to cope or how to deal with the legislation,” said BaFin press officer Norbert Pieper. The regulator declined further comment and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance did not respond to request for comment by press time. Pieper added: “There is no date foreseeable [yet] by which we’ll be able to communicate the results of our assessment. We will certainly communicate that on our website.” While the final regulations haven’t been set yet, the new license requirement may not produce the same kind of exodus of crypto firms that New York saw after the BitLicense requirement, said Miha Grčar, head of business development at Bitstamp. London-based Bitstamp, one of Europe’s largest crypto exchanges, plans to continue operating in Germany but declined to say whether it would apply for a license, said Grčar. Crypto firms could also use a white-labeled custody service to operate in Germany. Related: Bomb Threats Demanding Bitcoin Force Evacuations Across Russia Because the law is an “updated version of the existing banking regulation,” banks will likely have the most to gain from it, Grčar added. Companies that get the license will be German financial institutions, but not classified as banks. Story continues The law also means that German regulators now see crypto as a “legitimate” industry, he said. Ulli Spankowski, chief digital officer and managing director of the crypto custody subsidiary of German stock exchange Boerse Stuttgart, called Blocknox, sees the license as a step forward for “the professionalism of the industry.” The subsidiary has already advised BaFin that it plans to apply. “There are other countries that won’t go for a full-fledged license,” he said. “If you want to get traditional, established players from the banking side, you need to give them this environment to feel safe.” DLC group is taking advantage of the new regulatory framework by offering consulting services for firms interested in applying, and its own white-labeled crypto custody service. Sven Hildebrandt, head of Distributed Ledger Consulting Group, is concerned some exchanges won’t understand the nuances of the new law. “The law is only in German and no English translation of the law is out there,” he said. “What’s going to happen to exchanges? [Operating without a licence] is actually a felony and not a misdemeanor so that’s jail time.” Hildebrandt predicts the costs of licensing will be similar to other German financial services licenses where firms will need two managing directors, an established German entity and 125,000 euros of starting capital. He also estimates installation will cost 250,000 to 350,000 euros and recurring yearly costs will be 350,000 euros. Switzerland-based Crypto Storage AG, a subsidiary of Crypto Finance AG, is opening a branch in Germany to offer crypto custody to banks and then financial technology startups. “Large banking houses will do custody business in the future,” Stijn Vander Straeten, CEO of Crypto Storage AG, said. “They are moving slowly, though. We’ll build it up now for a premium.” Berlin-based solarisBank this month opened a subsidiary called solaris Digital Assets to offer crypto custody as a service. So far, the bank has a handful of customers testing the service with more than 40 companies in the pipeline, said Alexis Hamel, managing director of solaris Digital Assets. In addition to waiting for details from BaFin, crypto firms are also waiting to see if the law can be passported to other European Union states. “Germany is definitely at the forefront with the clearer regulation,” Hamel said. “We still need to see how other European countries level up.” Related Stories 2020 Vision: 7 Trends Bringing Blockchain Into Focus in the Year Ahead Beyond Storage: How Custody Is Evolving to Meet Institutional Needs
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-11-20]
Volume: 20764300437, RSI (14-day): 33.65, 50-day EMA: 8818.30, 200-day EMA: 8704.36
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1473.30, Gold RSI: 46.53
Oil Price: 57.11, Oil RSI: 54.68
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Fidelity Digital Assets Gets NY Trust Charter to Custody Bitcoin for Institutions: Fidelity Digital Asset Services has obtained a trust company charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing the Fidelity Investments unit to custody bitcoin for institutional investors in the financial capital of the U.S.
FDAS joins 22 other companies that have been approved for a charter or license by the regulator to engage in virtual currency business activities, NYDFS said.
“The custody and trade execution services that we provide are essential building blocks for institutional investors’ continued adoption of digital assets,” Michael O’Reilly, Chief Operating Officer for Fidelity Digital Assets, said in a press release. “The designation as a New York Trust Company under the supervision and examination of the DFS builds on the credibility and trust we’re establishing amongst institutions”
Related:Bakkt, Fidelity Will Store Galaxy Digital’s New Bitcoin Fund Holdings
The news comes as Galaxy Digital Holdings announced that it was choosing Fidelity and Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt (which also has an NYDFS trust license) tostorethe bitcoin for its two new funds. A few months ago, Fidelity went on a hiringspreefor experts in blockchain and trading.
• Tencent, Fidelity Back $20 Million Round for Blockchain Firm Everledger
• Fidelity’s Charity Arm Has Received Over $100 Million in Crypto Donations
• Fidelity Digital Assets Is Hiring 10 More Blockchain and Trading Experts || Fidelity Digital Assets Gets NY Trust Charter to Custody Bitcoin for Institutions: Fidelity Digital Asset Services has obtained a trust company charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing the Fidelity Investments unit to custody bitcoin for institutional investors in the financial capital of the U.S.
FDAS joins 22 other companies that have been approved for a charter or license by the regulator to engage in virtual currency business activities, NYDFS said.
“The custody and trade execution services that we provide are essential building blocks for institutional investors’ continued adoption of digital assets,” Michael O’Reilly, Chief Operating Officer for Fidelity Digital Assets, said in a press release. “The designation as a New York Trust Company under the supervision and examination of the DFS builds on the credibility and trust we’re establishing amongst institutions”
Related:Bakkt, Fidelity Will Store Galaxy Digital’s New Bitcoin Fund Holdings
The news comes as Galaxy Digital Holdings announced that it was choosing Fidelity and Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt (which also has an NYDFS trust license) tostorethe bitcoin for its two new funds. A few months ago, Fidelity went on a hiringspreefor experts in blockchain and trading.
• Tencent, Fidelity Back $20 Million Round for Blockchain Firm Everledger
• Fidelity’s Charity Arm Has Received Over $100 Million in Crypto Donations
• Fidelity Digital Assets Is Hiring 10 More Blockchain and Trading Experts || Fidelity Digital Assets Gets NY Trust Charter to Custody Bitcoin for Institutions: Fidelity Digital Asset Services has obtained a trust company charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing the Fidelity Investments unit to custody bitcoin for institutional investors in the financial capital of the U.S. FDAS joins 22 other companies that have been approved for a charter or license by the regulator to engage in virtual currency business activities, NYDFS said. “The custody and trade execution services that we provide are essential building blocks for institutional investors’ continued adoption of digital assets,” Michael O’Reilly, Chief Operating Officer for Fidelity Digital Assets, said in a press release. “The designation as a New York Trust Company under the supervision and examination of the DFS builds on the credibility and trust we’re establishing amongst institutions” Related: Bakkt, Fidelity Will Store Galaxy Digital’s New Bitcoin Fund Holdings The news comes as Galaxy Digital Holdings announced that it was choosing Fidelity and Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt (which also has an NYDFS trust license) to store the bitcoin for its two new funds. A few months ago, Fidelity went on a hiring spree for experts in blockchain and trading. Related Stories Tencent, Fidelity Back $20 Million Round for Blockchain Firm Everledger Fidelity’s Charity Arm Has Received Over $100 Million in Crypto Donations Fidelity Digital Assets Is Hiring 10 More Blockchain and Trading Experts || Victim of OneCoin scam tells of hope that missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ will be found: One of the devastated victims of the OneCoin scam has spoken of her hope that its missing CEO – Ruja Ignatova – will be found after the fraudster’s brother agreed to inform on his sister and members of the Bulgarian Mafia. Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to a string of charges related to fraud last week at New York Southern District Court. However, facing a possible 90-year sentence behind bars for his involvement with OneCoin, the 33-year-old agreed to a plea bargain that means he will face no further charges in exchange for helping detectives. While keen for him to face the full force of the law, one of OneCoin’s victims says the agreement brings into focus the real possibility that the 38-year-old so-called ‘Cryptoqueen’ could be brought to justice. Jen McAdam Jen McAdam Jen McAdam is spearheading a group of victims who have lost huge sums after ploughing cash into what was sold to them as “the next Bitcoin”. Ms McAdam personally lost £8,000 but also encouraged friends and members of her family to plough almost a quarter of a million pounds into the scam. Since speaking out about OneCoin and its elusive Oxford-educated CEO, the 49-year-old has received a torrent of vile abuse from the Bulgarian-based Ponzi scheme’s supporters, with threats of sexual violence and even death. Speaking to Coin Rivet, Ms McAdam said hope was still very strong that Ignatova will be found and face charges in the US. Charged ‘in absentia’, the missing fraudster has been accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and money laundering. Ruja Ignatova Ruja Ignatova Further charges could still be brought, but the current set of five accusations would be enough to put her behind bars for 85 years, if found guilty. Further hope “With her brother taking the plea deal, that also brings further hope to victims that when Ruja is caught, the truth will eventually be told in a court of law for all of her devastated victims to hear which, hopefully, will bring some peace their way,” Ms McAdam said. Story continues “At the moment, I speak to victims every day who are either distressed, upset, shocked, devastated, or even suicidal. “This is a multi-billion dollar fake crypto scam that has hit nearly every country worldwide and left so many people with their hearts ripped from them and their families.” Ignatova – who has been on the run since disappearing in October 2017 after raising $5bn worldwide with OneCoin – has, according to her victims, left families utterly ruined by the scam. “Many OneCoin victims sold their homes and used all their life savings to purchase these fraudulent fake OneCoin packages that Ruja created through her fraud,” added Ms McAdam, before heaping praise on the BBC’s Jamie Bartlett and Georgia Catt for turning the spotlight on the scandal with The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast. “The series by the BBC helped to raise awareness, and in doing so has alerted mainstream media on a scale the OneCoin victims did not expect but are so very grateful for. “Maybe as media awareness is raised further the world will become smaller for Ruja Ignatova – the multi-billion dollar fraudster and scammer – to hide, and just maybe she will be found by the authorities and face her charges for her horrendous crimes in a court of law. And just maybe with hope her devastated victims will see justice take place. Recovery fund “When this day comes – if it ever does – we then hope an asset recovery fund could then become available for the OneCoin victims.” Hope, she says, has been the one overriding emotion that has brought strength to the victims she supports in every corner of the world. It is believed 70,000 people in the UK alone fell foul of Ignatova’s Ponzi. “Justice, the truth, and hope are what we hold onto going into the future – we will never, ever, ever give up on that,” she vows. The BBC’s podcast has been widely commended for highlighting what has turned out to be one of the world’s biggest frauds. “Immense thanks to the producers Jamie Bartlett and Georgia Catt for hearing the victims’ voices and investigating the OneCoin scam, which then led them on to produce The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast series,” she praises. “If it was not for these two very kind, caring, and concerned journalists, I am really not sure if the OneCoin victims would have been heard. “Through their investigation and podcast series, they have highlighted this horrendous and devastating scam by Ruja Ignatova and also given the OneCoin victims further hope for justice.” Konstantin Ignatov Konstantin Ignatov, brother of missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova For now, however, all eyes are on the ongoing court case in New York, where legal attention has moved away from Ignatova’s younger brother and back on to former lawyer Mark Scott and his involvement in laundering the gang’s money. Scott even tried to implicate Neil Bush – brother of former US President George W Bush and son of George HW Bush – by attempting to subpoena the businessman. Bush, through his business connections, was paid $300,000 to meet with Ruja Ignatova in Hong Kong over a possible deal involving OneCoin. Bush declined to pursue the interest. Prominent figure Scott had hoped the fact that such a prominent figure was prepared to meet Ignatova gave OneCoin enough credibility for him to believe nothing about OneCoin was untoward. The new focus in the case, though, will do little to distract from the fact that the potential for recovering the lost funds of hundreds of thousands of victims could be put in reach with Konstantin Ignatov’s plea bargain. Despite it being a desperate attempt to avoid spending the rest of his life in jail, he may yet be the key to unlocking his older sister’s dark secrets. “May justice and the full truth come soon,” concludes Ms McAdam. “What we believed was to be a financial dream has become in reality a financial and horrific nightmare. “Never trust in people’s word – always do your due diligence and verify and keep safe from fake crypto scammers and fraudsters like Ruja Ignatova and OneCoin. “People should remember, ‘what sometimes looks like sugar is indeed salt!’” Support group If you’ve been affected by the OneCoin scheme, various support groups with thousands of members can be found. There are also individual groups covering the countries where the Ponzi operated. They can be found here… https://www.facebook.com/groups/1270760729671878/ The post Victim of OneCoin scam tells of hope that missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ will be found appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Victim of OneCoin scam tells of hope that missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ will be found: One of the devastated victims of the OneCoin scam has spoken of her hope that its missing CEO – Ruja Ignatova – will be found after the fraudster’s brother agreed to inform on his sister and members of the Bulgarian Mafia. Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to a string of charges related to fraud last week at New York Southern District Court. However, facing a possible 90-year sentence behind bars for his involvement with OneCoin, the 33-year-old agreed to a plea bargain that means he will face no further charges in exchange for helping detectives. While keen for him to face the full force of the law, one of OneCoin’s victims says the agreement brings into focus the real possibility that the 38-year-old so-called ‘Cryptoqueen’ could be brought to justice. Jen McAdam Jen McAdam Jen McAdam is spearheading a group of victims who have lost huge sums after ploughing cash into what was sold to them as “the next Bitcoin”. Ms McAdam personally lost £8,000 but also encouraged friends and members of her family to plough almost a quarter of a million pounds into the scam. Since speaking out about OneCoin and its elusive Oxford-educated CEO, the 49-year-old has received a torrent of vile abuse from the Bulgarian-based Ponzi scheme’s supporters, with threats of sexual violence and even death. Speaking to Coin Rivet, Ms McAdam said hope was still very strong that Ignatova will be found and face charges in the US. Charged ‘in absentia’, the missing fraudster has been accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and money laundering. Ruja Ignatova Ruja Ignatova Further charges could still be brought, but the current set of five accusations would be enough to put her behind bars for 85 years, if found guilty. Further hope “With her brother taking the plea deal, that also brings further hope to victims that when Ruja is caught, the truth will eventually be told in a court of law for all of her devastated victims to hear which, hopefully, will bring some peace their way,” Ms McAdam said. Story continues “At the moment, I speak to victims every day who are either distressed, upset, shocked, devastated, or even suicidal. “This is a multi-billion dollar fake crypto scam that has hit nearly every country worldwide and left so many people with their hearts ripped from them and their families.” Ignatova – who has been on the run since disappearing in October 2017 after raising $5bn worldwide with OneCoin – has, according to her victims, left families utterly ruined by the scam. “Many OneCoin victims sold their homes and used all their life savings to purchase these fraudulent fake OneCoin packages that Ruja created through her fraud,” added Ms McAdam, before heaping praise on the BBC’s Jamie Bartlett and Georgia Catt for turning the spotlight on the scandal with The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast. “The series by the BBC helped to raise awareness, and in doing so has alerted mainstream media on a scale the OneCoin victims did not expect but are so very grateful for. “Maybe as media awareness is raised further the world will become smaller for Ruja Ignatova – the multi-billion dollar fraudster and scammer – to hide, and just maybe she will be found by the authorities and face her charges for her horrendous crimes in a court of law. And just maybe with hope her devastated victims will see justice take place. Recovery fund “When this day comes – if it ever does – we then hope an asset recovery fund could then become available for the OneCoin victims.” Hope, she says, has been the one overriding emotion that has brought strength to the victims she supports in every corner of the world. It is believed 70,000 people in the UK alone fell foul of Ignatova’s Ponzi. “Justice, the truth, and hope are what we hold onto going into the future – we will never, ever, ever give up on that,” she vows. The BBC’s podcast has been widely commended for highlighting what has turned out to be one of the world’s biggest frauds. “Immense thanks to the producers Jamie Bartlett and Georgia Catt for hearing the victims’ voices and investigating the OneCoin scam, which then led them on to produce The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast series,” she praises. “If it was not for these two very kind, caring, and concerned journalists, I am really not sure if the OneCoin victims would have been heard. “Through their investigation and podcast series, they have highlighted this horrendous and devastating scam by Ruja Ignatova and also given the OneCoin victims further hope for justice.” Konstantin Ignatov Konstantin Ignatov, brother of missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova For now, however, all eyes are on the ongoing court case in New York, where legal attention has moved away from Ignatova’s younger brother and back on to former lawyer Mark Scott and his involvement in laundering the gang’s money. Scott even tried to implicate Neil Bush – brother of former US President George W Bush and son of George HW Bush – by attempting to subpoena the businessman. Bush, through his business connections, was paid $300,000 to meet with Ruja Ignatova in Hong Kong over a possible deal involving OneCoin. Bush declined to pursue the interest. Prominent figure Scott had hoped the fact that such a prominent figure was prepared to meet Ignatova gave OneCoin enough credibility for him to believe nothing about OneCoin was untoward. The new focus in the case, though, will do little to distract from the fact that the potential for recovering the lost funds of hundreds of thousands of victims could be put in reach with Konstantin Ignatov’s plea bargain. Despite it being a desperate attempt to avoid spending the rest of his life in jail, he may yet be the key to unlocking his older sister’s dark secrets. “May justice and the full truth come soon,” concludes Ms McAdam. “What we believed was to be a financial dream has become in reality a financial and horrific nightmare. “Never trust in people’s word – always do your due diligence and verify and keep safe from fake crypto scammers and fraudsters like Ruja Ignatova and OneCoin. “People should remember, ‘what sometimes looks like sugar is indeed salt!’” Support group If you’ve been affected by the OneCoin scheme, various support groups with thousands of members can be found. There are also individual groups covering the countries where the Ponzi operated. They can be found here… https://www.facebook.com/groups/1270760729671878/ The post Victim of OneCoin scam tells of hope that missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ will be found appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Researcher claims to have bypassed Grin’s Mimblewimble privacy features: Cryptocurrency researcher Ivan Bogatyy claims to have found a way to circumvent the privacy features of the Mimblewimble protocol used by the Grin and Beam privacy coins. In a recent post on the Dragonfly Research Medium blog page, Bogatyy claims that he managed to trace over 96% of all transactions using Grin – including both sender and recipient addresses. The future of the Mimblewimble protocol could be in jeopardy if the privacy protocol is proven to no longer be private. However, the team at Grin have since released a post refuting the claims made by the author. Breaking Mimblewimble’s linkability I just published a new attack that breaks Mimblewimble's privacy model. This attack traces 96% of all sender and recipient addresses in real time. Here's a summary and what it means for the future of privacy coins: https://t.co/tsIDLyfpzp — Ivan Bogatyy (@IvanBogatyy) November 18, 2019 Bogatyy claims that Mimblewimble’s privacy is fundamentally flawed. Using only $60 a week of AWS spend, he was supposedly able to uncover the exact addresses of senders and recipients for 96% of Grin transactions in real time. The report reads: “Several researchers have hypothesized a possible privacy weakness in Mimblewimble. In live testing on Grin, I was able to unmask the flow of transactions with a 96% success rate. Therefore, it’s now clear that Mimblewimble should not be relied upon for robust privacy.” Essentially, the attack vector lets the attacker find out who is sending money to whom. However, the amounts transacted remain obfuscated. This attack vector is made possible due to a property of Mimblewimble that derives from the Dandelion technology, known as linkability: the ability to connect transactions to senders and receivers. Dandelion is the technology that adds hops to transactions between the sender and receiver to make them more difficult to trace. Story continues The author goes on to conclude that any cryptocurrency using the Mimblewimble protocol is less secure than other privacy-focused altcoins like Monero or Zcash. “Grin still affords a stronger privacy model than Bitcoin or other non-privacy coins, since amounts are safely encrypted. But Mimblewimble provides a strictly weaker privacy model than Zcash or Monero. This makes it insufficient for many real-world privacy use cases.” Is Dandelion broken as well? Dandelion adds hops to transactions to make them harder to trace. It makes the transaction travel between X number of nodes before broadcasting it to the entire network. Looking at the picture above (courtesy of Bogatyy ), the first four red dots are the secret broadcast (stem phase) followed by the broadcast to the entire network (fluff phase). Grin uses “Patient Dandelion”, an enhanced version of Bitcoin’s Dandelion proposal. This technology hides the IP addresses that originated any given transaction. The attack supposedly works by running a Grin full node modified to log all the transactions it encounters (a sniffer node). In particular, Bogatty claims to have logged all of the intermediary pending transactions that are gossiped around before a block is finalised and aggregated into a single mega-transaction. The attacker can then collect the “metadata” of the transaction between hops. This becomes possible as the node itself becomes one of the stops. Therefore, the attacker can allegedly collect most of the transaction data and effectively link senders to receivers. Response from the Grin team In a post released today, the Grin team has refuted the claims made by the author. Essentially, the Medium post underlines that: Mimblewimble (and Grin) do not use addresses, only UTXOs It’s not possible to link addresses since there are none The number of transactions “broken” doesn’t mean much The transaction graph shows no information about the parties Amounts can never be known In addition, the Grin team has said that if the researchers had approached them, they would have gladly provided the above information. The post Researcher claims to have bypassed Grin’s Mimblewimble privacy features appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Researcher claims to have bypassed Grin’s Mimblewimble privacy features: Cryptocurrency researcher Ivan Bogatyy claims to have found a way to circumvent the privacy features of the Mimblewimble protocol used by the Grin and Beam privacy coins. In a recent post on the Dragonfly Research Medium blog page, Bogatyy claims that he managed to trace over 96% of all transactions using Grin – including both sender and recipient addresses. The future of the Mimblewimble protocol could be in jeopardy if the privacy protocol is proven to no longer be private. However, the team at Grin have since released a post refuting the claims made by the author. Breaking Mimblewimble’s linkability I just published a new attack that breaks Mimblewimble's privacy model. This attack traces 96% of all sender and recipient addresses in real time. Here's a summary and what it means for the future of privacy coins: https://t.co/tsIDLyfpzp — Ivan Bogatyy (@IvanBogatyy) November 18, 2019 Bogatyy claims that Mimblewimble’s privacy is fundamentally flawed. Using only $60 a week of AWS spend, he was supposedly able to uncover the exact addresses of senders and recipients for 96% of Grin transactions in real time. The report reads: “Several researchers have hypothesized a possible privacy weakness in Mimblewimble. In live testing on Grin, I was able to unmask the flow of transactions with a 96% success rate. Therefore, it’s now clear that Mimblewimble should not be relied upon for robust privacy.” Essentially, the attack vector lets the attacker find out who is sending money to whom. However, the amounts transacted remain obfuscated. This attack vector is made possible due to a property of Mimblewimble that derives from the Dandelion technology, known as linkability: the ability to connect transactions to senders and receivers. Dandelion is the technology that adds hops to transactions between the sender and receiver to make them more difficult to trace. Story continues The author goes on to conclude that any cryptocurrency using the Mimblewimble protocol is less secure than other privacy-focused altcoins like Monero or Zcash. “Grin still affords a stronger privacy model than Bitcoin or other non-privacy coins, since amounts are safely encrypted. But Mimblewimble provides a strictly weaker privacy model than Zcash or Monero. This makes it insufficient for many real-world privacy use cases.” Is Dandelion broken as well? Dandelion adds hops to transactions to make them harder to trace. It makes the transaction travel between X number of nodes before broadcasting it to the entire network. Looking at the picture above (courtesy of Bogatyy ), the first four red dots are the secret broadcast (stem phase) followed by the broadcast to the entire network (fluff phase). Grin uses “Patient Dandelion”, an enhanced version of Bitcoin’s Dandelion proposal. This technology hides the IP addresses that originated any given transaction. The attack supposedly works by running a Grin full node modified to log all the transactions it encounters (a sniffer node). In particular, Bogatty claims to have logged all of the intermediary pending transactions that are gossiped around before a block is finalised and aggregated into a single mega-transaction. The attacker can then collect the “metadata” of the transaction between hops. This becomes possible as the node itself becomes one of the stops. Therefore, the attacker can allegedly collect most of the transaction data and effectively link senders to receivers. Response from the Grin team In a post released today, the Grin team has refuted the claims made by the author. Essentially, the Medium post underlines that: Mimblewimble (and Grin) do not use addresses, only UTXOs It’s not possible to link addresses since there are none The number of transactions “broken” doesn’t mean much The transaction graph shows no information about the parties Amounts can never be known In addition, the Grin team has said that if the researchers had approached them, they would have gladly provided the above information. The post Researcher claims to have bypassed Grin’s Mimblewimble privacy features appeared first on Coin Rivet . || English Premier League Club Wolverhampton Wanderers Partners with Crypto Millions Lotto, the World's Biggest Bitcoin Lottery: London, England--(Newsfile Corp. - November 19, 2019) -Crypto Millions Lotto, the world's biggest bitcoin lottery, is proud to announce that it is the "Official Online Lottery Partner" of English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., better known as Wolves.
The partnership is groundbreaking. While many Premier League clubs have collaborated with sports betting partners, this is the first involving an online lottery business.
The world’s biggest bitcoin lottery signs agreement with Wolves.To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6671/49759_crypto_orig.jpg
Wolves is quickly becoming known in cryptocurrency circles as the "go-to" club - like bitcoin itself, a "challenger" brand, challenging the Premiership hierarchy. Crypto Millions Lotto has chosen Wolves for this reason, as it introduces its brand to a global audience, particularly across Asia, Latin America, Canada, Russia and the CIS.
One of the most significant features of the partnership is the major step it represents in bringing the world's most widely used alternative currency further into the mainstream. Wolves and Crypto Millions Lotto are doing their part to encourage bitcoin usage and adoption along with Crypto Millions Lotto's unique referrer program, operated through sister sitewww.earnbitcoin.world. This allows registered users to receive referral fees in bitcoin and compete for a US$2.5 million prize without even buying a lottery ticket.
Commenting on the partnership, Crypto Millions Lotto CEO Sulim Malook, stated, "We are delighted to have found a partner that has the same disruptive ethos as ourselves. Wolves' success last year has put the club's name on the world stage in a sport that is by far the most watched on the planet. As a company, we are big football fans, and Wolves is the most crypto-friendly club in England. They were an obvious choice."
Steve Morton, head of commercial at Wolves, said, "We're delighted to partner with Crypto Millions Lotto, an ambitious company that is keen to increase its exposure with the help of Wolves' global reach across various platforms. We're also excited to develop our relationship, which will also see the Wolves brand reach new audiences in Eastern Europe and South America."
About Crypto Millions Lotto
Crypto Millions Lotto is the trading name for Ofertas365 Limited, a UK company whose shares have been listed on the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange since 2015. It is the world's biggest bitcoin lottery and provides a unique opportunity for players to play with, and win, bitcoin. New customers receive three free lines as an introductory offer and jackpots, which are fully insured start at a whopping US$30 million and roll over until won, which on average is every 3½ weeks.
The lottery is fully licensed to operate in more than 150 countries. Customers can be assured that the draws are completely trustworthy, transparent and fair, as they are based on the outcome of the German National Lottery, which has been operational since 1955 and is televised twice weekly on German television.
For more information, visithttps://www.cryptomillionslotto.com/
About Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves was founded in 1877 and is one of the 12 Founding Members of the English Football League. The club has won the English First Division (as the Premier League was formerly known) three times, the FA Cup four times and the Football League Cup twice. It's seventh place finish in 2018-19 means that it is competing in this year's Europa League.
Today it is owned by Fosun, a Chinese technology focused consumer group whose shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
For more information, visithttps://www.wolves.co.uk
Contact:
For media/press inquiries contact:[email protected]@wolves.co.uk
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/49759 || English Premier League Club Wolverhampton Wanderers Partners with Crypto Millions Lotto, the World's Biggest Bitcoin Lottery: London, England--(Newsfile Corp. - November 19, 2019) - Crypto Millions Lotto , the world's biggest bitcoin lottery, is proud to announce that it is the "Official Online Lottery Partner" of English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., better known as Wolves. The partnership is groundbreaking. While many Premier League clubs have collaborated with sports betting partners, this is the first involving an online lottery business. The worlds biggest bitcoin lottery signs agreement with Wolves. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6671/49759_crypto_orig.jpg Wolves is quickly becoming known in cryptocurrency circles as the "go-to" club - like bitcoin itself, a "challenger" brand, challenging the Premiership hierarchy. Crypto Millions Lotto has chosen Wolves for this reason, as it introduces its brand to a global audience, particularly across Asia, Latin America, Canada, Russia and the CIS. One of the most significant features of the partnership is the major step it represents in bringing the world's most widely used alternative currency further into the mainstream. Wolves and Crypto Millions Lotto are doing their part to encourage bitcoin usage and adoption along with Crypto Millions Lotto's unique referrer program, operated through sister site www.earnbitcoin.world . This allows registered users to receive referral fees in bitcoin and compete for a US$2.5 million prize without even buying a lottery ticket. Commenting on the partnership, Crypto Millions Lotto CEO Sulim Malook, stated, "We are delighted to have found a partner that has the same disruptive ethos as ourselves. Wolves' success last year has put the club's name on the world stage in a sport that is by far the most watched on the planet. As a company, we are big football fans, and Wolves is the most crypto-friendly club in England. They were an obvious choice." Story continues Steve Morton, head of commercial at Wolves, said, "We're delighted to partner with Crypto Millions Lotto, an ambitious company that is keen to increase its exposure with the help of Wolves' global reach across various platforms. We're also excited to develop our relationship, which will also see the Wolves brand reach new audiences in Eastern Europe and South America." About Crypto Millions Lotto Crypto Millions Lotto is the trading name for Ofertas365 Limited, a UK company whose shares have been listed on the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange since 2015. It is the world's biggest bitcoin lottery and provides a unique opportunity for players to play with, and win, bitcoin. New customers receive three free lines as an introductory offer and jackpots, which are fully insured start at a whopping US$30 million and roll over until won, which on average is every 3½ weeks. The lottery is fully licensed to operate in more than 150 countries. Customers can be assured that the draws are completely trustworthy, transparent and fair, as they are based on the outcome of the German National Lottery, which has been operational since 1955 and is televised twice weekly on German television. For more information, visit https://www.cryptomillionslotto.com/ About Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolves was founded in 1877 and is one of the 12 Founding Members of the English Football League. The club has won the English First Division (as the Premier League was formerly known) three times, the FA Cup four times and the Football League Cup twice. It's seventh place finish in 2018-19 means that it is competing in this year's Europa League. Today it is owned by Fosun, a Chinese technology focused consumer group whose shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. For more information, visit https://www.wolves.co.uk Contact: For media/press inquiries contact: [email protected] or [email protected] To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/49759 || English Premier League Club Wolverhampton Wanderers Partners with Crypto Millions Lotto, the World's Biggest Bitcoin Lottery: London, England--(Newsfile Corp. - November 19, 2019) -Crypto Millions Lotto, the world's biggest bitcoin lottery, is proud to announce that it is the "Official Online Lottery Partner" of English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., better known as Wolves.
The partnership is groundbreaking. While many Premier League clubs have collaborated with sports betting partners, this is the first involving an online lottery business.
The world’s biggest bitcoin lottery signs agreement with Wolves.To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6671/49759_crypto_orig.jpg
Wolves is quickly becoming known in cryptocurrency circles as the "go-to" club - like bitcoin itself, a "challenger" brand, challenging the Premiership hierarchy. Crypto Millions Lotto has chosen Wolves for this reason, as it introduces its brand to a global audience, particularly across Asia, Latin America, Canada, Russia and the CIS.
One of the most significant features of the partnership is the major step it represents in bringing the world's most widely used alternative currency further into the mainstream. Wolves and Crypto Millions Lotto are doing their part to encourage bitcoin usage and adoption along with Crypto Millions Lotto's unique referrer program, operated through sister sitewww.earnbitcoin.world. This allows registered users to receive referral fees in bitcoin and compete for a US$2.5 million prize without even buying a lottery ticket.
Commenting on the partnership, Crypto Millions Lotto CEO Sulim Malook, stated, "We are delighted to have found a partner that has the same disruptive ethos as ourselves. Wolves' success last year has put the club's name on the world stage in a sport that is by far the most watched on the planet. As a company, we are big football fans, and Wolves is the most crypto-friendly club in England. They were an obvious choice."
Steve Morton, head of commercial at Wolves, said, "We're delighted to partner with Crypto Millions Lotto, an ambitious company that is keen to increase its exposure with the help of Wolves' global reach across various platforms. We're also excited to develop our relationship, which will also see the Wolves brand reach new audiences in Eastern Europe and South America."
About Crypto Millions Lotto
Crypto Millions Lotto is the trading name for Ofertas365 Limited, a UK company whose shares have been listed on the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange since 2015. It is the world's biggest bitcoin lottery and provides a unique opportunity for players to play with, and win, bitcoin. New customers receive three free lines as an introductory offer and jackpots, which are fully insured start at a whopping US$30 million and roll over until won, which on average is every 3½ weeks.
The lottery is fully licensed to operate in more than 150 countries. Customers can be assured that the draws are completely trustworthy, transparent and fair, as they are based on the outcome of the German National Lottery, which has been operational since 1955 and is televised twice weekly on German television.
For more information, visithttps://www.cryptomillionslotto.com/
About Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves was founded in 1877 and is one of the 12 Founding Members of the English Football League. The club has won the English First Division (as the Premier League was formerly known) three times, the FA Cup four times and the Football League Cup twice. It's seventh place finish in 2018-19 means that it is competing in this year's Europa League.
Today it is owned by Fosun, a Chinese technology focused consumer group whose shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
For more information, visithttps://www.wolves.co.uk
Contact:
For media/press inquiries contact:[email protected]@wolves.co.uk
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/49759 || Bullish for Bitcoin? US SEC reconsiders rejected Bitwise ETF: A Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has long been hailed as the Holy Grail for widespread Bitcoin adoption. Since a Bitcoin ETF would mimic the price of BTC, it allows investors to buy into the crypto market without having to jump through the complicated hoops associated with buying Bitcoin. They can enter the market through traditional investment rails without the steep learning curve, concerns over storing their private keys, or opening an account on an exchange. ETFs are far more widely understood as an investment vehicle than cryptocurrencies. This means, in theory, that a Bitcoin ETF would allow for easy onboarding of traditional investors looking to get into BTC without needing to learn about the complexities of digital assets. A Bitcoin ETF, therefore, would be very bullish for Bitcoin. Yet, despite being “ closer than we’ve ever been ” to getting the go-ahead last month, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected every Bitcoin ETF proposal to date. The Bitwise ETF is under review again However, it seems that the SEC is now taking another look at the recently rejected Bitwise ETF. In a statement released yesterday, the SEC said that it would be reviewing the Bitwise Asset Management and NYSE Arca filing once again. But why? As analyst and crypto-asset specialist at eToro Simon Peters pointed out: “Bitwise didn’t request the review, so it’s an interesting move by the SEC.” He went on to say: “Perhaps regulators in the US realise that if they don’t approve a crypto-asset ETF, then another jurisdiction might beat them to it and get an advantage in the marketplace.” Just last month, the US regulatory body claimed that the Bitwise ETF did not meet the necessary requirements to receive the green light. Specifically, their concerns centred on potential market manipulation and illicit activities. The SEC claimed at the time that: “NYSE Arca has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements of Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), and, in particular, the requirement that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” Story continues Market manipulation and fraud are stumbling blocks As the SEC has pointed out on numerous occasions, it still has some major reservations about market manipulation involving Bitcoin. The Bitwise ETF was rejected on the grounds that it failed to provide enough evidence that Bitcoin is sufficiently resistant to manipulation. Yet, the SEC is now reopening the proposal. This means that more parties can file statements of support (or opposition) until December 18. Is this bullish for Bitcoin? Does this mean that the SEC will be approving the Bitwise ETF after all? Not so fast. The order to reject the filing will remain in effect while the Commission continues its review. Industry insiders remain sceptical over the move, although it certainly shows that the SEC isn’t all about closed doors when it comes to this emerging space. As Peters indicated, perhaps US regulators are finally starting to realise they’re lagging behind in the race: “Switzerland is positioning itself as crypto-friendly, one of the reasons the Libra Association is based in Geneva. And of course China under President Xi Jinping is embracing crypto-assets and blockchain, so the Americans won’t want to be beaten to the punch by Beijing.” Whether the Bitwise ETF proposal is finally approved this time around remains to be seen. “It really depends on how the SEC now feels about price manipulation in the crypto markets,” Peters concluded – and what’s changed the Commission’s mind in the last few weeks. The post Bullish for Bitcoin? US SEC reconsiders rejected Bitwise ETF appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bullish for Bitcoin? US SEC reconsiders rejected Bitwise ETF: A Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has long been hailed as the Holy Grail for widespread Bitcoin adoption. Since a Bitcoin ETF would mimic the price of BTC, it allows investors to buy into the crypto market without having to jump through the complicated hoops associated with buying Bitcoin. They can enter the market through traditional investment rails without the steep learning curve, concerns over storing their private keys, or opening an account on an exchange. ETFs are far more widely understood as an investment vehicle than cryptocurrencies. This means, in theory, that a Bitcoin ETF would allow for easy onboarding of traditional investors looking to get into BTC without needing to learn about the complexities of digital assets. A Bitcoin ETF, therefore, would be very bullish for Bitcoin. Yet, despite being “ closer than we’ve ever been ” to getting the go-ahead last month, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected every Bitcoin ETF proposal to date. The Bitwise ETF is under review again However, it seems that the SEC is now taking another look at the recently rejected Bitwise ETF. In a statement released yesterday, the SEC said that it would be reviewing the Bitwise Asset Management and NYSE Arca filing once again. But why? As analyst and crypto-asset specialist at eToro Simon Peters pointed out: “Bitwise didn’t request the review, so it’s an interesting move by the SEC.” He went on to say: “Perhaps regulators in the US realise that if they don’t approve a crypto-asset ETF, then another jurisdiction might beat them to it and get an advantage in the marketplace.” Just last month, the US regulatory body claimed that the Bitwise ETF did not meet the necessary requirements to receive the green light. Specifically, their concerns centred on potential market manipulation and illicit activities. The SEC claimed at the time that: “NYSE Arca has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements of Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), and, in particular, the requirement that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” Story continues Market manipulation and fraud are stumbling blocks As the SEC has pointed out on numerous occasions, it still has some major reservations about market manipulation involving Bitcoin. The Bitwise ETF was rejected on the grounds that it failed to provide enough evidence that Bitcoin is sufficiently resistant to manipulation. Yet, the SEC is now reopening the proposal. This means that more parties can file statements of support (or opposition) until December 18. Is this bullish for Bitcoin? Does this mean that the SEC will be approving the Bitwise ETF after all? Not so fast. The order to reject the filing will remain in effect while the Commission continues its review. Industry insiders remain sceptical over the move, although it certainly shows that the SEC isn’t all about closed doors when it comes to this emerging space. As Peters indicated, perhaps US regulators are finally starting to realise they’re lagging behind in the race: “Switzerland is positioning itself as crypto-friendly, one of the reasons the Libra Association is based in Geneva. And of course China under President Xi Jinping is embracing crypto-assets and blockchain, so the Americans won’t want to be beaten to the punch by Beijing.” Whether the Bitwise ETF proposal is finally approved this time around remains to be seen. “It really depends on how the SEC now feels about price manipulation in the crypto markets,” Peters concluded – and what’s changed the Commission’s mind in the last few weeks. The post Bullish for Bitcoin? US SEC reconsiders rejected Bitwise ETF appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bullish for Bitcoin? US SEC reconsiders rejected Bitwise ETF: A Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has long been hailed as the Holy Grail for widespread Bitcoin adoption. Since a Bitcoin ETF would mimic the price of BTC, it allows investors to buy into the crypto market without having to jump through the complicated hoops associated with buying Bitcoin. They can enter the market through traditional investment rails without the steep learning curve, concerns over storing their private keys, or opening an account on an exchange. ETFs are far more widely understood as an investment vehicle than cryptocurrencies. This means, in theory, that a Bitcoin ETF would allow for easy onboarding of traditional investors looking to get into BTC without needing to learn about the complexities of digital assets. A Bitcoin ETF, therefore, would be very bullish for Bitcoin. Yet, despite being “ closer than we’ve ever been ” to getting the go-ahead last month, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected every Bitcoin ETF proposal to date. The Bitwise ETF is under review again However, it seems that the SEC is now taking another look at the recently rejected Bitwise ETF. In a statement released yesterday, the SEC said that it would be reviewing the Bitwise Asset Management and NYSE Arca filing once again. But why? As analyst and crypto-asset specialist at eToro Simon Peters pointed out: “Bitwise didn’t request the review, so it’s an interesting move by the SEC.” He went on to say: “Perhaps regulators in the US realise that if they don’t approve a crypto-asset ETF, then another jurisdiction might beat them to it and get an advantage in the marketplace.” Just last month, the US regulatory body claimed that the Bitwise ETF did not meet the necessary requirements to receive the green light. Specifically, their concerns centred on potential market manipulation and illicit activities. The SEC claimed at the time that: “NYSE Arca has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements of Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), and, in particular, the requirement that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” Story continues Market manipulation and fraud are stumbling blocks As the SEC has pointed out on numerous occasions, it still has some major reservations about market manipulation involving Bitcoin. The Bitwise ETF was rejected on the grounds that it failed to provide enough evidence that Bitcoin is sufficiently resistant to manipulation. Yet, the SEC is now reopening the proposal. This means that more parties can file statements of support (or opposition) until December 18. Is this bullish for Bitcoin? Does this mean that the SEC will be approving the Bitwise ETF after all? Not so fast. The order to reject the filing will remain in effect while the Commission continues its review. Industry insiders remain sceptical over the move, although it certainly shows that the SEC isn’t all about closed doors when it comes to this emerging space. As Peters indicated, perhaps US regulators are finally starting to realise they’re lagging behind in the race: “Switzerland is positioning itself as crypto-friendly, one of the reasons the Libra Association is based in Geneva. And of course China under President Xi Jinping is embracing crypto-assets and blockchain, so the Americans won’t want to be beaten to the punch by Beijing.” Whether the Bitwise ETF proposal is finally approved this time around remains to be seen. “It really depends on how the SEC now feels about price manipulation in the crypto markets,” Peters concluded – and what’s changed the Commission’s mind in the last few weeks. The post Bullish for Bitcoin? US SEC reconsiders rejected Bitwise ETF appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin: A Drop Below $8,000 Opens the Doors Toward $5,000: The round level at $8,000 is an important psychological support factor. We saw a strengthening of buys asBitcoinapproached this mark by the end of the Monday. However, Bitcoin’s position has been worsening since this morning. Almost immediately below this mark – around $7,900 – there is a 200-day simple moving average. This is an important signal level, which has stopped the sell-offs several times before. The last time we saw this was in October, and in April, when Bitcoin started its rally from 5K to 14K after almost a month of a sideways trend.
So, if Bitcoin can’t withstand bear pressure at $8K, we can expect a very sharp dive with the nearest important stop at $5,000. A sharp decline of Bitcoin couldn’t but pull the rest of the crypto market. Over the last day, the total capitalization slipped by $9bn. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) became the record-breaker on the decline, losing 7.5% on the previous day. Other altcoins from TOP-10 lose less. However, all are confidently in a red zone. Waves of “desperate sell-offs” of altcoins (when the investor fixes huge losses) will intensify with the further drawdown of alternative cryptocurrencies, as the current price levels for many coins are significantly lower than any psychological levels.
Some well-known analysts predict the growth of the benchmark cryptocurrency up to $25K, but we are talking about 2022, so such forecasts do not cause any excitement. What if the summer growth to $14K was a rally in the bear market? There are suggestions that the “pump” may be associated with the rise of positions before halving, and if it is true, then in the medium term BTC may be caught in a “depressive sideways trend”. We are talking about successive sideways trends when almost each of them ends with a decline.
From the beginning of 2020, investors will be waiting for growth based on halving, which will support the price of Bitcoin, but if, as the event approaches, everyone begins to realize that “the best is in the past”, it may lead to a new large-scale sale. This would be the worst medium-term forecast for Bitcoin, but this scenario cannot be ruled out. 2019 gave the market new hope, but judging by the fact that Litecoin was bought long before halving, and initiated a sale a few months before halving, in the case of Bitcoin, this period could be much more significant.
This article was written byFxPro
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar All Over The Place Against Japanese Yen || Bitcoin: A Drop Below $8,000 Opens the Doors Toward $5,000: The round level at $8,000 is an important psychological support factor. We saw a strengthening of buys as Bitcoin approached this mark by the end of the Monday. However, Bitcoins position has been worsening since this morning. Almost immediately below this mark around $7,900 there is a 200-day simple moving average. This is an important signal level, which has stopped the sell-offs several times before. The last time we saw this was in October, and in April, when Bitcoin started its rally from 5K to 14K after almost a month of a sideways trend. So, if Bitcoin cant withstand bear pressure at $8K, we can expect a very sharp dive with the nearest important stop at $5,000. A sharp decline of Bitcoin couldnt but pull the rest of the crypto market. Over the last day, the total capitalization slipped by $9bn. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) became the record-breaker on the decline, losing 7.5% on the previous day. Other altcoins from TOP-10 lose less. However, all are confidently in a red zone. Waves of desperate sell-offs of altcoins (when the investor fixes huge losses) will intensify with the further drawdown of alternative cryptocurrencies, as the current price levels for many coins are significantly lower than any psychological levels. Some well-known analysts predict the growth of the benchmark cryptocurrency up to $25K, but we are talking about 2022, so such forecasts do not cause any excitement. What if the summer growth to $14K was a rally in the bear market? There are suggestions that the pump may be associated with the rise of positions before halving, and if it is true, then in the medium term BTC may be caught in a depressive sideways trend. We are talking about successive sideways trends when almost each of them ends with a decline. From the beginning of 2020, investors will be waiting for growth based on halving, which will support the price of Bitcoin, but if, as the event approaches, everyone begins to realize that the best is in the past, it may lead to a new large-scale sale. This would be the worst medium-term forecast for Bitcoin, but this scenario cannot be ruled out. 2019 gave the market new hope, but judging by the fact that Litecoin was bought long before halving, and initiated a sale a few months before halving, in the case of Bitcoin, this period could be much more significant. Story continues This article was written by FxPro This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/USD, EUR/GBP, USD/CAD Limited Gains for Euro, U.S. Dolllar Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast Direction Dictated by Demand for Higher-Yielding Assets GBP/USD Price Forecast British Pound Continues To Chop Around Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast Latest Forecasts Offer Little Comfort for Bulls Natural Gas Price Forecast Natural Gas Markets Testing Major Support USD/JPY Price Forecast US Dollar All Over The Place Against Japanese Yen || Bitcoin: A Drop Below $8,000 Opens the Doors Toward $5,000: The round level at $8,000 is an important psychological support factor. We saw a strengthening of buys asBitcoinapproached this mark by the end of the Monday. However, Bitcoin’s position has been worsening since this morning. Almost immediately below this mark – around $7,900 – there is a 200-day simple moving average. This is an important signal level, which has stopped the sell-offs several times before. The last time we saw this was in October, and in April, when Bitcoin started its rally from 5K to 14K after almost a month of a sideways trend.
So, if Bitcoin can’t withstand bear pressure at $8K, we can expect a very sharp dive with the nearest important stop at $5,000. A sharp decline of Bitcoin couldn’t but pull the rest of the crypto market. Over the last day, the total capitalization slipped by $9bn. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) became the record-breaker on the decline, losing 7.5% on the previous day. Other altcoins from TOP-10 lose less. However, all are confidently in a red zone. Waves of “desperate sell-offs” of altcoins (when the investor fixes huge losses) will intensify with the further drawdown of alternative cryptocurrencies, as the current price levels for many coins are significantly lower than any psychological levels.
Some well-known analysts predict the growth of the benchmark cryptocurrency up to $25K, but we are talking about 2022, so such forecasts do not cause any excitement. What if the summer growth to $14K was a rally in the bear market? There are suggestions that the “pump” may be associated with the rise of positions before halving, and if it is true, then in the medium term BTC may be caught in a “depressive sideways trend”. We are talking about successive sideways trends when almost each of them ends with a decline.
From the beginning of 2020, investors will be waiting for growth based on halving, which will support the price of Bitcoin, but if, as the event approaches, everyone begins to realize that “the best is in the past”, it may lead to a new large-scale sale. This would be the worst medium-term forecast for Bitcoin, but this scenario cannot be ruled out. 2019 gave the market new hope, but judging by the fact that Litecoin was bought long before halving, and initiated a sale a few months before halving, in the case of Bitcoin, this period could be much more significant.
This article was written byFxPro
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar All Over The Place Against Japanese Yen || The sky is falling as the entire cryptocurrency market crashes: The last day has been a troubling time for cryptocurrency holders, with the majority of cryptocurrencies seeing declines totaling more than $10 billion in less than 24 hours. Overall, the entire market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has fallen by around 5%which is the second-largest drop in less than a month. As it stands, all cryptocurrencies in the top 30 by market capitalization are in the red, with Bitcoin (BTC) , Ethereum (ETH) and XRP down between 4-5% each. Further down the list, other cryptocurrencies are experiencing even more striking losses, with Litecoin (LTC) and EOS losing 5.2% and 7.5% respectively, while Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are performing particularly poorly, having lost 8.2% and 9.2% respectively since yesterday. These losses come off the back of almost three weeks of decline for the biggest cryptocurrencies. The recent turn of events appears to be directly related to recent statements by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who clarified that his earlier comments on blockchain were misinterpreted. He then reiterated that cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities that facilitate fraud and Ponzi operations. Although President Xi Jinping believes in the future potential of blockchain technology, he does not appear to believe in public cryptocurrenciesthough China is expected to release its own state-backed digital Yuan later next year. || The sky is falling as the entire cryptocurrency market crashes: The last day has been a troubling time for cryptocurrency holders, with the majority of cryptocurrencies seeing declines totaling more than $10 billion in less than 24 hours. Overall, the entire market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has fallen by around 5%—which is the second-largest drop in less than a month.
As it stands, all cryptocurrencies in the top 30 by market capitalization are in the red, withBitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and XRP down between 4-5% each. Further down the list, other cryptocurrencies are experiencing even more striking losses, with Litecoin (LTC) and EOS losing 5.2% and 7.5% respectively, while Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are performing particularly poorly, having lost 8.2% and 9.2% respectively since yesterday.
These losses come off the back of almost three weeks of decline for the biggest cryptocurrencies.
The recent turn of events appears to be directly related torecent statementsby Chinese President Xi Jinping, who clarified that hisearlier commentson blockchain were misinterpreted. He then reiterated that cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities that facilitate fraud and Ponzi operations. Although President Xi Jinping believes in the future potential of blockchain technology, he does not appear to believe in public cryptocurrencies—though China is expected to release its own state-backed digital Yuan later next year. || EUR/USD, Tuesday forecast, November 19: Forecast and technical analysis Uptrend The uptrend may be expected to continue, while the pair is trading above the support level of 1.1062, which will be followed by reaching resistance level at 1.1089 and 1.1128. Downtrend An downtrend will start as soon, as the pair drops below support level 1.1053, which will be followed by moving down to support level 1.1029 – 1.1017. Weekly forecast: November 18 – 22 We are not expected to have important news before Wendsday, so this could be the reason for the correction in the markets . The EURUSD had a good correction previous week at the key resistance of 1.1072, a US neggative economic signal will start pushing the market down back to 1.1017 key support. Most important news of this week Wednesday: FOMC Meeting Minutes Friday: EU and US PMI’s Forecast and technical analysis Downtrend The downtrend may be expected to continue, while the pair is trading below resistance level 1.1072, which will be followed by reaching support level 1.1017 – 1.1006. Uptrend An uptrend will start as soon, as the pair rises above resistance level 1.1072, which will be followed by moving up to resistance level 1.1170. Monthly forecast, November – December Downtrend The downtrend may be expected to continue, while the pair is trading below resistance level 1.1200, which will be followed by reaching support level 1.1072 and if it keeps on moving down below that level, we may expect the pair to reach support level at 1.0940, in other case, the market can have a correction back to resistance 1.1200. Uptrend The uptrend may be expected to continue in case the market rises above resistance level of 1.1200, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 1.1370. The article was written by Anton Kolhanov This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Whip-Sawed by Trade Deal Headlines AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Aussie, Kiwi Rebound Amid Increasing Demand for Higher Yields Bitcoin: A Drop Below $8,000 Opens the Doors Toward $5,000 WTI Upmove if the POC Zone Holds EUR/USD, Tuesday forecast, November 19 AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CNY – Pacific Currencies Trading Sideways || EUR/USD, Tuesday forecast, November 19: UptrendThe uptrend may be expected to continue, while the pair is trading above the support level of 1.1062, which will be followed by reaching resistance level at 1.1089 and 1.1128.
DowntrendAn downtrend will start as soon, as the pair drops below support level 1.1053, which will be followed by moving down to support level 1.1029 – 1.1017.
We are not expected to have important news before Wendsday, so this could be the reason for the correction in the markets . TheEURUSDhad a good correction previous week at the key resistance of 1.1072, a US neggative economic signal will start pushing the market down back to 1.1017 key support.
Most important news of this weekWednesday: FOMC Meeting MinutesFriday: EU and US PMI’s
DowntrendThe downtrend may be expected to continue, while the pair is trading below resistance level 1.1072, which will be followed by reaching support level 1.1017 – 1.1006.
UptrendAn uptrend will start as soon, as the pair rises above resistance level 1.1072, which will be followed by moving up to resistance level 1.1170.
Monthly forecast, November – December
DowntrendThe downtrend may be expected to continue, while the pair is trading below resistance level 1.1200, which will be followed by reaching support level 1.1072 and if it keeps on moving down below that level, we may expect the pair to reach support level at 1.0940, in other case, the market can have a correction back to resistance 1.1200.
UptrendThe uptrend may be expected to continue in case the market rises above resistance level of 1.1200, which will be followed by reaching resistance level 1.1370.
The article was written byAnton Kolhanov
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Whip-Sawed by Trade Deal Headlines
• AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Aussie, Kiwi Rebound Amid Increasing Demand for Higher Yields
• Bitcoin: A Drop Below $8,000 Opens the Doors Toward $5,000
• WTI Upmove if the POC Zone Holds
• EUR/USD, Tuesday forecast, November 19
• AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CNY – Pacific Currencies Trading Sideways
[Social Media Buzz]
#仮想通貨 #ENG
Bittrex高騰/暴落 速報(5分前価格と比較)
[ETH-ENG]14.76%0.001973930
[BTC-RDD]11.11%0.000000100
[BTC-XMY]10.00%0.000000110
[BTC-EDR]7.32%0.000000440
【10%以上】の変動!アービトラージチャンス!
#拡散希望 || Free 300 GH Cloud Mining at Gominer Instant Witdraw https://t.co/Bm4bUzJXXd #gominer #hashflare #genesismining #bitcoin https://t.co/fRYeJj2dlu || BTC: $8054.77, S: $18.27, G: $1,512.54 | Act: 21,177 Open: 6617 BTC: 45,525.4 | Total: $366,703,499 https://t.co/ElscGAhzWi #bitcoin || #STORJBTC (#Binance ) Cup & Handle ...
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7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-12-02]
Volume: 17082040706, RSI (14-day): 36.67, 50-day EMA: 8280.66, 200-day EMA: 8557.24
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1462.30, Gold RSI: 44.48
Oil Price: 55.96, Oil RSI: 47.30
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Brexit and the Importance of the December 12 Election: How Did We Get Here? For many UK citizens, the topic of Brexit has completely fallen off their radar. With several delays and constant talk of obstacles, it certainly seems like Brexit will never happen. However, recent developments have significantly increased the odds and the outcome of the December 12 election will have a major influence over how things play out with Brexit from here. UK Prime Minister Johnson managed to secure a deal with the EU in October and was set to deliver an exit at the end of October. However, he faced a hurdle in Parliament and threw in the towel in trying to push it through by the October deadline. The main issue was that Johnson no longer had a majority and he saw that the odds were stacked against him in trying to push a deal through, especially with the short time frame he was faced with. This led to a call for a snap election. Johnson hopes to get a majority, and with that, he will be able to push through his Brexit deal. What the Polls are Saying The headlines over the past week have been saying that the Conservative party lead over Labour has been narrowing . This does appear to be the case for the most part. Conservative lead over Labour The above chart is a consolidation of most of the major polls. It shows that the Conservative party held a comfortable double-digit lead for the second and third week of November, and that the lead has declined since. The peak during this period was a poll conducted between November 14-18 by Kantar which showed a lead of 18 points. Last week, a poll conducted by The Daily Telegraph, and a poll by ICM Research showed that the lead had narrowed to a mere 7 points. A poll conducted by the Independent newspaper showed a lead of 6 points. These figures are certainly at the lower end of the spectrum. At the same time, The Observer reported a 15 point lead in a poll conducted between November 27-29. This is certainly a significant deviation from the other polls conducted last week. Another poll that was closely watched last week was the YouGovs MRP poll . This particulate model gained popularity after it called 93% of seats correctly in 2017. The polls indicated a 10 point lead for the Conservative party. Story continues The poll further showed, if the election were held tomorrow, that the Tories stand to win 359 seats which is 42 more than they took in 2017. Labour, on the other hand, is looking at 211 seats, down 51 seats. What Happens if Labour Wins Labour is campaigning to leave the final say on Brexit to the UK voters. The plan is to renegotiate the deal that Johnson made, within a three-month time frame and then put that deal up for a vote. This sounds like a great idea, in theory. The main problem with it is that it will delay Brexit further because of the three-month negotiating period with the EU. This on its own could be a problem as the EU is not likely to be forthcoming in negotiations after having already reached a deal with Johnson. Beyond that three-month deal, it could take a significant amount of time to conduct and process a vote on the deal. Further, it remains unclear as to what would happen next if it was voted down by the public. If that means Labour goes back to the negotiating table, then Brexit could be drawn out for a very long period. The delay thus far has already caught the attention of the Bank of England. At their November MPC meeting, two members voted unexpectedly to cut interest rates . The members expressed concerns over economic growth and felt that cheaper borrowing costs would help to address it. To be fair, the concerns arose from a combination of Brexit and the ongoing trade war. Nevertheless, Brexit brings about uncertainty which the central bank argues is bad for business investments, and as a result, the economy. From the standpoint of the financial markets, a Conservative win would tend to keep Sterling strong with several analysts looking at a move up to roughly 1.35 in the pound to dollar exchange rate . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis Looking for Pullback into Value Zone Between 8337.50 to 8309.75 E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis Trade Deal Concerns Likely to Encourage More Profit-Taking Brexit and the Importance of the December 12 Election Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis Weakens Under $1471.30, Strengthens Over $1474.80 Bitcoin Cash ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis 01/12/19 What Awaits the AUD This Week? || Brexit and the Importance of the December 12 Election: For many UK citizens, the topic of Brexit has completely fallen off their radar. With several delays and constant talk of obstacles, it certainly seems like Brexit will never happen. However, recent developments have significantly increased the odds and the outcome of theDecember 12 electionwill have a major influence over how things play out with Brexit from here.
UK Prime Minister Johnson managed to secure a deal with the EU in October and was set to deliver an exit at the end of October. However, he faced a hurdle in Parliament and threw in the towel in trying to push it through by the October deadline.
The main issue was that Johnson no longer had a majority and he saw that the odds were stacked against him in trying to push a deal through, especially with the short time frame he was faced with.
This led to a call for a snap election. Johnson hopes to get a majority, and with that, he will be able to push through his Brexit deal.
The headlines over the past week have been saying that the Conservative party lead over Labourhas been narrowing. This does appear to be the case for the most part.
The above chart is a consolidation of most of the major polls. It shows that the Conservative party held a comfortable double-digit lead for the second and third week of November, and that the lead has declined since.
The peak during this period was a poll conducted between November 14-18 by Kantar which showed a lead of 18 points. Last week, a poll conducted by The Daily Telegraph, and a poll by ICM Research showed that the lead had narrowed to a mere 7 points. A poll conducted by the Independent newspaper showed a lead of 6 points. These figures are certainly at the lower end of the spectrum.
At the same time, The Observer reported a 15 point lead in a poll conducted between November 27-29. This is certainly a significant deviation from the other polls conducted last week.
Another poll that was closely watched last week was theYouGov’s MRP poll. This particulate model gained popularity after it called 93% of seats correctly in 2017. The polls indicated a 10 point lead for the Conservative party.
The poll further showed, if the election were held tomorrow, that the Tories stand to win 359 seats which is 42 more than they took in 2017. Labour, on the other hand, is looking at 211 seats, down 51 seats.
Labour is campaigning to leave the final say on Brexit to the UK voters. The plan is to renegotiate the deal that Johnson made, within a three-month time frame and then put that deal up for a vote.
This sounds like a great idea, in theory. The main problem with it is that it will delay Brexit further because of the three-month negotiating period with the EU. This on its own could be a problem as the EU is not likely to be forthcoming in negotiations after having already reached a deal with Johnson.
Beyond that three-month deal, it could take a significant amount of time to conduct and process a vote on the deal. Further, it remains unclear as to what would happen next if it was voted down by the public. If that means Labour goes back to the negotiating table, then Brexit could be drawn out for a very long period.
The delay thus far has already caught the attention of the Bank of England. At their November MPC meeting, two members voted unexpectedly to cutinterest rates. The members expressed concerns over economic growth and felt that cheaper borrowing costs would help to address it. To be fair, the concerns arose from a combination of Brexit and the ongoing trade war.
Nevertheless, Brexit brings about uncertainty which the central bank argues is bad for business investments, and as a result, the economy. From the standpoint of the financial markets, a Conservative win would tend to keep Sterling strong with several analysts looking at a move up to roughly 1.35 in thepound to dollar exchange rate.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Looking for Pullback into Value Zone Between 8337.50 to 8309.75
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Trade Deal Concerns Likely to Encourage More Profit-Taking
• Brexit and the Importance of the December 12 Election
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Weakens Under $1471.30, Strengthens Over $1474.80
• Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 01/12/19
• What Awaits the AUD This Week? || PODCAST: Altcoins and Ancient History With Litecoin’s Charlie Lee: The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Subscribe to the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Show with iTunes, Google Podcasts or your favorite service On today’s show… Token age and network effect Testnet game theory and real money Founder anonymity, then and now Ad-hoc audits in the wake of MtGox's Collapse Schnorr signatures, Tapscript and Taproot intentions at Litecoin A “Coinbase mafia ?” Buying your own bank and more… Related: MARKETS DAILY: UpBit Hack Reactions & Crypto Liquidity Insights Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is a long-running independent podcast on the ideas, people and projects powering the cryptocurrency narrative. On this show, we basically talk about everything other than the price. Since we started this conversation in early 2013, a whole world of blockchains and tokens has sprung up alongside bitcoin, and we talk about those too as real-world events help us see what’s real and what’s just clever marketing. Visit LTBShow.com for all 418 of our past episodes or to subscribe directly to the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! show. Episode 419 Credits: Related: MARKETS DAILY: Tokenization Challenges and Another Tether Lawsuit Sponsors – Edge.app , Brave.com & eToro.com Guest – Charlie Lee ( @SatoshiLite ) Hosts Adam B. Levine ( http://ltbshow.com ) Andreas M. Antonopoulos ( https://aantonop.com/ ) Stephanie Murphy ( https://www.stephaniemurphyvoice.com/ ) Jonathan Mohan ( https://twitter.com/JonathanMohan ) Other Staff Producer – Adam B. Levine Editor – Jonas Music (Theme) – Jared Rubens Music (Other) – General Fuzz About the hosts: Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a best-selling author, speaker, educator, and one of the world’s foremost bitcoin and open blockchain experts. He is known for delivering electric talks that combine economics, psychology, technology, and game theory with current events, personal anecdotes, and historical precedents effortlessly transliterating the complex issues of blockchain technology out of the abstract and into the real world. Story continues In 2014, Antonopoulos authored the groundbreaking book, Mastering Bitcoin (O’Reilly Media), widely considered to be the best technical guide ever written about the technology. His second book, The Internet of Money, unveiled the “why” of bitcoin—and became a bestseller on Amazon— and led to the wildly successful follow-up The Internet of Money Volume Two. His fourth book, Mastering Ethereum (O’Reilly Media) was published in December of 2018. He is a teaching fellow with the University of Nicosia, serves on the Oversight Committee for the Bitcoin Reference Rate at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and has appeared as an expert witness in hearings around the world, including the Australian Senate Banking Committee and the Canadian Senate Commerce, Banking and Finance Committee. Adam B. Levine joined CoinDesk in 2019 as editor of our audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let’s Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast’s homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of “Steemit”; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017. With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com and media with Token.fm. Stephanie Murphy, PhD. is a scientist, passionate libertarian, prolific voice actor and long-time radio host. Uniquely among the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! Crew, she remains an enthusiastic observer of the space but has chosen to keep her professional life separate from her bitcoin fascination. Jonathan Mohan is an expert in the field of blockchain and distributed ledger technology use case analysis. He has acted in the capacity of strategic planning and development for many projects. Jonathan was a founding contributor to ethereum in January 2014. He was also an original contributing member of Consensys, an ethereum development studio as well as the founding contributor to both Factom and EOS. Jonathan formerly led BitcoinNYC, one of the largest blockchain meetups in New York City. Jonathan most recently founded Themys.io Related Stories Markets Daily: ETF Arguments and China Token Troubles Statechains, and Trading the Panopticon for Magical Internet Money || PODCAST: Altcoins and Ancient History With Litecoin’s Charlie Lee: The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations.
Subscribe to the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Show with iTunes, Google Podcasts or your favorite service
• Token age and network effect
• Testnet game theory and real money
• Founder anonymity, then and now
• Ad-hoc audits in the wake of MtGox's Collapse
• Schnorr signatures, Tapscript and Taprootintentions at Litecoin
• A “Coinbasemafia?”
• Buying your own bank
• and more…
Related:MARKETS DAILY: UpBit Hack Reactions & Crypto Liquidity Insights
Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is a long-running independent podcast on the ideas, people and projects powering the cryptocurrency narrative. On this show, we basically talk about everything other than the price.
Since we started this conversation in early 2013, a whole world of blockchains and tokens has sprung up alongside bitcoin, and we talk about those too as real-world events help us see what’s real and what’s just clever marketing.
VisitLTBShow.comfor all 418 of our past episodes or to subscribe directly to the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! show.
Episode 419 Credits:
Related:MARKETS DAILY: Tokenization Challenges and Another Tether Lawsuit
Sponsors –Edge.app,Brave.com&eToro.com
Guest – Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite)
Hosts
• Adam B. Levine (http://ltbshow.com)
• Andreas M. Antonopoulos (https://aantonop.com/)
• Stephanie Murphy (https://www.stephaniemurphyvoice.com/)
• Jonathan Mohan (https://twitter.com/JonathanMohan)
Other Staff
• Producer –Adam B. Levine
• Editor – Jonas
• Music (Theme) –Jared Rubens
• Music (Other) –General Fuzz
About the hosts:
Andreas M. Antonopoulosis a best-selling author, speaker, educator, and one of the world’s foremost bitcoin and open blockchain experts. He is known for delivering electric talks that combine economics, psychology, technology, and game theory with current events, personal anecdotes, and historical precedents effortlessly transliterating the complex issues of blockchain technology out of the abstract and into the real world.
In 2014, Antonopoulos authored the groundbreaking book, Mastering Bitcoin (O’Reilly Media), widely considered to be the best technical guide ever written about the technology. His second book, The Internet of Money, unveiled the “why” of bitcoin—and became a bestseller on Amazon— and led to the wildly successful follow-up The Internet of Money Volume Two. His fourth book, Mastering Ethereum (O’Reilly Media) was published in December of 2018.
He is a teaching fellow with the University of Nicosia, serves on the Oversight Committee for the Bitcoin Reference Rate at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and has appeared as an expert witness in hearings around the world, including the Australian Senate Banking Committee and the Canadian Senate Commerce, Banking and Finance Committee.
Adam B. Levinejoined CoinDesk in 2019 as editor of our audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let’s Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos.
Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast’s homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of “Steemit”; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017.
With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce withTokenMarkets.comand media with Token.fm.
Stephanie Murphy, PhD.is a scientist, passionate libertarian, prolific voice actor and long-time radio host. Uniquely among the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! Crew, she remains an enthusiastic observer of the space but has chosen to keep her professional life separate from her bitcoin fascination.
Jonathan Mohanis an expert in the field of blockchain and distributed ledger technology use case analysis. He has acted in the capacity of strategic planning and development for many projects. Jonathan was a founding contributor to ethereum in January 2014. He was also an original contributing member of Consensys, an ethereum development studio as well as the founding contributor to both Factom and EOS. Jonathan formerly led BitcoinNYC, one of the largest blockchain meetups in New York City. Jonathan most recently founded Themys.io
• Markets Daily: ETF Arguments and China Token Troubles
• Statechains, and Trading the Panopticon for Magical Internet Money || What is HEX and why should Bitcoin holders care?: One of the more notable upcoming projects in the crypto space I’ve been particularly looking forward to is HEX, developed by early Bitcoin adopter Richard Heart. Although I do not agree with all of the project’s assumptions, I personally believe it’ll be a pretty cool experiment at least. Please remember, as usual, that this is not financial advisement, and I’m not suggesting that any crypto-enthusiasts out there should put money into HEX. The aim of this article is simply to explain what the project is, how it works, and why Bitcoin hodlers should care. Essentially, if you hold Bitcoin in your personal wallet, such as an Electrum, Trezor, or Ledger, you can mint your own HEX. The cost? Signing a Bitcoin transaction. What is HEX? To put it in simple terms, according to Richard Heart, HEX tokens are essentially time deposits made over the Ethereum network. If Bitcoin can replace digital gold, perhaps HEX could indeed replace digital time deposits. If you’re looking to better understand time deposits, please read this post here . According to Investopedia, “A time deposit is an interest-bearing bank deposit account that has a specified date of maturity, such as a certificate of deposit (CD). “The deposited funds must remain in the account for the fixed term to receive the stated interest rate. Time deposits are an alternative to the standard savings account, and will usually pay a higher rate of interest.” Essentially, you lock up your HEX for a fixed period (a minimum of about one year) to receive a share of the remaining tokens in the pool. I’ll discuss how tokens are allocated later, but let me underline why HEX is trying to break into the time deposits market. As you can read on the HEX website: “CDs are worth more than gold, credit card companies, and cash. CDs pay higher interest than savings accounts, requiring money be deposited for a fixed time. Banks profit on poor customer service, early withdrawal fees, and auto-renewing you at worse rates.” Story continues How does HEX work? HEX is an ERC-20 token. This means that HEX tokens are essentially smart contracts built over the Ethereum network. Richard claims HEX had to be built on Ethereum because the protocol is better and safer than BTC – something I completely disagree with. I love Ethereum, but not because it’s safer or better than Bitcoin. It helps people deploy new ideas instantly – that’s the value proposition. Perhaps in time Ethereum will become as secure as BTC, although I highly doubt it since scalability requires some trade-offs (like decentralisation or security). Nonetheless, that is not the point of this article. I agree HEX had to be built on Ethereum, but for different reasons like flexibility and the ability to run extra functionality. The only point of HEX is to give Bitcoin (and Ethereum hodlers as well) the chance to make extra gains. Simple stuff. How to get HEX There are currently two ways to get HEX. The first is free and just requires you to hold Bitcoin prior to the Bitcoin blockchain snapshot, taking place Monday December 2 2019. You’ll need to sign a transaction proving you are the owner of the private keys for your addresses. According to the website, there are five easy steps: Install MetaMask on your browser. Go to the ‘Claim’ tool on wallet.hex.win. Open your BTC wallet and sign the statement given to you by the Claim tool. Paste the signature into the Claim page. Click ‘Submit’. The second way is to send ETH to the “adoption amplifier” – a smart contract that converts ETH to HEX on a daily basis. You can also use referral links (Richard is the master of referrals) in order to increase your staking by 20%. Understanding HEX’s price appreciation To fully understand if HEX could have value, we need to take a few steps back to understand how tokens gain value in the first place. In my opinion, anything can gain value as long as there is enough demand. Demand, or people looking to buy, is what drives price up. If people are properly incentivised to lock up their HEX for the longest period of time, I would argue network effects may emerge. For instance, when HEX is taken out of the staking pool, the amount of HEX/ETH in the last withdrawal will be set as the price for anyone looking to purchase HEX through the adoption amplifier. Will HEX be as valuable as Richard believes? Perhaps. It depends on the number of people who adopt HEX, as speculation and network effects are what drive price appreciation in most cases. However, you should always do your own research around new projects. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s only. This article isn’t financial advice or promotional material; it represents my personal opinion and should not be attributed to Coin Rivet. The post What is HEX and why should Bitcoin holders care? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || What is HEX and why should Bitcoin holders care?: One of the more notable upcoming projects in the crypto space I’ve been particularly looking forward to is HEX, developed by early Bitcoin adopter Richard Heart. Although I do not agree with all of the project’s assumptions, I personally believe it’ll be a pretty cool experiment at least. Please remember, as usual, that this is not financial advisement, and I’m not suggesting that any crypto-enthusiasts out there should put money into HEX. The aim of this article is simply to explain what the project is, how it works, and why Bitcoin hodlers should care. Essentially, if you hold Bitcoin in your personal wallet, such as an Electrum, Trezor, or Ledger, you can mint your own HEX. The cost? Signing a Bitcoin transaction. What is HEX? To put it in simple terms, according to Richard Heart, HEX tokens are essentially time deposits made over the Ethereum network. If Bitcoin can replace digital gold, perhaps HEX could indeed replace digital time deposits. If you’re looking to better understand time deposits, please read this post here . According to Investopedia, “A time deposit is an interest-bearing bank deposit account that has a specified date of maturity, such as a certificate of deposit (CD). “The deposited funds must remain in the account for the fixed term to receive the stated interest rate. Time deposits are an alternative to the standard savings account, and will usually pay a higher rate of interest.” Essentially, you lock up your HEX for a fixed period (a minimum of about one year) to receive a share of the remaining tokens in the pool. I’ll discuss how tokens are allocated later, but let me underline why HEX is trying to break into the time deposits market. As you can read on the HEX website: “CDs are worth more than gold, credit card companies, and cash. CDs pay higher interest than savings accounts, requiring money be deposited for a fixed time. Banks profit on poor customer service, early withdrawal fees, and auto-renewing you at worse rates.” Story continues How does HEX work? HEX is an ERC-20 token. This means that HEX tokens are essentially smart contracts built over the Ethereum network. Richard claims HEX had to be built on Ethereum because the protocol is better and safer than BTC – something I completely disagree with. I love Ethereum, but not because it’s safer or better than Bitcoin. It helps people deploy new ideas instantly – that’s the value proposition. Perhaps in time Ethereum will become as secure as BTC, although I highly doubt it since scalability requires some trade-offs (like decentralisation or security). Nonetheless, that is not the point of this article. I agree HEX had to be built on Ethereum, but for different reasons like flexibility and the ability to run extra functionality. The only point of HEX is to give Bitcoin (and Ethereum hodlers as well) the chance to make extra gains. Simple stuff. How to get HEX There are currently two ways to get HEX. The first is free and just requires you to hold Bitcoin prior to the Bitcoin blockchain snapshot, taking place Monday December 2 2019. You’ll need to sign a transaction proving you are the owner of the private keys for your addresses. According to the website, there are five easy steps: Install MetaMask on your browser. Go to the ‘Claim’ tool on wallet.hex.win. Open your BTC wallet and sign the statement given to you by the Claim tool. Paste the signature into the Claim page. Click ‘Submit’. The second way is to send ETH to the “adoption amplifier” – a smart contract that converts ETH to HEX on a daily basis. You can also use referral links (Richard is the master of referrals) in order to increase your staking by 20%. Understanding HEX’s price appreciation To fully understand if HEX could have value, we need to take a few steps back to understand how tokens gain value in the first place. In my opinion, anything can gain value as long as there is enough demand. Demand, or people looking to buy, is what drives price up. If people are properly incentivised to lock up their HEX for the longest period of time, I would argue network effects may emerge. For instance, when HEX is taken out of the staking pool, the amount of HEX/ETH in the last withdrawal will be set as the price for anyone looking to purchase HEX through the adoption amplifier. Will HEX be as valuable as Richard believes? Perhaps. It depends on the number of people who adopt HEX, as speculation and network effects are what drive price appreciation in most cases. However, you should always do your own research around new projects. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s only. This article isn’t financial advice or promotional material; it represents my personal opinion and should not be attributed to Coin Rivet. The post What is HEX and why should Bitcoin holders care? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || What is HEX and why should Bitcoin holders care?: One of the more notable upcoming projects in the crypto space I’ve been particularly looking forward to is HEX, developed by early Bitcoin adopter Richard Heart. Although I do not agree with all of the project’s assumptions, I personally believe it’ll be a pretty cool experiment at least. Please remember, as usual, that this is not financial advisement, and I’m not suggesting that any crypto-enthusiasts out there should put money into HEX. The aim of this article is simply to explain what the project is, how it works, and why Bitcoin hodlers should care. Essentially, if you hold Bitcoin in your personal wallet, such as an Electrum, Trezor, or Ledger, you can mint your own HEX. The cost? Signing a Bitcoin transaction. What is HEX? To put it in simple terms, according to Richard Heart, HEX tokens are essentially time deposits made over the Ethereum network. If Bitcoin can replace digital gold, perhaps HEX could indeed replace digital time deposits. If you’re looking to better understand time deposits, please read this post here . According to Investopedia, “A time deposit is an interest-bearing bank deposit account that has a specified date of maturity, such as a certificate of deposit (CD). “The deposited funds must remain in the account for the fixed term to receive the stated interest rate. Time deposits are an alternative to the standard savings account, and will usually pay a higher rate of interest.” Essentially, you lock up your HEX for a fixed period (a minimum of about one year) to receive a share of the remaining tokens in the pool. I’ll discuss how tokens are allocated later, but let me underline why HEX is trying to break into the time deposits market. As you can read on the HEX website: “CDs are worth more than gold, credit card companies, and cash. CDs pay higher interest than savings accounts, requiring money be deposited for a fixed time. Banks profit on poor customer service, early withdrawal fees, and auto-renewing you at worse rates.” Story continues How does HEX work? HEX is an ERC-20 token. This means that HEX tokens are essentially smart contracts built over the Ethereum network. Richard claims HEX had to be built on Ethereum because the protocol is better and safer than BTC – something I completely disagree with. I love Ethereum, but not because it’s safer or better than Bitcoin. It helps people deploy new ideas instantly – that’s the value proposition. Perhaps in time Ethereum will become as secure as BTC, although I highly doubt it since scalability requires some trade-offs (like decentralisation or security). Nonetheless, that is not the point of this article. I agree HEX had to be built on Ethereum, but for different reasons like flexibility and the ability to run extra functionality. The only point of HEX is to give Bitcoin (and Ethereum hodlers as well) the chance to make extra gains. Simple stuff. How to get HEX There are currently two ways to get HEX. The first is free and just requires you to hold Bitcoin prior to the Bitcoin blockchain snapshot, taking place Monday December 2 2019. You’ll need to sign a transaction proving you are the owner of the private keys for your addresses. According to the website, there are five easy steps: Install MetaMask on your browser. Go to the ‘Claim’ tool on wallet.hex.win. Open your BTC wallet and sign the statement given to you by the Claim tool. Paste the signature into the Claim page. Click ‘Submit’. The second way is to send ETH to the “adoption amplifier” – a smart contract that converts ETH to HEX on a daily basis. You can also use referral links (Richard is the master of referrals) in order to increase your staking by 20%. Understanding HEX’s price appreciation To fully understand if HEX could have value, we need to take a few steps back to understand how tokens gain value in the first place. In my opinion, anything can gain value as long as there is enough demand. Demand, or people looking to buy, is what drives price up. If people are properly incentivised to lock up their HEX for the longest period of time, I would argue network effects may emerge. For instance, when HEX is taken out of the staking pool, the amount of HEX/ETH in the last withdrawal will be set as the price for anyone looking to purchase HEX through the adoption amplifier. Will HEX be as valuable as Richard believes? Perhaps. It depends on the number of people who adopt HEX, as speculation and network effects are what drive price appreciation in most cases. However, you should always do your own research around new projects. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s only. This article isn’t financial advice or promotional material; it represents my personal opinion and should not be attributed to Coin Rivet. The post What is HEX and why should Bitcoin holders care? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Why Bitcoin has value despite its volatility: Bitcoin has such a volatile and unpredictable nature that many people wonder whether there is any value in investing in the digital asset. Investing in Bitcoin is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but it’s an appealing option for those who believe in its long-term potential, who want to diversify their portfolio, and who have a high level of risk tolerance. Why is Bitcoin so volatile? The price of Bitcoin has been on a roller-coaster ride over the past few years and, so far, the trend shows no signs of abating. Just last weekend, Bitcoin fell by 4.6%, and on Monday it was hovering around $6,600 – a far cry from the summer when it broke through the $13,000 mark. The price of Bitcoin can swing wildly in a matter of minutes. One of the reasons why Bitcoin is so volatile is it is still a relatively new asset, having been launched just a decade ago. As we’ve seen from the dot-com boom and bust, people tend to get very excited about new technologies, invest huge sums of money, and then reality sets in. The total market capitalisation of Bitcoin, and indeed all digital currencies combined, is fairly small when you compare it with more traditional assets like stocks. Small markets are more vulnerable to manipulation and fluctuations in supply and demand. If a major investor decides to sell their holdings, it can cause a sharp drop in price. The Bitcoin price is also incredibly sensitive to news events and regulation, which can impact investors’ views of Bitcoin and result in mass sell-offs. Bitcoin’s appeal Despite Bitcoin’s volatility, it remains an attractive asset for lots of investors around the world. Many people who invested in Bitcoin from its early days have become “Bitcoin millionaires”, so it’s no surprise that other people want to replicate their success. Bitcoin’s decentralised nature is one of its many appealing characteristics. Because it is decentralised and not controlled by a single government, it isn’t subject to the impulses of a central bank or political party. Story continues Likewise, whereas central banks can print more traditional currencies over time, which drives inflation and reduces the currency’s buying power, there is a cap on the total number of Bitcoins that can ever be mined. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency that holds its value – in other words, it has anti-inflationary properties. Investment opportunity Perhaps the biggest reason why lots of people are interested in investing in Bitcoin is it offers bigger returns than pretty much any other asset. For experienced traders, Bitcoin’s volatility is actually the reason why it’s possible to earn such huge profits – although it goes without saying that successfully buying low and selling high is incredibly difficult. Something that has really confounded Bitcoin sceptics is the growing appeal of the cryptocurrency as a safe-haven asset. Earlier this year, people flocked to Bitcoin as global stock markets and fiat currencies were hurt by trade tensions and geopolitical forces. Again, the coin’s decentralised nature means it is insulated from political forces. What’s more, whereas many people around the world don’t have access to traditional investment markets, Bitcoin is available to pretty much anyone. It’s possible to invest either small or large amounts, which opens up investing to those from underdeveloped countries. At the same time, the anonymous nature of decentralised transactions means investing in Bitcoin has a high level of privacy. Bitcoin’s value Bitcoin’s value is closely linked to how favourably people view the cryptocurrency, which is something that even the most knowledgeable traders find hard to predict. Having said that, many Bitcoin enthusiasts are of the view that its value will inevitably rise in the long term. Bitcoin’s adoption rate is growing worldwide, with more businesses now accepting it as a form of payment. The cryptocurrency’s use cases are growing all the time, and it’s predicted Bitcoin will be serving a whole host of new functions in the future. This will only serve to reinforce Bitcoin’s value. Conclusion Bitcoin’s volatility doesn’t detract from its value, but it does mean investors need to have their wits about them before investing in the digital asset. Volatility can reap rewards, but it can also result in huge losses. So experience, knowledge, and an appetite for high risk are a must. The post Why Bitcoin has value despite its volatility appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Why Bitcoin has value despite its volatility: Bitcoin has such a volatile and unpredictable nature that many people wonder whether there is any value in investing in the digital asset. Investing in Bitcoin is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but it’s an appealing option for those who believe in its long-term potential, who want to diversify their portfolio, and who have a high level of risk tolerance. Why is Bitcoin so volatile? The price of Bitcoin has been on a roller-coaster ride over the past few years and, so far, the trend shows no signs of abating. Just last weekend, Bitcoin fell by 4.6%, and on Monday it was hovering around $6,600 – a far cry from the summer when it broke through the $13,000 mark. The price of Bitcoin can swing wildly in a matter of minutes. One of the reasons why Bitcoin is so volatile is it is still a relatively new asset, having been launched just a decade ago. As we’ve seen from the dot-com boom and bust, people tend to get very excited about new technologies, invest huge sums of money, and then reality sets in. The total market capitalisation of Bitcoin, and indeed all digital currencies combined, is fairly small when you compare it with more traditional assets like stocks. Small markets are more vulnerable to manipulation and fluctuations in supply and demand. If a major investor decides to sell their holdings, it can cause a sharp drop in price. The Bitcoin price is also incredibly sensitive to news events and regulation, which can impact investors’ views of Bitcoin and result in mass sell-offs. Bitcoin’s appeal Despite Bitcoin’s volatility, it remains an attractive asset for lots of investors around the world. Many people who invested in Bitcoin from its early days have become “Bitcoin millionaires”, so it’s no surprise that other people want to replicate their success. Bitcoin’s decentralised nature is one of its many appealing characteristics. Because it is decentralised and not controlled by a single government, it isn’t subject to the impulses of a central bank or political party. Story continues Likewise, whereas central banks can print more traditional currencies over time, which drives inflation and reduces the currency’s buying power, there is a cap on the total number of Bitcoins that can ever be mined. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency that holds its value – in other words, it has anti-inflationary properties. Investment opportunity Perhaps the biggest reason why lots of people are interested in investing in Bitcoin is it offers bigger returns than pretty much any other asset. For experienced traders, Bitcoin’s volatility is actually the reason why it’s possible to earn such huge profits – although it goes without saying that successfully buying low and selling high is incredibly difficult. Something that has really confounded Bitcoin sceptics is the growing appeal of the cryptocurrency as a safe-haven asset. Earlier this year, people flocked to Bitcoin as global stock markets and fiat currencies were hurt by trade tensions and geopolitical forces. Again, the coin’s decentralised nature means it is insulated from political forces. What’s more, whereas many people around the world don’t have access to traditional investment markets, Bitcoin is available to pretty much anyone. It’s possible to invest either small or large amounts, which opens up investing to those from underdeveloped countries. At the same time, the anonymous nature of decentralised transactions means investing in Bitcoin has a high level of privacy. Bitcoin’s value Bitcoin’s value is closely linked to how favourably people view the cryptocurrency, which is something that even the most knowledgeable traders find hard to predict. Having said that, many Bitcoin enthusiasts are of the view that its value will inevitably rise in the long term. Bitcoin’s adoption rate is growing worldwide, with more businesses now accepting it as a form of payment. The cryptocurrency’s use cases are growing all the time, and it’s predicted Bitcoin will be serving a whole host of new functions in the future. This will only serve to reinforce Bitcoin’s value. Conclusion Bitcoin’s volatility doesn’t detract from its value, but it does mean investors need to have their wits about them before investing in the digital asset. Volatility can reap rewards, but it can also result in huge losses. So experience, knowledge, and an appetite for high risk are a must. The post Why Bitcoin has value despite its volatility appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Why Bitcoin has value despite its volatility: Bitcoin has such a volatile and unpredictable nature that many people wonder whether there is any value in investing in the digital asset. Investing in Bitcoin is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but it’s an appealing option for those who believe in its long-term potential, who want to diversify their portfolio, and who have a high level of risk tolerance. Why is Bitcoin so volatile? The price of Bitcoin has been on a roller-coaster ride over the past few years and, so far, the trend shows no signs of abating. Just last weekend, Bitcoin fell by 4.6%, and on Monday it was hovering around $6,600 – a far cry from the summer when it broke through the $13,000 mark. The price of Bitcoin can swing wildly in a matter of minutes. One of the reasons why Bitcoin is so volatile is it is still a relatively new asset, having been launched just a decade ago. As we’ve seen from the dot-com boom and bust, people tend to get very excited about new technologies, invest huge sums of money, and then reality sets in. The total market capitalisation of Bitcoin, and indeed all digital currencies combined, is fairly small when you compare it with more traditional assets like stocks. Small markets are more vulnerable to manipulation and fluctuations in supply and demand. If a major investor decides to sell their holdings, it can cause a sharp drop in price. The Bitcoin price is also incredibly sensitive to news events and regulation, which can impact investors’ views of Bitcoin and result in mass sell-offs. Bitcoin’s appeal Despite Bitcoin’s volatility, it remains an attractive asset for lots of investors around the world. Many people who invested in Bitcoin from its early days have become “Bitcoin millionaires”, so it’s no surprise that other people want to replicate their success. Bitcoin’s decentralised nature is one of its many appealing characteristics. Because it is decentralised and not controlled by a single government, it isn’t subject to the impulses of a central bank or political party. Story continues Likewise, whereas central banks can print more traditional currencies over time, which drives inflation and reduces the currency’s buying power, there is a cap on the total number of Bitcoins that can ever be mined. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency that holds its value – in other words, it has anti-inflationary properties. Investment opportunity Perhaps the biggest reason why lots of people are interested in investing in Bitcoin is it offers bigger returns than pretty much any other asset. For experienced traders, Bitcoin’s volatility is actually the reason why it’s possible to earn such huge profits – although it goes without saying that successfully buying low and selling high is incredibly difficult. Something that has really confounded Bitcoin sceptics is the growing appeal of the cryptocurrency as a safe-haven asset. Earlier this year, people flocked to Bitcoin as global stock markets and fiat currencies were hurt by trade tensions and geopolitical forces. Again, the coin’s decentralised nature means it is insulated from political forces. What’s more, whereas many people around the world don’t have access to traditional investment markets, Bitcoin is available to pretty much anyone. It’s possible to invest either small or large amounts, which opens up investing to those from underdeveloped countries. At the same time, the anonymous nature of decentralised transactions means investing in Bitcoin has a high level of privacy. Bitcoin’s value Bitcoin’s value is closely linked to how favourably people view the cryptocurrency, which is something that even the most knowledgeable traders find hard to predict. Having said that, many Bitcoin enthusiasts are of the view that its value will inevitably rise in the long term. Bitcoin’s adoption rate is growing worldwide, with more businesses now accepting it as a form of payment. The cryptocurrency’s use cases are growing all the time, and it’s predicted Bitcoin will be serving a whole host of new functions in the future. This will only serve to reinforce Bitcoin’s value. Conclusion Bitcoin’s volatility doesn’t detract from its value, but it does mean investors need to have their wits about them before investing in the digital asset. Volatility can reap rewards, but it can also result in huge losses. So experience, knowledge, and an appetite for high risk are a must. The post Why Bitcoin has value despite its volatility appeared first on Coin Rivet . || What Awaits the AUD This Week?: Market sentiment has been more or less stable: there was plenty of news about the trade talks between the United States and China, but nothing really decisive has arrived. The Aussie’s fellow commodity currency, the NZD, has been doing much better in trading versus the greenback, and it’s natural thatAUD/NZDhas plummeted this month.
From the observations described above, we can make one evident conclusion: the AUD is under negative pressure primarily because of Australia’s domestic problems. Indeed, the seasonally adjusted private capital expenditure fell by 0.2% in the Q3 after declining by 0.6% in the June quarter. Inflation remains below the target, manufacturing and services PMIs point at industry contraction. Moreover, Australian employment suffered its sharpest fall in 3 years in October, while the unemployment rate rose to 5.3%.
According to the forecasts, theRBAwill leave the cash rate at the record low level of 0.75%. Still, economists are talking about the need for urgent stimulus to revive economic activity and wages. The market has priced in an 11% chance of a cut in interest rates to 0.5%. As a result, the wording of the central bank’s statement will be quite important. Governor Philip Lowe underlined that negative interest rates and quantitative easings were not likely anytime soon but suggested that the RBA would implement QE when the cash rate hit 0.25%. Many analysts haven’t considered such a big decline in the benchmark interest rate, so they lowered forecasts for the AUD. All in all, if the central bank’s statement contains worries about the national economy, traders will price in rate cuts next year and this will hurt the AUD. If not, the impact on the AUD will be closer to neutral.
Apart from the monetary policy decision, Australia will release a bunch of economic figures in the upcoming days. Here are thekey indicators to pay attention to:
• Building approvals (Dec. 2) – the previous reading was good, but the performance of the indicator is usually uneven.
• GDP growth q/q (Dec. 4) – Australian economy has probably expanded, but the figures will hardly be very impressive.
• Retail sales (Dec. 5) – the nation’s consumer sector is experiencing problems, so brace yourself for some sour figures.
• Trade balance (Dec. 5) – exports have been doing good, so this piece of data should cheer traders up a bit.
On balance, the forecasts imply a cautious approach to the AUD. Still, if there are big positive surprises, the AUD may jump up.
Finally, traders will keep monitoring the US-China story. For now, the key question is whether the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act signed by Donald Trump this week ruins the upcoming phase 1 trade deal or not.
AUD/USD formed a lower high and slipped below the daily MAs. Support lies at 0.6750 and 0.6725 ahead of 0.6670 (multi-year low). Resistance is at 0.6830, 0.6880 and 0.6930.
This post is written and submitted by FBS Markets for informational purposes only. In no way shall it be interpreted or construed to create any warranties of any kind, including an offer to buy or sell any currencies or other instruments.
The views and ideas shared in this article are deemed reliable and based on the most up-to-date and trustworthy sources. However, the company does not take any responsibility for accuracy and completeness of the information, and the views expressed in the article may be subject to change without prior notice.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 01/12/19
• Natural Gas Futures (NG) Technical Analysis – Bulls Throw in Towel as Prices Post Worst One-Day Slide Since January
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Weakens Under $1471.30, Strengthens Over $1474.80
• The Week Ahead – It’s a Hectic Week Ahead. Stats and Geopolitics are in Focus
• Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 30/11/19
• What Awaits the AUD This Week? || What Awaits the AUD This Week?: Market sentiment has been more or less stable: there was plenty of news about the trade talks between the United States and China, but nothing really decisive has arrived. The Aussie’s fellow commodity currency, the NZD, has been doing much better in trading versus the greenback, and it’s natural that AUD/NZD has plummeted this month. From the observations described above, we can make one evident conclusion: the AUD is under negative pressure primarily because of Australia’s domestic problems. Indeed, the seasonally adjusted private capital expenditure fell by 0.2% in the Q3 after declining by 0.6% in the June quarter. Inflation remains below the target, manufacturing and services PMIs point at industry contraction. Moreover, Australian employment suffered its sharpest fall in 3 years in October, while the unemployment rate rose to 5.3%. The Reserve Bank of Australia will meet on Tuesday, December 3 According to the forecasts, the RBA will leave the cash rate at the record low level of 0.75%. Still, economists are talking about the need for urgent stimulus to revive economic activity and wages. The market has priced in an 11% chance of a cut in interest rates to 0.5%. As a result, the wording of the central bank’s statement will be quite important. Governor Philip Lowe underlined that negative interest rates and quantitative easings were not likely anytime soon but suggested that the RBA would implement QE when the cash rate hit 0.25%. Many analysts haven’t considered such a big decline in the benchmark interest rate, so they lowered forecasts for the AUD. All in all, if the central bank’s statement contains worries about the national economy, traders will price in rate cuts next year and this will hurt the AUD. If not, the impact on the AUD will be closer to neutral. Apart from the monetary policy decision, Australia will release a bunch of economic figures in the upcoming days. Here are the key indicators to pay attention to: Story continues Building approvals (Dec. 2) – the previous reading was good, but the performance of the indicator is usually uneven. GDP growth q/q (Dec. 4) – Australian economy has probably expanded, but the figures will hardly be very impressive. Retail sales (Dec. 5) – the nation’s consumer sector is experiencing problems, so brace yourself for some sour figures. Trade balance (Dec. 5) – exports have been doing good, so this piece of data should cheer traders up a bit. On balance, the forecasts imply a cautious approach to the AUD. Still, if there are big positive surprises, the AUD may jump up. Finally, traders will keep monitoring the US-China story. For now, the key question is whether the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act signed by Donald Trump this week ruins the upcoming phase 1 trade deal or not. AUD/USD formed a lower high and slipped below the daily MAs. Support lies at 0.6750 and 0.6725 ahead of 0.6670 (multi-year low). Resistance is at 0.6830, 0.6880 and 0.6930. This post is written and submitted by FBS Markets for informational purposes only. In no way shall it be interpreted or construed to create any warranties of any kind, including an offer to buy or sell any currencies or other instruments. The views and ideas shared in this article are deemed reliable and based on the most up-to-date and trustworthy sources. However, the company does not take any responsibility for accuracy and completeness of the information, and the views expressed in the article may be subject to change without prior notice. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 01/12/19 Natural Gas Futures (NG) Technical Analysis – Bulls Throw in Towel as Prices Post Worst One-Day Slide Since January Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Weakens Under $1471.30, Strengthens Over $1474.80 The Week Ahead – It’s a Hectic Week Ahead. Stats and Geopolitics are in Focus Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 30/11/19 What Awaits the AUD This Week? || The Week Ahead – It’s a Hectic Week Ahead. Stats and Geopolitics are in Focus: It’s a busy week ahead on theeconomic calendar, with 61 stats to monitor over the week.
After a shortened week last week, it’s a busy week ahead on the economic data front.
ISM and Markit Manufacturing PMI numbers get things going on Monday. The market’s preferred ISM Manufacturing PMI will have the greatest impact on the day.
The focus will then shift to a busy Wednesday.
ADP nonfarm employment change figures for October are due out ahead of ISM and Markit service PMI numbers.
On the day, the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI and ADP numbers will have the greatest impact on the Dollar.
On Thursday, expect factory orders to provide direction ahead of a busy Friday.
November wage growth, nonfarm payrolls, and the unemployment rate will be in focus on Friday.
Strong labor market conditions continue to support consumption and service sector activity.
Any weak numbers would test the Greenback ahead of prelim December consumer sentiment figures.
The weekly jobless claims figures and October trade data on Thursday will be of less influence in the week.
Outside of the numbers, trade talks will continue to influence as will impeachment chatter. Hearings resume in the week ahead.
The Dollar Spot Index ended the week flat at $98.273.
It’s also a busy week ahead on theeconomic data.
In the first half of the week, November manufacturing and service PMI numbers are due out on Monday and Wednesday.
Barring deviation from prelims, the focus will be on Spain, Italy, and the Eurozone numbers.
Through the 2ndhalf of the week, German factory orders and retail sales figures are due out on Thursday. On Friday, industrial production figures for October are due out.
Following stats that were skewed to the positive last week, the markets will be looking for a pickup in private sector activity.
Spanish unemployment change figures on Tuesday will likely have a muted impact on Tuesday. Barring deviation from 2ndestimates, the Eurozone’s GDP numbers would also likely be brushed aside.
Outside of the numbers, expect geopolitical risk to also influence.
From the U.S, progress towards a phase 1 trade agreement will provide direction, while we can expect UK politics to also begin to influence.
The EUR/USD ended the week down by 0.03% to $1.1018.
It’s a relatively busy week ahead on theeconomic calendar.
Finalized November private sector PMIs are due out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Following disappointing prelim figures, any upward revisions would be a boost for the Pound.
November’s BRC Retail Sales Monitor on Tuesday will also provide direction early in the week.
While the stats will influence, the UK General Election will remain the key driver, with just 11 days remaining until Election Day.
Debates, interviews, opinion polls, and election result predictions will drive the Pound in the week ahead.
The GBP/USD ended the week up by 0.71% to $1.2925.
It’s a busy week ahead on theeconomiccalendar.
Key stats include 3rdquarter productivity figures on Monday, October trade data and the Ivey PMI on Thursday.
At the end of the week, November employment figures will also influence.
While the stats will provide direction, the Bank of Canada will deliver its interest rate decision on Wednesday.
Last week’s 3rdquarter GDP numbers could ultimately deliver a more dovish statement that would weigh on the Loonie.
In the week prior, BoC Governor Poloz had stated that interest rates were at the right level to support the economy…
The Loonie ended the week down by 0.61% to C$1.3282 against the U.S Dollar.
It’s also a busy week ahead.
At the start of the week, manufacturing numbers along with company gross operating profit figures will provide direction.
The focus will then shift 3rdquarter GDP numbers due out on Wednesday.
On Thursday, October retail sales figures and trade data will also have a material influence on the Aussie.
From elsewhere, private sector PMI numbers out of China will also influence.
The NBS figures released on Saturday were Aussie Dollar positive, ahead of the more influential Caixin figures due out on Monday and Wednesday.
On the monetary policy front, the RBA delivers its December interest rate decision.
The monetary policy meeting minutes from November had revealed that the Board discussed a rate cut in the last meeting.
Since the last RBA meeting, it’s been a mixed bag on the economic data front.
While September trade data and business and consumer confidence were positives, wage growth and employment figures have disappointed.
When considering the fact that the RBA’s main area of concern continues to be over consumer spending, weaker wage growth and a slide in employment would support a more dovish stance on policy.
On the geopolitical risk front, chatter on trade will need monitoring and will remain a key driver.
The Aussie Dollar ended the week down by 0.34% to $0.6763.
It’s also a relatively busy week ahead on theeconomic calendar.
Key stats include 3rdquarter capital spending figures on Monday and October household spending figures due out on Friday.
Barring deviation from prelim figures, finalized manufacturing and service sector PMIs will likely have a muted impact.
From elsewhere, private sector PMI numbers out of China and geopolitics will ultimately drive the Yen in the week.
The Japanese Yen ended the week down by 0.76% to ¥109.49 against the U.S Dollar.
It’s a particularly quiet week ahead on the economic calendar, with no material stats due out of New Zealand.
A lack of stats leaves the Kiwi in the hands of market risk sentiment throughout the week.
The Kiwi Dollar ended the week up by 0.19% to $0.6422.
It’s a relatively busy week on theeconomic datafront. Following NBS Private Sector PMI numbers from Saturday, the focus will be on the Caixin surveys.
The Manufacturing PMI due out on Monday and Services PMI on Wednesday will influence risk appetite in the week.
Outside of the numbers, however, expect updates from Beijing and Washington to have the greatest impact.
The Yuan ended the week up by 0.09% to CNY7.0325 against the Greenback.
Impeachment:Open door testimony resumes after the Thanksgiving holiday. While Trump is still nowhere nearer to being thrown out of office, the hearings will continue to draw interest…
Trade Wars: There’s still no sign of an actual phase 1 agreement, in spite of positive updates from both sides. Another week of positive chatter but no actual concrete progress may test the broader market… In the early hours of Thursday, Trump signed the HK Bill to protect HK protestors. China’s reaction will be key…
UK Politics: The UK General Election is just 11 days away. Expect the Pound to be particularly sensitive to the opinion polls, predictions and televised debates and interviews. Boris Johnson’s lead has tumbled, raising the chances of a hung parliament and more Brexit uncertainty. That’s not going to be particularly positive for the Pound.
Bank of Canada: On Wednesday, the BoC delivers its final monetary policy decision of the year. BoC Gov. Poloz last spoke of interest rates being at the right level to support the economy. Economic data has been mixed, however. Will the Committee remain divided or more aligned with the governor?
RBA: The last RBA minutes were mode dovish than the rate statement had suggested, weighing on the Aussie. With wage growth and employment figures disappointing, a more dovish statement could be on the horizon. The RBA may need to decide whether it’s worth spooking consumers with one last rate cut…
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• The UK General Election – Odds, Polls, and Predictions End of Week Update
• European Equities: A Week in Review – 29/11/19
• The Weekly Wrap – Positive Stats Battled Against Trump and the HK Bill
• Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 01/12/19
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Weakens Under $1471.30, Strengthens Over $1474.80
• Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Low Demand, High Production Likely to Keep Pressure on Prices || The Week Ahead – It’s a Hectic Week Ahead. Stats and Geopolitics are in Focus: On the Macro It’s a busy week ahead on the economic calendar , with 61 stats to monitor over the week. For the Dollar: After a shortened week last week, it’s a busy week ahead on the economic data front. ISM and Markit Manufacturing PMI numbers get things going on Monday. The market’s preferred ISM Manufacturing PMI will have the greatest impact on the day. The focus will then shift to a busy Wednesday. ADP nonfarm employment change figures for October are due out ahead of ISM and Markit service PMI numbers. On the day, the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI and ADP numbers will have the greatest impact on the Dollar. On Thursday, expect factory orders to provide direction ahead of a busy Friday. November wage growth, nonfarm payrolls, and the unemployment rate will be in focus on Friday. Strong labor market conditions continue to support consumption and service sector activity. Any weak numbers would test the Greenback ahead of prelim December consumer sentiment figures. The weekly jobless claims figures and October trade data on Thursday will be of less influence in the week. Outside of the numbers, trade talks will continue to influence as will impeachment chatter. Hearings resume in the week ahead. The Dollar Spot Index ended the week flat at $98.273. For the EUR : It’s also a busy week ahead on the economic data . In the first half of the week, November manufacturing and service PMI numbers are due out on Monday and Wednesday. Barring deviation from prelims, the focus will be on Spain, Italy, and the Eurozone numbers. Through the 2 nd half of the week, German factory orders and retail sales figures are due out on Thursday. On Friday, industrial production figures for October are due out. Following stats that were skewed to the positive last week, the markets will be looking for a pickup in private sector activity. Spanish unemployment change figures on Tuesday will likely have a muted impact on Tuesday. Barring deviation from 2 nd estimates, the Eurozone’s GDP numbers would also likely be brushed aside. Story continues Outside of the numbers, expect geopolitical risk to also influence. From the U.S, progress towards a phase 1 trade agreement will provide direction, while we can expect UK politics to also begin to influence. The EUR/USD ended the week down by 0.03% to $1.1018. For the Pound: It’s a relatively busy week ahead on the economic calendar . Finalized November private sector PMIs are due out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Following disappointing prelim figures, any upward revisions would be a boost for the Pound. November’s BRC Retail Sales Monitor on Tuesday will also provide direction early in the week. While the stats will influence, the UK General Election will remain the key driver, with just 11 days remaining until Election Day. Debates, interviews, opinion polls, and election result predictions will drive the Pound in the week ahead. The GBP/USD ended the week up by 0.71% to $1.2925. For the Loonie: It’s a busy week ahead on the economic calendar. Key stats include 3 rd quarter productivity figures on Monday, October trade data and the Ivey PMI on Thursday. At the end of the week, November employment figures will also influence. While the stats will provide direction, the Bank of Canada will deliver its interest rate decision on Wednesday. Last week’s 3 rd quarter GDP numbers could ultimately deliver a more dovish statement that would weigh on the Loonie. In the week prior, BoC Governor Poloz had stated that interest rates were at the right level to support the economy… The Loonie ended the week down by 0.61% to C$1.3282 against the U.S Dollar. Out of Asia For the Aussie Dollar: It’s also a busy week ahead. At the start of the week, manufacturing numbers along with company gross operating profit figures will provide direction. The focus will then shift 3 rd quarter GDP numbers due out on Wednesday. On Thursday, October retail sales figures and trade data will also have a material influence on the Aussie. From elsewhere, private sector PMI numbers out of China will also influence. The NBS figures released on Saturday were Aussie Dollar positive, ahead of the more influential Caixin figures due out on Monday and Wednesday. On the monetary policy front, the RBA delivers its December interest rate decision. The monetary policy meeting minutes from November had revealed that the Board discussed a rate cut in the last meeting. Since the last RBA meeting, it’s been a mixed bag on the economic data front. While September trade data and business and consumer confidence were positives, wage growth and employment figures have disappointed. When considering the fact that the RBA’s main area of concern continues to be over consumer spending, weaker wage growth and a slide in employment would support a more dovish stance on policy. On the geopolitical risk front, chatter on trade will need monitoring and will remain a key driver. The Aussie Dollar ended the week down by 0.34% to $0.6763. For the Japanese Yen: It’s also a relatively busy week ahead on the economic calendar . Key stats include 3 rd quarter capital spending figures on Monday and October household spending figures due out on Friday. Barring deviation from prelim figures, finalized manufacturing and service sector PMIs will likely have a muted impact. From elsewhere, private sector PMI numbers out of China and geopolitics will ultimately drive the Yen in the week. The Japanese Yen ended the week down by 0.76% to ¥109.49 against the U.S Dollar. For the Kiwi Dollar: It’s a particularly quiet week ahead on the economic calendar, with no material stats due out of New Zealand. A lack of stats leaves the Kiwi in the hands of market risk sentiment throughout the week. The Kiwi Dollar ended the week up by 0.19% to $0.6422. Out of China It’s a relatively busy week on the economic data front. Following NBS Private Sector PMI numbers from Saturday, the focus will be on the Caixin surveys. The Manufacturing PMI due out on Monday and Services PMI on Wednesday will influence risk appetite in the week. Outside of the numbers, however, expect updates from Beijing and Washington to have the greatest impact. The Yuan ended the week up by 0.09% to CNY7.0325 against the Greenback. Geo-Politics Impeachment: Open door testimony resumes after the Thanksgiving holiday. While Trump is still nowhere nearer to being thrown out of office, the hearings will continue to draw interest… Trade Wars : There’s still no sign of an actual phase 1 agreement, in spite of positive updates from both sides. Another week of positive chatter but no actual concrete progress may test the broader market… In the early hours of Thursday, Trump signed the HK Bill to protect HK protestors. China’s reaction will be key… UK Politics : The UK General Election is just 11 days away. Expect the Pound to be particularly sensitive to the opinion polls, predictions and televised debates and interviews. Boris Johnson’s lead has tumbled, raising the chances of a hung parliament and more Brexit uncertainty. That’s not going to be particularly positive for the Pound. Monetary Policy Bank of Canada : On Wednesday, the BoC delivers its final monetary policy decision of the year. BoC Gov. Poloz last spoke of interest rates being at the right level to support the economy. Economic data has been mixed, however. Will the Committee remain divided or more aligned with the governor? RBA : The last RBA minutes were mode dovish than the rate statement had suggested, weighing on the Aussie. With wage growth and employment figures disappointing, a more dovish statement could be on the horizon. The RBA may need to decide whether it’s worth spooking consumers with one last rate cut… This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The UK General Election – Odds, Polls, and Predictions End of Week Update European Equities: A Week in Review – 29/11/19 The Weekly Wrap – Positive Stats Battled Against Trump and the HK Bill Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 01/12/19 Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Weakens Under $1471.30, Strengthens Over $1474.80 Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Low Demand, High Production Likely to Keep Pressure on Prices || U.S Mortgage Rates Rise but only Marginally: Mortgage rates were back on the rise in the week ending 27 th November. 30-year fixed rates rose by 2 basis points to 3.68%. In the week ending 21 st November, mortgage rates had fallen by 9 basis points to 3.66%. In spite of the 2 basis point rise, 30-year rates continued to hold close to levels last seen in early November of 2016, according to figures released by Freddie Mac . Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were down by 113 basis points. 30-year fixed rates are also down by 126 basis points since last Novembers most recent peak of 4.94%. Economic Data from the Week While it was a shortened week for the U.S markets, with the Thanksgiving holidays on Thursday, stats were on the heavier side. Key stats included November business confidence figures on Tuesday and 3 rd quarter GDP and October durable goods orders on Wednesday. In spite of a fall in the CB Consumer Confidence Index from 126.10 to 125.50 in November, the fall was considered moderate. Positive updates from the U.S on trade provided yields with support in the early part of the week. On Wednesday, 3 rd estimate GDP numbers for the 3 rd quarter impressed, with the GDP upwardly revised from 1.9% to 2.1%. Also supporting risk appetite on the day were solid durable goods and core durable goods orders. Both rose by 0.6% in October, coming in well ahead of forecasts. On the negative, however, was an easing in inflationary pressures. The Core PCE Price Index rose by 1.6% in October, easing back from a 1.7% rise in September. From the housing sector, new home sales and pending home sales disappointed, with declines of 0.7% and 1.7% respectively. Following the impressive housing start and building permit numbers, the numbers had a muted impact, however. Freddie Mac Rates The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 27 th November were quoted by Freddie Mac to be : 30-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 3.68% in the week. Rates were down from 4.81% from a year ago. The average fee fell from 0.6 points to 0.5 points. Story continues 15-year fixed rates held steady at 3.15% in the week. Rates were down from 4.25% from a year ago. The average fee held steady at 0.5 points. 5-year fixed rates increased by 4 basis points to 3.43% in the week. Rates were down by 69 basis points from last years 4.12%. The average fee held fell from 0.4 points to 0.3 points. According to Freddie Mac, mortgage rates have traded narrower over the last 2-months. After the downward trend in the 1 st nine months of the year, an improved economic outlook has supported an upward drift. While the housing market had a delayed reaction to the slide in mortgage rates, real estate volumes have jumped. Freddie Mac also noted that recent improvements in the cyclical segments of the economy, together with easing financial conditions, were also positive for the housing market. Mortgage Bankers Association Rates For the week ending 22 nd November, rates were quoted to be : Average interest rates for 30-year fixed, backed by the FHA, decreased from 3.80% to 3.79%. Points fell from 0.32 to 0.23 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances fell from 3.99% to 3.97%. Points decreased from 0.33 to 0.30 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances decreased from 3.93% to 3.87%. Points increased from 0.28 to 0.29 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by 1.5% in the week ending 22 nd November. In the week ending 15 th November, the Mortgage Composite Index had fallen by 2.2%. The Refinance Index increased by 4% in the week ending 22 nd November and was 314% higher than the same week a year ago. The Index had fallen by 8% in the week ending 15 th November. The share of refinance mortgage activity increased from 59.5% to 62.0% in the week, reversing a fall from 61.9 to 59.5 in the week prior. According to the MBA, with mortgage rates sitting at sub-4% for a 2 nd consecutive week, applications were on the rise. The MBA also noted that, while refinances have been strong, the average pace has slowed since August through October. With 5 weeks of reporting data left in 2019, the mortgage market is reportedly on track for its best year for originations since 2007
For the week ahead Its a relatively busy first half of the week on the economic data front. Key stats include the markets preferred ISM Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI figures for November and ADP nonfarm employment change numbers. Barring material deviation from prelims, finalized Markit PMI numbers will likely have a muted impact on yields. Outside of the numbers, however, expect updates from the U.S and China on trade to ultimately continue to drive yields. Trump signed the HK Bill to protect HK protesters, which riled Beijing. How Beijing responds and whether the U.S and China remain on course for a phase 1 agreement will be the main area of focus. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis Sellers Targeting 3122.75 to 3109.00 Retracement Levels USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis Price Action Suggests Short Top is Forming Bitcoin Cash ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis 30/11/19 Brent Crude Price Futures (BZ) Technical Analysis Testing Critical Support Cluster at $60.47 to $60.35 The Weekly Wrap Positive Stats Battled Against Trump and the HK Bill Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast Low Demand, High Production Likely to Keep Pressure on Prices || U.S Mortgage Rates Rise but only Marginally: Mortgage rates were back on the rise in the week ending 27thNovember. 30-year fixed rates rose by 2 basis points to 3.68%. In the week ending 21stNovember, mortgage rates had fallen by 9 basis points to 3.66%.
In spite of the 2 basis point rise, 30-year rates continued to hold close to levels last seen in early November of 2016, according to figures released byFreddie Mac.
Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were down by 113 basis points.
30-year fixed rates are also down by 126 basis points since last November’s most recent peak of 4.94%.
While it was a shortened week for the U.S markets, with the Thanksgiving holidays on Thursday, stats were on the heavier side.
Key stats included November business confidence figures on Tuesday and 3rdquarter GDP and October durable goods orders on Wednesday.
In spite of a fall in the CB Consumer Confidence Index from 126.10 to 125.50 in November, the fall was considered moderate.
Positive updates from the U.S on trade provided yields with support in the early part of the week.
On Wednesday, 3rdestimate GDP numbers for the 3rdquarter impressed, with the GDP upwardly revised from 1.9% to 2.1%.
Also supporting risk appetite on the day were solid durable goods and core durable goods orders. Both rose by 0.6% in October, coming in well ahead of forecasts.
On the negative, however, was an easing in inflationary pressures. The Core PCE Price Index rose by 1.6% in October, easing back from a 1.7% rise in September.
From the housing sector, new home sales and pending home sales disappointed, with declines of 0.7% and 1.7% respectively.
Following the impressive housing start and building permit numbers, the numbers had a muted impact, however.
The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 27thNovember were quoted byFreddie Macto be:
• 30-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 3.68% in the week. Rates were down from 4.81% from a year ago. The average fee fell from 0.6 points to 0.5 points.
• 15-year fixed rates held steady at 3.15% in the week. Rates were down from 4.25% from a year ago. The average fee held steady at 0.5 points.
• 5-year fixed rates increased by 4 basis points to 3.43% in the week. Rates were down by 69 basis points from last year’s 4.12%. The average fee held fell from 0.4 points to 0.3 points.
According to Freddie Mac, mortgage rates have traded narrower over the last 2-months. After the downward trend in the 1stnine months of the year, an improved economic outlook has supported an upward drift.
While the housing market had a delayed reaction to the slide in mortgage rates, real estate volumes have jumped.
Freddie Mac also noted that recent improvements in the cyclical segments of the economy, together with easing financial conditions, were also positive for the housing market.
For the week ending 22ndNovember,rateswere quoted to be:
• Average interest rates for 30-year fixed, backed by the FHA, decreased from 3.80% to 3.79%. Points fell from 0.32 to 0.23 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
• Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances fell from 3.99% to 3.97%. Points decreased from 0.33 to 0.30 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
• Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances decreased from 3.93% to 3.87%. Points increased from 0.28 to 0.29 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by 1.5% in the week ending 22ndNovember. In the week ending 15thNovember, the Mortgage Composite Index had fallen by 2.2%.
The Refinance Index increased by 4% in the week ending 22ndNovember and was 314% higher than the same week a year ago. The Index had fallen by 8% in the week ending 15thNovember.
The share of refinance mortgage activity increased from 59.5% to 62.0% in the week, reversing a fall from 61.9 to 59.5 in the week prior.
According to the MBA, with mortgage rates sitting at sub-4% for a 2ndconsecutive week, applications were on the rise.
The MBA also noted that, while refinances have been strong, the average pace has slowed since August through October.
With 5 weeks of reporting data left in 2019, the mortgage market is reportedly on track for its best year for originations since 2007…
It’s a relatively busy first half of the week on the economic data front.
Key stats include the market’s preferred ISM Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI figures for November and ADP nonfarm employment change numbers.
Barring material deviation from prelims, finalized Markit PMI numbers will likely have a muted impact on yields.
Outside of the numbers, however, expect updates from the U.S and China on trade to ultimately continue to drive yields.
Trump signed the HK Bill to protect HK protesters, which riled Beijing. How Beijing responds and whether the U.S and China remain on course for a phase 1 agreement will be the main area of focus.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Sellers Targeting 3122.75 to 3109.00 Retracement Levels
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• The Weekly Wrap – Positive Stats Battled Against Trump and the HK Bill
• Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Low Demand, High Production Likely to Keep Pressure on Prices || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -01/12/19: Bitcoin fell by 2.52% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 4.50% rally from Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $7,599.9. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to a late morning intraday high $7,861.6 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $8,003.33, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $7,492.00. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $7,519.93 before finding support. A move back through the first major support level to $7,600 levels was short-lived, however. Bitcoin closed out the day at $7,500 levels to end the month of November down by 17.3%. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of 4 days in the green from 6. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a bearish day for the majors on Saturday. Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash ABC led the way down, with losses of 3.32% and 3.23% respectively. Litecoin (-2.86%), Ripple’s XRP (-2.19%), and Stellar’s Lumen (-2.82%) also saw relatively heavy losses. EOS (1.65%), Ethereum (-1.92%), and Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.94%) fared better than the rest. The last day of the month was a reflection of the bearish November that left the majors deep in the red. Binance Coin (-21.1%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-23.2%), and Ripple’s XRP (-23.3%) saw the heaviest losses. Things were not much better elsewhere, however. Bitcoin Cash SV (-16.7%), EOS (-15.4%), Ethereum (-16.8%), Litecoin (-19.1%), and Stellar’s Lumen (-11.4%) also saw double digit losses. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap slid to a Monday low $180.76bn before rebounding to a Saturday current week high $211.90bn. While recovering in the week, the total market cap sat well below a November high $254.2bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $202.40bn. Story continues Bitcoin’s dominance held on to 66% levels in spite of Saturday’s fall. 24-hour trading volumes did fall back to sub-$60bn levels on Saturday, having peaked at $133bn levels earlier in the week. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 2.19% to $7,433.4. A particularly bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin slide from an early morning high $7,600.1 to a low $7,420.0. Falling short of the major resistance levels, Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $7,440.73. Elsewhere, it was a sea of red across the crypto board. Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash SV led the way down, with losses of 3.0% and 3.6% respectively. Ethereum (-2.4%), Litecoin (2.8%), and Stellar’s Lumen (2.1%) also saw heavy losses early on. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-1.5%), EOS (1.7%), and Ripple’s XRP (-1.7%) saw relatively modest losses, however. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move back through the first major support level to $7,650 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,810.33. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from $7,600 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $7,600 levels would likely cap any upside. Failure to move through $7,650 levels could see Bitcoin spend a 2 nd consecutive day in the red. A fall through to sub-$7,400 levels would bring the second major support level at $7,281.57 into play before any recovery. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$7,000 for a 4 th consecutive day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Sellers Targeting 3122.75 to 3109.00 Retracement Levels Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 30/11/19 Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Bearish Factors Adding Up; Expect Volatility into OPEC+ Meeting Brent Crude Price Futures (BZ) Technical Analysis – Testing Critical Support Cluster at $60.47 to $60.35 NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over .6411, Weakens Under .6394 The UK General Election – Odds, Polls, and Predictions End of Week Update || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -01/12/19: Bitcoin fell by 2.52% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 4.50% rally from Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $7,599.9. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to a late morning intraday high $7,861.6 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $8,003.33, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $7,492.00. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $7,519.93 before finding support. A move back through the first major support level to $7,600 levels was short-lived, however. Bitcoin closed out the day at $7,500 levels to end the month of November down by 17.3%. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of 4 days in the green from 6. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a bearish day for the majors on Saturday. Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash ABC led the way down, with losses of 3.32% and 3.23% respectively. Litecoin (-2.86%), Ripple’s XRP (-2.19%), and Stellar’s Lumen (-2.82%) also saw relatively heavy losses. EOS (1.65%), Ethereum (-1.92%), and Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.94%) fared better than the rest. The last day of the month was a reflection of the bearish November that left the majors deep in the red. Binance Coin (-21.1%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-23.2%), and Ripple’s XRP (-23.3%) saw the heaviest losses. Things were not much better elsewhere, however. Bitcoin Cash SV (-16.7%), EOS (-15.4%), Ethereum (-16.8%), Litecoin (-19.1%), and Stellar’s Lumen (-11.4%) also saw double digit losses. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap slid to a Monday low $180.76bn before rebounding to a Saturday current week high $211.90bn. While recovering in the week, the total market cap sat well below a November high $254.2bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $202.40bn. Story continues Bitcoin’s dominance held on to 66% levels in spite of Saturday’s fall. 24-hour trading volumes did fall back to sub-$60bn levels on Saturday, having peaked at $133bn levels earlier in the week. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 2.19% to $7,433.4. A particularly bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin slide from an early morning high $7,600.1 to a low $7,420.0. Falling short of the major resistance levels, Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $7,440.73. Elsewhere, it was a sea of red across the crypto board. Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash SV led the way down, with losses of 3.0% and 3.6% respectively. Ethereum (-2.4%), Litecoin (2.8%), and Stellar’s Lumen (2.1%) also saw heavy losses early on. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-1.5%), EOS (1.7%), and Ripple’s XRP (-1.7%) saw relatively modest losses, however. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move back through the first major support level to $7,650 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,810.33. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from $7,600 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $7,600 levels would likely cap any upside. Failure to move through $7,650 levels could see Bitcoin spend a 2 nd consecutive day in the red. A fall through to sub-$7,400 levels would bring the second major support level at $7,281.57 into play before any recovery. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$7,000 for a 4 th consecutive day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Sellers Targeting 3122.75 to 3109.00 Retracement Levels Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 30/11/19 Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Bearish Factors Adding Up; Expect Volatility into OPEC+ Meeting Brent Crude Price Futures (BZ) Technical Analysis – Testing Critical Support Cluster at $60.47 to $60.35 NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over .6411, Weakens Under .6394 The UK General Election – Odds, Polls, and Predictions End of Week Update || Bitcoin Cash ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis 01/12/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC Slides Again Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 3.23% on Saturday. Reversing a 1.49% gain from Friday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $216.22. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning intraday high $224.19 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $226.53, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid to a late afternoon intraday low $215.00. Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $220.25 and the second major support level at $217.06. A brief move back through the second major support level was short-lived, with Bitcoin Cash ABC closing out at $216 levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down by 1.03% to $214.00. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC fall from an end of Saturday $215.00 to an early morning low $214.00. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $218.50 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $221.94. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break through to $220 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $220 would likely limit any upside on the day. Failure to move through to $218.50 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC slide deeper into the red. A fall through to $213 levels would bring the first major support level at $212.75 into play. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$210 levels. Litecoin Back at sub-$47 Litecoin fell by 2.86% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 3.88% rally from Friday, Litecoin ended the day at $47.26. A relatively bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise to an early morning intraday high $48.83 before succumbing to market forces. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $49.75, Litecoin tumbled to a late afternoon intraday low $46.71. Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $47.23 before finding support late in the day. Story continues Whilst moving back through to $47 levels, the first major support level pinned Litecoin back at the day end. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 2.07% to $46.28. A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $47.24 to a low $46.02. Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $46.37. For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to break through the first major support level to $47.60 levels to support a run at $48 levels. Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to take a run at the first major resistance level at $48.49. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $48 would likely cap any upside on the day. Failure to move back through the first major support level could see Litecoin fall back to sub-$46 levels. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, however, the second major support level at $45.48 should limit any downside. Ripples XRP Tracks the Pack Ripples XRP fell by 2.19% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 3.23% rally from Friday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.22670. A bullish start to the day saw Ripples XRP rise to an early morning intraday high $0.23349 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.2358, Ripples XRP slid to a late afternoon intraday low $0.22491. Ripples XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.2254 before finding late support. At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was down by 0.93% to $0.22460. A bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall from an early morning high $0.22688 to a low $0.22165 before finding support. Ripples XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.2232 early before moving back to $0.2240 levels. For the day ahead, a move through to $0.2285 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.2318. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, to break out from the morning high $0.22688. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $0.23 would likely cap any upside on the day. Failure to move through to $0.2285 levels could see Ripples XRP spend a 2 nd consecutive day in the red. A fall back through the first major support level at $0.2232 would bring sub-$0.22 levels into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, the second major support level at $0.2198 should limit any downside, however. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The UK General Election Odds, Polls, and Predictions End of Week Update Crude Oil Price Update Closed on Weak Side of $56.08 to $57.36 Retracement Zone U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis Trader Reaction to 98.095 to 98.380 Will Set Longer-Term Tone NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis Strengthens Over .6411, Weakens Under .6394 EUR/USD Forex Technical Analysis Strengthens Over 1.1029, Weakens Under 1.0994 The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers -01/12/19 || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 01/12/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 3.23% on Saturday. Reversing a 1.49% gain from Friday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $216.22.
A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning intraday high $224.19 before hitting reverse.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $226.53, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid to a late afternoon intraday low $215.00.
Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $220.25 and the second major support level at $217.06.
A brief move back through the second major support level was short-lived, with Bitcoin Cash ABC closing out at $216 levels.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down by 1.03% to $214.00. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC fall from an end of Saturday $215.00 to an early morning low $214.00.
Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, a move through to $218.50 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $221.94.
Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break through to $220 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $220 would likely limit any upside on the day.
Failure to move through to $218.50 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC slide deeper into the red.
A fall through to $213 levels would bring the first major support level at $212.75 into play.
Barring an extended sell-off through the day, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$210 levels.
Litecoin fell by 2.86% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 3.88% rally from Friday, Litecoin ended the day at $47.26.
A relatively bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise to an early morning intraday high $48.83 before succumbing to market forces.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $49.75, Litecoin tumbled to a late afternoon intraday low $46.71.
Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $47.23 before finding support late in the day.
Whilst moving back through to $47 levels, the first major support level pinned Litecoin back at the day end.
At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 2.07% to $46.28. A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $47.24 to a low $46.02.
Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $46.37.
For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to break through the first major support level to $47.60 levels to support a run at $48 levels.
Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to take a run at the first major resistance level at $48.49.
Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $48 would likely cap any upside on the day.
Failure to move back through the first major support level could see Litecoin fall back to sub-$46 levels.
Barring an extended sell-off through the day, however, the second major support level at $45.48 should limit any downside.
Ripple’s XRP fell by 2.19% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 3.23% rally from Friday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.22670.
A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise to an early morning intraday high $0.23349 before hitting reverse.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.2358, Ripple’s XRP slid to a late afternoon intraday low $0.22491.
Ripple’s XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.2254 before finding late support.
At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down by 0.93% to $0.22460. A bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP fall from an early morning high $0.22688 to a low $0.22165 before finding support.
Ripple’s XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.2232 early before moving back to $0.2240 levels.
For the day ahead, a move through to $0.2285 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.2318.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, to break out from the morning high $0.22688.
Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $0.23 would likely cap any upside on the day.
Failure to move through to $0.2285 levels could see Ripple’s XRP spend a 2ndconsecutive day in the red.
A fall back through the first major support level at $0.2232 would bring sub-$0.22 levels into play.
Barring a crypto meltdown, the second major support level at $0.2198 should limit any downside, however.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below
Thanks, Bob
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• The UK General Election – Odds, Polls, and Predictions End of Week Update
• Crude Oil Price Update – Closed on Weak Side of $56.08 to $57.36 Retracement Zone
• U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis – Trader Reaction to 98.095 to 98.380 Will Set Longer-Term Tone
• NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over .6411, Weakens Under .6394
• EUR/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over 1.1029, Weakens Under 1.0994
• The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -01/12/19
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 32702.03, 32822.35, 31780.73, 31421.54, 31533.07, 31796.81, 30817.83, 29807.35, 32110.69, 32313.11, 33581.55, 34292.45, 35350.19, 37337.54, 39406.94, 39995.91, 40008.42, 42235.55, 41626.20, 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50, 44555.80, 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79, 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42, 44883.91, 45201.46, 46063.27, 44963.07, 47092.49, 48176.35, 47783.36, 47267.52, 48278.36, 47260.22, 42843.80, 40693.68, 43574.51, 44895.10, 42839.75, 42716.59, 43208.54, 42235.73, 41034.54, 41564.36, 43790.89, 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98, 53967.85, 54968.22, 54771.58.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-10-10]
Volume: 39527792364, RSI (14-day): 67.07, 50-day EMA: 47088.89, 200-day EMA: 42855.53
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
What Happens to Social Security When You Die?: The end of a person’s life doesn’t necessarily mean the end of their social security payments. Depending on factors like income and dependents,social security checks will still be issuedto someone else even after the original recipient passes away.
See:The Biggest Problems Facing Social SecurityFind:Can You Afford To Die in Your State?
According to the Social Security Administration website, if you work and pay into Social Security, part of those taxes go toward survivor benefits, which means your surviving spouse, children and even parents could be eligible for payments based on your earnings.
Likewise, you and your family could be eligible for benefits based on the earnings of someone else who died — as long as the deceased worked long enough to qualify for benefits.
If you have no survivors or dependents, the payments simply cease.
Whenever someone dies, the Social Security office should be notified immediately. This is usually handled by the funeral home, which sends in a form called Statement of Death by Funeral Director.
If that doesn’t happen, you’ll have to call the SSA — you cannot report a death or apply for survivor benefits online. If you need to report a death or apply for survivor benefits, call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
You’ll need to provide the deceased person’s social security number when applying. In the event of your death, your survivor will need to provide your social security number. The executor of the estate can also call Social Security, CNBC reported.
Here are some things to remember for those getting benefits on a spouse’s or parent’s record, according to the SSA:
• Social Security will automatically change any monthly benefits received to survivors’ benefits after it receives the report of death.
• The agency might be able to pay a Special Lump-Sum Death Payment automatically.
• One thing to keep in mind is that no social security benefits are due for the month of a person’s death.
“Any benefit that’s paid after the month of the person’s death needs to be refunded,” Peggy Sherman, a certified financial planner and lead advisor at Briaud Financial Advisors in College Station, Texas, told CNBC.
See:What Happens to Your Bitcoin When You Die?Find:Key Points COVID-19 Long-Haulers Need to Know About Applying for Social Security
Meanwhile, if your spouse or qualifying dependent were already getting money based on your record, that benefit will auto-convert to survivors benefits when the government gets notice of your death.
If the surviving spouse has already reached their own full retirement age, they can get their deceased spouse’s full benefit. You can apply for reduced benefits as early as age 60 — or age 50 if disabled —which is a couple of years earlier than the standard earliest claiming age of 62.
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• 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security
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This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:What Happens to Social Security When You Die? || What Happens to Social Security When You Die?: Zinkevych / Getty Images/iStockphoto The end of a persons life doesnt necessarily mean the end of their social security payments. Depending on factors like income and dependents, social security checks will still be issued to someone else even after the original recipient passes away. See: The Biggest Problems Facing Social Security Find: Can You Afford To Die in Your State? According to the Social Security Administration website, if you work and pay into Social Security, part of those taxes go toward survivor benefits, which means your surviving spouse, children and even parents could be eligible for payments based on your earnings. Likewise, you and your family could be eligible for benefits based on the earnings of someone else who died as long as the deceased worked long enough to qualify for benefits. If you have no survivors or dependents, the payments simply cease. Whenever someone dies, the Social Security office should be notified immediately. This is usually handled by the funeral home, which sends in a form called Statement of Death by Funeral Director. If that doesnt happen, youll have to call the SSA you cannot report a death or apply for survivor benefits online. If you need to report a death or apply for survivor benefits, call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Youll need to provide the deceased persons social security number when applying. In the event of your death, your survivor will need to provide your social security number. The executor of the estate can also call Social Security, CNBC reported. Here are some things to remember for those getting benefits on a spouses or parents record, according to the SSA: Social Security will automatically change any monthly benefits received to survivors benefits after it receives the report of death. The agency might be able to pay a Special Lump-Sum Death Payment automatically. One thing to keep in mind is that no social security benefits are due for the month of a persons death. Story continues Any benefit thats paid after the month of the persons death needs to be refunded, Peggy Sherman, a certified financial planner and lead advisor at Briaud Financial Advisors in College Station, Texas, told CNBC. See: What Happens to Your Bitcoin When You Die? Find: Key Points COVID-19 Long-Haulers Need to Know About Applying for Social Security Meanwhile, if your spouse or qualifying dependent were already getting money based on your record, that benefit will auto-convert to survivors benefits when the government gets notice of your death. If the surviving spouse has already reached their own full retirement age, they can get their deceased spouses full benefit. You can apply for reduced benefits as early as age 60 or age 50 if disabled which is a couple of years earlier than the standard earliest claiming age of 62 . More From GOBankingRates Take Our Poll: Are You Actually Spending Your Child Tax Credit Payment? 5 Things Most Americans Dont Know About Social Security Heres How Much You Need To Earn To Be Rich in Every State 5 Cities Around the World Experiencing a Housing Market Boom This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : What Happens to Social Security When You Die? || Michael Dell says blockchain technology is 'underrated': • Michael Dell is a fan of blockchain, which could help boost his company's infrastructure business.
• The 56-year-old billionaire told The New York Times' DealBook that blockchain is underrated.
• The remarks came during an interview with the Times' newsletterDealBookon Saturday.
Michael Dell is bullish on blockchain technology.
The founder and CEO of Dell Technologies said that blockchain as a category is "probably underrated," but declined to comment on whether bitcoin was underrated or overrated. The remarks came during an interview with the New York Times' newsletterDealBookon Saturday.
Dell was an early adopter of bitcoin. His company, which sells a variety of products from hardware to cloud computing services, began accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment in 2014. It laterstoppedtransacting with bitcoin in 2017 due to "low demand."
Tesla's Elon Muskhaltedbitcoin transactions for his company in May, citing concerns about its environmental impact. Bitcoin miningrequires more electricitythan some countries consume in a year. And some institutions are wary of crypto generally following a recent run ofhigh-profile trading errorsthat put millions of dollars at risk for investors.
Dell's interest in blockchain technology ties back to the company's infrastructure business, where selling data storage and other services netted it $8.4 billion in revenue in the second quarter. Its 56-year-old billionaire founder recently listedblockchain techalongside autonomous vehicles and AI-driven biotech as a potential revenue driver for the company.
"At the center of you know the increasingly connected intelligent world is an enormous amount of data," hetold Yahoo Finance. "And all that data requires infrastructure and technology to manage it. And so we're the world's leading provider of all of that."
The price of bitcoin has been highly volatile in 2021. The digital coinplummeted in May, dropping to as low as $30,000 following a broad market sell-off. It's continued to bounce up and down in recent weeks,falling to around $42,000last month after China announced an outright ban on cryptocurrencies. Its price has since rocketed up toover $55,000after George Soros' investment firm confirmed that it is trading bitcoin.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that Dell was "going to pass" on bitcoin. Dell told Insider he was going to pass on the question of whether bitcoin is over or underrated. This story has been updated to reflect this correction.
Read the original article onBusiness Insider || Michael Dell says blockchain technology is 'underrated': Michael Dell Tony Avelar/AP Images for Dell Inc. Michael Dell is a fan of blockchain, which could help boost his company's infrastructure business. The 56-year-old billionaire told The New York Times' DealBook that blockchain is underrated. The remarks came during an interview with the Times' newsletter DealBook on Saturday. Michael Dell is bullish on blockchain technology. The founder and CEO of Dell Technologies said that blockchain as a category is "probably underrated," but declined to comment on whether bitcoin was underrated or overrated. The remarks came during an interview with the New York Times' newsletter DealBook on Saturday. Dell was an early adopter of bitcoin. His company, which sells a variety of products from hardware to cloud computing services, began accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment in 2014. It later stopped transacting with bitcoin in 2017 due to "low demand." Tesla's Elon Musk halted bitcoin transactions for his company in May, citing concerns about its environmental impact. Bitcoin mining requires more electricity than some countries consume in a year. And some institutions are wary of crypto generally following a recent run of high-profile trading errors that put millions of dollars at risk for investors. Dell's interest in blockchain technology ties back to the company's infrastructure business, where selling data storage and other services netted it $8.4 billion in revenue in the second quarter. Its 56-year-old billionaire founder recently listed blockchain tech alongside autonomous vehicles and AI-driven biotech as a potential revenue driver for the company. "At the center of you know the increasingly connected intelligent world is an enormous amount of data," he told Yahoo Finance . "And all that data requires infrastructure and technology to manage it. And so we're the world's leading provider of all of that." The price of bitcoin has been highly volatile in 2021. The digital coin plummeted in May , dropping to as low as $30,000 following a broad market sell-off. It's continued to bounce up and down in recent weeks, falling to around $42,000 last month after China announced an outright ban on cryptocurrencies. Its price has since rocketed up to over $55,000 after George Soros' investment firm confirmed that it is trading bitcoin. Correction : An earlier version of this story misstated that Dell was "going to pass" on bitcoin. Dell told Insider he was going to pass on the question of whether bitcoin is over or underrated. This story has been updated to reflect this correction. Read the original article on Business Insider || China limits investments in cryptocurrency mining: China'swar against cryptocurrencycould soon extend to a broader ban on crypto mining.Reutersreportsthe country has added crypto mining to a draft "negative list" that limits or outright bans investments in a given industry, whether by Chinese or foreigners. Would-be investors would need to get approvals, and those are unlikely given China's anti-crypto stance.
Bitcoin.comnotesChina's Development and Reform Commission is asking for public commentary on the list through October 14th. It's doubtful public input will change the approach to crypto mining, however. China has deemed crypto transactions illegal, claiming the digital currency sparked a rise in money laundering and other financial crimes. The country has beentesting its own cryptocurrency, though, and some suspect the country just wants a more stable currency it can directly control.
The move could further make cryptocurrency impractical in China. Just don't mourn for crypto as a whole. The price of Bitcoin has surged over 30 percent since China's September crackdown — these bans may have given crypto a second wind where it was otherwise poised to level off. It may just be a question of whether or not an official Chinese currency skews the market. || China limits investments in cryptocurrency mining: China's war against cryptocurrency could soon extend to a broader ban on crypto mining. Reuters reports the country has added crypto mining to a draft "negative list" that limits or outright bans investments in a given industry, whether by Chinese or foreigners. Would-be investors would need to get approvals, and those are unlikely given China's anti-crypto stance. Bitcoin.com notes China's Development and Reform Commission is asking for public commentary on the list through October 14th. It's doubtful public input will change the approach to crypto mining, however. China has deemed crypto transactions illegal, claiming the digital currency sparked a rise in money laundering and other financial crimes. The country has been testing its own cryptocurrency , though, and some suspect the country just wants a more stable currency it can directly control. The move could further make cryptocurrency impractical in China. Just don't mourn for crypto as a whole. The price of Bitcoin has surged over 30 percent since China's September crackdown these bans may have given crypto a second wind where it was otherwise poised to level off. It may just be a question of whether or not an official Chinese currency skews the market. || Investment Opportunity with New Cryptocurrency Miners: Sunnyvale, California--(Newsfile Corp. - October 9, 2021) - AsicWay(www.ASICWay.com) is quickly emerging as a promising investment opportunity for crypto enthusiasts around the world. The company's three power packed ASIC miners AW1, AW2, and AW PRO have already gained a lot of attention because of their ability to generate 100% return on investment within just one month. Many common people without any technological expertise or mining experience are now considering these miners as a profitable investment option.
The exceptional profit making potential of the miners from AsicWay can be attributed to their extremely high hash rates that are unprecedented in the world of crypto mining. To further enhance the profitability of the products, they also have very low power consumption. The three miners can be used for mining bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and monero with the hash rates and power consumptions as mentioned below.
AW 1 Miner: Bitcoin 380 TH/s, Litecoin 40 GH/s, Ethereum 2,5 GH/s, and Monero 3 MH/s, and 650 W power consumption.
AW 2 Miner: Bitcoin 610 TH/s, Litecoin 64 GH/s, Ethereum 4 GH/s, and Monero 5 MH/s, and 850 W power consumption.
AW Pro Miner : Bitcoin 1950 TH/s, Litecoin 200 GH/s, Ethereum 13 GH/s, and Monero 16 MH/s, and 2200 W power consumption.
The projected profits using AW Pro for bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and monero are summarized below.
Bitcoin: $678.35/day, $4748.42/week, $20.35k/month, $247.60k/year
Litecoin: $805.91/day, $5641.35/week, $24.18k/month, $294.16k/year
Ethereum: $899.75/day, $6298.24/week, $26.99k/month, $328.41k/year
Monero: $1099.59/day, $7697.11/week, $32.99k/month, $401.35k/year
AsicWay has also done its bit to deliver higher ROI to its customers by covering the delivery and custom fees for them. The company also offers comprehensive product warranty covering all types of software or hardware issues.
"In these tough times, crypto mining can be a lucrative and steady investment opportunity, provided the right kind of hardware is available. This is exactly we have tried to deliver. Most importantly, you don't have to be a technology expert to enjoy these benefits," said Aydan Brown Chief Financial Officer of AsicWay.
To find out more, please visithttps://asicway.com/
About AsicWay: AsicWay is an innovative technology company created and managed by an experienced team of engineers and enlightened minds inspired by the idea of bringing the best technology to the crypto mining market. The company operates with the vision of bringing unprecedented crypto mining opportunities for all types of investors.
Media Contact
Aydan [email protected]+1 650 741 1299
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99139 || Investment Opportunity with New Cryptocurrency Miners: Sunnyvale, California--(Newsfile Corp. - October 9, 2021) - AsicWay( www.ASICWay.com ) is quickly emerging as a promising investment opportunity for crypto enthusiasts around the world. The company's three power packed ASIC miners AW1, AW2, and AW PRO have already gained a lot of attention because of their ability to generate 100% return on investment within just one month. Many common people without any technological expertise or mining experience are now considering these miners as a profitable investment option. The exceptional profit making potential of the miners from AsicWay can be attributed to their extremely high hash rates that are unprecedented in the world of crypto mining. To further enhance the profitability of the products, they also have very low power consumption. The three miners can be used for mining bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and monero with the hash rates and power consumptions as mentioned below. AW 1 Miner: Bitcoin 380 TH/s, Litecoin 40 GH/s, Ethereum 2,5 GH/s, and Monero 3 MH/s, and 650 W power consumption. AW 2 Miner: Bitcoin 610 TH/s, Litecoin 64 GH/s, Ethereum 4 GH/s, and Monero 5 MH/s, and 850 W power consumption. AW Pro Miner : Bitcoin 1950 TH/s, Litecoin 200 GH/s, Ethereum 13 GH/s, and Monero 16 MH/s, and 2200 W power consumption. The projected profits using AW Pro for bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and monero are summarized below. Bitcoin: $678.35/day, $4748.42/week, $20.35k/month, $247.60k/year Litecoin: $805.91/day, $5641.35/week, $24.18k/month, $294.16k/year Ethereum: $899.75/day, $6298.24/week, $26.99k/month, $328.41k/year Monero: $1099.59/day, $7697.11/week, $32.99k/month, $401.35k/year AsicWay has also done its bit to deliver higher ROI to its customers by covering the delivery and custom fees for them. The company also offers comprehensive product warranty covering all types of software or hardware issues. "In these tough times, crypto mining can be a lucrative and steady investment opportunity, provided the right kind of hardware is available. This is exactly we have tried to deliver. Most importantly, you don't have to be a technology expert to enjoy these benefits," said Aydan Brown Chief Financial Officer of AsicWay. Story continues To find out more, please visit https://asicway.com/ About AsicWay: AsicWay is an innovative technology company created and managed by an experienced team of engineers and enlightened minds inspired by the idea of bringing the best technology to the crypto mining market. The company operates with the vision of bringing unprecedented crypto mining opportunities for all types of investors. Media Contact Aydan Brown [email protected] +1 650 741 1299 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99139 || Bitcoin Futures Exchange-Traded-Fund (ETF) Will be Bad For Retail Investors, Says Willy Woo: BeInCrypto – On-chain crypto analyst Willy Woo has suggested that a bitcoin futures exchange-traded-fund (ETF) in the United States may be bad for retail investors as it places institutional investors such as hedge funds at an advantage. “If a bitcoin futures ETF is approved, in my opinion, it will be an expensive way to hold BTC,” said Woo, in an Oct. 8 thread on Twitter. “The exchange-traded-fund effectively outsources the holding of bitcoin to hedge funds through a chain of profit incentives,” he opined. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is largely expected to approve a bitcoin ETF that invests in futures contracts later this month. Applications from Proshares, Invesco, Vaneck and Valkyrie are primed to get the go ahead, according to a Bloomberg report . The crypto market has long-awaited such an approval, believed to be behind bitcoin’s current bullish run. This story was seen first on BeInCrypto Join our Telegram Group and get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories like this on BeInCrypto View comments || Bitcoin Futures Exchange-Traded-Fund (ETF) Will be Bad For Retail Investors, Says Willy Woo: BeInCrypto –
On-chain crypto analyst Willy Woo has suggested that a bitcoin futures exchange-traded-fund (ETF) in the United States may be bad for retail investors as it places institutional investors such as hedge funds at an advantage.
“If a bitcoin futures ETF is approved, in my opinion, it will be an expensive way to hold BTC,” said Woo, in an Oct. 8threadon Twitter. “The exchange-traded-fund effectively outsources the holding of bitcoin to hedge funds through a chain of profit incentives,” he opined.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is largely expected to approve a bitcoin ETF that invests in futures contracts later this month. Applications from Proshares, Invesco, Vaneck and Valkyrie are primed to get the go ahead, according to a Bloombergreport. The crypto market has long-awaited such an approval, believed to be behind bitcoin’s current bullish run.
This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || Bitcoin Futures Exchange-Traded-Fund (ETF) Will be Bad For Retail Investors, Says Willy Woo: BeInCrypto –
On-chain crypto analyst Willy Woo has suggested that a bitcoin futures exchange-traded-fund (ETF) in the United States may be bad for retail investors as it places institutional investors such as hedge funds at an advantage.
“If a bitcoin futures ETF is approved, in my opinion, it will be an expensive way to hold BTC,” said Woo, in an Oct. 8threadon Twitter. “The exchange-traded-fund effectively outsources the holding of bitcoin to hedge funds through a chain of profit incentives,” he opined.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is largely expected to approve a bitcoin ETF that invests in futures contracts later this month. Applications from Proshares, Invesco, Vaneck and Valkyrie are primed to get the go ahead, according to a Bloombergreport. The crypto market has long-awaited such an approval, believed to be behind bitcoin’s current bullish run.
This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || Crypto remittances are a lifeline for the world’s most vulnerable: Cryptocurrency remittances are a lifeline for Afghans after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal led to Western Union temporarily ceasing operations and banks in the country severely limiting withdrawals. As regulators in remittance source countries like the U.S. and U.K. turn their sights on crypto, they should remember how indispensable those currencies are to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Crypto will become increasingly indispensable as the local currency -- in Afghanistan and elsewhere -- becomes not only difficult to access but unreliable as a store of value. Conflict fuels inflation, which makes currencies less valuable -- sometimes worthless. If we regulate cryptocurrency transfers to appease the crypto hawks at home, we risk turning our backs (again) on those who need this asset class the most: the Afghan people and many others like them. For remittances to continue to be a lifeline, they need to be fast. When money is needed, it is often needed instantly. With the Taliban takeover comes the freezing of Afghanistan’s financial system, too. Foreign aid has halted, which makes up approximately 40% of Afghanistan’s GDP , according to the World Bank. Similarly, foreign reserves of the Afghanistan central bank have been frozen, which is approximately $9 billion. What’s more, in response to the Taliban’s takeover and Western countries halting foreign aid, international money transfer companies like Western Union and MoneyGram shut off their services (in some cases, they have resumed activity, for now), leaving the average Afghan with no way to engage with the global financial system and, crucially, no way to receive remittances from relatives abroad. Remittances, the practice of sending money “back home” from rich countries, makes up approximately 4% of the country’s GDP . In an economy that is so heavily cash dependent, the sudden crumbling of the local financial infrastructure may well mean the difference between life and death for many Afghans. Story continues For remittances to continue to be a lifeline, they need to be fast. When money is needed, it is often needed instantly. An internally displaced person, for example, cannot wait three to five days for funds to clear; they need food, fuel and medical supplies today. Bitcoin “maximalists” make wide-eyed claims about how crypto will change the global economic system. Whether you believe them or not, we can see that crypto has already revolutionized remittances in unstable, conflict-ridden places. Afghanistan presents a textbook use case for cryptocurrencies in failed states. Sometimes, sheer necessity creates the strongest argument for new tech. Afghanistan is 20th on the list of 154 countries in the Global Crypto Adoption Index formulated by Chainalysis , a blockchain data platform. When adjusted for peer-to-peer transactions (including remittances), it ranks seventh. In 2020, Afghanistan didn’t even make the list. Afghanistan is not alone. Crypto usage has spiked recently in Lebanon, Turkey and Venezuela. Those people are not trying to get rich -- they are simply trying to receive funds from relatives abroad and stop their wealth from disappearing at a time of high inflation. “Many people are mining and trading [cryptocurrencies] not to acquire products, but to protect themselves from hyperinflation,” Venezuela-based crypto consultant Jhonnatan Morales observed . Venezuela, which has one of the highest rates of inflation in the world ( moving toward 3,000% ), has increasingly adopted cryptocurrencies as its economy teeters. Lebanon is another example: As the lira lost 80% of its value, Lebanese downloads of bitcoin wallet BlueWallet, for example, grew by 1,781% year on year in 2020. But Afghanistan may be the most urgent and tragic case of why the Global South needs crypto. As cash becomes scarce, prices soar and as the Taliban loses the foreign aid the country was previously dependent upon, the already crumbling afghani currency will get even weaker. By allowing the Afghan people to receive, store and spend their wealth in bitcoin, they may be able to protect themselves against the worst effects of a failed state. And this is what we must remember when we regulate cryptocurrencies in the West. That regulation will not just affect speculators; it will hit those who want to send remittances “back home.” Those who receive remittances have the most to lose. When Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell publishes his report on the next stage of cryptocurrency regulations, I hope that he doesn’t forget those who need cryptocurrency the most: the Afghan people -- and millions across the world like them. While the West may have turned its back on the people of Afghanistan, we need to make sure that our laws don’t continue to leave them in the dark. We need cryptocurrency regulation that ensures those vital financial lifelines are not lost. If we do, we are closing another door of hope for the people who need it the most. || Crypto remittances are a lifeline for the world’s most vulnerable: Cryptocurrency remittances are a lifeline for Afghans after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal led to Western Union temporarily ceasing operations and banks in the country severely limiting withdrawals. As regulators in remittance source countries like the U.S. and U.K. turn their sights on crypto, they should remember how indispensable those currencies are to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Crypto will become increasingly indispensable as the local currency -- in Afghanistan and elsewhere -- becomes not only difficult to access but unreliable as a store of value. Conflict fuels inflation, which makes currencies less valuable -- sometimes worthless. If we regulate cryptocurrency transfers to appease the crypto hawks at home, we risk turning our backs (again) on those who need this asset class the most: the Afghan people and many others like them. For remittances to continue to be a lifeline, they need to be fast. When money is needed, it is often needed instantly. With the Taliban takeover comes the freezing of Afghanistan’s financial system, too. Foreign aid has halted, which makes up approximately 40% of Afghanistan’s GDP , according to the World Bank. Similarly, foreign reserves of the Afghanistan central bank have been frozen, which is approximately $9 billion. What’s more, in response to the Taliban’s takeover and Western countries halting foreign aid, international money transfer companies like Western Union and MoneyGram shut off their services (in some cases, they have resumed activity, for now), leaving the average Afghan with no way to engage with the global financial system and, crucially, no way to receive remittances from relatives abroad. Remittances, the practice of sending money “back home” from rich countries, makes up approximately 4% of the country’s GDP . In an economy that is so heavily cash dependent, the sudden crumbling of the local financial infrastructure may well mean the difference between life and death for many Afghans. Story continues For remittances to continue to be a lifeline, they need to be fast. When money is needed, it is often needed instantly. An internally displaced person, for example, cannot wait three to five days for funds to clear; they need food, fuel and medical supplies today. Bitcoin “maximalists” make wide-eyed claims about how crypto will change the global economic system. Whether you believe them or not, we can see that crypto has already revolutionized remittances in unstable, conflict-ridden places. Afghanistan presents a textbook use case for cryptocurrencies in failed states. Sometimes, sheer necessity creates the strongest argument for new tech. Afghanistan is 20th on the list of 154 countries in the Global Crypto Adoption Index formulated by Chainalysis , a blockchain data platform. When adjusted for peer-to-peer transactions (including remittances), it ranks seventh. In 2020, Afghanistan didn’t even make the list. Afghanistan is not alone. Crypto usage has spiked recently in Lebanon, Turkey and Venezuela. Those people are not trying to get rich -- they are simply trying to receive funds from relatives abroad and stop their wealth from disappearing at a time of high inflation. “Many people are mining and trading [cryptocurrencies] not to acquire products, but to protect themselves from hyperinflation,” Venezuela-based crypto consultant Jhonnatan Morales observed . Venezuela, which has one of the highest rates of inflation in the world ( moving toward 3,000% ), has increasingly adopted cryptocurrencies as its economy teeters. Lebanon is another example: As the lira lost 80% of its value, Lebanese downloads of bitcoin wallet BlueWallet, for example, grew by 1,781% year on year in 2020. But Afghanistan may be the most urgent and tragic case of why the Global South needs crypto. As cash becomes scarce, prices soar and as the Taliban loses the foreign aid the country was previously dependent upon, the already crumbling afghani currency will get even weaker. By allowing the Afghan people to receive, store and spend their wealth in bitcoin, they may be able to protect themselves against the worst effects of a failed state. And this is what we must remember when we regulate cryptocurrencies in the West. That regulation will not just affect speculators; it will hit those who want to send remittances “back home.” Those who receive remittances have the most to lose. When Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell publishes his report on the next stage of cryptocurrency regulations, I hope that he doesn’t forget those who need cryptocurrency the most: the Afghan people -- and millions across the world like them. While the West may have turned its back on the people of Afghanistan, we need to make sure that our laws don’t continue to leave them in the dark. We need cryptocurrency regulation that ensures those vital financial lifelines are not lost. If we do, we are closing another door of hope for the people who need it the most. || New Era of Cryptocurrency Miners Released by AsicWay: Sunnyvale, California--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - AsicWay, an innovative technology company(www.asicway.com), has recently announced its grand entry to the global crypto market with its new generation of crypto miners. The company is dedicated to making the benefits of crypto mining available to all, regardless of their experience and technical expertise. Unlike any other existing product in the market, AsicWay mining rigs offer guaranteed return on investment within just one month.
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8348/99123_awpro.jpg
At present, AsicWay offers three mining rigs viz. AW1, AW2, and AW PRO. All these products are capable of mining bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and monero, and are built around the latest ASIC technology. One of the major highlights of AsicWay miners is their extraordinary hash rates, making them the most powerful mining hardware right now. Moreover, these products have surprisingly low power consumptions.
[{"": "AW1", "BTC (TH/s)": "380", "LTC (GH/s)": "40", "ETH (GH/s)": "2.5", "XMR (MH/s)": "3", "Power Consumption (W)": "650"}, {"": "AW2", "BTC (TH/s)": "610", "LTC (GH/s)": "64", "ETH (GH/s)": "4", "XMR (MH/s)": "5", "Power Consumption (W)": "850"}, {"": "AW PRO", "BTC (TH/s)": "1950", "LTC (GH/s)": "200", "ETH (GH/s)": "13", "XMR (MH/s)": "16", "Power Consumption (W)": "2200"}]
Because of their impressive hash rates and power consumptions, these mining rigs have outstanding profit making potential for different cryptocurrencies. AsicWay makes it super easy for users to get started with mining by delivering hardware pre-configured with Linux based system. Also, these miners require a moderate minimum internet speed of 10 KB/s for upload and download.
The technology leaders and visionaries behind the AsicWay team strongly believe that the benefits of crypto mining should not be enjoyed only by technologically skilled individuals. This is why the company has come up with products that can be use by anyone to make a handsome profit.
"Our vision behind creating AsicWay was to simplify the idea of crypto mining so that even the most technologically challenged individuals can benefit from it. We are hopeful about scripting a new era in crypto mining with these products," said a senior spokesperson from AsicWay.
To find out more, please visithttps://asicway.com/
About AsicWay: AsicWay is an innovative technology company created and managed by an experienced team of engineers and enlightened minds inspired by the idea of bringing the best technology to the crypto mining market. The company operates with the vision of bringing unprecedented crypto mining opportunities for all types of investors.
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To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99123 || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – October 9th, 2021: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, rose by 0.28% on Friday. Partially reversing a 2.78% fall from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $53,947.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $53,628.0 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $53,034, Bitcoin rose to a late morning intraday high $56,000.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $54,954. Coming within range of the second major resistance level at $56,112, however, Bitcoin fell back to end the day at sub-$54,000 levels. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported the latest return to $56,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need a sustained fall through the 62% FIB of $27,237 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday. Crypto.com Coin bucked the trend, rising by 3.03%. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Binance Coin led the way down, sliding by 4.40%. Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.65%), Cardano’s ADA (-1.79%), Chainlink (-1.71%), Litecoin (-1.53%), and Polkadot (-2.14%) also struggled. Ethereum (-0.69%) and Ripple’s XRP (-0.53%) saw relatively modest losses, however. In the current week, the crypto total market fell to a Monday low $2,082bn before rising to a Friday high $2,424bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $2,303bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Monday low 42.06% before rising to a Wednesday high 45.04%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 43.94%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.24% to $53,819.6. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $53,964.0 before falling to a low $53,678.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was also a bearish start to the day. At the time of writing, Crypto.com Coin led the way down, falling by 1.40%. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through the $54,525 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $55,422 into play. Story continues Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break back through to $55,000 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $56,000.0 would likely cap the upside. In the event of a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $58,000 levels before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $56,896. Failure to move through the $54,525 would bring the first major support level at $53,051 into play. Barring an extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$52,000, The second major support level at $52,154 should limit the downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Drops following Weak Employment Report Gold Price Prediction – Prices Edge Higher Following Weak Payroll Report Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver Markets Continue Choppy Behavior European Equities – A Week in Review – 08/10/2021 The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – October 9th, 2021 Secondary Share Sale Boost SpaceX’s Valuation To $100 Billion || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – October 9th, 2021: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, rose by 0.28% on Friday. Partially reversing a 2.78% fall from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $53,947.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $53,628.0 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $53,034, Bitcoin rose to a late morning intraday high $56,000.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $54,954. Coming within range of the second major resistance level at $56,112, however, Bitcoin fell back to end the day at sub-$54,000 levels. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported the latest return to $56,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need a sustained fall through the 62% FIB of $27,237 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday. Crypto.com Coin bucked the trend, rising by 3.03%. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Binance Coin led the way down, sliding by 4.40%. Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.65%), Cardano’s ADA (-1.79%), Chainlink (-1.71%), Litecoin (-1.53%), and Polkadot (-2.14%) also struggled. Ethereum (-0.69%) and Ripple’s XRP (-0.53%) saw relatively modest losses, however. In the current week, the crypto total market fell to a Monday low $2,082bn before rising to a Friday high $2,424bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $2,303bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Monday low 42.06% before rising to a Wednesday high 45.04%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 43.94%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.24% to $53,819.6. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $53,964.0 before falling to a low $53,678.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was also a bearish start to the day. At the time of writing, Crypto.com Coin led the way down, falling by 1.40%. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through the $54,525 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $55,422 into play. Story continues Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break back through to $55,000 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $56,000.0 would likely cap the upside. In the event of a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $58,000 levels before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $56,896. Failure to move through the $54,525 would bring the first major support level at $53,051 into play. Barring an extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$52,000, The second major support level at $52,154 should limit the downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Drops following Weak Employment Report Gold Price Prediction – Prices Edge Higher Following Weak Payroll Report Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver Markets Continue Choppy Behavior European Equities – A Week in Review – 08/10/2021 The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – October 9th, 2021 Secondary Share Sale Boost SpaceX’s Valuation To $100 Billion || S&P 500 ends lower after U.S. September jobs miss: By Noel Randewich and Devik Jain
(Reuters) – The S&P 500 ended lower on Friday after data showed weaker jobs growth than expected in September, yet investors still expected the Federal Reserve to begin tapering asset purchases this year.
Wall Street’s three main indexes were mixed for much of the session before losing ground toward the end. All three indexes posted weekly gains.
Comcast Corp tumbled after Wells Fargo cut its price target on the media company, while Charter Communications Inc fell after Wells Fargo downgraded that cable operator to “underweight” from “overweight”.
Both companies were among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
Real estate and utilities were the poorest performers among 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, down 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively.
The S&P 500 energy sector index jumped 3.1%, with oil up more than 4% on the week as a global energy crunch has boosted prices to their highest since 2014.
Chevron and Exxon Mobil rallied more than 2% and were among the companies giving the S&P 500 the greatest lift.
The Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls report showed the U.S. economy in September created the fewest jobs in nine months as hiring dropped at schools and some businesses were short of workers. The unemployment rate fell to 4.8% from 5.2% in August and average hourly earnings rose 0.6%, which was more than expected.
“I think that the Federal Reserve made it very clear that they don’t need a blockbuster jobs report to taper in November,” said Kathy Lien, Managing Director at BK Asset Management in New York. “I think the Fed remains on track.”
Futures on the federal funds rate priced in a quarter-point tightening by the Federal Reserve by November or December next year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.03% to end at 34,746.25 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.19% to 4,391.35.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.51% to 14,579.54.
For the week, the S&P 500 rose 0.8%, the Dow added 1.2% and the Nasdaq gained 0.1%.
Third-quarter reporting season kicks off next week, with JPMorgan Chase and other big banks among the first to post results. Investors are focused on global supply chain problems and labor shortages.
Analysts see Q3 U.S. earnings growth of 30%: https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-RESULTS/OUTLOOK/zjpqkekqxpx/chart.png
Analysts on average expect S&P 500 earnings per share for the quarter to be up almost 30%, according to Refinitiv.
“I think it’s going to be a dicey earnings season,” warned Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi in New York. “If supply-chain issues are driving up costs, a company with strong pricing power can pass through those rising costs. But you can’t pass through a labor shortage if you can’t find workers to hire.”
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.24-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.52-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 26 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 86 new highs and 113 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.2 billion shares, compared with the 11 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
(Additional reporting by Devik Jain, Susan Mathew, Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Anisha Sircar, Editing by Maju Samuel and David Gregorio)
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – October 9th, 2021
• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Pressure to The Upside
• Secondary Share Sale Boost SpaceX’s Valuation To $100 Billion
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver Give Up Early Gains After Jobs Miss
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Give Up Early Gains
• US-Listed Mining Firms Are Holding Over $1 Billion In Bitcoins || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ends Week Notching 14% Gain: Bitcoin ended the week performing strong, gaining nearly 14% as regulatory fears faded and sentiment turned bullish in anticipation of a bitcoin futures-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. by the end of the year. Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin stayed roughly flat, hovering above $54,000 as of Friday afternoon. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization also surpassed $1 trillion again this week. “We have broken the key point of breakdown level from May, which was around $50K,” wrote Blockware Intelligence in a research report. “In the short term, we are seeing some resistance from this last $56K-$58K area, which is not unexpected as there is a fair amount of overhead supply there from earlier this year.” Bitcoin price (Messari) Bitcoin briefly broke above $56,000 early Friday, notching its highest level since May, before declining to around $54,000. Some analysts attributed the overall surge to Chinese buyers returning after the market settled after the initial news of China’s crypto ban. “It appears as if the return of Chinese participants provided some fuel to the recent BTC fire, pushing prices temporarily above $56K overnight,” Armando Aguilar, FundStrat Global Advisors vice president of Digital Asset Strategy, told CoinDesk. “There was a similar risk-on sentiment in Chinese equity markets, with the Shanghai Composite closing up 0.67% in its first day back trading post-holiday.” CME open interest also neared a record high on Friday, continuing its upward creep since the start of the week. “We’re seeing a pickup in spot trading volume, but most activity is in the futures market to build exposure without putting up 100% of capital,” Finxflo’s head of Institutional Sales, Jeff Reed, told CoinDesk. Latest prices Bitcoin (BTC): $54,494, +0.9% Ether (ETH): $3,617, +0.4% S&P 500: -0.2% Gold: $1,758, +0.0% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.605% Optimism over a futures-backed bitcoin ETF Investors are growing antsy for a futures-backed bitcoin ETF to be approved in the U.S. An ETF would provide an easily accessible way for more retail and institutional investors to get involved in cryptocurrency. Some analysts point to the growing difference between BTC futures and spot prices as evidence of this optimism. Story continues “The basis for CME futures has increased both on an absolute level and on a relative comparison with futures that trade on offshore derivative venues,” NYDIG’s global head of research, Greg Cipolaro, wrote in a research note. “Today the basis premium for futures traded on OKEx versus CME has flipped to a discount as CME futures are now trading at a basis premium for the first time.” CME basis In August, a speech by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler hinted his agency would support a futures-based ETF based on his reading of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (commonly referred to as the ‘40 Act). Gensler said that “when combined with the other federal securities laws, the ‘40 Act provides significant investor protections. Given these important protections, I look forward to the staff’s review of such filings, particularly if those are limited to these CME-traded bitcoin futures.” Previously, applications for bitcoin ETFs holding bitcoin sought to register under the Securities Act of 1933 (’33 Act) because bitcoin is not considered a security by the SEC. However, registration under the ‘40 Act is more appropriate for a fund engaged in a bitcoin futures strategy, as such funds will “generally hold fixed-income securities as a margin for the futures,” according to a report from NYDIG. Bitcoin, Ethereum usage picks up Price rallies for both bitcoin and ether may be driven by increased usage of their respective networks. Ether was trading at over $3,600 on Friday afternoon, a 10% weekly gain. Ethereum price For Ethereum, network usage has led to deflationary pressures as the ether used to pay transaction fees are being taken out of circulation, or “burned.” This has historically led to higher prices. “Ethereum has been net deflationary over the past two days where the total supply of ether has decreased,” Fundstrat’s Will McEvoy told CoinDesk. “We attribute much of this to an increase in NFT sales, which have doubled since early September and generally require higher transaction fees to complete.” Bitcoin network usage has similarly picked up over the past several months. Both layer 1 and layer 2 usage has been increasing since July 1, according to Coin Metrics analyst Nate Maddrey. “Monthly unique active BTC addresses have rebounded back to about 17M after a drop-off following the May crypto crash,” Maddrey said. BTC New Addresses The number of new BTC addresses has also been trending upwards since Q2. There were nearly 480,000 new bitcoin addresses created on Oct. 5, the highest number since May 13, according to Coin Metrics. Altcoin roundup Alchemix to expand collateral types, strategies for its “self-repaying” loans: Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Alchemix revealed plans for the second version (v2) of its platform on Friday, reported CoinDesk’s Andrew Thurman . The protocol is conceptually similar to MakerDAO, which takes token collateral and issues a heavily over-collateralized stablecoin loan in return. Alchemix, however, takes yield-bearing collateral and uses the yield to pay down the user’s collateral balance: a self-repaying loan. Alchemix is currently the 37th-ranked DeFi protocol with $1.06 billion in total value locked (TVL). Tether has loaned $1 billion to Celsius Network: Tether, the issuer of stablecoin $USDT, has loaned $1 billion to Celsius Network, a crypto lender that is under investigation by several U.S. state financial regulators, reported CoinDesk’s Jamie Crawley . Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky said the company pays an interest rate of 5%-6% to Tether, Bloomberg reported Thursday as part of an investigation into the stablecoin provider’s reserves. The investigation found that Tether had loaned billions of dollars to crypto companies, using bitcoin as collateral. Relevant News JPMorgan Says Institutional Investors Are Replacing Gold With Bitcoin Google Pay to Support Bakkt Debit Card Binance.US Bumps Brian Shroder to CEO; CFO Departs Powerbridge to Deploy 2,600 Crypto Mining Rigs in Hong Kong Other markets Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): Filecoin (FIL), +8.4% Polygon (MATIC), +8.2% Notable losers: Uniswap (UNI), -2.5% Stellar (XLM), -2.3% || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ends Week Notching 14% Gain: Bitcoin ended the week performing strong, gaining nearly 14% as regulatory fears faded and sentiment turned bullish in anticipation of a bitcoin futures-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. by the end of the year. Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin stayed roughly flat, hovering above $54,000 as of Friday afternoon. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization also surpassed $1 trillion again this week. “We have broken the key point of breakdown level from May, which was around $50K,” wrote Blockware Intelligence in a research report. “In the short term, we are seeing some resistance from this last $56K-$58K area, which is not unexpected as there is a fair amount of overhead supply there from earlier this year.” Bitcoin price (Messari) Bitcoin briefly broke above $56,000 early Friday, notching its highest level since May, before declining to around $54,000. Some analysts attributed the overall surge to Chinese buyers returning after the market settled after the initial news of China’s crypto ban. “It appears as if the return of Chinese participants provided some fuel to the recent BTC fire, pushing prices temporarily above $56K overnight,” Armando Aguilar, FundStrat Global Advisors vice president of Digital Asset Strategy, told CoinDesk. “There was a similar risk-on sentiment in Chinese equity markets, with the Shanghai Composite closing up 0.67% in its first day back trading post-holiday.” CME open interest also neared a record high on Friday, continuing its upward creep since the start of the week. “We’re seeing a pickup in spot trading volume, but most activity is in the futures market to build exposure without putting up 100% of capital,” Finxflo’s head of Institutional Sales, Jeff Reed, told CoinDesk. Latest prices Bitcoin (BTC): $54,494, +0.9% Ether (ETH): $3,617, +0.4% S&P 500: -0.2% Gold: $1,758, +0.0% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.605% Optimism over a futures-backed bitcoin ETF Investors are growing antsy for a futures-backed bitcoin ETF to be approved in the U.S. An ETF would provide an easily accessible way for more retail and institutional investors to get involved in cryptocurrency. Some analysts point to the growing difference between BTC futures and spot prices as evidence of this optimism. Story continues “The basis for CME futures has increased both on an absolute level and on a relative comparison with futures that trade on offshore derivative venues,” NYDIG’s global head of research, Greg Cipolaro, wrote in a research note. “Today the basis premium for futures traded on OKEx versus CME has flipped to a discount as CME futures are now trading at a basis premium for the first time.” CME basis In August, a speech by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler hinted his agency would support a futures-based ETF based on his reading of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (commonly referred to as the ‘40 Act). Gensler said that “when combined with the other federal securities laws, the ‘40 Act provides significant investor protections. Given these important protections, I look forward to the staff’s review of such filings, particularly if those are limited to these CME-traded bitcoin futures.” Previously, applications for bitcoin ETFs holding bitcoin sought to register under the Securities Act of 1933 (’33 Act) because bitcoin is not considered a security by the SEC. However, registration under the ‘40 Act is more appropriate for a fund engaged in a bitcoin futures strategy, as such funds will “generally hold fixed-income securities as a margin for the futures,” according to a report from NYDIG. Bitcoin, Ethereum usage picks up Price rallies for both bitcoin and ether may be driven by increased usage of their respective networks. Ether was trading at over $3,600 on Friday afternoon, a 10% weekly gain. Ethereum price For Ethereum, network usage has led to deflationary pressures as the ether used to pay transaction fees are being taken out of circulation, or “burned.” This has historically led to higher prices. “Ethereum has been net deflationary over the past two days where the total supply of ether has decreased,” Fundstrat’s Will McEvoy told CoinDesk. “We attribute much of this to an increase in NFT sales, which have doubled since early September and generally require higher transaction fees to complete.” Bitcoin network usage has similarly picked up over the past several months. Both layer 1 and layer 2 usage has been increasing since July 1, according to Coin Metrics analyst Nate Maddrey. “Monthly unique active BTC addresses have rebounded back to about 17M after a drop-off following the May crypto crash,” Maddrey said. BTC New Addresses The number of new BTC addresses has also been trending upwards since Q2. There were nearly 480,000 new bitcoin addresses created on Oct. 5, the highest number since May 13, according to Coin Metrics. Altcoin roundup Alchemix to expand collateral types, strategies for its “self-repaying” loans: Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Alchemix revealed plans for the second version (v2) of its platform on Friday, reported CoinDesk’s Andrew Thurman . The protocol is conceptually similar to MakerDAO, which takes token collateral and issues a heavily over-collateralized stablecoin loan in return. Alchemix, however, takes yield-bearing collateral and uses the yield to pay down the user’s collateral balance: a self-repaying loan. Alchemix is currently the 37th-ranked DeFi protocol with $1.06 billion in total value locked (TVL). Tether has loaned $1 billion to Celsius Network: Tether, the issuer of stablecoin $USDT, has loaned $1 billion to Celsius Network, a crypto lender that is under investigation by several U.S. state financial regulators, reported CoinDesk’s Jamie Crawley . Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky said the company pays an interest rate of 5%-6% to Tether, Bloomberg reported Thursday as part of an investigation into the stablecoin provider’s reserves. The investigation found that Tether had loaned billions of dollars to crypto companies, using bitcoin as collateral. Relevant News JPMorgan Says Institutional Investors Are Replacing Gold With Bitcoin Google Pay to Support Bakkt Debit Card Binance.US Bumps Brian Shroder to CEO; CFO Departs Powerbridge to Deploy 2,600 Crypto Mining Rigs in Hong Kong Other markets Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): Filecoin (FIL), +8.4% Polygon (MATIC), +8.2% Notable losers: Uniswap (UNI), -2.5% Stellar (XLM), -2.3% || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ends Week Notching 14% Gain: Bitcoin ended the week performing strong, gaining nearly 14% as regulatory fears faded and sentiment turned bullish in anticipation of a bitcoin futures-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. by the end of the year. Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin stayed roughly flat, hovering above $54,000 as of Friday afternoon. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization also surpassed $1 trillion again this week. “We have broken the key point of breakdown level from May, which was around $50K,” wrote Blockware Intelligence in a research report. “In the short term, we are seeing some resistance from this last $56K-$58K area, which is not unexpected as there is a fair amount of overhead supply there from earlier this year.” Bitcoin price (Messari) Bitcoin briefly broke above $56,000 early Friday, notching its highest level since May, before declining to around $54,000. Some analysts attributed the overall surge to Chinese buyers returning after the market settled after the initial news of China’s crypto ban. “It appears as if the return of Chinese participants provided some fuel to the recent BTC fire, pushing prices temporarily above $56K overnight,” Armando Aguilar, FundStrat Global Advisors vice president of Digital Asset Strategy, told CoinDesk. “There was a similar risk-on sentiment in Chinese equity markets, with the Shanghai Composite closing up 0.67% in its first day back trading post-holiday.” CME open interest also neared a record high on Friday, continuing its upward creep since the start of the week. “We’re seeing a pickup in spot trading volume, but most activity is in the futures market to build exposure without putting up 100% of capital,” Finxflo’s head of Institutional Sales, Jeff Reed, told CoinDesk. Latest prices Bitcoin (BTC): $54,494, +0.9% Ether (ETH): $3,617, +0.4% S&P 500: -0.2% Gold: $1,758, +0.0% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.605% Optimism over a futures-backed bitcoin ETF Investors are growing antsy for a futures-backed bitcoin ETF to be approved in the U.S. An ETF would provide an easily accessible way for more retail and institutional investors to get involved in cryptocurrency. Some analysts point to the growing difference between BTC futures and spot prices as evidence of this optimism. Story continues “The basis for CME futures has increased both on an absolute level and on a relative comparison with futures that trade on offshore derivative venues,” NYDIG’s global head of research, Greg Cipolaro, wrote in a research note. “Today the basis premium for futures traded on OKEx versus CME has flipped to a discount as CME futures are now trading at a basis premium for the first time.” CME basis In August, a speech by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler hinted his agency would support a futures-based ETF based on his reading of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (commonly referred to as the ‘40 Act). Gensler said that “when combined with the other federal securities laws, the ‘40 Act provides significant investor protections. Given these important protections, I look forward to the staff’s review of such filings, particularly if those are limited to these CME-traded bitcoin futures.” Previously, applications for bitcoin ETFs holding bitcoin sought to register under the Securities Act of 1933 (’33 Act) because bitcoin is not considered a security by the SEC. However, registration under the ‘40 Act is more appropriate for a fund engaged in a bitcoin futures strategy, as such funds will “generally hold fixed-income securities as a margin for the futures,” according to a report from NYDIG. Bitcoin, Ethereum usage picks up Price rallies for both bitcoin and ether may be driven by increased usage of their respective networks. Ether was trading at over $3,600 on Friday afternoon, a 10% weekly gain. Ethereum price For Ethereum, network usage has led to deflationary pressures as the ether used to pay transaction fees are being taken out of circulation, or “burned.” This has historically led to higher prices. “Ethereum has been net deflationary over the past two days where the total supply of ether has decreased,” Fundstrat’s Will McEvoy told CoinDesk. “We attribute much of this to an increase in NFT sales, which have doubled since early September and generally require higher transaction fees to complete.” Bitcoin network usage has similarly picked up over the past several months. Both layer 1 and layer 2 usage has been increasing since July 1, according to Coin Metrics analyst Nate Maddrey. “Monthly unique active BTC addresses have rebounded back to about 17M after a drop-off following the May crypto crash,” Maddrey said. BTC New Addresses The number of new BTC addresses has also been trending upwards since Q2. There were nearly 480,000 new bitcoin addresses created on Oct. 5, the highest number since May 13, according to Coin Metrics. Altcoin roundup Alchemix to expand collateral types, strategies for its “self-repaying” loans: Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Alchemix revealed plans for the second version (v2) of its platform on Friday, reported CoinDesk’s Andrew Thurman . The protocol is conceptually similar to MakerDAO, which takes token collateral and issues a heavily over-collateralized stablecoin loan in return. Alchemix, however, takes yield-bearing collateral and uses the yield to pay down the user’s collateral balance: a self-repaying loan. Alchemix is currently the 37th-ranked DeFi protocol with $1.06 billion in total value locked (TVL). Tether has loaned $1 billion to Celsius Network: Tether, the issuer of stablecoin $USDT, has loaned $1 billion to Celsius Network, a crypto lender that is under investigation by several U.S. state financial regulators, reported CoinDesk’s Jamie Crawley . Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky said the company pays an interest rate of 5%-6% to Tether, Bloomberg reported Thursday as part of an investigation into the stablecoin provider’s reserves. The investigation found that Tether had loaned billions of dollars to crypto companies, using bitcoin as collateral. Relevant News JPMorgan Says Institutional Investors Are Replacing Gold With Bitcoin Google Pay to Support Bakkt Debit Card Binance.US Bumps Brian Shroder to CEO; CFO Departs Powerbridge to Deploy 2,600 Crypto Mining Rigs in Hong Kong Other markets Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): Filecoin (FIL), +8.4% Polygon (MATIC), +8.2% Notable losers: Uniswap (UNI), -2.5% Stellar (XLM), -2.3%
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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57484.79, 56041.06, 57401.10, 57321.52, 61593.95, 60892.18, 61553.62, 62026.08, 64261.99, 65992.84
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10725.60, 10397.90, 10951.00, 11086.40, 11489.70, 11512.60, 11573.30, 10779.90, 9965.57, 9395.01, 9337.55, 8866.00, 9578.63, 9205.12, 9194.85, 8269.81, 8300.86, 8338.35, 7916.88, 8223.68, 8630.65, 8913.47, 8929.28, 8728.47, 8879.62, 8668.12, 8495.78, 8209.40, 7833.04, 7954.48, 7165.70, 6890.52, 6973.53, 6844.23, 7083.80, 7456.11, 6853.84, 6811.47, 6636.32, 6911.09, 7023.52, 6770.73, 6834.76, 6968.32, 7889.25, 7895.96, 7986.24, 8329.11, 8058.67, 7902.09, 8163.42, 8294.31, 8845.83, 8895.58, 8802.46, 8930.88, 9697.50, 8845.74, 9281.51, 8987.05, 9348.48, 9419.08, 9240.55, 9119.01, 9235.92, 9743.86, 9700.76, 9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94, 8441.49, 8504.89, 8723.94, 8716.79, 8510.38, 8368.83, 8094.32, 8250.97, 8247.18, 8513.25, 8418.99, 8041.78, 7557.82, 7587.34, 7480.14, 7355.88, 7368.22.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-05-27]
Volume: 4056519936, RSI (14-day): 32.00, 50-day EMA: 8468.48, 200-day EMA: 8747.73
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
5 Things Never to Do With Your 401(k): If you're lucky enough to have a 401(k), it really pays to the make the most of that plan. That's because the money you save today could set the stage for a financially stable future. That said, there are certain 401(k) moves that could easily derail your retirement savings efforts and hurt you financially. Here are a few things you should never do with regard to your 401(k). 1. Take an early withdrawal Maybe you've lost your job and are having a hard time paying the bills. Or maybe you have a near-term financial goal you're looking to meet, and figure you might as well access the money you've saved in your 401(k). After all, that cash is yours, so why shouldn't you spend it? Coin being inserted into piggy bank next to chalkboard with 401k written in chalk IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Well, there's a good reason why you shouldn't tap your 401(k) before reaching age 59 1/2: You'll be hit with a whopping 10% early-withdrawal penalty on whatever amount you remove. This means that if you withdraw $10,000 before age 59 1/2, you'll lose $1,000 right off the bat. On top of that, you'll be taxed on whatever amount you withdraw -- though that would be the case even if you were to wait until 59 1/2. But penalties aside, the more money you remove from your 401(k) for non-retirement purposes, the less income you'll have access to when you're older. And that's reason enough to leave that money alone. Furthermore, while you may have heard that it's OK to take an early withdrawal to pay for college or buy a first-time home, those allowances only apply to funds held in an IRA. If you have a 401(k), you won't qualify for the same exceptions to the early-withdrawal penalty. 2. Cash it out when you switch jobs Job-hopping is fairly common nowadays, so when you stop working for the company that's sponsored your 401(k) to date, you may be inclined to cash out your plan and start a new 401(k) with your next employer. Big mistake. The early-withdrawal penalty we talked about above applies when you cash out a 401(k) upon leaving a job, so don't go that route. Instead, roll that money into an IRA or see about rolling it into your new employer's plan. This way, you'll avoid taxes and penalties on the money you've worked hard to save. Story continues 3. Borrow money from it Some companies allow employees to borrow money from their 401(k) plans. If you have that option, you can borrow the lesser of $50,000 or half of your account's vested balance. While borrowing certainly is preferable to taking an early withdrawal, it's a move that could end up backfiring in several ways. First, if you get laid off from your job, your outstanding 401(k) loan amount will be treated as a distribution -- which means that it automatically gets taxed. And if you're under 59 1/2 at the time, you'll get hit with that nasty 10% early-withdrawal penalty, as well. Furthermore, any time you remove money from your 401(k), you lose out on its associated growth by virtue of not having it invested. And that could end up hurting your savings. 4. Miss out on employer-matching dollars An estimated 92% of companies that sponsor 401(k) plans also match employee contributions to some degree. But if you don't contribute enough of your own money to snag that match, you'll be losing out on free cash. Incidentally, about 25% of workers don't contribute enough to capitalize on employer matches, and as such, the average employee gives up $1,336 each year. But as is the case with borrowing from a 401(k), when you fail to take advantage of employer-matching dollars, you don't just miss out on the money itself, but also on its growth potential. Passing up $1,336 a year for 20 years, therefore, doesn't just mean losing out on $26,720 -- it means losing out on $54,770 if your investments could've generated a 7% average annual return during that time (which is more than doable with a stock-focused strategy). And that's a lot of cash to give up. 5. Ignore your investments Many people set up their 401(k) investments early on and then fail to check up on them regularly. But if you don't review your investments periodically, you'll have no way of knowing how they're performing. What if you chose a fund initially that averaged an 11% return per year, but in the past two years, it's failed to do better than 4%? Would you really want to keep your money there? Though you don't need to check your investments on a weekly basis, schedule a quarterly or semiannual review. This way, if you see that your funds are underperforming, you'll have an opportunity to act and move your money around. By saving in a 401(k), you're putting yourself in a great position to retire comfortably. So don't blow that chance. Avoid these mistakes and with any luck, you'll build an impressive nest egg that covers you throughout your golden years. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 5 Things Never to Do With Your 401(k): If you're lucky enough to have a 401(k), it really pays to the make the most of that plan. That's because the money you save today could set the stage for a financially stable future. That said, there are certain 401(k) moves that could easily derail your retirement savings efforts and hurt you financially. Here are a few things you should never do with regard to your 401(k).
Maybe you've lost your job and are having a hard time paying the bills. Or maybe you have a near-term financial goal you're looking to meet, and figure you might as well access the money you've saved in your 401(k). After all, that cash is yours, so why shouldn't you spend it?
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
Well, there's a good reason why youshouldn'ttap your 401(k) before reaching age 59 1/2: You'll be hit with a whopping 10% early-withdrawal penalty on whatever amount you remove. This means that if you withdraw $10,000 before age 59 1/2, you'll lose $1,000 right off the bat. On top of that, you'll be taxed on whatever amount you withdraw -- though that would be the case even if you were to wait until 59 1/2.
But penalties aside, the more money you remove from your 401(k) for non-retirement purposes, the less income you'll have access to when you're older. And that's reason enough to leave that money alone.
Furthermore, while you may have heard that it's OK to take an early withdrawal to pay for college or buy a first-time home, those allowances only apply to funds held in an IRA. If you have a 401(k), you won't qualify for the same exceptions to the early-withdrawal penalty.
Job-hoppingis fairly common nowadays, so when you stop working for the company that's sponsored your 401(k) to date, you may be inclined to cash out your plan and start a new 401(k) with your next employer. Big mistake. The early-withdrawal penalty we talked about above applies when you cash out a 401(k) upon leaving a job, so don't go that route. Instead, roll that money into an IRA or see about rolling it into your new employer's plan. This way, you'll avoid taxes and penalties on the money you've worked hard to save.
Some companies allow employees to borrow money from their 401(k) plans. If you have that option, you can borrow the lesser of $50,000 or half of your account's vested balance.
While borrowing certainly is preferable to taking an early withdrawal, it's a move that could end up backfiring in several ways. First, if you getlaid offfrom your job, your outstanding 401(k) loan amount will be treated as a distribution -- which means that it automatically gets taxed. And if you're under 59 1/2 at the time, you'll get hit with that nasty 10% early-withdrawal penalty, as well. Furthermore, any time you remove money from your 401(k), you lose out on its associated growth by virtue of not having it invested. And that could end up hurting your savings.
An estimated 92% of companies that sponsor 401(k) plans also match employee contributions to some degree. But if you don't contribute enough of your own money to snag that match, you'll be losing out on free cash. Incidentally, about 25% of workersdon'tcontribute enough to capitalize on employer matches, and as such, the average employee gives up $1,336 each year.
But as is the case with borrowing from a 401(k), when you fail to take advantage of employer-matching dollars, you don't just miss out on the money itself, but also on its growth potential. Passing up $1,336 a year for 20 years, therefore, doesn't just mean losing out on $26,720 -- it means losing out on $54,770 if your investments could've generated a 7% average annual return during that time (which is more than doable with a stock-focused strategy). And that's a lot of cash to give up.
Many people set up their 401(k) investments early on and then fail to check up on them regularly. But if you don't review your investments periodically, you'll have no way of knowing how they're performing.
What if you chose a fund initially that averaged an 11% return per year, but in the past two years, it's failed to do better than 4%? Would youreallywant to keep your money there? Though you don't need to check your investments on a weekly basis, schedule a quarterly or semiannual review. This way, if you see that your funds are underperforming, you'll have an opportunity to act and move your money around.
By saving in a 401(k), you're putting yourself in a great position to retire comfortably. So don't blow that chance. Avoid these mistakes and with any luck, you'll build an impressive nest egg that covers you throughout your golden years.
More From The Motley Fool
• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
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• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Has Shopify Met Its Match With Adobe-Magento?: Shares of Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) slipped 4% on May 22 after cloud-services giant Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) agreed to buy its competitor Magento for $1.68 billion. Like Shopify, Magento is a "one-stop shop" that helps merchants digitize their businesses with websites, ads, payment services, analytics, logistics, and customer relationship-management channels. Magento controlled 16% of the fragmented web-store market last year, according to a study by Magento industry partner Aheadworks. Shopify controlled 13% of the market, while industry leader WooCommerce held 18%. Other notable competitors included Oracle 's ATG Commerce platform, which controlled 16% of the market, Demandware, which held 10%, and IBM 's WebSphere, which held 7%. A businessman holds a tablet, and hovering above it an illustration of a shopping cart pointing to a truck pointing to a person. Image source: Getty Images. The bears clearly believe that Adobe's takeover of Magento could significantly hurt Shopify and its other rivals. But are investors overreacting to the news? Let's dig deeper into this deal to find out. Why Adobe bought Magento Over the past few years, Adobe pivoted away from its core software products and diversified into the cloud-services market. It turned its flagship Photoshop software into a cloud-based service within its Creative Cloud and expanded its Experience Cloud, which focuses on enterprise software. To build that business, Adobe acquired online marketing and analytics firm Omniture in 2009 to expand its digital advertising services. It subsequently bought video advertising platform Auditude for $120 million, online search and social ad campaign management platform Efficient Frontier Technology for undisclosed terms, and ad tech firm TubeMogul for $540 million. Adobe can now bundle many of those services into Magento for its Experience Cloud customers. This could be bad news for Shopify, Oracle, and even Salesforce -- which competes against Adobe's Marketing Cloud in the cloud CRM (customer relationship management) market. Morgan Stanley analyst William Blair recently called the Adobe-Magento combination a "new long-term threat" to Shopify's growth. Story continues Adobe's Digital Experience revenue rose 16% annually and accounted for 27% of its top line last quarter. However, that growth rate was slower than its core digital media segment's 28% growth, which was supported by its Creative Cloud products. The Magento acquisition could alter that balance in the near future. Should Shopify investors worry? Shopify has consistently posted high double-digit sales growth ever since its IPO in 2015. Its revenue rose 68% annually, to $214.3 million last quarter -- supported by 61% growth in subscriptions revenue, 75% growth in Merchant Solutions revenue, and a 64% jump in its gross merchandise volume (GMV), to $8 billion. The company also reported robust growth at Shopify Capital, Shopify Shipping, and its premium package Shopify Plus -- indicating that it's successfully cross-selling products to its existing customers and expanding its ecosystem. Wall Street expects Shopify to post 51% sales growth for the full year. A shopping cart filled with boxes on a laptop keyboard. Image source: Getty Images. However, Shopify only is profitable on a non- GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation expenses and other one-time charges. On a GAAP basis, it reported a net loss of $15.9 million last quarter, which was wider that its loss of $13.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Its cash and equivalents position grew from $938 million at the end of 2017 to $1.58 billion, but most of that gain (over $500 million) was attributed to its offering of Class A subordinate voting shares during the first quarter. Simply put, Shopify isn't well-equipped to engage Adobe in a prolonged pricing war. However, Shopify weathered a similar threat before, when Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) launched its own "Webstore" service in 2010 to challenge Shopify. Amazon eventually killed the service in 2015 and integrated Shopify's features into its marketplace instead. Investors also should recall that eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) sold Magento, along with the rest of its enterprise unit, to a group of investment firms in 2015 at a steep loss. That sale indicates that Adobe could also struggle to integrate Magento into the rest of its cloud ecosystem. The key takeaway I like Shopify's business and think it still has great long-term growth potential. I'm not particularly worried about Adobe-Magento, since Shopify already faces tough competitors like Oracle and WooCommerce, but I'm concerned about its valuation. Shopify trades at nearly 15 times this year's sales. Granted, Shopify is a high-growth company, but that lofty valuation makes it an easy target for short-sellers during news-driven sell-offs. Therefore, I'd steer clear of Shopify until its valuations cool down. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun owns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Adobe Systems, Amazon, Salesforce.com, and Shopify. The Motley Fool owns shares of Oracle. The Motley Fool is short shares of IBM and has the following options: short June 2018 $52 calls on Oracle and long January 2020 $30 calls on Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends eBay. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Has Shopify Met Its Match With Adobe-Magento?: Shares ofShopify(NYSE: SHOP)slipped 4% on May 22 after cloud-services giantAdobe(NASDAQ: ADBE)agreed to buy its competitor Magento for $1.68 billion. Like Shopify, Magento is a "one-stop shop" that helps merchants digitize their businesses with websites, ads, payment services, analytics, logistics, and customer relationship-management channels.
Magento controlled 16% of the fragmented web-store market last year, according to a study by Magento industry partner Aheadworks. Shopify controlled 13% of the market, while industry leader WooCommerce held 18%. Other notable competitors includedOracle's ATG Commerce platform, which controlled 16% of the market, Demandware, which held 10%, andIBM's WebSphere, which held 7%.
Image source: Getty Images.
The bears clearly believe that Adobe's takeover of Magento could significantly hurt Shopify and its other rivals. But are investors overreacting to the news? Let's dig deeper into this deal to find out.
Over the past few years, Adobe pivoted away from its core software products and diversified into the cloud-services market. It turned its flagship Photoshop software into a cloud-based service within its Creative Cloud and expanded its Experience Cloud, which focuses on enterprise software.
To build that business, Adobe acquired online marketing and analytics firm Omniture in 2009 to expand its digital advertising services. It subsequently bought video advertising platform Auditude for $120 million, online search and social ad campaign management platform Efficient Frontier Technology for undisclosed terms, and ad tech firm TubeMogul for $540 million.
Adobe can now bundle many of those services into Magento for its Experience Cloud customers. This could be bad news for Shopify, Oracle, and evenSalesforce-- which competes against Adobe's Marketing Cloud in the cloud CRM (customer relationship management) market. Morgan Stanley analyst William Blair recently called the Adobe-Magento combination a "new long-term threat" to Shopify's growth.
Adobe's Digital Experience revenue rose 16% annually and accounted for 27% of its top line last quarter. However, that growth rate was slower than its core digital media segment's 28% growth, which was supported by its Creative Cloud products. The Magento acquisition could alter that balance in the near future.
Shopify has consistently posted high double-digit sales growth ever since its IPO in 2015. Itsrevenue rose68% annually, to $214.3 million last quarter -- supported by 61% growth in subscriptions revenue, 75% growth in Merchant Solutions revenue, and a 64% jump in its gross merchandise volume (GMV), to $8 billion.
The company also reported robust growth at Shopify Capital, Shopify Shipping, and its premium package Shopify Plus -- indicating that it's successfully cross-selling products to its existing customers and expanding its ecosystem. Wall Street expects Shopify to post 51% sales growth for the full year.
Image source: Getty Images.
However, Shopify only is profitable on a non-GAAPbasis, which excludes stock-based compensation expenses and other one-time charges. On a GAAP basis, it reported a net loss of $15.9 million last quarter, which was wider that its loss of $13.6 million in the year-ago quarter.
Its cash and equivalents position grew from $938 million at the end of 2017 to $1.58 billion, but most of that gain (over $500 million) was attributed to its offering of Class A subordinate voting shares during the first quarter.
Simply put, Shopify isn't well-equipped to engage Adobe in a prolonged pricing war. However, Shopify weathered a similar threat before, whenAmazon(NASDAQ: AMZN)launched its own "Webstore" service in 2010 to challenge Shopify. Amazon eventually killed the service in 2015 and integrated Shopify's features into its marketplace instead.
Investors also should recall thateBay(NASDAQ: EBAY)sold Magento, along with the rest of its enterprise unit, to a group of investment firms in 2015 at a steep loss. That sale indicates that Adobe could also struggle to integrate Magento into the rest of its cloud ecosystem.
I like Shopify's business and think it still has great long-term growth potential. I'm not particularly worried about Adobe-Magento, since Shopify already faces tough competitors like Oracle and WooCommerce, but I'm concerned about its valuation.
Shopify trades at nearly 15 times this year's sales. Granted, Shopify is a high-growth company, but that lofty valuation makes it an easy target forshort-sellersduring news-driven sell-offs. Therefore, I'd steer clear of Shopify until its valuations cool down.
More From The Motley Fool
• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Leo Sunowns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Adobe Systems, Amazon, Salesforce.com, and Shopify. The Motley Fool owns shares of Oracle. The Motley Fool is short shares of IBM and has the following options: short June 2018 $52 calls on Oracle and long January 2020 $30 calls on Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends eBay. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast Facing Renewed Pressure from Weaker Crude Oil Prices: The commodity-linked Australian and New Zealand Dollars were pressured on Friday as oil prices fell after Russia and Saudi Arabia said they were ready to ease production curbs that have supported crude prices. On Friday, the AUD/USD settled at .7547, down 0.0030 or -0.40% and the NZD/USD finished the session at .6916, down 0.0013 or -0.20%. Daily AUD/USD Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said a group of producer nations could soon begin easing production limits aimed at balancing the market. The moment is coming when we should consider assessing ways to exit the deal very seriously and gradually ease quotas on output cuts, Novak said in televised comments, according to Reuters. In other news, the U.S. Dollar was supported by data showing new orders for key U.S.-made capital goods increased more than expected in April and Shipments rebounded, suggesting that business spending on equipment was picking up after slowing down at the end of the first quarter. According to the Commerce Department, Core Durable Goods Orders rose 0.9% versus an estimate of 0.5%. The previous report showed a rise of 0.1%. Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, dropped 1.7 percent in April as demand for transportation equipment tumbled 6.1 percent. That followed a 2.7 percent increase in durable goods orders in March. U.S. consumer sentiment came in weaker than expected on Friday in the final reading of May. The University of Michigans survey of consumer attitudes reached 98 in the latest reading. Economists surveyed by Reuters expected it to hit 98.8, the same from a month earlier. Daily NZD/USD Forecast Geopolitical issues became a concern for Aussie and Kiwi investors once again last week. President Trumps disappointment with the U.S.-China trade negotiations and his surprise cancellation of his meeting with North Korean President Kim Jong Un helped create some volatility. Underpinning the currencies against the U.S. Dollar was a drop in U.S. Treasury yields that was fueled by the release of dovish minutes from the Feds May Monetary Policy meeting. The longer-term trend remains down because of the contrast between the monetary policies of the hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve and the dovish Reserve Banks of Australia and New Zealand. Short-term, the AUD/USD and NZD/USD could get a boost if Treasury yields continue to drop and the U.S. reinstates the meeting with North Korea, originally scheduled for June 12. However, gains could be limited by another steep sell-off in crude oil. This article was originally posted on FX Empire Story continues More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Futures (NG) Technical Analysis Closing Price Reversal Top May Lead to Short-Term Correction Bitcoin Sees Red Again. Is a Weekend Rally around the Corner? S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast Mixed on Friday, but Up for Week Ethereum markets have another rough week USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast Should Rally if North Korean Meeting is Reinstated Gold Underpinned by Safe Haven Demand, Lower Treasury Yields View comments || AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Facing Renewed Pressure from Weaker Crude Oil Prices: The commodity-linked Australian and New Zealand Dollars were pressured on Friday as oil prices fell after Russia and Saudi Arabia said they were ready to ease production curbs that have supported crude prices.
On Friday, theAUD/USDsettled at .7547, down 0.0030 or -0.40% and theNZD/USDfinished the session at .6916, down 0.0013 or -0.20%.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said a group of producer nations could soon begin easing production limits aimed at balancing the market.
“The moment is coming when we should consider assessing ways to exit the deal very seriously and gradually ease quotas on output cuts,” Novak said in televised comments, according to Reuters.
In other news, the U.S. Dollar was supported by data showing new orders for key U.S.-made capital goods increased more than expected in April and Shipments rebounded, suggesting that business spending on equipment was picking up after slowing down at the end of the first quarter.
According to the Commerce Department, Core Durable Goods Orders rose 0.9% versus an estimate of 0.5%. The previous report showed a rise of 0.1%.
Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, dropped 1.7 percent in April as demand for transportation equipment tumbled 6.1 percent. That followed a 2.7 percent increase in durable goods orders in March.
U.S. consumer sentiment came in weaker than expected on Friday in the final reading of May. The University of Michigan’s survey of consumer attitudes reached 98 in the latest reading. Economists surveyed by Reuters expected it to hit 98.8, the same from a month earlier.
Geopolitical issues became a concern for Aussie and Kiwi investors once again last week. President Trump’s disappointment with the U.S.-China trade negotiations and his surprise cancellation of his meeting with North Korean President Kim Jong Un helped create some volatility.
Underpinning the currencies against the U.S. Dollar was a drop in U.S. Treasury yields that was fueled by the release of dovish minutes from the Fed’s May Monetary Policy meeting.
The longer-term trend remains down because of the contrast between the monetary policies of the hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve and the dovish Reserve Banks of Australia and New Zealand.
Short-term, the AUD/USD and NZD/USD could get a boost if Treasury yields continue to drop and the U.S. reinstates the meeting with North Korea, originally scheduled for June 12. However, gains could be limited by another steep sell-off in crude oil.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• Gold Underpinned by Safe Haven Demand, Lower Treasury Yields || S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast – Mixed on Friday, but Up for Week: The major U.S. stock indexes finished mixed on Friday, but were still able to hold on to their weekly gains. Solid corporate earnings helped underpin the indexes, but gains were limited by geopolitical fears following President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a key summit with North Korea.
In the cash market, the benchmarkS&P 500 Indexsettled at 2721.33, down 6.43 or 0.24%. The blue chipDow Jones Industrial Averageclosed at 24753.09, down 58.67 or -0.24% and the tech-drivenNASDAQ Compositeended the session at 7435.79, up 11.36 or +0.15%.
Stock market volume was below average on Friday as investors prepared a long U.S. holiday week-end.
A steep drop in crude oil prices also weighed on the stock market. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 4 percent after several reports suggested OPEC and non-OPEC members could increase supply. This move led to losses in shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil, which dragged down the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Weak energy and financial stocks pressured the S&P 500 Index. In the NASDAQ Composite, gains in Netflix and Apple were offset by losses in Facebook and Cisco.
Renewed geopolitical tensions also continued to drive investors into the safety of U.S. Treasurys, driving down yields. Investors were primarily reacting to comments made by President Trump about his disappointment over the direction of the U.S.-China trade negotiations and the surprise cancellation of the widely anticipated meeting between President Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong Un.
In other news, according to the Commerce Department, Core Durable Goods Orders rose 0.9% versus an estimate of 0.5%. The previous report showed a rise of 0.1%.
Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, dropped 1.7 percent in April as demand for transportation equipment tumbled 6.1 percent. That followed a 2.7 percent increase in durable goods orders in March.
U.S. consumer sentiment came in weaker than expected on Friday in the final reading of May. The University of Michigan’s survey of consumer attitudes reached 98 in the latest reading. Economists surveyed by Reuters expected it to hit 98.8, the same from a month earlier.
Chatter late Friday and Saturday suggests the U.S.-North Korea meeting may be back on if you believe the news reports. This could be very bullish for stocks if you combine it with last week’s dovish Fed minutes.
Trump said on Friday that Washington was having “productive talks” with Pyongyang about reinstating the June 12 meeting, just a day after cancelling it.
Politico magazine reported that an advance team of 30 White House and State Department officials was preparing to leave for Singapore later this weekend.
Reuters also reported the team was scheduled to discuss the agenda and logistics for the summit with North Korean officials.
Trump further added in a Twitter post late on Friday: “We are having very productive talks about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th, and if necessary, will be extended beyond that date.”
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• Ethereum markets have another rough week || Square Is Raising $750 Million to Fight Back Against PayPal: Last week,PayPal(NASDAQ: PYPL)agreed to buySquare's(NYSE: SQ)chief European rival, iZettle, for$2.2 billion. By Monday, Square was ready to announce a new debt offering to raise $750 million in cash.
The senior convertible notes will bear interest at just 0.50% per year and mature in five years.
Square could use the cash infusion to take on PayPal and iZettle with additional acquisitions or increased marketing spend.
Image source: Square
PayPal isn't the only company buying smaller businesses. Square has made two important acquisitions this quarter alone.
First, itacquired parts of corporate catering start-up Zesty. The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but the move should provide a nice complement to Caviar, a food delivery and pickup service Square acquired in 2014. Zesty should expand the appeal of Square's restaurant business, and it could also integrate with the newly launchedSquare for Restaurantspoint-of-sale system unveiled earlier this month.
Just after the Zesty acquisition, Square bought Weebly for $365 million in cash and stock. Weebly is an online platform that helps people create new websites.
"Combining with Weebly, we will provide sellers with one cohesive solution to start or grow an omnichannel business," CEO Jack Dorsey said on Square's first-quarter earnings call. "Additionally, nearly 40% of Weebly's paid subscribers are outside the United States, which help us accelerate our global expansion."
Square may look for more e-commerce acquisitions in order to take on PayPal directly and offer more services to its brick-and-mortar merchants. PayPal's $2.2 billion deal for iZettle indicates there's demand for more omnichannel solutions (supporting both online and in-store sales).
While Square ended the first quarter with $100 million more in cash than the year before, it's quickly depleting that on acquisitions. Adding another $750 million in cash gives it some room to make more small acquisitions like Zesty and Weebly.
Square may also use some of its debt offering to increase its marketing spend in Europe. The company expanded to the U.K last spring, and it intends to expand to the rest of Europe at some point. PayPal's acquisition of iZettle provides the competitor with a lot more cash to grow its brand along with the capabilities to offer a varied suite of services.
Square is only just starting to expand its services in the U.K., and its brand recognition still isn't at the level it is in the U.S. Square launched the Cash App and Instant Deposit in the U.K. last quarter, hoping to capitalize on the success it's seen from those products in the U.S.
One of Square'stop areas of investment for 2018is strengthening its position in international markets. That means a bigger investment in marketing, working with payments networks to ensure it can accept any type of payment a customer or merchant wants, and further expanding its product ecosystem abroad.
PayPal's move to acquire iZettle may have prompted Square to raise more cash in order to compete, but it might have been planning to raise cash anyway. Regardless, investors should pay attention to any acquisitions, partnerships, or other financial moves Square takes from here to see if it strengthens its position in Europe or helps provide an omnichannel solution (or both).
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Adam Levyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PayPal Holdings and Square. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Square Is Raising $750 Million to Fight Back Against PayPal: Last week, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) agreed to buy Square 's (NYSE: SQ) chief European rival, iZettle, for $2.2 billion . By Monday, Square was ready to announce a new debt offering to raise $750 million in cash. The senior convertible notes will bear interest at just 0.50% per year and mature in five years. Square could use the cash infusion to take on PayPal and iZettle with additional acquisitions or increased marketing spend. A person paying using a Square contactless reader. Image source: Square An acquisition spree PayPal isn't the only company buying smaller businesses. Square has made two important acquisitions this quarter alone. First, it acquired parts of corporate catering start-up Zesty . The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but the move should provide a nice complement to Caviar, a food delivery and pickup service Square acquired in 2014. Zesty should expand the appeal of Square's restaurant business, and it could also integrate with the newly launched Square for Restaurants point-of-sale system unveiled earlier this month. Just after the Zesty acquisition, Square bought Weebly for $365 million in cash and stock. Weebly is an online platform that helps people create new websites. "Combining with Weebly, we will provide sellers with one cohesive solution to start or grow an omnichannel business," CEO Jack Dorsey said on Square's first-quarter earnings call. "Additionally, nearly 40% of Weebly's paid subscribers are outside the United States, which help us accelerate our global expansion." Square may look for more e-commerce acquisitions in order to take on PayPal directly and offer more services to its brick-and-mortar merchants. PayPal's $2.2 billion deal for iZettle indicates there's demand for more omnichannel solutions (supporting both online and in-store sales). While Square ended the first quarter with $100 million more in cash than the year before, it's quickly depleting that on acquisitions. Adding another $750 million in cash gives it some room to make more small acquisitions like Zesty and Weebly. Story continues Marketing in Europe Square may also use some of its debt offering to increase its marketing spend in Europe. The company expanded to the U.K last spring, and it intends to expand to the rest of Europe at some point. PayPal's acquisition of iZettle provides the competitor with a lot more cash to grow its brand along with the capabilities to offer a varied suite of services. Square is only just starting to expand its services in the U.K., and its brand recognition still isn't at the level it is in the U.S. Square launched the Cash App and Instant Deposit in the U.K. last quarter, hoping to capitalize on the success it's seen from those products in the U.S. One of Square's top areas of investment for 2018 is strengthening its position in international markets. That means a bigger investment in marketing, working with payments networks to ensure it can accept any type of payment a customer or merchant wants, and further expanding its product ecosystem abroad. PayPal's move to acquire iZettle may have prompted Square to raise more cash in order to compete, but it might have been planning to raise cash anyway. Regardless, investors should pay attention to any acquisitions, partnerships, or other financial moves Square takes from here to see if it strengthens its position in Europe or helps provide an omnichannel solution (or both). More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PayPal Holdings and Square. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Tech Stocks This Week: 2 Must-See Stories: As earnings season starts to taper off, there are some stragglers in tech still reporting earnings. Design software companyAutodesk(NASDAQ: ADSK)was one notable company to report quarterly results last week.
But another must-see story this week came from outside of earnings-season news when short-seller Citron Research warmed up toRoku(NASDAQ: ROKU)and went from shorting the stock to going long. Here's what investors should know.
Image source: Roku.
Autodesk reported first-quarter revenue and non-GAAPearnings per share of $559.9 million and $0.06, respectively. These results were up from revenue of $485.7 million and a non-GAAP loss per share of $0.16 in the year-ago quarter. Autodesk's annualized recurring revenue growth (ARR) was particularly strong, coming in at $2.13 billion, up 22% compared to ARR this time last year.
"Our first-quarter results are a good start to the new fiscal year and demonstrate Autodesk is firmly in the growth phase of our business model transition," said Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost.
But Autodesk's weaker-than-expected earnings guidance may have spooked some investors. Management said it expected non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) between $0.13 and $0.16 in Q2. This compares to a consensus analyst estimate for non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.18 for the period.
In an interview with CNBC after the earnings report was released, Anagnost said changes in accounting standards may be the reason for the difference in the consensus analyst estimate for Autodesk's second-quarter non-GAAP profitability and management's outlook for the key metric. "The accounting standards change the way we recognize our expense over time and people are adjusting to that," he said.
Looking forward to the company's growth trajectory, Anagnost is optimistic, noting that he expects accelerating ARR growth throughout the year.
Meanwhile, Citron Research backtracked on its short thesis for streaming TV platform company Roku, sending shares up 7% on Friday. "The [over-the-top (OTT)] movement has become a megatrend that cannot be ignored and the numbers around ROKU have completely changed since our November 29 tweet that has made us cover our short and actually go LONG ROKU," said Citron in areportpublished Friday.
One noteworthy reason for Citron's sudden bullishness on Roku is the surging interest in programmatic OTT advertising. "Considering U.S. advertisers spend about $70 billion a year on traditional TV ads vs. ROKU platform revenue (i.e., ad revenue) was only $225 million in 2017, the [total addressable market] and validation is too large to ignore," explained Citron.
The rapid growth of programmatic digital TV advertising was seen firsthand earlier this month whenThe Trade Desk(NASDAQ: TTD)reported amore than 2,000% year-over-year increasein the spending on connected TV digital ads on its programmatic ad-buying platform. The surging growth in connected TV spending on its platform helped send the stocksoaring over 40% in a single trading day.
Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green has been vocal about his bullishness on connected TV ad spending, noting during the company's fiscal 2017 fourth-quarter earnings call that all of its ad-spending channels beyond connected TV are simply "a dress rehearsal for the migration from traditional TV to Connected TV and online video."
Green explained:
And while I'm very positive about our prospects in mobile, perhaps the only thing that I am more passionate and more bullish about than mobile is Connected TV. A change of this magnitude is rare. I don't think we will see a transition like this again in any of our lifetimes, the convergence of the Internet and television.
To this end, Roku's platform revenue has been surging, rising 106% year over year in the company's most recent quarter. Advertising revenue has been the largest driver of this growth, management said in its first-quarter shareholder letter. As OTT connected TV programmatic ad spending continues to rise sharply, Roku is poised to benefit.
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Daniel Sparkshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 12 Costly Retirement Mistakes to Avoid: Most of us look forward to retirement, imagining that we'll get to relax more and do lots of things that we haven't had sufficient time for -- such as traveling, reading, and exercising. How pleasant and secure our retirements are depends to a great deal on how well we prepare -- and on how many smart moves and how few mistakes we make.
It's very risky to leave much of your retirement to chance, as that increases your odds of running out of money long before you run out of breath. For best results, be the master of your own retirement and make savvy decisions.
Image source: Getty Images.
Here are 12 common -- and costly -- retirement mistakes to avoid:
The most basic mistake that millions make is simply not having a plan. According to the 2017 Retirement Confidence Survey, only 41% of respondents said that they or their spouse has taken the time to estimate how much money they'll need in retirement.
There's no one-size-fits-all number regardinghow much you need to save for retirement, but some experts suggest aiming for 80% of your income at the time you retire. So if you retire earning $75,000, you'll want to aim to have $60,000 per year. That would be your total needed income. Some of it will likely be Social Security benefits, and much will probably come from your savings. One way to help you figure out how much you need to save is to invert the4% ruleand multiply your desired annual income from your nest egg by 25. (The 4% rule is a very rough guide to how much money you can withdraw from your nest egg in retirement in order to make it last.) So, for example, if you want to be able to draw $25,000 from your nest egg in your first year of retirement, you'd multiply that by 25, getting $625,000. You'd need to retire with $625,000 saved.
Once you know how much your retirement will require, you'll need to figure out how you'll amass that sum. You might need to increase your saving, cut back on your spending, and/or take on a part-time job for a while.
Another error is not taking advantage of retirement accounts available to you, such as traditional and Roth IRAs and traditional and Roth 401(k) plans at work. With a traditional IRA, you contribute pre-tax money, reducing your taxable income for the year, and thereby reducing your taxes, too. (Taxable income of $75,000 and a $5,000 contribution? Your taxable income drops to $70,000 for the year.) The money grows in your account, and when you withdraw it in retirement, it's taxed at your ordinary income tax rate at the time -- which is often lower than your current rate.
With a Roth IRA, you contributepost-tax money that doesn't reduce your taxable income at all in the contribution year. (Taxable income of $75,000 and a $5,000 contribution? Your taxable income remains $75,000 for the year.) Here's why the Roth IRA is a big deal, though: Your money grows in the account until you withdraw it in retirement --tax free. For 2018, the IRA contribution limit is $5,500 -- plus $1,000 for those 50 or older.
Meanwhile, 401(k)s also come in traditional and Roth varieties, and their 2018 contribution limits are far steeper -- $18,500 plus an additional $6,000 for those 50 and up. The table below shows how much you can accumulate by socking away various sums that grow at an annual average of 8%. Remember that if you do so within a Roth IRA and/or a Roth 401(k), the sums below may be yours tax-free. If you're in a 25% tax bracket and empty a Roth account worth $500,000, you can avoid paying $125,000 in taxes.
[{"Growing at 8% for": "15 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$146,621", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$293,243", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$439,864"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "20 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$247,115", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$494,229", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$741,344"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "25 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$394,772", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$789,544", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$1.2 million"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "30 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$611,729", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$1.2 million", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$1.8 million"}]
Calculations by author.
No matter what sum you need, the sooner you start saving and investing, the better off you'll be -- even if you're only in your 30s. After all, the younger you are, the longer your money can grow for you.
These days, it's common for workers to change jobs every few years, meaning that they end up contributing to lots of 401(k) accounts over time. It's also very common for workers to cash out those accounts when changing jobs. Don't do so, though. Early withdrawals result in 10% penalties -- plus taxation on the income. Even worse, you're shortchanging your future when you cash out your 401(k) -- and even, to a lesser degree, if you borrow from it, leaving many dollars unable to grow for you for a number of years.
Even if your 401(k) has only $20,000 in it when you leave your job, if that sum can keep growing for another 20 years and it averages an annual growth rate of 8%, it will grow to more than $90,000, which can be very meaningful in retirement.
Image source: Getty Images.
Most of us procrastinate with various tasks we need to do -- but putting off preparing for your retirement is a very costly kind of procrastination. To understand just how costly, imagine that you plan to sock away $8,000 per year for 20 years, in order to fund your retirement, and you expect to earn an average annual return of 8%. What happens if you put it off and start this investing in earnest two years late? Well, if you sock away $8,000 annually for 18 years and it grows by 8% annually, you'll end up with around $323,570. What if you didn't procrastinate and followed your plan for a full 20 years? Well, then you'd end up with $395,383 -- more than $70,000 more. Note, too, that you end up with more than 70,000 extra dollars just by having made two extra $8,000 investments, or $16,000. The earliest dollars you invest have the most time to grow. By putting off saving aggressively for retirement, you're leaving many thousands of dollars on the table.
The table below offers more examples of how a few years can make a big difference. For example, consider that if you socked away $10,000 annually for 25 years, it would grow to almost $790,000 over 25 years. If you'd started five years late, though, you'd have accumulated about $500,000 over 20 years -- that's almost $300,000 less.
[{"Growing at 8% for": "15 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$146,621", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$293,243", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$439,864"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "18 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$202,231", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "404,463", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$606,696"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "20 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$247,115", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$494,229", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$741,344"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "23 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$328,824", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$657,648", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$986,471"}, {"Growing at 8% for": "25 years", "$5,000 Invested Annually": "$394,772", "$10,000 Invested Annually": "$789,544", "$15,000 Invested Annually": "$1.2 million"}]
Calculations by author.
Another error is assuming that the Social Security benefits you'll receive in retirement will be enough (or close to enough) to support you. In many instances, that's just not the case. Consider this: The average Social Security retirement benefit was recently $1,411 per month, or only about $17,000 per year. Of course, if you earned more than average during your working years, you'll collect more than that -- but not necessarily a lot more. Themaximumbenefit for those retiring at their full retirement age was recently $2,788 per month -- or about $33,000 for the whole year.
Savvy planners will find out what they can expect from Social Security and will incorporate it into their plans. You can get an estimate of your expected benefits from the Social Security website atwww.ssa.gov.
Image source: Getty Images.
We all know that healthcare is extremely costly, but we don't always remember to include it in our retirement planning. The 2018 Retirement Confidence Survey found that only 19% of workers have taken the time to estimate how much money they will need for healthcare expenses in retirement. There's no way to really know exactly how much you'll need, but it does help to have a rough idea. So consider this: A 65-year-old couple retiring today will spend, on average, a total of $275,000 out of pocket on healthcare, according to Fidelity Investments. (That doesn't include long-term care expenses, either.)
One way to ease this burden is to besmart about Medicare, choosing the plan that will serve you best and making the most of all the program offers. Be good about getting screenings and preventive care, for example, and you might reduce your overall healthcare costs by staying healthier. Long-term care insurance is worth considering, but it's imperfect and is quite costly itself, the older you are when you sign up for it.
Overall, you might aim to afford healthcare by planning to save more aggressively and aiming for a bigger nest egg. Or delay starting to collect Social Security in order to end up with fatter benefit checks. Other possible options for some include reverse mortgages or tapping life insurance policies for extra income, though that comes at the expense of heirs.
The most common age at which Americans retire is about 62 or 63. There are lots of reasons why it's good toretire as early as you can-- but it can be a dangerous gambit, too, if you end up living a very long life.
It's estimated that America is home to about 72,000 centenarians -- people aged 100 or older. If you live to 100 and retire at age 62, you're looking at 38 years of retirement. If you only live to 90, that's still a significant 28 years that your dollars will need to last. According to the Social Security Administration, "About one out of every four 65-year-olds today will live past age 90, and one out of 10 will live past age 95."
Because of the possibility of living a long life, personal finance guru Suze Orman has advised that most people should aim to retire no earlier than age 70: "Every dollar you don't spend in your 60s is a dollar that can keep growing for your 70s and beyond." (For some people, this advice is sound. If you have planned well, though, and have socked awayenough money for retirement, you could retire much earlier.)
You might end up retiring earlier than you planned to. According to the 2016 Retirement Confidence Survey, 46% of retirees left the workforce earlier than planned, with 55% citing health problems or a disability as the reason and 24% citing changes at work such as a downsizing or workplace closure.
Image source: Getty Images.
It's smart to at least consider investing inone or more annuitiesfor your retirement, as it can provide almost guaranteed regular income, like a pension, and it can do so for the rest of your live, reducing the chance that you'll not have enough money to live on in later years.
Stick with fixed annuities, though, as opposed to variable or indexed annuities. (Those can be problematic, with steep fees and restrictive terms.) Here's the kind of income that various people might be able to secure in the form of an immediate fixed annuity in the current economic environment:
[{"Person/People": "65-year-old man", "Cost": "$100,000", "Monthly Income": "$551", "Annual Income Equivalent": "$6,612"}, {"Person/People": "70-year-old man", "Cost": "$100,000", "Monthly Income": "$632", "Annual Income Equivalent": "$7,584"}, {"Person/People": "70-year-old woman", "Cost": "$100,000", "Monthly Income": "$592", "Annual Income Equivalent": "$7,104"}, {"Person/People": "65-year-old couple", "Cost": "$200,000", "Monthly Income": "$941", "Annual Income Equivalent": "$11,292"}, {"Person/People": "70-year-old couple", "Cost": "$200,000", "Monthly Income": "$1,036", "Annual Income Equivalent": "$12,432"}, {"Person/People": "75-year-old couple", "Cost": "$200,000", "Monthly Income": "$1,195", "Annual Income Equivalent": "$14,340"}]
Data source: immediateannuities.com.
Another strategy to avoid running out of money is investing in a deferred fixed annuity (sometimes called longevity insurance). Instead of starting to pay immediately, it starts paying at a future point, such as when you turn a certain age. For example, a 70-year-old man might spend $50,000 for an annuity that will start paying him $933 per month for the rest of his life beginning at age 80.
Medicare is critically important for tens of millions of retirees, and it will likely be critical for you, too. Just don't be lateenrolling in Medicare, or you'll pay -- a lot. Your Part B premiums (which cover medical services but not hospital services) can rise by 10% for each year that you were eligible for Medicare and didn't enroll. Yikes!
So when, exactly, should you enroll? Well, you're eligible for Medicare at age 65, and you can sign up anytime within the three months leading up to your 65th birthday, during the month of your birthday, or within the three months that follow. Those seven months are your initial enrollment period.
The thought of missing that period may be worrisome, but there's a helpful loophole: If you're among the many Americans who are already receiving Social Security benefits by the time they reach age 65, you should be enrolled in Medicare automatically. You might also avoid the late-enrollment penalty and be able to skip the deadline if you're still working (with employer-provided healthcare coverage) at age 65, or if you're serving as a volunteer abroad.
Warren Buffett has said, "The arithmetic makes it plain that inflation is a far more devastating tax than anything that has been enacted by our legislature." He explained that while an income tax taxes earnings, inflation is applied to everything. So while you might earn 4% interest on a bank account in some years, if inflation is 4%, it will wipe out that gain entirely.
Over long periods, inflation has averaged about 3% per year, but in any given year or period, it can be much higher or lower. In 2015, for example, it averaged close to 0%, while it was 6% in 1982, 9% in 1975, and more than 13% in 1980. Even at 3%, it can really shrink the purchasing power of your future dollars, as something that costs $1,000 now may cost about $1,810 in 20 years.
Imagine that you're aiming to amass $875,000 by the time you retire in 20 years, figuring that that sum will be enough to support you. Well, if inflation averages 3%, that $875,000 will end up having the purchasing power of just $484,000 in today's dollars. You'd need to amass about $1.6 million by retirement in order to end up with the purchasing power of $875,000 today. Keep inflation in mind when planning for retirement -- and perhaps ratchet up your savings goal and your annual contributions. (Know, too, that there are a bunch of ways toincrease your retirement income.)
Finally, don't just start collecting your Social Security benefits at any old time. Learn more about it first, because there are ways tomaximize your Social Securityand some strategies you might employ -- especially if you're married.
For example, you can increase or decrease your benefits by starting to collect Social Security earlier or later than your "full" retirement age, which is 66 or 67 for most of us these days. A married couple can coordinate their benefit-taking, perhaps having the spouse with the lower expected benefits starting to collect early, so that the other spouse can delay starting to collect, allowing those eventual benefits to grow bigger.
Spend a little time learning more about retirement and smart moves to make, and you can end up with thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars more than you expected. That can make a huge difference in your last decades of life.
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The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 12 Costly Retirement Mistakes to Avoid: Most of us look forward to retirement, imagining that we'll get to relax more and do lots of things that we haven't had sufficient time for -- such as traveling, reading, and exercising. How pleasant and secure our retirements are depends to a great deal on how well we prepare -- and on how many smart moves and how few mistakes we make. It's very risky to leave much of your retirement to chance, as that increases your odds of running out of money long before you run out of breath. For best results, be the master of your own retirement and make savvy decisions. A closeup of a sneaker about to step on a banana peel Image source: Getty Images. Here are 12 common -- and costly -- retirement mistakes to avoid: 1. Not having a plan The most basic mistake that millions make is simply not having a plan. According to the 2017 Retirement Confidence Survey, only 41% of respondents said that they or their spouse has taken the time to estimate how much money they'll need in retirement. There's no one-size-fits-all number regarding how much you need to save for retirement , but some experts suggest aiming for 80% of your income at the time you retire. So if you retire earning $75,000, you'll want to aim to have $60,000 per year. That would be your total needed income. Some of it will likely be Social Security benefits, and much will probably come from your savings. One way to help you figure out how much you need to save is to invert the 4% rule and multiply your desired annual income from your nest egg by 25. (The 4% rule is a very rough guide to how much money you can withdraw from your nest egg in retirement in order to make it last.) So, for example, if you want to be able to draw $25,000 from your nest egg in your first year of retirement, you'd multiply that by 25, getting $625,000. You'd need to retire with $625,000 saved. Once you know how much your retirement will require, you'll need to figure out how you'll amass that sum. You might need to increase your saving, cut back on your spending, and/or take on a part-time job for a while. Story continues 2. Not making the most of tax-advantaged retirement accounts Another error is not taking advantage of retirement accounts available to you, such as traditional and Roth IRAs and traditional and Roth 401(k) plans at work. With a traditional IRA, you contribute pre-tax money, reducing your taxable income for the year, and thereby reducing your taxes, too. (Taxable income of $75,000 and a $5,000 contribution? Your taxable income drops to $70,000 for the year.) The money grows in your account, and when you withdraw it in retirement, it's taxed at your ordinary income tax rate at the time -- which is often lower than your current rate. With a Roth IRA, you contribute post -tax money that doesn't reduce your taxable income at all in the contribution year. (Taxable income of $75,000 and a $5,000 contribution? Your taxable income remains $75,000 for the year.) Here's why the Roth IRA is a big deal, though: Your money grows in the account until you withdraw it in retirement -- tax free . For 2018, the IRA contribution limit is $5,500 -- plus $1,000 for those 50 or older. Meanwhile, 401(k)s also come in traditional and Roth varieties, and their 2018 contribution limits are far steeper -- $18,500 plus an additional $6,000 for those 50 and up. The table below shows how much you can accumulate by socking away various sums that grow at an annual average of 8%. Remember that if you do so within a Roth IRA and/or a Roth 401(k), the sums below may be yours tax-free. If you're in a 25% tax bracket and empty a Roth account worth $500,000, you can avoid paying $125,000 in taxes. Growing at 8% for $5,000 Invested Annually $10,000 Invested Annually $15,000 Invested Annually 15 years $146,621 $293,243 $439,864 20 years $247,115 $494,229 $741,344 25 years $394,772 $789,544 $1.2 million 30 years $611,729 $1.2 million $1.8 million Calculations by author. No matter what sum you need, the sooner you start saving and investing, the better off you'll be -- even if you're only in your 30s. After all, the younger you are, the longer your money can grow for you. 3. Cashing out 401(k) accounts These days, it's common for workers to change jobs every few years, meaning that they end up contributing to lots of 401(k) accounts over time. It's also very common for workers to cash out those accounts when changing jobs. Don't do so, though. Early withdrawals result in 10% penalties -- plus taxation on the income. Even worse, you're shortchanging your future when you cash out your 401(k) -- and even, to a lesser degree, if you borrow from it, leaving many dollars unable to grow for you for a number of years. Even if your 401(k) has only $20,000 in it when you leave your job, if that sum can keep growing for another 20 years and it averages an annual growth rate of 8%, it will grow to more than $90,000, which can be very meaningful in retirement. a middle-aged man at a table, with his head in his hands Image source: Getty Images. 4. Putting off saving for retirement Most of us procrastinate with various tasks we need to do -- but putting off preparing for your retirement is a very costly kind of procrastination. To understand just how costly, imagine that you plan to sock away $8,000 per year for 20 years, in order to fund your retirement, and you expect to earn an average annual return of 8%. What happens if you put it off and start this investing in earnest two years late? Well, if you sock away $8,000 annually for 18 years and it grows by 8% annually, you'll end up with around $323,570. What if you didn't procrastinate and followed your plan for a full 20 years? Well, then you'd end up with $395,383 -- more than $70,000 more. Note, too, that you end up with more than 70,000 extra dollars just by having made two extra $8,000 investments, or $16,000. The earliest dollars you invest have the most time to grow. By putting off saving aggressively for retirement, you're leaving many thousands of dollars on the table. The table below offers more examples of how a few years can make a big difference. For example, consider that if you socked away $10,000 annually for 25 years, it would grow to almost $790,000 over 25 years. If you'd started five years late, though, you'd have accumulated about $500,000 over 20 years -- that's almost $300,000 less. Growing at 8% for $5,000 Invested Annually $10,000 Invested Annually $15,000 Invested Annually 15 years $146,621 $293,243 $439,864 18 years $202,231 404,463 $606,696 20 years $247,115 $494,229 $741,344 23 years $328,824 $657,648 $986,471 25 years $394,772 $789,544 $1.2 million Calculations by author. 5. Assuming Social Security will be enough Another error is assuming that the Social Security benefits you'll receive in retirement will be enough (or close to enough) to support you. In many instances, that's just not the case. Consider this: The average Social Security retirement benefit was recently $1,411 per month, or only about $17,000 per year. Of course, if you earned more than average during your working years, you'll collect more than that -- but not necessarily a lot more. The m aximum benefit for those retiring at their full retirement age was recently $2,788 per month -- or about $33,000 for the whole year. Savvy planners will find out what they can expect from Social Security and will incorporate it into their plans. You can get an estimate of your expected benefits from the Social Security website at www.ssa.gov . an older couple, looking sad and shocked at some papers in front of them Image source: Getty Images. 6. Underestimating healthcare costs We all know that healthcare is extremely costly, but we don't always remember to include it in our retirement planning. The 2018 Retirement Confidence Survey found that only 19% of workers have taken the time to estimate how much money they will need for healthcare expenses in retirement. There's no way to really know exactly how much you'll need, but it does help to have a rough idea. So consider this: A 65-year-old couple retiring today will spend, on average, a total of $275,000 out of pocket on healthcare, according to Fidelity Investments. (That doesn't include long-term care expenses, either.) One way to ease this burden is to be smart about Medicare , choosing the plan that will serve you best and making the most of all the program offers. Be good about getting screenings and preventive care, for example, and you might reduce your overall healthcare costs by staying healthier. Long-term care insurance is worth considering, but it's imperfect and is quite costly itself, the older you are when you sign up for it. Overall, you might aim to afford healthcare by planning to save more aggressively and aiming for a bigger nest egg. Or delay starting to collect Social Security in order to end up with fatter benefit checks. Other possible options for some include reverse mortgages or tapping life insurance policies for extra income, though that comes at the expense of heirs. 7. Underestimating how long your retirement will be The most common age at which Americans retire is about 62 or 63. There are lots of reasons why it's good to retire as early as you can -- but it can be a dangerous gambit, too, if you end up living a very long life. It's estimated that America is home to about 72,000 centenarians -- people aged 100 or older. If you live to 100 and retire at age 62, you're looking at 38 years of retirement. If you only live to 90, that's still a significant 28 years that your dollars will need to last. According to the Social Security Administration, "About one out of every four 65-year-olds today will live past age 90, and one out of 10 will live past age 95." Because of the possibility of living a long life, personal finance guru Suze Orman has advised that most people should aim to retire no earlier than age 70: "Every dollar you don't spend in your 60s is a dollar that can keep growing for your 70s and beyond." (For some people, this advice is sound. If you have planned well, though, and have socked away enough money for retirement , you could retire much earlier.) 8. Retirement will deliver some surprises You might end up retiring earlier than you planned to. According to the 2016 Retirement Confidence Survey, 46% of retirees left the workforce earlier than planned, with 55% citing health problems or a disability as the reason and 24% citing changes at work such as a downsizing or workplace closure. A hand writing with a marker the words you should know this Image source: Getty Images. 9. Not considering fixed annuities It's smart to at least consider investing in one or more annuities for your retirement, as it can provide almost guaranteed regular income, like a pension, and it can do so for the rest of your live, reducing the chance that you'll not have enough money to live on in later years. Stick with fixed annuities, though, as opposed to variable or indexed annuities. (Those can be problematic, with steep fees and restrictive terms.) Here's the kind of income that various people might be able to secure in the form of an immediate fixed annuity in the current economic environment: Person/People Cost Monthly Income Annual Income Equivalent 65-year-old man $100,000 $551 $6,612 70-year-old man $100,000 $632 $7,584 70-year-old woman $100,000 $592 $7,104 65-year-old couple $200,000 $941 $11,292 70-year-old couple $200,000 $1,036 $12,432 75-year-old couple $200,000 $1,195 $14,340 Data source: immediateannuities.com. Another strategy to avoid running out of money is investing in a deferred fixed annuity (sometimes called longevity insurance). Instead of starting to pay immediately, it starts paying at a future point, such as when you turn a certain age. For example, a 70-year-old man might spend $50,000 for an annuity that will start paying him $933 per month for the rest of his life beginning at age 80. 10. Being late to sign up for Medicare Medicare is critically important for tens of millions of retirees, and it will likely be critical for you, too. Just don't be late enrolling in Medicare , or you'll pay -- a lot. Your Part B premiums (which cover medical services but not hospital services) can rise by 10% for each year that you were eligible for Medicare and didn't enroll. Yikes! So when, exactly, should you enroll? Well, you're eligible for Medicare at age 65, and you can sign up anytime within the three months leading up to your 65th birthday, during the month of your birthday, or within the three months that follow. Those seven months are your initial enrollment period. The thought of missing that period may be worrisome, but there's a helpful loophole: If you're among the many Americans who are already receiving Social Security benefits by the time they reach age 65, you should be enrolled in Medicare automatically. You might also avoid the late-enrollment penalty and be able to skip the deadline if you're still working (with employer-provided healthcare coverage) at age 65, or if you're serving as a volunteer abroad. 11. Ignoring inflation Warren Buffett has said, "The arithmetic makes it plain that inflation is a far more devastating tax than anything that has been enacted by our legislature." He explained that while an income tax taxes earnings, inflation is applied to everything. So while you might earn 4% interest on a bank account in some years, if inflation is 4%, it will wipe out that gain entirely. Over long periods, inflation has averaged about 3% per year, but in any given year or period, it can be much higher or lower. In 2015, for example, it averaged close to 0%, while it was 6% in 1982, 9% in 1975, and more than 13% in 1980. Even at 3%, it can really shrink the purchasing power of your future dollars, as something that costs $1,000 now may cost about $1,810 in 20 years. Imagine that you're aiming to amass $875,000 by the time you retire in 20 years, figuring that that sum will be enough to support you. Well, if inflation averages 3%, that $875,000 will end up having the purchasing power of just $484,000 in today's dollars. You'd need to amass about $1.6 million by retirement in order to end up with the purchasing power of $875,000 today. Keep inflation in mind when planning for retirement -- and perhaps ratchet up your savings goal and your annual contributions. (Know, too, that there are a bunch of ways to increase your retirement income .) 12. Not being strategic about Social Security Finally, don't just start collecting your Social Security benefits at any old time. Learn more about it first, because there are ways to maximize your Social Security and some strategies you might employ -- especially if you're married. For example, you can increase or decrease your benefits by starting to collect Social Security earlier or later than your "full" retirement age, which is 66 or 67 for most of us these days. A married couple can coordinate their benefit-taking, perhaps having the spouse with the lower expected benefits starting to collect early, so that the other spouse can delay starting to collect, allowing those eventual benefits to grow bigger. Spend a little time learning more about retirement and smart moves to make, and you can end up with thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars more than you expected. That can make a huge difference in your last decades of life. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Don't Get Greedy Yet With Check Point Software Technologies Stock: Shares of cybersecurity outfitCheck Point Software Technologies(NASDAQ: CHKP)have been underperforming for the past year. As cyberattacks have gained notoriety, lots of competition has cropped up and taken a bite out of the company's market share. Even with an attractive valuation, it may not be time yet for investors to double down on Check Point as the business gets serious about marketing new security tools.
During the first quarter of 2018, Check Point's revenue only rose 4% year over year. Meanwhile, younger competitorPalo Alto Networks(NYSE: PANW)has been growing sales by double digitswith aggressive marketing and newer technology.
Data byYCharts.
The silver lining here is that the better-established Check Point is a profitable company, whereas upstarts like Palo Alto Networks are not. In spite of lackluster revenue, Check Point's earnings per share increased 7% year over year, helped by the company's share repurchase program. A switch to cloud-based recurring revenue streams has also been under way, which is helping push down the cost of sales and enabling more investment into research and marketing. Security subscription revenue grew 14% last quarter and represented only 28% of total revenue, so there is much that can be improved on here.
To that end, Check Point launched a new holistic"Gen V"security offering that helps organizations stay secure against older types of threats as well as newer, more complex attacks all in a single package. Management said many of its smaller competitors only protect against niche threats, something it views as inferior to its offering. Because of the scope of coverage, Gen V deals are bigger and income from them typically lasts longer, but they are also slower to ink.
Image source: Getty Images.
Because of sluggish growth, investors have lost enthusiasm for the stock. After months of declines that started during the summer of 2017, its trailing price-to-earnings ratio sits at 20. Price to free cash flow, which adjusts earnings to only reflect money left over after basic operations are paid for, is a lowly 13.9. With the cybersecurity industry growing and Check Point launching new product and sales campaigns, that makes the stock look like a pretty cheap buy.
While Check Point is executing on a turnaround that could lead to stronger growth, it might be too soon to get greedy. Management was pleased with its early progress, but admitted that pushing its new solutions and retraining its sales force is taking longer than it would like. Thus, full-year 2018 revenue guidance was downgraded to $1.85 billion to $1.93 billion from an estimate of $1.9 billion to $2.0 billion. That would be flat to a 4% increase over 2017, hardly the sales momentum investors may have been looking for. Adjusted earnings are expected to be 2% to 8% higher, a big slowdown from the 13% gain last year.
Shares look cheap, but with both the top and bottom lines decelerating, there could be further declines. I am waiting to see if the recent trend continues to deteriorate and pushesCheck Point's revenue into contraction. If it reverses and sales accelerate again, I'm a buyer. But until the cybersecurity company can recapture sales growth and start pushing back against its newer competition, getting greedy doesn't seem like the right move.
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Nicholas Rossolillohas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Check Point Software Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Don't Get Greedy Yet With Check Point Software Technologies Stock: Shares of cybersecurity outfit Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP) have been underperforming for the past year. As cyberattacks have gained notoriety, lots of competition has cropped up and taken a bite out of the company's market share. Even with an attractive valuation, it may not be time yet for investors to double down on Check Point as the business gets serious about marketing new security tools. Making a key transition During the first quarter of 2018, Check Point's revenue only rose 4% year over year. Meanwhile, younger competitor Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) has been growing sales by double digits with aggressive marketing and newer technology. CHKP Revenue (TTM) Chart Data by YCharts . The silver lining here is that the better-established Check Point is a profitable company, whereas upstarts like Palo Alto Networks are not. In spite of lackluster revenue, Check Point's earnings per share increased 7% year over year, helped by the company's share repurchase program. A switch to cloud-based recurring revenue streams has also been under way, which is helping push down the cost of sales and enabling more investment into research and marketing. Security subscription revenue grew 14% last quarter and represented only 28% of total revenue, so there is much that can be improved on here. To that end, Check Point launched a new holistic "Gen V" security offering that helps organizations stay secure against older types of threats as well as newer, more complex attacks all in a single package. Management said many of its smaller competitors only protect against niche threats, something it views as inferior to its offering. Because of the scope of coverage, Gen V deals are bigger and income from them typically lasts longer, but they are also slower to ink. An illustration of multiple computers getting hooked up to a central cloud-based network. Image source: Getty Images. Because of sluggish growth, investors have lost enthusiasm for the stock. After months of declines that started during the summer of 2017, its trailing price-to-earnings ratio sits at 20. Price to free cash flow, which adjusts earnings to only reflect money left over after basic operations are paid for, is a lowly 13.9. With the cybersecurity industry growing and Check Point launching new product and sales campaigns, that makes the stock look like a pretty cheap buy. Story continues Time to get greedy? While Check Point is executing on a turnaround that could lead to stronger growth, it might be too soon to get greedy. Management was pleased with its early progress, but admitted that pushing its new solutions and retraining its sales force is taking longer than it would like. Thus, full-year 2018 revenue guidance was downgraded to $1.85 billion to $1.93 billion from an estimate of $1.9 billion to $2.0 billion. That would be flat to a 4% increase over 2017, hardly the sales momentum investors may have been looking for. Adjusted earnings are expected to be 2% to 8% higher, a big slowdown from the 13% gain last year. Shares look cheap, but with both the top and bottom lines decelerating, there could be further declines. I am waiting to see if the recent trend continues to deteriorate and pushesCheck Point's revenue into contraction. If it reverses and sales accelerate again, I'm a buyer. But until the cybersecurity company can recapture sales growth and start pushing back against its newer competition, getting greedy doesn't seem like the right move. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Nicholas Rossolillo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Check Point Software Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Dollar Index Boosted by Weaker Euro, Gains Limited by Surge in Yen: The U.S. Dollar finished mixed against individual currencies last week, but because of the weighting, the Dollar Index finished higher for the week. The Euro represents 57.6% of the index, the Japanese Yen 13.6%, the British Pound 11.9%, the Canadian Dollar 9.1%, the Swedish Krona 4.2% and the Swiss Franc 3.6%.
June U.S. Dollar Indexfutures settled the week at 94.130, up 0.586 or +0.63%.
The dollar posted weekly gains against the New Zealand Dollar, the Euro, the British Pound and the Canadian Dollar. The Greenback lost ground versus the Australian Dollar and the Japanese Yen.
Three major events drove the price action in the U.S. Dollar last week.
Firstly, the dollar weakened on geopolitical concerns after President Donald Trump expressed his misgivings on the trade negotiations between the United States and China to reporters during an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Asked whether he was pleased with the talks, Trump responded, “No, not really,” though he added, “They’re a start.”
The agreement reached the previous week at least delayed a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. However, Trump’s comments renewed trade war concerns, driving investors into safe haven assets and out of the dollar.
Secondly, the Dollar weakened primarily against the Japanese from Wednesday to Friday after the Federal Reserve’s May meeting minutes showed the central bank may be willing to let inflation run a little hotter than its two percent goal. Investors called the minutes “dovish”, driving U.S. Treasury yields lower and tightening the spread between U.S. Government Bond yields and Japanese Government Bonds.
Finally, the Greenback was pressured later in the week on renewed geopolitical concerns after President Trump cancelled a meeting with North Korean President Kim Jung Un.
The Australian Dollar rallied against the U.S. Dollar early in the week then held onto its gains into the close on Friday. The two-sided price action was fueled by a drop in U.S. interest rates and lower demand for risky assets.
TheAUD/USDsettled at .7547, up 0.0035 or +0.47%.
In other news, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said on Wednesday that the possibility of “something going wrong in China” is among the biggest economic risks faced by Australia. He was citing the build-up of debt in the world’s second largest economy.
The New Zealand Dollar posted a two-sided trade against the U.S. Dollar last week, first spiking to its highest level since May 11 before settling slightly lower.
TheNZD/USDsettled at .6916, down 0.0004 or -0.06%.
The price action was fueled by a drop in U.S. Treasury yields and trade concerns over the U.S. and China. Traders also reacted to several reports from New Zealand. Retail Sales came in lower than expected at 0.1%. Core Retail Sales also missed the forecast, coming in at 0.6% versus 1.1%. The Trade Balance, however, improved to 263 million from -156 million. Economists had forecast a gain of 200 million.
The Dollar/Yen fell sharply last week on flight-to-safety buying related to trade war concerns and renewed tensions over North Korea after a June meeting between the U.S. and North Korea was surprisingly cancel by President Trump and the softer Fed minutes. The USD/JPY settled at 109.385, down 1.374 or -1.24%.
The commodity-linkedCanadian Dollarended the week sharply lower in reaction to the steep plunge in crude oil prices. TheEUR/USDweakened as rising bond yields in Italy triggered nervousness among investors. Brewing political instability in Spain also weighed on the Euro. The single-currency also closed lower for a sixth straight week. TheBritish Poundnearly hit a five-month low on worries over Brexit and further signs of weakness in Britain’s economy.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• Alt coins fall again for the week as crypto currencies continue to struggle
• S&P 500 shows slight bullish pressure during the week
• Bitcoin markets fall again during the week, slicing through major support || Dollar Index Boosted by Weaker Euro, Gains Limited by Surge in Yen: The U.S. Dollar finished mixed against individual currencies last week, but because of the weighting, the Dollar Index finished higher for the week. The Euro represents 57.6% of the index, the Japanese Yen 13.6%, the British Pound 11.9%, the Canadian Dollar 9.1%, the Swedish Krona 4.2% and the Swiss Franc 3.6%. June U.S. Dollar Index futures settled the week at 94.130, up 0.586 or +0.63%. Weekly June U.S. Dollar Index The dollar posted weekly gains against the New Zealand Dollar, the Euro, the British Pound and the Canadian Dollar. The Greenback lost ground versus the Australian Dollar and the Japanese Yen. Three major events drove the price action in the U.S. Dollar last week. Firstly, the dollar weakened on geopolitical concerns after President Donald Trump expressed his misgivings on the trade negotiations between the United States and China to reporters during an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Asked whether he was pleased with the talks, Trump responded, “No, not really,” though he added, “They’re a start.” The agreement reached the previous week at least delayed a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. However, Trump’s comments renewed trade war concerns, driving investors into safe haven assets and out of the dollar. Secondly, the Dollar weakened primarily against the Japanese from Wednesday to Friday after the Federal Reserve’s May meeting minutes showed the central bank may be willing to let inflation run a little hotter than its two percent goal. Investors called the minutes “dovish”, driving U.S. Treasury yields lower and tightening the spread between U.S. Government Bond yields and Japanese Government Bonds. Finally, the Greenback was pressured later in the week on renewed geopolitical concerns after President Trump cancelled a meeting with North Korean President Kim Jung Un. Australian Dollar The Australian Dollar rallied against the U.S. Dollar early in the week then held onto its gains into the close on Friday. The two-sided price action was fueled by a drop in U.S. interest rates and lower demand for risky assets. Story continues The AUD/USD settled at .7547, up 0.0035 or +0.47%. Weekly AUD/USD In other news, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said on Wednesday that the possibility of “something going wrong in China” is among the biggest economic risks faced by Australia. He was citing the build-up of debt in the world’s second largest economy. New Zealand Dollar The New Zealand Dollar posted a two-sided trade against the U.S. Dollar last week, first spiking to its highest level since May 11 before settling slightly lower. The NZD/USD settled at .6916, down 0.0004 or -0.06%. Weekly NZD/USD The price action was fueled by a drop in U.S. Treasury yields and trade concerns over the U.S. and China. Traders also reacted to several reports from New Zealand. Retail Sales came in lower than expected at 0.1%. Core Retail Sales also missed the forecast, coming in at 0.6% versus 1.1%. The Trade Balance, however, improved to 263 million from -156 million. Economists had forecast a gain of 200 million. Weekly USD/JPY Japanese Yen The Dollar/Yen fell sharply last week on flight-to-safety buying related to trade war concerns and renewed tensions over North Korea after a June meeting between the U.S. and North Korea was surprisingly cancel by President Trump and the softer Fed minutes. The USD/JPY settled at 109.385, down 1.374 or -1.24%. Weekly USD/CAD Other Currencies The commodity-linked Canadian Dollar ended the week sharply lower in reaction to the steep plunge in crude oil prices. The EUR/USD weakened as rising bond yields in Italy triggered nervousness among investors. Brewing political instability in Spain also weighed on the Euro. The single-currency also closed lower for a sixth straight week. The British Pound nearly hit a five-month low on worries over Brexit and further signs of weakness in Britain’s economy. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/USD Fundamental Analysis – week of May 28, 2018 U.S Mortgage Rates Up Again, Making It 15 Weekly Rises this Year! EUR/USD Fundamental Analysis – week of May 28, 2018 Alt coins fall again for the week as crypto currencies continue to struggle S&P 500 shows slight bullish pressure during the week Bitcoin markets fall again during the week, slicing through major support || Why Buffett's Excited About This Roadside Buy: Warren Buffett's primary mission as leader ofBerkshire Hathaway(NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B)is to find good investments to put his investing capital to work. That's been a struggle for the Oracle of Omaha lately, because it's hard to find deals that bothmeet the requirements that Buffett has for purchasesand are big enough to move the needle at Berkshire's massive operation.
But Buffett did manage to find one company that fit the bill for smart acquisitions, and in hisannual letter to shareholders, the Berkshire CEO explained why he's excited about the investment. Although Berkshire didn't fully take over the company, Buffett negotiated provisions to increase his stake in the next five years.
Image source: Pilot Flying J.
Last October, Berkshire Hathaway bought a stake in Pilot Flying J. The partnership is the largest operator of roadside travel centers and truck stops in the U.S., with about 750 locations scattered across North America. The company has about 27,000 employees and is led by Jimmy Haslam, the son of the original founder of the travel center provider.
Family-run businesses are a favorite of Buffett, and his comments about the company are completely in line with his philosophy in seeking out ideal partners for Berkshire. "PFJ has been run from the get-go by the remarkable Haslam family," Buffett wrote, as "'Big Jim' Haslam began with a dream and a gas station 60 years ago." Now, the business has about $20 billion in annual sales, making it an industry leader.
Buffett was able to negotiate an initial 38.6% partnership stake in Pilot Flying J, but he wasn't content to limit his exposure to a minority interest. Over time, Berkshire has an agreement in its purchase contract to increase its stake in the partnership in 2023. At that time, Buffett will own 80% of the business, with the Haslam family collectively owning the remaining 20%.
As is often the case, Berkshire didn't reveal the terms of the deal. However, estimates put the value of the business at just over $9 billion, making the Buffett investment likely to have been in the range of roughly $3.5 billion, with the potential to grow to more than $7 billion in the next five years. That's just a drop in the bucket forBerkshire Hathaway's current cash hoard, but it's still a welcome addition in an environment that simply hasn't had many big elephants for Buffett to target.
Some of those who follow Buffett weren't entirely happy with the move at the time. Pilot Flying J's business model relies on a healthy flow of professional drivers of commercial vehicles like tractor-trailers and tour buses, and already,signs of potential disruption in the automotive industryhave raised warning signs for trucking. If autonomous vehicle technology eventually advances to the point at which vehicles won't even have tohavedrivers, much of the market that Pilot Flying J serves could disappear.
That said, Pilot Flying J isn't sitting still. Theshift toward alternative fuelsearlier in the 2010s spurred the company to make a partnership withClean Energy Fuelsthat involved the opening of natural gas refueling stations at strategic points across the nation. If electric-vehicle technology to serve the commercial trucking market takes off in the future, Pilot Flying J has demonstrated an ability to keep up with innovation.
More importantly,Buffett is comfortable taking the riskof a changing future. As he told interviewers shortly after the purchase, "Trucks are going to be around for a very long time," and Buffett seems convinced that any shift toward completely driverless commercial vehicles could be so far in the future that it won't have a marked impact on the value of Pilot Flying J.
When even Warren Buffett has trouble finding good deals, Berkshire shareholders worry. Yet the Oracle of Omaha's discipline in waiting for good pitches remains intact, and Pilot Flying J should join the long list of other Berkshire businesses that make incremental contributions to the insurance giant's long-term success.
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Dan Caplingerowns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares) and Clean Energy Fuels. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Buffett's Excited About This Roadside Buy: Warren Buffett 's primary mission as leader of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) is to find good investments to put his investing capital to work. That's been a struggle for the Oracle of Omaha lately, because it's hard to find deals that both meet the requirements that Buffett has for purchases and are big enough to move the needle at Berkshire's massive operation. But Buffett did manage to find one company that fit the bill for smart acquisitions, and in his annual letter to shareholders , the Berkshire CEO explained why he's excited about the investment. Although Berkshire didn't fully take over the company, Buffett negotiated provisions to increase his stake in the next five years. Gas station awning with Pilot logo on it, in front of storefront. Image source: Pilot Flying J. Meet "Big Jim" Haslam's Pilot Flying J Last October, Berkshire Hathaway bought a stake in Pilot Flying J. The partnership is the largest operator of roadside travel centers and truck stops in the U.S., with about 750 locations scattered across North America. The company has about 27,000 employees and is led by Jimmy Haslam, the son of the original founder of the travel center provider. Family-run businesses are a favorite of Buffett, and his comments about the company are completely in line with his philosophy in seeking out ideal partners for Berkshire. "PFJ has been run from the get-go by the remarkable Haslam family," Buffett wrote, as "'Big Jim' Haslam began with a dream and a gas station 60 years ago." Now, the business has about $20 billion in annual sales, making it an industry leader. The deal Buffett made Buffett was able to negotiate an initial 38.6% partnership stake in Pilot Flying J, but he wasn't content to limit his exposure to a minority interest. Over time, Berkshire has an agreement in its purchase contract to increase its stake in the partnership in 2023. At that time, Buffett will own 80% of the business, with the Haslam family collectively owning the remaining 20%. Story continues As is often the case, Berkshire didn't reveal the terms of the deal. However, estimates put the value of the business at just over $9 billion, making the Buffett investment likely to have been in the range of roughly $3.5 billion, with the potential to grow to more than $7 billion in the next five years. That's just a drop in the bucket for Berkshire Hathaway's current cash hoard , but it's still a welcome addition in an environment that simply hasn't had many big elephants for Buffett to target. Will Flying J's customers fly away? Some of those who follow Buffett weren't entirely happy with the move at the time. Pilot Flying J's business model relies on a healthy flow of professional drivers of commercial vehicles like tractor-trailers and tour buses, and already, signs of potential disruption in the automotive industry have raised warning signs for trucking. If autonomous vehicle technology eventually advances to the point at which vehicles won't even have to have drivers, much of the market that Pilot Flying J serves could disappear. That said, Pilot Flying J isn't sitting still. The shift toward alternative fuels earlier in the 2010s spurred the company to make a partnership with Clean Energy Fuels that involved the opening of natural gas refueling stations at strategic points across the nation. If electric-vehicle technology to serve the commercial trucking market takes off in the future, Pilot Flying J has demonstrated an ability to keep up with innovation. More importantly, Buffett is comfortable taking the risk of a changing future. As he told interviewers shortly after the purchase, "Trucks are going to be around for a very long time," and Buffett seems convinced that any shift toward completely driverless commercial vehicles could be so far in the future that it won't have a marked impact on the value of Pilot Flying J. Keep on truckin' When even Warren Buffett has trouble finding good deals, Berkshire shareholders worry. Yet the Oracle of Omaha's discipline in waiting for good pitches remains intact, and Pilot Flying J should join the long list of other Berkshire businesses that make incremental contributions to the insurance giant's long-term success. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Dan Caplinger owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares) and Clean Energy Fuels. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Who's Ready for a 15% Increase to Their Health Insurance Premium in 2019?: When Donald Trump won the electoral vote 1 1/2 years ago, the American people knew change was coming. Topping President Trump's list of things to do once in office was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is more commonly known as Obamacare. Of course, things didn't go according to plan. With Republicans in control of the legislative branch of the government, it was widely expected that they would have no trouble repealing and replacing Obamacare. However, working with a razor-thin majority in the Senate, Republican lawmakers and the president were unable to come to an agreement on healthcare reform after countless tries in 2017. Instead, Trump and the GOP-led Congress slowly have been dismantling some of the health law's core components, leaving only a shell of former President Barack Obama's hallmark healthcare legislation. President Trump on a podium, with Vice President Mike Spence and Chief of Staff John Kelly behind him. President Trump addressing Department of Homeland Security employees. Image source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security via Flickr. Who's ready for another double-digit premium increase? Slowly picking apart Obamacare does have a purpose for President Trump: It likely will send the program into a "death spiral," whereby premiums rise at a rapid pace and healthy individuals drop out of the program altogether. Such a move would prompt lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to come together and create a new health plan. But in the interim, it means painfully high increases for those folks signed up with Obamacare who aren't privy to its remaining subsidies. According to a newly released report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), premiums for benchmark plans -- i.e., the second-lowest-cost silver plan listed on ACA exchanges -- are expected to rise by 15% in 2019 and then average a 7% increase per year thereafter, through 2028. Mind you, this 15% increase comes after the Department of Health and Human Services announced in late October 2017 that benchmark plan premiums would be rising by an average of 37% in 2018. Story continues Then again, the CBO's estimate could prove conservative for next year. Back in late January, insurer Covered California in the nation's most populous state released a report entitled, "The Roller Coaster Continues" that described what it believes will be bottom-line premium hikes of between 16% and 30% in 2019. Though these are estimates, and rate hikes often aren't finalized until September or October, when a large insurer in the fifth-largest economy in the world speaks, you listen. Ultimately, the CBO estimates that the total number of uninsured will rise by 3 million next year, to 32 million, and the non-elderly uninsured rate will hit 13%. By 2028, some 35 million people are forecast to be without insurance if the remnants of Obamacare are kept in place. A worried nurse sitting in a hallway with her head resting on her hands. Image source: Getty Images. Three reasons Obamacare premiums keep soaring If we had to point a finger at the factors behind this rapid rise in healthcare premiums, three would stand out. 1. The elimination of the individual mandate in 2019 The first, which will take shape in 2019, is the elimination of the individual mandate. The individual mandate is the actionable component of Obamacare that requires individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a financial penalty, known as the Shared Responsibility Payment (SRP). If you choose to go uninsured and don't qualify for an exemption, your SRP would be the greater of 2.5% of modified adjusted gross income or $695 per adult. However, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed in December, it, among other things, outlined the elimination of the individual mandate beginning in 2019. The mandate is a crucial cog of Obamacare that encouraged the enrollment of healthier individuals who would otherwise tempt fate and remain uninsured. The premiums of these healthy individuals are sorely needed by insurance companies to offset the higher costs associated with sicker individuals allowed to enroll under Obamacare. Without this mandate, it's widely believed that some healthier individuals will remain on the sidelines since there's no longer the fear of financial penalty. Meanwhile, the patient population for remaining ACA insurers will include a higher number of sicker members relative to healthy members. A judge's gavel and chair in the foreground of a courtroom. Image source: Getty Images. 2. President Trump doing away with cost-sharing reductions Last year, Donald Trump also announced the end of cost-sharing reductions , or CSRs, which are one of the two key subsidies given to lower-income individuals and families. Cost-sharing reductions were given to people earning between 100% and 250% of the federal poverty level, and they helped considerably lower the cost of doctor visits by offsetting some of the patient's responsibility for copays, coinsurance, and deductibles. How was Trump able to axe such a critical subsidy, you ask? The answer lies with a long-standing legal case initiated by House Republicans all the way back in 2014. The House GOP, which filed suit again Sylvia Burwell, who was then the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, alleged that all funds apportioned to the ACA should be approved by Congress, but they weren't going through these traditional channels. As a result, the House GOP intimated that CSRs were illegal. In May 2016, District of Columbia Judge Rosemary Collyer agreed with House Republicans, albeit she stayed her judgment with the expectation that the Obama administration would file an appeal, which came in shortly thereafter. This appeal had been continued on numerous occasions, even into the Trump presidency. Trump had been using the idea of dropping the appeal as a dangling carrot to incite cooperation between Democrats and Republicans on healthcare reform, but, as noted, that didn't work. Ultimately, Trump simply dropped the appeal, which put Collyer's judgment into effect and ended cost-sharing reductions. Though the Advanced Premium Tax Credit remains in place and continues to lower premiums for individuals and families earning under 400% of the federal poverty level, the lack of CSRs makes affording medical care a challenge for low-income individuals. At the closing of ACA enrollment for 2017, 7.05 million of the 12.2 million enrollees qualified for cost-sharing reductions. A stethoscope lying atop a fanned pile of hundred dollar bills. Image source: Getty Images. 3. An insurer exodus The third reason healthcare premiums are soaring is the lack of plan options for consumers to choose from. Long before President Trump took office, large-scale health insurers were expressing their displeasure with Obamacare. Many had been losing money on the ACA's exchanges, despite the belief when Obamacare was initially rolled out that they'd be overwhelmingly profitable. These losses were the result of healthy individuals not being coerced by initially low Shared Responsibility Payments to enroll, which led to sicker enrollees flooding into the system and significantly pushing up expenditures for health insurers. Despite numerous efforts to improve young adult enrollment, it wasn't enough to counteract the higher costs associated with treating sicker people who, under Obamacare, couldn't be turned away by insurers. Heading into 2018, Avalere estimated that 41% of all U.S. counties were expected to have just one insurer offering a health plan. This comes after UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) , the nation's largest insurer, pulled out of 31 of 34 states in 2017. After UnitedHealth Group lost $475 million from Obamacare in 2015 and predicted $650 million in ACA losses in 2016, it was no surprise to see the nation's largest health insurer critical of the ACA. Last year, insurers Aetna and Humana , which were denied the right to merge by federal regulators, also announced their intended departure from the ACA exchanges in 2018. Without these larger players, those few insurers that do remain gain significant pricing power and have little incentive to lower their premiums to attract new members. In other words, the bargaining power is entirely with the insurer. If there's a bright side here, it's that most Americans receive health insurance through their employers or still qualify for the Advanced Premium Tax Credit. But for those folks who are uninsured and wanting health insurance or earn too much to qualify for subsidies, things are only expected to get worse. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Who's Ready for a 15% Increase to Their Health Insurance Premium in 2019?: When Donald Trump won the electoral vote 1 1/2 years ago, the American people knew change was coming. Topping President Trump's list of things to do once in office was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is more commonly known as Obamacare. Of course, things didn't go according to plan.
With Republicans in control of the legislative branch of the government, it was widely expected that they would have no trouble repealing and replacing Obamacare. However, working with a razor-thin majority in the Senate, Republican lawmakers and the president were unable to come to an agreement on healthcare reform after countless tries in 2017. Instead, Trump and the GOP-led Congress slowly have been dismantling some of the health law's core components, leaving only a shell of former President Barack Obama's hallmark healthcare legislation.
President Trump addressing Department of Homeland Security employees. Image source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security via Flickr.
Slowly picking apart Obamacare does have a purpose for President Trump: It likely will send the program into a "death spiral," whereby premiums rise at a rapid pace and healthy individuals drop out of the program altogether. Such a move would prompt lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to come together and create a new health plan. But in the interim, it means painfully high increases for those folks signed up with Obamacare who aren't privy to its remaining subsidies.
According to anewly released reportfrom the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), premiums for benchmark plans -- i.e., the second-lowest-cost silver plan listed on ACA exchanges -- are expected to rise by 15% in 2019 and then average a 7% increase per year thereafter, through 2028. Mind you, this 15% increase comes after the Department of Health and Human Services announced in late October 2017 that benchmark plan premiums would be rising by anaverage of 37%in 2018.
Then again, the CBO's estimate could prove conservative for next year. Back in late January, insurer Covered California in the nation's most populous state released a report entitled, "The Roller Coaster Continues" that described what it believes will be bottom-line premium hikes of between 16% and 30% in 2019. Though these are estimates, and rate hikes often aren't finalized until September or October, when a large insurer in the fifth-largest economy in the world speaks, you listen.
Ultimately, the CBO estimates that the total number of uninsured will rise by 3 million next year, to 32 million, and the non-elderly uninsured rate will hit 13%. By 2028, some 35 million people are forecast to be without insurance if the remnants of Obamacare are kept in place.
Image source: Getty Images.
If we had to point a finger at the factors behind this rapid rise in healthcare premiums, three would stand out.
The first, which will take shape in 2019, is the elimination of the individual mandate. The individual mandate is the actionable component of Obamacare that requires individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a financial penalty, known as the Shared Responsibility Payment (SRP). If you choose to go uninsured and don't qualify for an exemption, your SRP would be the greater of 2.5% of modified adjusted gross income or $695 per adult.
However, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed in December, it, among other things, outlined theelimination of the individual mandatebeginning in 2019. The mandate is a crucial cog of Obamacare that encouraged the enrollment of healthier individuals who would otherwise tempt fate and remain uninsured. The premiums of these healthy individuals are sorely needed by insurance companies to offset the higher costs associated with sicker individuals allowed to enroll under Obamacare.
Without this mandate, it's widely believed that some healthier individuals will remain on the sidelines since there's no longer the fear of financial penalty. Meanwhile, the patient population for remaining ACA insurers will include a higher number of sicker members relative to healthy members.
Image source: Getty Images.
Last year, Donald Trump also announcedthe end of cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs, which are one of the two key subsidies given to lower-income individuals and families. Cost-sharing reductions were given to people earning between 100% and 250% of the federal poverty level, and they helped considerably lower the cost of doctor visits by offsetting some of the patient's responsibility for copays, coinsurance, and deductibles.
How was Trump able to axe such a critical subsidy, you ask? The answer lies with a long-standing legal case initiated by House Republicans all the way back in 2014. The House GOP, which filed suit again Sylvia Burwell, who was then the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, alleged that all funds apportioned to the ACA should be approved by Congress, but they weren't going through these traditional channels. As a result, the House GOP intimated that CSRs were illegal.
In May 2016, District of Columbia Judge Rosemary Collyer agreed with House Republicans, albeit she stayed her judgment with the expectation that the Obama administration would file an appeal, which came in shortly thereafter. This appeal had been continued on numerous occasions, even into the Trump presidency.
Trump had been using the idea of dropping the appeal as adangling carrotto incite cooperation between Democrats and Republicans on healthcare reform, but, as noted, that didn't work. Ultimately, Trump simply dropped the appeal, which put Collyer's judgment into effect and ended cost-sharing reductions.
Though the Advanced Premium Tax Credit remains in place and continues to lower premiums for individuals and families earning under 400% of the federal poverty level, the lack of CSRs makes affording medical care a challenge for low-income individuals. At the closing of ACA enrollment for 2017, 7.05 million of the 12.2 million enrollees qualified for cost-sharing reductions.
Image source: Getty Images.
The third reason healthcare premiums are soaring is thelack of plan optionsfor consumers to choose from.
Long before President Trump took office, large-scale health insurers were expressing their displeasure with Obamacare. Many had been losing money on the ACA's exchanges, despite the belief when Obamacare was initially rolled out that they'd be overwhelmingly profitable. These losses were the result of healthy individuals not being coerced by initially low Shared Responsibility Payments to enroll, which led to sicker enrollees flooding into the system and significantly pushing up expenditures for health insurers. Despite numerous efforts to improve young adult enrollment, it wasn't enough to counteract the higher costs associated with treating sicker people who, under Obamacare, couldn't be turned away by insurers.
Heading into 2018, Avalere estimated that 41% of all U.S. counties were expected to have just one insurer offering a health plan. This comes afterUnitedHealth Group(NYSE: UNH), the nation's largest insurer, pulled out of 31 of 34 states in 2017. After UnitedHealth Group lost $475 million from Obamacare in 2015 and predicted $650 million in ACA losses in 2016, it was no surprise to see the nation's largest health insurer critical of the ACA.
Last year, insurersAetnaandHumana, which were denied the right to merge by federal regulators, also announced their intended departure from the ACA exchanges in 2018. Without these larger players, those few insurers that do remain gain significant pricing power and have little incentive to lower their premiums to attract new members. In other words, the bargaining power is entirely with the insurer.
If there's a bright side here, it's that most Americans receive health insurance through their employers or still qualify for the Advanced Premium Tax Credit. But for those folks who are uninsured and wanting health insurance or earn too much to qualify for subsidies, things are only expected to get worse.
More From The Motley Fool
• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
Sean Williamshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
[Social Media Buzz]
May 27, 2018 18:00:00 UTC | 7,354.00$ | 6,308.90€ | 5,527.20£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/vQiBcYQ4wM || O valor médio das criptomoedas é:
Bitcoin(BTC) R$ 26725,80
Litecoin(LTC) R$ 430,00
Bitcoin Cash(BCH) R$ 3629,36
Ethereum(ETH) R$ 2130,20
#bitcoin #litecoin #bitcashcoin #ethereum || Right now Bitcoin is $7325.00 via @BTCpx #bitcoin $BTC pic.twitter.com/7z6EEzQjpa || $SC is now worth $0.01563 (-0.22%) and 0.00000213 BTC (0.00%) #SC || 27/05/2018 - 11:00
=========================
• 0...
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7135.99, 7472.59, 7406.52, 7494.17, 7541.45, 7643.45, 7720.25, 7514.47, 7633.76, 7653.98
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-10-17]
Volume: 14313052244, RSI (14-day): 35.83, 50-day EMA: 9042.42, 200-day EMA: 8687.25
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1492.30, Gold RSI: 48.53
Oil Price: 53.93, Oil RSI: 47.14
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
CFTC charges Nevada man in $11 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme: A quick reminder: If someone says they can offer you returns of up to 300 percent by investing your money in crypto, odds are it isnt on the up and up. Yet David Gilbert Saffron, the creator of Circle Society, Corp. (not to be confused with Circle Internet Financial Limited of USD Coin fame) allegedly managed to sucker American investors out of $11 million, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on September 30. As a result, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, where the corporation is based, has agreed to temporarily freeze the assets of both Saffron and Circle Society. The CFTC complaint alleges that, since December 2017, Saffron has been running a Ponzi scheme. Apparently taking advantage of Bitcoin's record highs and the general public's lack of cryptocurrency knowledge, Saffron recruited at least 14 people into the scheme. One tactic he allegedly used was claiming to trade for Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. He also claimed to create such good returnsinvestors could double their money in two weeks, he saidby using trading bots on 57 separate computers, according to the complaint. However, instead of trading the $11 million he collected, Saffron instead pocketed the money in his own cryptocurrency wallet, paid earlier investors, or misappropriated it in other ways, the CFTC alleges. The CFTC is asking not only for the money to be returned but for financial penalties and a trading ban against Saffron and Circle Society. Targets of Saffron's alleged Bitcoin Ponzi scheme reported him on sites like Ripoff Report and Dirty Scam as far back as May 2018. The CFTC has a little more heft, effectively halting the scam. Saffron, an Australian citizen, was last known to be living in Las Vegas. Court documents state that the CFTC has been unable to find him, though it believes he knows about the lawsuit. A hearing on the preliminary injunction is set for October 29. || CFTC charges Nevada man in $11 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme: A quick reminder: If someone says they can offer you returns of up to 300 percent by investing your money in crypto, odds are it isn’t on the up and up.
Yet David Gilbert Saffron, the creator of Circle Society, Corp. (not to be confused with Circle Internet Financial Limited of USD Coin fame) allegedly managed to sucker American investors out of $11 million, according to acomplaintfiled by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on September 30. As a result, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, where the corporation is based, has agreed to temporarily freeze the assets of both Saffron and Circle Society.
The CFTC complaint alleges that, since December 2017, Saffron has been running a Ponzi scheme. Apparently taking advantage of Bitcoin's record highs and the general public's lack of cryptocurrency knowledge, Saffron recruited at least 14 people into the scheme.
One tactic he allegedly used was claiming to trade for Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. He also claimed to create such good returns—investors could double their money in two weeks, he said—by using trading bots on 57 separate computers, according to the complaint.
However, instead of trading the $11 million he collected, Saffron instead pocketed the money in his own cryptocurrency wallet, paid earlier investors, or misappropriated it in other ways, the CFTC alleges.
The CFTC is asking not only for the money to be returned but for financial penalties and a trading ban against Saffron and Circle Society.
Targets of Saffron's alleged Bitcoin Ponzi scheme reported him on sites likeRipoff ReportandDirty Scamas far back as May 2018. The CFTC has a little more heft, effectively halting the scam.
Saffron, an Australian citizen, was last known to be living in Las Vegas. Court documents state that the CFTC has been unable to find him, though it believes he knows about the lawsuit. A hearing on the preliminary injunction is set for October 29. || CFTC charges Nevada man in $11 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme: A quick reminder: If someone says they can offer you returns of up to 300 percent by investing your money in crypto, odds are it isn’t on the up and up.
Yet David Gilbert Saffron, the creator of Circle Society, Corp. (not to be confused with Circle Internet Financial Limited of USD Coin fame) allegedly managed to sucker American investors out of $11 million, according to acomplaintfiled by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on September 30. As a result, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, where the corporation is based, has agreed to temporarily freeze the assets of both Saffron and Circle Society.
The CFTC complaint alleges that, since December 2017, Saffron has been running a Ponzi scheme. Apparently taking advantage of Bitcoin's record highs and the general public's lack of cryptocurrency knowledge, Saffron recruited at least 14 people into the scheme.
One tactic he allegedly used was claiming to trade for Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. He also claimed to create such good returns—investors could double their money in two weeks, he said—by using trading bots on 57 separate computers, according to the complaint.
However, instead of trading the $11 million he collected, Saffron instead pocketed the money in his own cryptocurrency wallet, paid earlier investors, or misappropriated it in other ways, the CFTC alleges.
The CFTC is asking not only for the money to be returned but for financial penalties and a trading ban against Saffron and Circle Society.
Targets of Saffron's alleged Bitcoin Ponzi scheme reported him on sites likeRipoff ReportandDirty Scamas far back as May 2018. The CFTC has a little more heft, effectively halting the scam.
Saffron, an Australian citizen, was last known to be living in Las Vegas. Court documents state that the CFTC has been unable to find him, though it believes he knows about the lawsuit. A hearing on the preliminary injunction is set for October 29. || A Conversation with Michael Sonnenshein, Managing Director at Grayscale: The following transcript is taken from episode twenty four of The Scoop, The Block’s flagship podcast. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple , Spotify , Google Play , Stitcher , or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to [email protected] . This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. Frank Chaparro Ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for tuning in for what is an incredibly exciting episode of The Scoop because there is an actual scoop tied to it. We're joined by Michael Sonnenshein , the managing director at Grayscale -- one of the largest asset managers, probably the largest asset manager -- a couple billion dollars under their helm here in New York City and I am of course joined by Ryan Todd my very special co-host and and an analyst at The Block. Michael is joining us to share news of a record breaking number of inflows into the firm's many different crypto asset funds. Michael's been with the firm since 2014 I believe, he's risen through the ranks. He's got a small but gritty team over there sitting alongside our other friend Michael Mauro. Michael thank you so much for joining us. Please, I guess the best place to start if we're gonna start anywhere is with this quarter three report. It's a record breaking quarter. What's behind it? Michael Sonnenshein Well first of all thanks for having me. Frank Chaparro I'm sorry for being late. Michael Sonnenshein Well the public apology is is really, I gotta say I really appreciate it. But let's dive into the numbers. This was an amazing quarter for Grayscale. We raised just shy of $250 million in the third quarter of 2019 which breaks every preceding quarter we've had in the six year history of the Grayscale business. The flows were mostly dominated by institutional investors which is probably one of the most important things for us to talk about Frank. Whether it's you guys or other folks in the press, you're always asking us, where are the institutions? And why aren't the institutions coming into digital currencies yet? And I would argue that they've been not only showing up to Grayscale but they've actually been showing up in droves. Story continues Frank Chaparro It's interesting. You make a good point, there is this dichotomy that I'm seeing as well. You have certain players that are doing better than others. When we look at companies like Fidelity that's off to a slow and steady pace. Bakkt -- the volumes aren't quite where we would want them to be perhaps. There aren't that many headlines about larger hedge funds and larger pension funds entering the market or entering the fray. But we do have these numbers at the same time so is it... Are they quieter firms that maybe don't want the press attention? What is Grayscale's quote unquote secret? If they're attracting these inflows that other firms might not necessarily be seeing? Michael Sonnenshein By and large it's difficult if you're a hedge fund or an institution or even as an individual to get exposure to digital currency. Folks have got to figure out where they're gonna buy it, how they're going to transfer it, how they're going to store it, how they're going to safekeep it and that's challenging because it's definitely not the same as going into your brokerage account, punching in some stock symbol and just clicking buy and then all the settlement and payment kind of happens in the background for you automatically. Digital currencies are totally different from that. And so the secret of what or not so secret sauce at Grayscale is the fact that we have packaged digital currency exposure into a security so if you're a hedge fund, if you're a high net worth investor you can buy into any one of our private placements any day of the week. We have 10 different funds and that lets you do something that feels very familiar to any of the other investments you make. It's a security with a CUSIP and has audited financial statements and produces tax documents. It's what investors want to see. Frank Chaparro So let's break it down why would I as an investor of a large, say manage hundreds of millions of dollars. Break down for me why it's better or more familiar to invest via these private placements? This is a security as opposed to onboarding through the... a lot of these crypto exchanges have institutional offerings. Why is it better to get the exposure via private placement as a hedge fund versus just opening up an account with white glove services on Coinbase? Michael Sonnenshein A lot of hedge funds just by mandate can't hold a digital asset. It needs to be held either with a qualified custodian or be something that they're easily able to have on their books and records. And so for a lot of folks when we start talking to not just the CIO but when they're ready to invest and we start talking with the legal teams and the auditors and the risk teams the fact that they have something that is a security that has a CUSIP and that's audited is exactly the same thing as any other instrument or derivative that any of these funds use when they're looking to gain exposure to something. If they're to buy digital currency directly they have to figure out who at the firm is going to have access to the private keys. They're going to have to determine what's the appropriate cadence of checking the balances of the digital assets et cetera. And quite honestly investors are really more so and should be more so focused on when's the right time to gain and take off exposure to certain assets, not necessarily worrying about the security and safekeeping of an asset they're invested in. Ryan Todd I get that argument, something I'm always curious about is how do you compare that versus say the regulated futures that are now starting to come out. Whether that's Bakkt's physically delivered product or even CME's bitcoin futures product. Hedgefunds do have familiarity with those types of products, what's the value add with Gitcoin Trust? Michael Sonnenshein We have a lot of our clients using futures to hedge. No question about it but there are some of them that are either looking at capital requirements related to using some of those products and when they look at the transactional costs they would actually deduce that it is more cost effective to gain exposure to Bitcoin through Grayscale Bitcoin Trust than it would be for them to either use futures or even buy these assets directly if they had the legal framework that allowed them to buy and hold directly which most institutions unfortunately don't. Frank Chaparro Bottom line is you're saying it's cheaper to buy GBTC as opposed to... Ryan Todd Even with the premium, do you guys take that into account as well? Michael Sonnenshein So where are institutions are getting involved is through our private placement. So any of our institutions can come to Grayscale directly buy an NAV on a daily basis and that way they're actually getting exposure to digital currency directly at a price that reflects where it is on a given day when they're investing. Frank Chaparro So let's focus in on that for one second because it has been a topic of conversation which is the premium that sometimes occurs with this product. Sometimes hundreds of percentage points in some cases with certain products. Is that something that you guys can remedy? And in conversations with clients when they bring this up how do you sort of walk them through the understanding of it? Michael Sonnenshein So if you're an accredited investor, high networth individual, family office, hedge fund other type of institution you can buy into the private placement for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust or any of our other products you're subject to a one year holding period at which point you're able to get liquidity on your investment by selling your shares into the public market. So for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust that is symbol GBTC and as you guys suggested that does historically and currently trade at a premium to the fund's net asset value. That is primarily a function we believe of supply and demand in the market. There is more demand than there is supply of shares available because this is the only security available in the US that lets investors gain exposure to Bitcoin right alongside any of the other assets they may own in their brokerage accounts or retirement accounts et cetera. And so it is not something that we can directly remedy so much as the price is really dictated by the market on a day to day basis. Ryan Todd Do you guys get excited when well maybe not excited, I don't know but it's favorable when ETF's on bitcoin don't get passed for your product? Just in general, it's still the only avenue for these types of investors to get exposure into this product. How would that change if there was an ETF? Michael Sonnenshein So we actually spent 2017 working on registering our product as a 33 act ETF and ultimately pulled out of the process just citing that the market wasn't ready for it nor were really regulators and so when we have conversations down in D.C. folks have generally been pretty proactive about the space. The level of understanding that they have when we're there has ramped up so substantially over the last few years and an ETF is really more of a matter of when not so much a matter of if. Frank Chaparro Specifically does it impact your business in any meaningful way whether one gets approved or not? Michael Sonnenshein We're in favor of seeing any additional onramp into the asset class so whether we now have an additional derivative using Bakkt as opposed to only having CME or seeing exchanges have better KYC & AML or even seeing additional access products get launched -- the more avenues there are for capital to flow into the asset class from our standpoint the better the asset class will be overall. Frank Chaparro So Grayscale has made some waves, has gotten some attention for their recent drop gold campaign. It's been a couple of months in the making. You guys put a lot of resources... I actually see the commercial pretty frequently on YouTube and other business shows or CNBC. What has the success of that product looked like? And has it played into this pretty significant uptick of non Bitcoin trust inflows since a few months ago? Michael Sonnenshein Sure. Well so Drop Gold #DropGold. We launched in the beginning of May of this year and so the idea behind the campaign has been and continues to be a call to action for the investment community. It is now nearly 2020 and we're starting to task investors with this question which is, what constitutes a store of value? It historically has been gold but that may have made more sense for a physical age. As we are in fully immersing ourselves now in this digital age perhaps gold doesn't hold up as much as it once did as that store of value and perhaps investors need to think about a digital store of value such as Bitcoin and the campaign has been really the core of that question for the investment community. Dropgold.com -- we created to kind of house a bunch of educational content for investors thinking through this question. And as Frank said the campaign has taken the form of even a TV ad that's been playing on CNBC and other outlets throughout the year. What we've learned through the campaign is this is not only a narrative that is resonated with the investment community. Zero question about that but more so that it is driven awareness around Grayscale and driven awareness around the product offering. We'd certainly attribute some of the success of the campaign back to a record breaking quarter for us on the asset raising front. Ryan Todd Outside of the campaign. What other types of getting out there in front of investors... Like what's that process look like? I in person? frequet meetings? How do you actually bring in actively? Michael Sonnenshein Sure it's it's important for us to be out in front of investors. While most investors these days we encounter have that kind of preliminary 101 digital currency education it is still interesting to see in the age that we're in that handshakes and face to face interactions and giving investors the opportunity to ask questions that they may not otherwise ask through a phone call or over email is something that we do in person. So our team is out on the road quite a bit with investors and will descend on a city -- call it Chicago or we were just in Vancouver a couple of days ago and what's been interesting to see is that even though we only give ourselves two or three days in a given place we're actually so busy we're either having to divide and conquer as a team to make sure we see everyone or in a lot of instances we're actually turning down meetings and having to schedule follow up calls or emails because we just don't have enough time while we're in a given place to kind of see everyone. Frank Chaparro What are some of the questions that they're asking? Michael Sonnenshein There are certainly going to continue to be questions around regulation and what we think the regulatory landscape looks like now and how it'll shift. More than anything investors are curious about information so we point investors to this quarterly report that we put out which from our standpoint and a lot of folks in the industry's standpoint has really become the de facto sentiment indicator for flows into digital currencies. When you look at a quarter like this and it's not just bitcoin dominating the flows but we're seeing flows to Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. In other products across the Grayscale family investors can take those insights and actually do something about them -- these are actionable intelligence items for them. Frank Chaparro Is that something you're looking to package up and offer to them in a way that they can make more actionable investment decisions around some of your data? Michael Sonnenshein Yeah this report is publicly disseminated each quarter and having the opportunity to sit down and chat about it with with guys like you is exactly what we want to do so that folks do have the right tools in their tool belt so to speak to make informed investing decisions. Ryan Todd We talked about the Drop Gold campaign that relates more directly to Bitcoin's thesis. You mentioned flows have been more mixed this quarter which is good to see. How does that conversation shape then when you're trying to explain the value of these other types of products that you have? Michael Sonnenshein There's zero doubt that most investors we are approaching or who are approaching us have probably done most of their homework around Bitcoin. They have the most resources available to them on Bitcoin. It's kind of overcome quite a bit of adversity over the 10-11 years it's been around. That's probably where they're most comfortable deploying capital as a result. But what we very quickly find is that investors like to diversify. They see that there's diversification benefits even within the digital currency asset class not just by having digital currency as part of their portfolio but within digital currencies themselves. And so following usually an investment in bitcoin we start seeing folks look at assets like Ethereum, Ethereum Classic or even looking at our diversified fund -- digital large cap fund. Frank Chaparro But is it them coming to you with this thesis of hey this is why I want to invest in a Ethereum Classic, do they come to you with the thesis on Ethereum Classic which saw a big uptick or do you sort of say hey you got into bitcoin here's why maybe Ethereum Classic might be interesting too? Michael Sonnenshein We try and put tools like that in front of investors. We've written theses around some of these different assets for investors to take a look at and then very recently we launched a new educational series called Building Blocks where we kind of do a relatively agnostic deep dive into each digital currency and give that to investors so as they're thinking about which of the currencies they want exposure to and which they don't, they have some good resources in front of them to make those decisions. Frank Chaparro And you were talking about what might have been behind the Ethereum Classic. Michael Sonnenshein The Ethereum and Ethereum Classic communities are probably working more collaboratively than they ever have before. We have a lot of investors who are excited about the technological promise embedded in Ethereum as a technology and often want to gain exposure to both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic and it's also worth noting that this past quarter is when our Ethereum product got approved for its public quotation ticker symbol ETAG. Investors continue to look at those products even more probably once they have a public quotation given that there is then a known path to liquidity and just kind of elevates the profile of the product a little more. Frank Chaparro Let's shift gears and focus in on you Michael, you joined Grayscale from JP Morgan from the Wall Street world in 2014. Tell us a little bit about your bitcoin journey. Michael Sonnenshein So I wasn't on a bitcoin journey... Frank Chaparro Not any of us really. Michael Sonnenshein Well I don't actually even know how you found your way into this but you asked me the question. Frank Chaparro I was forced. Michael Sonnenshein I was at J.P. Morgan at the time I was having then at that time worked at three bulge bracket banks. I was ready for an environment that was smaller where I would have a little bit more autonomy and I wanted to stay within financial services. So actually most of my search was around hedge funds and family offices and things like that. I had the fortunate pleasure however to interview with our founder and CEO Barry Silbert and when I met Barry we only had I don't know... Maybe 10 15 minutes together tops and I had found the opportunity to work with Barry on LinkedIn of all places and actually I have to say this is not a plug for LinkedIn but some of our best employees at Grayscale we have all found through LinkedIn surprisingly -- not the recruiters or anything like that. And so Barry and I had a good chat. My knowledge of bitcoin at the time was de minimus. I remember sitting in my office in JP Morgan I'd see maybe Bitcoin flash up on CNBC every once in a while but no one cared. I mean people were interested in the jobless claims numbers and any other kind of economic data or earnings reports coming out. No one really cared what was going on with bitcoin when CNBC would report on it. Barry kind of gave me his pitch on why he was so excited about bitcoin and I very politely told him it sounded cool, it sounded interesting but I was probably going to go work for this hedge fund and he actually of all things because my initial role with him was to do sales for Grayscale -- he actually had me sell him of all things a pen and I must have done a damn good job selling him that pen because Barry said to me why don't you come work for me? Why don't you come help me build something? And if at any point it feels... Frank Chaparro Grayscale was already operating at this point? Michael Sonnenshein We had just launched the Bitcoin Trust, so the Bitcoin Trust launched in September of 2013. This is early January 14' and he said to me come help me build something and if at any point it feels like it's going off the rails or this doesn't feel aligned with what you want to do career wise, you can always go work for a hedge fund or always go work for a family office but take a chance. And within 24-36 hours they had made me an offer and I said you know what? I'll take the risk, I'll take the chance. I was smart enough to actually negotiate a couple of Bitcoin from the company as part of my starting package back then and the rest is history. Six years later we've grown from one product with about 60 million dollars in AUM when I joined to today, 10 products and over two billion dollars of AUM so it's really been amazing to kind of be a part of the journey. Frank Chaparro Was there at any point you mentioned, he kind of as part of his proposition said if we ever get off track either reel us back in or you can go off somewhere and do something else. Was there any point where you felt like the company was not going in the direction that you wanted it to? Michael Sonnenshein I actually don't think that there really has been and that's been one of the most amazing things about working with and for Barry which is that he's always been kind of prudent about keeping headcount low and keeping a really lean and mean team and allowing us to move through crypto winter and times maybe when it was all about blockchain and not about bitcoin and then kind of keep morale alive and positive at the team and the company as a whole. We've definitely been through a few cycles to say the least over the last couple of years but at no point was my interest in being there and helping him build this ever wavering. Frank Chaparro Let's look forward and think about what's going to become of Grayscale over the next year. You have 10 products now. The staff isn't that much bigger from a few years ago, you have been able to maintain a lean team doing basically the same thing -- pitching family offices, financial advisors on these products, growing your AUM. Does the future of Grayscale look different than what it's looked like in the past and how would you relate it maybe to... I feel like whenever someone comes on the show or frequently they'll say 'well we're the X for the Bitcoin world...' Michael Sonnenshein We as a business have taken our cues from the incumbent asset managers -- the WisdomTrees, the State Streets, the iShares of the world and we have modeled ourselves after those companies because it's been about finding the best possible service providers to surround each of our products and do what we can to manage those relationships and constantly make sure that the products get the time and attention that they need from each of those service providers. If I had to say we'd kind of be the WisdomTree or the iShares of the digital currency asset class by giving investors a whole family of access products so that they can get exposure to the asset class. That's kind of who Grayscale is and will continue to be and if we look at the next year sure we'll probably add to headcount a little bit. You'll see a little bit more from us on the #dropgold campaign. You will maybe see us launch a couple of new products but time will tell. That's a delicate balance for us. It's what products we think are investable and are good opportunities balanced with what investors are telling us are the areas of the market they want exposure to that the current lineup doesn't already provide and we'll also continue to really invest in putting out good content on these quarterly reports, really do give investors actionable insight and other educational content like our building blocks series. We're excited to kind of continue on all those fronts as we move into next year. Frank Chaparro What is the process of adding new products look like in terms of expense, human capital. Obviously there's regulatory hurdles to getting a product online. What is to stop you from launching as many products as possible so to speak. Michael Sonnenshein Good question. I mean the most obvious ones for us that screen out products we can't launch are things like are there sound custodial solutions for a given asset? Is there an addressable market? Is there an accessible market? Is there a fair pricing mechanism that we can use for said asset? Ultimately some of our products have attracted more capital than others and maybe that's so much as some of them today resonate with investors more than others. But that may change over time and so we look at a lot of these products as planting seeds for the asset class as a whole. Frank Chaparro And when you look at maybe some of the new competitors that are coming online Bitwise is offering similar products and recently [...] which has failed to get it's many ETF applications off the ground doing something similar, targeting large investors with a trust mechanism to invest or get exposure to Bitcoin. As you go out and you try to pitch new clients or existing clients but more their money into the market, why with you and not with others? Michael Sonnenshein Most investors are attracted to Grayscale because of the operational excellence and the track record that we have. We have now been at this for a little over six years. We just celebrated the six year anniversary since we launched our first product and in the face of a lot of changes across the eco system we have done a good job of finding the right service providers to surround these products with and have operated in a way that gives investors a lot of comfort. There is something to be said about having audited financial statements and having the right level of disclosure and maintaining a certain level of operational excellence and investors throw due diligence questionnaires at us all the time and I'm yet to encounter an institution that has not invested with Grayscale as a result of a deficiency there. An institution has only not invested with us in the instance that they just weren't ready for investing in the asset class. Nothing to do with Grayscale specifically. Frank Chaparro How do you avoid losing a deal like that or do you just sort of throw up your arms? Michael Sonnenshein Some of these are long protracted conversations. I can think of several of our institutional investors for whom we met with over the course of two and a half years intermittently -- kind of giving them updates on how things were changing across the ecosystem before they were ever ready to deploy capital whereas other times we will encounter firms who maybe have an analyst or portfolio manager internally that's already very excited about the space and so we become kind of this external ally for them and kind of help them make the right pitches internally so that they actually can deploy capital and get buy-in from the rest of their investment team. Ryan Todd Can you unpack a little bit when you see these stats of your investor profiles predominantly institutional investors, it's like that huge bracket, like what is an institutional investor? You guys listed as hedge funds are those largely crypto funds or are there long short funds? What's the typical profile of these institutional investors? Michael Sonnenshein Most of our institutional investors are actually not crypto hedge funds. Most crypto hedge funds I would say are much more actively managing their positions whereas the investors who are coming to Grayscale and using the products are usually looking for longer time horizons, they have a medium to long term time horizon and that kind of fits with our products anyway because they carry a one year holding period. If you subscribe to the private placements and I would say that it really runs the gamut of investor types so we have tons of global macro funds who maybe look at digital assets as a way to be short fiat money or thinking about all the economic and political turmoil going on globally and this is the right way to hedge against those types of events. We have no shortage of tech investors, right? These are folks that just historically or are currently comfortable investing in tech and are excited by digital assets and blockchain technology. We certainly have no shortage of Arb funds or momentum funds. I can't really say that there's any one investor type that isn't represented but these are storied institutions and that's probably the other thing that I'd mention to you guys is this is kind of gained momentum throughout 2019. The kind of institution that we're interacting with is getting larger in terms of their AUM is getting longer, in terms of their operating track record and so the picture that I'm hopefully painting for you is one of that the investor that's coming to us is usually not that like startup fund that just got their funding and is trying to swing for the fences early on and building their track record. And it's important to take that away because it's showing compelling data that institutions who have been through all kinds of cycles are really excited about this asset class and really in fact don't think it's going to go away much the same way that we don't believe it is nor do you guys do. Frank Chaparro How large is the biggest fund invested with you guys? Michael Sonnenshein We have funds that are over 10 or 15 billion dollars in AUM as clients. Frank Chaparro When I talked to the the different exchanges there are some who have onboarded or have done due diligence. We're talking about the D.E. Shaw's of the world who've done due diligence on companies like Coinbase to onboard or other exchanges but they're not necessarily actually trading or in the market. Do you think that and we kind of touched on this before but it is an interesting data point that there might actually be firms in the cryptocurrency market that are investing through Grayscale but not active in other ways? Michael Sonnenshein There is a mix. We even have investors who want to kind of take up core positions so to speak in a given digital currency Bitcoin or otherwise and then may also say it's important for us to have a little bit of digital currency that we ourselves can manage or experiment with so to speak and so they'll work with our sister firm Genesis -- an OTC trading desk and for someone like that type of institution they're going to do that in a relatively small way. But we we see investors that are doing all kinds of things whether they're participating in public markets and in stocks or different assets that have exposure to the digital currency realm whether it's chip makers folks that are getting involved in the futures as we said to hedge. Folks that are looking at things like swaps and other ways. It's often a complementary thing that investors can do. Frank Chaparro Would you say that the larger funds 5, 10, 15 billion that are invested with you guys are those positions typically smaller than some of the more modest sized investors or not necessarily? Michael Sonnenshein So it depends. We have some investors who come to us and say you know what? This is X number of dollars or we have X percentage of the fund that we want to allocate to digital currencies, Bitcoin or otherwise and they just deploy it as soon as possible, they've made the decision they're ready to invest and make the decision. We have other investors who look at this position sizing as something they want to do over time. They'll leg into the trade over a series of weeks or months or we have some investors that do so over a series of years. It really it really depends from scenario to scenario. But again what we're seeing most recently is larger check sizes, larger institutions and also exploration beyond just exposure to Bitcoin. Ryan Todd You talked about legging into the trade. Did people leg into it that July 14th week when it popped? Michael Sonnenshein That was a big week of inflows. We had a day that week where we raised over 75 million dollars in a single day which was the largest inflow we ever had in a single day. That's what we're hoping continues to happen is that more investors are excited about the asset class, recognize the diversification benefits. Looking for that uncorrelated Alpha and look to digital currencies and whether it's Grayscale or futures or otherwise we're just excited to see more capital flow into the space. Ryan Todd You've been in the space now six years full time working with Grayscale. What gets you most excited about where we're heading as a space over the next year? There's been a lot of developments this year, a lot of news flow both positive and negative. Last week there was a flurry of news updates on Friday. Frank Chaparro Libra kind of almost falling apart on the payment side and the ETF denial also happened last week. Ryan Todd CFTC commissioner talking about ETH as a commodity. Frank Chaparro That's that's good. Michael Sonnenshein These guys are all good things but we don't look at these singular instances of news as things that get us excited or keep us committed to this space. We're looking at larger trends that maybe aren't spoken about as much or reported on as much and for us which is something that we've started writing about quite a bit and something the investing community needs to focus more on is what's going to happen to generational wealth as it changes hands. We've been looking into this statistic which is that over the next 25 years 68 trillion dollars is going to pass from older generations. We're talking about baby boomers and our parents passing that money down to Millennials and GenX and GenY. If you think about what the profile of that investment is today, how is that capital currently allocated? What does it sit in? Is it conservative? Does it have a large proclivity towards owning gold and kind of other historical stores of value and as it gets passed down to a younger generation, how is that going to shift? If you inherit that money are you going to keep it in things like gold or are you going to keep it in things like bonds? As we look at investor preferences of the younger generation, this is the Robinhood generation the robo advisor generation -- those kinds of investments just don't resonate with them. I'm not sitting here with you guys today saying Oh all that money is going into digital currencies are going into Bitcoin but we'd all be pretty remiss to not believe that some portion of it is going to go into digital currencies as that wealth shift happens. When you look at the total outstanding market cap of digital currencies today and you think about what even a small slice of that 68 trillion dollars moving into digital assets would do -- that is a really staggering statistic and the numbers get silly very quickly. Frank Chaparro We got the numbers right here, Ryan Todd pulling up some nifty numbers from CB Insights. Ryan Todd It's by 2030 millennials will hold 5x as much wealth as they do now. Michael Sonnenshein You have to think about that. What resonates with a younger investor? Is it things like bitcoin? Is it the companies that they are subscribers of and users of and that they patronize all the time? Or is it things like gold which they've probably never had any kind of direct experience with? This is a really important theme that we're looking at and again we don't think it's being spoken about enough Frank Chaparro How do you tap into that that wealth that's coming? That transition of trillions of dollars? Is it partnering with some of the firms you mentioned, the robo advisors or the Robinhoods of the world to kind of tap into some of these millennials who are using these platforms and very well soon may be accredited investors themselves. Ryan Todd The campaign's helped too. Michael Sonnenshein Well yeah the campaign #droppedgold and droppedgold.com kind of speaks to a lot of the themes that I'm talking about and is starting to have that conversation be had amongst investors. As you look at newer platforms like Square and Robinhood et cetera they're kind of seeing where the puck is going and are starting to skate towards it. They're already offering services around crypto assets because their user bases want them and they want those access points. It's gonna be interesting to see how it all plays out but if we're successful in keeping digital currencies as a main part of the financial system -- kind of bridging those gaps with respect to custody and safekeeping and order management systems and making all of this easier to access, we're going to have a difficult time not seeing a lot of that wealth shift into digital currencies. Frank Chaparro Is there anything that worries you? That transition of wealth seems to be the North Star and you're not paying attention much to the ebbs and flows of day to day news but is there anything existential that worries you? Michael Sonnenshein I don't think there's anything so much that worries me so much as I wish everyone would stop looking at digital currencies and asking, when? There's such an impatience. It's just kind of unnecessary, if you look at where bitcoin and other digital assets have gone from nothing to something in ten eleven years. We now have derivatives around Bitcoin that trade on exchanges next to the assets that have been around for millennia. There is this this narrative around impatience of when is this all going to happen but we'd actually say, well stop and actually look at how much has happened over the last ten eleven years. Take notice of how much clarity we actually do have from regulatory bodies, not to mention how much job creation there has been and how much... In the way there's been around innovations around cryptography and new ideas around what constitutes money. I mean this is all really exciting. So if everyone would just kind of own up to how much progress has been made and stop asking about when we'd all just get back to focusing on building around these assets and can hopefully continue to posture them to flourish. Frank Chaparro That is a great place to leave things off with our friend Michael Sonnenshein and their quarter three report over at Grayscale. Thank you so much for joining us. Michael Sonnenshein Thanks for having me. || A Conversation with Michael Sonnenshein, Managing Director at Grayscale: The following transcript is taken from episode twenty four of The Scoop, The Block’s flagship podcast. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop onApple,Spotify,Google Play,Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests [email protected]. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Frank ChaparroLadies and gentlemen thank you so much for tuning in for what is an incredibly exciting episode of The Scoop because there is an actual scoop tied to it. We're joined byMichael Sonnenshein, the managing director at Grayscale -- one of the largest asset managers, probably the largest asset manager -- a couple billion dollars under their helm here in New York City and I am of course joined by Ryan Todd my very special co-host and and an analyst at The Block. Michael is joining us to share news of a record breaking number of inflows into the firm's many different crypto asset funds. Michael's been with the firm since 2014 I believe, he's risen through the ranks. He's got a small but gritty team over there sitting alongside our other friend Michael Mauro. Michael thank you so much for joining us. Please, I guess the best place to start if we're gonna start anywhere is with this quarter three report. It's a record breaking quarter. What's behind it?
Michael SonnensheinWell first of all thanks for having me.
Frank ChaparroI'm sorry for being late.
Michael SonnensheinWell the public apology is is really, I gotta say I really appreciate it. But let's dive into the numbers. This was an amazing quarter for Grayscale. We raised just shy of $250 million in the third quarter of 2019 which breaks every preceding quarter we've had in the six year history of the Grayscale business. The flows were mostly dominated by institutional investors which is probably one of the most important things for us to talk about Frank. Whether it's you guys or other folks in the press, you're always asking us, where are the institutions? And why aren't the institutions coming into digital currencies yet? And I would argue that they've been not only showing up to Grayscale but they've actually been showing up in droves.
Frank ChaparroIt's interesting. You make a good point, there is this dichotomy that I'm seeing as well. You have certain players that are doing better than others. When we look at companies like Fidelity that's off to a slow and steady pace. Bakkt -- the volumes aren't quite where we would want them to be perhaps. There aren't that many headlines about larger hedge funds and larger pension funds entering the market or entering the fray. But we do have these numbers at the same time so is it... Are they quieter firms that maybe don't want the press attention? What is Grayscale's quote unquote secret? If they're attracting these inflows that other firms might not necessarily be seeing?
Michael SonnensheinBy and large it's difficult if you're a hedge fund or an institution or even as an individual to get exposure to digital currency. Folks have got to figure out where they're gonna buy it, how they're going to transfer it, how they're going to store it, how they're going to safekeep it and that's challenging because it's definitely not the same as going into your brokerage account, punching in some stock symbol and just clicking buy and then all the settlement and payment kind of happens in the background for you automatically. Digital currencies are totally different from that. And so the secret of what or not so secret sauce at Grayscale is the fact that we have packaged digital currency exposure into a security so if you're a hedge fund, if you're a high net worth investor you can buy into any one of our private placements any day of the week. We have 10 different funds and that lets you do something that feels very familiar to any of the other investments you make. It's a security with a CUSIP and has audited financial statements and produces tax documents. It's what investors want to see.
Frank ChaparroSo let's break it down why would I as an investor of a large, say manage hundreds of millions of dollars. Break down for me why it's better or more familiar to invest via these private placements? This is a security as opposed to onboarding through the... a lot of these crypto exchanges have institutional offerings. Why is it better to get the exposure via private placement as a hedge fund versus just opening up an account with white glove services on Coinbase?
Michael SonnensheinA lot of hedge funds just by mandate can't hold a digital asset. It needs to be held either with a qualified custodian or be something that they're easily able to have on their books and records. And so for a lot of folks when we start talking to not just the CIO but when they're ready to invest and we start talking with the legal teams and the auditors and the risk teams the fact that they have something that is a security that has a CUSIP and that's audited is exactly the same thing as any other instrument or derivative that any of these funds use when they're looking to gain exposure to something. If they're to buy digital currency directly they have to figure out who at the firm is going to have access to the private keys. They're going to have to determine what's the appropriate cadence of checking the balances of the digital assets et cetera. And quite honestly investors are really more so and should be more so focused on when's the right time to gain and take off exposure to certain assets, not necessarily worrying about the security and safekeeping of an asset they're invested in.
Ryan ToddI get that argument, something I'm always curious about is how do you compare that versus say the regulated futures that are now starting to come out. Whether that's Bakkt's physically delivered product or even CME's bitcoin futures product. Hedgefunds do have familiarity with those types of products, what's the value add with Gitcoin Trust?
Michael SonnensheinWe have a lot of our clients using futures to hedge. No question about it but there are some of them that are either looking at capital requirements related to using some of those products and when they look at the transactional costs they would actually deduce that it is more cost effective to gain exposure to Bitcoin through Grayscale Bitcoin Trust than it would be for them to either use futures or even buy these assets directly if they had the legal framework that allowed them to buy and hold directly which most institutions unfortunately don't.
Frank ChaparroBottom line is you're saying it's cheaper to buy GBTC as opposed to...
Ryan ToddEven with the premium, do you guys take that into account as well?
Michael SonnensheinSo where are institutions are getting involved is through our private placement. So any of our institutions can come to Grayscale directly buy an NAV on a daily basis and that way they're actually getting exposure to digital currency directly at a price that reflects where it is on a given day when they're investing.
Frank ChaparroSo let's focus in on that for one second because it has been a topic of conversation which is the premium that sometimes occurs with this product. Sometimes hundreds of percentage points in some cases with certain products. Is that something that you guys can remedy? And in conversations with clients when they bring this up how do you sort of walk them through the understanding of it?
Michael SonnensheinSo if you're an accredited investor, high networth individual, family office, hedge fund other type of institution you can buy into the private placement for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust or any of our other products you're subject to a one year holding period at which point you're able to get liquidity on your investment by selling your shares into the public market. So for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust that is symbol GBTC and as you guys suggested that does historically and currently trade at a premium to the fund's net asset value. That is primarily a function we believe of supply and demand in the market. There is more demand than there is supply of shares available because this is the only security available in the US that lets investors gain exposure to Bitcoin right alongside any of the other assets they may own in their brokerage accounts or retirement accounts et cetera. And so it is not something that we can directly remedy so much as the price is really dictated by the market on a day to day basis.
Ryan ToddDo you guys get excited when well maybe not excited, I don't know but it's favorable when ETF's on bitcoin don't get passed for your product? Just in general, it's still the only avenue for these types of investors to get exposure into this product. How would that change if there was an ETF?
Michael SonnensheinSo we actually spent 2017 working on registering our product as a 33 act ETF and ultimately pulled out of the process just citing that the market wasn't ready for it nor were really regulators and so when we have conversations down in D.C. folks have generally been pretty proactive about the space. The level of understanding that they have when we're there has ramped up so substantially over the last few years and an ETF is really more of a matter of when not so much a matter of if.
Frank ChaparroSpecifically does it impact your business in any meaningful way whether one gets approved or not?
Michael SonnensheinWe're in favor of seeing any additional onramp into the asset class so whether we now have an additional derivative using Bakkt as opposed to only having CME or seeing exchanges have better KYC & AML or even seeing additional access products get launched -- the more avenues there are for capital to flow into the asset class from our standpoint the better the asset class will be overall.
Frank ChaparroSo Grayscale has made some waves, has gotten some attention for their recent drop gold campaign. It's been a couple of months in the making. You guys put a lot of resources... I actually see the commercial pretty frequently on YouTube and other business shows or CNBC. What has the success of that product looked like? And has it played into this pretty significant uptick of non Bitcoin trust inflows since a few months ago?
Michael SonnensheinSure. Well so Drop Gold #DropGold. We launched in the beginning of May of this year and so the idea behind the campaign has been and continues to be a call to action for the investment community. It is now nearly 2020 and we're starting to task investors with this question which is, what constitutes a store of value? It historically has been gold but that may have made more sense for a physical age. As we are in fully immersing ourselves now in this digital age perhaps gold doesn't hold up as much as it once did as that store of value and perhaps investors need to think about a digital store of value such as Bitcoin and the campaign has been really the core of that question for the investment community. Dropgold.com -- we created to kind of house a bunch of educational content for investors thinking through this question. And as Frank said the campaign has taken the form of even a TV ad that's been playing on CNBC and other outlets throughout the year. What we've learned through the campaign is this is not only a narrative that is resonated with the investment community. Zero question about that but more so that it is driven awareness around Grayscale and driven awareness around the product offering. We'd certainly attribute some of the success of the campaign back to a record breaking quarter for us on the asset raising front.
Ryan ToddOutside of the campaign. What other types of getting out there in front of investors... Like what's that process look like? I in person? frequet meetings? How do you actually bring in actively?
Michael SonnensheinSure it's it's important for us to be out in front of investors. While most investors these days we encounter have that kind of preliminary 101 digital currency education it is still interesting to see in the age that we're in that handshakes and face to face interactions and giving investors the opportunity to ask questions that they may not otherwise ask through a phone call or over email is something that we do in person. So our team is out on the road quite a bit with investors and will descend on a city -- call it Chicago or we were just in Vancouver a couple of days ago and what's been interesting to see is that even though we only give ourselves two or three days in a given place we're actually so busy we're either having to divide and conquer as a team to make sure we see everyone or in a lot of instances we're actually turning down meetings and having to schedule follow up calls or emails because we just don't have enough time while we're in a given place to kind of see everyone.
Frank ChaparroWhat are some of the questions that they're asking?
Michael SonnensheinThere are certainly going to continue to be questions around regulation and what we think the regulatory landscape looks like now and how it'll shift. More than anything investors are curious about information so we point investors to this quarterly report that we put out which from our standpoint and a lot of folks in the industry's standpoint has really become the de facto sentiment indicator for flows into digital currencies. When you look at a quarter like this and it's not just bitcoin dominating the flows but we're seeing flows to Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. In other products across the Grayscale family investors can take those insights and actually do something about them -- these are actionable intelligence items for them.
Frank ChaparroIs that something you're looking to package up and offer to them in a way that they can make more actionable investment decisions around some of your data?
Michael SonnensheinYeah this report is publicly disseminated each quarter and having the opportunity to sit down and chat about it with with guys like you is exactly what we want to do so that folks do have the right tools in their tool belt so to speak to make informed investing decisions.
Ryan ToddWe talked about the Drop Gold campaign that relates more directly to Bitcoin's thesis. You mentioned flows have been more mixed this quarter which is good to see. How does that conversation shape then when you're trying to explain the value of these other types of products that you have?
Michael SonnensheinThere's zero doubt that most investors we are approaching or who are approaching us have probably done most of their homework around Bitcoin. They have the most resources available to them on Bitcoin. It's kind of overcome quite a bit of adversity over the 10-11 years it's been around. That's probably where they're most comfortable deploying capital as a result. But what we very quickly find is that investors like to diversify. They see that there's diversification benefits even within the digital currency asset class not just by having digital currency as part of their portfolio but within digital currencies themselves. And so following usually an investment in bitcoin we start seeing folks look at assets like Ethereum, Ethereum Classic or even looking at our diversified fund -- digital large cap fund.
Frank ChaparroBut is it them coming to you with this thesis of hey this is why I want to invest in a Ethereum Classic, do they come to you with the thesis on Ethereum Classic which saw a big uptick or do you sort of say hey you got into bitcoin here's why maybe Ethereum Classic might be interesting too?
Michael SonnensheinWe try and put tools like that in front of investors. We've written theses around some of these different assets for investors to take a look at and then very recently we launched a new educational series called Building Blocks where we kind of do a relatively agnostic deep dive into each digital currency and give that to investors so as they're thinking about which of the currencies they want exposure to and which they don't, they have some good resources in front of them to make those decisions.
Frank ChaparroAnd you were talking about what might have been behind the Ethereum Classic.
Michael SonnensheinThe Ethereum and Ethereum Classic communities are probably working more collaboratively than they ever have before. We have a lot of investors who are excited about the technological promise embedded in Ethereum as a technology and often want to gain exposure to both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic and it's also worth noting that this past quarter is when our Ethereum product got approved for its public quotation ticker symbol ETAG. Investors continue to look at those products even more probably once they have a public quotation given that there is then a known path to liquidity and just kind of elevates the profile of the product a little more.
Frank ChaparroLet's shift gears and focus in on you Michael, you joined Grayscale from JP Morgan from the Wall Street world in 2014. Tell us a little bit about your bitcoin journey.
Michael SonnensheinSo I wasn't on a bitcoin journey...
Frank ChaparroNot any of us really.
Michael SonnensheinWell I don't actually even know how you found your way into this but you asked me the question.
Frank ChaparroI was forced.
Michael SonnensheinI was at J.P. Morgan at the time I was having then at that time worked at three bulge bracket banks. I was ready for an environment that was smaller where I would have a little bit more autonomy and I wanted to stay within financial services. So actually most of my search was around hedge funds and family offices and things like that. I had the fortunate pleasure however to interview with our founder and CEO Barry Silbert and when I met Barry we only had I don't know... Maybe 10 15 minutes together tops and I had found the opportunity to work with Barry on LinkedIn of all places and actually I have to say this is not a plug for LinkedIn but some of our best employees at Grayscale we have all found through LinkedIn surprisingly -- not the recruiters or anything like that. And so Barry and I had a good chat. My knowledge of bitcoin at the time was de minimus. I remember sitting in my office in JP Morgan I'd see maybe Bitcoin flash up on CNBC every once in a while but no one cared. I mean people were interested in the jobless claims numbers and any other kind of economic data or earnings reports coming out. No one really cared what was going on with bitcoin when CNBC would report on it. Barry kind of gave me his pitch on why he was so excited about bitcoin and I very politely told him it sounded cool, it sounded interesting but I was probably going to go work for this hedge fund and he actually of all things because my initial role with him was to do sales for Grayscale -- he actually had me sell him of all things a pen and I must have done a damn good job selling him that pen because Barry said to me why don't you come work for me? Why don't you come help me build something? And if at any point it feels...
Frank ChaparroGrayscale was already operating at this point?
Michael SonnensheinWe had just launched the Bitcoin Trust, so the Bitcoin Trust launched in September of 2013. This is early January 14' and he said to me come help me build something and if at any point it feels like it's going off the rails or this doesn't feel aligned with what you want to do career wise, you can always go work for a hedge fund or always go work for a family office but take a chance. And within 24-36 hours they had made me an offer and I said you know what? I'll take the risk, I'll take the chance. I was smart enough to actually negotiate a couple of Bitcoin from the company as part of my starting package back then and the rest is history. Six years later we've grown from one product with about 60 million dollars in AUM when I joined to today, 10 products and over two billion dollars of AUM so it's really been amazing to kind of be a part of the journey.
Frank ChaparroWas there at any point you mentioned, he kind of as part of his proposition said if we ever get off track either reel us back in or you can go off somewhere and do something else. Was there any point where you felt like the company was not going in the direction that you wanted it to?
Michael SonnensheinI actually don't think that there really has been and that's been one of the most amazing things about working with and for Barry which is that he's always been kind of prudent about keeping headcount low and keeping a really lean and mean team and allowing us to move through crypto winter and times maybe when it was all about blockchain and not about bitcoin and then kind of keep morale alive and positive at the team and the company as a whole. We've definitely been through a few cycles to say the least over the last couple of years but at no point was my interest in being there and helping him build this ever wavering.
Frank ChaparroLet's look forward and think about what's going to become of Grayscale over the next year. You have 10 products now. The staff isn't that much bigger from a few years ago, you have been able to maintain a lean team doing basically the same thing -- pitching family offices, financial advisors on these products, growing your AUM. Does the future of Grayscale look different than what it's looked like in the past and how would you relate it maybe to... I feel like whenever someone comes on the show or frequently they'll say 'well we're the X for the Bitcoin world...'
Michael SonnensheinWe as a business have taken our cues from the incumbent asset managers -- the WisdomTrees, the State Streets, the iShares of the world and we have modeled ourselves after those companies because it's been about finding the best possible service providers to surround each of our products and do what we can to manage those relationships and constantly make sure that the products get the time and attention that they need from each of those service providers. If I had to say we'd kind of be the WisdomTree or the iShares of the digital currency asset class by giving investors a whole family of access products so that they can get exposure to the asset class. That's kind of who Grayscale is and will continue to be and if we look at the next year sure we'll probably add to headcount a little bit. You'll see a little bit more from us on the #dropgold campaign. You will maybe see us launch a couple of new products but time will tell. That's a delicate balance for us. It's what products we think are investable and are good opportunities balanced with what investors are telling us are the areas of the market they want exposure to that the current lineup doesn't already provide and we'll also continue to really invest in putting out good content on these quarterly reports, really do give investors actionable insight and other educational content like our building blocks series. We're excited to kind of continue on all those fronts as we move into next year.
Frank ChaparroWhat is the process of adding new products look like in terms of expense, human capital. Obviously there's regulatory hurdles to getting a product online. What is to stop you from launching as many products as possible so to speak.
Michael SonnensheinGood question. I mean the most obvious ones for us that screen out products we can't launch are things like are there sound custodial solutions for a given asset? Is there an addressable market? Is there an accessible market? Is there a fair pricing mechanism that we can use for said asset? Ultimately some of our products have attracted more capital than others and maybe that's so much as some of them today resonate with investors more than others. But that may change over time and so we look at a lot of these products as planting seeds for the asset class as a whole.
Frank ChaparroAnd when you look at maybe some of the new competitors that are coming online Bitwise is offering similar products and recently [...] which has failed to get it's many ETF applications off the ground doing something similar, targeting large investors with a trust mechanism to invest or get exposure to Bitcoin. As you go out and you try to pitch new clients or existing clients but more their money into the market, why with you and not with others?
Michael SonnensheinMost investors are attracted to Grayscale because of the operational excellence and the track record that we have. We have now been at this for a little over six years. We just celebrated the six year anniversary since we launched our first product and in the face of a lot of changes across the eco system we have done a good job of finding the right service providers to surround these products with and have operated in a way that gives investors a lot of comfort. There is something to be said about having audited financial statements and having the right level of disclosure and maintaining a certain level of operational excellence and investors throw due diligence questionnaires at us all the time and I'm yet to encounter an institution that has not invested with Grayscale as a result of a deficiency there. An institution has only not invested with us in the instance that they just weren't ready for investing in the asset class. Nothing to do with Grayscale specifically.
Frank ChaparroHow do you avoid losing a deal like that or do you just sort of throw up your arms?
Michael SonnensheinSome of these are long protracted conversations. I can think of several of our institutional investors for whom we met with over the course of two and a half years intermittently -- kind of giving them updates on how things were changing across the ecosystem before they were ever ready to deploy capital whereas other times we will encounter firms who maybe have an analyst or portfolio manager internally that's already very excited about the space and so we become kind of this external ally for them and kind of help them make the right pitches internally so that they actually can deploy capital and get buy-in from the rest of their investment team.
Ryan ToddCan you unpack a little bit when you see these stats of your investor profiles predominantly institutional investors, it's like that huge bracket, like what is an institutional investor? You guys listed as hedge funds are those largely crypto funds or are there long short funds? What's the typical profile of these institutional investors?
Michael SonnensheinMost of our institutional investors are actually not crypto hedge funds. Most crypto hedge funds I would say are much more actively managing their positions whereas the investors who are coming to Grayscale and using the products are usually looking for longer time horizons, they have a medium to long term time horizon and that kind of fits with our products anyway because they carry a one year holding period. If you subscribe to the private placements and I would say that it really runs the gamut of investor types so we have tons of global macro funds who maybe look at digital assets as a way to be short fiat money or thinking about all the economic and political turmoil going on globally and this is the right way to hedge against those types of events. We have no shortage of tech investors, right? These are folks that just historically or are currently comfortable investing in tech and are excited by digital assets and blockchain technology. We certainly have no shortage of Arb funds or momentum funds. I can't really say that there's any one investor type that isn't represented but these are storied institutions and that's probably the other thing that I'd mention to you guys is this is kind of gained momentum throughout 2019. The kind of institution that we're interacting with is getting larger in terms of their AUM is getting longer, in terms of their operating track record and so the picture that I'm hopefully painting for you is one of that the investor that's coming to us is usually not that like startup fund that just got their funding and is trying to swing for the fences early on and building their track record. And it's important to take that away because it's showing compelling data that institutions who have been through all kinds of cycles are really excited about this asset class and really in fact don't think it's going to go away much the same way that we don't believe it is nor do you guys do.
Frank ChaparroHow large is the biggest fund invested with you guys?
Michael SonnensheinWe have funds that are over 10 or 15 billion dollars in AUM as clients.
Frank ChaparroWhen I talked to the the different exchanges there are some who have onboarded or have done due diligence. We're talking about the D.E. Shaw's of the world who've done due diligence on companies like Coinbase to onboard or other exchanges but they're not necessarily actually trading or in the market. Do you think that and we kind of touched on this before but it is an interesting data point that there might actually be firms in the cryptocurrency market that are investing through Grayscale but not active in other ways?
Michael SonnensheinThere is a mix. We even have investors who want to kind of take up core positions so to speak in a given digital currency Bitcoin or otherwise and then may also say it's important for us to have a little bit of digital currency that we ourselves can manage or experiment with so to speak and so they'll work with our sister firm Genesis -- an OTC trading desk and for someone like that type of institution they're going to do that in a relatively small way. But we we see investors that are doing all kinds of things whether they're participating in public markets and in stocks or different assets that have exposure to the digital currency realm whether it's chip makers folks that are getting involved in the futures as we said to hedge. Folks that are looking at things like swaps and other ways. It's often a complementary thing that investors can do.
Frank ChaparroWould you say that the larger funds 5, 10, 15 billion that are invested with you guys are those positions typically smaller than some of the more modest sized investors or not necessarily?
Michael SonnensheinSo it depends. We have some investors who come to us and say you know what? This is X number of dollars or we have X percentage of the fund that we want to allocate to digital currencies, Bitcoin or otherwise and they just deploy it as soon as possible, they've made the decision they're ready to invest and make the decision. We have other investors who look at this position sizing as something they want to do over time. They'll leg into the trade over a series of weeks or months or we have some investors that do so over a series of years. It really it really depends from scenario to scenario. But again what we're seeing most recently is larger check sizes, larger institutions and also exploration beyond just exposure to Bitcoin.
Ryan ToddYou talked about legging into the trade. Did people leg into it that July 14th week when it popped?
Michael SonnensheinThat was a big week of inflows. We had a day that week where we raised over 75 million dollars in a single day which was the largest inflow we ever had in a single day. That's what we're hoping continues to happen is that more investors are excited about the asset class, recognize the diversification benefits. Looking for that uncorrelated Alpha and look to digital currencies and whether it's Grayscale or futures or otherwise we're just excited to see more capital flow into the space.
Ryan ToddYou've been in the space now six years full time working with Grayscale. What gets you most excited about where we're heading as a space over the next year? There's been a lot of developments this year, a lot of news flow both positive and negative. Last week there was a flurry of news updates on Friday.
Frank ChaparroLibra kind of almost falling apart on the payment side and the ETF denial also happened last week.
Ryan ToddCFTC commissioner talking about ETH as a commodity.
Frank ChaparroThat's that's good.
Michael SonnensheinThese guys are all good things but we don't look at these singular instances of news as things that get us excited or keep us committed to this space. We're looking at larger trends that maybe aren't spoken about as much or reported on as much and for us which is something that we've started writing about quite a bit and something the investing community needs to focus more on is what's going to happen to generational wealth as it changes hands. We've been looking into this statistic which is that over the next 25 years 68 trillion dollars is going to pass from older generations. We're talking about baby boomers and our parents passing that money down to Millennials and GenX and GenY. If you think about what the profile of that investment is today, how is that capital currently allocated? What does it sit in? Is it conservative? Does it have a large proclivity towards owning gold and kind of other historical stores of value and as it gets passed down to a younger generation, how is that going to shift? If you inherit that money are you going to keep it in things like gold or are you going to keep it in things like bonds? As we look at investor preferences of the younger generation, this is the Robinhood generation the robo advisor generation -- those kinds of investments just don't resonate with them. I'm not sitting here with you guys today saying Oh all that money is going into digital currencies are going into Bitcoin but we'd all be pretty remiss to not believe that some portion of it is going to go into digital currencies as that wealth shift happens. When you look at the total outstanding market cap of digital currencies today and you think about what even a small slice of that 68 trillion dollars moving into digital assets would do -- that is a really staggering statistic and the numbers get silly very quickly.
Frank ChaparroWe got the numbers right here, Ryan Todd pulling up some nifty numbers from CB Insights.
Ryan ToddIt's by 2030 millennials will hold 5x as much wealth as they do now.
Michael SonnensheinYou have to think about that. What resonates with a younger investor? Is it things like bitcoin? Is it the companies that they are subscribers of and users of and that they patronize all the time? Or is it things like gold which they've probably never had any kind of direct experience with? This is a really important theme that we're looking at and again we don't think it's being spoken about enough
Frank ChaparroHow do you tap into that that wealth that's coming? That transition of trillions of dollars? Is it partnering with some of the firms you mentioned, the robo advisors or the Robinhoods of the world to kind of tap into some of these millennials who are using these platforms and very well soon may be accredited investors themselves.
Ryan ToddThe campaign's helped too.
Michael SonnensheinWell yeah the campaign #droppedgold and droppedgold.com kind of speaks to a lot of the themes that I'm talking about and is starting to have that conversation be had amongst investors. As you look at newer platforms like Square and Robinhood et cetera they're kind of seeing where the puck is going and are starting to skate towards it. They're already offering services around crypto assets because their user bases want them and they want those access points. It's gonna be interesting to see how it all plays out but if we're successful in keeping digital currencies as a main part of the financial system -- kind of bridging those gaps with respect to custody and safekeeping and order management systems and making all of this easier to access, we're going to have a difficult time not seeing a lot of that wealth shift into digital currencies.
Frank ChaparroIs there anything that worries you? That transition of wealth seems to be the North Star and you're not paying attention much to the ebbs and flows of day to day news but is there anything existential that worries you?
Michael SonnensheinI don't think there's anything so much that worries me so much as I wish everyone would stop looking at digital currencies and asking, when? There's such an impatience. It's just kind of unnecessary, if you look at where bitcoin and other digital assets have gone from nothing to something in ten eleven years. We now have derivatives around Bitcoin that trade on exchanges next to the assets that have been around for millennia. There is this this narrative around impatience of when is this all going to happen but we'd actually say, well stop and actually look at how much has happened over the last ten eleven years. Take notice of how much clarity we actually do have from regulatory bodies, not to mention how much job creation there has been and how much... In the way there's been around innovations around cryptography and new ideas around what constitutes money. I mean this is all really exciting. So if everyone would just kind of own up to how much progress has been made and stop asking about when we'd all just get back to focusing on building around these assets and can hopefully continue to posture them to flourish.
Frank ChaparroThat is a great place to leave things off with our friend Michael Sonnenshein and their quarter three report over at Grayscale. Thank you so much for joining us.
Michael SonnensheinThanks for having me. || Maduro unveils aggressive plan to fund Venezuela's economy in petro cryptocurrency: The government of Venezuela is making a strong push to further legitimize the country’s state-backed cryptocurrency , the petro, and end its dependence on the U.S. dollar. Late last night, President Nicolás Maduro announced during a state broadcast that he will soon create several government funds, denominated in petros, as a way to encourage economic development. Additional resources will also be granted to the administrative division of each state in petros, Maduro said. "I am assigning 1 million bimonthly petros as of November to all the states and the protectorates—through the corporations we are going to create—as an investment modality for their free use in the attention of their priorities,” Maduro said during the broadcast . Venezuela’s Bitcoin plans are desperate “subterfuge” says acting-president Guaido "In concrete terms, this means, my compatriots, that we are assigning between 1,354,000 euros and 3,249,600 euros to governors and protectorates," he said. The announcement follows Maduro’s acknowledgement that his government owns an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of its international reserves, and that he plans to develop a mechanism to pay debts and charge for services using crypto to bypass U.S. sanctions. The petro, of course, was born out of a perceived need to overcome these same sanctions. And now, it appears, Maduro is putting an aggressive plan into action to put those petros into circulation to fund Venezuela’s economy. During his speech, Maduro announced the creation of several other petro funds for agricultural and industrial development, as well as for the procurement of supplies and raw materials that cannot be acquired through traditional means due to the blockade on the country's accounts. These funds include a stash of 1 million petros devoted to agricultural development; more than 600,000 petros for industrial inputs and machinery; 4 million petros for the telecommunications sector; the equivalent of 9 million euros in petros for 70 national road works projects; and $2 million-worth of petros for a joint fund with China. Maduro said these funds would be backed by fiat, such has U.S dollars or euros, or its equivalent in, er, more petros, though he did not elaborate. Further details about Maduro’s plan will likely not be released until it is published in the country’s official gazette. || Maduro unveils aggressive plan to fund Venezuela's economy in petro cryptocurrency: The government of Venezuela is making a strong push to further legitimize the country’s state-backedcryptocurrency, the petro, and end its dependence on the U.S. dollar.
Late last night, President Nicolás Maduro announced during a state broadcast that he will soon create several government funds, denominated in petros, as a way to encourage economic development. Additional resources will also be granted to the administrative division of each state in petros, Maduro said.
"I am assigning 1 million bimonthly petros as of November to all the states and the protectorates—through the corporations we are going to create—as an investment modality for their free use in the attention of their priorities,” Maduro said during thebroadcast.
"In concrete terms, this means, my compatriots, that we are assigning between 1,354,000 euros and 3,249,600 euros to governors and protectorates," he said.
The announcement followsMaduro’s acknowledgementthat his government owns an undisclosed amount ofBitcoinandEthereumas part of its international reserves, and thathe plans to develop a mechanismto pay debts and charge for services using crypto to bypass U.S. sanctions.
The petro, of course, was born out of a perceived need to overcome these same sanctions. And now, it appears, Maduro is putting an aggressive plan into action to put those petros into circulation to fund Venezuela’s economy.
During his speech, Maduro announced the creation of several other petro funds for agricultural and industrial development, as well as for the procurement of supplies and raw materials that cannot be acquired through traditional means due to the blockade on the country's accounts.
These funds include a stash of 1 million petros devoted to agricultural development; more than 600,000 petros for industrial inputs and machinery; 4 million petros for the telecommunications sector; the equivalent of 9 million euros in petros for 70 national road works projects; and $2 million-worth of petros for a joint fund with China.
Maduro said these funds would be backed by fiat, such has U.S dollars or euros, or its equivalent in, er, more petros, though he did not elaborate.
Further details about Maduro’s plan will likely not be released until it is published in the country’s official gazette. || The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin: Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, being introduced to the world by the anonymous developer or group of developers that go by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. BTC has had a long history of ups and downs, some of which were quite good for the community as it allowed folk to further accumulate additional Bitcoin. Others, however, almost destroyed the original crypto. Today I aim at looking at some of the toughest bugs Bitcoin developers had to deal with, why did they happen, what went wrong and how they were mitigated. I will do my best to keep things simple and not technical. Ready to hear some of the most disturbing stories surrounding Bitcoin? Emperor evil laugh How bugs happen Software is created through scripts. In Bitcoin, the original version was programmed in a low-assembly language called ‘c++’. Even though developers, especially in the open-source world, make tons of runs at the code, some bugs tend to happen. This may be due to changes that make some functions incompatible with the new code, due to errors in the new code or even due to functions that do stuff they shouldn’t. Whatever the reason may be, you must realise that Bitcoin, being open-source software, is also prone to some bugs and errors. Even though most issues are easily fixed (BTC is lucky enough to have top-notch devs looking at it), sometimes bugs that arise may cause unforeseeable problems. Below I will look into the top three bugs and errors that almost led to Bitcoin’s demise. Bug 1: OP_LSHIFT crash One of the original instructions that you could run in the scripting language was OP_LSHIFT which would shift a number a certain set of places to the left. It was discovered that when using OP_LSHIFT on some machines, processing the transaction would cause the machine to crash. The way that this bug works is that you would simply make an evil transaction and send it to a bitcoin node, effectively causing the node to crash. The way developers fixed the bug was to invalidate certain functions, making the script return ‘false’ – essentially not running the program (the transaction). Story continues Bug 2: Inflation error Inflation bugs allow you to print more money. It’s almost like you are able to become a central bank within the Bitcoin protocol. The code that originated the problem was about adding up all the outputs and all the inputs in the transaction. You subtract all the inputs from the outputs, and if you got a negative number then that meant your outputs were greater than your inputs. Basically an inflation bug is caused by an overflow, as in when the absolute value of the number is too high for the computer to represent it. So this allowed the user to print money, and this bug was exploited on main net. Billions of BTC were produced. To solve the issue the code was patched and every miner switched to a new fork, using the last block before the exploit. In essence, there was a hard-fork of the Bitcoin code. Bug 3: Netsplit The netsplit bug exploits the fact that you can have two alternative blocks with different transactions in it, that hash to the same value. This doesn’t mean the hash value is broken. It means that there are two blocks, with different transactions that collide, which have the same hash. This bug has an easy fix. Miners simply need to eventually reject one of the blocks, making those transactions invalid. Collisions may happen, and are known to happen, to a certain extent. One of the worst times there were two valid blockchains for around eight blocks. Meaning some miners were mining one chain, while others were mining a different chain. These splits may happen but eventually get resolved, as one of the chains will get more work done and replace the other. The post The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin appeared first on Coin Rivet . || The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin: Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, being introduced to the world by the anonymous developer or group of developers that go by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. BTC has had a long history of ups and downs, some of which were quite good for the community as it allowed folk to further accumulate additional Bitcoin. Others, however, almost destroyed the original crypto. Today I aim at looking at some of the toughest bugs Bitcoin developers had to deal with, why did they happen, what went wrong and how they were mitigated. I will do my best to keep things simple and not technical. Ready to hear some of the most disturbing stories surrounding Bitcoin? Emperor evil laugh How bugs happen Software is created through scripts. In Bitcoin, the original version was programmed in a low-assembly language called ‘c++’. Even though developers, especially in the open-source world, make tons of runs at the code, some bugs tend to happen. This may be due to changes that make some functions incompatible with the new code, due to errors in the new code or even due to functions that do stuff they shouldn’t. Whatever the reason may be, you must realise that Bitcoin, being open-source software, is also prone to some bugs and errors. Even though most issues are easily fixed (BTC is lucky enough to have top-notch devs looking at it), sometimes bugs that arise may cause unforeseeable problems. Below I will look into the top three bugs and errors that almost led to Bitcoin’s demise. Bug 1: OP_LSHIFT crash One of the original instructions that you could run in the scripting language was OP_LSHIFT which would shift a number a certain set of places to the left. It was discovered that when using OP_LSHIFT on some machines, processing the transaction would cause the machine to crash. The way that this bug works is that you would simply make an evil transaction and send it to a bitcoin node, effectively causing the node to crash. The way developers fixed the bug was to invalidate certain functions, making the script return ‘false’ – essentially not running the program (the transaction). Story continues Bug 2: Inflation error Inflation bugs allow you to print more money. It’s almost like you are able to become a central bank within the Bitcoin protocol. The code that originated the problem was about adding up all the outputs and all the inputs in the transaction. You subtract all the inputs from the outputs, and if you got a negative number then that meant your outputs were greater than your inputs. Basically an inflation bug is caused by an overflow, as in when the absolute value of the number is too high for the computer to represent it. So this allowed the user to print money, and this bug was exploited on main net. Billions of BTC were produced. To solve the issue the code was patched and every miner switched to a new fork, using the last block before the exploit. In essence, there was a hard-fork of the Bitcoin code. Bug 3: Netsplit The netsplit bug exploits the fact that you can have two alternative blocks with different transactions in it, that hash to the same value. This doesn’t mean the hash value is broken. It means that there are two blocks, with different transactions that collide, which have the same hash. This bug has an easy fix. Miners simply need to eventually reject one of the blocks, making those transactions invalid. Collisions may happen, and are known to happen, to a certain extent. One of the worst times there were two valid blockchains for around eight blocks. Meaning some miners were mining one chain, while others were mining a different chain. These splits may happen but eventually get resolved, as one of the chains will get more work done and replace the other. The post The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin appeared first on Coin Rivet . || The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin: Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, being introduced to the world by the anonymous developer or group of developers that go by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. BTC has had a long history of ups and downs, some of which were quite good for the community as it allowed folk to further accumulate additional Bitcoin. Others, however, almost destroyed the original crypto. Today I aim at looking at some of the toughest bugs Bitcoin developers had to deal with, why did they happen, what went wrong and how they were mitigated. I will do my best to keep things simple and not technical. Ready to hear some of the most disturbing stories surrounding Bitcoin? Emperor evil laugh How bugs happen Software is created through scripts. In Bitcoin, the original version was programmed in a low-assembly language called ‘c++’. Even though developers, especially in the open-source world, make tons of runs at the code, some bugs tend to happen. This may be due to changes that make some functions incompatible with the new code, due to errors in the new code or even due to functions that do stuff they shouldn’t. Whatever the reason may be, you must realise that Bitcoin, being open-source software, is also prone to some bugs and errors. Even though most issues are easily fixed (BTC is lucky enough to have top-notch devs looking at it), sometimes bugs that arise may cause unforeseeable problems. Below I will look into the top three bugs and errors that almost led to Bitcoin’s demise. Bug 1: OP_LSHIFT crash One of the original instructions that you could run in the scripting language was OP_LSHIFT which would shift a number a certain set of places to the left. It was discovered that when using OP_LSHIFT on some machines, processing the transaction would cause the machine to crash. The way that this bug works is that you would simply make an evil transaction and send it to a bitcoin node, effectively causing the node to crash. The way developers fixed the bug was to invalidate certain functions, making the script return ‘false’ – essentially not running the program (the transaction). Story continues Bug 2: Inflation error Inflation bugs allow you to print more money. It’s almost like you are able to become a central bank within the Bitcoin protocol. The code that originated the problem was about adding up all the outputs and all the inputs in the transaction. You subtract all the inputs from the outputs, and if you got a negative number then that meant your outputs were greater than your inputs. Basically an inflation bug is caused by an overflow, as in when the absolute value of the number is too high for the computer to represent it. So this allowed the user to print money, and this bug was exploited on main net. Billions of BTC were produced. To solve the issue the code was patched and every miner switched to a new fork, using the last block before the exploit. In essence, there was a hard-fork of the Bitcoin code. Bug 3: Netsplit The netsplit bug exploits the fact that you can have two alternative blocks with different transactions in it, that hash to the same value. This doesn’t mean the hash value is broken. It means that there are two blocks, with different transactions that collide, which have the same hash. This bug has an easy fix. Miners simply need to eventually reject one of the blocks, making those transactions invalid. Collisions may happen, and are known to happen, to a certain extent. One of the worst times there were two valid blockchains for around eight blocks. Meaning some miners were mining one chain, while others were mining a different chain. These splits may happen but eventually get resolved, as one of the chains will get more work done and replace the other. The post The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin appeared first on Coin Rivet . || More than 330 web abusers arrested in operation sparked by one of Britain's worst paedophiles: Matthew Falder was jailed for 32-years - PA A global investigation launched following the conviction of a Cambridge academic for appalling paedophile offences, has resulted in the arrest of more than 300 dark web child abusers. The suspects were detained in 38 countries around the world, including the UK, Ireland, the United States and Saudi Arabia after investigators identified a website hosting a quarter of a million horrific videos. The probe came in the wake of the conviction last year of Dr Matthew Falder, 29, who was jailed for 32-years for conducting a campaign of appalling web based abuse against a string of vulnerable victims. Falder, who had a masters and a PhD from Cambridge University, admitted blackmailing scores of men, women and children into carrying out humiliating and degrading acts, which included encouraging the rape of a child. Labelled as 'hurtcore', Falder duped his targets into sending naked images of themselves and then blackmailed them into carrying out a series of depraved activities across the web. Falder, who worked as an academic at Birmingham University, contacted more than 300 potential victims, but by operating on the dark web, he managed to evade capture for eight years. Following his capture an international taskforce began investigating the dark web platform he had been using and on Wednesday announced that a total of 337 suspects had been arrested in 38 countries. The NCA was involved in a gobal taskforce tackling dark web paedophiles The Welcome To Video site, which was run from South Korea – contained more than 250,000 horrific videos and users had made more than one million downloads, with some paedophiles using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency to pay for the abuse images. In the UK seven men have already been convicted in connection with the network with one man jailed for 22 years for raping a five-year-old boy and appearing on Welcome To Video sexually abusing a three-year-old girl. Matthew Falder had a PhD from Cambridge University Credit: PA British investigators travelled to South Korea to help track down Jong Woo Son, the 23-year-old who was allegedly running the site. Story continues Yesterday Mr Son was charged with nine counts in the United States relating to him running the website. He has already been convicted and jailed in his home country. Nikki Holland, NCA Director of Investigations, said: “Dark web child sex offenders – some of whom are the very worst offenders – cannot hide from law enforcement. “They’re not as cloaked as they think they are, they’re not as safe as they think they are. “The NCA is relentless in pursuing them and we have specialist capabilities, which we use for all UK law enforcement, to unmask them and help take down sites like Welcome To Video. “I’m immensely proud of the role we played in catching some very depraved and dangerous global offenders and for beginning the work that eventually caught Jong Woo Son.” || More than 330 web abusers arrested in operation sparked by one of Britain's worst paedophiles: Matthew Falder was jailed for 32-years - PA A global investigation launched following the conviction of a Cambridge academic for appalling paedophile offences, has resulted in the arrest of more than 300 dark web child abusers. The suspects were detained in 38 countries around the world, including the UK, Ireland, the United States and Saudi Arabia after investigators identified a website hosting a quarter of a million horrific videos. The probe came in the wake of the conviction last year of Dr Matthew Falder, 29, who was jailed for 32-years for conducting a campaign of appalling web based abuse against a string of vulnerable victims. Falder, who had a masters and a PhD from Cambridge University, admitted blackmailing scores of men, women and children into carrying out humiliating and degrading acts, which included encouraging the rape of a child. Labelled as 'hurtcore', Falder duped his targets into sending naked images of themselves and then blackmailed them into carrying out a series of depraved activities across the web. Falder, who worked as an academic at Birmingham University, contacted more than 300 potential victims, but by operating on the dark web, he managed to evade capture for eight years. Following his capture an international taskforce began investigating the dark web platform he had been using and on Wednesday announced that a total of 337 suspects had been arrested in 38 countries. The NCA was involved in a gobal taskforce tackling dark web paedophiles The Welcome To Video site, which was run from South Korea – contained more than 250,000 horrific videos and users had made more than one million downloads, with some paedophiles using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency to pay for the abuse images. In the UK seven men have already been convicted in connection with the network with one man jailed for 22 years for raping a five-year-old boy and appearing on Welcome To Video sexually abusing a three-year-old girl. Matthew Falder had a PhD from Cambridge University Credit: PA British investigators travelled to South Korea to help track down Jong Woo Son, the 23-year-old who was allegedly running the site. Story continues Yesterday Mr Son was charged with nine counts in the United States relating to him running the website. He has already been convicted and jailed in his home country. Nikki Holland, NCA Director of Investigations, said: “Dark web child sex offenders – some of whom are the very worst offenders – cannot hide from law enforcement. “They’re not as cloaked as they think they are, they’re not as safe as they think they are. “The NCA is relentless in pursuing them and we have specialist capabilities, which we use for all UK law enforcement, to unmask them and help take down sites like Welcome To Video. “I’m immensely proud of the role we played in catching some very depraved and dangerous global offenders and for beginning the work that eventually caught Jong Woo Son.” || Crypto Investing In The 2020s: As we cross the threshold into the next decade, what truly is in store for crypto investors? Will Bitcoin be many times more valuable by the end of the decade? Or will it be mostly dead? Will it be replaced by cryptocurrencies with more advanced technology? If so, will those cryptocurrencies have begun to replace most fiat currencies? What about digital assets controlled by companies the likes of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB ) or JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM )? Before I can answer these questions about the future, let’s first look back at the past ... When Bitcoin was born ten years ago, the world was torn by the financial crisis. It was 2008. Major governments had piled up massive debts. Lehman Brothers failed, triggering a chain reaction of even greater failures in the banking system. Governments responded by printing unlimited quantities of money. And Bitcoin was born as Satoshi Nakamoto’s indignant response to the mess they created. The dream: To create a peer-to-peer system of electronic cash, killing three birds with one stone: One : Bitcoin would unshackle money from the control of those who created the financial crisis. Two : It would replace their behind-the-scenes deliberations and manipulations with the first-ever form of money that has a built-in monetary policy. Three : The monetary policy would be stable, predictable and completely transparent — visible to everyone. That was the dream. But it has not been the reality. Bitcoin will more closely resemble a store of wealth (like gold) than a system of electronic cash. Here’s what actually happened ... When Bitcoin creators looked at fiat money, there was little desire to sort out the good from the bad. Instead Bitcoin’s specs were deliberately designed to be the exact antithesis of every critical aspect of existing monetary policy. Specifically, in these four ways ... Fiat money supply is unlimited and forever expandable. So, the creators designed Bitcoin’s money supply to be strictly capped and immutable. To enforce that cap, they established a strict rule: Approximately every four years, the supply of new Bitcoin being created will be slashed by 50%, until ultimately any new Bitcoin creation becomes negligible. The next halving is expected in May of 2020, and should help to kick off what could be the next big leg in the current Bitcoin bull market Access to fiat digital money is dictated by banks. So, they designed Bitcoin to be free for everyone and anyone to use as they see fit. The fiat money system is made up of multiple gatekeepers and custodians who are regulated by a central government and trusted by the people. In contrast, Bitcoin’s code stipulates that there are NO gatekeepers, NO custodians, NO regulators and NO governments in the mix. Story continues This was the theory. But in practice, these strict design choices have taken a heavy toll on the Bitcoin network over time: Since Bitcoin is scarce, most people are usually reluctant to spend it. Instead, they simply hoard it in the expectation that, with time, its value will always go up ... Since there is no formal authority, an oligopoly of miners has emerged who control the minting of most new Bitcoins ... And since Bitcoin lacks adequate governance to select custodians, certain groups of developers have seized control over most of the network’s development. So, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s very possible that ... Bitcoin was an overreaction to the financial crisis and to the monetary system that allowed the crisis to occur. But today, instead of functioning as an efficient peer-to-peer system for transferring cash, Bitcoin is evolving into a store of value like gold. We don’t really see a lot of changes being made, so “store of value” will likely end up being its only function by the end of the next decade. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it does leave the door open for other projects to pick up the slack and take on the mantle of “peer-to-peer electronic cash”. The good news is that stores of value are in high demand in today’s world of geopolitical and financial uncertainty. Like gold, Bitcoin still retains the potential to rise dramatically in value. Moreover, the fact remains that Bitcoin introduced the first public, open, digital asset the world has ever seen. Bitcoin was the first successful experiment with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). And in recent years, that revolutionary technology has evolved rapidly. So, what comes next? Looking ahead to the next decade, we can see how ... DLT could contribute not only to the evolution of money and the stability of monetary policy ... it could also enhance economic productivity, political governance, social cohesion and more. DLT could revolutionize democratic elections, transform the world of lending and massively disrupt social media. So, the potential for cryptocurrencies to change the world is big, much bigger than originally expected ten years ago. In fact, whether or not Bitcoin can deliver on its original promise is now a moot point. Other cryptocurrencies are rising to the occasion to fulfill the original dream ... plus much more. Yes, the invention of Bitcoin broke the ice ... It unleashed teams of developers and thinkers who are passionate about a decentralized digital cash system. They are fixing the deficiencies of Bitcoin and fine-tuning their algorithms to create a currency for the masses. More recently, it has also unleashed a parallel trend of a very different kind: Regulators and gatekeepers of the traditional financial system see the writing on the wall. They have become increasingly aware of the powerful advantages that DLT could bring to the table. And they are already looking for ways to adapt, adopt — or co-opt — the new technology to modernize the existing system. Depending on which of these prevails, there are two possible scenarios on how cryptocurrencies evolve over the next decade: Scenario A: Decentralized DLT Public open ledgers and their native cryptocurrencies begin to replace the fiat currency system. Instead of saving, spending or investing dollars, euros or yen, people begin to do all those things with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano or EOS. A growing share of the population transitions from government-issued currency to public cryptocurrencies. They are attracted to crypto by handy, practical distributed applications (dApps), powered by free and open cryptocurrencies. This activity is not controlled by government or government-regulated institutions. It’s governed by the consensus of each community. Initially, governments resist. But eventually, they accept the new reality. They realize they can no longer control the monetary system the way they used to. Instead of bucking the trend, they begin to recognize these new forms of money as legal tender. No currency emerges as the sole winner. Rather, a select group of cryptocurrencies becomes dominant, thanks to superior technology, the most practical applications and the broadest mainstream acceptance. Scenario B. The Centralized DLT Scenario Governments and corporations of the world’s largest economies — the U.S., the European Union, China and Japan — lead the way toward adopting Distributed Ledger Technology. They realize that digital money is the wave of the future. And they see that the single, most-efficient form of digital money is based on DLT. BUT instead of creating open, decentralized systems, they focus on digital money systems that mimic the fiat system already in place. Yes, the technology is similar. But the governance is not: The new kinds of money remain under the direct control of central banks. For political and business leaders who crave more power and control, it’s an upgrade: Government and corporate agents gain the ability to directly monitor every single transaction in the system. They are empowered to freeze accounts with a few clicks of a mouse. And once various kinds of property are digitized, a government or company decree to confiscate assets of targeted groups can be executed in seconds. The technology is still distributed ledger. But instead of opening the network to everyone (a permissionless system), those who wish to join must first get the okay from some type of entity (a permissioned system). Facebook’s Libra is a good example of the latter. Bitcoin, the former. And instead of relying on the rules embedded in the code to ensure fairness (a trustless system), participants must accept the authority of the rulers (a trusted system). In a country with strong democratic traditions and judicial protections, this would not be of immediate concern. The government is expected to act in the best interests of the people. It’s assumed it will use its new digital superpowers strictly against rogue actors. But in countries already leaning toward autocracy or with no independent judiciary to speak of, the picture goes from dark to darker: Those governments will use centralized DLT to snuff out whatever individual freedoms remain. And what about companies that don’t exactly have a pristine record when it comes to handling your personal data? Think Facebook and Cambridge Analytica here. How can two starkly different scenarios be enabled by the same technology? Remember: All technology is inherently neutral. It can be tool of evolution or a weapon of destruction; a blade for harvest or for war. DLT is a prime example. It’s one of the most revolutionary technologies on the planet. It can help enhance individual freedom, guarantee property rights and build wealth. Or, it can be used by authoritarian governments and companies to install a draconian surveillance state. Ten years from now, which will it be? A lot will depend on which scenario prevails: Decentralized DLT or centralized DLT? My guess is that, for now at least, we could wind up with an unholy mix of both. But in the longer term, decentralized DLT will always have two major advantages: First , DLT derives its greatest power from voluntary mass participation. But centralized DLT represses that mass participation. It’s contrary to the essence of what DLT does best. Second , even if private entities can create their own form of cryptocurrency that’s fully under their control, it will be almost impossible for them to ban decentralized DLT networks. In the end, the same dynamic that ultimately makes democracies stronger than dictatorships will also make decentralized DLT stronger than the centralized alternative. Check out Weiss Crypto Ratings and Indexes: https://www.benzinga.com/cryptocurrency/weiss-crypto-ratings/ https://www.benzinga.com/cryptocurrency/weiss-crypto-indexes/ Image Sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga The Financial World Of The Future, Part 3 Crypto Markets Post Moderate Gains, Large Altcoins Take the Lead 5G Will Revolutionize Every Industry … But Only If It Has Blockchain Security © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Crypto Investing In The 2020s: As we cross the threshold into the next decade, what truly is in store for crypto investors? Will Bitcoin be many times more valuable by the end of the decade? Or will it be mostly dead? Will it be replaced by cryptocurrencies with more advanced technology? If so, will those cryptocurrencies have begun to replace most fiat currencies? What about digital assets controlled by companies the likes of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB ) or JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM )? Before I can answer these questions about the future, let’s first look back at the past ... When Bitcoin was born ten years ago, the world was torn by the financial crisis. It was 2008. Major governments had piled up massive debts. Lehman Brothers failed, triggering a chain reaction of even greater failures in the banking system. Governments responded by printing unlimited quantities of money. And Bitcoin was born as Satoshi Nakamoto’s indignant response to the mess they created. The dream: To create a peer-to-peer system of electronic cash, killing three birds with one stone: One : Bitcoin would unshackle money from the control of those who created the financial crisis. Two : It would replace their behind-the-scenes deliberations and manipulations with the first-ever form of money that has a built-in monetary policy. Three : The monetary policy would be stable, predictable and completely transparent — visible to everyone. That was the dream. But it has not been the reality. Bitcoin will more closely resemble a store of wealth (like gold) than a system of electronic cash. Here’s what actually happened ... When Bitcoin creators looked at fiat money, there was little desire to sort out the good from the bad. Instead Bitcoin’s specs were deliberately designed to be the exact antithesis of every critical aspect of existing monetary policy. Specifically, in these four ways ... Fiat money supply is unlimited and forever expandable. So, the creators designed Bitcoin’s money supply to be strictly capped and immutable. To enforce that cap, they established a strict rule: Approximately every four years, the supply of new Bitcoin being created will be slashed by 50%, until ultimately any new Bitcoin creation becomes negligible. The next halving is expected in May of 2020, and should help to kick off what could be the next big leg in the current Bitcoin bull market Access to fiat digital money is dictated by banks. So, they designed Bitcoin to be free for everyone and anyone to use as they see fit. The fiat money system is made up of multiple gatekeepers and custodians who are regulated by a central government and trusted by the people. In contrast, Bitcoin’s code stipulates that there are NO gatekeepers, NO custodians, NO regulators and NO governments in the mix. Story continues This was the theory. But in practice, these strict design choices have taken a heavy toll on the Bitcoin network over time: Since Bitcoin is scarce, most people are usually reluctant to spend it. Instead, they simply hoard it in the expectation that, with time, its value will always go up ... Since there is no formal authority, an oligopoly of miners has emerged who control the minting of most new Bitcoins ... And since Bitcoin lacks adequate governance to select custodians, certain groups of developers have seized control over most of the network’s development. So, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s very possible that ... Bitcoin was an overreaction to the financial crisis and to the monetary system that allowed the crisis to occur. But today, instead of functioning as an efficient peer-to-peer system for transferring cash, Bitcoin is evolving into a store of value like gold. We don’t really see a lot of changes being made, so “store of value” will likely end up being its only function by the end of the next decade. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it does leave the door open for other projects to pick up the slack and take on the mantle of “peer-to-peer electronic cash”. The good news is that stores of value are in high demand in today’s world of geopolitical and financial uncertainty. Like gold, Bitcoin still retains the potential to rise dramatically in value. Moreover, the fact remains that Bitcoin introduced the first public, open, digital asset the world has ever seen. Bitcoin was the first successful experiment with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). And in recent years, that revolutionary technology has evolved rapidly. So, what comes next? Looking ahead to the next decade, we can see how ... DLT could contribute not only to the evolution of money and the stability of monetary policy ... it could also enhance economic productivity, political governance, social cohesion and more. DLT could revolutionize democratic elections, transform the world of lending and massively disrupt social media. So, the potential for cryptocurrencies to change the world is big, much bigger than originally expected ten years ago. In fact, whether or not Bitcoin can deliver on its original promise is now a moot point. Other cryptocurrencies are rising to the occasion to fulfill the original dream ... plus much more. Yes, the invention of Bitcoin broke the ice ... It unleashed teams of developers and thinkers who are passionate about a decentralized digital cash system. They are fixing the deficiencies of Bitcoin and fine-tuning their algorithms to create a currency for the masses. More recently, it has also unleashed a parallel trend of a very different kind: Regulators and gatekeepers of the traditional financial system see the writing on the wall. They have become increasingly aware of the powerful advantages that DLT could bring to the table. And they are already looking for ways to adapt, adopt — or co-opt — the new technology to modernize the existing system. Depending on which of these prevails, there are two possible scenarios on how cryptocurrencies evolve over the next decade: Scenario A: Decentralized DLT Public open ledgers and their native cryptocurrencies begin to replace the fiat currency system. Instead of saving, spending or investing dollars, euros or yen, people begin to do all those things with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano or EOS. A growing share of the population transitions from government-issued currency to public cryptocurrencies. They are attracted to crypto by handy, practical distributed applications (dApps), powered by free and open cryptocurrencies. This activity is not controlled by government or government-regulated institutions. It’s governed by the consensus of each community. Initially, governments resist. But eventually, they accept the new reality. They realize they can no longer control the monetary system the way they used to. Instead of bucking the trend, they begin to recognize these new forms of money as legal tender. No currency emerges as the sole winner. Rather, a select group of cryptocurrencies becomes dominant, thanks to superior technology, the most practical applications and the broadest mainstream acceptance. Scenario B. The Centralized DLT Scenario Governments and corporations of the world’s largest economies — the U.S., the European Union, China and Japan — lead the way toward adopting Distributed Ledger Technology. They realize that digital money is the wave of the future. And they see that the single, most-efficient form of digital money is based on DLT. BUT instead of creating open, decentralized systems, they focus on digital money systems that mimic the fiat system already in place. Yes, the technology is similar. But the governance is not: The new kinds of money remain under the direct control of central banks. For political and business leaders who crave more power and control, it’s an upgrade: Government and corporate agents gain the ability to directly monitor every single transaction in the system. They are empowered to freeze accounts with a few clicks of a mouse. And once various kinds of property are digitized, a government or company decree to confiscate assets of targeted groups can be executed in seconds. The technology is still distributed ledger. But instead of opening the network to everyone (a permissionless system), those who wish to join must first get the okay from some type of entity (a permissioned system). Facebook’s Libra is a good example of the latter. Bitcoin, the former. And instead of relying on the rules embedded in the code to ensure fairness (a trustless system), participants must accept the authority of the rulers (a trusted system). In a country with strong democratic traditions and judicial protections, this would not be of immediate concern. The government is expected to act in the best interests of the people. It’s assumed it will use its new digital superpowers strictly against rogue actors. But in countries already leaning toward autocracy or with no independent judiciary to speak of, the picture goes from dark to darker: Those governments will use centralized DLT to snuff out whatever individual freedoms remain. And what about companies that don’t exactly have a pristine record when it comes to handling your personal data? Think Facebook and Cambridge Analytica here. How can two starkly different scenarios be enabled by the same technology? Remember: All technology is inherently neutral. It can be tool of evolution or a weapon of destruction; a blade for harvest or for war. DLT is a prime example. It’s one of the most revolutionary technologies on the planet. It can help enhance individual freedom, guarantee property rights and build wealth. Or, it can be used by authoritarian governments and companies to install a draconian surveillance state. Ten years from now, which will it be? A lot will depend on which scenario prevails: Decentralized DLT or centralized DLT? My guess is that, for now at least, we could wind up with an unholy mix of both. But in the longer term, decentralized DLT will always have two major advantages: First , DLT derives its greatest power from voluntary mass participation. But centralized DLT represses that mass participation. It’s contrary to the essence of what DLT does best. Second , even if private entities can create their own form of cryptocurrency that’s fully under their control, it will be almost impossible for them to ban decentralized DLT networks. In the end, the same dynamic that ultimately makes democracies stronger than dictatorships will also make decentralized DLT stronger than the centralized alternative. Check out Weiss Crypto Ratings and Indexes: https://www.benzinga.com/cryptocurrency/weiss-crypto-ratings/ https://www.benzinga.com/cryptocurrency/weiss-crypto-indexes/ Image Sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga The Financial World Of The Future, Part 3 Crypto Markets Post Moderate Gains, Large Altcoins Take the Lead 5G Will Revolutionize Every Industry … But Only If It Has Blockchain Security © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || U.S., South Korea Bust Giant Child Porn Site by Following a Bitcoin Trail: (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and Korean authorities say they broke up one of the worlds largest markets for child pornography, a crime that is proliferating at a furious pace with the rise of cryptocurrency and encrypted online content. The bust was revealed Wednesday as the U.S. unsealed an indictment against Jong Woo Son, 23, who prosecutors say operated a Darknet market that accepted Bitcoin and distributed more than 1 million sexually explicit videos involving children. Son, a South Korean national, is serving 18 months in prison after being convicted there. Since agents shuttered the site in March 2018, authorities have arrested 337 site users around the world. They were in countries including the U.K., Germany, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and in nearly two dozen U.S. states, according to U.S. authorities. The U.K. government said people in 38 countries were arrested. The site, which encouraged users to upload videos, included hundreds of thousands of illicit images not previously seen by authorities. Authorities say they rescued at least 23 minor victims in the U.S., U.K. and Spain who were being actively abused by users of the site, which operated from June 2015 until March 2018. What we are here to discuss today, the sexual exploitation of children, is one of the worst forms of human evil imaginable, Jessie Liu, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Wednesday as she announced the charges. She added, Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by U.S. and foreign law enforcement to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims. Images of sexual exploitation have mushroomed since 2014, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received reports of 1.1 million incidents of child pornography. By last year, that number had risen to 18.4 million. The Darknet refers to encrypted online content that hides from traditional search engines. The anonymity of the Darknet has fostered crimes like narcotics trafficking, money laundering and child pornography, prosecutors say. Cryptocurrency also has been cited in a wide range of crimes in which people seek to move money anonymously around the world. Story continues Sons site, called Welcome to Video, contained more than 250,000 unique videos. Of those, 45% contained new images that were previously unknown, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network, which concealed the location of the operator and users, said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing. Child sex offenders set up online communities that brazenly promote victimizing children and even infants, educate members about how to perpetrate abuse without getting caught, encourage members to document their abuse, and distribute those videos and pictures to groups of predators, Downing said. Son was indicted under seal in Washington in August 2018 on child pornography and money laundering charges. Users could join the site free with a user name and password, allowing them to download videos. They earned points by uploading videos and referring new users. They could buy a VIP account that allowed unlimited downloads for six months if they exchanged Bitcoin valued at $353 in March 2018, the indictment said. The server for the site was run out of Sons bedroom, according to the indictment. U.S. authorities disclosed information about three dozen of the accused site users, including former federal agents and a Georgia man who videotaped children in his own bathroom and uploaded videos of them. The other site users whove been charged werent identified. Two users took their own lives after search warrants were executed, authorities said. Prosecutors also filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize 24 cryptocurrency accounts of users who conspired to launder money and possess child pornography. Investigators from the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Investigations worked with law enforcement around the world, including the U.K.s National Crime Agency. The NCA said it uncovered the Welcome to Video site while investigating a man now serving a 25-year jail term, and that it identified Son as the operator. Agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division also claimed credit. Don Fort, chief of the division, said they determined the location of the Darknet server in South Korea, identified Son and found the physical location of the website. They also unmasked users hiding behind Bitcoin transactions, Fort said. Our agencys ability to analyze the blockchain and de-anonymize Bitcoin transactions allowed for the identification of hundreds of predators around the world, Fort said. The scale of this crime is eye-popping and sickening. (Updates with prosecutors comments.) --With assistance from Neil Weinberg. To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at [email protected], David S. Joachim For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || U.S., South Korea Bust Giant Child Porn Site by Following a Bitcoin Trail: (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and Korean authorities say they broke up one of the world’s largest markets for child pornography, a crime that is proliferating at a furious pace with the rise of cryptocurrency and encrypted online content.
The bust was revealed Wednesday as the U.S. unsealed an indictment against Jong Woo Son, 23, who prosecutors say operated a Darknet market that accepted Bitcoin and distributed more than 1 million sexually explicit videos involving children. Son, a South Korean national, is serving 18 months in prison after being convicted there.
Since agents shuttered the site in March 2018, authorities have arrested 337 site users around the world. They were in countries including the U.K., Germany, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and in nearly two dozen U.S. states, according to U.S. authorities. The U.K. government said people in 38 countries were arrested.
The site, which encouraged users to upload videos, included hundreds of thousands of illicit images not previously seen by authorities. Authorities say they rescued at least 23 minor victims in the U.S., U.K. and Spain who were being actively abused by users of the site, which operated from June 2015 until March 2018.
“What we are here to discuss today, the sexual exploitation of children, is one of the worst forms of human evil imaginable,” Jessie Liu, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Wednesday as she announced the charges. She added, “Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by U.S. and foreign law enforcement to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims.”
Images of sexual exploitation have mushroomed since 2014, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received reports of 1.1 million incidents of child pornography. By last year, that number had risen to 18.4 million.
The Darknet refers to encrypted online content that hides from traditional search engines. The anonymity of the Darknet has fostered crimes like narcotics trafficking, money laundering and child pornography, prosecutors say. Cryptocurrency also has been cited in a wide range of crimes in which people seek to move money anonymously around the world.
Son’s site, called Welcome to Video, contained more than 250,000 unique videos. Of those, 45% contained new images that were previously unknown, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The site operated as a “hidden service” on the Tor network, which concealed the location of the operator and users, said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing.
Child sex offenders set up online communities that “brazenly promote victimizing children and even infants, educate members about how to perpetrate abuse without getting caught, encourage members to document their abuse, and distribute those videos and pictures to groups of predators,” Downing said.
Son was indicted under seal in Washington in August 2018 on child pornography and money laundering charges. Users could join the site free with a user name and password, allowing them to download videos. They earned “points” by uploading videos and referring new users. They could buy a “VIP” account that allowed unlimited downloads for six months if they exchanged Bitcoin valued at $353 in March 2018, the indictment said.
The server for the site was run out of Son’s bedroom, according to the indictment.
U.S. authorities disclosed information about three dozen of the accused site users, including former federal agents and a Georgia man who videotaped children in his own bathroom and uploaded videos of them. The other site users who’ve been charged weren’t identified. Two users took their own lives after search warrants were executed, authorities said.
Prosecutors also filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize 24 cryptocurrency accounts of users who conspired to launder money and possess child pornography.
Investigators from the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Investigations worked with law enforcement around the world, including the U.K.’s National Crime Agency. The NCA said it uncovered the Welcome to Video site while investigating a man now serving a 25-year jail term, and that it identified Son as the operator.
Agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division also claimed credit. Don Fort, chief of the division, said they determined the location of the Darknet server in South Korea, identified Son and found the physical location of the website. They also unmasked users hiding behind Bitcoin transactions, Fort said.
“Our agency’s ability to analyze the blockchain and de-anonymize Bitcoin transactions allowed for the identification of hundreds of predators around the world,” Fort said. “The scale of this crime is eye-popping and sickening.”
(Updates with prosecutor’s comments.)
--With assistance from Neil Weinberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at [email protected], David S. Joachim
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || U.S., South Korea Bust Giant Child Porn Site by Following a Bitcoin Trail: (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and Korean authorities say they broke up one of the world’s largest markets for child pornography, a crime that is proliferating at a furious pace with the rise of cryptocurrency and encrypted online content.
The bust was revealed Wednesday as the U.S. unsealed an indictment against Jong Woo Son, 23, who prosecutors say operated a Darknet market that accepted Bitcoin and distributed more than 1 million sexually explicit videos involving children. Son, a South Korean national, is serving 18 months in prison after being convicted there.
Since agents shuttered the site in March 2018, authorities have arrested 337 site users around the world. They were in countries including the U.K., Germany, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and in nearly two dozen U.S. states, according to U.S. authorities. The U.K. government said people in 38 countries were arrested.
The site, which encouraged users to upload videos, included hundreds of thousands of illicit images not previously seen by authorities. Authorities say they rescued at least 23 minor victims in the U.S., U.K. and Spain who were being actively abused by users of the site, which operated from June 2015 until March 2018.
“What we are here to discuss today, the sexual exploitation of children, is one of the worst forms of human evil imaginable,” Jessie Liu, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Wednesday as she announced the charges. She added, “Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by U.S. and foreign law enforcement to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims.”
Images of sexual exploitation have mushroomed since 2014, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received reports of 1.1 million incidents of child pornography. By last year, that number had risen to 18.4 million.
The Darknet refers to encrypted online content that hides from traditional search engines. The anonymity of the Darknet has fostered crimes like narcotics trafficking, money laundering and child pornography, prosecutors say. Cryptocurrency also has been cited in a wide range of crimes in which people seek to move money anonymously around the world.
Son’s site, called Welcome to Video, contained more than 250,000 unique videos. Of those, 45% contained new images that were previously unknown, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The site operated as a “hidden service” on the Tor network, which concealed the location of the operator and users, said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing.
Child sex offenders set up online communities that “brazenly promote victimizing children and even infants, educate members about how to perpetrate abuse without getting caught, encourage members to document their abuse, and distribute those videos and pictures to groups of predators,” Downing said.
Son was indicted under seal in Washington in August 2018 on child pornography and money laundering charges. Users could join the site free with a user name and password, allowing them to download videos. They earned “points” by uploading videos and referring new users. They could buy a “VIP” account that allowed unlimited downloads for six months if they exchanged Bitcoin valued at $353 in March 2018, the indictment said.
The server for the site was run out of Son’s bedroom, according to the indictment.
U.S. authorities disclosed information about three dozen of the accused site users, including former federal agents and a Georgia man who videotaped children in his own bathroom and uploaded videos of them. The other site users who’ve been charged weren’t identified. Two users took their own lives after search warrants were executed, authorities said.
Prosecutors also filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize 24 cryptocurrency accounts of users who conspired to launder money and possess child pornography.
Investigators from the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Investigations worked with law enforcement around the world, including the U.K.’s National Crime Agency. The NCA said it uncovered the Welcome to Video site while investigating a man now serving a 25-year jail term, and that it identified Son as the operator.
Agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division also claimed credit. Don Fort, chief of the division, said they determined the location of the Darknet server in South Korea, identified Son and found the physical location of the website. They also unmasked users hiding behind Bitcoin transactions, Fort said.
“Our agency’s ability to analyze the blockchain and de-anonymize Bitcoin transactions allowed for the identification of hundreds of predators around the world,” Fort said. “The scale of this crime is eye-popping and sickening.”
(Updates with prosecutor’s comments.)
--With assistance from Neil Weinberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at [email protected], David S. Joachim
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || US authorities bust global child porn ring after following Bitcoin trail: One of the world’s largest chid porn rings has been busted by US and Korean authorities after they followed a series of Bitcoin transactions. The US issued an indictment against Jong Woo Son, who is accused of operating a darknet market that accepted Bitcoin in return for more than one million videos of child pornography. Following the site’s closure in March 2018, there has been a global crackdown with more 300 users of the site being arrested in 11 countries including the UK, Germany, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Bloomberg also revealed that at least 23 victims have been rescued in the US, UK and Spain. The use of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin has been key to the investigation as users of the site could purchase “VIP” status for 0.05 BTC. BREAKING: U.S. and Korean authorities say they broke up one of the world’s largest markets for child pornography, a crime that is proliferating at a furious pace with the rise of cryptocurrencies and encrypted online content https://t.co/z4riEdQC0p pic.twitter.com/51H12QENOR — Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) October 16, 2019 According to Don Fort, chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the darknet server was located in Korea leading up to Son’s arrest. Users were then arrested after analysis of Bitcoin transactions to and from the website. Shocking statistics state that the amount of child porn cases has risen from 1.1 million in 2014 to 18.4 million in 2019, marking a disturbing 1,500% rise in cases. For more news and guides, click here. The post US authorities bust global child porn ring after following Bitcoin trail appeared first on Coin Rivet . || US authorities bust global child porn ring after following Bitcoin trail: One of the world’s largest chid porn rings has been busted by US and Korean authorities after they followed a series of Bitcoin transactions. The US issued an indictment against Jong Woo Son, who is accused of operating a darknet market that accepted Bitcoin in return for more than one million videos of child pornography. Following the site’s closure in March 2018, there has been a global crackdown with more 300 users of the site being arrested in 11 countries including the UK, Germany, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Bloomberg also revealed that at least 23 victims have been rescued in the US, UK and Spain. The use of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin has been key to the investigation as users of the site could purchase “VIP” status for 0.05 BTC. BREAKING: U.S. and Korean authorities say they broke up one of the world’s largest markets for child pornography, a crime that is proliferating at a furious pace with the rise of cryptocurrencies and encrypted online content https://t.co/z4riEdQC0p pic.twitter.com/51H12QENOR — Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) October 16, 2019 According to Don Fort, chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the darknet server was located in Korea leading up to Son’s arrest. Users were then arrested after analysis of Bitcoin transactions to and from the website. Shocking statistics state that the amount of child porn cases has risen from 1.1 million in 2014 to 18.4 million in 2019, marking a disturbing 1,500% rise in cases. For more news and guides, click here. The post US authorities bust global child porn ring after following Bitcoin trail appeared first on Coin Rivet . || US authorities bust global child porn ring after following Bitcoin trail: One of the world’s largest chid porn rings has been busted by US and Korean authorities after they followed a series of Bitcoin transactions. The US issued an indictment against Jong Woo Son, who is accused of operating a darknet market that accepted Bitcoin in return for more than one million videos of child pornography. Following the site’s closure in March 2018, there has been a global crackdown with more 300 users of the site being arrested in 11 countries including the UK, Germany, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Bloomberg also revealed that at least 23 victims have been rescued in the US, UK and Spain. The use of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin has been key to the investigation as users of the site could purchase “VIP” status for 0.05 BTC. BREAKING: U.S. and Korean authorities say they broke up one of the world’s largest markets for child pornography, a crime that is proliferating at a furious pace with the rise of cryptocurrencies and encrypted online content https://t.co/z4riEdQC0p pic.twitter.com/51H12QENOR — Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) October 16, 2019 According to Don Fort, chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the darknet server was located in Korea leading up to Son’s arrest. Users were then arrested after analysis of Bitcoin transactions to and from the website. Shocking statistics state that the amount of child porn cases has risen from 1.1 million in 2014 to 18.4 million in 2019, marking a disturbing 1,500% rise in cases. For more news and guides, click here. The post US authorities bust global child porn ring after following Bitcoin trail appeared first on Coin Rivet .
[Social Media Buzz]
Bitcoin (BTC) price: $8075.43, 24HR change: 91.58
Ethereum (ETH) price: $177.05, 24HR change: 3.53 || Marketing Assistant - Telecom Consulting ( Westminster, CA, USA ) - [ ➡ https://t.co/86LLluLvDI ] #Agile #Scrum #Agile #Kanban #ProjectMangement #jobs #Hiring #Careers #Cryptocurrency #Blockchain #BTC https://t.co/IGKBSzMVxg || 1: Bitcoin average price is $8030.87182714 (0.1% 1h)
2: Ethereum average price is $175.269706184 (-0.05% 1h)
3: XRP average price is $0.2845203333 (0.33% 1h)
4: Tether ...
|
7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-01-23]
Volume: 25770680779, RSI (14-day): 54.70, 50-day EMA: 8024.14, 200-day EMA: 8231.01
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1564.60, Gold RSI: 67.78
Oil Price: 55.59, Oil RSI: 30.75
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Millennials should invest in bitcoin, billionaire investor says: Bitcoinis the place toinvestyour money if you're a millennial, billionaire investor Tim Draper toldFOX Businesson Wednesday.
The largestcryptocurrencybymarketcapitalization has a total value of $157.5 billion, according toCoinMarketCap.com.
Draper believes its the key for millennials who want to make sure they have enough money forretirement.
"You look at bitcoin and you say 'Hey, this is great because it's not my father'sOldsmobile,'" Draper told FOX Business'Liz Claman. "Our banking system is the Oldsmobile, is the old Oldsmobile."
Draper accused the banking system of putting millennials in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
"Things aren't quite working for [millennials,]" Draper added on"The Claman Countdown.""With the current salaries, they can't quite pay it off. It's a really difficult time, and they've become renters rather than buyers because they have to."
WATCH THE FIRST-EVER BITCOIN TV COMMERCIAL LAUNCHED IN FRANCE
Because of that, Draper points to bitcoin as an option to invest in something "decentralized."
"Start building your empire in the new model that doesn't require that you have to pay 2.5 to 4 percent every time you swipe your credit card to some bank or another and doesn't require all the heavy, heavy regulations we have that are all tied to the dollar," Draper qualified. "I think if you really want it to work, I think you go bitcoin orcrypto[currency]."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
Draper reminded millennials that what may have worked for "your father or your grandfather" will not work for them. He said putting money away, penny by penny, will not work.
"If you're a millennial, you've got the world out there in front of you," Draper said. "What's the future going to look like? It's not going to be tribal anymore. It's going to be global. It's not going to be tied to geographic borders. It's going to be open."
Still, despite Draper's enthusiasm, millennials and other potential buyers should note that bitcoin -- almost since its inception -- has been extremely volatile. The cryptocurrency has an average volatility reading of 63 percent for the past six months. In real numbers, just look at its performance in January, when the market re-opened for the new year on the 2nd, Bitcoin was at $6867.49 according toCoindesk. Just 16 days later it zoomed to $9,134.48. On Wednesday it dropped to $8,635.98. By comparison, one year ago the price sat at $3581.55.
US, CHINA AND THE RACE FOR DIGITAL CURRENCY
But Draper believes the easiest way to participate in the global economic system is to "be able to move freely and move capital and goods freely throughout the world."
Bitcoin is a digital currency that's not tied to any bank or government. Like cash, it lets users spend or receive money anonymously, or mostly so; like other online payment services, it also lets them do so over the internet. There are several other virtual currencies, but bitcoin is the most popular.
BITCOIN: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW
Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians, tech enthusiasts, speculators and criminals.
However, not everyone agrees with Draper's praises of cryptocurrency. In fact, Nouriel Roubini, the economist known as Dr. Doom who accurately predicted the 2008 financial crisis, told the Senate Banking Committee in late 2018 that cryptocurrency represented the "mother of all scams."
According to a report from Coincodex, the United States is among the top countries in terms of share of bitcoin users. The value of one bitcoin is currently hovering around $8,672.
CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO
FOX Business' Jonathan Garber and Shawn Carter contributed to this report.
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• Canadian Solar Is Facing More Challenges Than It Appears || Millennials should invest in bitcoin, billionaire investor says: Bitcoin is the place to invest your money if you're a millennial, billionaire investor Tim Draper told FOX Business on Wednesday. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has a total value of $157.5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com . Draper believes its the key for millennials who want to make sure they have enough money for retirement . "You look at bitcoin and you say 'Hey, this is great because it's not my father's Oldsmobile ,'" Draper told FOX Business' Liz Claman . "Our banking system is the Oldsmobile, is the old Oldsmobile." Draper accused the banking system of putting millennials in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. "Things aren't quite working for [millennials,]" Draper added on "The Claman Countdown." "With the current salaries, they can't quite pay it off. It's a really difficult time, and they've become renters rather than buyers because they have to." WATCH THE FIRST-EVER BITCOIN TV COMMERCIAL LAUNCHED IN FRANCE Because of that, Draper points to bitcoin as an option to invest in something "decentralized." "Start building your empire in the new model that doesn't require that you have to pay 2.5 to 4 percent every time you swipe your credit card to some bank or another and doesn't require all the heavy, heavy regulations we have that are all tied to the dollar," Draper qualified. "I think if you really want it to work, I think you go bitcoin or crypto[currency] ." CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS Draper reminded millennials that what may have worked for "your father or your grandfather" will not work for them. He said putting money away, penny by penny, will not work. "If you're a millennial, you've got the world out there in front of you," Draper said. "What's the future going to look like? It's not going to be tribal anymore. It's going to be global. It's not going to be tied to geographic borders. It's going to be open." Story continues Still, despite Draper's enthusiasm, millennials and other potential buyers should note that bitcoin -- almost since its inception -- has been extremely volatile. The cryptocurrency has an average volatility reading of 63 percent for the past six months. In real numbers, just look at its performance in January, when the market re-opened for the new year on the 2nd, Bitcoin was at $6867.49 according to Coindesk . Just 16 days later it zoomed to $9,134.48. On Wednesday it dropped to $8,635.98. By comparison, one year ago the price sat at $3581.55. US, CHINA AND THE RACE FOR DIGITAL CURRENCY But Draper believes the easiest way to participate in the global economic system is to "be able to move freely and move capital and goods freely throughout the world." Bitcoin is a digital currency that's not tied to any bank or government. Like cash, it lets users spend or receive money anonymously, or mostly so; like other online payment services, it also lets them do so over the internet. There are several other virtual currencies, but bitcoin is the most popular. BITCOIN: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians, tech enthusiasts, speculators and criminals. However, not everyone agrees with Draper's praises of cryptocurrency. In fact, Nouriel Roubini, the economist known as Dr. Doom who accurately predicted the 2008 financial crisis, told the Senate Banking Committee in late 2018 that cryptocurrency represented the "mother of all scams." According to a report from Coincodex, the United States is among the top countries in terms of share of bitcoin users. The value of one bitcoin is currently hovering around $8,672. CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO FOX Business' Jonathan Garber and Shawn Carter contributed to this report. Related Articles The Controversial Way Wealthy Americans Are Lowering Estate Taxes Best Buy Celebrates 50 Yrs With Saleathon; Will It Turn 60? Canadian Solar Is Facing More Challenges Than It Appears || ETC Labs commits $1 million to blockchain-focused startups and solutions in UNICEF Innovation partnership: Ethereum Classic Labs (ETC Labs) is partnering with the UNICEF Innovation Fund by allocating $1 million to support initiatives. In a statement today, ETC Labs announced it would apportion $750k to global startup graduates of the UNICEF Innovation Fund and give $250k directly to the Fund. ETC Labs also said it plans to support a cohort of blockchain companies found through the UNICEF fund. The Ethereum Classic development firm plans to provide mentorship and training to startups interested in building products on Ethereum Classic. James Wo, the founder of ETC Labs, said in a statement that the future of blockchain technology is dependent on use cases with social and economic impact. ETC Labs CEO Terry Culver said the organization still looks to the "promise of blockchain" as a way to create social impact and improve quality of life, with the UNICEF collaboration stemming from a shared vision. For its part, UNICEF is continuing to look for places where distributed ledgers can create more efficiency in its work and partnerships, according to Chris Fabian, co-lead of UNICEF Ventures. Indeed, UNICEF has been exploring both blockchain and cryptocurrency, launching a Cryptocurrency Fund last October that can receive, hold and disburse Ethereum and Bitcoin donations. As of now, ETC Labs said it will make "follow-on" investments in three additional companies identified for their impact on emerging markets: OS City , a Latin American company using cloud computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence to improve government services; the Bangladesh-based W3 Engineers , which aims to bring Internet and cell network coverage to emerging markets using open-source blockchain technology; and Prescrypto , a Mexican-based healthcare app which helps securely send clinical data and prescription information. || ETC Labs commits $1 million to blockchain-focused startups and solutions in UNICEF Innovation partnership: Ethereum Classic Labs (ETC Labs) is partnering with the UNICEF Innovation Fund by allocating $1 million to support initiatives. In a statement today, ETC Labs announced it would apportion $750k to global startup graduates of the UNICEF Innovation Fund and give $250k directly to the Fund.
ETC Labs also said it plans to support a cohort of blockchain companies found through the UNICEF fund. The Ethereum Classic development firm plans to provide mentorship and training to startups interested in building products on Ethereum Classic.
James Wo, the founder of ETC Labs, said in a statement that the future of blockchain technology is dependent on use cases with social and economic impact. ETC Labs CEO Terry Culver said the organization still looks to the "promise of blockchain" as a way to create social impact and improve quality of life, with the UNICEF collaboration stemming from a shared vision.
For its part, UNICEF is continuing to look for places where distributed ledgers can create more efficiency in its work and partnerships, according to Chris Fabian, co-lead of UNICEF Ventures. Indeed, UNICEF has been exploring both blockchain and cryptocurrency, launching aCryptocurrency Fundlast October that can receive, hold and disburse Ethereum and Bitcoin donations.
As of now, ETC Labs said it will make "follow-on" investments in three additional companies identified for their impact on emerging markets:OS City, a Latin American company using cloud computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence to improve government services; the Bangladesh-basedW3 Engineers, which aims to bring Internet and cell network coverage to emerging markets using open-source blockchain technology; andPrescrypto, a Mexican-based healthcare app which helps securely send clinical data and prescription information. || Bitcoin Cash miners propose 12.5% share of block rewards to support ecosystem: Jiang Zhuoer, CEO of BTC.TOP, the largest mining pool on Bitcoin Cash, announced a proposal through a blog post that would redirect 12.5% of Bitcoin Cash Coinbase block rewards to a development fund. The fund is a Hong Kong corporation that has been set up to legally accept and disperse funds and would be provided funding for six months to support Bitcoin Cash infrastructure. The plan is to implement this proposal into Bitcoin Cash's May 2020 protocol upgrade. The fund would receive approximately 112.5 BCH per day and about 20,588 BCH over the six months. Based on the current prices of BCH, the fund would receive roughly $7.1 million in total. The proposal has garnered support from other large mining pools part of Bitcoin Cash, which includes Antpool, BTC.com , ViaBTC, and Bitcoin.com . These five pools represent 34.5% or a little more than a third of Bitcoin Cashs hash rate. The blog states that this proposal may be controversial, and some in the community may have reservations toward it; however, the plan would move forward regardless. To ensure participation and include subsidization from the whole pool of SHA-256 mining, miners will orphan BCH blocks that do not follow the plan. This is needed to avoid a tragedy of the commons," the post reads. || Bitcoin Cash miners propose 12.5% share of block rewards to support ecosystem: Jiang Zhuoer, CEO of BTC.TOP, the largest mining pool on Bitcoin Cash, announced a proposal through a blog post that wouldredirect12.5% of Bitcoin Cash Coinbase block rewards to a development fund. The fund is a Hong Kong corporation that has been set up to legally accept and disperse funds and would be provided funding for six months to support Bitcoin Cash infrastructure. The plan is to implement this proposal into Bitcoin Cash's May 2020 protocol upgrade. The fund would receive approximately 112.5 BCH per day and about 20,588 BCH over the six months. Based on the current prices of BCH, the fund would receive roughly $7.1 million in total.
The proposal has garnered support from other large mining pools part of Bitcoin Cash, which includes Antpool,BTC.com, ViaBTC, andBitcoin.com. These five pools represent 34.5% or a little more than a third of Bitcoin Cash’s hash rate.
The blog states that this proposal may be controversial, and some in the community may have reservations toward it; however, the plan would move forward regardless. “To ensure participation and include subsidization from the whole pool of SHA-256 mining, miners will orphan BCH blocks that do not follow the plan. This is needed to avoid a tragedy of the commons," the post reads. || Bitcoin Cash miners propose 12.5% share of block rewards to support ecosystem: Jiang Zhuoer, CEO of BTC.TOP, the largest mining pool on Bitcoin Cash, announced a proposal through a blog post that wouldredirect12.5% of Bitcoin Cash Coinbase block rewards to a development fund. The fund is a Hong Kong corporation that has been set up to legally accept and disperse funds and would be provided funding for six months to support Bitcoin Cash infrastructure. The plan is to implement this proposal into Bitcoin Cash's May 2020 protocol upgrade. The fund would receive approximately 112.5 BCH per day and about 20,588 BCH over the six months. Based on the current prices of BCH, the fund would receive roughly $7.1 million in total.
The proposal has garnered support from other large mining pools part of Bitcoin Cash, which includes Antpool,BTC.com, ViaBTC, andBitcoin.com. These five pools represent 34.5% or a little more than a third of Bitcoin Cash’s hash rate.
The blog states that this proposal may be controversial, and some in the community may have reservations toward it; however, the plan would move forward regardless. “To ensure participation and include subsidization from the whole pool of SHA-256 mining, miners will orphan BCH blocks that do not follow the plan. This is needed to avoid a tragedy of the commons," the post reads. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/21/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC/USD at risk of pull back to $8000
Bitcoin price is trading in minor positive, up some 1.10% in the second half of the session.
BTC/USD continues to consolidate underneath $9000 barrier and on top of critical support $8500.
The price range is narrowing which is likely to lead to an explosive breakout.
Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD bulls need to break down 5 resistance
Ethereum price is trading in the red by 1.20% in the session on Wednesday.
The price range is seen at a high around $175 down to a low of $160.
Near-term price behaviour shows some vulnerabilities to the downside for ETH.
Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD vulnerable of potential return to
Litecoin price is trading in positive territory by some 1.15% in the session on Wednesday.
LTC/USD is narrowing in terms of price action, $60 to the high, $56 to the low.
Should the bears force a breakdown of the range-block, LTC may be forced to retest the breached daily channel.
Image Sourced from Pixabay
0
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/21/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/15/2020
• Bitcoin, Ripple & Litecoin - American Wrap: January 14, 2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/21/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC/USD at risk of pull back to $8000
Bitcoin price is trading in minor positive, up some 1.10% in the second half of the session.
BTC/USD continues to consolidate underneath $9000 barrier and on top of critical support $8500.
The price range is narrowing which is likely to lead to an explosive breakout.
Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD bulls need to break down 5 resistance
Ethereum price is trading in the red by 1.20% in the session on Wednesday.
The price range is seen at a high around $175 down to a low of $160.
Near-term price behaviour shows some vulnerabilities to the downside for ETH.
Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD vulnerable of potential return to
Litecoin price is trading in positive territory by some 1.15% in the session on Wednesday.
LTC/USD is narrowing in terms of price action, $60 to the high, $56 to the low.
Should the bears force a breakdown of the range-block, LTC may be forced to retest the breached daily channel.
Image Sourced from Pixabay
0
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/21/2020
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/15/2020
• Bitcoin, Ripple & Litecoin - American Wrap: January 14, 2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/21/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC/USD at risk of pull back to $8000 Bitcoin price is trading in minor positive, up some 1.10% in the second half of the session. BTC/USD continues to consolidate underneath $9000 barrier and on top of critical support $8500. The price range is narrowing which is likely to lead to an explosive breakout. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD bulls need to break down 5 resistance Ethereum price is trading in the red by 1.20% in the session on Wednesday. The price range is seen at a high around $175 down to a low of $160. Near-term price behaviour shows some vulnerabilities to the downside for ETH. Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD vulnerable of potential return to Litecoin price is trading in positive territory by some 1.15% in the session on Wednesday. LTC/USD is narrowing in terms of price action, $60 to the high, $56 to the low. Should the bears force a breakdown of the range-block, LTC may be forced to retest the breached daily channel. Image Sourced from Pixabay 0 See more from Benzinga Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/21/2020 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/15/2020 Bitcoin, Ripple & Litecoin - American Wrap: January 14, 2020 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Will stablecoin development dominate 2020?: As 2020 unfolds, stablecoin development is already stepping up a gear. Investors, institutions, and even governments are seeing the benefits of cryptocurrency minus the price volatility. The stability of these digital coins makes them appealing not only to central banks, but also to global corporations ready to shake up the traditional financial industry. The benefits of using stablecoins The primary advantage of stablecoins over Bitcoin (and similar digital assets) is their immunity to sudden price fluctuations. By definition, a stablecoin is designed to offer stability, as it’s tied to an asset or basket of assets. The issuer can peg the stablecoin to exchange-traded commodities (such as oil or gold), other crypto-assets, or fiat currency. The goods in question back the digital asset, making significant price fluctuations less likely – although some are inevitable. Users can still access the benefits of cryptocurrencies without sacrificing price stability, making simple transactions much easier. This major plus creates a bridge between cryptocurrency and the traditional financial systems to provide users with the best of both worlds. Stablecoin development has a series of advantages that could revolutionise international payments, as well as the way people store and use money. Stablecoins are ideal for fuelling the remittance markets Stablecoins can greatly improve the current payment system and all related services as they make cross-border payments faster and cheaper. This benefits both providers and end-users. Moreover, stablecoins make financial services affordable for millions of people who are otherwise denied access to these services (the unbanked ). Stablecoins facilitate peer-to-peer payments Traditional payment systems may have improved lately, but the system still lacks efficiency and can be tedious, slow, and expensive. Stablecoins can power platforms to reduce costs and speed up peer-to-peer payments, with benefits for trading, everyday payments, e-commerce, and end-users who need to transfer small amounts. Story continues In other words, stablecoins eliminate borders and minimise the costs of currency exchanges. Leaders in stablecoin development While most people in the cryptocurrency ecosystem praise the benefits of stablecoins, there are still a few hurdles to overcome. Stablecoins face a series of legal and regulatory challenges before they can have a genuine impact. There are over 200 stablecoins on the market at the time of writing, but not all of them were created equal. The most popular is still Tether (USDT), which owns about 94% of the stablecoin market. Its value is tied to the US dollar, as the issuer’s reserves back every USDT with one dollar – or, at least, this is what the company claims. Tether is not without issues. The company and its sister company Bitfinex have been fighting a series of class-action lawsuits alleging that the two manipulated Bitcoin prices in 2017. Moreover, during these legal battles, Tether’s statement that its stablecoin is 100% backed by USD has been called into question. The other famous stablecoin that grabbed all the headlines last year is still in the development phase. Facebook’s Libra has made it to the front pages worldwide ever since the first rumours about it emerged in May 2019. The idea of a global stablecoin governed by a private corporation that has access to over two billion users has triggered unexpected reactions . Governments and central banks in most countries around the world decided to ban Libra long before its official launch as a way to protect their own national currencies. But with so many possibilities coming to light, stablecoin development could make a big jump to turn 2020 into the year of state or corporation-backed digital coins. Where central banks stand on stablecoins Many states are quite advanced when it comes to stablecoin development, insisting that central bank reserves should back stablecoins. The Central Bank of China , for instance, has been working on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that will enforce control over the Chinese public and potentially spark a de-dollarisation of world trade. Russia’s Central Bank is also experimenting with stablecoins in its regulatory sandbox, according to a statement by Chairman Elvira Nabiullina. Other countries that have been considering CBDCs as a viable solution include Sweden, France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also been analysing the merits and dangers of CBCDs as a new form of base money . Final thoughts The potential of stablecoins is luring many private and public organisations into digital currency. Whoever manages to break the ice and launch the first stablecoin to disrupt the global monetary system will likely establish itself as a dominant player. While Facebook hopes to be the pioneer in stablecoin development by launching Libra this year, it remains to be seen whether it can overcome the governmental barriers in an unwelcome political environment. The post Will stablecoin development dominate 2020? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Will stablecoin development dominate 2020?: As 2020 unfolds, stablecoin development is already stepping up a gear. Investors, institutions, and even governments are seeing the benefits of cryptocurrency minus the price volatility. The stability of these digital coins makes them appealing not only to central banks, but also to global corporations ready to shake up the traditional financial industry. The benefits of using stablecoins The primary advantage of stablecoins over Bitcoin (and similar digital assets) is their immunity to sudden price fluctuations. By definition, a stablecoin is designed to offer stability, as it’s tied to an asset or basket of assets. The issuer can peg the stablecoin to exchange-traded commodities (such as oil or gold), other crypto-assets, or fiat currency. The goods in question back the digital asset, making significant price fluctuations less likely – although some are inevitable. Users can still access the benefits of cryptocurrencies without sacrificing price stability, making simple transactions much easier. This major plus creates a bridge between cryptocurrency and the traditional financial systems to provide users with the best of both worlds. Stablecoin development has a series of advantages that could revolutionise international payments, as well as the way people store and use money. Stablecoins are ideal for fuelling the remittance markets Stablecoins can greatly improve the current payment system and all related services as they make cross-border payments faster and cheaper. This benefits both providers and end-users. Moreover, stablecoins make financial services affordable for millions of people who are otherwise denied access to these services (the unbanked ). Stablecoins facilitate peer-to-peer payments Traditional payment systems may have improved lately, but the system still lacks efficiency and can be tedious, slow, and expensive. Stablecoins can power platforms to reduce costs and speed up peer-to-peer payments, with benefits for trading, everyday payments, e-commerce, and end-users who need to transfer small amounts. Story continues In other words, stablecoins eliminate borders and minimise the costs of currency exchanges. Leaders in stablecoin development While most people in the cryptocurrency ecosystem praise the benefits of stablecoins, there are still a few hurdles to overcome. Stablecoins face a series of legal and regulatory challenges before they can have a genuine impact. There are over 200 stablecoins on the market at the time of writing, but not all of them were created equal. The most popular is still Tether (USDT), which owns about 94% of the stablecoin market. Its value is tied to the US dollar, as the issuer’s reserves back every USDT with one dollar – or, at least, this is what the company claims. Tether is not without issues. The company and its sister company Bitfinex have been fighting a series of class-action lawsuits alleging that the two manipulated Bitcoin prices in 2017. Moreover, during these legal battles, Tether’s statement that its stablecoin is 100% backed by USD has been called into question. The other famous stablecoin that grabbed all the headlines last year is still in the development phase. Facebook’s Libra has made it to the front pages worldwide ever since the first rumours about it emerged in May 2019. The idea of a global stablecoin governed by a private corporation that has access to over two billion users has triggered unexpected reactions . Governments and central banks in most countries around the world decided to ban Libra long before its official launch as a way to protect their own national currencies. But with so many possibilities coming to light, stablecoin development could make a big jump to turn 2020 into the year of state or corporation-backed digital coins. Where central banks stand on stablecoins Many states are quite advanced when it comes to stablecoin development, insisting that central bank reserves should back stablecoins. The Central Bank of China , for instance, has been working on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that will enforce control over the Chinese public and potentially spark a de-dollarisation of world trade. Russia’s Central Bank is also experimenting with stablecoins in its regulatory sandbox, according to a statement by Chairman Elvira Nabiullina. Other countries that have been considering CBDCs as a viable solution include Sweden, France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also been analysing the merits and dangers of CBCDs as a new form of base money . Final thoughts The potential of stablecoins is luring many private and public organisations into digital currency. Whoever manages to break the ice and launch the first stablecoin to disrupt the global monetary system will likely establish itself as a dominant player. While Facebook hopes to be the pioneer in stablecoin development by launching Libra this year, it remains to be seen whether it can overcome the governmental barriers in an unwelcome political environment. The post Will stablecoin development dominate 2020? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Grayscale to Fund Ethereum Classic Developers for 2 More Years: Grayscale Investments has committed to financially supporting development of the ethereum classic (ETC) cryptocurrency for another two years.
Announced Wednesday, the asset manager will continue to donate one-third of the management fees from its Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust to the ETC Cooperative each quarter through 2021.
“It is a big vote of confidence which we deeply appreciate. This funding allows us to continue our support of the ETC protocol and ecosystem,” ETC Cooperative executive director Bob Summerwill said by private message. “We will provide grants for key projects, as we have through 2018 and 2019.”
Related:Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Is Now Open to More Investors as SEC Reporting Company
Since 2017, Grayscale has donated a total of $1.1 million, including $338,000 in 2019, to the cooperative, which funds development of the protocol behind the15th-largestcryptocurrency by market cap.
Grayscale manages some $80 million of assets in itsethereum classic vehicle, with nearly 10 million shares backed by about 0.92 ETC each. The trust controls about 14 percent of the total supply of ETC, based on fund disclosures and data fromETC Block Explorer. The manager charges a fee of three percent of assets under management.
The company is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent of CoinDesk.
Ethereum classic was created in 2016 as a splinter currency from ethereum (ETH) after the team leading development for the latter made a controversial decision to roll back a hacker’s transactions.
Related:Ethereum Classic Successfully Completes ‘Agharta’ Hard Fork
More recently, however, ETC has been building bridges with its sister chain. Recent hard forks, or system-wide upgrades, inSeptember 2019andJanuary 2020added ethereum-based updates to ethereum classic for improved interoperability.
The ethereum classic team expects to achieve “protocol parity with ETH” from a pending hard fork known as Aztlán, Summerwill said.
Update (Jan. 22, 20:30 UTC):A previous version of this story said Grayscale donated $338,000 in Q4 2019 alone.That is the full-year figure.
• What Do Women Want? More Educational Materials Before Investing in Bitcoin
• Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Seeks SEC Reporting Company Status || Grayscale to Fund Ethereum Classic Developers for 2 More Years: Grayscale Investments has committed to financially supporting development of the ethereum classic (ETC) cryptocurrency for another two years. Announced Wednesday, the asset manager will continue to donate one-third of the management fees from its Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust to the ETC Cooperative each quarter through 2021. It is a big vote of confidence which we deeply appreciate. This funding allows us to continue our support of the ETC protocol and ecosystem, ETC Cooperative executive director Bob Summerwill said by private message. We will provide grants for key projects, as we have through 2018 and 2019. Related: Grayscales Bitcoin Trust Is Now Open to More Investors as SEC Reporting Company Since 2017, Grayscale has donated a total of $1.1 million, including $338,000 in 2019, to the cooperative, which funds development of the protocol behind the 15th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Grayscale manages some $80 million of assets in its ethereum classic vehicle , with nearly 10 million shares backed by about 0.92 ETC each. The trust controls about 14 percent of the total supply of ETC, based on fund disclosures and data from ETC Block Explorer . The manager charges a fee of three percent of assets under management. The company is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent of CoinDesk. Ethereum classic was created in 2016 as a splinter currency from ethereum (ETH) after the team leading development for the latter made a controversial decision to roll back a hackers transactions. Related: Ethereum Classic Successfully Completes Agharta Hard Fork More recently, however, ETC has been building bridges with its sister chain. Recent hard forks, or system-wide upgrades, in September 2019 and January 2020 added ethereum-based updates to ethereum classic for improved interoperability. The ethereum classic team expects to achieve protocol parity with ETH from a pending hard fork known as Aztlán, Summerwill said. Story continues Update (Jan. 22, 20:30 UTC): A previous version of this story said Grayscale donated $338,000 in Q4 2019 alone. That is the full-year figure . Related Stories What Do Women Want? More Educational Materials Before Investing in Bitcoin Grayscales Bitcoin Trust Seeks SEC Reporting Company Status || Coinbase Custody Adds Matic To Its Institutional Cryptocurrency Vault: Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, has added a new digital asset to its custodial service. Matic, the native token of Matic Network, can now be deposited and withdrawn by the institutional firms that utilize Coinbase Custody . Institutional interest in crypto assets has increased significantly over the last two years, with investment funds seeking exposure to the most traded cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH. Mindful of this trend, Coinbase Custody is selective of the digital assets it adds to its insured and regulated custodial storage service. To date, it has added support for less than 40 of the 3,000+ crypto assets in circulation. The San Francisco-based company, led by CEO Brian Armstrong, has a vested interest in Matic Network, having previously provided seed funding to the fledgling startup via its VC arm . Optimizing Crypto Networks For Enterprise Adoption Matic Network is focused on scaling leading blockchains such as Ethereum (ETH) – that is, increasing their throughput and speed, enabling more transactions to be processed per second. This is particularly important for enterprises that are tentatively exploring blockchain solutions. Governments, banks, tech companies, and academic institutions are all investigating the potential of distributed ledger technology. Should the many pilot programs underway proceed to full-blown initiatives, it is critical that public blockchains can handle the commensurate increase in network usage. To support businesses seeking exposure to blockchain technology, a number of leading tech companies have created enterprise-grade solutions. IBM (NYSE: IBM ) is heavily invested in Hyperledger’s modular blockchain, while Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) has released its own blockchain-as-a-service operating on AWS. Meanwhile, Facebook Inc ’s (NASDAQ: FB ) Libra project, which will operate on a native blockchain, is nearing completion, with regulatory – rather than technical – hurdles proving to be the main sticking point. Story continues Institutional Exposure To Crypto Without The Complexity As a young and wholly digital asset class, cryptocurrency entails a steep learning curve that requires technical sophistication to master. While anyone can custody their own digital assets, institutional investors are not comfortable with the responsibility this entails, and the lack of legal recourse should funds be stolen or lost through mismanagement. Third party services such as Coinbase Custody provide a turnkey solution, managing assets and even disbursing interest on tokens that incorporate staking rewards such as Tezos (XTZ) and Stellar (XLM). Many of the assets that have been added to Coinbase Custody have subsequently been added to Coinbase exchange, where they can be bought and sold by retail investors. For Matic Network, whose token was issued less than a year ago on Binance via an initial exchange offering, making it into the vaults of Coinbase Custody is quite a coup. The project will soon introduce staking, giving users an incentive to lock up Matic tokens. Should Coinbase Custody introduce passive Matic staking for its clients, it will be another ringing endorsement for the fledgling blockchain scaling project. Image by xresch from Pixabay 0 See more from Benzinga Recap: Eight Events That Drove The Bitcoin Economy In 2019 Proven Canadian Dividend Stocks Worth Investing In Global Stablecoin Saga Launches On Liquid Exchange © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Coinbase Custody Adds Matic To Its Institutional Cryptocurrency Vault: Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, has added a new digital asset to its custodial service. Matic, the native token of Matic Network, can now be deposited and withdrawn by the institutional firms that utilizeCoinbase Custody. Institutional interest in crypto assets has increased significantly over the last two years, with investment funds seeking exposure to the most traded cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH.
Mindful of this trend, Coinbase Custody is selective of the digital assets it adds to its insured and regulated custodial storage service. To date, it has added support for less than 40 of the 3,000+ crypto assets in circulation. The San Francisco-based company, led by CEO Brian Armstrong, has a vested interest in Matic Network, having previously provided seed funding to the fledgling startup via itsVC arm.
Optimizing Crypto Networks For Enterprise Adoption
Matic Networkis focused on scaling leading blockchains such asEthereum(ETH) – that is, increasing their throughput and speed, enabling more transactions to be processed per second. This is particularly important for enterprises that are tentatively exploring blockchain solutions. Governments, banks, tech companies, and academic institutions are all investigating the potential of distributed ledger technology. Should the many pilot programs underway proceed to full-blown initiatives, it is critical that public blockchains can handle the commensurate increase in network usage.
To support businesses seeking exposure to blockchain technology, a number of leading tech companies have created enterprise-grade solutions.IBM(NYSE:IBM) is heavily invested in Hyperledger’s modular blockchain, whileAmazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) has released its own blockchain-as-a-service operating on AWS. Meanwhile,Facebook Inc’s (NASDAQ:FB) Libra project, which will operate on a native blockchain, is nearing completion, with regulatory – rather than technical – hurdles proving to be the main sticking point.
Institutional Exposure To Crypto Without The Complexity
As a young and wholly digital asset class, cryptocurrency entails a steep learning curve that requires technical sophistication to master. While anyone can custody their own digital assets, institutional investors are not comfortable with the responsibility this entails, and the lack of legal recourse should funds be stolen or lost through mismanagement. Third party services such as Coinbase Custody provide a turnkey solution, managing assets and even disbursing interest on tokens that incorporate staking rewards such asTezos(XTZ) andStellar(XLM).
Many of the assets that have been added to Coinbase Custody have subsequently been added to Coinbase exchange, where they can be bought and sold by retail investors. For Matic Network, whose token was issued less than a year ago on Binance via an initial exchange offering, making it into the vaults of Coinbase Custody is quite a coup.
The project will soon introduce staking, giving users an incentive to lock up Matic tokens. Should Coinbase Custody introduce passive Matic staking for its clients, it will be another ringing endorsement for the fledgling blockchain scaling project.
Image by xresch from Pixabay
0
See more from Benzinga
• Recap: Eight Events That Drove The Bitcoin Economy In 2019
• Proven Canadian Dividend Stocks Worth Investing In
• Global Stablecoin Saga Launches On Liquid Exchange
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Chinese miners flee Iran amid rising tensions with the US: Chinese miners are fleeing Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran over the US assassination of a top Iranian official and an Iranian attack on an American military base, according to reports. Chinese crypto news site Jinse Caijing says the US-Iran crisis is forcing Chinese miners to decide between staying in Iran or leaving the country. The report states many Chinese miners moved their farms to Iran in 2019 when Bitcoins price hit $3,000 as the countrys electricity is cheaper than mainland Chinas . But when the US-Iran crisis hit and electricity prices spiked, many Chinese miners sold their mining rigs to locals. Chinese people in Iran are heartbroken, said Lao Hu, a Chinese miner who operates in the country. Iran recently offered a bounty to anyone who exposes the illegal mining of cryptocurrency . In summer 2019, the Iranian government launched a crackdown on the illegal use of subsidised electricity for mining currencies like Bitcoin. Iran sanctions Anyone who exposes people using state-subsidised power for mining digital currencies will be handed up to 20% of any cash recovered after prosecution, reports Iranian news outlet PressTV. The move follows new regulations over the price of electricity in the country. Iran is under severe US economic sanctions , and the Iranian government has been probing the use of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin to dodge these sanctions. US cryptocurrency expert Yaya Fanusie recently warned that Iran will use cryptocurrency to fund information warfare against the West. In a Coin Rivet article for the Daily Express , Mr Fanusie said: Because cyberattacks are a form of asymmetric warfare with plausible deniability, it makes sense that Iran would use them to strike back. Crypto could play a role in that. The post Chinese miners flee Iran amid rising tensions with the US appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Chinese miners flee Iran amid rising tensions with the US: Chinese miners are fleeing Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran over the US assassination of a top Iranian official and an Iranian attack on an American military base, according to reports. Chinese crypto news site Jinse Caijing says the US-Iran crisis is forcing Chinese miners to decide between staying in Iran or leaving the country. The report states many Chinese miners moved their farms to Iran in 2019 when Bitcoins price hit $3,000 as the countrys electricity is cheaper than mainland Chinas . But when the US-Iran crisis hit and electricity prices spiked, many Chinese miners sold their mining rigs to locals. Chinese people in Iran are heartbroken, said Lao Hu, a Chinese miner who operates in the country. Iran recently offered a bounty to anyone who exposes the illegal mining of cryptocurrency . In summer 2019, the Iranian government launched a crackdown on the illegal use of subsidised electricity for mining currencies like Bitcoin. Iran sanctions Anyone who exposes people using state-subsidised power for mining digital currencies will be handed up to 20% of any cash recovered after prosecution, reports Iranian news outlet PressTV. The move follows new regulations over the price of electricity in the country. Iran is under severe US economic sanctions , and the Iranian government has been probing the use of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin to dodge these sanctions. US cryptocurrency expert Yaya Fanusie recently warned that Iran will use cryptocurrency to fund information warfare against the West. In a Coin Rivet article for the Daily Express , Mr Fanusie said: Because cyberattacks are a form of asymmetric warfare with plausible deniability, it makes sense that Iran would use them to strike back. Crypto could play a role in that. The post Chinese miners flee Iran amid rising tensions with the US appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin’s Lighting ‘Torch’ Reignites, Blazes Through 38 Countries in 3 Days: Bitcoin’s lightning torch is back, and it’s zipped through at least 38 countries already.
The torch is a digital game first ignited in January 2019 by pseudonymous bitcoin enthusiastHodlonaut, known for his Twitter avatar of a cat in a spacesuit. Each “torchbearer” sends a tiny amount of bitcoin to the next. A key rule is to add a little bit more money to the payment each time it moves to someone new.
The goal is to highlight the speed and global nature ofthe lightning network, a payment technology that could solve or at least greatly ease some of bitcoin’s most critical problems. Started on a whim for fun, the torch became a global event, evencarried byTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey, showing how frictionless and indifferent to borders the form of payment is compared to legacy methods like Visa and Paypal.
Related:Why High-Profile Defections Aren’t Libra’s Biggest Challenge
On Sunday, Hodlonaut lit the torch for the second time, in what he described as a “spur-of-the-moment decision.” Since then, many enthusiasts have been posting lightning “invoices” on Twitter to which the torchbearer can send the next lightning payment.
It’s moving around the world much faster the second time around, already reaching 91 people in three days.
“Made over 30 passes across the globe as I slept!” Hodlonautsaidon Twitter Tuesday morning.
Speaking to CoinDesk, Hodlonaut argued that one reason the torch has changed hands so speedily this time is that the big names and companies haven’t taken it.
Related:Jack Dorsey’s Square Wins Patent for Fiat-to-Crypto Payments Network
“It has been almost exclusively held by ‘plebs,'” he said. “There has been no posturing, just lots of enthusiastic, normal bitcoin and [lightning network] users that have passed the torch along promptly, with no fuss. It feels very grassroots.”
Last time, it took longer than two weeks to get to 139 people in 37 countries. But the torch made some exciting stops on that tour. Despite worries about breaking U.S. sanctions, the torchmade itto Iran last March. A group of Venezuelans received the torch with no electricity. In an interesting experiment, they powered their lightning node with a motorcycle battery.
The first torch fizzled out when it reached a hard-coded limit on how much lightning can be sent in a single payment. The cap is 4.29 million satoshis, the unit for one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. Developers could lift the cap (which works out to about $370 at current exchange rates) when they think the payment technology is secure enough.
Until then, Hodlonaut is eager to see how long the new torch lasts.
“How many sats before it breaks?” hetweeted, using the short form of “satoshis,”
• Bitcoin Bulls Seek Stronger Move After Bounce to $8.8K Loses Momentum
• Square Crypto Is Creating a ‘Lightning Development Kit’ for Bitcoin Wallets || Bitcoin’s Lighting ‘Torch’ Reignites, Blazes Through 38 Countries in 3 Days: Bitcoin’s lightning torch is back, and it’s zipped through at least 38 countries already.
The torch is a digital game first ignited in January 2019 by pseudonymous bitcoin enthusiastHodlonaut, known for his Twitter avatar of a cat in a spacesuit. Each “torchbearer” sends a tiny amount of bitcoin to the next. A key rule is to add a little bit more money to the payment each time it moves to someone new.
The goal is to highlight the speed and global nature ofthe lightning network, a payment technology that could solve or at least greatly ease some of bitcoin’s most critical problems. Started on a whim for fun, the torch became a global event, evencarried byTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey, showing how frictionless and indifferent to borders the form of payment is compared to legacy methods like Visa and Paypal.
Related:Why High-Profile Defections Aren’t Libra’s Biggest Challenge
On Sunday, Hodlonaut lit the torch for the second time, in what he described as a “spur-of-the-moment decision.” Since then, many enthusiasts have been posting lightning “invoices” on Twitter to which the torchbearer can send the next lightning payment.
It’s moving around the world much faster the second time around, already reaching 91 people in three days.
“Made over 30 passes across the globe as I slept!” Hodlonautsaidon Twitter Tuesday morning.
Speaking to CoinDesk, Hodlonaut argued that one reason the torch has changed hands so speedily this time is that the big names and companies haven’t taken it.
Related:Jack Dorsey’s Square Wins Patent for Fiat-to-Crypto Payments Network
“It has been almost exclusively held by ‘plebs,'” he said. “There has been no posturing, just lots of enthusiastic, normal bitcoin and [lightning network] users that have passed the torch along promptly, with no fuss. It feels very grassroots.”
Last time, it took longer than two weeks to get to 139 people in 37 countries. But the torch made some exciting stops on that tour. Despite worries about breaking U.S. sanctions, the torchmade itto Iran last March. A group of Venezuelans received the torch with no electricity. In an interesting experiment, they powered their lightning node with a motorcycle battery.
The first torch fizzled out when it reached a hard-coded limit on how much lightning can be sent in a single payment. The cap is 4.29 million satoshis, the unit for one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. Developers could lift the cap (which works out to about $370 at current exchange rates) when they think the payment technology is secure enough.
Until then, Hodlonaut is eager to see how long the new torch lasts.
“How many sats before it breaks?” hetweeted, using the short form of “satoshis,”
• Bitcoin Bulls Seek Stronger Move After Bounce to $8.8K Loses Momentum
• Square Crypto Is Creating a ‘Lightning Development Kit’ for Bitcoin Wallets
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 1537.67, 1555.45, 1578.80, 1596.71, 1723.35, 1755.36, 1787.13, 1848.57, 1724.24, 1804.91, 1808.91, 1738.43, 1734.45, 1839.09, 1888.65, 1987.71, 2084.73, 2041.20, 2173.40, 2320.42, 2443.64, 2304.98, 2202.42, 2038.87, 2155.80, 2255.61, 2175.47, 2286.41, 2407.88, 2488.55, 2515.35, 2511.81, 2686.81, 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63, 2717.02, 2506.37, 2464.58, 2518.56, 2655.88, 2548.29, 2589.60, 2721.79, 2689.10, 2705.41, 2744.91, 2608.72, 2589.41, 2478.45, 2552.45, 2574.79, 2539.32, 2480.84, 2434.55, 2506.47, 2564.06, 2601.64, 2601.99, 2608.56, 2518.66, 2571.34, 2518.44, 2372.56, 2337.79, 2398.84, 2357.90, 2233.34, 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43, 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12, 2730.40, 2754.86, 2576.48, 2529.45, 2671.78, 2809.01, 2726.45, 2757.18, 2875.34, 2718.26.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-08-01]
Volume: 1324669952, RSI (14-day): 54.08, 50-day EMA: 2508.88, 200-day EMA: 1851.79
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1272.60, Gold RSI: 67.39
Oil Price: 49.16, Oil RSI: 61.60
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin technology faces split, may create clone virtual currency: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin's underlying software code could be split on Tuesday to create a clone called "Bitcoin Cash," potentially providing a windfall for holders of the digital currency. The initiative is being led by a small group of mostly China-based bitcoin miners - who get paid in the currency for contributing computing power to the bitcoin network - who are not happy with proposed improvements to the currency's technology. They have initiated what is known as a "fork" - where blockchain, a public ledger of all bitcoin transactions, splits into two potential paths - that is set to be activated on Aug. 1. A fork, if it goes ahead, would be significant as it could create a new competitor for bitcoin, which remains the oldest and most valuable digital currency. It is not clear if the fork will happen and how much the new coin would be worth. If the fork goes ahead on Tuesday, anyone owning bitcoins before the split will have access to an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash for free, which they will then be able to trade for fiat currencies - legal tender backed by an issuing government - or other digital currencies. "This is somewhat like a stock split," said Jeff Garzik, chief executive and co-founder of Bloq, a blockchain company. "You go to sleep with 100 bitcoins and wake up in the morning with 100 bitcoins plus 100 'Bitcoin Cash', a new token." Bitcoin averted a split two weeks ago, when its software developers and miners agreed to implement a software upgrade called the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91. BIP 91 was the first step toward a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin through software called SegWit2x, which would make the network faster at processing transactions, such as payments using the virtual currency. The miners, a powerful segment of the bitcoin community, represent a network of computer operators who validate information on the blockchain. Since bitcoin is powered by open-source code, any group of coders can use it to create clone coins. Futures of Bitcoin Cash are already trading on certain exchanges at around $282.40. Bitcoin traded at $2,806.27, according to coinmarketcap.com. If the fork goes ahead, users will only be able to receive and sell the new token on certain digital currency exchanges and digital wallet providers, as several have decided not to support it, including Coinbase, BitMEX, and Bitstamp. "We do not want to support any behavior whereby anyone can potentially split the bitcoin blockchain and effectively create free money out of nothing," said Greg Dwyer, head of business development at BitMEX. Story continues Two other large exchanges, Kraken and Bitfinex, said they will allow users to trade Bitcoin Cash and will credit them with the same amount of the new token after the fork, if it goes ahead. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera; Editing by Bill Rigby) View comments || Bitcoin technology faces split, may create clone virtual currency: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin's underlying software code could be split on Tuesday to create a clone called "Bitcoin Cash," potentially providing a windfall for holders of the digital currency. The initiative is being led by a small group of mostly China-based bitcoin miners - who get paid in the currency for contributing computing power to the bitcoin network - who are not happy with proposed improvements to the currency's technology. They have initiated what is known as a "fork" - where blockchain, a public ledger of all bitcoin transactions, splits into two potential paths - that is set to be activated on Aug. 1. A fork, if it goes ahead, would be significant as it could create a new competitor for bitcoin, which remains the oldest and most valuable digital currency. It is not clear if the fork will happen and how much the new coin would be worth. If the fork goes ahead on Tuesday, anyone owning bitcoins before the split will have access to an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash for free, which they will then be able to trade for fiat currencies - legal tender backed by an issuing government - or other digital currencies. "This is somewhat like a stock split," said Jeff Garzik, chief executive and co-founder of Bloq, a blockchain company. "You go to sleep with 100 bitcoins and wake up in the morning with 100 bitcoins plus 100 'Bitcoin Cash', a new token." Bitcoin averted a split two weeks ago, when its software developers and miners agreed to implement a software upgrade called the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91. BIP 91 was the first step toward a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin through software called SegWit2x, which would make the network faster at processing transactions, such as payments using the virtual currency. The miners, a powerful segment of the bitcoin community, represent a network of computer operators who validate information on the blockchain. Since bitcoin is powered by open-source code, any group of coders can use it to create clone coins. Futures of Bitcoin Cash are already trading on certain exchanges at around $282.40. Bitcoin traded at $2,806.27, according to coinmarketcap.com. If the fork goes ahead, users will only be able to receive and sell the new token on certain digital currency exchanges and digital wallet providers, as several have decided not to support it, including Coinbase, BitMEX, and Bitstamp. "We do not want to support any behavior whereby anyone can potentially split the bitcoin blockchain and effectively create free money out of nothing," said Greg Dwyer, head of business development at BitMEX. Story continues Two other large exchanges, Kraken and Bitfinex, said they will allow users to trade Bitcoin Cash and will credit them with the same amount of the new token after the fork, if it goes ahead. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera; Editing by Bill Rigby) View comments || Bitcoin technology faces split, may create clone virtual currency: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin's underlying software code could be split on Tuesday to create a clone called "Bitcoin Cash," potentially providing a windfall for holders of the digital currency. The initiative is being led by a small group of mostly China-based bitcoin miners - who get paid in the currency for contributing computing power to the bitcoin network - who are not happy with proposed improvements to the currency's technology. They have initiated what is known as a "fork" - where blockchain, a public ledger of all bitcoin transactions, splits into two potential paths - that is set to be activated on Aug. 1. A fork, if it goes ahead, would be significant as it could create a new competitor for bitcoin, which remains the oldest and most valuable digital currency. It is not clear if the fork will happen and how much the new coin would be worth. If the fork goes ahead on Tuesday, anyone owning bitcoins before the split will have access to an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash for free, which they will then be able to trade for fiat currencies - legal tender backed by an issuing government - or other digital currencies. "This is somewhat like a stock split," said Jeff Garzik, chief executive and co-founder of Bloq, a blockchain company. "You go to sleep with 100 bitcoins and wake up in the morning with 100 bitcoins plus 100 'Bitcoin Cash', a new token." Bitcoin averted a split two weeks ago, when its software developers and miners agreed to implement a software upgrade called the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91. BIP 91 was the first step toward a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin through software called SegWit2x, which would make the network faster at processing transactions, such as payments using the virtual currency. The miners, a powerful segment of the bitcoin community, represent a network of computer operators who validate information on the blockchain. Since bitcoin is powered by open-source code, any group of coders can use it to create clone coins. Futures of Bitcoin Cash are already trading on certain exchanges at around $282.40. Bitcoin traded at $2,806.27, according to coinmarketcap.com. If the fork goes ahead, users will only be able to receive and sell the new token on certain digital currency exchanges and digital wallet providers, as several have decided not to support it, including Coinbase, BitMEX, and Bitstamp. "We do not want to support any behavior whereby anyone can potentially split the bitcoin blockchain and effectively create free money out of nothing," said Greg Dwyer, head of business development at BitMEX. Story continues Two other large exchanges, Kraken and Bitfinex, said they will allow users to trade Bitcoin Cash and will credit them with the same amount of the new token after the fork, if it goes ahead. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera; Editing by Bill Rigby) View comments || AP Explains: Threat of a bitcoin split avoided, for now: On the eve of a major change in bitcoin, a threat of a split in the digital currency has been avoided for now. A move by users to force a change in the computer code by Monday has worked. A majority of "miners" the core bitcoin users who verify bitcoin transactions around the world has signaled support. Though the change is designed to improve capacity on the increasingly clogged network, some miners had objected because it could reduce transaction fees they collect. The show of support has helped reverse a slide in the value of bitcoin from around $1,900 two weeks ago to roughly $2,800 on Monday. However, some uncertainty still remains. A May agreement between large bitcoin companies effectively pushes the threat of a split off until November. And one proposal to launch an alternative currency, Bitcoin Cash, is sowing confusion and fears of scam trades. Here's a look at the current dispute. ___ WHAT IS BITCOIN, AGAIN? Bitcoin is a digital currency that's not tied to any bank or government . Like cash, it lets users spend or receive money anonymously, or mostly so; like other online payment services, it also lets them do so over the internet. The coins are created by miners, who operate computer farms that verify other users' transactions by solving complex mathematical puzzles. These miners receive bitcoin in exchange. It's also possible to exchange bitcoin for U.S. dollars and other currencies. Bitcoin has been touted as a currency of the future, but so far it hasn't proven very popular as a way to pay for goods or services. ___ WHAT'S BEHIND THE FUSS? In a word, speed. The bitcoin network is limited in how quickly it can shuffle around digital money. As bitcoin has grown, payment delays have become more common and worrisome. Some software developers came up with a way to speed things up by reengineering bitcoin's universal ledger, a file called the blockchain. Supporters of the new method include Microsoft, the bitcoin exchange Coinbase and a variety of other bitcoin proponents who would like to see the currency used more widely in commerce. Story continues Reformers had threatened to stop recognizing transactions confirmed by miners who hadn't adopted the upgrade. ___ WHAT WOULD A SPLIT MEAN? Generally speaking, chaos though mostly limited to those who use or squirrel away bitcoin. People who use bitcoin couldn't be sure which version they held, or what might happen if they spent it or accepted bitcoin as payment. Taking bitcoin, for instance, could leave you with currency you couldn't spend freely and that might disappear entirely if it ended up being the "wrong" kind. That's one reason the community-supported website Bitcoin.org had warned users not to accept any bitcoin up to two days prior to Monday's deadline and to wait for confirmation the situation had been resolved before trading again. But the change now has the support needed to proceed, so a disruption isn't likely this week. ___ WHAT ARE THE REMAINING ISSUES? A separate group of developers sought to solve the speed issue by proposing a new currency called Bitcoin Cash. It effectively rewards every owner of bitcoin with an equal amount of the new currency using a system that can handle much higher volumes of trades. But some digital currency exchange operators including Coinbase and Bitstamp have said they won't support Bitcoin Cash. And Cornell computer science professor Emin Gun Sirer says savvy traders can game the system to create free money for themselves. Bitcoin Cash was slated to launch Tuesday. As of Monday the price of Bitcoin Cash futures was about one-tenth of bitcoin itself. Tone Vays, a bitcoin analyst and consultant, says he thinks Bitcoin Cash is destined to become one of many alternative digital currencies known as "alt-coins." He says the concept is similar to Clams , digital coins that were also awarded to bitcoin holders in 2014 but now trade at about one-thousandth of bitcoin's price. Once Bitcoin Cash goes live Tuesday, people "will immediately sell it for bitcoin," he said Monday. Meanwhile, major companies that came together on the May agreement committed to a second change by November that could still result in a split of bitcoin into two incompatible currencies if a significant number of miners don't agree. "The big drama has thus been postponed," Sirer said in an email Monday. ___ Follow AP Technology Writer Ryan Nakashima at https://twitter.com/rnakashi || AP Explains: Threat of a bitcoin split avoided, for now: On the eve of a major change in bitcoin, a threat of a split in the digital currency has been avoided for now. A move by users to force a change in the computer code by Monday has worked. A majority of "miners" the core bitcoin users who verify bitcoin transactions around the world has signaled support. Though the change is designed to improve capacity on the increasingly clogged network, some miners had objected because it could reduce transaction fees they collect. The show of support has helped reverse a slide in the value of bitcoin from around $1,900 two weeks ago to roughly $2,800 on Monday. However, some uncertainty still remains. A May agreement between large bitcoin companies effectively pushes the threat of a split off until November. And one proposal to launch an alternative currency, Bitcoin Cash, is sowing confusion and fears of scam trades. Here's a look at the current dispute. ___ WHAT IS BITCOIN, AGAIN? Bitcoin is a digital currency that's not tied to any bank or government . Like cash, it lets users spend or receive money anonymously, or mostly so; like other online payment services, it also lets them do so over the internet. The coins are created by miners, who operate computer farms that verify other users' transactions by solving complex mathematical puzzles. These miners receive bitcoin in exchange. It's also possible to exchange bitcoin for U.S. dollars and other currencies. Bitcoin has been touted as a currency of the future, but so far it hasn't proven very popular as a way to pay for goods or services. ___ WHAT'S BEHIND THE FUSS? In a word, speed. The bitcoin network is limited in how quickly it can shuffle around digital money. As bitcoin has grown, payment delays have become more common and worrisome. Some software developers came up with a way to speed things up by reengineering bitcoin's universal ledger, a file called the blockchain. Supporters of the new method include Microsoft, the bitcoin exchange Coinbase and a variety of other bitcoin proponents who would like to see the currency used more widely in commerce. Story continues Reformers had threatened to stop recognizing transactions confirmed by miners who hadn't adopted the upgrade. ___ WHAT WOULD A SPLIT MEAN? Generally speaking, chaos though mostly limited to those who use or squirrel away bitcoin. People who use bitcoin couldn't be sure which version they held, or what might happen if they spent it or accepted bitcoin as payment. Taking bitcoin, for instance, could leave you with currency you couldn't spend freely and that might disappear entirely if it ended up being the "wrong" kind. That's one reason the community-supported website Bitcoin.org had warned users not to accept any bitcoin up to two days prior to Monday's deadline and to wait for confirmation the situation had been resolved before trading again. But the change now has the support needed to proceed, so a disruption isn't likely this week. ___ WHAT ARE THE REMAINING ISSUES? A separate group of developers sought to solve the speed issue by proposing a new currency called Bitcoin Cash. It effectively rewards every owner of bitcoin with an equal amount of the new currency using a system that can handle much higher volumes of trades. But some digital currency exchange operators including Coinbase and Bitstamp have said they won't support Bitcoin Cash. And Cornell computer science professor Emin Gun Sirer says savvy traders can game the system to create free money for themselves. Bitcoin Cash was slated to launch Tuesday. As of Monday the price of Bitcoin Cash futures was about one-tenth of bitcoin itself. Tone Vays, a bitcoin analyst and consultant, says he thinks Bitcoin Cash is destined to become one of many alternative digital currencies known as "alt-coins." He says the concept is similar to Clams , digital coins that were also awarded to bitcoin holders in 2014 but now trade at about one-thousandth of bitcoin's price. Once Bitcoin Cash goes live Tuesday, people "will immediately sell it for bitcoin," he said Monday. Meanwhile, major companies that came together on the May agreement committed to a second change by November that could still result in a split of bitcoin into two incompatible currencies if a significant number of miners don't agree. "The big drama has thus been postponed," Sirer said in an email Monday. ___ Follow AP Technology Writer Ryan Nakashima at https://twitter.com/rnakashi || Bitcoin soars ahead of blockchain split, Ethereum lower: Investing.com – Bitcoin traded higher on Monday, on reports the blockchain supporting the cryptocurrency is poised to split into two, as some members refused to signal support for a major software upgrade aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network.
On Tuesday August 1, a ‘user activated hard fork’ (UAHF) will get underway, causing the blockchain – the digital ledger which records every bitcoin transaction – to fork, creating a new separate digital token called Bitcoin Cash.
The ‘hard fork’ comes after weeks of optimism that Bitcoin would avert a split, after bitcoin miners signalled support for SegWit2X, a software upgrade aimed to increase the transaction limit from 1 megabyte to 2 megabytes, speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network.
Some members of the bitcoin community, however, failed to signal support for SegWit2X, on the back of concerns that the proposed software upgrade doesn’t adequately address the slowdown in transactions on the Bitcoin network.
These members announced plans to launch a fork on August 1, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash will have a bigger block size than Bitcoin – even after SegWit2x activates – with an 8-megabyte transaction limit.
Bitcoin Cash, however, is likely to be worth only a fraction of bitcoin, as some of the biggest bitcoin wallet providers don’t have immediate plans to support Bitcoin Cash.
“As of today, we have no immediate plans to fully support the Bitcoin Cash fork within our main product," Blockchain’s Alsyon Margaret said on Sunday.
On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, Bitcoin rose to $2,836, up $84.1 or 3.06% while Bitcoin Cash fell 18% to $292.62.
Meanwhile, Ethereum, fell to $198, down 0.96%.
To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out:https://www.investing.com/crypto/
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Forex - U.S. dollar inches higher but remains on the defensive || Bitcoin soars ahead of blockchain split, Ethereum lower: Investing.com – Bitcoin traded higher on Monday, on reports the blockchain supporting the cryptocurrency is poised to split into two, as some members refused to signal support for a major software upgrade aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network.
On Tuesday August 1, a ‘user activated hard fork’ (UAHF) will get underway, causing the blockchain – the digital ledger which records every bitcoin transaction – to fork, creating a new separate digital token called Bitcoin Cash.
The ‘hard fork’ comes after weeks of optimism that Bitcoin would avert a split, after bitcoin miners signalled support for SegWit2X, a software upgrade aimed to increase the transaction limit from 1 megabyte to 2 megabytes, speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network.
Some members of the bitcoin community, however, failed to signal support for SegWit2X, on the back of concerns that the proposed software upgrade doesn’t adequately address the slowdown in transactions on the Bitcoin network.
These members announced plans to launch a fork on August 1, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash will have a bigger block size than Bitcoin – even after SegWit2x activates – with an 8-megabyte transaction limit.
Bitcoin Cash, however, is likely to be worth only a fraction of bitcoin, as some of the biggest bitcoin wallet providers don’t have immediate plans to support Bitcoin Cash.
“As of today, we have no immediate plans to fully support the Bitcoin Cash fork within our main product," Blockchain’s Alsyon Margaret said on Sunday.
On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, Bitcoin rose to $2,836, up $84.1 or 3.06% while Bitcoin Cash fell 18% to $292.62.
Meanwhile, Ethereum, fell to $198, down 0.96%.
To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out:https://www.investing.com/crypto/
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Forex - U.S. dollar inches higher but remains on the defensive || Bitcoin soars ahead of blockchain split, Ethereum lower: The blockchain supporting bitcoin is poised to undergo a 'hard fork' on Tuesday Investing.com Bitcoin traded higher on Monday, on reports the blockchain supporting the cryptocurrency is poised to split into two, as some members refused to signal support for a major software upgrade aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network. On Tuesday August 1, a user activated hard fork (UAHF) will get underway, causing the blockchain the digital ledger which records every bitcoin transaction to fork, creating a new separate digital token called Bitcoin Cash. The hard fork comes after weeks of optimism that Bitcoin would avert a split, after bitcoin miners signalled support for SegWit2X, a software upgrade aimed to increase the transaction limit from 1 megabyte to 2 megabytes, speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network. Some members of the bitcoin community, however, failed to signal support for SegWit2X, on the back of concerns that the proposed software upgrade doesnt adequately address the slowdown in transactions on the Bitcoin network. These members announced plans to launch a fork on August 1, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash will have a bigger block size than Bitcoin even after SegWit2x activates with an 8-megabyte transaction limit. Bitcoin Cash, however, is likely to be worth only a fraction of bitcoin, as some of the biggest bitcoin wallet providers dont have immediate plans to support Bitcoin Cash. As of today, we have no immediate plans to fully support the Bitcoin Cash fork within our main product," Blockchains Alsyon Margaret said on Sunday. On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, Bitcoin rose to $2,836, up $84.1 or 3.06% while Bitcoin Cash fell 18% to $292.62. Meanwhile, Ethereum, fell to $198, down 0.96%. To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out: https://www.investing.com/crypto/ Related Articles Dollar sinks to 14-month lows as short bets pile up Forex - U.S. dollar struggles near 13-month trough Forex - U.S. dollar inches higher but remains on the defensive || Elon Musk took a jab at Volvo while talking about the Tesla Model 3's crash test: (A view of the Tesla Model 3's side-impact pole crash test.Tesla/YouTube)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a jab at Volvo while talking about safety features on the Tesla Model 3, his company's new entry-level electric car.
During a handover event at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, Friday night, Musk showed a video that he said displayed side-by-side clips of a Model 3 and a 2016 Volvo S60 undergoing the same crash test.
The test is a type of side-impact crash simulation that mimics a car colliding sideways into a pole at 20mph which, in this test, would typically cause major damage to the driver-side door and a portion of the roof.
The video appeared to show that the Volvo S60, whichachieved a five-star crash safety rating in all categoriesaccording to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was damaged more severely than the Model 3.
"There's a lot of cars that say they're five-star — theyarefive-star — though that's not a scientific metric," Musk said. "Even something like the Volvo — great car. By normal standards, very safe. The Volvo is arguably the second-safest car in the world," he said, eliciting laughs and applause from the audience.
"It is obvious which car you would prefer to be in, in an accident."
There was some confusion about that test, after some internet commenters suggested the Volvo S60 was crashed at a higher speed than the Model 3. But the side-by-side comparison in the video above does appear to show two identical side-impact pole collisions occurring at 20mphaccording to NHTSA documentation,and Tesla confirmed in an email to Business Insider that the side-impact tests in the video were indeed the same.
Musk has made such a comparison in the past, hailing Tesla's crash safety as the best in the world, a statement that has caught the attention of some industry veterans because Volvos have a longstanding reputation for safety. The company even has a plan toeliminate crash deaths in its new cars by 2020.
(A Volvo XC90 crash test.Volvo Car Group)
The 90-year-old Swedish automaker was the first to install three-point seat belts in a car in 1959 and has achieved top ratings in crash-test categories for decades. Business Insider asked Volvo Cars US CEO Lex Kerssemakers last year for his take on Musk's ambitionto have Tesla dethrone Volvoas the safest cars on the road.
"In the end, we need to create a society where 33,000 people aren't killed [in auto accidents] every year, so I can only encourage him in making safe cars," Kerssemakers said of the Tesla CEO. "I know which is the safest car company, and we’re not going to give that up," he said.
The Volvo executive said that ultimately he's not concerned with titles, saying vehicle safety is a long-term journey.
"It's not about 'we've got to win this year and that year.' We collect data from real-world accidents, and we've got a really good idea how cars react in different accident scenarios," Kerssemakers said.
Tesla has previously taken a less charitable view of Tesla crash-test results that were anything less than perfect — notably after a recent test of a Model S that received the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS)second-highest rating in a frontal collision.
Tesla hit back at the IIHS, suggesting the agency was motivated by "subjective purposes."
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• I just drove the Tesla Model 3 and it changes everything — the entire world will want this car || Elon Musk took a jab at Volvo while talking about the Tesla Model 3's crash test: tesla model 3 volvo s60 side impact crash test (A view of the Tesla Model 3's side-impact pole crash test.Tesla/YouTube) Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a jab at Volvo while talking about safety features on the Tesla Model 3, his company's new entry-level electric car. During a handover event at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, Friday night, Musk showed a video that he said displayed side-by-side clips of a Model 3 and a 2016 Volvo S60 undergoing the same crash test. The test is a type of side-impact crash simulation that mimics a car colliding sideways into a pole at 20mph which, in this test, would typically cause major damage to the driver-side door and a portion of the roof. The video appeared to show that the Volvo S60, which achieved a five-star crash safety rating in all categories according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was damaged more severely than the Model 3. "There's a lot of cars that say they're five-star they are five-star though that's not a scientific metric," Musk said. "Even something like the Volvo great car. By normal standards, very safe. The Volvo is arguably the second-safest car in the world," he said, eliciting laughs and applause from the audience. "It is obvious which car you would prefer to be in, in an accident." Watch the moment below, starting at the 4:14 mark: There was some confusion about that test, after some internet commenters suggested the Volvo S60 was crashed at a higher speed than the Model 3. But the side-by-side comparison in the video above does appear to show two identical side-impact pole collisions occurring at 20mph according to NHTSA documentation, and Tesla confirmed in an email to Business Insider that the side-impact tests in the video were indeed the same. Musk has made such a comparison in the past, hailing Tesla's crash safety as the best in the world, a statement that has caught the attention of some industry veterans because Volvos have a longstanding reputation for safety. The company even has a plan to eliminate crash deaths in its new cars by 2020 . Story continues Volvo XC90 front crash (A Volvo XC90 crash test.Volvo Car Group) It started with the seat belts The 90-year-old Swedish automaker was the first to install three-point seat belts in a car in 1959 and has achieved top ratings in crash-test categories for decades. Business Insider asked Volvo Cars US CEO Lex Kerssemakers last year for his take on Musk's ambition to have Tesla dethrone Volvo as the safest cars on the road. "In the end, we need to create a society where 33,000 people aren't killed [in auto accidents] every year, so I can only encourage him in making safe cars," Kerssemakers said of the Tesla CEO. "I know which is the safest car company, and were not going to give that up," he said. The Volvo executive said that ultimately he's not concerned with titles, saying vehicle safety is a long-term journey. "It's not about 'we've got to win this year and that year.' We collect data from real-world accidents, and we've got a really good idea how cars react in different accident scenarios," Kerssemakers said. Tesla has previously taken a less charitable view of Tesla crash-test results that were anything less than perfect notably after a recent test of a Model S that received the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) second-highest rating in a frontal collision . Tesla hit back at the IIHS, suggesting the agency was motivated by "subjective purposes." NOW WATCH: TOP STRATEGIST: Bitcoin will soar to over $20,000 by cannibalizing gold More From Business Insider With the Model 3, Elon Musk put the focus exactly where it should be Tesla's employees Elon Musk on Model 3: 'We're going to go through at least 6 months of production hell' I just drove the Tesla Model 3 and it changes everything the entire world will want this car || Bitcoin will likely split into 2 — and it's all because of bitcoin cash: (movieclips via YouTube)
Bitcoin will likely split into two separate currencies on Tuesday, and it's all thanks to bitcoin cash.
For years,bitcoin power brokers have been squabblingover the structure of the blockchain network that underpins the red-hot currency.
On one side of this war, there are the so-called core developers who want to keep the blocks that make up the network limited in their size to protect against hacks. On the other side, are the miners who want to increase the size of blocks to make the network faster.
In order to find some middle ground, some business executives and miners came up with a proposal known as SegWit2x, which would increase the size of bitcoin blocks to 2 megabytes. And up until last week,it looked like nearly everyone was on board with that plan.
That was until bitcoin cash, an alternative to both the original bitcoin and the SegWit2x version, entered from stage left.
"Bitcoin cash basically came out of nowhere," Charlie Morris, the chief investment officer of NextBlock Global, an investment firm with digital assets, told Business Insider."A group of miners who didn't like SegWit2x are going to opt for this new software that will increase the size of blocks from the current 1 megabyte to 8."
As a result, a split in bitcoin on August 1 at 8:20 AM EST, the deadline for Segwit2x implementation, appears to be very likely.
According to Morris, as soon as the split takes place most people will see their bitcoin holdings double. But that doesn't mean the value of investors' holdings will double.
Morris told Business Insider that bitcoin cash (BCC) has been trading in the futures market for about $200 to $400. Thus, if a split were to occur BCC would trade somewhere in that range while the value of bitcoin would witness a decline equal to the value of the new bitcoin.
Thefork, according to Morris, may resemble the Ethereum split.Bitcoin's rival,Ethereum, experienced its own fork in 2016, eventually leading to the creation of the version of the cryptocurrency we know today.
"It will be similar to what happened with Ethereum when Ethereum classic came on the scene," Morris said."The two currencies marketcap equaled out to the market of the original Ethereum."
On the whole, most bitcoin enthusiasts aren't too concerned about a fork.
"In general, I think the fork is a healthy process because it's similar to how evolution works in nature,"Yoni Ben Shimon, cofounder and CEO atMatchpool,told Business Insider in an email. "And that is the main reason bitcoin will never die - it's because it can adapt itself to changes."
Arthur Hayes, CEO of BitMex, a bitcoin derivative exchange, told Business Insider he thinks a fork will benefit the cryptocurrency in the long run, despite short term volatility.
"There are people with billions of dollars of skin in the game and they will ultimately go with the superior bitcoin network, and then the market will follow," Hayes concluded.
In the end, he thinks the winning bitcoin could reach $5,000 a coin.
Bitcoin is up close to 200% in 2017, trading at $2,808.
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Bitcoin will likely split into two separate currencies on Tuesday, and it's all thanks to bitcoin cash.
For years,bitcoin power brokers have been squabblingover the structure of the blockchain network that underpins the red-hot currency.
On one side of this war, there are the so-called core developers who want to keep the blocks that make up the network limited in their size to protect against hacks. On the other side, are the miners who want to increase the size of blocks to make the network faster.
In order to find some middle ground, some business executives and miners came up with a proposal known as SegWit2x, which would increase the size of bitcoin blocks to 2 megabytes. And up until last week,it looked like nearly everyone was on board with that plan.
That was until bitcoin cash, an alternative to both the original bitcoin and the SegWit2x version, entered from stage left.
"Bitcoin cash basically came out of nowhere," Charlie Morris, the chief investment officer of NextBlock Global, an investment firm with digital assets, told Business Insider."A group of miners who didn't like SegWit2x are going to opt for this new software that will increase the size of blocks from the current 1 megabyte to 8."
As a result, a split in bitcoin on August 1 at 8:20 AM EST, the deadline for Segwit2x implementation, appears to be very likely.
According to Morris, as soon as the split takes place most people will see their bitcoin holdings double. But that doesn't mean the value of investors' holdings will double.
Morris told Business Insider that bitcoin cash (BCC) has been trading in the futures market for about $200 to $400. Thus, if a split were to occur BCC would trade somewhere in that range while the value of bitcoin would witness a decline equal to the value of the new bitcoin.
Thefork, according to Morris, may resemble the Ethereum split.Bitcoin's rival,Ethereum, experienced its own fork in 2016, eventually leading to the creation of the version of the cryptocurrency we know today.
"It will be similar to what happened with Ethereum when Ethereum classic came on the scene," Morris said."The two currencies marketcap equaled out to the market of the original Ethereum."
On the whole, most bitcoin enthusiasts aren't too concerned about a fork.
"In general, I think the fork is a healthy process because it's similar to how evolution works in nature,"Yoni Ben Shimon, cofounder and CEO atMatchpool,told Business Insider in an email. "And that is the main reason bitcoin will never die - it's because it can adapt itself to changes."
Arthur Hayes, CEO of BitMex, a bitcoin derivative exchange, told Business Insider he thinks a fork will benefit the cryptocurrency in the long run, despite short term volatility.
"There are people with billions of dollars of skin in the game and they will ultimately go with the superior bitcoin network, and then the market will follow," Hayes concluded.
In the end, he thinks the winning bitcoin could reach $5,000 a coin.
Bitcoin is up close to 200% in 2017, trading at $2,808.
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There are a lot of myths out there about artificial intelligence (AI).In June, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said AI is not only a massive threat to jobs but could also spark World War III. Because of AI, he told CNBC, in 30 yearswe’ll work only 4 hours a day, 4 days a week.
Recode founder Kara Swisher told NPR’s “Here and Now” that Ma is “a hundred percent right,” adding that “any job that’s repetitive, that doesn’t include creativity, is finished because it can be digitized” and “it’s not crazy to imagine a society where there’s very little job availability.”She even suggested only eldercare and childcare jobs will remain because they require “creativity” and “emotion”—something Swisher says AI can’t provide yet.
I actually find that all hard to imagine. I agree it has always been hard to predict new kinds of jobs that’ll follow a technological revolution, largely because they don’t just pop up. We create them. If AI is to become an engine of revolution, it’s up to us to imagine opportunities that will require new jobs. Apocalyptic predictions about the end of the world as we know it are not helpful.
So, what may be the biggest myth—Myth 1: AI is going to kill our jobs—is simply not true.
Ma and Swisher are echoing the rampant hyperbole of business and political commentators and even many technologists—many of whom seem to conflate AI, robotics, machine learning, Big Data, and so on. The most common confusion may be about AI and repetitive tasks. Automation is just computer programming, not AI. When Swisher mentions a future automated Amazon warehouse with only one human, that’s not AI.
(The humanoid robot AILA (artificial intelligence lightweight android) operates a switchboard during a demonstration by the German research centre for artificial intelligence at the CeBit computer fair in Hanover March, 5, 2013.REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)
We humans excel at systematizing, mechanizing, and automating. We’ve done it for ages. It takes human intelligence to automate something, but the automation that results isn’t itself “intelligence”—which is something altogether different. Intelligence goes beyond most notions of “creativity” as they tend to be applied by those who get AI wrong every time they talk about it. If a job lost to automation is not replaced with another job, it’s lack of human imagination to blame.
In my two decades spent conceiving and making AI systems work for me, I’ve seen people time and again trying to automate basic tasks using computers and over-marketing it as AI. Meanwhile, I’ve made AI work in places it’s not supposed to, solving problems we didn’t even know how to articulate using traditional means.
For instance, several years ago, my colleagues at MIT and I posited that if we could know how a cell’s DNA was being read it would bring us a step closer to designing personalized therapies. Instead of constraining a computer to use only what humans already knew about biology, we instructed an AI to think about DNA as an economic market in which DNA regulators and genes competed—and let the computer build its own model of that, which it learned from data. Then the AI used its own model to simulate genetic behavior in seconds on a laptop, with the same accuracy that took traditional DNA circuit models days of calculations with a supercomputer.
At present, the best AIs are laboriously built and limited to one narrow problem at a time. Competition revolves around research into increasingly sophisticated and general AI toolkits, not yet AIs. The aspiration is to create AIs that partner with humans across multiple domains—like in IBM’s ads for Watson. IBM’s aim is to turn what today’s just a powerful toolkit into an infrastructure for businesses.
The larger objective for AI is to create AIs that partner with us to build new narratives around problems we care to solve and can’t today—new kinds of jobs follow from the ability to solve new problems.
That’s a huge space of opportunity, but it’s difficult to explore with all these myths about AI swirling around. Let’s dispel some more of them.
Myth 2: Robots are AI.Not true.
(A worker guides the first shipment of an IBM System Z mainframe computer in PoughkeepsieThomson Reuters)
Industrial and other robots, drones, self-organizing shelves in warehouses, and even the machines we’ve sent to Mars are all just machines programmed to move.
Myth 3: Big Data and Analytics are AI.Wrong again. These, along with data mining, pattern recognition, and data science, are all just names for cool things computers do based on human-created models. They may be complex, but they’re not AI. Data are like your senses: just because smells can trigger memories, it doesn’t make smelling itself intelligent, and more smelling is hardly the path to more intelligence.
Myth 4: Machine Learning and Deep Learning are AI.Nope. These are just tools for programming computers to react to complex patterns—like how your email filters out spam by “learning” what millions of users have identified as spam. They’re part of the AI toolkit like an auto mechanic has wrenches. They look smart—sometimes scarily so, like when a computer beats an expert at the gameGo—but they’re certainly not AI.
Myth 5: Search engines are AI.They look smart, too, but they’re not AI. You can now search information in ways once impossible, but you—the searcher—contribute the intelligence. All the computer does is spot patterns from what you search and recommend others do the same. It doesn’t actually know any of what it finds; as a system, it’s as dumb as they come.
In my own AI work, I’ve made use of AI whenever a problem we could imagine solving with science became too complex for science’s reductive approaches. That’s because AI allows us to ask questions that are not easy to ask in traditional scientific “terms.” For instance, more than 20 years ago, my colleagues and I used AI to invent a technology to locate cellphones in an emergency faster and more accurately than GPS ever could. Traditional science didn’t help us solve the problem of finding you, so we worked on building an AI that would learn to figure out where you are so emergency services can find you.
By the way, our AI solution actually created jobs.
AI’s most important attribute isn’t processing scores of data or executing programs—all computers do that—but rather learning to fulfill tasks we humans cannot so we can reach further. It’s a partnership: we humans guide AI and learn to ask better questions.
Swisher is right, though: we ought to figure out what the next jobs are, but not by agonizing over how much some current job is creative or repetitive. I would note that the AI toolkit has already created hundreds of thousands of jobs of all kinds—Uber, Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, and so on.
Our choice is continuing the dystopian AI narrative about the future of jobs. or having a different conversation about making the AI we want happen so we can address problems that cannot be solved by traditional means, for which the science we have is inadequate, incomplete, or nonexistent—and imagining and creating some new jobs along the way.
Luis Perez-Breva is the head of MIT’s Innovation Program and a Research Scientist at MIT’s School of Engineering. He recently published ‘Innovating: A Doer’s Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong.’
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• We compared 9 online mattress companies to show you what each is best at || 5 things everyone gets wrong about artificial intelligence and what it means for our future: DSC_8826LPBreva_photoByAlexKingsbury (Luis Perez-Breva is a Research Scientist at MITs School of Engineering.Alex Kingsbury) There are a lot of myths out there about artificial intelligence (AI). In June, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said AI is not only a massive threat to jobs but could also spark World War III. Because of AI, he told CNBC, in 30 years well work only 4 hours a day , 4 days a week. Recode founder Kara Swisher told NPRs Here and Now that Ma is a hundred percent right, adding that any job thats repetitive, that doesnt include creativity, is finished because it can be digitized and its not crazy to imagine a society where theres very little job availability. She even suggested only eldercare and childcare jobs will remain because they require creativity and emotionsomething Swisher says AI cant provide yet. I actually find that all hard to imagine. I agree it has always been hard to predict new kinds of jobs thatll follow a technological revolution, largely because they dont just pop up. We create them. If AI is to become an engine of revolution, its up to us to imagine opportunities that will require new jobs. Apocalyptic predictions about the end of the world as we know it are not helpful. Common confusion So, what may be the biggest myth Myth 1: AI is going to kill our jobs is simply not true. Ma and Swisher are echoing the rampant hyperbole of business and political commentators and even many technologistsmany of whom seem to conflate AI, robotics, machine learning, Big Data, and so on. The most common confusion may be about AI and repetitive tasks. Automation is just computer programming, not AI. When Swisher mentions a future automated Amazon warehouse with only one human, thats not AI. artificial intelligence robot (The humanoid robot AILA (artificial intelligence lightweight android) operates a switchboard during a demonstration by the German research centre for artificial intelligence at the CeBit computer fair in Hanover March, 5, 2013.REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch) We humans excel at systematizing, mechanizing, and automating. Weve done it for ages. It takes human intelligence to automate something, but the automation that results isnt itself intelligencewhich is something altogether different. Intelligence goes beyond most notions of creativity as they tend to be applied by those who get AI wrong every time they talk about it. If a job lost to automation is not replaced with another job, its lack of human imagination to blame. In my two decades spent conceiving and making AI systems work for me, Ive seen people time and again trying to automate basic tasks using computers and over-marketing it as AI. Meanwhile, Ive made AI work in places its not supposed to, solving problems we didnt even know how to articulate using traditional means. Story continues For instance, several years ago, my colleagues at MIT and I posited that if we could know how a cells DNA was being read it would bring us a step closer to designing personalized therapies. Instead of constraining a computer to use only what humans already knew about biology, we instructed an AI to think about DNA as an economic market in which DNA regulators and genes competedand let the computer build its own model of that, which it learned from data. Then the AI used its own model to simulate genetic behavior in seconds on a laptop, with the same accuracy that took traditional DNA circuit models days of calculations with a supercomputer. At present, the best AIs are laboriously built and limited to one narrow problem at a time. Competition revolves around research into increasingly sophisticated and general AI toolkits, not yet AIs. The aspiration is to create AIs that partner with humans across multiple domainslike in IBMs ads for Watson. IBMs aim is to turn what todays just a powerful toolkit into an infrastructure for businesses. The larger objective The larger objective for AI is to create AIs that partner with us to build new narratives around problems we care to solve and cant todaynew kinds of jobs follow from the ability to solve new problems. Thats a huge space of opportunity, but its difficult to explore with all these myths about AI swirling around. Lets dispel some more of them. Myth 2: Robots are AI. Not true. A worker guides the first shipment of an IBM System Z mainframe computer in Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S. March 6, 2015. Picture taken March 6, 2015. Jon Simon/IBM/Handout via REUTERS (A worker guides the first shipment of an IBM System Z mainframe computer in PoughkeepsieThomson Reuters) Industrial and other robots, drones, self-organizing shelves in warehouses, and even the machines weve sent to Mars are all just machines programmed to move. Myth 3: Big Data and Analytics are AI. Wrong again. These, along with data mining, pattern recognition, and data science, are all just names for cool things computers do based on human-created models. They may be complex, but theyre not AI. Data are like your senses: just because smells can trigger memories, it doesnt make smelling itself intelligent, and more smelling is hardly the path to more intelligence. Myth 4: Machine Learning and Deep Learning are AI. Nope. These are just tools for programming computers to react to complex patternslike how your email filters out spam by learning what millions of users have identified as spam. Theyre part of the AI toolkit like an auto mechanic has wrenches. They look smartsometimes scarily so, like when a computer beats an expert at the game Go but theyre certainly not AI. Myth 5: Search engines are AI. They look smart, too, but theyre not AI. You can now search information in ways once impossible, but youthe searchercontribute the intelligence. All the computer does is spot patterns from what you search and recommend others do the same. It doesnt actually know any of what it finds; as a system, its as dumb as they come. In my own AI work, Ive made use of AI whenever a problem we could imagine solving with science became too complex for sciences reductive approaches. Thats because AI allows us to ask questions that are not easy to ask in traditional scientific terms. For instance, more than 20 years ago, my colleagues and I used AI to invent a technology to locate cellphones in an emergency faster and more accurately than GPS ever could. Traditional science didnt help us solve the problem of finding you, so we worked on building an AI that would learn to figure out where you are so emergency services can find you. By the way, our AI solution actually created jobs. AIs most important attribute isnt processing scores of data or executing programsall computers do thatbut rather learning to fulfill tasks we humans cannot so we can reach further. Its a partnership: we humans guide AI and learn to ask better questions. Swisher is right, though: we ought to figure out what the next jobs are, but not by agonizing over how much some current job is creative or repetitive. I would note that the AI toolkit has already created hundreds of thousands of jobs of all kindsUber, Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, and so on. Our choice is continuing the dystopian AI narrative about the future of jobs. or having a different conversation about making the AI we want happen so we can address problems that cannot be solved by traditional means, for which the science we have is inadequate, incomplete, or nonexistentand imagining and creating some new jobs along the way. Luis Perez-Breva is the head of MITs Innovation Program and a Research Scientist at MITs School of Engineering. He recently published Innovating: A Doers Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong . NOW WATCH: A former HR exec who reviewed over 40,000 résumés says these 7 résumé mistakes annoy her More From Business Insider Bitcoin splits in 2 Trump to members of his New Jersey golf club: 'That White House is a real dump' We compared 9 online mattress companies to show you what each is best at View comments || WALL STREET PAYDAY: Banks could reap $100 million from the Discovery-Scripps deal: Bourse traders pour champagne after the last trading day at Frankfurt's stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany December 30, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski (A huge deal for these six investment banks.Thomson Reuters) Several Wall Street banks are set to split a $100 million payday from the deal between cable channel operators Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks Interactive. Discovery, which owns channels like Animal Planet and Discovery Channel, said Monday it will pay $14.6 billion to acquire Scripps, adding HGTV, Travel Channel, and Food Network to its roster. Six banks — including boutiques Guggenheim Partners, Allen & Co., and Evercore — advised on the deal. Guggenheim and Goldman Sachs advised Discovery, and they'll split the vast majority of about $45 million in fees, according to Jeffrey Nassof, director of consulting firm Freeman & Co. UBS will take a small slice for advising Discovery shareholders — which include the Newhouse family , one of the richest in the world with a net worth of more than $18 billion, and billionaire telecom magnate John Malone. Scripps' bankers, Allen & Co. and JPMorgan, will split the lion's share of an estimated $55 million in advisory fees, Nassof said. Evercore will take a much smaller cut for advising the shareholders, primarily the Scripps family, which is also one of the wealthiest families on earth with a fortune north of $7 billion. NOW WATCH: TOP STRATEGIST: Bitcoin will soar to over $20,000 by cannibalizing gold More From Business Insider Goldman Sachs has a long list of 'investment priorities' for its struggling bond trading business Jefferies just hired a former Goldman Sachs partner for a big derivatives role UBS COO Axel Lehmann on fintech: Banking jobs 'will completely change' || WALL STREET PAYDAY: Banks could reap $100 million from the Discovery-Scripps deal: (A huge deal for these six investment banks.Thomson Reuters)
Several Wall Street banks are set to split a $100 million payday from the deal between cable channel operators Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks Interactive.
Discovery, which owns channels like Animal Planet and Discovery Channel, said Monday it will pay $14.6 billion to acquire Scripps, adding HGTV, Travel Channel, and Food Network to its roster.
Six banks — including boutiques Guggenheim Partners, Allen & Co., and Evercore — advised on the deal.
Guggenheim and Goldman Sachs advised Discovery, and they'll split the vast majority of about $45 million in fees, according to Jeffrey Nassof, director of consulting firm Freeman & Co.
UBS will take a small slice for advising Discovery shareholders — which include theNewhouse family, one of the richest in the world with a net worth of more than $18 billion, and billionaire telecom magnate John Malone.
Scripps' bankers, Allen & Co. and JPMorgan, will split the lion's share of an estimated $55 million in advisory fees, Nassof said.
Evercore will take a much smaller cut for advising the shareholders, primarily the Scripps family, which is also one of thewealthiest families on earthwith a fortune north of $7 billion.
NOW WATCH:TOP STRATEGIST: Bitcoin will soar to over $20,000 by cannibalizing gold
More From Business Insider
• Goldman Sachs has a long list of 'investment priorities' for its struggling bond trading business
• Jefferies just hired a former Goldman Sachs partner for a big derivatives role
• UBS COO Axel Lehmann on fintech: Banking jobs 'will completely change' || What should you do before tomorrow's Bitcoin split?: August 1st is almostupon us and the great Bitcoin "hard fork" is about to confuse the heck out of the casual cryptocurrency observer. Here's what you should know.
Quite simply, if you are using an exchange that is explicitly in support of the Bitcoin Cash or you control your own private keys then you are fine.If you are keeping your bitcoin on an exchange, likeCoinbase,that does not support Bitcoin Cash,then you should transfer your bitcoin immediately unless you don't want to deal in Bitcoin Cash.It is a good idea to keep your own private keys regardless so this is a good time to get your coins off of any exchange you might have used in the past.
If you need further detail headover to Coindeskfor more up-to-date info.
The bottom line in any case is simple: you need to control your own keys.
I am using aTrezor hardware walletandElectrumto hold the minimal amount of BTC for which I'm responsible. Your results may vary and I don't actively endorse either of these products. The cynic in me doesn't trust any tool or exchange.
The following shows how to create and send your BTC to an Electrum wallet on your computer. Keep track of your seed, friends.Please be careful.Send test amounts before you send your full amount.
[gallery ids="1521315,1521314,1521313,1521312,1521309,1521311,1521310"]
You should be. This shows a healthy respect for a technology whose hallmarks are transparent obfuscation and active campaigns of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). If you've put your life savings into Bitcoin then I hope you've been following this far more closely than a single post the day before the fork. If you own one or two please move your Bitcoins to a local wallet and wait it out. || What should you do before tomorrow's Bitcoin split?: August 1st is almostupon us and the great Bitcoin "hard fork" is about to confuse the heck out of the casual cryptocurrency observer. Here's what you should know.
Quite simply, if you are using an exchange that is explicitly in support of the Bitcoin Cash or you control your own private keys then you are fine.If you are keeping your bitcoin on an exchange, likeCoinbase,that does not support Bitcoin Cash,then you should transfer your bitcoin immediately unless you don't want to deal in Bitcoin Cash.It is a good idea to keep your own private keys regardless so this is a good time to get your coins off of any exchange you might have used in the past.
If you need further detail headover to Coindeskfor more up-to-date info.
The bottom line in any case is simple: you need to control your own keys.
I am using aTrezor hardware walletandElectrumto hold the minimal amount of BTC for which I'm responsible. Your results may vary and I don't actively endorse either of these products. The cynic in me doesn't trust any tool or exchange.
The following shows how to create and send your BTC to an Electrum wallet on your computer. Keep track of your seed, friends.Please be careful.Send test amounts before you send your full amount.
[gallery ids="1521315,1521314,1521313,1521312,1521309,1521311,1521310"]
You should be. This shows a healthy respect for a technology whose hallmarks are transparent obfuscation and active campaigns of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). If you've put your life savings into Bitcoin then I hope you've been following this far more closely than a single post the day before the fork. If you own one or two please move your Bitcoins to a local wallet and wait it out. || What should you do before tomorrow's Bitcoin split?: August 1st is almost upon us and the great Bitcoin "hard fork" is about to confuse the heck out of the casual cryptocurrency observer. Here's what you should know. Quite simply, if you are using an exchange that is explicitly in support of the Bitcoin Cash or you control your own private keys then you are fine. If you are keeping your bitcoin on an exchange, like Coinbase, that does not support Bitcoin Cash, then you should transfer your bitcoin immediately unless you don't want to deal in Bitcoin Cash. It is a good idea to keep your own private keys regardless so this is a good time to get your coins off of any exchange you might have used in the past. If you need further detail head over to Coindesk for more up-to-date info. Which wallet? The bottom line in any case is simple: you need to control your own keys. I am using a Trezor hardware wallet and Electrum to hold the minimal amount of BTC for which I'm responsible. Your results may vary and I don't actively endorse either of these products. The cynic in me doesn't trust any tool or exchange. The following shows how to create and send your BTC to an Electrum wallet on your computer. Keep track of your seed, friends. Please be careful. Send test amounts before you send your full amount. [gallery ids="1521315,1521314,1521313,1521312,1521309,1521311,1521310"] But I'm still afraid You should be. This shows a healthy respect for a technology whose hallmarks are transparent obfuscation and active campaigns of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). If you've put your life savings into Bitcoin then I hope you've been following this far more closely than a single post the day before the fork. If you own one or two please move your Bitcoins to a local wallet and wait it out. || Is Surfing The Dark Web lllegal?: The dark web is a non-mainstream part of the internet. Basically, it shows those search results, which are not indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing. It requires special software to access. Once a user is inside the so-called dark web, he/she can surf websites and other web-based services can be accessed the same way a user access the web usually. The dark web is used for selling illegal drugs and firearms, payment for which is received in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. An important thing to note is that the dark web, which is also known as the deep web is also used for manipulation and even hacking of cryptocurrency. Users can also purchase fished credit card information. That being said, unless you are using the dark web for illegal purposes, just accessing un-indexed search results is not illegal, but what you view or purchase will determine the legality. Read: Phishing Scam: Man Stole Bitcoins From Dark Web Forums There is also a lot of depraved content available, which might not be illegal but still extremely creepy . Also the dark web has also been used for surfing child porn, for which a person was arrested in the U.K. on Friday. Surfing the dark web in no way means that you are out of the reach of the law. Many U.S. agencies have agents surfing the dark web someone you meet in a dark web chat room might be a cop. In fact, an FBI agent recently revealed that a coordinated international police investigation took down dark net marketplaces such as Alpha Bay and Hansa. Andrei Barysevich, director of advanced collection at threat intel firm Recorded Future, said about the takedown, "The coordinated closure of two of the most popular underground marketplaces shows the level of sophistication and, most importantly, the willingness of international law enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime jointly." "The successful takedown of AlphaBay and Hansa marketplaces the largest police operation since SilkRoad has already significantly disturbed the underground economy, and I expect to see the level of cybercrime go down in the short term. Despite recent news, we don't expect criminals to abandon dark web marketplaces, as the business opportunity of exposure to hundreds of thousands of buyers is too lucrative, and as we have seen before, eventually new market leaders will arise, filling the void." Story continues If you do plan to use the dark, the most important thing would be to proceed with a lot of caution. In the dark web chances of being scammed out of your money are even higher than the regular internet. One thing you should do is to cover your webcam with tape, as you might be secretly recorded. Also, never download any software or plugin from the deep web as it could be used to hack into your system. Also dont access your private documents while surfing the dark web. The ethical status of dark web is also controversial. According to privacy activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, users of the dark web are just people concerned about their privacy. With revelations of government snooping by agencies such as the NSA, FBI and CIA, this is not surprising. Read: AlphaBay Offline: Dark Web Market May Have Disappeared In Bitcoin-Stealing Exit Scheme Journalists, to contact whistleblowers and activists including Edward Snowden, have used the dark web in the past. That being said, a cursory glance at any databases of dark web websites will reveal that it is being majorly used for illegal activities. Related Articles Russian Hackers Stole UK Ministers' Emails And Passwords, Sold On Dark Web Welcome To The School Of Hacking
[Social Media Buzz]
Buy Bitcoin anywhere in the world - $50.00
#Items4Sale
List ur biz at http://blacktradelines.com pic.twitter.com/8rZLUw3xqF || 2017-08-01 15:00~16:00のBitcoin市場は反落だったのかな。
変化率は-1.0051%
17:00までは反騰?
直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は329003.0円
#ビットコイン
#bitcoin
#AI || 2017-08-02 5:00~6:00のBitcoin市場は急落だったようだ。
変化率は-1.0697%
7:00までは反騰になる?
直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は305700.0円
#ビットコイン
#bitcoin
#AI || 1 KOBO = 0.00000567 BTC
= 0.0163 USD
= 5.6724 NGN
= 0.2145 ZAR
= 1.6895 KES
#Kobocoin 2017-08-01 06:00 || WTI 50.27USD +...
|
2710.67, 2804.73, 2895.89, 3252.91, 3213.94, 3378.94, 3419.94, 3342.47, 3381.28, 3650.62
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6174.53, 6378.85, 7204.77, 6972.37, 7814.92, 7994.42, 8205.17, 7884.91, 7343.90, 7271.21, 8197.69, 7978.31, 7963.33, 7680.07, 7881.85, 7987.37, 8052.54, 8673.22, 8805.78, 8719.96, 8659.49, 8319.47, 8574.50, 8564.02, 8742.96, 8209.00, 7707.77, 7824.23, 7822.02, 8043.95, 7954.13, 7688.08, 8000.33, 7927.71, 8145.86, 8230.92, 8693.83, 8838.38, 8994.49, 9320.35, 9081.76, 9273.52, 9527.16, 10144.56, 10701.69, 10855.37, 11011.10, 11790.92, 13016.23, 11182.81, 12407.33, 11959.37, 10817.16, 10583.13, 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-08-06]
Volume: 23635107660, RSI (14-day): 60.23, 50-day EMA: 10231.07, 200-day EMA: 7821.64
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1472.40, Gold RSI: 75.85
Oil Price: 53.63, Oil RSI: 39.81
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Focus Shifts Momentarily to New Zealand Labor Report: The Australian and New Zealand Dollar lost ground on Monday with the Aussie pushed to its lowest level in 10 years as investors priced in greater expectations of an interest rate cut over growing fears the US-China trade dispute has mushroomed into a full-blown currency war that will hurt the global economy.
On Monday, theAUD/USDsettled at .6757, down 0.0043 or -0.64% and theNZD/USDfinished at .6530, down 0.0007 or -0.10%.
Sellers dominated the trade yesterday on the notion that Beijing is digging in against Washington and will resist efforts from President Trump to seize control of the trade negotiations and force China into making a bad deal that brings a sudden end to the trade dispute. Chinese officials made two moves on Monday that encouraged sellers to press prices lower.
Firstly, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) revealed it was devaluing the country’s currency by breaking the 7 yuan to the U.S. Dollar for the first time in a decade.
Although President Trump called it “currency manipulation”, China denied the allegation. In a statement pointed directly at the U.S., an official said the devaluation was “due to the effects of unilateralist and trade-protectionist measures and the expectations for tariffs against China.”
Secondly, Bloomberg News reported almost at the same time on Monday that China’s state-run agricultural companies would be blocked from buying U.S. farm goods in a move that immediately hit key commodity markets like corn, soybeans and wheat.
The events also had an effect on Australia’s key export. Iron ore price fell to $US107 a tonne and have now dropped almost 9 percent over the past week on the back of falling steel prices in China.
Additionally, bond yields were hit all around the globe on expectations the escalation in the trade dispute would further weaken the global economy. Australian 10-year bond yields hit a record low with sign of easing in sight. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, which is closely correlated to the Australian note, fell 8 basis points on Monday.
Early Tuesday, the focus will shift to the New Zealand Dollar, which found support on Monday at .6488, slightly above the June 14 bottom at .6487, the May 23 bottom at .6481 and the October 16, 2018 main bottom at .6465.
At 22:45 GMT, NZD/USD traders will get the opportunity to react to New Zealand labor market data. The Employment change is expected to have risen 0.3%, up from -0.2%. The Unemployment Rate is expected to have increased to 4.3% from 4.2% and the Labor Cost Index is expected to have risen by 0.7%, up from 0.3%.
We could see a moderate reaction in the market with most traders waiting for a widely expected rate cut by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand later in the week. The RBNZ is expected to trim its benchmark interest rate 25-basis points.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets testing major support
• GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British pound continues to go lower
• Crude Oil Price Update – Straddling Major 50% Level at $55.29
• Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 06/08/19
• Forex Daily Recap – China’s Currency Weapon Played, Dropping Yuan Past 7/Dollar
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets find mass buyers || AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast Focus Shifts Momentarily to New Zealand Labor Report: The Australian and New Zealand Dollar lost ground on Monday with the Aussie pushed to its lowest level in 10 years as investors priced in greater expectations of an interest rate cut over growing fears the US-China trade dispute has mushroomed into a full-blown currency war that will hurt the global economy. On Monday, the AUD/USD settled at .6757, down 0.0043 or -0.64% and the NZD/USD finished at .6530, down 0.0007 or -0.10%. Sellers dominated the trade yesterday on the notion that Beijing is digging in against Washington and will resist efforts from President Trump to seize control of the trade negotiations and force China into making a bad deal that brings a sudden end to the trade dispute. Chinese officials made two moves on Monday that encouraged sellers to press prices lower. Firstly, the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) revealed it was devaluing the countrys currency by breaking the 7 yuan to the U.S. Dollar for the first time in a decade. Although President Trump called it currency manipulation, China denied the allegation. In a statement pointed directly at the U.S., an official said the devaluation was due to the effects of unilateralist and trade-protectionist measures and the expectations for tariffs against China. Secondly, Bloomberg News reported almost at the same time on Monday that Chinas state-run agricultural companies would be blocked from buying U.S. farm goods in a move that immediately hit key commodity markets like corn, soybeans and wheat. The events also had an effect on Australias key export. Iron ore price fell to $US107 a tonne and have now dropped almost 9 percent over the past week on the back of falling steel prices in China. Additionally, bond yields were hit all around the globe on expectations the escalation in the trade dispute would further weaken the global economy. Australian 10-year bond yields hit a record low with sign of easing in sight. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, which is closely correlated to the Australian note, fell 8 basis points on Monday. Daily Forecast Early Tuesday, the focus will shift to the New Zealand Dollar, which found support on Monday at .6488, slightly above the June 14 bottom at .6487, the May 23 bottom at .6481 and the October 16, 2018 main bottom at .6465. At 22:45 GMT, NZD/USD traders will get the opportunity to react to New Zealand labor market data. The Employment change is expected to have risen 0.3%, up from -0.2%. The Unemployment Rate is expected to have increased to 4.3% from 4.2% and the Labor Cost Index is expected to have risen by 0.7%, up from 0.3%. Story continues We could see a moderate reaction in the market with most traders waiting for a widely expected rate cut by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand later in the week. The RBNZ is expected to trim its benchmark interest rate 25-basis points. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Forecast Crude oil markets testing major support GBP/JPY Price Forecast British pound continues to go lower Crude Oil Price Update Straddling Major 50% Level at $55.29 Bitcoin Cash ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis 06/08/19 Forex Daily Recap Chinas Currency Weapon Played, Dropping Yuan Past 7/Dollar Silver Price Forecast Silver markets find mass buyers View comments || 9 Catalysts That Will Drive Chinese Biotech Stocks Much Higher: In the pages of myEarly Stage Investorservice, readers often hear the term “10X.”
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As a rule of thumb, our early stage, “venture capital” style investments are only inindustries with the real potential to grow 10-fold(or “10X”) in size.
Investing in industries with huge growth potential and gale-force tailwinds at their backs is how you set yourself up to make giant returns. Think of the internet in the 1990s … personal computers in the 1980s … and smartphones over the past decade.
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However, in a research report I recently sent to readers, I detailed an industry set for not just 10X growth … not 20X growth … and not even 50X growth …but at least 100X growth.This is undoubtedly one of the best early stage investment opportunities you’ll ever see in your life. Best of all, we get to partner with one of the world’s most powerful wealth creating groups, one with a stunning track record.
If you’ve been aMoneyWirereader for a while, you won’t be surprised to hear where this opportunity is located. More on this in a moment. But first, let me show you some incredible numbers …
Sometimes, investing is complicated.
Wall Street hedge funds and banks can create all kinds of complex investments and strategies that only a math genius can make sense of.
However, sometimes making great investments is laughably simple. That’s the situation with the industry I’ll share with you today.
The big opportunity here boils down to just one number …
Specifically, 116-fold growth is what the Chinese government has targeted for its biotechnology sector over the next two years.
In 2017, the Chinese government announced that it intends to make its domestic biotechnology sector constitute 4% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020.
The Chinese economy is projected to reach roughly $15.7 trillion in size (as measured by GDP) by 2020. In 2017, the revenue generated by China’s domestic biotech industry is a tiny $5.4 billion, according to Goldman Sachs.
In order for China’s biotech industry to constitute 4% of the economy (or $627 billion) by 2020, the industry must increase its sales by 116-fold.
I’d like you to keep “116-fold growth” in the back of your mind as I explain what’s happening. It’s really all that matters here when it comes to making hundreds of percent returns — eventhousands of percent returns— thanks to this unique situation.
China is well known for its large and growing capitalist economy. In the 1970s and ’80s, China was extremely poor and undeveloped. But thanks to capitalism, China is now the world’s second largest economy.
China puts its own unique twist on capitalism. Although the country is technically capitalistic, it’s also authoritarian. The Chinese government exerts a LOT more control over the economy and its domestic companies than the U.S. government does. In order to allow its domestic companies to grow large, the Chinese government often blocks U.S. companies from doing business or gaining influence inside the country. For example, Google and Facebook are not allowed in China.
China also likes to create “national champions”… huge companies that have the implicit backing of the Chinese government. Competing with China’s “champions” inside China is extremely difficult and often impossible.
For decades, China focused on growing its “basic” industries like manufacturing, mining, oil, shipping, and infrastructure building. But now, the Chinese government is set on fast-tracking high-tech industries like artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, e-commerce, and biotechnology.
China wants to compete on the highest levels — and dominate — all the critical industries of the future.This includes having a huge domestic biotechnology industry that develops and sells the medical treatments and therapies of the future.
It makes sense. Medicine and healthcare are trillion dollar-plus global industries. Plus, every government wants its population to be as healthy and strong as possible (more taxpayers). The best, most affordable medicines help make that happen.
When the Chinese government says it’s targeting one of its domestic industries for massive growth, it pays to listen. Its track record of creating huge returns for investors is impressive.
Starting in the late 1990s, the Chinese government went on an infrastructure building spree. It built dams, bridges, cities, power plants, highways, and ports on a scale never seen before in history. All that building consumed an incredible amount of natural resources like oil, coal, copper, cement, and iron ore.
The big Chinese oil firm PetroChina was just one of the winners during the infrastructure boom. PetroChina literally helped fuel China’s massive growth, and the stock grew 17X from its IPO in 2000 through the high in 2007.
If you think that’s impressive, take a look at Anhui Conch Cement. The company’s stock was trading at a mere $0.17 per share in early 2000, and today it is around $50 per share. That’s a 294-bagger! As you can tell by the name, the company makes cement and aggregates used to build roads, houses, etc. all over China.
Or consider the results of China’s push to create a strong domestic technology sector. This push began about 10 years ago.
One of the companies that enjoyed government support during that time was a little known firm called Tencent Holdings. Tencent gathered assets and extended its tentacles into many aspects of China’s economy. It was a major beneficiary of the government’s backing. Today, Tencent Holdings is one of the largest companies in the world. The stock rose an eye-popping 67,000% from its IPO in 2004 through January 2018.
From an investing point of view, overzealous government spending in China is a good thing. Even if the goals are too lofty, there is no denying the power of the Chinese government and how its backing can boost an entire industry and related stocks.
Now you see why I paid close attention when I learned how strongly the Chinese government is pushing its biotech industry. It is determined to put the industry on the same level with U.S. biotech … and do it in just a few years. This will require the Chinese biotech industry to grow more than 100-fold.
I believe the Chinese government’s public relations team got carried away by saying they want that enormous growth by 2020. I think five to seven years is more realistic.
But 100-fold growth in even 10 years will make the Chinese biotechnology sector one of the greatest growth stories in modern history. I’m willing to be patient for life-changing returns.
Investing in a small industry backed by the Chinese government is a recipe for huge returns, from triple-digit profits to10X your moneyto possibly even more.
However, before investing my hard-earned money, I want to see more than the backing of a sometimes unpredictable government. Here are nine more reasons why I believe investing in Chinese biotech stocks will be one of the best wealth-building opportunities of the next 20 years.
The National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA), that country’s version of the FDA that approves drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics, has transformed itself to be on par with its peers in the U.S. and Europe. With the NMPA’s newfound respect, the Chinese biotech industry can now be taken seriously by the rest of the world. This opens the door for approved drugs in China to quickly spread.
China’s massive population of nearly 1.4 billion people unfortunately means greater numbers of people who are sick. Twenty percent of the world lives in China, but it has 30% of all cancer patients, so the government is funding massive research into treatments. China’s population is also aging. Given the huge need for drugs over the next decade, simple economic theory points to a big boom in Chinese biotech.
The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare will lead to medical breakthroughs. With more access to gene sequencing data, AI computers will be able to create drugs faster. China could be the best positioned country in the world because cutting-edge AI technology feeds off data, and China has vast amounts of health information on its citizens with its looser privacy laws.
Local cities and territories in China are trying to attract biotech firms. Think about the wealth that Silicon Valley created for surrounding areas … or the research triangle in North Carolina. Cities are already throwing out big incentives to Chinese biotech firms to set up shop in their area.
Beijing wants the pharma and biotech industries to help lead growth in the future. Depending less on the export-driven manufacturing industry will lead to a bigger economic boom domestically.
In the past, China could not match the number of educated scientists in other countries. That has changed as more American-educated Chinese are making their way back home. China is also dangling carrots to attract the world’s top scientists through its China’s Thousand Talents Program.
Gene editing is one of my favorite long-term investing themes within the future of medicine. Scientists are working toward curing diseases the same way you or I make an edit while typing at our computers. China had at least nine gene editing studies taking place as of the end of 2018.
For many years, Chinese companies would license drugs from their large Western counterparts to sell in China. That is quickly changing. Chinese biotech firms are starting to license their drugs to U.S.-based companies to sell outside of China.
I’ve seen estimates that up to 100 Chinese biotech companies are preparing to go public in the near future. I realize that seems insanely high, but China’s biotech companies used to be unable to list on a major Chinese stock exchange unless they had revenue. That eliminated nearly all of them. That rule has changed, allowing capital to flow into Chinese biotechs.
One of our favorite strategies inEarly Stage Investoris what we call our “buy a basket” strategy, which is like building our own exchange-traded fund (ETF). This is a must for the Chinese biotech sector.
As you know, an ETF is a diversified investment fund that trades like a stock. Most hold dozens or hundreds of different companies. They can give you diversified exposure to a sector or country, and can be very useful investment vehicles.
However, because ETFs typically hold so many stocks, an ETF buyer is virtually guaranteed to end up owning a lot of average companies (and even some crappy ones). You get the bad with the good.
On the other hand, if you want to profit from a big business or technological innovation, you can try to buy one single stock.
Buying a single stock can pay off massively. But doing so exposes you to significant downside risk. If there is a major problem at your chosen company (like an accounting scandal or a crazy management decision), you could suffer a big loss.
That’s why I like taking the middle of the road approach when possible … which is “buy a basket.”
When I say “buy a basket,” I mean pick three to six of the best companies in a sector and buy all of them.
By purchasing a handful of the best companies, you avoid owning the weak players. This gives you lots of upside potential while providing you with some diversification. It’s a smart way to invest in big themes that gives you an excellent balance of risk and reward.
The upside potential of the Chinese biotech sector is difficult to quantify, but you can see that it’s big. If you are able to pick the companies that create the next blockbuster drugs, the gains could be10X to 50X your original investment. It would be like buying U.S. biotech leaderAmgen(NASDAQ:AMGN) in the late 1980s. You would have made 250 times your money.
I see Chinese biotech stocks as a little further along. I would say it is more like getting into U.S. biotechs in the mid-1990s. You could buy Amgen for $5 per share at that point, and today it is trading around $195. That 39X return turns a $5,000 investment into $195,000.
Here’s another way to grasp some of the upside potential. Amgen has a $118 billion market cap and did $23.7 billion in sales in 2018. A few of the companies we will put in our Chinese biotech basket could generate similar sales in the next decade. We can buy these stocks when they are valued at $2-$4 billion.
The basket approach has worked well in the past with biotech stocks. From the mid-1990s through the high in 2015, the Nasdaq Biotech Index was up 28-fold.
I am extremely bullish on China and the big opportunities in several sectors, but China’s biotech industry tops the list.
Investing alongside the mandates of the Chinese government is one of the world’s most successful investment strategies. When the Chinese government wants to create an industry, it does.
The Chinese government wants to dominate biotechnology and healthcare over the coming decades. My suggestion is to take the Chinese at their word … and own a basket of the best Chinese biotech stocks. It’s one of the top “early stage” opportunities around.
Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else,click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today.
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The post9 Catalysts That Will Drive Chinese Biotech Stocks Much Higherappeared first onInvestorPlace. || 9 Catalysts That Will Drive Chinese Biotech Stocks Much Higher: In the pages of my Early Stage Investor service, readers often hear the term 10X. biotech test tubes Source: Shutterstock As a rule of thumb, our early stage, venture capital style investments are only in industries with the real potential to grow 10-fold (or 10X) in size. Investing in industries with huge growth potential and gale-force tailwinds at their backs is how you set yourself up to make giant returns. Think of the internet in the 1990s
personal computers in the 1980s
and smartphones over the past decade. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips However, in a research report I recently sent to readers, I detailed an industry set for not just 10X growth
not 20X growth
and not even 50X growth
but at least 100X growth. This is undoubtedly one of the best early stage investment opportunities youll ever see in your life. Best of all, we get to partner with one of the worlds most powerful wealth creating groups, one with a stunning track record. If youve been a MoneyWire reader for a while, you wont be surprised to hear where this opportunity is located. More on this in a moment. But first, let me show you some incredible numbers
A Simple Case for Massive Returns Sometimes, investing is complicated. Wall Street hedge funds and banks can create all kinds of complex investments and strategies that only a math genius can make sense of. However, sometimes making great investments is laughably simple. Thats the situation with the industry Ill share with you today. The big opportunity here boils down to just one number
116 Specifically, 116-fold growth is what the Chinese government has targeted for its biotechnology sector over the next two years. In 2017, the Chinese government announced that it intends to make its domestic biotechnology sector constitute 4% of the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020. Story continues The Chinese economy is projected to reach roughly $15.7 trillion in size (as measured by GDP) by 2020. In 2017, the revenue generated by Chinas domestic biotech industry is a tiny $5.4 billion, according to Goldman Sachs. In order for Chinas biotech industry to constitute 4% of the economy (or $627 billion) by 2020, the industry must increase its sales by 116-fold. Id like you to keep 116-fold growth in the back of your mind as I explain whats happening. Its really all that matters here when it comes to making hundreds of percent returns even thousands of percent returns thanks to this unique situation. China is About to Create a New Class of Champions China is well known for its large and growing capitalist economy. In the 1970s and 80s, China was extremely poor and undeveloped. But thanks to capitalism, China is now the worlds second largest economy. China puts its own unique twist on capitalism. Although the country is technically capitalistic, its also authoritarian. The Chinese government exerts a LOT more control over the economy and its domestic companies than the U.S. government does. In order to allow its domestic companies to grow large, the Chinese government often blocks U.S. companies from doing business or gaining influence inside the country. For example, Google and Facebook are not allowed in China. China also likes to create national champions
huge companies that have the implicit backing of the Chinese government. Competing with Chinas champions inside China is extremely difficult and often impossible. For decades, China focused on growing its basic industries like manufacturing, mining, oil, shipping, and infrastructure building. But now, the Chinese government is set on fast-tracking high-tech industries like artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, e-commerce, and biotechnology. China wants to compete on the highest levels and dominate all the critical industries of the future. This includes having a huge domestic biotechnology industry that develops and sells the medical treatments and therapies of the future . It makes sense. Medicine and healthcare are trillion dollar-plus global industries. Plus, every government wants its population to be as healthy and strong as possible (more taxpayers). The best, most affordable medicines help make that happen. The Chinese Government Has a Heck of a Track Record When the Chinese government says its targeting one of its domestic industries for massive growth, it pays to listen. Its track record of creating huge returns for investors is impressive. Starting in the late 1990s, the Chinese government went on an infrastructure building spree. It built dams, bridges, cities, power plants, highways, and ports on a scale never seen before in history. All that building consumed an incredible amount of natural resources like oil, coal, copper, cement, and iron ore. The big Chinese oil firm PetroChina was just one of the winners during the infrastructure boom. PetroChina literally helped fuel Chinas massive growth, and the stock grew 17X from its IPO in 2000 through the high in 2007. If you think thats impressive, take a look at Anhui Conch Cement. The companys stock was trading at a mere $0.17 per share in early 2000, and today it is around $50 per share. Thats a 294-bagger! As you can tell by the name, the company makes cement and aggregates used to build roads, houses, etc. all over China. Or consider the results of Chinas push to create a strong domestic technology sector. This push began about 10 years ago. One of the companies that enjoyed government support during that time was a little known firm called Tencent Holdings. Tencent gathered assets and extended its tentacles into many aspects of Chinas economy. It was a major beneficiary of the governments backing. Today, Tencent Holdings is one of the largest companies in the world. The stock rose an eye-popping 67,000% from its IPO in 2004 through January 2018. From an investing point of view, overzealous government spending in China is a good thing. Even if the goals are too lofty, there is no denying the power of the Chinese government and how its backing can boost an entire industry and related stocks. Now you see why I paid close attention when I learned how strongly the Chinese government is pushing its biotech industry. It is determined to put the industry on the same level with U.S. biotech
and do it in just a few years. This will require the Chinese biotech industry to grow more than 100-fold. I believe the Chinese governments public relations team got carried away by saying they want that enormous growth by 2020. I think five to seven years is more realistic. But 100-fold growth in even 10 years will make the Chinese biotechnology sector one of the greatest growth stories in modern history. Im willing to be patient for life-changing returns. 9 Catalysts That Will Drive Chinese Biotech Stocks Much Higher Investing in a small industry backed by the Chinese government is a recipe for huge returns, from triple-digit profits to 10X your money to possibly even more. However, before investing my hard-earned money, I want to see more than the backing of a sometimes unpredictable government. Here are nine more reasons why I believe investing in Chinese biotech stocks will be one of the best wealth-building opportunities of the next 20 years. Catalyst #1: Chinas Version of the FDA The National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA), that countrys version of the FDA that approves drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics, has transformed itself to be on par with its peers in the U.S. and Europe. With the NMPAs newfound respect, the Chinese biotech industry can now be taken seriously by the rest of the world. This opens the door for approved drugs in China to quickly spread. Catalyst #2: Demographics Chinas massive population of nearly 1.4 billion people unfortunately means greater numbers of people who are sick. Twenty percent of the world lives in China, but it has 30% of all cancer patients, so the government is funding massive research into treatments. Chinas population is also aging. Given the huge need for drugs over the next decade, simple economic theory points to a big boom in Chinese biotech. Catalyst #3: Technology The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare will lead to medical breakthroughs. With more access to gene sequencing data, AI computers will be able to create drugs faster. China could be the best positioned country in the world because cutting-edge AI technology feeds off data, and China has vast amounts of health information on its citizens with its looser privacy laws. Catalyst #4: Local Governments Local cities and territories in China are trying to attract biotech firms. Think about the wealth that Silicon Valley created for surrounding areas
or the research triangle in North Carolina. Cities are already throwing out big incentives to Chinese biotech firms to set up shop in their area. Catalyst #5: Diversifying the Economy Beijing wants the pharma and biotech industries to help lead growth in the future. Depending less on the export-driven manufacturing industry will lead to a bigger economic boom domestically. Catalyst #6: Talent In the past, China could not match the number of educated scientists in other countries. That has changed as more American-educated Chinese are making their way back home. China is also dangling carrots to attract the worlds top scientists through its Chinas Thousand Talents Program. Catalyst #7: Gene Editing Gene editing is one of my favorite long-term investing themes within the future of medicine. Scientists are working toward curing diseases the same way you or I make an edit while typing at our computers. China had at least nine gene editing studies taking place as of the end of 2018. Catalyst #8: The Drug Trade For many years, Chinese companies would license drugs from their large Western counterparts to sell in China. That is quickly changing. Chinese biotech firms are starting to license their drugs to U.S.-based companies to sell outside of China. Catalyst #9: Just the Beginning Ive seen estimates that up to 100 Chinese biotech companies are preparing to go public in the near future. I realize that seems insanely high, but Chinas biotech companies used to be unable to list on a major Chinese stock exchange unless they had revenue. That eliminated nearly all of them. That rule has changed, allowing capital to flow into Chinese biotechs. Building Your Own China Biotech Basket One of our favorite strategies in Early Stage Investor is what we call our buy a basket strategy, which is like building our own exchange-traded fund (ETF). This is a must for the Chinese biotech sector. As you know, an ETF is a diversified investment fund that trades like a stock. Most hold dozens or hundreds of different companies. They can give you diversified exposure to a sector or country, and can be very useful investment vehicles. However, because ETFs typically hold so many stocks, an ETF buyer is virtually guaranteed to end up owning a lot of average companies (and even some crappy ones). You get the bad with the good. On the other hand, if you want to profit from a big business or technological innovation, you can try to buy one single stock. Buying a single stock can pay off massively. But doing so exposes you to significant downside risk. If there is a major problem at your chosen company (like an accounting scandal or a crazy management decision), you could suffer a big loss. Thats why I like taking the middle of the road approach when possible
which is buy a basket. When I say buy a basket, I mean pick three to six of the best companies in a sector and buy all of them. By purchasing a handful of the best companies, you avoid owning the weak players. This gives you lots of upside potential while providing you with some diversification. Its a smart way to invest in big themes that gives you an excellent balance of risk and reward. The upside potential of the Chinese biotech sector is difficult to quantify, but you can see that its big. If you are able to pick the companies that create the next blockbuster drugs, the gains could be 10X to 50X your original investment . It would be like buying U.S. biotech leader Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN ) in the late 1980s. You would have made 250 times your money. I see Chinese biotech stocks as a little further along. I would say it is more like getting into U.S. biotechs in the mid-1990s. You could buy Amgen for $5 per share at that point, and today it is trading around $195. That 39X return turns a $5,000 investment into $195,000. Heres another way to grasp some of the upside potential. Amgen has a $118 billion market cap and did $23.7 billion in sales in 2018. A few of the companies we will put in our Chinese biotech basket could generate similar sales in the next decade. We can buy these stocks when they are valued at $2-$4 billion. The basket approach has worked well in the past with biotech stocks. From the mid-1990s through the high in 2015, the Nasdaq Biotech Index was up 28-fold. Summing Up I am extremely bullish on China and the big opportunities in several sectors, but Chinas biotech industry tops the list. Investing alongside the mandates of the Chinese government is one of the worlds most successful investment strategies. When the Chinese government wants to create an industry, it does. The Chinese government wants to dominate biotechnology and healthcare over the coming decades. My suggestion is to take the Chinese at their word
and own a basket of the best Chinese biotech stocks. Its one of the top early stage opportunities around. Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the worlds biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being first gave Matts readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If youre interested in making triple-digit gains from the worlds biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else, click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today . More From InvestorPlace 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid 9 Retail Stocks Goldman Sachs Says Are Ready to Rip 7 Services Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2019 6 Stocks to Buy and 1 to Sell Based on Insider Trading The post 9 Catalysts That Will Drive Chinese Biotech Stocks Much Higher appeared first on InvestorPlace . || 5G Stocks With 10X Potential: Almost one year ago, on August 2, 2018, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) became the first American company to cross the threshold of $1 trillion in market value. Future of 5G Source: Shutterstock Thats a 1 with 12 zeros after it. Apples crossing of that mark was a big, hyped event that made all the major news outlets. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Less hyped was the fact that three other companies were hot on Apples heels in the race to join the $1 trillion club. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) surged past that market cap a month later on September 4, 2018. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) joined the $1 trillion club in April of this year. Another company with a good shot of being worth over $1 trillion soon is Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL ). Think about that list for a moment. Theres no car maker on it. No big manufacturer like General Electric (NYSE: GE ). Theres no oil company, no mining company, no steel company, and no banking company. The market has spoken. Technology with its ability to create smartphones, software, time-saving apps, social media platforms, online shopping experiences, and the like is now the most dominant, most valued part of our economy. Tech entrepreneurs and investors are making fortunes as a result. If Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are the tallest skyscrapers the commanding heights of our economic city its no exaggeration to say their foundations rest on the bedrock of our communications grid
aka the internet. Without this bedrock, those skyscrapers crash to the ground. As you read this, the next trillion-dollar companies the next Amazon, the next Alphabet, etc. are being hatched in research facilities and garages around the world. These firms will change the world and revolutionize our economy. If you follow technology the least little bit, you know what fields these companies are in: self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, virtual reality/augmented reality, blockchain, mobile payments, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Story continues Just like how the businesses of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft cant function without the internet, the next generation of world-changing, $1 trillion mega winners cant survive without the subject of this essay. Its the bedrock our future will rest on
and its a giant investment opportunity. Let me tell you more about it today. Then, be on the lookout for more research from me over the next week as we begin a special series looking at seven transformative trends changing our world that have the potential to double, triple, or even multiply your money 10X . How Building Toll Roads Can Make You a Millionaire One way to view the internet buildout of the 1990s is as the construction of a vast network of toll roads. These toll roads linked friend to friend
family member to family member
and most importantly from a capitalists point of view: business to consumer. Millions upon millions of people wanted to send their messages, data, and advertisements over the internets toll roads. It was a communications revolution. History shows building the revolutions toll roads was incredibly profitable. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO ), the leading maker of networking equipment, enjoyed a 34,000% increase in market value during the 1990s. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC ), which made computer chips, saw its stock soar more than 3,500% during the 1990s. EMC, which made data storage devices, saw its shares advance more than 80,000% during the 1990s. As incredible as the internets first toll roads were, their size and capacity pales in comparison to the next generation of toll roads
which will lead to your doorstep soon. They go by the name of 5G. You Aint Seen Nothing Yet The path to the 5G wireless communications network began 45 years ago on Tuesday, April 3, 1973. Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, stood on 6th Ave. in Manhattan. He was about to make the first cell phone call in history, and he was nervous about whether it would work. Martin didnt call a family member, friend or even a co-worker. Instead, he called his chief competitor, Dr. Joel Engle at Bell Labs. The two had been in a race to get to this day first. Joel, this is Marty, he said. Im calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld personal cell phone. Consider those the first words in the mobile communications revolution. Mobile phones were then introduced to the public nearly a decade later, and by the 1980s, cell phones were creeping into the cars of wealthier individuals. The first devices weighed a couple of pounds and were bigger than your head they are referred to as bricks for a reason but they did what had never been done before. The first generation of mobile technology kicked off the trend toward an increasingly connected world. The second generation of networks (2G and 2.5G) were introduced in the 1990s. They gave us the ability to text, another step forward in communication. We now take texting for granted a lot of people text more than they make actual phone calls. The move into the new millennium was accompanied by the move to 3G, which brought major advances in the speed and capabilities of cellular networks. With the third generation , devices were able to access broadband technology, which made possible entertainment, web browsing, and shopping on a mobile device. There is now a generation of people who find it hard to believe that 20 years ago there was no Amazon app to instantly reorder your toilet paper. Just as semiconductors were part of the infrastructure for the internet, they were also the backbone of the move to 3G. As a result, chip stocks made big moves during this era. Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM ) rallied more than 1,000% in the 1990s ahead of when 4G networks started to appear. As nice as it was to be able to browse the internet on your phone, the fourth generation of wireless connectivity took mobile technology to another level with the ability to stream video without waiting for buffering. It was more enjoyable, yes, but it also opened up business opportunities for content companies. Still, the biggest advancement was real-time information, which led to the sharing economy. Mobile devices could talk to other devices in real-time, connecting people instantaneously. Without real-time data transfer there would be no Uber, GrubHub, or any other app that relies on a fast connection. Once again, there were big investment returns in the 4G phase. Cell tower companies were among those enjoying huge rallies. As more data was being transmitted with the increasing use of video, new and better towers were required. But honestly, we havent seen anything yet. The most advanced breakthrough of all is right around the corner. Just as there were fortunes made in prior generations, there will be big money made once again. In fact, I think the opportunity is even bigger now because the leap ahead will drive some of the most powerful tech trends the world has seen. I think of it as the next-generation toll road. The road to the future passes through 5G, and its time to set up our booth and start collecting . 5Gs Widespread Impact The next-generation network will take speeds to levels that seem almost unimaginable. How fast? Well, 5G will in theory increase the level of speed to match that of human reflexes, so were talking the blink of an eye, perhaps literally. The 4G network clocks in at around 100 megabits per second, which is extremely fast compared to 3G. But once 5G rolls out, that number jumps to 10,000 megabits per second or 100 times faster than the current speed. Why do we need the speed to be 100 times faster? It will eliminate those slow connections we run into at times, which is nice, but whats really about to happen is that phones and mobile devices are about to become mobile supercomputers. The big breakthrough will be the ability to connect a lot more devices that share large amounts of data in real-time. So if you think we live in a connected world already, get ready. From cloud storage to the Internet of Things to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), 5G will allow all of the most dominant tech trends of our time to not only flourish but reach new heights. 5G and the Future of Transportation There is one breakthrough industry in particular that cannot exist without 5G: autonomous vehicles, or AVs. Just as investors who were able to get in early during prior transformational trends profited to the tune of 20 to 50 times their money, the AV/5G mega-trend is one current transformational trend that cannot be ignored. When a $7 trillion industry like transportation is completely transformed for the first time in nearly a century, it will have huge ramifications. The full rollout of the 5G network will provide the much-needed communications infrastructure for auto manufacturers to introduce AVs to the masses. Its reliability and real-time data sharing that make that possible. Imagine a self-driving car traveling down the highway at 75 miles per hour and the network suddenly experiences a 100-millisecond delay. In any other circumstance, that delay would never be noticed, but it could be devastating in an AV. It could result in the braking system stopping the vehicle 10 feet beyond where it would have otherwise. That 10 extra feet could lead to a major accident. Future AVs will essentially be data centers on wheels. The amount of data that will be stored in the brain of the vehicle will be beyond what we can imagine. Morgan Stanley predicts that a 2050 AV will produce 40 terabytes (TBs) of data per hour. Today, your iPhone produces data in the range of 1-2 gigabytes (GBs) per month. That would mean a 2050 AV will produce about 20,000 times more data in one hour than your iPhone currently produces in an entire month! Such enormous amounts of data will be required due to the number of decisions taking place at all times. The AV will have to take in data from sensors surrounding the vehicle and instantaneously decide when to accelerate, brake, turn, etc. Not only will the vehicle need 5G for computing within itself, it will also be talking to the sensors in other vehicles, the roads, cell towers, satellites, and even smart cities. The thought of vehicles talking to each other makes me think of some pretty creepy sci-fi images. It also makes me think of the movie Cars . In reality, vehicles talking to each other will look nothing like the animated movie but more like the image below. Notice that everything has a sensor that is talking to the other sensors in the area. Even the man pushing the child in the stroller and the bicyclist are talking to the vehicles! This stuff is coming. Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM ) has plans to deploy its vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology in the U.S. by 2021. Again, the rollout of V2V and V2I is impossible without widespread 5G. The current 4G network is great for streaming videos, but the speed and latency would create major safety issues for AVs. Get in Position Now You can see how 5G networks will pave the way for so many breakthrough innovations , not just faster phones but in self-driving cars, smart homes and cities, virtual reality, healthcare, and so much more. When exactly does all of this excitement happen? Its already starting. You may have seen advertising for 5G home internet service in limited cities. Smartphone manufacturers are already rolling out the first 5G-enabled phones. The pace will only pick up from here. Thats true of the stock prices, too, which will move ahead of specific developments. Long-term winners in this sector will be 5G gear makers like Nokia (NYSE: NOK ), 5G infrastructure providers like Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI ), and specialized chip makers like Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS ). Consider that short list a jumping off point for 5G ideas, but by no means a complete or static guide. The early days of any technological revolution are full of change. My advice is to follow this sector closely, study it frequently for emerging winners , and own a handful of companies to get a good blend of risk/reward. Youll end up owning some of the worlds most valuable toll roads
just like the smartest investors of the 1990s did. Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the worlds biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being first gave Matts readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If youre interested in making triple-digit gains from the worlds biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else, click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today . More From InvestorPlace 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid 9 Retail Stocks Goldman Sachs Says Are Ready to Rip 7 Services Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2019 6 Stocks to Buy and 1 to Sell Based on Insider Trading The post 5G Stocks With 10X Potential appeared first on InvestorPlace . || 5G Stocks With 10X Potential: Almost one year ago, on August 2, 2018,Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) became the first American company to cross the threshold of $1 trillion in market value.
Source: Shutterstock
That’s a “1” with 12 zeros after it.
Apple’s crossing of that mark was a big, hyped event that made all the major news outlets.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
Less hyped was the fact that three other companies were hot on Apple’s heels in the race to join the $1 trillion club.Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) surged past that market cap a month later on September 4, 2018.Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) joined the $1 trillion club in April of this year. Another company with a good shot of being worth over $1 trillion soon isAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Think about that list for a moment. There’s no car maker on it. No big manufacturer likeGeneral Electric(NYSE:GE). There’s no oil company, no mining company, no steel company, and no banking company.
The market has spoken. Technology — with its ability to create smartphones, software, time-saving apps, social media platforms, online shopping experiences, and the like — is now the most dominant, most valued part of our economy. Tech entrepreneurs and investors are making fortunes as a result.
If Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are the tallest skyscrapers — the commanding heights of our “economic city” — it’s no exaggeration to say their foundations rest on the bedrock of our communications grid … aka “the internet.” Without this bedrock, those skyscrapers crash to the ground.
As you read this, the next trillion-dollar companies — the next Amazon, the next Alphabet, etc. — are being hatched in research facilities and garages around the world. These firms will change the world and revolutionize our economy. If you follow technology the least little bit, you know what fields these companies are in: self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, virtual reality/augmented reality, blockchain, mobile payments, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Just like how the businesses of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft can’t function without the internet, the next generation of world-changing, $1 trillion mega winners can’t survive without the subject of this essay. It’s the bedrock our future will rest on … and it’s a giant investment opportunity.
Let me tell you more about it today. Then, be on the lookout for more research from me over the next week as we begin a special series looking at seven transformative trends changing our world that have the potential to double, triple, or evenmultiply your money 10X.
One way to view the internet buildout of the 1990s is as the construction of a vast network of toll roads.
These toll roads linked friend to friend … family member to family member … and most importantly from a capitalist’s point of view: business to consumer. Millions upon millions of people wanted to send their messages, data, and advertisements over the internet’s toll roads. It was a communications revolution.
History shows building the revolution’s toll roads was incredibly profitable.Cisco(NASDAQ:CSCO), the leading maker of networking equipment, enjoyed a 34,000% increase in market value during the 1990s.Intel(NASDAQ:INTC), which made computer chips, saw its stock soar more than 3,500% during the 1990s. EMC, which made data storage devices, saw its shares advance more than 80,000% during the 1990s.
As incredible as the internet’s first toll roads were, their size and capacity pales in comparison to the next generation of toll roads … which will lead to your doorstep soon.
They go by the name of “5G.”
The path to the 5G wireless communications network began 45 years ago on Tuesday, April 3, 1973.
Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, stood on 6th Ave. in Manhattan. He was about to make the first cell phone call in history, and he was nervous about whether it would work.
Martin didn’t call a family member, friend or even a co-worker. Instead, he called his chief competitor, Dr. Joel Engle at Bell Labs. The two had been in a race to get to this day first.
“Joel, this is Marty,” he said. “I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld personal cell phone.”
Consider those the first words in the mobile communications revolution.
Mobile phones were then introduced to the public nearly a decade later, and by the 1980s, cell phones were creeping into the cars of wealthier individuals. The first devices weighed a couple of pounds and were bigger than your head — they are referred to as “bricks” for a reason — but they did what had never been done before. Thefirst generationof mobile technology kicked off the trend toward an increasingly connected world.
Thesecond generationof networks (2G and 2.5G) were introduced in the 1990s. They gave us the ability to text, another step forward in communication. We now take texting for granted — a lot of people text more than they make actual phone calls.
The move into the new millennium was accompanied by the move to 3G, which brought major advances in the speed and capabilities of cellular networks. With thethird generation, devices were able to access broadband technology, which made possible entertainment, web browsing, and shopping on a mobile device. There is now a generation of people who find it hard to believe that 20 years ago there was no Amazon app to instantly reorder your toilet paper.
Just as semiconductors were part of the infrastructure for the internet, they were also the backbone of the move to 3G. As a result, chip stocks made big moves during this era.Qualcomm(NASDAQ:QCOM) rallied more than 1,000% in the 1990s ahead of when 4G networks started to appear.
As nice as it was to be able to browse the internet on your phone, thefourth generationof wireless connectivity took mobile technology to another level with the ability to stream video without waiting for buffering. It was more enjoyable, yes, but it also opened up business opportunities for content companies.
Still, the biggest advancement was real-time information, which led to the sharing economy. Mobile devices could talk to other devices in real-time, connecting people instantaneously. Without real-time data transfer there would be no Uber, GrubHub, or any other app that relies on a fast connection.
Once again, there were big investment returns in the 4G phase. Cell tower companies were among those enjoying huge rallies. As more data was being transmitted with the increasing use of video, new and better towers were required.
But honestly, we haven’t seen anything yet. The most advanced breakthrough of all is right around the corner. Just as there were fortunes made in prior generations, there will be big money made once again. In fact, I think the opportunity is even bigger now because the leap ahead will drive some of the most powerful tech trends the world has seen.
I think of it as the next-generation toll road. The road to the future passes through 5G, and it’s time to set up our booth andstart collecting.
The next-generation network will take speeds to levels that seem almost unimaginable.
How fast?
Well, 5G will in theory increase the level of speed to match that of human reflexes, so we’re talking the blink of an eye, perhaps literally.
The 4G network clocks in at around 100 megabits per second, which is extremely fast compared to 3G. But once 5G rolls out, that number jumps to 10,000 megabits per second — or100 times fasterthan the current speed.
Why do we need the speed to be 100 times faster? It will eliminate those slow connections we run into at times, which is nice, but what’s really about to happen is that phones and mobile devices are about to become mobile supercomputers.
The big breakthrough will be the ability to connect a lot more devices that share large amounts of data in real-time. So if you think we live in a connected world already, get ready.
From cloud storage to the Internet of Things to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), 5G will allow all of the most dominant tech trends of our time to not only flourish but reach new heights.
There is onebreakthrough industryin particular that cannot exist without 5G: autonomous vehicles, or AVs.
Just as investors who were able to get in early during prior transformational trends profited to the tune of 20 to 50 times their money, the AV/5G mega-trend is one current transformational trend that cannot be ignored.
When a $7 trillion industry like transportation is completely transformed for the first time in nearly a century, it will have huge ramifications. The full rollout of the 5G network will provide the much-needed communications infrastructure for auto manufacturers to introduce AVs to the masses. It’s reliability and real-time data sharing that make that possible.
Imagine a self-driving car traveling down the highway at 75 miles per hour and the network suddenly experiences a 100-millisecond delay. In any other circumstance, that delay would never be noticed, but it could be devastating in an AV. It could result in the braking system stopping the vehicle 10 feet beyond where it would have otherwise. That 10 extra feet could lead to a major accident.
Future AVs will essentially be data centers on wheels. The amount of data that will be stored in the brain of the vehicle will be beyond what we can imagine.
Morgan Stanley predicts that a 2050 AV will produce 40 terabytes (TBs) of data per hour. Today, your iPhone produces data in the range of 1-2 gigabytes (GBs) per month. That would mean a 2050 AV will produce about 20,000 times more data in one hour than your iPhone currently produces in an entire month!
Such enormous amounts of data will be required due to the number of decisions taking place at all times. The AV will have to take in data from sensors surrounding the vehicle and instantaneously decide when to accelerate, brake, turn, etc. Not only will the vehicle need 5G for computing within itself, it will also be talking to the sensors in other vehicles, the roads, cell towers, satellites, and even smart cities.
The thought of vehicles “talking” to each other makes me think of some pretty creepy sci-fi images. It also makes me think of the movieCars.
In reality, vehicles talking to each other will look nothing like the animated movie but more like the image below. Notice that everything has a sensor that is talking to the other sensors in the area. Even the man pushing the child in the stroller and the bicyclist are talking to the vehicles!
This stuff is coming.Toyota Motor(NYSE:TM) has plans to deploy its vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology in the U.S. by 2021. Again, the rollout of V2V and V2I is impossible without widespread 5G. The current 4G network is great for streaming videos, but the speed and latency would create major safety issues for AVs.
You can see how 5G networks will pave the way for so manybreakthrough innovations, not just faster phones but in self-driving cars, smart homes and cities, virtual reality, healthcare, and so much more.
When exactly does all of this excitement happen?
It’s already starting.
You may have seen advertising for 5G home internet service in limited cities. Smartphone manufacturers are already rolling out the first 5G-enabled phones.
The pace will only pick up from here. That’s true of the stock prices, too, which will move ahead of specific developments.
Long-term winners in this sector will be 5G gear makers likeNokia(NYSE:NOK), 5G infrastructure providers likeCrown Castle(NYSE:CCI), and specialized chip makers likeSkyworks Solutions(NASDAQ:SWKS).
Consider that short list a jumping off point for 5G ideas, but by no means a complete or static guide. The early days of any technological revolution are full of change. My advice is to follow this sector closely, study it frequently foremerging winners, and own a handful of companies to get a good blend of risk/reward.
You’ll end up owning some of the world’s most valuable toll roads … just like the smartest investors of the 1990s did.
Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else,click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today.
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The post5G Stocks With 10X Potentialappeared first onInvestorPlace. || ATOM, DASH and More: Coinbase Considers Adding 8 New Cryptos: Coinbase has announced the possible addition of eight new tokens to its current collection.
Per ablogposting from the exchange,Coinbaseis exploring the addition ofAlgorand, Cosmos,Dash, Decred, Matic, Harmony, Ontology, andWaves. Currently, coins listed on its non-Pro interface includeBitcoin, Bitcoin Cash,Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, USD Coin,XRP,Stellar,Zcash, 0x,Litecoin, and the Basic Attention Token.
Coinbase’s announcement follows new token listingguidelinesposted last September. Per a follow-upblogpost, Coinbase wrote: “Because listing announcements will become more frequent, we expect to publicly announce the addition of new assets only at or near the time of public launch across one or more Coinbase products.”
Related:Grayscale’s $2.7 Billion in Crypto Assets Will Now Be Held by Coinbase Custody
In other words, each of these products is very likely to be listed. The company is currently vetting each product based on in-house criteria.The exchange hopes to add some 90% of current coins on the market onto the exchange. The company’s guidelines act as a useful transition onto the exchange for customers, developers, and Coinbase.
Even if listed, coins may only be available in certain locations. Each coin will be subject to a case by case study based on jurisdictional conditions, the company said.
Brian Armstrong image via CoinDesk archives
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• Crypto Exchange Rain Raises from BitMEX, Opens Trading In Middle East || SegWit adoption at an all-time high for bitcoin network: The percentage ofbitcointransactions using Segregated Witness (SegWit)—which make bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper—hit an all-time high of49 percentthis week. This is a good sign for fans of making bitcoin friendlier–and cheaper–to use.
SegWitadoption allowsBitcoinblocks, which are typically limited to 1 MB, to expand, if necessary, to 4 MB. This allows more transactions to be placed in a block, increasing the number of transactions that can be processed per second by the network. Bitcoin’s transaction speeds vary between 3 and 7 transactions per second. By making blocks four times the size, it means people don’t have to wait as long for their transaction to be included in a block. That means fees are lower, too.
SegWitwas introduced in August, 2017, to help with increasing network usage. It reached 40 percent of bitcoin transactions for the first time a year ago. Then, in May, this year, it started rising towards the levels seen today.
The rise in adoption may have been a reaction to rising transaction fees, as network activity picked up again in response to the spring surge in bitcoin’s price. When transaction fees rose from $0.54 to $2.36 during May, SegWit usage rose by 5 percent.
Alternatively,Longhashsuggests it was due to a project called VeriBlock. This uses the Bitcoinblockchainto store data on behalf of other blockchains—essentially riding off its security. But while VeriBlock can account for as much as 20 percent of bitcoin transactions, it’s popularity has been on the wane recently. VeriBlock transactions don’t use SegWit addresses, which would suggest as its numbers decline, the proportion of SegWit based transactions using bitcoin goes up. || SegWit adoption at an all-time high for bitcoin network: The percentage of bitcoin transactions using Segregated Witness (SegWit)—which make bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper—hit an all-time high of 49 percent this week. This is a good sign for fans of making bitcoin friendlier–and cheaper–to use. SegWit adoption allows Bitcoin blocks, which are typically limited to 1 MB, to expand, if necessary, to 4 MB. This allows more transactions to be placed in a block, increasing the number of transactions that can be processed per second by the network. Bitcoin’s transaction speeds vary between 3 and 7 transactions per second. By making blocks four times the size, it means people don’t have to wait as long for their transaction to be included in a block. That means fees are lower, too. SegWit was introduced in August, 2017, to help with increasing network usage. It reached 40 percent of bitcoin transactions for the first time a year ago. Then, in May, this year, it started rising towards the levels seen today. The rise in adoption may have been a reaction to rising transaction fees, as network activity picked up again in response to the spring surge in bitcoin’s price. When transaction fees rose from $0.54 to $2.36 during May, SegWit usage rose by 5 percent. Alternatively, Longhash suggests it was due to a project called VeriBlock. This uses the Bitcoin blockchain to store data on behalf of other blockchains—essentially riding off its security. But while VeriBlock can account for as much as 20 percent of bitcoin transactions, it’s popularity has been on the wane recently. VeriBlock transactions don’t use SegWit addresses, which would suggest as its numbers decline, the proportion of SegWit based transactions using bitcoin goes up. || How Facebook's Libra Will Change the Cryptocurrency Landscape: Social media giant Facebook announced in June that it would launch Libra, a new cryptocurrency, in the first half of next year. Users will be able to buy things and send money to other people rapidly, anonymously and with fees of a fraction of a cent, and Facebook says it's targeting the unbanked. So what is Libra? How is it different from other cryptocurrencies? And are there investment opportunities in this new virtual currency? See Also: 2019's Hot IPOs: What the Analysts Think Spoiler alert: Libra is designed not to fluctuate much, so investing directly in the cryptocurrency probably won't do much for you. It could face steep opposition in Congress and from governments around the world. Moreover, you shouldn't invest in any cryptocurrency unless you're prepared to lose your entire investment. And although there are some indirect ways to invest in the crypto boom, these, too, are highly speculative. Here's what you need to know: How is Libra different from Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a virtual currency that has no central governing authority, such as a central bank. Users can buy and sell Bitcoins anonymously and use them to make untraceable purchases. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology--think of a decentralized ledger of transactions shared and maintained across a vast network of computers--that its advocates say makes counterfeiting impossible. Like Bitcoin, Libra will use blockchain technology and allow users to be anonymous. That's where the similarities end. What makes cryptocurrency problematic as a currency is that its price can swing wildly. Bitcoin, for example, has fluctuated between $1,914 and $19,345 over the past two years. But Libra's value will be tied to a pool of money in the Libra Reserve, which gets its cash from the members of the Libra Association, a Swiss nonprofit that will oversee the cryptocurrency. The association has 28 initial members, including Facebook, Visa and PayPal, as well as a few nonprofit organizations, such as Kiva, a microlender. Story continues Each member kicks in $10 million to the Libra Reserve. The Libra Association could grow to about 100 members, says Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi. You will be able to exchange Libras for money in the reserve, which in turn will be invested in various government bonds and currencies. The reserve's owners will pocket the interest from those investments. In order to use Libras, you'll need a crypto wallet, an app that lets you turn Libras into dollars (and vice versa). Facebook will offer a wallet through a subsidiary, Calibra, which will allow users to send money to anyone with a smartphone and may eventually allow direct purchases. You'll also be able use other wallets currently on the market to store Libras. Calibra will ensure the separation of social media information and financial information, Facebook says. [PULLQUOTE] Why is Facebook creating Libra? In a white paper, Facebook says Libra will help provide basic financial services to people who lack bank accounts. It will also make it easier for people in one country to send money to relatives in another country. With 2.4 billion users, Facebook will have a huge, ready-made pool of potential Libra users, all of whom could use the currency to buy things they see on the social network. Although Facebook says that data from those who use Libra won't be sold or used for targeted ads, skeptics abound. "They are not rolling out Libra for philanthropic reasons," says Adam Levin, Founder of CyberScout . "They are trying to find additional ways to scoop up information about people's habits." Nevertheless, Libra will allow Facebook to diversify itself from advertising revenue. Facilitating payments is a lucrative business. Mastercard, for example, sports a 56.9% operating margin, a measure of profitability that shows how much a company makes on each dollar of sales after paying for wages and materials but before paying interest or tax. "Everyone wants to get into payments, and now it's Facebook's turn," says John Freeman, vice president of stock research at CFRA. And Facebook will also get a slice of interest payments from the Libra Reserve fund. What are the drawbacks for Facebook? Facebook is already in the crosshairs because of consumer privacy concerns. In July, the Federal Trade Commission approved a $5 billion settlement with Facebook over its privacy practices. Libra will likely add to those worries. Congress has been scrutinizing tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon for possible antitrust practices. The Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Treasury have expressed concerns. Since news of Facebook's intention to debut an anonymous payment system, congressional hearing schedules have been filling up fast, and executives are facing a number of potentially grueling appearances on Capitol Hill. "With Facebook exerting such a tremendous amount of influence and power over politics, those writing legislation have a very personal motivation" to limit Facebook's influence, says Freeman. A broader worry is that the public may not trust Facebook enough to use Libra. All currency, whether crypto or paper, relies on trust for acceptance. Given consumers' concerns about their privacy on Facebook, the public could be slow to accept Libra. And although Bitcoins seem to be unhackable, the wallets that hold them are not, nor are the exchanges that trade them--and once your crypto wallet is hacked, your cryptocurrency is gone forever. (Facebook says it will refund users if their Calibra accounts are compromised and they lose their Libras, but it hasn't shared specifics.) What effect will Libra have on the rest of the cryptocurrency market? Bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency in the world--in fact, there are more than 1,000. After Bitcoin, some of the most widely traded cryptocurrencies include Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin and EOS. All other things being equal, if Libra becomes popular and accepted, it would draw investors away from other cryptocurrencies and push down their prices. But you shouldn't invest in any of them unless it's with money you're willing to lose. A stock has earnings and dividends behind it; the U.S. Treasury has the vast U.S. military behind it, as well as extensive policing powers. Bitcoin and other cryptos? Nothing. Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, says Libra doesn't offer much, either. "Why would anyone give Facebook a zero-interest deposit, when they could put their money in an even-safer U.S. Treasury bill or in a money market fund?" he recently wrote in a syndicated column. One answer, of course, is to shield criminal activities because the transactions can't be traced. But people have made money in Bitcoin. What are the investment opportunities in Libra or other cryptocurrencies? People invest in Bitcoin simply because they hope its price will go up, that the next person will be willing to pay more than they did. This is known on Wall Street as the Greater Fool Theory. Libra's value will be tied to real currency, so there's not as much potential for it to rise or fall dramatically. You're unlikely to become a Libra billionaire, unless you're Mark Zuckerberg. Several companies do benefit from cryptocurrencies, but the benefits can be fleeting. Bitcoin mining, a process of solving complex math problems to get new Bitcoins and verify transaction ledgers, requires a vast amount of processing power. Stock in Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) has soared 80% this year, in part because its processors are prized for mining Bitcoin. However, application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, that are made especially for Bitcoin mining are now preferred. And demand for those chips rises and falls with the price of Bitcoin. Blockchain technology does have legitimate--and promising--business use. Financial services firms can use blockchain to keep records of complex trades and contracts. Nasdaq, for example, offers a blockchain service through its Nasdaq Financial Framework. Amazon.com offers a service for companies to create their own blockchain services. For now, we think blockchain technology is interesting to watch but not yet something most investors should put their money on. QUIZ: Are You Guilty of Insider Trading? And what about Facebook ( FB )? Morningstar's Mogharabi thinks that Libra won't do much for Facebook's earnings for the next few years. CFRA's Freeman agrees and says investors should be more interested in Facebook Watch, the company's YouTube competitor, which now has 140 million daily views--a fraction of YouTube's typical traffic, but growing. "That's the new thing from Facebook to get excited about," he says. EDITOR'S PICKS 10 Stocks That can Prosper From Lower Interest Rates 5 Biotech Stocks With Blockbuster Potential 20 Great Small-Cap Dividend Stocks Copyright 2019 The Kiplinger Washington Editors || How Facebook's Libra Will Change the Cryptocurrency Landscape: Social media giant Facebook announced in June that it would launch Libra, a new cryptocurrency, in the first half of next year. Users will be able to buy things and send money to other people rapidly, anonymously and with fees of a fraction of a cent, and Facebook says it's targeting the unbanked. So what is Libra? How is it different from other cryptocurrencies? And are there investment opportunities in this new virtual currency? See Also: 2019's Hot IPOs: What the Analysts Think Spoiler alert: Libra is designed not to fluctuate much, so investing directly in the cryptocurrency probably won't do much for you. It could face steep opposition in Congress and from governments around the world. Moreover, you shouldn't invest in any cryptocurrency unless you're prepared to lose your entire investment. And although there are some indirect ways to invest in the crypto boom, these, too, are highly speculative. Here's what you need to know: How is Libra different from Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a virtual currency that has no central governing authority, such as a central bank. Users can buy and sell Bitcoins anonymously and use them to make untraceable purchases. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology--think of a decentralized ledger of transactions shared and maintained across a vast network of computers--that its advocates say makes counterfeiting impossible. Like Bitcoin, Libra will use blockchain technology and allow users to be anonymous. That's where the similarities end. What makes cryptocurrency problematic as a currency is that its price can swing wildly. Bitcoin, for example, has fluctuated between $1,914 and $19,345 over the past two years. But Libra's value will be tied to a pool of money in the Libra Reserve, which gets its cash from the members of the Libra Association, a Swiss nonprofit that will oversee the cryptocurrency. The association has 28 initial members, including Facebook, Visa and PayPal, as well as a few nonprofit organizations, such as Kiva, a microlender. Story continues Each member kicks in $10 million to the Libra Reserve. The Libra Association could grow to about 100 members, says Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi. You will be able to exchange Libras for money in the reserve, which in turn will be invested in various government bonds and currencies. The reserve's owners will pocket the interest from those investments. In order to use Libras, you'll need a crypto wallet, an app that lets you turn Libras into dollars (and vice versa). Facebook will offer a wallet through a subsidiary, Calibra, which will allow users to send money to anyone with a smartphone and may eventually allow direct purchases. You'll also be able use other wallets currently on the market to store Libras. Calibra will ensure the separation of social media information and financial information, Facebook says. [PULLQUOTE] Why is Facebook creating Libra? In a white paper, Facebook says Libra will help provide basic financial services to people who lack bank accounts. It will also make it easier for people in one country to send money to relatives in another country. With 2.4 billion users, Facebook will have a huge, ready-made pool of potential Libra users, all of whom could use the currency to buy things they see on the social network. Although Facebook says that data from those who use Libra won't be sold or used for targeted ads, skeptics abound. "They are not rolling out Libra for philanthropic reasons," says Adam Levin, Founder of CyberScout . "They are trying to find additional ways to scoop up information about people's habits." Nevertheless, Libra will allow Facebook to diversify itself from advertising revenue. Facilitating payments is a lucrative business. Mastercard, for example, sports a 56.9% operating margin, a measure of profitability that shows how much a company makes on each dollar of sales after paying for wages and materials but before paying interest or tax. "Everyone wants to get into payments, and now it's Facebook's turn," says John Freeman, vice president of stock research at CFRA. And Facebook will also get a slice of interest payments from the Libra Reserve fund. What are the drawbacks for Facebook? Facebook is already in the crosshairs because of consumer privacy concerns. In July, the Federal Trade Commission approved a $5 billion settlement with Facebook over its privacy practices. Libra will likely add to those worries. Congress has been scrutinizing tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon for possible antitrust practices. The Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Treasury have expressed concerns. Since news of Facebook's intention to debut an anonymous payment system, congressional hearing schedules have been filling up fast, and executives are facing a number of potentially grueling appearances on Capitol Hill. "With Facebook exerting such a tremendous amount of influence and power over politics, those writing legislation have a very personal motivation" to limit Facebook's influence, says Freeman. A broader worry is that the public may not trust Facebook enough to use Libra. All currency, whether crypto or paper, relies on trust for acceptance. Given consumers' concerns about their privacy on Facebook, the public could be slow to accept Libra. And although Bitcoins seem to be unhackable, the wallets that hold them are not, nor are the exchanges that trade them--and once your crypto wallet is hacked, your cryptocurrency is gone forever. (Facebook says it will refund users if their Calibra accounts are compromised and they lose their Libras, but it hasn't shared specifics.) What effect will Libra have on the rest of the cryptocurrency market? Bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency in the world--in fact, there are more than 1,000. After Bitcoin, some of the most widely traded cryptocurrencies include Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin and EOS. All other things being equal, if Libra becomes popular and accepted, it would draw investors away from other cryptocurrencies and push down their prices. But you shouldn't invest in any of them unless it's with money you're willing to lose. A stock has earnings and dividends behind it; the U.S. Treasury has the vast U.S. military behind it, as well as extensive policing powers. Bitcoin and other cryptos? Nothing. Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, says Libra doesn't offer much, either. "Why would anyone give Facebook a zero-interest deposit, when they could put their money in an even-safer U.S. Treasury bill or in a money market fund?" he recently wrote in a syndicated column. One answer, of course, is to shield criminal activities because the transactions can't be traced. But people have made money in Bitcoin. What are the investment opportunities in Libra or other cryptocurrencies? People invest in Bitcoin simply because they hope its price will go up, that the next person will be willing to pay more than they did. This is known on Wall Street as the Greater Fool Theory. Libra's value will be tied to real currency, so there's not as much potential for it to rise or fall dramatically. You're unlikely to become a Libra billionaire, unless you're Mark Zuckerberg. Several companies do benefit from cryptocurrencies, but the benefits can be fleeting. Bitcoin mining, a process of solving complex math problems to get new Bitcoins and verify transaction ledgers, requires a vast amount of processing power. Stock in Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) has soared 80% this year, in part because its processors are prized for mining Bitcoin. However, application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, that are made especially for Bitcoin mining are now preferred. And demand for those chips rises and falls with the price of Bitcoin. Blockchain technology does have legitimate--and promising--business use. Financial services firms can use blockchain to keep records of complex trades and contracts. Nasdaq, for example, offers a blockchain service through its Nasdaq Financial Framework. Amazon.com offers a service for companies to create their own blockchain services. For now, we think blockchain technology is interesting to watch but not yet something most investors should put their money on. QUIZ: Are You Guilty of Insider Trading? And what about Facebook ( FB )? Morningstar's Mogharabi thinks that Libra won't do much for Facebook's earnings for the next few years. CFRA's Freeman agrees and says investors should be more interested in Facebook Watch, the company's YouTube competitor, which now has 140 million daily views--a fraction of YouTube's typical traffic, but growing. "That's the new thing from Facebook to get excited about," he says. EDITOR'S PICKS 10 Stocks That can Prosper From Lower Interest Rates 5 Biotech Stocks With Blockbuster Potential 20 Great Small-Cap Dividend Stocks Copyright 2019 The Kiplinger Washington Editors || 2 Analysts Weigh In On Exxon Mobil's Q2 Earnings: Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM ) reported second-quarter results to mixed reaction from analysts. The Analysts Credit Suisse's William Featherston maintains a Neutral rating on Exxon with a $74 price target. Bank of America's Doug Leggate maintains at Buy, $100 price target. Credit Suisse: Risks To 2020 EPS Exxon earned 61 cents per share in the quarter, which fell short of the Street's estimate of 66 cents per share due to weaker performance across all major segments, Featherston wrote in a note. Upstream earnings of $2.8 billion fell 9% from last year, Downstream earnings of $460 million was down 36% year-over-year and Chemicals net income dropped 9% to $186 million. The company's challenges in the second quarter appear to have carried over to the third quarter as management guided itsUpstream production to be unchanged from the second quarter. Management also indicated it expects to see ongoing weakness in Chemical and R&M margins. Featherston said Exxon's earnings report marks the second consecutive EPS miss and even if earnings improve in the back half there is risk to the Street's current full-year EPS estimate of $5.07. BofA: Top Major Oil Pick Exxon clearly faced headwinds throughout the first half of 2019 but it "has nothing to hide," Leggate wrote in a note. In fact, the company has much to boast, including improved transparency in communicating its strategy. View more earnings on XOM The case for naming Exxon as a top pick within the major oil group is threefold, including attractive valuation versus the stock's fair value of $100 per share, a dividend yield of 4.5% affords investors to "wait" and a growth story that's now starting to play out. Price Action Shares of Exxon traded lower by 2.6% at $70.10 Monday afternoon. Related Links: What The OPEC, OPEC+ Deal Means For Oil Investors The Bearish Case On A Big Energy ETF Latest Ratings for XOM Aug 2019 Upgrades Sell Hold Jul 2019 Downgrades Outperform Sector Perform Jul 2019 Maintains Equal-Weight View More Analyst Ratings for XOM View the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga Will The Trade War Escalation Impact Consumers? Depends Which Pro You Ask Bitcoin Pro: Surge In Cryptocurrency 'Very Clearly' Related To China Why Fox Is Taking A Stake In A Consumer Lending Company © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || 2 Analysts Weigh In On Exxon Mobil's Q2 Earnings: Exxon Mobil Corporation(NYSE:XOM) reportedsecond-quarter resultsto mixed reaction from analysts.
The Analysts
Credit Suisse'sWilliam Featherstonmaintains a Neutral rating on Exxon with a $74 price target.
Bank of America'sDoug Leggatemaintains at Buy, $100 price target.
Credit Suisse: Risks To 2020 EPS
Exxon earned 61 cents per share in the quarter, which fell short of the Street's estimate of 66 cents per share due to weaker performance across all major segments, Featherston wrote in a note. Upstream earnings of $2.8 billion fell 9% from last year, Downstream earnings of $460 million was down 36% year-over-year and Chemicals net income dropped 9% to $186 million.
The company's challenges in the second quarter appear to have carried over to the third quarter as management guided itsUpstream production to be unchanged from the second quarter. Management also indicated it expects to see ongoing weakness in Chemical and R&M margins.
Featherston said Exxon's earnings report marks the second consecutive EPS miss and even if earnings improve in the back half there is risk to the Street's current full-year EPS estimate of $5.07.
BofA: Top Major Oil Pick
Exxon clearly faced headwinds throughout the first half of 2019 but it "has nothing to hide," Leggate wrote in a note. In fact, the company has much to boast, including improved transparency in communicating its strategy.
View more earnings on XOM
The case for naming Exxon as a top pick within the major oil group is threefold, including attractive valuation versus the stock's fair value of $100 per share, a dividend yield of 4.5% affords investors to "wait" and a growth story that's now starting to play out.
Price Action
Shares of Exxon traded lower by 2.6% at $70.10 Monday afternoon.
Related Links:
What The OPEC, OPEC+ Deal Means For Oil Investors
The Bearish Case On A Big Energy ETF
Latest Ratings for XOM
[{"Aug 2019": "Jul 2019", "": "", "Upgrades": "Downgrades", "Sell": "Outperform", "Hold": "Sector Perform"}, {"Aug 2019": "Jul 2019", "": "", "Upgrades": "Maintains", "Sell": "", "Hold": "Equal-Weight"}]
View More Analyst Ratings for XOMView the Latest Analyst Ratings
See more from Benzinga
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© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Zcoin introduces private crypto transaction history without toxic waste: Zcoin has upgraded to the Sigma protocol today, beefing up its privacy features and allowing users to keep their entire history hidden. The protocol, the result of ahard fork, went live at block 184200 this morning. As a result, Zcoin wallets and nodes will need to be upgraded to Sigma in order to keep using the network.
In the process, the network has abandoned Zerocoin, a protocol proposed in 2013 as a privacy-focused alternative to Bitcoin. Zerocoin was used as the basis for other privacy coins, such asZcash.
WhileZcash, the #26 ranked cryptocurrency by market cap, is more well-known than Zcoin (ranked #81), it has one particular problem: toxic waste. Due to the requirements of the cryptography it uses, when it is created (or upgraded), it goes through a “trusted setup” ceremony. At this point, if everybody were to collude, or the ceremony was fixed, the entire cryptocurrency would be at risk. The private keys produced during the process are known as toxic waste—if anybody could access them, they could control the network. Which, unsurprisingly, is a bit of a worry.
Zcoin’s new upgrade claims to offer similar privacy features toZcashbut, crucially, without the trusted setup. And it’s about time, says Poramin Insom, founder of Zcoin.
“Trusted setups go against the fundamental principle of blockchain which is ‘don’t trust, verify’ and Sigma offers the first compelling alternative to solve all these issues,” he said, in a statement.
The impending funding crisis that threatens Zcash
From now on, it will no longer be possible to look up a Zcoin address and see its transaction history. This means that, while the details of each transaction will be publicly available (the amount, time, etc.), it will be much harder to link multiple transactions together. This stops blockchain analytics companies from being able to piece together someone’s transaction history, and makes it harder to identify the person associated with the address.
However, the plan is to bring this level of privacy to the transaction data itself. Zcoin is working on an upgrade called Lelantus, which would eliminate this information altogether—as Zcash already does. The upgrade is scheduled for 2020, but with the arrival of coins like Libra, where privacy isn’t as much of a concern, people are hoping they might speed things up a tad. || Daseke, Inc. (DSKE) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript: Image source: The Motley Fool.
Daseke, Inc.(NASDAQ: DSKE)Q2 2019 Earnings CallAug 5, 2019,11:00 a.m. ET
• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Daseke's Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Caminiti with Investor Relations.
Joseph Caminiti--Investor Relations
Thanks, Rachael. Please turn to Slide 2 for a review of our safe harbor and non-GAAP statements. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements as within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Projected financial information, including our guidance outlook are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, including those with respect to revenues, earnings, performance, strategies, prospects and other aspects of Daseke's business are based on management's current estimates, projections and assumption that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.
I encourage you to read our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of the risks that can affect our business and do not place any undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. During the call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted -- operating ratio, adjusted net income or loss and free cash flow. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the investor presentation and press release issued this morning, both of which are available on the Investor Relations tab of the Daseke website, www.daseke.com.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Daseke's CEO, Mr. Don Daseke. Don?
Don R. Daseke--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, thank you, Joe, and good morning everyone. Starting on Slide 3, today we will cover several topics. First, I will start our call by giving a high-level overview of our operational focus. Then our COO, Chris Easter will walk you through the initial phase of an operational improvement plan that is already under way here at Daseke. Finally our CFO, Bharat Mahajan will provide an in-depth discussion of our second quarter financial results, as well as an update to our guidance for the balance of the fiscal year.
Turning to Slide 4, Daseke has gone through a significant transformation since going public just two years ago. We have dramatically increased the size and scope of our operations in a relatively short period, which as most of you know was primarily accomplished through an acquisition focused strategy. What we have built here at Daseke has never been done before in the Flatbed and Specialized transportation market. Today, we are proudly the largest flatbed and specialized carrier in North America.
Turning to Slide 5, you can see we have now pivoted our focus from building size to optimizing the expertise we have in operations to deliver scale. As a result, we decided to follow [Technical Issues] 2019, just as we delivered exceptional top line growth over the last few years, we are now focused on delivering an exceptional bottom line, driving free cash flow performance and delevering our balance sheet. We recognize the natural evolution has many challenges, tough choices and frustrations, nonetheless we feel the need to continually calibrate the operational disciplines required to enhance shareholder value now and in the future.
Chris and his operational team has been working incredibly hard on executing the initial phase of our operational improvement plan. I'm excited that he will share the details with you today. An another exciting note, I've been delighted with the three new operationally focused board members we added to the team in the second quarter, including Ena Williams, Chuck Serriani and Kim Warmbier. These terrific leaders bring with them strong expertise in driving operational efficiency and scaling profitable growth. We welcome them to the Daseke journey.
Before we turn to the operational developments under way, I'd like to give a brief high level overview of our headline financial performance beginning on Slide 6. Our second quarter revenue of $450.6 million, market increase of 20% versus last year comparable quarter. On an acquisition-adjusted basis, [Indecipherable] organic growth, our top line grew by 1%. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $46 million was relatively flat versus last year's comparable quarter. Looking at the operating segment level, our adjusted EBITDA was up 14% to 37.8% in the Specialized segment and up 6% to $19.9 million in the Flatbed segment. Later in the call, Bharat, will get into more granular detail regarding our financial performance.
Chris will now outline the first phase of our new operational strategy. Chris?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Don, and good morning everyone. Turning to Slide 7, I would like to quickly review my first six months on the job as Daseke's COO. I spent the first quarter gaining a solid understanding of all Daseke operating companies, as well as how we support them with our corporate teams. Overall, we have a wealth of talent across operating companies and all of them are deeply committed to supporting our customers at the highest possible level. That said, I've also confirmed that we have some operations and recent acquisitions that have not performed to expectations. Therefore, in the second quarter, my team and I shifted our focus to building plans that will position us to deliver significant improvements in our operating results. As we enter the third quarter, our work has quickly transitioned to the execution of those initial plans. I should be clear that the execution work in process today is just the first significant step in what will be a cycle of continuous assessment and improvement of our business to deliver value to both our customers and shareholders. So what are we doing differently right now to deliver value to our customers and shareholders, there are quite a few actions we will execute on in the coming months and in some cases over the next couple of years. Many of these actions can be done in parallel to one another, while some will be more sequential in nature. Some actions might appear simple at first glance, while others will be fairly complex. The challenge is what I would describe as an intellectual puzzle of unlocking the value we have assembled within our family of companies, yet at the same time protecting and leveraging the core value of technical know-how, specialized equipment and unique operational capabilities.
Turning to Slide 8, let me share with you the first couple of actions we have already launched in order to unlock the value of Daseke. These actions are operational integrations and business improvement plans. The first action is operational integrations. We are in the process of integrating three of our operating companies into three other high performing Daseke operating companies, effectively reducing our operating units from 16 to 13. This action will achieve natural efficiencies across both operational as well as functional support teams. There were different considerations for each integration, but all were similar in terms of their ability to deliver greater value when merged with the sister operating company selected. There will be some onetime restructuring costs associated with this action in the third quarter. We will update you on those costs once we fully identify them. We expect this specific action to deliver $10 million in improved operating income during calendar year 2020, with the potential of an additional $5 million to $10 million on a run rate basis in calendar year 2021.
Let me provide a little more detail on each of these operational integrations. First, we are consolidating our commercial glass operations, which predominantly reside with two of our operating companies into one larger team. Moore Freight Service, which is predominately a glass hauler, will become a division of E.W. Wylie. E.W. Wylie has a substantial glass segment within their operations, but is over twice the size of Moore Freight with a much more diversified customer base and greater strength provided by its deep and experienced support team.
Second, we are consolidating Schilli into Lone Star Transportation. Lone Star is one of our largest operating companies with a significant presence in the heavy haul space. Lone Star is also consistently one of our top performers with a deep bench of talent and base basic business to drive improvements with this combined team.
The final integration is combining two of our Flatbed operations together. Builders Transportation will merge and join with Hornady Transportation. This integration will capitalize on improved asset utilization as well as operational synergies to deliver rapid and sustain improved results. Quantity strengths and operational excellence in areas such as equipment maintenance and low planning, as well as our complimentary geography and customer footprints with builders will enable a rapid and clearly defined path to improve results.
Let's move to the second operational action that we are announcing today, which, as you can see on the right hand side of the Slide, is simply labeled as business improvement plans. As I mentioned earlier, we have some operations that have not performed as well as we'd expected. While some of this performance has certainly been influenced by recent softer market conditions, there are some cases where our teams need to improve their execution. Regardless of the cause, we have initiated a business improvement plan process that taps into the significant expertise and leadership across our operating teams for support and provides accountability for driving improved performance over defined periods of time.
I'm not going to go into specifics relative to the operating units currently on active business improvement plans as the details of the individual plans are as diverse as our operating companies. The types of individual actions include areas such as rightsizing trailer truck ratios, yield management, capacity allocation and more disciplined maintenance execution. We expect this action to deliver a $5 million improvement to operating income in 2020, and we expect that some of the practices we develop will be shareable with all of our operating companies in the future.
So to summarize, we have an aggressive plan that can deliver $20 million to $25 million in annual operating income by fiscal year 2021 --- fiscal year-end 2021. I would be remiss if I did not emphasize that the operational integration actions we have outlined are not expected to be a recurring item. The business improvement process will certainly be a recurring action that will shift as needed across either operating companies or certain functional areas as we will look -- constantly look to drive improved performance. These are ambitious goals, but we believe them to be well within our reach and the beginning of what we'd see is a multi-year plan to deliver a significantly improved operating ratio and improved platform for organic growth.
Our team is very excited in taking these next steps forward, driving operational excellence across the entire organization. Giving this operational foundation right and reinforce any more continuous improvement mindset will put us in a position to truly leverage the unique business that we have built in the marketplace.
I will now turn the call over to Bharat to review your financial performance last quarter. Bharat?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Chris. I will now move to our Q2 financial details which are presented on Slide 9. Revenue increased 20% to $450.6 million, compared to $376.9 million in the year ago quarter. On an acquisition adjusted basis, revenues were up 1%. For the second quarter of 2019, operating income was $4.7 million compared to $8.5 million in the year ago quarter. Net loss for Q2 was $6.4 million or $0.10 per share compared to net income of $13.5 million or $0.22 per share in the year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was relatively flat at $46 million. Acquisition-adjusted EBITDA was $46 million compared to $54.5 million last year, down 16%. As a reminder, all of our profitability results in Q2 2019 versus Q2 2018 include the increased investments in our corporate segment with Daseke Logistics, IT system upgrades and the new management positions. It's also worth noting that included in the second quarter EBITDA are cost relating to timing differences in our self-funded health insurance plans and higher auto liability insurance costs and claims.
Looking at our results by segment. Specialized revenue in Q2 increased 28% to $280.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA was up 14% to $37.8 million. Flatbed revenue in Q2 increased 8% to $174.9 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 6% to $19.9 million.
Moving on to a more detailed view of our segment result, Slide 10 provide the view of our Specialized segment. Our operating ratio was 96% compared to 96.7% in Q2 2018 and acquisition-adjusted revenue and acquisition-adjusted EBITDA were up 8% and 3% respectively. Specialized rate per mile increase 23% to $3.54 compared to $2.88 in the second quarter of 2018, driven by high rate per mile project business, particularly in energy and large capex projects. Revenue per tractor increased 13% to $64,600 compared to $57,400 in the year ago quarter.
Slide 11 shows our Flatbed segment. Flatbed operating ratio in Q2 was 96.5% compared to 94.3% in the year ago quarter. Flatbed rate per mile in Q2 decreased 4% to $1.94 and Flatbed revenue per tractor decreased 7% to $42,400.
Slide 12 shows a breakdown of our Q2 acquisition-adjusted EBITDA. The acquisition-adjusted EBITDA in our Specialized segment increased 3%. The acquisition-adjusted EBITDA in our Flatbed segment decreased 15% given the current market conditions. Overall, Q2 acquisition-adjusted EBITDA was down 16%.
Next, Slide 13 highlights our last 12 months performance as of June 30, 2019. Revenues increased 50% to $1.79 billion, while acquisition-adjusted revenue increased 9% to $1.8 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased 39% over this period to $182.6 million, and acquisition-adjusted EBITDA was $183.8 million.
Now turning to our balance sheet and free cash flow. As Slide 14 indicate, at June 30th, 2019, we had cash of $63.7 million, zero outstanding and $85.2 million available under our revolving credit facility for total available liquidity of $148.9 million. Net debt was $650.1 million and leverage in accordance with our debt facility was at 3.3 times, which remains well below our 4 times covenant.
For the six months ending June 30th, cash provided by operating activities was $54.9 million and cash capex was $12.1 million and cash proceeds from the sale of capital property equipment was $16.5 million, resulting free cash flow at $59.3 million for the six month period.
Finally, turning to the operational plans that Chris discussed earlier. As you heard, this is an aggressive plan, but it will require some additional costs, most notably in the third quarter as we merge these operating companies together and execute against the business improvement plans. There will also be the potential for the write-off of some intangible and other assets. We are still working through the final impact of the integration plan and are unable to quantify these items at the moment, that is why we have provided you our improvement goals on a run rate basis for both 2020 and 2021 as most of our costs to execute these plans will be incurred in fiscal 2019. We will update you on the third quarter call of the accounting impact of the integrations.
Moving to Slide 15, I'd like to walk through a revised outlook for fiscal 2019, which I'm presenting on the base business, excluding the impact of the integrations. While our Specialized business has performed well in the phase of this tough environment, it is no secret that there are macro environment headwinds, especially in the Flatbed segment. As such, we believe that is prudent to lower our expectations for the remainder of the year. As a result, we are now forecasting revenue to range between $1.7 billion to $1.75 billion. We expect adjusted EBITDA of $165 million to $175 million. We now expect net leverage as defined and our term loan debt agreement at year end should be between 3 times to 3.3 times. Lastly, in terms of net capex, we expect to remain in the range of $65 million to 70 million.
Let's end on Slide 16, where I'll summarize our key takeaways from today's call. Through our first chapter, we built a spectacular and very unique platform that we believe is truly differentiated in the transportation industry. We have numerous opportunity to leverage this platform to drive long-term growth and shareholder value, but first, we need to execute our pivot strategy and drive down costs so that we can leverage our size turning it into scale. We have outlined and already begun to execute the first phase of our operational plan and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the second half of fiscal 2019.
That concludes our prepared remarks and will now turn the call over for your questions.
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Steve Dyer with Craig-Hallum.
Steve Dyer--Craig-Hallum -- Analyst
Thanks. Good morning, guys. Just a question, I guess, spot rate versus contract. Given the amount that you guys have on contract, I guess, the cut to the second half seems steeper than I would have assumed. And I guess, just as a follow-up to that, obviously spot rates ticking down meaningfully and you guys are probably starting to negotiate 2020. How are those conversations going and what type of, I guess, rate declines are being factored into these forward contracts?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Thanks, Steve. This is Chris. I'll take that one. Yeah, I think if you look at our original budget for this year, we had a 2.5% overall rate increase embedded and right now on our forecast at this point where we're factoring in at 1.8%, so a slight degradation, and it is tied mostly into the remainder of the year. Yeah, the spot market, obviously, the sequential month after month of spot rates being below contract is indicative of where, at least to some extent, where contract rates will probably go. We're seeing some initial discussions around there and there is some pressure. But I would say that this, I think, the pain associated with 2018 and the tight capacity is still fresh on everyone's mind. So there is, I think, some caution there when the contract rates are being discussed, I think, shippers and others do not want to fall into the same situation in 2020 that they had in 2018. So overall, there is some pressure downward but -- and we've factored that into our outlook.
Steve Dyer--Craig-Hallum -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. I guess, a couple of questions just around the restructuring then. How much revenue, if any, will be lost? Do you think by consolidating the three operating companies and other further opportunities to do further consolidation sort of within the portfolio going forward?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
You know, two parts and that on the first in terms of revenue lost, I think the net we should not see any negative net impact of these integrations. And secondly, in terms of being a recurring event, we do not expect this to be a recurring event, that's not to say there would never be a case, we're always going to adjust that the market indicates and business opportunities arise. If you were to go to any of our operating companies, even those that have been in business since the Great Depression, they've changed their view and model many times over the years and we expect that in future we'll be doing similar type things. It's not the first time we've done an integration. Also, we did one, I think, it was in 2017 -- 2018 with Roadmaster and one of its other operating units, R&R. So, that's not a plan of our recurring event for us and like the business improvement plan that is recurring.
Steve Dyer--Craig-Hallum -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks. And then Just a couple of housekeeping items for Bharat. Maybe I missed it, but do you have a bit of free cash flow and capex guidance for the year? And then, I guess, when I use the -- from a leverage perspective when I use the midpoint of what you've given, it implies net debt of around $535 million exiting the year. Does that seem reasonable?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
Hey, Steve. So let me, kind of, update you on a few things. So capex, we're still guiding in the $65 million to $70 million range. When we look at cash flow from operations in the second quarter were $18.5 million. On a year-to-date basis we're at $54.9 million there. Just in terms of -- on a net debt basis, I would not use the number that you have. You have to remember that our -- the calculation for our debt agreements is different than the calculation that we would use on a standard leverage on a financial statement reported basis. We do have add backs that we get on debt agreements that are kind of historically recurring and those are generally in the $11 million to $12 million range. Our debt agreements also do allow us to add back the impact of future synergies as well, which you wouldn't add back in the case of a normal debt leverage cap calculation.
Steve Dyer--Craig-Hallum -- Analyst
Okay. One last quick one. How much of the capex in Q2 was financed?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
We financed $22.9 million, so net capex after disposals in the second quarter was $19.2 million.
Steve Dyer--Craig-Hallum -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Welcome.
Operator
And your next question comes from the line of Jason Seidl with Cowen and Company.
Jason Seidl--Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Thank you, operator. Hello, gentlemen. You talked a little bit about sort of the decline in demand on the Flatbed side. Can you delve into that a little bit more and talk about where the end markets that you're seeing the weakness?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, this is Chris. I'll take that one, Jason. I appreciate it. In the Flatbed is where we've seen some softness, I'd say, if I look back, it's across the more commoditized segments in generally. You're seeing some in various construct -- areas of construction, whether it be lumber or roofing materials and such as steel, it's been another one that's had some ups and more downs during the course of the year, but it has been across those general commodity segments.
Jason Seidl--Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Okay. Now that's a good color. Also Chris, I think, you mentioned with Roadmaster and R&R you did sort of an integration like this before. Refresh our memory, how did that go and what do you think you guys learned from doing that?
R. Scott Wheeler--Director and President
I'll take that, Jason. This is Scott. We did that in early 2018. We had two companies that were direct competitors and had operation centers quite close to each other and it was the first time we ever did a fully [Phonetic] complete integration of those two. And in that case, our R&R brand went away and it became the Roadmaster Group leading the way. We learned a great deal. We developed a bit of a roadmap from that that we are using with what Chris is doing today. We picked up significant amount of synergies as a result of that in that particular case, I think, we were about $4 million year run rate from the synergies of the integration of those operations.
Jason Seidl--Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Okay. That's great color. And Bharat, the $65 million to $70 million net capital expenditures, how much of that would you consider maintenance capex?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
It's all pretty much maintenance capex, Jason.
Jason Seidl--Cowen and Company -- Analyst
All right. So you're right down to the bare maintenance, OK, great. And then another sort of balance sheet type question. Debt payments coming up here on the next 12 months. Do we have any lumpy ones? Just can you remind me.
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
No, it's just the historical pattern that we've generally had for the last little while. If you look at our balance sheet, we've got about $62 million in current portion of financings and that's been fairly consistent since year end.
Jason Seidl--Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Fantastic. Gentlemen, appreciate the time as always.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of David Ross with Stifel.
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Yeah, good morning, gentlemen.
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Hey, good morning.
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
I guess, first just higher level, when you look at Specialized, you look at Flatbed is 3,200 trucks and 3,000 trucks roughly where you want it or given the current market, are you thinking about downsizing that at all and targeting a different level?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Hi, this is Chris. I'll take that Dave. Thank you. Given where our volumes are right now, we're working to improve utilization. There's going to be a -- as we -- in this year I expect a small decline in that overall truck number. I'm not prepared right now to tell you that number, but it's a -- it's going to be a relatively small single-digit percentage decrease to fleet. So, yeah, we're working to make sure we're getting the most effective utilization possible.
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
And do you think that small decline would be more on the IC side or the company side?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
It would be more on the company side
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
All right. You talked about the cost improvement programs that you're putting in place, attacking a lot of -- yeah, I guess, redundant costs or inefficiencies. What about on the revenue side? Is there anything you're looking at from a business development or yield management standpoint to also grow the operating income?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, I'd say, maybe the answer is yes. And on the -- from a yield management perspective, that is absolutely a part of the exercise we're going through, trying to make sure we're putting our capacity against the best customers and freight for our assets. And at the same time, I know on the brokerage, it's not that we have -- by any means stop the work on that, it's still very much in a formative and developing stage. I'd say formative, but we're $280 million, $300 million, I think, give or take in revenue on a run rate in that piece of the business and we certainly are looking to grow that as well. So we're looking to grow business and definitely working to improve our margins and how we approach it as well.
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
And can you remind me about the brokerage unit? Is it one that's purely stand-alone or is it one where you might be able to leverage it to improve the utilization of your own trucks?
R. Scott Wheeler--Director and President
David, this is Scott. I'll take that one. It is absolutely two different types of brokerage. And one is, our existing operating companies had inherent legacy brokerage inside them that we have accentuated and grown, and that's largely relationship driven and so it's just part and parcel of execution of the brokerage with that one -- with that significant customer. We have a newly start up greenfield group called as Daseke Logistics that is doing more pure transactional type brokerage, and that's just starting out, but we've had some fairly significant revenue success there. But it is very, very early stage, and a lot of the things that we would like to broker is in the Flatbed space and that's been -- and it has been as active as we would have liked. But what we've seen recently in brokerages is a slight uptick, well, in terms of the margin in the second quarter of this year and margin in the second quarter of last year or so, encouraging opportunities there, but in a tightening freight market, you will see those we normally would have brokered will instead go on a company or on an owner operator truck.
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
And it's certainly been a tougher Flatbed market and even drive in which hasn't been good. What do you guys think from a competitive standpoint? How are the other smaller Flatbed players doing in this market and do you think that there's an opportunity for you all to gain share or do well even if the market stays soft because there's some capacity exiting?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
You know I'd -- I always try to stay familiar with an observant of what else would might be happening out there with competitors and I think they're facing equal challenges from a -- from a rate and volume perspective and some will be in a better position and some in a weaker position, but I do know for sure our opposition is one where we're driving these improvements and I think that's what's going to position us for strength as we're moving forward. We know the things we can control and where we see improvements we can make on operations regardless of what's happening in the market. I think that'll put us in a position where we can take advantage of the case if others fall by the wayside or not able to to compete.
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Matt Brooklier with Buckingham Research.
Matthew Brooklier--The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst
Hey, thanks and good morning. So just another question on the Flatbed side with your rate per mile down about 4% in the quarter, that was a little bit more than I had anticipated. I know there's a tough comp, but just thinking about your business is being more contractual than spot, it just seemed like it was a pretty big decline. So if you had any more color to offer, in terms of, what may have weighed on your revenue per mile in the quarter? I think that'll be helpful.
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, this is Chris. I'll try to answer that, I think, you know, I don't know that it was -- it was down that much more. I think we had some of our business though, including BTC, which has been, I'm sorry, Matt, I'm sorry -- that BTC that we had acquired last fall and it was very heavy in the spot market where we're working to kind of adjust with that. So we do had -- we do have a fair chunk in the spot market and there is definitely some spillover there.
Matthew Brooklier--The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst
Okay. So it sounds like mix has changed a little bit more and therefore that contributed more to the year-on-year decline, but obviously the market is not feeling so hot right now. Bharat, the corporate expense was above. I think, you guys had previously talked to like a $40 million number for the year. It's tracking a little bit above that. Can you maybe give us an update in terms of how you're thinking about that expense into the second half?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. So Matt it is cracking a little bit higher and a lot of it is related to just the fact that we do have self-funded programs with respect to health insurance and all liability as well, and those amounts are coming in a bit higher than we anticipated. So for the balance of the year, I would expect us to be more in the $10.5 million to $11.5 million per quarter is where I'm anticipating we're going to come in.
Matthew Brooklier--The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. And then just lastly, it looks like the targeted leverage ratio for the year, that's gone off just a little bit. What's driving that?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
It's -- the fact that when we have issued our previous guidance -- our midpoint of our previous guidance was at $205 million in adjusted EBITDA. If you look at our revised guidance, we're guiding in that $165 million to $175 million, so the midpoint is $170 million, so you've had a decline in the overall EBITDA which is causing the observation to be different.
Matthew Brooklier--The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst
Got it. It's the EBITDA component of it. Okay, great. Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Sterling with Seaport Global.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen.
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Good morning.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Hey, Bharat, I've a follow-up on Matt's question there, real quick about the leverage ratio, you take it up it's a function of EBITDA, but on a dollar basis, your debt is coming down, because that seems to be the focus right now on debt reduction and free cash flow generation. Is that right?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, on a net debt basis, we expect to be down from where we were at the end of 2018. Absolutely that is correct.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Got you. Okay. Thank you very much. And digging a little bit deeper into your -- your updated guidance, you lowered your adjusted EBITDA guidance on a much greater percentage level than your revenue cut. Can you walk us through and I think you've touched on some of this, but just kind of -- really kind of some of the key drivers of that larger EBITDA cut versus the revenue cut?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, and a lot of it as you see is simply that margins are compressed. You're seeing that in the Flatbed segment and you're also seeing that corporate costs are coming in a bit higher than we anticipated. So it's a combination of those two things that are really having the greatest impact on the EBITDA cut versus the -- on the revenue cut.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. And you're not factoring any improvement in the macro at all in your updated guidance, right?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
No, we're anticipating that the macro environment stays fairly stable to where it is at the moment.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Okay. Along those lines, what have you seen so far in July, in terms of trends, similar to what we saw earlier in the year?
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
Kevin, we don't normally comment on our monthly or a quarterly basis. What I would say is that the trends that we're expecting to see are going to be just in line with our normal seasonality trends that we would expect to see through the year.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Okay. And then last question for me, and this might be more for you, Chris. If I could just sum it up and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like listeners call today. The macro is going to do what the macro is going to do, but I think you see some a lot of low hanging fruit that you can pick off that you can kind of cut, if you will, to offset some of the macro weakness that you move in from 16 operating companies to 13, your -- looks like you've got your focus on some maintenance and expenses things. Is that the message here that we're going to do we can do internally in operationally, the macro is going to do what it's going to do, but we've got some tools, we've got some arrows in our quiver to kind of offset any macro weakness. Is that a fair assessment or maybe I'm a little bit off-base? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
I think the overall assessment is certainly correct in that. Yeah, regardless of what's happening in the market, there are things we can do and it's back to the whole shift, back in when I started, it was a shift from this unbelievable growth story which we've experienced the last two years which consumed, I would say, the vast majority of energy and time and focus, just really keeping up with that and we have shifted now to a -- in a similar, very focused, tremendous energy on operational execution. And now as we've shifted their focus, the next day [Phonetic], I think, do become readily apparent that we can drive and we're putting those resources against those opportunities today. So you have that lots of opportunity there for us in the coming months and the next couple of years. We're just going to pull out the playbooks, whether it's the playbook I may have brought along or the playbook of our various outstanding leaders in the field and execute off those playbooks.
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Awesome. Well, that sounds great, Chris. And gentlemen, thank you for your time and best of luck.
Don R. Daseke--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Kevin.
Operator
We have time for one more question. Your next question comes from the line of Greg Gibas with Northland Securities.
Greg Gibas--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, just to be clear, does the new outlook primarily reflect weaker Flatbed performance or are your assumptions in the Specialized segment changing at all?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
We are looking at predominantly weakness in the Flatbed segment more than anything else, and when we look at it, we're expecting generally kind of rates to stay flat compared to H1 2019 is what we're expecting compared to H2 2018. We're expecting a slight decrease in rates again, predominantly focused on Flatbed side.
Greg Gibas--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst
Got it. And then just a follow-up there, I guess, within Flatbed, others in the worsening market conditions that you spoke of, are there any one-time specific, like, weaknesses that we should be aware in the quarter?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
I'd say there's nothing to note there any from a one time perspective, no.
Greg Gibas--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst
Got it. And then shifting gears, I was just going to ask if you're not going to be acquisition focused in the near term or for a while, how are you thinking about your priorities with respect to directing capital toward reducing leverage versus maybe potentially buying back shares?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, that's a great question and it's something that we are always looking at. We set out this year to generate free cash flow and to delever the business and that continues to be and remains our highest priority.
Greg Gibas--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst
That may make sense to me. Last one from me. Are there any major contracts that are up for renewal in the near term that we should be aware?
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
No I'd say, it, given the broad diversification of our business, the largest customer we have out there is just over 4% of total business. So -- and we have nothing to note that I would say they would be a material consequence in the coming months.
Greg Gibas--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
And I will now like to turn the conference back to Don Daseke.
Don R. Daseke--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Thanks everyone for joining us today. Industry's momentum has clearly slowed. Our strategic focus and execution continues to build momentum. We are very excited about the improvement plans that we have in place here today. We've operate -- we've outlined strong operational goals that today will help us offset some of the market's recent weakness, but will also position us for long-term growth in shareholder value creation. We look forward to updating you on the third quarter call in a few months, and thanks everyone.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 43 minutes
Joseph Caminiti--Investor Relations
Don R. Daseke--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Chris Easter--Chief Operating Officer
Bharat Mahajan--Chief Financial Officer
R. Scott Wheeler--Director and President
Steve Dyer--Craig-Hallum -- Analyst
Jason Seidl--Cowen and Company -- Analyst
David Ross--Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Matthew Brooklier--The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst
Kevin Sterling--Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst
Greg Gibas--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst
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This article was originally published onFool.com || Daseke, Inc. (DSKE) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript: Logo of jester cap with thought bubble. Image source: The Motley Fool. Daseke, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSKE) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Aug 5, 2019 , 11:00 a.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Daseke's Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Caminiti with Investor Relations. Joseph Caminiti -- Investor Relations Thanks, Rachael. Please turn to Slide 2 for a review of our safe harbor and non-GAAP statements. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements as within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Projected financial information, including our guidance outlook are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, including those with respect to revenues, earnings, performance, strategies, prospects and other aspects of Daseke's business are based on management's current estimates, projections and assumption that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. I encourage you to read our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of the risks that can affect our business and do not place any undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. During the call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted -- operating ratio, adjusted net income or loss and free cash flow. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the investor presentation and press release issued this morning, both of which are available on the Investor Relations tab of the Daseke website, www.daseke.com. Story continues Now I would like to turn the call over to Daseke's CEO, Mr. Don Daseke. Don? Don R. Daseke -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Well, thank you, Joe, and good morning everyone. Starting on Slide 3, today we will cover several topics. First, I will start our call by giving a high-level overview of our operational focus. Then our COO, Chris Easter will walk you through the initial phase of an operational improvement plan that is already under way here at Daseke. Finally our CFO, Bharat Mahajan will provide an in-depth discussion of our second quarter financial results, as well as an update to our guidance for the balance of the fiscal year. Turning to Slide 4, Daseke has gone through a significant transformation since going public just two years ago. We have dramatically increased the size and scope of our operations in a relatively short period, which as most of you know was primarily accomplished through an acquisition focused strategy. What we have built here at Daseke has never been done before in the Flatbed and Specialized transportation market. Today, we are proudly the largest flatbed and specialized carrier in North America. Turning to Slide 5, you can see we have now pivoted our focus from building size to optimizing the expertise we have in operations to deliver scale. As a result, we decided to follow [Technical Issues] 2019, just as we delivered exceptional top line growth over the last few years, we are now focused on delivering an exceptional bottom line, driving free cash flow performance and delevering our balance sheet. We recognize the natural evolution has many challenges, tough choices and frustrations, nonetheless we feel the need to continually calibrate the operational disciplines required to enhance shareholder value now and in the future. Chris and his operational team has been working incredibly hard on executing the initial phase of our operational improvement plan. I'm excited that he will share the details with you today. An another exciting note, I've been delighted with the three new operationally focused board members we added to the team in the second quarter, including Ena Williams, Chuck Serriani and Kim Warmbier. These terrific leaders bring with them strong expertise in driving operational efficiency and scaling profitable growth. We welcome them to the Daseke journey. Before we turn to the operational developments under way, I'd like to give a brief high level overview of our headline financial performance beginning on Slide 6. Our second quarter revenue of $450.6 million, market increase of 20% versus last year comparable quarter. On an acquisition-adjusted basis, [Indecipherable] organic growth, our top line grew by 1%. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $46 million was relatively flat versus last year's comparable quarter. Looking at the operating segment level, our adjusted EBITDA was up 14% to 37.8% in the Specialized segment and up 6% to $19.9 million in the Flatbed segment. Later in the call, Bharat, will get into more granular detail regarding our financial performance. Chris will now outline the first phase of our new operational strategy. Chris? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Thank you, Don, and good morning everyone. Turning to Slide 7, I would like to quickly review my first six months on the job as Daseke's COO. I spent the first quarter gaining a solid understanding of all Daseke operating companies, as well as how we support them with our corporate teams. Overall, we have a wealth of talent across operating companies and all of them are deeply committed to supporting our customers at the highest possible level. That said, I've also confirmed that we have some operations and recent acquisitions that have not performed to expectations. Therefore, in the second quarter, my team and I shifted our focus to building plans that will position us to deliver significant improvements in our operating results. As we enter the third quarter, our work has quickly transitioned to the execution of those initial plans. I should be clear that the execution work in process today is just the first significant step in what will be a cycle of continuous assessment and improvement of our business to deliver value to both our customers and shareholders. So what are we doing differently right now to deliver value to our customers and shareholders, there are quite a few actions we will execute on in the coming months and in some cases over the next couple of years. Many of these actions can be done in parallel to one another, while some will be more sequential in nature. Some actions might appear simple at first glance, while others will be fairly complex. The challenge is what I would describe as an intellectual puzzle of unlocking the value we have assembled within our family of companies, yet at the same time protecting and leveraging the core value of technical know-how, specialized equipment and unique operational capabilities. Turning to Slide 8, let me share with you the first couple of actions we have already launched in order to unlock the value of Daseke. These actions are operational integrations and business improvement plans. The first action is operational integrations. We are in the process of integrating three of our operating companies into three other high performing Daseke operating companies, effectively reducing our operating units from 16 to 13. This action will achieve natural efficiencies across both operational as well as functional support teams. There were different considerations for each integration, but all were similar in terms of their ability to deliver greater value when merged with the sister operating company selected. There will be some onetime restructuring costs associated with this action in the third quarter. We will update you on those costs once we fully identify them. We expect this specific action to deliver $10 million in improved operating income during calendar year 2020, with the potential of an additional $5 million to $10 million on a run rate basis in calendar year 2021. Let me provide a little more detail on each of these operational integrations. First, we are consolidating our commercial glass operations, which predominantly reside with two of our operating companies into one larger team. Moore Freight Service, which is predominately a glass hauler, will become a division of E.W. Wylie. E.W. Wylie has a substantial glass segment within their operations, but is over twice the size of Moore Freight with a much more diversified customer base and greater strength provided by its deep and experienced support team. Second, we are consolidating Schilli into Lone Star Transportation. Lone Star is one of our largest operating companies with a significant presence in the heavy haul space. Lone Star is also consistently one of our top performers with a deep bench of talent and base basic business to drive improvements with this combined team. The final integration is combining two of our Flatbed operations together. Builders Transportation will merge and join with Hornady Transportation. This integration will capitalize on improved asset utilization as well as operational synergies to deliver rapid and sustain improved results. Quantity strengths and operational excellence in areas such as equipment maintenance and low planning, as well as our complimentary geography and customer footprints with builders will enable a rapid and clearly defined path to improve results. Let's move to the second operational action that we are announcing today, which, as you can see on the right hand side of the Slide, is simply labeled as business improvement plans. As I mentioned earlier, we have some operations that have not performed as well as we'd expected. While some of this performance has certainly been influenced by recent softer market conditions, there are some cases where our teams need to improve their execution. Regardless of the cause, we have initiated a business improvement plan process that taps into the significant expertise and leadership across our operating teams for support and provides accountability for driving improved performance over defined periods of time. I'm not going to go into specifics relative to the operating units currently on active business improvement plans as the details of the individual plans are as diverse as our operating companies. The types of individual actions include areas such as rightsizing trailer truck ratios, yield management, capacity allocation and more disciplined maintenance execution. We expect this action to deliver a $5 million improvement to operating income in 2020, and we expect that some of the practices we develop will be shareable with all of our operating companies in the future. So to summarize, we have an aggressive plan that can deliver $20 million to $25 million in annual operating income by fiscal year 2021 --- fiscal year-end 2021. I would be remiss if I did not emphasize that the operational integration actions we have outlined are not expected to be a recurring item. The business improvement process will certainly be a recurring action that will shift as needed across either operating companies or certain functional areas as we will look -- constantly look to drive improved performance. These are ambitious goals, but we believe them to be well within our reach and the beginning of what we'd see is a multi-year plan to deliver a significantly improved operating ratio and improved platform for organic growth. Our team is very excited in taking these next steps forward, driving operational excellence across the entire organization. Giving this operational foundation right and reinforce any more continuous improvement mindset will put us in a position to truly leverage the unique business that we have built in the marketplace. I will now turn the call over to Bharat to review your financial performance last quarter. Bharat? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Chris. I will now move to our Q2 financial details which are presented on Slide 9. Revenue increased 20% to $450.6 million, compared to $376.9 million in the year ago quarter. On an acquisition adjusted basis, revenues were up 1%. For the second quarter of 2019, operating income was $4.7 million compared to $8.5 million in the year ago quarter. Net loss for Q2 was $6.4 million or $0.10 per share compared to net income of $13.5 million or $0.22 per share in the year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was relatively flat at $46 million. Acquisition-adjusted EBITDA was $46 million compared to $54.5 million last year, down 16%. As a reminder, all of our profitability results in Q2 2019 versus Q2 2018 include the increased investments in our corporate segment with Daseke Logistics, IT system upgrades and the new management positions. It's also worth noting that included in the second quarter EBITDA are cost relating to timing differences in our self-funded health insurance plans and higher auto liability insurance costs and claims. Looking at our results by segment. Specialized revenue in Q2 increased 28% to $280.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA was up 14% to $37.8 million. Flatbed revenue in Q2 increased 8% to $174.9 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 6% to $19.9 million. Moving on to a more detailed view of our segment result, Slide 10 provide the view of our Specialized segment. Our operating ratio was 96% compared to 96.7% in Q2 2018 and acquisition-adjusted revenue and acquisition-adjusted EBITDA were up 8% and 3% respectively. Specialized rate per mile increase 23% to $3.54 compared to $2.88 in the second quarter of 2018, driven by high rate per mile project business, particularly in energy and large capex projects. Revenue per tractor increased 13% to $64,600 compared to $57,400 in the year ago quarter. Slide 11 shows our Flatbed segment. Flatbed operating ratio in Q2 was 96.5% compared to 94.3% in the year ago quarter. Flatbed rate per mile in Q2 decreased 4% to $1.94 and Flatbed revenue per tractor decreased 7% to $42,400. Slide 12 shows a breakdown of our Q2 acquisition-adjusted EBITDA. The acquisition-adjusted EBITDA in our Specialized segment increased 3%. The acquisition-adjusted EBITDA in our Flatbed segment decreased 15% given the current market conditions. Overall, Q2 acquisition-adjusted EBITDA was down 16%. Next, Slide 13 highlights our last 12 months performance as of June 30, 2019. Revenues increased 50% to $1.79 billion, while acquisition-adjusted revenue increased 9% to $1.8 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased 39% over this period to $182.6 million, and acquisition-adjusted EBITDA was $183.8 million. Now turning to our balance sheet and free cash flow. As Slide 14 indicate, at June 30th, 2019, we had cash of $63.7 million, zero outstanding and $85.2 million available under our revolving credit facility for total available liquidity of $148.9 million. Net debt was $650.1 million and leverage in accordance with our debt facility was at 3.3 times, which remains well below our 4 times covenant. For the six months ending June 30th, cash provided by operating activities was $54.9 million and cash capex was $12.1 million and cash proceeds from the sale of capital property equipment was $16.5 million, resulting free cash flow at $59.3 million for the six month period. Finally, turning to the operational plans that Chris discussed earlier. As you heard, this is an aggressive plan, but it will require some additional costs, most notably in the third quarter as we merge these operating companies together and execute against the business improvement plans. There will also be the potential for the write-off of some intangible and other assets. We are still working through the final impact of the integration plan and are unable to quantify these items at the moment, that is why we have provided you our improvement goals on a run rate basis for both 2020 and 2021 as most of our costs to execute these plans will be incurred in fiscal 2019. We will update you on the third quarter call of the accounting impact of the integrations. Moving to Slide 15, I'd like to walk through a revised outlook for fiscal 2019, which I'm presenting on the base business, excluding the impact of the integrations. While our Specialized business has performed well in the phase of this tough environment, it is no secret that there are macro environment headwinds, especially in the Flatbed segment. As such, we believe that is prudent to lower our expectations for the remainder of the year. As a result, we are now forecasting revenue to range between $1.7 billion to $1.75 billion. We expect adjusted EBITDA of $165 million to $175 million. We now expect net leverage as defined and our term loan debt agreement at year end should be between 3 times to 3.3 times. Lastly, in terms of net capex, we expect to remain in the range of $65 million to 70 million. Let's end on Slide 16, where I'll summarize our key takeaways from today's call. Through our first chapter, we built a spectacular and very unique platform that we believe is truly differentiated in the transportation industry. We have numerous opportunity to leverage this platform to drive long-term growth and shareholder value, but first, we need to execute our pivot strategy and drive down costs so that we can leverage our size turning it into scale. We have outlined and already begun to execute the first phase of our operational plan and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the second half of fiscal 2019. That concludes our prepared remarks and will now turn the call over for your questions. Questions and Answers: Operator [Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Steve Dyer with Craig-Hallum. Steve Dyer -- Craig-Hallum -- Analyst Thanks. Good morning, guys. Just a question, I guess, spot rate versus contract. Given the amount that you guys have on contract, I guess, the cut to the second half seems steeper than I would have assumed. And I guess, just as a follow-up to that, obviously spot rates ticking down meaningfully and you guys are probably starting to negotiate 2020. How are those conversations going and what type of, I guess, rate declines are being factored into these forward contracts? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Thanks, Steve. This is Chris. I'll take that one. Yeah, I think if you look at our original budget for this year, we had a 2.5% overall rate increase embedded and right now on our forecast at this point where we're factoring in at 1.8%, so a slight degradation, and it is tied mostly into the remainder of the year. Yeah, the spot market, obviously, the sequential month after month of spot rates being below contract is indicative of where, at least to some extent, where contract rates will probably go. We're seeing some initial discussions around there and there is some pressure. But I would say that this, I think, the pain associated with 2018 and the tight capacity is still fresh on everyone's mind. So there is, I think, some caution there when the contract rates are being discussed, I think, shippers and others do not want to fall into the same situation in 2020 that they had in 2018. So overall, there is some pressure downward but -- and we've factored that into our outlook. Steve Dyer -- Craig-Hallum -- Analyst Got it. Okay. I guess, a couple of questions just around the restructuring then. How much revenue, if any, will be lost? Do you think by consolidating the three operating companies and other further opportunities to do further consolidation sort of within the portfolio going forward? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer You know, two parts and that on the first in terms of revenue lost, I think the net we should not see any negative net impact of these integrations. And secondly, in terms of being a recurring event, we do not expect this to be a recurring event, that's not to say there would never be a case, we're always going to adjust that the market indicates and business opportunities arise. If you were to go to any of our operating companies, even those that have been in business since the Great Depression, they've changed their view and model many times over the years and we expect that in future we'll be doing similar type things. It's not the first time we've done an integration. Also, we did one, I think, it was in 2017 -- 2018 with Roadmaster and one of its other operating units, R&R. So, that's not a plan of our recurring event for us and like the business improvement plan that is recurring. Steve Dyer -- Craig-Hallum -- Analyst Got it. Thanks. And then Just a couple of housekeeping items for Bharat. Maybe I missed it, but do you have a bit of free cash flow and capex guidance for the year? And then, I guess, when I use the -- from a leverage perspective when I use the midpoint of what you've given, it implies net debt of around $535 million exiting the year. Does that seem reasonable? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer Hey, Steve. So let me, kind of, update you on a few things. So capex, we're still guiding in the $65 million to $70 million range. When we look at cash flow from operations in the second quarter were $18.5 million. On a year-to-date basis we're at $54.9 million there. Just in terms of -- on a net debt basis, I would not use the number that you have. You have to remember that our -- the calculation for our debt agreements is different than the calculation that we would use on a standard leverage on a financial statement reported basis. We do have add backs that we get on debt agreements that are kind of historically recurring and those are generally in the $11 million to $12 million range. Our debt agreements also do allow us to add back the impact of future synergies as well, which you wouldn't add back in the case of a normal debt leverage cap calculation. Steve Dyer -- Craig-Hallum -- Analyst Okay. One last quick one. How much of the capex in Q2 was financed? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer We financed $22.9 million, so net capex after disposals in the second quarter was $19.2 million. Steve Dyer -- Craig-Hallum -- Analyst Okay. Thank you. Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Welcome. Operator And your next question comes from the line of Jason Seidl with Cowen and Company. Jason Seidl -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst Thank you, operator. Hello, gentlemen. You talked a little bit about sort of the decline in demand on the Flatbed side. Can you delve into that a little bit more and talk about where the end markets that you're seeing the weakness? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Yeah, this is Chris. I'll take that one, Jason. I appreciate it. In the Flatbed is where we've seen some softness, I'd say, if I look back, it's across the more commoditized segments in generally. You're seeing some in various construct -- areas of construction, whether it be lumber or roofing materials and such as steel, it's been another one that's had some ups and more downs during the course of the year, but it has been across those general commodity segments. Jason Seidl -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst Okay. Now that's a good color. Also Chris, I think, you mentioned with Roadmaster and R&R you did sort of an integration like this before. Refresh our memory, how did that go and what do you think you guys learned from doing that? R. Scott Wheeler -- Director and President I'll take that, Jason. This is Scott. We did that in early 2018. We had two companies that were direct competitors and had operation centers quite close to each other and it was the first time we ever did a fully [Phonetic] complete integration of those two. And in that case, our R&R brand went away and it became the Roadmaster Group leading the way. We learned a great deal. We developed a bit of a roadmap from that that we are using with what Chris is doing today. We picked up significant amount of synergies as a result of that in that particular case, I think, we were about $4 million year run rate from the synergies of the integration of those operations. Jason Seidl -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst Okay. That's great color. And Bharat, the $65 million to $70 million net capital expenditures, how much of that would you consider maintenance capex? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer It's all pretty much maintenance capex, Jason. Jason Seidl -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst All right. So you're right down to the bare maintenance, OK, great. And then another sort of balance sheet type question. Debt payments coming up here on the next 12 months. Do we have any lumpy ones? Just can you remind me. Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer No, it's just the historical pattern that we've generally had for the last little while. If you look at our balance sheet, we've got about $62 million in current portion of financings and that's been fairly consistent since year end. Jason Seidl -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst Fantastic. Gentlemen, appreciate the time as always. Operator Your next question comes from the line of David Ross with Stifel. David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst Yeah, good morning, gentlemen. Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Hey, good morning. David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst I guess, first just higher level, when you look at Specialized, you look at Flatbed is 3,200 trucks and 3,000 trucks roughly where you want it or given the current market, are you thinking about downsizing that at all and targeting a different level? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Hi, this is Chris. I'll take that Dave. Thank you. Given where our volumes are right now, we're working to improve utilization. There's going to be a -- as we -- in this year I expect a small decline in that overall truck number. I'm not prepared right now to tell you that number, but it's a -- it's going to be a relatively small single-digit percentage decrease to fleet. So, yeah, we're working to make sure we're getting the most effective utilization possible. David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst And do you think that small decline would be more on the IC side or the company side? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer It would be more on the company side David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst All right. You talked about the cost improvement programs that you're putting in place, attacking a lot of -- yeah, I guess, redundant costs or inefficiencies. What about on the revenue side? Is there anything you're looking at from a business development or yield management standpoint to also grow the operating income? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Yeah, I'd say, maybe the answer is yes. And on the -- from a yield management perspective, that is absolutely a part of the exercise we're going through, trying to make sure we're putting our capacity against the best customers and freight for our assets. And at the same time, I know on the brokerage, it's not that we have -- by any means stop the work on that, it's still very much in a formative and developing stage. I'd say formative, but we're $280 million, $300 million, I think, give or take in revenue on a run rate in that piece of the business and we certainly are looking to grow that as well. So we're looking to grow business and definitely working to improve our margins and how we approach it as well. David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst And can you remind me about the brokerage unit? Is it one that's purely stand-alone or is it one where you might be able to leverage it to improve the utilization of your own trucks? R. Scott Wheeler -- Director and President David, this is Scott. I'll take that one. It is absolutely two different types of brokerage. And one is, our existing operating companies had inherent legacy brokerage inside them that we have accentuated and grown, and that's largely relationship driven and so it's just part and parcel of execution of the brokerage with that one -- with that significant customer. We have a newly start up greenfield group called as Daseke Logistics that is doing more pure transactional type brokerage, and that's just starting out, but we've had some fairly significant revenue success there. But it is very, very early stage, and a lot of the things that we would like to broker is in the Flatbed space and that's been -- and it has been as active as we would have liked. But what we've seen recently in brokerages is a slight uptick, well, in terms of the margin in the second quarter of this year and margin in the second quarter of last year or so, encouraging opportunities there, but in a tightening freight market, you will see those we normally would have brokered will instead go on a company or on an owner operator truck. David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst And it's certainly been a tougher Flatbed market and even drive in which hasn't been good. What do you guys think from a competitive standpoint? How are the other smaller Flatbed players doing in this market and do you think that there's an opportunity for you all to gain share or do well even if the market stays soft because there's some capacity exiting? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer You know I'd -- I always try to stay familiar with an observant of what else would might be happening out there with competitors and I think they're facing equal challenges from a -- from a rate and volume perspective and some will be in a better position and some in a weaker position, but I do know for sure our opposition is one where we're driving these improvements and I think that's what's going to position us for strength as we're moving forward. We know the things we can control and where we see improvements we can make on operations regardless of what's happening in the market. I think that'll put us in a position where we can take advantage of the case if others fall by the wayside or not able to to compete. David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst Thank you. Operator Your next question comes from the line of Matt Brooklier with Buckingham Research. Matthew Brooklier -- The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst Hey, thanks and good morning. So just another question on the Flatbed side with your rate per mile down about 4% in the quarter, that was a little bit more than I had anticipated. I know there's a tough comp, but just thinking about your business is being more contractual than spot, it just seemed like it was a pretty big decline. So if you had any more color to offer, in terms of, what may have weighed on your revenue per mile in the quarter? I think that'll be helpful. Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Yeah, this is Chris. I'll try to answer that, I think, you know, I don't know that it was -- it was down that much more. I think we had some of our business though, including BTC, which has been, I'm sorry, Matt, I'm sorry -- that BTC that we had acquired last fall and it was very heavy in the spot market where we're working to kind of adjust with that. So we do had -- we do have a fair chunk in the spot market and there is definitely some spillover there. Matthew Brooklier -- The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst Okay. So it sounds like mix has changed a little bit more and therefore that contributed more to the year-on-year decline, but obviously the market is not feeling so hot right now. Bharat, the corporate expense was above. I think, you guys had previously talked to like a $40 million number for the year. It's tracking a little bit above that. Can you maybe give us an update in terms of how you're thinking about that expense into the second half? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah. So Matt it is cracking a little bit higher and a lot of it is related to just the fact that we do have self-funded programs with respect to health insurance and all liability as well, and those amounts are coming in a bit higher than we anticipated. So for the balance of the year, I would expect us to be more in the $10.5 million to $11.5 million per quarter is where I'm anticipating we're going to come in. Matthew Brooklier -- The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst Okay, that's helpful. And then just lastly, it looks like the targeted leverage ratio for the year, that's gone off just a little bit. What's driving that? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer It's -- the fact that when we have issued our previous guidance -- our midpoint of our previous guidance was at $205 million in adjusted EBITDA. If you look at our revised guidance, we're guiding in that $165 million to $175 million, so the midpoint is $170 million, so you've had a decline in the overall EBITDA which is causing the observation to be different. Matthew Brooklier -- The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst Got it. It's the EBITDA component of it. Okay, great. Thanks. Operator Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Sterling with Seaport Global. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Good morning. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Hey, Bharat, I've a follow-up on Matt's question there, real quick about the leverage ratio, you take it up it's a function of EBITDA, but on a dollar basis, your debt is coming down, because that seems to be the focus right now on debt reduction and free cash flow generation. Is that right? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah, on a net debt basis, we expect to be down from where we were at the end of 2018. Absolutely that is correct. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Got you. Okay. Thank you very much. And digging a little bit deeper into your -- your updated guidance, you lowered your adjusted EBITDA guidance on a much greater percentage level than your revenue cut. Can you walk us through and I think you've touched on some of this, but just kind of -- really kind of some of the key drivers of that larger EBITDA cut versus the revenue cut? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah, and a lot of it as you see is simply that margins are compressed. You're seeing that in the Flatbed segment and you're also seeing that corporate costs are coming in a bit higher than we anticipated. So it's a combination of those two things that are really having the greatest impact on the EBITDA cut versus the -- on the revenue cut. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Got it. Okay. And you're not factoring any improvement in the macro at all in your updated guidance, right? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer No, we're anticipating that the macro environment stays fairly stable to where it is at the moment. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Okay. Along those lines, what have you seen so far in July, in terms of trends, similar to what we saw earlier in the year? Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer Kevin, we don't normally comment on our monthly or a quarterly basis. What I would say is that the trends that we're expecting to see are going to be just in line with our normal seasonality trends that we would expect to see through the year. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Okay. And then last question for me, and this might be more for you, Chris. If I could just sum it up and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like listeners call today. The macro is going to do what the macro is going to do, but I think you see some a lot of low hanging fruit that you can pick off that you can kind of cut, if you will, to offset some of the macro weakness that you move in from 16 operating companies to 13, your -- looks like you've got your focus on some maintenance and expenses things. Is that the message here that we're going to do we can do internally in operationally, the macro is going to do what it's going to do, but we've got some tools, we've got some arrows in our quiver to kind of offset any macro weakness. Is that a fair assessment or maybe I'm a little bit off-base? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer I think the overall assessment is certainly correct in that. Yeah, regardless of what's happening in the market, there are things we can do and it's back to the whole shift, back in when I started, it was a shift from this unbelievable growth story which we've experienced the last two years which consumed, I would say, the vast majority of energy and time and focus, just really keeping up with that and we have shifted now to a -- in a similar, very focused, tremendous energy on operational execution. And now as we've shifted their focus, the next day [Phonetic], I think, do become readily apparent that we can drive and we're putting those resources against those opportunities today. So you have that lots of opportunity there for us in the coming months and the next couple of years. We're just going to pull out the playbooks, whether it's the playbook I may have brought along or the playbook of our various outstanding leaders in the field and execute off those playbooks. Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Awesome. Well, that sounds great, Chris. And gentlemen, thank you for your time and best of luck. Don R. Daseke -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Kevin. Operator We have time for one more question. Your next question comes from the line of Greg Gibas with Northland Securities. Greg Gibas -- Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, just to be clear, does the new outlook primarily reflect weaker Flatbed performance or are your assumptions in the Specialized segment changing at all? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer We are looking at predominantly weakness in the Flatbed segment more than anything else, and when we look at it, we're expecting generally kind of rates to stay flat compared to H1 2019 is what we're expecting compared to H2 2018. We're expecting a slight decrease in rates again, predominantly focused on Flatbed side. Greg Gibas -- Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Got it. And then just a follow-up there, I guess, within Flatbed, others in the worsening market conditions that you spoke of, are there any one-time specific, like, weaknesses that we should be aware in the quarter? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer I'd say there's nothing to note there any from a one time perspective, no. Greg Gibas -- Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Got it. And then shifting gears, I was just going to ask if you're not going to be acquisition focused in the near term or for a while, how are you thinking about your priorities with respect to directing capital toward reducing leverage versus maybe potentially buying back shares? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Yeah, that's a great question and it's something that we are always looking at. We set out this year to generate free cash flow and to delever the business and that continues to be and remains our highest priority. Greg Gibas -- Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst That may make sense to me. Last one from me. Are there any major contracts that are up for renewal in the near term that we should be aware? Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer No I'd say, it, given the broad diversification of our business, the largest customer we have out there is just over 4% of total business. So -- and we have nothing to note that I would say they would be a material consequence in the coming months. Greg Gibas -- Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Got it. Thank you. Operator And I will now like to turn the conference back to Don Daseke. Don R. Daseke -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Thanks everyone for joining us today. Industry's momentum has clearly slowed. Our strategic focus and execution continues to build momentum. We are very excited about the improvement plans that we have in place here today. We've operate -- we've outlined strong operational goals that today will help us offset some of the market's recent weakness, but will also position us for long-term growth in shareholder value creation. We look forward to updating you on the third quarter call in a few months, and thanks everyone. Operator [Operator Closing Remarks] Duration: 43 minutes Call participants: Joseph Caminiti -- Investor Relations Don R. Daseke -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chris Easter -- Chief Operating Officer Bharat Mahajan -- Chief Financial Officer R. Scott Wheeler -- Director and President Steve Dyer -- Craig-Hallum -- Analyst Jason Seidl -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst David Ross -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst Matthew Brooklier -- The Buckingham Research Group -- Analyst Kevin Sterling -- Seaport Global Securities -- Analyst Greg Gibas -- Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst More DSKE analysis All earnings call transcripts AlphaStreet Logo More From The Motley Fool 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) What Is an ETF? 5 Recession-Proof Stocks How to Beat the Market This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. Motley Fool Transcribers has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . This article was originally published on Fool.com || Bitcoin Pro: Surge In Cryptocurrency 'Very Clearly' Related To China: The cryptocurrencyBitcoinjumped nearly 10% and traded above the $11,000 mark Monday in part due to macro events in China, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire.
What Happened
Bitcoin's surge is "very clearly" related to the currency conflicts and trade wars that dominated Monday's headlines,Allaire said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday.
These type of events support Bitcoin's core purpose of being a "non-sovereign, highly secure digital store of value."
Allaire said he is seeing signs of a "softening" in attitude toward cryptocurrencies from multiple Chinese institutions.
For example, a major Chinese court concluded that bitcoin is legal property in China, and one of the largest commercial banks, Bank of China, has started marketing the benefits of bitcoin, he said.
Why It's Important
For the first time in history, the global community has access to a non-sovereign asset that can be used to store value in Bitcoin, Allaire said. Bitcoin exists anywhere the internet exists, which is a powerful attribute in the face of market turmoil, he said.
What's Next
The world is entering an era when nearly any entity can launch their own digital currency — and this is exactly what China is exploring, Allaire said.
The Chinese government is looking to issue a sovereign digital currency based on its national currency and backed by its connection with internet and tech enterprises, he said. In part, this is a response to rival digital currencies, but is also a means to better interact with global consumers.
"China is way out ahead on this," he said. "I think the U.S. has fallen behind."
Related Links:
7 Things To Know Before Investing In Bitcoin
Bears Sharpen Claws As BTC/USD Finds Support
See more from Benzinga
• Why Fox Is Taking A Stake In A Consumer Lending Company
• Analysts Incrementally Bullish On Restaurant Brands
• Bank Of America Moderates Netflix Bull Vs. Bear Debate After Q2 Print
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Pro: Surge In Cryptocurrency 'Very Clearly' Related To China: The cryptocurrency Bitcoin jumped nearly 10% and traded above the $11,000 mark Monday in part due to macro events in China, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire. What Happened Bitcoin's surge is "very clearly" related to the currency conflicts and trade wars that dominated Monday's headlines, Allaire said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday . These type of events support Bitcoin's core purpose of being a "non-sovereign, highly secure digital store of value." Allaire said he is seeing signs of a "softening" in attitude toward cryptocurrencies from multiple Chinese institutions. For example, a major Chinese court concluded that bitcoin is legal property in China, and one of the largest commercial banks, Bank of China, has started marketing the benefits of bitcoin, he said. Why It's Important For the first time in history, the global community has access to a non-sovereign asset that can be used to store value in Bitcoin, Allaire said. Bitcoin exists anywhere the internet exists, which is a powerful attribute in the face of market turmoil, he said. What's Next The world is entering an era when nearly any entity can launch their own digital currency and this is exactly what China is exploring, Allaire said. The Chinese government is looking to issue a sovereign digital currency based on its national currency and backed by its connection with internet and tech enterprises, he said. In part, this is a response to rival digital currencies, but is also a means to better interact with global consumers. "China is way out ahead on this," he said. "I think the U.S. has fallen behind." Related Links: 7 Things To Know Before Investing In Bitcoin Bears Sharpen Claws As BTC/USD Finds Support See more from Benzinga Why Fox Is Taking A Stake In A Consumer Lending Company Analysts Incrementally Bullish On Restaurant Brands Bank Of America Moderates Netflix Bull Vs. Bear Debate After Q2 Print © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Pro: Surge In Cryptocurrency 'Very Clearly' Related To China: The cryptocurrencyBitcoinjumped nearly 10% and traded above the $11,000 mark Monday in part due to macro events in China, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire.
What Happened
Bitcoin's surge is "very clearly" related to the currency conflicts and trade wars that dominated Monday's headlines,Allaire said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday.
These type of events support Bitcoin's core purpose of being a "non-sovereign, highly secure digital store of value."
Allaire said he is seeing signs of a "softening" in attitude toward cryptocurrencies from multiple Chinese institutions.
For example, a major Chinese court concluded that bitcoin is legal property in China, and one of the largest commercial banks, Bank of China, has started marketing the benefits of bitcoin, he said.
Why It's Important
For the first time in history, the global community has access to a non-sovereign asset that can be used to store value in Bitcoin, Allaire said. Bitcoin exists anywhere the internet exists, which is a powerful attribute in the face of market turmoil, he said.
What's Next
The world is entering an era when nearly any entity can launch their own digital currency — and this is exactly what China is exploring, Allaire said.
The Chinese government is looking to issue a sovereign digital currency based on its national currency and backed by its connection with internet and tech enterprises, he said. In part, this is a response to rival digital currencies, but is also a means to better interact with global consumers.
"China is way out ahead on this," he said. "I think the U.S. has fallen behind."
Related Links:
7 Things To Know Before Investing In Bitcoin
Bears Sharpen Claws As BTC/USD Finds Support
See more from Benzinga
• Why Fox Is Taking A Stake In A Consumer Lending Company
• Analysts Incrementally Bullish On Restaurant Brands
• Bank Of America Moderates Netflix Bull Vs. Bear Debate After Q2 Print
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Judge delays ruling on Bitfinex case, extending injunction for 90 days: The New York Supreme Court will take a further 90 days to deliberate over whether cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex ought to hand over documents to the New York Attorney General. But despite the delay, Bitfinexs inability to convince the court to dismiss its case on Monday could be viewed as a bad sign for the crypto exchange, as it effectively extends the injunction. I dont blame the judge, said Olta Andoni, head of Ziliak Laws blockchain practice and an adjunct professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Likewise, the NYAG had hoped to settle the matter regarding its jurisdiction over the Hong Kong-based Bitfinex via the Martin Acta law that permits U.S. government agencies to pursue certain foreign entitiesand the exchanges various connections to New York, as listed in a recent court submission that Bitfinex aggressively disputed last week . While the courts ruling signifies that it needs more time to decide whether the NYAG does indeed have jurisdiction, it also means that the injunctions on Bitfinexs operations will remain in place, and the agency will be empowered to continue its investigation. The NYAG is angling to obtain documents relating to Bitfinexs alleged cover-up of the disappearance of some $800 million worth of commingled customer and corporate funds. Earlier this year, the agency alleged the exchange had partially masked this deficit by dipping into the reserves of Tether its sister company and the issuer of the supposedly dollar-pegged stablecoin of the same namewithout notifying investors. In a filing last week , lawyers for Bitfinex argued to the court that the New York Attorney Generals office does not have either personal or subject-matter jurisdiction to pursue its casearguments that the crypto exchange reiterated today. Indeed, jurisdictionand the NYAGs ability to compel a Hong Kong-based business to comply with U.S. lawrests at the heart of this case. Andoni added that she personally finds Bitfinexs arguments that it is actively working to keep New York-based customers off its platform hilarious. After all, it remains as easy as clicking a box and lying about their residency status for prospective New York customers to establish accounts on the exchange, according to a recent report from The Block . The NYAGs arguments with regard to personal jurdiction, said Andoni, considering Tether executives living, conducting business, and working to open accounts in New York to use Tether to transact in Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, is a strong one. Andoni explained, however, that there is quite some controversy between state and federal courts in New York when it comes to general jurisdiction over foreign entities. In this case, she said, the judge potentially will try to establish jurisdiction over the foreign entity considering the entitys activities within the State. And I think it will potentially be successful in those arguments.
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11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 58870.89, 57858.92, 58346.65, 58313.64, 57523.42, 54529.14, 54738.95, 52774.27, 51704.16, 55137.31, 55973.51, 55950.75, 57750.20, 58917.69, 58918.83, 59095.81, 59384.31, 57603.89, 58758.55, 59057.88, 58192.36, 56048.94, 58323.95, 58245.00, 59793.23, 60204.96, 59893.45, 63503.46, 63109.70, 63314.01, 61572.79, 60683.82, 56216.18, 55724.27, 56473.03, 53906.09, 51762.27, 51093.65, 50050.87, 49004.25, 54021.75, 55033.12, 54824.70, 53555.11, 57750.18, 57828.05, 56631.08, 57200.29, 53333.54, 57424.01, 56396.52, 57356.40, 58803.78, 58232.32, 55859.80, 56704.57, 49150.54, 49716.19, 49880.54, 46760.19, 46456.06, 43537.51, 42909.40, 37002.44, 40782.74, 37304.69, 37536.63, 34770.58, 38705.98, 38402.22, 39294.20, 38436.97, 35697.61, 34616.07, 35678.13, 37332.86, 36684.93, 37575.18, 39208.77, 36894.41, 35551.96, 35862.38, 33560.71, 33472.63, 37345.12, 36702.60, 37334.40, 35552.52, 39097.86, 40218.48.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-06-14]
Volume: 43148914673, RSI (14-day): 52.57, 50-day EMA: 42603.69, 200-day EMA: 40983.64
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1864.00, Gold RSI: 49.38
Oil Price: 70.88, Oil RSI: 69.03
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Crypto Long & Short: The Market Gets Smarter: I find it useful to think about risk in cryptocurrencies across three dimensions: market, technology and regulation. Like dimensions in space and time, they don’t exist independently; they intersect.
• The market risk dimension is the adoption risk facing any new technology. It’s represented less by cryptocurrency critics than it is by people who just don’t care.
• The technology risk dimension is the risk that the underlying technology will break. This may be the most often overlooked. How many can say they understandwhyBitcoin’s SHA-256 hash function is unbreakable?
• The regulatory risk dimension receives the most attention, but its nuances are often poorly understood. Those nuances – and the market’s slow progress toward grasping them – were on display in this week’s string of news cycles.
This week was about regulatory and technology risk. It’s been amusing to watch commentators swing from wringing their hands about centralization of bitcoin mining in China to wringing their hands about a Chinese government crackdown on bitcoin mining.
This column originally appeared inCrypto Long & Short,CoinDesk Research’s weekly newsletter for professional investors.
Related:Crypto Not a ‘Viable Investment,’ Goldman Sachs Says
Both risks are overemphasized. Mining is, alongside validation, Bitcoin’s system of governance. And Bitcoin commoditizes governance: It takes governance’s corrupting power and turns it into a “toothless commodity,” which anyone with an internet connection can supply. The only advantages in this race are cheaper energy and faster processors. North American miners have shown they can compete on both fronts.
Right now, any Chinese “crackdown” on cryptocurrency mining is North American miners’ digital-golden opportunity. And ifSen. Elizabeth Warren’s commentsrepresent Washington’s intentions toward North American mining, that will be someone else’s opportunity. (A Paraguayan legislator this week madefriendly regulatory overtures. Notably, Paraguay controls 45% capacity of Earth’s second-largest hydroelectric dam, and uses precious little of it.)
This week, the cryptocurrency markets displayed a more sophisticated understanding of regulatory and technology risk: shrugging off mining thunder from Washington and Beijing, and staggering at the news that U.S. federal law enforcement hadfound a way to seize bitcoinfrom Darkside, the criminal collective that held Colonial Pipeline’s systems for ransom.
It was the largest such seizure yet from a single, (presumably) sophisticated organization. Had the FBI cracked Bitcoin’s cryptography? The market reacted as if it had. A three-letter agency finding a way to crack hard problems in cryptography would indeed take the legs out from under Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies (among other things). But that’s not what happened.
Related:4 Crypto Tax Tips to Get You Through Market Dips
Hours after disclosing it had recoveredbitcoinsent to the Colonial Pipeline attackers, the FBI was named in aEuropol press releasedescribing a multinational operation in which law enforcement agencies stood up an encrypted-messaging service and marketed it to criminals as a Trojan horse. Inexplicably, these masters of deception seem to have entrusted this stool pigeon with their bitcoin private keys.
The increasingly crypto-curious world has a thing or two to learn about how this works. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal this week ran stories noting that bitcoin is “actually traceable” and citing “cryptocurrency’s reputation as hard-to-trace.” Law enforcement has long understood that crypto is not only traceable, but permanently traceable. Some waggish federals have referred to bitcoin as “prosecution futures,” journalist Nathaniel Popper noted in his 2016 book, “Digital Gold.”
The distinction between the U.S. government cracking SHA-256 (which it created) and setting up a sting via an off-chain service provider illustrates perfectly where the regulatory risk in cryptocurrency truly exists. The market’s reaction to the seizure news – and its non-reaction to a mid-week dip in Bitcoin hashrate or the news (some of it false) of Bitcoin bans in two Chinese provinces (QinghaiandYunnan) – shows an improving understanding of this distinction.
Washington and Beijing would find it difficult stop bitcoin mining, at least legislating it directly. As long as at least one computer is “running bitcoin,” Bitcoin runs. If bitcoin’s price rises, more miners will turn on, motivated by rewards and providing security commensurate with the value of the network. Stop up the entrance to her den and the honey badger will soon be sighted in another part of the forest.
Greater regulatory risk exists in government’s power to control crypto exchanges and other off-chain service providers. Crypto’s weird, fragmented liquidityperformed admirably on May 19. That may not be the case in the next drawdown, depending how exchanges are regulated. There is also risk of slow progress on crypto-friendly regulation, such as banking oversight and a bitcoin exchange-traded fund approval.
It’s not that mining is untouchable. Regulatory risk at the entrances and exits can have a negative effect on mining, by depressing the price. It’s important to distinguish between that and a regulatory risk that affects the security of Bitcoin itself.
The market seems to be gaining a better understanding of that distinction – between technology risk and regulatory risk in cryptocurrencies. That’s a sign of improving efficiency, at least for the time being. In the vacillation between retail- and institution-driven market cycles, that dynamic could change quickly.
• 2 Tweets Make a Story: Bloomberg’s Bitcoin Miami Report
• Bitcoin Fund Outflows Slow but Investors Start Exiting Ether Funds || Crypto Long & Short: The Market Gets Smarter: I find it useful to think about risk in cryptocurrencies across three dimensions: market, technology and regulation. Like dimensions in space and time, they don’t exist independently; they intersect. The market risk dimension is the adoption risk facing any new technology. It’s represented less by cryptocurrency critics than it is by people who just don’t care. The technology risk dimension is the risk that the underlying technology will break. This may be the most often overlooked. How many can say they understand why Bitcoin’s SHA-256 hash function is unbreakable? The regulatory risk dimension receives the most attention, but its nuances are often poorly understood. Those nuances – and the market’s slow progress toward grasping them – were on display in this week’s string of news cycles. This week was about regulatory and technology risk. It’s been amusing to watch commentators swing from wringing their hands about centralization of bitcoin mining in China to wringing their hands about a Chinese government crackdown on bitcoin mining. This column originally appeared in Crypto Long & Short , CoinDesk Research’s weekly newsletter for professional investors. Related: Crypto Not a ‘Viable Investment,’ Goldman Sachs Says Both risks are overemphasized. Mining is, alongside validation, Bitcoin’s system of governance. And Bitcoin commoditizes governance: It takes governance’s corrupting power and turns it into a “ toothless commodity ,” which anyone with an internet connection can supply. The only advantages in this race are cheaper energy and faster processors. North American miners have shown they can compete on both fronts. Right now, any Chinese “crackdown” on cryptocurrency mining is North American miners’ digital-golden opportunity. And if Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s comments represent Washington’s intentions toward North American mining, that will be someone else’s opportunity. (A Paraguayan legislator this week made friendly regulatory overtures . Notably, Paraguay controls 45% capacity of Earth’s second-largest hydroelectric dam, and uses precious little of it.) Story continues This week, the cryptocurrency markets displayed a more sophisticated understanding of regulatory and technology risk: shrugging off mining thunder from Washington and Beijing, and staggering at the news that U.S. federal law enforcement had found a way to seize bitcoin from Darkside, the criminal collective that held Colonial Pipeline’s systems for ransom. It was the largest such seizure yet from a single, (presumably) sophisticated organization. Had the FBI cracked Bitcoin’s cryptography? The market reacted as if it had. A three-letter agency finding a way to crack hard problems in cryptography would indeed take the legs out from under Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies (among other things). But that’s not what happened. Related: 4 Crypto Tax Tips to Get You Through Market Dips Hours after disclosing it had recovered bitcoin sent to the Colonial Pipeline attackers, the FBI was named in a Europol press release describing a multinational operation in which law enforcement agencies stood up an encrypted-messaging service and marketed it to criminals as a Trojan horse. Inexplicably, these masters of deception seem to have entrusted this stool pigeon with their bitcoin private keys. The increasingly crypto-curious world has a thing or two to learn about how this works. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal this week ran stories noting that bitcoin is “ actually traceable ” and citing “ cryptocurrency’s reputation as hard-to-trace .” Law enforcement has long understood that crypto is not only traceable, but permanently traceable. Some waggish federals have referred to bitcoin as “prosecution futures,” journalist Nathaniel Popper noted in his 2016 book, “Digital Gold.” The distinction between the U.S. government cracking SHA-256 (which it created) and setting up a sting via an off-chain service provider illustrates perfectly where the regulatory risk in cryptocurrency truly exists. The market’s reaction to the seizure news – and its non-reaction to a mid-week dip in Bitcoin hashrate or the news (some of it false) of Bitcoin bans in two Chinese provinces ( Qinghai and Yunnan ) – shows an improving understanding of this distinction. Washington and Beijing would find it difficult stop bitcoin mining, at least legislating it directly. As long as at least one computer is “ running bitcoin ,” Bitcoin runs. If bitcoin’s price rises, more miners will turn on, motivated by rewards and providing security commensurate with the value of the network. Stop up the entrance to her den and the honey badger will soon be sighted in another part of the forest. Greater regulatory risk exists in government’s power to control crypto exchanges and other off-chain service providers. Crypto’s weird, fragmented liquidity performed admirably on May 19 . That may not be the case in the next drawdown, depending how exchanges are regulated. There is also risk of slow progress on crypto-friendly regulation, such as banking oversight and a bitcoin exchange-traded fund approval. It’s not that mining is untouchable. Regulatory risk at the entrances and exits can have a negative effect on mining, by depressing the price. It’s important to distinguish between that and a regulatory risk that affects the security of Bitcoin itself. The market seems to be gaining a better understanding of that distinction – between technology risk and regulatory risk in cryptocurrencies. That’s a sign of improving efficiency, at least for the time being. In the vacillation between retail- and institution-driven market cycles, that dynamic could change quickly. Related Stories 2 Tweets Make a Story: Bloomberg’s Bitcoin Miami Report Bitcoin Fund Outflows Slow but Investors Start Exiting Ether Funds || UPDATE 1-Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Adds bitcoin move, background)
June 13 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet.
Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet.
Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market.
He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet.
The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment.
In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || UPDATE 1-Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Adds bitcoin move, background) June 13 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet. Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet. Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market. He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet. The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment. In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars. (Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) View comments || Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?: Jirapong Manustrong / iStock.com It’s fairly common knowledge that cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital medium of exchange that isn’t issued by a government or bank. Most people are probably familiar with Bitcoin by now, and you might have heard of Ethereum, too. But those are just two of the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies vying to be the next big thing. Beyond Bitcoin: Looking at Some Crypto Financial Jargon See: 10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out With that many out there, you might be wondering where they all come from? No bank and no government means no printing and no minting — but none is needed. Although you can spend it like regular money, cryptocurrency is born from an entirely different process altogether. Find Out: What Is Chainlink and Why Is It Important in the World of Cryptocurrency? All Cryptocurrency Is Software Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are “mined.” Others are not. More on that in a moment. Read More: Millennials Own More Crypto Than Any Other Generation No matter the origination process, all cryptocurrency is software that is created by code. That code determines absolutely every function associated with the cryptocurrency, from the way data are stored and how transactions are recorded to the distribution of mining rewards and the maximum supply of tokens to be produced. Take a Look: The 10 Wildest Things Selling as NFTs In almost all cases, the code is public and the software used to generate a given cryptocurrency is decentralized, just like the cryptocurrency itself. That public, decentralized software is hosted on individual computers all over the world instead of on a central server. Algorithms, Cryptography and Blockchain Are at the Heart of It All When cryptocurrencies are designed to be used as money, transactions are stored on a special kind of secure database called a blockchain, which serves as a ledger of all coded transactions. Think of it as a checkbook for cryptocurrency. Discover: Should Crypto and NFTs Be Part of Your Retirement Plan? Story continues Once entered into the blockchain, no one can ever change an entry in the database without meeting specific conditions. Everyone involved can see the public record of all transitions. Blockchain technology, therefore, allows cryptocurrency to achieve its three most important defining features: Transparency Decentralization Immutability The part of the code that represents what end-users know as “tokens” or “coins” is just a string of numbers stored on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are generated by algorithms, and those algorithms rely on cryptography — hence the name cryptocurrency. More Economy Explained: Ethereum: All You Need To Know To Decide If This Crypto Is Worth the Investment Most Cryptocurrency Is Mined In most cases, the algorithms that fuel the cryptocurrency factory are written to award tokens to computers that add transactions to the blockchain. That process is known as mining. Miners use special hardware and the cryptocurrency’s public, decentralized software to add transactions to blockchains. Read: What Are Altcoins — and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks? In exchange for providing that critical blockchain maintenance, miners get paid in new cryptocurrency tokens. Most cryptocurrency coins or tokens are created this way. Technically, anyone can be a miner, but it’s a largely fruitless endeavor for most. It’s complicated, competitive, expensive if you fail — which is highly likely — and it gobbles up an enormous amount of power. But Some Is Not Some cryptocurrency was never designed to replace fiat currency like the dollar. In other words, it was never meant to be used as money. This kind of non-mineable, unspendable cryptocurrency is usually generated to reward early investors in a new cryptocurrency launch, called an ICO (initial coin offering). The Economy and Your Money: All You Need To Know In other cases, a new cryptocurrency can be created through a deviation in a blockchain called a hard fork. Hard forks occur when blockchain protocols change so significantly that a new, unique branch is formed on the chain that is incompatible with the old chain. Bitcoin Cash, for example, was formed through a hard fork on the original Bitcoin blockchain. Proof of Work and Proof of Stake Verification is at the core of crypto. Unlike fiat currency, the value of cryptocurrency is not based on trust. It’s based on one of two verification techniques: proof of work and proof of stake. Bitcoin Cash (BCH): The Most Important Things You Need To Know About It Most transactions are verified through proof of work. Algorithms create complex math problems that miners race to solve using special hardware. By solving the puzzle, a miner verifies a group of transactions called a block, which is then added to the larger blockchain ledger. The miner who pulls it off first is rewarded with cryptocurrency. Proof of stake was developed to reduce the amount of power needed to verify transactions. With this method, someone has to prove they have skin in the game in order to check transactions and compete for rewards. Users have to “stake” their own existing cryptocurrency by locking it up in a communal vault to be allowed to verify transactions. The more you stake, the more transactions you’re allowed to verify and the more cryptocurrency you can earn. More From GOBankingRates Jaw-Dropping Stats About the State of Retirement in America Big Personal Goals That You Should Put Your Money Toward 20 Home Renovations That Will Hurt Your Home’s Value 27 Things You Should Never Do With Your Money Last updated: June 7, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? || Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?: It’s fairly common knowledge thatcryptocurrencyis a decentralized digital medium of exchange that isn’t issued by a government or bank. Most people are probably familiar with Bitcoin by now, and you might have heard of Ethereum, too. But those are just two of the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies vying to be the next big thing.
Beyond Bitcoin:Looking at Some Crypto Financial JargonSee:10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out
With that many out there, you might be wondering where they all come from?
No bank and no government means no printing and no minting — but none is needed. Although you can spend it like regular money, cryptocurrency is born from an entirely different process altogether.
Find Out:What Is Chainlink and Why Is It Important in the World of Cryptocurrency?
Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are “mined.” Others are not. More on that in a moment.
Read More:Millennials Own More Crypto Than Any Other Generation
No matter the origination process, all cryptocurrency is software that is created by code.That code determines absolutely every function associated with the cryptocurrency, from the way data are stored and how transactions are recorded to the distribution of mining rewards and the maximum supply of tokens to be produced.
Take a Look:The 10 Wildest Things Selling as NFTs
In almost all cases, the code is public and the software used to generate a given cryptocurrency is decentralized, just like the cryptocurrency itself. That public, decentralized software is hosted on individual computers all over the world instead of on a central server.
When cryptocurrencies are designed to be used as money, transactions are stored on a special kind of secure database called a blockchain, which serves as a ledger of all coded transactions. Think of it as a checkbook for cryptocurrency.
Discover:Should Crypto and NFTs Be Part of Your Retirement Plan?
Once entered into the blockchain, no one can ever change an entry in the database without meeting specific conditions. Everyone involved can see the public record of all transitions.
Blockchain technology, therefore, allows cryptocurrency to achieve its three most important defining features:
• Transparency
• Decentralization
• Immutability
The part of the code that represents what end-users know as “tokens” or “coins” is just a string of numbers stored on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are generated by algorithms, and those algorithms rely on cryptography — hence the name cryptocurrency.
More Economy Explained:Ethereum: All You Need To Know To Decide If This Crypto Is Worth the Investment
In most cases, the algorithms that fuel the cryptocurrency factory are written to award tokens to computers that add transactions to the blockchain. That process is known as mining. Miners use special hardware and the cryptocurrency’s public, decentralized software to add transactions to blockchains.
Read:What Are Altcoins — and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks?
In exchange for providing that critical blockchain maintenance, miners get paid in new cryptocurrency tokens. Most cryptocurrency coins or tokens are created this way.
Technically, anyone can be a miner, but it’s a largely fruitless endeavor for most. It’s complicated, competitive, expensive if you fail — which is highly likely — and it gobbles up an enormous amount of power.
Some cryptocurrency was never designed to replace fiat currency like the dollar. In other words, it was never meant to be used as money. This kind of non-mineable, unspendable cryptocurrency is usually generated to reward early investors in a new cryptocurrency launch, called an ICO (initial coin offering).
The Economy and Your Money:All You Need To Know
In other cases, a new cryptocurrency can be created through a deviation in a blockchain called a hard fork. Hard forks occur when blockchain protocols change so significantly that a new, unique branch is formed on the chain that is incompatible with the old chain. Bitcoin Cash, for example, was formed through a hard fork on the original Bitcoin blockchain.
Verification is at the core of crypto. Unlike fiat currency, the value of cryptocurrency is not based on trust. It’s based on one of two verification techniques: proof of work and proof of stake.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH):The Most Important Things You Need To Know About It
Most transactions are verified through proof of work. Algorithms create complex math problems that miners race to solve using special hardware. By solving the puzzle, a miner verifies a group of transactions called a block, which is then added to the larger blockchain ledger. The miner who pulls it off first is rewarded with cryptocurrency.
Proof of stake was developed to reduce the amount of power needed to verify transactions. With this method, someone has to prove they have skin in the game in order to check transactions and compete for rewards. Users have to “stake” their own existing cryptocurrency by locking it up in a communal vault to be allowed to verify transactions. The more you stake, the more transactions you’re allowed to verify and the more cryptocurrency you can earn.
More From GOBankingRates
• Jaw-Dropping Stats About the State of Retirement in America
• Big Personal Goals That You Should Put Your Money Toward
• 20 Home Renovations That Will Hurt Your Home’s Value
• 27 Things You Should Never Do With Your Money
Last updated: June 7, 2021
This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? || Tesla Will Resume Taking Bitcoin as Payment Once Miners Go 50% Green, Musk Says: Tesla will resume accepting bitcoin as payment once the cryptocurrencys power-hungry miners go halfway green, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday. The news appears to have driven up the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Musk halted Teslas months-old crypto foray in mid-May citing environmental concerns. But when theres confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing bitcoin transactions, he said in the tweet. It is unclear how Musk will fact-check miners clean energy usage as there is widespread debate over where the industry currently stands. Even so, the comments provide a first benchmark for reinstating bitcoin payments at Tesla. Musks tweet also reiterates his defense of having sold 10% of the electric vehicle makers bitcoin stash in Q1 and would also seem to indicate the company hasnt sold any of the rest. Musks tweet may have been what propelled the price of bitcoin sharply higher about an hour after the tweet was sent. In recent trading, bitcoin was changing hands at $39,200.21, up 9.66%, and leading other cryptocurrencies higher. UPDATE (June 14, 03:00): Adds that the price of bitcoin may have been boosted by the news. Related Stories Bitcoin Fund Outflows Slow but Investors Start Exiting Ether Funds Paul Tudor Jones Could Go All In on Inflation Trades, Wants 5% Bitcoin Allocation MicroStrategy Raises $500M From Bond Sale to Buy More Bitcoin Bitcoin Options Smile Shows Market Fearful of Downside Despite Tesla News View comments || Tesla Will Resume Taking Bitcoin as Payment Once Miners Go 50% Green, Musk Says: Tesla will resume acceptingbitcoinas payment once the cryptocurrency’s power-hungry miners go halfway green, CEO Elon MusktweetedSunday. The news appears to have driven up the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
• MuskhaltedTesla’s months-old crypto foray in mid-May citing environmental concerns. But “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing bitcoin transactions,” he said in the tweet.
• It is unclear how Musk will fact-check miners‘ clean energy usage as there is widespread debate over where the industry currently stands. Even so, the comments provide a first benchmark for reinstating bitcoin payments at Tesla.
• Musk’s tweet also reiterates his defense of having sold 10% of the electric vehicle maker’s bitcoin stash in Q1 and would also seem to indicate the company hasn’t sold any of the rest.
• Musk’s tweet may have been what propelled the price of bitcoin sharply higher about an hour after the tweet was sent. In recent trading, bitcoin was changing hands at $39,200.21, up 9.66%, and leading other cryptocurrencies higher.
UPDATE (June 14, 03:00):Adds that the price of bitcoin may have been boosted by the news.
• Bitcoin Fund Outflows Slow but Investors Start Exiting Ether Funds
• Paul Tudor Jones Could Go ‘All In’ on Inflation Trades, Wants 5% Bitcoin Allocation
• MicroStrategy Raises $500M From Bond Sale to Buy More Bitcoin
• Bitcoin ‘Options Smile’ Shows Market Fearful of Downside Despite Tesla News || Tesla Will Resume Taking Bitcoin as Payment Once Miners Go 50% Green, Musk Says: Tesla will resume acceptingbitcoinas payment once the cryptocurrency’s power-hungry miners go halfway green, CEO Elon MusktweetedSunday. The news appears to have driven up the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
• MuskhaltedTesla’s months-old crypto foray in mid-May citing environmental concerns. But “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing bitcoin transactions,” he said in the tweet.
• It is unclear how Musk will fact-check miners‘ clean energy usage as there is widespread debate over where the industry currently stands. Even so, the comments provide a first benchmark for reinstating bitcoin payments at Tesla.
• Musk’s tweet also reiterates his defense of having sold 10% of the electric vehicle maker’s bitcoin stash in Q1 and would also seem to indicate the company hasn’t sold any of the rest.
• Musk’s tweet may have been what propelled the price of bitcoin sharply higher about an hour after the tweet was sent. In recent trading, bitcoin was changing hands at $39,200.21, up 9.66%, and leading other cryptocurrencies higher.
UPDATE (June 14, 03:00):Adds that the price of bitcoin may have been boosted by the news.
• Bitcoin Fund Outflows Slow but Investors Start Exiting Ether Funds
• Paul Tudor Jones Could Go ‘All In’ on Inflation Trades, Wants 5% Bitcoin Allocation
• MicroStrategy Raises $500M From Bond Sale to Buy More Bitcoin
• Bitcoin ‘Options Smile’ Shows Market Fearful of Downside Despite Tesla News || Bitcoin rises 9.8% to $39,035: (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4.
Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to "mine" it use too much energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in the tweet.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) || Bitcoin rises 9.8% to $39,035: (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to "mine" it use too much energy. "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in the tweet. (Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) || Bitcoin rises 9.8% to $39,035: (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4.
Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to "mine" it use too much energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in the tweet.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) || Bitcoin rises 9.8% to $39,035: (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to "mine" it use too much energy. "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in the tweet. (Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) || Bitcoin rises 9.8% to $39,035: (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4.
Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to "mine" it use too much energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in the tweet.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) || Bitcoin rises 9.8% to $39,035: (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged 9.8% to $39,035.47 on Sunday, adding $3,492.71 to its previous close.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 40.7% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4.
Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, surged 7% to $2,532.77 on Sunday, adding $165.77 to its previous close.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. Musk has been a major promoter of cryptocurrencies but has turned critical of bitcoin since suspending Tesla plans to take it in payment for cars, owing to concerns that the computers used to "mine" it use too much energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in the tweet.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) || Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet.
Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet.
Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market.
He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet.
The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment.
In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet. Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet. Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market. He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet. The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment. In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars. (Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet. Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet. Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market. He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet. The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment. In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars. (Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy. "When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet. Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet. Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market. He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet. The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment. In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars. (Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || Musk says Tesla will accept bitcoins when miners use more clean energy: (Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that the electric carmarker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," he said in a tweet.
Bitcoin rose 5.1% to $37,360.63 at 1810 GMT (2:10 p.m. ET) on Sunday, adding $1,817.87 to its previous close, after Musk's tweet.
Musk also said that Tesla sold about 10% of holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving market.
He announced in May that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after his tweet.
The billionaire said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at great cost to the environment.
In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would accept it as a form of payment for cars.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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40406.27, 38347.06, 38053.50, 35787.25, 35615.87, 35698.30, 31676.69, 32505.66, 33723.03, 34662.44
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 612.13, 610.20, 612.51, 613.02, 617.12, 619.11, 616.75, 618.99, 641.07, 636.19, 636.79, 640.38, 638.65, 641.63, 639.19, 637.96, 630.52, 630.86, 632.83, 657.29, 657.07, 653.76, 657.59, 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13, 709.85, 723.27, 715.53, 716.41, 705.05, 702.03, 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-12-31]
Volume: 99135104, RSI (14-day): 79.77, 50-day EMA: 809.31, 200-day EMA: 675.24
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
How A Single Bitcoin Could Soon Be Worth More Than An Ounce of Gold: Could 1 Bitcoin be worth more than 1 ounce of Gold? This could actually happen sooner than most people think.
Bitcoin, as of this writing, is approaching $1,000.
The last time it traded that high, it was late 2013. Bitcoin went from about $100 to $1,000 in about 3 months. Here’s how the rise then compares toits current rise today:
But while $1,000 is a very interesting psychological level for Bitcoin, and could even signal new all-time highs, there’s something much more interesting going on. It has to do with gold.
Gold is considered the longest lasting true store of value. People have been trading, investing, and minting gold as currency for thousands of years. Today, gold is primarily measured in ounces. The standard unit is one ounce of gold and an ounce currently costs about $1,160.
As Bitcoin approaches $1,000, a unique situation begins to emerge. For the first time ever,1 Bitcoin could soon be worth more than 1 ounce of gold: || How A Single Bitcoin Could Soon Be Worth More Than An Ounce of Gold: Could 1 Bitcoin be worth more than 1 ounce of Gold? This could actually happen sooner than most people think.
Bitcoin, as of this writing, is approaching $1,000.
The last time it traded that high, it was late 2013. Bitcoin went from about $100 to $1,000 in about 3 months. Here’s how the rise then compares toits current rise today:
But while $1,000 is a very interesting psychological level for Bitcoin, and could even signal new all-time highs, there’s something much more interesting going on. It has to do with gold.
Gold is considered the longest lasting true store of value. People have been trading, investing, and minting gold as currency for thousands of years. Today, gold is primarily measured in ounces. The standard unit is one ounce of gold and an ounce currently costs about $1,160.
As Bitcoin approaches $1,000, a unique situation begins to emerge. For the first time ever,1 Bitcoin could soon be worth more than 1 ounce of gold: || How A Single Bitcoin Could Soon Be Worth More Than An Ounce of Gold: Could 1 Bitcoin be worth more than 1 ounce of Gold? This could actually happen sooner than most people think. Bitcoin, as of this writing, is approaching $1,000. The last time it traded that high, it was late 2013. Bitcoin went from about $100 to $1,000 in about 3 months. Heres how the rise then compares to its current rise today: But while $1,000 is a very interesting psychological level for Bitcoin, and could even signal new all-time highs, theres something much more interesting going on. It has to do with gold. Gold is considered the longest lasting true store of value. People have been trading, investing, and minting gold as currency for thousands of years. Today, gold is primarily measured in ounces. The standard unit is one ounce of gold and an ounce currently costs about $1,160. As Bitcoin approaches $1,000, a unique situation begins to emerge. For the first time ever, 1 Bitcoin could soon be worth more than 1 ounce of gold : || Forget about Dow 20K: Bitcoin's about to hit $1,000: Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, is on its way to a major milestone thanks to a confluence of positive factors.
With just a couple trading days left in the year, bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=)looks poised to break the $1,000 barrier — quite an achievement for a product considered close to dead not that long ago amid a series of embarrassing headlines. The price has surged 122 percent in 2016, making it one of the top trades of the year.
The increase has been driven by a number of factors.
China and India both have been big buyers as part of a broader global landscape that has pushed bitcoin's acceptance further along. Chinese investors have bought bitcoins as the yuan has lost its value, while the surge in India has been driven thanks to the government's decision to retire some currency denominations.
"It is one tool that many people around the world use to try to preserve wealth," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex who writes a widely followed daily newsletter that was likely the first on Wall Street to discuss bitcoin several years ago. "Bitcoin has gone from being just a nerd's version of gold years ago to now being another thing people do to try to hold onto their wealth."
Indeed, the total value of bitcoins in circulation now is about $15.5 billion, based on more than 16 million bitcoins.
Bitcoin has been one of the investment stories of the year. Only two stocks in the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)— Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA)and Oneok(NYSE: OKE)— have delivered better returns. No nonleveraged exchange-traded fund has beaten bitcoins, with the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining(NYSE Arca: XME)fund coming closest with a 110 percent gain this year. Of currency trades, the best has been the euro's 16 percent gain against the British pound.
Still, mainstream acceptance remains elusive and investors shy away due to the cryptocurrency's volatility.
"Not yet," Colas said when asked if bitcoin had achieved legitimacy as a system of payment or currency. "It will be mainstream when you can walk into a bank and order a bitcoin account. We're not close to that yet."
Still, both usage and acceptance are growing, even if still not widespread.
Some 45,000 businesses now accept bitcoins as payment, according to Coinbase. Among them are Dell, PayPal and Time. In a recent Twitter exchange with users, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he was surprised by the demand for bitcoin payment integration for the peer-to-peer lodging app. (An active Reddit forumon the topic opened earlier this week.)
Bitcoin prices fell in morning trade Thursday, though it continued to flirt with a record high.
While Wall Street waits for the Dow(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI)to top 20,000, bitcoin eclipsing $1,000 could well come first.
"It's hard to say what was the breakthrough year or if we've had a breakthrough year yet," Colas said. "Certainly in price terms, this has been a pretty impressive year. But in terms of broad mass market adoption, it's still to come."
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Forget about Dow 20K: Bitcoin's about to hit $1,000: Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, is on its way to a major milestone thanks to a confluence of positive factors.
With just a couple trading days left in the year, bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=)looks poised to break the $1,000 barrier — quite an achievement for a product considered close to dead not that long ago amid a series of embarrassing headlines. The price has surged 122 percent in 2016, making it one of the top trades of the year.
The increase has been driven by a number of factors.
China and India both have been big buyers as part of a broader global landscape that has pushed bitcoin's acceptance further along. Chinese investors have bought bitcoins as the yuan has lost its value, while the surge in India has been driven thanks to the government's decision to retire some currency denominations.
"It is one tool that many people around the world use to try to preserve wealth," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex who writes a widely followed daily newsletter that was likely the first on Wall Street to discuss bitcoin several years ago. "Bitcoin has gone from being just a nerd's version of gold years ago to now being another thing people do to try to hold onto their wealth."
Indeed, the total value of bitcoins in circulation now is about $15.5 billion, based on more than 16 million bitcoins.
Bitcoin has been one of the investment stories of the year. Only two stocks in the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)— Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA)and Oneok(NYSE: OKE)— have delivered better returns. No nonleveraged exchange-traded fund has beaten bitcoins, with the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining(NYSE Arca: XME)fund coming closest with a 110 percent gain this year. Of currency trades, the best has been the euro's 16 percent gain against the British pound.
Still, mainstream acceptance remains elusive and investors shy away due to the cryptocurrency's volatility.
"Not yet," Colas said when asked if bitcoin had achieved legitimacy as a system of payment or currency. "It will be mainstream when you can walk into a bank and order a bitcoin account. We're not close to that yet."
Still, both usage and acceptance are growing, even if still not widespread.
Some 45,000 businesses now accept bitcoins as payment, according to Coinbase. Among them are Dell, PayPal and Time. In a recent Twitter exchange with users, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he was surprised by the demand for bitcoin payment integration for the peer-to-peer lodging app. (An active Reddit forumon the topic opened earlier this week.)
Bitcoin prices fell in morning trade Thursday, though it continued to flirt with a record high.
While Wall Street waits for the Dow(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI)to top 20,000, bitcoin eclipsing $1,000 could well come first.
"It's hard to say what was the breakthrough year or if we've had a breakthrough year yet," Colas said. "Certainly in price terms, this has been a pretty impressive year. But in terms of broad mass market adoption, it's still to come."
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Forget about Dow 20K: Bitcoin's about to hit $1,000: Bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, is on its way to a major milestone thanks to a confluence of positive factors. With just a couple trading days left in the year, bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) looks poised to break the $1,000 barrier — quite an achievement for a product considered close to dead not that long ago amid a series of embarrassing headlines. The price has surged 122 percent in 2016, making it one of the top trades of the year. The increase has been driven by a number of factors. China and India both have been big buyers as part of a broader global landscape that has pushed bitcoin's acceptance further along. Chinese investors have bought bitcoins as the yuan has lost its value, while the surge in India has been driven thanks to the government's decision to retire some currency denominations. "It is one tool that many people around the world use to try to preserve wealth," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex who writes a widely followed daily newsletter that was likely the first on Wall Street to discuss bitcoin several years ago. "Bitcoin has gone from being just a nerd's version of gold years ago to now being another thing people do to try to hold onto their wealth." Indeed, the total value of bitcoins in circulation now is about $15.5 billion, based on more than 16 million bitcoins. Bitcoin has been one of the investment stories of the year. Only two stocks in the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) — Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Oneok (NYSE: OKE) — have delivered better returns. No nonleveraged exchange-traded fund has beaten bitcoins, with the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining (NYSE Arca: XME) fund coming closest with a 110 percent gain this year. Of currency trades, the best has been the euro's 16 percent gain against the British pound. Still, mainstream acceptance remains elusive and investors shy away due to the cryptocurrency's volatility. "Not yet," Colas said when asked if bitcoin had achieved legitimacy as a system of payment or currency. "It will be mainstream when you can walk into a bank and order a bitcoin account. We're not close to that yet." Story continues Still, both usage and acceptance are growing, even if still not widespread. Some 45,000 businesses now accept bitcoins as payment, according to Coinbase. Among them are Dell, PayPal and Time. In a recent Twitter exchange with users, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he was surprised by the demand for bitcoin payment integration for the peer-to-peer lodging app. ( An active Reddit forum on the topic opened earlier this week.) Bitcoin prices fell in morning trade Thursday, though it continued to flirt with a record high. While Wall Street waits for the Dow (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) to top 20,000, bitcoin eclipsing $1,000 could well come first. "It's hard to say what was the breakthrough year or if we've had a breakthrough year yet," Colas said. "Certainly in price terms, this has been a pretty impressive year. But in terms of broad mass market adoption, it's still to come." More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Trump's pick for budget chief loves gold and bitcoin: mark mulvaney (Rep. Mick Mulvaney.AP Images) The man in line to bring together President-elect Donald Trump's federal budget is a big believer in gold, according to financial disclosures. Mick Mulvaney, Trump's pick to lead the Office of Budget and Management, owns significant amounts of precious metals and gold-mining stocks based on financial disclosures compiled by Bloomberg . According to the filings, Mulvaney held $50,000 to $100,000 in precious metals at the end of 2015. In addition, the South Carolina congressman holds stock in numerous gold and silver mining corporations totaling $252,000 to $855,000, according to the filing. Bloomberg found that Mulvaney had sold significant amounts of the gold miners' stock in early 2016, citing financial filings from the end of June. The heavy investments into gold is not surprising given past criticism by Mulvaney of the Federal Reserve. In a speech obtained by Mother Jones , Mulvaney told the John Birch Society, a group that believes the only legal forms of currency are gold and silver coins , that the Fed had "effectively devalued the dollar" and "choke[d] off economic growth." In the same speech, Mulvaney also praised bitcoin, saying the cryptocurrency could not be "manipulated" by the government. Gold-mining stocks have had an up-and-down year. VanEck's Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF the largest gold-mining sector exchange-traded fund in which Mulvaney had an investment ($15,001 to $50,000) is up 45% year-to-date but is down roughly 35% from its 2016 high in August. The dollar has strengthened by a little over 5% since the US presidential election, while gold has fallen by roughly 10%. Bitcoin has been surging in the past week, hitting its highest level since November 2013 on Thursday . Check out the full Bloomberg report here» NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider Sears and Kmart are closing more stores see if your store is on the list How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65 The internet is flummoxed by this optical illusion of 6 girls with only 5 pairs of legs || Trump's pick for budget chief loves gold and bitcoin: (Rep. Mick Mulvaney.AP Images)
The man in line to bring together President-elect Donald Trump's federal budget is a big believer in gold, according to financial disclosures.
Mick Mulvaney, Trump's pick to lead the Office of Budget and Management, owns significant amounts of precious metals and gold-mining stocks based on financial disclosurescompiled by Bloomberg.
According to the filings, Mulvaney held $50,000 to $100,000 in precious metals at the end of 2015. In addition, the South Carolina congressman holds stock in numerous gold and silver mining corporations totaling $252,000 to $855,000, according to the filing.
Bloomberg foundthat Mulvaney had sold significant amounts of the gold miners' stock in early 2016, citing financial filings from the end of June.
The heavy investments into gold is not surprising given past criticism by Mulvaney of the Federal Reserve. In a speechobtained by Mother Jones, Mulvaney told the John Birch Society, a group that believes theonly legal forms of currency are gold and silver coins, that the Fed had "effectively devalued the dollar" and "choke[d] off economic growth."
In the same speech, Mulvaney also praised bitcoin, saying the cryptocurrency could not be "manipulated" by the government.
Gold-mining stocks have had an up-and-down year. VanEck's Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF — the largest gold-mining sector exchange-traded fund in which Mulvaney had an investment ($15,001 to $50,000) — is up 45% year-to-date but is down roughly 35% from its 2016 high in August.
The dollar has strengthened by a little over 5% since the US presidential election, while gold has fallen by roughly 10%. Bitcoin has been surging in the past week, hitting itshighest level since November 2013 on Thursday.
NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates
More From Business Insider
• Sears and Kmart are closing more stores — see if your store is on the list
• How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65
• The internet is flummoxed by this optical illusion of 6 girls with only 5 pairs of legs || How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?: After a strong showing in 2015, Bitcoin investors experienced another strong year of performance from the popular cryptocurrency in 2016. Bitcoin followed up an impressive +26.3 percent gain in 2015 with a +119.8 percent gain in 2016. A large part of Bitcoin’s gains has come in the final weeks of the year. Since December 16, the price of Bitcoin has spiked 20.0 percent to $967.94.
Tech-savvy investorscan buy Bitcoin directly by downloading a Bitcoin Wallet app from Circle, Coinbase, Xapo or other popular services and simply linking their bank account to the app. In addition to these digital wallet apps, investors can buy shares ofBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC), which is a trust that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and trades on the OTC market. Each share of the trust represents on tenth of a Bitcoin. The trust is up 93.6 percent in 2016.
The Winklevoss twins have also filed for a Bitcoin ETF that may be approved in 2017. The twins have made a number of tweaks to the proposed ETF since they first filed in order to convince the SEC of the safety and security of the fund. If approved, the Bitcoin ETF would be the first direct way for investors to bet on Bitcoin on a major U.S. public market.
See more from Benzinga
• Should You Be Buying 2016 Market Leaders Or Laggards Heading Into 2017?
• NVIDIA's Pullback Might Not Last Very Long
• 2016: TV Media's Year In Review
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?: After a strong showing in 2015, Bitcoin investors experienced another strong year of performance from the popular cryptocurrency in 2016. Bitcoin followed up an impressive +26.3 percent gain in 2015 with a +119.8 percent gain in 2016. A large part of Bitcoins gains has come in the final weeks of the year. Since December 16, the price of Bitcoin has spiked 20.0 percent to $967.94. Tech-savvy investors can buy Bitcoin directly by downloading a Bitcoin Wallet app from Circle, Coinbase, Xapo or other popular services and simply linking their bank account to the app. In addition to these digital wallet apps, investors can buy shares of Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC ), which is a trust that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and trades on the OTC market. Each share of the trust represents on tenth of a Bitcoin. The trust is up 93.6 percent in 2016. The Winklevoss twins have also filed for a Bitcoin ETF that may be approved in 2017. The twins have made a number of tweaks to the proposed ETF since they first filed in order to convince the SEC of the safety and security of the fund. If approved, the Bitcoin ETF would be the first direct way for investors to bet on Bitcoin on a major U.S. public market. See more from Benzinga Should You Be Buying 2016 Market Leaders Or Laggards Heading Into 2017? NVIDIA's Pullback Might Not Last Very Long 2016: TV Media's Year In Review © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?: After a strong showing in 2015, Bitcoin investors experienced another strong year of performance from the popular cryptocurrency in 2016. Bitcoin followed up an impressive +26.3 percent gain in 2015 with a +119.8 percent gain in 2016. A large part of Bitcoin’s gains has come in the final weeks of the year. Since December 16, the price of Bitcoin has spiked 20.0 percent to $967.94.
Tech-savvy investorscan buy Bitcoin directly by downloading a Bitcoin Wallet app from Circle, Coinbase, Xapo or other popular services and simply linking their bank account to the app. In addition to these digital wallet apps, investors can buy shares ofBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC), which is a trust that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and trades on the OTC market. Each share of the trust represents on tenth of a Bitcoin. The trust is up 93.6 percent in 2016.
The Winklevoss twins have also filed for a Bitcoin ETF that may be approved in 2017. The twins have made a number of tweaks to the proposed ETF since they first filed in order to convince the SEC of the safety and security of the fund. If approved, the Bitcoin ETF would be the first direct way for investors to bet on Bitcoin on a major U.S. public market.
See more from Benzinga
• Should You Be Buying 2016 Market Leaders Or Laggards Heading Into 2017?
• NVIDIA's Pullback Might Not Last Very Long
• 2016: TV Media's Year In Review
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 2016: The Volatility Year That Wasn’t: Sometimes how we feel about the market bears absolutely no resemblance to reality. When I look back at 2016, I’m exhausted. And when I talk to many advisors, I hear similar comments: “What a year!” they say. “We had such an awful winter, and then all the craziness around the election!” But the reality is that this was actually one of the most placid years in recent history. Here’s the actual, 30-day realized volatility of the S&P 500 for the last 10 years: What this excellent chart from Bloomberg suggests is that our current market is in one of the lowest volatility periods we’ve seen in ages, and while we’ve had some spikes, particularly in the spring, it’s just about as boring a market as you can get. Of course, you can’t actually trade this chart; instead, what you can trade, sort of, is the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX—a derivative calculation based on the implied volatility of strips of S&P 500 options. Here’s what the VIX chart looks like over the past 10 years: Even the quickest glance suggests these are pretty good proxies for each other, and while they’re not identical, they even “base” around the same number: 10 for low-vol periods, 80 for crazy spikes. And using options is actually sensible, because for a sophisticated investor, making a specific bet on volatility would most easily be done with options. You want to bet the S&P 500 is going to spike in either direction? Options players have a plan for you— a straddle . Think we’re range-bound and want to bet on it? The wonderfully named Iron Condor is for you. Managing volatility is in fact what options are designed to do, so that’s why the CBOE uses the real-world expressions of sentiment from options traders to compute the VIX. The Contango Conundrum Like options themselves, there’s nothing inherently bullish or bearish about the VIX itself. Using either options or futures contracts on the VIX index, investors can bet on either increasing or decreasing volatility. Story continues The problem is that in a low-volatility environment like we’ve been in, most investors are going to guess that future volatility will be higher than today’s volatility, and thus they will bid up the price of the futures contracts themselves. A lot. Here’s what the futures curve looks like right now for the VIX: With VIX at 12, buying the front-month futures contract will cost you 14. To put that in perspective, that means that, if VIX remains at 12, you can expect to lose $2 for every $14 invested in a single month. That $2-a-month decay continues from the first to the second month as well. That means even if you’re right, and VIX is going to rise, you’re facing a 14.2% head wind every month . That’s a 396% head wind every year. Of course, the contango isn’t always this bad, but it’s generally been sharply upward-sloping all year long. If you think that means investing in a long VIX-futures-based ETF for the last year has been tough, you’re right. The top three worst-performing ETFs over the last year all track near-month VIX futures contracts: the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) , the VelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN (VIIX) and the ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (VIXY) . ‘Force Of Nature’ For Investors The reason you can’t see three ETF lines on the chart is because these funds are, for all intents and purposes, identical in their returns. The problem is contango: It’s a force of nature, and there’s no getting around it as a futures investor. While this isn’t a pretty chart, it’s worth noting that these funds have done exactly what they said they were going to do day after day. If you went into the month of June with a position in one of these funds, you were up over 25% in a matter of days as you caught the pre-Brexit spike in volatility. But remember, the VIX was never intended as some sort of “long only” asset to invest in—it’s a measurement of the state of the market, just like humidity is a measurement of the state of the atmosphere. Investors can, and do, capitalize on it in other ways, either by shorting funds like this to capture contango, or investing in the suite of inverse products, such as the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV) or the ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY) , that take the opposite bets: Again, two strategies following the same basic strategy—taking the “sell” side of the VIX futures trade. These funds not only profit from contango, they’ve also benefited from relatively calm fluctuations in the VIX itself, which means the daily-rebalance effect common to most leveraged and inverse funds hasn’t cut into returns. Of course, just like June was a great time to be in the long ETFs, it was murderous for these funds: If you got the timing wrong, you could have been down more than 35% in a matter of days when volatility spiked. What’s In An (Inverse) Name? Honestly, at ETF.com, we can end up trapped a bit by our own analytical framework. As a matter of course, we exclude leveraged and inverse funds from things like performance charts, because otherwise, every list would be nothing but the most levered version of whatever theme was hot (or awful) at the time. But in the case of VIX, that leads to some missed opportunities for analysis. A long bet on the VIX is no different than a short bet on the VIX in theoretical terms. VIX is mean-reverting by definition, unlike any other investment I can think of in finance. So to my mind, this bizarre year, or relatively calm markets but high anxiety, has made VIX ETFs both the worst and nearly the-best-performing products in the market. At the time of writing, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Dave Nadig at [email protected] . Recommended Stories Tuesday Hot Reads: 2 Trends That Favor ETFs In 2017 2016: The Volatility Year That Wasn’t Worst Performing ETFs Of The Year Friday Hot Reads: 2016 A Vintage Year For Bitcoin Wednesday Hot Reads: JPMorgan Readies Fixed Income ETF Arsenal Permalink | © Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved || 2016: The Volatility Year That Wasn’t: Sometimes how we feel about the market bears absolutely no resemblance to reality. When I look back at 2016, I’m exhausted. And when I talk to many advisors, I hear similar comments: “What a year!” they say. “We had such an awful winter, and then all the craziness around the election!”
But the reality is that this was actually one of the most placid years in recent history. Here’s the actual, 30-day realized volatility of the S&P 500 for the last 10 years:
What this excellent chart from Bloomberg suggests is that our current market is in one of the lowest volatility periods we’ve seen in ages, and while we’ve had some spikes, particularly in the spring, it’s just about as boring a market as you can get.
Of course, you can’t actually trade this chart; instead, what you can trade, sort of, is the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX—a derivative calculation based on the implied volatility of strips of S&P 500 options. Here’s what the VIX chart looks like over the past 10 years:
Even the quickest glance suggests these are pretty good proxies for each other, and while they’re not identical, they even “base” around the same number: 10 for low-vol periods, 80 for crazy spikes.
And using options is actually sensible, because for a sophisticated investor, making a specific bet on volatility would most easily be done with options. You want to bet the S&P 500 is going to spike in either direction? Options players have a plan for you—a straddle. Think we’re range-bound and want to bet on it? The wonderfully namedIron Condoris for you.
Managing volatility is in fact what options are designed to do, so that’s why the CBOE uses the real-world expressions of sentiment from options traders to compute the VIX.
The Contango Conundrum
Like options themselves, there’s nothing inherently bullish or bearish about the VIX itself. Using either options or futures contracts on the VIX index, investors can bet on either increasing or decreasing volatility.
The problem is that in a low-volatility environment like we’ve been in, most investors are going to guess that future volatility will be higher than today’s volatility, and thus they will bid up the price of the futures contracts themselves. A lot. Here’s what the futures curve looks like right now for the VIX:
With VIX at 12, buying the front-month futures contract will cost you 14. To put that in perspective, that means that, if VIX remains at 12, you can expect to lose $2 for every $14 invested in a single month. That $2-a-month decay continues from the first to the second month as well.
That means even if you’re right, and VIX is going to rise, you’re facing a 14.2% head windevery month. That’s a 396% head wind every year. Of course, thecontangoisn’t always this bad, but it’s generally been sharply upward-sloping all year long.
If you think that means investing in a long VIX-futures-based ETF for the last year has been tough, you’re right. The top three worst-performing ETFs over the last year all track near-month VIX futures contracts: theiPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX), theVelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN (VIIX)and theProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (VIXY).
‘Force Of Nature’ For Investors
The reason you can’t see three ETF lines on the chart is because these funds are, for all intents and purposes, identical in their returns. The problem is contango: It’s a force of nature, and there’s no getting around it as a futures investor.
While this isn’t a pretty chart, it’s worth noting that these funds have done exactly what they said they were going to do day after day. If you went into the month of June with a position in one of these funds, you were up over 25% in a matter of days as you caught the pre-Brexit spike in volatility.
But remember, the VIX was never intended as some sort of “long only” asset to invest in—it’s a measurement of the state of the market, just like humidity is a measurement of the state of the atmosphere.
Investors can, and do, capitalize on it in other ways, either by shorting funds like this to capture contango, or investing in the suite of inverse products, such as theVelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV)or theProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY), that take the opposite bets:
Again, two strategies following the same basic strategy—taking the “sell” side of the VIX futures trade. These funds not only profit from contango, they’ve also benefited from relatively calm fluctuations in the VIX itself, which means the daily-rebalance effect common to most leveraged and inverse funds hasn’t cut into returns.
Of course, just like June was a great time to be in the long ETFs, it was murderous for these funds: If you got the timing wrong, you could have been down more than 35% in a matter of days when volatility spiked.
What’s In An (Inverse) Name?
Honestly, at ETF.com, we can end up trapped a bit by our own analytical framework. As a matter of course, we exclude leveraged and inverse funds from things like performance charts, because otherwise, every list would be nothing but the most levered version of whatever theme was hot (or awful) at the time. But in the case of VIX, that leads to some missed opportunities for analysis.
A long bet on the VIX is no different than a short bet on the VIX in theoretical terms. VIX is mean-reverting by definition, unlike any other investment I can think of in finance. So to my mind, this bizarre year, or relatively calm markets but high anxiety, has made VIX ETFs both the worstandnearly the-best-performing products in the market.
At the time of writing, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Dave Nadig [email protected].
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Permalink| © Copyright 2016ETF.com.All rights reserved || Hyperledger Wraps up 2016 By Welcoming Eight New Members: SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - December 28, 2016) -Hyperledger Project, a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that eight new members have joined the project to help create an open standard for distributed ledgers for a new generation of transactional applications. Last month, Hyperledgerannouncedit reached 100 active members in less than one year, a huge milestone for the open source project, hosted by The Linux Foundation.
"This year has been full of growth for the project," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. "Not only did we exceed 100 members, Hyperledger met significant development milestones thanks to the community's hard work. As 2016 was a year of exploration, R&D and prototyping, we're excited for 2017 to be the year we start to see case studies of the technology in production environments."
Hyperledger aims to enable organizations to build robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by creating an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework and code base. The latest members include: CA Technologies, Factom Foundation, Hashed Health, Koscom, LedgerDomain, Lykke, Sovrin Foundation and Swisscom.
New Member Quotes:
CA Technologies
"To compete today, every company needs to foster innovation that delivers real business value. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the way many of CA's customers do business," said Otto Berkes, chief technology officer, CA Technologies. "We're honored to be a part of Hyperledger and look forward to collaborating with other members to help shape open standards for blockchain. It's an exciting time for this because blockchain is not just about Bitcoin anymore, and the range of potential applications with it is vast for of our customers. This partnership will help us influence what that future looks like for both CA and our customers as they embark on their digital transformation journey."
Factom Foundation
"We are honored to have been selected to join the Hyperledger Project," said Paul Snow, Founder, Factom Foundation. "We are looking forward to helping build the open source framework for securing data and systems with our blockchain solution."
Hashed Health
"Hashed Health is a healthcare technology innovation company focused on accelerating the commercialization of meaningful new blockchain and distributed ledger-based technologies," said John Bass, Hashed Health CEO. "Hashed is proud to be a member of the Hyperledger Project, sharing its commitment to creating the foundation for scalable, reliable blockchain solutions."
Koscom
"We consider blockchain technology as the next generation infrastructure in the Korean capital market. As an industry leader with 40 years' experience in the financial IT field, we are looking to leverage this industry disruptive technology," said Chung Youn Dae, CEO, Koscom. "We will constantly explore the ways to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem, as we collaborate with the Hyperledger community. We also hope to better serve out customers in a more secure and efficient way by integrating blockchain technology and our own Fintech platform."
LedgerDomain
"LedgerDomain delivers next generation supply chain solutions, harnessing permissioned blockchains to assure supply chain integrity and finished product authenticity through to the consumer for the benefit of all. This highly transparent, trustworthy approach is built upon an industrial-strength Hyperledger Fabric backbone," said Dr. Victor Dods, LedgerDomain. "We're proud to be a part of Hyperledger and its growing community."
Lykke
"We're looking forward to being part of the Hyperledger project," said Richard Olsen, Lykke founder and CEO. "Our company is building a digital asset exchange. Right now, we're implemented on the Bitcoin blockchain settlement layer, with Ethereum to come within the next few months, but our involvement with Hyperledger isn't just the next step forward. Providing decentralized settlement on the Hyperledger blockchain with multisignature wallets and atomic swap transactions will benefit both of our user communities."
Swisscom
"We are very proud to be Switzerland's first connection to Hyperledger," said Johannes Höhener, VP, Swisscom's Fintech Cluster. "We look forward to working with a highly professional community on cutting-edge blockchain developments. Our membership and participation will shape our capabilities to develop blockchain solutions -- for our clients and Switzerland."
The success of Hyperledger is due to the support of the developer community and member companies. Learn how your organization can contribute to the project here:https://www.hyperledger.org/about/join
About Hyperledger
The Hyperledger project is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger as a Collaborative Project under the foundation. To learn more, visit:www.hyperledger.org || Hyperledger Wraps up 2016 By Welcoming Eight New Members: SAN FRANCISCO, CA --(Marketwired - December 28, 2016) - Hyperledger Project , a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that eight new members have joined the project to help create an open standard for distributed ledgers for a new generation of transactional applications. Last month, Hyperledger announced it reached 100 active members in less than one year, a huge milestone for the open source project, hosted by The Linux Foundation. "This year has been full of growth for the project," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. "Not only did we exceed 100 members, Hyperledger met significant development milestones thanks to the community's hard work. As 2016 was a year of exploration, R&D and prototyping, we're excited for 2017 to be the year we start to see case studies of the technology in production environments." Hyperledger aims to enable organizations to build robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by creating an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework and code base. The latest members include: CA Technologies, Factom Foundation, Hashed Health, Koscom, LedgerDomain, Lykke, Sovrin Foundation and Swisscom. New Member Quotes: CA Technologies "To compete today, every company needs to foster innovation that delivers real business value. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the way many of CA's customers do business," said Otto Berkes, chief technology officer, CA Technologies. "We're honored to be a part of Hyperledger and look forward to collaborating with other members to help shape open standards for blockchain. It's an exciting time for this because blockchain is not just about Bitcoin anymore, and the range of potential applications with it is vast for of our customers. This partnership will help us influence what that future looks like for both CA and our customers as they embark on their digital transformation journey." Story continues Factom Foundation "We are honored to have been selected to join the Hyperledger Project," said Paul Snow, Founder, Factom Foundation. "We are looking forward to helping build the open source framework for securing data and systems with our blockchain solution." Hashed Health "Hashed Health is a healthcare technology innovation company focused on accelerating the commercialization of meaningful new blockchain and distributed ledger-based technologies," said John Bass, Hashed Health CEO. "Hashed is proud to be a member of the Hyperledger Project, sharing its commitment to creating the foundation for scalable, reliable blockchain solutions." Koscom "We consider blockchain technology as the next generation infrastructure in the Korean capital market. As an industry leader with 40 years' experience in the financial IT field, we are looking to leverage this industry disruptive technology," said Chung Youn Dae, CEO, Koscom. "We will constantly explore the ways to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem, as we collaborate with the Hyperledger community. We also hope to better serve out customers in a more secure and efficient way by integrating blockchain technology and our own Fintech platform." LedgerDomain "LedgerDomain delivers next generation supply chain solutions, harnessing permissioned blockchains to assure supply chain integrity and finished product authenticity through to the consumer for the benefit of all. This highly transparent, trustworthy approach is built upon an industrial-strength Hyperledger Fabric backbone," said Dr. Victor Dods, LedgerDomain. "We're proud to be a part of Hyperledger and its growing community." Lykke "We're looking forward to being part of the Hyperledger project," said Richard Olsen, Lykke founder and CEO. "Our company is building a digital asset exchange. Right now, we're implemented on the Bitcoin blockchain settlement layer, with Ethereum to come within the next few months, but our involvement with Hyperledger isn't just the next step forward. Providing decentralized settlement on the Hyperledger blockchain with multisignature wallets and atomic swap transactions will benefit both of our user communities." Swisscom "We are very proud to be Switzerland's first connection to Hyperledger," said Johannes Höhener, VP, Swisscom's Fintech Cluster. "We look forward to working with a highly professional community on cutting-edge blockchain developments. Our membership and participation will shape our capabilities to develop blockchain solutions -- for our clients and Switzerland." The success of Hyperledger is due to the support of the developer community and member companies. Learn how your organization can contribute to the project here: https://www.hyperledger.org/about/join About Hyperledger The Hyperledger project is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger as a Collaborative Project under the foundation. To learn more, visit: www.hyperledger.org || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: Soccer fan masks (General view of a fan with Jamie Vardy masks on the seats before the match.Reuters/Reuters Staff) Here is what you need to know. Dow 20,000 is in the crosshairs . The Dow Jones Industrial Average booked a fractional gain on Tuesday, finishing at 19,945.04. The index is set to open higher by 0.1% near 19,971. Bitcoin is up again . The cryptocurrency is up about 3% at $958, and trading at its best level since November 2013. Bitcoin has gained $135, or 16.4%, over the past week. Toshiba crashes after warning of a multi-billion dollar writedown . Shares of the chips-to-construction group tumbled 20% on Wednesday after the company warned it might need to take a larger than expected writedown on its acquisition of Chicago Bridge & Iron. Delta cancels an order from Boeing . Delta Air Lines has canceled an order for 18 Boeing widebody 787 Dreamliner jets, with a list price of $4 billion, that was inherited from its takeover of Northwest Airlines, the Seattle Times says. BP is buying gas stations in Australia . The London-based oil giant has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for Woolworths' 527 retail fuel outlets in Australia, according to Bloomberg. Qualcomm got hit with an $854 million fine by South Korea . The Korea Fair Trade Commission, South Korea's antitrust regulator, has ruled that Qualcomm hindered competition as a result of its business practices of patent licensing and smartphone modem chip sales, Reuters reports. Panasonic is investing in a Tesla production facility . Panasonic will invest $256 million in a Tesla production facility that makes photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, Reuters reports. CEO pay is rising in the UK, but "economic profit" isn't . A report released by the CFA Institute showed CEO pay in the UK has climbed 82% in the last 13 years, but the average company generated less than a 1% return for investors. Stock markets around the world are up . Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.8%) paced the gains overnight and Britain's FTSE (+0.4%) leads in Europe. Story continues US economic data trickles out. Pending home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.56%. More From Business Insider Alt-right movement descends into civil war after leading figure is booted from Trump inauguration event 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60 Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: (General view of a fan with Jamie Vardy masks on the seats before the match.Reuters/Reuters Staff)
Here is what you need to know.
Dow 20,000 is in the crosshairs.The Dow Jones Industrial Average booked a fractional gain on Tuesday, finishing at 19,945.04. The index is set to open higher by 0.1% near 19,971.
Bitcoin is up again.The cryptocurrency is up about 3% at $958, and trading at its best level since November 2013. Bitcoin has gained $135, or 16.4%, over the past week.
Toshiba crashes after warning of a multi-billion dollar writedown.Shares of thechips-to-construction group tumbled 20% on Wednesday after the company warned it might need to take a larger than expected writedown on its acquisition ofChicago Bridge & Iron.
Delta cancels an order from Boeing.Delta Air Lines has canceled an order for 18Boeing widebody 787 Dreamliner jets, with a list price of $4 billion, that was inherited from its takeover of Northwest Airlines, the Seattle Times says.
BP is buying gas stations in Australia.The London-based oil giant has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for Woolworths' 527 retail fuel outlets in Australia, according to Bloomberg.
Qualcomm got hit with an $854 million fine by South Korea.TheKorea Fair Trade Commission, South Korea's antitrust regulator, has ruled that Qualcomm hindered competition as a result of itsbusiness practices of patent licensing and smartphone modem chip sales, Reuters reports.
Panasonic is investing in a Tesla production facility.Panasonic will invest $256 million in a Tesla production facility that makesphotovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, Reuters reports.
CEO pay is rising in the UK, but "economic profit" isn't.A report released by the CFA Institute showed CEO pay in the UK has climbed 82% in the last 13 years, but the average company generated less than a 1% return for investors.
Stock markets around the world are up.Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.8%) paced the gains overnight and Britain's FTSE (+0.4%) leads in Europe.
US economic data trickles out.Pending home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.56%.
More From Business Insider
• Alt-right movement descends into civil war after leading figure is booted from Trump inauguration event
• 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60
• Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now || STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know: traffic jam (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Stocks did virtually nothing as skeleton crews returned after the Christmas holiday. All of the major indices managed to scrape into the green, but still finished little changed. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high. And now, for the scoreboard: Dow: 19,945.04, +11.23, (0.06%) S&P 500: 2,268.88, +5.09, (0.22%) Nasdaq: 5,487.44, +24.75, (0.45%) US 10-year yield: +2.4 basis points at 2.561% 1. Bitcoin soars . The cryptocurrency rallied 4% to $935, its best level in three years. Bitcoin has gained about 30% since the US election. 2. Consumer confidence jumps to its best level since August 2001 . Monthly data released by the Conference Board showed the Consumer Confidence Index hit 113.7 in December, its highest level since July 2007. Increasing expectations for the future were the sole reason for the move. 3. US home prices hit a post-financial crisis high . Home prices gained 5.6% annually in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The biggest gains were seen in Seattle, Denver, and Portland. ADDITIONALLY: The most important driver of the stock market will change in 2017 Bailing out the world's oldest bank is getting more expensive Vietnam could be 'sowing the seeds of the next crisis 'The market will correctly judge his administration on policy, not 3 a.m. tweets' The Fed has given Trump cover to unwind a key Wall Street rule NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60 The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain in the last 70 years STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know: (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Stocks did virtually nothing as skeleton crews returned after the Christmas holiday.
All of the major indices managed to scrape into the green, but still finished little changed. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high.
And now, for the scoreboard:
• Dow:19,945.04, +11.23, (0.06%)
• S&P 500:2,268.88, +5.09, (0.22%)
• Nasdaq:5,487.44, +24.75, (0.45%)
• US 10-year yield:+2.4 basis points at 2.561%
1.Bitcoin soars. The cryptocurrency rallied 4% to $935, its best level in three years. Bitcoin has gained about 30% since the US election.
2.Consumer confidence jumps to its best level since August 2001. Monthly data released by the Conference Board showed the Consumer Confidence Index hit 113.7 in December, its highest level since July 2007. Increasing expectations for the future were the sole reason for the move.
3.US home prices hit a post-financial crisis high. Home prices gained 5.6% annually in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The biggest gains were seen in Seattle, Denver, and Portland.
ADDITIONALLY:
The most important driver of the stock market will change in 2017
Bailing out the world's oldest bank is getting more expensive
Vietnam could be 'sowing the seeds of the next crisis
'The market will correctly judge his administration on policy, not 3 a.m. tweets'
The Fed has given Trump cover to unwind a key Wall Street rule
NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates
More From Business Insider
• 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60
• The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain in the last 70 years
• STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || 7 ETF Areas to Hog the Limelight in 2017: As 2016 comes to a close, Brexit, Donald Trumps win as the U.S. president and the OPEC output cut deal are clearly the highlights of the year. However, there are plenty of other events that havent been able to leave a mark but could prove to be game-changers next year. In view of this, we intend to highlight a few areas (and their impact on the ETF world) that are likely to draw investors attention in 2017. Oil The global investing world is expected to be busy analyzing the progress of the OPEC output cut deal since the start of 2017. On November 30, OPEC decided to slash production by about 1.2 million barrels a day from January for six months. Plus, on December 10, OPEC also cut their first deal with non-OPEC since 2001 to reduce output next year. The pact will likely result in an aggregate supply cut of 1.7 million barrels a day. Some analysts like Goldman now believe that oil can scale higher to about $60 early next year from the current $50 plus level. However, there are people who expect the deal to be not as effective as it seems now. Even if OPEC manages to be true to the deal, U.S. shale oil production will likely gain traction, bringing back oversupply into the market and weighing on oil prices. All these should keep oil ETFs like United States Oil USO, Brent crude ETF United States Brent Oil BNO and energy ETFs like Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF XLE on investors radar (read: How Effective is the OPEC Deal for an Oil ETF Rally?) Trump vs Fed Trump has raised hopes of fiscal reflation and taken stocks to a new height. If he keeps all his promises after taking presidential office and inflationary expectations continue to surge, the Fed might be able to implement the three forecasted rate hikes in 2017 (read: Sole Fed Hike of 2016 Put These ETFs in Focus). And if the Fed opts for faster rate hikes next year, bond ETFs like iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond TLT and dividend ETFs like SPDR S&P Dividend ETF SDY may face pressure. Meanwhile, ProShares High YieldInterest Rate Hedged ETF HYHG or inverse bond ETFs like Barclays Inverse US Treasury Aggregate ETN TAPR are poised to benefit (read: Hedged & Inverse Bond ETFs to the Rescue if Rates Rise). Story continues Global Inflation Inflationary outlook is finally shoring up in developed economies, albeit slowly. Prolonged easy money policies by global central banks, the OPEC move and the Trump effect made it happen. Expectations of a spurt in global inflation are now at the highest level in over 12 years. Global TIPS ETF PIMCO Global Advantage Inflation-Linked Bond Active ETF ILB w ill thus be on the watch list of investors (read: Will 2017 Be a Year of Global Reflation & TIPS ETFs?). Commodity Now thats tricky! If the greenback retains its strength, commodity investing should take a backseat as these are priced in the U.S. dollar. However, several industrial metals should do well on better demand-supply dynamics. This is especially possible given the recovery in the global manufacturing activities including the all-important China, which consumes a major portion of the global industrial metals. So, ETFs like iPath Pure Beta Aluminum ETN FOIL, iPath Pure Beta Copper ETN CUPM and iPath Bloomberg Tin SubTR ETN JJT will likely grab the spotlight. Cyber Security Cyber security breaches are on the rise of late. This has compelled companies to invest billions of dollars annually to counter such attacks. Most recently, the hack on Yahoo which revealed data from over 1 billion accounts once again stressed on the need for cybersecurity and has put First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF CIBR and PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF HACK in focus. India Indias pro-growth political changes in 2014 had shaped it into a hot investing zone. Most economic episodes also went in favor of Asias third-largest economy, including a drastic fall in inflation arising from the oil price crash and an improvement in current account deficit. Moreover, due to cooling inflation, the Indian central bank (RBI) resorted to rate cuts several times in the last one and a half years. However, most recently, in order to put a check on tax evasion and counterfeit notes, high-denomination bank notes were withdrawn in India. This resulted in cash crunch and growth forecast cuts by some analysts. Fitch rating reduced Indias GDP forecast to 6.9% from the prior estimate of 7.4% for the current financial year. But then, Moody's indicated that Indian companies will likely witness the strongest profit growth over 18 months. Now it would be interesting to see if India ETFs like WisdomTree India Earnings ETF EPI can survive the threats from demonetization in 2017 (read: What Lies Ahead for India ETFs?). Bitcoin Even if we are yet to have a bitcoin ETF, one is expected to hit the market in 2017. Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has filed for one to make it easy for investors to bet on this soaring digital currency. As per CNBC, bitcoin is a very volatile asset but doesnt have a strong correlation with other classes. Bitcoins value has beaten the $800 mark for the first time since February 2014. India's demonetization also gave a boost to bitcoin trading volumes. Moreover, trading volumes in China have been solid with the government taking proactive measures against illegal money transfer. With this, investors expect to see an approval of the first bitcoin ETF in 2017. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ISHARS-20+YTB (TLT): ETF Research Reports US-OIL FUND LP (USO): ETF Research Reports PURFDS-ISE CYBR (HACK): ETF Research Reports US BRENT OIL FD (BNO): ETF Research Reports SPDR-EGY SELS (XLE): ETF Research Reports PIMCO-GA ILBETF (ILB): ETF Research Reports IPATH-PB ALUMNM (FOIL): ETF Research Reports SPDR-SP DIV ETF (SDY): ETF Research Reports IPATH-BB TIN (JJT): ETF Research Reports FT-NDQ CYBERSEC (CIBR): ETF Research Reports BARCLY-INV USTC (TAPR): ETF Research Reports WISDMTR-IN EARN (EPI): ETF Research Reports IPATH-PB COPPER (CUPM): ETF Research Reports PRO-HI YLD IRH (HYHG): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
[Social Media Buzz]
$953.00 at 02:15 UTC [24h Range: $931.00 - $965.94 Volume: 11054 BTC] || Suspense Lingers as Bitcoin's Price Cast a
Strong Eye Towards $1,000.00 Each Before Midnight 2016!
http://ln.is/www.coindesk.com/IwagP … via @CoinDesk || 0158 BITCOIN Crypto Currency Guaranteed Deliver Direct to Your Wallet! http://ift.tt/29GDCpw 15.00 (1 Bid)End Da… pic.twitter.com/ye7L7iXwyI || $949.90 at 04:15 UTC [24h Range: $931.00 - $965.82 Volume: 10972 BTC] || #BITCOIN ahora:
$951.29 USD
€902.46 EUR
$19,595.32 MX...
|
998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83, 907.68
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 315.03, 281.08, 264.20, 274.47, 286.19, 294.34, 283.35, 290.41, 274.80, 265.66, 267.80, 225.86, 178.10, 209.84, 208.10, 199.26, 210.34, 214.86, 211.32, 226.90, 233.41, 232.88, 247.85, 253.72, 273.47, 263.48, 233.91, 233.51, 226.43, 217.46, 226.97, 238.23, 227.27, 226.85, 217.11, 222.27, 227.75, 223.41, 220.11, 219.84, 219.18, 221.76, 235.43, 257.32, 234.82, 233.84, 243.61, 236.33, 240.28, 243.78, 244.53, 235.98, 238.89, 238.74, 237.47, 236.43, 253.83, 254.26, 260.20, 275.67, 281.70, 273.09, 276.18, 272.72, 276.26, 274.35, 289.61, 291.76, 296.38, 294.35, 285.34, 281.89, 286.39, 290.59, 285.51, 256.30, 260.93, 261.75, 260.02, 267.96, 266.74, 245.60, 246.20, 248.53, 247.03, 252.80, 242.71, 247.53, 244.22, 247.27.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-04-01]
Volume: 22877200, RSI (14-day): 42.99, 50-day EMA: 258.56, 200-day EMA: 277.44
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1208.10, Gold RSI: 58.27
Oil Price: 50.09, Oil RSI: 55.19
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Trading the oil pullback: 5 plays on volatility: As uncertainty reigns in oil trading, investors should look to profit on up-and-down movement in the commodity, CNBC "Fast Money" trader Pete Najarian said.
The CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index(INDEX: .OVX)jumped more than 3 percent on Tuesday and is up 179 percent in the last year. It sat just below $54 on Tuesday and if it falls below $50, options in the index could be a profitable play, Najarian said.
"It gives you an opportunity to play some of that upside with all this volatility," he said.
Benchmark U.S. WTI crude oil(New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1)dropped 2 percent on Tuesday while global standard Brent(Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1)fell more than 1 percent. Refiners including Tesoro(NYSE: TSO)and Valero(NYSE: VLO)"still work" amid the choppy trading, said trader Guy Adami.
Read MoreIran's nuclear deal and how it could affect oil
Both stocks have jumped more than 20 percent this year. American refiners have taken advantage of the spread between WTI and Brent, trader Brian Kelly said.
Brent sat more than $7 per barrel higher on Wednesday, so investors should watch the gap between the two, he added.
Though most have struggled, some "conventional production" companies have shown promise, trader Tim Seymour said. He looked at names including Hess(NYSE: HES)and EOG Resources(NYSE: EOG), which he said had strong balance sheets and could have upside on an industry downtrend.
Read MoreThe other biggest loser in oil's slide: Angola
Hess and EOG have fallen 18 and 6 percent, respectively, in the last year.
Disclosures:
Tim Seymour
Tim Seymour is long T, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP and SUNE. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK and SBUX.
Pete Najarian
Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MRK, PEP, PFE and SAP. He is long calls BK, CNX, COP, EBAY, EXXI, F, FCX, FL, GE, GM, GT, JD, KO, LYB, NEE, PBR, PEP, RAD, RAI, TEVA, TWTR, UA, UAL, UFS and ZIOP. Today he bought RAI calls and UA calls.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=, U.S. dollar, EEM, GLD, GSG and TLT. He is long calls CTRL. He is long puts SPY. He is short yuan.
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS and INTC. Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• CNBC.com Earnings Central || Trading the oil pullback: 5 plays on volatility: As uncertainty reigns in oil trading, investors should look to profit on up-and-down movement in the commodity, CNBC "Fast Money" trader Pete Najarian said. The CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index (INDEX: .OVX) jumped more than 3 percent on Tuesday and is up 179 percent in the last year. It sat just below $54 on Tuesday and if it falls below $50, options in the index could be a profitable play, Najarian said. "It gives you an opportunity to play some of that upside with all this volatility," he said. Benchmark U.S. WTI crude oil (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) dropped 2 percent on Tuesday while global standard Brent (Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1) fell more than 1 percent. Refiners including Tesoro (NYSE: TSO) and Valero (NYSE: VLO) "still work" amid the choppy trading, said trader Guy Adami. Read More Iran's nuclear deal and how it could affect oil Both stocks have jumped more than 20 percent this year. American refiners have taken advantage of the spread between WTI and Brent, trader Brian Kelly said. Brent sat more than $7 per barrel higher on Wednesday, so investors should watch the gap between the two, he added. Though most have struggled, some "conventional production" companies have shown promise, trader Tim Seymour said. He looked at names including Hess (NYSE: HES) and EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) , which he said had strong balance sheets and could have upside on an industry downtrend. Read More The other biggest loser in oil's slide: Angola Hess and EOG have fallen 18 and 6 percent, respectively, in the last year. Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long T, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP and SUNE. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK and SBUX. Pete Najarian Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MRK, PEP, PFE and SAP. He is long calls BK, CNX, COP, EBAY, EXXI, F, FCX, FL, GE, GM, GT, JD, KO, LYB, NEE, PBR, PEP, RAD, RAI, TEVA, TWTR, UA, UAL, UFS and ZIOP. Today he bought RAI calls and UA calls. Story continues Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=, U.S. dollar, EEM, GLD, GSG and TLT. He is long calls CTRL. He is long puts SPY. He is short yuan. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS and INTC. Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC CNBC.com News Page CNBC.com Blogs Page CNBC.com Earnings Central || Your first trade for Wednesday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades for the quarter.
Tim Seymour was a buyer of TEF(Mercado Continuo: TEF-ES).
Pete Najarian was a buyer of TWTR(: THEGQ).
Brian Kelly was a buyer of TLT(NYSE Arca: TLT).
Guy Adami was a buyer of BX.(NYSE: BX)
Trader disclosure: On March 31, 2015 , the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Tim Seymour is long T, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX. Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MRK, PEP, PFE, SAP, he is long calls BK, CNX, COP, EBAY, EXXI, F, FCX, FL, GE, GM, GT, JD, KO, LYB, NEE, PBR, PEP, RAD, RAI, TEVA, TWTR, UA, UAL, UFS, ZIOP, today he bought RAI calls, UA calls. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=, U.S. Dollar, EEM, GLD, GSG, TLT, he is long calls CTRL, he is long puts SPY, he is short Yuan. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• CNBC.com Earnings Central || Your first trade for Wednesday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final trades for the quarter. Tim Seymour was a buyer of TEF (Mercado Continuo: TEF-ES) . Pete Najarian was a buyer of TWTR (: THEGQ) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of TLT (NYSE Arca: TLT) . Guy Adami was a buyer of BX. (NYSE: BX) Trader disclosure: On March 31, 2015 , the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Tim Seymour is long T, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX. Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MRK, PEP, PFE, SAP, he is long calls BK, CNX, COP, EBAY, EXXI, F, FCX, FL, GE, GM, GT, JD, KO, LYB, NEE, PBR, PEP, RAD, RAI, TEVA, TWTR, UA, UAL, UFS, ZIOP, today he bought RAI calls, UA calls. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=, U.S. Dollar, EEM, GLD, GSG, TLT, he is long calls CTRL, he is long puts SPY, he is short Yuan. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC CNBC.com News Page CNBC.com Blogs Page CNBC.com Earnings Central || Columbus International Inc. Closes Upon Its Acquisition by CWC: BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) - Columbus International Inc. ("Columbus") is pleased to announce that it has received the requisite approvals, satisfied all necessary conditions and has closed upon its transaction to be acquired by Cable & Wireless Communications PLC ("CWC") as previously announced on November 6, 2014. The acquisition, valued at US$3.025bn, will enable the combined company to significantly accelerate growth, improve service delivery to customers in the region, offer customers a more comprehensive portfolio of high-quality products and services, and strengthen its position against larger competitors. The increased scale and capabilities of the combined company will provide the technical platform and financial capacity to help enable the combined company to drive greater innovation and expand its geographic footprint.
The combination of the two companies is consistent with global industry trends, where convergence of fixed and mobile networks, increasing content consumption growth, and continuing development of online applications are driving requirements for high bandwidth, fixed line networks and TV capabilities. Operators in Europe and North America, as well as regional competitors, are acquiring and constructing networks that are capable of supporting ever-growing data needs along with new video capabilities.
Columbus believes that the combined strengths of both companies will accelerate growth, provide the necessary scale to enhance the customer experience, and help to allow Columbus to achieve its goal to become the "Best service provider" and "Employer of Choice" in the region. Similarly, the combination of the two businesses supports CWC's new strategy and its four primary areas of focus: Drive Mobile Leadership; Accelerate Fixed-Mobile Convergence; Reinforce TV Offer; and Grow Business to Business and Business to Government sectors. This strategy is underpinned by their announced US$1.05billion Project Marlin capital investment program. Additionally, CWC believes that the combination of the two businesses will generate material operating cost and capital expenditure synergies.
The combination of Columbus' pay TV capabilities and next-generation, state-of-the-art fibre networks with CWC's region-leading mobile footprint and existing fixed line infrastructure will significantly expand product and service offerings for customers and also advance CWC's quad play ambitions. The combined business will also deliver the benefits of superior quality network infrastructure, fixed-mobile products and bundles, superior TV content at competitive rates, and a more attractive portfolio of products and services in the B2B and B2G segments.
For both companies, the combination transaction will enable greater focus on the Caribbean, Andean and Latin American markets, a region that offers attractive growth.
Cox & Palmer acted as lead legal counsel to Columbus, supported by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer together with Mills & Reeve (UK corporate and securities), Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler (bond and financing) and Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP (USA regulatory)
Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets, LLC acted as financial advisors to Columbus.
About Columbus International Inc.Columbus International Inc.is a privately held diversified telecommunications company based in Barbados. The Company provides digital cable television, broadband Internet and digital landline telephony in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Curacao under the brand nameFlowand in Antigua under the brand nameKarib Cable. Columbus also provides next generation connectivity and IT solutions, managed networking and cloud-based services under the brandColumbus Business Solutions. Through its subsidiary,Columbus Networks, the Company provides capacity and IP services, corporate data solutions and data centre services throughout 42 countries in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region. Through its fully protected, ringed submarine fibre optic network spanning more than 42,300 km and its 38,000 km terrestrial fibre and coaxial network, Columbus' 3,150 plus professionals provide advanced telecom services to a diverse residential and corporate client base of approximately 720,000 customers.
For more information visit:www.columbus.co
About Cable & Wireless CommunicationsCable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full-service communications provider operating in 16 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. With four leading brands: Mas Movil (Cable and Wireless Panama), LIME (the Caribbean excluding The Bahamas), BTC (The Bahamas) and Cable and Wireless Seychelles, CWC offers mobile, broadband, TV, domestic and international fixed line services and serves over 5.5m customers. CWC also provides premium data centre hosting, domestic and international managed data network services and customised IT Service Solutions to businesses and governments through our Cable & Wireless Business Solutions division.
We are the market leader in most of the products we offer and the territories we serve.
For more information visit:www.cwc.com. || Columbus International Inc. Closes Upon Its Acquisition by CWC: BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) - Columbus International Inc. ("Columbus") is pleased to announce that it has received the requisite approvals, satisfied all necessary conditions and has closed upon its transaction to be acquired by Cable & Wireless Communications PLC ("CWC") as previously announced on November 6, 2014. The acquisition, valued at US$3.025bn, will enable the combined company to significantly accelerate growth, improve service delivery to customers in the region, offer customers a more comprehensive portfolio of high-quality products and services, and strengthen its position against larger competitors. The increased scale and capabilities of the combined company will provide the technical platform and financial capacity to help enable the combined company to drive greater innovation and expand its geographic footprint. The combination of the two companies is consistent with global industry trends, where convergence of fixed and mobile networks, increasing content consumption growth, and continuing development of online applications are driving requirements for high bandwidth, fixed line networks and TV capabilities. Operators in Europe and North America, as well as regional competitors, are acquiring and constructing networks that are capable of supporting ever-growing data needs along with new video capabilities. Columbus believes that the combined strengths of both companies will accelerate growth, provide the necessary scale to enhance the customer experience, and help to allow Columbus to achieve its goal to become the "Best service provider" and "Employer of Choice" in the region. Similarly, the combination of the two businesses supports CWC's new strategy and its four primary areas of focus: Drive Mobile Leadership; Accelerate Fixed-Mobile Convergence; Reinforce TV Offer; and Grow Business to Business and Business to Government sectors. This strategy is underpinned by their announced US$1.05billion Project Marlin capital investment program. Additionally, CWC believes that the combination of the two businesses will generate material operating cost and capital expenditure synergies. Story continues The combination of Columbus' pay TV capabilities and next-generation, state-of-the-art fibre networks with CWC's region-leading mobile footprint and existing fixed line infrastructure will significantly expand product and service offerings for customers and also advance CWC's quad play ambitions. The combined business will also deliver the benefits of superior quality network infrastructure, fixed-mobile products and bundles, superior TV content at competitive rates, and a more attractive portfolio of products and services in the B2B and B2G segments. For both companies, the combination transaction will enable greater focus on the Caribbean, Andean and Latin American markets, a region that offers attractive growth. Cox & Palmer acted as lead legal counsel to Columbus, supported by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer together with Mills & Reeve (UK corporate and securities), Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler (bond and financing) and Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP (USA regulatory) Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets, LLC acted as financial advisors to Columbus. About Columbus International Inc. Columbus International Inc. is a privately held diversified telecommunications company based in Barbados. The Company provides digital cable television, broadband Internet and digital landline telephony in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Curacao under the brand name Flow and in Antigua under the brand name Karib Cable . Columbus also provides next generation connectivity and IT solutions, managed networking and cloud-based services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions . Through its subsidiary, Columbus Networks , the Company provides capacity and IP services, corporate data solutions and data centre services throughout 42 countries in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region. Through its fully protected, ringed submarine fibre optic network spanning more than 42,300 km and its 38,000 km terrestrial fibre and coaxial network, Columbus' 3,150 plus professionals provide advanced telecom services to a diverse residential and corporate client base of approximately 720,000 customers. For more information visit: www.columbus.co About Cable & Wireless Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full-service communications provider operating in 16 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. With four leading brands: Mas Movil (Cable and Wireless Panama), LIME (the Caribbean excluding The Bahamas), BTC (The Bahamas) and Cable and Wireless Seychelles, CWC offers mobile, broadband, TV, domestic and international fixed line services and serves over 5.5m customers. CWC also provides premium data centre hosting, domestic and international managed data network services and customised IT Service Solutions to businesses and governments through our Cable & Wireless Business Solutions division. We are the market leader in most of the products we offer and the territories we serve. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . || CWC/Columbus Merger Finalized; Strong Regional Telecommunications Provider Emerges: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) - Cable and Wireless Communications, Plc (CWC) announced today that it has completed its US$1.85bn acquisition of 100% of the equity of Columbus International Inc.
Commenting on the completion of the transaction, Chief Executive Officer, Phil Bentley, said: "This is a transformational deal for Cable & Wireless Communications. Columbus Communications is an outstanding business; not only do we add significant fibre optic submarine backhaul and terrestrial broadband and TV capability to our leading mobile and legacy copper networks in the Caribbean, but our complementary B2B divisions can now offer geographical focus and a wider product offering in the faster-growing Latin American markets.
"We expect the operating synergies to be significant; together, the new merged company creates the opportunity to invest more, grow faster, and provide an improved customer experience and, most importantly, a development opportunity for our people that either company could never have achieved on their own.
"There has been an extensive and professional regulatory review, with appropriate remedies. We are pleased we now have the necessary Government support to conclude this important transaction and to start making the financial commitments required to deliver an outstanding customer experience and to enhance the telecommunications infrastructure and economic development of the communities we serve."
Bentley noted that as part of the integration process, the Company "is undertaking a full review of all the brands we currently operate under, including the Flow and LIME brands as well as the business and wholesale brands," but added that "no decision has yet been made."
Commenting on the merger process and next steps, Bentley said, "Most of the markets we operate in have approved our integration plans and therefore today we can start to release some of the US$1.5bn investment monies we have set aside to provide our customers with an unrivalled telecommunications experience, improving coverage, reliability, products and speeds, and providing a welcome boost to both jobs and the economy in the countries in which we operate.
"In a small number of markets where we have yet to receive all the necessary approvals required, we cannot commence our integration and investment plans; we will therefore continue to support the local regulatory due process until we have the green light to move forward in those markets."
About Cable & Wireless CommunicationsCable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full-service communications provider operating in 16 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. With four leading brands: Mas Movil (Cable and Wireless Panama), LIME (the Caribbean excluding The Bahamas), BTC (The Bahamas) and Cable and Wireless Seychelles, CWC offers mobile, broadband, TV, domestic and international fixed line services and serves over 5.5m customers. CWC also provides premium data centre hosting, domestic and international managed data network services and customised IT Service Solutions to businesses and governments through our Cable & Wireless Business Solutions division.
We are the market leader in most of the products we offer and the territories we serve.
For more information visit:www.cwc.com.
About Columbus International Inc.Columbus International Inc. is a privately held diversified telecommunications company based in Barbados. The Company provides digital cable television, broadband Internet and digital landline telephony in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Curacao under the brand name Flow and in Antigua under the brand name Karib Cable. Columbus also provides next generation connectivity and IT solutions, managed networking and cloud-based services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions. Through its subsidiary, Columbus Networks, the Company provides capacity and IP services, corporate data solutions and data centre hosting throughout 42 countries in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region. Through its fully protected, ringed submarine fibre optic network spanning more than 42,300 km and its 38,000 km terrestrial fibre and coaxial network, Columbus' 3,150 plus professionals provide advanced telecom services to a diverse residential and corporate client base of over 700,000 customers.
For more information visitwww.columbus.co || CWC/Columbus Merger Finalized; Strong Regional Telecommunications Provider Emerges: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) - Cable and Wireless Communications, Plc (CWC) announced today that it has completed its US$1.85bn acquisition of 100% of the equity of Columbus International Inc. Commenting on the completion of the transaction, Chief Executive Officer, Phil Bentley, said: "This is a transformational deal for Cable & Wireless Communications. Columbus Communications is an outstanding business; not only do we add significant fibre optic submarine backhaul and terrestrial broadband and TV capability to our leading mobile and legacy copper networks in the Caribbean, but our complementary B2B divisions can now offer geographical focus and a wider product offering in the faster-growing Latin American markets. "We expect the operating synergies to be significant; together, the new merged company creates the opportunity to invest more, grow faster, and provide an improved customer experience and, most importantly, a development opportunity for our people that either company could never have achieved on their own. "There has been an extensive and professional regulatory review, with appropriate remedies. We are pleased we now have the necessary Government support to conclude this important transaction and to start making the financial commitments required to deliver an outstanding customer experience and to enhance the telecommunications infrastructure and economic development of the communities we serve." Bentley noted that as part of the integration process, the Company "is undertaking a full review of all the brands we currently operate under, including the Flow and LIME brands as well as the business and wholesale brands," but added that "no decision has yet been made." Commenting on the merger process and next steps, Bentley said, "Most of the markets we operate in have approved our integration plans and therefore today we can start to release some of the US$1.5bn investment monies we have set aside to provide our customers with an unrivalled telecommunications experience, improving coverage, reliability, products and speeds, and providing a welcome boost to both jobs and the economy in the countries in which we operate. Story continues "In a small number of markets where we have yet to receive all the necessary approvals required, we cannot commence our integration and investment plans; we will therefore continue to support the local regulatory due process until we have the green light to move forward in those markets." About Cable & Wireless Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full-service communications provider operating in 16 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. With four leading brands: Mas Movil (Cable and Wireless Panama), LIME (the Caribbean excluding The Bahamas), BTC (The Bahamas) and Cable and Wireless Seychelles, CWC offers mobile, broadband, TV, domestic and international fixed line services and serves over 5.5m customers. CWC also provides premium data centre hosting, domestic and international managed data network services and customised IT Service Solutions to businesses and governments through our Cable & Wireless Business Solutions division. We are the market leader in most of the products we offer and the territories we serve. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . About Columbus International Inc. Columbus International Inc. is a privately held diversified telecommunications company based in Barbados. The Company provides digital cable television, broadband Internet and digital landline telephony in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Curacao under the brand name Flow and in Antigua under the brand name Karib Cable. Columbus also provides next generation connectivity and IT solutions, managed networking and cloud-based services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions. Through its subsidiary, Columbus Networks, the Company provides capacity and IP services, corporate data solutions and data centre hosting throughout 42 countries in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region. Through its fully protected, ringed submarine fibre optic network spanning more than 42,300 km and its 38,000 km terrestrial fibre and coaxial network, Columbus' 3,150 plus professionals provide advanced telecom services to a diverse residential and corporate client base of over 700,000 customers. For more information visit www.columbus.co || Corruption in Commerce Dept? Lawmakers Want Him Out: Lawmakers will ask President Obama to fire the Commerce Department’s inspector general in the face of allegations against him over misconduct, retaliation against whistleblowers – and now, hiring a close friend for a cushy job with a six-figure salary.
Todd J. Zinser, theCommerce IG since 2007, is in charge of weeding out the very type of misconduct he’s accused of committing. Last week, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), the ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said President Obama should remove Zinser because of unacceptable behavior over a period of time.
Related: Why This Government Watchdog Needs Watching
“There is a sustained pattern of misconduct and malfeasance that would be unacceptable in any senior federal official but is particularly troubling for an inspector general,” Johnson said in her statement.
“That an IG, or his senior staff, would attempt to punish and silence whistleblowers within their own office flies in the face of everything we expect of an IG,” Johnson added.
Since last July, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been probing into allegations Zinser failed to discipline two employees in his office who intimidated potential whistleblowers. After Zinser defended his actions in a letter to Congress, lawmakers indicated they would look further into the alleged misconduct.
“Your response to our letter suggests that misconduct will not just be ignored by you, it will be defended by you with vigor,” the committee’s letter said. It added, “When an IG cannot effectively serve as a watchdog due to their own illegal conduct or lack of ethical grounding, that IG cannot maintain the trust and confidence of the Congress, agency employees or the public.”
Related: U.S. Spent $1 Billion on a Watchdog That Didn’t Bark
A separate investigation by the Office of Special Counsel concluded there was no direct evidence proving Zinser knew his two employees engaged in misconduct.
Since then, a new complaint has emerged against Zinser. Rep. Johnson, during her speech on Thursday calling for his termination, referred to allegations that Zinser hired a woman he was romantically involved with for a senior executive job. Her salary -- a $150,000 plus annual bonuses.
Johnson said before the woman got the job, she was about to be turned down for a senior executive position in another office. There are questions about whether her qualifications were in line with the job she took in Zinser’s office.
An employee in the IG’s office implied there were issues with the hire in an email to the agency’s legal counsel obtained byThe Washington Post.
Related: Federal Agents Busted for Stealing Bitcoins
Zinser, who previously served as the Transportation Department’s acting inspector general and deputy inspector general and who has a long history as a civil servant, denied any questionable hiring practices. He told the Council of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) that the woman was hired solely “on business necessity, not on a personal relationship.” He said he was not romantically involved with her.
Zinser is not the only federal watchdog accused of wrongdoing. Last year a congressional report accused the Department of Homeland Security’s former acting IG of intentionally altering and blocking investigations.
The acting IG, Charles Edwards, allegedly took employees to dinner – then fed them information about his office’s investigations. Edwards was put on administrative leave and remained on the government’s payroll until at least October of last year.
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• 6 Popular Social Security Myths Busted || Corruption in Commerce Dept? Lawmakers Want Him Out: Lawmakers will ask President Obama to fire the Commerce Department’s inspector general in the face of allegations against him over misconduct, retaliation against whistleblowers – and now, hiring a close friend for a cushy job with a six-figure salary. Todd J. Zinser, the Commerce IG since 2007 , is in charge of weeding out the very type of misconduct he’s accused of committing. Last week, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), the ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said President Obama should remove Zinser because of unacceptable behavior over a period of time. Related: Why This Government Watchdog Needs Watching “There is a sustained pattern of misconduct and malfeasance that would be unacceptable in any senior federal official but is particularly troubling for an inspector general,” Johnson said in her statement. “That an IG, or his senior staff, would attempt to punish and silence whistleblowers within their own office flies in the face of everything we expect of an IG,” Johnson added. Since last July, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been probing into allegations Zinser failed to discipline two employees in his office who intimidated potential whistleblowers. After Zinser defended his actions in a letter to Congress, lawmakers indicated they would look further into the alleged misconduct. “Your response to our letter suggests that misconduct will not just be ignored by you, it will be defended by you with vigor,” the committee’s letter said. It added, “When an IG cannot effectively serve as a watchdog due to their own illegal conduct or lack of ethical grounding, that IG cannot maintain the trust and confidence of the Congress, agency employees or the public.” Related: U.S. Spent $1 Billion on a Watchdog That Didn’t Bark A separate investigation by the Office of Special Counsel concluded there was no direct evidence proving Zinser knew his two employees engaged in misconduct. Since then, a new complaint has emerged against Zinser. Rep. Johnson, during her speech on Thursday calling for his termination, referred to allegations that Zinser hired a woman he was romantically involved with for a senior executive job. Her salary -- a $150,000 plus annual bonuses. Story continues Johnson said before the woman got the job, she was about to be turned down for a senior executive position in another office. There are questions about whether her qualifications were in line with the job she took in Zinser’s office. An employee in the IG’s office implied there were issues with the hire in an email to the agency’s legal counsel obtained by The Washington Post. Related: Federal Agents Busted for Stealing Bitcoins Zinser, who previously served as the Transportation Department’s acting inspector general and deputy inspector general and who has a long history as a civil servant, denied any questionable hiring practices. He told the Council of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) that the woman was hired solely “on business necessity, not on a personal relationship.” He said he was not romantically involved with her. Zinser is not the only federal watchdog accused of wrongdoing. Last year a congressional report accused the Department of Homeland Security’s former acting IG of intentionally altering and blocking investigations. The acting IG, Charles Edwards, allegedly took employees to dinner – then fed them information about his office’s investigations. Edwards was put on administrative leave and remained on the government’s payroll until at least October of last year. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Vladimir Putin’s New Best Friends: Nervous Oil Traders The Knights Templar Shows How to Fight ISIS and Win 6 Popular Social Security Myths Busted || Rakuten.com Bolsters Secure Payments Processing With Bitnet: ALISO VIEJO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) -Rakuten.comtoday announced it has fully integratedBitnet'spayment processing platform to accept bitcoin as payment. The Bitnet integration allows shoppers full consumer protection and peace of mind when using bitcoin for payment transactions with merchants through Rakuten.com's online marketplace. To mark the occasion, Rakuten.com is running a bitcoin promotion beginning April 1.
Fumio Kobayashi, president of Rakuten.com said: "Bitcoin turned the Internet into a secure, seamless global payment network. By integrating with Bitnet we are now offering consumers the industry standard in secure payments, and our merchants will benefit by receiving guaranteed payments. Both consumers and merchants will have peace of mind when participating in the Rakuten.com online marketplace."
The integration with Bitnet's platform will make Rakuten.com one of the most secure ecommerce marketplaces. Rakuten.com merchants will immediately see the benefits of using a digital currency, including guaranteed payment, instant global reach with no cross-border fees, no price volatility, and no fraud, risk or chargebacks, all for a transaction fees less than that of credit cards. Rakuten.com shoppers will instantly benefit from full consumer protection, including multi-sig escrow services for high-value items.
John McDonnell, Co-Founder & CEO, Bitnet, said: "At Bitnet we built security into the DNA of our platform. Our approach to security is designed to protect both shoppers and merchants. We're excited to join with Rakuten.com in offering the most secure and seamless global payment network that can be enjoyed by both merchants and shoppers."
Rakuten.com is promoting bitcoin payments with promotional campaigns to encourage shoppers to try the digital currency. The initial campaign rewards bitcoin users with a financial incentive. Other promotional campaigns will continue throughout the course of the year to encourage adoption and repeat usage.
About Rakuten.com:
About Rakuten.com Rakuten.com is a global e-commerce site that connects buyers and sellers in a dynamic marketplace and thinks of shopping as entertainment -- complete with sharing and discovery functions, great prices, fun experiences and convenience. Rakuten.com provides over 20 million products in 24 categories and includes a network of over 5,500 small and large business shop owners. Rakuten.com was founded as Buy.com in 1997 and acquired by Rakuten Inc. in May 2010. Its 150 employees are headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California.
About Bitnet:
Bitnet provides a digital commerce platform enabling enterprise-scale merchants to accept bitcoin payments. Bitnet's engineering, product, and business development team helped build and manage the world's largest payment gateway, CyberSource (NASDAQ:CYBS), which was sold to the world's largest payment network, Visa (NYSE:V), for $2 billion in 2010. Bitnet has offices in San Francisco, California and Belfast, Northern Ireland. For more information visithttps://www.bitnet.io. || Rakuten.com Bolsters Secure Payments Processing With Bitnet: ALISO VIEJO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2015) - Rakuten.com today announced it has fully integrated Bitnet's payment processing platform to accept bitcoin as payment. The Bitnet integration allows shoppers full consumer protection and peace of mind when using bitcoin for payment transactions with merchants through Rakuten.com's online marketplace. To mark the occasion, Rakuten.com is running a bitcoin promotion beginning April 1. Fumio Kobayashi, president of Rakuten.com said: "Bitcoin turned the Internet into a secure, seamless global payment network. By integrating with Bitnet we are now offering consumers the industry standard in secure payments, and our merchants will benefit by receiving guaranteed payments. Both consumers and merchants will have peace of mind when participating in the Rakuten.com online marketplace." The integration with Bitnet's platform will make Rakuten.com one of the most secure ecommerce marketplaces. Rakuten.com merchants will immediately see the benefits of using a digital currency, including guaranteed payment, instant global reach with no cross-border fees, no price volatility, and no fraud, risk or chargebacks, all for a transaction fees less than that of credit cards. Rakuten.com shoppers will instantly benefit from full consumer protection, including multi-sig escrow services for high-value items. John McDonnell, Co-Founder & CEO, Bitnet, said: "At Bitnet we built security into the DNA of our platform. Our approach to security is designed to protect both shoppers and merchants. We're excited to join with Rakuten.com in offering the most secure and seamless global payment network that can be enjoyed by both merchants and shoppers." Rakuten.com is promoting bitcoin payments with promotional campaigns to encourage shoppers to try the digital currency. The initial campaign rewards bitcoin users with a financial incentive. Other promotional campaigns will continue throughout the course of the year to encourage adoption and repeat usage. About Rakuten.com: About Rakuten.com Rakuten.com is a global e-commerce site that connects buyers and sellers in a dynamic marketplace and thinks of shopping as entertainment -- complete with sharing and discovery functions, great prices, fun experiences and convenience. Rakuten.com provides over 20 million products in 24 categories and includes a network of over 5,500 small and large business shop owners. Rakuten.com was founded as Buy.com in 1997 and acquired by Rakuten Inc. in May 2010. Its 150 employees are headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California. Story continues About Bitnet: Bitnet provides a digital commerce platform enabling enterprise-scale merchants to accept bitcoin payments. Bitnet's engineering, product, and business development team helped build and manage the world's largest payment gateway, CyberSource ( NASDAQ : CYBS ), which was sold to the world's largest payment network, Visa ( NYSE : V ), for $2 billion in 2010. Bitnet has offices in San Francisco, California and Belfast, Northern Ireland. For more information visit https://www.bitnet.io . View comments || Federal Agents Busted for Stealing Bitcoins, Extorting Silk Road Founder: Two former federal agents were charged Monday with stealing Bitcoin and laundering money while working at the center of last year’s massive investigation into the now-defunct Silk Road.
Justice Department officialsannounced the chargesagainst former DEA officer Carl Mark Force and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges. The two men allegedly used Bitcoin to launder money while they were in the middle of investigating the infamous online black market, which was shut down by the government last year.
Related: U.S. Probed Mt. Gox CEO as Possible Silk Road Mastermind
At the time, the government seized about $33 million worth of Bitcoin from the marketplace and charged its founder, Ross Ulbricht – or “Dread Pirate Roberts,” as he’s known on the web – with aiding drug trafficking. He was ultimately found guilty and awaits sentencing.
Carl Force was the main investigator tasked with communicating with Ulbricht. He allegedly used his position during the investigation to extort money from Ulbricht by using a number of Internet aliases.
In one instance, Force apparently demanded $250,000 from Ulbricht in exchange for withholding information from his colleagues at the DOJ.
The government charged him with wiring fraud, stealing government property and money laundering.
Related: Porn, Drugs, Hitmen, Hackers: This is the Deep Web
Separately, Bridges, the Secret Service agent, worked with Force and allegedly diverted more than $800,000 in Bitcoin to a personal account during the investigation. The complaint accuses the two former agents of texting back and forth about the fluctuating value of Bitcoin.
The two reportedly resigned from their positions abruptly before being arrested last week.
The charges against the agents come at an embarrassing time for both of their former agencies. Just last week a report from the DOJ’s inspector general accused agents at the Drug Enforcement Agency of having “sex parties” with prostitutes bought and paid for by drug cartels in Columbia.
The Secret Service has suffered a problem-plagued year with numerous security breaches as well as a prostitution scandal in 2010.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
• Vladimir Putin’s New Best Friends: Nervous Oil Traders
• Outrageous Public Pensions Could Bankrupt These States
• 6 Popular Social Security Myths Busted || Federal Agents Busted for Stealing Bitcoins, Extorting Silk Road Founder: Two former federal agents were charged Monday with stealing Bitcoin and laundering money while working at the center of last year’s massive investigation into the now-defunct Silk Road. Justice Department officials announced the charges against former DEA officer Carl Mark Force and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges. The two men allegedly used Bitcoin to launder money while they were in the middle of investigating the infamous online black market, which was shut down by the government last year. Related: U.S. Probed Mt. Gox CEO as Possible Silk Road Mastermind At the time, the government seized about $33 million worth of Bitcoin from the marketplace and charged its founder, Ross Ulbricht – or “Dread Pirate Roberts,” as he’s known on the web – with aiding drug trafficking. He was ultimately found guilty and awaits sentencing. Carl Force was the main investigator tasked with communicating with Ulbricht. He allegedly used his position during the investigation to extort money from Ulbricht by using a number of Internet aliases. In one instance, Force apparently demanded $250,000 from Ulbricht in exchange for withholding information from his colleagues at the DOJ. The government charged him with wiring fraud, stealing government property and money laundering. Related: Porn, Drugs, Hitmen, Hackers: This is the Deep Web Separately, Bridges, the Secret Service agent, worked with Force and allegedly diverted more than $800,000 in Bitcoin to a personal account during the investigation. The complaint accuses the two former agents of texting back and forth about the fluctuating value of Bitcoin. The two reportedly resigned from their positions abruptly before being arrested last week. The charges against the agents come at an embarrassing time for both of their former agencies. Just last week a report from the DOJ’s inspector general accused agents at the Drug Enforcement Agency of having “sex parties” with prostitutes bought and paid for by drug cartels in Columbia. Story continues The Secret Service has suffered a problem-plagued year with numerous security breaches as well as a prostitution scandal in 2010. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Vladimir Putin’s New Best Friends: Nervous Oil Traders Outrageous Public Pensions Could Bankrupt These States 6 Popular Social Security Myths Busted || Federal Agents Busted for Stealing Bitcoins, Extorting Silk Road Founder: Two former federal agents were charged Monday with stealing Bitcoin and laundering money while working at the center of last year’s massive investigation into the now-defunct Silk Road.
Justice Department officialsannounced the chargesagainst former DEA officer Carl Mark Force and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges. The two men allegedly used Bitcoin to launder money while they were in the middle of investigating the infamous online black market, which was shut down by the government last year.
Related: U.S. Probed Mt. Gox CEO as Possible Silk Road Mastermind
At the time, the government seized about $33 million worth of Bitcoin from the marketplace and charged its founder, Ross Ulbricht – or “Dread Pirate Roberts,” as he’s known on the web – with aiding drug trafficking. He was ultimately found guilty and awaits sentencing.
Carl Force was the main investigator tasked with communicating with Ulbricht. He allegedly used his position during the investigation to extort money from Ulbricht by using a number of Internet aliases.
In one instance, Force apparently demanded $250,000 from Ulbricht in exchange for withholding information from his colleagues at the DOJ.
The government charged him with wiring fraud, stealing government property and money laundering.
Related: Porn, Drugs, Hitmen, Hackers: This is the Deep Web
Separately, Bridges, the Secret Service agent, worked with Force and allegedly diverted more than $800,000 in Bitcoin to a personal account during the investigation. The complaint accuses the two former agents of texting back and forth about the fluctuating value of Bitcoin.
The two reportedly resigned from their positions abruptly before being arrested last week.
The charges against the agents come at an embarrassing time for both of their former agencies. Just last week a report from the DOJ’s inspector general accused agents at the Drug Enforcement Agency of having “sex parties” with prostitutes bought and paid for by drug cartels in Columbia.
The Secret Service has suffered a problem-plagued year with numerous security breaches as well as a prostitution scandal in 2010.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
• Vladimir Putin’s New Best Friends: Nervous Oil Traders
• Outrageous Public Pensions Could Bankrupt These States
• 6 Popular Social Security Myths Busted || Darkcoin Gets An Image Makeover: Digital currencies have earned a bad reputation over the past year as scams and illegal activities dominated the news coverage surrounding cryptocurrencies.
From the mysterious collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange to the Silk Road trial, consumers have become increasingly apprehensive about using digital currencies for fear of being scammed or associated with an illegal operation.
For that reason darkcoin has decided to rebrand itself as DASH in an effort to distance itself from the dark web.
Darkcoin is an altcoin, or alternative to bitcoin, that focuses on maintaining users' anonymity but was not deigned for use with the illegal activities taking place on the dark web.
The cryptocurrency's lead developer Evan Duffield decided to change the currency's name to DASH, short for digital cash, but says everything else will remain the same.
The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that has become a place for people to conduct illicit transactions.
Initially, the dark web was created to protect privacy as it can only be accessed through special software, but the anonymity it offers has made it a popular place to buy and sell illegal goods and services.
Related Link:Solving Bitcoin's Scalability Problem
Darkcoin has become a popular currency for users of the dark web as the cryptocurrency's privacy tools keep the transactions anonymous. However Duffield told theIBTimesthat it was never his intention to support those types of activities.
Instead, darkcoin was meant to be a currency capable of overcoming the flaws plaguing bitcoin. The transactions are instantaneous and there is no record, so it closely mimics using cash.
The cryptocurrency's developers are hoping that the name change will help the public accept DASH as a legitimate digital currency and allow it to expand.
See more from Benzinga
• TV For Babies Expanding Despite Controversy
• What The Net Neutrality Battle Looks Like In Europe
• Oil Prices Rise And Fall, Again
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Darkcoin Gets An Image Makeover: Digital currencies have earned a bad reputation over the past year as scams and illegal activities dominated the news coverage surrounding cryptocurrencies. From the mysterious collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange to the Silk Road trial, consumers have become increasingly apprehensive about using digital currencies for fear of being scammed or associated with an illegal operation. For that reason darkcoin has decided to rebrand itself as DASH in an effort to distance itself from the dark web. Darkcoin is an altcoin, or alternative to bitcoin, that focuses on maintaining users' anonymity but was not deigned for use with the illegal activities taking place on the dark web. The cryptocurrency's lead developer Evan Duffield decided to change the currency's name to DASH, short for digital cash, but says everything else will remain the same. The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that has become a place for people to conduct illicit transactions. Initially, the dark web was created to protect privacy as it can only be accessed through special software, but the anonymity it offers has made it a popular place to buy and sell illegal goods and services. Related Link: Solving Bitcoin's Scalability Problem Darkcoin has become a popular currency for users of the dark web as the cryptocurrency's privacy tools keep the transactions anonymous. However Duffield told the IBTimes that it was never his intention to support those types of activities. Instead, darkcoin was meant to be a currency capable of overcoming the flaws plaguing bitcoin. The transactions are instantaneous and there is no record, so it closely mimics using cash. The cryptocurrency's developers are hoping that the name change will help the public accept DASH as a legitimate digital currency and allow it to expand. See more from Benzinga TV For Babies Expanding Despite Controversy What The Net Neutrality Battle Looks Like In Europe Oil Prices Rise And Fall, Again © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Rivetz, Omni Foundation and HOPE Gold Coin Partners to Enable Secure E-Commerce: AUSTIN, TEXAS--(Marketwired - Mar 30, 2015) - [Texas Bitcoin Conference] --Rivetz(http://rivetz.com/), today announced the expansion of its community of software partners: Omni Foundation and HOPE Gold Coin will offer their customers state-of-the-art mobile security for e-commerce and ticketing.
Rivetz has also integrated the Omni-Layer protocol into its software development kit, RivetzSDK. The toolkit now offers Omni-Layer protocol/software developers a turnkey solution to rapidly integrate hardware security for Trusted Execution and key management into their applications. HOPE Gold Coin is leveraging the solution to provide state-of-the-art e-commerce and ticketing solutions for festival and concert goers atThe Festival of HOPE.
The RivetzSDK offers software developers protection for both private keys and sensitive data processing. The integration of the Omni-Layer protocol offers app developers the extensions to securely enable blockchain services to:
• Support transactions of blockchain assets,
• Offer blockchain enabled, peer-to-peer exchange of assets,
• Creation of new tokens on the blockchain.
Rivetz leverages the Local Trusted Execution Environment "TEE" supported on modern mobile devices to isolate secure transactions and keys from the local operating system and any malware. The isolation assures that the Omni-Layer compatible solution can enjoy cutting-edge cybersecurity protections and a simple user experience.
"We're thrilled about our partnership with Omni and HOPE Gold Coin together supporting The Festival of HOPE," said Steven Sprague,Rivetz's founder and CEO. "Music touches the heart and truly is a universal ambassador in helping bring HOPE Gold Coin and other crypto-currencies mainstream."
"Securing our partners' payment systems is fundamental to our philosophy and is consistent with what the market demands," said Judith Jakubovics, head of business development at the Omni Foundation. "Rivetz offers a next-generation security and device connectivity environment which is designed to work with next-generation smartphones and digital devices that our users demand."
"We're pleased about our joint partnership, and for the support of Omni, HOPE Gold Coin and Rivetz," said John Allen, co-founder and chairman of the Protector Committee for the HOPE Gold Coin Charitable Trust. "Billions of users around the globe will have an opportunity to participate in a wonderful series of concerts and events designed to support charitable causes and spread good will. Our partnership allows us to maximize the delivery of our charitable efforts by securing transactions and keeping operational costs at a minimum."
Omnicoin, HOPE Gold Coin (platinum sponsor) and Rivetz (gold sponsor) will be showcased atThe Texas Bitcoin Conferenceat the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas.
The Festival of HOPE. will take place globally, September 5-7, 2015. For details, please go tohttp://www.thefestivalofhope.org.
About Rivetz
Rivetz Corp. is focused on solving problems associated with consumers' relationships with financial and other online services. Rivetz provides a safer and easier-to-use model for all users to protect their digital assets and online transactions using hardware-based device identity. The device plays a critical role in automating security and enabling the controls that users need to benefit from modern services. Rivetz leverages state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools to develop a modern model for users and their devices to interact with services on the Internet. For more information, visitwww.Rivetz.com.
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.
RELATED LINKShttp://www.rivetz.com/ || Rivetz, Omni Foundation and HOPE Gold Coin Partners to Enable Secure E-Commerce: AUSTIN, TEXAS--(Marketwired - Mar 30, 2015) - [Texas Bitcoin Conference] -- Rivetz ( http://rivetz.com/ ), today announced the expansion of its community of software partners: Omni Foundation and HOPE Gold Coin will offer their customers state-of-the-art mobile security for e-commerce and ticketing. Rivetz has also integrated the Omni-Layer protocol into its software development kit, RivetzSDK. The toolkit now offers Omni-Layer protocol/software developers a turnkey solution to rapidly integrate hardware security for Trusted Execution and key management into their applications. HOPE Gold Coin is leveraging the solution to provide state-of-the-art e-commerce and ticketing solutions for festival and concert goers at The Festival of HOPE . The RivetzSDK offers software developers protection for both private keys and sensitive data processing. The integration of the Omni-Layer protocol offers app developers the extensions to securely enable blockchain services to: Support transactions of blockchain assets, Offer blockchain enabled, peer-to-peer exchange of assets, Creation of new tokens on the blockchain. Rivetz leverages the Local Trusted Execution Environment "TEE" supported on modern mobile devices to isolate secure transactions and keys from the local operating system and any malware. The isolation assures that the Omni-Layer compatible solution can enjoy cutting-edge cybersecurity protections and a simple user experience. "We're thrilled about our partnership with Omni and HOPE Gold Coin together supporting The Festival of HOPE," said Steven Sprague, Rivetz 's founder and CEO. "Music touches the heart and truly is a universal ambassador in helping bring HOPE Gold Coin and other crypto-currencies mainstream." "Securing our partners' payment systems is fundamental to our philosophy and is consistent with what the market demands," said Judith Jakubovics, head of business development at the Omni Foundation. "Rivetz offers a next-generation security and device connectivity environment which is designed to work with next-generation smartphones and digital devices that our users demand." Story continues "We're pleased about our joint partnership, and for the support of Omni, HOPE Gold Coin and Rivetz," said John Allen, co-founder and chairman of the Protector Committee for the HOPE Gold Coin Charitable Trust. "Billions of users around the globe will have an opportunity to participate in a wonderful series of concerts and events designed to support charitable causes and spread good will. Our partnership allows us to maximize the delivery of our charitable efforts by securing transactions and keeping operational costs at a minimum." Omnicoin, HOPE Gold Coin (platinum sponsor) and Rivetz (gold sponsor) will be showcased at The Texas Bitcoin Conference at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. The Festival of HOPE. will take place globally, September 5-7, 2015. For details, please go to http://www.thefestivalofhope.org . About Rivetz Rivetz Corp. is focused on solving problems associated with consumers' relationships with financial and other online services. Rivetz provides a safer and easier-to-use model for all users to protect their digital assets and online transactions using hardware-based device identity. The device plays a critical role in automating security and enabling the controls that users need to benefit from modern services. Rivetz leverages state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools to develop a modern model for users and their devices to interact with services on the Internet. For more information, visit www.Rivetz.com . All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners. RELATED LINKS http://www.rivetz.com/ || Digital Currency Student Debt Solutions Offered by Bitcoin Alternative DNotes with Long Term Savings Plans for Students: DNotes Launched the First Cryptocurrency Investment Savings Plan (CRISP) for Students, Aimed at Providing Them Multiple Solutions and Opportunities; Universities, Schools and Clubs will be Apportioned Codes Allowing Enrolled Students to Register to be Awarded 500 free DNotes
ILLINOIS, USA / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2015 /Market stable cryptocurrency DNotes launches their third long term Cryptocurrency Investment Savings Plan (CRISP) for Students. Following the launch of CRISP for Kids and CRISP for Retirement. While Bitcoin has struggled with explosive volatilities, second generation Bitcoin alternative DNotes has achieved remarkable stability and reliable appreciation since inception, making it a viable savings alternative with potential high returns that could help students avoid crippling student loan debt upon graduation.
DNotes Co-Founder Alan Yong explained that student debt hardship is a growing global problem, with damaging implications in future job and wealth creation for students. This global problem can be a great opportunity for DNotes and participating students. CRISP For Students mission is to engage and involve students worldwide to participate by having an ownership stake in the most innovative technology revolution since the Internet, positioning them to benefit from potential high returns and job opportunities.These students will become the next generation of DNotes' leaders, innovators and stakeholders, who will provide further solutions to global problems.
Humanity now lives in a hyperconnected world and by the year 2020 more than five billion people worldwide will be equipped with smart phones that are even more powerful and feature rich. New technologies are making it possible to solve problems on a global scale that were previously impossible to solve. Bitcoin is one such technology considered by many as the most innovative and disruptive since the Internet. Essentially, Bitcoin is the future of money; a decentralized digital currency, coupled with an immensely powerful Blockchain that removes the need for trusted third parties in financial transactions.
Alan Yong, DNotes Co-Founder and pioneer of the first commercial tablet computer, warns that student loans are a major threat to long-term wealth accumulation and overall student well-being. Yong points to research by the Assets and Education Initiative (AEDI), that found students with outstanding debt, regardless of how little, are more likely to defer the purchase of revenue generating assets till later in adulthood. Yong added that,
"The current student generation may not have access to publicly funded retirement entitlements in the future. This is why the DNotes team has moved to alleviate inadequate private savings. CRISP For Students will assist students to get started with a digital savings account without having to pay for it, allowing them to gain immediate exposure and experience with digital currency - the future of money."
DNotes Director of CRISP For Students, Timothy Goggin, said thatuniversities, schools and related clubs will be apportioned codes that will allow enrolled students to register to be awarded 500 DNotes.Students will be asked to provide their code, e-mail, institution and course of study. If a student is unable to register, they will be prompted with instructions on how to best ascertain a code from their institution of study. Some students may also be employed to help the DNotes team with ongoing projects and marketing, while earning crucial work experience with people in the top of their field.
Central to DNotes long term strategic plan is the creation of highly scalable building blocks, as the foundation of its own ecosystem. Those strategic building blocks include CryptoMoms; a currency neutral site dedicated to encourage female participation, DNotesVault; free and secure storage for DNotes' stakeholders with 100% deposit guarantee, and CRISPs; a family of Cryptocurrency Investment Savings Plans. CRISP for Students will become an integral part of DNotes ecosystem, with plans to include a conduit of scholar funds and an online global student marketplace. This is a global initiative to build the next generation of DNotes leaders and stakeholders, leading to mass consumer and mass merchant adoption of DNotes as a medium of exchange.
Universities, students, clubs and schools worldwide are invited to contact DNotes at [email protected] to arrange fordistribution of free DNotes to students to initiate their cryptocurrency savings, and to learn of other exciting opportunities in the world of emergent digital currencies.
About DNotes And Alan Yong:
DNotes co-founder Alan Yong established personal computer company Dauphin Technology in 1988, which had contracts with IBM, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Treasury. Having been well regarded as a visionary of a different tech era, emerging cryptocurrencies remind Yong of the early years of personal computers in the late 1980's.For more information about us, please visithttp://dnotesvault.com/crisp-for-students.php.
Contact Info:
Name: Alan YongEmail:[email protected]: DNotes
SOURCE:DNotes
[Social Media Buzz]
In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 21 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $790.22 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 27 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $845.92 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 165.55£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-04-01 23:00:04 BST || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 20 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $775.43 #bitcoin #btc || buysellbitc...
|
253.01, 254.32, 253.70, 260.60, 255.49, 253.18, 245.02, 243.68, 236.07, 236.55
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 19625.84, 18803.00, 19201.09, 19445.40, 18699.77, 19154.23, 19345.12, 19191.63, 18321.14, 18553.92, 18264.99, 18058.90, 18803.66, 19142.38, 19246.64, 19417.08, 21310.60, 22805.16, 23137.96, 23869.83, 23477.29, 22803.08, 23783.03, 23241.35, 23735.95, 24664.79, 26437.04, 26272.29, 27084.81, 27362.44, 28840.95, 29001.72, 29374.15, 32127.27, 32782.02, 31971.91, 33992.43, 36824.36, 39371.04, 40797.61, 40254.55, 38356.44, 35566.66, 33922.96, 37316.36, 39187.33, 36825.37, 36178.14, 35791.28, 36630.07, 36069.80, 35547.75, 30825.70, 33005.76, 32067.64, 32289.38, 32366.39, 32569.85, 30432.55, 33466.10, 34316.39, 34269.52, 33114.36, 33537.18, 35510.29, 37472.09, 36926.07, 38144.31, 39266.01, 38903.44, 46196.46, 46481.11, 44918.18, 47909.33, 47504.85, 47105.52, 48717.29, 47945.06, 49199.87, 52149.01, 51679.80, 55888.13, 56099.52, 57539.95, 54207.32, 48824.43, 49705.33, 47093.85, 46339.76, 46188.45.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-02-27]
Volume: 45910946382, RSI (14-day): 49.49, 50-day EMA: 41865.57, 200-day EMA: 26398.73
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Why GameStop Stock Traders Should Beware The 'Law Of Twos And Threes': GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME ) shares closed at $101.74 Friday after the stock surged from under $45 on Wednesday to as high as $184.68 on Thursday. Some traders may see the extreme volatility in GameStop as chaotic and unbelievable, but former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson said Friday that GameStop and other meme stocks like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC ) and Koss Corporation (NASDAQ: KOSS ) have demonstrated textbook dead cat bounces this week. A dead cat bounce is a large, short-lived recovery in a stock that has experienced an extreme decline. Unfortunately, dead cat bounces tend to be bull traps for traders, tricking some buyers into prematurely believing the bottom is in. Related Link: Kevin O'Leary Of 'Shark Tank,' Benzinga CEO Jason Raznick Talk GameStop, Bitcoin And Economic Recovery Trades “Mark my words: These three stocks will never again reach the highs they hit yesterday and will continue their collapses back to their fair values, which are much lower than today's levels,” Tilson wrote in his daily newsletter on Friday morning. The Law Of Twos And Threes: Tilson said the recent trading action in GameStop, AMC, Koss and other stocks reminds him of a rule of thumb a mentor once called “law of twos and threes. “What this means, he explained, is that every stock, on its way to zero, doubles three times and triples twice!” Tilson said. While he doesn’t believe GameStop, AMC and Koss are worth zero, Tilson said they are only worth a fraction of what they are priced at today. Tilson said the trading action in GameStop and other stocks ultimately results in retail traders losing money and faith in the market, which is bad news for every investor. See also: How to Buy GameStop (GME) Stock “What's going on sickens me — it's high time that regulators cracked down on all the things that have turned our markets into casinos,” Tilson wrote. Benzinga’s Take: Love it or hate it, there’s no question the retail short squeeze pump-and-dump strategy has worked like a charm with GameStop. Story continues Successfully timing the entry and exit points in highly volatile short squeezes can be extremely difficult, even for professional traders. Latest Ratings for GME Jan 2021 B of A Securities Maintains Underperform Jan 2021 Telsey Advisory Group Downgrades Outperform Underperform Oct 2020 Jefferies Downgrades Buy Hold View More Analyst Ratings for GME View the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Kevin O'Leary Of 'Shark Tank,' Benzinga CEO Jason Raznick Talk GameStop, Bitcoin And Economic Recovery Trades GameStop Drama Continues: Soaring Stock Halted, Cramer, Citron Weigh In © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Why GameStop Stock Traders Should Beware The 'Law Of Twos And Threes': GameStop Corp.(NYSE:GME) shares closed at $101.74 Friday after the stock surged from under $45 on Wednesday to as high as $184.68 on Thursday.
Some traders may see the extreme volatility in GameStop as chaotic and unbelievable, but former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson said Friday that GameStop and other meme stocks likeAMC Entertainment Holdings Inc(NYSE:AMC) andKoss Corporation(NASDAQ:KOSS) have demonstrated textbook dead cat bounces this week.
A dead cat bounce is a large, short-lived recovery in a stock that has experienced an extreme decline. Unfortunately, dead cat bounces tend to be bull traps for traders, tricking some buyers into prematurely believing the bottom is in.
Related Link:Kevin O'Leary Of 'Shark Tank,' Benzinga CEO Jason Raznick Talk GameStop, Bitcoin And Economic Recovery Trades
“Mark my words: These three stocks will never again reach the highs they hit yesterday and will continue their collapses back to their fair values, which are much lower than today's levels,” Tilson wrote in his daily newsletter on Friday morning.
The Law Of Twos And Threes:Tilson said the recent trading action in GameStop, AMC, Koss and other stocks reminds him of a rule of thumb a mentor once called “law of twos and threes.
“What this means, he explained, is that every stock, on its way to zero, doubles three times and triples twice!” Tilson said.
While he doesn’t believe GameStop, AMC and Koss are worth zero, Tilson said they are only worth a fraction of what they are priced at today.
Tilson said the trading action in GameStop and other stocks ultimately results in retail traders losing money and faith in the market, which is bad news for every investor.
See also: How to Buy GameStop (GME) Stock
“What's going on sickens me — it's high time that regulators cracked down on all the things that have turned our markets into casinos,” Tilson wrote.
Benzinga’s Take:Love it or hate it, there’s no question the retail short squeeze pump-and-dump strategy has worked like a charm with GameStop.
Successfully timing the entry and exit points in highly volatile short squeezes can be extremely difficult, even for professional traders.
Latest Ratings for GME
[{"Jan 2021": "Jan 2021", "B of A Securities": "Telsey Advisory Group", "Maintains": "Downgrades", "": "Outperform", "Underperform": "Underperform"}, {"Jan 2021": "Oct 2020", "B of A Securities": "Jefferies", "Maintains": "Downgrades", "": "Buy", "Underperform": "Hold"}]
View More Analyst Ratings for GMEView the Latest Analyst Ratings
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• Kevin O'Leary Of 'Shark Tank,' Benzinga CEO Jason Raznick Talk GameStop, Bitcoin And Economic Recovery Trades
• GameStop Drama Continues: Soaring Stock Halted, Cramer, Citron Weigh In
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Why Tesla Is Shifting More EVs To Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries: Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA ) has sounded out in the past its intention to move away from batteries with nickel cathode, given constraints in supply, and CEO Elon Musk reiterated this in a tweet late Thursday. What Happened: Nickel supply constraints are the biggest concern for Tesla in scaling lithium-ion cell production, Musk said in the tweet. The Tesla CEO also went on to add that this is the reason why the company is shifting its standard-range EV models to iron cathode. Nickel is our biggest concern for scaling lithium-ion cell production. That's why we are shifting standard range cars to an iron cathode. Plenty of iron (and lithium)! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 25, 2021 Musk also suggested that the use of lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries will free up more battery supply of lithium-ion chemistry cells using nickel cathodes for the company's other vehicle programs. Previously, Musk had said the energy density of LFP batteries has improved enough to justify the use of these cells in lower-end vehicles. Related Link: Tesla Gets A Street High ,200 Price Target: 'The Fireworks Aren't Over Yet' Why It's Important: Tesla is using LFP batteries in its Model 3 standard range plus vehicles manufactured in China. Thursday's tweet comes as an indicator that the EV giant could shift to LFP batteries in base model vehicles marketed in Europe and other regions. Nickel is the preferred option for EV batteries due to its higher energy density and greater storage capacity. Yet compared to iron, nickel is expensive, with prices soaring of late as the booming EV market continues to rely heavily on the metal. Nickel mining is also fraught with environmental risks. Fitch said in a recent report that it expects increased use of nickel in batteries to lead to a market deficit from 2025. Related Link: How Bitcoin, Demand Are Driving Tesla Shares Lower Story continues See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Will Nio's Sagging Stock Get a Lift From Earnings? A Q4 Preview Chinese EV Maker Li Clocks Q4 Profit On Strong Vehicle Sales, Issues Upbeat Q1 Guidance © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Why Tesla Is Shifting More EVs To Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries: Tesla Inc(NASDAQ:TSLA) has sounded out in the past its intention to move away from batteries with nickel cathode, given constraints in supply, and CEO Elon Musk reiterated this in a tweet late Thursday.
What Happened:Nickel supply constraints are the biggest concern for Tesla in scaling lithium-ion cell production, Musk said in the tweet.
The Tesla CEO also went on to add that this is the reason why the company is shifting its standard-range EV models to iron cathode.
Musk also suggested that the use of lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries will free up more battery supply of lithium-ion chemistry cells using nickel cathodes for the company's other vehicle programs.
Previously, Musk had said the energy density of LFP batteries has improved enough to justify the use of these cells in lower-end vehicles.
Related Link:Tesla Gets A Street High ,200 Price Target: 'The Fireworks Aren't Over Yet'
Why It's Important:Tesla is usingLFP batteriesin its Model 3 standard range plus vehicles manufactured in China.
Thursday's tweet comes as an indicator that the EV giant could shift to LFP batteries in base model vehicles marketed in Europe and other regions.
Nickel is the preferred option for EV batteries due to its higher energy density and greater storage capacity.
Yet compared to iron, nickel is expensive, with prices soaring of late as the booming EV market continues to rely heavily on the metal.
Nickel mining is also fraught with environmental risks. Fitch said in a recent report that it expects increased use of nickel in batteries to lead to a market deficit from 2025.
Related Link:How Bitcoin, Demand Are Driving Tesla Shares Lower
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• Will Nio's Sagging Stock Get a Lift From Earnings? A Q4 Preview
• Chinese EV Maker Li Clocks Q4 Profit On Strong Vehicle Sales, Issues Upbeat Q1 Guidance
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Buy the Dip in Square Stock, Says Analyst: In what has become an increasingly familiar pattern over the past year, Square ( SQ ) delivered another strong display when it reported 4Q20 earnings on Tuesday. Driven by surging Bitcoin demand, revenue increased by 141% year-over-year to reach $3.2 billion, beating Street estimates by $50 million. There was a beat on the bottom-line, too, with Non-GAAP EPS of $0.32 coming in ahead of the forecasts by $0.08. Of course, the star of the show was the all-conquering Cash App whose profits skyrocketed by 162% from the same period last year. However, investors appeared Square fatigued following the report’s release and sent shares down in the subsequent session. But in timely Wall Street fashion, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev tells investors to “buy the dip.” “Was there anything wrong with 4Q?” Dolev asks. “Not at all, it simply lacked the element of surprise.” Has the story changed? He asks next, before answering, “With Cash App GP per active growing +70%, 2.5x bitcoin volumes per customer, accelerating Seller GP, and a 40% increase in product/S&M etc. in 2021, we believe momentum is strong.” Furthermore, says the 5-star analyst, the near-term outlook looks promising. Although the Cash App’s growth slowed down from 164% in January to 130% in February, the analyst expects gross profit to accelerate throughout the quarter. “Assuming the February two-year gross profit stack of +247% holds through March, this implies +135% Y/Y gross profit growth, which is ahead of February's +130%,” Dolev said. By the same logic, taking January and February’s “two-year stack” of roughly 45-48% growth, Q1 should see a 27% GP uptick, which is higher than the 13% growth in Q4. Overall, Dolev’s analysis indicates that Square’s total gross profit will accelerate to between 65-70% in 1Q21, compared to the 54% growth of 4Q20 (ex. Caviar). And with April stimulus on the horizon, the analyst believes the Cash App will be due another boost in Q2. To this end, Dolev reiterated a Buy on SQ shares, backed by a $380 price target. Investors could be pocketing gains of 60%, should Dolev’s thesis play out accordingly in the months ahead. (To watch Dolev’s track record, click here ) Most Street analysts are also backing Square’s continued success. The stock’s Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on 17 Buys, 9 Holds and 2 Sells. The forecast is for 15% upside, given the average price target stands at $273.5. ( See SQ stock analysis on TipRanks ) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy , a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. View comments || Buy the Dip in Square Stock, Says Analyst: In what has become an increasingly familiar pattern over the past year, Square ( SQ ) delivered another strong display when it reported 4Q20 earnings on Tuesday. Driven by surging Bitcoin demand, revenue increased by 141% year-over-year to reach $3.2 billion, beating Street estimates by $50 million. There was a beat on the bottom-line, too, with Non-GAAP EPS of $0.32 coming in ahead of the forecasts by $0.08. Of course, the star of the show was the all-conquering Cash App whose profits skyrocketed by 162% from the same period last year. However, investors appeared Square fatigued following the report’s release and sent shares down in the subsequent session. But in timely Wall Street fashion, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev tells investors to “buy the dip.” “Was there anything wrong with 4Q?” Dolev asks. “Not at all, it simply lacked the element of surprise.” Has the story changed? He asks next, before answering, “With Cash App GP per active growing +70%, 2.5x bitcoin volumes per customer, accelerating Seller GP, and a 40% increase in product/S&M etc. in 2021, we believe momentum is strong.” Furthermore, says the 5-star analyst, the near-term outlook looks promising. Although the Cash App’s growth slowed down from 164% in January to 130% in February, the analyst expects gross profit to accelerate throughout the quarter. “Assuming the February two-year gross profit stack of +247% holds through March, this implies +135% Y/Y gross profit growth, which is ahead of February's +130%,” Dolev said. By the same logic, taking January and February’s “two-year stack” of roughly 45-48% growth, Q1 should see a 27% GP uptick, which is higher than the 13% growth in Q4. Overall, Dolev’s analysis indicates that Square’s total gross profit will accelerate to between 65-70% in 1Q21, compared to the 54% growth of 4Q20 (ex. Caviar). And with April stimulus on the horizon, the analyst believes the Cash App will be due another boost in Q2. To this end, Dolev reiterated a Buy on SQ shares, backed by a $380 price target. Investors could be pocketing gains of 60%, should Dolev’s thesis play out accordingly in the months ahead. (To watch Dolev’s track record, click here ) Most Street analysts are also backing Square’s continued success. The stock’s Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on 17 Buys, 9 Holds and 2 Sells. The forecast is for 15% upside, given the average price target stands at $273.5. ( See SQ stock analysis on TipRanks ) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy , a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. View comments || Here's how Charlie Munger would teach a business school course: Legendary investor and polymath Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's vice-chairman and Warren Buffett's long-time business partner, has said several times the best way to learn about business is to study the multi-decade financial results of great businesses. Business schools that don't adopt this method are doing their students a disservice, he said. The Harvard Business School, when it started out way early, they started out with a history of business. They take you through the building of the canals, and the building of the railroads, and so on and so on. You saw the ebb and flow of industry and the creative destruction of the economic changes, and so on. And it was a background, which helped everybody, Munger said Wednesday during the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Daily Journal Corporation ( DJCO ), where he serves as chairman of the board. The 97-year-old investor said if he were teaching business it would do it the way Harvard once taught it. But of course you should start out by studying the history of capitalism, and how it worked, and why before you started studying business. And they don't do that very well I'm talking about the business schools. If you stop to think about it, business success long-term is a lot like biology, Munger said. He continued: And in biology, what happens is the individuals all die, and eventually so do all the species. And capitalism is almost as brutal as that. Think of what's died in my lifetime. Just think of the things that were once prosperous that are now in failure or gone. Whoever dreamed when I was young that Kodak and General Motors would go bankrupt? It's incredible what's happened in terms of the destruction. And of course, that history is useful to know. Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger smiles during an interview in Omaha, Neb., Monday, May 7, 2018, with Liz Claman on Fox Business Network's "Countdown to the Closing Bell". (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Read more from the Daily Journal Meeting: Charlie Munger on Robinhood and GameStop frenzy: 'It's a dirty way to make money' Munger diverges from Buffett on Wells Fargo: 'Warren got disenchanted' Munger: 'The world would be better off without' SPACs I have a bust of him: Charlie Munger on why he admires Singapore's first prime minister Munger compares Bitcoin to what Oscar Wilde said about fox hunting Charlie Munger says Costco 'has one thing that Amazon does not' Munger: It's 'absolute insanity' to think owning 100 stocks makes you a better investor than owning five Munger: A little inequality is good for the economy || Here's how Charlie Munger would teach a business school course: Legendary investor and polymath Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's vice-chairman and Warren Buffett's long-time business partner, has said several times the best way to learn about business is to study the multi-decade financial results of great businesses. Business schools that don't adopt this method are doing their students a disservice, he said. The Harvard Business School, when it started out way early, they started out with a history of business. They take you through the building of the canals, and the building of the railroads, and so on and so on. You saw the ebb and flow of industry and the creative destruction of the economic changes, and so on. And it was a background, which helped everybody, Munger said Wednesday during the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Daily Journal Corporation ( DJCO ), where he serves as chairman of the board. The 97-year-old investor said if he were teaching business it would do it the way Harvard once taught it. But of course you should start out by studying the history of capitalism, and how it worked, and why before you started studying business. And they don't do that very well I'm talking about the business schools. If you stop to think about it, business success long-term is a lot like biology, Munger said. He continued: And in biology, what happens is the individuals all die, and eventually so do all the species. And capitalism is almost as brutal as that. Think of what's died in my lifetime. Just think of the things that were once prosperous that are now in failure or gone. Whoever dreamed when I was young that Kodak and General Motors would go bankrupt? It's incredible what's happened in terms of the destruction. And of course, that history is useful to know. Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger smiles during an interview in Omaha, Neb., Monday, May 7, 2018, with Liz Claman on Fox Business Network's "Countdown to the Closing Bell". (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Read more from the Daily Journal Meeting: Charlie Munger on Robinhood and GameStop frenzy: 'It's a dirty way to make money' Munger diverges from Buffett on Wells Fargo: 'Warren got disenchanted' Munger: 'The world would be better off without' SPACs I have a bust of him: Charlie Munger on why he admires Singapore's first prime minister Munger compares Bitcoin to what Oscar Wilde said about fox hunting Charlie Munger says Costco 'has one thing that Amazon does not' Munger: It's 'absolute insanity' to think owning 100 stocks makes you a better investor than owning five Munger: A little inequality is good for the economy || Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know: Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to become a publicly traded company through a direct listing (and not an initial public offering). Here’s what you need to know.
Coinbase is a San Francisco-based crypto exchange that first opened its doors in 2012. Founded byBrian ArmstrongandFred Ersham, theplatformnow has over 43 million users worldwide and has transacted more than $456 billion to date – per the latestfilingwith the SEC.
On Jan. 28, the exchange formallyannouncedits plans to go public via a direct listing on Nasdaq, “pursuant to a proposed direct listing of its Class A common stock.” This confirmed rumors from a Reutersreportthat emerged in July last year that stated the company was interested in listing on the stock market.
Related:Citi: Bitcoin at 'Tipping Point' as Institutions Come on Board
Initially, it was believed Coinbase would raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO); a process that involves creating new shares and employing the help of underwriters – usually banks – to help promote and market them to prospective investors. Instead, Coinbase has decided to pursue a direct listing, aka direct public offering (DPO), which essentially means cutting out intermediaries and only selling shares that already exist. No new shares will be created.
There are three distinct advantages of this route over an IPO:
• It’s much cheaper: Companies that already have a strong market presence don’t necessarily need the help of underwriters. A DPO dramatically reduces the costs of going public.
• The existing shares aren’t diluted:Because new shares aren’t created during direct listings, it means existing employee and investor shares aren’t at risk of being diluted once the company goes public. Dilution is where newly created shares enter the market and drive the price of the existing shares down.
• It’s much faster:By cutting out middlemen, there are far fewer regulatory hurdles to jump through before going public, including filing underwriter contracts with the SEC.
At the end of 2020, Coinbasefiledpreliminary documentswith the SEC, signaling the start of a public listing process.
“Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The Form S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.”
Related:India's Central Bank Sees Pros and Cons With National Digital Currency
On Feb. 25, Coinbase’s Form S-1 was officiallypublishedby the SEC. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Securities were among the banks chosen by Coinbase to aid it through the listing process.
Coinbase Class A shares will debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker COIN.
Right now, no official listing date has been given. We’ll update this article as soon as it is announced.
Since COIN shares will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange, it means anyone who has an account with a brokerage that deals in U.S. stocks will be able to purchase COIN shares. Similarly, investors will also be able to purchase COIN shares on any mobile trading app that lists Nasdaq Global Select Market stocks.
It’s not yet known how many COIN shares will be available or what the price of each share will be.
• Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know
• Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know || Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know: Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to become a publicly traded company through a direct listing (and not an initial public offering). Here’s what you need to know. Coinbase is a San Francisco-based crypto exchange that first opened its doors in 2012. Founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ersham , the platform now has over 43 million users worldwide and has transacted more than $456 billion to date – per the latest filing with the SEC. The story so far On Jan. 28, the exchange formally announced its plans to go public via a direct listing on Nasdaq, “pursuant to a proposed direct listing of its Class A common stock.” This confirmed rumors from a Reuters report that emerged in July last year that stated the company was interested in listing on the stock market. Related: Citi: Bitcoin at 'Tipping Point' as Institutions Come on Board Initially, it was believed Coinbase would raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO); a process that involves creating new shares and employing the help of underwriters – usually banks – to help promote and market them to prospective investors. Instead, Coinbase has decided to pursue a direct listing, aka direct public offering (DPO), which essentially means cutting out intermediaries and only selling shares that already exist. No new shares will be created. There are three distinct advantages of this route over an IPO: It’s much cheaper : Companies that already have a strong market presence don’t necessarily need the help of underwriters. A DPO dramatically reduces the costs of going public. The existing shares aren’t diluted: Because new shares aren’t created during direct listings, it means existing employee and investor shares aren’t at risk of being diluted once the company goes public. Dilution is where newly created shares enter the market and drive the price of the existing shares down. It’s much faster: By cutting out middlemen, there are far fewer regulatory hurdles to jump through before going public, including filing underwriter contracts with the SEC. Story continues At the end of 2020, Coinbase filed preliminary documents with the SEC, signaling the start of a public listing process. “Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The Form S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.” Related: India's Central Bank Sees Pros and Cons With National Digital Currency On Feb. 25, Coinbase’s Form S-1 was officially published by the SEC. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Securities were among the banks chosen by Coinbase to aid it through the listing process. What symbol will Coinbase shares trade under? Coinbase Class A shares will debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker COIN. When will Coinbase COIN shares be listed? Right now, no official listing date has been given. We’ll update this article as soon as it is announced. Who will be able to buy Coinbase COIN shares? Since COIN shares will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange, it means anyone who has an account with a brokerage that deals in U.S. stocks will be able to purchase COIN shares. Similarly, investors will also be able to purchase COIN shares on any mobile trading app that lists Nasdaq Global Select Market stocks. It’s not yet known how many COIN shares will be available or what the price of each share will be. Related Stories Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know Coinbase Is Going Public: Everything You Need To Know || Stock Market Today: Tech Gets Respite From Recent Selling: Wall Street flipped the week's script on Friday, with a cooling-off in interest rates stunting value-oriented stocks while providing much-needed relief for "growthier" names. The Dow Jones Industrial Averag e lagged the broader indices with a 1.5% decline to 30,932, while the S&P 500 declined 0.5% to 3,811. The Nasdaq Composite , meanwhile, got a lift from the recently sold-off technology and communications sectors; stocks such as Facebook ( FB , +1.2%), Nvidia ( NVDA , +3.1%) and Microsoft ( MSFT , +1.5%) helped lead a modest 0.6% rebound in the tech-heavy index. SEE MORE Warren Buffett Stocks Ranked: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Despite the rebound, the Nasdaq remained down 4.9% for the week, the result of interest-rate fears, versus 1.8% and 2.4% losses for the Dow and S&P 500, respectively. "Many market participants have referenced the infamous 'Taper Tantrum' in 2013 as a similar playbook to today as a reason why we're seeing equity market weakness," says Brian Price, head of investment management for Commonwealth Financial Network. But he also points out that "the notable difference today ... is that the Fed seems very committed to letting the economy run a little hotter than normal and will tolerate higher inflation." Other action in the stock market today: The small-cap Russell 2000 eked out a marginal gain to 2,201. U.S. crude oil futures sank 3.2% to $61.50 per barrel, but still finished February up 18%. Gold futures sank, too, dropping 2.6% to $1,728.80 per ounce, plumbing nine-month lows. Bitcoin prices, at $48,870 on Thursday, dropped 5.1% to $46,381. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) stock chart for 022621 SEE MORE The 21 Best Stocks to Buy for 2021 Earnings Estimates Are Looking Up! Whatever the market faces in the short term, analysts see better times further on in the year. Economic expectations are improving as more Americans are inoculated against COVID-19; nearly 14% of the population has received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Story continues That has analysts quickly scaling up their earnings estimates . Current-quarter profit expectations have improved by 5% over the first two months of Q1. According to FactSet Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters, that's "the second-highest increase in the bottom-up EPS estimate during the first two months of a quarter since FactSet began tracking this metric in Q2 2002," trailing only Q1 2018's 5.7% increase. That augurs well for much of the market – including a number of dividend-rich sectors and industries. Many real estate investment trusts (REITs) , especially in the retail and hospitality industries, are poised for better results as foot traffic picks up. And an economic recovery bodes well for business development companies (BDCs) , as well as the small and midsized businesses in which they invest. Investors will find plenty of attractive income opportunities across the equity board – though if you're looking for somewhere to start, we suggest you begin with our list of 21 high-quality (and high-yielding) stocks that are suitable for those looking to retirement (or even in it). These names offer an appealing blend of payout potential and income stability that just about any long-term buy-and-holder can appreciate. Kyle Woodley was long NVDA and Bitcoin as of this writing. SEE MORE 25 Dividend Stocks the Analysts Love Most for 2021 || Stock Market Today: Tech Gets Respite From Recent Selling: Wall Street flipped the week's script on Friday, with a cooling-off in interest rates stunting value-oriented stocks while providing much-needed relief for "growthier" names. The Dow Jones Industrial Averag e lagged the broader indices with a 1.5% decline to 30,932, while the S&P 500 declined 0.5% to 3,811. The Nasdaq Composite , meanwhile, got a lift from the recently sold-off technology and communications sectors; stocks such as Facebook ( FB , +1.2%), Nvidia ( NVDA , +3.1%) and Microsoft ( MSFT , +1.5%) helped lead a modest 0.6% rebound in the tech-heavy index. SEE MORE Warren Buffett Stocks Ranked: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Despite the rebound, the Nasdaq remained down 4.9% for the week, the result of interest-rate fears, versus 1.8% and 2.4% losses for the Dow and S&P 500, respectively. "Many market participants have referenced the infamous 'Taper Tantrum' in 2013 as a similar playbook to today as a reason why we're seeing equity market weakness," says Brian Price, head of investment management for Commonwealth Financial Network. But he also points out that "the notable difference today ... is that the Fed seems very committed to letting the economy run a little hotter than normal and will tolerate higher inflation." Other action in the stock market today: The small-cap Russell 2000 eked out a marginal gain to 2,201. U.S. crude oil futures sank 3.2% to $61.50 per barrel, but still finished February up 18%. Gold futures sank, too, dropping 2.6% to $1,728.80 per ounce, plumbing nine-month lows. Bitcoin prices, at $48,870 on Thursday, dropped 5.1% to $46,381. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) stock chart for 022621 SEE MORE The 21 Best Stocks to Buy for 2021 Earnings Estimates Are Looking Up! Whatever the market faces in the short term, analysts see better times further on in the year. Economic expectations are improving as more Americans are inoculated against COVID-19; nearly 14% of the population has received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Story continues That has analysts quickly scaling up their earnings estimates . Current-quarter profit expectations have improved by 5% over the first two months of Q1. According to FactSet Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters, that's "the second-highest increase in the bottom-up EPS estimate during the first two months of a quarter since FactSet began tracking this metric in Q2 2002," trailing only Q1 2018's 5.7% increase. That augurs well for much of the market – including a number of dividend-rich sectors and industries. Many real estate investment trusts (REITs) , especially in the retail and hospitality industries, are poised for better results as foot traffic picks up. And an economic recovery bodes well for business development companies (BDCs) , as well as the small and midsized businesses in which they invest. Investors will find plenty of attractive income opportunities across the equity board – though if you're looking for somewhere to start, we suggest you begin with our list of 21 high-quality (and high-yielding) stocks that are suitable for those looking to retirement (or even in it). These names offer an appealing blend of payout potential and income stability that just about any long-term buy-and-holder can appreciate. Kyle Woodley was long NVDA and Bitcoin as of this writing. SEE MORE 25 Dividend Stocks the Analysts Love Most for 2021 || Inflation Perfect Storm: The Fed's Dual Conundrum: • (1:30) - Centrifugal Force: Markets Coil Then Jump
• (9:20) - Big Move In Bonds: Financial Plumbing Pressures
• (15:10) - Richly-Valued Growth Stocks Overdue to Correct
• (20:40) - GameStop Stock Surges Again: How a Pro Traded It
• (24:15) - Stimulus + Growth + Inflation = Commodity Prices Rising
• (29:00) - Technical Targets for the Nasdaq 100
• (37:00) - Good Lessons For New Investors are Everywhere
• [email protected] Mind Over Money Archive
Whether or not the stock market just peaked for the near-term of the next few months, one market move is very clear:interest rates and inflation are sharply on the rise.Before the Nasdaq took a nearly 6% dive this week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note had been surging. From the start of the year through Monday, that benchmark interest rate moved 50% higher from just 91 basis points to 137 bps.The message was also pretty clear: even if the Federal Reserve was committed to keeping short-term interest rates low to restore employment, market inflation fighters that we used to call the "bond vigilantes" were going to start getting realistic about all the cheap dollar liquidity and fiscal stimulus sloshing around and driving up asset prices in stocks, commodities, and bitcoin.And as the 10-year yield spiked above 1.5% this week, the selling in stocks accelerated. Now a 1.5% long-term interest rate doesn't sound alarming all by itself. But some pressures of financial plumbing apparently need adjustment when the rate jumps that quickly.Since the dividend yield on the S&P 500 is also about 1.5%, risk-free Treasuries now offer a credible alternative for large asset managers to richly-valued stocks.To get a handle on the inflation that the bond vigilantes are seeing, I invited Jeremy Mullin on the Mind Over Money podcast. Jeremy is professional day trader who also runs the Commodity Innovators service for Zacks.He describes where inflation was showing up in commodity markets from grains and meat to oil and gold even before the big bond move. Be sure to listen as we also discuss the next move for growth stocks in an overheated market.Growth Stocks Lead the WayDon't get me wrong. We're still in a great bull market and the bond market forecasting higher inflation is a confirming signal that stronger economic growth is on the horizon. There's certainly enough stimulus sloshing around to make it so.And in that sense, the Fed is winning the war on the dreaded scourge of deflation that Japan has never been able to recover from. But now I believe they might be trapped "behind the curve" as they let core inflation measures like CPI and CPE run very hot until they get employment robust again following the pandemic shutdowns.In short, the Fed's dual mandate -- full employment and stable prices -- may be turning into a "dual conundrum."Still, even if stock indexes enter a double-digit correction, I'll be buying with both hands. But the thing to keep in mind is that growth stocks are always the advance guard and they lead the way. We just saw technology and software stocks -- as the leading forces of deflation -- soar in the past year, and now they are due for some give back.For my part, I started getting cautious in early January when I did this vlog: Technical Forecast: Frothy With a Chance of ComplacencyI had been trimming my growth stocks and raising cash. And I held on to pieces of great companies likeNVIDIANVDA and watched them all peak in the last week or so.Getting Star-Struck By Growth Stocks in the CloudsI admit, I was a little star-struck myself, caught up in the same euphoria as everyone else. So I didn't time the exits very well when I knew better and felt in my gut I should have been selling into the last frothy push on Monday withSquareSQ above $270,BaiduBIDU above $340, andShopifySHOP still near $1,400.Growth stocks could still make another run to the peak at Nasdaq 13,800 or at least a shot to close the Monday gap up to 13,500. And in the meanwhile, I'll be going over the whole picture in more detail to see if some bigger shift is occurring that I don't want to be on the wrong side of.As I was prepping for my podcast with Jeremy on inflation, one piece of data hit me like a hammer: the Wilshire 5,000 (really only about 3,500 stocks now) had hit $42 trillion in total US market capitalization this month.Why is that important? Well, it's about200% of GDPfor starters.You may recall I addressed this in August when the Wilshire was "only" $34T and 177% of GDP. You should read this article again, and watch the video too to see all the charts, including the Fed balance sheet and the rapidly growing US deficit...Inflation Coming? 12 Charts You Must See to BelieveBefore I dive into the complex plumbing of financial markets in unprecedented times of central bank QE (quantitative easing), below are some key bullets that frame the discussion. Because the dynamics of these forces can get really complex, really quick. And I'm not saying we need an economist to figure it out for us, because we don't.Markets are the most complex, multidimensional systems on the planet and when you have huge, forceful players like central banks, the financial plumbing and pressures get hard to sort out.So here are 7 dynamics I'll be talking about that all interact in a constant feedback loop of liquidity drivers and pressures...1. Technology Innovation & Deflation: gigantic historical trend, more powerful than any gov or central bank2. Fed Deflation Warfare: artificial suppression of interest rates plus QE bond buying to flood the world3. Global FX Rate Parity: money seeks yield and drives carry trades to borrow cheap and speculate4. Pandemic Shutdown: Fed was ZIRP fanatic before; convinced Congress and Treasury to go all-in with stimulus5. Fed Trapped: now they have a "dual conundrum" of broken employment and high inflation6. Perfect Storm: bond vigilantes finally get leverage to price in big growth, big deficits, big inflation7. Centrifugal Force: market relationships can go extreme and coil for a long time... and than unwind fast!My top dynamic was and remains Technology Innovation as the driving force of economics that delivers exponential efficiency of production and marketing to every industry.One theme I left out is my oldest truism of markets: "They have to buy and they don't have to sell." I'm talking of course about large asset managers with big cash always entering their coffers from the investment machinery of capital markets. You can learn more about one such giant of long-term thinking in my vlog Scottish Warlords of Investing: Baillie Gifford Sells TSLA, Buys TTD, Holds SHOP.Indistinguishable From MagicIronically, one of the central forces of deflation for decades has been semiconductor chips that just keep getting smaller, more powerful and cheaper. And now there is a chip shortage, sending those stocks, likeNVIDIANVDA to all-time highs.It was nearly 60 years ago when Arthur C. Clarke said this in his bookProfiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."How true it has become, beyond even his dreams, when a child can hold the power of thousands of computers in the palm of her hand.But technology innovation also disrupts industries, and eliminates many jobs even as it creates new types of work. This is the unstoppable force that the Fed is pushing against with ultra-easy monetary policies to foster investment that will get people back to work.And the pandemic just made their goal an order of magnitude harder as we witnessed10 years of advanced technology adoption in just 10 months.From the work-at-home demands on completely digital, cloud-based systems and commerce to factories reaching deep for automation and robotics solutions in a socially-distanced world, the world of work has been turned upside down.Companies likeSquareSQ,TeslaTSLA, andBaiduBIDU are leading the charge of "disruptive innovation," as Cathie Wood of ARK Invest has explained so eloquently and forcefully for the past few years.My list of 7 dynamics is by no means complete or perfect. While the big idea is how Technology Innovation rules, the underlying theme is that markets are very complex, but not always very efficient because of human emotions and behavior, which swing back and forth like pendulums.Centrifugal Forces: Coiling, Tightening, ExplodingHere's the 5-minute intro monologue for my podcast with Jeremy if you want to read it first. But be sure to listen to our full chat as he tells why he sold Bitcoin above $57,000 when he saw the euphoria getting crazy.When I was a currency trader in a former life, I struggled to understand how to catch the really big moves in the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar, and the new euro currency that had just launched.Even if you were using lots of fundamental analysis in combination with technical charting tools, jumping on too many false breakouts that confirmed the bottom in the euro at 80-cents was a recipe for ruin.And this was before I started really diving into the mass psychology of markets with the help of Benoit Mandelbrot's ideas of "wild randomness" and Nassim Taleb's concept ofThe Black Swan.Twenty years ago, I was still just focused on individual psychology, that your own mind was the obstacle you had to overcome to trade well. So I relegated the "big moves" in currencies, commodities, gold, and stocks to what I called "centrifugal force."The price of an asset would coil and twist for years sometimes before it suddenly snapped like a spring, loaded with pent up energy. Markets could remain inefficient for a long time, until they quickly jump to a new equilibrium level.In short, I stopped trying to predict when a breakout was going to occur and simply jumped on board the move once it was in full motion.The Bond Bubble Was Engineered to Break All Bond Bears(and now it can pop)Well, imagine being a bond trader and inflation hawk in the past few years, waiting for that day when excessively easy Federal Reserve monetary policies would finally ignite inflation and bond holders would rush for the exits. That's been a losing trade for a decade.And listen, I've been following this kind of logic for a long time, back to when everyone was worried the Chinese would sell all their US Treasuries and move into the euro. The wails of panic about the US dollar losing global reserve currency status, and essentially imploding, were deafening.But it didn't happen because the US-China trade deficit that fed their Treasury appetite was a big long-term trend, driven in part by a fixed currency peg for the Chinese yuan. Besides, for the US dollar to implode, the euro currency would have to soar.We saw some of that in 2008 as the dollar fell in relation to both oil and the euro, which surged above $140 per barrel and to $1.60, respectively. But over the long-run, for the #1 and #2 economies in the world, it will simply go back and forth. As I learned long ago, in FX "it's all relative."The other thing I learned is that your currency's direction is determined by the direction of your interest rates. Rising rate currencies get bought, and falling rate currencies get sold. In fact, it's a type of borrowing of the cheap currency to buy the more expensive one, relatively speaking.The funding currency creates a carry trade for borrowing and buying all kinds of assets, from gold to stocks.And because of the Fed's decade-long commitment to keeping interest rates low, the US dollar has been a terrific way to borrow and buy every asset imaginable, including Bitcoin.Plus, QE bond buying got a big shot in the arm last year when the Fed decided to buy corporate bonds to support the economy and the stock market.Last summer, I did a vlog titled Inflation Coming? 12 Charts You Must See to Believe and one of them was a view of the value of the US stock market vs GDP at 177%. Yep, the market cap of the Wilshire 5,000 was $34 trillion vs. GDP slipping under $20T.Since then, the Wilshire 5000 went to $42T this month!Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic ignited massive Federal stimulus payments to offset the surge in unemployment and shut-down businesses like restaurants. I'm still hearing stories about folks who got forgivable loans of up to $10,000 by pretending they had a legitimate business that was derailed by the pandemic.Lots of that money went into stocks and other assets.Preparing for Inflation We Haven't Seen in DecadesSo I am exploring the possibility that we could be headed into a perfect storm for inflation when the world is flooded in cheap dollar loans that soon need to be repaid.When a global carry trade in FX needs to unwind, it can create a good amount of volatility for a few weeks. When the biggest carry trade of all time needs to unwind -- fueled by a $7+ trillion Fed balance sheet and a $4+ trillion government deficit -- it could be very volatile for a while as all the one-way short dollar trades reverse.Why? Because the Federal Reserve continues to be super transparent about their commitment to not only stoke inflation, but also to let it run hot as they focus on a longer-term average.That means they could be willing to let inflation measures go to 3% or above to make up for all the years we were at 1% or below.I think the Fed is now trapped in a "dual conundrum" where their commitment to restore employment after the pandemic shutdown means they are "hands off the wheel" on inflation.That means the bond vigilantes are in charge and could create a lot of volatility for stocks this year.And that means there will be lots of opportunities to buy your favorite technology and software stocks at more reasonable valuations.Disclosure: I own shares of NVDA, SQ, BIDU, and TTD for the Zacks TAZR Trader portfolio.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportBaidu, Inc. (BIDU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSquare, Inc. (SQ) : Free Stock Analysis ReportShopify Inc. (SHOP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Inflation Perfect Storm: The Fed's Dual Conundrum: (1:30) - Centrifugal Force: Markets Coil Then Jump (9:20) - Big Move In Bonds: Financial Plumbing Pressures (15:10) - Richly-Valued Growth Stocks Overdue to Correct (20:40) - GameStop Stock Surges Again: How a Pro Traded It (24:15) - Stimulus + Growth + Inflation = Commodity Prices Rising (29:00) - Technical Targets for the Nasdaq 100 (37:00) - Good Lessons For New Investors are Everywhere [email protected] Mind Over Money Archive Whether or not the stock market just peaked for the near-term of the next few months, one market move is very clear: interest rates and inflation are sharply on the rise. Before the Nasdaq took a nearly 6% dive this week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note had been surging. From the start of the year through Monday, that benchmark interest rate moved 50% higher from just 91 basis points to 137 bps. The message was also pretty clear: even if the Federal Reserve was committed to keeping short-term interest rates low to restore employment, market inflation fighters that we used to call the "bond vigilantes" were going to start getting realistic about all the cheap dollar liquidity and fiscal stimulus sloshing around and driving up asset prices in stocks, commodities, and bitcoin. And as the 10-year yield spiked above 1.5% this week, the selling in stocks accelerated. Now a 1.5% long-term interest rate doesn't sound alarming all by itself. But some pressures of financial plumbing apparently need adjustment when the rate jumps that quickly. Since the dividend yield on the S&P 500 is also about 1.5%, risk-free Treasuries now offer a credible alternative for large asset managers to richly-valued stocks. To get a handle on the inflation that the bond vigilantes are seeing, I invited Jeremy Mullin on the Mind Over Money podcast. Jeremy is professional day trader who also runs the Commodity Innovators service for Zacks. He describes where inflation was showing up in commodity markets from grains and meat to oil and gold even before the big bond move. Be sure to listen as we also discuss the next move for growth stocks in an overheated market. Growth Stocks Lead the Way Don't get me wrong. We're still in a great bull market and the bond market forecasting higher inflation is a confirming signal that stronger economic growth is on the horizon. There's certainly enough stimulus sloshing around to make it so. And in that sense, the Fed is winning the war on the dreaded scourge of deflation that Japan has never been able to recover from. But now I believe they might be trapped "behind the curve" as they let core inflation measures like CPI and CPE run very hot until they get employment robust again following the pandemic shutdowns. In short, the Fed's dual mandate -- full employment and stable prices -- may be turning into a "dual conundrum." Still, even if stock indexes enter a double-digit correction, I'll be buying with both hands. But the thing to keep in mind is that growth stocks are always the advance guard and they lead the way. We just saw technology and software stocks -- as the leading forces of deflation -- soar in the past year, and now they are due for some give back. For my part, I started getting cautious in early January when I did this vlog: Technical Forecast: Frothy With a Chance of Complacency I had been trimming my growth stocks and raising cash. And I held on to pieces of great companies like NVIDIA NVDA and watched them all peak in the last week or so. Getting Star-Struck By Growth Stocks in the Clouds I admit, I was a little star-struck myself, caught up in the same euphoria as everyone else. So I didn't time the exits very well when I knew better and felt in my gut I should have been selling into the last frothy push on Monday with Square SQ above $270, Baidu BIDU above $340, and Shopify SHOP still near $1,400. Growth stocks could still make another run to the peak at Nasdaq 13,800 or at least a shot to close the Monday gap up to 13,500. And in the meanwhile, I'll be going over the whole picture in more detail to see if some bigger shift is occurring that I don't want to be on the wrong side of. As I was prepping for my podcast with Jeremy on inflation, one piece of data hit me like a hammer: the Wilshire 5,000 (really only about 3,500 stocks now) had hit $42 trillion in total US market capitalization this month. Why is that important? Well, it's about 200% of GDP for starters. You may recall I addressed this in August when the Wilshire was "only" $34T and 177% of GDP. You should read this article again, and watch the video too to see all the charts, including the Fed balance sheet and the rapidly growing US deficit... Inflation Coming? 12 Charts You Must See to Believe Before I dive into the complex plumbing of financial markets in unprecedented times of central bank QE (quantitative easing), below are some key bullets that frame the discussion. Because the dynamics of these forces can get really complex, really quick. And I'm not saying we need an economist to figure it out for us, because we don't. Markets are the most complex, multidimensional systems on the planet and when you have huge, forceful players like central banks, the financial plumbing and pressures get hard to sort out. So here are 7 dynamics I'll be talking about that all interact in a constant feedback loop of liquidity drivers and pressures... 1. Technology Innovation & Deflation: gigantic historical trend, more powerful than any gov or central bank 2. Fed Deflation Warfare: artificial suppression of interest rates plus QE bond buying to flood the world 3. Global FX Rate Parity: money seeks yield and drives carry trades to borrow cheap and speculate 4. Pandemic Shutdown: Fed was ZIRP fanatic before; convinced Congress and Treasury to go all-in with stimulus 5. Fed Trapped: now they have a "dual conundrum" of broken employment and high inflation 6. Perfect Storm: bond vigilantes finally get leverage to price in big growth, big deficits, big inflation 7. Centrifugal Force: market relationships can go extreme and coil for a long time... and than unwind fast! My top dynamic was and remains Technology Innovation as the driving force of economics that delivers exponential efficiency of production and marketing to every industry. One theme I left out is my oldest truism of markets: "They have to buy and they don't have to sell." I'm talking of course about large asset managers with big cash always entering their coffers from the investment machinery of capital markets. You can learn more about one such giant of long-term thinking in my vlog Scottish Warlords of Investing: Baillie Gifford Sells TSLA, Buys TTD, Holds SHOP. Indistinguishable From Magic Ironically, one of the central forces of deflation for decades has been semiconductor chips that just keep getting smaller, more powerful and cheaper. And now there is a chip shortage, sending those stocks, like NVIDIA NVDA to all-time highs. It was nearly 60 years ago when Arthur C. Clarke said this in his book Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible : "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." How true it has become, beyond even his dreams, when a child can hold the power of thousands of computers in the palm of her hand. But technology innovation also disrupts industries, and eliminates many jobs even as it creates new types of work. This is the unstoppable force that the Fed is pushing against with ultra-easy monetary policies to foster investment that will get people back to work. And the pandemic just made their goal an order of magnitude harder as we witnessed 10 years of advanced technology adoption in just 10 months. From the work-at-home demands on completely digital, cloud-based systems and commerce to factories reaching deep for automation and robotics solutions in a socially-distanced world, the world of work has been turned upside down. Companies like Square SQ, Tesla TSLA, and Baidu BIDU are leading the charge of "disruptive innovation," as Cathie Wood of ARK Invest has explained so eloquently and forcefully for the past few years. My list of 7 dynamics is by no means complete or perfect. While the big idea is how Technology Innovation rules, the underlying theme is that markets are very complex, but not always very efficient because of human emotions and behavior, which swing back and forth like pendulums. Centrifugal Forces: Coiling, Tightening, Exploding Here's the 5-minute intro monologue for my podcast with Jeremy if you want to read it first. But be sure to listen to our full chat as he tells why he sold Bitcoin above $57,000 when he saw the euphoria getting crazy. When I was a currency trader in a former life, I struggled to understand how to catch the really big moves in the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar, and the new euro currency that had just launched. Even if you were using lots of fundamental analysis in combination with technical charting tools, jumping on too many false breakouts that confirmed the bottom in the euro at 80-cents was a recipe for ruin. And this was before I started really diving into the mass psychology of markets with the help of Benoit Mandelbrot's ideas of "wild randomness" and Nassim Taleb's concept of The Black Swan . Twenty years ago, I was still just focused on individual psychology, that your own mind was the obstacle you had to overcome to trade well. So I relegated the "big moves" in currencies, commodities, gold, and stocks to what I called "centrifugal force." The price of an asset would coil and twist for years sometimes before it suddenly snapped like a spring, loaded with pent up energy. Markets could remain inefficient for a long time, until they quickly jump to a new equilibrium level. In short, I stopped trying to predict when a breakout was going to occur and simply jumped on board the move once it was in full motion. The Bond Bubble Was Engineered to Break All Bond Bears (and now it can pop) Well, imagine being a bond trader and inflation hawk in the past few years, waiting for that day when excessively easy Federal Reserve monetary policies would finally ignite inflation and bond holders would rush for the exits. That's been a losing trade for a decade. And listen, I've been following this kind of logic for a long time, back to when everyone was worried the Chinese would sell all their US Treasuries and move into the euro. The wails of panic about the US dollar losing global reserve currency status, and essentially imploding, were deafening. But it didn't happen because the US-China trade deficit that fed their Treasury appetite was a big long-term trend, driven in part by a fixed currency peg for the Chinese yuan. Besides, for the US dollar to implode, the euro currency would have to soar. We saw some of that in 2008 as the dollar fell in relation to both oil and the euro, which surged above $140 per barrel and to $1.60, respectively. But over the long-run, for the #1 and #2 economies in the world, it will simply go back and forth. As I learned long ago, in FX "it's all relative." The other thing I learned is that your currency's direction is determined by the direction of your interest rates. Rising rate currencies get bought, and falling rate currencies get sold. In fact, it's a type of borrowing of the cheap currency to buy the more expensive one, relatively speaking. The funding currency creates a carry trade for borrowing and buying all kinds of assets, from gold to stocks. And because of the Fed's decade-long commitment to keeping interest rates low, the US dollar has been a terrific way to borrow and buy every asset imaginable, including Bitcoin. Plus, QE bond buying got a big shot in the arm last year when the Fed decided to buy corporate bonds to support the economy and the stock market. Last summer, I did a vlog titled Inflation Coming? 12 Charts You Must See to Believe and one of them was a view of the value of the US stock market vs GDP at 177%. Yep, the market cap of the Wilshire 5,000 was $34 trillion vs. GDP slipping under $20T. Since then, the Wilshire 5000 went to $42T this month! Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic ignited massive Federal stimulus payments to offset the surge in unemployment and shut-down businesses like restaurants. I'm still hearing stories about folks who got forgivable loans of up to $10,000 by pretending they had a legitimate business that was derailed by the pandemic. Lots of that money went into stocks and other assets. Preparing for Inflation We Haven't Seen in Decades So I am exploring the possibility that we could be headed into a perfect storm for inflation when the world is flooded in cheap dollar loans that soon need to be repaid. When a global carry trade in FX needs to unwind, it can create a good amount of volatility for a few weeks. When the biggest carry trade of all time needs to unwind -- fueled by a $7+ trillion Fed balance sheet and a $4+ trillion government deficit -- it could be very volatile for a while as all the one-way short dollar trades reverse. Why? Because the Federal Reserve continues to be super transparent about their commitment to not only stoke inflation, but also to let it run hot as they focus on a longer-term average. That means they could be willing to let inflation measures go to 3% or above to make up for all the years we were at 1% or below. I think the Fed is now trapped in a "dual conundrum" where their commitment to restore employment after the pandemic shutdown means they are "hands off the wheel" on inflation. That means the bond vigilantes are in charge and could create a lot of volatility for stocks this year. And that means there will be lots of opportunities to buy your favorite technology and software stocks at more reasonable valuations. Disclosure: I own shares of NVDA, SQ, BIDU, and TTD for the Zacks TAZR Trader portfolio. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Square, Inc. (SQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Shopify Inc. (SHOP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K: Bitcoin’s price turned choppy on Friday as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization logged its worst weekly performance since March 2020 when the pandemic hit the global economy.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $46,244 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 5.7% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $44,180.99-$49,325.91 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC trades below its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians.
A quick recap of bitcoin’s most tumultuous weekly performance since almost a year ago shows that this week’s high volatility was not caused by one simple factor. The correction earlier this week was largely triggered byan overheated derivatives marketas traders rushed to exit leveraged bets (or got liquidated from positions) that had accumulated as bitcoin pushed to an all-time-high price above $58,000. A drop below $45,000 on Thursday coincided with a sell-off in the broader stock market due to rising concerns oversurging bond yields, which might dim the allure of riskier assets like cryptocurrencies.
Read more:Bitcoin Looks Indecisive After Sell-off in Bonds, Tech Stocks
Related:India's Central Bank Sees Pros and Cons With National Digital Currency
Bitcoin’s spot market looked quiet on Friday, with the daily trading volume on eight crypto exchanges tracked by CoinDesk largely flat compared with levels on Thursday. Volume spiked during the sell-off earlier this week afterlarge bitcoin inflows to exchanges such as Geminion Sunday, which signaled an intent by some traders to take profits as prices approached $60,000.
The market’s relatively quiet tone Friday appeared to reflect low anxiety over a key month-end expiration date on options contracts. A notional total of about $3 billion worth of bitcoin options contracts expired on Friday and the strike price with the highest open interest stood at $48,000, according to derivatives data siteSkew.
“Typically, with options, the highest strike price continues to have a pull on the underlying’s spot price, which could partly explain bitcoin’s recent price action,” said Hunain Naseer, senior editor at OKEx Insights. “Now, with those options contracts out of the way, the market appears, in the short term, to be free to pick a direction.”
“Despite the narrative being sold by crypto maximalists that digital assets are a safe-haven asset, the use of bitcoin suggests it is more of a risk asset,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at Bequant.
Related:Supercar Maker Mazzanti Cruises Into Crypto With Bitcoin Payments, Token Sale
“Thus, liquidity events such those witnessed this week in equity markets will subsequently feed into digital assets, even if fundamentally the two are not related,” Vinokourov said. “Cash is king in times of distress, not bitcoin.”
Read more:Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
Others have remained optimistic after this week’s high volatility.
“Right now, one of the most interesting aspects of bitcoin is that it has no fundamentals to base a valuation model on, but its price movements do correlate with social sentiment,” said Guy Hirsch, U.S. managing director at trading platform eToro. “Shifts in social sentiment can be indicators of price movements, and inform investors about short-term movements.”
“Long term, though, we do feel that it is a ‘safe haven’ in the sense that there is no way to artificially deflate it or otherwise manipulate it, and that is a perfectly good reason for people to invest in it,” Hirsch said.
Recent blockchain data showed that more investors were accumulating bitcoin as seen bya huge amount of bitcoin outflow from institution-driven crypto exchange Coinbase Pro, according to CryptoQuant, a data provider.
Ether(ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down on Friday, trading around $1,446.2 and sliding 8.2% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Ether tumbled to nearly $1,400 during Friday’s trading hours in Asia and has been hovering around $1,450 for most of Friday.
Read more:Coinbase Calls Out Binance as It Bemoans Compliance Burden
Ether’s spot trading activity was thin on Friday, continuing to mirror the bitcoin market.
After the two cryptocurrencies’ correlation dropped slightly last month, the relationship between bitcoin and ether’s prices turned stronger at the end of February.
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in red Friday. There were no notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read more:Cardano’s ADA Is Now the Third-Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Cap
Notable losers:
• 0x(ZRX) – 13.42%
• kyber network(KNC) – 11.59%
• litecoin(LTC) – 11.34%
• orchid(OXT) – 9.79%
• omg network(OMG) – 9.14%
Equities:
• Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the red 4.0%because of a heavy sell-off across stocks in Asia-Pacific after Wall Street’s losses.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe slipped 2.5% asthe sell-off in bonds has had a deeper impact on equities across the globe.
• The S&P 500 in the United States moved little, down by 0.48%, asinvestors continued to study the implications of a rapid rise in bond yields.
Commodities:
• Oil was down 3.02%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.61.
• Gold was in the red 2.23% and at $1730.40 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday dipping to 1.402%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K: Bitcoin’s price turned choppy on Friday as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization logged its worst weekly performance since March 2020 when the pandemic hit the global economy. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $46,244 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 5.7% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $44,180.99-$49,325.91 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades below its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians. A quick recap of bitcoin’s most tumultuous weekly performance since almost a year ago shows that this week’s high volatility was not caused by one simple factor. The correction earlier this week was largely triggered by an overheated derivatives market as traders rushed to exit leveraged bets (or got liquidated from positions) that had accumulated as bitcoin pushed to an all-time-high price above $58,000. A drop below $45,000 on Thursday coincided with a sell-off in the broader stock market due to rising concerns over surging bond yields , which might dim the allure of riskier assets like cryptocurrencies. Read more: Bitcoin Looks Indecisive After Sell-off in Bonds, Tech Stocks Related: India's Central Bank Sees Pros and Cons With National Digital Currency Bitcoin’s spot market looked quiet on Friday, with the daily trading volume on eight crypto exchanges tracked by CoinDesk largely flat compared with levels on Thursday. Volume spiked during the sell-off earlier this week after large bitcoin inflows to exchanges such as Gemini on Sunday, which signaled an intent by some traders to take profits as prices approached $60,000. The market’s relatively quiet tone Friday appeared to reflect low anxiety over a key month-end expiration date on options contracts. A notional total of about $3 billion worth of bitcoin options contracts expired on Friday and the strike price with the highest open interest stood at $48,000, according to derivatives data site Skew . Story continues “Typically, with options, the highest strike price continues to have a pull on the underlying’s spot price, which could partly explain bitcoin’s recent price action,” said Hunain Naseer, senior editor at OKEx Insights. “Now, with those options contracts out of the way, the market appears, in the short term, to be free to pick a direction.” “Despite the narrative being sold by crypto maximalists that digital assets are a safe-haven asset, the use of bitcoin suggests it is more of a risk asset,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at Bequant. Related: Supercar Maker Mazzanti Cruises Into Crypto With Bitcoin Payments, Token Sale “Thus, liquidity events such those witnessed this week in equity markets will subsequently feed into digital assets, even if fundamentally the two are not related,” Vinokourov said. “Cash is king in times of distress, not bitcoin.” Read more: Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000 Others have remained optimistic after this week’s high volatility. “Right now, one of the most interesting aspects of bitcoin is that it has no fundamentals to base a valuation model on, but its price movements do correlate with social sentiment,” said Guy Hirsch, U.S. managing director at trading platform eToro. “Shifts in social sentiment can be indicators of price movements, and inform investors about short-term movements.” “Long term, though, we do feel that it is a ‘safe haven’ in the sense that there is no way to artificially deflate it or otherwise manipulate it, and that is a perfectly good reason for people to invest in it,” Hirsch said. Recent blockchain data showed that more investors were accumulating bitcoin as seen by a huge amount of bitcoin outflow from institution-driven crypto exchange Coinbase Pro , according to CryptoQuant, a data provider. Ether moves in tandem with bitcoin amid a quiet market Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down on Friday, trading around $1,446.2 and sliding 8.2% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Ether tumbled to nearly $1,400 during Friday’s trading hours in Asia and has been hovering around $1,450 for most of Friday. Read more: Coinbase Calls Out Binance as It Bemoans Compliance Burden Ether’s spot trading activity was thin on Friday, continuing to mirror the bitcoin market. After the two cryptocurrencies’ correlation dropped slightly last month, the relationship between bitcoin and ether’s prices turned stronger at the end of February. Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly in red Friday. There were no notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read more: Cardano’s ADA Is Now the Third-Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Cap Notable losers: 0x (ZRX) – 13.42% kyber network (KNC) – 11.59% litecoin (LTC) – 11.34% orchid (OXT) – 9.79% omg network (OMG) – 9.14% Equities: Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the red 4.0% because of a heavy sell-off across stocks in Asia-Pacific after Wall Street’s losses. The FTSE 100 in Europe slipped 2.5% as the sell-off in bonds has had a deeper impact on equities across the globe. The S&P 500 in the United States moved little, down by 0.48%, as investors continued to study the implications of a rapid rise in bond yields. Commodities: Oil was down 3.02%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.61. Gold was in the red 2.23% and at $1730.40 as of press time. Treasurys: The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday dipping to 1.402%. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K: Bitcoin’s price turned choppy on Friday as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization logged its worst weekly performance since March 2020 when the pandemic hit the global economy.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $46,244 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 5.7% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $44,180.99-$49,325.91 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC trades below its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians.
A quick recap of bitcoin’s most tumultuous weekly performance since almost a year ago shows that this week’s high volatility was not caused by one simple factor. The correction earlier this week was largely triggered byan overheated derivatives marketas traders rushed to exit leveraged bets (or got liquidated from positions) that had accumulated as bitcoin pushed to an all-time-high price above $58,000. A drop below $45,000 on Thursday coincided with a sell-off in the broader stock market due to rising concerns oversurging bond yields, which might dim the allure of riskier assets like cryptocurrencies.
Read more:Bitcoin Looks Indecisive After Sell-off in Bonds, Tech Stocks
Related:India's Central Bank Sees Pros and Cons With National Digital Currency
Bitcoin’s spot market looked quiet on Friday, with the daily trading volume on eight crypto exchanges tracked by CoinDesk largely flat compared with levels on Thursday. Volume spiked during the sell-off earlier this week afterlarge bitcoin inflows to exchanges such as Geminion Sunday, which signaled an intent by some traders to take profits as prices approached $60,000.
The market’s relatively quiet tone Friday appeared to reflect low anxiety over a key month-end expiration date on options contracts. A notional total of about $3 billion worth of bitcoin options contracts expired on Friday and the strike price with the highest open interest stood at $48,000, according to derivatives data siteSkew.
“Typically, with options, the highest strike price continues to have a pull on the underlying’s spot price, which could partly explain bitcoin’s recent price action,” said Hunain Naseer, senior editor at OKEx Insights. “Now, with those options contracts out of the way, the market appears, in the short term, to be free to pick a direction.”
“Despite the narrative being sold by crypto maximalists that digital assets are a safe-haven asset, the use of bitcoin suggests it is more of a risk asset,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at Bequant.
Related:Supercar Maker Mazzanti Cruises Into Crypto With Bitcoin Payments, Token Sale
“Thus, liquidity events such those witnessed this week in equity markets will subsequently feed into digital assets, even if fundamentally the two are not related,” Vinokourov said. “Cash is king in times of distress, not bitcoin.”
Read more:Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
Others have remained optimistic after this week’s high volatility.
“Right now, one of the most interesting aspects of bitcoin is that it has no fundamentals to base a valuation model on, but its price movements do correlate with social sentiment,” said Guy Hirsch, U.S. managing director at trading platform eToro. “Shifts in social sentiment can be indicators of price movements, and inform investors about short-term movements.”
“Long term, though, we do feel that it is a ‘safe haven’ in the sense that there is no way to artificially deflate it or otherwise manipulate it, and that is a perfectly good reason for people to invest in it,” Hirsch said.
Recent blockchain data showed that more investors were accumulating bitcoin as seen bya huge amount of bitcoin outflow from institution-driven crypto exchange Coinbase Pro, according to CryptoQuant, a data provider.
Ether(ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down on Friday, trading around $1,446.2 and sliding 8.2% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Ether tumbled to nearly $1,400 during Friday’s trading hours in Asia and has been hovering around $1,450 for most of Friday.
Read more:Coinbase Calls Out Binance as It Bemoans Compliance Burden
Ether’s spot trading activity was thin on Friday, continuing to mirror the bitcoin market.
After the two cryptocurrencies’ correlation dropped slightly last month, the relationship between bitcoin and ether’s prices turned stronger at the end of February.
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in red Friday. There were no notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read more:Cardano’s ADA Is Now the Third-Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Cap
Notable losers:
• 0x(ZRX) – 13.42%
• kyber network(KNC) – 11.59%
• litecoin(LTC) – 11.34%
• orchid(OXT) – 9.79%
• omg network(OMG) – 9.14%
Equities:
• Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the red 4.0%because of a heavy sell-off across stocks in Asia-Pacific after Wall Street’s losses.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe slipped 2.5% asthe sell-off in bonds has had a deeper impact on equities across the globe.
• The S&P 500 in the United States moved little, down by 0.48%, asinvestors continued to study the implications of a rapid rise in bond yields.
Commodities:
• Oil was down 3.02%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.61.
• Gold was in the red 2.23% and at $1730.40 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday dipping to 1.402%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week Since March as Prices Hold Around $46.5K || Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000: The largest public bitcoin trust is facing an unusual situation: Its share price is dropping faster than the underlying cryptocurrency. Historically, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) trades at a premium to bitcoin ( BTC ) itself. But that premium turned into a discount this week, with GBTC closing at a price nearly 4% lower than the market value of the underlying asset on Thursday. In mid-December, GBTC shares traded at more than a 35% premium, according to data from YCharts , a reminder that price action for GBTC doesnt perfectly match bitcoins own price action by any means. NOTE: Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, CoinDesks parent company. Grayscales bitcoin trust isnt the only one trading at a discount, however. 3iQs Canadian Bitcoin Fund (QBTC), although a smaller fund than Grayscale, was also trading at a roughly 4% discount to its underlying asset, according to market data from CryptoQuant . GBTC and QBTC are trading at discounts as bitcoin itself is selling off, dropping to below $45,000 Friday afternoon before slightly recovering to above $48,000. At last check, BTC was trading at $46,877, based on CoinDesks Bitcoin Price Index , with a year-to-date gain just below 60%. Analysts have speculated the shrinking premium might be due to reduced demand for bitcoin, or due to increasing competition among providers of bitcoin-focused exchange-traded products. Read More: Digital Assets Under Management in ETPs Rose 50% to $43.9B in February Related Stories Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000 Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000 Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000 Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000 || Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000: The largest public bitcoin trust is facing an unusual situation: Its share price is dropping faster than the underlying cryptocurrency.
• Historically, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) trades at a premium to bitcoin (BTC) itself. But that premium turned into a discount this week, with GBTC closing at a price nearly 4% lower than the market value of the underlying asset on Thursday.
• In mid-December, GBTC shares traded at more than a 35% premium, according to data fromYCharts, a reminder that price action for GBTC doesn’t perfectly match bitcoin’s own price action by any means.
• NOTE: Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company.
• Grayscale’s bitcoin trust isn’t the only one trading at a discount, however. 3iQ’s Canadian Bitcoin Fund (QBTC), although a smaller fund than Grayscale, was also trading at a roughly 4% discount to its underlying asset, according to market data fromCryptoQuant.
• GBTC and QBTC are trading at discounts as bitcoin itself is selling off, dropping to below $45,000 Friday afternoon before slightly recovering to above $48,000.
• At last check, BTC was trading at $46,877, based on CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index, with a year-to-date gain just below 60%.
• Analysts havespeculatedthe shrinking premium might be due to reduced demand for bitcoin, or due to increasing competition among providers of bitcoin-focused exchange-traded products.
Read More:Digital Assets Under Management in ETPs Rose 50% to $43.9B in February
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000 || Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000: The largest public bitcoin trust is facing an unusual situation: Its share price is dropping faster than the underlying cryptocurrency.
• Historically, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) trades at a premium to bitcoin (BTC) itself. But that premium turned into a discount this week, with GBTC closing at a price nearly 4% lower than the market value of the underlying asset on Thursday.
• In mid-December, GBTC shares traded at more than a 35% premium, according to data fromYCharts, a reminder that price action for GBTC doesn’t perfectly match bitcoin’s own price action by any means.
• NOTE: Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company.
• Grayscale’s bitcoin trust isn’t the only one trading at a discount, however. 3iQ’s Canadian Bitcoin Fund (QBTC), although a smaller fund than Grayscale, was also trading at a roughly 4% discount to its underlying asset, according to market data fromCryptoQuant.
• GBTC and QBTC are trading at discounts as bitcoin itself is selling off, dropping to below $45,000 Friday afternoon before slightly recovering to above $48,000.
• At last check, BTC was trading at $46,877, based on CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index, with a year-to-date gain just below 60%.
• Analysts havespeculatedthe shrinking premium might be due to reduced demand for bitcoin, or due to increasing competition among providers of bitcoin-focused exchange-traded products.
Read More:Digital Assets Under Management in ETPs Rose 50% to $43.9B in February
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Flips Negative as BTC Stays Below $50,000
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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45137.77, 49631.24, 48378.99, 50538.24, 48561.17, 48927.30, 48912.38, 51206.69, 52246.52, 54824.12
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83, 907.68, 777.76, 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94, 886.62, 899.07, 895.03, 921.79, 924.67, 921.01, 892.69, 901.54, 917.59, 919.75, 921.59, 919.50, 920.38, 970.40, 989.02, 1011.80, 1029.91, 1042.90, 1027.34, 1038.15, 1061.35, 1063.07, 994.38, 988.67, 1004.45, 999.18, 990.64, 1004.55, 1007.48, 1027.44, 1046.21, 1054.42, 1047.87, 1079.98, 1115.30, 1117.44, 1166.72, 1173.68, 1143.84, 1165.20.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-02-26]
Volume: 116486000, RSI (14-day): 71.90, 50-day EMA: 1001.53, 200-day EMA: 811.52
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange , before easing to about $1,190. http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. [nL8N1G85HI] But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange , before easing to about $1,190. http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. [nL8N1G85HI] But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange , before easing to about $1,190. http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. [nL8N1G85HI] But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190. That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190. That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190. That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: * Graphic: bitcoin price and percentage daily moveshttp://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk
By Jemima Kelly
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval.
Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value.
But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year.
It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190.http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk
That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy.
Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market.
But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency.
"Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London.
"We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that."
Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval.
The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: * Graphic: bitcoin price and percentage daily moveshttp://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk
By Jemima Kelly
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval.
Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value.
But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year.
It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190.http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk
That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy.
Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market.
But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency.
"Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London.
"We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that."
Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval.
The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: * Graphic: bitcoin price and percentage daily moves http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk By Jemima Kelly LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190. http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk Bitcoin prices. That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) View comments || Traders reexamine Nvidia after analyst downgrade: One"Fast Money"trader said he has not lost faith in Nvidia's(NVDA)stock, despite a downgrade from Nomura analystsand a 9 percent tumble on Thursday.
Trader Guy Adami said he likes the graphics chipmaker, because the company is pivoting from gaming to autonomous cars and will become a leader in the space.
Trader Pete Najarian said he prefers Intel(INTC), which he says is a competitor in the artificial intelligence and data center arenas that Nvidia is trying to grow into. He said he would buy Nvidia at $90, a level slightly below the stock's Thursday close of $100.49.
Shares of Nvidia have skyrocketed 218 percent in the last 12 months.
Disclosures:
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, SLV
Pete Najarian owns calls: AAL, AMJ, AKS, BVN, BZH, C, CCL, CSCO, CHK, CLF COP, CRM, ETP, GE, GDX, GLD, GILD, IBN, INTC, JBLU, HUM, HMY, KORS, KMB, MT, MTW, ORCL, P, PAA, POT, RIO, SVU, SV, UAL, UNP, WFT, WLL, WY, WLC, GLD, UUP, ZIOP LONG: AAPL, BAC, BLL, DLTR, DIS, EBAY, GILD, GM, HAIN, HD, HUM, IBM, INTC, JWN, K, KMI.A, KO, KORS, LUX, MOS, MSFT, MRK, MRVL, RW, RHT. Puts: PJC
Dan Nathan is long XLV March put spread, SPY May put spread, VIX march call spread || Traders reexamine Nvidia after analyst downgrade: One "Fast Money" trader said he has not lost faith in Nvidia's ( NVDA ) stock, d espite a downgrade from Nomura analysts and a 9 percent tumble on Thursday. Trader Guy Adami said he likes the graphics chipmaker, because the company is pivoting from gaming to autonomous cars and will become a leader in the space. Trader Pete Najarian said he prefers Intel ( INTC ) , which he says is a competitor in the artificial intelligence and data center arenas that Nvidia is trying to grow into. He said he would buy Nvidia at $90, a level slightly below the stock's Thursday close of $100.49. Shares of Nvidia have skyrocketed 218 percent in the last 12 months. Disclosures: Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, SLV Pete Najarian owns calls: AAL, AMJ, AKS, BVN, BZH, C, CCL, CSCO, CHK, CLF COP, CRM, ETP, GE, GDX, GLD, GILD, IBN, INTC, JBLU, HUM, HMY, KORS, KMB, MT, MTW, ORCL, P, PAA, POT, RIO, SVU, SV, UAL, UNP, WFT, WLL, WY, WLC, GLD, UUP, ZIOP LONG: AAPL, BAC, BLL, DLTR, DIS, EBAY, GILD, GM, HAIN, HD, HUM, IBM, INTC, JWN, K, KMI.A, KO, KORS, LUX, MOS, MSFT, MRK, MRVL, RW, RHT. Puts: PJC Dan Nathan is long XLV March put spread, SPY May put spread, VIX march call spread || CEOs love the corner office, but research says it's overrated: ("The Office"/NBC)
Corner offices are a coveted piece of corporate real estate — but they probably shouldn't be.
According tonewly published researchfrom office design company Steelcase, corner offices meet only a small percentage of modern CEOs' needs. Many leaders say they value teamwork over unilateral decision-making, yet still work in fixed spaces designed to isolate.
Patricia Kammer, senior design researcher at Steelcase, says the corner office does a disservice for companies with flatter organizational structures where consensus trumps top-down commands.
"If they don't have that [flexibility], the organization's agility and ability to respond to market demands are at stake," Kammer tells Business Insider.
Steelcase conducted a two-year study of more than 20 companies around the world to learn how CEOs and other executives spent their working hours. The company found leaders face a battery of challenges in any given day. They switch between tasks, manage stress, rely on assistants, and wrestle with always staying available by phone or email.
"It's not that they misunderstand how their work gets done," Kammer says of CEOs retaining their corner offices. "It's that their jobs have gotten harder."
Steelcase's research finds there are a number of strategies, ranging from tiny tweaks to elaborate overhauls, that CEOs could make to help themselves. Kammer says the simplest approach is building environments that promote exercise and social interaction during the day.
That could mean setting up a more communal work area for executives and their team, such as standing desks far away from the fixed office, but which encourage interaction with others on the way there.
More involved solutions include building whole new rooms for executives that serve a different function from their personal offices. The spaces could be used for reflection or creative thought, rather than business dealings, and reserved exclusively for leaders.
As workplaces continue to get more farflung — arecent surveyfound remote work is gaining in popularity — leaders have to make sure they can connect with everyone effectively, Kammer says. That means being visible to people at a main branch but available when someone in a different time zone needs them.
"This is an interesting paradox," Kammer says.
Business are getting more global at the same time they're getting less hierarchical. People need to see their leaders more as equals but with the understanding that their jobs are still measurably harder, and their schedules more demanding. According to Kammer, success in this new world of work means being as nimble as possible.
"To achieve all of this," she says, "CEOs and their executive teams cannot afford to be hidden away in traditional private executive suites that potentially undermine a free-flowing exchange of ideas."
NOW WATCH:CEOs and business leaders are 4 times more likely to be psychopaths than the average person
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it
• Trump has a problem: Americans increasingly think he's incompetent
• Britain's former business secretary: It's not globalisation killing jobs — it's technology || CEOs love the corner office, but research says it's overrated: michael scott the office ("The Office"/NBC) Corner offices are a coveted piece of corporate real estate — but they probably shouldn't be. According to newly published research from office design company Steelcase, corner offices meet only a small percentage of modern CEOs' needs. Many leaders say they value teamwork over unilateral decision-making, yet still work in fixed spaces designed to isolate. Patricia Kammer, senior design researcher at Steelcase, says the corner office does a disservice for companies with flatter organizational structures where consensus trumps top-down commands. "If they don't have that [flexibility], the organization's agility and ability to respond to market demands are at stake," Kammer tells Business Insider. Steelcase conducted a two-year study of more than 20 companies around the world to learn how CEOs and other executives spent their working hours. The company found leaders face a battery of challenges in any given day. They switch between tasks, manage stress, rely on assistants, and wrestle with always staying available by phone or email. "It' s not that they misunderstand how their work gets done," Kammer says of CEOs retaining their corner offices. "It's that their jobs have gotten harder." Steelcase's research finds there are a number of strategies, ranging from tiny tweaks to elaborate overhauls, that CEOs could make to help themselves. Kammer says the simplest approach is building environments that promote exercise and social interaction during the day. That could mean setting up a more communal work area for executives and their team, such as standing desks far away from the fixed office, but which encourage interaction with others on the way there. More involved solutions include building whole new rooms for executives that serve a different function from their personal offices. The spaces could be used for reflection or creative thought, rather than business dealings, and reserved exclusively for leaders. As workplaces continue to get more farflung — a recent survey found remote work is gaining in popularity — leaders have to make sure they can connect with everyone effectively, Kammer says. That means being visible to people at a main branch but available when someone in a different time zone needs them. Story continues "This is an interesting paradox," Kammer says. Business are getting more global at the same time they're getting less hierarchical. People need to see their leaders more as equals but with the understanding that their jobs are still measurably harder, and their schedules more demanding. According to Kammer, success in this new world of work means being as nimble as possible. "To achieve all of this," she says, "CEOs and their executive teams cannot afford to be hidden away in traditional private executive suites that potentially undermine a free-flowing exchange of ideas." NOW WATCH: CEOs and business leaders are 4 times more likely to be psychopaths than the average person More From Business Insider Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it Trump has a problem: Americans increasingly think he's incompetent Britain's former business secretary: It's not globalisation killing jobs — it's technology || Bitcoin is surging – but that might not mean what you think: Bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=-USS)– the volatile digital currency that is used for a bevy of transaction, investment and value-storing purposes – is hovering around all-time highs, and its value has surged 175 percent in the past year.
But even though bitcoin is rising alongside gold, and it is often seen as an alternative "safe haven asset," this rally may actually be confirming the rally in stocks, rather than presenting a warning sign.
The currency has become more mainstream as additional companies accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Miller Tabak equity strategist Matt Maley said Wednesday on "Trading Nation." According to this thinking, demand for bitcoin will rise as economic activity increases.
Bitcoin was created in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis as a brand-new currency and payment network, and remains somewhat in the Wild West of currencies, without universal regulation, no central authority and tracked by ledger-like blockchain technology maintained by different firms.
Companiesfrom MicrosofttoSubwayto popular blog platformWordPressnow accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
More recently, Switzerland's financial regulatory authoritygranted a bitcoin firm approvalto operate, Reuters reported, andin late 2016JPMorgan was reported to have been working on its own type of blockchain technology to support bitcoin. Perhaps boosting bitcoin activity, too, is the prospect of bitcoinexchange-traded fund creationand bitcoin storage providers.
In the past, bitcoin rallies have frequently been seen as signs that investors are turning away from conventional assets, and hunting for places to stash their money. But as bitcoin has developed more "mainstream" business uses, Maley argued, it has become more correlated with equities.
A look at bitcoin's performance relative to the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)'s over the last five years does not show any particularly close mathematical relationship between the two.
Nobel laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitzsaid in Januaryat the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that the United States moving toward digital currency would have meaningful benefits like curbing corruption and increasing transparency in global financial markets, two themes from this most recent meeting.
"There are important issues of privacy, cybersecurity, but it would certainly have big advantages," he said.
Bitcoin is not fiat currency, with no backing from a government that issues it, and the space is volatile given its lack of regulation. This month alone, bitcoin has risen 25 percent after dipping nearly 5 percent in January. It has climbed nearly 22,000 percent in five years while the dollar is up 28 percent in the same time period.
"The big fear around bitcoin is just one day when the governments come out and say, 'We're no longer going to allow this,' and we're going to shut it down. But in a world of Armageddon, where the world ends, currencies will go by the way of the countries; bitcoin, like gold, will still have value because of the blockchain-ing that goes on behind it," Dennis Davitt, portfolio manager at Harvest Volatility Management, said Wednesday on "Trading Nation."
The digital currency has a ways to go before becoming a full-on "mainstream" currency, but it's very much a real system of payment, Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, told CNBC on Wednesday. Given bitcoin's volatility, every time investors buy the currency at new highs, "you kind of want to hold your nose," Colas said, given its volatile nature and all the hills and valleys that come along with it.
Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based digital currency exchange,went bankrupt in 2014after substantial losses in the bitcoin space, sending the value of bitcoin tanking.
— CNBC's Alex Rosenberg contributed reporting. || Bitcoin is surging – but that might not mean what you think: Bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=-USS)– the volatile digital currency that is used for a bevy of transaction, investment and value-storing purposes – is hovering around all-time highs, and its value has surged 175 percent in the past year.
But even though bitcoin is rising alongside gold, and it is often seen as an alternative "safe haven asset," this rally may actually be confirming the rally in stocks, rather than presenting a warning sign.
The currency has become more mainstream as additional companies accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Miller Tabak equity strategist Matt Maley said Wednesday on "Trading Nation." According to this thinking, demand for bitcoin will rise as economic activity increases.
Bitcoin was created in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis as a brand-new currency and payment network, and remains somewhat in the Wild West of currencies, without universal regulation, no central authority and tracked by ledger-like blockchain technology maintained by different firms.
Companiesfrom MicrosofttoSubwayto popular blog platformWordPressnow accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
More recently, Switzerland's financial regulatory authoritygranted a bitcoin firm approvalto operate, Reuters reported, andin late 2016JPMorgan was reported to have been working on its own type of blockchain technology to support bitcoin. Perhaps boosting bitcoin activity, too, is the prospect of bitcoinexchange-traded fund creationand bitcoin storage providers.
In the past, bitcoin rallies have frequently been seen as signs that investors are turning away from conventional assets, and hunting for places to stash their money. But as bitcoin has developed more "mainstream" business uses, Maley argued, it has become more correlated with equities.
A look at bitcoin's performance relative to the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)'s over the last five years does not show any particularly close mathematical relationship between the two.
Nobel laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitzsaid in Januaryat the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that the United States moving toward digital currency would have meaningful benefits like curbing corruption and increasing transparency in global financial markets, two themes from this most recent meeting.
"There are important issues of privacy, cybersecurity, but it would certainly have big advantages," he said.
Bitcoin is not fiat currency, with no backing from a government that issues it, and the space is volatile given its lack of regulation. This month alone, bitcoin has risen 25 percent after dipping nearly 5 percent in January. It has climbed nearly 22,000 percent in five years while the dollar is up 28 percent in the same time period.
"The big fear around bitcoin is just one day when the governments come out and say, 'We're no longer going to allow this,' and we're going to shut it down. But in a world of Armageddon, where the world ends, currencies will go by the way of the countries; bitcoin, like gold, will still have value because of the blockchain-ing that goes on behind it," Dennis Davitt, portfolio manager at Harvest Volatility Management, said Wednesday on "Trading Nation."
The digital currency has a ways to go before becoming a full-on "mainstream" currency, but it's very much a real system of payment, Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, told CNBC on Wednesday. Given bitcoin's volatility, every time investors buy the currency at new highs, "you kind of want to hold your nose," Colas said, given its volatile nature and all the hills and valleys that come along with it.
Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based digital currency exchange,went bankrupt in 2014after substantial losses in the bitcoin space, sending the value of bitcoin tanking.
— CNBC's Alex Rosenberg contributed reporting. || Bitcoin is surging but that might not mean what you think: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) the volatile digital currency that is used for a bevy of transaction, investment and value-storing purposes is hovering around all-time highs, and its value has surged 175 percent in the past year. But even though bitcoin is rising alongside gold, and it is often seen as an alternative "safe haven asset," this rally may actually be confirming the rally in stocks, rather than presenting a warning sign. The currency has become more mainstream as additional companies accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Miller Tabak equity strategist Matt Maley said Wednesday on " Trading Nation ." According to this thinking, demand for bitcoin will rise as economic activity increases. Bitcoin was created in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis as a brand-new currency and payment network, and remains somewhat in the Wild West of currencies, without universal regulation, no central authority and tracked by ledger-like blockchain technology maintained by different firms. Companies from Microsoft to Subway to popular blog platform WordPress now accept bitcoin as a form of payment. More recently, Switzerland's financial regulatory authority granted a bitcoin firm approval to operate, Reuters reported, and in late 2016 JPMorgan was reported to have been working on its own type of blockchain technology to support bitcoin. Perhaps boosting bitcoin activity, too, is the prospect of bitcoin exchange-traded fund creation and bitcoin storage providers. In the past, bitcoin rallies have frequently been seen as signs that investors are turning away from conventional assets, and hunting for places to stash their money. But as bitcoin has developed more "mainstream" business uses, Maley argued, it has become more correlated with equities. A look at bitcoin's performance relative to the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) 's over the last five years does not show any particularly close mathematical relationship between the two. Nobel laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitz said in January at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that the United States moving toward digital currency would have meaningful benefits like curbing corruption and increasing transparency in global financial markets, two themes from this most recent meeting. Story continues "There are important issues of privacy, cybersecurity, but it would certainly have big advantages," he said. Bitcoin is not fiat currency, with no backing from a government that issues it, and the space is volatile given its lack of regulation. This month alone, bitcoin has risen 25 percent after dipping nearly 5 percent in January. It has climbed nearly 22,000 percent in five years while the dollar is up 28 percent in the same time period. "The big fear around bitcoin is just one day when the governments come out and say, 'We're no longer going to allow this,' and we're going to shut it down. But in a world of Armageddon, where the world ends, currencies will go by the way of the countries; bitcoin, like gold, will still have value because of the blockchain-ing that goes on behind it," Dennis Davitt, portfolio manager at Harvest Volatility Management, said Wednesday on "Trading Nation." The digital currency has a ways to go before becoming a full-on "mainstream" currency, but it's very much a real system of payment, Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, told CNBC on Wednesday. Given bitcoin's volatility, every time investors buy the currency at new highs, "you kind of want to hold your nose," Colas said, given its volatile nature and all the hills and valleys that come along with it. Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based digital currency exchange, went bankrupt in 2014 after substantial losses in the bitcoin space, sending the value of bitcoin tanking. CNBC's Alex Rosenberg contributed reporting. || CaribbeanTales Flow into Production: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Feb 23, 2017) - Three of the Caribbean's leading film producers will now develop pilots for their original TV series projects, via funding fromFlowand CaribbeanTales Media Group.
With $40,000 funding for each project, production work will begin onBattledream Chronicle,a sci-fi/drama animated series created by Alain Bidard, which is based on his groundbreaking multi-award winning feature film;Heat,a sweltering crime/drama series filmed in Barbados from iconic filmmaker Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion, The Story of Lover's Rockand more);andCaribbean Girl NYC,an ensemble female-driven sitcom from NY-based Guadeloupian filmmaker/producer Mariette Monpierre, whose award-winning filmElzawon, among others, the prestigious NYT award.
Support for these pilots is part of CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI), a year-round development and production hub for Caribbean and Caribbean Diaspora Producers to assist in the creation of strong, compelling and sustainable regional content for the global market.
"We recognise the significant hurdles that Caribbean Producers face in financing and producing their content, and getting it out to audiences," said John Reid, CEO ofCable and Wireless, operator of Flow and lead sponsor of CTI. "We are honoured to help support this programme that is enabling the production and monetisation of this exciting emerging cultural industry."
Production on the pilots will begin in April 2017. They will premier later this year at the twelfth annualCaribbeanTales International Film Festival(CTFF). Flow is also the lead sponsor of CTFF, a mix of exciting and dynamic films that showcase diverse, shared stories and cultures, and celebrates the talents of established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage. The festival will be held in Toronto, Canada between September 6 and September 20, 2017.
As an added bonus, an eight-part documentary series has been filmed and is currently in post-production. The series follows the ten teams of filmmakers who competed for this prestigious award, and will be shown onFlow1later this year.
Frances-Anne Solomon, CEO of CaribbeanTales, states, "We are delighted that, together with Flow, we are able to provide the Caribbean's top filmmakers with funding and a platform to produce top quality, local, content with the capacity to reach audiences across the region and the world."
Visit the CTIwebsitefor more information and to apply for the 2017 CTI programme. And follow Flow and CaribbeanTales onTwitter,FacebookandInstagramto stay up to date.
CTI is now accepting applications for its 2017 programme:http://caribbeantales.ca/cti.
About C&W Communications
C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region.
Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter.
About Liberty Global
Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 5 million access points.
Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. || CaribbeanTales Flow into Production: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Feb 23, 2017) - Three of the Caribbean's leading film producers will now develop pilots for their original TV series projects, via funding from Flow and CaribbeanTales Media Group. With $40,000 funding for each project, production work will begin on Battledream Chronicle , a sci-fi/drama animated series created by Alain Bidard, which is based on his groundbreaking multi-award winning feature film; Heat , a sweltering crime/drama series filmed in Barbados from iconic filmmaker Menelik Shabazz ( Burning an Illusion, The Story of Lover's Rock and more ); and Caribbean Girl NYC , an ensemble female-driven sitcom from NY-based Guadeloupian filmmaker/producer Mariette Monpierre, whose award-winning film Elza won, among others, the prestigious NYT award. Support for these pilots is part of CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI), a year-round development and production hub for Caribbean and Caribbean Diaspora Producers to assist in the creation of strong, compelling and sustainable regional content for the global market. "We recognise the significant hurdles that Caribbean Producers face in financing and producing their content, and getting it out to audiences," said John Reid, CEO of Cable and Wireless , operator of Flow and lead sponsor of CTI. "We are honoured to help support this programme that is enabling the production and monetisation of this exciting emerging cultural industry." Production on the pilots will begin in April 2017. They will premier later this year at the twelfth annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF) . Flow is also the lead sponsor of CTFF, a mix of exciting and dynamic films that showcase diverse, shared stories and cultures, and celebrates the talents of established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage. The festival will be held in Toronto, Canada between September 6 and September 20, 2017. As an added bonus, an eight-part documentary series has been filmed and is currently in post-production. The series follows the ten teams of filmmakers who competed for this prestigious award, and will be shown on Flow1 later this year. Story continues Frances-Anne Solomon, CEO of CaribbeanTales, states, "We are delighted that, together with Flow, we are able to provide the Caribbean's top filmmakers with funding and a platform to produce top quality, local, content with the capacity to reach audiences across the region and the world." Visit the CTI website for more information and to apply for the 2017 CTI programme. And follow Flow and CaribbeanTales on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date. CTI is now accepting applications for its 2017 programme: http://caribbeantales.ca/cti . About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 5 million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . || Trump Trick and Tweets: These ETFs May Prosper Ahead: This article is part of a regular series of thought leadership pieces from some of the more influential ETF strategists in the money management industry. Today's article is by Scott Kubie, CFA, chief strategist of Omaha, Nebraska-based CLS Investments.
Donald Trump’s narrow presidential victory, Brexit and stronger nationalist tendencies in Europe and Asia indicate an underlying shift in the emphasis of consumers and government policy.
While it may continue to cause some volatility, the shift will benefit economic growth through a few key changes in behavior:
• Greater consumer optimism fuels increased consumption
• Expansionary fiscal policies support infrastructure projects
• Regulatory reform increases potential business investment
Economic trends show this transition is already in motion. Research originally conducted by MSCI and updated by CLS separates economic regimes into the four different quadrants seen in the chart below. This chart shows the global economy has moved from the slow-growth quadrant to the heating-up quadrant. The heating-up quadrant is associated with stronger economic growth and increasing inflation.
For a larger view, please click on the image above.
This shift will create opportunities for the patient investor in the coming years. There will be numerous ways to tilt portfolios toward these themes. This article briefly summarizes three opportunities CLS sees in the current environment.
Value Over Growth
All three of the key changes noted above should boost value stocks relative to growth stocks. Rising consumption broadens sales growth, infrastructure projects increase demand for physical goods, and a more favorable regulatory environment benefits energy and materials stocks. All of those trends should boost interest rates and loan demand, supporting financials as well.
Prior to 2016, value had lagged growth in six of the previous nine years, and had never outperformed by more than 2.3%. In the six years growth outperformed, three of them (2007, 2009 and 2015) did so by 9.5% or more.
Cumulatively, growth outpaced value by more than 50% from 2007 to 2015. Last year, value picked up more than 10% on growth in the U.S. (see chart above). While value did well last year, we expect the trend to continue to favor value stocks over the intermediate term. Two ETFs that offer exposure to this trend are:
• iShares Edge MSCI USA Value Factor ETF (VLUE)
• Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (RPV)
Diversify Creatively
While this economic recovery has been very long by historical standards, it has also been slow. Only in recent periods have we seen wage pressures starting to break through after a long wintry economic recovery.
Global supply chains have helped keep wages low by allowing firms to transfer production to cheaper areas. The new nationalists will pressure companies to keep more production in the home country. That in turn will push up prices, inflation and interest rates.
If the economic trend continues, we expect new quarterly inflation data to continue to be above the past quarter’s data. Based on our higher expectations for inflation, we believe TIPS will outperform nominal U.S. Treasury bonds of similar duration. Bank loans also look attractive in a scenario where credit risk is dropping because of good economic growth and increasing yields. In these bond segments, some holdings include:
• iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP)
• PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio (BKLN)
• PIMCO 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index ETF (STPZ)
Index Smartly
The financial crisis has provided the dominant market narrative for investment results since 2007. Any narrative that lasts that long begins to creep into capitalization-weighted indexes.
With a new narrative of economic populism usurping the financial crisis as the defining trend in global economics, investors should expect shifts in leadership around the world.
If this trend-shift proves to be lasting, cap-weighted indexes will be overexposed to the beneficiaries of recent years and underexposed to value stocks, especially financial stocks. Smart-beta alternatives seem more likely than normal to outperform during a period of rapid change.
Here is a sample ofsmart-beta ETFs, excluding the value ETFs mentioned above:
• iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM)
• J.P. Morgan Diversified Return International Equity ETF (JPIN)
• Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP)
At the time of this writing, CLS Investments invests in all of the securities mentioned above for its clients. CLS Investments is a third-party investment manager and ETF strategist. It began to emphasize ETFs in individual investor portfolios in 2002, and is now one of the largest active money managers using ETFs. Contact CLS' Chief Strategist Scott Kubie, CFA, at 402-896-7406 or [email protected]. Please clickherefor a complete list of relevant disclosures and definitions.
Recommended Stories
• Wednesday’s Hot Reads: Approving Bitcoin ETFs Will Lead Investors To Slaughter
• Rebalancing Of Smart Beta ETFs Often Overlooked
• 2 Smart Beta ETFs Killing It In Emerging Markets
• February ETF Flows Point To Passive Opportunity
• Why Low Vol Funds Are Bleeding
Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || Trump Trick and Tweets: These ETFs May Prosper Ahead: This article is part of a regular series of thought leadership pieces from some of the more influential ETF strategists in the money management industry. Today's article is by Scott Kubie, CFA, chief strategist of Omaha, Nebraska-based CLS Investments. Donald Trumps narrow presidential victory, Brexit and stronger nationalist tendencies in Europe and Asia indicate an underlying shift in the emphasis of consumers and government policy. While it may continue to cause some volatility, the shift will benefit economic growth through a few key changes in behavior: Greater consumer optimism fuels increased consumption Expansionary fiscal policies support infrastructure projects Regulatory reform increases potential business investment Economic trends show this transition is already in motion. Research originally conducted by MSCI and updated by CLS separates economic regimes into the four different quadrants seen in the chart below. This chart shows the global economy has moved from the slow-growth quadrant to the heating-up quadrant. The heating-up quadrant is associated with stronger economic growth and increasing inflation. Inflation Ratio For a larger view, please click on the image above. This shift will create opportunities for the patient investor in the coming years. There will be numerous ways to tilt portfolios toward these themes. This article briefly summarizes three opportunities CLS sees in the current environment. Value Over Growth All three of the key changes noted above should boost value stocks relative to growth stocks. Rising consumption broadens sales growth, infrastructure projects increase demand for physical goods, and a more favorable regulatory environment benefits energy and materials stocks. All of those trends should boost interest rates and loan demand, supporting financials as well. Prior to 2016, value had lagged growth in six of the previous nine years, and had never outperformed by more than 2.3%. In the six years growth outperformed, three of them (2007, 2009 and 2015) did so by 9.5% or more. Story continues Cumulatively, growth outpaced value by more than 50% from 2007 to 2015. Last year, value picked up more than 10% on growth in the U.S. (see chart above). While value did well last year, we expect the trend to continue to favor value stocks over the intermediate term. Two ETFs that offer exposure to this trend are: iShares Edge MSCI USA Value Factor ETF (VLUE) Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (RPV) Diversify Creatively While this economic recovery has been very long by historical standards, it has also been slow. Only in recent periods have we seen wage pressures starting to break through after a long wintry economic recovery. Global supply chains have helped keep wages low by allowing firms to transfer production to cheaper areas. The new nationalists will pressure companies to keep more production in the home country. That in turn will push up prices, inflation and interest rates. If the economic trend continues, we expect new quarterly inflation data to continue to be above the past quarters data. Based on our higher expectations for inflation, we believe TIPS will outperform nominal U.S. Treasury bonds of similar duration. Bank loans also look attractive in a scenario where credit risk is dropping because of good economic growth and increasing yields. In these bond segments, some holdings include: iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP) PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio (BKLN) PIMCO 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index ETF (STPZ) Index Smartly The financial crisis has provided the dominant market narrative for investment results since 2007. Any narrative that lasts that long begins to creep into capitalization-weighted indexes. With a new narrative of economic populism usurping the financial crisis as the defining trend in global economics, investors should expect shifts in leadership around the world. If this trend-shift proves to be lasting, cap-weighted indexes will be overexposed to the beneficiaries of recent years and underexposed to value stocks, especially financial stocks. Smart-beta alternatives seem more likely than normal to outperform during a period of rapid change. Here is a sample of smart-beta ETFs , excluding the value ETFs mentioned above: iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) J.P. Morgan Diversified Return International Equity ETF (JPIN) Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) At the time of this writing, CLS Investments invests in all of the securities mentioned above for its clients. CLS Investments is a third-party investment manager and ETF strategist. It began to emphasize ETFs in individual investor portfolios in 2002, and is now one of the largest active money managers using ETFs. Contact CLS' Chief Strategist Scott Kubie, CFA, at 402-896-7406 or at [email protected] . Please click here for a complete list of relevant disclosures and definitions. Recommended Stories Wednesdays Hot Reads: Approving Bitcoin ETFs Will Lead Investors To Slaughter Rebalancing Of Smart Beta ETFs Often Overlooked 2 Smart Beta ETFs Killing It In Emerging Markets February ETF Flows Point To Passive Opportunity Why Low Vol Funds Are Bleeding Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved
[Social Media Buzz]
#TrollCoin #TROLL $0.000092 (-1.92%) 0.00000008 BTC (0.00%) || $1175.21 at 16:45 UTC [24h Range: $1127.11 - $1178.00 Volume: 4427 BTC] || $1135.00 at 01:45 UTC [24h Range: $1127.00 - $1184.73 Volume: 6288 BTC] || The Hardware Bitcoin Wallet. Get Trezor now for only $99 https://buytrezor.com?a=coinokbuytrezor.com/?a=coinok #btc #bitcoin 00 pic.twitter.com/Yn83lgdvVF || $1171.10 #bitfinex;
$1168.69 #GDAX;
$1170.27 #bitstamp;
$1141.00 #btce;
$1171.56 #gemini;
#bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse ...
|
1179.97, 1179.97, 1222.50, 1251.01, 1274.99, 1255.15, 1267.12, 1272.83, 1223.54, 1150.00
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 11790.92, 13016.23, 11182.81, 12407.33, 11959.37, 10817.16, 10583.13, 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-09-22]
Volume: 13199651698, RSI (14-day): 44.16, 50-day EMA: 10298.99, 200-day EMA: 8787.61
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Why a new head at the European Central Bank matters for Bitcoin: The European Parliament today approved Christine Lagarde as President of the European Central Bank (ECB). And her appointment could signal an incoming wave of crypto regulations from the ECB, which has been relatively unconcerned about the risk the digital assets such as Bitcoin pose to the economic system. The non-binding recommendation is the prelude to a European Council vote scheduled for mid-October. Lagarde, who served as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until her resignation became effective September 12, was first nominated to the ECB by the Council in July. The ECB is charged with handling monetary policy for the 19 countries within Europe that have adopted the euro. (The European Parliament is the legislative body for the entire E.U., which includes an additional nine members that do not use the euro.) France vows to block Facebook’s Libra in Europe The current occupant of ECB's top post, Mario Draghi, has been in the role since 2011 and will end his term at the end of October. Historically, Draghi has not seen much of a role for ECB to get involved in cryptocurrencies, which he thinks is more the domain of consumer protection agencies. As recently as May 2019, Draghi publicly stated : "At this point in time, they [cryptocurrencies] are not significant enough…that they could affect our economies in a macro way. And so we tend to consider them as speculative assets—highly risky—but as far as the rest is concerned, it's not really something that pertains to the central bank, the task of monitoring and regulating, possibly, this." Lagarde may or may not be pro-cryptocurrency, but she seems to disagree with Draghi about the effect Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have on the economy. In April 2019, a month before Draghi's comments, she told CNBC , "I think the role of the disrupters and anything that is using distributed ledger technology, whether you call it crypto, assets, currencies, or whatever … that is clearly shaking the system." Story continues And at least a year before that, Lagarde had already decided that those currencies (or "whatever") needed to be regulated. In a March 2018 blog post for the IMF, she argued that crypto-assets threaten financial stability: "The rapid growth of crypto-assets, the extreme volatility in their traded prices, and their ill-defined connections to the traditional financial world could easily create new vulnerabilities. So, we need to develop regulatory frameworks to meet an evolving challenge." Still, the IMF is not the ECB, though both have a role in safeguarding financial stability. To what extent Lagarde sees regulating cryptocurrency as part of the ECB's mission won't be fully known until after she takes over as president November 1. But the early money is for a hands-on approach. At the Singapore Fintech Festival, she urged central banks to consider issuing digital currencies themselves, stating, "There may be a role for the state to supply money to the digital economy." || Why a new head at the European Central Bank matters for Bitcoin: The European Parliament today approved Christine Lagarde as President of the European Central Bank (ECB). And her appointment could signal an incoming wave ofcryptoregulations from the ECB, which has beenrelatively unconcernedabout the risk the digital assets such asBitcoinpose to the economic system.
The non-binding recommendation is the prelude to a European Council vote scheduled formid-October.Lagarde, who served as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until her resignation became effective September 12, was firstnominatedto the ECB by the Council in July.
The ECB is charged with handling monetary policy for the 19 countries within Europe that have adopted the euro. (The European Parliament is the legislative body for the entire E.U., which includes an additional nine members that do not use the euro.)
The current occupant of ECB's top post, Mario Draghi, has been in the role since 2011 and will end his term at the end of October. Historically, Draghi has not seen much of a role for ECB to get involved in cryptocurrencies, which he thinks is more the domain of consumer protection agencies. As recently as May 2019, Draghipublicly stated:
"At this point in time, they [cryptocurrencies] are not significant enough…that they could affect our economies in a macro way. And so we tend to consider them as speculative assets—highly risky—but as far as the rest is concerned, it's not really something that pertains to the central bank, the task of monitoring and regulating, possibly, this."
Lagarde may or may not be pro-cryptocurrency, but she seems to disagree with Draghi about the effect Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have on the economy. In April 2019, a month before Draghi's comments, shetold CNBC, "I think the role of the disrupters and anything that is using distributed ledger technology, whether you call it crypto, assets, currencies, or whatever … that is clearly shaking the system."
And at least a year before that, Lagarde had already decided that those currencies (or "whatever") needed to be regulated. In aMarch 2018 blog postfor the IMF, she argued that crypto-assets threaten financial stability:
"The rapid growth of crypto-assets, the extreme volatility in their traded prices, and their ill-defined connections to the traditional financial world could easily create new vulnerabilities. So, we need to develop regulatory frameworks to meet an evolving challenge."
Still, the IMF is not the ECB, though both have a role in safeguarding financial stability. To what extent Lagarde sees regulating cryptocurrency as part of the ECB's mission won't be fully known until after she takes over as president November 1.
But the early money is for a hands-on approach. At the Singapore Fintech Festival, she urged central banks to consider issuing digital currencies themselves, stating, "There may be a role for the state to supply money to the digital economy." || Why a new head at the European Central Bank matters for Bitcoin: The European Parliament today approved Christine Lagarde as President of the European Central Bank (ECB). And her appointment could signal an incoming wave ofcryptoregulations from the ECB, which has beenrelatively unconcernedabout the risk the digital assets such asBitcoinpose to the economic system.
The non-binding recommendation is the prelude to a European Council vote scheduled formid-October.Lagarde, who served as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until her resignation became effective September 12, was firstnominatedto the ECB by the Council in July.
The ECB is charged with handling monetary policy for the 19 countries within Europe that have adopted the euro. (The European Parliament is the legislative body for the entire E.U., which includes an additional nine members that do not use the euro.)
The current occupant of ECB's top post, Mario Draghi, has been in the role since 2011 and will end his term at the end of October. Historically, Draghi has not seen much of a role for ECB to get involved in cryptocurrencies, which he thinks is more the domain of consumer protection agencies. As recently as May 2019, Draghipublicly stated:
"At this point in time, they [cryptocurrencies] are not significant enough…that they could affect our economies in a macro way. And so we tend to consider them as speculative assets—highly risky—but as far as the rest is concerned, it's not really something that pertains to the central bank, the task of monitoring and regulating, possibly, this."
Lagarde may or may not be pro-cryptocurrency, but she seems to disagree with Draghi about the effect Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have on the economy. In April 2019, a month before Draghi's comments, shetold CNBC, "I think the role of the disrupters and anything that is using distributed ledger technology, whether you call it crypto, assets, currencies, or whatever … that is clearly shaking the system."
And at least a year before that, Lagarde had already decided that those currencies (or "whatever") needed to be regulated. In aMarch 2018 blog postfor the IMF, she argued that crypto-assets threaten financial stability:
"The rapid growth of crypto-assets, the extreme volatility in their traded prices, and their ill-defined connections to the traditional financial world could easily create new vulnerabilities. So, we need to develop regulatory frameworks to meet an evolving challenge."
Still, the IMF is not the ECB, though both have a role in safeguarding financial stability. To what extent Lagarde sees regulating cryptocurrency as part of the ECB's mission won't be fully known until after she takes over as president November 1.
But the early money is for a hands-on approach. At the Singapore Fintech Festival, she urged central banks to consider issuing digital currencies themselves, stating, "There may be a role for the state to supply money to the digital economy." || Five bitcoin investing strategies you can use now: RIGA, Latvia—Michiel Lescrauwaet, co-founder of bitcoin investment fund Adamant Capital , recently laid out the firm’s investment strategy, and five approaches that can outperform bitcoin, at the Baltic Honeybadger Bitcoin conference. Adamant calls itself a "bitcoin alpha fund,” meaning that it tries to beat bitcoin’s performance. It also argues that bitcoin should be used as a benchmark for the whole crypto industry, as opposed to frameworks borrowed from traditional finance that are currently used by most crypto asset fund managers. “Effective Bitcoin investment strategies depend on the maturity of the market,” said Lescrauwaet, adding that we’ve moved on from the initial “discovery phase” to the “infrastructure phase.” (See chart below.) Locking up bitcoin in bitcoin’s scaling solution, the Lightning Network, still involves some technical risks, and doesn’t make sense—yet, he said. Evolution of bitcoin investment. SOURCE: Adamant Capital Also key, he said, are the aims, experience and appetite for risk of the individual investor. He referred to various frameworks the firm had established comparing risk and reward. Investment strategies vs. hodling. SOURCE: Adamant Capital The firm also provides investors with a handy flowchart, to help then decide which strategy’s right for them. Strategies flowchart. SOURCE: Adamant Capital Lescrauwaet then proceeded to drill down into some of the strategies investors should consider employing today. 1. Avoid bitcoin lending Lescrauwaet said that lending out one’s Bitcoin for a year can command a return of around 2.5% in a bull market. That’s because there’s not a lot of demand for bitcoin, “whereas in a bear market, when people want to go short, it’s about 6%, going by 2018 figures.” Adamant, he said, doesn’t believe it’s a very good trade, for several reasons. Counterparty risk is still a big factor, and there are also tax implications to consider, especially in the U.S. 2. Use bitcoin for collateral Bitcoin can be deposited with a custodian, and used as collateral to borrow USD, which can then be used to buy more bitcoin. Options, futures and other strategies can also be deployed to outperform the USD interest rate. It’s a favorite strategy at Adamant, said Lescrauwaet, because it’s relatively low risk and relatively high return, and gives you the flexibility to monitor your returns on a daily basis. Story continues 3. Figure out how to time bitcoin’s cycles Leveraging investment to take advantage of a bull or bear market is not an easy strategy, said Lescrauwaet. Data that no one else has can give you an edge on the market. But that’s not easy to come by. One of the indicators that Adamant recommends is the Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Profit/Loss, a proxy for the aggregate paper profits that investors have in the bitcoin markets. He noted that Adamant’s data has shown that when profits have hit 80%, the market has tended to drop afterwards. Currently, he added, “we are at around 40%, so there’s still room for upside.” 4. Invest in “high beta” altcoins Investing in so-called “high beta” altcoins is one of the riskier strategies people employ, according to Lescrauwaet. But it can also mean high returns. Investors often use beta as a measure of how much a certain stock is impacted by volatility. The beta of an overall market is one, so any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market. It would be possible to outperform bitcoin using high beta altcoins, said Lescrauwaet. But he considers this one of the riskier forms of investment, and its success would depend on an investor’s skillset. The top three cryptocurrencies beta values are currently: BTC 0.96; ETH 1.16 and XRP 1.05, according to data site, cryptocurrencyliveprices . 5. Invest in crypto hedge funds Lescrauwaet stressed that, when using this strategy, it’s very important to examine a fund’s partners and performance, but also to look at its fee structure. He recommends funds that charge performance fees in bitcoin. Also key, he said, is to ask what the hedge fund uses as a benchmark. Applying traditional benchmarks, such as the S&P 500, means “ending up with something like an equally weighted index,” he said. Bitcoin and Ripple form around 30% of the pie each, Ethereum 27%, and other altcoins the rest. The problem with this combination, said Lescrauwaet, is that "it’s a completely subjective mix of heterogeneous projects.” He argues that the price of Bitcoin itself should instead be used as a benchmark or index, because its “moneyness is unrivalled.” More than “92% of ICOs failed to outperform bitcoin,” using bitcoin as benchmark, he added. Now hodling: Bitcoin whales Adamant’s position on Bitcoin is bullish. Earlier this month, cofounder Tuur Demeester claimed that we're not in a bear market. Rather, he insists this is a "post ICO-bubble bitcoin bull market.” Most notably, he compared Bitcoin today to Amazon in 2003, calling it a “screaming buy.” Disclaimer: this article does not constitute investment, financial or trading advice. Decrypt advises readers to conduct their own due diligence before making any investment decision. And as in all things, never invest money you can’t afford to lose. || Five bitcoin investing strategies you can use now: RIGA, Latvia—Michiel Lescrauwaet, co-founder ofbitcoininvestment fundAdamant Capital, recentlylaid outthe firm’s investment strategy, and five approaches that can outperform bitcoin, at theBaltic HoneybadgerBitcoin conference.
Adamant calls itself a "bitcoin alpha fund,” meaning that it tries to beat bitcoin’s performance. It also argues that bitcoin should be used as a benchmark for the whole crypto industry, as opposed to frameworks borrowed from traditional finance that are currently used by most crypto asset fund managers.
“Effective Bitcoin investment strategies depend on the maturity of the market,” said Lescrauwaet, adding that we’ve moved on from the initial “discovery phase” to the “infrastructure phase.” (See chart below.) Locking up bitcoin in bitcoin’s scaling solution, the Lightning Network, still involves some technical risks, and doesn’t make sense—yet, he said.
Also key, he said, are the aims, experience and appetite for risk of the individual investor. He referred to various frameworks the firm had established comparing risk and reward.
The firm also provides investors with a handy flowchart, to help then decide which strategy’s right for them.
Lescrauwaet then proceeded to drill down into some of the strategies investors should consider employing today.
Lescrauwaet said that lending out one’s Bitcoin for a year can command a return of around 2.5% in a bull market. That’s because there’s not a lot of demand for bitcoin, “whereas in a bear market, when people want to go short, it’s about 6%, going by 2018 figures.” Adamant, he said, doesn’t believe it’s a very good trade, for several reasons.Counterparty riskis still a big factor, and there are also tax implications to consider, especially in the U.S.
Bitcoin can be deposited with a custodian, and used as collateral to borrow USD, which can then be used to buy more bitcoin. Options, futures and other strategies can also be deployed to outperform the USD interest rate. It’s a favorite strategy at Adamant, said Lescrauwaet, because it’s relatively low risk and relatively high return, and gives you the flexibility to monitor your returns on a daily basis.
Leveraging investment to take advantage of a bull or bear market is not an easy strategy, said Lescrauwaet. Data that no one else has can give you an edge on the market. But that’s not easy to come by. One of the indicators that Adamant recommends is the Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Profit/Loss, a proxy for theaggregate paper profitsthat investors have in the bitcoin markets. He noted that Adamant’s data has shown that when profits have hit 80%, the market has tended to drop afterwards. Currently, he added, “we are at around 40%, so there’s still room for upside.”
Investing in so-called “high beta” altcoins is one of the riskier strategies people employ, according to Lescrauwaet. But it can also mean high returns. Investors often use beta as a measure of how much a certain stock is impacted by volatility. The beta of an overall market is one, so any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market. It would be possible to outperform bitcoin using high beta altcoins, said Lescrauwaet. But he considers this one of the riskier forms of investment, and its success would depend on an investor’s skillset. The top three cryptocurrencies beta values are currently: BTC 0.96; ETH 1.16 and XRP 1.05, according to data site,cryptocurrencyliveprices.
Lescrauwaet stressed that, when using this strategy, it’s very important to examine a fund’s partners and performance, but also to look at its fee structure. He recommends funds that charge performance fees in bitcoin. Also key, he said, is to ask what the hedge fund uses as a benchmark. Applying traditional benchmarks, such as the S&P 500, means “ending up with something like an equally weighted index,” he said. Bitcoin and Ripple form around 30% of the pie each, Ethereum 27%, and other altcoins the rest. The problem with this combination, said Lescrauwaet, is that "it’s a completely subjective mix of heterogeneous projects.” He argues that the price of Bitcoin itself should instead be used as a benchmark or index, because its “moneyness is unrivalled.” More than “92% of ICOs failed to outperform bitcoin,” using bitcoin as benchmark, he added.
Adamant’s position on Bitcoin is bullish. Earlier this month, cofounder Tuur Demeesterclaimedthat we're not in a bear market. Rather, he insists this is a "post ICO-bubble bitcoin bull market.”
Most notably, he compared Bitcoin today to Amazon in 2003, calling it a “screaming buy.”
Disclaimer: this article does not constitute investment, financial or trading advice. Decrypt advises readers to conduct their own due diligence before making any investment decision.And as in all things, never invest money you can’t afford to lose. || XRP is pumping, approaching $0.30 for the first time since August: After a terrible crash in mid-August, XRP has managed to reverse the trend with a recovery of more than 12 percent in the last 24 hours. It is perhaps the most bullish sign for Ripples token in months. The uptick makes it the best performing coin among the top 100 cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. According to Tradingview.com , XRP started the day with a value close to $0.26, and began a bullish rally from 7:00 am UTC that led it to beat $0.30 per coin in less than 12 hours. A small correction lowered the value of the token to about $0.285. However, XRP recovered once again to exceed $0.29 as of the time of this writing. The recovery moves XRP back up almost as dramatically as it fell back in August. On August 14, XRP dropped from $0.30 to less than $0.24 in one day. The market seems to be quite optimistic at the moment. Throughout the course of the year, XRP has remained in ultra bearish mode, so much so that the token has caused rifts within the XRP Army itself. The coin, however, has shown strong support above the $0.245 per token zone. The XRP-BTC pair also currently shows an optimistic outlook. With a current price of more than 2830 satoshis, XRP is entering a price zone that it hasn't touched since the beginning of August. And XRP traders have not seen a green candle of this size since May. All in all, it looks like good news for the XRP community. Maybe there's no need for an XRP fork after all. || XRP is pumping, approaching $0.30 for the first time since August: After a terrible crash in mid-August, XRP has managed to reverse the trend with a recovery of more than 12 percent in the last 24 hours.
It is perhaps the most bullish sign for Ripple’s token in months. The uptick makes it the best performing coin among the top 100 cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
According toTradingview.com, XRP started the day with a value close to $0.26, and began a bullish rally from 7:00 am UTC that led it to beat $0.30 per coin in less than 12 hours.
A small correction lowered the value of the token to about $0.285. However, XRP recovered once again to exceed $0.29 as of the time of this writing.
The recovery moves XRP back up almost as dramatically as it fell back in August. On August 14, XRP dropped from $0.30 to less than $0.24 in one day.
The market seems to bequite optimisticat the moment. Throughout the course of the year, XRP has remained in ultra bearish mode, so much so that the token hascaused rifts within the XRP Armyitself. The coin, however, has shown strong support above the $0.245 per token zone.
The XRP-BTC pair also currently shows an optimistic outlook. With a current price of more than 2830 satoshis, XRP is entering a price zone that it hasn't touched since the beginning of August. And XRP traders have not seen a green candle of this size since May.
All in all, it looks like good news for the XRP community. Maybe there'sno need for an XRP forkafter all. || Crypto and the Latency Arms Race: Crypto Exchanges and the HFT Crowd: Max Boonen is founder and CEO of crypto trading firm B2C2 . This post is the second in a series of three that looks at high-frequency trading in the context of the evolution of crypto markets (you can see the first here ). Opinions expressed within are his own and do not reflect those of CoinDesk. The following article originally appeared in Institutional Crypto by CoinDesk , a free weekly newsletter for institutional investors focused on crypto assets. You can sign up here . Carrying on from an earlier post about the evolution of high frequency trading (HFT), how it can harm markets and how crypto exchanges are responding, here we focus on the potential longer-term impact on the crypto ecosystem. Related: Bitcoin’s $780 Price Recovery Makes Friday’s Close Pivotal First, though, we need to focus on the state of HFT in a broader context. Conventional markets are adopting anti-latency arbitrage mechanisms In conventional markets, latency arbitrage has increased toxicity on lit venues and pushed trading volumes over-the-counter or into dark pools. In Europe, dark liquidity has increased in spite of efforts by regulators to clamp down on it . In some markets, regulation has actually contributed to this. Per the SEC : “Using the Nasdaq market as a proxy, [Regulation] NMS did not seem to succeed in its mission to increase the display of limit orders in the marketplace. We have seen an increase in dark liquidity, smaller trade sizes, similar trading volumes, and a larger number of “small” venues.” Why is non-lit execution remaining or becoming more successful in spite of its lower transparency? In its 2014 paper, BlackRock came out in favour of dark pools in the context of best execution requirements. It also lamented message congestion and cautioned against increasing tick sizes, features that advantage latency arbitrageurs. (This echoes the comment to CoinDesk of David Weisberger, CEO of Coinroutes, who explained that the tick sizes typical of the crypto market are small and therefore do not put slower traders at much of a disadvantage.) Story continues Related: Bitcoin Price Dips to $9.6K as Bear Cross Looms Major venues now recognize that the speed race threatens their business model in some markets , as it pushes those “slow” market makers with risk-absorbing capacity to provide liquidity to the likes of BlackRock off-exchange. Eurex has responded by implementing anti-latency arbitrage (ALA) mechanisms in options: “Right now, a lot of liquidity providers need to invest more into technology in order to protect themselves against other, very fast liquidity providers, than they can invest in their pricing for the end client. The end result of this is a certain imbalance, where we have a few very sophisticated liquidity providers that are very active in the order book and then a lot of liquidity providers that have the ability to provide prices to end clients, but are tending to do so more away from the order book”, commented Jonas Ullmann , Eurex’s head of market functionality. Such views are increasingly supported by academic research . XTX identifies two categories of ALA mechanisms: policy-based and technology-based. Policy-based ALA refers to a venue simply deciding that latency arbitrageurs are not allowed to trade on it. Alternative venues to exchanges (going under various acronyms such as ECN, ATS or MTF) can allow traders to either take or make, but not engage in both activities. Others can purposefully select – and advertise – their mix of market participants, or allow users to trade in separate “rooms” where undesired firms are excluded. The rise of “alternative microstructures” is mostly evidenced in crypto by the surge in electronic OTC trading, where traders can receive better prices than on exchange. Technology-based ALA encompasses delays , random or deterministic, added to an exchange’s matching engine to reduce the viability of latency arbitrage strategies. The classic example is a speed bump where new orders are delayed by a few milliseconds, but the cancellation of existing orders is not. This lets market makers place fresh quotes at the new prevailing market price without being run over by latency arbitrageurs. As a practical example, the London Metal Exchange recently announced an eight-millisecond speed bump on some contracts that are prime candidates for latency arbitrageurs due to their similarity to products trading on the much bigger CME in Chicago. Why 8 milliseconds? First, microwave transmission between Chicago and the US East Coast is 3 milliseconds faster than fibre optic lines. From there, the $250,000 a month Hibernia Express transatlantic cable helps you get to London another 4 milliseconds faster than cheaper alternatives. Add a millisecond for internal latencies such as not using FPGAs and 8 milliseconds is the difference for a liquidity provider between investing tens of millions in speed technology or being priced out of the market by latency arbitrage. With this in mind, let’s consider what the future holds for crypto. Crypto exchanges must not forget their retail roots We learn from conventional markets that liquidity benefits from a diverse base of market makers with risk-absorption capacity. Some have claimed that the spread compression witnessed in the bitcoin market since 2017 is due to electronification. Instead, I posit that it is greater risk-absorbing capacity and capital allocation that has improved the liquidity of the bitcoin market, not an increase in speed, as in fact being a fast exchange with colocation such as Gemini has not supported higher volumes. Old-timers will remember Coinsetter, a company that, per the Bitcoin Wiki , “was created in 2012, and operates a bitcoin exchange and ECN. Coinsetter’s CSX trading technology enables millisecond trade execution times and offers one of the fastest API data streams in the industry.” The Wiki page should use the past tense as Coinsetter failed to gain traction, was acquired in 2016 and subsequently closed. Exchanges that invest in scalability and user experience will thrive (BitMEX comes to mind). Crypto exchanges that favour the fastest traders (by reducing jitter, etc.) will find that winner-takes-all latency strategies do not improve liquidity. Furthermore, they risk antagonising the majority of their users, who are naturally suspicious of platforms that sell preferential treatment. It is baffling that the head of Russia for Huobi vaunted to CoinDesk that: “The option [of co-location] allows [selected clients] to make trades 70 to 100 times faster than other users”. The article notes that Huobi doesn’t charge – but of course, not everyone can sign up. Contrast this with one of the most successful exchanges today: Binance. It actively discourages some HFT strategies by tracking metrics such as order-to-trade ratios and temporarily blocking users that breach certain limits. Market experts know that Binance remains extremely relevant to price discovery, irrespective of its focus on a less professional user base. Other exchanges, take heed. Coinbase closed its entire Chicago office where 30 engineers had worked on a faster matching engine, an exercise that is rumoured to have cost $50mm. After much internal debate, I bet that the company finally realised that it wouldn’t recoup its investment and that its value derived from having onboarded 20 million users, not from upgrading systems that are already fast and reliable by the standards of crypto. It is also unsurprising that Kraken’s Steve Hunt, a veteran of low-latency torchbearer Jump Trading, commented to CoinDesk that: “We want all customers regardless of size or scale to have equal access to our marketplace”. Experience speaks. In a recent article on CoinDesk , Matt Trudeau of ErisX points to the lower reliability of cloud-based services compared to dedicated, co-located and cross-connected gateways. That much is true. Web-based technology puts the emphasis on serving the greatest number of users concurrently, not on serving a subset of users deterministically and at the lowest latency possible. That is the point. Crypto might be the only asset class that is accessible directly to end users with a low number of intermediaries, precisely because of the crypto ethos and how the industry evolved. It is cheaper to buy $500 of bitcoin than it is to buy $500 of Microsoft shares. Trudeau further remarks that official, paid-for co-location is better than what he pejoratively calls “unsanctioned colocation,” the fact that crypto traders can place their servers in the same cloud providers as the exchanges. The fairness argument is dubious: anyone with $50 can set up an Amazon AWS account and run next to the major crypto exchanges, whereas cheap co-location starts at $1,000 a month in the real world. No wonder “speed technology revenues” are estimated at $1 billion for the major U.S. equity exchanges. For a crypto exchange, to reside in a financial, non-cloud data centre with state-of-the-art network latencies might ironically impair the likelihood of success. The risk is that such an exchange becomes dominated on the taker side by the handful of players that already own or pay for the fastest communication routes between major financial data centres such as Equinix and the CME in Chicago, where bitcoin futures are traded. This might reduce liquidity on the exchange because a significant proportion of the crypto market’s risk-absorption capacity is coming from crypto-centric funds that do not have the scale to operate low-latency strategies, but might make up the bulk of the liquidity on, say, Binance. Such mom-and-pop liquidity providers might therefore shun an exchange that caters to larger players as a priority. Exchanges risk losing market share to OTC liquidity providers While voice trading in crypto has run its course, a major contribution to the market’s increase in liquidity circa 2017-2018 was the risk appetite of the original OTC voice desks such as Cumberland Mining and Circle. Automation really shines in bringing together risk-absorbing capacity tailored to each client (which is impossible on anonymous exchanges) with seamless electronic execution. In contrast, latency-sensitive venues can see liquidity evaporate in periods of stress, as happened to a well-known and otherwise successful exchange on 26 June which saw its bitcoin order book become $1,000 wide for an extended period of time as liquidity providers turned their systems off. The problem is compounded by the general unavailability of credit on cash exchanges, an issue that the OTC market’s settlement model avoids. As the crypto market matures, the business model of today’s major cash exchanges will come under pressure. In the past decade, the FX market has shown that retail traders benefit from better liquidity when they trade through different channels than institutional speculators. Systematic internalizers demonstrate the same in equities. This fact of life will apply to crypto. Exchanges have to pick a side: either cater to retail (or retail-driven intermediaries) or court HFTs. Now that an aggregator like Tagomi runs transaction cost analysis for their clients, it will become plainly obvious to investors with medium-term and long-term horizons (i.e. anyone not looking at the next 2 seconds) that their price impact on exchange is worse than against electronic OTC liquidity providers. Today, exchange fee structures are awkward because they must charge small users a lot to make up for crypto’s exceptionally high compliance and onboarding costs. Onboarding a single, small value user simply does not make sense unless fees are quite elevated. Exchanges end up over-charging large volume traders such as B2C2’s clients, another incentive to switch to OTC execution. In the alternative, what if crypto exchanges focus on HFT traders? In my opinion, the CME is a much better venue for institutional takers as fees are much lower and conventional trading firms will already be connected to it. My hypothesis is that most exchanges will not be able to compete with the CME for fast traders (after all, the CBOE itself gave up), and must cater to their retail user base instead. In a future post, we will explore other microstructures beyond all-to-all exchanges and bilateral OTC trading. Fiber threads image via Shutterstock Related Stories Ether Just Had Its Longest Winning Run Since Late May Overstock to Restructure Ex-CEO’s Crypto Dividend to End Lockup || Crypto and the Latency Arms Race: Crypto Exchanges and the HFT Crowd: Max Boonen is founder and CEO of crypto trading firm B2C2 . This post is the second in a series of three that looks at high-frequency trading in the context of the evolution of crypto markets (you can see the first here ). Opinions expressed within are his own and do not reflect those of CoinDesk. The following article originally appeared in Institutional Crypto by CoinDesk , a free weekly newsletter for institutional investors focused on crypto assets. You can sign up here . Carrying on from an earlier post about the evolution of high frequency trading (HFT), how it can harm markets and how crypto exchanges are responding, here we focus on the potential longer-term impact on the crypto ecosystem. Related: Bitcoin’s $780 Price Recovery Makes Friday’s Close Pivotal First, though, we need to focus on the state of HFT in a broader context. Conventional markets are adopting anti-latency arbitrage mechanisms In conventional markets, latency arbitrage has increased toxicity on lit venues and pushed trading volumes over-the-counter or into dark pools. In Europe, dark liquidity has increased in spite of efforts by regulators to clamp down on it . In some markets, regulation has actually contributed to this. Per the SEC : “Using the Nasdaq market as a proxy, [Regulation] NMS did not seem to succeed in its mission to increase the display of limit orders in the marketplace. We have seen an increase in dark liquidity, smaller trade sizes, similar trading volumes, and a larger number of “small” venues.” Why is non-lit execution remaining or becoming more successful in spite of its lower transparency? In its 2014 paper, BlackRock came out in favour of dark pools in the context of best execution requirements. It also lamented message congestion and cautioned against increasing tick sizes, features that advantage latency arbitrageurs. (This echoes the comment to CoinDesk of David Weisberger, CEO of Coinroutes, who explained that the tick sizes typical of the crypto market are small and therefore do not put slower traders at much of a disadvantage.) Story continues Related: Bitcoin Price Dips to $9.6K as Bear Cross Looms Major venues now recognize that the speed race threatens their business model in some markets , as it pushes those “slow” market makers with risk-absorbing capacity to provide liquidity to the likes of BlackRock off-exchange. Eurex has responded by implementing anti-latency arbitrage (ALA) mechanisms in options: “Right now, a lot of liquidity providers need to invest more into technology in order to protect themselves against other, very fast liquidity providers, than they can invest in their pricing for the end client. The end result of this is a certain imbalance, where we have a few very sophisticated liquidity providers that are very active in the order book and then a lot of liquidity providers that have the ability to provide prices to end clients, but are tending to do so more away from the order book”, commented Jonas Ullmann , Eurex’s head of market functionality. Such views are increasingly supported by academic research . XTX identifies two categories of ALA mechanisms: policy-based and technology-based. Policy-based ALA refers to a venue simply deciding that latency arbitrageurs are not allowed to trade on it. Alternative venues to exchanges (going under various acronyms such as ECN, ATS or MTF) can allow traders to either take or make, but not engage in both activities. Others can purposefully select – and advertise – their mix of market participants, or allow users to trade in separate “rooms” where undesired firms are excluded. The rise of “alternative microstructures” is mostly evidenced in crypto by the surge in electronic OTC trading, where traders can receive better prices than on exchange. Technology-based ALA encompasses delays , random or deterministic, added to an exchange’s matching engine to reduce the viability of latency arbitrage strategies. The classic example is a speed bump where new orders are delayed by a few milliseconds, but the cancellation of existing orders is not. This lets market makers place fresh quotes at the new prevailing market price without being run over by latency arbitrageurs. As a practical example, the London Metal Exchange recently announced an eight-millisecond speed bump on some contracts that are prime candidates for latency arbitrageurs due to their similarity to products trading on the much bigger CME in Chicago. Why 8 milliseconds? First, microwave transmission between Chicago and the US East Coast is 3 milliseconds faster than fibre optic lines. From there, the $250,000 a month Hibernia Express transatlantic cable helps you get to London another 4 milliseconds faster than cheaper alternatives. Add a millisecond for internal latencies such as not using FPGAs and 8 milliseconds is the difference for a liquidity provider between investing tens of millions in speed technology or being priced out of the market by latency arbitrage. With this in mind, let’s consider what the future holds for crypto. Crypto exchanges must not forget their retail roots We learn from conventional markets that liquidity benefits from a diverse base of market makers with risk-absorption capacity. Some have claimed that the spread compression witnessed in the bitcoin market since 2017 is due to electronification. Instead, I posit that it is greater risk-absorbing capacity and capital allocation that has improved the liquidity of the bitcoin market, not an increase in speed, as in fact being a fast exchange with colocation such as Gemini has not supported higher volumes. Old-timers will remember Coinsetter, a company that, per the Bitcoin Wiki , “was created in 2012, and operates a bitcoin exchange and ECN. Coinsetter’s CSX trading technology enables millisecond trade execution times and offers one of the fastest API data streams in the industry.” The Wiki page should use the past tense as Coinsetter failed to gain traction, was acquired in 2016 and subsequently closed. Exchanges that invest in scalability and user experience will thrive (BitMEX comes to mind). Crypto exchanges that favour the fastest traders (by reducing jitter, etc.) will find that winner-takes-all latency strategies do not improve liquidity. Furthermore, they risk antagonising the majority of their users, who are naturally suspicious of platforms that sell preferential treatment. It is baffling that the head of Russia for Huobi vaunted to CoinDesk that: “The option [of co-location] allows [selected clients] to make trades 70 to 100 times faster than other users”. The article notes that Huobi doesn’t charge – but of course, not everyone can sign up. Contrast this with one of the most successful exchanges today: Binance. It actively discourages some HFT strategies by tracking metrics such as order-to-trade ratios and temporarily blocking users that breach certain limits. Market experts know that Binance remains extremely relevant to price discovery, irrespective of its focus on a less professional user base. Other exchanges, take heed. Coinbase closed its entire Chicago office where 30 engineers had worked on a faster matching engine, an exercise that is rumoured to have cost $50mm. After much internal debate, I bet that the company finally realised that it wouldn’t recoup its investment and that its value derived from having onboarded 20 million users, not from upgrading systems that are already fast and reliable by the standards of crypto. It is also unsurprising that Kraken’s Steve Hunt, a veteran of low-latency torchbearer Jump Trading, commented to CoinDesk that: “We want all customers regardless of size or scale to have equal access to our marketplace”. Experience speaks. In a recent article on CoinDesk , Matt Trudeau of ErisX points to the lower reliability of cloud-based services compared to dedicated, co-located and cross-connected gateways. That much is true. Web-based technology puts the emphasis on serving the greatest number of users concurrently, not on serving a subset of users deterministically and at the lowest latency possible. That is the point. Crypto might be the only asset class that is accessible directly to end users with a low number of intermediaries, precisely because of the crypto ethos and how the industry evolved. It is cheaper to buy $500 of bitcoin than it is to buy $500 of Microsoft shares. Trudeau further remarks that official, paid-for co-location is better than what he pejoratively calls “unsanctioned colocation,” the fact that crypto traders can place their servers in the same cloud providers as the exchanges. The fairness argument is dubious: anyone with $50 can set up an Amazon AWS account and run next to the major crypto exchanges, whereas cheap co-location starts at $1,000 a month in the real world. No wonder “speed technology revenues” are estimated at $1 billion for the major U.S. equity exchanges. For a crypto exchange, to reside in a financial, non-cloud data centre with state-of-the-art network latencies might ironically impair the likelihood of success. The risk is that such an exchange becomes dominated on the taker side by the handful of players that already own or pay for the fastest communication routes between major financial data centres such as Equinix and the CME in Chicago, where bitcoin futures are traded. This might reduce liquidity on the exchange because a significant proportion of the crypto market’s risk-absorption capacity is coming from crypto-centric funds that do not have the scale to operate low-latency strategies, but might make up the bulk of the liquidity on, say, Binance. Such mom-and-pop liquidity providers might therefore shun an exchange that caters to larger players as a priority. Exchanges risk losing market share to OTC liquidity providers While voice trading in crypto has run its course, a major contribution to the market’s increase in liquidity circa 2017-2018 was the risk appetite of the original OTC voice desks such as Cumberland Mining and Circle. Automation really shines in bringing together risk-absorbing capacity tailored to each client (which is impossible on anonymous exchanges) with seamless electronic execution. In contrast, latency-sensitive venues can see liquidity evaporate in periods of stress, as happened to a well-known and otherwise successful exchange on 26 June which saw its bitcoin order book become $1,000 wide for an extended period of time as liquidity providers turned their systems off. The problem is compounded by the general unavailability of credit on cash exchanges, an issue that the OTC market’s settlement model avoids. As the crypto market matures, the business model of today’s major cash exchanges will come under pressure. In the past decade, the FX market has shown that retail traders benefit from better liquidity when they trade through different channels than institutional speculators. Systematic internalizers demonstrate the same in equities. This fact of life will apply to crypto. Exchanges have to pick a side: either cater to retail (or retail-driven intermediaries) or court HFTs. Now that an aggregator like Tagomi runs transaction cost analysis for their clients, it will become plainly obvious to investors with medium-term and long-term horizons (i.e. anyone not looking at the next 2 seconds) that their price impact on exchange is worse than against electronic OTC liquidity providers. Today, exchange fee structures are awkward because they must charge small users a lot to make up for crypto’s exceptionally high compliance and onboarding costs. Onboarding a single, small value user simply does not make sense unless fees are quite elevated. Exchanges end up over-charging large volume traders such as B2C2’s clients, another incentive to switch to OTC execution. In the alternative, what if crypto exchanges focus on HFT traders? In my opinion, the CME is a much better venue for institutional takers as fees are much lower and conventional trading firms will already be connected to it. My hypothesis is that most exchanges will not be able to compete with the CME for fast traders (after all, the CBOE itself gave up), and must cater to their retail user base instead. In a future post, we will explore other microstructures beyond all-to-all exchanges and bilateral OTC trading. Fiber threads image via Shutterstock Related Stories Ether Just Had Its Longest Winning Run Since Late May Overstock to Restructure Ex-CEO’s Crypto Dividend to End Lockup || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 21/09/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 2.56% on Friday. Reversing a 0.45% gain from Thursday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $315.79.
Bearish through the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell from an early morning intraday high $324.41 to a late intraday low $309.51.
Coming up short of the first major resistance level at $329.65, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $311.20.
Finding support from the broader market late in the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC managed to break back through the first major support level.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down by 0.28% from an end of Friday $315.79 to $314.89.
Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Bitcoin Cash ABC would need to move through to $316.60 levels to take a run at the first major resistance level at $323.63.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin Cash ABC to break back through to $320 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Friday’s high $324.41 and first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.
Failure to move through to $316.60 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC take another hit on the day. A fall through Friday’s low $309.51 would bring the first major support level at $308.73 into play.
Barring a crypto meltdown, we would expect Bitcoin Cash ABC to continue to steer clear of sub-$300. In the event of an extended sell-off, the second major support level at $301.67 would likely limit any downside.
Litecoin slid by 2.25% on Friday. Following on from a 1.23% fall on Thursday, Litecoin ended the day at $75.10.
A bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise to an early morning intraday high $77.2 before hitting reverse.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $78.87, Litecoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $72.91.
The reversal saw Litecoin fall through the first major support level at $73.67. Finding late support from the broader market, Litecoin broke back through the first major support level.
At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.24% to $74.92. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $75.20 to a low $74.60 before finding support.
Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to move back through to $75 levels to support a bullish day ahead.
A move through to $76 levels would bring the first major resistance level at $77.23 into play.
Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to break through to $77 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Friday’s high $77.20 and first major resistance level would likely pin Litecoin back.
Failure to move back through to $75 levels could see Litecoin lose more ground. A fall through to $73 levels would bring the first major support level at $72.94 into play.
Barring an extended sell-off through the day, Litecoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $70.78.
Ripple’s XRP slid by 2.66% on Friday. Following on from a 3.84% tumble on Thursday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.29455.
A particularly bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP slide from an intraday high $0.30334 to an early morning low $0.2890.
Steering clear of the major support and resistance levels, Ripple’s XRP recovered to $0.2990 levels by mid-morning before succumbing to market forces.
Tracking the broader market, Ripple’s XRP slid to a late afternoon intraday low $0.28432. The reversal saw Ripple’s XRP test the first major support level at $0.2849 before recovering to $0.29 levels.
At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 0.83% to $0.2970. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise from an early morning low $0.29301 to a high $0.29721.
Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Ripple’s XRP would need to steer clear of sub-$0.2940 levels to support a return to $0.30 levels.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripple’s XRP to break through the first major resistance level at $0.3038.
Barring an extended rally through the day, Friday’s high $0.30334 and first major resistance level would likely limit any upside.
Failure to steer clear of sub-$0.2940 levels could see Ripple’s XRP spend another day in the red.
A fall through to $0.2920 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2848 into play before any recovery.
Barring a crypto meltdown, Ripple’s XRP should steer well clear of sub-$0.28 support levels on the day.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below
Thanks, Bob
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets continue to hug trend line
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• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets continue to grind
• AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Weaken as Traders Prepare for Additional Rate Cuts
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Trend Changes to Down if 26900 Fails to Hold
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold markets continue to look for support || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 21/09/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 2.56% on Friday. Reversing a 0.45% gain from Thursday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $315.79.
Bearish through the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell from an early morning intraday high $324.41 to a late intraday low $309.51.
Coming up short of the first major resistance level at $329.65, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $311.20.
Finding support from the broader market late in the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC managed to break back through the first major support level.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down by 0.28% from an end of Friday $315.79 to $314.89.
Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Bitcoin Cash ABC would need to move through to $316.60 levels to take a run at the first major resistance level at $323.63.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin Cash ABC to break back through to $320 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Friday’s high $324.41 and first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.
Failure to move through to $316.60 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC take another hit on the day. A fall through Friday’s low $309.51 would bring the first major support level at $308.73 into play.
Barring a crypto meltdown, we would expect Bitcoin Cash ABC to continue to steer clear of sub-$300. In the event of an extended sell-off, the second major support level at $301.67 would likely limit any downside.
Litecoin slid by 2.25% on Friday. Following on from a 1.23% fall on Thursday, Litecoin ended the day at $75.10.
A bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise to an early morning intraday high $77.2 before hitting reverse.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $78.87, Litecoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $72.91.
The reversal saw Litecoin fall through the first major support level at $73.67. Finding late support from the broader market, Litecoin broke back through the first major support level.
At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.24% to $74.92. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $75.20 to a low $74.60 before finding support.
Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to move back through to $75 levels to support a bullish day ahead.
A move through to $76 levels would bring the first major resistance level at $77.23 into play.
Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to break through to $77 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Friday’s high $77.20 and first major resistance level would likely pin Litecoin back.
Failure to move back through to $75 levels could see Litecoin lose more ground. A fall through to $73 levels would bring the first major support level at $72.94 into play.
Barring an extended sell-off through the day, Litecoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $70.78.
Ripple’s XRP slid by 2.66% on Friday. Following on from a 3.84% tumble on Thursday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.29455.
A particularly bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP slide from an intraday high $0.30334 to an early morning low $0.2890.
Steering clear of the major support and resistance levels, Ripple’s XRP recovered to $0.2990 levels by mid-morning before succumbing to market forces.
Tracking the broader market, Ripple’s XRP slid to a late afternoon intraday low $0.28432. The reversal saw Ripple’s XRP test the first major support level at $0.2849 before recovering to $0.29 levels.
At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 0.83% to $0.2970. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise from an early morning low $0.29301 to a high $0.29721.
Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Ripple’s XRP would need to steer clear of sub-$0.2940 levels to support a return to $0.30 levels.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripple’s XRP to break through the first major resistance level at $0.3038.
Barring an extended rally through the day, Friday’s high $0.30334 and first major resistance level would likely limit any upside.
Failure to steer clear of sub-$0.2940 levels could see Ripple’s XRP spend another day in the red.
A fall through to $0.2920 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2848 into play before any recovery.
Barring a crypto meltdown, Ripple’s XRP should steer well clear of sub-$0.28 support levels on the day.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below
Thanks, Bob
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets continue to hug trend line
• E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Straddling Pivots at 2992.25 to 3003.25 into Close
• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets continue to grind
• AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Weaken as Traders Prepare for Additional Rate Cuts
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Trend Changes to Down if 26900 Fails to Hold
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold markets continue to look for support || Bitcoin Cash ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis 21/09/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC Sees Red Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 2.56% on Friday. Reversing a 0.45% gain from Thursday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $315.79. Bearish through the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell from an early morning intraday high $324.41 to a late intraday low $309.51. Coming up short of the first major resistance level at $329.65, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $311.20. Finding support from the broader market late in the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC managed to break back through the first major support level. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down by 0.28% from an end of Friday $315.79 to $314.89. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Bitcoin Cash ABC would need to move through to $316.60 levels to take a run at the first major resistance level at $323.63. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin Cash ABC to break back through to $320 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Fridays high $324.41 and first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. Failure to move through to $316.60 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC take another hit on the day. A fall through Fridays low $309.51 would bring the first major support level at $308.73 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, we would expect Bitcoin Cash ABC to continue to steer clear of sub-$300. In the event of an extended sell-off, the second major support level at $301.67 would likely limit any downside. Litecoin sees more Red Litecoin slid by 2.25% on Friday. Following on from a 1.23% fall on Thursday, Litecoin ended the day at $75.10. A bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise to an early morning intraday high $77.2 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $78.87, Litecoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $72.91. The reversal saw Litecoin fall through the first major support level at $73.67. Finding late support from the broader market, Litecoin broke back through the first major support level. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.24% to $74.92. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $75.20 to a low $74.60 before finding support. Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to move back through to $75 levels to support a bullish day ahead. A move through to $76 levels would bring the first major resistance level at $77.23 into play. Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to break through to $77 levels. Story continues Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Fridays high $77.20 and first major resistance level would likely pin Litecoin back. Failure to move back through to $75 levels could see Litecoin lose more ground. A fall through to $73 levels would bring the first major support level at $72.94 into play. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, Litecoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $70.78. Ripples XRP Joins the Majors Deep in the Red Ripples XRP slid by 2.66% on Friday. Following on from a 3.84% tumble on Thursday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.29455. A particularly bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP slide from an intraday high $0.30334 to an early morning low $0.2890. Steering clear of the major support and resistance levels, Ripples XRP recovered to $0.2990 levels by mid-morning before succumbing to market forces. Tracking the broader market, Ripples XRP slid to a late afternoon intraday low $0.28432. The reversal saw Ripples XRP test the first major support level at $0.2849 before recovering to $0.29 levels. At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was up by 0.83% to $0.2970. A bullish start to the day saw Ripples XRP rise from an early morning low $0.29301 to a high $0.29721. Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Ripples XRP would need to steer clear of sub-$0.2940 levels to support a return to $0.30 levels. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break through the first major resistance level at $0.3038. Barring an extended rally through the day, Fridays high $0.30334 and first major resistance level would likely limit any upside. Failure to steer clear of sub-$0.2940 levels could see Ripples XRP spend another day in the red. A fall through to $0.2920 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2848 into play before any recovery. Barring a crypto meltdown, Ripples XRP should steer well clear of sub-$0.28 support levels on the day. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Silver Price Forecast Silver markets continue to hug trend line E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis Straddling Pivots at 2992.25 to 3003.25 into Close Crude Oil Price Forecast Crude oil markets continue to grind AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast Weaken as Traders Prepare for Additional Rate Cuts E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis Trend Changes to Down if 26900 Fails to Hold Gold Weekly Price Forecast Gold markets continue to look for support View comments || Bitcoin is surging, bringing altcoins along for the ride: Good news for day traders. After a bearish week,Bitcoinis seeing new green pastures with a remarkable recovery after breaking below the $10,100 per coin mark for a brief time.
The bounce-back is significant for several reasons. Had this zone been broken to confirm the bearish trend, the closest support was close to $9,000, according to several technical analysts.
Throughout the course of the day, Bitcoin had four big green candles (those bars on trading charts that indicate the high, low, open, and closing prices of the asset).
First, the price went from $10,100 to almost $10,300 per BTC in just two hours. Then, it corrected to $10,150, gaining momentum for a new bullish impulse that took it above $10,250 per bitcoin.
And the altcoin market replicated this bullish behavior. According to CoinMarketCap, about 90 percent of the top 100 alts went bullish during the last 24 hours, though it’s difficult to determine the stability of this trend over a longer period.
Among the top 10 coins by market cap, ETC and XRP stand out with the most impressive growth rates. While ETH has gone up by almost 10 percent, breaking the $200 barrier to settle near $208 per coin, XRP just had its biggest bullish candle in months—increasing by 12.4 percentin the last 24 hours to reach $0.029.
The outlook is more optimistic for those who trade BTC fast. However, slow traders with overnight positions may be approaching a decisive moment in their trends. The $10,100 zone has been a support that the bears have not been able to break, and the charts show a possible closing of a descending triangle that—if confirmed—could result in a nice bullish move for BTC in the next few days. || Bitcoin is surging, bringing altcoins along for the ride: Good news for day traders. After a bearish week, Bitcoin is seeing new green pastures with a remarkable recovery after breaking below the $10,100 per coin mark for a brief time. The bounce-back is significant for several reasons. Had this zone been broken to confirm the bearish trend, the closest support was close to $9,000, according to several technical analysts. Throughout the course of the day, Bitcoin had four big green candles (those bars on trading charts that indicate the high, low, open, and closing prices of the asset). BTC sees green. First, the price went from $10,100 to almost $10,300 per BTC in just two hours. Then, it corrected to $10,150, gaining momentum for a new bullish impulse that took it above $10,250 per bitcoin. And the altcoin market replicated this bullish behavior. According to CoinMarketCap, about 90 percent of the top 100 alts went bullish during the last 24 hours, though its difficult to determine the stability of this trend over a longer period. Among the top 10 coins by market cap, ETC and XRP stand out with the most impressive growth rates. While ETH has gone up by almost 10 percent, breaking the $200 barrier to settle near $208 per coin, XRP just had its biggest bullish candle in months increasing by 12.4 percent in the last 24 hours to reach $0.029. Bullish sign for Bitcoin? The outlook is more optimistic for those who trade BTC fast. However, slow traders with overnight positions may be approaching a decisive moment in their trends. The $10,100 zone has been a support that the bears have not been able to break, and the charts show a possible closing of a descending triangle thatif confirmedcould result in a nice bullish move for BTC in the next few days. || Bitcoin is surging, bringing altcoins along for the ride: Good news for day traders. After a bearish week,Bitcoinis seeing new green pastures with a remarkable recovery after breaking below the $10,100 per coin mark for a brief time.
The bounce-back is significant for several reasons. Had this zone been broken to confirm the bearish trend, the closest support was close to $9,000, according to several technical analysts.
Throughout the course of the day, Bitcoin had four big green candles (those bars on trading charts that indicate the high, low, open, and closing prices of the asset).
First, the price went from $10,100 to almost $10,300 per BTC in just two hours. Then, it corrected to $10,150, gaining momentum for a new bullish impulse that took it above $10,250 per bitcoin.
And the altcoin market replicated this bullish behavior. According to CoinMarketCap, about 90 percent of the top 100 alts went bullish during the last 24 hours, though it’s difficult to determine the stability of this trend over a longer period.
Among the top 10 coins by market cap, ETC and XRP stand out with the most impressive growth rates. While ETH has gone up by almost 10 percent, breaking the $200 barrier to settle near $208 per coin, XRP just had its biggest bullish candle in months—increasing by 12.4 percentin the last 24 hours to reach $0.029.
The outlook is more optimistic for those who trade BTC fast. However, slow traders with overnight positions may be approaching a decisive moment in their trends. The $10,100 zone has been a support that the bears have not been able to break, and the charts show a possible closing of a descending triangle that—if confirmed—could result in a nice bullish move for BTC in the next few days. || Binance adds privacy coins to its lending platform: Crypto exchange Binance today launched another batch of lending products. Users of the exchange can now earn interest by lending privacy coins Monero, Dash and Zcash. Now in its fifth batchthe total amount of crypto that the exchange will borrow from its users will be 30,000 Monero, 30,0000 Dash and 60,000 Zcash. The product also details a strict lending term of 14 days, with annualized interest payable at a rate of 3.5 percent. Binance launched its lending platform in August, allowing its users to let their funds be used by margin traders. Previously, the platform had shown support for top cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, its own native crypto, Binance Coin, and stablecoins including Tether and USDC. But this is the first time users have been able to do so with privacy coins. Given the combined total of $7.8 million worth of privacy coins that the exchange wants to borrow from its usersBinance will pay its lenders a total of around $10,500 in interest payments, at the end of the 14-day lock-up period. The annualized interest rate is also different to that of batch fourwhen Binance was offering 3 percent for Bitcoin and 10 percent for users to lend the exchange their BNB tokens. Despite the global limit of tokens that the exchange is willing to borrow, each individual user has their allocation capped at a limit of 300 Monero, 300 Dash and 600 Zcash. At the current market prices, that amount of Monero, Dash and Zcash total around $78,000with an expected interest payout of just over $100 to each user, due when the lending agreement ends in 14 days time. The three privacy coins are currently ranked at #11 (Monero), #17 (Dash) and #28 (Zcash) by market cap with a combined valuation of just under $2.5 billion, according to C oingecko. || Binance adds privacy coins to its lending platform: Crypto exchange Binance todaylaunchedanother batch of lending products. Users of the exchange can now earn interest by lending privacy coins Monero, Dash and Zcash.
Now in its fifth batch—the total amount of crypto that the exchange will borrow from its users will be 30,000 Monero, 30,0000 Dash and 60,000 Zcash.
The product also details a strict lending term of 14 days, with annualized interest payable at a rate of 3.5 percent.
Binance launched itslending platformin August, allowing its users to let their funds be used by margin traders. Previously, the platform had shown support for top cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, its own native crypto, Binance Coin, and stablecoins including Tether and USDC. But this is the first time users have been able to do so with privacy coins.
Given the combined total of $7.8 million worth of privacy coins that the exchange wants to borrow from its users—Binance will pay its lenders a total of around $10,500 in interest payments, at the end of the 14-day lock-up period.
The annualized interest rate is also different to that of batch four—when Binance was offering 3 percent for Bitcoin and 10 percent for users to lend the exchange their BNB tokens.
Despite the global limit of tokens that the exchange is willing to borrow, each individual user has their allocation capped at a limit of 300 Monero, 300 Dash and 600 Zcash.
At the current market prices, that amount of Monero, Dash and Zcash total around $78,000—with an expected interest payout of just over $100 to each user, due when the lending agreement ends in 14 days time.
The three privacy coins are currently ranked at #11 (Monero), #17 (Dash) and #28 (Zcash) by market cap with a combined valuation of just under $2.5 billion, according to Coingecko. || Colombia is slowly moving toward Bitcoin-friendly regulations: To say Colombia doesn’t have the best cryptocurrency regulations in the world would be an understatement. As it stands, crypto, and those who operate in it, have no legal status or protection in the country. But a new breed of Colombian lawmakers are working hard to change that—even if at a bureaucracy's pace. Despite an unfavorable legal framework, Colombia is still the third-most important FinTech economy in Latin America. In 2017, the number of FinTech businesses grew by 61 percent compared to the year prior, according to the Spain-based, FinTech incubator Finnovista. The next year, the Colombian FinTech Associated reported that the figure rose by another 76 percent . And this year, there are already 45 percent more FinTech startups than in 2018. Some of these startups, such as Daexs and Panda , focus specifically on the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. But they do so in a perilous regulatory environment. Colombian law, for example, does not currently recognize the legality of cryptocurrency exchanges—and losing access to financial services for unlawfully handling cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin , is all too common. A failed attempt at clarity One of the most significant attempts to regulate the crypto industry came in the form of Bill 028 of 2018. The proposal sought to establish a set of rules that would formally legalize cryptocurrencies and their exchange via peer-to-peer transactions or through third parties, such as crypto exchanges, all while generating a tax of 5 percent per transaction. But the Colombian Senate rejected the proposal in June for fear of giving way to fraudsters operating pyramid schemes, Ponzis, multi-level marketing, and other scams. Decrypt contacted the Colombian Superintendency of Financial Assets to learn more about the government’s reasoning and clarify the current standing of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin under Colombian law. The response, formalized in a numbered document by the Superintendency, was precise: Story continues "None of the transactional platforms or marketers of ‘virtual currencies’ such as Bitcoin are regulated by Colombian law. Nor are they subject to the control, surveillance or inspection of this Superintendency," the agency explained. It added that "there are no mechanisms to enforce compliance with transactions with ‘virtual currencies,’ which significantly increases the possibility of noncompliance.” In other words, if you make any sort of transaction with cryptocurrency and are ultimately swindled somehow, the best you can hope for is to gripe and moan on social media. The Colombian government cannot help you. What’s more, the Superintendency of Financial Assets emphasized that cryptocurrencies "do not constitute a value in terms of Law 964 of 2005; therefore, they are not part of the infrastructure of the Colombian stock market, they do not constitute a valid investment for the supervised entities, nor are there operators authorized to advise and/or manage operations on them.” Colombians are well aware of the nebulous legal territory in which crypto operates in the country and yet—evidently—their enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other digital currencies goes undeterred. According to a recent survey commissioned by peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Paxful , 91 percent of Colombians are convinced that cryptocurrencies are the future of global trade. At the same time, 86 percent said they believe Colombia needs to do a much better job regulating these markets. Light at the end of the tunnel Colombian Congressman Mauricio Toro of the Green Alliance Party is committed to make such change happen. The businessman turned politician has for the last year been pushing to clarify the law regarding crypto, including legalizing the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, through new legislation, Bill 097 of 2019 . Toro told Decrypt that he’s been in talks with Colombian Central Bank, the Superintendence of Finance, and a number of other government agencies to help move the legislation forward. But the reason it continues to take as long as it has to regulate the crypto market in Colombia, according to Toro, can be summed up in one word: Fear. From cocaine to crypto: The new Escobar family business "In Colombia, the financial apparatus has been overprotected due to [perceived] risks associated to financing terrorism and money laundering, financing illegal groups and drug trafficking," Toro said. “The only way to calm and modernize [this system] and update it according to the challenges of the modern economy is to understand the [Colombian] state and its concerns.” Among the changes sought by the new bill, allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to legally operate in Colombia would help generate jobs and energize the economy, Toro said. "Today, we are not talking about regulations on operations in foreign exchanges. We are looking for them to be able to operate in Colombia, pay taxes in Colombia, report to Colombia, and be legal in Colombia," he said. Fear of a crypto planet According to Toro, even some of Colombia’s national banks have recently joined the debate. This is significant, he said, considering that regulatory agencies have ordered banks to close the accounts of several crypto exchanges operating in the country without authorization. But to assuage the fears raised by the old guard, the bill expressly prohibits “developing any kind of commercial activity from network/multi-level marketing with cryptoassets, as well as the financial intermediation thereof." According to Toro, this how Colombia can have its crypto cake and eat it too—legalizing cryptocurrency while protecting against the Ponzi and pyramid schemes which are wildly popular in Colombia and other Latin American countries. Bitcoin, Ethereum adoption on the rise in Colombia, says new report The proposed law also prohibits all platforms from trading with their clients' assets. This the kind of activity that was notoriously taking place on the now defunct Canada-based QuadrigaCX , as well BTE.top , whose founder committed suicide after being liquidated and losing 2,000 BTC in a short position at 100x leverage. Toro, meanwhile, is confident his bill will pass, but said Colombians will have to wait at least a year before it has any effect, even if it does clear the legislature. Best case scenario: “Before a year and a half, as long as there is no opposition and it becomes a reality, the bill will be approved and ready to be signed by the president of the republic, which could take a couple of months [after its passage]." Colombians, though, aren’t waiting around for their politicians’ approval—for better or worse. According to Coin Dance , investments from Colombians in Bitcoin are on the rise. And in a country where politicians have a long history of failed central planning and paternalism, that approval might be a while yet. || Colombia is slowly moving toward Bitcoin-friendly regulations: To say Colombia doesn’t havethe bestcryptocurrencyregulations in the world would be an understatement. As it stands, crypto, and those who operate in it, have no legal status or protection in the country.
But a new breed of Colombian lawmakers are working hard to change that—even if at a bureaucracy's pace.
Despite an unfavorable legal framework, Colombia is still the third-most important FinTech economy in Latin America. In 2017, the number of FinTech businessesgrew by 61 percentcompared to the year prior, according to the Spain-based, FinTech incubator Finnovista. The next year, the Colombian FinTech Associated reported that the figure rose by another76 percent. And this year, there are already45 percent moreFinTech startups than in 2018.
Some of these startups, such asDaexsandPanda, focus specifically on the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. But they do so in a perilous regulatory environment.
Colombian law, for example, does not currently recognize the legality of cryptocurrency exchanges—and losing access to financial services for unlawfully handling cryptocurrencies, such asBitcoin, is all too common.
One of the most significant attempts to regulate the crypto industry came in the form ofBill 028of 2018. The proposal sought to establish a set of rules that would formally legalize cryptocurrencies and their exchange via peer-to-peer transactions or through third parties, such as crypto exchanges, all while generating a tax of 5 percent per transaction.
But the Colombian Senaterejected the proposalin June for fear of giving way to fraudsters operating pyramid schemes, Ponzis, multi-level marketing, and other scams.
Decryptcontacted the Colombian Superintendency of Financial Assets to learn more about the government’s reasoning and clarify the current standing of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin under Colombian law. The response, formalized in a numbered document by the Superintendency, was precise:
"None of the transactional platforms or marketers of ‘virtual currencies’ such as Bitcoin are regulated by Colombian law. Nor are they subject to the control, surveillance or inspection of this Superintendency," the agency explained. It added that "there are no mechanisms to enforce compliance with transactions with ‘virtual currencies,’ which significantly increases the possibility of noncompliance.”
In other words, if you make any sort of transaction with cryptocurrency and are ultimately swindled somehow, the best you can hope for is to gripe and moan on social media. The Colombian government cannot help you.
What’s more, the Superintendency of Financial Assets emphasized that cryptocurrencies "do not constitute a value in terms of Law 964 of 2005; therefore, they are not part of the infrastructure of the Colombian stock market, they do not constitute a valid investment for the supervised entities, nor are there operators authorized to advise and/or manage operations on them.”
Colombians are well aware of the nebulous legal territory in which crypto operates in the country and yet—evidently—their enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other digital currencies goes undeterred. According to arecent surveycommissioned bypeer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Paxful, 91 percent of Colombians are convinced that cryptocurrencies are the future of global trade.
At the same time, 86 percent said they believe Colombia needs to do a much better job regulating these markets.
Colombian Congressman Mauricio Toro of the Green Alliance Party is committed to make such change happen. The businessman turned politician has for the last year been pushing to clarify the law regarding crypto, including legalizing the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, through new legislation, Bill097 of 2019.
Toro toldDecryptthat he’s been in talks with Colombian Central Bank, the Superintendence of Finance, and a number of other government agencies to help move the legislation forward. But the reason it continues to take as long as it has to regulate the crypto market in Colombia, according to Toro, can be summed up in one word: Fear.
"In Colombia, the financial apparatus has been overprotected due to [perceived] risks associated to financing terrorism and money laundering, financing illegal groups and drug trafficking," Toro said. “The only way to calm and modernize [this system] and update it according to the challenges of the modern economy is to understand the [Colombian] state and its concerns.”
Among the changes sought by the new bill, allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to legally operate in Colombia would help generate jobs and energize the economy, Toro said. "Today, we are not talking about regulations on operations in foreign exchanges. We are looking for them to be able to operate in Colombia, pay taxes in Colombia, report to Colombia, and be legal in Colombia," he said.
According to Toro, even some of Colombia’s national banks have recently joined the debate. This is significant, he said, considering that regulatory agencies have ordered banks to close the accounts of several crypto exchanges operating in the country without authorization.
But to assuage the fears raised by the old guard, the bill expressly prohibits “developing any kind of commercial activity from network/multi-level marketing with cryptoassets, as well as the financial intermediation thereof."
According to Toro, this how Colombia can have its crypto cake and eat it too—legalizing cryptocurrency while protecting against the Ponzi and pyramid schemes which are wildly popular in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
The proposed law also prohibits all platforms from trading with their clients' assets. This the kind of activity that was notoriously taking place on the now defunct Canada-basedQuadrigaCX, as wellBTE.top, whose founder committed suicide after being liquidated and losing 2,000 BTC in a short position at 100x leverage.
Toro, meanwhile, is confident his bill will pass, but said Colombians will have to wait at least a year before it has any effect, even if it does clear the legislature. Best case scenario: “Before a year and a half, as long as there is no opposition and it becomes a reality, the bill will be approved and ready to be signed by the president of the republic, which could take a couple of months [after its passage]."
Colombians, though, aren’t waiting around for their politicians’ approval—for better or worse. According toCoin Dance, investments from Colombians in Bitcoin are on the rise. And in a country where politicians have a long history of failed central planning and paternalism, that approval might be a while yet. || Colombia is slowly moving toward Bitcoin-friendly regulations: To say Colombia doesn’t havethe bestcryptocurrencyregulations in the world would be an understatement. As it stands, crypto, and those who operate in it, have no legal status or protection in the country.
But a new breed of Colombian lawmakers are working hard to change that—even if at a bureaucracy's pace.
Despite an unfavorable legal framework, Colombia is still the third-most important FinTech economy in Latin America. In 2017, the number of FinTech businessesgrew by 61 percentcompared to the year prior, according to the Spain-based, FinTech incubator Finnovista. The next year, the Colombian FinTech Associated reported that the figure rose by another76 percent. And this year, there are already45 percent moreFinTech startups than in 2018.
Some of these startups, such asDaexsandPanda, focus specifically on the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. But they do so in a perilous regulatory environment.
Colombian law, for example, does not currently recognize the legality of cryptocurrency exchanges—and losing access to financial services for unlawfully handling cryptocurrencies, such asBitcoin, is all too common.
One of the most significant attempts to regulate the crypto industry came in the form ofBill 028of 2018. The proposal sought to establish a set of rules that would formally legalize cryptocurrencies and their exchange via peer-to-peer transactions or through third parties, such as crypto exchanges, all while generating a tax of 5 percent per transaction.
But the Colombian Senaterejected the proposalin June for fear of giving way to fraudsters operating pyramid schemes, Ponzis, multi-level marketing, and other scams.
Decryptcontacted the Colombian Superintendency of Financial Assets to learn more about the government’s reasoning and clarify the current standing of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin under Colombian law. The response, formalized in a numbered document by the Superintendency, was precise:
"None of the transactional platforms or marketers of ‘virtual currencies’ such as Bitcoin are regulated by Colombian law. Nor are they subject to the control, surveillance or inspection of this Superintendency," the agency explained. It added that "there are no mechanisms to enforce compliance with transactions with ‘virtual currencies,’ which significantly increases the possibility of noncompliance.”
In other words, if you make any sort of transaction with cryptocurrency and are ultimately swindled somehow, the best you can hope for is to gripe and moan on social media. The Colombian government cannot help you.
What’s more, the Superintendency of Financial Assets emphasized that cryptocurrencies "do not constitute a value in terms of Law 964 of 2005; therefore, they are not part of the infrastructure of the Colombian stock market, they do not constitute a valid investment for the supervised entities, nor are there operators authorized to advise and/or manage operations on them.”
Colombians are well aware of the nebulous legal territory in which crypto operates in the country and yet—evidently—their enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other digital currencies goes undeterred. According to arecent surveycommissioned bypeer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Paxful, 91 percent of Colombians are convinced that cryptocurrencies are the future of global trade.
At the same time, 86 percent said they believe Colombia needs to do a much better job regulating these markets.
Colombian Congressman Mauricio Toro of the Green Alliance Party is committed to make such change happen. The businessman turned politician has for the last year been pushing to clarify the law regarding crypto, including legalizing the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, through new legislation, Bill097 of 2019.
Toro toldDecryptthat he’s been in talks with Colombian Central Bank, the Superintendence of Finance, and a number of other government agencies to help move the legislation forward. But the reason it continues to take as long as it has to regulate the crypto market in Colombia, according to Toro, can be summed up in one word: Fear.
"In Colombia, the financial apparatus has been overprotected due to [perceived] risks associated to financing terrorism and money laundering, financing illegal groups and drug trafficking," Toro said. “The only way to calm and modernize [this system] and update it according to the challenges of the modern economy is to understand the [Colombian] state and its concerns.”
Among the changes sought by the new bill, allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to legally operate in Colombia would help generate jobs and energize the economy, Toro said. "Today, we are not talking about regulations on operations in foreign exchanges. We are looking for them to be able to operate in Colombia, pay taxes in Colombia, report to Colombia, and be legal in Colombia," he said.
According to Toro, even some of Colombia’s national banks have recently joined the debate. This is significant, he said, considering that regulatory agencies have ordered banks to close the accounts of several crypto exchanges operating in the country without authorization.
But to assuage the fears raised by the old guard, the bill expressly prohibits “developing any kind of commercial activity from network/multi-level marketing with cryptoassets, as well as the financial intermediation thereof."
According to Toro, this how Colombia can have its crypto cake and eat it too—legalizing cryptocurrency while protecting against the Ponzi and pyramid schemes which are wildly popular in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
The proposed law also prohibits all platforms from trading with their clients' assets. This the kind of activity that was notoriously taking place on the now defunct Canada-basedQuadrigaCX, as wellBTE.top, whose founder committed suicide after being liquidated and losing 2,000 BTC in a short position at 100x leverage.
Toro, meanwhile, is confident his bill will pass, but said Colombians will have to wait at least a year before it has any effect, even if it does clear the legislature. Best case scenario: “Before a year and a half, as long as there is no opposition and it becomes a reality, the bill will be approved and ready to be signed by the president of the republic, which could take a couple of months [after its passage]."
Colombians, though, aren’t waiting around for their politicians’ approval—for better or worse. According toCoin Dance, investments from Colombians in Bitcoin are on the rise. And in a country where politicians have a long history of failed central planning and paternalism, that approval might be a while yet.
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9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6359.64, 6741.75, 7321.04, 7370.78, 7466.86, 7354.13, 7419.29, 7418.49, 7711.11, 8424.27, 8181.39, 7951.58, 8165.01, 8192.15, 8218.46, 8180.48, 7780.44, 7624.91, 7567.15, 7434.39, 7032.85, 7068.48, 6951.80, 6753.12, 6305.80, 6568.23, 6184.71, 6295.73, 6322.69, 6297.57, 6199.71, 6308.52, 6334.73, 6580.63, 6423.76, 6506.07, 6308.53, 6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23, 7037.58, 7193.25, 7272.72, 7260.06, 7361.66, 6792.83, 6529.17, 6467.07, 6225.98, 6300.86, 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20, 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30, 6398.54, 6519.67, 6734.95, 6721.98, 6710.63, 6595.41, 6446.47, 6495.00, 6676.75, 6644.13, 6601.96, 6625.56, 6589.62, 6556.10, 6502.59, 6576.69, 6622.48, 6588.31, 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-10-12]
Volume: 3783500000, RSI (14-day): 36.57, 50-day EMA: 6616.47, 200-day EMA: 7249.05
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1218.10, Gold RSI: 59.30
Oil Price: 71.34, Oil RSI: 47.13
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Analyst: Bitcoin Needs Blessing From SEC to Rally, Market Desperate: Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK, has stated that Bitcoin needs a blessing from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revitalize and experience a recovery in price.
According to Aslam, the approval of the firstBitcoin exchange-traded fund(ETF), which would allow accredited investors and individual traders in US markets to invest in cryptocurrencies, could be a major factor to revitalize the cryptocurrency market.
“Bitcoin needs some sort of a blessing and only that can revitalize the rally for the currency. I think that the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] seeking a public opinion about the Bitcoin ETF [exchange-traded fund] is a positive sign, the department perhaps wants to respect the public opinion and most importantly wants to see the accurate landscape.” Aslamsaid.
Considering the abrupt drop in theprice of Bitcoinfrom $6,600 to $6,250 and the sheer intensity of its short-term decline, the dominant cryptocurrency will need a strong catalyst to initiate any promising upwards rally in the weeks and months to come.
If the approval of the first Bitcoin ETF by the SEC is the catalyst that could allow BTC to recover and test higher resistance levels at $7,000, $8,000, and $9,000, then BTC will not see a positive price action until the end of 2018 because the final deadlines of VanEck and Cboe Bitcoin ETFs are in early 2019.
VanEck and Cboe Bitcoin ETFs are said to have thehighest probabilityof being the first ETFs to be approved by the SEC due to decades of track record the two institutions have demonstrated in the traditional finance sector of the US.
Aslam explained that the SEC is unlikely to reject a Bitcoin ETF that fulfills the requirements laid out by the SEC if the demand from the public is sufficiently strong to justify the approval of an ETF around an emerging asset class.
“If the public interest shows that the support is in favor of ETF it is highly unlikely that the department would reject an actual application which satisfies their criteria,” Aslam said.
As such, Jake Chervinsky, government enforcement defense and securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP, encouraged investors in the cryptocurrency market to submit comments to the SEC regarding the approval of Bitcoin ETFs filed in the US.
“Reminder: you have one week left to submit comments in response to the SEC’s questions on the VanEck/SolidX bitcoin ETF proposal. Public opinion matters. Be heard,”saidChervinsky.
Currently the majority of the cryptocurrency exchange market remains optimistic about various alternatives to Bitcoin ETFs that could have a similar impact on the price of the asset.
NYSE and ICE’sBakkt, a regulated digital asset platform designed to enable consumers and institutions to seamlessly buy, sell, store, and spend cryptocurrencies, will serve both institutional investors and retail traders in the traditional finance sector.
Coinbase, BitGo, and major financial institutions have also started to provide crypto custodian solutions to better facilitate growing demand from institutions.
The catalyst of the next Bitcoin price surge could be the approval of the first BTC ETF or an influx of institutional investors in the market. Either way, the cryptocurrency market currently needs a strong motivation to bounce back to its previous levels.
Images from Shutterstock
The postAnalyst: Bitcoin Needs Blessing From SEC to Rally, Market Desperateappeared first onCCN. || Analyst: Bitcoin Needs Blessing From SEC to Rally, Market Desperate: Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK, has stated that Bitcoin needs a blessing from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revitalize and experience a recovery in price.
According to Aslam, the approval of the firstBitcoin exchange-traded fund(ETF), which would allow accredited investors and individual traders in US markets to invest in cryptocurrencies, could be a major factor to revitalize the cryptocurrency market.
“Bitcoin needs some sort of a blessing and only that can revitalize the rally for the currency. I think that the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] seeking a public opinion about the Bitcoin ETF [exchange-traded fund] is a positive sign, the department perhaps wants to respect the public opinion and most importantly wants to see the accurate landscape.” Aslamsaid.
Considering the abrupt drop in theprice of Bitcoinfrom $6,600 to $6,250 and the sheer intensity of its short-term decline, the dominant cryptocurrency will need a strong catalyst to initiate any promising upwards rally in the weeks and months to come.
If the approval of the first Bitcoin ETF by the SEC is the catalyst that could allow BTC to recover and test higher resistance levels at $7,000, $8,000, and $9,000, then BTC will not see a positive price action until the end of 2018 because the final deadlines of VanEck and Cboe Bitcoin ETFs are in early 2019.
VanEck and Cboe Bitcoin ETFs are said to have thehighest probabilityof being the first ETFs to be approved by the SEC due to decades of track record the two institutions have demonstrated in the traditional finance sector of the US.
Aslam explained that the SEC is unlikely to reject a Bitcoin ETF that fulfills the requirements laid out by the SEC if the demand from the public is sufficiently strong to justify the approval of an ETF around an emerging asset class.
“If the public interest shows that the support is in favor of ETF it is highly unlikely that the department would reject an actual application which satisfies their criteria,” Aslam said.
As such, Jake Chervinsky, government enforcement defense and securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP, encouraged investors in the cryptocurrency market to submit comments to the SEC regarding the approval of Bitcoin ETFs filed in the US.
“Reminder: you have one week left to submit comments in response to the SEC’s questions on the VanEck/SolidX bitcoin ETF proposal. Public opinion matters. Be heard,”saidChervinsky.
Currently the majority of the cryptocurrency exchange market remains optimistic about various alternatives to Bitcoin ETFs that could have a similar impact on the price of the asset.
NYSE and ICE’sBakkt, a regulated digital asset platform designed to enable consumers and institutions to seamlessly buy, sell, store, and spend cryptocurrencies, will serve both institutional investors and retail traders in the traditional finance sector.
Coinbase, BitGo, and major financial institutions have also started to provide crypto custodian solutions to better facilitate growing demand from institutions.
The catalyst of the next Bitcoin price surge could be the approval of the first BTC ETF or an influx of institutional investors in the market. Either way, the cryptocurrency market currently needs a strong motivation to bounce back to its previous levels.
Images from Shutterstock
The postAnalyst: Bitcoin Needs Blessing From SEC to Rally, Market Desperateappeared first onCCN. || The Young and the Restless: Millennial Males Dominant Among Crypto Investors in the US: Bitcoin Millennial Bitcoin Millennial Age and gender seem to be crucial factors when it comes to purchasing cryptocurrencies in the worlds largest economy. According to a survey conducted by cryptocurrency startup Circle , the interest of millennial men in investing in crypto is higher than that of millennial women with 18% of the former planning on investing in crypto in the course of the next one year compared to 7% in the latter group. This was not restricted to the millennial generation though as across the different age groups men were more interested in buying cryptocurrencies compared to women. For instance, 17% of males in the United States above the majority age intend to invest in crypto in the coming 12 months compared to 8% of women. Attitude Towards Risk With regards to risk-taking, the gender divide was present across generations too. More millennial men, for example, identified themselves as being aggressive investors compared to millennial women 42% for the former and 27% for the latter. Among Baby Boomers (ages 52-70), 16% of the men indicated that they were aggressive investors compared to 9% of the women. For Generation Xers (ages 36-51), 34% of the men viewed themselves as aggressive investors compared to 19% of their female counterparts. Regardless of gender, the survey which saw over 3,000 respondents above the age of 18 interviewed demonstrated that the younger the individual, the higher their interest in buying cryptocurrencies . In the coming 12 months, a quarter of millennials indicated interest in buying cryptocurrencies. For generation X, only 10% have shown an interest in purchasing cryptocurrencies in the next 12 months. The figure was even lower with regards to Baby Boomers where only 2% are planning to buy crypto in the next one year. Already Dipped their Toes
So far 71% of millennials have invested less than US$1,000 in cryptocurrencies with 29% have put in amounts ranging between US$500 and US$1,000 while 42% have staked amounts of less than US$500. Story continues Notably, 25% of millennials indicated they would be open to moving some of their 401(k) into cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, a significant number of millennials still view cryptocurrencies as speculative assets with 11% saying it was a chance to make a quick buck. Circles survey showing the higher interest in cryptocurrencies among millennials echoes another study conducted in the United Kingdom earlier in the year which showed that some in that age group preferred bitcoin over real estate . This was attributed to a view among millennials that bitcoin and other cryptos have more upside potential compared to property. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post The Young and the Restless: Millennial Males Dominant Among Crypto Investors in the US appeared first on CCN . || Economist who predicted financial crash warns Bitcoin is 'mother of all scams': Bitcoin's price dropped off the back of tumbling global stock markets - AP The economist who predicted the 2008 financial crash has warned American politicians that Bitcoin is “the mother of all scams” during a Senate hearing on cryptocurrency. Nouriel Roubini, a fierce critic of virtual currency, took aim at the blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrency, which is often hailed as transformative even by those cynical about digital coins. “Blockchain is the most over-hyped technology ever,” the New York University Professor told the Senate Banking Committee. “It is nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database. "It is clear by now that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent the mother of all bubbles," he added. The attack contradicts proponents of blockchain including the Government's science office, which argued in 2016 that the technology could “help governments to collect taxes, deliver benefits, issue passports, record land registries, assure the supply chain of goods and services and generally ensure the integrity of government records and services.” Roubini added that the nickname “s---coins" which is often used by cryptocurrency traders when referring to less valuable coins, was “a grave insult to manure”. His scathing attack came as the cryptocurrency market took a battering off the back of tumbling global stock markets . Bitcoin dropped as much as 6.9pc to $6,080, its lowest point in two months. At its peak late last year Bitcoin was worth $20,000. Traders claim Bitcoin's selling point is that its decentralised nature leaves it immune from stock market volatility, acting more like a "digital gold". But it appears that as the coin went mainstream, traditional investors are using traditional equity strategies, suggesting the crypto market could dip further if the stock markets continues downward, likes its fiat counterparts. Industry champions were keen to paste over the cracks, with market analyst at cryptocurrency exchange platform eToro, Matt Newton sending out an email to assure that the fall was “a sign that the markets are working” and that “much of the ‘good news’ is currently happening behind the scenes”. Governments are mulling whether to step in and regulate cryptocurrencies, which critics claim are vehicles for scams and money laundering. China has already banned domestic exchanges and well as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a form of crowdfunding. The US securities watchdog on Thursday halted an ICO which falsely claimed it had approval from the Securities and Exchanges Commission. || Economist who predicted financial crash warns Bitcoin is 'mother of all scams': Bitcoin's price dropped off the back of tumbling global stock markets - AP The economist who predicted the 2008 financial crash has warned American politicians that Bitcoin is “the mother of all scams” during a Senate hearing on cryptocurrency. Nouriel Roubini, a fierce critic of virtual currency, took aim at the blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrency, which is often hailed as transformative even by those cynical about digital coins. “Blockchain is the most over-hyped technology ever,” the New York University Professor told the Senate Banking Committee. “It is nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database. "It is clear by now that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent the mother of all bubbles," he added. The attack contradicts proponents of blockchain including the Government's science office, which argued in 2016 that the technology could “help governments to collect taxes, deliver benefits, issue passports, record land registries, assure the supply chain of goods and services and generally ensure the integrity of government records and services.” Roubini added that the nickname “s---coins" which is often used by cryptocurrency traders when referring to less valuable coins, was “a grave insult to manure”. His scathing attack came as the cryptocurrency market took a battering off the back of tumbling global stock markets . Bitcoin dropped as much as 6.9pc to $6,080, its lowest point in two months. At its peak late last year Bitcoin was worth $20,000. Traders claim Bitcoin's selling point is that its decentralised nature leaves it immune from stock market volatility, acting more like a "digital gold". But it appears that as the coin went mainstream, traditional investors are using traditional equity strategies, suggesting the crypto market could dip further if the stock markets continues downward, likes its fiat counterparts. Industry champions were keen to paste over the cracks, with market analyst at cryptocurrency exchange platform eToro, Matt Newton sending out an email to assure that the fall was “a sign that the markets are working” and that “much of the ‘good news’ is currently happening behind the scenes”. Governments are mulling whether to step in and regulate cryptocurrencies, which critics claim are vehicles for scams and money laundering. China has already banned domestic exchanges and well as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a form of crowdfunding. The US securities watchdog on Thursday halted an ICO which falsely claimed it had approval from the Securities and Exchanges Commission. || Economist who predicted financial crash warns Bitcoin is 'mother of all scams': Bitcoin's price dropped off the back of tumbling global stock markets - AP The economist who predicted the 2008 financial crash has warned American politicians that Bitcoin is “the mother of all scams” during a Senate hearing on cryptocurrency. Nouriel Roubini, a fierce critic of virtual currency, took aim at the blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrency, which is often hailed as transformative even by those cynical about digital coins. “Blockchain is the most over-hyped technology ever,” the New York University Professor told the Senate Banking Committee. “It is nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database. "It is clear by now that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent the mother of all bubbles," he added. The attack contradicts proponents of blockchain including the Government's science office, which argued in 2016 that the technology could “help governments to collect taxes, deliver benefits, issue passports, record land registries, assure the supply chain of goods and services and generally ensure the integrity of government records and services.” Roubini added that the nickname “s---coins" which is often used by cryptocurrency traders when referring to less valuable coins, was “a grave insult to manure”. His scathing attack came as the cryptocurrency market took a battering off the back of tumbling global stock markets . Bitcoin dropped as much as 6.9pc to $6,080, its lowest point in two months. At its peak late last year Bitcoin was worth $20,000. Traders claim Bitcoin's selling point is that its decentralised nature leaves it immune from stock market volatility, acting more like a "digital gold". But it appears that as the coin went mainstream, traditional investors are using traditional equity strategies, suggesting the crypto market could dip further if the stock markets continues downward, likes its fiat counterparts. Industry champions were keen to paste over the cracks, with market analyst at cryptocurrency exchange platform eToro, Matt Newton sending out an email to assure that the fall was “a sign that the markets are working” and that “much of the ‘good news’ is currently happening behind the scenes”. Governments are mulling whether to step in and regulate cryptocurrencies, which critics claim are vehicles for scams and money laundering. China has already banned domestic exchanges and well as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a form of crowdfunding. The US securities watchdog on Thursday halted an ICO which falsely claimed it had approval from the Securities and Exchanges Commission. || OTCQX Vs OTCQB Vs Pink: Understanding OTC Markets' Different Tiers: More than 10,000 U.S. and global equities, ranging from large international companies to community banks, trade on the over-the-counter market. The types of companies and industries vary greatly with so many securities.
Over the past 11 years, OTC Markets Group, operator of the over the counter equities markets, has organized this market into a tiered system based on the quality and timeliness of information a company has disclosed.
The goal of organizing by tiers, according to Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice President of Corporate Services at OTC Markets Group, was to help investors better understand the array of companies that trade here and the corresponding risks. And to provide a way for reputable U.S. and international companies to distinguish themselves by the quality of their disclosure and rigorous requirements.
“Adding structure helps investors better understand the market,” he said. “You can look at a OTCQX company like Roche and see that it is a transparent, financially sound company. That profile may be very different for a security traded on the Pink market, where flags help investors easily identify potentially higher risk. We’re focused on using data and disclosure to create a transparent, high-performing trading market where established companies can leverage a cost-effective, less burdensome alternative to a stock exchange listing.”
Here’s how that system works:
OTCQX
The OTCQX Market is the top tier, with the most stringent entry requirements. According to OTC Markets, companies trading on OTCQX must “meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, be current in their disclosure, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction.”
More specifically, these companies must meet areporting standardin terms of how they report financial information. They must also have a board of directors with at least two independent directors, an audit committee that conducts annual financial audits, have annual shareholders meetings and release annual financial reports 15 days prior to each meeting.
Companies that are penny stocks, shells, or are in bankruptcy are excluded from trading on this tier.
Over 400 companies trade on OTCQX, including Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerateRoche(OTCQX:RHHBF) (OTCQX:RHHBY) (OTCQX:RHHVF), the French global communications companyPublicis Groupe S.A.(OTCQX:PUBGY) (OTCQX: PGPEF) and Grayscale’s Investment theBitcoin Investment Trust(OTCQX:GBTC).
OTCQB
The middle tier of OTC Markets – OTCQB – is known as The Venture Market. Companies that trade on this tier are in their early stages, and therefore, may not be able to meet the financial or regulatory requirements required by the exchanges or OTCQX.
To be eligible for OTCQB, companies must be current in their financial reporting, undergo an annual verification and management certification process, and have a bid price of at least $0.01. They also cannot be in bankruptcy. Over 900 companies trade on the OTCQB Market.
Pink
The Pink Open Market provides brokers a platform for transparent trading in any security. The widest spectrum of companies trade on the Pink Market, including those that are bankrupt or not current in their disclosures with the SEC or their home country exchange.
OTC Markets is a content partner of Benzinga
See more from Benzinga
• The Most Actively Traded Over-The-Counter Stocks In September
• Netflix Who? 3 Media Stocks That Look Like They're Back In Favor
• The ABCs Of The OTC Markets
© 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || OTCQX Vs OTCQB Vs Pink: Understanding OTC Markets' Different Tiers: More than 10,000 U.S. and global equities, ranging from large international companies to community banks, trade on the over-the-counter market. The types of companies and industries vary greatly with so many securities. Over the past 11 years, OTC Markets Group, operator of the over the counter equities markets, has organized this market into a tiered system based on the quality and timeliness of information a company has disclosed. The goal of organizing by tiers, according to Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice President of Corporate Services at OTC Markets Group, was to help investors better understand the array of companies that trade here and the corresponding risks. And to provide a way for reputable U.S. and international companies to distinguish themselves by the quality of their disclosure and rigorous requirements. “Adding structure helps investors better understand the market,” he said. “You can look at a OTCQX company like Roche and see that it is a transparent, financially sound company. That profile may be very different for a security traded on the Pink market, where flags help investors easily identify potentially higher risk. We’re focused on using data and disclosure to create a transparent, high-performing trading market where established companies can leverage a cost-effective, less burdensome alternative to a stock exchange listing.” Here’s how that system works: OTCQX The OTCQX Market is the top tier, with the most stringent entry requirements. According to OTC Markets, companies trading on OTCQX must “meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, be current in their disclosure, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction.” More specifically, these companies must meet a reporting standard in terms of how they report financial information. They must also have a board of directors with at least two independent directors, an audit committee that conducts annual financial audits, have annual shareholders meetings and release annual financial reports 15 days prior to each meeting. Story continues Companies that are penny stocks, shells, or are in bankruptcy are excluded from trading on this tier. Over 400 companies trade on OTCQX, including Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerate Roche (OTCQX: RHHBF ) (OTCQX: RHHBY ) (OTCQX: RHHVF ), the French global communications company Publicis Groupe S.A. (OTCQX: PUBGY ) (OTCQX: PGPEF) and Grayscale’s Investment the Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTCQX: GBTC ). OTCQB The middle tier of OTC Markets – OTCQB – is known as The Venture Market. Companies that trade on this tier are in their early stages, and therefore, may not be able to meet the financial or regulatory requirements required by the exchanges or OTCQX. To be eligible for OTCQB, companies must be current in their financial reporting, undergo an annual verification and management certification process, and have a bid price of at least $0.01. They also cannot be in bankruptcy. Over 900 companies trade on the OTCQB Market. Pink The Pink Open Market provides brokers a platform for transparent trading in any security. The widest spectrum of companies trade on the Pink Market, including those that are bankrupt or not current in their disclosures with the SEC or their home country exchange. OTC Markets is a content partner of Benzinga See more from Benzinga The Most Actively Traded Over-The-Counter Stocks In September Netflix Who? 3 Media Stocks That Look Like They're Back In Favor The ABCs Of The OTC Markets © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Traders Expected Bitcoin to Rise as Stock Market Fell, What Went Wrong?: bitcoin price bitcoin price The sudden plunge in the price of Bitcoin has demonstrated that while it lacks correlation with the broader financial market, it is not inversely correlated with the global market. Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies are considered as a robust store of value for investors to hedge against the broader financial market because of its lack of correlation with equities, stocks, currencies, and bonds. Lack of Correlation is not Inverse Correlation In an interview, Matt Hougan, the vice president of research and development at Bitwise Asset Management, stated that the fundamental drivers of crypto are different from that of the traditional finance market. But, Matt emphasized that non-correlation is not equivalent to inverse correlation and as such, investors should not expect the price of Bitcoin to increase when the traditional finance market or the stock market declines in value. Non-correlation is not the same as inverse correlation so theres no guarantee that when the market goes down crypto will go up. Over the long term, we think the fundamental drivers of crypto are different from the fundamental driver of equities and other assets, and we would expect the low correlation to persist, Matt said. On October 11, the US stock market saw a substantial decline in value, which saw Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, lose more than $9.1 billion in personal net worth within a 24-hour period. Charlie Ripley, a senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, said that higher interest rates have contributed to the drop in stocks. Higher interest rates typically bring on tighter financial conditions which could dampen growth going forward and equity markets are reacting to that, said Charlie. Medha Samant, investment director for Asian equities at Fidelity International, further emphasized that the global stock market sell-off spooked sentiment amidst fears that US markets would succumb to sell pressure after one of the longest bull rallies in the history of the country. Alex Kruger, a cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said that a breakout of Bitcoin above a major resistance level in a period in which stocks are experiencing a large drop in value could allow the dominant cryptocurrency to see a massive increase in demand. A BTC breakout today, in a day when stocks and bonds are getting crushed, would be noticed by the whole world and would be very bullish. Waiting, he said. However, Kruger also noted that the correlation between stocks and traditional assets like gold and treasuries has also weakened in the past year. Thus, a struggling global market could also lead the crypto market to fall. Story continues Kruger added: Treasuries and Gold are two assets widely used as portfolio hedges. Correlations with stocks broke down in 2018. Hence, in the event of a market crash, portfolios may suffer losses both from the stocks side and the hedge side. Forcing PMs to sell assets, accelerating a crash. Bitcoin Wasnt in an Ideal Position to Recover After recording a yearly low daily trading volume, Bitcoin struggled to demonstrate a recovery in its momentum and price trend. Other major cryptocurrencies and tokens were affected by the lack of momentum in BTC, unable to initiate a promising price movement. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Traders Expected Bitcoin to Rise as Stock Market Fell, What Went Wrong? appeared first on CCN . View comments || Traders Expected Bitcoin to Rise as Stock Market Fell, What Went Wrong?: The sudden plunge in the price of Bitcoin has demonstrated that while it lacks correlation with the broader financial market, it is not inverselycorrelated with the global market.
Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies are considered as a robust store of value for investors to hedge against the broader financial market because of its lack of correlation with equities, stocks, currencies, and bonds.
In an interview, Matt Hougan, the vice president of research and development at Bitwise Asset Management, stated that the fundamental drivers of crypto are different from that of the traditional finance market.
But, Matt emphasized that non-correlation is not equivalent to inverse correlation and as such, investors should not expect the price of Bitcoin to increase when the traditional finance market or the stock market declines in value.
“Non-correlation is not the same as inverse correlation so there’s no guarantee that when the market goes down crypto will go up. Over the long term, we think the fundamental drivers of crypto are different from the fundamental driver of equities and other assets, and we would expect the low correlation to persist,”Matt said.
On October 11, the US stock market saw a substantial decline in value, which saw Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, lose more than $9.1 billion in personal net worth within a 24-hour period.
Charlie Ripley, a senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, said that higher interest rates have contributed to the drop in stocks.
“Higher interest rates typically bring on tighter financial conditions which could dampen growth going forward and equity markets are reacting to that,”saidCharlie.
Medha Samant, investment director for Asian equities at Fidelity International, further emphasized that the global stock market sell-off spooked sentiment amidst fears that US markets would succumb to sell pressure after one of the longest bull rallies in the history of the country.
Alex Kruger, a cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said that a breakout of Bitcoin above a major resistance level in a period in which stocks are experiencing a large drop in value could allow the dominant cryptocurrency to see a massive increase in demand.
“A BTC breakout today, in a day when stocks and bonds are getting crushed, would be noticed by the whole world and would be very bullish. Waiting,” he said.
However, Kruger also noted that the correlation between stocks and traditional assets like gold and treasuries has also weakened in the past year. Thus, a struggling global market could also lead the crypto market to fall.
Kruger added:
“Treasuries and Gold are two assets widely used as portfolio hedges. Correlations with stocks broke down in 2018. Hence, in the event of a market crash, portfolios may suffer losses both from the stocks side and the hedge side. Forcing PMs to sell assets, accelerating a crash.”
After recording a yearly low daily trading volume, Bitcoin struggled to demonstrate a recovery in its momentum and price trend. Other major cryptocurrencies and tokens were affected by the lack of momentum in BTC, unable to initiate a promising price movement.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postTraders Expected Bitcoin to Rise as Stock Market Fell, What Went Wrong?appeared first onCCN. || Traders Expected Bitcoin to Rise as Stock Market Fell, What Went Wrong?: The sudden plunge in the price of Bitcoin has demonstrated that while it lacks correlation with the broader financial market, it is not inverselycorrelated with the global market.
Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies are considered as a robust store of value for investors to hedge against the broader financial market because of its lack of correlation with equities, stocks, currencies, and bonds.
In an interview, Matt Hougan, the vice president of research and development at Bitwise Asset Management, stated that the fundamental drivers of crypto are different from that of the traditional finance market.
But, Matt emphasized that non-correlation is not equivalent to inverse correlation and as such, investors should not expect the price of Bitcoin to increase when the traditional finance market or the stock market declines in value.
“Non-correlation is not the same as inverse correlation so there’s no guarantee that when the market goes down crypto will go up. Over the long term, we think the fundamental drivers of crypto are different from the fundamental driver of equities and other assets, and we would expect the low correlation to persist,”Matt said.
On October 11, the US stock market saw a substantial decline in value, which saw Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, lose more than $9.1 billion in personal net worth within a 24-hour period.
Charlie Ripley, a senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, said that higher interest rates have contributed to the drop in stocks.
“Higher interest rates typically bring on tighter financial conditions which could dampen growth going forward and equity markets are reacting to that,”saidCharlie.
Medha Samant, investment director for Asian equities at Fidelity International, further emphasized that the global stock market sell-off spooked sentiment amidst fears that US markets would succumb to sell pressure after one of the longest bull rallies in the history of the country.
Alex Kruger, a cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said that a breakout of Bitcoin above a major resistance level in a period in which stocks are experiencing a large drop in value could allow the dominant cryptocurrency to see a massive increase in demand.
“A BTC breakout today, in a day when stocks and bonds are getting crushed, would be noticed by the whole world and would be very bullish. Waiting,” he said.
However, Kruger also noted that the correlation between stocks and traditional assets like gold and treasuries has also weakened in the past year. Thus, a struggling global market could also lead the crypto market to fall.
Kruger added:
“Treasuries and Gold are two assets widely used as portfolio hedges. Correlations with stocks broke down in 2018. Hence, in the event of a market crash, portfolios may suffer losses both from the stocks side and the hedge side. Forcing PMs to sell assets, accelerating a crash.”
After recording a yearly low daily trading volume, Bitcoin struggled to demonstrate a recovery in its momentum and price trend. Other major cryptocurrencies and tokens were affected by the lack of momentum in BTC, unable to initiate a promising price movement.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postTraders Expected Bitcoin to Rise as Stock Market Fell, What Went Wrong?appeared first onCCN. || 5 Highlights from Bitcoin-Bashing NYU Economist’s Senate Testimony: This morning, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is holding a hearing on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, featuring testimony from New York University economist Nouriel Roubini.
Roubini, as CCNreported, has been bashing bitcoin since before most of the mainstream public had become familiar with the terms “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain,” and — true to form — hisSenate testimonycontained some real gems.
Here are some highlights:
By the time this article is published, Roubini will have likely become the first person to use the word “sh*tcoin” in congressional testimony, with the word — a term of derision thatbitcoinmaximalists frequently use when discussing altcoins — appearing four times in his written testimony.
His testimony read:
“And a 70% capital loss was a “good” deal compared to thousands of alt-coins (otherwise better known as shitcoins) that have lost on average 95% of their value since the peak. Actually calling this useless vaporware garbage a ‘shitcoin’ is a grave insult to manure that is a most useful, precious and productive good as a fertilizer in agriculture.”
To his credit, Roubini did apologize for his use of the scatological term, adding in a footnote, “My apologies to the members of the Senate Banking Committee for using the scatological term ‘shitcoin’ but the term is standard in the crypto jargon and there are more than 500000 references to it in a Google search of this technical term.”
He also included a link to that Google search.
“Sh*tcoin” isn’t the only word that Roubini felt obligated to define for the committee members, most of whom are likely not familiar with the colloquialisms of Crypto Twitter. Indeed, he provided a veritable pocket-size dictionary of crypto terms, though his definitions are somewhat different than you might find in the official CT lexicon.
Here are some standouts:
• Crypto-land: “an eco-system of con artists, self-serving peddlers, scammers, carnival barkers, charlatans, and outright criminals.”
• HODLers: “suckers who have hold on their collapsing cryptocurrencies even after they lost 90% of their value”
• Lambos: “the crypto obsession with stealing investors’ money to buy luxury energy hogging cars”
• Whales: “large early crypto billionaires who are stuck with their fake wealth after the suckers of retails investors – who bought into the FOMO of the peak 2017 bubbles – lost 90% of their investments; those suckers are also called BagHolders”
This wouldn’t be a true Roubini post without a few classic crypto-takedowns, and with the eyes of the nation’s legislators upon him, the NYU professor did not disappoint.
In one section, Roubini alleged that, rather than representing the future of crowdfunding,initial coin offerings(ICOs) are actually a return to the stone age with its lack of a common currency. These tokens, he said, will create an economy worse than that seen in The Flintstones.
“That is precisely where the ICO charlatans would effectively take us – not to the futuristic world of ‘The Jetsons,’ but to the modern Stone Age world – that is worse than ‘The Flintstones’ – who at least used clam shells as their money and understood the importance of a single numeraire – where all transactions occur through the barter of different tokens or goods. It is time to recognize their utopian rhetoric for what it is: self-serving nonsense meant to separate credulous investors from their hard-earned savings”
Continuing his assault, Roubini fired shots across the bow at bitcoin, hearkening back to criticism he has made in the past through Twitter and other means. In addition to arguing that bitcoin ismore centralized the North Korea, he argued that it was, more or less, a worse version of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
“It is high time to end the hype. Bitcoin is a slow, energy-inefficient dinosaur that will never be able to process transactions as quickly or inexpensively as an Excel spreadsheet.”
While Roubini spent more than 35 pages excoriating the cryptocurrency ecosystem from top to bottom, he took particular aim at “stablecoins,” cryptocurrency tokens whose values are in some way pegged to a fiat currency (i.e., the U.S. dollar).
Roubini said that stablecoins are the “biggest scam of all,” noting thattether(USDT), currently the largest stablecoin, has never undergone a full audit to prove that its tokens are fully-backed by USD.
“And the biggest scam of all is the case of ‘stable coins’ – starting with Tether – that claimed to be pegged one to one to the US dollar but are not fully collateralized by an equal backing of true US dollars. Bitfinex – behind the scammy Tether – has persistently refused to be properly audited and its creation of fiat Tether has been systematically used to prop up manipulate upward the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies according to a recent academic paper.”
As CCNreported, non-profit cryptocurrency research and advocacy group Coin Center will also testify before the Senate hearing. The organization’s testimony, one can be sure, will present a marked contrast to that of Roubini.
Images from Shutterstock
The post5 Highlights from Bitcoin-Bashing NYU Economist’s Senate Testimonyappeared first onCCN. || 5 Highlights from Bitcoin-Bashing NYU Economists Senate Testimony: nouriel roubini bitcoin nouriel roubini bitcoin This morning, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is holding a hearing on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, featuring testimony from New York University economist Nouriel Roubini. Roubini, as CCN reported , has been bashing bitcoin since before most of the mainstream public had become familiar with the terms cryptocurrency and blockchain, and true to form his Senate testimony contained some real gems. Here are some highlights: 1. Sh*tcoin Entered the Congressional Lexicon By the time this article is published, Roubini will have likely become the first person to use the word sh*tcoin in congressional testimony, with the word a term of derision that bitcoin maximalists frequently use when discussing altcoins appearing four times in his written testimony. His testimony read: And a 70% capital loss was a good deal compared to thousands of alt-coins (otherwise better known as shitcoins) that have lost on average 95% of their value since the peak. Actually calling this useless vaporware garbage a shitcoin is a grave insult to manure that is a most useful, precious and productive good as a fertilizer in agriculture. To his credit, Roubini did apologize for his use of the scatological term, adding in a footnote, My apologies to the members of the Senate Banking Committee for using the scatological term shitcoin but the term is standard in the crypto jargon and there are more than 500000 references to it in a Google search of this technical term. He also included a link to that Google search. 2. Roubinis Crypto Dictionary Sh*tcoin isnt the only word that Roubini felt obligated to define for the committee members, most of whom are likely not familiar with the colloquialisms of Crypto Twitter. Indeed, he provided a veritable pocket-size dictionary of crypto terms, though his definitions are somewhat different than you might find in the official CT lexicon. Story continues Here are some standouts: Crypto-land : an eco-system of con artists, self-serving peddlers, scammers, carnival barkers, charlatans, and outright criminals. HODLers : suckers who have hold on their collapsing cryptocurrencies even after they lost 90% of their value Lambos : the crypto obsession with stealing investors money to buy luxury energy hogging cars Whales : large early crypto billionaires who are stuck with their fake wealth after the suckers of retails investors who bought into the FOMO of the peak 2017 bubbles lost 90% of their investments; those suckers are also called BagHolders 3. ICOs are a Return to the Stone Age Flintstones This wouldnt be a true Roubini post without a few classic crypto-takedowns, and with the eyes of the nations legislators upon him, the NYU professor did not disappoint. In one section, Roubini alleged that, rather than representing the future of crowdfunding, initial coin offerings (ICOs) are actually a return to the stone age with its lack of a common currency. These tokens, he said, will create an economy worse than that seen in The Flintstones. That is precisely where the ICO charlatans would effectively take us not to the futuristic world of The Jetsons, but to the modern Stone Age world that is worse than The Flintstones who at least used clam shells as their money and understood the importance of a single numeraire where all transactions occur through the barter of different tokens or goods. It is time to recognize their utopian rhetoric for what it is: self-serving nonsense meant to separate credulous investors from their hard-earned savings 4. Bitcoin a Dinosaur, Worse than an Excel Spreadsheet Continuing his assault, Roubini fired shots across the bow at bitcoin, hearkening back to criticism he has made in the past through Twitter and other means. In addition to arguing that bitcoin is more centralized the North Korea , he argued that it was, more or less, a worse version of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It is high time to end the hype. Bitcoin is a slow, energy-inefficient dinosaur that will never be able to process transactions as quickly or inexpensively as an Excel spreadsheet. 5. Stablecoins are the Biggest Scam of All While Roubini spent more than 35 pages excoriating the cryptocurrency ecosystem from top to bottom, he took particular aim at stablecoins , cryptocurrency tokens whose values are in some way pegged to a fiat currency (i.e., the U.S. dollar). Roubini said that stablecoins are the biggest scam of all, noting that tether (USDT), currently the largest stablecoin, has never undergone a full audit to prove that its tokens are fully-backed by USD. And the biggest scam of all is the case of stable coins starting with Tether that claimed to be pegged one to one to the US dollar but are not fully collateralized by an equal backing of true US dollars. Bitfinex behind the scammy Tether has persistently refused to be properly audited and its creation of fiat Tether has been systematically used to prop up manipulate upward the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies according to a recent academic paper. As CCN reported , non-profit cryptocurrency research and advocacy group Coin Center will also testify before the Senate hearing. The organizations testimony, one can be sure, will present a marked contrast to that of Roubini. Images from Shutterstock The post 5 Highlights from Bitcoin-Bashing NYU Economists Senate Testimony appeared first on CCN . || 5 Highlights from Bitcoin-Bashing NYU Economist’s Senate Testimony: This morning, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is holding a hearing on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, featuring testimony from New York University economist Nouriel Roubini.
Roubini, as CCNreported, has been bashing bitcoin since before most of the mainstream public had become familiar with the terms “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain,” and — true to form — hisSenate testimonycontained some real gems.
Here are some highlights:
By the time this article is published, Roubini will have likely become the first person to use the word “sh*tcoin” in congressional testimony, with the word — a term of derision thatbitcoinmaximalists frequently use when discussing altcoins — appearing four times in his written testimony.
His testimony read:
“And a 70% capital loss was a “good” deal compared to thousands of alt-coins (otherwise better known as shitcoins) that have lost on average 95% of their value since the peak. Actually calling this useless vaporware garbage a ‘shitcoin’ is a grave insult to manure that is a most useful, precious and productive good as a fertilizer in agriculture.”
To his credit, Roubini did apologize for his use of the scatological term, adding in a footnote, “My apologies to the members of the Senate Banking Committee for using the scatological term ‘shitcoin’ but the term is standard in the crypto jargon and there are more than 500000 references to it in a Google search of this technical term.”
He also included a link to that Google search.
“Sh*tcoin” isn’t the only word that Roubini felt obligated to define for the committee members, most of whom are likely not familiar with the colloquialisms of Crypto Twitter. Indeed, he provided a veritable pocket-size dictionary of crypto terms, though his definitions are somewhat different than you might find in the official CT lexicon.
Here are some standouts:
• Crypto-land: “an eco-system of con artists, self-serving peddlers, scammers, carnival barkers, charlatans, and outright criminals.”
• HODLers: “suckers who have hold on their collapsing cryptocurrencies even after they lost 90% of their value”
• Lambos: “the crypto obsession with stealing investors’ money to buy luxury energy hogging cars”
• Whales: “large early crypto billionaires who are stuck with their fake wealth after the suckers of retails investors – who bought into the FOMO of the peak 2017 bubbles – lost 90% of their investments; those suckers are also called BagHolders”
This wouldn’t be a true Roubini post without a few classic crypto-takedowns, and with the eyes of the nation’s legislators upon him, the NYU professor did not disappoint.
In one section, Roubini alleged that, rather than representing the future of crowdfunding,initial coin offerings(ICOs) are actually a return to the stone age with its lack of a common currency. These tokens, he said, will create an economy worse than that seen in The Flintstones.
“That is precisely where the ICO charlatans would effectively take us – not to the futuristic world of ‘The Jetsons,’ but to the modern Stone Age world – that is worse than ‘The Flintstones’ – who at least used clam shells as their money and understood the importance of a single numeraire – where all transactions occur through the barter of different tokens or goods. It is time to recognize their utopian rhetoric for what it is: self-serving nonsense meant to separate credulous investors from their hard-earned savings”
Continuing his assault, Roubini fired shots across the bow at bitcoin, hearkening back to criticism he has made in the past through Twitter and other means. In addition to arguing that bitcoin ismore centralized the North Korea, he argued that it was, more or less, a worse version of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
“It is high time to end the hype. Bitcoin is a slow, energy-inefficient dinosaur that will never be able to process transactions as quickly or inexpensively as an Excel spreadsheet.”
While Roubini spent more than 35 pages excoriating the cryptocurrency ecosystem from top to bottom, he took particular aim at “stablecoins,” cryptocurrency tokens whose values are in some way pegged to a fiat currency (i.e., the U.S. dollar).
Roubini said that stablecoins are the “biggest scam of all,” noting thattether(USDT), currently the largest stablecoin, has never undergone a full audit to prove that its tokens are fully-backed by USD.
“And the biggest scam of all is the case of ‘stable coins’ – starting with Tether – that claimed to be pegged one to one to the US dollar but are not fully collateralized by an equal backing of true US dollars. Bitfinex – behind the scammy Tether – has persistently refused to be properly audited and its creation of fiat Tether has been systematically used to prop up manipulate upward the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies according to a recent academic paper.”
As CCNreported, non-profit cryptocurrency research and advocacy group Coin Center will also testify before the Senate hearing. The organization’s testimony, one can be sure, will present a marked contrast to that of Roubini.
Images from Shutterstock
The post5 Highlights from Bitcoin-Bashing NYU Economist’s Senate Testimonyappeared first onCCN. || Why STMicroelectronics N.V. Stock Fell 11.5% in September: Shares ofSTMicroelectronics N.V.(NYSE: STM)stock dipped 11.5% in September, according to data provided byS&P Global Market Intelligence. The stock fell amid a broader sell-off for chip stocks.
SOXXdata byYCharts.
Micron Technology's CFO revealed at the Citi 2018 Global Technology Conference on Sept. 6 that pricing for NAND flash memory was still declining. Morgan Stanley published a research note the same day outlining a bearish forecast on the chip market, pointing to weakening pricing power and accumulating inventory as warning signs. These catalysts caused the market to take a more cautious outlook on the industry, prompting sell-offs for STMicroelectronics. The iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF, which bundles a wide variety of chip stocks together and is a good proxy for the industry's performance, fell 2.8% in the month.
Image source: Getty Images.
While pressure on the broader chip market could continue to negatively impact ST's stock performance, the business is unlikely to see dramatic fallout from declining prices for memory chips. The company makes chips for infrared camera and facial-recognition technologyused in the iPhone X lineand might also be providing near-field-communication chips for Apple handsets and wearables. Smartphone stagnation could be a negative catalyst, but ST's position in rising categories like automotive chips, connected-home products, and other Internet of Things technologies gives it other avenues to growth.
ST shares have fallen another 11.4% in October as of this writing, with ongoing pressure on semiconductor stocks and a more-recent broader market sell-off contributing to the decline.
SOXXdata byYCharts.
The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings results after market close on Oct. 24 and is guiding for sales of roughly $2.5 billion for the period, up 10% sequentially and 16.8% year over year.
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Keith Noonanhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Newsflash: Bitfinex Suspends Fiat Deposits amid Bitcoin Sell-Off: Did cryptocurrency exchange giant Bitfinex play a role in last night’s bitcoin sell-off?
As first reported byThe Block, the British Virgin Islands-based but Hong Kong-operated exchange has “temporarily paused” EUR, USD, JPY, and GBP wire deposits, although screenshots from customer accounts circulated on social media suggest that the situation should “normalize within a week.”
Reports hademergedlast week that Bitfinex, longsuspectedto be holding funds at the now-faltering Noble Bank in Puerto Rico, had found a permanent banking partner in HSBC.
Per The Block, Bitfinex was actually banking at Bitfinex through a private account via Global Trading Solutions. Consequently, it’s possible that HSBC was not aware that it was holding Bitfinex assets, and — following the significant press coverage — has suspended or closed that account. If true, it marks the conclusion of another short chapter in Bitfinex’slong historyof banking woes.
The cryptocurrency market has faced a significant sell-off on Thursday, raising questions about whether there is a connection between the decline and concerns over Bitfinex’s oft-opaque operations.
At present, the bitcoin price is trading at a premium on Bitfinex, perhaps indicating that traders are not entirely comfortable holding funds on the platform during this period of uncertainty, which also raises questions about the stability of fiat withdrawals.
Bitcoin is currently priced at $6,303 on Bitfinex, compared to $6,199 on Coinbase Pro on Gemini, $6,194 on Bitstamp, and $6,192 on BitMEX, which works out to a premium of nearly two percent.
Bitfinex, as CCNreported, published a blog post earlier this week denying allegations that it is insolvent, though many critics remain unconvinced, particularly given the exchange’s close association with the controversial tether (USDT) cryptocurrency.
“How any rational party can claim insolvency when the opposite is there for all to see is interesting and, once again, perhaps indicative of a targeted campaign based on nothing but fiction,” the firm said in the post. “Complications continue to exist for us in the domain of fiat transactions, as they do for most cryptocurrency-related organisations. However, we continue to do our utmost to minimise any waiting times associated with fiat deposits and withdrawals.”
CCN has reached out to Bitfinex’s external media contact and will update this article if we receive a reply.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postNewsflash: Bitfinex Suspends Fiat Deposits amid Bitcoin Sell-Offappeared first onCCN. || Newsflash: Bitfinex Suspends Fiat Deposits amid Bitcoin Sell-Off: Did cryptocurrency exchange giant Bitfinex play a role in last night’s bitcoin sell-off?
As first reported byThe Block, the British Virgin Islands-based but Hong Kong-operated exchange has “temporarily paused” EUR, USD, JPY, and GBP wire deposits, although screenshots from customer accounts circulated on social media suggest that the situation should “normalize within a week.”
Reports hademergedlast week that Bitfinex, longsuspectedto be holding funds at the now-faltering Noble Bank in Puerto Rico, had found a permanent banking partner in HSBC.
Per The Block, Bitfinex was actually banking at Bitfinex through a private account via Global Trading Solutions. Consequently, it’s possible that HSBC was not aware that it was holding Bitfinex assets, and — following the significant press coverage — has suspended or closed that account. If true, it marks the conclusion of another short chapter in Bitfinex’slong historyof banking woes.
The cryptocurrency market has faced a significant sell-off on Thursday, raising questions about whether there is a connection between the decline and concerns over Bitfinex’s oft-opaque operations.
At present, the bitcoin price is trading at a premium on Bitfinex, perhaps indicating that traders are not entirely comfortable holding funds on the platform during this period of uncertainty, which also raises questions about the stability of fiat withdrawals.
Bitcoin is currently priced at $6,303 on Bitfinex, compared to $6,199 on Coinbase Pro on Gemini, $6,194 on Bitstamp, and $6,192 on BitMEX, which works out to a premium of nearly two percent.
Bitfinex, as CCNreported, published a blog post earlier this week denying allegations that it is insolvent, though many critics remain unconvinced, particularly given the exchange’s close association with the controversial tether (USDT) cryptocurrency.
“How any rational party can claim insolvency when the opposite is there for all to see is interesting and, once again, perhaps indicative of a targeted campaign based on nothing but fiction,” the firm said in the post. “Complications continue to exist for us in the domain of fiat transactions, as they do for most cryptocurrency-related organisations. However, we continue to do our utmost to minimise any waiting times associated with fiat deposits and withdrawals.”
CCN has reached out to Bitfinex’s external media contact and will update this article if we receive a reply.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postNewsflash: Bitfinex Suspends Fiat Deposits amid Bitcoin Sell-Offappeared first onCCN. || 4 Reasons Why Bitcoin's Price Could Now Drop to $6K: Bitcoin's drop to three-week lows today has likely kick-started a bearish move towards the major support at $6,000, technical charts indicate.
The leading cryptocurrency fell to $6,252 at 7:15 UTC on Bitfinex â the lowest level since Sept. 19 â and was last seen trading at $6,300, representing a 5-percent drop on a 24-hour basis.
Thefailureto capitalize on Monday's move above the crucial 10-week exponential moving average (EMA) resistance of $6,998, despite the upside break of a key falling trendline, ended up emboldening the bears,as expected.
'Doctor Doom' vs Crypto: Here's What to Expect in Congress Today
More importantly, the sell-off witnessed in the last few hours has put an end to a prolonged period of lateral trading. The technical indicators have rolled over in favor of the bears, adding credence to the bearish setup on the long duration charts.
Further, the big drop in the equity markets this morning may not bode well for BTC, as the cryptocurrency is still being treated as a risk asset.
As a result, the cryptocurrency is eyeing a drop toward $6,000. Here are four reasons why that is looking likely:
Bitcoin Drops $400 in 30 Minutes As Price Volatility Returns
The Bollinger bands (standard deviation of +2, -2 on the 20-day moving average) on the daily chart have been moving in a sideways manner since Sept. 22, signaling a lack of clear directional bias.
As a result, bitcoin price volatility, as represented byBollinger bandwidthand thegapbetween weekly high and low, fell to 21-month lows and 15-month lows, respectively, last week.
A prolonged period of low volatility usually makes way for a big move in either direction. In BTC's case, that move looks to have already started to the downside, with a breach of the lower band, and may move further towards $6,000.
The relative strength index (RSI) has breached the rising trendline and fell into the bearish territory below 50.00. Notably, it is pointing lower and is well short of the oversold region (below 30.00), meaning there is enough room for a sell-off to $6,000.
Meanwhile, thechoppiness indexhas dropped below the 61.8 level and is pointing south, indicating that bearish move is gathering strength.
Further, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) has produced a bearish crossover.
The bearish view put forward by thenegative crossoverbetween the 5-month and 10-month EMAs has gained more credence, courtesy of BTC'sfailed breakoutand a drop to three-week lows.
Notably, the moving averages turned bearish last month for the first time since September 2014.
BTC's drop to lows below $6,300 comes a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)shed800 points. This isn't the first time that the leading cryptocurrency has followed the action in the equity markets.
As seen in the chart above, BTC pretty much mimicked the DJIA in the last quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.
Looking ahead, the equities coulddropfurther, courtesy of the rising bond yields, and push BTC lower.
While many argue that BTC is a safe haven asset, the historical price action suggests that it in fact tracks equity markets. This is hardly surprising as BTC is still struggling to get mainstream exposure and investors may feel more secure with other classic safe-haven assets like gold (currently at $1,200 per Oz), which is also struggling to post gains.
• BTC risks falling to $6,000 in the short-term as various indicators have turned bearish
• A violation there would allow a deeper drop to $5,870 â support of the trendline drawn from the June low of $5,755 and the August low of $5,859.
• The bearish case would weaken if the 21-month EMA, currently located at $6,122, proves a tough nut to crack.
• On the higher side, the 10-day EMA is the level to beat for the bulls. A weekly close on Sunday (as per UTC) above that level would put the bulls back into the driver's seat.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; Charts byÂTrading ViewÂ
• 2017 to Today: Ethereum Predictions Are Aging (But Not Well)
• Liquid Goes Live: Blockstream's First Bitcoin Sidechain Has Finally Arrived || 4 Reasons Why Bitcoin's Price Could Now Drop to $6K: Bitcoin's drop to three-week lows today has likely kick-started a bearish move towards the major support at $6,000, technical charts indicate.
The leading cryptocurrency fell to $6,252 at 7:15 UTC on Bitfinex â the lowest level since Sept. 19 â and was last seen trading at $6,300, representing a 5-percent drop on a 24-hour basis.
Thefailureto capitalize on Monday's move above the crucial 10-week exponential moving average (EMA) resistance of $6,998, despite the upside break of a key falling trendline, ended up emboldening the bears,as expected.
'Doctor Doom' vs Crypto: Here's What to Expect in Congress Today
More importantly, the sell-off witnessed in the last few hours has put an end to a prolonged period of lateral trading. The technical indicators have rolled over in favor of the bears, adding credence to the bearish setup on the long duration charts.
Further, the big drop in the equity markets this morning may not bode well for BTC, as the cryptocurrency is still being treated as a risk asset.
As a result, the cryptocurrency is eyeing a drop toward $6,000. Here are four reasons why that is looking likely:
Bitcoin Drops $400 in 30 Minutes As Price Volatility Returns
The Bollinger bands (standard deviation of +2, -2 on the 20-day moving average) on the daily chart have been moving in a sideways manner since Sept. 22, signaling a lack of clear directional bias.
As a result, bitcoin price volatility, as represented byBollinger bandwidthand thegapbetween weekly high and low, fell to 21-month lows and 15-month lows, respectively, last week.
A prolonged period of low volatility usually makes way for a big move in either direction. In BTC's case, that move looks to have already started to the downside, with a breach of the lower band, and may move further towards $6,000.
The relative strength index (RSI) has breached the rising trendline and fell into the bearish territory below 50.00. Notably, it is pointing lower and is well short of the oversold region (below 30.00), meaning there is enough room for a sell-off to $6,000.
Meanwhile, thechoppiness indexhas dropped below the 61.8 level and is pointing south, indicating that bearish move is gathering strength.
Further, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) has produced a bearish crossover.
The bearish view put forward by thenegative crossoverbetween the 5-month and 10-month EMAs has gained more credence, courtesy of BTC'sfailed breakoutand a drop to three-week lows.
Notably, the moving averages turned bearish last month for the first time since September 2014.
BTC's drop to lows below $6,300 comes a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)shed800 points. This isn't the first time that the leading cryptocurrency has followed the action in the equity markets.
As seen in the chart above, BTC pretty much mimicked the DJIA in the last quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.
Looking ahead, the equities coulddropfurther, courtesy of the rising bond yields, and push BTC lower.
While many argue that BTC is a safe haven asset, the historical price action suggests that it in fact tracks equity markets. This is hardly surprising as BTC is still struggling to get mainstream exposure and investors may feel more secure with other classic safe-haven assets like gold (currently at $1,200 per Oz), which is also struggling to post gains.
• BTC risks falling to $6,000 in the short-term as various indicators have turned bearish
• A violation there would allow a deeper drop to $5,870 â support of the trendline drawn from the June low of $5,755 and the August low of $5,859.
• The bearish case would weaken if the 21-month EMA, currently located at $6,122, proves a tough nut to crack.
• On the higher side, the 10-day EMA is the level to beat for the bulls. A weekly close on Sunday (as per UTC) above that level would put the bulls back into the driver's seat.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; Charts byÂTrading ViewÂ
• 2017 to Today: Ethereum Predictions Are Aging (But Not Well)
• Liquid Goes Live: Blockstream's First Bitcoin Sidechain Has Finally Arrived || 4 Reasons Why Bitcoin's Price Could Now Drop to $6K: Bitcoin's drop to three-week lows today has likely kick-started a bearish move towards the major support at $6,000, technical charts indicate. The leading cryptocurrency fell to $6,252 at 7:15 UTC on Bitfinex â the lowest level since Sept. 19 â and was last seen trading at $6,300, representing a 5-percent drop on a 24-hour basis. The failure to capitalize on Monday's move above the crucial 10-week exponential moving average (EMA) resistance of $6,998, despite the upside break of a key falling trendline, ended up emboldening the bears, as expected . 'Doctor Doom' vs Crypto: Here's What to Expect in Congress Today More importantly, the sell-off witnessed in the last few hours has put an end to a prolonged period of lateral trading. The technical indicators have rolled over in favor of the bears, adding credence to the bearish setup on the long duration charts. Further, the big drop in the equity markets this morning may not bode well for BTC, as the cryptocurrency is still being treated as a risk asset. As a result, the cryptocurrency is eyeing a drop toward $6,000. Here are four reasons why that is looking likely: Bollinger band breakdown Bitcoin Drops $400 in 30 Minutes As Price Volatility Returns The Bollinger bands (standard deviation of +2, -2 on the 20-day moving average) on the daily chart have been moving in a sideways manner since Sept. 22, signaling a lack of clear directional bias. As a result, bitcoin price volatility, as represented by Bollinger bandwidth and the gap between weekly high and low, fell to 21-month lows and 15-month lows, respectively, last week. A prolonged period of low volatility usually makes way for a big move in either direction. In BTC's case, that move looks to have already started to the downside, with a breach of the lower band, and may move further towards $6,000. Indicators are biased toward the bears The relative strength index (RSI) has breached the rising trendline and fell into the bearish territory below 50.00. Notably, it is pointing lower and is well short of the oversold region (below 30.00), meaning there is enough room for a sell-off to $6,000. Story continues Meanwhile, the choppiness index has dropped below the 61.8 level and is pointing south, indicating that bearish move is gathering strength. Further, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) has produced a bearish crossover. Long-term charts retain a bearish bias The bearish view put forward by the negative crossover between the 5-month and 10-month EMAs has gained more credence, courtesy of BTC's failed breakout and a drop to three-week lows. Notably, the moving averages turned bearish last month for the first time since September 2014. Stock market sell-off could add to the bearish pressure BTC's drop to lows below $6,300 comes a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) shed 800 points. This isn't the first time that the leading cryptocurrency has followed the action in the equity markets. As seen in the chart above, BTC pretty much mimicked the DJIA in the last quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018. Looking ahead, the equities could drop further, courtesy of the rising bond yields, and push BTC lower. While many argue that BTC is a safe haven asset, the historical price action suggests that it in fact tracks equity markets. This is hardly surprising as BTC is still struggling to get mainstream exposure and investors may feel more secure with other classic safe-haven assets like gold (currently at $1,200 per Oz), which is also struggling to post gains. View BTC risks falling to $6,000 in the short-term as various indicators have turned bearish A violation there would allow a deeper drop to $5,870 â support of the trendline drawn from the June low of $5,755 and the August low of $5,859. The bearish case would weaken if the 21-month EMA, currently located at $6,122, proves a tough nut to crack. On the higher side, the 10-day EMA is the level to beat for the bulls. A weekly close on Sunday (as per UTC) above that level would put the bulls back into the driver's seat. Disclosure:  The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin  image via Shutterstock; Charts by Trading View  Related Stories 2017 to Today: Ethereum Predictions Are Aging (But Not Well) Liquid Goes Live: Blockstream's First Bitcoin Sidechain Has Finally Arrived
[Social Media Buzz]
Total Market Cap: $200,373,826,189
1 BTC: $6,294.86
BTC Dominance: 54.41%
Update Time: 12-10-2018 - 09:00:05 (GMT+3) || WATCH: #JohnMcAfee (@officialmcafee) on #CyberSecurity, Personal #Security, Your #Privacy, the Government, #ElectionHacking, Freedom, #Bitcoin and much more... w/ @patrickbetdavid via @ValuetainmentTV: https://t.co/LGJeZcLZsf || Cotización del Bitcoin Cash: 382 30.€ | -0.1% | Kraken | 12/10/18 18:00 #BitcoinCash #Kraken #BCHEUR || 24H
2018/10/13 09:00 (2018/10/12 09:00)
...
|
6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35, 6487.16
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 35697.61, 34616.07, 35678.13, 37332.86, 36684.93, 37575.18, 39208.77, 36894.41, 35551.96, 35862.38, 33560.71, 33472.63, 37345.12, 36702.60, 37334.40, 35552.52, 39097.86, 40218.48, 40406.27, 38347.06, 38053.50, 35787.25, 35615.87, 35698.30, 31676.69, 32505.66, 33723.03, 34662.44, 31637.78, 32186.28, 34649.64, 34434.34, 35867.78, 35040.84, 33572.12, 33897.05, 34668.55, 35287.78, 33746.00, 34235.20, 33855.33, 32877.37, 33798.01, 33520.52, 34240.19, 33155.85, 32702.03, 32822.35, 31780.73, 31421.54, 31533.07, 31796.81, 30817.83, 29807.35, 32110.69, 32313.11, 33581.55, 34292.45, 35350.19, 37337.54, 39406.94, 39995.91, 40008.42, 42235.55, 41626.20, 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50, 44555.80, 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-08-25]
Volume: 32646349931, RSI (14-day): 63.74, 50-day EMA: 42384.12, 200-day EMA: 40119.00
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1788.20, Gold RSI: 49.78
Oil Price: 68.36, Oil RSI: 50.11
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Crypto, Stocks or Real Estate? Where To Put $10,000 Right Now: simonapilolla / Getty Images/iStockphoto If you have $10,000 to invest, three of the hottest options right now are cryptocurrency, stocks and real estate. While all three of these areas have been on fire for most of the past year or more, they are each incredibly different types of investments. If you’re looking for the best place to put $10,000 right now, the right answer for you will largely depend on the type of investor you are. Here’s a look at the characteristics and performance of each of these investments to help you decide which might be the best for you. Helpful: Smart Ways To Invest Your Money During a Time of Economic Recovery Find Out: Why It’s Never a Bad Idea To Invest In Apple and These Other Companies Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency has been one of the hottest investments over the past two years, and it isn’t showing any sign of slowing down. Yet, crypto is the very epitome of a “boom or bust” asset class. If the proponents behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are correct, digital currency will go mainstream across the globe, driving prices to further unfathomable highs. However, if you believe billionaire investors like Warren Buffett, cryptocurrencies may well trade down to zero. Buffett has famously said that Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared,” claimed that it “does not meet the test of a currency” and even that it’s “disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization.” Whichever side of the argument you fall on, it’s important to note that cryptocurrency is a highly speculative asset and that if you plan on investing $10,000, you should be prepared to lose it. Comparing Dogecoin, Baby Doge and Shiba Inu: Is There One To Watch? Stocks The stock market as a whole is a solid long-term investment. However, the emphasis is on “long term.” If you’re only planning to invest your $10,000 for a few years or less, the stock market might be an investment you should avoid. Not only are short-term market movements unpredictable, but the S&P 500 currently sits right about at its all-time high. Additionally, there hasn’t been a 5% sell-off in the S&P 500 since last October, nearly one full year. In other words, if you’re looking for a short-term gain in the stock market, you might want to hold off, as risk is currently elevated. However, if you’re a true long-term investor, your $10,000 could turn into $50,000 or more after 20 years, with average long-term market returns. Story continues Read: 10 Growth Stocks To Invest In Now Stocks vs. Bonds: How To Choose the Best Investments Real Estate The real estate market is yet another asset class that has taken off over the past year. According to the St. Louis Fed, the median sale price of a home in the U.S. hit $374,900 in the second quarter of 2021, the highest on record. But unlike the housing bubble of 2008, the fundamentals behind higher home prices are solid. Americans have been spending more time than ever working from home, millennials are becoming home buyers, mortgage interest rates are at all-time lows and available home inventory is at all-time lows. The combination of all of these factors could continue to keep real estate prices climbing. A $10,000 investment won’t get you much in terms of owning a specific property, but you can buy one of countless real estate investment trusts to get indirect ownership of real estate. Research: 9 Safe Investments With the Highest Returns Which One Is Best for You? Each of these investments has pros and cons and different risk profiles. Before you choose which is the best investment for you, talk with your financial advisor and get a clear picture of your investment objectives and risk tolerance, along with your investment time horizon. In a nutshell, cryptocurrency offers high risk and high reward, stocks are a good long-term investment but risky over the short run and real estate investment trusts generally provide consistent income with the potential for long-term capital gains. More From GOBankingRates Take Our Poll: Are You Actually Spending Your Child Tax Credit Payment? 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security Here’s How Much You Need To Earn To Be ‘Rich’ in Every State The Hidden Costs of Education at Every Level Last updated: Aug. 25, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Crypto, Stocks or Real Estate? Where To Put $10,000 Right Now || Crypto, Stocks or Real Estate? Where To Put $10,000 Right Now: If you have $10,000 to invest, three of the hottest options right now are cryptocurrency, stocks and real estate. While all three of these areas have been on fire for most of the past year or more, they are each incredibly different types of investments. If you’re looking for the best place to put $10,000 right now, the right answer for you will largely depend on the type of investor you are. Here’s a look at the characteristics and performance of each of these investments to help you decide which might be the best for you.
Helpful:Smart Ways To Invest Your Money During a Time of Economic RecoveryFind Out:Why It’s Never a Bad Idea To Invest In Apple and These Other Companies
Cryptocurrency has been one of the hottest investments over the past two years, and it isn’t showing any sign of slowing down. Yet, crypto is the very epitome of a “boom or bust” asset class. If the proponents behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are correct, digital currency will go mainstream across the globe, driving prices to further unfathomable highs. However, if you believe billionaire investors like Warren Buffett, cryptocurrencies may well trade down to zero. Buffett has famously said that Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared,” claimed that it “does not meet the test of a currency” and even that it’s “disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization.” Whicheverside of the argument you fall on, it’s important to note that cryptocurrency is a highly speculative asset and that if you plan on investing $10,000, you should be prepared to lose it.
Comparing Dogecoin, Baby Doge and Shiba Inu:Is There One To Watch?
The stock market as a whole is a solid long-term investment. However, the emphasis is on “long term.” If you’re only planning to invest your $10,000 for a few years or less, the stock market might be an investment you should avoid. Not only are short-term market movements unpredictable, but the S&P 500 currently sits right about at its all-time high. Additionally, there hasn’t been a 5% sell-off in the S&P 500 since last October, nearly one full year.In other words, if you’re looking for a short-term gain in the stock market, you might want to hold off, as risk is currently elevated. However, if you’re a true long-term investor, your $10,000 could turn into $50,000 or more after 20 years, with average long-term market returns.
Read:10 Growth Stocks To Invest In NowStocks vs. Bonds:How To Choose the Best Investments
The real estate market is yet another asset class that has taken off over the past year. According to the St. Louis Fed, the median sale price of a home in the U.S. hit $374,900 in the second quarter of 2021,the highest on record.But unlike the housing bubble of 2008, the fundamentals behind higher home prices are solid. Americans have been spending more time than ever working from home, millennials are becoming home buyers, mortgage interest rates are at all-time lows and available home inventory is at all-time lows. The combination of all of these factors could continue to keep real estate prices climbing. A $10,000 investment won’t get you much in terms of owning a specific property, but you can buy one of countless real estate investment trusts to get indirect ownership of real estate.
Research:9 Safe Investments With the Highest Returns
Each of these investments has pros and cons and different risk profiles. Before you choose which is the best investment for you, talk with your financial advisor and get a clear picture of your investment objectives and risk tolerance, along with your investment time horizon. In a nutshell, cryptocurrency offers high risk and high reward, stocks are a good long-term investment but risky over the short run and real estate investment trusts generally provide consistent income with the potential for long-term capital gains.
More From GOBankingRates
• Take Our Poll: Are You Actually Spending Your Child Tax Credit Payment?
• 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security
• Here’s How Much You Need To Earn To Be ‘Rich’ in Every State
• The Hidden Costs of Education at Every Level
Last updated: Aug. 25, 2021
This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Crypto, Stocks or Real Estate? Where To Put $10,000 Right Now || Green Energy: Sustainable Future For Bitcoin Mining | Opinion: In the previous article on bitcoin mining, we already discussed many aspects of energy consumption by the industry. We also compared the usage with other sectors and energy consumers from around the globe based on the most recent data. This article will focus on the future of energy usage in crypto mining and how it can contribute to the global transition toward sustainable energy usage. What Are Green Energy And Renewable Energy? The terms Green energy and Renewable energy are often used interchangeably despite having some technical differences. Green energy is a part of renewable energy originating from sources that have the highest environment-friendly potentials. The following illustration by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows green energy as a subset of renewable energy sources. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Advantages Of Green Or Renewable Energy From Bitcoin Miners Perspective The most significant advantage of green energy is its practically unlimited availability. The global supply of fossil fuels is likely to end by 2060, according to Octopus Energy estimations. However, green sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, or hydropower will continue to be there for as long as the earth sustains. As bitcoin mining is expected to continue until 2140, miners must rely on energy sources that are sustainable for such a long time according to its protocol. Green energys other huge benefit is that it saves the environment. The most significant criticism regarding bitcoin mining is the environmental concerns. It stirred around the world when Elon Musk declared to stop accepting bitcoin payments for Tesla cars citing the harmful effects of the environmental degradation caused by the mining operations. CO2e or carbon dioxide equivalent , which is carbon dioxide emission for generating per kWh of electricity, is an excellent indicator to compare the environmental impact of different energy sources. The following illustration shows that natural gas emits 250 to 1000 grams of CO2 for producing 1 kWh of electricity. In contrast, the CO2e for wind energy is only around 9-18 grams through its lifecycle. Source: Union of Concerned Scientists So the bitcoin mining industry may quickly capitalize on this factor as it will propel a significant positive vibe. Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla might accept bitcoin payments again if the industry demonstrates more than 50% energy usage from environment-friendly sources. Stability of price is another positive thing about green energy consumption that favors mining sustainability in financial terms. As renewable energy resources are not limited in supply, it is not susceptible to sudden price swings. More interestingly, with a continuously increasing global production output and more adoption across industries, the price of natural energy sources has been declining steadily over time. As a result, the entire renewable energy industry has achieved more efficiency, higher production capacity, and economies of scale over time. The following graph demonstrates how the production costs for energy sources such as solar photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and wind energy have fallen from 2010 to 2021. Source: Energypost Europe Story continues Additionally, the installation cost has also been falling over time. According to IRENA , with the investment of USD 1 million in 2010, it was possible to set up a PV electricity plant with a capacity of 213 kW. However, the same amount of investment can now set up a plant of 1,005 kW, thanks to the increasing efficiency and technological upgrades. This characteristic can be highly beneficial for the bitcoin mining industry for being economically sustainable and attractive for investors. Bitcoins Current Scenario Of Sustainable Energy Usage A new committee known as Bitcoin Mining Council was formed in May 2021 to promote and report sustainable energy usage by bitcoin members. One of the councils objectives is to regularly publish energy usage statistics by the global bitcoin mining sector. According to a recent report , bitcoin miners have already been using 56% of their total electricity through sustainable or renewable sources. For the members of the council, the usage is even better, 67.6%. The following illustration compares the energy mix used by bitcoin miners with different countries and regions of the world. Source: Bitcoin Mining Council Promisingly, the mix has been improving very rapidly in recent months. It is more evident from the following chart that shows that in the first quarter of 2021, the combination was 36.8% that increased by 52.2% to reach an impressive 56% within the next quarter. It shows the sincere intention of the bitcoin miners to transit toward more and more sustainable power sources. Source: Bitcoin Mining Council Green Technology With Higher Efficiency: The Future Of Bitcoin Mining Bitcoin works on PoW (Proof-of-Work) chain, whereas there is a gradual shift toward adopting a more energy-efficient PoS (Proof-of-Stake) method in recent years. Ethererum 2.0, for instance, is in the process of shifting toward PoS from PoW. However, the whitepaper of bitcoin suggests that bitcoin will remain PoW-based through the foreseeable future. However, some recent technological advancements regarding data center management could help improve the efficiency of bitcoin mining. Will It Be Economically Feasible For Bitcoin Miners? According to Digiconomist , as of 2021, the total annual income for bitcoin miners is approximately USD 9,874,580,767, which is the total value of mining rewards. So the mining industry has to pay around USD 6,755,868,299 for electricity. A fixed rate of 5 cents per kWh is an assumed electricity price. So the calculation shows that a miner has to spend 68.42% of his total income to buy electricity for mining. The figures indicate that if the miners want to achieve higher efficiency in production cost, the key is to find electricity at a lower price. And as mentioned above, with a steadily declining cost of renewable energy globally, it can be an excellent opportunity for miners. According to IRENA , 56% of the green energy added in 2019 offers electricity at a lower cost compared to the coal-based power plants that came into operation at the same time. Sustainable Mining Operation And Its Effect On Global Energy Economy Square , a financial services group, led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey , announced a project in December 2020 known as Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative (BCEI). With a fund of USD 10 million, the project aimed to support companies who would contribute to the bitcoin mining ecosystems green energy usage. BCEI published a white paper in April 2021 highlighting the excellent prospects of the bitcoin mining industry in the future. Few promising factors are: Bitcoin mining can act as a complementary technology for sustainable energy management as the mining industry is a unique purchaser of electricity. The uniqueness comes from the highly flexible nature of the sector in terms of payment method, location indifference, and electrical load distribution. Despite being the least expensive energy sources, solar and wind energy have bottlenecks caused by their inability to supply uninterrupted power. Bitcoin miners can address this issue by consuming surplus electricity when production is abundant on a sunny or windy day. This flexibility in load distribution will reduce the cost even further. Source: Square Whitepaper According to the chart above, electricity demands widely vary depending on the time of the day. Combining their energy sources with traditional energy and renewable energy, bitcoin miners can consume this excess electricity during the off-peak hours. At the same time, the mining industry may also supply the excess electricity they could produce from traditional sources to the grid. Machine learning and artificial intelligence can rapidly improve the thermal efficiency of data centers through intelligent cooling . Locating data centers in colder environments will help reduce the energy usage for thermal management. Also, the greater availability of renewable energy sources in the area will help mitigate the carbon footprint . Intelligent data centers will help with effortless load shifting during battery shortages by combining renewable and traditional sources. Sector coupling can also leverage the bitcoin miners through which they will be able to supply the waste hit to the local areas where it is needed. Bitcoin mining can act as a complementary technology for sustainable energy management as the mining industry is a unique purchaser of electricity. The uniqueness comes from the highly flexible nature of the sector in terms of payment method, location indifference, and electrical load distribution. Despite being the least expensive energy sources, solar and wind energy have bottlenecks caused by their inability to supply uninterrupted power. Bitcoin miners can address this issue by consuming surplus electricity when production is abundant on a sunny or windy day. This flexibility in load distribution will reduce the cost even further. Many renewable energy projects are easier to build in rural areas away from the city. However, it is not easy and cost-effective to store and transport the energy back to the cities. As bitcoin miners have no location preference and can set up a mining rig anywhere with a good internet connection, they can be excellent consumers of locally produced electricity. For example, only 7% of the total electricity production in the U.S. comes from hydro sources. But surprisingly, that small percentage contributes to 62% of the mining energy used for hashing facilities, according to the University of Cambridge . Therefore, it is evident from the discussion, recent progress, and decarbonization that the bitcoin mining industry has the full potential to rely 100% on green and sustainable sources of energy. So the mining industry is not acting as a roadblock here. Instead, it is propelling the global renewable energy economy significantly. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga These Countries Will Become The New Mining Capitals After China Crackdown 11 Financials Stocks Moving In Tuesday's After-Market Session © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Green Energy: Sustainable Future For Bitcoin Mining | Opinion: In theprevious articleon bitcoin mining, we already discussed many aspects of energy consumption by the industry. We also compared the usage with other sectors and energy consumers from around the globe based on the most recent data.
This article will focus on the future of energy usage in crypto mining and how it can contribute to the global transition toward sustainable energy usage.
What Are Green Energy And Renewable Energy?
The terms Green energy and Renewable energy are often used interchangeably despite having some technical differences.
Green energy is a part of renewable energy originating from sources that have the highest environment-friendly potentials.
The following illustration by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agencyshows green energy as a subset of renewable energy sources.
Source:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Advantages Of Green Or Renewable Energy From Bitcoin Miners’ Perspective
1. Themost significant advantageof green energy is its practically unlimited availability.
2. The global supply of fossil fuels is likely to end by 2060, according toOctopus Energyestimations. However, green sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, or hydropower will continue to be there for as long as the earth sustains.
3. As bitcoin mining is expected to continue until 2140, miners must rely on energy sources that are sustainable for such a long time according to its protocol.
4. Green energy’s other huge benefit is that it saves the environment.
5. The most significant criticism regarding bitcoin mining is the environmental concerns.
6. It stirred around the world when Elon Musk declared tostop accepting bitcoin paymentsfor Tesla cars citing the harmful effects of the environmental degradation caused by the mining operations.
7. CO2e orcarbon dioxide equivalent, which is carbon dioxide emission for generating per kWh of electricity, is an excellent indicator to compare the environmental impact of different energy sources.
8. Thefollowing illustrationshows that natural gas emits 250 to 1000 grams of CO2 for producing 1 kWh of electricity. In contrast, the CO2e for wind energy is only around 9-18 grams through its lifecycle.
10. Source:Union of Concerned ScientistsSo the bitcoin mining industry may quickly capitalize on this factor as it will propel a significant positive vibe.
11. Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla mightaccept bitcoin payments againif the industry demonstrates more than 50% energy usage from environment-friendly sources.
12. Stability of price is another positive thing about green energy consumption that favors mining sustainability in financial terms.
13. As renewable energy resources are not limited in supply, it is not susceptible to sudden price swings.
14. More interestingly, with a continuously increasing global production output and more adoption across industries, the price of natural energy sources has been declining steadily over time.
15. As a result, the entire renewable energy industry has achieved more efficiency, higher production capacity, andeconomies of scaleover time.
16. Thefollowing graphdemonstrates how the production costs for energy sources such as solar photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and wind energy have fallen from 2010 to 2021.
19. Source:Energypost Europe
Additionally, the installation cost has also been falling over time. According toIRENA, with the investment of USD 1 million in 2010, it was possible to set up a PV electricity plant with a capacity of 213 kW.
However, the same amount of investment can now set up a plant of 1,005 kW, thanks to the increasing efficiency and technological upgrades.
This characteristic can be highly beneficial for the bitcoin mining industry for being economically sustainable and attractive for investors.
Bitcoin’s Current Scenario Of Sustainable Energy Usage
A new committee known asBitcoin Mining Councilwas formed in May 2021 to promote and report sustainable energy usage by bitcoin members.
One of the council’s objectives is to regularly publish energy usage statistics by the global bitcoin mining sector.
According to arecent report, bitcoin miners have already been using 56% of their total electricity through sustainable or renewable sources.
For the members of the council, the usage is even better, 67.6%.
The following illustration compares the energy mix used by bitcoin miners with different countries and regions of the world.
Source:Bitcoin Mining Council
Promisingly, the mix has been improving very rapidly in recent months.
It is more evident from the following chart that shows that in the first quarter of 2021, the combination was 36.8% that increased by 52.2% to reach an impressive 56% within the next quarter.
It shows the sincere intention of the bitcoin miners to transit toward more and more sustainable power sources.
Source:Bitcoin Mining Council
Green Technology With Higher Efficiency: The Future Of Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin works on PoW (Proof-of-Work) chain, whereas there is a gradual shift toward adopting a more energy-efficient PoS (Proof-of-Stake) method in recent years.
Ethererum 2.0, for instance, is in theprocess of shiftingtoward PoS from PoW. However, the whitepaper of bitcoin suggests that bitcoin will remain PoW-based through the foreseeable future.
However, somerecent technological advancementsregarding data center management could help improve the efficiency of bitcoin mining.
Will It Be Economically Feasible For Bitcoin Miners?
According toDigiconomist, as of 2021, the total annual income for bitcoin miners is approximately USD 9,874,580,767, which is the total value of mining rewards.
So the mining industry has to pay around USD 6,755,868,299 for electricity.
A fixed rate of 5 cents per kWh is an assumed electricity price. So the calculation shows that a miner has to spend 68.42% of his total income to buy electricity for mining.The figures indicate that if the miners want to achieve higher efficiency in production cost, the key is to find electricity at a lower price.
And as mentioned above, with a steadily declining cost of renewable energy globally, it can be an excellent opportunity for miners.
According toIRENA, 56% of the green energy added in 2019 offers electricity at a lower cost compared to the coal-based power plants that came into operation at the same time.
Sustainable Mining Operation And Its Effect On Global Energy Economy
Square, a financial services group, led by Twitter CEOJack Dorsey, announced a project in December 2020 known as Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative (BCEI).
With a fund of USD 10 million, the project aimed to support companies who would contribute to the bitcoin mining ecosystem’s green energy usage.
BCEI publisheda white paperin April 2021 highlighting the excellent prospects of the bitcoin mining industry in the future.
Few promising factors are:
• Bitcoin mining can act as a complementary technology for sustainable energy management as the mining industry is a unique purchaser of electricity. The uniqueness comes from the highly flexible nature of the sector in terms of payment method, location indifference, and electrical load distribution.
• Despite being the least expensive energy sources, solar and wind energy have bottlenecks caused by their inability to supply uninterrupted power. Bitcoin miners can address this issue by consuming surplus electricity when production is abundant on a sunny or windy day. This flexibility in load distribution will reduce the cost even further.
Source:Square Whitepaper
According to the chart above, electricity demands widely vary depending on the time of the day. Combining their energy sources with traditional energy and renewable energy, bitcoin miners can consume thisexcess electricityduring the off-peak hours. At the same time, the mining industry may also supply the excess electricity they could produce from traditional sources to the grid.
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence can rapidly improve the thermal efficiency of data centers throughintelligent cooling.
• Locating data centers in colder environments will help reduce the energy usage for thermal management. Also, the greater availability of renewable energy sources in the area will help mitigate thecarbon footprint.
• Intelligent data centers will help with effortlessload shifting during battery shortagesby combining renewable and traditional sources.
• Sector couplingcan also leverage the bitcoin miners through which they will be able to supply the waste hit to the local areas where it is needed.
• Bitcoin mining can act as a complementary technology for sustainable energy management as the mining industry is a unique purchaser of electricity. The uniqueness comes from the highly flexible nature of the sector in terms of payment method, location indifference, and electrical load distribution.
• Despite being the least expensive energy sources, solar and wind energy have bottlenecks caused by their inability to supply uninterrupted power. Bitcoin miners can address this issue by consuming surplus electricity when production is abundant on a sunny or windy day. This flexibility in load distribution will reduce the cost even further.
• Many renewable energy projects are easier to build in rural areas away from the city. However, it is not easy and cost-effective to store and transport the energy back to the cities. As bitcoin miners have no location preference and can set up a mining rig anywhere with a good internet connection, they can be excellent consumers of locally produced electricity.
• For example, only 7% of the total electricity production in the U.S. comes from hydro sources. But surprisingly, that small percentage contributes to 62% of the mining energy used for hashing facilities, according to theUniversity of Cambridge.
• Therefore, it is evident from the discussion,recent progress, and decarbonizationthat the bitcoin mining industry has the full potential to rely 100% on green and sustainable sources of energy. So the mining industry is not acting as a roadblock here. Instead, it is propelling the global renewable energy economy significantly.
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• These Countries Will Become The New Mining Capitals After China Crackdown
• 11 Financials Stocks Moving In Tuesday's After-Market Session
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Green Energy: Sustainable Future For Bitcoin Mining | Opinion: In theprevious articleon bitcoin mining, we already discussed many aspects of energy consumption by the industry. We also compared the usage with other sectors and energy consumers from around the globe based on the most recent data.
This article will focus on the future of energy usage in crypto mining and how it can contribute to the global transition toward sustainable energy usage.
What Are Green Energy And Renewable Energy?
The terms Green energy and Renewable energy are often used interchangeably despite having some technical differences.
Green energy is a part of renewable energy originating from sources that have the highest environment-friendly potentials.
The following illustration by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agencyshows green energy as a subset of renewable energy sources.
Source:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Advantages Of Green Or Renewable Energy From Bitcoin Miners’ Perspective
1. Themost significant advantageof green energy is its practically unlimited availability.
2. The global supply of fossil fuels is likely to end by 2060, according toOctopus Energyestimations. However, green sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, or hydropower will continue to be there for as long as the earth sustains.
3. As bitcoin mining is expected to continue until 2140, miners must rely on energy sources that are sustainable for such a long time according to its protocol.
4. Green energy’s other huge benefit is that it saves the environment.
5. The most significant criticism regarding bitcoin mining is the environmental concerns.
6. It stirred around the world when Elon Musk declared tostop accepting bitcoin paymentsfor Tesla cars citing the harmful effects of the environmental degradation caused by the mining operations.
7. CO2e orcarbon dioxide equivalent, which is carbon dioxide emission for generating per kWh of electricity, is an excellent indicator to compare the environmental impact of different energy sources.
8. Thefollowing illustrationshows that natural gas emits 250 to 1000 grams of CO2 for producing 1 kWh of electricity. In contrast, the CO2e for wind energy is only around 9-18 grams through its lifecycle.
10. Source:Union of Concerned ScientistsSo the bitcoin mining industry may quickly capitalize on this factor as it will propel a significant positive vibe.
11. Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla mightaccept bitcoin payments againif the industry demonstrates more than 50% energy usage from environment-friendly sources.
12. Stability of price is another positive thing about green energy consumption that favors mining sustainability in financial terms.
13. As renewable energy resources are not limited in supply, it is not susceptible to sudden price swings.
14. More interestingly, with a continuously increasing global production output and more adoption across industries, the price of natural energy sources has been declining steadily over time.
15. As a result, the entire renewable energy industry has achieved more efficiency, higher production capacity, andeconomies of scaleover time.
16. Thefollowing graphdemonstrates how the production costs for energy sources such as solar photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and wind energy have fallen from 2010 to 2021.
19. Source:Energypost Europe
Additionally, the installation cost has also been falling over time. According toIRENA, with the investment of USD 1 million in 2010, it was possible to set up a PV electricity plant with a capacity of 213 kW.
However, the same amount of investment can now set up a plant of 1,005 kW, thanks to the increasing efficiency and technological upgrades.
This characteristic can be highly beneficial for the bitcoin mining industry for being economically sustainable and attractive for investors.
Bitcoin’s Current Scenario Of Sustainable Energy Usage
A new committee known asBitcoin Mining Councilwas formed in May 2021 to promote and report sustainable energy usage by bitcoin members.
One of the council’s objectives is to regularly publish energy usage statistics by the global bitcoin mining sector.
According to arecent report, bitcoin miners have already been using 56% of their total electricity through sustainable or renewable sources.
For the members of the council, the usage is even better, 67.6%.
The following illustration compares the energy mix used by bitcoin miners with different countries and regions of the world.
Source:Bitcoin Mining Council
Promisingly, the mix has been improving very rapidly in recent months.
It is more evident from the following chart that shows that in the first quarter of 2021, the combination was 36.8% that increased by 52.2% to reach an impressive 56% within the next quarter.
It shows the sincere intention of the bitcoin miners to transit toward more and more sustainable power sources.
Source:Bitcoin Mining Council
Green Technology With Higher Efficiency: The Future Of Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin works on PoW (Proof-of-Work) chain, whereas there is a gradual shift toward adopting a more energy-efficient PoS (Proof-of-Stake) method in recent years.
Ethererum 2.0, for instance, is in theprocess of shiftingtoward PoS from PoW. However, the whitepaper of bitcoin suggests that bitcoin will remain PoW-based through the foreseeable future.
However, somerecent technological advancementsregarding data center management could help improve the efficiency of bitcoin mining.
Will It Be Economically Feasible For Bitcoin Miners?
According toDigiconomist, as of 2021, the total annual income for bitcoin miners is approximately USD 9,874,580,767, which is the total value of mining rewards.
So the mining industry has to pay around USD 6,755,868,299 for electricity.
A fixed rate of 5 cents per kWh is an assumed electricity price. So the calculation shows that a miner has to spend 68.42% of his total income to buy electricity for mining.The figures indicate that if the miners want to achieve higher efficiency in production cost, the key is to find electricity at a lower price.
And as mentioned above, with a steadily declining cost of renewable energy globally, it can be an excellent opportunity for miners.
According toIRENA, 56% of the green energy added in 2019 offers electricity at a lower cost compared to the coal-based power plants that came into operation at the same time.
Sustainable Mining Operation And Its Effect On Global Energy Economy
Square, a financial services group, led by Twitter CEOJack Dorsey, announced a project in December 2020 known as Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative (BCEI).
With a fund of USD 10 million, the project aimed to support companies who would contribute to the bitcoin mining ecosystem’s green energy usage.
BCEI publisheda white paperin April 2021 highlighting the excellent prospects of the bitcoin mining industry in the future.
Few promising factors are:
• Bitcoin mining can act as a complementary technology for sustainable energy management as the mining industry is a unique purchaser of electricity. The uniqueness comes from the highly flexible nature of the sector in terms of payment method, location indifference, and electrical load distribution.
• Despite being the least expensive energy sources, solar and wind energy have bottlenecks caused by their inability to supply uninterrupted power. Bitcoin miners can address this issue by consuming surplus electricity when production is abundant on a sunny or windy day. This flexibility in load distribution will reduce the cost even further.
Source:Square Whitepaper
According to the chart above, electricity demands widely vary depending on the time of the day. Combining their energy sources with traditional energy and renewable energy, bitcoin miners can consume thisexcess electricityduring the off-peak hours. At the same time, the mining industry may also supply the excess electricity they could produce from traditional sources to the grid.
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence can rapidly improve the thermal efficiency of data centers throughintelligent cooling.
• Locating data centers in colder environments will help reduce the energy usage for thermal management. Also, the greater availability of renewable energy sources in the area will help mitigate thecarbon footprint.
• Intelligent data centers will help with effortlessload shifting during battery shortagesby combining renewable and traditional sources.
• Sector couplingcan also leverage the bitcoin miners through which they will be able to supply the waste hit to the local areas where it is needed.
• Bitcoin mining can act as a complementary technology for sustainable energy management as the mining industry is a unique purchaser of electricity. The uniqueness comes from the highly flexible nature of the sector in terms of payment method, location indifference, and electrical load distribution.
• Despite being the least expensive energy sources, solar and wind energy have bottlenecks caused by their inability to supply uninterrupted power. Bitcoin miners can address this issue by consuming surplus electricity when production is abundant on a sunny or windy day. This flexibility in load distribution will reduce the cost even further.
• Many renewable energy projects are easier to build in rural areas away from the city. However, it is not easy and cost-effective to store and transport the energy back to the cities. As bitcoin miners have no location preference and can set up a mining rig anywhere with a good internet connection, they can be excellent consumers of locally produced electricity.
• For example, only 7% of the total electricity production in the U.S. comes from hydro sources. But surprisingly, that small percentage contributes to 62% of the mining energy used for hashing facilities, according to theUniversity of Cambridge.
• Therefore, it is evident from the discussion,recent progress, and decarbonizationthat the bitcoin mining industry has the full potential to rely 100% on green and sustainable sources of energy. So the mining industry is not acting as a roadblock here. Instead, it is propelling the global renewable energy economy significantly.
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© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Remittance costs key to take-up of Salvadoran bitcoin plan -development bank: By Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Central American countries are eagerly waiting to see if El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as parallel legal tender cuts the cost of remittances, an important source of income for millions of people, the region's development bank said. President Nayib Bukele's congressional allies have already approved legislation giving the cryptocurrency official currency status alongside the U.S. dollar, a first in the world. The move takes effect in September. Bukele has touted bitcoin adoption as a way to facilitate remittance payments from Salvadorans living abroad. "Everyone is watching if it goes well for El Salvador and if, for example, the cost of remittances drops substantially ... other countries will probably seek that advantage and adopt it," Dante Mossi, the executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), told Reuters. Mossi called the plan an "out of this world experiment" geared at increasing financial inclusion in a region where many people lack access to bank accounts or credit cards, and rely on money sent home from relatives living in the United States. CABEI, the regional development bank, is giving El Salvador technical assistance on implementing the cryptocurrency, an important show of support as the World Bank declined to help, citing environmental and transparency drawbacks. Mossi said the Central American nations that receive the most remittances are those most likely to favor using bitcoin and underscored that CABEI had a "fiduciary obligation" to support El Salvador in its request for help. "Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the countries that would have the most to gain if the adoption of bitcoin lowered the cost of sending remittances," said Mossi. CABEI participated in a recent meeting of the Central American Monetary Council, part of the Central American Integration System (SICA), where participants asked about El Salvador's bitcoin plans and showed interest, he added. Story continues The Central Bank of Honduras referred Reuters to a June 11 statement which said the bank does not prohibit, supervise or guarantee the use of cryptocurrencies as methods of payment in the country. The governments of Guatemala and Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under 1% of the volume of global crossborder remittances are currently in crypto, according to Autonomous Research, but in the future crypto is expected to account for a larger slice of the more than $500 billion in for annual global remittances. Bitcoin offers, in theory, a quick and cheap way to send money across borders without relying on traditional channels. CABEI's head of investments Carlos Sanchez said the bank's technical assistance is focused on helping El Salvador design a legal framework for the adoption of bitcoin and to make sure strict international money laundering protocols are adhered to. The assistance is meant to help El Salvador "navigate waters that have yet to be explored," said Sanchez. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Sandra Maler) || Remittance costs key to take-up of Salvadoran bitcoin plan -development bank: By Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Central American countries are eagerly waiting to see if El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as parallel legal tender cuts the cost of remittances, an important source of income for millions of people, the region's development bank said.
President Nayib Bukele's congressional allies have already approved legislation giving the cryptocurrency official currency status alongside the U.S. dollar, a first in the world. The move takes effect in September.
Bukele has touted bitcoin adoption as a way to facilitate remittance payments from Salvadorans living abroad.
"Everyone is watching if it goes well for El Salvador and if, for example, the cost of remittances drops substantially ... other countries will probably seek that advantage and adopt it," Dante Mossi, the executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), told Reuters.
Mossi called the plan an "out of this world experiment" geared at increasing financial inclusion in a region where many people lack access to bank accounts or credit cards, and rely on money sent home from relatives living in the United States.
CABEI, the regional development bank, is giving El Salvador technical assistance on implementing the cryptocurrency, an important show of support as the World Bank declined to help, citing environmental and transparency drawbacks.
Mossi said the Central American nations that receive the most remittances are those most likely to favor using bitcoin and underscored that CABEI had a "fiduciary obligation" to support El Salvador in its request for help.
"Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the countries that would have the most to gain if the adoption of bitcoin lowered the cost of sending remittances," said Mossi.
CABEI participated in a recent meeting of the Central American Monetary Council, part of the Central American Integration System (SICA), where participants asked about El Salvador's bitcoin plans and showed interest, he added.
The Central Bank of Honduras referred Reuters to a June 11 statement which said the bank does not prohibit, supervise or guarantee the use of cryptocurrencies as methods of payment in the country.
The governments of Guatemala and Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under 1% of the volume of global crossborder remittances are currently in crypto, according to Autonomous Research, but in the future crypto is expected to account for a larger slice of the more than $500 billion in for annual global remittances.
Bitcoin offers, in theory, a quick and cheap way to send money across borders without relying on traditional channels.
CABEI's head of investments Carlos Sanchez said the bank's technical assistance is focused on helping El Salvador design a legal framework for the adoption of bitcoin and to make sure strict international money laundering protocols are adhered to.
The assistance is meant to help El Salvador "navigate waters that have yet to be explored," said Sanchez.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Sandra Maler) || Remittance costs key to take-up of Salvadoran bitcoin plan -development bank: By Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Central American countries are eagerly waiting to see if El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as parallel legal tender cuts the cost of remittances, an important source of income for millions of people, the region's development bank said. President Nayib Bukele's congressional allies have already approved legislation giving the cryptocurrency official currency status alongside the U.S. dollar, a first in the world. The move takes effect in September. Bukele has touted bitcoin adoption as a way to facilitate remittance payments from Salvadorans living abroad. "Everyone is watching if it goes well for El Salvador and if, for example, the cost of remittances drops substantially ... other countries will probably seek that advantage and adopt it," Dante Mossi, the executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), told Reuters. Mossi called the plan an "out of this world experiment" geared at increasing financial inclusion in a region where many people lack access to bank accounts or credit cards, and rely on money sent home from relatives living in the United States. CABEI, the regional development bank, is giving El Salvador technical assistance on implementing the cryptocurrency, an important show of support as the World Bank declined to help, citing environmental and transparency drawbacks. Mossi said the Central American nations that receive the most remittances are those most likely to favor using bitcoin and underscored that CABEI had a "fiduciary obligation" to support El Salvador in its request for help. "Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the countries that would have the most to gain if the adoption of bitcoin lowered the cost of sending remittances," said Mossi. CABEI participated in a recent meeting of the Central American Monetary Council, part of the Central American Integration System (SICA), where participants asked about El Salvador's bitcoin plans and showed interest, he added. Story continues The Central Bank of Honduras referred Reuters to a June 11 statement which said the bank does not prohibit, supervise or guarantee the use of cryptocurrencies as methods of payment in the country. The governments of Guatemala and Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under 1% of the volume of global crossborder remittances are currently in crypto, according to Autonomous Research, but in the future crypto is expected to account for a larger slice of the more than $500 billion in for annual global remittances. Bitcoin offers, in theory, a quick and cheap way to send money across borders without relying on traditional channels. CABEI's head of investments Carlos Sanchez said the bank's technical assistance is focused on helping El Salvador design a legal framework for the adoption of bitcoin and to make sure strict international money laundering protocols are adhered to. The assistance is meant to help El Salvador "navigate waters that have yet to be explored," said Sanchez. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Sandra Maler) || Remittance costs key to take-up of Salvadoran bitcoin plan -development bank: By Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Central American countries are eagerly waiting to see if El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as parallel legal tender cuts the cost of remittances, an important source of income for millions of people, the region's development bank said. President Nayib Bukele's congressional allies have already approved legislation giving the cryptocurrency official currency status alongside the U.S. dollar, a first in the world. The move takes effect in September. Bukele has touted bitcoin adoption as a way to facilitate remittance payments from Salvadorans living abroad. "Everyone is watching if it goes well for El Salvador and if, for example, the cost of remittances drops substantially ... other countries will probably seek that advantage and adopt it," Dante Mossi, the executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), told Reuters. Mossi called the plan an "out of this world experiment" geared at increasing financial inclusion in a region where many people lack access to bank accounts or credit cards, and rely on money sent home from relatives living in the United States. CABEI, the regional development bank, is giving El Salvador technical assistance on implementing the cryptocurrency, an important show of support as the World Bank declined to help, citing environmental and transparency drawbacks. Mossi said the Central American nations that receive the most remittances are those most likely to favor using bitcoin and underscored that CABEI had a "fiduciary obligation" to support El Salvador in its request for help. "Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the countries that would have the most to gain if the adoption of bitcoin lowered the cost of sending remittances," said Mossi. CABEI participated in a recent meeting of the Central American Monetary Council, part of the Central American Integration System (SICA), where participants asked about El Salvador's bitcoin plans and showed interest, he added. Story continues The Central Bank of Honduras referred Reuters to a June 11 statement which said the bank does not prohibit, supervise or guarantee the use of cryptocurrencies as methods of payment in the country. The governments of Guatemala and Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under 1% of the volume of global crossborder remittances are currently in crypto, according to Autonomous Research, but in the future crypto is expected to account for a larger slice of the more than $500 billion in for annual global remittances. Bitcoin offers, in theory, a quick and cheap way to send money across borders without relying on traditional channels. CABEI's head of investments Carlos Sanchez said the bank's technical assistance is focused on helping El Salvador design a legal framework for the adoption of bitcoin and to make sure strict international money laundering protocols are adhered to. The assistance is meant to help El Salvador "navigate waters that have yet to be explored," said Sanchez. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria and Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Sandra Maler) || DEADLINE ALERT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP Announces Deadline in Coinbase Global Inc. Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuit: RADNOR, Pa., Aug. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) (“Coinbase”) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired CoinbaseClass A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and prospectus (collectively, the “Offering Materials”) for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock, whereby Coinbase began trading as a public company on or around April 14, 2021 (the “Offering”).
Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired Coinbase Class A common stockpursuant and/or traceable to the Offering may,no later than September 20, 2021, seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail [email protected];orclickhttps://www.ktmc.com/coinbase-global-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=coinbase
According to the complaint, Coinbase “powers the cryptoeconomy,” offering a “trusted platform” for sending and receiving Bitcoin and other digital assets built using blockchain technology to approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries.
On April 14, 2021, Coinbase filed its prospectus on a Form 424B4, which forms part of the registration statement. Coinbase registered for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock by registered shareholders. According to the registration statement, the resale of Coinbase’s stock was not underwritten by any investment bank and the registered stockholders would purportedly elect whether or not to sell their shares. Such sales, if any, would be brokerage transactions on the NASDAQ, and Coinbase would purportedly not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the registered stockholders. Thus, Coinbase’s operations would continue to be financed with cash flow from operating activities and net proceeds from the sale of convertible preferred stock. As of December 31, 2020, Coinbase had cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion, exclusive of restricted cash and customer custodial funds.
The complaint alleges that one month later, the high-flying promise of Coinbase came to a screaming halt, as Coinbase conceded the need to raise capital and revealed performance issues that prevented users’ ability to trade cryptocurrencies. On May 17, 2021, Coinbase announced its plans to raise about $1.25 billion via a convertible bond sale. Then, on May 19, 2021, Coinbase revealed technical problems, including “delays . . . due to network congestion” affecting those who want to get their money out.
Following this news, Coinbase’s share price fell $23.44 per share, nearly 10%, over two consecutive trading sessions, to close at $224.80 per share on May 19, 2021. By the time the complaint was filed, Coinbase stock traded as low as $208.00 per share, a decline from its April 14, 2021 opening price of $381.00 per share.
The complaint alleges that the Offering Materials were false and misleading and omitted to state that, at the time of the Offering: (1) Coinbase required a sizeable cash injection; (2) Coinbase’s platform was susceptible to service-level disruptions, which were increasingly likely to occur as Coinbase scaled its services to a larger user base; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, the defendants’ positive statements about Coinbase’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
Coinbase investors may,no later than September 20, 2021, seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visitwww.ktmc.com.
CONTACT:
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLPJames Maro, Jr., Esq.280 King of Prussia RoadRadnor, PA 19087(844) 887-9500 (toll free)[email protected] || DEADLINE ALERT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP Announces Deadline in Coinbase Global Inc. Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuit: RADNOR, Pa., Aug. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) (“Coinbase”) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired Coinbase Class A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and prospectus (collectively, the “Offering Materials”) for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock, whereby Coinbase began trading as a public company on or around April 14, 2021 (the “Offering”) . Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired Coinbase Class A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the Offering may, no later than September 20, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail at [email protected] ; or click https://www.ktmc.com/coinbase-global-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=coinbase According to the complaint, Coinbase “powers the cryptoeconomy,” offering a “trusted platform” for sending and receiving Bitcoin and other digital assets built using blockchain technology to approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. On April 14, 2021, Coinbase filed its prospectus on a Form 424B4, which forms part of the registration statement. Coinbase registered for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock by registered shareholders. According to the registration statement, the resale of Coinbase’s stock was not underwritten by any investment bank and the registered stockholders would purportedly elect whether or not to sell their shares. Such sales, if any, would be brokerage transactions on the NASDAQ, and Coinbase would purportedly not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the registered stockholders. Thus, Coinbase’s operations would continue to be financed with cash flow from operating activities and net proceeds from the sale of convertible preferred stock. As of December 31, 2020, Coinbase had cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion, exclusive of restricted cash and customer custodial funds. Story continues The complaint alleges that one month later, the high-flying promise of Coinbase came to a screaming halt, as Coinbase conceded the need to raise capital and revealed performance issues that prevented users’ ability to trade cryptocurrencies. On May 17, 2021, Coinbase announced its plans to raise about $1.25 billion via a convertible bond sale. Then, on May 19, 2021, Coinbase revealed technical problems, including “delays . . . due to network congestion” affecting those who want to get their money out. Following this news, Coinbase’s share price fell $23.44 per share, nearly 10%, over two consecutive trading sessions, to close at $224.80 per share on May 19, 2021. By the time the complaint was filed, Coinbase stock traded as low as $208.00 per share, a decline from its April 14, 2021 opening price of $381.00 per share. The complaint alleges that the Offering Materials were false and misleading and omitted to state that, at the time of the Offering: (1) Coinbase required a sizeable cash injection; (2) Coinbase’s platform was susceptible to service-level disruptions, which were increasingly likely to occur as Coinbase scaled its services to a larger user base; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, the defendants’ positive statements about Coinbase’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Coinbase investors may, no later than September 20, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com . CONTACT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP James Maro, Jr., Esq. 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (844) 887-9500 (toll free) [email protected] || House Moves to Consider Unamended Infrastructure Bill: House lawmakers will vote on Sept. 27 on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that includes a crypto tax-reporting provision that has been the subject of extensive debate on Capitol Hill. And although amending the provision has bipartisan support, it does not appear that any amendments to the infrastructure bill will be accepted.
The crux of the debate is how the infrastructure bill defines “broker” in a provision that banks on raising $28 billion over 10 years by requiring crypto “brokers” to report transactions .
Critics of the provision argue that the definition of a “broker” is too broad and could be interpreted to include crypto miners, node validators and developers. Crypto advocates are also concerned that the provision could impose expanded surveillance on crypto users and make it difficult for crypto businesses to operate in the United States.
Related:State of Crypto: The Latest on Congress’s Crypto Tax Provision
A bipartisan group of crypto-friendly senators proposed an amendment to the bill that would exclude developers, validators and miners from the reporting requirement. The amendment needed unanimous consent to be adopted and wasblockedby Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who tried and failed to tack on $50 billion in extra funding for the military.
On Tuesday, the House voted 220-212 to advance the bill without considering any amendments.
A growing number of congressmen have publicly stated their intentions to push back against the cryptocurrency reporting provision in the infrastructure bill.
A group of Silicon Valley-area Democrats, including Rep.Anna Eshoo(D-Calif.), Rep.Ro Khanna(D-Calif.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), have voiced their opposition to the provision and called for an amendment to narrow the definition of a broker.
Related:Cuando China habló, bitcoin reaccionó. ¿Cuando lo hizo Estados Unidos? No tanto
The bipartisan Congressional Blockchain Caucus, headed by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), sent a Congress-wideletterearlier this month calling for an amendment to update what he called the “dangerous” provision.
“Congress cannot cross-jurisdictionally try to pay for an infrastructure bill on the backs of our crypto industry through legislation that was slapped together with little to no consideration for the crypto industry,” Emmer wrote in a statement.
Other representatives, including Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Rep.Byron Donalds(R-Fla.), have joined the bipartisan fight, calling the provision “hastily drafted” and “burdensome” on the cryptocurrency industry. A spokesperson for Donalds said the congressman plans to vote against the bill.
The infrastructure bill has become a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s policy and his establishment of a legacy built on public works.
The sweeping bill has beendescribedby the White House as a “once-in-a-generation investment” that seeks to expand high-speed internet across the country, modernize the power grid, upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges and public transit systems and fund clean drinking water and electric vehicles.
There is concern on Capitol Hill that the infrastructure bill, which languished in Senate negotiations for months, could be further snarled – or even die – if the House adds any amendments, which would require the bill to return to the Senate for another vote.
Despite the growing number of representatives who have announced their intentions to add amendments to the bill, it does not appear that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will allow the bill to be amended.
In a “Dear Colleagues”letteron Saturday, Pelosi told House Democrats that her goal is to enact both the infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package by Oct. 1.
“The House would be very hard-pressed to meet that goal if they amend the bipartisan infrastructure bill, so I do not expect the bill to be amended,”Andrew Hinkes, a blockchain lawyer and partner at K&L Gates, told CoinDesk.
Though the Democrats have control of the House, the margin is slim, and Pelosi potentially needs near-unanimous support from Democrats to pass the bill, though even that remains unclear because of varying levels of support from Republicans.
Further complicating matters is that the fate of the infrastructure bill has become intertwined with the reconciliation package.
According to Hinkes, the most likely outcome for the infrastructure bill is for it to clear the House with no amendments and be signed into law by Biden.
Stephen Palley, a crypto lawyer and partner at Anderson Kill, agrees with Hinkes’ assessment.
“It seems unlikely that the bill’s progress will be delayed over only the crypto-tax reporting language, particularly where Treasury will be issuing clarifying guidance that says they do not intend to apply [the provision] to miners, developers, etc,” Palley told CoinDesk.
As Palley points out, the Treasury has reportedly said that it will provide clarifying guidance after the bill is passed to provide exemptions to firms that do not actually operate as brokers. If reports that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was lobbying against amendments to the bill are true, it suggests that Treasury’s end goal was to leave the language purposely vague so that Treasury could decide what it means.
Though many critics of the provision consider that to be a worst-case scenario, Palley said he thinks that floor testimony and Treasury guidance will prevent the provision from being interpreted too broadly.
“Assuming the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) honors [Treasury’s guidance], I don’t think the language is as bad as some people have suggested,” he said.
Though there is a chance that the bill dies in the House, Palley thinks it’s unlikely.“If I had to bet I would say no – it’s too politically important for Democrats to get this through. At the end of the day, I suspect that representatives on the left who are complaining it’s not enough will be legislatively and presidentially browbeaten into submission,” he said.
• Crypto Long & Short: When China Spoke, Bitcoin Reacted. America? Not So Much
• US Reps. Emmer, Soto Reintroduce Legislation to Clarify ‘Money Transmitter’ Designation || House Moves to Consider Unamended Infrastructure Bill: House lawmakers will vote on Sept. 27 on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that includes a crypto tax-reporting provision that has been the subject of extensive debate on Capitol Hill. And although amending the provision has bipartisan support, it does not appear that any amendments to the infrastructure bill will be accepted. The crux of the debate is how the infrastructure bill defines broker in a provision that banks on raising $28 billion over 10 years by requiring crypto brokers to report transactions . Critics of the provision argue that the definition of a broker is too broad and could be interpreted to include crypto miners, node validators and developers. Crypto advocates are also concerned that the provision could impose expanded surveillance on crypto users and make it difficult for crypto businesses to operate in the United States. Related: State of Crypto: The Latest on Congress’s Crypto Tax Provision A bipartisan group of crypto-friendly senators proposed an amendment to the bill that would exclude developers, validators and miners from the reporting requirement. The amendment needed unanimous consent to be adopted and was blocked by Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who tried and failed to tack on $50 billion in extra funding for the military. On Tuesday, the House voted 220-212 to advance the bill without considering any amendments. Brewing opposition A growing number of congressmen have publicly stated their intentions to push back against the cryptocurrency reporting provision in the infrastructure bill. A group of Silicon Valley-area Democrats, including Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), have voiced their opposition to the provision and called for an amendment to narrow the definition of a broker. Related: Cuando China habló, bitcoin reaccionó. ¿Cuando lo hizo Estados Unidos? No tanto The bipartisan Congressional Blockchain Caucus, headed by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), sent a Congress-wide letter earlier this month calling for an amendment to update what he called the dangerous provision. Story continues Congress cannot cross-jurisdictionally try to pay for an infrastructure bill on the backs of our crypto industry through legislation that was slapped together with little to no consideration for the crypto industry, Emmer wrote in a statement. Other representatives, including Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), have joined the bipartisan fight, calling the provision hastily drafted and burdensome on the cryptocurrency industry. A spokesperson for Donalds said the congressman plans to vote against the bill. Complicating factors The infrastructure bill has become a cornerstone of President Joe Bidens policy and his establishment of a legacy built on public works. The sweeping bill has been described by the White House as a once-in-a-generation investment that seeks to expand high-speed internet across the country, modernize the power grid, upgrade the nations roads, bridges and public transit systems and fund clean drinking water and electric vehicles. There is concern on Capitol Hill that the infrastructure bill, which languished in Senate negotiations for months, could be further snarled or even die if the House adds any amendments, which would require the bill to return to the Senate for another vote. Despite the growing number of representatives who have announced their intentions to add amendments to the bill, it does not appear that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will allow the bill to be amended. In a Dear Colleagues letter on Saturday, Pelosi told House Democrats that her goal is to enact both the infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package by Oct. 1. The House would be very hard-pressed to meet that goal if they amend the bipartisan infrastructure bill, so I do not expect the bill to be amended, Andrew Hinkes , a blockchain lawyer and partner at K&L Gates, told CoinDesk. Though the Democrats have control of the House, the margin is slim, and Pelosi potentially needs near-unanimous support from Democrats to pass the bill, though even that remains unclear because of varying levels of support from Republicans. Further complicating matters is that the fate of the infrastructure bill has become intertwined with the reconciliation package. Possible outcomes According to Hinkes, the most likely outcome for the infrastructure bill is for it to clear the House with no amendments and be signed into law by Biden. Stephen Palley, a crypto lawyer and partner at Anderson Kill, agrees with Hinkes assessment. It seems unlikely that the bills progress will be delayed over only the crypto-tax reporting language, particularly where Treasury will be issuing clarifying guidance that says they do not intend to apply [the provision] to miners, developers, etc, Palley told CoinDesk. As Palley points out, the Treasury has reportedly said that it will provide clarifying guidance after the bill is passed to provide exemptions to firms that do not actually operate as brokers. If reports that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was lobbying against amendments to the bill are true, it suggests that Treasurys end goal was to leave the language purposely vague so that Treasury could decide what it means. Though many critics of the provision consider that to be a worst-case scenario, Palley said he thinks that floor testimony and Treasury guidance will prevent the provision from being interpreted too broadly. Assuming the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) honors [Treasurys guidance], I dont think the language is as bad as some people have suggested, he said. Though there is a chance that the bill dies in the House, Palley thinks its unlikely. If I had to bet I would say no its too politically important for Democrats to get this through. At the end of the day, I suspect that representatives on the left who are complaining its not enough will be legislatively and presidentially browbeaten into submission, he said. Related Stories Crypto Long & Short: When China Spoke, Bitcoin Reacted. America? Not So Much US Reps. Emmer, Soto Reintroduce Legislation to Clarify Money Transmitter Designation || Osprey Readies SOL Fund as Solana Attracts Institutional Interest: Osprey Funds has readied a private SOL fund for wealthy investors, signaling growing institutional interest in the Solana network’s booming native token. The fund, called the Osprey Solana Trust, was registered with U.S. securities regulators Tuesday. It didn’t have any sales as of press time and is open only to accredited investors, which means that retail traders are shut out for now. That could change, though. Osprey is “seeking approval” for its Solana Trust to trade on the same over-the-counter marketplace that its bitcoin trust does, documents reviewed by CoinDesk show. Related: ADA, SOL Lead the Way as Crypto Market Sees Price Pullback The trust appears to be the first private SOL investment vehicle in the U.S. It comes as a growing number of investors take interest in Solana, whose SOL token is up over 4,500% this year. It’s nearly doubled in value in the last week and now touts a market cap of over $20 billion. Osprey has been working on its own Solana trust since at least mid-June, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records. Rival fund manager Grayscale also signaled in June that its own Solana fund was in the works. (Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group.) Trust products such as Osprey’s give Wall Street types a way to gain exposure to crypto prices without directly holding the underlying tokens. Instead, they give their cash to an investment vehicle that does the buying and holding on their behalf – usually for a fee. Related: Solana’s Apricot Finance Raises $4M in ‘Party’ Funding Round Osprey won’t begin charging a 2.5% management fee until 2023 in a sign of the competition for institutional crypto products, according to the documents reviewed by CoinDesk. Crypto exchange Coinbase is handling custodial duties, and Theorem Fund Services is the administrator. Osprey did not immediately return a comment to CoinDesk. Related Stories Crypto Funds Snap 6 Weeks of Outflows as Markets Rally Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Ahead of $50K Resistance || Osprey Readies SOL Fund as Solana Attracts Institutional Interest: Osprey Funds has readied a private SOL fund for wealthy investors, signaling growing institutional interest in the Solana network’s booming native token.
The fund, called the Osprey Solana Trust, wasregisteredwith U.S. securities regulators Tuesday. It didn’t have any sales as of press time and is open only to accredited investors, which means that retail traders are shut out for now.
That could change, though. Osprey is “seeking approval” for its Solana Trust to trade on the same over-the-counter marketplace that itsbitcointrust does, documents reviewed by CoinDesk show.
Related:ADA, SOL Lead the Way as Crypto Market Sees Price Pullback
The trust appears to be the first private SOL investment vehicle in the U.S.
It comes as a growing number of investors take interest in Solana, whose SOL token is up over 4,500% this year. It’s nearly doubled in value in the last week and now touts a market cap of over $20 billion.
Osprey has been working on its own Solana trust since at least mid-June, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records. Rival fund manager Grayscalealso signaledin June that its own Solana fund was in the works. (Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group.)
Trust products such as Osprey’s give Wall Street types a way to gain exposure to crypto prices without directly holding the underlying tokens. Instead, they give their cash to an investment vehicle that does the buying and holding on their behalf – usually for a fee.
Related:Solana’s Apricot Finance Raises $4M in ‘Party’ Funding Round
Osprey won’t begin charging a 2.5% management fee until 2023 in a sign of the competition for institutional crypto products, according to the documents reviewed by CoinDesk. Crypto exchange Coinbase is handling custodial duties, and Theorem Fund Services is the administrator.
Osprey did not immediately return a comment to CoinDesk.
• Crypto Funds Snap 6 Weeks of Outflows as Markets Rally
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Ahead of $50K Resistance || Bitcoin mining 'golden age' shows higher profits and demand for more infrastructure: Bitcoin crested above $50,000 on Monday, benefiting from simultaneous supply chain shortages and acrackdown from Chinese regulators– putting bitcoin mining on par with profits near the coin's April all-time-high.
Now, building infrastructure for the energy-intensive business poses the greatest challenge for companies and individuals hoping to reap big money. That means finding cheap and reliable energy sources, striking deals and building out mining facilities.
“Throughout the summer, we saw a lot of fear and uncertainty. People were selling and now we’re seeing inflows again," Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, told Yahoo Finance. "A lot of firms and investors are looking to get long in what we anticipate will be a very active fall."
One major reason behind the price halving of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, at the beginning of the summer came from concerns around its energy-intensive impact on the environment. Following the trend, Chinese regulatorsbanned cryptocurrency mining, causing a large portion of the industry, at least temporarily, to cut operations.
While the immediate reaction to the news created uncertainty and major selling pressure, the crackdown reduced competition for mining bitcoin. As the cryptocurrency’s price recovered in mid-July, less intense competition meant higher profitability for remaining participants. At its current price, profits from mining bitcoin are close to its all-time highs.
That's according to thehashprice index, an indicator created and tracked by the crypto mining analytics company, Luxor Technologies.
“I can't help but think that we're going to look back on these days as wildly profitable for miners. We definitely are in a golden age of [crypto] mining,” said Gerson Martinez, a former derivatives trader and market maker for Morgan Stanley. Martinez left the bank in 2013 to work in education and nonprofit. Since 2014, he’s held an ever-increasing interest in bitcoin. He owns the asset and also mines it through the retail-focused firm called Compass Mining.
Bitcoin mining is the number-crunching process that makes the digital currency secure. By rewarding miners for collectively validating transactions, bitcoin’s underlyingblockchainhas proved exceedingly costly and, perhaps impossible, for any one entity to garner majority control of its network. For contributing computing power to the blockchain, miners are rewarded for their work by collectively earning pay in bitcoin, which is called the block reward. Currently, that total pay out is 6.25 bitcoin every 10 minutes. With less miners currently in operation, the pay out gets split between fewer parties.
While the process is complicated, most bitcoin mining operations look like a specialized type of data server farm.
Martinez’s current interest in bitcoin mining lacks no ambition. As a dual citizen of El Salvador and the U.S., he’s also working with a company called CLM21 Ventures to build the first geothermal “pilot” mining operation in El Salvador. Martinez said the “proof of concept” project faces hurdles related to the “supply chain issues that everyone else is facing" such as sourcing the hardware and equipment. The country's relatively hot climate also makes building the right cooling system essential for not overheating the miners so they can continue to operate.
The Canada-based blockchain technology company Blockstream is also ramping up its focus on bitcoin mining and its utilization of renewable energy. Major companies such as Fidelity Investments and more recently BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, have also taken large stakes in the publicly traded bitcoin mining firms, Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT), this summer.
Blockstream has acquired the Israeli crypto miner manufacturer,Spondoolies. The acquisition runs in tandem with its $210 million Series B raise, which will be used to ramp up hiring for its cryptocurrency mining division as well as a new financial arm.
The firm’s decision to start making its own bitcoin miners, or ASICS, stems from the fact that the current global market for bitcoin miners is far outstripping supply, according to Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow. (An ASIC is a customizable integrated circuit chip that manufacturers design to specifically mine bitcoin. They're the most important component of a crypto mining rig.)
“It can be difficult to procure ASICS. Having our own ASIC manufacturer will alleviate that supply constraint,” Mow told Yahoo Finance. Despite reports that cryptocurrency miners compete with other companies that use microchips, bitcoin ASICS require much more powerful chips than other crypto mining computers, which earlier this year contributed to supply constraints for graphics card producing technology company Nvidia.
Blockstream will use the miners first and foremost to shore up its own products. Last week the firm announced its new modular mining unit (MMU) product. These are self-contained and remotely controlled mining facilities that can be deployed near energy production sites, such as hydroelectric dams and power plants, to make use of otherwise unusable electricity. Additionally, the company offers a securitized bitcoin mining financial asset, theBlockstream Mining Note, and partnered with Square June to build a $5 million solar-powered bitcoin mining facility in Georgia.
Before China banned the industry and Tesla CEO Elon Musk backpedalled onaccepting bitcoin as payment for electric vehicles, bitcoin mining companies sought renewable energy sources aside from environmental benefits, because they're cheap and reliable, according to Mow and Martinez. Blockstream hasn’t published its energy mix breakdown for mining operations on its website, but Mow said the company's mining is “mostly zero emissions” with the U.S. and Canadian sites balancing around “80% zero emissions.”
All experts agree that bitcoin miners flow to cheap and reliable power. The crux of the energy-consumption debate boils down to how miners will find cheap and reliable energy. While not an even comparison, the energy bitcoin consumes is approximately the same as the country of Kazakhstan (91.7 TWh) over the course of a year, according to 2019 data from theCambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconomist, an economics blog and creator of theBitcoin Energy Consumption Index, remains skeptical of the industry’s possible green shift.
“The thing is miners need both cheap and stable power; and (obsolete) fossil fuels are simply better at delivering both – allowing investors to maximize their profits,” said de Vries.
David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him@dshollers.
READ MORE:
• Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit || Bitcoin Mining Golden Age Shows Higher Profits and Demand for More Infrastructure: Bitcoin crested above $50,000 on Monday, benefiting from simultaneous supply chain shortages and a crackdown from Chinese regulators putting bitcoin mining on par with profits near the coin's April all-time-high. Now, building infrastructure for the energy-intensive business poses the greatest challenge for companies and individuals hoping to reap big money. That means finding cheap and reliable energy sources, striking deals and building out mining facilities. Throughout the summer, we saw a lot of fear and uncertainty. People were selling and now were seeing inflows again," Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, told Yahoo Finance. "A lot of firms and investors are looking to get long in what we anticipate will be a very active fall." One major reason behind the price halving of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, at the beginning of the summer came from concerns around its energy-intensive impact on the environment. Following the trend, Chinese regulators banned cryptocurrency mining , causing a large portion of the industry, at least temporarily, to cut operations. While the immediate reaction to the news created uncertainty and major selling pressure, the crackdown reduced competition for mining bitcoin. As the cryptocurrencys price recovered in mid-July, less intense competition meant higher profitability for remaining participants. At its current price, profits from mining bitcoin are close to its all-time highs. That's according to the hashprice index , an indicator created and tracked by the crypto mining analytics company, Luxor Technologies. I can't help but think that we're going to look back on these days as wildly profitable for miners. We definitely are in a golden age of [crypto] mining, said Gerson Martinez, a former derivatives trader and market maker for Morgan Stanley. Martinez left the bank in 2013 to work in education and nonprofit. Since 2014, hes held an ever-increasing interest in bitcoin. He owns the asset and also mines it through the retail-focused firm called Compass Mining. Story continues Bitcoin mining is the number-crunching process that makes the digital currency secure. By rewarding miners for collectively validating transactions, bitcoins underlying blockchain has proved exceedingly costly and, perhaps impossible, for any one entity to garner majority control of its network. For contributing computing power to the blockchain, miners are rewarded for their work by collectively earning pay in bitcoin, which is called the block reward. Currently, that total pay out is 6.25 bitcoin every 10 minutes. With less miners currently in operation, the pay out gets split between fewer parties. While the process is complicated, most bitcoin mining operations look like a specialized type of data server farm. Martinezs current interest in bitcoin mining lacks no ambition. As a dual citizen of El Salvador and the U.S., hes also working with a company called CLM21 Ventures to build the first geothermal pilot mining operation in El Salvador. Martinez said the proof of concept project faces hurdles related to the supply chain issues that everyone else is facing" such as sourcing the hardware and equipment. The country's relatively hot climate also makes building the right cooling system essential for not overheating the miners so they can continue to operate. ROCKDALE, TX - JUNE 23: David Schatz, Vice President of Operations for Whinstone, a cryptocurrency mining company recently acquired by Riot Blockchain, explains how miners work at a Riot Blockchain facility in Rockdale, TX, on June 23, 2021. Riot Blockchain, a Bitcoin mining company that hosts Bitcoin mining equipment for clients, houses the largest Bitcoin mining facility in the U.S. in Rockdale, TX. (The Washington Post via Getty Images) The Canada-based blockchain technology company Blockstream is also ramping up its focus on bitcoin mining and its utilization of renewable energy. Major companies such as Fidelity Investments and more recently BlackRock, the worlds largest asset manager, have also taken large stakes in the publicly traded bitcoin mining firms, Marathon Digital Holdings ( MARA ) and Riot Blockchain ( RIOT ), this summer. Blockstream has acquired the Israeli crypto miner manufacturer, Spondoolies . The acquisition runs in tandem with its $210 million Series B raise, which will be used to ramp up hiring for its cryptocurrency mining division as well as a new financial arm. The firms decision to start making its own bitcoin miners, or ASICS, stems from the fact that the current global market for bitcoin miners is far outstripping supply, according to Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow. (An ASIC is a customizable integrated circuit chip that manufacturers design to specifically mine bitcoin. They're the most important component of a crypto mining rig.) It can be difficult to procure ASICS. Having our own ASIC manufacturer will alleviate that supply constraint, Mow told Yahoo Finance. Despite reports that cryptocurrency miners compete with other companies that use microchips, bitcoin ASICS require much more powerful chips than other crypto mining computers, which earlier this year contributed to supply constraints for graphics card producing technology company Nvidia. Blockstream will use the miners first and foremost to shore up its own products. Last week the firm announced its new modular mining unit (MMU) product. These are self-contained and remotely controlled mining facilities that can be deployed near energy production sites, such as hydroelectric dams and power plants, to make use of otherwise unusable electricity. Additionally, the company offers a securitized bitcoin mining financial asset, the Blockstream Mining Note , and partnered with Square June to build a $5 million solar-powered bitcoin mining facility in Georgia. Before China banned the industry and Tesla CEO Elon Musk backpedalled on accepting bitcoin as payment for electric vehicles , bitcoin mining companies sought renewable energy sources aside from environmental benefits, because they're cheap and reliable, according to Mow and Martinez. Blockstream hasnt published its energy mix breakdown for mining operations on its website, but Mow said the company's mining is mostly zero emissions with the U.S. and Canadian sites balancing around 80% zero emissions. All experts agree that bitcoin miners flow to cheap and reliable power. The crux of the energy-consumption debate boils down to how miners will find cheap and reliable energy. While not an even comparison, the energy bitcoin consumes is approximately the same as the country of Kazakhstan (91.7 TWh) over the course of a year, according to 2019 data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index . Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconomist, an economics blog and creator of the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index , remains skeptical of the industrys possible green shift. The thing is miners need both cheap and stable power; and (obsolete) fossil fuels are simply better at delivering both allowing investors to maximize their profits, said de Vries. David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him @dshollers . READ MORE: Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Flipboard , LinkedIn , YouTube , and reddit || Bitcoin mining 'golden age' shows higher profits and demand for more infrastructure: Bitcoin crested above $50,000 on Monday, benefiting from simultaneous supply chain shortages and acrackdown from Chinese regulators– putting bitcoin mining on par with profits near the coin's April all-time-high.
Now, building infrastructure for the energy-intensive business poses the greatest challenge for companies and individuals hoping to reap big money. That means finding cheap and reliable energy sources, striking deals and building out mining facilities.
“Throughout the summer, we saw a lot of fear and uncertainty. People were selling and now we’re seeing inflows again," Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, told Yahoo Finance. "A lot of firms and investors are looking to get long in what we anticipate will be a very active fall."
One major reason behind the price halving of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, at the beginning of the summer came from concerns around its energy-intensive impact on the environment. Following the trend, Chinese regulatorsbanned cryptocurrency mining, causing a large portion of the industry, at least temporarily, to cut operations.
While the immediate reaction to the news created uncertainty and major selling pressure, the crackdown reduced competition for mining bitcoin. As the cryptocurrency’s price recovered in mid-July, less intense competition meant higher profitability for remaining participants. At its current price, profits from mining bitcoin are close to its all-time highs.
That's according to thehashprice index, an indicator created and tracked by the crypto mining analytics company, Luxor Technologies.
“I can't help but think that we're going to look back on these days as wildly profitable for miners. We definitely are in a golden age of [crypto] mining,” said Gerson Martinez, a former derivatives trader and market maker for Morgan Stanley. Martinez left the bank in 2013 to work in education and nonprofit. Since 2014, he’s held an ever-increasing interest in bitcoin. He owns the asset and also mines it through the retail-focused firm called Compass Mining.
Bitcoin mining is the number-crunching process that makes the digital currency secure. By rewarding miners for collectively validating transactions, bitcoin’s underlyingblockchainhas proved exceedingly costly and, perhaps impossible, for any one entity to garner majority control of its network. For contributing computing power to the blockchain, miners are rewarded for their work by collectively earning pay in bitcoin, which is called the block reward. Currently, that total pay out is 6.25 bitcoin every 10 minutes. With less miners currently in operation, the pay out gets split between fewer parties.
While the process is complicated, most bitcoin mining operations look like a specialized type of data server farm.
Martinez’s current interest in bitcoin mining lacks no ambition. As a dual citizen of El Salvador and the U.S., he’s also working with a company called CLM21 Ventures to build the first geothermal “pilot” mining operation in El Salvador. Martinez said the “proof of concept” project faces hurdles related to the “supply chain issues that everyone else is facing" such as sourcing the hardware and equipment. The country's relatively hot climate also makes building the right cooling system essential for not overheating the miners so they can continue to operate.
The Canada-based blockchain technology company Blockstream is also ramping up its focus on bitcoin mining and its utilization of renewable energy. Major companies such as Fidelity Investments and more recently BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, have also taken large stakes in the publicly traded bitcoin mining firms, Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT), this summer.
Blockstream has acquired the Israeli crypto miner manufacturer,Spondoolies. The acquisition runs in tandem with its $210 million Series B raise, which will be used to ramp up hiring for its cryptocurrency mining division as well as a new financial arm.
The firm’s decision to start making its own bitcoin miners, or ASICS, stems from the fact that the current global market for bitcoin miners is far outstripping supply, according to Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow. (An ASIC is a customizable integrated circuit chip that manufacturers design to specifically mine bitcoin. They're the most important component of a crypto mining rig.)
“It can be difficult to procure ASICS. Having our own ASIC manufacturer will alleviate that supply constraint,” Mow told Yahoo Finance. Despite reports that cryptocurrency miners compete with other companies that use microchips, bitcoin ASICS require much more powerful chips than other crypto mining computers, which earlier this year contributed to supply constraints for graphics card producing technology company Nvidia.
Blockstream will use the miners first and foremost to shore up its own products. Last week the firm announced its new modular mining unit (MMU) product. These are self-contained and remotely controlled mining facilities that can be deployed near energy production sites, such as hydroelectric dams and power plants, to make use of otherwise unusable electricity. Additionally, the company offers a securitized bitcoin mining financial asset, theBlockstream Mining Note, and partnered with Square June to build a $5 million solar-powered bitcoin mining facility in Georgia.
Before China banned the industry and Tesla CEO Elon Musk backpedalled onaccepting bitcoin as payment for electric vehicles, bitcoin mining companies sought renewable energy sources aside from environmental benefits, because they're cheap and reliable, according to Mow and Martinez. Blockstream hasn’t published its energy mix breakdown for mining operations on its website, but Mow said the company's mining is “mostly zero emissions” with the U.S. and Canadian sites balancing around “80% zero emissions.”
All experts agree that bitcoin miners flow to cheap and reliable power. The crux of the energy-consumption debate boils down to how miners will find cheap and reliable energy. While not an even comparison, the energy bitcoin consumes is approximately the same as the country of Kazakhstan (91.7 TWh) over the course of a year, according to 2019 data from theCambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconomist, an economics blog and creator of theBitcoin Energy Consumption Index, remains skeptical of the industry’s possible green shift.
“The thing is miners need both cheap and stable power; and (obsolete) fossil fuels are simply better at delivering both – allowing investors to maximize their profits,” said de Vries.
David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him@dshollers.
READ MORE:
• Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit || Bitcoin touches $50K for first time in months in summer bounce back: B itcoin hit $50,000 for the first time since May after dropping to $29,608 last month. The $50,000 level was reached on Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon, the price of a bitcoin was resting at about $48,100. The flagship cryptocurrency is not the only one that has seen gains. Ethereum was up more than $3,300 after plunging to less than $1,800 in July, and Ripple has more than doubled in value since late last month. While the summer rebound in prices is notable, it is still not quite the surge that was seen earlier this year when Bitcoin charged upward from $30,000 at the beginning of the year to being worth more than $63,000, the highest price in its history. After peaking in April, the following months saw a downward slide in the prices of all the major cryptocurrencies. Much of those losses were tied to regulatory concerns out of China, where a lot of the worlds bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are mined. Discussions of increased U.S. oversight also contributed to investor jitters. GREENER CRYPTOCURRENCIES IN FOCUS AS BITCOIN FACES ENVIRONMENTAL CRITICISM To mine for bitcoin, high-powered computers are used to create rigs that verify virtual coin transactions, and many of those rigs are located in China . Prices tumbled in May after Chinese Vice Premier Liu He called for the crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading behavior and resolutely prevent the transmission of individual risks to the social field. China's central bank also said it asked banks and payment institutions to crack down harder on the trading of digital assets. Recent gains are coming close to erasing the losses, which Peter St. Onge, a research fellow for economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, attributes to the current state of the U.S. economy, which has seen high inflation and uncertainty related to the delta variant of COVID-19. Bitcoin, in many ways, has picked up the investing function that gold used to have, he told the Washington Examiner. Gold is traditionally the alternative. When the stuff hits the fan, you move your money over to gold because its protected from inflation. Story continues St. Onge tied the price of Bitcoin to inflation and said that since June of last year, when inflation began to increase, the price of gold sat at $1,800, and the price of Bitcoin was about $10,000. He pointed out that despite the higher-than-anticipated inflation of the past several months, the price of gold has remained in the $1,800 range, while Bitcoin has lurched to $50,000. The economist asserted that Bitcoin is largely serving the role that gold used to serve, a notion that he said was particularly true for younger investors. St. Onge said that people might be flocking to Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset more now because they have a better understanding of how it functions as it grows in popularity. The upward pressure on Bitcoin this week was also being amplified by news that PayPal will let its customers in the United Kingdom trade in cryptocurrencies, which it has allowed those in the U.S. to do since late last year. Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares, told Yahoo Finance on Monday that the PayPal decision is a sign that every company will eventually be a crypto company they just dont know it yet and that the trend is just getting started. Cryptos not a fad. There are elements of this, certainly, that feel a little speculative and bubbly
but if we zoom out and look at the secular 10-, 20-year trend
we view crypto as a fundamental enabling component of this new digital world, Demirors added. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER St. Onge is also bullish on cryptocurrency. He said that early in the days of Bitcoin, investors had more regulatory fears than they have now, including worries that it might be banned. Although, he said the type of regulations being discussed now are much less threatening than in the past. He also is confident that Bitcoin will become more commonplace going into the future and pointed out that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced in June that the country would become the first to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News , Bitcoin , Cryptocurrency , Investment , Technology , Currency , Inflation Original Author: Zachary Halaschak Original Location: Bitcoin touches $50K for first time in months in summer bounce back || Bitcoin touches $50K for first time in months in summer bounce back: B itcoin hit $50,000 for the first time since May after dropping to $29,608 last month. The $50,000 level was reached on Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon, the price of a bitcoin was resting at about $48,100. The flagship cryptocurrency is not the only one that has seen gains. Ethereum was up more than $3,300 after plunging to less than $1,800 in July, and Ripple has more than doubled in value since late last month. While the summer rebound in prices is notable, it is still not quite the surge that was seen earlier this year when Bitcoin charged upward from $30,000 at the beginning of the year to being worth more than $63,000, the highest price in its history. After peaking in April, the following months saw a downward slide in the prices of all the major cryptocurrencies. Much of those losses were tied to regulatory concerns out of China, where a lot of the worlds bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are mined. Discussions of increased U.S. oversight also contributed to investor jitters. GREENER CRYPTOCURRENCIES IN FOCUS AS BITCOIN FACES ENVIRONMENTAL CRITICISM To mine for bitcoin, high-powered computers are used to create rigs that verify virtual coin transactions, and many of those rigs are located in China . Prices tumbled in May after Chinese Vice Premier Liu He called for the crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading behavior and resolutely prevent the transmission of individual risks to the social field. China's central bank also said it asked banks and payment institutions to crack down harder on the trading of digital assets. Recent gains are coming close to erasing the losses, which Peter St. Onge, a research fellow for economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, attributes to the current state of the U.S. economy, which has seen high inflation and uncertainty related to the delta variant of COVID-19. Bitcoin, in many ways, has picked up the investing function that gold used to have, he told the Washington Examiner. Gold is traditionally the alternative. When the stuff hits the fan, you move your money over to gold because its protected from inflation. Story continues St. Onge tied the price of Bitcoin to inflation and said that since June of last year, when inflation began to increase, the price of gold sat at $1,800, and the price of Bitcoin was about $10,000. He pointed out that despite the higher-than-anticipated inflation of the past several months, the price of gold has remained in the $1,800 range, while Bitcoin has lurched to $50,000. The economist asserted that Bitcoin is largely serving the role that gold used to serve, a notion that he said was particularly true for younger investors. St. Onge said that people might be flocking to Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset more now because they have a better understanding of how it functions as it grows in popularity. The upward pressure on Bitcoin this week was also being amplified by news that PayPal will let its customers in the United Kingdom trade in cryptocurrencies, which it has allowed those in the U.S. to do since late last year. Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares, told Yahoo Finance on Monday that the PayPal decision is a sign that every company will eventually be a crypto company they just dont know it yet and that the trend is just getting started. Cryptos not a fad. There are elements of this, certainly, that feel a little speculative and bubbly
but if we zoom out and look at the secular 10-, 20-year trend
we view crypto as a fundamental enabling component of this new digital world, Demirors added. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER St. Onge is also bullish on cryptocurrency. He said that early in the days of Bitcoin, investors had more regulatory fears than they have now, including worries that it might be banned. Although, he said the type of regulations being discussed now are much less threatening than in the past. He also is confident that Bitcoin will become more commonplace going into the future and pointed out that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced in June that the country would become the first to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News , Bitcoin , Cryptocurrency , Investment , Technology , Currency , Inflation Original Author: Zachary Halaschak Original Location: Bitcoin touches $50K for first time in months in summer bounce back
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39, 5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53, 5399.37, 5572.36, 5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14, 5247.35, 5350.73, 5402.70, 5505.28, 5768.29, 5831.17, 5795.71, 5746.81, 5829.50, 5982.46, 6174.53, 6378.85, 7204.77, 6972.37, 7814.92, 7994.42, 8205.17, 7884.91, 7343.90, 7271.21, 8197.69, 7978.31, 7963.33, 7680.07, 7881.85, 7987.37, 8052.54, 8673.22, 8805.78, 8719.96, 8659.49.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-05-29]
Volume: 23473479966, RSI (14-day): 70.12, 50-day EMA: 6706.77, 200-day EMA: 5431.62
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1280.60, Gold RSI: 48.50
Oil Price: 58.81, Oil RSI: 36.67
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. When investors are looking for more aggressive rates of growth, biotech stocks typically represent some of the best opportunities for rapid appreciation. These companies spend a plethora of time and massive amounts of money to fund breakthrough biological treatments and diagnostic tools. Blossoming developments can literally change their fortunes, and the fortunes of shareholders overnight. Of course, this type of growth comes at a cost, and this risk scenario puts biotech stocks on the backburner when the market is volatile and investors are fearful, like in the case of a trade war. But for those investors looking to diversify a portfolio or to add some growth stocks, a biotech ETF is an often safer way to engage with the biotech sector. Here are 8 of the best biotech ETFs for 2019 performing so far year-to-date, as of May 28: 1. ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF (ARKG ) - Up 27.31% YTD ARKG reaches across multiple sectors and geographies for companies that the advisor believes will benefit from innovations in the genomics-related industry. The reality is almost all of its holdings are in US healthcare-related companies, with biotech naturally leading the way. This is a niche fund that charges a high fee for its actively managed strategy. Because it doesn’t match well with our biotech benchmark, investors should look closely at where the fund makes its bets. It is an interesting concept and there is good performance potential, but the fund's growth has been lackluster since inception. Liquidity is thin and spreads are often wide. Interested block traders will most likely have to work with the issuer, as underlying liquidity is lacking. The fund charges a high fee, though typical for an actively managed fund, and investors should consider closure risk before jumping in. The expense ratio is 0.75%. 2. Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC) - Up 19.4% YTD Story continues The investment seeks investment results that correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the LifeSci Biotechnology Clinical Trials Index. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest not less than 80% of its assets in component securities of the index. The index seeks to track the performance of the common stock of U.S. exchange-listed biotechnology companies with a primary product offering ("lead drug") that is typically in a Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trial stage of development, but prior to receiving marketing approval. The expense ratio is 0.79%. 3. SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) - Up 15.55% YTD The SPDR ® S&P ® Biotech ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P ® Biotechnology Select Industry TM Index (the "Index") The fund s eeks to provide exposure to the Biotechnology segment of the S&P TMI, which comprises the following sub-industries: Biotechnology. XBI s eeks to track a modified equal weighted index which provides the potential for unconcentrated industry exposure across large, mid and small cap stocks. The ETF a llows investors to take strategic or tactical positions at a more targeted level than traditional sector based investing. The expense ratio is a more modest 0.35% compared to other ETFs in its sector. 4. Virtus LifeSci Biotech Products ETF (BBP) - Up 14.08% YTD The investment seeks investment results that correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the LifeSci Biotechnology Products Index. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest not less than 80% of its assets in component securities of the index. The index seeks to track the performance of the common stock of U.S. exchange-listed biotechnology companies with at least one drug therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for marketing. The expense ratio is 0.79%. 5. VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF (BBH) - Up 8.83% YTD VanEck Vectors ® Biotech ETF (BBH) seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS ® US Listed Biotech 25 Index (MVBBHTR), which is intended to track the overall performance of companies involved in the development and production, marketing and sales of drugs based on genetic analysis and diagnostic equipment. The expense ratio is lower at 0.35%. 6. iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) Up 8.06% YTD The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of biotechnology and pharmaceutical equities listed on the NASDAQ. IBB offers exposure to U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The ETF provides targeted access to biotechnology and pharmaceutical stocks listed on the NASDAQ. The expense ratio is in the middle of the road at 0.47%. 7. First Trust Amex Biotechnology Index (FBT) - 6.67% YTD The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund's fees and expenses) of an equity index called the NYSE Arca Biotechnology IndexSM. The fund will normally invest at least 90% of its net assets (including investment borrowings) in the common stocks and depositary receipts that comprise the index. The index is an equal-dollar weighted index designed to measure the performance of a cross section of small, mid and large capitalization companies in the biotechnology industry that are primarily involved in the use of biological processes to develop products or provide services. The expense ratio is 0.57%. 8. Invesco Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome ETF (PBE) - Up 6.37% YTD The Invesco Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome ETF (Fund) is based on the Dynamic Biotech & Genome Intellidex℠ Index (Intellidex Index). The Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in the securities that comprise the Index. The Intellidex Index is designed to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value. The Underlying Intellidex Index is comprised of securities of 30 US biotechnology and genome companies. These are companies that are principally engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing and distribution of various biotechnological products, services and processes and companies that benefit significantly from scientific and technological advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering and research. The Fund and the Index are rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly in February, May, August and November. The expense ratio is 0.59%. POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Stock Markets Tumble To Lowest Levels Since March 8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019 U.S. Markets Fall Swiftly Before Close On Renewed Trade Fears 5 REIT ETFs To Consider For Long Term Profits $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year? READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || 8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
When investors are looking for more aggressive rates of growth, biotech stocks typically represent some of the best opportunities for rapid appreciation. These companies spend a plethora of time and massive amounts of money to fund breakthrough biological treatments and diagnostic tools. Blossoming developments can literally change their fortunes, and the fortunes of shareholders overnight.
Of course, this type of growth comes at a cost, and this risk scenario puts biotech stocks on the backburner when the market is volatile and investors are fearful, like in the case of a trade war. But for those investors looking to diversify a portfolio or to add some growth stocks, a biotech ETF is an often safer way to engage with the biotech sector. Here are 8 of the best biotech ETFs for 2019 performing so far year-to-date, as of May 28:
1.ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF (ARKG) - Up 27.31% YTD
ARKG reaches across multiple sectors and geographies for companies that the advisor believes will benefit from innovations in the genomics-related industry. The reality is almost all of its holdings are in US healthcare-related companies, with biotech naturally leading the way. This is a niche fund that charges a high fee for its actively managed strategy. Because it doesn’t match well with our biotech benchmark, investors should look closely at where the fund makes its bets. It is an interesting concept and there is good performance potential, but the fund's growth has been lackluster since inception. Liquidity is thin and spreads are often wide. Interested block traders will most likely have to work with the issuer, as underlying liquidity is lacking. The fund charges a high fee, though typical for an actively managed fund, and investors should consider closure risk before jumping in. The expense ratio is 0.75%.
2.Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC)- Up 19.4% YTD
The investment seeks investment results that correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the LifeSci Biotechnology Clinical Trials Index. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest not less than 80% of its assets in component securities of the index. The index seeks to track the performance of the common stock of U.S. exchange-listed biotechnology companies with a primary product offering ("lead drug") that is typically in a Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trial stage of development, but prior to receiving marketing approval. The expense ratio is 0.79%.
3.SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI)- Up 15.55% YTD
The SPDR ® S&P ® Biotech ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P ® Biotechnology Select Industry TM Index (the "Index") The fund s eeks to provide exposure to the Biotechnology segment of the S&P TMI, which comprises the following sub-industries: Biotechnology. XBI s eeks to track a modified equal weighted index which provides the potential for unconcentrated industry exposure across large, mid and small cap stocks. The ETF a llows investors to take strategic or tactical positions at a more targeted level than traditional sector based investing. The expense ratio is a more modest 0.35% compared to other ETFs in its sector.
4.Virtus LifeSci Biotech Products ETF (BBP)- Up 14.08% YTD
The investment seeks investment results that correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the LifeSci Biotechnology Products Index. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest not less than 80% of its assets in component securities of the index. The index seeks to track the performance of the common stock of U.S. exchange-listed biotechnology companies with at least one drug therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for marketing. The expense ratio is 0.79%.
5.VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF (BBH)- Up 8.83% YTD
VanEck Vectors ® Biotech ETF (BBH) seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS ® US Listed Biotech 25 Index (MVBBHTR), which is intended to track the overall performance of companies involved in the development and production, marketing and sales of drugs based on genetic analysis and diagnostic equipment. The expense ratio is lower at 0.35%.
6.iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB)Up 8.06% YTD
The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of biotechnology and pharmaceutical equities listed on the NASDAQ. IBB offers exposure to U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The ETF provides targeted access to biotechnology and pharmaceutical stocks listed on the NASDAQ. The expense ratio is in the middle of the road at 0.47%.
7.First Trust Amex Biotechnology Index (FBT)- 6.67% YTD
The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund's fees and expenses) of an equity index called the NYSE Arca Biotechnology IndexSM. The fund will normally invest at least 90% of its net assets (including investment borrowings) in the common stocks and depositary receipts that comprise the index. The index is an equal-dollar weighted index designed to measure the performance of a cross section of small, mid and large capitalization companies in the biotechnology industry that are primarily involved in the use of biological processes to develop products or provide services. The expense ratio is 0.57%.
8.Invesco Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome ETF (PBE)- Up 6.37% YTD
The Invesco Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome ETF (Fund) is based on the Dynamic Biotech & Genome Intellidex℠ Index (Intellidex Index). The Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in the securities that comprise the Index. The Intellidex Index is designed to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value. The Underlying Intellidex Index is comprised of securities of 30 US biotechnology and genome companies. These are companies that are principally engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing and distribution of various biotechnological products, services and processes and companies that benefit significantly from scientific and technological advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering and research. The Fund and the Index are rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly in February, May, August and November. The expense ratio is 0.59%.
POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM
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• $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year?
READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Wells Fargo Strategist Throws Shade on Gold While Bitcoin Outshines All: ByCCN:Wells Fargo’sname is synonymous with gold. Henry Wells and William Fargo launched the bank in the Wild West during the California Gold Rush, supporting both the investment in and delivery of the precious metal via its famous stagecoach. The U.S. has come a long way since the stagecoach, and bitcoin is now encroaching on gold’s store-of-value territory. Shockingly, Wells Fargo Head of Real Asset Strategy John LaForge no longer believes the precious metal is the one to own,telling Kitco:
“Stocks, in the last few weeks have hit, and you see the days when stocks really get hit, and what does gold do? Gold is up $3, it’s up $5, it’s up $7. I think where we are in this gold super cycle, this long cycle with commodity prices, is we’re kind of in the dull period.”
LaForge didn’t jump on the cryptocurrency high-speed bullet train. In fact, he suggested if anything, the bitcoin is too nascent of an asset class to cause any disruption to gold’s multi-trillion dollar market. But he didn’t have to validate crypto; the returns speak for themselves. While gold is struggling to deliver paltry single-digit returns, bitcoin investors are having the time of their lives as the biggest cryptocurrency reaches for the moon.
The bitcoin price reached anew 2019 highon May 27. | Source: CoinMarketCap
Gold is designed to be a safe haven from the volatile stock market, especially during times of heightened uncertainty in the economy. The precious metal’s uncorrelated nature to other asset classes is what makes it so special. Now that it has essentially lost its shine during a time when investors need a flight to quality more than ever, bitcoin is increasingly looking like the only asset class that’s packing a punch in 2019.
LaForge points investors to currencies instead of gold except he chooses the wrong one, suggesting the U.S. dollar instead of a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and saying:
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Wells Fargo Strategist Throws Shade on Gold While Bitcoin Outshines All: ByCCN:Wells Fargo’sname is synonymous with gold. Henry Wells and William Fargo launched the bank in the Wild West during the California Gold Rush, supporting both the investment in and delivery of the precious metal via its famous stagecoach. The U.S. has come a long way since the stagecoach, and bitcoin is now encroaching on gold’s store-of-value territory. Shockingly, Wells Fargo Head of Real Asset Strategy John LaForge no longer believes the precious metal is the one to own,telling Kitco:
“Stocks, in the last few weeks have hit, and you see the days when stocks really get hit, and what does gold do? Gold is up $3, it’s up $5, it’s up $7. I think where we are in this gold super cycle, this long cycle with commodity prices, is we’re kind of in the dull period.”
LaForge didn’t jump on the cryptocurrency high-speed bullet train. In fact, he suggested if anything, the bitcoin is too nascent of an asset class to cause any disruption to gold’s multi-trillion dollar market. But he didn’t have to validate crypto; the returns speak for themselves. While gold is struggling to deliver paltry single-digit returns, bitcoin investors are having the time of their lives as the biggest cryptocurrency reaches for the moon.
The bitcoin price reached anew 2019 highon May 27. | Source: CoinMarketCap
Gold is designed to be a safe haven from the volatile stock market, especially during times of heightened uncertainty in the economy. The precious metal’s uncorrelated nature to other asset classes is what makes it so special. Now that it has essentially lost its shine during a time when investors need a flight to quality more than ever, bitcoin is increasingly looking like the only asset class that’s packing a punch in 2019.
LaForge points investors to currencies instead of gold except he chooses the wrong one, suggesting the U.S. dollar instead of a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and saying:
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Wells Fargo Strategist Throws Shade on Gold While Bitcoin Outshines All: A Wells Fargo strategist notes that gold is not behaving like the safe haven it's supposed to be. Meanwhile, bitcoin is generating returns hand-over-fist. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : Wells Fargo’s name is synonymous with gold. Henry Wells and William Fargo launched the bank in the Wild West during the California Gold Rush, supporting both the investment in and delivery of the precious metal via its famous stagecoach. The U.S. has come a long way since the stagecoach, and bitcoin is now encroaching on gold’s store-of-value territory. Shockingly, Wells Fargo Head of Real Asset Strategy John LaForge no longer believes the precious metal is the one to own, telling Kitco : “Stocks, in the last few weeks have hit, and you see the days when stocks really get hit, and what does gold do? Gold is up $3, it’s up $5, it’s up $7. I think where we are in this gold super cycle, this long cycle with commodity prices, is we’re kind of in the dull period.” LaForge didn’t jump on the cryptocurrency high-speed bullet train. In fact, he suggested if anything, the bitcoin is too nascent of an asset class to cause any disruption to gold’s multi-trillion dollar market. But he didn’t have to validate crypto; the returns speak for themselves. While gold is struggling to deliver paltry single-digit returns, bitcoin investors are having the time of their lives as the biggest cryptocurrency reaches for the moon. bitcoin price chart The bitcoin price reached a new 2019 high on May 27. | Source: CoinMarketCap What Safe Haven? Gold is designed to be a safe haven from the volatile stock market, especially during times of heightened uncertainty in the economy. The precious metal’s uncorrelated nature to other asset classes is what makes it so special. Now that it has essentially lost its shine during a time when investors need a flight to quality more than ever, bitcoin is increasingly looking like the only asset class that’s packing a punch in 2019. LaForge points investors to currencies instead of gold except he chooses the wrong one, suggesting the U.S. dollar instead of a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and saying: Read the full story on CCN.com . || Advisor’s Guidebook to Fixed Income in Today’s Market: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. The bond market is changing. Shifting interest rates have the potential for traditional strategies to become susceptible to increased risks and lower payouts. On the upcoming webcast, Advisor's Guidebook to Fixed Income in Today's Market , Edward Kerschner, Chief Portfolio Strategist, Columbia Threadneedle Investments; Matt Steiger, Director, Product Management, Columbia Threadneedle Investments; Joe Mallen, Chief Investment Officer, Helios Quantitative Research; and Jay McAndrew, National Sales Manager, Strategic Beta, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, will consider the risks of market-cap weighted bond funds and consider an alternative methodology that could help financial advisors diversify risks ahead. For example, the Columbia Diversified Fixed Income Allocation ETF ( DIAL ) follows an alternative indexing methodology to potentially help bond investors garner improved returns and potentially diminish the negative effects of sudden swings. The bond ETF tries to reflect the performance of the Beta Advantage Multi-Sector Bond Index, a rules-based multi-sector strategic approach to debt market investing. The underlying smart beta index covers six sectors of the debt market, focusing on yield, quality and liquidity. The underlying index tries to target the six sectors, including U.S. Treasury securities (10%); global ex-U.S. treasury securities (10%); U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities (15%); U.S. corporate investment grade bonds (15%); U.S. corporate high yield bonds (30%); and emerging markets sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt (20%). Each sector is market value-weighted except for the global ex-U.S. Treasury Securities, which is equally weighted. The treasuries exposure has a remaining maturity of greater than seven years, are rated investment-grade and U.S. denominated. Global ex-U.S. Treasury exposure have a remaining maturity of between and including seven to 12 years and a yield of greater than 0% issued by Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities component is comprised of U.S. agency mortgage pass-through securities backed by pools of mortgages and issued by Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) that have a 30-year fixed-rate program, an issuance date less than 1,000 days, and that are denominated in U.S. dollars. The U.S. corporate investment-grade exposure is made up of investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable, U.S. dollar denominated debt with $250 million or more of par amount outstanding, issued by U.S. and non-U.S. industrial companies, utilities, and financial institutions that have a remaining maturity of between and including 5 to 15 years, a credit rating between and including BAA1 and BAA3. Story continues The U.S. corporate high-yield debt component includes non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds that have a credit rating above B3 using the Bloomberg index rating methodology, an outstanding face amount greater than $800 million, remaining maturity of less than 14 years, and issued within the past 5 years. Lastly, the emerging markets sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt sector includes fixed-rate sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt of emerging market countries rated investment grade and non-investment grade that have a credit rating between and including BAA1 and BA3 rating and remaining maturity of between and including 5 to 15 years. DIAL’s underlying index has an average effective duration of 6.12 years and a yield-to-worst of 3.91%. Financial advisors who are interested in alternative bond strategies can register for the Wednesday, May 29 webcast here . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Stock Markets Tumble To Lowest Levels Since March 8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019 U.S. Markets Fall Swiftly Before Close On Renewed Trade Fears 5 REIT ETFs To Consider For Long Term Profits $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year? READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > View comments || Advisor’s Guidebook to Fixed Income in Today’s Market: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
The bond market is changing. Shifting interest rates have the potential for traditional strategies to become susceptible to increased risks and lower payouts.
On the upcoming webcast,Advisor's Guidebook to Fixed Income in Today's Market, Edward Kerschner, Chief Portfolio Strategist, Columbia Threadneedle Investments; Matt Steiger, Director, Product Management, Columbia Threadneedle Investments; Joe Mallen, Chief Investment Officer, Helios Quantitative Research; and Jay McAndrew, National Sales Manager, Strategic Beta, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, will consider the risks of market-cap weighted bond funds and consider an alternative methodology that could help financial advisors diversify risks ahead.
For example, theColumbia Diversified Fixed Income Allocation ETF (DIAL) follows an alternative indexing methodology to potentially help bond investors garner improved returns and potentially diminish the negative effects of sudden swings.
The bond ETF tries to reflect the performance of the Beta Advantage Multi-Sector Bond Index, a rules-based multi-sector strategic approach to debt market investing. The underlying smart beta index covers six sectors of the debt market, focusing on yield, quality and liquidity.
The underlying index tries to target the six sectors, including U.S. Treasury securities (10%); global ex-U.S. treasury securities (10%); U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities (15%); U.S. corporate investment grade bonds (15%); U.S. corporate high yield bonds (30%); and emerging markets sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt (20%). Each sector is market value-weighted except for the global ex-U.S. Treasury Securities, which is equally weighted.
The treasuries exposure has a remaining maturity of greater than seven years, are rated investment-grade and U.S. denominated.
Global ex-U.S. Treasury exposure have a remaining maturity of between and including seven to 12 years and a yield of greater than 0% issued by Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities component is comprised of U.S. agency mortgage pass-through securities backed by pools of mortgages and issued by Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) that have a 30-year fixed-rate program, an issuance date less than 1,000 days, and that are denominated in U.S. dollars.
The U.S. corporate investment-grade exposure is made up of investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable, U.S. dollar denominated debt with $250 million or more of par amount outstanding, issued by U.S. and non-U.S. industrial companies, utilities, and financial institutions that have a remaining maturity of between and including 5 to 15 years, a credit rating between and including BAA1 and BAA3.
The U.S. corporate high-yield debt component includes non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds that have a credit rating above B3 using the Bloomberg index rating methodology, an outstanding face amount greater than $800 million, remaining maturity of less than 14 years, and issued within the past 5 years.
Lastly, the emerging markets sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt sector includes fixed-rate sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt of emerging market countries rated investment grade and non-investment grade that have a credit rating between and including BAA1 and BA3 rating and remaining maturity of between and including 5 to 15 years.
DIAL’s underlying index has an average effective duration of 6.12 years and a yield-to-worst of 3.91%.
Financial advisors who are interested in alternative bond strategies canregister for the Wednesday, May 29 webcast here.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || A historical look at Replace-by-Fee: Starting with the first release of Bitcoin, there was afeaturethat allowed for the replacement of unconfirmed transactions. The feature wasultimately disabledby Satoshi Nakamoto in Bitcoin version 0.3.12, with the comment “Disable replacement feature for now.” The feature was never re-enabled.
The primary reason Nakamoto disabled the feature was because it opened up vectors for denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. For example, a user could create as many replacement transactions as they wanted, while only paying fees for the one that gets mined — filling up the network’s bandwidth in the process.
For approximately five years after Nakamoto’s actions, the Bitcoin Core software had no default transaction replacement features.
Join Genesis nowand continue reading,A historical look at Replace-by-Fee! || A historical look at Replace-by-Fee: History of Replace-by-Fee Starting with the first release of Bitcoin, there was a feature that allowed for the replacement of unconfirmed transactions. The feature was ultimately disabled by Satoshi Nakamoto in Bitcoin version 0.3.12, with the comment “Disable replacement feature for now.” The feature was never re-enabled. The primary reason Nakamoto disabled the feature was because it opened up vectors for denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. For example, a user could create as many replacement transactions as they wanted, while only paying fees for the one that gets mined — filling up the network’s bandwidth in the process. For approximately five years after Nakamoto’s actions, the Bitcoin Core software had no default transaction replacement features. Join Genesis now and continue reading, A historical look at Replace-by-Fee ! || South Korea’s Bitcoin Trading Volumes on LocalBitcoins Reach New Record Levels: Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes inSouth Koreahave recently reached new levels on peer-to-peer (P2P)exchangeLocalBitcoins, according tochartson BTC statistics serviceCoin Dance.
According to the data, bitcoin weekly trading volumes have surged over the past two weeks, with the latest week recording a new high of around 219 million South-Korean won ($185,000).
South Korea LocalBitcoins Weekly Trade Volumes in BTC. Source:Coin Dance
FoundedinFinlandin 2012, LocalBitcoins offersover-the-countertrading of local currency for bitcoin and operates as a P2P trading platform. The Finnish crypto trading platform is especially popular inLatin America, withVenezuelaandColombiahaving reportedlyaccountedfor 85% of LocalBitcoins’s trading volumes by February 2019.
According to data from crypto analytics websiteCoinhills, the South-Korean won is one of the most popular national currencies trading against bitcoin. Accounting for around 20,000 btc ($173 million) in daily trading volumes against bitcoin, the won is ranked the third largest national currency traded versus BTC after theU.S.dollar and theJapaneseyen.
Top 8 national currencies traded against bitcoin. Source:Coinhills
In mid-April, major South Korean crypto exchange Coinneststartedclosing its services, which was reportedly a result of the extended 2018 bear market. Subsequently, Cointelegraphreportedthat the number of South Koreans buying cryptocurrency withfiat moneyhas significantly increased, while the amount of crypto investment in 2018 surging by 64% over 2017.
Last week, LocalBitcoinsbannedIranianresidents from using its service, as the exchange purportedly had to restrict Iranian transactions to comply with financial regulations in Finland, as well as with the sanctions imposed by theUnited States.
• Montana Passes Bill to Recognize Utility Tokens and Exempt Them From State Securities
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• Robinhood Zero-Fee Trading App Officially Launches in New York || South Korea’s Bitcoin Trading Volumes on LocalBitcoins Reach New Record Levels: Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes inSouth Koreahave recently reached new levels on peer-to-peer (P2P)exchangeLocalBitcoins, according tochartson BTC statistics serviceCoin Dance.
According to the data, bitcoin weekly trading volumes have surged over the past two weeks, with the latest week recording a new high of around 219 million South-Korean won ($185,000).
South Korea LocalBitcoins Weekly Trade Volumes in BTC. Source:Coin Dance
FoundedinFinlandin 2012, LocalBitcoins offersover-the-countertrading of local currency for bitcoin and operates as a P2P trading platform. The Finnish crypto trading platform is especially popular inLatin America, withVenezuelaandColombiahaving reportedlyaccountedfor 85% of LocalBitcoins’s trading volumes by February 2019.
According to data from crypto analytics websiteCoinhills, the South-Korean won is one of the most popular national currencies trading against bitcoin. Accounting for around 20,000 btc ($173 million) in daily trading volumes against bitcoin, the won is ranked the third largest national currency traded versus BTC after theU.S.dollar and theJapaneseyen.
Top 8 national currencies traded against bitcoin. Source:Coinhills
In mid-April, major South Korean crypto exchange Coinneststartedclosing its services, which was reportedly a result of the extended 2018 bear market. Subsequently, Cointelegraphreportedthat the number of South Koreans buying cryptocurrency withfiat moneyhas significantly increased, while the amount of crypto investment in 2018 surging by 64% over 2017.
Last week, LocalBitcoinsbannedIranianresidents from using its service, as the exchange purportedly had to restrict Iranian transactions to comply with financial regulations in Finland, as well as with the sanctions imposed by theUnited States.
• Montana Passes Bill to Recognize Utility Tokens and Exempt Them From State Securities
• Facebook in Talks With Coinbase, Winklevoss’ Gemini to Launch Its Globalcoin: FT Report
• Kraken Paid 250 Salaries to Staff in Bitcoin Last Month, Exchange Tells Critic
• Robinhood Zero-Fee Trading App Officially Launches in New York || South Koreas Bitcoin Trading Volumes on LocalBitcoins Reach New Record Levels: Bitcoin ( BTC ) trading volumes in South Korea have recently reached new levels on peer-to-peer ( P2P ) exchange LocalBitcoins , according to charts on BTC statistics service Coin Dance . According to the data, bitcoin weekly trading volumes have surged over the past two weeks, with the latest week recording a new high of around 219 million South-Korean won ($185,000). South Korea LocalBitcoins Weekly Trade Volumes in BTC. Source: Coin Dance Founded in Finland in 2012, LocalBitcoins offers over-the-counter trading of local currency for bitcoin and operates as a P2P trading platform. The Finnish crypto trading platform is especially popular in Latin America , with Venezuela and Colombia having reportedly accounted for 85% of LocalBitcoinss trading volumes by February 2019. According to data from crypto analytics website Coinhills , the South-Korean won is one of the most popular national currencies trading against bitcoin. Accounting for around 20,000 btc ($173 million) in daily trading volumes against bitcoin, the won is ranked the third largest national currency traded versus BTC after the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen. Top 8 national currencies traded against bitcoin. Source: Coinhills In mid-April, major South Korean crypto exchange Coinnest started closing its services, which was reportedly a result of the extended 2018 bear market. Subsequently, Cointelegraph reported that the number of South Koreans buying cryptocurrency with fiat money has significantly increased, while the amount of crypto investment in 2018 surging by 64% over 2017. Last week, LocalBitcoins banned Iranian residents from using its service, as the exchange purportedly had to restrict Iranian transactions to comply with financial regulations in Finland, as well as with the sanctions imposed by the United States . Related Articles: Montana Passes Bill to Recognize Utility Tokens and Exempt Them From State Securities Facebook in Talks With Coinbase, Winklevoss Gemini to Launch Its Globalcoin: FT Report Kraken Paid 250 Salaries to Staff in Bitcoin Last Month, Exchange Tells Critic Robinhood Zero-Fee Trading App Officially Launches in New York || U.S. Stock ETFs Lose Their Grip on Dimming Trade Hopes: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
U.S. markets and stock exchange traded funds pared earlier gains toward the end of Tuesday's session as skepticism over an end to the ongoing trade war takes hold.
On Tuesday, theInvesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell 0.4%,SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) was down 1.0% andSPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) slipped 0.9%.
Markets soured in the last half of Tuesday as risk-on sentiment shifted in face of the increased likelihood of a protracted trad war between the U.S. and China. On Monday, President Donald Trump stated he was “not yet ready” to make a deal with China, fueling speculation of a slowing global economy in the fallout, but he expected a deal could eventually be reached,Reutersreports.
“The market is trying to keep this momentum going but there is a lack of upside catalysts and there still are and I don’t know what is going to drive this higher,” Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab, told Reuters. “Any time the buyers step in, the excitement just kind of wears off and fizzles by the end of the day, and we’re seeing that again today.”
Meanwhile, investors shifted from risk-on toward more safe-haven assets, which sent yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes to their lowest level since October 2017 while the spread between the 10-year and 3-month bills shrunk to nearly a 12-year low.
The communication services sector was the lone S&P 500 segment still in the green in late-afternoon trade as shares of some media companies strengthened after Goldman Sachs analyst said Activision is on the cusp of an earnings inflection, upgrading the stock to a buy, theWall Street Journalreports.
Additionally, the broader market also weakened on concerns over the health of the economy, following weakening home sales data and lower retail sales. Erik Nielsen, group chief economist at UniCredit Bank in London, pointed out that the U.S. is in the late stages of the economic cycle but the “natural cooling” of the economy expected at this time has been delayed due to the loose fiscal policy under the Trump administration and the central bank’s decision to be patient on raising interest rates.
For more information on the markets, visit ourcurrent affairs category.
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• U.S. Markets Fall Swiftly Before Close On Renewed Trade Fears
• 5 REIT ETFs To Consider For Long Term Profits
• $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year?
READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || U.S. Stock ETFs Lose Their Grip on Dimming Trade Hopes: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. U.S. markets and stock exchange traded funds pared earlier gains toward the end of Tuesday's session as skepticism over an end to the ongoing trade war takes hold. On Tuesday, the Invesco QQQ Trust ( QQQ ) fell 0.4%, SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF ( DIA ) was down 1.0% and SPDR S&P 500 ETF ( SPY ) slipped 0.9%. Markets soured in the last half of Tuesday as risk-on sentiment shifted in face of the increased likelihood of a protracted trad war between the U.S. and China. On Monday, President Donald Trump stated he was not yet ready to make a deal with China, fueling speculation of a slowing global economy in the fallout, but he expected a deal could eventually be reached, Reuters reports. The market is trying to keep this momentum going but there is a lack of upside catalysts and there still are and I dont know what is going to drive this higher, Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab, told Reuters. Any time the buyers step in, the excitement just kind of wears off and fizzles by the end of the day, and were seeing that again today. Meanwhile, investors shifted from risk-on toward more safe-haven assets, which sent yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes to their lowest level since October 2017 while the spread between the 10-year and 3-month bills shrunk to nearly a 12-year low. The communication services sector was the lone S&P 500 segment still in the green in late-afternoon trade as shares of some media companies strengthened after Goldman Sachs analyst said Activision is on the cusp of an earnings inflection, upgrading the stock to a buy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Additionally, the broader market also weakened on concerns over the health of the economy, following weakening home sales data and lower retail sales. Erik Nielsen, group chief economist at UniCredit Bank in London, pointed out that the U.S. is in the late stages of the economic cycle but the natural cooling of the economy expected at this time has been delayed due to the loose fiscal policy under the Trump administration and the central banks decision to be patient on raising interest rates. Story continues For more information on the markets, visit our current affairs category . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Stock Markets Tumble To Lowest Levels Since March 8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019 U.S. Markets Fall Swiftly Before Close On Renewed Trade Fears 5 REIT ETFs To Consider For Long Term Profits $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year? READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Bitcoin Whales Bought the F**king Dip: Research: Bitcoin whales - investors or firms with at least 1,000 BTC - bought the crypto market dip with a vengeance in late 2018, possibly spurring the 2019 rally. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : When the whales start splashing, you can be sure that a major Bitcoin market move is afoot. New research reveals that these high-rolling crypto investors accumulated a staggering 450,000 BTC over the past nine months, especially as the market careened toward its bear market lows in late 2018. In other words, the whales bought the freaking dip. And now theyre riding the bull market tidal wave all the way to the bank. Diar: Whales Own 1/4 of All BTC And Theyre Buying More bitcoin whale balances Whale wallets accumulated Bitcoin extremely rapidly toward the end of 2018. | Source: Diar According to the latest issue of Diar , more than one-fourth of all Bitcoin funds are held in whale wallets with more than 1,000 BTC each. The research article correlates the increase in significant holdings with the last time Bitcoin was at its current price (last August) and points out that addresses holding this level of coin have increased to over 26% of the circulating BTC supply. The analysis excludes Coinbase -controlled addresses because the US crypto exchange giant created a number of these whale wallets when it massively reorganized its cold storage system. If it had included them, then more than 1.2 million BTC would rest in addresses with between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC each. Instead, about 450,000 BTC have entered these semi-active accounts within the last nine months, with major accumulation taking place at the bottom of the bear market in December. Private, non-institutional investors have been accumulating Bitcoin like nobodys business, and hodling it but not on crypto exchanges. Diar writes: Bitcoins held by major addresses mostly of which are exchanges have seen an exodus of over 300K Bitcoins since the start of 2018. At peak, these addresses held 750,000 more Bitcoins than they do today, 21% of the total circulating supply versus 16% today. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Bitcoin Whales Bought the F**king Dip: Research: ByCCN: When the whales start splashing, you can be sure that a major Bitcoin market move is afoot. New research reveals that these high-rolling crypto investors accumulated a staggering 450,000 BTC over the past nine months, especially as the market careened toward its bear market lows in late 2018.
In other words, the whales bought the freaking dip. And now they’re riding the bull market tidal wave all the way to the bank.
Whale wallets accumulated Bitcoin extremely rapidly toward the end of 2018. | Source: Diar
According to thelatest issue of Diar, more than one-fourth of all Bitcoin funds are held in “whale” wallets with more than 1,000 BTC each. The research article correlates the increase in significant holdings with the last time Bitcoin was at itscurrent price(last August) and points out that addresses holding this level of coin have increased to over 26% of the circulating BTC supply.
The analysis excludesCoinbase-controlled addresses because the US crypto exchange giant created a number of these “whale wallets” when it massively reorganized its cold storage system. If it had included them, then more than 1.2 million BTC would rest in addresses with between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC each. Instead, about 450,000 BTC have entered these semi-active accounts within the last nine months, with major accumulation taking place at the bottom of the bear market in December.
Private, non-institutional investors have been accumulating Bitcoin like nobody’s business, and “hodling” it – but not on crypto exchanges. Diar writes:
“Bitcoins held by major addresses – mostly of which are exchanges – have seen an exodus of over 300K Bitcoins since the start of 2018. At peak, these addresses held 750,000 more Bitcoins than they do today, 21% of the total circulating supply versus 16% today.” || Bitcoin Whales Bought the F**king Dip: Research: ByCCN: When the whales start splashing, you can be sure that a major Bitcoin market move is afoot. New research reveals that these high-rolling crypto investors accumulated a staggering 450,000 BTC over the past nine months, especially as the market careened toward its bear market lows in late 2018.
In other words, the whales bought the freaking dip. And now they’re riding the bull market tidal wave all the way to the bank.
Whale wallets accumulated Bitcoin extremely rapidly toward the end of 2018. | Source: Diar
According to thelatest issue of Diar, more than one-fourth of all Bitcoin funds are held in “whale” wallets with more than 1,000 BTC each. The research article correlates the increase in significant holdings with the last time Bitcoin was at itscurrent price(last August) and points out that addresses holding this level of coin have increased to over 26% of the circulating BTC supply.
The analysis excludesCoinbase-controlled addresses because the US crypto exchange giant created a number of these “whale wallets” when it massively reorganized its cold storage system. If it had included them, then more than 1.2 million BTC would rest in addresses with between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC each. Instead, about 450,000 BTC have entered these semi-active accounts within the last nine months, with major accumulation taking place at the bottom of the bear market in December.
Private, non-institutional investors have been accumulating Bitcoin like nobody’s business, and “hodling” it – but not on crypto exchanges. Diar writes:
“Bitcoins held by major addresses – mostly of which are exchanges – have seen an exodus of over 300K Bitcoins since the start of 2018. At peak, these addresses held 750,000 more Bitcoins than they do today, 21% of the total circulating supply versus 16% today.” || ETF Strategies to Help Investors Hedge, Seek Yield in Changing Markets: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
ETF investors should consider a strategic hedge to the equities market along with a source of yield and returns to better manage future downside risks and still participate in any further upside potential.
On the recent webcast,Hedge or Seek Yield: What Advisors Need to Know, Kevin McCreadie, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer at AGF Management Limited, and Bill DeRoche, Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager at AGF Investments LLC, delved into ways to diversify and hedge against market volatility in a prolonged bull run.
The AGF Investments strategists pointed out that the equities market can experience wide oscillations in any given year, with the S&P 500 seeing a 10.8% decline during its worst before ending the calendar year with a -4.9% return.
Part of the greater volatility associated with these large benchmarks may be attributed to their traditional market capitalization-weighted indexing methodologies where the largest and historically best performing stocks now make up huge positions in these cap-weighted indices. For instance, the top 6 components of the S&P 500 now make up 17% of the benchmark's total weight, compared to the bottom 290, which also only make up 17% of the index.
The strategists pointed out that institutional investors are concerned that the economic cycle is turning as many investors shifts away from equities in the near future. While the global trend is a move away from equities, we also witnessed a shift within equity portfolios to strategies with lower risk. Diversification and the inclusion of alternative investments have become more important as a traditional stock and bond portfolio mix may not provide the same type of returns investors have been accustomed to.
Consequently, investors should adapt their portfolio to be more diversified than before. Allocating strategically to proven equity market hedges is one way to potentially insulate a portfolio from unexpected market events and help compound wealth.
For the income-minded investor, the strategists argued that rates will remain low versus their long-term average. Meanwhile, valuations of many dividend equities are above historical norms due to strong returns and asset flows as many avoid fixed income exposure over concerns of a rising interest rate environment. Given the current low-yield environment coupled with heightened equity market volatility, income-seeking investors face unprecedented challenges.
Alternative investment strategies may be a good way for investors to diversify away from traditional equity and fixed-income allocations and still maintain upside potential. Alternatives provide diversification through low to non-correlated return sources; greater risk-adjusted returns; reduced volatility and risk; hedging against rising interest rates or inflation; downside protection and capital preservation.
Investors can look to something like theAGFiQ Global Infrastructure ETF (GLIF) for exposure to the growing need for infrastructure spending. The infrastructure category has historically offered higher dividend yields than global fixed-income and global equities, along with greater predictability of long-term cash flows. The ETF may be able to capture the growing demands of economic developing that are driving more funding into transport, power and other systems, which require about $69.4 trillion globally, according to Mckinsey Global Institute.
Investors may consider theAGFiQ Hedged Dividend Income ETF (DIVA) , which tracks the INDXX Hedged Dividend Income Index, to capture strong current yield capital appreciation potential with a risk profile similar to a corporate bond index. The fund holds 100 equally weighted securities within the universe of the largest 1000 US stocks that have paid consistent or growing dividends and which have the highest dividend yields. Additionally, the fund shorts approximately 150 to 200 stocks, within the same universe, that have the lowest-to-no dividend history and low yields. Due to its indexing methodology, investors may find higher yields than dividend stocks while potentially hedging against volatility of equity markets.
Additionally, investors can look to theAGFiQ Dynamic Hedged U.S. Equity ETF (USHG)to better address volatility and risk management. The AGFiQ Dynamic Hedged U.S. Equity ETF provides exposure to a diversified portfolio of U.S. equities, while seeking to provide long-term capital appreciation with lower volatility using embedded downside risk management which seeks to protect capital. The ETF offers exposure to the long-term growth potential of U.S. equities using a multi-factor approach designed in an effort to have lower volatility and better risk-adjusted returns relative to the market through its use of a dynamic hedging model.
Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about strategies for the current market environment canwatch the webcast here demand.
POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM
• SPY ETF Quote
• VOO ETF Quote
• QQQ ETF Quote
• VTI ETF Quote
• JNUG ETF Quote
• Top 34 Gold ETFs
• Top 34 Oil ETFs
• Top 57 Financials ETFs
• Stock Markets Tumble To Lowest Levels Since March
• 8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019
• U.S. Markets Fall Swiftly Before Close On Renewed Trade Fears
• 5 REIT ETFs To Consider For Long Term Profits
• $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year?
READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || ETF Strategies to Help Investors Hedge, Seek Yield in Changing Markets: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. ETF investors should consider a strategic hedge to the equities market along with a source of yield and returns to better manage future downside risks and still participate in any further upside potential. On the recent webcast, Hedge or Seek Yield: What Advisors Need to Know , Kevin McCreadie, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer at AGF Management Limited, and Bill DeRoche, Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager at AGF Investments LLC, delved into ways to diversify and hedge against market volatility in a prolonged bull run. The AGF Investments strategists pointed out that the equities market can experience wide oscillations in any given year, with the S&P 500 seeing a 10.8% decline during its worst before ending the calendar year with a -4.9% return. Part of the greater volatility associated with these large benchmarks may be attributed to their traditional market capitalization-weighted indexing methodologies where the largest and historically best performing stocks now make up huge positions in these cap-weighted indices. For instance, the top 6 components of the S&P 500 now make up 17% of the benchmark's total weight, compared to the bottom 290, which also only make up 17% of the index. The strategists pointed out that institutional investors are concerned that the economic cycle is turning as many investors shifts away from equities in the near future. While the global trend is a move away from equities, we also witnessed a shift within equity portfolios to strategies with lower risk. Diversification and the inclusion of alternative investments have become more important as a traditional stock and bond portfolio mix may not provide the same type of returns investors have been accustomed to. Consequently, investors should adapt their portfolio to be more diversified than before. Allocating strategically to proven equity market hedges is one way to potentially insulate a portfolio from unexpected market events and help compound wealth. For the income-minded investor, the strategists argued that rates will remain low versus their long-term average. Meanwhile, valuations of many dividend equities are above historical norms due to strong returns and asset flows as many avoid fixed income exposure over concerns of a rising interest rate environment. Given the current low-yield environment coupled with heightened equity market volatility, income-seeking investors face unprecedented challenges. Alternative investment strategies may be a good way for investors to diversify away from traditional equity and fixed-income allocations and still maintain upside potential. Alternatives provide diversification through low to non-correlated return sources; greater risk-adjusted returns; reduced volatility and risk; hedging against rising interest rates or inflation; downside protection and capital preservation. Story continues Investors can look to something like the AGFiQ Global Infrastructure ETF ( GLIF ) for exposure to the growing need for infrastructure spending. The infrastructure category has historically offered higher dividend yields than global fixed-income and global equities, along with greater predictability of long-term cash flows. The ETF may be able to capture the growing demands of economic developing that are driving more funding into transport, power and other systems, which require about $69.4 trillion globally, according to Mckinsey Global Institute. Investors may consider the AGFiQ Hedged Dividend Income ETF ( DIVA ) , which tracks the INDXX Hedged Dividend Income Index, to capture strong current yield capital appreciation potential with a risk profile similar to a corporate bond index. The fund holds 100 equally weighted securities within the universe of the largest 1000 US stocks that have paid consistent or growing dividends and which have the highest dividend yields. Additionally, the fund shorts approximately 150 to 200 stocks, within the same universe, that have the lowest-to-no dividend history and low yields. Due to its indexing methodology, investors may find higher yields than dividend stocks while potentially hedging against volatility of equity markets. Additionally, investors can look to the AGFiQ Dynamic Hedged U.S. Equity ETF (USHG) to better address volatility and risk management. The AGFiQ Dynamic Hedged U.S. Equity ETF provides exposure to a diversified portfolio of U.S. equities, while seeking to provide long-term capital appreciation with lower volatility using embedded downside risk management which seeks to protect capital. The ETF offers exposure to the long-term growth potential of U.S. equities using a multi-factor approach designed in an effort to have lower volatility and better risk-adjusted returns relative to the market through its use of a dynamic hedging model. Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about strategies for the current market environment can watch the webcast here demand. POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Stock Markets Tumble To Lowest Levels Since March 8 High Flying Biotech ETFs for 2019 U.S. Markets Fall Swiftly Before Close On Renewed Trade Fears 5 REIT ETFs To Consider For Long Term Profits $30,000 Bitcoin By The End Of The Year? READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > View comments || Study shows a Facebook token would entice new users to crypto: As Facebook’s plans for the cryptocurrency world creep further into the public eye, astudyfrom finance information siteLendEDUfound that a coin from Facebook would likely bring new investors to the crypto market. The company asked 1,000 Americans over a two-day period about their attitudes and activities surrounding crypto and Facebook, and found Facebook's brand would help spur adoption of its coin.
While 91% of respondents said they had not invested in big players like Ethereum, Bitcoin and Ripple, 18% said they would be interested in buying Facebook's rumored stablecoin. Another 18% said they were unsure if they’d invest, and the remaining 64% said they weren’t interested. A third of those uninterested were already crypto investors.
More than half of those who said they would consider investing in Facebook's coin attributed their trust in the firm's name as a primary reason behind their interest. This metric is particularly encouraging, and may abate concern that the company’s previous privacy scandals would stifle usage, according to LendEDU.
Facebook’s Marketplace, a community buying and selling feature on the platform, would also bolster any crypto product, according to LendEDU. Respondents indicated they’d be more likely to use the Marketplace platform with the introduction of crypto, and more than half of those who don’t currently use the Marketplace said the introduction of a Facebook coin on the platform would entice them to start. LendEDU attributed the positive response to the real-world application the Marketplace creates for crypto.
Talks of a Facebook crypto project continue to circulate, most recently withreportsof a “GlobalCoin” by 2020. The company alsoregisteredan LLC in Geneva under the name “Libra Networks,” citing blockchain developments in the register.
[Social Media Buzz]
great project and success
#blockchain #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #ethereum #ICO #P2PS #P2PSF #startup https://t.co/6hsVmDtjEV || Uptrend is Confirmed Says This Week’s Crypto Technical Analysis @trustnodes #Bitcoin #Crypto Markets #Editorial #Ethereum #Litecoin #Ripple https://t.co/z16XgWz3fA || De la pelota de letras a Bitcoin: Andrés López invita a pagar hamburguesas con BTC | CriptoNoticias - Bitcoin, blockchains y criptomonedas https://t.co/mq4wsQNfDi || @elonmusk hey elon! there are too many f...
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8319.47, 8574.50, 8564.02, 8742.96, 8209.00, 7707.77, 7824.23, 7822.02, 8043.95, 7954.13
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00, 9633.39, 9608.48, 9686.44, 9663.18, 9924.52, 9650.17, 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49, 8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45, 8869.67, 8787.79, 8755.25, 9078.76, 9122.55, 8909.95, 8108.12, 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48, 5225.63, 5238.44, 6191.19, 6198.78, 6185.07, 5830.25, 6416.31, 6734.80, 6681.06, 6716.44, 6469.80, 6242.19, 5922.04, 6429.84, 6438.64, 6606.78, 6793.62, 6733.39, 6867.53, 6791.13, 7271.78, 7176.41, 7334.10, 7302.09, 6865.49, 6859.08, 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80, 7096.18, 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32, 7117.21, 7429.72, 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-04-26]
Volume: 33070154491, RSI (14-day): 62.70, 50-day EMA: 7198.61, 200-day EMA: 7893.67
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin Miner Maker Ebang Files for a $100M US IPO: Ebang International Holdings, one of the leading manufacturers of bitcoin mining equipment, is taking another stab at going public, this time farther from home and with a smaller fundraising target.
The Hangzhou, China-based firm aims to raise up to $100 million from an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S., according to anApril 24 filingwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Chinese firm would be listed under the ticker symbol EBON on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Loop Capital Markets in Chicago and AMTD Global Markets in Hong Kong are the underwriters on the deal.
This is Ebang’s second attempt to go public after it failed to do so on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) in June 2018. The target proceeds from that would-be IPO wereestimatedto be $1 billion.
Related:Chinese City Known for Bitcoin Mining Seeks Blockchain Firms to Burn Excess Hydropower
Founded in 2010, Ebang is among the earliest China-based hardware companies, such as Bitmain and Canaan Creative, to make application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips and fabless integrated circuits (ICs) forbitcoinmining machines. Chinese miners contribute over65 percentof the computing power on the Bitcoin network.
Ebang generates over 82 percent of its revenue from making bitcoin miners. It raked in $109 million in revenue last year, down nearly 66 percent from 2018. Its net loss for 2019 more than tripled to $41.1 million, according to the filing.
The firm confidentially filed for the IPO in February without disclosing pricing terms, according toRenaissance Capital.
Ebang is one of several crypto companies that failed to launch an IPO in Hong Kong and later came to the U.S. for another shot.
Related:The Rise of ASICs: A Step-by-Step History of Bitcoin Mining
Rival bitcoin miner makersBitmainandCanaan Creativetried to go public on HKEX but their plans fell through because local regulators werereluctantto allow any crypto-related company listings.
Canaan later managed tolaunchits IPO on Nasdaq last December.
Huobi Group, one of the top crypto exchanges by volume, acquired a Hong Kong-based electronics manufacturer last year in a bid to get listed through areverse takeover.
However, the process has been put on hold due to strict mergers-and-acquisitions regulations.
While Ebang is unsure of what impact the upcominghalvingin May would have on bitcoin’s price, the firm sees ever-changing regulations in China, potential sharp drops in the price and the COVID-19 pandemic as substantial risk factors for its revenue streams, according to the filing.
“The significant drop in the bitcoin price is expected to have a negative effect on the value of our bitcoin mining machine inventory and incentivize us to increase credit sales,” the firm said in the filing, referring to the March market crash.
The Chinese government onceplannedto phase out crypto mining businesses and did not change the provision until several months ago.Varying policiesfrom different provinces also pose a challenge for bitcoin miners.
For example, Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China, one of the main areas that offer cheap electricity for mining farms, warned local mining enterprises that were operating illegally to close their operations before Aug. 30, 2018. Many small miners that did not register with the local government were considered illegal at the time.
The coronavirus outbreak in China hasdelayedthe delivery of mining machines from almost all the manufacturers to their clients.
“The outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 in China has resulted in a severe disruption of social and economic activities in China,” according to the filing.
• Bitcoin Halving 2020: The ‘Arms Race’ for Miner Efficiency Intensifies
• Arctos Inks $1M Sale and Leaseback Deal With Bitcoin Miner Blockware || Bitcoin Miner Maker Ebang Files for a $100M US IPO: Ebang International Holdings, one of the leading manufacturers of bitcoin mining equipment, is taking another stab at going public, this time farther from home and with a smaller fundraising target.
The Hangzhou, China-based firm aims to raise up to $100 million from an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S., according to anApril 24 filingwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Chinese firm would be listed under the ticker symbol EBON on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Loop Capital Markets in Chicago and AMTD Global Markets in Hong Kong are the underwriters on the deal.
This is Ebang’s second attempt to go public after it failed to do so on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) in June 2018. The target proceeds from that would-be IPO wereestimatedto be $1 billion.
Related:Chinese City Known for Bitcoin Mining Seeks Blockchain Firms to Burn Excess Hydropower
Founded in 2010, Ebang is among the earliest China-based hardware companies, such as Bitmain and Canaan Creative, to make application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips and fabless integrated circuits (ICs) forbitcoinmining machines. Chinese miners contribute over65 percentof the computing power on the Bitcoin network.
Ebang generates over 82 percent of its revenue from making bitcoin miners. It raked in $109 million in revenue last year, down nearly 66 percent from 2018. Its net loss for 2019 more than tripled to $41.1 million, according to the filing.
The firm confidentially filed for the IPO in February without disclosing pricing terms, according toRenaissance Capital.
Ebang is one of several crypto companies that failed to launch an IPO in Hong Kong and later came to the U.S. for another shot.
Related:The Rise of ASICs: A Step-by-Step History of Bitcoin Mining
Rival bitcoin miner makersBitmainandCanaan Creativetried to go public on HKEX but their plans fell through because local regulators werereluctantto allow any crypto-related company listings.
Canaan later managed tolaunchits IPO on Nasdaq last December.
Huobi Group, one of the top crypto exchanges by volume, acquired a Hong Kong-based electronics manufacturer last year in a bid to get listed through areverse takeover.
However, the process has been put on hold due to strict mergers-and-acquisitions regulations.
While Ebang is unsure of what impact the upcominghalvingin May would have on bitcoin’s price, the firm sees ever-changing regulations in China, potential sharp drops in the price and the COVID-19 pandemic as substantial risk factors for its revenue streams, according to the filing.
“The significant drop in the bitcoin price is expected to have a negative effect on the value of our bitcoin mining machine inventory and incentivize us to increase credit sales,” the firm said in the filing, referring to the March market crash.
The Chinese government onceplannedto phase out crypto mining businesses and did not change the provision until several months ago.Varying policiesfrom different provinces also pose a challenge for bitcoin miners.
For example, Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China, one of the main areas that offer cheap electricity for mining farms, warned local mining enterprises that were operating illegally to close their operations before Aug. 30, 2018. Many small miners that did not register with the local government were considered illegal at the time.
The coronavirus outbreak in China hasdelayedthe delivery of mining machines from almost all the manufacturers to their clients.
“The outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 in China has resulted in a severe disruption of social and economic activities in China,” according to the filing.
• Bitcoin Halving 2020: The ‘Arms Race’ for Miner Efficiency Intensifies
• Arctos Inks $1M Sale and Leaseback Deal With Bitcoin Miner Blockware || Bitcoin Miner Maker Ebang Files for a $100M US IPO: Ebang International Holdings, one of the leading manufacturers of bitcoin mining equipment, is taking another stab at going public, this time farther from home and with a smaller fundraising target. The Hangzhou, China-based firm aims to raise up to $100 million from an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S., according to an April 24 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Chinese firm would be listed under the ticker symbol EBON on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Loop Capital Markets in Chicago and AMTD Global Markets in Hong Kong are the underwriters on the deal. This is Ebangs second attempt to go public after it failed to do so on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) in June 2018. The target proceeds from that would-be IPO were estimated to be $1 billion. Related: Chinese City Known for Bitcoin Mining Seeks Blockchain Firms to Burn Excess Hydropower Founded in 2010, Ebang is among the earliest China-based hardware companies, such as Bitmain and Canaan Creative, to make application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips and fabless integrated circuits (ICs) for bitcoin mining machines. Chinese miners contribute over 65 percent of the computing power on the Bitcoin network. Ebang generates over 82 percent of its revenue from making bitcoin miners. It raked in $109 million in revenue last year, down nearly 66 percent from 2018. Its net loss for 2019 more than tripled to $41.1 million, according to the filing. The firm confidentially filed for the IPO in February without disclosing pricing terms, according to Renaissance Capital . Second chances Ebang is one of several crypto companies that failed to launch an IPO in Hong Kong and later came to the U.S. for another shot. Related: The Rise of ASICs: A Step-by-Step History of Bitcoin Mining Rival bitcoin miner makers Bitmain and Canaan Creative tried to go public on HKEX but their plans fell through because local regulators were reluctant to allow any crypto-related company listings. Story continues Canaan later managed to launch its IPO on Nasdaq last December. Huobi Group, one of the top crypto exchanges by volume, acquired a Hong Kong-based electronics manufacturer last year in a bid to get listed through a reverse takeover . However, the process has been put on hold due to strict mergers-and-acquisitions regulations. Risk factors While Ebang is unsure of what impact the upcoming halving in May would have on bitcoins price, the firm sees ever-changing regulations in China, potential sharp drops in the price and the COVID-19 pandemic as substantial risk factors for its revenue streams, according to the filing. The significant drop in the bitcoin price is expected to have a negative effect on the value of our bitcoin mining machine inventory and incentivize us to increase credit sales, the firm said in the filing, referring to the March market crash. The Chinese government once planned to phase out crypto mining businesses and did not change the provision until several months ago. Varying policies from different provinces also pose a challenge for bitcoin miners. For example, Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China, one of the main areas that offer cheap electricity for mining farms, warned local mining enterprises that were operating illegally to close their operations before Aug. 30, 2018. Many small miners that did not register with the local government were considered illegal at the time. The coronavirus outbreak in China has delayed the delivery of mining machines from almost all the manufacturers to their clients. The outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 in China has resulted in a severe disruption of social and economic activities in China, according to the filing. Related Stories Bitcoin Halving 2020: The Arms Race for Miner Efficiency Intensifies Arctos Inks $1M Sale and Leaseback Deal With Bitcoin Miner Blockware || New Crypto Bridge Will Make Tether Transactions Cheaper, CTO Says: Tether’s CTO hopes a new EOS-Bitcoin interoperability bridge could one day make tether cheaper and faster because users will be able to make transactions on less-congested blockchains. Paolo Ardoino, who is also the CTO of Tether’s sister company, crypto exchange Bitfinex, told CoinDesk this is part of the reason he has been working with the team behind the token wrapper project, pTokens, to develop an interoperability bridge between the Bitcoin and EOS networks. Launching Friday, the company will initially support a bitcoin wrapper on the EOS mainnet – pBTC. Essentially, a user will be able to deposit funds in one network, say Bitcoin, and pToken will issue the user the equivalent amount of “wrapped” tokens on the new network. The company hopes to support a bridge between litecoin and EOS , as well as EOS and ethereum . Related: First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins An EOS wrapper for a tether ERC20 token is currently being planned, according to pTokens’ website. Founder Thomas Bertani told CoinDesk there were no plans yet to consider developing an EOS wrapper for tether on Omni, a secondary layer on top of the Bitcoin protocol. See also: Tether CTO Claims USDT Stablecoin Can Boost DeFi Liquidity A key benefit of interoperability is users can better leverage the different characteristics of different blockchains, Ardoino said. One of the initial reasons Tether created an ERC20 version in 2017 was so it could sidestep the congested Bitcoin network. “Omni was costing a lot of money, up to $500, Ethereum wasn’t so saturated, so the fees were cheap. Every trader would have preferred to move the funds onto the Ethereum blockchain because it was cheaper and faster,” Ardoino said. Related: Libra’s Long Road From a Facebook Lab to the Global Stage: A Timeline Ethereum speeds slowed due to network congestion by the end of 2017, however. Creating an interoperability bridge between it and EOS – which has higher throughput and much less chain activity – essentially provides users with a “backup” option, so they can continue to trade with minimal fees and quick settlement times, he claimed. Story continues Many crypto exchanges, including Bitfinex, already offer users two different types of tether, so the ability to swap between protocols already exists in some form. However, interoperability bridges make it easier for users themselves to move between the different protocols. Ardoino foresees Bitfinex and Tether will continue to perform chain swaps. Major exchanges looking to swap $10 million worth of tether between two chains will always be able to organize it with them directly, he said. But, he added, greater interoperability will allow retail investors with smaller amounts of tether to also shift freely between the different blockchains. See also: Tether Stablecoin Launches on Its Seventh Blockchain Ardoino hopes his involvement with pTokens might encourage other developers to build bridges to other protocols, creating greater connections between all the different chains. Enhancing interoperability may one day act as the bridge for tether to launch on many other new protocols, he added. Related Stories Stablecoins Aren’t Inflating Crypto Market, Study Concludes Miners Trick Stablecoin Protocol PegNet, Turning $11 Into Almost $7M Hoard || New Crypto Bridge Will Make Tether Transactions Cheaper, CTO Says: Tether’s CTO hopes a new EOS-Bitcoin interoperability bridge could one day make tether cheaper and faster because users will be able to make transactions on less-congested blockchains. Paolo Ardoino, who is also the CTO of Tether’s sister company, crypto exchange Bitfinex, told CoinDesk this is part of the reason he has been working with the team behind the token wrapper project, pTokens, to develop an interoperability bridge between the Bitcoin and EOS networks. Launching Friday, the company will initially support a bitcoin wrapper on the EOS mainnet – pBTC. Essentially, a user will be able to deposit funds in one network, say Bitcoin, and pToken will issue the user the equivalent amount of “wrapped” tokens on the new network. The company hopes to support a bridge between litecoin and EOS , as well as EOS and ethereum . Related: First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins An EOS wrapper for a tether ERC20 token is currently being planned, according to pTokens’ website. Founder Thomas Bertani told CoinDesk there were no plans yet to consider developing an EOS wrapper for tether on Omni, a secondary layer on top of the Bitcoin protocol. See also: Tether CTO Claims USDT Stablecoin Can Boost DeFi Liquidity A key benefit of interoperability is users can better leverage the different characteristics of different blockchains, Ardoino said. One of the initial reasons Tether created an ERC20 version in 2017 was so it could sidestep the congested Bitcoin network. “Omni was costing a lot of money, up to $500, Ethereum wasn’t so saturated, so the fees were cheap. Every trader would have preferred to move the funds onto the Ethereum blockchain because it was cheaper and faster,” Ardoino said. Related: Libra’s Long Road From a Facebook Lab to the Global Stage: A Timeline Ethereum speeds slowed due to network congestion by the end of 2017, however. Creating an interoperability bridge between it and EOS – which has higher throughput and much less chain activity – essentially provides users with a “backup” option, so they can continue to trade with minimal fees and quick settlement times, he claimed. Story continues Many crypto exchanges, including Bitfinex, already offer users two different types of tether, so the ability to swap between protocols already exists in some form. However, interoperability bridges make it easier for users themselves to move between the different protocols. Ardoino foresees Bitfinex and Tether will continue to perform chain swaps. Major exchanges looking to swap $10 million worth of tether between two chains will always be able to organize it with them directly, he said. But, he added, greater interoperability will allow retail investors with smaller amounts of tether to also shift freely between the different blockchains. See also: Tether Stablecoin Launches on Its Seventh Blockchain Ardoino hopes his involvement with pTokens might encourage other developers to build bridges to other protocols, creating greater connections between all the different chains. Enhancing interoperability may one day act as the bridge for tether to launch on many other new protocols, he added. Related Stories Stablecoins Aren’t Inflating Crypto Market, Study Concludes Miners Trick Stablecoin Protocol PegNet, Turning $11 Into Almost $7M Hoard || US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin: The U.S. departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) have seized coronaprevention.org, alleging its owner tried to sell the domain for bitcoin after posting about it in a “hacker’s forum.” Announced late Friday , the unidentified owner of the site tried to sell the domain to an undercover agent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Investigations unit, who said they wanted to use the site to sell fake COVID-19 testing kits, a plan the owner reportedly said was “genius.” According to a warrant attached to the press release, the owner of coronaprevention.org, referred to as “Subject A,” listed the domain for sale on a forum “known to focus on content related to, and populated by users interested in, hacking and hijacking online accounts” a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the virus. Related: No Visits, No Parole: Ross Ulbricht Is More Alone Than Ever During COVID-19 The undercover agent reached out, and Subject A allegedly said they were charging $500 payable in bitcoin for the domain (according to the warrant, such domains are usually closer to $20). The agent ultimately sent a partial payment to an undisclosed bitcoin address. The news comes on the heels of the DOJ’s announcement that it had “disrupted” hundreds of domains that were being used to shill scams related to COVID-19. A list of the domains seized was not available, and it is unclear whether Friday’s seizure was related. However, earlier this week a DOJ spokesperson told CoinDesk, “The department is aware of the reported increase in COVID-19-related fraud involving various virtual payment platforms and appreciates the proactive assistance of many in the cryptocurrency community to thwart those schemes.” The spokesperson did not respond to an additional question about which entities it was working with. Related Stories Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask || US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin: The U.S. departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) have seized coronaprevention.org, alleging its owner tried to sell the domain for bitcoin after posting about it in a “hacker’s forum.” Announced late Friday , the unidentified owner of the site tried to sell the domain to an undercover agent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Investigations unit, who said they wanted to use the site to sell fake COVID-19 testing kits, a plan the owner reportedly said was “genius.” According to a warrant attached to the press release, the owner of coronaprevention.org, referred to as “Subject A,” listed the domain for sale on a forum “known to focus on content related to, and populated by users interested in, hacking and hijacking online accounts” a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the virus. Related: No Visits, No Parole: Ross Ulbricht Is More Alone Than Ever During COVID-19 The undercover agent reached out, and Subject A allegedly said they were charging $500 payable in bitcoin for the domain (according to the warrant, such domains are usually closer to $20). The agent ultimately sent a partial payment to an undisclosed bitcoin address. The news comes on the heels of the DOJ’s announcement that it had “disrupted” hundreds of domains that were being used to shill scams related to COVID-19. A list of the domains seized was not available, and it is unclear whether Friday’s seizure was related. However, earlier this week a DOJ spokesperson told CoinDesk, “The department is aware of the reported increase in COVID-19-related fraud involving various virtual payment platforms and appreciates the proactive assistance of many in the cryptocurrency community to thwart those schemes.” The spokesperson did not respond to an additional question about which entities it was working with. Related Stories Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask || US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin: The U.S. departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) have seized coronaprevention.org, alleging its owner tried to sell the domain for bitcoin after posting about it in a “hacker’s forum.” Announced late Friday , the unidentified owner of the site tried to sell the domain to an undercover agent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Investigations unit, who said they wanted to use the site to sell fake COVID-19 testing kits, a plan the owner reportedly said was “genius.” According to a warrant attached to the press release, the owner of coronaprevention.org, referred to as “Subject A,” listed the domain for sale on a forum “known to focus on content related to, and populated by users interested in, hacking and hijacking online accounts” a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the virus. Related: No Visits, No Parole: Ross Ulbricht Is More Alone Than Ever During COVID-19 The undercover agent reached out, and Subject A allegedly said they were charging $500 payable in bitcoin for the domain (according to the warrant, such domains are usually closer to $20). The agent ultimately sent a partial payment to an undisclosed bitcoin address. The news comes on the heels of the DOJ’s announcement that it had “disrupted” hundreds of domains that were being used to shill scams related to COVID-19. A list of the domains seized was not available, and it is unclear whether Friday’s seizure was related. However, earlier this week a DOJ spokesperson told CoinDesk, “The department is aware of the reported increase in COVID-19-related fraud involving various virtual payment platforms and appreciates the proactive assistance of many in the cryptocurrency community to thwart those schemes.” The spokesperson did not respond to an additional question about which entities it was working with. Related Stories Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask || InvestorPlace Mission Control: Investing During the Coronavirus Panic: InvestorPlace Mission Control aims to bring readers up-to-the-second financial insights, updates and stock ideas to help you avoid danger and seize opportunity during the biggest crisis of our time.
[Check back often, as this page will be updated with more news, insights and stock picks each day the market is open.]
[Friday, April 24, 4:30 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
In his daily column,InvestorPlace’sBret Kenwell highlighted a big source of action in the stock market today.Facebook(NASDAQ:FB) announced a new offering —Messenger Rooms. Boy, did this stir things up. Messenger Roomsallows free video calls for up to 50 people, as opposed to Facebook’s messenger which caps the free service at eight people. FB stock hit new monthly highs on the news.
But Facebook wasn’t the only stock seeing some action.Zoom Video Communications(NASDAQ:ZM) fell 6.1% on the day as investors digested its new competitor. Just a few hours early, ZM stock was climbing as it reported 300 million users.
What des this mean for investors? Well, Zoom has been a hot stock in 2020, although it has sparked privacy concerns. In response, itreleased a new security updateto address “Zoombombings” and other complaints.
Just yesterdayInvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall wrote thatFB stock was headed for success, even in the market downturn. He likes the Big Tech name for its social media market share and Whats App platform. Plus, the company announced Wednesday that it spent $5.7 billion for a stake in India’sJio Platforms. That stake includes Reliance Jio — a social media site that hasracked up 388 million users.
Keep a close eye on Messenger Rooms. It’s sure to be in the spotlight in the coming days.
[Friday, April 24, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Hard-hit states New York and New Jersey are reporting adecline in new Covid-19 hospitalizations and cases, and Italy also appears to be feeling some relief. Elsewhere in the market, oil prices are stabilizing and fan favoriteGilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) closed higher by 2%.
There’s another piece of news helping stocks Friday. President Donald Trump signed the $484 billion interim stimulus package, sending much-needed funds to the Paycheck Protection Program. Of that total, $25 billion is also going toward ramping up testing.
Although stocks are still down for the week, theS&p 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeended Friday in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 1.39%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 1.09%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 1.65%
[Friday, April 24, 3:44 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A wave of recent of antibody testing across the U.S. has shed a new light on the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting it could be more widespread (and less fatal) than originally thought.
Separate studies which sampled random populations inSanta Clara County,Los Angeles CountyandNew Yorkfor Covid-19 antibodies showed that somewhere between 3% to over 20% of the general populous has actually contracted the novel coronavirus strain over the past few months. In Santa Clara, for example, researchers at Stanford sampled 3,300 people. The population-weighted prevalence of Covid-19 antibodies in that cohort was 2.8%. A similar study in New York City found that 21.2% of the city’s residents have Covid-19 antibodies.
InvestorPlaceMarkets Analysts Luke Lango recently crunched the numbers on these antibody tests, and came to an interesting conclusion: If the antibody tests are accurate, then the true mortality rate of Covid-19 is 0.3%, and just 0.1% for individuals under 65. If true, the total mortality rate would not be much higher than the seasonal flu’s 0.1% to 0.15% death rate for younger Americans.
He says that’s a reason to buy stocks. According to Lango:
“The science surrounding Covid-19 is changing. If the new science holds up — and Covid-19 proves to be less fatal than originally thought — then policy, consumers and markets will all react accordingly. Policy will shift towards more aggressive reopening. Consumer behavior will normalize more quickly than expected. And stocks will rally.”
To be sure, the big “if” there is “if the science holds up” — which it might not. Many critics have argued that these antibody tests don’t have great specificity, which means they could yield false positives. Enough false positives could throw the numbers off by an order of magnitude.
But Lango argues there’d have to be more than just a few false positives to materially change the science:
“You have to remember two things. First, these antibody tests are ofhealthypeople, meaning they aren’t testing any sick or even semi-sick people. If you do that, the number of positive cases will almost assuredly go up. Second, there’s a lot of noise in flu death reporting. When someone contracts the flu, then develops pneumonia from the flu, and then dies, the cause of death is most normally reported as ‘pneumonia’ — not the flu.”
Either way, there’s a still a lot we don’t know about Covid-19, and all that uncertainty is sure to weigh on stocks in the meantime. If the news flow does skew optimistic, as Lango believes, then stocks will go higher. But it’s also possible for the news flow to skew pessimistic. If it does, watch out below.
[Friday, April 24, 1:59 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
College dormitories have long felt like stable properties. Each fall, new students arrive at universities to replace those who have graduated. And eventually, universities need to build new housing for students. That predictability has madeAmerican Campus Communities(NYSE:ACC) a go-to investment.
The real estate investment trust (REIT) has been around since 1993, and it owns and manages student housing properties across the U.S. In September 2019,InvestorPlace’sJosh Enomoto wrote that nothing short of an“apocalyptic crisis”could deter ACC.
Investors need to get serious about one thing — an apocalypsecouldbe coming for higher education thanks to the novel coronavirus. Today, Rutgers University announced that it wouldhalt new construction, andBloomberg’sJanet Lorin reports that universities are beginning to fear a significant loss of state funding.
In other bad news,Axios’Erica Pandey reports a lengthy list of “crises” facing these institutions of higher education. Revenue is dropping. Enrollment is dropping as tuition rises. And colleges are now anticipating asecond semester of remote learning. AsInside Higher Edwrites,students aren’t willing to pay for housing they aren’t living in. This push has already led many universities to offer room and board refunds, and that trend could continue.
So what about ACC? When the company reported earnings April 20, it noted that the pandemic had not yet had a financial impact on its business. It says its modern dorms are better equipped to promote social distancing, but it is still seeing students opt for refunds as they move home. With that uncertainty in mind, ACCwithdrew guidance for the rest of 2020.
Investors don’t have perfect information about the future of higher education. ACC could very well weather the storm and come back out on the other side. Until we know more, though, keep your tuition money far away from shares.
[Friday, April 24, 12:51 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates has an odd role in the pandemic. According toTheNew York Times, he is theleading target for falsehoodsabout the novel coronavirus. Many Americans believe he created the virus and is hoping to profit from it.
On Thursday, undeterred by those attacks, he released alengthy update to hisGatesNotesblog, outlining how technological innovation is key in limiting global damage from the outbreak. So what innovation does he think is necessary?
• Gates argues that in order for consumers to feel safe, a treatment must be 95% effective. Outside of traditional drugs, he’s looking at using antibodies for passive immunization. He’s also watchingPlasma Bot, a collaborative effort to use plasma from recovered cases to treat those who are sick.
• Vaccine development typically takes five years. Gates is particularly interested in RNA vaccines — injections that include bits of genetic code that better help the human body fight viruses.
• Gates supports at-home testing, and believes in prioritizing rapid-diagnostic testing for healthcare workers.
• China and South Korea required those who were sick to turn over GPS data to enable contract tracing. Gates believes most countries will not allow this, but should instead opt for interviewing those who test positive. He said he is also watching digital-tracing proposals, such as ones that rely on Bluetooth technology.
The bottom line: Gates doesn’t think we’ll see “business as usual” for quite some time. However, these innovations can limit the damage andhelp countries reopen safely.
[Friday, April 24, 12:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Yesterday, President Donald Trump posed a question that troubled many in the healthcare world. He asked if disinfectants could be used toclean the inside of the body, through an injection. In an odd, but perhaps unsurprising twist,Reckitt Benckiser(OTCMKTS:RBGLY) stock is having a heyday Friday.
Let’s start with the basics. RB manufactures Lysol and Dettol, two popular disinfectant brands. And after the Lysol maker published a response on the improper use of disinfectants, RBGLY stock is up. On a day when the major indices are struggling, over-the-counter shares are up 2.3%.
For what it’s worth, Reckitt Benckiser has had a good year — the stock is down “just” 1.2%.
No, a well-timed rebuke isn’t likely to create long-term gains for the Lysol maker. But in a weird, pandemic-driven market, it doesn’t hurt to know what’s driving the action.
From thepublished statement:
“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.”
[Friday, April 24, 11:03 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Bank stocks are struggling in 2020 — they’re down harder than the broader market. Many experts, like renowned investor Steve Eisman, don’t see a reason for the decline. More than that,Eisman thinks bank stocks are the best long-term play right now.
Eisman, famous for shorting subprime mortgage loans during the 2008 financial crisis, understands that many investors are scared. Big banks are a symbol of the previous financial crisis, and it’s hard for Americans to trust them again.
But he’s not about to let this opportunity get away. He has several long positions in U.S. banks, which he believes are ready to weather the crisis after post-2008 regulatory changes. If you want to get creative like Eisman, know that he’s also shorting European and Canadian bank stocks.
InvestorPlace’sNicolas Chahine agrees with Eisman. He wrote last week that amid first-quarter earnings drama,JPMorgan(NYSE:JPM),Bank of America(NYSE:BAC) andWells Fargo(NYSE:WFC) all look to be strong buys. Why? He writes investors are punishing them for the past, and not taking into consideration their strong futures. When the pandemic eases, thebig banks will rally.
Plus, Chahine wrote again this week that BAC stock perfectly embodies the“boring is beautiful”investing approach. It’s safe to say he’s bullish on the space.
[Friday, April 24, 10:18 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlace’sBret Kenwell reported yesterday that the virtual NFL draft wasbringing hope to beaten-down casino names. He pointed to names likePenn National Gaming(NASDAQ:PENN) andMGM Resorts(NYSE:MGM), set to benefit from the rise of sports betting. ButBarron’sConnor Smith highlights thatLas Vegas Sands(NYSE:LVS) stock was thereal leader of the rally.
LVS stock closed higher Thursday by 12% — but why? As Smith writes, revenue dropped 51% in the last quarter. But Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is confident in the company’s continued investments in China’s Macau gambling region.
That’s enough for JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff. He just upgraded his rating on the stock to “overweight” from “neutral,” although he did cut his price target to $42.
From Greff, viaBarron’s:
“We view LVS as a way to play what should be improving [gross gaming revenue] GGR trends in Macau, a gaming/travel dependent market that experienced the COVID-19 downturn first and should experience a bounce/recovery earlier, at least in relation to potential recoveries in U.S. regional gaming, Las Vegas Strip, and U.S. business travel lodging markets.”
Writing in early April,InvestorPlace’sJosh Enomoto agreed on Las Vegas Sands’ potential. He likes the stock because it’spopular with Baby Boomers, and he anticipates the generation will return to properties like The Venetian when the pandemic eases. Plus, “snowbird’ retirees might be making a more permanent trip to Las Vegas soon.
[Friday, April 24, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The House of Representatives voted in line with the Senate Thursday afternoon, passing the $484 billion interim stimulus package. Oil prices are up slightly Friday morning. And evenGilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) stock is higher in pre-market trading. Perhaps investors are getting ready to end the week on an optimistic note.
With that in mind, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare starting the day in the green. Who knows what’s ahead?
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 0.66%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 0.74%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.46%
[Friday, April 24, 9:19 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall is bullish on Chinese biotech stocks. I know what you’re probably thinking. The novel coronavirus started in China. It was the first nation to start shutting down!
But McCall points out that 2020 is already shaping up to be the year of U.S. biotech, and he’s bullish on these up-and-coming opportunities out of China. Why? The Chinese government is seriously devoting attention to biotech companies, and they represent massive growth. Plus, the pandemic is drawing attention to the importance of biotech around the world. That’s why McCall recommendedZai Lab(NASDAQ:ZLAB) to hisEarly Stage Investorsubscribers back in April 2019.
And in 2020, Zai Lab andWuXi Biologicsare crushing the market. These companies are in what’s set to be a $627 billion industry in the near future — up from just $5.4 billion two years ago.
As McCall writes, this combination of Chinese stocks and biotech plays is a great investment opportunity. You don’t want to miss out.
Read more of McCall’s thoughts on how the pandemic is boosting this hypergrowth industryhere.
[Thursday, April 23, 4:51 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In his daily column,InvestorPlace’sBret Kenwell highlighted yet another consequence of the novel coronavirus. TheNFL draft is moving online— and the fully virtual proceedings begin tonight. As more states have moved to allow sports betting, Kenwell writes that this could be big news for certain gambling stocks. And according toBloomberg, it’s also a“lifeline” for broadcasters.
Disney(NYSE:DIS), owner of the ESPN and ABC networks, will be broadcasting the three-day process. Since live sporting events have come to a halt, look for DIS stock to rise once the draft gets underway. Shares closed just barely higher in the stock market today, as the company said it’s seeing “unprecedented demand” for advertising.
The real winners though could be the sports betting companies.Penn National Gaming(NASDAQ:PENN) is a stockloved byInvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall. The company recently acquired Barstool sports, and Kenwell identifies it as a potential winner. Shares closed higher Thursday by 2.3%.
Plus, look to more traditional gambling names likeMGM Resorts(NYSE:MGM) andCaesar’s Entertainment(NASDAQ:CZR). MGM closed higher by 3.7% and CZR stock closed higher by 0.2%.
[Thursday, April 23, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Thursday saw a day of choppy trading. Stocks opened higher — but just slightly — after 4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Then, the major indices started to climb higher.
That all changed whenGilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) took a hit. Leaked reports from the World Health Organization claim Gilead’s remdesivir was not effective in treating patients in a now-suspended Chinese trial. Worse, the report says the drug actually caused negative side effects in some patients. GILD shares closed Thursday down by 4.3%. But investors should proceed with caution. AsInvestorPlaceMarket Analyst Luke Lango writes,remdesivir may not actually be a flop.
With that back-and-forth action, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeended the day nearly even.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 0.05%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 0.17%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 0.01%
[Thursday, April 23, 3:57 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Today,InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango rounded up30 consumer stocks to buy once the pandemic is over. His list included top names likeStarbucks(NASDAQ:SBUX) andTesla(NASDAQ:TSLA) — and it’s certainly worth a close look. But one stock in particular stands out in light of recent news.
Lango is recommendingL Brands(NYSE:LB), the parent of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. Before the novel coronavirus struck, L Brands was in the middle of selling Victoria’s Secret to private equity firmSycamore Partners. On Wednesday, Sycamore Partners walked out of that deal. It was set to pay $525 million for a majority stake in the lingerie retailer, but it claims L Brands violated its merger agreement when it began closing stores and furloughing staff.
How does that all add up? AsAxios’Dan Primack reports, aclause in the merger agreementrequires L Brands torun Victoria’s Secret in an “ordinary manner”before the deal is completed. It’s safe to say the pandemic shook things up too much.
Does that mean investors should run away screaming? Retailers are in a rough spot right now, and this deal looked like a lifeline for L Brands. The company says it will “pursue all legal remedies” to ensure the deal goes through. And that’s enough for Lango.
He writes that as the pandemic eases, the deal will likely go through. Plus, Victoria’s secret is “dead weight” on the company. A slimmer L Brands will improve sales trends and boost cash flows. It looks like other investors agree. LB stock is up 4.6% on the day.
[Thursday, April 23, 3:06 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After Monday saw some Wild West action in oil prices, officials were calling for an investigation. At one point in the day, prices for theMay contract of crude oil dipped negative— by almost $40. But Terry Duffy, CEO of the company behind the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), isn’t phased by the uproar.
Let’s start with the basics. The CME is an exchange for trading options and futures. On Monday, traders panicked that the world was simply running out of storage space for crude and refined oil. This supply-demand imbalance rocked the market, and futures prices dropped.
But what does it mean to say prices hit negative -$37.63? This figure represents theprice of a barrel of oil to be delivered next month— which is where the whole “futures” thing comes in. Its move negative means that sellers would have topaybuyers $37.63 to get the barrel off their hands.
Duffy says that’s just how the futures market works, but some retail investors are upset. For typical stock investments, potential losses are capped at $0. If you spend $100 to buy into a stock, and the underlying company falls apart, you’ll only lose $100. That’s not the case in the futures world.
Does that mean it’s time for things to change at the CME? Duffy doesn’t think so. He says:
“The small retail investors are somebody that we do not target. We go for professional participants in our marketplace. But at the same time, they need to make sure they understand the rules and it’s up to their futures commodity merchants to make sure every participant knows those rules.”
Retail investors, take heed. As Monday’s price action proves, the futures market is a game with very different rules. You don’t want to be caught losing.
[Thursday, April 23, 12:35 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Does quarantine life have you craving a burrito? Apparently, plenty of Americans fed their hunger throughChipotle’s(NYSE:CMG) offerings. So why is that a big deal? Chipotle has long been a hot restaurant stock, so why do investors care now?
Well, restaurant sales were down hard in March. The American lifestyle changed greatly in a few weeks as stay-at-home orders and lockdowns meant shoppers got more of their food from grocery stores. Restaurants have struggled to make ends meet, ramping up new curbside, delivery and take-out offerings.
But Chipotle is winning. A new report from theRobinhood Snacksblog — from trading platformRobinhood—hypes up the fast-casual chain’s digital success. Digital sales jumped 81% for the quarter, and 100% in March. Those are crazy figures.
Robinhood Snacksmakes the case that the success is driven by new CEO Brian Niccol. He’s embraced partnerships withDoorDashandUber’s(NYSE:UBER) Uber Eats.
Analysts are bullish on CMG stock too. After it reported earnings, analysts at Credit Suisse, Stifel Nicolaus and KeyBanc Capital raised their price targets. Credit Suisse’s new target of $940implies almost $100 in share-price upside.
And that’s not it.InvestorPlace’sNicolas Chahine says that CMG stock is a “healthy gazelle leaping in a field full of sick or dying elk.” With that in mind, he’s recommending investorsbuy shares on a pullback toward $800 or $760 per share.
[Thursday, April 23, 1:35 p.m.]Contributed byJohn Jagerson and Wade Hansen
By last Friday, 9% of the companies in theS&P 500had reported earnings. According to FactSet, the blended earnings growth rate, which includes estimates for companies that have yet to report, is -14.5%, which will be the largest decline on a year-over-year basis since 2009.
We contend that since companies are missing expectations to a much greater degree this quarter, we could easily break the 2009 record. When second-quarter earnings reports are released in July, we definitely expect the decline to break the record.
As you might expect, the energy and basic materials sectors are leading the contraction in earnings growth. Take for example,Halliburton(NYSE:HAL), the oil services firm.
The company reported earnings on Monday and had to resort to some extraordinary accounting to show a “profit.” While HAL’s adjusted earnings showed income of 31 cents per share, its non-adjusted or net loss for the first quarter was $1.16 per share. For perspective, HAL’s non-adjusted or net loss for the previous 12 months was $1.28.
However, there are some bright spots this quarter that are worth watching. As we’ve been talking about recently inStrategic Trader, if companies are willing to provide guidance for future earnings — even if the outlook is negative — investors will likely perceive this as a positive for stock prices. Any guidance could help firm up support levels.
[Thursday, April 23, 1:25 p.m.]Contributed byNeil George
Stocks aren’t the only investment option for growth. Bonds also provide plenty of opportunities for appreciation while providing ample streams of income. That’s why the main model portfolio of myProfitable Investingadvisory is called theTotal ReturnPortfolio.
Right now, through the special vehicles with credit guarantees from the Treasury, the Federal Reserve is making massive buys of U.S. corporate and municipal bonds. It’s doing this to both stabilize the bond and credit markets now as well as working to drive down yields and credit costs for corporations, municipalities and other debt issuers.
Both segments — and others — have the Fed as a major buyer that underpins prices.
So, I continue to recommend buying bonds, specifically U.S. corporate bonds and municipal bonds for total return, which includes price growth as well as income. While March brought some massive upheavals to these sectors as plunging stocks resulted in panic selling of everything in the quest for cash, there’s a lot of value in both corporates and munis right now.
[Thursday, April 23, 1:15 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) stock is down 4.8% in intraday trading on bad news regarding its remdesivir. In breaking news fromFinancial Times, the World Health Organization accidentally leaked a report about a Chinese trial of Gilead’s drug.
According to the report, the Chinese trial showedremdesivir did not improve patients’ conditionor reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream. The report — which WHO said it did not intend to publish — states that the drug caused significant side effects in some patients.
China suspended this trial, along with one other, because of low enrollment. Gilead says it is important to consider that fact when reviewing the leaked findings.
From Gilead, via theFinancial Times:
“Importantly, because this study was terminated early due to low [enrollment], it was underpowered to enable statistically meaningful conclusions. As such, the study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease.”
There are multiple clinical trials in the United States that are still ongoing. A preliminary report from Chicago indicates that patients are responding positively to remdesivir. GILD stock soared on that news late last week.
[Thursday, April 23, 11:55 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
It’s no secret that grocery store stocks have been hot so far in 2020. Grocery shopping in general has been turned upside down — once a dreaded errand, hitting the neighborhood store is now a critical outing to support life at home.
Investors have rallied behindCostco(NASDAQ:COST) andKroger(NYSE:KR). Consumer demand for staple food items — and hair dye — continues to rise. But Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh has aslightly less-known play on this trend. He’s recommendingSprouts Farmers Market(NASDAQ:SFM), a Phoenix-based grocer. The company has approximately 340 supermarkets across the United States.
So why does Parikh like it? He’s bullish on SFM stock as it continues to expand its partnership withInstacart. Plus, it is already rolling out curbside pick-up and online delivery options. The Oppenheimer analyst has raised it to an “outperform” and gave it a price target of $25. Shares opened this morning at $21.30.
Turns outInvestorPlaceMarket Analyst Luke Lango is also bullish on the name. He wrote last week that Sprout is one of thetop consumer stocks winning from the stay-at-home economy. Even though it’s much smaller than its competitors, Lango thinks high demand will boost its outperformance for weeks to come. Note that Sprout reports earnings on May 5.
[Thursday, April 23, 11:46 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Is it safe to reopen the economy? Should the government completely subsidize test manufacturing companies? Just how many Americans must get tested before scientists know the full extent of damage wrought by the novel coronavirus? The answers to those questions are unclear, but now economists are raising even more. Should the government or researchers pay individuals to get tested?
New reporting fromThe New York Timesraises an interesting and important dilemma. Americans who are most afraid of the novel coronavirus — and who are most likely to believe they are infected — are the ones getting tested.
That poses a problem for researchers. If only the people who think they’re sick participate in studies,scientists don’t have representative samplesto work off of.
So how do you get everyone to get tested? According to three economists, you pay them. Such incentives could “coax” people who don’t believe they’re sick to get tested, thus improving the data. The economists — Magne Mogstad, Alexander Torgovitsky and Andres Santos — lay out a complex plan for determining the perfect monetary incentive.
But the solution they provide sounds simple. From theNew York Times:
“Tracking the infection rate in the population is essential to track the evolution of the virus, including asymptomatic cases, and how it affects people of different races and income levels. That is critical to deciding when to relax restrictions, evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken and calibrating epidemiological models.”
As the article points out, this plan has its opponents. But in a world driven by testing — or the lack thereof — it’s important for investors to consider a variety of solutions.
[Thursday, April 23, 10:30 a.m.]Contributed byNicholas Stern
History looks like it’s repeating itself with a major bitcoin (BTC) catalyst to higher prices.
According torecent research by Glassnode, there are now more serious bitcoin investors with 1,000 BTC or more invested than at any time in the past two years. At a current price of $7,179.92 per bitcoin, that amounts to folks who are investing over $7 million or higher in the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
And just like today, the last time this sort of influx of high rollers into bitcoin happened, we were on the cusp of a major catalyst that sent prices soaring.
That catalyst is known as bitcoin’s “halvening” or “halving” and we’re just a few short weeks away from the next one.
If you’re not familiar, the halvening is an event baked into bitcoin’s source code since the beginning.
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall explains the whole process in detail and howyou can take advantage here.
Basically, what’s happening is that the reward for “mining” bitcoins will soon drop in half — from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25 bitcoins. The idea is to limit the finite supply of the crypto, which is only 21 million bitcoin. That makes bitcoin a deflationary asset, as opposed to many of the world’s fiat currencies, including the U.S. dollar and the euro, which are currently being printed to the tune of trillions of dollars. It seems that in the current type of environment where the potential for inflation is elevated, the bitcoin bulls start to emerge from the woodwork.
With demand for bitcoin remaining steady or growing and supply shrinking, the idea is that prices go up and to the right.
Per Glassnode, the last time bitcoin’s halvening was set to take place in 2016, the number of investors with at least 1,000 BTC was around 1,850 — nearly the same amount as today.
Here’s what happened to bitcoin prices following that 2016 bitcoin halvening.
Source: Chart by InvestorPlace
But it’s not just the so-called bitcoin “whales” (large investors) who are hopping aboard.
Major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase recently reported it’s seen the number of people putting exactly $1,200deposits onto the exchange quadruple. That happens to be the same amount of money the U.S. government is sending to adult citizens making under $75,000 per year due to Covid-19.
Meanwhile, long-term bitcoin investors have been adding over 75,000 BTC to their existing positions per day. It’s another sign that those who are aware of the halvening’s impact onhigher prices are stocking upahead of time.
While the recent action in bitcoin is exciting, there’s another way to invest in cryptocurrencies with even more profit potential. The last time bitcoin soared to new heights after the 2016 halvening, some of bitcoin’s smaller peers (by market cap), didexponentiallybetter.
And Matt is predicting what’s coming next could make what’s happened in the past look like child’s play.
Click here to sign up for Matt’s upcoming presentationon what’s happening in the crypto markets right now and the best way to play it.
[Thursday, April 23, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Wednesday finally brought some relief to the stock market. Investors were cheering on a rally in oil prices and news that the Senate has passed an interim stimulus package. But these weekly jobless claims numbers certainly put a damper on things.
4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total above 26 million. The big takeaway — the novel coronavirus has erased more jobs than were added after the Great Recession.
With that in mind, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeopened higher on Thursday, but just slightly.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 0.42%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 0.33%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.39%
[Thursday, April 23, 9:18 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Investors are probably getting used to seeing shocking figures every Thursday morning. Today, we learned that4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Yes, that figure is down 810,000 from the previous week, but it’s still staggering. Since the novel coronavirus began wreaking havoc on businesses, 26.4 million Americans have lost their jobs.
Thatsurpassesthe amount of jobs gained since the financial crisis.
Stock futures are holding up in pre-market trading, but there are still a few minutes to go before market open.
[Wednesday, April 22, 5:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlace’sWilliam White reported yesterday thatSnap’s(NYSE:SNAP) first-quarter earnings report sentSNAP stock soaring in after-hours trading. Those gains continued Wednesday, as Snap closed up 36.7%. Its revenue figure came in at $462.5 million, $30 million higher than estimated.
AsInvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango argues, that’s more than just a victory for Snap. Yes, it shows that consumers are spending their time in quarantine sending each other selfies. But it also could mean that worries over ad revenue were overblown.
Lango wrote earlier this month that although ad spending was dropping, digital ad stocks aren’t equities to scoff at. He recommended7 Top Digital Ad Stocks to Buy for a Rebound.
Several names on that list ended Wednesday higher.Facebook(NASDAQ:FB) closed higher by 6.7%.Pinterest(NYSE:PINS) rallied 14.2%.The Trade Desk(NASDAQ:TTD),Alphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) andTwitter(NYSE:TWTR) also ended the day higher.
This is good news for digital ad stocks, butBarron’sEric J. Savitz warns it’stoo early to say these companies are in the clear. Snap’s conference call shows that while revenue is up, revenue growth slowed in March and early April.
Regardless, investors are excited. These digital ad stocks have big potential, especially in a post-pandemic world.
[Wednesday, April 22, 4:35 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
AsInvestorPlace’sBret Kenwellhighlighted in his daily column today, potential geopolitical conflict is one great way to boost oil prices. That’s exactly what worked on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump threatened to escalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran. In an early tweet, he instructed the U.S. Navy to“shoot down and destroy” Iranian gunboats.
What’s behind his message? Last week the U.S. Department of Defense accused Iran of sending 11 fast boats to “harass” American warships in the Persian Gulf. Iran also just launched its first military satellite, adding to Trump’s anger.
Regardless of his rationale, it worked. For the first day this week, plunging oil prices weren’t the focus of trading. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for crude,closed higher by 20%.
What’s Kenwell’s takeaway? Well, a one-day rally isn’t enough to save the oil market, and it doesn’t address storage concerns. He writes that several refineries have halted production in response to concerns over the supply-demand imbalance.
Despite the reality,Marathon Petroleum(NYSE:MPC) andChevron(NYSE:CVX), two companies idling refineries, saw their stocks jump Wednesday.
[Wednesday, April 22, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Investors got a breather on Wednesday, as stocks held their pre-market gains to close higher. Oil prices spiked after President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. Navy to“shoot down” Iranian boats. Plus, news that the Senate passed a $484 billion interim stimulus package is still giving the market some optimism.
With that in mind, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall closed deep in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 2.27%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 1.96%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 2.81%
[Wednesday, April 22, 3:40 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) is up 3.3% in intraday trading Wednesday, as a pre-print study shows rival coronavirus treatment hydroxychloroquine may not be effective.
Gilead’s remdesivir is considered by many to be the leading candidate for treating the novel coronavirus, although President Donald Trump and his closest allies have been touting hydroxychloroquine. The latter drug is typically used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Some scientists thought it would be able to keep the virus from fusing with host cells — essentially keeping it from spreading. It is also used in treating malaria.
However, a new study from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs suggests neither hydroxychloroquine or a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycinprevented patients from dying or needing mechanical ventilation.
Novartis(NYSE:NVS) andSanofi(NASDAQ:SNY) are two manufacturers of the drug and its generic versions. Neither stock seems particularly affected by the news — SNY shares are down 1% now.
BioPharma Dive’sJonathan Gardner is quick to point out that there are flaws with this data. It comes from a retrospective analysis, not a true clinical trial. Additionally, the study has yet to go through the peer-review process.
Regardless, some investors will take this as a win for Gilead. GILD stock has been hot in 2020, up almost 25% year-to-date. Does this mean you should buy shares now?InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango says no — although he’s bullish on remdesivir and the stock. He sayswait for dips below $80 to accumulate more shares.
[Wednesday, April 22, 2:45 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A new study from Morgan Stanley shows thatTesla’s(NASDAQ:TSLA) lead over traditional automakers continues to grow. The firm asked 25 investors if they would rather give $10 billion to Tesla,General Motors(NYSE:GM) orToyota(NYSE:TM). The money would be invested in each company’s efforts to develop all-electric and autonomous vehicles.
Perhaps not surprisingly,56% of respondents chose Tesla. TSLA stock is up 72% year-to-date, while GM and TM stock are down on the year.
TSLA stock is up 5% in intraday trading. Look to drive out of the pandemic and into an all-electric future behind CEO Elon Musk.
[Wednesday, April 22, 2:24 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On April 14, we wrote in this column about the risks municipal bonds — traditionally a stable investment vehicle — now pose to investors. At the time, we warned that many municipalities that use bond offerings to fund new hotels and convention sites, in efforts to ramp business travel, are facing major losses. With that in mind, we cautioned that investors should give their bond portfolios a close look.
Now,Barron’sLeslie P. Norton istaking stock of the victims. She writes that two new municipal bond delinquencies have emerged, both a result of the novel coronavirus.
• Interest payments weren’t made on a series of Massachusetts Development Finance Agency Health Care Facility Revenue bonds. Proceeds from the bond sales funded the Lafayette Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Facility and the Fairhaven Healthcare Center.
• The city of Topeka, Kansas is no longer able to properly fund a series of bonds used to build a new recreation center at Topeka’s YMCA.
Once again, check your bond holdings. You don’t have perfect information, but do any municipal bonds look particularly risky?
[Wednesday, April 22, 1:20 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Analysts at Morgan Stanley have oneout-of-the-box reason for recommendingyou buyApple(NASDAQ:AAPL) stock now. The firm tracks nitrogen dioxide levels in China’s air quality, an indicator of industrial activity. According to analysts, Apple’s factories are now working at a higher-than-normal rate.
Based on this unique metric, Morgan Stanley infers that Apple will likely beat its estimates for iPhone and iPad shipments. Any positive surprise like that is sure to have investors cheering.
FromMorgan Stanley, viaCNBC(subscription required):
“Air quality data from 4 major Chinese manufacturing locations suggests that device production remains above seasonal levels which combined with build forecasts that are above our forecast point to potential for better than expected F3Q guidance.”
The firm has an “overweight” rating on AAPL stock and a price target of $298.
[Wednesday, April 22, 11:50 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On Wednesday,Tyson Foods(NYSE:TSN) became the third ...major meat producer to shutter a pork plant in response to the novel coronavirus. It follows in the footsteps ofSmithfield FoodsandJBS(OTCMKTS:JBSAY).
According to a press release from the company, Tyson isindefinitely suspending operations at a pork plantin Waterloo, Iowa. The plant has been running at reduced levels because of employee absenteeism. Tyson says it will invite the plant’s 2,800 workers in for testing later this week.
AsBloomberg’sJames Attwood and Michael Hirtzer report, these disruptions are causingwholesale price prices to surgearound the U.S.
“The growing disruptions in slaughtering and processing are cascading through supply chains, affecting farmers, truckers, distributors and supermarkets. While there’s plenty of frozen inventory in the U.S, wholesale pork prices have surged.”
We’ve reported in this column before how the pandemic is affecting the supply chain. When Smithfield Foods closed its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, CEO Kenneth Sullivan said he was “deeply worried” about U.S. meat supply.
TSN stock is down 2.4% in intraday trading on the concerning news.
[Wednesday, April 22, 11:25 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
President Donald Trump and a handful of states — namely Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee — are leading the push to reopen. Heck, while investors certainly have their fears about the novel coronavirus, many believe a reopening will boost hurting markets. But companies aren’t so sure that they’re ready.
Reporting fromReuters’David Morgan shows thatcompanies are worried about reopening. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business are seeking “safe harbor” for employers who follow health and safety regulations.
Some companies fear they’ll be held liable for employees and patrons who contract Covid-19 after states reopen.
Plus, when businesses reopen, who knows if consumers will return?Movie theaters in Georgiawill resume business as normal — just with strict social distancing practices — on April 27. Movie theater stocks likeCinemark(NYSE:CNK) andAMC Entertainment(NYSE:AMC) skyrocketed last week on that news. Optimism in the markets is nice, but are movie-goers really going to turn falling revenue around this weekend?
For investors, know that the path to recovery is uncertain. Companies, not just consumers, are worried.
[Wednesday, April 22, 10:25 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Everyone wants to know what the economic recovery will look like. Will we see a sharp rebound higher — something like a V-shaped recovery? In a new survey fromYPO, a business leadership network, 60% of global chief executivesshared predictions for a U-shaped recovery. In this alphabet soup, a U-shaped recovery means there will be a long period between the recession and an upturn.
Another key takeaway is that CEOs are scared. As economists call for a market downturn unlike anything since the Great Depression, 11% of chief executives report their firms are at risk of not surviving. Another 40% say the pandemic poses a “severe” threat.
AsReutersreports, those in the hospitality and restaurant sectors feel most at risk. That shouldn’t be a surprise toInvestorPlace.comreaders who have tracked severe declines in restaurant and travel stocks.
[Wednesday, April 22, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Monday and Tuesday saw losses that echoed back to early April, as plunging oil prices shook up the market. But Wednesday, a different force is driving things.
President Donald Trump and Congress reached an agreement to fund an “interim” stimulus for coronavirus relief. Senatorscleared the bill in late-afternoon action Tuesday. Investors are optimistic — if passed, the bill would extend the Paycheck Protection Program and allocate more funding to hospitals and testing.
With that in mind, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare all starting Wednesday well in the green.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.93%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.82%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 2.09%
[Wednesday, April 22, 9:10 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
AsBarron’sBen Levisohn writes, there are a lot of reasons why investors typically want to own gold. One is that it’s seen as a “safe haven” investment. It’s also considered a hedge against inflation. Right now, Bank of America analyst Michael Widmer agrees — setting hisprice target for the shiny metal to $3,000.
Why? He says the Federal Reserve can’t print gold. It sounds funny, but he hits on a point that’s certainly crossed many investors’ minds. Central banks are simply taking drastic measures to boost GDP growth and inflation. But what comes next?
Whatever the answer, Widmer thinks gold is a safe bet. His 18-month price target implies 70% upside.
Bank of America analysts also have “buy” ratings onNewmont(NYSE:NEM),Agnico Eagle Mines(NYSE:AEM) andBarrick Gold(NYSE:GOLD).
[Tuesday, April 21, 4:45 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
It’s no secret that a vast amount of consumers are stuck at home. And todayInvestorPlace’sBret Kenwell highlighted in his daily column thatvideo game stocks are winning, thanks to all the boredom. According to athird-party service, users of gaming platform Steam hit an all-time high of 24.5 million just two weeks ago. Users are up, and so are sales.
For March, video game sales clocked in at $1.6 billion — an impressive 35% year-over-year increase. While sales in other categories are down hard, video game sales are up, after a seven-month decline. Kenwell writes thatNintendo’s(OTCMKTS:NTDOY) Switch console was the real winner. Nintendo saw sales double from a year ago, and the firm hit a new record for March.
Sony(NYSE:SNE) andMicrosoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) are each set to release new consoles at the end of the year. But sales of their existing Playstation 4 and Xbox One still increased by 25%.
These numbers are whyInvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall is sobullish on video game stocks. Driven on by trends in eSports, he thinks gaming will only accelerate from here.
So, there’s a lot to like, but there is one caveat.The New York Timesreported today that although sales are up,development is downas the pandemic changes workflows around the world. That doesn’t eliminate the bull case with gaming — although it is a near-term headwind.
[Tuesday, April 21, 4:10 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
According toInvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango, the science surrounding the novel coronavirus is shifting. Yesterday, we reported in this column that a study from California’s Santa Clara county found that as many as85 times more peoplehad been infected by April 1 than initially counted, adding relevance to antibody testing.
Now, asecond study— a venture between the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health — shows similar results. Between 2.8% and 5.6% of the county’s adult population tested positive for the virus’ antibody.
So for investors, this means two things. One, antibody tests are important. As President Donald Trump calls to reopen the economy, and an interim stimulus package allocates $25 billion more for testing, look for these tests to be key. One report from Harvard University calls fortesting 5 million people a daythrough early June in order to guarantee a “safe” reopening.
Borrowing from Lango’s logic, the second key takeaway is that the Covid-19 fatality rate may be much lower than scientists previously thought. He estimates that the true fatality rate could be close to 0.15% — not far away from that of the common flu.
So, as more counties find similar antibody test results, sentiment around the pandemic could shift. As Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee begin reopening certain businesses, antibody testing could help consumer behavior normalize. For investors, that would be a big win.
Granted, there are still a lot of numbers missing here. A lower-than-estimated fatality rate is good news, but fatalities are not the only consequence of the disease’s spread.
[Tuesday, April 21, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
This has been a bad week in the energy markets. After prices for the May crude oil contract turned negative Monday, they settled near $10 on Tuesday. But investors are still unhappy, particularly as the once-steady June contracted headed toward $11.
Once again, bad news for oil meant bad news for stocks. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall ended the day deep in the red.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 3.07%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 2.67%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 3.48%
[Tuesday, April 21, 2:55 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
AsAxios’Alayna Treene reports, President Donald Trump hasreached a deal with Congressto fund a $450 billion “interim” stimulus. Treene says the Senate is expected to vote on the bill — and pass it — at 4:00 p.m. today. Here are the high points:
• $310 billion will go toward replenishing the Paycheck Protection Program. Approximately $60 billion of the total is reserved for small lenders and community banks.
• $60 billion will go toward theEconomic Injury Disaster Loan program.
• $75 billion will go toward hospitals.
• $25 billion will go toward increased testing.
Investors should keep a careful eye on this “interim” stimulus and any future legislation. Increased funding for testing and the Paycheck Protection Program could add more relevance to lenders and certain biopharmaceutical names, likeAbbott Laboratories(NYSE:ABT).
[Tuesday, April 21, 2:40 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Loyal followers of this column know that I’ve been pounding the table about the death of retail that the coronavirus will bring. It is one of the most obvious and dangerous investing pitfalls that I hope investors will avoid.
I contributed to this column thatJ.C. Penney May Be But the First Retailer to FallandIn a Sign of Struggle, Neiman Marcus Skips Bond Paymentand I’ve linked to research by Louis Navellier and hisInvestorPlaceresearch staff aboutseven retail stocks investors should avoid.
Now theNew York Timesgive us more reason for caution. In a thoughtful and well-researchedarticle about American department stores, Sapna Maheshwari and Vanessa Friedman warn that “‘Very Few Are Likely to Survive.” The article has this dire warning:
“The department stores, which have been failing slowly for a very long time, really don’t get over this,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Business School. “The genre is toast and looking at the other side of this, there are very few who are likely to survive.”
Investors are wise to avoid industries where few companies are likely to survive.
So what are we to do? First of all, check your portfolio. If you own department stores and retailers, beware. For example, Matt McCall, the editor ofInvestment Opportunities, warns investors in anarticle released todaythat “M stock [Macy’s] is in serious trouble,” and that “If history repeats itself, you must sell Macy’s stock now.”
But the news isn’t all bad. For those looking to profit from the demise of retail, Neil George, the editor ofProfitable Investing, guided readers thatB. Riley Is the Top Company Cashing in on the Retail Apocalypse. George recommends that the top retail play right now may be the company that will provide alternative financing for dying retailers. It’s an interesting way to profit from the nearly sure death of wide swaths of American retail.
[Tuesday, April 21, 2:10 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
TheWall Street Journalreports today thatMcDonald’s(NYSE:MCD) is making plans toslowly reopen dining roomsin the United States. Per theWall Street Journal, McDonald’s stores in states including Georgia may begin opening as early as next week.
Last week, in an article titled,“McDonald’s Stock Remains the Gold Standard of Restaurant Names,”InvestorPlace.comcontributor Will Ashworth announced that, “Despite the fact that the Golden Arches is struggling like most restaurant chains, large and small, McDonald’s remains the gold standard of restaurant stocks.”
He pointed to the company’s strong cash flow and balance sheet before recommending that, “the Golden Arches is the restaurant stock to own over the long haul.”
Given the news that stores are set to begin reopening next week, now’s a good time to look at the company. Do you want fries with that stock purchase?
[Tuesday, April 21, 1:30 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Just a week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration emphasized it had not approved any at-home tests for the novel coronavirus, it issued anemergency-use authorizationforLabCorp’s(NYSE:LH) diagnostic test.
The new authorization allows LabCorp to use its test for at-home swabs. LabCorp’s Pixel — a home collection service — already sells at-home test kits for diabetes and heart health conditions.
According toBioPharma Divethe new test is especially important in the context of President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan to reopen the economy. His plan hinges on widespread testing, and LabCorp looks to play a major role in this as it makes the at-home test available in all states. LabCorp also maintains that this test is a great way to reduce the strain on America’s healthcare system.
Investors like the news. LH stock has been trending higher Tuesday, up 1.4% at the time of this writing.
[Tuesday, April 21, 1:03 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
The great reopening has begun. Led by Southern states like South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, some states are beginning to lift closures for retailers and other businesses after hunkering down in response to the novel coronavirus since March.
According theWall Street Journal, some retailers in South Carolina opened for business today. In Georgia, nonessential businesses like gyms, bowling alleys and barbers will begin to reopen on Friday. In Tennessee, the “vast majority” of businesses will be allowed to reopen on May 1.
Investors will be wise to keep an eye on these first few states that return to business. If the rate of infection and death from the coronavirus skyrockets, it’s safe to assume that the remainder of the nation will stay shuttered for months to come. If instead the rate of infection and death is held in check in these few vanguard states, expect the nation to return to business more quickly.
Louis Navellier, working with his research staff atInvestorPlace, has developed a list of the7 Industrial Stocks To Buy For the Market Reboundthat investors should consider as we think about the possibility of the nation’s business returning to some semblance of normal.
[Tuesday, April 21, 12:50 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Over the last few weeks,InvestorPlace.comGeneral Manager Andrew Taylor has reported on the many risks the mortgage market faces. New reporting fromThe Wall Street Journalshows how the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) hopes to address what Taylor called a “ticking time bomb.”
Here’s a refresher on the problem. One stipulation of President Donald Trump’s $2 trillion stimulus package allows homeowners to suspend mortgage payments without penalty. This puts those loans into forbearance —jeopardizing mortgage companies. Mortgage companies still must pay their investors, putting them in what many fear is a “cash crunch.”
That’s where today’s news from the FHFA comes in. The agency announced thatFannie Mae(OTCMKTS:FNMA) andFreddie Mac(OTCMKTS:FMCC) will continue to hold loans in forbearance in mortgage-backed securities. According to the FHFA, this should help with liquidity concerns, because under a previous policy Fannie and Freddie would remove loans in forbearance out of the MBS pool after four months.
Additionally, the agency has established a new policy to help mortgage servicers. According to the FHFA, once a servicer has advanced four months of missed payments on a loan, it will have no further obligation to advance scheduled payments.
From FHFA Director Mark Calabria:
“The four-month servicer advance obligation limit for loans in forbearance provides stability and clarity to the $5 trillion Enterprise-backed housing finance market. Mortgage servicers can now plan for exactly how long they will need to advance principal and interest payments on loans for which borrowers have not made their monthly payment.”
[Tuesday, April 21, 10:39 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Bank stocks have lately been a source of anxiety for many investors. Those who were in the markets during the Great Recession can’t help but worry the big banks will crumble, despite analysts maintaining this time is different. And according toBarron’s, even the dividends — at least of U.S. bank stocks —look safe now.
Why? U.S. banks are typically profitable, and they’ve historically paid out less of those profits in dividends. The big banks are preparing for the worst, expanding loan loss reserves and halting buyback programs. But now that they’re done with first-quarter earnings, analysts are breathing a sight of relief.
According to Frederick Cannon, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, viaBarron’s:
“We believe the negative impact of dividend cuts at this point — downward pressure on equity values and loss of market confidence — outweighs the modest protection of capital, and we believe that leading U.S. regulators understand this.”
JPMorgan Chase(NYSE:JPM),Citigroup(NYSE:C),Bank of America(NYSE:BAC) andWells Fargo(NYSE:WFC) are all down in intraday trading.
[Tuesday, April 21, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
To keep it simple, yesterday was a bad day in the energy markets. The May contract for crude oil plunged into negative territory,dropping $40below$0 at one point. Why? A global supply-demand imbalance is threatening to overflow storage facilities, so traders were panicking. One positive on Monday is that prices for the June crude contract held steady above $20.
That silver lining is eroding Tuesday, as prices for theJune contract hit $16this morning. Making matters worse is the fact that global benchmark Brent prices are falling 20% on Tuesday to just over$20 per barrel. Things are really getting ugly.
With that in mind, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare all opening deep in the red.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 1.6%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 2.03%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 0.96%
[Tuesday, April 21, 8:58 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Sure, some restaurants are embracing take-out and delivery services, and some have drive-thru windows to boost sales. But overall, the industry has been hit hard. Retail sales data from March showed that bar and restaurant sales dropped 26.5%.
What about solid restaurant stocks likeChipotle(NYSE:CMG) andMcDonald’s(NYSE:MCD)?InvestorPlaceanalyst Louis Navellier examined each to determine which stock was the true winner in this pandemic.
Using hisPortfolio Grader, the tool behind portfolios like thePlatinum Growth Club Model Portfolio, CMG earns a solid B rating. Thanks to a low fundamental score, McDonald’s earns a C. As Navellier writes, CMG is the clear coronavirus winner.
Read more about hisPortfolio Graderand what makes CMG stock a winnerhere.
[Monday, April 20, 4:35 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In his daily column looking at the stock market today,InvestorPlace’sBret Kenwell reported some less-than-magical news. On Monday,Disney(NYSE:DIS)furloughed 100,000 employees— that’s nearly half its total workforce. Previously, it reached an arrangement with its unions to furlough43,000 workers at its Florida theme park.
Disney has been hit particularly hard by the novel coronavirus. Its theme parks are closed and its revenue from cable — like its live sporting offerings — is down. Plus, movie theater closures have delayed several high-profile film releases, including for its Marvel franchise.
That’s why, as Kenwell reports, Credit Suisse analysts downgraded DIS stock on Monday. They lowered its rating from “outperform” to “neutral,” setting a new price target at $116.
From theCredit Suisse analysts, viaCNBC(subscription required):
“Near- to mid-term we expect Disney will remain in a more narrow trading range given a remarkable lack of operational visibility, expected severe cuts coming to street estimates.”
[Monday, April 20, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Boy, Monday was a rough day in the oil market. The May contract for West Texas Intermediate turned negative, hitting -$38.52. The June contract remains above $20.
According to analysts, this discount in near-term prices reflects massive panic over shrinking storage space. Production cuts agreed upon by OPEC and its allies have done little to correct the supply-demand imbalance.
This stunning price action has theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeclosing Monday in the red.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 1.79%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 2.44%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 1.03%
[Monday, April 20, 3:55 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Not too long ago,Alibaba(NYSE:BABA) CEO Daniel Zhang called the novel coronavirus a“black swan” event, a uniquely negative event that can have severe consequences for investors. In 2007, the events of the financial crisis similarly were described as “black swan” occurrences.
But asMorningstar’sPaul Kaplan writes, even if a black swan event is unique and unpredictable, we can still learn from such past market crashes. Here aresome key takeaways:
• Market crashes — even severe ones — are not uncommon. The stock market eventually rebounds to hit new highs after every crash.
• Compared to other recent declines, the current downturn is serious. Kaplan writes that it is comparable to the beginning of 1929.
• Kaplan examines June 1911 through December 1924, August 1929 through November 1936, February 1937 through February 1945, December 1972 through June 1983, August 2000 through May 2013 and 2020’s coronavirus downturn. Looking at the five historic downturns, it took an average of 57 months for the market to hit a trough and an average of 125 months for the market to hit its previous peak.
• Kaplan concludes that investors should stay in the market for the long run. If they do, it will remind them that rewards come with taking equity risks.
[Monday, April 20, 2:37 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A key element of President Donald Trump’s CARES Act — which came in at $2.2 trillion — was the legislation’s extension of unemployment benefits to self-employed Americans. That seems like a victory, but the on-the-ground reality is much more frustrating.
According to reporting fromBloomberg, onlytwo states thus far have begun administering benefitsto gig-economy workers. So what’s behind the hold up?
Bloomberg’sShawn Donnan, Reade Pickert and Catarina Saraiva summarize that unemployment insurance comes down state-level operations that have not adjusted their processes. One aviation contractor the trio interviewed says he’s frustrated that his state, Virginia, hasn’t been able to speed up the adjustment.
Another issue is that it’s hard to tally who counts as a gig-economy worker. One study, using information on how Americans file their taxes, thinks it’s one in six workers. Some states just don’t have a clue.
For investors, it’s clear that many gig-economy companies are struggling, as their business models are failing employees — and shareholders — in the pandemic. We reported in this column late last week thatUber(NYSE:UBER) is facing a83% sales drop in its ride-hailing business. Although it’s up 1.6% in intraday trading, UBER stock is down 19% over the last three months.
[Monday, April 20, 2:05 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
While the origins of the celebration are a bit hazy — allegedly tying back to Northern California teens in the 1970s — April 20, or 4/20, has long brought cannabis aficionados together. But with thenovel coronavirusforcing states to lockdown, what’s happening to 4/20?
Early survey results showed thatpot use reached an all-time in March, and weekly sales growth peaked March 16. Now though, as consumer spending drops, 4/20 is taking a hit.
According to theAssociated Press, what typically is a “Black Friday” for cannabis companies now feels “somber.” People aren’t celebrating, and many stores are reporting up-and-down spending. Although theAPdetails virtual gatherings in honor of 4/20, it’s clear theholiday won’t be the lifeline many cannabis stocks need.
Last week,Aurora Cannabis(NYSE:ACB) announced a1-for-12 reverse stock split. Shares currently trade for just over 70 cents.Canopy Growth(NYSE:CGC) stock is up 2.5% in intraday trading, but it’s down 27% for the year. Similarly,Tilray(NASDAQ:TLRY) is up 8.5% today, but down 60% for the year.
There’s certainly still reason to be bullish, especially in the long term. But with consumer spending down, the near-term picture certainly looks bleak.
[Monday, April 20, 1:10 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
You’ve surely seen the signs on drive-thru and take-out restaurants asking for patrons to avoid paying in cash. My neighborhoodDunkin(NASDAQ:DNKN) prefers all customers use mobile payments, so if I go through the drive-thru I make sure to pay ahead on the app. Why? Many fear — and rightfully so — that cash is the perfect vehicle for spreading the novel coronavirus.
Writing forPOLITICO, Nancy Scola asks“Is the coronavirus killing off cash?”Perhaps it is. Tech firms are stepping up to fill the gap as dollar bills get dusty in shoppers’ wallets.
PayPal(NASDAQ:PYPL) andSquare(NYSE:SQ) have been pushing their offerings, which include Venmo and Cash App. These apps facilitate contactless payments, keeping germs out of the equation. PYPL stock is up almost 5% on the year, and SQ stock is down “just” 0.6%. Both are outperforming the broader market.
As Scola writes, previous arguments against a move to a cashless society focus in on how hard changing habits can be. But the pandemic is already forcing Americans to change their habits, as many are finding themselves forced to avoid cash.
Experts predict that hygiene changes will be long-lasting, and perhaps this shift away from cash will be, too. But as Scola says, it’s too early to tell. Cash could come “roaring” back along with the handshake.
[Monday, April 20, 12:45 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Facebook(NASDAQ:FB) released itscoronavirus-tracking mapon Monday, through a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the social media platform is in a good spot to help with tracking, because it has access to large groups of people.
However, Facebook isn’t exactly known for data privacy excellence. The map relies on survey data, and the CEO insists only Carnegie Mellon researchers have access to the specifics. Over the next few days Facebook will globalize the reach of the survey to get better data.
From Zuckerberg:
“This is work that social networks are well-situated to do. By distributing surveys to large numbers of people whose identities we know, we can quickly generate enough signal to correct for biases and ensure sampling is done properly.”
FB stock is up slightly, about 0.3%, in intraday trading. Shares are still down over 12% for the year.
[Monday, April 20, 12:30 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
From a purely financial perspective, the market turmoil over the last month is scarier for recent retirees than for almost any other group of investors. Recent retirees have saved for an entire working lifetime to finally be able to stop working and focus full-time on enjoying life, then the pandemic hit. Markets went haywire, and portfolios crashed. It’s scary.
If this is your situation, there’s an article you must read. Barry Ritholtz penned an article titled,“I Just Retired, Then All THIS happened…WTF Do I Do Now?”In that article, Ritholtz identifies five steps recent retirees should do to avoid panicking in this scary time.
Develop situational awareness Have a “decumulation” strategy Understand risks of fixed income Reduce risk, cost and concentration in equities Pivot from saving to spending
My favorite? Item No. 3, where Ritholtz counsels that we should all avoid chasing huge yields in our bond holdings. The entire article is wortha read.
[Monday, April 20, 12:15 p.m.]Contributed byJessica Loder
If there’s one sector that feels like it’s doing all right in this new world, it’s internet stocks. But in a note on Monday, Bernstein warned that increasing numbers of people online doesn’t mean anything if companies can’t cash in on them.
“We don’t place much stock in the record usage stats Internet companies have floated over the past several weeks,” wrote Mark Shmulik and Nikhil Devnani in the emailed note. “Eventually, we return to school/work and a lot of that incremental engagement disappears without ever being monetized.”
They point out that the uncertainty makes even trying to guess at what digital ad spending is going to look like in a few weeks, much less a few months, an impossible task. And with most companies choosing to refrain from offering guidance, the sector isn’t really looking that much more appealing than many of the rest.
So, is there positive news? Well, they think so. “Across the board, the stocks have been hit hard, underperforming theS&P 500by an average -750bps since Feb. 18,” they wrote. But … “Market response to pre-releases fromTwitter(NYSE:TWTR) andPinterest(NYSE:PINS) suggest that bad news is already priced in.”
[Monday, April 20, 11:15 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Just last week,Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) led the market higher on news that early data from one of its clinical trials showed hope. Doctors at the Chicago hospital reported in a video that patients seemed to be responding positively to Gilead’s remdesivir, and that many patients enrolled in its trial had already been discharged from the hospital.
But Wells Fargo analysts think that good news is already priced in. That’s why in a pre-market move, the firm downgraded GILD stock from “equal weight” to “overweight.” The analysts are maintaining an $87 price target.
From theWells Fargo analysts, viaCNBC(subscription required):
“While we remain optimistic regarding prospects for remdesivir to reduce COVID19 burden and view the drug as an important component of potential economic recovery, we are less certain of its commercial value given likely initial distribution at cost or below, and believe that peak opportunity is already reflected in current valuation.”
[Monday, April 20, 11:00 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall almost bought a gaming console this weekend, and he might start buying gaming stocks in the near future. Why? Many Americans stuck at home having nothing more to do than hop on their favorite console and play video games to pass the time.
Plus, gaming is ahypergrowth trend that continues to acceleratethanks to eSports. By 2023, MarketsandMarkets thinks the eSports industry will be worth almost $2.2 trillion. It’s really time to start gaming. As McCall waits to buy his new console, here are five gaming stocks he’s watching now:
Activision Blizzard(NASDAQ:ATVI)Electronic Arts(NASDAQ:EA)Sea Limited(NYSE:SE)Zynga(NASDAQ:ZNGA)Nintendo(OTCMKTS:NTDOY)
Read the rest of McCall’s thoughts on buying gaming stocks during the pandemichere.
[Monday, April 20, 10:32 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After President Donald Trump released a three-phase plan for reopening the U.S. economy, investors are now left waiting for states to begin the first phase. Once again, a lot comes down to testing.
A new study out of California’s Santa Clara County bringsnew relevance to antibody testing, which can show if someone had previously been infected with thenovel coronavirus. The study estimates that between 2.49% and 4.16% of people in the county had been infected before April 1, which is as much as 85 times higher than what officials recorded by that date.
Why do these numbers matter? They improve disease modeling. Plus, as plans for reopening require widespread testing, look for antibody tests, not just virus tests, to pick up. Many scientists believe that once infected with the virus, an individual gains immunity to it.
Abbott Laboratories(NYSE:ABT), one company that makes antibody tests, is up 0.4% in intraday trading. TheS&P 500is down 1.1%.
[Monday, April 20, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Headed into the weekend we had a nearly 700-point rally in theDow Jones Industrial Average. But on Monday, oil prices fell to a21-year low, as West Texas Intermediateprices fell 38%and Brent prices fell 6%. This drop comes as the oil market is in contango — a situation where the futures price is higher than the current price. According toMarketWatch, traders are pricing in fears that the U.S. is about torun out of storageas the supply-demand situation crumbles.
Investors have long been rooting for a turnaround in oil prices, so the news has stocks down big.
TheS&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and theNasdaq Compositeare all starting the week deep in the red.
• The S&P 500 opened lower by 1.54%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 1.99%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened lower by 1.07%
[Monday, April 20, 8:35 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Last week we wrote inthis columnabout the wisdom of following insider buying to find great buying opportunities of your own. It’s a proven and time-tested method of finding outsized stock performance. After all, if insiders are buying stock in their own company, it’s a fair bet that they think the stock price will appreciate.
InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango has done some of the hard work for you. He published5 Stocks to Buy With Heavy Insider Buying, which includes five public companies with significant insider buying in the last few weeks. He recommends that investors consider these five stocks to buy now, all of which had big insider buying in March:
• Williams Sonoma(NYSE:WSM)
• Stitch Fix(NASDAQ:SFIX)
• The Simply Good Foods Company(NASDAQ:SMPL)
• MGM Resorts(NYSE:MGM)
• Mersana(NASDAQ:MRSN)
[Friday, April 17, 4:43 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In his daily column on the stock market today,InvestorPlace’sBret Kenwelldove into a recent interviewwithBerkshire Hathaway(NYSE:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B) Executive Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.
In the interview withThe Wall Street Journal, 96-year-old Munger emphasized that the current market downturn is unlike anything America has seen before. He says that yes, the nation is in a recession. But he’s hopeful the market won’t see another long-lasting Great Depression.
So is Berkshire getting greedy while others are fearful? Not so much. Munger said he isn’t ruling out the possibility that he and CEO Warren Buffett seize onto an aggressive opportunity. However, their priority is remaining conservative for people who, as he says, “have 90% of their net worth invested in [Berkshire].”
As Kenwell reports, Munger also maintains that executives around the country aren’t begging Berkshire for capital. Why? Munger and Buffett think the economy is just simply too frozen, and hurting executives just don’t know what to do.
For investors, it’s simply just good to know what the Oracle of Omaha’s sidekick is thinking.
[Friday, April 17, 4:15 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
In the heady times of February, back when the novel coronavirus was largely relegated to articles that never appeared on the homepages of major media companies,Uber(NYSE:UBER) guided Wall Street and investors that it expected to achieve between $16 billion and $17 billion in revenue this year.
Yesterday, the ride-hailing companywithdrew that guidancein announcing that due to uncertainty from Covid-19, “… it is impossible to predict with precision the pandemic’s cumulative impact on our future financial results. As such, we are withdrawing our 2020 guidance for Gross Bookings, Adjusted Net Revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA, which were provided on February 6, 2020.”
Investors no longer have guidance of what Uber’s financial performance will look like this year, because the company can’t provide it.
Enter an article today in theNew York Timestitled, “Uber and Lyft Are Searching for Lifelines.” That article reports that data from analytics firm Second Measure estimates that Uber’sride volume may have dropped by 83% in March. In fact the article estimates that Uber Eats, which has lost money for the company from its inception, now drives more sales for the company than its core ride-hailing business.
Ouch.
Uber trades at roughly $28 a share, and has nearly doubled from a low near $14 a share on March 28.InvestorPlacecontributor Thomas Niel suggests thatEven as Shares Rebound, Uber Stock Remains a Risky Proposition. A company that can provide investors no guidance, which may have seen an 83% drop in sales last month, and that has doubled in price in the last month? That sounds risky, indeed. Proceed with caution.
[Friday, April 17, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Friday brought a cheerful end to a choppy week of trading, as investors spent all day rooting forGilead Sciences’(NASDAQ:GILD) remdesivir. The markets opened and closed higher on reports that patients in one of its U.S.-based clinical trials were responding positively to treatment.
Also helping the markets today was President Donald Trump’s Thursday evening press conference. His three-part plan to reopen the economy has investors optimistic, as even hard-hit movie theater and gym stocks rallied in the stock market today.
With this in mind, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare headed into the weekend well in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 2.68%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 2.99%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 1.38%
[Friday, April 17, 4:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
As the Federal Reserve embarks on an unprecedented bond-buying program, there’s an easy way for investors to follow suit and profit. According to John Davi, the chief investment officer at Astoria Portfolio Advisors, exchange-traded funds that hold corporate bonds give investors a perfect boost.
In particular, Davi is recommending theiShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF(NYSEARCA:LQD) and theiShares Aaa-A Rated Corporate Bond ETF(NYSEARCA:QLTA).
LQD is more than 80% waited toward BBB and BB-rated corporate debt, whileQLTA is more than 98% weighted toward A-rated debt. Between the two ETFs investors gain exposure to corporate debt fromJPMorgan Chase(NYSE:JPM),AT&T(NYSE:T),Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL),Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) andOracle(NYSE:ORCL).
LQD’sexpense ratio is 0.15%or $15 on an initial $10,000 investment. QLTA has the same fees.
FromDavi, viaCNBC(subscription required):
“When I look across all the different kinds of risk assets, I think investment grade corporate bonds are probably the most interesting. You can get equity like exposure and there is this implicit Fed put.”
Both ETFs are outperforming theS&P 500in 2020.
[Friday, April 17, 3:38 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Before the pandemic, buying a car came with an age-old routine. You go to a dealership. Maybe you test drive a few models. You end up spending hours discussing financing, and then you eventually leave with your new car.
But after lockdowns ease, will car buying return to normal? Or, will consumers view dealerships as a Petri dish of unwanted germs? Updates from the big boys in the car world,General Motors(NYSE:GM),Toyota(NYSE:TM) andFord(NYSE:F) already show that car sales are plummeting. Some argue that that trend will reverse as does the downturn. There’s a case, though, that American hygiene habits will simply have changed too much.
New data from China shows that virtual car buying is taking hold.Axios’Joann Muller reports that car sales are rebounding, but that dealers are witnessing a“sharp rise” in virtual showroom visits. One company,Geely(OTCMKTS:GELYY), disinfects the new cars, delivers them to consumers’ driveways and drops off the keys via drone.
InvestorPlace’sBrad Moon saw thistrend coming at the end of March, when he recommendedCarvana(NYSE:CVNA) stock. According to Moon, Carvana operates similarly to Geely, and it also offers “vending machines” for its cars. Either option reduces human contact, which is perfect for the germ-conscious future.
The market agrees. CVNA stock is up over 9% in intraday trading.
[Friday, April 17, 3:13 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Today,InvestorPlace’sTom Taulli took a stab at answering what certainly is a top question Americans are asking right now. When will you get yourstimulus check? According to Taulli, those that have direct deposit set up should already be receiving their checks. If you’re a snail mail user, the earliest checks will be headed out to Americans in early May. Higher-earning individuals, who make more than $75,000 but less than $99,000, may end up waiting until August.
Taulli also has some helpful resources. If you aren’t sure you’ll be receiving $1,200 — the full amount for an individual adult who meets all criteria — there’s a tool to check that.Intuit’s(NASDAQ:INTC) online calculator asks you basic questions about your filing status, adjusted gross income and number of dependents. Then, itestimates your direct payment amount.
If you’re sure you’re getting a payout, but don’t know where it is, theIRS also has a tracker. Lastly, for those receiving paper checks, Taulli recommendsreviewing your address with the IRS. The agency warns that a change can take four to six weeks to process, so don’t wait.
[Friday, April 17, 2:50 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has quite an interesting take on the pandemic. Despite plunging crude oil prices and empty streets, he outlines an infrastructure proposal that would almost certainly accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.
According toAxios’Joann Muller, Jonas wants the next round of stimulus spending to earmark funds for the nation’s roads and bridges. This hearkens back to 1965, he wrote to clients, when the Federal Aid Highway Act put millions of Americans to work building U.S. interstates.
Such a stimulus, Jonas tells his clients, would need to get these 10 things right:
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure Upgrades to the nation’s electrical grid Battery manufacturing Battery recycling Renewable power 5G networks for connected, automated vehicles Hydrogen fuel networks High-speed rail and hyperloop Skyports for flying cars Space launch facilities and spaceports
Muller sees Jonas’ plan as overly ambitious, and recommends focusing on EV charging and vehicle connectivity first. But many analysts and investors share that same ambitious sentiment.
EVs represent the future of transportation, and trends toward new battery technology and self-driving vehicles are the start.InvestorPlace’sJosh Enomoto has frequently written that a big roadblock (pun intended) for EVs is thelack of a solid charging infrastructure. Such a stimulus could turn that around, speeding up EV adoption in the U.S.
American EV darlingTesla(NASDAQ:TSLA) has been on a tear in 2020.InvestorPlace’sWill Ashworth thinks that with its innovation, it willhit $7,000 by 2024. Wayne Duggan thinks the pandemic willdistract traditional auto makers, giving Tesla even more of an edge.
Plus, the global future appears to be electric.InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall writes thatNio(NYSE:NIO) is apandemic-perfect play on convenience. EVs take out maintenance hassles from the car equation. That certainly makes them more convenient for our current touch-free world. Markets Analyst Luke Lango agrees, writing thatdemand for EVs in Chinawill rebound in late-2020, and Nio stock will rebound with it.
[Friday, April 17, 2:10 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Since the beginning of the economic downturn, investors have been turning to trusted analysts and economists in search of answers. How long will it last? What will total unemployment numbers look like? What stocks are good buys in spite of the chaos? Regional Federal Reserve presidents have been one source of such advice.
On Friday, James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis bank, offered his own strategy to “end the crisis.” He’s calling for the government to fully subsidize any company’s work to develop and produce tests for the novel coronavirus.
From Bullard, viaCNBC:
“You could create this pop-up industry where you’re essentially giving firms the chance to make quite a bit of profit because their costs are going to be covered, so their marginal cost is going to be zero. So you drive the costs of these tests down to zero. You’d be swimming in tests.”
Bullard believes such subsidies would incentivize test development. And, he argues, robust testing is what the economy needs. As more Americans feel confident and safe, more will return to work, healing the hurting economy.
It all comes back to testing, doesn’t it? President Donald Trump echoed the need for testing, including new antibody tests, in his press conference on reopening the country Thursday night. Test makerAbbott Laboratories(NYSE:ABT) stock is up 11% year-to-date after releasing three kits for the novel coronavirus.
[Friday, April 17, 1:55 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump presented his much-awaited plan to reopen the economy. In a major policy reversal, he acknowledged that individual states must reopen under the guidance of individual governors, not Trump’s administration. That alone was reassuring, as figures like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have become key sentiment drivers for investors.
But another aspect of the three-phase plan has movie theater stocks soaring on Friday. In the first phase of his plan, Trump guides thatlarge venues including movie theaters could reopen, as long as patrons follow “strict” social distancing guidelines. In intraday trading,AMC Entertainment(NYSE:AMC) stock is up 32%.Cinemark(NYSE:CNK) is up 15% andImax(NYSE:IMAX) stock is up almost 8%.
In order for a state to move to phase one, it must have a tight handle on the outbreak. Trump’s plans call for all of the state’s hospitals to be operating without crisis care, to note a 14-day downward trajectory of new cases and a “robust” testing program for healthcare workers to be in place.
While that reality seems far off for many states, investors are excited to know that hard-hit movie theaters will be given the green light in the earliest phase. Gym operatorPlanet Fitness(NYSE:PLNT) stock is also up over 11% on the news.
[Friday, April 17, 1:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
World War II America had the “Arsenal of Democracy” — a campaign that mobilized the nation’s industries to arm troops for war. Now, private and public companies are coming up with innovative ways to turn idle factories into pandemic-fighting powerhouses.
General Motors(NYSE:GM) andFord(NYSE:F), facing declining auto sales, are now manufacturing ventilators and protective face shields.Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) andAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) are teaming up on tech to trace the spread of the virus. AsThe Wall Street Journalreports, although President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Protection Act, many companies areundertaking this innovation of their own volition.
It’s a feel-good story, and it’s helping idle parts of the economy reboot. One privately held shoe maker in Pennsylvania was forced to halt production. Now, through a novel pitch, doors are open once more as it makes cotton face masks for healthcare workers and the general public.
As of now, some of the innovators aren’t seeing a stock-price benefit, but they are still leading an important charge. GM and F stock are underperforming the broader market, but perhaps investors will choose to show love to companies demonstrating their capacity to pivot.
[Friday, April 17, 11:35 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
President Donald Trump’s $2.2 trillion CARES Act specifically protected airlines — setting aside $25 billion for passenger carriers and $4 billion for cargo operators. Broadly, that’s good news. Airlines are struggling, as demand for air travel is practically nonexistent. Countries around the world are on lockdown, and businesses are drastically scaling back non-essential travel.
But now, after airlines met with the U.S. Department of Treasury this week to secure specifics of the bailout, many are facing steep restrictions. According toThe Washington Post, the carriers agreed to pay back30% of the money and let the government acquire stock. The airlines had previously agreed tosuspend buyback programs and dividendsin addition to capping executive pay.
News Thursday evening shows how another stipulation of the bailout is cramping the carriers. The terms of the bailout require that airlines maintain “minimum service requirements.” Yes, the U.S. Department of Transportation is allowing them to “significantly” cut service. ButJetBlue(NASDAQ:JBLU) andSpirit(NYSE:SAVE) aresaying it’s not enough.
Despite their pleas, the Transportation Department is enforcing the bailout’s minimum service requirement, blocking the airlines’ request. According toThe Washington Post, the department did not find the request to close down service at over 36 airports compelling.
From JetBlue, viaThe Washington Post:
“A rigid interpretation of the Service Obligation will only threaten to unnecessarily diminish JetBlue’s liquidity, with no commensurate public interest benefit.”
InvestorPlacecontributors have been rallying behind rebound plays. But for those airlines most affected by the “strings attached” to the bailout, such an investment may not make sense. ExaminingDelta Air Lines(NYSE:DAL) stock, Thomas Niel writes that it’sbest to stay on the sidelines. Until investors get more insight into a true economic recovery, he argues that a bailout isn’t enough to make DAL stock attractive here.
[Friday, April 17, 11:00 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) is up 8.4% in intraday trading, climbing high on hopes its remdesivir will treat thenovel coronavirus.
On Thursday,Stat’sAdam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper shared news that has investors — and the general public — breathing a sigh of relief. A video from the University of Chicago Medicine, one of the clinical trial sites for remdesivir, indicates thatpatients are responding positively to the drug.
Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist at the hospital, shared that patients were receiving daily infusions of remdesivir. The trial recruited 125 patients, 113 had a severe form of the disease. Mullane said that “most” of the patients had already been discharged, while two had died.
While Mullane and her peers at the hospital insist it’s too early to draw conclusions, this is big news for many. Until now, there has been limited insight on the drug’s safety and efficacy. A study funded and designed by Gilead revealed positive but inconclusive results. Two clinical trials in China were suspended earlier this week due to a lack of eligible patients. That means the stakes are increasingly high for U.S.-based clinical trials.
And the investment thesis here is simple. Good news for remdesivir is good news for GILD stock.InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango has long been bullish on the treatment, writing back in February that Gilead’s remdesivir is thetreatment most likely to work at scale. He says that makes GILD a “safe stock” to buy on this coronavirus dip.
From Lango:
“A lot of biotech companies have rushed to develop a Covid-19 vaccine or treatment. Many believe they have done so, and are now putting their solutions through various trials. But, of all those potential vaccines and treatments, Gilead’s anti-viral drug, remdesivir, is widely considered to be the most likely one to pass trials and actually work, at scale, in fighting the coronavirus.”
[Friday, April 17, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Whew. There’s finally some good news taking stocks higher Friday morning. Investors learned that one Chicago hospital is seeingpatients respond positivelytoGilead Science’s(NASDAQ:GILD) remdesivir for the novel coronavirus. As this is the first official clinical trial to report results, the news has GILD stock up about 10% in pre-market trading.
But it’s also moving the major indices higher. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall are starting Friday in the green.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 2.18%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 2.56%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 1.59%
[Friday, April 17, 9:12 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) stock is up approximately 7% over the last five trading days, and it’s outperforming theS&P 500for the year. But analysts at Goldman Sachs aren’t seeing any reason to be bullish. In fact, the firm downgraded shares from “neutral” to “sell” and lowered its price target to $233. AAPL stock is set to open April 17 near $284 per share.
According to Goldman Sachs, as the economy continues to struggle, it’s likely demand for new iPhones will be low. Many analysts entered 2020 bullish on the name because of its upcoming 5G iPhone. However, analyst Rod Hall says there is some reason to worry Apple might delay that launch.
FromGoldman Sachs, viaCNBC(subscription required):
“At this point we have selected a cautious scenario for our central case but we note that COVID-19 is unlike any recession seen in modern times in the severity of the initial downturn with an unpredictable shape to the recovery. … Limited global travel at this crucial point in Apple’s 2020 iPhone final engineering and production process could result in a delayed launch this year.”
[Thursday, April 16, 4:38 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Earlier updates in Mission Control have covered“seismic” declinesin advertising spending, asThe New York Timesreported that even giant companies likeFacebook(NASDAQ:FB) andAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) were puling back on ads. Today,IAC’s(NASDAQ:IAC) Barry Diller went onCNBC, sharing his predictions for the digital ad world.
AsInvestorPlace’sBret Kenwellreported in his daily column, Diller’s predictions are concerning. Diller is calling forad revenue to tumble, as companies cut back spending. For instance, he points toExpedia(NASDAQ:EXPE), which spent $5 billion last year on advertising. In 2020, it will spend less than $1 billion.
Kenwell does note that Expedia is a tricky example, as the travel space has been one of the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus. Regardless, companies that are dependent on ad revenue could continue to struggle as the “ripple” effect picks up speed.
[Thursday, April 16, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Retail sales are dropping, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits is rising. Many investors feel stuck in a loop — what is really driving day-to-day action in stock prices? Thursday saw more bad news hit the market, but thanks to a few outperforming tech names, the major indices closed the day higher.
As investors wait to digest President Donald Trump’s plans to reopen the economy, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare all in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 0.57%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 0.12%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 1.66%
[Thursday, April 16, 3:45 p.m.]Contributed byJohn Jagerson and Wade Hansen
Why is the market starting to bounce now? If traders were so concerned about the U.S. economy last month that they sent theS&P 500into bear market territory, what on earth could they be seeing that would make them start buying stocks this month?
It appears traders believe the economic contraction is going to be relatively short lived. Although as ourStrategic Tradersubscribers know, it’s likely to get a bit worse before it gets better.
According to FactSet, traders are anticipating a 10% decline in earnings for the S&P 500 for the first quarter of 2020. These are the numbers we’re starting to see right now.
As bad as that may seem, traders are thinking it’s going to get even worse. They are expecting an earnings decline of 20% for the S&P 500 in the second quarter.
After that, however, the outlook starts to brighten. Traders are expecting a smaller 8.5% earnings decline in the third quarter and a minuscule decline of 0.9% in the fourth quarter.
If that’s the case — if traders believe the economy is going to rebound and earnings declines are going to stabilize — it’s not hard to see why traders are buying stocks right now. They’re just doing what they’ve always done: looking ahead and trying to buy stocks before the good news hits.
[Thursday, April 16, 3:40 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Germany has recently been lauded as one of thetop governments handling the novel coronavirus, along with Taiwan, South Korea and Iceland. And now, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, parts of the German economy will begin reopening as soon as April 20. How?
AsCNBCreports, Merkel and her advisors weighed the lack of a vaccine for the virus against the current success of social distancing protocols and the nation’s economic needs. She says:
“We don’t have a lot of leeway, we have to remain focused and continue. Our consultations therefore decided that we cannot get ahead of ourselves. We have to understand that we must live the virus so long as there’s no medicine or vaccine.”
On April 20, some small businesses will be allowed to reopen. Since March 16, only those businesses deemed “essential” have been in operation. Here are some more details of the nation’s planned reopening timeline:
• Schools will begin reopening May 4.
• Large gatherings are banned through Aug. 31 and religious gatherings are banned indefinitely.
• Restaurants will continue to offer delivery and take-out, as opposed to dine-in services.
• Companies are encouraged to continue working from home.
• Germans are encouraged to wear masks in public and continue proper hygiene protocols.
As President Donald Trump is weighing reopening the U.S. economy, it’s important to look at what other nations are doing. LikeInvestorPlace.comGeneral Manager Andrew Taylor wrote yesterday, antibody testing is certain to be a key part of this reopening. Investors should take note.
[Thursday, April 16, 3:10 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
We’vewritten recentlyabout the likelihood that many American retailers will not survive the coronavirus meltdown unscathed. AddNeiman Marcusto the list of teetering retailers.
According toa letter released today, the luxury retailer has skipped a bond payment, andaccording toReutersthe company may be preparing for bankruptcy.
Neiman Marcus is a privately held company, so its financial position isn’t an issue for the average investor. That said, it’s illustrative of a wave of bankruptcies and closings we can all expect in the coming weeks.
Louis Navellier, working with his research staff atInvestorPlace, has developed a list ofseven retail stocks investors should avoidright now. You may be surprised by some of the names on his list.
At the same time, some retailers will prevail. Muslim Farooquerecently uncoveredthree retailers he thinks are a “buy” for a prolonged coronavirus market.
[Thursday, April 16, 2:20 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is up almost 30% in 2020, a year where a massive selloff still has the major indices sporting double-digit losses. But analysts at Barclays are still bullish on Amazon. According to the note, Barclays likes that Amazon is a top play in e-commerce, gaming (through Twitch and upcoming releases), groceries and cloud services.
Amazon’s Whole Foods, once an underperforming segment of the company, is now outperforming with its grocery delivery service. Analysts have a $2,500 price target on the stock, which currently trades hands for close to $2,394. That’s still 4% of upside.
From the note, viaCNBC(subscription required):
“Shares always feel a bit crowded, but in the current environment, we’d rather own AMZN than just about anything else.”
[Thursday, April 16, 2:05 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds — along with the fund families behind them — fell victim to the pandemic-induced fear driving the market. As fear and volatility sparked in March, investors left these funds for “safe havens” likemoney market funds. And according toMorningstar, this exodus of $326 billion, roughly 1.7% of the industry’s assets, set a record. This outflow topped October 2008, when 1.5% of fund assets disappeared.
From theMorningstarreport, viaInstitutional Investor:
“Money market funds benefited from investors’ fear. The perceived safe havens — and often places to park the cash swept out of brokerage accounts or tied to hedge fund activity — gathered a record $685 billion in March.”
For individual investors, why does this matter?Morningstartook a deeper diver at the relationship betweenfund flows and performance in 2015(subscription required). And in one report, examining one ofPimco’s legal disclosures, it is clear that redemptions “may cause funds to make investment decisions at inopportune times or prices or miss attractive investment opportunities.”
Morningstarreported that as stock and bond prices broadly fell in March, bond funds and actively managed stock funds were the biggest victims. Money market funds, a type of mutual fund that is highly liquid — holding cash and cash equivalents — promise investors a combination of high liquidity and low risk. It’s clear that as investors contemplated further exiting the market, these funds seemed like the safest bet.
As theInstitutional Investor’sChristine Idzelis reflects on this report, she writes that Fidelity Investments and Pimco were among thehardest hit of the fund families.
• Fidelity Investments saw $39 billion of redemptions, representing 2.3% of its net assets.
• Vanguard Group saw $37 billion of redemptions, representing 0.7% of its net assets.
• Pimco saw $27 billion of redemptions, representing 6.7% of its net assets.
• American Funds saw $16 billion of redemptions, representing less than 1% of its net assets.
Acknowledging that March saw record outflows, it’s important for individual investors to be cautious, particularly with the hardest hit of the fund families. Watch for increased transaction costs and altered fund performance moving forward.
[Thursday, April 16, 1:15 p.m.]Contributed byNicholas Stern
Cryptocurrencies have shined in the markets in recent weeks as investors pile into assets that can benefit from the massive amounts of stimulus being introduced around the world.
Institutional and accredited investors piled over $1 billion into the world’s largest bitcoin investment trust, Grayscale, over the last year. Just over half of that came in the past three months.
TheGrayscale Bitcoin Trust(OTCMKTS:GBTC) led the investment demand, withinflows of $388.9 million, the largest capital raise the firm’s seen in a single quarter. Investments into theGrayscale Ethereum Trust(OTCMKTS:ETHE) climbed 2.5x from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020.
Bitcoin has increased an impressive 57% from its year-to-date low reached on March 12.
Of course, bitcoin is not the only crypto rebounding sharply as of late.
The basket of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies known as the CIX100 has greatly outperformed the broader market in 2020. The CIX100 is up about 2%, compared to the 19% drop in theDow Jones Industrial Averageand the 14% fall in theS&P 500.
As governments pump money into economies to help offset the effects of the coronavirus, traditional currencies become less valuable. It’s simple supply and demand.
But bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies are immune from this supply and demand manipulation, making them a very interesting currency hedge right now.
What’s more, we’re about to witness a catalyst to higher prices coming in mid-May. That’s when bitcoin’s “halvening” is set to take place. The halvening is a plan written into bitcoin’s software protocol to issue fewer new coins roughly every four years.
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall has noted that if demand increases or even just stays steady, the “supply shock” will set the cryptocurrency market on fire.
Further, most investors don’t realize how muchmore profitablepast halvenings were for altcoins — or alternatives to bitcoin. Indeed, one of Matt’s altcoin recommendations has soared past bitcoin this year.
Check out Matt’s system for identifying the best performers and the six altcoin recommendations in hisUltimate Cryptoportfolio.
[Thursday, April 16, 11:45 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Alphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) executives had been rather quiet about the novel coronavirus.Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL), one of its peers in the Big Tech world, was among the first companies to withdraw guidance and warn of the outbreak’s effects on business. But Alphabet’s silence changed Wednesday, when a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai leaked.
According to the memo, Alphabet will slow hiring in 2020 — after bringing on 20,000 new employees in 2019. Pichai also said the company will “recalibrate” investments in data centers, travel and non-essential marketing.
From the memo,viaMarketWatch:
“We believe now is the time to significantly slow down the pace of hiring, while maintaining momentum in a small number of strategic areas where users and businesses rely on Google for ongoing support, and where our growth is critical to their success.”
Shares of Google stock are still up for the day, around 0.6%.
[Thursday, April 16, 10:15 a.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall has noted several times that, although the broader market is down, several trends that will dominate the 2020s are being pushed forward at an accelerated pace.
Two stocks Matt has identified in healthcare reached new highs yesterday, even when the market was down more than 2%.
Teladoc(NYSE:TDOC) is the leader in America’s growing telehealth industry, and has been one of Matt’s favorite stocks for years. In the future, long waits at doctor’s offices will be a thing of the past as patients will be able to reach out via telehealth platforms for quicker, safer visits. About 75% of health systems currently offer or plan to offer telehealth services, and as more people become comfortable with this new approach thenumbers for TDOC will only continue to grow.
Catasys(NASDAQ:CATS) leverages artificial intelligence to help transform the healthcare industry. CATS targets the health and well-being of chronic disease patients using artificial intelligence-enabled technology. Its PRE (Predict-Recommend-Engage) platform lowers costs for health insurers and other third-party payors in treating patients with behavioral and chronic health issues. It’s an extremely valuable service for the company’s clients, which pay 4.5x more for these patients than for those without behavioral health conditions.
Matt recommended a new stock just yesterday in hisEarly Stage Investorservice that uses AI technology to help pharma and biotech firms discover drugs quicker and cheaper.
To find out more about that new pick, clickhere.
[Thursday, April 16, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
For some reason — unclear to many — the stock market opened higher on Thursday. Americans continue to lose their jobs at an unprecedented rate, wiping out all gains since the Great Recession. An update on retail sales, reports from the Federal Reserve and predictions from the International Monetary this week have all been grim. Perhaps investors are optimistically awaiting President Donald Trump’sannouncement later today on reopening guidelines.
Despite the gloom, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall opened in the green on Thursday.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 0.58%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 0.13%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.95%
[Thursday, April 16, 9:10 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday morning that another 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the week ending April 11. This morning’s figure is down 1.4 million from last week’s reading, but it is still higher than consensus estimates for 5 million.
Since the novel coronavirus began eliminating jobs, over 22 million Americans have filed for such benefits. According toCNBC, the pandemic has essentially wiped out all of the jobs added to the economy since the Great Recession.
FromPeter Boockvar, chief investment officer at the Bleakley Group:
“As we fully know the current state of the labor market with mass waves of layoffs, the key question turns to how many of these people will be rehired when the economy starts to reopen. We can assume it will take a long time for that to happen but hopefully we’re getting closer to at least getting started.”
[Thursday, April 16, 8:50 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
I love Burton Malkiel.
In fact, my introduction to stocks and investing came when my older brother said, “read it!” as he handed me Malkiel’s bookA Random Walk Down Wall Street. I was probably 16, and I was hooked.
Barron’sLeslie P. Norton scored aninsightful interviewwith the investing legend, who, along with Vanguard’s Jack Bogle, is widely credited with bringing about the rise of passive index investing. True to form, Malkiel discusses the role of passive investing in the interview, along with his views on the potential for dangerous inflation caused by the Federal Reserve’s recent activities, why he is attracted right now to investments in emerging markets and investing in private companies.
Surprisingly, this passive investor who has spent a career guiding investors to index funds, also admitted that he used the market downturn to purchase some individuals stocks. He views investments in dividends payersAT&T(NYSE:T),Verizon(NYSE:VZ),Duke Energy(NYSE:DUK) andInternational Business Machines(NYSE:IBM) as safe alternatives to holdings bonds in this market.
InvestorPlaceContributor Josh Enomoto included two of those same companies in his own piece9 Robust Stocks to Buy to Survive a Bear Market.
You won’t hear specific stock picks from a committed index investor like Malkiel very often. Take heed.
[Thursday, April 16, 8:40 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Few industries will be crushed as quickly and completely by the novel coronavirus as retail. Aswe discussedin Mission Control a week ago, retailers with weak balance sheets and feeble internet sales will drop like flies in the coming weeks.
The first to drop may well beJ.C. Penney(NYSE:JCP).
Yesterday, the company announced that it was not going to make a $12 million interest payment, but instead has entered a 30-day grace period “in order to evaluate certain strategic alternatives, none of which have been implemented at this time.”According toCNBC, the retailer has been in talks with lenders since last year to strengthen its balance sheet. Does anyone want to take bets on whether those talks will go more smoothly now that the nation is in quarantine?
InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango believes thatJ.C. Penney stock is headed to $0.
It may be the first major American retailer killed by the coronavirus, but it will hardly be the last. Louis Navellier, working with his research staff atInvestorPlace, has developed a list ofseven retail stocks investors should avoidright now. You may be surprised by some of the names on his list:
• Gap(NYSE:GPS)
• Kohl’s(NYSE:KSS)
• Nordstrom(NYSE:JWN)
• Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao Grupo Pao de Acucar(NYSE:CBD)
• Walgreens Boots Alliance(NASDAQ:WBA)
• Tapestry(NYSE:TPR)
• Ulta Beauty(NASDAQ:ULTA)
[Wednesday, April 15, 4:50 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
I love to watch what companies have insiders purchasing shares on the open market because I think it’s a strong indication of future strength. That’s always true, but never more so than at a time like this when the market’s in turmoil and uncertainty prevails.
Such “insider” transactions — which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires to bereported publiclywithin 48 hours if they are completed by a director, senior officer or any person or entity that beneficially owns more than 10% of a company’s voting shares — are a wonderful lens into which companies have the confidence of their insiders.
Think about it for a minute. There are lots of reasons an insider might sell shares, so I don’t find it terribly valuable to look at insider stock sales.
But stock purchases by insiders are an entirely different matter. If an insider is willing to put up money to buy a company’s stock, it’s a fair bet that he thinks the price will go up. After all, it’s safe to assume that directors, management and major shareholders know more about the direction of a company than does the general investing public. If those people are buying shares of a firm, it’s worth your attention.
Plenty of publications offer insight into recent insider transactions. One free tool, which I find useful and easy to use, isinsider-monitor.com.
InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango found7 Stocks Insiders Are Buying Big Amid the Market Panicin an article published late last month. Those seven stocks — and any others with meaningful volumes of insider volume — are worth a look.
In fact, if you’re brave enough, you may even want to look atCarnival(NYSE:CCL). Just last week, a board member spent $10 million to purchase1.25 million sharesof the troubled cruise company’s stock. That’s a pretty strong vote of confidence from someone on the inside.
[Wednesday, April 15, 4:37 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Today marked the first meeting of President Donald Trump’stask force to reopen the economy, a collection of executives, economists, scholars and industry leaders that the White House pulled together to provide guidance on the reopening of the American economy after the coronavirus shutdown.
According toreporting from theWall Street Journal, during the first of today’s four such meetings, business executives urged Trump to dramatically increase coronavirus testing. Doing so, the executives counseled, would be necessary to convince the public to return to work.
There’s little doubt that testing matters. Today, business leaders announced to the president — and the world — that widespread testing is essential to the reopening of our economy. Investors would be wise to keep a close eye on testing availability and metrics as we all look to understand when America will go back to work.
[Wednesday, April 15, 4:31 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In his daily column examining what’s moving in the stock market today, Bret Kenwell highlights anothervictory against the novel coronavirus. This morning,Abbott Laboratories(NYSE:ABT) announced its third test for Covid-19. This one is a laboratory-based antibody blood test that can tell if someone has been previously infected.
From CEO Robert Ford, via thecompany’s press release:
“We continue to contribute in a significant and meaningful way by providing new solutions across our diagnostics testing platforms. I’m extremely proud of the many Abbott people who are working around the clock to get as many tests as we can to healthcare workers and patients.”
Abbott Laboratories hopes to screen 20 million people by June. ABT stock closed higher on the news Wednesday by 2%.
[Wednesday, April 15, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On Wednesday, investors learned that retail sales plunged in March, and many fear worse numbers are ahead for April. Additionally, the market appears to be pricing in estimates for tomorrow’s jobless report. Analysts expect tomorrow’s figure, for the week ending April 11, to bring the total to 20 million.
To be fair, stocks climbed slightly higher over the course of the day, after opening down about 2%. But theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositestill ended the day deep in the red.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 2.19%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 1.85%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 1.44%
[Wednesday, April 15, 3:10 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On Tuesday, Rani Molla — a senior data reporter forRecode —wrote that “this is the end of the office as we know it.” On one level, this means that office layouts will change. She writes that the end of the “open” office floor plan is almost guaranteed, as companies opt for touch-less doors and more square footage. But on another level,demand for office space could drop forever.
Businesses forced to embrace remote work are now finding some success with video conferencing options.Zoom Video Communications(NASDAQ:ZM),Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) andRingCentral(NYSE:RNG), are seeing increases in users. Chances are that a combination of convenience and a lasting fear of the pandemic will create more permanent remote positions.
As Molla writes, it’s too early to tell what will happen to office space demand. Yes, there will be fewer employees returning to work after a wave of layoffs. But companies that survive will also want more space, demanding larger or renovated offices.
For investors, this means it’s time to take a look atreal estate investment trusts. For many, REITs were long a safe bet. Theyprovided steady payouts, and underlying real estate asset values seemed locked in place. That’s all changing now.
OneSeeking Alphapiece is quick to warn that travel and entertainment REITs are likely to suffer long-term impacts from the coronavirus. But the author isn’t as quick to condemn office REITs, recommendingKilroy Realty(NYSE:KRC) as a long-term holding.
And in late March,InvestorPlaceanalyst Louis Navellier rounded up seven REITs hesees as capable of beating inflation. The lone office REIT on his broad list,Armada Hoffler Properties(NYSE:AHH), still earns his “buy” rating. So does that mean everything is all rosy for office REITs?
It’s perhaps too early to tell. Start by taking a good look at your REIT holdings. Do they have solid histories of high occupancy? Are they exposed to long-term lease agreements? For worried investors, an easy step is to cut out the riskiest of office holdings — those that specialize in coworking spaces. As Americans gain a new appreciation for hygiene, shared desks just won’t have the same appeal in a post-pandemic world.
[Wednesday, April 15, 2:05 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In an interview withThe Wall Street Journal, Mary Daly, the president of the Federal Reserve’s San Francisco bank, pushed back on the notion of a V-shaped recovery. She says that it will take a long time for the U.S. to return to positive growth — perhaps we will see gradually positive growth in 2021.
Many Americans are hopeful that a quick end to the novel coronavirus will lead to a quick rebound, but Daly says that’s not the case. She’s worried about how long it will take to lift government-imposed restrictions and “spin” the economy back up.
FromDaly, viaThe Wall Street Journal:
“I don’t expect a sharp V-shaped recovery, I expect something more like negative quarters of growth throughout 2020, and then a gradual return to positive growth in 2021. … You would expect the economy not to regain its full strength right away.”
[Wednesday, April 15, 1:50 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Financial technology, or fintech, companies have long been working to disrupt the traditional banking industry. They’ve embraced making easy payments from smartphones and supporting small businesses. And now, they’re getting in the game alongside big banks as part of the Paycheck Protection Program.
Applicants to the PPP, a $350 billion loan program for small businesses and a portion of the CARES Act, can receive 2.5 times their average monthly payroll. The program is designed to keep small businesses, many of which are shuttered due to the novel coronavirus, from going under.
Initially, big banks were leading the lending charge. But fintech players argued they were better equipped to offer loans, and provided a more convenient experience to small businesses. As of Friday, three majorfintech companies are now in the lending game.
PayPal(NASDAQ:PYPL),Square(NYSE:SQ) andIntuit(NASDAQ:INTU) allreceived approval from the Small Business Administration to participate in the PPP. It’s important to note that while PYPL, SQ and INTU stock are not in the green for the year, they’re all vastly outperforming theS&P 500.
And asInvestorPlace’sJosh Enomoto writes, these fintech companies are now more relevant because of the pandemic. He’sparticularly bullish on SQ stock, writing that the economic devastation will invoke American sympathy toward small businesses, which are Square’s primary customers. Additionally, he thinks Square’s solutions provide a much-needed edge in troubling times.
[Wednesday, April 15, 1:24 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
If you seek out investing humor, you’ve probably seen internet memes decrying Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s superhero-esque ability to print money. At the heart of the joking is the truth that the Fed has embarked on unprecedented bond buying, in efforts to prevent a financial crisis.
And while the whims of chat rooms are not necessarily an investment thesis, Jared Dillian, an investment strategist and the author ofStreet Freak, writes that he too is worried that money is losing its meaning.
Why? In efforts to do “whatever it takes” the Fed and other government agencies are spending trillions of dollars. Since the 2008 financial crisis,Bloomberg’sM2 index shows that the aggregate money supply for 12 major economies has doubled.
To Dillian, this, and historic moves to prevent a recession, are signs that money has lost its value. As he writes, the three functions of currency are as a unit of account, a medium of exchange and a store of value. So what happens when currency fails to retain a consistent value over time?
Dillian writes:
“Nobody really knows how this is going to turn out. In smaller economies, runaway government spending has resulted in hyperinflation and social unrest, such as well-documented cases in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Many think that wouldn’t be possible in the U.S. given the dollar’s role as the world’s primary reserve currency. Perhaps, but it’s not one of those questions we’d really want to experiment with.”
[Wednesday, April 15, 1:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In a Mission Control update last week, I reflected on a report fromVice. Anna Almendrala wrote that31% of survey respondents age 18 to 34had lost their jobs as the novel coronavirus continues to shut down the economy.
This week,InvestorPlace’sChris Markoch took a deeper look at what that means for investors. He recommends avoiding stocks beloved by millennials, as that generation is losing significant purchasing power. He writes that up until now, the youngest members of the millennial generation were watching the economy recover, and were getting to participate in an historic bull market.
Anticipating major changes for this generation, he recommendsavoiding these stocks:
TripAdvisor(NASDAQ:TRIP)Grubhub(NYSE:GRUB)Tesla(NASDAQ:TSLA)
[Wednesday, April 15, 12:10 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Wednesday is bringing both good and bad news forGilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD), but the bad news is winning. GILD stock is down 4% in intraday trading.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way. Gilead’s remdesivir is considered by many to be the lead candidate in treating the novel coronavirus. That’s why investors have been waiting with bated breath for results from its clinical trials in China. Earlier results, from studies Gilead funded in the United States, were positive but inconclusive.
On Wednesday, China suspended those two trials,citing a lack of patients. To be fair, as even Wuhan, the origin of the outbreak, begins to reopen, there just might not be enough sick adults left.FiercePharma’sAngus Liu wrote a few weeks ago that Gilead facestough competition for eligible patientsin China as the outbreak there clears up.
But RBC analyst Brian Abrahams is interpreting the suspended trials another way. He thinks Chinese researchers hadinconclusive preliminary results, as 237 patients were enrolled. But in the U.S. two-third of patients whoreceived remdesivir showed improvement.
Now let’s move on to the good news. AsAxiosreported earlier this week, Gilead filed fortrademark protectionson remdesivir’s packaging. Bob Herman wrote that the move is a sign Gilead is confident about the drug’s efficacy.
Perhaps it’s a coin toss.InvestorPlace’sDana Blankenhorn, after taking everything in, thinks there’s too much financial and political risk associated with GILD stock. He’s recommendinginvestors stay away.
[Wednesday, April 15, 11:16 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall has dubbed this decade the Roaring 2020s. Why? He’s confident that certain trends in tech are going to take off, making investorslots of money along the way.
Now, with a pandemic raging, making lots of money on anything seems a little far-fetched. But McCall is watching tech trends unfold, and he likes what he sees. Some industries, he writes, will not recover well after the pandemic. But movie theaters, which are now suffering amid widespread closures, were already a dying business. On the other hand, next-generation healthcare is accelerating as scientists race to find a cure for the novel coronavirus.
That’s why McCall is still bullish on tech, and the trends he sees growing even in this chaos. One stock he’s watching isBioXcel Therapeutics(NASDAQ:BTAI). It’s a biotech firm that uses artificial intelligence to create new drugs — and it’s up 56% in 2020.
Before the pandemic, companies like BioXcel were fringe ideas. After the pandemic, they’ll be leading the charge.You don’t want to miss out.
Read more of McCall’s thoughts on post-pandemic tech trendshere.
[Wednesday, April 15, 11:00 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Oil can’t seem to catch a break in 2020. This weekend OPEC and its allies met and in an historic move, slashed global oil production by 10 billion barrels a day. But according to the International Energy Agency, the big picture is still bleak.
The IEA publishes a highly watched monthly report, examining details of the oil market. In today’s release, the agency predicted that demand for oil in April would drop by 29 million barrels a day. That means that production-cutting measures might not be enough to balance supply and demand for crude.
FromFatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director:
“When we look back at 2020, we may see it was the worst year in the history of oil markets and the second quarter may have been the worst of the lot. In that quarter, April may have been the worst month. It may go down as ‘Black April’ in the history of the oil industry.”
As David Hodari wrote forThe Wall Street Journal, one issue of concern for investors is the stockpiling of crude and refined products. Many have already expressed worries that as demand continues to drop there simply won’t be enough storage space. Unfortunately, the IEA isn’t denying that is a plausible fear.
ForInvestorPlace’sIan Cooper, these concerns — particularly worries over storage facilities — are more than enough reason to simplystay away from oil stocks.
[Wednesday, April 15, 10:30 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Investors have long been speculating on the specific aid major airlines will receive. But after Tuesday, there’s no more need for speculation. Working with the U.S. Department of Treasury,Delta Air Lines(NYSE:DAL),American Airlines(NASDAQ:AAL),JetBlue(NASDAQ:JBLU) andSouthwest(NYSE:LUV) reached a deal.
• American will receive $5.8 billion in assistance through the CARES Act. The total breaks down to a $4.1 billion grant and a $1.7 billion low-interest loan.
• Southwest will receive $3.2 billion, which includes $2.3 billion in payroll support and approximately $1 billion in a low-interest loan.
• Delta will receive $5.4 billion. Part of this total is a $1.6 billion, unsecured loan. Delta also will give the government warrants to acquire 1% of the company at $23.39 a share.
• JetBlue will receive $935.8 million, approximately $251 million of which is a loan.
So, the airlines arefinally getting their bailout. What does this mean for investors?InvestorPlace’sNicolas Chahinemaintains that DAL stock is a buy. In his mind, it’s fallen too far, and especially with government help, will head back up.
After looking at LUV stock, Chris Lau had a similar take. He argues that Southwest Airlines is trading at prices too cheap to ignore. Lau concludes that cost-cutting measures and government support will successfully cushion the downturn in the industry.
Next steps:There are other airlines yet to meet with the Treasury Department, so don’t tune out. Plus, keep an eye on the airline names. Although in pre-market trading many of the airline stocks were higher, movement in the broader market is dragging them down Wednesday.
[Wednesday, April 15, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After Tuesday’s rally, stock futures turned and headed deep into the red. Wednesday’s news thatretail sales dropped 8.7%in March didn’t help things, either. There’s simply too much for investors to digest. President Donald Trump is suspending funding to the World Health Organization. Daily information about new cases, deaths and hospitalizations in New York has the market on edge. And earnings season is proving just how hard the first quarter already was.
On that note, the major indices are suffering Wednesday morning. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall opened in the red.
• The S&P 500 opened lower by 2.24%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 2.2%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened lower by 1.88%
[Wednesday, April 15, 8:56 a.m.]Contributed byNeil George
TheS&P 500is off to a good start this week. First-quarter earnings reports are beginning to roll out, and there is some risk-off sentiment in the market with stock buyers leading for the time being.
JPMorgan Chase(NYSE:JPM) andWells Fargo(NYSE:WFC) kicked off earnings season yesterday, andBank of America(NYSE:BAC) andGoldman Sachs(NYSE:GS) report today.
With all of the terrible volatility, trading desk and capital markets revenues got a bump, but the big news is the amount of loan loss provisions that are being announced.
Source: Chart by Bloomberg
The KBW Bank Index was down on Tuesday, and it is easy to see why. Banks have plenty of consumer and business loans that are already in jeopardy, and according to some statements and actions by JPM and WFC, this condition will be getting worse in the current quarter.
Meanwhile, with interest rates on the floor in the United States, net interest margin (NIM) — which is the difference between what banks pay for money and what they earn — is being squeezed thin.
Then, regulatory costs (on top of costs incurred during the lockdown with remote working) should also drive up efficiency ratios, which measures how much it costs to earn each dollar.
That means banks are a less-than-stellar source for operating profits. Only energy stocks are next to banks in terms of challenges right now.
The sectors that are showing better signs are technology and healthcare, followed by consumer stocks, real estate and utilities.And the best of that bunch can be found in the model portfolios ofProfitable Investing.
[Tuesday, April 14, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the worst may be over in his state. Other governors, along with President Donald Trump’s team, are working on plans to reopen the economy. And earnings season kicked off today, as big bank stocks led the way.
As is the new usual, there were a lot of conflicting headlines in the stock market today. Despite that, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall closed in the green. Is this a continuation of last week’s rally?
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 3.05%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 2.4%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 3.95%
[Tuesday, April 14, 3:40 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A lot of our work onInvestorPlace.comfocuses on individual stocks and exchange-traded funds, but chances are you also hold some municipal bonds in your portfolio. As the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the economy, it’s time to check your bond portfolio to make sure you aren’t susceptible to this one risk.
In new reporting from theThe New York Times, Joe Gose highlightedone serious risk that investors who hold municipal bonds may be facing. Many cities use bonds to fund the construction of luxurious hotels and convention sites for business travel. New sites tend to attract more conventions. And as demand for business travel to a certain city spikes, those municipal bond holdings pay off.
But as Gose writes, new convention sites will likely sit empty for months to come. Some, still under construction, are now in limbo. And after the pandemic, how long will it take for demand to rebound? Per theNew York Timesarticle:
“The problem is cropping up across the nation. Many cities fully or partly finance the construction and operation of convention hotels to compete for events, often by using bonds backed by the hotel’s income, as well as revenue from hospitality and tourism taxes. Noting the collapse in conferences and forecasting a U.S. recession, S&P Global Ratings recently warned that it could lower the ratings of bonds supporting existing convention hotels in Denver and Austin, Texas. It also downgraded the rating of bonds backing Baltimore’s convention hotel.”
So, what are you to do? It’s true that you won’t have perfect information to act on. But you should still think about how much of the revenue for the municipality whose bonds you hold comes from travel. If it’s a high percentage, consider selling that bond. You’d be safer moving your money into other investments without that risk.
[Tuesday, April 14, 3:08 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Want some more déjà vu from the 2008 financial crisis? Well, the hot-button issue of “too big to fail” is making a resurgence. At the time, people argued that some companies were simply too big. If they failed, the ripple effect on the economy would be devastating, and therefore these companies should be first in line to receive assistance.
Others argued that if a big company couldn’t survive, it wasn’t the government’s job to save it.
Now, Peter R. Orszag, the chief executive officer of financial advisory atLazard(NYSE:LAZ), is arguing that some companies are too connected to fail. As the novel coronavirus spreads, Orszag writes that in order to prevent a wave of bankruptcies, the government should provide liquidity to companies most likely to cause a ripple effect.
This proposal is one offour policy options Orszag identifies:
Governments can boost companies’ cash flow by increasing demand and providing additional income to displaced workers. Governments can allow bankruptcies to happen, and allow companies to operate under bankruptcy. Policy makers can work to prevent bankruptcies in companies that garner the most sympathy — like mom-and-pop businesses. Governments can target companies deemed too connected to fail, using network science to determine levels of connectivity.
[Tuesday, April 14, 2:40 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Just yesterday,InvestorPlaceWeb Editor Nick Clarkson reported thatSmithfield Foodswas closing a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Workers were testing positive for the novel coronavirus, and the state wants it temporarily shuttered. But CEO Kenneth Sullivan is worried. The plant accounts for 4%-5% of the nation’s pork production, and he says he’s deeply worried about the supply chain.
Others are still insisting that there’s no aggregate shortages of any food or retail product. But then, why are grocery store shelves around the country still empty? And where can you find toilet paper?
On Tuesday, Laura Reiley reported forThe Washington Postthat a variety of factors are behind these shortages.Here’s her takeaway:
• The U.S. food distribution system is struggling to adapt to closed restaurants. Now, it’s taking time to switch from bulk deliveries to individual-use grocery items.
• Consumer trends are making individual items hard to come by with little notice (like this week’srampant hair dye buying).
• Efforts to protect workers are delaying certain parts of the distribution process. For instance, reduced store hours are adding in some distribution complications.
So what does this mean for investors? Grocery demand is still high, and Americans are getting an unprecedented amount of their food from stores. Reiley, through experts she interviewed, also makes the case that business models are changing. Grocery stores that previously attracted customers with a wide variety of goods might switch to offering larger quantities of fewer goods.
[Tuesday, April 14, 2:16 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A quick glance at any news outlet will tell you that many Americans are not happy with the nation’s response to the novel coronavirus. And Josh Barro, a columnist for theNew York Magazine, isn’t disputing their reasons. However, he is arguing that of any government body, the Federal Reserve waswell prepared for such a situation, and in his opinion, the central bank’s reaction has been spot on.
No, the Fed isn’t developing a vaccine and it ultimately can’t cure the novel coronavirus. But it did learn from the 2008 financial crisis, and it’s already applying those lessons now.
As we have reported in Mission Control, the Fed is taking an unprecedented role in preventing a financial crisis. It is partnering with the U.S. Department of Treasury to buy corporate and municipal debt — even junk-rated corporate debt.
As Barro writes, other agencies, like the IRS and Small Business Administration, have been slower to act. However, he acknowledges that unlike the Fed, these agencies are mostly learning on the fly, taking big moves to send direct checks to Americans and lend to small businesses around the country.
And in this love letter to the Fed, Barro is hopeful that slower-to-respond agencies can benefit from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s decisive action. He writes:
“After this acute crisis is over, policy-makers should consider what we learned and what infrastructure we need to stand up our economic-response programs much more quickly if we have to do this again. We’ve already seen the benefit of that at the central bank.”
For investors, Powell has risen to the status of a movie hero. Don’t take your eyes off the Fed until after this crisis is long over. You won’t want to miss whatever happens next.
[Tuesday, April 14, 1:52 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
First-quarter earnings season kicked off Tuesday morning, and there’s a lot for investors to digest. As usual, big banks led the way.JPMorganChase(NYSE:JPM) andWells Fargo(NYSE:WFC) reported earnings before market open. And both banks had some unfortunate revenue numbers.
JPMorgan earned $2.9 billion, down 69% year-over-year, on revenue of $28.3 billion. It missed analyst expectations on its net income and revenue figures. Wells Fargo suffered the same fate, reporting earnings of $653 million, down 89% year-over-year, on revenue of $17.7 billion. That revenue figure missed expectations by $1.7 billion.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, the reportsindicated something even more important. A recession is ahead. For starters, both banks are setting aside money in case loans start to go bad. One shocking illustration of what lies ahead can be found in mortgage payments. Wells Fargo representatives said that consumers had already deferred over a million payments, mostly on mortgages and auto loans.
And that math checks out. In a Mortgage Bankers Association release from Monday, reports show that mortgage loans in forbearance — a state where payments are postponed but interest still accrues —jumped to 3.7% for the week ending April 5. That’s up from just 0.25% as of March 2.
Big banks have big jobs ahead of them. Consumer spending is dropping, yet the biggest financial institutions are doing more work, supporting small businesses and bracing for a recession.
With this in mind,InvestorPlace’sIan Bezek writes that investors should becarefully watching these earnings reports to find trading opportunities. Regardless of the outcome, there’s sure to be lots of information to digest and interpret. Besides JPM and WFC, he’s watchingGoldman Sachs(NYSE:GS),Bank of America(NYSE:BAC),M&T Bank(NYSE:MTB),BOK Financial(NASDAQ:BOKF),Bank OZK(NASDAQ:OZK) andFirst Republic Bank(NYSE:FRC).
WFC and JPM stock are down 4.5% and 3.8%, respectively, in intraday trading.
[Tuesday, April 14, 1:13 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Last week’s rally in theS&P 500drew a lot of attention, and for good reason. It eclipsed all other rallies over the lastfour decades. But movement this week in the major indices is also important, and according toBloomberg’sLuke Kawa, it’spretty troubling.
As Kawa writes, last week’s rally particularly lifted beaten-down stocks. Names that looked to be at death’s door soared 25%. But this week, that momentum is gone. The S&P 500 closed down on Monday, although in intraday trading the index is up 2.8% today. To Kawa and a host of analysts, that means it’s time for the market to start consolidating.
Why? Last week saw something called a short squeeze in negative momentum. Essentially, heavily shorted stocks moved higher, forcing short sellers to close out to their positions. When those sellers close their positions, it sends the beaten-down stocks even higher. But that action seems to have ended on Monday. As Kawa writes:
“There were signs Monday that the trade — a short squeeze in negative momentum, to use its quantitative definition — had run its course, and with it, perhaps, the market’s newfound buoyancy. Stocks in the group fell 2.9% today, trailing their counterparts on the long side of the momentum factor by the most in a month.”
Now, some analysts are saying that this pattern means the next three months will be rather ugly. The market will consolidate and these beaten-down names will underperform. Dennis DeBusschere, Evercore ISI’s head of portfolio strategy, favors one strategy here in particular.
Evercore’s strategy:Sell an upside call spread in theSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSEARCA:SPY). Selling $280 strike calls that expire in May while buying the $290 strike (with the same expiry) generates a net credit of $5.20. This move should be profitable as long as the SPY gains less than 2.5% by the date of expiration.
[Tuesday, April 14, 12:45 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
It’s not every day that two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies team up to develop a vaccine that likely won’t lead to any meaningful profits. But that’s exactly whatGlaxoSmithKline(NYSE:GSK) andSanofi(NASDAQ:SNY) are doing. Despite the oddity, GSK and SNY stock are both up about 3% in intraday trading.
Sanofi had previously announced plans to work on a vaccine independently, basing its treatment off of its recombinant DNA platform (which it already uses in an influenza vaccine). GlaxoSmithKline, which did not have its own vaccine plans, will add adjuvant technology to make the vaccine more potent.
Another positive — the joint collaboration is already speeding up the timeline. Representatives from both companies said today that initial clinical tests could begin in the second half of 2020. By the end of 2021, the pair could complete the necessary development to make a vaccine available en masse.
And asBioPharma Dive’sNed Pagliarulo writes, the nature of the pandemic is changing much of what we know about drug development. Hewrites:
“Typically, vaccines are the product of years of development, emerging for widespread use only after clinical tests in thousands of patients prove their ability to protect against infection and, most importantly, their safety in healthy individuals. The urgency of the coronavirus pandemic, which hassickened nearly 2 million people globallythrough April 13, has pushed drugmakers to move faster than they have previously.”
Investors are rewarding Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline for their altruistic partnership. Look for similar news to boost other pharma stocks.
[Tuesday, April 14, 12:15 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
One Tuesday, investors learned of yet another way thenovel coronaviruswas changing life. Just a few weeks ago,InvestorPlace’sDana Blankenhorn wrote aboutOracle’s(NYSE:ORCL)big battle against open-source software. In a move sure to set precedent for the entire tech sector, Oracle tookAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) to court.
Why? Oracle believes that application program interfaces (APIs) — essentially interfaces between common software programs — are protected by copyright. This would set in stone a new understanding of how intellectual property intersects with the web.
And in Blankenhorn’s opinion, even if Oracle wins the battle (it has President Donald Trump’s backing), it will lose the war. Open-source software just simply is the future.
OK, so how does this relate to global pandemic? Well, the U.S. Supreme Court was set to hearOracle vs. Googleon March 24. Obviously, that didn’t happen. And although the Supreme Court announced it would take on a list of cases for teleconference deliberations, Oracle’s case didn’t make the cut.
Yes, it will still be heard. But asAxios’Scott Rosenberg writes, a decision likely won’t come until thecourt’s fall term. For investors that were eagerly waiting for the decision — which will have an impact on several other tech names — that catalyst is now pushed back by about six months.
[Tuesday, April 14, 10:57 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Last week,InvestorPlaceanalyst Jim Lowell sat down withForbestodiscuss one important thing. After watching investors react to the market selloff, he’s worried that many aren’t taking into consideration theirrisk tolerance and portfolio allocation. What does this mean? He thinks that some investors are acting out of panic, making rash decisions to sell without truly evaluating their portfolios.
So, if you can’t sleep at night, what should you do? First, ask yourself if your goals have changed. Then, ask yourself if your current income needs have changed. If you answer “no” to both questions, chances are you’re better off going back to bed and waiting for the market to calm down.
Once things return to normal, you can take a look again at your portfolio with a clear head and make smarter decisions.
And trust me on one thing. Lowell has the background to justify his opinions. He and fellow advisor Dan Wiener help investors make smarter decisions with their money through their money-management firm and through their mutual fund newsletters:Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors,Fidelity InvestorandFidelity Sector Investor.
Read more about Lowell’s conversation withForbeshere.
[Tuesday, April 14, 10:18 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Yesterday,InvestorPlaceWeb Editor Nick Clarkson reported on a troubling development in the U.S. supply chain. After several employees at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota plant fell ill from the novel coronavirus,Smithfield Foodsclosed the site indefinitely. That one plantrepresents 5% of the country’s pork production.
“The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” CEO Kenneth Sullivan said. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers. These farmers have nowhere to send their animals.”
Up until now, many have been reassured by the sky-high demand for grocery items. The problem wasn’t that the supply was gone, just that stores couldn’t get shelves stocked fast enough. But what happens if any more of the meat supply goes under?
AsBloomberg’sIsis Almeida and Matt Day write, the situation is tricky. Meat factory workers are likely at increased risk for Covid-19, invoking images of Upton Sinclair’sThe Jungle. But if the factories aren’t staffed, where does the food come from?
Factories around the U.S. are increasing safety and cleaning measures, but workers are still getting sick. It’s clear investors should keep watch on other major food suppliers.
FromAlmeida and Day:
“If more cases mount and an increasing number of plants are forced to idle, it’s difficult to say what the tipping point will be in terms of supply shortfalls.”
[Tuesday, April 14, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Stocks are off to a solid start on Tuesday as the first wave of companies releases first-quarter earnings reports. On top of that, we’re continuing to hear that the viral curve is flattening in the hardest-hit cities.
Regardless of the reason for the optimism, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare staunchly in the green this morning.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.95%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.77%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 1.86%
[Tuesday, April 14, 9:23 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The International Monetary Fund’snewest world economic outlookhas one scary message. The coming recession will rival — if not surpass — the Great Depression. Gita Gopinath, the director of research for the IMF, declares this recession the Great Lockdown. And by her calculations, the Great Lockdown has already passed the 2008 financial crisis in terms of severity.
Here’swhat else she predicts, as reported byAxios:
• Global GDP will lose a cumulative $9 trillion.
• GDP growth in “advanced” economies will be -6.1%.
• Over 170 countries will see income per capita shrink.
However, as long as the pandemic fades by the end of 2020, Gopinath predicts 2021 will be a lot better. The IMF is calling for global growth in 2021 to rebound to 5.8%. She notes that this is only a “partial” recovery, as economic activity will likely not reach previously forecast levels even in 2021.
[Monday, April 13, 4:50 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
AtInvestorPlace, our analysts and contributors are all looking for long-term plays that will survive the novel coronavirus and keep growing in the years to come. And in his daily column,InvestorPlace’sBret Kenwell highlighted thatAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) has what it takes to keep winning long after the pandemic.
Not that long ago, the e-commerce giant announced it was hiring 100,000 more workers to keep up with increased demand. On Monday, Amazon announced it washiring yet another 75,000. Plus, it’s setting aside $500 million for wage increases, up from the $350 million it had previously earmarked.
While companies around the world are furloughing or laying off staff, it’s remarkable that Amazon is adding almost 200,000 workers to its fold. As e-commerce continues to grow in popularity, AMZN stock is an equity you’ll never want to forget.
[Monday, April 13, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
President Donald Trump isat odds with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. Nations around the world are expanding lockdowns. OPEC and its allies finally agreed to production cuts, but oil producers are still suffering. And many U.S. officials are calling for a reopening of the economy in just a few short weeks.
With all of that news, it’s no wonder that investors couldn’t take all of the major indices higher today. TheS&P 500and theDow Jones Industrial Averageclosed Monday in the red. In the final minutes of trading, theNasdaq Compositereversed, gaining 0.48% on the day.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 1.01%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 1.37%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 0.48%
[Monday, April 13, 3:36 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) andAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) have long led tech trends. But with a global pandemic raging, the two companies are now partnering on what could be life-saving technology. The duo announced they are working on an opt-in contract-tracing tool, which will use Bluetooth technology to track the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Yes, such technology could limit the spread and help promote intervention for those who are potentially infected. But others are worried about the privacy and surveillance concerns such tech brings.
So, how does this work? Essentially, users will opt in to this tracking. As they travel about, devices, like iPhones, will anonymously exchange data.Vox’sAdam Clark Estes and Shirin Ghaffaryhave a great example. Alice and Bill are two strangers. They meet and have a brief conversation, and while they talk their devices anonymously connect. When Bill later learns he has the coronavirus and inputs that information into an app, Alice’s device will notify her that she has been exposed.
The writers are also quick to clarify that this tracing is complicated, and requires a “complex marriage of technology and design.” But if it works, it could significantly impact the course of the pandemic.
While there are still a lot of unknowns, one thing is clear. Big tech companies are still calling the shots.
[Monday, April 13, 3:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Not many stocks are shining in 2020, butBarron’sfound a short list of some hot names. These stocks have outperformed theS&P 500by at least 13 percentage points. Plus, Wall Street expects each of these 12 companies to grow earnings over the next five years.
The one caveat — valuation matters. Barron’s excluded companies with price-earnings ratios above 25, ruling outAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) andMicrosoft(NASDAQ:MSFT), among others.
Here are the12 namesBarron’sis watching now:
Akamai Technologies(NASDAQ:AKAM)Arista Networks(NYSE:ANET)Cabot Oil & Gas(NYSE:COG)Citrix Systems(NASDAQ:CTXS)Dollar General(NYSE:DG)Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD)Nasdaq(NASDAQ:NDAQ)Newmont(NYSE:NEM)Old Dominion Freight Line(NASDAQ:ODFL)Steris(NYSE:STE)Vertex Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:VRTX)Walmart(NYSE:WMT)
[Monday, April 13, 2:45 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On Sunday, after several delays, OPEC and its allies finalized production cuts. Now, 23 countries will collectively cutalmost 10 billion barrels a dayfrom global markets. While such an agreement was what many investors were rooting for, Monday isn’t seeing the payoff from that decision.
Perhaps, asThe Wall Street Journal’sRyan Dezember and Vipal Monga write, that’s because there is no real easymechanism to cut productionin the U.S. Instead, U.S. producers are self-limiting, especially as low crude oil prices destroy their businesses.
In Fort Worth, Texas,Texland Petroleumis shutting over 1,000 oil wells. The company has now applied for a loan to keep its employees on payroll.
For investors, the gloomy reality may be that the production cut isn’t the catalyst the oil market needed.InvestorPlace’sIan Cooper thinks exactly that, cautioning investors to stay away fromExxon Mobil(NYSE:XOM) and its peers. Cooper is particularly worried about alack of storage facilities for oil, writing that the oversupply could drive prices to $10 per barrel.
In intraday trading, West Texas Intermediate is at $22.86 and Brent, the international benchmark, is at $32.14.
[Monday, April 13, 2:22 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Credit Suisse analysts are working to find the silver lining in 2020’s historic market rout. According to the team, investors can see hope in GARP stocks. Standing for “growth at a reasonable price,” these stocks are plays on discounted value. Credit Suisse looked for companies with top-line growth potential, consistent track records and reasonable valuations.
Here are 12 stocks Credit Suisse says investors should bebuying for the long term(subscription required):
AMN Healthcare(NYSE:AMN)Apollo Global Management(NYSE:APO)Boston Scientific(NYSE:BSX)Constellation Brands(NYSE:STZ)eHealth(NASDAQ:EHTH)Fidelity National Information Services(NYSE:FIS)Five Below(NASDAQ:FIVE)FMC Corporation(NYSE:FMC)IHS Markit(NYSE:INFO)Ping Identity(NYSE:PING)Switch(NYSE:SWCH)Vertex Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:VRTX)
[Monday, April 13, 2:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
AsBarron’sreporterJosh Nathan-Kazis writes, new data onGilead Sciences’(NASDAQ:GILD) remdesivir is positive, but inconclusive.
For starters, the data come from hospitalized patients using remdesivir — a failed Ebola treatment re-purposed for the novel coronavirus — on a compassionate-use basis. There is no control group receiving a placebo. Additionally, the paper, which was published in theNew England Journal of Medicine, was funded and partially written by Gilead.
But it is still positive. Investigators reported clinical improvement in 68% of the patients who received remdesivir. Of the 53 patients included, 25 have already been discharged from the hospital.
What does this mean for investors? Proper data out of controlled trials in China could be a huge catalyst for GILD stock. It’s likely that results from those trials will be released this week. And asInvestorPlace’sLarry Ramer wrote,any good news for remdesivir is good news for GILD stock.
From Ramer:
“… I believe that remdesivircan meaningfully move the needlefor Gilead from a financial standpoint.
Gilead said it would provide remdesivir for free for 140,000 patients. But I’m not worried about that. In the coming quarters, given that 1 million people have already tested positive for the coronavirus, the drug will be lucrative for the company.
To conclude, I recommend buying GILD stock now.”
[Monday, April 13, 1:40 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Public health experts have warned Americans to limit grocery store shopping, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking shoppers to wear DIY masks when possible. In response, many are turning to grocery delivery services likeInstacart. But something a little more futuristic is also taking shape, courtesy ofAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL).
According to a report fromThe Verge’sJon Porter, Alphabet’s Wing is picking up speed — 65 miles per hour to be exact. Wing’s drones are becoming increasingly popular, as shoppers choose to limit human contact. In test locations, including Virginia, Wing’s drones nowdrop off goods from local shops. In Australia, the company is adding partnerships with grocery stores to make sure consumers get their bread and milk.
For now, Wing is the only drone delivery business available to the general public in North America. Tech competitorAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) may not be that far behind, talking up plans for its Prime Air service. And delivery companies are looking into this technology as well.
These drone delivery services look to be winners in the pandemic, and they sure do give us a glimpse of the future.
[Monday, April 13, 1:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
As Americans begin to receive their stimulus checks — part of the $2 trillion CARES Act — it’s important to know whether or not you qualify for a direct payment. The floated amount is $1,200 per individual, but not everyone will receive a check. According toForbessenior contributor Zack Friedman, there arethree ways to automatically qualify:
You are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who filed federal income taxes for 2018 or 2019. However, you must meet certain income thresholds to qualify. You receive Social Security retirement, disability or survivor benefits. You receive Railroad Retirement benefits.
One of the first ways to know you will not get a payment is if your income crosses the threshold. Single filers can’t make more than $99,000 and joint filers (without children) can’t make more than $198,000.
However, other Americans will not be receiving checks. For example, manycollege students— and even some graduates — will not qualify. For more, here’s a list ofother groups that the stimulus leaves out.
[Monday, April 13, 12:40 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
When will the economy reopen? When will the pandemic ease? And what will be the lasting impact on business in the United States? These questions are at the heart of Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Harrison’s last report.
One of the key takeaways from his report is that he believes U.S. coastal areas, like New York, will see the virus peak in the next three to five days. This is particularly important as states like New York and New Jersey have been hit hard by thenovel coronavirus.
Harrison additionally sees the rest of the U.S. hitting the peak of the pandemic in three weeks. With medical advances, like clinical-stage antivirals and widespread testing, new cases should decline sharply by the end of May.
However, Harrison isn’t predicting all sunshine and roses. He writes that without a vaccine, many Americans will not immediately be able to return to work.
FromHarrison, the Morgan Stanley analyst:
“Despite the significant concerns we raise about the path to a US recovery, we continue to believe the market is underestimating the impact the drug pipeline can have on the public policy response to the virus. We should stress that investors cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that only a vaccine will provide a true solution to this pandemic.”
[Monday, April 13, 12:15 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Savvy stock investors pay close attention to what’s happening to the bonds of the companies they’re researching. If you holdGeneral Electric(NYSE:GE) stock right now, you should pay attention to activities in the conglomerate’s holdings.
Over the weekend, General Electric’s credit outlook waslowered from stable to negativeby rating agency S&P Global. S&P Global also warned that the company’s BBB+ credit rating could be at risk of a downgrade. Ouch.
Then this morning, the company announced that it had madesome balance sheet movesthat would shift potentially more than $10 billion of corporate bonds due between now and 2024 into longer-term notes.
It’s a little bit unclear from the company’spress releaseprecisely how the funds will be sourced and used, but it does appear that the company is using proceeds from the recent sale of an operating division to shore up a weak balance sheet. “With net proceeds of about $20 billion from the sale of BioPharma now in hand, we are taking swift actions to de-risk and de-lever our balance sheet and prudently manage our liquidity amid a challenging external environment,” said CEO Lawrence Culp, in thatsame murky press release.
Perhaps that’s true, and that General Electric is simply shoring up its balance sheet to ride out hard economic times ahead.
Nevertheless, this is precisely whatInvestorPlace’sDana Blankenhorn predicted last week when he announced thatInvestors Don’t Need General Electric Stock. Stock investors beware.
[Monday, April 13, 12:05 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
WhenDisney(NYSE:DIS) CEO Bob Iger stepped down, everything seemed perfectly magical in the kingdom of the mouse. The Marvel and Star Wars franchises are beloved by many, Disney World and Disneyland are top-traveled theme parks and Disney+ was instantly a serious competitor in the streaming world.
But not long after Iger’s retirement — and the promotion of Bob Chapek, the head of the parks and cruise businesses — thenovel coronavirusstruck. Reporting today fromThe New York Timesindicates that Iger didn’t fade away into the night once disaster struck. Instead, media columnist Ben Smith writes that Iger is“reasserting control.”
The nature of the pandemic is the perfect storm for Disney. Crowds are dangerous, so its theme parks are shuttered. But that also means movie theaters are closed, and Disney has had to delay the release of several hot films. The one shining segment has been its streaming platform.
It’s clear that uncertainty plagues DIS stock. When lockdowns lift, how long will it be until consumers return to theme parks. What sort of safety protocols will be necessary? And will Iger get to retire again at a rosy moment in time?
InvestorPlace’sLuke Lango writes that despite the uncertainty, DIS stock is a clear buy. Lango is betting that standout movies in the second half of 2020, combined with a rush of theme park attendees when lockdowns lift, will get things back to normal. Plus, he thinks Disney’s status as a global media icon will help its rebound.
From Lango:
“Disney stock has been beaten and bruised by the coronavirus pandemic. But, it is looking increasingly likely that the pandemic will pass by the summer. If so, the economy should normalize and rebound in the second-half of 2020. So should Disney’s media, theme parks, and studio businesses. So should DIS stock.”
[Wednesday, April 13, 11:40 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Sam Ro, the managing editor ofYahoo! Finance, had avery insightful articletoday in his Morning Brief column that explains why stocks performed so well last week when so much of the news was so terrible.
He suggests that there are three things to remember to make sense of last week’s performance:
TheS&P 500is still down 18% from its Feb. 19 high. There’s far less uncertainty now than there was several weeks ago as the economy started to shut down. Markets hate uncertainty. The stock market is about the direction of expectations, not necessarily the news of the day. As Ro writes, “So the market may be reflecting expectations that are less dour than they were just a few weeks ago. Maybe the economic contraction won’t be as deep and protracted as previously expected. Maybe the earnings recession won’t be as terrible as expected. And so on.”
It’s a short-but-insightful piece that will help you understand what’s going on the markets these days. It’s well worth a read.
Yahoo! Finance partners with InvestorPlace.com to republish content.
[Monday, April 13, 11:15 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Citing a massive Federal Reserve stimulus, Goldman Sachs analysts say thatU.S. stocks have likely hit the bottom. Strategist David Kostin writes that this unprecedented support from the Fed, along with the $2 trillion CARES Act, is encouraging more investors to embrace a “risk-on” mindset. Also helping the market is the fact that the viral curve continues to flatten.
From the strategists’ note:
“The Fed and Congress have precluded the prospect of a complete economic collapse. These policy actions mean our previous near-term downside of 2,000 is no longer likely [for theS&P 500].”
Additionally, Goldman Sachs thinks investors will not fret to much about negative first-quarter results from any one company. Instead, the focus will be 2021 outlooks.
[Monday, April 13, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Stocks are in the red Monday morning after a record week. Last week’s rally in theS&P 500was its best weekly performance since 1974. But as a new week starts, investors are waiting for more details on how oil production cuts will help and how the novel coronavirus is continuing to affect the U.S. Will the economy reopen in just a few weeks?
With so much uncertainty, the S&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeare all down at market open.
• The S&P 500 opened down 0.56%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 0.57%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened down 0.32%
[Monday, April 13, 9:17 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Boy was last week an interesting one in the markets. TheDow Jones Industrial Averagehad one of its best weeks ever. But not all investors are feeling confident, and many are still looking for stocks to help them get through the pandemic in one piece. That’s whyCNBCis rounding uptop picks from Wall Street’s top analysts(subscription required).
AsInvestorPlaceWeb Editor Nick Clarkson reported last week,Disney(NYSE:DIS) stock was climbing on news that streaming platform Disney+ had reached 50 million paying subscribers. That’s big news — and JPMorgan analysts are liking what they see.
The firm’s analysts are giving DIS stock an “overweight” rating, and think that Disney is set to weather the storm. Plus, as Disney+ continues to gain subscribers, streaming revenue should help the company.
From JPMorgan analysts:
“… We are positive on the continued international rollout of Disney+ which has seen limited delays and we expect the service to benefit from consumers staying at home. We see current valuation as an attractive entry point and reiterate our Overweight rating on Disney due to the unmatched content portfolio, resilience of its brands and long-term growth strategy with the expansion of its DTC offerings.”
Other analysts are recommendingMcDonald’s(NYSE:MCD),Crocs(NASDAQ:CROX),DexCom(NASDAQ:DXCM),Marten Transport(NASDAQ:MRTN).
[Thursday, April 9, 5:12 p.m.]Contributed byJohn Kilhefner
Add Goldman Sachs to the list of optimistic investorsandto the list of skeptics.
CNBCpublished Goldman’s list (subscription required), which features two baskets of stock picks — one for if the widespread closures are extended, and another for if the virus is contained.
The former list features stocks that will outperform even if America remains closed for business longer than expected. The latter list is a bucket of stocks that will rebound in short order once the economy stabilizes.
InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango, focused solely on Goldman’s economic recovery basket, wrotea story that covers each one of GS’ picks. For each pick, Lango includes the GS case for buying, and includes his outlook on the stock:
“Goldman Sachs likes Caterpillar’s 4.3% dividend yield. They also believe that rising technology content in industrial and manufacturing equipment creates multi-year revenue tailwinds for Caterpillar’s business,” writes Lango. His own take on Caterpillar expands on Goldman’s bull case: “As goes capital spending, so goes the industrial economy, and so goes Caterpillar’s business. Today, capital spending is depressed because economic activity has come to a standstill. But, companies are sitting on record high cash levels, with borrowing and spending costs as cheap as they’ve been,ever.”
Read more of Luke Lango’s take on Goldman Sachs’ basket of coronavirus stock picks here.
[Thursday, April 9, 4:58 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Eager traders, be warned. In recognition of the Good Friday holiday, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Exchange will both be closed Friday, April 10. The bond markets, as well ascommodities trading for gold and oil futures, will also be closed on Friday.
Expect normal trading in the U.S. to resume Monday, April 13. And don’t forget to watch our Mission Control page for updates after the holiday.
[Thursday, April 9, 4:45 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
By any measure,Burton Malkielis a legend. Best known as the author of the seminal finance bookA Random Walk Down Wall Street, he’s also a professor of economics at Princeton University, a director of Vanguard Group and is a leading proponent of theefficient-market hypothesis.
Few men garner more respect in finance and investing circles.
In a commentary piece in theWall Street Journaltitled, “It’s a Good Time to ‘Stock’ Up,” Malkiel makes the point that equities have become a good deal.
Those are powerful words from a man known for advocating that market timers are foolish and that markets generally behave rationally.
In the pages of theWSJ, Malkiel goes so far as to say that, “Today I recommend that investors consider … a program of liquidating a portion of their bond and short-term securities funds and buying equities instead.”
Sell bonds and buy stocks? Those are strong words from a legend, indeed.
[Thursday, April 9, 4:36 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
Beloved coffee giantStarbucks(NASDAQ:SBUX) reported preliminary second-quarter earnings per share of 32 cents, missing analysts’ consensus estimate of 39 cents. Thedecision to pull full-year guidancedidn’t help things either.
However, reporting fromBarron’shighlights that Starbucks is far from alone in this rocky boat. Industrial stalwartGeneral Electric(NYSE:GE) alsowithdrew its 2020 guidanceand let investors know its first-quarter EPS was likely to come in below estimates.
While the list of companies in similar positions feels infinite, a few others that have withdrawn guidance includeDick’s Sporting Goods(NYSE:DKS),Intuitive Surgical(NASDAQ:ISRG) andStitch Fix(NASDAQ:SFIX).
[Thursday, April 9, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson left intensive care, and the Federal Reserve expanded its bond-buying program. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, lowered his estimates for thedeath toll the novel coronavirus will leave in the U.S.
With this news in mind, investors had some confidence in their trading on Thursday. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall closed in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 1.45%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 1.22%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 0.77%
[Thursday, April 9, 3:57 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Analysts at UBS are using an interesting metric to evaluate the novel coronavirus. Partnering with GPS makerTomTom(OTCMKTS:TMOAY), the firm is looking at how the pandemic is affecting traffic congestion. TomTom runs its ownTraffic Index, which relies on its user data to map historic and live road congestion around the world.
For analysts at UBS, this congestion is also agood gauge of economic activity. As congestion falls, fewer consumers are driving to brick-and-mortar retailers and restaurants. It also means fewer workers are commuting to offices or other places of business. More cars are parked at home, and less money is exchanging hands.
As of this writing, roads in Washington, DC earn a 9% congestion rating. The average congestion in 2019 at comparable times was 46%. Although these numbers aren’t shocking, they do matter.
As China’s economy reopens, a daily glance at TomTom shows that congestion is returning to normal levels — at least on workdays. But at least an anecdotal level, weekend congestion was still lower than the historical average. That’s not surprising, especially when you factor in an earlier Mission Control updateexploring post-pandemic consumer spending in China. While people are back to work, they’re not engaging in in-person shopping and eating out.
So, when things do ease up in the U.S. and the economy reopens, consider monitoring this traffic data. A return to historical congestion, especially outside of normal business hours, could be a great bullish indicator. Until then, keep a cautious eye on retailers and restaurants without a solid e-commerce presence.
[Thursday, April 9, 3:40 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
InvestorPlace CEO Brian Hunt just recorded an urgent new 3-minute clip (in our empty Baltimore headquarters) about the crisis we’re in … and what he sees coming.
He believes that the coronavirus panic has created a handful of extraordinary financial opportunities for 131%, 3,041% or even 6,170% gains.
He asked InvestorPlace’s analysts how to capitalize on them … and their No. 1 best move to make right now.
Watch his video here.
[Thursday, April 9, 3:27 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The U.S. Energy Information Administration, which tracksweekly energy consumption, reported that Americans used 5.1 million barrels a day of finished motor gasoline each day for the week ending April 3. While 5.1 million gallons may seem like a lot, it’s down 50% from comparable periods in other years.
Plus, according to the EIA and reporting fromBarron’s,American demand for gasoline has not been lower since 1969. As a reminder, the American population is now 40% larger than it was then. And jet fuel consumption is dropping to levels from before 1981.
At least in the short term, this is bad news for energy stocks. But nothing so far in 2020 has been particularly positive for these battered names. The novel coronavirus is destroying demand, and an ongoing price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia is dropping crude oil prices. While a favorable resolution to the meeting of OPEC nations and their allies today could bring a bounce in oil prices, the demand headwind isn’t going away in the immediate future.
So what does this mean for investors? Are all names in the energy space ones to avoid? According toInvestorPlaceanalystNeil George,that’s not the case. He’s looking for standout names, particularly companies in the pipeline and infrastructure segments. He believes these companies are less tied to day-to-day price changes and offer more critical services. Plus, their liabilities are just generally lower.
As he’s looking to buy energy stocks on the dip, here are four names he’s watching:
• Viper Energy(NASDAQ:VNOM)
• Enterprise Product Partners(NYSE:EPD)
• Magellan Midstream Partners(NYSE:MMP)
• Alerian MLP ETF(NYSEARCA:AMLP)
[Thursday, April 9, 2:54 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Crude oil prices are having quite the day on Thursday. Earlier reports highlighted that West Texas Intermediate was up 12%. Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude oil, was also up on the day. In a much-awaited virtual meeting of OPEC and its allies, oil-producing nations allegedly agreed to a cut of up to 20 million barrels per day.
After weeks of plunging crude prices and tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia, that seemed like great news. But themeeting is dragging on, and details of the cuts remain unclear. How many millions of barrels will each nation cut? How long will the production cuts last?
As of this writing,West Texas is down over 8%to $23.07 per barrel. Brent is currently priced at $31.69 per barrel, down 3.5% on the day.
[Thursday, April 9, 2:38 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
WhenInvestorPlace.comGeneral Manager Andrew Taylor reported that Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom prime minister, had been transported to intensive care at a London hospital, he cautioned that the news would be something investors watched closely.
As the first major world leader with a confirmed case of the Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, his health status was driving sentiment. And in a burst of good news Thursday, an official spokesperson announced that Johnson had beenreleased from intensive careas his condition improved.
The major indices remain in the green on Thursday afternoon, no doubt bolstered by a rash of positive updates from around the world.
[Thursday, April 9, 2:29 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Over the last few weeks of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, investors have been speculating on streaming stocks. They wondered if more time at home would translate to more paying subscribers. And on Thursday,Disney(NYSE:DIS) answered that big question.
In an update on Disney+ late Wednesday, investors learned that the service now has 50 million paying subscribers around the world. And boy, that gave DIS stock a little magic in intraday trading. Shares are now up over 4%.
AsInvestorPlaceWeb Editor Nick Clarkson reported,Disney+ is now available in eight European countries and India. The service now has 8 million subscribers in India alone.
Will other streaming stocks have a similar fate?Roku(NASDAQ:ROKU) is up 5.5% as of this writing.
[Thursday, April 9, 2:14 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
AsThe Wall Street Journalreported Thursday, officials are briefing President Donald Trump on a plan toaid the airline industry, which is eligible for relief as part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package.
Airlines were calling for $50 billion in grants and loans, as air travel plummets. Some airlines have already cut operating capacity by90% for the summer months. While investors know some details of the plan, such as demands for airlines to cap executive pay, suspend buyback programs and cut dividends, there’s a lot that remains unknown. Results from Thursday’s meeting are sure to draw attention.
And is it time to buy?InvestorPlace’sNicolas Chahine wrote yesterday thatDelta Air Lines(NYSE:DAL) was certainly headed back up, causing him torecommend DAL stock. He said that in an election year, it is unlikely that Trump or any Democrat would let a U.S. airline go under.
Other investors aren’t so sure. After early details of the bailout emerged,InvestorPlace’sTodd Shriber said it was time to sellUnited Airlines(NASDAQ:UAL) onconcerns over its allocation of cash. He isn’t the first to trouble over the amount of free cash flow airlinesdevoted to buybacksover the last decade.
Regardless of your feelings on the airline names, keep a watchful eye on the news. In intraday trading Thursday, DAL is up 6.8%. United Airlines stock is up 16.9% andAmerican Airlines(NASDAQ:AAL) stock is up 13.9%.
[Thursday, April 9, 1:51 p.m]Contributed bySarah Smith
This week has been filled with bold economic predictions. Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic advisor, said the economy could reopen in as little as four weeks. Yesterday, a plan concocted by President Donald Trump and his allies hinges on widespread antibody testing to reopen the economy in a similar time frame.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin added himself to that list of soothsayers. Mnuchin said that as early as May, or whenever Trump felt comfortable with the “medical” issues associated with the novel coronavirus, the economy could reopen.
From Mnuchin:
“[The administration is doing] everything necessary that American companies and American workers can be open for business and that they have the liquidity that they need to operate their business in the interim.”
[Thursday, April 9, 1:24 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Earlier this week,InvestorPlace.comGeneral Manager Andrew Taylor wrote that investors were getting bullish as the Federal Reserve began an unprecedented bond-buying spree. At the time, it was focusing on investment-grade corporate debt, and companies with appropriate ratings embraced the challenge.
AsAxios’Dion Rabouin reported, those with investment-grade ratingsissued $220 billion of new debtin the last two weeks.
But on Thursday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell expanded the $2.3 trillion stimulus package, offering investors more insight into his plan. A key takeaway from Thursday’s announcement is that the Fed will begin buying junk-rated debt, too. According toThe New York Times, thismove far surpassesanything the Fed attempted during the 2008 financial crisis.
This move comes after several big investors were pushing for a ratings expansion. Corporate borrowing is expanding, and credit agencies are slashing ratings. And asQuartzreporter John Detrixhe wrote, there’s never a good time for awave of corporate defaults.
Detrixhe is quick to point out that there are moral concerns with the Fed supporting junk-rated bonds — will this decision be interpreted as an endorsement of companies that are simply not viable? But at the same time, he writes that a wave of defaults would mean further lost jobs now, and less jobs for workers to return to after the pandemic.
In response to the announcement,exchange-traded funds tracking such bondsjumped. TheiShares iBoxx$ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF(NYSEARCA:HYG) is up 6.3% andSPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF(NYSEARCA:JNK) is up 6.4% in intraday trading.
[Thursday, April 9, 11:18 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Legendary investor Ray Dalio has long been making the argument that cash is trash, sharing his thoughts on the topic months before the current pandemic. But with near-zero interest rates and the Federal Reserve’s new bond-buying program, he’s doubling down.
During a question-and-answer session on social media, Dalio said that measures taken to combat a recession will lead to major inflation. For that reason, he warns that a bet on the U.S. dollar is a dangerous one.
From Ray Dalio:
“I believe that increasingly there will be questions by bondholders who are receiving negative real and nominal interest rates, while there is a lot of printing of money, about whether the debt assets they are holding are good storeholds of wealth. I believe that cash, which is non-interest-bearing money, will not be the safest asset to hold.”
[Thursday, April 9, 11:12 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
When news of the novel coronavirus first began circulating, young people largely felt safe. The earliest reports promised that only the elderly and otherwise immunocompromised were at risk. Others promised that for young, healthy Americans, it would be no worse than the common flu.
And while reports of terrifying symptoms — likelung failure in young patients— are increasing, perhaps the biggest danger to young people comes from the economy. AsVicereported earlier this week,31% of survey respondentsage 18 to 34 had lost their jobs. That compares to 22% ofrespondents age 35 to 49and 15% of those 50 to 64.
From a long-term standpoint, these survey results pose major concerns. AsVicereports, young people who entered the job market during the recession of the early 1980s had higher mortality. Although much is uncertain about the current pandemic, similar concerns hold.
And right before this pandemic was an historic bull market. Before it became clear how many young people would lose their jobs, there was a sense that buying on the dip would allow even the youngest workers a chance to get in to the market at good prices. But as people lose their income, investing becomes less of a priority.
With those trends in mind, how are so-called “millennial” stocks doing? Investors had long been rallying behind names set to benefit from the purchasing power of millennials and Generation Z shoppers.
In January,InvestorPlace’sWill Ashworth took a look atseven stocksbenefiting from “millennial money.” Names on the list, includingBooking Holdings(NASDAQ:BKNG) andShake Shack(NYSE:SHAK) have been hit particularly hard.
As the world returns to normal, these companies will be important to watch. Will they see a big rebound in investor interest? Or, will struggling young workers be out of the markets for years to come?
[Thursday, April 9, 10:40 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlaceanalystMatt McCallis confident about something that might sound a little harsh. The novel coronavirus crisis will create millionaires. And history backs him up. Just look at Baron Rothschild, who minted the phrase “the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” Rothschild started buying when everyone else was selling during the Battle of Waterloo, and he made a fortune.
McCall is using the current volatility — or the blood — to find long-term opportunities. HisCrisis and Opportunityportfolio finds stocks that benefit from the volatilityandare ideal for long-term investors.
Does making a fortune from the comfort of your home sound appealing? Read the rest of McCall’s take on getting into the market nowhere.
[Thursday, April 9, 10:20 a.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
Major indices climbed higher at the opening bell Thursday morning as the Federal Reserve released new details outlining the$2.3 trillion stimulus package.
According to the report fromCNBC, the economic money injection is geared toward bolstering small to mid-sized companies and local governments impacted most by the pandemic.
Working through banks, the Fed will offer four-year loans to companies with up to 10,000 employees and will buy municipal bonds from states with the most populated cities and counties.
Sentiment seems to be lifting around the globe as reports indicate that strict social distancing measures are working, leading to a slowdown in some of the worlds most ravaged hotspots.
Optimism is evident. TheDow Jones Industrial Averagehas rebounded more than 30% from last month’s lows.
Have we seen a market bottom? Only time will tell. Stay tuned into InvestorPlace Mission Control as we continue to keep you up to date on all the latest developments.
[Thursday, April 9, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Each morning this week has been a bit puzzling. What’s sending stocks higher in such a chaotic week? Well, the new figures for unemployment claims came in at 6.6 million, lower than the 7 million many expected. But the Federal Reserve also provided an update to its so-called Main Street Lending Program. It will now work with the U.S. Department of Treasury to scale$75 billion into $600 billion of loansto small and medium-sized businesses.
Whatever the reason for optimism, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeopened in the green.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.20%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.38%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.97%
[Thursday, April 9, 8:53 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A Thursday morning release from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that for the second week in a row, over6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. According to the report, 6.61 million Americans filed for the week ending April 4. After the Department of Labor revised the figure for the week prior, the newest numbers show a slight week-over-week drop in claims.
While Americans are still losing their jobs at an unprecedented rate, many analysts were calling for a figure of7 million or greater. Stock futures began to turn around after the 8:30 a.m. release, perhaps on a sense of optimism from the slight beat.
This weekly number is sure to affect trading today, and investors will be watching every week for updates.
[Wednesday, April 8, 4:50 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Earlier this week,InvestorPlace.comGeneral Manager Andrew Taylor detailed how the CARES Act is creating a time bomb in the mortgage world. He wrote that Americans with government-backed mortgages will be able to delay monthly payments with ease, but the bill did not provide any relief for those who hold the loans.
Today, reporting fromAxiosreveals another hole in the housing market. Approximately one-third of all apartment renters failed to make April payments. As Fadel Allassan writes, a collection of federal and local laws should protect many of these renters from eviction. But the problem doesn’t stop there.
Just as with the mortgage scenario, theapartment situation could snowball. Unpaid rent could lead to mortgage defaults, “terminating investments in bonds backed by those mortgages.” Additionally, real estate investment trusts that specialize in apartments are struggling.
As of April 8, top apartment REITsEquity Residential(NYSE:EQR) andMid-America Apartment Communities(NYSE:MAA) are down 19% and 16% year-to-date, respectively. Both stocks are up on the day.
[Wednesday, April 8, 4:26 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
Today the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its March 15 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. While the general action of the meeting — to slash interest rates to near zero — is not surprising, theminutes do show one key thing.
Members of the Federal Reserve see two distinct outcomes of the novel coronavirus. One camp believes that we will see an economic recovery in the second half of 2020. The other camp does not seeroom for recovery until 2021. Regardless of which camp is right, the Fed will maintain near-zero interest rates until such a recovery occurs.
As the pandemic progresses, it’s safe to say investors are rooting for those in the first camp to win.
[Wednesday, April 8, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
By the close of trading Wednesday, many investors would agree that this week feels like a lifetime. Market sentiment surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic is swinging back and forth. In one report, the numbers from New York and Italy look great. In another, things are worsening, and we’re seeing one-day highs in new cases and total deaths.
Wednesday is the middle of the week President Donald Trump warned should be one of the worst for those in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, says there isreason for optimism looking ahead. And in unrelated news, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who represented a threat to Wall Street — dropped out of the presidential race.
There’s certainly a lot of news out there that’s influencing trading. The stars aligned Wednesday as theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeall closed in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 3.38%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 3.41%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 2.58%
[Wednesday, April 8, 3:50 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The world is changing in unforeseen and unprecedented ways. Topics that consumed investors in 2019 or early 2020 now feel irrelevant. And the pandemic is also creating strange opportunities for corporations and consumers alike.
In today’s news, scandal-burdenedWells Fargo(NYSE:WFC) isseeing an unlikely reprieve. After the bank agreed to a $3 billion settlement, the coast was not all clear. The Federal Reserve imposed a $1.95 trillion asset cap, designed to prevent Wells Fargo from growing its balance sheet. But now, in an effort to speed up the small business loan process, the Fed is reversing course.
In “narrow” modifications to its restrictions on Wells Fargo, the Fed will now allow the bank more leeway in lending. However, it must return any proceeds to the U.S. Treasury Department or non-profits that serve small businesses. WFC stock is up 4.2% in intraday trading.
Although it the news does little to Wells Fargo’s overall story, perhaps it shows that the post-pandemic world will look very different. Investors will have a whole new host of things to worry about, and Wells Fargo’shistory of scandalsjust may not make that list.
[Wednesday, April 8, 3:31 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
On Tuesday, news broke that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was recommending an additional $1 trillion stimulus package, intended to provide additional unemployment benefits, among other forms of relief. On Wednesday, she joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in pushing for$500 billion in “emergency” aidrelated to the novel coronavirus.
The proposal would provide another $250 billion in small business loans, something President Donald Trump has already expressed his support for. It would also include $100 billion for hospitals and health centers and $150 billion for state and local governments. Lastly, the proposal would provide a 15% increase to the existing maximum for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Pelosi and Schumer clarified that this “emergency” aid would then be followed by a second CARES Act, which would expand on the provisions of the first.
[Wednesday, April 8, 3:18 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Zoom Video Communications(NASDAQ:ZM) in many ways has been a winner of the novel coronavirus. Out of nowhere, families, school systems and corporations have switched to using its video conferencing platform as the pandemic accelerated remote work and distance learning.
But users of Zoom may be some of the losers, according to new reporting fromThe New York Times. Updates to Mission Control this week have detailed how analysts are turning bearish on ZM stock, thanks to its sky-high valuation. But companies, like Elon Musk’sSpaceX, and school systems are now souring on the platform. Why?
The New York Timeshighlights its privacy and security flaws, including “hijacked” webcams and “Zoombombings” that disrupt sessions. Others have raised concerns about the data the company collects on its users.
So, acknowledging that remote work is a major trend, what is an investor to do? ZM stock poses valuation and ethical concerns. Well,InvestorPlaceanalyst Louis Navellier is bullish onMicrosoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) stock. Its Teams and Skype offerings are solid alternatives to Zoom. Plus, Microsoft has more robust security features, which are critical for businesses that may be discussing trade secrets or virtual classrooms of minors.
As Navellier writes, treat Zoom’s failings as abig opportunity for Microsoft and MSFT stock.
[Wednesday, April 8, 2:54 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
We’ve all seen the viral videos and read the news stories. Americans are hoarding consumer staples, particularly toilet paper and disinfecting products. Grocery shopping, once a tedious errand, is now the focal point of the U.S. economy. And many think grocery store stocks are hot buys right now.
Citi analysts are tappingWalmart(NYSE:WMT) stock, as analyst Paul Lejuez says it’s Walmart’s “time to shine.” He sees at least 15% upside from its current share price. Lejuez is new to covering WMT stock, but he’s maintaining the firm’s “buy” rating and giving shares a $140 price target.
FromLejuez, the Citi analyst(subscription required):
“This is WMT’s time to shine. When we think about what has been working in general within the U.S. retail landscape (and what will likely continue to work), we would characterize it as online, off-mall, convenience and value. WMT checks all four boxes.”
AndInvestorPlace.com’sNicolas Chahine is alsoadding WMT stock to his grocery list, inspired by the hoarding. Evaluating Walmart on a price-earnings basis, he concludes that it is a relatively cheap grocery name, although he prefersCostco(NASDAQ:COST) stock. Chahine gives both “buy” recommendations.
[Wednesday, April 8, 2:38 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Yesterday, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor Larry Kudlow said that the White House could begin reopening the economy in as little as four weeks. As nationwide social distancing extends through April 30, and many states have imposed farther-reaching stay-at-home orders, his announcement drew skepticism.
But reports Wednesday shed a little more light on Trump and Kudlow’s plan. Widespread antibody testing, which checks for previous exposure to the novel coronavirus and immunity, could allow Americans to safely return to work. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also expressed interest in making antibody testing available to New Yorkers.
Is this feasible?Barron’sreporter Josh Nathan-Kazis writes:
“Those tests are just beginning to become available, andwhile they have been the subject of enormous attention in recent days, scientific questions remain. It isn’t clear what volume of antibodies to the virus that causes Covid-19 need to be present for a person to be immune from future infection, or how long that immunity lasts.”
If such testing is available, it could remove some of the fear from reopening the economy. Investors will surely be waiting for further guidance from the White House in the coming days, as pandemic sentiment continues to drive the stock market.
[Wednesday, April 8, 2:22 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Few publishers marry data and analysis better thanAxios.
This morning Axios markets editor Dion Rabouin published aquick-but-slick chartthat shows the daily value of theS&P 500, with key developments in the coronavirus outbreak superimposed on the chart.
There’s perhaps nothing ground-breaking in the chart, but it’s nonetheless a nice illustration of the way stock markets failed to accurately understand the brewing danger as data about the seriousness of the virus came out of China and from the World Health Organization in the first couple of months of the year.
InvestorPlace.com’sown coverage also often failed to understand the gravity of the situation we were facing, thoughInvestorPlace.comMarket Strategist William Roth didwarn investorson Jan. 28:
“A growing list of Chinese cities are effectively quarantined as officials scramble to limit the spread of the easily transmitted disease. The fear is that global travel bans are sure to follow, further weighing on global economic activity.
Moreover, thinking though this as a hypothetical, a global pandemic would leave central bankers — the deus ex machina of this longest-ever bull market in history — powerless to do anything. If only the Federal Reserve could print vaccines, you know?
That risks spooking stocks in a way that investors haven’t felt in years. And as a result, many well-known and widely-held stocks are beginning to roll over.”
At the time, William Roth warned investors to sellBank of America(NYSE:BAC),Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL),Exxon Mobil(NYSE:XOM) andDisney(NYSE:DIS). We now know that all were the right call.
At the same time, much of the coverage fromInvestorPlace.comand other sites remained overly rosy for too long. Hindsight makes for very clear vision, of course. But at the very least, it’s a cautionary tale. TheAxiospieceis worth a quick read.
[Wednesday, April 8, 2:12 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Remember when investors loved cannabis stocks? The daily movements in any of Canada’s darlings — thinkAurora Cannabis(NYSE:ACB),Canopy Growth(NYSE:CGC) andTilray(NASDAQ:TLRY) — made headlines. Companies ousted CEOs, regulatory boards worried about illegal growing and investors rooted for international expansion.
But then the pandemic happened. Overnight, cannabis stocks, which had long been struggling, lost relevancy. There are still long-term bulls, likeInvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall. Many more believe the U.S. is right around the corner from legalizing marijuana at the federal level.
Still, ACB stock is not a top priority. But anew report from Cowen analystscould be changing that. According to the report, pot usage hit an all-time high in March, pun fully intended. As more consumers were stuck at home, apparently more adults felt inclined to try a cannabis product.
In the most recent survey, 33% of consumers admitted to trying cannabis. The 2019 average for the survey was 12.5% of consumers. While increased use doesn’t guarantee legalization, it shows the addressable market for the major pot companies is increasing. One thing to note is that Cowen analysts warned decreasing job security could see the number drop again as the lockdown drags on.
Shares of Aurora Cannabis stock are up 4.2% and shares of CGC are up 1.5%. Tilray is seeing 11.5% gains andCronos(NASDAQ:CRON) is up 8.4% in intraday trading.
[Wednesday, April 8, 1:16 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Surely, you’ve heard that an unprecedented number of Americans are stuck at home with an unusual amount of time on their hands. Some are making bread, others are learning yoga or getting crafty. But for those sitting by the computer, watching portfolios rise and fall with the market, here’s another idea.
In an April report from the American Association of Individual Investors, Craig Israelsen writes that adults should use this opportunity toteach their kids and grandkids all about investing. It might not seem all that fun, but it can be oh so rewarding.
Israelsen recommends starting with a basic incentive. Show your “students” that getting into the market early makes a massive difference on their retirement income. For example, a 25-year-old worker who begins investing 6% of their $35,000 annual income will have over $500,000 when they hit 65. This assumes that income increases 3% each year and the portfolio earns an average of 6% each year.
With the same assumptions, a worker who starts saving at 45 will only have about $187,000 at age 65. That’s a huge difference.
From there, get creative.InvestorPlace.comoffers a “wealth” ofeducational resources. Chances are you’ll learn something new yourself. And after days of binge-watching TV, focusing on money-making strategies is sure to boost your spirits.
[Wednesday, April 8, 12:18 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
As with any grouping of stocks, some dividend names look particularly well suited to surviving the pandemic-induced crisis. Others don’t. According to analysts from Credit Suisse, companies with dividend yields above 3% and negative cash flows are most at risk.
Fromanalyst Michael Lerner(subscription required):
“We believe investors should … avoid high dividend payers with stretched balance-sheets, and focus on businesses where dividend payments are sustainable and the icing on the cake of an otherwise strong fundamental story.”
Here’s a look at 15 companies Credit Suisse thinks are most at risk of slashing or suspending their dividends.
Occidental Petroleum(NYSE:OXY)Carnival(NYSE:CCL)Royal Caribbean(NYSE:RCL)Halliburton(NYSE:HAL)Exxon Mobil(NYSE:XOM)Valero Energy(NYSE:VLO)Darden Restaurants(NYSE:DRI)Chevron(NYSE:CVX)PPL(NYSE:PPL)Delta Air Lines(NYSE:DAL)Boeing(NYSE:BA)CenterPoint Energy(NYSE:CNP)OGE Energy(NYSE:OGE)ConocoPhillips(NYSE:COP)Edison International(NYSE:EIX)
[Wednesday, April 8, 11:33 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In news that is sure to hit Democrats around the country, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sandersdropped out of the presidential race. In recent weeks, his performance in primary elections has vastly lagged that of former Vice President Joe Biden.
But for many investors, this could add a bit of confidence to trading. Long before the pandemic, Wall Street feared that a Sanders presidency would threaten major industries, like tech, healthcare and defense. Now though, a race between Biden and President Donald Trump poses less threats to existing businesses.
Although the election seems far away in a pandemic-focused world, investors are sure to take note of Sanders’ move. Watch the major indices today for any reflection of his decision.
[Wednesday, April 8, 11:05 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall has long been bullish on biotech stocks. Long before the pandemic, he pickedAimmune Therapeutics(NASDAQ:AIMT) for his entry inInvestorPlace.com’sBest Stocks for 2020 contest. At the time he said that 2020 would be the Year of Biotech.
Certainly a lot has changed since then, but many biotech stocks are holding strong. And McCall just wrote that the novel coronavirus is creating big buying opportunities for long-term investors.
What is he looking at for evidence? While, so far this year theS&P 500is down more than 17% while theVanEck Vectors Biotech ETF(NASDAQ:BBH) is down closer to 5.6%. It’s one of the top-performing sectors right now. From McCall:
“These stocks have shown relative strength in the bear market, and the current crisis gives us a glimpse of the innovative breakthroughs coming our way … including efforts to fight the coronavirus.”
Read the rest of McCall’s thoughtshere.
[Wednesday, April 8, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
A choppy day of trading on Tuesday left all of the major indices in the red. Investors are largely relying on updates about thenovel coronavirusto determine sentiment. Tuesday morning, things looked OK, and stock futures were up. Tuesday afternoon, investors learned that New York saw its biggest one-day spike in new cases.
Updates from key states like New York and the status of the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson will continue to be important.
While it’s not clear what news investors are eyeing Wednesday morning, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall opened higher.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.07%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.07%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 1.13%
[Tuesday, April 7, 4:55 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
For years, people have predicted that internet retailers will kill American retail. According to that particular line of logic,Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) was at the front of the pack, pitchfork in hand, aiming to kill brick-and-mortar retailers throughout our land.
In fact, the phenomenon was so popular in American culture that it had its own catchy nickname: the “retail apocalypse.” The term retail apocalypse even has itsown Wikipedia page, which proclaims that U.S. retailers announced 9,302 store closings last year, a 59% jump from the prior year.
Americans are holed up in their homes as we do our best to stay healthy and avoid passing germs. For some people, it’s legally dubious whether we’re even allowed to shop in some stores. For everyone, entering a store mayimperil our health.
Retail stores will get crushed.
By the end of 2020, those figures from last year will look like child’s play. This year will bring a retail apocalypse unlike anything since the Great Depression.
Retailers with weak balance sheets and feeble internet sales will drop like flies, and the carnage will start within weeks. Louis Navellier, working with his research staff atInvestorPlace, has developed a list ofseven retail stocks investors should avoidright now.
You may be surprised by some of the names on the list:
• Gap(NYSE:GPS)
• Kohl’s(NYSE:KSS)
• Nordstrom(NYSE:JWN)
• Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao Grupo Pao de Acucar(NYSE:CBD)
• Walgreens Boots Alliance(NASDAQ:WBA)
• Tapestry(NYSE:TPR)
• Ulta Beauty(NASDAQ:ULTA)
In the end, we were all wrong for years. It won’t be Amazon.com that killed retail. It’ll be the coronavirus.
Forewarned is forearmed.
[Tuesday, April 7, 4:22 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
In January, notable short seller Muddy Waters printed its allegations againstLuckin Coffee(NASDAQ:LK), and many thought the firm was absolutely bananas at the time. But to the detriment of several investors, Muddy Waters was proven correct last week. A regulatory filing showed that Luckin’s COO, among other key employees, had faked $310 million in sales. That’s a lot for a high-growth company.
On Tuesday, Muddy Watersfound a new target—iQiyi(NASDAQ:IQ). Commonly known as theNetflix(NASDAQ:NFLX) of China, investors have liked iQiyi for its exposure to the Chinese market and streaming offerings. But similarly, Muddy Waters believes the company is fraudulently reporting its users, among other metrics.
MW is short$IQbecause we believe it’s a fraud. We assisted@WolfpackReportswith comprehensive research into IQ. MW believes that IQ fraudulently and materially overstates its users, revenues, acquisition consideration, and value of its “barter” content.https://t.co/GyNPNjxR7T
— MuddyWatersResearch (@muddywatersre)April 7, 2020
Although the stock dropped in intraday trading, shares closed high by more than 3%.
[Tuesday, April 7, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Well, after Monday’s impressive rally and a strong start to trading on Tuesday, stocks are trimming their gains. Many believed that the rally started on news that deaths were decelerating in New York and Italy, and that trend continued into Tuesday morning. But then, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 731 new cases on Tuesday, thestate’s largest one-day increase.
That wiped a bit of confidence out of the market to say the least. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeended the day in murky water.
• The S&P 500 closed lower by 0.18%
• The Dow Jones Industrial average closed lower by 0.15%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 0.33%
[Tuesday, April 7, 3:49 p.m.]Contributed byJohn Jagerson and Wade Hansen
The storage business is said to thrive off the “four Ds:” Divorce, Downsizing, Dislocation and Death. It’s looking like we will see plenty of those during the next few months.
We don’t want to minimize the problems in the current economic environment, but we also don’t want to miss a good opportunity tomaximize the potential returns in ourStrategic Traderportfolio.
The average storage company is organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT), which is a special kind of stock that passes along most of its net income to shareholders in the form of ordinary dividends. This makes these stocks attractive during a period of low interest rates like the one we are experiencing right now.
[Tuesday, April 2, 3:38 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
So, as non-essential workers sit at home, what happens to their cars? Yes, there will still be some driving, especially to grocery stores and for other essential errands. But will anyone really be driving enough to warrant their full auto insurance payments?
That logic is what has two insurers,Allstate(NYSE:ALL) andAmerican Family Insurance, refunding payments. AsInvestorPlace’sWilliam White reported, Allstate willreturn $600 million to customersin order to fairly account for decreased travel. American Family Insurance is offering a $50 refund per insured car.
As consumers’ pocketbooks run empty, any money back is a small victory. While White says other insurers have yet to hop on the refund bandwagon, it’s likely others could follow suit.
[Tuesday, April 7, 2:15 p.m.]Contributed byJohn Kilhefner
Stocks have rallied for a third time in four days, with major indices on track for the highest close in nearly a month … but are investors getting ahead of themselves?
Over atMarketWatch, Nigam Arora thinksgreed is clouding investors’ vision, and that the rally in stocks could be short-lived. Arora’s been right before, noting on Jan. 22 that the novel coronavirus could impact markets:
“Investors have said there was no warning of the coronavirus. That’s untrue. On Jan. 22, The Arora Report’s call was that the coronavirus could cause a drop in the market. After finding that investors continued to buy stocks, I wrote on Jan. 30 that arrogance and greed among momentum investors ‘may prove to be dangerous for investors.’ Other than a potential cure, the course of the stock market rally will depend on the behavior of naked investors.”
Arora points to the rally in Big Tech as proof positive that investors are letting current optimism cloud their judgment. The buying inApple(NASDAQ:AAPL),Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) andAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) appears to signal that investors are shrugging off the coronavirus much too early.
“Is the stock market getting divorced from reality? There are no vaccines or treatments for the coronavirus. It is true that there is a vaccine for the flu, and Tamiflu helps some people. The coronavirus is much more dangerous than the flu. In spite of massive efforts, there is no cure or vaccine for even the common cold. The HIV cocktail is a great success but it took many years for scientists to develop it. Thus, the stock market is clearly divorced from reality.”
Unless a cure is presented, argues Arora, the rally in stocks will be short-lived.
[Tuesday, April 7, 2:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Investors spent much of 2019 waiting for short-term rental companyAirbnbto make its public debut. But for one reason or another, its IPO kept getting pushed back. Before the pandemic, one of the most recent concerns was safety. On Halloween, five individuals died at a so-called “party house.” In response, Airbnb set out to makesweeping changes to clear its image(subscription required).
But then, the pandemic hit. People stopped traveling, and the company wasthrust into its biggest storm yet. A hotly awaited IPO became a nightmare, and some wondered if this was the end. The novel coronavirus certainly brought economic pain to several of the site’s hosts.
News on Monday that Airbnb had secured$1 billion in additional fundingshould help answer some questions. With that money, the short-term rental company is likely to weather the storm, although the impact on the travel and leisure business is likely to be longer term.
For investors, it’s one key example of how the IPO market will change moving forward. This once-hot company will have a lot to work through when the storm clears. When it will be ready to take the stage again? Plus,DoorDash,Warner Music GroupandAlbertsonsare othercompanies facing IPO decisionsamidst the volatility.
[Tuesday, April 7, 1:32 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Biotech stocks have always drawn investors’ interest. They are truly high-risk, high-reward plays that capitalize mostly on new drugs or expanded drug licenses. For clinical-stage companies — those whose pipelines are full of unapproved treatments — a single positive trial result can mean 100%-plus gains. Just look at what happened recently withImmunomedics(NASDAQ:IMMU). IMMU stock almost doubled on news that trials of its breast cancer drug showed “compelling evidence of efficacy.”
Investors who specialize in this space have a few new opportunities driven by the novel coronavirus. Legacy drugmakers are recycling compounds, hoping to find a winner. For instance,Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) is repurposing a failed Ebola treatment, remdesivir. And startup biotech names are busy researching new vaccines, drugs and treatment-related tech.
But outside of these one-time opportunities, how is the pandemic impacting biotech stocks? In an interesting report fromBiopharma Dive, Ben Fidler and Nami Sumida take a look atclinical trials that the coronavirus is disrupting.
Social distancing and stay-at-home orders are keeping employees from being together to run trials. Other companies are pivoting away from, say a cancer treatment, to focus on Covid-19 cures. According to Fidler and Sumida, more than 48 companies have now reported pandemic-related delays.
Because these clinical trials are so closely tied to stock-price movement, it’s hard to say what the near term will look like for biotech investors. However, when clinical trials resume, there could be a huge uptick in interest in the space.
[Tuesday, April 7, 12:35 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In a Mission Control update last week,InvestorPlace.comGeneral Manager Andrew Taylor shared how companies were facing a “seismic shift” in ad spending, based on reporting fromThe New York Times.
This week,InvestorPlace’sLuke Lango is ready with another take. Yes, he acknowledges that a decrease in ad spending is not going to be pretty in the second quarter. Investors are right to worry about digital ad stocks, especially in the near term.
But Lango says this near-term pain is perfect for long-term investors. Digital ad companies are seeing record-high engagement as more and more consumers are stuck at home, scrolling social media platforms or watching TV. And when economic trends return to normal, Lango thinks this engagement will convert to record-high sales. From Lango:
“Long story short, while second-quarter 2020 numbers will be awful in the digital advertising world, second-half 2020 numbers could be quite good. Most digital ad stocks are down about 50% from recent highs. They are priced for bad Q2 numbers. But they are not priced for good second-half numbers.”
Here are theseven digital ad stocks he’s recommending you buy right now:
• Facebook(NASDAQ:FB)
• Alphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL)
• Snap(NYSE:SNAP)
• Pinterest(NYSE:PINS)
• The Trade Desk(NASDAQ:TTD)
• Roku(NASDAQ:ROKU)
• Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN)
[Tuesday, April 7, 11:35 a.m.]Contributed byChristopher Skokna
InvestorPlaceanalyst Eric Fry took a drive this weekend — and in today’sSmart Money, he shared what he saw. “The retail economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic was clear,” he writes. “Strip malls look something like a piano keyboard. Takeout joints and drugstores are as bright and busy as ever … but shoe stores, nail salons and barbershops are shuttered. Malls are closed … and I bet more than a few won’t ever reopen. Grocery stores, on the other hand … well, there’s a reason I’m having mine delivered instead of heading into that mess. Highways and major roads are eerily uncongested, but delivery trucks are clogging side streets.”
While it’s clear that the pandemic is causing tectonic shifts for the retail economy, it’s not obvious yet which of those shifts will last after the threat passes. One safe bet, Eric writes, is that retailers and other corporations will further their use of robotics, artificial intelligence and other technologies to automate as much as they can in order to mitigate the risks from the next pandemic.
So in today’s Smart Money, Eric reveals three retail stocks that he believes will see their fortunes rise thanks to both the coronavirus present — and their technology-focused future.Click here to see his recommendations.
[Tuesday, April 7, 11:12 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After backing away from a proposed infrastructure plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now calling for anadditional $1 trillion stimulus package.
Pelosi’s pivot is likely a reflection of last week’s economic reports, which showed 10 million Americans had filed for unemployment benefits in two weeks. Her new plan would provide additional direct payments, resources for food stamps, increased unemployment benefits and payroll relief.
One catch is that both the House of Representatives and the Senate will not be back in session until April 20. Additionally, President Donald Trump’s social distancing order is in effect until April 30. However, Pelosi is still determined to see her plan pass by the end of the month. For investors, it will be important to watch how the markets react to these additional measures.
[Tuesday, April 7, 10:51 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor had a shocking message Tuesday. He believes the White House could begin urging Americans toreopen the economy in the next four to eight weeks.
As models of the novel coronavirus show it continuing to have an impact through the summer — or perhaps even the fall — of 2020, this news comes as a surprise. But the advisor, Larry Kudlow, is confident that the deceleration of deaths in New York is a good sign.
A shuttered U.S. economy is causing havoc for businesses of all sizes. Although many are afraid of the pandemic, many Americans too are fearful of long-lasting economic impact. Investors will be watching to see how the White House moves forward on this action item.
[Tuesday, April 7, 10:33 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In many ways,Exxon Mobil(NYSE:XOM) just became the newest victim of the oil price war. In case you need a refresher on the basics, demand for oil is practically nonexistent as economies around the world are shuttered. Then, after a nasty spat, Saudi Arabia challenged Russia to a full-blown price war as it flooded the markets with cheap crude.
As cheap crude and lowered demand destroys the industry, Exxon Mobil today announced that it would slash itscapital spending for 2020 by 30%. Yes, its dividend is safe for now. But that sort of spending cut bodes poorly in a world where many believe oil is yesterday’s news.
Earlier this week,InvestorPlaceanalyst Louis Navellier summed it up nicely. There’s just not much left in Exxon Mobil’s tank. Even with the possibility of anew oil deal on the table, he doesn’t see much to like.
It’s safe to say there’s just too much bad news in this space. Don’t get suckered in by the black gold now.
[Tuesday, April 7, 10:10 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Many folks atInvestorPlacearen’t interesting in calling a bottom — and for good reason. It’s hard to perfectly time it, and investors can miss out on big opportunities waiting for the market to sink lower. With that said, it’s still important to know what others are saying.
OnCNBC’s“Squawk Box,” veteran market strategist Jeff Saut said that the market had already found a bottom. That’s right, he thinks theS&P 500hit a bottom on March 23 and is headed higher. He even thinks that we will see the broad index gain 6% this year from its all-time highs.
From Saut(subscription required):
“Last week, our models turned positive again and we started to recommit cash. If there is a cure for the virus or a vaccine for the virus, those [S&P 500] lows are not going to be retested.”
[Tuesday, April 7, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After Monday’s impressive stock market rally, are investors in for a second day of gains? That’s what it looks like as all major indices opened higher on Tuesday by at least 2.5%. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeare certainly starting the day off on the right foot.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 3.21%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 3.58%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 2.76%
[Tuesday, April 7, 9:02 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
There’s a ticking time bomb in the mortgage market, and everyone who owns a home, wants to own a home, cares about housing in America or holds stocks in a wide variety of industries that support home owners should be concerned.
According tothis articlefromCNBC, the federal government created the perfect tinderbox for disaster when it quickly pushed through legislation intended tohelp homeowners who can’t make paymentson their mortgages. Under theCARES Act, which intends to limited damages from the coronavirus outbreak, homeowners with government-backed mortgages can delay their monthly mortgage payments with minimal difficulty.
As well-meaning as that legislation may have been, apparently it ignored the other side of the equation: Those who hold these loans have to continue servicing them to their bondholders. In other words, no cash will be coming in to the lenders if a homeowner elects to delay his mortgage payments, but cash will still be due to holders of their notes.
That’s a recipe for disaster for mortgage holders.
This outcome was likely unintended. After all, as legislation gets pushed through and passed into law quickly, many consequences are unintended.
In a worst-case scenario, the mortgage market completely seizes up, as lenders will not have cash available for new loans, and may run out of money to service existing mortgages. The list of damaged industries would be a mile long if this happens. On top of that list, of course, would be homebuilders likeD.R. Horton(NYSE:DHI),Lennar(NYSE:LEN) andPulteGroup(NYSE:PHM); construction materials companies likeVulcan Materials(NYSE:VMC) and Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE:MLM); and retailers likeHome Depot(NYSE:HD) andLowe’s(NYSE:LOW).
Mortgage companies are known to have first-rate lobbying teams in Washington, and it’s reasonable to expect that they’ll quickly lobby Congress to alleviate this pinch-point in the CARES Act. If you hold stocks that might be impacted, pay close attention. It’s possible Congress fails to act, and the mortgage market starts to sputter. Be warned.
[Monday, April 6, 4:57 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
File this under, “Things I didn’t expect to see today.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York conducts a monthly study called the “Survey of Consumer Expectations.” Today the bank released figures for March.
Buried in amountain of interesting datais a real gem.
According to that survey, 47.7% of people surveyed predict thatU.S. stocks prices will be higher one year from now. That’s up from 42.5% one month earlier, and 40.4% in December. In fact, it’s the highest reading that particular question has seen in its lifetime, which dates back to 2013.
Source: Chart courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
There are two distinct ways to interpret this data. One school of thought believes that bear marketscan’t end on optimism. Another line of thinking acknowledges that this market dip is different than any other the world has ever seen, and so that the possibility of aV-shaped recoveryis much more pronounced than history would indicate.
If you remain among the bullish 47.7%,InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango penned an article titled“The Top 15 Stocks to Buy in 2020”that can get you thinking about where to put your money to work.
[Monday, April 6, 4:41 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
Cruise operators have dominated headlines in the last few weeks, but Monday saw trulynewsworthy price action in the industry-leading names. Why? Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is asovereign-wealth fund, reported an 8.2% stake inCarnival(NYSE:CCL).
Shares of CCL stock skyrocketed, closing 20.3% higher on the day. Peer companiesRoyal Caribbean(NYSE:RCL) andNorwegian Cruise Line(NYSE:NCLH) also shot higher in sympathy. RCL stock ended the day up 21.4% and NCLH stock ended the day up 18.3%.
Are these gains sustainable? It’s too early to tell, but Monday’s move was a nice treat for investors. The market will certainly keep watching cruise operators to see how thenovel coronavirusimpacts their business moving forward.
[Monday, April 6, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Wow, is this rally for real? That’s what investors are surely asking themselves on Monday as all major indices closed the day higher by at least 6.5%. Stock futures began the day higher, on reports that deaths in Italy and New York were decelerating. However, President Donald Trump and his advisors are still warning that the coming week will be a tough one. Deaths in the U.S. now top 10,000.
But that bad news isn’t shaking the market today. Even word that the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care didn’t hurt the indices in the final minutes of trading. TheS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall ended the day deep in the green.
• The S&P 500 closed higher by 6.95%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 7.59%
• The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 7.33%
[Monday, April 6, 3:50 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, wasadmitted today into intensive careat a London Hospital as a result of complications from the novel coronavirus. Johnson’s illness was first announced last week, and he moved into the hospital over the weekend. The move to the intensive care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital occurred around 7:00 p.m. local time.
Johnson is the first major world leader confirmed to have contracted the virus. He has maintained a very public persona, and the state of his illness will be closely watched by markets worldwide.
[Monday, April 6, 3:43 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
InvestorPlaceanalyst Louis Navellier named one stock this weekend that is seriously outperforming the broader market. But what’s even more important is that his pick,ResMed(NYSE:RMD), has long-term staying power.
Yes, ResMed makes ventilators and other devices that are key in fighting the novel coronavirus. But Navellier was recommending RMD stock in hisGrowth Investorin February, before most Americans even knew what the coronavirus was. Why? Well, 42 million Americans are impacted by sleep-disordered breathing. That’s a huge market. And it isn’t disappearing anytime soon.
From Navellier’smost recent update:
“The bottom line: RMD is sure to be more in demand during the coronavirus pandemic, but it also has the staying power to continue climbing over the long term. And those are the only stocks I will ever invest in.”
For more on ResMed, and othermajor growth opportunities, read his full briefinghere.
[Monday, April 6, 2:25 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
JPMorgan’s(NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is calling for abad recession, but he’s confident his bank, and JPM stock, are in a good place.
In his annual letter, which was published today, he wrote that through careful planning, JPMorgan should not need to ease regulations to weather the storm. He even said that GDP could fall as much as 35% — and stay there for the extent of 2020 — before he’d consider slashing the dividend on JPM stock.
In that same letter, here’s what Dimon wrote:
“Entering into a crisis is not the time to figure out what you want to be. You must already be a well-functioning organization prepared to rapidly mobilize your resources, take your losses and survive another day for the good of all your stakeholders.”
With a safe dividend, and a decision to halt the company’s buyback program, investors can find solace in a few things. The current pandemic-driven bear market is not a repeat of the financial crisis. Banks are in a much better position than they were then.
InvestorPlace’sLuke Lango iseven calling for investors tobuythe big bank stocks. And Lango argues that JPM is the most high-quality name in the big bank space. Faizan Farooque feels similarly, saying thatDimon’s leadership alone is a reason to like JPM stock.
Dimon has worked hard to make JPMorgan a “port in the storm.” Investors should treat discounted prices in JPM stock — and its big bank brethren — as buying opportunities.
[Monday, April 6, 1:30 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
It can be insightful to know what fellow investors are reading, especially in unsettled and uncertain times. With that in mind, here’s list of the top five most popular articles read last week onInvestorPlace.com:
30 Stocks on a DeathwatchbyJosh EnomotoUnited Got Its Bailout, So Sell UAL Stock While You Still CanbyTodd Shriber7 U.S. Stocks to Buy on Coronavirus WeaknessbyLuke Lango10 Stocks to Buy Whose Companies We Can’t Live WithoutbyWill AshworthAt What Point Is Delta Stock a Screaming Buy?byBret Kenwell
Not all of the readers onInvestorPlace.comarrive on our site from a Google search.
That said, monitoring organic search queries from Google can provide great insight into what’s top-of-mind for investors. With that in mind, here are the top 10 search queries our articles appeared under last week:
ccl stock amazon stock american airlines stock microsoft stock delta stock spy stock lk stock tsla stock uber stock tsla
[Monday, April 6, 1:04 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Gig economy workers were already at a disadvantage. They missed out on many benefits that workers classified as employees typically received, like health insurance and paid sick leave. The novel coronavirus is only making that disparity worse, and companies likeUber(NYSE:UBER) are perfect examples.
Uber, led by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, has long been fighting attempts by others to change its business model. California’s legislators targeted its contributions to the gig economy, passing a law that would force it to classify its drivers as employees. But now, in the face of the pandemic, Uber is pushing back.
Today,InvestorPlace’sDana Blankenhorn took a closer look at Uber’s business model. He writes that while Khosrowshahi is fighting for drivers to receive the funds they need, he doesn’t want Uber to foot the bill. Uber’s business model, Blankenhorn writes, pushes all the costs onto other parties, freeing up Uber’s cash.
While some might see this as clever strategy, Blankenhorn thinks it’s the end of Uber. Or, at least the end of its current business model. Regardless, its ride-hailing business has been hit had. Drivers are dying, and others are desperate, out of work.
From Blankenhorn:
“I don’t think the last era’s business models, meant to insulate companies from corporate responsibility, are going to play in this new era. I wouldn’t touch Uber stock with a barge pole.”
[Monday, April 6, 12:28 p.m.]Contributed byChristopher Skokna
In Saturday’s Smart Money column,InvestorPlaceanalystEric Fryhighlighted a coronavirus consequence that not many others are.
Over the past decade, in some ways, the generational inequality we call the “wealth gap” had shown signs of reversing. Thanks to changes in the healthcare system, more Americans are insured. As of late last year, wages were growing faster than at any time in the past two decades. And the economy had been adding jobs for more than 100 consecutive months, putting unemployment at record lows.
Then along came Covid-19. In a month, the coronavirus wiped out all that progress. U.S. GDP could decline by 14% in the second quarter, according to JPMorgan. The number of jobless claims moved from 228,000 three weeks ago to an astounding 6.65 million last week. That number lifts the two-week tally of lost jobs to nearly 10 million — the biggest jobs crash in recorded history.
Eric says he believes that we will beat the coronavirus and the economy will recover, longer term. However, many companies will counteract the risks of the next global pandemic by shifting more of their processes to automation, robots and artificial intelligence, rather than human beings.
And that will cause the wealth gap to keep on getting bigger. For Eric’s full report on this phenomenon — and how to protect yourself —click here.
[Monday, April 6, 11:22 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Real estate investment trusts, commonly known as REITs, are favored by many investors for their reliable cash dividend payout. It’s the proverbial, “My money makes me money” that so many investors seek.
According thean insightful articleinBarron’syesterday, REIT investors may be in for quite a shock in the coming weeks and month as the companies halt cash payouts in an attempt to shore up their balance sheets. Instead of paying cash dividends, experts expect many REITs instead to pay their dividends with a mixture of cash and stock.
Per that very sameBarron’sarticle:
“I have little doubt that the REITs will begin paying dividends largely in the form of their own stock,” says Robert Willens, a tax and accounting expert who runs an eponymous consultancy. “That happened during the previous financial crisis, and it will almost certainly happen again.”
If you hold REITs in your portfolio, expect a little less cash to come your way in the coming months.
[Monday, April 6, 11:12 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Any prudent portfolio includes exposure to both stocks and bonds, and investors need to pay attention to both categories of their holdings. With that in mind, make sure that you’re aware of somehighly unusual activityin the corporate bond markets.
Two weeks ago the Federal Reserveannounced an unprecedented planto buy corporate bonds. That said, the Fed is only buying investment-grade corporate bonds, not higher-yield, lower-quality bonds (the so-called “junk bonds”). Per an informative article from Dion Rabouin atAxios:
“Junk bond companies have largely been locked out of issuing new debt, but firms with investment-grade ratings have flooded the market with a record $220 billion of new issuance in the last two weeks as the firms desperately seek cash.”
The Fed’s efforts to put money into the economy are being felt already in the corporate bond market. Mike Collins, senior portfolio manager at Prudential’s PGIM Fixed Income, toldAxiosin thatsame articlethat “The Fed came in with its massive bazooka, addressed the liquidity concerns and it’s gone from a buyer’s market to seller’s market.”
The Fed’s actions will create winners and losers in the bond market in a way that we’ve never seen before in the United States. Unless you’re super savvy about finding nuggets among high-yield bond offerings, it’s likely safest to just follow the Fed andfocus on investment-grade corporate bond offerings.
[Monday, April 6, 11:09 a.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
[Editor’s Note: This Mission Control post has been edited to reflect updated information.]
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, speaking this morning onCNBC’s“Squawk on the Street,” announced that she believes that second-quarter GDP could fall by 30%, and that unemployment is already at 12%-13%. If true, both of those figures are well above many estimates. Peran article published byCNBC, Yellen announced:
“If we had a timely unemployment statistic, the unemployment rate probably would be up to 12% or 13% at this point and moving higher.”
She also said that gross domestic product is down “at least 30% and I’ve seen far higher numbers.” Although these numbers are in different form from the Great Depression, she says they still resemble a depression.
Per the sameCNBCarticle Yellen said:
“This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit, and my hope is that we will get back to business as quickly as possible.”
One should note that Yellen is no longer at the Fed, and thus may not have access to specialized information at the Fed’s disposal. On the other hand, Yellen has never been known to speak offhandedly, and it’s safe to assume that she knows her words carry great weight. This is a story to continue watching.
[Monday, April 6, 11:02 a.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
An article inThe New York Timesnotes that physicians around the world are racing to find innovative new ways to safely and effectively treat patients during the novel coronavirus outbreak. And they are rapidly turning to telemedicine.
“In a matter of days, a revolution in telemedicine has arrived at the doorsteps of primary care doctors in Europe and the United States. The virtual visits, at first a matter of safety, are now a centerpiece of family doctors’ plans to treat the everyday illnesses and undetected problems that they warn could end up costing additional lives if people do not receive prompt care.”
At a time when healthcare systems around the world are stretched thin, and with global health experts searching for solutions to slow the spread of the virus, telemedicine offers tremendous value and massive upside.
The broad market selling is creating buying opportunities in investment trends that won’t slow due to the pandemic. In fact, they could even accelerate due to the changing global landscape. Check out Matt McCall’s take on telemedicine in Saturday’sMoneyWirearticle.
[Monday, April 6, 9:50 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Zoom Video Communications(NASDAQ:ZM) has had quite a run in 2020. Investors were so hot on the name that they weremistakenly buying sharesin a different company,Zoom Technologies(OTCMKTS:ZOOM). Then, users of the work-from-home solution started reporting hijackers or“zoombombers”crashing their calls. A slew of privacy concerns brought increased scrutiny to the name.
But zoombombings aside, Credit Suisse analysts say there’s something else not to like about Zoom Video stock. Its valuation. Credit Suisse is downgrading the name to “underperform,” and shares are down 10.5% in early trading. Analysts just simply don’t think shares are worthy of trading at 40 times consensus 2020 revenue.
FromCredit Suisse analyst Brad Zelnick(subscription required):
“We have great appreciation for Zoom’s technology, products, and leadership and see the current crisis accelerating the adoption of video communication, but at 40x CY20 consensus revenue, the current share price embeds significantly greater conversion of free users than our upside model scenario.”
[Monday, April 6, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The sun is shining and the stock market is off to a green start. Good news from New York and Italy — both hit hard by the novel coronavirus — is boosting investors’ confidence. New York reported 594 new deaths on Sunday, down from 630 on Saturday. And Italy also reported theslowest rise of new deaths in two weeks.
Many, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are warning that it’s too early to tell if this is the new trend. But investors are rallying the market higher anyway. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeare all sharply up.
• The S&P 500 opened higher by 3.98%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 4.39%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 4.65%
[Friday, April 3, 4:27 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
After a week that saw the Big 3 automakers —General Motors(NYSE:GM),Ford(NYSE:F) andFiat Chrysler(NYSE:FCAU) — report dismal sales figures,Tesla(NASDAQ:TSLA) gave investorssomething to cheer for on Friday.
Despite the impacts ofthe novel coronavirus, which shuttered factories in Fremont and Shanghai, Tesla beat analysts’ estimates. It reported first-quarter sales of88,400 vehicleswhile analysts were looking for 79,900. Plus, Tesla produced 100,000 vehicles in the quarter.
TSLA stock rallied 5.6% Friday on the surprise. CEO Elon Musk certainly knows how to deliver.
[Friday, April 3, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The U.S. Department of Labor’s non-farm payroll report hit the market hard this morning, although periods of trading throughout the day seemed to indicate that investors had shrugged it off. But in the afternoon, the major indices headed back down, ending the day in the red.
Nothing — not even the launch of President Donald Trump’s small business loan program — could turn things around. Losses in theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeleave investors without much to celebrate headed into the weekend.
• The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.52%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 1.67%
• The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 1.53%
[Friday, April 3, 3:27 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
New reporting fromThe New York Timestoday confirmed what many already knew to be true. Major tech companies will emerge relatively unscathed from the pandemic, and they will use the current crisis to gain further market leverage. In an article titled “How Tech’s Lobbyists Are Using the Pandemic to Make Gains,” Dave McCabe sheds light on whatSilicon Valley’s stars are doing now.
Facebook(NASDAQ:FB) andAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) are using the crisis to lobby California’s attorney general to postpone enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act. The law requires companies to share with users what data it collects on them, and there’s no doubt data-gathering tech giants are unhappy with the legislation.
Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN), under CEO Jeff Bezos, is often criticized for its treatment of rank-and-file employees. Bezos makes headlines every time he supports a charity, as most Americans want to see him donating more. But Amazon has been in Washington, hoping to gain more financial backing for remote working. AndUber(NYSE:UBER) is also seizing an opportunity to challenge California’s Assembly Bill 5, which will require the ride-hailing company to treat its drivers as employees.
Say what you will about the ethics of these situations, but Silicon Valley’s best and brightest will survivethe novel coronavirus. Amazon stock is up for the year. Although GOOGL, FB and UBER shares are down in line with the market, investors should see buying opportunities in these names at discounted prices.
Plus, it’s important to remember that technology is greatly shaping the American response to the outbreak. Tech companies are providing critical innovations in telemedicine, drug discovery and work-from-home solutions. These tech companies are the future, and the pandemic isn’t changing that.
[Friday, April 3, 2:46 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Enough is enough. That’s what analysts are saying today aboutTwitter(NYSE:TWTR) stock as it lingers close to 52-week lows. TWTR shares are currently underperforming theS&P 500, down roughly 40% from Feb. 17 highs. It’s clear that Twitter’s 2020 performance is just too ugly.
That’s why Goldman Sachs analyst Heath Terry upgraded shares to a “buy” rating today with a $35 price tag. He was joined in his generosity by CFRA Research analyst John Freeman, who similarly upgraded TWTR stock to a “buy.” However, Freeman actually cut his price target from $38 to $31.
But what is there to like about TWTR stock? Advertising spending is dropping in 2020, which logically should pressure shares further.
Well, Terry thinks Twitter will survive spending cuts, and come out on the other side stronger. In fact, near $22, he thinks TWTR stock offers investors a unique opportunity today.
From Terry, theGoldman Sachs analyst:
“We believe the net impact of advertisers retreating, both as brands weigh the value of spending in a crisis and direct response sees conversions declining, while user growth surges globally as people look to stay informed and connected, has created an attractive entry point.”
[Friday, April 3, 2:03 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
If anything,the novel coronavirusis teaching us that misery loves company. But miserable investors also love rooting for stocks that offer hope. In our new pandemic-driven world, this has largely meant that biotech companies working on coronavirus vaccines are now market-beating equities. You’ve surely heard ofInovio(NASDAQ:INO) andModerna(NASDAQ:MRNA), right?
But other names are flying high, too. These stocks that are outperforming the market all tie into stay-at-home orders or remote work trends. Many investors are helpingPeloton(NASDAQ:PTON),Clorox(NYSE:CLX),Teladoc(NYSE:TDOC) andZoom Video Communications(NASDAQ:ZM) rally.
Jim Chanos, Kynikos Associates founder, has a different take. He’s telling investors that these “virus stocks” are dangerous, as their long-term prospects are dim. Peloton, for instance, is rising as Americans become desperate for at-home exercise solutions.
While the company’s luxury offerings may be attractive when the world leaves lockdown, many consumers will be returning to gyms.
From Chanos:
“One area I would warn people about for example is the virus stocks. They are doing well right now in this enforced lockdown. A lot of these companies are really not structurally growth stocks that are trading at 30, 40, 50 times earnings because they are going to do well in the first and second quarters of 2020.”
[Friday, April 3, 1:30 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
That was fast! Ugh.
According to an article titled“‘A Seismic Shock’: Jittery Companies Pull Back on Ads During Pandemic”in theNew York Timestoday, companies are already pulling back their advertising dollars. Per the article:
“Companies that spent big to get the word out about their products before the pandemic have hit the brakes. Facebook has described its advertising business as ‘weakening.’ Amazon has reduced its Google Shopping ads. Coca-Cola, Kohl’s and Zillow Group have stopped or limited their marketing. Marriott’s advertising, in the words of the company’s chief executive, has ‘gone dark.'”
This isn’t isolated to a few companies trying to conserve cash. One industry group estimates that advertising spend is down between 38% and 51%. Per theNew York Timesarticle:
“Overall spending on digital ads for March and April is down 38 percent from what companies had expected to lay out, and ad spending has fallen 41 percent on TV, 45 percent on radio, 43 percent in print publications, and 51 percent on billboards and other outdoor platforms, according to the trade group IAB.”
That’s not to say that investors should flee all ad-supported businesses. In fact,InvestorPlace’sLaura Hoy makes the case that right now is a great time forinvestors to look atad-supported companies with strong balance sheets likeFacebook(NASDAQ:FB) andAlphabet(NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL).
[Friday, April 3, 1:15 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
One highly awaited portion of President Donald Trump’s $2 trillion stimulus package, the Paycheck Protection Program, launched Friday. This roughly$350 billion programwill provide loans to qualifying small businesses.
Although small businesses and lenders alike are alreadyexpressing their concernsabout the program, it is a key means of helping those most impacted by stay-at-home orders and other lockdown protocols.
Companies that qualify are eligible for up 2.5 times their monthly payroll expenses, as many do not have much of a financial cushion.
Early in the morning, Bank of America reported that it had already received 10,000 applications for loans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted thatnew loans already totaled $875 million, mostly coming from “community” banks.
[Friday, April 3, 12:34 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
This week has seen record action in oil prices. First, we saw the end of the first quarter, marking the worst quarterly performance ever for crude oil. Then, President Donald Trump boldly tweeted that Russia and Saudi Arabia would meet soon to negotiate production cuts. Oil prices skyrocketed on Thursday on hopes the price war would end.
As a reminder, the price war is the result of Russia refusing to comply with OPEC’s recommendations. And boy has the Saudi-Russia price war hammered oil and energy names.
For the year so far, energy exchange-traded funds are underperforming the market. TheEnergy Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSEARCA:XLE) is down almost 52%. TheSPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production ETF(NYSEARCA:XOP) is down more than 65%. Those losses are so bad they’re almost impressive.
In the midst of this,Simpler Trading’s Danielle Shayhas some insight on what investors should expect. Unfortunately, she says only a handful of the biggest and most well-capitalized energy companies are guaranteed survival. On her short list areExxon Mobil(NYSE:XOM) andChevron(NYSE:CVX).
FromShay’s interview with CNBC:
“The only [names], in this situation, that are going to be able to survive are ones that have enough cash on hand with a low debt-to-equity ratio. These names are really just going to be Chevron, Exxon, and then the big names that are going to have enough money to get through this.”
[Friday, April 3, 11:45 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Restaurants are in particular focus as businesses around the country shut down. Their delivery, drive-thru and carry-out options are providing spots of relief to quarantined Americans looking for a fun treat. But more importantly, the food industry is getting hit hard. Restaurant chains are laying off and furloughing workers en masse. Many independent shops could go under.
ButInvestorPlace’sChris Lau sees some upside for restaurant stocks. He focuses on businesses who have embraced the pivot to online ordering. Then, he looks at their past financial reports to get a sense of their strength going into the pandemic.
Lau identifies seven restaurant stocks investors should be buying on the dip now, acknowledging that Americans can’t give up fast-food orders forever. Hereare the names he’s watching now:
• Restaurant Brands International(NYSE:QSR)
• McDonald’s(NYSE:MCD)
• Yum! Brands(NASDAQ:YUM)
• Starbucks(NASDAQ:SBUX)
• Domino’s Pizza(NYSE:DPZ)
• Chipotle(NYSE:CMG)
• Shake Shack(NYSE:SHAK)
[Friday, April 3, 10:28 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Despite nearly across-the-board carnage in the airline industry, Strategic Wealth Partners CEO Mark Tepper and MKM Partners Chief Market Technician JC O’Hara are picking their favorites in the space. Why? Someairlines are simply too big to fail.
Many investors, and manyInvestorPlacecontributors, have debated how the federal bailout will impact the space. Which companies will survive? When will consumers return to flying? Will air travel ever return to its peak? If you’re looking for more guidance, you’re in luck.
Tepper is tappingDelta Air Lines(NYSE:DAL) andUnited Airlines(NASDAQ:UAL) because of their size. However, he does expect both names to keep underperforming, as investors will continue to price in their acceptance of bailout funds.
O’Hara’s airline pick requires a hop — or perhaps a flight — across the globe. He’s looking at Australia’sQantas Airways(OTCMKTS:QABSY).
[Friday, April 3, 10:01 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
In a shocking note, Bank of America analysts warn that investors should be prepared for the “deepest recession on record.” Because they have no precedent to compare this pandemic-driven downturn to, the analysts are calling for extreme figures. In fact, they believe the unemployment rate will surpass those from 2007-08 to reach 15.6% soon.
From theBank of America note:
“The coming recession appears to be deeper and more prolonged than we were led to believe just 14 days ago when we last updated our forecasts, not just in the US but globally as well.”
[Friday, April 3, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After a non-farm payroll report that came in worse than economists’ estimates — by a huge margin at that — the stock market opened down on Friday morning. Granted, we’ve seen some nastier mornings this week. But nonetheless, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall started the day down in the red.
• The S&P 500 opened lower by 0.55%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 0.67%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened lower by 0.39%
[Friday, April 3, 8:59 a.m.Contributed bySarah Smith
No one expected Friday morning’s non-farm payroll report to be upbeat. But perhaps no one expected the U.S. Department of Labor to report adrop of 701,000 jobs for March. Economists had predicted a loss of 10,000 jobs and a new unemployment rate of 3.7%. Friday’s numbers bumped the U.S. unemployment rate to 4.4%.
Additionally, this decline marks the first since 2010, as the U.S. recovered from the Great Recession. According toCNBC, Friday’s figure is eerily close to the peak of 2009, when the Labor Department reported adrop of 800,000 jobs in May.
Investors should anticipate the stock market opening down on Friday, and another choppy day of trading ahead.
[Friday, April 3, 8:45 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Yes, FactSet predicts thatS&P 500earnings growth will decline by 5.2% in the first quarter. And that shouldn’t surprise investors, given that restaurants are limited to take-out and delivery and a whole host of non-essential businesses have closed their doors.
Yesterday, we learned that beloved burger chainShake Shack(NYSE:SHAK) is seeing50%-90% sales declinesacross its company-operated outlets.
But Goldman Sachs says that not all companies will be facing declines. In fact, the firm’s analysts have put together a list of10 companies that should still grow salesin 2020 (subscription required). Here’s who they’re watching:
• Bristol-Myers Squibb(NYSE:BMY)
• Fiserv(NASDAQ:FISV)
• Global Payments(NYSE:GPN)
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:VRTX)
• Fidelity National Information Services(NYSE:FIS)
• Advanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ:AMD)
• ServiceNow(NYSE:NOW)
• Netflix(NASDAQ:NFLX)
• Salesforce(NYSE:CRM)
• Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN)
[Thursday, April 2, 5:05 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
SpeakingonCNBC, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said today that he expects the unemployment rate to peak in the “low- to midteens” before it falls to about 8% by the end of the year.
Kaplan doesn’t have a perfect crystal ball, and we should acknowledge that we’re in uncharted territory given the unprecedentedunemployment claim figuresthat came out today. That said, Federal Reserve presidents aren’t known to be undisciplined when speaking publicly, and you can bet that Kaplan has data and models behind his figures that aren’t available to the general public.
It’s an interesting data point as investors peer into the future.
[Thursday, April 2, 4:27 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
There’s always a lot to like about market-leadingAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) stock. It led the disruptive move into e-commerce, which is giving it a vital role in today’s locked-down world. Amazon also has its Amazon Web Services, and cloud services too are becoming increasingly vital. Oh, and don’t forget its TV, movie and music streaming offerings.
It seems like there’s something for everyone to like about this company, especially asthe novel coronaviruschanges life as we know it.
Now,Amazon is making yet another move. This time, into the world of video games.The New York Timesreported today that Amazon was investing“hundreds of millions of dollars”into its first big game,Crucible. Next up on its agenda is a multiplayer gameNew World. Both are set to launch next month.
With this news in mind, AMZN stock is certainly one to keep watching. Shares ended the day up slightly.
[Thursday, April 2, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Stock futures were rallying Thursday morning, and then fell hard. The U.S. Department of Labor’s report on how many Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week had investors a bit wary. But then, things turned around. President Donald Trump signaled an end to the Saudi-Russian oil price war could be near. Oil prices rallied, big time.
TheS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeall finished the day in the green.
• The S&P 500 ended the day up 2.27%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 2.23%
• The Nasdaq Composite ended the day up 1.72%
[Thursday, April 2, 3:53 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Fourteen months ago, InvestorPlace CEOBrian Huntpenned a seminal article titled, “Why You Should Learn to Appreciate a Good Financial Crisis.” The subtitle, “A financial crisis also creates great opportunities” describes the theme of the article perfectly.
Brian’s view:
“In fact, how a person views these events is one of the defining differences between the rich and the poor. The poor are bewildered and angered by these events. The rich see them simply as how the world works … and as the creators of huge opportunities.”
Intriguing, right?
This was all written well before anyone ever heard ofthe novel coronavirus, and with the benefit of distance from our current crisis. Whether you’re feeling bullish or bearish in the current market, Brian’s article is well worth a read. Clickhere to read his take.
[Thursday, April 2, 3:00 p.m.]Contributed byMatt McCall
It’s been another crazy week.
But at this point it’s feeling like par for the course.
The coronavirus continues to cause turmoil throughout the global markets.
Millions of people are divided.
For some, the multitrillion-dollar stimulus plan gives hope that stocks will rebound.
Others feel the worst is yet to come.
Here’s what I think.
Honestly, I see several great opportunities out there right now.
You just need to know where to look.
For one overlooked corner of the market, it’s the buying opportunity of a lifetime.
And I just found three stocks that are screaming buys … even in this market climate.
I revealed the name and ticker symbol of one of these stocks for free during my market briefing last night.
It’s a small, innovative company using artificial intelligence to provide predictive analytics in healthcare.
I believe this stock could climb 1,000% or more in the next few years.
You can learn more about these three stocks and more by watchingthe time-sensitive replay here.
[Thursday, April 2, 2:51 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Goldman Sachs analysts are also weighing in on the dividend debate. As thenovel coronavirusspreads, it does seem likely that more and more companies will cut or suspend their dividends. But Goldman still sees hope, although the firm predictsS&P 500dividend payouts will drop by 25% in 2020.
The silver lining? High-yielding dividend stocks that seem ready to keep on paying out. AsCNBCreports(subscription required), here are 10 stocks the firm is watching:
• Omnicom(NYSE:OMC)
• Home Depot(NYSE:HD)
• Wells Fargo(NYSE:WFC)
• Franklin Resources(NYSE:BEN)
• People’s United(NASDAQ:PBCT)
• Bristol-Myers Squibb(NYSE:BMY)
• 3M(NYSE:MMM)
• International Business Machines(NYSE:IBM)
• NetApp(NASDAQ:NTAP)
• Cisco(NASDAQ:CSCO)
[Thursday, April 2, 2:34 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
The end of March marked the worst quarterly performance for oil prices. But a tweet from President Donald Trump could beturning things around. West Texas Intermediate prices are up 20% so far on Thursday, andBrent crude prices are up 19.6%.
Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)April 2, 2020
Just a day afterWhiting Petroleum(NYSE:WLL) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Trump’s tweet is also boosting energy stocks. If Saudi Arabia and Russia really are willing to meet again and agree on production cuts, other American shale producers could be spared Whiting’s fate.
[Thursday, April 2, 2:05 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
As if the first wave ofthe novel coronavirusisn’t bad enough, JPMorgan analysts are now warning investors that apotential second wave could hit worse(subscription required). Mixo Das, a quantitative strategist for Asia equities, says that as bad as the current lockdown situation is, a second wave of the virus would cause even more pain.
Why? Investors aren’t pricing one in. Right now, most are assuming Covid-19 will be a one-time hit. Anything that contradicts that will catch the market off-guard.
[Thursday, April 2, 1:46 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
If you’ve been reading the financial news today, you’ve probably noticed thatLuckin Coffee(NASDAQ:LK) was caught red-handed. In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company admitted that its COO, along with other reporting employees, had faked sales to the tune of $310 million. That’s not good.
Investors are punishing the stock, sending it down over 80% in intraday trading to all-time lows. LK stock has long been seen as the perfect Chinese rival toStarbucks(NASDAQ:SBUX). It has offered investors big growth potential, and new stores seem to open every single day. But, Luckin has now lost investors’ trust.
InvestorPlace’sLuke Lango isn’t fretting. In fact, he says that in the long term, LK stock will rebound, because the fake sales don’t detract from its growth story. Now, below $7, he sees aunique opportunity to buy shares.
From Lango:
“Luckin will continue to grow alongside a booming China retail coffee market, and LK stock will bounce back in a big way from today’s all-time lows. So, for contrarian investors with time on their side, the recent plunge in LK stock looks like a long-term opportunity.”
[Thursday, April 2, 11:53 a.m.]Contributed byChristopher Skokna
In the latest edition of hisSmart Moneye-letter,InvestorPlaceanalystEric Frynotes that while stock market averages may not have bottomed out yet, many individual stocks have.
“Best of breed” stocks, in particular, tend to bottom out first, Eric writes, and then they move higher while the rest of the market is languishing. Since we rarely get the opportunity to buy best-of-breed stocks on the cheap, he says, we should be looking for the opportunity to do that.
And in thatSmart Money, Eric says the semiconductor sector is one that will soon be on the upswing … and thatMicron Technology(NASDAQ:MU) is his top “best in breed” chip stock.
In fact, Eric argues, thenovel coronaviruscould end up boosting the chip sector.
Near term, of course, the coronavirus epidemic is depressing demand for semiconductors, Eric writes. But long term, many companies might attempt to counteract the operational risks of thenextglobal pandemic by shifting more of their processes to machines of some sort, rather than human beings.
And so, the Covid-19 epidemic could end up being a “trigger” for the semiconductor sector’s — and Micron’s — next leg up.
Check out Eric’sfull storyfor the rest of his case.
[Thursday, April 2, 11:05 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Popular work-from-home stockZoom Video Communications(NASDAQ:ZM) has been a winner whilethe novel coronavirusdrives most other stocks down. Zoom offers important technology, facilitating easy video conferences for university students and businesses alike.
But what does Wall Street think about the high-flying name? Well, ZM shares currently trade for 42 times projected fiscal 2021 revenue. And they trade for 31 times fiscal 2022 revenue. It’s safe to say that Zoom Video is looking crazy overvalued here.
FromD.A. Davidson analyst Rishi Jaluria, who has a “neutral” rating on the stock:
“While we like Zoom’s multiple growth drivers, emerging use cases, impressive financials, and tailwinds from changes being accelerated by Covid-19, we find the current valuation too rich and would wait for a pullback before buying shares.”
[Thursday, April 2, 10:44 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Verizon(NYSE:VZ) pays a big dividend — currently yielding more than 4.5%. And making that payout even more attractive is the love it’s getting from Goldman Sachs analysts. On Wednesday, analysts added it to the firm’s“Conviction Buy”list, setting a $61 price target.
Goldman is calling Verizon a “stable stock” and telling clients that oncethe novel coronaviruseases, VZ stock could see double-digit upside.
FromGoldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman(subscription required):
“We see the stock offering investors the most attractive combination of total return and risk owing to its stable wireless business, well-covered dividend and strong balance sheet.”
[Thursday, April 2, 10:11 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
It seems like every day another stalwart American company slashes its dividend. So where should income investors look for stable payouts? According toBarron’s,dividend aristocrats are a good place to start. Theseeight stocks belowmeet their criteria and are worth a second look now:
• Abbott Laboratories(NYSE:ABT)
• Chevron(NYSE:CVX)
• Hormel Foods(NYSE:HRL)
• Johnson & Johnson(NYSE:JNJ)
• Kimberly-Clark(NYSE:KMB)
• Medtronic(NYSE:MDT)
• Procter & Gamble(NYSE:PG)
• T. Rowe Price Group(NASDAQ:TROW)
[Thursday, April 2, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Stock market futures were initially well in the green this morning, but the U.S. Department of Labor’s jobless claims report sent things down fast. Now, theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositeare all starting trading in the red. Will positive sentiment return to the market today?
• The S&P 500 opened down 0.02%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 0.14%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened down 0.29%
[Thursday, April 2, 9:01 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, over 6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s double the previous week’s 3.3 million figure, and setting a dangerous precedent. According toYahoo Financereporter Heidi Chung, Americans are losing their jobs at a “historic pace.”
It is also important to note that economists did not predict such a sharp increase in lost jobs. The consensus estimate was for 3.7 million jobless claims. For the week ending March 28, the total came in above 6.6 million claims.
[Thursday, April 2, 7:44 a.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
Earnings season is one of our favorite times at InvestorPlace.
We love numbers. We love analyst estimates. We love creating charts and projecting future earnings.
But this earnings season is going to be far from ordinary.
First, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionhas already granted extensionsto public companies on delivering their earnings reports. That means we are going to have delays, and incomplete data for some time. And already many companies have withdrawn previous guidance for projected earnings for 2020, with no indication about when future guidance could appear.
And when the numbers do come in, they are not going to be pretty. According toFactSet, analysts expectS&P 500earnings to decline 5.2% in the first quarter.
Investors should expect data to be incomplete and not very positive this quarter, or even next. FactSet also notes analyst projections are for S&P earnings to decline 10% in Q2.
As time goes on, we’ll get a clearer picture, but investors should brace themselves for a lot of unknowns over the next several weeks.
[Wednesday, April 1, 4:35 p.m.]Contributed byJohn Kilhefner
Thenovel coronavirushas had a cascading effect on the world economy, and investors have regrettably aimed to time the market bottom to disastrous effect.
However,InvestorPlaceMarkets Analyst Luke Lango created a data-driven model to help other investors better understand when the Covid-19 panic will come to an end.
In his article titled“Tracking Covid-19: When Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Peak?”, Lango writes the following:
“Unfortunately, pandemics are inherently tough to predict. No one knows with great certainty how the Covid-19 pandemic will end. Fortunately, though, there is a lot of data out there with respect to the coronavirus pandemic. We can use all that data to make educated predictions about the lifespan and magnitude of Covid-19.”
It’s been nearly a month since the U.S. tallied its first 1,000 cases, and Lango can see an end in sight:
“The hope is that these growth curves — the 5-day moving averages — follow the same ‘bell’ trajectory as they did in South Korea and China. Rise fast for a few weeks, flatten out for a few days, and then gradually fall towards near-zero.”
[Wednesday, April 1, 4:26 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
Are the “Big 3” automakers becoming the “Little 3” in the business? AsGeneral Motors(NYSE:GM),Fiat Chrysler(NYSE:FCAU) andFord(NYSE:F) all arefacing steep sales declines, that may be the case.
GM reported that its U.S. sales are down 7% in the first quarter, and its inventory is down 18% year-over-year. Fiat Chrysler had a strong January and February, but it still is seeing a 10% drop in vehicles after factoring in March. And although Ford has yet to report its sales figures, it’s probably safe to assume the numbers won’t be pretty.
[Wednesday, April 1, 4:01 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Wow, investors are surely disappointed in Wednesday’s performance. After last week’s impressive rally, President Donald Trump’s warnings aboutthe novel coronavirusare sending the major indices back down. And they’re moving hard and fast. TheS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeall ended the day deeply in the red.
• The S&P 500 ended the day down 4.41%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 4.44%
• The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 4.41%
[Wednesday, April 1, 3:52 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
The 401k — that bastion of American retirement investing — is under fire.
According toan article todayin theWall Street Journal, companies throughout the country are withholding and altering 401k contributions in an attempt to conserve cash.
According to the article, during the 2008 financial crisis, almost 20% of American companies conserved cash by suspending or reducing 401k matching contributions in the months and years that followed the crisis.
This time around, these cuts have come much earlier in the economic cycle. Less than a month ago, virtually no companies were discussing the notion of cutting 401k contributions. Now stalwart American employers likeAmtrak,Marriott(NASDAQ:MAR) andMacy’s(NYSE:M) all have announced cuts.
If you’re among the unlucky employees who have seen a cut in your 401k, don’t despair, and don’t stop contributing to your own account — even if your company no longer matches.
Participating in that tax-advantaged program is an important part of your financial plan, even if your company no longermatches contributions.
[Wednesday, April 1, 3:25 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
Caveat emptor. “Let the Buyer Beware.”
There’s a major flood of money rushing toward a specific oil ETF, where the buyers had better beware. Many investors are haphazardly snatching up shares ofUnited States Oil Fund(NYSEARCA:USO), which makes sense instinctually …
After all, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude dipped below $20 for the first time since 2002. Reportedly, Saudi Arabia isincreasing productionwith the intent of flooding the market to drive an output reduction by other major producers.
This won’t last forever.
The mechanics of that global spat are complex, but many investors are viewing this as a wonderful opportunity to invest in oil on the cheap.An estimated $1.8 billion has flowed intoUSO in the last three weeks.
It feels inevitable that the price of oil will rise, which will make many investors a ton of cash.
But buyer beware …
Because of the way the USO fund is set up, investors who use that particular fund as a long-term bet on oil prices rising could be caught out in the cold. While it is an excellent fund for short-term plays, experts say that USO is simply not a good way to play the long-term trend in oil prices.
In anInvestopediaarticle titled“Is USO A Good Way to Invest in Oil?”, Steven Nickolas argues that because of esoteric notions known as “contango” and “negative price yield,” investors will be burned in the long term, even if prices rise. In fact, he argues, “… investors planning to gain exposure to the oil market over the long term should avoid investments in the United States Oil Fund.”
Whether investors understand the mechanics of contango and negative price yield isn’t particularly important. What’s important is that investors understand that the USO has material shortcomings as a long-term play on rising oil prices.
Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, ismore starkabout the USO: “What you have to worry about is when oil gets too low or too high, it attracts the tourist types. This is a tourist trap.”
Don’t be a tourist. Caveat emptor indeed.
[Wednesday, April 1, 3:09 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
These days, it’s more important than ever to know the “foundational” financial concepts the world’s best investors and business people use to grow wealth.
It’s more important than ever to have a high “Financial IQ.”
To that end, we urge you to read our timeless educational essay titledThere’s Always Two Sides to a Price.
The essay details an “enlightened” way to view market panics and crashes … and it could help you make A LOT of money over the next 24 months.
Read this essay by InvestorPlace CEO Brian Huntright here.
[Wednesday, April 1, 2:53 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Oil prices have been in free fall since the beginning of March, and energy stocks have been seriously hurting. On Wednesday,Whiting Petroleum(NYSE:WLL) became the first major victim of the so-called price war. How many other companies will fall before demand — and prices — rebound?
TheWall Street Journalreported that on Wednesday, Whiting became the first big American shale producer tofile for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. WLL stock now trades for less than 40 cents, and shares aredown over 44%in intraday trading.
Unfortunately, this bankruptcy doesn’t come as a surprise to many investors.InvestorPlace Digesteditor Jeff Remsburg predicted that an“atomic bomb”was coming for the oil market. But in particular, it looks like American shale producers will bear the brunt of the war.
Some, likeInvestorPlace’sNicolas Chahine see Saudi Arabia and Russiahitting the negotiating table again soon. If not, investors will have to wait and see which companies fall victim to bankruptcy next.
[Wednesday, April 1, 2:20 p.m.]Contributed byBrian Hunt
Around theInvestorPlaceoffices, we often say, “It’s not so much a stock market as it is a market of stocks.”
We say this because the stock market is made up of many different industries and many different companies. Various economic climates affect industries differently. Something good for one industry isn’t necessarily good for another industry.
For example, the early stage of the novel coronavirus crisis was great for grocery stores because people rushed to stock up on food … but it was terrible for cruise line operators and airlines.
It’s also worth noting that something that is good for one company in an industry isn’t necessarily good for another company in the same industry. The iPhone was great forApple(NASDAQ:AAPL), but terrible for Apple’s competitorNokia(NYSE:NOK).
Instead of thinking of “the market” as a monolithic entity into which you put money, we prefer to focus our attention on individual industries and companies. There’s quite a lot happening behind the curtain we call theDow Jones Industrial Average.
During the March corona panic, we got a heck of a demonstration of how “it’s not so much a stock market as it is a market of stocks.”
For example, during the period of Feb. 19 to March 19 — a period that saw the worst of the selling — retailerWalmart(NYSE:WMT) advanced in price. So did grocery giantsSprouts Farmers Market(NASDAQ:SFM) andKroger(NYSE:KR). Shares of packaged food makersB&G Foods(NYSE:BGS) andFlowers Foods(NYSE:FLO) gained in value.
Meanwhile, businesses in the travel and entertainment industry were crushed. Cruise ship operatorsRoyal Caribbean(NYSE:RCL) andCarnival(NYSE:CCL) lost more than 75% of their value. Amusement centerDave & Buster’s(NASDAQ:PLAY) lost more than 85% of its value.
Some companies climbing in value and some plummeting 80%?
Yes.
It’s not so much a stock market as it is a market of stocks.
[Wednesday, April 1, 1:27 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
It’s no secret that money was leaving stocks during 2020’s first quarter. The panic-driven selling thrust equities into a bear market at record speed, and very few names went against that trend.
But elsewhere in the investing world, exchange-traded funds attracted $66.3 billion during the first quarter. AsBloombergreports, that’s up $8 billion year-over-year. What does this mean for investors? Well, one takeaway is that many are looking for safe-haven investments. ETFs traditionally offer protection via their diverse holdings, and buying on the dip could be a good way to benefit from rallies across several names.
However,Bloomberg’sClaire Ballentinewarns that for many bulls, this is a bad sign that could mean the bottom is still far away.
[Wednesday, April 1, 1:08 p.m.]Contributed byBrian Hunt
Think the market put in a bottom last month?
Don’t tell retail stocks.
The retail apocalypse hit horrid new lows today. Retail stocks hitting new 52-week lows today includeBed Bath & Beyond(NASDAQ:BBBY),Gap(NYSE:GPS),American Eagle(NYSE:AEO),Nordstrom(NYSE:JWN),Macy’s(NYSE:M) andBuckle(NYSE:BKE).
The disastrous 1-year chart of Nordstrom below shows that the retail sector is still a “falling knife” that should be avoided.
Source: Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
[Wednesday, April 1, 1:00 p.m.]Contributed byBrian Hunt
Bank of America analysts recently releaseda list of top U.S. stocks to buy now(subscription required).
On the list, you’ll findApple(NASDAQ:AAPL) … which at times has declined more than 20% from its 2020 high.
If you think the global economy will be “less bad” 12 months from now and smartphone sales will pick back up, depressed Apple shares are a good way to trade that outlook.
[Wednesday, April 1, 12:51 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
TheWall Street Journalreported Wednesday afternoon that a new series of business surveys all show the same thing: Production is down.
Why? Demand is falling, and safety protocols are limiting factory work.
Within the United States, the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell in March. Thenew figure is 49.1, down from 50.1. Any number below 50 represents contractionary business activity. Many investors saw this coming, but now are worried about how low April’s numbers will go.
FromWSJreporters Paul Hannon and Harriet Tory:
“Factory output and employment is likely to fall further before it starts to rebound, although that recovery may be limited by job cuts and shutdowns that can take time to reverse. If they don’t receive help from governments and forbearance from banks, some manufacturing companies may close for good.”
[Wednesday, April 1, 11:20 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
For the period between March 1 and March 12, human resource management providerADPreports that private companies cut 27,000 jobs. This number is important for two reasons. One, it is the first time private companies have seen such a contraction in 10 years. For February 2020, ADP reported that private companiesaddedalmost 180,000 jobs. In context, this makes early March’s loss even more staggering.
And two, these numbers only go through March 12, well beforethe novel coronaviruspicked up steam in the United States. While estimates vary widely — some economists are calling for47 million layoffsin the U.S. — the ADP numbers show what could be ahead.
FromMark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist:
“It’s been 10 straight years of consistent, solid job growth, and the virus has put an end to that.”
[Wednesday, April 1, 11:12 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
American investors are obviously worried about the impactthe novel coronaviruswill have on consumer spending. And economists are already sounding the alarm, pointing to lower consumer confidence values and decreased spending. The one potential positive is online shopping. Will consumers turn to e-commerce while they are stuck at home?
Unfortunately, new figures fromVisa(NYSE:V) indicate that even online shopping is down. In a regulatory filing, the company reported thatcardholder spending dropped 4% for March.
Others are hopeful that American consumers will return to their normal routines once the virus tapers off. But in China, where life is gradually returning to normal, new figures suggest the pain will last beyond the infection. The data shows that while people are shopping again, they are not using their money at brick-and-mortar retailers or restaurants.
Instead, Chinese consumers are searching the web for lunchboxes to prepare lunches for work at home, new kitchen supplies and home exercise equipment. What will a long-lasting fear of the virus mean for businesses around the world? And what will the eventual recovery look like?
FromBloomberg’sDaniela Wei:
“The data undermines predictions of a V-shaped recovery in the world’s biggest consumer market that has seen more than 80,000 infections and 3,000 deaths from Covid-19. While big operators like Starbucks Corp. and Yum China Holding Inc. have been reopening outlets, they face a public that’s preferring to stay home after work and continue to social distance, even though official data indicates China’s number of new infections fallen to zero.”
[Wednesday, April 1, 10:33 a.m.]Contributed byMatt McCall
During times of extreme fear and volatility in stocks, alternative asset classes typically tend to do well. Think gold and silver, for instance, or farmland.
Today, we have another alternative asset class that provides great diversification to any portfolio. I’m talking about cryptocurrencies.
The folks at CoinDeskjust pointed outhow well bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $116 billion, held up during the first quarter compared to some of the world’s major stock indices.
TheDow Jones Industrial Averagedropped over 26%, year-to-date, the worst first quarter ever and the biggest quarterly fall since 1987. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down about the same, while the FTSE fell 14% over the period, its second-worst quarterly showing ever.
Meanwhile, bitcoin outperformed all three indexes, falling about 10%.
Source: Chart courtesy of TradingView
Some smaller cryptocurrencies have done even better.
A new catalyst that could send bitcoin much higher this year is just weeks away. And it could send the smaller cryptos known as altcoins much higher still.
For more of my research on the catalyst and how you can take advantage of it, lookhere. I’ve built a system to help identify the best positioned altcoins on the market. You can check that outhere.
[Wednesday, April 1, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
President Donald Trump delivered a sobering message during his briefing Tuesday evening onthe novel coronavirus. He warned that the death toll in the U.S. likely could reach 240,000. He also warned Americans to prepare fortwo more “painful” weeks. But the month of March has already brought pain to many around the world.
This message of fear certainly has investors worried, and the major indices all opened down Wednesday morning. At market open theS&P 500, theDow Jones Industrial Averageand theNasdaq Compositewere all deeply in the red.
• The S&P 500 opened down 3.7%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 3.9%
• The Nasdaq Composite opened down 3.1%
[Wednesday, April 1, 8:33 a.m.]Contributed byLouis Navellier
InvestorPlaceanalyst Louis Navellier has a simple saying to help investors find good stocks in a bear market. Good stocks bounce like tennis balls, and bad stocks fall like rocks. If that’s not clear enough, his weekly reviews of over 5,000 stocks should give you a sense of where equities are headed.
What stocks were making moves this weekend? According to hisPortfolio Graderratings,Lowe’s(NYSE:LOW) was upgraded to a B-rated “buy,” whileBank of America(NYSE:BAC) was downgraded to a C-rated “hold.”
Check outthe rest of his list hereto see if your stocks are on the move.
[Tuesday, March 31, 5:08 p.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
InvestorPlaceanalyst Matt McCall must have predicted the future. Since March 17 he has been calling for President Donald Trump to back an infrastructure plan, something that could help rally the economy. McCall’s suggestion hearkens back to the Great Depression, when The New Deal saw a sweeping series of public works programs. And Trump must have been listening.
The President must have watched my Crisis&Opportunity Investment Summit. I pleaded for an infrastructure bill. This is something both sides must agree on. I even said it needs to be $2-$4 Trillion.
The President must have watched my Crisis&Opportunity Investment Summit. I pleaded for an infrastructure bill. This is something both sides must agree on. I even said it needs to be $2-$4 Trillion.https://t.co/Nik2D0xwoV
— Matt McCall (@MatthewMcCall)March 31, 2020
For more, follow Matt McCall, editor ofInvestment Opportunities,Early Stage Investor, andUltimate Cryptoon twitter at (@MatthewMcCall)
And don’t forget to join him for Part 2 of his Crisis and Opportunity Summit tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET.Click here for more info.
[Tuesday, March 31, 4:30 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
Although the overall markets ended the day down, President Donald Trump’s call for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan issending some stocks higher.U.S. Steel(NYSE:X),Alcoa(NYSE:AA),Cleveland-Cliffs(NYSE:CLF) andFreeport-McMoRan(NYSE:FCX) were some of the names seeing big gains.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t ready to let Trump’s “VERY BIG & BOLD” plan roll. He’s asking that Trumpwait and see how Friday’s stimulus packagehelps the economy first.
[Tuesday, March 31, 4:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Monday brought a 3%-plus rally to the stock market, but Tuesday got a weak start. The major indices were down around 0.5% at market open. Despite some short bursts higher in intraday trading, theS&P 500,Dow Jones Industrial AverageandNasdaq Compositeall ended the day in the red.
• The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.6%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 1.8%
• The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 1%
[Tuesday, March 31, 3:00 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
If you hold individual stocks, you can’t count on someone else to keep an eye on your wealth. Now is the most important time ever — at least, in the last decade — for you to pay attention to the holdings in your portfolio.
With the massive shift in cash flow and consumer demand that’s occurred in the last month, a flood of bankruptcies are coming. Well-known companies will start declaring bankruptcy, and we’ll all be surprised by some of the names we see.
With that in mind, it’s imperative to keep an eye on your holdings.InvestorPlace’sJosh Enomoto has a list of30 popular stocks that he places on a deathwatch. It’s worth a look to see if any on his list are in your portfolio.
[Tuesday, March 31, 2:24 p.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
AAA reported today that thenational pump price for regular gasolinedropped below $2 for the first time in four years.
The decline in the global economy due tothe novel coronavirus, combined with the Russia-Saudi price war, is driving gasoline prices lower. AAA projects gas prices to keep dropping, and expects the price to hit $1.75 or less by April.
This is great news for consumers and businesses alike. Low interest rates, the $2 trillion stimulus package and very low gasoline prices could be major drivers of the recovery from the panicked selling hitting the financial markets.
[Tuesday, March 31, 1:26 p.m.]Contributed byLouis Navellier
Right now is not the time for investors to be taking on any more risk. And although small-capitalization stocks have the potential to double, triple or quadruple, theseven stocks beloware much more likely to disappear forever.
Investors should make sure to avoid (or sell) these struggling small-cap stocks now:
• United States Steel(NYSE:X)
• Six Flags(NYSE:SIX)
• Cinemark(NYSE:CNK)
• Carnival(NYSE:CUK)
• Macy’s(NYSE:M)
• Sasol(NYSE:SSL)
• Macerich(NYSE:MAC)
[Tuesday, March 31, 1:04 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
President Donald Trump just tweeted about an infrastructure bill. Such a bill will be an easy thing to push through Congress with bipartisan support.
With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)March 31, 2020
But why does this matter? Investors should expect today’s tweet to define much of the conversation coming out of Capitol Hill in the coming week.
[Tuesday, March 31, 12:57 p.m.]Contributed byJessica Loder
With businesses shut down and consumers shut away in their homes, it can feel like everything is falling apart. But while some companies are furloughing workers and withholding guidance, it’s not all doom and gloom. Other companies are showing strength in these trying times, and Luke Langooutlines five of the starsof Wall Street right now.
The names probably won’t surprise you, but Lango suggests taking a closer look at these stocks:
• Citrix Systems(NASDAQ:CTXS)
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:REGN)
• Gilead(NASDAQ:GILD)
• Netflix(NASDAQ:NFLX)
• Clorox(NYSE:CLX)
[Tuesday, March 31, 12:50 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
President Donald Trump is so convinced that social distancing — along with a slew of stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders — is working that he extended restrictions through April 30. But does any data support his confidence?
The New York Timesreported today thatKinsa Health, a maker of internet-connected thermometers, has found that these restrictions are working. Fevers are largely considered a key symptom in diagnosingthe novel coronavirus. And as users of Kinsa Health’s thermometers continue to upload their fevers in real time, the data shows that the number of fevers is holding steady, and in fact, may be dropping.
This is good news for Americans who have been questioning the restrictions associated with social distancing, especially the impacts these restrictions will have on the economy. Health officials from New York and Washington have also confirmed Kinsa’s findings.
FromNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo:
“People say these requirements — no restaurants, no nonessential workers — are burdensome. And theyareburdensome. But they are effective, and they are necessary. The evidence suggests that they have slowed our hospitalizations, and that iseverything.”
[Tuesday, March 31, 11:48 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Last week it seemed like reports of service workers facing unemployment dominated the headlines. But this week, landlords and retailers are facing massive furloughs of their own.
Retailers are struggling to make ends meet, as consumers stay at home and limit spending. Plus, several states have forced non-essential businesses to close, meaning that many shops have no choice but to shutter up. Major retailers likeMacy’s(NYSE:M),Kohl’s(NYSE:KSS) andNeiman Marcushave furloughed the majority of their employees. Without any business, these companies have little money to keep sending paychecks.
And in turn, these retail furloughs are creating action on the landlord side. More and more businesses, likeThe Cheesecake Factory(NASDAQ:CAKE),Mattress FirmandSubway, are bracing for national rent strikes. Without their monthly rent payments, real estate investment trusts are now facing similar furloughs.
Today,CNBCreported thatSimon Property Group(NYSE:SPG), the largest mall operator, wouldfurlough 30% of its workforce. AndInvestorPlace’sIan Bezek also wrote that these mall REITs look particularly vulnerable to other headaches likedividend cutsin the coming weeks.
[Tuesday, March 31, 11:21 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Reports from The Conference Board, a non-profit business and research organization, indicate a drop in consumer confidence levels for March. To be fair, although March’s reading of 120 is down from 132.6 in February, itbeat estimates for 110. A higher reading reflects a higher level of confidence.
This consumer confidence index readings are based on The Conference Board’s monthly survey. The survey asks consumers questions about their attitudes and buying intentions, and the results reflect current business conditions.
FromLynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board:
“Consumer confidence declined sharply in March due to a deterioration in the short-term outlook. The Present Situation Index remained relatively strong, reflective of an economy that was on solid footing, and prior to the recent surge in unemployment claims. However, the intensification of COVID-19 and extreme volatility in the financial markets have increased uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and jobs. March’s decline in confidence is more in line with a severe contraction — rather than a temporary shock — and further declines are sure to follow.”
[Tuesday, March 31, 9:31 a.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
After a 3%-plus rally in the stock market yesterday, theS&P 500and theDow Jones Industrial Averageopened slightly down this morning. As of market open the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and the Dow Jones was down 0.4%.
[Tuesday, March 31, 8:19 a.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
American lives continue to change in many ways as the coronavirus pandemic grows, but there might be no better indicator of the disruption than plane travel.
The Transportation Security Administration released recent checkpoint travel numbers— essentially the total number of travelers who pass through an airport checkpoint. The year-over-year numbers show drops of around 90% over the last two days.
Source: Table courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration
For some context, the year-over-year drop was only about 1% at the beginning of March.
[Monday, March 30, 5:01 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
One thing’s for sure aboutthe coronavirus from China: We’ll all emerge from this situation in a very changed world.
But with change comes investing opportunity. The savviest investors are already thinking ahead to what the world will look like when the coronadust settles so they can know where to put their money to work.
This article from authors Carin Ism and Julien Leyre does a very nice job ofhighlighting 16 changeswe can expect. While I don’t necessarily agree with all 16 of their predictions — many have more leftist intonations than I think accurate — it’s a valuable read to get investors considering what the future will hold.
My favorites:
1. A new appreciation for the benefits of self-sufficiency (think more gardening, 3D printers and the like)
9. Telepresence bonanza
10. Corona-boom babies (yes, they will be called Quaranteens in 2033)
[Monday, March 30, 4:49 p.m.]Contributed byLuis Hernandez
The New York branch of the Federal Reserve has released a new“Weekly Economic Index”to “measure real economic activity at a weekly frequency.”
The Fed stated that it developed the index because it is interested in tracking real economic activity, not simply financial conditions. In its announcement, the Fed provides details about how it develops the index, including the specific economic data points used. “We transform all series to represent 52-week percentage changes, which also eliminates most seasonality in the data. As the current situation evolves, we may incorporate additional series to refine the index in the coming weeks.”
Below is the first chart produced by the index that shows activity since before the Great Recession.
Source: Chart courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
“Developments in the past week saw the index fall to a level unseen since 2008,” said the Fed. The index had been indicating economic growth on either side of 3% since about 2017. In the last two weeks, the index has dropped quickly and now shows a contraction of about 4%.
[Monday, March 30, 4:20 p.m.]Contributed byBret Kenwell
For the fourth time in five days, theS&P 500 closed in the green. That’s a big relief after some really ugly panic-driven selling. But what big winners can investors thank for Monday’s rally? Healthcare stocks.
Companies likeAbbott Labs(NYSE:ABT),Johnson & Johnson(NYSE:JNJ),Regeneron(NASDAQ:REGN),Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) andSanofi(NASDAQ:SNY) climbed higher on Monday thanks to their work against the coronavirus from China. Abbott Labs announced that its new test kit can show a positive result in as little as 5 minutes.
And although its success isn’t related to the coronavirus,Eli Lilly(NYSE:LLY) also helped lead the market higher on Monday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Taltz drug for the treatment of pediatric plaque psoriasis.
[Monday, March 30, 4:00 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Investors saw a continuation of last week’s rally in the stock market today. TheS&P 500closed higher by more than 3% while theDow Jones Industrial Averagealso closed up by 3.2%. TheNasdaq Compositetacked on gains of 3.6%.
[Monday, March 30, 3:39 p.m.]Contributed byJessica Loder
As more and more people are trapped inside their homes by the spread of Covid-19, streaming stocks are providing an outlet for many. AndNetflix(NASDAQ:NFLX), the king of streaming stocks, just got a price target increase from BMO Capital Markets.
“With an extensive content library, well-established infrastructure, and a widely known brand, Netflix isset to benefitfrom the limited out-of-home entertainment options available to global consumers during the shutdown,” said analyst Daniel Salmon. Hereiterated his “buy” ratingon the stock, and upped the price target to $450from $440. With the stock hovering around $370 near the end of the day Monday, he clearly sees plenty of room to the upside.
[Monday, March 30, 3:33 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Stay-at-home orders around the country, combined with social distancing protocol, have spiked demand for grocery and other delivery services. In response, grocery stores andAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) warehouses are hiring thousands of new employees. But some existing workers aren’t too happy with their day-to-day conditions.
Workers fromInstacartwalked out en masse on Monday to protest. Employees are asking for heightened health protocol,increased risk payand extra wipes and hand sanitizer.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Instacart workerSarah Polito toldNPR. “You can tell us that we’re these household heroes and that you appreciate us. But you’re not actually, they’re not showing it. They’re not taking these steps to give us the precautions. They’re not giving us hazard pay.”
And workers at anAmazon facility Staten Island, New Yorkare also walking out. Their concerns hinge on alleged confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the warehouse. These employees are asking for increased paid sick time and deeper cleanings of the warehouses.
In the meantime, an Amazon spokesperson toldCNNthat Amazon isimplementing daily temperature screeningsto protect the health and safety of its employees.
As more Americans grapple with stay-at-home orders, it’s unclear how these strikes will play out. Over the last weeks investors have rallied grocery store stocks up in a big way, so keep a watchful eye on any developments from Instacart and Amazon.
[Monday, March 30, 2:37 p.m.]Contributed byJessica Loder
With any big government bill like the $2.3 trillion stimulus package, there are winners and losers. Will Ashworth breaks downsome of the groups on both sidesof this historic chunk of government spending.
On the plus side, individual checks are buying regular folks time. Unemployment is surging, and a bit of extra cash is going to help citizens bridge the gap. And with a combination of grants, loans and loan guarantees, there’s plenty for big businesses to like as well. Airlines are a particular focus.
On the other hand, the $350 billion set aside for small businesses may not nearly be enough, when you consider how many small businesses the U.S. actually has. And New York University economics professor Roman Frydman and former UBS chief economist Lawrence Hatheway say the amount the bill allots for healthcare looks too small as well.
[Monday, March 30, 1:49 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
There are currently 16 companies — a mix of biotech startups and legacy drugmakers — working on developing vaccines and other treatments for the coronavirus from China. Investors are busy trying to identify a winner, because whichever company is first to develop an effective treatment will profit handsomely.
Here’s alist of companiesthat Jaimy Lee, a healthcare reporter forMarketwatch.com, reports are working on a coronavirus treatment or vaccine:
BioNTech(NASDAQ:BNTX)Pfizer(NYSE:PFE)Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD)GlaxoSmithKline(NYSE:GSK)Heat Biologics(NASDAQ:HTBX)Inovio Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:INO)Johnson & Johnson(NYSE:JNJ)Moderna(NASDAQ:MRNA)Novavax(NASDAQ:NVAX)Regeneron Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:REGN)Sanofi(NASDAQ:SNY)Roche(OTCMKTS:RHHBY)Takeda Pharmaceutical(NYSE:TAK)Vaxart(NASDAQ:VXRT)Vir Biotechnology(NASDAQ:VIR)Biogen(NASDAQ:BIIB).
[Monday, March 30, 1:22 p.m.]Contributed bySarah Smith
Economists at the St. Louis, Missouri branch of the Federal Reserve now believe job losses from the coronavirus from China could hit 47 million, greatly surpassing previous estimates. Along with that, the Fed believes at the peak of the pandemic, theunemployment rate could pass 32%. It currently sits just below 4%.
Before the Fed released these “back-of-the-envelope” calculations, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard had called for an unemployment rate of 30%. However, it’s important to note these newest statistics do not account for the effects of the stimulus bill.
From St. Louis Fed economistMiquel Faria-e-Castro:
“These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years.”
[Monday, March 30, 10:17 a.m.]Contributed byJohn Kilhefner
Over the weekend, President Trump announced that federal social distancing measures would be extended through April 30. This promptedcrude oil to hit its lowest level in more than 18 years, while theS&P 500rises 1.5% and theDow Jonesincreases 0.92%, as of this writing. FromThe Wall Street Journal:
“The end of the first quarter, on Tuesday, will also test many businesses’ ability to pay bills. Traders meanwhile are bracing for fresh constraints on liquidity in some financial markets as investors take stock of portfolios and banks assess their balance sheets at the end of March.”
[Friday, March 27, 4:43 p.m.]Contributed byAndrew Taylor
The $2 trillion coronavirus relief stimulus bill hasnow been signed into law, asInvestorPlacewriter Bret Kenwell notes in his “Stock Market Today” column:
“The House votepassed, putting it up to President Trump to push it through. With less than an hour to go in the regular trading session, Trumptweetedthat he ‘will be signing’ it at 4 p.m. ET in the Oval Office.”
Trump did indeed sign the historic bill, which will put up to $1,200 in the pockets of individuals making less than $99,000 annually.
[Friday, March 27, 4:35 p.m.]Contributed byBrian Hunt
Over at CNBC, we have John Rogers of Ariel Investments.
John is a bright guy and a talented investor in his own right. According to John, right now isan incredible time to buy stocks:
“I think this is a maybe once in a lifetime opportunity to buy stocks at bargain prices … We’ve been around 37 years at Ariel, and I know I said that ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to buy in ’87 and again in 2008, but I do really think this is an opportunity to take advantage of the volatility, and take advantage of the market.”
Other investors echoed John Rogers sentiments. Pershing Square’s Bill Ackmaneked out a tidy $2 billionsum in market hedges after warning the White House to lock down the country …
Mr. President, the moment you send everyone home for Spring Break and close the borders, the infection rate will plummet, the stock market will soar, and the clouds will lift. We need your leadership now!
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman)March 18, 2020
… Ackman used the $2 billion to beef up his positions in stocks such asHilton(NYSE:HLT) andBerkshire Hathaway(NYSE:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B).
[Friday, March 27, 4:30 p.m.]Contributed byBrian Hunt
Meanwhile, in theInvestorPlacestables, legendary “hypergrowth” investor Matt McCall says the coronavirus and subsequent containment efforts willaccelerate the adoption of 3D printing. Huge opportunities are ahead, according to Matt, who believes that “making parts for medical equipment needed to combat the coronavirus is just the start. The possibilities in healthcare are limitless.”
Matt’s argument for a 3D-printing resurgence is simple: The U.S.-China trade war prompted companies to look into alternatives for composite materials, and “the coronavirus has only intensified the situation,” making it harder for professionals to find parts. This was just 12 weeks after first reports of the novel coronavirus appeared. Because 3D printing only requires basic materials (the raw materials and the software), it’s once again in demand, this time driven out of both necessity and advanced in technology.
“The bottom line is that 3D printing is on the cusp of major growth that will be driven by necessity, rising demand, and advances in 3D scanning and imaging in the $12 trillion global manufacturing sector,” says Matt.
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The postInvestorPlace Mission Control: Investing During the Coronavirus Panicappeared first onInvestorPlace. || InvestorPlace Mission Control: Investing During the Coronavirus Panic: InvestorPlace Mission Control aims to bring readers up-to-the-second financial insights, updates and stock ideas to help you avoid danger and seize opportunity during the biggest crisis of our time. [Check back often, as this page will be updated with more news, insights and stock picks each day the market is open.] Zoom Stock Closed Lower as Facebook Unveils New Feature [Friday, April 24, 4:30 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips In his daily column, InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell highlighted a big source of action in the stock market today. Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) announced a new offering — Messenger Rooms . Boy, did this stir things up. Messenger Rooms allows free video calls for up to 50 people , as opposed to Facebook’s messenger which caps the free service at eight people. FB stock hit new monthly highs on the news. But Facebook wasn’t the only stock seeing some action. Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM ) fell 6.1% on the day as investors digested its new competitor. Just a few hours early, ZM stock was climbing as it reported 300 million users. What des this mean for investors? Well, Zoom has been a hot stock in 2020, although it has sparked privacy concerns. In response, it released a new security update to address “Zoombombings” and other complaints. Just yesterday InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall wrote that FB stock was headed for success , even in the market downturn. He likes the Big Tech name for its social media market share and Whats App platform. Plus, the company announced Wednesday that it spent $5.7 billion for a stake in India’s Jio Platforms . That stake includes Reliance Jio — a social media site that has racked up 388 million users . Keep a close eye on Messenger Rooms. It’s sure to be in the spotlight in the coming days. Stocks Close Higher Friday as Coronavirus Cases Slow [Friday, April 24, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Story continues Hard-hit states New York and New Jersey are reporting a decline in new Covid-19 hospitalizations and cases , and Italy also appears to be feeling some relief. Elsewhere in the market, oil prices are stabilizing and fan favorite Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) closed higher by 2%. There’s another piece of news helping stocks Friday. President Donald Trump signed the $484 billion interim stimulus package, sending much-needed funds to the Paycheck Protection Program. Of that total, $25 billion is also going toward ramping up testing. Although stocks are still down for the week, the S&p 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite ended Friday in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 1.39% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 1.09% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 1.65% Start Buying Stocks as Antibody Testing Picks Up [Friday, April 24, 3:44 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A wave of recent of antibody testing across the U.S. has shed a new light on the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting it could be more widespread (and less fatal) than originally thought. Separate studies which sampled random populations in Santa Clara County , Los Angeles County and New York for Covid-19 antibodies showed that somewhere between 3% to over 20% of the general populous has actually contracted the novel coronavirus strain over the past few months. In Santa Clara, for example, researchers at Stanford sampled 3,300 people. The population-weighted prevalence of Covid-19 antibodies in that cohort was 2.8%. A similar study in New York City found that 21.2% of the city’s residents have Covid-19 antibodies. InvestorPlace Markets Analysts Luke Lango recently crunched the numbers on these antibody tests, and came to an interesting conclusion: If the antibody tests are accurate, then the true mortality rate of Covid-19 is 0.3%, and just 0.1% for individuals under 65. If true, the total mortality rate would not be much higher than the seasonal flu’s 0.1% to 0.15% death rate for younger Americans. He says that’s a reason to buy stocks. According to Lango: “The science surrounding Covid-19 is changing. If the new science holds up — and Covid-19 proves to be less fatal than originally thought — then policy, consumers and markets will all react accordingly. Policy will shift towards more aggressive reopening. Consumer behavior will normalize more quickly than expected. And stocks will rally.” To be sure, the big “if” there is “if the science holds up” — which it might not. Many critics have argued that these antibody tests don’t have great specificity, which means they could yield false positives. Enough false positives could throw the numbers off by an order of magnitude. But Lango argues there’d have to be more than just a few false positives to materially change the science: “You have to remember two things. First, these antibody tests are of healthy people, meaning they aren’t testing any sick or even semi-sick people. If you do that, the number of positive cases will almost assuredly go up. Second, there’s a lot of noise in flu death reporting. When someone contracts the flu, then develops pneumonia from the flu, and then dies, the cause of death is most normally reported as ‘pneumonia’ — not the flu.” Either way, there’s a still a lot we don’t know about Covid-19, and all that uncertainty is sure to weigh on stocks in the meantime. If the news flow does skew optimistic, as Lango believes, then stocks will go higher. But it’s also possible for the news flow to skew pessimistic. If it does, watch out below. Avoid ACC REIT as Colleges Refund Room and Board [Friday, April 24, 1:59 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith College dormitories have long felt like stable properties. Each fall, new students arrive at universities to replace those who have graduated. And eventually, universities need to build new housing for students. That predictability has made American Campus Communities (NYSE: ACC ) a go-to investment. The real estate investment trust (REIT) has been around since 1993, and it owns and manages student housing properties across the U.S. In September 2019, InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto wrote that nothing short of an “apocalyptic crisis” could deter ACC. Investors need to get serious about one thing — an apocalypse could be coming for higher education thanks to the novel coronavirus. Today, Rutgers University announced that it would halt new construction , and Bloomberg’s Janet Lorin reports that universities are beginning to fear a significant loss of state funding. In other bad news, Axios’ Erica Pandey reports a lengthy list of “crises” facing these institutions of higher education. Revenue is dropping. Enrollment is dropping as tuition rises. And colleges are now anticipating a second semester of remote learning . As Inside Higher Ed writes, students aren’t willing to pay for housing they aren’t living in . This push has already led many universities to offer room and board refunds, and that trend could continue. So what about ACC? When the company reported earnings April 20, it noted that the pandemic had not yet had a financial impact on its business. It says its modern dorms are better equipped to promote social distancing, but it is still seeing students opt for refunds as they move home. With that uncertainty in mind, ACC withdrew guidance for the rest of 2020 . Investors don’t have perfect information about the future of higher education. ACC could very well weather the storm and come back out on the other side. Until we know more, though, keep your tuition money far away from shares. Bill Gates: Innovation Can Limit the Pandemic’s Damage [Friday, April 24, 12:51 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) founder Bill Gates has an odd role in the pandemic. According to The New York Times , he is the leading target for falsehoods about the novel coronavirus. Many Americans believe he created the virus and is hoping to profit from it. On Thursday, undeterred by those attacks, he released a lengthy update to his GatesNotes blog , outlining how technological innovation is key in limiting global damage from the outbreak. So what innovation does he think is necessary? Gates argues that in order for consumers to feel safe, a treatment must be 95% effective. Outside of traditional drugs, he’s looking at using antibodies for passive immunization. He’s also watching Plasma Bot , a collaborative effort to use plasma from recovered cases to treat those who are sick. Vaccine development typically takes five years. Gates is particularly interested in RNA vaccines — injections that include bits of genetic code that better help the human body fight viruses. Gates supports at-home testing, and believes in prioritizing rapid-diagnostic testing for healthcare workers. China and South Korea required those who were sick to turn over GPS data to enable contract tracing. Gates believes most countries will not allow this, but should instead opt for interviewing those who test positive. He said he is also watching digital-tracing proposals, such as ones that rely on Bluetooth technology. The bottom line: Gates doesn’t think we’ll see “business as usual” for quite some time. However, these innovations can limit the damage and help countries reopen safely . Lysol Maker Is Benefiting from Trump Rebuke [Friday, April 24, 12:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Yesterday, President Donald Trump posed a question that troubled many in the healthcare world. He asked if disinfectants could be used to clean the inside of the body , through an injection. In an odd, but perhaps unsurprising twist, Reckitt Benckiser (OTCMKTS: RBGLY ) stock is having a heyday Friday. Let’s start with the basics. RB manufactures Lysol and Dettol, two popular disinfectant brands. And after the Lysol maker published a response on the improper use of disinfectants, RBGLY stock is up. On a day when the major indices are struggling, over-the-counter shares are up 2.3%. For what it’s worth, Reckitt Benckiser has had a good year — the stock is down “just” 1.2%. No, a well-timed rebuke isn’t likely to create long-term gains for the Lysol maker. But in a weird, pandemic-driven market, it doesn’t hurt to know what’s driving the action. From the published statement : “As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.” Steve Eisman: Big Banks Look Attractive Now [Friday, April 24, 11:03 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Bank stocks are struggling in 2020 — they’re down harder than the broader market. Many experts, like renowned investor Steve Eisman, don’t see a reason for the decline. More than that, Eisman thinks bank stocks are the best long-term play right now . Eisman, famous for shorting subprime mortgage loans during the 2008 financial crisis, understands that many investors are scared. Big banks are a symbol of the previous financial crisis, and it’s hard for Americans to trust them again. But he’s not about to let this opportunity get away. He has several long positions in U.S. banks, which he believes are ready to weather the crisis after post-2008 regulatory changes. If you want to get creative like Eisman, know that he’s also shorting European and Canadian bank stocks. InvestorPlace’s Nicolas Chahine agrees with Eisman. He wrote last week that amid first-quarter earnings drama, JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM ), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) all look to be strong buys. Why? He writes investors are punishing them for the past, and not taking into consideration their strong futures. When the pandemic eases, the big banks will rally . Plus, Chahine wrote again this week that BAC stock perfectly embodies the “boring is beautiful” investing approach. It’s safe to say he’s bullish on the space. Is It Time to Gamble on Las Vegas Sands Stock? [Friday, April 24, 10:18 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell reported yesterday that the virtual NFL draft was bringing hope to beaten-down casino names . He pointed to names like Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN ) and MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ), set to benefit from the rise of sports betting. But Barron’s Connor Smith highlights that Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS ) stock was the real leader of the rally . LVS stock closed higher Thursday by 12% — but why? As Smith writes, revenue dropped 51% in the last quarter. But Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is confident in the company’s continued investments in China’s Macau gambling region. That’s enough for JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff. He just upgraded his rating on the stock to “overweight” from “neutral,” although he did cut his price target to $42. From Greff, via Barron’s : “We view LVS as a way to play what should be improving [gross gaming revenue] GGR trends in Macau, a gaming/travel dependent market that experienced the COVID-19 downturn first and should experience a bounce/recovery earlier, at least in relation to potential recoveries in U.S. regional gaming, Las Vegas Strip, and U.S. business travel lodging markets.” Writing in early April, InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto agreed on Las Vegas Sands’ potential. He likes the stock because it’s popular with Baby Boomers , and he anticipates the generation will return to properties like The Venetian when the pandemic eases. Plus, “snowbird’ retirees might be making a more permanent trip to Las Vegas soon. Stocks Open Slightly Higher Friday After House Vote [Friday, April 24, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The House of Representatives voted in line with the Senate Thursday afternoon, passing the $484 billion interim stimulus package. Oil prices are up slightly Friday morning. And even Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) stock is higher in pre-market trading. Perhaps investors are getting ready to end the week on an optimistic note. With that in mind, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are starting the day in the green. Who knows what’s ahead? The S&P 500 opened higher by 0.66% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 0.74% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.46% Don’t Ignore Chinese Biotech Stocks [Friday, April 24, 9:19 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall is bullish on Chinese biotech stocks. I know what you’re probably thinking. The novel coronavirus started in China. It was the first nation to start shutting down! But McCall points out that 2020 is already shaping up to be the year of U.S. biotech, and he’s bullish on these up-and-coming opportunities out of China. Why? The Chinese government is seriously devoting attention to biotech companies, and they represent massive growth. Plus, the pandemic is drawing attention to the importance of biotech around the world. That’s why McCall recommended Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB ) to his Early Stage Investor subscribers back in April 2019. And in 2020, Zai Lab and WuXi Biologics are crushing the market. These companies are in what’s set to be a $627 billion industry in the near future — up from just $5.4 billion two years ago. As McCall writes, this combination of Chinese stocks and biotech plays is a great investment opportunity. You don’t want to miss out. Read more of McCall’s thoughts on how the pandemic is boosting this hypergrowth industry here . Gambling Stocks Cling to Virtual NFL Draft for Upside [Thursday, April 23, 4:51 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In his daily column, InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell highlighted yet another consequence of the novel coronavirus. The NFL draft is moving online — and the fully virtual proceedings begin tonight. As more states have moved to allow sports betting, Kenwell writes that this could be big news for certain gambling stocks. And according to Bloomberg , it’s also a “lifeline” for broadcasters . Disney (NYSE: DIS ), owner of the ESPN and ABC networks, will be broadcasting the three-day process. Since live sporting events have come to a halt, look for DIS stock to rise once the draft gets underway. Shares closed just barely higher in the stock market today, as the company said it’s seeing “unprecedented demand” for advertising. The real winners though could be the sports betting companies. Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN ) is a stock loved by InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall . The company recently acquired Barstool sports, and Kenwell identifies it as a potential winner. Shares closed higher Thursday by 2.3%. Plus, look to more traditional gambling names like MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ) and Caesar’s Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR ). MGM closed higher by 3.7% and CZR stock closed higher by 0.2%. Stocks Erase Thursday’s Gains as Gilead Fumbles [Thursday, April 23, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Thursday saw a day of choppy trading. Stocks opened higher — but just slightly — after 4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Then, the major indices started to climb higher. That all changed when Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) took a hit. Leaked reports from the World Health Organization claim Gilead’s remdesivir was not effective in treating patients in a now-suspended Chinese trial. Worse, the report says the drug actually caused negative side effects in some patients. GILD shares closed Thursday down by 4.3%. But investors should proceed with caution. As InvestorPlace Market Analyst Luke Lango writes, remdesivir may not actually be a flop . With that back-and-forth action, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite ended the day nearly even. The S&P 500 closed lower by 0.05% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 0.17% The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 0.01% The Pandemic Is Shaking Up L Brands’ Big Sale [Thursday, April 23, 3:57 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Today, InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango rounded up 30 consumer stocks to buy once the pandemic is over . His list included top names like Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) — and it’s certainly worth a close look. But one stock in particular stands out in light of recent news. Lango is recommending L Brands (NYSE: LB ), the parent of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. Before the novel coronavirus struck, L Brands was in the middle of selling Victoria’s Secret to private equity firm Sycamore Partners . On Wednesday, Sycamore Partners walked out of that deal. It was set to pay $525 million for a majority stake in the lingerie retailer, but it claims L Brands violated its merger agreement when it began closing stores and furloughing staff. How does that all add up? As Axios’ Dan Primack reports, a clause in the merger agreement requires L Brands to run Victoria’s Secret in an “ordinary manner” before the deal is completed. It’s safe to say the pandemic shook things up too much. Does that mean investors should run away screaming? Retailers are in a rough spot right now, and this deal looked like a lifeline for L Brands. The company says it will “pursue all legal remedies” to ensure the deal goes through. And that’s enough for Lango. He writes that as the pandemic eases, the deal will likely go through. Plus, Victoria’s secret is “dead weight” on the company. A slimmer L Brands will improve sales trends and boost cash flows. It looks like other investors agree. LB stock is up 4.6% on the day. Terry Duffy: CME Is Not for Retail Investors [Thursday, April 23, 3:06 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After Monday saw some Wild West action in oil prices, officials were calling for an investigation. At one point in the day, prices for the May contract of crude oil dipped negative — by almost $40. But Terry Duffy, CEO of the company behind the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), isn’t phased by the uproar. Let’s start with the basics. The CME is an exchange for trading options and futures. On Monday, traders panicked that the world was simply running out of storage space for crude and refined oil. This supply-demand imbalance rocked the market, and futures prices dropped. But what does it mean to say prices hit negative -$37.63? This figure represents the price of a barrel of oil to be delivered next month — which is where the whole “futures” thing comes in. Its move negative means that sellers would have to pay buyers $37.63 to get the barrel off their hands. Duffy says that’s just how the futures market works , but some retail investors are upset. For typical stock investments, potential losses are capped at $0. If you spend $100 to buy into a stock, and the underlying company falls apart, you’ll only lose $100. That’s not the case in the futures world. Does that mean it’s time for things to change at the CME? Duffy doesn’t think so. He says: “The small retail investors are somebody that we do not target. We go for professional participants in our marketplace. But at the same time, they need to make sure they understand the rules and it’s up to their futures commodity merchants to make sure every participant knows those rules.” Retail investors, take heed. As Monday’s price action proves, the futures market is a game with very different rules. You don’t want to be caught losing. Chipotle Stock Looks Tasty as It Embraces E-Commerce [Thursday, April 23, 12:35 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Does quarantine life have you craving a burrito? Apparently, plenty of Americans fed their hunger through Chipotle’s (NYSE: CMG ) offerings. So why is that a big deal? Chipotle has long been a hot restaurant stock, so why do investors care now? Well, restaurant sales were down hard in March. The American lifestyle changed greatly in a few weeks as stay-at-home orders and lockdowns meant shoppers got more of their food from grocery stores. Restaurants have struggled to make ends meet, ramping up new curbside, delivery and take-out offerings. But Chipotle is winning. A new report from the Robinhood Snacks blog — from trading platform Robinhood — hypes up the fast-casual chain’s digital success . Digital sales jumped 81% for the quarter, and 100% in March. Those are crazy figures. Robinhood Snacks makes the case that the success is driven by new CEO Brian Niccol. He’s embraced partnerships with DoorDash and Uber’s (NYSE: UBER ) Uber Eats. Analysts are bullish on CMG stock too. After it reported earnings, analysts at Credit Suisse, Stifel Nicolaus and KeyBanc Capital raised their price targets. Credit Suisse’s new target of $940 implies almost $100 in share-price upside . And that’s not it. InvestorPlace’s Nicolas Chahine says that CMG stock is a “healthy gazelle leaping in a field full of sick or dying elk.” With that in mind, he’s recommending investors buy shares on a pullback toward $800 or $760 per share . Here’s Why Earnings Guidance Is Key [Thursday, April 23, 1:35 p.m.] Contributed by John Jagerson and Wade Hansen By last Friday, 9% of the companies in the S&P 500 had reported earnings. According to FactSet, the blended earnings growth rate, which includes estimates for companies that have yet to report, is -14.5%, which will be the largest decline on a year-over-year basis since 2009. We contend that since companies are missing expectations to a much greater degree this quarter, we could easily break the 2009 record. When second-quarter earnings reports are released in July, we definitely expect the decline to break the record. As you might expect, the energy and basic materials sectors are leading the contraction in earnings growth. Take for example, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL ), the oil services firm. The company reported earnings on Monday and had to resort to some extraordinary accounting to show a “profit.” While HAL’s adjusted earnings showed income of 31 cents per share, its non-adjusted or net loss for the first quarter was $1.16 per share. For perspective, HAL’s non-adjusted or net loss for the previous 12 months was $1.28. However, there are some bright spots this quarter that are worth watching. As we’ve been talking about recently in Strategic Trader , if companies are willing to provide guidance for future earnings — even if the outlook is negative — investors will likely perceive this as a positive for stock prices. Any guidance could help firm up support levels. Buy What the Federal Reserve Is Buying [Thursday, April 23, 1:25 p.m.] Contributed by Neil George Stocks aren’t the only investment option for growth. Bonds also provide plenty of opportunities for appreciation while providing ample streams of income. That’s why the main model portfolio of my Profitable Investing advisory is called the Total Return Portfolio. Right now, through the special vehicles with credit guarantees from the Treasury, the Federal Reserve is making massive buys of U.S. corporate and municipal bonds. It’s doing this to both stabilize the bond and credit markets now as well as working to drive down yields and credit costs for corporations, municipalities and other debt issuers. Both segments — and others — have the Fed as a major buyer that underpins prices. So, I continue to recommend buying bonds, specifically U.S. corporate bonds and municipal bonds for total return, which includes price growth as well as income. While March brought some massive upheavals to these sectors as plunging stocks resulted in panic selling of everything in the quest for cash, there’s a lot of value in both corporates and munis right now. Gilead Stock Is Sinking After WHO Report Leaked [Thursday, April 23, 1:15 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) stock is down 4.8% in intraday trading on bad news regarding its remdesivir. In breaking news from Financial Times , the World Health Organization accidentally leaked a report about a Chinese trial of Gilead’s drug. According to the report, the Chinese trial showed remdesivir did not improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream. The report — which WHO said it did not intend to publish — states that the drug caused significant side effects in some patients. China suspended this trial, along with one other, because of low enrollment. Gilead says it is important to consider that fact when reviewing the leaked findings. From Gilead, via the Financial Times: “Importantly, because this study was terminated early due to low [enrollment], it was underpowered to enable statistically meaningful conclusions. As such, the study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease.” There are multiple clinical trials in the United States that are still ongoing. A preliminary report from Chicago indicates that patients are responding positively to remdesivir. GILD stock soared on that news late last week. Oppenheimer: Here’s a Better Grocery Store Stock [Thursday, April 23, 11:55 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith It’s no secret that grocery store stocks have been hot so far in 2020. Grocery shopping in general has been turned upside down — once a dreaded errand, hitting the neighborhood store is now a critical outing to support life at home. Investors have rallied behind Costco (NASDAQ: COST ) and Kroger (NYSE: KR ). Consumer demand for staple food items — and hair dye — continues to rise. But Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh has a slightly less-known play on this trend . He’s recommending Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM ), a Phoenix-based grocer. The company has approximately 340 supermarkets across the United States. So why does Parikh like it? He’s bullish on SFM stock as it continues to expand its partnership with Instacart . Plus, it is already rolling out curbside pick-up and online delivery options. The Oppenheimer analyst has raised it to an “outperform” and gave it a price target of $25. Shares opened this morning at $21.30. Turns out InvestorPlace Market Analyst Luke Lango is also bullish on the name. He wrote last week that Sprout is one of the top consumer stocks winning from the stay-at-home economy . Even though it’s much smaller than its competitors, Lango thinks high demand will boost its outperformance for weeks to come. Note that Sprout reports earnings on May 5. Should Researchers Pay Americans to Get Tested? [Thursday, April 23, 11:46 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Is it safe to reopen the economy? Should the government completely subsidize test manufacturing companies? Just how many Americans must get tested before scientists know the full extent of damage wrought by the novel coronavirus? The answers to those questions are unclear, but now economists are raising even more. Should the government or researchers pay individuals to get tested? New reporting from The New York Times raises an interesting and important dilemma. Americans who are most afraid of the novel coronavirus — and who are most likely to believe they are infected — are the ones getting tested. That poses a problem for researchers. If only the people who think they’re sick participate in studies, scientists don’t have representative samples to work off of. So how do you get everyone to get tested? According to three economists, you pay them. Such incentives could “coax” people who don’t believe they’re sick to get tested, thus improving the data. The economists — Magne Mogstad, Alexander Torgovitsky and Andres Santos — lay out a complex plan for determining the perfect monetary incentive. But the solution they provide sounds simple. From the New York Times: “Tracking the infection rate in the population is essential to track the evolution of the virus, including asymptomatic cases, and how it affects people of different races and income levels. That is critical to deciding when to relax restrictions, evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken and calibrating epidemiological models.” As the article points out, this plan has its opponents. But in a world driven by testing — or the lack thereof — it’s important for investors to consider a variety of solutions. Bitcoin Is Once Again on the Cusp of Major Highs [Thursday, April 23, 10:30 a.m.] Contributed by Nicholas Stern History looks like it’s repeating itself with a major bitcoin (BTC) catalyst to higher prices. According to recent research by Glassnode , there are now more serious bitcoin investors with 1,000 BTC or more invested than at any time in the past two years. At a current price of $7,179.92 per bitcoin, that amounts to folks who are investing over $7 million or higher in the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization. And just like today, the last time this sort of influx of high rollers into bitcoin happened, we were on the cusp of a major catalyst that sent prices soaring. That catalyst is known as bitcoin’s “halvening” or “halving” and we’re just a few short weeks away from the next one. If you’re not familiar, the halvening is an event baked into bitcoin’s source code since the beginning. InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall explains the whole process in detail and how you can take advantage here . Basically, what’s happening is that the reward for “mining” bitcoins will soon drop in half — from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25 bitcoins. The idea is to limit the finite supply of the crypto, which is only 21 million bitcoin. That makes bitcoin a deflationary asset, as opposed to many of the world’s fiat currencies, including the U.S. dollar and the euro, which are currently being printed to the tune of trillions of dollars. It seems that in the current type of environment where the potential for inflation is elevated, the bitcoin bulls start to emerge from the woodwork. With demand for bitcoin remaining steady or growing and supply shrinking, the idea is that prices go up and to the right. Per Glassnode, the last time bitcoin’s halvening was set to take place in 2016, the number of investors with at least 1,000 BTC was around 1,850 — nearly the same amount as today. Here’s what happened to bitcoin prices following that 2016 bitcoin halvening. Source: Chart by InvestorPlace But it’s not just the so-called bitcoin “whales” (large investors) who are hopping aboard. Major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase recently reported it’s seen the number of people putting exactly $1,200 deposits onto the exchange quadruple . That happens to be the same amount of money the U.S. government is sending to adult citizens making under $75,000 per year due to Covid-19. Meanwhile, long-term bitcoin investors have been adding over 75,000 BTC to their existing positions per day. It’s another sign that those who are aware of the halvening’s impact on higher prices are stocking up ahead of time. While the recent action in bitcoin is exciting, there’s another way to invest in cryptocurrencies with even more profit potential. The last time bitcoin soared to new heights after the 2016 halvening, some of bitcoin’s smaller peers (by market cap), did exponentially better. And Matt is predicting what’s coming next could make what’s happened in the past look like child’s play. Click here to sign up for Matt’s upcoming presentation on what’s happening in the crypto markets right now and the best way to play it. Stocks Open Slightly Higher Thursday on Mixed News [Thursday, April 23, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Wednesday finally brought some relief to the stock market. Investors were cheering on a rally in oil prices and news that the Senate has passed an interim stimulus package. But these weekly jobless claims numbers certainly put a damper on things. 4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total above 26 million. The big takeaway — the novel coronavirus has erased more jobs than were added after the Great Recession. With that in mind, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite opened higher on Thursday, but just slightly. The S&P 500 opened higher by 0.42% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 0.33% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.39% 4.4 Million More Americans File for Unemployment [Thursday, April 23, 9:18 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Investors are probably getting used to seeing shocking figures every Thursday morning. Today, we learned that 4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits . Yes, that figure is down 810,000 from the previous week, but it’s still staggering. Since the novel coronavirus began wreaking havoc on businesses, 26.4 million Americans have lost their jobs. That surpasses the amount of jobs gained since the financial crisis. Stock futures are holding up in pre-market trading, but there are still a few minutes to go before market open. Snap’s Earnings Send Digital Ad Stocks Higher [Wednesday, April 22, 5:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace’s William White reported yesterday that Snap’s (NYSE: SNAP ) first-quarter earnings report sent SNAP stock soaring in after-hours trading . Those gains continued Wednesday, as Snap closed up 36.7%. Its revenue figure came in at $462.5 million, $30 million higher than estimated. As InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango argues, that’s more than just a victory for Snap. Yes, it shows that consumers are spending their time in quarantine sending each other selfies. But it also could mean that worries over ad revenue were overblown. Lango wrote earlier this month that although ad spending was dropping, digital ad stocks aren’t equities to scoff at. He recommended 7 Top Digital Ad Stocks to Buy for a Rebound . Several names on that list ended Wednesday higher. Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) closed higher by 6.7%. Pinterest (NYSE: PINS ) rallied 14.2%. The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD ), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) also ended the day higher. This is good news for digital ad stocks, but Barron’s Eric J. Savitz warns it’s too early to say these companies are in the clear . Snap’s conference call shows that while revenue is up, revenue growth slowed in March and early April. Regardless, investors are excited. These digital ad stocks have big potential, especially in a post-pandemic world. Potential Geopolitical Conflict Boosts Oil Wednesday [Wednesday, April 22, 4:35 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell highlighted in his daily column today , potential geopolitical conflict is one great way to boost oil prices. That’s exactly what worked on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump threatened to escalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran. In an early tweet, he instructed the U.S. Navy to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian gunboats . What’s behind his message? Last week the U.S. Department of Defense accused Iran of sending 11 fast boats to “harass” American warships in the Persian Gulf. Iran also just launched its first military satellite, adding to Trump’s anger. Regardless of his rationale, it worked. For the first day this week, plunging oil prices weren’t the focus of trading. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for crude, closed higher by 20% . What’s Kenwell’s takeaway? Well, a one-day rally isn’t enough to save the oil market, and it doesn’t address storage concerns. He writes that several refineries have halted production in response to concerns over the supply-demand imbalance. Despite the reality, Marathon Petroleum (NYSE: MPC ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX ), two companies idling refineries, saw their stocks jump Wednesday. Stocks Hold Gains to Close Higher by 2% [Wednesday, April 22, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Investors got a breather on Wednesday, as stocks held their pre-market gains to close higher. Oil prices spiked after President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. Navy to “shoot down” Iranian boats . Plus, news that the Senate passed a $484 billion interim stimulus package is still giving the market some optimism. With that in mind, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all closed deep in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 2.27% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 1.96% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 2.81% New Hydroxychloroquine Results Boost Gilead Stock [Wednesday, April 22, 3:40 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) is up 3.3% in intraday trading Wednesday, as a pre-print study shows rival coronavirus treatment hydroxychloroquine may not be effective. Gilead’s remdesivir is considered by many to be the leading candidate for treating the novel coronavirus, although President Donald Trump and his closest allies have been touting hydroxychloroquine. The latter drug is typically used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Some scientists thought it would be able to keep the virus from fusing with host cells — essentially keeping it from spreading. It is also used in treating malaria. However, a new study from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs suggests neither hydroxychloroquine or a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin prevented patients from dying or needing mechanical ventilation . Novartis (NYSE: NVS ) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY ) are two manufacturers of the drug and its generic versions. Neither stock seems particularly affected by the news — SNY shares are down 1% now. BioPharma Dive’s Jonathan Gardner is quick to point out that there are flaws with this data. It comes from a retrospective analysis, not a true clinical trial. Additionally, the study has yet to go through the peer-review process. Regardless, some investors will take this as a win for Gilead. GILD stock has been hot in 2020, up almost 25% year-to-date. Does this mean you should buy shares now? InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango says no — although he’s bullish on remdesivir and the stock. He says wait for dips below $80 to accumulate more shares . Investors Are Still Bullish on Tesla Stock [Wednesday, April 22, 2:45 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A new study from Morgan Stanley shows that Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA ) lead over traditional automakers continues to grow. The firm asked 25 investors if they would rather give $10 billion to Tesla, General Motors (NYSE: GM ) or Toyota (NYSE: TM ). The money would be invested in each company’s efforts to develop all-electric and autonomous vehicles. Perhaps not surprisingly, 56% of respondents chose Tesla . TSLA stock is up 72% year-to-date, while GM and TM stock are down on the year. TSLA stock is up 5% in intraday trading. Look to drive out of the pandemic and into an all-electric future behind CEO Elon Musk. Municipal Bonds Begin a Coronavirus-Driven Collapse [Wednesday, April 22, 2:24 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On April 14, we wrote in this column about the risks municipal bonds — traditionally a stable investment vehicle — now pose to investors. At the time, we warned that many municipalities that use bond offerings to fund new hotels and convention sites, in efforts to ramp business travel, are facing major losses. With that in mind, we cautioned that investors should give their bond portfolios a close look. Now, Barron’s Leslie P. Norton is taking stock of the victims . She writes that two new municipal bond delinquencies have emerged, both a result of the novel coronavirus. Interest payments weren’t made on a series of Massachusetts Development Finance Agency Health Care Facility Revenue bonds. Proceeds from the bond sales funded the Lafayette Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Facility and the Fairhaven Healthcare Center. The city of Topeka, Kansas is no longer able to properly fund a series of bonds used to build a new recreation center at Topeka’s YMCA. Once again, check your bond holdings. You don’t have perfect information, but do any municipal bonds look particularly risky? Morgan Stanley: Buy Apple Stock as China Recovers [Wednesday, April 22, 1:20 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Analysts at Morgan Stanley have one out-of-the-box reason for recommending you buy Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) stock now. The firm tracks nitrogen dioxide levels in China’s air quality, an indicator of industrial activity. According to analysts, Apple’s factories are now working at a higher-than-normal rate. Based on this unique metric, Morgan Stanley infers that Apple will likely beat its estimates for iPhone and iPad shipments. Any positive surprise like that is sure to have investors cheering. From Morgan Stanley , via CNBC (subscription required): “Air quality data from 4 major Chinese manufacturing locations suggests that device production remains above seasonal levels which combined with build forecasts that are above our forecast point to potential for better than expected F3Q guidance.” The firm has an “overweight” rating on AAPL stock and a price target of $298. Tyson Stock Drops on Pork Plant Closure [Wednesday, April 22, 11:50 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On Wednesday, Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN ) became the third ...major meat producer to shutter a pork plant in response to the novel coronavirus. It follows in the footsteps of Smithfield Foods and JBS (OTCMKTS: JBSAY ). According to a press release from the company, Tyson is indefinitely suspending operations at a pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa. The plant has been running at reduced levels because of employee absenteeism. Tyson says it will invite the plant’s 2,800 workers in for testing later this week. As Bloomberg’s James Attwood and Michael Hirtzer report, these disruptions are causing wholesale price prices to surge around the U.S. “The growing disruptions in slaughtering and processing are cascading through supply chains, affecting farmers, truckers, distributors and supermarkets. While there’s plenty of frozen inventory in the U.S, wholesale pork prices have surged.” We’ve reported in this column before how the pandemic is affecting the supply chain. When Smithfield Foods closed its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, CEO Kenneth Sullivan said he was “deeply worried” about U.S. meat supply. TSN stock is down 2.4% in intraday trading on the concerning news. Companies Want More Legal Protection from the Pandemic [Wednesday, April 22, 11:25 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith President Donald Trump and a handful of states — namely Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee — are leading the push to reopen. Heck, while investors certainly have their fears about the novel coronavirus, many believe a reopening will boost hurting markets. But companies aren’t so sure that they’re ready. Reporting from Reuters’ David Morgan shows that companies are worried about reopening . The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business are seeking “safe harbor” for employers who follow health and safety regulations. Some companies fear they’ll be held liable for employees and patrons who contract Covid-19 after states reopen. Plus, when businesses reopen, who knows if consumers will return? Movie theaters in Georgia will resume business as normal — just with strict social distancing practices — on April 27. Movie theater stocks like Cinemark (NYSE: CNK ) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC ) skyrocketed last week on that news. Optimism in the markets is nice, but are movie-goers really going to turn falling revenue around this weekend? For investors, know that the path to recovery is uncertain. Companies, not just consumers, are worried. CEOs Predict a U-Shaped Recovery [Wednesday, April 22, 10:25 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Everyone wants to know what the economic recovery will look like. Will we see a sharp rebound higher — something like a V-shaped recovery? In a new survey from YPO , a business leadership network, 60% of global chief executives shared predictions for a U-shaped recovery . In this alphabet soup, a U-shaped recovery means there will be a long period between the recession and an upturn. Another key takeaway is that CEOs are scared. As economists call for a market downturn unlike anything since the Great Depression, 11% of chief executives report their firms are at risk of not surviving. Another 40% say the pandemic poses a “severe” threat. As Reuters reports, those in the hospitality and restaurant sectors feel most at risk. That shouldn’t be a surprise to InvestorPlace.com readers who have tracked severe declines in restaurant and travel stocks. Stocks Open Higher Wednesday on Stimulus Hopes [Wednesday, April 22, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Monday and Tuesday saw losses that echoed back to early April, as plunging oil prices shook up the market. But Wednesday, a different force is driving things. President Donald Trump and Congress reached an agreement to fund an “interim” stimulus for coronavirus relief. Senators cleared the bill in late-afternoon action Tuesday . Investors are optimistic — if passed, the bill would extend the Paycheck Protection Program and allocate more funding to hospitals and testing. With that in mind, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are all starting Wednesday well in the green. The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.93% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.82% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 2.09% Bank of America: Gold Is Heading to $3,000 [Wednesday, April 22, 9:10 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As Barron’s Ben Levisohn writes, there are a lot of reasons why investors typically want to own gold. One is that it’s seen as a “safe haven” investment. It’s also considered a hedge against inflation. Right now, Bank of America analyst Michael Widmer agrees — setting his price target for the shiny metal to $3,000 . Why? He says the Federal Reserve can’t print gold. It sounds funny, but he hits on a point that’s certainly crossed many investors’ minds. Central banks are simply taking drastic measures to boost GDP growth and inflation. But what comes next? Whatever the answer, Widmer thinks gold is a safe bet. His 18-month price target implies 70% upside. Bank of America analysts also have “buy” ratings on Newmont (NYSE: NEM ), Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM ) and Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD ). Video Game Sales Surge as Consumers Stay at Home [Tuesday, April 21, 4:45 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith It’s no secret that a vast amount of consumers are stuck at home. And today InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell highlighted in his daily column that video game stocks are winning , thanks to all the boredom. According to a third-party service , users of gaming platform Steam hit an all-time high of 24.5 million just two weeks ago. Users are up, and so are sales. For March, video game sales clocked in at $1.6 billion — an impressive 35% year-over-year increase. While sales in other categories are down hard, video game sales are up, after a seven-month decline. Kenwell writes that Nintendo’s (OTCMKTS: NTDOY ) Switch console was the real winner. Nintendo saw sales double from a year ago, and the firm hit a new record for March. Sony (NYSE: SNE ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) are each set to release new consoles at the end of the year. But sales of their existing Playstation 4 and Xbox One still increased by 25%. These numbers are why InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall is so bullish on video game stocks . Driven on by trends in eSports, he thinks gaming will only accelerate from here. So, there’s a lot to like, but there is one caveat. The New York Times reported today that although sales are up, development is down as the pandemic changes workflows around the world. That doesn’t eliminate the bull case with gaming — although it is a near-term headwind. New Studies Indicate Covid-19 Has a Lower Fatality Rate [Tuesday, April 21, 4:10 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith According to InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango, the science surrounding the novel coronavirus is shifting. Yesterday, we reported in this column that a study from California’s Santa Clara county found that as many as 85 times more people had been infected by April 1 than initially counted, adding relevance to antibody testing. Now, a second study — a venture between the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health — shows similar results. Between 2.8% and 5.6% of the county’s adult population tested positive for the virus’ antibody. So for investors, this means two things. One, antibody tests are important. As President Donald Trump calls to reopen the economy, and an interim stimulus package allocates $25 billion more for testing, look for these tests to be key. One report from Harvard University calls for testing 5 million people a day through early June in order to guarantee a “safe” reopening. Borrowing from Lango’s logic, the second key takeaway is that the Covid-19 fatality rate may be much lower than scientists previously thought. He estimates that the true fatality rate could be close to 0.15% — not far away from that of the common flu. So, as more counties find similar antibody test results, sentiment around the pandemic could shift. As Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee begin reopening certain businesses, antibody testing could help consumer behavior normalize. For investors, that would be a big win. Granted, there are still a lot of numbers missing here. A lower-than-estimated fatality rate is good news, but fatalities are not the only consequence of the disease’s spread. Stocks Drop Tuesday as Oil Losses Mount [Tuesday, April 21, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith This has been a bad week in the energy markets. After prices for the May crude oil contract turned negative Monday, they settled near $10 on Tuesday. But investors are still unhappy, particularly as the once-steady June contracted headed toward $11. Once again, bad news for oil meant bad news for stocks. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all ended the day deep in the red. The S&P 500 closed lower by 3.07% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 2.67% The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 3.48% Trump Strikes an ‘Interim’ Coronavirus Funding Deal [Tuesday, April 21, 2:55 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As Axios’ Alayna Treene reports, President Donald Trump has reached a deal with Congress to fund a $450 billion “interim” stimulus. Treene says the Senate is expected to vote on the bill — and pass it — at 4:00 p.m. today. Here are the high points: $310 billion will go toward replenishing the Paycheck Protection Program. Approximately $60 billion of the total is reserved for small lenders and community banks. $60 billion will go toward the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program . $75 billion will go toward hospitals. $25 billion will go toward increased testing. Investors should keep a careful eye on this “interim” stimulus and any future legislation. Increased funding for testing and the Paycheck Protection Program could add more relevance to lenders and certain biopharmaceutical names, like Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT ). How Can You Profit from Dying Department Stores? [Tuesday, April 21, 2:40 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Loyal followers of this column know that I’ve been pounding the table about the death of retail that the coronavirus will bring. It is one of the most obvious and dangerous investing pitfalls that I hope investors will avoid. I contributed to this column that J.C. Penney May Be But the First Retailer to Fall and In a Sign of Struggle, Neiman Marcus Skips Bond Payment and I’ve linked to research by Louis Navellier and his InvestorPlace research staff about seven retail stocks investors should avoid . Now the New York Times give us more reason for caution. In a thoughtful and well-researched article about American department stores , Sapna Maheshwari and Vanessa Friedman warn that “‘Very Few Are Likely to Survive.” The article has this dire warning: “The department stores, which have been failing slowly for a very long time, really don’t get over this,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Business School. “The genre is toast and looking at the other side of this, there are very few who are likely to survive.” Investors are wise to avoid industries where few companies are likely to survive. So what are we to do? First of all, check your portfolio. If you own department stores and retailers, beware. For example, Matt McCall, the editor of Investment Opportunities , warns investors in an article released today that “M stock [Macy’s] is in serious trouble,” and that “If history repeats itself, you must sell Macy’s stock now.” But the news isn’t all bad. For those looking to profit from the demise of retail, Neil George, the editor of Profitable Investing , guided readers that B. Riley Is the Top Company Cashing in on the Retail Apocalypse . George recommends that the top retail play right now may be the company that will provide alternative financing for dying retailers. It’s an interesting way to profit from the nearly sure death of wide swaths of American retail. McDonald’s Is the Gold Standard Restaurant Stock [Tuesday, April 21, 2:10 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor The Wall Street Journal reports today that McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD ) is making plans to slowly reopen dining rooms in the United States. Per the Wall Street Journal , McDonald’s stores in states including Georgia may begin opening as early as next week. Last week, in an article titled, “McDonald’s Stock Remains the Gold Standard of Restaurant Names,” InvestorPlace.com contributor Will Ashworth announced that, “Despite the fact that the Golden Arches is struggling like most restaurant chains, large and small, McDonald’s remains the gold standard of restaurant stocks.” He pointed to the company’s strong cash flow and balance sheet before recommending that, “the Golden Arches is the restaurant stock to own over the long haul.” Given the news that stores are set to begin reopening next week, now’s a good time to look at the company. Do you want fries with that stock purchase? LabCorp Stock Climbs on At-Home Coronavirus Test [Tuesday, April 21, 1:30 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Just a week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration emphasized it had not approved any at-home tests for the novel coronavirus, it issued an emergency-use authorization for LabCorp’s (NYSE: LH ) diagnostic test. The new authorization allows LabCorp to use its test for at-home swabs. LabCorp’s Pixel — a home collection service — already sells at-home test kits for diabetes and heart health conditions. According to BioPharma Dive the new test is especially important in the context of President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan to reopen the economy. His plan hinges on widespread testing, and LabCorp looks to play a major role in this as it makes the at-home test available in all states. LabCorp also maintains that this test is a great way to reduce the strain on America’s healthcare system. Investors like the news. LH stock has been trending higher Tuesday, up 1.4% at the time of this writing. Southern States Lead the Return to Business [Tuesday, April 21, 1:03 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor The great reopening has begun. Led by Southern states like South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, some states are beginning to lift closures for retailers and other businesses after hunkering down in response to the novel coronavirus since March. According the Wall Street Journal , some retailers in South Carolina opened for business today. In Georgia, nonessential businesses like gyms, bowling alleys and barbers will begin to reopen on Friday. In Tennessee, the “vast majority” of businesses will be allowed to reopen on May 1. Investors will be wise to keep an eye on these first few states that return to business. If the rate of infection and death from the coronavirus skyrockets, it’s safe to assume that the remainder of the nation will stay shuttered for months to come. If instead the rate of infection and death is held in check in these few vanguard states, expect the nation to return to business more quickly. Louis Navellier, working with his research staff at InvestorPlace , has developed a list of the 7 Industrial Stocks To Buy For the Market Rebound that investors should consider as we think about the possibility of the nation’s business returning to some semblance of normal. Will Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Save the Day? [Tuesday, April 21, 12:50 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Over the last few weeks, InvestorPlace.com General Manager Andrew Taylor has reported on the many risks the mortgage market faces. New reporting from The Wall Street Journal shows how the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) hopes to address what Taylor called a “ticking time bomb.” Here’s a refresher on the problem. One stipulation of President Donald Trump’s $2 trillion stimulus package allows homeowners to suspend mortgage payments without penalty. This puts those loans into forbearance — jeopardizing mortgage companies . Mortgage companies still must pay their investors, putting them in what many fear is a “cash crunch.” That’s where today’s news from the FHFA comes in. The agency announced that Fannie Mae (OTCMKTS: FNMA ) and Freddie Mac (OTCMKTS: FMCC ) will continue to hold loans in forbearance in mortgage-backed securities. According to the FHFA, this should help with liquidity concerns, because under a previous policy Fannie and Freddie would remove loans in forbearance out of the MBS pool after four months. Additionally, the agency has established a new policy to help mortgage servicers. According to the FHFA, once a servicer has advanced four months of missed payments on a loan, it will have no further obligation to advance scheduled payments. From FHFA Director Mark Calabria : “The four-month servicer advance obligation limit for loans in forbearance provides stability and clarity to the $5 trillion Enterprise-backed housing finance market. Mortgage servicers can now plan for exactly how long they will need to advance principal and interest payments on loans for which borrowers have not made their monthly payment.” U.S. Bank Dividends Look Safe for Now [Tuesday, April 21, 10:39 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Bank stocks have lately been a source of anxiety for many investors. Those who were in the markets during the Great Recession can’t help but worry the big banks will crumble, despite analysts maintaining this time is different. And according to Barron’s , even the dividends — at least of U.S. bank stocks — look safe now . Why? U.S. banks are typically profitable, and they’ve historically paid out less of those profits in dividends. The big banks are preparing for the worst, expanding loan loss reserves and halting buyback programs. But now that they’re done with first-quarter earnings, analysts are breathing a sight of relief. According to Frederick Cannon, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, via Barron’s : “We believe the negative impact of dividend cuts at this point — downward pressure on equity values and loss of market confidence — outweighs the modest protection of capital, and we believe that leading U.S. regulators understand this.” JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ), Citigroup (NYSE: C ), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) are all down in intraday trading. Stocks Open Lower Tuesday on Oil Woes [Tuesday, April 21, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith To keep it simple, yesterday was a bad day in the energy markets. The May contract for crude oil plunged into negative territory, dropping $40 below $0 at one point . Why? A global supply-demand imbalance is threatening to overflow storage facilities, so traders were panicking. One positive on Monday is that prices for the June crude contract held steady above $20. That silver lining is eroding Tuesday, as prices for the June contract hit $16 this morning. Making matters worse is the fact that global benchmark Brent prices are falling 20% on Tuesday to just over $20 per barrel . Things are really getting ugly. With that in mind, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are all opening deep in the red. The S&P 500 closed lower by 1.6% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 2.03% The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 0.96% Is Chipotle or McDonald’s Stock the Coronavirus Winner? [Tuesday, April 21, 8:58 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Sure, some restaurants are embracing take-out and delivery services, and some have drive-thru windows to boost sales. But overall, the industry has been hit hard. Retail sales data from March showed that bar and restaurant sales dropped 26.5%. What about solid restaurant stocks like Chipotle (NYSE: CMG ) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD )? InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier examined each to determine which stock was the true winner in this pandemic. Using his Portfolio Grader , the tool behind portfolios like the Platinum Growth Club Model Portfolio , CMG earns a solid B rating. Thanks to a low fundamental score, McDonald’s earns a C. As Navellier writes, CMG is the clear coronavirus winner. Read more about his Portfolio Grader and what makes CMG stock a winner here . Disney’s Furloughs Are Far From Magical [Monday, April 20, 4:35 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In his daily column looking at the stock market today, InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell reported some less-than-magical news. On Monday, Disney (NYSE: DIS ) furloughed 100,000 employees — that’s nearly half its total workforce. Previously, it reached an arrangement with its unions to furlough 43,000 workers at its Florida theme park . Disney has been hit particularly hard by the novel coronavirus. Its theme parks are closed and its revenue from cable — like its live sporting offerings — is down. Plus, movie theater closures have delayed several high-profile film releases, including for its Marvel franchise. That’s why, as Kenwell reports, Credit Suisse analysts downgraded DIS stock on Monday. They lowered its rating from “outperform” to “neutral,” setting a new price target at $116. From the Credit Suisse analysts , via CNBC (subscription required): “Near- to mid-term we expect Disney will remain in a more narrow trading range given a remarkable lack of operational visibility, expected severe cuts coming to street estimates.” Stock Market Closes Lower on Negative Oil Prices [Monday, April 20, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Boy, Monday was a rough day in the oil market. The May contract for West Texas Intermediate turned negative, hitting -$38.52. The June contract remains above $20. According to analysts, this discount in near-term prices reflects massive panic over shrinking storage space. Production cuts agreed upon by OPEC and its allies have done little to correct the supply-demand imbalance. This stunning price action has the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite closing Monday in the red. The S&P 500 closed lower by 1.79% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 2.44% The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 1.03% What Can We Learn From Prior Market Crashes? [Monday, April 20, 3:55 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Not too long ago, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA ) CEO Daniel Zhang called the novel coronavirus a “black swan” event , a uniquely negative event that can have severe consequences for investors. In 2007, the events of the financial crisis similarly were described as “black swan” occurrences. But as Morningstar’s Paul Kaplan writes, even if a black swan event is unique and unpredictable, we can still learn from such past market crashes. Here are some key takeaways : Market crashes — even severe ones — are not uncommon. The stock market eventually rebounds to hit new highs after every crash. Compared to other recent declines, the current downturn is serious. Kaplan writes that it is comparable to the beginning of 1929. Kaplan examines June 1911 through December 1924, August 1929 through November 1936, February 1937 through February 1945, December 1972 through June 1983, August 2000 through May 2013 and 2020’s coronavirus downturn. Looking at the five historic downturns, it took an average of 57 months for the market to hit a trough and an average of 125 months for the market to hit its previous peak. Kaplan concludes that investors should stay in the market for the long run. If they do, it will remind them that rewards come with taking equity risks. States Lag in Handling Gig Worker Unemployment Benefits [Monday, April 20, 2:37 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A key element of President Donald Trump’s CARES Act — which came in at $2.2 trillion — was the legislation’s extension of unemployment benefits to self-employed Americans. That seems like a victory, but the on-the-ground reality is much more frustrating. According to reporting from Bloomberg , only two states thus far have begun administering benefits to gig-economy workers. So what’s behind the hold up? Bloomberg’s Shawn Donnan, Reade Pickert and Catarina Saraiva summarize that unemployment insurance comes down state-level operations that have not adjusted their processes. One aviation contractor the trio interviewed says he’s frustrated that his state, Virginia, hasn’t been able to speed up the adjustment. Another issue is that it’s hard to tally who counts as a gig-economy worker. One study, using information on how Americans file their taxes, thinks it’s one in six workers. Some states just don’t have a clue. For investors, it’s clear that many gig-economy companies are struggling, as their business models are failing employees — and shareholders — in the pandemic. We reported in this column late last week that Uber (NYSE: UBER ) is facing a 83% sales drop in its ride-hailing business . Although it’s up 1.6% in intraday trading, UBER stock is down 19% over the last three months. The Coronavirus Is Dampening the 4/20 High [Monday, April 20, 2:05 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith While the origins of the celebration are a bit hazy — allegedly tying back to Northern California teens in the 1970s — April 20, or 4/20, has long brought cannabis aficionados together. But with the novel coronavirus forcing states to lockdown, what’s happening to 4/20? Early survey results showed that pot use reached an all-time in March , and weekly sales growth peaked March 16. Now though, as consumer spending drops, 4/20 is taking a hit. According to the Associated Press , what typically is a “Black Friday” for cannabis companies now feels “somber.” People aren’t celebrating, and many stores are reporting up-and-down spending. Although the AP details virtual gatherings in honor of 4/20, it’s clear the holiday won’t be the lifeline many cannabis stocks need . Last week, Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB ) announced a 1-for-12 reverse stock split . Shares currently trade for just over 70 cents. Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC ) stock is up 2.5% in intraday trading, but it’s down 27% for the year. Similarly, Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY ) is up 8.5% today, but down 60% for the year. There’s certainly still reason to be bullish, especially in the long term. But with consumer spending down, the near-term picture certainly looks bleak. Will Cash Be the Pandemic’s Next Victim? [Monday, April 20, 1:10 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith You’ve surely seen the signs on drive-thru and take-out restaurants asking for patrons to avoid paying in cash. My neighborhood Dunkin (NASDAQ: DNKN ) prefers all customers use mobile payments, so if I go through the drive-thru I make sure to pay ahead on the app. Why? Many fear — and rightfully so — that cash is the perfect vehicle for spreading the novel coronavirus. Writing for POLITICO , Nancy Scola asks “Is the coronavirus killing off cash?” Perhaps it is. Tech firms are stepping up to fill the gap as dollar bills get dusty in shoppers’ wallets. PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL ) and Square (NYSE: SQ ) have been pushing their offerings, which include Venmo and Cash App. These apps facilitate contactless payments, keeping germs out of the equation. PYPL stock is up almost 5% on the year, and SQ stock is down “just” 0.6%. Both are outperforming the broader market. As Scola writes, previous arguments against a move to a cashless society focus in on how hard changing habits can be. But the pandemic is already forcing Americans to change their habits, as many are finding themselves forced to avoid cash. Experts predict that hygiene changes will be long-lasting, and perhaps this shift away from cash will be, too. But as Scola says, it’s too early to tell. Cash could come “roaring” back along with the handshake. Facebook Launches Map to Track the Coronavirus [Monday, April 20, 12:45 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) released its coronavirus-tracking map on Monday, through a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the social media platform is in a good spot to help with tracking, because it has access to large groups of people. However, Facebook isn’t exactly known for data privacy excellence. The map relies on survey data, and the CEO insists only Carnegie Mellon researchers have access to the specifics. Over the next few days Facebook will globalize the reach of the survey to get better data. From Zuckerberg : “This is work that social networks are well-situated to do. By distributing surveys to large numbers of people whose identities we know, we can quickly generate enough signal to correct for biases and ensure sampling is done properly.” FB stock is up slightly, about 0.3%, in intraday trading. Shares are still down over 12% for the year. 5 Steps to Avoid Panicking if You’re a Recent Retiree [Monday, April 20, 12:30 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor From a purely financial perspective, the market turmoil over the last month is scarier for recent retirees than for almost any other group of investors. Recent retirees have saved for an entire working lifetime to finally be able to stop working and focus full-time on enjoying life, then the pandemic hit. Markets went haywire, and portfolios crashed. It’s scary. If this is your situation, there’s an article you must read. Barry Ritholtz penned an article titled, “I Just Retired, Then All THIS happened…WTF Do I Do Now?” In that article, Ritholtz identifies five steps recent retirees should do to avoid panicking in this scary time. Develop situational awareness Have a “decumulation” strategy Understand risks of fixed income Reduce risk, cost and concentration in equities Pivot from saving to spending My favorite? Item No. 3, where Ritholtz counsels that we should all avoid chasing huge yields in our bond holdings. The entire article is worth a read . Don’t Get Too Hyped Up for Internet Stocks [Monday, April 20, 12:15 p.m.] Contributed by Jessica Loder If there’s one sector that feels like it’s doing all right in this new world, it’s internet stocks. But in a note on Monday, Bernstein warned that increasing numbers of people online doesn’t mean anything if companies can’t cash in on them. “We don’t place much stock in the record usage stats Internet companies have floated over the past several weeks,” wrote Mark Shmulik and Nikhil Devnani in the emailed note. “Eventually, we return to school/work and a lot of that incremental engagement disappears without ever being monetized.” They point out that the uncertainty makes even trying to guess at what digital ad spending is going to look like in a few weeks, much less a few months, an impossible task. And with most companies choosing to refrain from offering guidance, the sector isn’t really looking that much more appealing than many of the rest. So, is there positive news? Well, they think so. “Across the board, the stocks have been hit hard, underperforming the S&P 500 by an average -750bps since Feb. 18,” they wrote. But … “Market response to pre-releases from Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) and Pinterest (NYSE: PINS ) suggest that bad news is already priced in.” Wells Fargo Downgrades Fan Favorite Gilead Stock [Monday, April 20, 11:15 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Just last week, Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) led the market higher on news that early data from one of its clinical trials showed hope. Doctors at the Chicago hospital reported in a video that patients seemed to be responding positively to Gilead’s remdesivir, and that many patients enrolled in its trial had already been discharged from the hospital. But Wells Fargo analysts think that good news is already priced in. That’s why in a pre-market move, the firm downgraded GILD stock from “equal weight” to “overweight.” The analysts are maintaining an $87 price target. From the Wells Fargo analysts , via CNBC (subscription required): “While we remain optimistic regarding prospects for remdesivir to reduce COVID19 burden and view the drug as an important component of potential economic recovery, we are less certain of its commercial value given likely initial distribution at cost or below, and believe that peak opportunity is already reflected in current valuation.” 5 Gaming Stocks Perfect for Staying at Home [Monday, April 20, 11:00 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall almost bought a gaming console this weekend, and he might start buying gaming stocks in the near future. Why? Many Americans stuck at home having nothing more to do than hop on their favorite console and play video games to pass the time. Plus, gaming is a hypergrowth trend that continues to accelerate thanks to eSports. By 2023, MarketsandMarkets thinks the eSports industry will be worth almost $2.2 trillion. It’s really time to start gaming. As McCall waits to buy his new console, here are five gaming stocks he’s watching now: Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI ) Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA ) Sea Limited (NYSE: SE ) Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA ) Nintendo (OTCMKTS: NTDOY ) Read the rest of McCall’s thoughts on buying gaming stocks during the pandemic here . Antibody Tests Reveal Far More Infections [Monday, April 20, 10:32 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After President Donald Trump released a three-phase plan for reopening the U.S. economy, investors are now left waiting for states to begin the first phase. Once again, a lot comes down to testing. A new study out of California’s Santa Clara County brings new relevance to antibody testing , which can show if someone had previously been infected with the novel coronavirus . The study estimates that between 2.49% and 4.16% of people in the county had been infected before April 1, which is as much as 85 times higher than what officials recorded by that date. Why do these numbers matter? They improve disease modeling. Plus, as plans for reopening require widespread testing, look for antibody tests, not just virus tests, to pick up. Many scientists believe that once infected with the virus, an individual gains immunity to it. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT ), one company that makes antibody tests, is up 0.4% in intraday trading. The S&P 500 is down 1.1%. Stocks Open Lower Monday on Sinking Oil Prices [Monday, April 20, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smit h Headed into the weekend we had a nearly 700-point rally in the Dow Jones Industrial Average . But on Monday, oil prices fell to a 21-year low , as West Texas Intermediate prices fell 38% and Brent prices fell 6%. This drop comes as the oil market is in contango — a situation where the futures price is higher than the current price. According to MarketWatch , traders are pricing in fears that the U.S. is about to run out of storage as the supply-demand situation crumbles. Investors have long been rooting for a turnaround in oil prices, so the news has stocks down big. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are all starting the week deep in the red. The S&P 500 opened lower by 1.54% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 1.99% The Nasdaq Composite opened lower by 1.07% Five Stocks With Major Insider Buying [Monday, April 20, 8:35 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Last week we wrote in this column about the wisdom of following insider buying to find great buying opportunities of your own. It’s a proven and time-tested method of finding outsized stock performance. After all, if insiders are buying stock in their own company, it’s a fair bet that they think the stock price will appreciate. InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango has done some of the hard work for you. He published 5 Stocks to Buy With Heavy Insider Buying , which includes five public companies with significant insider buying in the last few weeks. He recommends that investors consider these five stocks to buy now, all of which had big insider buying in March: Williams Sonoma (NYSE: WSM ) Stitch Fix (NASDAQ: SFIX ) The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL ) MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ) Mersana (NASDAQ: MRSN ) Charlie Munger: Berkshire Will Act Conservatively [Friday, April 17, 4:43 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In his daily column on the stock market today, InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell dove into a recent interview with Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A , NYSE: BRK.B ) Executive Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. In the interview with The Wall Street Journal , 96-year-old Munger emphasized that the current market downturn is unlike anything America has seen before. He says that yes, the nation is in a recession. But he’s hopeful the market won’t see another long-lasting Great Depression. So is Berkshire getting greedy while others are fearful? Not so much. Munger said he isn’t ruling out the possibility that he and CEO Warren Buffett seize onto an aggressive opportunity. However, their priority is remaining conservative for people who, as he says, “have 90% of their net worth invested in [Berkshire].” As Kenwell reports, Munger also maintains that executives around the country aren’t begging Berkshire for capital. Why? Munger and Buffett think the economy is just simply too frozen, and hurting executives just don’t know what to do. For investors, it’s simply just good to know what the Oracle of Omaha’s sidekick is thinking. New York Times: 83% Drop in Uber’s Ride-Hailing Business [Friday, April 17, 4:15 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor In the heady times of February, back when the novel coronavirus was largely relegated to articles that never appeared on the homepages of major media companies, Uber (NYSE: UBER ) guided Wall Street and investors that it expected to achieve between $16 billion and $17 billion in revenue this year. Yesterday, the ride-hailing company withdrew that guidance in announcing that due to uncertainty from Covid-19, “… it is impossible to predict with precision the pandemic’s cumulative impact on our future financial results. As such, we are withdrawing our 2020 guidance for Gross Bookings, Adjusted Net Revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA, which were provided on February 6, 2020.” Investors no longer have guidance of what Uber’s financial performance will look like this year, because the company can’t provide it. Enter an article today in the New York Times titled, “Uber and Lyft Are Searching for Lifelines.” That article reports that data from analytics firm Second Measure estimates that Uber’s ride volume may have dropped by 83% in March . In fact the article estimates that Uber Eats, which has lost money for the company from its inception, now drives more sales for the company than its core ride-hailing business. Ouch. Uber trades at roughly $28 a share, and has nearly doubled from a low near $14 a share on March 28. InvestorPlace contributor Thomas Niel suggests that Even as Shares Rebound, Uber Stock Remains a Risky Proposition . A company that can provide investors no guidance, which may have seen an 83% drop in sales last month, and that has doubled in price in the last month? That sounds risky, indeed. Proceed with caution. Dow Closes Higher Friday by Almost 700 Points [Friday, April 17, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Friday brought a cheerful end to a choppy week of trading, as investors spent all day rooting for Gilead Sciences’ (NASDAQ: GILD ) remdesivir. The markets opened and closed higher on reports that patients in one of its U.S.-based clinical trials were responding positively to treatment. Also helping the markets today was President Donald Trump’s Thursday evening press conference. His three-part plan to reopen the economy has investors optimistic, as even hard-hit movie theater and gym stocks rallied in the stock market today. With this in mind, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are headed into the weekend well in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 2.68% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 2.99% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 1.38% Follow the Fed and Buy These 2 ETFs [Friday, April 17, 4:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As the Federal Reserve embarks on an unprecedented bond-buying program, there’s an easy way for investors to follow suit and profit. According to John Davi, the chief investment officer at Astoria Portfolio Advisors, exchange-traded funds that hold corporate bonds give investors a perfect boost. In particular, Davi is recommending the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: LQD ) and the iShares Aaa-A Rated Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: QLTA ). LQD is more than 80% waited toward BBB and BB-rated corporate debt, while QLTA is more than 98% weighted toward A-rated debt . Between the two ETFs investors gain exposure to corporate debt from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ), AT&T (NYSE: T ), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL ). LQD’s expense ratio is 0.15% or $15 on an initial $10,000 investment. QLTA has the same fees. From Davi, via CNBC (subscription required): “When I look across all the different kinds of risk assets, I think investment grade corporate bonds are probably the most interesting. You can get equity like exposure and there is this implicit Fed put.” Both ETFs are outperforming the S&P 500 in 2020. Carvana Stock Looks Like a Coronavirus Winner [Friday, April 17, 3:38 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Before the pandemic, buying a car came with an age-old routine. You go to a dealership. Maybe you test drive a few models. You end up spending hours discussing financing, and then you eventually leave with your new car. But after lockdowns ease, will car buying return to normal? Or, will consumers view dealerships as a Petri dish of unwanted germs? Updates from the big boys in the car world, General Motors (NYSE: GM ), Toyota (NYSE: TM ) and Ford (NYSE: F ) already show that car sales are plummeting. Some argue that that trend will reverse as does the downturn. There’s a case, though, that American hygiene habits will simply have changed too much. New data from China shows that virtual car buying is taking hold. Axios’ Joann Muller reports that car sales are rebounding, but that dealers are witnessing a “sharp rise” in virtual showroom visits . One company, Geely (OTCMKTS: GELYY ), disinfects the new cars, delivers them to consumers’ driveways and drops off the keys via drone. InvestorPlace’s Brad Moon saw this trend coming at the end of March , when he recommended Carvana (NYSE: CVNA ) stock. According to Moon, Carvana operates similarly to Geely, and it also offers “vending machines” for its cars. Either option reduces human contact, which is perfect for the germ-conscious future. The market agrees. CVNA stock is up over 9% in intraday trading. When Will You Get Your Stimulus Check? [Friday, April 17, 3:13 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Today, InvestorPlace’s Tom Taulli took a stab at answering what certainly is a top question Americans are asking right now. When will you get your stimulus check ? According to Taulli, those that have direct deposit set up should already be receiving their checks. If you’re a snail mail user, the earliest checks will be headed out to Americans in early May. Higher-earning individuals, who make more than $75,000 but less than $99,000, may end up waiting until August. Taulli also has some helpful resources. If you aren’t sure you’ll be receiving $1,200 — the full amount for an individual adult who meets all criteria — there’s a tool to check that. Intuit’s (NASDAQ: INTC ) online calculator asks you basic questions about your filing status, adjusted gross income and number of dependents. Then, it estimates your direct payment amount . If you’re sure you’re getting a payout, but don’t know where it is, the IRS also has a tracker . Lastly, for those receiving paper checks, Taulli recommends reviewing your address with the IRS . The agency warns that a change can take four to six weeks to process, so don’t wait. Coronavirus Is Accelerating the Electric Future [Friday, April 17, 2:50 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has quite an interesting take on the pandemic. Despite plunging crude oil prices and empty streets, he outlines an infrastructure proposal that would almost certainly accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. According to Axios’ Joann Muller , Jonas wants the next round of stimulus spending to earmark funds for the nation’s roads and bridges. This hearkens back to 1965, he wrote to clients, when the Federal Aid Highway Act put millions of Americans to work building U.S. interstates. Such a stimulus, Jonas tells his clients, would need to get these 10 things right: Electric vehicle charging infrastructure Upgrades to the nation’s electrical grid Battery manufacturing Battery recycling Renewable power 5G networks for connected, automated vehicles Hydrogen fuel networks High-speed rail and hyperloop Skyports for flying cars Space launch facilities and spaceports Muller sees Jonas’ plan as overly ambitious, and recommends focusing on EV charging and vehicle connectivity first. But many analysts and investors share that same ambitious sentiment. EVs represent the future of transportation, and trends toward new battery technology and self-driving vehicles are the start. InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto has frequently written that a big roadblock (pun intended) for EVs is the lack of a solid charging infrastructure . Such a stimulus could turn that around, speeding up EV adoption in the U.S. American EV darling Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) has been on a tear in 2020. InvestorPlace’s Will Ashworth thinks that with its innovation, it will hit $7,000 by 2024 . Wayne Duggan thinks the pandemic will distract traditional auto makers , giving Tesla even more of an edge. Plus, the global future appears to be electric. InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall writes that Nio (NYSE: NIO ) is a pandemic-perfect play on convenience . EVs take out maintenance hassles from the car equation. That certainly makes them more convenient for our current touch-free world. Markets Analyst Luke Lango agrees, writing that demand for EVs in China will rebound in late-2020, and Nio stock will rebound with it. Fed’s Bullard: Subsidize Companies Making Covid-19 Tests [Friday, April 17, 2:10 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Since the beginning of the economic downturn, investors have been turning to trusted analysts and economists in search of answers. How long will it last? What will total unemployment numbers look like? What stocks are good buys in spite of the chaos? Regional Federal Reserve presidents have been one source of such advice. On Friday, James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis bank, offered his own strategy to “end the crisis.” He’s calling for the government to fully subsidize any company’s work to develop and produce tests for the novel coronavirus. From Bullard, via CNBC : “You could create this pop-up industry where you’re essentially giving firms the chance to make quite a bit of profit because their costs are going to be covered, so their marginal cost is going to be zero. So you drive the costs of these tests down to zero. You’d be swimming in tests.” Bullard believes such subsidies would incentivize test development. And, he argues, robust testing is what the economy needs. As more Americans feel confident and safe, more will return to work, healing the hurting economy. It all comes back to testing, doesn’t it? President Donald Trump echoed the need for testing, including new antibody tests, in his press conference on reopening the country Thursday night. Test maker Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT ) stock is up 11% year-to-date after releasing three kits for the novel coronavirus. Movie Theater Stocks Soar on Trump’s Reopening Plan [Friday, April 17, 1:55 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump presented his much-awaited plan to reopen the economy. In a major policy reversal, he acknowledged that individual states must reopen under the guidance of individual governors, not Trump’s administration. That alone was reassuring, as figures like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have become key sentiment drivers for investors. But another aspect of the three-phase plan has movie theater stocks soaring on Friday. In the first phase of his plan, Trump guides that large venues including movie theaters could reopen , as long as patrons follow “strict” social distancing guidelines. In intraday trading, AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC ) stock is up 32%. Cinemark (NYSE: CNK ) is up 15% and Imax (NYSE: IMAX ) stock is up almost 8%. In order for a state to move to phase one, it must have a tight handle on the outbreak. Trump’s plans call for all of the state’s hospitals to be operating without crisis care, to note a 14-day downward trajectory of new cases and a “robust” testing program for healthcare workers to be in place. While that reality seems far off for many states, investors are excited to know that hard-hit movie theaters will be given the green light in the earliest phase. Gym operator Planet Fitness (NYSE: PLNT ) stock is also up over 11% on the news. Pandemic Pushes Companies Toward Record Innovation [Friday, April 17, 1:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith World War II America had the “Arsenal of Democracy” — a campaign that mobilized the nation’s industries to arm troops for war. Now, private and public companies are coming up with innovative ways to turn idle factories into pandemic-fighting powerhouses. General Motors (NYSE: GM ) and Ford (NYSE: F ), facing declining auto sales, are now manufacturing ventilators and protective face shields. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) are teaming up on tech to trace the spread of the virus. As The Wall Street Journal reports, although President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Protection Act, many companies are undertaking this innovation of their own volition . It’s a feel-good story, and it’s helping idle parts of the economy reboot. One privately held shoe maker in Pennsylvania was forced to halt production. Now, through a novel pitch, doors are open once more as it makes cotton face masks for healthcare workers and the general public. As of now, some of the innovators aren’t seeing a stock-price benefit, but they are still leading an important charge. GM and F stock are underperforming the broader market, but perhaps investors will choose to show love to companies demonstrating their capacity to pivot. Airlines Face Big Restrictions After Big Bailout [Friday, April 17, 11:35 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith President Donald Trump’s $2.2 trillion CARES Act specifically protected airlines — setting aside $25 billion for passenger carriers and $4 billion for cargo operators. Broadly, that’s good news. Airlines are struggling, as demand for air travel is practically nonexistent. Countries around the world are on lockdown, and businesses are drastically scaling back non-essential travel. But now, after airlines met with the U.S. Department of Treasury this week to secure specifics of the bailout, many are facing steep restrictions. According to The Washington Post , the carriers agreed to pay back 30% of the money and let the government acquire stock . The airlines had previously agreed to suspend buyback programs and dividends in addition to capping executive pay. News Thursday evening shows how another stipulation of the bailout is cramping the carriers. The terms of the bailout require that airlines maintain “minimum service requirements.” Yes, the U.S. Department of Transportation is allowing them to “significantly” cut service. But JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU ) and Spirit (NYSE: SAVE ) are saying it’s not enough . Despite their pleas, the Transportation Department is enforcing the bailout’s minimum service requirement, blocking the airlines’ request. According to The Washington Post , the department did not find the request to close down service at over 36 airports compelling. From JetBlue, via The Washington Post : “A rigid interpretation of the Service Obligation will only threaten to unnecessarily diminish JetBlue’s liquidity, with no commensurate public interest benefit.” InvestorPlace contributors have been rallying behind rebound plays. But for those airlines most affected by the “strings attached” to the bailout, such an investment may not make sense. Examining Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL ) stock, Thomas Niel writes that it’s best to stay on the sidelines . Until investors get more insight into a true economic recovery, he argues that a bailout isn’t enough to make DAL stock attractive here. Gilead Sciences Is Climbing on Clinical Trial News [Friday, April 17, 11:00 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) is up 8.4% in intraday trading, climbing high on hopes its remdesivir will treat the novel coronavirus . On Thursday, Stat’s Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper shared news that has investors — and the general public — breathing a sigh of relief. A video from the University of Chicago Medicine, one of the clinical trial sites for remdesivir, indicates that patients are responding positively to the drug . Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist at the hospital, shared that patients were receiving daily infusions of remdesivir. The trial recruited 125 patients, 113 had a severe form of the disease. Mullane said that “most” of the patients had already been discharged, while two had died. While Mullane and her peers at the hospital insist it’s too early to draw conclusions, this is big news for many. Until now, there has been limited insight on the drug’s safety and efficacy. A study funded and designed by Gilead revealed positive but inconclusive results. Two clinical trials in China were suspended earlier this week due to a lack of eligible patients. That means the stakes are increasingly high for U.S.-based clinical trials. And the investment thesis here is simple. Good news for remdesivir is good news for GILD stock. InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango has long been bullish on the treatment, writing back in February that Gilead’s remdesivir is the treatment most likely to work at scale . He says that makes GILD a “safe stock” to buy on this coronavirus dip. From Lango: “A lot of biotech companies have rushed to develop a Covid-19 vaccine or treatment. Many believe they have done so, and are now putting their solutions through various trials. But, of all those potential vaccines and treatments, Gilead’s anti-viral drug, remdesivir, is widely considered to be the most likely one to pass trials and actually work, at scale, in fighting the coronavirus.” Stocks Open Higher on Hope for a Coronavirus Cure [Friday, April 17, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Whew. There’s finally some good news taking stocks higher Friday morning. Investors learned that one Chicago hospital is seeing patients respond positively to Gilead Science’s (NASDAQ: GILD ) remdesivir for the novel coronavirus. As this is the first official clinical trial to report results, the news has GILD stock up about 10% in pre-market trading. But it’s also moving the major indices higher. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all are starting Friday in the green. The S&P 500 opened higher by 2.18% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 2.56% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 1.59% Goldman Sachs: It’s Time to Sell Apple Stock [Friday, April 17, 9:12 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) stock is up approximately 7% over the last five trading days, and it’s outperforming the S&P 500 for the year. But analysts at Goldman Sachs aren’t seeing any reason to be bullish. In fact, the firm downgraded shares from “neutral” to “sell” and lowered its price target to $233. AAPL stock is set to open April 17 near $284 per share. According to Goldman Sachs, as the economy continues to struggle, it’s likely demand for new iPhones will be low. Many analysts entered 2020 bullish on the name because of its upcoming 5G iPhone. However, analyst Rod Hall says there is some reason to worry Apple might delay that launch. From Goldman Sachs , via CNBC (subscription required): “At this point we have selected a cautious scenario for our central case but we note that COVID-19 is unlike any recession seen in modern times in the severity of the initial downturn with an unpredictable shape to the recovery. … Limited global travel at this crucial point in Apple’s 2020 iPhone final engineering and production process could result in a delayed launch this year.” IAC’s Barry Diller Says Ad Revenue Will Tumble [Thursday, April 16, 4:38 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Earlier updates in Mission Control have covered “seismic” declines in advertising spending, as The New York Times reported that even giant companies like Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) were puling back on ads. Today, IAC’s (NASDAQ: IAC ) Barry Diller went on CNBC , sharing his predictions for the digital ad world. As InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell reported in his daily column , Diller’s predictions are concerning. Diller is calling for ad revenue to tumble , as companies cut back spending. For instance, he points to Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE ), which spent $5 billion last year on advertising. In 2020, it will spend less than $1 billion. Kenwell does note that Expedia is a tricky example, as the travel space has been one of the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus. Regardless, companies that are dependent on ad revenue could continue to struggle as the “ripple” effect picks up speed. Stocks Close Higher on Thursday as the Bad News Grows [Thursday, April 16, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Retail sales are dropping, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits is rising. Many investors feel stuck in a loop — what is really driving day-to-day action in stock prices? Thursday saw more bad news hit the market, but thanks to a few outperforming tech names, the major indices closed the day higher. As investors wait to digest President Donald Trump’s plans to reopen the economy, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are all in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 0.57% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 0.12% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 1.66% It’s All About Earnings Expectations [Thursday, April 16, 3:45 p.m.] Contributed by John Jagerson and Wade Hansen Why is the market starting to bounce now? If traders were so concerned about the U.S. economy last month that they sent the S&P 500 into bear market territory, what on earth could they be seeing that would make them start buying stocks this month? It appears traders believe the economic contraction is going to be relatively short lived. Although as our Strategic Trader subscribers know, it’s likely to get a bit worse before it gets better. According to FactSet, traders are anticipating a 10% decline in earnings for the S&P 500 for the first quarter of 2020. These are the numbers we’re starting to see right now. As bad as that may seem, traders are thinking it’s going to get even worse. They are expecting an earnings decline of 20% for the S&P 500 in the second quarter. After that, however, the outlook starts to brighten. Traders are expecting a smaller 8.5% earnings decline in the third quarter and a minuscule decline of 0.9% in the fourth quarter. If that’s the case — if traders believe the economy is going to rebound and earnings declines are going to stabilize — it’s not hard to see why traders are buying stocks right now. They’re just doing what they’ve always done: looking ahead and trying to buy stocks before the good news hits. How Is Germany Reopening the Economy? [Thursday, April 16, 3:40 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Germany has recently been lauded as one of the top governments handling the novel coronavirus , along with Taiwan, South Korea and Iceland. And now, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, parts of the German economy will begin reopening as soon as April 20. How? As CNBC reports , Merkel and her advisors weighed the lack of a vaccine for the virus against the current success of social distancing protocols and the nation’s economic needs. She says: “We don’t have a lot of leeway, we have to remain focused and continue. Our consultations therefore decided that we cannot get ahead of ourselves. We have to understand that we must live the virus so long as there’s no medicine or vaccine.” On April 20, some small businesses will be allowed to reopen. Since March 16, only those businesses deemed “essential” have been in operation. Here are some more details of the nation’s planned reopening timeline: Schools will begin reopening May 4. Large gatherings are banned through Aug. 31 and religious gatherings are banned indefinitely. Restaurants will continue to offer delivery and take-out, as opposed to dine-in services. Companies are encouraged to continue working from home. Germans are encouraged to wear masks in public and continue proper hygiene protocols. As President Donald Trump is weighing reopening the U.S. economy, it’s important to look at what other nations are doing. Like InvestorPlace.com General Manager Andrew Taylor wrote yesterday, antibody testing is certain to be a key part of this reopening. Investors should take note. In a Sign of Struggle, Neiman Marcus Skips Bond Payment [Thursday, April 16, 3:10 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor We’ve written recently about the likelihood that many American retailers will not survive the coronavirus meltdown unscathed. Add Neiman Marcus to the list of teetering retailers. According to a letter released today , the luxury retailer has skipped a bond payment, and according to Reuters the company may be preparing for bankruptcy. Neiman Marcus is a privately held company, so its financial position isn’t an issue for the average investor. That said, it’s illustrative of a wave of bankruptcies and closings we can all expect in the coming weeks. Louis Navellier, working with his research staff at InvestorPlace , has developed a list of seven retail stocks investors should avoid right now. You may be surprised by some of the names on his list. At the same time, some retailers will prevail. Muslim Farooque recently uncovered three retailers he thinks are a “buy” for a prolonged coronavirus market. Barclays: Amazon Stock Is One of Today’s Smartest Bets [Thursday, April 16, 2:20 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) stock is up almost 30% in 2020, a year where a massive selloff still has the major indices sporting double-digit losses. But analysts at Barclays are still bullish on Amazon. According to the note, Barclays likes that Amazon is a top play in e-commerce, gaming (through Twitch and upcoming releases), groceries and cloud services. Amazon’s Whole Foods, once an underperforming segment of the company, is now outperforming with its grocery delivery service. Analysts have a $2,500 price target on the stock, which currently trades hands for close to $2,394. That’s still 4% of upside. From the note , via CNBC (subscription required): “Shares always feel a bit crowded, but in the current environment, we’d rather own AMZN than just about anything else.” Investors Fled Mutual Funds and ETFs in March [Thursday, April 16, 2:05 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds — along with the fund families behind them — fell victim to the pandemic-induced fear driving the market. As fear and volatility sparked in March, investors left these funds for “safe havens” like money market funds . And according to Morningstar , this exodus of $326 billion, roughly 1.7% of the industry’s assets, set a record. This outflow topped October 2008, when 1.5% of fund assets disappeared. From the Morningstar report, via Institutional Investor : “Money market funds benefited from investors’ fear. The perceived safe havens — and often places to park the cash swept out of brokerage accounts or tied to hedge fund activity — gathered a record $685 billion in March.” For individual investors, why does this matter? Morningstar took a deeper diver at the relationship between fund flows and performance in 2015 (subscription required). And in one report, examining one of Pimco’s legal disclosures , it is clear that redemptions “may cause funds to make investment decisions at inopportune times or prices or miss attractive investment opportunities.” Morningstar reported that as stock and bond prices broadly fell in March, bond funds and actively managed stock funds were the biggest victims. Money market funds, a type of mutual fund that is highly liquid — holding cash and cash equivalents — promise investors a combination of high liquidity and low risk. It’s clear that as investors contemplated further exiting the market, these funds seemed like the safest bet. As the Institutional Investor’s Christine Idzelis reflects on this report, she writes that Fidelity Investments and Pimco were among the hardest hit of the fund families . Fidelity Investments saw $39 billion of redemptions, representing 2.3% of its net assets. Vanguard Group saw $37 billion of redemptions, representing 0.7% of its net assets. Pimco saw $27 billion of redemptions, representing 6.7% of its net assets. American Funds saw $16 billion of redemptions, representing less than 1% of its net assets. Acknowledging that March saw record outflows, it’s important for individual investors to be cautious, particularly with the hardest hit of the fund families. Watch for increased transaction costs and altered fund performance moving forward. Cryptocurrencies Are a Bright Spot in a Tough Market [Thursday, April 16, 1:15 p.m.] Contributed by Nicholas Stern Cryptocurrencies have shined in the markets in recent weeks as investors pile into assets that can benefit from the massive amounts of stimulus being introduced around the world. Institutional and accredited investors piled over $1 billion into the world’s largest bitcoin investment trust, Grayscale, over the last year. Just over half of that came in the past three months. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCMKTS: GBTC ) led the investment demand, with inflows of $388.9 million , the largest capital raise the firm’s seen in a single quarter. Investments into the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (OTCMKTS: ETHE ) climbed 2.5x from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020. Bitcoin has increased an impressive 57% from its year-to-date low reached on March 12. Of course, bitcoin is not the only crypto rebounding sharply as of late. The basket of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies known as the CIX100 has greatly outperformed the broader market in 2020. The CIX100 is up about 2%, compared to the 19% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the 14% fall in the S&P 500 . As governments pump money into economies to help offset the effects of the coronavirus, traditional currencies become less valuable. It’s simple supply and demand. But bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies are immune from this supply and demand manipulation, making them a very interesting currency hedge right now. What’s more, we’re about to witness a catalyst to higher prices coming in mid-May. That’s when bitcoin’s “halvening” is set to take place. The halvening is a plan written into bitcoin’s software protocol to issue fewer new coins roughly every four years. InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall has noted that if demand increases or even just stays steady, the “supply shock” will set the cryptocurrency market on fire. Further, most investors don’t realize how much more profitable past halvenings were for altcoins — or alternatives to bitcoin. Indeed, one of Matt’s altcoin recommendations has soared past bitcoin this year. Check out Matt’s system for identifying the best performers and the six altcoin recommendations in his Ultimate Crypto portfolio . Alphabet Plans to Slow Hiring Amid the Pandemic [Thursday, April 16, 11:45 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) executives had been rather quiet about the novel coronavirus. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), one of its peers in the Big Tech world, was among the first companies to withdraw guidance and warn of the outbreak’s effects on business. But Alphabet’s silence changed Wednesday, when a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai leaked. According to the memo, Alphabet will slow hiring in 2020 — after bringing on 20,000 new employees in 2019. Pichai also said the company will “recalibrate” investments in data centers, travel and non-essential marketing. From the memo, via MarketWatch : “We believe now is the time to significantly slow down the pace of hiring, while maintaining momentum in a small number of strategic areas where users and businesses rely on Google for ongoing support, and where our growth is critical to their success.” Shares of Google stock are still up for the day, around 0.6%. Coronavirus Crisis Is Accelerating Healthcare Trends [Thursday, April 16, 10:15 a.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall has noted several times that, although the broader market is down, several trends that will dominate the 2020s are being pushed forward at an accelerated pace. Two stocks Matt has identified in healthcare reached new highs yesterday, even when the market was down more than 2%. Teladoc (NYSE: TDOC ) is the leader in America’s growing telehealth industry, and has been one of Matt’s favorite stocks for years. In the future, long waits at doctor’s offices will be a thing of the past as patients will be able to reach out via telehealth platforms for quicker, safer visits. About 75% of health systems currently offer or plan to offer telehealth services, and as more people become comfortable with this new approach the numbers for TDOC will only continue to grow . Catasys (NASDAQ: CATS ) leverages artificial intelligence to help transform the healthcare industry. CATS targets the health and well-being of chronic disease patients using artificial intelligence-enabled technology. Its PRE (Predict-Recommend-Engage) platform lowers costs for health insurers and other third-party payors in treating patients with behavioral and chronic health issues. It’s an extremely valuable service for the company’s clients, which pay 4.5x more for these patients than for those without behavioral health conditions. Matt recommended a new stock just yesterday in his Early Stage Investor service that uses AI technology to help pharma and biotech firms discover drugs quicker and cheaper. To find out more about that new pick, click here . Stock Market Opens Higher Thursday [Thursday, April 16, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith For some reason — unclear to many — the stock market opened higher on Thursday. Americans continue to lose their jobs at an unprecedented rate, wiping out all gains since the Great Recession. An update on retail sales, reports from the Federal Reserve and predictions from the International Monetary this week have all been grim. Perhaps investors are optimistically awaiting President Donald Trump’s announcement later today on reopening guidelines . Despite the gloom, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all opened in the green on Thursday. The S&P 500 opened higher by 0.58% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 0.13% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.95% Americans File 5.2 Million More Jobless Claims [Thursday, April 16, 9:10 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday morning that another 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the week ending April 11. This morning’s figure is down 1.4 million from last week’s reading, but it is still higher than consensus estimates for 5 million. Since the novel coronavirus began eliminating jobs, over 22 million Americans have filed for such benefits. According to CNBC , the pandemic has essentially wiped out all of the jobs added to the economy since the Great Recession. From Peter Boockvar , chief investment officer at the Bleakley Group: “As we fully know the current state of the labor market with mass waves of layoffs, the key question turns to how many of these people will be rehired when the economy starts to reopen. We can assume it will take a long time for that to happen but hopefully we’re getting closer to at least getting started.” Burton Malkiel Is Buying High-Yield Stocks Instead of Bonds [Thursday, April 16, 8:50 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor I love Burton Malkiel. In fact, my introduction to stocks and investing came when my older brother said, “read it!” as he handed me Malkiel’s book A Random Walk Down Wall Street . I was probably 16, and I was hooked. Barron’s Leslie P. Norton scored an insightful interview with the investing legend, who, along with Vanguard’s Jack Bogle, is widely credited with bringing about the rise of passive index investing. True to form, Malkiel discusses the role of passive investing in the interview, along with his views on the potential for dangerous inflation caused by the Federal Reserve’s recent activities, why he is attracted right now to investments in emerging markets and investing in private companies. Surprisingly, this passive investor who has spent a career guiding investors to index funds, also admitted that he used the market downturn to purchase some individuals stocks. He views investments in dividends payers AT&T (NYSE: T ), Verizon (NYSE: VZ ), Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK ) and International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM ) as safe alternatives to holdings bonds in this market. InvestorPlace Contributor Josh Enomoto included two of those same companies in his own piece 9 Robust Stocks to Buy to Survive a Bear Market . You won’t hear specific stock picks from a committed index investor like Malkiel very often. Take heed. J.C. Penney May Be But the First Retailer to Fall [Thursday, April 16, 8:40 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Few industries will be crushed as quickly and completely by the novel coronavirus as retail. As we discussed in Mission Control a week ago, retailers with weak balance sheets and feeble internet sales will drop like flies in the coming weeks. The first to drop may well be J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP ). Yesterday, the company announced that it was not going to make a $12 million interest payment, but instead has entered a 30-day grace period “in order to evaluate certain strategic alternatives, none of which have been implemented at this time.” According to CNBC , the retailer has been in talks with lenders since last year to strengthen its balance sheet. Does anyone want to take bets on whether those talks will go more smoothly now that the nation is in quarantine? InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango believes that J.C. Penney stock is headed to $0 . It may be the first major American retailer killed by the coronavirus, but it will hardly be the last. Louis Navellier, working with his research staff at InvestorPlace , has developed a list of seven retail stocks investors should avoid right now. You may be surprised by some of the names on his list: Gap (NYSE: GPS ) Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS ) Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN ) Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao Grupo Pao de Acucar (NYSE: CBD ) Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA ) Tapestry (NYSE: TPR ) Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA ) Follow Insider Buying to Find Strong Companies [Wednesday, April 15, 4:50 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor I love to watch what companies have insiders purchasing shares on the open market because I think it’s a strong indication of future strength. That’s always true, but never more so than at a time like this when the market’s in turmoil and uncertainty prevails. Such “insider” transactions — which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires to be reported publicly within 48 hours if they are completed by a director, senior officer or any person or entity that beneficially owns more than 10% of a company’s voting shares — are a wonderful lens into which companies have the confidence of their insiders. Think about it for a minute. There are lots of reasons an insider might sell shares, so I don’t find it terribly valuable to look at insider stock sales. But stock purchases by insiders are an entirely different matter. If an insider is willing to put up money to buy a company’s stock, it’s a fair bet that he thinks the price will go up. After all, it’s safe to assume that directors, management and major shareholders know more about the direction of a company than does the general investing public. If those people are buying shares of a firm, it’s worth your attention. Plenty of publications offer insight into recent insider transactions. One free tool, which I find useful and easy to use, is insider-monitor.com . InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango found 7 Stocks Insiders Are Buying Big Amid the Market Panic in an article published late last month. Those seven stocks — and any others with meaningful volumes of insider volume — are worth a look. In fact, if you’re brave enough, you may even want to look at Carnival (NYSE: CCL ). Just last week, a board member spent $10 million to purchase 1.25 million shares of the troubled cruise company’s stock. That’s a pretty strong vote of confidence from someone on the inside. Business Leaders to Trump: Testing Is the Answer [Wednesday, April 15, 4:37 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Today marked the first meeting of President Donald Trump’s task force to reopen the economy , a collection of executives, economists, scholars and industry leaders that the White House pulled together to provide guidance on the reopening of the American economy after the coronavirus shutdown. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal , during the first of today’s four such meetings, business executives urged Trump to dramatically increase coronavirus testing. Doing so, the executives counseled, would be necessary to convince the public to return to work. There’s little doubt that testing matters. Today, business leaders announced to the president — and the world — that widespread testing is essential to the reopening of our economy. Investors would be wise to keep a close eye on testing availability and metrics as we all look to understand when America will go back to work. Abbott Laboratories Climbs Higher on New Antibody Test [Wednesday, April 15, 4:31 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In his daily column examining what’s moving in the stock market today, Bret Kenwell highlights another victory against the novel coronavirus . This morning, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT ) announced its third test for Covid-19. This one is a laboratory-based antibody blood test that can tell if someone has been previously infected. From CEO Robert Ford, via the company’s press release : “We continue to contribute in a significant and meaningful way by providing new solutions across our diagnostics testing platforms. I’m extremely proud of the many Abbott people who are working around the clock to get as many tests as we can to healthcare workers and patients.” Abbott Laboratories hopes to screen 20 million people by June. ABT stock closed higher on the news Wednesday by 2%. Stocks Close Down Wednesday on Economic Reports [Wednesday, April 15, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On Wednesday, investors learned that retail sales plunged in March, and many fear worse numbers are ahead for April. Additionally, the market appears to be pricing in estimates for tomorrow’s jobless report. Analysts expect tomorrow’s figure, for the week ending April 11, to bring the total to 20 million. To be fair, stocks climbed slightly higher over the course of the day, after opening down about 2%. But the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite still ended the day deep in the red. The S&P 500 closed lower by 2.19% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 1.85% The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 1.44% Do Office REITs Face Increased Post-Pandemic Risk? [Wednesday, April 15, 3:10 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On Tuesday, Rani Molla — a senior data reporter for Recode — wrote that “this is the end of the office as we know it.” On one level, this means that office layouts will change. She writes that the end of the “open” office floor plan is almost guaranteed, as companies opt for touch-less doors and more square footage. But on another level, demand for office space could drop forever . Businesses forced to embrace remote work are now finding some success with video conferencing options. Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM ), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) and RingCentral (NYSE: RNG ), are seeing increases in users. Chances are that a combination of convenience and a lasting fear of the pandemic will create more permanent remote positions. As Molla writes, it’s too early to tell what will happen to office space demand. Yes, there will be fewer employees returning to work after a wave of layoffs. But companies that survive will also want more space, demanding larger or renovated offices. For investors, this means it’s time to take a look at real estate investment trusts . For many, REITs were long a safe bet. They provided steady payouts , and underlying real estate asset values seemed locked in place. That’s all changing now. One Seeking Alpha piece is quick to warn that travel and entertainment REITs are likely to suffer long-term impacts from the coronavirus. But the author isn’t as quick to condemn office REITs, recommending Kilroy Realty (NYSE: KRC ) as a long-term holding. And in late March, InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier rounded up seven REITs he sees as capable of beating inflation . The lone office REIT on his broad list, Armada Hoffler Properties (NYSE: AHH ), still earns his “buy” rating. So does that mean everything is all rosy for office REITs? It’s perhaps too early to tell. Start by taking a good look at your REIT holdings. Do they have solid histories of high occupancy? Are they exposed to long-term lease agreements? For worried investors, an easy step is to cut out the riskiest of office holdings — those that specialize in coworking spaces. As Americans gain a new appreciation for hygiene, shared desks just won’t have the same appeal in a post-pandemic world. Fed’s Mary Daly: A V-Shaped Recovery Is Unlikely [Wednesday, April 15, 2:05 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In an interview with The Wall Street Journal , Mary Daly, the president of the Federal Reserve’s San Francisco bank, pushed back on the notion of a V-shaped recovery. She says that it will take a long time for the U.S. to return to positive growth — perhaps we will see gradually positive growth in 2021. Many Americans are hopeful that a quick end to the novel coronavirus will lead to a quick rebound, but Daly says that’s not the case. She’s worried about how long it will take to lift government-imposed restrictions and “spin” the economy back up. From Daly, via The Wall Street Journal : “I don’t expect a sharp V-shaped recovery, I expect something more like negative quarters of growth throughout 2020, and then a gradual return to positive growth in 2021. … You would expect the economy not to regain its full strength right away.” Fintech Companies Enter the Small Business Loan Game [Wednesday, April 15, 1:50 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Financial technology, or fintech, companies have long been working to disrupt the traditional banking industry. They’ve embraced making easy payments from smartphones and supporting small businesses. And now, they’re getting in the game alongside big banks as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. Applicants to the PPP, a $350 billion loan program for small businesses and a portion of the CARES Act, can receive 2.5 times their average monthly payroll. The program is designed to keep small businesses, many of which are shuttered due to the novel coronavirus, from going under. Initially, big banks were leading the lending charge. But fintech players argued they were better equipped to offer loans, and provided a more convenient experience to small businesses. As of Friday, three major fintech companies are now in the lending game . PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL ), Square (NYSE: SQ ) and Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU ) all received approval from the Small Business Administration to participate in the PPP . It’s important to note that while PYPL, SQ and INTU stock are not in the green for the year, they’re all vastly outperforming the S&P 500 . And as InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto writes, these fintech companies are now more relevant because of the pandemic. He’s particularly bullish on SQ stock , writing that the economic devastation will invoke American sympathy toward small businesses, which are Square’s primary customers. Additionally, he thinks Square’s solutions provide a much-needed edge in troubling times. Is Money Losing Meaning? [Wednesday, April 15, 1:24 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith If you seek out investing humor, you’ve probably seen internet memes decrying Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s superhero-esque ability to print money. At the heart of the joking is the truth that the Fed has embarked on unprecedented bond buying, in efforts to prevent a financial crisis. And while the whims of chat rooms are not necessarily an investment thesis, Jared Dillian, an investment strategist and the author of Street Freak , writes that he too is worried that money is losing its meaning. Why? In efforts to do “whatever it takes” the Fed and other government agencies are spending trillions of dollars. Since the 2008 financial crisis, Bloomberg’s M2 index shows that the aggregate money supply for 12 major economies has doubled. To Dillian, this, and historic moves to prevent a recession, are signs that money has lost its value. As he writes, the three functions of currency are as a unit of account, a medium of exchange and a store of value. So what happens when currency fails to retain a consistent value over time? Dillian writes : “Nobody really knows how this is going to turn out. In smaller economies, runaway government spending has resulted in hyperinflation and social unrest, such as well-documented cases in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Many think that wouldn’t be possible in the U.S. given the dollar’s role as the world’s primary reserve currency. Perhaps, but it’s not one of those questions we’d really want to experiment with.” Avoid These 3 Stocks as Millennials Lose Buying Power [Wednesday, April 15, 1:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In a Mission Control update last week, I reflected on a report from Vice . Anna Almendrala wrote that 31% of survey respondents age 18 to 34 had lost their jobs as the novel coronavirus continues to shut down the economy. This week, InvestorPlace’s Chris Markoch took a deeper look at what that means for investors. He recommends avoiding stocks beloved by millennials, as that generation is losing significant purchasing power. He writes that up until now, the youngest members of the millennial generation were watching the economy recover, and were getting to participate in an historic bull market. Anticipating major changes for this generation, he recommends avoiding these stocks : TripAdvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP ) Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB ) Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Gilead Stock Is Falling Wednesday on China News [Wednesday, April 15, 12:10 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Wednesday is bringing both good and bad news for Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ), but the bad news is winning. GILD stock is down 4% in intraday trading. Let’s get the bad news out of the way. Gilead’s remdesivir is considered by many to be the lead candidate in treating the novel coronavirus. That’s why investors have been waiting with bated breath for results from its clinical trials in China. Earlier results, from studies Gilead funded in the United States, were positive but inconclusive. On Wednesday, China suspended those two trials, citing a lack of patients . To be fair, as even Wuhan, the origin of the outbreak, begins to reopen, there just might not be enough sick adults left. FiercePharma’s Angus Liu wrote a few weeks ago that Gilead faces tough competition for eligible patients in China as the outbreak there clears up. But RBC analyst Brian Abrahams is interpreting the suspended trials another way. He thinks Chinese researchers had inconclusive preliminary results , as 237 patients were enrolled. But in the U.S. two-third of patients who received remdesivir showed improvement . Now let’s move on to the good news. As Axios reported earlier this week, Gilead filed for trademark protections on remdesivir’s packaging. Bob Herman wrote that the move is a sign Gilead is confident about the drug’s efficacy. Perhaps it’s a coin toss. InvestorPlace’s Dana Blankenhorn, after taking everything in, thinks there’s too much financial and political risk associated with GILD stock. He’s recommending investors stay away . Technology Stocks Will Accelerate After the Pandemic [Wednesday, April 15, 11:16 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall has dubbed this decade the Roaring 2020s. Why? He’s confident that certain trends in tech are going to take off, making investors lots of money along the way . Now, with a pandemic raging, making lots of money on anything seems a little far-fetched. But McCall is watching tech trends unfold, and he likes what he sees. Some industries, he writes, will not recover well after the pandemic. But movie theaters, which are now suffering amid widespread closures, were already a dying business. On the other hand, next-generation healthcare is accelerating as scientists race to find a cure for the novel coronavirus. That’s why McCall is still bullish on tech, and the trends he sees growing even in this chaos. One stock he’s watching is BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BTAI ). It’s a biotech firm that uses artificial intelligence to create new drugs — and it’s up 56% in 2020. Before the pandemic, companies like BioXcel were fringe ideas. After the pandemic, they’ll be leading the charge. You don’t want to miss out . Read more of McCall’s thoughts on post-pandemic tech trends here . IEA Predicts Massive Drop in Oil Demand [Wednesday, April 15, 11:00 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Oil can’t seem to catch a break in 2020. This weekend OPEC and its allies met and in an historic move, slashed global oil production by 10 billion barrels a day. But according to the International Energy Agency, the big picture is still bleak. The IEA publishes a highly watched monthly report, examining details of the oil market. In today’s release, the agency predicted that demand for oil in April would drop by 29 million barrels a day. That means that production-cutting measures might not be enough to balance supply and demand for crude. From Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director : “When we look back at 2020, we may see it was the worst year in the history of oil markets and the second quarter may have been the worst of the lot. In that quarter, April may have been the worst month. It may go down as ‘Black April’ in the history of the oil industry.” As David Hodari wrote for The Wall Street Journal , one issue of concern for investors is the stockpiling of crude and refined products. Many have already expressed worries that as demand continues to drop there simply won’t be enough storage space. Unfortunately, the IEA isn’t denying that is a plausible fear. For InvestorPlace’s Ian Cooper, these concerns — particularly worries over storage facilities — are more than enough reason to simply stay away from oil stocks . Airline Stocks Stall Out Despite New Aid Details [Wednesday, April 15, 10:30 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Investors have long been speculating on the specific aid major airlines will receive. But after Tuesday, there’s no more need for speculation. Working with the U.S. Department of Treasury, Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL ), American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL ), JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU ) and Southwest (NYSE: LUV ) reached a deal. American will receive $5.8 billion in assistance through the CARES Act. The total breaks down to a $4.1 billion grant and a $1.7 billion low-interest loan. Southwest will receive $3.2 billion, which includes $2.3 billion in payroll support and approximately $1 billion in a low-interest loan. Delta will receive $5.4 billion. Part of this total is a $1.6 billion, unsecured loan. Delta also will give the government warrants to acquire 1% of the company at $23.39 a share. JetBlue will receive $935.8 million, approximately $251 million of which is a loan. So, the airlines are finally getting their bailout . What does this mean for investors? InvestorPlace’s Nicolas Chahine maintains that DAL stock is a buy . In his mind, it’s fallen too far, and especially with government help, will head back up. After looking at LUV stock, Chris Lau had a similar take. He argues that Southwest Airlines is trading at prices too cheap to ignore. Lau concludes that cost-cutting measures and government support will successfully cushion the downturn in the industry. Next steps: There are other airlines yet to meet with the Treasury Department, so don’t tune out. Plus, keep an eye on the airline names. Although in pre-market trading many of the airline stocks were higher, movement in the broader market is dragging them down Wednesday. Stocks Open Lower Wednesday by 2% [Wednesday, April 15, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After Tuesday’s rally, stock futures turned and headed deep into the red. Wednesday’s news that retail sales dropped 8.7% in March didn’t help things, either. There’s simply too much for investors to digest. President Donald Trump is suspending funding to the World Health Organization. Daily information about new cases, deaths and hospitalizations in New York has the market on edge. And earnings season is proving just how hard the first quarter already was. On that note, the major indices are suffering Wednesday morning. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all opened in the red. The S&P 500 opened lower by 2.24% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 2.2% The Nasdaq Composite opened lower by 1.88% Banks Are Not the Place to Be [Wednesday, April 15, 8:56 a.m.] Contributed by Neil George The S&P 500 is off to a good start this week. First-quarter earnings reports are beginning to roll out, and there is some risk-off sentiment in the market with stock buyers leading for the time being. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) kicked off earnings season yesterday, and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ) report today. With all of the terrible volatility, trading desk and capital markets revenues got a bump, but the big news is the amount of loan loss provisions that are being announced. Source: Chart by Bloomberg The KBW Bank Index was down on Tuesday, and it is easy to see why. Banks have plenty of consumer and business loans that are already in jeopardy, and according to some statements and actions by JPM and WFC, this condition will be getting worse in the current quarter. Meanwhile, with interest rates on the floor in the United States, net interest margin (NIM) — which is the difference between what banks pay for money and what they earn — is being squeezed thin. Then, regulatory costs (on top of costs incurred during the lockdown with remote working) should also drive up efficiency ratios, which measures how much it costs to earn each dollar. That means banks are a less-than-stellar source for operating profits. Only energy stocks are next to banks in terms of challenges right now. The sectors that are showing better signs are technology and healthcare, followed by consumer stocks, real estate and utilities. And the best of that bunch can be found in the model portfolios of Profitable Investing . Stocks Close Higher Tuesday by More Than 2% [Tuesday, April 14, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the worst may be over in his state. Other governors, along with President Donald Trump’s team, are working on plans to reopen the economy. And earnings season kicked off today, as big bank stocks led the way. As is the new usual, there were a lot of conflicting headlines in the stock market today. Despite that, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all closed in the green. Is this a continuation of last week’s rally? The S&P 500 closed higher by 3.05% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 2.4% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 3.95% Check Your Bond Holdings for Business Travel Risk [Tuesday, April 14, 3:40 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A lot of our work on InvestorPlace.com focuses on individual stocks and exchange-traded funds, but chances are you also hold some municipal bonds in your portfolio. As the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the economy, it’s time to check your bond portfolio to make sure you aren’t susceptible to this one risk. In new reporting from the The New York Times , Joe Gose highlighted one serious risk that investors who hold municipal bonds may be facing . Many cities use bonds to fund the construction of luxurious hotels and convention sites for business travel. New sites tend to attract more conventions. And as demand for business travel to a certain city spikes, those municipal bond holdings pay off. But as Gose writes, new convention sites will likely sit empty for months to come. Some, still under construction, are now in limbo. And after the pandemic, how long will it take for demand to rebound? Per the New York Times article: “The problem is cropping up across the nation. Many cities fully or partly finance the construction and operation of convention hotels to compete for events, often by using bonds backed by the hotel’s income, as well as revenue from hospitality and tourism taxes. Noting the collapse in conferences and forecasting a U.S. recession, S&P Global Ratings recently warned that it could lower the ratings of bonds supporting existing convention hotels in Denver and Austin, Texas. It also downgraded the rating of bonds backing Baltimore’s convention hotel.” So, what are you to do? It’s true that you won’t have perfect information to act on. But you should still think about how much of the revenue for the municipality whose bonds you hold comes from travel. If it’s a high percentage, consider selling that bond. You’d be safer moving your money into other investments without that risk. Are Some Companies Too Connected to Fail? [Tuesday, April 14, 3:08 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Want some more déjà vu from the 2008 financial crisis? Well, the hot-button issue of “too big to fail” is making a resurgence. At the time, people argued that some companies were simply too big. If they failed, the ripple effect on the economy would be devastating, and therefore these companies should be first in line to receive assistance. Others argued that if a big company couldn’t survive, it wasn’t the government’s job to save it. Now, Peter R. Orszag, the chief executive officer of financial advisory at Lazard (NYSE: LAZ ), is arguing that some companies are too connected to fail. As the novel coronavirus spreads, Orszag writes that in order to prevent a wave of bankruptcies, the government should provide liquidity to companies most likely to cause a ripple effect. This proposal is one of four policy options Orszag identifies : Governments can boost companies’ cash flow by increasing demand and providing additional income to displaced workers. Governments can allow bankruptcies to happen, and allow companies to operate under bankruptcy. Policy makers can work to prevent bankruptcies in companies that garner the most sympathy — like mom-and-pop businesses. Governments can target companies deemed too connected to fail, using network science to determine levels of connectivity. Why Are Our Grocery Store Shelves Still Empty? [Tuesday, April 14, 2:40 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Just yesterday, InvestorPlace Web Editor Nick Clarkson reported that Smithfield Foods was closing a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Workers were testing positive for the novel coronavirus, and the state wants it temporarily shuttered. But CEO Kenneth Sullivan is worried. The plant accounts for 4%-5% of the nation’s pork production, and he says he’s deeply worried about the supply chain. Others are still insisting that there’s no aggregate shortages of any food or retail product. But then, why are grocery store shelves around the country still empty? And where can you find toilet paper? On Tuesday, Laura Reiley reported for The Washington Post that a variety of factors are behind these shortages. Here’s her takeaway : The U.S. food distribution system is struggling to adapt to closed restaurants. Now, it’s taking time to switch from bulk deliveries to individual-use grocery items. Consumer trends are making individual items hard to come by with little notice (like this week’s rampant hair dye buying ). Efforts to protect workers are delaying certain parts of the distribution process. For instance, reduced store hours are adding in some distribution complications. So what does this mean for investors? Grocery demand is still high, and Americans are getting an unprecedented amount of their food from stores. Reiley, through experts she interviewed, also makes the case that business models are changing. Grocery stores that previously attracted customers with a wide variety of goods might switch to offering larger quantities of fewer goods. The Federal Reserve Was Ready for a Pandemic [Tuesday, April 14, 2:16 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A quick glance at any news outlet will tell you that many Americans are not happy with the nation’s response to the novel coronavirus. And Josh Barro, a columnist for the New York Magazine , isn’t disputing their reasons. However, he is arguing that of any government body, the Federal Reserve was well prepared for such a situation , and in his opinion, the central bank’s reaction has been spot on. No, the Fed isn’t developing a vaccine and it ultimately can’t cure the novel coronavirus. But it did learn from the 2008 financial crisis, and it’s already applying those lessons now. As we have reported in Mission Control, the Fed is taking an unprecedented role in preventing a financial crisis. It is partnering with the U.S. Department of Treasury to buy corporate and municipal debt — even junk-rated corporate debt. As Barro writes, other agencies, like the IRS and Small Business Administration, have been slower to act. However, he acknowledges that unlike the Fed, these agencies are mostly learning on the fly, taking big moves to send direct checks to Americans and lend to small businesses around the country. And in this love letter to the Fed, Barro is hopeful that slower-to-respond agencies can benefit from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s decisive action. He writes: “After this acute crisis is over, policy-makers should consider what we learned and what infrastructure we need to stand up our economic-response programs much more quickly if we have to do this again. We’ve already seen the benefit of that at the central bank.” For investors, Powell has risen to the status of a movie hero. Don’t take your eyes off the Fed until after this crisis is long over. You won’t want to miss whatever happens next. Big Banks Fall on Troubling Earnings Reports [Tuesday, April 14, 1:52 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith First-quarter earnings season kicked off Tuesday morning, and there’s a lot for investors to digest. As usual, big banks led the way. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) reported earnings before market open. And both banks had some unfortunate revenue numbers. JPMorgan earned $2.9 billion, down 69% year-over-year, on revenue of $28.3 billion. It missed analyst expectations on its net income and revenue figures. Wells Fargo suffered the same fate, reporting earnings of $653 million, down 89% year-over-year, on revenue of $17.7 billion. That revenue figure missed expectations by $1.7 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal , the reports indicated something even more important . A recession is ahead. For starters, both banks are setting aside money in case loans start to go bad. One shocking illustration of what lies ahead can be found in mortgage payments. Wells Fargo representatives said that consumers had already deferred over a million payments, mostly on mortgages and auto loans. And that math checks out. In a Mortgage Bankers Association release from Monday, reports show that mortgage loans in forbearance — a state where payments are postponed but interest still accrues — jumped to 3.7% for the week ending April 5 . That’s up from just 0.25% as of March 2. Big banks have big jobs ahead of them. Consumer spending is dropping, yet the biggest financial institutions are doing more work, supporting small businesses and bracing for a recession. With this in mind, InvestorPlace’s Ian Bezek writes that investors should be carefully watching these earnings reports to find trading opportunities . Regardless of the outcome, there’s sure to be lots of information to digest and interpret. Besides JPM and WFC, he’s watching Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ), M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB ), BOK Financial (NASDAQ: BOKF ), Bank OZK (NASDAQ: OZK ) and First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC ). WFC and JPM stock are down 4.5% and 3.8%, respectively, in intraday trading. The Short Squeeze Is Over — Watch for Consolidation [Tuesday, April 14, 1:13 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Last week’s rally in the S&P 500 drew a lot of attention, and for good reason. It eclipsed all other rallies over the last four decades . But movement this week in the major indices is also important, and according to Bloomberg’s Luke Kawa, it’s pretty troubling . As Kawa writes, last week’s rally particularly lifted beaten-down stocks. Names that looked to be at death’s door soared 25%. But this week, that momentum is gone. The S&P 500 closed down on Monday, although in intraday trading the index is up 2.8% today. To Kawa and a host of analysts, that means it’s time for the market to start consolidating. Why? Last week saw something called a short squeeze in negative momentum. Essentially, heavily shorted stocks moved higher, forcing short sellers to close out to their positions. When those sellers close their positions, it sends the beaten-down stocks even higher. But that action seems to have ended on Monday. As Kawa writes: “There were signs Monday that the trade — a short squeeze in negative momentum, to use its quantitative definition — had run its course, and with it, perhaps, the market’s newfound buoyancy. Stocks in the group fell 2.9% today, trailing their counterparts on the long side of the momentum factor by the most in a month.” Now, some analysts are saying that this pattern means the next three months will be rather ugly. The market will consolidate and these beaten-down names will underperform. Dennis DeBusschere, Evercore ISI’s head of portfolio strategy, favors one strategy here in particular. Evercore’s strategy: Sell an upside call spread in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY ). Selling $280 strike calls that expire in May while buying the $290 strike (with the same expiry) generates a net credit of $5.20. This move should be profitable as long as the SPY gains less than 2.5% by the date of expiration. Pharma Giants Team Up in Coronavirus Vaccine Race [Tuesday, April 14, 12:45 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith It’s not every day that two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies team up to develop a vaccine that likely won’t lead to any meaningful profits. But that’s exactly what GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK ) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY ) are doing. Despite the oddity, GSK and SNY stock are both up about 3% in intraday trading. Sanofi had previously announced plans to work on a vaccine independently, basing its treatment off of its recombinant DNA platform (which it already uses in an influenza vaccine). GlaxoSmithKline, which did not have its own vaccine plans, will add adjuvant technology to make the vaccine more potent. Another positive — the joint collaboration is already speeding up the timeline. Representatives from both companies said today that initial clinical tests could begin in the second half of 2020. By the end of 2021, the pair could complete the necessary development to make a vaccine available en masse. And as BioPharma Dive’s Ned Pagliarulo writes, the nature of the pandemic is changing much of what we know about drug development. He writes : “Typically, vaccines are the product of years of development, emerging for widespread use only after clinical tests in thousands of patients prove their ability to protect against infection and, most importantly, their safety in healthy individuals. The urgency of the coronavirus pandemic, which has sickened nearly 2 million people globally through April 13, has pushed drugmakers to move faster than they have previously.” Investors are rewarding Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline for their altruistic partnership. Look for similar news to boost other pharma stocks. Pandemic Delays Major Alphabet-Oracle Decision [Tuesday, April 14, 12:15 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith One Tuesday, investors learned of yet another way the novel coronavirus was changing life. Just a few weeks ago, InvestorPlace’s Dana Blankenhorn wrote about Oracle’s (NYSE: ORCL ) big battle against open-source software . In a move sure to set precedent for the entire tech sector, Oracle took Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) to court. Why? Oracle believes that application program interfaces (APIs) — essentially interfaces between common software programs — are protected by copyright. This would set in stone a new understanding of how intellectual property intersects with the web. And in Blankenhorn’s opinion, even if Oracle wins the battle (it has President Donald Trump’s backing), it will lose the war. Open-source software just simply is the future. OK, so how does this relate to global pandemic? Well, the U.S. Supreme Court was set to hear Oracle vs. Google on March 24. Obviously, that didn’t happen. And although the Supreme Court announced it would take on a list of cases for teleconference deliberations, Oracle’s case didn’t make the cut. Yes, it will still be heard. But as Axios’ Scott Rosenberg writes, a decision likely won’t come until the court’s fall term . For investors that were eagerly waiting for the decision — which will have an impact on several other tech names — that catalyst is now pushed back by about six months. Jim Lowell Wants Investors to Understand Portfolio Risk [Tuesday, April 14, 10:57 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Last week, InvestorPlace analyst Jim Lowell sat down with Forbes to discuss one important thing . After watching investors react to the market selloff, he’s worried that many aren’t taking into consideration their risk tolerance and portfolio allocation . What does this mean? He thinks that some investors are acting out of panic, making rash decisions to sell without truly evaluating their portfolios. So, if you can’t sleep at night, what should you do? First, ask yourself if your goals have changed. Then, ask yourself if your current income needs have changed. If you answer “no” to both questions, chances are you’re better off going back to bed and waiting for the market to calm down. Once things return to normal, you can take a look again at your portfolio with a clear head and make smarter decisions. And trust me on one thing. Lowell has the background to justify his opinions. He and fellow advisor Dan Wiener help investors make smarter decisions with their money through their money-management firm and through their mutual fund newsletters: Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors , Fidelity Investor and Fidelity Sector Investor . Read more about Lowell’s conversation with Forbes here . Smithfield Closure Highlights Supply Chain Risks [Tuesday, April 14, 10:18 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Yesterday, InvestorPlace Web Editor Nick Clarkson reported on a troubling development in the U.S. supply chain. After several employees at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota plant fell ill from the novel coronavirus, Smithfield Foods closed the site indefinitely. That one plant represents 5% of the country’s pork production . “The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” CEO Kenneth Sullivan said. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers. These farmers have nowhere to send their animals.” Up until now, many have been reassured by the sky-high demand for grocery items. The problem wasn’t that the supply was gone, just that stores couldn’t get shelves stocked fast enough. But what happens if any more of the meat supply goes under? As Bloomberg’s Isis Almeida and Matt Day write, the situation is tricky. Meat factory workers are likely at increased risk for Covid-19, invoking images of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle . But if the factories aren’t staffed, where does the food come from? Factories around the U.S. are increasing safety and cleaning measures, but workers are still getting sick. It’s clear investors should keep watch on other major food suppliers. From Almeida and Day : “If more cases mount and an increasing number of plants are forced to idle, it’s difficult to say what the tipping point will be in terms of supply shortfalls.” Stocks Open Higher Tuesday as Earnings Season Starts [Tuesday, April 14, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Stocks are off to a solid start on Tuesday as the first wave of companies releases first-quarter earnings reports. On top of that, we’re continuing to hear that the viral curve is flattening in the hardest-hit cities. Regardless of the reason for the optimism, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are staunchly in the green this morning. The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.95% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.77% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 1.86% IMF Predicts Worst Recession Since the Great Depression [Tuesday, April 14, 9:23 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The International Monetary Fund’s newest world economic outlook has one scary message. The coming recession will rival — if not surpass — the Great Depression. Gita Gopinath, the director of research for the IMF, declares this recession the Great Lockdown. And by her calculations, the Great Lockdown has already passed the 2008 financial crisis in terms of severity. Here’s what else she predicts , as reported by Axios : Global GDP will lose a cumulative $9 trillion. GDP growth in “advanced” economies will be -6.1%. Over 170 countries will see income per capita shrink. However, as long as the pandemic fades by the end of 2020, Gopinath predicts 2021 will be a lot better. The IMF is calling for global growth in 2021 to rebound to 5.8%. She notes that this is only a “partial” recovery, as economic activity will likely not reach previously forecast levels even in 2021. E-Commerce Giant Amazon Goes on Major Hiring Spree [Monday, April 13, 4:50 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith At InvestorPlace , our analysts and contributors are all looking for long-term plays that will survive the novel coronavirus and keep growing in the years to come. And in his daily column, InvestorPlace’s Bret Kenwell highlighted that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) has what it takes to keep winning long after the pandemic. Not that long ago, the e-commerce giant announced it was hiring 100,000 more workers to keep up with increased demand. On Monday, Amazon announced it was hiring yet another 75,000 . Plus, it’s setting aside $500 million for wage increases, up from the $350 million it had previously earmarked. While companies around the world are furloughing or laying off staff, it’s remarkable that Amazon is adding almost 200,000 workers to its fold. As e-commerce continues to grow in popularity, AMZN stock is an equity you’ll never want to forget. Stocks Close Lower Monday on Coronavirus Chaos [Monday, April 13, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith President Donald Trump is at odds with Dr. Anthony Fauci , the nation’s top infectious disease expert. Nations around the world are expanding lockdowns. OPEC and its allies finally agreed to production cuts, but oil producers are still suffering. And many U.S. officials are calling for a reopening of the economy in just a few short weeks. With all of that news, it’s no wonder that investors couldn’t take all of the major indices higher today. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday in the red. In the final minutes of trading, the Nasdaq Composite reversed, gaining 0.48% on the day. The S&P 500 closed lower by 1.01% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 1.37% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 0.48% Apple and Alphabet Embrace Pandemic Tracking Tools [Monday, April 13, 3:36 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) have long led tech trends. But with a global pandemic raging, the two companies are now partnering on what could be life-saving technology. The duo announced they are working on an opt-in contract-tracing tool, which will use Bluetooth technology to track the spread of the novel coronavirus. Yes, such technology could limit the spread and help promote intervention for those who are potentially infected. But others are worried about the privacy and surveillance concerns such tech brings. So, how does this work? Essentially, users will opt in to this tracking. As they travel about, devices, like iPhones, will anonymously exchange data. Vox’s Adam Clark Estes and Shirin Ghaffary have a great example . Alice and Bill are two strangers. They meet and have a brief conversation, and while they talk their devices anonymously connect. When Bill later learns he has the coronavirus and inputs that information into an app, Alice’s device will notify her that she has been exposed. The writers are also quick to clarify that this tracing is complicated, and requires a “complex marriage of technology and design.” But if it works, it could significantly impact the course of the pandemic. While there are still a lot of unknowns, one thing is clear. Big tech companies are still calling the shots. 12 Strong Stocks That Held Up Well During the March Crisis … and Can Keep Outperforming [Monday, April 13, 3:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Not many stocks are shining in 2020, but Barron’s found a short list of some hot names. These stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 by at least 13 percentage points. Plus, Wall Street expects each of these 12 companies to grow earnings over the next five years. The one caveat — valuation matters. Barron’s excluded companies with price-earnings ratios above 25, ruling out Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ), among others. Here are the 12 names Barron’s is watching now : Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM ) Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET ) Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE: COG ) Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS ) Dollar General (NYSE: DG ) Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ ) Newmont (NYSE: NEM ) Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL ) Steris (NYSE: STE ) Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX ) Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) Production Cuts Won’t Immediately Save Oil Stocks [Monday, April 13, 2:45 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On Sunday, after several delays, OPEC and its allies finalized production cuts. Now, 23 countries will collectively cut almost 10 billion barrels a day from global markets. While such an agreement was what many investors were rooting for, Monday isn’t seeing the payoff from that decision. Perhaps, as The Wall Street Journal’s Ryan Dezember and Vipal Monga write, that’s because there is no real easy mechanism to cut production in the U.S. Instead, U.S. producers are self-limiting, especially as low crude oil prices destroy their businesses. In Fort Worth, Texas, Texland Petroleum is shutting over 1,000 oil wells. The company has now applied for a loan to keep its employees on payroll. For investors, the gloomy reality may be that the production cut isn’t the catalyst the oil market needed. InvestorPlace’s Ian Cooper thinks exactly that, cautioning investors to stay away from Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) and its peers. Cooper is particularly worried about a lack of storage facilities for oil , writing that the oversupply could drive prices to $10 per barrel. In intraday trading, West Texas Intermediate is at $22.86 and Brent, the international benchmark, is at $32.14. Credit Suisse Releases List of Top Growth Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Long Term [Monday, April 13, 2:22 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Credit Suisse analysts are working to find the silver lining in 2020’s historic market rout. According to the team, investors can see hope in GARP stocks. Standing for “growth at a reasonable price,” these stocks are plays on discounted value. Credit Suisse looked for companies with top-line growth potential, consistent track records and reasonable valuations. Here are 12 stocks Credit Suisse says investors should be buying for the long term (subscription required): AMN Healthcare (NYSE: AMN ) Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO ) Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX ) Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ ) eHealth (NASDAQ: EHTH ) Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS ) Five Below (NASDAQ: FIVE ) FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC ) IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO ) Ping Identity (NYSE: PING ) Switch (NYSE: SWCH ) Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX ) New Data on Remdesivir Holds Potential for Gilead Stock [Monday, April 13, 2:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As Barron’s reporter Josh Nathan-Kazis writes , new data on Gilead Sciences’ (NASDAQ: GILD ) remdesivir is positive, but inconclusive. For starters, the data come from hospitalized patients using remdesivir — a failed Ebola treatment re-purposed for the novel coronavirus — on a compassionate-use basis. There is no control group receiving a placebo. Additionally, the paper, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine , was funded and partially written by Gilead. But it is still positive. Investigators reported clinical improvement in 68% of the patients who received remdesivir. Of the 53 patients included, 25 have already been discharged from the hospital. What does this mean for investors? Proper data out of controlled trials in China could be a huge catalyst for GILD stock. It’s likely that results from those trials will be released this week. And as InvestorPlace’s Larry Ramer wrote, any good news for remdesivir is good news for GILD stock . From Ramer: “… I believe that remdesivir can meaningfully move the needle for Gilead from a financial standpoint. Gilead said it would provide remdesivir for free for 140,000 patients. But I’m not worried about that. In the coming quarters, given that 1 million people have already tested positive for the coronavirus, the drug will be lucrative for the company. To conclude, I recommend buying GILD stock now.” Here’s What the Future Looks Like: Alphabet’s Drone Delivery Business Is Starting to Boom [Monday, April 13, 1:40 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Public health experts have warned Americans to limit grocery store shopping, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking shoppers to wear DIY masks when possible. In response, many are turning to grocery delivery services like Instacart . But something a little more futuristic is also taking shape, courtesy of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ). According to a report from The Verge’s Jon Porter, Alphabet’s Wing is picking up speed — 65 miles per hour to be exact. Wing’s drones are becoming increasingly popular, as shoppers choose to limit human contact. In test locations, including Virginia, Wing’s drones now drop off goods from local shops . In Australia, the company is adding partnerships with grocery stores to make sure consumers get their bread and milk. For now, Wing is the only drone delivery business available to the general public in North America. Tech competitor Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) may not be that far behind, talking up plans for its Prime Air service. And delivery companies are looking into this technology as well. These drone delivery services look to be winners in the pandemic, and they sure do give us a glimpse of the future. Will You Get a $1,200 Stimulus Check? [Monday, April 13, 1:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As Americans begin to receive their stimulus checks — part of the $2 trillion CARES Act — it’s important to know whether or not you qualify for a direct payment. The floated amount is $1,200 per individual, but not everyone will receive a check. According to Forbes senior contributor Zack Friedman, there are three ways to automatically qualify : You are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who filed federal income taxes for 2018 or 2019. However, you must meet certain income thresholds to qualify. You receive Social Security retirement, disability or survivor benefits. You receive Railroad Retirement benefits. One of the first ways to know you will not get a payment is if your income crosses the threshold. Single filers can’t make more than $99,000 and joint filers (without children) can’t make more than $198,000. However, other Americans will not be receiving checks. For example, many college students — and even some graduates — will not qualify. For more, here’s a list of other groups that the stimulus leaves out . Morgan Stanley: Coasts Could See Virus Peak in 3 to 5 Days [Monday, April 13, 12:40 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith When will the economy reopen? When will the pandemic ease? And what will be the lasting impact on business in the United States? These questions are at the heart of Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Harrison’s last report. One of the key takeaways from his report is that he believes U.S. coastal areas, like New York, will see the virus peak in the next three to five days. This is particularly important as states like New York and New Jersey have been hit hard by the novel coronavirus . Harrison additionally sees the rest of the U.S. hitting the peak of the pandemic in three weeks. With medical advances, like clinical-stage antivirals and widespread testing, new cases should decline sharply by the end of May. However, Harrison isn’t predicting all sunshine and roses. He writes that without a vaccine, many Americans will not immediately be able to return to work. From Harrison, the Morgan Stanley analyst : “Despite the significant concerns we raise about the path to a US recovery, we continue to believe the market is underestimating the impact the drug pipeline can have on the public policy response to the virus. We should stress that investors cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that only a vaccine will provide a true solution to this pandemic.” Investors Should Beware General Electric’s Bond Moves [Monday, April 13, 12:15 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Savvy stock investors pay close attention to what’s happening to the bonds of the companies they’re researching. If you hold General Electric (NYSE: GE ) stock right now, you should pay attention to activities in the conglomerate’s holdings. Over the weekend, General Electric’s credit outlook was lowered from stable to negative by rating agency S&P Global. S&P Global also warned that the company’s BBB+ credit rating could be at risk of a downgrade. Ouch. Then this morning, the company announced that it had made some balance sheet moves that would shift potentially more than $10 billion of corporate bonds due between now and 2024 into longer-term notes. It’s a little bit unclear from the company’s press release precisely how the funds will be sourced and used, but it does appear that the company is using proceeds from the recent sale of an operating division to shore up a weak balance sheet. “With net proceeds of about $20 billion from the sale of BioPharma now in hand, we are taking swift actions to de-risk and de-lever our balance sheet and prudently manage our liquidity amid a challenging external environment,” said CEO Lawrence Culp, in that same murky press release . Perhaps that’s true, and that General Electric is simply shoring up its balance sheet to ride out hard economic times ahead. Nevertheless, this is precisely what InvestorPlace’s Dana Blankenhorn predicted last week when he announced that Investors Don’t Need General Electric Stock . Stock investors beware. Will Disney’s Magic Survive the Pandemic? [Monday, April 13, 12:05 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith When Disney (NYSE: DIS ) CEO Bob Iger stepped down, everything seemed perfectly magical in the kingdom of the mouse. The Marvel and Star Wars franchises are beloved by many, Disney World and Disneyland are top-traveled theme parks and Disney+ was instantly a serious competitor in the streaming world. But not long after Iger’s retirement — and the promotion of Bob Chapek, the head of the parks and cruise businesses — the novel coronavirus struck. Reporting today from The New York Times indicates that Iger didn’t fade away into the night once disaster struck. Instead, media columnist Ben Smith writes that Iger is “reasserting control.” The nature of the pandemic is the perfect storm for Disney. Crowds are dangerous, so its theme parks are shuttered. But that also means movie theaters are closed, and Disney has had to delay the release of several hot films. The one shining segment has been its streaming platform. It’s clear that uncertainty plagues DIS stock. When lockdowns lift, how long will it be until consumers return to theme parks. What sort of safety protocols will be necessary? And will Iger get to retire again at a rosy moment in time? InvestorPlace’s Luke Lango writes that despite the uncertainty, DIS stock is a clear buy. Lango is betting that standout movies in the second half of 2020, combined with a rush of theme park attendees when lockdowns lift, will get things back to normal. Plus, he thinks Disney’s status as a global media icon will help its rebound. From Lango : “Disney stock has been beaten and bruised by the coronavirus pandemic. But, it is looking increasingly likely that the pandemic will pass by the summer. If so, the economy should normalize and rebound in the second-half of 2020. So should Disney’s media, theme parks, and studio businesses. So should DIS stock.” Why Were Stocks Up Last Week While the News Was Grim? [Wednesday, April 13, 11:40 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Sam Ro, the managing editor of Yahoo! Finance , had a very insightful article today in his Morning Brief column that explains why stocks performed so well last week when so much of the news was so terrible. He suggests that there are three things to remember to make sense of last week’s performance: The S&P 500 is still down 18% from its Feb. 19 high. There’s far less uncertainty now than there was several weeks ago as the economy started to shut down. Markets hate uncertainty. The stock market is about the direction of expectations, not necessarily the news of the day. As Ro writes, “So the market may be reflecting expectations that are less dour than they were just a few weeks ago. Maybe the economic contraction won’t be as deep and protracted as previously expected. Maybe the earnings recession won’t be as terrible as expected. And so on.” It’s a short-but-insightful piece that will help you understand what’s going on the markets these days. It’s well worth a read. Yahoo! Finance partners with InvestorPlace.com to republish content. Goldman Sachs Says U.S. Stocks Have Likely Bottomed [Monday, April 13, 11:15 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Citing a massive Federal Reserve stimulus, Goldman Sachs analysts say that U.S. stocks have likely hit the bottom . Strategist David Kostin writes that this unprecedented support from the Fed, along with the $2 trillion CARES Act, is encouraging more investors to embrace a “risk-on” mindset. Also helping the market is the fact that the viral curve continues to flatten. From the strategists’ note: “The Fed and Congress have precluded the prospect of a complete economic collapse. These policy actions mean our previous near-term downside of 2,000 is no longer likely [for the S&P 500 ].” Additionally, Goldman Sachs thinks investors will not fret to much about negative first-quarter results from any one company. Instead, the focus will be 2021 outlooks. Stocks Open Down After Record Week [Monday, April 13, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Stocks are in the red Monday morning after a record week. Last week’s rally in the S&P 500 was its best weekly performance since 1974. But as a new week starts, investors are waiting for more details on how oil production cuts will help and how the novel coronavirus is continuing to affect the U.S. Will the economy reopen in just a few weeks? With so much uncertainty, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite are all down at market open. The S&P 500 opened down 0.56% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 0.57% The Nasdaq Composite opened down 0.32% JPMorgan Names Disney One of Its Top Stock to Buy [Monday, April 13, 9:17 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Boy was last week an interesting one in the markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had one of its best weeks ever. But not all investors are feeling confident, and many are still looking for stocks to help them get through the pandemic in one piece. That’s why CNBC is rounding up top picks from Wall Street’s top analysts (subscription required). As InvestorPlace Web Editor Nick Clarkson reported last week, Disney (NYSE: DIS ) stock was climbing on news that streaming platform Disney+ had reached 50 million paying subscribers. That’s big news — and JPMorgan analysts are liking what they see. The firm’s analysts are giving DIS stock an “overweight” rating, and think that Disney is set to weather the storm. Plus, as Disney+ continues to gain subscribers, streaming revenue should help the company. From JPMorgan analysts: “… We are positive on the continued international rollout of Disney+ which has seen limited delays and we expect the service to benefit from consumers staying at home. We see current valuation as an attractive entry point and reiterate our Overweight rating on Disney due to the unmatched content portfolio, resilience of its brands and long-term growth strategy with the expansion of its DTC offerings.” Other analysts are recommending McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD ), Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX ), DexCom (NASDAQ: DXCM ), Marten Transport (NASDAQ: MRTN ). Buy These 5 Stocks When the Economy Recovers [Thursday, April 9, 5:12 p.m.] Contributed by John Kilhefner Add Goldman Sachs to the list of optimistic investors and to the list of skeptics. CNBC published Goldman’s list ( subscription required ), which features two baskets of stock picks — one for if the widespread closures are extended, and another for if the virus is contained. The former list features stocks that will outperform even if America remains closed for business longer than expected. The latter list is a bucket of stocks that will rebound in short order once the economy stabilizes. InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango, focused solely on Goldman’s economic recovery basket, wrote a story that covers each one of GS’ picks . For each pick, Lango includes the GS case for buying, and includes his outlook on the stock: “Goldman Sachs likes Caterpillar’s 4.3% dividend yield. They also believe that rising technology content in industrial and manufacturing equipment creates multi-year revenue tailwinds for Caterpillar’s business,” writes Lango. His own take on Caterpillar expands on Goldman’s bull case: “As goes capital spending, so goes the industrial economy, and so goes Caterpillar’s business. Today, capital spending is depressed because economic activity has come to a standstill. But, companies are sitting on record high cash levels, with borrowing and spending costs as cheap as they’ve been, ever .” Read more of Luke Lango’s take on Goldman Sachs’ basket of coronavirus stock picks here . Don’t Forget: The Market Is Closed Friday, April 10 [Thursday, April 9, 4:58 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Eager traders, be warned. In recognition of the Good Friday holiday, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Exchange will both be closed Friday, April 10. The bond markets, as well as commodities trading for gold and oil futures , will also be closed on Friday. Expect normal trading in the U.S. to resume Monday, April 13. And don’t forget to watch our Mission Control page for updates after the holiday. Burton Malkiel: It’s a Good Time to ‘Stock’ Up [Thursday, April 9, 4:45 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor By any measure, Burton Malkiel is a legend. Best known as the author of the seminal finance book A Random Walk Down Wall Street , he’s also a professor of economics at Princeton University, a director of Vanguard Group and is a leading proponent of the efficient-market hypothesis . Few men garner more respect in finance and investing circles. In a commentary piece in the Wall Street Journal titled, “It’s a Good Time to ‘Stock’ Up,” Malkiel makes the point that e quities have become a good deal . Those are powerful words from a man known for advocating that market timers are foolish and that markets generally behave rationally. In the pages of the WSJ , Malkiel goes so far as to say that, “Today I recommend that investors consider … a program of liquidating a portion of their bond and short-term securities funds and buying equities instead.” Sell bonds and buy stocks? Those are strong words from a legend, indeed. SBUX Joins a Growing List of Companies Cutting Guidance [Thursday, April 9, 4:36 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell Beloved coffee giant Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ) reported preliminary second-quarter earnings per share of 32 cents, missing analysts’ consensus estimate of 39 cents. The decision to pull full-year guidance didn’t help things either. However, reporting from Barron’s highlights that Starbucks is far from alone in this rocky boat. Industrial stalwart General Electric (NYSE: GE ) also withdrew its 2020 guidance and let investors know its first-quarter EPS was likely to come in below estimates. While the list of companies in similar positions feels infinite, a few others that have withdrawn guidance include Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS ), Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG ) and Stitch Fix (NASDAQ: SFIX ). Stocks Close Higher on a String of Positive Headlines [Thursday, April 9, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson left intensive care, and the Federal Reserve expanded its bond-buying program. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, lowered his estimates for the death toll the novel coronavirus will leave in the U.S . With this news in mind, investors had some confidence in their trading on Thursday. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all closed in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 1.45% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 1.22% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 0.77% Wait for Traffic to Rebound to Get Bullish on Retailers [Thursday, April 9, 3:57 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Analysts at UBS are using an interesting metric to evaluate the novel coronavirus. Partnering with GPS maker TomTom (OTCMKTS: TMOAY ), the firm is looking at how the pandemic is affecting traffic congestion. TomTom runs its own Traffic Index , which relies on its user data to map historic and live road congestion around the world. For analysts at UBS, this congestion is also a good gauge of economic activity . As congestion falls, fewer consumers are driving to brick-and-mortar retailers and restaurants. It also means fewer workers are commuting to offices or other places of business. More cars are parked at home, and less money is exchanging hands. As of this writing, roads in Washington, DC earn a 9% congestion rating. The average congestion in 2019 at comparable times was 46%. Although these numbers aren’t shocking, they do matter. As China’s economy reopens, a daily glance at TomTom shows that congestion is returning to normal levels — at least on workdays. But at least an anecdotal level, weekend congestion was still lower than the historical average. That’s not surprising, especially when you factor in an earlier Mission Control update exploring post-pandemic consumer spending in China . While people are back to work, they’re not engaging in in-person shopping and eating out. So, when things do ease up in the U.S. and the economy reopens, consider monitoring this traffic data. A return to historical congestion, especially outside of normal business hours, could be a great bullish indicator. Until then, keep a cautious eye on retailers and restaurants without a solid e-commerce presence. If You’re at Home Wondering What’s Happening… [Thursday, April 9, 3:40 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor InvestorPlace CEO Brian Hunt just recorded an urgent new 3-minute clip (in our empty Baltimore headquarters) about the crisis we’re in … and what he sees coming. He believes that the coronavirus panic has created a handful of extraordinary financial opportunities for 131%, 3,041% or even 6,170% gains. He asked InvestorPlace’s analysts how to capitalize on them … and their No. 1 best move to make right now. Watch his video here . Fuel Demand Crashes to a Multi-Decade Low [Thursday, April 9, 3:27 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The U.S. Energy Information Administration, which tracks weekly energy consumption , reported that Americans used 5.1 million barrels a day of finished motor gasoline each day for the week ending April 3. While 5.1 million gallons may seem like a lot, it’s down 50% from comparable periods in other years. Plus, according to the EIA and reporting from Barron’s , American demand for gasoline has not been lower since 1969 . As a reminder, the American population is now 40% larger than it was then. And jet fuel consumption is dropping to levels from before 1981. At least in the short term, this is bad news for energy stocks. But nothing so far in 2020 has been particularly positive for these battered names. The novel coronavirus is destroying demand, and an ongoing price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia is dropping crude oil prices. While a favorable resolution to the meeting of OPEC nations and their allies today could bring a bounce in oil prices, the demand headwind isn’t going away in the immediate future. So what does this mean for investors? Are all names in the energy space ones to avoid? According to InvestorPlace analyst Neil George , that’s not the case . He’s looking for standout names, particularly companies in the pipeline and infrastructure segments. He believes these companies are less tied to day-to-day price changes and offer more critical services. Plus, their liabilities are just generally lower. As he’s looking to buy energy stocks on the dip, here are four names he’s watching: Viper Energy (NASDAQ: VNOM ) Enterprise Product Partners (NYSE: EPD ) Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE: MMP ) Alerian MLP ETF (NYSEARCA: AMLP ) Oil Prices Flip Flop as OPEC Meeting Drags On [Thursday, April 9, 2:54 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Crude oil prices are having quite the day on Thursday. Earlier reports highlighted that West Texas Intermediate was up 12%. Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude oil, was also up on the day. In a much-awaited virtual meeting of OPEC and its allies, oil-producing nations allegedly agreed to a cut of up to 20 million barrels per day. After weeks of plunging crude prices and tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia, that seemed like great news. But the meeting is dragging on , and details of the cuts remain unclear. How many millions of barrels will each nation cut? How long will the production cuts last? As of this writing, West Texas is down over 8% to $23.07 per barrel. Brent is currently priced at $31.69 per barrel, down 3.5% on the day. Boris Johnson Leaves Intensive Care on Thursday [Thursday, April 9, 2:38 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith When InvestorPlace.com General Manager Andrew Taylor reported that Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom prime minister, had been transported to intensive care at a London hospital, he cautioned that the news would be something investors watched closely. As the first major world leader with a confirmed case of the Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, his health status was driving sentiment. And in a burst of good news Thursday, an official spokesperson announced that Johnson had been released from intensive care as his condition improved. The major indices remain in the green on Thursday afternoon, no doubt bolstered by a rash of positive updates from around the world. Disney Stock Is Up Thursday on Its Streaming Magic [Thursday, April 9, 2:29 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Over the last few weeks of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, investors have been speculating on streaming stocks. They wondered if more time at home would translate to more paying subscribers. And on Thursday, Disney (NYSE: DIS ) answered that big question. In an update on Disney+ late Wednesday, investors learned that the service now has 50 million paying subscribers around the world. And boy, that gave DIS stock a little magic in intraday trading. Shares are now up over 4%. As InvestorPlace Web Editor Nick Clarkson reported, Disney+ is now available in eight European countries and India . The service now has 8 million subscribers in India alone. Will other streaming stocks have a similar fate? Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU ) is up 5.5% as of this writing. Airline Stocks Rally as Trump Weighs Bailout Details [Thursday, April 9, 2:14 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, officials are briefing President Donald Trump on a plan to aid the airline industry , which is eligible for relief as part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package. Airlines were calling for $50 billion in grants and loans, as air travel plummets. Some airlines have already cut operating capacity by 90% for the summer months . While investors know some details of the plan, such as demands for airlines to cap executive pay, suspend buyback programs and cut dividends, there’s a lot that remains unknown. Results from Thursday’s meeting are sure to draw attention. And is it time to buy? InvestorPlace’s Nicolas Chahine wrote yesterday that Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL ) was certainly headed back up, causing him to recommend DAL stock . He said that in an election year, it is unlikely that Trump or any Democrat would let a U.S. airline go under. Other investors aren’t so sure. After early details of the bailout emerged, InvestorPlace’s Todd Shriber said it was time to sell United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL ) on concerns over its allocation of cash . He isn’t the first to trouble over the amount of free cash flow airlines devoted to buybacks over the last decade. Regardless of your feelings on the airline names, keep a watchful eye on the news. In intraday trading Thursday, DAL is up 6.8%. United Airlines stock is up 16.9% and American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL ) stock is up 13.9%. Steven Mnuchin Says Economy Could Reopen in May [Thursday, April 9, 1:51 p.m] Contributed by Sarah Smith This week has been filled with bold economic predictions. Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic advisor, said the economy could reopen in as little as four weeks. Yesterday, a plan concocted by President Donald Trump and his allies hinges on widespread antibody testing to reopen the economy in a similar time frame. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin added himself to that list of soothsayers. Mnuchin said that as early as May, or whenever Trump felt comfortable with the “medical” issues associated with the novel coronavirus, the economy could reopen. From Mnuchin : “[The administration is doing] everything necessary that American companies and American workers can be open for business and that they have the liquidity that they need to operate their business in the interim.” Federal Reserve Embraces Junk Bonds in Bold Move [Thursday, April 9, 1:24 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Earlier this week, InvestorPlace.com General Manager Andrew Taylor wrote that investors were getting bullish as the Federal Reserve began an unprecedented bond-buying spree. At the time, it was focusing on investment-grade corporate debt, and companies with appropriate ratings embraced the challenge. As Axios’ Dion Rabouin reported, those with investment-grade ratings issued $220 billion of new debt in the last two weeks. But on Thursday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell expanded the $2.3 trillion stimulus package, offering investors more insight into his plan. A key takeaway from Thursday’s announcement is that the Fed will begin buying junk-rated debt, too. According to The New York Times , this move far surpasses anything the Fed attempted during the 2008 financial crisis. This move comes after several big investors were pushing for a ratings expansion. Corporate borrowing is expanding, and credit agencies are slashing ratings. And as Quartz reporter John Detrixhe wrote, there’s never a good time for a wave of corporate defaults . Detrixhe is quick to point out that there are moral concerns with the Fed supporting junk-rated bonds — will this decision be interpreted as an endorsement of companies that are simply not viable? But at the same time, he writes that a wave of defaults would mean further lost jobs now, and less jobs for workers to return to after the pandemic. In response to the announcement, exchange-traded funds tracking such bonds jumped. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: HYG ) is up 6.3% and SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: JNK ) is up 6.4% in intraday trading. Legendary Investor Ray Dalio: Get Ready for Major Inflation [Thursday, April 9, 11:18 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Legendary investor Ray Dalio has long been making the argument that cash is trash, sharing his thoughts on the topic months before the current pandemic. But with near-zero interest rates and the Federal Reserve’s new bond-buying program, he’s doubling down. During a question-and-answer session on social media, Dalio said that measures taken to combat a recession will lead to major inflation. For that reason, he warns that a bet on the U.S. dollar is a dangerous one. From Ray Dalio : “I believe that increasingly there will be questions by bondholders who are receiving negative real and nominal interest rates, while there is a lot of printing of money, about whether the debt assets they are holding are good storeholds of wealth. I believe that cash, which is non-interest-bearing money, will not be the safest asset to hold.” ‘Millennial’ Stocks Are Hurting as Young People Lose Jobs [Thursday, April 9, 11:12 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith When news of the novel coronavirus first began circulating, young people largely felt safe. The earliest reports promised that only the elderly and otherwise immunocompromised were at risk. Others promised that for young, healthy Americans, it would be no worse than the common flu. And while reports of terrifying symptoms — like lung failure in young patients — are increasing, perhaps the biggest danger to young people comes from the economy. As Vice reported earlier this week, 31% of survey respondents age 18 to 34 had lost their jobs. That compares to 22% of respondents age 35 to 49 and 15% of those 50 to 64. From a long-term standpoint, these survey results pose major concerns. As Vice reports, young people who entered the job market during the recession of the early 1980s had higher mortality. Although much is uncertain about the current pandemic, similar concerns hold. And right before this pandemic was an historic bull market. Before it became clear how many young people would lose their jobs, there was a sense that buying on the dip would allow even the youngest workers a chance to get in to the market at good prices. But as people lose their income, investing becomes less of a priority. With those trends in mind, how are so-called “millennial” stocks doing? Investors had long been rallying behind names set to benefit from the purchasing power of millennials and Generation Z shoppers. In January, InvestorPlace’s Will Ashworth took a look at seven stocks benefiting from “millennial money.” Names on the list, including Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG ) and Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK ) have been hit particularly hard. As the world returns to normal, these companies will be important to watch. Will they see a big rebound in investor interest? Or, will struggling young workers be out of the markets for years to come? Buy Now While There’s Blood in the Streets [Thursday, April 9, 10:40 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall is confident about something that might sound a little harsh. The novel coronavirus crisis will create millionaires. And history backs him up. Just look at Baron Rothschild, who minted the phrase “the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” Rothschild started buying when everyone else was selling during the Battle of Waterloo, and he made a fortune. McCall is using the current volatility — or the blood — to find long-term opportunities. His Crisis and Opportunity portfolio finds stocks that benefit from the volatility and are ideal for long-term investors. Does making a fortune from the comfort of your home sound appealing? Read the rest of McCall’s take on getting into the market now here . Markets Surge Higher on Fed Stimulus Details [Thursday, April 9, 10:20 a.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez Major indices climbed higher at the opening bell Thursday morning as the Federal Reserve released new details outlining the $2.3 trillion stimulus package . According to the report from CNBC , the economic money injection is geared toward bolstering small to mid-sized companies and local governments impacted most by the pandemic. Working through banks, the Fed will offer four-year loans to companies with up to 10,000 employees and will buy municipal bonds from states with the most populated cities and counties. Sentiment seems to be lifting around the globe as reports indicate that strict social distancing measures are working, leading to a slowdown in some of the worlds most ravaged hotspots. Optimism is evident. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has rebounded more than 30% from last month’s lows. Have we seen a market bottom? Only time will tell. Stay tuned into InvestorPlace Mission Control as we continue to keep you up to date on all the latest developments. Fed Updates Send Stocks Higher Thursday Morning [Thursday, April 9, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Each morning this week has been a bit puzzling. What’s sending stocks higher in such a chaotic week? Well, the new figures for unemployment claims came in at 6.6 million, lower than the 7 million many expected. But the Federal Reserve also provided an update to its so-called Main Street Lending Program. It will now work with the U.S. Department of Treasury to scale $75 billion into $600 billion of loans to small and medium-sized businesses. Whatever the reason for optimism, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite opened in the green. The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.20% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.38% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 0.97% Jobless Claims Report Beats Expectations [Thursday, April 9, 8:53 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A Thursday morning release from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that for the second week in a row, over 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits . According to the report, 6.61 million Americans filed for the week ending April 4. After the Department of Labor revised the figure for the week prior, the newest numbers show a slight week-over-week drop in claims. While Americans are still losing their jobs at an unprecedented rate, many analysts were calling for a figure of 7 million or greater . Stock futures began to turn around after the 8:30 a.m. release, perhaps on a sense of optimism from the slight beat. This weekly number is sure to affect trading today, and investors will be watching every week for updates. Apartment Renters Are Starting to Miss Payments [Wednesday, April 8, 4:50 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Earlier this week, InvestorPlace.com General Manager Andrew Taylor detailed how the CARES Act is creating a time bomb in the mortgage world. He wrote that Americans with government-backed mortgages will be able to delay monthly payments with ease, but the bill did not provide any relief for those who hold the loans. Today, reporting from Axios reveals another hole in the housing market. Approximately one-third of all apartment renters failed to make April payments. As Fadel Allassan writes, a collection of federal and local laws should protect many of these renters from eviction. But the problem doesn’t stop there. Just as with the mortgage scenario, the apartment situation could snowball . Unpaid rent could lead to mortgage defaults, “terminating investments in bonds backed by those mortgages.” Additionally, real estate investment trusts that specialize in apartments are struggling. As of April 8, top apartment REITs Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR ) and Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE: MAA ) are down 19% and 16% year-to-date, respectively. Both stocks are up on the day. Federal Reserve Sees 2 Possible Economic Outcomes [Wednesday, April 8, 4:26 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell Today the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its March 15 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. While the general action of the meeting — to slash interest rates to near zero — is not surprising, the minutes do show one key thing . Members of the Federal Reserve see two distinct outcomes of the novel coronavirus. One camp believes that we will see an economic recovery in the second half of 2020. The other camp does not see room for recovery until 2021 . Regardless of which camp is right, the Fed will maintain near-zero interest rates until such a recovery occurs. As the pandemic progresses, it’s safe to say investors are rooting for those in the first camp to win. Stocks Close Higher Wednesday on Pandemic Optimism [Wednesday, April 8, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith By the close of trading Wednesday, many investors would agree that this week feels like a lifetime. Market sentiment surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic is swinging back and forth. In one report, the numbers from New York and Italy look great. In another, things are worsening, and we’re seeing one-day highs in new cases and total deaths. Wednesday is the middle of the week President Donald Trump warned should be one of the worst for those in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, says there is reason for optimism looking ahead . And in unrelated news, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who represented a threat to Wall Street — dropped out of the presidential race. There’s certainly a lot of news out there that’s influencing trading. The stars aligned Wednesday as the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite all closed in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 3.38% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 3.41% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 2.58% Wells Fargo Sees an Unlikely Reprieve [Wednesday, April 8, 3:50 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The world is changing in unforeseen and unprecedented ways. Topics that consumed investors in 2019 or early 2020 now feel irrelevant. And the pandemic is also creating strange opportunities for corporations and consumers alike. In today’s news, scandal-burdened Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) is seeing an unlikely reprieve . After the bank agreed to a $3 billion settlement, the coast was not all clear. The Federal Reserve imposed a $1.95 trillion asset cap, designed to prevent Wells Fargo from growing its balance sheet. But now, in an effort to speed up the small business loan process, the Fed is reversing course. In “narrow” modifications to its restrictions on Wells Fargo, the Fed will now allow the bank more leeway in lending. However, it must return any proceeds to the U.S. Treasury Department or non-profits that serve small businesses. WFC stock is up 4.2% in intraday trading. Although it the news does little to Wells Fargo’s overall story, perhaps it shows that the post-pandemic world will look very different. Investors will have a whole new host of things to worry about, and Wells Fargo’s history of scandals just may not make that list. Pelosi Continues to Push for More Emergency Aid [Wednesday, April 8, 3:31 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith On Tuesday, news broke that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was recommending an additional $1 trillion stimulus package, intended to provide additional unemployment benefits, among other forms of relief. On Wednesday, she joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in pushing for $500 billion in “emergency” aid related to the novel coronavirus. The proposal would provide another $250 billion in small business loans, something President Donald Trump has already expressed his support for. It would also include $100 billion for hospitals and health centers and $150 billion for state and local governments. Lastly, the proposal would provide a 15% increase to the existing maximum for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Pelosi and Schumer clarified that this “emergency” aid would then be followed by a second CARES Act, which would expand on the provisions of the first. Microsoft Stock Is the Real Video Conferencing Winner [Wednesday, April 8, 3:18 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM ) in many ways has been a winner of the novel coronavirus. Out of nowhere, families, school systems and corporations have switched to using its video conferencing platform as the pandemic accelerated remote work and distance learning. But users of Zoom may be some of the losers, according to new reporting from The New York Times . Updates to Mission Control this week have detailed how analysts are turning bearish on ZM stock, thanks to its sky-high valuation. But companies, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX , and school systems are now souring on the platform. Why? The New York Times highlights its privacy and security flaws , including “hijacked” webcams and “Zoombombings” that disrupt sessions. Others have raised concerns about the data the company collects on its users. So, acknowledging that remote work is a major trend, what is an investor to do? ZM stock poses valuation and ethical concerns. Well, InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier is bullish on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) stock. Its Teams and Skype offerings are solid alternatives to Zoom. Plus, Microsoft has more robust security features, which are critical for businesses that may be discussing trade secrets or virtual classrooms of minors. As Navellier writes, treat Zoom’s failings as a big opportunity for Microsoft and MSFT stock . Consider Adding Walmart Stock to Your Grocery List [Wednesday, April 8, 2:54 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith We’ve all seen the viral videos and read the news stories. Americans are hoarding consumer staples, particularly toilet paper and disinfecting products. Grocery shopping, once a tedious errand, is now the focal point of the U.S. economy. And many think grocery store stocks are hot buys right now. Citi analysts are tapping Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) stock, as analyst Paul Lejuez says it’s Walmart’s “time to shine.” He sees at least 15% upside from its current share price. Lejuez is new to covering WMT stock, but he’s maintaining the firm’s “buy” rating and giving shares a $140 price target. From Lejuez, the Citi analyst (subscription required): “This is WMT’s time to shine. When we think about what has been working in general within the U.S. retail landscape (and what will likely continue to work), we would characterize it as online, off-mall, convenience and value. WMT checks all four boxes.” And InvestorPlace.com’s Nicolas Chahine is also adding WMT stock to his grocery list , inspired by the hoarding. Evaluating Walmart on a price-earnings basis, he concludes that it is a relatively cheap grocery name, although he prefers Costco (NASDAQ: COST ) stock. Chahine gives both “buy” recommendations. Antibody Testing Could Help Jump Start the Economy [Wednesday, April 8, 2:38 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Yesterday, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor Larry Kudlow said that the White House could begin reopening the economy in as little as four weeks. As nationwide social distancing extends through April 30, and many states have imposed farther-reaching stay-at-home orders, his announcement drew skepticism. But reports Wednesday shed a little more light on Trump and Kudlow’s plan. Widespread antibody testing, which checks for previous exposure to the novel coronavirus and immunity, could allow Americans to safely return to work. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also expressed interest in making antibody testing available to New Yorkers. Is this feasible? Barron’s reporter Josh Nathan-Kazis writes : “Those tests are just beginning to become available, and while they have been the subject of enormous attention in recent days , scientific questions remain. It isn’t clear what volume of antibodies to the virus that causes Covid-19 need to be present for a person to be immune from future infection, or how long that immunity lasts.” If such testing is available, it could remove some of the fear from reopening the economy. Investors will surely be waiting for further guidance from the White House in the coming days, as pandemic sentiment continues to drive the stock market. How the Coronavirus Is Impacting Stock Prices [Wednesday, April 8, 2:22 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Few publishers marry data and analysis better than Axios . This morning Axios markets editor Dion Rabouin published a quick-but-slick chart that shows the daily value of the S&P 500 , with key developments in the coronavirus outbreak superimposed on the chart. There’s perhaps nothing ground-breaking in the chart, but it’s nonetheless a nice illustration of the way stock markets failed to accurately understand the brewing danger as data about the seriousness of the virus came out of China and from the World Health Organization in the first couple of months of the year. InvestorPlace.com’s own coverage also often failed to understand the gravity of the situation we were facing, though InvestorPlace.com Market Strategist William Roth did warn investors on Jan. 28: “A growing list of Chinese cities are effectively quarantined as officials scramble to limit the spread of the easily transmitted disease. The fear is that global travel bans are sure to follow, further weighing on global economic activity. Moreover, thinking though this as a hypothetical, a global pandemic would leave central bankers — the deus ex machina of this longest-ever bull market in history — powerless to do anything. If only the Federal Reserve could print vaccines, you know? That risks spooking stocks in a way that investors haven’t felt in years. And as a result, many well-known and widely-held stocks are beginning to roll over.” At the time, William Roth warned investors to sell Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) and Disney (NYSE: DIS ). We now know that all were the right call. At the same time, much of the coverage from InvestorPlace.com and other sites remained overly rosy for too long. Hindsight makes for very clear vision, of course. But at the very least, it’s a cautionary tale. The Axios piece is worth a quick read. Pot Usage Hit All-Time ‘Highs’ in March [Wednesday, April 8, 2:12 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Remember when investors loved cannabis stocks? The daily movements in any of Canada’s darlings — think Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB ), Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC ) and Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY ) — made headlines. Companies ousted CEOs, regulatory boards worried about illegal growing and investors rooted for international expansion. But then the pandemic happened. Overnight, cannabis stocks, which had long been struggling, lost relevancy. There are still long-term bulls, like InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall. Many more believe the U.S. is right around the corner from legalizing marijuana at the federal level. Still, ACB stock is not a top priority. But a new report from Cowen analysts could be changing that. According to the report, pot usage hit an all-time high in March, pun fully intended. As more consumers were stuck at home, apparently more adults felt inclined to try a cannabis product. In the most recent survey, 33% of consumers admitted to trying cannabis. The 2019 average for the survey was 12.5% of consumers. While increased use doesn’t guarantee legalization, it shows the addressable market for the major pot companies is increasing. One thing to note is that Cowen analysts warned decreasing job security could see the number drop again as the lockdown drags on. Shares of Aurora Cannabis stock are up 4.2% and shares of CGC are up 1.5%. Tilray is seeing 11.5% gains and Cronos (NASDAQ: CRON ) is up 8.4% in intraday trading. Focus on the ABCs of Investing During This Lockdown [Wednesday, April 8, 1:16 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Surely, you’ve heard that an unprecedented number of Americans are stuck at home with an unusual amount of time on their hands. Some are making bread, others are learning yoga or getting crafty. But for those sitting by the computer, watching portfolios rise and fall with the market, here’s another idea. In an April report from the American Association of Individual Investors, Craig Israelsen writes that adults should use this opportunity to teach their kids and grandkids all about investing . It might not seem all that fun, but it can be oh so rewarding. Israelsen recommends starting with a basic incentive. Show your “students” that getting into the market early makes a massive difference on their retirement income. For example, a 25-year-old worker who begins investing 6% of their $35,000 annual income will have over $500,000 when they hit 65. This assumes that income increases 3% each year and the portfolio earns an average of 6% each year. With the same assumptions, a worker who starts saving at 45 will only have about $187,000 at age 65. That’s a huge difference. From there, get creative. InvestorPlace.com offers a “wealth” of educational resources . Chances are you’ll learn something new yourself. And after days of binge-watching TV, focusing on money-making strategies is sure to boost your spirits. These 15 Dividends Look Very Risky Right Now [Wednesday, April 8, 12:18 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As with any grouping of stocks, some dividend names look particularly well suited to surviving the pandemic-induced crisis. Others don’t. According to analysts from Credit Suisse, companies with dividend yields above 3% and negative cash flows are most at risk. From analyst Michael Lerner (subscription required): “We believe investors should … avoid high dividend payers with stretched balance-sheets, and focus on businesses where dividend payments are sustainable and the icing on the cake of an otherwise strong fundamental story.” Here’s a look at 15 companies Credit Suisse thinks are most at risk of slashing or suspending their dividends. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY ) Carnival (NYSE: CCL ) Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL ) Halliburton (NYSE: HAL ) Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO ) Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI ) Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) PPL (NYSE: PPL ) Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL ) Boeing (NYSE: BA ) CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: CNP ) OGE Energy (NYSE: OGE ) ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP ) Edison International (NYSE: EIX ) Bernie Sanders Drops Out of the Presidential Race [Wednesday, April 8, 11:33 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In news that is sure to hit Democrats around the country, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race . In recent weeks, his performance in primary elections has vastly lagged that of former Vice President Joe Biden. But for many investors, this could add a bit of confidence to trading. Long before the pandemic, Wall Street feared that a Sanders presidency would threaten major industries, like tech, healthcare and defense. Now though, a race between Biden and President Donald Trump poses less threats to existing businesses. Although the election seems far away in a pandemic-focused world, investors are sure to take note of Sanders’ move. Watch the major indices today for any reflection of his decision. The Coronavirus Can’t Stop Biotech Stocks [Wednesday, April 8, 11:05 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall has long been bullish on biotech stocks. Long before the pandemic, he picked Aimmune Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AIMT ) for his entry in InvestorPlace.com’s Best Stocks for 2020 contest . At the time he said that 2020 would be the Year of Biotech. Certainly a lot has changed since then, but many biotech stocks are holding strong. And McCall just wrote that the novel coronavirus is creating big buying opportunities for long-term investors. What is he looking at for evidence? While, so far this year the S&P 500 is down more than 17% while the VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF (NASDAQ: BBH ) is down closer to 5.6%. It’s one of the top-performing sectors right now. From McCall: “These stocks have shown relative strength in the bear market, and the current crisis gives us a glimpse of the innovative breakthroughs coming our way … including efforts to fight the coronavirus.” Read the rest of McCall’s thoughts here . Stocks Open Higher on Wednesday [Wednesday, April 8, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith A choppy day of trading on Tuesday left all of the major indices in the red. Investors are largely relying on updates about the novel coronavirus to determine sentiment. Tuesday morning, things looked OK, and stock futures were up. Tuesday afternoon, investors learned that New York saw its biggest one-day spike in new cases. Updates from key states like New York and the status of the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson will continue to be important. While it’s not clear what news investors are eyeing Wednesday morning, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all opened higher. The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.07% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 1.07% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 1.13% Amazon Won’t Kill American Retail, But the Coronavirus Will [Tuesday, April 7, 4:55 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor For years, people have predicted that internet retailers will kill American retail. According to that particular line of logic, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) was at the front of the pack, pitchfork in hand, aiming to kill brick-and-mortar retailers throughout our land. In fact, the phenomenon was so popular in American culture that it had its own catchy nickname: the “retail apocalypse.” The term retail apocalypse even has its own Wikipedia page , which proclaims that U.S. retailers announced 9,302 store closings last year, a 59% jump from the prior year. Americans are holed up in their homes as we do our best to stay healthy and avoid passing germs. For some people, it’s legally dubious whether we’re even allowed to shop in some stores. For everyone, entering a store may imperil our health . Retail stores will get crushed. By the end of 2020, those figures from last year will look like child’s play. This year will bring a retail apocalypse unlike anything since the Great Depression. Retailers with weak balance sheets and feeble internet sales will drop like flies, and the carnage will start within weeks. Louis Navellier, working with his research staff at InvestorPlace , has developed a list of seven retail stocks investors should avoid right now. You may be surprised by some of the names on the list: Gap (NYSE: GPS ) Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS ) Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN ) Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao Grupo Pao de Acucar (NYSE: CBD ) Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA ) Tapestry (NYSE: TPR ) Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA ) In the end, we were all wrong for years. It won’t be Amazon.com that killed retail. It’ll be the coronavirus. Forewarned is forearmed. Muddy Waters Is Back With Another Short Report [Tuesday, April 7, 4:22 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell In January, notable short seller Muddy Waters printed its allegations against Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ: LK ), and many thought the firm was absolutely bananas at the time. But to the detriment of several investors, Muddy Waters was proven correct last week. A regulatory filing showed that Luckin’s COO, among other key employees, had faked $310 million in sales. That’s a lot for a high-growth company. On Tuesday, Muddy Waters found a new target — iQiyi (NASDAQ: IQ ). Commonly known as the Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ) of China, investors have liked iQiyi for its exposure to the Chinese market and streaming offerings. But similarly, Muddy Waters believes the company is fraudulently reporting its users, among other metrics. MW is short $IQ because we believe it’s a fraud. We assisted @WolfpackReports with comprehensive research into IQ. MW believes that IQ fraudulently and materially overstates its users, revenues, acquisition consideration, and value of its “barter” content. https://t.co/GyNPNjxR7T — MuddyWatersResearch (@muddywatersre) April 7, 2020 Although the stock dropped in intraday trading, shares closed high by more than 3%. Stocks Trim Gains in Tuesday Trading [Tuesday, April 7, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Well, after Monday’s impressive rally and a strong start to trading on Tuesday, stocks are trimming their gains. Many believed that the rally started on news that deaths were decelerating in New York and Italy, and that trend continued into Tuesday morning. But then, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 731 new cases on Tuesday, the state’s largest one-day increase . That wiped a bit of confidence out of the market to say the least. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite ended the day in murky water. The S&P 500 closed lower by 0.18% The Dow Jones Industrial average closed lower by 0.15% The Nasdaq Composite closed lower by 0.33% REITs Are Worth a Look Here [Tuesday, April 7, 3:49 p.m.] Contributed by John Jagerson and Wade Hansen The storage business is said to thrive off the “four Ds:” Divorce, Downsizing, Dislocation and Death. It’s looking like we will see plenty of those during the next few months. We don’t want to minimize the problems in the current economic environment, but we also don’t want to miss a good opportunity to maximize the potential returns in our Strategic Trader portfolio. The average storage company is organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT), which is a special kind of stock that passes along most of its net income to shareholders in the form of ordinary dividends. This makes these stocks attractive during a period of low interest rates like the one we are experiencing right now. Some Auto Insurers Offer Coronavirus Refunds [Tuesday, April 2, 3:38 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith So, as non-essential workers sit at home, what happens to their cars? Yes, there will still be some driving, especially to grocery stores and for other essential errands. But will anyone really be driving enough to warrant their full auto insurance payments? That logic is what has two insurers, Allstate (NYSE: ALL ) and American Family Insurance , refunding payments. As InvestorPlace’s William White reported, Allstate will return $600 million to customers in order to fairly account for decreased travel. American Family Insurance is offering a $50 refund per insured car. As consumers’ pocketbooks run empty, any money back is a small victory. While White says other insurers have yet to hop on the refund bandwagon, it’s likely others could follow suit. Will the Stock Market Rally Be Short-Lived? [Tuesday, April 7, 2:15 p.m.] Contributed by John Kilhefner Stocks have rallied for a third time in four days, with major indices on track for the highest close in nearly a month … but are investors getting ahead of themselves? Over at MarketWatch , Nigam Arora thinks greed is clouding investors’ vision , and that the rally in stocks could be short-lived. Arora’s been right before, noting on Jan. 22 that the novel coronavirus could impact markets: “Investors have said there was no warning of the coronavirus. That’s untrue. On Jan. 22, The Arora Report’s call was that the coronavirus could cause a drop in the market. After finding that investors continued to buy stocks, I wrote on Jan. 30 that arrogance and greed among momentum investors ‘may prove to be dangerous for investors.’ Other than a potential cure, the course of the stock market rally will depend on the behavior of naked investors.” Arora points to the rally in Big Tech as proof positive that investors are letting current optimism cloud their judgment. The buying in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) appears to signal that investors are shrugging off the coronavirus much too early. “Is the stock market getting divorced from reality? There are no vaccines or treatments for the coronavirus. It is true that there is a vaccine for the flu, and Tamiflu helps some people. The coronavirus is much more dangerous than the flu. In spite of massive efforts, there is no cure or vaccine for even the common cold. The HIV cocktail is a great success but it took many years for scientists to develop it. Thus, the stock market is clearly divorced from reality.” Unless a cure is presented, argues Arora, the rally in stocks will be short-lived. What Airbnb’s Story Means for the IPO Market [Tuesday, April 7, 2:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Investors spent much of 2019 waiting for short-term rental company Airbnb to make its public debut. But for one reason or another, its IPO kept getting pushed back. Before the pandemic, one of the most recent concerns was safety. On Halloween, five individuals died at a so-called “party house.” In response, Airbnb set out to make sweeping changes to clear its image (subscription required). But then, the pandemic hit. People stopped traveling, and the company was thrust into its biggest storm yet . A hotly awaited IPO became a nightmare, and some wondered if this was the end. The novel coronavirus certainly brought economic pain to several of the site’s hosts. News on Monday that Airbnb had secured $1 billion in additional funding should help answer some questions. With that money, the short-term rental company is likely to weather the storm, although the impact on the travel and leisure business is likely to be longer term. For investors, it’s one key example of how the IPO market will change moving forward. This once-hot company will have a lot to work through when the storm clears. When it will be ready to take the stage again? Plus, DoorDash , Warner Music Group and Albertsons are other companies facing IPO decisions amidst the volatility. The Coronavirus Is Forcing Drugmakers to Halt Trials [Tuesday, April 7, 1:32 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Biotech stocks have always drawn investors’ interest. They are truly high-risk, high-reward plays that capitalize mostly on new drugs or expanded drug licenses. For clinical-stage companies — those whose pipelines are full of unapproved treatments — a single positive trial result can mean 100%-plus gains. Just look at what happened recently with Immunomedics (NASDAQ: IMMU ). IMMU stock almost doubled on news that trials of its breast cancer drug showed “compelling evidence of efficacy.” Investors who specialize in this space have a few new opportunities driven by the novel coronavirus. Legacy drugmakers are recycling compounds, hoping to find a winner. For instance, Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) is repurposing a failed Ebola treatment, remdesivir. And startup biotech names are busy researching new vaccines, drugs and treatment-related tech. But outside of these one-time opportunities, how is the pandemic impacting biotech stocks? In an interesting report from Biopharma Dive , Ben Fidler and Nami Sumida take a look at clinical trials that the coronavirus is disrupting . Social distancing and stay-at-home orders are keeping employees from being together to run trials. Other companies are pivoting away from, say a cancer treatment, to focus on Covid-19 cures. According to Fidler and Sumida, more than 48 companies have now reported pandemic-related delays. Because these clinical trials are so closely tied to stock-price movement, it’s hard to say what the near term will look like for biotech investors. However, when clinical trials resume, there could be a huge uptick in interest in the space. 7 Digital Ad Stocks to Buy for a Big Rebound [Tuesday, April 7, 12:35 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In a Mission Control update last week, InvestorPlace.com General Manager Andrew Taylor shared how companies were facing a “seismic shift” in ad spending, based on reporting from The New York Times . This week, InvestorPlace’s Luke Lango is ready with another take. Yes, he acknowledges that a decrease in ad spending is not going to be pretty in the second quarter. Investors are right to worry about digital ad stocks, especially in the near term. But Lango says this near-term pain is perfect for long-term investors. Digital ad companies are seeing record-high engagement as more and more consumers are stuck at home, scrolling social media platforms or watching TV. And when economic trends return to normal, Lango thinks this engagement will convert to record-high sales. From Lango: “Long story short, while second-quarter 2020 numbers will be awful in the digital advertising world, second-half 2020 numbers could be quite good. Most digital ad stocks are down about 50% from recent highs. They are priced for bad Q2 numbers. But they are not priced for good second-half numbers.” Here are the seven digital ad stocks he’s recommending you buy right now : Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) Snap (NYSE: SNAP ) Pinterest (NYSE: PINS ) The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD ) Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU ) Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) 3 Retail Stocks That Won’t Stop Growing Any Time Soon [Tuesday, April 7, 11:35 a.m.] Contributed by Christopher Skokna InvestorPlace analyst Eric Fry took a drive this weekend — and in today’s Smart Money , he shared what he saw. “The retail economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic was clear,” he writes. “Strip malls look something like a piano keyboard. Takeout joints and drugstores are as bright and busy as ever … but shoe stores, nail salons and barbershops are shuttered. Malls are closed … and I bet more than a few won’t ever reopen. Grocery stores, on the other hand … well, there’s a reason I’m having mine delivered instead of heading into that mess. Highways and major roads are eerily uncongested, but delivery trucks are clogging side streets.” While it’s clear that the pandemic is causing tectonic shifts for the retail economy, it’s not obvious yet which of those shifts will last after the threat passes. One safe bet, Eric writes, is that retailers and other corporations will further their use of robotics, artificial intelligence and other technologies to automate as much as they can in order to mitigate the risks from the next pandemic. So in today’s Smart Money, Eric reveals three retail stocks that he believes will see their fortunes rise thanks to both the coronavirus present — and their technology-focused future. Click here to see his recommendations . Pelosi Proposes New $1 Trillion Stimulus [Tuesday, April 7, 11:12 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After backing away from a proposed infrastructure plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now calling for an additional $1 trillion stimulus package . Pelosi’s pivot is likely a reflection of last week’s economic reports, which showed 10 million Americans had filed for unemployment benefits in two weeks. Her new plan would provide additional direct payments, resources for food stamps, increased unemployment benefits and payroll relief. One catch is that both the House of Representatives and the Senate will not be back in session until April 20. Additionally, President Donald Trump’s social distancing order is in effect until April 30. However, Pelosi is still determined to see her plan pass by the end of the month. For investors, it will be important to watch how the markets react to these additional measures. Larry Kudlow Says the U.S. Economy Could Reopen Soon [Tuesday, April 7, 10:51 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor had a shocking message Tuesday. He believes the White House could begin urging Americans to reopen the economy in the next four to eight weeks . As models of the novel coronavirus show it continuing to have an impact through the summer — or perhaps even the fall — of 2020, this news comes as a surprise. But the advisor, Larry Kudlow, is confident that the deceleration of deaths in New York is a good sign. A shuttered U.S. economy is causing havoc for businesses of all sizes. Although many are afraid of the pandemic, many Americans too are fearful of long-lasting economic impact. Investors will be watching to see how the White House moves forward on this action item. Exxon Mobil Just Emptied Its Gas Tank [Tuesday, April 7, 10:33 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In many ways, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) just became the newest victim of the oil price war. In case you need a refresher on the basics, demand for oil is practically nonexistent as economies around the world are shuttered. Then, after a nasty spat, Saudi Arabia challenged Russia to a full-blown price war as it flooded the markets with cheap crude. As cheap crude and lowered demand destroys the industry, Exxon Mobil today announced that it would slash its capital spending for 2020 by 30% . Yes, its dividend is safe for now. But that sort of spending cut bodes poorly in a world where many believe oil is yesterday’s news. Earlier this week, InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier summed it up nicely. There’s just not much left in Exxon Mobil’s tank. Even with the possibility of a new oil deal on the table , he doesn’t see much to like. It’s safe to say there’s just too much bad news in this space. Don’t get suckered in by the black gold now. Did We Hit the Bottom? Jeff Saut Thinks So. [Tuesday, April 7, 10:10 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Many folks at InvestorPlace aren’t interesting in calling a bottom — and for good reason. It’s hard to perfectly time it, and investors can miss out on big opportunities waiting for the market to sink lower. With that said, it’s still important to know what others are saying. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” veteran market strategist Jeff Saut said that the market had already found a bottom. That’s right, he thinks the S&P 500 hit a bottom on March 23 and is headed higher. He even thinks that we will see the broad index gain 6% this year from its all-time highs. From Saut (subscription required): “Last week, our models turned positive again and we started to recommit cash. If there is a cure for the virus or a vaccine for the virus, those [S&P 500] lows are not going to be retested.” Stocks Look to Continue Monday’s Big Gains [Tuesday, April 7, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After Monday’s impressive stock market rally, are investors in for a second day of gains? That’s what it looks like as all major indices opened higher on Tuesday by at least 2.5%. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite are certainly starting the day off on the right foot. The S&P 500 opened higher by 3.21% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 3.58% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 2.76% Beware This Ticking Time Bomb in the Mortgage Market [Tuesday, April 7, 9:02 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor There’s a ticking time bomb in the mortgage market, and everyone who owns a home, wants to own a home, cares about housing in America or holds stocks in a wide variety of industries that support home owners should be concerned. According to this article from CNBC , the federal government created the perfect tinderbox for disaster when it quickly pushed through legislation intended to help homeowners who can’t make payments on their mortgages. Under the CARES Act , which intends to limited damages from the coronavirus outbreak, homeowners with government-backed mortgages can delay their monthly mortgage payments with minimal difficulty. As well-meaning as that legislation may have been, apparently it ignored the other side of the equation: Those who hold these loans have to continue servicing them to their bondholders. In other words, no cash will be coming in to the lenders if a homeowner elects to delay his mortgage payments, but cash will still be due to holders of their notes. That’s a recipe for disaster for mortgage holders. This outcome was likely unintended. After all, as legislation gets pushed through and passed into law quickly, many consequences are unintended. In a worst-case scenario, the mortgage market completely seizes up, as lenders will not have cash available for new loans, and may run out of money to service existing mortgages. The list of damaged industries would be a mile long if this happens. On top of that list, of course, would be homebuilders like D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI ), Lennar (NYSE: LEN ) and PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM ); construction materials companies like Vulcan Materials (NYSE: VMC ) and Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE: MLM ); and retailers like Home Depot (NYSE: HD ) and Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW ). Mortgage companies are known to have first-rate lobbying teams in Washington, and it’s reasonable to expect that they’ll quickly lobby Congress to alleviate this pinch-point in the CARES Act. If you hold stocks that might be impacted, pay close attention. It’s possible Congress fails to act, and the mortgage market starts to sputter. Be warned. Consumers Expect Stocks to Be Higher in a Year [Monday, April 6, 4:57 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor File this under, “Things I didn’t expect to see today.” The Federal Reserve Bank of New York conducts a monthly study called the “Survey of Consumer Expectations.” Today the bank released figures for March. Buried in a mountain of interesting data is a real gem. According to that survey, 47.7% of people surveyed predict that U.S. stocks prices will be higher one year from now . That’s up from 42.5% one month earlier, and 40.4% in December. In fact, it’s the highest reading that particular question has seen in its lifetime, which dates back to 2013. Source: Chart courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York There are two distinct ways to interpret this data. One school of thought believes that bear markets can’t end on optimism . Another line of thinking acknowledges that this market dip is different than any other the world has ever seen, and so that the possibility of a V-shaped recovery is much more pronounced than history would indicate. If you remain among the bullish 47.7%, InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango penned an article titled “The Top 15 Stocks to Buy in 2020” that can get you thinking about where to put your money to work. Saudi Investment Sends Cruise Stocks Rocketing [Monday, April 6, 4:41 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell Cruise operators have dominated headlines in the last few weeks, but Monday saw truly newsworthy price action in the industry-leading names . Why? Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is a sovereign-wealth fund , reported an 8.2% stake in Carnival (NYSE: CCL ). Shares of CCL stock skyrocketed, closing 20.3% higher on the day. Peer companies Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL ) and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE: NCLH ) also shot higher in sympathy. RCL stock ended the day up 21.4% and NCLH stock ended the day up 18.3%. Are these gains sustainable? It’s too early to tell, but Monday’s move was a nice treat for investors. The market will certainly keep watching cruise operators to see how the novel coronavirus impacts their business moving forward. The Dow Sees a 1,600 Point Rally on Monday [Monday, April 6, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Wow, is this rally for real? That’s what investors are surely asking themselves on Monday as all major indices closed the day higher by at least 6.5%. Stock futures began the day higher, on reports that deaths in Italy and New York were decelerating. However, President Donald Trump and his advisors are still warning that the coming week will be a tough one. Deaths in the U.S. now top 10,000. But that bad news isn’t shaking the market today. Even word that the United Kingdom’s Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care didn’t hurt the indices in the final minutes of trading. The S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all ended the day deep in the green. The S&P 500 closed higher by 6.95% The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 7.59% The Nasdaq Composite closed higher by 7.33% British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Moved to ICU [Monday, April 6, 3:50 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was admitted today into intensive care at a London Hospital as a result of complications from the novel coronavirus. Johnson’s illness was first announced last week, and he moved into the hospital over the weekend. The move to the intensive care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital occurred around 7:00 p.m. local time. Johnson is the first major world leader confirmed to have contracted the virus. He has maintained a very public persona, and the state of his illness will be closely watched by markets worldwide. ResMed is a Strong, Outperforming Coronavirus Stock [Monday, April 6, 3:43 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier named one stock this weekend that is seriously outperforming the broader market. But what’s even more important is that his pick, ResMed (NYSE: RMD ), has long-term staying power. Yes, ResMed makes ventilators and other devices that are key in fighting the novel coronavirus. But Navellier was recommending RMD stock in his Growth Investor in February, before most Americans even knew what the coronavirus was. Why? Well, 42 million Americans are impacted by sleep-disordered breathing. That’s a huge market. And it isn’t disappearing anytime soon. From Navellier’s most recent update : “The bottom line: RMD is sure to be more in demand during the coronavirus pandemic, but it also has the staying power to continue climbing over the long term. And those are the only stocks I will ever invest in.” For more on ResMed, and other major growth opportunities , read his full briefing here . JPMorgan CEO Says a ‘Bad Recession’ Is Ahead [Monday, April 6, 2:25 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith JPMorgan’s (NYSE: JPM ) CEO Jamie Dimon is calling for a bad recession , but he’s confident his bank, and JPM stock, are in a good place. In his annual letter, which was published today, he wrote that through careful planning, JPMorgan should not need to ease regulations to weather the storm. He even said that GDP could fall as much as 35% — and stay there for the extent of 2020 — before he’d consider slashing the dividend on JPM stock. In that same letter, here’s what Dimon wrote: “Entering into a crisis is not the time to figure out what you want to be. You must already be a well-functioning organization prepared to rapidly mobilize your resources, take your losses and survive another day for the good of all your stakeholders.” With a safe dividend, and a decision to halt the company’s buyback program, investors can find solace in a few things. The current pandemic-driven bear market is not a repeat of the financial crisis. Banks are in a much better position than they were then. InvestorPlace’s Luke Lango is even calling for investors to buy the big bank stocks . And Lango argues that JPM is the most high-quality name in the big bank space. Faizan Farooque feels similarly, saying that Dimon’s leadership alone is a reason to like JPM stock . Dimon has worked hard to make JPMorgan a “port in the storm.” Investors should treat discounted prices in JPM stock — and its big bank brethren — as buying opportunities. What Last Week’s Most Popular Articles and Search Terms Reveal About Our Readers [Monday, April 6, 1:30 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor It can be insightful to know what fellow investors are reading, especially in unsettled and uncertain times. With that in mind, here’s list of the top five most popular articles read last week on InvestorPlace.com : 30 Stocks on a Deathwatch by Josh Enomoto United Got Its Bailout, So Sell UAL Stock While You Still Can by Todd Shriber 7 U.S. Stocks to Buy on Coronavirus Weakness by Luke Lango 10 Stocks to Buy Whose Companies We Can’t Live Without by Will Ashworth At What Point Is Delta Stock a Screaming Buy? by Bret Kenwell Not all of the readers on InvestorPlace.com arrive on our site from a Google search. That said, monitoring organic search queries from Google can provide great insight into what’s top-of-mind for investors. With that in mind, here are the top 10 search queries our articles appeared under last week: ccl stock amazon stock american airlines stock microsoft stock delta stock spy stock lk stock tsla stock uber stock tsla This Pandemic Could Change the Gig Economy Forever [Monday, April 6, 1:04 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Gig economy workers were already at a disadvantage. They missed out on many benefits that workers classified as employees typically received, like health insurance and paid sick leave. The novel coronavirus is only making that disparity worse, and companies like Uber (NYSE: UBER ) are perfect examples. Uber, led by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, has long been fighting attempts by others to change its business model. California’s legislators targeted its contributions to the gig economy, passing a law that would force it to classify its drivers as employees. But now, in the face of the pandemic, Uber is pushing back. Today, InvestorPlace’s Dana Blankenhorn took a closer look at Uber’s business model. He writes that while Khosrowshahi is fighting for drivers to receive the funds they need, he doesn’t want Uber to foot the bill. Uber’s business model, Blankenhorn writes, pushes all the costs onto other parties, freeing up Uber’s cash. While some might see this as clever strategy, Blankenhorn thinks it’s the end of Uber. Or, at least the end of its current business model. Regardless, its ride-hailing business has been hit had. Drivers are dying, and others are desperate, out of work. From Blankenhorn : “I don’t think the last era’s business models, meant to insulate companies from corporate responsibility, are going to play in this new era. I wouldn’t touch Uber stock with a barge pole.” The Coronavirus Has Supercharged the Wealth Gap [Monday, April 6, 12:28 p.m.] Contributed by Christopher Skokna In Saturday’s Smart Money column, InvestorPlace analyst Eric Fry highlighted a coronavirus consequence that not many others are. Over the past decade, in some ways, the generational inequality we call the “wealth gap” had shown signs of reversing. Thanks to changes in the healthcare system, more Americans are insured. As of late last year, wages were growing faster than at any time in the past two decades. And the economy had been adding jobs for more than 100 consecutive months, putting unemployment at record lows. Then along came Covid-19. In a month, the coronavirus wiped out all that progress. U.S. GDP could decline by 14% in the second quarter, according to JPMorgan. The number of jobless claims moved from 228,000 three weeks ago to an astounding 6.65 million last week. That number lifts the two-week tally of lost jobs to nearly 10 million — the biggest jobs crash in recorded history. Eric says he believes that we will beat the coronavirus and the economy will recover, longer term. However, many companies will counteract the risks of the next global pandemic by shifting more of their processes to automation, robots and artificial intelligence, rather than human beings. And that will cause the wealth gap to keep on getting bigger. For Eric’s full report on this phenomenon — and how to protect yourself — click here . Expect REITs to Start Slashing Cash Payouts [Monday, April 6, 11:22 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Real estate investment trusts, commonly known as REITs, are favored by many investors for their reliable cash dividend payout. It’s the proverbial, “My money makes me money” that so many investors seek. According the an insightful article in Barron’s yesterday, REIT investors may be in for quite a shock in the coming weeks and month as the companies halt cash payouts in an attempt to shore up their balance sheets. Instead of paying cash dividends, experts expect many REITs instead to pay their dividends with a mixture of cash and stock. Per that very same Barron’s article: “I have little doubt that the REITs will begin paying dividends largely in the form of their own stock,” says Robert Willens, a tax and accounting expert who runs an eponymous consultancy. “That happened during the previous financial crisis, and it will almost certainly happen again.” If you hold REITs in your portfolio, expect a little less cash to come your way in the coming months. Investors Get Bullish After Unprecedented Fed Bond Buying [Monday, April 6, 11:12 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Any prudent portfolio includes exposure to both stocks and bonds, and investors need to pay attention to both categories of their holdings. With that in mind, make sure that you’re aware of some highly unusual activity in the corporate bond markets. Two weeks ago the Federal Reserve announced an unprecedented plan to buy corporate bonds. That said, the Fed is only buying investment-grade corporate bonds, not higher-yield, lower-quality bonds (the so-called “junk bonds”). Per an informative article from Dion Rabouin at Axios : “Junk bond companies have largely been locked out of issuing new debt, but firms with investment-grade ratings have flooded the market with a record $220 billion of new issuance in the last two weeks as the firms desperately seek cash.” The Fed’s efforts to put money into the economy are being felt already in the corporate bond market. Mike Collins, senior portfolio manager at Prudential’s PGIM Fixed Income, told Axios in that same article that “The Fed came in with its massive bazooka, addressed the liquidity concerns and it’s gone from a buyer’s market to seller’s market.” The Fed’s actions will create winners and losers in the bond market in a way that we’ve never seen before in the United States. Unless you’re super savvy about finding nuggets among high-yield bond offerings, it’s likely safest to just follow the Fed and focus on investment-grade corporate bond offerings . Former Fed Chair Yellen: Q2 GDP Could Decline 30% [Monday, April 6, 11:09 a.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor [Editor’s Note: This Mission Control post has been edited to reflect updated information.] Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, speaking this morning on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” announced that she believes that second-quarter GDP could fall by 30%, and that unemployment is already at 12%-13%. If true, both of those figures are well above many estimates. Per an article published by CNBC , Yellen announced: “If we had a timely unemployment statistic, the unemployment rate probably would be up to 12% or 13% at this point and moving higher.” She also said that gross domestic product is down “at least 30% and I’ve seen far higher numbers.” Although these numbers are in different form from the Great Depression, she says they still resemble a depression. Per the same CNBC article Yellen said: “This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit, and my hope is that we will get back to business as quickly as possible.” One should note that Yellen is no longer at the Fed, and thus may not have access to specialized information at the Fed’s disposal. On the other hand, Yellen has never been known to speak offhandedly, and it’s safe to assume that she knows her words carry great weight. This is a story to continue watching. Pandemic Accelerates Telemedicine Adoption [Monday, April 6, 11:02 a.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez An article in The New York Times notes that physicians around the world are racing to find innovative new ways to safely and effectively treat patients during the novel coronavirus outbreak. And they are rapidly turning to telemedicine. “In a matter of days, a revolution in telemedicine has arrived at the doorsteps of primary care doctors in Europe and the United States. The virtual visits, at first a matter of safety, are now a centerpiece of family doctors’ plans to treat the everyday illnesses and undetected problems that they warn could end up costing additional lives if people do not receive prompt care.” At a time when healthcare systems around the world are stretched thin, and with global health experts searching for solutions to slow the spread of the virus, telemedicine offers tremendous value and massive upside. The broad market selling is creating buying opportunities in investment trends that won’t slow due to the pandemic. In fact, they could even accelerate due to the changing global landscape. Check out Matt McCall’s take on telemedicine in Saturday’s MoneyWire article. Credit Suisse Warns Investors Should ‘Bail’ on Zoom Stock [Monday, April 6, 9:50 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM ) has had quite a run in 2020. Investors were so hot on the name that they were mistakenly buying shares in a different company, Zoom Technologies (OTCMKTS: ZOOM ). Then, users of the work-from-home solution started reporting hijackers or “zoombombers” crashing their calls. A slew of privacy concerns brought increased scrutiny to the name. But zoombombings aside, Credit Suisse analysts say there’s something else not to like about Zoom Video stock. Its valuation. Credit Suisse is downgrading the name to “underperform,” and shares are down 10.5% in early trading. Analysts just simply don’t think shares are worthy of trading at 40 times consensus 2020 revenue. From Credit Suisse analyst Brad Zelnick (subscription required): “We have great appreciation for Zoom’s technology, products, and leadership and see the current crisis accelerating the adoption of video communication, but at 40x CY20 consensus revenue, the current share price embeds significantly greater conversion of free users than our upside model scenario.” Stock Market Opens Higher on Falling Coronavirus Deaths [Monday, April 6, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The sun is shining and the stock market is off to a green start. Good news from New York and Italy — both hit hard by the novel coronavirus — is boosting investors’ confidence. New York reported 594 new deaths on Sunday, down from 630 on Saturday. And Italy also reported the slowest rise of new deaths in two weeks . Many, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are warning that it’s too early to tell if this is the new trend. But investors are rallying the market higher anyway. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite are all sharply up. The S&P 500 opened higher by 3.98% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher by 4.39% The Nasdaq Composite opened higher by 4.65% Tesla Stock Soars on Friday as a Surprise Winner [Friday, April 3, 4:27 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell After a week that saw the Big 3 automakers — General Motors (NYSE: GM ), Ford (NYSE: F ) and Fiat Chrysler (NYSE: FCAU ) — report dismal sales figures, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) gave investors something to cheer for on Friday . Despite the impacts of the novel coronavirus , which shuttered factories in Fremont and Shanghai, Tesla beat analysts’ estimates. It reported first-quarter sales of 88,400 vehicles while analysts were looking for 79,900. Plus, Tesla produced 100,000 vehicles in the quarter. TSLA stock rallied 5.6% Friday on the surprise. CEO Elon Musk certainly knows how to deliver. Devastating Jobs Report Sends Market Down on Friday [Friday, April 3, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The U.S. Department of Labor’s non-farm payroll report hit the market hard this morning, although periods of trading throughout the day seemed to indicate that investors had shrugged it off. But in the afternoon, the major indices headed back down, ending the day in the red. Nothing — not even the launch of President Donald Trump’s small business loan program — could turn things around. Losses in the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite leave investors without much to celebrate headed into the weekend. The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.52% The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 1.67% The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 1.53% Tech Stocks Are Dominating During the Pandemic [Friday, April 3, 3:27 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith New reporting from The New York Times today confirmed what many already knew to be true. Major tech companies will emerge relatively unscathed from the pandemic, and they will use the current crisis to gain further market leverage. In an article titled “How Tech’s Lobbyists Are Using the Pandemic to Make Gains,” Dave McCabe sheds light on what Silicon Valley’s stars are doing now . Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) are using the crisis to lobby California’s attorney general to postpone enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act. The law requires companies to share with users what data it collects on them, and there’s no doubt data-gathering tech giants are unhappy with the legislation. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ), under CEO Jeff Bezos, is often criticized for its treatment of rank-and-file employees. Bezos makes headlines every time he supports a charity, as most Americans want to see him donating more. But Amazon has been in Washington, hoping to gain more financial backing for remote working. And Uber (NYSE: UBER ) is also seizing an opportunity to challenge California’s Assembly Bill 5, which will require the ride-hailing company to treat its drivers as employees. Say what you will about the ethics of these situations, but Silicon Valley’s best and brightest will survive the novel coronavirus . Amazon stock is up for the year. Although GOOGL, FB and UBER shares are down in line with the market, investors should see buying opportunities in these names at discounted prices. Plus, it’s important to remember that technology is greatly shaping the American response to the outbreak. Tech companies are providing critical innovations in telemedicine, drug discovery and work-from-home solutions. These tech companies are the future, and the pandemic isn’t changing that. Here’s Why Twitter Stock Could Be a Great Buy Today [Friday, April 3, 2:46 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Enough is enough. That’s what analysts are saying today about Twitter (NYSE: TWTR ) stock as it lingers close to 52-week lows. TWTR shares are currently underperforming the S&P 500 , down roughly 40% from Feb. 17 highs. It’s clear that Twitter’s 2020 performance is just too ugly. That’s why Goldman Sachs analyst Heath Terry upgraded shares to a “buy” rating today with a $35 price tag. He was joined in his generosity by CFRA Research analyst John Freeman, who similarly upgraded TWTR stock to a “buy.” However, Freeman actually cut his price target from $38 to $31. But what is there to like about TWTR stock? Advertising spending is dropping in 2020, which logically should pressure shares further. Well, Terry thinks Twitter will survive spending cuts, and come out on the other side stronger. In fact, near $22, he thinks TWTR stock offers investors a unique opportunity today. From Terry, the Goldman Sachs analyst : “We believe the net impact of advertisers retreating, both as brands weigh the value of spending in a crisis and direct response sees conversions declining, while user growth surges globally as people look to stay informed and connected, has created an attractive entry point.” Jim Chanos Tells Investors to Beware Popular Virus Stocks [Friday, April 3, 2:03 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith If anything, the novel coronavirus is teaching us that misery loves company. But miserable investors also love rooting for stocks that offer hope. In our new pandemic-driven world, this has largely meant that biotech companies working on coronavirus vaccines are now market-beating equities. You’ve surely heard of Inovio (NASDAQ: INO ) and Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA ), right? But other names are flying high, too. These stocks that are outperforming the market all tie into stay-at-home orders or remote work trends. Many investors are helping Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON ), Clorox (NYSE: CLX ), Teladoc (NYSE: TDOC ) and Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM ) rally. Jim Chanos, Kynikos Associates founder, has a different take. He’s telling investors that these “virus stocks” are dangerous, as their long-term prospects are dim. Peloton, for instance, is rising as Americans become desperate for at-home exercise solutions. While the company’s luxury offerings may be attractive when the world leaves lockdown, many consumers will be returning to gyms. From Chanos : “One area I would warn people about for example is the virus stocks. They are doing well right now in this enforced lockdown. A lot of these companies are really not structurally growth stocks that are trading at 30, 40, 50 times earnings because they are going to do well in the first and second quarters of 2020.” Nervous Companies Pull Back on Ad Spending [Friday, April 3, 1:30 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor That was fast! Ugh. According to an article titled “‘A Seismic Shock’: Jittery Companies Pull Back on Ads During Pandemic” in the New York Times today, companies are already pulling back their advertising dollars. Per the article: “Companies that spent big to get the word out about their products before the pandemic have hit the brakes. Facebook has described its advertising business as ‘weakening.’ Amazon has reduced its Google Shopping ads. Coca-Cola, Kohl’s and Zillow Group have stopped or limited their marketing. Marriott’s advertising, in the words of the company’s chief executive, has ‘gone dark.'” This isn’t isolated to a few companies trying to conserve cash. One industry group estimates that advertising spend is down between 38% and 51%. Per the New York Times article: “Overall spending on digital ads for March and April is down 38 percent from what companies had expected to lay out, and ad spending has fallen 41 percent on TV, 45 percent on radio, 43 percent in print publications, and 51 percent on billboards and other outdoor platforms, according to the trade group IAB.” That’s not to say that investors should flee all ad-supported businesses. In fact, InvestorPlace’s Laura Hoy makes the case that right now is a great time for investors to look at ad-supported companies with strong balance sheets like Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ). Small Business Loan Program Launches on Friday [Friday, April 3, 1:15 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith One highly awaited portion of President Donald Trump’s $2 trillion stimulus package, the Paycheck Protection Program, launched Friday. This roughly $350 billion program will provide loans to qualifying small businesses. Although small businesses and lenders alike are already expressing their concerns about the program, it is a key means of helping those most impacted by stay-at-home orders and other lockdown protocols. Companies that qualify are eligible for up 2.5 times their monthly payroll expenses, as many do not have much of a financial cushion. Early in the morning, Bank of America reported that it had already received 10,000 applications for loans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted that new loans already totaled $875 million , mostly coming from “community” banks. Only the Biggest Names in Energy Are Guaranteed Survival [Friday, April 3, 12:34 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith This week has seen record action in oil prices. First, we saw the end of the first quarter, marking the worst quarterly performance ever for crude oil. Then, President Donald Trump boldly tweeted that Russia and Saudi Arabia would meet soon to negotiate production cuts. Oil prices skyrocketed on Thursday on hopes the price war would end. As a reminder, the price war is the result of Russia refusing to comply with OPEC’s recommendations. And boy has the Saudi-Russia price war hammered oil and energy names. For the year so far, energy exchange-traded funds are underperforming the market. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLE ) is down almost 52%. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production ETF (NYSEARCA: XOP ) is down more than 65%. Those losses are so bad they’re almost impressive. In the midst of this, Simpler Trading’s Danielle Shay has some insight on what investors should expect. Unfortunately, she says only a handful of the biggest and most well-capitalized energy companies are guaranteed survival. On her short list are Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX ). From Shay’s interview with CNBC : “The only [names], in this situation, that are going to be able to survive are ones that have enough cash on hand with a low debt-to-equity ratio. These names are really just going to be Chevron, Exxon, and then the big names that are going to have enough money to get through this.” These 7 Restaurant Stocks Should Rebound Big Time [Friday, April 3, 11:45 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Restaurants are in particular focus as businesses around the country shut down. Their delivery, drive-thru and carry-out options are providing spots of relief to quarantined Americans looking for a fun treat. But more importantly, the food industry is getting hit hard. Restaurant chains are laying off and furloughing workers en masse. Many independent shops could go under. But InvestorPlace’s Chris Lau sees some upside for restaurant stocks. He focuses on businesses who have embraced the pivot to online ordering. Then, he looks at their past financial reports to get a sense of their strength going into the pandemic. Lau identifies seven restaurant stocks investors should be buying on the dip now, acknowledging that Americans can’t give up fast-food orders forever. Here are the names he’s watching now : Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR ) McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD ) Yum! Brands (NASDAQ: YUM ) Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ) Domino’s Pizza (NYSE: DPZ ) Chipotle (NYSE: CMG ) Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK ) Mark Tepper Says Delta and United Are Too Big to Fail [Friday, April 3, 10:28 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Despite nearly across-the-board carnage in the airline industry, Strategic Wealth Partners CEO Mark Tepper and MKM Partners Chief Market Technician JC O’Hara are picking their favorites in the space. Why? Some airlines are simply too big to fail . Many investors, and many InvestorPlace contributors, have debated how the federal bailout will impact the space. Which companies will survive? When will consumers return to flying? Will air travel ever return to its peak? If you’re looking for more guidance, you’re in luck. Tepper is tapping Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL ) and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL ) because of their size. However, he does expect both names to keep underperforming, as investors will continue to price in their acceptance of bailout funds. O’Hara’s airline pick requires a hop — or perhaps a flight — across the globe. He’s looking at Australia’s Qantas Airways (OTCMKTS: QABSY ). Bank of America Warns of Sky-High Unemployment [Friday, April 3, 10:01 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith In a shocking note, Bank of America analysts warn that investors should be prepared for the “deepest recession on record.” Because they have no precedent to compare this pandemic-driven downturn to, the analysts are calling for extreme figures. In fact, they believe the unemployment rate will surpass those from 2007-08 to reach 15.6% soon. From the Bank of America note : “The coming recession appears to be deeper and more prolonged than we were led to believe just 14 days ago when we last updated our forecasts, not just in the US but globally as well.” Stock Market Opens Down on Payroll Report [Friday, April 3, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After a non-farm payroll report that came in worse than economists’ estimates — by a huge margin at that — the stock market opened down on Friday morning. Granted, we’ve seen some nastier mornings this week. But nonetheless, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all started the day down in the red. The S&P 500 opened lower by 0.55% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 0.67% The Nasdaq Composite opened lower by 0.39% U.S. Sees First Job Decline Since 2010 [Friday, April 3, 8:59 a.m. Contributed by Sarah Smith No one expected Friday morning’s non-farm payroll report to be upbeat. But perhaps no one expected the U.S. Department of Labor to report a drop of 701,000 jobs for March . Economists had predicted a loss of 10,000 jobs and a new unemployment rate of 3.7%. Friday’s numbers bumped the U.S. unemployment rate to 4.4%. Additionally, this decline marks the first since 2010, as the U.S. recovered from the Great Recession. According to CNBC , Friday’s figure is eerily close to the peak of 2009, when the Labor Department reported a drop of 800,000 jobs in May . Investors should anticipate the stock market opening down on Friday, and another choppy day of trading ahead. 10 Companies That Could Still Grow Sales in 2020 [Friday, April 3, 8:45 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Yes, FactSet predicts that S&P 500 earnings growth will decline by 5.2% in the first quarter. And that shouldn’t surprise investors, given that restaurants are limited to take-out and delivery and a whole host of non-essential businesses have closed their doors. Yesterday, we learned that beloved burger chain Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK ) is seeing 50%-90% sales declines across its company-operated outlets. But Goldman Sachs says that not all companies will be facing declines. In fact, the firm’s analysts have put together a list of 10 companies that should still grow sales in 2020 (subscription required). Here’s who they’re watching: Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY ) Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV ) Global Payments (NYSE: GPN ) Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX ) Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS ) Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD ) ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW ) Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ) Salesforce (NYSE: CRM ) Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) Dallas Fed Offers New Unemployment Predictions [Thursday, April 2, 5:05 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Speaking on CNBC , Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said today that he expects the unemployment rate to peak in the “low- to midteens” before it falls to about 8% by the end of the year. Kaplan doesn’t have a perfect crystal ball, and we should acknowledge that we’re in uncharted territory given the unprecedented unemployment claim figures that came out today. That said, Federal Reserve presidents aren’t known to be undisciplined when speaking publicly, and you can bet that Kaplan has data and models behind his figures that aren’t available to the general public. It’s an interesting data point as investors peer into the future. Amazon Moves into the Gaming Arena [Thursday, April 2, 4:27 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell There’s always a lot to like about market-leading Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) stock. It led the disruptive move into e-commerce, which is giving it a vital role in today’s locked-down world. Amazon also has its Amazon Web Services, and cloud services too are becoming increasingly vital. Oh, and don’t forget its TV, movie and music streaming offerings. It seems like there’s something for everyone to like about this company, especially as the novel coronavirus changes life as we know it. Now, Amazon is making yet another move . This time, into the world of video games. The New York Times reported today that Amazon was investing “hundreds of millions of dollars” into its first big game, Crucible . Next up on its agenda is a multiplayer game New World . Both are set to launch next month. With this news in mind, AMZN stock is certainly one to keep watching. Shares ended the day up slightly. Stocks Close Thursday Higher After Volatile Day [Thursday, April 2, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Stock futures were rallying Thursday morning, and then fell hard. The U.S. Department of Labor’s report on how many Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week had investors a bit wary. But then, things turned around. President Donald Trump signaled an end to the Saudi-Russian oil price war could be near. Oil prices rallied, big time. The S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all finished the day in the green. The S&P 500 ended the day up 2.27% The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 2.23% The Nasdaq Composite ended the day up 1.72% Why You Should Learn to Appreciate a Good Financial Crisis [Thursday, April 2, 3:53 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Fourteen months ago, InvestorPlace CEO Brian Hunt penned a seminal article titled, “Why You Should Learn to Appreciate a Good Financial Crisis.” The subtitle, “A financial crisis also creates great opportunities” describes the theme of the article perfectly. Brian’s view: “In fact, how a person views these events is one of the defining differences between the rich and the poor. The poor are bewildered and angered by these events. The rich see them simply as how the world works … and as the creators of huge opportunities.” Intriguing, right? This was all written well before anyone ever heard of the novel coronavirus , and with the benefit of distance from our current crisis. Whether you’re feeling bullish or bearish in the current market, Brian’s article is well worth a read. Click here to read his take . Is This the Buying Opportunity of a Lifetime? [Thursday, April 2, 3:00 p.m.] Contributed by Matt McCall It’s been another crazy week. But at this point it’s feeling like par for the course. The coronavirus continues to cause turmoil throughout the global markets. Millions of people are divided. For some, the multitrillion-dollar stimulus plan gives hope that stocks will rebound. Others feel the worst is yet to come. Here’s what I think . Honestly, I see several great opportunities out there right now. You just need to know where to look. For one overlooked corner of the market, it’s the buying opportunity of a lifetime. And I just found three stocks that are screaming buys … even in this market climate. I revealed the name and ticker symbol of one of these stocks for free during my market briefing last night. It’s a small, innovative company using artificial intelligence to provide predictive analytics in healthcare. I believe this stock could climb 1,000% or more in the next few years. You can learn more about these three stocks and more by watching the time-sensitive replay here . Goldman Predicts S&P 500 Dividends Will Fall 25% [Thursday, April 2, 2:51 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Goldman Sachs analysts are also weighing in on the dividend debate. As the novel coronavirus spreads, it does seem likely that more and more companies will cut or suspend their dividends. But Goldman still sees hope, although the firm predicts S&P 500 dividend payouts will drop by 25% in 2020. The silver lining? High-yielding dividend stocks that seem ready to keep on paying out. As CNBC reports (subscription required), here are 10 stocks the firm is watching: Omnicom (NYSE: OMC ) Home Depot (NYSE: HD ) Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN ) People’s United (NASDAQ: PBCT ) Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY ) 3M (NYSE: MMM ) International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM ) NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP ) Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO ) Trump’s Tweet Sends Oil Skyrocketing [Thursday, April 2, 2:34 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The end of March marked the worst quarterly performance for oil prices. But a tweet from President Donald Trump could be turning things around . West Texas Intermediate prices are up 20% so far on Thursday, and Brent crude prices are up 19.6% . Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020 Just a day after Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL ) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Trump’s tweet is also boosting energy stocks. If Saudi Arabia and Russia really are willing to meet again and agree on production cuts, other American shale producers could be spared Whiting’s fate. A Second Wave of the Coronavirus Could Hurt Investors [Thursday, April 2, 2:05 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith As if the first wave of the novel coronavirus isn’t bad enough, JPMorgan analysts are now warning investors that a potential second wave could hit worse (subscription required). Mixo Das, a quantitative strategist for Asia equities, says that as bad as the current lockdown situation is, a second wave of the virus would cause even more pain. Why? Investors aren’t pricing one in. Right now, most are assuming Covid-19 will be a one-time hit. Anything that contradicts that will catch the market off-guard. Is Luckin Coffee Stock a Buy Now? [Thursday, April 2, 1:46 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith If you’ve been reading the financial news today, you’ve probably noticed that Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ: LK ) was caught red-handed. In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company admitted that its COO, along with other reporting employees, had faked sales to the tune of $310 million. That’s not good. Investors are punishing the stock, sending it down over 80% in intraday trading to all-time lows. LK stock has long been seen as the perfect Chinese rival to Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ). It has offered investors big growth potential, and new stores seem to open every single day. But, Luckin has now lost investors’ trust. InvestorPlace’s Luke Lango isn’t fretting. In fact, he says that in the long term, LK stock will rebound, because the fake sales don’t detract from its growth story. Now, below $7, he sees a unique opportunity to buy shares . From Lango: “Luckin will continue to grow alongside a booming China retail coffee market, and LK stock will bounce back in a big way from today’s all-time lows. So, for contrarian investors with time on their side, the recent plunge in LK stock looks like a long-term opportunity.” The Coronavirus Could Send Micron Stock Higher [Thursday, April 2, 11:53 a.m.] Contributed by Christopher Skokna In the latest edition of his Smart Money e-letter, InvestorPlace analyst Eric Fry notes that while stock market averages may not have bottomed out yet, many individual stocks have. “Best of breed” stocks, in particular, tend to bottom out first, Eric writes, and then they move higher while the rest of the market is languishing. Since we rarely get the opportunity to buy best-of-breed stocks on the cheap, he says, we should be looking for the opportunity to do that. And in that Smart Money , Eric says the semiconductor sector is one that will soon be on the upswing … and that Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU ) is his top “best in breed” chip stock. In fact, Eric argues, the novel coronavirus could end up boosting the chip sector. Near term, of course, the coronavirus epidemic is depressing demand for semiconductors, Eric writes. But long term, many companies might attempt to counteract the operational risks of the next global pandemic by shifting more of their processes to machines of some sort, rather than human beings. And so, the Covid-19 epidemic could end up being a “trigger” for the semiconductor sector’s — and Micron’s — next leg up. Check out Eric’s full story for the rest of his case. Red-Hot Zoom Stock Is Crazy Overvalued [Thursday, April 2, 11:05 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Popular work-from-home stock Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM ) has been a winner while the novel coronavirus drives most other stocks down. Zoom offers important technology, facilitating easy video conferences for university students and businesses alike. But what does Wall Street think about the high-flying name? Well, ZM shares currently trade for 42 times projected fiscal 2021 revenue. And they trade for 31 times fiscal 2022 revenue. It’s safe to say that Zoom Video is looking crazy overvalued here. From D.A. Davidson analyst Rishi Jaluria , who has a “neutral” rating on the stock: “While we like Zoom’s multiple growth drivers, emerging use cases, impressive financials, and tailwinds from changes being accelerated by Covid-19, we find the current valuation too rich and would wait for a pullback before buying shares.” Goldman Sachs Is Showing Verizon Stock Some Love [Thursday, April 2, 10:44 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Verizon (NYSE: VZ ) pays a big dividend — currently yielding more than 4.5%. And making that payout even more attractive is the love it’s getting from Goldman Sachs analysts. On Wednesday, analysts added it to the firm’s “Conviction Buy” list, setting a $61 price target. Goldman is calling Verizon a “stable stock” and telling clients that once the novel coronavirus eases, VZ stock could see double-digit upside. From Goldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman (subscription required): “We see the stock offering investors the most attractive combination of total return and risk owing to its stable wireless business, well-covered dividend and strong balance sheet.” 8 Dividend Aristocrats That Look Safe [Thursday, April 2, 10:11 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith It seems like every day another stalwart American company slashes its dividend. So where should income investors look for stable payouts? According to Barron’s, dividend aristocrats are a good place to start. These eight stocks below meet their criteria and are worth a second look now: Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT ) Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL ) Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB ) Medtronic (NYSE: MDT ) Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG ) T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ: TROW ) Stock Market Opens Down on Jobless Claims [Thursday, April 2, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Stock market futures were initially well in the green this morning, but the U.S. Department of Labor’s jobless claims report sent things down fast. Now, the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are all starting trading in the red. Will positive sentiment return to the market today? The S&P 500 opened down 0.02% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 0.14% The Nasdaq Composite opened down 0.29% Weekly Jobless Claims Top 6 Million [Thursday, April 2, 9:01 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith According to the U.S. Department of Labor, over 6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s double the previous week’s 3.3 million figure, and setting a dangerous precedent. According to Yahoo Finance reporter Heidi Chung , Americans are losing their jobs at a “historic pace.” It is also important to note that economists did not predict such a sharp increase in lost jobs. The consensus estimate was for 3.7 million jobless claims. For the week ending March 28, the total came in above 6.6 million claims. Expect the Unexpected from Earnings Season [Thursday, April 2, 7:44 a.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez Earnings season is one of our favorite times at InvestorPlace. We love numbers. We love analyst estimates. We love creating charts and projecting future earnings. But this earnings season is going to be far from ordinary. First, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has already granted extensions to public companies on delivering their earnings reports. That means we are going to have delays, and incomplete data for some time. And already many companies have withdrawn previous guidance for projected earnings for 2020, with no indication about when future guidance could appear. And when the numbers do come in, they are not going to be pretty. According to FactSet , analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to decline 5.2% in the first quarter. Investors should expect data to be incomplete and not very positive this quarter, or even next. FactSet also notes analyst projections are for S&P earnings to decline 10% in Q2. As time goes on, we’ll get a clearer picture, but investors should brace themselves for a lot of unknowns over the next several weeks. When Will the Pandemic End? [Wednesday, April 1, 4:35 p.m.] Contributed by John Kilhefner The novel coronavirus has had a cascading effect on the world economy, and investors have regrettably aimed to time the market bottom to disastrous effect. However, InvestorPlace Markets Analyst Luke Lango created a data-driven model to help other investors better understand when the Covid-19 panic will come to an end. In his article titled “Tracking Covid-19: When Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Peak?” , Lango writes the following: “Unfortunately, pandemics are inherently tough to predict. No one knows with great certainty how the Covid-19 pandemic will end. Fortunately, though, there is a lot of data out there with respect to the coronavirus pandemic. We can use all that data to make educated predictions about the lifespan and magnitude of Covid-19.” It’s been nearly a month since the U.S. tallied its first 1,000 cases, and Lango can see an end in sight: “The hope is that these growth curves — the 5-day moving averages — follow the same ‘bell’ trajectory as they did in South Korea and China. Rise fast for a few weeks, flatten out for a few days, and then gradually fall towards near-zero.” Big 3 Automakers All Face Steep Sales Declines [Wednesday, April 1, 4:26 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell Are the “Big 3” automakers becoming the “Little 3” in the business? As General Motors (NYSE: GM ), Fiat Chrysler (NYSE: FCAU ) and Ford (NYSE: F ) all are facing steep sales declines , that may be the case. GM reported that its U.S. sales are down 7% in the first quarter, and its inventory is down 18% year-over-year. Fiat Chrysler had a strong January and February, but it still is seeing a 10% drop in vehicles after factoring in March. And although Ford has yet to report its sales figures, it’s probably safe to assume the numbers won’t be pretty. Dow Drops Almost 1,000 Points on Wednesday [Wednesday, April 1, 4:01 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Wow, investors are surely disappointed in Wednesday’s performance. After last week’s impressive rally, President Donald Trump’s warnings about the novel coronavirus are sending the major indices back down. And they’re moving hard and fast. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite all ended the day deeply in the red. The S&P 500 ended the day down 4.41% The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 4.44% The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 4.41% Companies Save Cash by Cutting 401k Contributions [Wednesday, April 1, 3:52 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor The 401k — that bastion of American retirement investing — is under fire. According to an article today in the Wall Street Journal , companies throughout the country are withholding and altering 401k contributions in an attempt to conserve cash. According to the article, during the 2008 financial crisis, almost 20% of American companies conserved cash by suspending or reducing 401k matching contributions in the months and years that followed the crisis. This time around, these cuts have come much earlier in the economic cycle. Less than a month ago, virtually no companies were discussing the notion of cutting 401k contributions. Now stalwart American employers like Amtrak , Marriott (NASDAQ: MAR ) and Macy’s (NYSE: M ) all have announced cuts. If you’re among the unlucky employees who have seen a cut in your 401k, don’t despair, and don’t stop contributing to your own account — even if your company no longer matches. Participating in that tax-advantaged program is an important part of your financial plan, even if your company no longer matches contributions . Beware the United States Oil Fund (USO) ETF [Wednesday, April 1, 3:25 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor Caveat emptor. “Let the Buyer Beware.” There’s a major flood of money rushing toward a specific oil ETF, where the buyers had better beware. Many investors are haphazardly snatching up shares of United States Oil Fund (NYSEARCA: USO ), which makes sense instinctually … After all, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude dipped below $20 for the first time since 2002. Reportedly, Saudi Arabia is increasing production with the intent of flooding the market to drive an output reduction by other major producers. This won’t last forever. The mechanics of that global spat are complex, but many investors are viewing this as a wonderful opportunity to invest in oil on the cheap. An estimated $1.8 billion has flowed into USO in the last three weeks. It feels inevitable that the price of oil will rise, which will make many investors a ton of cash. But buyer beware … Because of the way the USO fund is set up, investors who use that particular fund as a long-term bet on oil prices rising could be caught out in the cold. While it is an excellent fund for short-term plays, experts say that USO is simply not a good way to play the long-term trend in oil prices. In an Investopedia article titled “Is USO A Good Way to Invest in Oil?” , Steven Nickolas argues that because of esoteric notions known as “contango” and “negative price yield,” investors will be burned in the long term, even if prices rise. In fact, he argues, “… investors planning to gain exposure to the oil market over the long term should avoid investments in the United States Oil Fund.” Whether investors understand the mechanics of contango and negative price yield isn’t particularly important. What’s important is that investors understand that the USO has material shortcomings as a long-term play on rising oil prices. Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, is more stark about the USO: “What you have to worry about is when oil gets too low or too high, it attracts the tourist types. This is a tourist trap.” Don’t be a tourist. Caveat emptor indeed. Don’t Forget to Increase Your ‘Financial IQ’ [Wednesday, April 1, 3:09 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith These days, it’s more important than ever to know the “foundational” financial concepts the world’s best investors and business people use to grow wealth. It’s more important than ever to have a high “Financial IQ.” To that end, we urge you to read our timeless educational essay titled There’s Always Two Sides to a Price . The essay details an “enlightened” way to view market panics and crashes … and it could help you make A LOT of money over the next 24 months. Read this essay by InvestorPlace CEO Brian Hunt right here . Whiting Petroleum Falls Victim to the Oil Price War [Wednesday, April 1, 2:53 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Oil prices have been in free fall since the beginning of March, and energy stocks have been seriously hurting. On Wednesday, Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL ) became the first major victim of the so-called price war. How many other companies will fall before demand — and prices — rebound? The Wall Street Journal reported that on Wednesday, Whiting became the first big American shale producer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections . WLL stock now trades for less than 40 cents, and shares are down over 44% in intraday trading. Unfortunately, this bankruptcy doesn’t come as a surprise to many investors. InvestorPlace Digest editor Jeff Remsburg predicted that an “atomic bomb” was coming for the oil market. But in particular, it looks like American shale producers will bear the brunt of the war. Some, like InvestorPlace’s Nicolas Chahine see Saudi Arabia and Russia hitting the negotiating table again soon . If not, investors will have to wait and see which companies fall victim to bankruptcy next. Focus on Individual Stocks, Not the Broader Market [Wednesday, April 1, 2:20 p.m.] Contributed by Brian Hunt Around the InvestorPlace offices, we often say, “It’s not so much a stock market as it is a market of stocks.” We say this because the stock market is made up of many different industries and many different companies. Various economic climates affect industries differently. Something good for one industry isn’t necessarily good for another industry. For example, the early stage of the novel coronavirus crisis was great for grocery stores because people rushed to stock up on food … but it was terrible for cruise line operators and airlines. It’s also worth noting that something that is good for one company in an industry isn’t necessarily good for another company in the same industry. The iPhone was great for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), but terrible for Apple’s competitor Nokia (NYSE: NOK ). Instead of thinking of “the market” as a monolithic entity into which you put money, we prefer to focus our attention on individual industries and companies. There’s quite a lot happening behind the curtain we call the Dow Jones Industrial Average . During the March corona panic, we got a heck of a demonstration of how “it’s not so much a stock market as it is a market of stocks.” For example, during the period of Feb. 19 to March 19 — a period that saw the worst of the selling — retailer Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) advanced in price. So did grocery giants Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM ) and Kroger (NYSE: KR ). Shares of packaged food makers B&G Foods (NYSE: BGS ) and Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO ) gained in value. Meanwhile, businesses in the travel and entertainment industry were crushed. Cruise ship operators Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL ) and Carnival (NYSE: CCL ) lost more than 75% of their value. Amusement center Dave & Buster’s (NASDAQ: PLAY ) lost more than 85% of its value. Some companies climbing in value and some plummeting 80%? Yes. It’s not so much a stock market as it is a market of stocks. The Market Selloff Is Leading Investors to ETFs [Wednesday, April 1, 1:27 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith It’s no secret that money was leaving stocks during 2020’s first quarter. The panic-driven selling thrust equities into a bear market at record speed, and very few names went against that trend. But elsewhere in the investing world, exchange-traded funds attracted $66.3 billion during the first quarter. As Bloomberg reports, that’s up $8 billion year-over-year. What does this mean for investors? Well, one takeaway is that many are looking for safe-haven investments. ETFs traditionally offer protection via their diverse holdings, and buying on the dip could be a good way to benefit from rallies across several names. However, Bloomberg’s Claire Ballentine warns that for many bulls, this is a bad sign that could mean the bottom is still far away. The Retail Stock Apocalypse Just Hit Horrid New Lows [Wednesday, April 1, 1:08 p.m.] Contributed by Brian Hunt Think the market put in a bottom last month? Don’t tell retail stocks. The retail apocalypse hit horrid new lows today. Retail stocks hitting new 52-week lows today include Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY ), Gap (NYSE: GPS ), American Eagle (NYSE: AEO ), Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN ), Macy’s (NYSE: M ) and Buckle (NYSE: BKE ). The disastrous 1-year chart of Nordstrom below shows that the retail sector is still a “falling knife” that should be avoided. Source: Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com Bank of America Says ‘Buy Apple’ [Wednesday, April 1, 1:00 p.m.] Contributed by Brian Hunt Bank of America analysts recently released a list of top U.S. stocks to buy now (subscription required). On the list, you’ll find Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) … which at times has declined more than 20% from its 2020 high. If you think the global economy will be “less bad” 12 months from now and smartphone sales will pick back up, depressed Apple shares are a good way to trade that outlook. Factories Around the World Face Massive Production Cuts [Wednesday, April 1, 12:51 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday afternoon that a new series of business surveys all show the same thing: Production is down. Why? Demand is falling, and safety protocols are limiting factory work. Within the United States, the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell in March. The new figure is 49.1 , down from 50.1. Any number below 50 represents contractionary business activity. Many investors saw this coming, but now are worried about how low April’s numbers will go. From WSJ reporters Paul Hannon and Harriet Tory : “Factory output and employment is likely to fall further before it starts to rebound, although that recovery may be limited by job cuts and shutdowns that can take time to reverse. If they don’t receive help from governments and forbearance from banks, some manufacturing companies may close for good.” New Figures Show 27,000 Job Cuts in Early March [Wednesday, April 1, 11:20 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith For the period between March 1 and March 12, human resource management provider ADP reports that private companies cut 27,000 jobs. This number is important for two reasons. One, it is the first time private companies have seen such a contraction in 10 years. For February 2020, ADP reported that private companies added almost 180,000 jobs. In context, this makes early March’s loss even more staggering. And two, these numbers only go through March 12, well before the novel coronavirus picked up steam in the United States. While estimates vary widely — some economists are calling for 47 million layoffs in the U.S. — the ADP numbers show what could be ahead. From Mark Zandi , Moody’s chief economist: “It’s been 10 straight years of consistent, solid job growth, and the virus has put an end to that.” Consumer Spending Indicates Trouble Is Ahead [Wednesday, April 1, 11:12 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith American investors are obviously worried about the impact the novel coronavirus will have on consumer spending. And economists are already sounding the alarm, pointing to lower consumer confidence values and decreased spending. The one potential positive is online shopping. Will consumers turn to e-commerce while they are stuck at home? Unfortunately, new figures from Visa (NYSE: V ) indicate that even online shopping is down. In a regulatory filing, the company reported that cardholder spending dropped 4% for March . Others are hopeful that American consumers will return to their normal routines once the virus tapers off. But in China, where life is gradually returning to normal, new figures suggest the pain will last beyond the infection. The data shows that while people are shopping again, they are not using their money at brick-and-mortar retailers or restaurants. Instead, Chinese consumers are searching the web for lunchboxes to prepare lunches for work at home, new kitchen supplies and home exercise equipment. What will a long-lasting fear of the virus mean for businesses around the world? And what will the eventual recovery look like? From Bloomberg’s Daniela Wei : “The data undermines predictions of a V-shaped recovery in the world’s biggest consumer market that has seen more than 80,000 infections and 3,000 deaths from Covid-19. While big operators like Starbucks Corp. and Yum China Holding Inc. have been reopening outlets, they face a public that’s preferring to stay home after work and continue to social distance, even though official data indicates China’s number of new infections fallen to zero.” Cryptocurrencies Are Holding Up Better than the Market [Wednesday, April 1, 10:33 a.m.] Contributed by Matt McCall During times of extreme fear and volatility in stocks, alternative asset classes typically tend to do well. Think gold and silver, for instance, or farmland. Today, we have another alternative asset class that provides great diversification to any portfolio. I’m talking about cryptocurrencies. The folks at CoinDesk just pointed out how well bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $116 billion, held up during the first quarter compared to some of the world’s major stock indices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 26%, year-to-date, the worst first quarter ever and the biggest quarterly fall since 1987. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down about the same, while the FTSE fell 14% over the period, its second-worst quarterly showing ever. Meanwhile, bitcoin outperformed all three indexes, falling about 10%. Source: Chart courtesy of TradingView Some smaller cryptocurrencies have done even better. A new catalyst that could send bitcoin much higher this year is just weeks away. And it could send the smaller cryptos known as altcoins much higher still. For more of my research on the catalyst and how you can take advantage of it, look here . I’ve built a system to help identify the best positioned altcoins on the market. You can check that out here . The Stock Market Opens Lower on Trump’s Warnings [Wednesday, April 1, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith President Donald Trump delivered a sobering message during his briefing Tuesday evening on the novel coronavirus . He warned that the death toll in the U.S. likely could reach 240,000. He also warned Americans to prepare for two more “painful” weeks . But the month of March has already brought pain to many around the world. This message of fear certainly has investors worried, and the major indices all opened down Wednesday morning. At market open the S&P 500 , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite were all deeply in the red. The S&P 500 opened down 3.7% The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 3.9% The Nasdaq Composite opened down 3.1% How to Find Stocks in a Bear Market [Wednesday, April 1, 8:33 a.m.] Contributed by Louis Navellier InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier has a simple saying to help investors find good stocks in a bear market. Good stocks bounce like tennis balls, and bad stocks fall like rocks. If that’s not clear enough, his weekly reviews of over 5,000 stocks should give you a sense of where equities are headed. What stocks were making moves this weekend? According to his Portfolio Grader ratings, Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW ) was upgraded to a B-rated “buy,” while Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) was downgraded to a C-rated “hold.” Check out the rest of his list here to see if your stocks are on the move. Matt McCall Champions Proposed Infrastructure Plan [Tuesday, March 31, 5:08 p.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez InvestorPlace analyst Matt McCall must have predicted the future. Since March 17 he has been calling for President Donald Trump to back an infrastructure plan, something that could help rally the economy. McCall’s suggestion hearkens back to the Great Depression, when The New Deal saw a sweeping series of public works programs. And Trump must have been listening. The President must have watched my Crisis&Opportunity Investment Summit. I pleaded for an infrastructure bill. This is something both sides must agree on. I even said it needs to be $2-$4 Trillion. The President must have watched my Crisis&Opportunity Investment Summit. I pleaded for an infrastructure bill. This is something both sides must agree on. I even said it needs to be $2-$4 Trillion. https://t.co/Nik2D0xwoV — Matt McCall (@MatthewMcCall) March 31, 2020 For more, follow Matt McCall, editor of Investment Opportunities , Early Stage Investor , and Ultimate Crypto on twitter at ( @MatthewMcCall ) And don’t forget to join him for Part 2 of his Crisis and Opportunity Summit tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET. Click here for more info . Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Sends Some Stocks Higher [Tuesday, March 31, 4:30 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell Although the overall markets ended the day down, President Donald Trump’s call for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan is sending some stocks higher . U.S. Steel (NYSE: X ), Alcoa (NYSE: AA ), Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF ) and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX ) were some of the names seeing big gains. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t ready to let Trump’s “VERY BIG & BOLD” plan roll. He’s asking that Trump wait and see how Friday’s stimulus package helps the economy first. Stock Market Closes Down After Choppy Trading [Tuesday, March 31, 4:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Monday brought a 3%-plus rally to the stock market, but Tuesday got a weak start. The major indices were down around 0.5% at market open. Despite some short bursts higher in intraday trading, the S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite all ended the day in the red. The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.6% The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 1.8% The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 1% 30 Stocks to Throw Out of Your Portfolios Now [Tuesday, March 31, 3:00 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor If you hold individual stocks, you can’t count on someone else to keep an eye on your wealth. Now is the most important time ever — at least, in the last decade — for you to pay attention to the holdings in your portfolio. With the massive shift in cash flow and consumer demand that’s occurred in the last month, a flood of bankruptcies are coming. Well-known companies will start declaring bankruptcy, and we’ll all be surprised by some of the names we see. With that in mind, it’s imperative to keep an eye on your holdings. InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto has a list of 30 popular stocks that he places on a deathwatch . It’s worth a look to see if any on his list are in your portfolio. Gas Prices Drop Below $2 [Tuesday, March 31, 2:24 p.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez AAA reported today that the national pump price for regular gasoline dropped below $2 for the first time in four years. The decline in the global economy due to the novel coronavirus , combined with the Russia-Saudi price war, is driving gasoline prices lower. AAA projects gas prices to keep dropping, and expects the price to hit $1.75 or less by April. This is great news for consumers and businesses alike. Low interest rates, the $2 trillion stimulus package and very low gasoline prices could be major drivers of the recovery from the panicked selling hitting the financial markets. Don’t Trust These 7 Small-Cap Stocks Now [Tuesday, March 31, 1:26 p.m.] Contributed by Louis Navellier Right now is not the time for investors to be taking on any more risk. And although small-capitalization stocks have the potential to double, triple or quadruple, the seven stocks below are much more likely to disappear forever. Investors should make sure to avoid (or sell) these struggling small-cap stocks now: United States Steel (NYSE: X ) Six Flags (NYSE: SIX ) Cinemark (NYSE: CNK ) Carnival (NYSE: CUK ) Macy’s (NYSE: M ) Sasol (NYSE: SSL ) Macerich (NYSE: MAC ) Trump Proposes $2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill [Tuesday, March 31, 1:04 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor President Donald Trump just tweeted about an infrastructure bill. Such a bill will be an easy thing to push through Congress with bipartisan support. With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2020 But why does this matter? Investors should expect today’s tweet to define much of the conversation coming out of Capitol Hill in the coming week. 5 Companies Shining on Wall Street Right Now [Tuesday, March 31, 12:57 p.m.] Contributed by Jessica Loder With businesses shut down and consumers shut away in their homes, it can feel like everything is falling apart. But while some companies are furloughing workers and withholding guidance, it’s not all doom and gloom. Other companies are showing strength in these trying times, and Luke Lango outlines five of the stars of Wall Street right now. The names probably won’t surprise you, but Lango suggests taking a closer look at these stocks: Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS ) Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN ) Gilead (NASDAQ: GILD ) Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ) Clorox (NYSE: CLX ) Harsh Restrictions Are Helping the U.S. Defeat Covid-19 [Tuesday, March 31, 12:50 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor President Donald Trump is so convinced that social distancing — along with a slew of stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders — is working that he extended restrictions through April 30. But does any data support his confidence? The New York Times reported today that Kinsa Health , a maker of internet-connected thermometers, has found that these restrictions are working. Fevers are largely considered a key symptom in diagnosing the novel coronavirus . And as users of Kinsa Health’s thermometers continue to upload their fevers in real time, the data shows that the number of fevers is holding steady, and in fact, may be dropping. This is good news for Americans who have been questioning the restrictions associated with social distancing, especially the impacts these restrictions will have on the economy. Health officials from New York and Washington have also confirmed Kinsa’s findings. From New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo : “People say these requirements — no restaurants, no nonessential workers — are burdensome. And they are burdensome. But they are effective, and they are necessary. The evidence suggests that they have slowed our hospitalizations, and that is everything .” Landlords and Retailers Join in on Massive Furloughs [Tuesday, March 31, 11:48 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Last week it seemed like reports of service workers facing unemployment dominated the headlines. But this week, landlords and retailers are facing massive furloughs of their own. Retailers are struggling to make ends meet, as consumers stay at home and limit spending. Plus, several states have forced non-essential businesses to close, meaning that many shops have no choice but to shutter up. Major retailers like Macy’s (NYSE: M ), Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS ) and Neiman Marcus have furloughed the majority of their employees. Without any business, these companies have little money to keep sending paychecks. And in turn, these retail furloughs are creating action on the landlord side. More and more businesses, like The Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE ), Mattress Firm and Subway , are bracing for national rent strikes. Without their monthly rent payments, real estate investment trusts are now facing similar furloughs. Today, CNBC reported that Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG ), the largest mall operator, would furlough 30% of its workforce . And InvestorPlace’s Ian Bezek also wrote that these mall REITs look particularly vulnerable to other headaches like dividend cuts in the coming weeks. The Coronavirus Hits Consumer Confidence Hard [Tuesday, March 31, 11:21 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Reports from The Conference Board, a non-profit business and research organization, indicate a drop in consumer confidence levels for March. To be fair, although March’s reading of 120 is down from 132.6 in February, it beat estimates for 110 . A higher reading reflects a higher level of confidence. This consumer confidence index readings are based on The Conference Board’s monthly survey. The survey asks consumers questions about their attitudes and buying intentions, and the results reflect current business conditions. From Lynn Franco , Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board: “Consumer confidence declined sharply in March due to a deterioration in the short-term outlook. The Present Situation Index remained relatively strong, reflective of an economy that was on solid footing, and prior to the recent surge in unemployment claims. However, the intensification of COVID-19 and extreme volatility in the financial markets have increased uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and jobs. March’s decline in confidence is more in line with a severe contraction — rather than a temporary shock — and further declines are sure to follow.” S&P 500 Opens Down Slightly on Tuesday Morning [Tuesday, March 31, 9:31 a.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith After a 3%-plus rally in the stock market yesterday, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened slightly down this morning. As of market open the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and the Dow Jones was down 0.4%. New Travel Figures Show 90% Drop [Tuesday, March 31, 8:19 a.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez American lives continue to change in many ways as the coronavirus pandemic grows, but there might be no better indicator of the disruption than plane travel. The Transportation Security Administration released r ecent checkpoint travel numbers — essentially the total number of travelers who pass through an airport checkpoint. The year-over-year numbers show drops of around 90% over the last two days. Source: Table courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration For some context, the year-over-year drop was only about 1% at the beginning of March. 16 Ways the Coronavirus Will Change the World [Monday, March 30, 5:01 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor One thing’s for sure about the coronavirus from China : We’ll all emerge from this situation in a very changed world. But with change comes investing opportunity. The savviest investors are already thinking ahead to what the world will look like when the coronadust settles so they can know where to put their money to work. This article from authors Carin Ism and Julien Leyre does a very nice job of highlighting 16 changes we can expect. While I don’t necessarily agree with all 16 of their predictions — many have more leftist intonations than I think accurate — it’s a valuable read to get investors considering what the future will hold. My favorites: 1. A new appreciation for the benefits of self-sufficiency (think more gardening, 3D printers and the like) 9. Telepresence bonanza 10. Corona-boom babies (yes, they will be called Quaranteens in 2033) Economic Activity Falls to 2008 Lows [Monday, March 30, 4:49 p.m.] Contributed by Luis Hernandez The New York branch of the Federal Reserve has released a new “Weekly Economic Index” to “measure real economic activity at a weekly frequency.” The Fed stated that it developed the index because it is interested in tracking real economic activity, not simply financial conditions. In its announcement, the Fed provides details about how it develops the index, including the specific economic data points used. “We transform all series to represent 52-week percentage changes, which also eliminates most seasonality in the data. As the current situation evolves, we may incorporate additional series to refine the index in the coming weeks.” Below is the first chart produced by the index that shows activity since before the Great Recession. Source: Chart courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York “Developments in the past week saw the index fall to a level unseen since 2008,” said the Fed. The index had been indicating economic growth on either side of 3% since about 2017. In the last two weeks, the index has dropped quickly and now shows a contraction of about 4%. Healthcare Stocks Lead the Market Higher on Monday [Monday, March 30, 4:20 p.m.] Contributed by Bret Kenwell For the fourth time in five days, the S&P 500 closed in the green . That’s a big relief after some really ugly panic-driven selling. But what big winners can investors thank for Monday’s rally? Healthcare stocks. Companies like Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT ), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ), Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN ), Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY ) climbed higher on Monday thanks to their work against the coronavirus from China. Abbott Labs announced that its new test kit can show a positive result in as little as 5 minutes. And although its success isn’t related to the coronavirus, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY ) also helped lead the market higher on Monday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Taltz drug for the treatment of pediatric plaque psoriasis. S&P 500 Ends Monday Higher by 3% [Monday, March 30, 4:00 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Investors saw a continuation of last week’s rally in the stock market today. The S&P 500 closed higher by more than 3% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed up by 3.2%. The Nasdaq Composite tacked on gains of 3.6%. Streaming Stocks Attract Analyst Attention [Monday, March 30, 3:39 p.m.] Contributed by Jessica Loder As more and more people are trapped inside their homes by the spread of Covid-19, streaming stocks are providing an outlet for many. And Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ), the king of streaming stocks, just got a price target increase from BMO Capital Markets. “With an extensive content library, well-established infrastructure, and a widely known brand, Netflix is set to benefit from the limited out-of-home entertainment options available to global consumers during the shutdown,” said analyst Daniel Salmon. He reiterated his “buy” rating on the stock, and upped the price target to $450 from $440 . With the stock hovering around $370 near the end of the day Monday, he clearly sees plenty of room to the upside. Workers Protest Coronavirus-Driven Conditions [Monday, March 30, 3:33 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Stay-at-home orders around the country, combined with social distancing protocol, have spiked demand for grocery and other delivery services. In response, grocery stores and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) warehouses are hiring thousands of new employees. But some existing workers aren’t too happy with their day-to-day conditions. Workers from Instacart walked out en masse on Monday to protest. Employees are asking for heightened health protocol, increased risk pay and extra wipes and hand sanitizer. “Actions speak louder than words,” Instacart worker Sarah Polito told NPR . “You can tell us that we’re these household heroes and that you appreciate us. But you’re not actually, they’re not showing it. They’re not taking these steps to give us the precautions. They’re not giving us hazard pay.” And workers at an Amazon facility Staten Island, New York are also walking out. Their concerns hinge on alleged confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the warehouse. These employees are asking for increased paid sick time and deeper cleanings of the warehouses. In the meantime, an Amazon spokesperson told CNN that Amazon is implementing daily temperature screenings to protect the health and safety of its employees. As more Americans grapple with stay-at-home orders, it’s unclear how these strikes will play out. Over the last weeks investors have rallied grocery store stocks up in a big way, so keep a watchful eye on any developments from Instacart and Amazon. Winners and Losers From a Record-Setting Stimulus [Monday, March 30, 2:37 p.m.] Contributed by Jessica Loder With any big government bill like the $2.3 trillion stimulus package, there are winners and losers. Will Ashworth breaks down some of the groups on both sides of this historic chunk of government spending. On the plus side, individual checks are buying regular folks time. Unemployment is surging, and a bit of extra cash is going to help citizens bridge the gap. And with a combination of grants, loans and loan guarantees, there’s plenty for big businesses to like as well. Airlines are a particular focus. On the other hand, the $350 billion set aside for small businesses may not nearly be enough, when you consider how many small businesses the U.S. actually has. And New York University economics professor Roman Frydman and former UBS chief economist Lawrence Hatheway say the amount the bill allots for healthcare looks too small as well. Investors Should Focus on Finding a Coronavirus Cure [Monday, March 30, 1:49 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor There are currently 16 companies — a mix of biotech startups and legacy drugmakers — working on developing vaccines and other treatments for the coronavirus from China. Investors are busy trying to identify a winner, because whichever company is first to develop an effective treatment will profit handsomely. Here’s a list of companies that Jaimy Lee, a healthcare reporter for Marketwatch.com , reports are working on a coronavirus treatment or vaccine: BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX ) Pfizer (NYSE: PFE ) Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD ) GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK ) Heat Biologics (NASDAQ: HTBX ) Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO ) Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA ) Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX ) Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN ) Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY ) Roche (OTCMKTS: RHHBY ) Takeda Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TAK ) Vaxart (NASDAQ: VXRT ) Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ: VIR ) Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB ). Coronavirus Job Losses Could Hit 47 Million [Monday, March 30, 1:22 p.m.] Contributed by Sarah Smith Economists at the St. Louis, Missouri branch of the Federal Reserve now believe job losses from the coronavirus from China could hit 47 million, greatly surpassing previous estimates. Along with that, the Fed believes at the peak of the pandemic, the unemployment rate could pass 32% . It currently sits just below 4%. Before the Fed released these “back-of-the-envelope” calculations, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard had called for an unemployment rate of 30%. However, it’s important to note these newest statistics do not account for the effects of the stimulus bill. From St. Louis Fed economist Miquel Faria-e-Castro : “These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years.” S&P 500 Rebound Continues, Oil Hits New Lows [Monday, March 30, 10:17 a.m.] Contributed by John Kilhefner Over the weekend, President Trump announced that federal social distancing measures would be extended through April 30. This prompted crude oil to hit its lowest level in more than 18 years , while the S&P 500 rises 1.5% and the Dow Jones increases 0.92%, as of this writing. From The Wall Street Journal: “The end of the first quarter, on Tuesday, will also test many businesses’ ability to pay bills. Traders meanwhile are bracing for fresh constraints on liquidity in some financial markets as investors take stock of portfolios and banks assess their balance sheets at the end of March.” Trump Signs $2.2 Trillion Stimulus Bill [Friday, March 27, 4:43 p.m.] Contributed by Andrew Taylor The $2 trillion coronavirus relief stimulus bill has now been signed into law , as InvestorPlace writer Bret Kenwell notes in his “Stock Market Today” column: “The House vote passed , putting it up to President Trump to push it through. With less than an hour to go in the regular trading session, Trump tweeted that he ‘will be signing’ it at 4 p.m. ET in the Oval Office.” Trump did indeed sign the historic bill, which will put up to $1,200 in the pockets of individuals making less than $99,000 annually. John Rogers: This Is a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity to Buy Stocks [Friday, March 27, 4:35 p.m.] Contributed by Brian Hunt Over at CNBC, we have John Rogers of Ariel Investments. John is a bright guy and a talented investor in his own right. According to John, right now is an incredible time to buy stocks: “I think this is a maybe once in a lifetime opportunity to buy stocks at bargain prices … We’ve been around 37 years at Ariel, and I know I said that ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to buy in ’87 and again in 2008, but I do really think this is an opportunity to take advantage of the volatility, and take advantage of the market.” Other investors echoed John Rogers sentiments. Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman eked out a tidy $2 billion sum in market hedges after warning the White House to lock down the country … Mr. President, the moment you send everyone home for Spring Break and close the borders, the infection rate will plummet, the stock market will soar, and the clouds will lift. We need your leadership now! — Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) March 18, 2020 … Ackman used the $2 billion to beef up his positions in stocks such as Hilton (NYSE: HLT ) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A , NYSE: BRK.B ). Matt McCall Prints a Revolution [Friday, March 27, 4:30 p.m.] Contributed by Brian Hunt Meanwhile, in the InvestorPlace stables, legendary “hypergrowth” investor Matt McCall says the coronavirus and subsequent containment efforts will accelerate the adoption of 3D printing . Huge opportunities are ahead, according to Matt, who believes that “making parts for medical equipment needed to combat the coronavirus is just the start. The possibilities in healthcare are limitless.” Matt’s argument for a 3D-printing resurgence is simple: The U.S.-China trade war prompted companies to look into alternatives for composite materials, and “the coronavirus has only intensified the situation,” making it harder for professionals to find parts. This was just 12 weeks after first reports of the novel coronavirus appeared. Because 3D printing only requires basic materials (the raw materials and the software), it’s once again in demand, this time driven out of both necessity and advanced in technology. “The bottom line is that 3D printing is on the cusp of major growth that will be driven by necessity, rising demand, and advances in 3D scanning and imaging in the $12 trillion global manufacturing sector,” says Matt. More From InvestorPlace America’s Richest ZIP Code Holds Wealth Gap Secret 10 Stocks to Buy That Will Benefit From Coronavirus Mayhem 5 Bank Stocks to Buy Now Because This Isn't 2008 Again 12 Stocks to Buy That Are Already Positive The post InvestorPlace Mission Control: Investing During the Coronavirus Panic appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Steady at $7.5K as Short Sellers Back Off: Since Thursday’s jolt in bitcoin prices, the cryptocurrency has traded in a tight range close to the $7,500 level. It has not only come back from the losses suffered in March, it’s also showing some upward momentum.
The price for oneBTCis currently above 10-day and 50-moving averages on the daily charts, a bullish technical signal. “Despite the mid-March 2020 bitcoin sell-off when we saw a close to 50 percent drop, it has now, within a month, recovered 95 percent,” said Antoni Trenchev co-founder of crypto lender Nexo.
Thursday’s jump in bitcoin price,briefly as high as $7,800 on some spot exchanges,hurt short sellers in the crypto derivatives market. Those trades betting on crypto prices going downward have not returned to derivatives exchanges like BitMEX, said Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of exchange platform Alpha5.
Related:Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since Black Thursday Amid Halving Buzz
“What we saw yesterday was a collapse in open interest, and no real premium being built into the futures curve,” he told CoinDesk. As short sellers were wiped out on BitMEX Thursday during the bitcoin price spike, open interest dropped and it hasn’trecovered.
“It’s tough for me to digest that there’s new capital funneling in; it’s likely capital within the ecosystem sloshing around and targeting pain points,” Shah added. “It feels pretty firm, with the next battle trench likely in the $7,850 – $8,000 region.”
Inflows are needed to push crypto prices higher. Bitcoin’s year-to-date high was $10,510 on spot exchanges like Coinbase back on Feb. 13 and more capital into crypto will be needed to push the markets higher.
“Demand continues to be steady. You have to remember that for bitcoin to stay at these levels, you need inflows of new dollars matching supply of new coins,” said Daniel Masters, chairman of U.K.-based asset manager CoinShares.
Related:First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins
That being said, Masters anticipates most investors holding rather than selling ahead of the bitcoin halving in mid-May – with the exception of miners, who need cash to pay for operational expenditures like energy costs and data center leases.
Read More:Bitcoin Halving, Explained
“Analysis of wallets shows most tourists and speculators have sold, meaning we don’t expect many folks to sell into the halving except for miners who may be anticipating some pain around and are trying to lock in opex costs,” said Masters.
As bitcoin remains in sideways trading and price is flat,ether(ETH) has lost less than 1 percent in the past 24 hours.
Digital assets on CoinDesk’s big board had mixed performances Friday. The biggest winners Friday includecardano(ADA), up 4.2 percent,neo(NEO), higher by 3.9 percent, andtron(TRON) gaining 2.8 percent.
Losers Friday includezcash(ZEC) off 2.9 percent,stellar(XLM) slipping 1.8 percent anddecred(DCR) in the red less by than a percent. All price changes are as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT).
Oil was in the green Friday, up 1.3 percent as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT) Friday after a historic week of lows in the spot and futures markets. For the past two months,the fossil fuelhas actually been more volatile than bitcoin.
Gold dipped sharply in trading Friday but recovered a bit but is still down less than a percent as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT).
In the United States, the S&P 500 index climbed 1.3 percent as Federal Reserve data recently published shows its balance sheet has jumped sharply on stimulus.
U.S. Treasury yields are all down on the day as investors jump to the safety of bonds. Yields, which move opposite to price, on the two-year fell by the most on Friday, down 4.7 percent at market close.
Read More:Bitcoin Jumps as Fed Assets Top $6.5T and Traders Focus on Halving
The FTSE Eurotop 100 index of largest companies in Europe closed in the red 1.1 percent ashopes for a coronavirus treatmentfrom Gilead Sciences were dashed on a failed clinical trial for the drug Remdesivir.
In Asia Nikkei 225 index closed down less than a percent on news that Japan’smanufacturing output dropped and business sentimentthere is at its lowest in seven years.
• Ether Futures Activity Grows Ahead of July Protocol Upgrade
• Why Global Deflation May Not Be Bad News for Bitcoin || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Steady at $7.5K as Short Sellers Back Off: Since Thursday’s jolt in bitcoin prices, the cryptocurrency has traded in a tight range close to the $7,500 level. It has not only come back from the losses suffered in March, it’s also showing some upward momentum. The price for one BTC is currently above 10-day and 50-moving averages on the daily charts, a bullish technical signal. “Despite the mid-March 2020 bitcoin sell-off when we saw a close to 50 percent drop, it has now, within a month, recovered 95 percent,” said Antoni Trenchev co-founder of crypto lender Nexo. Thursday’s jump in bitcoin price, briefly as high as $7,800 on some spot exchanges, hurt short sellers in the crypto derivatives market. Those trades betting on crypto prices going downward have not returned to derivatives exchanges like BitMEX, said Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of exchange platform Alpha5. Related: Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since Black Thursday Amid Halving Buzz “What we saw yesterday was a collapse in open interest, and no real premium being built into the futures curve,” he told CoinDesk. As short sellers were wiped out on BitMEX Thursday during the bitcoin price spike, open interest dropped and it hasn’t recovered . “It’s tough for me to digest that there’s new capital funneling in; it’s likely capital within the ecosystem sloshing around and targeting pain points,” Shah added. “It feels pretty firm, with the next battle trench likely in the $7,850 – $8,000 region.” Inflows are needed to push crypto prices higher. Bitcoin’s year-to-date high was $10,510 on spot exchanges like Coinbase back on Feb. 13 and more capital into crypto will be needed to push the markets higher. “Demand continues to be steady. You have to remember that for bitcoin to stay at these levels, you need inflows of new dollars matching supply of new coins,” said Daniel Masters, chairman of U.K.-based asset manager CoinShares. Related: First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins Story continues That being said, Masters anticipates most investors holding rather than selling ahead of the bitcoin halving in mid-May – with the exception of miners, who need cash to pay for operational expenditures like energy costs and data center leases. Read More: Bitcoin Halving, Explained “Analysis of wallets shows most tourists and speculators have sold, meaning we don’t expect many folks to sell into the halving except for miners who may be anticipating some pain around and are trying to lock in opex costs,” said Masters. Crypto markets As bitcoin remains in sideways trading and price is flat, ether (ETH) has lost less than 1 percent in the past 24 hours. Digital assets on CoinDesk’s big board had mixed performances Friday. The biggest winners Friday include cardano (ADA), up 4.2 percent, neo (NEO), higher by 3.9 percent, and tron (TRON) gaining 2.8 percent. Losers Friday include zcash (ZEC) off 2.9 percent, stellar (XLM) slipping 1.8 percent and decred (DCR) in the red less by than a percent. All price changes are as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT). Other markets Oil was in the green Friday, up 1.3 percent as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT) Friday after a historic week of lows in the spot and futures markets. For the past two months, the fossil fuel has actually been more volatile than bitcoin. Gold dipped sharply in trading Friday but recovered a bit but is still down less than a percent as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT). In the United States, the S&P 500 index climbed 1.3 percent as Federal Reserve data recently published shows its balance sheet has jumped sharply on stimulus. U.S. Treasury yields are all down on the day as investors jump to the safety of bonds. Yields, which move opposite to price, on the two-year fell by the most on Friday, down 4.7 percent at market close. Read More: Bitcoin Jumps as Fed Assets Top $6.5T and Traders Focus on Halving The FTSE Eurotop 100 index of largest companies in Europe closed in the red 1.1 percent as hopes for a coronavirus treatment from Gilead Sciences were dashed on a failed clinical trial for the drug Remdesivir. In Asia Nikkei 225 index closed down less than a percent on news that Japan’s manufacturing output dropped and business sentiment there is at its lowest in seven years. Related Stories Ether Futures Activity Grows Ahead of July Protocol Upgrade Why Global Deflation May Not Be Bad News for Bitcoin || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Steady at $7.5K as Short Sellers Back Off: Since Thursday’s jolt in bitcoin prices, the cryptocurrency has traded in a tight range close to the $7,500 level. It has not only come back from the losses suffered in March, it’s also showing some upward momentum.
The price for oneBTCis currently above 10-day and 50-moving averages on the daily charts, a bullish technical signal. “Despite the mid-March 2020 bitcoin sell-off when we saw a close to 50 percent drop, it has now, within a month, recovered 95 percent,” said Antoni Trenchev co-founder of crypto lender Nexo.
Thursday’s jump in bitcoin price,briefly as high as $7,800 on some spot exchanges,hurt short sellers in the crypto derivatives market. Those trades betting on crypto prices going downward have not returned to derivatives exchanges like BitMEX, said Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of exchange platform Alpha5.
Related:Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since Black Thursday Amid Halving Buzz
“What we saw yesterday was a collapse in open interest, and no real premium being built into the futures curve,” he told CoinDesk. As short sellers were wiped out on BitMEX Thursday during the bitcoin price spike, open interest dropped and it hasn’trecovered.
“It’s tough for me to digest that there’s new capital funneling in; it’s likely capital within the ecosystem sloshing around and targeting pain points,” Shah added. “It feels pretty firm, with the next battle trench likely in the $7,850 – $8,000 region.”
Inflows are needed to push crypto prices higher. Bitcoin’s year-to-date high was $10,510 on spot exchanges like Coinbase back on Feb. 13 and more capital into crypto will be needed to push the markets higher.
“Demand continues to be steady. You have to remember that for bitcoin to stay at these levels, you need inflows of new dollars matching supply of new coins,” said Daniel Masters, chairman of U.K.-based asset manager CoinShares.
Related:First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins
That being said, Masters anticipates most investors holding rather than selling ahead of the bitcoin halving in mid-May – with the exception of miners, who need cash to pay for operational expenditures like energy costs and data center leases.
Read More:Bitcoin Halving, Explained
“Analysis of wallets shows most tourists and speculators have sold, meaning we don’t expect many folks to sell into the halving except for miners who may be anticipating some pain around and are trying to lock in opex costs,” said Masters.
As bitcoin remains in sideways trading and price is flat,ether(ETH) has lost less than 1 percent in the past 24 hours.
Digital assets on CoinDesk’s big board had mixed performances Friday. The biggest winners Friday includecardano(ADA), up 4.2 percent,neo(NEO), higher by 3.9 percent, andtron(TRON) gaining 2.8 percent.
Losers Friday includezcash(ZEC) off 2.9 percent,stellar(XLM) slipping 1.8 percent anddecred(DCR) in the red less by than a percent. All price changes are as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT).
Oil was in the green Friday, up 1.3 percent as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT) Friday after a historic week of lows in the spot and futures markets. For the past two months,the fossil fuelhas actually been more volatile than bitcoin.
Gold dipped sharply in trading Friday but recovered a bit but is still down less than a percent as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT).
In the United States, the S&P 500 index climbed 1.3 percent as Federal Reserve data recently published shows its balance sheet has jumped sharply on stimulus.
U.S. Treasury yields are all down on the day as investors jump to the safety of bonds. Yields, which move opposite to price, on the two-year fell by the most on Friday, down 4.7 percent at market close.
Read More:Bitcoin Jumps as Fed Assets Top $6.5T and Traders Focus on Halving
The FTSE Eurotop 100 index of largest companies in Europe closed in the red 1.1 percent ashopes for a coronavirus treatmentfrom Gilead Sciences were dashed on a failed clinical trial for the drug Remdesivir.
In Asia Nikkei 225 index closed down less than a percent on news that Japan’smanufacturing output dropped and business sentimentthere is at its lowest in seven years.
• Ether Futures Activity Grows Ahead of July Protocol Upgrade
• Why Global Deflation May Not Be Bad News for Bitcoin || Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic: Recent polling finds the COVID-19 pandemic has softened the backlash against big tech firms. A majority of Americans now support tech firms being involved in tracing COVID-19, for example. The recent round of polling is a turnaround from 2019. In 2015, 71 percent of Americans said tech companies had a positive impact on the United States, with that number falling to only 50 percent by 2019, according to the Pew Research Center. Over those same years, negative views of tech went from the high teens to 33 percent. But during the pandemic tech companies are stepping into a new field — public health. Google and Apple have announced an initiative to support contact tracing through Bluetooth technology, which tracks when people come in contact with an infected person. MIT researchers have developed an app to serve a similar purpose, and other tech companies are lending their support to help combat COVID-19 in a variety of ways. Related: Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Taken together, the results from a number of different polls raise questions about a continued desire for products and services that focus on privacy and security, which were the beneficiaries of an estimated $124 billion in spending on this industry in 2019, according to Gartner estimates. A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll covering late April found 68 percent of Americans would now share their COVID-19 test results with officials using an app, though that dropped to 45 percent if the app tracks with whom they come into contact and sends them alerts if one of those people tests positive for coronavirus. Such measures are currently on the table in the U.S. and Europe. See also: For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple Even so, people have an improved view of tech companies generally during the pandemic. Related: US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin Thirty-eight percent of Americans say their view of the tech industry is more positive since the start of the outbreak, according to a Harris/Axios poll. Forty percent said the tech industry should be providing solutions, and an overwhelming 81 percent said they support large tech companies helping with contact tracing. The results are heartening for public health officials given that any contact tracing app in the U.S. would likely not be mandatory, and a recent study said any such app would need to be adopted by 60 percent of a population to be effective. The question is whether these positive feelings hold when the pandemic passes. To companies that have built their businesses around the notion of privacy as a commodity that’s here to stay, that seems unlikely. Previous distrust of big tech companies that came to a head as a result of data and privacy violations have expanded the Overton window , a publicly acceptable range of policy proposals, in such a way that makes privacy a fixture of our world, not a passing fad. Story continues The question is whether these positive feelings hold when the pandemic passes. Tor Bair, the Head of Growth at Enigma, a decentralized, open source protocol, said privacy and security will always be essential, even if user attitudes towards privacy fluctuate over time. “If big tech firms commit to defending the privacy and security of their users by default, then users will expect privacy as a universal value,” said Bair. “Anyone who then takes advantage of that trust will be punished by users, not to mention regulators. In this world, privacy technologies become an essential core of any product.” And while consumer views go back and forth when it comes to trusting Apple or Google, for example, there are still industrial clients such as oil or shipping companies that see the ability to share data privately and securely as a fundamentally part of their businesses, according to Duncan Greatwood, CEO of Xage Security. His company provides a decentralized platform for protecting the industrial internet of things, among other data security measures. “I think that a crisis like this does give people a bit of a pause and say, ‘Maybe privacy isn’t quite as important as I thought it was,’” said Greatwood. “But I do believe that once this crisis is past, people will care about their privacy. That’s certainly the case in the industrial world we operate in.” Looking beyond the pandemic, a National Research Group polling report published just days ago found two out of three Americans are excited about how technology can “accelerate positive trends on the other side of the curve.” Related Stories COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask Bitcoin Messenger Explores Censorship Resistance During Coronavirus Crisis View comments || Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic: Recent polling finds the COVID-19 pandemic has softened the backlash against big tech firms. A majority of Americans now support tech firms being involved in tracing COVID-19, for example.
The recent round of polling is a turnaround from 2019. In 2015, 71 percent of Americans said tech companies had a positive impact on the United States, with that number falling to only 50 percent by 2019,according to the Pew Research Center.Over those same years, negative views of tech went from the high teens to 33 percent.
But during the pandemic tech companies are stepping into a new field — public health. Google and Apple haveannounced an initiative to support contact tracingthrough Bluetooth technology, which tracks when people come in contact with an infected person. MIT researchers have developed an app to serve a similar purpose, and other tech companies are lending their support to help combat COVID-19 in a variety of ways.
Related:Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed
Taken together, the results from a number of different polls raise questions about a continued desire for products and services that focus on privacy and security, which were the beneficiaries of an estimated $124 billion in spending on this industry in 2019,according to Gartner estimates.
AKaiser Family Foundation tracking poll covering late Aprilfound 68 percent of Americans would now share their COVID-19 test results with officials using an app, though that dropped to 45 percent if the app tracks with whom they come into contact and sends them alerts if one of those people tests positive for coronavirus. Such measures are currently on the table in the U.S. and Europe.
See also:For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple
Even so, people have an improved view of tech companies generally during the pandemic.
Related:US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin
Thirty-eight percent of Americans say their view of the tech industry is more positive since the start of the outbreak,according to a Harris/Axios poll.Forty percent said the tech industry should be providing solutions, and an overwhelming 81 percent said they support large tech companies helping with contact tracing.
The results are heartening for public health officials given that any contact tracing app in the U.S. would likely not be mandatory, and a recent study said any such app would need to beadopted by 60 percentof a population to be effective.
The question is whether these positive feelings hold when the pandemic passes. To companies that have built their businesses around the notion of privacy as a commodity that’s here to stay, that seems unlikely. Previous distrust of big tech companies that came to a head as a result of data and privacy violations have expanded theOverton window, a publicly acceptable range of policy proposals, in such a way that makes privacy a fixture of our world, not a passing fad.
The question is whether these positive feelings hold when the pandemic passes.
Tor Bair, the Head of Growth at Enigma, a decentralized,open sourceprotocol, said privacy and security will always be essential, even if user attitudes towards privacy fluctuate over time.
“If big tech firms commit to defending the privacy and security of their users by default, then users will expect privacy as a universal value,” said Bair. “Anyone who then takes advantage of that trust will be punished by users, not to mention regulators. In this world, privacy technologies become an essential core of any product.”
And while consumer views go back and forth when it comes to trusting Apple or Google, for example, there are still industrial clients such as oil or shipping companies that see the ability to share data privately and securely as a fundamentally part of their businesses, according to Duncan Greatwood, CEO of Xage Security. His company provides a decentralized platform for protecting the industrial internet of things, among other data security measures.
“I think that a crisis like this does give people a bit of a pause and say, ‘Maybe privacy isn’t quite as important as I thought it was,’” said Greatwood. “But I do believe that once this crisis is past, people will care about their privacy. That’s certainly the case in the industrial world we operate in.”
Looking beyond the pandemic, aNational Research Group polling report published just days agofound two out of three Americans are excited about how technology can “accelerate positive trends on the other side of the curve.”
• COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask
• Bitcoin Messenger Explores Censorship Resistance During Coronavirus Crisis || Starting a Bitcoin Startup During the COVID-19 Crisis, Feat. Yan Pritzker: With companies closing, unemployment rising and investors spooked in the age of the pandemic, NLW speaks with Swan BTC co-founder Yan Pritzker about the experience of launching a startup in the hyper-competitive world of Bitcoin.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
Yan Pritzker is the CTO and cofounder of Swan Bitcoin, an automated bitcoin-only investing app aiming to be the best on-ramp tobitcoin. He is also the author of “Inventing Bitcoin.”
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for April 27, 2020
On this episode, he and NLW discuss:
• How emigrating from the Soviet Union taught Yan about capital controls
• Buying bitcoin at $30 in 2011
• Why the type of capital available shapes what type of startups entrepreneurs found
• Why venture capitals focused investments away from bitcoin
• The emergence of a bitcoin-only startup scene
• Starting a startup during the COVID-19 crisis
• Why bitcoin’s scarcity is its most important property
See also:Bram Cohen: ‘Getting Rich Is a Terrible Metric of Success’
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• CoinDesk Live: 2019’s Most Catastrophic Crypto Caper
• Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed
• Bitcoin Halving 2020: The ‘Arms Race’ for Miner Efficiency Intensifies || Starting a Bitcoin Startup During the COVID-19 Crisis, Feat. Yan Pritzker: With companies closing, unemployment rising and investors spooked in the age of the pandemic, NLW speaks with Swan BTC co-founder Yan Pritzker about the experience of launching a startup in the hyper-competitive world of Bitcoin. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Yan Pritzker is the CTO and cofounder of Swan Bitcoin, an automated bitcoin-only investing app aiming to be the best on-ramp to bitcoin . He is also the author of “Inventing Bitcoin.” Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for April 27, 2020 On this episode, he and NLW discuss: How emigrating from the Soviet Union taught Yan about capital controls Buying bitcoin at $30 in 2011 Why the type of capital available shapes what type of startups entrepreneurs found Why venture capitals focused investments away from bitcoin The emergence of a bitcoin-only startup scene Starting a startup during the COVID-19 crisis Why bitcoin’s scarcity is its most important property See also: Bram Cohen: ‘Getting Rich Is a Terrible Metric of Success’ For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories CoinDesk Live: 2019’s Most Catastrophic Crypto Caper Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Bitcoin Halving 2020: The ‘Arms Race’ for Miner Efficiency Intensifies || Starting a Bitcoin Startup During the COVID-19 Crisis, Feat. Yan Pritzker: With companies closing, unemployment rising and investors spooked in the age of the pandemic, NLW speaks with Swan BTC co-founder Yan Pritzker about the experience of launching a startup in the hyper-competitive world of Bitcoin.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
Yan Pritzker is the CTO and cofounder of Swan Bitcoin, an automated bitcoin-only investing app aiming to be the best on-ramp tobitcoin. He is also the author of “Inventing Bitcoin.”
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for April 27, 2020
On this episode, he and NLW discuss:
• How emigrating from the Soviet Union taught Yan about capital controls
• Buying bitcoin at $30 in 2011
• Why the type of capital available shapes what type of startups entrepreneurs found
• Why venture capitals focused investments away from bitcoin
• The emergence of a bitcoin-only startup scene
• Starting a startup during the COVID-19 crisis
• Why bitcoin’s scarcity is its most important property
See also:Bram Cohen: ‘Getting Rich Is a Terrible Metric of Success’
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• CoinDesk Live: 2019’s Most Catastrophic Crypto Caper
• Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed
• Bitcoin Halving 2020: The ‘Arms Race’ for Miner Efficiency Intensifies || Why Global Deflation May Not Be Bad News for Bitcoin: Contrary to expectations, bitcoin could see a positive performance during a possible bout of global deflation if it acts not just as an investment asset, but as a medium of exchange and a perceived safe haven like gold.
The top cryptocurrency by market value is widely considered to be a hedge against inflation because its supply is capped at 21 million and its monetary policy is pre-programmed to cut the pace of supply expansion by 50 percent every four years.
As such, one may consider any deflationary collapse as a price-bearish development forbitcoin. Talk of deflation began earlier this month after the U.S. reported massive job losses due to the coronavirus outbreak. The prospects of a deflationary collapse have strengthened with this week’soil price crash.
Related:Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since Black Thursday Amid Halving Buzz
“The oil price rout will send a deflationary wave through the global economy,”tweetedpopular macro analyst Holger Zschaepitz on Tuesday.
Read more:First Mover: What the Oil Price Collapse Means for Bitcoin’s Halving Valuation
Cash typically becomes king during deflation because the drop in the general price levels boosts the monetary unit’s purchasing power, or the ability to purchase goods and services.
“Unlike inflation, when people try to get out of the dollar because it’s losing value, during deflation people are more comfortable with the dollar because its value is going up,” said Erick Pinos, ecosystem lead for the Americas at the public blockchain and distributed collaboration platform Ontology.
Related:First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins
The rush for cash, however, may not have a substantially negative impact on bitcoin’s price because deflation would also boost the purchasing power of the cryptocurrency.
“While the price per coin may stagnate during a period of aggressive economic deflation, the inherent buying power of the currency will actually rise, possibly quite significantly,” said Brandon Mintz, CEO of the bitcoin ATM provider Bitcoin Depot.
As time goes on and people become more comfortable with digital assets, the average person begins to see Bitcoin as a legitimate viable alternative to gold.
The uptick in the purchasing power will likely draw greater demand for bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency is already used as means of payment.
“Hundreds of thousands of businesses, brands and merchants do accept the ‘digital gold’ as payment, and thousands more every day are realizing the benefits of diversifying their revenue stream and accepting bitcoin as payment for their goods and services,” said Derek Muhney, director of sales and marketing at Coinsource, the world’s leader in Bitcoin ATMs.
Moreover, the cryptocurrency’s appeal as a medium of exchange is likely to continue strengthening with the growing prevalence of technology in consumers’ everyday lives caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ever since its inception, bitcoin has been dubbed “digital gold.” Like the yellow metal, the cryptocurrency is durable, fungible, divisible, recognizable and scarce.
Both assets share features that fulfillAristotle’s callfor a currency to be practical and functional. Bitcoin has actual utility as the means of payment, which gold lacks, according to Coinsource’s Muhney.
“As time goes on and people become more comfortable with digital assets, the average person begins to see Bitcoin as a legitimate viable alternative to gold. Thus, it’s reasonable to assume that during a period of deflation bitcoin would perform well like gold has in the past,” said Eric Pinos, America’s ecosystem lead at the public blockchain and distributed collaboration platform Ontology.
Read more:Looking for a Safe Haven Digital Asset? Try Gold
Hence, gold’s performance during the previous bouts of deflation could serve as a guide for bitcoin investors.
Historical datashowsgold performs well during deflation, which includes a sharp rise in financial stress and increased risk of corporate defaults; highly levered companies tend to go bust during deflation because their revenues fall while their debt service payments remain the same.
Of course, gold’s shine is particularly bright during periods of inflation as well. As in periods of sizable deflation, inflation brings a set of price distortions that shake-up income statements and economies.
A commonly-used measure of stress is the “Ted spread” or the difference between the three-month U.S. interbank rate and the three-month T-Bill rate.
“Massive spikes in the Ted spread in the 1970s were accompanied by a sharp rise in gold. The Ted spread also rose sharply in the early 1980s; in 1987 in the wake of the stock market crash and during the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 – both also periods of stronger gold prices,”according toOxford Economics’ research note.
The real or inflation-adjusted price of gold rose an average 33 percent per annum in the 1970s, 18 percent in 1980s and 15.8 percent in 2000.
Underscoring all of the scenarios is that a sudden rise in economic stress usually fuels a global dash for cash, forcing investors to sell everything from stocks to gold. However, once economic uncertainty starts settling, people again start looking for safe havens.
“During the Great Recession, while gold initially declined alongside other equities, it found its footing and rallied faster than stocks recovered,” Ontology’s Pinos told CoinDesk.
The Ted spread spiked as high as 4.6 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in August 2008. Gold fell from $920 to $680 per troy ounce in the August to October period, as investors treated the yellow metal as a source of liquidity, but still ended that year with 5.5 percent gains. More importantly, it rallied by 24 percent in 2009 and went on to hit a record high above $1,900 in 2011.
Read more:First Mover: Bitcoin Jumps as Fed Assets Top $6.5T and Traders Focus on Halving
The yellow metal’s recent price gyrations suggest history may be repeating itself. As the Ted spread rose from 0.11 to 1.42 in the four weeks to March 27, gold fell from $1,700 to $1,450 yet is now trading near $1,725 per ounce, having hit a 7-year high of $1,747 ten days ago.
Bitcoin, too, was treated as a source of liquidity last month, as evidenced from the near 40 percent drop to levels under $4,000 seen on March 12. Since then, however, the cryptocurrency has risen by nearly 85 percent to $7,500.
If gold’s historical data and the recent market activity is a guide, then the path of least resistance for bitcoin appears to be on the higher side.
Both the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have unleashed massive amounts of liquidity into the system over the past few weeks to contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Notably, the Fed is running an open-ended asset purchase program and its balance sheet has already risen to record highs above $6.5 trillion. Meanwhile, central banks from New Zealand to Canada have slashed rates to zero and have recently announced bond purchase programs.
What’s more, the amount of fiscal stimulus announced by 22 countries in March is equivalent to 75 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP),according toJPMorgan.
However, most governments and central banks appear to have run out of ammo. Hence, if the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread or leads to corporate defaults, investors may lose trust in traditional finance and look for alternatives like bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.
Moody’s Analyticsrecently warnedof the heightened risk of corporate defaults in the oil and gas sector across the globe, and weakness in entertainment and leisure giving way to pressure on consumer durables.
“The willingness to fight deflation should bode well for bitcoin,” said Richard Rosenblum, head of trading at GSR.
Meanwhile, Ashish Singhal, CEO and founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch.co, said, “In a deflationary scenario, the chances of negative interest rates are high, and users would want to move their existing assets into more stable assets like bitcoin to prevent loss in their asset value.”
Interest rates are already set below zero across Europe and in Japan and are hovering at or near zero in other advanced countries.
Further, with central banks willing to do whatever it takes to defeat deflation, the real yield or inflation-adjusted returns on bonds are likely to remain negative or meagerly positive at best. As a result, zero-yielding assets like gold and bitcoin may attract more buyers.
Bank of America’s analystsnotedearlier this week that the stimulus frenzy amid the coronavirus pandemic would put pressure on the currencies and send gold to $3,000 by October 2021.
While bitcoin could perform well during deflation, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have seldom tracked macro developments on a consistent basis in the past. “Blockchain-based currencies are really their own beasts,” said Bitcoin Depot CEO Brandon Mitz.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Steady at $7.5K as Short Sellers Back Off
• Oil’s Been More Volatile Than Bitcoin for Nearly 2 Months, Data Shows || Why Global Deflation May Not Be Bad News for Bitcoin: Contrary to expectations, bitcoin could see a positive performance during a possible bout of global deflation if it acts not just as an investment asset, but as a medium of exchange and a perceived safe haven like gold. The top cryptocurrency by market value is widely considered to be a hedge against inflation because its supply is capped at 21 million and its monetary policy is pre-programmed to cut the pace of supply expansion by 50 percent every four years. As such, one may consider any deflationary collapse as a price-bearish development for bitcoin . Talk of deflation began earlier this month after the U.S. reported massive job losses due to the coronavirus outbreak. The prospects of a deflationary collapse have strengthened with this week’s oil price crash . Related: Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since Black Thursday Amid Halving Buzz “The oil price rout will send a deflationary wave through the global economy,” tweeted popular macro analyst Holger Zschaepitz on Tuesday. Read more: First Mover: What the Oil Price Collapse Means for Bitcoin’s Halving Valuation Cash typically becomes king during deflation because the drop in the general price levels boosts the monetary unit’s purchasing power, or the ability to purchase goods and services. “Unlike inflation, when people try to get out of the dollar because it’s losing value, during deflation people are more comfortable with the dollar because its value is going up,” said Erick Pinos, ecosystem lead for the Americas at the public blockchain and distributed collaboration platform Ontology. Related: First Mover: Ether Trounces Bitcoin as Network Sees Surge in Stablecoins The rush for cash, however, may not have a substantially negative impact on bitcoin’s price because deflation would also boost the purchasing power of the cryptocurrency. “While the price per coin may stagnate during a period of aggressive economic deflation, the inherent buying power of the currency will actually rise, possibly quite significantly,” said Brandon Mintz, CEO of the bitcoin ATM provider Bitcoin Depot. Story continues As time goes on and people become more comfortable with digital assets, the average person begins to see Bitcoin as a legitimate viable alternative to gold. The uptick in the purchasing power will likely draw greater demand for bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency is already used as means of payment. “Hundreds of thousands of businesses, brands and merchants do accept the ‘digital gold’ as payment, and thousands more every day are realizing the benefits of diversifying their revenue stream and accepting bitcoin as payment for their goods and services,” said Derek Muhney, director of sales and marketing at Coinsource, the world’s leader in Bitcoin ATMs. Moreover, the cryptocurrency’s appeal as a medium of exchange is likely to continue strengthening with the growing prevalence of technology in consumers’ everyday lives caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Digital gold Ever since its inception, bitcoin has been dubbed “digital gold.” Like the yellow metal, the cryptocurrency is durable, fungible, divisible, recognizable and scarce. Both assets share features that fulfill Aristotle’s call for a currency to be practical and functional. Bitcoin has actual utility as the means of payment, which gold lacks, according to Coinsource’s Muhney. “As time goes on and people become more comfortable with digital assets, the average person begins to see Bitcoin as a legitimate viable alternative to gold. Thus, it’s reasonable to assume that during a period of deflation bitcoin would perform well like gold has in the past,” said Eric Pinos, America’s ecosystem lead at the public blockchain and distributed collaboration platform Ontology. Read more: Looking for a Safe Haven Digital Asset? Try Gold Hence, gold’s performance during the previous bouts of deflation could serve as a guide for bitcoin investors. Historical data shows gold performs well during deflation, which includes a sharp rise in financial stress and increased risk of corporate defaults; highly levered companies tend to go bust during deflation because their revenues fall while their debt service payments remain the same. Of course, gold’s shine is particularly bright during periods of inflation as well. As in periods of sizable deflation, inflation brings a set of price distortions that shake-up income statements and economies. A commonly-used measure of stress is the “Ted spread” or the difference between the three-month U.S. interbank rate and the three-month T-Bill rate. “Massive spikes in the Ted spread in the 1970s were accompanied by a sharp rise in gold. The Ted spread also rose sharply in the early 1980s; in 1987 in the wake of the stock market crash and during the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 – both also periods of stronger gold prices,” according to Oxford Economics’ research note. The real or inflation-adjusted price of gold rose an average 33 percent per annum in the 1970s, 18 percent in 1980s and 15.8 percent in 2000. Underscoring all of the scenarios is that a sudden rise in economic stress usually fuels a global dash for cash, forcing investors to sell everything from stocks to gold. However, once economic uncertainty starts settling, people again start looking for safe havens. “During the Great Recession, while gold initially declined alongside other equities, it found its footing and rallied faster than stocks recovered,” Ontology’s Pinos told CoinDesk. The Ted spread spiked as high as 4.6 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in August 2008. Gold fell from $920 to $680 per troy ounce in the August to October period, as investors treated the yellow metal as a source of liquidity, but still ended that year with 5.5 percent gains. More importantly, it rallied by 24 percent in 2009 and went on to hit a record high above $1,900 in 2011. Read more: First Mover: Bitcoin Jumps as Fed Assets Top $6.5T and Traders Focus on Halving The yellow metal’s recent price gyrations suggest history may be repeating itself. As the Ted spread rose from 0.11 to 1.42 in the four weeks to March 27, gold fell from $1,700 to $1,450 yet is now trading near $1,725 per ounce, having hit a 7-year high of $1,747 ten days ago. Bitcoin, too, was treated as a source of liquidity last month, as evidenced from the near 40 percent drop to levels under $4,000 seen on March 12. Since then, however, the cryptocurrency has risen by nearly 85 percent to $7,500. If gold’s historical data and the recent market activity is a guide, then the path of least resistance for bitcoin appears to be on the higher side. U nprecedented stimulus to undermine fiat currencies Both the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have unleashed massive amounts of liquidity into the system over the past few weeks to contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Notably, the Fed is running an open-ended asset purchase program and its balance sheet has already risen to record highs above $6.5 trillion. Meanwhile, central banks from New Zealand to Canada have slashed rates to zero and have recently announced bond purchase programs. What’s more, the amount of fiscal stimulus announced by 22 countries in March is equivalent to 75 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), according to JPMorgan. However, most governments and central banks appear to have run out of ammo. Hence, if the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread or leads to corporate defaults, investors may lose trust in traditional finance and look for alternatives like bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Moody’s Analytics recently warned of the heightened risk of corporate defaults in the oil and gas sector across the globe, and weakness in entertainment and leisure giving way to pressure on consumer durables. “The willingness to fight deflation should bode well for bitcoin,” said Richard Rosenblum, head of trading at GSR. Meanwhile, Ashish Singhal, CEO and founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch.co, said, “In a deflationary scenario, the chances of negative interest rates are high, and users would want to move their existing assets into more stable assets like bitcoin to prevent loss in their asset value.” Interest rates are already set below zero across Europe and in Japan and are hovering at or near zero in other advanced countries. Further, with central banks willing to do whatever it takes to defeat deflation, the real yield or inflation-adjusted returns on bonds are likely to remain negative or meagerly positive at best. As a result, zero-yielding assets like gold and bitcoin may attract more buyers. Bank of America’s analysts noted earlier this week that the stimulus frenzy amid the coronavirus pandemic would put pressure on the currencies and send gold to $3,000 by October 2021. While bitcoin could perform well during deflation, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have seldom tracked macro developments on a consistent basis in the past. “Blockchain-based currencies are really their own beasts,” said Bitcoin Depot CEO Brandon Mitz. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Steady at $7.5K as Short Sellers Back Off Oil’s Been More Volatile Than Bitcoin for Nearly 2 Months, Data Shows
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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7795.60, 7807.06, 8801.04, 8658.55, 8864.77, 8988.60, 8897.47, 8912.65, 9003.07, 9268.76
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8621.90, 8129.97, 8926.57, 8598.31, 9494.63, 10166.40, 10233.90, 11112.70, 10551.80, 11225.30, 11403.70, 10690.40, 10005.00, 10301.10, 9813.07, 9664.73, 10366.70, 10725.60, 10397.90, 10951.00, 11086.40, 11489.70, 11512.60, 11573.30, 10779.90, 9965.57, 9395.01, 9337.55, 8866.00, 9578.63, 9205.12, 9194.85, 8269.81, 8300.86, 8338.35, 7916.88, 8223.68, 8630.65, 8913.47, 8929.28, 8728.47, 8879.62, 8668.12, 8495.78, 8209.40, 7833.04, 7954.48, 7165.70, 6890.52, 6973.53, 6844.23, 7083.80, 7456.11, 6853.84, 6811.47, 6636.32, 6911.09, 7023.52, 6770.73, 6834.76, 6968.32, 7889.25, 7895.96, 7986.24, 8329.11, 8058.67, 7902.09, 8163.42, 8294.31, 8845.83, 8895.58, 8802.46, 8930.88, 9697.50, 8845.74, 9281.51, 8987.05, 9348.48, 9419.08, 9240.55, 9119.01, 9235.92, 9743.86, 9700.76, 9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-05-10]
Volume: 6906699776, RSI (14-day): 50.52, 50-day EMA: 8878.45, 200-day EMA: 8866.19
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1320.80, Gold RSI: 48.95
Oil Price: 71.36, Oil RSI: 65.98
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
You can buy NVIDIA GeForce GTX cards for not-insane prices again: Fortnitebuilders,Overwatchheroes andPUBGsquads might soon play those games with extra clarity if they've been clamoring for a new NVIDIA graphics card. Low availability and high prices recently made the 10-series GeForce GTX GPUs hard to come by. However, the cards are back in stock on NVIDIA's site and at retailers, with standard retail prices that make it easier for gamers to get one.
NVIDIA GPUs often sell out quickly and go for much higher than their retail prices on secondary markets. The reason for that? Bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners use themto generate digital currencyfaster than they can with processors alone. The recent crypto boom sent demand for graphics cards and memory skyrocketing, with inflated prices to match.
The restock is good news for gamers who want to upgrade their old, creaky GPUs without paying a premium or scouring for a prebuilt rig with a good card. Prices start at $229 for the 1060 3GB, with the top-end 1080 TI Founders Edition selling for $699. It might be best to act quickly, though -- there's every chance crypto miners might stock up now the cards are less expensive, slashing supplies and bumping up prices yet again. || You can buy NVIDIA GeForce GTX cards for not-insane prices again: Fortnite builders, Overwatch heroes and PUBG squads might soon play those games with extra clarity if they've been clamoring for a new NVIDIA graphics card. Low availability and high prices recently made the 10-series GeForce GTX GPUs hard to come by. However, the cards are back in stock on NVIDIA's site and at retailers, with standard retail prices that make it easier for gamers to get one. NVIDIA GPUs often sell out quickly and go for much higher than their retail prices on secondary markets. The reason for that? Bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners use them to generate digital currency faster than they can with processors alone. The recent crypto boom sent demand for graphics cards and memory skyrocketing, with inflated prices to match. The restock is good news for gamers who want to upgrade their old, creaky GPUs without paying a premium or scouring for a prebuilt rig with a good card. Prices start at $229 for the 1060 3GB, with the top-end 1080 TI Founders Edition selling for $699. It might be best to act quickly, though -- there's every chance crypto miners might stock up now the cards are less expensive, slashing supplies and bumping up prices yet again. || What's Going On With Apple's Inventory?: Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)knocked its earnings report out of the park, but a couple of numbers seemed a little alarming at first glance.
In thisIndustry Focus: Techclip, analysts Dylan Lewis and Evan Niu explain why a spike in Apple's inventory isn't as bad as it sounds, and is actually more of a smart, planned decision. They also discuss why Apple's ding from foreign exchange is nothing for investors to worry about.
A full transcript follows the video.
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This video was recorded on May 4, 2018.
Dylan Lewis:One thing I was a little surprised to see in this earnings release was a pretty big spike in inventory. We know Tim Cook as this guy who's a supply chain master. That was kind of his MO and his reputation coming into the CEO role. And it's something that Apple has very tightly managed for a really long time. We see that it spikes to over seven billion, the highest ever. What's going on with their inventory right now?
Evan Niu:Tim Cook has this famous line that he considers inventory to be "fundamentally evil," just because over time, if you build so much of it, it gets written down, and it's just a mess to deal with. It's very good to have lean inventory, enough to meet demand but not too much on your books, which is why this spike was so weird.
But it's really just actually component purchases. An analyst was able to get some clarity on that. I noticed it, too, initially, when I saw the balance sheet. Basically, CFO Maestri said, "We're basically making these purchasing decisions because of current market conditions." So, they're basically pre-buying all of these different components because the components, most specifically memory, the pricing is supposed to continue going up. I mean, it's been going on for two years, and it's probably going to keep going up, so they're basically just trying to buy as much as they can now to get ahead of continued price increases later this year. As we all know, they release a ton of iPhones in the fall, and they're going to need all those components to put them in the phones.
So, very specifically, the type of inventory that we're talking about is just components. It's not unsold products on shelves, which would be a pretty big concern there, if that were the case. So, it did jump out at me, too, but that's what's going on there.
Lewis:So, this is more of a planned decision than them sitting on stuff in a warehouse.
Niu:Right, exactly. [laughs] He was like, "It'll unwind itself over time," so really nothing to be concerned about, even though the numbers look a little scary.
Lewis:One other little tidbit from the call and from the release that I think is interesting, to go back to the conversation we were having aboutFacebookwhen we talked about their earnings, we both expressed some surprise at seeing a company have forex that was accretive. Usually, when you have money that you're bringing back from overseas from foreign operations and you're bringing it to the United States, because the dollar has been so strong for such a long period of time, that winds up being a ding on your top and bottom line. That was the case with what we saw here with Apple, where they wound up taking a slight hit for that.
Niu:Right. It was kind of the opposite scenario here. Facebook doesn't really have much of a hedging program in place to accommodate for these FX movements, which is why they got this benefit as the dollar continued to weaken. Apple is much larger, and obviously has a lot more money on the line, and in general, their business is much more spread across the world in terms of their supply chain. So, they have a much bigger and more active hedging program that kind of mitigates these foreign exchange movements, both up and down.
So, they tried to do their best to mitigate these hits that they've taken while the dollar was strengthening. And now that the dollar is weakening, they're missing out on the upside because these hedges are in place. So, it was kind of a funny thing, but it's because Apple does such a good job in general. If you're a company, you just don't want the risk at all. You just want to hedge it. You're not a currency trader, you don't want to ride the swings up and down. So, they just try to hedge it to mitigate all risk, up and down. So, yeah, they didn't get to enjoy some benefit like other companies.
Dylan Lewisowns shares of Apple.Evan Niu, CFAowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || What's Going On With Apple's Inventory?: Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) knocked its earnings report out of the park, but a couple of numbers seemed a little alarming at first glance. In this Industry Focus: Tech clip, analysts Dylan Lewis and Evan Niu explain why a spike in Apple's inventory isn't as bad as it sounds, and is actually more of a smart, planned decision. They also discuss why Apple's ding from foreign exchange is nothing for investors to worry about. A full transcript follows the video. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This This video was recorded on May 4, 2018. Dylan Lewis: One thing I was a little surprised to see in this earnings release was a pretty big spike in inventory. We know Tim Cook as this guy who's a supply chain master. That was kind of his MO and his reputation coming into the CEO role. And it's something that Apple has very tightly managed for a really long time. We see that it spikes to over seven billion, the highest ever. What's going on with their inventory right now? Evan Niu: Tim Cook has this famous line that he considers inventory to be "fundamentally evil," just because over time, if you build so much of it, it gets written down, and it's just a mess to deal with. It's very good to have lean inventory, enough to meet demand but not too much on your books, which is why this spike was so weird. But it's really just actually component purchases. An analyst was able to get some clarity on that. I noticed it, too, initially, when I saw the balance sheet. Basically, CFO Maestri said, "We're basically making these purchasing decisions because of current market conditions." So, they're basically pre-buying all of these different components because the components, most specifically memory, the pricing is supposed to continue going up. I mean, it's been going on for two years, and it's probably going to keep going up, so they're basically just trying to buy as much as they can now to get ahead of continued price increases later this year. As we all know, they release a ton of iPhones in the fall, and they're going to need all those components to put them in the phones. Story continues So, very specifically, the type of inventory that we're talking about is just components. It's not unsold products on shelves, which would be a pretty big concern there, if that were the case. So, it did jump out at me, too, but that's what's going on there. Lewis: So, this is more of a planned decision than them sitting on stuff in a warehouse. Niu: Right, exactly. [laughs] He was like, "It'll unwind itself over time," so really nothing to be concerned about, even though the numbers look a little scary. Lewis: One other little tidbit from the call and from the release that I think is interesting, to go back to the conversation we were having about Facebook when we talked about their earnings, we both expressed some surprise at seeing a company have forex that was accretive. Usually, when you have money that you're bringing back from overseas from foreign operations and you're bringing it to the United States, because the dollar has been so strong for such a long period of time, that winds up being a ding on your top and bottom line. That was the case with what we saw here with Apple, where they wound up taking a slight hit for that. Niu: Right. It was kind of the opposite scenario here. Facebook doesn't really have much of a hedging program in place to accommodate for these FX movements, which is why they got this benefit as the dollar continued to weaken. Apple is much larger, and obviously has a lot more money on the line, and in general, their business is much more spread across the world in terms of their supply chain. So, they have a much bigger and more active hedging program that kind of mitigates these foreign exchange movements, both up and down. So, they tried to do their best to mitigate these hits that they've taken while the dollar was strengthening. And now that the dollar is weakening, they're missing out on the upside because these hedges are in place. So, it was kind of a funny thing, but it's because Apple does such a good job in general. If you're a company, you just don't want the risk at all. You just want to hedge it. You're not a currency trader, you don't want to ride the swings up and down. So, they just try to hedge it to mitigate all risk, up and down. So, yeah, they didn't get to enjoy some benefit like other companies. Dylan Lewis owns shares of Apple. Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Forget the Stock Drop -- Booking Holdings Booked a Solid Quarter: In the mad rush to respond to earnings reports, many commentators almost ignore companies' actual business results, searching for whichever metric justifies the often short-term-minded philosophies of the traders who dominate after-hours trading. ForBooking Holdings(NASDAQ: BKNG)-- the newly renamed version of the online travel giant previously known as Priceline Group -- an immediate downward push for the share price overshadowed, in some people's minds, the strong performance that the company had during the first quarter of 2018.
Coming into Wednesday's first-quarter financial report, Booking investors were looking forstrong sales growth, but their views on the likelihood of bottom-line gains were more modest. Booking exceeded expectations on both fronts, but it's likely that traders once again ignored the fact that the travel giant often lowballs its forward-looking guidance, in a way that temporarily spooks those who don't have a longer history of seeing its results over time.
Image source: Booking Holdings.
Booking's first-quarter results continued in the footsteps ofPriceline's past performance. Revenue jumped 21% to $2.93 billion, outpacing the 19% growth rate that most of those following the stock were hoping for. Adjusted net income of $590.4 million was higher than year-ago levels by almost 20%, and the resulting adjusted earnings of $12.00 per share compared favorably to the consensus forecast of $10.67 per share on the bottom line.
Priceline's internal measures of performance were generally favorable as well. Gross bookings rose 21% to $25 billion, accelerating from the growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2017. Agency bookings growth was once again slower than the corresponding gains in merchant bookings, but the figures of 13% on the agency side and 74% for merchant business were solid. Yet naysayers will point out that currency gains played a key role in driving the numbers higher, and constant-currency bookings growth was just 12%, continuing its slowing trend over the past year.
Unit-based volume metrics went more clearly beyond the positive impact of the weak U.S. dollar. Room-nights sold rose just 13% to 196.8 million, further eroding what has been Booking's strongest segment. Rental-car days grew less than 1% to 18.7 million, and airline ticket sales amounted to just 1.8 million, up 2% from year-ago levels.
CEO Glenn Fogel remained pleased with Booking's performance. "We are off to a strong start in 2018," Fogel said, "with solid top and bottom line results for the first quarter." The CEO noted that optimization efforts for Booking's performance marketing helped to boost operating margin figures, and further gains could be possible.
Booking Holdings is optimistic about its future. As Fogel pointed out: "Our brands are making good progress, deploying investments to position us for continued future growth."
Yet as we've seen countless times in the past, many investors focused on Booking's guidance for the second quarter and drew dire conclusions. Booking said it expects to see room-nights booked pick up 7% to 11% during the second quarter, with gross travel bookings rising 10% to 14%, due largely to a 5-percentage-point tailwind from favorable currency movements. Adjusted net income of $795 million to $825 million should translate to between $16.35 and $17.00 per share, according to the company. That figure is consistent with current projections from investors of $16.71 per share in earnings, but many who saw the numbers seemed disappointed that Booking didn't have even more favorable projections -- despite the fact that it typically ends up outperforming them substantially.
Nevertheless, Booking investors reacted negatively to the news, and the stock fell 7% in after-hours trading immediately following the announcement. Slowing growth is a long-term problem that the travel giant will have to address. But those who areinterested in the stockcan take advantage of what appears to be a short-term overreaction -- from shareholders who lack enough experience with the company to understand how Booking Holdings handles its guidance.
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Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Booking Holdings. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Forget the Stock Drop -- Booking Holdings Booked a Solid Quarter: In the mad rush to respond to earnings reports, many commentators almost ignore companies' actual business results, searching for whichever metric justifies the often short-term-minded philosophies of the traders who dominate after-hours trading. For Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) -- the newly renamed version of the online travel giant previously known as Priceline Group -- an immediate downward push for the share price overshadowed, in some people's minds, the strong performance that the company had during the first quarter of 2018. Coming into Wednesday's first-quarter financial report, Booking investors were looking for strong sales growth , but their views on the likelihood of bottom-line gains were more modest. Booking exceeded expectations on both fronts, but it's likely that traders once again ignored the fact that the travel giant often lowballs its forward-looking guidance, in a way that temporarily spooks those who don't have a longer history of seeing its results over time. Logo for Booking Holdings Image source: Booking Holdings. The book on Booking Holdings Booking's first-quarter results continued in the footsteps of Priceline's past performance . Revenue jumped 21% to $2.93 billion, outpacing the 19% growth rate that most of those following the stock were hoping for. Adjusted net income of $590.4 million was higher than year-ago levels by almost 20%, and the resulting adjusted earnings of $12.00 per share compared favorably to the consensus forecast of $10.67 per share on the bottom line. Priceline's internal measures of performance were generally favorable as well. Gross bookings rose 21% to $25 billion, accelerating from the growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2017. Agency bookings growth was once again slower than the corresponding gains in merchant bookings, but the figures of 13% on the agency side and 74% for merchant business were solid. Yet naysayers will point out that currency gains played a key role in driving the numbers higher, and constant-currency bookings growth was just 12%, continuing its slowing trend over the past year. Story continues Unit-based volume metrics went more clearly beyond the positive impact of the weak U.S. dollar. Room-nights sold rose just 13% to 196.8 million, further eroding what has been Booking's strongest segment. Rental-car days grew less than 1% to 18.7 million, and airline ticket sales amounted to just 1.8 million, up 2% from year-ago levels. CEO Glenn Fogel remained pleased with Booking's performance. "We are off to a strong start in 2018," Fogel said, "with solid top and bottom line results for the first quarter." The CEO noted that optimization efforts for Booking's performance marketing helped to boost operating margin figures, and further gains could be possible. Can Booking Holdings grow faster? Booking Holdings is optimistic about its future. As Fogel pointed out: "Our brands are making good progress, deploying investments to position us for continued future growth." Yet as we've seen countless times in the past, many investors focused on Booking's guidance for the second quarter and drew dire conclusions. Booking said it expects to see room-nights booked pick up 7% to 11% during the second quarter, with gross travel bookings rising 10% to 14%, due largely to a 5-percentage-point tailwind from favorable currency movements. Adjusted net income of $795 million to $825 million should translate to between $16.35 and $17.00 per share, according to the company. That figure is consistent with current projections from investors of $16.71 per share in earnings, but many who saw the numbers seemed disappointed that Booking didn't have even more favorable projections -- despite the fact that it typically ends up outperforming them substantially. Nevertheless, Booking investors reacted negatively to the news, and the stock fell 7% in after-hours trading immediately following the announcement. Slowing growth is a long-term problem that the travel giant will have to address. But those who are interested in the stock can take advantage of what appears to be a short-term overreaction -- from shareholders who lack enough experience with the company to understand how Booking Holdings handles its guidance. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Booking Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks made gains on Wednesday, despite upward moves in oil prices and interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) both added nearly a percentage point. Today's stock market Index Percentage Change Point Change Dow 0.75% 182.33 S&P 500 0.97% 25.87 Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Crude oil surged over $70 a barrel after the announcement that the U.S. will exit the Iran nuclear deal. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLE) jumped 2%. Interest on 10-year Treasurys broke through the 3% level, boosting financial shares, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLF) closing up 1.5%. As for individual stocks, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) announced it is buying a majority stake in an Indian e-commerce company, and Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) reported higher-than-expected growth in its most recent quarter. Cartoon figures and upward graph. Image source: Getty Images. Walmart bets big on India Walmart announced that it is investing in the rapidly growing Indian e-commerce market in a big way by buying a 77% interest in privately held Flipcart Group for $16 billion. Confirmation of the long-rumored deal, which will be a drag on earnings for years to come, caused Walmart shares to fall 3.1%. The acquisition will be financed with a combination of newly issued debt and cash on hand. Walmart officials said that the transaction will have a negative impact of $0.25 to $0.30 on fiscal 2019 EPS and will lower EPS by $0.60 in fiscal 2020. Analysts have been expecting adjusted EPS of $4.97 in 2019 and $5.26 in 2020, compared with $4.42 last year. "In the mid to long term, as the business scales and efficiencies are realized, we expect losses to decline and returns to improve," the company said in presentation materials. On the conference call, company officials were asked why Walmart didn't just deploy capital to strengthen its core business in the U.S. CEO Doug McMillon said that if the company had been looking out only three to five years, it might have done just that. But longer term, there just aren't any other growth opportunities in retail worldwide that match the scale of this one. Story continues With Walmart coping with the threat of Amazon , today's move makes a lot of sense for the long term, but at the cost of a huge price tag and potentially flat earnings for years. Twilio crushes expectations again Shares of cloud-based communications software company Twilio soared 18.2% after the company announced first-quarter results that blew away expectations and its previous guidance. Revenue grew 48% to $129.1 million, far exceeded the top end of its guidance of $117 million. Non- GAAP loss per share was $0.04, compared with guidance for a loss of $0.07 to $0.06. The company added over 5,000 new active customer accounts in the quarter to a total of 53,985, for year-over-year growth of 33%. Base revenue, a measure that excludes some large accounts that have not signed 12-month contracts, grew 46%, or 61% excluding the loss of sales to Uber . Looking forward, the company raised its full-year revenue guidance from a range of $506 million-$514 million to $538 million-$544 million. For Q2, Twilio expects revenue of $129 million to $131 million, while analysts had been expecting $123 million. "We are honored that a growing list of companies around the world are placing their trust in Twilio," said CEO Jeff Lawson in the press release. "Our first quarter results exhibited broad-based strength across multiple areas of our business, especially with continued expansion with existing customers." Twilio's business seems to be firing on all cylinders, and after the company's second blow-out quarter this year, investors were snapping up the shares. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jim Crumly owns shares of AMZN. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AMZN and Twilio. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks made gains on Wednesday, despite upward moves in oil prices and interest rates. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)and theS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)both added nearly a percentage point.
[{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "0.75%", "Point Change": "182.33"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "0.97%", "Point Change": "25.87"}]
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Crude oil surged over $70 a barrel after the announcement that the U.S. will exit the Iran nuclear deal. TheEnergy Select Sector SPDR ETF(NYSEMKT: XLE)jumped 2%. Interest on 10-year Treasurys broke through the 3% level, boosting financial shares, with theFinancial Select Sector SPDR ETF(NYSEMKT: XLF)closing up 1.5%.
As for individual stocks,Walmart(NYSE: WMT)announced it is buying a majority stake in an Indian e-commerce company, andTwilio(NYSE: TWLO)reported higher-than-expected growth in its most recent quarter.
Image source: Getty Images.
Walmart announced that it is investing in the rapidly growing Indian e-commerce market in a big way by buying a 77% interest in privately held Flipcart Group for $16 billion. Confirmation of thelong-rumoreddeal, which will be a drag on earnings for years to come, caused Walmart shares to fall 3.1%.
The acquisition will be financed with a combination of newly issued debt and cash on hand. Walmart officials said that the transaction will have a negative impact of $0.25 to $0.30 on fiscal 2019 EPS and will lower EPS by $0.60 in fiscal 2020. Analysts have been expecting adjusted EPS of $4.97 in 2019 and $5.26 in 2020, compared with $4.42 last year. "In the mid to long term, as the business scales and efficiencies are realized, we expect losses to decline and returns to improve," the company said in presentation materials.
On the conference call, company officials were asked why Walmart didn't just deploy capital to strengthen its core business in the U.S. CEO Doug McMillon said that if the company had been looking out only three to five years, it might have done just that. But longer term, there just aren't any other growth opportunities in retail worldwide that match the scale of this one.
With Walmart coping withthe threatofAmazon, today's move makes a lot of sense for the long term, but at the cost of a huge price tag and potentially flat earnings for years.
Shares of cloud-based communications software company Twilio soared 18.2% after the company announced first-quarter results thatblew awayexpectations and its previous guidance. Revenue grew 48% to $129.1 million, far exceeded the top end of its guidance of $117 million. Non-GAAPloss per share was $0.04, compared with guidance for a loss of $0.07 to $0.06.
The company added over 5,000 new active customer accounts in the quarter to a total of 53,985, for year-over-year growth of 33%. Base revenue, a measure that excludes some large accounts that have not signed 12-month contracts, grew 46%, or 61% excluding theloss of sales to Uber.
Looking forward, the company raised its full-year revenue guidance from a range of $506 million-$514 million to $538 million-$544 million. For Q2, Twilio expects revenue of $129 million to $131 million, while analysts had been expecting $123 million.
"We are honored that a growing list of companies around the world are placing their trust in Twilio," said CEO Jeff Lawson in the press release. "Our first quarter results exhibited broad-based strength across multiple areas of our business, especially with continued expansion with existing customers."
Twilio's business seems to be firing on all cylinders, and after the company'ssecond blow-out quarterthis year, investors were snapping up the shares.
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Jim Crumlyowns shares of AMZN. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AMZN and Twilio. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Roger Ver Pumps BCH, Slams Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Petro at Brazil Crypto Conference: roger ver Early bitcoin investor and prominent bitcoin cash (BCH) supporter Roger Ver recently participated in VI Bitconf, a cryptocurrency conference held in São Paulo, Brazil. According to local news outlet Portal do Bitcoin , Ver wasn’t physically there, as he participated while in Tokyo. Nevertheless, the chief executive officer of controversial website Bitcoin.com used the opportunity to promote Bitcoin Cash as the “real bitcoin” and even offered $100 worth of BCH to the first audience member who scanned a QR code. Per Portal do Bitcoin, Ver reminded the audience he first learned about bitcoin in 2011, and quickly realized the potential the cryptocurrency had. Since then, he’s been promoting bitcoin until last year, when he started promoting bitcoin cash, a cryptocurrency he claims to be more in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision. During the VI Bitconf conference, the entrepreneur defended bitcoin cash as a more efficient payment method than bitcoin, and he argued that BCH will eventually surpass BTC, even as a store of value. As covered by CCN, this isn’t the first time Ver has argued that bitcoin cash will surpass bitcoin . petro Notably, he also addressed Venezuela and its oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro (PTR). He noted that the Bitcoin Cash community is helping Venezuelans through the Eat BCH charity, and invited audience members to donate to the cause. When asked about the petro , Ver notably stated: “I would be very skeptical about anything that comes from governments, even more so from the government of Venezuela.” As CCN reported, Venezuela has held a token sale to distribute its oil-backed cryptocurrency and claims it will positively impact the country’s economy within “three to six months.” The cryptocurrency was created to bypass US sanctions, and saw president Donald Trump bar US citizens and residents from investing in the cryptocurrency – a move Venezuela claims was free publicity that doubled the number of interested investors. Story continues Some, including Venezuela’s National Assembly, strongly criticize the Petro, with the century-old think tank Brookings Institute even claiming it undermines legitimate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Nevertheless, it dubiously received the Satoshi Nakamoto prize in Russia last month. Taking advantage of his time speaking at VI Bitconf in São Paulo, Ver further claimed that bitcoin cash’s upcoming hard fork is taking the cryptocurrency to the next level, as it will increase its block size to 32 MB, allowing for greater transaction volume and speed. Moreover, he argued it will allow bitcoin cash to “compete with ethereum” when it comes to smart contracts. Featured Image from YouTube The post Roger Ver Pumps BCH, Slams Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Petro at Brazil Crypto Conference appeared first on CCN . || Roger Ver Pumps BCH, Slams Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Petro at Brazil Crypto Conference: roger ver Early bitcoin investor and prominent bitcoin cash (BCH) supporter Roger Ver recently participated in VI Bitconf, a cryptocurrency conference held in São Paulo, Brazil. According to local news outlet Portal do Bitcoin , Ver wasn’t physically there, as he participated while in Tokyo. Nevertheless, the chief executive officer of controversial website Bitcoin.com used the opportunity to promote Bitcoin Cash as the “real bitcoin” and even offered $100 worth of BCH to the first audience member who scanned a QR code. Per Portal do Bitcoin, Ver reminded the audience he first learned about bitcoin in 2011, and quickly realized the potential the cryptocurrency had. Since then, he’s been promoting bitcoin until last year, when he started promoting bitcoin cash, a cryptocurrency he claims to be more in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision. During the VI Bitconf conference, the entrepreneur defended bitcoin cash as a more efficient payment method than bitcoin, and he argued that BCH will eventually surpass BTC, even as a store of value. As covered by CCN, this isn’t the first time Ver has argued that bitcoin cash will surpass bitcoin . petro Notably, he also addressed Venezuela and its oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro (PTR). He noted that the Bitcoin Cash community is helping Venezuelans through the Eat BCH charity, and invited audience members to donate to the cause. When asked about the petro , Ver notably stated: “I would be very skeptical about anything that comes from governments, even more so from the government of Venezuela.” As CCN reported, Venezuela has held a token sale to distribute its oil-backed cryptocurrency and claims it will positively impact the country’s economy within “three to six months.” The cryptocurrency was created to bypass US sanctions, and saw president Donald Trump bar US citizens and residents from investing in the cryptocurrency – a move Venezuela claims was free publicity that doubled the number of interested investors. Story continues Some, including Venezuela’s National Assembly, strongly criticize the Petro, with the century-old think tank Brookings Institute even claiming it undermines legitimate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Nevertheless, it dubiously received the Satoshi Nakamoto prize in Russia last month. Taking advantage of his time speaking at VI Bitconf in São Paulo, Ver further claimed that bitcoin cash’s upcoming hard fork is taking the cryptocurrency to the next level, as it will increase its block size to 32 MB, allowing for greater transaction volume and speed. Moreover, he argued it will allow bitcoin cash to “compete with ethereum” when it comes to smart contracts. Featured Image from YouTube The post Roger Ver Pumps BCH, Slams Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Petro at Brazil Crypto Conference appeared first on CCN . || Today In Cryptocurrency: Bloomberg Crypto Index, Facebook Explores Blockchain: The cryptocurrency market continued a sluggish start to the week Wednesday, with most major currencies trading up or down less than 3 percent. Here’s a look at some of the headlines that were moving the cryptocurrency market today — and which currencies were on the move. Headlines Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) partner and hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz announced he's partnering with Bloomberg to launch the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index. The index will initially track 10 popular currencies and will be weighted by market cap. The head of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB ) Messenger is transitioning to a new project to explore ways Facebook could potentially use blockchain technology. The news has led to speculation Facebook could potentially be launching a cryptocurrency and/or in-app payment service for Messenger. In an interview with CNBC , tech venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya took exception to the bearish comments that Warren Buffett made about bitcoin at the Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A )(NYSE: BRK-B ) annual shareholder meeting over the weekend. Buffett called bitcoin “rat poison squared,” but Palihapitiya said cryptocurrency will replace gold as an alternative to the rest of the financial market and crypto technology is outside of Buffett’s “circle of competence.” Price Action The Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC (OTC: GBTC ) traded at $14.97, up 1.7 percent. Here’s how several top crypto investments fared Wednesday. Prices are as of 3:30 p.m. ET and reflect the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin gained 0.6 percent to $9,294; Ethereum gained 0.3 percent to $748; Ripple declined 1.4 percent to 80 cents; Bitcoin Cash gained 2.6 percent to $1,633; EOS declined 2.7 percent to $17.80. The three cryptocurrencies with at least $1-million market caps that have made the biggest gains over the past 24 hours are: GCN Coin: $7.0-million market cap, 206.3-percent gain. Blitzcash: $2.2-million market cap, 171.2-percent gain. PeepCoin: $3.4-million market cap, 85.5-percent gain. Story continues The three cryptocurrencies hit hardest in the past 24 hours were: LuckChain: $2.9-million market cap, 29.3-percent decline. The Cypherfunks: $2.3-million market cap, 27.0-percent decline. Elite: $3.2-million market cap, 25.4-percent decline. Related Links: Today In Cryptocurrency: Former Goldman Exec Rips Bitcoin, Fed Report Shows Futures Dented Crypto Valuations Buffett Still Bearish On Bitcoin: 'The Asset Itself Is Creating Nothing' See more from Benzinga Today In Cryptocurrency: Former Goldman Exec Rips Bitcoin, Fed Report Shows Futures Dented Crypto Valuations Today In Cryptocurrency: Buffett And Gates Slam Bitcoin, Regulators Meet To Discuss Classification Buffett Still Bearish On Bitcoin: 'The Asset Itself Is Creating Nothing' © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Today In Cryptocurrency: Bloomberg Crypto Index, Facebook Explores Blockchain: The cryptocurrency market continued a sluggish start to the week Wednesday, with most major currencies trading up or down less than 3 percent. Here’s a look at some of the headlines that were moving the cryptocurrency market today — and which currencies were on the move.
Headlines
FormerGoldman Sachs Group Inc(NYSE:GS) partner and hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz announced he's partnering with Bloomberg to launch the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index.The indexwill initially track 10 popular currencies and will be weighted by market cap.
The head ofFacebook Inc.(NASDAQ:FB) Messengeris transitioningto a new project to explore ways Facebook could potentially use blockchain technology. The news has led to speculation Facebook could potentially be launching a cryptocurrency and/or in-app payment service for Messenger.
In an interviewwith CNBC, tech venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya took exception to the bearish comments that Warren Buffett made about bitcoin at theBerkshire Hathaway, Inc.(NYSE:BRK-A)(NYSE:BRK-B) annual shareholder meeting over the weekend. Buffett called bitcoin “rat poison squared,” but Palihapitiya said cryptocurrency will replace gold as an alternative to the rest of the financial market and crypto technology is outside of Buffett’s “circle of competence.”
Price Action
TheBitcoin Investment Trust GBTC(OTC:GBTC) traded at $14.97, up 1.7 percent.
Here’s how several top crypto investments fared Wednesday. Prices are as of 3:30 p.m. ET and reflect the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin gained 0.6 percent to $9,294;
• Ethereum gained 0.3 percent to $748;
• Ripple declined 1.4 percent to 80 cents;
• Bitcoin Cash gained 2.6 percent to $1,633;
• EOS declined 2.7 percent to $17.80.
The three cryptocurrencies with at least $1-million market caps that have made the biggest gains over the past 24 hours are:
• GCN Coin: $7.0-million market cap, 206.3-percent gain.
• Blitzcash: $2.2-million market cap, 171.2-percent gain.
• PeepCoin: $3.4-million market cap, 85.5-percent gain.
The three cryptocurrencies hit hardest in the past 24 hours were:
• LuckChain: $2.9-million market cap, 29.3-percent decline.
• The Cypherfunks: $2.3-million market cap, 27.0-percent decline.
• Elite: $3.2-million market cap, 25.4-percent decline.
Related Links:
Today In Cryptocurrency: Former Goldman Exec Rips Bitcoin, Fed Report Shows Futures Dented Crypto Valuations
Buffett Still Bearish On Bitcoin: 'The Asset Itself Is Creating Nothing'
See more from Benzinga
• Today In Cryptocurrency: Former Goldman Exec Rips Bitcoin, Fed Report Shows Futures Dented Crypto Valuations
• Today In Cryptocurrency: Buffett And Gates Slam Bitcoin, Regulators Meet To Discuss Classification
• Buffett Still Bearish On Bitcoin: 'The Asset Itself Is Creating Nothing'
© 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Can Glu Mobile Stock Keep Hitting New Highs?: Shares ofGlu Mobile(NASDAQ: GLUU)hit another two-year high on Wednesday. The mobile games publisher has been on a roll since posting blowout financial results last week. The stock moved 22% higher last week, and it has soared 171% since the start of last year.
Mobile gaming can be fickle, and usually when a developer has a big hit on its hands it gets gobbled up the way thatCandy Crush Sagaparent King Digital andClash of Clanspublisher Supercell were bought out. Glu has been able to piece several modest hits together, dating back toKim Kardashian: Hollywoodin 2014.
Image source: Glu Mobile.
Glu Mobile had a monster quarter. Bookings reached a record $86.3 million, roughly $13 million ahead of the midpoint of its guidance. It won't be a fluke. Glu is raising itsfull-year guidance on bookingsby $35 million, so the best is yet to come. Glu is now targeting $360 million to $370 million.
Glu credits its strong quarter to the continuing success ofDesign Home,Covet Fashion,and evenKim Kardashian: Hollywood. All three properties showed sequential gains in bookings, clocking in at $34.3 million, $12.2 million, and $10.5 million, respectively for the quarter. Three properties accounting for two-thirds of Glu's bookings may seem like a heavy concentration, but that's the nature of mobile gaming. A lot of the heavy hitters often lean on just a single title for the lion's share of their business.
The focus at Glu has been to increase engagement, and it seems to be paying off. The near-term outlook is strong, and not just because the first quarter's three biggest contributors have favorable momentum.MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2018was released late in the quarter, but its real contributions come in the spring when baseball season is under way. Bookingswith the baseball simulator have grownwith every passing annual update.
They won't all be winners. Glu's plan to put out other celebrity-based games hasn't matched the initial success of Kardashian's entry four years ago. Even the Taylor Swift-backedThe Swift Lifesocial hubdidn't live up to the hype. Thankfully for Glu and its growing pipeline of titles, it can afford to fail here and there. If the highly anticipated WWE wrestling game falls short -- something that doesn't seem likely since it's built on the same provenMLB Tap Sports Baseballengine -- it can tag out and have another grappler come into the ring.
Glu shares are still not close to where they were whenKim Kardashian: Hollywoodwas all the rage, but the developer is now a more balanced publisher of sticky casual mobile games. Wednesday's fresh two-year high won't be the last time this happens if it can keep its growing audience engaged.
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Rick Munarrizhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Can Glu Mobile Stock Keep Hitting New Highs?: Shares of Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) hit another two-year high on Wednesday. The mobile games publisher has been on a roll since posting blowout financial results last week. The stock moved 22% higher last week, and it has soared 171% since the start of last year. Mobile gaming can be fickle, and usually when a developer has a big hit on its hands it gets gobbled up the way that Candy Crush Saga parent King Digital and Clash of Clans publisher Supercell were bought out. Glu has been able to piece several modest hits together, dating back to Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in 2014. Cover art for Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Image source: Glu Mobile. Glu sticks Glu Mobile had a monster quarter. Bookings reached a record $86.3 million, roughly $13 million ahead of the midpoint of its guidance. It won't be a fluke. Glu is raising its full-year guidance on bookings by $35 million, so the best is yet to come. Glu is now targeting $360 million to $370 million. Glu credits its strong quarter to the continuing success of Design Home , Covet Fashion, and even Kim Kardashian: Hollywood . All three properties showed sequential gains in bookings, clocking in at $34.3 million, $12.2 million, and $10.5 million, respectively for the quarter. Three properties accounting for two-thirds of Glu's bookings may seem like a heavy concentration, but that's the nature of mobile gaming. A lot of the heavy hitters often lean on just a single title for the lion's share of their business. The focus at Glu has been to increase engagement, and it seems to be paying off. The near-term outlook is strong, and not just because the first quarter's three biggest contributors have favorable momentum. MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2018 was released late in the quarter, but its real contributions come in the spring when baseball season is under way. Bookings with the baseball simulator have grown with every passing annual update. They won't all be winners. Glu's plan to put out other celebrity-based games hasn't matched the initial success of Kardashian's entry four years ago. Even the Taylor Swift-backed The Swift Life social hub didn't live up to the hype . Thankfully for Glu and its growing pipeline of titles, it can afford to fail here and there. If the highly anticipated WWE wrestling game falls short -- something that doesn't seem likely since it's built on the same proven MLB Tap Sports Baseball engine -- it can tag out and have another grappler come into the ring. Story continues Glu shares are still not close to where they were when Kim Kardashian: Hollywood was all the rage, but the developer is now a more balanced publisher of sticky casual mobile games. Wednesday's fresh two-year high won't be the last time this happens if it can keep its growing audience engaged. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Enbridge Inc Makes Quick Work of Its Asset Sale Plan: Last November,Enbridge(NYSE: ENB)outlined its three-year strategic and financial plan. One of the key components of the Canadian pipeline giant's strategy was selling 3 billion Canadian dollars' ($2.3 billion as of May 9, 2018) worth of non-core assets in 2018, which would give it some of the cash needed to finance its CA$22 billion ($17 billion) expansion plan. That would enable the company to reduce debt while still growing cash flow and thedividend at a 10% compound annual rate through 2020.
It didn't take Enbridge long to achieve its asset sale goal as it announced two separate transactions this week to monetize non-core assets. By quickly hitting this goal, Enbridge is well on its way to achieving the aims of its three-year plan.
Image source: Getty Images.
In the first deal, Enbridge announced that it agreed to sell its Midcoast Operating business for $1.12 billion in cash (about CA$1.44 billion) to a private equity fund. Midcoast operates natural gas and natural gas liquids (NLGs) gathering, processing, and transportation services in the U.S., mainly in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. It's different from most other assets that Enbridge owns due to its high exposure to commodity price volatility, which has been an issue in recent years.
Enbridge initially housed these assets in itsMLPEnbridge Energy Partners(NYSE: EEP), which subsequently created another MLP, Midcoast Energy Partners, to hold a stake in these assets. However, slumping oil and gas prices caused Midcoast's earnings to plummet. Because of that, Enbridge took Midcoast Energy Partners private last year for $170 million and then bought the remaining stake in Midcoast's assets from Enbridge Energy Partners for $1.31 billion plus the assumption of $840 million in debt.
While the company is now selling this business well below what it paid for the assets last year, the sale is "an important step in our shift toward a pure regulated pipeline and utility model," said CEO Al Monaco.
Image source: Getty Images.
Enbridge's second transaction involves the sale of a 49% stake in some of its North American onshore renewable power assets as well a 49% interest in its offshore wind projects in Germany to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The company will receive CA$1.75 billion in cash from this transaction and offload CA$500 million of future capital expenditures. In addition to that, Enbridge and CPPIB formed a 50-50 joint venture to pursue future offshore wind projects in Europe.
Enbridge justbought its stake in the German offshore wind farm projectslast year, initially agreeing to invest about $1.25 billion for a 50% stake. However, with concerns growing about its balance sheet and ability to finance growth projects, the company has chosen to monetize part of this asset. It's also monetizing its onshore renewable facilities in Canada and two in the U.S. to bring in some much-needed cash. This decision to cash in on a portion of its renewable portfolio follows a similar plan by fellow Canadian pipeline giantTransCanada(NYSE: TRP), whichsold its solar assets in Ontariolast year. The driving factor in that decision was TransCanada's desire to improve its financial flexibility so that it could "continue to build on our vision of being North America's leading energy infrastructure company," said CEO Russ Girling. What's clear from these deals is that neither TransCanada nor Enbridge sees renewables playing a key role in building the companies they envision themselves being.
Overall, Enbridge will pull in CA$3.2 billion in cash from these deals, exceeding its 2018 asset sale target and keeping it on pace to hits its leverage target of 5.0 times by year-end. Further, the company offloaded some future spending commitments while jettisoning a business that has been a trouble spot for the past several years. These factors should help lift some of the weight that has been holding down the company's valuation over the past year.
These deals will enhance Enbridge's ability to achieve its growth plans, which would see the company increase its 6.5%-yielding payout at a double-digit pace for the next couple of years. While Enbridge still needs to complete its expansion projects on time and on budget, Wednesday's moves show that the company is heading in the right direction.
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Matthew DiLalloowns shares of Enbridge and Enbridge Energy Partners. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Enbridge Inc Makes Quick Work of Its Asset Sale Plan: Last November, Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) outlined its three-year strategic and financial plan. One of the key components of the Canadian pipeline giant's strategy was selling 3 billion Canadian dollars' ($2.3 billion as of May 9, 2018) worth of non-core assets in 2018, which would give it some of the cash needed to finance its CA$22 billion ($17 billion) expansion plan. That would enable the company to reduce debt while still growing cash flow and the dividend at a 10% compound annual rate through 2020 . It didn't take Enbridge long to achieve its asset sale goal as it announced two separate transactions this week to monetize non-core assets. By quickly hitting this goal, Enbridge is well on its way to achieving the aims of its three-year plan. An energy processing plant with clouds in the background. Image source: Getty Images. Cutting ties with Midcoast In the first deal, Enbridge announced that it agreed to sell its Midcoast Operating business for $1.12 billion in cash (about CA$1.44 billion) to a private equity fund. Midcoast operates natural gas and natural gas liquids (NLGs) gathering, processing, and transportation services in the U.S., mainly in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. It's different from most other assets that Enbridge owns due to its high exposure to commodity price volatility, which has been an issue in recent years. Enbridge initially housed these assets in its MLP Enbridge Energy Partners (NYSE: EEP) , which subsequently created another MLP, Midcoast Energy Partners, to hold a stake in these assets. However, slumping oil and gas prices caused Midcoast's earnings to plummet. Because of that, Enbridge took Midcoast Energy Partners private last year for $170 million and then bought the remaining stake in Midcoast's assets from Enbridge Energy Partners for $1.31 billion plus the assumption of $840 million in debt. While the company is now selling this business well below what it paid for the assets last year, the sale is "an important step in our shift toward a pure regulated pipeline and utility model," said CEO Al Monaco. Story continues Construction site of an offshore wind farm. Image source: Getty Images. Finding a partner for renewables Enbridge's second transaction involves the sale of a 49% stake in some of its North American onshore renewable power assets as well a 49% interest in its offshore wind projects in Germany to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The company will receive CA$1.75 billion in cash from this transaction and offload CA$500 million of future capital expenditures. In addition to that, Enbridge and CPPIB formed a 50-50 joint venture to pursue future offshore wind projects in Europe. Enbridge just bought its stake in the German offshore wind farm projects last year, initially agreeing to invest about $1.25 billion for a 50% stake. However, with concerns growing about its balance sheet and ability to finance growth projects, the company has chosen to monetize part of this asset. It's also monetizing its onshore renewable facilities in Canada and two in the U.S. to bring in some much-needed cash. This decision to cash in on a portion of its renewable portfolio follows a similar plan by fellow Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada (NYSE: TRP) , which sold its solar assets in Ontario last year. The driving factor in that decision was TransCanada's desire to improve its financial flexibility so that it could "continue to build on our vision of being North America's leading energy infrastructure company," said CEO Russ Girling. What's clear from these deals is that neither TransCanada nor Enbridge sees renewables playing a key role in building the companies they envision themselves being. What these sales mean for Enbridge investors Overall, Enbridge will pull in CA$3.2 billion in cash from these deals, exceeding its 2018 asset sale target and keeping it on pace to hits its leverage target of 5.0 times by year-end. Further, the company offloaded some future spending commitments while jettisoning a business that has been a trouble spot for the past several years. These factors should help lift some of the weight that has been holding down the company's valuation over the past year. These deals will enhance Enbridge's ability to achieve its growth plans, which would see the company increase its 6.5%-yielding payout at a double-digit pace for the next couple of years. While Enbridge still needs to complete its expansion projects on time and on budget, Wednesday's moves show that the company is heading in the right direction. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matthew DiLallo owns shares of Enbridge and Enbridge Energy Partners. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || AnaptysBio Sets the Stage for an Eventful Year: As a start-up biotech,AnaptysBio Inc.(NASDAQ: ANAB)didn't feel it necessary to conduct an earnings call after reporting first-quarter results after the bell on Tuesday. The company didn't record any revenue during the first three months of the year, but it did shore up the case for its lead assets.
[{"Metric": "Revenue", "Q1 2018": "N/A", "Q1 2017": "N/A", "Year-Over-Year Change": "N/A"}, {"Metric": "Income from operations", "Q1 2018": "($15.78 million)", "Q1 2017": "($9.99 million)", "Year-Over-Year Change": "N/A"}, {"Metric": "Earnings per share", "Q1 2018": "($0.63)", "Q1 2017": "($0.75)", "Year-Over-Year Change": "N/A"}]
Data source: AnaptysBio Inc.
• The company reported updated data from an ongoing study with its lead candidate, ANB020, for the treatment of eczema. Highlights include a 50% improvement at 29 days for 10 of 12 patients treated with a single dose of the experimental therapy.
• The ANB020 program kicked into high gear with the initiation of a 300-patient placebo-controlled study. We should know if we've been deceived by outliers in the last group of 12 after the phase 2b produces data in 2019.
• Anaptys also reported proof-of-concept data from an ongoing study with a small number of peanut allergy patients. After receiving a single dose of ANB020, just one in 15 patients reported allergic symptoms that overlap with peanut allergy, versus four out of five in the placebo group.
• Ramping up development activity raised R&D expenses to $11.8 million during the first quarter, a 49% increase over the same period last year.
• At the end of March, there was an impressive $310 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments on the balance sheet.
Image source: Getty Images.
Since AnaptysBio has no revenue yet, pipeline development is far more important to the company than quarterly financials. With this in mind, Hamza Suria, president and CEO, was keen to highlight some important milestones investors can look for in the quarters ahead:
We have a number of additional clinical milestones approaching, including top-line Phase 2a data from our ANB020 eosinophilic asthma trial and advancement of our ANB019 Phase 2 trials in patients with generalized pustular psoriasis and palmoplantar pustulosis, which are all important steps toward bringing our novel treatments to patients with severe inflammatory diseases.
Although AnaptysBio has discovered candidates aimed at the familiar PD-1 checkpoint for two partners,TesaroandCelgene, its unique proprietary programs are driving the stock's value right now. ANB020 and ANB019 could carve out lucrative niches for themselves as the first drugs to aim at IL-33 and IL-36 cytokines, respectively, but uncharted waters are terribly dangerous. We saw impressive results from ANB020 from a small number of eczema patients, and we still don't have any humanefficacydata for ANB019 because its first trial recruited healthy volunteers.
Pustular psoriasis isn't nearly as common as the plaque variety, but I'll be watching intently for data from a 10-patient study with ANB019 that the company began in the first quarter. IL-36 is implicated in pustular psoriasisandthe far more common plaque variety. If the human proof-of-concept trial is a success, Anaptys could find itself with a second wholly owned drug ready for mid-stage development just a couple of years after the company's initial public offering.
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• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
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• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
Cory Renauerowns shares of Celgene. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene. The Motley Fool recommends AnaptysBio. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Texas Regulator Hit Two Bitcoin Investment Schemes with Cease-and-Desists: The Texas State Securities Board has uncovered more suspicious activity from cryptocurrency businesses targeting residents in the state.
The agency has most recently issued a pair of emergency orders against two separate entities that according to the regulators were scamming investors, including a bitcoin mining operation and a bitcoin foreign exchange investment fund. Both startups — Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Ltd. (BTCRUSH) and Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment LLC — were promising outsized returns, among other alarming behaviors, and were issued cease and desist orders, bringing the tally of such requests issued by the Texas State Securities Board to nine.
Joseph Rotunda, Director of the Enforcement Division at the Texas State Securities Board, told CCN that the latest emergency orders were part of a sweep that the agency launched at year-end 2017 when the bitcoin price was trading in the stratosphere. The sweep targets projects that raise red flags and that are promoting to Texas residents. The number of open investigations into cryptocurrency startups including ICOs has doubled since that time, from about 30 to approximately 60.
“We’ve seen this before when a new market emerges and people want to get rich quick at the expense of others. They infiltrate the market we are trying to weed out those folks. Their schemes are very fragile, like a house of cards waiting to tumble. Something comes along to offers that gust of wind and everything collapses,” Rotunda told CCN.
In Texas, that gust of wind is increasingly taking the form of emergency cease-and-desist orders.
The two blockchain startups are accused of violating the Texas Securities Act for a lack of transparency in their management structure and investment philosophy in addition to not making plain the risks associated with cryptocurrency investing, not to mention attempting to lure investors with the promise of unrealistic returns.
BTCRUSH is a UK-based cloud-fueled bitcoin and altcoin mining startup. It created a video that was supposedly comprised of the interiors and exteriors of a trio of mining facilities, Rotunda explained. The Texas securities agency was able to quickly decipher that the video was actually stock footage from the internet that was spliced. That led the regulators to realize that the company was not in compliance and to issue the emergency order.
Rotunda told CCN:
“They weren’t just putting out a website and letting investors come to them. They weren’t just discussing investments on a message board. Their sales agents were specifically advertising and sending materials to Texas residents. They were communicating, ‘come to our website, register an account, purchase an investment.”
According to the cease and desist order, BTCRUSH, which only became operational in March, says it’s been distributing “4.1% daily interest on a lifetime contract and they offer a “100% satisfaction guarantee” along with the freedom to change the interest terms at will.
New York-based Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment may not be based in the Lone Star State, but it was marketing its business to Texas residents. They allegedly used a Houston area code attached to their phone number even though the company isn’t physically located in the region, which would deceive unsuspecting residents.
According to the emergency order, My Forex Bitcoin Investment claims to run a $500,000 fund that’s “climbing”. The startup is allegedly guaranteeing that a $5,000 investment will generate returns of $50,000 in about three weeks and any losses will be offset by the growing portfolio. But they fail to disclose their investment strategy to deliver these outsized returns and made no mention of any investment risks associated with investing in digital currencies, the emergency order alleges.
Non-compliance with the cease and desist orders could result in up to a decade in a Texas prison.
“What I found in my experience is once we enter these emergency actions, it shakes things up. Companies collapse sometimes. Once word reaches the public, that’s when the complaints come pouring in,” Rotunda said.
Cryptocurrency-related investigations are taking more of the agency’s time of late, but not every situation ends with an emergency order. In some cases, the Texas securities regulator is able to communicate with the entrepreneur behind a blockchain-based startup and explain that they’re not doing things in accordance with securities law, after which time many individuals cooperate.
As for the Texas Securities Board, Rotunda said they remain objective about the market.
“We want to foster business. And my concern is people will be turned off to cryptocurrencies when there’s so much fraud out there. If we can get the bad actors out, the legitimate businesses can prosper,” he said.
Images from Shutterstock.
The postTexas Regulator Hit Two Bitcoin Investment Schemes with Cease-and-Desistsappeared first onCCN. || Texas Regulator Hit Two Bitcoin Investment Schemes with Cease-and-Desists: The Texas State Securities Board has uncovered more suspicious activity from cryptocurrency businesses targeting residents in the state.
The agency has most recently issued a pair of emergency orders against two separate entities that according to the regulators were scamming investors, including a bitcoin mining operation and a bitcoin foreign exchange investment fund. Both startups — Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Ltd. (BTCRUSH) and Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment LLC — were promising outsized returns, among other alarming behaviors, and were issued cease and desist orders, bringing the tally of such requests issued by the Texas State Securities Board to nine.
Joseph Rotunda, Director of the Enforcement Division at the Texas State Securities Board, told CCN that the latest emergency orders were part of a sweep that the agency launched at year-end 2017 when the bitcoin price was trading in the stratosphere. The sweep targets projects that raise red flags and that are promoting to Texas residents. The number of open investigations into cryptocurrency startups including ICOs has doubled since that time, from about 30 to approximately 60.
“We’ve seen this before when a new market emerges and people want to get rich quick at the expense of others. They infiltrate the market we are trying to weed out those folks. Their schemes are very fragile, like a house of cards waiting to tumble. Something comes along to offers that gust of wind and everything collapses,” Rotunda told CCN.
In Texas, that gust of wind is increasingly taking the form of emergency cease-and-desist orders.
The two blockchain startups are accused of violating the Texas Securities Act for a lack of transparency in their management structure and investment philosophy in addition to not making plain the risks associated with cryptocurrency investing, not to mention attempting to lure investors with the promise of unrealistic returns.
BTCRUSH is a UK-based cloud-fueled bitcoin and altcoin mining startup. It created a video that was supposedly comprised of the interiors and exteriors of a trio of mining facilities, Rotunda explained. The Texas securities agency was able to quickly decipher that the video was actually stock footage from the internet that was spliced. That led the regulators to realize that the company was not in compliance and to issue the emergency order.
Rotunda told CCN:
“They weren’t just putting out a website and letting investors come to them. They weren’t just discussing investments on a message board. Their sales agents were specifically advertising and sending materials to Texas residents. They were communicating, ‘come to our website, register an account, purchase an investment.”
According to the cease and desist order, BTCRUSH, which only became operational in March, says it’s been distributing “4.1% daily interest on a lifetime contract and they offer a “100% satisfaction guarantee” along with the freedom to change the interest terms at will.
New York-based Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment may not be based in the Lone Star State, but it was marketing its business to Texas residents. They allegedly used a Houston area code attached to their phone number even though the company isn’t physically located in the region, which would deceive unsuspecting residents.
According to the emergency order, My Forex Bitcoin Investment claims to run a $500,000 fund that’s “climbing”. The startup is allegedly guaranteeing that a $5,000 investment will generate returns of $50,000 in about three weeks and any losses will be offset by the growing portfolio. But they fail to disclose their investment strategy to deliver these outsized returns and made no mention of any investment risks associated with investing in digital currencies, the emergency order alleges.
Non-compliance with the cease and desist orders could result in up to a decade in a Texas prison.
“What I found in my experience is once we enter these emergency actions, it shakes things up. Companies collapse sometimes. Once word reaches the public, that’s when the complaints come pouring in,” Rotunda said.
Cryptocurrency-related investigations are taking more of the agency’s time of late, but not every situation ends with an emergency order. In some cases, the Texas securities regulator is able to communicate with the entrepreneur behind a blockchain-based startup and explain that they’re not doing things in accordance with securities law, after which time many individuals cooperate.
As for the Texas Securities Board, Rotunda said they remain objective about the market.
“We want to foster business. And my concern is people will be turned off to cryptocurrencies when there’s so much fraud out there. If we can get the bad actors out, the legitimate businesses can prosper,” he said.
Images from Shutterstock.
The postTexas Regulator Hit Two Bitcoin Investment Schemes with Cease-and-Desistsappeared first onCCN. || Texas Regulator Hit Two Bitcoin Investment Schemes with Cease-and-Desists: The Texas State Securities Board has uncovered more suspicious activity from cryptocurrency businesses targeting residents in the state. The agency has most recently issued a pair of emergency orders against two separate entities that according to the regulators were scamming investors, including a bitcoin mining operation and a bitcoin foreign exchange investment fund. Both startups Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Ltd. (BTCRUSH) and Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment LLC were promising outsized returns, among other alarming behaviors, and were issued cease and desist orders, bringing the tally of such requests issued by the Texas State Securities Board to nine. Joseph Rotunda, Director of the Enforcement Division at the Texas State Securities Board, told CCN that the latest emergency orders were part of a sweep that the agency launched at year-end 2017 when the bitcoin price was trading in the stratosphere. The sweep targets projects that raise red flags and that are promoting to Texas residents. The number of open investigations into cryptocurrency startups including ICOs has doubled since that time, from about 30 to approximately 60. Weve seen this before when a new market emerges and people want to get rich quick at the expense of others. They infiltrate the market we are trying to weed out those folks. Their schemes are very fragile, like a house of cards waiting to tumble. Something comes along to offers that gust of wind and everything collapses, Rotunda told CCN. In Texas, that gust of wind is increasingly taking the form of emergency cease-and-desist orders. Unrealistic Returns The two blockchain startups are accused of violating the Texas Securities Act for a lack of transparency in their management structure and investment philosophy in addition to not making plain the risks associated with cryptocurrency investing, not to mention attempting to lure investors with the promise of unrealistic returns. Story continues BTCRUSH is a UK-based cloud-fueled bitcoin and altcoin mining startup. It created a video that was supposedly comprised of the interiors and exteriors of a trio of mining facilities, Rotunda explained. The Texas securities agency was able to quickly decipher that the video was actually stock footage from the internet that was spliced. That led the regulators to realize that the company was not in compliance and to issue the emergency order. Rotunda told CCN: They werent just putting out a website and letting investors come to them. They werent just discussing investments on a message board. Their sales agents were specifically advertising and sending materials to Texas residents. They were communicating, come to our website, register an account, purchase an investment. According to the cease and desist order, BTCRUSH, which only became operational in March, says its been distributing 4.1% daily interest on a lifetime contract and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee along with the freedom to change the interest terms at will. The investment schemes offered heightened, unrealistic returns. New York-based Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment may not be based in the Lone Star State, but it was marketing its business to Texas residents. They allegedly used a Houston area code attached to their phone number even though the company isnt physically located in the region, which would deceive unsuspecting residents. According to the emergency order, My Forex Bitcoin Investment claims to run a $500,000 fund thats climbing. The startup is allegedly guaranteeing that a $5,000 investment will generate returns of $50,000 in about three weeks and any losses will be offset by the growing portfolio. But they fail to disclose their investment strategy to deliver these outsized returns and made no mention of any investment risks associated with investing in digital currencies, the emergency order alleges. Texas Prison Non-compliance with the cease and desist orders could result in up to a decade in a Texas prison. What I found in my experience is once we enter these emergency actions, it shakes things up. Companies collapse sometimes. Once word reaches the public, thats when the complaints come pouring in, Rotunda said. Cryptocurrency-related investigations are taking more of the agencys time of late, but not every situation ends with an emergency order. In some cases, the Texas securities regulator is able to communicate with the entrepreneur behind a blockchain-based startup and explain that theyre not doing things in accordance with securities law, after which time many individuals cooperate. As for the Texas Securities Board, Rotunda said they remain objective about the market. We want to foster business. And my concern is people will be turned off to cryptocurrencies when theres so much fraud out there. If we can get the bad actors out, the legitimate businesses can prosper, he said. Images from Shutterstock. The post Texas Regulator Hit Two Bitcoin Investment Schemes with Cease-and-Desists appeared first on CCN .
[Social Media Buzz]
Criptomoneda Bitcoin + 0.7% a $9368 en el mercado previo a $9,330.00, a media mañana, ya que permanece firmemente por encima de $9K el 10/05/18. || 10/05/2018 - 08:00
=========================
• 0.25 #Bitcoin: ₺40,128.00
• 0.83 #Ethereum: ₺3,272.29
• 0.28 #Ripple: ₺3.44
• 0.58 #BitcoinCash: ₺7,105.67
=========================
➜ Anlık fiyatlar için takip edin!
#BitcoinTürkiye || Total Market Cap: $437,666,042,451
1 BTC: $9,348.21
BTC Dominance: 36.39%
Update Time: 10-05-2018 - 18:00:04 (GMT+...
|
8441.49, 8504.89, 8723.94, 8716.79, 8510.38, 8368.83, 8094.32, 8250.97, 8247.18, 8513.25
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 35040.84, 33572.12, 33897.05, 34668.55, 35287.78, 33746.00, 34235.20, 33855.33, 32877.37, 33798.01, 33520.52, 34240.19, 33155.85, 32702.03, 32822.35, 31780.73, 31421.54, 31533.07, 31796.81, 30817.83, 29807.35, 32110.69, 32313.11, 33581.55, 34292.45, 35350.19, 37337.54, 39406.94, 39995.91, 40008.42, 42235.55, 41626.20, 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50, 44555.80, 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79, 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42, 44883.91, 45201.46, 46063.27, 44963.07, 47092.49, 48176.35, 47783.36, 47267.52, 48278.36, 47260.22, 42843.80, 40693.68, 43574.51, 44895.10, 42839.75, 42716.59, 43208.54, 42235.73.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-09-27]
Volume: 30980029059, RSI (14-day): 41.38, 50-day EMA: 44956.86, 200-day EMA: 41904.56
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1750.00, Gold RSI: 39.81
Oil Price: 75.45, Oil RSI: 67.21
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Naughty Doge: The Blockchain-Based Video Streaming Platform Is Changing the Way People Produce, Share, and Consume Video: Naughty Doge has created a digital coin known as NaughtyDoge that will serve as the native cryptocurrency for users.
Hollywood, CA, Sept. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new doge is coming to the market. Naughty Doge- a crypto project that has resolved to bring the world of video streaming and all human-interest videos to the people. The motivation to revolutionize video streaming services is driven by the increased challenges caused by centralized video streaming services that continue to choke the industry with massive policies and hefty fees on content creators’ earnings. For example, the leading centralized video streaming service, YouTube, has been accused of putting unfair censorship on video content posted on the platform and paying content creators just a fraction of revenue generated while retaining the lion's share.
The mainstream video streaming companies are known to impose stricter rules, ranging from payment processing to heavy fees from what the content creators earn. The $59 billion industry has large licensing and production companies that act as ‘middlemen’, leading to higher fees on the side of the content consumers and low earnings for content creators.
Naughty Doge is building from the rising usefulness of blockchain technology to improve video quality, make video production and distribution cheaper, and increase earnings for video content creators.
Naughty Doge is Taking It to the Next Level
Naughty Doge has created a digital coin known as NaughtyDoge that will serve as the native cryptocurrency for users. NaughtyDoge token holders will enjoy the ease of streaming across our platform privately, securely, and without any extra or hidden charges. The creators believe that the existing potential is endless for both content creators and consumers. Unlike unsupportive centralized platforms, Naughty Doge seeks to provide the tools, security, and platform for content creators to flourish. To avoid the issues of volatility that have rocked major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Doge, the platform will encourage people to use the coins for immediate payments without storing them for speculation.
The Naughty Doge NFTs
The platform seeks to enable users to create and sell some of the most unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are known to hold value, which is a derivative of the users’ valuation. While NFTs can be bought and sold just like other art types, their value is largely set by the community and demand.
And this brings us to the promotional strategy the project intends to implement.
We all do remember how Dogecoin became so popular that it shocked the entire crypto community. Yes, the dog-themed cryptocurrency that started as a joke has a market cap of $31B as of today. Pundits believe the rise of Dogecoin is attributed to the creators’ emphasis on making it as ridiculous as possible and having the community drive its adoption. Well, one can easily say it’s the community resolution to work to find DOGE’s real-world utility that propelled it to the heights it has hit so far.
The idea of community with Naughty Doge
Naughty Doge is working to build a strong community of users who will propel its adoption and make it the platform of choice for all decentralized video streaming services.
Naughty Doge is aiming to use the power of its unique NFTs to garner the support of the most influential people in the crypto space, from Elon Musk to Crypto Wendy to Bitboy. By making the NFTs uniquely designed and in limited edition, the project aims to build more demand for the tokens to increase their value, hence raising demand. The platform also plans to have models shill for its promotional programs, which will be done via YouTube, Twitch, Telegram, and TikTok.
Backed by lower transaction fees of 12% tax for development and expansion, every other thing will be going to creators and users in a proportionate formula. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional or an amateur content creator, you will have equal opportunities to earn.
Media Details
NaughtyDogeStudios
[email protected]/ 8188181766
N HollywoodN Hollywood 91606
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkcTWu9QI5AAAB2APUvq30Q
https://t.me/NaughtyDogeStudios
https://naughtydoge.io/ || Naughty Doge: The Blockchain-Based Video Streaming Platform Is Changing the Way People Produce, Share, and Consume Video: Naughty Doge has created a digital coin known as NaughtyDoge that will serve as the native cryptocurrency for users. Hollywood, CA, Sept. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new doge is coming to the market. Naughty Doge- a crypto project that has resolved to bring the world of video streaming and all human-interest videos to the people. The motivation to revolutionize video streaming services is driven by the increased challenges caused by centralized video streaming services that continue to choke the industry with massive policies and hefty fees on content creators’ earnings. For example, the leading centralized video streaming service, YouTube, has been accused of putting unfair censorship on video content posted on the platform and paying content creators just a fraction of revenue generated while retaining the lion's share. The mainstream video streaming companies are known to impose stricter rules, ranging from payment processing to heavy fees from what the content creators earn. The $59 billion industry has large licensing and production companies that act as ‘middlemen’, leading to higher fees on the side of the content consumers and low earnings for content creators. Naughty Doge is building from the rising usefulness of blockchain technology to improve video quality, make video production and distribution cheaper, and increase earnings for video content creators. Naughty Doge is Taking It to the Next Level Naughty Doge has created a digital coin known as NaughtyDoge that will serve as the native cryptocurrency for users. NaughtyDoge token holders will enjoy the ease of streaming across our platform privately, securely, and without any extra or hidden charges. The creators believe that the existing potential is endless for both content creators and consumers. Unlike unsupportive centralized platforms, Naughty Doge seeks to provide the tools, security, and platform for content creators to flourish. To avoid the issues of volatility that have rocked major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Doge, the platform will encourage people to use the coins for immediate payments without storing them for speculation. Story continues The Naughty Doge NFTs The platform seeks to enable users to create and sell some of the most unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are known to hold value, which is a derivative of the users’ valuation. While NFTs can be bought and sold just like other art types, their value is largely set by the community and demand. And this brings us to the promotional strategy the project intends to implement. We all do remember how Dogecoin became so popular that it shocked the entire crypto community. Yes, the dog-themed cryptocurrency that started as a joke has a market cap of $31B as of today. Pundits believe the rise of Dogecoin is attributed to the creators’ emphasis on making it as ridiculous as possible and having the community drive its adoption. Well, one can easily say it’s the community resolution to work to find DOGE’s real-world utility that propelled it to the heights it has hit so far. The idea of community with Naughty Doge Naughty Doge is working to build a strong community of users who will propel its adoption and make it the platform of choice for all decentralized video streaming services. Naughty Doge is aiming to use the power of its unique NFTs to garner the support of the most influential people in the crypto space, from Elon Musk to Crypto Wendy to Bitboy. By making the NFTs uniquely designed and in limited edition, the project aims to build more demand for the tokens to increase their value, hence raising demand. The platform also plans to have models shill for its promotional programs, which will be done via YouTube, Twitch, Telegram, and TikTok. Backed by lower transaction fees of 12% tax for development and expansion, every other thing will be going to creators and users in a proportionate formula. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional or an amateur content creator, you will have equal opportunities to earn. Media Details NaughtyDogeStudios [email protected] / 8188181766 N HollywoodN Hollywood 91606 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkcTWu9QI5AAAB2APUvq30Q https://t.me/NaughtyDogeStudios https://naughtydoge.io/ || Netflix true-crime documentary dives into cryptic death of crypto millionaire Gerald Cotten: • Netflix announced an upcoming documentary about the Quadriga Bitcoin saga and the death of CEO Gerald Cotten.
• Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of his investors' Bitcoin funds.
• The Netflix documentary will follow investors-turned-investigators looking into theories on the founder's sudden death.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.
A new Netflix true-crime documentary is tackling a bizarre story from the world ofcryptocurrency.
Netflix's 'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King' explores the story of Gerald Cotten, founder and CEO of Canadiancrypto exchange businessQuadrigaCX, whose passed away unexpectedly in 2018.
The documentary follows a group of Quadriga investors turned sleuths who dig into the suspicious death of Cotten and the millions of missing cryptocurrency they believe Cotten stole from them, according to atweetfrom Netflix announcing the film.
Cotten encrypted and stored about $190 million worth of his customers'Bitcoincaches and held sole responsibility for the passwords needed to access those funds. Then, the crypto millionaire suddenly died in India from complications from Crohn's disease about three years ago. Cotten neglected to pass on the passwords to the accounts, and in 2019, when investigators tracked down Cotten's digital wallets, all the money was gone. Customers have since struggled to regain access to their money, citing withdrawl issues and lack of communication from the company.
The circumstances sparked speculation from some in the crypto community that the CEO faked his death and stole his clients' money. Official investigations into the matter have yet to produce any definitive answers. A sneak preview of the Netflix doc contains images that suggest the documentary will show the investors dive deeper into these conspiracies.
The streaming service announced the feature alongside aslate of upcoming true-crime projectslast week. Netflix has seen a boom with its true-crime docuseries, from 'Tiger King' to 'Making a Murderer.' It has led the pack of other streaming giants, producing the most projects in the true-crime genre as of 2020.
'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King' will be released sometime in 2022.
Read the original article onBusiness Insider || Oil heads for $80 as energy crisis escalates: A Texaco Inc. petrol tanker passes a warning sign at the Kingsbury Fuel Terminal near Tamworth, UK - Darren Staples /Bloomberg Britain is doomed to a Winter of Discontent, warns Ukraine gas boss Putin’s power play sets new German leader a challenge FTSE 100 edges 0.2pc higher, boosted by Rolls Royce Nasdaq falls as investors swapped big tech for stocks linked to economic growth Kallum Pickering: The Tories need a stronger Labour to make Brexit work Sign up here for our daily business briefing newsletter Oil prices jumped to three-year highs on Monday in the latest sign of a global energy crunch. Brent crude rallied 2.3pc to $79.80, its highest price since October 2018. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said Brent, which is based on the North Sea industry, could rise to $90 per barrel by the end of the year. Gas prices have rocketed to all-time highs in recent weeks due to weak global production, low exports from Russia, poor storage levels in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and rising demand from economies emerging from lockdowns. High gas prices increase demand for oil-burning to generate electricity. The world's biggest independent oil trader, the Vitol Group, said it expects global demand for crude to climb by 500,000 barrels a day this winter. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agrees there will be a surge in demand but expects that number to be slightly lower, at around 370,000 extra barrels a day. The lifting of restrictions on UK and EU visitors to the US in November is also expected to drive up prices, as the resurrection of trans-atlantic travel lifts demand for jet fuel. Meanwhile supply has been capped by the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, which crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in late August and forced Shell to pause production at offshore facilities near Houston, Texas. "The world's demand is not being met with enough supplies and this has pushed Brent towards $80," Exinity analyst Hussein Sayed said. 05:37 PM Wrapping up That's all from us today – here are some of our top stories: Recovery enters the 'hard yards', warns Andrew Bailey as petrol panic bites Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment Rolls-Royce lands contract for B-52 bomber engines Electric car maker Polestar valued at $20bn in Spac deal Czech billionaire spends almost £9m on National Lottery bid Thanks for following along! 05:22 PM Evergrande hit with wealth management probe The Shenzhen government is investigating a unit of Chinese developer Evergrande, the city's financial regulator told investors on Monday, in the first sign of an official inquiry into the wealth management crisis at the real estate giant. Story continues Reuters has the details: Evergrande, the world's most indebted property developer headquartered in Shenzhen, owes $305bn and has run short of cash, triggering concerns its problems could ripple through China's financial system. As its liquidity crisis deepened, the company's wealth arm earlier this month missed a payment on wealth management products (WMPs), leading to protests by investors who fear they will never get their money back. In a letter to investors seen by Reuters, the Shenzhen Financial Regulatory Bureau said "relevant departments of the Shenzhen government have gathered public opinions about Evergrande Wealth and are launching a thorough investigation into related issues of the company". It is also urging China Evergrande and Evergrande Wealth to work to repay investors, the letter said, which was sent following investor demands for an inquiry. 05:16 PM Qatar Airways falls to $4.1bn loss Qatar Airways has swung to an annual loss of $4.1bn after writing down the value of its grounded Airbus A380 super jumbo fleet. The state-owned airline attributed $2.3bn of the loss for the year to March 31 to impairment charges on the fleet of 10 A380s, as well as some smaller A330 models. “It is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market,” the company said. It added that it didn't expect international travel to return to pre-Covid levels until 2024. Qatar Airways, which continued to operate its route network throughout the pandemic, added that it had received $3bn in equity funding from the government. It had previously disclosed $2bn of that amount. 05:02 PM Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner Octopus Energy has been valued at more than the owner of British Gas after the challenger supplier won a $600m investment from a fund run by Al Gore, the former US vice-president. Rachel Millard reports: Generation Investment Management, the clean energy fund he set up in 2004 and still chairs, is taking a 13pc stake in Octopus to help it develop and supply more renewable power. The investment means the private company is now valued at £3.3bn – £300m more than Centrica. Its stock market value has declined by almost three quarters in the six years since Octopus was founded by Greg Jackson, who remains chief executive. Octopus is at the forefront of a band of challengers who have taken about a quarter of the energy market from suppliers such as Centrica and EDF. Its Kraken technology has also been licensed to growing numbers of rivals. Octopus consolidated its position over the weekend when it picked up 580,000 customers from failed supplier Avro Energy - one of several smaller challengers struggling to survive due to soaring wholesale prices linked to a global crunch in supplies of natural gas. Mr Jackson said the difficult state of the UK energy market highlighted the need for investment in renewable energy sources. Read more: Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment 04:55 PM Aldi to open 100 new stores in £1.3bn UK expansion Aldi expansion UK - Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP Aldi has unveiled plans to open 100 new stores in the UK over the next two years as the German supermarket chain pushed ahead with expansion plans despite supply chain troubles. The £1.3bn investment plan will create 2,000 new jobs, the company said. Aldi UK and Ireland has already created 7,000 jobs over the last two years. The discount chain, which has enjoyed booming sales during the pandemic, has also proven resilient to wider supply chain woes hitting the retail sector. It said this was due to its smaller number of both product ranges and suppliers. Aldi has also increased its pay for lorry drivers due to an ongoing HGV driver shortage, though chief executive Giles Hurley said the company had not been hit by the current fuel supply crisis. 04:46 PM James Bond set to shake up UK cinema James Bond No Time To Die UK cinema - Nicola Dove/PA Wire UK cinemas are poised to receive a much-needed boost thanks to the release of the latest James Bond film this week. Advance ticket sales for No Time To Die, which will hit the big screen on Thursday, reached levels last seen in 2019, putting the blockbuster on track to be the biggest opening since the pandemic gripped the industry. Odeon said it has sold more than 175,000 tickets for the latest instalment in the spy series, while Cineworld said it marked its highest pre-selling film since Marvel's superhero movie Avengers: Endgame in 2019. The film, which will be Daniel Craig's last appearance as the eponymous spy, was postponed three times from its original release date in April 2020 after the outbreak of Covid-19 forced cinemas to close. Craig has said he hopes the film's release will give the cinema industry "some sort of boost". 04:32 PM Novacyt swings to £15m loss amid Covid test dispute Diagnostics company Novacyt made a £15m pre-tax loss in the first half of the year amid a bitter dispute with the Government over Covid testing contracts, reports my colleague Julia Bradshaw . The Anglo-French company took a £35.8m hit as it wrote down the value of stocks of Covid tests that it had built up in expectation that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would purchase more of its products. The figure also includes the cost of tests and that Novacyt supplied to the department - worth £49m - that were never paid for. It announced earlier that year that it had taken legal advice and believes it has “strong grounds to assert its contractual rights”. The dispute stems back to September last year, when Novacyt signed a 14-week contract, worth £150m, with DHSC to supply Covid tests for NHS staff. There was an option to extend the contract to supply more of the kits, which had been developed by Novacyt’s scientists in the UK, but Ministers decided to end the agreement instead. As part of that agreement it delivered £49m worth of tests in the first half of the year, for which it says it has not yet been paid. Excluding the write-down, however, things are looking better. Novacyt’s sales actually rose by a fifth to £54m in the first half of its financial year, as the company benefited from a surge in demand for private Covid testing as international travel ramps up. 04:22 PM Warehouse shortages spark 30pc pay spike UK warehouse wages - David Rose UK warehouses are having to hike wages by up to 30pc due to a shortage of workers that has compounded supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas. Reuters has more details: The warehouse trade group and a recruitment agency for the sector said they were struggling to replace the European staff who used to arrive for the festive period and work in warehouses and distribution centres. Clare Bottle, chief executive of the UK Warehousing Association, said her members had reported having to increase pay by between 20pc and 30pc to secure workers for entry level jobs. With around 200,000 people working in warehousing, she said: "The problem is big. I would say we're tens of thousands short." Jordan Francis, commercial director of the Prodrive recruitment agency which supplies around 35 warehouse companies in southern England, said he already had around 100 vacancies he was struggling to fill. He is offering a 25pc increase in pay for a standard warehouse operative role. While he can secure more workers at that rate, he said the higher pay meant workers were less willing to do overtime. "We've never seen a market like this," he said, adding that his former European workers had opted to go to France or Germany, where they do not need visas. The shortages in Britain's logistics network come on top of a spike in European natural gas prices and a post-Brexit and Covid shortage of truck drivers. 04:11 PM FTSE closes higher The FTSE 100 has closed higher, with major banking and energy companies leading the gains. The blue-chip index rose 0.2pc, with BP gaining 3.1pc after saying that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel. HSBC , Barclays , Virgin Money UK and Standard Chartered all closed higher, tracking higher benchmark bond yields amid rising inflation concerns. But the biggest winner was Rolls-Royce , which jumped more than 11pc after it secured a US Air Force contract to supply B-52 bombers and agreed to sell its Spanish unit ITP Aero for €1.7bn. The domestically focused FTSE 250 rose 0.1pc, with travel and leisure stocks among top gainers. 04:01 PM Europe’s biggest chemical firm cuts output BASF chemicals Germany - Alex Kraus/Bloomberg Europe’s largest chemicals producer has slashed its output due to a surge in gas prices across the continent. BASF today said it had reduced ammonia output at its plants in Antwerp, Belgium and Ludwigshafen, Germany. The company said: “The economics for operating an ammonia plant in the region has become extremely challenging.” It added that it would review production plans once gas prices fell. The crisis has sparked a spike in prices for nitrogen fertiliser, which is manufactured using ammonia. This could push up prices for farmers or force them to cut fertiliser use in spring, which in turn could fuel global food inflation. The ammonia supply disruption could also have wider implications as the process creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Earlier this month the UK food industry, which uses CO2 for meat production and packaging, was thrown into chaos after two fertiliser plants shut down. 03:49 PM Bailey: Could Covid spark shift in UK wages? Another interesting point in Andrew Bailey's speech, where he muses on the long-term structural impacts of the pandemic on UK wages: As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing currently a much greater dispersion of wage settlements. What if this is the beginning of a more far-reaching structural change in the economy which alters relative pay across occupations? To be clear, I am making no prediction here, but rather asking the question in the context of monetary policy. The first thing to say is that such changes do happen. Since the 1980s, we have seen a structural increase in the pay gap between higher and lower earners. We have also seen more structural changes in retirement ages over a longer time. So, structural changes can happen. It is not the job of monetary policy to prevent such changes, but rather to ensure that they do not have negative consequences for monetary stability, such as dislodging inflation expectations 03:40 PM Tech stocks weigh on Wall Street Tech giants are the biggest drag on Wall Street this afternoon, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.6pc. The decline is largely the result of a rise in Treasury bond yields – the indication of US government borrowing costs – in the wake of the Fed’s hawkish announcement last week on easing stimulus measures. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose above 1.5pc for the first time since June, which added to concerns about lofty valuations in the tech sector. Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at ThinkMarkets, told Bloomberg: “Yields are rising sharply, reflecting investors’ expectations about monetary tightening amid surging inflationary pressures. “If yields climb higher, this could weigh especially on the overstretched growth stocks in the technology sector, which have low dividend yields.” Amazon and Netflix also took a hit from negative analyst comments about future growth, while Facebook shares fell after the social media firm said it was pausing work on Instagram Kids. 03:25 PM Bailey: Labour market is a "a big puzzle" Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, during a Bloomberg Television interview in London - Hollie Adams /Bloomberg In the speech, Bailey goes on to describe the labour market as "a big puzzle" and a source of uncertainty. He points to data that shows 1.7m remain on furlough while there are over 1m job vacancies and the numbers of inactive and unemployed was higher than pre-Covid levels. He says: There are a number of possible outcomes to this puzzle, which have different implications for the labour market. The first is that the furloughed workers will largely be re-absorbed into their old jobs, and so even with a further reduction in unemployment and inactivity, we are left with an excess of job vacancies. If these excess vacancies are associated with shortages of workers in particular sectors, this may push up on wages. This could also happen if furloughed workers do not return to their old jobs, but are not suitable for those jobs and sectors where there are a high number of vacancies. In other words, there is a mismatch in the labour market. Such an outcome is likely to raise the rate of unemployment... The second outcome is different. Vacancies may be temporarily higher, and above their steady state level in the short-run, if firms are anticipating that it will be harder to find workers in the future when unemployment falls. In that scenario, demand picks up, the impact of matching frictions in the labour market dissipate over time, and both vacancies and unemployment fall... Another possible explanation is that the level of advertised vacancies is elevated due to employers overestimating the growth of demand to come just as the speed of the recovery falls off. In this case, some of the vacancies turn out not to be jobs as employers change their mind, or at least hiring is put back. The implications of these labour market outcomes are quite different for growth, inflation, and thus monetary policy, which illustrates the uncertainty we face. 03:19 PM Andrew Bailey: UK recovery has slowed The Bank of England has published the speech its Governor, Andrew Bailey, is expected to give at the Society of Professional Economists Annual Dinner tonight. Bailey is expected to outline how he feels the economy's recovery is progressing. He's expected to say: The rate of recovery has slowed over recent months, and that slowing is continuing. Relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, on the latest data to July, the level of GDP was 3.5pc lower... It is inevitable in a bounce-back that the growth rate will slow as the recovery nears its end-point. It is not though inevitable – or desirable – that the previous level is not regained. Recovery in some consumer-facing services appears to have been delayed. We had seen a recovery in activities such as eating in restaurants, but activity is levelling off... Consistent with the impact of supply bottlenecks and disruption, construction output fell in July, and manufacturing output stalled. Surveys and the reports of the Bank’s Agents, suggest the impact of these supply-chain issues is broadening out. Pulling this together, the recovery has slowed and the economy has been buffeted by additional shocks. The switch of demand from goods to services, as Covid has faded in terms of its economic impact, has not taken place to date on the scale expected. Meanwhile, supply bottlenecks and labour shortages have weighed on output, and are continuing. Indeed the number of high profile supply bottlenecks appears to be increasing. I must say that when I heard that we were suffering a shortage of wind to generate power, I was tempted to ask, “and when are the locusts due to arrive". 03:11 PM Electric car maker Polestar valued at $20bn in Spac deal Visitors examine a Polestar 1 car at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Munich, southern Germany - TOBIAS SCHWARZ /AFP An upmarket electric car company spun off from Volvo and backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been valued at $20bn (£14.6bn) as it becomes the latest challenger carmaker to go public, reports James Titcomb. He writes: Polestar, owned by Volvo’s Chinese parent Geely, will merge with Gores Guggenheim, a listed investment vehicle in a so-called Spac deal. The deal will see Polestar raise slightly more than $1bn as it seeks to challenge the likes of Tesla in targeting the high end of the growing electric vehicle market. Spacs, or special purpose acquisition companies, involve merging a publicly traded “blank cheque” firm with a private company, allowing it to float without a traditional public offering. Read more about this story here. 03:03 PM Drivers turn to electric cars to beat petrol shortages A charging plugs connects an electric vehicle (EV) to a charging station in London - Simon Dawson /Bloomberg Motorists have turned to electric vehicles to try and beat the petrol shortage that is gripping the country, reports Will Kirkman. He writes: The number of Google searches for electric cars rose by 1,600pc on Friday, compared to normal levels, according to analysis by website Car Guide. Petrol stations across the country have run low on fuel, due to a lack of HGV drivers and panic buying among consumers. Motorists have looked to electric vehicles to avoid the tailbacks at petrol station forecourts. There are other reasons to go green and switch to an electric car. But with concerns over range and convenience, motorists are often put off by the higher upfront cost. Can an electric vehicle ever be cheaper than its petrol equivalent, and how long does it take the lower running costs to offset the difference? Telegraph Money takes you through the numbers here . 02:47 PM Expert reaction: Oil rally Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, comments: Oil prices are continuing to surge, with Brent crude now closing in on $80 and WTI perhaps not too far behind it. The global energy crisis could see demand for crude rise if the northern hemisphere experiences a cold winter, with many countries not equipped to cope. If momentum is sustained, pressure will grow on OPEC+ to speed up the pace that it increases output, after a historic production cut early in the pandemic. Plans to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day, each month, will see output return to normal by the end of next year but recent events may require the group to pick up the pace. The last thing the global economy needs going into an uncertain winter period is a fuel crisis to top everything off. Producers may not rush into a decision though, with some potentially comfortable with prices at these levels and others wanting to see if further restrictions accompany Covid surges that weigh on demand. 02:44 PM Nasdaq falls more than 1pc The Nasdaq index fell as much as 1pc on Monday before paring losses, as investors swapped technology heavyweights for stocks linked to economic growth amid increasing confidence in a recovery. Big tech stocks Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Apple slipped between 1.2pc and 2.9pc. The Nasdaq is currently down 0.5pc. Chipmakers also fell 1.3pc as widening power shortages in China threatened to curb production. Rate-sensitive banking stocks gained 2.2pc, while a jump in energy, and industrial shares pushed the blue-chip Dow up 0.7pc. The S&P 500 traded flat, edging up only 0.01pc. 02:39 PM TikTok hits 1bn users A person holds a smartphone as Tik Tok logo is displayed behind - Dado Ruvic /REUTERS TikTok now has 1bn monthly active users after coronavirus lockdowns helped drive a huge surge in popularity for the video-sharing app, reports James Warrington. The social media app said it passed the 1bn user milestone this summer, marking a 45pc increase since June 2020. The US, Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia are its biggest markets, the company added. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has shrugged off regulatory scrutiny over its use of data and links to Beijing to expand rapidly in recent years. 02:30 PM London-listed Hikma buys US injectables business London-listed pharmaceutical company Hikma has paid $375m (£273m) for Californian injectables supplier Custopharm, buying the business from US healthcare investor Water Street Healthcare Partners. The offer could increase by $50m (£36.5m) if certain commercial milestones are reached, the company added. Hikma added that the acquisition complements its own injectable product portfolio by adding 13 approved products and enhances its R&D capabilities. An extra $80m (£58m) in revenues is expected to be added each year. Hikma rose 1.2pc in trading on Monday. 02:14 PM JD Sports expands into beauty industry A shop assistant works inside a JD Sports Fashion Plc store on Oxford Street in central London - Jason Alden /Bloomberg JD Sports is plotting a duel with The Hut Group after it bought a stake in an online beauty and hair brand, reports Laura Onita. The FTSE 100 sportswear firm has made its first move into the beauty sector by acquiring a chunk of Hairburst, which sells hair vitamins, shampoos and styling products. JD Sports - worth £11bn - plans to use its financial firepower to help the beauty start-up to buy a number of rivals and build a stable of brands as the industry heats up. The move comes after The Hut Group pulled the trigger earlier this month on a separate listing for its beauty arm following a string of bolt-on acquisitions in recent years that are meant to help THG dominate the beauty arena. The platform now owns websites such as Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty. It reported sales of £461m for the six months to the end of June, up from £296m in the same period a year ago. Hairburst was founded in 2014 by James Hill, Henry Gwilliam and Matthew Cragg, who used £4,000 of savings to set up the firm. It now has 45 staff and its products are stocked in Boots, Sephora and Superdrug. JD Sports’ investment comes as the retailer seeks to branch into other rapidly growing categories such as beauty. 02:01 PM Watchdog clears Facebook’s Kustomer takeover Facebook has been given the green light for its takeover of US customer service software company Kustomer after securing approval from the competition watchdog, reports James Warrington. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) examined factors such as whether the merger would expand Facebook’s data advantage in online display advertising. But it concluded that the deal, worth a reported $1bn, did “not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK”. The deal will help bolster Facebook’s efforts to expand its messaging division by allowing businesses to interact with customers via chat apps. The European Commission and US regulators are still looking into the merger over concerns it could allow Facebook to block rival customer service software providers’ access to its services such as Instagram or WhatsApp 01:45 PM Halfords: Jerry can sales surge 1,600pc Halfords has said sales of jerry cans soared 1,656pc over the weekend as motorists rushed out to panic buy fuel, my colleague James Warrington reports The retailer said ‘jerry can’ became the fourth most popular search term on its website amid an escalating crisis at forecourts up and down the country. Sales of e-bikes also more than doubled as fears of fuel shortages prompted drivers to look for alternative modes of transport. Separate data from Auto Trader showed surging interest for electric vehicles, with searches for used EVs jumping 60pc over the weekend. 01:31 PM More on Rolls-Royce's US Air Force deal Rolls-Royce has defeated American rivals to win a contract to supply engines for the US Air Force’s B-52 bombers in a deal worth up to $2.6bn (£1.9bn), reports James Warrington. He writes: The engineering giant fended off competition from the incumbent Pratt & Whitney as well as General Electric to win the high-profile contract after a tender process that spanned several years. The win sent shares up more than 9pc to their highest level since June 2020, making it the biggest riser on the FTSE 100, but remain below their pre-pandemic high. The F130 engines, to be made at Rolls' Indianapolis factory, were chosen to replace the bombers’ engines in an initial six-year deal worth $500m. This could rise to $2.6bn if all options are exercised. Read more on this story here. 01:09 PM Downing Street clashes with Sadiq Khan over London cycle lanes Tensions between Downing Street and Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London recently escalated over plans to grant councils money even after they ripped out cycle lanes, reports Oliver Gill. He writes: Andrew Gilligan, the Prime Minister’s transport adviser, intervened in and vetoed TfL plans to distribute £100m for policies that encourage “active travel”, according to correspondence seen by The Telegraph . Correspondence between Mr Gilligan, Boris Johnson’s cycling aide during his time as London mayor, and Will Norman, Mr Khan’s walking and cycling commissioner, reveals rising tensions between the two men. Read the full story here. 12:51 PM US business equipment orders rise for sixth straight month A Boeing 777X airplane takes off on its inaugural flight at Paine Field in Everett, Washington - JASON REDMOND /AFP Orders placed with US manufacturers for business equipment strengthened in August, extending to six months a solid run of robust capital investment that’s helping fuel economic growth. Bloomberg has the details: The value of core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware and is seen as a barometer of business equipment investment, increased 0.5pc after an upwardly revised 0.3pc a month earlier, Commerce Department figures showed Monday. Bookings for all durable goods - or items meant to last at least three years - rose 1.8pc from the prior month, reflecting a pickup in orders for commercial aircraft. Bookings for commercial aircraft increased nearly 78pc. Boeing earlier reported 53 orders in August, up from 31 a month earlier. The government’s data aren’t always directly comparable on a month-to-month basis. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.4pc increase in core capital goods orders and a 0.7pc gain in total durables. Durable goods orders stronger in August, +1.8% vs. +0.7% est. & +0.5% in July (rev up from -0.1%); orders ex-trans +0.2% vs. +0.8% in July … cap goods orders nondefense ex-air (orange) +0.5% vs. +0.4% est. & +0.3% in July (rev up from +0.1%) @Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/F64WSJgWlo — Liz Ann Sonders (@LizAnnSonders) September 27, 2021 12:38 PM Oil demand to peak earlier than forecast Pumpjacks in the South Belridge Oil Field, the fourth-largest oil field in California - David McNew /Getty Images North America Global oil demand will peak earlier than previously projected, before 2030, TotalEnergies forecast on Monday. The French oil major said its business was now working on the assumption that global consumption would begin to decline before the end of the decade. It had previously forecast the peak would come around 2030. Oil demand would drop to 40m or 64m barrels per day by 2050, depending on how strongly policies and habits change, TotalEnergies said in it annual energy outlook. In 2019, the world consumed 99.7m barrels every day. TotalEnergies said that natural gas would continue to play a role as a transition fuel, accompanied by carbon capture and methane emissions control techniques. 12:27 PM Facebook pauses 'Instagram for Kids' Facebook said today it is pausing its controversial 'Instagram for Kids' project and will re-evaluate the idea "at a later date". The project's suspension follows a Wall Street Journal report that suggested Facebook's own research had discovered its Instagram app is harmful to teenagers, especially girls. There were few public details about the 'Instagram for Kids' project but Facebook confirmed it would be a ‘parent-controlled’ version of its app for under 13s. “While we believe building ‘Instagram Kids’ is the right thing to do, Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, will re-evaluate the project at a later date. In the interim Instagram will continue to focus on teen safety and expanding parental supervision features for teens,” Facebook said. 12:21 PM Central London shoppers rise as office workers return Shoppers walk along Oxford Street in central London, U.K. - Jason Alden /Bloomberg The number of shoppers in central London rose 6.5pc last week compared to a week earlier, adding to evidence that office staff are returning to the workplace after the pandemic. In areas of central London where there is a high number of offices compared to stores, footfall rose 8.8pc in the week to Saturday, retail intelligence company Springboard said today. "High street footfall was undoubtedly supported by a shift back to the office, demonstrated by a greater uplift from the week before in central London and large city centres outside of the capital, than in smaller high streets and in outer London," said Springboard's insights director Diane Wehrle. 12:08 PM Billionaire Asda owners acquire 52 KFC restaurants KFC sign - Matt Dunham /AP Billionaire Asda-owners the Issa brothers have acquired 52 KFC restaurants as they continue to expand their sprawling business empire, reports Julia Bradshaw. The new franchise will bring the total number of KFC outlets in the UK operated by the Blackburn businessmen’s EG Group to 208, reflecting nearly a quarter of the country’s total. It makes EG, which is also backed by private equity firm TDR Capital, the largest franchisee in western Europe for the KFC brand. “We have seen a marked upward trend in the performance of our existing KFC network and this has given us confidence to consider and invest in more assets,” said Mohsin Issa. It comes just weeks after rumours that EG Group, which is one of the world’s largest independent forecourt and convenience store chains, was up for sale with a price tag of $15bn (£10.8bn). Last year EG bought 146 KFC restaurants in the UK and Ireland, followed by fast-food chain Leon in April for £100m. It is also aggressively pursuing cafe chain Caffe Nero by buying up its debt. 11:55 AM Chip supply won't improve until 2022, says Goldman Sachs GOLDMAN: Chip shortage “appears to be worsening again, with plant shutdowns in .. Asia leading US automakers to slash Sept production. .. vaccination rates are .. encouraging, but we are nonetheless pushing back our assumption for improving chip supply from this fall to 1H22.” pic.twitter.com/fLbyBxXEP1 — Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) September 27, 2021 11:45 AM Aldi shrugs off food shortages Aldi has shrugged off concerns about food shortages in the run up to Christmas as it revealed plans for 100 new stores, writes my colleague Laura Onita. Giles Hurley, the UK boss of the German discount chain said that although Aldi was not immune to the issues the sector has had to grapple with, such as the scarcity of HGV drivers and shipping containers, it was “business as usual” for the chain. “There's no doubt current circumstances are testing the industry,” he added. He said that the majority of its lorry drivers are employed directly, while some of its rivals use agencies to deliver food, and so “our trucks are running as they should do”. The supermarket chain had good product availability as it stocks fewer ranges than the larger supermarkets, which Mr Hurley said was easier to control. “We are going to have our best Christmas range ever,” he said. Sales grew by 10pc to £13.5bn for the year to the end of December, while pre-tax profits dropped by 2.5pc to £265m due to Covid costs and striving to keep prices lower than its rivals. 11:32 AM FTSE 100 loses earlier gains The FTSE 100 has pared its gains from earlier and is now trading flat, around 7,050 points. Strong gains made by Rolls Royce (up 10.6pc) are being outweighed by stocks including Halma (down 3.7pc), Croda (down 3.3pc), Ashstead (down 3.1pc) and Experian (down 3pc). 11:23 AM Customers of collapsed Green energy supplier moved to Shell The number of Shell's retail customers will grow by over a quarter in the UK, after the energy giant absorbs 255,000 customers from a rival supplier that defaulted during the recent surge in natural gas prices. Shell Energy will take on approximately 255,000 domestic customers, and a small number of non-domestic customers from renewable energy supplier Green, British regulator OFGEM said . Shell Energy, which currently has around 900,000 customers across Britain, said Green's customers will move to Shell Energy with their credit balances protected and supply uninterrupted. Green Supplier Limited customer @greensupplieruk ? Shell Energy @ShellEnergyHome is your new supplier from 27 September. Your new contract can last as long as you want. You won’t be charged exit fees if you then choose to switch. What you need to know 👉 https://t.co/zkouHAcJnJ pic.twitter.com/knA6MeAEBf — ofgem (@ofgem) September 27, 2021 11:10 AM Rolls-Royce signs to sell Spanish aircraft engine business Rolls-Royce has signed a €1.7bn (£1.4bn) agreement to sell 100pc of one of its largest subsidiaries, Spanish aircraft engine business ITP Aero. The business will be sold to Bain Capital Private Equity, which is leading a consortium of Spanish and Basque companies. The sale follows months of Bain searching for Spanish partners to try to secure government backing to buy the aircraft engine and turbine maker. Previous reports said the auction had narrowed to just Bain and London-based buyout rival Cinven. Warren East, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said: "Today's announcement is a significant milestone for our disposal programme as we work to strengthen our balance sheet, in support of our medium-term ambition to return to an investment grade credit profile." Rolls-Royce's shares are up nearly 10pc today. 10:58 AM Mixed morning for US futures Pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange, in New York - John Minchillo /AP US stock futures are mixed this morning in New York, as traders braced for speeches by Federal Reserve policy makers. Futures tied to the S&P 500 Index advanced less than 0.1pc, Dow Futures rose 0.3pc while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.2pc. Gains are muted by the developing energy crisis that is threatening to crimp global growth further at a time markets are preparing for a tapering of Fed stimulus. This week threatens volatility in the markets, as traders scrutinise central bankers’ speeches. On Tuesday, Chairman Jerome Powell is due to speak in front of the US Senate and then at the European Central Bank Forum on Wednesday. 10:43 AM Credit Suisse Greensill funds to pay back another $400m Credit Suisse Group said it plans to return about $400m to investors in supply-chain finance funds that invested in Greensill Capital products, the fifth such disbursement since the bank was forced to freeze the money pools this year. Bloomberg has the details: The latest payment is expected to be made this week and would bring the total paid to investors in the funds to about $6.3bn, according to a statement on the bank’s website on Monday. The funds’ total cash position is about $7bn, or about 70pc of assets under management when they were suspended, it said. The collapse of Greensill marked an early reversal in Chief Executive Officer Thomas Gottstein’s tenure, before the bank was hit by the even bigger meltdown of Archegos Capital. Credit Suisse is still conducting an investigation of what happened with the Greensill-linked funds and is due to announce its findings soon. The bank marketed the popular supply-chain finance funds as among the safest investments it offered, because the loans they held were backed by invoices usually paid in a matter of weeks. But as the funds grew into a $10bn strategy, they strayed from that pitch and much of the money was lent through Greensill against expected future invoices, for sales that were merely predicted. The business quickly collapsed after Greensill’s loss of trade credit insurance on many of its notes to less credit-worthy borrowers. 10:29 AM Airport towns braced for jobless spike as furlough scheme ends Airport hubs Crawley and Luton are facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough capitals bear the brunt of an end to the Chancellor’s jobs support scheme, reports Tom Rees. He writes: Experts warned the towns are the most vulnerable to a wave of job losses after new data revealed they have the most workers stuck on furlough as the travel industry struggles to recover. The recent loosening of Britain’s travel rules came too late to save the sector’s crucial summer period. The furlough scheme wraps up after 18 months on Thursday. Crawley, which is close to Gatwick airport, is most threatened by a surge in unemployment with one in 10 of its workforce still on the furlough scheme as of the end of July, according to Centre for Cities figures. Read more about this story here. 10:17 AM Fuel crisis eating into driver earnings, says Uber Taxi company Uber has blamed Britain's fuel crisis for eating into driver's earnings. “More and more of the working day is taken up looking for fuel,” said James Farrar, general secretary of Britain’s App Drivers and Couriers’ Union. Drivers aren’t compensated for this and they’re not able to raise prices themselves, so the gas shortage is eating into their earnings, he said. The App Drivers and Couriers Union is planning a strike tomorrow that could involve “thousands” of drivers in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield and Leeds. Among its demand, the union is calling for "Uber to pay all working time including waiting time." 10:01 AM Nickel and tin tumble as China's power crisis deepens A worker walks along a path at the Sahiwal coal power plant - Asad Zaidi /Bloomberg Nickel and tin prices have tumbled in response to China’s power crisis, which is causing black outs, shutting off traffic lights and forcing businesses to cut back on production. The crisis has been caused by tight coal supplies as well as provincial governments trying to meet environmental targets for this year, according to Bloomberg, with many factories forced to cut or halting their operations. Economists at Nomura Holdings and China International Capital (CIC) have downgraded growth forecasts as the power crunch in the top metals consuming country causes supply losses at metal smelters, fabricators and steel mills in the past few months. “Tin supply has been impacted by power control measures several times already this year,” the International Tin Association said. “What has been surprising in this round of restrictions is the effect on tin demand.” In a note, CIC warned that power restrictions could tighten further in the fourth quarter. Nickel fell as much as 2.9pc to $18,820 ton on the London Metal Exchange. Tin dropped 4.2pc to $35,000 a ton, tumbling from a record high struck last week. 09:45 AM Amazon dives into UK insurance market Amazon will soon offer insurance to small and medium-size British business customers, according to London-based insurance broker Superscript. Members of Amazon's Business Prime programme will be able to buy cover from Superscript, in the tech giant's first foray into UK business insurance. A Superscript spokesperson said the cover - which will include contents insurance, cyber insurance and personal indemnity insurance - would be underwritten by "major UK insurers". 09:38 AM Money round-up Here's the latest stories from The Telegraph's Money team: Money Makeover: 'Should I have 12 buy-to-lets or invest in an Isa?' Our reader has a grand plan to become a property tycoon - but our advisers think it might be reckless The signs the country house price boom is hitting its peak : Inner commuter house prices jumped 2.4pc in three months as workers returned to offices £21m a day moved out of final salary pensions – should you join them? There are numerous things to consider before ditching a gold plated pension 09:26 AM Pound edges higher Sterling inched 0.1pc higher this morning, as investors juggled expectations that the Bank of England could hike interest rates early next year with concerns about fuel shortages and unemployment. Sterling jumped last week following the Bank of England's hawkish tone on interest rates and its pandemic bond-buying scheme. However analysts are flagging fuel shortages and the looming end of the furlough scheme to suggest those gains may have been overdone . "The initial hawkish headlines last week were diluted into the weekend as the market reflected on the headwinds already facing households from the national insurance tax hikes and rising energy bills," said Jane Foley, Head of FX Strategy at Rabobank. The pound, which is currently trading at $1.3699, also gained some support on Monday as fears of widespread market contagion from indebted developer China Evergrande Group receded. 09:14 AM Tesla shareholders urged to reject re-election of Murdoch and Musk James Murdoch (right) with his father, media mogul Rupert Murdoch - Kevork Djansezian /Getty Images North America Tesla shareholders should vote to reject the re-election of board members James Murdoch and Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, according to proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services. “Votes AGAINST directors James Murdoch and Kimbal Musk are warranted due to concerns regarding excessive compensation to named executive officers and to non-executive directors,” Institutional Shareholder Services wrote in a Friday report to clients. Murdoch and Musk, both 48, sit on Tesla’s board of nine directors. ISS said that directors have received “outlier levels of pay without a compelling rationale” and that there is no explanation as to why the magnitude of option awards is “so much larger than director compensation at peer companies.” Tesla will hold its annual shareholder meeting virtually this year on October 7 from its new factory in Austin, Texas. 09:05 AM Behind the Rolls-Royce rise US Air Force's B-52H bomber fleet - PAUL J. RICHARDS /AFP Shares of Rolls Royce have jumped 7pc this morning and have almost doubled since this time last year. The rise can be traced back to a number of factors. While Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock, Rolls Royce also announced on Monday that it had been asked to provide engines for the United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers - a contract which could be worth up to $2.6bn. Rolls Royce could also benefit from the possibility that the government could plough more cash into mini nuclear reactors in an attempt to prevent further energy crises as Britain transitions to net-zero carbon emissions. Sources close to the government decision noted that Rolls-Royce - which already makes modular reactors - is ahead of the game in terms of tech,” and its status as a British company will also make it attractive to ministers. However at 141.7p, the company's stock remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels of 232.4p. 08:52 AM Petrofac shares surge after guilty plea Shares of oilfield services company Petrofac have continued to surge this morning, following its Friday announcement that it would plead guilty to seven charges of bribery. Petrofac said the charges relate to former employees "offering or making payments to agents in relation to projects awarded between 2012 and 2015 in Iraq, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE." The company's chairman René Medori said: "Petrofac has been living under the shadow of the past, but today it is a profoundly different business, in which stakeholders can be assured of our commitment to the highest standards of business ethics, wherever we operate.” 08:38 AM Workspace bets on office revival with new building Office landlord Workspace said this morning it has acquired a 57,000 square ft building in East London, as the company bets on the revival of office life. Workspace said the building, called The Old Dairy in London's Shoreditch, is currently 80pc let. Graham Clemett, chief executive, commented: The acquisition of The Old Dairy further strengthens our presence and broadens our offering in Shoreditch, one of the most popular areas for our customers. We see tremendous opportunity to generate long-term value by repositioning the property over time to our distinctive flexible model. I am confident that, together with The Frames, The Old Dairy will be a hub for Shoreditch's dynamic SME scene for years to come. 08:23 AM FTSE tech listings hit all-time high since dotcom bubble London's blue-chip market indices now host more technology companies than at any point since the aftermath of the dotcom bubble after a resurgence of listings, reports James Titcomb. He writes: The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 combined feature 26 technology and consumer internet firms, or 7pc of the total, according to figures from the London Stock Exchange. This is the highest level since 2000, when the likes of Lastminute.com, Marconi and Logica were among Britain’s most valuable companies. Technology firms in the FTSE 350 numbered 28 in 2000, but fell to 18 the year later and nine in 2002 as the internet bubble popped. This year, six new companies have entered the group, including newly listed Darktrace, Trustpilot and Moonpig. It comes ahead of proposed listing reforms that could allow companies such as Deliveroo, The Hut Group and Wise to enter the premium segment of the stock exchange, a condition of entering the FTSE. Read the full story here. 08:14 AM Markets react to German election A poster advertises Germany's left party Die Linke (C) in Stuttgart - THOMAS KIENZLE /AFP German shares have jumped 1pc to ten-day highs this morning, after the federal election outcome reduced the chances of a left-wing coalition gaining power. Germany's blue-chip DAX was leading gains among regional indexes, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index added 0.6pc in early trading. Germany's centre-left Social Democrats are expected to start trying to form a government after they narrowly won the biggest share of the vote after Sunday's election. The party - which has not won a general election since 2005 - said they would seek to form a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats in what is dubbed as the "traffic light" coalition. While coalition talks could drag on for weeks or months, investors expressed relief that the hard-left Linke party fell below the 5pc threshold needed to enter parliament. Before the election, there had been some speculation that the anti-capitalist Left Party may win enough seats to feature in a coalition although that tail risk has not materialised,"said Steven Bell, chief economist at BMO Global Asset Management. "The feasible coalitions would involve compromise on all sides and imply no major policy shift. The uncertainty is a mild negative for financial markets in the near term but we do not expect a significant reaction from financial markets." More on the German election result here. 08:02 AM Cryptocurrencies bounce back The cryptocurrency market has bounced back from last week's rout which was a reaction to China’s latest crackdown. Bitcoin and Ether had recouped most of their losses by Monday, with Bitcoin rallying to around $44,000 overnight. “Over the weekend sessions, Bitcoin has shown some resilience and has now recovered the majority of those losses,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note Monday. “It may well be that China’s previously announced crackdowns had already been built into prices.” Crypto markets were roiled on Friday when China issued its toughest restrictions yet on the industry, banning all cryptocurrency transactions The announcement hit individual cryptocurrencies but also pulled down crypto related stocks around the world. Software company MicroStrategy, which has significant Bitcoin holdings, declined as much as 6.7pc Friday in the US and British cryptocurrency miner, Argo Blockchain, has dropped more than 17pc in the past five days. 07:49 AM Energy stocks boost FTSE 100 Rolls Royce and energy stocks pushed the FTSE 100 blue-chip index higher this morning, Rolls-Royce gained 4.1pc after Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock. BP rose 2.4pc after it said nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel, as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages. Royal Dutch Shell also gained 2.4pc. On the FTSE 250, cinema chain Cineworld led gains (up 7.4pc) while cybersecurity company Darktrace trailed (down 5.2pc). 07:42 AM Boohoo publishes factory list in transparency drive Boohoo has published a list detailing the names and addresses of 1,100 factories it uses around the world, as part of the online fashion giant's pledge to be more transparent. The list - which also includes a breakdown of how many workers each factory has and their gender split - was published following scrutiny into its supply chain, after it was disclosed some factory workers in Leicester were being paid below the minimum wage. It was one of the recommendations made by an independent review produced by Alison Levitt QC, who was brought in when the scandal first broke. The list features factory in countries including Albania, Bangladesh, China and Morocco. There are also more than 90 UK factories listed, with the majority in Leicester. 07:30 AM Patisserie Valerie auditors fined £2.3m for missing red flags A pedestrian walks past a branch of a Patisserie Valerie cafe in London - DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS /AFP The auditors of collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie missed red flags and showed a serious lack of competence, according to regulators. After its investigation, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) fined accounting giant Grant Thornton and auditor David Newstead £2.34m and £87,750 respectively. Grant Thornton must now report annually to the regulator for three years to show what efforts it is making to improve its audits. Mr Newstead, who carried out the work for Grant Thornton, was also handed a three-year ban from carrying out audits or signing off audit reports. Claudia Mortimore, deputy executive counsel to the FRC, said: "The audit of Patisserie Holdings's revenue and cash in particular involved missed red flags, a failure to obtain sufficient audit evidence and a failure to stand back and question information provided by management." The company collapsed and was revealed to have been overstating its accounts for years. A spokesperson for Grant Thornton said the company has invested significantly in audit practice since the scandal: "We have cooperated fully with the FRC and acknowledge the investigation's findings relating to our audits in 2015-2017. "We regret the quality of our work fell short of what was expected of us in this instance." 07:22 AM Octopus becomes one of UK’s biggest energy suppliers Octopus Energy is taking on the 580,000 customers of collapsed supplier Avro , as the wave of failures in the sector boosts the position of stronger businesses, reports Tim Wallace. He writes: Industry regulator Ofgem chose the new supplier after running a competition between other energy businesses. It takes the total number of Octopus customers to 3.1m, up from 2.5m before the award, making it a major player in the industry just six years after its establishment. It is the UK's fifth biggest supplier, by number of customers. Read Tim's full story here. Avro Energy customer? Octopus Energy will be your new supplier from 26 September. Your new contract can last as long as you want. You won’t be charged exit fees if you then choose to switch. What you need to know 👉 https://t.co/sYGEmwc4X3 pic.twitter.com/SxrOvWQ4VL — ofgem (@ofgem) September 26, 2021 07:17 AM Aldi UK sales jump People follow social distancing rules while they queue outside an Aldi store - MOLLY DARLINGTON /REUTERS Aldi said its UK and Ireland sales jumped 10pc over the pandemic to £12.3bn, as the supermarket announced a £1.3bn investment drive which would include 2,000 new jobs and 100 new shops. A new checkout-free store is also planned in Greenwich, London, it said. No details on trading in the first nine months of 2021 were provided. Although other UK supermarkets give more regular updates on current trading, Aldi is not obliged to and is instead publishing last year's results as it files its accounts with Companies House. Giles Hurley, chief executive for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: "As well as delivering record sales, we continued to invest for growth, deploying over £600m in stores and distribution centres across the UK. "This helped to create thousands of much-needed jobs and support for British farmers and manufacturers. "Whilst the cost of responding to the pandemic dampened profits, our decision to return business rate relief was the right thing to do." Aldi - which is now Britain's fifth largest supermarket - repaid the business rates saved from the Government's scrapping of the tax during the pandemic, following similar moves by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda and Lidl. The company did not mention any supply chain issues or suggestions of price inflation. 07:09 AM FTSE 100 rises The FTSE 100 has jumped 0.9pc on opening this morning, rising to 7,118.73. The FTSE 250 has also added 0.4pc, jumping to 23,782.69. 06:56 AM Shapps’ plan to let truckers work longer hours falls flat Only a fraction of British truck drivers have taken up the Government’s offer for them to work longer hours, new figures reveal, as the haulage crisis escalates, reports Louis Ashworth. He writes: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps temporarily relaxed rules in July despite warnings it could pose a safety risk. In the first month of the relaxation, just 517 of the UK’s roughly 300,000 active HGV drivers notified the Department for Transport that they intended to use the scheme, according to figures obtained by The Telegraph . Of that number, 369 provided follow-up documentation saying how the relaxation had been used, with 97 saying they had not used the policy in the end, a freedom of information request showed. Take-up was even lower in between Aug 8 and Sept 13, the latest date for which information was provided. During this period, only 191 operators stated their intention to use extended hours – about one in every 1,700 drivers. Read more about this story here. 06:52 AM Some UK fuel stations 90pc dry, retailers association says A No Diesel sign outside a Sainsburys supermarket petrol station in North West London - Ray Tang/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Petrol and diesel stations are running dry across Britain, with some big groups in English cities reporting 50pc to 90pc of pumps were dry, the Petrol Retailers Association said on Monday. A dire shortage of truck drivers in Britain has triggered panic buying for fuel, with queues of cars snaking back "Some of our members, large groups with a portfolio of sites, report 50pc are dry as of yesterday, some even report as many as 90pc are dry as of yesterday," Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association told Sky. The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) represents independent fuel retailers who now account for 65pc of all UK forecourts. "So you can see it is quite acute," Madderson said. "Monday morning is going to start pretty dry." BP said on Sunday that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages. 06:45 AM Oil prices surge close to three year highs Oil prices have surged close to three year highs, inflaming inflation fears. Brent has added 1.2pc today, as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent. It is currently trading at $79, its highest price since October 2018. "We forecast that this rally will continue, with our year-end Brent forecast of $90/bbl vs. $80/bbl previously," wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs in a note. "The current global oil supply-demand deficit is larger than we expected, with the recovery in global demand from the Delta impact even faster than our above consensus forecast." Such an increase could stoke speculation that global inflation will prove longer-lasting than first hoped and hasten the end of super-cheap money, favouring reflation trades in bank and energy stocks while bruising bond prices. 06:39 AM Home workers boost United Utilities United Utilities said it expects underlying operating profit for the first half of the year to be higher than the previous six months, as the water company benefits from high household consumption as many of its customers continue working form home. Bosses said they are also expecting a modest net increase in revenue of around 4pc. The company, which provides water and wastewater services to 7m customers in the North West, added it had suffered a hit from changes to tax rules. It said: "The legislation to increase the headline rate of corporation tax to 25pc from 1 April 2023 was enacted in May 2021. As a result, we expect to incur a deferred tax charge through the income statement of around £380m in the first half of 2021/22." 06:32 AM FTSE 100 to push higher Good morning. The FTSE 100 is set to leap 0.85pc to 7,085 points this morning, after a mixed overnight session in Asian stocks that saw Japan's Nikkei give up early gains while China's Hang Seng pushed higher. Meanwhile the German election has ended in gridlock, after a better-than-expected performance by outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU. The centre-left SPD party narrowly winning the most votes , meaning they are likely to try and lead a three-party coalition alongside the Greens and one other party. "t would be unexpected if we did get a new government before Christmas, given the last one took until February 2018 to come into any kind of focus, which means that Angela Merkel may have to stay in place for a while longer yet until her successor is appointed," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson. "What this means for German politics is that nothing much is likely to change in the short term, with investor attention likely to remain on events in China, and Asia more broadly, as well as the various supply crunches taking place across the world." 5 things to start your day 1) Shapps’ plan to let truckers work longer hours fall flat : HGV industry says policy has failed after just one in 1,700 drivers used the scheme last month 2) Octopus takes on 580,000 stranded Avro customers: The energy company now has 3.1m customers, making it a serious challenger to traditional energy companies 3) FTSE tech listings hit all-time high since dotcom bubble: The number of tech firms on the FTSE 350 has hit a 20-year high after crashing shortly after the millennium. 4) Airport hubs braced for jobless spike: Crawley and Luton among towns facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough scheme comes to an end. 5) One in four workers want to quit their jobs: Survey finds nearly three in 10 workers are experiencing poor well-being at work. What happened overnight Asian shares crept higher on Monday as risk sentiment turned for the better, though a surge in oil prices to three-year highs could inflame inflation fears and aggravate the recent hawkish turn by some major central banks. Oil stormed past its July peaks as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent. Brent added another 98 cents on Monday to $79.07 a barrel, while US crude rose 97 cents to $74.95. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed 0.5pc, though that followed three consecutive weeks of losses. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.4pc on hopes for further fiscal stimulus once a new prime minister is chosen. Nasdaq futures rose 0.4pc, and S&P 500 futures 0.5pc. Chinese blue chips gained 1.1oc as the country's central bank pumped more money into the financial system and investors dared to hope Beijing would limit the fallout from the troubled China Evergrande Group. Coming up today Corporate: United Utilities (Trading update) Economics: Durable goods orders (US) View comments || Oil heads for $80 as energy crisis escalates: A Texaco Inc. petrol tanker passes a warning sign at the Kingsbury Fuel Terminal near Tamworth, UK - Darren Staples /Bloomberg Britain is doomed to a Winter of Discontent, warns Ukraine gas boss Putin’s power play sets new German leader a challenge FTSE 100 edges 0.2pc higher, boosted by Rolls Royce Nasdaq falls as investors swapped big tech for stocks linked to economic growth Kallum Pickering: The Tories need a stronger Labour to make Brexit work Sign up here for our daily business briefing newsletter Oil prices jumped to three-year highs on Monday in the latest sign of a global energy crunch. Brent crude rallied 2.3pc to $79.80, its highest price since October 2018. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said Brent, which is based on the North Sea industry, could rise to $90 per barrel by the end of the year. Gas prices have rocketed to all-time highs in recent weeks due to weak global production, low exports from Russia, poor storage levels in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and rising demand from economies emerging from lockdowns. High gas prices increase demand for oil-burning to generate electricity. The world's biggest independent oil trader, the Vitol Group, said it expects global demand for crude to climb by 500,000 barrels a day this winter. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agrees there will be a surge in demand but expects that number to be slightly lower, at around 370,000 extra barrels a day. The lifting of restrictions on UK and EU visitors to the US in November is also expected to drive up prices, as the resurrection of trans-atlantic travel lifts demand for jet fuel. Meanwhile supply has been capped by the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, which crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in late August and forced Shell to pause production at offshore facilities near Houston, Texas. "The world's demand is not being met with enough supplies and this has pushed Brent towards $80," Exinity analyst Hussein Sayed said. 05:37 PM Wrapping up That's all from us today – here are some of our top stories: Recovery enters the 'hard yards', warns Andrew Bailey as petrol panic bites Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment Rolls-Royce lands contract for B-52 bomber engines Electric car maker Polestar valued at $20bn in Spac deal Czech billionaire spends almost £9m on National Lottery bid Story continues Thanks for following along! 05:22 PM Evergrande hit with wealth management probe The Shenzhen government is investigating a unit of Chinese developer Evergrande, the city's financial regulator told investors on Monday, in the first sign of an official inquiry into the wealth management crisis at the real estate giant. Reuters has the details: Evergrande, the world's most indebted property developer headquartered in Shenzhen, owes $305bn and has run short of cash, triggering concerns its problems could ripple through China's financial system. As its liquidity crisis deepened, the company's wealth arm earlier this month missed a payment on wealth management products (WMPs), leading to protests by investors who fear they will never get their money back. In a letter to investors seen by Reuters, the Shenzhen Financial Regulatory Bureau said "relevant departments of the Shenzhen government have gathered public opinions about Evergrande Wealth and are launching a thorough investigation into related issues of the company". It is also urging China Evergrande and Evergrande Wealth to work to repay investors, the letter said, which was sent following investor demands for an inquiry. 05:16 PM Qatar Airways falls to $4.1bn loss Qatar Airways has swung to an annual loss of $4.1bn after writing down the value of its grounded Airbus A380 super jumbo fleet. The state-owned airline attributed $2.3bn of the loss for the year to March 31 to impairment charges on the fleet of 10 A380s, as well as some smaller A330 models. “It is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market,” the company said. It added that it didn't expect international travel to return to pre-Covid levels until 2024. Qatar Airways, which continued to operate its route network throughout the pandemic, added that it had received $3bn in equity funding from the government. It had previously disclosed $2bn of that amount. 05:02 PM Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner Octopus Energy has been valued at more than the owner of British Gas after the challenger supplier won a $600m investment from a fund run by Al Gore, the former US vice-president. Rachel Millard reports: Generation Investment Management, the clean energy fund he set up in 2004 and still chairs, is taking a 13pc stake in Octopus to help it develop and supply more renewable power. The investment means the private company is now valued at £3.3bn – £300m more than Centrica. Its stock market value has declined by almost three quarters in the six years since Octopus was founded by Greg Jackson, who remains chief executive. Octopus is at the forefront of a band of challengers who have taken about a quarter of the energy market from suppliers such as Centrica and EDF. Its Kraken technology has also been licensed to growing numbers of rivals. Octopus consolidated its position over the weekend when it picked up 580,000 customers from failed supplier Avro Energy - one of several smaller challengers struggling to survive due to soaring wholesale prices linked to a global crunch in supplies of natural gas. Mr Jackson said the difficult state of the UK energy market highlighted the need for investment in renewable energy sources. Read more: Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment 04:55 PM Aldi to open 100 new stores in £1.3bn UK expansion Aldi expansion UK - Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP Aldi has unveiled plans to open 100 new stores in the UK over the next two years as the German supermarket chain pushed ahead with expansion plans despite supply chain troubles. The £1.3bn investment plan will create 2,000 new jobs, the company said. Aldi UK and Ireland has already created 7,000 jobs over the last two years. The discount chain, which has enjoyed booming sales during the pandemic, has also proven resilient to wider supply chain woes hitting the retail sector. It said this was due to its smaller number of both product ranges and suppliers. Aldi has also increased its pay for lorry drivers due to an ongoing HGV driver shortage, though chief executive Giles Hurley said the company had not been hit by the current fuel supply crisis. 04:46 PM James Bond set to shake up UK cinema James Bond No Time To Die UK cinema - Nicola Dove/PA Wire UK cinemas are poised to receive a much-needed boost thanks to the release of the latest James Bond film this week. Advance ticket sales for No Time To Die, which will hit the big screen on Thursday, reached levels last seen in 2019, putting the blockbuster on track to be the biggest opening since the pandemic gripped the industry. Odeon said it has sold more than 175,000 tickets for the latest instalment in the spy series, while Cineworld said it marked its highest pre-selling film since Marvel's superhero movie Avengers: Endgame in 2019. The film, which will be Daniel Craig's last appearance as the eponymous spy, was postponed three times from its original release date in April 2020 after the outbreak of Covid-19 forced cinemas to close. Craig has said he hopes the film's release will give the cinema industry "some sort of boost". 04:32 PM Novacyt swings to £15m loss amid Covid test dispute Diagnostics company Novacyt made a £15m pre-tax loss in the first half of the year amid a bitter dispute with the Government over Covid testing contracts, reports my colleague Julia Bradshaw . The Anglo-French company took a £35.8m hit as it wrote down the value of stocks of Covid tests that it had built up in expectation that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would purchase more of its products. The figure also includes the cost of tests and that Novacyt supplied to the department - worth £49m - that were never paid for. It announced earlier that year that it had taken legal advice and believes it has “strong grounds to assert its contractual rights”. The dispute stems back to September last year, when Novacyt signed a 14-week contract, worth £150m, with DHSC to supply Covid tests for NHS staff. There was an option to extend the contract to supply more of the kits, which had been developed by Novacyt’s scientists in the UK, but Ministers decided to end the agreement instead. As part of that agreement it delivered £49m worth of tests in the first half of the year, for which it says it has not yet been paid. Excluding the write-down, however, things are looking better. Novacyt’s sales actually rose by a fifth to £54m in the first half of its financial year, as the company benefited from a surge in demand for private Covid testing as international travel ramps up. 04:22 PM Warehouse shortages spark 30pc pay spike UK warehouse wages - David Rose UK warehouses are having to hike wages by up to 30pc due to a shortage of workers that has compounded supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas. Reuters has more details: The warehouse trade group and a recruitment agency for the sector said they were struggling to replace the European staff who used to arrive for the festive period and work in warehouses and distribution centres. Clare Bottle, chief executive of the UK Warehousing Association, said her members had reported having to increase pay by between 20pc and 30pc to secure workers for entry level jobs. With around 200,000 people working in warehousing, she said: "The problem is big. I would say we're tens of thousands short." Jordan Francis, commercial director of the Prodrive recruitment agency which supplies around 35 warehouse companies in southern England, said he already had around 100 vacancies he was struggling to fill. He is offering a 25pc increase in pay for a standard warehouse operative role. While he can secure more workers at that rate, he said the higher pay meant workers were less willing to do overtime. "We've never seen a market like this," he said, adding that his former European workers had opted to go to France or Germany, where they do not need visas. The shortages in Britain's logistics network come on top of a spike in European natural gas prices and a post-Brexit and Covid shortage of truck drivers. 04:11 PM FTSE closes higher The FTSE 100 has closed higher, with major banking and energy companies leading the gains. The blue-chip index rose 0.2pc, with BP gaining 3.1pc after saying that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel. HSBC , Barclays , Virgin Money UK and Standard Chartered all closed higher, tracking higher benchmark bond yields amid rising inflation concerns. But the biggest winner was Rolls-Royce , which jumped more than 11pc after it secured a US Air Force contract to supply B-52 bombers and agreed to sell its Spanish unit ITP Aero for €1.7bn. The domestically focused FTSE 250 rose 0.1pc, with travel and leisure stocks among top gainers. 04:01 PM Europe’s biggest chemical firm cuts output BASF chemicals Germany - Alex Kraus/Bloomberg Europe’s largest chemicals producer has slashed its output due to a surge in gas prices across the continent. BASF today said it had reduced ammonia output at its plants in Antwerp, Belgium and Ludwigshafen, Germany. The company said: “The economics for operating an ammonia plant in the region has become extremely challenging.” It added that it would review production plans once gas prices fell. The crisis has sparked a spike in prices for nitrogen fertiliser, which is manufactured using ammonia. This could push up prices for farmers or force them to cut fertiliser use in spring, which in turn could fuel global food inflation. The ammonia supply disruption could also have wider implications as the process creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Earlier this month the UK food industry, which uses CO2 for meat production and packaging, was thrown into chaos after two fertiliser plants shut down. 03:49 PM Bailey: Could Covid spark shift in UK wages? Another interesting point in Andrew Bailey's speech, where he muses on the long-term structural impacts of the pandemic on UK wages: As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing currently a much greater dispersion of wage settlements. What if this is the beginning of a more far-reaching structural change in the economy which alters relative pay across occupations? To be clear, I am making no prediction here, but rather asking the question in the context of monetary policy. The first thing to say is that such changes do happen. Since the 1980s, we have seen a structural increase in the pay gap between higher and lower earners. We have also seen more structural changes in retirement ages over a longer time. So, structural changes can happen. It is not the job of monetary policy to prevent such changes, but rather to ensure that they do not have negative consequences for monetary stability, such as dislodging inflation expectations 03:40 PM Tech stocks weigh on Wall Street Tech giants are the biggest drag on Wall Street this afternoon, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.6pc. The decline is largely the result of a rise in Treasury bond yields – the indication of US government borrowing costs – in the wake of the Fed’s hawkish announcement last week on easing stimulus measures. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose above 1.5pc for the first time since June, which added to concerns about lofty valuations in the tech sector. Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at ThinkMarkets, told Bloomberg: “Yields are rising sharply, reflecting investors’ expectations about monetary tightening amid surging inflationary pressures. “If yields climb higher, this could weigh especially on the overstretched growth stocks in the technology sector, which have low dividend yields.” Amazon and Netflix also took a hit from negative analyst comments about future growth, while Facebook shares fell after the social media firm said it was pausing work on Instagram Kids. 03:25 PM Bailey: Labour market is a "a big puzzle" Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, during a Bloomberg Television interview in London - Hollie Adams /Bloomberg In the speech, Bailey goes on to describe the labour market as "a big puzzle" and a source of uncertainty. He points to data that shows 1.7m remain on furlough while there are over 1m job vacancies and the numbers of inactive and unemployed was higher than pre-Covid levels. He says: There are a number of possible outcomes to this puzzle, which have different implications for the labour market. The first is that the furloughed workers will largely be re-absorbed into their old jobs, and so even with a further reduction in unemployment and inactivity, we are left with an excess of job vacancies. If these excess vacancies are associated with shortages of workers in particular sectors, this may push up on wages. This could also happen if furloughed workers do not return to their old jobs, but are not suitable for those jobs and sectors where there are a high number of vacancies. In other words, there is a mismatch in the labour market. Such an outcome is likely to raise the rate of unemployment... The second outcome is different. Vacancies may be temporarily higher, and above their steady state level in the short-run, if firms are anticipating that it will be harder to find workers in the future when unemployment falls. In that scenario, demand picks up, the impact of matching frictions in the labour market dissipate over time, and both vacancies and unemployment fall... Another possible explanation is that the level of advertised vacancies is elevated due to employers overestimating the growth of demand to come just as the speed of the recovery falls off. In this case, some of the vacancies turn out not to be jobs as employers change their mind, or at least hiring is put back. The implications of these labour market outcomes are quite different for growth, inflation, and thus monetary policy, which illustrates the uncertainty we face. 03:19 PM Andrew Bailey: UK recovery has slowed The Bank of England has published the speech its Governor, Andrew Bailey, is expected to give at the Society of Professional Economists Annual Dinner tonight. Bailey is expected to outline how he feels the economy's recovery is progressing. He's expected to say: The rate of recovery has slowed over recent months, and that slowing is continuing. Relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, on the latest data to July, the level of GDP was 3.5pc lower... It is inevitable in a bounce-back that the growth rate will slow as the recovery nears its end-point. It is not though inevitable – or desirable – that the previous level is not regained. Recovery in some consumer-facing services appears to have been delayed. We had seen a recovery in activities such as eating in restaurants, but activity is levelling off... Consistent with the impact of supply bottlenecks and disruption, construction output fell in July, and manufacturing output stalled. Surveys and the reports of the Bank’s Agents, suggest the impact of these supply-chain issues is broadening out. Pulling this together, the recovery has slowed and the economy has been buffeted by additional shocks. The switch of demand from goods to services, as Covid has faded in terms of its economic impact, has not taken place to date on the scale expected. Meanwhile, supply bottlenecks and labour shortages have weighed on output, and are continuing. Indeed the number of high profile supply bottlenecks appears to be increasing. I must say that when I heard that we were suffering a shortage of wind to generate power, I was tempted to ask, “and when are the locusts due to arrive". 03:11 PM Electric car maker Polestar valued at $20bn in Spac deal Visitors examine a Polestar 1 car at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Munich, southern Germany - TOBIAS SCHWARZ /AFP An upmarket electric car company spun off from Volvo and backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been valued at $20bn (£14.6bn) as it becomes the latest challenger carmaker to go public, reports James Titcomb. He writes: Polestar, owned by Volvo’s Chinese parent Geely, will merge with Gores Guggenheim, a listed investment vehicle in a so-called Spac deal. The deal will see Polestar raise slightly more than $1bn as it seeks to challenge the likes of Tesla in targeting the high end of the growing electric vehicle market. Spacs, or special purpose acquisition companies, involve merging a publicly traded “blank cheque” firm with a private company, allowing it to float without a traditional public offering. Read more about this story here. 03:03 PM Drivers turn to electric cars to beat petrol shortages A charging plugs connects an electric vehicle (EV) to a charging station in London - Simon Dawson /Bloomberg Motorists have turned to electric vehicles to try and beat the petrol shortage that is gripping the country, reports Will Kirkman. He writes: The number of Google searches for electric cars rose by 1,600pc on Friday, compared to normal levels, according to analysis by website Car Guide. Petrol stations across the country have run low on fuel, due to a lack of HGV drivers and panic buying among consumers. Motorists have looked to electric vehicles to avoid the tailbacks at petrol station forecourts. There are other reasons to go green and switch to an electric car. But with concerns over range and convenience, motorists are often put off by the higher upfront cost. Can an electric vehicle ever be cheaper than its petrol equivalent, and how long does it take the lower running costs to offset the difference? Telegraph Money takes you through the numbers here . 02:47 PM Expert reaction: Oil rally Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, comments: Oil prices are continuing to surge, with Brent crude now closing in on $80 and WTI perhaps not too far behind it. The global energy crisis could see demand for crude rise if the northern hemisphere experiences a cold winter, with many countries not equipped to cope. If momentum is sustained, pressure will grow on OPEC+ to speed up the pace that it increases output, after a historic production cut early in the pandemic. Plans to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day, each month, will see output return to normal by the end of next year but recent events may require the group to pick up the pace. The last thing the global economy needs going into an uncertain winter period is a fuel crisis to top everything off. Producers may not rush into a decision though, with some potentially comfortable with prices at these levels and others wanting to see if further restrictions accompany Covid surges that weigh on demand. 02:44 PM Nasdaq falls more than 1pc The Nasdaq index fell as much as 1pc on Monday before paring losses, as investors swapped technology heavyweights for stocks linked to economic growth amid increasing confidence in a recovery. Big tech stocks Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Apple slipped between 1.2pc and 2.9pc. The Nasdaq is currently down 0.5pc. Chipmakers also fell 1.3pc as widening power shortages in China threatened to curb production. Rate-sensitive banking stocks gained 2.2pc, while a jump in energy, and industrial shares pushed the blue-chip Dow up 0.7pc. The S&P 500 traded flat, edging up only 0.01pc. 02:39 PM TikTok hits 1bn users A person holds a smartphone as Tik Tok logo is displayed behind - Dado Ruvic /REUTERS TikTok now has 1bn monthly active users after coronavirus lockdowns helped drive a huge surge in popularity for the video-sharing app, reports James Warrington. The social media app said it passed the 1bn user milestone this summer, marking a 45pc increase since June 2020. The US, Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia are its biggest markets, the company added. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has shrugged off regulatory scrutiny over its use of data and links to Beijing to expand rapidly in recent years. 02:30 PM London-listed Hikma buys US injectables business London-listed pharmaceutical company Hikma has paid $375m (£273m) for Californian injectables supplier Custopharm, buying the business from US healthcare investor Water Street Healthcare Partners. The offer could increase by $50m (£36.5m) if certain commercial milestones are reached, the company added. Hikma added that the acquisition complements its own injectable product portfolio by adding 13 approved products and enhances its R&D capabilities. An extra $80m (£58m) in revenues is expected to be added each year. Hikma rose 1.2pc in trading on Monday. 02:14 PM JD Sports expands into beauty industry A shop assistant works inside a JD Sports Fashion Plc store on Oxford Street in central London - Jason Alden /Bloomberg JD Sports is plotting a duel with The Hut Group after it bought a stake in an online beauty and hair brand, reports Laura Onita. The FTSE 100 sportswear firm has made its first move into the beauty sector by acquiring a chunk of Hairburst, which sells hair vitamins, shampoos and styling products. JD Sports - worth £11bn - plans to use its financial firepower to help the beauty start-up to buy a number of rivals and build a stable of brands as the industry heats up. The move comes after The Hut Group pulled the trigger earlier this month on a separate listing for its beauty arm following a string of bolt-on acquisitions in recent years that are meant to help THG dominate the beauty arena. The platform now owns websites such as Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty. It reported sales of £461m for the six months to the end of June, up from £296m in the same period a year ago. Hairburst was founded in 2014 by James Hill, Henry Gwilliam and Matthew Cragg, who used £4,000 of savings to set up the firm. It now has 45 staff and its products are stocked in Boots, Sephora and Superdrug. JD Sports’ investment comes as the retailer seeks to branch into other rapidly growing categories such as beauty. 02:01 PM Watchdog clears Facebook’s Kustomer takeover Facebook has been given the green light for its takeover of US customer service software company Kustomer after securing approval from the competition watchdog, reports James Warrington. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) examined factors such as whether the merger would expand Facebook’s data advantage in online display advertising. But it concluded that the deal, worth a reported $1bn, did “not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK”. The deal will help bolster Facebook’s efforts to expand its messaging division by allowing businesses to interact with customers via chat apps. The European Commission and US regulators are still looking into the merger over concerns it could allow Facebook to block rival customer service software providers’ access to its services such as Instagram or WhatsApp 01:45 PM Halfords: Jerry can sales surge 1,600pc Halfords has said sales of jerry cans soared 1,656pc over the weekend as motorists rushed out to panic buy fuel, my colleague James Warrington reports The retailer said ‘jerry can’ became the fourth most popular search term on its website amid an escalating crisis at forecourts up and down the country. Sales of e-bikes also more than doubled as fears of fuel shortages prompted drivers to look for alternative modes of transport. Separate data from Auto Trader showed surging interest for electric vehicles, with searches for used EVs jumping 60pc over the weekend. 01:31 PM More on Rolls-Royce's US Air Force deal Rolls-Royce has defeated American rivals to win a contract to supply engines for the US Air Force’s B-52 bombers in a deal worth up to $2.6bn (£1.9bn), reports James Warrington. He writes: The engineering giant fended off competition from the incumbent Pratt & Whitney as well as General Electric to win the high-profile contract after a tender process that spanned several years. The win sent shares up more than 9pc to their highest level since June 2020, making it the biggest riser on the FTSE 100, but remain below their pre-pandemic high. The F130 engines, to be made at Rolls' Indianapolis factory, were chosen to replace the bombers’ engines in an initial six-year deal worth $500m. This could rise to $2.6bn if all options are exercised. Read more on this story here. 01:09 PM Downing Street clashes with Sadiq Khan over London cycle lanes Tensions between Downing Street and Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London recently escalated over plans to grant councils money even after they ripped out cycle lanes, reports Oliver Gill. He writes: Andrew Gilligan, the Prime Minister’s transport adviser, intervened in and vetoed TfL plans to distribute £100m for policies that encourage “active travel”, according to correspondence seen by The Telegraph . Correspondence between Mr Gilligan, Boris Johnson’s cycling aide during his time as London mayor, and Will Norman, Mr Khan’s walking and cycling commissioner, reveals rising tensions between the two men. Read the full story here. 12:51 PM US business equipment orders rise for sixth straight month A Boeing 777X airplane takes off on its inaugural flight at Paine Field in Everett, Washington - JASON REDMOND /AFP Orders placed with US manufacturers for business equipment strengthened in August, extending to six months a solid run of robust capital investment that’s helping fuel economic growth. Bloomberg has the details: The value of core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware and is seen as a barometer of business equipment investment, increased 0.5pc after an upwardly revised 0.3pc a month earlier, Commerce Department figures showed Monday. Bookings for all durable goods - or items meant to last at least three years - rose 1.8pc from the prior month, reflecting a pickup in orders for commercial aircraft. Bookings for commercial aircraft increased nearly 78pc. Boeing earlier reported 53 orders in August, up from 31 a month earlier. The government’s data aren’t always directly comparable on a month-to-month basis. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.4pc increase in core capital goods orders and a 0.7pc gain in total durables. Durable goods orders stronger in August, +1.8% vs. +0.7% est. & +0.5% in July (rev up from -0.1%); orders ex-trans +0.2% vs. +0.8% in July … cap goods orders nondefense ex-air (orange) +0.5% vs. +0.4% est. & +0.3% in July (rev up from +0.1%) @Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/F64WSJgWlo — Liz Ann Sonders (@LizAnnSonders) September 27, 2021 12:38 PM Oil demand to peak earlier than forecast Pumpjacks in the South Belridge Oil Field, the fourth-largest oil field in California - David McNew /Getty Images North America Global oil demand will peak earlier than previously projected, before 2030, TotalEnergies forecast on Monday. The French oil major said its business was now working on the assumption that global consumption would begin to decline before the end of the decade. It had previously forecast the peak would come around 2030. Oil demand would drop to 40m or 64m barrels per day by 2050, depending on how strongly policies and habits change, TotalEnergies said in it annual energy outlook. In 2019, the world consumed 99.7m barrels every day. TotalEnergies said that natural gas would continue to play a role as a transition fuel, accompanied by carbon capture and methane emissions control techniques. 12:27 PM Facebook pauses 'Instagram for Kids' Facebook said today it is pausing its controversial 'Instagram for Kids' project and will re-evaluate the idea "at a later date". The project's suspension follows a Wall Street Journal report that suggested Facebook's own research had discovered its Instagram app is harmful to teenagers, especially girls. There were few public details about the 'Instagram for Kids' project but Facebook confirmed it would be a ‘parent-controlled’ version of its app for under 13s. “While we believe building ‘Instagram Kids’ is the right thing to do, Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, will re-evaluate the project at a later date. In the interim Instagram will continue to focus on teen safety and expanding parental supervision features for teens,” Facebook said. 12:21 PM Central London shoppers rise as office workers return Shoppers walk along Oxford Street in central London, U.K. - Jason Alden /Bloomberg The number of shoppers in central London rose 6.5pc last week compared to a week earlier, adding to evidence that office staff are returning to the workplace after the pandemic. In areas of central London where there is a high number of offices compared to stores, footfall rose 8.8pc in the week to Saturday, retail intelligence company Springboard said today. "High street footfall was undoubtedly supported by a shift back to the office, demonstrated by a greater uplift from the week before in central London and large city centres outside of the capital, than in smaller high streets and in outer London," said Springboard's insights director Diane Wehrle. 12:08 PM Billionaire Asda owners acquire 52 KFC restaurants KFC sign - Matt Dunham /AP Billionaire Asda-owners the Issa brothers have acquired 52 KFC restaurants as they continue to expand their sprawling business empire, reports Julia Bradshaw. The new franchise will bring the total number of KFC outlets in the UK operated by the Blackburn businessmen’s EG Group to 208, reflecting nearly a quarter of the country’s total. It makes EG, which is also backed by private equity firm TDR Capital, the largest franchisee in western Europe for the KFC brand. “We have seen a marked upward trend in the performance of our existing KFC network and this has given us confidence to consider and invest in more assets,” said Mohsin Issa. It comes just weeks after rumours that EG Group, which is one of the world’s largest independent forecourt and convenience store chains, was up for sale with a price tag of $15bn (£10.8bn). Last year EG bought 146 KFC restaurants in the UK and Ireland, followed by fast-food chain Leon in April for £100m. It is also aggressively pursuing cafe chain Caffe Nero by buying up its debt. 11:55 AM Chip supply won't improve until 2022, says Goldman Sachs GOLDMAN: Chip shortage “appears to be worsening again, with plant shutdowns in .. Asia leading US automakers to slash Sept production. .. vaccination rates are .. encouraging, but we are nonetheless pushing back our assumption for improving chip supply from this fall to 1H22.” pic.twitter.com/fLbyBxXEP1 — Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) September 27, 2021 11:45 AM Aldi shrugs off food shortages Aldi has shrugged off concerns about food shortages in the run up to Christmas as it revealed plans for 100 new stores, writes my colleague Laura Onita. Giles Hurley, the UK boss of the German discount chain said that although Aldi was not immune to the issues the sector has had to grapple with, such as the scarcity of HGV drivers and shipping containers, it was “business as usual” for the chain. “There's no doubt current circumstances are testing the industry,” he added. He said that the majority of its lorry drivers are employed directly, while some of its rivals use agencies to deliver food, and so “our trucks are running as they should do”. The supermarket chain had good product availability as it stocks fewer ranges than the larger supermarkets, which Mr Hurley said was easier to control. “We are going to have our best Christmas range ever,” he said. Sales grew by 10pc to £13.5bn for the year to the end of December, while pre-tax profits dropped by 2.5pc to £265m due to Covid costs and striving to keep prices lower than its rivals. 11:32 AM FTSE 100 loses earlier gains The FTSE 100 has pared its gains from earlier and is now trading flat, around 7,050 points. Strong gains made by Rolls Royce (up 10.6pc) are being outweighed by stocks including Halma (down 3.7pc), Croda (down 3.3pc), Ashstead (down 3.1pc) and Experian (down 3pc). 11:23 AM Customers of collapsed Green energy supplier moved to Shell The number of Shell's retail customers will grow by over a quarter in the UK, after the energy giant absorbs 255,000 customers from a rival supplier that defaulted during the recent surge in natural gas prices. Shell Energy will take on approximately 255,000 domestic customers, and a small number of non-domestic customers from renewable energy supplier Green, British regulator OFGEM said . Shell Energy, which currently has around 900,000 customers across Britain, said Green's customers will move to Shell Energy with their credit balances protected and supply uninterrupted. Green Supplier Limited customer @greensupplieruk ? Shell Energy @ShellEnergyHome is your new supplier from 27 September. Your new contract can last as long as you want. You won’t be charged exit fees if you then choose to switch. What you need to know 👉 https://t.co/zkouHAcJnJ pic.twitter.com/knA6MeAEBf — ofgem (@ofgem) September 27, 2021 11:10 AM Rolls-Royce signs to sell Spanish aircraft engine business Rolls-Royce has signed a €1.7bn (£1.4bn) agreement to sell 100pc of one of its largest subsidiaries, Spanish aircraft engine business ITP Aero. The business will be sold to Bain Capital Private Equity, which is leading a consortium of Spanish and Basque companies. The sale follows months of Bain searching for Spanish partners to try to secure government backing to buy the aircraft engine and turbine maker. Previous reports said the auction had narrowed to just Bain and London-based buyout rival Cinven. Warren East, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said: "Today's announcement is a significant milestone for our disposal programme as we work to strengthen our balance sheet, in support of our medium-term ambition to return to an investment grade credit profile." Rolls-Royce's shares are up nearly 10pc today. 10:58 AM Mixed morning for US futures Pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange, in New York - John Minchillo /AP US stock futures are mixed this morning in New York, as traders braced for speeches by Federal Reserve policy makers. Futures tied to the S&P 500 Index advanced less than 0.1pc, Dow Futures rose 0.3pc while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.2pc. Gains are muted by the developing energy crisis that is threatening to crimp global growth further at a time markets are preparing for a tapering of Fed stimulus. This week threatens volatility in the markets, as traders scrutinise central bankers’ speeches. On Tuesday, Chairman Jerome Powell is due to speak in front of the US Senate and then at the European Central Bank Forum on Wednesday. 10:43 AM Credit Suisse Greensill funds to pay back another $400m Credit Suisse Group said it plans to return about $400m to investors in supply-chain finance funds that invested in Greensill Capital products, the fifth such disbursement since the bank was forced to freeze the money pools this year. Bloomberg has the details: The latest payment is expected to be made this week and would bring the total paid to investors in the funds to about $6.3bn, according to a statement on the bank’s website on Monday. The funds’ total cash position is about $7bn, or about 70pc of assets under management when they were suspended, it said. The collapse of Greensill marked an early reversal in Chief Executive Officer Thomas Gottstein’s tenure, before the bank was hit by the even bigger meltdown of Archegos Capital. Credit Suisse is still conducting an investigation of what happened with the Greensill-linked funds and is due to announce its findings soon. The bank marketed the popular supply-chain finance funds as among the safest investments it offered, because the loans they held were backed by invoices usually paid in a matter of weeks. But as the funds grew into a $10bn strategy, they strayed from that pitch and much of the money was lent through Greensill against expected future invoices, for sales that were merely predicted. The business quickly collapsed after Greensill’s loss of trade credit insurance on many of its notes to less credit-worthy borrowers. 10:29 AM Airport towns braced for jobless spike as furlough scheme ends Airport hubs Crawley and Luton are facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough capitals bear the brunt of an end to the Chancellor’s jobs support scheme, reports Tom Rees. He writes: Experts warned the towns are the most vulnerable to a wave of job losses after new data revealed they have the most workers stuck on furlough as the travel industry struggles to recover. The recent loosening of Britain’s travel rules came too late to save the sector’s crucial summer period. The furlough scheme wraps up after 18 months on Thursday. Crawley, which is close to Gatwick airport, is most threatened by a surge in unemployment with one in 10 of its workforce still on the furlough scheme as of the end of July, according to Centre for Cities figures. Read more about this story here. 10:17 AM Fuel crisis eating into driver earnings, says Uber Taxi company Uber has blamed Britain's fuel crisis for eating into driver's earnings. “More and more of the working day is taken up looking for fuel,” said James Farrar, general secretary of Britain’s App Drivers and Couriers’ Union. Drivers aren’t compensated for this and they’re not able to raise prices themselves, so the gas shortage is eating into their earnings, he said. The App Drivers and Couriers Union is planning a strike tomorrow that could involve “thousands” of drivers in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield and Leeds. Among its demand, the union is calling for "Uber to pay all working time including waiting time." 10:01 AM Nickel and tin tumble as China's power crisis deepens A worker walks along a path at the Sahiwal coal power plant - Asad Zaidi /Bloomberg Nickel and tin prices have tumbled in response to China’s power crisis, which is causing black outs, shutting off traffic lights and forcing businesses to cut back on production. The crisis has been caused by tight coal supplies as well as provincial governments trying to meet environmental targets for this year, according to Bloomberg, with many factories forced to cut or halting their operations. Economists at Nomura Holdings and China International Capital (CIC) have downgraded growth forecasts as the power crunch in the top metals consuming country causes supply losses at metal smelters, fabricators and steel mills in the past few months. “Tin supply has been impacted by power control measures several times already this year,” the International Tin Association said. “What has been surprising in this round of restrictions is the effect on tin demand.” In a note, CIC warned that power restrictions could tighten further in the fourth quarter. Nickel fell as much as 2.9pc to $18,820 ton on the London Metal Exchange. Tin dropped 4.2pc to $35,000 a ton, tumbling from a record high struck last week. 09:45 AM Amazon dives into UK insurance market Amazon will soon offer insurance to small and medium-size British business customers, according to London-based insurance broker Superscript. Members of Amazon's Business Prime programme will be able to buy cover from Superscript, in the tech giant's first foray into UK business insurance. A Superscript spokesperson said the cover - which will include contents insurance, cyber insurance and personal indemnity insurance - would be underwritten by "major UK insurers". 09:38 AM Money round-up Here's the latest stories from The Telegraph's Money team: Money Makeover: 'Should I have 12 buy-to-lets or invest in an Isa?' Our reader has a grand plan to become a property tycoon - but our advisers think it might be reckless The signs the country house price boom is hitting its peak : Inner commuter house prices jumped 2.4pc in three months as workers returned to offices £21m a day moved out of final salary pensions – should you join them? There are numerous things to consider before ditching a gold plated pension 09:26 AM Pound edges higher Sterling inched 0.1pc higher this morning, as investors juggled expectations that the Bank of England could hike interest rates early next year with concerns about fuel shortages and unemployment. Sterling jumped last week following the Bank of England's hawkish tone on interest rates and its pandemic bond-buying scheme. However analysts are flagging fuel shortages and the looming end of the furlough scheme to suggest those gains may have been overdone . "The initial hawkish headlines last week were diluted into the weekend as the market reflected on the headwinds already facing households from the national insurance tax hikes and rising energy bills," said Jane Foley, Head of FX Strategy at Rabobank. The pound, which is currently trading at $1.3699, also gained some support on Monday as fears of widespread market contagion from indebted developer China Evergrande Group receded. 09:14 AM Tesla shareholders urged to reject re-election of Murdoch and Musk James Murdoch (right) with his father, media mogul Rupert Murdoch - Kevork Djansezian /Getty Images North America Tesla shareholders should vote to reject the re-election of board members James Murdoch and Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, according to proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services. “Votes AGAINST directors James Murdoch and Kimbal Musk are warranted due to concerns regarding excessive compensation to named executive officers and to non-executive directors,” Institutional Shareholder Services wrote in a Friday report to clients. Murdoch and Musk, both 48, sit on Tesla’s board of nine directors. ISS said that directors have received “outlier levels of pay without a compelling rationale” and that there is no explanation as to why the magnitude of option awards is “so much larger than director compensation at peer companies.” Tesla will hold its annual shareholder meeting virtually this year on October 7 from its new factory in Austin, Texas. 09:05 AM Behind the Rolls-Royce rise US Air Force's B-52H bomber fleet - PAUL J. RICHARDS /AFP Shares of Rolls Royce have jumped 7pc this morning and have almost doubled since this time last year. The rise can be traced back to a number of factors. While Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock, Rolls Royce also announced on Monday that it had been asked to provide engines for the United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers - a contract which could be worth up to $2.6bn. Rolls Royce could also benefit from the possibility that the government could plough more cash into mini nuclear reactors in an attempt to prevent further energy crises as Britain transitions to net-zero carbon emissions. Sources close to the government decision noted that Rolls-Royce - which already makes modular reactors - is ahead of the game in terms of tech,” and its status as a British company will also make it attractive to ministers. However at 141.7p, the company's stock remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels of 232.4p. 08:52 AM Petrofac shares surge after guilty plea Shares of oilfield services company Petrofac have continued to surge this morning, following its Friday announcement that it would plead guilty to seven charges of bribery. Petrofac said the charges relate to former employees "offering or making payments to agents in relation to projects awarded between 2012 and 2015 in Iraq, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE." The company's chairman René Medori said: "Petrofac has been living under the shadow of the past, but today it is a profoundly different business, in which stakeholders can be assured of our commitment to the highest standards of business ethics, wherever we operate.” 08:38 AM Workspace bets on office revival with new building Office landlord Workspace said this morning it has acquired a 57,000 square ft building in East London, as the company bets on the revival of office life. Workspace said the building, called The Old Dairy in London's Shoreditch, is currently 80pc let. Graham Clemett, chief executive, commented: The acquisition of The Old Dairy further strengthens our presence and broadens our offering in Shoreditch, one of the most popular areas for our customers. We see tremendous opportunity to generate long-term value by repositioning the property over time to our distinctive flexible model. I am confident that, together with The Frames, The Old Dairy will be a hub for Shoreditch's dynamic SME scene for years to come. 08:23 AM FTSE tech listings hit all-time high since dotcom bubble London's blue-chip market indices now host more technology companies than at any point since the aftermath of the dotcom bubble after a resurgence of listings, reports James Titcomb. He writes: The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 combined feature 26 technology and consumer internet firms, or 7pc of the total, according to figures from the London Stock Exchange. This is the highest level since 2000, when the likes of Lastminute.com, Marconi and Logica were among Britain’s most valuable companies. Technology firms in the FTSE 350 numbered 28 in 2000, but fell to 18 the year later and nine in 2002 as the internet bubble popped. This year, six new companies have entered the group, including newly listed Darktrace, Trustpilot and Moonpig. It comes ahead of proposed listing reforms that could allow companies such as Deliveroo, The Hut Group and Wise to enter the premium segment of the stock exchange, a condition of entering the FTSE. Read the full story here. 08:14 AM Markets react to German election A poster advertises Germany's left party Die Linke (C) in Stuttgart - THOMAS KIENZLE /AFP German shares have jumped 1pc to ten-day highs this morning, after the federal election outcome reduced the chances of a left-wing coalition gaining power. Germany's blue-chip DAX was leading gains among regional indexes, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index added 0.6pc in early trading. Germany's centre-left Social Democrats are expected to start trying to form a government after they narrowly won the biggest share of the vote after Sunday's election. The party - which has not won a general election since 2005 - said they would seek to form a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats in what is dubbed as the "traffic light" coalition. While coalition talks could drag on for weeks or months, investors expressed relief that the hard-left Linke party fell below the 5pc threshold needed to enter parliament. Before the election, there had been some speculation that the anti-capitalist Left Party may win enough seats to feature in a coalition although that tail risk has not materialised,"said Steven Bell, chief economist at BMO Global Asset Management. "The feasible coalitions would involve compromise on all sides and imply no major policy shift. The uncertainty is a mild negative for financial markets in the near term but we do not expect a significant reaction from financial markets." More on the German election result here. 08:02 AM Cryptocurrencies bounce back The cryptocurrency market has bounced back from last week's rout which was a reaction to China’s latest crackdown. Bitcoin and Ether had recouped most of their losses by Monday, with Bitcoin rallying to around $44,000 overnight. “Over the weekend sessions, Bitcoin has shown some resilience and has now recovered the majority of those losses,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note Monday. “It may well be that China’s previously announced crackdowns had already been built into prices.” Crypto markets were roiled on Friday when China issued its toughest restrictions yet on the industry, banning all cryptocurrency transactions The announcement hit individual cryptocurrencies but also pulled down crypto related stocks around the world. Software company MicroStrategy, which has significant Bitcoin holdings, declined as much as 6.7pc Friday in the US and British cryptocurrency miner, Argo Blockchain, has dropped more than 17pc in the past five days. 07:49 AM Energy stocks boost FTSE 100 Rolls Royce and energy stocks pushed the FTSE 100 blue-chip index higher this morning, Rolls-Royce gained 4.1pc after Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock. BP rose 2.4pc after it said nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel, as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages. Royal Dutch Shell also gained 2.4pc. On the FTSE 250, cinema chain Cineworld led gains (up 7.4pc) while cybersecurity company Darktrace trailed (down 5.2pc). 07:42 AM Boohoo publishes factory list in transparency drive Boohoo has published a list detailing the names and addresses of 1,100 factories it uses around the world, as part of the online fashion giant's pledge to be more transparent. The list - which also includes a breakdown of how many workers each factory has and their gender split - was published following scrutiny into its supply chain, after it was disclosed some factory workers in Leicester were being paid below the minimum wage. It was one of the recommendations made by an independent review produced by Alison Levitt QC, who was brought in when the scandal first broke. The list features factory in countries including Albania, Bangladesh, China and Morocco. There are also more than 90 UK factories listed, with the majority in Leicester. 07:30 AM Patisserie Valerie auditors fined £2.3m for missing red flags A pedestrian walks past a branch of a Patisserie Valerie cafe in London - DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS /AFP The auditors of collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie missed red flags and showed a serious lack of competence, according to regulators. After its investigation, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) fined accounting giant Grant Thornton and auditor David Newstead £2.34m and £87,750 respectively. Grant Thornton must now report annually to the regulator for three years to show what efforts it is making to improve its audits. Mr Newstead, who carried out the work for Grant Thornton, was also handed a three-year ban from carrying out audits or signing off audit reports. Claudia Mortimore, deputy executive counsel to the FRC, said: "The audit of Patisserie Holdings's revenue and cash in particular involved missed red flags, a failure to obtain sufficient audit evidence and a failure to stand back and question information provided by management." The company collapsed and was revealed to have been overstating its accounts for years. A spokesperson for Grant Thornton said the company has invested significantly in audit practice since the scandal: "We have cooperated fully with the FRC and acknowledge the investigation's findings relating to our audits in 2015-2017. "We regret the quality of our work fell short of what was expected of us in this instance." 07:22 AM Octopus becomes one of UK’s biggest energy suppliers Octopus Energy is taking on the 580,000 customers of collapsed supplier Avro , as the wave of failures in the sector boosts the position of stronger businesses, reports Tim Wallace. He writes: Industry regulator Ofgem chose the new supplier after running a competition between other energy businesses. It takes the total number of Octopus customers to 3.1m, up from 2.5m before the award, making it a major player in the industry just six years after its establishment. It is the UK's fifth biggest supplier, by number of customers. Read Tim's full story here. Avro Energy customer? Octopus Energy will be your new supplier from 26 September. Your new contract can last as long as you want. You won’t be charged exit fees if you then choose to switch. What you need to know 👉 https://t.co/sYGEmwc4X3 pic.twitter.com/SxrOvWQ4VL — ofgem (@ofgem) September 26, 2021 07:17 AM Aldi UK sales jump People follow social distancing rules while they queue outside an Aldi store - MOLLY DARLINGTON /REUTERS Aldi said its UK and Ireland sales jumped 10pc over the pandemic to £12.3bn, as the supermarket announced a £1.3bn investment drive which would include 2,000 new jobs and 100 new shops. A new checkout-free store is also planned in Greenwich, London, it said. No details on trading in the first nine months of 2021 were provided. Although other UK supermarkets give more regular updates on current trading, Aldi is not obliged to and is instead publishing last year's results as it files its accounts with Companies House. Giles Hurley, chief executive for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: "As well as delivering record sales, we continued to invest for growth, deploying over £600m in stores and distribution centres across the UK. "This helped to create thousands of much-needed jobs and support for British farmers and manufacturers. "Whilst the cost of responding to the pandemic dampened profits, our decision to return business rate relief was the right thing to do." Aldi - which is now Britain's fifth largest supermarket - repaid the business rates saved from the Government's scrapping of the tax during the pandemic, following similar moves by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda and Lidl. The company did not mention any supply chain issues or suggestions of price inflation. 07:09 AM FTSE 100 rises The FTSE 100 has jumped 0.9pc on opening this morning, rising to 7,118.73. The FTSE 250 has also added 0.4pc, jumping to 23,782.69. 06:56 AM Shapps’ plan to let truckers work longer hours falls flat Only a fraction of British truck drivers have taken up the Government’s offer for them to work longer hours, new figures reveal, as the haulage crisis escalates, reports Louis Ashworth. He writes: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps temporarily relaxed rules in July despite warnings it could pose a safety risk. In the first month of the relaxation, just 517 of the UK’s roughly 300,000 active HGV drivers notified the Department for Transport that they intended to use the scheme, according to figures obtained by The Telegraph . Of that number, 369 provided follow-up documentation saying how the relaxation had been used, with 97 saying they had not used the policy in the end, a freedom of information request showed. Take-up was even lower in between Aug 8 and Sept 13, the latest date for which information was provided. During this period, only 191 operators stated their intention to use extended hours – about one in every 1,700 drivers. Read more about this story here. 06:52 AM Some UK fuel stations 90pc dry, retailers association says A No Diesel sign outside a Sainsburys supermarket petrol station in North West London - Ray Tang/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Petrol and diesel stations are running dry across Britain, with some big groups in English cities reporting 50pc to 90pc of pumps were dry, the Petrol Retailers Association said on Monday. A dire shortage of truck drivers in Britain has triggered panic buying for fuel, with queues of cars snaking back "Some of our members, large groups with a portfolio of sites, report 50pc are dry as of yesterday, some even report as many as 90pc are dry as of yesterday," Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association told Sky. The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) represents independent fuel retailers who now account for 65pc of all UK forecourts. "So you can see it is quite acute," Madderson said. "Monday morning is going to start pretty dry." BP said on Sunday that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages. 06:45 AM Oil prices surge close to three year highs Oil prices have surged close to three year highs, inflaming inflation fears. Brent has added 1.2pc today, as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent. It is currently trading at $79, its highest price since October 2018. "We forecast that this rally will continue, with our year-end Brent forecast of $90/bbl vs. $80/bbl previously," wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs in a note. "The current global oil supply-demand deficit is larger than we expected, with the recovery in global demand from the Delta impact even faster than our above consensus forecast." Such an increase could stoke speculation that global inflation will prove longer-lasting than first hoped and hasten the end of super-cheap money, favouring reflation trades in bank and energy stocks while bruising bond prices. 06:39 AM Home workers boost United Utilities United Utilities said it expects underlying operating profit for the first half of the year to be higher than the previous six months, as the water company benefits from high household consumption as many of its customers continue working form home. Bosses said they are also expecting a modest net increase in revenue of around 4pc. The company, which provides water and wastewater services to 7m customers in the North West, added it had suffered a hit from changes to tax rules. It said: "The legislation to increase the headline rate of corporation tax to 25pc from 1 April 2023 was enacted in May 2021. As a result, we expect to incur a deferred tax charge through the income statement of around £380m in the first half of 2021/22." 06:32 AM FTSE 100 to push higher Good morning. The FTSE 100 is set to leap 0.85pc to 7,085 points this morning, after a mixed overnight session in Asian stocks that saw Japan's Nikkei give up early gains while China's Hang Seng pushed higher. Meanwhile the German election has ended in gridlock, after a better-than-expected performance by outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU. The centre-left SPD party narrowly winning the most votes , meaning they are likely to try and lead a three-party coalition alongside the Greens and one other party. "t would be unexpected if we did get a new government before Christmas, given the last one took until February 2018 to come into any kind of focus, which means that Angela Merkel may have to stay in place for a while longer yet until her successor is appointed," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson. "What this means for German politics is that nothing much is likely to change in the short term, with investor attention likely to remain on events in China, and Asia more broadly, as well as the various supply crunches taking place across the world." 5 things to start your day 1) Shapps’ plan to let truckers work longer hours fall flat : HGV industry says policy has failed after just one in 1,700 drivers used the scheme last month 2) Octopus takes on 580,000 stranded Avro customers: The energy company now has 3.1m customers, making it a serious challenger to traditional energy companies 3) FTSE tech listings hit all-time high since dotcom bubble: The number of tech firms on the FTSE 350 has hit a 20-year high after crashing shortly after the millennium. 4) Airport hubs braced for jobless spike: Crawley and Luton among towns facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough scheme comes to an end. 5) One in four workers want to quit their jobs: Survey finds nearly three in 10 workers are experiencing poor well-being at work. What happened overnight Asian shares crept higher on Monday as risk sentiment turned for the better, though a surge in oil prices to three-year highs could inflame inflation fears and aggravate the recent hawkish turn by some major central banks. Oil stormed past its July peaks as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent. Brent added another 98 cents on Monday to $79.07 a barrel, while US crude rose 97 cents to $74.95. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed 0.5pc, though that followed three consecutive weeks of losses. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.4pc on hopes for further fiscal stimulus once a new prime minister is chosen. Nasdaq futures rose 0.4pc, and S&P 500 futures 0.5pc. Chinese blue chips gained 1.1oc as the country's central bank pumped more money into the financial system and investors dared to hope Beijing would limit the fallout from the troubled China Evergrande Group. Coming up today Corporate: United Utilities (Trading update) Economics: Durable goods orders (US) || Oil heads for $80 as energy crisis escalates: • Britain is doomed to a Winter of Discontent, warns Ukraine gas boss
• Putin’s power play sets new German leader a challenge
• FTSE 100 edges 0.2pc higher, boosted by Rolls Royce
• Nasdaq falls as investors swapped big tech for stocks linked to economic growth
• Kallum Pickering:The Tories need a stronger Labour to make Brexit work
• Sign up here for our daily business briefing newsletter
Oil prices jumped to three-year highs on Monday in the latest sign of a global energy crunch.
Brent crude rallied 2.3pc to $79.80, its highest price since October 2018.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said Brent, which is based on the North Sea industry, could rise to $90 per barrel by the end of the year.
Gas prices have rocketed to all-time highs in recent weeks due to weak global production, low exports from Russia, poor storage levels in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and rising demand from economies emerging from lockdowns.
High gas prices increase demand for oil-burning to generate electricity.
The world's biggest independent oil trader, the Vitol Group, said it expects global demand for crude to climb by 500,000 barrels a day this winter.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agrees there will be a surge in demand but expects that number to be slightly lower, at around 370,000 extra barrels a day.
The lifting of restrictions on UK and EU visitors to the US in November is also expected to drive up prices, as the resurrection of trans-atlantic travel lifts demand for jet fuel.
Meanwhile supply has been capped by the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, which crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in late August and forced Shell to pause production at offshore facilities near Houston, Texas.
"The world's demand is not being met with enough supplies and this has pushed Brent towards $80," Exinity analyst Hussein Sayed said.
That's all from us today – here are some of our top stories:
• Recovery enters the 'hard yards', warns Andrew Bailey as petrol panic bites
• Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment
• Rolls-Royce lands contract for B-52 bomber engines
• Electric car maker Polestar valued at $20bn in Spac deal
• Czech billionaire spends almost £9m on National Lottery bid
Thanks for following along!
The Shenzhen government is investigating a unit of Chinese developer Evergrande, the city's financial regulator told investors on Monday, in the first sign of an official inquiry into the wealth management crisis at the real estate giant.
Reutershas the details:
Evergrande, the world's most indebted property developer headquartered in Shenzhen, owes $305bn and has run short of cash, triggering concerns its problems could ripple through China's financial system.
Qatar Airways has swung to an annual loss of $4.1bn after writing down the value of its grounded Airbus A380 super jumbo fleet.
The state-owned airline attributed $2.3bn of the loss for the year to March 31 to impairment charges on the fleet of 10 A380s, as well as some smaller A330 models.
“It is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market,” the company said.
It added that it didn't expect international travel to return to pre-Covid levels until 2024.
Qatar Airways, which continued to operate its route network throughout the pandemic, added that it had received $3bn in equity funding from the government. It had previously disclosed $2bn of that amount.
Octopus Energy has been valued at more than the owner of British Gas after the challenger supplier won a $600m investment from a fund run by Al Gore, the former US vice-president.
Rachel Millardreports:
Generation Investment Management, the clean energy fund he set up in 2004 and still chairs, is taking a 13pc stake in Octopus to help it develop and supply more renewable power.
Read more:Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment
Aldi has unveiled plans to open 100 new stores in the UK over the next two years as the German supermarket chain pushed ahead with expansion plans despite supply chain troubles.
The £1.3bn investment plan will create 2,000 new jobs, the company said. Aldi UK and Ireland has already created 7,000 jobs over the last two years.
The discount chain, which has enjoyed booming sales during the pandemic, has also proven resilient to wider supply chain woes hitting the retail sector. It said this was due to its smaller number of both product ranges and suppliers.
Aldi has also increased its pay for lorry drivers due to an ongoing HGV driver shortage, though chief executive Giles Hurley said the company had not been hit by the current fuel supply crisis.
UK cinemas are poised to receive a much-needed boost thanks to the release of the latest James Bond film this week.
Advance ticket sales for No Time To Die, which will hit the big screen on Thursday, reached levels last seen in 2019, putting the blockbuster on track to be the biggest opening since the pandemic gripped the industry.
Odeon said it has sold more than 175,000 tickets for the latest instalment in the spy series, while Cineworld said it marked its highest pre-selling film since Marvel's superhero movie Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
The film, which will be Daniel Craig's last appearance as the eponymous spy, was postponed three times from its original release date in April 2020 after the outbreak of Covid-19 forced cinemas to close.
Craig has said he hopes the film's release will give the cinema industry "some sort of boost".
Diagnostics company Novacyt made a £15m pre-tax loss in the first half of the year amid a bitter dispute with the Government over Covid testing contracts, reports my colleagueJulia Bradshaw.
The Anglo-French company took a £35.8m hit as it wrote down the value of stocks of Covid tests that it had built up in expectation that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would purchase more of its products. The figure also includes the cost of tests and that Novacyt supplied to the department - worth £49m - that were never paid for.
UK warehouses are having to hike wages by up to 30pc due to a shortage of workers that has compounded supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas.
Reutershas more details:
The warehouse trade group and a recruitment agency for the sector said they were struggling to replace the European staff who used to arrive for the festive period and work in warehouses and distribution centres.
The FTSE 100 has closed higher, with major banking and energy companies leading the gains.
The blue-chip index rose 0.2pc, withBPgaining 3.1pc after saying that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel.
HSBC,Barclays,Virgin Money UKandStandard Charteredall closed higher, tracking higher benchmark bond yields amid rising inflation concerns.
But the biggest winner wasRolls-Royce, which jumped more than 11pc after it secured a US Air Force contract to supply B-52 bombers and agreed to sell its Spanish unit ITP Aero for €1.7bn.
The domestically focused FTSE 250 rose 0.1pc, with travel and leisure stocks among top gainers.
Europe’s largest chemicals producer has slashed its output due to a surge in gas prices across the continent.
BASF today said it had reduced ammonia output at its plants in Antwerp, Belgium and Ludwigshafen, Germany.
The company said: “The economics for operating an ammonia plant in the region has become extremely challenging.” It added that it would review production plans once gas prices fell.
The crisis has sparked a spike in prices for nitrogen fertiliser, which is manufactured using ammonia. This could push up prices for farmers or force them to cut fertiliser use in spring, which in turn could fuel global food inflation.
The ammonia supply disruption could also have wider implications as the process creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Earlier this month the UK food industry, which uses CO2 for meat production and packaging, was thrown into chaos after two fertiliser plants shut down.
Another interesting point in Andrew Bailey's speech, where he muses on the long-term structural impacts of the pandemic on UK wages:
As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing currently a much greater dispersion of wage settlements. What if this is the beginning of a more far-reaching structural change in the economy which alters relative pay across occupations? To be clear, I am making no prediction here, but rather asking the question in the context of monetary policy.
Tech giants are the biggest drag on Wall Street this afternoon, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.6pc.
The decline is largely the result of a rise in Treasury bond yields – the indication of US government borrowing costs – in the wake of the Fed’s hawkish announcement last week on easing stimulus measures.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose above 1.5pc for the first time since June, which added to concerns about lofty valuations in the tech sector.
Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at ThinkMarkets, told Bloomberg: “Yields are rising sharply, reflecting investors’ expectations about monetary tightening amid surging inflationary pressures.
“If yields climb higher, this could weigh especially on the overstretched growth stocks in the technology sector, which have low dividend yields.”
Amazon and Netflix also took a hit from negative analyst comments about future growth, while Facebook shares fell after the social media firm said it was pausing work on Instagram Kids.
In the speech, Bailey goes on to describe the labour market as "a big puzzle" and a source of uncertainty.
He points to data that shows 1.7m remain on furlough while there are over 1m job vacancies and the numbers of inactive and unemployed was higher than pre-Covid levels.
He says:
There are a number of possible outcomes to this puzzle, which have different implications for the labour market. The first is that the furloughed workers will largely be re-absorbed into their old jobs, and so even with a further reduction in unemployment and inactivity, we are left with an excess of job vacancies.
The Bank of England has published the speech its Governor, Andrew Bailey, is expected to give at the Society of Professional Economists Annual Dinner tonight.
Bailey is expected to outline how he feels the economy's recovery is progressing.
He's expected to say:
The rate of recovery has slowed over recent months, and that slowing is continuing. Relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, on the latest data to July, the level of GDP was 3.5pc lower... It is inevitable in a bounce-back that the growth rate will slow as the recovery nears its end-point. It is not though inevitable – or desirable – that the previous level is not regained.
An upmarket electric car company spun off from Volvo and backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been valued at $20bn (£14.6bn) as it becomes the latest challenger carmaker to go public, reportsJames Titcomb.
He writes:
Polestar, owned by Volvo’s Chinese parent Geely, will merge with Gores Guggenheim, a listed investment vehicle in a so-called Spac deal.
Read more about this story here.
Motorists have turned to electric vehicles to try and beat the petrol shortage that is gripping the country, reportsWill Kirkman.
He writes:
The number of Google searches for electric cars rose by 1,600pc on Friday, compared to normal levels, according to analysis by website Car Guide.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, comments:
Oil prices are continuing to surge, with Brent crude now closing in on $80 and WTI perhaps not too far behind it. The global energy crisis could see demand for crude rise if the northern hemisphere experiences a cold winter, with many countries not equipped to cope.
The Nasdaq index fell as much as 1pc on Monday before paring losses, as investors swapped technology heavyweights for stocks linked to economic growth amid increasing confidence in a recovery.
Big tech stocks Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Apple slipped between 1.2pc and 2.9pc.
The Nasdaq is currently down 0.5pc.
Chipmakers also fell 1.3pc as widening power shortages in China threatened to curb production.
Rate-sensitive banking stocks gained 2.2pc, while a jump in energy, and industrial shares pushed the blue-chip Dow up 0.7pc.
The S&P 500 traded flat, edging up only 0.01pc.
TikTok now has 1bn monthly active users after coronavirus lockdowns helped drive a huge surge in popularity for the video-sharing app, reportsJames Warrington.
The social media app said it passed the 1bn user milestone this summer, marking a 45pc increase since June 2020.
The US, Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia are its biggest markets, the company added.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has shrugged off regulatory scrutiny over its use of data and links to Beijing to expand rapidly in recent years.
London-listed pharmaceutical company Hikma has paid $375m (£273m) for Californian injectables supplier Custopharm, buying the business from US healthcare investor Water Street Healthcare Partners.
The offer could increase by $50m (£36.5m) if certain commercial milestones are reached, the company added.
Hikma added that the acquisition complements its own injectable product portfolio by adding 13 approved products and enhances its R&D capabilities.
An extra $80m (£58m) in revenues is expected to be added each year.
Hikma rose 1.2pc in trading on Monday.
JD Sports is plotting a duel with The Hut Group after it bought a stake in an online beauty and hair brand, reportsLaura Onita.
The FTSE 100 sportswear firm has made its first move into the beauty sector by acquiring a chunk of Hairburst, which sells hair vitamins, shampoos and styling products.
JD Sports - worth £11bn - plans to use its financial firepower to help the beauty start-up to buy a number of rivals and build a stable of brands as the industry heats up.
The move comes after The Hut Group pulled the trigger earlier this month on a separate listing for its beauty arm following a string of bolt-on acquisitions in recent years that are meant to help THG dominate the beauty arena.
The platform now owns websites such as Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty. It reported sales of £461m for the six months to the end of June, up from £296m in the same period a year ago.
Hairburst was founded in 2014 by James Hill, Henry Gwilliam and Matthew Cragg, who used £4,000 of savings to set up the firm. It now has 45 staff and its products are stocked in Boots, Sephora and Superdrug.
JD Sports’ investment comes as the retailer seeks to branch into other rapidly growing categories such as beauty.
Facebook has been given the green light for its takeover of US customer service software company Kustomer after securing approval from the competition watchdog, reportsJames Warrington.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) examined factors such as whether the merger would expand Facebook’s data advantage in online display advertising.
But it concluded that the deal, worth a reported $1bn, did “not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK”.
The deal will help bolster Facebook’s efforts to expand its messaging division by allowing businesses to interact with customers via chat apps.
The European Commission and US regulators are still looking into the merger over concerns it could allow Facebook to block rival customer service software providers’ access to its services such as Instagram or WhatsApp
Halfords has said sales of jerry cans soared 1,656pc over the weekend as motorists rushed out to panic buy fuel, my colleagueJames Warringtonreports
The retailer said ‘jerry can’ became the fourth most popular search term on its website amid an escalating crisis at forecourts up and down the country.
Sales of e-bikes also more than doubled as fears of fuel shortages prompted drivers to look for alternative modes of transport.
Separate data from Auto Trader showed surging interest for electric vehicles, with searches for used EVs jumping 60pc over the weekend.
Rolls-Royce has defeated American rivals to win a contract to supply engines for the US Air Force’s B-52 bombers in a deal worth up to $2.6bn (£1.9bn), reportsJames Warrington.
He writes:
The engineering giant fended off competition from the incumbent Pratt & Whitney as well as General Electric to win the high-profile contract after a tender process that spanned several years.
Read more on this story here.
Tensions between Downing Street and Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London recently escalated over plans to grant councils money even after they ripped out cycle lanes, reportsOliver Gill.
He writes:
Andrew Gilligan, the Prime Minister’s transport adviser, intervened in and vetoed TfL plans to distribute £100m for policies that encourage “active travel”, according to correspondence seen byThe Telegraph.
Read the full story here.
Orders placed with US manufacturers for business equipment strengthened in August, extending to six months a solid run of robust capital investment that’s helping fuel economic growth.
Bloomberghas the details:
The value of core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware and is seen as a barometer of business equipment investment, increased 0.5pc after an upwardly revised 0.3pc a month earlier, Commerce Department figures showed Monday.
Global oil demand will peak earlier than previously projected, before 2030, TotalEnergies forecast on Monday.
The French oil major said its business was now working on the assumption that global consumption would begin to decline before the end of the decade. It had previously forecast the peak would come around 2030.
Oil demand would drop to 40m or 64m barrels per day by 2050, depending on how strongly policies and habits change, TotalEnergies said in it annual energy outlook. In 2019, the world consumed 99.7m barrels every day.
TotalEnergies said that natural gas would continue to play a role as a transition fuel, accompanied by carbon capture and methane emissions control techniques.
Facebook said today it is pausing its controversial 'Instagram for Kids' project and will re-evaluate the idea "at a later date".
The project's suspension follows aWall Street Journal reportthat suggested Facebook's own research had discovered its Instagram app is harmful to teenagers, especially girls.
There were few public details about the 'Instagram for Kids' project but Facebook confirmed it would be a ‘parent-controlled’ version of its app for under 13s.
“While we believe building ‘Instagram Kids’ is the right thing to do, Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, will re-evaluate the project at a later date. In the interim Instagram will continue to focus on teen safety and expanding parental supervision features for teens,” Facebook said.
The number of shoppers in central London rose 6.5pc last week compared to a week earlier, adding to evidence that office staff are returning to the workplace after the pandemic.
In areas of central London where there is a high number of offices compared to stores, footfall rose 8.8pc in the week to Saturday, retail intelligence company Springboard said today.
"High street footfall was undoubtedly supported by a shift back to the office, demonstrated by a greater uplift from the week before in central London and large city centres outside of the capital, than in smaller high streets and in outer London," said Springboard's insights director Diane Wehrle.
Billionaire Asda-owners the Issa brothers have acquired 52 KFC restaurants as they continue to expand their sprawling business empire, reportsJulia Bradshaw.
The new franchise will bring the total number of KFC outlets in the UK operated by the Blackburn businessmen’s EG Group to 208, reflecting nearly a quarter of the country’s total.
It makes EG, which is also backed by private equity firm TDR Capital, the largest franchisee in western Europe for the KFC brand.
“We have seen a marked upward trend in the performance of our existing KFC network and this has given us confidence to consider and invest in more assets,” said Mohsin Issa.
It comes just weeks after rumours that EG Group, which is one of the world’s largest independent forecourt and convenience store chains, was up for sale with a price tag of $15bn (£10.8bn).
Last year EG bought 146 KFC restaurants in the UK and Ireland, followed by fast-food chain Leon in April for £100m. It is also aggressively pursuing cafe chain Caffe Nero by buying up its debt.
GOLDMAN: Chip shortage “appears to be worsening again, with plant shutdowns in .. Asia leading US automakers to slash Sept production. .. vaccination rates are .. encouraging, but we are nonetheless pushing back our assumption for improving chip supply from this fall to 1H22.”pic.twitter.com/fLbyBxXEP1
Aldi has shrugged off concerns about food shortages in the run up to Christmas as it revealed plans for 100 new stores, writes my colleagueLaura Onita.
Giles Hurley, the UK boss of the German discount chain said that although Aldi was not immune to the issues the sector has had to grapple with, such as the scarcity of HGV drivers and shipping containers, it was “business as usual” for the chain.
“There's no doubt current circumstances are testing the industry,” he added.
He said that the majority of its lorry drivers are employed directly, while some of its rivals use agencies to deliver food, and so “our trucks are running as they should do”.
The supermarket chain had good product availability as it stocks fewer ranges than the larger supermarkets, which Mr Hurley said was easier to control.
“We are going to have our best Christmas range ever,” he said.
Sales grew by 10pc to £13.5bn for the year to the end of December, while pre-tax profits dropped by 2.5pc to £265m due to Covid costs and striving to keep prices lower than its rivals.
The FTSE 100 has pared its gains from earlier and is now trading flat, around 7,050 points.
Strong gains made byRolls Royce(up 10.6pc) are being outweighed by stocks includingHalma(down 3.7pc),Croda(down 3.3pc),Ashstead(down 3.1pc) andExperian(down 3pc).
The number of Shell's retail customers will grow by over a quarter in the UK, after the energy giant absorbs 255,000 customers from a rival supplier that defaulted during the recent surge in natural gas prices.
Shell Energy will take on approximately 255,000 domestic customers, and a small number of non-domestic customers from renewable energy supplier Green, British regulator OFGEM said .
Shell Energy, which currently has around 900,000 customers across Britain, said Green's customers will move to Shell Energy with their credit balances protected and supply uninterrupted.
Rolls-Royce has signed a €1.7bn (£1.4bn) agreement to sell 100pc of one of its largest subsidiaries, Spanish aircraft engine business ITP Aero.
The business will be sold to Bain Capital Private Equity, which is leading a consortium of Spanish and Basque companies.
The sale follows months of Bain searching for Spanish partners to try to secure government backing to buy the aircraft engine and turbine maker. Previous reports said the auction had narrowed to just Bain and London-based buyout rival Cinven.
Warren East, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said: "Today's announcement is a significant milestone for our disposal programme as we work to strengthen our balance sheet, in support of our medium-term ambition to return to an investment grade credit profile."
Rolls-Royce's shares are up nearly 10pc today.
US stock futures are mixed this morning in New York, as traders braced for speeches by Federal Reserve policy makers.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 Index advanced less than 0.1pc, Dow Futures rose 0.3pc while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.2pc.
Gains are muted by the developing energy crisis that is threatening to crimp global growth further at a time markets are preparing for a tapering of Fed stimulus.
This week threatens volatility in the markets, as traders scrutinise central bankers’ speeches. On Tuesday, Chairman Jerome Powell is due to speak in front of the US Senate and then at the European Central Bank Forum on Wednesday.
Credit Suisse Group said it plans to return about $400m to investors in supply-chain finance funds that invested in Greensill Capital products, the fifth such disbursement since the bank was forced to freeze the money pools this year.
Bloomberghas the details:
The latest payment is expected to be made this week and would bring the total paid to investors in the funds to about $6.3bn, according to a statement on the bank’s website on Monday. The funds’ total cash position is about $7bn, or about 70pc of assets under management when they were suspended, it said.
Airport hubs Crawley and Luton are facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough capitals bear the brunt of an end to the Chancellor’s jobs support scheme, reportsTom Rees.
He writes:
Experts warned the towns are the most vulnerable to a wave of job losses after new data revealed they have the most workers stuck on furlough as the travel industry struggles to recover.
Read more about this story here.
Taxi company Uber has blamed Britain's fuel crisis for eating into driver's earnings.
“More and more of the working day is taken up looking for fuel,” said James Farrar, general secretary of Britain’s App Drivers and Couriers’ Union.
Drivers aren’t compensated for this and they’re not able to raise prices themselves, so the gas shortage is eating into their earnings, he said.
The App Drivers and Couriers Union is planning a strike tomorrow that could involve “thousands” of drivers in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield and Leeds.
Among its demand, the union is calling for "Uber to pay all working time including waiting time."
Nickel and tin prices have tumbled in response to China’s power crisis, which is causing black outs, shutting off traffic lights and forcing businesses to cut back on production.
The crisis has been caused by tight coal supplies as well as provincial governments trying to meet environmental targets for this year, according to Bloomberg, with many factories forced to cut or halting their operations.
Economists at Nomura Holdings and China International Capital (CIC) have downgraded growth forecasts as the power crunch in the top metals consuming country causes supply losses at metal smelters, fabricators and steel mills in the past few months.
“Tin supply has been impacted by power control measures several times already this year,” the International Tin Association said. “What has been surprising in this round of restrictions is the effect on tin demand.”
In a note, CIC warned that power restrictions could tighten further in the fourth quarter.
Nickel fell as much as 2.9pc to $18,820 ton on the London Metal Exchange.
Tin dropped 4.2pc to $35,000 a ton, tumbling from a record high struck last week.
Amazon will soon offer insurance to small and medium-size British business customers, according to London-based insurance broker Superscript.
Members of Amazon's Business Prime programme will be able to buy cover from Superscript, in the tech giant's first foray into UK business insurance.
A Superscript spokesperson said the cover - which will include contents insurance, cyber insurance and personal indemnity insurance - would be underwritten by "major UK insurers".
Here's the latest stories from The Telegraph's Money team:
• Money Makeover: 'Should I have 12 buy-to-lets or invest in an Isa?'Our reader has a grand plan to become a property tycoon - but our advisers think it might be reckless
• The signs the country house price boom is hitting its peak:Inner commuter house prices jumped 2.4pc in three months as workers returned to offices
• £21m a day moved out of final salary pensions – should you join them?There are numerous things to consider before ditching a gold plated pension
Sterling inched 0.1pc higher this morning, as investors juggled expectations that the Bank of England could hike interest rates early next year with concerns about fuel shortages and unemployment.
Sterling jumped last week following the Bank of England's hawkish tone on interest rates and its pandemic bond-buying scheme.
However analysts are flagging fuel shortages and the looming end of the furlough scheme to suggest those gains may have been overdone.
"The initial hawkish headlines last week were diluted into the weekend as the market reflected on the headwinds already facing households from the national insurance tax hikes and rising energy bills," said Jane Foley, Head of FX Strategy at Rabobank.
The pound, which is currently trading at $1.3699, also gained some support on Monday as fears of widespread market contagion from indebted developer China Evergrande Group receded.
Tesla shareholders should vote to reject the re-election of board members James Murdoch and Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, according to proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services.
“Votes AGAINST directors James Murdoch and Kimbal Musk are warranted due to concerns regarding excessive compensation to named executive officers and to non-executive directors,” Institutional Shareholder Services wrote in a Friday report to clients.
Murdoch and Musk, both 48, sit on Tesla’s board of nine directors.
ISS said that directors have received “outlier levels of pay without a compelling rationale” and that there is no explanation as to why the magnitude of option awards is “so much larger than director compensation at peer companies.”
Tesla will hold its annual shareholder meeting virtually this year on October 7 from its new factory in Austin, Texas.
Shares of Rolls Royce have jumped 7pc this morning and have almost doubled since this time last year.
The rise can be traced back to a number of factors.
While Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock, Rolls Royce also announced on Monday that it had been asked to provide engines for the United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers - a contract which could be worth up to $2.6bn.
Rolls Royce could also benefit from the possibility that the government could plough more cash into mini nuclear reactors in an attempt to prevent further energy crises as Britain transitions to net-zero carbon emissions.
Sources close to the government decision noted that Rolls-Royce - whichalready makes modular reactors- is ahead of the game in terms of tech,” and its status as a British company will also make it attractive to ministers.
However at 141.7p, the company's stock remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels of 232.4p.
Shares of oilfield services company Petrofac have continued to surge this morning, following its Friday announcement that it would plead guilty to seven charges of bribery.
Petrofac said the charges relate to former employees "offering or making payments to agents in relation to projects awarded between 2012 and 2015 in Iraq, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE."
The company's chairman René Medori said: "Petrofac has been living under the shadow of the past, but today it is a profoundly different business, in which stakeholders can be assured of our commitment to the highest standards of business ethics, wherever we operate.”
Office landlord Workspace said this morning it has acquired a 57,000 square ft building in East London, as the company bets on the revival of office life.
Workspace said the building, called The Old Dairy in London's Shoreditch, is currently 80pc let.
Graham Clemett, chief executive, commented:
The acquisition of The Old Dairy further strengthens our presence and broadens our offering in Shoreditch, one of the most popular areas for our customers.
London's blue-chip market indices now host more technology companies than at any point since the aftermath of the dotcom bubble after a resurgence of listings, reportsJames Titcomb.
He writes:
The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 combined feature 26 technology and consumer internet firms, or 7pc of the total, according to figures from the London Stock Exchange.
Read the full story here.
German shares have jumped 1pc to ten-day highs this morning, after the federal election outcome reduced the chances of a left-wing coalition gaining power.
Germany's blue-chip DAX was leading gains among regional indexes, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index added 0.6pc in early trading.
Germany's centre-left Social Democrats are expected to start trying to form a government after they narrowly won the biggest share of the vote after Sunday's election.
The party - which has not won a general election since 2005 - said they would seek to form a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats in what is dubbed as the "traffic light" coalition.
While coalition talks could drag on for weeks or months, investors expressed relief that the hard-left Linke party fell below the 5pc threshold needed to enter parliament.
Before the election, there had been some speculation that the anti-capitalist Left Party may win enough seats to feature in a coalition although that tail risk has not materialised,"said Steven Bell, chief economist at BMO Global Asset Management.
"The feasible coalitions would involve compromise on all sides and imply no major policy shift. The uncertainty is a mild negative for financial markets in the near term but we do not expect a significant reaction from financial markets."
More on the German election result here.
The cryptocurrency market has bounced back from last week's rout which was a reaction to China’s latest crackdown.
Bitcoin and Ether had recouped most of their losses by Monday, with Bitcoin rallying to around $44,000 overnight.
“Over the weekend sessions, Bitcoin has shown some resilience and has now recovered the majority of those losses,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note Monday. “It may well be that China’s previously announced crackdowns had already been built into prices.”
Crypto markets were roiled on Friday when China issued its toughest restrictions yet on the industry, banning all cryptocurrency transactions
The announcement hit individual cryptocurrencies but also pulled down crypto related stocks around the world.
Software company MicroStrategy, which has significant Bitcoin holdings, declined as much as 6.7pc Friday in the US and British cryptocurrency miner, Argo Blockchain, has dropped more than 17pc in the past five days.
Rolls Royceand energy stocks pushed the FTSE 100 blue-chip index higher this morning,
Rolls-Royce gained 4.1pc after Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock.
BProse 2.4pc after it said nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel, as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages.
Royal Dutch Shellalso gained 2.4pc.
On the FTSE 250, cinema chainCineworldled gains (up 7.4pc) while cybersecurity companyDarktracetrailed (down 5.2pc).
Boohoo has published a list detailing the names and addresses of1,100 factoriesit uses around the world, as part of the online fashion giant's pledge to be more transparent.
The list - which also includes a breakdown of how many workers each factory has and their gender split - was published following scrutiny into its supply chain, after it was disclosed some factory workers in Leicester were being paid below the minimum wage.
It was one of the recommendations made by an independent review produced by Alison Levitt QC, who was brought in when the scandal first broke.
The list features factory in countries including Albania, Bangladesh, China and Morocco. There are also more than 90 UK factories listed, with the majority in Leicester.
The auditors of collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie missed red flags and showed a serious lack of competence, according to regulators.
After its investigation, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) fined accounting giant Grant Thornton and auditor David Newstead £2.34m and £87,750 respectively.
Grant Thornton must now report annually to the regulator for three years to show what efforts it is making to improve its audits. Mr Newstead, who carried out the work for Grant Thornton, was also handed a three-year ban from carrying out audits or signing off audit reports.
Claudia Mortimore, deputy executive counsel to the FRC, said: "The audit of Patisserie Holdings's revenue and cash in particular involved missed red flags, a failure to obtain sufficient audit evidence and a failure to stand back and question information provided by management."
The company collapsed and was revealed to have been overstating its accounts for years.
A spokesperson for Grant Thornton said the company has invested significantly in audit practice since the scandal: "We have cooperated fully with the FRC and acknowledge the investigation's findings relating to our audits in 2015-2017.
"We regret the quality of our work fell short of what was expected of us in this instance."
Octopus Energy is taking on the 580,000 customers ofcollapsed supplier Avro, as the wave of failures in the sector boosts the position of stronger businesses, reports Tim Wallace.
He writes:
Industry regulator Ofgem chose the new supplier after running a competition between other energy businesses.
Read Tim's full story here.
Aldi said its UK and Ireland sales jumped 10pc over the pandemic to £12.3bn, as the supermarket announced a £1.3bn investment drive which would include 2,000 new jobs and 100 new shops.
A new checkout-free store is also planned in Greenwich, London, it said.
No details on trading in the first nine months of 2021 were provided. Although other UK supermarkets give more regular updates on current trading, Aldi is not obliged to and is instead publishing last year's results as it files its accounts with Companies House.
Giles Hurley, chief executive for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: "As well as delivering record sales, we continued to invest for growth, deploying over £600m in stores and distribution centres across the UK.
"This helped to create thousands of much-needed jobs and support for British farmers and manufacturers.
"Whilst the cost of responding to the pandemic dampened profits, our decision to return business rate relief was the right thing to do."
Aldi - which is now Britain's fifth largest supermarket - repaid the business rates saved from the Government's scrapping of the tax during the pandemic, following similar moves by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda and Lidl.
The company did not mention any supply chain issues or suggestions of price inflation.
The FTSE 100 has jumped 0.9pc on opening this morning, rising to 7,118.73.
The FTSE 250 has also added 0.4pc, jumping to 23,782.69.
Only a fraction of British truck drivers have taken up the Government’s offer for them to work longer hours, new figures reveal, as the haulage crisis escalates, reportsLouis Ashworth.
He writes:
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps temporarily relaxed rules in July despite warnings it could pose a safety risk.
Read more about this story here.
Petrol and diesel stations are running dry across Britain, with some big groups in English cities reporting 50pc to 90pc of pumps were dry, the Petrol Retailers Association said on Monday.
A dire shortage of truck drivers in Britain has triggered panic buying for fuel, with queues of cars snaking back
"Some of our members, large groups with a portfolio of sites, report 50pc are dry as of yesterday, some even report as many as 90pc are dry as of yesterday," Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association told Sky.
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) represents independent fuel retailers who now account for 65pc of all UK forecourts.
"So you can see it is quite acute," Madderson said. "Monday morning is going to start pretty dry."
BP said on Sunday that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages.
Oil prices have surged close to three year highs, inflaming inflation fears.
Brent has added 1.2pc today, as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent.
It is currently trading at $79, its highest price since October 2018.
"We forecast that this rally will continue, with our year-end Brent forecast of $90/bbl vs. $80/bbl previously," wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs in a note.
"The current global oil supply-demand deficit is larger than we expected, with the recovery in global demand from the Delta impact even faster than our above consensus forecast."
Such an increase could stoke speculation that global inflation will prove longer-lasting than first hoped and hasten the end of super-cheap money, favouring reflation trades in bank and energy stocks while bruising bond prices.
United Utilities said it expects underlying operating profit for the first half of the year to be higher than the previous six months, as the water company benefits from high household consumption as many of its customers continue working form home.
Bosses said they are also expecting a modest net increase in revenue of around 4pc.
The company, which provides water and wastewater services to 7m customers in the North West, added it had suffered a hit from changes to tax rules.
It said: "The legislation to increase the headline rate ofcorporation tax to 25pcfrom 1 April 2023 was enacted in May 2021. As a result, we expect to incur a deferred tax charge through the income statement of around £380m in the first half of 2021/22."
Good morning.
The FTSE 100 is set to leap 0.85pc to 7,085 points this morning, after a mixed overnight session in Asian stocks that saw Japan's Nikkei give up early gains while China's Hang Seng pushed higher.
Meanwhile the German election has ended in gridlock, after a better-than-expected performance by outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU. The centre-left SPD party narrowly winning the most votes , meaning they are likely to try and lead a three-party coalition alongside the Greens and one other party.
"t would be unexpected if we did get a new government before Christmas, given the last one took until February 2018 to come into any kind of focus, which means that Angela Merkel may have to stay in place for a while longer yet until her successor is appointed," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
"What this means for German politics is that nothing much is likely to change in the short term, with investor attention likely to remain on events in China, and Asia more broadly, as well as the various supply crunches taking place across the world."
1)Shapps’ plan to let truckers work longer hours fall flat:HGV industry says policy has failed after just one in 1,700 drivers used the scheme last month
2)Octopus takes on 580,000 stranded Avro customers:The energy company now has 3.1m customers, making it a serious challenger to traditional energy companies
3)FTSE tech listings hit all-time high since dotcom bubble:The number of tech firms on the FTSE 350 has hit a 20-year high after crashing shortly after the millennium.
4)Airport hubs braced for jobless spike:Crawley and Luton among towns facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough scheme comes to an end.
5)One in four workers want to quit their jobs:Survey finds nearly three in 10 workers are experiencing poor well-being at work.
Asian shares crept higher on Monday as risk sentiment turned for the better, though a surge in oil prices to three-year highs could inflame inflation fears and aggravate the recent hawkish turn by some major central banks.
Oil stormed past its July peaks as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent.
Brent added another 98 cents on Monday to $79.07 a barrel, while US crude rose 97 cents to $74.95.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed 0.5pc, though that followed three consecutive weeks of losses.
Japan's Nikkei gained 0.4pc on hopes for further fiscal stimulus once a new prime minister is chosen. Nasdaq futures rose 0.4pc, and S&P 500 futures 0.5pc. Chinese blue chips gained 1.1oc as the country's central bank pumped more money into the financial system and investors dared to hope Beijing would limit the fallout from the troubled China Evergrande Group.
• Corporate:United Utilities(Trading update)
• Economics:Durable goods orders(US) || Oil heads for $80 as energy crisis escalates: • Britain is doomed to a Winter of Discontent, warns Ukraine gas boss
• Putin’s power play sets new German leader a challenge
• FTSE 100 edges 0.2pc higher, boosted by Rolls Royce
• Nasdaq falls as investors swapped big tech for stocks linked to economic growth
• Kallum Pickering:The Tories need a stronger Labour to make Brexit work
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Oil prices jumped to three-year highs on Monday in the latest sign of a global energy crunch.
Brent crude rallied 2.3pc to $79.80, its highest price since October 2018.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said Brent, which is based on the North Sea industry, could rise to $90 per barrel by the end of the year.
Gas prices have rocketed to all-time highs in recent weeks due to weak global production, low exports from Russia, poor storage levels in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and rising demand from economies emerging from lockdowns.
High gas prices increase demand for oil-burning to generate electricity.
The world's biggest independent oil trader, the Vitol Group, said it expects global demand for crude to climb by 500,000 barrels a day this winter.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agrees there will be a surge in demand but expects that number to be slightly lower, at around 370,000 extra barrels a day.
The lifting of restrictions on UK and EU visitors to the US in November is also expected to drive up prices, as the resurrection of trans-atlantic travel lifts demand for jet fuel.
Meanwhile supply has been capped by the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, which crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in late August and forced Shell to pause production at offshore facilities near Houston, Texas.
"The world's demand is not being met with enough supplies and this has pushed Brent towards $80," Exinity analyst Hussein Sayed said.
That's all from us today – here are some of our top stories:
• Recovery enters the 'hard yards', warns Andrew Bailey as petrol panic bites
• Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment
• Rolls-Royce lands contract for B-52 bomber engines
• Electric car maker Polestar valued at $20bn in Spac deal
• Czech billionaire spends almost £9m on National Lottery bid
Thanks for following along!
The Shenzhen government is investigating a unit of Chinese developer Evergrande, the city's financial regulator told investors on Monday, in the first sign of an official inquiry into the wealth management crisis at the real estate giant.
Reutershas the details:
Evergrande, the world's most indebted property developer headquartered in Shenzhen, owes $305bn and has run short of cash, triggering concerns its problems could ripple through China's financial system.
Qatar Airways has swung to an annual loss of $4.1bn after writing down the value of its grounded Airbus A380 super jumbo fleet.
The state-owned airline attributed $2.3bn of the loss for the year to March 31 to impairment charges on the fleet of 10 A380s, as well as some smaller A330 models.
“It is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market,” the company said.
It added that it didn't expect international travel to return to pre-Covid levels until 2024.
Qatar Airways, which continued to operate its route network throughout the pandemic, added that it had received $3bn in equity funding from the government. It had previously disclosed $2bn of that amount.
Octopus Energy has been valued at more than the owner of British Gas after the challenger supplier won a $600m investment from a fund run by Al Gore, the former US vice-president.
Rachel Millardreports:
Generation Investment Management, the clean energy fund he set up in 2004 and still chairs, is taking a 13pc stake in Octopus to help it develop and supply more renewable power.
Read more:Octopus Energy worth more than British Gas owner after $600m investment
Aldi has unveiled plans to open 100 new stores in the UK over the next two years as the German supermarket chain pushed ahead with expansion plans despite supply chain troubles.
The £1.3bn investment plan will create 2,000 new jobs, the company said. Aldi UK and Ireland has already created 7,000 jobs over the last two years.
The discount chain, which has enjoyed booming sales during the pandemic, has also proven resilient to wider supply chain woes hitting the retail sector. It said this was due to its smaller number of both product ranges and suppliers.
Aldi has also increased its pay for lorry drivers due to an ongoing HGV driver shortage, though chief executive Giles Hurley said the company had not been hit by the current fuel supply crisis.
UK cinemas are poised to receive a much-needed boost thanks to the release of the latest James Bond film this week.
Advance ticket sales for No Time To Die, which will hit the big screen on Thursday, reached levels last seen in 2019, putting the blockbuster on track to be the biggest opening since the pandemic gripped the industry.
Odeon said it has sold more than 175,000 tickets for the latest instalment in the spy series, while Cineworld said it marked its highest pre-selling film since Marvel's superhero movie Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
The film, which will be Daniel Craig's last appearance as the eponymous spy, was postponed three times from its original release date in April 2020 after the outbreak of Covid-19 forced cinemas to close.
Craig has said he hopes the film's release will give the cinema industry "some sort of boost".
Diagnostics company Novacyt made a £15m pre-tax loss in the first half of the year amid a bitter dispute with the Government over Covid testing contracts, reports my colleagueJulia Bradshaw.
The Anglo-French company took a £35.8m hit as it wrote down the value of stocks of Covid tests that it had built up in expectation that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would purchase more of its products. The figure also includes the cost of tests and that Novacyt supplied to the department - worth £49m - that were never paid for.
UK warehouses are having to hike wages by up to 30pc due to a shortage of workers that has compounded supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas.
Reutershas more details:
The warehouse trade group and a recruitment agency for the sector said they were struggling to replace the European staff who used to arrive for the festive period and work in warehouses and distribution centres.
The FTSE 100 has closed higher, with major banking and energy companies leading the gains.
The blue-chip index rose 0.2pc, withBPgaining 3.1pc after saying that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel.
HSBC,Barclays,Virgin Money UKandStandard Charteredall closed higher, tracking higher benchmark bond yields amid rising inflation concerns.
But the biggest winner wasRolls-Royce, which jumped more than 11pc after it secured a US Air Force contract to supply B-52 bombers and agreed to sell its Spanish unit ITP Aero for €1.7bn.
The domestically focused FTSE 250 rose 0.1pc, with travel and leisure stocks among top gainers.
Europe’s largest chemicals producer has slashed its output due to a surge in gas prices across the continent.
BASF today said it had reduced ammonia output at its plants in Antwerp, Belgium and Ludwigshafen, Germany.
The company said: “The economics for operating an ammonia plant in the region has become extremely challenging.” It added that it would review production plans once gas prices fell.
The crisis has sparked a spike in prices for nitrogen fertiliser, which is manufactured using ammonia. This could push up prices for farmers or force them to cut fertiliser use in spring, which in turn could fuel global food inflation.
The ammonia supply disruption could also have wider implications as the process creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Earlier this month the UK food industry, which uses CO2 for meat production and packaging, was thrown into chaos after two fertiliser plants shut down.
Another interesting point in Andrew Bailey's speech, where he muses on the long-term structural impacts of the pandemic on UK wages:
As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing currently a much greater dispersion of wage settlements. What if this is the beginning of a more far-reaching structural change in the economy which alters relative pay across occupations? To be clear, I am making no prediction here, but rather asking the question in the context of monetary policy.
Tech giants are the biggest drag on Wall Street this afternoon, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.6pc.
The decline is largely the result of a rise in Treasury bond yields – the indication of US government borrowing costs – in the wake of the Fed’s hawkish announcement last week on easing stimulus measures.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose above 1.5pc for the first time since June, which added to concerns about lofty valuations in the tech sector.
Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at ThinkMarkets, told Bloomberg: “Yields are rising sharply, reflecting investors’ expectations about monetary tightening amid surging inflationary pressures.
“If yields climb higher, this could weigh especially on the overstretched growth stocks in the technology sector, which have low dividend yields.”
Amazon and Netflix also took a hit from negative analyst comments about future growth, while Facebook shares fell after the social media firm said it was pausing work on Instagram Kids.
In the speech, Bailey goes on to describe the labour market as "a big puzzle" and a source of uncertainty.
He points to data that shows 1.7m remain on furlough while there are over 1m job vacancies and the numbers of inactive and unemployed was higher than pre-Covid levels.
He says:
There are a number of possible outcomes to this puzzle, which have different implications for the labour market. The first is that the furloughed workers will largely be re-absorbed into their old jobs, and so even with a further reduction in unemployment and inactivity, we are left with an excess of job vacancies.
The Bank of England has published the speech its Governor, Andrew Bailey, is expected to give at the Society of Professional Economists Annual Dinner tonight.
Bailey is expected to outline how he feels the economy's recovery is progressing.
He's expected to say:
The rate of recovery has slowed over recent months, and that slowing is continuing. Relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, on the latest data to July, the level of GDP was 3.5pc lower... It is inevitable in a bounce-back that the growth rate will slow as the recovery nears its end-point. It is not though inevitable – or desirable – that the previous level is not regained.
An upmarket electric car company spun off from Volvo and backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been valued at $20bn (£14.6bn) as it becomes the latest challenger carmaker to go public, reportsJames Titcomb.
He writes:
Polestar, owned by Volvo’s Chinese parent Geely, will merge with Gores Guggenheim, a listed investment vehicle in a so-called Spac deal.
Read more about this story here.
Motorists have turned to electric vehicles to try and beat the petrol shortage that is gripping the country, reportsWill Kirkman.
He writes:
The number of Google searches for electric cars rose by 1,600pc on Friday, compared to normal levels, according to analysis by website Car Guide.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, comments:
Oil prices are continuing to surge, with Brent crude now closing in on $80 and WTI perhaps not too far behind it. The global energy crisis could see demand for crude rise if the northern hemisphere experiences a cold winter, with many countries not equipped to cope.
The Nasdaq index fell as much as 1pc on Monday before paring losses, as investors swapped technology heavyweights for stocks linked to economic growth amid increasing confidence in a recovery.
Big tech stocks Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Apple slipped between 1.2pc and 2.9pc.
The Nasdaq is currently down 0.5pc.
Chipmakers also fell 1.3pc as widening power shortages in China threatened to curb production.
Rate-sensitive banking stocks gained 2.2pc, while a jump in energy, and industrial shares pushed the blue-chip Dow up 0.7pc.
The S&P 500 traded flat, edging up only 0.01pc.
TikTok now has 1bn monthly active users after coronavirus lockdowns helped drive a huge surge in popularity for the video-sharing app, reportsJames Warrington.
The social media app said it passed the 1bn user milestone this summer, marking a 45pc increase since June 2020.
The US, Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia are its biggest markets, the company added.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has shrugged off regulatory scrutiny over its use of data and links to Beijing to expand rapidly in recent years.
London-listed pharmaceutical company Hikma has paid $375m (£273m) for Californian injectables supplier Custopharm, buying the business from US healthcare investor Water Street Healthcare Partners.
The offer could increase by $50m (£36.5m) if certain commercial milestones are reached, the company added.
Hikma added that the acquisition complements its own injectable product portfolio by adding 13 approved products and enhances its R&D capabilities.
An extra $80m (£58m) in revenues is expected to be added each year.
Hikma rose 1.2pc in trading on Monday.
JD Sports is plotting a duel with The Hut Group after it bought a stake in an online beauty and hair brand, reportsLaura Onita.
The FTSE 100 sportswear firm has made its first move into the beauty sector by acquiring a chunk of Hairburst, which sells hair vitamins, shampoos and styling products.
JD Sports - worth £11bn - plans to use its financial firepower to help the beauty start-up to buy a number of rivals and build a stable of brands as the industry heats up.
The move comes after The Hut Group pulled the trigger earlier this month on a separate listing for its beauty arm following a string of bolt-on acquisitions in recent years that are meant to help THG dominate the beauty arena.
The platform now owns websites such as Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty. It reported sales of £461m for the six months to the end of June, up from £296m in the same period a year ago.
Hairburst was founded in 2014 by James Hill, Henry Gwilliam and Matthew Cragg, who used £4,000 of savings to set up the firm. It now has 45 staff and its products are stocked in Boots, Sephora and Superdrug.
JD Sports’ investment comes as the retailer seeks to branch into other rapidly growing categories such as beauty.
Facebook has been given the green light for its takeover of US customer service software company Kustomer after securing approval from the competition watchdog, reportsJames Warrington.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) examined factors such as whether the merger would expand Facebook’s data advantage in online display advertising.
But it concluded that the deal, worth a reported $1bn, did “not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK”.
The deal will help bolster Facebook’s efforts to expand its messaging division by allowing businesses to interact with customers via chat apps.
The European Commission and US regulators are still looking into the merger over concerns it could allow Facebook to block rival customer service software providers’ access to its services such as Instagram or WhatsApp
Halfords has said sales of jerry cans soared 1,656pc over the weekend as motorists rushed out to panic buy fuel, my colleagueJames Warringtonreports
The retailer said ‘jerry can’ became the fourth most popular search term on its website amid an escalating crisis at forecourts up and down the country.
Sales of e-bikes also more than doubled as fears of fuel shortages prompted drivers to look for alternative modes of transport.
Separate data from Auto Trader showed surging interest for electric vehicles, with searches for used EVs jumping 60pc over the weekend.
Rolls-Royce has defeated American rivals to win a contract to supply engines for the US Air Force’s B-52 bombers in a deal worth up to $2.6bn (£1.9bn), reportsJames Warrington.
He writes:
The engineering giant fended off competition from the incumbent Pratt & Whitney as well as General Electric to win the high-profile contract after a tender process that spanned several years.
Read more on this story here.
Tensions between Downing Street and Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London recently escalated over plans to grant councils money even after they ripped out cycle lanes, reportsOliver Gill.
He writes:
Andrew Gilligan, the Prime Minister’s transport adviser, intervened in and vetoed TfL plans to distribute £100m for policies that encourage “active travel”, according to correspondence seen byThe Telegraph.
Read the full story here.
Orders placed with US manufacturers for business equipment strengthened in August, extending to six months a solid run of robust capital investment that’s helping fuel economic growth.
Bloomberghas the details:
The value of core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware and is seen as a barometer of business equipment investment, increased 0.5pc after an upwardly revised 0.3pc a month earlier, Commerce Department figures showed Monday.
Global oil demand will peak earlier than previously projected, before 2030, TotalEnergies forecast on Monday.
The French oil major said its business was now working on the assumption that global consumption would begin to decline before the end of the decade. It had previously forecast the peak would come around 2030.
Oil demand would drop to 40m or 64m barrels per day by 2050, depending on how strongly policies and habits change, TotalEnergies said in it annual energy outlook. In 2019, the world consumed 99.7m barrels every day.
TotalEnergies said that natural gas would continue to play a role as a transition fuel, accompanied by carbon capture and methane emissions control techniques.
Facebook said today it is pausing its controversial 'Instagram for Kids' project and will re-evaluate the idea "at a later date".
The project's suspension follows aWall Street Journal reportthat suggested Facebook's own research had discovered its Instagram app is harmful to teenagers, especially girls.
There were few public details about the 'Instagram for Kids' project but Facebook confirmed it would be a ‘parent-controlled’ version of its app for under 13s.
“While we believe building ‘Instagram Kids’ is the right thing to do, Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, will re-evaluate the project at a later date. In the interim Instagram will continue to focus on teen safety and expanding parental supervision features for teens,” Facebook said.
The number of shoppers in central London rose 6.5pc last week compared to a week earlier, adding to evidence that office staff are returning to the workplace after the pandemic.
In areas of central London where there is a high number of offices compared to stores, footfall rose 8.8pc in the week to Saturday, retail intelligence company Springboard said today.
"High street footfall was undoubtedly supported by a shift back to the office, demonstrated by a greater uplift from the week before in central London and large city centres outside of the capital, than in smaller high streets and in outer London," said Springboard's insights director Diane Wehrle.
Billionaire Asda-owners the Issa brothers have acquired 52 KFC restaurants as they continue to expand their sprawling business empire, reportsJulia Bradshaw.
The new franchise will bring the total number of KFC outlets in the UK operated by the Blackburn businessmen’s EG Group to 208, reflecting nearly a quarter of the country’s total.
It makes EG, which is also backed by private equity firm TDR Capital, the largest franchisee in western Europe for the KFC brand.
“We have seen a marked upward trend in the performance of our existing KFC network and this has given us confidence to consider and invest in more assets,” said Mohsin Issa.
It comes just weeks after rumours that EG Group, which is one of the world’s largest independent forecourt and convenience store chains, was up for sale with a price tag of $15bn (£10.8bn).
Last year EG bought 146 KFC restaurants in the UK and Ireland, followed by fast-food chain Leon in April for £100m. It is also aggressively pursuing cafe chain Caffe Nero by buying up its debt.
GOLDMAN: Chip shortage “appears to be worsening again, with plant shutdowns in .. Asia leading US automakers to slash Sept production. .. vaccination rates are .. encouraging, but we are nonetheless pushing back our assumption for improving chip supply from this fall to 1H22.”pic.twitter.com/fLbyBxXEP1
Aldi has shrugged off concerns about food shortages in the run up to Christmas as it revealed plans for 100 new stores, writes my colleagueLaura Onita.
Giles Hurley, the UK boss of the German discount chain said that although Aldi was not immune to the issues the sector has had to grapple with, such as the scarcity of HGV drivers and shipping containers, it was “business as usual” for the chain.
“There's no doubt current circumstances are testing the industry,” he added.
He said that the majority of its lorry drivers are employed directly, while some of its rivals use agencies to deliver food, and so “our trucks are running as they should do”.
The supermarket chain had good product availability as it stocks fewer ranges than the larger supermarkets, which Mr Hurley said was easier to control.
“We are going to have our best Christmas range ever,” he said.
Sales grew by 10pc to £13.5bn for the year to the end of December, while pre-tax profits dropped by 2.5pc to £265m due to Covid costs and striving to keep prices lower than its rivals.
The FTSE 100 has pared its gains from earlier and is now trading flat, around 7,050 points.
Strong gains made byRolls Royce(up 10.6pc) are being outweighed by stocks includingHalma(down 3.7pc),Croda(down 3.3pc),Ashstead(down 3.1pc) andExperian(down 3pc).
The number of Shell's retail customers will grow by over a quarter in the UK, after the energy giant absorbs 255,000 customers from a rival supplier that defaulted during the recent surge in natural gas prices.
Shell Energy will take on approximately 255,000 domestic customers, and a small number of non-domestic customers from renewable energy supplier Green, British regulator OFGEM said .
Shell Energy, which currently has around 900,000 customers across Britain, said Green's customers will move to Shell Energy with their credit balances protected and supply uninterrupted.
Rolls-Royce has signed a €1.7bn (£1.4bn) agreement to sell 100pc of one of its largest subsidiaries, Spanish aircraft engine business ITP Aero.
The business will be sold to Bain Capital Private Equity, which is leading a consortium of Spanish and Basque companies.
The sale follows months of Bain searching for Spanish partners to try to secure government backing to buy the aircraft engine and turbine maker. Previous reports said the auction had narrowed to just Bain and London-based buyout rival Cinven.
Warren East, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said: "Today's announcement is a significant milestone for our disposal programme as we work to strengthen our balance sheet, in support of our medium-term ambition to return to an investment grade credit profile."
Rolls-Royce's shares are up nearly 10pc today.
US stock futures are mixed this morning in New York, as traders braced for speeches by Federal Reserve policy makers.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 Index advanced less than 0.1pc, Dow Futures rose 0.3pc while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.2pc.
Gains are muted by the developing energy crisis that is threatening to crimp global growth further at a time markets are preparing for a tapering of Fed stimulus.
This week threatens volatility in the markets, as traders scrutinise central bankers’ speeches. On Tuesday, Chairman Jerome Powell is due to speak in front of the US Senate and then at the European Central Bank Forum on Wednesday.
Credit Suisse Group said it plans to return about $400m to investors in supply-chain finance funds that invested in Greensill Capital products, the fifth such disbursement since the bank was forced to freeze the money pools this year.
Bloomberghas the details:
The latest payment is expected to be made this week and would bring the total paid to investors in the funds to about $6.3bn, according to a statement on the bank’s website on Monday. The funds’ total cash position is about $7bn, or about 70pc of assets under management when they were suspended, it said.
Airport hubs Crawley and Luton are facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough capitals bear the brunt of an end to the Chancellor’s jobs support scheme, reportsTom Rees.
He writes:
Experts warned the towns are the most vulnerable to a wave of job losses after new data revealed they have the most workers stuck on furlough as the travel industry struggles to recover.
Read more about this story here.
Taxi company Uber has blamed Britain's fuel crisis for eating into driver's earnings.
“More and more of the working day is taken up looking for fuel,” said James Farrar, general secretary of Britain’s App Drivers and Couriers’ Union.
Drivers aren’t compensated for this and they’re not able to raise prices themselves, so the gas shortage is eating into their earnings, he said.
The App Drivers and Couriers Union is planning a strike tomorrow that could involve “thousands” of drivers in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield and Leeds.
Among its demand, the union is calling for "Uber to pay all working time including waiting time."
Nickel and tin prices have tumbled in response to China’s power crisis, which is causing black outs, shutting off traffic lights and forcing businesses to cut back on production.
The crisis has been caused by tight coal supplies as well as provincial governments trying to meet environmental targets for this year, according to Bloomberg, with many factories forced to cut or halting their operations.
Economists at Nomura Holdings and China International Capital (CIC) have downgraded growth forecasts as the power crunch in the top metals consuming country causes supply losses at metal smelters, fabricators and steel mills in the past few months.
“Tin supply has been impacted by power control measures several times already this year,” the International Tin Association said. “What has been surprising in this round of restrictions is the effect on tin demand.”
In a note, CIC warned that power restrictions could tighten further in the fourth quarter.
Nickel fell as much as 2.9pc to $18,820 ton on the London Metal Exchange.
Tin dropped 4.2pc to $35,000 a ton, tumbling from a record high struck last week.
Amazon will soon offer insurance to small and medium-size British business customers, according to London-based insurance broker Superscript.
Members of Amazon's Business Prime programme will be able to buy cover from Superscript, in the tech giant's first foray into UK business insurance.
A Superscript spokesperson said the cover - which will include contents insurance, cyber insurance and personal indemnity insurance - would be underwritten by "major UK insurers".
Here's the latest stories from The Telegraph's Money team:
• Money Makeover: 'Should I have 12 buy-to-lets or invest in an Isa?'Our reader has a grand plan to become a property tycoon - but our advisers think it might be reckless
• The signs the country house price boom is hitting its peak:Inner commuter house prices jumped 2.4pc in three months as workers returned to offices
• £21m a day moved out of final salary pensions – should you join them?There are numerous things to consider before ditching a gold plated pension
Sterling inched 0.1pc higher this morning, as investors juggled expectations that the Bank of England could hike interest rates early next year with concerns about fuel shortages and unemployment.
Sterling jumped last week following the Bank of England's hawkish tone on interest rates and its pandemic bond-buying scheme.
However analysts are flagging fuel shortages and the looming end of the furlough scheme to suggest those gains may have been overdone.
"The initial hawkish headlines last week were diluted into the weekend as the market reflected on the headwinds already facing households from the national insurance tax hikes and rising energy bills," said Jane Foley, Head of FX Strategy at Rabobank.
The pound, which is currently trading at $1.3699, also gained some support on Monday as fears of widespread market contagion from indebted developer China Evergrande Group receded.
Tesla shareholders should vote to reject the re-election of board members James Murdoch and Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, according to proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services.
“Votes AGAINST directors James Murdoch and Kimbal Musk are warranted due to concerns regarding excessive compensation to named executive officers and to non-executive directors,” Institutional Shareholder Services wrote in a Friday report to clients.
Murdoch and Musk, both 48, sit on Tesla’s board of nine directors.
ISS said that directors have received “outlier levels of pay without a compelling rationale” and that there is no explanation as to why the magnitude of option awards is “so much larger than director compensation at peer companies.”
Tesla will hold its annual shareholder meeting virtually this year on October 7 from its new factory in Austin, Texas.
Shares of Rolls Royce have jumped 7pc this morning and have almost doubled since this time last year.
The rise can be traced back to a number of factors.
While Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock, Rolls Royce also announced on Monday that it had been asked to provide engines for the United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers - a contract which could be worth up to $2.6bn.
Rolls Royce could also benefit from the possibility that the government could plough more cash into mini nuclear reactors in an attempt to prevent further energy crises as Britain transitions to net-zero carbon emissions.
Sources close to the government decision noted that Rolls-Royce - whichalready makes modular reactors- is ahead of the game in terms of tech,” and its status as a British company will also make it attractive to ministers.
However at 141.7p, the company's stock remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels of 232.4p.
Shares of oilfield services company Petrofac have continued to surge this morning, following its Friday announcement that it would plead guilty to seven charges of bribery.
Petrofac said the charges relate to former employees "offering or making payments to agents in relation to projects awarded between 2012 and 2015 in Iraq, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE."
The company's chairman René Medori said: "Petrofac has been living under the shadow of the past, but today it is a profoundly different business, in which stakeholders can be assured of our commitment to the highest standards of business ethics, wherever we operate.”
Office landlord Workspace said this morning it has acquired a 57,000 square ft building in East London, as the company bets on the revival of office life.
Workspace said the building, called The Old Dairy in London's Shoreditch, is currently 80pc let.
Graham Clemett, chief executive, commented:
The acquisition of The Old Dairy further strengthens our presence and broadens our offering in Shoreditch, one of the most popular areas for our customers.
London's blue-chip market indices now host more technology companies than at any point since the aftermath of the dotcom bubble after a resurgence of listings, reportsJames Titcomb.
He writes:
The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 combined feature 26 technology and consumer internet firms, or 7pc of the total, according to figures from the London Stock Exchange.
Read the full story here.
German shares have jumped 1pc to ten-day highs this morning, after the federal election outcome reduced the chances of a left-wing coalition gaining power.
Germany's blue-chip DAX was leading gains among regional indexes, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index added 0.6pc in early trading.
Germany's centre-left Social Democrats are expected to start trying to form a government after they narrowly won the biggest share of the vote after Sunday's election.
The party - which has not won a general election since 2005 - said they would seek to form a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats in what is dubbed as the "traffic light" coalition.
While coalition talks could drag on for weeks or months, investors expressed relief that the hard-left Linke party fell below the 5pc threshold needed to enter parliament.
Before the election, there had been some speculation that the anti-capitalist Left Party may win enough seats to feature in a coalition although that tail risk has not materialised,"said Steven Bell, chief economist at BMO Global Asset Management.
"The feasible coalitions would involve compromise on all sides and imply no major policy shift. The uncertainty is a mild negative for financial markets in the near term but we do not expect a significant reaction from financial markets."
More on the German election result here.
The cryptocurrency market has bounced back from last week's rout which was a reaction to China’s latest crackdown.
Bitcoin and Ether had recouped most of their losses by Monday, with Bitcoin rallying to around $44,000 overnight.
“Over the weekend sessions, Bitcoin has shown some resilience and has now recovered the majority of those losses,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note Monday. “It may well be that China’s previously announced crackdowns had already been built into prices.”
Crypto markets were roiled on Friday when China issued its toughest restrictions yet on the industry, banning all cryptocurrency transactions
The announcement hit individual cryptocurrencies but also pulled down crypto related stocks around the world.
Software company MicroStrategy, which has significant Bitcoin holdings, declined as much as 6.7pc Friday in the US and British cryptocurrency miner, Argo Blockchain, has dropped more than 17pc in the past five days.
Rolls Royceand energy stocks pushed the FTSE 100 blue-chip index higher this morning,
Rolls-Royce gained 4.1pc after Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock.
BProse 2.4pc after it said nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel, as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages.
Royal Dutch Shellalso gained 2.4pc.
On the FTSE 250, cinema chainCineworldled gains (up 7.4pc) while cybersecurity companyDarktracetrailed (down 5.2pc).
Boohoo has published a list detailing the names and addresses of1,100 factoriesit uses around the world, as part of the online fashion giant's pledge to be more transparent.
The list - which also includes a breakdown of how many workers each factory has and their gender split - was published following scrutiny into its supply chain, after it was disclosed some factory workers in Leicester were being paid below the minimum wage.
It was one of the recommendations made by an independent review produced by Alison Levitt QC, who was brought in when the scandal first broke.
The list features factory in countries including Albania, Bangladesh, China and Morocco. There are also more than 90 UK factories listed, with the majority in Leicester.
The auditors of collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie missed red flags and showed a serious lack of competence, according to regulators.
After its investigation, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) fined accounting giant Grant Thornton and auditor David Newstead £2.34m and £87,750 respectively.
Grant Thornton must now report annually to the regulator for three years to show what efforts it is making to improve its audits. Mr Newstead, who carried out the work for Grant Thornton, was also handed a three-year ban from carrying out audits or signing off audit reports.
Claudia Mortimore, deputy executive counsel to the FRC, said: "The audit of Patisserie Holdings's revenue and cash in particular involved missed red flags, a failure to obtain sufficient audit evidence and a failure to stand back and question information provided by management."
The company collapsed and was revealed to have been overstating its accounts for years.
A spokesperson for Grant Thornton said the company has invested significantly in audit practice since the scandal: "We have cooperated fully with the FRC and acknowledge the investigation's findings relating to our audits in 2015-2017.
"We regret the quality of our work fell short of what was expected of us in this instance."
Octopus Energy is taking on the 580,000 customers ofcollapsed supplier Avro, as the wave of failures in the sector boosts the position of stronger businesses, reports Tim Wallace.
He writes:
Industry regulator Ofgem chose the new supplier after running a competition between other energy businesses.
Read Tim's full story here.
Aldi said its UK and Ireland sales jumped 10pc over the pandemic to £12.3bn, as the supermarket announced a £1.3bn investment drive which would include 2,000 new jobs and 100 new shops.
A new checkout-free store is also planned in Greenwich, London, it said.
No details on trading in the first nine months of 2021 were provided. Although other UK supermarkets give more regular updates on current trading, Aldi is not obliged to and is instead publishing last year's results as it files its accounts with Companies House.
Giles Hurley, chief executive for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: "As well as delivering record sales, we continued to invest for growth, deploying over £600m in stores and distribution centres across the UK.
"This helped to create thousands of much-needed jobs and support for British farmers and manufacturers.
"Whilst the cost of responding to the pandemic dampened profits, our decision to return business rate relief was the right thing to do."
Aldi - which is now Britain's fifth largest supermarket - repaid the business rates saved from the Government's scrapping of the tax during the pandemic, following similar moves by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda and Lidl.
The company did not mention any supply chain issues or suggestions of price inflation.
The FTSE 100 has jumped 0.9pc on opening this morning, rising to 7,118.73.
The FTSE 250 has also added 0.4pc, jumping to 23,782.69.
Only a fraction of British truck drivers have taken up the Government’s offer for them to work longer hours, new figures reveal, as the haulage crisis escalates, reportsLouis Ashworth.
He writes:
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps temporarily relaxed rules in July despite warnings it could pose a safety risk.
Read more about this story here.
Petrol and diesel stations are running dry across Britain, with some big groups in English cities reporting 50pc to 90pc of pumps were dry, the Petrol Retailers Association said on Monday.
A dire shortage of truck drivers in Britain has triggered panic buying for fuel, with queues of cars snaking back
"Some of our members, large groups with a portfolio of sites, report 50pc are dry as of yesterday, some even report as many as 90pc are dry as of yesterday," Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association told Sky.
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) represents independent fuel retailers who now account for 65pc of all UK forecourts.
"So you can see it is quite acute," Madderson said. "Monday morning is going to start pretty dry."
BP said on Sunday that nearly a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two main grades of fuel as panic buying forced the government to suspend competition laws and allow firms to work together to ease shortages.
Oil prices have surged close to three year highs, inflaming inflation fears.
Brent has added 1.2pc today, as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent.
It is currently trading at $79, its highest price since October 2018.
"We forecast that this rally will continue, with our year-end Brent forecast of $90/bbl vs. $80/bbl previously," wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs in a note.
"The current global oil supply-demand deficit is larger than we expected, with the recovery in global demand from the Delta impact even faster than our above consensus forecast."
Such an increase could stoke speculation that global inflation will prove longer-lasting than first hoped and hasten the end of super-cheap money, favouring reflation trades in bank and energy stocks while bruising bond prices.
United Utilities said it expects underlying operating profit for the first half of the year to be higher than the previous six months, as the water company benefits from high household consumption as many of its customers continue working form home.
Bosses said they are also expecting a modest net increase in revenue of around 4pc.
The company, which provides water and wastewater services to 7m customers in the North West, added it had suffered a hit from changes to tax rules.
It said: "The legislation to increase the headline rate ofcorporation tax to 25pcfrom 1 April 2023 was enacted in May 2021. As a result, we expect to incur a deferred tax charge through the income statement of around £380m in the first half of 2021/22."
Good morning.
The FTSE 100 is set to leap 0.85pc to 7,085 points this morning, after a mixed overnight session in Asian stocks that saw Japan's Nikkei give up early gains while China's Hang Seng pushed higher.
Meanwhile the German election has ended in gridlock, after a better-than-expected performance by outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU. The centre-left SPD party narrowly winning the most votes , meaning they are likely to try and lead a three-party coalition alongside the Greens and one other party.
"t would be unexpected if we did get a new government before Christmas, given the last one took until February 2018 to come into any kind of focus, which means that Angela Merkel may have to stay in place for a while longer yet until her successor is appointed," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
"What this means for German politics is that nothing much is likely to change in the short term, with investor attention likely to remain on events in China, and Asia more broadly, as well as the various supply crunches taking place across the world."
1)Shapps’ plan to let truckers work longer hours fall flat:HGV industry says policy has failed after just one in 1,700 drivers used the scheme last month
2)Octopus takes on 580,000 stranded Avro customers:The energy company now has 3.1m customers, making it a serious challenger to traditional energy companies
3)FTSE tech listings hit all-time high since dotcom bubble:The number of tech firms on the FTSE 350 has hit a 20-year high after crashing shortly after the millennium.
4)Airport hubs braced for jobless spike:Crawley and Luton among towns facing a sharp jump in unemployment this week as Britain’s furlough scheme comes to an end.
5)One in four workers want to quit their jobs:Survey finds nearly three in 10 workers are experiencing poor well-being at work.
Asian shares crept higher on Monday as risk sentiment turned for the better, though a surge in oil prices to three-year highs could inflame inflation fears and aggravate the recent hawkish turn by some major central banks.
Oil stormed past its July peaks as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent.
Brent added another 98 cents on Monday to $79.07 a barrel, while US crude rose 97 cents to $74.95.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed 0.5pc, though that followed three consecutive weeks of losses.
Japan's Nikkei gained 0.4pc on hopes for further fiscal stimulus once a new prime minister is chosen. Nasdaq futures rose 0.4pc, and S&P 500 futures 0.5pc. Chinese blue chips gained 1.1oc as the country's central bank pumped more money into the financial system and investors dared to hope Beijing would limit the fallout from the troubled China Evergrande Group.
• Corporate:United Utilities(Trading update)
• Economics:Durable goods orders(US) || Switzerland Authorities Impose Anti-Money Laundering Policies on Crypto: BeInCrypto –
In an effort to combat money laundering, Swiss authorities are seeking to limit the transaction amount threshold for cryptocurrency transactions to 1000 Swiss francs, after which identity of the party involved in the transaction is required.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), which serves to protect all bank users, policyholders and investors from fraudulent service providers, ismaking it compulsoryfor digital asset providers to take greater measures to ensure that their platforms are not used for criminal purposes. The regulatory body, via a letter from Christoph Kluser, who supervises the parabanking system, would like to see further measures taken as part of a wider effort to combat money laundering and terrorism funding. Recently, Switzerland has seen multiple money laundering cases arise recently, including two graft scandals, the Venezuelan PDVSA, and 1MDB, and has sought to revise a 24-year-old law to address some of the vulnerabilities that have allowed money laundering to thrive.
Cryptocurrencies appear to pose an additional risk, with FINMA recently denying Bitcoin Suisse, a crypto broker, a banking license due to concerns over money laundering. FINMA considered the money laundering defense mechanisms of Bitcoin Suisse as having indications of weaknesses.
This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || Switzerland Authorities Impose Anti-Money Laundering Policies on Crypto: BeInCrypto – In an effort to combat money laundering, Swiss authorities are seeking to limit the transaction amount threshold for cryptocurrency transactions to 1000 Swiss francs, after which identity of the party involved in the transaction is required. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), which serves to protect all bank users, policyholders and investors from fraudulent service providers, is making it compulsory for digital asset providers to take greater measures to ensure that their platforms are not used for criminal purposes. The regulatory body, via a letter from Christoph Kluser, who supervises the parabanking system, would like to see further measures taken as part of a wider effort to combat money laundering and terrorism funding. Recently, Switzerland has seen multiple money laundering cases arise recently, including two graft scandals, the Venezuelan PDVSA, and 1MDB, and has sought to revise a 24-year-old law to address some of the vulnerabilities that have allowed money laundering to thrive. Cryptocurrencies appear to pose an additional risk, with FINMA recently denying Bitcoin Suisse, a crypto broker, a banking license due to concerns over money laundering. FINMA considered the money laundering defense mechanisms of Bitcoin Suisse as having indications of weaknesses. This story was seen first on BeInCrypto Join our Telegram Group and get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories like this on BeInCrypto || Brent Crude Racing Toward $80 A Barrel: Energy companies have been forced to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories due to global output disruptions, sending oil prices to near three-year highs on Friday.
Chinese crude reserves were sold in their first publicly traded public offering, weighing on the rally.
Futures for Brent crude rose more than 100 basis points, to settle at $78 a barrel, while prices for West Texas Intermediate crude surged by 0.9% to settle near $74 a barrel.
Those were the highest for Brent and WTI closings since October 2018 and July 2021, respectively, both on the same day.
Brent crude is now targeting $80 a barrel, initial support is at $77.00 and $76.10 a barrel.
It is important to note that both relative strength indices on the oil contract are approaching overbought levels. It is more likely for oil to trade sideways rather than reach new highs in the upcoming sessions.
Markets are pricing in supply disruptions and storage drawdowns that will be required as oil prices are expected to rise for another week.
Inventories have already declined sharply in the U.S. and abroad due to disruptions that could last for months.
Refineries in the United States were turning to Iraqi and Canadian oil to replace Gulf crude. As a result of the resurgence in India’s crude imports, the country’s imports of crude reached their highest level in three months.
A few members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, also known as OPEC+, have had trouble raising output during the pandemic as they have not invested as much or delayed maintenance.
Additionally, the United Kingdom is experiencing an energy crisis with higher oil prices causing motorists to panic buy fuel at the pump.
There were reports of gridlocks at gas stations on September 24, as panic buying took over and motorists’ desperation to fill up grew as Brent prices reached levels unseen in months.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 26th, 2021
• The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 25th, 2021
• S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Markets Recover After Initial Plunge for the Week
• Brent Crude Racing Toward $80 A Barrel
• The Weekly Wrap – Economic Data, Monetary Policy, and Evergrande Delivered a Choppy Week
• Bitcoin Price Update – Could China’s Crypto Crackdown Trigger a Flash Crash? || Brent Crude Racing Toward $80 A Barrel: Energy companies have been forced to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories due to global output disruptions, sending oil prices to near three-year highs on Friday. Chinese crude reserves were sold in their first publicly traded public offering, weighing on the rally. Futures for Brent crude rose more than 100 basis points, to settle at $78 a barrel, while prices for West Texas Intermediate crude surged by 0.9% to settle near $74 a barrel. Those were the highest for Brent and WTI closings since October 2018 and July 2021, respectively, both on the same day. Brent crude is now targeting $80 a barrel, initial support is at $77.00 and $76.10 a barrel. It is important to note that both relative strength indices on the oil contract are approaching overbought levels. It is more likely for oil to trade sideways rather than reach new highs in the upcoming sessions. Markets are pricing in supply disruptions and storage drawdowns that will be required as oil prices are expected to rise for another week. Inventories have already declined sharply in the U.S. and abroad due to disruptions that could last for months. Refineries in the United States were turning to Iraqi and Canadian oil to replace Gulf crude. As a result of the resurgence in Indias crude imports, the countrys imports of crude reached their highest level in three months. A few members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, also known as OPEC+, have had trouble raising output during the pandemic as they have not invested as much or delayed maintenance. Additionally, the United Kingdom is experiencing an energy crisis with higher oil prices causing motorists to panic buy fuel at the pump. There were reports of gridlocks at gas stations on September 24, as panic buying took over and motorists desperation to fill up grew as Brent prices reached levels unseen in months. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 26th, 2021 The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers September 25th, 2021 S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast Stock Markets Recover After Initial Plunge for the Week Brent Crude Racing Toward $80 A Barrel The Weekly Wrap Economic Data, Monetary Policy, and Evergrande Delivered a Choppy Week Bitcoin Price Update Could Chinas Crypto Crackdown Trigger a Flash Crash? || Earnings Week Ahead: IHS Markit, Micron, CarMax and Bed Bath & Beyond in Focus: • Monday (September 27)
• Tuesday (September 28)
• Wednesday (September 29)
• Thursday (September 30)
• Friday (October 1)
Earnings Calendar For The Week Of September 27
[{"Ticker": "HRB", "Company": "H&R Block", "EPS Forecast": "-$0.34"}]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: IHS MARKIT, MICRON TECHNOLOGY
IHS MARKIT:The leading provider of data and analytics to corporate is expected to report its fiscal third-quarter earnings of $0.83 per share, which represents a year-over-year decline of about 8% from $0.77 per share seen in the same period a year ago.
The company is expected to post revenue growth of over 9% to $1.17 billion. According to ZACKS Research, in all of the company’s last four quarters, earnings surpassed the consensus estimate. Earnings surprise has averaged 5.4% over its trailing four quarters.
“IHS Markitis a leading supplier of information services across multiple verticals with an attractive business model. We believe the synergy potential with SPGI will lead to cost savings and access to underpenetrated revenue markets,” noted Toni Kaplan, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.
“Recovery in auto sales from COVID-19 is occurring faster than previously anticipated. We expect the energy market to become more accommodative in ’21 and ’22 following the crude oil price rebound.”
MICRON TECHNOLOGY:The world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer is expected to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $2.33 per share, representing year-over-year growth of more than 115% from $1.08 per share seen in the same quarter a year ago.
The semiconductor company is expected to post revenue growth of over 30% to around $8.2 billion from a year earlier.
TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE SEPTEMBER 28
[{"Ticker": "SMIN", "Company": "Smiths", "EPS Forecast": "\u00a339.71"}, {"Ticker": "INFO", "Company": "IHS Markit Ltd", "EPS Forecast": "$0.83"}, {"Ticker": "SNX", "Company": "SYNNEX", "EPS Forecast": "$2.03"}, {"Ticker": "THO", "Company": "Thor Industries", "EPS Forecast": "$2.98"}, {"Ticker": "UNFI", "Company": "United Natural Foods", "EPS Forecast": "$0.80"}, {"Ticker": "MU", "Company": "Micron Technology", "EPS Forecast": "$2.33"}]
[{"Ticker": "JBL", "Company": "Jabil Circuit", "EPS Forecast": "$1.38"}, {"Ticker": "CTAS", "Company": "Cintas", "EPS Forecast": "$2.75"}, {"Ticker": "WOR", "Company": "Worthington Industries", "EPS Forecast": "$1.86"}, {"Ticker": "MLHR", "Company": "Herman Miller", "EPS Forecast": "$0.54"}, {"Ticker": "NXT", "Company": "NEXT", "EPS Forecast": "\u00a337.38"}]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CARMAX, BED BATH & BEYOND
CARMAX:The United States’ largest used-car retailer is expected to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.85 per share, which represents year-over-year growth of over 3% from $1.79 per share seen in the same period a year ago.
The Goochland County-based used car giant would post year-over-year revenue growth of over 28% to $7.0 billion.
BED BATH & BEYOND:The U.S.-based merchandise retailer is expected to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings of $0.52 per share, which represents year-over-year growth of around 4% from $0.50 per share seen in the same period a year ago.
The company that operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia would see a revenue decline of about 23% to around $2.5 billion.
TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE SEPTEMBER 30
[{"Ticker": "KMX", "Company": "CarMax", "EPS Forecast": "$1.85"}, {"Ticker": "MKC", "Company": "McCormick", "EPS Forecast": "$0.73"}, {"Ticker": "PAYX", "Company": "Paychex", "EPS Forecast": "$0.80"}, {"Ticker": "BBBY", "Company": "Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.", "EPS Forecast": "$0.52"}]
No major earnings are scheduled for release.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• The Week Ahead – Central Bank Chatter, Evergrande, and a Busy Economic Calendar in Focus
• USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Fails to Rally Despite Rising Treasury Yields
• Silver Price Prediction – Prices Form Doji Day which is a Sign of Indecision
• Earnings Week Ahead: IHS Markit, Micron, CarMax and Bed Bath & Beyond in Focus
• Bitcoin Price Update – Could China’s Crypto Crackdown Trigger a Flash Crash?
• Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Continue to Show Upward Momentum || Earnings Week Ahead: IHS Markit, Micron, CarMax and Bed Bath & Beyond in Focus: Monday (September 27) Tuesday (September 28) Wednesday (September 29) Thursday (September 30) Friday (October 1) Earnings Calendar For The Week Of September 27 Monday (September 27) Ticker Company EPS Forecast HRB H&R Block -$0.34 Tuesday (September 28) IN THE SPOTLIGHT: IHS MARKIT, MICRON TECHNOLOGY IHS MARKIT : The leading provider of data and analytics to corporate is expected to report its fiscal third-quarter earnings of $0.83 per share, which represents a year-over-year decline of about 8% from $0.77 per share seen in the same period a year ago. The company is expected to post revenue growth of over 9% to $1.17 billion. According to ZACKS Research, in all of the companys last four quarters, earnings surpassed the consensus estimate. Earnings surprise has averaged 5.4% over its trailing four quarters. IHS Markit is a leading supplier of information services across multiple verticals with an attractive business model. We believe the synergy potential with SPGI will lead to cost savings and access to underpenetrated revenue markets, noted Toni Kaplan, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley. Recovery in auto sales from COVID-19 is occurring faster than previously anticipated. We expect the energy market to become more accommodative in 21 and 22 following the crude oil price rebound. MICRON TECHNOLOGY : The worlds leading semiconductor manufacturer is expected to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $2.33 per share, representing year-over-year growth of more than 115% from $1.08 per share seen in the same quarter a year ago. The semiconductor company is expected to post revenue growth of over 30% to around $8.2 billion from a year earlier. TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE SEPTEMBER 28 Ticker Company EPS Forecast SMIN Smiths £39.71 INFO IHS Markit Ltd $0.83 SNX SYNNEX $2.03 THO Thor Industries $2.98 UNFI United Natural Foods $0.80 MU Micron Technology $2.33 Wednesday (September 29) Ticker Company EPS Forecast JBL Jabil Circuit $1.38 CTAS Cintas $2.75 WOR Worthington Industries $1.86 MLHR Herman Miller $0.54 NXT NEXT £37.38 Thursday (September 30) IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CARMAX, BED BATH & BEYOND CARMAX : The United States largest used-car retailer is expected to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.85 per share, which represents year-over-year growth of over 3% from $1.79 per share seen in the same period a year ago. The Goochland County-based used car giant would post year-over-year revenue growth of over 28% to $7.0 billion. BED BATH & BEYOND : The U.S.-based merchandise retailer is expected to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings of $0.52 per share, which represents year-over-year growth of around 4% from $0.50 per share seen in the same period a year ago. Story continues The company that operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia would see a revenue decline of about 23% to around $2.5 billion. TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE SEPTEMBER 30 Ticker Company EPS Forecast KMX CarMax $1.85 MKC McCormick $0.73 PAYX Paychex $0.80 BBBY Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. $0.52 Friday (October 1) No major earnings are scheduled for release. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Week Ahead Central Bank Chatter, Evergrande, and a Busy Economic Calendar in Focus USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction The Dollar Fails to Rally Despite Rising Treasury Yields Silver Price Prediction Prices Form Doji Day which is a Sign of Indecision Earnings Week Ahead: IHS Markit, Micron, CarMax and Bed Bath & Beyond in Focus Bitcoin Price Update Could Chinas Crypto Crackdown Trigger a Flash Crash? Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast Crude Oil Continue to Show Upward Momentum View comments || U.S Mortgage Rates See Modest Increase with Labor Market Conditions now Key: Mortgage rates rose modestly, with 30-year fixed rates increasing by just 2 basis points, reversing a 2 basis points fall from the week prior. The weekly increase was just the 5thin 10-weeks.
In the week ending 23rdSeptember, 30-year fixed rates rose by 2 basis points to 2.88%.
30-year mortgage rates have risen just once beyond the 3% mark Since 21stApril.
Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were down by 2 basis points.
30-year fixed rates were still down by 206 basis points since November 2018’s last peak of 4.94%.
It was a relatively quiet first half of the week, with housing sector data in focus.
In August, building permits jumped by 6%, with new housing starts rising by 3.9%. Following a 6.2% sliding in housing starts in July, a pickup in new inventories would ease inventory shortages.
Existing home sales declined by 2.0%, reversing a 2.2% increase from July.
The numbers had a muted impact on yields and mortgage rates, however, with the FED in focus on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the FED left monetary policy unchanged and also held back on committing a date to begin tapering. Interest rate projections and the FOMC dot plot chart revealed a divided Committee, with some supporting rate hikes next year.
The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 23rdSeptember were quoted byFreddie Macto be:
• 30-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 2.88% in the week. This time last year, rates had stood at 2.90%. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.7 points.
• 15-year fixed rose by 3 basis points 2.15% in the week. Rates were down by 25 basis points from 2.40% a year ago. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.6 points.
• 5-year fixed rates decreased by 8 basis point to 2.43%. Rates were down by 47 points from 2.90% a year ago. The average fee rose from 0.1 point to 0.3 points.
According to Freddie Mac,
• The slowdown in economic growth around the world has caused a flight to the quality of U.S financial markets.
• This has led to a rise in foreign investor purchases of U.S Treasuries, causing mortgage rates to remain in place, despite increasing dispersion of inflation across different consumer goods and services.
For the week ending 17thSeptember, therateswere:
• Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances remained unchanged at 3.03%. Points decreased from 0.32 to 0.30 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
• Average 30-year fixed mortgage rates backed by FHA rose from 3.04% to 3.07%. Points fell from 0.27 to 0.25 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
• Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances decreased from 3.13% to 3.11%. Points increased from 0.21 to 0.25 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by 4.9% in the week ending 17thSeptember. In the previous week, the index had increased by 0.3%.
The Refinance Index increased by 7% and was 5% lower than the same week one year ago. The index had declined by 3% in the week prior.
In the week ending 17thSeptember, the refinance share of mortgage activity increased from 64.9% to 66.2%. The share had fallen from 66.8% to 64.9% in the previous week.
According to the MBA,
• There was a resurgence in mortgage applications after Labor Day, with overall activity at its highest level in over a month.
• Housing demand is strong heading into the fall, despite fast-rising home prices and low inventory.
• The inventory situation is improving, with more new homes under construction and more homeowners listing their home for sale.
• Despite this week’s increase, purchase applications were still 13% lower than the same week a year ago.
It’s another quiet week ahead on the economic data front, though we can expect the numbers to influence yields.
Durable and core durable goods orders are out along with consumer confidence figures.
In the week, house price and pending home sales figures are also due out but should have a muted impact on mortgage rates.
Following last week’s interest rate projections, expect FOMC member chatter to also draw plenty of interest in the week.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• U.S Dollar Stays Solid, Posts Third Straight Weekly Gains
• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Rally
• Carnival Shares Climb Over 4% As Revenue Tops Estimates, Bookings Recovery Helps
• Silver Price Prediction – Prices Form Doji Day which is a Sign of Indecision
• Bitcoin Price Update – Could China’s Crypto Crackdown Trigger a Flash Crash?
• Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Continue to Show Upward Momentum || U.S Mortgage Rates See Modest Increase with Labor Market Conditions now Key: Mortgage rates rose modestly, with 30-year fixed rates increasing by just 2 basis points, reversing a 2 basis points fall from the week prior. The weekly increase was just the 5 th in 10-weeks. In the week ending 23 rd September, 30-year fixed rates rose by 2 basis points to 2.88%. 30-year mortgage rates have risen just once beyond the 3% mark Since 21 st April. Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were down by 2 basis points. 30-year fixed rates were still down by 206 basis points since November 2018s last peak of 4.94%. Economic Data from the Week It was a relatively quiet first half of the week, with housing sector data in focus. In August, building permits jumped by 6%, with new housing starts rising by 3.9%. Following a 6.2% sliding in housing starts in July, a pickup in new inventories would ease inventory shortages. Existing home sales declined by 2.0%, reversing a 2.2% increase from July. The numbers had a muted impact on yields and mortgage rates, however, with the FED in focus on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the FED left monetary policy unchanged and also held back on committing a date to begin tapering. Interest rate projections and the FOMC dot plot chart revealed a divided Committee, with some supporting rate hikes next year. Freddie Mac Rates The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 23 rd September were quoted by Freddie Mac to be : 30-year fixed rates increased by 2 basis points to 2.88% in the week. This time last year, rates had stood at 2.90%. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.7 points. 15-year fixed rose by 3 basis points 2.15% in the week. Rates were down by 25 basis points from 2.40% a year ago. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.6 points. 5-year fixed rates decreased by 8 basis point to 2.43%. Rates were down by 47 points from 2.90% a year ago. The average fee rose from 0.1 point to 0.3 points. According to Freddie Mac, The slowdown in economic growth around the world has caused a flight to the quality of U.S financial markets. This has led to a rise in foreign investor purchases of U.S Treasuries, causing mortgage rates to remain in place, despite increasing dispersion of inflation across different consumer goods and services. Story continues Mortgage Bankers Association Rates For the week ending 17 th September, the rates were : Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances remained unchanged at 3.03%. Points decreased from 0.32 to 0.30 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average 30-year fixed mortgage rates backed by FHA rose from 3.04% to 3.07%. Points fell from 0.27 to 0.25 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances decreased from 3.13% to 3.11%. Points increased from 0.21 to 0.25 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by 4.9% in the week ending 17 th September. In the previous week, the index had increased by 0.3%. The Refinance Index increased by 7% and was 5% lower than the same week one year ago. The index had declined by 3% in the week prior. In the week ending 17 th September, the refinance share of mortgage activity increased from 64.9% to 66.2%. The share had fallen from 66.8% to 64.9% in the previous week. According to the MBA, There was a resurgence in mortgage applications after Labor Day, with overall activity at its highest level in over a month. Housing demand is strong heading into the fall, despite fast-rising home prices and low inventory. The inventory situation is improving, with more new homes under construction and more homeowners listing their home for sale. Despite this weeks increase, purchase applications were still 13% lower than the same week a year ago. For the week ahead Its another quiet week ahead on the economic data front, though we can expect the numbers to influence yields. Durable and core durable goods orders are out along with consumer confidence figures. In the week, house price and pending home sales figures are also due out but should have a muted impact on mortgage rates. Following last weeks interest rate projections, expect FOMC member chatter to also draw plenty of interest in the week. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: U.S Dollar Stays Solid, Posts Third Straight Weekly Gains Crude Oil Price Forecast Crude Oil Markets Continue to Rally Carnival Shares Climb Over 4% As Revenue Tops Estimates, Bookings Recovery Helps Silver Price Prediction Prices Form Doji Day which is a Sign of Indecision Bitcoin Price Update Could Chinas Crypto Crackdown Trigger a Flash Crash? Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast Crude Oil Continue to Show Upward Momentum || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 26th, 2021: Bitcoin, BTC to USD, fell by 0.34% on Saturday. Following a 4.54% slide on Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $42,714.0.
A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $42,986.9 before hitting reverse.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $45,095, Bitcoin slid to a late morning intraday low $41,728.0.
Steering clear of the 38.2% FIB of $41,592 and the first major support level at $40,686, Bitcoin revisited $42,900 levels before easing back into the red.
The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest return to sub-$40,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need a sustained fall through the 62% FIB of $27,237 to form a near-term bearish trend.
Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Saturday.
Chainlinkled the way, rallying by 5.43%, withBitcoin Cash SV(0.64%),Cardano’s ADA(+1.00%), andCrypto.com Coin(+2.01%) also finding support on the day.
It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however.
Polkadot fell by 2.84% to lead the way down.
Binance Coin(-1.52%),Ethereum(-0.22%),Litecoin(-0.83%), andRipple’s XRP(-0.53%) also joined Bitcoin in the red.
In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $2,136bn before sliding to a Tuesday low $1,744bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $1,910bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 42.97% before falling to a Friday low 40.99%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 41.91%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.36% to $42,559.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $42,767.0 before falling to a low $42,451.0.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, it was a bearish start to the day.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash SV was down by 2.47% to lead the way down.
Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall back through the $42,476 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $43,225 into play.
Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from Saturday’s high $42,986.8.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap the upside.
In the event of a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $45,000 levels before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $43,735.
A fall back through the $42,476 pivot would bring the first major support level at $41,966 and the 38.2% FIB of $41,592 into play.
Barring another extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$40,000. The second major support level at $41,218 should limit the downside.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Silver Price Prediction – Prices Form Doji Day which is a Sign of Indecision
• The Week Ahead – Central Bank Chatter, Evergrande, and a Busy Economic Calendar in Focus
• The Weekly Wrap – Economic Data, Monetary Policy, and Evergrande Delivered a Choppy Week
• U.S Mortgage Rates See Modest Increase with Labor Market Conditions now Key
• USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Fails to Rally Despite Rising Treasury Yields
• Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Continue to Show Upward Momentum || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 26th, 2021: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, fell by 0.34% on Saturday. Following a 4.54% slide on Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $42,714.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $42,986.9 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $45,095, Bitcoin slid to a late morning intraday low $41,728.0. Steering clear of the 38.2% FIB of $41,592 and the first major support level at $40,686, Bitcoin revisited $42,900 levels before easing back into the red. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest return to sub-$40,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need a sustained fall through the 62% FIB of $27,237 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Saturday. Chainlink led the way, rallying by 5.43%, with Bitcoin Cash SV (0.64%), Cardano’s ADA (+1.00%), and Crypto.com Coin (+2.01%) also finding support on the day. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Polkadot fell by 2.84% to lead the way down. Binance Coin (-1.52%), Ethereum (-0.22%), Litecoin (-0.83%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.53%) also joined Bitcoin in the red. In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $2,136bn before sliding to a Tuesday low $1,744bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $1,910bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 42.97% before falling to a Friday low 40.99%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 41.91%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.36% to $42,559.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $42,767.0 before falling to a low $42,451.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a bearish start to the day. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash SV was down by 2.47% to lead the way down. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall back through the $42,476 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $43,225 into play. Story continues Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from Saturday’s high $42,986.8. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap the upside. In the event of a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $45,000 levels before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $43,735. A fall back through the $42,476 pivot would bring the first major support level at $41,966 and the 38.2% FIB of $41,592 into play. Barring another extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$40,000. The second major support level at $41,218 should limit the downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Silver Price Prediction – Prices Form Doji Day which is a Sign of Indecision The Week Ahead – Central Bank Chatter, Evergrande, and a Busy Economic Calendar in Focus The Weekly Wrap – Economic Data, Monetary Policy, and Evergrande Delivered a Choppy Week U.S Mortgage Rates See Modest Increase with Labor Market Conditions now Key USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Fails to Rally Despite Rising Treasury Yields Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Continue to Show Upward Momentum || This Week in Apps: PayPal launches 'super app,' Twitter adds crypto tips, Apple won't take Fortnite back: Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters Top Stories Epic Games dares Apple to let Fortnite for iOS back in the App Store Image Credits: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Following the judge's ruling in the Epic-Apple antitrust lawsuit, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney asked Apple to reinstate Epic's developer account . But as Epic said, it aims to appeal the court's ruling , Apple informed the company that it won't be reinstating Epic's account until the appeals have been resolved. In effect, that means Fortnite may not return to iOS for years, if Epic is forced to wait for the appeal's decision to be made final. Sweeney made the request public by tweeting out a letter he sent to Apple making the request and the company's response. The letter promises Apple that Fortnite would play by the rules -- something that it didn't do before, when it breached its contract with Apple by implementing its own payments to force the lawsuit. The letter also noted it had already disabled Epic payments server-side since it can't update the app on users' devices. And it said it paid Apple the $6 million in fees ordered by the court, which had been gained as a result of routing around Apple's in-app purchases with its own system. Story continues Image Credits: Tim Sweeney on Twitter (opens in a new window) But what makes the letter interesting is that it's not just Epic asking for re-entry. It's daring Apple to follow the current court order. The judge's decision deemed Apple "not a monopoly," which Apple then jubilantly celebrated, saying it's something "we've known all along," quoting the judge's statement that Apple's success was "not illegal." However, the one part of the case where Epic won was where the judge declared Apple's current in-app purchase (IAP) system anticompetitive. The court's decision was that Apple would now have to accommodate developers by giving them the choice to include buttons or links to other places where users could pay for their in-app purchases outside the App Store, in addition to Apple's IAP option. Sweeney's letter tells Apple Fortnite will play by the rules if Apple will. That is, if Apple follows the court's guidelines to allow buttons and external links to other purchasing mechanisms, then Epic would resubmit the Fortnite app. In other words, Epic is ready to take advantage of the now legal option to route around Apple's IAP system. Apple, though, wasn't having it. Apple's legal team called Epic's behavior in the past "duplicitous" when it breached its contract, and Apple saw no reason to reinstate the account until the court's decision is made final. And of course, Sweeney tweeted that too, noting that appeals may take up to five years. (So bad news, Fortnite players.) Apple's decline may help to signal to other developers not to try to break its rules, but for Epic it sets the stage for the next battle -- one where it's not just daring Apple to let it back in based on the new terms, but one where it's also daring Congress to act, too. After all, Epic's position seems to be, if Apple can boot out a multibillion-dollar company that made amends for breaking rules it believed to be illegal, then what hope would smaller developers have to ever fight back against the tech giant? And once kicked out, there is no other path to iOS. This seems to try to position Apple as the monopolist that the court said it wasn't -- which is what the appeal is all about. Apps to have a record Q3, with $34B in consumer spending Image Credits: App Annie A new forecast from (the recently busted ) App Annie indicates the third quarter will be another good one for the app economy. Consumers worldwide will spend $34 billion on apps and games in Q3, a 20% year-over-year increase in spending. The jump indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on consumer habits and behavior is having a lasting effect when it comes to how people are now using apps for entertainment, shopping, work and education. Consumer spending on iOS apps grew 15% year over year to $22 billion, and 15% year-over-year on Google Play, to reach around $12 billion. Most of this revenue is generated by gaming apps, which account for 66% of the spend across both app stores. In terms of non-gaming apps, iOS commands 76% of consumer spending Downloads in Q3 will also grow by 10% year-over-year to reach a record high of 36 billion, driven by Google Play and particularly downloads in emerging markets like India and Brazil, and others. Weekly News Apple Updates & News Apple released the public versions of iOS 15 , iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8. iOS 15 adds a number of new features , most notably Focus modes, which allow you to personalize your experience based on your current context (work, sleep, driving, etc.); a revamped (and sort of controversial) Safari update; improvements to Apple's core apps; and more. Apple also released to developers iOS 15.1, beta 1. The new beta adds SharePlay, the co-viewing feature for FaceTime, which did not make it in time for the public release of iOS 15. It also allows users to store their vaccination records in the Health app by taking a photo. (Or, if your health provider syncs your medical records, it may be in there already.) But! New data from Mixpanel indicates users are taking longer to upgrade to iOS 15 compared with iOS 14 at launch . In its first two days, iOS 14 had been adopted by 14.5% of users, compared with 8.5% for iOS 15. Apple rolled out StoreKit 2 and new in-app purchase capabilities . StoreKit 2 adds new Swift-based APIs that allow developers to determine product entitlements and eligibility for offers, get a user’s history of in-app purchases, find out the latest status of a subscription, provide a way to request refunds and manage subscriptions from within an app, and more. An App Store Server API is also in production for getting users' IAP history and subscription status. App Store server notifications, which provide real-time updates on IAPs to enable developers to create customized experiences, are coming soon. iOS 15 brings a major ASO update to the App Store. Now, the store will hide the screenshots for the apps you already have installed on your phone, which allows other apps and games to gain more visibility. This will be particularly important for those that appear in searches for major brands. Image Credits: ilia kukharev on Twitter (opens in a new window) Android Updates & News Google announced a bevy of new Android features , some of which were previously available to Pixel owners only. Users will be able to control their phone with facial gestures , control their Google TV with their phone , manage Reminders with Google Assistant, play games from GameSnacks in Android Auto, hide sensitive photos in a new "Locked Folder" in Google Photos and get "Heads Up" reminders to look up when walking and using their phone, among many other things. There's a range of other accessibility features , in addition to facial gestures, as well. Image Credits: Google Google's Android Automotive OS will come to Honda vehicles in 2022 . The integrated version of Android Auto is already available in select Ford, GM and Volvo vehicles. Google booted a game and suspended a developer's account for using sexually explicit ads to direct users to their app. The ads were causing outrage across social media, including Twitter and TikTok, due to the nature of the ads, which encouraged players to commit sexual assault. E-commerce/Food Delivery Amazon is shutting down its Amazon Go app. The app allowed shoppers to go checkout-free at Amazon's high-tech convenience stores where cameras and shelf sensors track what you buy. The functionality provided by Amazon Go is now being integrated into Amazon's main app, the company said. Uber Eats added a new map feature that allows users to search for food nearby by typing in either words or an emoji. That is, you could type in an emoji of a hamburger 🍔, and the map would display the exact distance from your location. The company said the change was introduced because a majority of users would switch to other map apps to find nearby food. Users will also be able to see delivery and pickup options within Uber Eats and the Uber app itself. Image Credits: Uber Eats Fintech PayPal launched its new "super app, " which combines a variety of fintech tools under the hood. The app offers direct deposit with the ability to get paid up to two days early, improved bill pay, a digital wallet, peer-to-peer payments, messaging, shopping tools ported over from its acquisition of Honey, crypto capabilities and a "high-yield" savings account (well, it's 0.40% APY) powered by Synchrony Bank. Some of the features are arriving now, others in the weeks and months ahead. And the rollout itself is staggered so you might not see the update right away, either. Image Credits: PayPal Following the threat of an SEC lawsuit, Coinbase canceled its planned launch of a "Lend" product which would have allowed users to lend their crypto holdings back to the exchange for the promise of earning interest rates that are much higher than traditional savings accounts offer. This sort of functionality is already offered by other platforms, like Gemini, which is why Coinbase was proceeding toward a launch before the SEC's intervention. Robinhood has begun quietly testing a new crypto wallet feature and cryptocurrency transfer features in a beta version of its app. European fintech app Revolut launched commission-free stock trading in the U.S. to compete with Robinhood and others. Square's payment processing app glitched last weekend , which caused its automatic tipping screen to disappear for hours. The bug hurt restaurant workers, baristas and small business owners who lost out on what would have otherwise been hundreds of thousands in tips. China banned crypto. The country's central bank said all cryptocurrency-related activities are now prohibited and overseas exchanges providing services in China are now illegal. Social Image Credits: Twitter Twitter continued to accelerate its product releases with this week's introduction of even more features, including those in the crypto space. The company added support for Bitcoin tipping in its recently launched “Tip Jar” feature , which allows users to receive one-time payments through third-party services. Now, users will be able to add a Bitcoin Lightning wallet (via Strike's API ) or their Bitcoin address to accept crypto tips. Twitter also plans to support NFT authentication so creators could connect their crypto wallets to Twitter to showcase their NFTs. And Twitter said it's planning to roll out recording to Spaces, launch a creator fund and other safety features, among other things. Tumblr launched its subscription service Post+ into open beta in the U.S. The product has been controversial, as users worried about how it could impact the site’s culture. Some users were concerned it gave the appearance of something akin to Twitter's verified badge, offering an elevated status. Tumblr has since responded to user feedback by removing the blue Post+ badge that appeared next to the names of users who enabled the feature. Image Credits: Tumblr Facebook's stock tumbled after the company announced Apple's privacy changes would have a bigger impact in Q3 and noted it had been underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 15%. The latter had greatly panicked advertisers into thinking Apple's ATT changes were even worse than feared. Investors didn't respond well to the admission of the forecast, however, and the stock dropped several points after the announcement was made. Pinterest partnered with Albertsons to make recipe pins shoppable. The grocery chain is looking to drive recipe hunters from pins to checkout. Photos Apple said it would add a new setting to its iPhone 13 that would allow users to turn off automatic camera switching to the macro camera when users get too close to their subject. There was already a setting that would disable the switching for video recording, which indicated that Apple knew that some people would prefer manual control over the switching. Messaging Telegram added a host of new features , including interactive emoji that display full-screen when tapped, new chat themes and livestream recording in an effort to continue to better compete with Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage and other messaging apps. The latter new addition could be particularly useful for creators, as admins will be able to record video and audio directly from a livestream or video chat. The recorded sessions are then stored in the Saved Messages section. Image Credits: Telegram WhatsApp for iOS is working on a new iMessage-like group icon feature that will allow you to create a personalized icon for your group chat. Streaming & Entertainment Apple's Podcasts app in iOS 15 added personalized recommendations to its "Listen Now" tab, in an effort to improve podcast discovery. Sections titled "If you Like [Show Name]" will suggest other sows that listeners like you are engaging with, while other recommendations will be based on topics you like. A new Shared with You section in Listen Now will display recommendations from friends and family. Image Credits: Apple TikTok celebrated the return of Broadway shows in New York with a slate of live programming produced by artists, Broadway partners and creators, including performances from Broadway casts; backstage tours showing off costumes, props and practice spaces; costume and makeup tutorials; and tips and tricks from theater professionals; and more. Discord started testing YouTube integration just weeks after YouTube cracked down on popular Discord music bots. The feature, called Watch Together, lets Discord members watch YouTube videos (including music videos) together, either via a playlist or by pasting in YouTube links. Clubhouse announced Wave, a new way to casually talk with friends on the app. The feature will replace starting private rooms with friends. After you "wave" at people who follow you, anyone who accepts will be able to join your private room as a speaker. Clubhouse also hired Chelsea Macdonald as head of entertainment partnerships. She previously worked in similar roles at Community, Red Bull and Instagram. Gaming The Pokémon Company offered a sneak peek at the upcoming Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, which will be available on iOS, Android, PC and Mac devices. In addition to the classic card trading game, the new mobile game will also offer customization options and accessories for your trainer. Outfit7’s newly launched My Talking Angela 2, a pet simulation game in its popular Talking Tom franchise, jumped to No. 1 by global downloads for its debut, while Genshin Impact reclaimed the No. 2 spot. Pokémon Unite reached the No. 1 spot in game downloads in over 62 Countries on Day 1 (September 21st, 2021) of its release on the iOS App Store. Health & Fitness A report claims disgruntled Noom users said they felt misled by the diet app which had claimed to be an "anti-diet" lifestyle app, but whose plans were really just calorie restriction -- like any other diet app. They were also frustrated by its expensive pricing and canned responses sent by burned-out diet coaches. Apple's Research app was updated with the option to transfer study progress data to other devices via iCloud backup. Productivity Google updated its suite of apps for iOS 15, adding support for new features like Focus Mode, Spotlight integrations and iPad widgets. Government & Policy TikTok parent company ByteDance added time limits for kids under 14 for the Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin. Now, teens under 14 will be able to access Douyin only between the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM and will be limited to 40 minutes per day of usage. The changes follow a broader crackdown by the government on the tech industry, which includes reducing the time kids spend online, which it views as harmful. An Indian antitrust probe determined Google abused its dominant position in the country to illegally hurt competitors by reducing device manufacturers' ability and incentive to sell devices running their own version of Android. It also found that Google's requirement to pre-install its own apps is in violation of India's competition law. Security & Privacy Apple improved its Face ID security with iOS 15 to make it more difficult to spoof by using a 3D model for someone's face. Apple patched a new zero-day bug that was exploited in the wild by attackers to hack into iPhones and Macs running older versions of iOS and macOS. Successful exploitation of the bug leads to arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges on compromised devices. Meanwhile, a researcher has published a complaint that Apple has been non-responsive to their reports of other zero-days. A report from The Washington Post dug into the shady ways apps were tracking users in the post-IDFA era. For instance, the game Subway Surfers was shown to be sending specific data points to Chartboost, which could then potentially use the data to uniquely identify your iPhone, a technique known as fingerprinting. This continues even if the user has asked the app not to track them. Funding and M&A Image Credits: Lightricks 💰 Facetune maker Lightricks raised $130 million in Series D funding, which included $100 million in primary and $30 million in secondary funding, and values the company at $1.8 billion . The new round was co-led by New York-based VC firm Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital and will be put toward further product growth across its line of editing and creativity apps, as well as acquisitions. 💰 Digital bookkeeping app FloBiz raised $31 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital India, Think Investments and its existing investors Elevation Capital and Beenext. The app has been downloaded more than 5 million times and has a heavier presence in regions like Maharashtra, Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. 💰 London-based grocery delivery app Jiffy raised $28 million in Series A funding led by family-owned investment company Heartland. The app has over 20,000 customers across six London-area delivery zones and promises fresh groceries in 15 minutes. 📈 Seattle fintech Remitly, available on web and mobile, priced its IPO at $43 per share, above the expected range of $38 to $42, valuing the business at $6.9 billion. 💰 Pakistan fintech TAG raised $12 million in funding from investors, including New York-based Liberty City Ventures and Canaan Partners, valuing the company at $100 million. Pakistan is the third-largest unbanked market with 100 million users without a bank account, which is driving demand for digital banking services. 💰 Livestream shopping app NTWRK raised $50 million from Goldman Sachs and luxury group Kering. NTWRK had previously raised a $10 million Series A, according to Crunchbase data . Downloads Lounge (iOS, Mac, web) Image Credits: Lounge Lounge launched a remote work app into open beta which creates a more social environment for smaller, fully remote teams. The app introduces the concept of virtualized "desks" showing the time of day for that individual. It also offers "rooms" that can be organized by the company's org chart or projects, or the rooms can be virtual representations of physical spaces -- like a meeting room for gatherings or company cafeteria, where employees could hang out virtually. Desks and rooms can be locked and made private or they can be unlocked and open. Lounge also adopts features from consumer social apps like photo-sharing and drop-in audio for virtual "desk visits," and displays employee's participation in company-wide events, like steps or meditation challenges. Lounge is entering a public beta, which means you'll have to request access for entry. (Read the details on TechCrunch) Pokémon Unite (iOS and Android) Image Credits: The Pokémon Company The strategic battle game that first arrived on Nintendo Switch this summer has now arrived on mobile. Pokémon Unite offers the same free-to-start multiplayer online battle arena game, with the same maps and monsters as on the Switch. It also introduces Unite Squads for teaming up Trainers, who can create either their own squads or search for existing ones. With the mobile launch, the game supports cross-platform play, allowing users to continue their Switch game on their smartphone, and to play along with others regardless of which device is being used. Both Android and iOS are supported. Following its debut, Pokémon Unite reached the No. 1 spot in game downloads in over 62 Countries on Day 1 (September 21st, 2021) of its release on the iOS App Store, App Annie found. (Read the details on TechCrunch) Amplosion Image Credits: Amplosion With iOS 15, there are a number of new and improved Safari extensions now available. But one worth checking out is Amplosion , created by Christian Selig, also the developer of popular Reddit client app Apollo. The extension allows you to easily redirect from Google AMP pages to their normal, non-AMP counterparts. If, however, you prefer the AMP versions of some websites, you can add them to an in-app Allowlist. The extension will show you how many pages it's blocked via an in-app counter and home screen widgets. There's even an Easter egg in the form of a digital dog named Lord Waffles that lives in the app who has his own widget too. The extension is also fully open source for transparency. The app is a $2.99 download on the App Store. Tweets We have to agree, this is waaaay better than "bug fixes:" Image Credits: John Gruber on Twitter (opens in a new window) Yes, it is: Image Credits: David Barnard on Twitter (opens in a new window) || This Week in Apps: PayPal launches 'super app,' Twitter adds crypto tips, Apple won't take Fortnite back: Welcome back to This Week in Apps,the weekly TechCrunch seriesthat recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry continues to grow, witha record218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year alsospent3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average Americanwatches3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had acombined$544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investorspoured$73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.
This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too.
Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here:techcrunch.com/newsletters
Image Credits:Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Following thejudge's rulingin the Epic-Apple antitrust lawsuit, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeneyasked Apple to reinstate Epic's developer account. But as Epic said, itaims to appeal the court's ruling, Apple informed the company that it won't be reinstating Epic's account until the appeals have been resolved. In effect, that means Fortnite may not return to iOS for years, if Epic is forced to wait for the appeal's decision to be made final.
Sweeney made the request public bytweetingout a letter he sent to Apple making the request and the company's response. The letter promises Apple that Fortnite would play by the rules -- something that it didn't do before, when it breached its contract with Apple by implementing its own payments to force the lawsuit. The letter also noted it had already disabled Epic payments server-side since it can't update the app on users' devices. And it said it paid Apple the $6 million in fees ordered by the court, which had been gained as a result of routing around Apple's in-app purchases with its own system.
Image Credits:Tim Sweeney on Twitter(opens in a new window)
But what makes the letter interesting is that it's not just Epic asking for re-entry. It's daring Apple to follow the current court order.
The judge'sdecisiondeemed Apple "not a monopoly," which Apple then jubilantly celebrated, saying it's something "we've known all along," quoting the judge's statement that Apple's success was "not illegal." However, the one part of the case where Epic won was where the judge declared Apple's current in-app purchase (IAP) system anticompetitive. The court's decision was that Apple would now have to accommodate developers by giving them the choice to include buttons or links to other places where users could pay for their in-app purchases outside the App Store, in addition to Apple's IAP option.
Sweeney's letter tells Apple Fortnite will play by the rules if Apple will. That is, if Apple follows the court's guidelines to allow buttons and external links to other purchasing mechanisms, then Epic would resubmit the Fortnite app. In other words, Epic is ready to take advantage of the now legal option to route around Apple's IAP system.
Apple, though, wasn't having it. Apple's legal team called Epic's behavior in the past "duplicitous" when it breached its contract, and Apple saw no reason to reinstate the account until the court's decision is made final. And of course, Sweeneytweetedthat too, noting that appeals may take up to five years. (So bad news, Fortnite players.)
Apple's decline may help to signal to other developers not to try to break its rules, but for Epic it sets the stage for the next battle -- one where it's not just daring Apple to let it back in based on the new terms, but one where it's also daring Congress to act, too. After all, Epic's position seems to be, if Apple can boot out a multibillion-dollar company that made amends for breaking rules it believed to be illegal, then what hope would smaller developers have to ever fight back against the tech giant? And once kicked out, there is no other path to iOS. This seems to try to position Apple as the monopolist that the court said it wasn't -- which is what the appeal is all about.
Apps to have a record Q3, with $34B in consumer spending
Image Credits:App Annie
A new forecast from (therecently busted) App Annie indicates the third quarter will be another good one for the app economy. Consumers worldwide will spend $34 billion on apps and games in Q3, a 20% year-over-year increase in spending. The jump indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on consumer habits and behavior is having a lasting effect when it comes to how people are now using apps for entertainment, shopping, work and education. Consumer spending on iOS apps grew 15% year over year to $22 billion, and 15% year-over-year on Google Play, to reach around $12 billion. Most of this revenue is generated by gaming apps, which account for 66% of the spend across both app stores. In terms of non-gaming apps, iOS commands 76% of consumer spending
Downloads in Q3 will also grow by 10% year-over-year to reach a record high of 36 billion, driven by Google Play and particularly downloads in emerging markets like India and Brazil, and others.
• Apple released the public versions ofiOS 15,iPadOS 15andwatchOS 8.iOS 15 adds anumber of new features, most notably Focus modes, which allow you to personalize your experience based on your current context (work, sleep, driving, etc.); a revamped (and sort ofcontroversial)Safari update; improvements to Apple's core apps; and more.
• Apple alsoreleasedto developers iOS 15.1, beta 1.The new beta adds SharePlay, the co-viewing feature for FaceTime, which did not make it in time for the public release of iOS 15. It also allows users tostore their vaccination recordsin the Health app by taking a photo. (Or, if your health provider syncs your medical records, it may be in there already.)
• But! New data fromMixpanelindicates users are taking longer to upgrade to iOS 15 compared with iOS 14 at launch. In its first two days, iOS 14 had been adopted by 14.5% of users, compared with 8.5% for iOS 15.
• Applerolled out StoreKit 2and new in-app purchase capabilities.StoreKit 2 addsnew Swift-based APIs that allow developers to determine product entitlements and eligibility for offers, get a user’s history of in-app purchases, find out the latest status of a subscription, provide a way to request refunds and manage subscriptions from within an app, and more. An App Store Server API is also in production for getting users' IAP history and subscription status. App Store server notifications, which provide real-time updates on IAPs to enable developers to create customized experiences, are coming soon.
• iOS 15 brings a major ASO update to the App Store.Now, the store will hide the screenshots for the apps you already have installed on your phone, which allows other apps and games to gain more visibility. This will be particularly important for those that appear in searches for major brands.
Image Credits:ilia kukharev on Twitter(opens in a new window)
• Google announceda bevy of new Android features, some of which were previously available to Pixel owners only.Users will be able tocontrol their phone with facial gestures,control their Google TV with their phone, manage Reminders with Google Assistant,play gamesfrom GameSnacks in Android Auto, hide sensitive photos in a new "Locked Folder" in Google Photos and get "Heads Up" reminders to look up when walking and using their phone, among many other things. There's arange of other accessibility features, in addition to facial gestures, as well.
Image Credits:Google
• Google's Android Automotive OSwill come to Honda vehicles in 2022. The integrated version of Android Auto is already available in select Ford, GM and Volvo vehicles.
• Google booted a game and suspended a developer's account forusing sexually explicit adsto direct users to their app.The ads were causing outrageacrosssocial media, includingTwitterand TikTok, due to the nature of the ads, which encouraged players to commit sexual assault.
• Amazonis shutting downits Amazon Go app.The app allowed shoppers to go checkout-free at Amazon's high-tech convenience stores where cameras and shelf sensors track what you buy. The functionality provided by Amazon Go is now being integrated into Amazon's main app, the company said.
• Uber Eatsadded a new map featurethat allows users to search for food nearby by typing in either words or an emoji.That is, you could type in an emoji of a hamburger 🍔, and the map would display the exact distance from your location. The company said the change was introduced because a majority of users would switch to other map apps to find nearby food. Users will also be able to see delivery and pickup options within Uber Eats and the Uber app itself.
Image Credits:Uber Eats
• PayPallaunched its new "super app," which combines a variety of fintech tools under the hood.The app offers direct deposit with the ability to get paid up to two days early, improved bill pay, a digital wallet, peer-to-peer payments, messaging, shopping tools ported over from its acquisition of Honey, crypto capabilities and a "high-yield" savings account (well, it's 0.40% APY) powered by Synchrony Bank. Some of the features are arriving now, others in the weeks and months ahead. And the rollout itself is staggered so you might not see the update right away, either.
Image Credits:PayPal
• Following the threat of an SEC lawsuit,Coinbase canceled its planned launch of a "Lend" productwhich would have allowed users to lend their crypto holdings back to the exchange for the promise of earning interest rates that are much higher than traditional savings accounts offer. This sort of functionality is already offered by other platforms, like Gemini, which is why Coinbase was proceeding toward a launch before the SEC's intervention.
• Robinhood hasbegun quietly testinga new crypto wallet featureand cryptocurrency transfer features in a beta version of its app.
• European fintech app Revolutlaunchedcommission-free stock trading in the U.S.to compete with Robinhood and others.
• Square's payment processing appglitched last weekend, which caused its automatic tipping screen to disappear for hours.The bug hurt restaurant workers, baristas and small business owners who lost out on what would have otherwise been hundreds of thousands in tips.
• Chinabannedcrypto.The country's central bank said all cryptocurrency-related activities are now prohibited and overseas exchanges providing services in China are now illegal.
Image Credits:Twitter
1. Twitter continued to accelerate its product releases with this week's introduction of even more features, including those in the crypto space.The company added support forBitcoin tippingin its recently launched“Tip Jar” feature, which allows users to receive one-time payments through third-party services. Now, users will be able to add a Bitcoin Lightning wallet (viaStrike's API) or their Bitcoin address to accept crypto tips. Twitter also plans to supportNFT authenticationso creators could connect their crypto wallets to Twitter to showcase their NFTs. And Twitter said it's planning to roll out recording to Spaces, launch a creator fund and other safety features, among other things.
2. Tumblrlaunchedits subscription service Post+ into open beta in the U.S.The product has been controversial, asusers worriedabout how it could impact the site’s culture. Some users were concerned it gave the appearance of something akin to Twitter's verified badge, offering an elevated status. Tumblr has since responded to user feedback by removing the blue Post+ badge that appeared next to the names of users who enabled the feature.
Image Credits:Tumblr
• Facebook'sstock tumbledafter the company announced Apple's privacy changes would have a bigger impact in Q3 and noted it had been underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 15%.The latter had greatly panicked advertisers into thinking Apple's ATT changes were even worse than feared. Investors didn't respond well to the admission of the forecast, however, and the stock dropped several points after the announcement was made.
• Pinterestpartneredwith Albertsons to make recipe pins shoppable.The grocery chain is looking to drive recipe hunters from pins to checkout.
• Apple said it wouldadd a new setting to its iPhone 13that would allow users to turn off automatic camera switching to the macro camerawhen users get too close to their subject. There was already a setting that would disable the switching for video recording, which indicated that Apple knew that some people would prefer manual control over the switching.
1. Telegramadded a host of new features, including interactive emoji that display full-screen when tapped, new chat themes and livestream recording in an effortto continue to better compete with Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage and other messaging apps. The latter new addition could be particularly useful for creators, as admins will be able to record video and audio directly from a livestream or video chat. The recorded sessions are then stored in the Saved Messages section.
Image Credits:Telegram
• WhatsApp for iOS is working ona new iMessage-like group iconfeaturethat will allow you to create a personalized icon for your group chat.
1. Apple's Podcasts app in iOS 15added personalized recommendationsto its "Listen Now" tab, in an effort to improve podcast discovery. Sections titled "If you Like [Show Name]" will suggest other sows that listeners like you are engaging with, while other recommendations will be based on topics you like. A new Shared with You section in Listen Now will display recommendations from friends and family.
Image Credits:Apple
• TikTokcelebrated the return of Broadway showsin New Yorkwith a slate of live programming produced by artists, Broadway partners and creators, including performances from Broadway casts; backstage tours showing off costumes, props and practice spaces; costume and makeup tutorials; and tips and tricks from theater professionals; and more.
• Discord startedtesting YouTube integrationjust weeks after YouTube cracked down on popular Discord music bots. The feature, called Watch Together, lets Discord members watch YouTube videos (including music videos) together, either via a playlist or by pasting in YouTube links.
• ClubhouseannouncedWave, a new way to casually talk with friends on the app.The feature will replace starting private rooms with friends. After you "wave" at people who follow you, anyone who accepts will be able to join your private room as a speaker.
• Clubhouse alsohiredChelsea Macdonald as head of entertainment partnerships.She previously worked in similar roles at Community, Red Bull and Instagram.
• The Pokémon Company offereda sneak peekat the upcoming Pokémon Trading Card Game Live,which will be available on iOS, Android, PC and Mac devices. In addition to the classic card trading game, the new mobile game will also offer customization options and accessories for your trainer.
• Outfit7’s newly launched My Talking Angela 2, a pet simulation game in its popular Talking Tom franchise,jumped to No. 1 by global downloads for its debut,while Genshin Impact reclaimed the No. 2 spot.
• Pokémon Unite reached the No. 1 spot in game downloads in over 62 Countries on Day 1(September 21st, 2021) of its release on the iOS App Store.
• A report claims disgruntledNoom users said they felt misled by the diet appwhich had claimed to be an "anti-diet" lifestyle app, but whose plans were really just calorie restriction -- like any other diet app. They were also frustrated by its expensive pricing and canned responses sent by burned-out diet coaches.
• Apple's Research app wasupdatedwith the option to transfer study progress datato other devices via iCloud backup.
• Googleupdatedits suite of apps for iOS 15,adding support for new features like Focus Mode, Spotlight integrations and iPad widgets.
• TikTok parent company ByteDanceadded time limits for kids under 14for the Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin.Now, teens under 14 will be able to access Douyin only between the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM and will be limited to 40 minutes per day of usage. The changes follow a broader crackdown by the government on the tech industry, which includes reducing the time kids spend online, which it views as harmful.
• An Indian antitrust probe determinedGoogle abused its dominant positionin the country to illegally hurt competitorsby reducing device manufacturers' ability and incentive to sell devices running their own version of Android. It also found that Google's requirement to pre-install its own apps is in violation of India's competition law.
• Appleimprovedits Face IDsecuritywith iOS 15to make it more difficult to spoof by using a 3D model for someone's face.
• Applepatcheda new zero-day bug that was exploited in the wild by attackers to hack into iPhones and Macsrunning older versions of iOS and macOS. Successful exploitation of the bug leads to arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges on compromised devices. Meanwhile, a researcher haspublisheda complaint that Apple has been non-responsive to their reports of other zero-days.
• Areport from The Washington Postdug into the shady ways apps were tracking users in the post-IDFA era.For instance, the game Subway Surfers was shown to be sending specific data points to Chartboost, which could then potentially use the data to uniquely identify your iPhone, a technique known as fingerprinting. This continues even if the user has asked the app not to track them.
Image Credits:Lightricks
💰 Facetune maker Lightricksraised $130 millionin Series D funding, which included $100 million in primary and $30 million in secondary funding, and values the company at $1.8 billion. The new round was co-led by New York-based VC firm Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital and will be put toward further product growth across its line of editing and creativity apps, as well as acquisitions.
💰 Digital bookkeeping app FloBizraised $31 millionin Series B fundingled by Sequoia Capital India, Think Investments and its existing investors Elevation Capital and Beenext. The app has been downloaded more than 5 million times and has a heavier presence in regions like Maharashtra, Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
💰 London-based grocery delivery app Jiffyraised $28 millionin Series A fundingled by family-owned investment company Heartland. The app has over 20,000 customers across six London-area delivery zones and promises fresh groceries in 15 minutes.
📈Seattle fintech Remitly, available on web and mobile,priced its IPO at $43 per share,above the expected range of $38 to $42, valuing the business at $6.9 billion.
💰 Pakistan fintech TAGraised $12 millionin fundingfrom investors, including New York-based Liberty City Ventures and Canaan Partners, valuing the company at $100 million. Pakistan isthe third-largest unbanked marketwith 100 million users without a bank account, which is driving demand for digital banking services.
💰 Livestream shopping app NTWRKraised $50 millionfrom Goldman Sachs and luxury group Kering.NTWRK had previously raised a $10 million Series A, according to Crunchbasedata.
Image Credits:Lounge
Loungelaunched a remote work appinto open beta which creates a more social environment for smaller, fully remote teams. The app introduces the concept of virtualized "desks" showing the time of day for that individual. It also offers "rooms" that can be organized by the company's org chart or projects, or the rooms can be virtual representations of physical spaces -- like a meeting room for gatherings or company cafeteria, where employees could hang out virtually. Desks and rooms can be locked and made private or they can be unlocked and open. Lounge also adopts features from consumer social apps like photo-sharing and drop-in audio for virtual "desk visits," and displays employee's participation in company-wide events, like steps or meditation challenges. Lounge is entering a public beta, which means you'll have torequest accessfor entry.(Read thedetailson TechCrunch)
Pokémon Unite (iOS and Android)
Image Credits:The Pokémon Company
The strategic battle game that first arrived on Nintendo Switch this summer has nowarrivedon mobile. Pokémon Unite offers the same free-to-start multiplayer online battle arena game, with the same maps and monsters as on the Switch. It also introduces Unite Squads for teaming up Trainers, who can create either their own squads or search for existing ones. With the mobile launch, the game supports cross-platform play, allowing users to continue their Switch game on their smartphone, and to play along with others regardless of which device is being used. Both Android and iOS are supported. Following its debut, Pokémon Unite reached the No. 1 spot in game downloads in over 62 Countries on Day 1 (September 21st, 2021) of its release on the iOS App Store, App Annie found.(Read thedetailson TechCrunch)
Amplosion
Image Credits:Amplosion
With iOS 15, there are a number of new and improved Safari extensions now available. But one worth checking out isAmplosion, created by Christian Selig, also the developer of popular Reddit client app Apollo. The extension allows you to easily redirect from Google AMP pages to their normal, non-AMP counterparts. If, however, you prefer the AMP versions of some websites, you can add them to an in-app Allowlist. The extension will show you how many pages it's blocked via an in-app counter and home screen widgets. There's even an Easter egg in the form of a digital dog named Lord Waffles that lives in the app who has his own widget too. The extension is also fully open source for transparency. The app is a $2.99 download on the App Store.
We have to agree, this is waaaay better than "bug fixes:"
Image Credits:John Gruber on Twitter(opens in a new window)
Yes, it is:
Image Credits:David Barnard on Twitter(opens in a new window) || When the biggest Disruption is to just sit down and focus: Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this weeks startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. And just like that, TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 has come to an end. Im exhausted, but its hard not to feel optimistic for the future after spending three days hearing vulnerable thoughts from some of the brightest minds in tech, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins to comic-turned-creator Alexis Gay. If I had to distill a singular takeaway from the hours of programming, demo floor and Startup Battlefield, it would be this: Disruption needs direction. Were in the middle of unprecedented times, and while thats been good news for some entrepreneurs (and bad news for very many), focus may be what leads us out of it. The theme kept popping up in the panels that I hosted or tuned into. For example, when I bugged BBG Ventures Nisha Dua about how to best spend first-check capital, she kept homing in on the need for entrepreneurs to invest their north star, aka the most defensible and innovative part of their business, over flashier alternatives. When I bugged Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn about where his now-public company is going next, he drew a line that stopped right before disrupting the college degree. And of course, when I asked Reid Hoffman about how early-stage founders can better attract capital, he outlined why its important to have an opinion and stick by it controversy preferred. Even Nth Cycle, the runner up of TC Battlefield, wants to revolutionize metals processing by complementing existing processes, not ignoring them altogether. It was refreshing to hear grounded yet inventive perspectives throughout the week. For those who missed it, well be publishing recaps of all panels over the next week. Here are some of my favorite panels so far: And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2021 is
Cellino How Ryan Reynolds has mastered authentic marketing WarnerMedias Andy Forssell discusses a fascinating first year for HBO Max Built by a refugee, Enlights edtech tool bets it can help students hope harder SEC Regional Director Erin Schneider talks SPACs, Coinbase and what startups could do better Story continues And of course, check out our podcast about TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield , where we go behind the scenes and talk about the finalists. Thanks to all of you that came out to learn, listen and support. As always, you can find me on Twitter @nmasc_. In the rest of this newsletter, well get into bootstrapping and a crypto crackdown that you should probably be paying attention to. Bootstrapping 101 Young woman standing on top of tall green bar graph against white background Image Credits: Klaus Vedfelt (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Mailchimps sale sparked a conversation about bootstrapping, so my colleagues Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm dug into what it means to skip capital and grow off of revenues (imagine!). In their latest collab, the duo explained what bootstrapping is like today in a world of infinite APIs, well-trained techies and ample demand for better software services. Heres what to know: They argue that the money is reaching farther than it ever has in the past. But startups that dont need or perhaps simply do not want to raise expensive equity capital while scaling have more tools within arms reach than ever before. Revenue-based financing is now an established concept. Some companies are taking it even further. Pipe has built a marketplace where companies can sell revenue or perhaps we should describe it as a marketplace where revenue can be traded. A more active market for the buying and selling of revenue should help with price discovery, perhaps resulting in more attractive prices for founders and a more liquid market for their future receipts; the more capital that founders can access by selling top line instead of shares, the more viable bootstrapping may prove. Beyond this: Latin America finds a champion in SoftBank Group International CEO Marcelo Claure Folios 24-year-old founder is bootstrapping a curated, online bookstore To sell or not to sell: Lessons from a bootstrapped CEO Chinas latest crackdown crypto Image Credits: Robinhood Chinas central bank said that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal in the country and must be banned. The crackdown, within the worlds most populated nation, will limit internal, financial and payment companies from facilitating trading on their platforms, reports Manish Singh. Heres what to know, according to Singh: Regulators in China have been weighing a ban on crypto mining for several years. But in recent quarters, several local firms have started to embrace crypto. Chinese app maker Meitu bought Bitcoin and Ether worth $40 million in March. Its unclear if this ban will be different from other tensions, or if the home of the largest crypto mining services will soon be chilled. Crypto digest: Robinhood muscles deeper into Coinbases territory with new crypto wallet feature PayPal launches its super app combining payments, savings, bill pay, crypto, shopping and more The casualties of Chinas education crackdown The NFT on-ramp is still too steep Around TC Thanks to all who attended TechCrunch Disrupt 2021. It was heartwarming to see such an engaged, disruptive and genuinely fun audience come out to our virtual stage. In classic TC fashion, though, one event done, another one to go! Next up were going to have TechCrunch Sessions: SaaS 2021. Its our debut event that is laser focused on software as a vertical, and given how booming the subsector is, the timing couldnt be better. Buy discounted passes to the event and check out the agenda for a sneak peek at some announced speakers. TC Sessions: SaaS 2021 Across the week Seen on TechCrunch California makes zero-emission autonomous vehicles mandatory by 2030 Attack of the $200M robotic raises Clubhouse announces Wave, making it easier to start casual private rooms A rewards program for your rent payments? Meet Bilt The iPhone 13 Pro goes to Disneyland Freshworks, Toast go public and we have takes Seen on Extra Crunch Dear Sophie: Whats the difference between IEP and the latest proposed startup visa? It turns out fintech is worth as much as SaaS Indications of a hot market abound as Freshworks, Toast price IPOs
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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41034.54, 41564.36, 43790.89, 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9527.16, 10144.56, 10701.69, 10855.37, 11011.10, 11790.92, 13016.23, 11182.81, 12407.33, 11959.37, 10817.16, 10583.13, 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-09-17]
Volume: 15304603363, RSI (14-day): 47.88, 50-day EMA: 10333.48, 200-day EMA: 8717.95
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1505.10, Gold RSI: 52.33
Oil Price: 59.34, Oil RSI: 56.84
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
CryptoKitties' developers raise $11 million for "Flow" blockchain: Dapper Labs, the company behind the popular Ethereum-based game CryptoKitties , has created a new blockchain platform designed to support decentralized apps. Investors have plowed in $11 million into the development of the platform, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, a16z crypto . New investors like Warner Music Group participated in the raise, alongside existing investors, such as Digital Currency Group. “We built Flow as the foundation for a rich, decentralized ecosystem at consumer scale.” said Dieter Shirley, CTO of Dapper Labs. Flow is a proof-of-stake blockchain, which means the network is run by the people who own large amounts of its tokens. By shirking proof-of-work, which Bitcoin uses, it won't result in such high energy usage. Shirley added that the network will be scalable, able to handle high numbers of transactions—without using novel techniques like Sharding , which Ethereum is trying to implement. Dapper Labs said the blockchain platform is designed for the entertainment industry, suggesting it could be used for artists giving out tokens or games rewarding their players. To mark the occasion, Dapper Labs has partnered with Ubisoft, the video game company that has built Assassins Creed and Far Cry. It has also partnered with Animoca Brands, which has built a number of games such as Crazy Defense Heroes and Crazy Kings. It announced it will be building multiple new games on Flow. Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands added, “We believe that crypto is the future of the gaming industry.” || CryptoKitties' developers raise $11 million for "Flow" blockchain: Dapper Labs, the company behind the popular Ethereum-based game CryptoKitties , has created a new blockchain platform designed to support decentralized apps. Investors have plowed in $11 million into the development of the platform, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, a16z crypto . New investors like Warner Music Group participated in the raise, alongside existing investors, such as Digital Currency Group. “We built Flow as the foundation for a rich, decentralized ecosystem at consumer scale.” said Dieter Shirley, CTO of Dapper Labs. Flow is a proof-of-stake blockchain, which means the network is run by the people who own large amounts of its tokens. By shirking proof-of-work, which Bitcoin uses, it won't result in such high energy usage. Shirley added that the network will be scalable, able to handle high numbers of transactions—without using novel techniques like Sharding , which Ethereum is trying to implement. Dapper Labs said the blockchain platform is designed for the entertainment industry, suggesting it could be used for artists giving out tokens or games rewarding their players. To mark the occasion, Dapper Labs has partnered with Ubisoft, the video game company that has built Assassins Creed and Far Cry. It has also partnered with Animoca Brands, which has built a number of games such as Crazy Defense Heroes and Crazy Kings. It announced it will be building multiple new games on Flow. Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands added, “We believe that crypto is the future of the gaming industry.” || What’s Going On With The ESG Explosion: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
During CNBC's "ETF Edge" segment on Monday, host Bob Pisani explored more of what Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) represents. It involves looking for companies meeting positive standards or corporate responsibility, but there was more to look into during the segment, with help from Luke Oliver, Head of Index Investing, Americas, atDWS.
As DWS has its own suite of ESG ETFs, Oliver was able to add to the conversation concerning environmental and socially responsible ETFs involving various companies. Speaking to the actual interest out there, Oliver notes how it's even more prevalent in Europe.
"Currently, there's about 124 billion tracking ESG strategies in Europe, ETFs in fact. And in the US, we have 50 ESG products tracking about 12 billion, which has doubled over the last year or so. So, certainly some momentum behind it," Oliver notes.
How To 'Sell' ESG Investing
As far as how to sell it, Oliver explains how it's not a matter of having a theme on a particular element of ESG. Instead, ESG products are looking across all sectors to find a good, investable product that can work as a core strategy. The ideal would be something allowing for a light return to the market, a light risk, and core pricing, which has been the turn-off for many people in the past.
Pisani then wonders why, even as a $4 trillion business, it still seems so small, despite the seemingly prevalent strong belief in social responsibility. Fortunately, ETF Trends' CEO Tom Lydon was on hand to add his thoughts.
"I think it's going to get traction," Lydon remarks. "There's a huge amount of following over in Europe. We have a generation that's growing up right now, that is really adamant about sticking with this type of investing. And going forward, we're going to make sure, and I think collectively in the ETF space is all going to be a part of it, that if you are not sticking to these standards...it's all about education, and we're just getting started."
When asked if ESG is going to make a difference long-term in moving the needle on corporate behavior, Oliver responds, "Absolutely." From his perspective, there's a transfer of wealth to the millennial generation that shows 90% expect to invest through this type of socially aware responsibility. That trend, accompanied with the $30 trillion being shifted over the next 20 years, really means companies are going to have to take notice.
That said, as Oliver explains, "There's a key misconception that people are falling into, that ESG means you're stepping away from performance, and making some activist play when in fact, what ESG is all about, as you said, is companies that are responsible with their supply chains and their employees, companies that have good governance, and responsible uses of renewable energies."
As Oliver makes clear, these are not activist sentiments. These are suitable, stable investments for the way the world's developing.
A Closer Look At USSG
Looking at theXtrackers MSCI USA ESG Leaders Equity ETF (USSG), it has tracked the S&P closely this year. Its top holdings areMicrosoft (MSFT),Alphabet (GOOGL),Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), andVisa (V). These are notably all large-cap names.
Pisani then asks what is it that has these companies meeting the standards for ESG. Oliver explains how the idea with USSG, among other DWS ETFs, is to provide a performance like the S&P while being aware of the ESG.
More interesting is how some energy companies still make it into these benchmarks. One would think an energy company could potentially be bad for the environment. However, they spend more than most on renewable energy.
When asked aboutExxon Mobile (XOM) , Oliver explains how it fits criteria by matching an argument about having energy in a portfolio and being the energy company that scores better when it comes to closing in on the ideals of ESG. This does mean screening some out, but the goal is to keep some energy companies for the sake of at least being neutral to that sector.
Related:Due Diligence Necessary When It Comes To ESG Funds
Speaking about the costs, Oliver confirms how ESG ETFs are relatively low-cost. "11 and 10 basis points," Oliver states.
It's competitive with the S&P, and CFRA's Todd Rosenbluth adds, "That's what's going to help people come in the door. So, people have historically thought that it was a premium product in ESG. But now the costs have come down, and they're more likely to come and take a look at the product."
Regardless of why ESG hasn't sold as much as was perhaps expected, there is a confidence from this group, suggesting things will have a significant turnaround in the years to come.
As Oliver concludes, "We've launched two ETFs this year, and we've raised $1.5 billion in them, so I think we're starting to see that momentum."
Watch This Discussion Over ESG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSov7Kgxok
For more market trends, visitETF Trends.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || What’s Going On With The ESG Explosion: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. During CNBC's "ETF Edge" segment on Monday, host Bob Pisani explored more of what Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) represents. It involves looking for companies meeting positive standards or corporate responsibility, but there was more to look into during the segment, with help from Luke Oliver, Head of Index Investing, Americas, at DWS . As DWS has its own suite of ESG ETFs, Oliver was able to add to the conversation concerning environmental and socially responsible ETFs involving various companies. Speaking to the actual interest out there, Oliver notes how it's even more prevalent in Europe. "Currently, there's about 124 billion tracking ESG strategies in Europe, ETFs in fact. And in the US, we have 50 ESG products tracking about 12 billion, which has doubled over the last year or so. So, certainly some momentum behind it," Oliver notes. How To 'Sell' ESG Investing As far as how to sell it, Oliver explains how it's not a matter of having a theme on a particular element of ESG. Instead, ESG products are looking across all sectors to find a good, investable product that can work as a core strategy. The ideal would be something allowing for a light return to the market, a light risk, and core pricing, which has been the turn-off for many people in the past. Pisani then wonders why, even as a $4 trillion business, it still seems so small, despite the seemingly prevalent strong belief in social responsibility. Fortunately, ETF Trends' CEO Tom Lydon was on hand to add his thoughts. "I think it's going to get traction," Lydon remarks. "There's a huge amount of following over in Europe. We have a generation that's growing up right now, that is really adamant about sticking with this type of investing. And going forward, we're going to make sure, and I think collectively in the ETF space is all going to be a part of it, that if you are not sticking to these standards...it's all about education, and we're just getting started." Story continues When asked if ESG is going to make a difference long-term in moving the needle on corporate behavior, Oliver responds, "Absolutely." From his perspective, there's a transfer of wealth to the millennial generation that shows 90% expect to invest through this type of socially aware responsibility. That trend, accompanied with the $30 trillion being shifted over the next 20 years, really means companies are going to have to take notice. That said, as Oliver explains, "There's a key misconception that people are falling into, that ESG means you're stepping away from performance, and making some activist play when in fact, what ESG is all about, as you said, is companies that are responsible with their supply chains and their employees, companies that have good governance, and responsible uses of renewable energies." As Oliver makes clear, these are not activist sentiments. These are suitable, stable investments for the way the world's developing. A Closer Look At USSG Looking at the Xtrackers MSCI USA ESG Leaders Equity ETF (USSG) , it has tracked the S&P closely this year. Its top holdings are Microsoft (MSFT) , Alphabet (GOOGL) , Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) , and Visa (V) . These are notably all large-cap names. Pisani then asks what is it that has these companies meeting the standards for ESG. Oliver explains how the idea with USSG, among other DWS ETFs, is to provide a performance like the S&P while being aware of the ESG. More interesting is how some energy companies still make it into these benchmarks. One would think an energy company could potentially be bad for the environment. However, they spend more than most on renewable energy. When asked about Exxon Mobile ( XOM ) , Oliver explains how it fits criteria by matching an argument about having energy in a portfolio and being the energy company that scores better when it comes to closing in on the ideals of ESG. This does mean screening some out, but the goal is to keep some energy companies for the sake of at least being neutral to that sector. Related: Due Diligence Necessary When It Comes To ESG Funds Speaking about the costs, Oliver confirms how ESG ETFs are relatively low-cost. "11 and 10 basis points," Oliver states. It's competitive with the S&P, and CFRA's Todd Rosenbluth adds, "That's what's going to help people come in the door. So, people have historically thought that it was a premium product in ESG. But now the costs have come down, and they're more likely to come and take a look at the product." Regardless of why ESG hasn't sold as much as was perhaps expected, there is a confidence from this group, suggesting things will have a significant turnaround in the years to come. As Oliver concludes, "We've launched two ETFs this year, and we've raised $1.5 billion in them, so I think we're starting to see that momentum." Watch This Discussion Over ESG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSov7Kgxok For more market trends, visit ETF Trends . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Could Saudi Aramco’s Attack Be A Problem For Its IPO? Heated Tobacco May Replace Vaping Amidst Consumer Issues VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September? Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || The price of Binance Coin has halved since all-time high: Binance Coin (BNB) rallied in the first half of this year, rising $6 to highs of $39 in June. But since then, its price has been slashed in half. Currently, Binance Coin sits at just $20.54 after losing more than 4.5% in the last 24-hours. What's behind the downfall? Well, the initial rise occured while the whole market was booming, in part pushed up by the swell of exposure surrounding Facebook's plans for its Libra cryptocurrency , which were unveiled in May. But Binance Coin surged more than the rest, outperforming Bitcoin by 300%, partly due to its regular coin burns , designed to boost its price, alongside its IEO offerings, which attracted a lot of attention to the project. It's possible that since the market has calmed, and IEOs have largely been consigned to the dustheap , this has slowed momentum, turning bullish traders into bears. On top of this, while Binance is expanding to the US, it won't be adding Binance Coin by default to the platform, nor will it initially be used for trading fees (its main purpose on the main non-US Binance exchange). This may have come as a surprise to traders since Binance, so far, has natively supported Binance Coin on all of its exchanges around the world. Currently, Binance US has said it will support five cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, and stablecoin Tether. While BNB isn't initially on the list, the exchange is considering adding it, according to a Binance spokesperson. However, Binance has continued to expand its services, and will be launching its futures trading platform on Friday. Profits from the platform will also go towards Binance's quarterly burn of Binance Coin. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that, based on community feedback, from now on, "Binance will include all future businesses and products (including Binance Futures) into the scope of each quarterly BNB burn." || The price of Binance Coin has halved since all-time high: Binance Coin(BNB) rallied in the first half of this year, rising $6 to highs of $39 in June. But since then, its price has been slashed in half. Currently, Binance Coin sits at just $20.54 after losing more than 4.5% in the last 24-hours.
What's behind the downfall?
Well, the initial rise occured while the whole market was booming, in part pushed up by the swell of exposure surrounding Facebook's plans for itsLibra cryptocurrency, which were unveiled in May. But Binance Coin surged more than the rest, outperforming Bitcoin by 300%, partly due to its regularcoin burns, designed to boost its price, alongside its IEO offerings, which attracted a lot of attention to the project. It's possible that since the market has calmed, and IEOs have largely beenconsigned to the dustheap, this has slowed momentum, turning bullish traders into bears.
On top of this, while Binance is expanding to the US, it won't be adding Binance Coin by default to the platform, nor will it initially be used for trading fees (its main purpose on the main non-US Binance exchange). This may have come as a surprise to traders since Binance, so far, has natively supported Binance Coin on all of its exchanges around the world. Currently, Binance US has said it will support five cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, and stablecoin Tether. While BNB isn't initially on the list, the exchange is considering adding it, according to a Binance spokesperson.
However, Binance has continued to expand its services, and will be launching its futures trading platform on Friday. Profits from the platform will also go towards Binance's quarterly burn of Binance Coin. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhaotweetedthat, based on community feedback, from now on, "Binance will include all future businesses and products (including Binance Futures) into the scope of each quarterly BNB burn." || HTC will preload a Bitcoin Cash wallet on its blockchain phone: If a second blockchain phone didn't make things clear, HTC is still as serious as ever about its crypto-phones On Monday, the company announced a new partnership with Bitcoin.com that will see all new Exodus 1 phones come with the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wallet app pre-installed. On existing devices, meanwhile, HTC will push an update that adds the app to the phone. As part of the partnership, the Bitcoin.com online store has also started selling Exodus 1 devices. In the future, if you don't plan on hoarding on your Bitcoin Cash, you'll be able to get a discount on select HTC smartphones when you pay for a device with Bitcoin Cash. While this new partnership makes a lot of sense from HTC's perspective, the Exodus 1 was supposed to be more than "just" a Bitcoin phone. When Phil Chen, HTC's chief decentralized officer, spoke to Engadget's Nick Summers about the device, he described it as "Trojan Horse" for "re-architecting the internet." Chen envisioned the phone as a way for people to secure and control their own personal data. By partnering with Bitcoin.com, HTC is leaning into the least interesting aspect of the Exodus 1. Of course, the partnership likely comes out of the fact that HTC is struggling to survive. The company needs to find a way to sell more devices, and this help put the Exodus 1 in front of the people who would be most interested in it. View comments || HTC will preload a Bitcoin Cash wallet on its blockchain phone: If asecond blockchain phonedidn't make things clear, HTC is still as serious as ever about its crypto-phones On Monday, the company announced a new partnership with Bitcoin.com that will see all newExodus 1phones come with the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wallet app pre-installed. On existing devices, meanwhile, HTC will push an update that adds the app to the phone. As part of the partnership, the Bitcoin.com online store has also started selling Exodus 1 devices. In the future, if you don't plan on hoarding on your Bitcoin Cash, you'll be able to get a discount on select HTC smartphones when you pay for a device with Bitcoin Cash.
While this new partnership makes a lot of sense from HTC's perspective, the Exodus 1 was supposed to be more than "just" a Bitcoin phone. When Phil Chen, HTC's chief decentralized officer,spoke to Engadget's Nick Summersabout the device, he described it as "Trojan Horse" for "re-architecting the internet." Chen envisioned the phone as a way for people to secure and control their own personal data. By partnering with Bitcoin.com, HTC is leaning into the least interesting aspect of the Exodus 1. Of course, the partnership likely comes out of the fact that HTC is struggling to survive. The company needs to find a way to sell more devices, and this help put the Exodus 1 in front of the people who would be most interested in it. || HTC will preload a Bitcoin Cash wallet on its blockchain phone: If asecond blockchain phonedidn't make things clear, HTC is still as serious as ever about its crypto-phones On Monday, the company announced a new partnership with Bitcoin.com that will see all newExodus 1phones come with the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wallet app pre-installed. On existing devices, meanwhile, HTC will push an update that adds the app to the phone. As part of the partnership, the Bitcoin.com online store has also started selling Exodus 1 devices. In the future, if you don't plan on hoarding on your Bitcoin Cash, you'll be able to get a discount on select HTC smartphones when you pay for a device with Bitcoin Cash.
While this new partnership makes a lot of sense from HTC's perspective, the Exodus 1 was supposed to be more than "just" a Bitcoin phone. When Phil Chen, HTC's chief decentralized officer,spoke to Engadget's Nick Summersabout the device, he described it as "Trojan Horse" for "re-architecting the internet." Chen envisioned the phone as a way for people to secure and control their own personal data. By partnering with Bitcoin.com, HTC is leaning into the least interesting aspect of the Exodus 1. Of course, the partnership likely comes out of the fact that HTC is struggling to survive. The company needs to find a way to sell more devices, and this help put the Exodus 1 in front of the people who would be most interested in it. || The cutting-edge disruptive technologies shaping our future: Flickr CC-BY Dick Thomas Johnston Sitting watching movies on the train, on a device you could fit in your pocket, would have been unthinkable just a generation ago. As for shopping, banking, and video chatting from a smartphone...well that was the stuff of sci-fi fantasy. And yet here we are. The advent of the internet and the ubiquity of digital mobile devices has supercharged technological progress. Investment in tech-start-ups shows no signs of slowing. So what will the result be? What are the technologies currently under development that will shape the future? Heres what we can expect
Flickr CC-BY Alistair Banking New technology has already given the staid world of finance a shot in the arm. A generation of fintech (financial technology) companies emerged to disrupt everything from online banking to small business lending. These businesses use AI and machine learning to create better user experiences, tailored more precisely to the needs of individual customers. While most fintechs today are focused on doing what banks do better, blockchain has the potential to fundamentally disrupt the sector. Blockchain is best known as the technology powering virtual currencies like Bitcoin, but it has the potential to do much more. Put simply, blockchain lets you transfer assets in a transparent, secure way, without the need for middlemen like banks. No middlemen, no fees. Experts suggest that in the not-too-distant future banks could lose control of many types of financial transaction to blockchain-based alternatives. How the banks respond to this threat may define the future of banking. Flickr CC-By Christiaan Colen Online security The figures from cybersecurity firm Avast are alarming. Between 300,000 and 500,000 PC viruses emerge every week . At the same time, the risk to individuals and businesses is evolving as technology advances. As the Internet of Things (IoT) connects increasing numbers of real world objects, the threat shifts to areas like autonomous vehicles, wearable devices and even medical equipment. Story continues Then there is Artificial Intelligence (AI). More data breaches in the near future will be caused by AI-powered malware that sits undetected on a companys network, quietly gathering information about the organisations systems and the behaviours of its users. The result will be highly targeted attacks that exploit specific vulnerabilities in a companys network, rather than generic weaknesses. Security experts are already working on new defences for these threats, locked in an eternal arms race with cybercriminals. For now, companies might be wise to consider cyber insurance. Research by specialist small business insurer Hiscox found that nearly two thirds of cyber experts have taken out insurance, compared to less than a third of novices. It seems the experts in cybersecurity know that its never infallible, making resilience and the ability to quickly recover from attacks all the more important. Getty Images Healthcare With the NHS creaking under the strain of an ageing population and more expensive medicines, patients are turning to online virtual consultations. This trend is only likely to increase, with patients empowered to share their sensitive medical information with online services through private, secure blockchain technology. Other advances are more futuristic. Companion robots are being developed that help combat loneliness (a growing threat to health), as well as setting up chats with medical professionals and reminding people to take medications. IoT-enabled blood pressure, heart rate and glucose monitors are turning smartphones into bona fide diagnostic devices, saving unnecessary trips to the doctor. But AI might be the biggest game-changer for healthcare. AI is already being used to diagnose some cancers earlier and with more accuracy than human doctors. It can also mine huge amounts of data to better predict treatment outcomes and help doctors choose courses of treatment tailored to the needs of specific patients. Flickr CC-By Marc can der Chijs Personal transport Discussions on the future of travel tend to focus on self-driving cars. They may still be some way off, but IoT technology is already starting to fundamentally change the way we get around. For example, IoT sensors mounted on traffic lights or CCTV stations, combined with big data, can divert traffic away from heavily congested areas while figuring out alternate routes to the same destination. At the same time, it can automatically reset traffic signals to prioritise flow on more congested roads. Smart parking sensors can direct cars to empty spaces, and in future could be used to prioritise vehicles coming from long distances over those making shorter journeys better taken on public transport. Autonomous vehicles will also reduce accidents, by communicating with each other to reduce the chances of collisions and warn each other of upcoming dangers. None of this will solve the problem of congestion in big cities. But Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (A-MoD) schemes might. Like futuristic bike-sharing, A-MoD schemes would operate fleets of electric bicycles, scooters, and other lightweight electric vehicles that could be ordered via an app, and would drive themselves to each user in turn. Basic security measures can help reduce the chances of your business falling victim to cybercrime, but they cant take it away completely. Hackers are always looking for new vulnerabilities. Thats why a growing number of small businesses are investing in cyber insurance, so they are covered if the worst happens. Hiscox CyberClear cyber insurance has recently been rated the most comprehensive cyber insurance policy for small businesses. Find out more about Hiscox Insurance for small businesses . Read more: Stories from the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 to inspire the next generation of tech entrepreneurs || The cutting-edge disruptive technologies shaping our future: Flickr CC-BY Dick Thomas Johnston Sitting watching movies on the train, on a device you could fit in your pocket, would have been unthinkable just a generation ago. As for shopping, banking, and video chatting from a smartphone...well that was the stuff of sci-fi fantasy. And yet here we are. The advent of the internet and the ubiquity of digital mobile devices has supercharged technological progress. Investment in tech-start-ups shows no signs of slowing. So what will the result be? What are the technologies currently under development that will shape the future? Heres what we can expect
Flickr CC-BY Alistair Banking New technology has already given the staid world of finance a shot in the arm. A generation of fintech (financial technology) companies emerged to disrupt everything from online banking to small business lending. These businesses use AI and machine learning to create better user experiences, tailored more precisely to the needs of individual customers. While most fintechs today are focused on doing what banks do better, blockchain has the potential to fundamentally disrupt the sector. Blockchain is best known as the technology powering virtual currencies like Bitcoin, but it has the potential to do much more. Put simply, blockchain lets you transfer assets in a transparent, secure way, without the need for middlemen like banks. No middlemen, no fees. Experts suggest that in the not-too-distant future banks could lose control of many types of financial transaction to blockchain-based alternatives. How the banks respond to this threat may define the future of banking. Flickr CC-By Christiaan Colen Online security The figures from cybersecurity firm Avast are alarming. Between 300,000 and 500,000 PC viruses emerge every week . At the same time, the risk to individuals and businesses is evolving as technology advances. As the Internet of Things (IoT) connects increasing numbers of real world objects, the threat shifts to areas like autonomous vehicles, wearable devices and even medical equipment. Story continues Then there is Artificial Intelligence (AI). More data breaches in the near future will be caused by AI-powered malware that sits undetected on a companys network, quietly gathering information about the organisations systems and the behaviours of its users. The result will be highly targeted attacks that exploit specific vulnerabilities in a companys network, rather than generic weaknesses. Security experts are already working on new defences for these threats, locked in an eternal arms race with cybercriminals. For now, companies might be wise to consider cyber insurance. Research by specialist small business insurer Hiscox found that nearly two thirds of cyber experts have taken out insurance, compared to less than a third of novices. It seems the experts in cybersecurity know that its never infallible, making resilience and the ability to quickly recover from attacks all the more important. Getty Images Healthcare With the NHS creaking under the strain of an ageing population and more expensive medicines, patients are turning to online virtual consultations. This trend is only likely to increase, with patients empowered to share their sensitive medical information with online services through private, secure blockchain technology. Other advances are more futuristic. Companion robots are being developed that help combat loneliness (a growing threat to health), as well as setting up chats with medical professionals and reminding people to take medications. IoT-enabled blood pressure, heart rate and glucose monitors are turning smartphones into bona fide diagnostic devices, saving unnecessary trips to the doctor. But AI might be the biggest game-changer for healthcare. AI is already being used to diagnose some cancers earlier and with more accuracy than human doctors. It can also mine huge amounts of data to better predict treatment outcomes and help doctors choose courses of treatment tailored to the needs of specific patients. Flickr CC-By Marc can der Chijs Personal transport Discussions on the future of travel tend to focus on self-driving cars. They may still be some way off, but IoT technology is already starting to fundamentally change the way we get around. For example, IoT sensors mounted on traffic lights or CCTV stations, combined with big data, can divert traffic away from heavily congested areas while figuring out alternate routes to the same destination. At the same time, it can automatically reset traffic signals to prioritise flow on more congested roads. Smart parking sensors can direct cars to empty spaces, and in future could be used to prioritise vehicles coming from long distances over those making shorter journeys better taken on public transport. Autonomous vehicles will also reduce accidents, by communicating with each other to reduce the chances of collisions and warn each other of upcoming dangers. None of this will solve the problem of congestion in big cities. But Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (A-MoD) schemes might. Like futuristic bike-sharing, A-MoD schemes would operate fleets of electric bicycles, scooters, and other lightweight electric vehicles that could be ordered via an app, and would drive themselves to each user in turn. Basic security measures can help reduce the chances of your business falling victim to cybercrime, but they cant take it away completely. Hackers are always looking for new vulnerabilities. Thats why a growing number of small businesses are investing in cyber insurance, so they are covered if the worst happens. Hiscox CyberClear cyber insurance has recently been rated the most comprehensive cyber insurance policy for small businesses. Find out more about Hiscox Insurance for small businesses . Read more: Stories from the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 to inspire the next generation of tech entrepreneurs || Evaluating The VanEck eSports ETF: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
VanEck Video Gaming and Esports ETF (ESPO)is approaching its one-year anniversary and is doing so with some superlatives on its side. The ETF has $38.1 million in assets under management, a solid start for a thematic fund. More importantly, ESPO is up about 30% year-to-date.
ESPO seeks to track the performance of the MVIS® Global Video Gaming and eSports Index (MVESPO). The index is a rules-based, modified capitalization-weighted, float-adjusted index intended to give investors a means of tracking the overall performance of companies involved in video gaming and eSports
ESPO “provides targeted access to the largest companies involved in developing and publishing video games, esports, and related hardware,” said VanEckin a recent note. “The resulting portfolio is global, with heavy representation from the U.S. and Asia. Some of the names in the portfolio are more well-known than others. Most investors are probably already somewhat familiar with Tencent, Nvidia, and Nintendo. Here are a few other names that might be flying under the radar.”
ESPO components may include developing video games and related software, streaming services, and/or those involved in eSports events. To be included in the index, companies must generate at least 50% of their revenues from video gaming or eSports, which allows ESPO to have the highest concentration, among U.S.-listed ETFs, of pure-play names participating in this fast-growing space.
Exploring ESPO's Global Exposure
ESPO is a global ETF, but its geographic exposure is heavily allocated to Asian and U.S. companies. The U.S., Japan, and China combine for nearly 78% of the fund's geographic weight, according toissuer data.
Well-known American companies on ESPO's roster include Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) and Zynga(ZNGA) .
AMD “is a well-known U.S. semiconductor company that generates substantial revenues from Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) that facilitate the gameplay of video gaming on both PCs and consoles,” said VanEck. “Advanced Micro Devices’ chips are used in Microsoft’s popular Xbox console; Advanced Micro Devices was also chosen by Google to create custom GPUs for Google’s cloud gaming platform Stadia.”
Related:Esports Event Has Investors Seeking Out NERD ETF
Shares of Farmville maker Zynga are up 45% this year, providing a boost to ESPO.
“Zynga is focused heavily on social video game services that are tied directly to consumer’s social media accounts; Zynga’s popular poker game was the first game that Facebook introduced on its social networking platform,” according to VanEck. “In its most recent earnings report in August, Zynga stated it was on track to post its best yearly sales since 2012, raising its sales outlook for the full year to $1.24 billion.”
For more information thematic ETFs, visit ourThematic Investing Channel.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Evaluating The VanEck eSports ETF: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. VanEck Video Gaming and Esports ETF (ESPO) is approaching its one-year anniversary and is doing so with some superlatives on its side. The ETF has $38.1 million in assets under management, a solid start for a thematic fund. More importantly, ESPO is up about 30% year-to-date. ESPO seeks to track the performance of the MVIS® Global Video Gaming and eSports Index (MVESPO). The index is a rules-based, modified capitalization-weighted, float-adjusted index intended to give investors a means of tracking the overall performance of companies involved in video gaming and eSports ESPO “provides targeted access to the largest companies involved in developing and publishing video games, esports, and related hardware,” said VanEck in a recent note . “The resulting portfolio is global, with heavy representation from the U.S. and Asia. Some of the names in the portfolio are more well-known than others. Most investors are probably already somewhat familiar with Tencent, Nvidia, and Nintendo. Here are a few other names that might be flying under the radar.” ESPO components may include developing video games and related software, streaming services, and/or those involved in eSports events. To be included in the index, companies must generate at least 50% of their revenues from video gaming or eSports, which allows ESPO to have the highest concentration, among U.S.-listed ETFs, of pure-play names participating in this fast-growing space. Exploring ESPO's Global Exposure ESPO is a global ETF, but its geographic exposure is heavily allocated to Asian and U.S. companies. The U.S., Japan, and China combine for nearly 78% of the fund's geographic weight, according to issuer data . Well-known American companies on ESPO's roster include Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Zynga ( ZNGA ) . AMD “is a well-known U.S. semiconductor company that generates substantial revenues from Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) that facilitate the gameplay of video gaming on both PCs and consoles,” said VanEck. “Advanced Micro Devices’ chips are used in Microsoft’s popular Xbox console; Advanced Micro Devices was also chosen by Google to create custom GPUs for Google’s cloud gaming platform Stadia.” Story continues Related: Esports Event Has Investors Seeking Out NERD ETF Shares of Farmville maker Zynga are up 45% this year, providing a boost to ESPO. “Zynga is focused heavily on social video game services that are tied directly to consumer’s social media accounts; Zynga’s popular poker game was the first game that Facebook introduced on its social networking platform,” according to VanEck. “In its most recent earnings report in August, Zynga stated it was on track to post its best yearly sales since 2012, raising its sales outlook for the full year to $1.24 billion.” For more information thematic ETFs, visit our Thematic Investing Channel . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Could Saudi Aramco’s Attack Be A Problem For Its IPO? Heated Tobacco May Replace Vaping Amidst Consumer Issues VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September? Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || ETF Provider SoFi Purchases Naming Rights for LA Football Stadium: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. San Francisco-based startup and exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider SoFi will soon have its name in lights at every home Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers game. The financial tech company announced a 20-year deal on Sunday to call the new Los Angeles football stadium SoFi Stadium. Per a CNBC report , SoFi will "become an official partner of both LA football teams, as well as a partner of the performance venue and surrounding entertainment district. SoFi did not disclose how much it paid for the naming rights, but Venues Now and Fox Business, which reported earlier this year that a deal was in discussion, said it was a $400 million price tag." SoFi CEO and former CFO of the National Football League (NFL) Anthony Noto said this move with be a game-changer in terms of reaching a wider audience. This is a giant leap toward achieving our companys mission of helping people get their money right by reaching our members where they are, said Noto. This partnership is the perfect opportunity to drive awareness and trust in the SoFi brand as we continue to grow and reach members on a national level. For Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, the partnership with SoFi was befitting given his needs. It was critical for us to find a tech-focused partner who is on the cutting edge and genuinely understands the needs of all of our constituents and who challenges us to think in creative ways to make every visitor to SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park feel special and at home, Kroenke said in the press release. SoFi's ETF Gig SoFi recently launched the SoFi Gig Economy ETF ( GIGE ) . GIGE is an actively managed fund, advised by Toroso Investments, that is designed to seek long term capital appreciation by capturing exposure to the economic shift toward gig-oriented companies. David Dziekanski, Portfolio Manager, Toroso Advisors, explained that GIGEs portfolio is comprised of companies with direct participation in revenue generated from gig economy, support gig economy businesses, facilitate transactions of gig economy, support gig economy non-revenue and benefit from growth of the gig economy. These companies cover platforms, transportation, payments, online e-commerce, social networks, search engine marketing, online lending, 3D printing and delivery. Story continues Many of these gig economy companies are early in their lifecycle and are relatively inexpensive when considering the strong expected future growth. GIGEs portfolio also includes gig economy IPOs or those that have recently gone public. The constant updates help the portfolio gain exposure to shifting work and consumer habits or diversify away from any single industry. POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Could Saudi Aramcos Attack Be A Problem For Its IPO? Heated Tobacco May Replace Vaping Amidst Consumer Issues VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September? Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || ETF Provider SoFi Purchases Naming Rights for LA Football Stadium: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
San Francisco-based startup and exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider SoFi will soon have its name in lights at every home Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers game. The financial tech company announced a 20-year deal on Sunday to call the new Los Angeles football stadium “SoFi Stadium.”
Per a CNBCreport, SoFi will "become an official partner of both LA football teams, as well as a partner of the performance venue and surrounding entertainment district. SoFi did not disclose how much it paid for the naming rights, but Venues Now and Fox Business, which reported earlier this year that a deal was in discussion, said it was a $400 million price tag."
SoFi CEO and former CFO of the National Football League (NFL) Anthony Noto said this move with be a game-changer in terms of reaching a wider audience.
“This is a giant leap toward achieving our company’s mission of helping people get their money right by reaching our members where they are,”saidNoto. “This partnership is the perfect opportunity to drive awareness and trust in the SoFi brand as we continue to grow and reach members on a national level.”
For Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, the partnership with SoFi was befitting given his needs.
“It was critical for us to find a tech-focused partner who is on the cutting edge and genuinely understands the needs of all of our constituents and who challenges us to think in creative ways to make every visitor to SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park feel special and at home,” Kroenke said in the press release.
SoFi's ETF Gig
SoFi recently launched theSoFi Gig Economy ETF (GIGE) . GIGE is an actively managed fund, advised by Toroso Investments, that is designed to seek long term capital appreciation by capturing exposure to the economic shift toward gig-oriented companies.
David Dziekanski, Portfolio Manager, Toroso Advisors, explained that GIGE’s portfolio is comprised of companies with direct participation in revenue generated from gig economy, support gig economy businesses, facilitate transactions of gig economy, support gig economy non-revenue and benefit from growth of the gig economy. These companies cover platforms, transportation, payments, online e-commerce, social networks, search engine marketing, online lending, 3D printing and delivery.
Many of these gig economy companies are early in their lifecycle and are relatively inexpensive when considering the strong expected future growth. GIGE’s portfolio also includes gig economy IPOs or those that have recently gone public. The constant updates help the portfolio gain exposure to shifting work and consumer habits or diversify away from any single industry.
POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM
• SPY ETF Quote
• VOO ETF Quote
• QQQ ETF Quote
• VTI ETF Quote
• JNUG ETF Quote
• Top 34 Gold ETFs
• Top 34 Oil ETFs
• Top 57 Financials ETFs
• Could Saudi Aramco’s Attack Be A Problem For Its IPO?
• Heated Tobacco May Replace Vaping Amidst Consumer Issues
• VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals
• Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September?
• Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade
READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Bitcoin's Lightning Network growth picks up: Bitcoin's Lightning Network is growing again, with both the number of network nodes and payments channels on the rise over the last 30 days.
At its core, theLightning Networkis adecentralizedsystem for instant and high-volumeBitcoinmicropayments—with payments as low as 1 satoshi (worth$0.0001) being able to instantly settle on the network. It's regarded as one of the key ways Bitcoin will be able to scale to support millions of payments and users per day.
According to data site1ml, the number of lighting nodes has increased by 3.5% to reach an all-time of 9,863–these are computers plugged into the network that help to keep it running.
Payment channels are also seeing substantial growth on the Lighting Network. These are, in essence, connections between nodes that help bitcoins get from one person to another. The total number of channels is up over 16% to 36,271. Now, 60% of all nodes on the network have active payment channels.
Tippin brings bitcoin tipping to iOS and Android
The growth of nodes with active channels is an especially positive development for the network–it demonstrates that people are not just setting up and running network nodes—but they are also opening and closing payment channels regularly. This helps the network to rout transactions and earns the node owner some fees for the transactions they process.
It's not all good news, however, as the total number of Bitcoin locked-up in the network today stands at 828 BTC ($8.3 million). This number has been on a downtrend over the last 2 months when the total lock up reached a high of 945 BTC, worth $11.2 million in July.
Will the network news have any effect? || Bitcoin's Lightning Network growth picks up: Bitcoin's Lightning Network is growing again, with both the number of network nodes and payments channels on the rise over the last 30 days.
At its core, theLightning Networkis adecentralizedsystem for instant and high-volumeBitcoinmicropayments—with payments as low as 1 satoshi (worth$0.0001) being able to instantly settle on the network. It's regarded as one of the key ways Bitcoin will be able to scale to support millions of payments and users per day.
According to data site1ml, the number of lighting nodes has increased by 3.5% to reach an all-time of 9,863–these are computers plugged into the network that help to keep it running.
Payment channels are also seeing substantial growth on the Lighting Network. These are, in essence, connections between nodes that help bitcoins get from one person to another. The total number of channels is up over 16% to 36,271. Now, 60% of all nodes on the network have active payment channels.
Tippin brings bitcoin tipping to iOS and Android
The growth of nodes with active channels is an especially positive development for the network–it demonstrates that people are not just setting up and running network nodes—but they are also opening and closing payment channels regularly. This helps the network to rout transactions and earns the node owner some fees for the transactions they process.
It's not all good news, however, as the total number of Bitcoin locked-up in the network today stands at 828 BTC ($8.3 million). This number has been on a downtrend over the last 2 months when the total lock up reached a high of 945 BTC, worth $11.2 million in July.
Will the network news have any effect? || Bitcoin's Lightning Network growth picks up: Bitcoin's Lightning Network is growing again, with both the number of network nodes and payments channels on the rise over the last 30 days. At its core, the Lightning Network is a decentralized system for instant and high-volume Bitcoin micropaymentswith payments as low as 1 satoshi (worth $ 0.0001) being able to instantly settle on the network. It's regarded as one of the key ways Bitcoin will be able to scale to support millions of payments and users per day. According to data site 1ml , the number of lighting nodes has increased by 3.5% to reach an all-time of 9,863these are computers plugged into the network that help to keep it running. Payment channels are also seeing substantial growth on the Lighting Network. These are, in essence, connections between nodes that help bitcoins get from one person to another. The total number of channels is up over 16% to 36,271. Now, 60% of all nodes on the network have active payment channels. Tippin brings bitcoin tipping to iOS and Android The growth of nodes with active channels is an especially positive development for the networkit demonstrates that people are not just setting up and running network nodesbut they are also opening and closing payment channels regularly. This helps the network to rout transactions and earns the node owner some fees for the transactions they process. It's not all good news, however, as the total number of Bitcoin locked-up in the network today stands at 828 BTC ($8.3 million). This number has been on a downtrend over the last 2 months when the total lock up reached a high of 945 BTC, worth $11.2 million in July. Will the network news have any effect? || Sparkswap adds USD support to its Bitcoin Lightning Network exchange: When The Block lastcoveredSparkswap, the bitcoin startup had just raised a $3.5 million seed round to build a non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange on the Bitcoin Lightning Network usingAtomic Swaps. Today, Sparkswap is announcing support for the U.S. dollar—enabling users to buy bitcoins directly from their Sparkswap Lightning wallet.
"We’ve long wanted to support BTC and USD as a trading pair since it’s the most important and popular trading pair. We decided to build it the way we did in order to make it accessible to a much larger group of people who currently lack a convenient option for buying Bitcoin without giving up custody," Trey Griffith, founder of Sparkswap tells The Block.
The new feature works as follows:
1. A user downloads Sparkswap's desktop app
2. The user connects the app to their LND Lightning Network node
3. The user completes Sparkswap's KYC process
4. To initiate a bitcoin purchase, the user transfers USD via ACH to Sparkswap'spayment partner
5. The user's USD is kept in a third-party escrow account as the trade is being carried out
6. Once the USD hits the escrow account, Sparkswap initiates a transaction, sending bitcoins over the Lightning Network to the user's account
Unlike its bitcoin and litecoin trading pairs, Sparkswap will act as the counterparty for trades dealing with bitcoin and USD. At launch, USD support will be available in 21 U.S. states. Bitcoin to USD sell orders will not be supported with the initial launch.
“This product delivers on the promise of Bitcoin as a self-sovereign currency while still delivering a convenient user experience by building on the Lightning Network,” said Brett Gibson, a partner at Initialized Capital. || Sparkswap adds USD support to its Bitcoin Lightning Network exchange: When The Block lastcoveredSparkswap, the bitcoin startup had just raised a $3.5 million seed round to build a non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange on the Bitcoin Lightning Network usingAtomic Swaps. Today, Sparkswap is announcing support for the U.S. dollar—enabling users to buy bitcoins directly from their Sparkswap Lightning wallet.
"We’ve long wanted to support BTC and USD as a trading pair since it’s the most important and popular trading pair. We decided to build it the way we did in order to make it accessible to a much larger group of people who currently lack a convenient option for buying Bitcoin without giving up custody," Trey Griffith, founder of Sparkswap tells The Block.
The new feature works as follows:
1. A user downloads Sparkswap's desktop app
2. The user connects the app to their LND Lightning Network node
3. The user completes Sparkswap's KYC process
4. To initiate a bitcoin purchase, the user transfers USD via ACH to Sparkswap'spayment partner
5. The user's USD is kept in a third-party escrow account as the trade is being carried out
6. Once the USD hits the escrow account, Sparkswap initiates a transaction, sending bitcoins over the Lightning Network to the user's account
Unlike its bitcoin and litecoin trading pairs, Sparkswap will act as the counterparty for trades dealing with bitcoin and USD. At launch, USD support will be available in 21 U.S. states. Bitcoin to USD sell orders will not be supported with the initial launch.
“This product delivers on the promise of Bitcoin as a self-sovereign currency while still delivering a convenient user experience by building on the Lightning Network,” said Brett Gibson, a partner at Initialized Capital.
[Social Media Buzz]
system maintenance. || system maintenance. || system maintenance. || system maintenance. || system maintenance. || Bitcoin Is the Fraud? JPMorgan Metals Desk Fixed Gold Prices for Years https://t.co/wjjxINylxY https://t.co/pqmUsOwZ3N || A great company with a very sophisticated security system and will amaze you! This is the best company of all time and I highly recommend to all of you to join this project! Come on register now! #POMT #PODMINERS #ICO #bitcoin #btc #cryptocurrency || Ready to unl...
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10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58, 9190.85, 9137.99, 9228.33, 9123.41, 9087.30, 9132.49, 9073.94, 9375.47, 9252.28, 9428.33, 9277.97, 9278.81, 9240.35, 9276.50, 9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84, 9132.23, 9151.39, 9159.04, 9185.82, 9164.23, 9374.89, 9525.36, 9581.07, 9536.89, 9677.11, 9905.17, 10990.87, 10912.82, 11100.47, 11111.21, 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05, 11675.74, 11878.11, 11410.53, 11584.93, 11784.14, 11768.87, 11865.70, 11892.80, 12254.40, 11991.23, 11758.28, 11878.37, 11592.49, 11681.83, 11664.85, 11774.60, 11366.13, 11488.36, 11323.40, 11542.50, 11506.87, 11711.51, 11680.82, 11970.48, 11414.03, 10245.30, 10511.81, 10169.57, 10280.35, 10369.56, 10131.52, 10242.35, 10363.14, 10400.92, 10442.17, 10323.76, 10680.84, 10796.95, 10974.91, 10948.99, 10944.59.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-09-18]
Volume: 26341903912, RSI (14-day): 51.94, 50-day EMA: 10839.38, 200-day EMA: 9774.43
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1952.10, Gold RSI: 52.66
Oil Price: 41.11, Oil RSI: 53.82
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again: Bitcoin lost momentum Thursday while DeFi delirium pushes fees on Ethereum back up. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $10,920 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.73% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $10,735-$11,052 BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin headed downward Thursday, going as low as $10,735 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase, but recovering to $10,920 as of press time. Andrew Tu, an executive at quant trading firm Efficient Frontier, sees $11,000 as a key bitcoin price point. ”$11,000 has served as both support and resistance over the last two months,” Tu told CoinDesk. “If we properly break $11,000, we may head up towards $12,000 again while if we fail to break through, then we may go back towards $10,700 and then to $10,000.” Related: New on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network: LND Adds Accounting Feature, c-lightning Gets an Upgrade Thus far in September, bitcoin has been over the $11,000 mark twice, most recently on Wednesday prior to the U.S. Federal Reserve announcement of unchanged interest rates and allowing inflation to run over 2% in the near term. Read More: Bitcoin Back Below $11K as Markets Doubt Fed’s Ability to Boost Inflation Katie Stockton, analyst for Fairlead Strategies, sees a lack of momentum in the bitcoin market Thursday. “Today is an ‘inside-day’ for bitcoin, when the day’s high-low range is encompassed by the previous day’s range, so the action is not impacting the chart in a meaningful way.” Indeed, Wednesday’s bitcoin price range was wider, at $10,662-$11,099 per bitcoin. In the options market, implied volatility, a measure of bitcoin’s forecasted price movement, is much higher than realized volatility, which is based on historical price changes. Related: Uniswap's Newly Launched UNI Token Has Already Doubled in Price This phenomenon has been occurring since July as options traders are increasingly hedging their bitcoin bets, said William Purdy, an options trader and founder of PurdyAlerts, an analysis firm. Story continues “The historical realized volatility has significantly declined while implied volatility has increased as investors are increasingly willing to pay for more price protection,” said Purdy. This is also happening in the ether options market , though not as pronounced as in bitcoin. Investors still expect an additional price boost from May’s halving, which reduced the new supply of bitcoin coming to market, according to Purdy. “As we get later and later into the post-halvening cycle, traders are likely increasingly expecting a major price change and therefore expecting their already expensive premiums to still net positive ROI as they expect an even larger change in price,” Purdy told CoinDesk. Ether fees rise again The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was up Thursday, trading around $388 and climbing 6.1% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More: Uniswap Launches Governance Token to Keep Up With Rival SushiSwap The average transaction fee on the Ethereum network is shooting up once again, at 0.030806 ETH per transaction at press time. According to data aggregator Blockchair, that translates to $11.97 at current ether prices. Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner of Tellurian Capital, which invests in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem, says Uniswap’s surprise token launch is not helping the fee situation. “There has been a fair amount of congestion for some time already and we now have the very popular one-off airdrop of the much awaited Uniswap token UNI that is the talk of the town,” said Bonnefous. “More tokens like YAM are going live this week also. DeFi definitely sets the agenda in the digital assets markets this month,” he added. Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Thursday, mostly in the green. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): neo (NEO) + 16.4% monero (XMR) + 6.3% qtum (QTUM) + 6.1% Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): orchid (OXT) – 6.1% nem (XEM) – 5.3% ethereum classic (ETC) – 1.4% Read More: Ethereum’s Pending Transactions Jump 30% After Uniswap’s Token Claim Equities: In Asia the Nikkei 225 closed in the red 0.67% as the Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged and the yen hit a seven-week high . In Europe the FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.47% as the pound went on a roller-coaster ride amid the Bank of England’s hint at negative rates . In the United States the S&P 500 fell 0.80% as uncertainty about further economic stimulus and mixed information on a coronavirus vaccine dragged down the index . Commodities: Oil is up 2.1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $41.01. Gold was in the red 0.56% and at $1,947 as of press time. Treasurys: U.S. Treasury bond yields slipped Thursday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year bond, in the red 7%. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again: Bitcoin lost momentum Thursday while DeFi delirium pushes fees on Ethereum back up.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $10,920 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.73% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $10,735-$11,052
• BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin headed downward Thursday, going as low as $10,735 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase, but recovering to $10,920 as of press time.
Andrew Tu, an executive at quant trading firm Efficient Frontier, sees $11,000 as a key bitcoin price point. ”$11,000 has served as both support and resistance over the last two months,” Tu told CoinDesk. “If we properly break $11,000, we may head up towards $12,000 again while if we fail to break through, then we may go back towards $10,700 and then to $10,000.”
Related:New on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network: LND Adds Accounting Feature, c-lightning Gets an Upgrade
Thus far in September, bitcoin has been over the $11,000 mark twice, most recently on Wednesday prior to the U.S. Federal Reserve announcement of unchanged interest rates and allowing inflation to run over 2% in the near term.
Read More:Bitcoin Back Below $11K as Markets Doubt Fed’s Ability to Boost Inflation
Katie Stockton, analyst for Fairlead Strategies, sees a lack of momentum in the bitcoin market Thursday. “Today is an ‘inside-day’ for bitcoin, when the day’s high-low range is encompassed by the previous day’s range, so the action is not impacting the chart in a meaningful way.” Indeed, Wednesday’s bitcoin price range was wider,at $10,662-$11,099 per bitcoin.
In the options market, implied volatility, a measure of bitcoin’s forecasted price movement, is much higher than realized volatility, which is based on historical price changes.
Related:Uniswap's Newly Launched UNI Token Has Already Doubled in Price
This phenomenon has been occurring since July as options traders are increasingly hedging their bitcoin bets, said William Purdy, an options trader and founder of PurdyAlerts, an analysis firm.
“The historical realized volatility has significantly declined while implied volatility has increased as investors are increasingly willing to pay for more price protection,” said Purdy.
This is alsohappening in the ether options market, though not as pronounced as in bitcoin. Investors still expect an additional price boost from May’s halving, which reduced the new supply of bitcoin coming to market, according to Purdy.
“As we get later and later into the post-halvening cycle, traders are likely increasingly expecting a major price change and therefore expecting their already expensive premiums to still net positive ROI as they expect an even larger change in price,” Purdy told CoinDesk.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was up Thursday, trading around $388 and climbing 6.1% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More:Uniswap Launches Governance Token to Keep Up With Rival SushiSwap
The average transaction fee on the Ethereum network is shooting up once again, at 0.030806 ETH per transaction at press time. According to data aggregator Blockchair, that translates to $11.97 at current ether prices.
Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner of Tellurian Capital, which invests in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem, says Uniswap’s surprise token launch is not helping the fee situation.
“There has been a fair amount of congestion for some time already and we now have the very popular one-off airdrop of the much awaited Uniswap token UNI that is the talk of the town,” said Bonnefous. “More tokens like YAM are going live this week also. DeFi definitely sets the agenda in the digital assets markets this month,” he added.
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mixed Thursday, mostly in the green. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• neo(NEO) + 16.4%
• monero(XMR) + 6.3%
• qtum(QTUM) + 6.1%
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• orchid(OXT) – 6.1%
• nem(XEM) – 5.3%
• ethereum classic(ETC) – 1.4%
Read More:Ethereum’s Pending Transactions Jump 30% After Uniswap’s Token Claim
Equities:
• In Asia the Nikkei 225 closed in the red 0.67% asthe Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged and the yen hit a seven-week high.
• In Europe the FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.47% asthe pound went on a roller-coaster ride amid the Bank of England’s hint at negative rates.
• In the United States the S&P 500 fell 0.80% asuncertainty about further economic stimulus and mixed information on a coronavirus vaccine dragged down the index.
Commodities:
• Oil is up 2.1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $41.01.
• Gold was in the red 0.56% and at $1,947 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bond yields slipped Thursday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year bond, in the red 7%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again: Bitcoin lost momentum Thursday while DeFi delirium pushes fees on Ethereum back up.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $10,920 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.73% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $10,735-$11,052
• BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin headed downward Thursday, going as low as $10,735 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase, but recovering to $10,920 as of press time.
Andrew Tu, an executive at quant trading firm Efficient Frontier, sees $11,000 as a key bitcoin price point. ”$11,000 has served as both support and resistance over the last two months,” Tu told CoinDesk. “If we properly break $11,000, we may head up towards $12,000 again while if we fail to break through, then we may go back towards $10,700 and then to $10,000.”
Related:New on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network: LND Adds Accounting Feature, c-lightning Gets an Upgrade
Thus far in September, bitcoin has been over the $11,000 mark twice, most recently on Wednesday prior to the U.S. Federal Reserve announcement of unchanged interest rates and allowing inflation to run over 2% in the near term.
Read More:Bitcoin Back Below $11K as Markets Doubt Fed’s Ability to Boost Inflation
Katie Stockton, analyst for Fairlead Strategies, sees a lack of momentum in the bitcoin market Thursday. “Today is an ‘inside-day’ for bitcoin, when the day’s high-low range is encompassed by the previous day’s range, so the action is not impacting the chart in a meaningful way.” Indeed, Wednesday’s bitcoin price range was wider,at $10,662-$11,099 per bitcoin.
In the options market, implied volatility, a measure of bitcoin’s forecasted price movement, is much higher than realized volatility, which is based on historical price changes.
Related:Uniswap's Newly Launched UNI Token Has Already Doubled in Price
This phenomenon has been occurring since July as options traders are increasingly hedging their bitcoin bets, said William Purdy, an options trader and founder of PurdyAlerts, an analysis firm.
“The historical realized volatility has significantly declined while implied volatility has increased as investors are increasingly willing to pay for more price protection,” said Purdy.
This is alsohappening in the ether options market, though not as pronounced as in bitcoin. Investors still expect an additional price boost from May’s halving, which reduced the new supply of bitcoin coming to market, according to Purdy.
“As we get later and later into the post-halvening cycle, traders are likely increasingly expecting a major price change and therefore expecting their already expensive premiums to still net positive ROI as they expect an even larger change in price,” Purdy told CoinDesk.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was up Thursday, trading around $388 and climbing 6.1% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More:Uniswap Launches Governance Token to Keep Up With Rival SushiSwap
The average transaction fee on the Ethereum network is shooting up once again, at 0.030806 ETH per transaction at press time. According to data aggregator Blockchair, that translates to $11.97 at current ether prices.
Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner of Tellurian Capital, which invests in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem, says Uniswap’s surprise token launch is not helping the fee situation.
“There has been a fair amount of congestion for some time already and we now have the very popular one-off airdrop of the much awaited Uniswap token UNI that is the talk of the town,” said Bonnefous. “More tokens like YAM are going live this week also. DeFi definitely sets the agenda in the digital assets markets this month,” he added.
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mixed Thursday, mostly in the green. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• neo(NEO) + 16.4%
• monero(XMR) + 6.3%
• qtum(QTUM) + 6.1%
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• orchid(OXT) – 6.1%
• nem(XEM) – 5.3%
• ethereum classic(ETC) – 1.4%
Read More:Ethereum’s Pending Transactions Jump 30% After Uniswap’s Token Claim
Equities:
• In Asia the Nikkei 225 closed in the red 0.67% asthe Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged and the yen hit a seven-week high.
• In Europe the FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.47% asthe pound went on a roller-coaster ride amid the Bank of England’s hint at negative rates.
• In the United States the S&P 500 fell 0.80% asuncertainty about further economic stimulus and mixed information on a coronavirus vaccine dragged down the index.
Commodities:
• Oil is up 2.1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $41.01.
• Gold was in the red 0.56% and at $1,947 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bond yields slipped Thursday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year bond, in the red 7%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slumps to $10.7K; Ethereum Fees Rise Again || Marathon Patent Group Withdraws Offer to Acquire Fastblock Mining; Companies Unable to Reach Long-Term Power Agreement at Acceptable Rates: LAS VEGAS, Sept. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) ("Marathon" or "Company"), today announced that as of September 11th, 2020, the Company has withdrawn its offer to acquire Fastblock Mining.
During its due diligence process, the Company discovered that the Power Agreement pursuant to which Fastblock would provide power at a subsidized rate of $0.0285KwH, would expire in three years. The Company and Fastblock were unsuccessful in attempts to extend the term of that agreement with the power provider to the 7-10 year Window which the Company would need for this acquisition to be economically feasible.
The Company has executed a term sheet with an alternate power company to provide 104MwH of power at $0.028KwH for 11 years, for which terms will be announced upon completion of due diligence and execution of definitive documentation.
Investor Notice
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. If any of these risks were to occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties we describe are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. In addition, our past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. Future changes in the network-wide mining difficulty rate or Bitcoin hashrate may also materially affect the future performance of Marathon's production of Bitcoin. See "Safe Harbor" below.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “plan,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue,” or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, as may be supplemented or amended by the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise.
Name: Jason AssadPhone: 678-570-6791Email:[email protected] || Marathon Patent Group Withdraws Offer to Acquire Fastblock Mining; Companies Unable to Reach Long-Term Power Agreement at Acceptable Rates: LAS VEGAS, Sept. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA ) ("Marathon" or "Company"), today announced that as of September 11 th , 2020, the Company has withdrawn its offer to acquire Fastblock Mining. During its due diligence process, the Company discovered that the Power Agreement pursuant to which Fastblock would provide power at a subsidized rate of $0.0285KwH, would expire in three years. The Company and Fastblock were unsuccessful in attempts to extend the term of that agreement with the power provider to the 7-10 year Window which the Company would need for this acquisition to be economically feasible. The Company has executed a term sheet with an alternate power company to provide 104MwH of power at $0.028KwH for 11 years, for which terms will be announced upon completion of due diligence and execution of definitive documentation. Investor Notice Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. If any of these risks were to occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties we describe are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. In addition, our past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. Future changes in the network-wide mining difficulty rate or Bitcoin hashrate may also materially affect the future performance of Marathon's production of Bitcoin. See "Safe Harbor" below. Story continues Forward-Looking Statements Statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “plan,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue,” or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, as may be supplemented or amended by the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise. Name: Jason Assad Phone: 678-570-6791 Email: [email protected] || Should You Invest in Bitcoin & Blockchain ETFs?: • (2:15) - Why Should Investors Consider Bitcoin?
• (7:30) - Can Bitcoin Become A Mainstream Currency?
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• (41:30) - Why Has The Adoption Of Blockchain Been So Slow?
• (48:25) - Episode Roundup: [email protected]
In this episode of ETF Spotlight, we focus on bitcoin and blockchain ETFs. Bitcoin has seen renewed interest of late since it has surged more than 50% this year. Blockchain is the technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In the first part, my guest is Michael Sonnenshein, Managing Director at Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. In the second part, I speak with Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares, about the best performing blockchain ETF of 2020.
The Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC acts as a bitcoin fund but is not an ETF. Several ETF providers have filed for cryptocurrency ETFs, but all those applications have been rejected by the SEC so far. Shares of GBTC, which are eligible to be held in certain IRA and other brokerage accounts, however, usually trade at a premium to its NAV.
Michael talks about the investment case for bitcoin, its role in an investment portfolio and making sense of its value. The notoriously volatile asset, which is still trading significantly below its all-time high of about $20,000 reached in late 2017, could get a boost from ultra-loose monetary policies.
Blockchain is a very powerful technology that has many applications beyond cryptocurrencies.
The Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF BLCN, one of the first ETFs to focus on this technology, has gained about 33% this year.
Overstock OSTK, Nvidia NVDA, Square SQ and DocuSign DOCU are among its top holdings.
Tune into the podcast to learn more. Make sure to be on the lookout for the next edition of ETF Spotlight! If you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected].
Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?
Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportOverstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSquare, Inc. (SQ) : Free Stock Analysis ReportReality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN): ETF Research ReportsGrayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC): ETF Research ReportsDocuSign Inc. (DOCU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Should You Invest in Bitcoin & Blockchain ETFs?: (2:15) - Why Should Investors Consider Bitcoin? (7:30) - Can Bitcoin Become A Mainstream Currency? (10:45) - How Can You Assign A Value To Bitcoin? (14:20) - Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: GBTC (22:15) - Will The SEC Approve A Bitcoin ETF Anytime Soon? (28:30) - What Is Blockchain Technology and Why Is It So Important? (32:20) - Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF: BLCN (41:30) - Why Has The Adoption Of Blockchain Been So Slow? (48:25) - Episode Roundup: [email protected] In this episode of ETF Spotlight, we focus on bitcoin and blockchain ETFs. Bitcoin has seen renewed interest of late since it has surged more than 50% this year. Blockchain is the technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the first part, my guest is Michael Sonnenshein, Managing Director at Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. In the second part, I speak with Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares, about the best performing blockchain ETF of 2020. The Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC acts as a bitcoin fund but is not an ETF. Several ETF providers have filed for cryptocurrency ETFs, but all those applications have been rejected by the SEC so far. Shares of GBTC, which are eligible to be held in certain IRA and other brokerage accounts, however, usually trade at a premium to its NAV. Michael talks about the investment case for bitcoin, its role in an investment portfolio and making sense of its value. The notoriously volatile asset, which is still trading significantly below its all-time high of about $20,000 reached in late 2017, could get a boost from ultra-loose monetary policies. Blockchain is a very powerful technology that has many applications beyond cryptocurrencies. The Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF BLCN, one of the first ETFs to focus on this technology, has gained about 33% this year. Overstock OSTK, Nvidia NVDA, Square SQ and DocuSign DOCU are among its top holdings. Story continues Tune into the podcast to learn more. Make sure to be on the lookout for the next edition of ETF Spotlight! If you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Overstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Square, Inc. (SQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN): ETF Research Reports Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC): ETF Research Reports DocuSign Inc. (DOCU) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Should You Invest in Bitcoin & Blockchain ETFs?: • (2:15) - Why Should Investors Consider Bitcoin?
• (7:30) - Can Bitcoin Become A Mainstream Currency?
• (10:45) - How Can You Assign A Value To Bitcoin?
• (14:20) - Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: GBTC
• (22:15) - Will The SEC Approve A Bitcoin ETF Anytime Soon?
• (28:30) - What Is Blockchain Technology and Why Is It So Important?
• (32:20) - Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF: BLCN
• (41:30) - Why Has The Adoption Of Blockchain Been So Slow?
• (48:25) - Episode Roundup: [email protected]
In this episode of ETF Spotlight, we focus on bitcoin and blockchain ETFs. Bitcoin has seen renewed interest of late since it has surged more than 50% this year. Blockchain is the technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In the first part, my guest is Michael Sonnenshein, Managing Director at Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. In the second part, I speak with Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares, about the best performing blockchain ETF of 2020.
The Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC acts as a bitcoin fund but is not an ETF. Several ETF providers have filed for cryptocurrency ETFs, but all those applications have been rejected by the SEC so far. Shares of GBTC, which are eligible to be held in certain IRA and other brokerage accounts, however, usually trade at a premium to its NAV.
Michael talks about the investment case for bitcoin, its role in an investment portfolio and making sense of its value. The notoriously volatile asset, which is still trading significantly below its all-time high of about $20,000 reached in late 2017, could get a boost from ultra-loose monetary policies.
Blockchain is a very powerful technology that has many applications beyond cryptocurrencies.
The Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF BLCN, one of the first ETFs to focus on this technology, has gained about 33% this year.
Overstock OSTK, Nvidia NVDA, Square SQ and DocuSign DOCU are among its top holdings.
Tune into the podcast to learn more. Make sure to be on the lookout for the next edition of ETF Spotlight! If you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected].
Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?
Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportOverstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSquare, Inc. (SQ) : Free Stock Analysis ReportReality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN): ETF Research ReportsGrayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC): ETF Research ReportsDocuSign Inc. (DOCU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Twitter orders politicians, journalists to fortify passwords before election: Twitter will require certain political candidates, elected officials and journalists to beef up their passwords, the company said Thursday, in an effort to head off any more breaches of high-profile accounts as the 2020 election draws near. The change comes two months after an embarrassing cyberattack in which hackers exploited Twitter employees' credentials to wrest control of dozens of accounts, including those of former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The steps announced Thursday would not have prevented that hack but could foil less sophisticated exploits. The new rules : Accounts deemed to have weak passwords will be compelled to make them stronger, and those users must now verify their phone number or email address before making password changes. The social media company will also encourage, but not force, high-profile users to implement two-factor authentication, a security measure that requires them to input a unique code in addition to their password. Who must follow the rules : The new rules will apply to presidential campaigns, political parties and certain political candidates, as well as members of the executive branch and Congress. Governors and secretaries of state must also adopt tougher security measures, as do major U.S. news outlets and political journalists, Twitter said. Those who must adhere to the new rules will receive an in-app notification, but other users can opt to take the same precautions, the company said. About that big breach : Twitter revealed after the massive breach on July 15 that hackers had not gained access to users' passwords, so the changes outlined Thursday would not have kept those accounts safe. But less-sophisticated breaches often involve obtaining a user's password. Instead, the hackers deceived Twitter employees whose job gives them access to high-profile accounts, Twitter disclosed in late July. Prosecutors have since charged a Florida teenager with masterminding the attack and adults in Florida and the United Kingdom with taking part in the scheme, in which the seized accounts sent out tweets asking their followers to send Bitcoin payments to a mysterious address. Story continues The attack targeted 130 Twitter accounts, tweeted from 45 of them, accessed the direct messages of 36 and downloaded data from seven accounts, Twitter has said. "This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems," Twitter said. As a result, Twitter temporarily restricted employee access to its internal controls. What's next : Twitter said Thursday it plans to instill security safeguards internally that help the company more quickly detect and respond to suspicious activity, as well as make it more difficult to maliciously takeover an account. The company called those moves "a critical preventative step." || Twitter orders politicians, journalists to fortify passwords before election: Twitter will require certain political candidates, elected officials and journalists to beef up their passwords, the company said Thursday, in an effort to head off any more breaches of high-profile accounts as the 2020 election draws near. The change comes two months after an embarrassing cyberattack in which hackers exploited Twitter employees' credentials to wrest control of dozens of accounts, including those of former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The steps announced Thursday would not have prevented that hack but could foil less sophisticated exploits. The new rules : Accounts deemed to have weak passwords will be compelled to make them stronger, and those users must now verify their phone number or email address before making password changes. The social media company will also encourage, but not force, high-profile users to implement two-factor authentication, a security measure that requires them to input a unique code in addition to their password. Who must follow the rules : The new rules will apply to presidential campaigns, political parties and certain political candidates, as well as members of the executive branch and Congress. Governors and secretaries of state must also adopt tougher security measures, as do major U.S. news outlets and political journalists, Twitter said. Those who must adhere to the new rules will receive an in-app notification, but other users can opt to take the same precautions, the company said. About that big breach : Twitter revealed after the massive breach on July 15 that hackers had not gained access to users' passwords, so the changes outlined Thursday would not have kept those accounts safe. But less-sophisticated breaches often involve obtaining a user's password. Instead, the hackers deceived Twitter employees whose job gives them access to high-profile accounts, Twitter disclosed in late July. Prosecutors have since charged a Florida teenager with masterminding the attack and adults in Florida and the United Kingdom with taking part in the scheme, in which the seized accounts sent out tweets asking their followers to send Bitcoin payments to a mysterious address. Story continues The attack targeted 130 Twitter accounts, tweeted from 45 of them, accessed the direct messages of 36 and downloaded data from seven accounts, Twitter has said. "This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems," Twitter said. As a result, Twitter temporarily restricted employee access to its internal controls. What's next : Twitter said Thursday it plans to instill security safeguards internally that help the company more quickly detect and respond to suspicious activity, as well as make it more difficult to maliciously takeover an account. The company called those moves "a critical preventative step." || Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B: Over $1 billion worth of bitcoin has been tokenized on Ethereum as the total supply of tokenized bitcoin (BTC) passed 92,600 on Thursday, or 0.42% of the total BTC supply. In January, less than 1,200 BTC were tokenized worth less than $7 million.
• Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), the largest tokenizedbitcoinproject, has minted over 60,500 tokenized BTC since its launch in early 2019, representing over 65% of the total tokenized BTC supply.
• “Huge buying demand” over the counter is one reason for the rapid increase in supply of tokenized BTC, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research, the exchange’s sister company.
• OTC demand for WBTC started at FTX with the advent of decentralized finance’s yield farming craze, said Bankman-Fried. Demand continued to grow as the total value held inDeFiprotocols increased.
• Nearly 70% of all WBTC minted in August were claimed by Alameda Research, as CoinDesk previouslyreported.
• RenBTC, the second largest tokenized bitcoin project, has issued 22,000 tokenized bitcoins since May, according to data queried onDune Analytics.
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B || Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B: Over $1 billion worth of bitcoin has been tokenized on Ethereum as the total supply of tokenized bitcoin (BTC) passed 92,600 on Thursday, or 0.42% of the total BTC supply. In January, less than 1,200 BTC were tokenized worth less than $7 million.
• Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), the largest tokenizedbitcoinproject, has minted over 60,500 tokenized BTC since its launch in early 2019, representing over 65% of the total tokenized BTC supply.
• “Huge buying demand” over the counter is one reason for the rapid increase in supply of tokenized BTC, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research, the exchange’s sister company.
• OTC demand for WBTC started at FTX with the advent of decentralized finance’s yield farming craze, said Bankman-Fried. Demand continued to grow as the total value held inDeFiprotocols increased.
• Nearly 70% of all WBTC minted in August were claimed by Alameda Research, as CoinDesk previouslyreported.
• RenBTC, the second largest tokenized bitcoin project, has issued 22,000 tokenized bitcoins since May, according to data queried onDune Analytics.
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B
• Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B || Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B: Over $1 billion worth of bitcoin has been tokenized on Ethereum as the total supply of tokenized bitcoin (BTC) passed 92,600 on Thursday, or 0.42% of the total BTC supply. In January, less than 1,200 BTC were tokenized worth less than $7 million. Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), the largest tokenized bitcoin project, has minted over 60,500 tokenized BTC since its launch in early 2019, representing over 65% of the total tokenized BTC supply. Huge buying demand over the counter is one reason for the rapid increase in supply of tokenized BTC, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research, the exchanges sister company. OTC demand for WBTC started at FTX with the advent of decentralized finances yield farming craze, said Bankman-Fried. Demand continued to grow as the total value held in DeFi protocols increased. Nearly 70% of all WBTC minted in August were claimed by Alameda Research, as CoinDesk previously reported . RenBTC, the second largest tokenized bitcoin project, has issued 22,000 tokenized bitcoins since May, according to data queried on Dune Analytics . Related Stories Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B Bitcoin Supply on Ethereum Tops $1B View comments || Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit: The two Russians who were sanctionedearlier this weekby the U.S. Treasury Department on accusations of being crypto thieves allegedly got their millions through market manipulation and phishing.
Prosecutors detailed Danil Potekhin and Dimitrii Karasavidi’s alleged heists, victims and target exchanges in a 30-page forfeiture complaint filed Wednesday against the pair’s previously seized crypto funds.
• Karasavidi and Potekhin allegedly “deployed” a series of bogus Poloniex, Gemini and Binance lookalike sites that duped unwitting users into sharing their login credentials, giving the hackers control of wallets.
• They then “drained” $20 million worth ofbitcoin(BTC),ether(ETH) and NEO from victims’ accounts, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said the lion’s share ended up in Karasavidi’s Bitfinex account.
• Other funds were frozen by Poloniex and quickly seized by authorities, who filed the lawsuit to take control of 15,602 ETH, 199.8 BTC, $6.1 million in cash and 1,199 NEO, a total worth $14.2 million at press time.
• That ETH haul was actually the product of a separate hacker scheme: market manipulation, authorities say.
In late October 2017, hackers pumped $5 million of one victim’s crypto into NEO’s Gas market, skyrocketing the usually sleepy token’s value 13,000% before ordering their personal gas-holding Poloniex accounts to cash out into ETH. The victim “lost virtually all of his $5 million in cryptocurrency,” prosecutors alleged.
• Prosecutors also claimed the hackers attempted to cover up the stolen crypto’s origin by “layering” funds – a classic money-laundering technique.
• Treasury officials said they used “blockchain tracing analysis” to follow the ETH from the Poloniex manipulation and the Poloniex, Binance and Gemini phishing schemes into Karasavidi’s Bitfinex account.
• They further claimed to have identified Potekhin as the owner of multiple misspelled Poloniex domain names linked to the phishing scheme.
• Similar tactics were used against Binance and Gemini customers, the regulator said in the lawsuit.
Related:Cryptopia Users Can Claim Assets from End of 2020, Says Hacked Exchange's Liquidator
Karasavidi and Potekhin face a mounting lineup of legal troubles. This week,they’ve been addedto the Treasury Department’s OFAC blacklist and also face federal wire fraud, hacking and money laundering charges.
• Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit
• Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit
• Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit || Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit: The two Russians who were sanctioned earlier this week by the U.S. Treasury Department on accusations of being crypto thieves allegedly got their millions through market manipulation and phishing. Prosecutors detailed Danil Potekhin and Dimitrii Karasavidi’s alleged heists, victims and target exchanges in a 30-page forfeiture complaint filed Wednesday against the pair’s previously seized crypto funds. Karasavidi and Potekhin allegedly “deployed” a series of bogus Poloniex, Gemini and Binance lookalike sites that duped unwitting users into sharing their login credentials, giving the hackers control of wallets. They then “drained” $20 million worth of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and NEO from victims’ accounts, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said the lion’s share ended up in Karasavidi’s Bitfinex account. Other funds were frozen by Poloniex and quickly seized by authorities, who filed the lawsuit to take control of 15,602 ETH, 199.8 BTC, $6.1 million in cash and 1,199 NEO, a total worth $14.2 million at press time. That ETH haul was actually the product of a separate hacker scheme: market manipulation, authorities say. In late October 2017, hackers pumped $5 million of one victim’s crypto into NEO’s Gas market, skyrocketing the usually sleepy token’s value 13,000% before ordering their personal gas-holding Poloniex accounts to cash out into ETH. The victim “lost virtually all of his $5 million in cryptocurrency,” prosecutors alleged. Prosecutors also claimed the hackers attempted to cover up the stolen crypto’s origin by “layering” funds – a classic money-laundering technique. Treasury officials said they used “blockchain tracing analysis” to follow the ETH from the Poloniex manipulation and the Poloniex, Binance and Gemini phishing schemes into Karasavidi’s Bitfinex account. They further claimed to have identified Potekhin as the owner of multiple misspelled Poloniex domain names linked to the phishing scheme. Similar tactics were used against Binance and Gemini customers, the regulator said in the lawsuit. Related: Cryptopia Users Can Claim Assets from End of 2020, Says Hacked Exchange's Liquidator Karasavidi and Potekhin face a mounting lineup of legal troubles. This week, they’ve been added to the Treasury Department’s OFAC blacklist and also face federal wire fraud, hacking and money laundering charges. Related Stories Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit Prosecutors Detail Russians’ Crypto Phishing Scheme in Forfeiture Suit View comments || Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies: Uniswap issued a governance token, Kraken is the world’s first crypto bank and there are more “newbie” bitcoin investors than any time in the past two years.
Crypto’s bankKraken Financial,a newly formed division of the popular crypto exchange, has become the first firm to receive a special type of charter making it a bank.On Wednesday, the Wyoming Banking Board approved the exchange’s application for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter – making it a licensed bank in the state, replete with access to federal payments infrastructure and opening the doors to issuing digital-asset debit cards and savings accounts as well as securities and commodities services. Kraken Financial beat out Wyoming blockchain pioneer Caitlin Long’s application for Avanti Financial, and is the first bank established in Wyoming since 2006.
Non-public informationThe China state-sponsored Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN), a standardized internet services provider for decentralized applications (dapp) developers,plans to make 24 public chains available in its network for Chinese users beginning in November.These public chains will look quite different after being “localized” for the Chinese market, CoinDesk’s David Pan reports, who gained access to a leaked memo. Inspired by Ant Financial’s permission blockchain, these chains will replace their native tokens with the renminbi, be renamed after the 24 Chinese solar terms and will be supervised by the Public Permissioned Blockchain consortium – ensuring the state reaps the benefits of blockchain tech’s traceability and efficiency, without the decentralization embraced by public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. “BSN strictly follows related laws and regulations and will remove any chain that violates them from the network,” the memo reads.
Related:First Mover: Federal Reserve Does What It Wants to Do as Bitcoin Hits $11K
Welcome newbiesNew investors areentering the bitcoin market at a faster pace and possibly creating upward pressure on prices,on-chain data shows. The number of “young investment” wallets (those that are one to three months old and rarely sendbitcoins) has jumped to 2,254,667 this month, the highest level since February 2018, according to data provided by the blockchain analysts firm Chainalysis. That’s double from 1,162,632 six months ago. “It looks like new people are entering the market, buying bitcoin and putting it in wallets for long-term investment,” Chainalysis’ economist Philip Gradwell told CoinDesk. Investors took advantage of the 40% price drop to levels below $4,000 observed on March 12 and have continued to pour money into the top cryptocurrency ever since.
Beefing upWyoming’s chief banking regulator says he’s “beefing up” his division’smonitoring capabilities on illicit cryptocurrency with Chainalysis.Under a one-year deal, Chainalysis will train senior examiners on crypto tracing practices and grant two monitoring software licenses – plus investigatory support – to the Division of Banking as it eases into its new, crypto-facing compliance duties, according to Commissioner Albert Forkner. Those rules are no different than the ones governing traditional American banks: Watch out for signs of money laundering, don’t transact with sanctioned individuals, keep tabs on customer identities and uphold the minutiae of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Patent gameAlibaba ison track to supersede U.S. computer giant IBM by becoming the single-largest holder of blockchain-related patents,according to a new study. Consultancy KISSPatent found the Chinese tech conglomerate has published ten times more blockchain patents than IBM, its nearest rival. Should Alibaba continue at its current pace, the study predicted it would become the biggest patent holder in blockchain by the end of 2020. The firm also found the majority of patents were filed by traditional Fortune 500 companies, rather than companies that exist wholly within the blockchain space.
• How Normies Are Getting Crypto-Rich With DeFi(Leigh Cuen/CoinDesk)
• Libra Association Hires Former HSBC CEO(Daniel Palmer/CoinDesk)
• The $55M Hack That Almost Brought Ethereum Down(Matthew Leising/Wiley)
• You Can Now Get Ethereum NFTs Inspired by The Godfather(Scott Chipolina/Decrypt)
• Based.Money: DeFi’s ‘Game of Chicken’(Robert Stevens/Decrypt)
Unified?After surviving the “vampireattack” fomented by its forked rival SushiSwap, decentralized trading platformUniswap launched its own governance token, UNI,on Wednesday.
Related:Blockchain Bites: The SEC's Chilling Effect on Crypto Development
The platform has minted 1 billion coins to be distributed to founders, early users and future community members over the next four years. The token will be used to power on-chain governance decisions.
“UNI officially enshrines Uniswap as publicly owned and self-sustainable infrastructure while continuing to carefully protect its indestructible and autonomous qualities,” the firm wrote.
SushiSwap, a genetic twin to Uniswap, appeared on the scene as a real competitive threat – offering an incentive to participants to siphon liquidity from the dominant automated market maker (AMM). SushiSwap migrated over $800 million in crypto assets from Uniswap last week, with promises to be a fully decentralized rival to the “VC-backed” Uniswap.
Observers of the battle expected Uniswap to respond by issuing its own governance token. Though some may be surprised at the speed at which this was executed.
Following the announcement, the number of pending transactions on the Ethereum network spiked, and within three hours after the claim started,over 18,000 transactions were sent to the smart contract address of the UNI governance token.
Binance, Huobi, OKEx,FTX(which is led by Sam Bankman-Fried, who has played a pivotal role in the SushiSwap saga) andCoinbase Pro have all added trading support for the new token.
Both Sushi and Uni distinguish themselves from centralized exchanges like Coinbase by allowing users (called liquidity providers, or LPs) to deposit any digital asset onto the platform, receive interest and a cut of transaction fees in return.
Coinbase, on the other hand, uses the more traditional order book format – where a user’s trade is matched up against a list, or book, of buys and sells, and executed at the best available price.
Doubt prevailsCoinDesk data showsbitcoin’s price fell to just under $10,900 in the Asian trading hours– not long after it had climbed to near $11,100. The drop is bitcoin’s latest failure around the key psychological hurdle and could be the result of prevailing doubts over the Federal Reserve’s ability to hit the 2% inflation target. Prevailing doubts over whether the Fed has what it takes to hit its 2% inflation target hit traditional markets and may have contributed to a bitcoin price drop early on Thursday. On average,officials don’t expect 2% inflation until 2023.
Found funds
• PowerTrade, a mobile bitcoin options trading platform,raised $4.7 million via token salesin a round led by Pantera Capital and joined by Framework Ventures, CMS Holdings and QCP Capital among others.
• ParaSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, has completed a$2.7 million seed funding roundjoined by 32 investors including Blockchain Capital, Alameda Research, Arrington XRP Capital, Coinfund, CoinGecko, Aave founder Stani Kulechov and others.
Polemics and dotsA token minting system – Polimec – is coming to the Polkadot blockchain ecosystem,promising to be a leaner, meaner version of Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard,the mechanism that launched a thousand token sales, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reports. Launched by the team behind blockchain identity protocol KILT, the token issuance and transfer framework is thought to eventually spur development on the Ethereum-competing layer 1. “If you look at what ERC-20 actually did to the Ethereum ecosystem, then you can imagine what will possibly happen with Polimec,” Ingo Ruebe, CEO of BOTLabs and project lead for KILT Protocol said. “It’s an absolutely essential part of the ecosystem, I would say.” The KILT mainnet, an identity solution expected to launch in 11 months, will be the first project to mint tokens using Polimec.
Cascading blockchainsAva Labs islaunching its Avalanche blockchain next Monday, Sept. 21, with aspirations of creating a new front for the development of decentralized finance applications.“Avalanche aims to enable new systems defined by velocity, efficient use of capital, and innovation in new products and services that aren’t possible with the current wait times to finalize transactions,” Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer told CoinDesk. “DeFi is certainly part of our motivation in the short term, with our long-term sights set on traditional finance.” The upcoming launch comes on the back of $60 million in funding, $45 million of which came from a July 2020 public token sale and private sale led by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Bitmain and Initialized Capital, CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports.
Vinay Gupta is CEO of Mattereum, an Ethereum-based physical asset management platform. He coordinated the Ethereum launch process and first worked in cryptocurrencies in the 1990s. Theessay excerpted belowis part of CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030” series exploring the ongoing digital revolution.
Ecological Sanity Is Compatible With Human FreedomIn the early days, Bitcoin proposed a simple model of how the world could be transformed: The free market was going to produce inflation-proof money with strong privacy features, which could be used to avoid taxes. Over time, people would sell their dollars, replace them with cryptocurrency and the State would wither away to be replaced with an anarchic paradise.
That was one Bitcoin theory of change. It seems improbable now, as it did before, despite the current risk of game-changing inflation in America. The ship may be going down, and Bitcoin may be a life-raft for some (as it is in Venezuela), but the collapse was not caused by Bitcoin. It was caused by good old-fashioned mismanagement over decades.
Still, given the waste and excess in society, it’s never been clearer how much the world needs cryptographic transparency. So what is our theory of change? How are we really going to get a better world out of all this exquisite technology?
Our freedom rests on our ability to use technology to dig our way out of this hole: to increase our options by creating and deploying new supply-side technologies to create clean energy, and by radically re-engineering the demand side to hit our necessary consumption limits.
The creativity of the market economy works, but instead of mere “price signaling” we need high-quality, multidimensional data so we can run a multidimensional market: money, carbon, other forms of impact, all inside of a single global budget, with infinite room for human creativity to prove we met our targets and live as well as we are able.
Neither utopian nor dystopian, this is reality: You have markets, or you have authoritarianism. Carbon is a new constraint, and we either handle it like money and instruments well enough for creative response or face a future of blundering mandates.
Ecological sanity is compatible with human freedom, but only if we deploy cryptography to manage the resource allocation. My hope is that, by 2030, these systems will be ready in enough countries that they’ll become standardized across the world, and we can go on together.Read the full story here.
CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030”series examines the future of the medium and what role blockchain and crypto will play in it with content and conversations on the future of the decentralized web. If you are interested in submitting an op-ed for the series, please reach out directly [email protected].
Governance battlesIn this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at the powercompetition between governments on the one hand and the decentralized network-driven finance alternativesthat would reshape that power. Interestingly, in this competition corporations may play a role that benefits both sides at different times and in different ways.
• Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies
• Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies || Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies: Uniswap issued a governance token, Kraken is the world’s first crypto bank and there are more “newbie” bitcoin investors than any time in the past two years.
Crypto’s bankKraken Financial,a newly formed division of the popular crypto exchange, has become the first firm to receive a special type of charter making it a bank.On Wednesday, the Wyoming Banking Board approved the exchange’s application for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter – making it a licensed bank in the state, replete with access to federal payments infrastructure and opening the doors to issuing digital-asset debit cards and savings accounts as well as securities and commodities services. Kraken Financial beat out Wyoming blockchain pioneer Caitlin Long’s application for Avanti Financial, and is the first bank established in Wyoming since 2006.
Non-public informationThe China state-sponsored Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN), a standardized internet services provider for decentralized applications (dapp) developers,plans to make 24 public chains available in its network for Chinese users beginning in November.These public chains will look quite different after being “localized” for the Chinese market, CoinDesk’s David Pan reports, who gained access to a leaked memo. Inspired by Ant Financial’s permission blockchain, these chains will replace their native tokens with the renminbi, be renamed after the 24 Chinese solar terms and will be supervised by the Public Permissioned Blockchain consortium – ensuring the state reaps the benefits of blockchain tech’s traceability and efficiency, without the decentralization embraced by public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. “BSN strictly follows related laws and regulations and will remove any chain that violates them from the network,” the memo reads.
Related:First Mover: Federal Reserve Does What It Wants to Do as Bitcoin Hits $11K
Welcome newbiesNew investors areentering the bitcoin market at a faster pace and possibly creating upward pressure on prices,on-chain data shows. The number of “young investment” wallets (those that are one to three months old and rarely sendbitcoins) has jumped to 2,254,667 this month, the highest level since February 2018, according to data provided by the blockchain analysts firm Chainalysis. That’s double from 1,162,632 six months ago. “It looks like new people are entering the market, buying bitcoin and putting it in wallets for long-term investment,” Chainalysis’ economist Philip Gradwell told CoinDesk. Investors took advantage of the 40% price drop to levels below $4,000 observed on March 12 and have continued to pour money into the top cryptocurrency ever since.
Beefing upWyoming’s chief banking regulator says he’s “beefing up” his division’smonitoring capabilities on illicit cryptocurrency with Chainalysis.Under a one-year deal, Chainalysis will train senior examiners on crypto tracing practices and grant two monitoring software licenses – plus investigatory support – to the Division of Banking as it eases into its new, crypto-facing compliance duties, according to Commissioner Albert Forkner. Those rules are no different than the ones governing traditional American banks: Watch out for signs of money laundering, don’t transact with sanctioned individuals, keep tabs on customer identities and uphold the minutiae of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Patent gameAlibaba ison track to supersede U.S. computer giant IBM by becoming the single-largest holder of blockchain-related patents,according to a new study. Consultancy KISSPatent found the Chinese tech conglomerate has published ten times more blockchain patents than IBM, its nearest rival. Should Alibaba continue at its current pace, the study predicted it would become the biggest patent holder in blockchain by the end of 2020. The firm also found the majority of patents were filed by traditional Fortune 500 companies, rather than companies that exist wholly within the blockchain space.
• How Normies Are Getting Crypto-Rich With DeFi(Leigh Cuen/CoinDesk)
• Libra Association Hires Former HSBC CEO(Daniel Palmer/CoinDesk)
• The $55M Hack That Almost Brought Ethereum Down(Matthew Leising/Wiley)
• You Can Now Get Ethereum NFTs Inspired by The Godfather(Scott Chipolina/Decrypt)
• Based.Money: DeFi’s ‘Game of Chicken’(Robert Stevens/Decrypt)
Unified?After surviving the “vampireattack” fomented by its forked rival SushiSwap, decentralized trading platformUniswap launched its own governance token, UNI,on Wednesday.
Related:Blockchain Bites: The SEC's Chilling Effect on Crypto Development
The platform has minted 1 billion coins to be distributed to founders, early users and future community members over the next four years. The token will be used to power on-chain governance decisions.
“UNI officially enshrines Uniswap as publicly owned and self-sustainable infrastructure while continuing to carefully protect its indestructible and autonomous qualities,” the firm wrote.
SushiSwap, a genetic twin to Uniswap, appeared on the scene as a real competitive threat – offering an incentive to participants to siphon liquidity from the dominant automated market maker (AMM). SushiSwap migrated over $800 million in crypto assets from Uniswap last week, with promises to be a fully decentralized rival to the “VC-backed” Uniswap.
Observers of the battle expected Uniswap to respond by issuing its own governance token. Though some may be surprised at the speed at which this was executed.
Following the announcement, the number of pending transactions on the Ethereum network spiked, and within three hours after the claim started,over 18,000 transactions were sent to the smart contract address of the UNI governance token.
Binance, Huobi, OKEx,FTX(which is led by Sam Bankman-Fried, who has played a pivotal role in the SushiSwap saga) andCoinbase Pro have all added trading support for the new token.
Both Sushi and Uni distinguish themselves from centralized exchanges like Coinbase by allowing users (called liquidity providers, or LPs) to deposit any digital asset onto the platform, receive interest and a cut of transaction fees in return.
Coinbase, on the other hand, uses the more traditional order book format – where a user’s trade is matched up against a list, or book, of buys and sells, and executed at the best available price.
Doubt prevailsCoinDesk data showsbitcoin’s price fell to just under $10,900 in the Asian trading hours– not long after it had climbed to near $11,100. The drop is bitcoin’s latest failure around the key psychological hurdle and could be the result of prevailing doubts over the Federal Reserve’s ability to hit the 2% inflation target. Prevailing doubts over whether the Fed has what it takes to hit its 2% inflation target hit traditional markets and may have contributed to a bitcoin price drop early on Thursday. On average,officials don’t expect 2% inflation until 2023.
Found funds
• PowerTrade, a mobile bitcoin options trading platform,raised $4.7 million via token salesin a round led by Pantera Capital and joined by Framework Ventures, CMS Holdings and QCP Capital among others.
• ParaSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, has completed a$2.7 million seed funding roundjoined by 32 investors including Blockchain Capital, Alameda Research, Arrington XRP Capital, Coinfund, CoinGecko, Aave founder Stani Kulechov and others.
Polemics and dotsA token minting system – Polimec – is coming to the Polkadot blockchain ecosystem,promising to be a leaner, meaner version of Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard,the mechanism that launched a thousand token sales, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reports. Launched by the team behind blockchain identity protocol KILT, the token issuance and transfer framework is thought to eventually spur development on the Ethereum-competing layer 1. “If you look at what ERC-20 actually did to the Ethereum ecosystem, then you can imagine what will possibly happen with Polimec,” Ingo Ruebe, CEO of BOTLabs and project lead for KILT Protocol said. “It’s an absolutely essential part of the ecosystem, I would say.” The KILT mainnet, an identity solution expected to launch in 11 months, will be the first project to mint tokens using Polimec.
Cascading blockchainsAva Labs islaunching its Avalanche blockchain next Monday, Sept. 21, with aspirations of creating a new front for the development of decentralized finance applications.“Avalanche aims to enable new systems defined by velocity, efficient use of capital, and innovation in new products and services that aren’t possible with the current wait times to finalize transactions,” Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer told CoinDesk. “DeFi is certainly part of our motivation in the short term, with our long-term sights set on traditional finance.” The upcoming launch comes on the back of $60 million in funding, $45 million of which came from a July 2020 public token sale and private sale led by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Bitmain and Initialized Capital, CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports.
Vinay Gupta is CEO of Mattereum, an Ethereum-based physical asset management platform. He coordinated the Ethereum launch process and first worked in cryptocurrencies in the 1990s. Theessay excerpted belowis part of CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030” series exploring the ongoing digital revolution.
Ecological Sanity Is Compatible With Human FreedomIn the early days, Bitcoin proposed a simple model of how the world could be transformed: The free market was going to produce inflation-proof money with strong privacy features, which could be used to avoid taxes. Over time, people would sell their dollars, replace them with cryptocurrency and the State would wither away to be replaced with an anarchic paradise.
That was one Bitcoin theory of change. It seems improbable now, as it did before, despite the current risk of game-changing inflation in America. The ship may be going down, and Bitcoin may be a life-raft for some (as it is in Venezuela), but the collapse was not caused by Bitcoin. It was caused by good old-fashioned mismanagement over decades.
Still, given the waste and excess in society, it’s never been clearer how much the world needs cryptographic transparency. So what is our theory of change? How are we really going to get a better world out of all this exquisite technology?
Our freedom rests on our ability to use technology to dig our way out of this hole: to increase our options by creating and deploying new supply-side technologies to create clean energy, and by radically re-engineering the demand side to hit our necessary consumption limits.
The creativity of the market economy works, but instead of mere “price signaling” we need high-quality, multidimensional data so we can run a multidimensional market: money, carbon, other forms of impact, all inside of a single global budget, with infinite room for human creativity to prove we met our targets and live as well as we are able.
Neither utopian nor dystopian, this is reality: You have markets, or you have authoritarianism. Carbon is a new constraint, and we either handle it like money and instruments well enough for creative response or face a future of blundering mandates.
Ecological sanity is compatible with human freedom, but only if we deploy cryptography to manage the resource allocation. My hope is that, by 2030, these systems will be ready in enough countries that they’ll become standardized across the world, and we can go on together.Read the full story here.
CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030”series examines the future of the medium and what role blockchain and crypto will play in it with content and conversations on the future of the decentralized web. If you are interested in submitting an op-ed for the series, please reach out directly [email protected].
Governance battlesIn this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at the powercompetition between governments on the one hand and the decentralized network-driven finance alternativesthat would reshape that power. Interestingly, in this competition corporations may play a role that benefits both sides at different times and in different ways.
• Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies
• Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies || Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies: Uniswap issued a governance token, Kraken is the world’s first crypto bank and there are more “newbie” bitcoin investors than any time in the past two years. Top shelf Crypto’s bank Kraken Financial, a newly formed division of the popular crypto exchange, has become the first firm to receive a special type of charter making it a bank. On Wednesday, the Wyoming Banking Board approved the exchange’s application for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter – making it a licensed bank in the state, replete with access to federal payments infrastructure and opening the doors to issuing digital-asset debit cards and savings accounts as well as securities and commodities services. Kraken Financial beat out Wyoming blockchain pioneer Caitlin Long’s application for Avanti Financial, and is the first bank established in Wyoming since 2006. Non-public information The China state-sponsored Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN), a standardized internet services provider for decentralized applications (dapp) developers, plans to make 24 public chains available in its network for Chinese users beginning in November. These public chains will look quite different after being “localized” for the Chinese market, CoinDesk’s David Pan reports, who gained access to a leaked memo. Inspired by Ant Financial’s permission blockchain, these chains will replace their native tokens with the renminbi, be renamed after the 24 Chinese solar terms and will be supervised by the Public Permissioned Blockchain consortium – ensuring the state reaps the benefits of blockchain tech’s traceability and efficiency, without the decentralization embraced by public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. “BSN strictly follows related laws and regulations and will remove any chain that violates them from the network,” the memo reads. Related: First Mover: Federal Reserve Does What It Wants to Do as Bitcoin Hits $11K Story continues Welcome newbies New investors are entering the bitcoin market at a faster pace and possibly creating upward pressure on prices, on-chain data shows. The number of “young investment” wallets (those that are one to three months old and rarely send bitcoins ) has jumped to 2,254,667 this month, the highest level since February 2018, according to data provided by the blockchain analysts firm Chainalysis. That’s double from 1,162,632 six months ago. “It looks like new people are entering the market, buying bitcoin and putting it in wallets for long-term investment,” Chainalysis’ economist Philip Gradwell told CoinDesk. Investors took advantage of the 40% price drop to levels below $4,000 observed on March 12 and have continued to pour money into the top cryptocurrency ever since. Beefing up Wyoming’s chief banking regulator says he’s “beefing up” his division’s monitoring capabilities on illicit cryptocurrency with Chainalysis. Under a one-year deal, Chainalysis will train senior examiners on crypto tracing practices and grant two monitoring software licenses – plus investigatory support – to the Division of Banking as it eases into its new, crypto-facing compliance duties, according to Commissioner Albert Forkner. Those rules are no different than the ones governing traditional American banks: Watch out for signs of money laundering, don’t transact with sanctioned individuals, keep tabs on customer identities and uphold the minutiae of the Bank Secrecy Act. Patent game Alibaba is on track to supersede U.S. computer giant IBM by becoming the single-largest holder of blockchain-related patents, according to a new study. Consultancy KISSPatent found the Chinese tech conglomerate has published ten times more blockchain patents than IBM, its nearest rival. Should Alibaba continue at its current pace, the study predicted it would become the biggest patent holder in blockchain by the end of 2020. The firm also found the majority of patents were filed by traditional Fortune 500 companies, rather than companies that exist wholly within the blockchain space. Quick bites How Normies Are Getting Crypto-Rich With DeFi (Leigh Cuen/CoinDesk) Libra Association Hires Former HSBC CEO (Daniel Palmer/CoinDesk) The $55M Hack That Almost Brought Ethereum Down (Matthew Leising/Wiley) You Can Now Get Ethereum NFTs Inspired by The Godfather (Scott Chipolina/Decrypt) Based.Money: DeFi’s ‘Game of Chicken’ (Robert Stevens/Decrypt) At stake Unified? After surviving the “ vampire attack” fomented by its forked rival SushiSwap, decentralized trading platform Uniswap launched its own governance token, UNI, on Wednesday. Related: Blockchain Bites: The SEC's Chilling Effect on Crypto Development The platform has minted 1 billion coins to be distributed to founders, early users and future community members over the next four years. The token will be used to power on-chain governance decisions. “UNI officially enshrines Uniswap as publicly owned and self-sustainable infrastructure while continuing to carefully protect its indestructible and autonomous qualities,” the firm wrote. SushiSwap, a genetic twin to Uniswap, appeared on the scene as a real competitive threat – offering an incentive to participants to siphon liquidity from the dominant automated market maker (AMM). SushiSwap migrated over $800 million in crypto assets from Uniswap last week, with promises to be a fully decentralized rival to the “VC-backed” Uniswap. Observers of the battle expected Uniswap to respond by issuing its own governance token. Though some may be surprised at the speed at which this was executed. Following the announcement, the number of pending transactions on the Ethereum network spiked, and within three hours after the claim started, over 18,000 transactions were sent to the smart contract address of the UNI governance token . Binance, Huobi, OKEx, FTX (which is led by Sam Bankman-Fried, who has played a pivotal role in the SushiSwap saga) and Coinbase Pro have all added trading support for the new token. Both Sushi and Uni distinguish themselves from centralized exchanges like Coinbase by allowing users (called liquidity providers, or LPs) to deposit any digital asset onto the platform, receive interest and a cut of transaction fees in return. Coinbase, on the other hand, uses the more traditional order book format – where a user’s trade is matched up against a list, or book, of buys and sells, and executed at the best available price. Market intel Doubt prevails CoinDesk data shows bitcoin’s price fell to just under $10,900 in the Asian trading hours – not long after it had climbed to near $11,100. The drop is bitcoin’s latest failure around the key psychological hurdle and could be the result of prevailing doubts over the Federal Reserve’s ability to hit the 2% inflation target. Prevailing doubts over whether the Fed has what it takes to hit its 2% inflation target hit traditional markets and may have contributed to a bitcoin price drop early on Thursday. On average, officials don’t expect 2% inflation until 2023. Found funds PowerTrade, a mobile bitcoin options trading platform, raised $4.7 million via token sales in a round led by Pantera Capital and joined by Framework Ventures, CMS Holdings and QCP Capital among others. ParaSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, has completed a $2.7 million seed funding round joined by 32 investors including Blockchain Capital, Alameda Research, Arrington XRP Capital, Coinfund, CoinGecko, Aave founder Stani Kulechov and others. Tech pod Polemics and dots A token minting system – Polimec – is coming to the Polkadot blockchain ecosystem, promising to be a leaner, meaner version of Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard, the mechanism that launched a thousand token sales, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reports. Launched by the team behind blockchain identity protocol KILT, the token issuance and transfer framework is thought to eventually spur development on the Ethereum-competing layer 1. “If you look at what ERC-20 actually did to the Ethereum ecosystem, then you can imagine what will possibly happen with Polimec,” Ingo Ruebe, CEO of BOTLabs and project lead for KILT Protocol said. “It’s an absolutely essential part of the ecosystem, I would say.” The KILT mainnet, an identity solution expected to launch in 11 months, will be the first project to mint tokens using Polimec. Cascading blockchains Ava Labs is launching its Avalanche blockchain next Monday, Sept. 21, with aspirations of creating a new front for the development of decentralized finance applications. “Avalanche aims to enable new systems defined by velocity, efficient use of capital, and innovation in new products and services that aren’t possible with the current wait times to finalize transactions,” Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer told CoinDesk. “DeFi is certainly part of our motivation in the short term, with our long-term sights set on traditional finance.” The upcoming launch comes on the back of $60 million in funding, $45 million of which came from a July 2020 public token sale and private sale led by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Bitmain and Initialized Capital, CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports. Internet 2030 Vinay Gupta is CEO of Mattereum, an Ethereum-based physical asset management platform. He coordinated the Ethereum launch process and first worked in cryptocurrencies in the 1990s. The essay excerpted below is part of CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030” series exploring the ongoing digital revolution. Ecological Sanity Is Compatible With Human Freedom In the early days, Bitcoin proposed a simple model of how the world could be transformed: The free market was going to produce inflation-proof money with strong privacy features, which could be used to avoid taxes. Over time, people would sell their dollars, replace them with cryptocurrency and the State would wither away to be replaced with an anarchic paradise. That was one Bitcoin theory of change. It seems improbable now, as it did before, despite the current risk of game-changing inflation in America. The ship may be going down, and Bitcoin may be a life-raft for some (as it is in Venezuela), but the collapse was not caused by Bitcoin. It was caused by good old-fashioned mismanagement over decades. Still, given the waste and excess in society, it’s never been clearer how much the world needs cryptographic transparency. So what is our theory of change? How are we really going to get a better world out of all this exquisite technology? Our freedom rests on our ability to use technology to dig our way out of this hole: to increase our options by creating and deploying new supply-side technologies to create clean energy, and by radically re-engineering the demand side to hit our necessary consumption limits. The creativity of the market economy works, but instead of mere “price signaling” we need high-quality, multidimensional data so we can run a multidimensional market: money, carbon, other forms of impact, all inside of a single global budget, with infinite room for human creativity to prove we met our targets and live as well as we are able. Neither utopian nor dystopian, this is reality: You have markets, or you have authoritarianism. Carbon is a new constraint, and we either handle it like money and instruments well enough for creative response or face a future of blundering mandates. Ecological sanity is compatible with human freedom, but only if we deploy cryptography to manage the resource allocation. My hope is that, by 2030, these systems will be ready in enough countries that they’ll become standardized across the world, and we can go on together. Read the full story here. CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030” series examines the future of the medium and what role blockchain and crypto will play in it with content and conversations on the future of the decentralized web. If you are interested in submitting an op-ed for the series, please reach out directly to [email protected] . Podcast corner Governance battles In this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at the power competition between governments on the one hand and the decentralized network-driven finance alternatives that would reshape that power. Interestingly, in this competition corporations may play a role that benefits both sides at different times and in different ways. Who won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies Blockchain Bites: Uniswap’s Token, Kraken’s Bank, Bitcoin’s Newbies || Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD): Ripple’s XRP token is currently trading within a tight range with it using the daily 200 exponential moving average as support while the 50EMA is forming a point of resistance. At the time of writing the world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading at $0.25092 after suffering a 3.91% sell-off from the $0.2598 level of resistance. This means that in spite of the recent downtrend from its local high of $0.329, XRP remains in a neutral position on lower time frames as it decides its next course of action. Breaking above the daily 50EMA and the $0.2598 level would set up a positive move to the upside, with the next level after that coming in at $0.2835. XRPUSD on TradingView However, if XRP closes a daily or weekly candle below $0.2279, it would confirm a break down in price, which would see it enter a new bearish phase from a macro perspective. If the bearish scenario comes into fruition, XRP would most likely slide to below $0.20 following a lack of confidence and lack of momentum from buyers. It’s worth noting that XRP currently does follow the wider cryptocurrency market in terms of price action, which means that if Bitcoin suddenly makes a move back towards $12,000, XRP will likely begin to consolidate higher. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Latest Ripple price Current live XRP price information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Ripple price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – XRPtoUSD British Pound Sterling – XRPtoGBP Japanese Yen – XRPtoJPY Euro – XRPtoEUR Australian Dollar – XRPtoAUD Russian Rouble – XRPtoRUB Bitcoin – XRPtoBTC About Ripple (XRP) Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) developed by the Ripple company. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol. It can trace its roots to 2004 when a web developer called Ryan Fugger had the idea to create a monetary system that was decentralised and could effectively allow individuals to create their own money. Story continues Ripple is one of the largest cryptocurrencies and is one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. More Ripple news and information If you want to find out more information about Ripple or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s a recent article to get you started: https://coinrivet.com/ripple-ceo-brad-garlinghouse-hits-back-at-critics-xrp-is-not-a-security/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. || Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD): Ripple’s XRP token is currently trading within a tight range with it using the daily 200 exponential moving average as support while the 50EMA is forming a point of resistance. At the time of writing the world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading at $0.25092 after suffering a 3.91% sell-off from the $0.2598 level of resistance. This means that in spite of the recent downtrend from its local high of $0.329, XRP remains in a neutral position on lower time frames as it decides its next course of action. Breaking above the daily 50EMA and the $0.2598 level would set up a positive move to the upside, with the next level after that coming in at $0.2835. XRPUSD on TradingView However, if XRP closes a daily or weekly candle below $0.2279, it would confirm a break down in price, which would see it enter a new bearish phase from a macro perspective. If the bearish scenario comes into fruition, XRP would most likely slide to below $0.20 following a lack of confidence and lack of momentum from buyers. It’s worth noting that XRP currently does follow the wider cryptocurrency market in terms of price action, which means that if Bitcoin suddenly makes a move back towards $12,000, XRP will likely begin to consolidate higher. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Latest Ripple price Current live XRP price information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Ripple price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – XRPtoUSD British Pound Sterling – XRPtoGBP Japanese Yen – XRPtoJPY Euro – XRPtoEUR Australian Dollar – XRPtoAUD Russian Rouble – XRPtoRUB Bitcoin – XRPtoBTC About Ripple (XRP) Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) developed by the Ripple company. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol. It can trace its roots to 2004 when a web developer called Ryan Fugger had the idea to create a monetary system that was decentralised and could effectively allow individuals to create their own money. Story continues Ripple is one of the largest cryptocurrencies and is one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. More Ripple news and information If you want to find out more information about Ripple or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s a recent article to get you started: https://coinrivet.com/ripple-ceo-brad-garlinghouse-hits-back-at-critics-xrp-is-not-a-security/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not.
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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11094.35, 10938.27, 10462.26, 10538.46, 10246.19, 10760.07, 10692.72, 10750.72, 10775.27, 10709.65
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 657.59, 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13, 709.85, 723.27, 715.53, 716.41, 705.05, 702.03, 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83, 907.68, 777.76, 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94, 886.62, 899.07, 895.03, 921.79, 924.67.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-01-22]
Volume: 116573000, RSI (14-day): 55.26, 50-day EMA: 863.64, 200-day EMA: 721.54
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Giuliani as Trump's cybersecurity adviser is an unfunny joke: I had just finishedhacking the Gibsonwhen I heard the news: Rudy Giuliani, the guy who said he was gonnasolve cybersecurity, had just beennamed Trump's cyber adviser. I hopped onto our hacker mafia's government-proof encrypted chat app to make sure everyone knew that we were in real trouble. When I got no response from Mr. Robot or Anonymous, I got my rollerblades on and got out of my mom's basement as fast as possible.
I dialed our ringleader with a secret, anti-authority encrypted phone app while hacking all the traffic lights between here and his mom's basement as I raced over. When he picked up I blurted, "Stop hacking baby monitors and trying to crash the stock market!"
He yelled, "What?!" I realized I'd forgotten to take my balaclava off! I shouted that Big Rudy was the new hacker sheriff in town, and all us hackers were gonna have to go underground. Tears spilled down the front of my ninja costume as I wobbled on my 'blades, telling him our days of taking out the internet for lulz and raking in piles of Bitcoin from ransomed AOL accounts was over.
In reality, we have plenty of reasons to worry. Before Rudy Giuliani was named Donald Trump's official presidential cybersecurity adviser, the former New York City mayor had made a number of things crystal clear about his intentions toward hackers and the cybersecurity industry. For one, he'd been pretty up front about the fact that he got into cybersecurity dealmakingfor the money. Giuliani was emphatic over many years and at every opportunity that he was going to be the guy to "solve cybersecurity."
Hacking, he said on several occasions, waslike cancer. It was the worst word he could think of to call information security research. And finally, he never wavered from his belief that hackers were not onlylike the mafia, but that they could never, ever be trusted -- especially "reformed" hackers. Giuliani always made sure that people knew he couldn't be fooled by that principle of the justice system.
All his talk of hackers as permanent criminals spreading cancer has no doubt bolstered the beliefs of conservatives in Trump's extreme right pocket, who didn't need help imagining pedophiles and lawless balaclava-wearing basement dwellers (or Asians in faraway hives). Like most things we've seen come out of Trump's surreal fright show, Giuliani's working hard to encourage that people and press wallow in these manipulative, lurid fantasies.
That's why most hackers and infosec professionals found it all kinds of disturbing that Trump will be using Giuliani as his go-to for advice on all things cyber. It's not just that hecounts one of his qualifications as the fact that he's given over 300 speecheson how everyone's ignoring the scourge of hacking. Giuliani's not great at following advice when it comes to security. When he was advised against moving New York City's emergency services into the World Trade Center because it wasn't a good call, he did it anyway. Right before 9/11.
It didn't make anyone in the infosec sectors feel better when Giuliani announced he would be forming a cybersecurity team for the president-elect. Rudy isn't exactly a team player when it comes to computer-security matters. When the NYPD commissioner built a "computer statistics" system for crime, Giuliani did the equivalent of having him banished -- forcing him out -- toprevent credit going to anyone but Giuliani.
According to the Trump transition team'sofficial announcement, Rudy's team will advise the leader of the free world on issues "concerning private sector cybersecurity problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector."
Things only got worse when, the minute the announcement was made, infosec denizens didimpromptu security assessmentsof Gulianisecurity.com and Gulianipartners.com. Both servers were described as having sat for years with theequivalent of a "hack me" sign on them-- meaning that both were likely hacked long ago. Thelaundry listof years-old unpatched vulnerabilities, nearly two dozen active exploits, andoverall security failureswas astonishing.
Team Giuliani didn't respond to all the public attention around the nearly-comic website security failings of both sites. By January 14th, both Gulianisecurity.com and Gulianipartners.com suddenly failed to resolve in DNS, making both sites unavailable to the public. But, as of this writing, the server addresses remained (just visit http://209.238.99.227/), showing that whoever attempted to pull the sites only removed the DNS entry -- but left Giuliani's vulnerable servers online.
Whether or not Giuliani manages those servers himself is beside the point: This is the worst possible resume anyone in this position could have. It's embarrassing and avoidable and displays a blatant disregard for even the most basic cybersecurity practices. It is the behavior of someone who carelessly believes he is an exception to the rules everyone else must live by. It sends a terrible message to an industry struggling for both legitimacy and a voice with regard to US policy, and in every way possible.
Giuliani has been interested in cybersecurity sincehe read an FBI report in 2003predicting a hacking crimewave, and instantly decided he needed to build a business around it. That business was Giuliani Partners, a security consulting company. His naming to Trump's post comes one week after Giuliani Partners announced itsnew partnership with Blackberry. The recently released Blackberry Secure platform will provide the underlying software for Giuliani Partners' cybersecurity-consulting product, whatever that will be.
Under these auspices, the future of cybersecurity policy looks dark. Given how much Giuliani hates hackers and believes he's the king of cops, we can probably expect to see the cyber version of "stop and frisk" coming out of Trump's inevitably opportunistic Giuliani-led Cybersecurity Working Group.
It's clear the new powers-that-be don't think very highly of hackers and hacking. Nor do they understand the subtleties of how hackers are actually the entire underpinning of infosec, let alone how important it is to this sector that someone like Giuliani models even the most basic website security. By Giuliani saying stupid things about infosec while pretending entire hacking communities didn't just call out his own cybersecurity as literally the worst possible ever, he's a complete hypocrite for even stepping into the ring. And if there's anything that gets exposed faster and louder than an anti-gay senator on Grindr, it's hypocrisy in security.
This is a business and culture that believes the teeny-tiniest details really matter and has witnessed firsthand that one careless step can topple businesses and ruin lives. Unlike Rudy Giuliani, the people in cybersecurity have dedicated everything to giving a shit about getting things right.
So if Giuliani and his sideshow of opportunists want to think of hackers as some kind of criminal cancer, they're doomed from the start. Thought pieces by armchair infosec pundits cantry to tell usGiuliani should be taken seriously in this role all they want. But I can't think of doing anything worse for the future of cybersecurity right now.
Images: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images (Lead image); United Artists/Getty Images (Hackers movie still); REUTERS/Mike Segar (Giuliani and Trump). || Giuliani as Trump's cybersecurity adviser is an unfunny joke: I had just finished hacking the Gibson when I heard the news: Rudy Giuliani, the guy who said he was gonna solve cybersecurity , had just been named Trump's cyber adviser . I hopped onto our hacker mafia's government-proof encrypted chat app to make sure everyone knew that we were in real trouble. When I got no response from Mr. Robot or Anonymous, I got my rollerblades on and got out of my mom's basement as fast as possible. I dialed our ringleader with a secret, anti-authority encrypted phone app while hacking all the traffic lights between here and his mom's basement as I raced over. When he picked up I blurted, "Stop hacking baby monitors and trying to crash the stock market!" He yelled, "What?!" I realized I'd forgotten to take my balaclava off! I shouted that Big Rudy was the new hacker sheriff in town, and all us hackers were gonna have to go underground. Tears spilled down the front of my ninja costume as I wobbled on my 'blades, telling him our days of taking out the internet for lulz and raking in piles of Bitcoin from ransomed AOL accounts was over. In reality, we have plenty of reasons to worry. Before Rudy Giuliani was named Donald Trump's official presidential cybersecurity adviser, the former New York City mayor had made a number of things crystal clear about his intentions toward hackers and the cybersecurity industry. For one, he'd been pretty up front about the fact that he got into cybersecurity dealmaking for the money . Giuliani was emphatic over many years and at every opportunity that he was going to be the guy to " solve cybersecurity. " Hacking, he said on several occasions, was like cancer . It was the worst word he could think of to call information security research. And finally, he never wavered from his belief that hackers were not only like the mafia , but that they could never, ever be trusted -- especially "reformed" hackers. Giuliani always made sure that people knew he couldn't be fooled by that principle of the justice system. Story continues All his talk of hackers as permanent criminals spreading cancer has no doubt bolstered the beliefs of conservatives in Trump's extreme right pocket, who didn't need help imagining pedophiles and lawless balaclava-wearing basement dwellers (or Asians in faraway hives). Like most things we've seen come out of Trump's surreal fright show, Giuliani's working hard to encourage that people and press wallow in these manipulative, lurid fantasies. That's why most hackers and infosec professionals found it all kinds of disturbing that Trump will be using Giuliani as his go-to for advice on all things cyber. It's not just that he counts one of his qualifications as the fact that he's given over 300 speeches on how everyone's ignoring the scourge of hacking. Giuliani's not great at following advice when it comes to security. When he was advised against moving New York City's emergency services into the World Trade Center because it wasn't a good call, he did it anyway. Right before 9/11. It didn't make anyone in the infosec sectors feel better when Giuliani announced he would be forming a cybersecurity team for the president-elect. Rudy isn't exactly a team player when it comes to computer-security matters. When the NYPD commissioner built a "computer statistics" system for crime, Giuliani did the equivalent of having him banished -- forcing him out -- to prevent credit going to anyone but Giuliani . According to the Trump transition team's official announcement , Rudy's team will advise the leader of the free world on issues "concerning private sector cybersecurity problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector." Things only got worse when, the minute the announcement was made, infosec denizens did impromptu security assessments of Gulianisecurity.com and Gulianipartners.com. Both servers were described as having sat for years with the equivalent of a "hack me" sign on them -- meaning that both were likely hacked long ago. The laundry list of years-old unpatched vulnerabilities, nearly two dozen active exploits, and overall security failures was astonishing. Team Giuliani didn't respond to all the public attention around the nearly-comic website security failings of both sites. By January 14th, both Gulianisecurity.com and Gulianipartners.com suddenly failed to resolve in DNS, making both sites unavailable to the public. But, as of this writing, the server addresses remained (just visit http://209.238.99.227/), showing that whoever attempted to pull the sites only removed the DNS entry -- but left Giuliani's vulnerable servers online. Whether or not Giuliani manages those servers himself is beside the point: This is the worst possible resume anyone in this position could have. It's embarrassing and avoidable and displays a blatant disregard for even the most basic cybersecurity practices. It is the behavior of someone who carelessly believes he is an exception to the rules everyone else must live by. It sends a terrible message to an industry struggling for both legitimacy and a voice with regard to US policy, and in every way possible. Giuliani has been interested in cybersecurity since he read an FBI report in 2003 predicting a hacking crimewave, and instantly decided he needed to build a business around it. That business was Giuliani Partners, a security consulting company. His naming to Trump's post comes one week after Giuliani Partners announced its new partnership with Blackberry . The recently released Blackberry Secure platform will provide the underlying software for Giuliani Partners' cybersecurity-consulting product, whatever that will be. Under these auspices, the future of cybersecurity policy looks dark. Given how much Giuliani hates hackers and believes he's the king of cops, we can probably expect to see the cyber version of "stop and frisk" coming out of Trump's inevitably opportunistic Giuliani-led Cybersecurity Working Group. It's clear the new powers-that-be don't think very highly of hackers and hacking. Nor do they understand the subtleties of how hackers are actually the entire underpinning of infosec, let alone how important it is to this sector that someone like Giuliani models even the most basic website security. By Giuliani saying stupid things about infosec while pretending entire hacking communities didn't just call out his own cybersecurity as literally the worst possible ever, he's a complete hypocrite for even stepping into the ring. And if there's anything that gets exposed faster and louder than an anti-gay senator on Grindr, it's hypocrisy in security. This is a business and culture that believes the teeny-tiniest details really matter and has witnessed firsthand that one careless step can topple businesses and ruin lives. Unlike Rudy Giuliani, the people in cybersecurity have dedicated everything to giving a shit about getting things right. So if Giuliani and his sideshow of opportunists want to think of hackers as some kind of criminal cancer, they're doomed from the start. Thought pieces by armchair infosec pundits can try to tell us Giuliani should be taken seriously in this role all they want. But I can't think of doing anything worse for the future of cybersecurity right now. Images: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images (Lead image); United Artists/Getty Images (Hackers movie still); REUTERS/Mike Segar (Giuliani and Trump). || Bill Gates' Stock Portfolio: - By Ben Reynolds (Published Jan. 20 by Bob Ciura) Bill Gates ( Trades , Portfolio ) is the richest man in the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has a massive $18.5 billion endowment. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with BRK.A. Click here to check it out. BRK.A 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of BRK.A Peter Lynch Chart of BRK.A That kind of wealth is something of which the vast majority of us can only dream. However, there is one similarity between the everyday investor and the wealthiest person on the planet: We're all looking for good stocks to buy and hold for the long term. Gates is a personal friend of Warren Buffett ( Trades , Portfolio ) so it's no surprise to see the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation take a similar approach to investing as the Oracle of Omaha. You can see Buffett's top 20 high-yield dividend stocks analyzed here. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation owns several highly profitable companies with sustainable competitive advantages. Many of the stocks also pay dividends to shareholders and grow their dividend payouts over time. Without further ado, here are the top 16 stocks held by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. No. 1: Berkshire Hathaway Dividend yield: N/A. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 58%. Price-earnings (P/E) ratio: 17. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) stock takes up the majority of Gates' investment portfolio, and it is easy to see why. It's safe to say the money is in good hands. Berkshire, under Buffett's stewardship, grew from a struggling textile manufacturer into one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Since Berkshire's current management team took the helm 51 years ago, the company's per-share book value rose from $19 to $155,501, a rate of 19.2% compounded annually. Today, Berkshire is a global giant. It owns and operates dozens of businesses with a hand in nearly every major industry including insurance, railroads, energy, finance, manufacturing and retailing. Story continues A breakdown of Berkshire's various operating segments is as follows: Sales and Services (51% of revenue). Insurance Premiums (20% of revenue). Railroad, Utilities, and Energy (19% of revenue). Interest, Dividend, and Other Investment Income (2% of revenue). Financial Product Sales (3% of revenue). Investment and Derivatives (5% of revenue). In Berkshire's annual letters to shareholders, Buffett typically evaluates the company's performance in terms of book value. Book value is an accounting metric that measures a company's assets minus its liabilities. The resulting difference is a company's book value. This is a proxy for the intrinsic value of a firm, which Buffett believes to be the most important financial metric. Over the past five years, Berkshire has done a great job growing assets faster than liabilities, which builds shareholder wealth. BRKA Growth Source: 2015 Annual Report, page 36 Berkshire doesn't pay a dividend to shareholders. Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) have always contended that they can create wealth at a higher rate than the dividend would provide to shareholders. There are few managers who can say that and get away with it, but Buffett and Munger might be the only two who can. While Berkshire stock may not be attractive for investors who want dividend income, there are few companies that have a track record nearly as successful as Berkshire. No. 2: Waste Management Dividend yield: 2.4%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 6.5%. P/E ratio: 27. Waste Management Inc. ( WM ) is the embodiment of a company with a wide economic moat. It operates in waste removal and recycling services. This is a highly concentrated industry with only a few companies controlling the majority of the market. Waste Management services many different industry groups, which are organized as follows: Collection (55% of revenue). Landfill (19% of revenue). Transfer (9% of revenue). Recycling (8% of revenue). Other (9% of revenue). The company is performing well. Over the first three quarters of 2016, revenue and earnings per share increased 3.6% and 8.8%. Waste Management operates in a stable and necessary industry. Waste removal is extremely capital intensive and is subject to significant regulatory oversight. These competitive advantages allow Waste Management to generate steady profits even when the U.S. economy enters recession. WM Essential Source: JPMorgan Industrials Conference presentation, page 14 Waste Management's high margins and consistent cash flow put the company in a strong financial position. It has reduced its debt significantly in the past several years. WM Debt Source: JPMorgan Industrials Conference presentation, page 17 With less debt to worry about, there is more cash flow left over each year. It uses this cash flow to invest in the business and for shareholder cash returns. WM Capital Allocation Source: JP Morgan Industrials Conference presentation, page On Dec. 15, the company raised its dividend by 4% and added $750 million to its share repurchase program. Waste Management is a Dividend Achiever. Dividend Achievers are companies that have raised dividends for 10 years or more. You can see the entire list of all 272 Dividend Achievers here. For its part, Waste Management has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. The stock currently has a 2.5% dividend yield. Waste Management isn't a cheap stock. Its share price has soared over the past several years. But it still has an above-average dividend yield, and the company is growing. No. 3: Canadian National Railway Dividend yield: 1.6%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 6.1%. P/E ratio: 20. Canadian National Railway ( CNI ) is the only transcontinental railway in North America. It has a massive network, which includes more than 19,000 miles that spans Canada and the U.S. CNI Network Source: Investor Presentation, page 7 The company offers a full range of services including rail, intermodal, trucking, warehousing and distribution. Canadian National has an excellent business. From 2011 to 2015, it grew revenue and adjusted earnings per share at a 9% and 16% compound annual rate. It generated this growth from executing a number of operational strategies. First, it placed focus on improving productivity. CNI Productivity Source: Investor Presentation, page 9 This has allowed the company to boost volumes and revenue. Furthermore, Canadian National produces industry-leading margins, thanks to its lean cost structure. CNI Cost Source: Investor Presentation, page 12 One factor negatively impacting the company right now is that it is exposed to commodities, specifically coal. Coal revenue declined 32% in the third quarter, year over year. Moreover, revenue for energy and mining fell 13% and 20% last quarter. That being said, the company's diverse customer base and operational excellence more than offset the declines in its commodity-based segments. Canadian National's operating expenses declined 7% last quarter. Operating ratio reached a record 53.3% last quarter. Free cash flow over the first three quarters of 2016 remained steady with the same nine-month period in 2015. The company expects to post flat adjusted earnings per share in 2016. This in itself would be a notable accomplishment given the steep declines in oil and coal shipments. With its hefty margins, Canadian National generates significant cash flow, and its shareholder-friendly management actively deploys this cash flow to investors. Dividends per share have nearly doubled in that same five-year period. The company is one of the best dividend growth stocks in Canada. Canadian National certainly isn't a flashy business. Railroads may be overlooked by many investors for being boring, but Canadian National's shareholder returns prove that boring can be beautiful. No. 4: Caterpillar Dividend yield: 3.3%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 5.4%. P/E ratio: 31 (forward P/E ratio). Caterpillar ( CAT ) is a strong brand with a dominant industry position. It manufactures heavy machinery, mostly to the construction and mining sectors. 2016 was a year to forget for Caterpillar. The sharp downturn in precious metals prices weighed heavily on demand for heavy machinery. For example, Caterpillar's earnings per share fell by nearly half in the third quarter. CAT Third Quarter Source: Credit Suisse Industrials Conference presentation, page 4 Separately Caterpillar is being negatively impacted by slowing growth in emerging markets and the strong U.S. dollar. As a result, full-year revenue is expected to decline 29% in 2016. These headwinds are expected to persist in 2017 although there is potential for a recovery. CAT Forecast Source: Credit Suisse Industrials Conference presentation, page 7 Fortunately, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. There are hopes that Caterpillar will return to growth in 2017. One catalyst could be a renewed emphasis on fiscal stimulus in the U.S. The incoming administration may pursue policies to stimulate the U.S. economy. This could include more infrastructure spending and perhaps a push for more lax regulations on the energy and mining industries, which are among Caterpillar's biggest customers. Separately higher commodity prices would be a major boost. In the meantime, investors are paid well to wait for Caterpillar's turnaround to materialize, and the company enjoys economies of scale. This provides it with the financial flexibility to cut costs so that it can maintain its dividend. Caterpillar forecasts over $1 billion in cost savings this year alone, mostly in manufacturing and headcount reductions. The company may not raise its dividend until economic conditions improve, but its solid 3.3% dividend yield is secure. No. 5: Walmart Stores Dividend yield: 3%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 4.5%. P/E ratio: 15. Walmart is another great example of a company with durable competitive advantages. It is the largest retailer in the world with annual revenue of approximately $500 billion. The company came to dominate the retail industry by keeping a laserlike focus on reducing costs everywhere, particularly in supply chain and distribution. This allowed Walmart to offer consistently lower prices than its competitors ever could. In turn, it steadily devoured market share until it became the giant it is today. Walmart's growth has slowed over the past year. The company is investing billions to pay higher wages, and renovate its stores. This will limit Walmart's earnings growth. As a result, some might assume Walmart's best days are behind it. After all, a behemoth as large as Walmart will naturally have difficulty continuing to grow at a rapid pace. But there are still growth catalysts for the company to look forward to, specifically in e-commerce and small stores. Walmart acquired Jet.com for $3 billion to boost its e-commerce business, especially in emerging markets like China. WMT Jet Source: Investor Community Meeting presentation, page 4 E-commerce revenue growth accelerated throughout the year. In the third fiscal quarter, e-commerce sales increased 20.6% year over year. Domestic growth is starting to pick up again, thanks to e-commerce and also Walmart's small-store franchise. The company's Neighborhood Markets small-store banner grew comparable sales by 5.2% last quarter, well above the 1.2% companywide growth rate. Walmart remains highly profitable and very resistant to recessions. Consumers tend to scale down to discount retail when times are tight, which is why Walmart continued to grow, even during the Great Recession. This allows Walmart to pay a solid 3% dividend yield and raise its dividend each year like clockwork. Walmart has raised its dividend for 43 years in a row. Its long history of dividend growth qualifies Walmart as a Dividend Aristocrat, a group of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 that have raised dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. You can see the entire list of all 50 Dividend Aristocrats here. The stock has an appealing P/E ratio of 14. No. 6: Ecolab Dividend yield: 1.3%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 2.9%. P/E ratio: 32. Ecolab ( ECL ) is a commercial cleaning products firm. It operates in three segments: Global Industrial (36% of revenue). Global Institutional (35% of revenue). Global Energy (23% of revenue). Other (6% of revenue). The Other category includes pest elimination and equipment care. The Global Industrial group provides water treatment, cleaning and sanitation services to large industrial firms. The industrial customer base is made up primarily of food and beverage, manufacturing, chemical and mining companies. The Global Institutional business services specialized products and services to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, health care and retail industries. This segment manufactures products for things like laundry and housekeeping. The Global Energy segment holds the company's Nalco brand. Nalco provides chemical and water treatment services to the oil and gas industry. Going forward, Ecolab is focusing on international growth. Expanding in new markets has been a core priority for the company in recent years. Nearly half the company's revenue comes from outside the U.S. One of the best aspects of Ecolab's business is its consistency. Providing cleaning products and services is a steady business. Customers need Ecolab's services, regardless of the condition of the U.S. economy. This means Ecolab is a recession-resistant business. In fact, the company grew earnings per share each year from 2007 to 2010. It didn't skip a beat, even during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Its reliable earnings growth allows the company to raise its dividend each year. In fact, Ecolab has paid a dividend for 80 years without interruption. It raises its dividend regularly. The company recently passed along a 6% dividend increase, marking its 25th consecutive year of dividend increases. Ecolab qualifies as a Dividend Aristocrat. The stock has a dividend yield of just 1.2%, which is on the low side. Its valuation is a bit high with a P/E ratio above 30. Investors may want to wait for a better buying opportunity, but Ecolab is a high-quality company. It is the largest operator in its industry, which provides competitive advantages. No. 7: FedEx Dividend yield: 0.9%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 2.9%. P/E ratio: 27. FedEx ( FDX ) is yet another example of a company with a strong economic moat. It operates in global logistics, essentially an oligopoly. It would be extremely difficult financially for a company to build out a fleet large enough to compete on the scale of FedEx. FedEx generates more than $50 billion in annual revenue. It has more than 400,000 employees and services more than 220 nations and territories around the world. The company has a diversified business model. It operates the following four segments: Express (52% of revenue). Ground (33% of revenue). Freight (12% of revenue). Services (3% of revenue). FedEx maintains a modest outlook for the global economy going forward. Economic growth is expected to be weak but remain positive. One growth catalyst that will help fuel future growth is FedEx's booming ground business, thanks to e-commerce. FDX Ground Source: Roadshow Presentation, page 8 FedEx notes the e-commerce market is growing at a 16% annual rate. Plus the company has captured additional revenue market share gains in ground shipping for 17 consecutive years. In addition, the company is countering sluggish global economic growth by cutting costs. Margins are up consistently over the past several years. FDX Margins Source: Roadshow Presentation, page 5 One downside for FedEx is that it has a very low dividend yield of less than 1%. It yields less than half the 2% average yield in the S&P 500. The company helps make up for this with dividend growth. For example, it raised its dividend by 60% in 2016. While FedEx might not be an appealing stock to income investors, it is a high-quality company with a strong business model. Earnings per share are expected to rise 21% in fiscal 2016. With this kind of earnings growth, FedEx stock can generate more than satisfactory returns, even without a significant dividend yield. No. 8: Crown Castle International Dividend yield: 4.3%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 2.7%. P/E ratio: 17. Crown Castle International Corp. ( CCI ) is a real estate investment trust (REIT). It provides infrastructure assets to wireless communications carriers. It has approximately 40,000 towers and 26,500 route miles of fiber supporting small cells. The company operates in an appealing area because wireless communications is a growth industry. U.S. consumers can't do without their smartphones, and Crown Castle is one of the companies reaping the benefits. Crown Castle has been investing additional capital in its infrastructure in several major U.S. markets. One example is Chicago. CCI Chicago Source: 3Q Earnings presentation, page 4 This investment across the U.S. was done to accommodate higher demand for wireless services, and the investment has paid off with strong growth rates. It is enjoying higher occupancy and rising rents as well. Revenue and adjusted funds from operation (FFO) increased 6% and 17% in the third quarter. Management has an optimistic forecast for the next two years based on strong growth for the wireless industry. Higher leasing rates and price increases should fuel solid growth in 2016 and 2017. Revenue is expected to increase 7% in 2016 and 3% in 2017. Adjusted FFO is expected to grow 10% this year and 6% in 2017. One consideration for investors going forward is the risk of rising interest rates. REITs like Crown Castle rely heavily on debt financing. When interest rates rise, so too does the cost of capital. This could inhibit the company's growth in future quarters. Still, the company operates in an industry with healthy fundamentals. It should be able to continue growing above its cost of capital and create wealth for shareholders. Crown Castle is a strong stock for dividends and dividend growth. Its current yield exceeds 4%, and it recently raised its dividend by 7%. No. 9: United Parcel Service Dividend yield: 2.7%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 2.7%. P/E ratio: 21. The global logistics industry is dominated by three companies. FedEx is one, and so is UPS. In fact, UPS is the industry leader; its market capitalization is $100 billion, which is double FedEx's market cap. Like FedEx, UPS is benefiting from e-commerce. UPS' domestic package revenue increased 4.8% in the third quarter year over year. This drove 3.6% earnings per share growth for the period. Another emerging growth catalyst for UPS is international growth. UPS International Source: R.W. Baird 2016 Industrials Conference, page 9 UPS is growing international revenue and a rapid pace, and it has significantly improved margins in its overseas operations. For example, UPS' international segment now represents 28% of its operating profit, up from just 6% in 2000. Lastly, UPS plans to grow through acquisitions. The company recently acquired Marken, a supply chain solutions provider to the life sciences industry. UPS Marken Source: R.W. Baird 2016 Industrials Conference, page 5 The acquisition further diversifies UPS' customer base by expanding its presence in health care and pharmaceutical logistics. One concern for investors in 2017 is the risk of global recession. UPS is widely viewed as an economic bellwether. Global uncertainty levels rose as 2016 drew to a close. If the economy enters recession in 2017 or beyond, it would significant affect UPS. Barring a global recession, UPS has a positive outlook. UPS stock is reasonably valued and has a solid dividend. The stock has a P/E ratio of 20. It is cheaper than the S&P 500, which has an average P/E ratio of 26. UPS stock has a 2.7% dividend yield. This is a big advantage over main rival FedEx, which has a much smaller dividend yield. UPS has a long history of paying consistent dividends. It has either increased or maintained its cash dividend for 47 years. Its dividend has risen more than fourfold since 2000. No. 10: Coca-Cola FEMSA SAB Dividend yield: 3%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 2.5%. P/E ratio: 28. Coca-Cola FEMSA ( KOF ) produces, markets and distributes Coca-Cola ( KO ) beverages. It offers the full line of sparkling and still beverages. It sells its products through distribution centers and retailers in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines. Coca-Cola FEMSA is the largest franchise bottler in the world. The stock is an excellent way to gain exposure to two appealing emerging markets: Latin America and South Asia. KOF Markets Source: Investor Kit presentation, page 2 These markets are growing at high rates for the company. Over the first nine months of 2016, total revenue and operating cash flow rose 7.8% and 6.6%. Revenue growth was driven largely by price increases. Coca-Cola FEMSA is in a strong financial position with low levels of debt and positive free cash flow. In addition, carrying the Coca-Cola brand allows it to generate high margins and enjoy pricing power. KOF Financials Source: Investor Kit presentation, page 23 This allows the company to consistently raise its dividend each year. One risk factor on which investors should keep an eye going forward is a potential change in consumer preferences. Coca-Cola FEMSA sells and distributes water and noncarbonated beverages, but more than 75% of the company's annual sales come from carbonated soft drinks. The emerging markets are high-growth economies with expanding middle classes. Citizens are enjoying rising standards of living. Once these markets become more mature, there could be a risk of consumers changing their dietary habits. Soda sales have declined in the U.S. for more than a decade. Coca-Cola's growth is struggling from this trend, which could become a challenge for Coca-Cola FEMSA moving forward. That being said, Coca-Cola FEMSA is still firmly in high-growth mode. No. 11: Grupo Televisa SAB Dividend Yield: 0.5%. Percentage of Bill Gates (Trades, Portfolio)' Portfolio: 2.3%. P/E ratio: 31 (Forward P/E). Grupo Televisa SAB (TV) is a diversified media conglomerate. In all, Televisa operates 26 pay-TV brands and television networks, cable operators and over-the-top services in over 50 countries. In the U.S., it operates Univision. In addition, Televisa owns a majority interest in Sky, a satellite television provider in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Central America. Televisa also has operations in magazine publishing, radio broadcasting, professional sports, live entertainment, film production and gaming. It operates four business segments: Content (36% of revenue). Sky (22% of revenue). Cable (33% of revenue). Other (9% of revenue). The company is enjoying strong growth, thanks largely to high economic growth in Mexico and several Latin American markets. In 2015, net sales and segment operating income increased 9.9% and 10.6%. Growth has continued in 2016. Net sales and segment operating income rose 6.6% and 4.1% in the third quarter. The company's strongest businesses are Sky, Cable and Other, each of which posted double-digit revenue growth in the third quarter. Content segment revenue was flat in the third quarter although it did see 20% growth in network subscription revenue. However, this was offset by declines in advertising and licensing. The licensing business was affected by difficult comparisons. For example, licensing revenue fell 10% last quarter for Univision, since the comparable 2015 quarter included a major soccer tournament in Mexico. Televisa is a strong brand and has a fundamental advantage, thanks to its geographic focus. As a result, it is a compelling growth stock, for investors interested in international diversification. While it does not pay much of a dividend to shareholders, Televisa's return potential is still significant, thanks to its rapid growth. No. 12: Walgreens Boots Alliance Dividend yield: 1.8%. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 1.5%. P/E ratio: 22. It is no surprise to see Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) on the list of Gates' holdings because it is an industry giant. Walgreens Boots Alliance came together in the $9 billion merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots in 2014. The merger was a great move for the two companies. Walgreens is the biggest pharmacy operator in the U.S., and Alliance Boots was a top European pharmacy and distributor. When the two joined forces, it allowed the combined company to reach a global scale. Walgreens Boots now has three separate businesses, each of which are very large: Retail Pharmacy USA ($83.8 billion in annual sales, 70% of revenue). Retail Pharmacy International ($13.3 billion in annual sales, 11% of revenue). Pharmaceutical Wholesale ($22.6 billion in annual sales, 19% of revenue). The company performed well in fiscal 2016. Revenue and earnings per share, adjusted for currency and non-recurring costs, increased 16% and 18%. It is off to a good start in fiscal 2017 as well, thanks largely to the U.S. retail pharmacy operation. That segment posted 2.5% growth in pharmacy sales and 3% prescription growth in the 2017 first fiscal quarter. Going forward, Walgreens Boots intends to invest more in its beauty departments to help drive higher traffic. WBA Pharmacy Source: Q1 2017 Earnings presentation, page 8 There could be more transformational deals in the near future. The company has a pending deal to acquire fierce competitor Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) for $17 billion. Walgreens Boots has a below-average dividend yield, and the P/E ratio significantly exceeds the retail industry average. One of Buffett's favorite sayings is that price is what you pay, value is what you get. Walgreens Boots enjoys several competitive advantages, high profit margins and a strong brand. These qualities make it a valuable stock to own as part of a dividend growth portfolio. No. 13: Liberty Global Group Dividend yield: N/A. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 1%. P/E ratio: 23. Liberty Global (LBTYA) is the largest international television and Internet provider. In all, the company operates in 30 countries and generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue. The company and its various subsidiaries provide service to 29 million customers. Its core brand in Europe is Virgin Media. It also has the Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC brands. Liberty Global is split up into two businesses, which are Liberty Global Group and LiLAC. Liberty Global includes its European operations, and LiLAC houses its Latin America and Caribbean business. Each segment - Liberty Global Group and LiLAC - have three share classes each. This share class corresponds to the Liberty Global Group. The European economy is on shaky ground broadly speaking with weak economic growth and the uncertainty presented by the Brexit vote. But television and Internet is a growth industry because of the low levels of market penetration. There are still many parts of Europe with untapped growth potential. In turn, Liberty Global is rapidly adding customers. LBTYK Customer Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 5 Year-to-date additions rose 50% through the third quarter. As far as future growth is concerned, there is plenty of runway left. Liberty expects to add more than 5 million new households from 2016 to 2018. This aggressive expansion will require significant capital investment. The company plans to spend $2 billion over the next two years to build up its customer base, but the payoff is growth. LBTYK Europe Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 15 Liberty Global realized growth in revenue and cash flow over the first three quarters of 2016. Growth accelerated as the year went by with the fourth quarter expected to be the highest-growth period for the year. The company is investing large amounts of capital. There will be little cash flow to spare over the next two years, which is why the stock does not pay a dividend. Investors looking for income may want to select a different telecom stock that pays dividends, and there are many to choose from. But Liberty Global could conceivably start paying a dividend at some point in the not-too-distant future, once its aggressive expansion period ends. In the meantime, the stock is reasonably valued and could generate double-digit earnings growth. Revenue is growing at a high rate, and Liberty Global will use more than $2 billion to buy back stock next year. This earnings growth means investors can earn satisfactory returns moving forward even without the benefit of a dividend. No. 14: AutoNation Dividend yield: N/A. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 0.5%. P/E ratio: 13. AutoNation Inc. (AN) is America's largest automotive retailer. It owns and operates over 360 new vehicle franchises in 16 states. The company operates five segments: AN Segments Source: 2015 Annual Report, page 5 AutoNation has been successful growing the business over the past five years. From 2011 to 2015, sales and earnings per share increased by 8.5% and 15% per year. The company has benefited greatly from a strong operating environment. Auto sales are near a record, driven by attractive product offerings, access to affordable credit thanks to low interest rates and lower fuel prices. The market climate is supportive of auto sales, which is why new and used vehicle sales both increased 9% for AutoNation in 2015. Going forward, the company is in the process of rolling out its Brand Extension strategy. This involves further expanding its stand-alone preowned vehicle sales and service centers, branded parts and accessories, branded collision centers and its auto auction businesses. To help accomplish this, AutoNation recently announced the acquisition of three Premium Luxury franchises, one collision center and three Premium Luxury franchise add points. The assets acquired hold combined annual revenue potential of at least $430 million. Separately, the company is building its digital channel platform AutoNation Express. Digital channel sales now account for nearly 30% of vehicle sales. AutoNation does not pay a dividend, but it does return cash to shareholders through stock buybacks. The company has $316 million left on its current share price authorization, which amounts to approximately 6% of its market capitalization. All things being equal, AutoNation's buybacks will boost earnings per share by an additional 6% over the next year. The stock is cheap at a P/E ratio of 13. As a result, the combination of earnings growth and expansion of the valuation multiple, could lead to double-digit annualized returns going forward. No. 15: Liberty LiLAC Group Dividend yield: N/A. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 0.16%. P/E ratio: 23. This share class corresponds to Liberty Global's LiLAC (LILAK) operating segment. LiLAC includes Liberty Global's Latin America and Caribbean businesses under the brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. These are currently a small part of the overall business. LiLAC represents approximately 13% of Liberty Global's total annual revenue, but there is a lot of growth potential up ahead. LiLAC is poised to become a much bigger part of the company going forward as a result of the 2016 acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications. The $7.4 billion deal added more than 10 million new customers in Latin America and the Caribbean. The CWC acquisition presents cost synergy opportunities. LILAC Synergies Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 12 As a result, LiLAC's year-to-date revenue and operating cash flow doubled year over year through the third quarter. Another growth catalyst for LiLAC is to increase bundling of services. Nearly half of LiLAC's customers purchase only one service. The company will seek to expand on this moving forward. LILAC Bundling Source: Investor relations Bundling services is lucrative for telecommunications providers, which is why the practice is so common in the U.S. Liberty Global has a much higher percentage of triple-play customers in Europe, and it has served the company well. Like Liberty Global, LiLAC uses its cash flow to reinvest in the business and support its balance sheet. It does not pay a dividend. That being said, LiLAC also offers investors attractive return potential, from its future revenue and earnings growth. The company expects to increase operating cash flow by 7% to 9% each year over the next few years. No. 16: Arcos Dorados Holdings Dividend yield: N/A. Percentage of Gates' portfolio: 0.1%. P/E ratio: 18. Last but not least is Arcos Dorados (ARCO). Investors might not immediately recognize Arcos Dorados by its name, but they will certainly understand its business. Arcos Dorados is a holding company. Collectively, it is the largest McDonald's (MCD) franchisee in the world in terms of number of restaurants. It has the exclusive right to own and operate McDonald's restaurants in 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries and territories. In all, it operates or franchises over 2,100 McDonald's restaurants. Its geographic split is as follows: Brazil (45% of revenue). South Latin America Division (28% of revenue). Caribbean (14% of revenue). North Latin America Division (13% of revenue). Many of the countries in which Arcos Dorados operates are emerging markets. For example, sales in South Latin America and the Caribbean rose 24% and 27.6% through the first nine months of 2016. One downside for Arcos Dorados investors is that the stock does not pay a dividend. This might seem like a deal breaker since McDonald's itself is a legendary dividend stock. The upside for Arcos Dorados is that it is growing much faster than McDonald's. For example, on a constant-currency basis, revenue rose 15.3% in the third quarter. Some of this growth was due to aggressive new restaurant openings. In the past four reported quarters, Arcos Dorados opened 33 new restaurants and 133 Dessert Centers. Comparable-restaurant sales, a key metric for restaurant chains that measures growth at locations open at least one year, increased 11.3% last quarter. Double-digit comparable sales growth is virtually unheard of in the U.S. Overall adjusted EBITDA grew 24% last quarter. ARCO EBITDA Source: Q3 Results, page 3 A key factor boosting EBITDA is that, even with sales growing at a rapid pace, Arcos Dorados kept general and administrative costs flat. This indicates the company is doing a very good job boosting productivity. Disclosure: I am not long any of the stocks mentioned in this article. Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus. This article first appeared on GuruFocus . Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with BRK.A. Click here to check it out. BRK.A 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of BRK.A Peter Lynch Chart of BRK.A || Bill Gates' Stock Portfolio: - By Ben Reynolds
(Published Jan. 20 by Bob Ciura)
Bill Gates(Trades,Portfolio) is the richest man in the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has a massive $18.5 billion endowment.
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That kind of wealth is something of which the vast majority of us can only dream. However, there is one similarity between the everyday investor and the wealthiest person on the planet: We're all looking for good stocks to buy and hold for the long term.
Gates is a personal friend ofWarren Buffett(Trades,Portfolio) so it's no surprise to see the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation take a similar approach to investing as the Oracle of Omaha.
You can see Buffett's top 20 high-yield dividend stocks analyzed here.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation owns several highly profitable companies with sustainable competitive advantages. Many of the stocks also pay dividends to shareholders and grow their dividend payouts over time.
Without further ado, here are the top 16 stocks held by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
No. 1: Berkshire Hathaway
• Dividend yield:N/A.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:58%.
• Price-earnings (P/E) ratio:17.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.(NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) stock takes up the majority of Gates' investment portfolio, and it is easy to see why. It's safe to say the money is in good hands.
Berkshire, under Buffett's stewardship, grew from a struggling textile manufacturer into one of the largest conglomerates in the world.
Since Berkshire's current management team took the helm 51 years ago, the company's per-share book value rose from $19 to $155,501, a rate of 19.2% compounded annually.
Today, Berkshire is a global giant. It owns and operates dozens of businesses with a hand in nearly every major industry including insurance, railroads, energy, finance, manufacturing and retailing.
A breakdown of Berkshire's various operating segments is as follows:
• Sales and Services (51% of revenue).
• Insurance Premiums (20% of revenue).
• Railroad, Utilities, and Energy (19% of revenue).
• Interest, Dividend, and Other Investment Income (2% of revenue).
• Financial Product Sales (3% of revenue).
• Investment and Derivatives (5% of revenue).
In Berkshire's annual letters to shareholders, Buffett typically evaluates the company's performance in terms of book value. Book value is an accounting metric that measures a company's assets minus its liabilities.
The resulting difference is a company's book value. This is a proxy for the intrinsic value of a firm, which Buffett believes to be the most important financial metric.
Over the past five years, Berkshire has done a great job growing assets faster than liabilities, which builds shareholder wealth.
Source: 2015 Annual Report, page 36
Berkshire doesn't pay a dividend to shareholders. Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) have always contended that they can create wealth at a higher rate than the dividend would provide to shareholders.
There are few managers who can say that and get away with it, but Buffett and Munger might be the only two who can.
While Berkshire stock may not be attractive for investors who want dividend income, there are few companies that have a track record nearly as successful as Berkshire.
No. 2: Waste Management
• Dividend yield:2.4%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:6.5%.
• P/E ratio:27.
Waste Management Inc.(WM) is the embodiment of a company with a wide economic moat. It operates in waste removal and recycling services.
This is a highly concentrated industry with only a few companies controlling the majority of the market.
Waste Management services many different industry groups, which are organized as follows:
• Collection (55% of revenue).
• Landfill (19% of revenue).
• Transfer (9% of revenue).
• Recycling (8% of revenue).
• Other (9% of revenue).
The company is performing well. Over the first three quarters of 2016, revenue and earnings per share increased 3.6% and 8.8%.
Waste Management operates in a stable and necessary industry. Waste removal is extremely capital intensive and is subject to significant regulatory oversight.
These competitive advantages allow Waste Management to generate steady profits even when the U.S. economy enters recession.
Source: JPMorgan Industrials Conference presentation, page 14
Waste Management's high margins and consistent cash flow put the company in a strong financial position. It has reduced its debt significantly in the past several years.
Source: JPMorgan Industrials Conference presentation, page 17
With less debt to worry about, there is more cash flow left over each year. It uses this cash flow to invest in the business and for shareholder cash returns.
Source: JP Morgan Industrials Conference presentation, page
On Dec. 15, the company raised its dividend by 4% and added $750 million to its share repurchase program.
Waste Management is a Dividend Achiever. Dividend Achievers are companies that have raised dividends for 10 years or more.
You can see the entire list of all 272 Dividend Achievers here.
For its part, Waste Management has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. The stock currently has a 2.5% dividend yield.
Waste Management isn't a cheap stock. Its share price has soared over the past several years. But it still has an above-average dividend yield, and the company is growing.
No. 3: Canadian National Railway
• Dividend yield:1.6%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:6.1%.
• P/E ratio:20.
Canadian National Railway(CNI) is the only transcontinental railway in North America. It has a massive network, which includes more than 19,000 miles that spans Canada and the U.S.
Source: Investor Presentation, page 7
The company offers a full range of services including rail, intermodal, trucking, warehousing and distribution.
Canadian National has an excellent business. From 2011 to 2015, it grew revenue and adjusted earnings per share at a 9% and 16% compound annual rate.
It generated this growth from executing a number of operational strategies. First, it placed focus on improving productivity.
Source: Investor Presentation, page 9
This has allowed the company to boost volumes and revenue.
Furthermore, Canadian National produces industry-leading margins, thanks to its lean cost structure.
Source: Investor Presentation, page 12
One factor negatively impacting the company right now is that it is exposed to commodities, specifically coal. Coal revenue declined 32% in the third quarter, year over year.
Moreover, revenue for energy and mining fell 13% and 20% last quarter.
That being said, the company's diverse customer base and operational excellence more than offset the declines in its commodity-based segments.
Canadian National's operating expenses declined 7% last quarter. Operating ratio reached a record 53.3% last quarter.
Free cash flow over the first three quarters of 2016 remained steady with the same nine-month period in 2015. The company expects to post flat adjusted earnings per share in 2016.
This in itself would be a notable accomplishment given the steep declines in oil and coal shipments.
With its hefty margins, Canadian National generates significant cash flow, and its shareholder-friendly management actively deploys this cash flow to investors.
Dividends per share have nearly doubled in that same five-year period. The company is one of the best dividend growth stocks in Canada.
Canadian National certainly isn't a flashy business. Railroads may be overlooked by many investors for being boring, but Canadian National's shareholder returns prove that boring can be beautiful.
No. 4: Caterpillar
• Dividend yield:3.3%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:5.4%.
• P/E ratio:31 (forward P/E ratio).
Caterpillar(CAT) is a strong brand with a dominant industry position. It manufactures heavy machinery, mostly to the construction and mining sectors.
2016 was a year to forget for Caterpillar. The sharp downturn in precious metals prices weighed heavily on demand for heavy machinery. For example, Caterpillar's earnings per share fell by nearly half in the third quarter.
Source: Credit Suisse Industrials Conference presentation, page 4
Separately Caterpillar is being negatively impacted by slowing growth in emerging markets and the strong U.S. dollar. As a result, full-year revenue is expected to decline 29% in 2016.
These headwinds are expected to persist in 2017 although there is potential for a recovery.
Source: Credit Suisse Industrials Conference presentation, page 7
Fortunately, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.
There are hopes that Caterpillar will return to growth in 2017. One catalyst could be a renewed emphasis on fiscal stimulus in the U.S.
The incoming administration may pursue policies to stimulate the U.S. economy. This could include more infrastructure spending and perhaps a push for more lax regulations on the energy and mining industries, which are among Caterpillar's biggest customers.
Separately higher commodity prices would be a major boost.
In the meantime, investors are paid well to wait for Caterpillar's turnaround to materialize, and the company enjoys economies of scale. This provides it with the financial flexibility to cut costs so that it can maintain its dividend.
Caterpillar forecasts over $1 billion in cost savings this year alone, mostly in manufacturing and headcount reductions.
The company may not raise its dividend until economic conditions improve, but its solid 3.3% dividend yield is secure.
No. 5: Walmart Stores
• Dividend yield:3%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:4.5%.
• P/E ratio:15.
Walmart is another great example of a company with durable competitive advantages. It is the largest retailer in the world with annual revenue of approximately $500 billion.
The company came to dominate the retail industry by keeping a laserlike focus on reducing costs everywhere, particularly in supply chain and distribution.
This allowed Walmart to offer consistently lower prices than its competitors ever could. In turn, it steadily devoured market share until it became the giant it is today.
Walmart's growth has slowed over the past year. The company is investing billions to pay higher wages, and renovate its stores.
This will limit Walmart's earnings growth. As a result, some might assume Walmart's best days are behind it. After all, a behemoth as large as Walmart will naturally have difficulty continuing to grow at a rapid pace.
But there are still growth catalysts for the company to look forward to, specifically in e-commerce and small stores.
Walmart acquired Jet.com for $3 billion to boost its e-commerce business, especially in emerging markets like China.
Source: Investor Community Meeting presentation, page 4
E-commerce revenue growth accelerated throughout the year. In the third fiscal quarter, e-commerce sales increased 20.6% year over year.
Domestic growth is starting to pick up again, thanks to e-commerce and also Walmart's small-store franchise.
The company's Neighborhood Markets small-store banner grew comparable sales by 5.2% last quarter, well above the 1.2% companywide growth rate.
Walmart remains highly profitable and very resistant to recessions.
Consumers tend to scale down to discount retail when times are tight, which is why Walmart continued to grow, even during the Great Recession.
This allows Walmart to pay a solid 3% dividend yield and raise its dividend each year like clockwork. Walmart has raised its dividend for 43 years in a row.
Its long history of dividend growth qualifies Walmart as a Dividend Aristocrat, a group of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 that have raised dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.
You can see the entire list of all 50 Dividend Aristocrats here.
The stock has an appealing P/E ratio of 14.
No. 6: Ecolab
• Dividend yield:1.3%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:2.9%.
• P/E ratio:32.
Ecolab(ECL) is a commercial cleaning products firm. It operates in three segments:
• Global Industrial (36% of revenue).
• Global Institutional (35% of revenue).
• Global Energy (23% of revenue).
• Other (6% of revenue).
The Other category includes pest elimination and equipment care.
The Global Industrial group provides water treatment, cleaning and sanitation services to large industrial firms. The industrial customer base is made up primarily of food and beverage, manufacturing, chemical and mining companies.
The Global Institutional business services specialized products and services to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, health care and retail industries. This segment manufactures products for things like laundry and housekeeping.
The Global Energy segment holds the company's Nalco brand. Nalco provides chemical and water treatment services to the oil and gas industry.
Going forward, Ecolab is focusing on international growth. Expanding in new markets has been a core priority for the company in recent years. Nearly half the company's revenue comes from outside the U.S.
One of the best aspects of Ecolab's business is its consistency. Providing cleaning products and services is a steady business. Customers need Ecolab's services, regardless of the condition of the U.S. economy.
This means Ecolab is a recession-resistant business. In fact, the company grew earnings per share each year from 2007 to 2010. It didn't skip a beat, even during the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Its reliable earnings growth allows the company to raise its dividend each year. In fact, Ecolab has paid a dividend for 80 years without interruption.
It raises its dividend regularly. The company recently passed along a 6% dividend increase, marking its 25th consecutive year of dividend increases.
Ecolab qualifies as a Dividend Aristocrat.
The stock has a dividend yield of just 1.2%, which is on the low side. Its valuation is a bit high with a P/E ratio above 30.
Investors may want to wait for a better buying opportunity, but Ecolab is a high-quality company. It is the largest operator in its industry, which provides competitive advantages.
No. 7: FedEx
• Dividend yield:0.9%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:2.9%.
• P/E ratio:27.
FedEx(FDX) is yet another example of a company with a strong economic moat. It operates in global logistics, essentially an oligopoly.
It would be extremely difficult financially for a company to build out a fleet large enough to compete on the scale of FedEx.
FedEx generates more than $50 billion in annual revenue. It has more than 400,000 employees and services more than 220 nations and territories around the world.
The company has a diversified business model. It operates the following four segments:
• Express (52% of revenue).
• Ground (33% of revenue).
• Freight (12% of revenue).
• Services (3% of revenue).
FedEx maintains a modest outlook for the global economy going forward. Economic growth is expected to be weak but remain positive.
One growth catalyst that will help fuel future growth is FedEx's booming ground business, thanks to e-commerce.
Source: Roadshow Presentation, page 8
FedEx notes the e-commerce market is growing at a 16% annual rate. Plus the company has captured additional revenue market share gains in ground shipping for 17 consecutive years.
In addition, the company is countering sluggish global economic growth by cutting costs. Margins are up consistently over the past several years.
Source: Roadshow Presentation, page 5
One downside for FedEx is that it has a very low dividend yield of less than 1%. It yields less than half the 2% average yield in the S&P 500.
The company helps make up for this with dividend growth. For example, it raised its dividend by 60% in 2016.
While FedEx might not be an appealing stock to income investors, it is a high-quality company with a strong business model.
Earnings per share are expected to rise 21% in fiscal 2016. With this kind of earnings growth, FedEx stock can generate more than satisfactory returns, even without a significant dividend yield.
No. 8: Crown Castle International
• Dividend yield:4.3%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:2.7%.
• P/E ratio:17.
Crown Castle International Corp.(CCI) is a real estate investment trust (REIT). It provides infrastructure assets to wireless communications carriers. It has approximately 40,000 towers and 26,500 route miles of fiber supporting small cells.
The company operates in an appealing area because wireless communications is a growth industry. U.S. consumers can't do without their smartphones, and Crown Castle is one of the companies reaping the benefits.
Crown Castle has been investing additional capital in its infrastructure in several major U.S. markets. One example is Chicago.
Source: 3Q Earnings presentation, page 4
This investment across the U.S. was done to accommodate higher demand for wireless services, and the investment has paid off with strong growth rates.
It is enjoying higher occupancy and rising rents as well. Revenue and adjusted funds from operation (FFO) increased 6% and 17% in the third quarter.
Management has an optimistic forecast for the next two years based on strong growth for the wireless industry. Higher leasing rates and price increases should fuel solid growth in 2016 and 2017.
Revenue is expected to increase 7% in 2016 and 3% in 2017. Adjusted FFO is expected to grow 10% this year and 6% in 2017.
One consideration for investors going forward is the risk of rising interest rates. REITs like Crown Castle rely heavily on debt financing.
When interest rates rise, so too does the cost of capital. This could inhibit the company's growth in future quarters.
Still, the company operates in an industry with healthy fundamentals. It should be able to continue growing above its cost of capital and create wealth for shareholders.
Crown Castle is a strong stock for dividends and dividend growth. Its current yield exceeds 4%, and it recently raised its dividend by 7%.
No. 9: United Parcel Service
• Dividend yield:2.7%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:2.7%.
• P/E ratio:21.
The global logistics industry is dominated by three companies. FedEx is one, and so is UPS.
In fact, UPS is the industry leader; its market capitalization is $100 billion, which is double FedEx's market cap.
Like FedEx, UPS is benefiting from e-commerce. UPS' domestic package revenue increased 4.8% in the third quarter year over year. This drove 3.6% earnings per share growth for the period.
Another emerging growth catalyst for UPS is international growth.
Source: R.W. Baird 2016 Industrials Conference, page 9
UPS is growing international revenue and a rapid pace, and it has significantly improved margins in its overseas operations.
For example, UPS' international segment now represents 28% of its operating profit, up from just 6% in 2000.
Lastly, UPS plans to grow through acquisitions. The company recently acquired Marken, a supply chain solutions provider to the life sciences industry.
Source: R.W. Baird 2016 Industrials Conference, page 5
The acquisition further diversifies UPS' customer base by expanding its presence in health care and pharmaceutical logistics.
One concern for investors in 2017 is the risk of global recession. UPS is widely viewed as an economic bellwether.
Global uncertainty levels rose as 2016 drew to a close. If the economy enters recession in 2017 or beyond, it would significant affect UPS.
Barring a global recession, UPS has a positive outlook.
UPS stock is reasonably valued and has a solid dividend. The stock has a P/E ratio of 20. It is cheaper than the S&P 500, which has an average P/E ratio of 26.
UPS stock has a 2.7% dividend yield. This is a big advantage over main rival FedEx, which has a much smaller dividend yield.
UPS has a long history of paying consistent dividends. It has either increased or maintained its cash dividend for 47 years. Its dividend has risen more than fourfold since 2000.
No. 10: Coca-Cola FEMSA SAB
• Dividend yield:3%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:2.5%.
• P/E ratio:28.
Coca-Cola FEMSA(KOF) produces, markets and distributesCoca-Cola(KO) beverages. It offers the full line of sparkling and still beverages.
It sells its products through distribution centers and retailers in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines.
Coca-Cola FEMSA is the largest franchise bottler in the world. The stock is an excellent way to gain exposure to two appealing emerging markets: Latin America and South Asia.
Source: Investor Kit presentation, page 2
These markets are growing at high rates for the company. Over the first nine months of 2016, total revenue and operating cash flow rose 7.8% and 6.6%.
Revenue growth was driven largely by price increases.
Coca-Cola FEMSA is in a strong financial position with low levels of debt and positive free cash flow. In addition, carrying the Coca-Cola brand allows it to generate high margins and enjoy pricing power.
Source: Investor Kit presentation, page 23
This allows the company to consistently raise its dividend each year.
One risk factor on which investors should keep an eye going forward is a potential change in consumer preferences. Coca-Cola FEMSA sells and distributes water and noncarbonated beverages, but more than 75% of the company's annual sales come from carbonated soft drinks.
The emerging markets are high-growth economies with expanding middle classes. Citizens are enjoying rising standards of living.
Once these markets become more mature, there could be a risk of consumers changing their dietary habits. Soda sales have declined in the U.S. for more than a decade.
Coca-Cola's growth is struggling from this trend, which could become a challenge for Coca-Cola FEMSA moving forward.
That being said, Coca-Cola FEMSA is still firmly in high-growth mode.
No. 11: Grupo Televisa SAB
• Dividend Yield:0.5%.
• Percentage of Bill Gates (Trades, Portfolio)' Portfolio:2.3%.
• P/E ratio:31 (Forward P/E).
Grupo Televisa SAB(TV) is a diversified media conglomerate. In all, Televisa operates 26 pay-TV brands and television networks, cable operators and over-the-top services in over 50 countries.
In the U.S., it operates Univision. In addition, Televisa owns a majority interest in Sky, a satellite television provider in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Central America.
Televisa also has operations in magazine publishing, radio broadcasting, professional sports, live entertainment, film production and gaming.
It operates four business segments:
• Content (36% of revenue).
• Sky (22% of revenue).
• Cable (33% of revenue).
• Other (9% of revenue).
The company is enjoying strong growth, thanks largely to high economic growth in Mexico and several Latin American markets.
In 2015, net sales and segment operating income increased 9.9% and 10.6%.
Growth has continued in 2016. Net sales and segment operating income rose 6.6% and 4.1% in the third quarter.
The company's strongest businesses are Sky, Cable and Other, each of which posted double-digit revenue growth in the third quarter.
Content segment revenue was flat in the third quarter although it did see 20% growth in network subscription revenue. However, this was offset by declines in advertising and licensing.
The licensing business was affected by difficult comparisons. For example, licensing revenue fell 10% last quarter for Univision, since the comparable 2015 quarter included a major soccer tournament in Mexico.
Televisa is a strong brand and has a fundamental advantage, thanks to its geographic focus. As a result, it is a compelling growth stock, for investors interested in international diversification.
While it does not pay much of a dividend to shareholders, Televisa's return potential is still significant, thanks to its rapid growth.
No. 12: Walgreens Boots Alliance
• Dividend yield:1.8%.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:1.5%.
• P/E ratio:22.
It is no surprise to seeWalgreens Boots Alliance(WBA) on the list of Gates' holdings because it is an industry giant.
Walgreens Boots Alliance came together in the $9 billion merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots in 2014.
The merger was a great move for the two companies. Walgreens is the biggest pharmacy operator in the U.S., and Alliance Boots was a top European pharmacy and distributor.
When the two joined forces, it allowed the combined company to reach a global scale. Walgreens Boots now has three separate businesses, each of which are very large:
• Retail Pharmacy USA ($83.8 billion in annual sales, 70% of revenue).
• Retail Pharmacy International ($13.3 billion in annual sales, 11% of revenue).
• Pharmaceutical Wholesale ($22.6 billion in annual sales, 19% of revenue).
The company performed well in fiscal 2016. Revenue and earnings per share, adjusted for currency and non-recurring costs, increased 16% and 18%.
It is off to a good start in fiscal 2017 as well, thanks largely to the U.S. retail pharmacy operation. That segment posted 2.5% growth in pharmacy sales and 3% prescription growth in the 2017 first fiscal quarter.
Going forward, Walgreens Boots intends to invest more in its beauty departments to help drive higher traffic.
Source: Q1 2017 Earnings presentation, page 8
There could be more transformational deals in the near future. The company has a pending deal to acquire fierce competitorRite Aid Corp.(RAD) for $17 billion.
Walgreens Boots has a below-average dividend yield, and the P/E ratio significantly exceeds the retail industry average.
One of Buffett's favorite sayings is that price is what you pay, value is what you get. Walgreens Boots enjoys several competitive advantages, high profit margins and a strong brand.
These qualities make it a valuable stock to own as part of a dividend growth portfolio.
No. 13: Liberty Global Group
• Dividend yield:N/A.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:1%.
• P/E ratio:23.
Liberty Global(LBTYA) is the largest international television and Internet provider. In all, the company operates in 30 countries and generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue.
The company and its various subsidiaries provide service to 29 million customers.
Its core brand in Europe is Virgin Media. It also has the Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC brands.
Liberty Global is split up into two businesses, which are Liberty Global Group and LiLAC. Liberty Global includes its European operations, and LiLAC houses its Latin America and Caribbean business.
Each segment - Liberty Global Group and LiLAC - have three share classes each. This share class corresponds to the Liberty Global Group.
The European economy is on shaky ground broadly speaking with weak economic growth and the uncertainty presented by the Brexit vote.
But television and Internet is a growth industry because of the low levels of market penetration. There are still many parts of Europe with untapped growth potential.
In turn, Liberty Global is rapidly adding customers.
Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 5
Year-to-date additions rose 50% through the third quarter.
As far as future growth is concerned, there is plenty of runway left. Liberty expects to add more than 5 million new households from 2016 to 2018.
This aggressive expansion will require significant capital investment. The company plans to spend $2 billion over the next two years to build up its customer base, but the payoff is growth.
Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 15
Liberty Global realized growth in revenue and cash flow over the first three quarters of 2016. Growth accelerated as the year went by with the fourth quarter expected to be the highest-growth period for the year.
The company is investing large amounts of capital. There will be little cash flow to spare over the next two years, which is why the stock does not pay a dividend.
Investors looking for income may want to select a different telecom stock that pays dividends, and there are many to choose from.
But Liberty Global could conceivably start paying a dividend at some point in the not-too-distant future, once its aggressive expansion period ends.
In the meantime, the stock is reasonably valued and could generate double-digit earnings growth. Revenue is growing at a high rate, and Liberty Global will use more than $2 billion to buy back stock next year.
This earnings growth means investors can earn satisfactory returns moving forward even without the benefit of a dividend.
No. 14: AutoNation
• Dividend yield:N/A.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:0.5%.
• P/E ratio:13.
AutoNation Inc.(AN) is America's largest automotive retailer. It owns and operates over 360 new vehicle franchises in 16 states.
The company operates five segments:
Source: 2015 Annual Report, page 5
AutoNation has been successful growing the business over the past five years. From 2011 to 2015, sales and earnings per share increased by 8.5% and 15% per year.
The company has benefited greatly from a strong operating environment. Auto sales are near a record, driven by attractive product offerings, access to affordable credit thanks to low interest rates and lower fuel prices.
The market climate is supportive of auto sales, which is why new and used vehicle sales both increased 9% for AutoNation in 2015.
Going forward, the company is in the process of rolling out its Brand Extension strategy. This involves further expanding its stand-alone preowned vehicle sales and service centers, branded parts and accessories, branded collision centers and its auto auction businesses.
To help accomplish this, AutoNation recently announced the acquisition of three Premium Luxury franchises, one collision center and three Premium Luxury franchise add points.
The assets acquired hold combined annual revenue potential of at least $430 million.
Separately, the company is building its digital channel platform AutoNation Express. Digital channel sales now account for nearly 30% of vehicle sales.
AutoNation does not pay a dividend, but it does return cash to shareholders through stock buybacks. The company has $316 million left on its current share price authorization, which amounts to approximately 6% of its market capitalization.
All things being equal, AutoNation's buybacks will boost earnings per share by an additional 6% over the next year.
The stock is cheap at a P/E ratio of 13.
As a result, the combination of earnings growth and expansion of the valuation multiple, could lead to double-digit annualized returns going forward.
No. 15: Liberty LiLAC Group
• Dividend yield:N/A.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:0.16%.
• P/E ratio:23.
This share class corresponds to Liberty Global'sLiLAC(LILAK) operating segment. LiLAC includes Liberty Global's Latin America and Caribbean businesses under the brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC.
These are currently a small part of the overall business. LiLAC represents approximately 13% of Liberty Global's total annual revenue, but there is a lot of growth potential up ahead.
LiLAC is poised to become a much bigger part of the company going forward as a result of the 2016 acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications. The $7.4 billion deal added more than 10 million new customers in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The CWC acquisition presents cost synergy opportunities.
Source: Q3 Earnings Presentation, page 12
As a result, LiLAC's year-to-date revenue and operating cash flow doubled year over year through the third quarter.
Another growth catalyst for LiLAC is to increase bundling of services. Nearly half of LiLAC's customers purchase only one service. The company will seek to expand on this moving forward.
Source: Investor relations
Bundling services is lucrative for telecommunications providers, which is why the practice is so common in the U.S.
Liberty Global has a much higher percentage of triple-play customers in Europe, and it has served the company well.
Like Liberty Global, LiLAC uses its cash flow to reinvest in the business and support its balance sheet. It does not pay a dividend.
That being said, LiLAC also offers investors attractive return potential, from its future revenue and earnings growth.
The company expects to increase operating cash flow by 7% to 9% each year over the next few years.
No. 16: Arcos Dorados Holdings
• Dividend yield:N/A.
• Percentage of Gates' portfolio:0.1%.
• P/E ratio:18.
Last but not least isArcos Dorados(ARCO). Investors might not immediately recognize Arcos Dorados by its name, but they will certainly understand its business.
Arcos Dorados is a holding company. Collectively, it is the largestMcDonald's(MCD) franchisee in the world in terms of number of restaurants.
It has the exclusive right to own and operate McDonald's restaurants in 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries and territories. In all, it operates or franchises over 2,100 McDonald's restaurants.
Its geographic split is as follows:
• Brazil (45% of revenue).
• South Latin America Division (28% of revenue).
• Caribbean (14% of revenue).
• North Latin America Division (13% of revenue).
Many of the countries in which Arcos Dorados operates are emerging markets. For example, sales in South Latin America and the Caribbean rose 24% and 27.6% through the first nine months of 2016.
One downside for Arcos Dorados investors is that the stock does not pay a dividend. This might seem like a deal breaker since McDonald's itself is a legendary dividend stock.
The upside for Arcos Dorados is that it is growing much faster than McDonald's. For example, on a constant-currency basis, revenue rose 15.3% in the third quarter.
Some of this growth was due to aggressive new restaurant openings. In the past four reported quarters, Arcos Dorados opened 33 new restaurants and 133 Dessert Centers.
Comparable-restaurant sales, a key metric for restaurant chains that measures growth at locations open at least one year, increased 11.3% last quarter.
Double-digit comparable sales growth is virtually unheard of in the U.S.
Overall adjusted EBITDA grew 24% last quarter.
Source: Q3 Results, page 3
A key factor boosting EBITDA is that, even with sales growing at a rapid pace, Arcos Dorados kept general and administrative costs flat. This indicates the company is doing a very good job boosting productivity.
Disclosure:I am not long any of the stocks mentioned in this article.
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• Peter Lynch Chart of BRK.A || Costco has become a major driver of Citi's business: CC Sales (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Payments Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . Citigroup's acquisition of Costco's co-branded credit card portfolio from Amex in June 2016 continues to pay off. In its Q4 2016 earnings release, Citi posted 8% overall revenue growth on a constant-currency basis. The Costco portfolio appears to be a major driver of Citi’s overall growth right now. Costco cards are still driving massive spending. The customer base, which likely totals roughly 12 million, saw over $52 billion in purchase sales in its first six months, and over $6 billion in loan growth, according to the firm's earnings call. That’s really strong performance — for context, Amex saw roughly $80 billion in Costco billed business in 2015, which puts Citi’s annual run rate roughly $24 billion ahead of the Amex card. That’s propelling growth in Citi’s US branded cards business. Citi’s branded cards earned $2.2 billion in revenue in Q4 2016, posting 15% growth year-over-year (YoY). Without Costco, that growth rate dips to 2%, showing the massive impact that the portfolio acquisition continues to have on Citi’s business. And growth in branded cards revenue is one of the major drivers of Citi overall. Citi’s other segments aren’t performing this strongly — retail banking revenue was down 4% YoY, and retail services remained flat. Growth in branded cards, which was driven by Costco, reflects just how pivotal the portfolio is to Citis’ results. And while that’s good in the short term, the rewards rat race we’re seeing could pose some problems for the bank moving forward. Costco has given Citigroup immense growth in the months since acquisition. But it’s also leading to rising costs — operational expenses, for example, rose 6% YoY in Q4, largely reflecting expenditure on the Costco portfolio. The firm will have to “overcome promotional balances” in order to maintain success. And though Costco feels “well-positioned” to do so, keeping an eye out for the bank’s branded cards and other new investments will be key. That’s particularly true in light of stiff rewards competition, which is raising expenses for card networks but providing sometimes limited returns. Story continues The Costco and Citigroup relationship is just one part of the broader payments ecosystem, which has grown to include vendors, merchants, acquirers, processors, and more. John Heggestuen, director of research at BI Intelligence , Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends. Here are some key takeaways from the report: 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings , and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices. Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play. Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified. In full, the report: Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond. Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers. Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step. Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more. Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem. To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem. More From Business Insider European acquirer Worldpay is piloting a phone-based mobile point-of-sale platform Samsung Pay expands beyond the Galaxy in India Amazon's new Prime Reload program rewards users but challenges banks || Costco has become a major driver of Citi's business: (BI Intelligence)
This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Payments Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, pleaseclick here.
Citigroup's acquisition of Costco's co-branded credit card portfolio from Amex in June 2016 continues to pay off.
In its Q4 2016 earnings release, Citi posted8%overall revenue growth on a constant-currency basis.
The Costco portfolio appears to be a major driver of Citi’s overall growth right now.
• Costco cards are still driving massive spending. The customer base, which likely totals roughly 12 million, saw over$52 billionin purchase sales in its first six months, and over $6 billion in loan growth, according to the firm's earnings call. That’s really strong performance — for context, Amex saw roughly $80 billion in Costco billed business in 2015, which puts Citi’s annual run rate roughly $24 billion ahead of the Amex card.
• That’s propelling growth in Citi’s US branded cards business. Citi’s branded cards earned $2.2 billion in revenue in Q4 2016, posting 15% growth year-over-year (YoY). Without Costco, that growth rate dips to 2%, showing the massive impact that the portfolio acquisition continues to have on Citi’s business.
• And growth in branded cards revenue is one of the major drivers of Citi overall. Citi’s other segments aren’t performing this strongly — retail banking revenue was down 4% YoY, and retail services remained flat. Growth in branded cards, which was driven by Costco, reflects just how pivotal the portfolio is to Citis’ results.
And while that’s good in the short term, the rewards rat race we’re seeing could pose some problems for the bank moving forward. Costco has given Citigroup immense growth in the months since acquisition. But it’s also leading to rising costs — operational expenses, for example, rose 6% YoY in Q4, largely reflecting expenditure on the Costco portfolio.
The firm will have to “overcome promotional balances” in order to maintain success. And though Costco feels “well-positioned” to do so, keeping an eye out for the bank’s branded cards and other new investments will be key. That’s particularly true in light of stiff rewards competition, which is raising expenses for card networks but providing sometimes limited returns.
The Costco and Citigroup relationship is just one part of the broader payments ecosystem, which has grown to include vendors, merchants, acquirers, processors, and more.
John Heggestuen, director of research atBI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compileda detailed report on the payments ecosystemthat drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
• 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding theirmobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices.
• Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play.
• Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified.
In full, the report:
• Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond.
• Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers.
• Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step.
• Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more.
• Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:
1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >>START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >>BUY THE REPORT
The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem.
More From Business Insider
• European acquirer Worldpay is piloting a phone-based mobile point-of-sale platform
• Samsung Pay expands beyond the Galaxy in India
• Amazon's new Prime Reload program rewards users but challenges banks || Bitcoin is having trouble getting through $900: Bitcoin holds little changed near $891 a coin as of 7:02 a.m. ET. The cryptocurrency is contending with resistance in the $900 area for the third straight session. Bitcoin raced to more than $916 on Tuesday but was unable to break out above the early-January resistance level.
Bitcoin has gotten off to a wild start in 2017. Buying in the opening days of the year lifted its price more than 20% and above $1,000 for the first time since November 2013. However, rumblings about a crackdown on trading in China have caused jitters as of late. Beijingannouncedit had beguninvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues.The price crashed 35% to nearly $750 before finding support and working its way back up to resistance in the $900 area.
Thursday's action has to alleviate some concerns regarding the trading environment in China as Beijing announced it wastightening capital controls even further. While the rules were aimed atoutbound investments by centrally-controlled state firms, it is still notable thatbitcoin has so far been spared. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank's Torsten Sløk showed howChina dominates the global bitcoin market, accounting for nearly 100% of the trading.
(Investing.com)
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• Bitcoin is soaring
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• Bitcoin is charging higher || Bitcoin is having trouble getting through $900: Bitcoin holds little changed near $891 a coin as of 7:02 a.m. ET. The cryptocurrency is contending with resistance in the $900 area for the third straight session. Bitcoin raced to more than $916 on Tuesday but was unable to break out above the early-January resistance level.
Bitcoin has gotten off to a wild start in 2017. Buying in the opening days of the year lifted its price more than 20% and above $1,000 for the first time since November 2013. However, rumblings about a crackdown on trading in China have caused jitters as of late. Beijingannouncedit had beguninvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues.The price crashed 35% to nearly $750 before finding support and working its way back up to resistance in the $900 area.
Thursday's action has to alleviate some concerns regarding the trading environment in China as Beijing announced it wastightening capital controls even further. While the rules were aimed atoutbound investments by centrally-controlled state firms, it is still notable thatbitcoin has so far been spared. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank's Torsten Sløk showed howChina dominates the global bitcoin market, accounting for nearly 100% of the trading.
(Investing.com)
NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin
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• Bitcoin is soaring
• Bitcoin is making a comeback
• Bitcoin is charging higher || Bitcoin is having trouble getting through $900: Bitcoin holds little changed near $891 a coin as of 7:02 a.m. ET. The cryptocurrency is contending with resistance in the $900 area for the third straight session. Bitcoin raced to more than $916 on Tuesday but was unable to break out above the early-January resistance level. Bitcoin has gotten off to a wild start in 2017. Buying in the opening days of the year lifted its price more than 20% and above $1,000 for the first time since November 2013. However, rumblings about a crackdown on trading in China have caused jitters as of late. Beijing announced it had begun investigating bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. The price crashed 35% to nearly $750 before finding support and working its way back up to resistance in the $900 area. Thursday's action has to alleviate some concerns regarding the trading environment in China as Beijing announced it was tightening capital controls even further . While the rules were aimed at outbound investments by centrally-controlled state firms, it is still notable that bitcoin has so far been spared. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank's Torsten Sløk showed how China dominates the global bitcoin market , accounting for nearly 100% of the trading. Bitcoin (Investing.com) NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider Bitcoin is soaring Bitcoin is making a comeback Bitcoin is charging higher || Bitcoin exchange BTCC: China hasn't said margin trading illegal: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCC on Thursday denied media reports that the central bank had ruled it was offering margin loans illegally, and he said the platform is operating normally. However, Chief Executive Bobby Lee told Reuters the company had stopped offering margin loans last week alongside competitors such as Huobi and OkCoin, after "discussions" with the People's Bank of China (PBOC). He gave no details. "No one has said that margin trading for bitcoin is illegal," Lee said. He said the media reports were "not based on any official documentation. So as far as I'm concerned, at this moment, we have not received any official documentation, verbal or written feedback from the PBOC with regards to their conversations with us over the last two weeks." The PBOC declined to comment. Beijing Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, said on Thursday that a PBOC investigation found that China's three largest bitcoin exchanges were illegally conducting margin trading, and such activity stoked abnormal market volatility. Another state-owned media, Economic Information Daily, said that the Shanghai branch of China's central bank had found "hidden risks" in BTCC. SPOT CHECKS On Jan. 11, the central bank launched spot checks on BTCC, Huobi and OkCoin to look into a range of possible rule violations, amid increasing government efforts to stem capital outflows and relieve pressure on the yuan currency. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. Late on Wednesday, after some Chinese media reports were published, the price of bitcoin fell nearly 8 percent on the BTCC exchange to 5,724 yuan, equivalent to around $835. By Thursday, the price had recovered to around 6,120 yuan. Spokeswomen for OkCoin and Huobi confirmed to Reuters that their platforms had also stopped offering margin loans, but both did not respond to queries on whether they had received official notices from the PBOC. Story continues Lee of BTCC also said the exchanges had discussed introducing trading fees and were open to that, but said the regulator might have to get involved before this could happen. The absence of trading fees has encouraged volumes and boosted demand at the Chinese bitcoin exchanges. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Richard Borsuk) || Bitcoin exchange BTCC: China hasn't said margin trading illegal: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCC on Thursday denied media reports that the central bank had ruled it was offering margin loans illegally, and he said the platform is operating normally. However, Chief Executive Bobby Lee told Reuters the company had stopped offering margin loans last week alongside competitors such as Huobi and OkCoin, after "discussions" with the People's Bank of China (PBOC). He gave no details. "No one has said that margin trading for bitcoin is illegal," Lee said. He said the media reports were "not based on any official documentation. So as far as I'm concerned, at this moment, we have not received any official documentation, verbal or written feedback from the PBOC with regards to their conversations with us over the last two weeks." The PBOC declined to comment. Beijing Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, said on Thursday that a PBOC investigation found that China's three largest bitcoin exchanges were illegally conducting margin trading, and such activity stoked abnormal market volatility. Another state-owned media, Economic Information Daily, said that the Shanghai branch of China's central bank had found "hidden risks" in BTCC. SPOT CHECKS On Jan. 11, the central bank launched spot checks on BTCC, Huobi and OkCoin to look into a range of possible rule violations, amid increasing government efforts to stem capital outflows and relieve pressure on the yuan currency. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. Late on Wednesday, after some Chinese media reports were published, the price of bitcoin fell nearly 8 percent on the BTCC exchange to 5,724 yuan, equivalent to around $835. By Thursday, the price had recovered to around 6,120 yuan. Spokeswomen for OkCoin and Huobi confirmed to Reuters that their platforms had also stopped offering margin loans, but both did not respond to queries on whether they had received official notices from the PBOC. Story continues Lee of BTCC also said the exchanges had discussed introducing trading fees and were open to that, but said the regulator might have to get involved before this could happen. The absence of trading fees has encouraged volumes and boosted demand at the Chinese bitcoin exchanges. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Richard Borsuk) || Bitcoin exchange BTCC: China hasn't said margin trading illegal: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCC on Thursday denied media reports that the central bank had ruled it was offering margin loans illegally, and he said the platform is operating normally. However, Chief Executive Bobby Lee told Reuters the company had stopped offering margin loans last week alongside competitors such as Huobi and OkCoin, after "discussions" with the People's Bank of China (PBOC). He gave no details. "No one has said that margin trading for bitcoin is illegal," Lee said. He said the media reports were "not based on any official documentation. So as far as I'm concerned, at this moment, we have not received any official documentation, verbal or written feedback from the PBOC with regards to their conversations with us over the last two weeks." The PBOC declined to comment. Beijing Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, said on Thursday that a PBOC investigation found that China's three largest bitcoin exchanges were illegally conducting margin trading, and such activity stoked abnormal market volatility. Another state-owned media, Economic Information Daily, said that the Shanghai branch of China's central bank had found "hidden risks" in BTCC. SPOT CHECKS On Jan. 11, the central bank launched spot checks on BTCC, Huobi and OkCoin to look into a range of possible rule violations, amid increasing government efforts to stem capital outflows and relieve pressure on the yuan currency. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. Late on Wednesday, after some Chinese media reports were published, the price of bitcoin fell nearly 8 percent on the BTCC exchange to 5,724 yuan, equivalent to around $835. By Thursday, the price had recovered to around 6,120 yuan. Spokeswomen for OkCoin and Huobi confirmed to Reuters that their platforms had also stopped offering margin loans, but both did not respond to queries on whether they had received official notices from the PBOC. Story continues Lee of BTCC also said the exchanges had discussed introducing trading fees and were open to that, but said the regulator might have to get involved before this could happen. The absence of trading fees has encouraged volumes and boosted demand at the Chinese bitcoin exchanges. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Richard Borsuk) || Bitcoin is fighting back: Bitcoin has recouped a good portion of its early losses. The cryptocurrency trades down 2.8%, or almost $26, at $880 a coin as of 11:05 a.m. ET. That's a notable recovery from the drop less than $853 that occurred early in US trade. Bitcoin raced above $915 late Tuesday night but struggle to take out resistance in the $880/$920 area.
The cryptocurrency has had avolatilestart to the year after gaining 120% in 2016, making it theworld's top performing currencyfor a second straight year. It raced to a gain of more than 20% in the opening days of 2017 before rumblings that China was going tocrackdownon trading began to surface.
Then, nearly a week later, China announcedit had beguninvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. When the dust settled bitcoin had lost35% of its value in a handful of days. The price bottomed out after finding support in the $750/$800 area and has managed to fight its way back to the current resistance level.
(Investing.com)
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• Bitcoin is making a comeback
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• Bitcoin is getting demolished || Bitcoin is fighting back: Bitcoin has recouped a good portion of its early losses. The cryptocurrency trades down 2.8%, or almost $26, at $880 a coin as of 11:05 a.m. ET. That's a notable recovery from the drop less than $853 that occurred early in US trade. Bitcoin raced above $915 late Tuesday night but struggle to take out resistance in the $880/$920 area.
The cryptocurrency has had avolatilestart to the year after gaining 120% in 2016, making it theworld's top performing currencyfor a second straight year. It raced to a gain of more than 20% in the opening days of 2017 before rumblings that China was going tocrackdownon trading began to surface.
Then, nearly a week later, China announcedit had beguninvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. When the dust settled bitcoin had lost35% of its value in a handful of days. The price bottomed out after finding support in the $750/$800 area and has managed to fight its way back to the current resistance level.
(Investing.com)
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• Bitcoin is making a comeback
• Bitcoin is charging higher
• Bitcoin is getting demolished || Bitcoin is fighting back: Bitcoin has recouped a good portion of its early losses. The cryptocurrency trades down 2.8%, or almost $26, at $880 a coin as of 11:05 a.m. ET. That's a notable recovery from the drop less than $853 that occurred early in US trade. Bitcoin raced above $915 late Tuesday night but struggle to take out resistance in the $880/$920 area. The cryptocurrency has had a volatile start to the year after gaining 120% in 2016, making it the world's top performing currency for a second straight year. It raced to a gain of more than 20% in the opening days of 2017 before rumblings that China was going to crackdown on trading began to surface. Then, nearly a week later, China announced it had begun investigating bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. When the dust settled bitcoin had lost 35% of its value in a handful of days. The price bottomed out after finding support in the $750/$800 area and has managed to fight its way back to the current resistance level. Bitcoin (Investing.com) NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider Bitcoin is making a comeback Bitcoin is charging higher Bitcoin is getting demolished || One country dominates the global bitcoin market: Almost all bitcoin trading is done in China.
The share of the cryptocurrency that's traded via China's mainland currency escalated over the past few years, overtaking the US dollar as the dominant currency. From less than a 10% share in January 2012, the yuan now makes up nearly 100% of all bitcoin trading.
Bitcoin surged 120% last year,outperformingevery other currency in the world. It kicked off 2017 byrising above $1,000for the first time since 2013.
Those moves were made possible largelybecause of China.
Volumes of bitcoin trading increased as China's foreign reserves shrank, by about 8% to $3.05 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile, the yuan weakened against the dollar, hastening the rush of money out of the country and increasing interest in bitcoin.
Last week, the cryptocurrency came under pressure after China announced it wasinvestigating exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, and other issues.
As of 8:34 a.m. ET on Wednesday,bitcoin traded down4.8%, or$43, near $862 per coin. It jumped above$915 late Tuesday night but struggled to take out resistance in the $880/$920 area.
This chart shared by Deutsche Bank shows the staggering rise of China as the dominant trader of bitcoin.
(Deutsche Bank)
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is charging higher
• China's economy is at the mercy of a force completely beyond its control
• Bitcoin is getting demolished || One country dominates the global bitcoin market: Almost all bitcoin trading is done in China. The share of the cryptocurrency that's traded via China's mainland currency escalated over the past few years, overtaking the US dollar as the dominant currency. From less than a 10% share in January 2012, the yuan now makes up nearly 100% of all bitcoin trading. Bitcoin surged 120% last year, outperforming every other currency in the world. It kicked off 2017 by rising above $1,000 for the first time since 2013. Those moves were made possible largely because of China . Volumes of bitcoin trading increased as China's foreign reserves shrank, by about 8% to $3.05 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile, the yuan weakened against the dollar, hastening the rush of money out of the country and increasing interest in bitcoin. Last week, the cryptocurrency came under pressure after China announced it was investigating exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, and other issues. As of 8:34 a.m. ET on Wednesday, bitcoin traded down 4.8%, or $43, near $862 per coin. It jumped above $915 late Tuesday night but struggled to take out resistance in the $880/$920 area. This chart shared by Deutsche Bank shows the staggering rise of China as the dominant trader of bitcoin. bitcoin countries COTD (Deutsche Bank) More From Business Insider Bitcoin is charging higher China's economy is at the mercy of a force completely beyond its control Bitcoin is getting demolished || Endurance Specialty Unveils New Cyber Extortion Coverage: Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. ENH recently launched a new service that will help policyholders to better respond to cases of cyber ransom and extortion. The newly introduced service as it will be substantially value additive to the insurers innovative products and services portfolio. The property and casualty (P&C) insurer is optimistic about the service, which should boost its cyber response capabilities. Notably, Mullen Coughlin LLC, a leading incident response services provider and also the Endurance Specialtys Breach Assist Counsel, has been helping the insurers clients in dealing with cyber breach or other data security incident. This apart, computer forensic company Kivu Consulting, which has already been offering computer forensic investigation services, will now provide extortion response services. Both these companies have efficient and expert teams and specialize in providing guidance to ransomware victims to help them better respond to malicious attacks, including arranging for payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. Moreover, the teams analyze and test decryption keys to ensure security of the clients network. Shares of Endurance Specialty gained 38.43% in the last six months, significantly outperforming the Property and Casualty industrys growth of 9.19%. The new service will help policyholders to avoid disruption in their business operations and cement shareholders' confidence on the stock, leading to further share price movement. We note that strategic initiatives like these have improved the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) P&C insurers organic portfolio as well as accelerated growth. Stocks to Consider Some better-ranked stocks from the same space include Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited AHL, Cincinnati Financial Corporation CINF and Mercury General Corporation MCY. Each of these stocks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here . Story continues Aspen Insurance Holdings deals in insurance and reinsurance businesses worldwide. The company delivered positive surprise in one of the last four quarters, but with an average miss of 15.48%. Cincinnati Financial engages in the P&C insurance business in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in all of the last four quarters with an average beat of 11.82%. Mercury General deals in writing personal automobile insurance in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in two of the last four quarters, but with an average miss of 21.04%. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2017 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2017? Who wouldn't? As of early December, the 2016 Top 10 produced 5 double-digit winners including oil and natural gas giant Pioneer Natural Resources which racked up a stellar +50% gain. The new list is painstakingly hand-picked from 4,400 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Be among the very first to see it>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF): Free Stock Analysis Report Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (ENH): Free Stock Analysis Report Mercury General Corp. (MCY): Free Stock Analysis Report Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. (AHL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. || Endurance Specialty Unveils New Cyber Extortion Coverage: Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. ENH recently launched a new service that will help policyholders to better respond to cases of cyber ransom and extortion. The newly introduced service as it will be substantially value additive to the insurers innovative products and services portfolio. The property and casualty (P&C) insurer is optimistic about the service, which should boost its cyber response capabilities. Notably, Mullen Coughlin LLC, a leading incident response services provider and also the Endurance Specialtys Breach Assist Counsel, has been helping the insurers clients in dealing with cyber breach or other data security incident. This apart, computer forensic company Kivu Consulting, which has already been offering computer forensic investigation services, will now provide extortion response services. Both these companies have efficient and expert teams and specialize in providing guidance to ransomware victims to help them better respond to malicious attacks, including arranging for payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. Moreover, the teams analyze and test decryption keys to ensure security of the clients network. Shares of Endurance Specialty gained 38.43% in the last six months, significantly outperforming the Property and Casualty industrys growth of 9.19%. The new service will help policyholders to avoid disruption in their business operations and cement shareholders' confidence on the stock, leading to further share price movement. We note that strategic initiatives like these have improved the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) P&C insurers organic portfolio as well as accelerated growth. Stocks to Consider Some better-ranked stocks from the same space include Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited AHL, Cincinnati Financial Corporation CINF and Mercury General Corporation MCY. Each of these stocks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here . Story continues Aspen Insurance Holdings deals in insurance and reinsurance businesses worldwide. The company delivered positive surprise in one of the last four quarters, but with an average miss of 15.48%. Cincinnati Financial engages in the P&C insurance business in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in all of the last four quarters with an average beat of 11.82%. Mercury General deals in writing personal automobile insurance in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in two of the last four quarters, but with an average miss of 21.04%. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2017 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2017? Who wouldn't? As of early December, the 2016 Top 10 produced 5 double-digit winners including oil and natural gas giant Pioneer Natural Resources which racked up a stellar +50% gain. The new list is painstakingly hand-picked from 4,400 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Be among the very first to see it>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF): Free Stock Analysis Report Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (ENH): Free Stock Analysis Report Mercury General Corp. (MCY): Free Stock Analysis Report Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. (AHL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. || Endurance Insurance Introduces New Cyber Extortion Response Service: PEMBROKE, Bermuda - January 17, 2017 - Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (ENH), a Bermuda-based specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, announced today that the company has introduced a new service enabling its insureds to better respond to ransomware and similar extortion events. Endurance`s Breach Assist Counsel, Mullen Coughlin LLC, a recognized leader in incident response legal services, coordinates with leading providers of forensic and response services to assist Endurance`s clients in the event of a data breach or other data security incident. Kivu Consulting, a computer forensic company, has been providing computer forensic investigation services as part of that network and will now also offer extortion response services.
Mullen Coughlin`s and Kivu`s expert teams work with ransomware victims to guide them as they respond to malicious attacks, including arranging for payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, analyzing and testing decryption keys to ensure they are effectively and safely applied without further compromising the company`s network, and preparing documentation for reporting events to appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Brad Gow, Senior Vice President, Endurance Pro, commented "Companies faced with ransomware are often ill equipped to obtain Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency under tight deadlines. By providing our policyholders with access to experts to guide them through the payment and decryption processes, we assist them to minimize disruption to their business operations and execute the crisis response in a manner that best protects our insured from future harm."
Mr. Christopher Sparro, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Insurance added, "We are excited about this new service as we continue to evolve our cyber response capabilities, adding innovative products and services for our clients. Mullen Coughlin and Kivu are two members of a selected team of best-in-class preferred vendors that our breach response team can access to assist our insureds to quickly and professionally respond to breaches."
Mr. John Mullen, Partner, Mullen Coughlin, stated, "Rapid growth in ransomware attacks is impacting both small and large organizations. Given the increasing complexity of the attacks, some targets have experienced multiple extortions if they don`t effectively manage the initial response. We are extremely pleased to be offering these technical support services as they are a natural complement to the cyber extortion coverage that Endurance provides their clients."
About Endurance Specialty Holdings
Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance. Through its operating subsidiaries, Endurance writes agriculture, professional lines, property, marine and energy, and casualty and other specialty lines of insurance and catastrophe, property, casualty, professional lines and specialty lines of reinsurance. We maintain excellent financial strength as evidenced by the ratings of A (Excellent) from A.M. Best (XV size category), A (Strong) from Standard and Poor`s and A2 from Moody`s on our principal operating subsidiaries. Endurance`s headquarters are located at Waterloo House, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda and its mailing address is Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., Suite No. 784, No. 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda. For more information about Endurance, please visitwww.endurance.bm.
About Mullen Coughlin
Mullen Coughlin LLC is a law firm uniquely dedicated to servicing insured organizations of every size and from every industry faced with data privacy crises, security incidents, and risks. Having handled thousands of such events, our accessible and motivated attorneys possess experience and talent with respect to the complicated and constantly changing risks to the security of information systems and data as well as the complex state, federal, and international laws imposing requirements on organizations. Founded by John Mullen, Chris DiIenno, Jim Prendergast, and Jennifer Coughlin, Mullen Coughlin is the largest team of experienced attorneys - currently 17 - uniquely focused on providing tailored data privacy and security incident response services under the umbrella of cyber insurance, as well as pre-breach planning and compliance, breach response, regulatory investigation and management, and privacy litigation defense. Mullen Coughlin services organizations from every sector, including: Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Education, Government and Non-Profit and Professional Services. We think of ourselves as ".first, focused, and finest" when it comes to cyber counsel.
ContactInvestor RelationsPhone: +1 441 278 0988Email: [email protected]
# # #
This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd via GlobeNewswireHUG#2071736
[Social Media Buzz]
1/ BTCChina, our CNY exchange, will start charging fees for bitcoin and litecoin trading from 12:00 PM (noon) UTC+8, Tuesday, January 24th.… || Get 200 crypto beans worth $2.00 to spend with The Bitcoin Store, Crypto Apparel, Hardware, Art http://bitcoin.trybeans.com/r/nwabisa.nwabisa/?c=twitter … || #bitcoin #miner Antminer U3 Bitmain Bitcoin Miner $100.00 http://ift.tt/2jQw6A9 pic.twitter.com/dt5PQdXES7 || 2017-01-22 18:00
1 BTC son: 5.247.321Gs. #btc #gs #pyg #bitcoin #paraguay #guaranies || ...
|
921.01, 892.69, 901.54, 917.59, 919.75, 921.59, 919.50, 920.38, 970.40, 989.02
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83, 907.68, 777.76, 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94, 886.62, 899.07, 895.03, 921.79, 924.67, 921.01, 892.69, 901.54, 917.59, 919.75, 921.59, 919.50, 920.38, 970.40, 989.02, 1011.80, 1029.91, 1042.90, 1027.34, 1038.15, 1061.35, 1063.07, 994.38, 988.67, 1004.45.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-02-11]
Volume: 102261000, RSI (14-day): 56.56, 50-day EMA: 931.56, 200-day EMA: 768.29
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
The First New Trump ETF? Not Quite: I won’t pretend to know the motivation of an ETF issuer when it comes to investment theses behind new products, but the timing of last week’s new global-ex Mexico ETF launch is tremendous, or maybe sad. Or maybe it’s just coincidental timing. My perception of the WisdomTree Global ex-Mexico Equity Fund (XMX) that was launched last Friday is splintered, that is on the surface. You could perceive this to be a play on Donald’s Trump presidential victory and his antagonistic economic and immigration stance against Mexico. We all know that since the prospect of Trump’s presidential reality landed, the peso has taken more hits than Julio Cesar Chavez . For an ETF perspective, the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (EWW) , a market-cap-weighted index of Mexico equities, is down more than 8% since Trump was nominated as the Republican candidate for president back on July 19. Since the outcome of the election was clear, in early November, the fund has declined more than 11%. But what’s interesting is that the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund (VT) —a global equity ETF with less than 0.5% allocated to Mexico—is up about 8% during that same period, as is the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI) , which has only 0.385% tied to Mexico equities. These allocations are extremely small, so don’t blame Mexico for any perceived drag on ACWI or VT. Performance of EWW, ACWI & VT Since July 19, 2016 Why This Is Not A Designed Trump Play Launching under the context of Trump’s first month in the office—yes, it has not been a month yet—the “perception is stronger than reality” notion hovers over the WisdomTree Global ex-Mexico Equity Fund (XMX) like the morning fog over Pebble Beach. But the fact is that for an ETF issuer to exploit a recent geopolitical moment—the reality of Trump as president was fantasy up until it happened last November—is fanciful because of the process. You don’t snap your fingers and launch a cool and timely investment security like that. Ask the Winklevoss Twins, who have been waiting on the SEC for years. ( Decision On Bitcoin ETF Coming March 11 ) Story continues So the idea that this was designed as a ploy to attract Trump voters or the like with an anti-Mexico investment theme rings as hollow as an empty tunnel. What this comes down to is timing, a coincidental thing in the ETF world. Remember November 2015? People will invest in all kinds of things for different reasons, but if you are buying XMX because you want to feel good about your investment dollar aligning with Trump policies, you are sadly mistaken. Sure, investors may want to limit their exposure to Mexico, but that is not what I see here. WisdomTree has already cross-listed some 32 ETFs on the Mexico stock exchange, and if it does the same with XMX, there is likely to be interest from Mexico investors in a global fund that excludes domestic exposure. The real news is that for all intents and purposes, this looks to be designed for the Mexico market, not Trump voters. On top of that—here is where air comes out of the “New Trump ETF Lands” fake news—Wisdom Tree filed its first SEC proposal for XMX in November 2015, one year before Trump was elected, when he was presumed to be a laughable, but entertaining, candidate at best. While XMX is the first global ex-Mexico ETF to be listed in the U.S., the idea that this was created with a Trump presidency in mind is fiction. There is such a thing as getting lucky with the timing of a product launch. Assets may begin to flow into XMX because this false pretense begins to propagate through Twitter or financial websites looking for a fresh ETF angle. But if you are really looking to apply a “Make America Great” sleeve to your portfolio, there is the ProShares UltraShort MSCI Mexico Capped IMI (SMK) , which shorts the Mexico stock market. SMK is down 21% since Trump was sworn in on Jan. 19, while EWW has risen more than 11%. Good luck with that investment thesis. Performance of EWW, SMK, ACWI & VTI Since Jan. 19, 2017 Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com . At the time of writing, the author held none of the securities mentioned. Drew Voros can be reached at [email protected] . Recommended Stories Swedroe: The Downside Of Momentum 15 Most Volatile ETFs Of 2015 How Revenue Weighted ETFs Work Gartman: Don't Buy Stocks, Consider Gold 3 Simple Rules For Tactical Asset Allocation Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || The First New Trump ETF? Not Quite: I won’t pretend to know the motivation of an ETF issuer when it comes to investment theses behind new products, but the timing of last week’s new global-ex Mexico ETF launch is tremendous, or maybe sad. Or maybe it’s just coincidental timing.
My perception of theWisdomTree Global ex-Mexico Equity Fund (XMX)that was launched last Friday is splintered, that is on the surface.
You could perceive this to be a play on Donald’s Trump presidential victory and his antagonistic economic and immigration stance against Mexico. We all know that since the prospect of Trump’s presidential reality landed, the peso has taken more hits thanJulio Cesar Chavez.
For an ETF perspective, theiShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (EWW), a market-cap-weighted index of Mexico equities, is down more than 8% since Trump was nominated as the Republican candidate for president back on July 19. Since the outcome of the election was clear, in early November, the fund has declined more than 11%.
But what’s interesting is that theVanguard Total World Stock Index Fund (VT)—a global equity ETF with less than 0.5% allocated to Mexico—is up about 8% during that same period, as is theiShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI), which has only 0.385% tied to Mexico equities.
These allocations are extremely small, so don’t blame Mexico for any perceived drag on ACWI or VT.
Performance of EWW, ACWI & VT Since July 19, 2016
Why This Is Not A Designed Trump Play
Launching under the context of Trump’s first month in the office—yes, it has not been a month yet—the “perception is stronger than reality” notion hovers over theWisdomTree Global ex-Mexico Equity Fund (XMX)like the morning fog over Pebble Beach.
But the fact is that for an ETF issuer to exploit a recent geopolitical moment—the reality of Trump as president was fantasy up until it happened last November—is fanciful because of the process. You don’t snap your fingers and launch a cool and timely investment security like that. Ask the Winklevoss Twins, who have been waiting on the SEC for years. (Decision On Bitcoin ETF Coming March 11)
So the idea that this was designed as a ploy to attract Trump voters or the like with an anti-Mexico investment theme rings as hollow as an empty tunnel.
What this comes down to is timing, a coincidental thing in the ETF world.
Remember November 2015?
People will invest in all kinds of things for different reasons, but if you are buying XMX because you want to feel good about your investment dollar aligning with Trump policies, you aresadlymistaken. Sure, investors may want to limit their exposure to Mexico, but that is not what I see here.
WisdomTree has already cross-listed some 32 ETFs on the Mexico stock exchange, and if it does the same with XMX, there is likely to be interest from Mexico investors in a global fund that excludes domestic exposure. The real news is that for all intents and purposes, this looks to be designed for the Mexico market, not Trump voters.
On top of that—here is where air comes out of the “New Trump ETF Lands” fake news—Wisdom Treefiled its first SEC proposal for XMXin November 2015, one year before Trump was elected, when he was presumed to be a laughable, but entertaining, candidate at best.
While XMX is the first global ex-Mexico ETF to be listed in the U.S., the idea that this was created with a Trump presidency in mind is fiction. There is such a thing as getting lucky with the timing of a product launch.
Assets may begin to flow into XMX because this false pretense begins to propagate through Twitter or financial websites looking for a fresh ETF angle. But if you are really looking to apply a “Make America Great” sleeve to your portfolio, there is theProShares UltraShort MSCI Mexico Capped IMI (SMK), which shorts the Mexico stock market.
SMK is down 21% since Trump was sworn in on Jan. 19, while EWW has risen more than 11%. Good luck with that investment thesis.
Performance of EWW, SMK, ACWI & VTI Since Jan. 19, 2017
Charts courtesy ofStockCharts.com.
At the time of writing, the author held none of the securities mentioned. Drew Voros can be reached [email protected].
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• 3 Simple Rules For Tactical Asset Allocation
Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || A Chinese clampdown reveals a fundamental problem with the bitcoin markets: An illustration photo of Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins are seen at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris China used to dominate global bitcoin trading , but not anymore. After a series of interventions by the Chinese central bank and self-imposed restrictions by Chinese exchange operators, the share of the global bitcoin trade denominated in yuan has plummeted from over 95% to about 20%. A snow moon, lunar eclipse, and comet will light up the sky tonight. Heres how to watch The reason yuan volumes have dropped off a cliff is that the major exchanges ended ended the practice of allowing customers to place trades for free. Zero-fee trading has long been viewed as the culprit for Chinas apparent dominance of the bitcoin markets. Chinese exchanges typically let customers place trades for free, but charged for withdrawals. Critics have said this allowed them to project the appearance of robust volumes. But Chinese regulators wanted more real volumes reflected on exchange order books, the chief executive of one major exchange, BTCC, told trade publication CoinDesk , so the platforms started charging. The Chinese model was in contrast to platforms in the United States and elsewhere, which charge a fee for every trade. The three biggest Chinese exchanges ended free trading around Jan. 22, and an almost immediate drop in yuan trading volume followed. Within the week the yuans share of global bitcoin trading was about on par with the dollar. Spreading lies is a classic authoritarian power move. Dont let Trump get away with it As the yuan volumes plunged, a new currency rose to take its place. Unexpectedly, it was the Japanese yen, which has rarely featured strongly in the bitcoin markets. At first glance, there appears to be a rebalancing of global bitcoin trading volumes, spread among the dollar, yen, and yuan. But look closer and youll find the problem: Japan-based exchanges like Quoine and BitFlyer, which account for over 30% of the last months yen volumes, had zero-fee trading in place . In other words, it looks like Japanese platforms and their customers are now engaged in the same volume inflation their Chinese counterparts used to partake in. Story continues For now, this doesnt seem to have impacted the bitcoin price too negatively. It fell about 10% on news that Chinese exchanges were temporarily halting bitcoin withdrawals another self-imposed measurewhile they improved money laundering controls. It has since recovered slightly, and is still buoyant at around $970, which is still more than double its price 12 months ago. Bitcoin traders may have hoped that the end of zero-fee trading in China would produce a clearer picture of the nascent cryptocurrency markets; instead, they now have a new source of distortion to filter away. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: A reporter is suing the US government to learn how it vetted Trumps advisers for security clearances The power play behind Trumps penchant for uncomfortably long handshakes || A Chinese clampdown reveals a fundamental problem with the bitcoin markets: An illustration photo of Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins are seen at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris China used to dominate global bitcoin trading , but not anymore. After a series of interventions by the Chinese central bank and self-imposed restrictions by Chinese exchange operators, the share of the global bitcoin trade denominated in yuan has plummeted from over 95% to about 20%. A snow moon, lunar eclipse, and comet will light up the sky tonight. Heres how to watch The reason yuan volumes have dropped off a cliff is that the major exchanges ended ended the practice of allowing customers to place trades for free. Zero-fee trading has long been viewed as the culprit for Chinas apparent dominance of the bitcoin markets. Chinese exchanges typically let customers place trades for free, but charged for withdrawals. Critics have said this allowed them to project the appearance of robust volumes. But Chinese regulators wanted more real volumes reflected on exchange order books, the chief executive of one major exchange, BTCC, told trade publication CoinDesk , so the platforms started charging. The Chinese model was in contrast to platforms in the United States and elsewhere, which charge a fee for every trade. The three biggest Chinese exchanges ended free trading around Jan. 22, and an almost immediate drop in yuan trading volume followed. Within the week the yuans share of global bitcoin trading was about on par with the dollar. Spreading lies is a classic authoritarian power move. Dont let Trump get away with it As the yuan volumes plunged, a new currency rose to take its place. Unexpectedly, it was the Japanese yen, which has rarely featured strongly in the bitcoin markets. At first glance, there appears to be a rebalancing of global bitcoin trading volumes, spread among the dollar, yen, and yuan. But look closer and youll find the problem: Japan-based exchanges like Quoine and BitFlyer, which account for over 30% of the last months yen volumes, had zero-fee trading in place . In other words, it looks like Japanese platforms and their customers are now engaged in the same volume inflation their Chinese counterparts used to partake in. Story continues For now, this doesnt seem to have impacted the bitcoin price too negatively. It fell about 10% on news that Chinese exchanges were temporarily halting bitcoin withdrawals another self-imposed measurewhile they improved money laundering controls. It has since recovered slightly, and is still buoyant at around $970, which is still more than double its price 12 months ago. Bitcoin traders may have hoped that the end of zero-fee trading in China would produce a clearer picture of the nascent cryptocurrency markets; instead, they now have a new source of distortion to filter away. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: A reporter is suing the US government to learn how it vetted Trumps advisers for security clearances The power play behind Trumps penchant for uncomfortably long handshakes || Bitcoin drops by $100 as China's central bank corrals the market: Chinesebitcoinexchanges have disabled withdrawals of the cryptocurrency after meeting with the People's Bank of China, indicating the central bank has stepped up its efforts to regulate the market.
Throughout January, the PBoC made announcements that it was looking into bitcoin, including setting up a task force to carry out inspections and ensure bitcoin exchanges had implemented anti-money laundering systems.
Then on Thursday, the central bank announced it had met with nine exchanges to warn them they would be closed if they violated regulations. This prompted the three main Chinese bitcoin exchanges, BTCC, Houbi and OKCoin to temporarily disable bitcoin withdrawal (users can deposit and withdraw yuan but not bitcoins) for the next 30 days, while they improve their anti-money laundering systems and customer identification measures.
The news caused the price for bitcoin to drop sharply on Thursday, from near a one-month high of around $1063 to as low as $954. Bitcoin prices recovered marginally, and are currently trading around $964.
Despite the hit to prices, bitcoin analysts believe the move by the PBoC will be healthy for the market.
"The PBoC moves to regulate Bitcoin more stringently will bring short term woes but will ultimately strengthen the ecosystem," Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, told CNBC via email.
The moves by the PBoC and the improved systems will add respectability and rigor to the bitcoin market, according to Hayter.
These measures, along with the introduction of standard trading fees by Chinese exchanges, should also slow down the volume of bitcoin trading across China, which had become a cause for concern.
According to CryptoCompare data, trading volumes on Chinese exchanges have fallen from 10 million bitcoins per day to a range of 30,000 to 90,000. Bitcoin-yuan trades made up 98 percent of market share, but this is now around 26 percent, behind bitcoin-dollar and bitcoin-yen pairs.
"This has been a long time coming and many in the industry view these developments as a positive clean up. We already see liquidity resettling in other trading pairs like BTC/JPY(Exchange: BTCJPY=)& BTC/USD(Exchange: BTC=-USS)," Fran Strajnar, co-founder & CEO of data and research company Brave New Coin, told CNBC via email.
"These marketplace changes will inevitably slow nefarious activity and open channels to more and more institutional investors. In my opinion the 'PBoC cleanup' is the best thing that could have happened to bitcoin this year."
Other central banks may now be considering how to regulate bitcoin activity.
"I think all governments are trying to figure out how they can adjust laws and regulations to this new field, allowing them to get the benefit of the technology while at the same time curbing any usage for illicit purposes," Linus Lindgren, strategic investor and advisor at BTCXIndia, told CNBC via email.
"My recommendation to any regulator wondering how to go ahead with this would be to involve the industry and work together to reach common goals."
Follow CNBC International onTwitterandFacebook. || Bitcoin drops by $100 as China's central bank corrals the market: Chinese bitcoin exchanges have disabled withdrawals of the cryptocurrency after meeting with the People's Bank of China, indicating the central bank has stepped up its efforts to regulate the market. Throughout January, the PBoC made announcements that it was looking into bitcoin, including setting up a task force to carry out inspections and ensure bitcoin exchanges had implemented anti-money laundering systems. Then on Thursday , the central bank announced it had met with nine exchanges to warn them they would be closed if they violated regulations. This prompted the three main Chinese bitcoin exchanges, BTCC, Houbi and OKCoin to temporarily disable bitcoin withdrawal (users can deposit and withdraw yuan but not bitcoins) for the next 30 days, while they improve their anti-money laundering systems and customer identification measures. The news caused the price for bitcoin to drop sharply on Thursday, from near a one-month high of around $1063 to as low as $954. Bitcoin prices recovered marginally, and are currently trading around $964. Despite the hit to prices, bitcoin analysts believe the move by the PBoC will be healthy for the market. "The PBoC moves to regulate Bitcoin more stringently will bring short term woes but will ultimately strengthen the ecosystem," Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, told CNBC via email. The moves by the PBoC and the improved systems will add respectability and rigor to the bitcoin market, according to Hayter. These measures, along with the introduction of standard trading fees by Chinese exchanges, should also slow down the volume of bitcoin trading across China, which had become a cause for concern. According to CryptoCompare data, trading volumes on Chinese exchanges have fallen from 10 million bitcoins per day to a range of 30,000 to 90,000. Bitcoin-yuan trades made up 98 percent of market share, but this is now around 26 percent, behind bitcoin-dollar and bitcoin-yen pairs. Story continues "This has been a long time coming and many in the industry view these developments as a positive clean up. We already see liquidity resettling in other trading pairs like BTC/JPY (Exchange: BTCJPY=) & BTC/USD (Exchange: BTC=-USS) ," Fran Strajnar, co-founder & CEO of data and research company Brave New Coin, told CNBC via email. "These marketplace changes will inevitably slow nefarious activity and open channels to more and more institutional investors. In my opinion the 'PBoC cleanup' is the best thing that could have happened to bitcoin this year." Other central banks may now be considering how to regulate bitcoin activity. "I think all governments are trying to figure out how they can adjust laws and regulations to this new field, allowing them to get the benefit of the technology while at the same time curbing any usage for illicit purposes," Linus Lindgren, strategic investor and advisor at BTCXIndia, told CNBC via email. "My recommendation to any regulator wondering how to go ahead with this would be to involve the industry and work together to reach common goals." Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook . || Bitcoin drops by $100 as China's central bank corrals the market: Chinesebitcoinexchanges have disabled withdrawals of the cryptocurrency after meeting with the People's Bank of China, indicating the central bank has stepped up its efforts to regulate the market.
Throughout January, the PBoC made announcements that it was looking into bitcoin, including setting up a task force to carry out inspections and ensure bitcoin exchanges had implemented anti-money laundering systems.
Then on Thursday, the central bank announced it had met with nine exchanges to warn them they would be closed if they violated regulations. This prompted the three main Chinese bitcoin exchanges, BTCC, Houbi and OKCoin to temporarily disable bitcoin withdrawal (users can deposit and withdraw yuan but not bitcoins) for the next 30 days, while they improve their anti-money laundering systems and customer identification measures.
The news caused the price for bitcoin to drop sharply on Thursday, from near a one-month high of around $1063 to as low as $954. Bitcoin prices recovered marginally, and are currently trading around $964.
Despite the hit to prices, bitcoin analysts believe the move by the PBoC will be healthy for the market.
"The PBoC moves to regulate Bitcoin more stringently will bring short term woes but will ultimately strengthen the ecosystem," Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, told CNBC via email.
The moves by the PBoC and the improved systems will add respectability and rigor to the bitcoin market, according to Hayter.
These measures, along with the introduction of standard trading fees by Chinese exchanges, should also slow down the volume of bitcoin trading across China, which had become a cause for concern.
According to CryptoCompare data, trading volumes on Chinese exchanges have fallen from 10 million bitcoins per day to a range of 30,000 to 90,000. Bitcoin-yuan trades made up 98 percent of market share, but this is now around 26 percent, behind bitcoin-dollar and bitcoin-yen pairs.
"This has been a long time coming and many in the industry view these developments as a positive clean up. We already see liquidity resettling in other trading pairs like BTC/JPY(Exchange: BTCJPY=)& BTC/USD(Exchange: BTC=-USS)," Fran Strajnar, co-founder & CEO of data and research company Brave New Coin, told CNBC via email.
"These marketplace changes will inevitably slow nefarious activity and open channels to more and more institutional investors. In my opinion the 'PBoC cleanup' is the best thing that could have happened to bitcoin this year."
Other central banks may now be considering how to regulate bitcoin activity.
"I think all governments are trying to figure out how they can adjust laws and regulations to this new field, allowing them to get the benefit of the technology while at the same time curbing any usage for illicit purposes," Linus Lindgren, strategic investor and advisor at BTCXIndia, told CNBC via email.
"My recommendation to any regulator wondering how to go ahead with this would be to involve the industry and work together to reach common goals."
Follow CNBC International onTwitterandFacebook. || Why bitcoin will surge to $25,000: By Yves Lamoureux, president and chief behavioral strategist of macroeconomic research firm Lamoureux & Co. Bitcoin is on a trajectory that will eventually catapult it into bubble territory, with an end target of $25,000 or more. Many of the key ingredients present in past bubbles are now present to create the next one in bitcoin. What makes this possible is the mathematics of finite supply, which we will show you in a chart and is at the core of our argument. One of the reasons people buy gold is to avoid the dilution of fiat money. In other words, gold investors care about keeping their purchasing power. The alternative is an unlimited supply of paper money over time. This is why we are convinced that digital money or cryptocurrencies will eventually find its appeal with hard asset investors — or a rare chance to get in on a venture capital style bet. We fought tooth and nails to get the media to cover gold when it traded at $300. These events work out over cycles measured in decades, which is the amount of time required to convince the majority. Whether tulips, housing or tech stocks, bubbles require public participation. And as blockchain becomes more ubiquitous, it lends credibility to the technology behind bitcoin. We feel that digital currencies, such as bitcoin, have now entered a similar cycle. It will take many years of great returns to remove the current skepticism on digital money. And there will be pressure from governments to regulate it, which in the end, will only lend it more legitimacy. People trade today as they did last year, as they did 100 years ago. The psychology remains the same. Behaviour does not change. Provide the same set of incentives throughout time and the Pavlovian bell rings the same. When I saw this chart, immediately I saw dollar signs. Source: stackexchange.com Over the lifetime of mining bitcoins, the final amount is set to be 21 million coins. Nothing more and nothing less. For the time being, it is way too early to ascribe a final end of the road valuation target to bitcoin, even if we hint at a level. Story continues Prior articles: Why hyperinflation is coming Why the crisis of 2019 begins now How to prepare for the next major selloff in stocks: trader By Yves Lamoureux, January 16, 2017 ©Copyright, Lamoureux & Co. This communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product or service.This publication is proprietary and is intended for the use of the subscriber only. All information provided is impersonal and not tailored to the needs of any person, entity or group or persons. Lamoureux & Co. shall not be liable for any claims. || Why bitcoin will surge to $25,000: ByYves Lamoureux, president and chief behavioral strategist of macroeconomic research firm Lamoureux & Co.
Bitcoin is on a trajectory that will eventually catapult it into bubble territory, with an end target of $25,000 or more.
Many of the key ingredients present in past bubbles are now present to create the next one in bitcoin. What makes this possible is the mathematics of finite supply, which we will show you in a chart and is at the core of our argument.
One of the reasons people buy gold is to avoid the dilution of fiat money. In other words, gold investors care about keeping their purchasing power. The alternative is an unlimited supply of paper money over time.
This is why we are convinced that digital money or cryptocurrencies will eventually find its appeal with hard asset investors — or a rare chance to get in on a venture capital style bet.
We fought tooth and nails to get the media to cover gold when it traded at $300. These events work out over cycles measured in decades, which is the amount of time required to convince the majority.
Whether tulips, housing or tech stocks, bubbles require public participation. And as blockchain becomes more ubiquitous, it lends credibility to the technology behind bitcoin. We feel that digital currencies, such as bitcoin, have now entered a similar cycle.
It will take many years of great returns to remove the current skepticism on digital money. And there will be pressure from governments to regulate it, which in the end, will only lend it more legitimacy.
People trade today as they did last year, as they did 100 years ago. The psychology remains the same. Behaviour does not change. Provide the same set of incentives throughout time and the Pavlovian bell rings the same.
When I saw this chart, immediately I saw dollar signs.
Over the lifetime of mining bitcoins, the final amount is set to be 21 million coins. Nothing more and nothing less.
For the time being, it is way too early to ascribe a final end of the road valuation target to bitcoin, even if we hint at a level.
Prior articles:
Why hyperinflation is coming
Why the crisis of 2019 begins now
How to prepare for the next major selloff in stocks: trader
By Yves Lamoureux, January 16, 2017 ©Copyright, Lamoureux & Co.
This communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product or service.This publication is proprietary and is intended for the use of the subscriber only. All information provided is impersonal and not tailored to the needs of any person, entity or group or persons. Lamoureux & Co. shall not be liable for any claims. || Bitcoin trading shrivels under Chinese government's glare: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trading volumes at China's three largest bitcoin exchanges have plummeted after the central bank put the virtual currency market under sharper scrutiny a month ago in a move that coincided with official efforts to stem capital outflows. China had been the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading, with analytics site Bitcoinity estimating that the OkCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges had accounted for more than 90 percent of the global bitcoin market on Jan. 11. But data compiled by analytics platform Sosobtc showed the number of bitcoins traded on the three exchanges slumped from 13.6 million on Jan. 6 to just over 120,000 on Feb. 9. The People's Bank of China launched checks into the three exchanges last month and they have responded by saying that they would improve their systems to prevent money laundering and the use of bitcoin to trade against the yuan. On Thursday, the People's Bank of China said it had also warned smaller bitcoin exchanges that it would shut them down if they violated regulations. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency offers, has prompted some market operators to believe bitcoin had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The three main exchanges have introduced trading fees, stopped allowing margin lending and increased scrutiny of user identities, making it far less attractive for automated, high speed trades which had previously accounted for the lion's share of their business. The absence of trading fees had provided an advantage over overseas rivals earlier, but that advantage has now gone, traders said. Business has virtually dried up on Beijing-based high-speed bitcoin trading platform BotVS, according to chief executive Chen Zhenguo. "With the transaction fees the profits you can get from hedging (Bitcoin) are too low...You might as well put your money in Yu'e Bao," he said, referring to a money market fund run by an Alibaba Group affiliate. Other traders voiced similar sentiments. Cai Wenhao, business manager at Sosobtc, said trading volume levels in China would likely normalise to around those seen on exchanges elsewhere, like the Hong Kong-based Bitifinex and U.S.-based Coinbase. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom and John Ruwitch; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin trading shrivels under Chinese government's glare: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trading volumes at China's three largest bitcoin exchanges have plummeted after the central bank put the virtual currency market under sharper scrutiny a month ago in a move that coincided with official efforts to stem capital outflows. China had been the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading, with analytics site Bitcoinity estimating that the OkCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges had accounted for more than 90 percent of the global bitcoin market on Jan. 11. But data compiled by analytics platform Sosobtc showed the number of bitcoins traded on the three exchanges slumped from 13.6 million on Jan. 6 to just over 120,000 on Feb. 9. The People's Bank of China launched checks into the three exchanges last month and they have responded by saying that they would improve their systems to prevent money laundering and the use of bitcoin to trade against the yuan. On Thursday, the People's Bank of China said it had also warned smaller bitcoin exchanges that it would shut them down if they violated regulations. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency offers, has prompted some market operators to believe bitcoin had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The three main exchanges have introduced trading fees, stopped allowing margin lending and increased scrutiny of user identities, making it far less attractive for automated, high speed trades which had previously accounted for the lion's share of their business. The absence of trading fees had provided an advantage over overseas rivals earlier, but that advantage has now gone, traders said. Business has virtually dried up on Beijing-based high-speed bitcoin trading platform BotVS, according to chief executive Chen Zhenguo. "With the transaction fees the profits you can get from hedging (Bitcoin) are too low...You might as well put your money in Yu'e Bao," he said, referring to a money market fund run by an Alibaba Group affiliate. Other traders voiced similar sentiments. Cai Wenhao, business manager at Sosobtc, said trading volume levels in China would likely normalise to around those seen on exchanges elsewhere, like the Hong Kong-based Bitifinex and U.S.-based Coinbase. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom and John Ruwitch; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin trading shrivels under Chinese government's glare: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trading volumes at China's three largest bitcoin exchanges have plummeted after the central bank put the virtual currency market under sharper scrutiny a month ago in a move that coincided with official efforts to stem capital outflows. China had been the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading, with analytics site Bitcoinity estimating that the OkCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges had accounted for more than 90 percent of the global bitcoin market on Jan. 11. But data compiled by analytics platform Sosobtc showed the number of bitcoins traded on the three exchanges slumped from 13.6 million on Jan. 6 to just over 120,000 on Feb. 9. The People's Bank of China launched checks into the three exchanges last month and they have responded by saying that they would improve their systems to prevent money laundering and the use of bitcoin to trade against the yuan. On Thursday, the People's Bank of China said it had also warned smaller bitcoin exchanges that it would shut them down if they violated regulations. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency offers, has prompted some market operators to believe bitcoin had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The three main exchanges have introduced trading fees, stopped allowing margin lending and increased scrutiny of user identities, making it far less attractive for automated, high speed trades which had previously accounted for the lion's share of their business. The absence of trading fees had provided an advantage over overseas rivals earlier, but that advantage has now gone, traders said. Business has virtually dried up on Beijing-based high-speed bitcoin trading platform BotVS, according to chief executive Chen Zhenguo. "With the transaction fees the profits you can get from hedging (Bitcoin) are too low...You might as well put your money in Yu'e Bao," he said, referring to a money market fund run by an Alibaba Group affiliate. Other traders voiced similar sentiments. Cai Wenhao, business manager at Sosobtc, said trading volume levels in China would likely normalise to around those seen on exchanges elsewhere, like the Hong Kong-based Bitifinex and U.S.-based Coinbase. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom and John Ruwitch; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin trading shrivels under Chinese government's glare: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trading volumes at China's three largest bitcoin exchanges have plummeted after the central bank put the virtual currency market under sharper scrutiny a month ago in a move that coincided with official efforts to stem capital outflows. China had been the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading, with analytics site Bitcoinity estimating that the OkCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges had accounted for more than 90 percent of the global bitcoin market on Jan. 11. But data compiled by analytics platform Sosobtc showed the number of bitcoins traded on the three exchanges slumped from 13.6 million on Jan. 6 to just over 120,000 on Feb. 9. The People's Bank of China launched checks into the three exchanges last month and they have responded by saying that they would improve their systems to prevent money laundering and the use of bitcoin to trade against the yuan. On Thursday, the People's Bank of China said it had also warned smaller bitcoin exchanges that it would shut them down if they violated regulations. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency offers, has prompted some market operators to believe bitcoin had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The three main exchanges have introduced trading fees, stopped allowing margin lending and increased scrutiny of user identities, making it far less attractive for automated, high speed trades which had previously accounted for the lion's share of their business. The absence of trading fees had provided an advantage over overseas rivals earlier, but that advantage has now gone, traders said. Business has virtually dried up on Beijing-based high-speed bitcoin trading platform BotVS, according to chief executive Chen Zhenguo. "With the transaction fees the profits you can get from hedging (Bitcoin) are too low...You might as well put your money in Yu'e Bao," he said, referring to a money market fund run by an Alibaba Group affiliate. Other traders voiced similar sentiments. Cai Wenhao, business manager at Sosobtc, said trading volume levels in China would likely normalize to around those seen on exchanges elsewhere, like the Hong Kong-based Bitifinex and U.S.-based Coinbase. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom and John Ruwitch; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin trading shrivels under Chinese government's glare: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trading volumes at China's three largest bitcoin exchanges have plummeted after the central bank put the virtual currency market under sharper scrutiny a month ago in a move that coincided with official efforts to stem capital outflows. China had been the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading, with analytics site Bitcoinity estimating that the OkCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges had accounted for more than 90 percent of the global bitcoin market on Jan. 11. But data compiled by analytics platform Sosobtc showed the number of bitcoins traded on the three exchanges slumped from 13.6 million on Jan. 6 to just over 120,000 on Feb. 9. The People's Bank of China launched checks into the three exchanges last month and they have responded by saying that they would improve their systems to prevent money laundering and the use of bitcoin to trade against the yuan. On Thursday, the People's Bank of China said it had also warned smaller bitcoin exchanges that it would shut them down if they violated regulations. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency offers, has prompted some market operators to believe bitcoin had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The three main exchanges have introduced trading fees, stopped allowing margin lending and increased scrutiny of user identities, making it far less attractive for automated, high speed trades which had previously accounted for the lion's share of their business. The absence of trading fees had provided an advantage over overseas rivals earlier, but that advantage has now gone, traders said. Business has virtually dried up on Beijing-based high-speed bitcoin trading platform BotVS, according to chief executive Chen Zhenguo. "With the transaction fees the profits you can get from hedging (Bitcoin) are too low...You might as well put your money in Yu'e Bao," he said, referring to a money market fund run by an Alibaba Group affiliate. Other traders voiced similar sentiments. Cai Wenhao, business manager at Sosobtc, said trading volume levels in China would likely normalize to around those seen on exchanges elsewhere, like the Hong Kong-based Bitifinex and U.S.-based Coinbase. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom and John Ruwitch; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin trading shrivels under Chinese government's glare: By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Trading volumes at China's three largest bitcoin exchanges have plummeted after the central bank put the virtual currency market under sharper scrutiny a month ago in a move that coincided with official efforts to stem capital outflows. China had been the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading, with analytics site Bitcoinity estimating that the OkCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges had accounted for more than 90 percent of the global bitcoin market on Jan. 11. But data compiled by analytics platform Sosobtc showed the number of bitcoins traded on the three exchanges slumped from 13.6 million on Jan. 6 to just over 120,000 on Feb. 9. The People's Bank of China launched checks into the three exchanges last month and they have responded by saying that they would improve their systems to prevent money laundering and the use of bitcoin to trade against the yuan. On Thursday, the People's Bank of China said it had also warned smaller bitcoin exchanges that it would shut them down if they violated regulations. While the yuan weakened 6.6 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency offers, has prompted some market operators to believe bitcoin had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The three main exchanges have introduced trading fees, stopped allowing margin lending and increased scrutiny of user identities, making it far less attractive for automated, high speed trades which had previously accounted for the lion's share of their business. The absence of trading fees had provided an advantage over overseas rivals earlier, but that advantage has now gone, traders said. Business has virtually dried up on Beijing-based high-speed bitcoin trading platform BotVS, according to chief executive Chen Zhenguo. "With the transaction fees the profits you can get from hedging (Bitcoin) are too low...You might as well put your money in Yu'e Bao," he said, referring to a money market fund run by an Alibaba Group affiliate. Other traders voiced similar sentiments. Cai Wenhao, business manager at Sosobtc, said trading volume levels in China would likely normalize to around those seen on exchanges elsewhere, like the Hong Kong-based Bitifinex and U.S.-based Coinbase. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional Reporting by SHANGHAI Newsroom and John Ruwitch; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) || Bitcoin is tanking after Chinese exchanges block withdrawals: Bitcoin (A bitcoin sign in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch) Bitcoin was down by 8%, or $85, at $975 a coin as of 4:06 p.m. ET on Thursday after at least two of China's biggest bitcoin exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The announcements followed Wednesday's meeting between the People's Bank of China and the bitcoin exchanges. Thursday's announcements are notable because nearly 100% of all bitcoin transactions take place on Chinese exchanges. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016, when it became the top-performing currency for a second straight year. Bitcoin gained more than 20% in the opening week of 2017 before crashing by 35% on concerns China would start cracking down on trading . China's largest bitcoin exchanges recently announced they would charge a flat fee of 0.2% on all transactions. Thursday's steep slide has pushed bitcoin to its lowest level since the final trading day of January. It is still higher by 3.6% for the year. Bitcoin (Investing.com) NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider Bitcoin is zooming higher Bitcoin is rallying for an 8th straight day Bitcoin is back above $1,000 || Bitcoin is tanking after Chinese exchanges block withdrawals: (A bitcoin sign in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch)
Bitcoin was down by 8%, or $85, at $975 a coin as of 4:06 p.m. ET on Thursday after at leasttwoofChina'sbiggest bitcoin exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The announcements followedWednesday's meetingbetween the People's Bank of China and the bitcoin exchanges.
Thursday's announcements are notable becausenearly 100% of all bitcoin transactionstake place on Chinese exchanges. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016, when it became thetop-performing currencyfor a second straight year.
Bitcoin gained more than 20% in the opening week of 2017 before crashing by 35% on concerns China would startcracking down on trading. China's largest bitcoin exchanges recently announced they would charge a flat fee of 0.2% on all transactions.
Thursday's steep slide has pushed bitcoin to its lowest level since the final trading day of January. It is still higher by 3.6% for the year.
(Investing.com)
NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is zooming higher
• Bitcoin is rallying for an 8th straight day
• Bitcoin is back above $1,000 || Bitcoin is tanking after Chinese exchanges block withdrawals: (A bitcoin sign in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch)
Bitcoin was down by 8%, or $85, at $975 a coin as of 4:06 p.m. ET on Thursday after at leasttwoofChina'sbiggest bitcoin exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The announcements followedWednesday's meetingbetween the People's Bank of China and the bitcoin exchanges.
Thursday's announcements are notable becausenearly 100% of all bitcoin transactionstake place on Chinese exchanges. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016, when it became thetop-performing currencyfor a second straight year.
Bitcoin gained more than 20% in the opening week of 2017 before crashing by 35% on concerns China would startcracking down on trading. China's largest bitcoin exchanges recently announced they would charge a flat fee of 0.2% on all transactions.
Thursday's steep slide has pushed bitcoin to its lowest level since the final trading day of January. It is still higher by 3.6% for the year.
(Investing.com)
NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is zooming higher
• Bitcoin is rallying for an 8th straight day
• Bitcoin is back above $1,000 || STOCKS HIT ALL-TIME HIGHS: Here's what you need to know: (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
Stocks touched all-time highs on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he would release his plan to reform the tax system in the next few weeks.
Although they back-tracked on some of their gains near the end of the trading day, all three major indices still finished in the green.
First up, the scoreboard:
• Dow:20,172.40, +118.06, (+0.59%)
• S&P 500:2,307.87, +13.20, (+0.58%)
• Nasdaq:5,715.18, +32.73, (0.58%)
• US 10-year yield:2.397%, +0.057
• WTI Crude:$53.09 per barrel, +0.75, +1.34%
1.US President Donald Trump said that in the new few weeks he will release his plan to reform the US tax system. "We're going to be announcing something over the next, I would say, two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax," Trump said at a meeting with airline executives on Thursday. He added that he is "lowering the overall tax burden on American businesses, big league."
2.The Bank of Mexico hiked rates by 50 basis points to 6.25% in its latest interest-rate decision. In the accompanying statement, the bank noted that emerging markets were facing greater uncertainty regarding fiscal, commercial, and migration policies under consideration by the new US administration.
3.Airline stocks rallied after Trump promised to fix the "out of whack" air traffic control system. American Airlines was up by over 3%, Southwest was up by 2.7%, JetBlue was up by 3.6%, United Continental was up by 1.7%, and Delta was up by 2.9%.
4.Twitter's stock tanked after the company warned its revenue growth would continue to "lag" its recent spike in users. Its stock was down by 10.6% in premarket trading on Thursday.
5.Bitcoin tanked after Chinese exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The cryptocurrency was down by 9.6% around 9:30 a.m. ET.Thursday's announcements are notable becausenearly 100% of all bitcoin transactionstake place on Chinese exchanges.
6.New York City landlords have never been this aggressive about filling up vacant apartments.In January, concessions like a month of free rent and brand-new appliances rose to a record high in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to the real-estate appraiserDouglas Elliman. Concessions hit new highs for a fourth straight month, and the share of new leases with such giveaways was above 30% for the first time.
7.Yum Brands whiffed on sales as fewer people eat at Pizza Hut.Yum Brands Inc, the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, reported a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly sales at established restaurants worldwide as fewer diners ate at its Pizza Hut chain.
8.Initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell.Claims,which provide a weekly count of the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time, fell to 234,000.Moreover, the four-week moving average came in at 244,250, which is the lowest level since November 3, 1973 when it was 244,000.
Additionally:
One chart shows just how devastating healthcare costs are for American families.
Here's one name Trump will hear when he looks to replace Janet Yellen as Fed chair.
Trump's plan to make Wall Street unregulated again won't go unchallenged.
This is how you know something desperate is going on in China's economy.
Top Bridgewater exec explains how its intense, unique culture helped the world's largest hedge fund make $50 billion.
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Here's how many people in every state don't have health insurance.
NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin
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• These 13 online classes will help you learn something new in 2017 — and they’re all $10 || STOCKS HIT ALL-TIME HIGHS: Here's what you need to know: opera singer (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Stocks touched all-time highs on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he would release his plan to reform the tax system in the next few weeks. Although they back-tracked on some of their gains near the end of the trading day, all three major indices still finished in the green. First up, the scoreboard: Dow: 20,172.40, +118.06, (+0.59%) S&P 500: 2,307.87, +13.20, (+0.58%) Nasdaq: 5,715.18, +32.73, (0.58%) US 10-year yield: 2.397%, +0.057 WTI Crude: $53.09 per barrel, +0.75, +1.34% 1. US President Donald Trump said that in the new few weeks he will release his plan to reform the US tax system . "We're going to be announcing something over the next, I would say, two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax," Trump said at a meeting with airline executives on Thursday. He added that he is "lowering the overall tax burden on American businesses, big league." 2. The Bank of Mexico hiked rates by 50 basis points to 6.25% in its latest interest-rate decision . In the accompanying statement, the bank noted that emerging markets were facing greater uncertainty regarding fiscal, commercial, and migration policies under consideration by the new US administration. 3. Airline stocks rallied after Trump promised to fix the "out of whack" air traffic control system . American Airlines was up by over 3%, Southwest was up by 2.7%, JetBlue was up by 3.6%, United Continental was up by 1.7%, and Delta was up by 2.9%. 4. Twitter's stock tanked after the company warned its revenue growth would continue to "lag" its recent spike in users . Its stock was down by 10.6% in premarket trading on Thursday. 5. Bitcoin tanked after Chinese exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins . The cryptocurrency was down by 9.6% around 9:30 a.m. ET. Thursday's announcements are notable because nearly 100% of all bitcoin transactions take place on Chinese exchanges. 6. New York City landlords have never been this aggressive about filling up vacant apartments . In January, concessions like a month of free rent and brand-new appliances rose to a record high in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to the real-estate appraiser Douglas Elliman . Concessions hit new highs for a fourth straight month, and the share of new leases with such giveaways was above 30% for the first time. Story continues 7. Yum Brands whiffed on sales as fewer people eat at Pizza Hut . Yum Brands Inc, the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, reported a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly sales at established restaurants worldwide as fewer diners ate at its Pizza Hut chain. 8. Initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell . Claims, which provide a weekly count of the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time, fell to 234,000. Moreover, the four-week moving average came in at 244,250, which is the lowest level since November 3, 1973 when it was 244,000. Additionally: One chart shows just how devastating healthcare costs are for American families . Here's one name Trump will hear when he looks to replace Janet Yellen as Fed chair . Trump's plan to make Wall Street unregulated again won't go unchallenged . This is how you know something desperate is going on in China's economy . Top Bridgewater exec explains how its intense, unique culture helped the world's largest hedge fund make $50 billion . Be very afraid of the stock market, argues Business Insider's Linette Lopez . Here's how many people in every state don't have health insurance . NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider 20 must-have tech accessories under $20 Kellyanne Conway encourages Americans to 'go buy Ivanka's stuff,' potentially violating ethics rules These 13 online classes will help you learn something new in 2017 — and they’re all $10
[Social Media Buzz]
$991.01 #bitfinex;
$996.34 #bitstamp;
$978.36 #btce;
$1005.03 #GDAX;
$996.76 #itBit;
$1009.00 #cex;
#bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse || Send 1.0 - 4.9 BTC today, get 20.00 - 98.00 BTC in 20 hours,bitcoin funds stock forex. http://ow.ly/H94F308U4bM || $1006.70 #bitfinex;
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#bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse || #Bitcoin ⇩
Ultima: R$ 3139.00 Alta: R$ 3150.00 Baixa: R$ 3070.00
Fonte: Foxbit || $1012.91 at 22:45 UTC [24h Ra...
|
999.18, 990.64, 1004.55, 1007.48, 1027.44, 1046.21, 1054.42, 1047.87, 1079.98, 1115.30
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6906.92, 6582.36, 6349.90, 6675.35, 6456.58, 6550.16, 6499.27, 6734.82, 6769.94, 6776.55, 6729.74, 6083.69, 6162.48, 6173.23, 6249.18, 6093.67, 6157.13, 5903.44, 6218.30, 6404.00, 6385.82, 6614.18, 6529.59, 6597.55, 6639.14, 6673.50, 6856.93, 6773.88, 6741.75, 6329.95, 6394.71, 6228.81, 6238.05, 6276.12, 6359.64, 6741.75, 7321.04, 7370.78, 7466.86, 7354.13, 7419.29, 7418.49, 7711.11, 8424.27, 8181.39, 7951.58, 8165.01, 8192.15, 8218.46, 8180.48, 7780.44, 7624.91, 7567.15, 7434.39, 7032.85, 7068.48, 6951.80, 6753.12, 6305.80, 6568.23, 6184.71, 6295.73, 6322.69, 6297.57, 6199.71, 6308.52, 6334.73, 6580.63, 6423.76, 6506.07, 6308.53, 6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23, 7037.58, 7193.25, 7272.72, 7260.06, 7361.66, 6792.83, 6529.17, 6467.07, 6225.98.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-09-08]
Volume: 3835060000, RSI (14-day): 36.09, 50-day EMA: 6865.21, 200-day EMA: 7542.87
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Crypto, Blockchain Companies Shine in LinkedIn’s Top 50 U.S. Startups: Interspersed between the expected ilk of general tech and software startups, cryptocurrency and blockchain companies had an impressive showing among their mainstream industry peers. LinkedIn has been keeping its finger on the pulse of the United States’ most thriving startups, and crypto organizations are showing tremendous signs of life — and growth. The business and employment social media site released its LinkedIn Top Startups list this Thursday, September 6, 2018. Split into two articles , the list details the U.S.’s most dominant startups, weighing each company’s worth with in-house data that looks at “employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from [the company’s] flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list .” To be eligible, companies could be no older than seven years and must have had at least 50 employees. Crypto Companies Take Top Spots Interspersed between the expected ilk of general tech and software startups, cryptocurrency and blockchain companies had an impressive showing among their mainstream industry peers. Coming in just behind Uber adversary Lyft and low-calorie ice-cream company Halo Top Creamery, respectively, Coinbase ranked third on the list. In describing the six-year-old cryptocurrency wallet and vendor, LinkedIn notes that its services house over 20 million accounts — twice the number of clients Charles Schwab has on its books. At 500 employees strong, the company hopes to double its manpower by year’s end. Right behind number six — stock-trading service Robinhood (which, while not focused on cryptocurrencies, does offer crypto trading ) — comes Ripple . With over 100 clients, the blockchain-based banking platform delivers its services to institutions like Santander, RBC and American Express. The company of 250 employees hopes to add 75 more by 2019. Slinging a bit of mud, the company boasted to LinkedIn that this dedication to expansion — along with an impressive clientele — is what distinguishes Ripple from other crypto startups that are “playing in the sandbox.” Down the List, Crypto Still Finds Its Place Outside of the top 10, the Winklevosses’ Gemini straddles the list’s upper and lower division at 25. LinkedIn highlights the Winklevosses’ hitherto unsuccessful attempts to list a bitcoin ETF, as well as their spearheading of an SRO (self-regulatory organization) for cryptocurrency exchanges . Among its 150 employees, the description draws attention to Robert Cornish, Gemini’s newly acquired CIO, whom it “poached” from the New York Stock Exchange. Story continues Just below Gemini, Ethereum incubator ConsenSys tops the latter half of the rankings. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin heads the organizational body, and its impressive staff of 965, the largest of any of the crypto companies surveyed, is spread across departments for technological development, consulting, education and investing. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Amazon to launch Kaleido, an enterprise-grade, blockchain software-as-a-service kit available on Amazon Web Services. At 47, Axoni, a fintech firm focused on blockchain and distributed ledger technology, brings up the rear as the last crypto-related company on the list. Founded in 2013, the 50 employee company is starting to make a name for itself, as an infusion of $32 million in venture capital from market heavyweights like Goldman Sachs, Nyca Partners and Andreessen Horowitz has given the fledgling firm expectations to live up to. A detailed version of LinkedIn’s terminology, along with qualifiers and exceptions, reads as follows: LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over one year, which must be a minimum of 15%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts what rate people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from LinkedIn Top Companies , as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018. To be eligible, companies must be independent and privately held, have 50 or more employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, nonprofits, accelerators and government-owned entities. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Crypto, Blockchain Companies Shine in LinkedIn’s Top 50 U.S. Startups: LinkedIn has been keeping its finger on the pulse of the United States’ most thriving startups, and crypto organizations are showing tremendous signs of life — and growth.
The business and employment social media site released its LinkedIn Top Startups list this Thursday, September 6, 2018.Splitinto twoarticles, the list details the U.S.’s most dominant startups, weighing each company’s worth with in-house data that looks at “employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from [the company’s] flagshipLinkedIn Top Companies list.” To be eligible, companies could be no older than seven years and must have had at least 50 employees.
Interspersed between the expected ilk of general tech and software startups, cryptocurrency and blockchain companies had an impressive showing among their mainstream industry peers.
Coming in just behind Uber adversary Lyft and low-calorie ice-cream company Halo Top Creamery, respectively,Coinbaseranked third on the list. In describing the six-year-old cryptocurrency wallet and vendor, LinkedIn notes that its services house over 20 million accounts — twice the number of clients Charles Schwab has on its books. At 500 employees strong, the company hopes to double its manpower by year’s end.
Right behind number six — stock-trading service Robinhood (which, while not focused on cryptocurrencies,does offer crypto trading) — comesRipple. With over 100 clients, the blockchain-based banking platform delivers its services to institutions like Santander, RBC and American Express. The company of 250 employees hopes to add 75 more by 2019. Slinging a bit of mud, the company boasted to LinkedIn that this dedication to expansion — along with an impressive clientele — is what distinguishes Ripple from other crypto startups that are “playing in the sandbox.”
Outside of the top 10, the Winklevosses’Geministraddles the list’s upper and lower division at 25. LinkedIn highlights the Winklevosses’ hithertounsuccessfulattemptsto list a bitcoin ETF, as well as their spearheading of anSRO (self-regulatory organization) for cryptocurrency exchanges. Among its 150 employees, the description draws attention to Robert Cornish, Gemini’s newly acquired CIO, whom it “poached” from the New York Stock Exchange.
Just below Gemini, Ethereum incubatorConsenSystops the latter half of the rankings. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin heads the organizational body, and its impressive staff of 965, the largest of any of the crypto companies surveyed, is spread across departments for technological development, consulting, education and investing. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Amazon to launch Kaleido, an enterprise-grade, blockchain software-as-a-service kit available on Amazon Web Services.
At 47, Axoni, a fintech firm focused on blockchain and distributed ledger technology, brings up the rear as the last crypto-related company on the list. Founded in 2013, the 50 employee company is starting to make a name for itself, as an infusion of $32 million in venture capital from market heavyweights like Goldman Sachs, Nyca Partners andAndreessen Horowitzhas given the fledgling firm expectations to live up to.
A detailed version of LinkedIn’s terminology, along with qualifiers and exceptions, reads as follows:
LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over one year, which must be a minimum of 15%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts what rate people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away fromLinkedIn Top Companies, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018.
To be eligible, companies must be independent and privately held, have 50 or more employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, nonprofits, accelerators and government-owned entities.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Has the Bitcoin bubble finally burst?: Another day, another plunge in the digital currency market.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, shed 12.5pc in value over the 24 hour period that started Wednesday. Since then its value hovered around the $6,450 mark.
In total, Bitcoin has seen $184bn wiped from its market value since January, while other digital coins have followed. The plunge has prompted questions from investors: has the Bitcoin bubble burst, or is this simply a blip in the digital currency's value?
The recent fall marks a dramatic change in fortunes for Bitcoin. A rally in 2017 from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Litecoin, saw their values balloon to a point where a single Bitcoin was trading at approximately $20,000 per coin.
Experts say all is not lost for the sector. There remains signs of interest in Bitcoin from traditional finance, with Barclays opening an account for US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase earlier this year.
Futures exchanges such as CME Group started allowing Bitcoin derivatives to be traded, which allowed investors the chance to bet against the currency on an established financial platform. All of this has suggested that Bitcoin could find some backing from traditional finance.
Nevertheless, some believe Bitcoin's cliff-edge drop this week was triggered by reports that Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, was shelving plans to open a cryptocurrency trading desk - something it has since denied as "fake news".
Though the bank could not confirm the reports, it initially said in a statement: “In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space. At this point, we have not reach a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering.”
According to CoinCorner, a cryptocurrency exchange, Goldman Sachs' decision was insignificant and had little to do with Bitcoin’s most recent decline.
“Many have been speculating that this week’s Bitcoin price drop was due to the news that Goldman Sachs would be ditching cryptocurrency trading plans,” said Danny Scott, co-founder of CoinCorner.
“We have seen far bigger announcements in the past from companies such as Microsoft, which had no subsequent impact on the price.”
Instead, he believes the Bitcoin price drop involves MtGox, a defunct Bitcoin wallet exchange that was based in Japan, which has started to move over 100,000 Bitcoin.
It follows an announcement from the exchange to allow creditors to prepare claims for Bitcoin repayments.
MtGox suspended trading in 2014 after filing for bankruptcy, and now those who lost money through the exchange will start to be repaid in cryptocurrencies following a court decision in June. Further payouts from the company could see Bitcoin drop below the $6000 mark.
“It looks as though roughly $100m worth of Bitcoin moved from these wallets and were potentially sold on the market on Wednesday, which is more likely to have been the key driver behind Bitcoin’s price movement over the last few days,” said Mr Scott.
The bigger problem facing Bitcoin is its push to find a stable price, which could depend heavily on emerging regulation.
Hesitancy from traditional finance to embrace cryptocurrencies has resulted from the regulatory fog around the assets, which has left investors unprotected and brought on a surge in criminal activity.
CipherTrace, a platform for cryptocurrency analysis, found that three times more cryptocurrency was stolen from exchanges in the first half of 2018 alone, than in all of 2017.
Losses in the cryptocurrency world come in a week when finance ministers from across the European Union met in Vienna, Austria to discuss the bloc’s stance towards the controversial coins. The questions looming around regulation are complex.
According to a report prepared for the European politicians by Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, there needs to be a common rule book adopted by EU member states on the regulation and incorporation of cryptocurrencies.
It calls for policymakers to adopt a common framework that reckons with the coins and their underlying technology as the lack of a general consensus has left crypto enthusiasts in the dark.
The report says the push for regulation has been slow because “the share of cryptocurrencies in global payment transactions is tiny” and the divergence in opinion large.
Crypto UK, the first trade association around the digital coin industry in the country, has said it would welcome any form of regulation, but admits the peaks reached in January are unlikely to be replicated.
Whether Bitcoin starts to stabilise or sink further remains to be seen, but with regulators taking interest, the days of runaway prices could be numbered. || Has the Bitcoin bubble finally burst?: Another day, another plunge in the digital currency market.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, shed 12.5pc in value over the 24 hour period that started Wednesday. Since then its value hovered around the $6,450 mark.
In total, Bitcoin has seen $184bn wiped from its market value since January, while other digital coins have followed. The plunge has prompted questions from investors: has the Bitcoin bubble burst, or is this simply a blip in the digital currency's value?
The recent fall marks a dramatic change in fortunes for Bitcoin. A rally in 2017 from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Litecoin, saw their values balloon to a point where a single Bitcoin was trading at approximately $20,000 per coin.
Experts say all is not lost for the sector. There remains signs of interest in Bitcoin from traditional finance, with Barclays opening an account for US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase earlier this year.
Futures exchanges such as CME Group started allowing Bitcoin derivatives to be traded, which allowed investors the chance to bet against the currency on an established financial platform. All of this has suggested that Bitcoin could find some backing from traditional finance.
Nevertheless, some believe Bitcoin's cliff-edge drop this week was triggered by reports that Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, was shelving plans to open a cryptocurrency trading desk - something it has since denied as "fake news".
Though the bank could not confirm the reports, it initially said in a statement: “In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space. At this point, we have not reach a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering.”
According to CoinCorner, a cryptocurrency exchange, Goldman Sachs' decision was insignificant and had little to do with Bitcoin’s most recent decline.
“Many have been speculating that this week’s Bitcoin price drop was due to the news that Goldman Sachs would be ditching cryptocurrency trading plans,” said Danny Scott, co-founder of CoinCorner.
“We have seen far bigger announcements in the past from companies such as Microsoft, which had no subsequent impact on the price.”
Instead, he believes the Bitcoin price drop involves MtGox, a defunct Bitcoin wallet exchange that was based in Japan, which has started to move over 100,000 Bitcoin.
It follows an announcement from the exchange to allow creditors to prepare claims for Bitcoin repayments.
MtGox suspended trading in 2014 after filing for bankruptcy, and now those who lost money through the exchange will start to be repaid in cryptocurrencies following a court decision in June. Further payouts from the company could see Bitcoin drop below the $6000 mark.
“It looks as though roughly $100m worth of Bitcoin moved from these wallets and were potentially sold on the market on Wednesday, which is more likely to have been the key driver behind Bitcoin’s price movement over the last few days,” said Mr Scott.
The bigger problem facing Bitcoin is its push to find a stable price, which could depend heavily on emerging regulation.
Hesitancy from traditional finance to embrace cryptocurrencies has resulted from the regulatory fog around the assets, which has left investors unprotected and brought on a surge in criminal activity.
CipherTrace, a platform for cryptocurrency analysis, found that three times more cryptocurrency was stolen from exchanges in the first half of 2018 alone, than in all of 2017.
Losses in the cryptocurrency world come in a week when finance ministers from across the European Union met in Vienna, Austria to discuss the bloc’s stance towards the controversial coins. The questions looming around regulation are complex.
According to a report prepared for the European politicians by Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, there needs to be a common rule book adopted by EU member states on the regulation and incorporation of cryptocurrencies.
It calls for policymakers to adopt a common framework that reckons with the coins and their underlying technology as the lack of a general consensus has left crypto enthusiasts in the dark.
The report says the push for regulation has been slow because “the share of cryptocurrencies in global payment transactions is tiny” and the divergence in opinion large.
Crypto UK, the first trade association around the digital coin industry in the country, has said it would welcome any form of regulation, but admits the peaks reached in January are unlikely to be replicated.
Whether Bitcoin starts to stabilise or sink further remains to be seen, but with regulators taking interest, the days of runaway prices could be numbered. || Has the Bitcoin bubble finally burst?: Bitcoin's heavy losses this year have raised questions around its future. - Getty Images Europe Another day, another plunge in the digital currency market. Bitcoin, the worlds biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, shed 12.5pc in value over the 24 hour period that started Wednesday. Since then its value hovered around the $6,450 mark. In total, Bitcoin has seen $184bn wiped from its market value since January, while other digital coins have followed. The plunge has prompted questions from investors: has the Bitcoin bubble burst, or is this simply a blip in the digital currency's value? The recent fall marks a dramatic change in fortunes for Bitcoin. A rally in 2017 from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Litecoin, saw their values balloon to a point where a single Bitcoin was trading at approximately $20,000 per coin. Experts say all is not lost for the sector. There remains signs of interest in Bitcoin from traditional finance, with Barclays opening an account for US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase earlier this year. Futures exchanges such as CME Group started allowing Bitcoin derivatives to be traded, which allowed investors the chance to bet against the currency on an established financial platform. All of this has suggested that Bitcoin could find some backing from traditional finance. Nevertheless, some believe Bitcoin's cliff-edge drop this week was triggered by reports that Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, was shelving plans to open a cryptocurrency trading desk - something it has since denied as "fake news". Though the bank could not confirm the reports, it initially said in a statement: In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space. At this point, we have not reach a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering. According to CoinCorner, a cryptocurrency exchange, Goldman Sachs' decision was insignificant and had little to do with Bitcoins most recent decline. Many have been speculating that this weeks Bitcoin price drop was due to the news that Goldman Sachs would be ditching cryptocurrency trading plans, said Danny Scott, co-founder of CoinCorner. We have seen far bigger announcements in the past from companies such as Microsoft, which had no subsequent impact on the price. Instead, he believes the Bitcoin price drop involves MtGox, a defunct Bitcoin wallet exchange that was based in Japan, which has started to move over 100,000 Bitcoin. It follows an announcement from the exchange to allow creditors to prepare claims for Bitcoin repayments. Story continues MtGox suspended trading in 2014 after filing for bankruptcy, and now those who lost money through the exchange will start to be repaid in cryptocurrencies following a court decision in June. Further payouts from the company could see Bitcoin drop below the $6000 mark. It looks as though roughly $100m worth of Bitcoin moved from these wallets and were potentially sold on the market on Wednesday, which is more likely to have been the key driver behind Bitcoins price movement over the last few days, said Mr Scott. The bigger problem facing Bitcoin is its push to find a stable price, which could depend heavily on emerging regulation. Hesitancy from traditional finance to embrace cryptocurrencies has resulted from the regulatory fog around the assets, which has left investors unprotected and brought on a surge in criminal activity. CipherTrace, a platform for cryptocurrency analysis, found that three times more cryptocurrency was stolen from exchanges in the first half of 2018 alone, than in all of 2017. Losses in the cryptocurrency world come in a week when finance ministers from across the European Union met in Vienna, Austria to discuss the blocs stance towards the controversial coins. The questions looming around regulation are complex. According to a report prepared for the European politicians by Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, there needs to be a common rule book adopted by EU member states on the regulation and incorporation of cryptocurrencies. It calls for policymakers to adopt a common framework that reckons with the coins and their underlying technology as the lack of a general consensus has left crypto enthusiasts in the dark. The report says the push for regulation has been slow because the share of cryptocurrencies in global payment transactions is tiny and the divergence in opinion large. Crypto UK, the first trade association around the digital coin industry in the country, has said it would welcome any form of regulation, but admits the peaks reached in January are unlikely to be replicated. Whether Bitcoin starts to stabilise or sink further remains to be seen, but with regulators taking interest, the days of runaway prices could be numbered. View comments || IBM Has More than 500 Blockchain Projects in the Works: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
Cryptocurrencies are still struggling to attain wider adoption by industries, but its underlying technology, blockchain, is gaining more traction from companies, large or small, public and private alike, who see it as a viable application for a variety of uses in a multitude of sectors. One of those companies is IBM, which boasts 1,500 employees working on over 500 blockchain projects in a bevy of industries.
IBM is part of theForbes' list of 50companies exploring blockchain use, which include domestic names, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. From the financial sector to the healthcare sector, blockchain technology appears to be manifesting itself in various forms as a workable solution for housing data and securing it from unwanted access.
Companies like IBM are vying to become early adopters in order to further their businesses, such as the joint venture between the tech giant and transportation company Maersk, which launched a blockchain shipping platform dubbed TradeLens. The TradeLens platform has already been put to use facilitating global trade without relying on middlemen for a year, which has resulted in $154 million shipping events at ports located around the world.
Now, the blockchain platform is growing at a rate of $1 million daily.
"As blockchain is a technology that creates trust, it has the power to bring efficiencies to the shipping & transportation industries where there are multiple logistics & governmental participants involved in moving goods from point A to B," said Matt Markiewicz, Managing Director at Innovation Shares, an index provider for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). "Through their TradeLens platform, A.P. Moller-Maersk, the Danish container shipping company, is one of the leaders in helping to streamline processes & reduce costs involved in the movement of freight across more than 200 ports around the globe."
IBM's penchant for early adoption is well-documented,according to Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones. IBM is in the forefront of blockchain usage in financial services with itsLedgerConnectapp store that gives financial companies access to blockchain vendors to streamline back-end operations.
"Historically we've seen IBM invest in a technology early with some early promise, but then they've had difficulty commercializing good technologies or innovations at scale," said Olson.
Part of the drive towards implementing blockchain technology is IBM listening to their customer base. By identifying key needs in customers' demands, IBM can determine whether blockchain technology is a viable solution.
"We didn't start with a big bang,"said Marie Wieck, the general manager of IBM Blockchain. "We found (blockchain) had real applicability but not just as an extension of our existing products. We had to create something new, so we started experimenting and doing some customer pilots, and we saw there was enough interest to move forward."
Related:World Bank Launches Blockchain-Only Bond
Still an Uphill Climb for Cryptocurrencies
As blockchain technology continues to gain wider acceptance, cryptocurrency efforts like Bitcoin ETFs continue to face an uphill climb to legitimacy in the investment space and despite efforts by firms, the Securities and Exchange Commission stands firmly in the way. Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications have been getting seemingly perfunctory rejections, preventing cryptos from gaining more acceptance from investors who are wary of the unregulated exchanges of cryptocurrencies.
In an attempt to fall under the governmental regulation of the SEC, the cryptocurrency industry has been unable to bring this into fruition, starting with the Winklevoss Capital Management founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss application, which was rejected twice. The US Securities and Exchange Commission postponed their decision on a bitcoin ETF by investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX until the end of this month.
For more information on the cryptocurrency market, visit theBitcoin category.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Amid the cryptocurrency bloodbath, is it time to give up as a retail investor?: Bitcoin’s yet another plunge on Thursday has proved a survey of Brits predicting the cryptocurrency bubble bursting right.
Bitcoin (BTC) started its fresh slide on Wednesday following an update from Goldman Sachs saying it had put plans to start cryptocurrency trading desk on hold. By Thursday morning the slide turned into plunge,dropping by a $1,000 in 24 hours, to a low of $6,253.
Other cryptocurrencies such as ether, the second largest after bitcoin and based on ethereum (ETH) blockchain platform, fell to its lowest since 2017. It lost 10% in value along with litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP) and bitcoin cash (BCH). Analysts believeGoldman report hit the sentimentrocking the cryptocurrency market which is worth about $280bn.
Bitcoin had risen to lofty heights last year, nearly touching $20,000 – the price of one bitcoin on 17 December was$19,783.21. Since then it has dropped steadily as governments in South Korea and China began a crackdown and central banks including Bank of France and the US Treasury issuing warnings.
Ever since its invention in 2008, by Satoshi Nakamoto – the name used by the inventor (or inventors) but whose identity has never been confirmed – bitcoin has divided opinions. The currency is built on an open-source technology called blockchain – a digital ledger that provides a secure way of making and recording transactions that are shared across a network of computers. The ledger becomes a long list of transactions – a “chain”, that gets bigger over time with every “block” of record adding on to the previous one.
A revolutionary tech or a scam
Nouriel Roubini, the economist who famously predicted the 2008 financial crisis, calls cryptocurrencies the “mother and father” of all bubbles. In Las Vegas last month, Roubini, who was invited to deliver a keynote speech atBlockShow America 2018, an event to promote blockchain technology and cryptocurrency businesses, launched a scathing attack on all things crypto.
“To call them cryptocurrencies is a joke. They are not money. Their value has fallen by 90% and I can bet on it falling by 90% again in an year,” he said during a debate withAlex Mashinsky, a tech entrepreneur with several patents to his name and chief executive of Celcius Network, an ethereum-basedlending platform operated by use ofblockchaintechnologies.
Roubini said crypto promoters arepeddling myths, the blockchain is an overhyped technology and ICOs [Initial Coin Offerings] were “total scams”. Mashinsky, however, compared the current volatility to the very early stages of internet, citing example of the now trillion-dollar company, Amazon, and how it too had lost 90% of its value in its early years and was written off by critics.
Read more: Financial experts who call bitcoin a scam
Currently about$2.1bn is invested in blockchain technology,including$200m by IBM. In the past five years several startups have launched ICOs and an estimated 2,000 cryptocurrencies exist. The total number of bitcoins is limited by the design of the tech that underpins it to 21 million, turning it into an asset, like gold. Butcritics including Warren Buffet call it worthless.
The UK survey on cryptocurrency
Hate them or love them, cryptocurrencies have snuck up on the global financial landscape. Financial institutions regularly conduct surveys and commission research to gauge sentiment. The latest one in the UK show Brits remain circumspect with a third of them (33% of the polled sample) saying they “believe that the cryptocurrency bubble will burst”.
“Over a quarter of Britons believe cryptocurrencies are less stable investment while a third think it’s a bubble that will burst,” according to a study byIW Capital, a London-based investment company.
Its research reflects scepticism that surrounds cryptocurrencies with only 7% believing cryptocurrency to be more valuable than traditional investment and just 5% saying they have made financial gains from investing in cryptocurrencies.
“It is shocking, but not surprising, to see so much confusion around the topic of cryptocurrency, but to see that investments have been made without proper financial advice and a lack of facts is very concerning,”, said Luke Davis, chief executive of IW Capital.
David Jones, chief marketing strategist atCapital.com, a financial trading platform, said: “Investors in cryptocurrency have not had the best of years in 2018. But this week has been a reminder that the cryptocurrencies still are one of the more volatile and fickle assets out here – and sentiment can change incredibly quickly.” || Will bitcoin go back up? Analysis on cryptocurrency market: Is bitcoin the ‘mother’ of all bubbles? Photo: Getty Bitcoin’s yet another plunge on Thursday has proved a survey of Brits predicting the cryptocurrency bubble bursting right. Bitcoin ( BTC ) started its fresh slide on Wednesday following an update from Goldman Sachs saying it had put plans to start cryptocurrency trading desk on hold. By Thursday morning the slide turned into plunge, dropping by a $1,000 in 24 hours , to a low of $6,253. Other cryptocurrencies such as ether, the second largest after bitcoin and based on ethereum ( ETH ) blockchain platform, fell to its lowest since 2017. It lost 10% in value along with litecoin ( LTC ), ripple ( XRP ) and bitcoin cash ( BCH ). Analysts believe Goldman report hit the sentiment rocking the cryptocurrency market which is worth about $280bn. Bitcoin had risen to lofty heights last year, nearly touching $20,000 – the price of one bitcoin on 17 December was $19,783.21. Since then it has dropped steadily as governments in South Korea and China began a crackdown and central banks including Bank of France and the US Treasury issuing warnings. Ever since its invention in 2008, by Satoshi Nakamoto – the name used by the inventor (or inventors) but whose identity has never been confirmed – bitcoin has divided opinions. The currency is built on an open-source technology called blockchain – a digital ledger that provides a secure way of making and recording transactions that are shared across a network of computers. The ledger becomes a long list of transactions – a “chain”, that gets bigger over time with every “block” of record adding on to the previous one. Bitcoin-USD chart A revolutionary tech or a scam Nouriel Roubini , the economist who famously predicted the 2008 financial crisis, calls cryptocurrencies the “mother and father” of all bubbles. In Las Vegas last month, Roubini, who was invited to deliver a keynote speech at BlockShow America 2018 , an event to promote blockchain technology and cryptocurrency businesses, launched a scathing attack on all things crypto. Story continues “To call them cryptocurrencies is a joke. They are not money. Their value has fallen by 90% and I can bet on it falling by 90% again in an year,” he said during a debate with Alex Mashinsky , a tech entrepreneur with several patents to his name and chief executive of Celcius Network, an ethereum-based lending platform operated by use of blockchain technologies. Roubini said crypto promoters are peddling myths, the blockchain is an overhyped technology and ICOs [Initial Coin Offerings] were “total scams” . Mashinsky, however, compared the current volatility to the very early stages of internet, citing example of the now trillion-dollar company, Amazon, and how it too had lost 90% of its value in its early years and was written off by critics. Read more: Financial experts who call bitcoin a scam Currently about $2.1bn is invested in blockchain technology, including $200m by IBM . In the past five years several startups have launched ICOs and an estimated 2,000 cryptocurrencies exist. The total number of bitcoins is limited by the design of the tech that underpins it to 21 million, turning it into an asset, like gold. But critics including Warren Buffet call it worthless . Ethereum-USD chart The UK survey on cryptocurrency Hate them or love them, cryptocurrencies have snuck up on the global financial landscape. Financial institutions regularly conduct surveys and commission research to gauge sentiment. The latest one in the UK show Brits remain circumspect with a third of them (33% of the polled sample) saying they “believe that the cryptocurrency bubble will burst”. “Over a quarter of Britons believe cryptocurrencies are less stable investment while a third think it’s a bubble that will burst,” according to a study by IW Capital , a London-based investment company. Its research reflects scepticism that surrounds cryptocurrencies with only 7% believing cryptocurrency to be more valuable than traditional investment and just 5% saying they have made financial gains from investing in cryptocurrencies. “It is shocking, but not surprising, to see so much confusion around the topic of cryptocurrency, but to see that investments have been made without proper financial advice and a lack of facts is very concerning,”, said Luke Davis, chief executive of IW Capital. David Jones, c hief marketing strategist at Capital.com , a financial trading platform, said: “ Investors in cryptocurrency have not had the best of years in 2018. But this week has been a reminder that the cryptocurrencies still are one of the more volatile and fickle assets out here – and sentiment can change incredibly quickly.” || Quione Looks to Boost Crypto Liquidity With New Trading Platform: Crypto exchange startup Quione has launched a trading platform called Liquid that it says will bring much needed liquidity to the crypto markets. Cryptocurrency exchange startup Quione has launched a new trading platform that it says will bring much needed liquidity to the crypto markets. Called Liquid, the new service is a cryptocurrency trading "portal" that provides users with access to what it claims in a press release is "a worldwide network of cryptocurrency exchanges." With a lack of liquidity having "hampered the development of the cryptocurrency markets," Liquid argued that its new product could help usher in greater stability. Australian Watchdog to Apply Market Rules to Crypto Exchanges From launch, Liquid will allow users to match trades across "multiple transactions and cryptocurrencies" â that is, make cross cryptocurrency conversions, as well as convert from the Singapore dollar (SGD). The firm says, as an example, orders of BTC/SGD, ETH/SGD and BTC/ETH could be matched together. Later on, the firm plans to expand that offering with what it is calling a "World Book" technology. This aggregates orders and prices on different exchanges into a single order book and allows orders to be placed in the currency of choice, Quoine said. According to an example of the system in the Liquid white paper , a German trader who wants to sell bitcoin can opt to view the World Book for bitcoin (BTC) in euros (EUR). When an order is placed, they will see their order enter the BTC/EUR market, with the order's price also being reflected in their orderbook in EUR. If the trader's order to, say, sell BTC/EUR is matched with an order to buy BTC/SGD, "an FX conversion happens behind the scenes." After the trade, both parties receive their funds in their chosen order currencies. Crypto and Stock Trading Startup Robinhood Is Eyeing an IPO Mike Kayamori, co-founder and CEO of Quoine, said in the release: "Cryptocurrency markets need stability. This year, the 30 day BTC/USD volatility [2] index has been above 3 percent for almost the entire year, with highs topping 8 percent at the start of the year. Liquid is paving the way to a less volatile future by improving liquidity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem,." Story continues Quoine operates cryptocurrency exchange businesses, and was licensed by Japan's financial watchdog, the Financial Service Authority, for its operations in the country back in September 2017. Two months later, Quoine raised $105 million in a sale of its QASH token that it said would fund Liquid's development. The utility token will now be used to power the platform, allowing users to access to services. In the press release, the firm further listed a number of features that it plans to add in the future including verification that allows withdrawals "under certain limits" to be made without having to undergo a know-your-customer process. A credit card funding option and mobile apps for iOS and Android are also in the works. Liquid image via Shutterstock Related Stories Uzbekistan Looks to Lure Crypto Exchanges With New Tax Benefits Crypto Exchange Kraken Denies Rumor of Office Closure, Security Breach || Quione Looks to Boost Crypto Liquidity With New Trading Platform: Cryptocurrency exchange startup Quione has launched a new trading platform that it says will bring much needed liquidity to the crypto markets.
Called Liquid, the new service is a cryptocurrency trading "portal" that provides users with access to what it claims in apress releaseis "a worldwide network of cryptocurrency exchanges."
With a lack of liquidity having "hampered the development of the cryptocurrency markets," Liquid argued that its new product could help usher in greater stability.
Australian Watchdog to Apply Market Rules to Crypto Exchanges
From launch,Liquidwill allow users to match trades across "multiple transactions and cryptocurrencies" â that is, make cross cryptocurrency conversions, as well as convert from the Singapore dollar (SGD). The firm says, as an example, orders of BTC/SGD, ETH/SGD and BTC/ETH could be matched together.
Later on, the firm plans to expand that offering with what it is calling a "World Book" technology. This aggregates orders and prices on different exchanges into a single order book and allows orders to be placed in the currency of choice, Quoine said.
According to an example of the system in the Liquidwhite paper, a German trader who wants to sell bitcoin can opt to view the World Book for bitcoin (BTC) in euros (EUR). When an order is placed, they will see their order enter the BTC/EUR market, with the order's price also being reflected in their orderbook in EUR.
If the trader's order to, say, sell BTC/EUR is matched with an order to buy BTC/SGD, "an FX conversion happens behind the scenes." After the trade, both parties receive their funds in their chosen order currencies.
Crypto and Stock Trading Startup Robinhood Is Eyeing an IPO
Mike Kayamori, co-founder and CEO of Quoine, said in the release:
"Cryptocurrency markets need stability. This year, the 30 day BTC/USD volatility [2] index has been above 3 percent for almost the entire year, with highs topping 8 percent at the start of the year. Liquid is paving the way to a less volatile future by improving liquidity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem,."
Quoine operates cryptocurrency exchange businesses, and waslicensedby Japan's financial watchdog, the Financial Service Authority, for its operations in the country back in September 2017.
Two months later, Quoine raised $105 million in a sale of its QASH token that it said would fund Liquid's development. The utility token will now be used to power the platform, allowing users to access to services.
In the press release, the firm further listed a number of features that it plans to add in the future including verification that allows withdrawals "under certain limits" to be made without having to undergo a know-your-customer process.
A credit card funding option and mobile apps for iOS and Android are also in the works.
Liquidimage via Shutterstock
• Uzbekistan Looks to Lure Crypto Exchanges With New Tax Benefits
• Crypto Exchange Kraken Denies Rumor of Office Closure, Security Breach || 3 Top Oil Stocks to Buy in September: If you are looking for some great value stocks to buy, then the oil and gas sector is a good place to start digging these days. Across the board, there are loads of opportunities where Wall Street hasn't been paying attention. Whether it's producers growing in the scorching-hot Permian Basin, sleeping giants, or offshore specialists anticipating a surge in activity, investors can find some great deals in this industry today.
We asked three Motley Fool contributors to discuss one stock in the oil and gas space they think is a great buy right now. Here's a rundown on their three picks:Diamondback Energy(NASDAQ: FANG),ExxonMobil(NYSE: XOM), andTransocean(NYSE: RIG).
Image source: Getty Images.
Matt DiLallo(Diamondback Energy):ForPermian Basin-focused driller Diamondback Energy, "M&A activity is as fundamental... as the air we breathe,"accordingto CEO Travis Stice. That's because the oil company uses acquisitions to move the needle on its most important financial metrics, which is the key to growing shareholder value.
The company's track record speaks for itself. Since going public in 2012, the driller made more than $5 billion in deals before this year, which combined to increaseEBITDAper share by more than 800% at a time when oil prices have fallen 23%. That acquisition-fueled earnings growth has driven Diamondback's stock up nearly 600% over that time frame, vastly outperforming not only most other oil stocks but theS&P 500.
That past success in creating value via acquisitions is worth noting, considering that Diamondback Energy recently made its biggest deal yet in acquiring fellow Permian drillerEnergen(NYSE: EGN)for $9.2 billion. That transaction is accretive on all the metrics that matter to the company, including earnings and cash flow per share. Furthermore, it will significantly boost its scale and growth prospects.
While it could take Diamondback Energy some time to digest its recent prey, the company believes that the combination will create significant value for shareholders as it integrates the two companies and captures future cost savings. That upside potential, when combined with its growth prospects, makes Diamondback Energy one of the top oil stocks to consider buying this month.
Reuben Gregg Brewer(ExxonMobil Corporation):Is Exxon's business broken? The stock price languishing and the yield stuck at around 4% seem to suggest that the answer is yes. But that's a shortsighted view of the situation, even though falling production and middling returns on capital employed today dohighlight the very real and very material issues Exxon is facing.
But this over 100-year-old company has been through troubling times before in the volatile energy industry. It hasplans in place to address the current issues, including increased capital spending and a heightened focus on project execution. It expects its efforts to lead to a doubling of earnings, assuming energy prices remain around where they are today, by 2025. Earnings could grow even more if oil prices rise. That's a long way off, but with Exxon's yield at the high end of its historical range, you'll be paid handsomely forwaiting through the current rough patch.
XOM Price to Tangible Book Valuedata byYCharts.
The oil giant's balance sheet, meanwhile, is in great shape to support the plan. Debt only accounts for around 10% of the capital structure, meaning it has plenty of room to keep investing for the future even if oil prices slump again. Waiting until 2025 won't be easy, but with the stock trading at a 30-year price to tangible book value low, now is the time to act. Don't wait until Wall Street recognizes that material progress toward the energy giant's goals have been made, it will be too late at that point.
FANGdata byYCharts.
Tyler Crowe(Transocean):Offshore rig company Transocean and its management team have been incredibly busy over the past few years. Ever since the offshore drilling market peaked around 2015, the company has undertaken a monumental effort to transform its fleet from one of the oldest on the open waters to one of the newest and most capable fleets out there. It's divested, sold, or retired 60 rigs from its fleet and focused its portfolio around rigs capable of handling either ultra-deepwater depths (more than 10,000 feet of water) or harsh environments like the North Sea off the coast of Norway. These rigs command the highest rates for use and typically are awarded longer contracts than their shallower, less capable brethren.
One thing that Transocean has used to its advantage during this transition is its balance sheet. The company entered this downturn with a mountain of cash and a manageable debt load. Now, as business starts to pick back up, it has the ability to acquire distressed companies at steep discounts, as evidenced by themost recent purchaseofOcean Rig UDWfor $2.7 billion. This acquisition and lastyear's addition of Songa Offshoregive the company the largest fleet of rigs at the premium end of the market and a backlog of work that is four times larger than its biggest competitor.
Transocean's management is getting aggressive with acquisitions right now for two reasons: (1) Assets are currently selling for huge discounts (the per-rig cost for Ocean Rig UDW was 58% cheaper than a new build), and (2) Transocean anticipates a significant uptick in offshore drilling activity in the next 18 months. According to management, there are 87 ultra-deepwater drilling programs coming up for bid before 2020 that will equate to 59 rig years of work.
Even though all of these things appear to be working in Transocean's favor, its stock is still trading for an absurdly cheap price-to-tangible book ratio of 0.43 times. If Transocean is able to capture some of the work (and why wouldn't they with its fleet?), then this could be the turn in the offshore market investors have been waiting for.
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Matthew DiLallohas no position in any of the stocks mentioned.Reuben Gregg Brewerowns shares of ExxonMobil.Tyler Croweowns shares of ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 3 Top Oil Stocks to Buy in September: If you are looking for some great value stocks to buy, then the oil and gas sector is a good place to start digging these days. Across the board, there are loads of opportunities where Wall Street hasn't been paying attention. Whether it's producers growing in the scorching-hot Permian Basin, sleeping giants, or offshore specialists anticipating a surge in activity, investors can find some great deals in this industry today. We asked three Motley Fool contributors to discuss one stock in the oil and gas space they think is a great buy right now. Here's a rundown on their three picks: Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ: FANG) , ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) , and Transocean (NYSE: RIG) . Red gas pump superimposed over a stock chart with a blue arrow going up. Image source: Getty Images. A growth-by-acquisition strategy that works Matt DiLallo (Diamondback Energy): For Permian Basin -focused driller Diamondback Energy, "M&A activity is as fundamental... as the air we breathe," according to CEO Travis Stice. That's because the oil company uses acquisitions to move the needle on its most important financial metrics, which is the key to growing shareholder value. The company's track record speaks for itself. Since going public in 2012, the driller made more than $5 billion in deals before this year, which combined to increase EBITDA per share by more than 800% at a time when oil prices have fallen 23%. That acquisition-fueled earnings growth has driven Diamondback's stock up nearly 600% over that time frame, vastly outperforming not only most other oil stocks but the S&P 500 . That past success in creating value via acquisitions is worth noting, considering that Diamondback Energy recently made its biggest deal yet in acquiring fellow Permian driller Energen (NYSE: EGN) for $9.2 billion. That transaction is accretive on all the metrics that matter to the company, including earnings and cash flow per share. Furthermore, it will significantly boost its scale and growth prospects. While it could take Diamondback Energy some time to digest its recent prey, the company believes that the combination will create significant value for shareholders as it integrates the two companies and captures future cost savings. That upside potential, when combined with its growth prospects, makes Diamondback Energy one of the top oil stocks to consider buying this month. Story continues This too shall pass Reuben Gregg Brewer (ExxonMobil Corporation): Is Exxon's business broken? The stock price languishing and the yield stuck at around 4% seem to suggest that the answer is yes. But that's a shortsighted view of the situation, even though falling production and middling returns on capital employed today do highlight the very real and very material issues Exxon is facing . But this over 100-year-old company has been through troubling times before in the volatile energy industry. It has plans in place to address the current issues , including increased capital spending and a heightened focus on project execution. It expects its efforts to lead to a doubling of earnings, assuming energy prices remain around where they are today, by 2025. Earnings could grow even more if oil prices rise. That's a long way off, but with Exxon's yield at the high end of its historical range, you'll be paid handsomely for waiting through the current rough patch . XOM Price to Tangible Book Value Chart XOM Price to Tangible Book Value data by YCharts . The oil giant's balance sheet, meanwhile, is in great shape to support the plan. Debt only accounts for around 10% of the capital structure, meaning it has plenty of room to keep investing for the future even if oil prices slump again. Waiting until 2025 won't be easy, but with the stock trading at a 30-year price to tangible book value low, now is the time to act. Don't wait until Wall Street recognizes that material progress toward the energy giant's goals have been made, it will be too late at that point. FANG Chart FANG data by YCharts . A company preparing for an offshore renaissance Tyler Crowe (Transocean): Offshore rig company Transocean and its management team have been incredibly busy over the past few years. Ever since the offshore drilling market peaked around 2015, the company has undertaken a monumental effort to transform its fleet from one of the oldest on the open waters to one of the newest and most capable fleets out there. It's divested, sold, or retired 60 rigs from its fleet and focused its portfolio around rigs capable of handling either ultra-deepwater depths (more than 10,000 feet of water) or harsh environments like the North Sea off the coast of Norway. These rigs command the highest rates for use and typically are awarded longer contracts than their shallower, less capable brethren. One thing that Transocean has used to its advantage during this transition is its balance sheet. The company entered this downturn with a mountain of cash and a manageable debt load. Now, as business starts to pick back up, it has the ability to acquire distressed companies at steep discounts, as evidenced by the most recent purchase of Ocean Rig UDW for $2.7 billion. This acquisition and last year's addition of Songa Offshore give the company the largest fleet of rigs at the premium end of the market and a backlog of work that is four times larger than its biggest competitor. Transocean's management is getting aggressive with acquisitions right now for two reasons: (1) Assets are currently selling for huge discounts (the per-rig cost for Ocean Rig UDW was 58% cheaper than a new build), and (2) Transocean anticipates a significant uptick in offshore drilling activity in the next 18 months. According to management, there are 87 ultra-deepwater drilling programs coming up for bid before 2020 that will equate to 59 rig years of work. Even though all of these things appear to be working in Transocean's favor, its stock is still trading for an absurdly cheap price-to-tangible book ratio of 0.43 times. If Transocean is able to capture some of the work (and why wouldn't they with its fleet?), then this could be the turn in the offshore market investors have been waiting for. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matthew DiLallo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Reuben Gregg Brewer owns shares of ExxonMobil. Tyler Crowe owns shares of ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Start-up Incubators Will Help Fuel Innovation for These Consumer Giants: In June, PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) launched the Hive, an incubator in North America that will focus on "new-age" emerging brands. The company also announced a partnership with the Hatchery -- a nonprofit food and beverage incubator in Chicago -- designed to promote innovation and support small entrepreneurs. These efforts join an existing base of PepsiCo's product-innovation initiatives such as the Nutrition Greenhouse incubator in Europe, which was launched early last year. "We want to create an environment where we have a business within a business, a small entrepreneurial sort of agile group that's thinking about the new age consumer that loves discovery brands while allowing the big brands to thrive in the overall mothership," said outgoing PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi . Pepsi cans Image source: PepsiCo. Traditionally, big companies in the consumer space have been much slower to adapt to changing industry trends, despite extensive R&D budgets, falling into periods of stagnation and slow growth. Incubators have become just one solution to this problem -- and the whole industry is joining in. Incubators help consumer giants think outside the box In a race to win customers and gain a competitive edge, incubators produce new innovative concepts, disruptive technology, and a quicker path to growth. And unlike in-house product development initiatives that can be limited to a short-term horizon, incubators provide a platform for companies to explore long-term opportunities. They also allow young companies to thrive with access to scale and resources free of the parent company's organizational inertia. Here, corporate partners often behave more like investment firms with additional know-how and capabilities that nurture their portfolio companies. PepsiCo is not alone in its quest for product innovation. Over the past five years, the number of incubator programs in the consumer foods sectors has skyrocketed. Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC) launched its own incubator -- Springboard -- earlier this year. Other consumer giants like Kellogg (NYSE: K) , General Mills (NYSE: GIS) , and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) have similarly jumped into the start-up world. Story continues When General Mills launched 301 INC, vice president John Haugen said, "We believe we can meet consumer needs faster than ever by combining the vision and passion of entrepreneurs with General Mills' extensive capabilities." Surprisingly, even Ikea, the iconic furniture company, is taking a stab at exploring food innovation through its own incubator in Sweden, which it launched in 2017, adding one more avenue for entrepreneurs to explore. Unlike at PepsiCo, where the company gets a six-month exclusivity window to buy an equity stake in the start-up, Ikea is approaching it from a different angle: provide in-house expertise and financial resources without equity investment in hopes of becoming a customer of the start-up in the future. This approach is new, but it could benefit other companies in the food and service businesses. And for the entrepreneurs, the options for expansion have never been greater. Corporate giants like PepsiCo have to compete with other players in the investment community such as not-for-profit incubators, universities, angel and venture capital investors, and more recently -- crowdfunding platforms and technology companies like CircleUP that directly connect investors with start-ups. With digital disruptions and growing interest in start-up investing, entrepreneurs have a choice in how to scale up their businesses, with or without corporate partners. The benefits of a corporate partner have to be significant enough to attract high-quality companies and offer things that other investors cannot, including access to research-and-development teams, marketing, and wider distribution channels. The rewards are promising While PepsiCo's programs are new, other more established incubators are already seeing early wins from their successful partnerships as the smaller brands continue to expand on the global scale. A good example is General Mills and Tyson Foods ' investment in Beyond Meat, a producer of plant-based burgers, which has seen its distribution skyrocket and is now available in more than 19,000 retail stores and restaurants in the U.S. alone. More recently, General Mills had also led a $17 million investment in Urban Remedy, a plant-based meal program, further expanding its footprint in the organic and natural marketplace. However some challenges remain While the general investor sentiment around these partnerships with start-ups is positive, some challenges remain. Consumer giants must strike a balance between investing in brands that fall within their strategic focus and also ensuring that the new brands do not cannibalize existing sales or have a poor return on investment. Another challenge is scalability and how quickly a corporate partner scale up the business before investors start seeing material results. This has been an issue for PepsiCo over the past several years, where its own emerging brands like KeVita probiotic beverages have been reporting consistent double-digit growth but have yet to make a significant contribution to the overall business. Start-up incubators are a promising new(ish) avenue for consumer giants to innovate and experiment, but investors should be aware that it's a long-term strategy. Among the winners are an even larger number of failures, and it takes years before most new brands or companies start making a dent in the multi-billion dollar top lines of the parent organizations. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Aksana Fitzpatrick has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Start-up Incubators Will Help Fuel Innovation for These Consumer Giants: In June, PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) launched the Hive, an incubator in North America that will focus on "new-age" emerging brands. The company also announced a partnership with the Hatchery -- a nonprofit food and beverage incubator in Chicago -- designed to promote innovation and support small entrepreneurs. These efforts join an existing base of PepsiCo's product-innovation initiatives such as the Nutrition Greenhouse incubator in Europe, which was launched early last year. "We want to create an environment where we have a business within a business, a small entrepreneurial sort of agile group that's thinking about the new age consumer that loves discovery brands while allowing the big brands to thrive in the overall mothership," said outgoing PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi . Pepsi cans Image source: PepsiCo. Traditionally, big companies in the consumer space have been much slower to adapt to changing industry trends, despite extensive R&D budgets, falling into periods of stagnation and slow growth. Incubators have become just one solution to this problem -- and the whole industry is joining in. Incubators help consumer giants think outside the box In a race to win customers and gain a competitive edge, incubators produce new innovative concepts, disruptive technology, and a quicker path to growth. And unlike in-house product development initiatives that can be limited to a short-term horizon, incubators provide a platform for companies to explore long-term opportunities. They also allow young companies to thrive with access to scale and resources free of the parent company's organizational inertia. Here, corporate partners often behave more like investment firms with additional know-how and capabilities that nurture their portfolio companies. PepsiCo is not alone in its quest for product innovation. Over the past five years, the number of incubator programs in the consumer foods sectors has skyrocketed. Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC) launched its own incubator -- Springboard -- earlier this year. Other consumer giants like Kellogg (NYSE: K) , General Mills (NYSE: GIS) , and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) have similarly jumped into the start-up world. Story continues When General Mills launched 301 INC, vice president John Haugen said, "We believe we can meet consumer needs faster than ever by combining the vision and passion of entrepreneurs with General Mills' extensive capabilities." Surprisingly, even Ikea, the iconic furniture company, is taking a stab at exploring food innovation through its own incubator in Sweden, which it launched in 2017, adding one more avenue for entrepreneurs to explore. Unlike at PepsiCo, where the company gets a six-month exclusivity window to buy an equity stake in the start-up, Ikea is approaching it from a different angle: provide in-house expertise and financial resources without equity investment in hopes of becoming a customer of the start-up in the future. This approach is new, but it could benefit other companies in the food and service businesses. And for the entrepreneurs, the options for expansion have never been greater. Corporate giants like PepsiCo have to compete with other players in the investment community such as not-for-profit incubators, universities, angel and venture capital investors, and more recently -- crowdfunding platforms and technology companies like CircleUP that directly connect investors with start-ups. With digital disruptions and growing interest in start-up investing, entrepreneurs have a choice in how to scale up their businesses, with or without corporate partners. The benefits of a corporate partner have to be significant enough to attract high-quality companies and offer things that other investors cannot, including access to research-and-development teams, marketing, and wider distribution channels. The rewards are promising While PepsiCo's programs are new, other more established incubators are already seeing early wins from their successful partnerships as the smaller brands continue to expand on the global scale. A good example is General Mills and Tyson Foods ' investment in Beyond Meat, a producer of plant-based burgers, which has seen its distribution skyrocket and is now available in more than 19,000 retail stores and restaurants in the U.S. alone. More recently, General Mills had also led a $17 million investment in Urban Remedy, a plant-based meal program, further expanding its footprint in the organic and natural marketplace. However some challenges remain While the general investor sentiment around these partnerships with start-ups is positive, some challenges remain. Consumer giants must strike a balance between investing in brands that fall within their strategic focus and also ensuring that the new brands do not cannibalize existing sales or have a poor return on investment. Another challenge is scalability and how quickly a corporate partner scale up the business before investors start seeing material results. This has been an issue for PepsiCo over the past several years, where its own emerging brands like KeVita probiotic beverages have been reporting consistent double-digit growth but have yet to make a significant contribution to the overall business. Start-up incubators are a promising new(ish) avenue for consumer giants to innovate and experiment, but investors should be aware that it's a long-term strategy. Among the winners are an even larger number of failures, and it takes years before most new brands or companies start making a dent in the multi-billion dollar top lines of the parent organizations. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Aksana Fitzpatrick has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Hong Kong Startup to Battle Revolving Credit with Asia’s First Crypto Visa Debit Cards: Industry startup Crypto.com, formerly ‘Monaco’ before a rebrand, has revealed its plan to issue 100,000 Visa-powered cryptocurrency debit cards in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Hong Kong startup confirmed that it would pit its debit cards against the insecure revolving credit practiced by mainstream credit card issuers, as reported by theSouth China Morning Post. Kris Marszalek, Crypto.com’s founder and chief executive officer, referred the line of credit practice as “unethical,” which unjustifiably allows banks to make profits from undeserving people.
“These people should not be given a credit card in the first place,” said Marszalek.
The availability of credit when needed is known to be one of the main advantages of Revolving Credit. However, it also influences credit card users to spend more than they afford. Non-payments – or even late payments – can trap borrowers into the maze of compound interests. Also, Revolving Credit allows banks to keep loan rates unhinged, and rights to change credit limits and interest rates at will.
Projecting Crypto.com’s crypto-enabled debit cards as a viable solution, Marszalek revealed that they would offer money lending services to their crypto-card holders. The business model will reject revolving credit practice by choosing to lend fiat money by collateralizing cryptocurrencies. People will only be able to borrow 40-60 percent of their pledged cryptocurrency in fiat money. The method also means that Marszalek would not rely on borrower’s credit scores like its traditional counterparts.
“Crypto.com would only face the risk from volatility in the value of the bitcoin and MCO pledged as collateral,” he said.
Crypto.com has applied for money lending license in the countries it is expanding to, starting with Hong Kong and Singapore. Once approved, Marszalek expects Crypto.com to disrupt the credit card history – once for all.
Crypto.com claims that their Visa-powered debit cards would allow an easy switch between cryptocurrencies and fiat, thereby making cryptocurrency accessible to more users and improving the overall liquidity. The company currently supports five cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin and their very own institutionalized currency, MCO – convertible to a total of seven fiat currencies, including Hong Kong Dollar, Singapore Dollar, and the US Dollar.
The real challenge, however, is to make crypto debit cards more attractive than traditional cards. In its current format, users accuse crypto debit cards of charging an absurd amount of middlemen-induced fees for their services. Furthermore, the underlying volatility of the crypto-market makes it impractical for end-users to use it as a regular payment medium.
Crypto.com currently offers cash backs, lower exchange rates, feasible ATM withdrawal limits, and many other attractive services with its range of debit cards. The company plans to include cryptocurrency trading services and an automated cryptocurrency buying and selling service into its portfolio in the near future.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postHong Kong Startup to Battle Revolving Credit with Asia’s First Crypto Visa Debit Cardsappeared first onCCN. || Hong Kong Startup to Battle Revolving Credit with Asias First Crypto Visa Debit Cards: VISA Blockchain Industry startup Crypto.com, formerly Monaco before a rebrand, has revealed its plan to issue 100,000 Visa-powered cryptocurrency debit cards in Hong Kong and Singapore. The Hong Kong startup confirmed that it would pit its debit cards against the insecure revolving credit practiced by mainstream credit card issuers, as reported by the South China Morning Post . Kris Marszalek, Crypto.coms founder and chief executive officer, referred the line of credit practice as unethical, which unjustifiably allows banks to make profits from undeserving people. These people should not be given a credit card in the first place, said Marszalek. Revolving Credit v/s Crypto-Backed Lending The availability of credit when needed is known to be one of the main advantages of Revolving Credit. However, it also influences credit card users to spend more than they afford. Non-payments or even late payments can trap borrowers into the maze of compound interests. Also, Revolving Credit allows banks to keep loan rates unhinged, and rights to change credit limits and interest rates at will. Projecting Crypto.coms crypto-enabled debit cards as a viable solution, Marszalek revealed that they would offer money lending services to their crypto-card holders. The business model will reject revolving credit practice by choosing to lend fiat money by collateralizing cryptocurrencies. People will only be able to borrow 40-60 percent of their pledged cryptocurrency in fiat money. The method also means that Marszalek would not rely on borrowers credit scores like its traditional counterparts. Crypto.com would only face the risk from volatility in the value of the bitcoin and MCO pledged as collateral, he said. Crypto.com has applied for money lending license in the countries it is expanding to, starting with Hong Kong and Singapore. Once approved, Marszalek expects Crypto.com to disrupt the credit card history once for all. Story continues Mass Adoption, Liquidity, and Whatnot Crypto.com claims that their Visa-powered debit cards would allow an easy switch between cryptocurrencies and fiat, thereby making cryptocurrency accessible to more users and improving the overall liquidity. The company currently supports five cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin and their very own institutionalized currency, MCO convertible to a total of seven fiat currencies, including Hong Kong Dollar, Singapore Dollar, and the US Dollar. The real challenge, however, is to make crypto debit cards more attractive than traditional cards. In its current format, users accuse crypto debit cards of charging an absurd amount of middlemen-induced fees for their services. Furthermore, the underlying volatility of the crypto-market makes it impractical for end-users to use it as a regular payment medium. Crypto.com currently offers cash backs, lower exchange rates, feasible ATM withdrawal limits, and many other attractive services with its range of debit cards. The company plans to include cryptocurrency trading services and an automated cryptocurrency buying and selling service into its portfolio in the near future. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Hong Kong Startup to Battle Revolving Credit with Asias First Crypto Visa Debit Cards appeared first on CCN . || $6K Ahead? Bitcoin Price Plunges After Brief Recovery: For bitcoin, the path of least resistance is to the downside.
At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at $6,340 on Bifinex â down 3 percent from the high of $6,550 hit earlier today. The bulk of that loss came amid a dramatic drop over almost $100 in an hour soon before press time.
The minor recovery from the previous day's low of $6,300 was likely a product ofoversold conditionsreported by the short duration relative strength index (RSI) yesterday.
The Creator of Proof-of-Stake Thinks He Finally Figured It Out
More importantly, the fact that the gains were erased so quickly indicates that bearish sentiment is still quite strong and the minor pop has likely recharged engines for further sell-off.
After a period of strengthening bull indicators over the last three weeks, the technical charts have now shifted toward the bears. As a result, a drop to $6,000 (February low) cannot be ruled out
As seen in the above chart, the last hourly candle confirmed a downside break of the rising wedge pattern, signaling an end of the technical recovery.
Survey: Nearly 80% of Americans Have Heard of Bitcoin
The major moving averages (MAs) â 50-hour, 100-hour, and 200-hour â are trending south in favor of the bears. More importantly, the RSI is aligning with the bears, having dipped below 50.00.
Over on the daily chart, BTC suffered a rising wedge breakdown on Wednesday, indicating the rally from the Aug. 14 low of $5,859 has ended and the bears have regained control.
Further, the negative price action yesterday bolstered the bearish setup.
Investors should also keep an eye on theline chart, as a pennant breakdown would boost the odds of BTC ending the week below $6,000.
• BTC could find acceptance below $6,300 (previous day's low) and may drop further towards the crucial support of $6,000 over the weekend.
• A weekly close below $6,000 would signal a revival of the long-term bear market.
• On the higher side, a technical recovery is seen above $6,550 (today's high), although with key intraday MAs trending south, gains may not be sustainable.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin chartÂimage via Shutterstock; Charts byÂTrading View
• Iran's Recognition of Crypto Mining Prompts Local Bitcoin Price Spike
• Bitcoin's Double-Digit Drop Negates Long-Term Bull Market || $6K Ahead? Bitcoin Price Plunges After Brief Recovery: For bitcoin, the path of least resistance is to the downside.
At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at $6,340 on Bifinex â down 3 percent from the high of $6,550 hit earlier today. The bulk of that loss came amid a dramatic drop over almost $100 in an hour soon before press time.
The minor recovery from the previous day's low of $6,300 was likely a product ofoversold conditionsreported by the short duration relative strength index (RSI) yesterday.
The Creator of Proof-of-Stake Thinks He Finally Figured It Out
More importantly, the fact that the gains were erased so quickly indicates that bearish sentiment is still quite strong and the minor pop has likely recharged engines for further sell-off.
After a period of strengthening bull indicators over the last three weeks, the technical charts have now shifted toward the bears. As a result, a drop to $6,000 (February low) cannot be ruled out
As seen in the above chart, the last hourly candle confirmed a downside break of the rising wedge pattern, signaling an end of the technical recovery.
Survey: Nearly 80% of Americans Have Heard of Bitcoin
The major moving averages (MAs) â 50-hour, 100-hour, and 200-hour â are trending south in favor of the bears. More importantly, the RSI is aligning with the bears, having dipped below 50.00.
Over on the daily chart, BTC suffered a rising wedge breakdown on Wednesday, indicating the rally from the Aug. 14 low of $5,859 has ended and the bears have regained control.
Further, the negative price action yesterday bolstered the bearish setup.
Investors should also keep an eye on theline chart, as a pennant breakdown would boost the odds of BTC ending the week below $6,000.
• BTC could find acceptance below $6,300 (previous day's low) and may drop further towards the crucial support of $6,000 over the weekend.
• A weekly close below $6,000 would signal a revival of the long-term bear market.
• On the higher side, a technical recovery is seen above $6,550 (today's high), although with key intraday MAs trending south, gains may not be sustainable.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin chartÂimage via Shutterstock; Charts byÂTrading View
• Iran's Recognition of Crypto Mining Prompts Local Bitcoin Price Spike
• Bitcoin's Double-Digit Drop Negates Long-Term Bull Market || $6K Ahead? Bitcoin Price Plunges After Brief Recovery: For bitcoin, the path of least resistance is to the downside. At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at $6,340 on Bifinex â down 3 percent from the high of $6,550 hit earlier today. The bulk of that loss came amid a dramatic drop over almost $100 in an hour soon before press time. The minor recovery from the previous day's low of $6,300 was likely a product of oversold conditions reported by the short duration relative strength index (RSI) yesterday. The Creator of Proof-of-Stake Thinks He Finally Figured It Out More importantly, the fact that the gains were erased so quickly indicates that bearish sentiment is still quite strong and the minor pop has likely recharged engines for further sell-off. After a period of strengthening bull indicators over the last three weeks, the technical charts have now shifted toward the bears. As a result, a drop to $6,000 (February low) cannot be ruled out Hourly chart As seen in the above chart, the last hourly candle confirmed a downside break of the rising wedge pattern, signaling an end of the technical recovery. Survey: Nearly 80% of Americans Have Heard of Bitcoin The major moving averages (MAs) â 50-hour, 100-hour, and 200-hour â are trending south in favor of the bears. More importantly, the RSI is aligning with the bears, having dipped below 50.00. Daily chart Over on the daily chart, BTC suffered a rising wedge breakdown on Wednesday, indicating the rally from the Aug. 14 low of $5,859 has ended and the bears have regained control. Further, the negative price action yesterday bolstered the bearish setup. Investors should also keep an eye on the line chart , as a pennant breakdown would boost the odds of BTC ending the week below $6,000. View BTC could find acceptance below $6,300 (previous day's low) and may drop further towards the crucial support of $6,000 over the weekend. A weekly close below $6,000 would signal a revival of the long-term bear market. On the higher side, a technical recovery is seen above $6,550 (today's high), although with key intraday MAs trending south, gains may not be sustainable. Story continues Disclosure:  The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin chart  image via Shutterstock; Charts by Trading View Related Stories Iran's Recognition of Crypto Mining Prompts Local Bitcoin Price Spike Bitcoin's Double-Digit Drop Negates Long-Term Bull Market || Malware Targeting Bitcoin ATMs Goes on Sale for $25,000: Bitcoin ATMs Regular bank ATMs have long been a target for criminals but now bad actors are turning their sights on Bitcoin ATMs as cryptocurrencies gain acceptance. According to Trend Micro security researchers, a malware targeting Bitcoin ATMs has been discovered in the underground markets. The Bitcoin ATM malware which is being sold at a price of US$25,000 takes advantage of a service vulnerability that allows users to purchase bitcoin worth 6,750 in either US dollars, British pounds or euros. The cryptocurrency purchases are done using Near-Field Communication ( NFC ) or the Europay, Mastercard and Visa ( EMV ) pre-written cards which are provided to buyers of the malware. Lack of Common Standards Per the cybersecurity researchers, the lack of standardization with regards to Bitcoin ATMs may be contributing to the problem. “Unlike regular ATMs, there is no single set of verification or security standards for Bitcoin ATMs. For example, instead of requiring an ATM, credit, or debit card for transactions, a Bitcoin ATM involves the use of mobile numbers and ID cards for user identity verification,” wrote Senior Threat Researcher at Trend Micro, Fernando Merces. “The user then has to input a wallet address or scan its QR code. The wallets used to store digital currencies are not standardized either and are often downloaded from app stores, posing another security problem.” From the analysis they have conducted, Trend Micro researchers have determined that the vendor of the malware has received more than 100 reviews meaning the malware could be gaining traction. The situation could get worse as the vendor is also proposing partnerships with interested parties on a revenue-sharing basis. Looking to Cash in as Bitcoin ATMs Increase This comes at a time when the number of Bitcoin ATMs has exceeded 3,500 across the globe as CCN recently reported. While the Bitcoin ATM malware can be used in any location of the world, support by the malware vendor is restricted to the English, Russian and German-speaking markets. This is likely not a coincidence as more than half of the Bitcoin ATMs are located in predominantly English-speaking countries with Russian and German-speaking groups also enjoying healthy representation. Story continues A pre-dominantly English-speaking market such as the United States currently has 2166 Bitcoin ATMs while the United Kingdom boasts of 171 such devices. The Russian Federation is also in the top five with 72 locations besides more outlets located in other countries with Russian-speaking populations such as Ukraine. Austria and Switzerland, which boast of a significant number of German speakers, are also among the leading countries with regards to Bitcoin ATM adoption – with 153 and 29 locations respectively. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Malware Targeting Bitcoin ATMs Goes on Sale for $25,000 appeared first on CCN .
[Social Media Buzz]
1H
2018/09/08 13:00 (2018/09/08 12:00)
LONG : 25210.7 BTC (-20.11 BTC)
SHORT : 37768.88 BTC (-104.03 BTC)
LS比 : 40% vs 59% (39% vs 60%) || #cryptocurrency Price Analysis for #Bitsend #BSD :
Last Hour Change : 4.51 % || 08-09-2018 14:00
Price in #USD : 0.143864066 || Price in #EUR : 0.1244280307
New Price in #Bitcoin #BTC : 0.00002206 || #Coin Rank 621 || #MAC/#BTC:
Ask: 0.00000153 BTC
Bid: 0.00000132 BTC
https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Exchange?market=MAC_BTC …
#Machinecoin #Bitcoin
$MAC $BTC
[0...
|
6300.86, 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20, 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 332.91, 320.17, 330.75, 335.09, 334.59, 326.15, 322.02, 326.93, 324.54, 323.05, 320.05, 328.21, 352.68, 358.04, 357.38, 371.29, 377.32, 362.49, 359.19, 361.05, 363.18, 388.95, 388.78, 395.54, 415.56, 417.56, 415.48, 451.94, 435.00, 433.76, 444.18, 465.32, 454.93, 456.08, 463.62, 462.32, 442.68, 438.64, 436.57, 442.40, 454.98, 455.65, 417.27, 422.82, 422.28, 432.98, 426.62, 430.57, 434.33, 433.44, 430.01, 433.09, 431.96, 429.11, 458.05, 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43, 435.69, 432.37, 430.31, 364.33, 387.54, 382.30, 387.17, 380.15, 420.23, 410.26, 382.49, 387.49, 402.97, 391.73, 392.15, 394.97, 380.29, 379.47, 378.26, 368.77, 373.06, 374.45, 369.95, 389.59, 386.55, 376.52, 376.62, 373.45, 376.03, 381.65, 379.65.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-02-11]
Volume: 74375600, RSI (14-day): 45.63, 50-day EMA: 393.40, 200-day EMA: 346.34
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1247.90, Gold RSI: 84.55
Oil Price: 26.21, Oil RSI: 33.93
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Digatrade Executes Joint-Venture with BitCarats: Exclusive Digital Asset Development & Exchange Listing Agreement
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 10, 2016 /BITX FINANCIAL CORP (BITXF) and its 100% owned and operated digital asset-currency exchange DIGATRADE(TM) (digatrade.com) today announced the execution of an exclusive asset-backed digital currency development and platform exchange listing agreement with BitCarats Capital Inc. Under terms of the agreement Digatrade, along with BitCarats Capital, will develop Caratscoin, the world's first diamond-backed digital-asset powered by blockchain.
“Caratscoin will be the first asset-backed digital currency listed on the trading platform, an innovation that will include additional asset-backed crypto-currencies in the future," stated Brad Moynes, CEO of Digatrade. In collaboration with BitCarats Capital and financial technology partners (ANX Technologies), Caratscoin will be powered by secure blockchain technology - the world's first paired with Bitcoin as well as direct purchase via Digatrade multi-fiat currency order-book including US dollars and Euros via Visa & MasterCard, along with eCheck and Interac within Canada.
A fully integrated, custom multi-signature Caratscoin digital wallet will be developed as a comprehensive solution, not only creating the Caratscoin, but adding value through features such as industry leading security architecture and encryption algorithms. Caratscoin owners issue the coin only if all authorized parties are present, the first to use this unique service which is unprecedented in the market. This system is most secure, as no one person has the only authority to issue the coin, considering the Caratscoin is designed to significantly increase in value in direct correlation to the appreciation in value of physical diamonds held in the company vault.
BitCarats Capital CEO & Founder Colin Ferguson stated, "Carats Diamond Investment, which will provide the distinctive collection of diamonds to back BitCarats, has more than 30 years' experience in the diamond business and is the nation's first direct distributor from the world famous Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia. We house the country's leading collection of Natural Fancy Coloured diamonds, featuring trending colours such as red, vivid blues and champagnes." Ferguson continued, "Caratscoin will not only provide a new virtual asset-class and store of value, but also offer our investors instant payment, prepaid debit cards and the ability to transfer an asset between end users instantly, at a low cost and on a decentralized network."Caratscoin will be backed by a pool of certified, Natural Fancy Coloured diamonds, primarily featuring red, vivid blue, and champagne colours. Each diamond is certified by the Geological Institute of America, the world's leading diamond educational resource, and home to the most advanced laboratories. The diamonds are insured by Lloyd's of London and stored at a private vault at The World Trade Center, 999 Canada Place, one of the most secure buildings in Vancouver, Canada. Founded and led by BitCarats CEO Colin Ferguson, Carats Diamond Investment (carats.com) is committed to exceptional diamond education, quality and customer service, and was recently recognized by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) when Carats was awarded with their highest rating of A+ since joining the BBB 16 years ago.
More information regarding this exciting new venture will be made available as it materializes.
ABOUT DIGATRADE:
DIGATRADE is a global digital asset-currency exchange located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Company is owned and operated 100% by Bit-X Financial Corp which is publically listed on the OTC.QB under the trading symbol BITXF. BITXF is a reporting issuer in the Province of British Columbia, Canada with the British Columbia Securities Commission "BCSC" and in the United States with the Securities Exchange Commission "SEC". Digatrade has now become a global platform offering its customers instant card-based transactions worldwide.
CORPORATE CONTACT INFORMATION:
Brad Moynes, CEOBit-X Financial CorpDigaTrade.com838 West Hastings Street, Suite 300Vancouver, BC V6C-0A6CanadaTel: +1(604) 200-0071Fax: +1(604) 200-0072www.digatrade.com
Media inquiries:[email protected]
Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains certain "forward-looking information". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or development that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future constitute forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the possibility of unanticipated costs and expenses. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.
SOURCE:Bit-X Financial Corp || Digatrade Executes Joint-Venture with BitCarats: Exclusive Digital Asset Development & Exchange Listing Agreement VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 10, 2016 / BITX FINANCIAL CORP ( BITXF ) and its 100% owned and operated digital asset-currency exchange DIGATRADE(TM) ( digatrade.com ) today announced the execution of an exclusive asset-backed digital currency development and platform exchange listing agreement with BitCarats Capital Inc. Under terms of the agreement Digatrade, along with BitCarats Capital, will develop Caratscoin, the world's first diamond-backed digital-asset powered by blockchain. Caratscoin will be the first asset-backed digital currency listed on the trading platform, an innovation that will include additional asset-backed crypto-currencies in the future," stated Brad Moynes, CEO of Digatrade. In collaboration with BitCarats Capital and financial technology partners (ANX Technologies), Caratscoin will be powered by secure blockchain technology - the world's first paired with Bitcoin as well as direct purchase via Digatrade multi-fiat currency order-book including US dollars and Euros via Visa & MasterCard, along with eCheck and Interac within Canada. A fully integrated, custom multi-signature Caratscoin digital wallet will be developed as a comprehensive solution, not only creating the Caratscoin, but adding value through features such as industry leading security architecture and encryption algorithms. Caratscoin owners issue the coin only if all authorized parties are present, the first to use this unique service which is unprecedented in the market. This system is most secure, as no one person has the only authority to issue the coin, considering the Caratscoin is designed to significantly increase in value in direct correlation to the appreciation in value of physical diamonds held in the company vault. BitCarats Capital CEO & Founder Colin Ferguson stated, "Carats Diamond Investment, which will provide the distinctive collection of diamonds to back BitCarats, has more than 30 years' experience in the diamond business and is the nation's first direct distributor from the world famous Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia. We house the country's leading collection of Natural Fancy Coloured diamonds, featuring trending colours such as red, vivid blues and champagnes." Ferguson continued, "Caratscoin will not only provide a new virtual asset-class and store of value, but also offer our investors instant payment, prepaid debit cards and the ability to transfer an asset between end users instantly, at a low cost and on a decentralized network." Caratscoin will be backed by a pool of certified, Natural Fancy Coloured diamonds, primarily featuring red, vivid blue, and champagne colours. Each diamond is certified by the Geological Institute of America, the world's leading diamond educational resource, and home to the most advanced laboratories. The diamonds are insured by Lloyd's of London and stored at a private vault at The World Trade Center, 999 Canada Place, one of the most secure buildings in Vancouver, Canada. Founded and led by BitCarats CEO Colin Ferguson, Carats Diamond Investment (carats.com) is committed to exceptional diamond education, quality and customer service, and was recently recognized by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) when Carats was awarded with their highest rating of A+ since joining the BBB 16 years ago. Story continues More information regarding this exciting new venture will be made available as it materializes. ABOUT DIGATRADE: DIGATRADE is a global digital asset-currency exchange located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Company is owned and operated 100% by Bit-X Financial Corp which is publically listed on the OTC.QB under the trading symbol BITXF. BITXF is a reporting issuer in the Province of British Columbia, Canada with the British Columbia Securities Commission "BCSC" and in the United States with the Securities Exchange Commission "SEC". Digatrade has now become a global platform offering its customers instant card-based transactions worldwide. CORPORATE CONTACT INFORMATION: Brad Moynes, CEO Bit-X Financial Corp DigaTrade.com 838 West Hastings Street, Suite 300 Vancouver, BC V6C-0A6 Canada Tel: +1(604) 200-0071 Fax: +1(604) 200-0072 www.digatrade.com Media inquiries: [email protected] Forward-Looking Information This press release contains certain "forward-looking information". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or development that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future constitute forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the possibility of unanticipated costs and expenses. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein. SOURCE: Bit-X Financial Corp || Dividend stocks to watch in sluggish markets: After markets barely gained ground Thursday, "Fast Money" traders looked to dividend-paying stocks that could potentially boost returns. Major U.S. averages finished slightly positive on the day, but the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) has fallen more than 6 percent this year. In that environment, some investors have started to search for yield. "Fast Money" traders focused on stocks with steady recent performance and above-average yields, avoiding the oil industry as some companies trim dividends . Verizon (NYSE: VZ) , which has climbed 9 percent this year and has a 4.5 percent dividend yield, looks appealing, said trader Karen Finerman. Trader Guy Adami touted shares of toy maker Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) , which have climbed 18 percent this year, boosted by stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. The stock also rose Thursday amid reports that it held talks with Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) about a possible merger. Mattel has a yield of 4.8 percent. Traders Brian Kelly and Steve Grasso looked to tobacco company Philip Morris (NYSE: PM) , which has a yield of 4.6 percent. The stock has ticked 1 percent higher this year, but Kelly believes it has more room to run. Disclosures: Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Karen Finerman Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI, she is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Steve Grasso Steve is Long AAPL, AEO, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX firm is long CXO, OXY, BP, CVX, RIG kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Dividend stocks to watch in sluggish markets: After markets barely gained ground Thursday, "Fast Money" traders looked to dividend-paying stocks that could potentially boost returns.
Major U.S. averages finished slightly positive on the day, but the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)has fallen more than 6 percent this year. In that environment, some investors have started to search for yield.
"Fast Money" traders focused on stocks with steady recent performance and above-average yields, avoiding the oil industryas some companies trim dividends. Verizon(NYSE: VZ), which has climbed 9 percent this year and has a 4.5 percent dividend yield, looks appealing, said trader Karen Finerman.
Trader Guy Adami touted shares of toy maker Mattel(NASDAQ: MAT), which have climbed 18 percent this year, boosted by stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. The stock also rose Thursday amid reports that it held talks with Hasbro(NASDAQ: HAS)about a possible merger.
Mattel has a yield of 4.8 percent.
Traders Brian Kelly and Steve Grasso looked to tobacco company Philip Morris(NYSE: PM), which has a yield of 4.6 percent. The stock has ticked 1 percent higher this year, but Kelly believes it has more room to run.
Disclosures:
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI, she is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
Steve Grasso
Steve is Long AAPL, AEO, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX firm is long CXO, OXY, BP, CVX, RIG kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan.
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Is Oil Driving The Stock Market? And Should Traders Care?: Recent headlines imply that the slump in the oil market caused the January drop in global stocks. They also point to oil rallies as the reason for stock rallies. But is the relationship causation or just correlation? Should we say one happened “and” or “because” the other one did? Early in the Wednesday US trading session, crude oil futures dropped by nearly a dollar a barrel and the S&P 500 quickly moved in lockstep, dropping over 40 points in the same hour. The larger downward trend of Monday and Tuesday in oil was also mirrored in the stock market. Crude oil’s drop was a full 11%, the largest percentage drop since March 2009. However, the drop in stocks over those two days was not nearly as dramatic. On Wednesday, the markets diverged in the morning. Crude had a brief selloff when the weekly EIA Petroleum Status Report came out, but then it bounced and an hour later WTI crude oil futures (Nadex: Crude Oil) had pushed above $31 a barrel and come within 20 cents of $32. Stocks only came along for half of that ride. The S&P 500 (Nadex: US500) dropped 40 points, but only regained half of that loss. While oil was rising to two-day highs, stocks hovered near Tuesday’s lows. Clearly the exuberance among crude oil traders had not inspired similar optimism among stock index futures traders or investors as a whole. Later in the day stocks did rally, but at the day’s close, crude oil was up over 8% and equity indexes were unchanged. Clearly stock traders were not taking their cues from the bullishness of oil traders. In fact, it’s hard to say what crude oil traders were using to guide their decisions on Wednesday. Why were oil traders so bullish following a fairly downbeat EIA report? You’d have to do some mental gymnastics to come up with a direct reason. The record supply glut set a new record, with global oil inventories rising to over half a billion barrels and driving up gasoline inventories as well. Foreign output remains high, with Iran now adding more of its stockpiles and production to the world market. And with large inventories and weak demand, refineries are cutting back production. Story continues The weak demand comes despite the low prices. Demand for gasoline is off 0.9% year on year, despite gas prices being down 25% from this time in 2015. Demand for heating oil and distillates is down a full 16%, thanks to a warm winter and weak industrial demand. That perception of industrial weakness got further proof with Monday’s weak ISM Manufacturing Index report, the fourth weak report in a row and the worst streak of manufacturing numbers since 2009. And despite that substantial negative report, the bulls had the day in crude oil. And even though stocks ended flat, some analysts will say that crude oil’s rally had a delayed effect on stocks and caused the afternoon rally. When crude oil’s price action doesn’t even seem to have a logical connection to the latest supply and demand report, is it reasonable to think that stock traders are tying their decisions to such an emotional and unpredictable market? Stock traders aren’t showing much consistency in their reactions to the news, themselves. The recent earnings reports were overall positive among S&P 500 companies, indicating that US businesses continue to be profitable. Yet some are pointing to earnings per share as a problem sign. A report from Goldman Sachs even said that profit margins are too high and if they don’t go down and revert to the mean, they believe it raises questions about “the efficacy of capitalism” itself. It is a time when short-term traders who simply watch price movement tend to have an advantage. On Nadex, binary option and spread traders can trade the ups and downs without speculating on the whys and wherefores. Sometimes that is best left to the analysts. For traders, explaining the move isn’t nearly as important as trading it. This information has been prepared by Nadex, a trading name of North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., prepared by independent third parties contracted by Nadex or reproduced form third party news agencies. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. Nadex accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. See more from Benzinga New Ways To Trade China, Crude Oil And The Fed Bitcoin Is Thriving As Stock Markets Dive The Simple Reason This Market Drop Makes Sense © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Is Oil Driving The Stock Market? And Should Traders Care?: Recent headlines imply that the slump in the oil market caused the January drop in global stocks. They also point to oil rallies as the reason for stock rallies. But is the relationship causation or just correlation? Should we say one happened “and” or “because” the other one did?
Early in the Wednesday US trading session, crude oil futures dropped by nearly a dollar a barrel and the S&P 500 quickly moved in lockstep, dropping over 40 points in the same hour.
The larger downward trend of Monday and Tuesday in oil was also mirrored in the stock market. Crude oil’s drop was a full 11%, the largest percentage drop since March 2009. However, the drop in stocks over those two days was not nearly as dramatic.
On Wednesday, the markets diverged in the morning. Crude had a brief selloff when the weekly EIA Petroleum Status Report came out, but then it bounced and an hour later WTI crude oil futures (Nadex: Crude Oil) had pushed above $31 a barrel and come within 20 cents of $32.
Stocks only came along for half of that ride. The S&P 500 (Nadex: US500) dropped 40 points, but only regained half of that loss. While oil was rising to two-day highs, stocks hovered near Tuesday’s lows. Clearly the exuberance among crude oil traders had not inspired similar optimism among stock index futures traders or investors as a whole.
Later in the day stocks did rally, but at the day’s close, crude oil was up over 8% and equity indexes were unchanged. Clearly stock traders were not taking their cues from the bullishness of oil traders. In fact, it’s hard to say what crude oil traders were using to guide their decisions on Wednesday.
Why were oil traders so bullish following a fairly downbeat EIA report? You’d have to do some mental gymnastics to come up with a direct reason. The record supply glut set a new record, with global oil inventories rising to over half a billion barrels and driving up gasoline inventories as well.
Foreign output remains high, with Iran now adding more of its stockpiles and production to the world market. And with large inventories and weak demand, refineries are cutting back production.
The weak demand comes despite the low prices. Demand for gasoline is off 0.9% year on year, despite gas prices being down 25% from this time in 2015. Demand for heating oil and distillates is down a full 16%, thanks to a warm winter and weak industrial demand. That perception of industrial weakness got further proof with Monday’s weak ISM Manufacturing Index report, the fourth weak report in a row and the worst streak of manufacturing numbers since 2009.
And despite that substantial negative report, the bulls had the day in crude oil. And even though stocks ended flat, some analysts will say that crude oil’s rally had a delayed effect on stocks and caused the afternoon rally.
When crude oil’s price action doesn’t even seem to have a logical connection to the latest supply and demand report, is it reasonable to think that stock traders are tying their decisions to such an emotional and unpredictable market?
Stock traders aren’t showing much consistency in their reactions to the news, themselves. The recent earnings reports were overall positive among S&P 500 companies, indicating that US businesses continue to be profitable. Yet some are pointing to earnings per share as a problem sign. A report from Goldman Sachs even said that profit margins are too high and if they don’t go down and revert to the mean, they believe it raises questions about “the efficacy of capitalism” itself.
It is a time when short-term traders who simply watch price movement tend to have an advantage. On Nadex, binary option and spread traders can trade the ups and downs without speculating on the whys and wherefores. Sometimes that is best left to the analysts. For traders, explaining the move isn’t nearly as important as trading it.
This information has been prepared by Nadex, a trading name of North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., prepared by independent third parties contracted by Nadex or reproduced form third party news agencies. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. Nadex accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication.
See more from Benzinga
• New Ways To Trade China, Crude Oil And The Fed
• Bitcoin Is Thriving As Stock Markets Dive
• The Simple Reason This Market Drop Makes Sense
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
[Social Media Buzz]
In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 7 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $5.40 #bitcoin #btc || #MonetaVerde #MCN $ 0.000155 (-0.93 %) 0.00000041 BTC (0.00 %) via #MonetaVerdeMCN
#Bitcoin #BTC #AltCoin #BlockCha…pic.twitter.com/9nekOjMaSy || Current price: 261.91£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2016-02-12 00:20:16 GMT || Silver and gold are on the move:
Gold $1,243.00 (-1.04%) | Silver $15.78 (-0.38%) | Bitcoin $375.94
Shop online http://RRBI.co || #UFOCoin #UFO...
|
384.26, 391.86, 407.23, 400.18, 407.49, 416.32, 422.37, 420.79, 437.16, 438.80
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 618.99, 641.07, 636.19, 636.79, 640.38, 638.65, 641.63, 639.19, 637.96, 630.52, 630.86, 632.83, 657.29, 657.07, 653.76, 657.59, 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13, 709.85, 723.27, 715.53, 716.41, 705.05, 702.03, 705.02, 711.62, 744.20, 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22, 768.13, 770.81, 772.79, 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-01-07]
Volume: 279550016, RSI (14-day): 49.21, 50-day EMA: 856.59, 200-day EMA: 697.56
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Traders talk what to trade near Dow 20K: The " Fast Money " traders weighed in on which stocks to buy as the Dow Jones industrial average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) neared 20,000 on Friday coming within 1 point of the psychologically-significant milestone. Trader Brian Kelly shocked the desk by revealing he bought more Tesla ( TSLA ) shares on Friday. The reasoning behind the trade, he said, is that Tesla isn't a "car company." Kelly explained that Tesla represents a "bigger-picture play" where the stock will benefit from the "decarbonization" of the electric gridor the shifting away from the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity. Trader Guy Adami agreed that Tesla's stock has "a lot of room to the upside." Shareholders from Tesla and SolarCity both approved a merger between the two companies, with Tesla paying $2.6 billion to acquire the struggling solar energy company. At the time, Tesla said it expects SolarCity to add more than half a billion dollars in cash to Tesla's balance sheet over the next three years. Trader David Seaburg said he likes Amgen ( AMGN ) , saying there are a several "near-term triggers that could take the stock a lot higher." He sees shares of the biopharmaceutical company growing at least another 10 percent by the end of January. One major decision to keep an eye on, he said, is the possible expansion of the PCSK9the drug involved in a recent legal battle between Amgen and Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals . Sanofi and Regeneron hav e 30 days to appeal the ruling in Amgen's favor. Trader Steve Grasso said he hasn't been picking individual stocks lately, instead deciding to invest in broad ETFs. If pressed to pick an individual stock, he said Amazon ( AMZN ) is an attractive choice because of its upcoming earnings release on Feb. 2. CNBC's Robert Ferris contributed to this report. Disclosures: STEVE GRASSO Steve Grasso's firm is Long: VIRT, WDR, FCX, ICE, KDUS, MJNA, MSFT, NE, RIG, TAXI, TITXF, WDR, ZNGA, COG,CUBA, ICE, MJNA, TITXF, AGN, BIIB, REGN, SPY, GLD. Grasso is Long: CHK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PHM, SPY, SQ, TWTR, EEM, GDX. Grasso's Kids Own: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. No Shorts. Story continues DAVID SEABURG Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. An employee of Cowen and Company, LLC serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Offshore BRIAN KELLY Long: FCX, TSLA, TLT, US Dollar, UUP, SLV, 10 Year Bonds, Bitcoin; short: Euro, Aussie Dollar, British Pound GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || Traders talk what to trade near Dow 20K: The "Fast Money" traders weighed in on which stocks to buy as the Dow Jones industrial average(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI)neared 20,000 on Friday — coming within 1 point of the psychologically-significant milestone.
Trader Brian Kelly shocked the desk by revealing he bought more Tesla(TSLA)shares on Friday. The reasoning behind the trade, he said, is that Tesla isn't a "car company."
Kelly explained that Tesla represents a "bigger-picture play" where the stock will benefit from the "decarbonization" of the electric grid—or the shifting away from the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity. Trader Guy Adami agreed that Tesla's stock has "a lot of room to the upside."
Shareholders from Tesla and SolarCity both approved a merger between the two companies, with Tesla paying $2.6 billion to acquire the struggling solar energy company. At the time, Tesla said it expects SolarCity to add more than half a billion dollars in cash to Tesla's balance sheet over the next three years.
Trader David Seaburg said he likes Amgen(AMGN), saying there are a several "near-term triggers that could take the stock a lot higher." He sees shares of the biopharmaceutical company growing at least another 10 percent by the end of January. One major decision to keep an eye on, he said, is the possible expansion of the PCSK9—the drug involved in a recent legal battle between Amgen andSanofiandRegeneron Pharmaceuticals. Sanofi and Regeneron have 30 days to appeal the ruling in Amgen's favor.
Trader Steve Grasso said he hasn't been picking individual stocks lately, instead deciding to invest in broad ETFs. If pressed to pick an individual stock, he said Amazon(AMZN)is an attractive choice because of its upcoming earnings release on Feb. 2.
—CNBC's Robert Ferris contributed to this report.
Disclosures:
STEVE GRASSO
Steve Grasso's firm is Long: VIRT, WDR, FCX, ICE, KDUS, MJNA, MSFT, NE, RIG, TAXI, TITXF, WDR, ZNGA, COG,CUBA, ICE, MJNA, TITXF, AGN, BIIB, REGN, SPY, GLD. Grasso is Long: CHK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PHM, SPY, SQ, TWTR, EEM, GDX. Grasso's Kids Own: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. No Shorts.
DAVID SEABURG
Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. An employee of Cowen and Company, LLC serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Offshore
BRIAN KELLY
Long: FCX, TSLA, TLT, US Dollar, UUP, SLV, 10 Year Bonds, Bitcoin; short: Euro, Aussie Dollar, British Pound
GUY ADAMI
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || Flow Signs Iconic Caribbean Comedian -- Majah Hype: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 6, 2017) - The Caribbean's iconic comedy star,Majah Hype, is now aFlow Brand Ambassador.
This internationally-recognized comedian is known for his infectious online videos, many of which have become viral sensations depicting hilarious Caribbean characters, including favourites "Di Rass," "Grandpa James" and "Sister Sandrine."
Majah is more than just 'hype.' A Caribbean artist at heart, he identifies with the islands, and has taken on the task of "unifying the people of the region as one" with his own unique brand of comedy. His act, he says, serves as a means of breaking down national barriers and bringing people together with relatable content.
Passionate about connecting Caribbean and diaspora audiences, Majah epitomizes the spirit, energy and dynamism of theFlowbrand and its mission of connecting communities... transforming lives.
Majah Hype joins Flow's impressive cadre of internationally recognized sports, music and entertainment Brand Ambassadors.
Check out Majah Hype onlineand be among the first to like and share his upcoming Flow sketches. You deserve a rip-roaring laugh and he is very much worth the hype!
About C&W Communications
CWC is a full-service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region -- in over 30 markets.
Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter.
About Liberty Global
Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband, internet, and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points.
Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets.
For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com.
Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096510Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096512 || Flow Signs Iconic Caribbean Comedian -- Majah Hype: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 6, 2017) - The Caribbean's iconic comedy star, Majah Hype , is now a Flow Brand Ambassador . This internationally-recognized comedian is known for his infectious online videos, many of which have become viral sensations depicting hilarious Caribbean characters, including favourites "Di Rass," "Grandpa James" and "Sister Sandrine." Majah is more than just 'hype.' A Caribbean artist at heart, he identifies with the islands, and has taken on the task of "unifying the people of the region as one" with his own unique brand of comedy. His act, he says, serves as a means of breaking down national barriers and bringing people together with relatable content. Passionate about connecting Caribbean and diaspora audiences, Majah epitomizes the spirit, energy and dynamism of the Flow brand and its mission of connecting communities... transforming lives. Majah Hype joins Flow's impressive cadre of internationally recognized sports, music and entertainment Brand Ambassadors. Check out Majah Hype online and be among the first to like and share his upcoming Flow sketches. You deserve a rip-roaring laugh and he is very much worth the hype! About C&W Communications CWC is a full-service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region -- in over 30 markets. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband, internet, and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Story continues Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096510 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096512 || What's going on in China right now reminds us of a great Princess Leia quote from Star Wars: (Star Wars, YouTube)In the beginning of "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," rebel leader Princess Leia (RIP the great Carrie Fisher) was captured by the evil Empire. The rebels had managed to steal the plans for the Empire's secret weapon, the Death Star, and so the Empire's agents were ruthlessly hunting for them all over the galaxy.
Leia told her captors that the planned Imperial crackdown on the rebels, using the Death Star to terrify planets into submission, wouldn't work.
"The more you tighten your grip,"she said,"the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
Replace the words "star systems" with the words "Chinese yuan" and you could use the phrase to talk about what's troubling Beijing right now.
Over the past week, the Chinese government has instituted even stricter capital controls to prevent citizens and corporations from taking money out of the country, according to a note circulated by Wells Fargo's Cameron McKnight and Robert J. Shore on Friday, January 6.
Now regular citizens have to report transfers over $10,000 and banks have had their foreign transaction reporting limits cut by 75%. This is on top of three months of the government tightening its grip on where Chinese people and companies send their yuan.
But it's not working. Money is still leaving the country — $82 billion last month, to be exact — and that is pushing the value of the yuan lower against the dollar. On December 28, China's Central Bank was forced to deny media reports that the yuan fell to 7 yuan to $1. It insisted that yuan traded between its comfortable "band" of 6.9500 and 6.9666 per dollar.
"But some irresponsible media reported that the onshore rate of the yuan broke the psychological threshold of 7.0000," the central bank said,according to Reuters.
The futures market was not satisfied with that response, as indicated in this tweet from Bloomberg Chief Asia Economist Tom Orlik:
This is a deadly loop. The more controls the government puts on, the more desperate it seems. The more desperate it seems, the more people want to take their money out. Bloomberg estimates that China has suffered about$1.7 trillion incapital outflows since 2015.
And the longer this goes on the more investors are starting to think this loop will make a meaningful difference in the value of the yuan.
From Bloomberg:
"By repeatedly tightening capital controls, China risks eroding confidence in its currency, said [Benjamin] Fuchs, chief investment officer at BFAM Partners (Hong Kong). At the same time, the dollar’s advance against the yen and other currencies is increasing competitive pressure on China to let the yuan depreciate, he said in an interview."
Last year, Fuchs correctly predicted that the yuan would not suffer a sudden devaluation, as many hedge fund managers — like Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass — argued through early 2016.
(Societe Generale)
This is not to say that the government doesn't have tools to stabilize the yuan as outflows persist. It just doesn't have many, and they're not that great. China has been using its foreign currency reserves to buy yuan to prop up the currency's value. But it can't do that forever, since it needs that money to pay foreign denominated debt.
Plus, China has already spent a ton of reserves on this. The exact number is fuzzy, but we do know China's Central Bank was holding $4 trillion at its highest point in 2014. Now official data shows that the number is hovering around $3.01 trillion, down from $3.05 trillion in November, according to official numbers released this weekend.
China bears, like hedge fund manager Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates think it could be lower. Specifically, his firm calculates that net reserves could be around $1.7 trillion.
(Business Insider; Data source: Kynikos Associates)
Another interesting factor is that China has tried really hard to get people to stop looking at the yuan in comparison to the dollar. It announced that it would peg the yuan to a basket of currencies. The problem is that no one cares. It's still a dollar-yuan world, and in that world a yuan slide against the dollar breaking a psychological threshold, like 7 yuan to $1, has consequences.
Peking University Professor Christopher Baldingwrote a great post about this earlier this week:
"Ultimately, of course, the only way to break free of the dollar is to accept a floating currency without capital controls. The government shows no appetite for the volatility this would entail, not least because in the short run, downward pressure on the yuan would prompt even larger outflows. But cosmetic changes to a basket of currencies — most of which don't even trade with the renminbi — are no substitute."
Until this is resolved, currency will continue to slip through the government's fingers, no matter how it tightens its grip.
NOW WATCH:This is the Excel trick that will change everything about how you work with data
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• Former CIA director James Woolsey has split with Trump, 'effective immediately' || What's going on in China right now reminds us of a great Princess Leia quote from Star Wars: princess leia (Star Wars, YouTube) In the beginning of "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," rebel leader Princess Leia (RIP the great Carrie Fisher) was captured by the evil Empire. The rebels had managed to steal the plans for the Empire's secret weapon, the Death Star, and so the Empire's agents were ruthlessly hunting for them all over the galaxy. Leia told her captors that the planned Imperial crackdown on the rebels, using the Death Star to terrify planets into submission, wouldn't work. "The more you tighten your grip," she said, "the more star systems will slip through your fingers." Replace the words "star systems" with the words "Chinese yuan" and you could use the phrase to talk about what's troubling Beijing right now. Over the past week, the Chinese government has instituted even stricter capital controls to prevent citizens and corporations from taking money out of the country, according to a note circulated by Wells Fargo's Cameron McKnight and Robert J. Shore on Friday, January 6. Now regular citizens have to report transfers over $10,000 and banks have had their foreign transaction reporting limits cut by 75%. This is on top of three months of the government tightening its grip on where Chinese people and companies send their yuan. When it slips But it's not working. Money is still leaving the country — $82 billion last month, to be exact — and that is pushing the value of the yuan lower against the dollar. On December 28, China's Central Bank was forced to deny media reports that the yuan fell to 7 yuan to $1. It insisted that yuan traded between its comfortable "band" of 6.9500 and 6.9666 per dollar. "But some irresponsible media reported that the onshore rate of the yuan broke the psychological threshold of 7.0000," the central bank said, according to Reuters. The futures market was not satisfied with that response, as indicated in this tweet from Bloomberg Chief Asia Economist Tom Orlik: Yuan drop fears are back, and almost as severe as they were a year ago pic.twitter.com/t4NoN2vDMc — Tom Orlik (@TomOrlik) December 30, 2016 This is a deadly loop. The more controls the government puts on, the more desperate it seems. The more desperate it seems, the more people want to take their money out. Bloomberg estimates that China has suffered about $1.7 trillion in capital outflows since 2015. Story continues And the longer this goes on the more investors are starting to think this loop will make a meaningful difference in the value of the yuan. From Bloomberg: "By repeatedly tightening capital controls, China risks eroding confidence in its currency, said [Benjamin] Fuchs, chief investment officer at BFAM Partners (Hong Kong). At the same time, the dollar’s advance against the yen and other currencies is increasing competitive pressure on China to let the yuan depreciate, he said in an interview." Last year, Fuchs correctly predicted that the yuan would not suffer a sudden devaluation, as many hedge fund managers — like Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass — argued through early 2016. societe generale china residential capital outflows (Societe Generale) This is not to say that the government doesn't have tools to stabilize the yuan as outflows persist. It just doesn't have many, and they're not that great. China has been using its foreign currency reserves to buy yuan to prop up the currency's value. But it can't do that forever, since it needs that money to pay foreign denominated debt. Plus, China has already spent a ton of reserves on this. The exact number is fuzzy, but we do know China's Central Bank was holding $4 trillion at its highest point in 2014. Now official data shows that the number is hovering around $3.01 trillion, down from $3.05 trillion in November, according to official numbers released this weekend. China bears, like hedge fund manager Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates think it could be lower. Specifically, his firm calculates that net reserves could be around $1.7 trillion. china foreign reserves chart (Business Insider; Data source: Kynikos Associates) Another interesting factor is that China has tried really hard to get people to stop looking at the yuan in comparison to the dollar. It announced that it would peg the yuan to a basket of currencies. The problem is that no one cares. It's still a dollar-yuan world, and in that world a yuan slide against the dollar breaking a psychological threshold, like 7 yuan to $1, has consequences. Peking University Professor Christopher Balding wrote a great post about this earlier this week: "Ultimately, of course, the only way to break free of the dollar is to accept a floating currency without capital controls. The government shows no appetite for the volatility this would entail, not least because in the short run, downward pressure on the yuan would prompt even larger outflows. But cosmetic changes to a basket of currencies — most of which don't even trade with the renminbi — are no substitute." Until this is resolved, currency will continue to slip through the government's fingers, no matter how it tightens its grip. NOW WATCH: This is the Excel trick that will change everything about how you work with data More From Business Insider At least 5 dead, dozens injured after mass shooting at Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport Bitcoin is still dropping Former CIA director James Woolsey has split with Trump, 'effective immediately' || Sprint Still Has Plenty Of Short Squeeze Potential In 2017: While Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ ) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T ) continue to dominate the U.S. mobile carrier market share, another carrier dominated Wall Street in 2016. Sprint Corp (NYSE: S ) shares surged 145.8 percent in the past year despite its positioning as the smallest of the “big four” U.S. carriers in terms of subscribers . A major part of Sprint’s move may be due to the massive number of traders that have been betting on Sprint to fail. It’s likely no coincidence that the entire time Sprint shares were skyrocketing in the past year, the stock’s short interest was plummeting 36.6 percent. Short sellers have spent much of the last year unwinding their positions, and short covering has contributed a significant amount of Sprint's volume during its run-up. The good news for Sprint bulls is that there appears to be plenty more potential short covering volume out there. Despite the 2016 short squeeze, Sprit remains one of the most heavily-shorted stocks in the entire NYSE. According to shortsqueeze.com, Sprint still has an elevated short percent of float of 21.7 percent. There are currently a mind-boggling 142.1 million Sprint shares held short with 5.8 days to cover. If the slow-burn Sprint short squeeze continues in 2017, the stock’s 145 percent one-year gain may only be the beginning. See more from Benzinga Don't Blame Millennials For Being Terrible Employees Gartman: Bitcoin Is Nearly Incomprehensible At This Point Apple Kicks Off 2017 With News Of 'Blowout' App Store Sales © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Sprint Still Has Plenty Of Short Squeeze Potential In 2017: WhileVerizon Communications Inc.(NYSE:VZ) andAT&T Inc.(NYSE:T) continue to dominate the U.S. mobile carrier market share, another carrier dominated Wall Street in 2016.Sprint Corp(NYSE:S) shares surged 145.8 percent in the past year despiteits positioningas the smallest of the “big four” U.S. carriers in termsof subscribers.
A major part of Sprint’s move may be due to the massive number of traders that have been betting on Sprint to fail.
It’s likely no coincidence that the entire time Sprint shares were skyrocketing in the past year, the stock’s short interest was plummeting 36.6 percent. Short sellers have spent much of the last year unwinding their positions, and short covering has contributed a significant amount of Sprint's volume during its run-up.
The good news for Sprint bulls is that there appears to be plenty more potential short covering volume out there. Despite the 2016 short squeeze, Sprit remains one of the most heavily-shorted stocks in the entire NYSE. According to shortsqueeze.com, Sprint still has an elevated short percent of float of 21.7 percent. There are currently a mind-boggling 142.1 million Sprint shares held short with 5.8 days to cover.
If the slow-burn Sprint short squeeze continues in 2017, the stock’s 145 percent one-year gain may only be the beginning.
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© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Battered bitcoin slides another 12 percent after China warning: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged by as much as 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational and cautious approach to investing in the digital currency, which is on track for its heaviest two-day drop in two years. Bitcoin had been on a tear until Wednesday, gaining more than 40 percent in two weeks to hit around $1,139 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, just shy of its all-time record of $1,163. But the web-based digital currency, which has shown an intriguing inverse correlation to the Chinese yuan in recent months, plunged as the yuan soared on Thursday, falling as much as 20 percent at one point. It continued that fall on Friday, with its losses accelerating after the central bank's warning. It fell as low as $871, down almost a quarter from its peak on Wednesday, before recovering to about $900 by 1455 GMT (9:55 a.m. ET). That still left it down 10 percent on the day and on track for its worst two-day performance since January 2015. The Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) noted in a statement that bitcoin prices had shown abnormal fluctuations in recent days, and said those investing in it should do so carefully, with awareness of the currency's volatility. The PBOC's words carried echoes of its 2013 warning that financial institutions should steer clear of the digital currency, which sparked a $300 slide in bitcoin. The PBOC also repeated on Friday its 2013 view that bitcoin is not a currency and could therefore not be circulated as a real currency in the market. For full statement click: http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3230072/index.ht "This is the Chinese authorities saying: we're watching," said Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency data analysis website Cryptocompare. "The relative size of the bitcoin market is minor, but trading has reached up to $10 billion a day on the bitcoin-yuan pairs." "The full meaning of the government's comments aren't 100 percent clear, but restrictions and regulation of trading is one avenue that could affect volumes and therefore price." Story continues Hayter said trading between the yuan and bitcoin had made up about 98 percent of the market for the past six months, according to his analysis. Because there are no trading fees on Chinese exchanges, it is much easier to get in and out of trades and therefore creates a higher trading volume, he said. Bitcoin can be used for moving money across the globe quickly and anonymously, and operates outside the control of any central authority. That makes it attractive to those wanting to get around capital controls, such as in China, and also to investors who are worried about a devaluation in their currency - one of the reasons often cited for bitcoin's surge in 2016. While the yuan fell 7 percent, its worst year since 1994, bitcoin outperformed all other currencies, with a 125 percent climb. But many bitcoin experts say Chinese trading volumes are overstated and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds. "VOLATILE MARKETS" The volatile trading prompted officials from the PBOC's Shanghai branch on Friday to meet representatives of a major bitcoin trading platform in China, BTCC. "On January 6 the People's Bank of China Business Management Department and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Financial Affairs jointly met with the relevant regulatory authorities of the 'currency network'," the PBOC said in the statement. BTCC said in a post on Twitter: "BTCC regularly meets with (the) PBOC and we work closely with them to ensure we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China." "All of our users should be aware of the current policies on virtual goods as well as the risks involved in trading in volatile markets," another Tweet read. Eric Gu, a blockchain expert and founder of ViewFin, a Chinese blockchain start-up, said the PBOC meets the country's major bitcoin exchanges regularly but had previously never made such meetings public. But recent volatility has increased risks and has triggered fears that the market could be used as a channel for money laundering, he said. "Previously, bitcoin trading volume was small, and money laundering was not possible in such a market," said Gu. "Now, the volume is up ... everyday, there are tens of billions of yuan worth of bitcoin changing hands. Volume is still (comparatively)small, but big enough to make the central bank worry." For a graphic on bitcoin price, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/FOREX-BITCOIN/010031932VD/DataStream-Chart.htm For a graphic on bitcoin economy, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/1/221/2432/AUSTRALIA-BITCOIN.jpg (Additional reporting by Yiming Shen in Shanghai, and Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao in Beijing; Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Battered bitcoin slides another 12 percent after China warning: By Jemima Kelly
LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged by as much as 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational and cautious approach to investing in the digital currency, which is on track for its heaviest two-day drop in two years.
Bitcoin had been on a tear until Wednesday, gaining more than 40 percent in two weeks to hit around $1,139 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, just shy of its all-time record of $1,163.
But the web-based digital currency, which has shown an intriguing inverse correlation to the Chinese yuan in recent months, plunged as the yuan soared on Thursday, falling as much as 20 percent at one point.
It continued that fall on Friday, with its losses accelerating after the central bank's warning.
It fell as low as $871, down almost a quarter from its peak on Wednesday, before recovering to about $900 by 1455 GMT (9:55 a.m. ET). That still left it down 10 percent on the day and on track for its worst two-day performance since January 2015.
The Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) noted in a statement that bitcoin prices had shown abnormal fluctuations in recent days, and said those investing in it should do so carefully, with awareness of the currency's volatility.
The PBOC's words carried echoes of its 2013 warning that financial institutions should steer clear of the digital currency, which sparked a $300 slide in bitcoin.
The PBOC also repeated on Friday its 2013 view that bitcoin is not a currency and could therefore not be circulated as a real currency in the market.
For full statement click:http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3230072/index.ht
"This is the Chinese authorities saying: we're watching," said Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency data analysis website Cryptocompare. "The relative size of the bitcoin market is minor, but trading has reached up to $10 billion a day on the bitcoin-yuan pairs."
"The full meaning of the government's comments aren't 100 percent clear, but restrictions and regulation of trading is one avenue that could affect volumes and therefore price."
Hayter said trading between the yuan and bitcoin had made up about 98 percent of the market for the past six months, according to his analysis. Because there are no trading fees on Chinese exchanges, it is much easier to get in and out of trades and therefore creates a higher trading volume, he said.
Bitcoin can be used for moving money across the globe quickly and anonymously, and operates outside the control of any central authority.
That makes it attractive to those wanting to get around capital controls, such as in China, and also to investors who are worried about a devaluation in their currency - one of the reasons often cited for bitcoin's surge in 2016. While the yuan fell 7 percent, its worst year since 1994, bitcoin outperformed all other currencies, with a 125 percent climb.
But many bitcoin experts say Chinese trading volumes are overstated and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds.
"VOLATILE MARKETS"
The volatile trading prompted officials from the PBOC's Shanghai branch on Friday to meet representatives of a major bitcoin trading platform in China, BTCC.
"On January 6 the People's Bank of China Business Management Department and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Financial Affairs jointly met with the relevant regulatory authorities of the 'currency network'," the PBOC said in the statement.
BTCC said in a post on Twitter: "BTCC regularly meets with (the) PBOC and we work closely with them to ensure we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China."
"All of our users should be aware of the current policies on virtual goods as well as the risks involved in trading in volatile markets," another Tweet read.
Eric Gu, a blockchain expert and founder of ViewFin, a Chinese blockchain start-up, said the PBOC meets the country's major bitcoin exchanges regularly but had previously never made such meetings public.
But recent volatility has increased risks and has triggered fears that the market could be used as a channel for money laundering, he said.
"Previously, bitcoin trading volume was small, and money laundering was not possible in such a market," said Gu. "Now, the volume is up ... everyday, there are tens of billions of yuan worth of bitcoin changing hands. Volume is still (comparatively)small, but big enough to make the central bank worry."
For a graphic on bitcoin price, clickhttp://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/FOREX-BITCOIN/010031932VD/DataStream-Chart.htm
For a graphic on bitcoin economy, clickhttp://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/1/221/2432/AUSTRALIA-BITCOIN.jpg
(Additional reporting by Yiming Shen in Shanghai, and Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao in Beijing; Editing by Hugh Lawson) || Gartman: Bitcoin Is Nearly Incomprehensible At This Point: After skyrocketing 43.7 percent in the final two weeks of 2016, theBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC) has made a sharp reversal in the past two days. On Thursday, the ETFplummeted 11.6 percent. In early Friday trading, the GBTC is down another 7.7 percent.
According toDennis Gartman, author of The Gartman Letter, a Bitcoin selloff was inevitable. Gartman says the recent runup in Bitcoin came from Indian and Chinese citizens rushing into the currency to avoid weakness in their native denominations.
“These sorts of things always...ALWAYS...end badly and they ended yesterday amidst early buying panic and then even greater panic selling,” Gartman writes.
Gartman adds that he hasn’t ever seen anything like the trading action in Bitcoin in the past 48 hours. He predicts that the panic-selling is not yet over and Bitcoin investors could be staring at significantly more downside in coming days.
He also hints that the complexity of Bitcoin’s technology may be scaring off potential investors.
“Bitcoin may be the currency of the future but quite honestly we find it quite nearly incomprehensible at this point,” Gartman concluded.
The GBTC ETF was up roughly 90 percent in 2016. A new big-board-listed Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF could be launched sometime in 2017.
See more from Benzinga
• How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?
© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Gartman: Bitcoin Is Nearly Incomprehensible At This Point: After skyrocketing 43.7 percent in the final two weeks of 2016, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC ) has made a sharp reversal in the past two days. On Thursday, the ETF plummeted 11.6 percent . In early Friday trading, the GBTC is down another 7.7 percent. According to Dennis Gartman , author of The Gartman Letter, a Bitcoin selloff was inevitable. Gartman says the recent runup in Bitcoin came from Indian and Chinese citizens rushing into the currency to avoid weakness in their native denominations. “These sorts of things always...ALWAYS...end badly and they ended yesterday amidst early buying panic and then even greater panic selling,” Gartman writes. Gartman adds that he hasn’t ever seen anything like the trading action in Bitcoin in the past 48 hours. He predicts that the panic-selling is not yet over and Bitcoin investors could be staring at significantly more downside in coming days. He also hints that the complexity of Bitcoin’s technology may be scaring off potential investors. “Bitcoin may be the currency of the future but quite honestly we find it quite nearly incomprehensible at this point,” Gartman concluded. The GBTC ETF was up roughly 90 percent in 2016. A new big-board-listed Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF could be launched sometime in 2017. See more from Benzinga How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year? © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Gartman: Bitcoin Is Nearly Incomprehensible At This Point: After skyrocketing 43.7 percent in the final two weeks of 2016, theBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC) has made a sharp reversal in the past two days. On Thursday, the ETFplummeted 11.6 percent. In early Friday trading, the GBTC is down another 7.7 percent.
According toDennis Gartman, author of The Gartman Letter, a Bitcoin selloff was inevitable. Gartman says the recent runup in Bitcoin came from Indian and Chinese citizens rushing into the currency to avoid weakness in their native denominations.
“These sorts of things always...ALWAYS...end badly and they ended yesterday amidst early buying panic and then even greater panic selling,” Gartman writes.
Gartman adds that he hasn’t ever seen anything like the trading action in Bitcoin in the past 48 hours. He predicts that the panic-selling is not yet over and Bitcoin investors could be staring at significantly more downside in coming days.
He also hints that the complexity of Bitcoin’s technology may be scaring off potential investors.
“Bitcoin may be the currency of the future but quite honestly we find it quite nearly incomprehensible at this point,” Gartman concluded.
The GBTC ETF was up roughly 90 percent in 2016. A new big-board-listed Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF could be launched sometime in 2017.
See more from Benzinga
• How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year?
© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin extends losses, slides another 12 pct on China warning: LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged another 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational approach to the digital currency, which has is on track for its heaviest two-day falls in two years.
Bitcoin had gained more than 40 percent in two weeks to hit a three-year high of $1,139.89 on Wednesday, just shy of its all-time record of $1,163 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange .
But the digital currency - which has shown an inverse correlation to the Chinese yuan in recent months - plunged as the yuan soared on Thursday, falling as much as 20 percent at one point, before closing the day around 10 percent down on the day.
On Friday it fell to $887, having lost almost a quarter of its value since Wednesday's peak.
Bitcoin prices had showed abnormal fluctuations, the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a notice. It stressed bitcoin is not a currency and cannot be circulated as a real currency in the market.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by Sujata Rao) || Bitcoin extends losses, slides another 12 pct on China warning: LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged another 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational approach to the digital currency, which has is on track for its heaviest two-day falls in two years.
Bitcoin had gained more than 40 percent in two weeks to hit a three-year high of $1,139.89 on Wednesday, just shy of its all-time record of $1,163 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange .
But the digital currency - which has shown an inverse correlation to the Chinese yuan in recent months - plunged as the yuan soared on Thursday, falling as much as 20 percent at one point, before closing the day around 10 percent down on the day.
On Friday it fell to $887, having lost almost a quarter of its value since Wednesday's peak.
Bitcoin prices had showed abnormal fluctuations, the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a notice. It stressed bitcoin is not a currency and cannot be circulated as a real currency in the market.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by Sujata Rao) || Bitcoin extends losses, slides another 12 pct on China warning: LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged another 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational approach to the digital currency, which has is on track for its heaviest two-day falls in two years. Bitcoin had gained more than 40 percent in two weeks to hit a three-year high of $1,139.89 on Wednesday, just shy of its all-time record of $1,163 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange . But the digital currency - which has shown an inverse correlation to the Chinese yuan in recent months - plunged as the yuan soared on Thursday, falling as much as 20 percent at one point, before closing the day around 10 percent down on the day. On Friday it fell to $887, having lost almost a quarter of its value since Wednesday's peak. Bitcoin prices had showed abnormal fluctuations, the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a notice. It stressed bitcoin is not a currency and cannot be circulated as a real currency in the market. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by Sujata Rao) || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: Breathing fire (A Houthi militant displays his skills during a parade held by newly recruited Houthi fighters before heading to the frontline to fight against government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen.Reuters/Khaled Abdullah) Here is what you need to know. Friday is jobs day in America . The US economy is expected to have added 170,000 nonfarm jobs as the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.4%, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg. Additionally, average hourly earnings are anticipated to have climbed 2.8% year-over-year. The data will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. A new king of auto sales has been throned in China . Honda saw sales surge 24 percent YoY to 1.25 million vehicles in 2016, surpassing rival Toyota as the number one automaker in China, Reuters says. Australia's first recession in 25 years could be on hold . The country recorded a surprise trade surplus in November, the first since March 2014, and if repeated in December it is expected to add enough to fourth quarter growth to prevent the first recession since 1991. The Australian dollar is little changed at .7341 against the dollar. A second Scottish referendum isn't happening . Prime minister Nicola Sturgeon has abandoned her plans to hold a second referendum to keep Scotland in the European Union, saying that she has accepted "reality." The British pound is down 0.3% at 1.2364 versus the dollar. Bitcoin is crashing again . The cryptocurrency crashed as much as 23% on Thursday, touching a low of $888.99 per coin before finishing the day near $968. Selling has picked back up on Friday with bitcoin lower by 13.5% at $886. Frontier Airlines is planning to go public . The low-cost carrier has hired Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and Evercore to help with its initial public offering, the New York Times says. There's finally some good news from the retail sector . Gap announced sales at stores that have been open at least one year rose by 4% versus a year ago, compared to the 1.7% drop that analysts were anticipating, and raised its full-year profit forecast. Shares traded higher by as much as 10% in Thursday's after hours session. Story continues US mall vacancies were flat in the fourth quarter . Vacancies held at 7.8%, Reuters reports, citing data compiled by Reis. Stock markets around the world are mostly lower . China's Shanghai Composite (-0.4%) lagged in Asia and France's CAC (-0.5%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open higher by 0.2% near 2,268. US economic data is heavy. Aside from the jobs report, the trade balance will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET and both factory orders and durable goods orders will cross the wires at 10 a.m. ET. The Baker Hughes rig count will be announced at 1 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 2.35%. More From Business Insider Former CIA director James Woolsey has split with Trump, 'effective immediately' Learning Excel isn't just for finance professionals — here's how it can boost anyone's productivity at work Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: (A Houthi militant displays his skills during a parade held by newly recruited Houthi fighters before heading to the frontline to fight against government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen.Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)
Here is what you need to know.
Friday is jobs day in America.The US economy is expected to have added 170,000 nonfarm jobs as the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.4%, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg. Additionally, average hourly earnings are anticipated to have climbed 2.8% year-over-year. The data will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET.
A new king of auto sales has been throned in China.Honda saw sales surge24 percent YoY to 1.25 million vehiclesin 2016, surpassing rival Toyota as the number one automaker in China, Reuters says.
Australia's first recession in 25 years could be on hold.The country recorded a surprise trade surplus in November, the first since March 2014, and if repeated in December it is expected to add enough to fourth quarter growth to prevent the first recession since 1991. The Australian dollar is little changed at .7341 against the dollar.
A second Scottish referendum isn't happening.Prime minister Nicola Sturgeon has abandoned her plans to hold a second referendum to keep Scotland in the European Union, saying that she has accepted "reality." The British pound is down 0.3% at 1.2364 versus the dollar.
Bitcoin is crashing again.The cryptocurrency crashed as much as 23% on Thursday, touching a low of $888.99 per coin before finishing the day near $968. Selling has picked back up on Friday with bitcoin lower by 13.5% at $886.
Frontier Airlines is planning to go public.The low-cost carrierhas hired Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and Evercore to help with its initial public offering, the New York Times says.
There's finally some good news from the retail sector.Gap announced sales at stores that have been open at least one year rose by 4% versus a year ago, compared to the 1.7% drop that analysts were anticipating, and raised its full-year profit forecast. Shares traded higher by as much as 10% in Thursday's after hours session.
US mall vacancies were flat in the fourth quarter.Vacancies held at 7.8%, Reuters reports, citing data compiled by Reis.
Stock markets around the world are mostly lower.China's Shanghai Composite (-0.4%) lagged in Asia and France's CAC (-0.5%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open higher by 0.2% near 2,268.
US economic data is heavy.Aside from the jobs report, the trade balance will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET and both factory orders and durable goods orders will cross the wires at 10 a.m. ET. The Baker Hughes rig count will be announced at 1 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 2.35%.
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• Former CIA director James Woolsey has split with Trump, 'effective immediately'
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• Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now || China central bank urges rational investment in bitcoin: BEIJING (Reuters) - China's institutional and individual investors should take a rational approach to investing in virtual currencies such as bitcoin, the central bank said on Friday. Bitcoin prices had showed abnormal fluctuations, the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a notice. This prompted branch officials to meet representatives of a major bitcoin trading platform in China, BTCC. They cautioned against potential risks in the platform's operations and asked it to carry out "self-inspection" according to the law, the bank said. It stressed bitcoin is not a currency and cannot be circulated as a real currency in the market. (Reporting by Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) || China central bank urges rational investment in bitcoin: BEIJING (Reuters) - China's institutional and individual investors should take a rational approach to investing in virtual currencies such as bitcoin, the central bank said on Friday.
Bitcoin prices had showed abnormal fluctuations, the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a notice.
This prompted branch officials to meet representatives of a major bitcoin trading platform in China, BTCC.
They cautioned against potential risks in the platform's operations and asked it to carry out "self-inspection" according to the law, the bank said.
It stressed bitcoin is not a currency and cannot be circulated as a real currency in the market.
(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
[Social Media Buzz]
http://www.coindesk.com/price/ Bitcoin 1 week summary ($953.00 to $822.00) Note: Yuan strengthend against USD on Friday || Send 1.0 - 4.9 BTC today, get 20.00 - 98.00 BTC in 20 hours,forex bitcoin price. http://ow.ly/5nF3307LJ14 || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$846.70/$848.47 #Bitstamp
$827.00/$829.99 #BTCe
⇢$-21.47/$-16.71
$845.91/$858.11 #Coinbase
⇢$-2.56/$11.41 || #ChainCoin #CHC $0.000088 (-2.11%) 0.00000010 BTC (0.00%) || One Bitcoin now worth $898.59@bitstamp. High $906.00. Low $812.28. Mar...
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911.20, 902.83, 907.68, 777.76, 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3753.99, 3521.10, 3419.94, 3476.11, 3614.23, 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48, 3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60, 3815.49, 3857.30, 3654.83, 3923.92, 3820.41, 3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85, 4035.30, 3678.92, 3687.37, 3661.30, 3552.95, 3706.05, 3630.68, 3655.01, 3678.56, 3657.84, 3728.57, 3601.01, 3576.03, 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-03-04]
Volume: 9029175788, RSI (14-day): 47.78, 50-day EMA: 3790.78, 200-day EMA: 4863.24
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1284.80, Gold RSI: 36.82
Oil Price: 56.59, Oil RSI: 58.42
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Square's Cash App Doubled Its User Base in 2018: As part of Square 's (NYSE: SQ) fourth-quarter earnings report, the company noted Cash App -- its peer-to-peer payments app -- reached 15 million active accounts last year. That's more than double the 7 million accounts Cash App ended 2017 with. Square has also shown progress in monetizing those users. While it didn't disclose any specifics, Cash Card -- the prepaid debit card linked to Cash App -- moved up the list of revenue growth contributors for Square's subscription and services revenue last quarter. For context, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) disclosed that Venmo reached a $200 million revenue run rate at the end of 2018. During Square's fourth-quarter earnings call , management went into further detail on what's driving account growth and how monetization could progress from here. A phone displaying the Cash App and the Cash Card. Image source: Square. The network effect in full force The biggest growth driver of Cash App is still the original peer-to-peer network it's building. When someone wants to send money to a contact using Cash App, that contact needs to download the app and sign up. "The biggest driver of growth for us is the product itself has inherent network effects," CEO Jack Dorsey explained on the earnings call. "You can see this yourself on Fridays of weeks inside the United States where we do see a huge surge in downloads because of payday. And people are utilizing the money they have in Cash App to send friends, families, landlords, causing another download and another." The network effect, by its nature, has an exponential impact on growth. Each new person that signs up becomes an advocate for Cash App. As a result, it can drive substantial account growth. That said, Venmo is also growing largely thanks to the network effect. Since Venmo got a head start on Cash App, Square needs to overcome the competitor's network effect by providing a better value proposition. Offering more value Square gave Cash App users more reasons to choose its app over competitors in 2018 by adding several new features. Story continues At the start of the year, Square opened bitcoin trading to nearly all Cash App users. The move proved relatively popular. Square generated $166.5 million in bitcoin revenue in 2018 and managed to profit $1.7 million. In March, Square added ACH direct deposits for paychecks. That may be why Dorsey noted an uptick in downloads on Fridays. Square has also integrated its merchants' payroll service with Cash App as well as giving contractors working for Caviar -- its food delivery service -- the option to receive funds faster via Cash App. Those efforts mean more people are storing cash in their Cash App accounts, making it a more convenient way to send money to whomever they need to. In May, Square launched Boosts for the Cash Card. Boosts offer instant cash back on purchases made at certain retailers and restaurants when using the Cash Card. While Venmo has copied Square's Cash Card , it hasn't gone so far as to offer a rewards program for using the card. Square is currently paying for Boosts out of its own pocket, considering it a marketing expense. All of these services are aimed at growing the user base on Cash App. Bitcoin trading is the only feature that makes any profits at all, and they're extremely thin. Still, it's hard to argue with doubling the user base in a year. What 2019 may bring Square will look to continue driving utility in Cash App in 2019. Former CFO Sarah Friar has said she thinks Cash App could replace a bank account for many users. Adding new features is the key to the app's continued growth, so here's what investors might look for in 2019. A linked high-interest savings account. If Square really wants to get people to store money in the app, a savings account with a relatively high interest rate will do it. Square reapplied for a bank charter late last year, which would enable it to quickly expand its banking services. A full-fledged investment product. Square could expand beyond bitcoin to more traditional securities, offering free trades like some of its competitors. More Boosts. Square could expand Boosts by launching it as an advertising product. Dorsey hinted at that possibility, noting on the earnings call, "We think there's a lot of incentive both for consumers and also our seller partners on it." Friar previously expressed that the end goal of Boosts is to be an advertising product . Square's new CFO is optimistic about the future development of the app. "We're just at the beginning of this opportunity. There will be future products and services and opportunities to build engagement which we can eventually monetize for the future." That stands in stark contrast to PayPal's current strategy with Venmo. In a conference call after the company's fourth-quarter earnings release, CFO John Rainey told analysts, "Yes, there's opportunities for features that we don't have today. But our eye is on the ball here are with the three initiatives that we have." That may enable Square's Cash App to grow well past Venmo, if it hasn't already, and produce significantly more revenue in the long run. More From The Motley Fool 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today 3 Stocks That Are Absurdly Cheap Right Now 5 Warren Buffett Principles to Remember in a Volatile Stock Market The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss The Must-Read Trump Quote on Social Security 10 Reasons Why I'm Selling All of My Apple Stock Adam Levy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PayPal Holdings and Square. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Square's Cash App Doubled Its User Base in 2018: As part ofSquare's(NYSE: SQ)fourth-quarter earnings report, the company noted Cash App -- its peer-to-peer payments app -- reached 15 million active accounts last year. That's more than double the7 million accountsCash App ended 2017 with.
Square has also shown progress in monetizing those users. While it didn't disclose any specifics, Cash Card -- the prepaid debit card linked to Cash App -- moved up the list of revenue growth contributors for Square's subscription and services revenue last quarter. For context,PayPal(NASDAQ: PYPL)disclosed that Venmo reached a$200 million revenue run rateat the end of 2018.
DuringSquare's fourth-quarter earnings call, management went into further detail on what's driving account growth and how monetization could progress from here.
Image source: Square.
The biggest growth driver of Cash App is still the original peer-to-peer network it's building. When someone wants to send money to a contact using Cash App, that contact needs to download the app and sign up.
"The biggest driver of growth for us is the product itself has inherent network effects," CEO Jack Dorsey explained on the earnings call. "You can see this yourself on Fridays of weeks inside the United States where we do see a huge surge in downloads because of payday. And people are utilizing the money they have in Cash App to send friends, families, landlords, causing another download and another."
The network effect, by its nature, has an exponential impact on growth. Each new person that signs up becomes an advocate for Cash App. As a result, it can drive substantial account growth.
That said, Venmo is also growing largely thanks to the network effect. Since Venmo got a head start on Cash App, Square needs to overcome the competitor's network effect by providing a better value proposition.
Square gave Cash App users more reasons to choose its app over competitors in 2018 by adding several new features.
At the start of the year, Squareopened bitcoin tradingto nearly all Cash App users. The move proved relatively popular. Square generated $166.5 million in bitcoin revenue in 2018 and managed to profit $1.7 million.
In March, Square added ACH direct deposits for paychecks. That may be why Dorsey noted an uptick in downloads on Fridays. Square has also integrated its merchants' payroll service with Cash App as well as giving contractors working for Caviar -- its food delivery service -- the option to receive funds faster via Cash App. Those efforts mean more people are storing cash in their Cash App accounts, making it a more convenient way to send money to whomever they need to.
In May, Square launched Boosts for the Cash Card. Boosts offer instant cash back on purchases made at certain retailers and restaurants when using the Cash Card. While Venmo hascopied Square's Cash Card, it hasn't gone so far as to offer a rewards program for using the card. Square is currently paying for Boosts out of its own pocket, considering it a marketing expense.
All of these services are aimed at growing the user base on Cash App. Bitcoin trading is the only feature that makes any profits at all, and they're extremely thin. Still, it's hard to argue with doubling the user base in a year.
Square will look to continue driving utility in Cash App in 2019. Former CFO Sarah Friar has said she thinks Cash App couldreplace a bank accountfor many users. Adding new features is the key to the app's continued growth, so here's what investors might look for in 2019.
• A linked high-interest savings account. If Square really wants to get people to store money in the app, a savings account with a relatively high interest rate will do it. Squarereapplied for a bank charterlate last year, which would enable it to quickly expand its banking services.
• A full-fledged investment product. Square could expand beyond bitcoin to more traditional securities, offering free trades like some of its competitors.
• More Boosts. Square could expand Boosts by launching it as an advertising product. Dorsey hinted at that possibility, noting on the earnings call, "We think there's a lot of incentive both for consumers and also our seller partners on it." Friar previously expressed that the end goal of Boosts is to bean advertising product.
Square's new CFO is optimistic about the future development of the app. "We're just at the beginning of this opportunity. There will be future products and services and opportunities to build engagement which we can eventually monetize for the future."
That stands in stark contrast to PayPal's current strategy with Venmo. In a conference call after the company's fourth-quarter earnings release, CFO John Rainey told analysts, "Yes, there's opportunities for features that we don't have today. But our eye is on the ball here are with the three initiatives that we have." That may enable Square's Cash App to grow well past Venmo, if it hasn't already, and produce significantly more revenue in the long run.
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Adam Levyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PayPal Holdings and Square. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Crypto Slip; FATP Sets Anti-money Laundering Rules on Crypto: Investing.com – Major digital coins opened the first week of March trading lower, set back by reports over the weekend that regulators have set guidelines on crypto assets to combat money laundering and crypto companies are being denied banking services.
Last week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) finalized its revision of the Interpretive Note to Recommendation 15 that contains requirements for regulating and supervising digital asset services providers. FATF is an intergovernmental organization of 30 countries that aims to formulate strategies to tackle money laundering.
The FATF called on its members to comply with guidelines to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used to launder money and finance terrorism, including requirements that digital asset providers be licensed or registered in the jurisdictions they were created and that owners provide identity information to regulators.
The FATF is seeking comments on the recommendation by Apr. 8 and regulators will have their final meeting in June.
On Monday morning, Bitcoin was trading 0.57% lower to $3,803.7 on the Bitfinex exchange by 10:57 PM ET (03:57 AM GMT).
Ethereum was down 3.37% to $129.5, XRP slipped 1.70% to $0.30814 and Litecoin lost 1.95% to $47.602 over the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that crypto companies are still having a hard time to access banking services.
“The standard answer of ‘just go to your local Chase branch’ doesn’t work in crypto,” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of quantitative crypto trading company Alameda Research, told Bloomberg.
Related Articles
Crypto Up; Canada Audits Crypto Investors
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Alludes to Spending $10,000 a Week on Bitcoin
Research: Global Blockchain Spending to Reach $2.9 Billion in 2019 || Crypto Slip; FATP Sets Anti-money Laundering Rules on Crypto: Major digital coins opened the first week of March trading lower Investing.com – Major digital coins opened the first week of March trading lower, set back by reports over the weekend that regulators have set guidelines on crypto assets to combat money laundering and crypto companies are being denied banking services. Last week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) finalized its revision of the Interpretive Note to Recommendation 15 that contains requirements for regulating and supervising digital asset services providers. FATF is an intergovernmental organization of 30 countries that aims to formulate strategies to tackle money laundering. The FATF called on its members to comply with guidelines to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used to launder money and finance terrorism, including requirements that digital asset providers be licensed or registered in the jurisdictions they were created and that owners provide identity information to regulators. The FATF is seeking comments on the recommendation by Apr. 8 and regulators will have their final meeting in June. On Monday morning, Bitcoin was trading 0.57% lower to $3,803.7 on the Bitfinex exchange by 10:57 PM ET (03:57 AM GMT). Ethereum was down 3.37% to $129.5, XRP slipped 1.70% to $0.30814 and Litecoin lost 1.95% to $47.602 over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that crypto companies are still having a hard time to access banking services. “The standard answer of ‘just go to your local Chase branch’ doesn’t work in crypto,” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of quantitative crypto trading company Alameda Research, told Bloomberg. Related Articles Crypto Up; Canada Audits Crypto Investors Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Alludes to Spending $10,000 a Week on Bitcoin Research: Global Blockchain Spending to Reach $2.9 Billion in 2019 || Not Just McAfee: The Long History of the $1 Million Bitcoin Price Target: ByCCN.com:There’s just something about that $1 million mark that causes crypto bulls to froth at the mouth.The VP of blockchain and digital currencies for IBM, Jesse Lund, is one of the most recent industry experts to proclaim that the bitcoin price could hit seven figures.
In aninterview with Finder, he made thisprediction:
“I see Bitcoin at a million dollars, maybe $5,000 by the end of the year but a way higher trajectory… that means there’s over $20 trillion of liquidity in this network.”
Mr. Lund is not the first to predict such a loftybitcoin price. RT hostMax Keiser said on his show in early 2016:
“Most of the people who are on the sidelines not buying bitcoins today will start to buy when it gets over $1,000, and then a greater percentage of people will definitely plow into bitcoin once it trades over a $10,000.”
Rick Falkvinge believes it’s reasonable for bitcoin to capture 1% to 10% of the global investor market.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Not Just McAfee: The Long History of the $1 Million Bitcoin Price Target: There's just something alluring about a seven-figure bitcoin price target. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN.com : Theres just something about that $1 million mark that causes crypto bulls to froth at the mouth. The VP of blockchain and digital currencies for IBM, Jesse Lund, is one of the most recent industry experts to proclaim that the bitcoin price could hit seven figures. In an interview with Finder , he made this prediction : I see Bitcoin at a million dollars, maybe $5,000 by the end of the year but a way higher trajectory
that means theres over $20 trillion of liquidity in this network. Bitcoin Bulls Have Been Pounding the Table on $1 Million for Years Mr. Lund is not the first to predict such a lofty bitcoin price . RT host Max Keiser said on his show in early 2016: Most of the people who are on the sidelines not buying bitcoins today will start to buy when it gets over $1,000, and then a greater percentage of people will definitely plow into bitcoin once it trades over a $10,000. Rick Falkvinge believes its reasonable for bitcoin to capture 1% to 10% of the global investor market. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Not Just McAfee: The Long History of the $1 Million Bitcoin Price Target: ByCCN.com:There’s just something about that $1 million mark that causes crypto bulls to froth at the mouth.The VP of blockchain and digital currencies for IBM, Jesse Lund, is one of the most recent industry experts to proclaim that the bitcoin price could hit seven figures.
In aninterview with Finder, he made thisprediction:
“I see Bitcoin at a million dollars, maybe $5,000 by the end of the year but a way higher trajectory… that means there’s over $20 trillion of liquidity in this network.”
Mr. Lund is not the first to predict such a loftybitcoin price. RT hostMax Keiser said on his show in early 2016:
“Most of the people who are on the sidelines not buying bitcoins today will start to buy when it gets over $1,000, and then a greater percentage of people will definitely plow into bitcoin once it trades over a $10,000.”
Rick Falkvinge believes it’s reasonable for bitcoin to capture 1% to 10% of the global investor market.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Top 5 Crypto Performers Overview: Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV, Ripple, Dash, Litecoin: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The crypto markets are showing signs of bottoming out. Bitcoin gained about 11 percent in February, its first month to close positively since July of 2018. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency being favored by the market participants. A number of other major coins are also looking strong and have recovered from their lows. The news of Facebook exploring options to launch its own cryptocurrency has been received as bullish. The new Samsung smartphone, Galaxy S10 will have a crypto wallet for Bitcoin and Ethereum. All these efforts will introduce cryptocurrencies to a global audience. The fundamentals in the crypto industry have been improving for the past few months. The institutional players are recognizing these developments and have started making forays into the space. We expect greater participation from the institutions after the cryptocurrency market at large confirms a bottom. Hence, the traders can start initiating positions in the coins that have bottomed out or are displaying a good risk to reward ratio. BNB/USD Binance Launchpad platform has concluded a successful sale of the Fetch.AI (FET) token within 22 seconds on Feb. 25. This shows that there is market demand for what Binance Launchpad does. A few weeks back, a similarly successful sale of Tron-based BitTorrent token (BTT) had completed in 15–18 minutes. In order to speed up the launch of its mainnet, Binance is handing out rewards for testing the company’s new decentralized trading platform Binance DEX. Binance Coin ( BNB ) has benefitted from these positive headlines. Can the price move higher? Let’s find out. BNB/USD The BNB/USD pair has risen by almost 174 percent from its early-December lows. After the recent pullback, the price has covered a lot of ground and now remains only about 56 percent below its lifetime highs. This clearly shows a strong demand for the digital currency. Story continues Currently, the price is close to the critical overhead resistance of $12. A break out of this can carry the pair towards the next target of $15, and above it to $18. On the other hand, if the bulls fail to scale and sustain above $12, a few days of consolidation or a minor dip cannot be ruled out. While short-term traders can buy on a breakout above $12, the long-term players can wait for a minor dip to enter. BSV/USD Bitcoin SV (BSV) was the second-best performer of the week. It rallied sharply on Feb. 25 and 26 as the cryptocurrency got listed by payment processor CoinGate, as well as by a Turkish exchange Vebitcoin . Increased support has been welcomed by market participants. Can the price move up, or will it give up all the recent gains? BSV/USD The BSV/USD pair has a short trading history. It is currently trying to bottom out closer to the support at $65.031. Multiple attempts to sink the pair have failed, as selling dries up at lower levels. This is a positive sign that shows that buyers are keen to invest on the dips. If the price closes (UTC time frame) above $71.412, it will be likely to rally to $123.980. Conversely, if the pair breaks down of the immediate support at $58.072, a drop to the low at $38.528 will become probable. LTC/USD The Litecoin ( LTC ) Foundation has partnered with premier kickboxing league Glory to make LTC the official cryptocurrency for Glory’s various events and its online merchandise platform. With this, Litecoin aims to reach out to the large fanbase of the league. LTC/USD The LTC/USD pair has not given up much ground after hitting the overhead resistance of $47.2460 three weeks ago. This shows that the bulls are in no urgency to book profits after the rally from the lows. If the price breaks out and sustains above $47.2460, it will indicate a probable bottom. The 20-day EMA has flattened out, and the RSI has also climbed close to the midpoint. This shows that the bulls are at an advantage in the near term. Traders can buy on a weekly close (UTC time frame) above $47.2460, and keep a stop loss below $29 initially. This can be trailed higher to $40 within the next several days. The target to watch on the upside is $69, and above it $94. However, if the digital currency fails to sustain above $47.2460, it can again turn down and correct to $40, and below it to $29. XRP/USD Ripple ( XRP ) got listed on the Coinbase Pro trading platform on Feb. 25. On Feb. 28, Coinbase announced support for the digital currency on its retail platform and mobile apps. Nasdaq is also planning to list a separate index tracking the price of Ripple. The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission has included Ripple in the list of tokens suitable for initial coin offerings. While some believed that Ripple had to offer Coinbase a certain incentive or money to get listed, the company has denied it. Although there was a lot of talk about JPM, the recently announced stablecoin by JPMorgan Chase, a research by Binance has concluded that it will not be a threat to Ripple’s XRP token in the near term. XRP/USD The XRP/USD pair continues to trade inside a descending channel. It is currently attempting to rise after taking support at $0.27795. However, it is facing selling close to the 20-week EMA. A rise above this could push the price to the resistance line of the descending channel near $0.40. A breakout and close (UTC time frame) above the channel will indicate a change in trend. On the other hand, if the bulls fail to break out of the 20-week EMA, the bears will again try to break down of $0.27795. A drop below the support zone of $0.24508 –$0.27795 will resume the downtrend. DASH/USD Dash has been a popular mode of transaction in Venezuela and continues to gain ground. Church’s Chicken Venezuela fast food chain accepts the coin in 10 of their 13 locations. It also keeps launching promotional activities in collaboration with Dash to attract more people towards using the cryptocurrency. Brazilian crypto exchange CoinBene has integrated Dash, giving the coin an opportunity to expand its presence in the country. DASH/USD The DASH/USD pair has been trying to form a base for the past few weeks. The price is currently stuck between $56.214 on the downside, and $103.261 on the upside. The 20-week EMA is also just above the range. Hence, a breakout of the 20-week EMA is likely to attract buying that can propel the price towards $175, and above it to $224. On the other hand, if the price fails to break out of the resistance of the range, it will consolidate for a few more weeks. The trend will turn negative if the bears push the price below the support of $56.214. We could not find any reliable trade setups at the current levels. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Charts for analysis are provided by TradingView . Related Articles: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 4 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 1 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, February 27 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Cardano: Price Analysis, Feb. 25 || Top 5 Crypto Performers Overview: Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV, Ripple, Dash, Litecoin: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The crypto markets are showing signs of bottoming out. Bitcoin gained about 11 percent in February, its first month to close positively since July of 2018. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency being favored by the market participants. A number of other major coins are also looking strong and have recovered from their lows. The news of Facebook exploring options to launch its own cryptocurrency has been received as bullish. The new Samsung smartphone, Galaxy S10 will have a crypto wallet for Bitcoin and Ethereum. All these efforts will introduce cryptocurrencies to a global audience. The fundamentals in the crypto industry have been improving for the past few months. The institutional players are recognizing these developments and have started making forays into the space. We expect greater participation from the institutions after the cryptocurrency market at large confirms a bottom. Hence, the traders can start initiating positions in the coins that have bottomed out or are displaying a good risk to reward ratio. BNB/USD Binance Launchpad platform has concluded a successful sale of the Fetch.AI (FET) token within 22 seconds on Feb. 25. This shows that there is market demand for what Binance Launchpad does. A few weeks back, a similarly successful sale of Tron-based BitTorrent token (BTT) had completed in 15–18 minutes. In order to speed up the launch of its mainnet, Binance is handing out rewards for testing the company’s new decentralized trading platform Binance DEX. Binance Coin ( BNB ) has benefitted from these positive headlines. Can the price move higher? Let’s find out. BNB/USD The BNB/USD pair has risen by almost 174 percent from its early-December lows. After the recent pullback, the price has covered a lot of ground and now remains only about 56 percent below its lifetime highs. This clearly shows a strong demand for the digital currency. Story continues Currently, the price is close to the critical overhead resistance of $12. A break out of this can carry the pair towards the next target of $15, and above it to $18. On the other hand, if the bulls fail to scale and sustain above $12, a few days of consolidation or a minor dip cannot be ruled out. While short-term traders can buy on a breakout above $12, the long-term players can wait for a minor dip to enter. BSV/USD Bitcoin SV (BSV) was the second-best performer of the week. It rallied sharply on Feb. 25 and 26 as the cryptocurrency got listed by payment processor CoinGate, as well as by a Turkish exchange Vebitcoin . Increased support has been welcomed by market participants. Can the price move up, or will it give up all the recent gains? BSV/USD The BSV/USD pair has a short trading history. It is currently trying to bottom out closer to the support at $65.031. Multiple attempts to sink the pair have failed, as selling dries up at lower levels. This is a positive sign that shows that buyers are keen to invest on the dips. If the price closes (UTC time frame) above $71.412, it will be likely to rally to $123.980. Conversely, if the pair breaks down of the immediate support at $58.072, a drop to the low at $38.528 will become probable. LTC/USD The Litecoin ( LTC ) Foundation has partnered with premier kickboxing league Glory to make LTC the official cryptocurrency for Glory’s various events and its online merchandise platform. With this, Litecoin aims to reach out to the large fanbase of the league. LTC/USD The LTC/USD pair has not given up much ground after hitting the overhead resistance of $47.2460 three weeks ago. This shows that the bulls are in no urgency to book profits after the rally from the lows. If the price breaks out and sustains above $47.2460, it will indicate a probable bottom. The 20-day EMA has flattened out, and the RSI has also climbed close to the midpoint. This shows that the bulls are at an advantage in the near term. Traders can buy on a weekly close (UTC time frame) above $47.2460, and keep a stop loss below $29 initially. This can be trailed higher to $40 within the next several days. The target to watch on the upside is $69, and above it $94. However, if the digital currency fails to sustain above $47.2460, it can again turn down and correct to $40, and below it to $29. XRP/USD Ripple ( XRP ) got listed on the Coinbase Pro trading platform on Feb. 25. On Feb. 28, Coinbase announced support for the digital currency on its retail platform and mobile apps. Nasdaq is also planning to list a separate index tracking the price of Ripple. The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission has included Ripple in the list of tokens suitable for initial coin offerings. While some believed that Ripple had to offer Coinbase a certain incentive or money to get listed, the company has denied it. Although there was a lot of talk about JPM, the recently announced stablecoin by JPMorgan Chase, a research by Binance has concluded that it will not be a threat to Ripple’s XRP token in the near term. XRP/USD The XRP/USD pair continues to trade inside a descending channel. It is currently attempting to rise after taking support at $0.27795. However, it is facing selling close to the 20-week EMA. A rise above this could push the price to the resistance line of the descending channel near $0.40. A breakout and close (UTC time frame) above the channel will indicate a change in trend. On the other hand, if the bulls fail to break out of the 20-week EMA, the bears will again try to break down of $0.27795. A drop below the support zone of $0.24508 –$0.27795 will resume the downtrend. DASH/USD Dash has been a popular mode of transaction in Venezuela and continues to gain ground. Church’s Chicken Venezuela fast food chain accepts the coin in 10 of their 13 locations. It also keeps launching promotional activities in collaboration with Dash to attract more people towards using the cryptocurrency. Brazilian crypto exchange CoinBene has integrated Dash, giving the coin an opportunity to expand its presence in the country. DASH/USD The DASH/USD pair has been trying to form a base for the past few weeks. The price is currently stuck between $56.214 on the downside, and $103.261 on the upside. The 20-week EMA is also just above the range. Hence, a breakout of the 20-week EMA is likely to attract buying that can propel the price towards $175, and above it to $224. On the other hand, if the price fails to break out of the resistance of the range, it will consolidate for a few more weeks. The trend will turn negative if the bears push the price below the support of $56.214. We could not find any reliable trade setups at the current levels. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Charts for analysis are provided by TradingView . Related Articles: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 4 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 1 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, February 27 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Cardano: Price Analysis, Feb. 25 || Top 5 Crypto Performers Overview: Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV, Ripple, Dash, Litecoin: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The crypto markets are showing signs of bottoming out. Bitcoin gained about 11 percent in February, its first month to close positively since July of 2018. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency being favored by the market participants. A number of other major coins are also looking strong and have recovered from their lows. The news of Facebook exploring options to launch its own cryptocurrency has been received as bullish. The new Samsung smartphone, Galaxy S10 will have a crypto wallet for Bitcoin and Ethereum. All these efforts will introduce cryptocurrencies to a global audience. The fundamentals in the crypto industry have been improving for the past few months. The institutional players are recognizing these developments and have started making forays into the space. We expect greater participation from the institutions after the cryptocurrency market at large confirms a bottom. Hence, the traders can start initiating positions in the coins that have bottomed out or are displaying a good risk to reward ratio. BNB/USD Binance Launchpad platform has concluded a successful sale of the Fetch.AI (FET) token within 22 seconds on Feb. 25. This shows that there is market demand for what Binance Launchpad does. A few weeks back, a similarly successful sale of Tron-based BitTorrent token (BTT) had completed in 15–18 minutes. In order to speed up the launch of its mainnet, Binance is handing out rewards for testing the company’s new decentralized trading platform Binance DEX. Binance Coin ( BNB ) has benefitted from these positive headlines. Can the price move higher? Let’s find out. BNB/USD The BNB/USD pair has risen by almost 174 percent from its early-December lows. After the recent pullback, the price has covered a lot of ground and now remains only about 56 percent below its lifetime highs. This clearly shows a strong demand for the digital currency. Story continues Currently, the price is close to the critical overhead resistance of $12. A break out of this can carry the pair towards the next target of $15, and above it to $18. On the other hand, if the bulls fail to scale and sustain above $12, a few days of consolidation or a minor dip cannot be ruled out. While short-term traders can buy on a breakout above $12, the long-term players can wait for a minor dip to enter. BSV/USD Bitcoin SV (BSV) was the second-best performer of the week. It rallied sharply on Feb. 25 and 26 as the cryptocurrency got listed by payment processor CoinGate, as well as by a Turkish exchange Vebitcoin . Increased support has been welcomed by market participants. Can the price move up, or will it give up all the recent gains? BSV/USD The BSV/USD pair has a short trading history. It is currently trying to bottom out closer to the support at $65.031. Multiple attempts to sink the pair have failed, as selling dries up at lower levels. This is a positive sign that shows that buyers are keen to invest on the dips. If the price closes (UTC time frame) above $71.412, it will be likely to rally to $123.980. Conversely, if the pair breaks down of the immediate support at $58.072, a drop to the low at $38.528 will become probable. LTC/USD The Litecoin ( LTC ) Foundation has partnered with premier kickboxing league Glory to make LTC the official cryptocurrency for Glory’s various events and its online merchandise platform. With this, Litecoin aims to reach out to the large fanbase of the league. LTC/USD The LTC/USD pair has not given up much ground after hitting the overhead resistance of $47.2460 three weeks ago. This shows that the bulls are in no urgency to book profits after the rally from the lows. If the price breaks out and sustains above $47.2460, it will indicate a probable bottom. The 20-day EMA has flattened out, and the RSI has also climbed close to the midpoint. This shows that the bulls are at an advantage in the near term. Traders can buy on a weekly close (UTC time frame) above $47.2460, and keep a stop loss below $29 initially. This can be trailed higher to $40 within the next several days. The target to watch on the upside is $69, and above it $94. However, if the digital currency fails to sustain above $47.2460, it can again turn down and correct to $40, and below it to $29. XRP/USD Ripple ( XRP ) got listed on the Coinbase Pro trading platform on Feb. 25. On Feb. 28, Coinbase announced support for the digital currency on its retail platform and mobile apps. Nasdaq is also planning to list a separate index tracking the price of Ripple. The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission has included Ripple in the list of tokens suitable for initial coin offerings. While some believed that Ripple had to offer Coinbase a certain incentive or money to get listed, the company has denied it. Although there was a lot of talk about JPM, the recently announced stablecoin by JPMorgan Chase, a research by Binance has concluded that it will not be a threat to Ripple’s XRP token in the near term. XRP/USD The XRP/USD pair continues to trade inside a descending channel. It is currently attempting to rise after taking support at $0.27795. However, it is facing selling close to the 20-week EMA. A rise above this could push the price to the resistance line of the descending channel near $0.40. A breakout and close (UTC time frame) above the channel will indicate a change in trend. On the other hand, if the bulls fail to break out of the 20-week EMA, the bears will again try to break down of $0.27795. A drop below the support zone of $0.24508 –$0.27795 will resume the downtrend. DASH/USD Dash has been a popular mode of transaction in Venezuela and continues to gain ground. Church’s Chicken Venezuela fast food chain accepts the coin in 10 of their 13 locations. It also keeps launching promotional activities in collaboration with Dash to attract more people towards using the cryptocurrency. Brazilian crypto exchange CoinBene has integrated Dash, giving the coin an opportunity to expand its presence in the country. DASH/USD The DASH/USD pair has been trying to form a base for the past few weeks. The price is currently stuck between $56.214 on the downside, and $103.261 on the upside. The 20-week EMA is also just above the range. Hence, a breakout of the 20-week EMA is likely to attract buying that can propel the price towards $175, and above it to $224. On the other hand, if the price fails to break out of the resistance of the range, it will consolidate for a few more weeks. The trend will turn negative if the bears push the price below the support of $56.214. We could not find any reliable trade setups at the current levels. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Charts for analysis are provided by TradingView . Related Articles: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Stellar, Tron, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 4 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, March 1 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, TRON, Binance Coin, Bitcoin SV: Price Analysis, February 27 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Tron, Binance Coin, Cardano: Price Analysis, Feb. 25 || 5 Essential Tips for Preparing Your Cryptocurrency Taxes: ByCCN.com: Paying taxes on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is becoming a priority for individuals in the US after the IRS announced on July 2nd, 2018 that one of their core campaigns and focuses for the year is the taxation ofvirtual currencies.
Because cryptocurrencies aretreated as propertyin the eyes of the law, they are subject to capital gains and losses rules just like stocks, bonds, real estate, and other forms of property.
The challenge with cryptocurrency in regards to taxes is that the data making up your crypto buys, sells, trades, transfers, mining income, forks, splits, air drops, wallet transactions, and other crypto activity is likely scattered across many different platforms and exchanges. This can make the tax calculation and reporting process difficult.
These five tips will help make the crypto tax reporting process easier and allow you to stay in the good graces of the law.
Make a list of every cryptocurrency exchange you used within the past tax year. | Source: Shutterstock
Exchange data is essential in the crypto tax reporting process. Exchanges are likely the places where you originally converted fiat currency into cryptocurrency, and thus yourcost basisis originally established here. You should have complete historical data from every exchange that you have used. Most exchanges have an option that allows you to export your complete trading history.
Having this data on hand will make the reporting process easy whether you are doing calculations by hand or with the help of crypto tax software.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || 5 Essential Tips for Preparing Your Cryptocurrency Taxes: David Kemmerer explains five essential tips for preparing your cryptocurrency taxes the right way. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN.com : Paying taxes on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is becoming a priority for individuals in the US after the IRS announced on July 2nd, 2018 that one of their core campaigns and focuses for the year is the taxation of virtual currencies . Because cryptocurrencies are treated as property in the eyes of the law, they are subject to capital gains and losses rules just like stocks, bonds, real estate, and other forms of property. The challenge with cryptocurrency in regards to taxes is that the data making up your crypto buys, sells, trades, transfers, mining income, forks, splits, air drops, wallet transactions, and other crypto activity is likely scattered across many different platforms and exchanges. This can make the tax calculation and reporting process difficult. These five tips will help make the crypto tax reporting process easier and allow you to stay in the good graces of the law. 1. Keep a Record of Every Exchange Where You Have Bought or Sold Cryptocurrency bitcoin tax Make a list of every cryptocurrency exchange you used within the past tax year. | Source: Shutterstock Exchange data is essential in the crypto tax reporting process. Exchanges are likely the places where you originally converted fiat currency into cryptocurrency, and thus your cost basis is originally established here. You should have complete historical data from every exchange that you have used. Most exchanges have an option that allows you to export your complete trading history. Having this data on hand will make the reporting process easy whether you are doing calculations by hand or with the help of crypto tax software. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Hodler’s Digest, Feb. 25–March 3: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week: Nasdaq Begins Listing Brave New Coin’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Indexes
Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange, began itslive listing of two crypto price indexesfromUnited Statesblockchainand crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC) this week. The listings, which had beenannouncedearlier this month, are BNC’sBitcoinLiquid Index (BLX) andEthereumLiquid Index (ELX). According to the announcement, the indexes will show reference rates for the price of 1 BTC and 1 ETH, quoted in USD and refreshed every 30 seconds. Brave New Coin has also announced future plans to add another index for tracking the price of Ripple (XRP).
Samsung Announces Galaxy S10 Crypto Partners, Bitcoin and Ethereum Support
South Koreantech giantSamsung’snew Galaxy S10 smartphone will reportedly have crypto wallet functions for both Ethereum and Bitcoin, as well as two other tokens. Themuch-discussed crypto features seemed to have been revealedat the Mobile World Congress this week, where Samsung presented the various projects featured on the smartphone, including support for the cosmetic industry-focused COSMEE token (COSM) and crypto gaming-focused Enjin’s token (ENJ). Also this week, anonymous sources hadreportedthat Enjin Wallet would be backing a blockchain wallet in Samsung’s new smartphone.
Jamie Dimon Says JPM Coin Could Eventually Find Consumer Use
Jamie Dimon, the CEO ofJPMorgan Chase, said this week that the company’s previously announced JPM Coin could eventually see consumer use. The bank’s proposed digital asset had beenannouncedby the U.S. banking giant last week, noting that the coin could increase settlement efficiency in several of its operations. However, Dimon’s comments to CNBC this week implied a wider focus for the coin’s use, as he noted that it “could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer.” The JPM Coin has beenbothlauded and opposedby those in the crypto community, with somesuggestingit defeats the purpose of crypto itself.
New York Times: Facebook Reportedly Shopping ‘Facebook Coin’ to Crypto Exchanges
Social media giantFacebookis reportedly“hoping to succeed where Bitcoin failed”with its highly secretive cryptocurrency project, according to anonymous sources speaking to the New York Times. This week, the Times wrote more about Facebook’s alleged coin that hadpreviouslybeen revealed, noting through its sources that the company planned tointegrateWhatsApp, Messenger and Instagraminto one entity and provide the newly unified service with a crypto token. According to the unnamed sources, Facebook is far enough along in the project that they have been meeting with crypto exchanges about the possibility of listing the so-called “Facebook Coin.”
Ethereum’s Constantinople and St. Petersburg Upgrades Have Been Activated
Ethereum’s next two network upgrades, known as Constantinople and St. Petersburg, have successfully taken place this week on themain network at block 7,280,000, in accordance with the previouslyreleasedschedule. The two updates have been combined into one event, following thedelayof the Constantinople upgrade in January over a newly discovered security vulnerability. While Constantinople adds the so-called “difficulty bomb” and the decrease of Ethereum’s block reward, St. Petersburg is meant to delete a previous update,Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1283, from Ethereum’s test networks, as the EIP has been identified to have security vulnerabilities.
The crypto markets are slightly down by the end of the week, with Bitcoin trading at around $3,854, Ethereum at $134 and Ripple around $0.31. The total market cap is at about $130 billion.
The top-three altcoin gainers of the week are RegalCoin, Archetypal Network and President Trump. The top-three altcoin losers of the week are ICE ROCK MINING, PonziCoin and CapdaxToken.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’smarket analysis.
“Let’s do this in Europe, the avant-garde of agricultural technology, by developing tools that will track every product from raw material production to packaging and processing. The innovation is there and it must be used in the agricultural world, it must be fully used because it is at the service of shared excellence and it will serve the consumer.”
Emmanuel Macron, president of France
“You can stare at it [Bitcoin] all day, and no little Bitcoins come out or anything like that. It’s a delusion, basically.”
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
“I’m not sure I can buy that we’ve seen massive value destruction, I think we’ve seen massive value creation.”
Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder
“JPMorgan Coin could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer.”
Jamie Dimon,JPMorgan ChaseCEO
“We’re happy to go on the record. Coinbase’s listing of XRP (also, not ‘our token’) was Coinbase’s independent decision - we did not give them anything to make it happen.”
Miguel Vias, head of XRP markets
QuadrigaCX Wallets Have Been Empty, Unused Since April 2018
In furtherQuadrigaCXnews, the embattledCanadiancrypto exchange’s auditor — Big Four audit firmErnst & Young(EY) — released a report this week showing that the exchange’s cold wallets appear to have been empty since April 2018. EY identified six separate crypto wallets that had been used to store Bitcoin, but noted that there had beenno deposits in the wallet since April of last year(besides one for $500,000), noting that they cannot find a reason as to why the wallets had been ceased. EY also included in its report the discovery of 14 user accounts that appear to have been created outside the normal process by Quadriga, which were then used to trade on the exchange’s platform.
Crypto Mining Service Coinhive to Shut Down Operations in March
Coinhive, a crypto mining service that specifically targets altcoin Monero (XMR), has announced that it will be shutting down operations in March 2018. According to the blog post, the project has become economically inviabledue to the market conditions, as well as the more than 50 percent drop in hash ratefollowing the last Monero hard fork. XMR has dropped around 85 percent over the course of the year, the blog post noted, underlining that it contributed to the decision to discontinue Coinhive. The service is a JavaScript-based digital currency mining service that relies on computer code being installed on websites, that then uses some of a browser’s computing power to mine.
Netherlands Bitcoin Trader Attacked in His Home
According to local media, a Bitcoin trader was attacked in his home in theNetherlandsthis week by agroup of robbers that had disguised themselves as police. The victim, 38-year-old Tjeerd H., was robbed by a group of criminals wearing balaclavas and bulletproof vests with a police coat, who threatened him with firearms. According to the local media outlet, H. was a cryptocurrency trader, and police sources have confirmed this. As cryptocurrency has risen in popularity in recent years, attacks on traders have also risen in number, as Cointelegraph has previouslyreported.
#DeleteCoinbase: Exchange Users Respond to Acquisition of a Firm Run by Former Spyware Developers
After Coinbase’sacquisitionof blockchain startup Neutrino this month, users have taken to the internet in order to lambast what they see as the company’s lack of sensitivity to human rights issues. The online #DeleteCoinbase campaign stems from the fact that some of Neutrino’s employees are associated with Hacking Team, an information tech outfit that has reportedly sold surveillance capabilities to different governments. Cointelegraph takes a look at the crypto community’s response to this controversial acquisition.
Scammers, Satoshi and Tesla Miners: Elon Musk’s Complex Relationship With Crypto
Elon Musk,TeslaCEO and overall tech entrepreneur, recentlycomplimentedBitcoin’s structure, calling the coin a “quite brilliant” digital currency. Cointelegraph examines Musk’s relationship with cryptocurrency, starting from October 2014 up until present day, as the entrepreneur previously has rarely made direct comments about crypto technology.
• Most Top Cryptos See Minor Losses as Bitcoin Hovers Over $3,850
• Samsung Announces Galaxy S10 Crypto Partners, Bitcoin and Ethereum Support
• Nasdaq Begins Listing Brave New Coin’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Indices
• Hodler’s Digest Feb.18-24: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week || Hodlers Digest, Feb. 25March 3: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week: Top Stories This Week Nasdaq Begins Listing Brave New Coins Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Indexes Nasdaq , the worlds second-largest stock exchange, began its live listing of two crypto price indexes from United States blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC) this week. The listings, which had been announced earlier this month, are BNCs Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX). According to the announcement, the indexes will show reference rates for the price of 1 BTC and 1 ETH, quoted in USD and refreshed every 30 seconds. Brave New Coin has also announced future plans to add another index for tracking the price of Ripple ( XRP ). Samsung Announces Galaxy S10 Crypto Partners, Bitcoin and Ethereum Support South Korean tech giant Samsungs new Galaxy S10 smartphone will reportedly have crypto wallet functions for both Ethereum and Bitcoin, as well as two other tokens. The much-discussed crypto features seemed to have been revealed at the Mobile World Congress this week, where Samsung presented the various projects featured on the smartphone, including support for the cosmetic industry-focused COSMEE token (COSM) and crypto gaming-focused Enjins token (ENJ). Also this week, anonymous sources had reported that Enjin Wallet would be backing a blockchain wallet in Samsungs new smartphone. Jamie Dimon Says JPM Coin Could Eventually Find Consumer Use Jamie Dimon , the CEO of JPMorgan Chase , said this week that the companys previously announced JPM Coin could eventually see consumer use. The banks proposed digital asset had been announced by the U.S. banking giant last week, noting that the coin could increase settlement efficiency in several of its operations. However, Dimons comments to CNBC this week implied a wider focus for the coins use, as he noted that it could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer. The JPM Coin has been both lauded and opposed by those in the crypto community , with some suggesting it defeats the purpose of crypto itself. Story continues New York Times: Facebook Reportedly Shopping Facebook Coin to Crypto Exchanges Social media giant Facebook is reportedly hoping to succeed where Bitcoin failed with its highly secretive cryptocurrency project, according to anonymous sources speaking to the New York Times. This week, the Times wrote more about Facebooks alleged coin that had previously been revealed, noting through its sources that the company planned to integrate WhatsApp , Messenger and Instagram into one entity and provide the newly unified service with a crypto token. According to the unnamed sources, Facebook is far enough along in the project that they have been meeting with crypto exchanges about the possibility of listing the so-called Facebook Coin. Ethereums Constantinople and St. Petersburg Upgrades Have Been Activated Ethereums next two network upgrades, known as Constantinople and St. Petersburg, have successfully taken place this week on the main network at block 7,280,000 , in accordance with the previously released schedule . The two updates have been combined into one event, following the delay of the Constantinople upgrade in January over a newly discovered security vulnerability. While Constantinople adds the so-called difficulty bomb and the decrease of Ethereums block reward, St. Petersburg is meant to delete a previous update, Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1283 , from Ethereums test networks, as the EIP has been identified to have security vulnerabilities. Winners and Losers The crypto markets are slightly down by the end of the week, with Bitcoin trading at around $3,854, Ethereum at $134 and Ripple around $0.31. The total market cap is at about $130 billion. The top-three altcoin gainers of the week are RegalCoin, Archetypal Network and President Trump. The top-three altcoin losers of the week are ICE ROCK MINING, PonziCoin and CapdaxToken. Winners and Losers For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraphs market analysis . Most Memorable Quotations Lets do this in Europe, the avant-garde of agricultural technology, by developing tools that will track every product from raw material production to packaging and processing. The innovation is there and it must be used in the agricultural world, it must be fully used because it is at the service of shared excellence and it will serve the consumer. Emmanuel Macron , president of France You can stare at it [Bitcoin] all day, and no little Bitcoins come out or anything like that. Its a delusion, basically. Warren Buffett , CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Im not sure I can buy that weve seen massive value destruction, I think weve seen massive value creation. Steve Wozniak , Apple co-founder JPMorgan Coin could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer. Jamie Dimon , JPMorgan Chase CEO Were happy to go on the record. Coinbases listing of XRP (also, not our token) was Coinbases independent decision - we did not give them anything to make it happen. Miguel Vias , head of XRP markets FUD of the Week QuadrigaCX Wallets Have Been Empty, Unused Since April 2018 In further QuadrigaCX news, the embattled Canadian crypto exchanges auditor Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) released a report this week showing that the exchanges cold wallets appear to have been empty since April 2018. EY identified six separate crypto wallets that had been used to store Bitcoin, but noted that there had been no deposits in the wallet since April of last year (besides one for $500,000), noting that they cannot find a reason as to why the wallets had been ceased. EY also included in its report the discovery of 14 user accounts that appear to have been created outside the normal process by Quadriga, which were then used to trade on the exchanges platform. Crypto Mining Service Coinhive to Shut Down Operations in March Coinhive, a crypto mining service that specifically targets altcoin Monero ( XMR ), has announced that it will be shutting down operations in March 2018. According to the blog post, the project has become economically inviable due to the market conditions, as well as the more than 50 percent drop in hash rate following the last Monero hard fork. XMR has dropped around 85 percent over the course of the year, the blog post noted, underlining that it contributed to the decision to discontinue Coinhive. The service is a JavaScript-based digital currency mining service that relies on computer code being installed on websites, that then uses some of a browsers computing power to mine. Netherlands Bitcoin Trader Attacked in His Home According to local media, a Bitcoin trader was attacked in his home in the Netherlands this week by a group of robbers that had disguised themselves as police . The victim, 38-year-old Tjeerd H., was robbed by a group of criminals wearing balaclavas and bulletproof vests with a police coat, who threatened him with firearms. According to the local media outlet, H. was a cryptocurrency trader, and police sources have confirmed this. As cryptocurrency has risen in popularity in recent years, attacks on traders have also risen in number, as Cointelegraph has previously reported . Best Cointelegraph Features #DeleteCoinbase: Exchange Users Respond to Acquisition of a Firm Run by Former Spyware Developers After Coinbases acquisition of blockchain startup Neutrino this month, users have taken to the internet in order to lambast what they see as the companys lack of sensitivity to human rights issues. The online #DeleteCoinbase campaign stems from the fact that some of Neutrinos employees are associated with Hacking Team, an information tech outfit that has reportedly sold surveillance capabilities to different governments. Cointelegraph takes a look at the crypto communitys response to this controversial acquisition. Scammers, Satoshi and Tesla Miners: Elon Musks Complex Relationship With Crypto Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and overall tech entrepreneur, recently complimented Bitcoins structure, calling the coin a quite brilliant digital currency. Cointelegraph examines Musks relationship with cryptocurrency, starting from October 2014 up until present day, as the entrepreneur previously has rarely made direct comments about crypto technology. Related Articles: Most Top Cryptos See Minor Losses as Bitcoin Hovers Over $3,850 Samsung Announces Galaxy S10 Crypto Partners, Bitcoin and Ethereum Support Nasdaq Begins Listing Brave New Coins Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Indices Hodlers Digest Feb.18-24: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week || The blockchain/crypto week in quotes: “Contrary to popular opinion, it’s Facebook that will fail where Bitcoin has prevailed. Bitcoin is doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing: creating a grass roots movement driven by individuals. The regulators cannot regulate Bitcoin because there is no-where to go, but regulators know how to access Facebook. They’ll turn up at Facebook’s shiny offices in Silicon Valley and shut the project down. Bitcoin has prevailed because regulators can’t shut it down. That means the regulators are having to find creative ways to protect consumers and they’re only at the start of that process. Facebook is yet to confirm rumours of a coin and there is a good argument that says they don’t even need one. It would be better to mirror WeChat’s approach in China by giving users access to p2p payments through their app, similarly to PayPal. Only time will tell, but Facebook can’t launch a cryptocurrency in regulators backyards without being thrown out.” Mike Rymanov, CEO, DSX Fight week is about to get Funky! Signing in for the first time, @BenAskren . #UFC235 pic.twitter.com/OJ73KfQWyG — UFC (@ufc) February 26, 2019 “I’m not sure I can buy that we’ve seen massive Bitcoin value destruction, I think we’ve seen massive value creation.” Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Ripple’s idea is that every single country should get its own market makers for exchanging XRP into fiat currencies. This is so stupid only someone who doesn’t understand anything about banking and finance would think it’s a good idea. Enter XRP shills. — Trolly McTrollface (@Tr0llyTr0llFace) February 2, 2019 I was invited to this conference. This right here would have been a breach of contract if they allowed it. Good to know, adding the organizers to the blackest of blacklists. Speakers in blockchain: you can (should) prohibit this kind of behavior in your contract. https://t.co/8CcleOlVR4 — Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) February 28, 2019 We’re happy to go on the record. Coinbase’s listing of XRP (also, not “our token”) was Coinbase’s independent decision – we did not give them anything to make it happen. https://t.co/xTVvACqsQa — Miguel Vias ⚡ (@miguelvias) February 27, 2019 “JP Morgan Coin could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer.” Jamie Dimon, CEO, JP Morgan Chase Story continues I’m usually a defender of Coinbase (and many crypto entities that are imperfect). But there’s a line. Hacking team was both deeply unethical and literally criminal. Personally I couldn’t work with them. https://t.co/SbmRdHjX4s — Ari Paul (@AriDavidPaul) February 27, 2019 Bitcoin Bulls: Jack Dorsey Elon Musk Steve Wozniak Bill Miller Peter Thiel Abigail Johnson Bitcoin Bears: Jamie Dimon Warren Buffett Ben Bernanke Larry Fink Nouriel Roubini Joseph Stiglitz What side are you on? — Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) February 28, 2019 “While Ethereum upgrades usually fly below the radar, Constantinople promises to provide some important behind-the-scenes improvements to the Ethereum network. This is like overhauling the engine of a car – it won’t look any different, but it should be better and faster. This will cement Ethereum’s position as the king of development networks, by instilling more confidence in developers who choose to create apps and smart contracts within the Ethereum community. What remains to be seen is the impact this upgrade has on price. While traditional economics suggest that any movement impacting the supply of an asset (as this upgrade will do) means the price will rise, what we can’t predict is how demand will change.” Mati Greenspan, Senior Market Analyst, eToro Me: crypto taxes? Accountant: Sure. Me: So if I bought BTC and then exchanged it for ETH to open a CDP and then used my DAI to buy more ETH… what do I owe? Accountant: the government doesn't understand what you're talking about — Eva Beylin (@evabeylin) February 26, 2019 Square making money with Cash App: Overall net revenue of $3.3B last year, 5% from Cash App. $BTC sales brought in $166M; cost of purchasing for the year was about $165M. That left the firm with a net profit from bitcoin sales of $1.69 million. Things starting to get real 🔥 — David Nage🎯 (@DavidJN79) February 28, 2019 Ripple securities class action update: The Court has denied the plaintiffs' motions to remand. This means the case stays in federal court, a minor but meaningful victory for Ripple. The plaintiffs will file an Amended Consolidated Complaint by March 30. https://t.co/4gdQVaCrlM — Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) March 1, 2019 “Bitcoin is a delusion.” Warren Buffett Beware the Blockchain guru’s. I’m far from an expert on anything. There’s some subjects that I know a bit more than most on – that still doesn’t qualify me as an expert. https://t.co/y70F4KtD6v — Jon Walsh (@walshjonwalsh) February 28, 2019 “People have this fallacy idea that they’re going to make blockchain work inside the firewall. It’s all going to fail miserably.” Abra CEO Bill Barhydt “What can we do to get more women in tech??” In the immortal words of @karaswisher , “you literally just fucking hire them.” — Jill Carlson (@_jillruth) February 28, 2019 “Bitcoin is seen as mainstream today only from a speculators point of view. But people do not fully understand the benefits of using it as a currency yet – at a top level it’s cash for the internet and cheaper to transact with on the Lightning Network than with regular money. The reason why adoption has been slow is a solid bridge connecting it to the real economy doesn’t exist. As a result, obtaining Bitcoin easily and safely, and being able to spend it on things we want is slow, disjointed and unreliable. With our partnerships with Bitrefill, Breez and Samourai, we will start to overcome these challenges, creating a seamless link between the digital currency and the real world. Once these worlds are joined up people can truly realise the full potential of Bitcoin.” Danny Brewster, Managing Director, Fastbitcoins CT is a digital version of high school * Drama * Cliques * Difficult to understand jargon/slang * Shunning/blocking * Die hard fans Imagine the reactions of new people coming in and observing all of this 😂 — Tom 🌀 (@ThomasSchuIz) February 25, 2019 "Bitcoin is not a good idea." – Central Banks 🏦 "E-mail is not a good idea." – Post Office 📫 "The Internet is not a good idea." – Newspapers 📰 "Television is not a good idea." – Radio Stations 📻 "Streaming is not a good idea." – Blockbuster 📽️ — Alec Ziupsnys (@AlecZiupsnys) February 26, 2019 The post The blockchain/crypto week in quotes appeared first on Coin Rivet . || The blockchain/crypto week in quotes: “Contrary to popular opinion, it’s Facebook that will fail where Bitcoin has prevailed. Bitcoin is doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing: creating a grass roots movement driven by individuals. The regulators cannot regulate Bitcoin because there is no-where to go, but regulators know how to access Facebook. They’ll turn up at Facebook’s shiny offices in Silicon Valley and shut the project down. Bitcoin has prevailed because regulators can’t shut it down. That means the regulators are having to find creative ways to protect consumers and they’re only at the start of that process. Facebook is yet to confirm rumours of a coin and there is a good argument that says they don’t even need one. It would be better to mirror WeChat’s approach in China by giving users access to p2p payments through their app, similarly to PayPal. Only time will tell, but Facebook can’t launch a cryptocurrency in regulators backyards without being thrown out.” Mike Rymanov, CEO, DSX Fight week is about to get Funky! Signing in for the first time, @BenAskren . #UFC235 pic.twitter.com/OJ73KfQWyG — UFC (@ufc) February 26, 2019 “I’m not sure I can buy that we’ve seen massive Bitcoin value destruction, I think we’ve seen massive value creation.” Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Ripple’s idea is that every single country should get its own market makers for exchanging XRP into fiat currencies. This is so stupid only someone who doesn’t understand anything about banking and finance would think it’s a good idea. Enter XRP shills. — Trolly McTrollface (@Tr0llyTr0llFace) February 2, 2019 I was invited to this conference. This right here would have been a breach of contract if they allowed it. Good to know, adding the organizers to the blackest of blacklists. Speakers in blockchain: you can (should) prohibit this kind of behavior in your contract. https://t.co/8CcleOlVR4 — Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) February 28, 2019 We’re happy to go on the record. Coinbase’s listing of XRP (also, not “our token”) was Coinbase’s independent decision – we did not give them anything to make it happen. https://t.co/xTVvACqsQa — Miguel Vias ⚡ (@miguelvias) February 27, 2019 “JP Morgan Coin could be internal, could be commercial, it could one day be consumer.” Jamie Dimon, CEO, JP Morgan Chase Story continues I’m usually a defender of Coinbase (and many crypto entities that are imperfect). But there’s a line. Hacking team was both deeply unethical and literally criminal. Personally I couldn’t work with them. https://t.co/SbmRdHjX4s — Ari Paul (@AriDavidPaul) February 27, 2019 Bitcoin Bulls: Jack Dorsey Elon Musk Steve Wozniak Bill Miller Peter Thiel Abigail Johnson Bitcoin Bears: Jamie Dimon Warren Buffett Ben Bernanke Larry Fink Nouriel Roubini Joseph Stiglitz What side are you on? — Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) February 28, 2019 “While Ethereum upgrades usually fly below the radar, Constantinople promises to provide some important behind-the-scenes improvements to the Ethereum network. This is like overhauling the engine of a car – it won’t look any different, but it should be better and faster. This will cement Ethereum’s position as the king of development networks, by instilling more confidence in developers who choose to create apps and smart contracts within the Ethereum community. What remains to be seen is the impact this upgrade has on price. While traditional economics suggest that any movement impacting the supply of an asset (as this upgrade will do) means the price will rise, what we can’t predict is how demand will change.” Mati Greenspan, Senior Market Analyst, eToro Me: crypto taxes? Accountant: Sure. Me: So if I bought BTC and then exchanged it for ETH to open a CDP and then used my DAI to buy more ETH… what do I owe? Accountant: the government doesn't understand what you're talking about — Eva Beylin (@evabeylin) February 26, 2019 Square making money with Cash App: Overall net revenue of $3.3B last year, 5% from Cash App. $BTC sales brought in $166M; cost of purchasing for the year was about $165M. That left the firm with a net profit from bitcoin sales of $1.69 million. Things starting to get real 🔥 — David Nage🎯 (@DavidJN79) February 28, 2019 Ripple securities class action update: The Court has denied the plaintiffs' motions to remand. This means the case stays in federal court, a minor but meaningful victory for Ripple. The plaintiffs will file an Amended Consolidated Complaint by March 30. https://t.co/4gdQVaCrlM — Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) March 1, 2019 “Bitcoin is a delusion.” Warren Buffett Beware the Blockchain guru’s. I’m far from an expert on anything. There’s some subjects that I know a bit more than most on – that still doesn’t qualify me as an expert. https://t.co/y70F4KtD6v — Jon Walsh (@walshjonwalsh) February 28, 2019 “People have this fallacy idea that they’re going to make blockchain work inside the firewall. It’s all going to fail miserably.” Abra CEO Bill Barhydt “What can we do to get more women in tech??” In the immortal words of @karaswisher , “you literally just fucking hire them.” — Jill Carlson (@_jillruth) February 28, 2019 “Bitcoin is seen as mainstream today only from a speculators point of view. But people do not fully understand the benefits of using it as a currency yet – at a top level it’s cash for the internet and cheaper to transact with on the Lightning Network than with regular money. The reason why adoption has been slow is a solid bridge connecting it to the real economy doesn’t exist. As a result, obtaining Bitcoin easily and safely, and being able to spend it on things we want is slow, disjointed and unreliable. With our partnerships with Bitrefill, Breez and Samourai, we will start to overcome these challenges, creating a seamless link between the digital currency and the real world. Once these worlds are joined up people can truly realise the full potential of Bitcoin.” Danny Brewster, Managing Director, Fastbitcoins CT is a digital version of high school * Drama * Cliques * Difficult to understand jargon/slang * Shunning/blocking * Die hard fans Imagine the reactions of new people coming in and observing all of this 😂 — Tom 🌀 (@ThomasSchuIz) February 25, 2019 "Bitcoin is not a good idea." – Central Banks 🏦 "E-mail is not a good idea." – Post Office 📫 "The Internet is not a good idea." – Newspapers 📰 "Television is not a good idea." – Radio Stations 📻 "Streaming is not a good idea." – Blockbuster 📽️ — Alec Ziupsnys (@AlecZiupsnys) February 26, 2019 The post The blockchain/crypto week in quotes appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Gold Monthly Forecast – March 2019: The price action of gold in the global market was well within my previous monthly forecast despite spot gold closing for the month of February on a dovish note. In my forecast for February, I had mentioned that the price action of gold is going to be influenced by and controlled by the proceedings of geopolitical events and that neither Sino-U.S. trade talks nor Brexit will see any resolution during February. Both predictions came true. However, the price didn’t hit a multi-year high as expected. In fact, the price of yellow metal didn’t even hit 2018 highs but managed to climb to new 10-month highs on a weak US dollar and increased demand for safe-haven assets. However, conflicting headlines with most updates hinting at positive proceedings in Sino-U.S. trade talks and rebound of US Dollar near the end of the month resulted in erasing most of the gains made in early February and closing on a dovish note. While headlines hinted at positive progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks initially, there wasn’t much progress and there were even conflicting comments near the end of the month. Further increased risk appetite at the last week of February also added to bearish influence in precious metals market taking away a significant amount of funds from the market.
The first three weeks of February 2019 saw positive price action in precious metals as cautious investor sentiment and increased demand for safe-haven assets owing to geopolitical issues boosted fundamental support for precious metals in the global market. Following a sharp decline in late January, the first week of February saw price action in gold recover steadily. Sino-U.S. trade talks related headlines and cautious influence inspired by the same in global markets underpinned demand for yellow metals and this helped with recovery rally. U.S. President Trump had blamed China for intellectual property theft ahead of meeting between Presidents of both nations and also reaffirmed his commitment to building border wall which renewed fears of the US partial government shutdown being renewed once three weeks ended. These factors led to significant gains in the first week of February. The second week saw a further increase in demand as cautious sentiment was further boosted over the UK parliament session when key decisions regarding Brexit proceedings such as avoiding a no-deal exit and second Brexit referendum were expected to be voted upon.
Gold gained further as news hit the market that US President Donald Trump had declared a state of national emergency to circumvent congress’s hold over budget allocation and redirect US defense budget worth nearly $6 billion USD to build a wall between the US and Mexico in the border. This caused a lot of issues in the country and pulled down the dollar sharply. Citizens blamed President Trump for falsifying data and nearly 16 different states filed a complaint in court against President Trump’s actions of declaring a national emergency causing nationwide uproar weakening USD in the global market and causing gold to hit 10-month highs. This was soon followed by high-level talks between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US President Donald Trump in White house. After the talks, President Donald Trump tweeted that talks proceeded in a favorable direction and that he was considering delaying the tariff deadline from March 1 with hopes of securing a trade deal between two nations. This caused a boost in risk appetite in the market and led to gold declining from multi-month highs but price action managed to remain range bound well above the critical support level of $1300 handle as investors were cautious ahead of the second UK parliament meeting and U.S.-N.Korean summit in Vietnam scheduled to occur in the last week of February.
But key decisions were postponed in the UK parliament once again to the next session on March 12 leaving Brexit progress hanging with no direction. Further, talks between U.S. & North Korea ended abruptly as US President Donald Trump deemed N.Korean Premier Kim Jong Un’s demand to remove all sanctions imposed by the U.S. immediately as an unreasonable demand. Also, U.S. Trade Representative Robert commented that despite optimistic comments from President Trump lot of work remains pending in trade talks with China and this hurt optimism surrounding trade negotiations between the two countries. While this gave yellow metal a short bullish boost, the price action ended on a dovish note as US GDP release near the end of February was unexpectedly high giving Dollar a bullish boost. The upbeat GDP data also influenced positive action in the US government bond market causing a positive spike in US T Yields supporting dollar bulls on their positive rally. This brought Gold price well near critical support levels. Further, official reports that the US is likely to keep current tariffs limited at 10% instead of 25% and no new tariffs are going to be implemented until further notice improved risk sentiment and boosted performance in the equity market as last week came to close. This caused gold to fall below $1300 handle ending the month on a dovish note.
Moving forward this month, geopolitical issues remain the main theme and focus of investors attention. As the deadlines approach, Brexit is likely to see some serious progress unless there is a delay deadline and Sino-U.S. trade talks are likely to see a new milestone. The financial year comes to an end in March and investors are likely to book maximum profits before making any new major bets and risk on trading activity is likely to remain high in global markets and this should greatly limit activity – trading volume and fund flow in the precious metals market. Chances are the price action in the spot market for gold is likely to remain trapped inside a range of $1275 and $1300 across the month as demand for safe-haven assets, increased demand expected from India in the physical market owing to marraige season in the month ahead of expected demand from emerging markets on low price of gold is likely to sustain price action above $1275 handle per ounce. However, a dovish turn out in either Brexit or Sino-U.S. trade talk will immediately push the price above $1300 handle and depending upon further progress gold could likely go back near 2019 high’s but given recent proceedings of major global events, there is very little chance for risk-averse trading and increased safe-haven demand in the month ahead which should keep price action contained within above-mentioned price levels.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Commodities Daily Forecast – March 5, 2019
• China Economic Data Weighs as Focus Shifts to the EUR and the Dollar
• DAX Index Daily Price Forecast – DAX To Continue Range Bound Price Action
• Stock Market Forecast- Stocks Close Lower but Most of FANG Experience a Stealth Rally
• Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Major Crypto Coins Bleed Red
• Forex Daily Outlook – March 5, 2019 || Gold Monthly Forecast – March 2019: The price action of gold in the global market was well within my previous monthly forecast despite spot gold closing for the month of February on a dovish note. In my forecast for February, I had mentioned that the price action of gold is going to be influenced by and controlled by the proceedings of geopolitical events and that neither Sino-U.S. trade talks nor Brexit will see any resolution during February. Both predictions came true. However, the price didn’t hit a multi-year high as expected. In fact, the price of yellow metal didn’t even hit 2018 highs but managed to climb to new 10-month highs on a weak US dollar and increased demand for safe-haven assets. However, conflicting headlines with most updates hinting at positive proceedings in Sino-U.S. trade talks and rebound of US Dollar near the end of the month resulted in erasing most of the gains made in early February and closing on a dovish note. While headlines hinted at positive progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks initially, there wasn’t much progress and there were even conflicting comments near the end of the month. Further increased risk appetite at the last week of February also added to bearish influence in precious metals market taking away a significant amount of funds from the market. The first three weeks of February 2019 saw positive price action in precious metals as cautious investor sentiment and increased demand for safe-haven assets owing to geopolitical issues boosted fundamental support for precious metals in the global market. Following a sharp decline in late January, the first week of February saw price action in gold recover steadily. Sino-U.S. trade talks related headlines and cautious influence inspired by the same in global markets underpinned demand for yellow metals and this helped with recovery rally. U.S. President Trump had blamed China for intellectual property theft ahead of meeting between Presidents of both nations and also reaffirmed his commitment to building border wall which renewed fears of the US partial government shutdown being renewed once three weeks ended. These factors led to significant gains in the first week of February. The second week saw a further increase in demand as cautious sentiment was further boosted over the UK parliament session when key decisions regarding Brexit proceedings such as avoiding a no-deal exit and second Brexit referendum were expected to be voted upon. Story continues Spot Price Hit New 2019 Highs But Failed To Hit Multi Year High’s Gold gained further as news hit the market that US President Donald Trump had declared a state of national emergency to circumvent congress’s hold over budget allocation and redirect US defense budget worth nearly $6 billion USD to build a wall between the US and Mexico in the border. This caused a lot of issues in the country and pulled down the dollar sharply. Citizens blamed President Trump for falsifying data and nearly 16 different states filed a complaint in court against President Trump’s actions of declaring a national emergency causing nationwide uproar weakening USD in the global market and causing gold to hit 10-month highs. This was soon followed by high-level talks between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US President Donald Trump in White house. After the talks, President Donald Trump tweeted that talks proceeded in a favorable direction and that he was considering delaying the tariff deadline from March 1 with hopes of securing a trade deal between two nations. This caused a boost in risk appetite in the market and led to gold declining from multi-month highs but price action managed to remain range bound well above the critical support level of $1300 handle as investors were cautious ahead of the second UK parliament meeting and U.S.-N.Korean summit in Vietnam scheduled to occur in the last week of February. But key decisions were postponed in the UK parliament once again to the next session on March 12 leaving Brexit progress hanging with no direction. Further, talks between U.S. & North Korea ended abruptly as US President Donald Trump deemed N.Korean Premier Kim Jong Un’s demand to remove all sanctions imposed by the U.S. immediately as an unreasonable demand. Also, U.S. Trade Representative Robert commented that despite optimistic comments from President Trump lot of work remains pending in trade talks with China and this hurt optimism surrounding trade negotiations between the two countries. While this gave yellow metal a short bullish boost, the price action ended on a dovish note as US GDP release near the end of February was unexpectedly high giving Dollar a bullish boost. The upbeat GDP data also influenced positive action in the US government bond market causing a positive spike in US T Yields supporting dollar bulls on their positive rally. This brought Gold price well near critical support levels. Further, official reports that the US is likely to keep current tariffs limited at 10% instead of 25% and no new tariffs are going to be implemented until further notice improved risk sentiment and boosted performance in the equity market as last week came to close. This caused gold to fall below $1300 handle ending the month on a dovish note. High-Risk Appetite Likely To Keep Price Action Capped Below Critical Level Moving forward this month, geopolitical issues remain the main theme and focus of investors attention. As the deadlines approach, Brexit is likely to see some serious progress unless there is a delay deadline and Sino-U.S. trade talks are likely to see a new milestone. The financial year comes to an end in March and investors are likely to book maximum profits before making any new major bets and risk on trading activity is likely to remain high in global markets and this should greatly limit activity – trading volume and fund flow in the precious metals market. Chances are the price action in the spot market for gold is likely to remain trapped inside a range of $1275 and $1300 across the month as demand for safe-haven assets, increased demand expected from India in the physical market owing to marraige season in the month ahead of expected demand from emerging markets on low price of gold is likely to sustain price action above $1275 handle per ounce. However, a dovish turn out in either Brexit or Sino-U.S. trade talk will immediately push the price above $1300 handle and depending upon further progress gold could likely go back near 2019 high’s but given recent proceedings of major global events, there is very little chance for risk-averse trading and increased safe-haven demand in the month ahead which should keep price action contained within above-mentioned price levels. Please let us know what you think in the comments below This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Commodities Daily Forecast – March 5, 2019 China Economic Data Weighs as Focus Shifts to the EUR and the Dollar DAX Index Daily Price Forecast – DAX To Continue Range Bound Price Action Stock Market Forecast- Stocks Close Lower but Most of FANG Experience a Stealth Rally Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Major Crypto Coins Bleed Red Forex Daily Outlook – March 5, 2019 || Most Top Cryptos See Minor Losses as Bitcoin Hovers Over $3,850: Sunday, March 3 — the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting minor losses on the day to press time. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is hovering just over the $3,850 mark again, according to Coin360 data. Market visualization from Coin360 Market visualization from Coin360 At press time, Bitcoin is down a fraction of a percent on the day, trading at around $3,853 , according to CoinMarketCap data. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is nearly half of a percent lower than $3,870, the price at which Bitcoin started the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The day before yesterday, blockchain development company Blockstream released a new version of its Bitcoin ( BTC ) scalability solution, c-lightning. Ethereum ( ETH ) is holding its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which by press time is over $14 billion. The second-largest altcoin, Ripple ( XRP ), has a market cap of just under $13 billion by press time. ETH is down by 0.64 percent over the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. At press time, ETH is trading around $133, after having started the day one dollar higher. On its weekly chart, Ethereum has seen its value decrease by about 7.5 percent from $143, the price at which the coin started the week. Ethereum 7-day price chart Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap As Cointelegraph reported earlier today, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has stated he was trying to solve Bitcoin’s limited functionality with the creation of Ethereum. Ripple has lost nearly one percent in the 24 hours to press time and is currently trading at around $0.312 . On its weekly chart, the coin gained almost two percent from $0.306, the price at which XRP started the week. Ripple 7-day price chart Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap On March 1, news broke that an ongoing securities lawsuit against payment startup Ripple for the sale of unregistered securities will stay in federal court, per a recent ruling. Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies, the only ones experiencing gains on the day are EOS ( EOS ), Maker ( MKR ), Monero ( XMR ), Binance Coin ( BNB ) and Stellar ( XLM ), but all of those report under one percent growth. Story continues The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies currently amounts to about $129.9 billion — which is nearly a quarter of a percent less than $140.6 billion, the value reported one week ago. Total market capitalization 7-day chart Total market capitalization 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap As Cointelegraph reported, the United States Federal Reserve is considering the inclusion of this year’s Bitcoin market collapse as one of the salient risks to be taken into account for its supervisory stress tests. Related Articles: Crypto Markets See Major Losses, While Stocks Rise as US-China Talks Expected to End Bitcoin Approaches $3,900 as Crypto Markets Stabilize, Stock Market Slightly Down Crypto Markets Lose $2 Billion After Brief Recovery Attempt, US Stock Market Is Down Bitcoin Hits $4K for the Fourth Time in 2019, Stocks Jump Amid US–China Trade Talks || Most Top Cryptos See Minor Losses as Bitcoin Hovers Over $3,850: Sunday, March 3 — the top 20cryptocurrenciesare reporting minor losses on the day to press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering just over the $3,850 mark again, according toCoin360data.
Market visualization fromCoin360
At press time, Bitcoin is down a fraction of a percent on the day, trading at around$3,853, according to CoinMarketCap data. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is nearly half of a percent lower than $3,870, the price at which Bitcoin started the week.
Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
The day before yesterday, blockchain development companyBlockstreamreleaseda new version of its Bitcoin (BTC)scalabilitysolution, c-lightning.
Ethereum (ETH) is holding its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which by press time is over $14 billion. The second-largest altcoin, Ripple (XRP), has a market cap of just under $13 billion by press time.
ETH is down by0.64 percentover the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. At press time, ETH is trading around $133, after having started the day one dollar higher. On its weekly chart, Ethereum has seen its value decrease by about 7.5 percent from $143, the price at which the coin started the week.
Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
As Cointelegraphreportedearlier today, Ethereum co-founderVitalik Buterinhas stated he was trying to solve Bitcoin’s limited functionality with the creation of Ethereum.
Ripple has lost nearly one percent in the 24 hours to press time and is currently trading at around$0.312. On its weekly chart, the coin gained almost two percent from $0.306, the price at which XRP started the week.
Ripple 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
On March 1,news brokethat an ongoing securities lawsuit against payment startupRipplefor the sale of unregistered securities will stay in federal court, per a recent ruling.
Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies, the only ones experiencing gains on the day are EOS (EOS), Maker (MKR), Monero (XMR), Binance Coin (BNB) and Stellar (XLM), but all of those report under one percent growth.
Thetotal market capitalizationof all cryptocurrencies currently amounts to about $129.9 billion — which is nearly a quarter of a percent less than $140.6 billion, the value reported one week ago.
Total market capitalization 7-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
As Cointelegraph reported, theUnited StatesFederal Reserveisconsideringthe inclusion of this year’s Bitcoin market collapse as one of the salient risks to be taken into account for its supervisory stress tests.
• Crypto Markets See Major Losses, While Stocks Rise as US-China Talks Expected to End
• Bitcoin Approaches $3,900 as Crypto Markets Stabilize, Stock Market Slightly Down
• Crypto Markets Lose $2 Billion After Brief Recovery Attempt, US Stock Market Is Down
• Bitcoin Hits $4K for the Fourth Time in 2019, Stocks Jump Amid US–China Trade Talks
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1位 #NPXS 0.00000018 BTC(0.08円)
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3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3728.57, 3601.01, 3576.03, 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-04-18]
Volume: 13256489918, RSI (14-day): 71.24, 50-day EMA: 4537.44, 200-day EMA: 4728.98
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1271.90, Gold RSI: 36.58
Oil Price: 64.00, Oil RSI: 65.79
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Binance wants crypto projects to migrate to its chain from Ethereum, and the firm’s massive trading business could help: Binance's quick rise has left other exchanges eating its dust, and now it is setting its sights on replacing one of the largest cryptocurrency networks.
Sources familiar with the situation tell The Block the Malta-based firm, led by the notorious Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, is trying to lure projects building on Ethereum to switch over to Binance's native blockchain, Binance Chain. Binance Chain is core to the firm's vision to become a decentralized platform for different cryptos to trade andwas announced in 2018. The firm, sources say, is hoping the appeal of listing on the platform will serve as an enticing incentive.
CZ has built what can only be described as a global crypto empire, facilitating the trading of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto each day. And that empire, which traces its origins to 2017, has influence that touches just about every corner of the nascent market.
This week, that influence was on display when CZ announced the firm would delist Bitcoin SV, a coin tied to Craig Wright, who in recent months has caused a stir over legal threats he has made against people who say he's not the true Satoshi Nakamoto — something he's claimed for years. Following CZ's move, a number of other firms announced they would sever ties with the controversial crypto, including wallet provider Blockchain and fellow cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
That influence trickles down to crypto projects as well. It's no surprise that a massive shop like Binance has just about every project drooling over a coveted Binance listing;a service the exchange says it does not profit from.
"Just given the size of Binance and its trading volume it is obviously a very influential exchange and we knew it would be very meaningful for PAX to be listed on Binance," a spokeswoman for Paxos, the company behind the stablecoin Pax, said in an interview with The Block. "It's like how the Impossible Meat Burger is now at Burger King — that's more meaningful than it being available at just some store."
"Being listed on Binance is especially important as it is a main liquidity center and the go-to exchange for most traders," JZZeppettini, who leads listings for crypto project Decred, told The Block.
Now it appears Binance is trying to leverage the influence it has on token teams to convince projects to migrate to Binance Chain. In one instance, an employee told a project that the firm could offer favorable terms if they made the switch; a move the firm ultimately ended up apologizing for.
"Well, let's just say that projects who move some % of their chain off of Ethereum to Binance Chain will get favorable treatment — and those that don't could be delisted if their volumes are less than $1M/day," the person said.
A spokeswoman from Binance did not respond to a message seeking comment.
To be sure, it's not unusual for exchanges in traditional markets to try to sell other aspects of the business during the listings process. Nasdaq, for instance, might try to tempt a company to utilize its investor relations software while gunning for its initial public offering.
Still, the episode points to what Binance could get away with — if some employees had their druthers. And it also hints to their long-term ambitions.
"Binance is trying to get everything onto their chain," said one crypto executive, who requested to speak anonymously.
"They've made this bet that violating the law will work because they are going to transition to being a totally decentralized chain," the person added, referring to the firm's strategy to bounce from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to avoid financial regulations. "To make that a success then they need to get everybody onto that chain. Interestingly, they've built their entire business around Ethereum. What is Binance without Ethereum?" || Binance wants crypto projects to migrate to its chain from Ethereum, and the firms massive trading business could help: Binance's quick rise has left other exchanges eating its dust, and now it is setting its sights on replacing one of the largest cryptocurrency networks. Sources familiar with the situation tell The Block the Malta-based firm, led by the notorious Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, is trying to lure projects building on Ethereum to switch over to Binance's native blockchain, Binance Chain. Binance Chain is core to the firm's vision to become a decentralized platform for different cryptos to trade and was announced in 2018 . The firm, sources say, is hoping the appeal of listing on the platform will serve as an enticing incentive. CZ has built what can only be described as a global crypto empire, facilitating the trading of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto each day. And that empire, which traces its origins to 2017, has influence that touches just about every corner of the nascent market. This week, that influence was on display when CZ announced the firm would delist Bitcoin SV, a coin tied to Craig Wright, who in recent months has caused a stir over legal threats he has made against people who say he's not the true Satoshi Nakamoto something he's claimed for years. Following CZ's move, a number of other firms announced they would sever ties with the controversial crypto, including wallet provider Blockchain and fellow cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. That influence trickles down to crypto projects as well. It's no surprise that a massive shop like Binance has just about every project drooling over a coveted Binance listing; a service the exchange says it does not profit from . "Just given the size of Binance and its trading volume it is obviously a very influential exchange and we knew it would be very meaningful for PAX to be listed on Binance," a spokeswoman for Paxos, the company behind the stablecoin Pax, said in an interview with The Block. "It's like how the Impossible Meat Burger is now at Burger King that's more meaningful than it being available at just some store." Story continues "Being listed on Binance is especially important as it is a main liquidity center and the go-to exchange for most traders," JZ Zeppettini, who leads listings for crypto project Decred, told The Block. Now it appears Binance is trying to leverage the influence it has on token teams to convince projects to migrate to Binance Chain. In one instance, an employee told a project that the firm could offer favorable terms if they made the switch; a move the firm ultimately ended up apologizing for. "Well, let's just say that projects who move some % of their chain off of Ethereum to Binance Chain will get favorable treatment and those that don't could be delisted if their volumes are less than $1M/day," the person said. A spokeswoman from Binance did not respond to a message seeking comment. To be sure, it's not unusual for exchanges in traditional markets to try to sell other aspects of the business during the listings process. Nasdaq, for instance, might try to tempt a company to utilize its investor relations software while gunning for its initial public offering. Still, the episode points to what Binance could get away with if some employees had their druthers. And it also hints to their long-term ambitions. "Binance is trying to get everything onto their chain," said one crypto executive, who requested to speak anonymously. "They've made this bet that violating the law will work because they are going to transition to being a totally decentralized chain," the person added, referring to the firm's strategy to bounce from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to avoid financial regulations. "To make that a success then they need to get everybody onto that chain. Interestingly, they've built their entire business around Ethereum. What is Binance without Ethereum?" || World’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Wants to Help Rebuild Notre Dame: ByCCN:Binance, the world’s largestbitcoin exchange, is stepping up efforts in the crypto community to help rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
The iconic 900-year-old Catholic church literally went up in flames afterbeing destroyedby a massive fire. Authorities are still investigating the suspicious cause of the raging blaze.
Binance CEOChangpeng Zhaothrew down the gauntlet to the crypto industry, urging them to help restore the historic landmark and show the world thatbitcoincan be a force for good.
“If we can push crypto to the last mile of the Cathedral building, it’s the ultimate adoption. Bring crypto to religion!”
Binance launched theRebuild Notre Damecampaign on April 17. On the fundraising page, the crypto juggernaut wrote:
“On April 15, 2019, fire broke out of the roof of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, severely damaging the edifice and destroying valuable artworks and relics.” || World’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Wants to Help Rebuild Notre Dame: Binance, the world's largest bitcoin exchange, wants to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral and is calling on the crypto community to help with donations. | Source: Reuters/AFP. Image edited by CCN. By CCN : Binance , the world’s largest bitcoin exchange , is stepping up efforts in the crypto community to help rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. The iconic 900-year-old Catholic church literally went up in flames after being destroyed by a massive fire. Authorities are still investigating the suspicious cause of the raging blaze. ‘Bring Crypto to Religion!’ Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao threw down the gauntlet to the crypto industry, urging them to help restore the historic landmark and show the world that bitcoin can be a force for good. “If we can push crypto to the last mile of the Cathedral building, it’s the ultimate adoption. Bring crypto to religion!” Reading the comments, please understand Charity is not exclusive, or obligatory. Feel free to choose the program you wish to donate to. If we can push crypto to the last mile of Cathedral building, it's the ultimate #adoption . Bring crypto to religion! https://t.co/3OrvyAEUXW — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 17, 2019 ‘We Call On Our Colleagues In the Crypto Space’ Binance launched the Rebuild Notre Dame campaign on April 17. On the fundraising page, the crypto juggernaut wrote: “On April 15, 2019, fire broke out of the roof of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, severely damaging the edifice and destroying valuable artworks and relics.” Read the full story on CCN.com . || World’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Wants to Help Rebuild Notre Dame: ByCCN:Binance, the world’s largestbitcoin exchange, is stepping up efforts in the crypto community to help rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
The iconic 900-year-old Catholic church literally went up in flames afterbeing destroyedby a massive fire. Authorities are still investigating the suspicious cause of the raging blaze.
Binance CEOChangpeng Zhaothrew down the gauntlet to the crypto industry, urging them to help restore the historic landmark and show the world thatbitcoincan be a force for good.
“If we can push crypto to the last mile of the Cathedral building, it’s the ultimate adoption. Bring crypto to religion!”
Binance launched theRebuild Notre Damecampaign on April 17. On the fundraising page, the crypto juggernaut wrote:
“On April 15, 2019, fire broke out of the roof of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, severely damaging the edifice and destroying valuable artworks and relics.” || Emerging Markets Are On A Gold Buying Spree: Emerging markets are scooping up gold , and it could be good news for gold prices and investors. The Numbers Recent data from The People’s Bank of China indicates China boosted its gold reserves to 60.62 million ounces during the month of March, up from 60.26Moz in February. Over the past four months, China has upped its gold reserves by a total of 42.9 tons. At the same time, Russia is also beefing up its gold holdings. The World Gold Council reports that Russia bought about 274 tons of gold bullion in 2018 valued at about $11 billion. In February 2019, Russia singlehandedly accounted for 1 million ounces of gold demand, roughly 6 percent of the world’s total demand. In addition, demand for gold in India is expected to get a boost from the upcoming wedding season. Gold is traditionally a popular wedding gift in India, host to roughly 20 million weddings per year with guest lists commonly in the 3,000- to 6,000-person range. Gold Demand Drivers Experts say U.S. dollar weakness is one of the key drivers of gold demand in emerging markets in recent months. In addition, downward revisions to global growth forecasts and increasingly dovish central banks is creating demand for risk-averse asset classes. “The recent revision of the global growth forecast to 3.5 per cent, from 3.7 per cent, by IMF further made investors watch out for the yellow metal and other risk investment assets,” Vinod Jayakumar of Karvy Commodities recently said . For investors in gold ETFs such as the SPDR Gold ETF (NYSE: GLD ), emerging market investments could help drive prices even higher. The price of gold is up 5.2 percent in the past six months to $1,276, but Goldman Sachs recently forecast that gold prices will hit $1,450 within the next year. Related Links: IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecast Experts: Bitcoin Will Take Down Gold, Fiat Currencies See more from Benzinga Bank Of America Initiates Coverage On Cannabis Stocks, Names Surprising Top Pick 'A Headline Negative': Intel Analysts React To Chipmaker's Exit From 5G Modems 'Significant Win': Wall Street Weighs In On Qualcomm-Apple Deal © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Emerging Markets Are On A Gold Buying Spree: Emerging markets are scooping upgold, and it could be good news for gold prices and investors.
The Numbers
Recent data from The People’s Bank of China indicates China boosted its gold reserves to 60.62 million ounces during the month of March, up from 60.26Moz in February. Over the past four months, China has upped its gold reserves by a total of 42.9 tons.
At the same time, Russia is also beefing up its gold holdings. The World Gold Council reports that Russia bought about 274 tons of gold bullion in 2018 valued at about $11 billion. In February 2019, Russia singlehandedly accounted for 1 million ounces of gold demand, roughly 6 percent of the world’s total demand.
In addition, demand for gold in India is expected to get a boost from the upcoming wedding season. Gold is traditionally a popularwedding giftin India, host to roughly 20 million weddings per year with guest lists commonly in the 3,000- to 6,000-person range.
Gold Demand Drivers
Experts say U.S. dollar weakness is one of the key drivers of gold demand in emerging markets in recent months. In addition, downward revisions to global growth forecasts and increasingly dovish central banks is creating demand for risk-averse asset classes.
“The recent revision of the global growth forecast to 3.5 per cent, from 3.7 per cent, by IMF further made investors watch out for the yellow metal and other risk investment assets,” Vinod Jayakumar of Karvy Commoditiesrecently said.
For investors in gold ETFs such as theSPDR Gold ETF(NYSE:GLD), emerging market investments could help drive prices even higher. The price of gold is up 5.2 percent in the past six months to $1,276, but Goldman Sachs recently forecast that gold prices will hit $1,450 within the next year.
Related Links:
IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecast
Experts: Bitcoin Will Take Down Gold, Fiat Currencies
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© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Kraken is delisting Bitcoin SV amid controversy, but the exchange plans to list 2 coins per month starting in May: U.S. crypto exchange Krakenannounced Tuesdayit will cease trading of a controversial bitcoin cash offshoot, Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision, following consultation with Kraken users and a supportive Twitter poll that saw more than 50,000 users vote to delist the asset.
[related id="1"]According to the firm, BSV deposits will be disabled by April 22, with users able to withdraw BSV through the end of May.
Bitcoin SV is the result of a chain split of the Bitcoin Cash network in November. The cryptocurrency has been mired in controversy due to its supporters Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, who have threatened various members of the community with lawsuits over public claims that Wright is not Satoshi Nakomoto.
"Over the last few months, the team behind Bitcoin SV have engaged in behaviour completely antithetical to everything we at Kraken and the wider crypto community stands for. It started with fraudulent claims, escalating to threats and legal action, with the BSV team suing a number of people speaking out against them," according to the post.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell admitted the exchange wasn't a "big fan of the project" when it was toying with the idea of listing it, but decided to support trading, citing customer demand. "With forks, you have people who are upset when you don't give users 'free money.'" Powell noted, however, that the coin didn't necessarily meet its listing standards.
Kraken's move follows Binance's decision yesterday to delist BSV on April 22, following warnings from CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao that he would delist the token should Wright fail to cease claiming to be Satoshi
As for Kraken, Powell said the firm has received lawsuits from the Bitcoin SV camp, which extended to its investors and clients. "We were going to put out the poll regardless of CZ's announcement, but Binance and ShapeShift's stance made our position even stronger."
"There's a business cost to these decisions, but we felt that sacrificing revenue is worth it."
Powell said his firm will continue to scrutinize other tokens, but unless public sentiment shifts heavily against a specific token he's hopeful they won't see any other delisting cases.
"In this case, it is a unique case for us, we haven't delisted any other coins because the founders, people who are promoting it, turned out to be total assholes."
Looking ahead, Powell said Kraken sees volatility and the price of Bitcoin back above $5,000 as positives in the market. He also hinted the pace of listing new coins on the exchange would pick up in the coming months.
"We want to be fairly scrutinizing of the coins we list, but we have a backlog of coins we want to list - client demand is a big piece of it. We have a few coins not widely known but [which] are technically interesting," he said.
The firm will probably list two coins a month starting in May, Powell said. || Kraken is delisting Bitcoin SV amid controversy, but the exchange plans to list 2 coins per month starting in May: U.S. crypto exchange Kraken announced Tuesday it will cease trading of a controversial bitcoin cash offshoot, Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision, following consultation with Kraken users and a supportive Twitter poll that saw more than 50,000 users vote to delist the asset. [related id="1"]According to the firm, BSV deposits will be disabled by April 22, with users able to withdraw BSV through the end of May. Bitcoin SV is the result of a chain split of the Bitcoin Cash network in November. The cryptocurrency has been mired in controversy due to its supporters Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, who have threatened various members of the community with lawsuits over public claims that Wright is not Satoshi Nakomoto. "Over the last few months, the team behind Bitcoin SV have engaged in behaviour completely antithetical to everything we at Kraken and the wider crypto community stands for. It started with fraudulent claims, escalating to threats and legal action, with the BSV team suing a number of people speaking out against them," according to the post. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell admitted the exchange wasn't a "big fan of the project" when it was toying with the idea of listing it, but decided to support trading, citing customer demand. "With forks, you have people who are upset when you don't give users 'free money.'" Powell noted, however, that the coin didn't necessarily meet its listing standards. Kraken's move follows Binance's decision yesterday to delist BSV on April 22, following warnings from CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao that he would delist the token should Wright fail to cease claiming to be Satoshi As for Kraken, Powell said the firm has received lawsuits from the Bitcoin SV camp, which extended to its investors and clients. "We were going to put out the poll regardless of CZ's announcement, but Binance and ShapeShift's stance made our position even stronger." Story continues "There's a business cost to these decisions, but we felt that sacrificing revenue is worth it." Powell said his firm will continue to scrutinize other tokens, but unless public sentiment shifts heavily against a specific token he's hopeful they won't see any other delisting cases. "In this case, it is a unique case for us, we haven't delisted any other coins because the founders, people who are promoting it, turned out to be total assholes." Looking ahead, Powell said Kraken sees volatility and the price of Bitcoin back above $5,000 as positives in the market. He also hinted the pace of listing new coins on the exchange would pick up in the coming months. "We want to be fairly scrutinizing of the coins we list, but we have a backlog of coins we want to list - client demand is a big piece of it. We have a few coins not widely known but [which] are technically interesting," he said. The firm will probably list two coins a month starting in May, Powell said. || Kraken is delisting Bitcoin SV amid controversy, but the exchange plans to list 2 coins per month starting in May: U.S. crypto exchange Krakenannounced Tuesdayit will cease trading of a controversial bitcoin cash offshoot, Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision, following consultation with Kraken users and a supportive Twitter poll that saw more than 50,000 users vote to delist the asset.
[related id="1"]According to the firm, BSV deposits will be disabled by April 22, with users able to withdraw BSV through the end of May.
Bitcoin SV is the result of a chain split of the Bitcoin Cash network in November. The cryptocurrency has been mired in controversy due to its supporters Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, who have threatened various members of the community with lawsuits over public claims that Wright is not Satoshi Nakomoto.
"Over the last few months, the team behind Bitcoin SV have engaged in behaviour completely antithetical to everything we at Kraken and the wider crypto community stands for. It started with fraudulent claims, escalating to threats and legal action, with the BSV team suing a number of people speaking out against them," according to the post.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell admitted the exchange wasn't a "big fan of the project" when it was toying with the idea of listing it, but decided to support trading, citing customer demand. "With forks, you have people who are upset when you don't give users 'free money.'" Powell noted, however, that the coin didn't necessarily meet its listing standards.
Kraken's move follows Binance's decision yesterday to delist BSV on April 22, following warnings from CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao that he would delist the token should Wright fail to cease claiming to be Satoshi
As for Kraken, Powell said the firm has received lawsuits from the Bitcoin SV camp, which extended to its investors and clients. "We were going to put out the poll regardless of CZ's announcement, but Binance and ShapeShift's stance made our position even stronger."
"There's a business cost to these decisions, but we felt that sacrificing revenue is worth it."
Powell said his firm will continue to scrutinize other tokens, but unless public sentiment shifts heavily against a specific token he's hopeful they won't see any other delisting cases.
"In this case, it is a unique case for us, we haven't delisted any other coins because the founders, people who are promoting it, turned out to be total assholes."
Looking ahead, Powell said Kraken sees volatility and the price of Bitcoin back above $5,000 as positives in the market. He also hinted the pace of listing new coins on the exchange would pick up in the coming months.
"We want to be fairly scrutinizing of the coins we list, but we have a backlog of coins we want to list - client demand is a big piece of it. We have a few coins not widely known but [which] are technically interesting," he said.
The firm will probably list two coins a month starting in May, Powell said. || Bitcoin Faithful Ignore Crypto Donation Drive to Rebuild Notre Dame: ByCCN: The crypto community has remained curiously silent in response to abitcoindonation drive that was launched to raise money for rebuilding the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
The iconic 900-year-old Catholic church wasdestroyed by a massive blazeon April 15. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
The tragedy devastated millions of French citizens, as well as the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics around the world.
Hours after the tragedy, French crypto journalist Grégory Raymond launched a bitcoin donation drive to raise money for restoration efforts. In his tweet, Raymond included a bitcoin wallet address where people can send contributions.
Raymond said it was a good opportunity to show that:
“Bitcoin can be an amazing way to send funds quickly, without borders and for a good cause.” || Bitcoin Faithful Ignore Crypto Donation Drive to Rebuild Notre Dame: ByCCN: The crypto community has remained curiously silent in response to abitcoindonation drive that was launched to raise money for rebuilding the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
The iconic 900-year-old Catholic church wasdestroyed by a massive blazeon April 15. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
The tragedy devastated millions of French citizens, as well as the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics around the world.
Hours after the tragedy, French crypto journalist Grégory Raymond launched a bitcoin donation drive to raise money for restoration efforts. In his tweet, Raymond included a bitcoin wallet address where people can send contributions.
Raymond said it was a good opportunity to show that:
“Bitcoin can be an amazing way to send funds quickly, without borders and for a good cause.” || Brexit’s Surprising Side-Effect: Stiffer Bitcoin Regulations: ByCCN: The prolonged process for withdrawing from the European Union may have resulted in great uncertainty, but the UK’s financial watchdog is sure about what it wants post-Brexit – more muscle to oversee bitcoin and the crypto industry at large.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority’sbusiness planfor 2019/2020, the regulator will urge Her Majesty’s Treasury to boost its enforcement powers in the crypto sector ahead ofBrexit. Per FCA’s chief executive, Andrew Bailey, UK’s EU withdrawal is the body’s most pressing and urgent challenge.
The financial watchdog intends to first hold public consultation first, though, before its enforcement powers can be increased:
“Following our consultation on cryptoassets we will publish a Feedback Statement and finalised Perimeter Guidance. We will also provide technical advice to the Treasury on extending the perimeter for utility and exchange tokens and on extending our financial crime provisions to certain activities related to cryptoassets.”
The FCA’sresearch agendafor 2019/2020 will also touch on the technology underpinning cryptoassets – blockchain. Per the FCA, distributed ledger technology is evolving so fast that there is a need to identify its potential benefits and risks with a view of shaping “regulatory interventions.”
Some of the potential risks identified by the FCA include anonymous transactions being used to commit financial crimes. Additionally, the FCA has expressed worries that quantum computing could impact the security of cryptocurrency networks.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Brexits Surprising Side-Effect: Stiffer Bitcoin Regulations: When Brexit finally arrives, it could have a surprising side-effect for the UK's crypto industry: stiffer regulations on bitcoin. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : The prolonged process for withdrawing from the European Union may have resulted in great uncertainty, but the UKs financial watchdog is sure about what it wants post-Brexit more muscle to oversee bitcoin and the crypto industry at large. According to the Financial Conduct Authoritys business plan for 2019/2020, the regulator will urge Her Majestys Treasury to boost its enforcement powers in the crypto sector ahead of Brexit . Per FCAs chief executive, Andrew Bailey, UKs EU withdrawal is the bodys most pressing and urgent challenge. Andrew Bailey on our Business Plan 2019/20 https://t.co/4Juptx0QcY pic.twitter.com/d5guGsyJtV FCA (@TheFCA) April 17, 2019 The financial watchdog intends to first hold public consultation first, though, before its enforcement powers can be increased: Following our consultation on cryptoassets we will publish a Feedback Statement and finalised Perimeter Guidance. We will also provide technical advice to the Treasury on extending the perimeter for utility and exchange tokens and on extending our financial crime provisions to certain activities related to cryptoassets. Is FCA Too Eager to Regulate Bitcoin? The FCAs research agenda for 2019/2020 will also touch on the technology underpinning cryptoassets blockchain. Per the FCA, distributed ledger technology is evolving so fast that there is a need to identify its potential benefits and risks with a view of shaping regulatory interventions. Some of the potential risks identified by the FCA include anonymous transactions being used to commit financial crimes. Additionally, the FCA has expressed worries that quantum computing could impact the security of cryptocurrency networks. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Brexit’s Surprising Side-Effect: Stiffer Bitcoin Regulations: ByCCN: The prolonged process for withdrawing from the European Union may have resulted in great uncertainty, but the UK’s financial watchdog is sure about what it wants post-Brexit – more muscle to oversee bitcoin and the crypto industry at large.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority’sbusiness planfor 2019/2020, the regulator will urge Her Majesty’s Treasury to boost its enforcement powers in the crypto sector ahead ofBrexit. Per FCA’s chief executive, Andrew Bailey, UK’s EU withdrawal is the body’s most pressing and urgent challenge.
The financial watchdog intends to first hold public consultation first, though, before its enforcement powers can be increased:
“Following our consultation on cryptoassets we will publish a Feedback Statement and finalised Perimeter Guidance. We will also provide technical advice to the Treasury on extending the perimeter for utility and exchange tokens and on extending our financial crime provisions to certain activities related to cryptoassets.”
The FCA’sresearch agendafor 2019/2020 will also touch on the technology underpinning cryptoassets – blockchain. Per the FCA, distributed ledger technology is evolving so fast that there is a need to identify its potential benefits and risks with a view of shaping “regulatory interventions.”
Some of the potential risks identified by the FCA include anonymous transactions being used to commit financial crimes. Additionally, the FCA has expressed worries that quantum computing could impact the security of cryptocurrency networks.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin Price Will Hit $1 Million in 2020 Because Maths, Stupid: John McAfee: ByCCN.com: John McAfee has been really bold when it comes to predicting the price of bitcoin, claiming that each unit of the cryptocurrency will beworth $1 millionby the end of 2020.
The cybersecurity expert had first said in July 2017 that one bitcoin would beworth $500,000by the end of 2020. If that didn’t happen, he promised that he’ll do something that none of us probably want to see.
But it looks like last year’s crypto bear market hasn’t injected any fear into McAfee’s soul that he might have to live up to his words. He is sticking to his million dollar prediction despite the volatility.
In one of his latest tweets, McAfee claims that it is “mathematically impossible” that one BTC will be less than $1 million “by the end of 2020.”
Bitcoin had a terrible 2018, losing close to 80% of its value as the price of one unit of the cryptocurrency fell from more than $17,500 in January to just over $3,800 in December. That massive decline followed a terrific 2017 where the price of each bitcoin shot up from less than $1,000 to around $20,000.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin Price Will Hit $1 Million in 2020 Because Maths, Stupid: John McAfee: John McAfee has doubled down on his bitcoin price prediction, a cool million per coin. | Source: Todd J. Van Emst/Opelika-Auburn News via AP By CCN.com : John McAfee has been really bold when it comes to predicting the price of bitcoin, claiming that each unit of the cryptocurrency will be worth $1 million by the end of 2020. The cybersecurity expert had first said in July 2017 that one bitcoin would be worth $500,000 by the end of 2020. If that didnt happen, he promised that hell do something that none of us probably want to see. if not, I will eat my dick on national television. John McAfee (@officialmcafee) July 17, 2017 But it looks like last years crypto bear market hasnt injected any fear into McAfees soul that he might have to live up to his words. He is sticking to his million dollar prediction despite the volatility. In one of his latest tweets, McAfee claims that it is mathematically impossible that one BTC will be less than $1 million by the end of 2020. Come on people!!! It's time to brush up your basic math skills and run some f*^#$ng numbers!!!! It is mathematically impossible for Bitcoin to be less than $1 mil by the end of 2020. Bitcoin is not an effing stock!!! You can't apply stock paradigms or formulas and expect answers! pic.twitter.com/KM6qVX204R John McAfee (@officialmcafee) April 15, 2019 Is $1 million bitcoin possible? Bitcoin had a terrible 2018, losing close to 80% of its value as the price of one unit of the cryptocurrency fell from more than $17,500 in January to just over $3,800 in December. That massive decline followed a terrific 2017 where the price of each bitcoin shot up from less than $1,000 to around $20,000. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Bitcoin Price Will Hit $1 Million in 2020 Because Maths, Stupid: John McAfee: ByCCN.com: John McAfee has been really bold when it comes to predicting the price of bitcoin, claiming that each unit of the cryptocurrency will beworth $1 millionby the end of 2020.
The cybersecurity expert had first said in July 2017 that one bitcoin would beworth $500,000by the end of 2020. If that didn’t happen, he promised that he’ll do something that none of us probably want to see.
But it looks like last year’s crypto bear market hasn’t injected any fear into McAfee’s soul that he might have to live up to his words. He is sticking to his million dollar prediction despite the volatility.
In one of his latest tweets, McAfee claims that it is “mathematically impossible” that one BTC will be less than $1 million “by the end of 2020.”
Bitcoin had a terrible 2018, losing close to 80% of its value as the price of one unit of the cryptocurrency fell from more than $17,500 in January to just over $3,800 in December. That massive decline followed a terrific 2017 where the price of each bitcoin shot up from less than $1,000 to around $20,000.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Skeptics lens: Craig Wright deserves less attention, not more: The dominating topic of discussion throughout the last week has been the drama around Bitcoin SV (BSV). Bitcoin SV is the brain-child of Craig Wright with support from Calvin Ayre , Kevin Pham and Jack Liu . Bitcoin SV forked off from Bitcoin Cash last November and expanded the block size from 32MB to a maximum size of 128MB. Just when it seemed that BSV was fading into irrelevancy by market forces alone, Calvin Ayre tweeted on March 29 that Craig Wright had begun filing lawsuits against those falsely denying he is Satoshi. Wright continues to claim he is Satoshi Nakamoto even though he has failed to provide the only evidence necessary to digitally sign a message with the key associated with the genesis block. Join Genesis now and continue reading, Skeptics lens: Craig Wright deserves less attention, not more ! View comments || Skeptic’s lens: Craig Wright deserves less attention, not more: The dominating topic of discussion throughout the last week has been the drama around Bitcoin SV (BSV).
Bitcoin SV is the brain-child of Craig Wright with support fromCalvin Ayre,Kevin PhamandJack Liu. Bitcoin SV forked off from Bitcoin Cash last November and expanded the block size from 32MB to a maximum size of 128MB.
Just when it seemed that BSV was fading into irrelevancy by market forces alone,Calvin Ayre tweetedon March 29 that Craig Wright had begun filing lawsuits “against those falsely denying he is Satoshi.” Wright continues to claim he is Satoshi Nakamoto even though he has failed to provide the only evidence necessary — to digitally sign a message with the key associated with the genesis block.
Join Genesis nowand continue reading,Skeptic’s lens: Craig Wright deserves less attention, not more!
[Social Media Buzz]
Current prices and changes in the last hour:
$BTC: $5296.84 | 0.32%
$ETH: $174.88 | 0.94%
$XRP: $0.337789 | -0.13%
$BCH: $307.92 | 0.17%
$LTC: $83.00 | 1.29%
$EOS: $5.52 | 0.51%
$BNB: $21.94 | 0.27%
$USDT: $1.01 | 0.21%
$XLM: $0.117552 | 0.49%
$ADA: $0.082396 | -0.01% || NEW FLASH ALERT: Short Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at US$307.172 - signalled at 2019-04-18T12:00:00. https://www.cryptoflash.pro/home/bitcoin-cash … || 1 BTC = 20812.02000000 BRL em 18/04/2019 ás 03:00:02. #bitcoin #bitcoinbr #bitcoinex...
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5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53, 5399.37, 5572.36, 5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 774.65, 769.73, 780.09, 780.56, 781.48, 778.09, 784.91, 790.83, 790.53, 792.71, 800.88, 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24, 963.74, 998.33, 1021.75, 1043.84, 1154.73, 1013.38, 902.20, 908.59, 911.20, 902.83, 907.68, 777.76, 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94, 886.62, 899.07, 895.03, 921.79, 924.67, 921.01, 892.69, 901.54, 917.59, 919.75, 921.59, 919.50, 920.38, 970.40, 989.02, 1011.80, 1029.91, 1042.90, 1027.34, 1038.15, 1061.35, 1063.07, 994.38, 988.67, 1004.45, 999.18, 990.64, 1004.55, 1007.48, 1027.44, 1046.21, 1054.42, 1047.87, 1079.98, 1115.30, 1117.44, 1166.72, 1173.68, 1143.84, 1165.20, 1179.97, 1179.97, 1222.50, 1251.01, 1274.99, 1255.15, 1267.12, 1272.83, 1223.54, 1150.00, 1188.49.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-03-09]
Volume: 212283008, RSI (14-day): 56.00, 50-day EMA: 1080.64, 200-day EMA: 854.50
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1202.40, Gold RSI: 37.01
Oil Price: 49.28, Oil RSI: 29.91
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc. "They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed." If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money. The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF. "We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible." So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday (BTC=BTSP). On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved. Story continues WHAT ARE THE ODDS? A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month. Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC.PK) backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges. Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value. The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it. GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent. But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios. "This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc. "They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed." If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money. The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF. "We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible." So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday (BTC=BTSP). On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved. Story continues WHAT ARE THE ODDS? A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month. Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC.PK) backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges. Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value. The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it. GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent. But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios. "This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin.
From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund.
Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange.
"We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc.
"They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed."
If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money.
The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF.
"We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible."
So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday (BTC=BTSP). On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200.
Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month.
Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC.PK) backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges.
Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value.
The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it.
GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent.
But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios.
"This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea."
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin.
From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc.
"They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed."
If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money.
The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF.
"We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible."
So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday <BTC=BTSP>. On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200.
Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month.
Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust <GBTC.PK> backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges.
Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value.
The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it.
GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent.
But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios.
"This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea."
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc. "They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed." If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money. The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF. "We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible." So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday (BTC=BTSP). On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved. Story continues WHAT ARE THE ODDS? A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month. Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC.PK) backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges. Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value. The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it. GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent. But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios. "This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc. "They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed." If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money. The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF. "We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible." So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday <BTC=BTSP>. On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved. Story continues WHAT ARE THE ODDS? A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month. Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust <GBTC.PK> backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges. Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value. The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it. GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent. But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios. "This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Giuliani talks security, Trump at cybersecurity conference: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani brought a marker to a cybersecurity conference Tuesday. The occasional advisor to President Trump had a few things to say to attendees of theV4 Cybersecurity Conference, and he needed a visual aid to get those points across.
Giuliani was a late addition to the agenda of this half-day gathering put on by theVisegrád Group, which represents the shared interests of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. He did not get into the same level of technical detail as other V4 speakers, but his half-hour talk did yield some insights into his cybersecurity priorities and those of the president whopassed on appointing him as Secretary of State.
Giuliani, now chair of the cybersecurity, privacy and crisis-management practice at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, led off his talk at the Washington offices of Google (GOOG) with a cybersecurity confession most of us could make: “We spent too little time talking about it in the past.”
He cited CompStat, the crime-tracking system the New York Police Departmentlaunched in 1995to map offenses precinct by precinct.
“It wasn’t until 1997 or 1998 that I thought about defending it,” Giuliani said. But the city’s effort to prevent “Y2K” calamities caused by code assuming all years start with “19” led to a new awareness of its computing weaknesses.
“I found out how undefended we were,” he said. “My wonderful CompStat program, which I’m in love with, any criminal could have hacked in.”
But just as companies and governments have begun taking cybersecurity seriously, attackers have been working harder to thwart their efforts. Giuliani cited today’s epidemic of ransomware attacks, in which malware encrypts data and demands the victim pay a ransom in Bitcoin to regain access to it, as “maybe the most dangerous of all.”
He noted thatmany hospitals have been hit with ransomwareand defended their practice of keeping “quite quiet” about it. Security experts do not agree, saying that silence about an attack onlyleaves other potential victims unaware of weaknesses they should fix.
That’s when Giuliani turned to the board he’d brought to the stage, and things became complicated.
First he sketched out a pyramid, representing the hierarchy of a company or government office from C-suite executives down. Then he drew a circle around that, saying this organization “needs a company that surrounds it” to defend its computers.
That company can’t just maintain a firewall but needs to study attack techniques and attackers. “You do profiling, based on who’s coming after you,” Giuliani said.
This organization will next need a second security firm to monitor activity from the inside. “The company on the inside has to be able to be sure that they’re not missing something.”
That, however, isn’t enough either. “I believe you need a third company, which is an attack and penetration company. They are attacking you all the time, as if they are the bad guys.”
Security pros would generally agree with that — hacking-resistant organizations stay that way byhaving “red teams” try to defeat their own defenses.
We weren’t done yet, though. Giuliani said this organization will also need “an investigatory company” that can trace an attack back to its authors, whether they’re in China or, as Trump once famously said,somebody’s basement.
This fourth security firm should also monitor what experts call the“dark Web”— the vast expanse of servers unreachable through normal web browsers and apps, though Giuliani kept calling it “the black Web.”
Giuliani finally endorsed putting a fifth company to work defending individual employees with sensitive data. He cited his own circumstances, saying “you don’t have to hack me.” Instead, hacking his assistants would yield the former mayor’s passwords, contacts and schedule.
This cybersecurity-coaching part of the talk included a useful caveat: “In each one of these areas there are completely phony companies who don’t know what they’re doing.” This is true.
It is not so apparent whether this full-employment policy for cybersecurity types will make an organization more secure or result in a lot of managerial overhead. Giuliani himself noted that many companies get by with just the first three companies on his list.
Giuliani, however, noted that he doesn’t keep his meetings with President Trump on any list. He didn’t get into much other detail about his own security practices, either. For people who have struggled to get a sense ofTrump’s tech-policy goals, the most useful parts of Giuliani’s talk were his characterizations of the president’s cybersecurity priorities.
The former mayor said Trump has a holistic view of security, in that a vulnerable private sector will wind up infecting the government and vice versa: “You have to solve this problem for the whole country.”
But while there’s “no Republican or Democratic solution to this,” Trump does expect that the best answers won’t come from the public sector. “He has a prejudice that this is going to be better solved in the private sector than the government.”
More from Rob:
• What you should and shouldn’t worry about in Android security
• 3 ‘unlocked’ phones that might make your carrier unhappy
• The FCC just gave you a reason to hold off on buying a 4K TV
• Broadband companies can’t build out networks, and it’s hurting consumers
• Wireless carriers are fighting for your cash, and that’s good news
• How Verizon’s new ‘unlimited’ plan compares to the competition
• Study finds most people are scarred of being hacked, but don’t do much about it
EmailRobat [email protected]; follow him on Twitter at@robpegoraro. || Giuliani talks security, Trump at cybersecurity conference: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 10, 2013. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/File) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani brought a marker to a cybersecurity conference Tuesday. The occasional advisor to President Trump had a few things to say to attendees of the V4 Cybersecurity Conference , and he needed a visual aid to get those points across. Giuliani was a late addition to the agenda of this half-day gathering put on by the Visegrád Group , which represents the shared interests of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. He did not get into the same level of technical detail as other V4 speakers, but his half-hour talk did yield some insights into his cybersecurity priorities and those of the president who passed on appointing him as Secretary of State . We didn’t see this coming Giuliani, now chair of the cybersecurity, privacy and crisis-management practice at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, led off his talk at the Washington offices of Google ( GOOG ) with a cybersecurity confession most of us could make: “We spent too little time talking about it in the past.” He cited CompStat, the crime-tracking system the New York Police Department launched in 1995 to map offenses precinct by precinct. “It wasn’t until 1997 or 1998 that I thought about defending it,” Giuliani said. But the city’s effort to prevent “Y2K” calamities caused by code assuming all years start with “19” led to a new awareness of its computing weaknesses. “I found out how undefended we were,” he said. “My wonderful CompStat program, which I’m in love with, any criminal could have hacked in.” But just as companies and governments have begun taking cybersecurity seriously, attackers have been working harder to thwart their efforts. Giuliani cited today’s epidemic of ransomware attacks, in which malware encrypts data and demands the victim pay a ransom in Bitcoin to regain access to it, as “maybe the most dangerous of all.” He noted that many hospitals have been hit with ransomware and defended their practice of keeping “quite quiet” about it. Security experts do not agree, saying that silence about an attack only leaves other potential victims unaware of weaknesses they should fix . Story continues The five kinds of security companies you need That’s when Giuliani turned to the board he’d brought to the stage, and things became complicated. First he sketched out a pyramid, representing the hierarchy of a company or government office from C-suite executives down. Then he drew a circle around that, saying this organization “needs a company that surrounds it” to defend its computers. That company can’t just maintain a firewall but needs to study attack techniques and attackers. “You do profiling, based on who’s coming after you,” Giuliani said. Giuliani sketched out what he believes a company needs to stay safe from cyberattacks. This organization will next need a second security firm to monitor activity from the inside. “The company on the inside has to be able to be sure that they’re not missing something.” That, however, isn’t enough either. “I believe you need a third company, which is an attack and penetration company. They are attacking you all the time, as if they are the bad guys.” Security pros would generally agree with that — hacking-resistant organizations stay that way by having “red teams” try to defeat their own defenses . We weren’t done yet, though. Giuliani said this organization will also need “an investigatory company” that can trace an attack back to its authors, whether they’re in China or, as Trump once famously said, somebody’s basement . This fourth security firm should also monitor what experts call the “dark Web” — the vast expanse of servers unreachable through normal web browsers and apps, though Giuliani kept calling it “the black Web.” Giuliani finally endorsed putting a fifth company to work defending individual employees with sensitive data. He cited his own circumstances, saying “you don’t have to hack me.” Instead, hacking his assistants would yield the former mayor’s passwords, contacts and schedule. This cybersecurity-coaching part of the talk included a useful caveat: “In each one of these areas there are completely phony companies who don’t know what they’re doing.” This is true. It is not so apparent whether this full-employment policy for cybersecurity types will make an organization more secure or result in a lot of managerial overhead. Giuliani himself noted that many companies get by with just the first three companies on his list. What Trump thinks Giuliani, however, noted that he doesn’t keep his meetings with President Trump on any list. He didn’t get into much other detail about his own security practices, either. For people who have struggled to get a sense of Trump’s tech-policy goals , the most useful parts of Giuliani’s talk were his characterizations of the president’s cybersecurity priorities. The former mayor said Trump has a holistic view of security, in that a vulnerable private sector will wind up infecting the government and vice versa: “You have to solve this problem for the whole country.” But while there’s “no Republican or Democratic solution to this,” Trump does expect that the best answers won’t come from the public sector. “He has a prejudice that this is going to be better solved in the private sector than the government.” More from Rob: What you should and shouldn’t worry about in Android security 3 ‘unlocked’ phones that might make your carrier unhappy The FCC just gave you a reason to hold off on buying a 4K TV Broadband companies can’t build out networks, and it’s hurting consumers Wireless carriers are fighting for your cash, and that’s good news How Verizon’s new ‘unlimited’ plan compares to the competition Study finds most people are scarred of being hacked, but don’t do much about it Email Rob at [email protected]; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro . || What Snap’s Pop and Drop IPO Means For ETFs: When Snap, parent company of the Snapchat app, went public last week, it was the hottest initial public offering in more than two years. Hoping to buy in to the latest social media trend, investors bought up Snap's stock hand over fist, propelling shares higher by 44% in their trading debut. At its peak, Snap was valued at more than $34 billion ($29.44/share) and was up more than 70% from its IPO price. The flurry of trading in Snap shares was from investors directly buying into the stock. Most ETFs don't own Snap―at least not yet―and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Pop And Drop After peaking last Friday, shares of the company lost nearly a third of their value to briefly trade below $21. That's the lowest price for the stock since it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, though still above the IPO price of $17 (large institutional investors that are clients of the underwriting banks are typically the only ones with access to shares at the IPO price). If Wall Street analysts are right, the post-IPO swoon in Snap shares may not be over. According to CNBC, not a single analyst has a "buy" rating on the stock, while six have "sell" ratings on it amid concerns about valuations and slowing user growth. On the other hand, the company's app boasts a massive 158 million daily active users, and grew revenue sevenfold from 2015 to 2016. In essence, bulls hope that Snap becomes the next big social media powerhouse like Facebook, while bears pan it was the next Twitter, a hyped-up company that ends up disappointing investors. No Guarantee Of Place In S&P 500 Given these mixed signals for Snap’s stock, perhaps it's fortunate that most ETFs won't buy in to the company until the dust settles. It will be at least six to 12 months before the committee for the S&P 500 considers including it for inclusion in the large-cap index. That's just the minimum amount of time. It took even longer for other social media heavyweights to join the index. For Google and Facebook, it was 19 months before they were added to the S&P 500. Meanwhile, Twitter has never been included in the S&P 500 despite being larger than many of the index's other components, highlighting the fact that a big market value doesn't guarantee a spot in the venerable index. Story continues That means it will be awhile―if ever―before investors see Snap as a holding for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) , the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) and many other funds tied to the S&P 500. Voting Rights Concerns Adding another roadblock to Snap's journey into ETFs is resistance on the part of some investors to the company's voting structure. None of the Snap shares offered on the market last week have voting rights―an unprecedented situation for an IPO―which leaves firm control of the company in the hands of its two founders. Balking at what it sees as an unfair situation, the Council of Institutional Investors has urged S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI to exclude Snap from their indices, according to a Reuters report. Both index providers are reviewing the situation, but a decision is not expected for at least a few months. If S&P and MSCI don't include Snap in their indexes, that means the plethora of ETFs that track those indices won't include it either. Prominent Place In Some ETF With all that said, regardless of what S&P and MSCI decide, a spot for Snap is all but guaranteed in at least some ETFs. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI) is a fund that holds all U.S. small cap, midcap and large-cap stocks. It tracks a CRSP index that reconstitutes quarterly. That means Snap could be a VTI holding by June, according to current index rules for IPOs. Of course, whether Snap ends up in an investor's broad stock market ETF is relatively inconsequential. Funds such as VTI are highly diversified, and one company—no matter how big or exciting it is—won't noticeable impact returns. In contrast, for some niche ETFs, Snap has the potential to significantly impact returns. Take the Global X Social Media ETF (SOCL) , with $84 million in assets. It tracks up to 50 social media companies from around the world, including Facebook, Tencent, Twitter, Yandex and NetEase. YTD Return For SOCL As one of the largest social media companies today, Snap has a prominent place in SOCL's portfolio. As of Wednesday, the company accounted for 4.4% of the fund, making it the 12th-largest holding. Snap Included In IPO ETF Another ETF where Snap will likely feature prominently is the $682 million First Trust U.S. Equity Opportunities ETF (FPX) . FPX buys stocks of companies that recently went public, hoping to capitalize on the rapid growth that new public companies often see. FPX holds a basket of the 100 largest IPOs, with an aim to keep them in its portfolio for their first 1,000 trading days, or about four years. Current top holdings include Kraft Heinz, AbbVie, Shire, PayPal and Facebook. Snap is already a holding for FPX, representing a tiny 0.28% of the fund's portfolio, according to the issuer website. That figure is likely to increase substantially at the next quarterly rebalancing later this month. A smaller rival IPO product, the $14 million Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) , doesn't include Snap as a component yet, but it's expected to become one at the quarterly rebalancing later in March. The ETF keeps its holdings for two years. Top components currently include First Data, TransUnion, Shopify, Univar and Blue Buffalo. YTD Returns For FPX & IPO Contact Sumit Roy at [email protected] Recommended Stories Why Small Cap ETFs Are Underperforming Fed Raises Rates, Maintains ‘Gradual’ Pace SEC Rejects Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Swedroe: Political Biases Can Impact Your Investing Big Bitcoin ETF Decision Coming Today, Or Maybe Not Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || What Snap’s Pop and Drop IPO Means For ETFs: When Snap, parent company of the Snapchat app, went public last week, it was the hottest initial public offering in more than two years.
Hoping to buy in to the latest social media trend, investors bought up Snap's stock hand over fist, propelling shares higher by 44% in their trading debut. At its peak, Snap was valued at more than $34 billion ($29.44/share) and was up more than 70% from its IPO price.
The flurry of trading in Snap shares was from investors directly buying into the stock. Most ETFs don't own Snap―at least not yet―and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Pop And Drop
After peaking last Friday, shares of the company lost nearly a third of their value to briefly trade below $21. That's the lowest price for the stock since it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, though still above the IPO price of $17 (large institutional investors that are clients of the underwriting banks are typically the only ones with access to shares at the IPO price).
If Wall Street analysts are right, the post-IPO swoon in Snap shares may not be over. According to CNBC, not a single analyst has a "buy" rating on the stock, while six have "sell" ratings on it amid concerns about valuations and slowing user growth.
On the other hand, the company's app boasts a massive 158 million daily active users, and grew revenue sevenfold from 2015 to 2016.
In essence, bulls hope that Snap becomes the next big social media powerhouse like Facebook, while bears pan it was the next Twitter, a hyped-up company that ends up disappointing investors.
No Guarantee Of Place In S&P 500
Given these mixed signals for Snap’s stock, perhaps it's fortunate that most ETFs won't buy in to the company until the dust settles. It will be at least six to 12 months before the committee for the S&P 500 considers including it for inclusion in the large-cap index.
That's just the minimum amount of time. It took even longer for other social media heavyweights to join the index. For Google and Facebook, it was 19 months before they were added to the S&P 500. Meanwhile, Twitter has never been included in the S&P 500 despite being larger than many of the index's other components, highlighting the fact that a big market value doesn't guarantee a spot in the venerable index.
That means it will be awhile―if ever―before investors see Snap as a holding for theSPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), theTechnology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK)and many other funds tied to the S&P 500.
Voting Rights Concerns
Adding another roadblock to Snap's journey into ETFs is resistance on the part of some investors to the company's voting structure. None of the Snap shares offered on the market last week have voting rights―an unprecedented situation for an IPO―which leaves firm control of the company in the hands of its two founders.
Balking at what it sees as an unfair situation, the Council of Institutional Investors has urged S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI to exclude Snap from their indices, according to a Reuters report. Both index providers are reviewing the situation, but a decision is not expected for at least a few months.
If S&P and MSCI don't include Snap in their indexes, that means the plethora of ETFs that track those indices won't include it either.
Prominent Place In Some ETF
With all that said, regardless of what S&P and MSCI decide, a spot for Snap is all but guaranteed in at least some ETFs. TheVanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI)is a fund that holds all U.S. small cap, midcap and large-cap stocks. It tracks a CRSP index that reconstitutes quarterly. That means Snap could be a VTI holding by June, according to current index rules for IPOs.
Of course, whether Snap ends up in an investor's broad stock market ETF is relatively inconsequential. Funds such as VTI are highly diversified, and one company—no matter how big or exciting it is—won't noticeable impact returns.
In contrast, for some niche ETFs, Snap has the potential to significantly impact returns. Take theGlobal X Social Media ETF (SOCL), with $84 million in assets. It tracks up to 50 social media companies from around the world, including Facebook, Tencent, Twitter, Yandex and NetEase.
YTD Return For SOCL
As one of the largest social media companies today, Snap has a prominent place in SOCL's portfolio. As of Wednesday, the company accounted for 4.4% of the fund, making it the 12th-largest holding.
Snap Included In IPO ETF
Another ETF where Snap will likely feature prominently is the $682 millionFirst Trust U.S. Equity Opportunities ETF (FPX). FPX buys stocks of companies that recently went public, hoping to capitalize on the rapid growth that new public companies often see.
FPX holds a basket of the 100 largest IPOs, with an aim to keep them in its portfolio for their first 1,000 trading days, or about four years. Current top holdings include Kraft Heinz, AbbVie, Shire, PayPal and Facebook.
Snap is already a holding for FPX, representing a tiny 0.28% of the fund's portfolio, according to the issuer website. That figure is likely to increase substantially at the next quarterly rebalancing later this month.
A smaller rival IPO product, the $14 millionRenaissance IPO ETF (IPO), doesn't include Snap as a component yet, but it's expected to become one at the quarterly rebalancing later in March. The ETF keeps its holdings for two years. Top components currently include First Data, TransUnion, Shopify, Univar and Blue Buffalo.
YTD Returns For FPX & IPO
Contact Sumit Roy [email protected]
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Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || 'The needle hasn't moved materially': What you need to know on Wall Street right now: Girl wall street bull.JPG (State Street's installation near the Wall Street bull in lower Manhattan.Rachael Levy) Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. State Street Global Advisors, a nearly $2.5 trillion investor, just installed a bronze statue of a defiant girl in front of Wall Street's iconic charging bull as part of its new campaign to pressure companies to add more women to their boards. "There has been a lot of discussion on this topic, but the needle hasn't moved materially," Lori Heinel, the firm's deputy global chief investment officer, told Business Insider after the statue installment, a day ahead of International Women's Day. In macroeconomic news, President Trump might've just gotten the ammo he needs to name China a "currency manipulator," as he's been promising to do. In deals, HP Enterprise is buying the flash-storage company Nimble Storage for $12.50 a share, or about $1 billion. On Wall Street, shares of Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. tumbled to new lows Tuesday , declining for a second-straight day. Healthcare stocks were also down Tuesday after House Republicans rolled out their new healthcare plan to replace Obamacare on Monday evening. More on the healthcare bill here: The House GOP released their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, but they didn't say how they'll pay for it 'Obamacare 2.0': Conservatives are already revolting against the House GOP's Obamacare plan The House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would effectively defund Planned Parenthood 4 GOP senators threw a wrench in the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare before it was even released TRUMP: 'Phase 2 & 3' of 'wonderful' healthcare overhaul will come soon Top Trump health official puts the administration all in on the House GOP Obamacare plan The Republican plan on Obamacare will likely lead to many Americans losing health insurance Here are the top Wall Street headlines from the past 24 hours. Stocks are rolling over after a tremendous rally and that's the best thing any bullish investor can wish for right now — The post-election surge in US stocks has lost its steam in March. A big drop might be the best thing that can happen next. Story continues Trump tweets that he's working on a 'new system where there will be competition in the drug industry' — President Donald Trump has big plans for the way we price our drugs. Bitcoin plunges sharply and suddenly — Bitcoin plunged by more than $100 in a matter of minutes on Tuesday morning. Gallup's measure of US economic confidence jumps to a record high — Americans' economic optimism surged last week. Trump may be about to give US automakers their first big win — The US auto industry is happy with Donald Trump. Russia's inflation plunges to its lowest level in 5 years — It was the lowest rate since June 2012. After interviewing 50 of Wall Street's best investors, Tony Robbins determined 3 investing steps every 20-something must take — Tony Robbins, the performance coach best known for his high-energy seminars, has over the past few years dedicated himself to spreading personal-finance literacy. More From Business Insider What you need to know on Wall Street right now What you need to know on Wall Street right now What you need to know on Wall Street right now || 'The needle hasn't moved materially': What you need to know on Wall Street right now: (State Street's installation near the Wall Street bull in lower Manhattan.Rachael Levy)
Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.
State Street Global Advisors, a nearly $2.5 trillion investor, justinstalled a bronze statue of a defiant girl in front of Wall Street's iconic charging bullas part of its new campaign to pressure companies to add more women to their boards.
"There has been a lot of discussion on this topic, but the needle hasn't moved materially," Lori Heinel, the firm's deputy global chief investment officer, told Business Insider after the statue installment, a day ahead of International Women's Day.
In macroeconomic news, President Trumpmight've just gotten the ammo he needs to name China a "currency manipulator,"as he's been promising to do.
In deals,HP Enterprise is buying the flash-storage company Nimble Storagefor $12.50 a share, or about $1 billion.
On Wall Street,shares of Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. tumbled to new lows Tuesday, declining for a second-straight day.
Healthcare stocks were also down Tuesdayafter HouseRepublicans rolled out their new healthcare plan to replace Obamacareon Monday evening.
More on the healthcare bill here:
• The House GOP released their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, but they didn't say how they'll pay for it
• 'Obamacare 2.0': Conservatives are already revolting against the House GOP's Obamacare plan
• The House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would effectively defund Planned Parenthood
• 4 GOP senators threw a wrench in the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare before it was even released
• TRUMP: 'Phase 2 & 3' of 'wonderful' healthcare overhaul will come soon
• Top Trump health official puts the administration all in on the House GOP Obamacare plan
• The Republican plan on Obamacare will likely lead to many Americans losing health insurance
Here are the top Wall Street headlines from the past 24 hours.
Stocks are rolling over after a tremendous rally and that's the best thing any bullish investor can wish for right now— The post-election surge in US stocks has lost its steam in March. A big drop might be the best thing that can happen next.
Trump tweets that he's working on a 'new system where there will be competition in the drug industry'—President Donald Trump has big plans for the way we price our drugs.
Bitcoin plunges sharply and suddenly— Bitcoin plunged by more than $100 in a matter of minutes on Tuesday morning.
Gallup's measure of US economic confidence jumps to a record high—Americans' economic optimism surged last week.
Trump may be about to give US automakers their first big win—The US auto industry is happy with Donald Trump.
Russia's inflation plunges to its lowest level in 5 years— Itwas the lowest rate since June 2012.
After interviewing 50 of Wall Street's best investors, Tony Robbins determined 3 investing steps every 20-something must take—Tony Robbins, the performance coach best known for his high-energy seminars, has over the past few years dedicated himself to spreading personal-finance literacy.
More From Business Insider
• What you need to know on Wall Street right now
• What you need to know on Wall Street right now
• What you need to know on Wall Street right now || Bitcoin plunges sharply and suddenly: (A bitcoin sign seen in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch)
Bitcoinplunged by more than $100 in a matter of minutes on Tuesday morning. The cryptocurrency was down about 1.5% at $1,260 a coin just after 6 a.m. ET before tumbling below $1,160 within 30 minutes. As of 1:22 p.m. ET it was down 2.1%, or $27, near $1,249 a coin.
While no headlines can be directly tied to the plunge, about two hours earlier a Bloomberg headline cited a People's Bank of China official as suggesting the recent bitcoin regulation wasn't temporary.
The PBOC recently announced it was cracking down on bitcoin trading, and China's largest bitcoin exchanges have since introduced aflat 0.2% fee on each transactionand announced ablockage of withdrawals.
Tuesday's sell-off could also be tied to nervousness over a coming Securities and Exchange Commission ruling. The SEC is expected to issue a ruling on whether it will approve at least one of thethree proposed bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fundsby a Saturday deadline.
The price of bitcoin has rallied 27% in 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016. Bitcoin has been thetop-performing currencyin each of the past two years.
(Investing.com)
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is extending its lead over gold
• Bitcoin climbs above gold for the first time
• Bitcoin climbs to a fresh record high || Bitcoin plunges sharply and suddenly: (A bitcoin sign seen in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch)
Bitcoinplunged by more than $100 in a matter of minutes on Tuesday morning. The cryptocurrency was down about 1.5% at $1,260 a coin just after 6 a.m. ET before tumbling below $1,160 within 30 minutes. As of 1:22 p.m. ET it was down 2.1%, or $27, near $1,249 a coin.
While no headlines can be directly tied to the plunge, about two hours earlier a Bloomberg headline cited a People's Bank of China official as suggesting the recent bitcoin regulation wasn't temporary.
The PBOC recently announced it was cracking down on bitcoin trading, and China's largest bitcoin exchanges have since introduced aflat 0.2% fee on each transactionand announced ablockage of withdrawals.
Tuesday's sell-off could also be tied to nervousness over a coming Securities and Exchange Commission ruling. The SEC is expected to issue a ruling on whether it will approve at least one of thethree proposed bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fundsby a Saturday deadline.
The price of bitcoin has rallied 27% in 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016. Bitcoin has been thetop-performing currencyin each of the past two years.
(Investing.com)
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin is extending its lead over gold
• Bitcoin climbs above gold for the first time
• Bitcoin climbs to a fresh record high || Bitcoin plunges sharply and suddenly: Bitcoin (A bitcoin sign seen in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch) Bitcoin plunged by more than $100 in a matter of minutes on Tuesday morning. The cryptocurrency was down about 1.5% at $1,260 a coin just after 6 a.m. ET before tumbling below $1,160 within 30 minutes. As of 1:22 p.m. ET it was down 2.1%, or $27, near $1,249 a coin. While no headlines can be directly tied to the plunge, about two hours earlier a Bloomberg headline cited a People's Bank of China official as suggesting the recent bitcoin regulation wasn't temporary. The PBOC recently announced it was cracking down on bitcoin trading, and China's largest bitcoin exchanges have since introduced a flat 0.2% fee on each transaction and announced a blockage of withdrawals . Tuesday's sell-off could also be tied to nervousness over a coming Securities and Exchange Commission ruling. The SEC is expected to issue a ruling on whether it will approve at least one of the three proposed bitcoin-focused exchange-traded funds by a Saturday deadline. The price of bitcoin has rallied 27% in 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016. Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency in each of the past two years. Bitcoin (Investing.com) More From Business Insider Bitcoin is extending its lead over gold Bitcoin climbs above gold for the first time Bitcoin climbs to a fresh record high || 2 Smart Beta ETFs Killing It In Emerging Markets: Smart-beta ETFs don’t always deliver outperformance. Sometimes, however, they do. And spectacularly, too.
In the emerging market segment, two fundamental strategies—funds that select and weight securities based on fundamentals—have delivered roughly 70% more returns than plain-vanilla, popular funds in this segment in the past year.
ThePowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio (PXH)and theSchwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF (FNDE)are each up more than 33% in 12 months. That’s about 14 percentage points more—or roughly 70% more—in returns than the three leading emerging market cap-weighted ETFs in the same period:
1. iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG)is up 19%
2. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)is up 20%
3. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM)is up 19%
The chart below shows that performance difference:
Chart courtesy ofStockcharts.com
In terms of an asset base, PXH and FNDE are much smaller than the vanilla giants, which together command more than $100 billion in assets. That often means these funds are less liquid relative to the big three.
In all but one case (EEM), these smart-beta funds are also more expensive, with higher expense ratios and often wider trading spreads. Liquidity and costs are important factors for every investor, but particularly for smaller retail investors dealing with smaller trades.
[{"Ticker": "PXH", "Fund": "PowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio", "AUM": "$811M", "Exp Ratio": "0.49%"}, {"Ticker": "FNDE", "Fund": "Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF", "AUM": "$1B", "Exp Ratio": "0.40%"}, {"Ticker": "IEMG", "Fund": "iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF", "AUM": "$24B", "Exp Ratio": "0.14%"}, {"Ticker": "VWO", "Fund": "Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF", "AUM": "$49B", "Exp Ratio": "0.14%"}, {"Ticker": "EEM", "Fund": "iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF", "AUM": "$28B", "Exp Ratio": "0.72%"}]
Still, these smart-beta funds have delivered a stellar ride in the past year.
Fundamental’s Different Tilts
PXH and FNDE both hone in on various fundamental metrics to choose and weight securities in the portfolio. In other words, these funds look at companies in terms of relative size rather than market capitalization.
PXH picks stocks based on cash flow, dividends, sales and book value—a classic RAFI fundamental approach. FNDE, too, looks at sales, cash flow and dividends/buybacks in its selection and weighting criteria.
This fundamental way of looking at emerging markets, in the end, means two key things: portfolios tend to carry a value tilt, and market price plays no role in the weighting of any given stock. By comparison, market-cap-weighted approaches are all about share price and number of shares outstanding, typically overweighting overpriced stocks and concentrating on hot sectors.
Sector Tilts Differ
The difference in approaches also translates into portfolios that diverge in sector exposures and country allocations.
For example, these five ETFs all show heavy allocation to financials, but these allocations range from 20% to 32% depending on the ETF.
The disparity in energy is even more striking. Both fundamental ETFs have about 25% of their portfolios tied to energy, while in the market-cap strategies, energy represents only about 9%. Technology, too, ranges from 8% in PXH to 25% in EEM.
Country Allocations Very Different
From a country perspective, Brazil leads PXH’s and FNDE’s portfolios, with a 30% and a 19% weighting, respectively. But VWO only allocates 9% to Brazil, and IEMG has Brazil at 7.5%. If you consider that Brazil has been one of the best-performing emerging markets in the past year, it’s easy to see why that performance would have been most felt in the smart-beta funds.
The list goes on, and you can see a detailed breakdown of each fund’s sector and country allocations in their respective ETF.com fund pages (just add the ticker at the end of the URL address, such aswww.etf.com/PXH).
Smart Beta Not Always Smarter
The important thing to remember here is that when it comes tosmart-beta ETFs, these funds don’t set out to outperform market-cap-weighted approaches. What they do set out to do is offer investors exposure that’s different from the market, slicing and dicing the equity universe in various ways in an effort to manage some of the inherent biases in market capitalization.
In the past 12 months, these two fundamental strategies have left the market-cap giants in the dust. But not that long ago, in 2015 for instance, both PXH’s and FNDE’s value tilt and sector/country differences underperformed IEMG, VWO and EEM.
That’s a reminder that smart-beta ETFs aren’t any smarter than market-cap weighting. They are merely alternatives to market cap that sometimes translate into outsized gains, and sometimes into outsized losses.
Contact Cinthia Murphy [email protected]
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Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || 2 Smart Beta ETFs Killing It In Emerging Markets: Smart-beta ETFs don’t always deliver outperformance. Sometimes, however, they do. And spectacularly, too. In the emerging market segment, two fundamental strategies—funds that select and weight securities based on fundamentals—have delivered roughly 70% more returns than plain-vanilla, popular funds in this segment in the past year. The PowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio (PXH) and the Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF (FNDE) are each up more than 33% in 12 months. That’s about 14 percentage points more—or roughly 70% more—in returns than the three leading emerging market cap-weighted ETFs in the same period: iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) is up 19% Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) is up 20% iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is up 19% The chart below shows that performance difference: Chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com In terms of an asset base, PXH and FNDE are much smaller than the vanilla giants, which together command more than $100 billion in assets. That often means these funds are less liquid relative to the big three. In all but one case (EEM), these smart-beta funds are also more expensive, with higher expense ratios and often wider trading spreads. Liquidity and costs are important factors for every investor, but particularly for smaller retail investors dealing with smaller trades. Ticker Fund AUM Exp Ratio PXH PowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio $811M 0.49% FNDE Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF $1B 0.40% IEMG iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF $24B 0.14% VWO Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF $49B 0.14% EEM iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF $28B 0.72% Still, these smart-beta funds have delivered a stellar ride in the past year. Fundamental’s Different Tilts PXH and FNDE both hone in on various fundamental metrics to choose and weight securities in the portfolio. In other words, these funds look at companies in terms of relative size rather than market capitalization. Story continues PXH picks stocks based on cash flow, dividends, sales and book value—a classic RAFI fundamental approach. FNDE, too, looks at sales, cash flow and dividends/buybacks in its selection and weighting criteria. This fundamental way of looking at emerging markets, in the end, means two key things: portfolios tend to carry a value tilt, and market price plays no role in the weighting of any given stock. By comparison, market-cap-weighted approaches are all about share price and number of shares outstanding, typically overweighting overpriced stocks and concentrating on hot sectors. Sector Tilts Differ The difference in approaches also translates into portfolios that diverge in sector exposures and country allocations. For example, these five ETFs all show heavy allocation to financials, but these allocations range from 20% to 32% depending on the ETF. The disparity in energy is even more striking. Both fundamental ETFs have about 25% of their portfolios tied to energy, while in the market-cap strategies, energy represents only about 9%. Technology, too, ranges from 8% in PXH to 25% in EEM. Country Allocations Very Different From a country perspective, Brazil leads PXH’s and FNDE’s portfolios, with a 30% and a 19% weighting, respectively. But VWO only allocates 9% to Brazil, and IEMG has Brazil at 7.5%. If you consider that Brazil has been one of the best-performing emerging markets in the past year, it’s easy to see why that performance would have been most felt in the smart-beta funds. The list goes on, and you can see a detailed breakdown of each fund’s sector and country allocations in their respective ETF.com fund pages (just add the ticker at the end of the URL address, such as www.etf.com/PXH ). Smart Beta Not Always Smarter The important thing to remember here is that when it comes to smart-beta ETFs , these funds don’t set out to outperform market-cap-weighted approaches. What they do set out to do is offer investors exposure that’s different from the market, slicing and dicing the equity universe in various ways in an effort to manage some of the inherent biases in market capitalization. In the past 12 months, these two fundamental strategies have left the market-cap giants in the dust. But not that long ago, in 2015 for instance, both PXH’s and FNDE’s value tilt and sector/country differences underperformed IEMG, VWO and EEM. That’s a reminder that smart-beta ETFs aren’t any smarter than market-cap weighting. They are merely alternatives to market cap that sometimes translate into outsized gains, and sometimes into outsized losses. Contact Cinthia Murphy at [email protected] Recommended Stories Why Small Cap ETFs Are Underperforming Fed Raises Rates, Maintains ‘Gradual’ Pace SEC Rejects Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Swedroe: Political Biases Can Impact Your Investing Big Bitcoin ETF Decision Coming Today, Or Maybe Not Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Bitcoin could hit $3,000 by the end of the year after recent rally: Analyst: The price of bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=-USS)could hit $3,000 by the end of the year after recentlytrading above goldand hitting a fresh record high, an analyst told CNBC on Tuesday.
A rise on this scale would represent a near 150 percent increase from bitcoin's current price of $1,204 at the time of publication, and a more than 130 percent increase from the fresh $1293.47 high it set last week, according to CoinDesk data.
The price of bitcoin at time of publication is not trading above an ounce of gold(Exchange: XAU=), but the recent rise in price, which is up 195 percent in the past 12 months, has been attributed to a number of geopolitical and broader market factors.
These include:
• Increased regulation from Chinese authorities to clamp down on money laundering
• Demonetization in India which has caused bitcoin to be seen as an alternative store of value
• Volatility in other currencies and uncertainty in the global economy
Now Adam Davies, a consultant at Altus Consulting, who works with large financial institutions on technology, is predicting bitcoin can go even higher.
"In terms of price this year, I think it will go up to $3,000. As it becomes more pervasive and more generally accepted, I think you'll see rapid growth in adoption," Davies told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.
"People are unsure about what is going on in the world, and digital currencies unlike the U.K. pound sterling have been hit badly because of Brexit, so people are looking to divest into bitcoin. There is a definitely upward trend. So the drivers will be hedging against currency fluctuations and insecurity in the markets."
Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, told CNBC by email that his company is seeing "unprecedented volume and sign ups", adding that at the current price appreciation, a £3,000 dollar price by the end of the year is "feasible".
Experts said a number of other factors could help boost bitcoin this year. These include:
• The expected approval of a bitcoin-basedexchange traded fundcreated by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. This could lead to a "flood of institutional funds" entering the market, according to Thomas Glucksmann, head of marketing at cryptocurrency trading platform Gatecoin.
• Japan has recently passed a bill that deems digital currencies as similar to fiat money and can be used as methods of payments, which could further the credibility to the cryptocurrency, which was once seen as just a means to buy illegal drugs
Glucksmann said that $3,000 by the end of the year seems "realistic" but somewhere in the region of $2,000 to $2,500 is a safer prediction.
"The bitcoin price will continue to rise this year although it's difficult to say by exactly how much," Glucksmann told CNBC.
Disclosure: Adam Davies of Altus Consulting owns bitcoin || Bitcoin could hit $3,000 by the end of the year after recent rally: Analyst: The price of bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=-USS)could hit $3,000 by the end of the year after recentlytrading above goldand hitting a fresh record high, an analyst told CNBC on Tuesday.
A rise on this scale would represent a near 150 percent increase from bitcoin's current price of $1,204 at the time of publication, and a more than 130 percent increase from the fresh $1293.47 high it set last week, according to CoinDesk data.
The price of bitcoin at time of publication is not trading above an ounce of gold(Exchange: XAU=), but the recent rise in price, which is up 195 percent in the past 12 months, has been attributed to a number of geopolitical and broader market factors.
These include:
• Increased regulation from Chinese authorities to clamp down on money laundering
• Demonetization in India which has caused bitcoin to be seen as an alternative store of value
• Volatility in other currencies and uncertainty in the global economy
Now Adam Davies, a consultant at Altus Consulting, who works with large financial institutions on technology, is predicting bitcoin can go even higher.
"In terms of price this year, I think it will go up to $3,000. As it becomes more pervasive and more generally accepted, I think you'll see rapid growth in adoption," Davies told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.
"People are unsure about what is going on in the world, and digital currencies unlike the U.K. pound sterling have been hit badly because of Brexit, so people are looking to divest into bitcoin. There is a definitely upward trend. So the drivers will be hedging against currency fluctuations and insecurity in the markets."
Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, told CNBC by email that his company is seeing "unprecedented volume and sign ups", adding that at the current price appreciation, a £3,000 dollar price by the end of the year is "feasible".
Experts said a number of other factors could help boost bitcoin this year. These include:
• The expected approval of a bitcoin-basedexchange traded fundcreated by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. This could lead to a "flood of institutional funds" entering the market, according to Thomas Glucksmann, head of marketing at cryptocurrency trading platform Gatecoin.
• Japan has recently passed a bill that deems digital currencies as similar to fiat money and can be used as methods of payments, which could further the credibility to the cryptocurrency, which was once seen as just a means to buy illegal drugs
Glucksmann said that $3,000 by the end of the year seems "realistic" but somewhere in the region of $2,000 to $2,500 is a safer prediction.
"The bitcoin price will continue to rise this year although it's difficult to say by exactly how much," Glucksmann told CNBC.
Disclosure: Adam Davies of Altus Consulting owns bitcoin || Bitcoin could hit $3,000 by the end of the year after recent rally: Analyst: The price of bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) could hit $3,000 by the end of the year after recently trading above gold and hitting a fresh record high, an analyst told CNBC on Tuesday. A rise on this scale would represent a near 150 percent increase from bitcoin's current price of $1,204 at the time of publication, and a more than 130 percent increase from the fresh $1293.47 high it set last week, according to CoinDesk data. The price of bitcoin at time of publication is not trading above an ounce of gold (Exchange: XAU=) , but the recent rise in price, which is up 195 percent in the past 12 months, has been attributed to a number of geopolitical and broader market factors. These include: Increased regulation from Chinese authorities to clamp down on money laundering Demonetization in India which has caused bitcoin to be seen as an alternative store of value Volatility in other currencies and uncertainty in the global economy Now Adam Davies, a consultant at Altus Consulting, who works with large financial institutions on technology, is predicting bitcoin can go even higher. "In terms of price this year, I think it will go up to $3,000. As it becomes more pervasive and more generally accepted, I think you'll see rapid growth in adoption," Davies told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. "People are unsure about what is going on in the world, and digital currencies unlike the U.K. pound sterling have been hit badly because of Brexit, so people are looking to divest into bitcoin. There is a definitely upward trend. So the drivers will be hedging against currency fluctuations and insecurity in the markets." Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, told CNBC by email that his company is seeing "unprecedented volume and sign ups", adding that at the current price appreciation, a £3,000 dollar price by the end of the year is "feasible". Experts said a number of other factors could help boost bitcoin this year. These include: The expected approval of a bitcoin-based exchange traded fund created by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. This could lead to a "flood of institutional funds" entering the market, according to Thomas Glucksmann, head of marketing at cryptocurrency trading platform Gatecoin. Japan has recently passed a bill that deems digital currencies as similar to fiat money and can be used as methods of payments, which could further the credibility to the cryptocurrency, which was once seen as just a means to buy illegal drugs Story continues Glucksmann said that $3,000 by the end of the year seems "realistic" but somewhere in the region of $2,000 to $2,500 is a safer prediction. "The bitcoin price will continue to rise this year although it's difficult to say by exactly how much," Glucksmann told CNBC. Disclosure: Adam Davies of Altus Consulting owns bitcoin
[Social Media Buzz]
One Bitcoin now worth $1197.98@bitstamp. High $1208.00. Low $1135.01. Market Cap $19.413 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/u9MUKB5ryf || MMM offers charity, and provides enough to the community
#00
#MMM #Bitcoin || Gold $1,205.81 | Silver $17.22 | Platinum $945.00 | Bitcoin $1,176.33
Call us at 800-874-9760 or shop online http://RRBI.co || #Bitcoin 0.00%
Ultima: R$ 3604.99 Alta: R$ 3689.98 Baixa: R$ 3553.00
Fonte: Foxbit || $1168.70 #bitfinex;
$1171.09 #bitstamp;
$1170.13 #GDAX;
$1161.00 #bt...
|
1116.72, 1175.83, 1221.38, 1231.92, 1240.00, 1249.61, 1187.81, 1100.23, 973.82, 1036.74
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6673.50, 6856.93, 6773.88, 6741.75, 6329.95, 6394.71, 6228.81, 6238.05, 6276.12, 6359.64, 6741.75, 7321.04, 7370.78, 7466.86, 7354.13, 7419.29, 7418.49, 7711.11, 8424.27, 8181.39, 7951.58, 8165.01, 8192.15, 8218.46, 8180.48, 7780.44, 7624.91, 7567.15, 7434.39, 7032.85, 7068.48, 6951.80, 6753.12, 6305.80, 6568.23, 6184.71, 6295.73, 6322.69, 6297.57, 6199.71, 6308.52, 6334.73, 6580.63, 6423.76, 6506.07, 6308.53, 6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23, 7037.58, 7193.25, 7272.72, 7260.06, 7361.66, 6792.83, 6529.17, 6467.07, 6225.98, 6300.86, 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20, 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30, 6398.54, 6519.67, 6734.95, 6721.98, 6710.63, 6595.41, 6446.47, 6495.00, 6676.75, 6644.13, 6601.96, 6625.56, 6589.62, 6556.10, 6502.59.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-10-03]
Volume: 3887310000, RSI (14-day): 45.96, 50-day EMA: 6656.96, 200-day EMA: 7316.68
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1198.30, Gold RSI: 50.04
Oil Price: 76.41, Oil RSI: 75.08
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Brazil Gives Investment Funds Green Light to [Indirectly] Buy Bitcoin: Brazil’s securities regulator, Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), has reportedly authorized investment funds to indirectly put their money in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, through the acquisition of derivatives and foreign funds.
According to acircularissued by the Finance Ministry of Brazil, first spotted by local news outletPortal do bitcoin, funds can also invest in “other assets” traded in other jurisdictions, as long as these are regulated where they’re traded.
Per the news outlet, this means investment funds can now purchase share in a foreign fund whose portfolio consists mainly of cryptocurrencies likebitcoin,ethereum, andlitecoin.
The Ministry of Finance’s circular points out there’s room for fraud. Money laundering or other illicit activities exist in the space and, as such, funds should invest in cryptocurrency products through regulated exchanges. These platforms, it adds, should be subjected to “the supervision of regulatory agencies that have powers to restrain such illegal practices.”
It further claims funds should take certain precautions before purchasing cryptocurrencies to avoid buying tokens issued by fraudulentICOs. The circular points out six basic precautions, which include verifying whether their technology is “transparent, accessible, and verifiable by any user,” and whether the token has sufficient liquidity.
Interestingly, it also says that funds should check “whether there are arrangements that raise conflicts of interest or the concentration of excessive powers on the issuer or promoter of the cryptoasset, or the use of aggressive sales techniques.”
The government organization’s document adds it may be hard to assess the “right price” for each cryptoasset. It reads:
“One possible parameter, in this sense, is the investment in cryptoassets that contain the permanent disclosure of globally recognized price indices prepared by independent third parties.”
In a previous circular, the superintendent of institutional investor relations at CVM, Daniel Maeda, made it clear investment funds aren’t allowed to directly invest in cryptocurrencies. Investment funds that put their money in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, per the CVM, will also have to make it clear how they’ll approach hard forks and airdrops.
Notably, the Brazilian government has increasingly been supporting crypto-related businesses, at a time in which Grupo XP, the largest independent brokerage in Brazil, revealed itplans to launch a bitcoin and ethereum trading platformby the end of this year.
Brazil’s antitrust watchdog, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), has also launched an investigation into whetherbanks are purposefully harming cryptocurrency exchangesin the country by restricting their operations.
Despite the government’s seemingly pro-cryptocurrency attitude, it also earlier this yearsent local cryptocurrency exchanges a 14-point questionnaireto learn more about their businesses and study their potential use in money laundering.
Editor’s note: Some statements in this article have been translated from Spanish.
Images from Shutterstock
The postBrazil Gives Investment Funds Green Light to [Indirectly] Buy Bitcoinappeared first onCCN. || Brazil Gives Investment Funds Green Light to [Indirectly] Buy Bitcoin: brazil bitcoin regulation Brazils securities regulator, Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), has reportedly authorized investment funds to indirectly put their money in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, through the acquisition of derivatives and foreign funds. Brazilian Funds Can Now Gain Exposure to Cryptocurrency According to a circular issued by the Finance Ministry of Brazil, first spotted by local news outlet Portal do bitcoin , funds can also invest in other assets traded in other jurisdictions, as long as these are regulated where theyre traded. Per the news outlet, this means investment funds can now purchase share in a foreign fund whose portfolio consists mainly of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin , ethereum , and litecoin . The Ministry of Finances circular points out theres room for fraud. Money laundering or other illicit activities exist in the space and, as such, funds should invest in cryptocurrency products through regulated exchanges. These platforms, it adds, should be subjected to the supervision of regulatory agencies that have powers to restrain such illegal practices. It further claims funds should take certain precautions before purchasing cryptocurrencies to avoid buying tokens issued by fraudulent ICOs . The circular points out six basic precautions, which include verifying whether their technology is transparent, accessible, and verifiable by any user, and whether the token has sufficient liquidity. Interestingly, it also says that funds should check whether there are arrangements that raise conflicts of interest or the concentration of excessive powers on the issuer or promoter of the cryptoasset, or the use of aggressive sales techniques. The government organizations document adds it may be hard to assess the right price for each cryptoasset. It reads: One possible parameter, in this sense, is the investment in cryptoassets that contain the permanent disclosure of globally recognized price indices prepared by independent third parties. Story continues In a previous circular, the superintendent of institutional investor relations at CVM, Daniel Maeda, made it clear investment funds arent allowed to directly invest in cryptocurrencies. Investment funds that put their money in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, per the CVM, will also have to make it clear how theyll approach hard forks and airdrops. Brazil Warms to Bitcoin brazil bitcoin cryptocurrency Notably, the Brazilian government has increasingly been supporting crypto-related businesses, at a time in which Grupo XP, the largest independent brokerage in Brazil, revealed it plans to launch a bitcoin and ethereum trading platform by the end of this year. Brazils antitrust watchdog, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), has also launched an investigation into whether banks are purposefully harming cryptocurrency exchanges in the country by restricting their operations. Despite the governments seemingly pro-cryptocurrency attitude, it also earlier this year sent local cryptocurrency exchanges a 14-point questionnaire to learn more about their businesses and study their potential use in money laundering. Editors note: Some statements in this article have been translated from Spanish. Images from Shutterstock The post Brazil Gives Investment Funds Green Light to [Indirectly] Buy Bitcoin appeared first on CCN . || Brazil Gives Investment Funds Green Light to [Indirectly] Buy Bitcoin: Brazil’s securities regulator, Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), has reportedly authorized investment funds to indirectly put their money in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, through the acquisition of derivatives and foreign funds.
According to acircularissued by the Finance Ministry of Brazil, first spotted by local news outletPortal do bitcoin, funds can also invest in “other assets” traded in other jurisdictions, as long as these are regulated where they’re traded.
Per the news outlet, this means investment funds can now purchase share in a foreign fund whose portfolio consists mainly of cryptocurrencies likebitcoin,ethereum, andlitecoin.
The Ministry of Finance’s circular points out there’s room for fraud. Money laundering or other illicit activities exist in the space and, as such, funds should invest in cryptocurrency products through regulated exchanges. These platforms, it adds, should be subjected to “the supervision of regulatory agencies that have powers to restrain such illegal practices.”
It further claims funds should take certain precautions before purchasing cryptocurrencies to avoid buying tokens issued by fraudulentICOs. The circular points out six basic precautions, which include verifying whether their technology is “transparent, accessible, and verifiable by any user,” and whether the token has sufficient liquidity.
Interestingly, it also says that funds should check “whether there are arrangements that raise conflicts of interest or the concentration of excessive powers on the issuer or promoter of the cryptoasset, or the use of aggressive sales techniques.”
The government organization’s document adds it may be hard to assess the “right price” for each cryptoasset. It reads:
“One possible parameter, in this sense, is the investment in cryptoassets that contain the permanent disclosure of globally recognized price indices prepared by independent third parties.”
In a previous circular, the superintendent of institutional investor relations at CVM, Daniel Maeda, made it clear investment funds aren’t allowed to directly invest in cryptocurrencies. Investment funds that put their money in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, per the CVM, will also have to make it clear how they’ll approach hard forks and airdrops.
Notably, the Brazilian government has increasingly been supporting crypto-related businesses, at a time in which Grupo XP, the largest independent brokerage in Brazil, revealed itplans to launch a bitcoin and ethereum trading platformby the end of this year.
Brazil’s antitrust watchdog, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), has also launched an investigation into whetherbanks are purposefully harming cryptocurrency exchangesin the country by restricting their operations.
Despite the government’s seemingly pro-cryptocurrency attitude, it also earlier this yearsent local cryptocurrency exchanges a 14-point questionnaireto learn more about their businesses and study their potential use in money laundering.
Editor’s note: Some statements in this article have been translated from Spanish.
Images from Shutterstock
The postBrazil Gives Investment Funds Green Light to [Indirectly] Buy Bitcoinappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Manipulated by Cryptocurrency Trading Bots: WSJ: Bots that manipulate bitcoin price are not new, and they aren’t going away, according toThe Wall Street Journal. The problem continues to draw regulatory scrutiny, as it was cited by theSecurities and Exchange Commission(SEC) when it rejected several bitcoin ETF applications in August.
Andy Bromberg, president and co-founder of CoinList, which issues tokens, told the WSJ that the bots are rampant marketwide, at least at the present time.
Stefan Qin, the managing partner at cryptocurrency hedge fundVirgil Capital, uses its own bots to battle “enemy” bots on dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. His company has built error handing functions to identify activities that are potentially illegal, referencing the crypto sector as the “Wild West of Crypto.”
Virgil, which specializes in arbitrage, suffered a “harassing bot” earlier this year that targeted certain ether trades, Qin told the publication, causing losses.
Virgil was checking prices every minute looking for arbitrage opportunities with cryptocurrency prices. The hostile bot would post and order to sell ether at a price lower than what other sellers were offering, prompting Virgil to try to make a buy. Right before Virgil completed the purchase, the bot would cancel its sell order. As a result, Virgil posted buy orders that never got executed, which increased the price on other exchanges, according to Qin.
This practice of faking orders and then canceling them is known as “spoofing,” the purpose of which is to create the impression that supply or demand for an asset is higher than it actually is. U.S. futures and stock markets outlawed the practice in 2010, but there have long beenallegationsthat it is taking place in the cryptocurrency markets.
Some bitcoin supporters who oppose to cryptocurrency regulation don’t consider market manipulation as wrong and openly support it.
Trader Kjetil Eilersten developed a program called Quatloo Trader which he bills as the leading cryptocurrency market manipulation tool. He told the WSJ that he thinks it is pointless to outlaw manipulating digital currencies. He said it would be better to provide sophisticated manipulation tools to small traders as a way to level the playing field. If everyone manipulates, no one manipulates, he said.
Other crypto traders see manipulation as undermining its adoption.
Also read:Mt. Gox trading bots manipulated the bitcoin price
Bots also enable pump-and-dump schemes, whereby traders promote a cryptocurrency’s price before dumping it to make a profit. Those investors who bought at the top price end up losing the most.
Quatloo Trader has a tab called “whale tools” that execute abusive strategies. One such tool, “ping pong” allows users to execute buy and sell orders to themselves, giving the illusion of extensive activity for a cryptocurrency. The practice, known as “wash trading,” is illegal in futures and stocks.
Crypto “pump groups” did at least $825 million in a six-month period, the Wall Street Journal reported in August.
Regulators have taken note. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. justice Department areinvestigating cryptocurrency manipulationwhile the SEC has been battling the issuing of fraudulent tokens. The CFTC in particular has issued a consumer warning on pump-and-dump schemes involving cryptocurrency and has offered cash rewards for whistleblowers who provide evidence of such operations.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postBitcoin Price Manipulated by Cryptocurrency Trading Bots: WSJappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Manipulated by Cryptocurrency Trading Bots: WSJ: Bots that manipulate bitcoin price are not new, and they aren’t going away, according toThe Wall Street Journal. The problem continues to draw regulatory scrutiny, as it was cited by theSecurities and Exchange Commission(SEC) when it rejected several bitcoin ETF applications in August.
Andy Bromberg, president and co-founder of CoinList, which issues tokens, told the WSJ that the bots are rampant marketwide, at least at the present time.
Stefan Qin, the managing partner at cryptocurrency hedge fundVirgil Capital, uses its own bots to battle “enemy” bots on dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. His company has built error handing functions to identify activities that are potentially illegal, referencing the crypto sector as the “Wild West of Crypto.”
Virgil, which specializes in arbitrage, suffered a “harassing bot” earlier this year that targeted certain ether trades, Qin told the publication, causing losses.
Virgil was checking prices every minute looking for arbitrage opportunities with cryptocurrency prices. The hostile bot would post and order to sell ether at a price lower than what other sellers were offering, prompting Virgil to try to make a buy. Right before Virgil completed the purchase, the bot would cancel its sell order. As a result, Virgil posted buy orders that never got executed, which increased the price on other exchanges, according to Qin.
This practice of faking orders and then canceling them is known as “spoofing,” the purpose of which is to create the impression that supply or demand for an asset is higher than it actually is. U.S. futures and stock markets outlawed the practice in 2010, but there have long beenallegationsthat it is taking place in the cryptocurrency markets.
Some bitcoin supporters who oppose to cryptocurrency regulation don’t consider market manipulation as wrong and openly support it.
Trader Kjetil Eilersten developed a program called Quatloo Trader which he bills as the leading cryptocurrency market manipulation tool. He told the WSJ that he thinks it is pointless to outlaw manipulating digital currencies. He said it would be better to provide sophisticated manipulation tools to small traders as a way to level the playing field. If everyone manipulates, no one manipulates, he said.
Other crypto traders see manipulation as undermining its adoption.
Also read:Mt. Gox trading bots manipulated the bitcoin price
Bots also enable pump-and-dump schemes, whereby traders promote a cryptocurrency’s price before dumping it to make a profit. Those investors who bought at the top price end up losing the most.
Quatloo Trader has a tab called “whale tools” that execute abusive strategies. One such tool, “ping pong” allows users to execute buy and sell orders to themselves, giving the illusion of extensive activity for a cryptocurrency. The practice, known as “wash trading,” is illegal in futures and stocks.
Crypto “pump groups” did at least $825 million in a six-month period, the Wall Street Journal reported in August.
Regulators have taken note. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. justice Department areinvestigating cryptocurrency manipulationwhile the SEC has been battling the issuing of fraudulent tokens. The CFTC in particular has issued a consumer warning on pump-and-dump schemes involving cryptocurrency and has offered cash rewards for whistleblowers who provide evidence of such operations.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postBitcoin Price Manipulated by Cryptocurrency Trading Bots: WSJappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Manipulated by Cryptocurrency Trading Bots: WSJ: bitcoin price manipulation Bots that manipulate bitcoin price are not new, and they arent going away, according to The Wall Street Journal . The problem continues to draw regulatory scrutiny, as it was cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when it rejected several bitcoin ETF applications in August. Andy Bromberg, president and co-founder of CoinList, which issues tokens, told the WSJ that the bots are rampant marketwide, at least at the present time. Stefan Qin , the managing partner at cryptocurrency hedge fund Virgil Capital , uses its own bots to battle enemy bots on dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. His company has built error handing functions to identify activities that are potentially illegal, referencing the crypto sector as the Wild West of Crypto. How One Bot Manipulates The Market Virgil, which specializes in arbitrage, suffered a harassing bot earlier this year that targeted certain ether trades, Qin told the publication, causing losses. Virgil was checking prices every minute looking for arbitrage opportunities with cryptocurrency prices. The hostile bot would post and order to sell ether at a price lower than what other sellers were offering, prompting Virgil to try to make a buy. Right before Virgil completed the purchase, the bot would cancel its sell order. As a result, Virgil posted buy orders that never got executed, which increased the price on other exchanges, according to Qin. This practice of faking orders and then canceling them is known as spoofing, the purpose of which is to create the impression that supply or demand for an asset is higher than it actually is. U.S. futures and stock markets outlawed the practice in 2010, but there have long been allegations that it is taking place in the cryptocurrency markets. Manipulation Has Defenders bitcoin price Some bitcoin supporters who oppose to cryptocurrency regulation dont consider market manipulation as wrong and openly support it. Trader Kjetil Eilersten developed a program called Quatloo Trader which he bills as the leading cryptocurrency market manipulation tool. He told the WSJ that he thinks it is pointless to outlaw manipulating digital currencies. He said it would be better to provide sophisticated manipulation tools to small traders as a way to level the playing field. If everyone manipulates, no one manipulates, he said. Story continues Other crypto traders see manipulation as undermining its adoption. Also read: Mt. Gox trading bots manipulated the bitcoin price WSJ: Bots Enable Pump-and-Dump Schemes Bots also enable pump-and-dump schemes, whereby traders promote a cryptocurrencys price before dumping it to make a profit. Those investors who bought at the top price end up losing the most. Quatloo Trader has a tab called whale tools that execute abusive strategies. One such tool, ping pong allows users to execute buy and sell orders to themselves, giving the illusion of extensive activity for a cryptocurrency. The practice, known as wash trading, is illegal in futures and stocks. Crypto pump groups did at least $825 million in a six-month period, the Wall Street Journal reported in August. Regulators have taken note. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. justice Department are investigating cryptocurrency manipulation while the SEC has been battling the issuing of fraudulent tokens. The CFTC in particular has issued a consumer warning on pump-and-dump schemes involving cryptocurrency and has offered cash rewards for whistleblowers who provide evidence of such operations. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView . The post Bitcoin Price Manipulated by Cryptocurrency Trading Bots: WSJ appeared first on CCN . || 1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?: bitcoin exchange shut down 1Broker, a Marshall Islands-based securities dealer and bitcoin trading platform, was recently taken down by the US authorities. The FBI seized the domain of 1Broker, shutting down the platform for allegedly violating money laundering regulations and distributing securities as an unregistered dealer. The official announcement of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) read : “The SEC alleges that a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting in an undercover capacity, successfully purchased several security-based swaps on 1Broker’s platform from the U.S. despite not meeting the discretionary investment thresholds required by the federal securities laws.” 1Broker Fights Back On Oct. 2, the 1Broker team released a statement on social media, stating that the company is working with a U.S. counsel and its legal team to represent 1Broker in the SEC/CFTC case to potentially recover the platform. “We are currently engaging U.S. counsel who can represent us in the SEC/CFTC case. We expect that this takes a few days. We received the green light from our lawyers to set up a read-only version 1Broker to view balances and transaction history. ETA: 48 hours,” the team said. Prior to that, on Sept. 27, 1Broker emphasized that it will cooperate with the authorities and with the SEC to partially re-enable the platform to allow withdrawals for its users. “Statement regarding the SEC allegation: All funds are currently secure and we will fully cooperate with the authorities. If approved by the SEC, we will enable withdrawals for US customers as soon as possible. A more detailed statement will follow.” Currently, as of Oct. 2, the official domain of 1Broker still displays a statement from the FBI, which seized 1Broker.com after obtaining a warrant from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. bitcoin exchange 1Broker What Does the 1Broker Case Mean to the Crypto Market? Jake Chervinsky, a government enforcement defense and securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP, explained that an undercover FBI agent initiated a unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016. It took more than two years for the SEC and the FBI to take action and shut down the exchange of 1Broker. Given that most tokens, which are considered as securities under existing laws in the US, were released in the second half of last year, Chervinsky implied that in the months to come, many exchanges and token issuers are likely to be targeted by US authorities. “The undercover FBI agent who investigated 1broker bought his first unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016. The government didn’t take action until two and a half years later. The majority of ICOs (unregistered securities?) were issued in 2H 2017. Buckle up, folks,” he said . Story continues Several investors in the cryptocurrency space including Aurelius, a widely recognized crypto trader, stated that exchanges like BitMEX could potentially be targeted by the SEC for offering margin trading around Bitcoin and Ethereum. As Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office said: “The SEC protects U.S. investors across a variety of platforms, regardless of the type of currency used in their transactions. International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency.” Featured Image from Shutterstock The post 1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t? appeared first on CCN . View comments || 1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?: 1Broker, a Marshall Islands-based securities dealer and bitcoin trading platform, was recently taken down by the US authorities.
The FBI seized the domain of 1Broker, shutting down the platform for allegedly violating money laundering regulations and distributing securities as an unregistered dealer.
The official announcement of the USSecurities and Exchange Commission(SEC)read:
“The SEC alleges that a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting in an undercover capacity, successfully purchased several security-based swaps on 1Broker’s platform from the U.S. despite not meeting the discretionary investment thresholds required by the federal securities laws.”
On Oct. 2, the 1Broker team released a statement on social media, stating that the company is working with a U.S. counsel and its legal team to represent 1Broker in the SEC/CFTC case to potentially recover the platform.
“We are currently engaging U.S. counsel who can represent us in the SEC/CFTC case. We expect that this takes a few days. We received the green light from our lawyers to set up a read-only version 1Broker to view balances and transaction history. ETA: 48 hours,” the team said.
Prior to that, on Sept. 27, 1Broker emphasized that it will cooperate with the authorities and with the SEC to partially re-enable the platform to allow withdrawals for its users.
“Statement regarding the SEC allegation: All funds are currently secure and we will fully cooperate with the authorities. If approved by the SEC, we will enable withdrawals for US customers as soon as possible. A more detailed statement will follow.”
Currently, as of Oct. 2, the official domain of 1Broker still displays a statement from the FBI, which seized 1Broker.com after obtaining a warrant from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Jake Chervinsky, a government enforcement defense and securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP, explained that an undercover FBI agent initiated a unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016.
It took more than two years for the SEC and the FBI to take action and shut down the exchange of 1Broker. Given that most tokens, which are considered as securities under existing laws in the US, were released in the second half of last year, Chervinsky implied that in the months to come, many exchanges and token issuers are likely to be targeted by US authorities.
“The undercover FBI agent who investigated 1broker bought his first unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016. The government didn’t take action until two and a half years later. The majority of ICOs (unregistered securities?) were issued in 2H 2017. Buckle up, folks,” hesaid.
Several investors in the cryptocurrency space including Aurelius, a widely recognized crypto trader,statedthat exchanges likeBitMEXcould potentially be targeted by the SEC for offering margin trading around Bitcoin and Ethereum.
As Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office said:
“The SEC protects U.S. investors across a variety of platforms, regardless of the type of currency used in their transactions. International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency.”
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The post1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?appeared first onCCN. || 1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?: 1Broker, a Marshall Islands-based securities dealer and bitcoin trading platform, was recently taken down by the US authorities.
The FBI seized the domain of 1Broker, shutting down the platform for allegedly violating money laundering regulations and distributing securities as an unregistered dealer.
The official announcement of the USSecurities and Exchange Commission(SEC)read:
“The SEC alleges that a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting in an undercover capacity, successfully purchased several security-based swaps on 1Broker’s platform from the U.S. despite not meeting the discretionary investment thresholds required by the federal securities laws.”
On Oct. 2, the 1Broker team released a statement on social media, stating that the company is working with a U.S. counsel and its legal team to represent 1Broker in the SEC/CFTC case to potentially recover the platform.
“We are currently engaging U.S. counsel who can represent us in the SEC/CFTC case. We expect that this takes a few days. We received the green light from our lawyers to set up a read-only version 1Broker to view balances and transaction history. ETA: 48 hours,” the team said.
Prior to that, on Sept. 27, 1Broker emphasized that it will cooperate with the authorities and with the SEC to partially re-enable the platform to allow withdrawals for its users.
“Statement regarding the SEC allegation: All funds are currently secure and we will fully cooperate with the authorities. If approved by the SEC, we will enable withdrawals for US customers as soon as possible. A more detailed statement will follow.”
Currently, as of Oct. 2, the official domain of 1Broker still displays a statement from the FBI, which seized 1Broker.com after obtaining a warrant from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Jake Chervinsky, a government enforcement defense and securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP, explained that an undercover FBI agent initiated a unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016.
It took more than two years for the SEC and the FBI to take action and shut down the exchange of 1Broker. Given that most tokens, which are considered as securities under existing laws in the US, were released in the second half of last year, Chervinsky implied that in the months to come, many exchanges and token issuers are likely to be targeted by US authorities.
“The undercover FBI agent who investigated 1broker bought his first unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016. The government didn’t take action until two and a half years later. The majority of ICOs (unregistered securities?) were issued in 2H 2017. Buckle up, folks,” hesaid.
Several investors in the cryptocurrency space including Aurelius, a widely recognized crypto trader,statedthat exchanges likeBitMEXcould potentially be targeted by the SEC for offering margin trading around Bitcoin and Ethereum.
As Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office said:
“The SEC protects U.S. investors across a variety of platforms, regardless of the type of currency used in their transactions. International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency.”
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The post1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?appeared first onCCN. || Cryptocurrency is ‘Here to Stay’: CFTC Chairman Giancarlo: Bitcoin may never replace the greenback, but the flagship cryptocurrency could achieve significant adoption in the two-thirds of countries without stable currencies.
That statement might sound like a thesis put forward by an early bitcoin adopter, or perhaps a forward-thinking hedge fund manager. In actuality, though, that bullish forecast was issued byJ. Christopher Giancarlo, the top derivatives regulator in the United States.
Giancarlo, the chairman of theCommodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) stated in an interview with CNBC that cryptocurrency is “here to stay,” even if it never achieves the ultimate goal of becoming the world’s leading currency, as Square CEO Jack Dorseysaidthat he believes it will.
Giancarlo said:
“I personally think that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. I think there is a future for them. I’m not sure they ever come to rival the dollar or other hard currencies, but there’s a whole section of the world that really is hungry for functioning currencies that they can’t find in their local currencies. There’s 140 countries in the world, every one of them has a currency. Probably two-thirds are not worth the polymer or the paper they’re written on, and those parts of the world rely on hard currencies. Bitcoin [or another] cryptocurrency may solve some of the problems.”
“We’re talking maybe 10 years down the road,” he clarified.
The Trump appointee, as CCNreported, has been nicknamed “CryptoDad” for his congressional testimony in which he advised legislators to not dismiss cryptocurrency out of hand just because it appeals more to younger investors.
However, he also believes that regulators have a duty to take a “thoughtful” approach to approving cryptocurrency products, even if that means that the U.S. does not become the leader in every aspect of blockchain industry development.
“There’s no question that the United States is leading in a number of areas,” he said, referencing the burgeoning U.S. bitcoin derivatives market, “but there’s other areas as well of innovation where I think it makes sense for us to take a little bit more of a thoughtful and intelligent approach, just as the U.S. Congress did 20 years ago in the early days of the internet.”
Featured Image from FIA/YouTube
The postCryptocurrency is ‘Here to Stay’: CFTC Chairman Giancarloappeared first onCCN. || 3 Cobalt-Mining Stocks to Buy for Big-Tech Demand: Cobalt is a metal that is often overlooked by investors who are looking to get in on the next materials bull market — but it shouldn’t be. Demand for cobalt is increasing dramatically because of its important role in lithium-ion batteries, which are used in products like iPhones and tablets and are also a vital component of electric vehicles (EVs).
The price of cobalt sulphate increased 78% last year in China as the EV market began to expand in the world’s largest economy. Prices have flattened out this year, but I expect the pause in the rally will be short lived.
Simple economics will lead to higher cobalt prices in the future. While demand for the metal is increasing for both electronics and EVs, the industry is facing a very tight supply issue. About 60% of the world’s cobalt is in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is a country that is very unstable right now.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
• 17 Small-Cap Stocks That Could Double
There are a bevy of stocks to consider in the cobalt space, but the biggest issue here is that most pure plays are small and risky while the larger names also have exposure to other industrial metals. My research has uncovered three worth keeping a closer eye on, and I wanted to dive a bit deeper into each.
A Swiss mining giant with a market cap of $58 billion,Glencore PLC(OTCMKTS:GLNCY) produces more cobalt than any other company in the world. Naturally, it’s the biggest player in the DRC.
The pullback in the price of industrial metals combined with a rise in the U.S. dollar has hurt the mining conglomerate, and as a result the stock is now trading with a P/E ratio of around 10. But on the other hand, the dividend yield has increased to a strong 4%-plus.
With the shares in the process of coming off their yearly lows, GLNCY is an interesting long-term value play.
Umicore Group(OTCMKTS:UMICY) is a $14 billion Belgian company focuses on materials, technology and recycling. That may seem like an odd combination at first glance, but it’s actually fairly straightforward. UMICY takes metals, transforms them and then remarkets them. Cobalt is one of these metals.
This company is well positioned to be a major player in the cobalt and lithium business, and it already has strong ties to automotive manufacturers.
• 7 Stocks to Buy Thanks to Trump's New Trade Deal
UMICY has been slowly trending higher over the years, but the rally slowed down in 2018 and the stock recently fell to its 200-day moving average (the blue line) for the first time since April 2017. That weakness looks like an attractive opportunity, as I expect the long-term uptrend to resume.
China Molybdenum(OTCMKTS:CMCLF) is a $12.4 billion company that is partly owned by the Chinese government. As I mentioned, China is a leader in the electric vehicles market, and this company gives it a direct link to the highly sought-after metal — CMCLF owns the majority of the Tenke Fungurume mine in the DRC, which has one of the largest deposits of cobalt in the world.
The stock has struggled in 2018 and recently hit a yearly low. However, the company’s financials are improving, and over time I expect to see higher prices. This could turn into a deep value play, so it’s definitely a stock worth keeping on your radar.
Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else,click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today.
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The post3 Cobalt-Mining Stocks to Buy for Big-Tech Demandappeared first onInvestorPlace. || 3 Cobalt-Mining Stocks to Buy for Big-Tech Demand: Cobalt is a metal that is often overlooked by investors who are looking to get in on the next materials bull market — but it shouldn’t be. Demand for cobalt is increasing dramatically because of its important role in lithium-ion batteries, which are used in products like iPhones and tablets and are also a vital component of electric vehicles (EVs). The price of cobalt sulphate increased 78% last year in China as the EV market began to expand in the world’s largest economy. Prices have flattened out this year, but I expect the pause in the rally will be short lived. Simple economics will lead to higher cobalt prices in the future. While demand for the metal is increasing for both electronics and EVs, the industry is facing a very tight supply issue. About 60% of the world’s cobalt is in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is a country that is very unstable right now. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips 17 Small-Cap Stocks That Could Double There are a bevy of stocks to consider in the cobalt space, but the biggest issue here is that most pure plays are small and risky while the larger names also have exposure to other industrial metals. My research has uncovered three worth keeping a closer eye on, and I wanted to dive a bit deeper into each. Cobalt-Mining Stocks: Glencore (GLNCY) Glencore (GLNCY) A Swiss mining giant with a market cap of $58 billion, Glencore PLC (OTCMKTS: GLNCY ) produces more cobalt than any other company in the world. Naturally, it’s the biggest player in the DRC. The pullback in the price of industrial metals combined with a rise in the U.S. dollar has hurt the mining conglomerate, and as a result the stock is now trading with a P/E ratio of around 10. But on the other hand, the dividend yield has increased to a strong 4%-plus. With the shares in the process of coming off their yearly lows, GLNCY is an interesting long-term value play. Umicore (UMICY) Umicore (UMICY) Umicore Group (OTCMKTS: UMICY ) is a $14 billion Belgian company focuses on materials, technology and recycling. That may seem like an odd combination at first glance, but it’s actually fairly straightforward. UMICY takes metals, transforms them and then remarkets them. Cobalt is one of these metals. Story continues This company is well positioned to be a major player in the cobalt and lithium business, and it already has strong ties to automotive manufacturers. 7 Stocks to Buy Thanks to Trump's New Trade Deal UMICY has been slowly trending higher over the years, but the rally slowed down in 2018 and the stock recently fell to its 200-day moving average (the blue line) for the first time since April 2017. That weakness looks like an attractive opportunity, as I expect the long-term uptrend to resume. China Molybdenum (CMCLF) China Molybdenum (CMCLF) China Molybdenum (OTCMKTS: CMCLF ) is a $12.4 billion company that is partly owned by the Chinese government. As I mentioned, China is a leader in the electric vehicles market, and this company gives it a direct link to the highly sought-after metal — CMCLF owns the majority of the Tenke Fungurume mine in the DRC, which has one of the largest deposits of cobalt in the world. The stock has struggled in 2018 and recently hit a yearly low. However, the company’s financials are improving, and over time I expect to see higher prices. This could turn into a deep value play, so it’s definitely a stock worth keeping on your radar. Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else, click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today . Compare Brokers The post 3 Cobalt-Mining Stocks to Buy for Big-Tech Demand appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Flippening? Singapore Hosted More ICOs than the US in August: Report: Singapore Bitcoin Exchange With the increased regulatory scrutiny on ICOs in the United States , there appears to be a move by projects towards more friendly environments. According to blockchain analytics firm Elementus, there was a decline in the number of ICOs hosted in the United States compared to Singapore in the month of August. In that month the city-state hosted 17 Initial Coin Offerings while the United States hosted 15. This was the first time ever that the tiny city-state hosted more ICOs than the world’s biggest economy. ICO Paradise While it remains to be seen whether this will be sustained, Singapore , which already boasts of a thriving financial sector, has emerged as one of the least restrictive countries with regards to ICOs. Other countries which also hosted a significant number of Initial Coin Offerings included the United Kingdom while had 9 ICOs while Switzerland boasted of 5 ICOs in the same month. While conceding that consensus is lacking with regards to the amount that has been raised by ICOs over time, Elementus estimates this number to be US$28.4 billion by the close of August 2018. And even though the current bear market may lead to a sentiment that the market is heading for a collapse, the blockchain analytics firm pointed out that this is not the case. In August 2018, for instance, ICOs raised approximately US$1.466 billion and this was nearly the same amount that was raised last year during the bull in the month of November – US$1.429 billion. https://twitter.com/elementus_io/status/1044965668981026817 Additionally, most of the funding that has been raised in ICOs was collected this year, when the price of cryptocurrencies had fallen off their record highs. “In fact, the majority of historical ICO fundraising occurred during the current bear market,” Elementus’ co-founder, Mike Kalomeni, wrote in the report . “Of the total $28 billion raised to date, $15.9 billion occurred between February, 2018 and August, 2018.” Story continues Higher Standards One trend that has emerged, according to Elementus, is that there is increasing competitiveness with regards to token sales. Last year in June, for example, the percentage of token sales which raised a minimum of US$100,000 (the threshold for an ICO to be considered a success, per Elementus) was 84% in June 2017 but this fell to 22% in August 2018. In the last 12 months, the successful ICO rate has fallen from 50% to 20%. This has been attributed to the growing selectiveness of both retail and professional investors. Besides investors getting wiser, another indication that the ICO market is maturing is the fact that it is now harder than ever to have a pre-product startup raise more than US$100 million based entirely on a white paper. Per Elementus, this has now become the preserve of established firms. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Flippening? Singapore Hosted More ICOs than the US in August: Report appeared first on CCN . || Here's what to do if the lottery makes you an instant millionaire: • Following weekend drawings that yielded no top-prize winners, the Mega Millions jackpot has grown to $367 million and Powerball's now stands at $229 million.
• Experts recommend that winners tell as few people as possible about their exciting news and instead consider how to properly handle their unexpected windfall, starting with their options for claiming it.
If you're lucky enough to hit one of the lottery jackpots — Tuesday night for Mega Millions or Wednesday night for Powerball — you should take a deep breath and resist the urge to tell the world about your exciting news, experts say.
The top prize for Mega Millions is now at $367 million and Powerball has climbed to $229 million.
Instead, consider what suddenly becoming one of the country's wealthiest people means. When you come into a life-changing amount of money, there's more involved than just putting it in a bank account and deciding what kind of new car to buy or where you want to vacation.
"With great wealth comes great responsibility," said certified financial planner Jim Shagawat, president of Windfall Wealth Advisors in Paramus, New Jersey.
Here are a few decisions you'll need to make if you discover you're holding the winning ticket for either jackpot.
Figure out when and how to claim your winnings
There's no need to rush over to lottery headquarters the day you win.
For both the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots, winners get anywhere from three or six months to one year to claim their prize, depending on where the winning ticket was purchased.
Experts recommended taking a deep breath and using as much time as you need to prepare for claiming your winnings.
"The time between the day you win the lottery and the day you claim is your last period of normalcy," said Jason Kurland, a partner at Rivkin Radler, a law firm in Uniondale, New York.
Make sure you find out whether you can remain anonymous when you claim your prize, because laws governing lottery wins vary from state to state.
In some places, you can easily shield your identity protected from the public. In other states, it's impossible. And in some states that require the winner to be announced, the law allows a trust or other legal entity to claim the prize on your behalf, thereby keeping your name out of the public eye.
Also, the standard advice is to sign the back of your winning ticket in case you are separated from it. However, if you end up having the option of claiming your prize through a trust to protect your identity, your signature could interfere with your ability to do that. This makes it important to know your claiming options first.
Choose between a lump sum or annuity
For the $229 million Powerball jackpot, the lump sum option is $134.3 million. For the $367 million Mega Millions jackpot, it's $213 million.
Many experts recommend taking the lump sum, because if it's managed and invested properly, you could end up with more money over time than if you took payments spread out over several decades.
However, it's important to evaluate your own circumstances before making the choice.
"If you know you have trouble with compulsive spending or know that certain family members will be after your money, you may want to go the annuity route," Shagawat said.
Remember, too, that either option comes with an immediate federal tax hit of 25 percent. That withholding would reduce Mega Millions' cash option by about $53.2 million to $159.8 million, and Powerball's by $33.6 million to $100.7 million. You also should anticipate owing more to Uncle Sam at tax time.
Additionally, you'll pay state taxes on the money unless you live where lottery wins are untaxed. For states that do take a piece, the rate ranges from a high of 8.82 percent in New York to a low of 2.9 percent in North Dakota, according to lottery site USAMega.com .
More from FA Playbook:How to maximize your tax benefits from medical expenses this year Bitcoin investors beware: The IRS wants its piece of the actionWhat to watch out for on the cannabis investing bandwagon
Pick pros to help you
Your ability to properly handle your windfall will only be as good as the advice your given. This is why it's best to turn to experienced professionals for guidance.
Before you claim, you should assemble a team that ideally includes an attorney, accountant, insurance consultant and financial planner. An experienced attorney should be your first call.
"Make sure you're comfortable around each team member, and make sure they have the proper accreditation for their field," Shagawat said. "You need a team around you to guard against being taken advantage of."
Someone on the team also will need to serve as your gatekeeper. That is, they can field requests from moochers or scammers or even friends and family members who want a piece of your windfall.
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• Here's what to do if win some of the $600M in Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots
• How to maximize the tax benefits from medical expenses this year || Here's what to do if the lottery makes you an instant millionaire: Following weekend drawings that yielded no top-prize winners, the Mega Millions jackpot has grown to $367 million and Powerball's now stands at $229 million. Experts recommend that winners tell as few people as possible about their exciting news and instead consider how to properly handle their unexpected windfall, starting with their options for claiming it. If you're lucky enough to hit one of the lottery jackpots Tuesday night for Mega Millions or Wednesday night for Powerball you should take a deep breath and resist the urge to tell the world about your exciting news, experts say. The top prize for Mega Millions is now at $367 million and Powerball has climbed to $229 million. Instead, consider what suddenly becoming one of the country's wealthiest people means. When you come into a life-changing amount of money, there's more involved than just putting it in a bank account and deciding what kind of new car to buy or where you want to vacation. "With great wealth comes great responsibility," said certified financial planner Jim Shagawat, president of Windfall Wealth Advisors in Paramus, New Jersey. Here are a few decisions you'll need to make if you discover you're holding the winning ticket for either jackpot. Figure out when and how to claim your winnings There's no need to rush over to lottery headquarters the day you win. For both the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots, winners get anywhere from three or six months to one year to claim their prize, depending on where the winning ticket was purchased. Experts recommended taking a deep breath and using as much time as you need to prepare for claiming your winnings. "The time between the day you win the lottery and the day you claim is your last period of normalcy," said Jason Kurland, a partner at Rivkin Radler, a law firm in Uniondale, New York. Make sure you find out whether you can remain anonymous when you claim your prize, because laws governing lottery wins vary from state to state. Story continues In some places, you can easily shield your identity protected from the public. In other states, it's impossible. And in some states that require the winner to be announced, the law allows a trust or other legal entity to claim the prize on your behalf, thereby keeping your name out of the public eye. Also, the standard advice is to sign the back of your winning ticket in case you are separated from it. However, if you end up having the option of claiming your prize through a trust to protect your identity, your signature could interfere with your ability to do that. This makes it important to know your claiming options first. Choose between a lump sum or annuity For the $229 million Powerball jackpot, the lump sum option is $134.3 million. For the $367 million Mega Millions jackpot, it's $213 million. Many experts recommend taking the lump sum, because if it's managed and invested properly, you could end up with more money over time than if you took payments spread out over several decades. However, it's important to evaluate your own circumstances before making the choice. "If you know you have trouble with compulsive spending or know that certain family members will be after your money, you may want to go the annuity route," Shagawat said. Remember, too, that either option comes with an immediate federal tax hit of 25 percent. That withholding would reduce Mega Millions' cash option by about $53.2 million to $159.8 million, and Powerball's by $33.6 million to $100.7 million. You also should anticipate owing more to Uncle Sam at tax time. Additionally, you'll pay state taxes on the money unless you live where lottery wins are untaxed. For states that do take a piece, the rate ranges from a high of 8.82 percent in New York to a low of 2.9 percent in North Dakota, according to lottery site USAMega.com . More from FA Playbook: How to maximize your tax benefits from medical expenses this year Bitcoin investors beware: The IRS wants its piece of the action What to watch out for on the cannabis investing bandwagon Pick pros to help you Your ability to properly handle your windfall will only be as good as the advice your given. This is why it's best to turn to experienced professionals for guidance. Before you claim, you should assemble a team that ideally includes an attorney, accountant, insurance consultant and financial planner. An experienced attorney should be your first call. "Make sure you're comfortable around each team member, and make sure they have the proper accreditation for their field," Shagawat said. "You need a team around you to guard against being taken advantage of." Someone on the team also will need to serve as your gatekeeper. That is, they can field requests from moochers or scammers or even friends and family members who want a piece of your windfall. More From CNBC Use this charitable contribution to receive immediate tax benefits Here's what to do if win some of the $600M in Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots How to maximize the tax benefits from medical expenses this year || “Crypto Sign of Hope”: Legal Uncertainty Suppresses Volatility, But ETH Volumes Are Encouraging: The second day of October and the beginning of the 4th quarter for the cryptocurrency market turned out to be anemic. The Bitcoin (BTC) does not show any price changes second day in a row staying at around $6,500. The Top-100 altcoins are also standing pat. Last week’s star XRP lost almost 3% during 24 hours despite Ripple’s announcement of three major partnerships including an $80 bln. banking giant Banco Santander. It seems that all possible optimism regarding XRP is already considered by investors in prices. At the same time, there is a trend on the growth of networks difficulty: since the beginning of June the difficulty of Zcash network has grown 4.5 times, as for the Bitcoin (BTC) network, the growth of difficulty has multiplied about 1.6 times. While “hodlers” keep waiting for the market reversal, miners are quickly selling the mined cryptocurrency admitting less income or even suffering losses. It is obvious that at the moment the market is frozen due to legal uncertainty. In the near future, it is American regulators who will determine the direction of the entire sector. Recently the representatives of the cryptocurrency business and companies providing traditional financial services went to Washington to try to speed up the creation of regulation and once again they wanted to explain to the officials the need for a friendly cryptocurrency environment in the United States. Right at the moment, Ripple heads the SAIV lobby group in Washington attempting to influence the US lawmakers. Everything in the world needs to grow up, otherwise, it dies. This law works here too, if the market does not receive any clear signals, new massive sales will be a matter of a very near future. The largest Asian regulators showed a very negative attitude to the cryptocurrency market. Thus, the Central Bank of India forced Zebpay, the largest crypto-exchange in the country, to stop its activities, banning banks from providing services to cryptocurrency companies. China continues to get rid of all possible crypto activities. New research did not help the market either: WSJ concluded that about $90 million was laundered through crypto exchanges for the last 2 years, although if we would try to imagine the volumes of such schemes within the traditional banking system, it is obvious that the cryptocurrency sector represents a very small share of the shadow business. Story continues The Bitcoin short-term technical picture does not change for a long time, so we turn to the assessment of the situation with ETH. Ethereum attracts buying interest up from the second decade of September, which caused its quotes’ rise from 13-month lows at $164.5 to current $225. It is also notable that from the beginning of the year the trading volumes grew to maximum levels reflecting the return of the demand and they have remained elevated for a long time. On the stock market, this is traditionally considered as a good signal of investors’ demand and maybe a preliminary sign of growth with the nearest target of about $280 from where the recent sale bad begun. This article was written by FxPro This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – October 2, 2018 Forecast EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for October 2, 2018 Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Price Action Being Driven by Technical Factors, Who is Buying? Risk Appetite Dwindles as NAFTA Cheer Fades Gold Just Below $1200 and Looking Higher Rescued NAFTA Deal Fails to Lift Global Risk Appetite || “Crypto Sign of Hope”: Legal Uncertainty Suppresses Volatility, But ETH Volumes Are Encouraging: The second day of October and the beginning of the 4th quarter for the cryptocurrency market turned out to be anemic. The Bitcoin (BTC) does not show any price changes second day in a row staying at around $6,500. The Top-100 altcoins are also standing pat. Last week’s star XRP lost almost 3% during 24 hours despite Ripple’s announcement of three major partnerships including an $80 bln. banking giant Banco Santander. It seems that all possible optimism regarding XRP is already considered by investors in prices. At the same time, there is a trend on the growth of networks difficulty: since the beginning of June the difficulty of Zcash network has grown 4.5 times, as for the Bitcoin (BTC) network, the growth of difficulty has multiplied about 1.6 times. While “hodlers” keep waiting for the market reversal, miners are quickly selling the mined cryptocurrency admitting less income or even suffering losses. It is obvious that at the moment the market is frozen due to legal uncertainty. In the near future, it is American regulators who will determine the direction of the entire sector. Recently the representatives of the cryptocurrency business and companies providing traditional financial services went to Washington to try to speed up the creation of regulation and once again they wanted to explain to the officials the need for a friendly cryptocurrency environment in the United States. Right at the moment, Ripple heads the SAIV lobby group in Washington attempting to influence the US lawmakers. Everything in the world needs to grow up, otherwise, it dies. This law works here too, if the market does not receive any clear signals, new massive sales will be a matter of a very near future. The largest Asian regulators showed a very negative attitude to the cryptocurrency market. Thus, the Central Bank of India forced Zebpay, the largest crypto-exchange in the country, to stop its activities, banning banks from providing services to cryptocurrency companies. China continues to get rid of all possible crypto activities. New research did not help the market either: WSJ concluded that about $90 million was laundered through crypto exchanges for the last 2 years, although if we would try to imagine the volumes of such schemes within the traditional banking system, it is obvious that the cryptocurrency sector represents a very small share of the shadow business. Story continues The Bitcoin short-term technical picture does not change for a long time, so we turn to the assessment of the situation with ETH. Ethereum attracts buying interest up from the second decade of September, which caused its quotes’ rise from 13-month lows at $164.5 to current $225. It is also notable that from the beginning of the year the trading volumes grew to maximum levels reflecting the return of the demand and they have remained elevated for a long time. On the stock market, this is traditionally considered as a good signal of investors’ demand and maybe a preliminary sign of growth with the nearest target of about $280 from where the recent sale bad begun. This article was written by FxPro This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – October 2, 2018 Forecast EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for October 2, 2018 Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Price Action Being Driven by Technical Factors, Who is Buying? Risk Appetite Dwindles as NAFTA Cheer Fades Gold Just Below $1200 and Looking Higher Rescued NAFTA Deal Fails to Lift Global Risk Appetite || Will Bitcoin Fall Further?: Everybody who has been following and trading Bitcoin recently, are likely to be disappointed. For eight months now, since February 2018, the price of Bitcoin hasn’t budged. The cryptocurrency’s last move in February saw it drop to a low point of 6,000 USD and, since then, there has been decreasing volatility and lower highs, while the lows remain at the same point. These factors are typical of a bearish trend. It is also interesting to add that the Bitcoin daily chart resembles a very big descending triangle pattern, which is a bearish formation.
Also, the king of cryptos has already lost around 70% of its value since its December peak, while other, smaller coins – known as Altcoins – have lost more than 70% of their value. Therefore, this huge decline is on a larger scale than what occurred in 2000, when the dotcom bubble burst.
Meanwhile, the market cap ofBitcoinhas decreased from 330 billion USD to the current market cap of 115 billion USD, while the entire market capitalization of the crypto world, has dropped from 813 billion USD to around 225 billion USD recently. We may see a further drop.
The volatility of Bitcoin has been minimal over the past couple of days and weeks which suggests we may be in either an accumulation or distribution phase – which means a huge move might be around the corner.
Should Bitcoin drop further below the support of 6,000 USD, a quick drop toward 5,000 USD, or even lower, could be in the cards. Another major support, where stronger bids could be located, is at 3,000 USD, which coincides with the triangle pattern potential.
However, if bulls manage to turn the triangle around, we could see a relief rally, targeting 7,400 USD and potentially 8,400 USD.
Therefore, it is crucial that we keep an eye on how the price will behave over the next few days or weeks and, observe on which side of this triangle Bitcoin will break. This could be the major moment for the upcoming future.
Analysis and opinions provided herein are intended solely for informational and educational purposes and don’t represent a recommendation or an investment advice by TeleTrade. Indiscriminate reliance on illustrative or informational materials may lead to losses.
This article was written by Peter Bukov, one ofTeleTrade’s leading analysts.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Rescued NAFTA Deal Fails to Lift Global Risk Appetite
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – October 2, 2018 Forecast
• Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Price Action Being Driven by Technical Factors, Who is Buying?
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast – BTC Prices Still in Range
• FBS Announces the August “Dreams Come True” Contest Winner!
• E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – October 2, 2018 Forecast || Will Bitcoin Fall Further?: Everybody who has been following and trading Bitcoin recently, are likely to be disappointed. For eight months now, since February 2018, the price of Bitcoin hasnt budged. The cryptocurrencys last move in February saw it drop to a low point of 6,000 USD and, since then, there has been decreasing volatility and lower highs, while the lows remain at the same point. These factors are typical of a bearish trend. It is also interesting to add that the Bitcoin daily chart resembles a very big descending triangle pattern, which is a bearish formation. Also, the king of cryptos has already lost around 70% of its value since its December peak, while other, smaller coins known as Altcoins have lost more than 70% of their value. Therefore, this huge decline is on a larger scale than what occurred in 2000, when the dotcom bubble burst. Meanwhile, the market cap of Bitcoin has decreased from 330 billion USD to the current market cap of 115 billion USD, while the entire market capitalization of the crypto world, has dropped from 813 billion USD to around 225 billion USD recently. We may see a further drop. The volatility of Bitcoin has been minimal over the past couple of days and weeks which suggests we may be in either an accumulation or distribution phase which means a huge move might be around the corner. Bitcoin Daily Chart Should Bitcoin drop further below the support of 6,000 USD, a quick drop toward 5,000 USD, or even lower, could be in the cards. Another major support, where stronger bids could be located, is at 3,000 USD, which coincides with the triangle pattern potential. However, if bulls manage to turn the triangle around, we could see a relief rally, targeting 7,400 USD and potentially 8,400 USD. Therefore, it is crucial that we keep an eye on how the price will behave over the next few days or weeks and, observe on which side of this triangle Bitcoin will break. This could be the major moment for the upcoming future. Story continues Analysis and opinions provided herein are intended solely for informational and educational purposes and dont represent a recommendation or an investment advice by TeleTrade. Indiscriminate reliance on illustrative or informational materials may lead to losses. This article was written by Peter Bukov, one of TeleTrade s leading analysts. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Rescued NAFTA Deal Fails to Lift Global Risk Appetite Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis October 2, 2018 Forecast Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast Price Action Being Driven by Technical Factors, Who is Buying? Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast BTC Prices Still in Range FBS Announces the August Dreams Come True Contest Winner! E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis October 2, 2018 Forecast || Will Bitcoin Fall Further?: Everybody who has been following and trading Bitcoin recently, are likely to be disappointed. For eight months now, since February 2018, the price of Bitcoin hasn’t budged. The cryptocurrency’s last move in February saw it drop to a low point of 6,000 USD and, since then, there has been decreasing volatility and lower highs, while the lows remain at the same point. These factors are typical of a bearish trend. It is also interesting to add that the Bitcoin daily chart resembles a very big descending triangle pattern, which is a bearish formation.
Also, the king of cryptos has already lost around 70% of its value since its December peak, while other, smaller coins – known as Altcoins – have lost more than 70% of their value. Therefore, this huge decline is on a larger scale than what occurred in 2000, when the dotcom bubble burst.
Meanwhile, the market cap ofBitcoinhas decreased from 330 billion USD to the current market cap of 115 billion USD, while the entire market capitalization of the crypto world, has dropped from 813 billion USD to around 225 billion USD recently. We may see a further drop.
The volatility of Bitcoin has been minimal over the past couple of days and weeks which suggests we may be in either an accumulation or distribution phase – which means a huge move might be around the corner.
Should Bitcoin drop further below the support of 6,000 USD, a quick drop toward 5,000 USD, or even lower, could be in the cards. Another major support, where stronger bids could be located, is at 3,000 USD, which coincides with the triangle pattern potential.
However, if bulls manage to turn the triangle around, we could see a relief rally, targeting 7,400 USD and potentially 8,400 USD.
Therefore, it is crucial that we keep an eye on how the price will behave over the next few days or weeks and, observe on which side of this triangle Bitcoin will break. This could be the major moment for the upcoming future.
Analysis and opinions provided herein are intended solely for informational and educational purposes and don’t represent a recommendation or an investment advice by TeleTrade. Indiscriminate reliance on illustrative or informational materials may lead to losses.
This article was written by Peter Bukov, one ofTeleTrade’s leading analysts.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• Rescued NAFTA Deal Fails to Lift Global Risk Appetite
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – October 2, 2018 Forecast
• Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Price Action Being Driven by Technical Factors, Who is Buying?
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast – BTC Prices Still in Range
• FBS Announces the August “Dreams Come True” Contest Winner!
• E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – October 2, 2018 Forecast
[Social Media Buzz]
#LIZA #LAMBO price
10-03 17:00(GMT)
$LIZA
BTC :0.00000
ETH :0.00000
USD :0.0
RUR :0.1
JPY(btc) :0.1
JPY(eth) :0.1
$LAMBO
BTC :0.018
ETH :0.670
USD :150.0
RUR :11000.0
JPY(btc) :12819.9
JPY(eth) :16894.0 || LATEST PRICES FOR TOP 10 CRYPTOCURRENCIES (USD):
1.) $BTC = $6,511.40
2.) $ETH = $221.33
3.) $XRP = $0.5260
4.) $BCH = $516.23
5.) $EOS = $5.58
6.) $XLM = $0.2430
7.) $LTC = $57.87
8.) $USDT = $1.00
9.) $ADA = $0.0811
10.) $XMR = $114.22 || Oct 03, 2018 19:01:00 UTC | 6,462.60$ | 5,610.20€ ...
|
6576.69, 6622.48, 6588.31, 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58, 6285.99
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-02-01]
Volume: 25922656496, RSI (14-day): 67.65, 50-day EMA: 8339.38, 200-day EMA: 8300.42
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Phishing scams leveled up, and we didn’t: More than a bit of "I'm smarter than you" politics creates the divide between hacking headlines and what we actually need to worry about. On one side, researchers present findings at conferences hoping someone will raise the alarm and practical things will get done before things get worse. On the other, we have Jeff Bezos and his iPhone.
In case you missed it, on January 22ndTheGuardianreported, "Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone 'hacked' in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia."
According to thenow-contested reportby FTI Consulting cited byThe Guardian, that was in April. I was curious enough to notice that the "hey boi r u up" texts between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Jeff Bezos were exchanged before Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October of that same year.
Questions,we have them. But Khashoggi's name is hard to find in the wider reporting about Bezos' iPhone -- which has beena mess from the start. Instead, aformer Facebook security punditand at least one actualresearchersnatched the spotlight to say FTI's report was lacking in facts.
The self-appointed infosec "adults in the room" weren't wrong. But it was a pedantic and selfish distraction from anything that mattered about the whole affair.
Normal people read about the maybe hacking of Bezos' phone and shrugged. He can afford the best security on the planet. Saudi Arabia's Prince Claus von Bonesaw is a monster. Everyone's getting hacked, especially us peasants. These are all things we know.
What we also know is that the supposed phone hack came via an attachment. And if the hack happened, an attachment was clicked. It's the same way theCity of Baltimore's computersand emergency systemsat Hollywood Presbyterian Hospitalwere infected and locked with ransomware. And it's how consumers are losing identities and accountsfrom malware, learning how to send Bitcoin to grubby teenage boys in latitudes and longitudes unknown because ofransomware. Click a link. Look at an attachment. Download a file. That's it. An attacker went phishing, and now you're on the hook.
All that is from phishing, though what we hear about most are the breaches: attackers grabbing usernames and passwords from breach dumps, then using tools with cutesy names like SNIPR or STORM to automatically try it out on all of your accounts to see what works. Which they do, becauseEquifax used default passwordson sensitive information, Facebook was so busylyingto everyone itleft the barn doors openand the City of New Orleansrefused to believe cybersecurity is critical infrastructure.
So much for "the adults in the room."
I attended a recent hacking conference in San Francisco calledDisclosureexpecting a lot of the same fresh hells -- the "I'm smarter than you" guys competing for attention while alarmed researchers in the background are trying to tell us something's on fire.
I was not disappointed.
Apropos to what was happening (or not) to Jeff Bezos at that moment, I saw the talk "Initial Public Ownage: Trends in Phishing Techniques Across Sophisticated Threat Actors." Sounds boring, right? Nope.
According to jaw-droppingdatapresented byProofpoint'sRyan Kalember, phishing is now the No. 1 attack of choice for cybercriminals. "Phishing is attractive for different reasons for the attackers that do have technical skills, because it scales really well," Kalember told Engadget via email. "The bigger groups, like the threat actor behind Emotet, have built the automation to do social engineering at the scale of millions of messages a day, and are very good are getting their relatively simple attacks (often documents with macros sent via already phished cloud email accounts) through security controls."
So what, you say? All the adults (who were in the room a minute ago) know not to click strange links to win a free iPad or log in at notgoogle.com or download the attachment from Lisa@FreePills. Who does that? Florida grandmas falling for Nigerian princes, surely.
This thinking is fine and good only under the conceit that getting pwned is for people who aren't as smart as you or that the cliques running security for your email clients have perfected their specious and occult magics of marking suspicious emails with big, fat, red DANGER warnings. The adults have it under control, you think. Gosh, there must be a lot of dumb people, you muse.
Turns out, you're pretty wrong on both counts.
If you got an email from a law firm saying "divorce papers" and it was a real law firm and the email contained a link to a document on that website, you'd probably have a very emotional reaction and click it. Kalember saw numerous examples and brought receipts.
"In general," Kalember explained to Engadget, "the sneakiest phishes are highly socially engineered and customized for a specific intended recipient. The best example is a complaint about a specific person, sent to that person, which threatens to email (or even directly cc's) their manager. That said, we've seen threat actors use everything from fake food poisoning complaints, Greta Thunberg pledges, and Christmas party invites in just the last couple of months, so there's no shortage of innovation."
Right now around 1.3 million phishing operations reside illicitly on around 300,000 URLs. Ultimately it means many of us will be hacked/attacked becausesomeone else'swebsite security sucks.
So are all thoseWordPress hacks and vulnsadding up or what? Kalember told us, "Compromising WordPress and other sites is unfortunately quite common, and it can be challenging for even the most experienced administrators to thoroughly clean as attackers often create layers of access." Explaining further, he added, "A tremendous amount of malicious content is also hosted on cloud file storage that most networks (and users) have to trust: SharePoint and OneDrive are the biggest offenders at the moment."
Every website that can be compromised -- hacked into -- is being used to send legitimate-looking phishing emails, using mail addresses from websites ranging from alpaca farms to law firms to universities.
Yes, actual alpaca farms. "While it's possible that the North Korean threat actor in question has a sense of humor," Kalember said, "it was a WordPress site that was vulnerable to an old exploit, so it was probably just opportunistic. From a network perspective, no one is likely to block their users going to alpaca farm websites, so it suits their purposes for command and control of their malware."
Criminal organizations are compromising legit sites and using those to send legit (and despicably personal) phishing attacks to install malware or ransomware. Often they want to compromise your employer or steal your accounts, because those are extremely valuable for doing more crimes. More to the point, thinking that you'renota target for any reason ("I'm not that interesting" or "I don't have followers/money" or "my job is boring") is going to make you the perfect target.
And looking at infosec trends (which tend toward sensationalism and know-it-alls), there's a serious lack of adults in the room to watch our backs. Kalember told Engadget, "Simply stated, attackers focus on people, and most defenders don't. Boosting awareness and email security controls are two practical ways to significantly reduce risk."
A wise and prophetic TV show calledThe X-Filesonce said, "Trust no one." This has never been truer than now. Rather than panic about every scary email or text message, treat all of your inboxes like your front door: If you're not expecting a delivery, don't open the door.
Images: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren (Jeff Bezos); Proofpoint (Malware email) || Phishing scams leveled up, and we didn’t: More than a bit of "I'm smarter than you" politics creates the divide between hacking headlines and what we actually need to worry about. On one side, researchers present findings at conferences hoping someone will raise the alarm and practical things will get done before things get worse. On the other, we have Jeff Bezos and his iPhone. In case you missed it, on January 22nd The Guardian reported , "Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone 'hacked' in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia." According to the now-contested report by FTI Consulting cited by The Guardian , that was in April. I was curious enough to notice that the "hey boi r u up" texts between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Jeff Bezos were exchanged before Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October of that same year. Questions, we have them . But Khashoggi's name is hard to find in the wider reporting about Bezos' iPhone -- which has been a mess from the start . Instead, a former Facebook security pundit and at least one actual researcher snatched the spotlight to say FTI's report was lacking in facts. Amazon Smartphone The self-appointed infosec "adults in the room" weren't wrong. But it was a pedantic and selfish distraction from anything that mattered about the whole affair. Normal people read about the maybe hacking of Bezos' phone and shrugged. He can afford the best security on the planet. Saudi Arabia's Prince Claus von Bonesaw is a monster. Everyone's getting hacked, especially us peasants. These are all things we know. What we also know is that the supposed phone hack came via an attachment. And if the hack happened, an attachment was clicked. It's the same way the City of Baltimore's computers and emergency systems at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital were infected and locked with ransomware. And it's how consumers are losing identities and accounts from malware , learning how to send Bitcoin to grubby teenage boys in latitudes and longitudes unknown because of ransomware . Click a link. Look at an attachment. Download a file. That's it. An attacker went phishing, and now you're on the hook. Story continues All that is from phishing, though what we hear about most are the breaches: attackers grabbing usernames and passwords from breach dumps, then using tools with cutesy names like SNIPR or STORM to automatically try it out on all of your accounts to see what works. Which they do, because Equifax used default passwords on sensitive information, Facebook was so busy lying to everyone it left the barn doors open and the City of New Orleans refused to believe cybersecurity is critical infrastructure . So much for "the adults in the room." I attended a recent hacking conference in San Francisco called Disclosure expecting a lot of the same fresh hells -- the "I'm smarter than you" guys competing for attention while alarmed researchers in the background are trying to tell us something's on fire. I was not disappointed. Apropos to what was happening (or not) to Jeff Bezos at that moment, I saw the talk "Initial Public Ownage: Trends in Phishing Techniques Across Sophisticated Threat Actors." Sounds boring, right? Nope. According to jaw-dropping data presented by Proofpoint's Ryan Kalember , phishing is now the No. 1 attack of choice for cybercriminals. "Phishing is attractive for different reasons for the attackers that do have technical skills, because it scales really well," Kalember told Engadget via email. "The bigger groups, like the threat actor behind Emotet, have built the automation to do social engineering at the scale of millions of messages a day, and are very good are getting their relatively simple attacks (often documents with macros sent via already phished cloud email accounts) through security controls." So what, you say? All the adults (who were in the room a minute ago) know not to click strange links to win a free iPad or log in at notgoogle.com or download the attachment from Lisa@FreePills. Who does that? Florida grandmas falling for Nigerian princes, surely. This thinking is fine and good only under the conceit that getting pwned is for people who aren't as smart as you or that the cliques running security for your email clients have perfected their specious and occult magics of marking suspicious emails with big, fat, red DANGER warnings. The adults have it under control, you think. Gosh, there must be a lot of dumb people, you muse. Turns out, you're pretty wrong on both counts. If you got an email from a law firm saying "divorce papers" and it was a real law firm and the email contained a link to a document on that website, you'd probably have a very emotional reaction and click it. Kalember saw numerous examples and brought receipts. Bad Password "In general," Kalember explained to Engadget, "the sneakiest phishes are highly socially engineered and customized for a specific intended recipient. The best example is a complaint about a specific person, sent to that person, which threatens to email (or even directly cc's) their manager. That said, we've seen threat actors use everything from fake food poisoning complaints, Greta Thunberg pledges, and Christmas party invites in just the last couple of months, so there's no shortage of innovation." Right now around 1.3 million phishing operations reside illicitly on around 300,000 URLs. Ultimately it means many of us will be hacked/attacked because someone else's website security sucks. So are all those WordPress hacks and vulns adding up or what? Kalember told us, "Compromising WordPress and other sites is unfortunately quite common, and it can be challenging for even the most experienced administrators to thoroughly clean as attackers often create layers of access." Explaining further, he added, "A tremendous amount of malicious content is also hosted on cloud file storage that most networks (and users) have to trust: SharePoint and OneDrive are the biggest offenders at the moment." Every website that can be compromised -- hacked into -- is being used to send legitimate-looking phishing emails, using mail addresses from websites ranging from alpaca farms to law firms to universities. Yes, actual alpaca farms. "While it's possible that the North Korean threat actor in question has a sense of humor," Kalember said, "it was a WordPress site that was vulnerable to an old exploit, so it was probably just opportunistic. From a network perspective, no one is likely to block their users going to alpaca farm websites, so it suits their purposes for command and control of their malware." Criminal organizations are compromising legit sites and using those to send legit (and despicably personal) phishing attacks to install malware or ransomware. Often they want to compromise your employer or steal your accounts, because those are extremely valuable for doing more crimes. More to the point, thinking that you're not a target for any reason ("I'm not that interesting" or "I don't have followers/money" or "my job is boring") is going to make you the perfect target. And looking at infosec trends (which tend toward sensationalism and know-it-alls), there's a serious lack of adults in the room to watch our backs. Kalember told Engadget, "Simply stated, attackers focus on people, and most defenders don't. Boosting awareness and email security controls are two practical ways to significantly reduce risk." A wise and prophetic TV show called The X-Files once said, "Trust no one." This has never been truer than now. Rather than panic about every scary email or text message, treat all of your inboxes like your front door: If you're not expecting a delivery, don't open the door. Images: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren (Jeff Bezos); Proofpoint (Malware email) || Google Reinstates Bitcoin Rewards Game Suspended for ‘Deceptive Practices’: Bitcoin Blast, a mobile game that gives users small amounts of bitcoin for playing, has been reinstated to the Google Play store.
The game wasyankedfrom the app distribution venue last week with little explanation, said Amy Wan, CEO of Bling, the company behind the app. Googlereinstated the gameon Jan. 30, shortly after theGooglePlayDevTwitter account reached out to Bling. This happened after Bling conducted its own Twitter campaign, Wan said.
Google did not provide any further clarity around why the game was originally pulled. The company originally told Bling the game was suspended for “deceptive practices,” without clarifying what those practices were. The search engine-turned-digital-infrastructure provider also provided no explanation for the game’s reinstatement.
Related:Crypto News Roundup for Jan. 30, 2020
A Google Play Store spokesperson did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
“We did inquire after resubmission, but never received a response as to what Google Play perceived as deceptive,” Wan said.
While the game is able to keep its more than 20,000 ratings, it has now lost its rankings in the Play store, Wan said.
“We’d like to thank our users who came out and supported us. We were absolutely overwhelmed by their response,” she said.
• Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game
• Coinbase Hires Google VP as Chief Product Officer
• Bitcoin’s Halving Captures Growing Interest – Among Google Searchers || Google Reinstates Bitcoin Rewards Game Suspended for ‘Deceptive Practices’: Bitcoin Blast, a mobile game that gives users small amounts of bitcoin for playing, has been reinstated to the Google Play store.
The game wasyankedfrom the app distribution venue last week with little explanation, said Amy Wan, CEO of Bling, the company behind the app. Googlereinstated the gameon Jan. 30, shortly after theGooglePlayDevTwitter account reached out to Bling. This happened after Bling conducted its own Twitter campaign, Wan said.
Google did not provide any further clarity around why the game was originally pulled. The company originally told Bling the game was suspended for “deceptive practices,” without clarifying what those practices were. The search engine-turned-digital-infrastructure provider also provided no explanation for the game’s reinstatement.
Related:Crypto News Roundup for Jan. 30, 2020
A Google Play Store spokesperson did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
“We did inquire after resubmission, but never received a response as to what Google Play perceived as deceptive,” Wan said.
While the game is able to keep its more than 20,000 ratings, it has now lost its rankings in the Play store, Wan said.
“We’d like to thank our users who came out and supported us. We were absolutely overwhelmed by their response,” she said.
• Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game
• Coinbase Hires Google VP as Chief Product Officer
• Bitcoin’s Halving Captures Growing Interest – Among Google Searchers || Google Reinstates Bitcoin Rewards Game Suspended for Deceptive Practices: Bitcoin Blast, a mobile game that gives users small amounts of bitcoin for playing, has been reinstated to the Google Play store. The game was yanked from the app distribution venue last week with little explanation, said Amy Wan, CEO of Bling, the company behind the app. Google reinstated the game on Jan. 30, shortly after the GooglePlayDev Twitter account reached out to Bling. This happened after Bling conducted its own Twitter campaign, Wan said. Google did not provide any further clarity around why the game was originally pulled. The company originally told Bling the game was suspended for deceptive practices, without clarifying what those practices were. The search engine-turned-digital-infrastructure provider also provided no explanation for the games reinstatement. Related: Crypto News Roundup for Jan. 30, 2020 A Google Play Store spokesperson did not respond to CoinDesks request for comment. We did inquire after resubmission, but never received a response as to what Google Play perceived as deceptive, Wan said. While the game is able to keep its more than 20,000 ratings, it has now lost its rankings in the Play store, Wan said. Wed like to thank our users who came out and supported us. We were absolutely overwhelmed by their response, she said. Related Stories Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game Coinbase Hires Google VP as Chief Product Officer Bitcoins Halving Captures Growing Interest Among Google Searchers || Bitcoin Climbs Above 9,382.5 Level, Up 1%: Investing.com - Bitcoin rose above the $9,382.5 threshold on Saturday. Bitcoin was trading at 9,382.5 by 19:44 (00:44 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, up 1.33% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since January 31.
The move upwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap up to $170.3B, or 64.88% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B.
Bitcoin had traded in a range of $9,342.9 to $9,385.5 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 11.39%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $29.3B or 25.81% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $8,304.9043 to $9,568.9824 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 52.78% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017.
Ethereum was last at $181.18 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.60% on the day.
XRP was trading at $0.24147 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.77%.
Ethereum's market cap was last at $19.8B or 7.54% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.5B or 4.01% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
Related Articles
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Fewer Pronouncements of BTC's Death in 2019, but Here Are the Top 5
BitFlyer Now Offers US Users 0% Fees When Buying Bitcoin With USD || Bitcoin Climbs Above 9,382.5 Level, Up 1%: Investing.com - Bitcoin rose above the $9,382.5 threshold on Saturday. Bitcoin was trading at 9,382.5 by 19:44 (00:44 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, up 1.33% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since January 31.
The move upwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap up to $170.3B, or 64.88% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B.
Bitcoin had traded in a range of $9,342.9 to $9,385.5 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 11.39%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $29.3B or 25.81% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $8,304.9043 to $9,568.9824 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 52.78% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017.
Ethereum was last at $181.18 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.60% on the day.
XRP was trading at $0.24147 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.77%.
Ethereum's market cap was last at $19.8B or 7.54% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.5B or 4.01% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
Related Articles
Rising BTC Price, Justin Sun’s Harassment Suit, and More on the Bad Crypto Podcast
Fewer Pronouncements of BTC's Death in 2019, but Here Are the Top 5
BitFlyer Now Offers US Users 0% Fees When Buying Bitcoin With USD || Bitcoin Climbs Above 9,382.5 Level, Up 1%: Bitcoin Climbs Above 9,382.5 Level, Up 1% Investing.com - Bitcoin rose above the $9,382.5 threshold on Saturday. Bitcoin was trading at 9,382.5 by 19:44 (00:44 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, up 1.33% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since January 31. The move upwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap up to $170.3B, or 64.88% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $9,342.9 to $9,385.5 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 11.39%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $29.3B or 25.81% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $8,304.9043 to $9,568.9824 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 52.78% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Ethereum was last at $181.18 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.60% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.24147 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.77%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $19.8B or 7.54% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.5B or 4.01% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Rising BTC Price, Justin Suns Harassment Suit, and More on the Bad Crypto Podcast Fewer Pronouncements of BTC's Death in 2019, but Here Are the Top 5 BitFlyer Now Offers US Users 0% Fees When Buying Bitcoin With USD || Here's how to have a painless tax season: Tax season is here and it’s time to gather your documents and get to work. The good news is: You can make it happen as painlessly as possible.
We understand that seems easier said than done, because – let’s be honest – taxes can be intimidating. But that’s why we created the Taxes Made Simple podcast with TurboTax and Yahoo Finance. It’s a resource that helps make doing your taxes a little more simple.
Janna Herron:This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. I'm Janna Herron.
So what are the new tax changes for this year? We know that last year there were a lot of big changes, but that doesn't mean everything's the same this year. There were a handful of changes I think people need to know about. Let's start with actually filing your taxes. You could always file your taxes for free by law, especially if you didn't have a very complicated tax return. This year, the IRS has stipulated that it should be easier and has actually created a website where you could go click on the free file and it would take you to one of the programs at TurboTax where you can file your taxes for free.
Now not everybody can file their taxes for free. It depends on how complicated your taxes are. For many, many Americans, their tax returns are pretty simple. If you're only depending on a W2 to fill out your tax return, or maybe you have a few 1099's, those things are very easy and you probably should qualify for the free file.
Another interesting change this year is the IRS is really, really interested in if you invested in cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. This year, the IRS is going to actually ask if at any time during 2019 did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency. So that might be a surprise for crypto investors out there. The reason behind it is that the IRS doesn't have good tracking on transactions that have to do with cryptocurrency. Usually, when you trade a stock, you sell a stock, you buy a stock, your brokerage account will send that information to the IRS and you will get a 1099 form to use to fill out your tax returns. When it comes to crypto, it's not nearly as sophisticated. A lot of the virtual currency exchange platforms don't generate those forms. So the IRS has been in the dark for a long time when it comes to cryptocurrency, so that's a big change.
There are some other things you should know about. If you got divorced last year, the way alimony or spousal support is considered by the IRS has changed. You no longer have to claim spousal support as income if you receive it from your ex-spouse. And if you're the one paying alimony, you can no longer deduct that amount from your taxes. So it's better if you are the one receiving the alimony than the one paying the alimony when it comes to this change.
There's a new change with medical expenses. If you're trying to deduct your medical expenses, it's a little bit harder this year, so your total health expenses in 2019 must be greater than 10% of your adjusted gross income for them to be deductible. Before that, the threshold was 7.5%, so it was easier to get above that threshold. Another change having to do with health insurance, if you didn't have health insurance last year, you don't have to pay a tax penalty. Before, under the Affordable Care Act. If you didn't have health insurance during the year for a certain amount of time, you would have to pay a penalty. But the new tax law that went into effect in 2017 eliminated that penalty starting last year.
The standard deduction also went up from last year to account for inflation. Now it's $12,200 for single taxpayers, $24,400 for married couples filing jointly and $18,350 for heads of household. If you do your taxes and you're really upset with how they turn out this year, say you got a really tiny refund when you wanted a bigger one, or even worse, you owe Uncle Sam some money and you don't want to do that next year, what you're going to need to do is adjust your paycheck withholdings. If you do that, you'll see that there is a new form for the paycheck withholdings, so that will be new to you.
Because it's new, it's going to be a little bit more difficult, but once you've done it and gotten the hang of it, it's actually pretty simple. My advice is to have your tax return handy so that you can plug in the numbers that the withholding form is going to ask for so that it can give you a very accurate reading on what you should withhold from each paycheck going forward. The IRS also has a paycheck withholding estimator, and what's really great about this calculator is that if you want to get a $5,000 refund, you can enter that and it will how to calculate what amount needs to be withheld from each paycheck so that you get that refund next year. And that's it for new changes this year for taxes.
This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening.
Janna Herron:This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. I'm Janna Herron.
So what is a W-2? Basically, it's a tax document that shows the total wages and amounts withheld for federal and state taxes, Social Security and Medicare for the calendar year. You will also find employee benefits on your W-2. You use the form to help you fill out your tax returns correctly. That's why it's so important. A W-2 either comes in the mail, as an actual paper document, or you can access it online through your employer's payroll portal. So if you usually get your pay stub online, that's probably where you're going to find your W-2.
So what is in your W-2? So your W-2 has a whole bunch of different boxes and each box shows a different piece of your tax picture. So for example, box one that shows the taxable wages you earned from your employer during the whole year. Box two is the amount that your employer withheld from your paycheck for federal income taxes. It gets a little bit more complicated. So box eight is four tips. So if you work in a restaurant, or you're a bartender, and you get tips during the year, you'll see in an amount in box eight that your employer reported. But if you kept really good, accurate records of your tips during the year, you can actually ignore that amount and put what you calculate as your tips for the year. But you have to have really good records. Because if you don't and the IRS comes knocking, they will want to see proof. And if you can't provide it, then you're in trouble.
So there are other boxes still left. Box 10, you're employer helped to pay for your childcare as a benefit. You'll see that in box 10. If it's more than $5,000, then it's taxable. Then, in box 12 also shows other employee benefits you received during the year. You won't know what it is. There'll be a code in box 12 and for example, code D shows the amount of 401k contributions you made during the year. Code W shows the amount your employer contributed to your health savings account or HSA. Then, you have box 17, and that's the amount of state tax that was withheld from your wages during the year. So that's kind of a quick overview of what you'd find in your W-2. But here are some more important things you should remember. First, when should you get your W-2? Your employer must send it to you by January 31st, by law. If you don't get it by that point in time, then you need to contact your HR, or your payroll, or your boss, and find out where it is. Maybe they have the wrong address on file, for example, or something else went wrong.
You should also double-check your W-2 in case there were mistakes. It doesn't happen often, but a mistake can make things a little bit difficult for you down the road with the IRS. For example, if your employer forgot to include tens of thousands of dollars in wages, don't think you got away with a fast one. That's going to come back to haunt you at some point, so double-check the numbers. And the way you do this is to look at your final pay stub for 2019 and then compare that to your W-2 and make sure those numbers match up. In your pay stub, you should see year to date how much taxes were withheld, your total wages for the year, so those numbers should match up with what you see in your W-2.
When it comes to mistakes, one of the most common mistakes is either missing or misreported state and local taxes, especially if you live in one state, but you work in another state. On this point, if you do live in one and work in another, you should get W-2's allocated to each state. That should show your taxes to each state, which may include local taxes. For example, if you work in New York, but live in New Jersey, New York City has local taxes, so you should see that on the W-2 that you receive. If you see that your W-2 has mistakes, you need to do something about it. The best thing to do is contact your payroll department or whoever at your employer to let them know that you think there's a mistake. It's easier to fix a W-2 than to file an incorrect tax return and have to go back and amend it.
I think one of the biggest things to remember is you don't want to fudge the numbers. You want the numbers that you put on your tax return to match the ones on your W-2. Why is this? Because the IRS also gets a copy of your W-2, so they're expecting you to report the same thing that shows up on your W-2 if you don't, you'll probably get a letter from the IRS and it also could delay your tax refund if you're expecting one. And that's all we have for W-2's.
This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening.
Janna Herron:This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and Turbo Tax. I'm Janna Herron.
Tax credits and tax deductions. What's the difference between them? Both a tax credit and a tax deduction are very helpful on your tax returns, helps you to save money, but they do it in different ways. It's important to understand how they do it.
A tax credit is the most beneficial and that's because it's giving you a dollar for dollar reduction of your tax liability. For example, a tax credit that's valued at $2,000, such as the child tax credit, lowers your tax bill by $2,000. That's great.
A tax deduction also lowers your tax bill, but not one for one. It depends on your tax bracket, how much you'll get out of a tax deduction. If you fall into the 12% tax bracket, a $1,000 deduction saves you $120.
There are important differences among tax credits as well. There's a tax credit that is called nonrefundable. What that means is if you don't owe very much in taxes and you get a tax credit, but it takes you below zero on your tax bill, you're not going to get a refund of the difference. For example, say you have an $800 tax bill and you get a $1,000 nonrefundable credit, that doesn't mean that you're going to get $200 back from the government. That's a nonrefundable credit.
But there are some credits that are refundable. That means that if you have that $800 tax bill, you get a $1,000 tax credit and it's refundable, you get $200 back from the government. Some of the most popular refundable credits are the earned income tax credit, also called EITC and the child tax credit.
The IRS has specific requirements for you to qualify for both nonrefundable and refundable credits, so you need to look into that.
Then there are deductions. There several different types of deduction. The big one that you're probably familiar with, as most taxpayers are, is the standard deduction. It's the one-size-fits-all reduction in the amount of your taxable income. You don't really have to do anything to qualify for the standard deduction. You just can take it. For single taxpayers this year, it's $12,200; for those married filing jointly, 24,404; and for heads of household, it's $18,350. You can claim the standard deduction on your regular form 1040, which is the basic tax form that you use.
Other deductions that you might take, you have to itemize your taxes. You don't take the standard deduction in this case. You will be taking all these other smaller deductions that should add up to more than the standard deduction for it to be beneficial for you. There is a deduction for the state and local taxes that you pay. That's capped at $10,000, which is the second year that it's been capped. There is a deduction for the mortgage interest that you pay during the year. There's a deduction for medical expenses. As long as you spent enough on your medical expenses during the year to reach the threshold, then you can deduct some of those costs. Everybody's probably heard of a deduction for charitable donations. That also exists. If you end up itemizing your deductions, it's going to be a little bit more work when it comes to filing your taxes because you have to make sure you have the required documentation for all of those things, such as the mortgage interest. You need to know how much mortgage interest you paid during the year. You have to have documentation that you donated so much to a charity.
For those of you who are self-employed, deductions are probably very important to you. Anything that you spent on your business can be deducted. For example, if you use a room in your house as your office, a certain amount of your heating bill, a certain amount of the mortgage that you pay or rent that you pay, may be deductible. If you have a phone line that's dedicated to your business, also, that cost can be deductible.
Over the years, there've been very interesting deductions that people have taken and that the IRS approved. For example, a Wisconsin bodybuilder deducted almost $14,000 for the cost of body oils, including a tanning product. This was from 1999 to 2001, because it helped his career. The US tax court okayed these business expenses because they were used for his business.
It's really important to make sure that the deductions you make are not exaggerated and that you do have that proof. Anytime deductions that are a little bit higher than they should be will raise the eyebrows at the IRS, especially if you fudge the mortgage interest that you paid or charitable contributions. The IRS will definitely lookout for that. Agency uses statistical algorithms to make sure that your deductions are in line with your income. If they're too high, they may send a letter asking for more documentation. This is especially true when it comes to business expenses. People seem to think that there's a lot of wiggle room when it comes to reporting that. You don't want to claim more deductions than your profits, for example, or writing off 100% of an item as a business expense that is often used personally, such as your cellphone or your car. That also will be a red flag to the IRS. That's all for tax credits and deductions.
This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and Turbo Tax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening.
Janna Herron:This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. I'm Janna Herron.
What are the tax brackets for this year? In general, I think tax brackets are a little confusing because they're not just flat rates. Let's go over what the tax brackets are this year. Maybe then, I can explain how tax brackets work.
What are the tax brackets this year? Tax brackets are pretty complicated. It's not just a flat rate. We'll get into that in a minute. The easy answer is there are seven federal tax brackets. This is how it goes. It depends on your filing status, so whether you're filing as a single, married, filing jointly, or as a head of household.
The seven rates are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. The easiest tax bracket to understand is 10% or the lowest one. If you're a single taxpayer, and you make less than $9,700, your tax rate on that entire amount is 10%. If you make more than that, say you make $15,000, the first $9,699 will be taxed at 10% which is the lowest tax bracket. Then the remaining amount will be taxed at the next highest tax bracket which is 12%.
Which tax bracket you belong in depends on both your income and whether you file as a single taxpayer, a married but filing jointly, or head of household. The income thresholds are different for those three types of taxpayers. Let's start with a single taxpayer.
The lowest tax bracket is 10%. Those who make under $9,700 pay that 10% tax rate. Single taxpayers who make between $9,700 and $39,474 are subject to the 12% tax rate. Single taxpayers who make between $39,475 and $84,199 are subject to the 22% tax rate. For those who make between $84,200 and $160,724 are subject to the 24% tax bracket. Those making between $160,725 and $204,099 are subject to the 32% tax bracket. Single taxpayers who make between $204,100 and $510,299 are subject to the 35% tax rate. Those who make over $510,300 are subject to the 37% tax rate.
What's important to remember is that if you're in a higher tax rate, not all of your dollars that you earn are taxed at that rate. That would be a flat rate type of taxation. In the United States, we have a progressive tax rate. I'm going to break it down really, really easily.
Let's say you make $100,000, and your first tax bracket is at 10% up to $25,000. The second tax bracket is 12% up to $75,000. Then your last tax bracket is 15% up to $100,000. So you don't pay 15% on all of your $100,000 that you make. On the first $25,000 that you make, you're subject to the 10% tax rate. Then the earnings between $25,001 to $75,000 is subject to the 12% tax rate. Then everything else up to $100,000 that you've earned in a year is subject to the 15% tax rate.
The income thresholds for heads of households are higher than those for single taxpayers for each of the tax brackets. They're even higher for the married individuals filing joint returns for each of their tax brackets. That's because you have two people filing a joint return. The income thresholds usually change year by year to adjust for inflation. So what the income threshold for your tax bracket this year may not be the same as next year. Also, if you get a raise, a new job, a promotion, or your spouse starts to work, that might throw you into a higher tax bracket. You'll see your taxes go up. That's all for tax brackets.
This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening. || Here's how to have a painless tax season: Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts Here’s how you can make taxes simple Tax season is here and it’s time to gather your documents and get to work. The good news is: You can make it happen as painlessly as possible. We understand that seems easier said than done, because – let’s be honest – taxes can be intimidating. But that’s why we created the Taxes Made Simple podcast with TurboTax and Yahoo Finance. It’s a resource that helps make doing your taxes a little more simple. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts What are the new tax changes this year? Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts Janna Herron: This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. I'm Janna Herron. So what are the new tax changes for this year? We know that last year there were a lot of big changes, but that doesn't mean everything's the same this year. There were a handful of changes I think people need to know about. Let's start with actually filing your taxes. You could always file your taxes for free by law, especially if you didn't have a very complicated tax return. This year, the IRS has stipulated that it should be easier and has actually created a website where you could go click on the free file and it would take you to one of the programs at TurboTax where you can file your taxes for free. Now not everybody can file their taxes for free. It depends on how complicated your taxes are. For many, many Americans, their tax returns are pretty simple. If you're only depending on a W2 to fill out your tax return, or maybe you have a few 1099's, those things are very easy and you probably should qualify for the free file. Another interesting change this year is the IRS is really, really interested in if you invested in cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. This year, the IRS is going to actually ask if at any time during 2019 did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency. So that might be a surprise for crypto investors out there. The reason behind it is that the IRS doesn't have good tracking on transactions that have to do with cryptocurrency. Usually, when you trade a stock, you sell a stock, you buy a stock, your brokerage account will send that information to the IRS and you will get a 1099 form to use to fill out your tax returns. When it comes to crypto, it's not nearly as sophisticated. A lot of the virtual currency exchange platforms don't generate those forms. So the IRS has been in the dark for a long time when it comes to cryptocurrency, so that's a big change. Story continues There are some other things you should know about. If you got divorced last year, the way alimony or spousal support is considered by the IRS has changed. You no longer have to claim spousal support as income if you receive it from your ex-spouse. And if you're the one paying alimony, you can no longer deduct that amount from your taxes. So it's better if you are the one receiving the alimony than the one paying the alimony when it comes to this change. There's a new change with medical expenses. If you're trying to deduct your medical expenses, it's a little bit harder this year, so your total health expenses in 2019 must be greater than 10% of your adjusted gross income for them to be deductible. Before that, the threshold was 7.5%, so it was easier to get above that threshold. Another change having to do with health insurance, if you didn't have health insurance last year, you don't have to pay a tax penalty. Before, under the Affordable Care Act. If you didn't have health insurance during the year for a certain amount of time, you would have to pay a penalty. But the new tax law that went into effect in 2017 eliminated that penalty starting last year. The standard deduction also went up from last year to account for inflation. Now it's $12,200 for single taxpayers, $24,400 for married couples filing jointly and $18,350 for heads of household. If you do your taxes and you're really upset with how they turn out this year, say you got a really tiny refund when you wanted a bigger one, or even worse, you owe Uncle Sam some money and you don't want to do that next year, what you're going to need to do is adjust your paycheck withholdings. If you do that, you'll see that there is a new form for the paycheck withholdings, so that will be new to you. Because it's new, it's going to be a little bit more difficult, but once you've done it and gotten the hang of it, it's actually pretty simple. My advice is to have your tax return handy so that you can plug in the numbers that the withholding form is going to ask for so that it can give you a very accurate reading on what you should withhold from each paycheck going forward. The IRS also has a paycheck withholding estimator, and what's really great about this calculator is that if you want to get a $5,000 refund, you can enter that and it will how to calculate what amount needs to be withheld from each paycheck so that you get that refund next year. And that's it for new changes this year for taxes. This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening. What is a W-2? Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts Janna Herron: This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. I'm Janna Herron. So what is a W-2? Basically, it's a tax document that shows the total wages and amounts withheld for federal and state taxes, Social Security and Medicare for the calendar year. You will also find employee benefits on your W-2. You use the form to help you fill out your tax returns correctly. That's why it's so important. A W-2 either comes in the mail, as an actual paper document, or you can access it online through your employer's payroll portal. So if you usually get your pay stub online, that's probably where you're going to find your W-2. So what is in your W-2? So your W-2 has a whole bunch of different boxes and each box shows a different piece of your tax picture. So for example, box one that shows the taxable wages you earned from your employer during the whole year. Box two is the amount that your employer withheld from your paycheck for federal income taxes. It gets a little bit more complicated. So box eight is four tips. So if you work in a restaurant, or you're a bartender, and you get tips during the year, you'll see in an amount in box eight that your employer reported. But if you kept really good, accurate records of your tips during the year, you can actually ignore that amount and put what you calculate as your tips for the year. But you have to have really good records. Because if you don't and the IRS comes knocking, they will want to see proof. And if you can't provide it, then you're in trouble. So there are other boxes still left. Box 10, you're employer helped to pay for your childcare as a benefit. You'll see that in box 10. If it's more than $5,000, then it's taxable. Then, in box 12 also shows other employee benefits you received during the year. You won't know what it is. There'll be a code in box 12 and for example, code D shows the amount of 401k contributions you made during the year. Code W shows the amount your employer contributed to your health savings account or HSA. Then, you have box 17, and that's the amount of state tax that was withheld from your wages during the year. So that's kind of a quick overview of what you'd find in your W-2. But here are some more important things you should remember. First, when should you get your W-2? Your employer must send it to you by January 31st, by law. If you don't get it by that point in time, then you need to contact your HR, or your payroll, or your boss, and find out where it is. Maybe they have the wrong address on file, for example, or something else went wrong. You should also double-check your W-2 in case there were mistakes. It doesn't happen often, but a mistake can make things a little bit difficult for you down the road with the IRS. For example, if your employer forgot to include tens of thousands of dollars in wages, don't think you got away with a fast one. That's going to come back to haunt you at some point, so double-check the numbers. And the way you do this is to look at your final pay stub for 2019 and then compare that to your W-2 and make sure those numbers match up. In your pay stub, you should see year to date how much taxes were withheld, your total wages for the year, so those numbers should match up with what you see in your W-2. When it comes to mistakes, one of the most common mistakes is either missing or misreported state and local taxes, especially if you live in one state, but you work in another state. On this point, if you do live in one and work in another, you should get W-2's allocated to each state. That should show your taxes to each state, which may include local taxes. For example, if you work in New York, but live in New Jersey, New York City has local taxes, so you should see that on the W-2 that you receive. If you see that your W-2 has mistakes, you need to do something about it. The best thing to do is contact your payroll department or whoever at your employer to let them know that you think there's a mistake. It's easier to fix a W-2 than to file an incorrect tax return and have to go back and amend it. I think one of the biggest things to remember is you don't want to fudge the numbers. You want the numbers that you put on your tax return to match the ones on your W-2. Why is this? Because the IRS also gets a copy of your W-2, so they're expecting you to report the same thing that shows up on your W-2 if you don't, you'll probably get a letter from the IRS and it also could delay your tax refund if you're expecting one. And that's all we have for W-2's. This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening. Credits or deductions? Here are the differences Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts Janna Herron: This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and Turbo Tax. I'm Janna Herron. Tax credits and tax deductions. What's the difference between them? Both a tax credit and a tax deduction are very helpful on your tax returns, helps you to save money, but they do it in different ways. It's important to understand how they do it. A tax credit is the most beneficial and that's because it's giving you a dollar for dollar reduction of your tax liability. For example, a tax credit that's valued at $2,000, such as the child tax credit, lowers your tax bill by $2,000. That's great. A tax deduction also lowers your tax bill, but not one for one. It depends on your tax bracket, how much you'll get out of a tax deduction. If you fall into the 12% tax bracket, a $1,000 deduction saves you $120. There are important differences among tax credits as well. There's a tax credit that is called nonrefundable. What that means is if you don't owe very much in taxes and you get a tax credit, but it takes you below zero on your tax bill, you're not going to get a refund of the difference. For example, say you have an $800 tax bill and you get a $1,000 nonrefundable credit, that doesn't mean that you're going to get $200 back from the government. That's a nonrefundable credit. But there are some credits that are refundable. That means that if you have that $800 tax bill, you get a $1,000 tax credit and it's refundable, you get $200 back from the government. Some of the most popular refundable credits are the earned income tax credit, also called EITC and the child tax credit. The IRS has specific requirements for you to qualify for both nonrefundable and refundable credits, so you need to look into that. Then there are deductions. There several different types of deduction. The big one that you're probably familiar with, as most taxpayers are, is the standard deduction. It's the one-size-fits-all reduction in the amount of your taxable income. You don't really have to do anything to qualify for the standard deduction. You just can take it. For single taxpayers this year, it's $12,200; for those married filing jointly, 24,404; and for heads of household, it's $18,350. You can claim the standard deduction on your regular form 1040, which is the basic tax form that you use. Other deductions that you might take, you have to itemize your taxes. You don't take the standard deduction in this case. You will be taking all these other smaller deductions that should add up to more than the standard deduction for it to be beneficial for you. There is a deduction for the state and local taxes that you pay. That's capped at $10,000, which is the second year that it's been capped. There is a deduction for the mortgage interest that you pay during the year. There's a deduction for medical expenses. As long as you spent enough on your medical expenses during the year to reach the threshold, then you can deduct some of those costs. Everybody's probably heard of a deduction for charitable donations. That also exists. If you end up itemizing your deductions, it's going to be a little bit more work when it comes to filing your taxes because you have to make sure you have the required documentation for all of those things, such as the mortgage interest. You need to know how much mortgage interest you paid during the year. You have to have documentation that you donated so much to a charity. For those of you who are self-employed, deductions are probably very important to you. Anything that you spent on your business can be deducted. For example, if you use a room in your house as your office, a certain amount of your heating bill, a certain amount of the mortgage that you pay or rent that you pay, may be deductible. If you have a phone line that's dedicated to your business, also, that cost can be deductible. Over the years, there've been very interesting deductions that people have taken and that the IRS approved. For example, a Wisconsin bodybuilder deducted almost $14,000 for the cost of body oils, including a tanning product. This was from 1999 to 2001, because it helped his career. The US tax court okayed these business expenses because they were used for his business. It's really important to make sure that the deductions you make are not exaggerated and that you do have that proof. Anytime deductions that are a little bit higher than they should be will raise the eyebrows at the IRS, especially if you fudge the mortgage interest that you paid or charitable contributions. The IRS will definitely lookout for that. Agency uses statistical algorithms to make sure that your deductions are in line with your income. If they're too high, they may send a letter asking for more documentation. This is especially true when it comes to business expenses. People seem to think that there's a lot of wiggle room when it comes to reporting that. You don't want to claim more deductions than your profits, for example, or writing off 100% of an item as a business expense that is often used personally, such as your cellphone or your car. That also will be a red flag to the IRS. That's all for tax credits and deductions. This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and Turbo Tax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening. What are the tax brackets this year? Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts Janna Herron: This is Taxes Made Simple by Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. I'm Janna Herron. What are the tax brackets for this year? In general, I think tax brackets are a little confusing because they're not just flat rates. Let's go over what the tax brackets are this year. Maybe then, I can explain how tax brackets work. What are the tax brackets this year? Tax brackets are pretty complicated. It's not just a flat rate. We'll get into that in a minute. The easy answer is there are seven federal tax brackets. This is how it goes. It depends on your filing status, so whether you're filing as a single, married, filing jointly, or as a head of household. The seven rates are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. The easiest tax bracket to understand is 10% or the lowest one. If you're a single taxpayer, and you make less than $9,700, your tax rate on that entire amount is 10%. If you make more than that, say you make $15,000, the first $9,699 will be taxed at 10% which is the lowest tax bracket. Then the remaining amount will be taxed at the next highest tax bracket which is 12%. Which tax bracket you belong in depends on both your income and whether you file as a single taxpayer, a married but filing jointly, or head of household. The income thresholds are different for those three types of taxpayers. Let's start with a single taxpayer. The lowest tax bracket is 10%. Those who make under $9,700 pay that 10% tax rate. Single taxpayers who make between $9,700 and $39,474 are subject to the 12% tax rate. Single taxpayers who make between $39,475 and $84,199 are subject to the 22% tax rate. For those who make between $84,200 and $160,724 are subject to the 24% tax bracket. Those making between $160,725 and $204,099 are subject to the 32% tax bracket. Single taxpayers who make between $204,100 and $510,299 are subject to the 35% tax rate. Those who make over $510,300 are subject to the 37% tax rate. What's important to remember is that if you're in a higher tax rate, not all of your dollars that you earn are taxed at that rate. That would be a flat rate type of taxation. In the United States, we have a progressive tax rate. I'm going to break it down really, really easily. Let's say you make $100,000, and your first tax bracket is at 10% up to $25,000. The second tax bracket is 12% up to $75,000. Then your last tax bracket is 15% up to $100,000. So you don't pay 15% on all of your $100,000 that you make. On the first $25,000 that you make, you're subject to the 10% tax rate. Then the earnings between $25,001 to $75,000 is subject to the 12% tax rate. Then everything else up to $100,000 that you've earned in a year is subject to the 15% tax rate. The income thresholds for heads of households are higher than those for single taxpayers for each of the tax brackets. They're even higher for the married individuals filing joint returns for each of their tax brackets. That's because you have two people filing a joint return. The income thresholds usually change year by year to adjust for inflation. So what the income threshold for your tax bracket this year may not be the same as next year. Also, if you get a raise, a new job, a promotion, or your spouse starts to work, that might throw you into a higher tax bracket. You'll see your taxes go up. That's all for tax brackets. This is Taxes Made Simple from Yahoo Finance and TurboTax. Please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review there. Until next time, thanks for listening. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts || Seychelles’ Stock Exchange Will List Ethereum Tokens Representing Supercars: Hankering for a Ferrari? Well, the only licensed stock exchange in Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, is listing tokenized collectible cars worth over $200 million for retail and institutional investors. MERJ said Friday it is partnering with CurioInvest, a tokenization platform building on ethereum, to create tokens representing shares in “supercars” like the Ferrari. While the sale is open to institutional and retail investors, purchases are expected to be driven by institutional investors and those from regions with restrictions on auto imports, such as China. A $1.1 million Ferrari F12tdf will be the first car listed on the exchange, and MERJ said it might list as many as 500 vehicles. Related: Nomura Launching Benchmark for Japan’s Crypto Assets MERJ claims to be one of the first compliant national exchanges to list its own tokenized equity on the ethereum blockchain. It said investors will have direct access to the exchange through a computer or mobile app. Its institutional clients can gain access via traditional broker channels. The exchange said the listings will enable more people to invest in rare and luxury cars, which has been an asset class otherwise inaccessible to the vast majority of investors. “With the partnership, we are creating an access point for these investors that is compliant through the full cycle of exchange, clearing, settlement and registry,” Jim Needham, head of digital strategy at MERJ Exchange, said in a statement. Related Stories Decred’s Akin Sawyerr Says Blockchain Is Part of Africa’s Political Future What Do Women Want? More Educational Materials Before Investing in Bitcoin First Tokenized IPO Launches on National Stock Exchange || Seychelles’ Stock Exchange Will List Ethereum Tokens Representing Supercars: Hankering for a Ferrari? Well, the only licensed stock exchange in Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, is listing tokenized collectible cars worth over $200 million for retail and institutional investors.
MERJ said Friday it is partnering with CurioInvest, a tokenization platform building on ethereum, to create tokens representing shares in “supercars” like the Ferrari. While the sale is open to institutional and retail investors, purchases are expected to be driven by institutional investors and those from regions with restrictions on auto imports, such as China.
A $1.1 million Ferrari F12tdf will be the first car listed on the exchange, and MERJ said it might list as many as 500 vehicles.
Related:Nomura Launching Benchmark for Japan’s Crypto Assets
MERJ claims to be one of the first compliant national exchanges to list its own tokenized equity on the ethereum blockchain. It said investors will have direct access to the exchange through a computer or mobile app. Its institutional clients can gain access via traditional broker channels.
The exchange said the listings will enable more people to invest in rare and luxury cars, which has been an asset class otherwise inaccessible to the vast majority of investors.
“With the partnership, we are creating an access point for these investors that is compliant through the full cycle of exchange, clearing, settlement and registry,” Jim Needham, head of digital strategy at MERJ Exchange, said in a statement.
• Decred’s Akin Sawyerr Says Blockchain Is Part of Africa’s Political Future
• What Do Women Want? More Educational Materials Before Investing in Bitcoin
• First Tokenized IPO Launches on National Stock Exchange || US Federal Court Judge Allows UnitedCorp to Continue its Antitrust Suit against Bitmain, Kraken, Roger Ver and the ABC Bitcoin Cash Development Team: Court grants leave for UnitedCorp to submit an amended complaint Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - January 31, 2020) - Miami-based United American Corp ("UnitedCorp") ( OTC Pink: UAMA ) announced today that in a ruling issued by Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley of the US District Court, Southern District of Florida on January 28, 2020, the Judge allowed UnitedCorp to continue its antitrust lawsuit originally filed against Bitmain Group, Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Jihan Wu, Kraken, Jesse Powell, Amaury Sechet, Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox (the "Defendants"). UnitedCorp will have 30 days to submit an amended complaint to address certain issues brought up by the Court after it granted without prejudice the motion to dismiss. The Court also rejected a motion from counsel of the Bitmain Group and Jihan Wu to have them excluded from the complaint due a one-week delay in service in China. In a related ruling on January 21, 2020 the Court denied a motion by UnitedCorp without prejudice for a 90-day extension to serve foreign defendants Saint Bitts LLC and Amaury Sechet. The two rulings mean that the complaints can be amended but will not include the two defendants that could not be served in foreign jurisdictions. This ruling comes as the result of a motion presented by the Defendants one year ago on February 1, 2019 to dismiss the complaint in its entirety with prejudice. While the Judge recognized that there were some deficiencies in the initial UnitedCorp complaint which needed further definition in terms of the Defendants' actions and the injuries to the company, UnitedCorp believes the Court recognized that prima facie, there were key questions of law that needed to be addressed and defined in the emerging cryptocurrency industry. During the hearing, the Judge questioned defense counsel on the role of Kraken as an exchange had in defining the cryptocurrency market and subsequently did not accept, for now, Kraken's assertion that it had no role in the market and therefore could not be part of the antitrust complaint. Story continues Judge McAliley also did not accept for the time being, assertions made by counsels for Ver, Cox and Chancellor that the Defendants' actions by implementing Checkpoints in the software code, amongst other things, resulted in two competitive chains, therefore there were no antitrust issues to be evaluated since the action would have resulted in increased competition. The Court questioned furthermore, whether those actions are now preventing future changes in consensus rules and if the Bitcoin ABC software patch on November 15, 2018 was applied to both network nodes and exchanges. The Court raised questions about the market value in the Bitcoin Cash ticker (BCH) at the time of the hard fork and questioned if Kraken would have benefited from its delisting of the resulting coin (Bitcoin SV - "BSV") thereby discouraging trading of BSV just after the hard fork. The Judge continued to questioned counsel for Kraken on the economic basis for the decision to delist Bitcoin SV as well as its arguments to the effect that BSV would have been unstable with lack of liquidity since this seemed to be the case for many other cryptocurrencies traded on Kraken - not just BSV. In its defense Kraken counsel argued that it was obliged to disclose to their clients that it believed there was a lack of liquidity in the BSV market which required the immediate delisting of BSV, an argument which was not accepted by the Court at this stage in the proceedings. One of the more interesting points raised by the Judge in the hearing was whether the US Federal Court could rule on whether or not the Satoshi Nakamoto White Paper of October 31, 2008 (the "White Paper") which initially defined Bitcoin, could be considered as a binding contract or rules among the users in the Bitcoin industry. The Court left open the possibility that this question might have to be addressed at some point. "We are very pleased with the outcome of the January 28th hearing and that the Court has given us the opportunity to provide additional information and resubmit an amended complaint," stated Benoit Laliberte, President and CEO of UnitedCorp. "We believe the Court has recognized the importance of establishing law in what has been to date, a fairly undefined environment. Bitcoin was developed as a decentralized and distributed peer-to-peer electronic cash system operating under democratic principles created within the network. Any move to centralize or control the network is against its very philosophy and foundation. We are very encouraged by the interest this has generated from antitrust professionals, most of whom agree that this suit is very timely given that antitrust laws are now almost 100 years old, and furthermore that it is time to assess the limits and legality of actions within the cryptocurrency industry." Background to the Suit The suit, which was launched on December 6, 2018, is the first antitrust action brought in the United States involving the cryptocurrency industry and is being closely watched by antitrust professionals and the cryptocurrency world. It alleges that the Defendants collectively engaged in unfair methods of competition, and through a series of deceptive and unfair practices, manipulated the Bitcoin Cash network for their benefit and to the detriment of UnitedCorp and other Bitcoin Cash stakeholders. It further alleges that these actions resulted in the network losing more than US $4 billion in unrecoverable value to network participants at the time as a direct result of the alleged hijacking of the network. This, in addition to a forced network fork with the implementation of their specific new rules set in the Bitcoin ABC 0.18.5 version under the control of the Defendants. UnitedCorp alleges that these new rules set have irreparably harmed the Bitcoin Cash blockchain network and Bitmain, along with the co-Defendants, should be held liable. UnitedCorp alleges that the Defendants colluded to effectively hijack the Bitcoin Cash network after the November 15, 2018 scheduled software update with the express intent of centralizing the network. This includes allegations that Roger Ver, along with Kraken and developers of Bitcoin ABC, colluded with Chinese-based and Chinese government-financed mining rig manufacturer Bitmain to unfairly redirect hashing power at the exact moment of the scheduled software update, forcing the implementation of Bitcoin ABC software centric checkpoints and thereby moving the network away from its native Bitcoin-based blockchain design. UnitedCorp also believes that the attempt to dominate the network in favor of a particular Bitcoin ABC version was enhanced by Bitmain's use of firmware known as "Overt ASICBoost" which provides significantly increased operational mining efficiency. This firmware was made available in advance of the last Bitcoin Cash update by Bitmain only to Bitcoin ABC-supported pools, which are operated by Bitcoin.com which is owned by Roger Ver. Overt ASICBoost was not usable by other Bitcoin Cash pools in a time frame that would have allowed them to apply the efficiency during the software upgrade. This gave the Bitcoin ABC-Bitmain-Bitcoin.com group-supported pools a significant advantage and allowed them to accomplish the network control centralization plan. UnitedCorp alleges that these activities are evidence of not only a violation of the accepted standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception, but a violation of US antitrust laws, including parts of the Sherman Act. In their motion to dismiss, the Defendants had argued that the UnitedCorp action did not meet the standards to proceed. In its opposition to dismiss, UnitedCorp provided a significant number of details to support the suit including evidence that the Defendants themselves made explicit statements declaring that they coordinated, conspired and agreed with each other. This included a YouTube video from an online forum where Andreas Brekken, a Kraken software engineer, acknowledges that Bitcoin ABC developers and crypto exchanges such as Kraken agreed to the entire scheme in advance. In the video, Brekken further admits that the scheme had been planned for a long time and included a software patch that could be applied by the exchanges at a strategic point during the software update which "prevents all future re-orgs" - in other words which allows control of the network. UnitedCorp's filing also provides support for the allegation that the Defendants' collective actions were for unlawful purposes and in an attempt to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash, violated consensus rules regarding voting and precluded any future changes to Bitcoin Cash functionality and changes to the consensus rules. The actions are compared to the illegal action of "bid rigging" in that Bitmain "mercenary" miners were temporarily redeployed to the Bitcoin Cash network during the software upgrade for the sole purpose of diluting the traditional voting process exercised by existing Bitcoin Cash nodes to dominate the process for a short period of time. This violated the established ground rules of the network that others had respected and relied on for years. The Bitcoin White Paper clearly states that "Nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone. They vote with their CPU power, expressing their acceptance of valid blocks by working on extending them and rejecting invalid blocks by refusing to work on them. Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism." Therefore, the use of CPU power that was never part of the network prior to the network upgrade could not possibly have "rejoined" the network for the voting process. The transient spike in CPU power could only have been achieved at that time through deliberate and coordinated manipulation by the Defendants. About United American Corp Established in 1992, United American Corp is a Florida-based development and management company focusing on telecommunications and information technologies. The company currently holds the rights to manage a portfolio of patents and proprietary technology in telecommunications, social media and Blockchain technology, and owns and operates the Data Center Domes which are designed to provide heat for agricultural operations using computer equipment in naturally cooled data centers where efficiency and low-cost operations are a priority. This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors that may be beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances in management's expectations or opinions change. Source: United American Corp Contact: Investor Relations [email protected] To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52000 || US Federal Court Judge Allows UnitedCorp to Continue its Antitrust Suit against Bitmain, Kraken, Roger Ver and the ABC Bitcoin Cash Development Team: Court grants leave for UnitedCorp to submit an amended complaint
Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - January 31, 2020) - Miami-based United American Corp ("UnitedCorp") (OTC Pink: UAMA) announced today that in a ruling issued by Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley of the US District Court, Southern District of Florida on January 28, 2020, the Judge allowed UnitedCorp to continue its antitrust lawsuit originally filed against Bitmain Group, Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Jihan Wu, Kraken, Jesse Powell, Amaury Sechet, Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox (the "Defendants"). UnitedCorp will have 30 days to submit an amended complaint to address certain issues brought up by the Court after it granted without prejudice the motion to dismiss.
The Court also rejected a motion from counsel of the Bitmain Group and Jihan Wu to have them excluded from the complaint due a one-week delay in service in China. In a related ruling on January 21, 2020 the Court denied a motion by UnitedCorp without prejudice for a 90-day extension to serve foreign defendants Saint Bitts LLC and Amaury Sechet.
The two rulings mean that the complaints can be amended but will not include the two defendants that could not be served in foreign jurisdictions. This ruling comes as the result of a motion presented by the Defendants one year ago on February 1, 2019 to dismiss the complaint in its entirety with prejudice.
While the Judge recognized that there were some deficiencies in the initial UnitedCorp complaint which needed further definition in terms of the Defendants' actions and the injuries to the company, UnitedCorp believes the Court recognized thatprima facie,there were key questions of law that needed to be addressed and defined in the emerging cryptocurrency industry.
During the hearing, the Judge questioned defense counsel on the role of Kraken as an exchange had in defining the cryptocurrency market and subsequently did not accept, for now, Kraken's assertion that it had no role in the market and therefore could not be part of the antitrust complaint.
Judge McAliley also did not accept for the time being, assertions made by counsels for Ver, Cox and Chancellor that the Defendants' actions by implementing Checkpoints in the software code, amongst other things, resulted in two competitive chains, therefore there were no antitrust issues to be evaluated since the action would have resulted in increased competition. The Court questioned furthermore, whether those actions are now preventing future changes in consensus rules and if the Bitcoin ABC software patch on November 15, 2018 was applied to both network nodes and exchanges.
The Court raised questions about the market value in the Bitcoin Cash ticker (BCH) at the time of the hard fork and questioned if Kraken would have benefited from its delisting of the resulting coin (Bitcoin SV - "BSV") thereby discouraging trading of BSV just after the hard fork.
The Judge continued to questioned counsel for Kraken on the economic basis for the decision to delist Bitcoin SV as well as its arguments to the effect that BSV would have been unstable with lack of liquidity since this seemed to be the case for many other cryptocurrencies traded on Kraken - not just BSV.
In its defense Kraken counsel argued that it was obliged to disclose to their clients that it believed there was a lack of liquidity in the BSV market which required the immediate delisting of BSV, an argument which was not accepted by the Court at this stage in the proceedings.
One of the more interesting points raised by the Judge in the hearing was whether the US Federal Court could rule on whether or not the Satoshi Nakamoto White Paper of October 31, 2008 (the "White Paper") which initially defined Bitcoin, could be considered as a binding contract or rules among the users in the Bitcoin industry. The Court left open the possibility that this question might have to be addressed at some point.
"We are very pleased with the outcome of the January 28th hearing and that the Court has given us the opportunity to provide additional information and resubmit an amended complaint," stated Benoit Laliberte, President and CEO of UnitedCorp. "We believe the Court has recognized the importance of establishing law in what has been to date, a fairly undefined environment. Bitcoin was developed as a decentralized and distributed peer-to-peer electronic cash system operating under democratic principles created within the network. Any move to centralize or control the network is against its very philosophy and foundation. We are very encouraged by the interest this has generated from antitrust professionals, most of whom agree that this suit is very timely given that antitrust laws are now almost 100 years old, and furthermore that it is time to assess the limits and legality of actions within the cryptocurrency industry."
Background to the Suit
The suit, which was launched on December 6, 2018, is the first antitrust action brought in the United States involving the cryptocurrency industry and is being closely watched by antitrust professionals and the cryptocurrency world.
It alleges that the Defendants collectively engaged in unfair methods of competition, and through a series of deceptive and unfair practices, manipulated the Bitcoin Cash network for their benefit and to the detriment of UnitedCorp and other Bitcoin Cash stakeholders. It further alleges that these actions resulted in the network losing more than US $4 billion in unrecoverable value to network participants at the time as a direct result of the alleged hijacking of the network. This, in addition to a forced network fork with the implementation of their specific new rules set in the Bitcoin ABC 0.18.5 version under the control of the Defendants. UnitedCorp alleges that these new rules set have irreparably harmed the Bitcoin Cash blockchain network and Bitmain, along with the co-Defendants, should be held liable.
UnitedCorp alleges that the Defendants colluded to effectively hijack the Bitcoin Cash network after the November 15, 2018 scheduled software update with the express intent of centralizing the network. This includes allegations that Roger Ver, along with Kraken and developers of Bitcoin ABC, colluded with Chinese-based and Chinese government-financed mining rig manufacturer Bitmain to unfairly redirect hashing power at the exact moment of the scheduled software update, forcing the implementation of Bitcoin ABC software centric checkpoints and thereby moving the network away from its native Bitcoin-based blockchain design.
UnitedCorp also believes that the attempt to dominate the network in favor of a particular Bitcoin ABC version was enhanced by Bitmain's use of firmware known as "Overt ASICBoost" which provides significantly increased operational mining efficiency. This firmware was made available in advance of the last Bitcoin Cash update by Bitmain only to Bitcoin ABC-supported pools, which are operated by Bitcoin.com which is owned by Roger Ver. Overt ASICBoost was not usable by other Bitcoin Cash pools in a time frame that would have allowed them to apply the efficiency during the software upgrade. This gave the Bitcoin ABC-Bitmain-Bitcoin.com group-supported pools a significant advantage and allowed them to accomplish the network control centralization plan.
UnitedCorp alleges that these activities are evidence of not only a violation of the accepted standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception, but a violation of US antitrust laws, including parts of the Sherman Act.
In their motion to dismiss, the Defendants had argued that the UnitedCorp action did not meet the standards to proceed.
In its opposition to dismiss, UnitedCorp provided a significant number of details to support the suit including evidence that the Defendants themselves made explicit statements declaring that they coordinated, conspired and agreed with each other. This included a YouTube video from an online forum where Andreas Brekken, a Kraken software engineer, acknowledges that Bitcoin ABC developers and crypto exchanges such as Kraken agreed to the entire scheme in advance. In the video, Brekken further admits that the scheme had been planned for a long time and included a software patch that could be applied by the exchanges at a strategic point during the software update which "prevents all future re-orgs" - in other words which allows control of the network.
UnitedCorp's filing also provides support for the allegation that the Defendants' collective actions were for unlawful purposes and in an attempt to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash, violated consensus rules regarding voting and precluded any future changes to Bitcoin Cash functionality and changes to the consensus rules. The actions are compared to the illegal action of "bid rigging" in that Bitmain "mercenary" miners were temporarily redeployed to the Bitcoin Cash network during the software upgrade for the sole purpose of diluting the traditional voting process exercised by existing Bitcoin Cash nodes to dominate the process for a short period of time. This violated the established ground rules of the network that others had respected and relied on for years.
The Bitcoin White Paper clearly states that "Nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone. They vote with their CPU power, expressing their acceptance of valid blocks by working on extending them and rejecting invalid blocks by refusing to work on them. Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism." Therefore, the use of CPU power that was never part of the network prior to the network upgrade could not possibly have "rejoined" the network for the voting process. The transient spike in CPU power could only have been achieved at that time through deliberate and coordinated manipulation by the Defendants.
About United American Corp
Established in 1992, United American Corp is a Florida-based development and management company focusing on telecommunications and information technologies. The company currently holds the rights to manage a portfolio of patents and proprietary technology in telecommunications, social media and Blockchain technology, and owns and operates the Data Center Domes which are designed to provide heat for agricultural operations using computer equipment in naturally cooled data centers where efficiency and low-cost operations are a priority.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors that may be beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances in management's expectations or opinions change.
Source:United American CorpContact:Investor [email protected]
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52000 || US Federal Court Judge Allows UnitedCorp to Continue its Antitrust Suit against Bitmain, Kraken, Roger Ver and the ABC Bitcoin Cash Development Team: Court grants leave for UnitedCorp to submit an amended complaint
Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - January 31, 2020) - Miami-based United American Corp ("UnitedCorp") (OTC Pink: UAMA) announced today that in a ruling issued by Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley of the US District Court, Southern District of Florida on January 28, 2020, the Judge allowed UnitedCorp to continue its antitrust lawsuit originally filed against Bitmain Group, Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Jihan Wu, Kraken, Jesse Powell, Amaury Sechet, Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox (the "Defendants"). UnitedCorp will have 30 days to submit an amended complaint to address certain issues brought up by the Court after it granted without prejudice the motion to dismiss.
The Court also rejected a motion from counsel of the Bitmain Group and Jihan Wu to have them excluded from the complaint due a one-week delay in service in China. In a related ruling on January 21, 2020 the Court denied a motion by UnitedCorp without prejudice for a 90-day extension to serve foreign defendants Saint Bitts LLC and Amaury Sechet.
The two rulings mean that the complaints can be amended but will not include the two defendants that could not be served in foreign jurisdictions. This ruling comes as the result of a motion presented by the Defendants one year ago on February 1, 2019 to dismiss the complaint in its entirety with prejudice.
While the Judge recognized that there were some deficiencies in the initial UnitedCorp complaint which needed further definition in terms of the Defendants' actions and the injuries to the company, UnitedCorp believes the Court recognized thatprima facie,there were key questions of law that needed to be addressed and defined in the emerging cryptocurrency industry.
During the hearing, the Judge questioned defense counsel on the role of Kraken as an exchange had in defining the cryptocurrency market and subsequently did not accept, for now, Kraken's assertion that it had no role in the market and therefore could not be part of the antitrust complaint.
Judge McAliley also did not accept for the time being, assertions made by counsels for Ver, Cox and Chancellor that the Defendants' actions by implementing Checkpoints in the software code, amongst other things, resulted in two competitive chains, therefore there were no antitrust issues to be evaluated since the action would have resulted in increased competition. The Court questioned furthermore, whether those actions are now preventing future changes in consensus rules and if the Bitcoin ABC software patch on November 15, 2018 was applied to both network nodes and exchanges.
The Court raised questions about the market value in the Bitcoin Cash ticker (BCH) at the time of the hard fork and questioned if Kraken would have benefited from its delisting of the resulting coin (Bitcoin SV - "BSV") thereby discouraging trading of BSV just after the hard fork.
The Judge continued to questioned counsel for Kraken on the economic basis for the decision to delist Bitcoin SV as well as its arguments to the effect that BSV would have been unstable with lack of liquidity since this seemed to be the case for many other cryptocurrencies traded on Kraken - not just BSV.
In its defense Kraken counsel argued that it was obliged to disclose to their clients that it believed there was a lack of liquidity in the BSV market which required the immediate delisting of BSV, an argument which was not accepted by the Court at this stage in the proceedings.
One of the more interesting points raised by the Judge in the hearing was whether the US Federal Court could rule on whether or not the Satoshi Nakamoto White Paper of October 31, 2008 (the "White Paper") which initially defined Bitcoin, could be considered as a binding contract or rules among the users in the Bitcoin industry. The Court left open the possibility that this question might have to be addressed at some point.
"We are very pleased with the outcome of the January 28th hearing and that the Court has given us the opportunity to provide additional information and resubmit an amended complaint," stated Benoit Laliberte, President and CEO of UnitedCorp. "We believe the Court has recognized the importance of establishing law in what has been to date, a fairly undefined environment. Bitcoin was developed as a decentralized and distributed peer-to-peer electronic cash system operating under democratic principles created within the network. Any move to centralize or control the network is against its very philosophy and foundation. We are very encouraged by the interest this has generated from antitrust professionals, most of whom agree that this suit is very timely given that antitrust laws are now almost 100 years old, and furthermore that it is time to assess the limits and legality of actions within the cryptocurrency industry."
Background to the Suit
The suit, which was launched on December 6, 2018, is the first antitrust action brought in the United States involving the cryptocurrency industry and is being closely watched by antitrust professionals and the cryptocurrency world.
It alleges that the Defendants collectively engaged in unfair methods of competition, and through a series of deceptive and unfair practices, manipulated the Bitcoin Cash network for their benefit and to the detriment of UnitedCorp and other Bitcoin Cash stakeholders. It further alleges that these actions resulted in the network losing more than US $4 billion in unrecoverable value to network participants at the time as a direct result of the alleged hijacking of the network. This, in addition to a forced network fork with the implementation of their specific new rules set in the Bitcoin ABC 0.18.5 version under the control of the Defendants. UnitedCorp alleges that these new rules set have irreparably harmed the Bitcoin Cash blockchain network and Bitmain, along with the co-Defendants, should be held liable.
UnitedCorp alleges that the Defendants colluded to effectively hijack the Bitcoin Cash network after the November 15, 2018 scheduled software update with the express intent of centralizing the network. This includes allegations that Roger Ver, along with Kraken and developers of Bitcoin ABC, colluded with Chinese-based and Chinese government-financed mining rig manufacturer Bitmain to unfairly redirect hashing power at the exact moment of the scheduled software update, forcing the implementation of Bitcoin ABC software centric checkpoints and thereby moving the network away from its native Bitcoin-based blockchain design.
UnitedCorp also believes that the attempt to dominate the network in favor of a particular Bitcoin ABC version was enhanced by Bitmain's use of firmware known as "Overt ASICBoost" which provides significantly increased operational mining efficiency. This firmware was made available in advance of the last Bitcoin Cash update by Bitmain only to Bitcoin ABC-supported pools, which are operated by Bitcoin.com which is owned by Roger Ver. Overt ASICBoost was not usable by other Bitcoin Cash pools in a time frame that would have allowed them to apply the efficiency during the software upgrade. This gave the Bitcoin ABC-Bitmain-Bitcoin.com group-supported pools a significant advantage and allowed them to accomplish the network control centralization plan.
UnitedCorp alleges that these activities are evidence of not only a violation of the accepted standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception, but a violation of US antitrust laws, including parts of the Sherman Act.
In their motion to dismiss, the Defendants had argued that the UnitedCorp action did not meet the standards to proceed.
In its opposition to dismiss, UnitedCorp provided a significant number of details to support the suit including evidence that the Defendants themselves made explicit statements declaring that they coordinated, conspired and agreed with each other. This included a YouTube video from an online forum where Andreas Brekken, a Kraken software engineer, acknowledges that Bitcoin ABC developers and crypto exchanges such as Kraken agreed to the entire scheme in advance. In the video, Brekken further admits that the scheme had been planned for a long time and included a software patch that could be applied by the exchanges at a strategic point during the software update which "prevents all future re-orgs" - in other words which allows control of the network.
UnitedCorp's filing also provides support for the allegation that the Defendants' collective actions were for unlawful purposes and in an attempt to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash, violated consensus rules regarding voting and precluded any future changes to Bitcoin Cash functionality and changes to the consensus rules. The actions are compared to the illegal action of "bid rigging" in that Bitmain "mercenary" miners were temporarily redeployed to the Bitcoin Cash network during the software upgrade for the sole purpose of diluting the traditional voting process exercised by existing Bitcoin Cash nodes to dominate the process for a short period of time. This violated the established ground rules of the network that others had respected and relied on for years.
The Bitcoin White Paper clearly states that "Nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone. They vote with their CPU power, expressing their acceptance of valid blocks by working on extending them and rejecting invalid blocks by refusing to work on them. Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism." Therefore, the use of CPU power that was never part of the network prior to the network upgrade could not possibly have "rejoined" the network for the voting process. The transient spike in CPU power could only have been achieved at that time through deliberate and coordinated manipulation by the Defendants.
About United American Corp
Established in 1992, United American Corp is a Florida-based development and management company focusing on telecommunications and information technologies. The company currently holds the rights to manage a portfolio of patents and proprietary technology in telecommunications, social media and Blockchain technology, and owns and operates the Data Center Domes which are designed to provide heat for agricultural operations using computer equipment in naturally cooled data centers where efficiency and low-cost operations are a priority.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors that may be beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances in management's expectations or opinions change.
Source:United American CorpContact:Investor [email protected]
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52000 || Bitcoin Startup Casa Names New CEO as Node Service Goes Open-Source: Bitcoin startup Casa is charging into 2020 with a new look – by winding down its hardware product and shuffling its front office.
CEO Jeremy Welch is stepping down from the role with current head of product Nick Neuman taking the helm. CTO Jameson Lopp will remain in his current position but will join the board along with Neuman.
Welch’s decision to step away from his position was linked to personal matters and not the firm’s product decisions, Welch and Neuman said.
Related:Few Banks Will Touch Crypto Firms, but Silvergate Wants to Touch Bitcoin Itself
Meanwhile, Casa is getting rid of its node; well, at least its physical implementation.
Neuman told CoinDesk in an interview the firm will ditch itspurple-and-white hardware productin favor of bolstering its subscription service. Welch told CoinDesk in October the company had shipped more than 2,000 devices to buyers in over 65 countries.
Casa Node will now be run on open-source software available on most any computer which can be paired with a $10 monthly subscription to its key service. As Neuman said, it’s equivalent to bitcoin key management for the cost of a Netflix subscription.
When asked about possible revenue concerns – given that the lowest Casa Node package currently runs for just under $400 – Neuman said the firm is looking to capitalize on a strong 2019. For Casa, that means learning from its customers.
Related:Coinbase Custody Goes International With New Entity in Ireland
“A lot of people weren’t coming to us for the cost. They were coming to us for the security, the peace of mind,” Neuman said. “We don’t expect this to materially affect our revenue as a company.”
As for other Casa Node features, Neuman said the firm is close to integrating withColdcard, a bitcoin-only wallet. Generational bitcoin payment plans via inheritance services and different service accounts similar to a checking and savings account are also in the lineup, he said.
“Our main focus is around the success that we’ve seen so far and the growth that we expect to continue to see through this year,” Neuman said.
• Crypto Custody Provider Ledger Extends Reach in Asia With New Institutional Client
• Swiss Banks Enter the Age of Bitcoin || Bitcoin Startup Casa Names New CEO as Node Service Goes Open-Source: Bitcoin startup Casa is charging into 2020 with a new look by winding down its hardware product and shuffling its front office. CEO Jeremy Welch is stepping down from the role with current head of product Nick Neuman taking the helm. CTO Jameson Lopp will remain in his current position but will join the board along with Neuman. Welchs decision to step away from his position was linked to personal matters and not the firms product decisions, Welch and Neuman said. Related: Few Banks Will Touch Crypto Firms, but Silvergate Wants to Touch Bitcoin Itself Meanwhile, Casa is getting rid of its node; well, at least its physical implementation. Neuman told CoinDesk in an interview the firm will ditch its purple-and-white hardware product in favor of bolstering its subscription service. Welch told CoinDesk in October the company had shipped more than 2,000 devices to buyers in over 65 countries. Casa Node will now be run on open-source software available on most any computer which can be paired with a $10 monthly subscription to its key service. As Neuman said, its equivalent to bitcoin key management for the cost of a Netflix subscription. When asked about possible revenue concerns given that the lowest Casa Node package currently runs for just under $400 Neuman said the firm is looking to capitalize on a strong 2019. For Casa, that means learning from its customers. Related: Coinbase Custody Goes International With New Entity in Ireland A lot of people werent coming to us for the cost. They were coming to us for the security, the peace of mind, Neuman said. We dont expect this to materially affect our revenue as a company. As for other Casa Node features, Neuman said the firm is close to integrating with Coldcard , a bitcoin-only wallet. Generational bitcoin payment plans via inheritance services and different service accounts similar to a checking and savings account are also in the lineup, he said. Our main focus is around the success that weve seen so far and the growth that we expect to continue to see through this year, Neuman said. Related Stories Crypto Custody Provider Ledger Extends Reach in Asia With New Institutional Client Swiss Banks Enter the Age of Bitcoin || Bitcoin Startup Casa Names New CEO as Node Service Goes Open-Source: Bitcoin startup Casa is charging into 2020 with a new look – by winding down its hardware product and shuffling its front office.
CEO Jeremy Welch is stepping down from the role with current head of product Nick Neuman taking the helm. CTO Jameson Lopp will remain in his current position but will join the board along with Neuman.
Welch’s decision to step away from his position was linked to personal matters and not the firm’s product decisions, Welch and Neuman said.
Related:Few Banks Will Touch Crypto Firms, but Silvergate Wants to Touch Bitcoin Itself
Meanwhile, Casa is getting rid of its node; well, at least its physical implementation.
Neuman told CoinDesk in an interview the firm will ditch itspurple-and-white hardware productin favor of bolstering its subscription service. Welch told CoinDesk in October the company had shipped more than 2,000 devices to buyers in over 65 countries.
Casa Node will now be run on open-source software available on most any computer which can be paired with a $10 monthly subscription to its key service. As Neuman said, it’s equivalent to bitcoin key management for the cost of a Netflix subscription.
When asked about possible revenue concerns – given that the lowest Casa Node package currently runs for just under $400 – Neuman said the firm is looking to capitalize on a strong 2019. For Casa, that means learning from its customers.
Related:Coinbase Custody Goes International With New Entity in Ireland
“A lot of people weren’t coming to us for the cost. They were coming to us for the security, the peace of mind,” Neuman said. “We don’t expect this to materially affect our revenue as a company.”
As for other Casa Node features, Neuman said the firm is close to integrating withColdcard, a bitcoin-only wallet. Generational bitcoin payment plans via inheritance services and different service accounts similar to a checking and savings account are also in the lineup, he said.
“Our main focus is around the success that we’ve seen so far and the growth that we expect to continue to see through this year,” Neuman said.
• Crypto Custody Provider Ledger Extends Reach in Asia With New Institutional Client
• Swiss Banks Enter the Age of Bitcoin || Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at around $9,300 following an 8% increase in price since Monday. Even though Bitcoin hasn’t been able to break the $10,000 level, the overall panorama is looking quite bullish. Bitcoin now seems to be consolidating above $9,200 and will likely face new resistance just below $10,300. Let’s take a look at Bitcoin’s chart, courtesy of TradingView . Bitcoin has been climbing upwards since the start of the new year, breaking through all its EMAs over the past few weeks after a major rally that took the digital asset from just below $7,000 to over $9,000. Since the start of the year, BTC has grown about 37% in the space of 30 days. However, price needs to continue picking up steam if the hangover from the second half of 2019 is to completely turn around. In addition, Bitcoin’s volume must continue to grow. At the time of writing, it is showing signs of having fully recovered and is now between 50-60% higher than last month – around $32 billion. If Bitcoin is able to maintain the positive trend seen so far this year, we might see it top $10,000 sooner than expected. The current Bitcoin trend This Monday , I underlined that we could see a major pump within the next few days/weeks due to the huge amount of people currently “hodling”. The boost in trading volume means the accumulation cycle could be close to an end and the bull run we’re all waiting for will start sooner than expected. Perhaps we could even break $20,000 before the halving. The upwards movement over the past few days could mean price is looking to pick up again, but it is too early to tell. It seems we already found the bottom (during 2019) and could be making our way towards a mid-term move to the upside. For the time being though, there’s a chance it can go either way . Only if BTC continues to record higher lows will price continue to go up. Hopefully, the 200-day EMA (blue line) will now become support for Bitcoin and BTC will continue to hold above all its EMAs. In addition, I expect the 20-day EMA to cross the 200-day EMA to the upside quite soon, as it has already crossed the 50-day EMA this week. Story continues When this golden cross takes place, my take on the market will considerably shift to the upside. Are the bulls back in town? I strongly believe Bitcoin to be a long-term store of value, especially as traditional markets continue to show weaknesses. How can the markets continue to push higher after the ECB’s recent rate cuts, the continuous share buybacks from huge corporations, or the inverted bond yield shoving investors away towards riskier assets? In addition, repo market activity – as in loans from central banks to commercial and investment banks – has spiked to new monthly records. That adds up to another signal of weakness for the general economy. We shouldn’t forget that the Bitcoin halving is coming in May 2020, which will put extra positive pressure on price as the number of Bitcoin minted per block is halved. The key aspect of the halving event is to work out whether it has already been priced-in by miners. I personally doubt it, since most people (and businesses) have a short-term mindset. Therefore, I see miners pushing for lower prices until the halving takes place. The harder it is to mine until the halving, the more miners will drop off, leaving more room for profits for the players who stay. In conclusion, investors and traders should pay attention to the overall economic panorama, as it will most likely be a major catalyst for worldwide BTC adoption . Safe trades! Current live Bitcoin pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More Bitcoin news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. The post Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at around $9,300 following an 8% increase in price since Monday. Even though Bitcoin hasn’t been able to break the $10,000 level, the overall panorama is looking quite bullish. Bitcoin now seems to be consolidating above $9,200 and will likely face new resistance just below $10,300. Let’s take a look at Bitcoin’s chart, courtesy of TradingView . Bitcoin has been climbing upwards since the start of the new year, breaking through all its EMAs over the past few weeks after a major rally that took the digital asset from just below $7,000 to over $9,000. Since the start of the year, BTC has grown about 37% in the space of 30 days. However, price needs to continue picking up steam if the hangover from the second half of 2019 is to completely turn around. In addition, Bitcoin’s volume must continue to grow. At the time of writing, it is showing signs of having fully recovered and is now between 50-60% higher than last month – around $32 billion. If Bitcoin is able to maintain the positive trend seen so far this year, we might see it top $10,000 sooner than expected. The current Bitcoin trend This Monday , I underlined that we could see a major pump within the next few days/weeks due to the huge amount of people currently “hodling”. The boost in trading volume means the accumulation cycle could be close to an end and the bull run we’re all waiting for will start sooner than expected. Perhaps we could even break $20,000 before the halving. The upwards movement over the past few days could mean price is looking to pick up again, but it is too early to tell. It seems we already found the bottom (during 2019) and could be making our way towards a mid-term move to the upside. For the time being though, there’s a chance it can go either way . Only if BTC continues to record higher lows will price continue to go up. Hopefully, the 200-day EMA (blue line) will now become support for Bitcoin and BTC will continue to hold above all its EMAs. In addition, I expect the 20-day EMA to cross the 200-day EMA to the upside quite soon, as it has already crossed the 50-day EMA this week. Story continues When this golden cross takes place, my take on the market will considerably shift to the upside. Are the bulls back in town? I strongly believe Bitcoin to be a long-term store of value, especially as traditional markets continue to show weaknesses. How can the markets continue to push higher after the ECB’s recent rate cuts, the continuous share buybacks from huge corporations, or the inverted bond yield shoving investors away towards riskier assets? In addition, repo market activity – as in loans from central banks to commercial and investment banks – has spiked to new monthly records. That adds up to another signal of weakness for the general economy. We shouldn’t forget that the Bitcoin halving is coming in May 2020, which will put extra positive pressure on price as the number of Bitcoin minted per block is halved. The key aspect of the halving event is to work out whether it has already been priced-in by miners. I personally doubt it, since most people (and businesses) have a short-term mindset. Therefore, I see miners pushing for lower prices until the halving takes place. The harder it is to mine until the halving, the more miners will drop off, leaving more room for profits for the players who stay. In conclusion, investors and traders should pay attention to the overall economic panorama, as it will most likely be a major catalyst for worldwide BTC adoption . Safe trades! Current live Bitcoin pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More Bitcoin news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. The post Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet .
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 4565.30, 4703.39, 4892.01, 4578.77, 4582.96, 4236.31, 4376.53, 4597.12, 4599.88, 4228.75, 4226.06, 4122.94, 4161.27, 4130.81, 3882.59, 3154.95, 3637.52, 3625.04, 3582.88, 4065.20, 3924.97, 3905.95, 3631.04, 3630.70, 3792.40, 3682.84, 3926.07, 3892.35, 4200.67, 4174.73, 4163.07, 4338.71, 4403.74, 4409.32, 4317.48, 4229.36, 4328.41, 4370.81, 4426.89, 4610.48, 4772.02, 4781.99, 4826.48, 5446.91, 5647.21, 5831.79, 5678.19, 5725.59, 5605.51, 5590.69, 5708.52, 6011.45, 6031.60, 6008.42, 5930.32, 5526.64, 5750.80, 5904.83, 5780.90, 5753.09, 6153.85, 6130.53, 6468.40, 6767.31, 7078.50, 7207.76, 7379.95, 7407.41, 7022.76, 7144.38, 7459.69, 7143.58, 6618.14, 6357.60, 5950.07, 6559.49, 6635.75, 7315.54, 7871.69, 7708.99, 7790.15, 8036.49, 8200.64, 8071.26, 8253.55, 8038.77, 8253.69, 8790.92, 9330.55, 9818.35.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-11-27]
Volume: 5653320192, RSI (14-day): 77.81, 50-day EMA: 6864.66, 200-day EMA: 4486.41
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1293.80, Gold RSI: 55.80
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[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin's post-Thanksgiving surge carries it to a new record high above $9000: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) is getting in on the shopping surge of Thanksgiving weekend. The digital currency soared above $9,400 to a record high Sunday following increased investor interest around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping. Bitcoin rose more than 8 percent to a record high of $9,484.91 according to CoinDesk, and was trading around $9,300 Sunday afternoon. Another digital currency, ethereum, also hit an all-time high of $485.19 Saturday, according to CoinMarketCap. "The move appears to be retail driven," said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy. The largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, added about 100,000 accounts between Wednesday and Friday — just around Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday — to a total of 13.1 million. That's according to public data available on Coinbase's website and historical records compiled by Alistair Milne, co-founder and chief investment officer of Altana Digital Currency Fund. Coinbase had about 4.9 million users last November, Milne's data showed.
Source: Alistair Milne, CNBC analysis of Coinbase data "Anecdotally, everyone I have talked to in the cryptocurrency community has said that Thanksgiving table discussion was all about bitcoin, and that inspired many family members to buy bitcoin," Kelly said. "I suspect that pattern was repeated across tables everywhere." Bitcoin has multiplied more than nine times in value this year, amid increased interest from institutional investors. The world's largest futures exchange, CME, is planning to list bitcoin futures in the second week of December. The launch of a derivatives product for the digital currency will mark another step in establishing bitcoin as a legitimate asset class. Bitcoin one-week performance Source: CoinDesk U.S. dollar-bitcoin trading volume accounts for 24 percent of total trading in the cryptocurrency, according to CryptoCompare. The Japanese yen (: OSEJPY=) has the largest share at 59 percent, while the South Korean won (Exchange: KRW=) comes third at 10 percent, according to the website. The bitcoin offshoot, bitcoin cash , traded slightly lower around $1,592, according to CoinMarketCap.More From CNBC
• Terror to end bitcoin anonymity?
• 'Smart' people and Panama Papers
• Bitcoin mining IPO falls short || Bitcoin's post-Thanksgiving surge carries it to a new record high above $9000: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) is getting in on the shopping surge of Thanksgiving weekend. The digital currency soared above $9,400 to a record high Sunday following increased investor interest around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping. Bitcoin rose more than 8 percent to a record high of $9,484.91 according to CoinDesk, and was trading around $9,300 Sunday afternoon. Another digital currency, ethereum, also hit an all-time high of $485.19 Saturday, according to CoinMarketCap. "The move appears to be retail driven," said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy. The largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, added about 100,000 accounts between Wednesday and Friday just around Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday to a total of 13.1 million. That's according to public data available on Coinbase's website and historical records compiled by Alistair Milne, co-founder and chief investment officer of Altana Digital Currency Fund. Coinbase had about 4.9 million users last November, Milne's data showed. Source: Alistair Milne, CNBC analysis of Coinbase data "Anecdotally, everyone I have talked to in the cryptocurrency community has said that Thanksgiving table discussion was all about bitcoin, and that inspired many family members to buy bitcoin," Kelly said. "I suspect that pattern was repeated across tables everywhere." Bitcoin has multiplied more than nine times in value this year, amid increased interest from institutional investors. The world's largest futures exchange, CME, is planning to list bitcoin futures in the second week of December. The launch of a derivatives product for the digital currency will mark another step in establishing bitcoin as a legitimate asset class. Bitcoin one-week performance Source: CoinDesk U.S. dollar-bitcoin trading volume accounts for 24 percent of total trading in the cryptocurrency, according to CryptoCompare. The Japanese yen (: OSEJPY=) has the largest share at 59 percent, while the South Korean won (Exchange: KRW=) comes third at 10 percent, according to the website. The bitcoin offshoot, bitcoin cash , traded slightly lower around $1,592, according to CoinMarketCap. More From CNBC Terror to end bitcoin anonymity? 'Smart' people and Panama Papers Bitcoin mining IPO falls short || Bitcoin's post-Thanksgiving surge carries it to a new record high above $9000: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) is getting in on the shopping surge of Thanksgiving weekend. The digital currency soared above $9,400 to a record high Sunday following increased investor interest around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping. Bitcoin rose more than 8 percent to a record high of $9,484.91 according to CoinDesk, and was trading around $9,300 Sunday afternoon. Another digital currency, ethereum, also hit an all-time high of $485.19 Saturday, according to CoinMarketCap. "The move appears to be retail driven," said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy. The largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, added about 100,000 accounts between Wednesday and Friday — just around Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday — to a total of 13.1 million. That's according to public data available on Coinbase's website and historical records compiled by Alistair Milne, co-founder and chief investment officer of Altana Digital Currency Fund. Coinbase had about 4.9 million users last November, Milne's data showed.
Source: Alistair Milne, CNBC analysis of Coinbase data "Anecdotally, everyone I have talked to in the cryptocurrency community has said that Thanksgiving table discussion was all about bitcoin, and that inspired many family members to buy bitcoin," Kelly said. "I suspect that pattern was repeated across tables everywhere." Bitcoin has multiplied more than nine times in value this year, amid increased interest from institutional investors. The world's largest futures exchange, CME, is planning to list bitcoin futures in the second week of December. The launch of a derivatives product for the digital currency will mark another step in establishing bitcoin as a legitimate asset class. Bitcoin one-week performance Source: CoinDesk U.S. dollar-bitcoin trading volume accounts for 24 percent of total trading in the cryptocurrency, according to CryptoCompare. The Japanese yen (: OSEJPY=) has the largest share at 59 percent, while the South Korean won (Exchange: KRW=) comes third at 10 percent, according to the website. The bitcoin offshoot, bitcoin cash , traded slightly lower around $1,592, according to CoinMarketCap.More From CNBC
• Terror to end bitcoin anonymity?
• 'Smart' people and Panama Papers
• Bitcoin mining IPO falls short || Stock market preview, November 27: Coming off a holiday-shortened trading week, stocks are at record highs as November nears an end. On Friday, retail stocks led the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to all-time highs as retailers booked $7.9 billion in online sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a 17.9% jump from a year ago. Amazon’s ( AMZN ) 2.6% gain on the day sent CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth north of $100 billion . Retailers will remain in focus as consumers continue their holiday season shopping on Cyber Monday . In the week ahead, the economic calendar will have some of the usual month-end data like auto sales, though the monthly jobs report will not be released this week despite Friday marking the first Friday of a new month. Other economic highlights should include The Conference Board’s consumer confidence reading on Tuesday, the second look at third quarter GDP on Wednesday, and the aforementioned November reading on auto sales due out Friday. On the earnings side, things will be noticeably slower, with highlights coming from Kroger ( KR ), Jack in the Box ( JACK ), Workday ( WDAY ), Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ), and Barnes & Noble ( BKS ). People gather at the Macy’s Herald Square store for the Black Friday sales in Manhattan, New York, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Economic calendar Monday: New home sales, October (-6.8% expected; +18.9% previously); Dallas Fed manufacturing index, November (24 expected; 27.6 previously) Tuesday: FHFA home price index, September (+0.5% expected; +0.7% previously); Case-Shiller home prices, September (+0.3% expected; +0.45% previously); Conference Board consumer confidence, November (123.8 expected; 125.9 previously); Richmond Fed manufacturing index, November (14 expected; 12 previously) Wednesday: Third quarter GDP, second estimate (+3.2% expected; +3% previously); Pending home sales, October (+1.2% expected; +0% previously); Federal Reserve Beige Book Thursday: Initial jobless claims (239,000 previously); Personal income, October (+0.3% expected; +0.4% previously); Personal spending, October (+0.2% expected; +1% previously); “Core” PCE, year-on-year, October (+1.4% expected; +1.3% previously); Chicago PMI, November (62 expected; 66.2 previously) Friday: Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI, November; ISM manufacturing PMI, November (58.3 expected; 58.7 previously); Construction spending, October (+0.5% expected; +0.3% previously); Auto sales, November (17.5 million expected; 18 million previously) Investors are mad for bitcoin Last week, we noted that a prevailing theme in financial markets right now is certainty. There is certainty from consumers about their economic outlook and certainty from Wall Street strategists about how the next year will look for markets. But another side of certainty is hubris. If the only sure things in life are death and taxes, then who is anyone to say what will happen in the economy or the stock market next year? Surely, as we noted, contrarians will see the aligning views on how the future will look as a sign that surprises are ahead for investors. Story continues Now, another aspect of the certainty around what the future will look like that we didn’t address is bitcoin and the enthusiasm around cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies may or may not overtake the modern financial system as we’ve come to know it since the turn of the 21 th century. But the rising price of bitcoin has begun to make the future status of these assets seem like less of a wild card. On Friday, Bespoke Investment Group noted that Coinbase, the most popular platform for trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, now has more accounts than Charles Schwab. Not surprisingly, the number of accounts being opened has surged in the last year as the price of bitcoin has risen ten-fold. Bespoke Clearly, there is investor enthusiasm for bitcoin. But beyond a conviction among many investors that bitcoin prices are going higher, it’s less clear what this enthusiasm really means for bitcoin’s future. A tweet that made the rounds this weekend pointed out that using Alexa rankings, Coindesk — one of the leading sites in the crypto space and a popular source of up-to-date bitcoin price quotes — is bigger than the Financial Times. This data point was then used to argue that cryptocurrencies and bitcoin are taking over the traditional finance industry. Which, sure. Leaving aside almost all other potential issues with using this crude ranking as evidence that traditional finance is in decline relative to cryptocurrencies, a clear problem with this argument is that a raw rise in the popularity of a cryptocurrency website on its own does not signify anything other than that — increasing popularity. But it’s these kinds of leaps of logic that have come to be a feature of the relative certainty with which cryptocurrency evangelists speak about the future of these assets in the global financial industry. The scorn that finance industry leaders like Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink have shown for bitcoin have been used as evidence that these folks are scared of bitcoin’s rise, which we’re told poses an existential threat to their businesses. It would seem more likely, however, that Jamie Dimon simply thinks bitcoin is silly, an opinion he can have and one with which you can disagree. Bespoke writes that the rise in Coinbase accounts shows that, “the idea that crypto-currencies users are just a fringe part of the financial universe is not accurate.” And we wouldn’t argue with that. But the recent rise in the price of bitcoin is largely significant in and of itself — investors are mad for bitcoin. The leaps in confidence being made about bitcoin’s future as a financial asset simply because of its price increase are another side of the certainty that is permeating financial markets today. — Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland Read more from Myles here: Walmart’s strong quarter shows why Amazon had to buy Whole Foods Foreign investors might be the key to forecasting a U.S. recession It’s been 17 years since U.S. consumers felt this good about the economy TOM LEE: Bitcoin is an important asset for investors to own Wall Street can’t stop talking about Bitcoin View comments || What you need to know for the week ahead: Coming off a holiday-shortened trading week, stocks are atrecord highsas November nears an end. On Friday, retail stocks led the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to all-time highs asretailers booked $7.9 billion in online saleson Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a 17.9% jump from a year ago. Amazon’s (AMZN) 2.6% gain on the day sentCEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth north of $100 billion. Retailers will remain in focus as consumers continue their holiday season shopping onCyber Monday.
In the week ahead, the economic calendar will have some of the usual month-end data like auto sales, though the monthly jobs report will not be released this week despite Friday marking the first Friday of a new month. Other economic highlights should include The Conference Board’s consumer confidence reading on Tuesday, the second look at third quarter GDP on Wednesday, and the aforementioned November reading on auto sales due out Friday.
On the earnings side, things will be noticeably slower, with highlights coming from Kroger (KR), Jack in the Box (JACK), Workday (WDAY), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), and Barnes & Noble (BKS).
• Monday: New home sales, October (-6.8% expected; +18.9% previously); Dallas Fed manufacturing index, November (24 expected; 27.6 previously)
• Tuesday: FHFA home price index, September (+0.5% expected; +0.7% previously); Case-Shiller home prices, September (+0.3% expected; +0.45% previously); Conference Board consumer confidence, November (123.8 expected; 125.9 previously); Richmond Fed manufacturing index, November (14 expected; 12 previously)
• Wednesday: Third quarter GDP, second estimate (+3.2% expected; +3% previously); Pending home sales, October (+1.2% expected; +0% previously); Federal Reserve Beige Book
• Thursday: Initial jobless claims (239,000 previously); Personal income, October (+0.3% expected; +0.4% previously); Personal spending, October (+0.2% expected; +1% previously); “Core” PCE, year-on-year, October (+1.4% expected; +1.3% previously); Chicago PMI, November (62 expected; 66.2 previously)
• Friday: Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI, November; ISM manufacturing PMI, November (58.3 expected; 58.7 previously); Construction spending, October (+0.5% expected; +0.3% previously); Auto sales, November (17.5 million expected; 18 million previously)
Last week,we notedthat a prevailing theme in financial markets right now is certainty.
There is certainty from consumers about their economic outlook and certainty from Wall Street strategists about how the next year will look for markets.
But another side of certainty is hubris. If the only sure things in life are death and taxes, then who is anyone to say what will happen in the economy or the stock market next year? Surely, as we noted, contrarians will see the aligning views on how the future will look as a sign that surprises are ahead for investors.
Now, another aspect of the certainty around what the future will look like that we didn’t address is bitcoin and the enthusiasm around cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies may or may not overtake the modern financial system as we’ve come to know it since the turn of the 21thcentury. But the rising price of bitcoin has begun to make the future status of these assets seem like less of a wild card.
On Friday,Bespoke Investment Group notedthat Coinbase, the most popular platform for trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, now has more accounts than Charles Schwab. Not surprisingly, the number of accounts being opened has surged in the last year as the price of bitcoin has risen ten-fold.
Clearly, there is investor enthusiasm for bitcoin. But beyond a conviction among many investors that bitcoin prices are going higher, it’s less clear what this enthusiasm really means for bitcoin’s future.
Atweet that made the rounds this weekendpointed out that using Alexa rankings, Coindesk — one of the leading sites in the crypto space and a popular source of up-to-date bitcoin price quotes — is bigger than the Financial Times. This data point was then used to argue that cryptocurrencies and bitcoin are taking over the traditional finance industry.
Which, sure. Leaving aside almost all other potential issues with using this crude ranking as evidence that traditional finance is in decline relative to cryptocurrencies, a clear problem with this argument is that a raw rise in the popularity of a cryptocurrency website on its own does not signify anything other than that — increasing popularity.
But it’s these kinds of leaps of logic that have come to be a feature of the relative certainty with which cryptocurrency evangelists speak about the future of these assets in the global financial industry.
Thescorn that finance industry leaders like Jamie Dimon and Larry Finkhave shown for bitcoin have been used as evidence that these folks are scared of bitcoin’s rise, which we’re told poses an existential threat to their businesses. It would seem more likely, however, that Jamie Dimon simply thinks bitcoin is silly, an opinion he can have and one with which you can disagree.
Bespoke writes that the rise in Coinbase accounts shows that, “the idea that crypto-currencies users are just a fringe part of the financial universe is not accurate.” And we wouldn’t argue with that.
But the recent rise in the price of bitcoin is largely significant in and of itself — investors are mad for bitcoin. The leaps in confidence being made about bitcoin’s future as a financial asset simply because of its price increase are another side of the certainty that is permeating financial markets today.
—
Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@MylesUdland
Read more from Myles here:
• Walmart’s strong quarter shows why Amazon had to buy Whole Foods
• Foreign investors might be the key to forecasting a U.S. recession
• It’s been 17 years since U.S. consumers felt this good about the economy
• TOM LEE: Bitcoin is an important asset for investors to own
• Wall Street can’t stop talking about Bitcoin || Bitcoin soars above $9,000 to new record high: MI
• The price of bitcoin, the scorching-hot cryptocurrency, soared above $9,000 a coin for the first time early Sunday morning.
• Bitcoin was trading at anall-time high of $9,481 a coin Sunday afternoon, according to data from Markets Insider.
• Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban told Business Insider the price of bitcoin will continue to rise as long as it continues to act more as a collectible than a currency.
Bitcoin's impressive march into record territory continued Sunday afternoon.
The digital currency, which has been on a tear since the US Thanksgiving holiday, soared past $9,000 a coin early Sunday morning.
By Sunday afternoon in New York the digital currency was trading at an all-time high of $9,481 a coin, a more than $1,000 increase from its price mid-day on Thursday. It gave up some of those gains and by 5:56 p.m. ET bitcoin was trading at $9,343 a coin.
Bitcoin's rapid appreciation appears to have coincided with a spike in the userbase of the largest platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies in the US.
Coinbase, the San Francisco firm, grew its user count by 100,000 to 13.1 million from Wednesday to Friday, according to analysis by Alistair Milne, cofounder of Altana Digital Currency Fund. The analysis wasfirst reported by CNBC on Saturday. At the time of print, Coinbase reported more than 13.3 million users.
As for how high the cryptocurrency will go, one of Wall Street's biggest bitcoin bullsrecently doubled his price targetfor the coin to $11,500. Tom Lee, the managing partner and head of research atFundstrat Global Advisors, expects bitcoin to hit $11,500 by mid-2018, up from the estimate of $6,000 he made in August.
Lee is optimistic about thecoming launch of bitcoin futures by Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which many think will increase the cryptocurrency's legitimacy, thereby expanding its potential user base. Folks also believe futures will help dampen bitcoin's spine-tingling volatility.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, who recently describedinvesting in bitcoin as a Hail Mary, told Business Insider the price will continue to rise so long as bitcoin continues to function more as a collectible than an actual currency.
"The number of people opening up new accounts and buying bitcoin, even fractionally, is skyrocketing," he said. "Yet the people who have it as a true store of value have no reason to sell it as long as demand continues."
Since the list of merchants that accept bitcoin is still relatively small, holders don't have many places where they can spend their coins, either.
"They can't spend it, so they keep it," Cuban said.
As such, Cuban expects the price to continue to rise until "there is some systemic reason for the collectors to sell."
The markets might be waiting a while for investors to sell.
Asurvey by LendEDUfound the average bitcoin investor doesn't plan to give up their bitcoin until the cryptocurrency reaches $196,165, or 21 times its current value.
This post has been updated from its original form.
NOW WATCH:The stock market is flashing warning signs
See Also:
• Bitcoin cash is jumping
• A $9 billion French asset manager is launching Europe's first bitcoin mutual fund
• Square is taking on the big cryptocurrency exchanges — and it represents a $30 million opportunity
SEE ALSO:One of Wall Street's biggest bears just doubled his bitcoin forecast to $11,500
DON'T MISS:Mark Cuban is backing a new cryptocurrency fund months after calling bitcoin a 'bubble' || Bitcoin soars above $9,000 to new record high: Capture.PNG MI The price of bitcoin, the scorching-hot cryptocurrency, soared above $9,000 a coin for the first time early Sunday morning. Bitcoin was trading at an all-time high of $9,481 a coin Sunday afternoon, according to data from Markets Insider. Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban told Business Insider the price of bitcoin will continue to rise as long as it continues to act more as a collectible than a currency. Bitcoin 's impressive march into record territory continued Sunday afternoon. The digital currency, which has been on a tear since the US Thanksgiving holiday, soared past $9,000 a coin early Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon in New York the digital currency was trading at an all-time high of $9,481 a coin, a more than $1,000 increase from its price mid-day on Thursday. It gave up some of those gains and by 5:56 p.m. ET bitcoin was trading at $9,343 a coin. Bitcoin's rapid appreciation appears to have coincided with a spike in the userbase of the largest platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies in the US. Coinbase, the San Francisco firm, grew its user count by 100,000 to 13.1 million from Wednesday to Friday, according to analysis by Alistair Milne, cofounder of Altana Digital Currency Fund. The analysis was first reported by CNBC on Saturday . At the time of print, Coinbase reported more than 13.3 million users. As for how high the cryptocurrency will go, one of Wall Street's biggest bitcoin bulls recently doubled his price target for the coin to $11,500. Tom Lee, the managing partner and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors , expects bitcoin to hit $11,500 by mid-2018, up from the estimate of $6,000 he made in August. Lee is optimistic about the coming launch of bitcoin futures by Chicago Mercantile Exchange , which many think will increase the cryptocurrency's legitimacy, thereby expanding its potential user base. Folks also believe futures will help dampen bitcoin's spine-tingling volatility. Story continues Mark Cuban expects the price to keep rising mark cuban Mike Blake/Reuters Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, who recently described investing in bitcoin as a Hail Mary , told Business Insider the price will continue to rise so long as bitcoin continues to function more as a collectible than an actual currency. "The number of people opening up new accounts and buying bitcoin, even fractionally, is skyrocketing," he said. "Yet the people who have it as a true store of value have no reason to sell it as long as demand continues." Since the list of merchants that accept bitcoin is still relatively small, holders don't have many places where they can spend their coins, either. "They can't spend it, so they keep it," Cuban said. As such, Cuban expects the price to continue to rise until "there is some systemic reason for the collectors to sell." The markets might be waiting a while for investors to sell. A survey by LendEDU found the average bitcoin investor doesn't plan to give up their bitcoin until the cryptocurrency reaches $196,165, or 21 times its current value. This post has been updated from its original form. NOW WATCH: The stock market is flashing warning signs See Also: Bitcoin cash is jumping A $9 billion French asset manager is launching Europe's first bitcoin mutual fund Square is taking on the big cryptocurrency exchanges and it represents a $30 million opportunity SEE ALSO: One of Wall Street's biggest bears just doubled his bitcoin forecast to $11,500 DON'T MISS: Mark Cuban is backing a new cryptocurrency fund months after calling bitcoin a 'bubble' || Bitcoin soars above $9,000 to new record high: MI
• The price of bitcoin, the scorching-hot cryptocurrency, soared above $9,000 a coin for the first time early Sunday morning.
• Bitcoin was trading at anall-time high of $9,481 a coin Sunday afternoon, according to data from Markets Insider.
• Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban told Business Insider the price of bitcoin will continue to rise as long as it continues to act more as a collectible than a currency.
Bitcoin's impressive march into record territory continued Sunday afternoon.
The digital currency, which has been on a tear since the US Thanksgiving holiday, soared past $9,000 a coin early Sunday morning.
By Sunday afternoon in New York the digital currency was trading at an all-time high of $9,481 a coin, a more than $1,000 increase from its price mid-day on Thursday. It gave up some of those gains and by 5:56 p.m. ET bitcoin was trading at $9,343 a coin.
Bitcoin's rapid appreciation appears to have coincided with a spike in the userbase of the largest platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies in the US.
Coinbase, the San Francisco firm, grew its user count by 100,000 to 13.1 million from Wednesday to Friday, according to analysis by Alistair Milne, cofounder of Altana Digital Currency Fund. The analysis wasfirst reported by CNBC on Saturday. At the time of print, Coinbase reported more than 13.3 million users.
As for how high the cryptocurrency will go, one of Wall Street's biggest bitcoin bullsrecently doubled his price targetfor the coin to $11,500. Tom Lee, the managing partner and head of research atFundstrat Global Advisors, expects bitcoin to hit $11,500 by mid-2018, up from the estimate of $6,000 he made in August.
Lee is optimistic about thecoming launch of bitcoin futures by Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which many think will increase the cryptocurrency's legitimacy, thereby expanding its potential user base. Folks also believe futures will help dampen bitcoin's spine-tingling volatility.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, who recently describedinvesting in bitcoin as a Hail Mary, told Business Insider the price will continue to rise so long as bitcoin continues to function more as a collectible than an actual currency.
"The number of people opening up new accounts and buying bitcoin, even fractionally, is skyrocketing," he said. "Yet the people who have it as a true store of value have no reason to sell it as long as demand continues."
Since the list of merchants that accept bitcoin is still relatively small, holders don't have many places where they can spend their coins, either.
"They can't spend it, so they keep it," Cuban said.
As such, Cuban expects the price to continue to rise until "there is some systemic reason for the collectors to sell."
The markets might be waiting a while for investors to sell.
Asurvey by LendEDUfound the average bitcoin investor doesn't plan to give up their bitcoin until the cryptocurrency reaches $196,165, or 21 times its current value.
This post has been updated from its original form.
NOW WATCH:The stock market is flashing warning signs
See Also:
• Bitcoin cash is jumping
• A $9 billion French asset manager is launching Europe's first bitcoin mutual fund
• Square is taking on the big cryptocurrency exchanges — and it represents a $30 million opportunity
SEE ALSO:One of Wall Street's biggest bears just doubled his bitcoin forecast to $11,500
DON'T MISS:Mark Cuban is backing a new cryptocurrency fund months after calling bitcoin a 'bubble' || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrency’s total market value is now more than $150 billion.
Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week.
This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%.
The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but it’s far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune’stechnology newsletter.
All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy “initial coin offerings” and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including amajor crackdownby the Chinese government and a divisiveupgrade controversy, without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable.
Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last weekby Bloomberg, is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or “doomsday preppers,” who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars.
The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internet’s most enduring memes.
For the uninitiated, it’s a reference to the Japanese animeDragonBallZ. || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrency's total market value is now more than $150 billion.
Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week.
This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%.
The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but it’s far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune'stechnology newsletter.
All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy "initial coin offerings" and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including amajor crackdownby the Chinese government and a divisiveupgrade controversy, without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable.
Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last weekby Bloomberg, is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or “doomsday preppers,” who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars.
The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internet's most enduring memes.
For the uninitiated, it’s a reference to the Japanese animeDragon Z.
See original article on Fortune.com
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• Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Take a Hit After Another Cryptocurrency Was Hacked || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrencys total market value is now more than $150 billion. Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week. This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%. The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but its far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013. Get Data Sheet , Fortunes technology newsletter. All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy initial coin offerings and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including a major crackdown by the Chinese government and a divisive upgrade controversy , without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable. Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last week by Bloomberg , is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or doomsday preppers, who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars. The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internets most enduring memes. BITCOIN IS OVER 9000!!!! Been saving this meme for a while ???? $BTC pic.twitter.com/RSFWX5xY0s Arman Ghorbani (@ArmanSays) November 26, 2017 For the uninitiated, its a reference to the Japanese anime Dragon Ball Z . || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrency's total market value is now more than $150 billion. Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week. This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%. The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but its far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013. Get Data Sheet , Fortune's technology newsletter. All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy " initial coin offerings " and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including a major crackdown by the Chinese government and a divisive upgrade controversy , without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable. Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last week by Bloomberg , is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or doomsday preppers, who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars. The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internet's most enduring memes. BITCOIN IS OVER 9000!!!! Been saving this meme for a while $BTC pic.twitter.com/RSFWX5xY0s Arman Ghorbani (@ArmanSays) November 26, 2017 For the uninitiated, its a reference to the Japanese anime Dragon Z . Story continues See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Exclusive: Nearly 4 Million Bitcoins Lost Forever, New Study Says Bitcoin for Beginners: 3 Things to Know Before You Invest Ethereum Price Hits New High as Billionaire Predicts 25% Surge In the Next Month Tesla Is Burning Through a Bitcoin Every Minute Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Take a Hit After Another Cryptocurrency Was Hacked || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrency's total market value is now more than $150 billion.
Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week.
This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%.
The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but it’s far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune'stechnology newsletter.
All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy "initial coin offerings" and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including amajor crackdownby the Chinese government and a divisiveupgrade controversy, without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable.
Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last weekby Bloomberg, is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or “doomsday preppers,” who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars.
The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internet's most enduring memes.
For the uninitiated, it’s a reference to the Japanese animeDragon Z.
See original article on Fortune.com
More from Fortune.com
• Exclusive: Nearly 4 Million Bitcoins Lost Forever, New Study Says
• Bitcoin for Beginners: 3 Things to Know Before You Invest
• Ethereum Price Hits New High as Billionaire Predicts 25% Surge In the Next Month
• Tesla Is Burning Through a Bitcoin Every Minute
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Take a Hit After Another Cryptocurrency Was Hacked || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrency’s total market value is now more than $150 billion.
Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week.
This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%.
The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but it’s far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune’stechnology newsletter.
All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy “initial coin offerings” and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including amajor crackdownby the Chinese government and a divisiveupgrade controversy, without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable.
Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last weekby Bloomberg, is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or “doomsday preppers,” who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars.
The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internet’s most enduring memes.
For the uninitiated, it’s a reference to the Japanese animeDragonBallZ. || How to Buy Bitcoin?: What is Bitcoin? Can I Use Regular Money to Buy Bitcoin? Getting a Bitcoin Wallet Where can I Purchase Bitcoin? Face-to-face, or ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) trades Bitcoin Exchanges Bitcoin Trading Bitcoin Mining Bitcoin ATMs Buy Bitcoin vs. Trade Bitcoin Conclusion What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency that does not exist in physical form and is created and held electronically. Unlike fiat money that is controlled by central banks and governments, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not controlled and are produced by miners globally, embracing the concept of decentralization. Bitcoin came into existence in 2009 and was created by software developer Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi’s vision was to create an electronic payment system that was completely independent of central banks and governments. Key elements of Bitcoin include: Decentralized : Bitcoin does not fall under the control of any central authority and is under a network of computers across the world that verify transactions. Anonymous: There’s been plenty of negative press over the use of cryptocurrencies by the criminal world. The very fact that you don’t need anything but an email address to set up a Bitcoin account means that buying and selling Bitcoin is completely anonymous. Blockchain: Perhaps the greatest element of Bitcoin is the technology that drives it. The blockchain is a general ledger stored across all of the computers that mine Bitcoin and cannot be manipulated or edited. It records each and every transaction in the order that transactions occur. Thanks to Satoshi, there are now a plethora of cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin continues to be considered the master, despite the recent offshoots that have created Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash . Can I Use Regular Money to Buy Bitcoin? Cash can be used to buy Bitcoin and there are a number of ways to do this. LocalBitcoins is the most popular exchange that allows Bitcoin to be purchased by cash. The Bitcoin trade can be carried out in person or by way of a cash deposit. Story continues LocalBitcoin locates a Bitcoin seller willing to accept cash and requests the prospective buyer to place the order for the number of Bitcoins wanted who then receives the account number of the seller for cash to be deposited. Once the buyer provides proof of the cash deposit, the Bitcoins are then sent to the buyer’s LocalBitcoin wallet. The alternative to depositing the cash into the seller’s account would be to meet the seller face to face and give the money in person, though as always, it’s important to make sure that buyers remain vigilant. Also, it’s important to be aware of fraud. Because LocalBitcoin and similar agents ensure privacy, the price of Bitcoin is between 5-10% higher than the price on exchanges and there is a flat 1% fee for each transaction. Other companies that look to match cash buyers with Bitcoin sellers include: BitQuick , Wall of Coins , LibertyX , Bitit and then there are Bitcoin ATMs that also allow cash purchases of Bitcoins. Do note that buying and selling Bitcoins on LocalBitcoin and the other agents listed above are for smaller transactions. Buying a large number of Bitcoins is more difficult and Bitcoin ATMs will have limits that would require additional information for larger purchases. Getting a Bitcoin Wallet When looking to buy Bitcoin, it is strongly recommended that the Bitcoins purchased are not stored on the exchange once purchased and that the Bitcoins are kept in a wallet created by the buyer. A wallet is essentially the same as a bank account and in very much the same way, allows the owner of the wallet to send, receive and hold Bitcoins Two common forms of wallet used are software wallets and web / hosted wallets. Software wallets are installed on a computer or mobile, with the owner of the wallet in complete control over the security of the Bitcoins held. Hosted wallets are created on 3 rd party websites and are considered much easier to create and use, the only issue is that the host would need to be trusted to ensure that adequate privacy measures are always in place. For those looking to create a wallet, recommended sites include Coinbase and Blockchain.info . Where can I Purchase Bitcoin? There are a number of ways to buy Bitcoin, the most common method being via a Bitcoin exchange. Most exchanges have developed mobile phone apps to make it easier for those looking to buy and sell Bitcoin. The Exchanges will request credit/debit card or bank account details to cover the purchase price and bank details for the transfer of proceeds from the sale. Normally, for higher limits on Bitcoin exchanges, the buyer is required to provide bank account details, while debit cards can be used for lower limits on transactions. Suggested Article: Top Five Cryptocurrencies Experts Talk about Bitcoin, Blockchain and ICO’s The good news is that you don’t need to buy a minimum of one Bitcoin and buyers can own a fraction of a Bitcoin when purchasing through Bitcoin exchanges or ATMs. Using Bitcoin exchanges may be somewhat more long-winded in terms of completing all of the necessary details, but the transaction fees are much more competitive and would be the best way forward. Recommended Bitcoin providers include: AVATrade eToro FXTM Markets.com Whaleclub hitbtc cex.io There are many others and there will likely be restrictions on which exchanges you are able to purchase and sell Bitcoins depending on location, so it does require some amount of research. Exchanges will provide a number of enticing offers including bonuses, so it is worth having a look at the exchanges to see which are the most competitive, though it would be advisable to sign up with a reputable one. If the sound of a Bitcoin exchange is off-putting, the alternative is to buy and sell Bitcoins via a Bitcoin ATM, though most will only accept cash for the purchase. Face-to-face, or ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) trades As we discussed earlier, the two most common ways to buy or sell Bitcoin are either face to face with cash or on an exchange. Face-to-face transactions are the small investor looking to buy and sell a small number of Bitcoins anonymously. In stark contrast is the OTC market, where particularly large amounts of Bitcoins are bought and sold, the buyers and sellers being referred to as whales within the crypto world. The benefit of an over-the-counter trade for those looking to buy a substantial number of Bitcoins is that the entire transaction would be carried out at a negotiated price that is likely to be more favorable than an average price for Bitcoins bought through an exchange. Exchanges will have significantly less liquidity and Bitcoin buyers would need to break down the total number of Bitcoins to buy through smaller lots. The issue here is that each purchase could push the price up and more so if there is a lack of liquidity, by the time the buyer purchases the final batch of Bitcoins, the price may have moved considerably. This is not only likely to be less cost-efficient, but also less time efficient. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today The commonality between face to face and over-the-counter transactions is that, in both instances, a counterparty is located for the trade. The difference will be that there is unlikely to be a negotiation on price in a face to face trade, while OTC transactions will involve a negotiation on price. OTC transactions will be carried out through exchanges and broker/dealers. Dealers will generally trade using their own funds, while brokers link buyers and sellers and negotiate on price for the buyer, whilst charging a fee. Bitcoin exchange OTC trading desks are used for the more sizeable transactions that go into the millions of dollars. Bitcoin Exchanges It’s quite important to select the right exchange. Unlike deciding which bank account or credit card to apply for, Bitcoin and the crypto world is unregulated, making it essential to ensure that the exchange chosen is not going to put your money or your Bitcoins at risk. The location of the exchange is the first consideration. Where the buyer lives and the laws and regulations differ by geography, so it would be recommended to buy Bitcoins on an exchange that is in the same country as the buyer. Once the list of exchanges has been identified by geography, the next step would be to identify the most competitive and also the most widely used exchanges. Transaction fees vary across the exchanges and some may have additional fees. While looking to find an exchange with competitive fees, it is worth paying a little more to use an exchange that has a sizeable order book. Exchanges that have a large number of customers will tend to make public their order book, which then shows how liquid the exchange is. Other factors to consider when deciding on the best exchange include: How well known is the exchange? There are a number of forums on the internet where reviews are available on the exchanges and it is worth doing some due diligence. How long it takes for Bitcoins to be received following a purchase and how quickly funds will be received in event of a sale. On this note, it would also be important to make sure that prices are locked in at the time of purchase or sale and not on the day on which the Bitcoins are received or funds are remitted. Exchange security is of significant importance. For greater security, exchanges selected should be on an HTTPS site and should request secure logins to limit the possibility of being hacked. Finally, obviously knowing how you can buy and sell Bitcoins is of importance and will vary from person to person. Some exchanges will accept payments by wire transfer, credit/debit cards, PayPal and even cash. When considering the method of payment, exchanges may not always carry the currency of the country that the exchange is located in and it is important to gauge how competitive exchange rates and fees are across the exchanges available. Bitcoin Trading Similar to the more mature financial markets, Bitcoin trading has become increasingly popular in recent years, as volatility and valuations have increased throughout this year in particular. Traders will be looking to buy and sell Bitcoins to earn profits and with the OTC market becoming more widely used, at present there is little worry that there will be a lack of buyers for the Bitcoin trader. Spreads between bid and offer prices are also quite narrow, which makes the trading of Bitcoin all the more attractive. Trading will tend to be carried out on Bitcoin exchanges, with the trader likely to be particularly concerned about fees and the time it takes for Bitcoins to reach the wallet and for funds to be received in the event of a sale. Traders use their own accounts for buying and selling Bitcoin and exchanges also provide leverage of up to 20 times, with traders likely to be buying and selling throughout the day. Trading Bitcoin can be quite a nerve-racking experience, however. Looking at how Bitcoin has moved through the year is a reflection of how quickly a trader can lose significant amounts of money should they end up on the wrong side of a trade and significant care is needed in trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Mining While the majority are looking to buy and sell Bitcoin to try to make a tidy return on investment, there are those that are looking to enter the world of mining. Mining for Bitcoin is perhaps the most challenging of the mining environments within the cryptoworld, with miners needing significant computer power to be able to compete with existing miners. Bitcoin mining is the validation of transactions that take place on each Bitcoin block. The decentralized nature of Bitcoin means that transactions are broadcasted to a peer-to-peer network and once broadcasted, needs to be verified, confirming that the transaction is valid and then having the transaction recorded on the public transaction database, which is known as the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners basically are the people involved in the processing and verifying of transactions before then recording the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners will then receive transaction fees in the form of newly created Bitcoins. Suggested Article: How Blockchain will change our Life, Economy and the World Miners compete with everyone on the peer-to-peer network to earn Bitcoins . The faster the processing power, the more attempts are made by the hardware to attempt to complete the verification, etc., earning the miner the Bitcoins that are highly sought after along with transaction fees. The speed of processing power in Bitcoin mining is referred to as the hashrate and the processing power is referred to as the hashpower of the hardware. In the early days, Bitcoin was mined using CPUs, but in the race to generate more income, miners shifted to Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). Then came Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) followed by Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are used today. For miners, the key metric is hashing power and the more hashpower, the more money miners can make. Today’s miners have warehouses of mining equipment, with Bitcoin’s mining community concentrated to a small number who account for the majority of the hashpower. Because of the concentration of hashpower, not to mention the significant cost to set up a mining network, it’s recommended to join a mining pool, where miners combine computing power or to mine via cloud mining. For those looking to mine using a CPU or laptop, entering a mining pool will be of little value, since the mining income earned is proportional to the computer power contributed. A CPU or laptop just won’t be offering much compared with GPUs and ASICs hardware. For cloud mining, you won’t feel the mining experience, just the income, though after fees etc., it’s not going to be earth-shattering. Bitcoin cloud mining does provide a medium in which to receive newly mined Bitcoins, without the need to own costly mining hardware or even have any mining know-how, allowing the mining world to not only attract the technically minded but a far wider audience, who lack the technical knowledge needed to get into Bitcoin mining. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today One of the major concerns over cloud mining is fraud, however. There have been plenty of reports of fraudulent activity, not to mention lower profits and even mining companies having the ability to halt operations should Bitcoin’s price fall below certain levels, so some due diligence on a mining company is recommended, with some basic steps to reduce the risk of being defrauded including: No mining address and/or no user selectable pool. No ASIC vendor endorsement. If there are no advertisements from the ASIC vendor, the mining company may not even own the hardware. No photos of the hardware or data center of the mining company. No limit imposed on sales or does not display how much hash rate sold against used in mining. Referral programs and social networking. A mining company willing to pay high referral fees should be avoided as these may well be Ponzi schemes. Anonymous operators should certainly be avoided… No ability to sell your position or get the money out upon sale. Bitcoin ATMs Bitcoin ATMs are not like your traditional bank ATMs that dispense with cash from your bank account. The purpose of Bitcoin ATMs is to facilitate the purchase and sale of Bitcoins on an internet connected machine. The ATMs allow you to insert cash to purchase Bitcoins or dispense cash in the case of a sale. Unlike the traditional bank ATMs, Bitcoin ATMs are not linked in any way to banking networks and it’s also worth noting that transaction fees can be particularly high. The world’s first Bitcoin ATM was reported to have been introduced in Vancouver, Canada back in October 2013. Today, Bitcoin ATMs are located worldwide, with a reported 30 different types of Bitcoin ATMs and as Bitcoin becomes increasingly more popular. ATM providers will likely widen the net to attract the traffic that can generate transaction fees of 7%, before even considering exchange rates that are certainly considered less competitive than high street banks. Buy Bitcoin vs. Trade Bitcoin There’s big difference between buying and holding on to Bitcoins and trading Bitcoins. For many, it is just a case of buying and holding on to Bitcoins in the hope that values will continue to rise. Talks of $100,000 have continued to draw in buyers in the hope of making a small fortune. While Bitcoin buyers will hold on for dear life and possibly sell once there’s some profit in the interest of not losing money, trading Bitcoin is an altogether different thing. Bitcoin traders will be looking for daily volatility to trade and book profits with a shorter term outlook on Bitcoin prices and the use of technical fundamentals for direction. Conclusion It’s a whole new world for many even though Bitcoin has been in existence since 2008. The continued rise in value and talks of $100,000 have brought in a new wave of investors. With the scheduled launch of Bitcoin futures in December and the likely influx of institutional money, there will be more interest and the Bitcoin net will be widening. Whether this is a Bitcoin bubble or something more sustainable remains to be seen, after all, even the dot.com saw a mix of institutional and retail investors get burned. For now, the key to Bitcoin’s growth will be dependent on the Bitcoin world’s ability to educate and facilitate the buying and selling of Bitcoin. A multitude of new companies has been established that have begun fundraising through the Initial Coin Offering market, with the cryptocurrency world in a hurry to catch up with the more mature, traditional financial markets. Certain countries have already begun accepting Bitcoin as a means to buy, Japan has been one of the first movers and this is likely to continue to evolve in time. Cash may be king, but knowledge is wealth. Going into Bitcoin at such levels requires both cash and knowledge, not to mention a resilience to noise and volatility. After all, this is the only asset class that has left investors ruing an early sale when faced with adversity. The Best and Safest Way to Buy and Sell Bitcoins For those who are looking to take advantage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies price fluctuations, some brokers provide traders with instant access to trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. The process is fast and easy with convenient and advanced trading platform (desktop and mobile), low spreads and instant execution. Click here for more details . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: $10,000 – Is Bitcoin Easy Money? FBS Obtained CySEC License USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Short Squeeze, Concerns Over Future U.S. Rate Hikes Driving Yen Higher Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Worries Over Increasing U.S. Production, Russia Weighing on Prices Strong Consumer Spending Buoys U.S. Futures EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for November 27, 2017 || How to Buy Bitcoin?: What is Bitcoin? Can I Use Regular Money to Buy Bitcoin? Getting a Bitcoin Wallet Where can I Purchase Bitcoin? Face-to-face, or ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) trades Bitcoin Exchanges Bitcoin Trading Bitcoin Mining Bitcoin ATMs Buy Bitcoin vs. Trade Bitcoin Conclusion What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency that does not exist in physical form and is created and held electronically. Unlike fiat money that is controlled by central banks and governments, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not controlled and are produced by miners globally, embracing the concept of decentralization. Bitcoin came into existence in 2009 and was created by software developer Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi’s vision was to create an electronic payment system that was completely independent of central banks and governments. Key elements of Bitcoin include: Decentralized : Bitcoin does not fall under the control of any central authority and is under a network of computers across the world that verify transactions. Anonymous: There’s been plenty of negative press over the use of cryptocurrencies by the criminal world. The very fact that you don’t need anything but an email address to set up a Bitcoin account means that buying and selling Bitcoin is completely anonymous. Blockchain: Perhaps the greatest element of Bitcoin is the technology that drives it. The blockchain is a general ledger stored across all of the computers that mine Bitcoin and cannot be manipulated or edited. It records each and every transaction in the order that transactions occur. Thanks to Satoshi, there are now a plethora of cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin continues to be considered the master, despite the recent offshoots that have created Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash . Can I Use Regular Money to Buy Bitcoin? Cash can be used to buy Bitcoin and there are a number of ways to do this. LocalBitcoins is the most popular exchange that allows Bitcoin to be purchased by cash. The Bitcoin trade can be carried out in person or by way of a cash deposit. Story continues LocalBitcoin locates a Bitcoin seller willing to accept cash and requests the prospective buyer to place the order for the number of Bitcoins wanted who then receives the account number of the seller for cash to be deposited. Once the buyer provides proof of the cash deposit, the Bitcoins are then sent to the buyer’s LocalBitcoin wallet. The alternative to depositing the cash into the seller’s account would be to meet the seller face to face and give the money in person, though as always, it’s important to make sure that buyers remain vigilant. Also, it’s important to be aware of fraud. Because LocalBitcoin and similar agents ensure privacy, the price of Bitcoin is between 5-10% higher than the price on exchanges and there is a flat 1% fee for each transaction. Other companies that look to match cash buyers with Bitcoin sellers include: BitQuick , Wall of Coins , LibertyX , Bitit and then there are Bitcoin ATMs that also allow cash purchases of Bitcoins. Do note that buying and selling Bitcoins on LocalBitcoin and the other agents listed above are for smaller transactions. Buying a large number of Bitcoins is more difficult and Bitcoin ATMs will have limits that would require additional information for larger purchases. Getting a Bitcoin Wallet When looking to buy Bitcoin, it is strongly recommended that the Bitcoins purchased are not stored on the exchange once purchased and that the Bitcoins are kept in a wallet created by the buyer. A wallet is essentially the same as a bank account and in very much the same way, allows the owner of the wallet to send, receive and hold Bitcoins Two common forms of wallet used are software wallets and web / hosted wallets. Software wallets are installed on a computer or mobile, with the owner of the wallet in complete control over the security of the Bitcoins held. Hosted wallets are created on 3 rd party websites and are considered much easier to create and use, the only issue is that the host would need to be trusted to ensure that adequate privacy measures are always in place. For those looking to create a wallet, recommended sites include Coinbase and Blockchain.info . Where can I Purchase Bitcoin? There are a number of ways to buy Bitcoin, the most common method being via a Bitcoin exchange. Most exchanges have developed mobile phone apps to make it easier for those looking to buy and sell Bitcoin. The Exchanges will request credit/debit card or bank account details to cover the purchase price and bank details for the transfer of proceeds from the sale. Normally, for higher limits on Bitcoin exchanges, the buyer is required to provide bank account details, while debit cards can be used for lower limits on transactions. Suggested Article: Top Five Cryptocurrencies Experts Talk about Bitcoin, Blockchain and ICO’s The good news is that you don’t need to buy a minimum of one Bitcoin and buyers can own a fraction of a Bitcoin when purchasing through Bitcoin exchanges or ATMs. Using Bitcoin exchanges may be somewhat more long-winded in terms of completing all of the necessary details, but the transaction fees are much more competitive and would be the best way forward. Recommended Bitcoin providers include: AVATrade eToro FXTM Markets.com Whaleclub hitbtc cex.io There are many others and there will likely be restrictions on which exchanges you are able to purchase and sell Bitcoins depending on location, so it does require some amount of research. Exchanges will provide a number of enticing offers including bonuses, so it is worth having a look at the exchanges to see which are the most competitive, though it would be advisable to sign up with a reputable one. If the sound of a Bitcoin exchange is off-putting, the alternative is to buy and sell Bitcoins via a Bitcoin ATM, though most will only accept cash for the purchase. Face-to-face, or ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) trades As we discussed earlier, the two most common ways to buy or sell Bitcoin are either face to face with cash or on an exchange. Face-to-face transactions are the small investor looking to buy and sell a small number of Bitcoins anonymously. In stark contrast is the OTC market, where particularly large amounts of Bitcoins are bought and sold, the buyers and sellers being referred to as whales within the crypto world. The benefit of an over-the-counter trade for those looking to buy a substantial number of Bitcoins is that the entire transaction would be carried out at a negotiated price that is likely to be more favorable than an average price for Bitcoins bought through an exchange. Exchanges will have significantly less liquidity and Bitcoin buyers would need to break down the total number of Bitcoins to buy through smaller lots. The issue here is that each purchase could push the price up and more so if there is a lack of liquidity, by the time the buyer purchases the final batch of Bitcoins, the price may have moved considerably. This is not only likely to be less cost-efficient, but also less time efficient. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today The commonality between face to face and over-the-counter transactions is that, in both instances, a counterparty is located for the trade. The difference will be that there is unlikely to be a negotiation on price in a face to face trade, while OTC transactions will involve a negotiation on price. OTC transactions will be carried out through exchanges and broker/dealers. Dealers will generally trade using their own funds, while brokers link buyers and sellers and negotiate on price for the buyer, whilst charging a fee. Bitcoin exchange OTC trading desks are used for the more sizeable transactions that go into the millions of dollars. Bitcoin Exchanges It’s quite important to select the right exchange. Unlike deciding which bank account or credit card to apply for, Bitcoin and the crypto world is unregulated, making it essential to ensure that the exchange chosen is not going to put your money or your Bitcoins at risk. The location of the exchange is the first consideration. Where the buyer lives and the laws and regulations differ by geography, so it would be recommended to buy Bitcoins on an exchange that is in the same country as the buyer. Once the list of exchanges has been identified by geography, the next step would be to identify the most competitive and also the most widely used exchanges. Transaction fees vary across the exchanges and some may have additional fees. While looking to find an exchange with competitive fees, it is worth paying a little more to use an exchange that has a sizeable order book. Exchanges that have a large number of customers will tend to make public their order book, which then shows how liquid the exchange is. Other factors to consider when deciding on the best exchange include: How well known is the exchange? There are a number of forums on the internet where reviews are available on the exchanges and it is worth doing some due diligence. How long it takes for Bitcoins to be received following a purchase and how quickly funds will be received in event of a sale. On this note, it would also be important to make sure that prices are locked in at the time of purchase or sale and not on the day on which the Bitcoins are received or funds are remitted. Exchange security is of significant importance. For greater security, exchanges selected should be on an HTTPS site and should request secure logins to limit the possibility of being hacked. Finally, obviously knowing how you can buy and sell Bitcoins is of importance and will vary from person to person. Some exchanges will accept payments by wire transfer, credit/debit cards, PayPal and even cash. When considering the method of payment, exchanges may not always carry the currency of the country that the exchange is located in and it is important to gauge how competitive exchange rates and fees are across the exchanges available. Bitcoin Trading Similar to the more mature financial markets, Bitcoin trading has become increasingly popular in recent years, as volatility and valuations have increased throughout this year in particular. Traders will be looking to buy and sell Bitcoins to earn profits and with the OTC market becoming more widely used, at present there is little worry that there will be a lack of buyers for the Bitcoin trader. Spreads between bid and offer prices are also quite narrow, which makes the trading of Bitcoin all the more attractive. Trading will tend to be carried out on Bitcoin exchanges, with the trader likely to be particularly concerned about fees and the time it takes for Bitcoins to reach the wallet and for funds to be received in the event of a sale. Traders use their own accounts for buying and selling Bitcoin and exchanges also provide leverage of up to 20 times, with traders likely to be buying and selling throughout the day. Trading Bitcoin can be quite a nerve-racking experience, however. Looking at how Bitcoin has moved through the year is a reflection of how quickly a trader can lose significant amounts of money should they end up on the wrong side of a trade and significant care is needed in trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Mining While the majority are looking to buy and sell Bitcoin to try to make a tidy return on investment, there are those that are looking to enter the world of mining. Mining for Bitcoin is perhaps the most challenging of the mining environments within the cryptoworld, with miners needing significant computer power to be able to compete with existing miners. Bitcoin mining is the validation of transactions that take place on each Bitcoin block. The decentralized nature of Bitcoin means that transactions are broadcasted to a peer-to-peer network and once broadcasted, needs to be verified, confirming that the transaction is valid and then having the transaction recorded on the public transaction database, which is known as the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners basically are the people involved in the processing and verifying of transactions before then recording the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners will then receive transaction fees in the form of newly created Bitcoins. Suggested Article: How Blockchain will change our Life, Economy and the World Miners compete with everyone on the peer-to-peer network to earn Bitcoins . The faster the processing power, the more attempts are made by the hardware to attempt to complete the verification, etc., earning the miner the Bitcoins that are highly sought after along with transaction fees. The speed of processing power in Bitcoin mining is referred to as the hashrate and the processing power is referred to as the hashpower of the hardware. In the early days, Bitcoin was mined using CPUs, but in the race to generate more income, miners shifted to Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). Then came Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) followed by Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are used today. For miners, the key metric is hashing power and the more hashpower, the more money miners can make. Today’s miners have warehouses of mining equipment, with Bitcoin’s mining community concentrated to a small number who account for the majority of the hashpower. Because of the concentration of hashpower, not to mention the significant cost to set up a mining network, it’s recommended to join a mining pool, where miners combine computing power or to mine via cloud mining. For those looking to mine using a CPU or laptop, entering a mining pool will be of little value, since the mining income earned is proportional to the computer power contributed. A CPU or laptop just won’t be offering much compared with GPUs and ASICs hardware. For cloud mining, you won’t feel the mining experience, just the income, though after fees etc., it’s not going to be earth-shattering. Bitcoin cloud mining does provide a medium in which to receive newly mined Bitcoins, without the need to own costly mining hardware or even have any mining know-how, allowing the mining world to not only attract the technically minded but a far wider audience, who lack the technical knowledge needed to get into Bitcoin mining. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today One of the major concerns over cloud mining is fraud, however. There have been plenty of reports of fraudulent activity, not to mention lower profits and even mining companies having the ability to halt operations should Bitcoin’s price fall below certain levels, so some due diligence on a mining company is recommended, with some basic steps to reduce the risk of being defrauded including: No mining address and/or no user selectable pool. No ASIC vendor endorsement. If there are no advertisements from the ASIC vendor, the mining company may not even own the hardware. No photos of the hardware or data center of the mining company. No limit imposed on sales or does not display how much hash rate sold against used in mining. Referral programs and social networking. A mining company willing to pay high referral fees should be avoided as these may well be Ponzi schemes. Anonymous operators should certainly be avoided… No ability to sell your position or get the money out upon sale. Bitcoin ATMs Bitcoin ATMs are not like your traditional bank ATMs that dispense with cash from your bank account. The purpose of Bitcoin ATMs is to facilitate the purchase and sale of Bitcoins on an internet connected machine. The ATMs allow you to insert cash to purchase Bitcoins or dispense cash in the case of a sale. Unlike the traditional bank ATMs, Bitcoin ATMs are not linked in any way to banking networks and it’s also worth noting that transaction fees can be particularly high. The world’s first Bitcoin ATM was reported to have been introduced in Vancouver, Canada back in October 2013. Today, Bitcoin ATMs are located worldwide, with a reported 30 different types of Bitcoin ATMs and as Bitcoin becomes increasingly more popular. ATM providers will likely widen the net to attract the traffic that can generate transaction fees of 7%, before even considering exchange rates that are certainly considered less competitive than high street banks. Buy Bitcoin vs. Trade Bitcoin There’s big difference between buying and holding on to Bitcoins and trading Bitcoins. For many, it is just a case of buying and holding on to Bitcoins in the hope that values will continue to rise. Talks of $100,000 have continued to draw in buyers in the hope of making a small fortune. While Bitcoin buyers will hold on for dear life and possibly sell once there’s some profit in the interest of not losing money, trading Bitcoin is an altogether different thing. Bitcoin traders will be looking for daily volatility to trade and book profits with a shorter term outlook on Bitcoin prices and the use of technical fundamentals for direction. Conclusion It’s a whole new world for many even though Bitcoin has been in existence since 2008. The continued rise in value and talks of $100,000 have brought in a new wave of investors. With the scheduled launch of Bitcoin futures in December and the likely influx of institutional money, there will be more interest and the Bitcoin net will be widening. Whether this is a Bitcoin bubble or something more sustainable remains to be seen, after all, even the dot.com saw a mix of institutional and retail investors get burned. For now, the key to Bitcoin’s growth will be dependent on the Bitcoin world’s ability to educate and facilitate the buying and selling of Bitcoin. A multitude of new companies has been established that have begun fundraising through the Initial Coin Offering market, with the cryptocurrency world in a hurry to catch up with the more mature, traditional financial markets. Certain countries have already begun accepting Bitcoin as a means to buy, Japan has been one of the first movers and this is likely to continue to evolve in time. Cash may be king, but knowledge is wealth. Going into Bitcoin at such levels requires both cash and knowledge, not to mention a resilience to noise and volatility. After all, this is the only asset class that has left investors ruing an early sale when faced with adversity. The Best and Safest Way to Buy and Sell Bitcoins For those who are looking to take advantage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies price fluctuations, some brokers provide traders with instant access to trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. The process is fast and easy with convenient and advanced trading platform (desktop and mobile), low spreads and instant execution. Click here for more details . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: $10,000 – Is Bitcoin Easy Money? FBS Obtained CySEC License USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Short Squeeze, Concerns Over Future U.S. Rate Hikes Driving Yen Higher Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Worries Over Increasing U.S. Production, Russia Weighing on Prices Strong Consumer Spending Buoys U.S. Futures EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for November 27, 2017 || How to Buy Bitcoin?: What is Bitcoin? Can I Use Regular Money to Buy Bitcoin? Getting a Bitcoin Wallet Where can I Purchase Bitcoin? Face-to-face, or ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) trades Bitcoin Exchanges Bitcoin Trading Bitcoin Mining Bitcoin ATMs Buy Bitcoin vs. Trade Bitcoin Conclusion What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency that does not exist in physical form and is created and held electronically. Unlike fiat money that is controlled by central banks and governments, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not controlled and are produced by miners globally, embracing the concept of decentralization. Bitcoin came into existence in 2009 and was created by software developer Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi’s vision was to create an electronic payment system that was completely independent of central banks and governments. Key elements of Bitcoin include: Decentralized : Bitcoin does not fall under the control of any central authority and is under a network of computers across the world that verify transactions. Anonymous: There’s been plenty of negative press over the use of cryptocurrencies by the criminal world. The very fact that you don’t need anything but an email address to set up a Bitcoin account means that buying and selling Bitcoin is completely anonymous. Blockchain: Perhaps the greatest element of Bitcoin is the technology that drives it. The blockchain is a general ledger stored across all of the computers that mine Bitcoin and cannot be manipulated or edited. It records each and every transaction in the order that transactions occur. Thanks to Satoshi, there are now a plethora of cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin continues to be considered the master, despite the recent offshoots that have created Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash . Can I Use Regular Money to Buy Bitcoin? Cash can be used to buy Bitcoin and there are a number of ways to do this. LocalBitcoins is the most popular exchange that allows Bitcoin to be purchased by cash. The Bitcoin trade can be carried out in person or by way of a cash deposit. Story continues LocalBitcoin locates a Bitcoin seller willing to accept cash and requests the prospective buyer to place the order for the number of Bitcoins wanted who then receives the account number of the seller for cash to be deposited. Once the buyer provides proof of the cash deposit, the Bitcoins are then sent to the buyer’s LocalBitcoin wallet. The alternative to depositing the cash into the seller’s account would be to meet the seller face to face and give the money in person, though as always, it’s important to make sure that buyers remain vigilant. Also, it’s important to be aware of fraud. Because LocalBitcoin and similar agents ensure privacy, the price of Bitcoin is between 5-10% higher than the price on exchanges and there is a flat 1% fee for each transaction. Other companies that look to match cash buyers with Bitcoin sellers include: BitQuick , Wall of Coins , LibertyX , Bitit and then there are Bitcoin ATMs that also allow cash purchases of Bitcoins. Do note that buying and selling Bitcoins on LocalBitcoin and the other agents listed above are for smaller transactions. Buying a large number of Bitcoins is more difficult and Bitcoin ATMs will have limits that would require additional information for larger purchases. Getting a Bitcoin Wallet When looking to buy Bitcoin, it is strongly recommended that the Bitcoins purchased are not stored on the exchange once purchased and that the Bitcoins are kept in a wallet created by the buyer. A wallet is essentially the same as a bank account and in very much the same way, allows the owner of the wallet to send, receive and hold Bitcoins Two common forms of wallet used are software wallets and web / hosted wallets. Software wallets are installed on a computer or mobile, with the owner of the wallet in complete control over the security of the Bitcoins held. Hosted wallets are created on 3 rd party websites and are considered much easier to create and use, the only issue is that the host would need to be trusted to ensure that adequate privacy measures are always in place. For those looking to create a wallet, recommended sites include Coinbase and Blockchain.info . Where can I Purchase Bitcoin? There are a number of ways to buy Bitcoin, the most common method being via a Bitcoin exchange. Most exchanges have developed mobile phone apps to make it easier for those looking to buy and sell Bitcoin. The Exchanges will request credit/debit card or bank account details to cover the purchase price and bank details for the transfer of proceeds from the sale. Normally, for higher limits on Bitcoin exchanges, the buyer is required to provide bank account details, while debit cards can be used for lower limits on transactions. Suggested Article: Top Five Cryptocurrencies Experts Talk about Bitcoin, Blockchain and ICO’s The good news is that you don’t need to buy a minimum of one Bitcoin and buyers can own a fraction of a Bitcoin when purchasing through Bitcoin exchanges or ATMs. Using Bitcoin exchanges may be somewhat more long-winded in terms of completing all of the necessary details, but the transaction fees are much more competitive and would be the best way forward. Recommended Bitcoin providers include: AVATrade eToro FXTM Markets.com Whaleclub hitbtc cex.io There are many others and there will likely be restrictions on which exchanges you are able to purchase and sell Bitcoins depending on location, so it does require some amount of research. Exchanges will provide a number of enticing offers including bonuses, so it is worth having a look at the exchanges to see which are the most competitive, though it would be advisable to sign up with a reputable one. If the sound of a Bitcoin exchange is off-putting, the alternative is to buy and sell Bitcoins via a Bitcoin ATM, though most will only accept cash for the purchase. Face-to-face, or ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) trades As we discussed earlier, the two most common ways to buy or sell Bitcoin are either face to face with cash or on an exchange. Face-to-face transactions are the small investor looking to buy and sell a small number of Bitcoins anonymously. In stark contrast is the OTC market, where particularly large amounts of Bitcoins are bought and sold, the buyers and sellers being referred to as whales within the crypto world. The benefit of an over-the-counter trade for those looking to buy a substantial number of Bitcoins is that the entire transaction would be carried out at a negotiated price that is likely to be more favorable than an average price for Bitcoins bought through an exchange. Exchanges will have significantly less liquidity and Bitcoin buyers would need to break down the total number of Bitcoins to buy through smaller lots. The issue here is that each purchase could push the price up and more so if there is a lack of liquidity, by the time the buyer purchases the final batch of Bitcoins, the price may have moved considerably. This is not only likely to be less cost-efficient, but also less time efficient. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today The commonality between face to face and over-the-counter transactions is that, in both instances, a counterparty is located for the trade. The difference will be that there is unlikely to be a negotiation on price in a face to face trade, while OTC transactions will involve a negotiation on price. OTC transactions will be carried out through exchanges and broker/dealers. Dealers will generally trade using their own funds, while brokers link buyers and sellers and negotiate on price for the buyer, whilst charging a fee. Bitcoin exchange OTC trading desks are used for the more sizeable transactions that go into the millions of dollars. Bitcoin Exchanges It’s quite important to select the right exchange. Unlike deciding which bank account or credit card to apply for, Bitcoin and the crypto world is unregulated, making it essential to ensure that the exchange chosen is not going to put your money or your Bitcoins at risk. The location of the exchange is the first consideration. Where the buyer lives and the laws and regulations differ by geography, so it would be recommended to buy Bitcoins on an exchange that is in the same country as the buyer. Once the list of exchanges has been identified by geography, the next step would be to identify the most competitive and also the most widely used exchanges. Transaction fees vary across the exchanges and some may have additional fees. While looking to find an exchange with competitive fees, it is worth paying a little more to use an exchange that has a sizeable order book. Exchanges that have a large number of customers will tend to make public their order book, which then shows how liquid the exchange is. Other factors to consider when deciding on the best exchange include: How well known is the exchange? There are a number of forums on the internet where reviews are available on the exchanges and it is worth doing some due diligence. How long it takes for Bitcoins to be received following a purchase and how quickly funds will be received in event of a sale. On this note, it would also be important to make sure that prices are locked in at the time of purchase or sale and not on the day on which the Bitcoins are received or funds are remitted. Exchange security is of significant importance. For greater security, exchanges selected should be on an HTTPS site and should request secure logins to limit the possibility of being hacked. Finally, obviously knowing how you can buy and sell Bitcoins is of importance and will vary from person to person. Some exchanges will accept payments by wire transfer, credit/debit cards, PayPal and even cash. When considering the method of payment, exchanges may not always carry the currency of the country that the exchange is located in and it is important to gauge how competitive exchange rates and fees are across the exchanges available. Bitcoin Trading Similar to the more mature financial markets, Bitcoin trading has become increasingly popular in recent years, as volatility and valuations have increased throughout this year in particular. Traders will be looking to buy and sell Bitcoins to earn profits and with the OTC market becoming more widely used, at present there is little worry that there will be a lack of buyers for the Bitcoin trader. Spreads between bid and offer prices are also quite narrow, which makes the trading of Bitcoin all the more attractive. Trading will tend to be carried out on Bitcoin exchanges, with the trader likely to be particularly concerned about fees and the time it takes for Bitcoins to reach the wallet and for funds to be received in the event of a sale. Traders use their own accounts for buying and selling Bitcoin and exchanges also provide leverage of up to 20 times, with traders likely to be buying and selling throughout the day. Trading Bitcoin can be quite a nerve-racking experience, however. Looking at how Bitcoin has moved through the year is a reflection of how quickly a trader can lose significant amounts of money should they end up on the wrong side of a trade and significant care is needed in trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Mining While the majority are looking to buy and sell Bitcoin to try to make a tidy return on investment, there are those that are looking to enter the world of mining. Mining for Bitcoin is perhaps the most challenging of the mining environments within the cryptoworld, with miners needing significant computer power to be able to compete with existing miners. Bitcoin mining is the validation of transactions that take place on each Bitcoin block. The decentralized nature of Bitcoin means that transactions are broadcasted to a peer-to-peer network and once broadcasted, needs to be verified, confirming that the transaction is valid and then having the transaction recorded on the public transaction database, which is known as the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners basically are the people involved in the processing and verifying of transactions before then recording the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners will then receive transaction fees in the form of newly created Bitcoins. Suggested Article: How Blockchain will change our Life, Economy and the World Miners compete with everyone on the peer-to-peer network to earn Bitcoins . The faster the processing power, the more attempts are made by the hardware to attempt to complete the verification, etc., earning the miner the Bitcoins that are highly sought after along with transaction fees. The speed of processing power in Bitcoin mining is referred to as the hashrate and the processing power is referred to as the hashpower of the hardware. In the early days, Bitcoin was mined using CPUs, but in the race to generate more income, miners shifted to Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). Then came Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) followed by Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are used today. For miners, the key metric is hashing power and the more hashpower, the more money miners can make. Today’s miners have warehouses of mining equipment, with Bitcoin’s mining community concentrated to a small number who account for the majority of the hashpower. Because of the concentration of hashpower, not to mention the significant cost to set up a mining network, it’s recommended to join a mining pool, where miners combine computing power or to mine via cloud mining. For those looking to mine using a CPU or laptop, entering a mining pool will be of little value, since the mining income earned is proportional to the computer power contributed. A CPU or laptop just won’t be offering much compared with GPUs and ASICs hardware. For cloud mining, you won’t feel the mining experience, just the income, though after fees etc., it’s not going to be earth-shattering. Bitcoin cloud mining does provide a medium in which to receive newly mined Bitcoins, without the need to own costly mining hardware or even have any mining know-how, allowing the mining world to not only attract the technically minded but a far wider audience, who lack the technical knowledge needed to get into Bitcoin mining. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today One of the major concerns over cloud mining is fraud, however. There have been plenty of reports of fraudulent activity, not to mention lower profits and even mining companies having the ability to halt operations should Bitcoin’s price fall below certain levels, so some due diligence on a mining company is recommended, with some basic steps to reduce the risk of being defrauded including: No mining address and/or no user selectable pool. No ASIC vendor endorsement. If there are no advertisements from the ASIC vendor, the mining company may not even own the hardware. No photos of the hardware or data center of the mining company. No limit imposed on sales or does not display how much hash rate sold against used in mining. Referral programs and social networking. A mining company willing to pay high referral fees should be avoided as these may well be Ponzi schemes. Anonymous operators should certainly be avoided… No ability to sell your position or get the money out upon sale. Bitcoin ATMs Bitcoin ATMs are not like your traditional bank ATMs that dispense with cash from your bank account. The purpose of Bitcoin ATMs is to facilitate the purchase and sale of Bitcoins on an internet connected machine. The ATMs allow you to insert cash to purchase Bitcoins or dispense cash in the case of a sale. Unlike the traditional bank ATMs, Bitcoin ATMs are not linked in any way to banking networks and it’s also worth noting that transaction fees can be particularly high. The world’s first Bitcoin ATM was reported to have been introduced in Vancouver, Canada back in October 2013. Today, Bitcoin ATMs are located worldwide, with a reported 30 different types of Bitcoin ATMs and as Bitcoin becomes increasingly more popular. ATM providers will likely widen the net to attract the traffic that can generate transaction fees of 7%, before even considering exchange rates that are certainly considered less competitive than high street banks. Buy Bitcoin vs. Trade Bitcoin There’s big difference between buying and holding on to Bitcoins and trading Bitcoins. For many, it is just a case of buying and holding on to Bitcoins in the hope that values will continue to rise. Talks of $100,000 have continued to draw in buyers in the hope of making a small fortune. While Bitcoin buyers will hold on for dear life and possibly sell once there’s some profit in the interest of not losing money, trading Bitcoin is an altogether different thing. Bitcoin traders will be looking for daily volatility to trade and book profits with a shorter term outlook on Bitcoin prices and the use of technical fundamentals for direction. Conclusion It’s a whole new world for many even though Bitcoin has been in existence since 2008. The continued rise in value and talks of $100,000 have brought in a new wave of investors. With the scheduled launch of Bitcoin futures in December and the likely influx of institutional money, there will be more interest and the Bitcoin net will be widening. Whether this is a Bitcoin bubble or something more sustainable remains to be seen, after all, even the dot.com saw a mix of institutional and retail investors get burned. For now, the key to Bitcoin’s growth will be dependent on the Bitcoin world’s ability to educate and facilitate the buying and selling of Bitcoin. A multitude of new companies has been established that have begun fundraising through the Initial Coin Offering market, with the cryptocurrency world in a hurry to catch up with the more mature, traditional financial markets. Certain countries have already begun accepting Bitcoin as a means to buy, Japan has been one of the first movers and this is likely to continue to evolve in time. Cash may be king, but knowledge is wealth. Going into Bitcoin at such levels requires both cash and knowledge, not to mention a resilience to noise and volatility. After all, this is the only asset class that has left investors ruing an early sale when faced with adversity. The Best and Safest Way to Buy and Sell Bitcoins For those who are looking to take advantage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies price fluctuations, some brokers provide traders with instant access to trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. The process is fast and easy with convenient and advanced trading platform (desktop and mobile), low spreads and instant execution. Click here for more details . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: $10,000 – Is Bitcoin Easy Money? FBS Obtained CySEC License USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Short Squeeze, Concerns Over Future U.S. Rate Hikes Driving Yen Higher Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Worries Over Increasing U.S. Production, Russia Weighing on Prices Strong Consumer Spending Buoys U.S. Futures EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for November 27, 2017 || Bitcoin Price Tops $9,000 in Historic First: The price of a bitcoin has continued to rise overnight, passing $9,000 for the first time this morning. Since setting new highs yesterday, prices climbed more or less steadily until finally passing $9,000 at 06:40 UTC today. The new record of $9,043.21 was reached roughly 35 minutes later, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index . At press time, prices are at $8,970 levels up 2.43 percent for the session. CoinMarketCap data indicates that bitcoin has risen 6.16 percent in 24 hours, and 16.27 percent over the last seven days. Bitcoin's amazing gains have helped drive the combined market value for all cryptocurrencies to yet another at new high of $285 billion. Bitcoin's market capitalization is now almost $151 billion. OMG image via Shutterstock Related Stories Topped Out? Bitcoin Flirts with Bearish Reversal Investors Taking a Risk Buying Bitcoin, Says ECB Vice President Bitcoin Price Falls $1,000 in Minutes to Drop Below $10k Getting Started? Ether Sets New High Above $500 || Bitcoin Price Tops $9,000 in Historic First: The price of a bitcoin has continued to rise overnight, passing $9,000 for the first time this morning.
Since setting new highs yesterday, prices climbed more or less steadily until finally passing $9,000 at 06:40 UTC today. The new record of $9,043.21 was reached roughly 35 minutes later, according to CoinDesk'sBitcoin Price Index.
At press time, prices are at $8,970 levels – up 2.43 percent for the session.CoinMarketCapdata indicates that bitcoin has risen 6.16 percent in 24 hours, and 16.27 percent over the last seven days.
Bitcoin's amazing gains have helped drive the combined market value for all cryptocurrencies to yet another at new high of $285 billion. Bitcoin's market capitalization is now almost $151 billion.
OMGimage via Shutterstock
• Topped Out? Bitcoin Flirts with Bearish Reversal
• Investors Taking a Risk Buying Bitcoin, Says ECB Vice President
• Bitcoin Price Falls $1,000 in Minutes to Drop Below $10k
• Getting Started? Ether Sets New High Above $500 || Bitcoin Price Tops $9,000 in Historic First: The price of a bitcoin has continued to rise overnight, passing $9,000 for the first time this morning.
Since setting new highs yesterday, prices climbed more or less steadily until finally passing $9,000 at 06:40 UTC today. The new record of $9,043.21 was reached roughly 35 minutes later, according to CoinDesk'sBitcoin Price Index.
At press time, prices are at $8,970 levels – up 2.43 percent for the session.CoinMarketCapdata indicates that bitcoin has risen 6.16 percent in 24 hours, and 16.27 percent over the last seven days.
Bitcoin's amazing gains have helped drive the combined market value for all cryptocurrencies to yet another at new high of $285 billion. Bitcoin's market capitalization is now almost $151 billion.
OMGimage via Shutterstock
• Topped Out? Bitcoin Flirts with Bearish Reversal
• Investors Taking a Risk Buying Bitcoin, Says ECB Vice President
• Bitcoin Price Falls $1,000 in Minutes to Drop Below $10k
• Getting Started? Ether Sets New High Above $500
[Social Media Buzz]
#coincheck の27日12:00から直近2時間の変動率。
値上がり率が1番大きかったのは $LTC で3.9%、値下がり率が1番大きいのは $BCH の-1.5%。
#BITCOIN $ZEC $ETH $FCT $REP $LSK $ETC $XRP $XMRpic.twitter.com/SVBfUAX16U || SELL 2.34 $BTC.X $BTCUSD on 2017-11-27T12:06:47.509-06:00 at $22,429.63 USD, PROFIT $230.09 USD, BUY at 2017-11-27T11:33:47.459-06:00 with $22,196.66 USD #startup #fintech https://quantu.mx #bitcoin #ai #botpic.twitter.com/AafrYh7t7q || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000193 (3.60%) 0.00000002 BTC (0.00%) || Balance till 27-11-2017 18:44:00 UTC i...
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10058.80, 9888.61, 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8180.48, 7780.44, 7624.91, 7567.15, 7434.39, 7032.85, 7068.48, 6951.80, 6753.12, 6305.80, 6568.23, 6184.71, 6295.73, 6322.69, 6297.57, 6199.71, 6308.52, 6334.73, 6580.63, 6423.76, 6506.07, 6308.53, 6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23, 7037.58, 7193.25, 7272.72, 7260.06, 7361.66, 6792.83, 6529.17, 6467.07, 6225.98, 6300.86, 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20, 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30, 6398.54, 6519.67, 6734.95, 6721.98, 6710.63, 6595.41, 6446.47, 6495.00, 6676.75, 6644.13, 6601.96, 6625.56, 6589.62, 6556.10, 6502.59, 6576.69, 6622.48, 6588.31, 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58, 6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35, 6487.16, 6475.74, 6495.84, 6476.29, 6474.75, 6480.38.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-10-27]
Volume: 3393250000, RSI (14-day): 48.04, 50-day EMA: 6553.75, 200-day EMA: 7141.28
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Visa CEO: Crypto is Not a Big Threat But if Needed, We Will Support it: According to Al Kelly, the CEO of Visa, the company could support crypto in the future if the global market moves in the direction of embracing consensus currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In the short to mid-term, Kelly told Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, that cryptocurrencies as an asset class is not a threat to reserve currencies that serve as the basis of Visa’s products. But, he stated that as the adoption of cryptocurrencies improve in the years to come, Visa will facilitate the demand for the asset class.
“I think there has to be some market that it becomes somewhat like a fiat currency in order for us to be comfortable. If it goes in that direction, we will move in that direction. We want to be in the middle, Jim, of every payment flow in the world regardless of how it happens or what the currency is behind it. So if we have to go there, we will go there. But right now, it’s more of a commodity than a payment vehicle.”
Visa is the most influential credit card service company in the finance sector and is amongst the most profitable businesses in the market alongside Mastercard.
In the long-term, Kelly emphasized that Visa will eventually serve as a middleman to attract crypto users to send and receive digital assets with Visa on its platforms, by providing fees to the company.
However, by the time Visa would feel comfortable in integrating cryptocurrencies, which as the CEO described it as when the asset class is established utilized by the mainstream, cryptocurrencies would not require middlemen to process payments.
With non-custodial wallets and open-source platforms, users of cryptocurrencies can efficiently and securely transfer digital assets without paying additional fees on top of the trasnaction fee provided to the miners of the ecosystem.
Currently, due to the lack of merchant adoption, it is difficult for crypto users to compensate merchants to purchase simple products like coffee and food. A financial institution at the size of Visa could single-handedly increase the adoption of crypto amongst merchants in a large capacity.
But, the intent of Visa to target the cryptocurrency sector is to provide middleman services several years from now when cryptocurrencies are already accepted by merchants and being utilized as an alternative currency to reserve currencies like the US dollar.
The time to support and experiment with cryptocurrencies is now, when it is experiencing exponential growth and is still at an early phase.
Years down the line, the cryptocurrency sector could heavily rely on decentralized systems and services, which even platforms within the market including Binance expect, as seen in the development of the Binance decentralized exchange.
Already, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup have started to serve investors in the cryptocurrency market by seeing sufficient demand for the new asset class, while Visa, Morgan Stanley, and several other financial institutions remain cautious in entering the cryptocurrency market.
Featured image from Youtube/Boston College Carroll School of Management.
The postVisa CEO: Crypto is Not a Big Threat But if Needed, We Will Support itappeared first onCCN. || Crypto is Property: Chinese Court Upholds Citizens Rights to Own Bitcoin: The Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) has recently affirmed that cryptocurrencies, specifically bitcoin and several of its hard forks, are considered legal property and Chinese citizens have a right to own and transfer them.
The SCIA recentlypublishedan analysis of a contract dispute over WeChat, describing the legal proceedings of a case in which one individual managed nearly $500,000 worth of crypto assets on behalf of another private individual. The manager then refused to return these assets after their client dealt with a third party.
The defendant in this case argued that the whole arrangement between the three parties was invalid, as bitcoin, ICOs and other cryptocurrencies are not recognized as currencies under Chinese law.
The arbitrator sided against this reasoning, ruling instead that the holding of these assets as property is not itself illegal, so it is not illegal to include the transfer of crypto assets as a binding clause in business agreements. Further, the arbitrator was careful to note that bitcoin “is not a currency issued by the monetary authority nor electronic legal tender,” though this should not preclude it from being protected as personal property.
“Bitcoin is not a legal currency, but it is no doubt that it deserves protection by law as property. Bitcoin has property attributes...economic value, and can bring economic benefits,” the court claims.
The case only involved bitcoin and two of its hard forks, bitcoin cash and bitcoin diamond, and, therefore, arguably does not rule out further legal disputes in the future over other cryptocurrencies not derived from the original Bitcoin protocol.
It’s important to note that the SCIA is not a lawmaking body itself, and the arbitrator in question does not have any influence over the future status of crypto assets as a legal currency in Chinese jurisdictions. Nevertheless, this does set a judicial precedent for citizens to treat crypto assets as legal property.
Although the Chinese legal space often seems opaque to outside audiences, this case should serve as a clear example to show that the courts are not intractably hostile to the rights of private citizens over bitcoin ownership.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Crypto is Property: Chinese Court Upholds Citizens Rights to Own Bitcoin: The Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) has recently affirmed that cryptocurrencies, specifically bitcoin and several of its hard forks, are considered legal property and Chinese citizens have a right to own and transfer them.
The SCIA recentlypublishedan analysis of a contract dispute over WeChat, describing the legal proceedings of a case in which one individual managed nearly $500,000 worth of crypto assets on behalf of another private individual. The manager then refused to return these assets after their client dealt with a third party.
The defendant in this case argued that the whole arrangement between the three parties was invalid, as bitcoin, ICOs and other cryptocurrencies are not recognized as currencies under Chinese law.
The arbitrator sided against this reasoning, ruling instead that the holding of these assets as property is not itself illegal, so it is not illegal to include the transfer of crypto assets as a binding clause in business agreements. Further, the arbitrator was careful to note that bitcoin “is not a currency issued by the monetary authority nor electronic legal tender,” though this should not preclude it from being protected as personal property.
“Bitcoin is not a legal currency, but it is no doubt that it deserves protection by law as property. Bitcoin has property attributes...economic value, and can bring economic benefits,” the court claims.
The case only involved bitcoin and two of its hard forks, bitcoin cash and bitcoin diamond, and, therefore, arguably does not rule out further legal disputes in the future over other cryptocurrencies not derived from the original Bitcoin protocol.
It’s important to note that the SCIA is not a lawmaking body itself, and the arbitrator in question does not have any influence over the future status of crypto assets as a legal currency in Chinese jurisdictions. Nevertheless, this does set a judicial precedent for citizens to treat crypto assets as legal property.
Although the Chinese legal space often seems opaque to outside audiences, this case should serve as a clear example to show that the courts are not intractably hostile to the rights of private citizens over bitcoin ownership.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Chinese Civil Court Rules Bitcoin as Legally Protected Property: China Bitcoin Ban A case involving almost half a million dollars in cryptocurrency led to an important new precedent in China. A high Chinese court, the Court of International Arbitration, ruled that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are valuable personal property and are therefore protected under existing Chinese law. The court also stated that there is no law on the books prohibiting the possession or acquisition of cryptos. A plaintiff, who was not named in any reportage, brought suit against a person hed hired to steward and trade his coins for him. A deadline for return of the coins was scheduled, and the defendant missed the deadline. The balances in question were 20 Bitcoin, 70 Bitcoin Cash, and just over 12.5 Bitcoin Diamond. The defense had a seemingly strong argument: the contract between the parties was invalid when China decided to ban ICOs and crypto trading . According to the defendant, this legal stance makes all crypto transactions illegal and therefore the contract was outside the bounds of a courts enforcement authority. The court disagreed with this interpretation, and according to a Chinese news source, the following conclusion was drawn: The bitcoin return contract concluded between private individuals does not violate the mandatory provisions of the legal and regulatory effects and should not be considered invalid. Chinese laws and regulations do not prohibit privately held and legally transferred bitcoin. Further, although cryptos are a digital asset, it does not prevent it from becoming an object of delivery. As a result of the case, the defendant was forced to pay 100,000 Yuan in damages in addition to returning the coins. Important Cryptocurrency Precedent Courts are important in the Peoples Republic, so much so that they will hear cases even when the court room is flooded . Cryptocurrency has long been a gray area around the world, particularly in China, where rumors of a Bitcoin ban have frequently led to market turbulence elsewhere. Despite being apparently legal, there have been several incidents where the government has taken action against operations it deemed as being improperly regulated. Such cases have often had global implications. Story continues We can speculate a few things as a result of this case. One, the case for cryptocurrencies is far from settled. While ICOs and exchanges have been shut down or banned and many have found ways to adapt, including Binance which was moved operations to Malta, there seems to be hope that Chinese cryptonaughts will in the future have several legal methods of utilizing Bitcoin. At present time, according to this ruling, which can be challenged later by an even higher court, private individuals are free to use Bitcoin amongst themselves. Two, the Chinese government is not uniformly opposed to cryptos. We in the cryptocurrency space expect central banks and even private banks to do what they can to impede the progress of digital monies, but it appears that in a legal sense, they are not all-powerful. If people can still hold coin in China, then there is hope that over time they will once again be able to legally participate in every other way. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Chinese Civil Court Rules Bitcoin as Legally Protected Property appeared first on CCN . || Chinese Civil Court Rules Bitcoin as Legally Protected Property: A case involving almost half a million dollars in cryptocurrency led to an important new precedent in China.
A high Chinese court, the Court of International Arbitration, ruled that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are valuable personal property and are therefore protected under existing Chinese law. The court alsostatedthat there is no law on the books prohibiting the possession or acquisition of cryptos.
A plaintiff, who was not named in any reportage, brought suit against a person he’d hired to steward and trade his coins for him. A deadline for return of the coins was scheduled, and the defendant missed the deadline. The balances in question were 20 Bitcoin, 70 Bitcoin Cash, and just over 12.5 Bitcoin Diamond.
The defense had a seemingly strong argument: the contract between the parties was invalid when China decided to banICOs and crypto trading. According to the defendant, this legal stance makes all crypto transactions illegal and therefore the contract was outside the bounds of a court’s enforcement authority. The court disagreed with this interpretation, and according to a Chinese news source, the following conclusion was drawn:
The bitcoin return contract concluded between private individuals does not violate the mandatory provisions of the legal and regulatory effects and should not be considered invalid. Chinese laws and regulations do not prohibit privately held and legally transferred bitcoin.
Further, although cryptos are a digital asset, “it does not prevent it from becoming an object of delivery.”
As a result of the case, the defendant was forced to pay 100,000 Yuan in damages in addition to returning the coins.
Courts are important in the People’s Republic, so much so that they will hear cases even when the court roomis flooded. Cryptocurrency has long been a gray area around the world, particularly in China, whererumors of a Bitcoinban have frequently led to market turbulence elsewhere. Despite being apparently legal, there have been several incidents where the government has taken action against operations it deemed as being improperly regulated. Such cases have often had global implications.
We can speculate a few things as a result of this case.
One, the case for cryptocurrencies is far from settled. While ICOs and exchanges have been shut down or banned and many have found ways to adapt, including Binance which was moved operations to Malta, there seems to be hope that Chinese cryptonaughts will in the future have several legal methods of utilizing Bitcoin. At present time, according to this ruling, which can be challenged later by an even higher court, private individuals are free to use Bitcoin amongst themselves.
Two, the Chinese government is not uniformly opposed to cryptos. We in the cryptocurrency space expect central banks and even private banks to do what they can to impede the progress of digital monies, but it appears that in a legal sense, they are not all-powerful. If people can still hold coin in China, then there is hope that over time they will once again be able to legally participate in every other way.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postChinese Civil Court Rules Bitcoin as Legally Protected Propertyappeared first onCCN. || Chinese Civil Court Rules Bitcoin as Legally Protected Property: A case involving almost half a million dollars in cryptocurrency led to an important new precedent in China.
A high Chinese court, the Court of International Arbitration, ruled that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are valuable personal property and are therefore protected under existing Chinese law. The court alsostatedthat there is no law on the books prohibiting the possession or acquisition of cryptos.
A plaintiff, who was not named in any reportage, brought suit against a person he’d hired to steward and trade his coins for him. A deadline for return of the coins was scheduled, and the defendant missed the deadline. The balances in question were 20 Bitcoin, 70 Bitcoin Cash, and just over 12.5 Bitcoin Diamond.
The defense had a seemingly strong argument: the contract between the parties was invalid when China decided to banICOs and crypto trading. According to the defendant, this legal stance makes all crypto transactions illegal and therefore the contract was outside the bounds of a court’s enforcement authority. The court disagreed with this interpretation, and according to a Chinese news source, the following conclusion was drawn:
The bitcoin return contract concluded between private individuals does not violate the mandatory provisions of the legal and regulatory effects and should not be considered invalid. Chinese laws and regulations do not prohibit privately held and legally transferred bitcoin.
Further, although cryptos are a digital asset, “it does not prevent it from becoming an object of delivery.”
As a result of the case, the defendant was forced to pay 100,000 Yuan in damages in addition to returning the coins.
Courts are important in the People’s Republic, so much so that they will hear cases even when the court roomis flooded. Cryptocurrency has long been a gray area around the world, particularly in China, whererumors of a Bitcoinban have frequently led to market turbulence elsewhere. Despite being apparently legal, there have been several incidents where the government has taken action against operations it deemed as being improperly regulated. Such cases have often had global implications.
We can speculate a few things as a result of this case.
One, the case for cryptocurrencies is far from settled. While ICOs and exchanges have been shut down or banned and many have found ways to adapt, including Binance which was moved operations to Malta, there seems to be hope that Chinese cryptonaughts will in the future have several legal methods of utilizing Bitcoin. At present time, according to this ruling, which can be challenged later by an even higher court, private individuals are free to use Bitcoin amongst themselves.
Two, the Chinese government is not uniformly opposed to cryptos. We in the cryptocurrency space expect central banks and even private banks to do what they can to impede the progress of digital monies, but it appears that in a legal sense, they are not all-powerful. If people can still hold coin in China, then there is hope that over time they will once again be able to legally participate in every other way.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postChinese Civil Court Rules Bitcoin as Legally Protected Propertyappeared first onCCN. || Coinbase cuts more than 15 workers: This story was updated with more information at 1:00pm EST on Oct. 26. Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in America, cut a handful of staffers this week in its customer support, compliance, and fraud departments, Yahoo Finance has learned. Coinbase confirmed the cuts but would not confirm a head count. Sources say it was more than 15 people. One source inside Coinbase says, “ People here are pretty upset about it, and so far senior leadership is handling communications poorly.” At a company with 550 employees, 15 people may not sound significant. But any cuts at Coinbase are of interest at a time when the company is widely thought to be gearing up to go public. After a giant new funding round this month, Coinbase has an $8 billion valuation ; it also added board member Chris Dodds, who is on the board at Charles Schwab, after losing boardmember David Marcus from Facebook . Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong at TechCrunch Disrupt in London in September 2014. (Anthony Harvey/Getty) Most of the people let go were remote employees. Some were part of a customer service team that Coinbase announced back in 2013, saying in a blog post , “ We recently hit 300,000 users on Coinbase… it’s become evident that in order to build the best customer service for our Coinbase customers we need to scour the world to find the best. As a result, we’re building a remote customer support team to accommodate our growing user base.” Fast forward to 2018: Coinbase claims 25 million users and has offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Portland, Ore., and Dublin. In January, Coinbase hired Tina Bhatnagar , a former Salesforce and Twitter executive, to oversee customer service. Bhatnagar, sources say, wants the customer service staff centralized in Coinbase’s offices. As a result, the remote support team members were let go, though some were offered the chance to relocate to a Coinbase office. Coinbase, in a statement sent to Yahoo Finance, says, “We’ve learned that certain teams who are co-located are more efficient, effective, and happier in their roles. So moving forward, some teams—including Support, Fraud, and Compliance—will only hire employees into Coinbase offices.” Story continues And Coinbase says its customer service has improved: “Our average time to first response via email is under four hours, under three minutes on the phone, and 90% of all cases are resolved within 48 hours.” The company adds that it will “continue to be open to remote employees” for jobs that are “hard to fill locally to an office.” The cuts also speak to market demand. At the end of 2017, the cryptocurrency market soared and companies staffed up. During that frenzy, Coinbase was signing up 50,000 new customers each day. It further built out that decentralized customer support team. This year has been a different story , with cryptocurrencies seeing red on most days. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is down 62% this year; bitcoin cash ( BCH ) is down 82%; ether ( ETH ) is down 79%; ethereum classic ( ETC ) is down 69%; litecoin ( LTC ) is down 80%. And most significant for Coinbase: trading volume is down. Among crypto circles, there have been whispers of Coinbase layoffs for a few months now. As Coinbase navigates the choppy market while also eyeing an IPO, it is evolving and will likely make additional organizational changes. — Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ readDanwrite . Read more: Coinbase will add cryptocurrencies more rapidly, plus ratings and reviews Coinbase exec: ‘Adding more assets is a very big priority for us’ SEC widens its crackdown on ICOs Blockchain CEO on ‘Just Hodl’ bitcoin mantra: ‘I don’t believe in that’ Chain CEO: Public and private blockchains will soon converge Lightning Labs CEO: We are back to a ‘bitcoin, not blockchain’ world || Coinbase cuts more than 15 workers: This story was updated with more information at 1:00pm EST on Oct. 26. Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in America, cut a handful of staffers this week in its customer support, compliance, and fraud departments, Yahoo Finance has learned. Coinbase confirmed the cuts but would not confirm a head count. Sources say it was more than 15 people. One source inside Coinbase says, “ People here are pretty upset about it, and so far senior leadership is handling communications poorly.” At a company with 550 employees, 15 people may not sound significant. But any cuts at Coinbase are of interest at a time when the company is widely thought to be gearing up to go public. After a giant new funding round this month, Coinbase has an $8 billion valuation ; it also added board member Chris Dodds, who is on the board at Charles Schwab, after losing boardmember David Marcus from Facebook . Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong at TechCrunch Disrupt in London in September 2014. (Anthony Harvey/Getty) Most of the people let go were remote employees. Some were part of a customer service team that Coinbase announced back in 2013, saying in a blog post , “ We recently hit 300,000 users on Coinbase… it’s become evident that in order to build the best customer service for our Coinbase customers we need to scour the world to find the best. As a result, we’re building a remote customer support team to accommodate our growing user base.” Fast forward to 2018: Coinbase claims 25 million users and has offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Portland, Ore., and Dublin. In January, Coinbase hired Tina Bhatnagar , a former Salesforce and Twitter executive, to oversee customer service. Bhatnagar, sources say, wants the customer service staff centralized in Coinbase’s offices. As a result, the remote support team members were let go, though some were offered the chance to relocate to a Coinbase office. Coinbase, in a statement sent to Yahoo Finance, says, “We’ve learned that certain teams who are co-located are more efficient, effective, and happier in their roles. So moving forward, some teams—including Support, Fraud, and Compliance—will only hire employees into Coinbase offices.” Story continues And Coinbase says its customer service has improved: “Our average time to first response via email is under four hours, under three minutes on the phone, and 90% of all cases are resolved within 48 hours.” The company adds that it will “continue to be open to remote employees” for jobs that are “hard to fill locally to an office.” The cuts also speak to market demand. At the end of 2017, the cryptocurrency market soared and companies staffed up. During that frenzy, Coinbase was signing up 50,000 new customers each day. It further built out that decentralized customer support team. This year has been a different story , with cryptocurrencies seeing red on most days. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is down 62% this year; bitcoin cash ( BCH ) is down 82%; ether ( ETH ) is down 79%; ethereum classic ( ETC ) is down 69%; litecoin ( LTC ) is down 80%. And most significant for Coinbase: trading volume is down. Among crypto circles, there have been whispers of Coinbase layoffs for a few months now. As Coinbase navigates the choppy market while also eyeing an IPO, it is evolving and will likely make additional organizational changes. — Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ readDanwrite . Read more: Coinbase will add cryptocurrencies more rapidly, plus ratings and reviews Coinbase exec: ‘Adding more assets is a very big priority for us’ SEC widens its crackdown on ICOs Blockchain CEO on ‘Just Hodl’ bitcoin mantra: ‘I don’t believe in that’ Chain CEO: Public and private blockchains will soon converge Lightning Labs CEO: We are back to a ‘bitcoin, not blockchain’ world || Mastercard Wants to Patent a Fractional Reserve Cryptocurrency Bank: mastercard Mastercard has gone all the way through the stages of the resistance proverb — “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Cryptocurrencies & Mastercard: A Turbulent History Like most financial companies, Mastercard never expected the blockchain, and by the time they took note of it, they were unprepared for the changes it could and will bring. So their earliest reactions were, to say the least, not positive . A massive firm, however, they were at the same time studying the technology and looking for ways to utilize it, as well as looking for ways to legally make use of cryptocurrencies . The company has been all over the place on the issue, eventually admitting that it could be “ good .” The Ultimate Irony: Fractional Reserve Blockchain Now, some years after initially associating cryptocurrencies with crime, Mastercard is seeking a patent for fractional reserve management of blockchain assets. You read that right, and there are likely a number of cryptonaughts laughing their heads off as they digest this. Fractional reserve banking is one of the problems Bitcoin was designed to solve. It is a practice which most who gravitate toward cryptocurrencies would prefer to see eradicated . In general, Bitcoiners are not fans of debt-based currency. Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies are therefore regarded as sound money . A Step Beyond Not Owning Your Keys: Not Even Being Sure the Institution Has Your Funds The patent Mastercard is seeking — application 20180308092 — describes a system which will simultaneously track crypto assets and fiat assets. Essentially, it’s a web wallet with a combination of cryptocurrency and fiat accounts. Bitcoin banking institutions like Coinbase have had trouble gaining traction with cryptocurrency natives over the years for the simple reason that the user/owner of the funds does not then hold the keys. In the cryptonaught’s eyes, not holding the keys to your coin is the same as not holding your coin at all. It can disappear, and there is nothing you can do about it. Thus, the largest component of Coinbase’s customers has been newcomers looking for convenient ways to acquire Bitcoin . Story continues The patent essentially describes a cryptocurrency credit card network. “Thus, there is a need to improve on the storage and processing of transactions that utilize blockchain currencies. Existing payment networks and payment processing systems that utilize fiat currency are specially designed and configured to safely store and protect consumer and merchant information and credentials and to transmit sensitive data between computing systems. In addition, existing payment systems are often configured to perform complex calculations, risk assessments, and fraud algorithm applications extremely fast, as to ensure quick processing of fiat currency transactions. A ccordingly, the use of traditional payment networks and payment systems technologies in combination with blockchain currencies may provide consumers and merchants the benefits of the decentralized blockchain while still maintaining security of account information and provide a strong defense against fraud and theft.” mastercard fractional reserve cryptocurrency bank They see a benefit to mixing traditional and cryptocurrency technologies, and the system described would likely include their existing products and payment networks. “Transactions that may be performed via a payment network may include product or service purchases, credit purchases, debit transactions, fund transfers, account withdrawals, etc. Payment networks may be configured to perform transactions via cash-substitutes, which may include payment cards, letters of credit, checks, transaction accounts, etc.” Mastercard seeks to do what it does best: process transactions. In the same way, funds can be moved around an exchange or a gambling site instantaneously once their deposits are cleared, Mastercard would like to make this possible for merchants. In this respect, despite the problems associated with fractional reserve anything, Mastercard could potentially make a massive contribution to the Bitcoin economy by enabling millions of existing clients to accept cryptocurrency payments. Patents take time to process, so we will see how this develops. Images from Shutterstock The post Mastercard Wants to Patent a Fractional Reserve Cryptocurrency Bank appeared first on CCN . || Mastercard Wants to Patent a Fractional Reserve Cryptocurrency Bank: Mastercard has gone all the way through the stages of theresistance proverb— “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Like most financial companies, Mastercard never expected the blockchain, and by the time they took note of it, they were unprepared for the changes it could and will bring. So their earliest reactions were, to say the least,not positive. A massive firm, however, they were at the same time studying the technology and looking for ways to utilize it, as well as looking for ways tolegally make use of cryptocurrencies.
The company has been all over the place on the issue, eventually admitting that it could be “good.”
Now, some years after initially associating cryptocurrencies with crime, Mastercard is seekinga patentfor fractional reserve management of blockchain assets. You read that right, and there are likely a number of cryptonaughts laughing their heads off as they digest this. Fractional reserve banking is one of the problems Bitcoin was designed to solve. It is a practice which most who gravitate toward cryptocurrencies wouldprefer to see eradicated.
In general, Bitcoiners are not fans of debt-based currency. Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies are thereforeregarded as sound money.
The patent Mastercard is seeking — application20180308092— describes a system which will simultaneously track crypto assets and fiat assets. Essentially, it’s a web wallet with a combination of cryptocurrency and fiat accounts.
Bitcoin banking institutions like Coinbase have had trouble gaining traction with cryptocurrency natives over the years for the simple reason that the user/owner of the funds does not then hold the keys. In the cryptonaught’s eyes, not holding the keys to your coin is the same as not holding your coin at all. It can disappear, and there is nothing you can do about it. Thus, the largest component of Coinbase’s customers has been newcomers looking for convenient ways toacquire Bitcoin.
The patent essentially describes a cryptocurrency credit card network.
“Thus, there is a need to improve on the storage and processing of transactions that utilize blockchain currencies. Existing payment networks and payment processing systems that utilize fiat currency are specially designed and configured to safely store and protect consumer and merchant information and credentials and to transmit sensitive data between computing systems. In addition, existing payment systems are often configured to perform complex calculations, risk assessments, and fraud algorithm applications extremely fast, as to ensure quick processing of fiat currency transactions.Accordingly, the use of traditional payment networks and payment systems technologies in combination with blockchain currencies may provide consumers and merchants the benefits of the decentralized blockchain while still maintaining security of account information and provide a strong defense against fraud and theft.”
They see a benefit to mixing traditional and cryptocurrency technologies, and the system described would likely include their existing products and payment networks.
“Transactions that may be performed via a payment network may include product or service purchases, credit purchases, debit transactions, fund transfers, account withdrawals, etc. Payment networks may be configured to perform transactions via cash-substitutes, which may include payment cards, letters of credit, checks, transaction accounts, etc.”
Mastercard seeks to do what it does best: process transactions. In the same way, funds can be moved around an exchange or a gambling site instantaneously once their deposits are cleared, Mastercard would like to make this possible for merchants. In this respect, despite the problems associated with fractional reserve anything, Mastercard could potentially make a massive contribution to the Bitcoin economy by enabling millions of existing clients to accept cryptocurrency payments.
Patents take time to process, so we will see how this develops.
Images from Shutterstock
The postMastercard Wants to Patent a Fractional Reserve Cryptocurrency Bankappeared first onCCN. || Bank of Canada Estimates 5% of Canadians Own Bitcoin: Data from theBank of Canadaand theOntario Securities Commissionhas revealed that bitcoin adoption and general crypto awareness in Canada is growing steadily, with the percentage of Canadian poll respondents who own bitcoin rising from 2.9 percent in 2016 to 5 percent in 2017.
According to a recently releasedreportby the Bank of Canada titled “Bitcoin Awareness and Usage inCanada: An Update,” Canadians between the ages of 45 and 54 were the group that reported the largest growth in bitcoin ownership over the period, multiplying nearly four times from 0.9 percent in 2016 to 3.5 percent in 2017. Similarly, an OSCreportshows that about 1 in 10 Ontarians either currently hold or used to hold cryptoassets.
The Bank of Canada report shows that the gender gap for bitcoin ownership widened considerably over the period in question, with female bitcoin owners in Canada remaining at 2 percent of the population, while the male bitcoin ownership figure nearly doubled, jumping from 4.2 percent to 8.1 percent. Significantly, ownership did not only grow in heavily populated provinces with urban centres like Ontario and British Columbia but grew across all provinces including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. It also showed that the number of holders of small bitcoin amounts has increased by a wider margin than that of people holding more than 10 BTC.
The OSC’sdataestimates the total number of Ontario residents holding cryptoassets at 500,000 by extrapolating the sample respondents to the population of the entire province. Of these, 63 percent say they own bitcoin, followed by 35 percent for ether, 18 percent for litecoin, 17 percent for bitcoin cash, and 13 percent for ripple (XRP). Very significantly, the report was able to ascertain from respondents when they first purchased their crypto holdings, which revealed that, unsurprisingly, a large percentage purchased their first coins in late 2017 or early 2018.
According to the survey, which was conducted in March 2018, 35 percent of crypto holders reported having made their first purchase of cryptocurrency within the previous three months, and a further 37 percent say they first obtained crypto within the past year. Just 27 percent indicated having purchased their crypto more than a year ago, which means that 72 percent of crypto holders in Ontario have bought in over the past one year. This tells a significant story about the growth of crypto adoption in Canada’s most populated province.
As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity and spread across Canada, regulators are also keeping an eye on the new opportunities and threats presented in the country, which was recentlydescribedas “more blockchain-friendly than the US.” CCNreportedin May that Canadian and American regulators are collaborating on a joint cross-border operation targeting ICO and cryptocurrency scams called “Operation Cryptosweep.”
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postBank of Canada Estimates 5% of Canadians Own Bitcoinappeared first onCCN. || Bank of Canada Estimates 5% of Canadians Own Bitcoin: Data from theBank of Canadaand theOntario Securities Commissionhas revealed that bitcoin adoption and general crypto awareness in Canada is growing steadily, with the percentage of Canadian poll respondents who own bitcoin rising from 2.9 percent in 2016 to 5 percent in 2017.
According to a recently releasedreportby the Bank of Canada titled “Bitcoin Awareness and Usage inCanada: An Update,” Canadians between the ages of 45 and 54 were the group that reported the largest growth in bitcoin ownership over the period, multiplying nearly four times from 0.9 percent in 2016 to 3.5 percent in 2017. Similarly, an OSCreportshows that about 1 in 10 Ontarians either currently hold or used to hold cryptoassets.
The Bank of Canada report shows that the gender gap for bitcoin ownership widened considerably over the period in question, with female bitcoin owners in Canada remaining at 2 percent of the population, while the male bitcoin ownership figure nearly doubled, jumping from 4.2 percent to 8.1 percent. Significantly, ownership did not only grow in heavily populated provinces with urban centres like Ontario and British Columbia but grew across all provinces including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. It also showed that the number of holders of small bitcoin amounts has increased by a wider margin than that of people holding more than 10 BTC.
The OSC’sdataestimates the total number of Ontario residents holding cryptoassets at 500,000 by extrapolating the sample respondents to the population of the entire province. Of these, 63 percent say they own bitcoin, followed by 35 percent for ether, 18 percent for litecoin, 17 percent for bitcoin cash, and 13 percent for ripple (XRP). Very significantly, the report was able to ascertain from respondents when they first purchased their crypto holdings, which revealed that, unsurprisingly, a large percentage purchased their first coins in late 2017 or early 2018.
According to the survey, which was conducted in March 2018, 35 percent of crypto holders reported having made their first purchase of cryptocurrency within the previous three months, and a further 37 percent say they first obtained crypto within the past year. Just 27 percent indicated having purchased their crypto more than a year ago, which means that 72 percent of crypto holders in Ontario have bought in over the past one year. This tells a significant story about the growth of crypto adoption in Canada’s most populated province.
As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity and spread across Canada, regulators are also keeping an eye on the new opportunities and threats presented in the country, which was recentlydescribedas “more blockchain-friendly than the US.” CCNreportedin May that Canadian and American regulators are collaborating on a joint cross-border operation targeting ICO and cryptocurrency scams called “Operation Cryptosweep.”
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postBank of Canada Estimates 5% of Canadians Own Bitcoinappeared first onCCN. || Bank of Canada Estimates 5% of Canadians Own Bitcoin: bitcoin canada Data from the Bank of Canada and the Ontario Securities Commission has revealed that bitcoin adoption and general crypto awareness in Canada is growing steadily, with the percentage of Canadian poll respondents who own bitcoin rising from 2.9 percent in 2016 to 5 percent in 2017. According to a recently released report by the Bank of Canada titled “Bitcoin Awareness and Usage in Canada: An Update,” Canadians between the ages of 45 and 54 were the group that reported the largest growth in bitcoin ownership over the period, multiplying nearly four times from 0.9 percent in 2016 to 3.5 percent in 2017. Similarly, an OSC report shows that about 1 in 10 Ontarians either currently hold or used to hold cryptoassets. Data Breakdown The Bank of Canada report shows that the gender gap for bitcoin ownership widened considerably over the period in question, with female bitcoin owners in Canada remaining at 2 percent of the population, while the male bitcoin ownership figure nearly doubled, jumping from 4.2 percent to 8.1 percent. Significantly, ownership did not only grow in heavily populated provinces with urban centres like Ontario and British Columbia but grew across all provinces including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. It also showed that the number of holders of small bitcoin amounts has increased by a wider margin than that of people holding more than 10 BTC. bank of canada bitcoin The OSC’s data estimates the total number of Ontario residents holding cryptoassets at 500,000 by extrapolating the sample respondents to the population of the entire province. Of these, 63 percent say they own bitcoin, followed by 35 percent for ether, 18 percent for litecoin, 17 percent for bitcoin cash, and 13 percent for ripple (XRP). Very significantly, the report was able to ascertain from respondents when they first purchased their crypto holdings, which revealed that, unsurprisingly, a large percentage purchased their first coins in late 2017 or early 2018. Story continues According to the survey, which was conducted in March 2018, 35 percent of crypto holders reported having made their first purchase of cryptocurrency within the previous three months, and a further 37 percent say they first obtained crypto within the past year. Just 27 percent indicated having purchased their crypto more than a year ago, which means that 72 percent of crypto holders in Ontario have bought in over the past one year. This tells a significant story about the growth of crypto adoption in Canada’s most populated province. As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity and spread across Canada, regulators are also keeping an eye on the new opportunities and threats presented in the country, which was recently described as “more blockchain-friendly than the US.” CCN reported in May that Canadian and American regulators are collaborating on a joint cross-border operation targeting ICO and cryptocurrency scams called “Operation Cryptosweep.” Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Bank of Canada Estimates 5% of Canadians Own Bitcoin appeared first on CCN . || 3 Stocks to Buy and Hold Through the Panic Selling: It is inevitable that investors in the stock market will have to endure many pullbacks, corrections and bear markets. That is, of course, assuming you are a true investor who holds for the long term, and not traders who call themselves investors yet attempt to time the market. There is nothing wrong with timing the market per se, but you must be aware that the odds of an average investor making the correct buy and sell decisions are terrible. That’s why it is so important that every investor has a large portion of their portfolio in a long-term allocation. The periods of weakness that all investors must endure are often caused by panic. This panic selling could lead to a quick 5% pullback, or it could reach and even exceed 10% and enter correction territory. A study of the Dow Jones between 1900 and 2017 shows that a 10%-plus pullback occurs roughly once a year. A 5%-plus pullback happens an average of three times a year. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The Dow is currently in the midst of a 5%-10% pullback, something that — again — occurs several times a year. But for many, this time always feels different and panic always sets in amid the selling. My advice is simple: Do not get caught up in the short-term selling and instead focus on the long-term fundamentals of the market and individual names on your stocks to buy list. Not only will this allow you to keep your head, it will also allow you to make a whole lot of money over the long term. 2 TOXIC Pot Stocks You Should Avoid Like the Plague (#1 will surprise you) Today, I want to talk about three stocks to buy that have gotten caught up in various panic scenarios but shouldn’t be viewed as down for the count. Stocks to Buy: Caterpillar (CAT) Source: Anthony via Flickr Caterpillar (CAT) The first is Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ), which just hit a 52-week low after reporting earnings. The report itself was fine — earnings of $2.88 beat estimates for $2.83, while revenue of $13.5 billion also came in handily above consensus. Story continues The problem that felled CAT stock is that investors were disappointed by comments regarding the trade issues between the U.S. and China. Tariffs could definitely continue to affect quarterly numbers until the conflict is resolved, but I do believe a deal will ultimately get done between the two countries. That makes CAT a bargain-basement stock to buy with a 9x price-to-earnings ratio. Nvidia (NVDA) Source: Shutterstock Nvidia (NVDA) Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA ) has entered bear market territory after falling 25% from the all-time high it set earlier this month. This semiconductor company is the leader in gaming, blockchain, autonomous vehicles and several other high-growth sectors of the future, and it was certainly due for a pullback. When panic selling in the tech sector set in, that’s exactly what we got. Nvidia has lost almost all of this year’s gains. 15 Hot Stocks With Mass Teenager Appeal Looking at the big picture, however, there is no question that the future of technology relies on NVDA, putting it among some of the better stocks to buy right now. Just look at how ubiquitous it has made itself in just the autonomous driving sector — as mentioned above, far from its only major source of growth. I suspect the sellers who panicked and sold will be sorry in a few months. Canopy Growth (CGC) Source: Shutterstock Canopy Growth (CGC) Finally, there is Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC ), which has been on a very wild ride this month. The world’s largest marijuana company rallied into Canada’s official legalization of recreational weed on Oct. 17. But after hitting an all-time high the day prior, the stock began a pullback that now has it down 30% in just a week. This action was a case of “buy the rumor, sell the news” in an extremely volatile sector. I expect this volatility will remain for the next few weeks. We will see days of mass panic and others of euphoria, and those who head for the hills on the down days will likely sell near the lows. The bottom line is: Do not get caught up in the fear. Those who weather the storms will be rewarded. If you stick to your guns and focus on the long-term fundamentals on your stocks to buy list, you stand to make a lot of money over time. Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else, click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today . More From InvestorPlace 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid Like the Plague 8 'Greenlight' Stocks to Buy in a Sea of Red 7 Stocks to Buy for Real Pricing Power 4 Tech Wrecks That May Be Turning Into Stocks to Buy Compare Brokers The post 3 Stocks to Buy and Hold Through the Panic Selling appeared first on InvestorPlace . || 3 Stocks to Buy and Hold Through the Panic Selling: It is inevitable that investors in the stock market will have to endure many pullbacks, corrections and bear markets. That is, of course, assuming you are a true investor who holds for the long term, and not traders whocallthemselves investors yet attempt to time the market.
There is nothing wrong with timing the market per se, but you must be aware that the odds of an average investor making the correct buy and sell decisions are terrible. That’s why it is so important that every investor has a large portion of their portfolio in a long-term allocation.
The periods of weakness that all investors must endure are often caused by panic. This panic selling could lead to a quick 5% pullback, or it could reach and even exceed 10% and enter correction territory. A study of theDow Jonesbetween 1900 and 2017 shows that a 10%-plus pullback occurs roughly once a year. A 5%-plus pullback happens an average of three times a year.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
The Dow is currently in the midst of a 5%-10% pullback, something that — again — occurs several times a year. But for many,this timealways feels different and panic always sets in amid the selling.
My advice is simple: Do not get caught up in the short-term selling and instead focus on the long-term fundamentals of the market and individual names on your stocks to buy list. Not only will this allow you to keep your head, it will also allow you to make a whole lot of money over the long term.
• 2 TOXIC Pot Stocks You Should Avoid Like the Plague (#1 will surprise you)
Today, I want to talk about three stocks to buy that have gotten caught up in various panic scenarios but shouldn’t be viewed as down for the count.
Source:Anthony via Flickr
The first isCaterpillar(NYSE:CAT), which just hit a52-week lowafter reporting earnings. The report itself was fine — earnings of $2.88 beat estimates for $2.83, while revenue of $13.5 billion also came in handily above consensus.
The problem that felled CAT stock is that investors were disappointed by comments regarding the trade issues between the U.S. and China.
Tariffs could definitely continue to affect quarterly numbers until the conflict is resolved, but I do believe a deal will ultimately get done between the two countries. That makes CAT a bargain-basement stock to buy with a 9x price-to-earnings ratio.
Source: Shutterstock
Nvidia(NASDAQ:NVDA) has entered bear market territory after falling 25% from the all-time high it set earlier this month. This semiconductor company is the leader in gaming, blockchain, autonomous vehicles and several other high-growth sectors of the future, and it was certainly due for a pullback.
When panic selling in the tech sector set in, that’s exactly what we got. Nvidia has lost almost all of this year’s gains.
• 15 Hot Stocks With Mass Teenager Appeal
Looking at the big picture, however, there is no question that the future of technology relies on NVDA, putting it among some of the better stocks to buy right now. Just look at howubiquitousit has made itself injustthe autonomous driving sector — as mentioned above, far from its only major source of growth. I suspect the sellers who panicked and sold will be sorry in a few months.
Source: Shutterstock
Finally, there isCanopy Growth(NYSE:CGC), which has been on a very wild ride this month. The world’s largest marijuana company rallied into Canada’s official legalization of recreational weed on Oct. 17. But after hitting an all-time high the day prior, the stock began a pullback that now has it down 30% in just a week.
This action was a case of “buy the rumor, sell the news” in an extremely volatile sector. I expect this volatility will remain for the next few weeks. We will see days of mass panic and others of euphoria, and those who head for the hills on the down days will likely sell near the lows.
The bottom line is: Do not get caught up in the fear. Those who weather the storms will be rewarded. If you stick to your guns and focus on the long-term fundamentals on your stocks to buy list, you stand to make a lot of money over time.
Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else,click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today.
• 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid Like the Plague
• 8 'Greenlight' Stocks to Buy in a Sea of Red
• 7 Stocks to Buy for Real Pricing Power
• 4 Tech Wrecks That May Be Turning Into Stocks to Buy
Compare Brokers
The post3 Stocks to Buy and Hold Through the Panic Sellingappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Academics Analyze Crypto Pump and Dump Schemes in New Paper: Three university scholars two from the University of Florida and one from Princeton have concluded what many veteran cryptocurrency enthusiasts have long known and loudly preached: pump-and-dump schemes are bad. In a new paper currently in progress by Tao Li, Donghwa Shin, and Baolian Wang, the scholars provide evidence that market manipulation schemes are detrimental to the liquidity and price of cryptocurrencies. CCN readers may have an interest in the context of the paper in relation to the recent activity at YoBit , in which the exchange itself openly promised to inject a ton of money into random coins in order to inflate their price. What Is A Pump-And-Dump Scheme? For the uninitiated, the term pump-and-dump might be foreign. Therefore we should first point out that these schemes did not begin with cryptocurrency and they will be around forever. Thats right: there is no eliminating the pump and dump scheme so long as people are free to make trading decisions on their own. In any case, a pump is when a great deal of value is injected into a given stock, symbol, or, in our case, cryptocurrency, in a market sense. A hype cycle is often involved, and new products are especially likely to be P&Ds. A lone investor with a lot of capital or a small group of colluding entities can make a huge difference in weak markets. The examples in the cryptosphere are endless. One or two bitcoins can purchase a large amount of literally thousands of different coins, and if there are only a few exchanges listing a given token, the price will see a significant rise. The dump part of the scheme is when the people acquiring the asset and necessarily driving its price to ridiculous highs sell off their stake to people who are none the wiser. The people buying at rates which previously would have been unreasonable believe they are buying long-term, solid assets. There is also a psychological element to both gambling and investing in which a dominant part of the human brain believes that things will be the way they are today tomorrow. The reality is that pump and dump schemes are hard to regulate without hard facts and informants because often enough, on the surface, they can appear like healthy boom-time trading. Story continues High-risk instruments trading has one goal: get out at the top, or nearest to the top that you can. Experienced traders understand that any asset can turn to absolute crap overnight. Traditional stocks can dive on the news cycle. The fundamentals are what matter. But with even more high-risk instruments, such as speculative technologies and the tokens that power them, the fundamentals are incredibly difficult to gauge. This reporter has dedicated a substantial portion of his life to covering the happenings around cryptocurrencies, tokens, and the like, and still he is overly cautious in most investments surrounding them due to the simple fact that the future is unwritten, and something entirely unexpected can overshadow the basket you dump all your eggs into. All of which is to say: trading amidst a pump and dump conspiracy is like being caught in a building victimized by arson. The arsonist is most likely to get out with barely even any smoke in his lungs, if he gets burned at all. The rest of the people suffer by degrees. The last person to sell loses the most money. Hype Is Important The hype cycle is important to most of these schemes, but it is not absolutely necessary for success. A pump-and-dump expert could potentially fool a market mostly made up of trading robots. Inside information such as the said bots trading triggers would help a great deal. A pump-and-dump scheme can go for weeks or months, or it can last a few days. Often, hundreds of smaller traders participate in private Telegram groups with the intent of making each other richer. As the scholars write: In the cryptocurrency market, manipulators often organize pump groups using encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram. They create Telegram channels and invite other investors to join. They frequently advertise on social media platforms to attract investors. A Telegram channel operator can post messages for other members to read. For a planned pump, the operator announces the target date, time, and exchange, usually at least one day in advance. However, they do not disclose the identity of the target token until the scheduled time. Members also receive multiple reminder messages before the announcement of the token symbol. As we show in this paper, a typical cryptocurrency P&D lasts for only several minutes. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that Telegram channel members are important participants in P&Ds. What it really boils down to is having enough money and the know-how to raise the price of a given asset. We dont use the word value because the actual value of a token is relative to much more than what people on markets are trading it for that day. As an example, if Bitcoin dove 75% again tomorrow, its actual value would probably not be reflected in the market price. Likely as not, it would cost more to mine it, for a time, than it would to buy it. But the value of Bitcoin is much more than what people are willing to pay for it at a given second. The price is a separate thing. The most successful schemes happen at the launch of a token or a coin and are perpetuated by the creators or team themselves. Entire blockchains have been created and abandoned in the pursuit of sometimes small amounts of Bitcoin. What Can Be Done? As earlier stated, pump and dump fraud is like any other unsavory activity: it will always be there. How much and how often it is allowed to affect the rest of society is where positive action is possible. The study done by the authors reviewed a specific case, Bittrex, and its tactics attempting to mitigate or eliminate pumping and dumping on its platform. The results were apparently positive in nature: Messages about pump groups on Telegram show that traders involved in P&D tactics had taken notice of the warning. Many scheduled P&D events were immediately canceled. For example, one prominent pump channel, Trading signals for crypto, canceled its P&D event on November 26, 2017. Some message groups solicited feedback from group members regarding whether to switch to other exchanges. Many message groups eventually ceased to pump tokens traded on Bittrex and/or switched to alternative exchanges such as Yobit. Another conclusion of the paper is that newcomers are often looted of their initial investment. Again, in so many ways crypto trading parallels gambling: a new poker player might be bullied off his small stake by insane bets on the part of a bluffing veteran, or simply not know what they are doing and lose their money that way. The major difference is that a gambler understands its a just a game, whereas most investors are earnestly trying to make money, and often they are influenced by false information or downright lies. Resultantly, there is and may for the foreseeable future be significant wealth transfer from newcomers to immoral scam artists masquerading as investors. And as long as there is a market for something, there will be a provider. We cant stress enough how absurd it is for an exchange itself to openly pump coins at random, as Yobit have done. The next step is the exchange operators simply running off with the money, which has happened before. Perhaps its better than exchanges which do it on the sly, as most every exchange has been excused. Yet, there was long speculation that Crytpsy was pumping the price of Paycoin and other tokens using customer funds, and look what happened there . Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Academics Analyze Crypto Pump and Dump Schemes in New Paper appeared first on CCN . || Academics Analyze Crypto Pump and Dump Schemes in New Paper: Three university scholars – two from the University of Florida and one from Princeton – have concluded what many veteran cryptocurrency enthusiasts have long known and loudly preached:pump-and-dump schemes are bad.
Ina new paper currently in progressby Tao Li, Donghwa Shin, and Baolian Wang, the scholars provide evidence that market manipulation schemes “are detrimental to the liquidity and price of cryptocurrencies.”
CCN readers may have an interest in the context of the paper in relation tothe recent activity at YoBit, in which the exchange itself openly promised to inject a ton of money into random coins in order to inflate their price.
For the uninitiated, the term “pump-and-dump” might be foreign. Therefore we should first point out that these schemes did not begin with cryptocurrency and they will be around forever. That’s right: there is no eliminating the pump and dump scheme so long as people are free to make trading decisions on their own.
In any case, a “pump” is when a great deal of value is injected into a given stock, symbol, or, in our case, cryptocurrency, in a market sense. A hype cycle is often involved, and new products are especially likely to be P&Ds. A lone investor with a lot of capital or a small group of colluding entities can make a huge difference in weak markets. The examples in the cryptosphere are endless. One or two bitcoins can purchase a large amount of literally thousands of different coins, and if there are only a few exchanges listing a given token, the “price” will see a significant rise.
The “dump” part of the scheme is when the people acquiring the asset and necessarily driving its price to ridiculous highs sell off their stake to people who are none the wiser. The people buying at rates which previously would have been unreasonable believe they are buying long-term, solid assets. There is also a psychological element to both gambling and investing in which a dominant part of the human brain believes that things will be the way they are today tomorrow. The reality is that pump and dump schemes are hard to regulate without hard facts and informants because often enough, on the surface, they can appear like healthy boom-time trading.
High-risk instruments trading has one goal: get out at the top, or nearest to the top that you can. Experienced traders understand thatanyasset can turn to absolute crap overnight. Traditional stocks can dive on the news cycle. The fundamentals are what matter. But with even more high-risk instruments, such as speculative technologies and the tokens that power them, the fundamentals are incredibly difficult to gauge. This reporter has dedicated a substantial portion of his life to covering the happenings around cryptocurrencies, tokens, and the like, and still he is overly cautious in most investments surrounding them due to the simple fact that the future is unwritten, and something entirely unexpected can overshadow the basket you dump all your eggs into.
All of which is to say: trading amidst a pump and dump conspiracy is like being caught in a building victimized by arson. The arsonist is most likely to get out with barely even any smoke in his lungs, if he gets burned at all. The rest of the people suffer by degrees. The last person to sell loses the most money.
The hype cycle is important to most of these schemes, but it is not absolutely necessary for success. A pump-and-dump expert could potentially fool a market mostly made up of trading robots. Inside information such as the said bots’ trading triggers would help a great deal. A pump-and-dump scheme can go for weeks or months, or it can last a few days. Often, hundreds of smaller traders participate in private Telegram groups with the intent of making each other richer.
As the scholars write:
In the cryptocurrency market, manipulators often organize “pump groups” using encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram. They create Telegram channels and invite other investors to join. They frequently advertise on social media platforms to attract investors. A Telegram channel operator can post messages for other members to read. For a planned pump, the operator announces the target date, time, and exchange, usually at least one day in advance. However, they do not disclose the identity of the target token until the scheduled time. Members also receive multiple reminder messages before the announcement of the token symbol. As we show in this paper, a typical cryptocurrency P&D lasts for only several minutes. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that Telegram channel members are important participants in P&Ds.
What it really boils down to is having enough money and the know-how to raise thepriceof a given asset. We don’t use the word “value” because the actual value of a token is relative to much more than what people on markets are trading it for that day. As an example, if Bitcoin dove 75% again tomorrow, its actual “value” would probably not be reflected in the market price. Likely as not, it would cost more to mine it, for a time, than it would to buy it. But the value of Bitcoin is much more than what people are willing to pay for it at a given second. The price is a separate thing.
The most successful schemes happen at the launch of a token or a coin and are perpetuated by the creators or “team” themselves. Entire blockchains have been created and abandoned in the pursuit of sometimes small amounts of Bitcoin.
As earlier stated, pump and dump fraud is like any other unsavory activity: it will always be there. How much and how often it is allowed to affect the rest of society is where positive action is possible. The study done by the authors reviewed a specific case, Bittrex, and its tactics attempting to mitigate or eliminate pumping and dumping on its platform. The results were apparently positive in nature:
Messages about pump groups on Telegram show that traders involved in P&D tactics had taken notice of the warning. Many scheduled P&D events were immediately canceled. For example, one prominent pump channel, “Trading signals for crypto,” canceled its P&D event on November 26, 2017. Some message groups solicited feedback from group members regarding whether to switch to other exchanges. Many message groups eventually ceased to pump tokens traded on Bittrex and/or switched to alternative exchanges such as Yobit.
Another conclusion of the paper is that newcomers are often looted of their initial investment. Again, in so many ways crypto trading parallels gambling: a new poker player might be bullied off his small stake by insane bets on the part of a bluffing veteran, or simply not know what they are doing and lose their money that way. The major difference is that a gambler understands it’s a just a game, whereas most investors are earnestly trying to make money, and often they are influenced by false information or downright lies. Resultantly, there is and may for the foreseeable future be “significant wealth transfer” from newcomers to immoral scam artists masquerading as investors.
And as long as there is a market for something, there will be a provider. We can’t stress enough how absurd it is for an exchange itself to openly “pump” coins at random, as Yobit have done. The next step is the exchange operators simply running off with the money, which has happened before. Perhaps it’s better than exchanges which do it on the sly, as most every exchange has been excused. Yet, there was long speculation thatCrytpsywas pumping the price ofPaycoinand other tokens using customer funds, and lookwhat happened there.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postAcademics Analyze Crypto Pump and Dump Schemes in New Paperappeared first onCCN. || 190 universities just launched 600 free online courses. Here’s the full list.: Students sit in the library of the university KU Leuven in Leuven If you haven’t heard, universities around the world are offering their courses online for free (or at least partially free ). These courses are collectively called MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses. In the past six years or so, over 800 universities have created more than 10,000 of these MOOCs. And I’ve been keeping track of these MOOCs the entire time over at Class Central , ever since they rose to prominence. In the past four months alone, 190 universities have announced 600 such free online courses. I’ve compiled a list of them and categorized them according to the following subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Programming, Data Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & Teaching, Health & Medicine, Business, Personal Development, Engineering, Art & Design, and finally Science. If you have trouble figuring out how to signup for Coursera courses for free, don’t worry — here’s an article on how to do that, too . Many of these are completely self-paced, so you can start taking them at your convenience. Programming CS50’s Introduction to Game Development from Harvard University CS50’s Mobile App Development with React Native from Harvard University CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript from Harvard University Functions, Methods, and Interfaces in Go from University of California, Irvine Concurrency in Go from University of California, Irvine Getting Started with Go from University of California, Irvine Computing in Python I: Fundamentals and Procedural Programming from Georgia Institute of Technology Computing in Python IV: Objects & Algorithms from Georgia Institute of Technology Computing in Python III: Data Structures from Georgia Institute of Technology Computing in Python II: Control Structures from Georgia Institute of Technology Projet de programmation (en Java) from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Pixel Art for Video Games from Michigan State University Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture from California Institute of the Arts Story continues Front-End Web Development with React from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Multiplatform Mobile App Development with React Native from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Automated Software Testing: Practical Skills for Java Developers from Delft University of Technology Automated Software Testing: Advanced Skills for Java Developers from Delft University of Technology Погружение в Python from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Основы разработки на C++: красный пояс from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology AR (Augmented Reality) & Video Streaming Services Emerging Technologies from Yonsei University Smart Device & Mobile Emerging Technologies from Yonsei University Problem Solving, Programming, and Video Games from University of Alberta Introduction to Augmented Reality and ARCore from Google Daydream Impact Fundamentals of NetLogo from Santa Fe Institute Competitive Programmer’s Core Skills from Saint Petersburg State University Business Problems and Software Solutions from Deakin University Введение в язык Котлин from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University Web Accessibility for Developers from Ryerson University Handheld AR App Development with Unity from Unity Diseño de Sistemas de información gerencial para Internet con MySQL / PHP y Joomla from Universidad del Rosario Kotlin for Java Developers from JetBrains Introduction to XR: VR, AR, and MR Foundations from Unity 3D Art and Audio Pipeline from Unity Application Systems Programming from Unity 3D Interactions and Navigation from Unity Core Interaction Programming from Unity Engineering Analysis of Transport Phenomena I: Mathematical Methods from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineering the Space Shuttle from Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Art of Structural Engineering: Vaults from Princeton University Collaborative Robot Safety: Design & Deployment from University at Buffalo Electric Power Systems from University at Buffalo Modern Robotics, Course 5: Robot Manipulation and Wheeled Mobile Robots from Northwestern University Le robot Thymio comme outil de découverte des sciences du numérique from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Principle of Semiconductor Devices Part I: Semiconductors, PN Junctions and Bipolar Junction Transistors from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hello (Real) World with ROS – Robot Operating System from Delft University of Technology Mind of the Universe – Robots in Society: Blessing or Curse? from Delft University of Technology Hyperloop: Changing the Future of Transportation from Delft University of Technology Electric Cars: Technology from Delft University of Technology Electric Cars: Policy from Delft University of Technology Through Engineers’ Eyes – Expanding the Vision: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design from University of New South Wales Through Engineers’ Eyes – Introducing the Vision: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design from University of New South Wales First Order Optical System Design from University of Colorado Boulder Design of High-Performance Optical Systems from University of Colorado Boulder Optical Efficiency and Resolution from University of Colorado Boulder Motors and Motor Control Circuits from University of Colorado Boulder Semiconductor Physics from University of Colorado Boulder Sensors and Sensor Circuit Design from University of Colorado Boulder Transistor – Field Effect Transistor and Bipolar Junction Transistor from University of Colorado Boulder Diode – pn Junction and Metal Semiconductor Contact from University of Colorado Boulder Diseño de diques rompeolas con cubípodos from Universitat Politècnica de València Introducción a la energía solar fotovoltaica: El módulo fotovoltaico from Universitat Politècnica de València Introducción a los encofrados y las cimbras en obra civil y edificación from Universitat Politècnica de València BIM Fundamentals for Engineers from National Taiwan University BIM Application for Engineers from National Taiwan University Distribución de la energía eléctrica from Tecnológico de Monterrey Smart grid: fundamentos técnicos from Tecnológico de Monterrey Transmisión de energía eléctrica from Tecnológico de Monterrey Energía eléctrica: conceptos y principios básicos from Tecnológico de Monterrey Smart grid: las redes eléctricas del futuro from Tecnológico de Monterrey Essentials of MOSFETs from Purdue University Fundamentals of Current Flow from Purdue University Primer on Semiconductor Fundamentals from Purdue University Introduzione ai circuiti elettrici from University of Naples Federico II Standardisation from EIT Digital Introduction to battery-management systems from University of Colorado System Equivalent Circuit Cell Model Simulation from University of Colorado System Battery State-of-Charge (SOC) Estimation from University of Colorado System Introduction to Web Cartography: Part 2 from ETH Zurich High Performance Finite Element Modeling – Part 2 from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Energy Systems Integration: A Trend or a Revolution? from KU Leuven University Propagation radio from Institut Mines-Télécom “Monotsukuri” Making Things in Japan: Mechanical Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology Ingeniería de Tráfico from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Introducción al Control Numérico por Computadora from TenarisUniversity Agile for Project Control from University System of Maryland Computer Science Machine Learning with Python: from Linear Models to Deep Learning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Blockchain Technology from University of California, Berkeley Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies from University of California, Berkeley Introduction to Machine Learning from Duke University Introduction to Computer Programming from University of London International Programmes How Computers Work from University of London International Programmes IT Infrastructure and Emerging Trends from University of Minnesota Enterprise Systems from University of Minnesota IS/IT Governance from University of Minnesota Embedded Software and Hardware Architecture from University of Colorado Boulder Industrial IoT Markets and Security from University of Colorado Boulder Введение в технологию блокчейн from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology 人工智慧：機器學習與理論基礎 (Artificial Intelligence – Learning & Theory) from National Taiwan University Introducción al diseño de hardware con Verilog from Galileo University IoT (Internet of Things) Wireless & Cloud Computing Emerging Technologies from Yonsei University Introduzione all’informatica from University of Naples Federico II Il linguaggio naturale, dall’uomo alla macchina from University of Naples Federico II Nuove tecnologie digitali from University of Naples Federico II C Programming: Language Foundations from Institut Mines-Télécom C Programming: Modular Programming and Memory Management from Dartmouth C Programming: Advanced Data Types from Dartmouth Linux Basics: The Command Line Interface from Dartmouth C Programming: Using Linux Tools and Libraries from Dartmouth C Programming: Getting Started from Dartmouth C Programming: Pointers and Memory Management from Dartmouth Introduction to Computation Theory from Santa Fe Institute Fundamentals of Machine Learning from Santa Fe Institute Introduction to FinTech from The University of Hong Kong FinTech Ethics and Risks from The University of Hong Kong Blockchain and FinTech: Basics, Applications, and Limitations from The University of Hong Kong DDoS Attacks and Defenses from University of Colorado System Cloud Computing Security from University of Colorado System Introducción a la programación en C: Instrucciones de control y ficheros de texto from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Introducción a la programación en C: Tipos de datos y estructuras from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Introducción a la programación en C: Funciones y punteros from 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Community Engagement: Collaborating for Change from University of Michigan Civil Liberties from Princeton University Corporate & Commercial Law II: Business Forms, Financing & Governmental Regulation from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Understanding Gender Identity: Trans People in the Workplace from The Open University Make Change Happen from The Open University Introduction to English Common Law from University of London International Programmes African cities : An Introduction to Urban Planning from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Groundscape Architecture Design Lab, re-thinking cities underground from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Logic for Economists from University of Amsterdam Mathematics for economists from Higher School of Economics Возможно ли воспитать детей «правильно»? from Higher School of Economics Monetary Policy in the Asia Pacific from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Copyright Law in the Music Business from Berklee College of Music Business Opportunities and Risks in a Globalized Economy from IE Business School Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New era|习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想 from Tsinghua University Exploring Psychology’s Core Concepts|走进心理学 from Tsinghua University Accessibility to the Scenic Arts from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barcelona) Originalité et modernité du mutualisme from ESSEC Business School Belong / Appartenir: Community, Race, and Space in the U.S. and France from Davidson College Survey Research Methodology from Politecnico di Milano Action Learning for Inclusion from Politecnico di Milano Regards croisés sur les migrations from Université catholique de Louvain SDG: Moving Towards Sustainable Work from Universidad Carlos iii de Madrid Conversazioni di diritto amministrativo from University of Naples Federico II Introducción a la teoría política: conceptos y grandes pensadores from University of Naples Federico II 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from IOC Athlete MOOC John Milton: Paradise Lost from Dartmouth Religious Transformation in Early China: the Period of Division from The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Book of Kells: Exploring an Irish Medieval Masterpiece from Trinity College Dublin Toledo: Deciphering Secrets of Medieval Spain from University of Colorado System Lancaster Castle and Northern English History: The View from the Stronghold from Lancaster University Learning from the Past: A Guide for the Curious Researcher from The University of Nottingham How We Remember War and Violence: Theory and Practice from University of Bath Introducción al griego clásico from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Noongar Language and Culture from Curtin University A Question of Time: How We Date Human Evolution from Griffith University Взаимодействие языков и культур: сохраняем и расширяем свою идентичность (на примере изучения татарского языка как родного и иностранного) from Tomsk State University Русский язык как иностранный B2-2 from Saint Petersburg State University Histoire des représentations et du traitement de la folie from Paris Diderot University School of Salamanca from Universidad Francisco Marroquín New Zealand Landscape as Culture: Maunga (Mountains) from Victoria University of Wellington Coaching the Mental Game from Deakin University Civil Society and African Media Policy in the Digital Age from University of the Witwatersrand Verdun d’hier à aujourd’hui from Université de Lorraine Activism and Citizen Journalism through Media from University of the Witwatersrand Media Literacy and Representation from University of Newcastle Digital Wellbeing from University of York Renforcer ses compétences orthographiques from Université de Caen Normandie Éthique de la recherche from Université de Lyon Irish 104: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture from Dublin City University Norwegian for Beginners 1 from Norwegian University of Science and Technology Mindfulness: What It Is, Where It Comes From, and How to Practice It from Naropa University Irish 106: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture from Dublin City University La Gestothèque from Sorbonne Paris Cité University Le bien-être des animaux d’élevage from VetAgro Sup Pratiques de l’enseignement de la prononciation en FLE from Université fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Cours de stratégie de l’École de Guerre (Partie I) from École Pratique des Hautes Études Irish 105: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture from Dublin City University ga094: 東日本大震災の教訓を活かした実践的防災学へのアプローチ from Tohoku University Business Improving Your Business Through a Culture of Health from Harvard University Introduction to Systematic Reviews from Stanford Medicine The Role of Impact Assessments in Real Estate Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Creating Shared Benefits in Real Estate Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology FinTech Law and Policy from Duke University Auditing I: Conceptual Foundations of Auditing from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Auditing II: The Practice of Auditing from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Managing My Money for Young Adults from The Open University Using Email for Networking in English from University of Washington Natural Gas from University at Buffalo Safety in the Utility Industry from University at Buffalo Energy Industry: The Enterprise from University at Buffalo Agile Meets Design Thinking from University of Virginia Customer Segmentation and Prospecting from Northwestern University Building a Toolkit for Your Sales Process from Northwestern University Sales Pitch and Closing from Northwestern University Connecting with Sales Prospects from Northwestern University Юридическое оформление инвестиционных идей from Higher School of Economics FinTech Security and Regulation (RegTech) from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology FinTech Risk Management from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Market Segmentation Analysis from University of Queensland Influencing Stakeholders: Dealing with Power and Dynamics in Teams and Networks from Delft University of Technology Waste Management and Critical Raw Materials from Delft University of Technology Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy from Delft University of Technology Effective Decision Making: Dealing with Business Complexity from Delft University of Technology Electric Cars: Business from Delft University of Technology Measure and Improve Innovation at the Workplace from Universitat Politècnica de València Branding: ¿cómo convertirte en una gran marca? from Universitat Politècnica de València Foreign Exchange Markets: Concepts, Instruments, Risks and Derivatives from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Special Topics in Risk Management of Banking and Financial Markets from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Banking & Financial Intermediation: Concepts, Risks, Capital & Regulation from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Risk Management in Banking and Financial Markets Professional Certificate Exam from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Money & Debt Markets: Concepts, Instruments, Risks and Derivatives from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Equity Stock Markets: Concepts, Instruments, Risks and Derivatives from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore 服務模式的體驗、設計與創新：從痛點到賣點 from National Taiwan University Mercados de energía: oportunidades de negocio from Tecnológico de Monterrey Liderazgo en la empresa familiar from Tecnológico de Monterrey Fundamentos del emprendimiento en la empresa familiar from Tecnológico de Monterrey Intelligence Tools for the Digital Age from IE Business School Social and Digital Media Analytics from Purdue University Introduction to Strategic Doing: An Agile Approach to Strategy from Purdue University L’innovation managériale en pratique from ESSEC Business School L’excellence opérationnelle en pratique from ESSEC Business School Designing and Implementing Effective Entrepreneurship Policies from Politecnico di Milano Человеческий фактор в разработке корпоративных систем from National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Strategie di produzione e sistemi di logistica from University of Naples Federico II Financial Regulation in Emerging Markets and the Rise of Fintech Companies from University of Cape Town Executing Breakthrough Innovations with the Three Box Solution from Dartmouth Developing Breakthrough Innovations with the Three Box Solution from Dartmouth Influencer Marketing Strategy from Rutgers University Supply Chain Analytics Essentials from Rutgers University Culture of Services: Paradox of Customer Relations from Kyoto University Finance for Startups from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Advanced Valuation and Strategy – M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital from Erasmus University Rotterdam Organisational design: Know your organisation from Macquarie University Organisational behaviour: Know your people from Macquarie University Risk Management of Work Related injuries using RAMP II from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Proficiency in using RAMP for Risk Management of work-related injuries from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Assessment of Work-Related Injury Risks using RAMP I from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Entreprendre dans les Industries Culturelles à l’ère du numérique from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris Прикладное управление рисками from Tomsk State University Практики создания аналитических панелей в среде Microsof Power BI from Saint Petersburg State University Основы налогообложения бизнеса в России from Saint Petersburg State University Основы бизнес-планирования и маркетинга from Saint Petersburg State University Emprendimiento: cómo gestionar el desarrollo tecnológico de una startup from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Управление людьми и командами from Saint Petersburg State University Discover the Leader in You: Six Questions to Ask Yourself from Austin Peay State University Dans le secteur alimentaire, le digital : c’est primordial ! from Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 Banque, assurance, assistance : le digital, une opportunité à saisir ! from Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 SMEs and New Markets: Trade, the Chinese Powerhouse and Online Opportunities from Deakin University SMEs and Digital Engagement from Deakin University MAPs-Management des Alliances, des Partenariats et de la Coopétition from Université Montpellier 2 Маркетинг. 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Medical Cannabis for Pain Control from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Agir pour la santé des reins from Sorbonne Universités An Introduction to Radiation Oncology: From Diagnosis to Survivorship from Trinity College Dublin Introduction to: Physical Examination and History Taking from Karolinska Institutet Diabetic Eye Disease: Strengthening Services from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Organ Donation: The Essentials for Healthcare Professionals from St. George’s University Future-proofing the Health Workforce from Griffith University Assessment of the Newborn from Griffith University Bridging healthcare and society from Tomsk State University Grundlagen der Unfallchirurgie from Technische Universität München (Technical University of Munich) Health and healthcare in transition: dilemmas of governance from Tomsk State University Essentials of Good Pharmacy Practice: The Basics from Taipei Medical University El dolor lumbar: Mucho más que un dolor from Universidad 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Modelli di insegnamento nella ricerca educativa from University of Naples Federico II Teaching the Beauty and Joy of Computing Curriculum from Friday Institute American Government from Modern States Understanding and Teaching Evolution from University of Bath Good Practice in Autism Education from University of Bath How to Succeed in Your Welsh Bacc: the Individual Project Essentials from University of Bath Introductory Sociology from New York Institute of Technology Innovating Instruction: Learning Design in the STEM Classroom from Teachers College, Columbia University Enhancing Catholic School Identity from KU Leuven University University Governance and Academic Leadership from Vrije Universiteit Brussel Enseñar, aprender y evaluar en Escuelas Rurales from Universidad Austral La escuela y su comunidad: lecciones desde la ruralidad from Universidad Austral Gestión estratégica de Escuelas en Contextos Rurales from Universidad Austral Educación en Contextos Rurales: Perspectivas en América Latina from Universidad Austral Developing Your Educational Leadership and Management Vision from University of Newcastle Applying Strategic Leadership in Education from University of Newcastle Leading Transformative Change in Education from University of Newcastle Your Adventure Story: From Home to a US University from University of Denver English Literature from Modern States College Composition from Modern States Analyzing and Interpreting Literature from Modern States American Literature from Modern States Natural Sciences from Modern States Western Civilization II: 1648 to the Present from Modern States Spanish Language from Modern States French Language from Modern States Humanities from Modern States Human Growth and Development from Modern States Introduction to Educational Psychology from Modern States German Language from American University Éducation par la recherche : le pédagogue chercheur from Sorbonne Paris Cité University Personal Development 業務効率や生産性向上につながる時間管理 from University of California, Irvine Conducting an Informational Interview from University of Washington Attending a Networking Event from University of Washington Preparing to Network in English from University of Washington Communication Strategies for a Virtual Age from University of Toronto Communicating Effectively: How to Inspire and Convince from Delft University of Technology Effective Business Communication from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Crafting Realities: Work, Happiness, and Meaning from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Los videojuegos como medio de comunicación efectiva from The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Психология карьеры from Saint Petersburg State University Креативная коммуникация: методы и инструменты from Saint Petersburg State University Career Credentials: Evidence Your Expertise in Problem Solving from Deakin University Career Credentials: Evidence Your Self-management Skills from Deakin University Career Credentials: Evidence Your Expertise in Digital Literacy from Deakin University Negociación 4.0 from Universidad Austral Emotional Intelligence at Work from Coventry University Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. || 190 universities just launched 600 free online courses. Here’s the full list.: Students sit in the library of the university KU Leuven in Leuven If you haven’t heard, universities around the world are offering their courses online for free (or at least partially free ). These courses are collectively called MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses. In the past six years or so, over 800 universities have created more than 10,000 of these MOOCs. And I’ve been keeping track of these MOOCs the entire time over at Class Central , ever since they rose to prominence. In the past four months alone, 190 universities have announced 600 such free online courses. I’ve compiled a list of them and categorized them according to the following subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Programming, Data Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & Teaching, Health & Medicine, Business, Personal Development, Engineering, Art & Design, and finally Science. If you have trouble figuring out how to signup for Coursera courses for free, don’t worry — here’s an article on how to do that, too . Many of these are completely self-paced, so you can start taking them at your convenience. Programming CS50’s Introduction to Game Development from Harvard University CS50’s Mobile App Development with React Native from Harvard University CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript from Harvard University Functions, Methods, and Interfaces in Go from University of California, Irvine Concurrency in Go from University of California, Irvine Getting Started with Go from University of California, Irvine Computing in Python I: Fundamentals and Procedural Programming from Georgia Institute of Technology Computing in Python IV: Objects & Algorithms from Georgia Institute of Technology Computing in Python III: Data Structures from Georgia Institute of Technology Computing in Python II: Control Structures from Georgia Institute of Technology Projet de programmation (en Java) from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Pixel Art for Video Games from Michigan State University Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture from California Institute of the Arts Story continues Front-End Web Development with React from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Multiplatform Mobile App Development with React Native from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Automated Software Testing: Practical Skills for Java Developers from Delft University of Technology Automated Software Testing: Advanced Skills for Java Developers from Delft University of Technology Погружение в Python from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Основы разработки на C++: красный пояс from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology AR (Augmented Reality) & Video Streaming Services Emerging Technologies from Yonsei University Smart Device & Mobile Emerging Technologies from Yonsei University Problem Solving, Programming, and Video Games from University of Alberta Introduction to Augmented Reality and ARCore from Google Daydream Impact Fundamentals of NetLogo from Santa Fe Institute Competitive Programmer’s Core Skills from Saint Petersburg State University Business Problems and Software Solutions from Deakin University Введение в язык Котлин from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University Web Accessibility for Developers from Ryerson University Handheld AR App Development with Unity from Unity Diseño de Sistemas de información gerencial para Internet con MySQL / PHP y Joomla from Universidad del Rosario Kotlin for Java Developers from JetBrains Introduction to XR: VR, AR, and MR Foundations from Unity 3D Art and Audio Pipeline from Unity Application Systems Programming from Unity 3D Interactions and Navigation from Unity Core Interaction Programming from Unity Engineering Analysis of Transport Phenomena I: Mathematical Methods from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineering the Space Shuttle from Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Art of Structural Engineering: Vaults from Princeton University Collaborative Robot Safety: Design & Deployment from University at Buffalo Electric Power Systems from University at Buffalo Modern Robotics, Course 5: Robot Manipulation and Wheeled Mobile Robots from Northwestern University Le robot Thymio comme outil de découverte des sciences du numérique from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Principle of Semiconductor Devices Part I: Semiconductors, PN Junctions and Bipolar Junction Transistors from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hello (Real) World with ROS – Robot Operating System from Delft University of Technology Mind of the Universe – Robots in Society: Blessing or Curse? from Delft University of Technology Hyperloop: Changing the Future of Transportation from Delft University of Technology Electric Cars: Technology from Delft University of Technology Electric Cars: Policy from Delft University of Technology Through Engineers’ Eyes – Expanding the Vision: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design from University of New South Wales Through Engineers’ Eyes – Introducing the Vision: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design from University of New South Wales First Order Optical System Design from University of Colorado Boulder Design of High-Performance Optical Systems from University of Colorado Boulder Optical Efficiency and Resolution from University of Colorado Boulder Motors and Motor Control Circuits from University of Colorado Boulder Semiconductor Physics from University of Colorado Boulder Sensors and Sensor Circuit Design from University of Colorado Boulder Transistor – Field Effect Transistor and Bipolar Junction Transistor from University of Colorado Boulder Diode – pn Junction and Metal Semiconductor Contact from University of Colorado Boulder Diseño de diques rompeolas con cubípodos from Universitat Politècnica de València Introducción a la energía solar fotovoltaica: El módulo fotovoltaico from Universitat Politècnica de València Introducción a los encofrados y las cimbras en obra civil y edificación from Universitat Politècnica de València BIM Fundamentals for Engineers from National Taiwan University BIM Application for Engineers from National Taiwan University Distribución de la energía eléctrica from Tecnológico de Monterrey Smart grid: fundamentos técnicos from Tecnológico de Monterrey Transmisión de energía eléctrica from Tecnológico de Monterrey Energía eléctrica: conceptos y principios básicos from Tecnológico de Monterrey Smart grid: las redes eléctricas del futuro from Tecnológico de Monterrey Essentials of MOSFETs from Purdue University Fundamentals of Current Flow from Purdue University Primer on Semiconductor Fundamentals from Purdue University Introduzione ai circuiti elettrici from University of Naples Federico II Standardisation from EIT Digital Introduction to battery-management systems from University of Colorado System Equivalent Circuit Cell Model Simulation from University of Colorado System Battery State-of-Charge (SOC) Estimation from University of Colorado System Introduction to Web Cartography: Part 2 from ETH Zurich High Performance Finite Element Modeling – Part 2 from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Energy Systems Integration: A Trend or a Revolution? from KU Leuven University Propagation radio from Institut Mines-Télécom “Monotsukuri” Making Things in Japan: Mechanical Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology Ingeniería de Tráfico from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Introducción al Control Numérico por Computadora from TenarisUniversity Agile for Project Control from University System of Maryland Computer Science Machine Learning with Python: from Linear Models to Deep Learning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Blockchain Technology from University of California, Berkeley Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies from University of California, Berkeley Introduction to Machine Learning from Duke University Introduction to Computer Programming from University of London International Programmes How Computers Work from University of London International Programmes IT Infrastructure and Emerging Trends from University of Minnesota Enterprise Systems from University of Minnesota IS/IT Governance from University of Minnesota Embedded Software and Hardware Architecture from University of Colorado Boulder Industrial IoT Markets and Security from University of Colorado Boulder Введение в технологию блокчейн from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology 人工智慧：機器學習與理論基礎 (Artificial Intelligence – Learning & Theory) from National Taiwan University Introducción al diseño de hardware con Verilog from Galileo University IoT (Internet of Things) Wireless & Cloud Computing Emerging Technologies from Yonsei University Introduzione all’informatica from University of Naples Federico II Il linguaggio naturale, dall’uomo alla macchina from University of Naples Federico II Nuove tecnologie digitali from University of Naples Federico II C Programming: Language Foundations from Institut Mines-Télécom C Programming: Modular Programming and Memory Management from Dartmouth C Programming: Advanced Data Types from Dartmouth Linux Basics: The Command Line Interface from Dartmouth C Programming: Using Linux Tools and Libraries from Dartmouth C Programming: Getting Started from Dartmouth C Programming: Pointers and Memory Management from Dartmouth Introduction to Computation Theory from Santa Fe Institute Fundamentals of Machine Learning from Santa Fe Institute Introduction to FinTech from The University of Hong Kong FinTech Ethics and Risks from The University of Hong Kong Blockchain and FinTech: Basics, Applications, and Limitations from The University of Hong Kong DDoS Attacks and Defenses from University of Colorado System Cloud Computing Security from University of Colorado System Introducción a la programación en C: Instrucciones de control y ficheros de texto from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Introducción a la programación en C: Tipos de datos y estructuras from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Introducción a la programación en C: Funciones y punteros from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Cyber-Physical Networks from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Comprendre le coeur d’internet : les réseaux d’opérateurs from Institut Mines-Télécom Advanced Algorithmics and Graph Theory with Python from Institut Mines-Télécom Arduino Programming, from novice to ninja from Institut Mines-Télécom Ciberseguridad: ataques y contramedidas from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Digital Transformation and the IT Team from University of the Witwatersrand Strategic and Transformational IT from University System of Maryland Basics of Network Security from Coventry University An Introduction to Cryptography from Coventry University Diseño de sistemas de información gerencial para intranet con Microsoft Access from Universidad del Rosario Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Essentials I from Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks Academy Cybersecurity Foundation from Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Gateway I from Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Gateway II from Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Essentials II from Palo Alto Networks Blockchain: Foundations and Use Cases from ConsenSys Academy Networking and Security Architecture with VMware NSX from VMware Social Sciences Citizen Politics in America: Public Opinion, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media from Harvard University U.S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies from Harvard University American Government: Constitutional Foundations from Harvard University U.S. Political Institutions: Congress, Presidency, Courts, and Bureaucracy from Harvard University Lean Research Skills for Conducting Interviews from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Creating an Effective Child Welfare System from University of Pennsylvania Listening to Puerto Rico Teach-Out from University of Michigan Crisis at the Border Teach-Out from University of Michigan Exploring Basic Income in a Changing Economy Teach-Out from University of Michigan Community Engagement: Collaborating for Change from University of Michigan Civil Liberties from Princeton University Corporate & Commercial Law II: Business Forms, Financing & Governmental Regulation from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Understanding Gender Identity: Trans People in the Workplace from The Open University Make Change Happen from The Open University Introduction to English Common Law from University of London International Programmes African cities : An Introduction to Urban Planning from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Groundscape Architecture Design Lab, re-thinking cities underground from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Logic for Economists from University of Amsterdam Mathematics for economists from Higher School of Economics Возможно ли воспитать детей «правильно»? from Higher School of Economics Monetary Policy in the Asia Pacific from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Copyright Law in the Music Business from Berklee College of Music Business Opportunities and Risks in a Globalized Economy from IE Business School Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New era|习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想 from Tsinghua University Exploring Psychology’s Core Concepts|走进心理学 from Tsinghua University Accessibility to the Scenic Arts from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barcelona) Originalité et modernité du mutualisme from ESSEC Business School Belong / Appartenir: Community, Race, and Space in the U.S. and France from Davidson College Survey Research Methodology from Politecnico di Milano Action Learning for Inclusion from Politecnico di Milano Regards croisés sur les migrations from Université catholique de Louvain SDG: Moving Towards Sustainable Work from Universidad Carlos iii de Madrid Conversazioni di diritto amministrativo from University of Naples Federico II Introducción a la teoría política: conceptos y grandes pensadores from University of Naples Federico II Comparative Political Systems from University of Naples Federico II Contemporary Issues in World Politics from University of Naples Federico II Global Politics from University of Naples Federico II La riforma del lavoro in Italia from University of Naples Federico II Le politiche pubbliche come strategia di governo from University of Naples Federico II Le forme di governo nel mondo from University of Naples Federico II Comparative Research Designs and Methods from University of Naples Federico II Psicologia della personalità: un’introduzione from University of Naples Federico II Come fare ricerca nelle scienze sociali from University of Naples Federico II Landscape Finance: Investing in Innovation for Sustainable Landscapes from Wageningen University Landscape Governance: Collaborating Across Sectors and Scales from Wageningen University Landscape Leadership: Catalyse Sustainable Development in Landscapes from Wageningen University Development and Planning in African Cities: Exploring theories, policies and practices from Sierra Leone from University College London Vote For Ethics: A How-to Guide for Voters (Alumni Students) from Santa Clara University Vote For Ethics: A How-to Guide for Voters from Santa Clara University The Presidency and the Shape of the Supreme Court from Trinity College Sustainable Construction and Development from London South Bank University Globalisation and Sustainable Development from Curtin University Circular Economy – Sustainable Materials Management from Ghent University Social Change: How Can Marketing Help? from Griffith University Supporting Adolescent Learners: Social and Emotional Wellbeing from Griffith University Правовое обеспечение бизнеса в России from Saint Petersburg State University Neurociencia empresarial: siete claves para la PYME from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Des réseaux pour comprendre le monde from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Sustainable Development: The Water-Energy-Food Nexus from RWTH Aachen University Osez le numérique dans l’Economie Sociale, l’Habitat Social et la Protection Sociale ! from Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 The Supreme Court & American Politics from University System of Maryland Security, Terrorism and Counterterrorism from Murdoch University Микроэкономика (вводный курс) from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Le consommateur connecté & ses données personnelles from Institut national de la consommation Communicating Effectively with Vulnerable Children and Young People from University of Kent Science The Health Effects of Climate Change from Harvard University Backyard Meteorology: The Science of Weather from Harvard University Quantum Information Science II: Efficient Quantum Computing – fault tolerance and complexity from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Quantum Information Science II: Quantum states, noise and error correction from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Quantum Information Science II: Advanced quantum algorithms and information theory from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nuclear Energy: Science, Systems and Society from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nitrogen: A Global Challenge (Hungarian) from University of Edinburgh Nitrogen: A Global Challenge from University of Edinburgh Global Arctic from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The Multi-scale brain from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Conservation & Protected Areas Management in Africa from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Gestion des aires protégées en Afrique from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Equine Welfare and Management from University of California, Davis Open Science: Sharing Your Research with the World from Delft University of Technology The Building Blocks of a Quantum Computer: Part 1 from Delft University of Technology The Building Blocks of a Quantum Computer: Part 2 from Delft University of Technology Ácidos y bases: reacciones químicas y aplicaciones from Universitat Politècnica de València Sales: reacciones químicas y aplicaciones from Universitat Politècnica de València Small and Mighty: Introduction to Microbiology from University of Reading Mercados de carbono: una forma de mitigar el cambio climático from Tecnológico de Monterrey Ahorro de energía from Tecnológico de Monterrey Huella Hídrica: una mirada integral al uso del agua from Tecnológico de Monterrey Física: Vectores, Trabajo y Energía from Tecnológico de Monterrey Física: Dimensión y Movimiento from Tecnológico de Monterrey Introduction to the Schrödinger Equation and Quantum Transport from Purdue University D’un infini à l’autre – Voyages de l’infiniment grand à l’infiniment petit from École Polytechnique Case Study Methodology from Politecnico di Milano Nuclear Reactor Physics Basics from National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Methods of Surface Analysis from National Research Nuclear University MEPhI La fisica: dall’elettromagnetismo all’ottica from University of Naples Federico II La genetica tra scienza, storia e società from University of Naples Federico II Zoologia from University of Naples Federico II Astro 101: Black Holes from University of Alberta Catalytic Conversions for Biobased Chemicals and Products from Wageningen University Biorefinery: From Biomass to Building Blocks of Biobased Products from Wageningen University From Fossil Resources to Biomass: A Business and Economics Perspective from Wageningen University Climate Adaptation in Africa from University of Cape Town The Science Behind Forensic Science from King’s College London Sex and Human Reproduction from University of Adelaide Research Impact: Making a Difference from University of Glasgow Metagenomics applied to surveillance of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) 走进天文学 from Nanjing University Our Place in the Universe from The University of Hong Kong Landscape Ecology from ETH Zurich Systematic Innovation for Life Science from Karolinska Institutet Why Planning Your Research Matters from Deakin University Protists: Evolution and Ecology of Microbial Eukaryotes from Saint Petersburg State University Air pollution: causes and impacts from Institut Mines-Télécom Metal and Metalloids of the Main Groups: Basis and Their Role in the Daily Life from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Gulf Stories 2 from University of West Florida Citizen Research: From Data to Action from University of Dundee Research integrity in scientific professions from Université de Bordeaux Intégrité scientifique dans les métiers de la recherche from Université de Bordeaux Conceptos base para el estudio del medio ambiente from Universidad Austral Introducción a la gravedad cuántica de lazos from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Introducción a los ritmos y relojes biológicos from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Chimie : ouvrez les portes de l’enseignement supérieur ! from University of Liège Global Biosecurity for One Health from Murdoch University Art & Design 18th-Century Opera: Handel & Mozart from Harvard University Avatar Psychology for Designers from Michigan State University Web Design: Wireframes to Prototypes from California Institute of the Arts UX Design Fundamentals from California Institute of the Arts Visual Elements of User Interface Design from California Institute of the Arts Percepção Musical from Berklee College of Music Guitar Scales and Chord Progressions from Berklee College of Music Fundamentos de la guitarra eléctrica y acústica from Berklee College of Music Разработка инновационного продукта from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Radio para internet con Podcast: creación y conceptos básicos from Universitat Politècnica de València Sustainability in Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Introduction from Universitat Politècnica de València Realistic Architectural 3D Modeling from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay 3D Modeling from Architectural Drawings from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Flower Arrangements in China and Japan | 现代生活美学：花之道 from Tsinghua University L’écoute en jeu(x) : une introduction à la musicologie from Université Paris-Saclay Introducing Metadesign from Politecnico di Milano Caligrafía y paleografía: espacios históricos para su estudio y práctica from Universidad Carlos iii de Madrid Adobe Illustrator: aprende a crear presentaciones de impacto from The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Innovation Through Design: Think, Make, Break, Repeat from The University of Sydney Interpreting Vernacular Architecture in Asia from The University of Hong Kong Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success from Imperial College London Music Psychology: Why Does “Bohemian Rhapsody” Feel so Good? from Griffith University Exploring Japanese Avant-garde Art Through Butoh Dance from Keio University The Power of Podcasting for Storytelling from University of Wollongong Learn Jazz Piano: III. Solo Piano and Advanced Topics from Goldsmiths University of London Основы фотографии from Novosibirsk State University Растровая графика. Adobe Photoshop CC from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University The Dream of Streaming: Rethinking the Role of On-Demand Entertainment from Coventry University Mathematics Introduction to Probability from Harvard University Differential Equations: Fourier Series and Partial Differential Equations from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Probability – The Science of Uncertainty and Data from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Fundamentals of Statistics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Causal Inference from Columbia University Probability and Statistics: To p or not to p? from University of London International Programmes Introduction au raisonnement mathématique : préparation à l’entrée dans l’enseignement supérieur from École Polytechnique Matrix Algebra for Engineers from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Introducción a las ecuaciones diferenciales from Galileo University Laboratorio di Matematica per Architettura from Politecnico di Milano Automated Reasoning: satisfiability from EIT Digital Random Walks from Santa Fe Institute Game Theory II- Dynamic Games from Santa Fe Institute Introduction to Information Theory from Santa Fe Institute Functions and Iterations from Santa Fe Institute Introduction to Renormalization from Santa Fe Institute Introduction to Differential Equations from Santa Fe Institute Ordinary Differential Equations from Santa Fe Institute Game Theory I – Static Games from Santa Fe Institute Maximum Entropy Methods from Santa Fe Institute Vector and Matrix Algebra from Santa Fe Institute Sta(r)tistics: Statistics for everyone – Applied statistics for new science students from University of Sunderland Humanities Othello’s Story from Harvard University PredictionX: Lost Without Longitude from Harvard University Sikhism Through Its Scriptures from Harvard University The Tabernacle in Word & Image: An Italian Jewish Manuscript Revealed from University of Pennsylvania HOPE: Human Odyssey to Political Existentialism from Princeton University Sports Marketing from Northwestern University Introduction to Research Ethics: Working with People from University of Leeds Introduction to Linguistics from University of Birmingham Violences et religions from University of Geneva Upper-Intermediate English: Technology Today from Universitat Politècnica de València Upper-Intermediate English: Globalization from Universitat Politècnica de València Upper-Intermediate English: Modern Life from Universitat Politècnica de València Upper-Intermediate English: Business from Universitat Politècnica de València 莊子─人情 (Zhuangzi─Between People) from National Taiwan University Learning Chinese : Start From Scratch (零到一學中文) from National Taiwan University Ideological & Moral Cultivation and Fundamentals of Law|思想道德修养与法律基础 from Tsinghua University Develop Your Cultural Intelligence from Purdue University Mandarin Chinese for Intermediate Learners: Part 1 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Imparare il latino attraverso lo studio dei papiri from University of Naples Federico II Dialetti in Italia from University of Naples Federico II Letteratura latina, dalle origini all’età augustea from University of Naples Federico II Perdón y reconciliación: cómo sanar heridas from The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Learning Spanish in Paradise from The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Sports Coaching: How effective are you? from IOC Athlete MOOC John Milton: Paradise Lost from Dartmouth Religious Transformation in Early China: the Period of Division from The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Book of Kells: Exploring an Irish Medieval Masterpiece from Trinity College Dublin Toledo: Deciphering Secrets of Medieval Spain from University of Colorado System Lancaster Castle and Northern English History: The View from the Stronghold from Lancaster University Learning from the Past: A Guide for the Curious Researcher from The University of Nottingham How We Remember War and Violence: Theory and Practice from University of Bath Introducción al griego clásico from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Noongar Language and Culture from Curtin University A Question of Time: How We Date Human Evolution from Griffith University Взаимодействие языков и культур: сохраняем и расширяем свою идентичность (на примере изучения татарского языка как родного и иностранного) from Tomsk State University Русский язык как иностранный B2-2 from Saint Petersburg State University Histoire des représentations et du traitement de la folie from Paris Diderot University School of Salamanca from Universidad Francisco Marroquín New Zealand Landscape as Culture: Maunga (Mountains) from Victoria University of Wellington Coaching the Mental Game from Deakin University Civil Society and African Media Policy in the Digital Age from University of the Witwatersrand Verdun d’hier à aujourd’hui from Université de Lorraine Activism and Citizen Journalism through Media from University of the Witwatersrand Media Literacy and Representation from University of Newcastle Digital Wellbeing from University of York Renforcer ses compétences orthographiques from Université de Caen Normandie Éthique de la recherche from Université de Lyon Irish 104: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture from Dublin City University Norwegian for Beginners 1 from Norwegian University of Science and Technology Mindfulness: What It Is, Where It Comes From, and How to Practice It from Naropa University Irish 106: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture from Dublin City University La Gestothèque from Sorbonne Paris Cité University Le bien-être des animaux d’élevage from VetAgro Sup Pratiques de l’enseignement de la prononciation en FLE from Université fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Cours de stratégie de l’École de Guerre (Partie I) from École Pratique des Hautes Études Irish 105: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture from Dublin City University ga094: 東日本大震災の教訓を活かした実践的防災学へのアプローチ from Tohoku University Business Improving Your Business Through a Culture of Health from Harvard University Introduction to Systematic Reviews from Stanford Medicine The Role of Impact Assessments in Real Estate Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Creating Shared Benefits in Real Estate Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology FinTech Law and Policy from Duke University Auditing I: Conceptual Foundations of Auditing from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Auditing II: The Practice of Auditing from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Managing My Money for Young Adults from The Open University Using Email for Networking in English from University of Washington Natural Gas from University at Buffalo Safety in the Utility Industry from University at Buffalo Energy Industry: The Enterprise from University at Buffalo Agile Meets Design Thinking from University of Virginia Customer Segmentation and Prospecting from Northwestern University Building a Toolkit for Your Sales Process from Northwestern University Sales Pitch and Closing from Northwestern University Connecting with Sales Prospects from Northwestern University Юридическое оформление инвестиционных идей from Higher School of Economics FinTech Security and Regulation (RegTech) from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology FinTech Risk Management from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Market Segmentation Analysis from University of Queensland Influencing Stakeholders: Dealing with Power and Dynamics in Teams and Networks from Delft University of Technology Waste Management and Critical Raw Materials from Delft University of Technology Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy from Delft University of Technology Effective Decision Making: Dealing with Business Complexity from Delft University of Technology Electric Cars: Business from Delft University of Technology Measure and Improve Innovation at the Workplace from Universitat Politècnica de València Branding: ¿cómo convertirte en una gran marca? from Universitat Politècnica de València Foreign Exchange Markets: Concepts, Instruments, Risks and Derivatives from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Special Topics in Risk Management of Banking and Financial Markets from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Banking & Financial Intermediation: Concepts, Risks, Capital & Regulation from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Risk Management in Banking and Financial Markets Professional Certificate Exam from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Money & Debt Markets: Concepts, Instruments, Risks and Derivatives from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Equity Stock Markets: Concepts, Instruments, Risks and Derivatives from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore 服務模式的體驗、設計與創新：從痛點到賣點 from National Taiwan University Mercados de energía: oportunidades de negocio from Tecnológico de Monterrey Liderazgo en la empresa familiar from Tecnológico de Monterrey Fundamentos del emprendimiento en la empresa familiar from Tecnológico de Monterrey Intelligence Tools for the Digital Age from IE Business School Social and Digital Media Analytics from Purdue University Introduction to Strategic Doing: An Agile Approach to Strategy from Purdue University L’innovation managériale en pratique from ESSEC Business School L’excellence opérationnelle en pratique from ESSEC Business School Designing and Implementing Effective Entrepreneurship Policies from Politecnico di Milano Человеческий фактор в разработке корпоративных систем from National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Strategie di produzione e sistemi di logistica from University of Naples Federico II Financial Regulation in Emerging Markets and the Rise of Fintech Companies from University of Cape Town Executing Breakthrough Innovations with the Three Box Solution from Dartmouth Developing Breakthrough Innovations with the Three Box Solution from Dartmouth Influencer Marketing Strategy from Rutgers University Supply Chain Analytics Essentials from Rutgers University Culture of Services: Paradox of Customer Relations from Kyoto University Finance for Startups from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Advanced Valuation and Strategy – M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital from Erasmus University Rotterdam Organisational design: Know your organisation from Macquarie University Organisational behaviour: Know your people from Macquarie University Risk Management of Work Related injuries using RAMP II from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Proficiency in using RAMP for Risk Management of work-related injuries from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Assessment of Work-Related Injury Risks using RAMP I from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Entreprendre dans les Industries Culturelles à l’ère du numérique from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris Прикладное управление рисками from Tomsk State University Практики создания аналитических панелей в среде Microsof Power BI from Saint Petersburg State University Основы налогообложения бизнеса в России from Saint Petersburg State University Основы бизнес-планирования и маркетинга from Saint Petersburg State University Emprendimiento: cómo gestionar el desarrollo tecnológico de una startup from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Управление людьми и командами from Saint Petersburg State University Discover the Leader in You: Six Questions to Ask Yourself from Austin Peay State University Dans le secteur alimentaire, le digital : c’est primordial ! from Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 Banque, assurance, assistance : le digital, une opportunité à saisir ! from Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 SMEs and New Markets: Trade, the Chinese Powerhouse and Online Opportunities from Deakin University SMEs and Digital Engagement from Deakin University MAPs-Management des Alliances, des Partenariats et de la Coopétition from Université Montpellier 2 Маркетинг. Часть 2. 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Expertise in Digital Literacy from Deakin University Negociación 4.0 from Universidad Austral Emotional Intelligence at Work from Coventry University Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. || The Probable Reason Grubhub Is Tanking Today: What happened Despite the business posting expectation-topping third-quarter results, shares of the food delivery company Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) fell as much as 18% in early-morning trading on Thursday. Shares were down about 9% as of 10:53 a.m. EDT. So what Here's a review of the key numbers from the company's third quarter: Revenue increased 52% to $247.2 million. By contrast, analysts were only expecting $239 million in revenue. On a non-GAAP basis, net income grew 72% to $42.2 million, or $0.45 per share. That number also compares favorably to the $0.41 in earnings that Wall Street was expecting. The number of active diners on the platform grew 67% to 16.4 million. Users ordered an average of 416,000 deliveries per day, which was up 37% year over year. Total food sales were $1.2 billion during the period. That figure rose 40% when compared to the same time last year. Delivery person handing over a food package to a customer. Image source: Getty Images. Turning to guidance, here's what management is projecting will happen in the upcoming quarter: Revenue is expected to land between $283 million and $293 million. By contrast, Wall Street was only expecting $272 million in total revenue. Adjusted EBIDTA is expected to land between $40 million and $50 million. So if the results were solid and guidance was good, what can explain today's sell-off? It is possible that this quote from Grubhub CFO Adam DeWitt can explain the decline: We are opportunistically investing an incremental $20–$30 million in marketing and delivery expansion in the fourth quarter, taking our total 2018 investment in growth to substantially more than $200 million . The 200 total delivery markets we will launch in 2018 plus accelerated diner growth put us in a great position to capture takeout orders as they move online. Another possibility is that this is just normal market noise, since several high-multiple stocks have been selling off recently. Now what Short-term price movements aside, I think it is clear that Grubhub is doing a great job at executing against its huge market opportunity. I also applaud management's decision to keep its foot on the gas to open up even more markets and drive future growth. Story continues In total, I see plenty of reasons for bulls to remain optimistic. With the share price currently on sale, it might not be a bad time for forward-thinking investors to consider opening up a position. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Brian Feroldi owns shares of Grubhub. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
[Social Media Buzz]
#LIZA #LAMBO price
10-27 08:00(GMT)
$LIZA
BTC :0.00000
ETH :0.00000
USD :0.0
RUR :0.0
JPY(btc) :0.0
JPY(eth) :0.0
$LAMBO
BTC :0.009
ETH :0.270
USD :61.1
RUR :3885.0
JPY(btc) :6362.7
JPY(eth) :6045.3 || Sign up using my invite link and we’ll both receive ZAR 10.00 worth of Bitcoin when you deposit money into your Luno wallet and buy or sell Bitcoin to the value of ZAR 500.00 (Luno exchange not included): https://www.luno.com/invite/6J63V || 現在の1ビットコインあたりの値段は718,859.6439円です。値段の取得日時はOct 27, 2018...
|
6486.39, 6332.63, 6334.27, 6317.61, 6377.78, 6388.44, 6361.26, 6376.13, 6419.66, 6461.01
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6377.78, 6388.44, 6361.26, 6376.13, 6419.66, 6461.01, 6530.14, 6453.72, 6385.62, 6409.22, 6411.27, 6371.27, 6359.49, 5738.35, 5648.03, 5575.55, 5554.33, 5623.54, 4871.49, 4451.87, 4602.17, 4365.94, 4347.11, 3880.76, 4009.97, 3779.13, 3820.72, 4257.42, 4278.85, 4017.27, 4214.67, 4139.88, 3894.13, 3956.89, 3753.99, 3521.10, 3419.94, 3476.11, 3614.23, 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48, 3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60, 3815.49, 3857.30, 3654.83, 3923.92, 3820.41, 3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85, 4035.30, 3678.92, 3687.37, 3661.30, 3552.95, 3706.05, 3630.68, 3655.01, 3678.56, 3657.84, 3728.57, 3601.01, 3576.03, 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-01-29]
Volume: 5897159493, RSI (14-day): 36.33, 50-day EMA: 3854.20, 200-day EMA: 5323.23
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1308.20, Gold RSI: 69.87
Oil Price: 53.31, Oil RSI: 56.52
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Owner of Hacked Crypto Exchange BitGrail Sentenced to Return Funds to Customers: Francesco Firano, the owner and founder ofhackedItaliancryptocurrency exchangeBitGrail, has been sentenced to return as much of the assets to his customers as possible. Scans of the court decision werereleasedby the Bit Grail Victims Group (BGVG) on Medium on Jan. 28.
TheItalianBankruptcy Court published the sentence on Jan. 21. Apostby the BGVG published the same day as the court sentence explains that “the court concluded that both Bitgrail and Mr. Firano, personally, be declared bankrupt, authorizing seizures of many of Mr. Firano’s personal assets.”
According to the post the Italian authorities already seized over $1 million in personal Firano’s assets, including his car. The post also notes that “millions of dollars in cryptocurrency assets have been seized from Bitgrail’s exchange accounts and moved to accounts managed by trustees appointed by the Court.”
The court ruling explains that “it was the BitGrail exchange that [because of a software flaw] actually requested to the node multiple times to allow the funds to leave the wallet” and “not the Nano network that allowed the multiple withdrawals. Furthermore, the exchange also reportedly stored all of its Nano cryptocurrency holdings in a “hot wallet,” which compromised its security.
Thecourtnotes that in July 2017, 2.5 million Nano were stolen from the exchange, and that Firano has been aware of it and announced that the involved exchange accounts have been blacklisted on Twitter in the same month. According to the ruling, in October of the same year — three months later — another 7.5 million Nano was stolen.
In December 2017 Firano converted the central wallet into a cold wallet and the exchange’s activity became reportedly intermittent. Prosecutors informed the court that Firano deposited a total of 230 Bitcoins (BTC) in his personal account on a cryptocurrency exchange between Feb. 2 and Feb. 5 in 2018, days before announcing the loss of the stolen assets.
As Cointelegraph previouslyreported, twoUnited Stateslaw firms filed a lawsuit against the developers of Nano as well as BitGrail.
The lawsuit alleges that Nano and “key members of its core team” violated federal securities laws and directed investors to open accounts and place funds in “little known, and severely troubled” Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail.
News brokeabout the hack when Firano allegedly asked Nano developers to alter the ledger by the means of a hard fork to restore the missing funds in February last year.
• Report: New Zealand Cryptopia Exchange Hack Continues
• Gemini Crypto Exchange Undergoes Security Compliance and Data Protection Audit
• Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Goes Offline, Claims Maintenance Issues
• Chainalysis: Two Probably Still Active Groups Account for $1 Billion in Crypto Hacks || Owner of Hacked Crypto Exchange BitGrail Sentenced to Return Funds to Customers: Francesco Firano, the owner and founder of hacked Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail, has been sentenced to return as much of the assets to his customers as possible. Scans of the court decision were released by the Bit Grail Victims Group (BGVG) on Medium on Jan. 28. The Italian Bankruptcy Court published the sentence on Jan. 21. A post by the BGVG published the same day as the court sentence explains that “the court concluded that both Bitgrail and Mr. Firano, personally, be declared bankrupt, authorizing seizures of many of Mr. Firano’s personal assets.” According to the post the Italian authorities already seized over $1 million in personal Firano’s assets, including his car. The post also notes that “millions of dollars in cryptocurrency assets have been seized from Bitgrail’s exchange accounts and moved to accounts managed by trustees appointed by the Court.” The court ruling explains that “it was the BitGrail exchange that [because of a software flaw] actually requested to the node multiple times to allow the funds to leave the wallet” and “not the Nano network that allowed the multiple withdrawals. Furthermore, the exchange also reportedly stored all of its Nano cryptocurrency holdings in a “hot wallet,” which compromised its security. The court notes that in July 2017, 2.5 million Nano were stolen from the exchange, and that Firano has been aware of it and announced that the involved exchange accounts have been blacklisted on Twitter in the same month. According to the ruling, in October of the same year — three months later — another 7.5 million Nano was stolen. In December 2017 Firano converted the central wallet into a cold wallet and the exchange’s activity became reportedly intermittent. Prosecutors informed the court that Firano deposited a total of 230 Bitcoins ( BTC ) in his personal account on a cryptocurrency exchange between Feb. 2 and Feb. 5 in 2018, days before announcing the loss of the stolen assets. Story continues As Cointelegraph previously reported , two United States law firms filed a lawsuit against the developers of Nano as well as BitGrail. The lawsuit alleges that Nano and “key members of its core team” violated federal securities laws and directed investors to open accounts and place funds in “little known, and severely troubled” Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail. News broke about the hack when Firano allegedly asked Nano developers to alter the ledger by the means of a hard fork to restore the missing funds in February last year. Related Articles: Report: New Zealand Cryptopia Exchange Hack Continues Gemini Crypto Exchange Undergoes Security Compliance and Data Protection Audit Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Goes Offline, Claims Maintenance Issues Chainalysis: Two Probably Still Active Groups Account for $1 Billion in Crypto Hacks || Why a Sub-$3,000 Drop Will Mean Bitcoin Has Entered ‘Nuclear Winter’: Vinny Lingham, a general partner at crypto fund Multicoin Capital and the CEO at Civic, has said that if the Bitcoin price drops below $3,000, it will face serious problems.
In an event in which theBitcoin priceplunges to the $2,000 region — breaking a major support level at $3,000 — the investor said that crypto winter would turn into “nuclear winter.”
Throughout the past two months, following a steep sell-off in November, Bitcoin has been relatively stable in a tight range between $3,500 to $4,000.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Why a Sub-$3,000 Drop Will Mean Bitcoin Has Entered ‘Nuclear Winter’: Vinny Lingham, a general partner at crypto fund Multicoin Capital and the CEO at Civic, has said that if the Bitcoin price drops below $3,000, it will face serious problems.
In an event in which theBitcoin priceplunges to the $2,000 region — breaking a major support level at $3,000 — the investor said that crypto winter would turn into “nuclear winter.”
Throughout the past two months, following a steep sell-off in November, Bitcoin has been relatively stable in a tight range between $3,500 to $4,000.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Why a Sub-$3,000 Drop Will Mean Bitcoin Has Entered ‘Nuclear Winter’: bitcoin price nuclear winter Vinny Lingham, a general partner at crypto fund Multicoin Capital and the CEO at Civic, has said that if the Bitcoin price drops below $3,000, it will face serious problems. In an event in which the Bitcoin price plunges to the $2,000 region — breaking a major support level at $3,000 — the investor said that crypto winter would turn into “nuclear winter.” If we break below $3000 for Bitcoin, “crypto winter” will become “crypto nuclear winter”… https://t.co/sS83cl6Em1 — Vinny Lingham (@VinnyLingham) January 28, 2019 Bitcoin Nuclear Winter: Why is $3,000 Important? Throughout the past two months, following a steep sell-off in November, Bitcoin has been relatively stable in a tight range between $3,500 to $4,000. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Nvidia Decreases Q4 Revenue Estimates Citing Crypto Mining Decline, Conditions in China: Taiwan-based computer hardware producerNvidiaupdated its financial estimates for Q4 for the fiscal year of 2019, according to apress releaseon Jan. 28.
The company is reflecting weaker forecasted sales in its gaming and data center platforms, which comes from excess mid-range channel inventory following the slump incryptocurrencymarkets. Q4 revenue is expected to be at $ 2.20 billion, opposed to the previous projection of $2.70 billion according to astatementreleased by Nvidia on Jan 28.
Thecryptocurrency miningfrenzy drove up demand for Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs). However, once the demand began to disappear due to decreased crypto valuations, GPU prices did not decrease enough to attract new consumers to purchase more affordable cards. This led to what Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang hascalleda “crypto hangover.”
Jensen Huang said in the press release, “Q4 was an extraordinary, unusually turbulent, and disappointing quarter.” In addition to a lack of crypto-related business, Nvidia also cites “deteriorating conditions” inChinaas a indicator of lower-than-expected revenue from gaming GPU sales in Q4.
The company had experienced a massive sell-off of stocks at the end of 2018, which sank the company’s stock price by 54 percent, as previouslyreportedby Cointelegraph. News of decreased revenues for the quarter has dropped Nvidia’s stock price by 15 percent, which is now trading around $135, down from $158.08 at opening today.
Crypto markets are currentlyseeinganother downturn, with many major coins seeing significant losses. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV, and Stellar (XLM) are all seeing losses over 10 percent at press time.
• Chinese Blockchain Rankings Released: EOS Still First, Ethereum Second, Bitcoin 15th
• Analysts Warn That ‘Crypto Hangover’ Could Persist for AMD
• ZB.Com User Accuses Crypto Exchange of Reporting Him to Police
• Bitcoin Stands Still Around $3,400 as Most Top Cryptos Report Moderate Gains || Nvidia Decreases Q4 Revenue Estimates Citing Crypto Mining Decline, Conditions in China: Taiwan -based computer hardware producer Nvidia updated its financial estimates for Q4 for the fiscal year of 2019, according to a press release on Jan. 28. The company is reflecting weaker forecasted sales in its gaming and data center platforms, which comes from excess mid-range channel inventory following the slump in cryptocurrency markets. Q4 revenue is expected to be at $ 2.20 billion, opposed to the previous projection of $2.70 billion according to a statement released by Nvidia on Jan 28. The cryptocurrency mining frenzy drove up demand for Nvidias graphics processing units ( GPUs ). However, once the demand began to disappear due to decreased crypto valuations, GPU prices did not decrease enough to attract new consumers to purchase more affordable cards. This led to what Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang has called a crypto hangover. Jensen Huang said in the press release, Q4 was an extraordinary, unusually turbulent, and disappointing quarter. In addition to a lack of crypto-related business, Nvidia also cites deteriorating conditions in China as a indicator of lower-than-expected revenue from gaming GPU sales in Q4. The company had experienced a massive sell-off of stocks at the end of 2018, which sank the companys stock price by 54 percent, as previously reported by Cointelegraph. News of decreased revenues for the quarter has dropped Nvidias stock price by 15 percent, which is now trading around $135, down from $158.08 at opening today. Crypto markets are currently seeing another downturn, with many major coins seeing significant losses. Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ), Bitcoin SV, and Stellar ( XLM ) are all seeing losses over 10 percent at press time. Related Articles: Chinese Blockchain Rankings Released: EOS Still First, Ethereum Second, Bitcoin 15th Analysts Warn That Crypto Hangover Could Persist for AMD ZB.Com User Accuses Crypto Exchange of Reporting Him to Police Bitcoin Stands Still Around $3,400 as Most Top Cryptos Report Moderate Gains || Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Tron, Stellar, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 28: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange.
The trend in crypto continues to be down. After a period of low volatility, cryptocurrencies are again headed south. There are no takers for cryptocurrencies even after such a huge fall because money is moving back into the traditional safe haven,gold, according to Jan Van Eck, CEO of Van Eck Associates.
The demand for funds from crypto companies is on the rise. Michael Novogratz backed Galaxy Digital is planning to raise$250 millionfor loans to crypto companies by March. Most large investment banks and funds are dipping their feet into these companies but Nouriel Roubini stillbelievesthat blockchain “is no better than Excel spreadsheet.”
Iran wants to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent recent U.S. sanctions. The Islamic Republic plans to issue astate-backedcryptocurrency, which it hopes will bypass the existing global messaging system “SWIFT” that facilitates cross-border payments.
While we are upbeat on the crypto space for the long-term, the price action in the short-term continues to be depressing. The market has still not found a solid bottom and initiating positions in a downtrend is not a good strategy. How far will cryptocurrencies plunge? Let’s find out.
Similar to the previous occasion in mid-Nov. of last year, the tight range in Bitcoin (BTC) has resolved to the downside. The bears will now attempt to break down of the yearly low at $3,236.09 and resume the downtrend, while the bulls will try to defend it.
The price is below both the moving averages and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which suggests that the bears are in command. Every pullback is likely to face selling at the moving averages and above it at the downtrend line.
Below $3,236.09, theBTC/USDpair can fall to $3,000, which is a psychological support. If this level also fails to hold, the downtrend can extend to $2,600 and below that to $2,400.
Our bearish view will be invalidated if the digital currency rebounds sharply from $3,236.09 and stages a sharp recovery. We shall wait for the trend to change before recommending any trade in it.
Ripple (XRP) plunged below the $0.30550 to the $0.31 support zone on Jan. 27, after which selling intensified.
The immediate support is at $0.27795, below which a retest of the yearly low of $0.24508 is likely. The trend is clearly down as both the moving averages are sloping down and the RSI is close to the oversold level.
TheXRP/USDpair will exhibit strength if the bulls push the price above the downtrend line and both the moving averages. We shall wait for a new buy setup to form before proposing a trade in it.
Ethereum (ETH) broke down and closed (UTC time frame) below the strong support at $116.30 on Jan. 27. It can now slide to $100, which is a psychological support, below which a retest of $83 is possible.
The moving averages have completed a bearish crossover and the RSI has dropped close to the oversold zone, which indicates that the sellers have an upper hand.
TheETH/USDpair will show a sign of recovery if the price sustains above the moving averages. We shall wait for a trend reversal pattern to develop before recommending a trade in it.
EOShas turned down from the moving averages. The bears are currently attempting to break down of the support at $2.1733. If successful, the decline can extend to $1.7746 and below it to $1.55.
However, both the moving averages are flat, which points to a likely consolidation. If the bulls defend the support at $2.1733, theEOS/USDpair will remain range bound. We might suggest a trade if the price sustains above $2.60. Until then, we remain neutral on it.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) broke below the tight range of $141– $121.3 on Jan. 27. It is currently just below the 78.6 percent Fibonacci retracement of the up move from $73.50 to $239.
If this support breaks, a 100 percent retracement of the up move is probable. There is minor support at the psychological support at $100 but it is unlikely to hold.
The 20-day EMA has turned down and the RSI has reached close to the oversold level, which shows that the sellers have the upper hand. We shall wait for theBCH/USDpair to form a reversal pattern before turning positive on it. Until then, we suggest traders remain on the sidelines.
The attempt by the bulls to push Litecoin (LTC) above the top of the tight range at $33 failed on Jan. 26.
Currently, the bears are attempting to sink theLTC/USDpair below the support zone at $29.349 and $27.701. Unless the whole crypto universe plunges, we expect the bulls to defend the above-mentioned support levels. Hence, we suggest traders retain their stops at $27.50. If the bears sink the price below $27.50, a retest of the low at $23.090 will be in the cards. The cryptocurrency will gain strength if the price closes (UTC time frame) above $33.
Tron (TRX) triggered our buyrecommendationon Jan. 26 when it closed above the resistance of its long-term range.
However, the fall in the crypto space has dragged it back into the range once again. It is currently trying to hold the 20-day EMA. If the support holds, the bulls will again attempt to push the price above the range.
However, if theTRX/USDpair plunges below the 20-day EMA, it will be a negative sign. Therefore, traders who are long should keep a stop loss at $0.023. If the bears sink below $0.023, the slide can extend to the 50-day SMA and below that to $0.0183. The trend turns negative if the bears force the price below $0.0183.
Stellar (XLM) has broken down of the yearly low at $0.09285498. This is a negative sign. Both the moving averages are trending down and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which shows that supply exceeds demand.
If theXLM/USDpair closes (UTC time frame) below $0.09285498, it can decline to $0.07864971 and below that to $0.05795397.
Conversely, if the bulls quickly push the price back above $0.09285498, it can move up to the downtrend line. We shall wait for a bullish pattern to form before turning positive on it.
After a period of low volatility, the range has expanded to the downside. The 20-day EMA is sloping down and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which shows that the sellers are in command. Bitcoin SV (BSV) has corrected to the critical support at $65.031.
If the bears sink theBSV/USDpair below $65.031, it can slide to the next support at $57, below which a retest of $38.528 is probable.
Our bearish view will be invalidated if the bulls bounce off the current support and sustain the price above $80.352. We shall wait for a trend reversal to be signaled before suggesting a trade in it.
Cardano (ADA) broke down of the small uptrend line and the 50-day SMA on Jan. 27. The bears latched on to the opportunity and pushed the price back to the support line of the ascending channel.
If the zone between the support line of the channel and $0.036815 holds, the bulls will try to scale above the uptrend line and the 20-day EMA.
However, if the support zone crumbles, theADA/USDpair can fall to the yearly low of $0.027237. The 20-day EMA has started to slope down and the RSI is back in the negative territory. This shows that the path of least resistance is to the downside. We shall wait for the price to sustain above the 20-day EMA before turning positive on the cryptocurrency.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange. Charts for analysis are provided byTradingView.
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 16
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 25
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 23
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, TRON, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 21 || Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Tron, Stellar, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 28: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The trend in crypto continues to be down. After a period of low volatility, cryptocurrencies are again headed south. There are no takers for cryptocurrencies even after such a huge fall because money is moving back into the traditional safe haven, gold , according to Jan Van Eck, CEO of Van Eck Associates. The demand for funds from crypto companies is on the rise. Michael Novogratz backed Galaxy Digital is planning to raise $250 million for loans to crypto companies by March. Most large investment banks and funds are dipping their feet into these companies but Nouriel Roubini still believes that blockchain is no better than Excel spreadsheet. Iran wants to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent recent U.S. sanctions. The Islamic Republic plans to issue a state-backed cryptocurrency, which it hopes will bypass the existing global messaging system SWIFT that facilitates cross-border payments. While we are upbeat on the crypto space for the long-term, the price action in the short-term continues to be depressing. The market has still not found a solid bottom and initiating positions in a downtrend is not a good strategy. How far will cryptocurrencies plunge? Lets find out. BTC/USD Similar to the previous occasion in mid-Nov. of last year, the tight range in Bitcoin ( BTC ) has resolved to the downside. The bears will now attempt to break down of the yearly low at $3,236.09 and resume the downtrend, while the bulls will try to defend it. BTC/USD The price is below both the moving averages and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which suggests that the bears are in command. Every pullback is likely to face selling at the moving averages and above it at the downtrend line. Story continues Below $3,236.09, the BTC/USD pair can fall to $3,000, which is a psychological support. If this level also fails to hold, the downtrend can extend to $2,600 and below that to $2,400. Our bearish view will be invalidated if the digital currency rebounds sharply from $3,236.09 and stages a sharp recovery. We shall wait for the trend to change before recommending any trade in it. XRP/USD Ripple ( XRP ) plunged below the $0.30550 to the $0.31 support zone on Jan. 27, after which selling intensified. XRP/USD The immediate support is at $0.27795, below which a retest of the yearly low of $0.24508 is likely. The trend is clearly down as both the moving averages are sloping down and the RSI is close to the oversold level. The XRP/USD pair will exhibit strength if the bulls push the price above the downtrend line and both the moving averages. We shall wait for a new buy setup to form before proposing a trade in it. ETH/USD Ethereum ( ETH ) broke down and closed (UTC time frame) below the strong support at $116.30 on Jan. 27. It can now slide to $100, which is a psychological support, below which a retest of $83 is possible. ETH/USD The moving averages have completed a bearish crossover and the RSI has dropped close to the oversold zone, which indicates that the sellers have an upper hand. The ETH/USD pair will show a sign of recovery if the price sustains above the moving averages. We shall wait for a trend reversal pattern to develop before recommending a trade in it. EOS/USD EOS has turned down from the moving averages. The bears are currently attempting to break down of the support at $2.1733. If successful, the decline can extend to $1.7746 and below it to $1.55. EOS/USD However, both the moving averages are flat, which points to a likely consolidation. If the bulls defend the support at $2.1733, the EOS/USD pair will remain range bound. We might suggest a trade if the price sustains above $2.60. Until then, we remain neutral on it. BCH/USD Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ) broke below the tight range of $141 $121.3 on Jan. 27. It is currently just below the 78.6 percent Fibonacci retracement of the up move from $73.50 to $239. BCH/USD If this support breaks, a 100 percent retracement of the up move is probable. There is minor support at the psychological support at $100 but it is unlikely to hold. The 20-day EMA has turned down and the RSI has reached close to the oversold level, which shows that the sellers have the upper hand. We shall wait for the BCH/USD pair to form a reversal pattern before turning positive on it. Until then, we suggest traders remain on the sidelines. LTC/USD The attempt by the bulls to push Litecoin ( LTC ) above the top of the tight range at $33 failed on Jan. 26. LTC/USD Currently, the bears are attempting to sink the LTC/USD pair below the support zone at $29.349 and $27.701. Unless the whole crypto universe plunges, we expect the bulls to defend the above-mentioned support levels. Hence, we suggest traders retain their stops at $27.50. If the bears sink the price below $27.50, a retest of the low at $23.090 will be in the cards. The cryptocurrency will gain strength if the price closes (UTC time frame) above $33. TRX/USD Tron ( TRX ) triggered our buy recommendation on Jan. 26 when it closed above the resistance of its long-term range. TRX/USD However, the fall in the crypto space has dragged it back into the range once again. It is currently trying to hold the 20-day EMA. If the support holds, the bulls will again attempt to push the price above the range. However, if the TRX/USD pair plunges below the 20-day EMA, it will be a negative sign. Therefore, traders who are long should keep a stop loss at $0.023. If the bears sink below $0.023, the slide can extend to the 50-day SMA and below that to $0.0183. The trend turns negative if the bears force the price below $0.0183. XLM/USD Stellar ( XLM ) has broken down of the yearly low at $0.09285498. This is a negative sign. Both the moving averages are trending down and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which shows that supply exceeds demand. XLM/USD If the XLM/USD pair closes (UTC time frame) below $0.09285498, it can decline to $0.07864971 and below that to $0.05795397. Conversely, if the bulls quickly push the price back above $0.09285498, it can move up to the downtrend line. We shall wait for a bullish pattern to form before turning positive on it. BSV/USD After a period of low volatility, the range has expanded to the downside. The 20-day EMA is sloping down and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which shows that the sellers are in command. Bitcoin SV (BSV) has corrected to the critical support at $65.031. BSV/USD If the bears sink the BSV/USD pair below $65.031, it can slide to the next support at $57, below which a retest of $38.528 is probable. Our bearish view will be invalidated if the bulls bounce off the current support and sustain the price above $80.352. We shall wait for a trend reversal to be signaled before suggesting a trade in it. ADA/USD Cardano ( ADA ) broke down of the small uptrend line and the 50-day SMA on Jan. 27. The bears latched on to the opportunity and pushed the price back to the support line of the ascending channel. ADA/USD If the zone between the support line of the channel and $0.036815 holds, the bulls will try to scale above the uptrend line and the 20-day EMA. However, if the support zone crumbles, the ADA/USD pair can fall to the yearly low of $0.027237. The 20-day EMA has started to slope down and the RSI is back in the negative territory. This shows that the path of least resistance is to the downside. We shall wait for the price to sustain above the 20-day EMA before turning positive on the cryptocurrency. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Charts for analysis are provided by TradingView . Related Articles: Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 16 Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 25 Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 23 Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, TRON, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 21 || Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Tron, Stellar, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 28: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange.
The trend in crypto continues to be down. After a period of low volatility, cryptocurrencies are again headed south. There are no takers for cryptocurrencies even after such a huge fall because money is moving back into the traditional safe haven,gold, according to Jan Van Eck, CEO of Van Eck Associates.
The demand for funds from crypto companies is on the rise. Michael Novogratz backed Galaxy Digital is planning to raise$250 millionfor loans to crypto companies by March. Most large investment banks and funds are dipping their feet into these companies but Nouriel Roubini stillbelievesthat blockchain “is no better than Excel spreadsheet.”
Iran wants to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent recent U.S. sanctions. The Islamic Republic plans to issue astate-backedcryptocurrency, which it hopes will bypass the existing global messaging system “SWIFT” that facilitates cross-border payments.
While we are upbeat on the crypto space for the long-term, the price action in the short-term continues to be depressing. The market has still not found a solid bottom and initiating positions in a downtrend is not a good strategy. How far will cryptocurrencies plunge? Let’s find out.
Similar to the previous occasion in mid-Nov. of last year, the tight range in Bitcoin (BTC) has resolved to the downside. The bears will now attempt to break down of the yearly low at $3,236.09 and resume the downtrend, while the bulls will try to defend it.
The price is below both the moving averages and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which suggests that the bears are in command. Every pullback is likely to face selling at the moving averages and above it at the downtrend line.
Below $3,236.09, theBTC/USDpair can fall to $3,000, which is a psychological support. If this level also fails to hold, the downtrend can extend to $2,600 and below that to $2,400.
Our bearish view will be invalidated if the digital currency rebounds sharply from $3,236.09 and stages a sharp recovery. We shall wait for the trend to change before recommending any trade in it.
Ripple (XRP) plunged below the $0.30550 to the $0.31 support zone on Jan. 27, after which selling intensified.
The immediate support is at $0.27795, below which a retest of the yearly low of $0.24508 is likely. The trend is clearly down as both the moving averages are sloping down and the RSI is close to the oversold level.
TheXRP/USDpair will exhibit strength if the bulls push the price above the downtrend line and both the moving averages. We shall wait for a new buy setup to form before proposing a trade in it.
Ethereum (ETH) broke down and closed (UTC time frame) below the strong support at $116.30 on Jan. 27. It can now slide to $100, which is a psychological support, below which a retest of $83 is possible.
The moving averages have completed a bearish crossover and the RSI has dropped close to the oversold zone, which indicates that the sellers have an upper hand.
TheETH/USDpair will show a sign of recovery if the price sustains above the moving averages. We shall wait for a trend reversal pattern to develop before recommending a trade in it.
EOShas turned down from the moving averages. The bears are currently attempting to break down of the support at $2.1733. If successful, the decline can extend to $1.7746 and below it to $1.55.
However, both the moving averages are flat, which points to a likely consolidation. If the bulls defend the support at $2.1733, theEOS/USDpair will remain range bound. We might suggest a trade if the price sustains above $2.60. Until then, we remain neutral on it.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) broke below the tight range of $141– $121.3 on Jan. 27. It is currently just below the 78.6 percent Fibonacci retracement of the up move from $73.50 to $239.
If this support breaks, a 100 percent retracement of the up move is probable. There is minor support at the psychological support at $100 but it is unlikely to hold.
The 20-day EMA has turned down and the RSI has reached close to the oversold level, which shows that the sellers have the upper hand. We shall wait for theBCH/USDpair to form a reversal pattern before turning positive on it. Until then, we suggest traders remain on the sidelines.
The attempt by the bulls to push Litecoin (LTC) above the top of the tight range at $33 failed on Jan. 26.
Currently, the bears are attempting to sink theLTC/USDpair below the support zone at $29.349 and $27.701. Unless the whole crypto universe plunges, we expect the bulls to defend the above-mentioned support levels. Hence, we suggest traders retain their stops at $27.50. If the bears sink the price below $27.50, a retest of the low at $23.090 will be in the cards. The cryptocurrency will gain strength if the price closes (UTC time frame) above $33.
Tron (TRX) triggered our buyrecommendationon Jan. 26 when it closed above the resistance of its long-term range.
However, the fall in the crypto space has dragged it back into the range once again. It is currently trying to hold the 20-day EMA. If the support holds, the bulls will again attempt to push the price above the range.
However, if theTRX/USDpair plunges below the 20-day EMA, it will be a negative sign. Therefore, traders who are long should keep a stop loss at $0.023. If the bears sink below $0.023, the slide can extend to the 50-day SMA and below that to $0.0183. The trend turns negative if the bears force the price below $0.0183.
Stellar (XLM) has broken down of the yearly low at $0.09285498. This is a negative sign. Both the moving averages are trending down and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which shows that supply exceeds demand.
If theXLM/USDpair closes (UTC time frame) below $0.09285498, it can decline to $0.07864971 and below that to $0.05795397.
Conversely, if the bulls quickly push the price back above $0.09285498, it can move up to the downtrend line. We shall wait for a bullish pattern to form before turning positive on it.
After a period of low volatility, the range has expanded to the downside. The 20-day EMA is sloping down and the RSI is close to the oversold level, which shows that the sellers are in command. Bitcoin SV (BSV) has corrected to the critical support at $65.031.
If the bears sink theBSV/USDpair below $65.031, it can slide to the next support at $57, below which a retest of $38.528 is probable.
Our bearish view will be invalidated if the bulls bounce off the current support and sustain the price above $80.352. We shall wait for a trend reversal to be signaled before suggesting a trade in it.
Cardano (ADA) broke down of the small uptrend line and the 50-day SMA on Jan. 27. The bears latched on to the opportunity and pushed the price back to the support line of the ascending channel.
If the zone between the support line of the channel and $0.036815 holds, the bulls will try to scale above the uptrend line and the 20-day EMA.
However, if the support zone crumbles, theADA/USDpair can fall to the yearly low of $0.027237. The 20-day EMA has started to slope down and the RSI is back in the negative territory. This shows that the path of least resistance is to the downside. We shall wait for the price to sustain above the 20-day EMA before turning positive on the cryptocurrency.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange. Charts for analysis are provided byTradingView.
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 16
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 25
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 23
• Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, TRON, Bitcoin SV, Cardano: Price Analysis, Jan. 21 || ‘Resilient’ Bitcoin Price Will Rally to $25,000 [Eventually]: Tom Lee: The past 12 months haven’t been easy for any bitcoin bull, but perhaps no cryptocurrency proponent has had a worse time than Tom Lee, the Wall Street strategist who predicted that the bitcoin price would hit $25,000 by the end of 2018 and must now reckon with the result of that forecast every time he goes back on television.
The Fundstrat Global Advisors founder’s latest dish of humble pie was served up courtesy of Stuart Varney, who interviewed Lee last Friday for the Fox Business Network.
Varney asked Lee whether he regretted making thatbitcoin price prediction, which he maintained throughout much of the year until it became clear that Crypto Winter had no intention of thawing in 2018. A somber Lee refused to recant.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || ‘Resilient’ Bitcoin Price Will Rally to $25,000 [Eventually]: Tom Lee: The past 12 months haven’t been easy for any bitcoin bull, but perhaps no cryptocurrency proponent has had a worse time than Tom Lee, the Wall Street strategist who predicted that the bitcoin price would hit $25,000 by the end of 2018 and must now reckon with the result of that forecast every time he goes back on television.
The Fundstrat Global Advisors founder’s latest dish of humble pie was served up courtesy of Stuart Varney, who interviewed Lee last Friday for the Fox Business Network.
Varney asked Lee whether he regretted making thatbitcoin price prediction, which he maintained throughout much of the year until it became clear that Crypto Winter had no intention of thawing in 2018. A somber Lee refused to recant.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || ‘Resilient’ Bitcoin Price Will Rally to $25,000 [Eventually]: Tom Lee: tom lee bitcoin price The past 12 months haven’t been easy for any bitcoin bull, but perhaps no cryptocurrency proponent has had a worse time than Tom Lee, the Wall Street strategist who predicted that the bitcoin price would hit $25,000 by the end of 2018 and must now reckon with the result of that forecast every time he goes back on television. Tom Lee Sticks by Bitcoin Price Forecast But Drops Timeline The Fundstrat Global Advisors founder’s latest dish of humble pie was served up courtesy of Stuart Varney, who interviewed Lee last Friday for the Fox Business Network. Varney asked Lee whether he regretted making that bitcoin price prediction , which he maintained throughout much of the year until it became clear that Crypto Winter had no intention of thawing in 2018. A somber Lee refused to recant. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Binance’s BitTorrent Token Sale Sells Out in Minutes Amid Technical Issues: A public sale of 59.8 billion BitTorrent Tokens (BTT), worth roughly $7.2 million, sold out in a matter of minutes on Binanceâs Launchpad earlier today, despite technical difficulties that frustrated some users.
At 3:00 UTC, thetoken sale platformopened its doors to BTT investors through two separate sale sessions, one for those paying with the token native to the Tron blockchain, TRX, and the other for those paying with Binanceâs native exchange token, BNB.Each BTT token was valued at $0.00012 during the sales, according tosale informationposted on Binance’s website.
BTT is the first token in BitTorrent’s 17-year history. The decentralized file-sharing service was acquired by Tron last summer and plans for BTT, which runs on Tron’s blockchain, were rolled out in awhite paperearlier this month.
Tron CEO Justin Sun Wants to Hire You to Organize His House
Both of today’s sales began at the same time and were scheduled to end either once the hard cap of the sale was reached or when the clock struck 10:00 UTC on February 3. The minimum purchase amount was 100,000 BTT.
According to atweet from Tron CEO and founder Justin Sun, the 23.76 billion token cap for the BNB session was reached in just 13 minutes and 25 seconds, while the 35.64 billion token cap for the TRX session was fulfilled in 14 minutes and 41 seconds.
Information from Binance reveals there were 622 participants in the TRX session and 340 participants in the BNB session.
Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhaotweetedthe sale could have ended in just seconds if not for technical issues with the Launchpad platform.
SF Summit Shows BitTorrent Is Boosting Tron’s Appeal
At 3:20 UTC, Zhao tweeted:
âBoth sessions concluded. Took about 18 minutes, due to a system issue, would have taken 18 seconds otherwise. Demand was astronomical.â
In an attempt to be transparent about the inconvenience, Zhaoadded:
âFull transparency. The issue experienced today was caused by the ‘user agreement confirmation’ button caching/locking. Most of the stress tests focused on the buy process, this part was not covered thoroughly enough. The order of requests received was preserved.â
The first of manyairdropsto TRX token holders will take place on February 11, at which time 10.89 billion tokens or 1.1 percent of the total circulating supply will be airdropped. Subsequent airdrops will occur through 2025, according to a January 20postby the BitTorrent Foundation.
Disclosure: The author holds BTC, AST, REQ, OMG, FUEL, ZIL, 1st and AMP at the time of writing.
Binance phone image via Shutterstock
• Binance Targets EU, UK Traders With New Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
• BitTorrent’s Master Plan to Bring a Tron-Powered Crypto Token to the Masses || NYSE Operator Partners With Blockstream to Launch Crypto Tracking Tool for Investors: The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has partnered with major globalblockchainfirmBlockstreamto launch its Cryptocurrency Data Feed product, as ICE Data Servicestweetedon Jan. 24.
Foundedin 2000 in theUnited States, the Intercontinental Exchange is a global company that owns exchanges for financial commodity markets and operates 23 global exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
According to theannouncement, ICE’s new crypto data service enables real-time and historical data for more than 60cryptocurrenciesfrom major trading markets and exchanges worldwide.
Blockstream hasintroducedthe product under the name “Crypto Feed V3” on its Twitter, claiming that the updated service now includes more than 30 venues across over 400 crypto andfiattrading pairs.
The newpartnershipintends to provide global investors with a comprehensive tool to monitor data for the most actively and widely traded cryptocurrencies, the company wrote.
The Cryptocurrency Data Feedincludesa number of crypto market monitoring services such as price discovery, historic data and full-depth market by price and by venue insight, as well as round-the-clock market overview including a calculated accumulated volume, the volume of weighted average price (VWAP) and others.
In addition, the new service is backed by ICE’s Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) tool, which claims to eliminate downtime for investors and enable immediate notifications in case of an emergency.
ICE had previouslyannouncedits plans to launchBakkt, regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets, in August 2018.
As reported on Dec. 31, 2018, ICEreleasedan update to the launch timeline for Bakkt — which had previously been a targeted Jan. 24 launch date — in accordance with consultation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Recently, Bakkt hasannouncedthat they are hiring for a number of key positions at the company, mostly looking for developers at director and senior levels. Previously in mid-January, Bakkt had alsoacquiredcertain assets in futures commission merchant Rosenthal Collins Group.
• Blockchain.com Seeks Undisclosed Stablecoin Partnership by End of 2019: Report
• Swiss Wallet Firm to Produce Physical Banknotes for Marshall Islands Digital Currency
• Bitcoin Skeptic, Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Considers 2020 Presidential Run
• SBI Crypto Subsidiary Supports Crypto Mobile Wallet in $15 Million Funding Round || NYSE Operator Partners With Blockstream to Launch Crypto Tracking Tool for Investors: The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has partnered with major global blockchain firm Blockstream to launch its Cryptocurrency Data Feed product, as ICE Data Services tweeted on Jan. 24. Founded in 2000 in the United States , the Intercontinental Exchange is a global company that owns exchanges for financial commodity markets and operates 23 global exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE ). According to the announcement , ICEs new crypto data service enables real-time and historical data for more than 60 cryptocurrencies from major trading markets and exchanges worldwide. Blockstream has introduced the product under the name Crypto Feed V3 on its Twitter, claiming that the updated service now includes more than 30 venues across over 400 crypto and fiat trading pairs. The new partnership intends to provide global investors with a comprehensive tool to monitor data for the most actively and widely traded cryptocurrencies, the company wrote. The Cryptocurrency Data Feed includes a number of crypto market monitoring services such as price discovery, historic data and full-depth market by price and by venue insight, as well as round-the-clock market overview including a calculated accumulated volume, the volume of weighted average price (VWAP) and others. In addition, the new service is backed by ICEs Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure ( SFTI ) tool, which claims to eliminate downtime for investors and enable immediate notifications in case of an emergency. ICE had previously announced its plans to launch Bakkt , regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets, in August 2018. As reported on Dec. 31, 2018, ICE released an update to the launch timeline for Bakkt which had previously been a targeted Jan. 24 launch date in accordance with consultation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ( CFTC ). Recently, Bakkt has announced that they are hiring for a number of key positions at the company, mostly looking for developers at director and senior levels. Previously in mid-January, Bakkt had also acquired certain assets in futures commission merchant Rosenthal Collins Group. Related Articles: Blockchain.com Seeks Undisclosed Stablecoin Partnership by End of 2019: Report Swiss Wallet Firm to Produce Physical Banknotes for Marshall Islands Digital Currency Bitcoin Skeptic, Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Considers 2020 Presidential Run SBI Crypto Subsidiary Supports Crypto Mobile Wallet in $15 Million Funding Round View comments || Bitcoin Skeptic, Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Considers 2020 Presidential Run: The former CEO and chairman ofStarbucks, Howard Schultz, has announced he is considering an independent run in the forthcoming 2020United Statespresidential elections, in a tweetpostedon Jan. 27.
“I love our country, and I am seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent,” he wrote — prompting a spate of critical responses, with mostcommentatorsarguingthat anindependentcandidacy woulddiminishthe likelihood of a successful, unified Democratic alternative to a second Trump presidential term.
For commentators in the crypto space, a Schultz run would present a complex picture.
In a transcript of Starbucks’ Q1 2018 earnings callpublishedlast Jan. 26, Schultz made extensive remarks about his view of Bitcoin (BTC) and otherblockchain-basedcryptocurrencies, notably in the context of discussing what he characterized as “the entrepreneurial DNA of Starbucks and [the need to] constantly hav[e] the curiosity to see around corners and make big bets.”
Schultz said:
“I'm bringing this up because as we think about the future of our company and the future of consumer behavior, I personally believe that there is going to be a one or a few legitimate, trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology. And that legitimacy and trust in terms of its consumer application will have to be legitimized by a brand in a brick-and-mortar environment.”
Emphasizing that Starbucks is neither making its own digital currency nor investing in the technology, he nonetheless stressed that the company “is in a unique position to take advantage” of a future of consumer-focused blockchain-based digital currencies.
Notably, Schultz remained firmly dismissive of Bitcoin, saying he “doesn’t believe it will be a currency today or in the future.”
As reported, Starbucks was prompted topublicly refutemedia reports last year which had suggested its involvement in theBakkt digital assets ecosystemproject would involve customers being able to purchase items at Starbucks with cryptocurrencies.
As regards other presidential candidates for the 2020 elections, United States senatorElizabeth Warren, a high-profile Democrat who has announced her bid, is a known crypto and initial coin offering (ICO) skeptic.
Conversely, programmer and crypto enthusiastJohn McAfeeis going so far as to make a bid for the presidency with theavowed aimof promoting permissionlesscryptocurrenciesas part of an explicitly libertarian agenda. However, after an alleged indictment by U.S. tax authorities, McAfee hasdeclaredhe will run his campaign “in exile” from a boat in international waters.
• McAfee to Lead 2020 Presidential Campaign ‘in Exile’ After Alleged IRS Indictment
• Crypto Payments Service BitPay Reports It Saw Over $1 Billion in Transactions in 2018
• Payment Services Provider Aliant Introduces Free Crypto Processing to Some Merchants
• NYSE Operator Partners With Blockstream to Launch Crypto Tracking Tool for Investors || Bitcoin Skeptic, Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Considers 2020 Presidential Run: The former CEO and chairman ofStarbucks, Howard Schultz, has announced he is considering an independent run in the forthcoming 2020United Statespresidential elections, in a tweetpostedon Jan. 27.
“I love our country, and I am seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent,” he wrote — prompting a spate of critical responses, with mostcommentatorsarguingthat anindependentcandidacy woulddiminishthe likelihood of a successful, unified Democratic alternative to a second Trump presidential term.
For commentators in the crypto space, a Schultz run would present a complex picture.
In a transcript of Starbucks’ Q1 2018 earnings callpublishedlast Jan. 26, Schultz made extensive remarks about his view of Bitcoin (BTC) and otherblockchain-basedcryptocurrencies, notably in the context of discussing what he characterized as “the entrepreneurial DNA of Starbucks and [the need to] constantly hav[e] the curiosity to see around corners and make big bets.”
Schultz said:
“I'm bringing this up because as we think about the future of our company and the future of consumer behavior, I personally believe that there is going to be a one or a few legitimate, trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology. And that legitimacy and trust in terms of its consumer application will have to be legitimized by a brand in a brick-and-mortar environment.”
Emphasizing that Starbucks is neither making its own digital currency nor investing in the technology, he nonetheless stressed that the company “is in a unique position to take advantage” of a future of consumer-focused blockchain-based digital currencies.
Notably, Schultz remained firmly dismissive of Bitcoin, saying he “doesn’t believe it will be a currency today or in the future.”
As reported, Starbucks was prompted topublicly refutemedia reports last year which had suggested its involvement in theBakkt digital assets ecosystemproject would involve customers being able to purchase items at Starbucks with cryptocurrencies.
As regards other presidential candidates for the 2020 elections, United States senatorElizabeth Warren, a high-profile Democrat who has announced her bid, is a known crypto and initial coin offering (ICO) skeptic.
Conversely, programmer and crypto enthusiastJohn McAfeeis going so far as to make a bid for the presidency with theavowed aimof promoting permissionlesscryptocurrenciesas part of an explicitly libertarian agenda. However, after an alleged indictment by U.S. tax authorities, McAfee hasdeclaredhe will run his campaign “in exile” from a boat in international waters.
• McAfee to Lead 2020 Presidential Campaign ‘in Exile’ After Alleged IRS Indictment
• Crypto Payments Service BitPay Reports It Saw Over $1 Billion in Transactions in 2018
• Payment Services Provider Aliant Introduces Free Crypto Processing to Some Merchants
• NYSE Operator Partners With Blockstream to Launch Crypto Tracking Tool for Investors || Bitcoin Skeptic, Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Considers 2020 Presidential Run: The former CEO and chairman of Starbucks , Howard Schultz, has announced he is considering an independent run in the forthcoming 2020 United States presidential elections, in a tweet posted on Jan. 27. I love our country, and I am seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent, he wrote prompting a spate of critical responses, with most commentators arguing that an independent candidacy would diminish the likelihood of a successful, unified Democratic alternative to a second Trump presidential term. For commentators in the crypto space, a Schultz run would present a complex picture. In a transcript of Starbucks Q1 2018 earnings call published last Jan. 26, Schultz made extensive remarks about his view of Bitcoin ( BTC ) and other blockchain -based cryptocurrencies , notably in the context of discussing what he characterized as the entrepreneurial DNA of Starbucks and [the need to] constantly hav[e] the curiosity to see around corners and make big bets. Schultz said: I'm bringing this up because as we think about the future of our company and the future of consumer behavior, I personally believe that there is going to be a one or a few legitimate, trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology. And that legitimacy and trust in terms of its consumer application will have to be legitimized by a brand in a brick-and-mortar environment. Emphasizing that Starbucks is neither making its own digital currency nor investing in the technology, he nonetheless stressed that the company is in a unique position to take advantage of a future of consumer-focused blockchain-based digital currencies. Notably, Schultz remained firmly dismissive of Bitcoin, saying he doesnt believe it will be a currency today or in the future. As reported, Starbucks was prompted to publicly refute media reports last year which had suggested its involvement in the Bakkt digital assets ecosystem project would involve customers being able to purchase items at Starbucks with cryptocurrencies. Story continues As regards other presidential candidates for the 2020 elections, United States senator Elizabeth Warren , a high-profile Democrat who has announced her bid, is a known crypto and initial coin offering ( ICO ) skeptic. Conversely, programmer and crypto enthusiast John McAfee is going so far as to make a bid for the presidency with the avowed aim of promoting permissionless cryptocurrencies as part of an explicitly libertarian agenda. However, after an alleged indictment by U.S. tax authorities, McAfee has declared he will run his campaign in exile from a boat in international waters. Related Articles: McAfee to Lead 2020 Presidential Campaign in Exile After Alleged IRS Indictment Crypto Payments Service BitPay Reports It Saw Over $1 Billion in Transactions in 2018 Payment Services Provider Aliant Introduces Free Crypto Processing to Some Merchants NYSE Operator Partners With Blockstream to Launch Crypto Tracking Tool for Investors || Bitcoin Investors Are Abandoning Crypto for Gold during the Bear Market: Vaneck CEO: Bitcoin investors are abandoning crypto in favor of traditional commodities like gold amid the prolonged market slump. That’s the observation of Jan Van Eck, the CEO of investment management firmVanEck Associates.
Van Eck says this is a reversal of the trend he saw in 2017, when the then-sizzling bitcoin pulled demand from gold during the crypto bull market.
“I do think that bitcoin pulled a little bit of demand away from gold in 2017,” Van Eck toldCNBC(video below). “Interestingly, we just polled 4,000 bitcoin investors. And their No. 1 investment for 2019 is actually gold. So gold lost to bitcoin [before], and now it’s going the other way.”
Read the full story onCCN.com.
[Social Media Buzz]
Bitcoin - BTC
Price: $3,457.96
Change in 1h: +0.25%
Market cap: $60,542,994,091.00
Ranking: 1
#Bitcoin #BTC || #Bitcoin Market Price Update XBT/GBP | Last Price: £2577.00 | 24-Hour Low: £2557.00, High: £2626.00, Volume: 234.1374 XBT || 1 DOGE Price: 0.00000055 BTC #doge #dogecoin 2019-01-29 00:33 pic.twitter.com/iLYEF7vZ4W || Historical performance of #BITCOIN against #EURO:
first price:97.0
last price:2958.0
EARNINGS:2949.48%
1.50% per day
10.50% per week
45.00% per month
539.95% per year
PERIO...
|
3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6385.62, 6409.22, 6411.27, 6371.27, 6359.49, 5738.35, 5648.03, 5575.55, 5554.33, 5623.54, 4871.49, 4451.87, 4602.17, 4365.94, 4347.11, 3880.76, 4009.97, 3779.13, 3820.72, 4257.42, 4278.85, 4017.27, 4214.67, 4139.88, 3894.13, 3956.89, 3753.99, 3521.10, 3419.94, 3476.11, 3614.23, 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48, 3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60, 3815.49, 3857.30, 3654.83, 3923.92, 3820.41, 3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85, 4035.30, 3678.92, 3687.37, 3661.30, 3552.95, 3706.05, 3630.68, 3655.01, 3678.56, 3657.84, 3728.57, 3601.01, 3576.03, 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-02-06]
Volume: 5482196038, RSI (14-day): 36.89, 50-day EMA: 3748.42, 200-day EMA: 5180.68
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1309.50, Gold RSI: 64.00
Oil Price: 54.01, Oil RSI: 56.09
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin Was ‘Total Bubble’ & 95% of Crypto ‘Will Die Painful Death’: Bitwise Exec.: The bitcoin bull market was a bubble that burst in 2018, but the “painful” event had a major upside: It attracted a lot of money and talent to the burgeoning industry. That’s the assessment of Matt Hougan, the global head of research at Bitwise, creator of the world’s first cryptocurrency index fund.
“It was a massive run-up and a massive pullback,” Hougan told Bloomberg’s Barry Ritholtz on hispodcast. “[It was a] total bubble.”
While financial “bubbles” understandably carry a negative connotation, Hougan says thebitcoin bubblefueled intense media interest in blockchain and the crypto market.
Moreover, soaring crypto prices lured a tremendous talent pool to the industry that it otherwise might not have wooed but for the spectacular daily headlines in 2017.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Bitcoin Was Total Bubble & 95% of Crypto Will Die Painful Death: Bitwise Exec.: bitcoin price bubble The bitcoin bull market was a bubble that burst in 2018, but the painful event had a major upside: It attracted a lot of money and talent to the burgeoning industry. Thats the assessment of Matt Hougan, the global head of research at Bitwise, creator of the worlds first cryptocurrency index fund. It was a massive run-up and a massive pullback, Hougan told Bloombergs Barry Ritholtz on his podcast . [It was a] total bubble. While financial bubbles understandably carry a negative connotation, Hougan says the bitcoin bubble fueled intense media interest in blockchain and the crypto market. Moreover, soaring crypto prices lured a tremendous talent pool to the industry that it otherwise might not have wooed but for the spectacular daily headlines in 2017. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Bitcoin Was ‘Total Bubble’ & 95% of Crypto ‘Will Die Painful Death’: Bitwise Exec.: The bitcoin bull market was a bubble that burst in 2018, but the “painful” event had a major upside: It attracted a lot of money and talent to the burgeoning industry. That’s the assessment of Matt Hougan, the global head of research at Bitwise, creator of the world’s first cryptocurrency index fund.
“It was a massive run-up and a massive pullback,” Hougan told Bloomberg’s Barry Ritholtz on hispodcast. “[It was a] total bubble.”
While financial “bubbles” understandably carry a negative connotation, Hougan says thebitcoin bubblefueled intense media interest in blockchain and the crypto market.
Moreover, soaring crypto prices lured a tremendous talent pool to the industry that it otherwise might not have wooed but for the spectacular daily headlines in 2017.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Crypto Markets Trade Sideways, Gold Tries to Find Direction Ahead of Trump Address: Tuesday, Feb. 5 — cryptocurrency markets are trading sideways and reporting mild losses. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is struggling to stay in the green, while other major coins are experiencing a downward trend. Market visualization from Coin360 Market visualization from Coin360 The leading digital currency BTC is trading at around $3,468 at press time, having gained a modest 0.16 percent on the day. On its weekly chart, BTC is up0.56 percent, with its lowest price point around $3,400 on Jan. 29, and the highest at $3,521 on Feb. 2. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Top altcoin Ripple ( XRP ) has lost about 0.59 percent during the last 24 hours, and is trading at $0.299 at press time. In terms of its weekly performance, the altcoin began to see a slight decline after reaching its 7-day high price point of around $0.332 on Jan 30. Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The third largest coin by market capitalization, Ethereum ( ETH ) is up a slight 1.7 percent on its weekly chart, while the coin’s monthly performance down by over 28.53 percent. At press time, the altcoin is trading at $107.65, down around 0.30 percent over the past 24 hours. ETH’s market cap is around $11.2 billion at press time. Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap EOS is seeing less than 1 percent losses over the day as well, trading around $2.40 at press time. The fourth largest cryptocurrency has registered gains of around 4.73 percent during the past week, while on its monthly chart EOS has shown a 12 percent loss. Today, EOS.io, the company behind the cryptocurrency EOS, handed over bug bounties for five critical vulnerabilities this year. Five of those bounties are equivalent to $10,000 each, which is the highest possible payout reserved by the company only for the most critical vulnerabilities. EOS 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap EOS 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap According to CoinMarketCap, the main gainer over the day is Binance Coin ( BNB ), which is up by around 9.41 percent and is trading at around $7.78 to press time. Story continues The market capitalization of all 2,078 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap is around $113.7 billion at press time, while the trading volume is around $16.3 billion. Yesterday, Cointelegraph reported that since the beginning of 2019, digital currency exchanges have reportedly registered lower trading volumes, marking new lows that have not been recorded since 2017. Gold prices struggled to find direction today, as uncertainties around the United States-China trade war continue ahead of today’s State of the Union Address by President Donald Trump. According to MarketWatch , investors are also looking to the dollar and Treasury yields for cues. Gold/U.S. dollar (USD) spot is down 0.0015 to close at $1,314.93, while gold futures for April fell by $0.10 cents to $1,319.20. Related Articles: Stock Market Sees Significant Growth, While Bitcoin Keeps Stability Over Past 7 Days Bitcoin Hovers Over the $3,450 Mark as Top Cryptos See Slight Losses Bitcoin Stands Still Around $3,400 as Most Top Cryptos Report Moderate Gains Chinese Blockchain Rankings Released: EOS Still First, Ethereum Second, Bitcoin 15th || Crypto Markets Trade Sideways, Gold Tries to Find Direction Ahead of Trump Address: Tuesday, Feb. 5 — cryptocurrency markets are trading sideways and reporting mild losses. Bitcoin (BTC) is struggling to stay in the green, while other major coins are experiencing a downward trend.
Market visualization fromCoin360
The leading digital currency BTC is trading at around $3,468 at press time, having gained a modest 0.16 percent on the day. On its weekly chart, BTC is up0.56 percent, with its lowest price point around $3,400 on Jan. 29, and the highest at $3,521 on Feb. 2.
Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
TopaltcoinRipple (XRP) has lost about 0.59 percent during the last 24 hours, and is trading at $0.299 at press time. In terms of its weekly performance, the altcoin began to see a slight decline after reaching its 7-day high price point of around $0.332 on Jan 30.
Ripple 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
The third largest coin by market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH) is up a slight 1.7 percent on its weekly chart, while the coin’s monthly performance down by over 28.53 percent. At press time, the altcoin is trading at $107.65, down around 0.30 percent over the past 24 hours. ETH’s market cap is around $11.2 billion at press time.
Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
EOSis seeing less than 1 percent losses over the day as well, trading around $2.40 at press time. The fourth largest cryptocurrency has registered gains of around 4.73 percent during the past week, while on its monthly chart EOS has shown a 12 percent loss.
Today, EOS.io, the company behind the cryptocurrency EOS,handed overbug bounties for five critical vulnerabilities this year. Five of those bounties are equivalent to $10,000 each, which is the highest possible payout reserved by the company only for the most critical vulnerabilities.
EOS 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
According to CoinMarketCap, the main gainer over the day is Binance Coin (BNB), which is up by around 9.41 percent and is trading at around $7.78 to press time.
The market capitalization of all 2,078 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap is around $113.7 billion at press time, while the trading volume is around $16.3 billion.
Yesterday, Cointelegraphreportedthat since the beginning of 2019, digital currency exchanges have reportedly registered lower trading volumes, marking new lows that have not been recorded since 2017.
Gold prices struggled to find direction today, as uncertainties around the United States-China trade war continue ahead of today’s State of the Union Address by President Donald Trump. According toMarketWatch, investors are also looking to the dollar and Treasury yields for cues.
Gold/U.S. dollar (USD) spotis down0.0015 to close at $1,314.93, while gold futures for April fell by $0.10 cents to $1,319.20.
• Stock Market Sees Significant Growth, While Bitcoin Keeps Stability Over Past 7 Days
• Bitcoin Hovers Over the $3,450 Mark as Top Cryptos See Slight Losses
• Bitcoin Stands Still Around $3,400 as Most Top Cryptos Report Moderate Gains
• Chinese Blockchain Rankings Released: EOS Still First, Ethereum Second, Bitcoin 15th || Lightning Torch’s Bitcoin Payment Is Running a Worldwide Marathon: A lightning network payment has been making global rounds on Bitcoin’s secondary layer. The payment, slowly accumulating in value with each passing, is 2.8 ($96) million satoshis strong and still going. Dubbed the Lightning Torch, the payment has changed hands nearly 150 times across 38 countries. Since this article was published, it's even been to space after SatoshiLabs/Trezor CTO Pavol Rusnak broadcast an invoice throughBlockstream's satellite networkto pick up the torch from Blockstream CSO Samson Mow.
Traditionally, participants announce their ownership over Twitter to seek out the next recipient. Hopeful torch bearers respond to the tweets with a lightning network invoice, and after choosing a user to trust, the current holder adds a discretionary amount to the payment’s sum and sends it to the next holder.
The experiment has been making an impression on the community; so far, Andreas Antonopoulos has been in on it, and most recently, at the time of this writing, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey even took up the flame from Matt Odell.
The phenomenon is an exercise in restraint, trust and altruism that personifies Bitcoin’s complicated relationship between trusted and trusteless operations and parties. In this way, it’s fitting. The remarkable origin of the initiative is equally as unconventional as its carrythrough: it all arose from the curiosity and educationally incentivized agency of an anonymous Twitter personality masquerading as an astronautical feline.
Hodlonaut, a self-described “hodl enthusiast” who has been “fulltime bitcoin” since the middle of 2018, is represented by a space-suit-clad tomcat. Superimposed in front of a lunar backdrop, the tomcat’s expression and soft smile signal optimism. His suit is stitched with a BTC logo on the shoulder and NO2X (No Segwit 2X) and UASF (user-activated soft fork) acronyms on his right chest.
The diehard Bitcoin maximalist has been involved with Bitcoin since early 2013, and he’s racked up a respectable following on Twitter. He’s used this platform to ponder Bitcoin philosophy and evangelize like most of Crypto Twitter. But he’s also used it as a chance to put his ideas into action, most recently with the Lightning Torch initiative.
Speaking toBitcoin Magazine,hodlonaut reflected on the experiment.
“It’s been interesting to see reactions from some parts of the community. Some scowled at this from the beginning because it was based on community trust,” instead of the same baked-into-the-code trust that inspires mantras like “Don’t trust; verify.”
Hodlonaut is more interested in actions than mantras, so he started testing out whether or not you could trust the community to hold itself accountable — if community overwatch could make a trust-dependent act trustless in its own way. The experiment began with a giveaway on Twitter, where hodlonaut said he would send satoshis through the lightning network to anyone who replied to his thread. 250 people replied, and good to his word, hodolonaut said he “brushed up on his typing skills and sent everyone some sats.”
This altruism was stoked by the excitement hodlonaut felt when he first bootstrapped his raspberry pi to run lightning.
“Transacting with lightning network is the exact same excitement I had with bitcoin when I first discovered it.”
He wanted to spread his excitement through the community, so he took the giveaway a little further. On January 19, he made the “spur-of-the-moment” decision to send 100k satoshis ($3.40 USD) to a randomly selected stranger who replied to the new giveaway.
“This thing,” as he called the idea behind the experiment, “just fell into my head. I had no ambitions and I just threw it out there.”
He may have haphazardly thrown it out, but the community very intentionally caught and carried it on. Hodlonaut’s impulsive act of experimentation has developed into a full-fledged social experiment and movement. After reaching its first bearer, the transnational torch has been routed through each continent (save Antarctica, which would be too impressive) and 39 countries, including the bulk of the EU. Despite its creator initially believing that it “would go 4, 5, 6 hops and someone would take it and no one would [care],” the torch has passed between 139 unique users 149 times.
Total capacity is up to 2.2 bitcoin, and hodlonaut is optimistic that it will reach the lightning network’s ~4.3 million satoshi limit before the experiment terminates, at which point, he intends to ask the final bearer to donate the funds to BTC Venezuela, a cryptocurrency charity.
The flame, while still well fed and protected, has met trouble during its marathon across the world.
On two separate occasions, users have treated the torch as a personal boon rather than a community exercise, confirming hodlonaut’s fears that greed may put the torch out. These opportunists have claimed the funds for themselves, refusing to conform to the precedence of passing it along. Their attempts to snuff out the flame, however, have only made it stronger and emboldened the community’s resolve.
The first time, a few days in, the torch was lit with 250k satoshis ($8.60 USD), when one recipient took it for themselves. To salvage the situation, the sender decided to relight the torch with their own funds and resend it to a more trustworthy user. The same story happened the second go-around at 2.51 million satoshis ($86 USD). This time, the taker justified his actions with a tweet that read, “I’ll seize it because I can, and no one can stop me,” which hodlonaut interpreted as meaning that you shouldn’t trust anything but code.
Luckily, Klaus Lovgreen, the person who sent it to this opportunist, followed the example set the first time the torch was threatened and paid the loss out of pocket, sending it to a new user. His “good deed turned out to be profitable,” hodlonaut said, after he directed users to Lovgreen’s tippin.me page to compensate him for his good will.
The torch has survived two potential roadblocks and has grown out of hodlonaut’s influence. But that’s just the way he’d like to have it, even when the torch was on the verge of being extinguished.
“I wouldn’t have restarted it because I think this needs to be organic.”
The organic nature of the initiative and the community’s willingness to sacrifice personal funds to keep it going have made the experiment in community trust a success. Hodlonaut said that this shows both an increasing interest in lightning and the resolve of a community sparked by an exciting new technology, even in the harsh market climate.
“A lot of people have been onboarded to lightning. Personally, this is the most community feeling I’ve felt with bitcoin for a long time. There are so many people out there who are willing to educate each other and help people,” he said, expressing that lightning is important for community morale in times of a bear market.
You can track the torch’s race to the lightning network caphere. If it makes it to the end, a handful of anonymous donors have said that they will match the final amount (just shy of $150 USD) to be donated to BTC Venezuela. If you are interested in donating to BTC Venezuela or matching the donation as well, please consult the charity’swebsiteor reach out tohodlonaut on Twitter.
This article has been updated to reflect new movements of the torch.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Lightning Torch’s Bitcoin Payment Is Running a Worldwide Marathon: A lightning network payment has been making global rounds on Bitcoin’s secondary layer. The payment, slowly accumulating in value with each passing, is 2.8 ($96) million satoshis strong and still going. Dubbed the Lightning Torch, the payment has changed hands nearly 150 times across 38 countries. Since this article was published, it's even been to space after SatoshiLabs/Trezor CTO Pavol Rusnak broadcast an invoice throughBlockstream's satellite networkto pick up the torch from Blockstream CSO Samson Mow.
Traditionally, participants announce their ownership over Twitter to seek out the next recipient. Hopeful torch bearers respond to the tweets with a lightning network invoice, and after choosing a user to trust, the current holder adds a discretionary amount to the payment’s sum and sends it to the next holder.
The experiment has been making an impression on the community; so far, Andreas Antonopoulos has been in on it, and most recently, at the time of this writing, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey even took up the flame from Matt Odell.
The phenomenon is an exercise in restraint, trust and altruism that personifies Bitcoin’s complicated relationship between trusted and trusteless operations and parties. In this way, it’s fitting. The remarkable origin of the initiative is equally as unconventional as its carrythrough: it all arose from the curiosity and educationally incentivized agency of an anonymous Twitter personality masquerading as an astronautical feline.
Hodlonaut, a self-described “hodl enthusiast” who has been “fulltime bitcoin” since the middle of 2018, is represented by a space-suit-clad tomcat. Superimposed in front of a lunar backdrop, the tomcat’s expression and soft smile signal optimism. His suit is stitched with a BTC logo on the shoulder and NO2X (No Segwit 2X) and UASF (user-activated soft fork) acronyms on his right chest.
The diehard Bitcoin maximalist has been involved with Bitcoin since early 2013, and he’s racked up a respectable following on Twitter. He’s used this platform to ponder Bitcoin philosophy and evangelize like most of Crypto Twitter. But he’s also used it as a chance to put his ideas into action, most recently with the Lightning Torch initiative.
Speaking toBitcoin Magazine,hodlonaut reflected on the experiment.
“It’s been interesting to see reactions from some parts of the community. Some scowled at this from the beginning because it was based on community trust,” instead of the same baked-into-the-code trust that inspires mantras like “Don’t trust; verify.”
Hodlonaut is more interested in actions than mantras, so he started testing out whether or not you could trust the community to hold itself accountable — if community overwatch could make a trust-dependent act trustless in its own way. The experiment began with a giveaway on Twitter, where hodlonaut said he would send satoshis through the lightning network to anyone who replied to his thread. 250 people replied, and good to his word, hodolonaut said he “brushed up on his typing skills and sent everyone some sats.”
This altruism was stoked by the excitement hodlonaut felt when he first bootstrapped his raspberry pi to run lightning.
“Transacting with lightning network is the exact same excitement I had with bitcoin when I first discovered it.”
He wanted to spread his excitement through the community, so he took the giveaway a little further. On January 19, he made the “spur-of-the-moment” decision to send 100k satoshis ($3.40 USD) to a randomly selected stranger who replied to the new giveaway.
“This thing,” as he called the idea behind the experiment, “just fell into my head. I had no ambitions and I just threw it out there.”
He may have haphazardly thrown it out, but the community very intentionally caught and carried it on. Hodlonaut’s impulsive act of experimentation has developed into a full-fledged social experiment and movement. After reaching its first bearer, the transnational torch has been routed through each continent (save Antarctica, which would be too impressive) and 39 countries, including the bulk of the EU. Despite its creator initially believing that it “would go 4, 5, 6 hops and someone would take it and no one would [care],” the torch has passed between 139 unique users 149 times.
Total capacity is up to 2.2 bitcoin, and hodlonaut is optimistic that it will reach the lightning network’s ~4.3 million satoshi limit before the experiment terminates, at which point, he intends to ask the final bearer to donate the funds to BTC Venezuela, a cryptocurrency charity.
The flame, while still well fed and protected, has met trouble during its marathon across the world.
On two separate occasions, users have treated the torch as a personal boon rather than a community exercise, confirming hodlonaut’s fears that greed may put the torch out. These opportunists have claimed the funds for themselves, refusing to conform to the precedence of passing it along. Their attempts to snuff out the flame, however, have only made it stronger and emboldened the community’s resolve.
The first time, a few days in, the torch was lit with 250k satoshis ($8.60 USD), when one recipient took it for themselves. To salvage the situation, the sender decided to relight the torch with their own funds and resend it to a more trustworthy user. The same story happened the second go-around at 2.51 million satoshis ($86 USD). This time, the taker justified his actions with a tweet that read, “I’ll seize it because I can, and no one can stop me,” which hodlonaut interpreted as meaning that you shouldn’t trust anything but code.
Luckily, Klaus Lovgreen, the person who sent it to this opportunist, followed the example set the first time the torch was threatened and paid the loss out of pocket, sending it to a new user. His “good deed turned out to be profitable,” hodlonaut said, after he directed users to Lovgreen’s tippin.me page to compensate him for his good will.
The torch has survived two potential roadblocks and has grown out of hodlonaut’s influence. But that’s just the way he’d like to have it, even when the torch was on the verge of being extinguished.
“I wouldn’t have restarted it because I think this needs to be organic.”
The organic nature of the initiative and the community’s willingness to sacrifice personal funds to keep it going have made the experiment in community trust a success. Hodlonaut said that this shows both an increasing interest in lightning and the resolve of a community sparked by an exciting new technology, even in the harsh market climate.
“A lot of people have been onboarded to lightning. Personally, this is the most community feeling I’ve felt with bitcoin for a long time. There are so many people out there who are willing to educate each other and help people,” he said, expressing that lightning is important for community morale in times of a bear market.
You can track the torch’s race to the lightning network caphere. If it makes it to the end, a handful of anonymous donors have said that they will match the final amount (just shy of $150 USD) to be donated to BTC Venezuela. If you are interested in donating to BTC Venezuela or matching the donation as well, please consult the charity’swebsiteor reach out tohodlonaut on Twitter.
This article has been updated to reflect new movements of the torch.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Lightning Torch’s Bitcoin Payment Is Running a Worldwide Marathon: lightning torch.jpg A lightning network payment has been making global rounds on Bitcoin’s secondary layer. The payment, slowly accumulating in value with each passing, is 2.8 ($96) million satoshis strong and still going. Dubbed the Lightning Torch, the payment has changed hands nearly 150 times across 38 countries. Since this article was published, it's even been to space after SatoshiLabs/Trezor CTO Pavol Rusnak broadcast an invoice through Blockstream's satellite network to pick up the torch from Blockstream CSO Samson Mow. Traditionally, participants announce their ownership over Twitter to seek out the next recipient. Hopeful torch bearers respond to the tweets with a lightning network invoice, and after choosing a user to trust, the current holder adds a discretionary amount to the payment’s sum and sends it to the next holder. The experiment has been making an impression on the community; so far, Andreas Antonopoulos has been in on it, and most recently, at the time of this writing, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey even took up the flame from Matt Odell. Yo @jack , You ready to carry the torch? Send me an invoice for 2860000 sats. #LNtrustchain #bitcoin https://t.co/7BmDBidKR6 — Matt Odell (@matt_odell) February 5, 2019 The phenomenon is an exercise in restraint, trust and altruism that personifies Bitcoin’s complicated relationship between trusted and trusteless operations and parties. In this way, it’s fitting. The remarkable origin of the initiative is equally as unconventional as its carrythrough: it all arose from the curiosity and educationally incentivized agency of an anonymous Twitter personality masquerading as an astronautical feline. Story continues Kindling the Fire Hodlonaut, a self-described “hodl enthusiast” who has been “fulltime bitcoin” since the middle of 2018, is represented by a space-suit-clad tomcat. Superimposed in front of a lunar backdrop, the tomcat’s expression and soft smile signal optimism. His suit is stitched with a BTC logo on the shoulder and NO2X (No Segwit 2X) and UASF (user-activated soft fork) acronyms on his right chest. The diehard Bitcoin maximalist has been involved with Bitcoin since early 2013, and he’s racked up a respectable following on Twitter. He’s used this platform to ponder Bitcoin philosophy and evangelize like most of Crypto Twitter. But he’s also used it as a chance to put his ideas into action, most recently with the Lightning Torch initiative. Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, hodlonaut reflected on the experiment. “It’s been interesting to see reactions from some parts of the community. Some scowled at this from the beginning because it was based on community trust,” instead of the same baked-into-the-code trust that inspires mantras like “Don’t trust; verify.” Hodlonaut is more interested in actions than mantras, so he started testing out whether or not you could trust the community to hold itself accountable — if community overwatch could make a trust-dependent act trustless in its own way. The experiment began with a giveaway on Twitter, where hodlonaut said he would send satoshis through the lightning network to anyone who replied to his thread. 250 people replied, and good to his word, hodolonaut said he “brushed up on his typing skills and sent everyone some sats.” This altruism was stoked by the excitement hodlonaut felt when he first bootstrapped his raspberry pi to run lightning. “Transacting with lightning network is the exact same excitement I had with bitcoin when I first discovered it.” He wanted to spread his excitement through the community, so he took the giveaway a little further. On January 19, he made the “spur-of-the-moment” decision to send 100k satoshis ($3.40 USD) to a randomly selected stranger who replied to the new giveaway. “This thing,” as he called the idea behind the experiment, “just fell into my head. I had no ambitions and I just threw it out there.” Some LN fun.. - I send 100k sats with https://t.co/va7XSnFii0 to the first person I choose to trust that replies to this. - That person adds 10k sats and sends 110k to someone (Either from reply to a new tweet, or this thread) .. and so on How many sats before it breaks? — hodlonaut🌮⚡🔑 (@hodlonaut) January 19, 2019 He may have haphazardly thrown it out, but the community very intentionally caught and carried it on. Hodlonaut’s impulsive act of experimentation has developed into a full-fledged social experiment and movement. After reaching its first bearer, the transnational torch has been routed through each continent (save Antarctica, which would be too impressive) and 39 countries, including the bulk of the EU. Despite its creator initially believing that it “would go 4, 5, 6 hops and someone would take it and no one would [care],” the torch has passed between 139 unique users 149 times. Total capacity is up to 2.2 bitcoin, and hodlonaut is optimistic that it will reach the lightning network’s ~4.3 million satoshi limit before the experiment terminates, at which point, he intends to ask the final bearer to donate the funds to BTC Venezuela, a cryptocurrency charity. Don’t Let the Flame Die Out The flame, while still well fed and protected, has met trouble during its marathon across the world. On two separate occasions, users have treated the torch as a personal boon rather than a community exercise, confirming hodlonaut’s fears that greed may put the torch out. These opportunists have claimed the funds for themselves, refusing to conform to the precedence of passing it along. Their attempts to snuff out the flame, however, have only made it stronger and emboldened the community’s resolve. The first time, a few days in, the torch was lit with 250k satoshis ($8.60 USD), when one recipient took it for themselves. To salvage the situation, the sender decided to relight the torch with their own funds and resend it to a more trustworthy user. The same story happened the second go-around at 2.51 million satoshis ($86 USD). This time, the taker justified his actions with a tweet that read, “I’ll seize it because I can, and no one can stop me,” which hodlonaut interpreted as meaning that you shouldn’t trust anything but code. Luckily, Klaus Lovgreen, the person who sent it to this opportunist, followed the example set the first time the torch was threatened and paid the loss out of pocket, sending it to a new user. His “good deed turned out to be profitable,” hodlonaut said, after he directed users to Lovgreen’s tippin.me page to compensate him for his good will. And there the #LNTrustChain ended 🙁 Thanks to the more than hundred people who chose to pass it on! 🙏⚡️❤️ https://t.co/wCb25hYX2E — hodlonaut🌮⚡🔑 (@hodlonaut) January 31, 2019 Keep It Rolling The torch has survived two potential roadblocks and has grown out of hodlonaut’s influence. But that’s just the way he’d like to have it, even when the torch was on the verge of being extinguished. “I wouldn’t have restarted it because I think this needs to be organic.” The organic nature of the initiative and the community’s willingness to sacrifice personal funds to keep it going have made the experiment in community trust a success. Hodlonaut said that this shows both an increasing interest in lightning and the resolve of a community sparked by an exciting new technology, even in the harsh market climate. “A lot of people have been onboarded to lightning. Personally, this is the most community feeling I’ve felt with bitcoin for a long time. There are so many people out there who are willing to educate each other and help people,” he said, expressing that lightning is important for community morale in times of a bear market. You can track the torch’s race to the lightning network cap here . If it makes it to the end, a handful of anonymous donors have said that they will match the final amount (just shy of $150 USD) to be donated to BTC Venezuela. If you are interested in donating to BTC Venezuela or matching the donation as well, please consult the charity’s website or reach out to hodlonaut on Twitter . This article has been updated to reflect new movements of the torch. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Wall Street’s about to Bid Farewell to One of its Biggest Bitcoin Bulls: bill gross bitcoin Serial investor and bitcoin advocate Bill Gross has announced his immediate retirement from active bond investment to manage his own funds. Gross who was dubbed the “bond king” for his role in active bond-trading almost 50 years ago, achieved fame and notoriety in equal measure for his investment advice to pick bitcoin over central banks. Bill Gross Defended Bitcoin in 2016 bitcoin dystopia nuclear war jp morgan Describing central banks as a “casino” in a 2016 investment letter for the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency. Source: Shutterstock Describing central banks as a “casino” in a 2016 investment letter for the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency. Unsurprisingly, the position won him few friends in mainstream financial circles, and he has ended a sparkling career as one of America’s most successful fixed-income investors over the past 50 years, with the perhaps undeserved reputation of a maverick. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Wall Street’s about to Bid Farewell to One of its Biggest Bitcoin Bulls: Serial investor and bitcoin advocate Bill Gross has announced his immediate retirement from active bond investment to manage his own funds. Gross who was dubbed the “bond king” for his role in active bond-trading almost 50 years ago, achieved fame and notoriety in equal measure for his investment advice topick bitcoinover central banks.
Describing central banks as a “casino” in a 2016investment letterfor the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency. Source: Shutterstock
Describing central banks as a “casino” in a 2016investment letterfor the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency.
Unsurprisingly, the position won him few friends in mainstream financial circles, and he has ended a sparkling career as one of America’s most successful fixed-income investors over the past 50 years, with the perhaps undeserved reputation of a maverick.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Wall Street’s about to Bid Farewell to One of its Biggest Bitcoin Bulls: Serial investor and bitcoin advocate Bill Gross has announced his immediate retirement from active bond investment to manage his own funds. Gross who was dubbed the “bond king” for his role in active bond-trading almost 50 years ago, achieved fame and notoriety in equal measure for his investment advice topick bitcoinover central banks.
Describing central banks as a “casino” in a 2016investment letterfor the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency. Source: Shutterstock
Describing central banks as a “casino” in a 2016investment letterfor the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency.
Unsurprisingly, the position won him few friends in mainstream financial circles, and he has ended a sparkling career as one of America’s most successful fixed-income investors over the past 50 years, with the perhaps undeserved reputation of a maverick.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Users of Crypto Wallets Electrum and MyEtherWallet Face Phishing Attacks: Users of cryptocurrencywalletsElectrum and MyEtherWallet are currently facing phishing attacks, according to posts published onRedditandTwitteron Feb. 4.
A phishing attack is an attempt to obtain sensitive data like users’ personal or banking information by illicit means, wherein an attacker is disguised as a trusted entity and sends a user a message or an email containing a malicious link. Once clicked, the link asks the user to enter their personal data or initiates the installation ofmalware.
On Feb. 4, the team behind MyEtherWallet tweeted a warning about a phishing email that was sent to users, asking them to divulge personal information:
One user onRedditfound that a phishing scam attempting to steal sensitive data from Electrum customers was posing as a security update. Redditor exa61postedapictureof a system message, allegedly from Electrum wallet, requiring a security update to Electrum 4.0.0, while the latest version of the wallet is currently Electrum 3.3.3.
In the thread, one userpointed outthat it was “the second cluster of reports of the same phishing, and the first one was at the end of December 2018,” adding that the would-be hacker could have “100 GitHub accounts.”
Electrum subsequentlypublisheda warning on their website, notifying that “versions of Electrum older than 3.3.3 are vulnerable to a phishing attack, where malicious servers are able to display a message asking users to download a fake version of Electrum.” The company warned its users to not download software updates from other sources.
Recently, an unidentified hacker or hacker group purportedlydetecteda security vulnerability in the LocalBitcoins forum and linked it to a phishing forum. In a Reddit post published by the community manager, LocalBitcoins claimed that the identified vulnerability had been contained in third-party software, and confirmed six known cases of users being affected.
• Abra Wallet Introduces Bitcoin Investment Option for Stocks and ETFs
• Bitcoin Could Experience a Resurgence of Interest on Wall Street: JPMorgan Strategist
• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Says Bitcoin Is the Only Crypto He Holds
• Bitcoin Falls Under $3,400 as Oil Futures See Mixed Movements || 5 Suspicious Factors about Bitcoin Exchange QuadrigaCX and its $150m in Missing Crypto: bitcoin exchange quadrigacx crypto Bloomberg just reported that QuadrigaCX CEO and founder Gerald Cotten legally changed his will just 12 days before his death on December 9. This fact is just the latest in a string of interesting elements regarding the Canadian Bitcoin exchanges sudden closure and supposed $150 million in missing crypto funds. Here is a run-down of what we know and dont know so far. 1. Rumors that Co-Founder Michael Patryn Might Be Convicted Identity Thief Omar Dhanani For over a year, suspicions have circulated that Michael Patryn might actually be a famously convicted scammer by the name of Omar Dhanani. Dhanani was a member of the Shadowcrew and plead guilty to numerous counts of identity fraud back in 2005. According to lawyer Stephen Palley, Dhanani also used the name Omar Patryn in a forfeiture case. Omar Patryn was also a name used to start a company called Midas Gold Exchange . So I saw a claim that Omar Dhahani is really Michael Patryn of the Quandringa Exchange. Omar Dhanani has a pretty easy to find criminal history. He also used the name Omar Patryn as an aka in a 2005 forfeiture case. So. pic.twitter.com/hZOtLOSm9t Palley (@stephendpalley) February 5, 2019 Read the full story on CCN.com . View comments || 5 Suspicious Factors about Bitcoin Exchange QuadrigaCX and its $150m in Missing Crypto: Bloombergjust reportedthat QuadrigaCX CEO and founder Gerald Cotten legally changed his will just 12 days before his death on December 9. This fact is just the latest in a string ofinterestingelements regarding the Canadian Bitcoin exchange’s sudden closure and supposed $150 million in missing crypto funds. Here is a run-down of what we know — and don’t know — so far.
For over a year, suspicions have circulated that Michael Patryn might actually be a famously convicted scammer by the name of Omar Dhanani. Dhanani was a member of the Shadowcrew and plead guilty to numerous counts of identity fraud back in 2005.
According to lawyer Stephen Palley, Dhanani also used the name Omar Patryn in a forfeiture case. Omar Patryn was also a name used to start a company calledMidas Gold Exchange.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || 5 Suspicious Factors about Bitcoin Exchange QuadrigaCX and its $150m in Missing Crypto: Bloombergjust reportedthat QuadrigaCX CEO and founder Gerald Cotten legally changed his will just 12 days before his death on December 9. This fact is just the latest in a string ofinterestingelements regarding the Canadian Bitcoin exchange’s sudden closure and supposed $150 million in missing crypto funds. Here is a run-down of what we know — and don’t know — so far.
For over a year, suspicions have circulated that Michael Patryn might actually be a famously convicted scammer by the name of Omar Dhanani. Dhanani was a member of the Shadowcrew and plead guilty to numerous counts of identity fraud back in 2005.
According to lawyer Stephen Palley, Dhanani also used the name Omar Patryn in a forfeiture case. Omar Patryn was also a name used to start a company calledMidas Gold Exchange.
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Shut up, Nocoiner: Why We Don’t Need to ‘Burn Bitcoin with Fire’: Over nine months ago, the Berkeley International Computer Science Institute streamed Nicholas Weaver’s talk entitled “Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies: Burn it With Fire.” This week, he summarized the argument at theEnigma security conference. Ars Technica decided tocover the Bitcoin-bashing talk.
Anocoinerof the highest order, there is nothing about blockchain or cryptocurrencies that Nicholas Weaver likes. According to reporting in Ars Technica, most everyone who has ever held crypto “will almost inevitably say their wallet has been stolen.” The reader should note that there is no evidence to this claim.
Weaver also says that blockchain will not solve any problems in the world. Issues like monetary inflation and opacity in government or finance don’t seem to concern him as problems that blockchain can solve. According to Weaver:
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Shut up, Nocoiner: Why We Don’t Need to ‘Burn Bitcoin with Fire’: Over nine months ago, the Berkeley International Computer Science Institute streamed Nicholas Weaver’s talk entitled “Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies: Burn it With Fire.” This week, he summarized the argument at theEnigma security conference. Ars Technica decided tocover the Bitcoin-bashing talk.
Anocoinerof the highest order, there is nothing about blockchain or cryptocurrencies that Nicholas Weaver likes. According to reporting in Ars Technica, most everyone who has ever held crypto “will almost inevitably say their wallet has been stolen.” The reader should note that there is no evidence to this claim.
Weaver also says that blockchain will not solve any problems in the world. Issues like monetary inflation and opacity in government or finance don’t seem to concern him as problems that blockchain can solve. According to Weaver:
Read the full story onCCN.com. || Shut up, Nocoiner: Why We Dont Need to Burn Bitcoin with Fire: bitcoin Over nine months ago, the Berkeley International Computer Science Institute streamed Nicholas Weavers talk entitled Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies: Burn it With Fire. This week, he summarized the argument at the Enigma security conference . Ars Technica decided to cover the Bitcoin-bashing talk . Nicholas Weaver: Most People Have Had Their Hot Wallets Stolen A nocoiner of the highest order, there is nothing about blockchain or cryptocurrencies that Nicholas Weaver likes. According to reporting in Ars Technica, most everyone who has ever held crypto will almost inevitably say their wallet has been stolen. The reader should note that there is no evidence to this claim. Weaver also says that blockchain will not solve any problems in the world. Issues like monetary inflation and opacity in government or finance dont seem to concern him as problems that blockchain can solve. According to Weaver: Read the full story on CCN.com . || Blockchain Lending Firm Dharma Raises $7 Million From Coinbase Ventures, Others: San Francisco-based blockchainlendingfirm Dharma Labs has raised $7 million from big investors includingCoinbase Ventures, as the company confirmed to Cointelegraph on Feb. 5.
According to crypto news outletThe Block Crypto, Dharma Labs is planning to use the raised capital mostly for its Lever product, a platformprovidinginstant marginloansforcryptocurrencytraders and high-volume investors.
Max Bronstein, head of the Dharma Labs marketing team, reportedly claimed that Lever represents adecentralizedsmart contractalternative toGenesis Global Trading. Genesis, a Bitcoin (BTC) over-the-counter (OTC) trading firm that was the firstNew York-based toacquireaBitLicense, has recentlyrevealedit processed $1.114 billion in loans last year.
Bronstein stated that Lever would facilitate peer-to-peer crypto lending by allowing two parties of a loan to be discoverable, as well as eliminating the role of the middleman by putting trust on blockchain. He explained:
“Investors can take out loans against a number of different assets in sheer minutes, counter-party risk can be eliminated by smart contracts, borrowers can freely move their principal anywhere they’d like, and most importantly, all of this can be done at almost half of the cost offered by traditional lenders.”
According to the article, the Series A funding round was led by venture capital firm Green Visor Capital, while other investors included Polychain Capital, Passport Capital and Y Combinator.
The crypto lending industryhas continuedto grow in 2018, with crypto lending firm BlockFi having recorded a tenfold increase in revenue over the second half of 2018.
In January, Business InsiderreportedthatMike Novogratz’scrypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital is planning to raise at least $250 million to offer loans to crypto-related firms.
• Bahamian Firm to Boost Local Economy with Blockchain-Based Sunken Treasure Project
• US Blockchain Firm Introduces Wallet for Digital Assets and Securities
• Major UK Public Transport Provider Partners With Crypto Startup for Loyalty Program
• SBI Reports Financial Results, Recognizes Ripple for Cross Border Payments || Blockchain Lending Firm Dharma Raises $7 Million From Coinbase Ventures, Others: San Francisco -based blockchain lending firm Dharma Labs has raised $7 million from big investors including Coinbase Ventures , as the company confirmed to Cointelegraph on Feb. 5. According to crypto news outlet The Block Crypto , Dharma Labs is planning to use the raised capital mostly for its Lever product, a platform providing instant margin loans for cryptocurrency traders and high-volume investors. Max Bronstein, head of the Dharma Labs marketing team, reportedly claimed that Lever represents a decentralized smart contract alternative to Genesis Global Trading . Genesis, a Bitcoin ( BTC ) over-the-counter ( OTC ) trading firm that was the first New York -based to acquire a BitLicense , has recently revealed it processed $1.114 billion in loans last year. Bronstein stated that Lever would facilitate peer-to-peer crypto lending by allowing two parties of a loan to be discoverable, as well as eliminating the role of the middleman by putting trust on blockchain. He explained: “Investors can take out loans against a number of different assets in sheer minutes, counter-party risk can be eliminated by smart contracts, borrowers can freely move their principal anywhere they’d like, and most importantly, all of this can be done at almost half of the cost offered by traditional lenders.” According to the article, the Series A funding round was led by venture capital firm Green Visor Capital, while other investors included Polychain Capital, Passport Capital and Y Combinator. The crypto lending industry has continued to grow in 2018, with crypto lending firm BlockFi having recorded a tenfold increase in revenue over the second half of 2018. In January, Business Insider reported that Mike Novogratz’s crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital is planning to raise at least $250 million to offer loans to crypto-related firms. Related Articles: Bahamian Firm to Boost Local Economy with Blockchain-Based Sunken Treasure Project US Blockchain Firm Introduces Wallet for Digital Assets and Securities Major UK Public Transport Provider Partners With Crypto Startup for Loyalty Program SBI Reports Financial Results, Recognizes Ripple for Cross Border Payments
[Social Media Buzz]
02/06 17:00 のStrongHands価格（日本円）をお知らせします。
1剛力 = 0.0000067600 円 (前日比 : 0.11 パーセント)
1億剛力 = 676 円
10億剛力 = 6760 円
プロテインはこちらへ↓
【SPV4eLwzqt8arMP1QxzfJbEQndYYwyAgAq】
#StrongHands #SHND #仮想通貨 #bitcoin || 24H
2019/02/06 17:00 (2019/02/05 16:59)
LONG : 30892.22 BTC (-128.25 BTC)
SHORT : 23720.54 BTC (-514.31 BTC)
LS比 : 56% vs 43% (56% vs 43%) || #BitcoinMatin : Ce matin à 07:00, cours moyen du BTC : ↓2974.77 EUR et ↓3409.73 USD. http://bit.ly/2xWhGCU || 1 BTC = 12569.00000000 BRL em 06/02/2019 á...
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3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 47945.06, 49199.87, 52149.01, 51679.80, 55888.13, 56099.52, 57539.95, 54207.32, 48824.43, 49705.33, 47093.85, 46339.76, 46188.45, 45137.77, 49631.24, 48378.99, 50538.24, 48561.17, 48927.30, 48912.38, 51206.69, 52246.52, 54824.12, 56008.55, 57805.12, 57332.09, 61243.09, 59302.32, 55907.20, 56804.90, 58870.89, 57858.92, 58346.65, 58313.64, 57523.42, 54529.14, 54738.95, 52774.27, 51704.16, 55137.31, 55973.51, 55950.75, 57750.20, 58917.69, 58918.83, 59095.81, 59384.31, 57603.89, 58758.55, 59057.88, 58192.36, 56048.94, 58323.95, 58245.00, 59793.23, 60204.96, 59893.45, 63503.46, 63109.70, 63314.01, 61572.79, 60683.82, 56216.18, 55724.27, 56473.03, 53906.09, 51762.27, 51093.65, 50050.87, 49004.25, 54021.75, 55033.12, 54824.70, 53555.11, 57750.18, 57828.05, 56631.08, 57200.29, 53333.54, 57424.01, 56396.52, 57356.40, 58803.78, 58232.32, 55859.80, 56704.57, 49150.54, 49716.19, 49880.54, 46760.19.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-05-15]
Volume: 59161047474, RSI (14-day): 34.26, 50-day EMA: 54680.49, 200-day EMA: 42142.85
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Co-creator of Dogecoin lashes out at ‘self-absorbed grifter’ Elon Musk over bitcoin stand: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images) One of Dogecoin ’s co-creators labelled Elon Musk a “self-absorbed grifter” after Tesla stopped taking bitcoin for its electric cars. Jackson Palmer hit out at the billionaire entrepreneur, who has nicknamed himself The Dogefather, in a now deleted string of tweets. “Reminder: Elon Musk is and always will be a self-absorbed grifter,” tweeted Mr Palmer, an Australian who created Dogecoin in 2013 with American Billy Markus. He followed up his shot at Mr Musk with a tweet that reportedly read “removing this in 1 min as that’s all I have to say and I enjoy the quiet life.” He then took a swipe at Mr Musk’s hosting of Saturday Night Live in a third tweet that read, “ps. SNL episode was cringe, bro.” Jackson Palmer, hidden for years, steps out from the shadows executes a headshot with brutal precision and fades back in 🙌 pic.twitter.com/JWJErWmPeV — notsofast (@notsofast) May 14, 2021 The value of Dogecoin plummeted sharply after Mr Musk talked about it on the late-night comedy show and called it a “hustle” in one sketch. He helped Dogecoin recover some of tis value when he tweeted earlier this week, “Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.” The Tesla boss went on to crash the whole cryptocurrency market earlier this week when he said the company would no longer accept Bitcoin, because of environmental concerns about the way it is mined. Mr Palmer said in 2018 that creating Dogecoin was a “p*** take” to make fun of the alt-coins that were being released onto the cryptocurrency market. And he gave all his Dogecoin away to charity when he left it. “Back in the day, I had a few million Dogecoin, which was nothing. It was like five or ten grand’s worth. And I gave it all away to charities that we were supporting early on,” he previously said. Story continues “I thought … how long can it last? I was about a month into it and I thought dogecoin can last maybe a couple of months; people aren’t going to remember it anymore in a year, why would I hold onto it? So, sadly, I have no dogecoin. “Unlike most people who have created cryptocurrencies, I’m not some baller getting around in a Ferrari. “The joke is on me, firmly. That being said I feel like I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I was like some rich crypto guy off the back of a joke that was me poking fun at crypto.” Read More The Independent visits Heathrow ahead of international travel restarting Dogecoin: Coinbase trading platform says it will add support for cryptocurrency in coming weeks ‘I made doge in like two hours’: Dogecoin creator says he ‘didn’t consider’ environmental impact || Co-creator of Dogecoin lashes out at ‘self-absorbed grifter’ Elon Musk over bitcoin stand: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images) One of Dogecoin ’s co-creators labelled Elon Musk a “self-absorbed grifter” after Tesla stopped taking bitcoin for its electric cars. Jackson Palmer hit out at the billionaire entrepreneur, who has nicknamed himself The Dogefather, in a now deleted string of tweets. “Reminder: Elon Musk is and always will be a self-absorbed grifter,” tweeted Mr Palmer, an Australian who created Dogecoin in 2013 with American Billy Markus. He followed up his shot at Mr Musk with a tweet that reportedly read “removing this in 1 min as that’s all I have to say and I enjoy the quiet life.” He then took a swipe at Mr Musk’s hosting of Saturday Night Live in a third tweet that read, “ps. SNL episode was cringe, bro.” Jackson Palmer, hidden for years, steps out from the shadows executes a headshot with brutal precision and fades back in 🙌 pic.twitter.com/JWJErWmPeV — notsofast (@notsofast) May 14, 2021 The value of Dogecoin plummeted sharply after Mr Musk talked about it on the late-night comedy show and called it a “hustle” in one sketch. He helped Dogecoin recover some of tis value when he tweeted earlier this week, “Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.” The Tesla boss went on to crash the whole cryptocurrency market earlier this week when he said the company would no longer accept Bitcoin, because of environmental concerns about the way it is mined. Mr Palmer said in 2018 that creating Dogecoin was a “p*** take” to make fun of the alt-coins that were being released onto the cryptocurrency market. And he gave all his Dogecoin away to charity when he left it. “Back in the day, I had a few million Dogecoin, which was nothing. It was like five or ten grand’s worth. And I gave it all away to charities that we were supporting early on,” he previously said. Story continues “I thought … how long can it last? I was about a month into it and I thought dogecoin can last maybe a couple of months; people aren’t going to remember it anymore in a year, why would I hold onto it? So, sadly, I have no dogecoin. “Unlike most people who have created cryptocurrencies, I’m not some baller getting around in a Ferrari. “The joke is on me, firmly. That being said I feel like I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I was like some rich crypto guy off the back of a joke that was me poking fun at crypto.” Read More The Independent visits Heathrow ahead of international travel restarting Dogecoin: Coinbase trading platform says it will add support for cryptocurrency in coming weeks ‘I made doge in like two hours’: Dogecoin creator says he ‘didn’t consider’ environmental impact || 7 Surprising Bitcoin Metrics You Should Watch Amid Latest Fall: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) recently saw a major downwards price movement after Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) announced it wouldn't be accepting the cryptocurrency as means of payment over environmental concerns. What Happened: According to a recent Business Insider report , there are seven metrics that traders and investors should check after Bitcoin plunged as much as 17%, to below $50,000 from a high near $58,0-00. The first one of those metrics is the aggregated open interest on Bitcoin futures , which fell from a high of $20.39 billion on May 12 to $18.79 billion on the next day. Business Insider points out that traders of this kind of derivative can often leverage their position up to 125 times and that consequently, "the market moving only slightly can trigger liquidations on those positions." According to a market analyst , in the previous 24 hours, "332 796 traders were liquidated, with a total of $3,640 million in liquidations. $2,210 million of which within one hour before the tweet was published." John Wu, the president of a crypto firm Ava Labs and CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti CEO commented on the open interest metric by explaining that it can inform on future movement in the spot markets. In other words, the higher the open interest, the more one can expect the positions to be leveraged, and the more easily the price could crash due to liquidations. Mognetti also pointed to Bitcoin options data , "You can also look at option implied versus realized to understand the Bitcoin price drop." Crypto hedge fund Alameda Research trader Sam Trabucco recommended checking historical futures premia, historical futures open interest, and spot-price data . He explained that when open interest is skyrocketing and premia are high for a while, it becomes critical to starting watching price data. "When the price data dips down from a local maximum, for instance, all these combinations combine for an environment where liquidations are really likely to drive prices down even more," Trabucco noted. Story continues CoinShares' Mognetti also suggested checking the market depth for the BTC/USD trading pair. He pointed out that the chart clearly shows "a rapid decimation of market depth on spot BTC-USD order books aggregated across 6 exchanges." Ava Labs' Wu also highlighted the importance of anecdotal insights and news, providing an example about the mid-April crash: "For example, since the drop, I have had a lot of friends from traditional finance ask me if this is the dip they were waiting for to get involved. [...] I am not sure if this is scientific, but based on my conversations with traditional finance people, this will invite new players into crypto and continue the trend of more players in the space of crypto." Mognetti also recommended checking the divergence of the prices of the spot markets, pointing out that at the time of the mid-April crash, "the divergence in spot prices between Coinbase and Binance reached nearly 3% at one point." He explained that this is significant because it shows that "most of the sell-off was coming from the Asia market, not the US or Europe" and said: "Futures traded at significant discounts to spot, with the annualized rolling 3-month basis on Binance falling to -37% according to data provider Skew." The last metric, also recommended by Mognetti, is total liquidations. This data shows that on May 12, $3.46 billion of longs were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market, the highest number reported since April 17. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Citi Considers Launching Bitcoin Custody, Crypto Trading © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 7 Surprising Bitcoin Metrics You Should Watch Amid Latest Fall: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) recently saw a major downwards price movement after Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) announced it wouldn't be accepting the cryptocurrency as means of payment over environmental concerns. What Happened: According to a recent Business Insider report , there are seven metrics that traders and investors should check after Bitcoin plunged as much as 17%, to below $50,000 from a high near $58,0-00. The first one of those metrics is the aggregated open interest on Bitcoin futures , which fell from a high of $20.39 billion on May 12 to $18.79 billion on the next day. Business Insider points out that traders of this kind of derivative can often leverage their position up to 125 times and that consequently, "the market moving only slightly can trigger liquidations on those positions." According to a market analyst , in the previous 24 hours, "332 796 traders were liquidated, with a total of $3,640 million in liquidations. $2,210 million of which within one hour before the tweet was published." John Wu, the president of a crypto firm Ava Labs and CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti CEO commented on the open interest metric by explaining that it can inform on future movement in the spot markets. In other words, the higher the open interest, the more one can expect the positions to be leveraged, and the more easily the price could crash due to liquidations. Mognetti also pointed to Bitcoin options data , "You can also look at option implied versus realized to understand the Bitcoin price drop." Crypto hedge fund Alameda Research trader Sam Trabucco recommended checking historical futures premia, historical futures open interest, and spot-price data . He explained that when open interest is skyrocketing and premia are high for a while, it becomes critical to starting watching price data. "When the price data dips down from a local maximum, for instance, all these combinations combine for an environment where liquidations are really likely to drive prices down even more," Trabucco noted. Story continues CoinShares' Mognetti also suggested checking the market depth for the BTC/USD trading pair. He pointed out that the chart clearly shows "a rapid decimation of market depth on spot BTC-USD order books aggregated across 6 exchanges." Ava Labs' Wu also highlighted the importance of anecdotal insights and news, providing an example about the mid-April crash: "For example, since the drop, I have had a lot of friends from traditional finance ask me if this is the dip they were waiting for to get involved. [...] I am not sure if this is scientific, but based on my conversations with traditional finance people, this will invite new players into crypto and continue the trend of more players in the space of crypto." Mognetti also recommended checking the divergence of the prices of the spot markets, pointing out that at the time of the mid-April crash, "the divergence in spot prices between Coinbase and Binance reached nearly 3% at one point." He explained that this is significant because it shows that "most of the sell-off was coming from the Asia market, not the US or Europe" and said: "Futures traded at significant discounts to spot, with the annualized rolling 3-month basis on Binance falling to -37% according to data provider Skew." The last metric, also recommended by Mognetti, is total liquidations. This data shows that on May 12, $3.46 billion of longs were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market, the highest number reported since April 17. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Citi Considers Launching Bitcoin Custody, Crypto Trading © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 7 Surprising Bitcoin Metrics You Should Watch Amid Latest Fall: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) recently saw a major downwards price movement after Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) announced it wouldn't be accepting the cryptocurrency as means of payment over environmental concerns. What Happened: According to a recent Business Insider report , there are seven metrics that traders and investors should check after Bitcoin plunged as much as 17%, to below $50,000 from a high near $58,0-00. The first one of those metrics is the aggregated open interest on Bitcoin futures , which fell from a high of $20.39 billion on May 12 to $18.79 billion on the next day. Business Insider points out that traders of this kind of derivative can often leverage their position up to 125 times and that consequently, "the market moving only slightly can trigger liquidations on those positions." According to a market analyst , in the previous 24 hours, "332 796 traders were liquidated, with a total of $3,640 million in liquidations. $2,210 million of which within one hour before the tweet was published." John Wu, the president of a crypto firm Ava Labs and CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti CEO commented on the open interest metric by explaining that it can inform on future movement in the spot markets. In other words, the higher the open interest, the more one can expect the positions to be leveraged, and the more easily the price could crash due to liquidations. Mognetti also pointed to Bitcoin options data , "You can also look at option implied versus realized to understand the Bitcoin price drop." Crypto hedge fund Alameda Research trader Sam Trabucco recommended checking historical futures premia, historical futures open interest, and spot-price data . He explained that when open interest is skyrocketing and premia are high for a while, it becomes critical to starting watching price data. "When the price data dips down from a local maximum, for instance, all these combinations combine for an environment where liquidations are really likely to drive prices down even more," Trabucco noted. Story continues CoinShares' Mognetti also suggested checking the market depth for the BTC/USD trading pair. He pointed out that the chart clearly shows "a rapid decimation of market depth on spot BTC-USD order books aggregated across 6 exchanges." Ava Labs' Wu also highlighted the importance of anecdotal insights and news, providing an example about the mid-April crash: "For example, since the drop, I have had a lot of friends from traditional finance ask me if this is the dip they were waiting for to get involved. [...] I am not sure if this is scientific, but based on my conversations with traditional finance people, this will invite new players into crypto and continue the trend of more players in the space of crypto." Mognetti also recommended checking the divergence of the prices of the spot markets, pointing out that at the time of the mid-April crash, "the divergence in spot prices between Coinbase and Binance reached nearly 3% at one point." He explained that this is significant because it shows that "most of the sell-off was coming from the Asia market, not the US or Europe" and said: "Futures traded at significant discounts to spot, with the annualized rolling 3-month basis on Binance falling to -37% according to data provider Skew." The last metric, also recommended by Mognetti, is total liquidations. This data shows that on May 12, $3.46 billion of longs were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market, the highest number reported since April 17. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Citi Considers Launching Bitcoin Custody, Crypto Trading © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Digihost Provides Update on Deal to Acquire 9,900 Bitcoin Miners and Increase Hashrate by 925PH: TORONTO, May 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digihost Technology Inc. (“Digihost” or the “Company”) (TSXV: DGHI; OTCQB: HSSHF) provides an update on its acquisition of 9,900 Bitcoin (“BTC”) miners (the “Miners”) that will increase the Company’s current hashrate by approximately 925PH to 1.145EH, previously announced in the Company’s May 12, 2021 news release. The Company is funding the purchase of the Miners with capital from its equity financings closed since the beginning of 2021 of approximately CA$54,000,000.
In connection with the purchase agreement with Northern Data AG (“Northern Data”) (ISIN: DE000A0SMU87; OTC: NDTAF) to acquire the Miners, the Company concurrently entered into a hosting agreement (the “Hosting Agreement”) with Northern Data in connection with the Miners, whereby Northern Data will provide services to the Company including the installation and hosting of the Miners. Northern Data will host the Miners in proprietary pre-manufactured performance optimized mobile data centers at the Company’s facilities for a term of three years from the date that installation of the Miners at the Company’s facilities is completed. The Miners are expected to be delivered and installed incrementally between August and December of this year, and will be 100% operational by January 2022.
The Company anticipates the costs of developing systems to supply the mobile data centres with power from the facilities will be approximately US$4.5 million, which the Company will fund with capital from its previously completed equity financings. This US$4.5 million cost represents the capital expenditure costs for the 9,900 Miners, and additional costs will need to be incurred if the purchase agreement is expanded to up to 30,000 miners (press release – May 12, 2021).
The Company also wishes to clarify that the Company’s forecast of approximately US$80 million of operating profit in 2022, disclosed in the May 12, 2021 news release, represents the anticipated operating profit from the Company’s share of the profit from the Miners, as well as the operating profit from its existing operations. The forecast was based on BTC metrics on May 12, 2021, being an approximate US$57,000 price of BTC and hashing difficulty rates as of May 12, 2021. The forecast also assumes a hashrate of 1.145EH for 2022, as well as current electricity costs and other operating costs remaining constant. Profitability of mining BTC will be materially impacted by changes in BTC prices, increases in mining difficulty rates and changes in electricity costs. There can be no assurance that the price of BTC will remain at current levels or that forecasted operating profit will be realized.
Michel Amar, the Company’s CEO, stated: “Since the beginning of the year, we have achieved operational milestones in support of our growth strategy. We are pleased to be in a position today to have the required funding, power capacity, and access to infrastructure to execute on our strategy for 2021 and beyond.”
About Digihost Technology Inc.
Digihost Technology Inc. is a growth-oriented blockchain technology company primarily focused on Bitcoin mining. The Company's mining facilities are located in Upstate New York, and are equipped with 78.7 MW of low-cost power with the option to expand to 102MW. The Company is currently hashing at a rate of 200PH with potential to expand to a rate of 3EH upon the completion of the previously announced acquisition of a 60MW power plant.
For further information, please contact:
Digihost Technology Inc.www.digihost.caMichel Amar, Chief Executive OfficerT: 1-818-280-9758Email:[email protected]
Cautionary StatementTrading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking StatementsExcept for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. “Forward-looking information” in this news release includes information about potential further improvements to profitability and efficiency across mining operationsincluding as a result of acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure, potential for the Company’s long-term growth, and the business goals and objectives of the Company. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the ability to obtain regulatory approval for and complete acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure on the terms as announced or at all; the ability to successfully integrate the acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure on an economic basis or at all; continued effects of the COVID19 pandemic may have a material adverse effect on the Company’s performance as supply chains are disrupted and prevent the Company from operating its assets; a decrease in cryptocurrency pricing, volume of transaction activity or generally, the profitability of cryptocurrency mining; the forecasted operating profit of US$80 million in 2022 may not be realized; further improvements to profitability and efficiency may not be realized, and changes in digital currency prices, mining difficulty rates and electricity costs may effect profitability; the digital currency market; the Company’s ability to successfully mine digital currency on the cloud; the Company may not be able to profitably liquidate its current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on the Company’s operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Annual Information Form of the Company and other documents disclosed under the Company’s filings at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about: the current profitability in mining cryptocurrency (including pricing and volume of current transaction activity); profitable use of the Company’s assets going forward; the Company’s ability to profitably liquidate its digital currency inventory as required; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability of the Company to mine digital currencies on the cloud will be consistent with historical prices; and there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein. || Digihost Provides Update on Deal to Acquire 9,900 Bitcoin Miners and Increase Hashrate by 925PH: TORONTO, May 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digihost Technology Inc. ( Digihost or the Company ) (TSXV: DGHI; OTCQB: HSSHF) provides an update on its acquisition of 9,900 Bitcoin ( BTC ) miners (the Miners ) that will increase the Companys current hashrate by approximately 925PH to 1.145EH, previously announced in the Companys May 12, 2021 news release. The Company is funding the purchase of the Miners with capital from its equity financings closed since the beginning of 2021 of approximately CA$54,000,000. In connection with the purchase agreement with Northern Data AG ( Northern Data ) (ISIN: DE000A0SMU87; OTC: NDTAF) to acquire the Miners, the Company concurrently entered into a hosting agreement (the Hosting Agreement ) with Northern Data in connection with the Miners, whereby Northern Data will provide services to the Company including the installation and hosting of the Miners. Northern Data will host the Miners in proprietary pre-manufactured performance optimized mobile data centers at the Companys facilities for a term of three years from the date that installation of the Miners at the Companys facilities is completed. The Miners are expected to be delivered and installed incrementally between August and December of this year, and will be 100% operational by January 2022. The Company anticipates the costs of developing systems to supply the mobile data centres with power from the facilities will be approximately US$4.5 million, which the Company will fund with capital from its previously completed equity financings. This US$4.5 million cost represents the capital expenditure costs for the 9,900 Miners, and additional costs will need to be incurred if the purchase agreement is expanded to up to 30,000 miners ( press release May 12, 2021 ). The Company also wishes to clarify that the Companys forecast of approximately US$80 million of operating profit in 2022, disclosed in the May 12, 2021 news release, represents the anticipated operating profit from the Companys share of the profit from the Miners, as well as the operating profit from its existing operations. The forecast was based on BTC metrics on May 12, 2021, being an approximate US$57,000 price of BTC and hashing difficulty rates as of May 12, 2021. The forecast also assumes a hashrate of 1.145EH for 2022, as well as current electricity costs and other operating costs remaining constant. Profitability of mining BTC will be materially impacted by changes in BTC prices, increases in mining difficulty rates and changes in electricity costs. There can be no assurance that the price of BTC will remain at current levels or that forecasted operating profit will be realized. Story continues Michel Amar, the Companys CEO, stated: Since the beginning of the year, we have achieved operational milestones in support of our growth strategy. We are pleased to be in a position today to have the required funding, power capacity, and access to infrastructure to execute on our strategy for 2021 and beyond. About Digihost Technology Inc. Digihost Technology Inc. is a growth-oriented blockchain technology company primarily focused on Bitcoin mining. The Company's mining facilities are located in Upstate New York, and are equipped with 78.7 MW of low-cost power with the option to expand to 102MW. The Company is currently hashing at a rate of 200PH with potential to expand to a rate of 3EH upon the completion of the previously announced acquisition of a 60MW power plant. For further information, please contact: Digihost Technology Inc. www.digihost.ca Michel Amar, Chief Executive Officer T: 1-818-280-9758 Email: [email protected] Cautionary Statement Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Forward-looking information in this news release includes information about potential further improvements to profitability and efficiency across mining operations including as a result of acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure, potential for the Companys long-term growth, and the business goals and objectives of the Company. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the ability to obtain regulatory approval for and complete acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure on the terms as announced or at all; the ability to successfully integrate the acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure on an economic basis or at all; continued effects of the COVID19 pandemic may have a material adverse effect on the Companys performance as supply chains are disrupted and prevent the Company from operating its assets; a decrease in cryptocurrency pricing, volume of transaction activity or generally, the profitability of cryptocurrency mining; the forecasted operating profit of US$80 million in 2022 may not be realized; further improvements to profitability and efficiency may not be realized, and changes in digital currency prices, mining difficulty rates and electricity costs may effect profitability; the digital currency market; the Companys ability to successfully mine digital currency on the cloud; the Company may not be able to profitably liquidate its current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on the Companys operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Annual Information Form of the Company and other documents disclosed under the Companys filings at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about: the current profitability in mining cryptocurrency (including pricing and volume of current transaction activity); profitable use of the Companys assets going forward; the Companys ability to profitably liquidate its digital currency inventory as required; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability of the Company to mine digital currencies on the cloud will be consistent with historical prices; and there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein. || Digihost Provides Update on Deal to Acquire 9,900 Bitcoin Miners and Increase Hashrate by 925PH: TORONTO, May 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digihost Technology Inc. (“Digihost” or the “Company”) (TSXV: DGHI; OTCQB: HSSHF) provides an update on its acquisition of 9,900 Bitcoin (“BTC”) miners (the “Miners”) that will increase the Company’s current hashrate by approximately 925PH to 1.145EH, previously announced in the Company’s May 12, 2021 news release. The Company is funding the purchase of the Miners with capital from its equity financings closed since the beginning of 2021 of approximately CA$54,000,000.
In connection with the purchase agreement with Northern Data AG (“Northern Data”) (ISIN: DE000A0SMU87; OTC: NDTAF) to acquire the Miners, the Company concurrently entered into a hosting agreement (the “Hosting Agreement”) with Northern Data in connection with the Miners, whereby Northern Data will provide services to the Company including the installation and hosting of the Miners. Northern Data will host the Miners in proprietary pre-manufactured performance optimized mobile data centers at the Company’s facilities for a term of three years from the date that installation of the Miners at the Company’s facilities is completed. The Miners are expected to be delivered and installed incrementally between August and December of this year, and will be 100% operational by January 2022.
The Company anticipates the costs of developing systems to supply the mobile data centres with power from the facilities will be approximately US$4.5 million, which the Company will fund with capital from its previously completed equity financings. This US$4.5 million cost represents the capital expenditure costs for the 9,900 Miners, and additional costs will need to be incurred if the purchase agreement is expanded to up to 30,000 miners (press release – May 12, 2021).
The Company also wishes to clarify that the Company’s forecast of approximately US$80 million of operating profit in 2022, disclosed in the May 12, 2021 news release, represents the anticipated operating profit from the Company’s share of the profit from the Miners, as well as the operating profit from its existing operations. The forecast was based on BTC metrics on May 12, 2021, being an approximate US$57,000 price of BTC and hashing difficulty rates as of May 12, 2021. The forecast also assumes a hashrate of 1.145EH for 2022, as well as current electricity costs and other operating costs remaining constant. Profitability of mining BTC will be materially impacted by changes in BTC prices, increases in mining difficulty rates and changes in electricity costs. There can be no assurance that the price of BTC will remain at current levels or that forecasted operating profit will be realized.
Michel Amar, the Company’s CEO, stated: “Since the beginning of the year, we have achieved operational milestones in support of our growth strategy. We are pleased to be in a position today to have the required funding, power capacity, and access to infrastructure to execute on our strategy for 2021 and beyond.”
About Digihost Technology Inc.
Digihost Technology Inc. is a growth-oriented blockchain technology company primarily focused on Bitcoin mining. The Company's mining facilities are located in Upstate New York, and are equipped with 78.7 MW of low-cost power with the option to expand to 102MW. The Company is currently hashing at a rate of 200PH with potential to expand to a rate of 3EH upon the completion of the previously announced acquisition of a 60MW power plant.
For further information, please contact:
Digihost Technology Inc.www.digihost.caMichel Amar, Chief Executive OfficerT: 1-818-280-9758Email:[email protected]
Cautionary StatementTrading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking StatementsExcept for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. “Forward-looking information” in this news release includes information about potential further improvements to profitability and efficiency across mining operationsincluding as a result of acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure, potential for the Company’s long-term growth, and the business goals and objectives of the Company. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the ability to obtain regulatory approval for and complete acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure on the terms as announced or at all; the ability to successfully integrate the acquisitions of equipment and infrastructure on an economic basis or at all; continued effects of the COVID19 pandemic may have a material adverse effect on the Company’s performance as supply chains are disrupted and prevent the Company from operating its assets; a decrease in cryptocurrency pricing, volume of transaction activity or generally, the profitability of cryptocurrency mining; the forecasted operating profit of US$80 million in 2022 may not be realized; further improvements to profitability and efficiency may not be realized, and changes in digital currency prices, mining difficulty rates and electricity costs may effect profitability; the digital currency market; the Company’s ability to successfully mine digital currency on the cloud; the Company may not be able to profitably liquidate its current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on the Company’s operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Annual Information Form of the Company and other documents disclosed under the Company’s filings at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about: the current profitability in mining cryptocurrency (including pricing and volume of current transaction activity); profitable use of the Company’s assets going forward; the Company’s ability to profitably liquidate its digital currency inventory as required; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability of the Company to mine digital currencies on the cloud will be consistent with historical prices; and there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein. || SafeMoon, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin: The 2021 Crypto Bubble Is Unlike Anything We’ve Seen: On Wednesday, Ethereum (CCC: ETH-USD ) co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated some $1 billion in Shiba Inu (CCC: SHIB-USD ) crypto to help India fund its Covid-19 response. black and white photo graphic of hand holding a pin up close to a floating bubble. The bubble has a green dollar sign inside of it. Source: shutterstock.com/JFunk The strange thing? Buterin never bought the Shiba coin himself. Instead, the Shiba community had gifted him the crypto as a joke. By sending him 50% of the outstanding coins , the gag went, the currency would become immune to a “rug pull” where controlling stakeholders hijack the coin for personal gain. Other joke cryptos — from Akita Inu (CCC: AKITA-USD ) to Dogelon Mars (CCC: ELON-USD ) — have since done the same. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips At the time, the 505 trillion Shiba coins were worth precisely $0, according to CoinMarketCap. Their first recorded price five months later — a princely sum of $0.0000000013 — would have valued Buterin’s coins at just $560,000. Fast forward to today and his SHIB coins alone are worth well over $9 billion. His other holdings add several billion more. 10 Dividend Aristocrat Stocks for Your Reliability Short List Already in 2021, cryptocurrencies have become one of the strangest financial manias in human history. Since January, digital currencies have added more than $1.3 trillion in market capitalization, growing far faster than the Nasdaq bubble of 1999. Traders have bought and sold trillions of dollars in cryptocurrency in the first five months of this year, even more than Americans spend on housing annually . As financial institutions start jumping into the fold, things will only get stranger. Much like the media giants of 1999, the U.S. banking sector of 2021 has begun rushing into an industry for fear of missing out. Whenever banks have run into an industry they don’t quite understand, the results have always been the same: historians look back and ask, “what on earth were those morons thinking?” The 2021 Crypto Bubble: Echoes of 1999 So far, the rise of cryptocurrencies has followed the same pattern of most asset bubbles: Story continues A grain of truth emerges (the idea that cryptocurrencies can help grease the wheels of finance). As the dominant players win (i.e., Bitcoin (CCC: BTC-USD ) and Ethereum rise), the initial grain of truth gets stretched to extremes (the idea that all cryptocurrencies must win). The bubble bursts, leaving speculators with severe losses. The 1999 tech bubble followed this arc to a tee. For example, in 1999, one University of Pennsylvania study counted no fewer than 1,500 online marketplaces , as companies scrambled to join the internet revolution. Legacy firms like Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT ) and Time Warner (now owned by AT&T (NYSE: T )) went on to splash out billions in buying these unprofitable tech moonshots. But the bonanza didn’t last. By 2004, only 31 had survived . Of those, only one public company — 1-800Contacts — ended with a price above its initial public offering. The remainder would spend years recouping lost share prices. (It would take Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) almost a decade to break out of its $90-range.) As for the legacy firms that bought in on fear? Time Warner would eventually write down 97% of AOL’s value , while Mattel would sell The Learning Company for a “catastrophic $27 million.” Fools Rush In Legacy banks have already started feeling the echoes of 1999. Much like the rise of digital media companies, today digital currencies pose an existential threat to existing players. Every dollar of deposits lost to Bitcoin or central-bank digital currencies means less available for lending . Many point to Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB ) Libra as the “Sputnik Moment” for banks. If a tech firm could issue a currency, why would customers need commercial banks? In response, bulge-bracket banks have rushed to develop in-house crypto platforms. Those without the means have started splashing out on acquisitions instead. According to PwC, a global consultancy, crypto deal-making already doubled in 2020 to $1.1 billion — a minor but rapidly growing figure. Now, 2021 has turned out even stranger. This week, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed Internet Computer Price (CCC: ICP-USD ) quickly hit a $45 billion valuation . Today, it is the ninth largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap. Few developers back the new currency, but its star-studded team was enough for investors to buy in. This Time It’s Worse: The Rise of ScamCoin It’s no surprise that the 2021 crypto bubble has inflated far faster than the 1999 tech one. Unlike dot-com companies, a skilled programmer can create a new cryptocurrency within minutes. Many tokens on the Ethereum or Binance (CCC: BNB-USD ) blockchain don’t even bother with innovation — coins like SafeMoon (CCC: SAFEMOON-USD ) copy their code directly from existing tokens. CoinMarketCap now counts over 5,000 different digital currencies. Adding in Ethereum and Binance’s token contracts puts that figure well over 700,000. In April, one TikTok creator made a coin called “SCAM” to highlight the absurdities of these copycats. “I just made the coin as a joke,” said Andre Lewis . The internet had the last laugh, sending the coin to a $70 million valuation within an hour. Within four days, the token would reach a peak value of almost $12 billion before Lewis shut the entire project down. How did this happen? In their rush to adopt digital currencies, institutional investors have created an aura of legitimacy around cryptocurrencies. Today, firms from JPMorgan to Citibank publish glowing reports on six-digit price targets for Bitcoin. That means legitimate cryptocurrencies like Ethereum now trade alongside jokes like Shiba Inu. As more cryptocurrencies join the fold, it will become increasingly difficult to tell them apart. Will Any Crypto Win? To a certain extent, all cryptocurrencies essentially serve the same purpose — to help investors record monetary and real-world transactions. Ethereum and its “Ethereum killer” competitors — like Cardano (CCC: ADA-USD ) and Polkadot (CCC: DOT-USD ) — track nonfungible items in the real world. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and competitors like Dogecoin (CCC: DOGE-USD ) and Litecoin (CCC: LTC-USD ) act as stores of digital value. That means the survival rate for cryptos will likely be lower than those seen by 1999 e-commerce companies. When coins like Litecoin and Dogecoin have practically zero technological differentiation, there’s no practical reason for both to exist. Like past bubbles, retail investors will be the first ones to lose. Currencies like Dogecoin, SafeMoon and Shiba Inu have already lost traders billions from peak to trough. Copycats like Dogelon Mars , SafeMars (CCC: SAFEMARS-USD ), and Akita Inu will likely keep these miniature boom-bust cycles going. But institutional investors will eventually inflate the broader bubble to a breaking point. From the Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis of the 1980s to the mortgage-backed bonanza of the mid-2000s, financial institutions have a long history of taking good ideas to terrible extremes. Just like one Citigroup (NYSE: C ) executive said in 2007, “as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance .” In the near term, that means Bitcoin and its blue-chip altcoin counterparts will continue to see their values inflate. Financial institutions seem intent on keeping up with central banks and tech firms in adopting digital currencies. In the longer term, however, most cryptocurrencies will implode. Like Amazon’s competitors that went bankrupt, most of the 700,000 tokens today will disappear. Just like the 1999 bubble, we’ll look back at 2021 — a year where billions in Dogecoin rested on a single SNL performance — and wonder “what were those morons thinking?” On the date of publication, Tom Yeung did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Tom Yeung, CFA, is a registered investment advisor on a mission to bring simplicity to the world of investing. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential 500% Winner Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now The post SafeMoon, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin: The 2021 Crypto Bubble Is Unlike Anything We’ve Seen appeared first on InvestorPlace . || SafeMoon, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin: The 2021 Crypto Bubble Is Unlike Anything We’ve Seen: On Wednesday,Ethereum(CCC:ETH-USD) co-founder Vitalik Buterindonated some $1 billioninShiba Inu(CCC:SHIB-USD) crypto to help India fund its Covid-19 response.
Source: shutterstock.com/JFunk
The strange thing? Buterin never bought the Shiba coin himself.
Instead, the Shiba community had gifted him the crypto as a joke. By sending him50% of the outstanding coins, the gag went, the currency would become immune to a “rug pull” where controlling stakeholders hijack the coin for personal gain. Other joke cryptos — fromAkita Inu(CCC:AKITA-USD) toDogelon Mars(CCC:ELON-USD) — have since done the same.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
At the time, the 505 trillion Shiba coins were worth precisely $0, according to CoinMarketCap. Their first recorded price five months later — a princely sum of $0.0000000013 — would have valued Buterin’s coins at just $560,000.
Fast forward to today and his SHIB coins alone are worth well over $9 billion. His other holdings add several billion more.
• 10 Dividend Aristocrat Stocks for Your Reliability Short List
Already in 2021, cryptocurrencies have become one of the strangest financial manias in human history. Since January, digital currencies have added more than $1.3 trillion in market capitalization, growingfar fasterthan theNasdaqbubble of 1999. Traders have bought and soldtrillions of dollarsin cryptocurrency in the first five months of this year, even more than Americansspend on housing annually.
As financial institutions start jumping into the fold, things will only get stranger. Much like the media giants of 1999, the U.S. banking sector of 2021 has begun rushing into an industry for fear of missing out. Whenever banks have run into an industry they don’t quite understand, the results have always been the same: historians look back and ask, “what on earth were those morons thinking?”
So far, the rise of cryptocurrencies has followed the same pattern of most asset bubbles:
A grain of truth emerges (the idea that cryptocurrencies can help grease the wheels of finance). As the dominant players win (i.e.,Bitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) and Ethereum rise), the initial grain of truth gets stretched to extremes (the idea that all cryptocurrencies must win). The bubble bursts, leaving speculators with severe losses.
The 1999 tech bubble followed this arc to a tee. For example, in 1999, one University of Pennsylvania study counted no fewer than1,500 online marketplaces, as companies scrambled to join the internet revolution. Legacy firms likeMattel(NASDAQ:MAT) and Time Warner (now owned byAT&T(NYSE:T)) went on to splash out billions in buying these unprofitable tech moonshots.
But the bonanza didn’t last.
By 2004, only31 had survived. Of those,only onepublic company — 1-800Contacts — ended with a price above its initial public offering. The remainder would spend years recouping lost share prices. (It would takeAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) almost a decade to break out of its $90-range.)
As for the legacy firms that bought in on fear? Time Warner would eventually write down97% of AOL’s value, while Mattel would sell The Learning Company for a“catastrophic $27 million.”
Legacy banks have already started feeling the echoes of 1999. Much like the rise of digital media companies, today digital currencies pose an existential threat to existing players. Every dollar of deposits lost to Bitcoin or central-bank digital currencies meansless available for lending.
Many point toFacebook’s(NASDAQ:FB) Libra as the“Sputnik Moment”for banks. If a tech firm could issue a currency, why would customers need commercial banks?
In response, bulge-bracket banks have rushed to develop in-house crypto platforms. Those without the means have started splashing out on acquisitions instead. According to PwC, a global consultancy, crypto deal-makingalready doubled in 2020to $1.1 billion — a minor but rapidly growing figure.
Now, 2021 has turned out even stranger. This week, the Andreessen Horowitz-backedInternet Computer Price(CCC:ICP-USD) quickly hit a$45 billion valuation. Today, it is theninth largestcryptocurrency in the world by market cap. Few developers back the new currency, but its star-studded team was enough for investors to buy in.
It’s no surprise that the 2021 crypto bubble has inflated far faster than the 1999 tech one. Unlike dot-com companies, a skilled programmer can create a new cryptocurrency within minutes.
Many tokens on the Ethereum orBinance(CCC:BNB-USD) blockchain don’t even bother with innovation — coins likeSafeMoon(CCC:SAFEMOON-USD) copy their code directly from existing tokens. CoinMarketCap now counts over 5,000 different digital currencies. Adding in Ethereum and Binance’s token contracts puts that figure well over 700,000.
In April, oneTikTokcreator made a coin called“SCAM”to highlight the absurdities of these copycats. “I just made the coin as a joke,”said Andre Lewis.
The internet had the last laugh, sending the coin to a $70 million valuation within an hour. Within four days, the token would reach a peak value of almost $12 billion before Lewis shut the entire project down.
How did this happen? In their rush to adopt digital currencies, institutional investors have created an aura of legitimacy around cryptocurrencies. Today, firms from JPMorgan to Citibank publishglowing reportson six-digit price targets for Bitcoin.
That means legitimate cryptocurrencies like Ethereum now trade alongside jokes like Shiba Inu. As more cryptocurrencies join the fold, it will become increasingly difficult to tell them apart.
To a certain extent, all cryptocurrencies essentially serve the same purpose — to help investors record monetary and real-world transactions. Ethereum and its “Ethereum killer” competitors — likeCardano(CCC:ADA-USD) andPolkadot(CCC:DOT-USD) — track nonfungible items in the real world. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and competitors likeDogecoin(CCC:DOGE-USD) andLitecoin(CCC:LTC-USD) act as stores of digital value.
That means the survival rate for cryptos will likely be lower than those seen by 1999 e-commerce companies. When coins like Litecoin and Dogecoin have practically zero technological differentiation, there’s no practical reason for both to exist.
Like past bubbles, retail investors will be the first ones to lose. Currencies like Dogecoin, SafeMoon and Shiba Inu have already lost traders billions from peak to trough. Copycats like Dogelon Mars,SafeMars(CCC:SAFEMARS-USD), and Akita Inu will likely keep these miniature boom-bust cycles going.
But institutional investors will eventually inflate the broader bubble to a breaking point. From the Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis of the 1980s to the mortgage-backed bonanza of the mid-2000s, financial institutions have a long history of taking good ideas to terrible extremes. Just like oneCitigroup(NYSE:C) executive said in 2007, “as long as the music is playing,you’ve got to get up and dance.”
In the near term, that means Bitcoin and its blue-chip altcoin counterparts will continue to see their values inflate. Financial institutions seem intent on keeping up with central banks and tech firms in adopting digital currencies.
In the longer term, however, most cryptocurrencies will implode. Like Amazon’s competitors that went bankrupt, most of the 700,000 tokens today will disappear. Just like the 1999 bubble, we’ll look back at 2021 — a year where billions in Dogecoin rested on a single SNL performance — and wonder “whatwerethose morons thinking?”
On the date of publication, Tom Yeung did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Tom Yeung, CFA, is a registered investment advisor on a mission to bring simplicity to the world of investing.
• Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG
• It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now.
• Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential 500% Winner
• Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now
The postSafeMoon, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin: The 2021 Crypto Bubble Is Unlike Anything We’ve Seenappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Someone in Rhode Island bought land using Dogecoin: It's the meme that just won't go away (but will go " to the moon ," apparently). A Rhode Island man sold a vacant lot in Providence for 150,000 Dogecoin (or about $50,000 at the time), in what is believed to be the first real estate deal brokered using the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, local TV station WJAR reported Thursday. "He said, 'I think it would be really cool if we could only sell my lot using Dogecoin,'" realtor Kyle Seyboth said of the unnamed seller. Now, the sale has Seyboth's "phone ringing from people who want to do the same thing," even if fluctuating prices make it impossible to know whether the buyer or the seller will come out on top. Dogecoin first began as a joke , in the wake of 2013's popular Doge meme . But after recent endorsements from Elon Musk and a subreddit of online investors , the digital currency has seen quite the meteoric rise in value. Prices dropped after Musk's May 8 appearance on Saturday Night Live , and again when the SpaceX CEO announced Tesla would stop accepting "Bitcoin as payment," but still it remains the "fourth-largest crypto by market value on CoinMarketCap," per CNBC . As of Friday morning, Dogecoin was up 39.4 percent after crypto exchange platform Coinbase announced it would officially list the coin, reports CNBC. More stories from theweek.com The GOP's blatant disregard for democracy 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Liz Cheney's ouster Cuomo's pandemic book deal was reportedly worth over $5 million || Someone in Rhode Island bought land using Dogecoin: It's the meme that just won't go away (but will go " to the moon ," apparently). A Rhode Island man sold a vacant lot in Providence for 150,000 Dogecoin (or about $50,000 at the time), in what is believed to be the first real estate deal brokered using the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, local TV station WJAR reported Thursday. "He said, 'I think it would be really cool if we could only sell my lot using Dogecoin,'" realtor Kyle Seyboth said of the unnamed seller. Now, the sale has Seyboth's "phone ringing from people who want to do the same thing," even if fluctuating prices make it impossible to know whether the buyer or the seller will come out on top. Dogecoin first began as a joke , in the wake of 2013's popular Doge meme . But after recent endorsements from Elon Musk and a subreddit of online investors , the digital currency has seen quite the meteoric rise in value. Prices dropped after Musk's May 8 appearance on Saturday Night Live , and again when the SpaceX CEO announced Tesla would stop accepting "Bitcoin as payment," but still it remains the "fourth-largest crypto by market value on CoinMarketCap," per CNBC . As of Friday morning, Dogecoin was up 39.4 percent after crypto exchange platform Coinbase announced it would officially list the coin, reports CNBC. More stories from theweek.com The GOP's blatant disregard for democracy 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Liz Cheney's ouster Cuomo's pandemic book deal was reportedly worth over $5 million || GLOBAL MARKETS-U.S. stocks surge in recovery; dollar, bond yields dip: (Updates to U.S. close)
* MSCI World Index, S&P 500 both up 1.5%;
* Wall St extends recovery at the end of volatile week
* Some investors expect markets to stay choppy
* Global asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn
By Koh Gui Qing
NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rallied in a sharp rebound on Friday as investors set aside inflation worries and bought shares hammered by the week's volatility, with the shift back into riskier assets dragging on the dollar.
The jump in shares was in step with buoyant global stocks as investors put on the back burner concerns that rising prices could lead the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than expected and reduce the gush of cash that has propelled financial markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1%, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5%, the most on any day since March 26, and the Nasdaq Composite leaped 2.3%, its biggest one-day rise in about two months.
The MSCI World Index, which tracks 50 markets, jumped 1.5%.
But some warned that investors may be too complacent if they ignore the dangers of accelerating price pressures.
"I don't see us off to the races," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel, which manages about $4 billion in assets. He said inflation risks are "real" and financial markets will likely be choppy for some time.
"You could buy (stocks) if you could sleep at night with the volatility, but I might have a slug of cash, too."
Indeed, even with Friday's strong recovery, U.S. stocks still notched their worst performances in nearly three months for the week. The S&P 500 lost 1.4% this week, while the Nasdaq shed 2.3%, declines not seen since Feb. 26.
Still, mega-cap growth stocks, which have been beaten down this week on concerns over their lofty valuations, surged, with shares in Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp ending up at least 1.9% each and Tesla Inc leaping 3.2%.
Fears of rising prices burst into the fore this week and spooked markets, and despite assurances from the Fed it does not expect to tighten policy anytime soon, some investors worry policymakers may be misjudging inflation risks.
That said, data released on Friday showed U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in April as the boost from stimulus checks wore off, further bolstering arguments that the economic recovery was far from roaring, and that interest rate hikes are not imminent.
That appeared to calm markets, for now.
The U.S. dollar dropped as risk appetite recovered and the prospect of rate hikes occurring sooner faded (higher rates burnish the currency's appeal). Against a basket of six major currencies, the U.S. dollar index shed 0.5% to 90.312.
A softer dollar lifted the euro, which jumped 0.6% to $1.21445.
The surprisingly muted retail sales report weighed on benchmark 10-year Treasury yields, which fell to 1.6335%. Two-year Treasury yields dipped to 0.1510%.
The drop in yields flattened the yield curve, an indicator of economic growth expectations, by a touch. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury yields, which had widened earlier this week when investors were focused on inflation, narrowed to 148.3 basis points.
Pullbacks in the dollar and Treasury yields added to the appeal of non-yielding bullion, with spot gold up 0.9% at $1,843.11 an ounce.
Oil prices also rebounded on Friday to claw back some of the losses seen the previous day as a weaker dollar increased the appeal of the commodity for holders of other currencies.
Brent crude jumped 2.5% to $68.70 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 2.4% to $65.36 a barrel.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin recovered some ground after skidding 13% this week on reports of a regulatory probe into crypto exchange Binance, and after Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, said the carmaker would stop accepting the token as payment due to environmental concerns.
Bitcoin was up 1.9% at $50,239.51, but was markedly below a record $64,889.97 struck on April 14.
(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing in New York and Simon Jessop in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Mark Heinrich, Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis) || GLOBAL MARKETS-U.S. stocks surge in recovery; dollar, bond yields dip: (Updates to U.S. close) * MSCI World Index, S&P 500 both up 1.5%; * Wall St extends recovery at the end of volatile week * Some investors expect markets to stay choppy * Global asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn By Koh Gui Qing NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rallied in a sharp rebound on Friday as investors set aside inflation worries and bought shares hammered by the week's volatility, with the shift back into riskier assets dragging on the dollar. The jump in shares was in step with buoyant global stocks as investors put on the back burner concerns that rising prices could lead the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than expected and reduce the gush of cash that has propelled financial markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1%, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5%, the most on any day since March 26, and the Nasdaq Composite leaped 2.3%, its biggest one-day rise in about two months. The MSCI World Index, which tracks 50 markets, jumped 1.5%. But some warned that investors may be too complacent if they ignore the dangers of accelerating price pressures. "I don't see us off to the races," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel, which manages about $4 billion in assets. He said inflation risks are "real" and financial markets will likely be choppy for some time. "You could buy (stocks) if you could sleep at night with the volatility, but I might have a slug of cash, too." Indeed, even with Friday's strong recovery, U.S. stocks still notched their worst performances in nearly three months for the week. The S&P 500 lost 1.4% this week, while the Nasdaq shed 2.3%, declines not seen since Feb. 26. Still, mega-cap growth stocks, which have been beaten down this week on concerns over their lofty valuations, surged, with shares in Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp ending up at least 1.9% each and Tesla Inc leaping 3.2%. Fears of rising prices burst into the fore this week and spooked markets, and despite assurances from the Fed it does not expect to tighten policy anytime soon, some investors worry policymakers may be misjudging inflation risks. Story continues That said, data released on Friday showed U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in April as the boost from stimulus checks wore off, further bolstering arguments that the economic recovery was far from roaring, and that interest rate hikes are not imminent. That appeared to calm markets, for now. The U.S. dollar dropped as risk appetite recovered and the prospect of rate hikes occurring sooner faded (higher rates burnish the currency's appeal). Against a basket of six major currencies, the U.S. dollar index shed 0.5% to 90.312. A softer dollar lifted the euro, which jumped 0.6% to $1.21445. The surprisingly muted retail sales report weighed on benchmark 10-year Treasury yields, which fell to 1.6335%. Two-year Treasury yields dipped to 0.1510%. The drop in yields flattened the yield curve, an indicator of economic growth expectations, by a touch. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury yields, which had widened earlier this week when investors were focused on inflation, narrowed to 148.3 basis points. Pullbacks in the dollar and Treasury yields added to the appeal of non-yielding bullion, with spot gold up 0.9% at $1,843.11 an ounce. Oil prices also rebounded on Friday to claw back some of the losses seen the previous day as a weaker dollar increased the appeal of the commodity for holders of other currencies. Brent crude jumped 2.5% to $68.70 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 2.4% to $65.36 a barrel. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin recovered some ground after skidding 13% this week on reports of a regulatory probe into crypto exchange Binance, and after Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, said the carmaker would stop accepting the token as payment due to environmental concerns. Bitcoin was up 1.9% at $50,239.51, but was markedly below a record $64,889.97 struck on April 14. (Reporting by Koh Gui Qing in New York and Simon Jessop in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Mark Heinrich, Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis) || Stock Market Today: Tech, Energy Pop as Stocks Soar Into the Weekend: Concept art of a businessman with a jetpack soaring through the sky. Getty Images Stocks finished the week with a raucous relief rally driven by not very much of anything. A five-day stretch that was mostly defined by clear signs of red-hot economic recuperation closed with a relatively shrug-worthy data point Friday. Namely, retail sales, which had jumped 10.7% month-over-month in March, were flat in April, and "core" retail sales (ex-automobiles and gasoline) were actually down 1.5% month-over-month. SEE MORE Free Special Report: Kiplinger’s Top 25 Income Investments It wasn't all that bad. Barclays economists note that rather than a material slowing, "the move in April reflects more of a pullback after the unsustainable jump in March helped by rebate checks and fading winter-weather effects." Energy stocks were the best-performing sector (+3.1%) amid a nice 2.4% move higher in U.S. crude oil futures , to $65.37 per barrel. But technology and tech-esque stocks did a lot of the barking Friday. Big moves in the likes of Nvidia ( NVDA , +4.2%), Facebook ( FB , +3.5%) and Tesla ( TSLA , +3.2%) sent the Nasdaq Composite 2.3% higher to 13,429. Dow Jones Industrial Average tech components such as Salesforce.com ( CRM , +2.7%) and Intel ( INTC , +2.5%) sent the index up 1.1% to 34,382. And the S&P 500 closed 1.6% higher to 4,178. Small caps, which have struggled over the past week, also jumped to life, with the Russell 2000 advancing 2.4% to 2,224. Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. Other action in the stock market today: One name that didn't participate in today's broad-market rally was Walt Disney ( DIS , -2.6%). The entertainment giant reported first-quarter earnings that came in above estimates, but both revenues and Disney+ paid subscribers missed the mark. DoorDash ( DASH , +22.2%), on the other hand, soared after its earnings report. The food delivery service unveiled higher-than-expected revenues for its first quarter and lifted its full-year gross orders value, which helped offset a wider-than-anticipated per-share loss. Looking ahead to next week, several high-profile retail earnings will roll in, with Home Depot ( HD ) and Walmart ( WMT ) among the top ones to watch. Gold futures edged up 0.8% to finish at $1,838.10 an ounce. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) plunged again, off 18.7% to 18.81. Bitcoin recovered partially from Thursday's deep dive, gaining 3.3% to $50,205.77. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) Story continues stock chart for 051421 YCharts More Fuel for the Value Fire? Friday marked a brief deviation from 2021's rotation away from growth stocks to value plays, but plenty of experts still see signs of continued performance out of value. SEE MORE The Pros' Picks: The 11 Best Nasdaq Stocks You Can Buy BCA Research and BofA Global Research are among analyst outfits that have recently pointed to more bullish signs. The latter points out that performance trends in actively managed funds suggest investors still haven't made a fully committed pivot into value – and thus there's still more money that could flow into bargain-priced stocks. Which bargain-priced stocks? We would answer that question by pointing you in the direction of our favorite value stocks to buy … but we'd also argue that you don't necessarily have to pick. Value-oriented exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have gone bananas amid this monthslong rotation, and that party will likely keep raging as long as value remains in style. You can slice the value pie in myriad ways, meaning there are ETF options for investors who favor large companies, small firms, international picks and more. Read on as we explore 10 different value ETFs and explain what they can contribute to your portfolio. Kyle Woodley was long CRM as of this writing. SEE MORE 11 Transformative M&A Deals You Should Care About || Stock Market Today: Tech, Energy Pop as Stocks Soar Into the Weekend: Concept art of a businessman with a jetpack soaring through the sky. Getty Images Stocks finished the week with a raucous relief rally driven by not very much of anything. A five-day stretch that was mostly defined by clear signs of red-hot economic recuperation closed with a relatively shrug-worthy data point Friday. Namely, retail sales, which had jumped 10.7% month-over-month in March, were flat in April, and "core" retail sales (ex-automobiles and gasoline) were actually down 1.5% month-over-month. SEE MORE Free Special Report: Kiplinger’s Top 25 Income Investments It wasn't all that bad. Barclays economists note that rather than a material slowing, "the move in April reflects more of a pullback after the unsustainable jump in March helped by rebate checks and fading winter-weather effects." Energy stocks were the best-performing sector (+3.1%) amid a nice 2.4% move higher in U.S. crude oil futures , to $65.37 per barrel. But technology and tech-esque stocks did a lot of the barking Friday. Big moves in the likes of Nvidia ( NVDA , +4.2%), Facebook ( FB , +3.5%) and Tesla ( TSLA , +3.2%) sent the Nasdaq Composite 2.3% higher to 13,429. Dow Jones Industrial Average tech components such as Salesforce.com ( CRM , +2.7%) and Intel ( INTC , +2.5%) sent the index up 1.1% to 34,382. And the S&P 500 closed 1.6% higher to 4,178. Small caps, which have struggled over the past week, also jumped to life, with the Russell 2000 advancing 2.4% to 2,224. Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. Other action in the stock market today: One name that didn't participate in today's broad-market rally was Walt Disney ( DIS , -2.6%). The entertainment giant reported first-quarter earnings that came in above estimates, but both revenues and Disney+ paid subscribers missed the mark. DoorDash ( DASH , +22.2%), on the other hand, soared after its earnings report. The food delivery service unveiled higher-than-expected revenues for its first quarter and lifted its full-year gross orders value, which helped offset a wider-than-anticipated per-share loss. Looking ahead to next week, several high-profile retail earnings will roll in, with Home Depot ( HD ) and Walmart ( WMT ) among the top ones to watch. Gold futures edged up 0.8% to finish at $1,838.10 an ounce. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) plunged again, off 18.7% to 18.81. Bitcoin recovered partially from Thursday's deep dive, gaining 3.3% to $50,205.77. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) Story continues stock chart for 051421 YCharts More Fuel for the Value Fire? Friday marked a brief deviation from 2021's rotation away from growth stocks to value plays, but plenty of experts still see signs of continued performance out of value. SEE MORE The Pros' Picks: The 11 Best Nasdaq Stocks You Can Buy BCA Research and BofA Global Research are among analyst outfits that have recently pointed to more bullish signs. The latter points out that performance trends in actively managed funds suggest investors still haven't made a fully committed pivot into value – and thus there's still more money that could flow into bargain-priced stocks. Which bargain-priced stocks? We would answer that question by pointing you in the direction of our favorite value stocks to buy … but we'd also argue that you don't necessarily have to pick. Value-oriented exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have gone bananas amid this monthslong rotation, and that party will likely keep raging as long as value remains in style. You can slice the value pie in myriad ways, meaning there are ETF options for investors who favor large companies, small firms, international picks and more. Read on as we explore 10 different value ETFs and explain what they can contribute to your portfolio. Kyle Woodley was long CRM as of this writing. SEE MORE 11 Transformative M&A Deals You Should Care About || Here’s Why Holo Looks Hot for the Rest of the Year: Holo(CCC:HOT-USD) has gained significant traction in the past year as it returned about 2,000%. HOT-USD is currently trading around $0.0119 (or 1.19 cents), and the market capitalization stands at $2.1 billion.
Holochain is the underlying software that the Holo crypto runs on. HOT-USD had its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018. Through a demand-determined process, 177.6 billion Holo coins were minted. Of that amount, 75% have been allocated for public sale, while the remaining 25% has been allocated for the company and its team.
Source: Grey82 / Shutterstock.com
Most of the recent run-up in price occurred in 2021. At the end of Dec. 31, 2020, the price of HOT-USD was less than $0.0006 (or 0.06 cents). Then it followed in the footsteps of many other cryptocurrencies, such asDogecoin(CCC:DOGE-USD), which is up nearly 10,000% in 2021. HOT-USD hit an all-time high of $o.o3157 (or 3.157 cents) on April 5 at the peak of the recent crypto rally. Since then, profit-taking has kicked in.
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Investors in the Holo crypto believe the technology behind Holochain could be a game changer. Therefore, today, we will look at what could be next for HOT-USD in the months ahead.
Holo is a distributed cloud-hosting network. Its aim is to bridge the gap between the Holochain platform and mainstream end-users by allowing ordinary web surfers to use peer-to-peer (P2P) Holochain apps. The role ofAirbnb(NASDAQ:ABNB) in the leisure space and what the company does to hotels could be a good analogy to better appreciate what Holo does to app hosting.
The framework offers developers a cheaper and more scalable alternative to traditional blockchains, where transactions are not logged on a public ledger. You might already know that scalability refers to the ability to handle large volumes of transactions at high speeds. On Proof of Work (PoW)-based blockchains such asBitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD), there is a public log of every Bitcoin transaction ever made.
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Recent research points out that blockchains “currently offer a transaction throughput of about 10 transactions per second. With simple technical tweaks, those could potentially beimproved to about 100 transactions per second, without deteriorating their security provisions of an open and decentralized network. This comparably low throughput is a 1 challenge for blockchain adoption.”
Unlike blockchain networks, on the Holochain platform, transactions are not logged on a public ledger, but on individual user nodes. On this decentralized web platform, users do not need to receive confirmation from network participants or record it on the blockchain for every transaction within the network. Put another way, many regard Holochain as offering a highly scalable solution.
Earlier in the year, Holo Limited got approval for a U.S. patent for the rrDHT networking design. It is “a system of nodes communicating according to a relaxed, agent-centric distributed hash table. …This patent is a critical componentof the open source license used for Holochain.”
The platform is expected to transform the paradigm of data-centric blockchains to a more efficient agent-centric system. In other words, P2P networking enables users to process agent-centric agreements and consensus processes.
Holochain highlights “a diverse communityof developers, enterprises and researchers … using Holochain to solve challenging, real-world problems,” ranging from energy to social impact and data ownership. Investors in HOT-USD are betting on the future of thisopen-source framework.
Such users earn HoloFuel in return for sharing extra space and computing power to host apps. Put another way, the platform allows anyone with a computer to use a Holo hosting box to host distributed applications and receive payment in return.
The Holochain platform does not rely on a global ledger or crypto miners for validation of transactions. As a result, these transactions become more efficient and quicker. Thanks to Holochain apps, there is no need for an intermediary. As the Holo crypto powers the Holochain, it is not surprising that some investors are highly keen on the future of the crypto token.
Meanwhile, like many other altcoins in the market, the price of HOT-USD is greatly tied to the price of Bitcoin. Seasoned crypto followers would concur that Bitcoin typically has a cool-off phase after each major leg up. In that interim, altcoins gain significant attention when their prices can easily double in a matter of weeks, or even days.
Given the interest in the Holochain technology, expect HOT-USD to reach new highs before the end of the year. However, the altcoin space is extremely volatile, and the Holo crypto has proved to be a fast mover. Therefore, it would be best not to bet the farm on Holo or any other crypto.
On the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgildid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.
Tezcan Gecgil has worked in investment management for over two decades in the U.S. and U.K. In addition to formal higher education in the field, she has also completed all 3 levels of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) examination. Her passion is for options trading based on technical analysis of fundamentally strong companies. She especially enjoys setting up weekly covered calls for income generation.
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The postHere’s Why Holo Looks Hot for the Rest of the Yearappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Here’s Why Holo Looks Hot for the Rest of the Year: Holo (CCC: HOT-USD ) has gained significant traction in the past year as it returned about 2,000%. HOT-USD is currently trading around $0.0119 (or 1.19 cents), and the market capitalization stands at $2.1 billion. Holochain is the underlying software that the Holo crypto runs on. HOT-USD had its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018. Through a demand-determined process, 177.6 billion Holo coins were minted. Of that amount, 75% have been allocated for public sale, while the remaining 25% has been allocated for the company and its team. Holochain website displayed on smartphone screen. Source: Grey82 / Shutterstock.com Most of the recent run-up in price occurred in 2021. At the end of Dec. 31, 2020, the price of HOT-USD was less than $0.0006 (or 0.06 cents). Then it followed in the footsteps of many other cryptocurrencies, such as Dogecoin (CCC: DOGE-USD ), which is up nearly 10,000% in 2021. HOT-USD hit an all-time high of $o.o3157 (or 3.157 cents) on April 5 at the peak of the recent crypto rally. Since then, profit-taking has kicked in. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Investors in the Holo crypto believe the technology behind Holochain could be a game changer. Therefore, today, we will look at what could be next for HOT-USD in the months ahead. Understanding Holo Holo is a distributed cloud-hosting network. Its aim is to bridge the gap between the Holochain platform and mainstream end-users by allowing ordinary web surfers to use peer-to-peer (P2P) Holochain apps. The role of Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB ) in the leisure space and what the company does to hotels could be a good analogy to better appreciate what Holo does to app hosting. The framework offers developers a cheaper and more scalable alternative to traditional blockchains, where transactions are not logged on a public ledger. You might already know that scalability refers to the ability to handle large volumes of transactions at high speeds. On Proof of Work (PoW)-based blockchains such as Bitcoin (CCC: BTC-USD ), there is a public log of every Bitcoin transaction ever made. Story continues 10 Dividend Aristocrat Stocks for Your Reliability Short List Recent research points out that blockchains “currently offer a transaction throughput of about 10 transactions per second. With simple technical tweaks, those could potentially be improved to about 100 transactions per second , without deteriorating their security provisions of an open and decentralized network. This comparably low throughput is a 1 challenge for blockchain adoption.” Unlike blockchain networks, on the Holochain platform, transactions are not logged on a public ledger, but on individual user nodes. On this decentralized web platform, users do not need to receive confirmation from network participants or record it on the blockchain for every transaction within the network. Put another way, many regard Holochain as offering a highly scalable solution. Patent Approval Earlier in the year, Holo Limited got approval for a U.S. patent for the rrDHT networking design. It is “a system of nodes communicating according to a relaxed, agent-centric distributed hash table. … This patent is a critical component of the open source license used for Holochain.” The platform is expected to transform the paradigm of data-centric blockchains to a more efficient agent-centric system. In other words, P2P networking enables users to process agent-centric agreements and consensus processes. Holochain highlights “ a diverse community of developers, enterprises and researchers … using Holochain to solve challenging, real-world problems,” ranging from energy to social impact and data ownership. Investors in HOT-USD are betting on the future of this open-source framework . Such users earn HoloFuel in return for sharing extra space and computing power to host apps. Put another way, the platform allows anyone with a computer to use a Holo hosting box to host distributed applications and receive payment in return. The Bottom Line on HOT-USD The Holochain platform does not rely on a global ledger or crypto miners for validation of transactions. As a result, these transactions become more efficient and quicker. Thanks to Holochain apps, there is no need for an intermediary. As the Holo crypto powers the Holochain, it is not surprising that some investors are highly keen on the future of the crypto token. Meanwhile, like many other altcoins in the market, the price of HOT-USD is greatly tied to the price of Bitcoin. Seasoned crypto followers would concur that Bitcoin typically has a cool-off phase after each major leg up. In that interim, altcoins gain significant attention when their prices can easily double in a matter of weeks, or even days. Given the interest in the Holochain technology, expect HOT-USD to reach new highs before the end of the year. However, the altcoin space is extremely volatile, and the Holo crypto has proved to be a fast mover. Therefore, it would be best not to bet the farm on Holo or any other crypto. On the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgil did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . Tezcan Gecgil has worked in investment management for over two decades in the U.S. and U.K. In addition to formal higher education in the field, she has also completed all 3 levels of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) examination. Her passion is for options trading based on technical analysis of fundamentally strong companies. She especially enjoys setting up weekly covered calls for income generation. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential 500% Winner Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now The post Here’s Why Holo Looks Hot for the Rest of the Year appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Market Wrap: It’s ‘Doge Day Afternoon’ as Memecoin Jumps 47%; Ether and Bitcoin Rise: Dogecoin soared on Friday but the cryptocurrency’s circulation ownership raises questions. Ether pops as its futures market hits a record. Bitcoin faces pressures from its options market and a downward trending dominance percentage. Dogecoin (DOGE) trading around $0.56 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 47% over the previous 24 hours. Dogecoin’s 24-hour range: $0.39-$0.58 (CoinDesk 20) Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $50,263 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 3.2% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $49,009-$51,502 (CoinDesk 20) Ether (ETH) trading around $4,055 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 10.6% over the previous 24 hours. Ether’s 24-hour range: $3,641-$4,165 (CoinDesk 20) Dogecoin correlation to BTC near zero as asset pumps Meme-friendly cryptocurrency dogecoin bounced back in a big way Friday, up 47% as of press time. The expectation that Coinbase would list and begin trading the asset in the near future was likely one culprit for the FOMO. So far in 2021, dogecoin is up over 12,000% on Binance, according to data provided by charting software provider TradingView. Not all industry participants are amused by dogecoin’s tricks, however. Related: Elon Musk: Less Grifter, More Puppet Master “Being something of a crypto old-schooler I am really troubled by the comical approach taken to dogecoin,” said over-the-counter bitcoin trader Henrik Kugelberg. “As if it’s somehow not actual people’s money being the victim of extremely rich peoples’ whims and fooling around.” Interesting to note from Kugelberg is the sheer concentration of wealth in the dogecoin ecosystem. According to blockchain data from Bitinfocharts, one person owns 28.8% of all doge in circulation, and just 102 wallet holders own another 38.5%. So 67% of all dogecoin is effectively controlled via 103 wallets. “I am staying far from DOGE,” added Kugelberg. What may be of interest to larger holders, however, is that dogecoin does not move in tandem with bitcoin. At least not anymore. According to CoinDesk Research, dogecoin’s correlation with bitcoin has fallen to near zero, which means the two cryptocurrencies are both marching to the beat of their own drums, at least since October 2020 when the two were closely correlated. Story continues Related: Bitcoin Suffers Biggest Pullback This Year With Drop to 3.5-Month Low “At this point the financial future of doge could very much be dictated by Elon [Musk, the Tesla CEO] and others who unilaterally decide to adopt it as their currency of choice,” said John Willock, chief executive officer of crypto custody provider Tritum. “That decision is likely not to be based on merit of the traditional sort but, rather, just because they like it.” “As far as our portfolio, we aren’t specifically long dogecoin but may trade its volatility in a delta-neutral manner if it suits us,” Willock added. Ether futures explosion The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether, was trading around $4,055 as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET), up more than 10% over the prior 24 hours. The asset is above the 10-hour moving average as well as the 50-day, a bullish signal for market technicians. “Regarding ETH, for the rest of this cycle at the least I expect that it will continue to lead BTC, as it’s the more speculative asset,” said Andrew Tu, an executive at quant fund Efficient Frontier. “It also benefits from the growth of apps built on top of it,” most notably decentralized finance (DeFi). Speculative indeed. On Thursday, the last day for closing data at press time, ether futures hit $100 billion for the first time. By comparison, bitcoin futures on Thursday were at $132 billion. Ether futures volume was the highest in three months. More futures and more exchange traded funds, or ETFs, which allow investors a more regulated way to pour money into ether, might mean more bullishness ahead for ETH. “More institutional investors view ether as a serious asset,” said David Russell, vice president of market intelligence at TradeStation Group. “There’s also been increased engagement after Canada allowed the launch of three ethereum exchange-traded funds,” he added. “And just last week, ETF sponsor VanEck filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a similar fund. It’s one more potential positive for the digital asset.” Bitcoin options market, dominance in the dumps The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, bitcoin, was up Friday by 3.2% as of press time and at a $50,263 spot price. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap was near the 10-hour moving average and the 50-day, a sideways signal for market technicians. One culprit for bitcoin struggling to make gains versus other crypto assets: the options market. Fredrick Collins, a seasoned options trader and researcher at Glassnode, noted heavy short-selling might be putting bear pressure on BTC . “Market makers were heavily short puts in the range of $52,000 to $50,000, and I estimate were forced to sell nearly 2,900 bitcoin during the crash to offset the short gamma exposure,” Collins told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat. “That likely exacerbated the bearish move.” Another factor: Altcoins are more exciting. According to charting software TradingView, bitcoin’s dominance, its share of the greater cryptocurrency market, is down 2.9% Friday and has fallen this year over 42% since Jan. 1. Jason Lau, chief operating officer for San Francisco-based exchange OKCoin, says differentiation between various crypto assets such as BTC, ETH and DOGE is what is causing bitcoin’s tepid market while ether and doge continue to pop. “It’s market and trader segments that have settled into three different types of crypto investors,” Lau told CoinDesk. “There is the longer-term store of value, which is BTC. Then there is the ecosystem, application-driven, which is ETH. Then you have the meme and momentum-driven, which is DOGE.” For retail traders, or anyone with access to a stock brokerage account, there might be an opportunity to buy bitcoin on the cheap right now. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) currently has a discount that represents the difference between the price of the underlying bitcoin assets and the value that’s implied from the price of the trust’s shares. (Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, of which CoinDesk is an independent subsidiary.) Read More: Record ‘Grayscale Discount’ Might Mean Bargain Bitcoin for Retail Traders Other markets Terra, a three-year-old project from the South Korean developer Terraform Labs, is built to support a basket of decentralized stablecoins. Demand has surged in cryptocurrency markets for Terra’s LUNA token, which works as part of an automatic balancing system that helps to keep prices for the stablecoins, well, stable. The LUNA price has climbed a flabbergasting 25-fold this year, outpacing the already-impressive sevenfold gain for larger rival MakerDAO’s maker (MKR) tokens. LUNA’s market capitalization has jumped to about $6 billion from $300 million in less than five months, overtaking MKR at $4.7 billion. Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all in the green Friday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): yearn finance (YFI) + 24% aave (AAVE) + 18% polkadot (DOT) + 15.8% Read More: Coinbase Rated ‘Overweight’ in Initial Coverage by Piper Sandler Equities: The Nikkei 225 index in Japan closed higher by 2.3% as positive corporate earnings had value investors hitting the buy button to cap off a volatile week . In Europe, the FTSE 100 ended the day climbing 1.1% as traders signaled bullishness after the market dumped earlier in the week on inflation fears . The S&P 500 in the United States gained 1.5% as a big tech rebound from a major sell-off earlier in the week led the index to close higher . Commodities: Oil was up 2.5%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $65.35. Gold was in the green 0.90% and at $1,842 as of press time. Silver is gaining, up 1.1% and changing hands at $27.39. Treasurys: The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday to 1.632 and in the red 1.6%. Muyao Shen contributed to this report. Related Stories Bitcoin Holds Support; Faces Resistance at $50K Crypto Long & Short: Why Tesla’s Reversal Is Good for Bitcoin || Market Wrap: It’s ‘Doge Day Afternoon’ as Memecoin Jumps 47%; Ether and Bitcoin Rise: Dogecoin soared on Friday but the cryptocurrency’s circulation ownership raises questions. Ether pops as its futures market hits a record. Bitcoin faces pressures from its options market and a downward trending dominance percentage. Dogecoin (DOGE) trading around $0.56 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 47% over the previous 24 hours. Dogecoin’s 24-hour range: $0.39-$0.58 (CoinDesk 20) Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $50,263 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 3.2% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $49,009-$51,502 (CoinDesk 20) Ether (ETH) trading around $4,055 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 10.6% over the previous 24 hours. Ether’s 24-hour range: $3,641-$4,165 (CoinDesk 20) Dogecoin correlation to BTC near zero as asset pumps Meme-friendly cryptocurrency dogecoin bounced back in a big way Friday, up 47% as of press time. The expectation that Coinbase would list and begin trading the asset in the near future was likely one culprit for the FOMO. So far in 2021, dogecoin is up over 12,000% on Binance, according to data provided by charting software provider TradingView. Not all industry participants are amused by dogecoin’s tricks, however. Related: Elon Musk: Less Grifter, More Puppet Master “Being something of a crypto old-schooler I am really troubled by the comical approach taken to dogecoin,” said over-the-counter bitcoin trader Henrik Kugelberg. “As if it’s somehow not actual people’s money being the victim of extremely rich peoples’ whims and fooling around.” Interesting to note from Kugelberg is the sheer concentration of wealth in the dogecoin ecosystem. According to blockchain data from Bitinfocharts, one person owns 28.8% of all doge in circulation, and just 102 wallet holders own another 38.5%. So 67% of all dogecoin is effectively controlled via 103 wallets. “I am staying far from DOGE,” added Kugelberg. What may be of interest to larger holders, however, is that dogecoin does not move in tandem with bitcoin. At least not anymore. According to CoinDesk Research, dogecoin’s correlation with bitcoin has fallen to near zero, which means the two cryptocurrencies are both marching to the beat of their own drums, at least since October 2020 when the two were closely correlated. Story continues Related: Bitcoin Suffers Biggest Pullback This Year With Drop to 3.5-Month Low “At this point the financial future of doge could very much be dictated by Elon [Musk, the Tesla CEO] and others who unilaterally decide to adopt it as their currency of choice,” said John Willock, chief executive officer of crypto custody provider Tritum. “That decision is likely not to be based on merit of the traditional sort but, rather, just because they like it.” “As far as our portfolio, we aren’t specifically long dogecoin but may trade its volatility in a delta-neutral manner if it suits us,” Willock added. Ether futures explosion The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether, was trading around $4,055 as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET), up more than 10% over the prior 24 hours. The asset is above the 10-hour moving average as well as the 50-day, a bullish signal for market technicians. “Regarding ETH, for the rest of this cycle at the least I expect that it will continue to lead BTC, as it’s the more speculative asset,” said Andrew Tu, an executive at quant fund Efficient Frontier. “It also benefits from the growth of apps built on top of it,” most notably decentralized finance (DeFi). Speculative indeed. On Thursday, the last day for closing data at press time, ether futures hit $100 billion for the first time. By comparison, bitcoin futures on Thursday were at $132 billion. Ether futures volume was the highest in three months. More futures and more exchange traded funds, or ETFs, which allow investors a more regulated way to pour money into ether, might mean more bullishness ahead for ETH. “More institutional investors view ether as a serious asset,” said David Russell, vice president of market intelligence at TradeStation Group. “There’s also been increased engagement after Canada allowed the launch of three ethereum exchange-traded funds,” he added. “And just last week, ETF sponsor VanEck filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a similar fund. It’s one more potential positive for the digital asset.” Bitcoin options market, dominance in the dumps The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, bitcoin, was up Friday by 3.2% as of press time and at a $50,263 spot price. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap was near the 10-hour moving average and the 50-day, a sideways signal for market technicians. One culprit for bitcoin struggling to make gains versus other crypto assets: the options market. Fredrick Collins, a seasoned options trader and researcher at Glassnode, noted heavy short-selling might be putting bear pressure on BTC . “Market makers were heavily short puts in the range of $52,000 to $50,000, and I estimate were forced to sell nearly 2,900 bitcoin during the crash to offset the short gamma exposure,” Collins told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat. “That likely exacerbated the bearish move.” Another factor: Altcoins are more exciting. According to charting software TradingView, bitcoin’s dominance, its share of the greater cryptocurrency market, is down 2.9% Friday and has fallen this year over 42% since Jan. 1. Jason Lau, chief operating officer for San Francisco-based exchange OKCoin, says differentiation between various crypto assets such as BTC, ETH and DOGE is what is causing bitcoin’s tepid market while ether and doge continue to pop. “It’s market and trader segments that have settled into three different types of crypto investors,” Lau told CoinDesk. “There is the longer-term store of value, which is BTC. Then there is the ecosystem, application-driven, which is ETH. Then you have the meme and momentum-driven, which is DOGE.” For retail traders, or anyone with access to a stock brokerage account, there might be an opportunity to buy bitcoin on the cheap right now. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) currently has a discount that represents the difference between the price of the underlying bitcoin assets and the value that’s implied from the price of the trust’s shares. (Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, of which CoinDesk is an independent subsidiary.) Read More: Record ‘Grayscale Discount’ Might Mean Bargain Bitcoin for Retail Traders Other markets Terra, a three-year-old project from the South Korean developer Terraform Labs, is built to support a basket of decentralized stablecoins. Demand has surged in cryptocurrency markets for Terra’s LUNA token, which works as part of an automatic balancing system that helps to keep prices for the stablecoins, well, stable. The LUNA price has climbed a flabbergasting 25-fold this year, outpacing the already-impressive sevenfold gain for larger rival MakerDAO’s maker (MKR) tokens. LUNA’s market capitalization has jumped to about $6 billion from $300 million in less than five months, overtaking MKR at $4.7 billion. Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all in the green Friday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): yearn finance (YFI) + 24% aave (AAVE) + 18% polkadot (DOT) + 15.8% Read More: Coinbase Rated ‘Overweight’ in Initial Coverage by Piper Sandler Equities: The Nikkei 225 index in Japan closed higher by 2.3% as positive corporate earnings had value investors hitting the buy button to cap off a volatile week . In Europe, the FTSE 100 ended the day climbing 1.1% as traders signaled bullishness after the market dumped earlier in the week on inflation fears . The S&P 500 in the United States gained 1.5% as a big tech rebound from a major sell-off earlier in the week led the index to close higher . Commodities: Oil was up 2.5%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $65.35. Gold was in the green 0.90% and at $1,842 as of press time. Silver is gaining, up 1.1% and changing hands at $27.39. Treasurys: The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday to 1.632 and in the red 1.6%. Muyao Shen contributed to this report. Related Stories Bitcoin Holds Support; Faces Resistance at $50K Crypto Long & Short: Why Tesla’s Reversal Is Good for Bitcoin
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46456.06, 43537.51, 42909.40, 37002.44, 40782.74, 37304.69, 37536.63, 34770.58, 38705.98, 38402.22
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39, 5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53, 5399.37, 5572.36, 5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14, 5247.35, 5350.73, 5402.70, 5505.28, 5768.29, 5831.17, 5795.71.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-05-05]
Volume: 14808830723, RSI (14-day): 72.12, 50-day EMA: 4990.74, 200-day EMA: 4839.73
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Trumps Economy Makes Michael Novogratz More Bullish on Bitcoin: Michael Novogratz is already a bitcoin bull, but he finds the extreme views of both the left and the right on monetary policy more emboldening for crypto.| Source: Beyond Blocks/YouTube By CCN : Go right ahead lefties with your monetary policies. Youre rallying crypto bulls. And you right leaners who are calling for lower interest rates are as good as gold for crypto, too. Thats the message from former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz . The bitcoin bull weighed in on monetary policies being bandied about that are essentially making the case for crypto. Novogratz is the CEO of cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital. In a tweet this weekend, he pointed to calls for interest rate cuts being made by Vice President Mike Pence as well as former Fed contenders Stephen Moore and Herman Cain . While nominated by Trump, Moore and Cain eventually withdrew their names from consideration. Then theres the controversial Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has proposed as a way to fund her Green New Deal. She is the gift that keeps on giving. For the crypto space, her push for MMT does just that. This makes me more bullish Bitcoin. Stephen Moore, Herman Cain, and Mike Pence all make me bullish hard money. To be fair, MMT and some of the far lefts policies also makes me bullish crypto. https://t.co/BdKCUUnhEX Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) May 4, 2019 To Cut or Not to Cut The Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged last week. This was disappointing to Pence and others who see the strong economy as one reason rates should be cut. Pence recently told CNBC: I think it might be time for us to consider lowering interest rates. We just dont see any inflation in this economy at all. Were seeing jobs being created all over the country; that should be an encouragement to every American and also to people that operate our monetary policies. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Trump’s Economy Makes Michael Novogratz ‘More Bullish’ on Bitcoin: ByCCN: Go right ahead lefties with your monetary policies. You’re rallying crypto bulls. And you right leaners who are calling for lower interest rates are as good as gold for crypto, too.
That’s the message from former hedge fund managerMichael Novogratz. The bitcoin bull weighed in on monetary policies being bandied about that are essentially making the case for crypto. Novogratz is the CEO of cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital.
In a tweet this weekend, he pointed to calls for interest rate cuts being made by Vice President Mike Pence as well as former Fed contendersStephen MooreandHerman Cain. While nominated by Trump, Moore and Cain eventually withdrew their names from consideration.
Then there’s the controversialModern Monetary Theory(MMT) that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has proposed as a way to fund her Green New Deal. She is the gift that keeps on giving. For the crypto space, her push for MMT does just that.
The Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged last week. This was disappointing to Pence and others who see the strong economy as one reason rates should be cut. Pence recently told CNBC:
“I think it might be time for us to consider lowering interest rates. We just don’t see any inflation in this economy at all. We’re seeing jobs being created all over the country; that should be an encouragement to every American and also to people that operate our monetary policies.” || Trump’s Economy Makes Michael Novogratz ‘More Bullish’ on Bitcoin: ByCCN: Go right ahead lefties with your monetary policies. You’re rallying crypto bulls. And you right leaners who are calling for lower interest rates are as good as gold for crypto, too.
That’s the message from former hedge fund managerMichael Novogratz. The bitcoin bull weighed in on monetary policies being bandied about that are essentially making the case for crypto. Novogratz is the CEO of cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital.
In a tweet this weekend, he pointed to calls for interest rate cuts being made by Vice President Mike Pence as well as former Fed contendersStephen MooreandHerman Cain. While nominated by Trump, Moore and Cain eventually withdrew their names from consideration.
Then there’s the controversialModern Monetary Theory(MMT) that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has proposed as a way to fund her Green New Deal. She is the gift that keeps on giving. For the crypto space, her push for MMT does just that.
The Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged last week. This was disappointing to Pence and others who see the strong economy as one reason rates should be cut. Pence recently told CNBC:
“I think it might be time for us to consider lowering interest rates. We just don’t see any inflation in this economy at all. We’re seeing jobs being created all over the country; that should be an encouragement to every American and also to people that operate our monetary policies.” || Tim Draper-Backed Email Paywall BitBounce Attracts 4 Million Users: BitBounce could help usher in wide-scale adoption of crypto. | Source: Flickr By CCN : Tim Draper appears to love anything that gives power back to the people. An eye-catching tweet on Saturday regarding email spam solution BitBounce is sure to generate a good deal of interest in this project. Draper sees this as a potential play on crypto mainstream adoption given its immediate real-world use case. He is named as an investor in the project . This video describes a new market for email. Very interesting. #drapervc https://t.co/GnaEMZd1aR — Tim Draper (@TimDraper) May 4, 2019 BitBounce Pays in Credo The low-key project has already amassed an impressive 4 million users. They are looking to solve a wide-spread problem that affects everyone. Who doesn’t have an email address filled with irritating emails from spam marketing? Microsoft outlook attempted to fix this issue with “Focused” and “Other” email categories, but that is just putting a band-aid on the problem. BitBounce pays in the Credo cryptocurrency and lets users monetize their private information. If you see spam emails, you can sure that the senders paid you to be there and you are not lining someone else’s pockets. The Credo cryptocurrency is small but it shot up 9% today while the broader crypto market was trading in the red. Credo The Tim Draper-effect on Credo is undeniable. | Source: CoinMarketCap Draper’s Bitcoin Enthusiasm Sometimes Detracts From His Noble Intentions Tim Draper might get a bad rap for being a bit too enthusiastic sometimes, but there is no question about the sale-ability of BitBounce to a mainstream audience. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Munger: Bitcoin investors celebrate 'Judas Iscariot' at their happy hours: Legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have never been fans of bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that once hit $20,000 and became the talk of the family dinner table in late 2017. With bitcoin’s price having crashed to about one-third of its heyday high, Buffett and Munger joked around about the once red-hot investment during the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting on Saturday. Munger told the audience that he was invited to a happy hour by bitcoin investors. “I wondered what they have been doing in their happy hour, and I finally figured it out. They celebrate the life and work of Judas Iscariot.” According to Christian history, the apostle Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He revealed the identify of Jesus by kissing him on the cheek in front of soldiers who arrested him. Highlight: "Your vice chairman is getting new social distinction," Munger says. "I've been invited during the gathering to go to a happy hour put together by the bitcoin people. And I tried to figure out what the bitcoin do in their happy hour and I finally figured it out..." pic.twitter.com/BM7FHiKPyf — Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) May 4, 2019 Buffett’s longtime business partner once described the frenzy over bitcoin as “like someone else is trading turds , and you decide ‘I can’t be left out.’” Buffett also weighed in on the crypto craze, sharing a story about his honeymoon in Las Vegas in 1952, when he found himself surrounded by people who came from thousands of miles away to gamble. “They came to do something that every damn one of them knew was mathematically dumb,” recalled Buffett. “And I told Susie, ‘We're going to make a lot of money.’” Buffett says bitcoin was reminiscent of that feeling. He sees investing in bitcoin as a gamble based on speculation — and not an investment. Story continues Highlight: Buffett on bitcoin: "On my honeymoon in 1952, my bride, 19, and I, 21, stopped in Las Vegas. ... I looked around and saw all of these well-dressed people... they came to to do something that every damn one of them knew was mathematically dumb..." #YFBuffett pic.twitter.com/6Hi5ukbDFr — Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) May 4, 2019 However, Buffett holds a more open attitude toward blockchain, the underlying technology in cryptocurrencies which is increasingly being adopted by major companies in finance, logistics, and tech, including JPMorgan and Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway’s partners in a health care venture . “We probably are doing it indirectly through a bank,” Buffett said of blockchain. “But no, I wouldn't be the person to be a big leader in blockchain.” — — Krystal covers tech and China for Yahoo Finance. Write to her via [email protected] or follow her on Twitter . Read more: Apple cuts iPhone XR price for partner sellers in China Amazon shuffles thousands of workers in its quest to revamp delivery Amazon eyes closed Sears stores for Whole Foods expansion || Munger: Bitcoin investors celebrate 'Judas Iscariot' at their happy hours: Legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have never been fans of bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that once hit $20,000 and became the talk of the family dinner table in late 2017.
With bitcoin’s price having crashed to about one-third of its heyday high, Buffett and Munger joked around about the once red-hot investment during the2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meetingon Saturday.
Munger told the audience that he was invited to a happy hour by bitcoin investors.
“I wondered what they have been doing in their happy hour, and I finally figured it out. They celebrate the life and work of Judas Iscariot.”
According to Christian history, the apostle Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He revealed the identify of Jesus by kissing him on the cheek in front of soldiers who arrested him.
Buffett’s longtime business partner once described the frenzy over bitcoin as “like someone elseis trading turds, and you decide ‘I can’t be left out.’”
Buffett also weighed in on the crypto craze, sharing a story about his honeymoon in Las Vegas in 1952, when he found himself surrounded by people who came from thousands of miles away to gamble. “They came to do something that every damn one of them knew was mathematically dumb,” recalled Buffett. “And I told Susie, ‘We're going to make a lot of money.’”
Buffett says bitcoin was reminiscent of that feeling. He sees investing in bitcoin as a gamble based on speculation — and not an investment.
However, Buffett holds a more open attitude toward blockchain, the underlying technology in cryptocurrencies which is increasingly being adopted by major companies in finance, logistics, and tech, including JPMorgan and Amazon,Berkshire Hathaway’s partners in a health care venture.
“We probably are doing it indirectly through a bank,” Buffett said of blockchain. “But no, I wouldn't be the person to be a big leader in blockchain.”
—
—
Krystal covers tech and China for Yahoo Finance. Write to her [email protected] follow her onTwitter.
Read more:
Apple cuts iPhone XR price for partner sellers in China
Amazon shuffles thousands of workers in its quest to revamp delivery
Amazon eyes closed Sears stores for Whole Foods expansion || Munger: Bitcoin investors celebrate 'Judas Iscariot' at their happy hours: Legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have never been fans of bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that once hit $20,000 and became the talk of the family dinner table in late 2017.
With bitcoin’s price having crashed to about one-third of its heyday high, Buffett and Munger joked around about the once red-hot investment during the2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meetingon Saturday.
Munger told the audience that he was invited to a happy hour by bitcoin investors.
“I wondered what they have been doing in their happy hour, and I finally figured it out. They celebrate the life and work of Judas Iscariot.”
According to Christian history, the apostle Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He revealed the identify of Jesus by kissing him on the cheek in front of soldiers who arrested him.
Buffett’s longtime business partner once described the frenzy over bitcoin as “like someone elseis trading turds, and you decide ‘I can’t be left out.’”
Buffett also weighed in on the crypto craze, sharing a story about his honeymoon in Las Vegas in 1952, when he found himself surrounded by people who came from thousands of miles away to gamble. “They came to do something that every damn one of them knew was mathematically dumb,” recalled Buffett. “And I told Susie, ‘We're going to make a lot of money.’”
Buffett says bitcoin was reminiscent of that feeling. He sees investing in bitcoin as a gamble based on speculation — and not an investment.
However, Buffett holds a more open attitude toward blockchain, the underlying technology in cryptocurrencies which is increasingly being adopted by major companies in finance, logistics, and tech, including JPMorgan and Amazon,Berkshire Hathaway’s partners in a health care venture.
“We probably are doing it indirectly through a bank,” Buffett said of blockchain. “But no, I wouldn't be the person to be a big leader in blockchain.”
—
—
Krystal covers tech and China for Yahoo Finance. Write to her [email protected] follow her onTwitter.
Read more:
Apple cuts iPhone XR price for partner sellers in China
Amazon shuffles thousands of workers in its quest to revamp delivery
Amazon eyes closed Sears stores for Whole Foods expansion || USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – Set Up for Steep Break Under 110.761: The Dollar/Yen plunged on Friday as traders shrugged off the strong surge in U.S. payrolls and drop in the jobless rate to the lowest level in more than 49 years, to focus on the weaker component of the U.S. jobs report.
What caught investor attention was the modest 0.2% monthly pace of wage growth and the drop in the participation rate. The big concern is that weak wage growth combined with muted inflation could prompt the Fed to lower rates later this year, which would make the U.S. Dollar a less-attractive investment.
On Friday, theUSD/JPYsettled at 111.108, down 0.401 or -0.30%.
The main trend is down according to the daily swing chart. A trade through 111.050 will reaffirm the downtrend. The nearest main top is 112.405. A trade through this level will change the main trend to up. If 111.050 is taken out then 111.700 will become a new main top and change in trend point.
The short-term range is 109.710 to 112.405. Its 50% level or support is 111.058.
The long-term range is 114.210 to 105.180. Its retracement zone support is 110.761 to 109.695. It combines with the short-term pivot to form a support cluster at 111.058 to 110.761.
The intermediate-term range is 105.180 to 112.405. If the main bottom at 109.710 fails as support the look for the selling to extend into the next major retracement zone at 108.793 to 107.940.
Based on the close at 111.108, the direction of the USD/JPY on Monday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to the main bottom at 111.050.
A sustained move over 111.050 will indicate the presence of sellers. The first downside targets are the main bottom at 110.843 and the long-term Fibonacci level at 110.761.
The trigger point for an acceleration to the downside is 110.761. Taking out this level with strong volume could trigger a steep decline into a support cluster formed by the main bottom at 109.710 and the long-term 50% level at 109.695.
A sustained move over 111.058 will signal the presence of buyers. If this creates enough upside momentum then look for the rally to possibly extend into 111.700 to 111.730. The buying will have to be strong enough to take out 111.730 in order to generate enough upside momentum to challenge the next main top at 112.405.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – stock markets continue to impress
• USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – Set Up for Steep Break Under 110.761
• Gold Price Prediction – Gold prices Rebound Following Strong European Inflation Figures
• GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British pound rallies for the week but finds resistance again
• Forex Daily Recap – The Greenback was 0.57% Down Amid Downbeat USD Data
• Bitcoin hits 6-month Highs, Potentially Targeting levels Above $6’000 || USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – Set Up for Steep Break Under 110.761: The Dollar/Yen plunged on Friday as traders shrugged off the strong surge in U.S. payrolls and drop in the jobless rate to the lowest level in more than 49 years, to focus on the weaker component of the U.S. jobs report. What caught investor attention was the modest 0.2% monthly pace of wage growth and the drop in the participation rate. The big concern is that weak wage growth combined with muted inflation could prompt the Fed to lower rates later this year, which would make the U.S. Dollar a less-attractive investment. On Friday, the USD/JPY settled at 111.108, down 0.401 or -0.30%. Daily USD/JPY Daily Swing Chart Technical Analysis The main trend is down according to the daily swing chart. A trade through 111.050 will reaffirm the downtrend. The nearest main top is 112.405. A trade through this level will change the main trend to up. If 111.050 is taken out then 111.700 will become a new main top and change in trend point. The short-term range is 109.710 to 112.405. Its 50% level or support is 111.058. The long-term range is 114.210 to 105.180. Its retracement zone support is 110.761 to 109.695. It combines with the short-term pivot to form a support cluster at 111.058 to 110.761. The intermediate-term range is 105.180 to 112.405. If the main bottom at 109.710 fails as support the look for the selling to extend into the next major retracement zone at 108.793 to 107.940. Daily Swing Chart Technical Forecast Based on the close at 111.108, the direction of the USD/JPY on Monday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to the main bottom at 111.050. Bearish Scenario A sustained move over 111.050 will indicate the presence of sellers. The first downside targets are the main bottom at 110.843 and the long-term Fibonacci level at 110.761. The trigger point for an acceleration to the downside is 110.761. Taking out this level with strong volume could trigger a steep decline into a support cluster formed by the main bottom at 109.710 and the long-term 50% level at 109.695. Story continues Bullish Scenario A sustained move over 111.058 will signal the presence of buyers. If this creates enough upside momentum then look for the rally to possibly extend into 111.700 to 111.730. The buying will have to be strong enough to take out 111.730 in order to generate enough upside momentum to challenge the next main top at 112.405. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – stock markets continue to impress USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – Set Up for Steep Break Under 110.761 Gold Price Prediction – Gold prices Rebound Following Strong European Inflation Figures GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British pound rallies for the week but finds resistance again Forex Daily Recap – The Greenback was 0.57% Down Amid Downbeat USD Data Bitcoin hits 6-month Highs, Potentially Targeting levels Above $6’000 || Wall Street is dangerously overestimating Fed rate cut odds, investor who oversees $135 billion in bonds warns: David Leduc believes too many investors are on the wrong side of the bond trade. Leduc, chief investment officer of Mellon's active fixed-income team, blames it on a disconnect between Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. "If you look at Fed Funds futures, they're still pricing in about a 50% chance of a rate cut in December at the end of the year," he told CNBC's " Futures Now " on Thursday. "The market is over-discounting the possibility of Fed cut this year." According to Leduc, the sentiment is reflected in how certain assets have been trading. "Fixed-income investors should be improving the quality of their portfolios," he said. "Risk assets, equity markets... as well as corporate bond assets have performed very strongly this year. Part of that performance in our opinion has been based on this expectation that the Fed may cut rates and keep monetary policy very, very accommodative." Leduc does not believe the Federal Reserve will make a move this year because of a stronger economic picture and he expects inflation to creep higher. "While we are not calling for a runaway increase in inflation... we're likely to see higher cost pressures as we move through the year," he noted. "Shorten the duration" Leduc, who oversees $135 billion in bond portfolios, is focusing on shorter-term duration bonds. He suggests it's a strategy that should be universal in this environment. "Interest rates have the potential to rise throughout the year. So, we would advise investors to look to shorten the duration of their portfolios," he said. He regards bond durations beyond a 3-to-5 year time frame as a risky investment right now, especially in the United States. To protect against rising rates, Leduc lists Treasury Inflation Protected Securities or TIPS as a top pay in this environment. Plus, he sees going up in quality and expanding outside the U.S. as profitable plays. More From CNBC Watch Live Show Now Wall Street's biggest bear emerges into one of its biggest bulls Bitcoin bull Tom Lee says 'crypto winter' is over, new highs by 2020 'likely' || Wall Street is dangerously overestimating Fed rate cut odds, investor who oversees $135 billion in bonds warns: David Leduc believes too many investors are on the wrong side of the bond trade.
Leduc, chief investment officer of Mellon's active fixed-income team, blames it on a disconnect between Wall Street and the Federal Reserve.
"If you look at Fed Funds futures, they're still pricing in about a 50% chance of a rate cut in December at the end of the year," he told CNBC's " Futures Now " on Thursday. "The market is over-discounting the possibility of Fed cut this year."
According to Leduc, the sentiment is reflected in how certain assets have been trading.
"Fixed-income investors should be improving the quality of their portfolios," he said. "Risk assets, equity markets... as well as corporate bond assets have performed very strongly this year. Part of that performance in our opinion has been based on this expectation that the Fed may cut rates and keep monetary policy very, very accommodative."
Leduc does not believe the Federal Reserve will make a move this year because of a stronger economic picture and he expects inflation to creep higher.
"While we are not calling for a runaway increase in inflation... we're likely to see higher cost pressures as we move through the year," he noted.
"Shorten the duration"
Leduc, who oversees $135 billion in bond portfolios, is focusing on shorter-term duration bonds. He suggests it's a strategy that should be universal in this environment.
"Interest rates have the potential to rise throughout the year. So, we would advise investors to look to shorten the duration of their portfolios," he said.
He regards bond durations beyond a 3-to-5 year time frame as a risky investment right now, especially in the United States.
To protect against rising rates, Leduc lists Treasury Inflation Protected Securities or TIPS as a top pay in this environment. Plus, he sees going up in quality and expanding outside the U.S. as profitable plays.
More From CNBC
• Watch Live Show Now
• Wall Street's biggest bear emerges into one of its biggest bulls
• Bitcoin bull Tom Lee says 'crypto winter' is over, new highs by 2020 'likely' || Warren Buffett slams bitcoin as a 'gambling device': Billionaire investorWarren Buffettis not deviating from his position on cryptocurrency.
The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO told FOX Business's Liz Claman that bitcoin is a “gambling device” that hasn’t produce anything substantive.
“[Bitcoin] doesn’t reproduce. It doesn’t speak to you. And it doesn’t do anything. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me,” he said on Saturday during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Bitcoin recently surged from $5,456 to an annual high of $5,864 with a market cap of $103.4 billion.
But Buffett said bitcoin has a very limited use that has been tied to fraudulent activities.
“I’ll tear off a button here, and we’ll have this as a little token, and I’ll offer it to you for a $1,000 and I’ll see if I can get the price to $2,000 by the end of the day,” he said.
He went on to say, “People will create a gazillion of them naturally. There’s been a lot of fraud connected with them; there have been disappearances. So there has been a lot lost on it.”
Buffett is no stranger to slamming cryptocurrency. Last year, he referred to bitcoin as “rat poison squared” afterBerkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Mungeroriginally called the cryptocurrency “rat poison” in 2013.
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• Retiring Next Year? 8 Money Moves to Make Now || Warren Buffett slams bitcoin as a 'gambling device': Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is not deviating from his position on cryptocurrency. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO told FOX Business's Liz Claman that bitcoin is a “gambling device” that hasn’t produce anything substantive. “[Bitcoin] doesn’t reproduce. It doesn’t speak to you. And it doesn’t do anything. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me,” he said on Saturday during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Bitcoin recently surged from $5,456 to an annual high of $5,864 with a market cap of $103.4 billion. But Buffett said bitcoin has a very limited use that has been tied to fraudulent activities. “I’ll tear off a button here, and we’ll have this as a little token, and I’ll offer it to you for a $1,000 and I’ll see if I can get the price to $2,000 by the end of the day,” he said. He went on to say, “People will create a gazillion of them naturally. There’s been a lot of fraud connected with them; there have been disappearances. So there has been a lot lost on it.” Buffett is no stranger to slamming cryptocurrency. Last year, he referred to bitcoin as “rat poison squared” after Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger originally called the cryptocurrency “rat poison” in 2013. Related Articles Consequences Of The Millennial/Debt Relationship Big Companies without Profits - Amazon, Twitter, Uber and Other Big Names that Don’t Make Money Retiring Next Year? 8 Money Moves to Make Now || Can We Please Stop the Ridiculous Hysteria About Cryptocurrency Fraud?: ByCCN: Another week, another breathless report about cryptocurrency fraud. Is this even news anymore?
On April 30,CipherTrace reported that it had identified $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency fraudin the first quarter of 2019, compared to $1.7 billion fraud over the entirety of 2018.
If the pace continues, we’ll see almost $5 billion in cryptocurrency-related fraud this year.
That’s bad, guys. Really bad.
But before you wave the “crypto’s a scam” banner andJohn McAfeestarts looking for ways to get out of eating his d*ck, let’s put things in perspective.
Bitcoin-related scams are only a problem when you take them out of context. | Source: Shutterstock
First, $5 billion isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Can We Please Stop the Ridiculous Hysteria About Cryptocurrency Fraud?: It's time we finally stop wringing our hands about cryptocurrency fraud. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : Another week, another breathless report about cryptocurrency fraud. Is this even news anymore? On April 30, CipherTrace reported that it had identified $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency fraud in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $1.7 billion fraud over the entirety of 2018. If the pace continues, well see almost $5 billion in cryptocurrency-related fraud this year. Thats bad, guys. Really bad. But before you wave the cryptos a scam banner and John McAfee starts looking for ways to get out of eating his d*ck, lets put things in perspective. Crypto Fraud Looks Like a Big DealBut Its Really Not bitcoin fraud Bitcoin-related scams are only a problem when you take them out of context. | Source: Shutterstock First, $5 billion isnt that much in the grand scheme of things. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Millionaires ‘increasingly seeking exposure to crypto’, deVere Group: 68% of high-net-worth individuals (£1 million-plus) will be invested in cryptocurrencies in the next three years, according to deVere Group research involving 700 of its global clients. Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, comments: “There is growing, universal acceptance that cryptocurrencies are the future of money – and the future is now. High net worth individuals are not prepared to miss out on this and are rebalancing their investment portfolios towards these digital assets. Crypto is to money what Amazon was to retail. Those surveyed clearly will not want to be the last one on the boat.” Green believes there are five other main drivers here. First, cryptocurrencies are borderless, making them perfectly suited to an ever globalised world of commerce, trade, and people. Second, they are digital, making them perfectly suited for the increasing digitalisation of our world, which is often called the fourth industrial revolution. Third, they provide solutions for real-life issues, including making international remittances more efficient, and help bank the world’s estimated two billion ‘unbanked’ population. Fourth, demographics are on the side of cryptocurrencies as younger people are more likely to embrace them than older generations. And fifth, institutional investors are coming off the sidelines and moving into cryptocurrencies. $6,000 Last month, Green made headlines when he stated that, after being in bear territory, there was a growing sense that Bitcoin was back. As the cryptocurrency crossed the $5,000 line in early April, he said: “I’m now calling that the market has bottomed and the so-called crypto winter has come to an end. I believe it will now move higher over the next few weeks and months, making steady gains for investors. As the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, this will have a positive impact on prices in the wider crypto sector.” He added that the space was on the verge of a “true global breakout..Adoption is increasing all the time. This is evidenced not only in the financial sector, in which major banks are increasingly looking at blockchain and crypto, but with big names within the tech and retail sectors too.” “I think we could reasonably see the Bitcoin price hitting $7,000 in the next few months,” he concluded. The post Millionaires ‘increasingly seeking exposure to crypto’, deVere Group appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Millionaires ‘increasingly seeking exposure to crypto’, deVere Group: 68% of high-net-worth individuals (£1 million-plus) will be invested in cryptocurrencies in the next three years, according to deVere Group research involving 700 of its global clients. Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, comments: “There is growing, universal acceptance that cryptocurrencies are the future of money – and the future is now. High net worth individuals are not prepared to miss out on this and are rebalancing their investment portfolios towards these digital assets. Crypto is to money what Amazon was to retail. Those surveyed clearly will not want to be the last one on the boat.” Green believes there are five other main drivers here. First, cryptocurrencies are borderless, making them perfectly suited to an ever globalised world of commerce, trade, and people. Second, they are digital, making them perfectly suited for the increasing digitalisation of our world, which is often called the fourth industrial revolution. Third, they provide solutions for real-life issues, including making international remittances more efficient, and help bank the world’s estimated two billion ‘unbanked’ population. Fourth, demographics are on the side of cryptocurrencies as younger people are more likely to embrace them than older generations. And fifth, institutional investors are coming off the sidelines and moving into cryptocurrencies. $6,000 Last month, Green made headlines when he stated that, after being in bear territory, there was a growing sense that Bitcoin was back. As the cryptocurrency crossed the $5,000 line in early April, he said: “I’m now calling that the market has bottomed and the so-called crypto winter has come to an end. I believe it will now move higher over the next few weeks and months, making steady gains for investors. As the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, this will have a positive impact on prices in the wider crypto sector.” He added that the space was on the verge of a “true global breakout..Adoption is increasing all the time. This is evidenced not only in the financial sector, in which major banks are increasingly looking at blockchain and crypto, but with big names within the tech and retail sectors too.” “I think we could reasonably see the Bitcoin price hitting $7,000 in the next few months,” he concluded. The post Millionaires ‘increasingly seeking exposure to crypto’, deVere Group appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Five retailers that are all about the blockchain right now: 1.) Ikea Ikea’s R&D laboratory Space10 has teamed up with blockchain ventures Bloc and Blocktech and architects SachsNottveit to develop a prototype clean energy microgrid that could enable communities to be self-sufficient for their electricity supply. “Centralised energy systems are often too slow and economically inadequate to reach the billion people who remain locked in energy poverty,” says Bas Van De Poel, Creative Director at Space10. “The SolarVille project showcases that, when working in tandem, technologies such as solar panels, micro-grids and blockchain open new opportunities: off-grid systems allowing people to leapfrog traditional grid electricity.” Ikea already sells solar panels and battery storage systems and SolarVille could be a sign that the furniture retailer is looking to expand this side of its business. “We are curious and always looking for innovative ideas that can help more people live a better life within the limits of the planet,” comments Torbjörn Lööf, CEO at Inter Ikea Group. “Space10 gives us new perspectives, discovering new opportunities within many different areas. It will be very interesting to learn how this combination of new technology and solar energy solutions can make lives better for many people.” 2.) JD.com Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has launched JD Chain, a blockchain framework for businesses. This follows on from a blockchain technology open platform, which enables businesses to leverage pre-built APIs. The new addition means that companies can now build their own solutions, starting from the underlying architecture and without relying on pre-built APIs. This will be complemented by the JD Chain Open Source Community, which aims to promote greater discussions and pooling of resources among blockchain developers and enterprise users. “JD has long been a trailblazer in pushing the boundaries of blockchain’s potential to transform global commerce,” says Xinlei Zhai, Head of Blockchain at JD.com. “Through JD Chain and the JD Chain Open Source Community, we are empowering enterprises to leverage the vast technological resources at our disposal to develop their own blockchain solutions, creating greater security, efficiency and transparency across all of their operations.” Story continues Further info here . 3.) Albertsons Companies Food and drug chain Albertsons Companies has signed up with IBM’s Food Trust blockchain platform. The retailer, which operates nearly 2,300 stores across the US, will pilot Food Trust for tracing bulk romaine lettuce from one of its distribution centres. It will then explore expanding to other food categories throughout its distribution network. It is looking to overcome the obstacles that have existed when a traceback is initiated for a product like romaine and is evaluating ways to highlight the provenance of its Own Brands portfolio. Since it launched in October 2018, Food Trust has grown to incorporate around 80 clients, with over five million food products now using blockchain technology as part of their delivery process. “Multiple high-profile consumer advisories from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration demonstrate the need to find more efficient ways of tracing products and identifying likely sources of contamination in a timely manner,” says Jerry Noland, VP of Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Albertsons Companies. “Consequently, retailers are exploring new technologies to improve the infrastructure that underpins the global food supply chain.” 4.) Domino’s Pizza Domino’s Pizza Malaysia & Singapore has announced a partnership with decentralised platform/AI venture SingularityNET. It will be using SingularityNET’s AI algorithms to help optimise people’s time and resources and ways to deliver goods. The deal is pitched as the first time a multi-national company has chosen a decentralised open source AI solution instead of a closed circuit, centralised standard player to meet these challenges. All activities will be recorded and monetised using the SingularityNET native token. “ We are currently in the midst of transforming our core products and our data delivery platform to bring more speed and efficiency to our customers. Our newest transformation effort is occurring in our operations function, where we are automating significant portions of our delivery operations and consolidating our operations centres. SingularityNET’s AI algorithms and services will allow us to explore these efficiencies at scale,” says Domino’s Chief Executive Officer Ba U Shan-Ting. 5.) Rakuten Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten will launch its cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet, in June. This was recently renamed from Everybody’s Bitcoin and will start accepting applications for accounts in April. Rakuten acquired the exchange last year for 265 million yen, a few months after Japanese authorities issued a business improvement order against Everybody’s Bitcoin due to concerns about its risk management system. Rakuten said at the time: “We expect that the role of cryptocurrency-based payments in e-commerce, offline retail and in P2P payments will grow in the future. In order to provide cryptocurrency payment methods smoothly, we believe it is necessary for us to provide a cryptocurrency exchange function.” It has now completed a restructuring process, including formulating a business improvement plan and strengthening business management and internal control systems. The post Five retailers that are all about the blockchain right now appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Five retailers that are all about the blockchain right now: 1.) Ikea Ikea’s R&D laboratory Space10 has teamed up with blockchain ventures Bloc and Blocktech and architects SachsNottveit to develop a prototype clean energy microgrid that could enable communities to be self-sufficient for their electricity supply. “Centralised energy systems are often too slow and economically inadequate to reach the billion people who remain locked in energy poverty,” says Bas Van De Poel, Creative Director at Space10. “The SolarVille project showcases that, when working in tandem, technologies such as solar panels, micro-grids and blockchain open new opportunities: off-grid systems allowing people to leapfrog traditional grid electricity.” Ikea already sells solar panels and battery storage systems and SolarVille could be a sign that the furniture retailer is looking to expand this side of its business. “We are curious and always looking for innovative ideas that can help more people live a better life within the limits of the planet,” comments Torbjörn Lööf, CEO at Inter Ikea Group. “Space10 gives us new perspectives, discovering new opportunities within many different areas. It will be very interesting to learn how this combination of new technology and solar energy solutions can make lives better for many people.” 2.) JD.com Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has launched JD Chain, a blockchain framework for businesses. This follows on from a blockchain technology open platform, which enables businesses to leverage pre-built APIs. The new addition means that companies can now build their own solutions, starting from the underlying architecture and without relying on pre-built APIs. This will be complemented by the JD Chain Open Source Community, which aims to promote greater discussions and pooling of resources among blockchain developers and enterprise users. “JD has long been a trailblazer in pushing the boundaries of blockchain’s potential to transform global commerce,” says Xinlei Zhai, Head of Blockchain at JD.com. “Through JD Chain and the JD Chain Open Source Community, we are empowering enterprises to leverage the vast technological resources at our disposal to develop their own blockchain solutions, creating greater security, efficiency and transparency across all of their operations.” Story continues Further info here . 3.) Albertsons Companies Food and drug chain Albertsons Companies has signed up with IBM’s Food Trust blockchain platform. The retailer, which operates nearly 2,300 stores across the US, will pilot Food Trust for tracing bulk romaine lettuce from one of its distribution centres. It will then explore expanding to other food categories throughout its distribution network. It is looking to overcome the obstacles that have existed when a traceback is initiated for a product like romaine and is evaluating ways to highlight the provenance of its Own Brands portfolio. Since it launched in October 2018, Food Trust has grown to incorporate around 80 clients, with over five million food products now using blockchain technology as part of their delivery process. “Multiple high-profile consumer advisories from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration demonstrate the need to find more efficient ways of tracing products and identifying likely sources of contamination in a timely manner,” says Jerry Noland, VP of Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Albertsons Companies. “Consequently, retailers are exploring new technologies to improve the infrastructure that underpins the global food supply chain.” 4.) Domino’s Pizza Domino’s Pizza Malaysia & Singapore has announced a partnership with decentralised platform/AI venture SingularityNET. It will be using SingularityNET’s AI algorithms to help optimise people’s time and resources and ways to deliver goods. The deal is pitched as the first time a multi-national company has chosen a decentralised open source AI solution instead of a closed circuit, centralised standard player to meet these challenges. All activities will be recorded and monetised using the SingularityNET native token. “ We are currently in the midst of transforming our core products and our data delivery platform to bring more speed and efficiency to our customers. Our newest transformation effort is occurring in our operations function, where we are automating significant portions of our delivery operations and consolidating our operations centres. SingularityNET’s AI algorithms and services will allow us to explore these efficiencies at scale,” says Domino’s Chief Executive Officer Ba U Shan-Ting. 5.) Rakuten Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten will launch its cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet, in June. This was recently renamed from Everybody’s Bitcoin and will start accepting applications for accounts in April. Rakuten acquired the exchange last year for 265 million yen, a few months after Japanese authorities issued a business improvement order against Everybody’s Bitcoin due to concerns about its risk management system. Rakuten said at the time: “We expect that the role of cryptocurrency-based payments in e-commerce, offline retail and in P2P payments will grow in the future. In order to provide cryptocurrency payment methods smoothly, we believe it is necessary for us to provide a cryptocurrency exchange function.” It has now completed a restructuring process, including formulating a business improvement plan and strengthening business management and internal control systems. The post Five retailers that are all about the blockchain right now appeared first on Coin Rivet . || New York Bitcoin Mining Magnate Accused of Stealing Over 5000 Crypto Miners: The federal government is investigating a crypto crime involving the alleged theft off bitcoin mining rigs. | Souce:. Photo by Lars Hagberg / AFP By CCN.com : A New York Bitcoin miner hosting company called Northway Mining stands accused of stealing at least 5100 pieces of mining equipment from two companies. Given the scope of the investigation currently underway by the federal government, the damage might be much more significant than this. Northway Mining Sued For Violation of RICO Act At least four Bitcoin companies have been allegedly victimized, though we use the term allegedly in its most legal definition: strictly because the accused have not yet been convicted. MinedMap, Inc, Serenity Alpha, Inc, both of Nevada, and Quebec, Inc from Canada. The other is BlockAssets, a company based in Perth, Australia. The former chose Northway Mining to host more 2800 Bitmain S9 miners, over half of its entire fleet, in September 2018. Another 800 miners were sent to the facility by the companies. The latter had the decision made for them by a Canadian company who couldnt handle their 1500 units. Well be following up with a story about BlockAssets at another time. As to MinedMap, Serenity Alpha, and Quebec Inc, theyre collectively filing lawsuits against Northway Mining, as a start. At the same time, the issue is currently being treated as a criminal investigation by federal authorities. As you can see in the videos below, the US Marshall Service searched the facility leased by Northway in Coxsackie, New York, this past week. At Least Over 5000 Bitmain Miners Stolen in All The pending lawsuit alleges that Northway bilked clients out of nearly 3600 pieces of Bitcoin mining equipment (one was recovered with the help of the Marshalls), as well as over $500,000 in deposits. The complaint records this: Québec Inc. also requested the return of its deposits of $46,746.09, $23,255.66, and $23,824.42 for a total of $93,826.17 because its deposits had not been spent on electrical power since the Miners were not plugged in. [
] On September 21, 2018, MinedMap and Serenity wired $162,000.00 to Northway as a deposit on the electrical costs Northway was to incur hosting MinedMap and Serenitys Miners. In addition, almost one week later, MinedMap and Serenity wired an additional $270,000.00 as an additional deposit for electrical costs Northway would incur in providing electricity to MinedMap and Serenitys Miners. Read the full story on CCN.com .
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|
5746.81, 5829.50, 5982.46, 6174.53, 6378.85, 7204.77, 6972.37, 7814.92, 7994.42, 8205.17
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05, 11675.74, 11878.11, 11410.53, 11584.93, 11784.14, 11768.87, 11865.70, 11892.80, 12254.40, 11991.23, 11758.28, 11878.37, 11592.49, 11681.83, 11664.85, 11774.60, 11366.13, 11488.36, 11323.40, 11542.50, 11506.87, 11711.51, 11680.82, 11970.48, 11414.03, 10245.30, 10511.81, 10169.57, 10280.35, 10369.56, 10131.52, 10242.35, 10363.14, 10400.92, 10442.17, 10323.76, 10680.84, 10796.95, 10974.91, 10948.99, 10944.59, 11094.35, 10938.27, 10462.26, 10538.46, 10246.19, 10760.07, 10692.72, 10750.72, 10775.27, 10709.65, 10844.64, 10784.49, 10619.45, 10575.97, 10549.33, 10669.58, 10793.34, 10604.41, 10668.97, 10915.69, 11064.46, 11296.36, 11384.18, 11555.36, 11425.90, 11429.51, 11495.35, 11322.12, 11358.10, 11483.36, 11742.04, 11916.33, 12823.69, 12965.89, 12931.54, 13108.06, 13031.17, 13075.25, 13654.22, 13271.29.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-10-28]
Volume: 35867318895, RSI (14-day): 72.54, 50-day EMA: 11607.54, 200-day EMA: 10344.43
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1876.20, Gold RSI: 41.51
Oil Price: 37.39, Oil RSI: 39.51
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs: U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disabled trading due to feed issues amidbitcoin’sascension towards 2019 highs near $13,880.
• According to acompany updateon Wednesday, Coinbase said it is “currently investigating the issue,” but no further comment was provided.
• Coinbase has suffered a number of outages during busy trading periods this year including on Sept. 4, the last time an outage caused trading to halt, according to the company’s status page.
• The outage comes at a time when bitcoin has been fast approaching new highs not seen since June 26, 2019.
• “All updates will be posted in the link,” Coinbase Senior Manager of Communications Crystal Yang told CoinDesk via email.
See also:Coinbase Received Over 1,800 Law Enforcement Information Requests in the First Half of 2020
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs || Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs: U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disabled trading due to feed issues amidbitcoin’sascension towards 2019 highs near $13,880.
• According to acompany updateon Wednesday, Coinbase said it is “currently investigating the issue,” but no further comment was provided.
• Coinbase has suffered a number of outages during busy trading periods this year including on Sept. 4, the last time an outage caused trading to halt, according to the company’s status page.
• The outage comes at a time when bitcoin has been fast approaching new highs not seen since June 26, 2019.
• “All updates will be posted in the link,” Coinbase Senior Manager of Communications Crystal Yang told CoinDesk via email.
See also:Coinbase Received Over 1,800 Law Enforcement Information Requests in the First Half of 2020
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs
• Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs || Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs: U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disabled trading due to feed issues amid bitcoin’s ascension towards 2019 highs near $13,880. According to a company update on Wednesday, Coinbase said it is “currently investigating the issue,” but no further comment was provided. Coinbase has suffered a number of outages during busy trading periods this year including on Sept. 4, the last time an outage caused trading to halt, according to the company’s status page. The outage comes at a time when bitcoin has been fast approaching new highs not seen since June 26, 2019. “All updates will be posted in the link,” Coinbase Senior Manager of Communications Crystal Yang told CoinDesk via email. See also: Coinbase Received Over 1,800 Law Enforcement Information Requests in the First Half of 2020 Related Stories Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs || Ray Dalio on why Chinese capitalism is on the rise—and why American capitalism is in desperate need of a fix: Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today . As head of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio has witnessed firsthand China’s rise into a global economic superpower. “I’ve been going to China regularly since 1984; I know the people, I’m intimately involved with economic policymakers [there],” Dalio said Tuesday during this year’s virtual edition of the Fortune Global Forum . Having developed an “intimate understanding” of the Chinese economy and witnessed how the country has gradually opened up its markets to the rest of the world, Dalio believes China is well on its way to superseding the U.S. in terms of economic growth and potential in the coming years—a topic he expounds on in his upcoming book, The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail . “It’s called state capitalism, but they’ll produce more billionaires [than the U.S.],” Dalio said. “I think capitalism and the development of the capital markets could, in a few years, be more embraced in China than they are in the U.S.” For Dalio, the proof is in the remarkable development of China’s workforce and talent pool, and how economic growth has gradually translated into a better educated, more prosperous society. “Since I started going there, per-capita incomes have increased by 30 times,” he noted. “They’re putting out eight times as many computer engineers and STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] graduates. It’s a place where there is a vibrancy, a creativity, and a development of capital markets.” That development is set to continue as the country’s capital markets continue to mature. Dalio projected that roughly 40% of new initial public offerings will soon be “raised by Chinese companies, on Chinese exchanges”—and that, in turn, will lead to more institutional investors around the world deciding to pour more of their money into Chinese markets. “The capital flow picture is more attractive,” Dalio said, adding that right now, “the world is underweight in Chinese assets.” Story continues The flipside to that is an American economy increasingly marked by economic inequality, and an American society that has suffered for it, according to Dalio. “I grew up in an era—I was born in 1949—where equal opportunity and broad-based outcomes were the benefit,” he said. “I could go to a public school, my parents took care of me, and I came up in a world of equal opportunity.” Opportunity is much less equitably distributed in the U.S. these days, Dalio noted. “If that’s the goal, and we’re trying to measure ourselves against that goal, I think there’s a real problem here,” he said. Dalio cited the state of public schools in his home state of Connecticut, where his own research found that one of the largest wealth gaps in the country had resulted in a self-perpetuating “cycle” in which the top 40% of households “spent five times as much money on their children’s education than those in the bottom 60%.” So while capitalism has proven a historically adept method for the creation of wealth and prosperity, Dalio believes there are serious fixes in order for the American variety. “We want to keep capitalism—it’s an effective resource,” he said. “But if it isn’t totally effective, it has to be dealt with.” And if those inequalities in our society aren’t addressed, Dalio warned of potentially dire repercussions to come. “That needs to be dealt with and figured out,” he stressed. “Otherwise, we’re going to have a civil war or revolution of some form.” More must-read finance coverage from Fortune : Chobani and PayPal are paying workers more— and rethinking capitalism When it comes to climate change, says Mark Carney, this financial crisis is different —and maybe better Ray Dalio on why Chinese capitalism is on the rise —and why American capitalism is in desperate need of a fix Microsoft’s cloud could be a bit foggy for the next quarter Coinbase launches crypto debit card in U.S. with 1% Bitcoin reward This story was originally featured on Fortune.com || Ray Dalio on why Chinese capitalism is on the rise—and why American capitalism is in desperate need of a fix: Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism,subscribe today.
As head of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio has witnessed firsthand China’s rise into a global economic superpower.
“I’ve been going to China regularly since 1984; I know the people, I’m intimately involved with economic policymakers [there],” Dalio said Tuesday during this year’s virtual edition of theFortuneGlobal Forum.
Having developed an “intimate understanding” of the Chinese economy and witnessed how the country has gradually opened up its markets to the rest of the world, Dalio believes China is well on its way to superseding the U.S. in terms of economic growth and potential in the coming years—a topic he expounds on in his upcoming book,The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail.
“It’s called state capitalism, but they’ll produce more billionaires [than the U.S.],” Dalio said. “I think capitalism and the development of the capital markets could, in a few years, be more embraced in China than they are in the U.S.”
For Dalio, the proof is in the remarkable development of China’s workforce and talent pool, and how economic growth has gradually translated into a better educated, more prosperous society. “Since I started going there, per-capita incomes have increased by 30 times,” he noted. “They’re putting out eight times as many computer engineers and STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] graduates. It’s a place where there is a vibrancy, a creativity, and a development of capital markets.”
That development is set to continue as the country’s capital markets continue to mature. Dalio projected that roughly 40% of new initial public offerings will soon be “raised by Chinese companies, on Chinese exchanges”—and that, in turn, will lead to more institutional investors around the world deciding to pour more of their money into Chinese markets. “The capital flow picture is more attractive,” Dalio said, adding that right now, “the world is underweight in Chinese assets.”
The flipside to that is an American economy increasingly marked by economic inequality, and an American society that has suffered for it, according to Dalio. “I grew up in an era—I was born in 1949—where equal opportunity and broad-based outcomes were the benefit,” he said. “I could go to a public school, my parents took care of me, and I came up in a world of equal opportunity.”
Opportunity is much less equitably distributed in the U.S. these days, Dalio noted. “If that’s the goal, and we’re trying to measure ourselves against that goal, I think there’s a real problem here,” he said. Dalio cited the state of public schools in his home state of Connecticut, where his own research found that one of the largest wealth gaps in the country had resulted in a self-perpetuating “cycle” in which the top 40% of households “spent five times as much money on their children’s education than those in the bottom 60%.”
So while capitalism has proven a historically adept method for the creation of wealth and prosperity, Dalio believes there are serious fixes in order for the American variety. “We want to keep capitalism—it’s an effective resource,” he said. “But if it isn’t totally effective, it has to be dealt with.”
And if those inequalities in our society aren’t addressed, Dalio warned of potentially dire repercussions to come. “That needs to be dealt with and figured out,” he stressed. “Otherwise, we’re going to have a civil war or revolution of some form.”
• Chobani and PayPal are paying workers more—and rethinking capitalism
• When it comes to climate change, says Mark Carney,this financial crisis is different—and maybe better
• Ray Dalio on whyChinese capitalism is on the rise—and why American capitalism is in desperate need of a fix
• Microsoft’s cloudcould be a bit foggy for the next quarter
• Coinbase launchescrypto debit cardin U.S. with 1% Bitcoin reward
This story was originally featured onFortune.com || Fintech Focus For October 28, 2020: Quote Of The Day:Life is a long lesson in humility.-James M. Barrie
Fintech Movers:UBS Group AG plans to invest $200 million of its own money in fintech companies over the medium term in a push to further digitize its services and find new ways to engage with clients.-Bloomberg
• Benzingaunveilsfintech event finalists.
• Visa’s deal to buy Plaidfacesantitrust.
• BlackRock robo-adviserfightsa breach.
• CMErollsout BrokerTec RFQ platform.
• Dorsey totalkDeFi at a fintech summit.
• Tiller Moneylaunchesdata sharing tech.
• Lendeskbuysmortgage fintech Finmo.
• Payateamedwith consumer Artis Tech.
• Finovateconferenceset for November.
• Deutsche Börse 360Taddsorder book.
• LPL Financial isintegratingBlaze tech.
• Allianzjoinsbond data pooling network.
• DriveWealthsecures$56M in Series C.
• Shopify, TikTokteamup on commerce.
• JPM hasformeda new blockchain unit.
• What Ant’s IPOmeansfor Asian fintech.
• Itivitiintroscloud transformation of tech.
Benzinga Global Fintech Awards Spotlight:
Every year Benzinga, a leading news and data platform, holds the Global Fintech Awards, a day of dealmaking, networking, and recognition in the fintech space.
Ahead of the November 10, 2020 event, this newsletter highlights disruptive innovators working to create positive and diverse change in financial services.
Today's disruptive innovator isIG Group, a leader in derivatives trading.
For a chance to make your mark on the future of innovation and be featured in this newsletter,check out our Global Fintech Awards! To meet the biggest names in fintech and discover emerging trends,get tickets here.
Watch For This:Nearly half a million people in the United States have contracted the novel coronavirus in the last seven days.-Al Jazeera
• Experian wastoldto stop sharing data.
• Goldman executivesawareof bribing.
• Subliminaltextson Halloween candies.
• Taking a look at thedominationof BTC.
Market Moving Headline:Markets are increasingly reflecting a unified Democratic government outcome that may lead to a significant fiscal expansion.-BlackRock
• HSBC, Santanderincreasecost-cutting.
• Microsoftreportsa beat in all segments.
• Pfizersaysno COVID vaccine data yet.
• Trumpcuttariffs on Canadian aluminum.
• AirbnbchoosesNasdaq for IPO venue.
• New business jet travelersfuelrecovery.
• Core capital good ordershit6-year high.
• Caterpillar earningsdoveon new sales.
• USconcedesno relief bill until election.
• TeslaturnsUK homes into power plants.
• AMD willbuychip peer Xilinx for $35B.
• Third wavethreateningUS businesses.
• SAPsentwarning for software earnings.
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• Interactive Brokers Takes Leadership Stance In ESG With Launch Of Impact Dashboard
• Fintech Focus For October 27, 2020
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Fintech Focus For October 28, 2020: Fintech Header Quote Of The Day: Life is a long lesson in humility. - James M. Barrie Fintech Movers: UBS Group AG plans to invest $200 million of its own money in fintech companies over the medium term in a push to further digitize its services and find new ways to engage with clients. - Bloomberg Benzinga unveils fintech event finalists. Visa’s deal to buy Plaid faces antitrust. BlackRock robo-adviser fights a breach. CME rolls out BrokerTec RFQ platform. Dorsey to talk DeFi at a fintech summit. Tiller Money launches data sharing tech. Lendesk buys mortgage fintech Finmo. Paya teamed with consumer Artis Tech. Finovate conference set for November. Deutsche Börse 360T adds order book. LPL Financial is integrating Blaze tech. Allianz joins bond data pooling network. DriveWealth secures $56M in Series C. Shopify, TikTok team up on commerce. JPM has formed a new blockchain unit. What Ant’s IPO means for Asian fintech. Itiviti intros cloud transformation of tech. Benzinga Global Fintech Awards Spotlight: Every year Benzinga, a leading news and data platform, holds the Global Fintech Awards, a day of dealmaking, networking, and recognition in the fintech space. Ahead of the November 10, 2020 event, this newsletter highlights disruptive innovators working to create positive and diverse change in financial services. Today's disruptive innovator is IG Group , a leader in derivatives trading. For a chance to make your mark on the future of innovation and be featured in this newsletter, check out our Global Fintech Awards ! To meet the biggest names in fintech and discover emerging trends, get tickets here . Watch For This: Nearly half a million people in the United States have contracted the novel coronavirus in the last seven days. - Al Jazeera Experian was told to stop sharing data. Goldman executives aware of bribing. Subliminal texts on Halloween candies. Taking a look at the domination of BTC. ElSjgl4UYAA0Qz0 Market Moving Headline: Markets are increasingly reflecting a unified Democratic government outcome that may lead to a significant fiscal expansion. - BlackRock Story continues HSBC, Santander increase cost-cutting. Microsoft reports a beat in all segments. Pfizer says no COVID vaccine data yet. Trump cut tariffs on Canadian aluminum. Airbnb chooses Nasdaq for IPO venue. New business jet travelers fuel recovery. Core capital good orders hit 6-year high. Caterpillar earnings dove on new sales. US concedes no relief bill until election. Tesla turns UK homes into power plants. AMD will buy chip peer Xilinx for $35B. Third wave threatening US businesses. SAP sent warning for software earnings. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Interactive Brokers Takes Leadership Stance In ESG With Launch Of Impact Dashboard Fintech Focus For October 27, 2020 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever: • Bitcoin mining profitability is in the basement, seeing all-time lows in 2020.
• Conversely, bitcoin’s hashrate has surged throughout 2020, propelled in part by mining farms financing new hardware to boost their operations.
• Bitcoin’s hashrate has taken a dip as China’s wet season comes to an end, but mining professionals predict this will only be temporary, and it has only improved profit margins so much.
Bitcoinmining profits have been rock bottom in 2020.
For much of the year, the cryptocurrency has been less profitable to mine than ever. And that’s because Bitcoin’s collective hashrate – or how much computing power is pulsing through the network – has surged to consecutive all-time highs this year.
Read more:How Bitcoin Mining Works
Related:Putting Pressure on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Vulnerabilities Will Strengthen It
According to North American bitcoin mining company Luxor’shashprice index, miners are extracting $0.096 for every terahash they produce (before the recent price spike, it was lower still at roughly $0.08). This time three years ago, miners could expect to make roughly $1.40. Their revenue in October of 2019, though several magnitudes less than what they were raking in during 2017’s market mania, was still double today’s cash flows at $0.16.
Coming into 2020, minerswere producing approximately 90 exahashes a second(or 83,000,000,000,000,000,000 cryptographic numbers a second in an effort to generate new blocks). Now, they are producing roughly 124 EH/s, after hitting an all time high of 157 EH/s in mid-October.
Bitcoin mining is a resource war of attrition, so naturally revenue margins are dwindling in a year when Bitcoin’s hashrate is exploding. And ASIC financing could largely be to blame.
The practice, whereby big operations can take out loans to bulk-order newer-generation hardware, floods the network with fresh hashrate. The surge in hashrate has meant more competition than ever for the digital gold rush – and with fewer bits to go around, small-time miners are having trouble keeping up.
Related:First Mover: Bitcoin's Latest Rally Proving Irresistible as Bitwise Assets Top $100M
Luxor Mining pool operator Ethan Vera told CoinDesk the anemic miner revenue is a direct result of the Bitcoin system’s growing hashrate, its relatively stagnant price and lower-than-usual transaction fees.
According to Luxor’s index, the seven-day hashrate average is currently resting at 124 exahashes a second, and Vera said this “is largely due to Bitmain S19s and Whatsminer M30s being delivered to the market in large quantities.”
Read more:Bitcoin Miner Revenue Saw 11% Drop in September
It’s not unusual, of course, for miner revenue to decline when hashrate is going vertical. But Bitcoin’s stellar increase in hashrate in 2020, a nearly 30% increase this year, is the result of accelerated investment in the industry. Much of this growth comes from ASIC financing, wherein miners take out loans to buy the best new-generation mining equipment.
The mining finance industry, populated by key players including Blockfills, Arctos, BlockFi, SBI, DCG and Galaxy Digital, continues to grow. Increased competition has led to lower rates, Vera said, with some miners being able to secure sub 10% interest loans. Just a year or so ago, the common rate was 20%.
“A number of North American companies have been in the news recently for large hardware purchases, particularly RIOT Blockchain and Bitfarms. Foundry has also popped up recently and offering financing options for ASIC miners,” Thomas Heller, the COO of mining media firm HASHR8, told CoinDesk.
Most recently, CoinDesk reported onMarathon Patent Group’s purchase of 10,000Antminer s-19s, which could pump an estimated 1.1 exhashes into the mining company’s operation. This is Marathon’s second bulk purchase from Bitmain this year after it scooped up 10,500 ASICs for $23 millionin a deal with Bitmain this August.
Stephen Barbour, whose company, Upstream Data, provides oil drillers with mining rigs that run on vented natural gas, sees this as detrimental to Bitcoin mining’s short-to-near-term health. In some cases, he told CoinDesk, the big players aren’t always optimized for profitability because they have financial cushions.
“These guys can rent out an old mine, operate at a loss and then recapitalize,” he told CoinDesk, referring to these firms’ abilities to take out new loans or woo new investors when they need to shore up finances.
A look at one such firm, RIOT Blockchain, makes Barbour’s point. The publicly traded companypurchased thousands of ASICsthis year in a herculean (if quixotic) effort to quadruple its hashrate by 2021. As of June 2020, Riot had net operating losses of nearly $15 million,according to SEC filings.Riot clocked a similar loss in the first half of 2019, and Marathon posted$3.2 million in lossesfor the first half of 2020.
Northern AG, another publicly traded mining operation, had a net income of -$8.7 million in 2019 and -$5.6 million in 2018. Even the profitable ones, like the likewise public industrial miner Hut 8, barely eked out a profit in 2019:after generating $83 million in revenue, Hut 8 pocketed just $2.1 million after debt obligations and other expenses.
Disregarding profit, these miners continue to expand in hopes of future spoils, but this very activity is sending Bitcoin’s hashrate skyward, Barbour argues.
“These guys can get these big loans and they are effectively operating at a loss, and it’s propping up the hashrate.”
As these big mining farms scale irrespective of profit, Bitcoin’s hashrate pumps, and smaller players are having a hard time keeping up with the suped-up competition.
“It’s becoming increasingly challenging for small miners to compete for both hosting and hardware purchases, because lower prices are available for those orders with larger volume,” Heller said.
Vera said, “There is still a large retail market in China that can access sub $0.04 cent power during the rainy season in the Sichuan province. But outside of China, retail mining has declined significantly.”
That rainy season, which provides gushes of cheap power to Chinese miners, is coming to an end, and with it, Bitcoin’s hashrate has taken a12% hitto 124 exahashes. Heller said this dip, which happens annually, will “only be temporary” as the older machines migrate to areas like South America, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran.
Read more:Iran Is Ripe for Bitcoin Adoption, Even as Government Clamps Down on Mining
The miners buying these rigs aren’t concerned with profit, Vera says. “They have other reasons for it,” he said, “such as to avoid capital controls or avoid sanctions.”
For others who are trying to turn a profit,bitcoin’s recent price bump to $13.6K will help a bit, and further upward price action would widen these miners’ revenue margins.
Price may only be part of the solution, though; addressing the competitive discrepancy may also require new market tools to shift hashrate distribution. At least, that’s the idea behindCompass, a service by HASHR8 that matches retail miners with mining farms to host their equipment. Compass wants to make it easier for these miners to find a facility, thereby lowering the barrier of entry to the process and (hopefully) finding the most economical setups for individual miners.
Something like Compass may help smaller miners break into the game. Or maybe the problem will resolve itself when the market does its thing.
“I think in the long term you’ll see more of these massive operations fail,” Barbour told CoinDesk.
A pumping hashrate is always “a terrible thing for miners,” Barbour said, and it may be a degree worse for the little guys, considering “they don’t have the advantage of economies of scale like the bigger guys,” Barbour continued.
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy on the big players, either. After all, more hardware means more operational overhead as well as a mountain of debt to pay off for the financed ASICs.
To sum up the situation with an idiom, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And Barbour thinks the mining giants’ time is coming.
“I think all of these financed operations are a part of what I call the ‘discovery phase’ for this industry. I think we’ll see more of them in the near term but they’ll struggle [in the] long term, and I think their operations will fracture and splinter.”
He continued that, unlike smaller mining operators like himself who have “skin in the game,” these financed operations were launched on the back of someone else’s buck. While this does not guarantee these businesses will be run in spite of profit, it does mean the operators have less at stake than their small business counterparts.
Read more:Marathon Brings New Bitcoin Mining Rigs Online, Sees Itself Becoming Cash-Flow Positive
Still, Vera pointed out, not all of these operations are the same and these operations’ likelihood for success “depends on the interest rate and the operating cost of the borrow.” He added that interest rates around 10% are probably favorable for some of these miners, while any borrowing above that could be unsustainable.
For those firms that aren’t profitable, though, you may be asking why they are operating at all. Barbour told CoinDesk that they’re essentially “speculating on [the price ripping upward]”; they’ve ordered all this new-gen hardware to frontrun the bull run and are gambling that this run will come sooner rather than later.
Yet again, it could all come down to a waiting game of attrition, Barbour says, and the price might not matter that much in the long run.Per “Moore’s Law“, which stipulates that computer processing improves exponentially, ASIC mining hardware will continue to improve towards maximum efficiency.
Eventually, Barbour argues, the new-gen stuff won’t be much more efficient than the old gen, so miners who can mass order machines won’t have an advantage. As miners continue to search for the cheapest, near-free electricity, Barbour believes the mega-operations will eventually be priced out because the upside won’t be there to justify the use of capital.
“They’d be better off just buying bitcoin … Anytime there’s a drive for cheap power, it drives down the profitability for everyone. It’s a race toward zero,” Barbour said.
• ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever
• ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever || ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever: Bitcoin mining profitability is in the basement, seeing all-time lows in 2020. Conversely, bitcoin’s hashrate has surged throughout 2020, propelled in part by mining farms financing new hardware to boost their operations. Bitcoin’s hashrate has taken a dip as China’s wet season comes to an end, but mining professionals predict this will only be temporary, and it has only improved profit margins so much. Bitcoin mining profits have been rock bottom in 2020. For much of the year, the cryptocurrency has been less profitable to mine than ever. And that’s because Bitcoin’s collective hashrate – or how much computing power is pulsing through the network – has surged to consecutive all-time highs this year. Read more: How Bitcoin Mining Works Related: Putting Pressure on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Vulnerabilities Will Strengthen It According to North American bitcoin mining company Luxor’s hashprice index , miners are extracting $0.096 for every terahash they produce (before the recent price spike, it was lower still at roughly $0.08). This time three years ago, miners could expect to make roughly $1.40. Their revenue in October of 2019, though several magnitudes less than what they were raking in during 2017’s market mania, was still double today’s cash flows at $0.16. Coming into 2020, miners were producing approximately 90 exahashes a second (or 83,000,000,000,000,000,000 cryptographic numbers a second in an effort to generate new blocks). Now, they are producing roughly 124 EH/s, after hitting an all time high of 157 EH/s in mid-October. Bitcoin mining is a resource war of attrition, so naturally revenue margins are dwindling in a year when Bitcoin’s hashrate is exploding. And ASIC financing could largely be to blame. The practice, whereby big operations can take out loans to bulk-order newer-generation hardware, floods the network with fresh hashrate. The surge in hashrate has meant more competition than ever for the digital gold rush – and with fewer bits to go around, small-time miners are having trouble keeping up. Story continues Bitcoin’s hashrate and mining revenue are inversely proportional Related: First Mover: Bitcoin's Latest Rally Proving Irresistible as Bitwise Assets Top $100M Luxor Mining pool operator Ethan Vera told CoinDesk the anemic miner revenue is a direct result of the Bitcoin system’s growing hashrate, its relatively stagnant price and lower-than-usual transaction fees. According to Luxor’s index, the seven-day hashrate average is currently resting at 124 exahashes a second, and Vera said this “is largely due to Bitmain S19s and Whatsminer M30s being delivered to the market in large quantities.” Read more: Bitcoin Miner Revenue Saw 11% Drop in September It’s not unusual, of course, for miner revenue to decline when hashrate is going vertical. But Bitcoin’s stellar increase in hashrate in 2020, a nearly 30% increase this year, is the result of accelerated investment in the industry. Much of this growth comes from ASIC financing, wherein miners take out loans to buy the best new-generation mining equipment. The mining finance industry, populated by key players including Blockfills, Arctos, BlockFi, SBI, DCG and Galaxy Digital, continues to grow. Increased competition has led to lower rates, Vera said, with some miners being able to secure sub 10% interest loans. Just a year or so ago, the common rate was 20%. “A number of North American companies have been in the news recently for large hardware purchases, particularly RIOT Blockchain and Bitfarms. Foundry has also popped up recently and offering financing options for ASIC miners,” Thomas Heller, the COO of mining media firm HASHR8, told CoinDesk. Most recently, CoinDesk reported on Marathon Patent Group’s purchase of 10,000 Antminer s-19s, which could pump an estimated 1.1 exhashes into the mining company’s operation. This is Marathon’s second bulk purchase from Bitmain this year after it scooped up 10,500 ASICs for $23 million in a deal with Bitmain this August . Stephen Barbour, whose company, Upstream Data, provides oil drillers with mining rigs that run on vented natural gas, sees this as detrimental to Bitcoin mining’s short-to-near-term health. In some cases, he told CoinDesk, the big players aren’t always optimized for profitability because they have financial cushions. “These guys can rent out an old mine, operate at a loss and then recapitalize,” he told CoinDesk, referring to these firms’ abilities to take out new loans or woo new investors when they need to shore up finances. A look at one such firm, RIOT Blockchain, makes Barbour’s point. The publicly traded company purchased thousands of ASICs this year in a herculean (if quixotic) effort to quadruple its hashrate by 2021. As of June 2020, Riot had net operating losses of nearly $15 million, according to SEC filings. Riot clocked a similar loss in the first half of 2019, and Marathon posted $3.2 million in losses for the first half of 2020. Northern AG, another publicly traded mining operation, had a net income of -$8.7 million in 2019 and -$5.6 million in 2018. Even the profitable ones, like the likewise public industrial miner Hut 8, barely eked out a profit in 2019: after generating $83 million in revenue , Hut 8 pocketed just $2.1 million after debt obligations and other expenses. Disregarding profit, these miners continue to expand in hopes of future spoils, but this very activity is sending Bitcoin’s hashrate skyward, Barbour argues. “These guys can get these big loans and they are effectively operating at a loss, and it’s propping up the hashrate.” Retail miners feeling the heat As these big mining farms scale irrespective of profit, Bitcoin’s hashrate pumps, and smaller players are having a hard time keeping up with the suped-up competition. “It’s becoming increasingly challenging for small miners to compete for both hosting and hardware purchases, because lower prices are available for those orders with larger volume,” Heller said. Vera said, “There is still a large retail market in China that can access sub $0.04 cent power during the rainy season in the Sichuan province. But outside of China, retail mining has declined significantly.” That rainy season, which provides gushes of cheap power to Chinese miners, is coming to an end, and with it, Bitcoin’s hashrate has taken a 12% hit to 124 exahashes. Heller said this dip, which happens annually, will “only be temporary” as the older machines migrate to areas like South America, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran. Read more: Iran Is Ripe for Bitcoin Adoption, Even as Government Clamps Down on Mining The miners buying these rigs aren’t concerned with profit, Vera says. “They have other reasons for it,” he said, “such as to avoid capital controls or avoid sanctions.” For others who are trying to turn a profit, bitcoin ’s recent price bump to $13.6K will help a bit, and further upward price action would widen these miners’ revenue margins. Price may only be part of the solution, though; addressing the competitive discrepancy may also require new market tools to shift hashrate distribution. At least, that’s the idea behind Compass , a service by HASHR8 that matches retail miners with mining farms to host their equipment. Compass wants to make it easier for these miners to find a facility, thereby lowering the barrier of entry to the process and (hopefully) finding the most economical setups for individual miners. A problem for the Bitcoin mining market (and time) Something like Compass may help smaller miners break into the game. Or maybe the problem will resolve itself when the market does its thing. “I think in the long term you’ll see more of these massive operations fail,” Barbour told CoinDesk. A pumping hashrate is always “a terrible thing for miners,” Barbour said, and it may be a degree worse for the little guys, considering “they don’t have the advantage of economies of scale like the bigger guys,” Barbour continued. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy on the big players, either. After all, more hardware means more operational overhead as well as a mountain of debt to pay off for the financed ASICs. To sum up the situation with an idiom, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And Barbour thinks the mining giants’ time is coming. “I think all of these financed operations are a part of what I call the ‘discovery phase’ for this industry. I think we’ll see more of them in the near term but they’ll struggle [in the] long term, and I think their operations will fracture and splinter.” He continued that, unlike smaller mining operators like himself who have “skin in the game,” these financed operations were launched on the back of someone else’s buck. While this does not guarantee these businesses will be run in spite of profit, it does mean the operators have less at stake than their small business counterparts. Read more: Marathon Brings New Bitcoin Mining Rigs Online, Sees Itself Becoming Cash-Flow Positive Still, Vera pointed out, not all of these operations are the same and these operations’ likelihood for success “depends on the interest rate and the operating cost of the borrow.” He added that interest rates around 10% are probably favorable for some of these miners, while any borrowing above that could be unsustainable. ‘A race toward zero’ For those firms that aren’t profitable, though, you may be asking why they are operating at all. Barbour told CoinDesk that they’re essentially “speculating on [the price ripping upward]”; they’ve ordered all this new-gen hardware to frontrun the bull run and are gambling that this run will come sooner rather than later. Yet again, it could all come down to a waiting game of attrition, Barbour says, and the price might not matter that much in the long run. Per “Moore’s Law “, which stipulates that computer processing improves exponentially, ASIC mining hardware will continue to improve towards maximum efficiency. Eventually, Barbour argues, the new-gen stuff won’t be much more efficient than the old gen, so miners who can mass order machines won’t have an advantage. As miners continue to search for the cheapest, near-free electricity, Barbour believes the mega-operations will eventually be priced out because the upside won’t be there to justify the use of capital. “They’d be better off just buying bitcoin … Anytime there’s a drive for cheap power, it drives down the profitability for everyone. It’s a race toward zero,” Barbour said. Related Stories ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever || ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever: • Bitcoin mining profitability is in the basement, seeing all-time lows in 2020.
• Conversely, bitcoin’s hashrate has surged throughout 2020, propelled in part by mining farms financing new hardware to boost their operations.
• Bitcoin’s hashrate has taken a dip as China’s wet season comes to an end, but mining professionals predict this will only be temporary, and it has only improved profit margins so much.
Bitcoinmining profits have been rock bottom in 2020.
For much of the year, the cryptocurrency has been less profitable to mine than ever. And that’s because Bitcoin’s collective hashrate – or how much computing power is pulsing through the network – has surged to consecutive all-time highs this year.
Read more:How Bitcoin Mining Works
Related:Putting Pressure on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Vulnerabilities Will Strengthen It
According to North American bitcoin mining company Luxor’shashprice index, miners are extracting $0.096 for every terahash they produce (before the recent price spike, it was lower still at roughly $0.08). This time three years ago, miners could expect to make roughly $1.40. Their revenue in October of 2019, though several magnitudes less than what they were raking in during 2017’s market mania, was still double today’s cash flows at $0.16.
Coming into 2020, minerswere producing approximately 90 exahashes a second(or 83,000,000,000,000,000,000 cryptographic numbers a second in an effort to generate new blocks). Now, they are producing roughly 124 EH/s, after hitting an all time high of 157 EH/s in mid-October.
Bitcoin mining is a resource war of attrition, so naturally revenue margins are dwindling in a year when Bitcoin’s hashrate is exploding. And ASIC financing could largely be to blame.
The practice, whereby big operations can take out loans to bulk-order newer-generation hardware, floods the network with fresh hashrate. The surge in hashrate has meant more competition than ever for the digital gold rush – and with fewer bits to go around, small-time miners are having trouble keeping up.
Related:First Mover: Bitcoin's Latest Rally Proving Irresistible as Bitwise Assets Top $100M
Luxor Mining pool operator Ethan Vera told CoinDesk the anemic miner revenue is a direct result of the Bitcoin system’s growing hashrate, its relatively stagnant price and lower-than-usual transaction fees.
According to Luxor’s index, the seven-day hashrate average is currently resting at 124 exahashes a second, and Vera said this “is largely due to Bitmain S19s and Whatsminer M30s being delivered to the market in large quantities.”
Read more:Bitcoin Miner Revenue Saw 11% Drop in September
It’s not unusual, of course, for miner revenue to decline when hashrate is going vertical. But Bitcoin’s stellar increase in hashrate in 2020, a nearly 30% increase this year, is the result of accelerated investment in the industry. Much of this growth comes from ASIC financing, wherein miners take out loans to buy the best new-generation mining equipment.
The mining finance industry, populated by key players including Blockfills, Arctos, BlockFi, SBI, DCG and Galaxy Digital, continues to grow. Increased competition has led to lower rates, Vera said, with some miners being able to secure sub 10% interest loans. Just a year or so ago, the common rate was 20%.
“A number of North American companies have been in the news recently for large hardware purchases, particularly RIOT Blockchain and Bitfarms. Foundry has also popped up recently and offering financing options for ASIC miners,” Thomas Heller, the COO of mining media firm HASHR8, told CoinDesk.
Most recently, CoinDesk reported onMarathon Patent Group’s purchase of 10,000Antminer s-19s, which could pump an estimated 1.1 exhashes into the mining company’s operation. This is Marathon’s second bulk purchase from Bitmain this year after it scooped up 10,500 ASICs for $23 millionin a deal with Bitmain this August.
Stephen Barbour, whose company, Upstream Data, provides oil drillers with mining rigs that run on vented natural gas, sees this as detrimental to Bitcoin mining’s short-to-near-term health. In some cases, he told CoinDesk, the big players aren’t always optimized for profitability because they have financial cushions.
“These guys can rent out an old mine, operate at a loss and then recapitalize,” he told CoinDesk, referring to these firms’ abilities to take out new loans or woo new investors when they need to shore up finances.
A look at one such firm, RIOT Blockchain, makes Barbour’s point. The publicly traded companypurchased thousands of ASICsthis year in a herculean (if quixotic) effort to quadruple its hashrate by 2021. As of June 2020, Riot had net operating losses of nearly $15 million,according to SEC filings.Riot clocked a similar loss in the first half of 2019, and Marathon posted$3.2 million in lossesfor the first half of 2020.
Northern AG, another publicly traded mining operation, had a net income of -$8.7 million in 2019 and -$5.6 million in 2018. Even the profitable ones, like the likewise public industrial miner Hut 8, barely eked out a profit in 2019:after generating $83 million in revenue, Hut 8 pocketed just $2.1 million after debt obligations and other expenses.
Disregarding profit, these miners continue to expand in hopes of future spoils, but this very activity is sending Bitcoin’s hashrate skyward, Barbour argues.
“These guys can get these big loans and they are effectively operating at a loss, and it’s propping up the hashrate.”
As these big mining farms scale irrespective of profit, Bitcoin’s hashrate pumps, and smaller players are having a hard time keeping up with the suped-up competition.
“It’s becoming increasingly challenging for small miners to compete for both hosting and hardware purchases, because lower prices are available for those orders with larger volume,” Heller said.
Vera said, “There is still a large retail market in China that can access sub $0.04 cent power during the rainy season in the Sichuan province. But outside of China, retail mining has declined significantly.”
That rainy season, which provides gushes of cheap power to Chinese miners, is coming to an end, and with it, Bitcoin’s hashrate has taken a12% hitto 124 exahashes. Heller said this dip, which happens annually, will “only be temporary” as the older machines migrate to areas like South America, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran.
Read more:Iran Is Ripe for Bitcoin Adoption, Even as Government Clamps Down on Mining
The miners buying these rigs aren’t concerned with profit, Vera says. “They have other reasons for it,” he said, “such as to avoid capital controls or avoid sanctions.”
For others who are trying to turn a profit,bitcoin’s recent price bump to $13.6K will help a bit, and further upward price action would widen these miners’ revenue margins.
Price may only be part of the solution, though; addressing the competitive discrepancy may also require new market tools to shift hashrate distribution. At least, that’s the idea behindCompass, a service by HASHR8 that matches retail miners with mining farms to host their equipment. Compass wants to make it easier for these miners to find a facility, thereby lowering the barrier of entry to the process and (hopefully) finding the most economical setups for individual miners.
Something like Compass may help smaller miners break into the game. Or maybe the problem will resolve itself when the market does its thing.
“I think in the long term you’ll see more of these massive operations fail,” Barbour told CoinDesk.
A pumping hashrate is always “a terrible thing for miners,” Barbour said, and it may be a degree worse for the little guys, considering “they don’t have the advantage of economies of scale like the bigger guys,” Barbour continued.
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy on the big players, either. After all, more hardware means more operational overhead as well as a mountain of debt to pay off for the financed ASICs.
To sum up the situation with an idiom, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And Barbour thinks the mining giants’ time is coming.
“I think all of these financed operations are a part of what I call the ‘discovery phase’ for this industry. I think we’ll see more of them in the near term but they’ll struggle [in the] long term, and I think their operations will fracture and splinter.”
He continued that, unlike smaller mining operators like himself who have “skin in the game,” these financed operations were launched on the back of someone else’s buck. While this does not guarantee these businesses will be run in spite of profit, it does mean the operators have less at stake than their small business counterparts.
Read more:Marathon Brings New Bitcoin Mining Rigs Online, Sees Itself Becoming Cash-Flow Positive
Still, Vera pointed out, not all of these operations are the same and these operations’ likelihood for success “depends on the interest rate and the operating cost of the borrow.” He added that interest rates around 10% are probably favorable for some of these miners, while any borrowing above that could be unsustainable.
For those firms that aren’t profitable, though, you may be asking why they are operating at all. Barbour told CoinDesk that they’re essentially “speculating on [the price ripping upward]”; they’ve ordered all this new-gen hardware to frontrun the bull run and are gambling that this run will come sooner rather than later.
Yet again, it could all come down to a waiting game of attrition, Barbour says, and the price might not matter that much in the long run.Per “Moore’s Law“, which stipulates that computer processing improves exponentially, ASIC mining hardware will continue to improve towards maximum efficiency.
Eventually, Barbour argues, the new-gen stuff won’t be much more efficient than the old gen, so miners who can mass order machines won’t have an advantage. As miners continue to search for the cheapest, near-free electricity, Barbour believes the mega-operations will eventually be priced out because the upside won’t be there to justify the use of capital.
“They’d be better off just buying bitcoin … Anytime there’s a drive for cheap power, it drives down the profitability for everyone. It’s a race toward zero,” Barbour said.
• ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever
• ‘A Race Toward Zero’: With Hashrate in the Clouds, Bitcoin Mining Is Less Profitable Than Ever || MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says: MicroStrategy is looking to add to its $521 million stash of bitcoin, the company’s president said Tuesday during the business intelligence firm’s earnings conference call.
MicroStrategy bought $250 million inbitcoin(BTC) on Aug. 11. It purchased an additional $175 million in bitcoin one month after that. Bitcointreasuries.org says the business intelligence firm now holds 38,250 BTC, or 0.182% of bitcoin’s total supply.
With the recent rise in BTC’s price, its holdings are now worth $521 million, a 22% premium over the $425 million investment.
Related:'Garbage' Market Data Is Holding Bitcoin Back: MicroStrategy CEO
Now it wants more.
“You should expect that we will purchase additional bitcoin as we generate cash beyond what we need to run the business on a day to day basis,” MicroStrategy President Phong Li said.
Read more:MicroStrategy Buys $175M More in Bitcoin, Upping BTC Holdings to $425M
Li made the comments shortly after the company reported Q3 revenue rose 6.4% year-over-year and notched a net loss of $14.2 million. On a non-GAAP basis, the company posted a profit of $19.8 million, or $2.06 per share, up from $11.6 million, or $1.13 a year ago.
Related:JPMorgan Calls Square's $50M Bitcoin Investment 'Strong Vote of Confidence' for the Cryptocurrency
Besides the 22% return on its BTC investment, the company has seen another benefit from its foray into cryptocurrency – increased visibility.
“We’ve seen a notable and unexpected benefit from our investment in bitcoin in elevating the profile of the company in the broader market, Li said. “This is benefitting our reputation overall, raising our mindshare among prospective customers.”
CEO Michael Saylor, who has vocally championed BTC since early September, further explained during the earnings call that MicroStrategy’s bitcoin reserves are paying dividends across recruiting, marketing and the MicroStrategy brand. He also compared the bitcoin network to “a digital monetary network that doesn’t bleed monetary energy.”
“As more entities start to understand that idea, which is pretty compelling, the adoption of bitcoin increases,” he said.
The executive’s statement caps a wild three months at the business intelligence firm; executives first hinted at a bitcoin future in the firm’s Q2 call. MicroStrategy’s share has risen over 40% since Saylor’s first bitcoin disclosure on Aug. 11.
Share price aside, the bitcoin storyline has definitely boosted the company’s profile. The shift began on July 28, when during the Q2 earnings call executives mulled allocating $250 million into “alternative assets” over the next 12 months as a hedge against the weakening dollar.
Bitcoin, they said, was one of the possible “alternatives.” It turned out to be the only alternative.
All this from a company whose business model has nothing to do with crypto. Before bitcoin, MicroStrategy’s only interaction with the blockchain space was its $30 million sale of the Voice.com domain name to EOS in 2019.
Read more:MicroStrategy Buys $250M in Bitcoin, Calling the Crypto ‘Superior to Cash’
Saylor nevertheless framed the bitcoin holdings as an “example of MicroStrategy’s embrace of virtual technologies” in his Q3 earnings call preview.
With BTC now recognized as MicroStrategy’s “primary treasury reserve asset,” the firm said in its statement it could raise or lower its total holdings as necessary.But from Li’s comments and from what BTC has done for the company’s visibility and its finances, it looks like the firm’s preference right now is to boost its holdings, and soon.
• MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says
• MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says || MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says: MicroStrategy is looking to add to its $521 million stash of bitcoin, the company’s president said Tuesday during the business intelligence firm’s earnings conference call. MicroStrategy bought $250 million in bitcoin (BTC) on Aug. 11. It purchased an additional $175 million in bitcoin one month after that. Bitcointreasuries.org says the business intelligence firm now holds 38,250 BTC, or 0.182% of bitcoin’s total supply. With the recent rise in BTC’s price, its holdings are now worth $521 million, a 22% premium over the $425 million investment. Related: 'Garbage' Market Data Is Holding Bitcoin Back: MicroStrategy CEO Now it wants more. “You should expect that we will purchase additional bitcoin as we generate cash beyond what we need to run the business on a day to day basis,” MicroStrategy President Phong Li said. Read more: MicroStrategy Buys $175M More in Bitcoin, Upping BTC Holdings to $425M Li made the comments shortly after the company reported Q3 revenue rose 6.4% year-over-year and notched a net loss of $14.2 million. On a non-GAAP basis, the company posted a profit of $19.8 million, or $2.06 per share, up from $11.6 million, or $1.13 a year ago. Related: JPMorgan Calls Square's $50M Bitcoin Investment 'Strong Vote of Confidence' for the Cryptocurrency Besides the 22% return on its BTC investment, the company has seen another benefit from its foray into cryptocurrency – increased visibility. “We’ve seen a notable and unexpected benefit from our investment in bitcoin in elevating the profile of the company in the broader market, Li said. “This is benefitting our reputation overall, raising our mindshare among prospective customers.” CEO Michael Saylor, who has vocally championed BTC since early September, further explained during the earnings call that MicroStrategy’s bitcoin reserves are paying dividends across recruiting, marketing and the MicroStrategy brand. He also compared the bitcoin network to “a digital monetary network that doesn’t bleed monetary energy.” Story continues “As more entities start to understand that idea, which is pretty compelling, the adoption of bitcoin increases,” he said. The executive’s statement caps a wild three months at the business intelligence firm; executives first hinted at a bitcoin future in the firm’s Q2 call. MicroStrategy’s share has risen over 40% since Saylor’s first bitcoin disclosure on Aug. 11. Share price aside, the bitcoin storyline has definitely boosted the company’s profile. The shift began on July 28, when during the Q2 earnings call executives mulled allocating $250 million into “alternative assets” over the next 12 months as a hedge against the weakening dollar. Bitcoin, they said, was one of the possible “alternatives.” It turned out to be the only alternative. All this from a company whose business model has nothing to do with crypto. Before bitcoin, MicroStrategy’s only interaction with the blockchain space was its $30 million sale of the Voice.com domain name to EOS in 2019. Read more: MicroStrategy Buys $250M in Bitcoin, Calling the Crypto ‘Superior to Cash’ Saylor nevertheless framed the bitcoin holdings as an “example of MicroStrategy’s embrace of virtual technologies” in his Q3 earnings call preview. With BTC now recognized as MicroStrategy’s “primary treasury reserve asset,” the firm said in its statement it could raise or lower its total holdings as necessary. But from Li’s comments and from what BTC has done for the company’s visibility and its finances, it looks like the firm’s preference right now is to boost its holdings, and soon. Related Stories MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says || MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says: MicroStrategy is looking to add to its $521 million stash of bitcoin, the company’s president said Tuesday during the business intelligence firm’s earnings conference call.
MicroStrategy bought $250 million inbitcoin(BTC) on Aug. 11. It purchased an additional $175 million in bitcoin one month after that. Bitcointreasuries.org says the business intelligence firm now holds 38,250 BTC, or 0.182% of bitcoin’s total supply.
With the recent rise in BTC’s price, its holdings are now worth $521 million, a 22% premium over the $425 million investment.
Related:'Garbage' Market Data Is Holding Bitcoin Back: MicroStrategy CEO
Now it wants more.
“You should expect that we will purchase additional bitcoin as we generate cash beyond what we need to run the business on a day to day basis,” MicroStrategy President Phong Li said.
Read more:MicroStrategy Buys $175M More in Bitcoin, Upping BTC Holdings to $425M
Li made the comments shortly after the company reported Q3 revenue rose 6.4% year-over-year and notched a net loss of $14.2 million. On a non-GAAP basis, the company posted a profit of $19.8 million, or $2.06 per share, up from $11.6 million, or $1.13 a year ago.
Related:JPMorgan Calls Square's $50M Bitcoin Investment 'Strong Vote of Confidence' for the Cryptocurrency
Besides the 22% return on its BTC investment, the company has seen another benefit from its foray into cryptocurrency – increased visibility.
“We’ve seen a notable and unexpected benefit from our investment in bitcoin in elevating the profile of the company in the broader market, Li said. “This is benefitting our reputation overall, raising our mindshare among prospective customers.”
CEO Michael Saylor, who has vocally championed BTC since early September, further explained during the earnings call that MicroStrategy’s bitcoin reserves are paying dividends across recruiting, marketing and the MicroStrategy brand. He also compared the bitcoin network to “a digital monetary network that doesn’t bleed monetary energy.”
“As more entities start to understand that idea, which is pretty compelling, the adoption of bitcoin increases,” he said.
The executive’s statement caps a wild three months at the business intelligence firm; executives first hinted at a bitcoin future in the firm’s Q2 call. MicroStrategy’s share has risen over 40% since Saylor’s first bitcoin disclosure on Aug. 11.
Share price aside, the bitcoin storyline has definitely boosted the company’s profile. The shift began on July 28, when during the Q2 earnings call executives mulled allocating $250 million into “alternative assets” over the next 12 months as a hedge against the weakening dollar.
Bitcoin, they said, was one of the possible “alternatives.” It turned out to be the only alternative.
All this from a company whose business model has nothing to do with crypto. Before bitcoin, MicroStrategy’s only interaction with the blockchain space was its $30 million sale of the Voice.com domain name to EOS in 2019.
Read more:MicroStrategy Buys $250M in Bitcoin, Calling the Crypto ‘Superior to Cash’
Saylor nevertheless framed the bitcoin holdings as an “example of MicroStrategy’s embrace of virtual technologies” in his Q3 earnings call preview.
With BTC now recognized as MicroStrategy’s “primary treasury reserve asset,” the firm said in its statement it could raise or lower its total holdings as necessary.But from Li’s comments and from what BTC has done for the company’s visibility and its finances, it looks like the firm’s preference right now is to boost its holdings, and soon.
• MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says
• MicroStrategy Is Looking to Buy More Bitcoin, President Says || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2020 / ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH Market Summary Tuesday, October 27 2020 at 4:03 PM Digital Asset Pair Price 24hr Chg 7d Chg 24/hr Volume MarketCap Bitcoin BTC/USD $13,658.93 $0.05 $0.14 $31,838 M $253,072 M Ethereum ETH/USD $406.44 $0.04 $0.10 $13,620 M $46,001 M XRP XRP/USD $0.25 $0.02 $0.03 $2,239 M $11,388 M Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD $265.29 $0.03 $0.09 $2,655 M $4,923 M Litecoin LTC/USD $57.64 $0.03 $0.22 $3,382 M $3,790 M Bitcoin SV BSV/USD $175.66 $0.03 $0.12 $990 M $3,259 M EOS EOS/USD $2.66 $0.01 $0.05 $2,069 M $2,489 M Monero XMR/USD $133.44 $0.02 $0.12 $870 M $2,367 M Stellar XLM/USD $0.08 $0.01 -$0.00 $167 M $1,703 M Dash DASH/USD $70.65 $0.01 -$0.01 $403 M $691 M About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . Story continues Contact: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/612635/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD).
Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.comALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH
[["Digital Asset", "Pair", "Price", "24hr Chg", "7d Chg", "24/hr Volume", "MarketCap"], ["Bitcoin", "BTC/USD", "$13,658.93", "$0.05", "$0.14", "$31,838 M", "$253,072 M"], ["Ethereum", "ETH/USD", "$406.44", "$0.04", "$0.10", "$13,620 M", "$46,001 M"], ["XRP", "XRP/USD", "$0.25", "$0.02", "$0.03", "$2,239 M", "$11,388 M"], ["Bitcoin Cash", "BCH/USD", "$265.29", "$0.03", "$0.09", "$2,655 M", "$4,923 M"], ["Litecoin", "LTC/USD", "$57.64", "$0.03", "$0.22", "$3,382 M", "$3,790 M"], ["Bitcoin SV", "BSV/USD", "$175.66", "$0.03", "$0.12", "$990 M", "$3,259 M"], ["EOS", "EOS/USD", "$2.66", "$0.01", "$0.05", "$2,069 M", "$2,489 M"], ["Monero", "XMR/USD", "$133.44", "$0.02", "$0.12", "$870 M", "$2,367 M"], ["Stellar", "XLM/USD", "$0.08", "$0.01", "-$0.00", "$167 M", "$1,703 M"], ["Dash", "DASH/USD", "$70.65", "$0.01", "-$0.01", "$403 M", "$691 M"]]
About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance.
ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers.
ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services.
For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com.
Contact:
Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected]
For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com
SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/612635/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD).
Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.comALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH
[["Digital Asset", "Pair", "Price", "24hr Chg", "7d Chg", "24/hr Volume", "MarketCap"], ["Bitcoin", "BTC/USD", "$13,658.93", "$0.05", "$0.14", "$31,838 M", "$253,072 M"], ["Ethereum", "ETH/USD", "$406.44", "$0.04", "$0.10", "$13,620 M", "$46,001 M"], ["XRP", "XRP/USD", "$0.25", "$0.02", "$0.03", "$2,239 M", "$11,388 M"], ["Bitcoin Cash", "BCH/USD", "$265.29", "$0.03", "$0.09", "$2,655 M", "$4,923 M"], ["Litecoin", "LTC/USD", "$57.64", "$0.03", "$0.22", "$3,382 M", "$3,790 M"], ["Bitcoin SV", "BSV/USD", "$175.66", "$0.03", "$0.12", "$990 M", "$3,259 M"], ["EOS", "EOS/USD", "$2.66", "$0.01", "$0.05", "$2,069 M", "$2,489 M"], ["Monero", "XMR/USD", "$133.44", "$0.02", "$0.12", "$870 M", "$2,367 M"], ["Stellar", "XLM/USD", "$0.08", "$0.01", "-$0.00", "$167 M", "$1,703 M"], ["Dash", "DASH/USD", "$70.65", "$0.01", "-$0.01", "$403 M", "$691 M"]]
About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance.
ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers.
ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services.
For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com.
Contact:
Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected]
For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com
SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/612635/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course: Bitcoin made gains Tuesday toward its 2019 high while ether’s volatility rose after an October in decline. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $13,668 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 5% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $13,008-$13,756 BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin’s price was on a steady run upward Tuesday, hitting as high as $13,756.33 before settling down to $13,668, according to CoinDesk 20 data. It is now within reach of its 2019 high of $13,879.24; any point above that puts bitcoin prices where they were during the late 2017-early 2018 bull run and subsequent collapse. Increased spot bitcoin volume, at $840 million, helped lead the price higher Tuesday. That figure has averaged $432 million daily over the past month. Read More: Bitcoin Hits 16-Month High Despite Sell-Off in Global Stocks Related: Putting Pressure on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Vulnerabilities Will Strengthen It Micah Erstling, trader at crypto liquidity provider GSR, said bitcoin has broken away from stocks, at least temporarily, not long after the world’s oldest cryptocurrency took a short dip Monday when stocks also fell . “Bitcoin quickly broke the correlation to stocks after yesterday’s plunge, rallying back even as stocks remained tepid,” he said. Indeed, major equity indexes were flat or down Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 in Asia ended the day flat, in the red 0.04%, as the index recovered from early losses but coronavirus concerns outweighed positive sentiment . The FTSE 100 closed in the red 1.1% as record-high coronavirus cases and uncertainty regarding Brexit talks led the index lower . In the United States the S&P 500 was flat, down 0.10% as lawmakers struggled to push coronavirus-related fiscal stimulus forward ahead of the Nov. 3 election . “Most risk-on assets were impacted by news of a stimulus stalemate and rising virus numbers,” Erstling noted. “Traders are shaking off that sentiment today and returning to the long-term fundamentals that have propelled bitcoin to an over-85% gain” for the year to date. “We’ve seen increased buying activity over the last two weeks,” said Michael Rabkin, head of Institutional Sales at crypto market maker DV Chain. “On top of that, the U.S. is close to approving a record $1.8 trillion stimulus plan. People are looking at alternatives like bitcoin to protect their wealth.” Judging by the bitcoin options market’s open interest, positive sentiment seems to be picking up. Monday saw bitcoin options open interest crack $2.5 billion for the second time in October, with the first time being last Thursday, Oct. 22. Story continues Related: First Mover: Bitcoin's Latest Rally Proving Irresistible as Bitwise Assets Top $100M “Based on the bitcoin options data, a lot of traders are hedging and locking-in profits and current price levels,” Daniel Koehler, liquidity manager at San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin, told CoinDesk. “Volumes are up across the board along with the price, so it is a sign of increased near-term bullish bias.” Ether volatility up The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was up Tuesday, trading around $406 and climbing 3.7% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Ether’s volatility, measured by the standard deviation of daily log returns on an annualized basis, has been much higher than bitcoin’s volatility in 2020. While ether’s volatility had been dropping in October, it crept back up again, going from 49.99% Sunday to 51.75% Monday. Ether itself is up over 210% in 2020, while bitcoin has risen over 88% this year so far. Quant trading firm QCP Capital on Tuesday noted ether’s market risks and its potential to underperform over the balance of 2020 due to exploitation of decentralized finance, or DeFi. Read More: Harvest Finance – $24M Attack Triggers $570M ‘Bank Run’ “ETH has been hit yet again by DeFi worries after another smart contract platform exploitation/hack – this time Harvest,” QCP wrote in its weekly investor note. “This will weigh further on ETH and could cause it to underperform BTC in the near term.” Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly green Tuesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): chainlink (LINK) + 3.5% bitcoin cash (BCH) + 2.5% litecoin (LTC) + 2.3% Notable losers: orchid (OXT) – 0.82% tezos (XTZ) – 0.30% Read More: Publicly Traded INX Crypto Exchange to Acquire Broker-Dealer Openfinance Commodities: Oil was up 2.1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $39.41. Gold was in the green 0.32% and at $1,907 as of press time. Treasurys: U.S. Treasury bond yields all fell Tuesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the 10-year, dipping to 0.774 and in the red 3.3%. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course View comments || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course: Bitcoin made gains Tuesday toward its 2019 high while ether’s volatility rose after an October in decline.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $13,668 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 5% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $13,008-$13,756
• BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin’s price was on a steady run upward Tuesday, hitting as high as $13,756.33 before settling down to $13,668, according to CoinDesk 20 data. It is now within reach of its 2019 high of $13,879.24; any point above that puts bitcoin prices where they were during the late 2017-early 2018 bull run and subsequent collapse. Increased spot bitcoin volume, at $840 million, helped lead the price higher Tuesday. That figure has averaged $432 million daily over the past month.
Read More:Bitcoin Hits 16-Month High Despite Sell-Off in Global Stocks
Related:Putting Pressure on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Vulnerabilities Will Strengthen It
Micah Erstling, trader at crypto liquidity provider GSR, said bitcoin has broken away from stocks, at least temporarily, not long after the world’s oldest cryptocurrencytook a short dip Monday when stocks also fell. “Bitcoin quickly broke the correlation to stocks after yesterday’s plunge, rallying back even as stocks remained tepid,” he said. Indeed, major equity indexes were flat or down Tuesday.
• The Nikkei 225 in Asia ended the day flat, in the red 0.04%, asthe index recovered from early losses but coronavirus concerns outweighed positive sentiment.
• The FTSE 100 closed in the red 1.1% asrecord-high coronavirus cases and uncertainty regarding Brexit talks led the index lower.
• In the United States the S&P 500 was flat, down 0.10% aslawmakers struggled to push coronavirus-related fiscal stimulus forward ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“Most risk-on assets were impacted by news of a stimulus stalemate and rising virus numbers,” Erstling noted. “Traders are shaking off that sentiment today and returning to the long-term fundamentals that have propelled bitcoin to an over-85% gain” for the year to date.
“We’ve seen increased buying activity over the last two weeks,” said Michael Rabkin, head of Institutional Sales at crypto market maker DV Chain. “On top of that, the U.S. is close to approving a record $1.8 trillion stimulus plan. People are looking at alternatives like bitcoin to protect their wealth.”
Judging by the bitcoin options market’s open interest, positive sentiment seems to be picking up. Monday saw bitcoin options open interest crack $2.5 billion for the second time in October, with the first time being last Thursday, Oct. 22.
Related:First Mover: Bitcoin's Latest Rally Proving Irresistible as Bitwise Assets Top $100M
“Based on the bitcoin options data, a lot of traders are hedging and locking-in profits and current price levels,” Daniel Koehler, liquidity manager at San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin, told CoinDesk. “Volumes are up across the board along with the price, so it is a sign of increased near-term bullish bias.”
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was up Tuesday, trading around $406 and climbing 3.7% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Ether’s volatility, measured by the standard deviation of daily log returns on an annualized basis, has been much higher than bitcoin’s volatility in 2020. While ether’s volatility had been dropping in October, it crept back up again, going from 49.99% Sunday to 51.75% Monday.
Ether itself is up over 210% in 2020, while bitcoin has risen over 88% this year so far. Quant trading firm QCP Capital on Tuesday noted ether’s market risks and its potential to underperform over the balance of 2020 due to exploitation of decentralized finance, or DeFi.
Read More:Harvest Finance – $24M Attack Triggers $570M ‘Bank Run’
“ETH has been hit yet again by DeFi worries after another smart contract platform exploitation/hack – this time Harvest,” QCP wrote in its weekly investor note. “This will weigh further on ETH and could cause it to underperform BTC in the near term.”
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly green Tuesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• chainlink(LINK) + 3.5%
• bitcoin cash(BCH) + 2.5%
• litecoin(LTC) + 2.3%
Notable losers:
• orchid(OXT) – 0.82%
• tezos(XTZ) – 0.30%
Read More:Publicly Traded INX Crypto Exchange to Acquire Broker-Dealer Openfinance
Commodities:
• Oil was up 2.1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $39.41.
• Gold was in the green 0.32% and at $1,907 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bond yields all fell Tuesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the 10-year, dipping to 0.774 and in the red 3.3%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course: Bitcoin made gains Tuesday toward its 2019 high while ether’s volatility rose after an October in decline.
• Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $13,668 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 5% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $13,008-$13,756
• BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin’s price was on a steady run upward Tuesday, hitting as high as $13,756.33 before settling down to $13,668, according to CoinDesk 20 data. It is now within reach of its 2019 high of $13,879.24; any point above that puts bitcoin prices where they were during the late 2017-early 2018 bull run and subsequent collapse. Increased spot bitcoin volume, at $840 million, helped lead the price higher Tuesday. That figure has averaged $432 million daily over the past month.
Read More:Bitcoin Hits 16-Month High Despite Sell-Off in Global Stocks
Related:Putting Pressure on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Vulnerabilities Will Strengthen It
Micah Erstling, trader at crypto liquidity provider GSR, said bitcoin has broken away from stocks, at least temporarily, not long after the world’s oldest cryptocurrencytook a short dip Monday when stocks also fell. “Bitcoin quickly broke the correlation to stocks after yesterday’s plunge, rallying back even as stocks remained tepid,” he said. Indeed, major equity indexes were flat or down Tuesday.
• The Nikkei 225 in Asia ended the day flat, in the red 0.04%, asthe index recovered from early losses but coronavirus concerns outweighed positive sentiment.
• The FTSE 100 closed in the red 1.1% asrecord-high coronavirus cases and uncertainty regarding Brexit talks led the index lower.
• In the United States the S&P 500 was flat, down 0.10% aslawmakers struggled to push coronavirus-related fiscal stimulus forward ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“Most risk-on assets were impacted by news of a stimulus stalemate and rising virus numbers,” Erstling noted. “Traders are shaking off that sentiment today and returning to the long-term fundamentals that have propelled bitcoin to an over-85% gain” for the year to date.
“We’ve seen increased buying activity over the last two weeks,” said Michael Rabkin, head of Institutional Sales at crypto market maker DV Chain. “On top of that, the U.S. is close to approving a record $1.8 trillion stimulus plan. People are looking at alternatives like bitcoin to protect their wealth.”
Judging by the bitcoin options market’s open interest, positive sentiment seems to be picking up. Monday saw bitcoin options open interest crack $2.5 billion for the second time in October, with the first time being last Thursday, Oct. 22.
Related:First Mover: Bitcoin's Latest Rally Proving Irresistible as Bitwise Assets Top $100M
“Based on the bitcoin options data, a lot of traders are hedging and locking-in profits and current price levels,” Daniel Koehler, liquidity manager at San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin, told CoinDesk. “Volumes are up across the board along with the price, so it is a sign of increased near-term bullish bias.”
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was up Tuesday, trading around $406 and climbing 3.7% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Ether’s volatility, measured by the standard deviation of daily log returns on an annualized basis, has been much higher than bitcoin’s volatility in 2020. While ether’s volatility had been dropping in October, it crept back up again, going from 49.99% Sunday to 51.75% Monday.
Ether itself is up over 210% in 2020, while bitcoin has risen over 88% this year so far. Quant trading firm QCP Capital on Tuesday noted ether’s market risks and its potential to underperform over the balance of 2020 due to exploitation of decentralized finance, or DeFi.
Read More:Harvest Finance – $24M Attack Triggers $570M ‘Bank Run’
“ETH has been hit yet again by DeFi worries after another smart contract platform exploitation/hack – this time Harvest,” QCP wrote in its weekly investor note. “This will weigh further on ETH and could cause it to underperform BTC in the near term.”
Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly green Tuesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• chainlink(LINK) + 3.5%
• bitcoin cash(BCH) + 2.5%
• litecoin(LTC) + 2.3%
Notable losers:
• orchid(OXT) – 0.82%
• tezos(XTZ) – 0.30%
Read More:Publicly Traded INX Crypto Exchange to Acquire Broker-Dealer Openfinance
Commodities:
• Oil was up 2.1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $39.41.
• Gold was in the green 0.32% and at $1,907 as of press time.
Treasurys:
• U.S. Treasury bond yields all fell Tuesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the 10-year, dipping to 0.774 and in the red 3.3%.
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $13.7K, Nearing 2019’s High; Ether Volatility Reverses Course || ‘Convincing’ Phishing Attack Targets Ledger Hardware Wallet Users: Customers of Ledger, the hardware cryptocurrency wallet, are being targeted by a phishing attack posing as an email from Ledger support.
On Sunday a Reddit userposted in the r/ethfinance subreddit, alerting the group to the existence of the attack.
The fake email ostensibly informs users their Ledger assets may be compromised. It states, “Our forensics team has found several of the Ledger Live administrative servers to be infected with malware.” This claim is false; while the email form looks professional, it is a phishing attempt to steal customers data.
Related:Luno Exchange Launches Interest-Earning Bitcoin Wallet
See also:Crypto Wallet Maker Ledger Loses 1M Email Addresses in Data Theft
The email is so convincing that even wary users might be fooled. Ledger confirmed that, for the last week, a phishing attack has been targeting Ledger cryptocurrency wallet customers.
“I received the same email and for once I got really confused. Everything checks out,” said one Reddit user in reply to the original post. “However, there you can see that the url is incorrect (notice the dot on the second ‘e’ => ledgėr). What triggered my doubt was that I received the email twice within a couple of minutes. … It’s probably related to the previous hack where a hacker managed to get our email addresses.”
Another user replied, “Wow this looked really legit, so much so I used Contact Us form to ask Ledger if it was real. I am normally pretty good at sniffing things like this out – this was by far the most convincing attempt I have ever seen.”
Related:BlueWallet Adds Privacy Feature 'PayJoin' for Bitcoin Transactions
See also:YouTube’s Whac-a-Mole Approach to Crypto Scam Ads Remains a Problem
In July, the Ledger team discovered an API key related to their e-commerce and marketing database was exploited, and the databaseaccessed by an unauthorized third party. The database details (mostly email addresses) were used to send order confirmations and promotional emails.
In ablog post revealing the hack, the Ledger team emphasized that users’ payment information and crypto funds are safe.
CoinDesk independently reviewed one of these phishing emails, which was sent from “[email protected].” A key clue in any phishing email is a slight misspelling of a real address or URL; in this instance, “ledger.com” is misspelled.
Pro tip: Bookmark verified sites where you normally would input sensitive information and only access them through that bookmarked link.
Phishing attacks are common and attackers are increasingly sophisticated, creating emails that resemble official company correspondence. They rely on a person making a mistake and clicking on a link that could compromise his or her security.
See also:Social Engineering: A Plague on Crypto and Twitter, Unlikely to Stop
In a statement, a Ledger spokesperson said an internal task force has been deployed to investigate the latest phishing attack.
“The investigation is ongoing and at this time we cannot give any additional information but one thing is for certain: Ledger will never ask you for your 24-word recovery phrase, which is a blatant sign of a phishing scam,” said the spokesperson. “Ledger encourages customers to exercise caution as phishing attacks become more sophisticated and to alert Ledger’s customer support team and consult Ledger.com for more information on the detection of scams.”
• ‘Convincing’ Phishing Attack Targets Ledger Hardware Wallet Users
• ‘Convincing’ Phishing Attack Targets Ledger Hardware Wallet Users
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
13437.88, 13546.52, 13781.00, 13737.11, 13550.49, 13950.30, 14133.71, 15579.85, 15565.88, 14833.75
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39, 5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53, 5399.37, 5572.36, 5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14, 5247.35, 5350.73, 5402.70, 5505.28, 5768.29, 5831.17, 5795.71, 5746.81, 5829.50, 5982.46, 6174.53, 6378.85, 7204.77, 6972.37, 7814.92, 7994.42, 8205.17, 7884.91, 7343.90, 7271.21, 8197.69, 7978.31, 7963.33, 7680.07, 7881.85, 7987.37, 8052.54, 8673.22, 8805.78, 8719.96, 8659.49, 8319.47, 8574.50, 8564.02, 8742.96, 8209.00, 7707.77, 7824.23, 7822.02, 8043.95.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-06-07]
Volume: 19141423231, RSI (14-day): 53.92, 50-day EMA: 7150.64, 200-day EMA: 5669.41
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1341.20, Gold RSI: 74.54
Oil Price: 53.99, Oil RSI: 33.79
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Margin Lenders on Poloniex Lost $13.5 Million Due to Flash Crash: Margin lenders on American cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex have lost around $13.5 million due to a flash crash. Poloniex announced about the incident in a blog post published on June 6. Poloniex revealed that on May 26 a severe price crash in the clams ( CLAM ) market led to margin loans losses amounting to roughly 1,800 bitcoin ( BTC ), or approximately $13.5 million at the time. The incident affected 0.4% of all users and resulted in the reduction of all active BTC loans by 16.202%. The exchange subsequently froze all of the defaulted borrowers’ accounts and will keep them frozen until the borrowers repay their loans. Poloniex also claims that it will return the funds to affected lenders as soon as it recovers the lost money. Poloniex suggested that the crash occurred due to a number of reasons, and further explained: “The velocity of the crash and the lack of liquidity in the CLAM market made it impossible for all of the automatic liquidations of CLAM margin positions to process as they normally would in a liquid market. In addition, a significant amount of the total loan value was collateralized in CLAM, so both the borrowers’ positions and their collateral lost most of their value simultaneously.” Last month, Poloniex stopped offering trading in nine coins to customers in the United States . The exchange stated that the decision was motivated by the uncertain regulatory environment in the country, “Specifically, it is not possible to be certain whether U.S. regulators will consider these assets to be securities.” In January, independent analysts at ICORating gave 16% of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency trading platforms an A rating, including Poloniex (A-) among the top three most secure exchanges globally. ICORating assessed 135 crypto trading platforms, all of whose daily trade value reportedly exceeds $100,000, on the basis of four security categories: user account security, registrar and domain security, web security and DoS attack protection. Related Articles: Bitcoin Reclaims $8K as Coins See Green, Experts Warn of Ominous Stock Market Volatility Egypt Lays Out Path for a Crypto Future With Draft Law Binance Hires Former NBA, Dell Exec to Head Global Strategy Initiatives LocalBitcoins Confirms Removal of Local Cash Trades || Margin Lenders on Poloniex Lost $13.5 Million Due to Flash Crash: Margin lenders on American cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex have lost around $13.5 million due to a flash crash. Poloniex announced about the incident in a blog post published on June 6. Poloniex revealed that on May 26 a severe price crash in the clams ( CLAM ) market led to margin loans losses amounting to roughly 1,800 bitcoin ( BTC ), or approximately $13.5 million at the time. The incident affected 0.4% of all users and resulted in the reduction of all active BTC loans by 16.202%. The exchange subsequently froze all of the defaulted borrowers’ accounts and will keep them frozen until the borrowers repay their loans. Poloniex also claims that it will return the funds to affected lenders as soon as it recovers the lost money. Poloniex suggested that the crash occurred due to a number of reasons, and further explained: “The velocity of the crash and the lack of liquidity in the CLAM market made it impossible for all of the automatic liquidations of CLAM margin positions to process as they normally would in a liquid market. In addition, a significant amount of the total loan value was collateralized in CLAM, so both the borrowers’ positions and their collateral lost most of their value simultaneously.” Last month, Poloniex stopped offering trading in nine coins to customers in the United States . The exchange stated that the decision was motivated by the uncertain regulatory environment in the country, “Specifically, it is not possible to be certain whether U.S. regulators will consider these assets to be securities.” In January, independent analysts at ICORating gave 16% of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency trading platforms an A rating, including Poloniex (A-) among the top three most secure exchanges globally. ICORating assessed 135 crypto trading platforms, all of whose daily trade value reportedly exceeds $100,000, on the basis of four security categories: user account security, registrar and domain security, web security and DoS attack protection. Related Articles: Bitcoin Reclaims $8K as Coins See Green, Experts Warn of Ominous Stock Market Volatility Egypt Lays Out Path for a Crypto Future With Draft Law Binance Hires Former NBA, Dell Exec to Head Global Strategy Initiatives LocalBitcoins Confirms Removal of Local Cash Trades || Is the New CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert a Bitcoin Ally or Enemy?: ByCCN: Bitcoin fans are wistful after learning that the pro-cryptoCFTC(Commodity Futures Trading Commission) chairman Christopher Giancarlo is stepping down on July 15.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Giancarlo’s successor, Heath Tarbert, by a vote of 84 to 9.
Heath Tarbert was confirmed as the new CFTC chairman by a vote of 84 to 9. | Source: Senate.gov
Giancarlo was affectionately nicknamed “Crypto Dad” for his pro-bitcoin rhetoric. In a June 5statement, Giancarlo expressed his “enthusiastic congratulations” to Tarbert, whom he called “highly qualified.”
Tarbert’s position on cryptocurrencies is unknown. However, Giancarlo says Tarbert shares his vision of helping the CFTC transition into “a 21st Century regulator for today’s digital markets.”
Tarbert, a Republican nominated by President Donald Trump, is very pro-business. Therefore, it’s likely that he opposes over-regulation that would stifle innovation.
Tarbert is currently an acting undersecretary at the U.S. Treasury. He is also a member of the Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors the global economy.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Is the New CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert a Bitcoin Ally or Enemy?: Bitcoin fans are wistful since CFTC chair Christopher Giancarlo will step down in July. His successor, Heath Tarbert, was confirmed by the Senate this week. | Source: Shutterstock; Edited by CCN By CCN : Bitcoin fans are wistful after learning that the pro-crypto CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) chairman Christopher Giancarlo is stepping down on July 15. The U.S. Senate confirmed Giancarlos successor, Heath Tarbert, by a vote of 84 to 9. Senate confirms CFTC chairman heath tarbert bitcoin fate Heath Tarbert was confirmed as the new CFTC chairman by a vote of 84 to 9. | Source: Senate.gov Giancarlo Backs Heath Tarbert Giancarlo was affectionately nicknamed Crypto Dad for his pro-bitcoin rhetoric. In a June 5 statement , Giancarlo expressed his enthusiastic congratulations to Tarbert, whom he called highly qualified. Tarberts position on cryptocurrencies is unknown. However, Giancarlo says Tarbert shares his vision of helping the CFTC transition into a 21st Century regulator for todays digital markets. Tarbert, a Republican nominated by President Donald Trump, is very pro-business. Therefore, its likely that he opposes over-regulation that would stifle innovation. Tarbert is currently an acting undersecretary at the U.S. Treasury. He is also a member of the Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors the global economy. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Is the New CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert a Bitcoin Ally or Enemy?: ByCCN: Bitcoin fans are wistful after learning that the pro-cryptoCFTC(Commodity Futures Trading Commission) chairman Christopher Giancarlo is stepping down on July 15.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Giancarlo’s successor, Heath Tarbert, by a vote of 84 to 9.
Heath Tarbert was confirmed as the new CFTC chairman by a vote of 84 to 9. | Source: Senate.gov
Giancarlo was affectionately nicknamed “Crypto Dad” for his pro-bitcoin rhetoric. In a June 5statement, Giancarlo expressed his “enthusiastic congratulations” to Tarbert, whom he called “highly qualified.”
Tarbert’s position on cryptocurrencies is unknown. However, Giancarlo says Tarbert shares his vision of helping the CFTC transition into “a 21st Century regulator for today’s digital markets.”
Tarbert, a Republican nominated by President Donald Trump, is very pro-business. Therefore, it’s likely that he opposes over-regulation that would stifle innovation.
Tarbert is currently an acting undersecretary at the U.S. Treasury. He is also a member of the Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors the global economy.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || SL Benfica Offers Cryptocurrency Payment Option for Online Store: MajorPortuguesesportsclub SL Benfica now acceptscryptocurrencyfor merchandise and tickets, Verdictreportson June 6.
According to the report, SL Benfica partnered withcryptocurrencyservice Utrust to provide the new payments option. Fans and customers can now buy tickets any products on the club’s website with Utrust’s nativetoken(UTK), or with top cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).
Utrust purportedly supports instant crypto-to-fiat conversions, allowing SL Benfica to essentially pocket its revenue directly in cash. The press release explains that this allows the club to avoid issues around the volatility of cryptocurrencies, while still making use ofblockchaintechnology for conducting secure transactions.
SL Benfica reportedly has around 7 million fans active onsocial media, and around double that amount of total fans worldwide. Benfica says it is aiming to further grow its fanbase with its new crypto payments option, hyping up the new payment to fans as being the cheapest, safest, and fastest option for online transactions.
SL Benfica CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira commented on its significant digital fanbase, saying:
“We recognise that many of our supporters are now digital users first, so we want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting novel technologies and giving our supporters the best online experience.”
As previouslyreportedby Cointelegraph,EnglishPremier League football team West Ham United has partnered with the blockchain platform Socios.com to create a “fan token ecosystem.” The fan tokens will be used to encourage spectator engagement via token-based polls, rewards and games, and merch available on the Socios platform.
• Big Four Auditing Firm EY Open Sources its Ethereum Private Transaction Solution
• Virtual Racing Car in Blockchain Game Sells for Over $110,000
• Vast Majority of DApps for Finance Built on Ethereum Blockchain
• Republic of San Marino Issues Regulatory Policies on Tokens, Token Offerings || SL Benfica Offers Cryptocurrency Payment Option for Online Store: Major Portuguese sports club SL Benfica now accepts cryptocurrency for merchandise and tickets, Verdict reports on June 6. According to the report, SL Benfica partnered with cryptocurrency service Utrust to provide the new payments option. Fans and customers can now buy tickets any products on the club’s website with Utrust’s native token (UTK), or with top cryptocurrencies bitcoin ( BTC ) and ether ( ETH ). Utrust purportedly supports instant crypto-to-fiat conversions, allowing SL Benfica to essentially pocket its revenue directly in cash. The press release explains that this allows the club to avoid issues around the volatility of cryptocurrencies, while still making use of blockchain technology for conducting secure transactions. SL Benfica reportedly has around 7 million fans active on social media , and around double that amount of total fans worldwide. Benfica says it is aiming to further grow its fanbase with its new crypto payments option, hyping up the new payment to fans as being the cheapest, safest, and fastest option for online transactions. SL Benfica CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira commented on its significant digital fanbase, saying: “We recognise that many of our supporters are now digital users first, so we want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting novel technologies and giving our supporters the best online experience.” As previously reported by Cointelegraph, English Premier League football team West Ham United has partnered with the blockchain platform Socios.com to create a “fan token ecosystem.” The fan tokens will be used to encourage spectator engagement via token-based polls, rewards and games, and merch available on the Socios platform. Related Articles: Big Four Auditing Firm EY Open Sources its Ethereum Private Transaction Solution Virtual Racing Car in Blockchain Game Sells for Over $110,000 Vast Majority of DApps for Finance Built on Ethereum Blockchain Republic of San Marino Issues Regulatory Policies on Tokens, Token Offerings || Medici Ventures Leads Funding Round for Blockchain-Based E-Voting Platform: Medici Ventures, theblockchain-based subsidiary of Overstock.com, has led a $7 millionfundinground for a blockchain-basedvotingplatform, according to apress releaseon June 6.
The blockchain-based voting platform, Voatz, is reportedly designed to allow citizens to participate in officialelectionsand similar events via mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablet computers. The platform is reportedly based on blockchain tech,encryption, and biometrics, and purports to provide better convenience, security, and auditability for voters and vote collectors.
Voatz says that the proceeds of their $7 million Series A funding round will go toward improving accessibility and usability of the platform, as well as launching additional pilot programs in theUnited Statesand abroad. Voatz also commented that they have previously conducted pilot programs with a variety of organizations, such as state political parties, universities, labor unions, church groups and nonprofits.
Voatz has reportedly completed a pilot program in which military personnel and U.S. citizens living abroadvotedon the platform in Denver,Colorado’s2019 municipal elections. Voatz also broke ground with a pilot in which similarly out-of-country citizens and military personnel from West Virginiaused the platformto submit absentee votes in the 2018 midterm elections.
Medici Ventures President Jonathan Johnson commented on how this application of blockchain technology is important, saying:
"Voting is a great application of blockchain technology. What Voatz is doing to allow more registered voters to participate remotely in elections in a safe and secure way is important. It bodes well for more widespread adoption of the Voatz application. That's one reason we've increased our investment in the company by leading this Series A round."
As previouslyreportedby Cointelegraph,Russia’sruling political party United Russia launched a blockchain-based voting platform last month. United Russia’s head of IT projects Vyacheslav Sateyev commented on the details of the platform, saying:
"Candidates will be able to fill in their personal pages on this site, including posting news, videos, photos, distributing their pages. The personal account is now integrated with all social networks. We have also made an adaptive version of the site for mobile phones."
• Blockchains Acquires Development Firm Behind ‘The DAO’ Project
• Tech Startup Fluree Raises Nearly $5 Million in Seed Round for Blockchain Database
• Bitcoin Analyst Says BTC Could Reach $25,000 by End of 2019
• Republic of San Marino Issues Regulatory Policies on Tokens, Token Offerings || Medici Ventures Leads Funding Round for Blockchain-Based E-Voting Platform: Medici Ventures, the blockchain -based subsidiary of Overstock.com, has led a $7 million funding round for a blockchain-based voting platform, according to a press release on June 6. The blockchain-based voting platform, Voatz, is reportedly designed to allow citizens to participate in official elections and similar events via mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablet computers. The platform is reportedly based on blockchain tech, encryption , and biometrics, and purports to provide better convenience, security, and auditability for voters and vote collectors. Voatz says that the proceeds of their $7 million Series A funding round will go toward improving accessibility and usability of the platform, as well as launching additional pilot programs in the United States and abroad. Voatz also commented that they have previously conducted pilot programs with a variety of organizations, such as state political parties, universities, labor unions, church groups and nonprofits. Voatz has reportedly completed a pilot program in which military personnel and U.S. citizens living abroad voted on the platform in Denver, Colorado’s 2019 municipal elections. Voatz also broke ground with a pilot in which similarly out-of-country citizens and military personnel from West Virginia used the platform to submit absentee votes in the 2018 midterm elections. Medici Ventures President Jonathan Johnson commented on how this application of blockchain technology is important, saying: "Voting is a great application of blockchain technology. What Voatz is doing to allow more registered voters to participate remotely in elections in a safe and secure way is important. It bodes well for more widespread adoption of the Voatz application. That's one reason we've increased our investment in the company by leading this Series A round." As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Russia’s ruling political party United Russia launched a blockchain-based voting platform last month. United Russia’s head of IT projects Vyacheslav Sateyev commented on the details of the platform, saying: "Candidates will be able to fill in their personal pages on this site, including posting news, videos, photos, distributing their pages. The personal account is now integrated with all social networks. We have also made an adaptive version of the site for mobile phones." Related Articles: Blockchains Acquires Development Firm Behind ‘The DAO’ Project Tech Startup Fluree Raises Nearly $5 Million in Seed Round for Blockchain Database Bitcoin Analyst Says BTC Could Reach $25,000 by End of 2019 Republic of San Marino Issues Regulatory Policies on Tokens, Token Offerings View comments || Margin Lenders Lost $13.5 Million in May to Poloniex Crypto Crash: Crypto exchange Poloniex revealed in apostThursday that lenders in its bitcoin margin lending pool suffered a loss of 1800 BTC — roughly $13.5 million at current market prices — due to a flash crash in the Clams (CLAM) market on May 26.
Poloniex’s peer-to-peer margin system includes both lenders and borrowers, the lenders of which are pooled together and rewarded in interest for lending out their funds. In order for a user to borrow the margin funds being lent, he or she must hold a certain amount of collateral to provide a level of certainty that the debt will be able to be repaid at a later date.
On May 26, the margin tradable Clams (CLAM) market dropped by nearly 77 percent in value in just 45 minutes on Poloniex, causing a flurry of liquidations designed to cut losses in order to repay the lender.
However, the speed and magnitude of the crash were too severe for Poloniex’s automatic liquidation system to function properly in the illiquid market. This resulted in the 1,800 BTC loss that has yet to be repaid to the lenders.
In the post, Poloniex stated:
“The velocity of the crash and the lack of liquidity in the CLAM market made it impossible for all of the automatic liquidations of CLAM margin positions to process as they normally would in a liquid market.”
In total, this erased 16.202 percent of the entire margin lending pool and affected 0.4 percent of all Poloniex users, the post revealed.
Unfortunately for both lenders and borrowers in this case, much of the collateral provided by the borrowers was in the CLAM cryptocurrency itself. Since CLAM is now trading at $4.96, a value 80 percent less than moments before the crash, it’s unlikely the borrowers are capable of repaying said debt.
“Lenders impacted will see the reduction in their accounts when they next log in,” the post added.
Further, Poloniex said that it is seeking to contact those that defaulted on the loans in question.
“We’re pursuing the defaulted borrowers to get them to repay the BTC they owe to lenders. As we recover funds, we will return them to affected lenders. We’re also exploring other ways to help defray margin lender losses,” the exchange said. “We will continue to communicate with impacted lenders on the status of these efforts.”
To combat another situation like this going forward, Poloniex is taking steps to protect its margin users including removing illiquid markets such as BTS, CLAM, FCT, and MAID, add adding layers of processes and protections to monitor the risk in its margin markets.
Disclosure:The author holds several cryptocurrencies. Please see hisauthor biofor more information.
Polonieximage via Shutterstock || Margin Lenders Lost $13.5 Million in May to Poloniex Crypto Crash: Crypto exchange Poloniex revealed in a post Thursday that lenders in its bitcoin margin lending pool suffered a loss of 1800 BTC — roughly $13.5 million at current market prices — due to a flash crash in the Clams (CLAM) market on May 26. Poloniex’s peer-to-peer margin system includes both lenders and borrowers, the lenders of which are pooled together and rewarded in interest for lending out their funds. In order for a user to borrow the margin funds being lent, he or she must hold a certain amount of collateral to provide a level of certainty that the debt will be able to be repaid at a later date. On May 26, the margin tradable Clams (CLAM) market dropped by nearly 77 percent in value in just 45 minutes on Poloniex, causing a flurry of liquidations designed to cut losses in order to repay the lender. However, the speed and magnitude of the crash were too severe for Poloniex’s automatic liquidation system to function properly in the illiquid market. This resulted in the 1,800 BTC loss that has yet to be repaid to the lenders. In the post, Poloniex stated: “The velocity of the crash and the lack of liquidity in the CLAM market made it impossible for all of the automatic liquidations of CLAM margin positions to process as they normally would in a liquid market.” In total, this erased 16.202 percent of the entire margin lending pool and affected 0.4 percent of all Poloniex users, the post revealed. Unfortunately for both lenders and borrowers in this case, much of the collateral provided by the borrowers was in the CLAM cryptocurrency itself. Since CLAM is now trading at $4.96, a value 80 percent less than moments before the crash, it’s unlikely the borrowers are capable of repaying said debt. “Lenders impacted will see the reduction in their accounts when they next log in,” the post added. Further, Poloniex said that it is seeking to contact those that defaulted on the loans in question. “We’re pursuing the defaulted borrowers to get them to repay the BTC they owe to lenders. As we recover funds, we will return them to affected lenders. We’re also exploring other ways to help defray margin lender losses,” the exchange said. “We will continue to communicate with impacted lenders on the status of these efforts.” Story continues To combat another situation like this going forward, Poloniex is taking steps to protect its margin users including removing illiquid markets such as BTS, CLAM, FCT, and MAID, add adding layers of processes and protections to monitor the risk in its margin markets. Disclosure: The author holds several cryptocurrencies. Please see his author bio for more information. Poloniex image via Shutterstock || A $100 Million Crypto Fund Opens With the Goal of Going Long: (Bloomberg) -- The crypto world might call it the Big Long. A new $100 million investment firm, Darma Capital, is opening to investors who want to bet that digital assets such as Ether are poised for a 10-year bull run. Of course, Ether saw one of the largest boom-and-bust cycles in crypto, rising an astounding 17,775% in 2017 only to see 94% of its gains erased by the end of last year. Darma’s founders, however, are counting on Ether’s long-term integral role in the Ethereum blockchain to counter such mania. “We want to acquire what we consider a new asset class,” Andrew Keys, a managing member in Darma, said in an interview. Keys, one of the first employees of ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based Ethereum application developer, compared the state of crypto today with the early days of the internet’s popularization, when investors backed Google or Amazon, which operate atop the web’s architecture. The cryptocurrency Ether is the equivalent of the web -- it makes the Ethereum blockchain work -- but unlike with the internet, investors can buy Ether directly, Keys said. “We are 10 years long” on Ether, Keys said. His firm plans to create similar funds for Bitcoin and Filecoin in the future, he said. While scandals, fraud and regulatory actions are still seemingly weekly events in crypto, there are signs of well known corporations adopting Ethereum for real world uses. In April, Ernst & Young released its version of privacy-enhancing technology onto the public Ethereum blockchain. That same month, Societe Generale SA issued 100 million euro ($112 million) worth of covered bonds on the public Ethereum blockchain. The public chain is open for anyone to use, unlike private blockchains, which require permission to access. Predictions ‘Difficult’ “It’s very difficult to predict the success of any single-asset fund” because returns are closely tied to the underlying asset, Josh Gnaizda, chief executive officer of Crypto Fund Research in San Francisco, said in an email. “These type of crypto funds do, however, tend to be more volatile than arbitrage and other quantitative funds that have less of a directional bias.” Story continues The Darma funds are registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as both a commodity pool operator and a commodity trading adviser. Over the last few years, the strategy of the fund was to simply acquire as much Ether as possible. Keys said the fund sold near the top of the market in early 2018 to buy larger quantities of coins as prices fell, securing as much as 2,500 Ether last year for every 1,000 the fund started with. Managing the price swings is a major focus of the fund, he said. Larger questions loom for the Ethereum blockchain, such as whether it can boost the number of transactions processed. There are also concerns about privacy with Ethereum compared with transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. One early believer is Joe Lubin, founder of ConsenSys, who called Keys a “unifying force” in the Ethereum community, according to an emailed statement. The Brooklyn firm is Darma’s first corporate client and has invested some of its Ether with the fund for risk-management purposes, said Keys, who’s on the ConsenSys advisory board. (Updates with comment in seventh paragraph.) To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Leising in Los Angeles at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at [email protected], Daniel Taub, Dan Reichl For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || A $100 Million Crypto Fund Opens With the Goal of Going Long: (Bloomberg) -- The crypto world might call it the Big Long.
A new $100 million investment firm, Darma Capital, is opening to investors who want to bet that digital assets such as Ether are poised for a 10-year bull run. Of course, Ether saw one of the largest boom-and-bust cycles in crypto, rising an astounding 17,775% in 2017 only to see 94% of its gains erased by the end of last year. Darma’s founders, however, are counting on Ether’s long-term integral role in the Ethereum blockchain to counter such mania.
“We want to acquire what we consider a new asset class,” Andrew Keys, a managing member in Darma, said in an interview.
Keys, one of the first employees of ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based Ethereum application developer, compared the state of crypto today with the early days of the internet’s popularization, when investors backed Google or Amazon, which operate atop the web’s architecture. The cryptocurrency Ether is the equivalent of the web -- it makes the Ethereum blockchain work -- but unlike with the internet, investors can buy Ether directly, Keys said.
“We are 10 years long” on Ether, Keys said. His firm plans to create similar funds for Bitcoin and Filecoin in the future, he said.
While scandals, fraud and regulatory actions are still seemingly weekly events in crypto, there are signs of well known corporations adopting Ethereum for real world uses. In April, Ernst & Young released its version of privacy-enhancing technology onto the public Ethereum blockchain. That same month, Societe Generale SA issued 100 million euro ($112 million) worth of covered bonds on the public Ethereum blockchain. The public chain is open for anyone to use, unlike private blockchains, which require permission to access.
Predictions ‘Difficult’
“It’s very difficult to predict the success of any single-asset fund” because returns are closely tied to the underlying asset, Josh Gnaizda, chief executive officer of Crypto Fund Research in San Francisco, said in an email. “These type of crypto funds do, however, tend to be more volatile than arbitrage and other quantitative funds that have less of a directional bias.”
The Darma funds are registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as both a commodity pool operator and a commodity trading adviser. Over the last few years, the strategy of the fund was to simply acquire as much Ether as possible. Keys said the fund sold near the top of the market in early 2018 to buy larger quantities of coins as prices fell, securing as much as 2,500 Ether last year for every 1,000 the fund started with. Managing the price swings is a major focus of the fund, he said.
Larger questions loom for the Ethereum blockchain, such as whether it can boost the number of transactions processed. There are also concerns about privacy with Ethereum compared with transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.
One early believer is Joe Lubin, founder of ConsenSys, who called Keys a “unifying force” in the Ethereum community, according to an emailed statement. The Brooklyn firm is Darma’s first corporate client and has invested some of its Ether with the fund for risk-management purposes, said Keys, who’s on the ConsenSys advisory board.
(Updates with comment in seventh paragraph.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Leising in Los Angeles at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at [email protected], Daniel Taub, Dan Reichl
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || This Ridiculously Stupid Bitcoin Clone Surged 800% Today: ByCCN: Why buy the originalBitcoin (BTC), when you can own some Bitcoin 2 (BTC2)? You, like most people, probably thought that shady cryptocurrency forks are a thing of the past. But boy, oh boy, were you wrong.
Bitcoin 2, an aptly-named Bitcoin fork, made a splash this morning by leading thecryptocurrency marketwith an almost 800 percent gain in the past 24 hours. After quietly launching last year, this new cryptocurrency quickly rose through the market cap ranks today to crack the top 100.
BTC2 reached a peak of over $4 today before drastically falling back down. | Source: CoinMarketCap
The charts paint a clear picture predicting Bitcoin 2’s success. If you look at the 4-hour candlestick chart, you can see a classic rising wedge begin to…just kidding. It’s most likely another victim of apump-and-dumpinvesting scam.
Although Bitcoin 2 is experiencing impressive growth, it’s occurring with only $35,000 of daily trading volume. To give you some perspective, Bitcoin’s (the original’s) daily trading volume currently sits above $18.5 billion. A bored whale is most likely pushing the BTC2 price up to later dump their holdings on all the investors who felt some FOMO and purchased it. Don’t be one of those people.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || This Ridiculously Stupid Bitcoin Clone Surged 800% Today: The worst-named Bitcoin clone out there is leading the cryptocurrency market today with triple-digit percentage gains in the last 24 hours. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : Why buy the original Bitcoin (BTC) , when you can own some Bitcoin 2 (BTC2)? You, like most people, probably thought that shady cryptocurrency forks are a thing of the past. But boy, oh boy, were you wrong. Bitcoin 2, an aptly-named Bitcoin fork, made a splash this morning by leading the cryptocurrency market with an almost 800 percent gain in the past 24 hours. After quietly launching last year, this new cryptocurrency quickly rose through the market cap ranks today to crack the top 100. Bitcoin 2 one-day chart BTC2 reached a peak of over $4 today before drastically falling back down. | Source: CoinMarketCap Why Is BTC2 Pumping? The charts paint a clear picture predicting Bitcoin 2’s success. If you look at the 4-hour candlestick chart, you can see a classic rising wedge begin to…just kidding. It’s most likely another victim of a pump-and-dump investing scam. Although Bitcoin 2 is experiencing impressive growth, it’s occurring with only $35,000 of daily trading volume. To give you some perspective, Bitcoin’s (the original’s) daily trading volume currently sits above $18.5 billion. A bored whale is most likely pushing the BTC2 price up to later dump their holdings on all the investors who felt some FOMO and purchased it. Don’t be one of those people. Read the full story on CCN.com . View comments || This Ridiculously Stupid Bitcoin Clone Surged 800% Today: ByCCN: Why buy the originalBitcoin (BTC), when you can own some Bitcoin 2 (BTC2)? You, like most people, probably thought that shady cryptocurrency forks are a thing of the past. But boy, oh boy, were you wrong.
Bitcoin 2, an aptly-named Bitcoin fork, made a splash this morning by leading thecryptocurrency marketwith an almost 800 percent gain in the past 24 hours. After quietly launching last year, this new cryptocurrency quickly rose through the market cap ranks today to crack the top 100.
BTC2 reached a peak of over $4 today before drastically falling back down. | Source: CoinMarketCap
The charts paint a clear picture predicting Bitcoin 2’s success. If you look at the 4-hour candlestick chart, you can see a classic rising wedge begin to…just kidding. It’s most likely another victim of apump-and-dumpinvesting scam.
Although Bitcoin 2 is experiencing impressive growth, it’s occurring with only $35,000 of daily trading volume. To give you some perspective, Bitcoin’s (the original’s) daily trading volume currently sits above $18.5 billion. A bored whale is most likely pushing the BTC2 price up to later dump their holdings on all the investors who felt some FOMO and purchased it. Don’t be one of those people.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Major Coins See Red Following Reports That FOMO Fueled May’s Rally: Thursday, June 6 — Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are trending down slightly following the slump from the recent rally. Top cryptocurrencies are seeing a mix of ups and downs, according to data from Coin360.
Market visualization courtesy ofCoin360
After its surge to $9,000 last week, BTC is down by 1.67% on the day, and is trading at just $7,676 according toCoinMarketCap. The leading cryptocurrency has fallen in market capitalization by about $10 billion since May 30, with a market cap of approximately $136 billion at press time.
Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Top altcoinETHis currently down by 1.8% and is trading at $241.77 at press time. With the recent market adjustments, ETH currently has a market cap approximately 19% the size of Bitcoin’s.
Ether 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Ripple’s tokenXRP, however, is trending up by 2.32% on the day, and is trading at $0.408.
XRP 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is currently at $243 billion. 24-hour trade volume is $62.3 billion.
Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies 24-hour price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Looking at thedataprovided by MarketWatch, gold is in the green, trading at around $1,342.40, up by 0.66% on the day. Oil, on the other hand, is down by .21% on the day, trading around $51.57 at press time. Aside from oil, however, other traditionalassetslisted on the website remain in the green.
As previouslyreportedon Cointelegraph, investment advisory group San Francisco Open Exchange (SFOX) released a volatility report on June 6, saying that the crypto market has transitioned from “mildly bullish” to “uncertain.” SFOX cautioned that the bullish growth in May could have been unsustainable growth due to investor FOMO (fear of missing out).
In the report, SFOX conjectured that bitcoin’s major rally on May 13 might have been the result of the on-going trade war between theUnited StatesandChina. It also noted that the “flash crash” on May 17 may have been the result of a sale on cryptocurrency exchangeBitstamp, in which 5,000 BTC was sold significantly below market value at $6,200.
• Bitcoin Analyst Says BTC Could Reach $25,000 by End of 2019
• Ex-Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu Set to Launch Crypto OTC Platform Next Month: Report
• Bitcoin Holds Over $7,800 as US Stock Market Sees Minor Uptrend
• Bitcoin Continues to See Negative Corrections After Breaking $9,000, US Stocks Tumble || Major Coins See Red Following Reports That FOMO Fueled May’s Rally: Thursday, June 6 — Bitcoin ( BTC ) and ether ( ETH ) are trending down slightly following the slump from the recent rally. Top cryptocurrencies are seeing a mix of ups and downs, according to data from Coin360. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 After its surge to $9,000 last week, BTC is down by 1.67% on the day, and is trading at just $7,676 according to CoinMarketCap . The leading cryptocurrency has fallen in market capitalization by about $10 billion since May 30, with a market cap of approximately $136 billion at press time. Bitcoin 7-day price chart Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Top altcoin ETH is currently down by 1.8% and is trading at $241.77 at press time. With the recent market adjustments, ETH currently has a market cap approximately 19% the size of Bitcoin’s. Ether 7-day price chart Ether 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ripple’s token XRP , however, is trending up by 2.32% on the day, and is trading at $0.408. XRP 7-day price chart XRP 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is currently at $243 billion. 24-hour trade volume is $62.3 billion. Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies 24-hour price chart Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Looking at the data provided by MarketWatch, gold is in the green, trading at around $1,342.40, up by 0.66% on the day. Oil, on the other hand, is down by .21% on the day, trading around $51.57 at press time. Aside from oil, however, other traditional assets listed on the website remain in the green. As previously reported on Cointelegraph, investment advisory group San Francisco Open Exchange (SFOX) released a volatility report on June 6, saying that the crypto market has transitioned from “mildly bullish” to “uncertain.” SFOX cautioned that the bullish growth in May could have been unsustainable growth due to investor FOMO (fear of missing out). In the report, SFOX conjectured that bitcoin’s major rally on May 13 might have been the result of the on-going trade war between the United States and China . It also noted that the “flash crash” on May 17 may have been the result of a sale on cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp , in which 5,000 BTC was sold significantly below market value at $6,200. Related Articles: Bitcoin Analyst Says BTC Could Reach $25,000 by End of 2019 Ex-Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu Set to Launch Crypto OTC Platform Next Month: Report Bitcoin Holds Over $7,800 as US Stock Market Sees Minor Uptrend Bitcoin Continues to See Negative Corrections After Breaking $9,000, US Stocks Tumble || SEC Chairman: Other Market Protections Needed Before Bitcoin ETF Approval: United StatesSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton said that the regulator needs to feel comfortable withcryptocurrencycustody and ensure no market manipulation can take place before approving a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Clayton made his remarks during aninterviewwith CNBC on June 6.
When Clayton was asked whether an ETF based on a bundle of cryptocurrencies could be released in the U.S., Clayton said that the SEC is currently working on making that possible.
Still, he also noted that various issues have to be resolved before a cryptocurrency ETF will be approved, starting with custody:
“We’re engaging on this, but there are a couple of things about it that we need to feel comfortable with. The first is custody: custody is a long-standing requirement in our markets, and if you say you have something you really have it.”
Another major concern for the SEC is the alleged absence of robust preventative measures for market manipulation. Clayton said:
“The other thing that is important is [...] we have sophisticated rules and surveillance to ensure that people are not manipulating the stock market, those cryptocurrency markets by large do not have that; And we’re working hard to see if we can get there, but I’m not just going to flip a switch and say this is just like stocks and bonds, because it’s not.”
Clayton’s views are seemingly in stark contrast with thoseexpressedearlier this week by SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, who has urged for a less cautious approach toward innovation in the ETF space on the regulator’s part.
Yesterday, the SEC alsofiledfraud charges against supposedcryptocurrencyfirm Longfin Corp. and its CEO Venkata S. Meenavalli.
• SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Encourages Less Caution Toward ETF Innovation
• California Public Accountants Seek Clarity on Cryptocurrency Holdings
• Bitwise White Paper: Fake Trading Volumes by Exchanges Do Not Impact BTC Prices
• Bitcoin Analyst Says BTC Could Reach $25,000 by End of 2019 || SEC Chairman: Other Market Protections Needed Before Bitcoin ETF Approval: United StatesSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton said that the regulator needs to feel comfortable withcryptocurrencycustody and ensure no market manipulation can take place before approving a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Clayton made his remarks during aninterviewwith CNBC on June 6.
When Clayton was asked whether an ETF based on a bundle of cryptocurrencies could be released in the U.S., Clayton said that the SEC is currently working on making that possible.
Still, he also noted that various issues have to be resolved before a cryptocurrency ETF will be approved, starting with custody:
“We’re engaging on this, but there are a couple of things about it that we need to feel comfortable with. The first is custody: custody is a long-standing requirement in our markets, and if you say you have something you really have it.”
Another major concern for the SEC is the alleged absence of robust preventative measures for market manipulation. Clayton said:
“The other thing that is important is [...] we have sophisticated rules and surveillance to ensure that people are not manipulating the stock market, those cryptocurrency markets by large do not have that; And we’re working hard to see if we can get there, but I’m not just going to flip a switch and say this is just like stocks and bonds, because it’s not.”
Clayton’s views are seemingly in stark contrast with thoseexpressedearlier this week by SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, who has urged for a less cautious approach toward innovation in the ETF space on the regulator’s part.
Yesterday, the SEC alsofiledfraud charges against supposedcryptocurrencyfirm Longfin Corp. and its CEO Venkata S. Meenavalli.
• SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Encourages Less Caution Toward ETF Innovation
• California Public Accountants Seek Clarity on Cryptocurrency Holdings
• Bitwise White Paper: Fake Trading Volumes by Exchanges Do Not Impact BTC Prices
• Bitcoin Analyst Says BTC Could Reach $25,000 by End of 2019
[Social Media Buzz]
この記事のまとめ
・Windows, Macで簡単に $BTC のマイニングができる Honeyminer
・インストールでもれなく 1,000satoshi がもらえる
・わかりやすいUIでストレスなし
https://t.co/pOqflV3suN
#マイニング #仮想通貨 #無料 || XRP
もう１つの要因としては仮想通貨市場の地合いが良くないからですね。
現状まだBTCが元気の無い時期に自力で上がってくほどの力を持ったアルトが存在しません。
これはアルトが誕生した時期がまだ新しいことやBTCとの時価総額の差に起因するものだと考えられます。 || XRPの急上昇！
BTCも凄い勢いで上がってる。今日は、SECの仮想通貨のETFはしばらくないよねというニュースで暗いムードが朝は漂ってたけど、まぁ私は昨日からロングしてたから関係ない。
資金管理してリスクが限定されていれば、安値で買うことへの恐怖はない。
#仮想通貨 https://t.co/a0nw8F2WR9 || @bitsane_com seem xrp price want go to zero and we...
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7954.13, 7688.08, 8000.33, 7927.71, 8145.86, 8230.92, 8693.83, 8838.38, 8994.49, 9320.35
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-10-19]
Volume: 13797825640, RSI (14-day): 33.92, 50-day EMA: 8960.80, 200-day EMA: 8673.26
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Ethereum loses yesterday’s gains, drops to $174: Things were looking good forEthereum, until they weren’t.
The cryptocurrency is down nearly 2 percent on the day,losing all of its gainsover the past 24 hours. ETHhodlersare likely none too pleased.
Throughout October, the currency has been trading sideways—incurring small spikes in price, only to falter against newfound resistance levels and drop back to previous positions. Ethereum’s price peaked this monthat around $194, though now it appears to be in danger ofhitting the $170 markagain—a price point that it hasn’t seen in about 12 days.
According to datafrom CoinMarketCap, trading volume for Ethereum has been relatively mixed throughout October, but has dropped somewhat within the past day. The highest trading volume for Ethereum this month was recorded on October 10. During that time, volume spiked beyond the $8 billion mark. At the time, Ethereum gainedroughly three percentin its overall price, and was trading for just shy of $190.
Now, as the trading volume has gone down a little, the price is falling back towards the $170 resistance level.
Of course, it isn’t just Ethereum that’s having a rough day. It’s been a red trading day for most of the market, with Bitcoin once again breaking below $8,000. Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, is heading down toward the $211 per coin mark, while Litecoin is trading at $52. || Ethereum loses yesterdays gains, drops to $174: Things were looking good for Ethereum , until they werent. The cryptocurrency is down nearly 2 percent on the day, losing all of its gains over the past 24 hours. ETH hodlers are likely none too pleased. Throughout October, the currency has been trading sidewaysincurring small spikes in price, only to falter against newfound resistance levels and drop back to previous positions. Ethereums price peaked this month at around $194 , though now it appears to be in danger of hitting the $170 mark againa price point that it hasnt seen in about 12 days. According to data from CoinMarketCap , trading volume for Ethereum has been relatively mixed throughout October, but has dropped somewhat within the past day. The highest trading volume for Ethereum this month was recorded on October 10. During that time, volume spiked beyond the $8 billion mark. At the time, Ethereum gained roughly three percent in its overall price, and was trading for just shy of $190. Now, as the trading volume has gone down a little, the price is falling back towards the $170 resistance level. Of course, it isnt just Ethereum thats having a rough day. Its been a red trading day for most of the market, with Bitcoin once again breaking below $8,000. Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, is heading down toward the $211 per coin mark, while Litecoin is trading at $52. || With 18 Million Bitcoins Mined, How Hard Is That 21 Million Limit?: In a matter of hours, the 18 millionth bitcoin will have been mined and the world’s first cryptocurrency will draw one step closer to its hard-coded cap of 21 million coins.
“The pie is shrinking. This [milestone] gives people some simple math to raise awareness about where we’re at in the [bitcoin mining] process,” said Alex Adelman, CEO of bitcoin rewards platform Lolli, adding:
“It’s good for people to see the progress of bitcoin, to look back on everything that has been done and will be done for the next 3 million. … You should pay attention to the next 3 million.”
Related:Peter Thiel Backs $200 Million Valuation for Renewable Bitcoin Mining in the US
But don’t worry, you’ll have 120 years to do so.
The next 3 million bitcoins will be progressively slower to mine as a result of block reward halvings which occur every 210,000 blocks (or roughly four years) and reduce new bitcoin supply by 50 percent. The final bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140.
Or is it?
It seems blasphemous even to go there, given bitcoin’s value proposition as digital gold. But outsiders foresee a day when the 21 million cap might, gasp, come up for debate.
Related:Next Bitcoin Halving Could Squeeze out Retail Miners, But Jury’s Split on Price
Eventually, once there are no more bitcoins left to mint, miners will rely solely on transaction fees, which are paid by users to transfer coins through the blockchain. This change gives cause for concern to some who view bitcoin’s block subsidies as integral to bitcoin’s incentive system.
To skeptics, this could undermine the structure that motivates miners to record validated transactions in the ledger.
“All of your assumptions about incentives, risk and value go out the window,” said Angela Walch, a research fellow at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies. “Please take the blinders off and stop assuming that everything will still work well once everything goes to a pure transaction-fees system as opposed to block [subsidy].”
Currently, with each block, miners get a subsidy of 12.5 newly created BTC, worth roughly $99,370, plus any additional transaction fees, which normally don’t totalmore than 1 BTC.
Along the same lines, Paul Brody, global innovation leader for audit firm Ernst & Young (EY), said bitcoin’s limited supply could limit the cryptocurrency’s utility as a global reserve currency.
Pointing to situations such as the Great Recession where monetary policy interventions were needed to lift the U.S. out of economic turmoil, Brody said:
“If bitcoin were to become a substantial part of the global monetary system, we would need to address [the hard supply cap] because a lot of economists agree deflationary systems are not necessarily the best thing.”
Both Walch and Brody suggested that bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap might one day be subject to change. What if?
“We need to acknowledge that the 21 million cap is aspirational,” said Walch. “If people decide to change that [supply] cap for certain reasons and enough people make that decision, the system will move to it. It’s aspiration, not reality.”
While technically feasible, a change to the supply cap would almost certainly be a non-starter for bitcoin users who cherish its gold-like properties. Indeed, bitcoin’s code has long been governed by a community with a bias toward retaining the coin’s original features as created by its pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Unlike ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, the bitcoin blockchain has rarely seen backward-incompatible, system-wide upgrades changing core code features.
In the rare instances it has, the bitcoin community has gone through fierce governance disputes – such as the infamousscaling debates of 2017, which centered on a potential increase to bitcoin’s block size. The philosophical rift ultimately resulted in the creation of bitcoin cashin August 2017.
Still, a prospective hard fork that would change bitcoin’s 21-million-coin supply cap is conceivable, if perhaps heretical.
“It’s not a given that bitcoin has to stay at that 21 million hard limit,” said EY’s Brody (who, it should be noted, is building enterprise applications on top of rival chain ethereum). “There is a governance mechanism to permit changes in bitcoin – if the community agrees that would be good.”
Even so, bitcoin advocate and author Andreas Antonopoulos stressed that governance drama surrounding bitcoin’s supply cap is nothing to lose sleep over – especially since bitcoin’s transition to a purely transaction-fee rewards model will take 120 years.
Antonopoulos added that from the very launch of bitcoin in 2009, mining was always “a marginally profitable endeavor” never intended to stay constant.
“[Mining rewards] dynamically adjust based on the network. … It’s a very complex economic environment. It’s not as simple as people think,” said Antonopoulos, adding:
“There are half a dozen variables that determine miner profitability [right now] including the cost of electricity, their access to bandwidth transaction, the block subsidy, the transaction fees at the time, bitcoin price, their local currency exchange rate, the type of equipment and how efficient it is at converting electricity into mining.”
As such, Antonopoulos says the concerns surrounding a transition from a block subsidy to purely transaction-based block rewards are grossly overblown.
“Nothing magical happens when block subsidy drops to zero,” said Antonopoulos. “It’s a very gradual and predictable change that happens over a period of 120 years. It’s already happening and every day [miners] make their decisions.”
While the 18th million bitcoin may not be the best reminder of the ongoing reality of a limited supply cap, the next upcoming milestone on bitcoin’s horizon assuredly will.
Viewing the next bitcoin halving as a far more notable event in bitcoin’s history, venture capitalist William Mougayar said:
“In my opinion, [the 18 million] milestone is not that significant in relation to the next halving which occurs May 2020. … On that date, the block [subsidy] will go from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.”
Andreas Antonopoulos image via Christine Kim for CoinDesk
• MakerDAO’s Multi-Collateral DAI Token Is Launching Nov. 18
• Hyperledger Blockchain Group Weighs Changes to Fix Election Issues || With 18 Million Bitcoins Mined, How Hard Is That 21 Million Limit?: In a matter of hours, the 18 millionth bitcoin will have been mined and the world’s first cryptocurrency will draw one step closer to its hard-coded cap of 21 million coins. “The pie is shrinking. This [milestone] gives people some simple math to raise awareness about where we’re at in the [bitcoin mining] process,” said Alex Adelman, CEO of bitcoin rewards platform Lolli, adding: “It’s good for people to see the progress of bitcoin, to look back on everything that has been done and will be done for the next 3 million. … You should pay attention to the next 3 million.” Related: Peter Thiel Backs $200 Million Valuation for Renewable Bitcoin Mining in the US But don’t worry, you’ll have 120 years to do so. The next 3 million bitcoins will be progressively slower to mine as a result of block reward halvings which occur every 210,000 blocks (or roughly four years) and reduce new bitcoin supply by 50 percent. The final bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140. Or is it? It seems blasphemous even to go there, given bitcoin’s value proposition as digital gold. But outsiders foresee a day when the 21 million cap might, gasp, come up for debate. Related: Next Bitcoin Halving Could Squeeze out Retail Miners, But Jury’s Split on Price Eventually, once there are no more bitcoins left to mint, miners will rely solely on transaction fees, which are paid by users to transfer coins through the blockchain. This change gives cause for concern to some who view bitcoin’s block subsidies as integral to bitcoin’s incentive system. To skeptics, this could undermine the structure that motivates miners to record validated transactions in the ledger. “All of your assumptions about incentives, risk and value go out the window,” said Angela Walch, a research fellow at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies. “Please take the blinders off and stop assuming that everything will still work well once everything goes to a pure transaction-fees system as opposed to block [subsidy].” Story continues Currently, with each block, miners get a subsidy of 12.5 newly created BTC, worth roughly $99,370, plus any additional transaction fees, which normally don’t total more than 1 BTC. Along the same lines, Paul Brody, global innovation leader for audit firm Ernst & Young (EY), said bitcoin’s limited supply could limit the cryptocurrency’s utility as a global reserve currency. Pointing to situations such as the Great Recession where monetary policy interventions were needed to lift the U.S. out of economic turmoil, Brody said: “If bitcoin were to become a substantial part of the global monetary system, we would need to address [the hard supply cap] because a lot of economists agree deflationary systems are not necessarily the best thing.” What next? Both Walch and Brody suggested that bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap might one day be subject to change. What if? “We need to acknowledge that the 21 million cap is aspirational,” said Walch. “If people decide to change that [supply] cap for certain reasons and enough people make that decision, the system will move to it. It’s aspiration, not reality.” While technically feasible, a change to the supply cap would almost certainly be a non-starter for bitcoin users who cherish its gold-like properties. Indeed, bitcoin’s code has long been governed by a community with a bias toward retaining the coin’s original features as created by its pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. Unlike ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, the bitcoin blockchain has rarely seen backward-incompatible, system-wide upgrades changing core code features. In the rare instances it has, the bitcoin community has gone through fierce governance disputes – such as the infamous scaling debates of 2017 , which centered on a potential increase to bitcoin’s block size. The philosophical rift ultimately resulted in the creation of bitcoin cash in August 2017 . Still, a prospective hard fork that would change bitcoin’s 21-million-coin supply cap is conceivable, if perhaps heretical. “It’s not a given that bitcoin has to stay at that 21 million hard limit,” said EY’s Brody (who, it should be noted, is building enterprise applications on top of rival chain ethereum). “There is a governance mechanism to permit changes in bitcoin – if the community agrees that would be good.” The other side Even so, bitcoin advocate and author Andreas Antonopoulos stressed that governance drama surrounding bitcoin’s supply cap is nothing to lose sleep over – especially since bitcoin’s transition to a purely transaction-fee rewards model will take 120 years. Antonopoulos added that from the very launch of bitcoin in 2009, mining was always “a marginally profitable endeavor” never intended to stay constant. “[Mining rewards] dynamically adjust based on the network. … It’s a very complex economic environment. It’s not as simple as people think,” said Antonopoulos, adding: “There are half a dozen variables that determine miner profitability [right now] including the cost of electricity, their access to bandwidth transaction, the block subsidy, the transaction fees at the time, bitcoin price, their local currency exchange rate, the type of equipment and how efficient it is at converting electricity into mining.” As such, Antonopoulos says the concerns surrounding a transition from a block subsidy to purely transaction-based block rewards are grossly overblown. “Nothing magical happens when block subsidy drops to zero,” said Antonopoulos. “It’s a very gradual and predictable change that happens over a period of 120 years. It’s already happening and every day [miners] make their decisions.” While the 18th million bitcoin may not be the best reminder of the ongoing reality of a limited supply cap, the next upcoming milestone on bitcoin’s horizon assuredly will. Viewing the next bitcoin halving as a far more notable event in bitcoin’s history, venture capitalist William Mougayar said: “In my opinion, [the 18 million] milestone is not that significant in relation to the next halving which occurs May 2020. … On that date, the block [subsidy] will go from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.” Andreas Antonopoulos image via Christine Kim for CoinDesk Related Stories MakerDAO’s Multi-Collateral DAI Token Is Launching Nov. 18 Hyperledger Blockchain Group Weighs Changes to Fix Election Issues || With 18 Million Bitcoins Mined, How Hard Is That 21 Million Limit?: In a matter of hours, the 18 millionth bitcoin will have been mined and the world’s first cryptocurrency will draw one step closer to its hard-coded cap of 21 million coins.
“The pie is shrinking. This [milestone] gives people some simple math to raise awareness about where we’re at in the [bitcoin mining] process,” said Alex Adelman, CEO of bitcoin rewards platform Lolli, adding:
“It’s good for people to see the progress of bitcoin, to look back on everything that has been done and will be done for the next 3 million. … You should pay attention to the next 3 million.”
Related:Peter Thiel Backs $200 Million Valuation for Renewable Bitcoin Mining in the US
But don’t worry, you’ll have 120 years to do so.
The next 3 million bitcoins will be progressively slower to mine as a result of block reward halvings which occur every 210,000 blocks (or roughly four years) and reduce new bitcoin supply by 50 percent. The final bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140.
Or is it?
It seems blasphemous even to go there, given bitcoin’s value proposition as digital gold. But outsiders foresee a day when the 21 million cap might, gasp, come up for debate.
Related:Next Bitcoin Halving Could Squeeze out Retail Miners, But Jury’s Split on Price
Eventually, once there are no more bitcoins left to mint, miners will rely solely on transaction fees, which are paid by users to transfer coins through the blockchain. This change gives cause for concern to some who view bitcoin’s block subsidies as integral to bitcoin’s incentive system.
To skeptics, this could undermine the structure that motivates miners to record validated transactions in the ledger.
“All of your assumptions about incentives, risk and value go out the window,” said Angela Walch, a research fellow at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies. “Please take the blinders off and stop assuming that everything will still work well once everything goes to a pure transaction-fees system as opposed to block [subsidy].”
Currently, with each block, miners get a subsidy of 12.5 newly created BTC, worth roughly $99,370, plus any additional transaction fees, which normally don’t totalmore than 1 BTC.
Along the same lines, Paul Brody, global innovation leader for audit firm Ernst & Young (EY), said bitcoin’s limited supply could limit the cryptocurrency’s utility as a global reserve currency.
Pointing to situations such as the Great Recession where monetary policy interventions were needed to lift the U.S. out of economic turmoil, Brody said:
“If bitcoin were to become a substantial part of the global monetary system, we would need to address [the hard supply cap] because a lot of economists agree deflationary systems are not necessarily the best thing.”
Both Walch and Brody suggested that bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap might one day be subject to change. What if?
“We need to acknowledge that the 21 million cap is aspirational,” said Walch. “If people decide to change that [supply] cap for certain reasons and enough people make that decision, the system will move to it. It’s aspiration, not reality.”
While technically feasible, a change to the supply cap would almost certainly be a non-starter for bitcoin users who cherish its gold-like properties. Indeed, bitcoin’s code has long been governed by a community with a bias toward retaining the coin’s original features as created by its pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Unlike ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, the bitcoin blockchain has rarely seen backward-incompatible, system-wide upgrades changing core code features.
In the rare instances it has, the bitcoin community has gone through fierce governance disputes – such as the infamousscaling debates of 2017, which centered on a potential increase to bitcoin’s block size. The philosophical rift ultimately resulted in the creation of bitcoin cashin August 2017.
Still, a prospective hard fork that would change bitcoin’s 21-million-coin supply cap is conceivable, if perhaps heretical.
“It’s not a given that bitcoin has to stay at that 21 million hard limit,” said EY’s Brody (who, it should be noted, is building enterprise applications on top of rival chain ethereum). “There is a governance mechanism to permit changes in bitcoin – if the community agrees that would be good.”
Even so, bitcoin advocate and author Andreas Antonopoulos stressed that governance drama surrounding bitcoin’s supply cap is nothing to lose sleep over – especially since bitcoin’s transition to a purely transaction-fee rewards model will take 120 years.
Antonopoulos added that from the very launch of bitcoin in 2009, mining was always “a marginally profitable endeavor” never intended to stay constant.
“[Mining rewards] dynamically adjust based on the network. … It’s a very complex economic environment. It’s not as simple as people think,” said Antonopoulos, adding:
“There are half a dozen variables that determine miner profitability [right now] including the cost of electricity, their access to bandwidth transaction, the block subsidy, the transaction fees at the time, bitcoin price, their local currency exchange rate, the type of equipment and how efficient it is at converting electricity into mining.”
As such, Antonopoulos says the concerns surrounding a transition from a block subsidy to purely transaction-based block rewards are grossly overblown.
“Nothing magical happens when block subsidy drops to zero,” said Antonopoulos. “It’s a very gradual and predictable change that happens over a period of 120 years. It’s already happening and every day [miners] make their decisions.”
While the 18th million bitcoin may not be the best reminder of the ongoing reality of a limited supply cap, the next upcoming milestone on bitcoin’s horizon assuredly will.
Viewing the next bitcoin halving as a far more notable event in bitcoin’s history, venture capitalist William Mougayar said:
“In my opinion, [the 18 million] milestone is not that significant in relation to the next halving which occurs May 2020. … On that date, the block [subsidy] will go from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.”
Andreas Antonopoulos image via Christine Kim for CoinDesk
• MakerDAO’s Multi-Collateral DAI Token Is Launching Nov. 18
• Hyperledger Blockchain Group Weighs Changes to Fix Election Issues || Karma Automotive accepts payments in Bitcoin at flagship store: Californian luxury electric car manufacturer and high-tech incubator Karma Automotiveannounced Tuesdaythat it now accepts payments in Bitcoin at its flagship store in Newport Beach, California.
The auto manufacturer will accept payments in the cryptocurrency for buying and servicing vehicles at the store. The advancement is the result of a partnership with its primary shareholder, Wanxiang Group, a collaboration that was announced at Shanghai International Blockchain Week 2019.
“We are opening our platform to serve as a test bed to help convert theoretical blockchain applications to practical use,” said Karma CEO Dr. Lance Zhou.
At the 15,000 square foot shop floor, customers can buy the plug-in hybrid Revero GT and certified pre-owned Reveros using Bitcoin, with the 2019 model starting at $130,000 (or around 16.4 BTC in today’s money).
“Karma’s flagship store will support our efforts to prove emerging technology and provide the latest VVIP customer treatment offerings by accepting Bitcoin cryptocurrency,” added Zhou.
This is the latest in a string of blockchain announcement from the automotive industry in recent days. Earlier this week, American car manufacturer Fordrevealedplans to extend the trial of a new blockchain-based system to Cologne. Using the system, hybrid vehicles would automatically switch from petrol engines to electric engines in city centres.
And last week, theMobility Open Blockchain Initiative(MOBI), an industry group including car manufacturers Ford, Honda, BMW, Renault and GM,announced plansto start development on a blockchain-based system that would allow cars to pay for parking tickets and highway tolls. || Karma Automotive accepts payments in Bitcoin at flagship store: Californian luxury electric car manufacturer and high-tech incubator Karma Automotive announced Tuesday that it now accepts payments in Bitcoin at its flagship store in Newport Beach, California. The auto manufacturer will accept payments in the cryptocurrency for buying and servicing vehicles at the store. The advancement is the result of a partnership with its primary shareholder, Wanxiang Group, a collaboration that was announced at Shanghai International Blockchain Week 2019. We are opening our platform to serve as a test bed to help convert theoretical blockchain applications to practical use, said Karma CEO Dr. Lance Zhou. At the 15,000 square foot shop floor, customers can buy the plug-in hybrid Revero GT and certified pre-owned Reveros using Bitcoin, with the 2019 model starting at $130,000 (or around 16.4 BTC in todays money). Karmas flagship store will support our efforts to prove emerging technology and provide the latest VVIP customer treatment offerings by accepting Bitcoin cryptocurrency, added Zhou. This is the latest in a string of blockchain announcement from the automotive industry in recent days. Earlier this week, American car manufacturer Ford revealed plans to extend the trial of a new blockchain-based system to Cologne. Using the system, hybrid vehicles would automatically switch from petrol engines to electric engines in city centres. And last week, the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI), an industry group including car manufacturers Ford, Honda, BMW, Renault and GM, announced plans to start development on a blockchain-based system that would allow cars to pay for parking tickets and highway tolls. || Karma Automotive accepts payments in Bitcoin at flagship store: Californian luxury electric car manufacturer and high-tech incubator Karma Automotiveannounced Tuesdaythat it now accepts payments in Bitcoin at its flagship store in Newport Beach, California.
The auto manufacturer will accept payments in the cryptocurrency for buying and servicing vehicles at the store. The advancement is the result of a partnership with its primary shareholder, Wanxiang Group, a collaboration that was announced at Shanghai International Blockchain Week 2019.
“We are opening our platform to serve as a test bed to help convert theoretical blockchain applications to practical use,” said Karma CEO Dr. Lance Zhou.
At the 15,000 square foot shop floor, customers can buy the plug-in hybrid Revero GT and certified pre-owned Reveros using Bitcoin, with the 2019 model starting at $130,000 (or around 16.4 BTC in today’s money).
“Karma’s flagship store will support our efforts to prove emerging technology and provide the latest VVIP customer treatment offerings by accepting Bitcoin cryptocurrency,” added Zhou.
This is the latest in a string of blockchain announcement from the automotive industry in recent days. Earlier this week, American car manufacturer Fordrevealedplans to extend the trial of a new blockchain-based system to Cologne. Using the system, hybrid vehicles would automatically switch from petrol engines to electric engines in city centres.
And last week, theMobility Open Blockchain Initiative(MOBI), an industry group including car manufacturers Ford, Honda, BMW, Renault and GM,announced plansto start development on a blockchain-based system that would allow cars to pay for parking tickets and highway tolls. || Ubisoft picks eight blockchain startups for Entrepreneur Lab: Ubisoft is one of the largest third-party game publishers in the world, responsible for well-known franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. But the French gaming giant is hardly monolithic. In fact, Ubisoft puts a premium on innovation, as evidenced by its Entrepreneurs Lab accelerator program. The Entrepreneurs Lab provides support and studio space to startups that are working on cutting-edge technologies in gaming, such as augmented reality, virtual reality—and, of course, blockchain . Ubisoft began the fourth season of its Entrepreneurs Lab this week, with 10 companies engaged in the six-month program. Eight of the companies are working with blockchain technology—although not all of them have an obvious gaming connection. And this time around, Ubisoft will host some of the startups in Singapore instead of Paris. Here are the blockchain-related companies participating in season four of Ubisoft's Entrepreneurs Lab, along with their bright ideas. Azarus Azarus is designed to boost engagement for Twitch video game streamers, letting them insert interactive "smart challenge" questions into broadcasts. Viewers who correctly answer questions earn AZA Credits, which can be exchanged for in-game items and other products. Challenges are notarized on the EOS blockchain. The service currently only works with Ubisoft's tactical shooter hit, Rainbow Six Siege, but with Azarus raised $1.8 million in funding in June, more games are likely to follow. CareGame Paris-based startup CareGame is creating a decentralized cloud distribution model for mobile games, allowing players to access games immediately with a tap without waiting for downloads or worrying about local storage or processing power. The blockchain foundation allows game creators to minimize fraud, plus CareGame sees the decentralized model as a way to minimize the power wielded by third-party game storefronts. Mighty Jaxx Singapore-based design studio Mighty Jaxx trades in physical goods—collectable statues, designer toys, and other limited-edition items. However, its storefront and platform is built on the blockchain, which assigns a tamper-proof certificate to every collectible it manufactures and ships out. Mighty Jaxx has worked with such brands as DC Comics and Cartoon Network, and announced a pre-Series A investment round of nearly $1.6 million in July. Planetarium Ever had a beloved game close down, shutter its servers, and disappear forever? Planetarium promises to eliminate that grim finale for any game built on its open-source, decentralized blockchain platform—allowing games to "live forever." On top of that, games such as Planetarium's upcoming mobile RPG Nine Chronicles can be freely modded by users and spun onto separate networks. Each game built on the platform gets its own blockchain, too. Story continues Savitar Savitar is a digital cryptocurrency exchange that claims to do things differently. The site promises low fees and a transparent listing process, and gives users say in its ongoing development. Savitar currently sells Bitcoin, Ethereum, BitcoinCash, and Litecoin, and offers its own SVT Token as an incentive for frequent users. The token provides discounts on fees, for example, as well as voting rights for proposed token listings. Crypto is coming for Fortnite – whether it likes it or not Sorare Think of Sorare like fantasy football crossed with a Panini sticker album—you collect cards of players from 27 different licensed soccer clubs (including West Ham United and Royal Charleroi Sporting Club) and create your starting lineup, earning rewards based on their real-life performance. It's built on the blockchain using non-fungible tokens, meaning that you can trade and sell the cards with other users as you please. Synaps Synaps is a blockchain-powered digital identity management service, letting users securely verify their identity with documents such as a driver's license or passport, or proof of residency. For companies in industries such as gambling, Synaps provides a frictionless way to verify users’ ID. The service gives users full control of their documents, letting them stop sharing any element of their digital identity as they choose. Wildcards Wildcards aims to harness interest in crypto to generate a steady flow of funds for conservation of endangered animals. Essentially, the platform sells non-fungible cards that represent gorillas, each of which has a price in ether. When purchased, the buyer must set a sale price and pay a monthly percentage as a Harberger Tax (which goes to conservation). The card can be purchased at any point, thus continuing the cycle with a new owner/seller. View comments || Ubisoft picks eight blockchain startups for Entrepreneur Lab: Ubisoft is one of the largest third-party game publishers in the world, responsible for well-known franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
But the French gaming giant is hardly monolithic. In fact, Ubisoft puts a premium on innovation, as evidenced by itsEntrepreneurs Labaccelerator program.
The Entrepreneurs Lab provides support and studio space to startups that are working on cutting-edge technologies in gaming, such as augmented reality, virtual reality—and, of course,blockchain.
Ubisoft began the fourth season of its Entrepreneurs Lab this week, with 10 companies engaged in the six-month program. Eight of the companies are working with blockchain technology—although not all of them have an obvious gaming connection. And this time around, Ubisoft will host some of the startups in Singapore instead of Paris.
Here are the blockchain-related companies participating in season four of Ubisoft's Entrepreneurs Lab, along with their bright ideas.
Azarusis designed to boost engagement for Twitch video game streamers, letting them insert interactive "smart challenge" questions into broadcasts. Viewers who correctly answer questions earn AZA Credits, which can be exchanged for in-game items and other products. Challenges are notarized on the EOS blockchain. The service currently only works with Ubisoft's tactical shooter hit, Rainbow Six Siege, but with Azarus raised $1.8 million in funding in June, more games are likely to follow.
Paris-based startupCareGameis creating a decentralized cloud distribution model for mobile games, allowing players to access games immediately with a tap without waiting for downloads or worrying about local storage or processing power. The blockchain foundation allows game creators to minimize fraud, plus CareGame sees the decentralized model as a way to minimize the power wielded by third-party game storefronts.
Singapore-based design studioMighty Jaxxtrades in physical goods—collectable statues, designer toys, and other limited-edition items. However, its storefront and platform is built on the blockchain, which assigns a tamper-proof certificate to every collectible it manufactures and ships out. Mighty Jaxx has worked with such brands as DC Comics and Cartoon Network, and announced a pre-Series A investment round of nearly $1.6 million in July.
Ever had a beloved game close down, shutter its servers, and disappear forever?Planetariumpromises to eliminate that grim finale for any game built on its open-source, decentralized blockchain platform—allowing games to "live forever." On top of that, games such as Planetarium's upcoming mobile RPG Nine Chronicles can be freely modded by users and spun onto separate networks. Each game built on the platform gets its own blockchain, too.
Savitaris a digital cryptocurrency exchange that claims to do things differently. The site promises low fees and a transparent listing process, and gives users say in its ongoing development. Savitar currently sells Bitcoin, Ethereum, BitcoinCash, and Litecoin, and offers its own SVT Token as an incentive for frequent users. The token provides discounts on fees, for example, as well as voting rights for proposed token listings.
Think ofSorarelike fantasy football crossed with a Panini sticker album—you collect cards of players from 27 different licensed soccer clubs (including West Ham United and Royal Charleroi Sporting Club) and create your starting lineup, earning rewards based on their real-life performance. It's built on the blockchain using non-fungible tokens, meaning that you can trade and sell the cards with other users as you please.
Synapsis a blockchain-powered digital identity management service, letting users securely verify their identity with documents such as a driver's license or passport, or proof of residency. For companies in industries such as gambling, Synaps provides a frictionless way to verify users’ ID. The service gives users full control of their documents, letting them stop sharing any element of their digital identity as they choose.
Wildcardsaims to harness interest in crypto to generate a steady flow of funds for conservation of endangered animals. Essentially, the platform sells non-fungible cards that represent gorillas, each of which has a price in ether. When purchased, the buyer must set a sale price and pay a monthly percentage as a Harberger Tax (which goes to conservation). The card can be purchased at any point, thus continuing the cycle with a new owner/seller. || FATF Joins BIS in Calling Stablecoins ‘Global Risk,’ Citing Money Laundering Concerns: Stablecoins pose a money laundering and terrorist financing risk to the world, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said Friday. In documents released after its latest meeting, the intergovernmental organization referred to cryptocurrencies as a “major strategic initiative,” and said cryptos whose values are pegged to fiat currencies could have a particularly big impact. Some 800 representatives from 205 jurisdictions met from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18 to discuss various issues under the jurisdiction of FATF, led this year by Xiangmin Liu of China, according to the publication . Crypto-related concerns were front and center. Related: Bitcoin Has Failed But Global Stablecoins a Threat, Say BIS and G7 While the document addressed cryptocurrencies broadly, it singled out stablecoins on multiple occasions, writing: “Emerging assets such as so-called global ‘stablecoins’, and their proposed global networks and platforms, could potentially cause a shift in the virtual asset ecosystem and have implications for the money laundering and terrorist financing risks. There are two concerns: mass-market adoption of virtual assets and person-to-person transfers, without the need for a regulated intermediary. Together these changes could have serious consequences for our ability to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.” A second document , titled “Money laundering risks from ‘stablecoins’ and other emerging assets,” said the FATF will continue to examine the characteristics and perceived risks of stablecoins and may even clarify or update its virtual currency guidance to better address this class of cryptocurrency. “The FATF will continue to ensure its standards remain relevant and responsive and it will report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in 2020 on the risks from global ‘stablecoins’ and other emerging assets,” the second document read. Related: Tourists in Popular Japanese Region Could Soon Use a Local Cryptocurrency Story continues The FATF’s warning followed a report from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies and the and Bank of International Settlements (BIS) calling stablecoins a growing threat to monetary policy, financial stability and competition. Report cards During its session, the FATF determined how it would evaluate countries’ implementation of its last guidance on digital assets and will add this process to its current mutual evaluation procedure. In June, FATF called on national financial services and banking regulators to implement a strict know-your-client/anti-money-laundering regime, going so far as to require exchanges and wallet providers, dubbed virtual asset service providers (VASPs), to hold KYC information for recipients of transactions originating on their platforms. “Countries that have already undergone their mutual evaluation will be required to report back during their follow-up process on the actions they have taken in this area,” Friday’s document said. The document made it clear that FATF member countries are required to implement its standards for digital assets, as well as other emerging asset classes. “Given the global nature of virtual assets, it is essential that countries implement these requirements swiftly, in particular understanding the risks and ensuring the effective supervision of the sector,” one document read. Digital identity In addition to its concerns about stablecoins, the FATF discussed the increasing importance of digital identity in payment systems, according to the document. “In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards digital payments. The number of transactions [is] growing at over 12 percent every year,” the document read. “Customer identification is essential to prevent criminals and terrorists from raising and moving funds. However, in the growing digital world, different customer identification methods exist.” As a result, the FATF plans to release draft guidance on digital identity for public comment. While the section did not discuss blockchain-based digital identity tools, a number of companies in the crypto industry are looking to create secure digital identity systems . The guidance focuses on a “risk-based approach to using digital ID systems,” the document says, citing due diligence requirements as one issue. It concluded: “The FATF supports financial innovation that does not create new safe havens for terrorists and criminals to carry out their transactions. Responsible innovation in the form of reliable digital ID systems contributes to the objectives of preventing its misuse for crime and terrorism, and supporting financial inclusion.” Money laundering image via Shutterstock Related Stories WATCH: How JET8 Is Injecting Crypto Into the Social Media Value Chain Bermuda Now Accepts USDC Crypto for Taxes and Government Services || FATF Joins BIS in Calling Stablecoins ‘Global Risk,’ Citing Money Laundering Concerns: Stablecoins pose a money laundering and terrorist financing risk to the world, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said Friday.
In documents released after its latest meeting, the intergovernmental organization referred to cryptocurrencies as a “major strategic initiative,” and said cryptos whose values are pegged to fiat currencies could have a particularly big impact.
Some 800 representatives from 205 jurisdictions met from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18 to discuss various issues under the jurisdiction of FATF, led this year by Xiangmin Liu of China,according to the publication. Crypto-related concerns were front and center.
Related:Bitcoin Has Failed But Global Stablecoins a Threat, Say BIS and G7
While the document addressed cryptocurrencies broadly, it singled out stablecoins on multiple occasions, writing:
“Emerging assets such as so-called global ‘stablecoins’, and their proposed global networks and platforms, could potentially cause a shift in the virtual asset ecosystem and have implications for the money laundering and terrorist financing risks. There are two concerns: mass-market adoption of virtual assets and person-to-person transfers, without the need for a regulated intermediary. Together these changes could have serious consequences for our ability to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.”
A second document, titled “Money laundering risks from ‘stablecoins’ and other emerging assets,” said the FATF will continue to examine the characteristics and perceived risks of stablecoins and may even clarify or update its virtual currency guidance to better address this class of cryptocurrency.
“The FATF will continue to ensure its standards remain relevant and responsive and it will report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in 2020 on the risks from global ‘stablecoins’ and other emerging assets,” the second document read.
Related:Tourists in Popular Japanese Region Could Soon Use a Local Cryptocurrency
The FATF’s warning followed a report from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies and the and Bank of International Settlements (BIS) calling stablecoins agrowing threatto monetary policy, financial stability and competition.
During its session, the FATF determined how it would evaluate countries’ implementation of its last guidance on digital assets and will add this process to its current mutual evaluation procedure.
In June, FATF called on national financial services and banking regulators to implement a strict know-your-client/anti-money-laundering regime, going so far as to require exchanges and wallet providers, dubbed virtual asset service providers (VASPs), to hold KYC information for recipients of transactions originating on their platforms.
“Countries that have already undergone their mutual evaluation will be required to report back during their follow-up process on the actions they have taken in this area,” Friday’s document said.
The document made it clear that FATF member countries are required to implement its standards for digital assets, as well as other emerging asset classes.
“Given the global nature of virtual assets, it is essential that countries implement these requirements swiftly, in particular understanding the risks and ensuring the effective supervision of the sector,” one document read.
In addition to its concerns about stablecoins, the FATF discussed the increasing importance of digital identity in payment systems, according to the document.
“In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards digital payments. The number of transactions [is] growing at over 12 percent every year,” the document read. “Customer identification is essential to prevent criminals and terrorists from raising and moving funds. However, in the growing digital world, different customer identification methods exist.”
As a result, the FATF plans to release draft guidance on digital identity for public comment. While the section did not discuss blockchain-based digital identity tools, a number of companies in the crypto industry are looking to create securedigital identity systems.
The guidance focuses on a “risk-based approach to using digital ID systems,” the document says, citing due diligence requirements as one issue. It concluded:
“The FATF supports financial innovation that does not create new safe havens for terrorists and criminals to carry out their transactions. Responsible innovation in the form of reliable digital ID systems contributes to the objectives of preventing its misuse for crime and terrorism, and supporting financial inclusion.”
Money launderingimage via Shutterstock
• WATCH: How JET8 Is Injecting Crypto Into the Social Media Value Chain
• Bermuda Now Accepts USDC Crypto for Taxes and Government Services || Coinbase caught in Fidelity’s crosshairs: Fidelity Investments – the Boston-based multinational financial services firm – has announced it is to amplify its custody and trading services for cryptocurrency assets. The firm, with $2.8 trillion in assets under management, moved into Bitcoin in 2014 after setting up a $200,000 mining facility “for fun”. However, after seeing ‘serious potential’ in digital assets, it is now looking to ramp up its offering. The announcement is a clear signal that one of the world’s most respected financial establishments has nailed its colours to the mast over the future of cryptocurrency. Abigail Johnson – Fidelity’s CEO – today went on record as saying the cryptocurrency industry “is not going away”. “As long as the value is there,” she told the Financial Times this morning, “people will look to preserve that value.” Johnson explained that Fidelity had begun adding clients to their database at the start of this year as they expect people to begin to increasingly embrace digital assets. She added that she anticipated a full cryptocurrency service from such an established institution would be a shot in the arm for an industry perceived to be complex and disjointed. A determined doubling of their efforts in the crypto space will be coupled with the development of a raft of new products and services as Fidelity attempts to open up its digital assets offering to the masses. After recently revealing it had also filed an application with the New York State Department for Financial Services to establish itself as a limited-purpose trust, it became clear the firm is also looking to target companies like Coinbase as natural rivals in the industry. Binance Futures increases maximum leverage to 125x By Oliver Knight – October 18, 2019 The post Coinbase caught in Fidelity’s crosshairs appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Coinbase caught in Fidelity’s crosshairs: Fidelity Investments – the Boston-based multinational financial services firm – has announced it is to amplify its custody and trading services for cryptocurrency assets. The firm, with $2.8 trillion in assets under management, moved into Bitcoin in 2014 after setting up a $200,000 mining facility “for fun”. However, after seeing ‘serious potential’ in digital assets, it is now looking to ramp up its offering. The announcement is a clear signal that one of the world’s most respected financial establishments has nailed its colours to the mast over the future of cryptocurrency. Abigail Johnson – Fidelity’s CEO – today went on record as saying the cryptocurrency industry “is not going away”. “As long as the value is there,” she told the Financial Times this morning, “people will look to preserve that value.” Johnson explained that Fidelity had begun adding clients to their database at the start of this year as they expect people to begin to increasingly embrace digital assets. She added that she anticipated a full cryptocurrency service from such an established institution would be a shot in the arm for an industry perceived to be complex and disjointed. A determined doubling of their efforts in the crypto space will be coupled with the development of a raft of new products and services as Fidelity attempts to open up its digital assets offering to the masses. After recently revealing it had also filed an application with the New York State Department for Financial Services to establish itself as a limited-purpose trust, it became clear the firm is also looking to target companies like Coinbase as natural rivals in the industry. Binance Futures increases maximum leverage to 125x By Oliver Knight – October 18, 2019 The post Coinbase caught in Fidelity’s crosshairs appeared first on Coin Rivet . || The 50 Best Stocks of All Time: Getty Images A finance professor made a startling discovery about the stock market: Over a 90-year span, 96% of all stocks collectively performed no better than risk-free 1-month Treasury bills. After analyzing the lifetime returns of 25,967 common stocks, Hendrik Bessembinder determined that just 1,092 of those stocks -- or about 4% of the total -- generated all of the $34.8 trillion in wealth created for shareholders by the stock market between July 1926 and December 2016. Even more striking, a mere 50 stocks accounted for well over one-third (39.3%) of that amount. But before we get to our profiles of the 50 best-performing stocks of all time, many of which are (or were) components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a word of caution. Accurately identifying the precious few "home run" stocks amid the many thousands of underachieving names is extremely difficult. It might be impossible. Your portfolio is more likely to suffer because you guessed wrong and failed to invest in the top long-term winners, says Bessembinder of Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business. A better alternative to trying to find a needle in a haystack? To paraphrase Jack Bogle, the Vanguard founder and pioneer of index investing: Just buy the haystack. "The results reinforce the importance of diversification," says Bessembinder, "and low-cost index funds are an excellent way to diversify broadly." Take a look at the 50 best stocks since 1926. SEE ALSO: 101 Best Dividend Stocks for 2019 and Beyond 50. Gilead Sciences Getty Images Ticker symbol: GILD Lifetime wealth creation: $118.6 billion Annualized return (February 1992-December 2016): 21.0% Current share price: $79.02 Current dividend yield: 2.6% Current analyst ratings: 10 strong buy, 1 buy, 10 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Gilead Sciences made its name developing retroviral drugs to fight HIV, influenza and Hepatitis B and C, and now it's making acquisitions in order to find more bestsellers. Founded three decades ago when the biotechnology sector was still in its infancy, Gilead -- like many biotech stocks -- has given investors a dramatic ride. Shares didn't do much for the first decade or so after the company went public in 1992 until Gilead hit the mark with retroviral drugs, at which point the stock took off. The downside? Shares peaked in 2015 and have lost about a third of their value since. Today's investors are banking on investments in oncology drugs and splashy acquisitions such as the $11.9 billion deal for Kite Pharma to make up for slowing sales of its retroviral hits. Story continues SEE ALSO: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio: All 47 Buffett Stocks Explained 49. Sears Roebuck & Co. Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $120.6 billion Annualized return (July 1926-March 2005): 10.9% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A The Sears we know today is a shell of the 19th and 20th century retail powerhouse that was the Amazon of its time. Founded in 1886 as a mail-order catalog, the original Sears Roebuck allowed rural consumers to buy the same products available to their big-city brethren. The company went public in 1906 and not long afterward began opening a sprawling network of stores. In 1924, the stock was added to the Dow Jones industrial average. Sears thrived for decades, but by the 1990s it had been overtaken by the likes of Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ). The stock was dropped from the Dow in 1999. Not long after, billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert purchased Kmart out of bankruptcy and then used it to acquire Sears. The merger, which closed in 2005, marked the end of the original Sears Roebuck & Co. and resulted in the new Sears Holdings ( SHLD ), a stock that has been in sharp decline for a decade running. SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Low-Fee Mutual Funds to Buy Now 48. Union Pacific Getty Images Ticker symbol: UNP Lifetime wealth creation: $122.4 billion Annualized return (August 1969-December 2016): 13.6% Current share price: $141.17 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Union Pacific runs a railroad network that sprawls across 23 states in the West and Midwest, making it one of the largest transport companies in the world. Its lineage goes back to 1862's Union Pacific Railroad, which helped build the first transcontinental railroad. Union Pacific Railroad was an original component of the Dow Jones transportation average, created in 1884. The rail company has evolved over the past century and a half due to a series of mergers with or acquisitions of other railroads. The modern-era Union Pacific was formed in 1969 to manage what had become a spaghetti-like mix of routes. Warren Buffett once held a 2% stake in Union Pacific, but sold it when Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.B ) bought competitor BNSF in 2009. Buffett has always had an affinity for railroads because he believes they form the backbone of the U.S. economy. He likes to say that a bet on railroads is a bet on America. SEE ALSO: All 30 Dow Stocks Ranked: The Analysts Weigh In 47. United Technologies Getty Images Ticker symbol: UTX Lifetime wealth creation: $126.2 billion Annualized return (May 1929-December 2016): 9.9% Current share price: $136.58 Current dividend yield: 2.1% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell United Technologies is an industrial conglomerate that makes a huge range of products. Aircraft engines, air conditioners, elevators and technology for the aviation industry are just some of the goods cranked out by its four divisions. The multinational company can trace its corporate roots to 1929, when it was part of United Aircraft and Transport, a Dow component starting in 1930. It became United Aircraft due to a 1934 antitrust breakup. The corporate name changed to United Technologies in 1975 to reflect the diversification of its business beyond aerospace. Over the years the company acquired Carrier Refrigeration and Otis Elevators, among other diverse businesses, though its ownership of Pratt & Whitney and UTC Aerospace Systems ensures that it remains an important defense contractor. The stock is still a Dow component to this day. SEE ALSO: The Kip ETF 20: The 20 Best Cheap ETFs You Can Buy 46. HP Inc. Getty Images Ticker symbol: HPQ Lifetime wealth creation: $129.3 billion Annualized return (April 1961-December 2016): 9.9% Current share price: $22.92 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 2 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell The original Hewlett-Packard, started in 1939, was the granddaddy of Silicon Valley technology firms. The company's fortunes really took off as home PCs and printers gained in popularity. The stock was added to the Dow in 1997. Two years later the company spun off Agilent Technologies ( A ) to house products that didn't relate to computers, such as scientific instruments and semiconductors. The beginning of the end for the original Hewlett-Packard started with the ill-fated 2001 acquisition of Compaq to form the world's largest maker of PCs. Soon after, the PC market became saturated. Attempts to restart growth with smartphones and tablets were unsuccessful, losses mounted, and management was forced to lay off tens of thousands of employees. The stock was dropped from the Dow in 2013, and Hewlett-Packard split into two companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ), in 2015. HP Inc. carries on the legacy of the original stock, which was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961. SEE ALSO: 25 Dividend Stocks That Analysts Love the Most 45. Visa Getty Images Ticker symbol: V Lifetime wealth creation: $129.8 billion Annualized return (April 2008-December 2016): 21.1% Current share price: $120.09 Current dividend yield: 0.7% Current analyst ratings: 23 strong buy, 1 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Visa wasn't even known as Visa when the company got its start in 1958 after Bank of America ( BAC ) launched its BankAmericard credit card program. But as the card gained popularity abroad, the name was changed in 1976 to Visa because it was easier to pronounce. Today, Visa is the world's largest payments processor outside of China. Despite its short life as a publicly traded company and the ill timing of its IPO - Visa went public in March 2008 during the global financial crisis - the stock has already created nearly $130 billion in wealth for shareholders. Interestingly, shares in the company held up relatively well during the crash of 2007-2009 and bounced back sharply as the market started to recover. Including dividends, Visa's stock has returned 928% since the current bull market began in March 2009. That bests the S&P 500's gains by more than 530 percentage points. Visa's dividend yield won't wow diehard income investors, but the company has raised its payout every year for eight straight years. 44. Cisco Systems Getty Images Ticker symbol: CSCO Lifetime wealth creation: $131.3 billion Annualized return (March 1990-December 2016): 25.4% Current share price: $40.87 Current dividend yield: 2.9% Current analyst ratings: 12 strong buy, 3 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Cisco Systems, founded in 1984 and a publicly traded company since 1990, was one of the premier tech stocks of the dot-com boom. It suffered along with much of the technology sector when the bubble burst in 2000, but it was no Pets.com. Demand for the routers, switches and modems manufactured by Cisco that form the backbone of the Internet helped the company recover quickly. In 2009, Cisco was added to the Dow as stocks were finally emerging from the brutal bear market precipitated by the housing crisis and the global financial meltdown. That said, Cisco shares have been something of a disappointment since the current bull market began. True, shares in Cisco are up 266% since the market bottom of March 2009, including dividends, but the Nasdaq-100 index has gained 600% over the same span. Today, the company is reconfiguring itself to take advantage of the growth of cloud-based computing and the Internet of Things. SEE ALSO: Best Stocks in Silicon Valley 43. Schlumberger Ticker symbol: SLB Lifetime wealth creation: $134.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 7.0% Current share price: $77.97 Current dividend yield: 2.6% Current analyst ratings: 13 strong buy, 2 buy, 10 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Schlumberger is the world's largest oil-field services company. As such, it helps firms that own rights to oil fields to actually find the oil and drill the wells, among other services. The company was founded in 1926 by two brothers from France, and a steady stream of technological innovations and acquisitions have contributed to its rapid growth over the decades. Schlumberger's history largely parallels the spread of the combustion engine and the rise of oil as the king commodity, which helps explain its elite level of wealth creation for shareholders. Lower oil prices have weighed on shares over the past three years -- SLB is up less than 2% against a 40% rise in the S&P 500 -- but oil is nothing if not cyclical. Don't be surprised if this long-time wealth creator bounces back sooner rather than later. 42. Amgen Ticker symbol: AMGN Lifetime wealth creation: $137.9 billion Annualized return (July 1983-December 2016): 21.0% Current share price: $185.04 Current dividend yield: 2.9% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 14 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell The biotech industry has long held allure for investors looking for outsized returns, and Amgen is part of the reason why. The world's largest biopharmaceutical company has created an eye-popping level of wealth for shareholders in its relatively short life. (It was founded in 1980 and went public three years later.) Amgen has delivered such returns by following the pharmaceutical industry playbook of both developing hit drugs on its own and acquiring other companies and their blockbusters. Current best-sellers include Neulasta, which helps prevent infections in chemotherapy patients, and Enbrel, which is primarily used to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. On the M&A front, Amgen has coupled with almost 20 firms since 1994. Shares in the company have more than doubled over the past five years compared with a gain of 89% for the broader market. 41. Boeing Getty Images Ticker symbol: BA Lifetime wealth creation: $139.4 billion Annualized return (October 1934-December 2016): 15.6% Current share price: $336.21 Current dividend yield: 2% Current analyst ratings: 9 strong buy, 0 buy, 7 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Boeing, a Dow component since 1987, forms half of the duopoly for large commercial airliners. Only Europe's Airbus competes with it on the same level in making big jets. But Boeing is much more than just commercial aviation. The company is a major defense contractor, manufacturing everything from rockets to satellites to military tilt-rotor aircraft like the Osprey. Boeing's history reaches back a century, but it really came into its own in the post-World War II period with the explosive growth of commercial aviation. Boeing's shares have been a long-time market-beater, but they've taken off over the past year. Although 2017 returns aren't included in Bessembinder's study, the stock price nearly doubled last year -- a remarkable one-year return for such an established blue-chip stock. 40. Warner-Lambert Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $142.5 billion Annualized return (July 1951-June 2000): 19.4% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Warner-Lambert was acquired by Pfizer ( PFE ) some 17 years ago, but during its half century as an independent publicly traded company, its stock delivered a remarkable performance. Tracing its roots back to the mid-1800s, Warner-Lambert was no stranger to making plenty of big acquisitions of its own over the years. It bought everything from Trident gum to Schick razors, but perhaps its biggest M&A win came with the purchase of Parke-Davis, once the world's largest drug maker and the discoverer of Lipitor. But while Lipitor represented Warner-Lambert's pinnacle of success, it also ultimately led to its demise as a standalone company. Management initially partnered with Pfizer to market the cholesterol-lowering drug, but Lipitor proved so popular that Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert outright in 2000. It proved to be a good decision. Lipitor went on to become the best-selling prescription drug of all time. SEE ALSO: 12 Stocks Paying Dividends for 100 Years or More 39. ConocoPhillips Getty Images Ticker symbol: COP Lifetime wealth creation: $143.8 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 10.2% Current share price: $60.05 Current dividend yield: 1.8% Current analyst ratings: 12 strong buy, 1 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell The world's largest independent oil exploration and production company was formed by the 2002 merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum, both of which had long and successful records in the petroleum industry. Conoco, once owned by DuPont, was founded in 1875, and the Phillips story begins in 1917. ConocoPhillips spun off its transportation and refining business in 2012 as Phillips 66 ( PSX ) to focus solely on exploration, development and production. That's what differentiates it today from major integrated energy companies such as ExxonMobil ( XOM ), which also transport and refine oil and natural gas. (Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holds a 16% stake in Phillips 66.) ConocoPhillips is just one of a number of energy companies that lays claim to greatness when it comes to the lifetime wealth creation of its shares. 38. Comcast Getty Images Ticker symbol: CMCSA Lifetime wealth creation: $147.0 billion Annualized return (December 2002-December 2016): 12.4% Current share price: $42.44 Current dividend yield: 1.5% Current analyst ratings: 20 strong buy, 1 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell As one of the nation's largest cable TV companies and Internet service providers, Comcast has taken more than its fair share of lumps. After all, everyone hates the cable company, right? Everyone, perhaps, except shareholders. The telecommunications giant began in 1963 as a small cable operator in Tupelo, Miss. The company originally went public in 1972. However, new Comcast stock was issued in 2002 following the merger with AT&T Broadband, so the stunning lifetime returns calculated by Bessembinder were generated over just 14 years. Comcast didn't stop with AT&T Broadband. Notably, it bought NBCUniversal in 2011 and DreamWorks Animation in 2016, fueling Comcast's strategy of becoming a producer of premier films and programming. Comcast's stock is up 657% on a price basis since the bull market began in March 2009 compared with a gain of 312% for the S&P 500. SEE ALSO: The Best Mutual Funds in 401(k) Retirement Plans 37. Bristol-Myers Squibb Ticker symbol: BMY Lifetime wealth creation: $161.9 billion Annualized return (August 1929-December 2016): 13.2% Current share price: $62.81 Current dividend yield: 2.6% Current analyst ratings: 7 strong buy, 0 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell Add another pharmaceutical maker to the list of the greatest creators of stock market wealth for investors over the 90-year span. The modern-day Bristol-Myers Squibb resulted from the 1989 merger of Bristol-Myers and Squibb, but even before joining forces the two separate companies boasted distinguished business lineages that stretch back into the 19th century. A long track record of successful acquisitions has kept the pipeline primed with big-name drugs over the years. Among the better-known names today are Coumadin, a blood thinner, and Glucophage, for Type 2 diabetes. Shares tumbled in 2016 after one of the company's key cancer drugs failed a clinical study, but Bristol-Myers Squibb stock rebounded last year. 36. Texaco Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $164.3 billion Annualized return (July 1926-October 2001): 11.6% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Texaco, originally known as The Texas Co., was a staple of the Dow Jones industrial average throughout most of the 20th century. It was first added to the Dow in 1916, when the average expanded to 20 companies from 12. In 1959, its name officially changed to Texaco. The company remained a Dow component until 1997. Not long after, in 2001, Texaco was acquired by Chevron ( CVX ). As part of the merger, Texaco service stations were sold to Shell, now part of oil major Royal Dutch Shell ( RDS.A ). It was an anticlimactic end for one of the last independent oil companies. Texaco was founded in 1902 and quickly expanded overseas. By the late 1950s it was the most popular brand of gasoline and one of the earliest sponsors of the nascent television industry. Such was its success that it managed to become a top-50 wealth creator despite ending its run as a standalone company 16 years ago. SEE ALSO: 8 Dow Dividend Stocks You Can Buy and Hold Forever 35. Verizon Communications Ticker symbol: VZ Lifetime wealth creation: $165.1 billion Annualized return (March 1984-December 2016): 11.2% Current share price: $51.86 Current dividend yield: 4.6% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 14 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Verizon has been a Dow stock since 2004, and it's currently the sole representative of the telecommunications industry. Rival AT&T ( T ) was dropped from the industrial average in 2015 to make room for Apple ( AAPL ). Verizon came out of the 1980's federal break-up of the old AT&T on antitrust grounds. The company was initially known as Bell Atlantic. The name changed to Verizon as part of the 2000 merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. Today, Verizon is the largest wireless provider in the U.S., and it has expanded aggressively into the content arena with the acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo. Telecom stocks are known more for income than growth, and Verizon has largely stuck to that script. The share price for the most part has held steady over the past five years, but Verizon's annual dividend has increased every year since 2006. It's a testament to the ability of dividends to create wealth for shareholders over time. SEE ALSO: Best Vanguard Mutual Funds for Your Retirement Savings 34. Amoco Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $168.0 billion Annualized return (September 1934-December 1998): 13.1% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Amoco boasts a prestigious pedigree, tracing its roots back to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil empire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In its early days, the company was known as Standard Oil of Indiana. The name eventually changed to Amoco after regulators broke up Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust in 1911. Amoco opened its first service station in 1912 and later moved into oil and gas exploration. When U.K. oil giant BP ( BP ) acquired Amoco in 1998, the combined companies became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the U.S. Soon after, Amoco's ubiquitous service stations were rebranded BP. Interestingly, BP in late 2017 announced plans to reintroduce Amoco service stations in the U.S. because American drivers still connect to the Amoco brand. 33. AT&T Inc. Getty Images Ticker symbol: T Lifetime wealth creation: $169.5 billion Annualized return (March 1984-December 2016): 11.9% Current share price: $36.90 Current dividend yield: 5.5% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell AT&T has a long and winding corporate history that started with Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1879. However, for the purposes of Bessembinder's study, the lifetime wealth creation above represents the performance of shares since 1984. That's the year AT&T was broken up into seven new regional phone companies, known as Baby Bells, with the original AT&T retaining its long-distance business. Many years and many mergers later, one of those Baby Bells, SBC Communications (formerly Southwestern Bell), acquired the original AT&T in 2005 and adopted the AT&T name. Today, the new AT&T (formerly SBC) remains a big dividend payer and a major player in wireless, Internet and satellite-TV services, with more than $163 billion in annual revenue. The original AT&T was dropped from the Dow in 2004. However, because SBC had been a Dow component since 1999, the new AT&T lived on as a Dow component until 2015, when it was removed from the industrial average to make room for Apple ( AAPL ). SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Vanguard ETFs for a Dirt-Cheap Portfolio 32. UnitedHealth Group Ticker symbol: UNH Lifetime wealth creation: $172.2 billion Annualized return (November 1984-December 2016): 24.8% Current share price: $228.64 Current dividend yield: 1.3% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 1 buy, 0 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell A string of acquisitions has helped make UnitedHealth Group one of the largest health insurance companies in the world. The company was incorporated under the UnitedHealthcare name in 1977 and went public in 1984. Since then, it hasn't looked back. Along the way it beefed up its businesses by buying or merging with MetraHealth, HealthWise of America and AmeriChoice, among many others. The company's OptumRx subsidiary is one of the largest pharmacy benefits managers in the U.S. It has also been a very good stock for long-term investors. Shares are up 326% over the past five years vs. just 89% for the S&P 500. UnitedHealth Group was added to the Dow in 2012, replacing Kraft Foods. SEE ALSO: The Best Online Brokers 31. McDonald's Ticker symbol: MCD Lifetime wealth creation: $178.3 billion Annualized return (August 1966-December 2016): 17.9% Current share price: $173.57 Current dividend yield: 2.3% Current analyst ratings: 20 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell McDonald's needs no introduction. The world's biggest burger chain has been a stock market and dietary staple for decades. That's partly because management has a knack for changing with the times. Shares performed poorly in the early 2000s, for example, around the time the low-carb Atkins diet surged in popularity. McDonald's responded by adding more healthy fare to its menu and the stock recovered. To this day, McDonald's continues to focus on healthier items to compete with new chains boasting fresher offerings, but it was the launch of all-day breakfast in 2015 that has given the Golden Arches its latest jolt of life. Over the last three years, shares are up 90% vs. a gain of 40% for the S&P 500. History suggests it's never wise to count out McDonald's, a public company since 1965 and a Dow component since 1985. Its dividend dates back to 1976 and has gone up every year since. SEE ALSO: 8 Best Dividend Stocks in the Russell 2000 30. Pfizer Ticker symbol: PFE Lifetime wealth creation: $179.9 billion Annualized return (February 1944-December 2016): 15.0% Current share price: $36.54 Current dividend yield: 3.7% Current analyst ratings: 7 strong buy, 1 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell It should come as no surprise that many of the top-performing stocks since 1926 are components of the Dow, which dates back to 1896. The popular benchmark is made up of 30 of the bluest blue-chip stocks available to investors, and components change infrequently. Pfizer, founded in 1849 and public since 1942, had to wait until 2004 before it was finally added to the industrial average. The pharmaceutical giant earned the honor in large part thanks to its history of selling blockbuster drugs. Among the best known are Lipitor (for cholesterol) and Viagra (for erectile dysfunction). Pfizer also owes its growth to its many successful acquisitions. Since 2000, it has purchased Warner-Lambert, Pharmacia and Wyeth. 29. Abbott Laboratories Ticker symbol: ABT Lifetime wealth creation: $181.2 billion Annualized return (April 1937-December 2016): 13.5% Current share price: $58.84 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 2 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Joining the likes of Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb on this list of top-performing stocks is fellow drug maker Abbott Labs. The company has a long and eventful history that dates to its founding in 1888. Abbott first paid a dividend in 1924, and it has raised its payout annual for the last 46 years in a row. The company went public in 1929. Its many decades as a dividend-paying public company have certainly attributed to the extraordinary lifetime returns of its stock. A new era began for Abbott in 2013, when it spun off AbbVie ( ABBV ) as a standalone maker of branded drugs and therapies. Abbott now focuses on generic drugs, medical devices, nutrition and diagnostic products. Since the spinoff, however, Abbott's stock has trailed the performance of AbbVie by a wide margin. SEE ALSO: 11 Dow Stocks Owned by Warren Buffett 28. Facebook Ticker symbol: FB Lifetime wealth creation: $181.2 billion Annualized return (June 2012-December 2016): 34.5% Current share price: $179.37 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 24 strong buy, 3 buy, 0 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Facebook got off to a rocky start when it went public in May 2012 at $38 a share. Technical glitches marred the initial public offering, and the stock traded below the IPO price for more than a year. Since then, however, it's been nothing but blue skies. Facebook's share price has gained 370% in its five-plus years as a publicly traded company. The S&P 500 is up 115% on a price basis over the same time frame. The relentless growth of digital advertising bodes well for further gains. As the world's most popular social media network, advertisers are happy to pay Facebook to reach all those eyeballs. Just how explosive has Facebook's rise been? Consider this: In just four and a half years it has created the same amount of wealth for shareholders that it took Abbott Labs nearly 80 years to create. SEE ALSO: 15 Best CEOs of the Bull Market 27. Walt Disney & Co. Getty Images Ticker symbol: DIS Lifetime wealth creation: $192.0 billion Annualized return (December 1957-December 2016): 16.5% Current share price: $112.47 Current dividend yield: 1.5% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell Disney began as a cartoon studio in 1923, and Mickey Mouse appeared in his first starring role five years later. The company issued stock for the first time in 1940. In the decades since, Walt Disney expanded into live-action films, theme parks, toys and television. In the last 20 years alone Disney has gobbled up ABC, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm (of "Star Wars" fame). The stock has nearly tripled in value over the last 10 years, but shares face increasing pressure as viewers cut the cable cord and turn to other forms of entertainment. Disney owns cable properties including ESPN and the Disney Channel. But Disney, a Dow component since 1991, has adapted to a changing media landscape before and recently inked a deal to acquire much of 21st Century Fox ( FOXA ). So don't be too quick to write off this longtime great stock. SEE ALSO: The Kiplinger Dividend 15: Our Favorite Dividend-Paying Stocks 26. 3M Ticker symbol: MMM Lifetime wealth creation: $200.4 billion Annualized return (February 1946-December 2016): 13.7% Current share price: $244.47 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 4 strong buy, 0 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Perhaps best known for Scotch tape and Post-It notes, it's easy to forget that one of the three M's in 3M stands for mining. (The other two M's stand for Minnesota and manufacturing, as in Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.) The company began in 1902 as a small-time outfit in search of the mineral corundum. The mining venture didn't pan out, but the failure did force the company to innovate and branch out. It hasn't stopped since. Today, 3M makes 60,000 products, with one-third of sales coming from products invented in the last five years. The company's legacy of success earned it a spot in the Dow in 1976. Shareholders have happily gone along for the ride. 3M's dividend dates back a century and has increased annually for 59 consecutive years. 25. Mobil Corp. Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $202.5 billion Annualized return (January 1927-November 1999): 11.5% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A For the purposes of Bessembinder's study, returns for the original Mobil Corp. stopped in 1999, when Mobil merged with Exxon to form today's energy powerhouse ExxonMobil ( XOM ). That fact makes the lifetime performance of Mobil stock (original ticker symbol "MOB") all the more impressive considering it missed out on the current bull market, one of the longest in U.S. history. Even prior to the merger, Mobil was among the largest oil companies in the nation, tracing its lineage back to Standard Oil of New York. As for the wisdom of its deal with Exxon almost two decade ago, keep reading to learn where ExxonMobil lands among the 50 greatest stocks since 1926. SEE ALSO: 10 Small Towns With Big Millionaire Populations 24. Oracle Corp. Getty Images Ticker symbol: ORCL Lifetime wealth creation: $214.2 billion Annualized return (April 1986-December 2016): 23.4% Current share price: $49.51 Current dividend yield: 1.6% Current analyst ratings: 17 strong buy, 1 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Oracle is one of several technology stocks to crack the top 50, a notable feat considering most Big Tech companies are relatively young compared to the rest of the names on this list. Founded in 1977 and publicly traded since 1986, Oracle got its start as a provider of database management software. As much as any high-tech company of the era, it rode the late-1990s tech bubble to lofty heights -- and then crashed. It's been a long, slow recovery ever since, driven by a wide portfolio of software aimed at corporate customers. Where Oracle goes from here is less clear. Larry Ellison is still with the company after 40 years, though now in the role of chief technology officer. Management, led by co-CEOs Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, is in the midst of a major transformation, trying to reinvent the company and embrace the rush to cloud-based services. 23. Pepsico Getty Images Ticker symbol: PEP Lifetime wealth creation: $224.6 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 12.6% Current share price: $117.38 Current dividend yield: 2.8% Current analyst ratings: 7 strong buy, 1 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Pepsi, the cola drink, was created in the late 19th century by a North Carolina pharmacist. Pepsi, the modern-day company, was created in 1965 by the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay to form PepsiCo. (Incidentally, Pepsi stock dates back to 1919 via a predecessor company, candy maker Loft Inc., which Pepsi merged with in 1941.) The natural combination of carbonated beverages and salty snacks proved to be a winner for decades, with PepsiCo increasing its dividend every year for 46 straight years. Today, however, PepsiCo is working against a slide in soda sales. Like the rest of the industry, it has responded by expanding its offerings of non-carbonated beverages. It sells Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Aquafina water, among other brands. One advantage Pepsi has over rival Coca-Cola ( KO ) is the Frito-Lay side of the business, as demand for salty snacks remains solid. 22. Home Depot Getty Images Ticker symbol: HD Lifetime wealth creation: $230.7 billion Annualized return (October 1981-December 2016): 27.6% Current share price: $196.42 Current dividend yield: 1.8% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 3 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Home Depot has been a publicly traded company since 1981. It was included in the S&P 500 index in 1988 and added to the Dow in 1999. Yet, shares in the nation's largest home-improvement chain have generated a big chunk of their gains just in the last six years. The collapse of the housing market that precipitated the Great Recession of the late 2000s was a painful period for Home Depot. It's resurgence since on the back of low mortgage rates - coupled with a shortage of new housing, which has prompted homeowners to stay put and renovate - has remade its fortunes of late. Shares in Home Depot are up 350% in the last five years alone. After notching an all-time high in early 2018, it remains to be seen how much upside is left, at least in the short term. SEE ALSO: Quiz: How Well Do You Really Understand Bitcoin? 21. JPMorgan Chase Getty Images Ticker symbol: JPM Lifetime wealth creation: $238.1 billion Annualized return (April 1969-December 2016): 10% Current share price: $112.67 Current dividend yield: 2% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell JPMorgan Chase traces its roots all the way back to 1799, when The Manhattan Company was chartered to supply clean water to New York City. It's come a long way since. Today's JPMorgan Chase is a sprawling multinational financial powerhouse that ranks as the nation's largest bank by assets. As a result of decades' worth of mergers and acquisitions, it boasts more than 1,200 predecessor institutions including Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Chemical Bank and Bear Stearns, just to name a few. Then known as J.P. Morgan & Co., the stock was added to the Dow in 1991 to reflect not only its place of prominence in the financial industry but its prominence in the American business landscape. The company name changed to JPMorgan Chase in 2000 after J.P. Morgan & Co. merged with Chase Manhattan. 20. Intel Getty Images Ticker symbol: INTC Lifetime wealth creation: $259.3 billion Annualized return (January 1973-December 2016): 17.7% Current share price: $43.24 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 14 strong buy, 2 buy, 6 hold, 1 sell, 2 strong sell Intel, founded in 1968, is an old-timer among technology companies, and the semiconductor manufacturer's longevity has paid off handsomely for shareholders. Its early start positioned the company to run away with the market for the chips that serve as a computer's brain. Intel had close to 100% market share in central processing units for personal computers at one point. It still has 80% today. But PC sales are like a slowly melting iceberg. Softening the blow, Intel remains the biggest player in making CPUs for back-end servers, which are very much in demand in order to power the rapid shift to cloud-based computing. What's troubling is that Intel missed opportunities to make chips for mobile devices, which is where much of future growth lies. The tech stock was added to the Dow in 1999, near the height of the dot-com boom. SEE ALSO: Best Vanguard Funds for Your Retirement Nest Egg 19. Wells Fargo & Co. Getty Images Ticker symbol: WFC Lifetime wealth creation: $261.3 billion Annualized return (January 1963-December 2016): 13.3% Current share price: $62.55 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 10 strong buy, 1 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 3 strong sell Wells Fargo has been in the banking business for a long time - make that a very long time. The company was founded in 1852, and even today its name is synonymous with the iconic six-horse stagecoach of the 19th century American West. Warren Buffett's history with Wells Fargo goes way back, too. His holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, first started buying shares of the bank in 1989. Today, Berkshire is Wells Fargo's largest shareholder with a nearly 10% stake worth more than $29 billion. Like most of Buffett's moves, this investment has worked out pretty well over the long haul. Wells Fargo's stock crashed hard during last decade's financial crisis but has since gone on to rise six-fold despite a fake-accounts scandal that cost the CEO his job. 18. Merck Getty Images Ticker symbol: MRK Lifetime wealth creation: $286.7 billion Annualized return (June 1946-December 2016): 13.8% Current share price: $58.66 Current dividend yield: 3.3% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 7 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Merck is the top pure-play drug maker on this list with lifetime wealth creation between 1946 and 2016 totaling well over a quarter-trillion dollars. This shouldn't come as a surprise considering Merck's corporate pedigree. The company was established in 1891, and the stock has been a component of the Dow since 1979. The Merck family's involvement in the pharmaceutical business dates back to 17th century Germany. The 21st century has been less kind, however. The stock price, adjusted for splits and dividends, remains well below its 2000 peak near $95 a share. In the past 17 years, Merck has experienced plenty of ups and downs, from the Vioxx recall in 2004 to its megamerger with Schering-Plough in 2009. With nearly $40 billion in annual sales, Merck remains a formidable player in the global drug business. Whether the stock can regain its former glory remains to be seen. SEE ALSO: 10 Best Dividend Stocks of the Dow 17. AT&T Corp. Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $297.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-November 2005): 7.8% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Confused by AT&T's second appearance on this list? We sympathize. For the purposes of Bessembinder's study, though, AT&T Corp. shares represent the original stock that dates back more than a century and that ceased to exist once SBC Communications (formerly Southwestern Bell) acquired AT&T and adopted the AT&T name in 2005. The new AT&T Inc. stock that exists today is, in effect, a legacy of the old SBC stock that was born from the 1984 breakup of the original AT&T. Got it? The original AT&T Corp. was a classic example of a widows-and-orphans stock. It paid generous dividends and carried low risk; in other words, it was an ideal investment for those who needed income and could ill afford to lose principal. AT&T Corp. shares served widows, orphans and many others admirably for generations. Then known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the stock first joined the Dow in 1916. It was dropped from the industrial average in 1928, added back in 1939, and dropped again in 2004. Adding to the confusion, the new AT&T Inc. shares graced the Dow from 2005 until 2015 because SBC (renamed AT&T after the 2005 merger, remember?) had been a Dow component since 1999. 16. DuPont Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $308.0 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 10.6% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A The DuPont that created more than $300 billion in wealth for its shareholders since 1926 isn't the same company that exists today. That's because DuPont merged with Dow Chemical in August 2017 to form a new mega-company called DowDuPont ( DWDP ). DuPont's familiar "DD" ticker symbol was retired upon completion of the merger. It's been a long road to get to this point. The chemicals giant got its start more than 200 years ago when E.I. du Pont bought land in Delaware to set up powder mills. As the company grew and gained prominence, it was briefly added to Dow Jones industrial average in 1924 but dropped a year later. DuPont was added back to the Dow in 1935, where it remained for more than 80 years. The newly formed DowDuPont takes the place of the old DuPont in the Dow. SEE ALSO: Quiz: How Well Do You really Know Warren Buffett? 15. Coca-Cola Getty Images Ticker symbol: KO Lifetime wealth creation: $326.1 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 13.1% Current share price: $46.15 Current dividend yield: 3.2% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 0 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Coca-Cola (the drink) was invented in 1886, a decade before the creation of the Dow. Coca-Cola (the stock) made a brief appearance as a component of the industrial average in the 1930s. Shares were added back to the Dow in 1987, and they've remained a stalwart member ever since. Like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola (the company) is adding everything from bottled water to fruit juices to sports drinks to its product lineup to make up for slowing soda sales. Unlike PepsiCo, Coca-Cola doesn't have the equivalent of Pepsi's Frito-Lay snack business to offset slumping soda sales. Over the past five years, shares in Coca-Cola are up just 24% versus a 64% gain for PepsiCo. At least the company's commitment to its dividend should be a source of comfort to income investors. Coca-Cola has paid a quarterly dividend since 1920, and that cash payout has increased annually for 55 straight years. 14. Amazon Getty Images Ticker symbol: AMZN Lifetime wealth creation: $335.1 billion Annualized return (June 1997-December 2016): 37.4% Current share price: $1,305.20 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 30 strong buy, 4 buy, 2 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell Amazon.com, which began life as a modest website for book buyers, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary as a publicly traded company. It's been a heck of a ride for shareholders since the 1997 market debut. The stock's 37.4% annualized return is by far the highest on this list. The performance is all the more remarkable considering most of the best stocks of all time have goosed their returns by paying out generous dividends for decades. The current bull market has been especially kind to Amazon investors, with the share price experiencing a 21-fold increase since March 2009. Amazingly, Amazon's best days may still lie ahead. In additional to evolving into the nation's largest e-commerce company, Amazon is also a leader in cloud computing. Its recent acquisition of Whole Foods is threatening to disrupt the grocery business, and package delivery by drones could become reality in the not-too-distant future. SEE ALSO: 32 Companies That Amazon Could Ruin 13. Procter & Gamble Getty Images Ticker symbol: PG Lifetime wealth creation: $355.0 billion Annualized return (September 1929-December 2016): 10.5% Current share price: $89.61 Current dividend yield: 3.1% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell When it comes to income investing, Procter & Gamble is synonymous with reliability. The company has paid shareholders a dividend since 1891 and has raised its dividend annually for 61 years in a row. P&G's inclusion in the Dow dates back to 1932. Few stocks are as venerable and dependable. P&G's products are also known for reliability. The company owns some of the best-known brands in the business including Charmin toilet paper, Crest toothpaste, Tide laundry detergent, Pampers diapers and Gillette razors. Despite selling consumer staples that are supposed to be less sensitive to the ups and downs of the economy, P&G is sensitive to competition. The growing popularity of discount retailers stocking cheaper store brands has been particularly challenging. Look to the stock price for proof: Shares in P&G have gained 29% in the last five years versus an 89% gain for the S&P 500. 12. Berkshire Hathaway Getty Images Ticker symbol: BRK.B Lifetime wealth creation: $355.9 billion Annualized return (November 1976-December 2016): 22.6% Current share price: $210.16 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 3 strong buy, 0 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell It should come as no surprise that the greatest value investor of all time would be behind one of the best stocks of all time. Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a struggling textile manufacturer, in the early 1960s. As it quickly became clear that U.S. textile manufacturing was in decline, Buffett decided to shift gears. By the late 1960s Buffett had already diversified into banking, insurance and newspaper publishing. He never looked back. Berkshire is now a holding company comprised of dozens of diverse businesses selling everything from underwear (Fruit of the Loom) to insurance policies (Geico). Berkshire has also been a vehicle for Buffett to invest in stocks, which he has done shrewdly and successfully. At 87 years old, Buffett has given no indication when he will retire. Berkshire shareholders aren't complaining. SEE ALSO: 10 Big Cities Where Millionaires Live in America 11. Alphabet Getty Images Ticker symbol: GOOGL Lifetime wealth creation: $365.3 billion Annualized return (September 2004-December 2016): 24.9% Current share price: $1,130.65 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 22 strong buy, 4 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Alphabet has certainly made the most of its relatively short time as a publicly traded company. Shares of what was then known as Google - the corporate name was changed to Alphabet in 2015 - were initially offered to the public just over 13 years ago, and by the end of the first trading day in 2004 the company was worth $27 billion. Today, Alphabet has a market value approaching $800 billion. The Google search engine is Alphabet's most important business, but not its only one, thus the corporate name change. Alphabet is also home to self-driving car startup Waymo; Nest Labs, a developer of gadgets for the Internet of Things; and X, which describes itself as a "moonshot factory" trying to invent technologies that will make the world a radically better place. SEE ALSO: Quiz: Test Your Bull Market IQ 10. Wal-Mart Stores Ticker symbol: WMT Lifetime wealth creation: $368.2 billion Annualized return (December 1972-December 2016): 18.4% Current share price: $100.87 Current dividend yield: 2% Current analyst ratings: 11 strong buy, 0 buy, 12 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell It stands to reason that the world's largest retailer happens to have one of the best-performing stocks over the long haul. But it's been a long road to greatness. At the close of its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972, Wal-Mart Stores was worth 4 cents a share, adjusted for splits and dividends. Today it trades for $100 a share. From humble beginnings as a single discount store, Wal-Mart now operates more than 11,600 retail locations around the globe and employs 2.3 million workers. The emergence of Amazon, in particular, as a competitor has prompted Wal-Mart to invest heavily in its e-commerce business, and the early returns from these efforts look promising. In February, Wal-Mart is dropping "Stores" from its corporate name and rebranding itself Walmart Inc. in a bid to move its image beyond its bricks-and-mortar origins. A component of the Dow since 1997, Wal-Mart has increased its dividend every year since 1974. SEE ALSO: 10 Best Dividend Stocks Owned by Billionaires 9. Chevron Getty Images Ticker symbol: CVX Lifetime wealth creation: $390.4 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 11.0% Current share price: $133.60 Current dividend yield: 3.2% Current analyst ratings: 9 strong buy, 1 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Chevron is yet another member of the Dow delivering a disproportionate share of the stock market's wealth creation since 1926. It's also been a reliable deliverer of dividend income. With 30 consecutive years of annual growth in its cash payouts to shareholders, Chevron's track record instills confidence that the dividend will continue to rise well into the future. Chevron's origins as a company date back to the 19th century and run through John D. Rockefeller's legendary oil empire. Chevron operated for decades as Standard Oil of California, though the Chevron brand was used on products as far back as the 1930s. The corporate name didn't officially change to Chevron Corp. until 2005. (Immediately prior to that the company was known as ChevronTexaco in recognition of its 2001 merger with Texaco.) Chevron, under its various names, was a component of the Dow from 1930 to 1999, and then again from 2008 to the present. 8. General Motors Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $425.3 billion Annualized return (July 1926-June 2009): 5.0% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A General Motors was a titan of industry in 20th century America. The auto maker's stock first joined the Dow in 1915. It was dropped from the industrial average a year later before being added back in 1925. It remained a component of the Dow until GM was forced into bankruptcy in 2009. Prior to its Chapter 11 filing and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, the shares created an impressive amount of wealth, paying out over $64 billion in dividends to its shareholders. "GM common stock was one of the most successful stocks in terms of lifetime wealth creation for shareholders in aggregate, despite its ignoble ending," says Bessembinder. Although the original GM stock was one of the great winners of the last century, its recent fortunes haven't been as bright. Shares in the new GM ( GM ) are up just 34% since the 2010 initial public offering. The S&P 500 index has more than doubled over the same span. 7. Johnson & Johnson Getty Images Ticker symbol: JNJ Lifetime wealth creation: $426.2 billion Annualized return (October 1944-December 2016): 15.5% Current share price: $145.76 Current dividend yield: 2.3% Current analyst ratings: 9 strong buy, 2 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Johnson & Johnson operates in several different areas of health care including pharmaceutical products and medical devices. The company is best known, however, for its over-the-counter consumer brands including Listerine mouthwash, Tylenol pain reliever and Johnson's Baby shampoo. J&J has been at the health-care game for a very long time. Founded in 1886 by three brothers, the company created the first commercial first aid kits and it was the first to mass-produce dental floss - all before 1900. Its iconic Band-Aid bandages hit the market in 1921. Somewhat surprisingly, J&J wasn't added to the Dow until 1997, even though shares had been publicly traded since 1944. The ever-rising dividend, along with the popularity of its products, eventually made the stock too conspicuous to ignore. J&J has increased the amount of its annual cash payout to shareholders every year since 1963. SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Mutual Funds for Retirement Savers 6. Altria Getty Images Ticker symbol: MO Lifetime wealth creation: $470.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 17.7% Current share price: $69.61 Current dividend yield: 3.8% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Altria's origins can be traced back to a 19th century tobacco shop in London. Today, the company's operating businesses continue to focus on tobacco including cigarettes (Philip Morris USA), smokeless tobacco (U.S. Smokeless Tobacco) and cigars (John Middleton). Altria also owns St. Michelle Wine Estates, a major wine producer. The company is best known for its iconic Marlboro brand of cigarettes, but at one time or another Altria and its predecessors had a hand in other famous names including Miller Brewing and Kraft Foods. The stock originally joined the Dow in 1985, when the company was called Philip Morris Cos. The name changed to Altria in 2003, and the stock was replaced in the Dow in 2008. Philip Morris International (PMI) is a separate publicly traded company that was spun off from Altria in 2008 to sell cigarettes outside the U.S. SEE ALSO: Quiz: Test Your Bull Market IQ 5. International Business Machines Getty Images Ticker symbol: IBM Lifetime wealth creation: $520.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 13.8% Current share price: $163.14 Current dividend yield: 3.7% Current analyst ratings: 3 strong buy, 2 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 3 strong sell Think of IBM as the granddaddy of tech stocks. The company, which began operating under its current moniker in 1924, was originally included in the Dow from 1932 to 1939. It was added back to the industrial average in 1979 and remains a component to this day. In many ways, IBM's history is a history of 20th century technological progress. As for the current century, it's a tougher call. IBM produces computer hardware and software for businesses. Consulting is another important area of operation. However, cloud-based services appear to be the future, and IBM has no shortage of competition. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Cisco Systems are some of the well-known tech companies jostling for space. Warren Buffett read IBM's annual reports for decades before finally taking a stake in 2011. It's looking more and more like he made a rare bad call. Buffett dumped more than half his stake in 2017, still leaving Berkshire with some 37 million shares of IBM. SEE ALSO: 11 Dow Stocks Owned by Warren Buffett 4. General Electric Getty Images Ticker symbol: GE Lifetime wealth creation: $608.1 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 10.7% Current share price: $18.76 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 4 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 3 strong sell General Electric holds a special place in the history of the stock market: It's one of the 12 stocks that made up the original Dow Jones industrial average of 1896. Perhaps even more impressive, GE is still in the Dow today. (It was dropped a couple of times in its early years before being added back for good in 1907.) The company has undergone tremendous change over time. GE's latest transformation was spawned during last decade's Great Recession. In response to tightening regulations, management was compelled to sell off the company's sprawling financial operations, a powerful source of profits. The GE of today is a pure industrial conglomerate, and investors aren't quite sure what to make of its prospects. The stock has lost 46% of its value over the last 10 years. Warren Buffett, renowned for his patience, finally threw in the towel and sold his remaining stake in GE in 2017. SEE ALSO: 13 Super-Safe Dividend Stocks to Buy Now 3. Microsoft Getty Images Ticker symbol: MSFT Lifetime wealth creation: $629.8 billion Annualized return (April 1986-December 2016): 25.0% Current share price: $88.08 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 19 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 1 sell, 1 strong sell In 1975, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to start a computer company with childhood friend Paul Allen. In 1985, the first Windows operating system went on sale. A year later, Microsoft went public at $21 a share (or the equivalent of 6 cents a share once the price is adjusted for stock splits and dividends). The company quickly revolutionized personal computing and created a generation of so-called Microsoft Millionaires. Not long ago, Microsoft's glory days looked to be behind it as sales of desktop PCs slipped into a seemingly irreversible decline amid the consumer shift to mobile technology. However, the company is experiencing a renaissance thanks to the move away from licensed software to cloud-based subscription software. Today, Microsoft is a top player in cloud computing and its stock reflects this success. Shares have outperformed the S&P 500 by 20 percentage points over the past 52 weeks. Microsoft joined the Dow in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. SEE ALSO: The 45 Cheapest Index Funds in the ETF Universe 2. Apple Getty Images Ticker symbol: AAPL Lifetime wealth creation: $745.7 billion Annualized return (January 1981-December 2016): 16.3% Current share price: $175.28 Current dividend yield: 1.4% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 5 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell What's left to say about Apple? Its co-founder, Steve Jobs, is legendary, its gadgets are ubiquitous, and with a current market capitalization of $900 billion it's on course to become the first $1 trillion company in market history. Investors can thank the iPhone for the eye-popping run-up in the value of the stock in recent years. Before Jobs debuted the revolutionary smartphone in 2007, Apple was a well-regarded maker of pricey personal computers that catered to niche markets. In the 10 years since, more than a billion iPhones have been sold. Shares of Apple have gained a whopping 928% since the gadget's initial release. Jobs died in 2011, but the company he started with Steve Wozniak lives on today. The iPhone 8 and iPhone X, unveiled last September, are the latest iterations of the smartphone. The X starts at a lofty price of $1,000. Adding to Apple's many accolades was its inclusion in the Dow in 2015, replacing AT&T. SEE ALSO: The Kiplinger Dividend 15: Our Favorite Dividend-Paying Stocks 1. ExxonMobil Getty Images Ticker symbol: XOM Lifetime wealth creation: $1.0 trillion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 11.9% Current share price: $87.52 Current dividend yield: 3.5% Current analyst ratings: 4 strong buy, 1 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Speaking of $1 trillion, that's the staggering amount of wealth created by ExxonMobil between 1926 and 2016, according to the "Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?" research study authored by Bessembinder. No doubt the reliable dividend that Exxon has paid out to shareholders since 1882 has contributed mightily to the energy giant's remarkable performance. Over the last 35 years alone, amid cycles of oil booms and oil busts, the company has increased its dividend payment at an average annual rate of 6.3%. Like rival Chevron, Exxon has to contend with uncertainty regarding the future of fossil fuels, not to mention the wild swings in oil prices. The stock's performance reflects that uncertainty. Exxon's share price is lower today than it was a decade ago. (But, hey, at least the dividend checks kept coming.) Exxon has been part of the Dow ever since the industrial average expanded to 30 companies in 1928. Back then it was known as Standard Oil of New Jersey. The name officially changed to Exxon in 1972. SEE ALSO: 20 Dividend Stocks to Fund 20 Years of Retirement EDITOR'S PICKS 20 Dividend Stocks to Fund 20 Years of Retirement The Best Vanguard Funds for 401(k) Retirement Savers Best Stock to Buy in Every State Copyright 2018-2019 The Kiplinger Washington Editors || The 50 Best Stocks of All Time: Getty Images A finance professor made a startling discovery about the stock market: Over a 90-year span, 96% of all stocks collectively performed no better than risk-free 1-month Treasury bills. After analyzing the lifetime returns of 25,967 common stocks, Hendrik Bessembinder determined that just 1,092 of those stocks -- or about 4% of the total -- generated all of the $34.8 trillion in wealth created for shareholders by the stock market between July 1926 and December 2016. Even more striking, a mere 50 stocks accounted for well over one-third (39.3%) of that amount. But before we get to our profiles of the 50 best-performing stocks of all time, many of which are (or were) components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a word of caution. Accurately identifying the precious few "home run" stocks amid the many thousands of underachieving names is extremely difficult. It might be impossible. Your portfolio is more likely to suffer because you guessed wrong and failed to invest in the top long-term winners, says Bessembinder of Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business. A better alternative to trying to find a needle in a haystack? To paraphrase Jack Bogle, the Vanguard founder and pioneer of index investing: Just buy the haystack. "The results reinforce the importance of diversification," says Bessembinder, "and low-cost index funds are an excellent way to diversify broadly." Take a look at the 50 best stocks since 1926. SEE ALSO: 101 Best Dividend Stocks for 2019 and Beyond 50. Gilead Sciences Getty Images Ticker symbol: GILD Lifetime wealth creation: $118.6 billion Annualized return (February 1992-December 2016): 21.0% Current share price: $79.02 Current dividend yield: 2.6% Current analyst ratings: 10 strong buy, 1 buy, 10 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Gilead Sciences made its name developing retroviral drugs to fight HIV, influenza and Hepatitis B and C, and now it's making acquisitions in order to find more bestsellers. Founded three decades ago when the biotechnology sector was still in its infancy, Gilead -- like many biotech stocks -- has given investors a dramatic ride. Shares didn't do much for the first decade or so after the company went public in 1992 until Gilead hit the mark with retroviral drugs, at which point the stock took off. The downside? Shares peaked in 2015 and have lost about a third of their value since. Today's investors are banking on investments in oncology drugs and splashy acquisitions such as the $11.9 billion deal for Kite Pharma to make up for slowing sales of its retroviral hits. Story continues SEE ALSO: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio: All 47 Buffett Stocks Explained 49. Sears Roebuck & Co. Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $120.6 billion Annualized return (July 1926-March 2005): 10.9% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A The Sears we know today is a shell of the 19th and 20th century retail powerhouse that was the Amazon of its time. Founded in 1886 as a mail-order catalog, the original Sears Roebuck allowed rural consumers to buy the same products available to their big-city brethren. The company went public in 1906 and not long afterward began opening a sprawling network of stores. In 1924, the stock was added to the Dow Jones industrial average. Sears thrived for decades, but by the 1990s it had been overtaken by the likes of Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ). The stock was dropped from the Dow in 1999. Not long after, billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert purchased Kmart out of bankruptcy and then used it to acquire Sears. The merger, which closed in 2005, marked the end of the original Sears Roebuck & Co. and resulted in the new Sears Holdings ( SHLD ), a stock that has been in sharp decline for a decade running. SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Low-Fee Mutual Funds to Buy Now 48. Union Pacific Getty Images Ticker symbol: UNP Lifetime wealth creation: $122.4 billion Annualized return (August 1969-December 2016): 13.6% Current share price: $141.17 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Union Pacific runs a railroad network that sprawls across 23 states in the West and Midwest, making it one of the largest transport companies in the world. Its lineage goes back to 1862's Union Pacific Railroad, which helped build the first transcontinental railroad. Union Pacific Railroad was an original component of the Dow Jones transportation average, created in 1884. The rail company has evolved over the past century and a half due to a series of mergers with or acquisitions of other railroads. The modern-era Union Pacific was formed in 1969 to manage what had become a spaghetti-like mix of routes. Warren Buffett once held a 2% stake in Union Pacific, but sold it when Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.B ) bought competitor BNSF in 2009. Buffett has always had an affinity for railroads because he believes they form the backbone of the U.S. economy. He likes to say that a bet on railroads is a bet on America. SEE ALSO: All 30 Dow Stocks Ranked: The Analysts Weigh In 47. United Technologies Getty Images Ticker symbol: UTX Lifetime wealth creation: $126.2 billion Annualized return (May 1929-December 2016): 9.9% Current share price: $136.58 Current dividend yield: 2.1% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell United Technologies is an industrial conglomerate that makes a huge range of products. Aircraft engines, air conditioners, elevators and technology for the aviation industry are just some of the goods cranked out by its four divisions. The multinational company can trace its corporate roots to 1929, when it was part of United Aircraft and Transport, a Dow component starting in 1930. It became United Aircraft due to a 1934 antitrust breakup. The corporate name changed to United Technologies in 1975 to reflect the diversification of its business beyond aerospace. Over the years the company acquired Carrier Refrigeration and Otis Elevators, among other diverse businesses, though its ownership of Pratt & Whitney and UTC Aerospace Systems ensures that it remains an important defense contractor. The stock is still a Dow component to this day. SEE ALSO: The Kip ETF 20: The 20 Best Cheap ETFs You Can Buy 46. HP Inc. Getty Images Ticker symbol: HPQ Lifetime wealth creation: $129.3 billion Annualized return (April 1961-December 2016): 9.9% Current share price: $22.92 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 2 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell The original Hewlett-Packard, started in 1939, was the granddaddy of Silicon Valley technology firms. The company's fortunes really took off as home PCs and printers gained in popularity. The stock was added to the Dow in 1997. Two years later the company spun off Agilent Technologies ( A ) to house products that didn't relate to computers, such as scientific instruments and semiconductors. The beginning of the end for the original Hewlett-Packard started with the ill-fated 2001 acquisition of Compaq to form the world's largest maker of PCs. Soon after, the PC market became saturated. Attempts to restart growth with smartphones and tablets were unsuccessful, losses mounted, and management was forced to lay off tens of thousands of employees. The stock was dropped from the Dow in 2013, and Hewlett-Packard split into two companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ), in 2015. HP Inc. carries on the legacy of the original stock, which was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961. SEE ALSO: 25 Dividend Stocks That Analysts Love the Most 45. Visa Getty Images Ticker symbol: V Lifetime wealth creation: $129.8 billion Annualized return (April 2008-December 2016): 21.1% Current share price: $120.09 Current dividend yield: 0.7% Current analyst ratings: 23 strong buy, 1 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Visa wasn't even known as Visa when the company got its start in 1958 after Bank of America ( BAC ) launched its BankAmericard credit card program. But as the card gained popularity abroad, the name was changed in 1976 to Visa because it was easier to pronounce. Today, Visa is the world's largest payments processor outside of China. Despite its short life as a publicly traded company and the ill timing of its IPO - Visa went public in March 2008 during the global financial crisis - the stock has already created nearly $130 billion in wealth for shareholders. Interestingly, shares in the company held up relatively well during the crash of 2007-2009 and bounced back sharply as the market started to recover. Including dividends, Visa's stock has returned 928% since the current bull market began in March 2009. That bests the S&P 500's gains by more than 530 percentage points. Visa's dividend yield won't wow diehard income investors, but the company has raised its payout every year for eight straight years. 44. Cisco Systems Getty Images Ticker symbol: CSCO Lifetime wealth creation: $131.3 billion Annualized return (March 1990-December 2016): 25.4% Current share price: $40.87 Current dividend yield: 2.9% Current analyst ratings: 12 strong buy, 3 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Cisco Systems, founded in 1984 and a publicly traded company since 1990, was one of the premier tech stocks of the dot-com boom. It suffered along with much of the technology sector when the bubble burst in 2000, but it was no Pets.com. Demand for the routers, switches and modems manufactured by Cisco that form the backbone of the Internet helped the company recover quickly. In 2009, Cisco was added to the Dow as stocks were finally emerging from the brutal bear market precipitated by the housing crisis and the global financial meltdown. That said, Cisco shares have been something of a disappointment since the current bull market began. True, shares in Cisco are up 266% since the market bottom of March 2009, including dividends, but the Nasdaq-100 index has gained 600% over the same span. Today, the company is reconfiguring itself to take advantage of the growth of cloud-based computing and the Internet of Things. SEE ALSO: Best Stocks in Silicon Valley 43. Schlumberger Ticker symbol: SLB Lifetime wealth creation: $134.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 7.0% Current share price: $77.97 Current dividend yield: 2.6% Current analyst ratings: 13 strong buy, 2 buy, 10 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Schlumberger is the world's largest oil-field services company. As such, it helps firms that own rights to oil fields to actually find the oil and drill the wells, among other services. The company was founded in 1926 by two brothers from France, and a steady stream of technological innovations and acquisitions have contributed to its rapid growth over the decades. Schlumberger's history largely parallels the spread of the combustion engine and the rise of oil as the king commodity, which helps explain its elite level of wealth creation for shareholders. Lower oil prices have weighed on shares over the past three years -- SLB is up less than 2% against a 40% rise in the S&P 500 -- but oil is nothing if not cyclical. Don't be surprised if this long-time wealth creator bounces back sooner rather than later. 42. Amgen Ticker symbol: AMGN Lifetime wealth creation: $137.9 billion Annualized return (July 1983-December 2016): 21.0% Current share price: $185.04 Current dividend yield: 2.9% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 14 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell The biotech industry has long held allure for investors looking for outsized returns, and Amgen is part of the reason why. The world's largest biopharmaceutical company has created an eye-popping level of wealth for shareholders in its relatively short life. (It was founded in 1980 and went public three years later.) Amgen has delivered such returns by following the pharmaceutical industry playbook of both developing hit drugs on its own and acquiring other companies and their blockbusters. Current best-sellers include Neulasta, which helps prevent infections in chemotherapy patients, and Enbrel, which is primarily used to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. On the M&A front, Amgen has coupled with almost 20 firms since 1994. Shares in the company have more than doubled over the past five years compared with a gain of 89% for the broader market. 41. Boeing Getty Images Ticker symbol: BA Lifetime wealth creation: $139.4 billion Annualized return (October 1934-December 2016): 15.6% Current share price: $336.21 Current dividend yield: 2% Current analyst ratings: 9 strong buy, 0 buy, 7 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Boeing, a Dow component since 1987, forms half of the duopoly for large commercial airliners. Only Europe's Airbus competes with it on the same level in making big jets. But Boeing is much more than just commercial aviation. The company is a major defense contractor, manufacturing everything from rockets to satellites to military tilt-rotor aircraft like the Osprey. Boeing's history reaches back a century, but it really came into its own in the post-World War II period with the explosive growth of commercial aviation. Boeing's shares have been a long-time market-beater, but they've taken off over the past year. Although 2017 returns aren't included in Bessembinder's study, the stock price nearly doubled last year -- a remarkable one-year return for such an established blue-chip stock. 40. Warner-Lambert Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $142.5 billion Annualized return (July 1951-June 2000): 19.4% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Warner-Lambert was acquired by Pfizer ( PFE ) some 17 years ago, but during its half century as an independent publicly traded company, its stock delivered a remarkable performance. Tracing its roots back to the mid-1800s, Warner-Lambert was no stranger to making plenty of big acquisitions of its own over the years. It bought everything from Trident gum to Schick razors, but perhaps its biggest M&A win came with the purchase of Parke-Davis, once the world's largest drug maker and the discoverer of Lipitor. But while Lipitor represented Warner-Lambert's pinnacle of success, it also ultimately led to its demise as a standalone company. Management initially partnered with Pfizer to market the cholesterol-lowering drug, but Lipitor proved so popular that Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert outright in 2000. It proved to be a good decision. Lipitor went on to become the best-selling prescription drug of all time. SEE ALSO: 12 Stocks Paying Dividends for 100 Years or More 39. ConocoPhillips Getty Images Ticker symbol: COP Lifetime wealth creation: $143.8 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 10.2% Current share price: $60.05 Current dividend yield: 1.8% Current analyst ratings: 12 strong buy, 1 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell The world's largest independent oil exploration and production company was formed by the 2002 merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum, both of which had long and successful records in the petroleum industry. Conoco, once owned by DuPont, was founded in 1875, and the Phillips story begins in 1917. ConocoPhillips spun off its transportation and refining business in 2012 as Phillips 66 ( PSX ) to focus solely on exploration, development and production. That's what differentiates it today from major integrated energy companies such as ExxonMobil ( XOM ), which also transport and refine oil and natural gas. (Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holds a 16% stake in Phillips 66.) ConocoPhillips is just one of a number of energy companies that lays claim to greatness when it comes to the lifetime wealth creation of its shares. 38. Comcast Getty Images Ticker symbol: CMCSA Lifetime wealth creation: $147.0 billion Annualized return (December 2002-December 2016): 12.4% Current share price: $42.44 Current dividend yield: 1.5% Current analyst ratings: 20 strong buy, 1 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell As one of the nation's largest cable TV companies and Internet service providers, Comcast has taken more than its fair share of lumps. After all, everyone hates the cable company, right? Everyone, perhaps, except shareholders. The telecommunications giant began in 1963 as a small cable operator in Tupelo, Miss. The company originally went public in 1972. However, new Comcast stock was issued in 2002 following the merger with AT&T Broadband, so the stunning lifetime returns calculated by Bessembinder were generated over just 14 years. Comcast didn't stop with AT&T Broadband. Notably, it bought NBCUniversal in 2011 and DreamWorks Animation in 2016, fueling Comcast's strategy of becoming a producer of premier films and programming. Comcast's stock is up 657% on a price basis since the bull market began in March 2009 compared with a gain of 312% for the S&P 500. SEE ALSO: The Best Mutual Funds in 401(k) Retirement Plans 37. Bristol-Myers Squibb Ticker symbol: BMY Lifetime wealth creation: $161.9 billion Annualized return (August 1929-December 2016): 13.2% Current share price: $62.81 Current dividend yield: 2.6% Current analyst ratings: 7 strong buy, 0 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell Add another pharmaceutical maker to the list of the greatest creators of stock market wealth for investors over the 90-year span. The modern-day Bristol-Myers Squibb resulted from the 1989 merger of Bristol-Myers and Squibb, but even before joining forces the two separate companies boasted distinguished business lineages that stretch back into the 19th century. A long track record of successful acquisitions has kept the pipeline primed with big-name drugs over the years. Among the better-known names today are Coumadin, a blood thinner, and Glucophage, for Type 2 diabetes. Shares tumbled in 2016 after one of the company's key cancer drugs failed a clinical study, but Bristol-Myers Squibb stock rebounded last year. 36. Texaco Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $164.3 billion Annualized return (July 1926-October 2001): 11.6% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Texaco, originally known as The Texas Co., was a staple of the Dow Jones industrial average throughout most of the 20th century. It was first added to the Dow in 1916, when the average expanded to 20 companies from 12. In 1959, its name officially changed to Texaco. The company remained a Dow component until 1997. Not long after, in 2001, Texaco was acquired by Chevron ( CVX ). As part of the merger, Texaco service stations were sold to Shell, now part of oil major Royal Dutch Shell ( RDS.A ). It was an anticlimactic end for one of the last independent oil companies. Texaco was founded in 1902 and quickly expanded overseas. By the late 1950s it was the most popular brand of gasoline and one of the earliest sponsors of the nascent television industry. Such was its success that it managed to become a top-50 wealth creator despite ending its run as a standalone company 16 years ago. SEE ALSO: 8 Dow Dividend Stocks You Can Buy and Hold Forever 35. Verizon Communications Ticker symbol: VZ Lifetime wealth creation: $165.1 billion Annualized return (March 1984-December 2016): 11.2% Current share price: $51.86 Current dividend yield: 4.6% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 14 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Verizon has been a Dow stock since 2004, and it's currently the sole representative of the telecommunications industry. Rival AT&T ( T ) was dropped from the industrial average in 2015 to make room for Apple ( AAPL ). Verizon came out of the 1980's federal break-up of the old AT&T on antitrust grounds. The company was initially known as Bell Atlantic. The name changed to Verizon as part of the 2000 merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. Today, Verizon is the largest wireless provider in the U.S., and it has expanded aggressively into the content arena with the acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo. Telecom stocks are known more for income than growth, and Verizon has largely stuck to that script. The share price for the most part has held steady over the past five years, but Verizon's annual dividend has increased every year since 2006. It's a testament to the ability of dividends to create wealth for shareholders over time. SEE ALSO: Best Vanguard Mutual Funds for Your Retirement Savings 34. Amoco Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $168.0 billion Annualized return (September 1934-December 1998): 13.1% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Amoco boasts a prestigious pedigree, tracing its roots back to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil empire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In its early days, the company was known as Standard Oil of Indiana. The name eventually changed to Amoco after regulators broke up Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust in 1911. Amoco opened its first service station in 1912 and later moved into oil and gas exploration. When U.K. oil giant BP ( BP ) acquired Amoco in 1998, the combined companies became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the U.S. Soon after, Amoco's ubiquitous service stations were rebranded BP. Interestingly, BP in late 2017 announced plans to reintroduce Amoco service stations in the U.S. because American drivers still connect to the Amoco brand. 33. AT&T Inc. Getty Images Ticker symbol: T Lifetime wealth creation: $169.5 billion Annualized return (March 1984-December 2016): 11.9% Current share price: $36.90 Current dividend yield: 5.5% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell AT&T has a long and winding corporate history that started with Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1879. However, for the purposes of Bessembinder's study, the lifetime wealth creation above represents the performance of shares since 1984. That's the year AT&T was broken up into seven new regional phone companies, known as Baby Bells, with the original AT&T retaining its long-distance business. Many years and many mergers later, one of those Baby Bells, SBC Communications (formerly Southwestern Bell), acquired the original AT&T in 2005 and adopted the AT&T name. Today, the new AT&T (formerly SBC) remains a big dividend payer and a major player in wireless, Internet and satellite-TV services, with more than $163 billion in annual revenue. The original AT&T was dropped from the Dow in 2004. However, because SBC had been a Dow component since 1999, the new AT&T lived on as a Dow component until 2015, when it was removed from the industrial average to make room for Apple ( AAPL ). SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Vanguard ETFs for a Dirt-Cheap Portfolio 32. UnitedHealth Group Ticker symbol: UNH Lifetime wealth creation: $172.2 billion Annualized return (November 1984-December 2016): 24.8% Current share price: $228.64 Current dividend yield: 1.3% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 1 buy, 0 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell A string of acquisitions has helped make UnitedHealth Group one of the largest health insurance companies in the world. The company was incorporated under the UnitedHealthcare name in 1977 and went public in 1984. Since then, it hasn't looked back. Along the way it beefed up its businesses by buying or merging with MetraHealth, HealthWise of America and AmeriChoice, among many others. The company's OptumRx subsidiary is one of the largest pharmacy benefits managers in the U.S. It has also been a very good stock for long-term investors. Shares are up 326% over the past five years vs. just 89% for the S&P 500. UnitedHealth Group was added to the Dow in 2012, replacing Kraft Foods. SEE ALSO: The Best Online Brokers 31. McDonald's Ticker symbol: MCD Lifetime wealth creation: $178.3 billion Annualized return (August 1966-December 2016): 17.9% Current share price: $173.57 Current dividend yield: 2.3% Current analyst ratings: 20 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell McDonald's needs no introduction. The world's biggest burger chain has been a stock market and dietary staple for decades. That's partly because management has a knack for changing with the times. Shares performed poorly in the early 2000s, for example, around the time the low-carb Atkins diet surged in popularity. McDonald's responded by adding more healthy fare to its menu and the stock recovered. To this day, McDonald's continues to focus on healthier items to compete with new chains boasting fresher offerings, but it was the launch of all-day breakfast in 2015 that has given the Golden Arches its latest jolt of life. Over the last three years, shares are up 90% vs. a gain of 40% for the S&P 500. History suggests it's never wise to count out McDonald's, a public company since 1965 and a Dow component since 1985. Its dividend dates back to 1976 and has gone up every year since. SEE ALSO: 8 Best Dividend Stocks in the Russell 2000 30. Pfizer Ticker symbol: PFE Lifetime wealth creation: $179.9 billion Annualized return (February 1944-December 2016): 15.0% Current share price: $36.54 Current dividend yield: 3.7% Current analyst ratings: 7 strong buy, 1 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell It should come as no surprise that many of the top-performing stocks since 1926 are components of the Dow, which dates back to 1896. The popular benchmark is made up of 30 of the bluest blue-chip stocks available to investors, and components change infrequently. Pfizer, founded in 1849 and public since 1942, had to wait until 2004 before it was finally added to the industrial average. The pharmaceutical giant earned the honor in large part thanks to its history of selling blockbuster drugs. Among the best known are Lipitor (for cholesterol) and Viagra (for erectile dysfunction). Pfizer also owes its growth to its many successful acquisitions. Since 2000, it has purchased Warner-Lambert, Pharmacia and Wyeth. 29. Abbott Laboratories Ticker symbol: ABT Lifetime wealth creation: $181.2 billion Annualized return (April 1937-December 2016): 13.5% Current share price: $58.84 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 2 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Joining the likes of Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb on this list of top-performing stocks is fellow drug maker Abbott Labs. The company has a long and eventful history that dates to its founding in 1888. Abbott first paid a dividend in 1924, and it has raised its payout annual for the last 46 years in a row. The company went public in 1929. Its many decades as a dividend-paying public company have certainly attributed to the extraordinary lifetime returns of its stock. A new era began for Abbott in 2013, when it spun off AbbVie ( ABBV ) as a standalone maker of branded drugs and therapies. Abbott now focuses on generic drugs, medical devices, nutrition and diagnostic products. Since the spinoff, however, Abbott's stock has trailed the performance of AbbVie by a wide margin. SEE ALSO: 11 Dow Stocks Owned by Warren Buffett 28. Facebook Ticker symbol: FB Lifetime wealth creation: $181.2 billion Annualized return (June 2012-December 2016): 34.5% Current share price: $179.37 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 24 strong buy, 3 buy, 0 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Facebook got off to a rocky start when it went public in May 2012 at $38 a share. Technical glitches marred the initial public offering, and the stock traded below the IPO price for more than a year. Since then, however, it's been nothing but blue skies. Facebook's share price has gained 370% in its five-plus years as a publicly traded company. The S&P 500 is up 115% on a price basis over the same time frame. The relentless growth of digital advertising bodes well for further gains. As the world's most popular social media network, advertisers are happy to pay Facebook to reach all those eyeballs. Just how explosive has Facebook's rise been? Consider this: In just four and a half years it has created the same amount of wealth for shareholders that it took Abbott Labs nearly 80 years to create. SEE ALSO: 15 Best CEOs of the Bull Market 27. Walt Disney & Co. Getty Images Ticker symbol: DIS Lifetime wealth creation: $192.0 billion Annualized return (December 1957-December 2016): 16.5% Current share price: $112.47 Current dividend yield: 1.5% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell Disney began as a cartoon studio in 1923, and Mickey Mouse appeared in his first starring role five years later. The company issued stock for the first time in 1940. In the decades since, Walt Disney expanded into live-action films, theme parks, toys and television. In the last 20 years alone Disney has gobbled up ABC, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm (of "Star Wars" fame). The stock has nearly tripled in value over the last 10 years, but shares face increasing pressure as viewers cut the cable cord and turn to other forms of entertainment. Disney owns cable properties including ESPN and the Disney Channel. But Disney, a Dow component since 1991, has adapted to a changing media landscape before and recently inked a deal to acquire much of 21st Century Fox ( FOXA ). So don't be too quick to write off this longtime great stock. SEE ALSO: The Kiplinger Dividend 15: Our Favorite Dividend-Paying Stocks 26. 3M Ticker symbol: MMM Lifetime wealth creation: $200.4 billion Annualized return (February 1946-December 2016): 13.7% Current share price: $244.47 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 4 strong buy, 0 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Perhaps best known for Scotch tape and Post-It notes, it's easy to forget that one of the three M's in 3M stands for mining. (The other two M's stand for Minnesota and manufacturing, as in Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.) The company began in 1902 as a small-time outfit in search of the mineral corundum. The mining venture didn't pan out, but the failure did force the company to innovate and branch out. It hasn't stopped since. Today, 3M makes 60,000 products, with one-third of sales coming from products invented in the last five years. The company's legacy of success earned it a spot in the Dow in 1976. Shareholders have happily gone along for the ride. 3M's dividend dates back a century and has increased annually for 59 consecutive years. 25. Mobil Corp. Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $202.5 billion Annualized return (January 1927-November 1999): 11.5% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A For the purposes of Bessembinder's study, returns for the original Mobil Corp. stopped in 1999, when Mobil merged with Exxon to form today's energy powerhouse ExxonMobil ( XOM ). That fact makes the lifetime performance of Mobil stock (original ticker symbol "MOB") all the more impressive considering it missed out on the current bull market, one of the longest in U.S. history. Even prior to the merger, Mobil was among the largest oil companies in the nation, tracing its lineage back to Standard Oil of New York. As for the wisdom of its deal with Exxon almost two decade ago, keep reading to learn where ExxonMobil lands among the 50 greatest stocks since 1926. SEE ALSO: 10 Small Towns With Big Millionaire Populations 24. Oracle Corp. Getty Images Ticker symbol: ORCL Lifetime wealth creation: $214.2 billion Annualized return (April 1986-December 2016): 23.4% Current share price: $49.51 Current dividend yield: 1.6% Current analyst ratings: 17 strong buy, 1 buy, 8 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Oracle is one of several technology stocks to crack the top 50, a notable feat considering most Big Tech companies are relatively young compared to the rest of the names on this list. Founded in 1977 and publicly traded since 1986, Oracle got its start as a provider of database management software. As much as any high-tech company of the era, it rode the late-1990s tech bubble to lofty heights -- and then crashed. It's been a long, slow recovery ever since, driven by a wide portfolio of software aimed at corporate customers. Where Oracle goes from here is less clear. Larry Ellison is still with the company after 40 years, though now in the role of chief technology officer. Management, led by co-CEOs Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, is in the midst of a major transformation, trying to reinvent the company and embrace the rush to cloud-based services. 23. Pepsico Getty Images Ticker symbol: PEP Lifetime wealth creation: $224.6 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 12.6% Current share price: $117.38 Current dividend yield: 2.8% Current analyst ratings: 7 strong buy, 1 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Pepsi, the cola drink, was created in the late 19th century by a North Carolina pharmacist. Pepsi, the modern-day company, was created in 1965 by the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay to form PepsiCo. (Incidentally, Pepsi stock dates back to 1919 via a predecessor company, candy maker Loft Inc., which Pepsi merged with in 1941.) The natural combination of carbonated beverages and salty snacks proved to be a winner for decades, with PepsiCo increasing its dividend every year for 46 straight years. Today, however, PepsiCo is working against a slide in soda sales. Like the rest of the industry, it has responded by expanding its offerings of non-carbonated beverages. It sells Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Aquafina water, among other brands. One advantage Pepsi has over rival Coca-Cola ( KO ) is the Frito-Lay side of the business, as demand for salty snacks remains solid. 22. Home Depot Getty Images Ticker symbol: HD Lifetime wealth creation: $230.7 billion Annualized return (October 1981-December 2016): 27.6% Current share price: $196.42 Current dividend yield: 1.8% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 3 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Home Depot has been a publicly traded company since 1981. It was included in the S&P 500 index in 1988 and added to the Dow in 1999. Yet, shares in the nation's largest home-improvement chain have generated a big chunk of their gains just in the last six years. The collapse of the housing market that precipitated the Great Recession of the late 2000s was a painful period for Home Depot. It's resurgence since on the back of low mortgage rates - coupled with a shortage of new housing, which has prompted homeowners to stay put and renovate - has remade its fortunes of late. Shares in Home Depot are up 350% in the last five years alone. After notching an all-time high in early 2018, it remains to be seen how much upside is left, at least in the short term. SEE ALSO: Quiz: How Well Do You Really Understand Bitcoin? 21. JPMorgan Chase Getty Images Ticker symbol: JPM Lifetime wealth creation: $238.1 billion Annualized return (April 1969-December 2016): 10% Current share price: $112.67 Current dividend yield: 2% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell JPMorgan Chase traces its roots all the way back to 1799, when The Manhattan Company was chartered to supply clean water to New York City. It's come a long way since. Today's JPMorgan Chase is a sprawling multinational financial powerhouse that ranks as the nation's largest bank by assets. As a result of decades' worth of mergers and acquisitions, it boasts more than 1,200 predecessor institutions including Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Chemical Bank and Bear Stearns, just to name a few. Then known as J.P. Morgan & Co., the stock was added to the Dow in 1991 to reflect not only its place of prominence in the financial industry but its prominence in the American business landscape. The company name changed to JPMorgan Chase in 2000 after J.P. Morgan & Co. merged with Chase Manhattan. 20. Intel Getty Images Ticker symbol: INTC Lifetime wealth creation: $259.3 billion Annualized return (January 1973-December 2016): 17.7% Current share price: $43.24 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 14 strong buy, 2 buy, 6 hold, 1 sell, 2 strong sell Intel, founded in 1968, is an old-timer among technology companies, and the semiconductor manufacturer's longevity has paid off handsomely for shareholders. Its early start positioned the company to run away with the market for the chips that serve as a computer's brain. Intel had close to 100% market share in central processing units for personal computers at one point. It still has 80% today. But PC sales are like a slowly melting iceberg. Softening the blow, Intel remains the biggest player in making CPUs for back-end servers, which are very much in demand in order to power the rapid shift to cloud-based computing. What's troubling is that Intel missed opportunities to make chips for mobile devices, which is where much of future growth lies. The tech stock was added to the Dow in 1999, near the height of the dot-com boom. SEE ALSO: Best Vanguard Funds for Your Retirement Nest Egg 19. Wells Fargo & Co. Getty Images Ticker symbol: WFC Lifetime wealth creation: $261.3 billion Annualized return (January 1963-December 2016): 13.3% Current share price: $62.55 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 10 strong buy, 1 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 3 strong sell Wells Fargo has been in the banking business for a long time - make that a very long time. The company was founded in 1852, and even today its name is synonymous with the iconic six-horse stagecoach of the 19th century American West. Warren Buffett's history with Wells Fargo goes way back, too. His holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, first started buying shares of the bank in 1989. Today, Berkshire is Wells Fargo's largest shareholder with a nearly 10% stake worth more than $29 billion. Like most of Buffett's moves, this investment has worked out pretty well over the long haul. Wells Fargo's stock crashed hard during last decade's financial crisis but has since gone on to rise six-fold despite a fake-accounts scandal that cost the CEO his job. 18. Merck Getty Images Ticker symbol: MRK Lifetime wealth creation: $286.7 billion Annualized return (June 1946-December 2016): 13.8% Current share price: $58.66 Current dividend yield: 3.3% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 7 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Merck is the top pure-play drug maker on this list with lifetime wealth creation between 1946 and 2016 totaling well over a quarter-trillion dollars. This shouldn't come as a surprise considering Merck's corporate pedigree. The company was established in 1891, and the stock has been a component of the Dow since 1979. The Merck family's involvement in the pharmaceutical business dates back to 17th century Germany. The 21st century has been less kind, however. The stock price, adjusted for splits and dividends, remains well below its 2000 peak near $95 a share. In the past 17 years, Merck has experienced plenty of ups and downs, from the Vioxx recall in 2004 to its megamerger with Schering-Plough in 2009. With nearly $40 billion in annual sales, Merck remains a formidable player in the global drug business. Whether the stock can regain its former glory remains to be seen. SEE ALSO: 10 Best Dividend Stocks of the Dow 17. AT&T Corp. Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $297.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-November 2005): 7.8% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A Confused by AT&T's second appearance on this list? We sympathize. For the purposes of Bessembinder's study, though, AT&T Corp. shares represent the original stock that dates back more than a century and that ceased to exist once SBC Communications (formerly Southwestern Bell) acquired AT&T and adopted the AT&T name in 2005. The new AT&T Inc. stock that exists today is, in effect, a legacy of the old SBC stock that was born from the 1984 breakup of the original AT&T. Got it? The original AT&T Corp. was a classic example of a widows-and-orphans stock. It paid generous dividends and carried low risk; in other words, it was an ideal investment for those who needed income and could ill afford to lose principal. AT&T Corp. shares served widows, orphans and many others admirably for generations. Then known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the stock first joined the Dow in 1916. It was dropped from the industrial average in 1928, added back in 1939, and dropped again in 2004. Adding to the confusion, the new AT&T Inc. shares graced the Dow from 2005 until 2015 because SBC (renamed AT&T after the 2005 merger, remember?) had been a Dow component since 1999. 16. DuPont Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $308.0 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 10.6% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A The DuPont that created more than $300 billion in wealth for its shareholders since 1926 isn't the same company that exists today. That's because DuPont merged with Dow Chemical in August 2017 to form a new mega-company called DowDuPont ( DWDP ). DuPont's familiar "DD" ticker symbol was retired upon completion of the merger. It's been a long road to get to this point. The chemicals giant got its start more than 200 years ago when E.I. du Pont bought land in Delaware to set up powder mills. As the company grew and gained prominence, it was briefly added to Dow Jones industrial average in 1924 but dropped a year later. DuPont was added back to the Dow in 1935, where it remained for more than 80 years. The newly formed DowDuPont takes the place of the old DuPont in the Dow. SEE ALSO: Quiz: How Well Do You really Know Warren Buffett? 15. Coca-Cola Getty Images Ticker symbol: KO Lifetime wealth creation: $326.1 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 13.1% Current share price: $46.15 Current dividend yield: 3.2% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 0 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Coca-Cola (the drink) was invented in 1886, a decade before the creation of the Dow. Coca-Cola (the stock) made a brief appearance as a component of the industrial average in the 1930s. Shares were added back to the Dow in 1987, and they've remained a stalwart member ever since. Like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola (the company) is adding everything from bottled water to fruit juices to sports drinks to its product lineup to make up for slowing soda sales. Unlike PepsiCo, Coca-Cola doesn't have the equivalent of Pepsi's Frito-Lay snack business to offset slumping soda sales. Over the past five years, shares in Coca-Cola are up just 24% versus a 64% gain for PepsiCo. At least the company's commitment to its dividend should be a source of comfort to income investors. Coca-Cola has paid a quarterly dividend since 1920, and that cash payout has increased annually for 55 straight years. 14. Amazon Getty Images Ticker symbol: AMZN Lifetime wealth creation: $335.1 billion Annualized return (June 1997-December 2016): 37.4% Current share price: $1,305.20 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 30 strong buy, 4 buy, 2 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell Amazon.com, which began life as a modest website for book buyers, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary as a publicly traded company. It's been a heck of a ride for shareholders since the 1997 market debut. The stock's 37.4% annualized return is by far the highest on this list. The performance is all the more remarkable considering most of the best stocks of all time have goosed their returns by paying out generous dividends for decades. The current bull market has been especially kind to Amazon investors, with the share price experiencing a 21-fold increase since March 2009. Amazingly, Amazon's best days may still lie ahead. In additional to evolving into the nation's largest e-commerce company, Amazon is also a leader in cloud computing. Its recent acquisition of Whole Foods is threatening to disrupt the grocery business, and package delivery by drones could become reality in the not-too-distant future. SEE ALSO: 32 Companies That Amazon Could Ruin 13. Procter & Gamble Getty Images Ticker symbol: PG Lifetime wealth creation: $355.0 billion Annualized return (September 1929-December 2016): 10.5% Current share price: $89.61 Current dividend yield: 3.1% Current analyst ratings: 6 strong buy, 1 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell When it comes to income investing, Procter & Gamble is synonymous with reliability. The company has paid shareholders a dividend since 1891 and has raised its dividend annually for 61 years in a row. P&G's inclusion in the Dow dates back to 1932. Few stocks are as venerable and dependable. P&G's products are also known for reliability. The company owns some of the best-known brands in the business including Charmin toilet paper, Crest toothpaste, Tide laundry detergent, Pampers diapers and Gillette razors. Despite selling consumer staples that are supposed to be less sensitive to the ups and downs of the economy, P&G is sensitive to competition. The growing popularity of discount retailers stocking cheaper store brands has been particularly challenging. Look to the stock price for proof: Shares in P&G have gained 29% in the last five years versus an 89% gain for the S&P 500. 12. Berkshire Hathaway Getty Images Ticker symbol: BRK.B Lifetime wealth creation: $355.9 billion Annualized return (November 1976-December 2016): 22.6% Current share price: $210.16 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 3 strong buy, 0 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell It should come as no surprise that the greatest value investor of all time would be behind one of the best stocks of all time. Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a struggling textile manufacturer, in the early 1960s. As it quickly became clear that U.S. textile manufacturing was in decline, Buffett decided to shift gears. By the late 1960s Buffett had already diversified into banking, insurance and newspaper publishing. He never looked back. Berkshire is now a holding company comprised of dozens of diverse businesses selling everything from underwear (Fruit of the Loom) to insurance policies (Geico). Berkshire has also been a vehicle for Buffett to invest in stocks, which he has done shrewdly and successfully. At 87 years old, Buffett has given no indication when he will retire. Berkshire shareholders aren't complaining. SEE ALSO: 10 Big Cities Where Millionaires Live in America 11. Alphabet Getty Images Ticker symbol: GOOGL Lifetime wealth creation: $365.3 billion Annualized return (September 2004-December 2016): 24.9% Current share price: $1,130.65 Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: 22 strong buy, 4 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Alphabet has certainly made the most of its relatively short time as a publicly traded company. Shares of what was then known as Google - the corporate name was changed to Alphabet in 2015 - were initially offered to the public just over 13 years ago, and by the end of the first trading day in 2004 the company was worth $27 billion. Today, Alphabet has a market value approaching $800 billion. The Google search engine is Alphabet's most important business, but not its only one, thus the corporate name change. Alphabet is also home to self-driving car startup Waymo; Nest Labs, a developer of gadgets for the Internet of Things; and X, which describes itself as a "moonshot factory" trying to invent technologies that will make the world a radically better place. SEE ALSO: Quiz: Test Your Bull Market IQ 10. Wal-Mart Stores Ticker symbol: WMT Lifetime wealth creation: $368.2 billion Annualized return (December 1972-December 2016): 18.4% Current share price: $100.87 Current dividend yield: 2% Current analyst ratings: 11 strong buy, 0 buy, 12 hold, 0 sell, 1 strong sell It stands to reason that the world's largest retailer happens to have one of the best-performing stocks over the long haul. But it's been a long road to greatness. At the close of its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972, Wal-Mart Stores was worth 4 cents a share, adjusted for splits and dividends. Today it trades for $100 a share. From humble beginnings as a single discount store, Wal-Mart now operates more than 11,600 retail locations around the globe and employs 2.3 million workers. The emergence of Amazon, in particular, as a competitor has prompted Wal-Mart to invest heavily in its e-commerce business, and the early returns from these efforts look promising. In February, Wal-Mart is dropping "Stores" from its corporate name and rebranding itself Walmart Inc. in a bid to move its image beyond its bricks-and-mortar origins. A component of the Dow since 1997, Wal-Mart has increased its dividend every year since 1974. SEE ALSO: 10 Best Dividend Stocks Owned by Billionaires 9. Chevron Getty Images Ticker symbol: CVX Lifetime wealth creation: $390.4 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 11.0% Current share price: $133.60 Current dividend yield: 3.2% Current analyst ratings: 9 strong buy, 1 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Chevron is yet another member of the Dow delivering a disproportionate share of the stock market's wealth creation since 1926. It's also been a reliable deliverer of dividend income. With 30 consecutive years of annual growth in its cash payouts to shareholders, Chevron's track record instills confidence that the dividend will continue to rise well into the future. Chevron's origins as a company date back to the 19th century and run through John D. Rockefeller's legendary oil empire. Chevron operated for decades as Standard Oil of California, though the Chevron brand was used on products as far back as the 1930s. The corporate name didn't officially change to Chevron Corp. until 2005. (Immediately prior to that the company was known as ChevronTexaco in recognition of its 2001 merger with Texaco.) Chevron, under its various names, was a component of the Dow from 1930 to 1999, and then again from 2008 to the present. 8. General Motors Getty Images Ticker symbol: N/A Lifetime wealth creation: $425.3 billion Annualized return (July 1926-June 2009): 5.0% Current share price: N/A Current dividend yield: N/A Current analyst ratings: N/A General Motors was a titan of industry in 20th century America. The auto maker's stock first joined the Dow in 1915. It was dropped from the industrial average a year later before being added back in 1925. It remained a component of the Dow until GM was forced into bankruptcy in 2009. Prior to its Chapter 11 filing and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, the shares created an impressive amount of wealth, paying out over $64 billion in dividends to its shareholders. "GM common stock was one of the most successful stocks in terms of lifetime wealth creation for shareholders in aggregate, despite its ignoble ending," says Bessembinder. Although the original GM stock was one of the great winners of the last century, its recent fortunes haven't been as bright. Shares in the new GM ( GM ) are up just 34% since the 2010 initial public offering. The S&P 500 index has more than doubled over the same span. 7. Johnson & Johnson Getty Images Ticker symbol: JNJ Lifetime wealth creation: $426.2 billion Annualized return (October 1944-December 2016): 15.5% Current share price: $145.76 Current dividend yield: 2.3% Current analyst ratings: 9 strong buy, 2 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Johnson & Johnson operates in several different areas of health care including pharmaceutical products and medical devices. The company is best known, however, for its over-the-counter consumer brands including Listerine mouthwash, Tylenol pain reliever and Johnson's Baby shampoo. J&J has been at the health-care game for a very long time. Founded in 1886 by three brothers, the company created the first commercial first aid kits and it was the first to mass-produce dental floss - all before 1900. Its iconic Band-Aid bandages hit the market in 1921. Somewhat surprisingly, J&J wasn't added to the Dow until 1997, even though shares had been publicly traded since 1944. The ever-rising dividend, along with the popularity of its products, eventually made the stock too conspicuous to ignore. J&J has increased the amount of its annual cash payout to shareholders every year since 1963. SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Mutual Funds for Retirement Savers 6. Altria Getty Images Ticker symbol: MO Lifetime wealth creation: $470.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 17.7% Current share price: $69.61 Current dividend yield: 3.8% Current analyst ratings: 8 strong buy, 0 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell Altria's origins can be traced back to a 19th century tobacco shop in London. Today, the company's operating businesses continue to focus on tobacco including cigarettes (Philip Morris USA), smokeless tobacco (U.S. Smokeless Tobacco) and cigars (John Middleton). Altria also owns St. Michelle Wine Estates, a major wine producer. The company is best known for its iconic Marlboro brand of cigarettes, but at one time or another Altria and its predecessors had a hand in other famous names including Miller Brewing and Kraft Foods. The stock originally joined the Dow in 1985, when the company was called Philip Morris Cos. The name changed to Altria in 2003, and the stock was replaced in the Dow in 2008. Philip Morris International (PMI) is a separate publicly traded company that was spun off from Altria in 2008 to sell cigarettes outside the U.S. SEE ALSO: Quiz: Test Your Bull Market IQ 5. International Business Machines Getty Images Ticker symbol: IBM Lifetime wealth creation: $520.2 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 13.8% Current share price: $163.14 Current dividend yield: 3.7% Current analyst ratings: 3 strong buy, 2 buy, 11 hold, 0 sell, 3 strong sell Think of IBM as the granddaddy of tech stocks. The company, which began operating under its current moniker in 1924, was originally included in the Dow from 1932 to 1939. It was added back to the industrial average in 1979 and remains a component to this day. In many ways, IBM's history is a history of 20th century technological progress. As for the current century, it's a tougher call. IBM produces computer hardware and software for businesses. Consulting is another important area of operation. However, cloud-based services appear to be the future, and IBM has no shortage of competition. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Cisco Systems are some of the well-known tech companies jostling for space. Warren Buffett read IBM's annual reports for decades before finally taking a stake in 2011. It's looking more and more like he made a rare bad call. Buffett dumped more than half his stake in 2017, still leaving Berkshire with some 37 million shares of IBM. SEE ALSO: 11 Dow Stocks Owned by Warren Buffett 4. General Electric Getty Images Ticker symbol: GE Lifetime wealth creation: $608.1 billion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 10.7% Current share price: $18.76 Current dividend yield: 2.5% Current analyst ratings: 4 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 3 strong sell General Electric holds a special place in the history of the stock market: It's one of the 12 stocks that made up the original Dow Jones industrial average of 1896. Perhaps even more impressive, GE is still in the Dow today. (It was dropped a couple of times in its early years before being added back for good in 1907.) The company has undergone tremendous change over time. GE's latest transformation was spawned during last decade's Great Recession. In response to tightening regulations, management was compelled to sell off the company's sprawling financial operations, a powerful source of profits. The GE of today is a pure industrial conglomerate, and investors aren't quite sure what to make of its prospects. The stock has lost 46% of its value over the last 10 years. Warren Buffett, renowned for his patience, finally threw in the towel and sold his remaining stake in GE in 2017. SEE ALSO: 13 Super-Safe Dividend Stocks to Buy Now 3. Microsoft Getty Images Ticker symbol: MSFT Lifetime wealth creation: $629.8 billion Annualized return (April 1986-December 2016): 25.0% Current share price: $88.08 Current dividend yield: 1.9% Current analyst ratings: 19 strong buy, 1 buy, 4 hold, 1 sell, 1 strong sell In 1975, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to start a computer company with childhood friend Paul Allen. In 1985, the first Windows operating system went on sale. A year later, Microsoft went public at $21 a share (or the equivalent of 6 cents a share once the price is adjusted for stock splits and dividends). The company quickly revolutionized personal computing and created a generation of so-called Microsoft Millionaires. Not long ago, Microsoft's glory days looked to be behind it as sales of desktop PCs slipped into a seemingly irreversible decline amid the consumer shift to mobile technology. However, the company is experiencing a renaissance thanks to the move away from licensed software to cloud-based subscription software. Today, Microsoft is a top player in cloud computing and its stock reflects this success. Shares have outperformed the S&P 500 by 20 percentage points over the past 52 weeks. Microsoft joined the Dow in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. SEE ALSO: The 45 Cheapest Index Funds in the ETF Universe 2. Apple Getty Images Ticker symbol: AAPL Lifetime wealth creation: $745.7 billion Annualized return (January 1981-December 2016): 16.3% Current share price: $175.28 Current dividend yield: 1.4% Current analyst ratings: 16 strong buy, 5 buy, 6 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell What's left to say about Apple? Its co-founder, Steve Jobs, is legendary, its gadgets are ubiquitous, and with a current market capitalization of $900 billion it's on course to become the first $1 trillion company in market history. Investors can thank the iPhone for the eye-popping run-up in the value of the stock in recent years. Before Jobs debuted the revolutionary smartphone in 2007, Apple was a well-regarded maker of pricey personal computers that catered to niche markets. In the 10 years since, more than a billion iPhones have been sold. Shares of Apple have gained a whopping 928% since the gadget's initial release. Jobs died in 2011, but the company he started with Steve Wozniak lives on today. The iPhone 8 and iPhone X, unveiled last September, are the latest iterations of the smartphone. The X starts at a lofty price of $1,000. Adding to Apple's many accolades was its inclusion in the Dow in 2015, replacing AT&T. SEE ALSO: The Kiplinger Dividend 15: Our Favorite Dividend-Paying Stocks 1. ExxonMobil Getty Images Ticker symbol: XOM Lifetime wealth creation: $1.0 trillion Annualized return (July 1926-December 2016): 11.9% Current share price: $87.52 Current dividend yield: 3.5% Current analyst ratings: 4 strong buy, 1 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 2 strong sell Speaking of $1 trillion, that's the staggering amount of wealth created by ExxonMobil between 1926 and 2016, according to the "Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?" research study authored by Bessembinder. No doubt the reliable dividend that Exxon has paid out to shareholders since 1882 has contributed mightily to the energy giant's remarkable performance. Over the last 35 years alone, amid cycles of oil booms and oil busts, the company has increased its dividend payment at an average annual rate of 6.3%. Like rival Chevron, Exxon has to contend with uncertainty regarding the future of fossil fuels, not to mention the wild swings in oil prices. The stock's performance reflects that uncertainty. Exxon's share price is lower today than it was a decade ago. (But, hey, at least the dividend checks kept coming.) Exxon has been part of the Dow ever since the industrial average expanded to 30 companies in 1928. Back then it was known as Standard Oil of New Jersey. The name officially changed to Exxon in 1972. SEE ALSO: 20 Dividend Stocks to Fund 20 Years of Retirement EDITOR'S PICKS 20 Dividend Stocks to Fund 20 Years of Retirement The Best Vanguard Funds for 401(k) Retirement Savers Best Stock to Buy in Every State Copyright 2018-2019 The Kiplinger Washington Editors || Circle to Spin Out Poloniex Less Than 2 Years After $400 Million Takeover: Related: Crypto Finance Firm Circle Puts Research Offering on Hold It is bittersweet for Circle to see this incredible product and business spin out on its own
Weve made enormous progress with Poloniex, including massive infrastructure improvements, adding more fiat options with USDC integration, launching best in class native apps for traders, and building global operations capabilities that can deliver excellent customer service. Related Stories Circle Is Raising a $100 Million Fund for Its Crowdfunding Arm Investors Who Lost Big in Poloniex Flash Crash Receive Bitcoin Refunds || Circle to Spin Out Poloniex Less Than 2 Years After $400 Million Takeover: Related:Crypto Finance Firm Circle Puts Research Offering on Hold
• Circle Is Raising a $100 Million Fund for Its Crowdfunding Arm
• Investors Who Lost Big in Poloniex Flash Crash Receive Bitcoin Refunds || Babylon upgrade activates on Tezos: Today marks yet another milestone for the self-amending blockchain Tezos where it has experienced an upgrade from its governance mechanism. The activation marked the third on-chain update for the protocol. For the changes to be included, the proposal, Babylon 2.0, needed the support of at least 74.7% of the participants in the network, where 84.53% voted in favor.
Jacob Arluck, Co-founder of TQ Tezos, tells The Block what this event means for Tezos saying that
“The first amendment, Athens, simply upgraded some constants. This is about showing Tezos can upgrade constantly. It's the first major upgrade of the network and enhances the consensus algorithm, expands smart contract functionality, and improves the governance mechanism itself. And it hasn't been without its challenges. Like we've seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum, these networks and communities get stronger with every challenge they overcome. This is the aspect of these networks and, increasingly, Tezos that just can't be copied.”
What the update does?
The Babylon upgrade, initially proposed by Cryptium Labs & the research and development group Nomadic Labs, affects the networks’ consensus algorithm, smart contract functionality, and its governance mechanism.
One of the changes makes it easier to develop smart contracts by making the code of complex contracts simpler and cleaner.
The reward system for bakers (validators) has changed to incentivize them better to include all available endorsements. Endorsements are what confirm that a newly constructed block was valid.
Lastly, the upgrade simplifies the delegation process. Previously, users had to generate a specific type of address (KT1) that allowed them to delegate their funds. With Babylon, users now can delegate from their public key (addresses starting with a tz1, tez2, or tz3) and not be forced to generate a new contract with a KT1 address. || Babylon upgrade activates on Tezos: Today marks yet another milestone for the self-amending blockchain Tezos where it has experienced an upgrade from its governance mechanism. The activation marked the third on-chain update for the protocol. For the changes to be included, the proposal, Babylon 2.0, needed the support of at least 74.7% of the participants in the network, where 84.53% voted in favor. Jacob Arluck, Co-founder of TQ Tezos, tells The Block what this event means for Tezos saying that “The first amendment, Athens, simply upgraded some constants. This is about showing Tezos can upgrade constantly. It's the first major upgrade of the network and enhances the consensus algorithm, expands smart contract functionality, and improves the governance mechanism itself. And it hasn't been without its challenges. Like we've seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum, these networks and communities get stronger with every challenge they overcome. This is the aspect of these networks and, increasingly, Tezos that just can't be copied.” What the update does? The Babylon upgrade, initially proposed by Cryptium Labs & the research and development group Nomadic Labs, affects the networks’ consensus algorithm, smart contract functionality, and its governance mechanism. One of the changes makes it easier to develop smart contracts by making the code of complex contracts simpler and cleaner. The reward system for bakers (validators) has changed to incentivize them better to include all available endorsements. Endorsements are what confirm that a newly constructed block was valid. Lastly, the upgrade simplifies the delegation process. Previously, users had to generate a specific type of address (KT1) that allowed them to delegate their funds. With Babylon, users now can delegate from their public key (addresses starting with a tz1, tez2, or tz3) and not be forced to generate a new contract with a KT1 address.
[Social Media Buzz]
Bitcoin’s “peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” launched in 2009 by an anonymous programmer (or group) Satoshi Nakamoto, was a watershed moment for the freedom of money. For the first time in history, people could securely exchange value, without requiring a third party || BTC is $7989! Should we buy or sell? LMAO #bitcoin || @ApolloCurrency Hello everyone, some of you might know me, some might not ,I will be teaching only the first “50” people to comment “INFO” on this post, on how to make 10 ...
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8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30, 6398.54, 6519.67, 6734.95, 6721.98, 6710.63, 6595.41, 6446.47, 6495.00, 6676.75, 6644.13, 6601.96, 6625.56, 6589.62, 6556.10, 6502.59, 6576.69, 6622.48, 6588.31, 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58, 6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35, 6487.16, 6475.74, 6495.84, 6476.29, 6474.75, 6480.38, 6486.39, 6332.63, 6334.27, 6317.61, 6377.78, 6388.44, 6361.26, 6376.13, 6419.66, 6461.01, 6530.14, 6453.72, 6385.62, 6409.22, 6411.27, 6371.27, 6359.49, 5738.35, 5648.03, 5575.55, 5554.33, 5623.54, 4871.49, 4451.87, 4602.17, 4365.94, 4347.11, 3880.76, 4009.97, 3779.13, 3820.72, 4257.42, 4278.85, 4017.27, 4214.67, 4139.88, 3894.13, 3956.89, 3753.99, 3521.10, 3419.94, 3476.11, 3614.23, 3502.66, 3424.59, 3486.95, 3313.68, 3242.48.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-12-14]
Volume: 4372763663, RSI (14-day): 27.25, 50-day EMA: 4691.44, 200-day EMA: 6252.90
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1237.00, Gold RSI: 55.48
Oil Price: 51.20, Oil RSI: 37.32
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Authorities: Wave of hoax bomb threats made across US: NEW YORK (AP) A wave of bomb threats emailed Thursday to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings across the U.S. triggered searches, evacuations and fear but there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt. Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and were not considered credible. Some of the emails had the subject line: "Think Twice." They were sent from a spoofed email address. The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient's building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin. "We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city," the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism unit tweeted. "These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time." Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam. The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff's office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. One of the emails wound up in a spam filter, Boise Police Chief William Bones said. The FBI said it is assisting law enforcement agencies that are dealing with the threats. "As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety," the FBI said in a statement. Thursday's scare came less than two months after prominent Democratic officials and CNN's Manhattan offices were targeted with package bombs. The suspect in that case, Cesar Sayoc, is in jail while awaiting trial. In 2015, an emailed bomb threat prompted different reactions from the nation's two largest public school systems. The Los Angeles school system closed down under threat of a mass attack, but New York City officials quickly saw it as a hoax. In the wake of Thursday's emails, some schools across the country closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Missouri, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia. The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Illinois, the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a suburban Atlanta courthouse and businesses in Detroit. Story continues "Organizations nationwide, both public and private, have reported receiving emailed bomb threats today," Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said. "They are not targeted toward any one specific sector." Penn State University notified students via a text alert about threats to a half-dozen buildings and an airport on its main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. In an update, the school said the threat appeared to be part of a "national hoax." Officials at Columbine High School in Colorado were dealing Thursday with a bomb threat of a different sort. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school. The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff's Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the school and to be hiding outside with a gun. Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin said nothing was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999. Two dozen other Colorado schools were also temporarily placed on lockout, meaning their doors were locked but classes continued normally, as the threat was investigated. __ Associated Press writers contributing to this report include: Colleen Slevin in Denver, Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Saman Creel and Don Babwin in Chicago, Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Skip Foreman in Charlotte, North Carolina, David Fischer in Miami, Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington. __ Follow Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak View comments || Authorities: Wave of hoax bomb threats made across US: NEW YORK (AP) A wave of bomb threats emailed Thursday to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings across the U.S. triggered searches, evacuations and fear but there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt. Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and were not considered credible. Some of the emails had the subject line: "Think Twice." They were sent from a spoofed email address. The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient's building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin. "We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city," the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism unit tweeted. "These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time." Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam. The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff's office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. One of the emails wound up in a spam filter, Boise Police Chief William Bones said. The FBI said it is assisting law enforcement agencies that are dealing with the threats. "As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety," the FBI said in a statement. Thursday's scare came less than two months after prominent Democratic officials and CNN's Manhattan offices were targeted with package bombs. The suspect in that case, Cesar Sayoc, is in jail while awaiting trial. In 2015, an emailed bomb threat prompted different reactions from the nation's two largest public school systems. The Los Angeles school system closed down under threat of a mass attack, but New York City officials quickly saw it as a hoax. In the wake of Thursday's emails, some schools across the country closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Missouri, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia. The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Illinois, the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a suburban Atlanta courthouse and businesses in Detroit. Story continues "Organizations nationwide, both public and private, have reported receiving emailed bomb threats today," Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said. "They are not targeted toward any one specific sector." Penn State University notified students via a text alert about threats to a half-dozen buildings and an airport on its main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. In an update, the school said the threat appeared to be part of a "national hoax." Officials at Columbine High School in Colorado were dealing Thursday with a bomb threat of a different sort. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school. The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff's Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the school and to be hiding outside with a gun. Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin said nothing was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999. Two dozen other Colorado schools were also temporarily placed on lockout, meaning their doors were locked but classes continued normally, as the threat was investigated. __ Associated Press writers contributing to this report include: Colleen Slevin in Denver, Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Saman Creel and Don Babwin in Chicago, Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Skip Foreman in Charlotte, North Carolina, David Fischer in Miami, Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington. __ Follow Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak View comments || Crypto Protocol Wanchain Integrates MakerDAO’s Dai Stablecoin: crypto dai makerdao stablecoin For a particular set of crypto users, the need for centralized exchanges is one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to a completely decentralized future. Not everyone is going to prefer to use Bitcoin , and not everyone is going to prefer to use Ethereum . Indeed, not everyone is going to prefer any cryptocurrency. The question, then, is how can the “internet of money” be interconnected without counterparty risk? In reality, there will probably always be some form of counterparty risk, some centralized exchanges that are necessary, clearinghouses that just do a better job. Wanchain Eliminates Trust for Certain Swaps, Adds Dai Liquidity One of the long-awaited technologies that’s finally coming to fruition in a few projects is cross-chain token transfers. Wanchain ’s primary purpose is offering as much, currently between Bitcoin and Ethereum and in the future between several blockchains. Their wallet offers the ability to control tokens on both chains, opening up the world of Bitcoin liquidity to Ethereum holders. wanchain dai crypto And this morning they announced that they added another integration: the Dai token from MakerDAO , an interesting stablecoin which algorithmically keeps the value of its tokens at $1. It has the same goal as PAX, USDC, USDT, TUSD, and the other stablecoins out there, but achieves it in a slightly different way. Previously, for Bitcoin users to get access to Dai, they would have to go on an exchange and buy it with Bitcoin, then hold it in an Ether wallet or the crypto exchange wallet. But as of today, they can do the same thing from within the Wanchain wallet. MakerDAO CEO and co-founder Rune Christensen said: “We are excited that Wanchain has launched their version 3.0 platform wTith Dai and MKR integration on their blockchain. As we seek to grow the use cases and stability of our tokens, Wanchain’s interoperability solution adds significant potential for Dai. For a stablecoin to see true mass adoption, cross-chain functionality is a must-have.” Story continues In a previous interview with CCN, Wanchain CEO Jack Lu explained to us how cross-chain compatibility works. Essentially, tokens are locked on either chain and controlled through Secure Multi-Party Computing. Today’s addition of MakerDAO will use the same fundamentals to allow Dai holders to do the same, or Bitcoin holders to access MakerDAO smart contracts via Wanchain. Lu said: “For us to achieve our goal of becoming one of the key cross-chain finance hubs of the Web 3.0 economy, Dai and MKR are critical components in laying the foundation. We look forward to seeing the many use cases this integration will generate.” Lu has told us that there really is no upper limit on the number of blockchains that Wanchain can eventually interoperate with. In the same way that the Ethereum token itself is necessary for all sorts of transactions that have nothing directly to do with ETH on the Ethereum network, the Wan token could see an increase in demand as Wanchain develops itself into a hub where the blockchains of the world can meet. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Crypto Protocol Wanchain Integrates MakerDAO’s Dai Stablecoin appeared first on CCN . || Crypto Protocol Wanchain Integrates MakerDAO’s Dai Stablecoin: For a particular set of crypto users, the need for centralized exchanges is one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to a completely decentralized future. Not everyone is going to prefer to useBitcoin, and not everyone is going to prefer to useEthereum. Indeed, not everyone is going to prefer any cryptocurrency.
The question, then, is how can the “internet of money” be interconnected without counterparty risk? In reality, there will probably always be some form of counterparty risk, some centralizedexchangesthat are necessary, clearinghouses that just do a better job.
One of the long-awaited technologies that’s finallycoming to fruitionin a few projects is cross-chain token transfers.Wanchain’s primary purpose is offering as much, currently between Bitcoin and Ethereum and in the future between several blockchains. Their wallet offers the ability to control tokens on both chains, opening up the world of Bitcoin liquidity to Ethereum holders.
And this morning they announced that they added another integration: the Dai token fromMakerDAO, an interestingstablecoinwhich algorithmically keeps the value of its tokens at $1. It has the same goal as PAX, USDC, USDT, TUSD, and the other stablecoins out there, but achieves it in a slightly different way.
Previously, for Bitcoin users to get access to Dai, they would have to go on an exchange and buy it with Bitcoin, then hold it in an Ether wallet or the crypto exchange wallet. But as of today, they can do the same thing from within the Wanchain wallet.
MakerDAO CEO and co-founder Rune Christensen said:
“We are excited that Wanchain has launched their version 3.0 platform wTith Dai and MKR integration on their blockchain. As we seek to grow the use cases and stability of our tokens, Wanchain’s interoperability solution adds significant potential for Dai. For a stablecoin to see true mass adoption, cross-chain functionality is a must-have.”
In aprevious interviewwith CCN, Wanchain CEO Jack Lu explained to us how cross-chain compatibility works. Essentially, tokens are locked on either chain and controlled through Secure Multi-Party Computing. Today’s addition of MakerDAO will use the same fundamentals to allow Dai holders to do the same, or Bitcoin holders to access MakerDAO smart contracts via Wanchain. Lu said:
“For us to achieve our goal of becoming one of the key cross-chain finance hubs of the Web 3.0 economy, Dai and MKR are critical components in laying the foundation. We look forward to seeing the many use cases this integration will generate.”
Lu has told us that there really is no upper limit on the number of blockchains that Wanchain can eventually interoperate with. In the same way that the Ethereum token itself is necessary for all sorts of transactions that have nothing directly to do with ETH on the Ethereum network, the Wan token could see an increase in demand as Wanchain develops itself into a hub where the blockchains of the world can meet.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postCrypto Protocol Wanchain Integrates MakerDAO’s Dai Stablecoinappeared first onCCN. || After $4M Funding Round, BlockFi Eyes Savings Account, Crypto Credit Cards: BlockFi
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/blockfi-gives-hodlers-another-option-borrow-against-crypto-assets/
, the New York-based startup that provides crypto collateralized loans, has raised additional funds to expand its services. The startup announced that it has received an additional $4 million in its recent funding round in acompany blog post.
The recently revealed funding round comes some months after the company raised $52.5 million in a round ledby Galaxy Digital, including $1.55 million infunding fromConsenSys Ventures and PJC prior.
Akuna Capital led today's funding round, with participation from other investors, including Digital Galaxy Ventures, Susquehanna Government Products, Morgan Creek Digital and others.
The startup, who recentlyexpanded overseas, says the funding would be used to grow its workforce and launch exciting new products, including a crypto savings account that earns interest and crypto-backed credit cards.
Zac Prince, BlockFi CEO, spoke with Bitcoin Magazine, on the funding and the new product lines.
He said the company plans to launch two separate credit cards. One would be similar to a prepaid card, where users will be able to spend funds that they receive from taking out a crypto-backed loan from BlockFi’s platform.
“[The first] is like a debit or prepaid card where users can receive and spend loan proceeds from BlockFi. The amount they have access to will vary based on the amount of crypto they hold with BlockFi — similar to how our loans work now.”
The other would be an unsecured card with a credit line.
"Think of it like the Amex card, except that instead of cash back or airline miles — you would receive Bitcoin rewards," he said. Both cards would be available in selected locations where BlockFi operates, though the firm has yet to choose a credit card company partner.
For the savings account, BlockFi would be using Gemini’s custody solution, which is the solution it uses currently for holding the cryptocurrency collateral for its loans. The company hasn't decided on the exact interest rate, but Prince said it would be higher than the interests that accrue on a traditional bank-held savings account.
For Prince, the funding is a testament to BlockFi's growth. Despite a gloomy market that has seen trade volumes drop and prices fall, BlockFi has continued to improve its business on all fronts, he claims.
"We have continued to grow all of our core metrics rapidly despite the bear market. We continue to operate with a long-term outlook and thoughtful approach — that generates confidence and trust from our investors and clients," he remarked enthusiastically.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || After $4M Funding Round, BlockFi Eyes Savings Account, Crypto Credit Cards: BlockFi Crypto Credit Card BlockFi https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/blockfi-gives-hodlers-another-option-borrow-against-crypto-assets/ , the New York-based startup that provides crypto collateralized loans, has raised additional funds to expand its services. The startup announced that it has received an additional $4 million in its recent funding round in a company blog post . The recently revealed funding round comes some months after the company raised $52.5 million in a round led by Galaxy Digital , including $1.55 million in funding from ConsenSys Ventures and PJC prior. Akuna Capital led today's funding round, with participation from other investors, including Digital Galaxy Ventures, Susquehanna Government Products, Morgan Creek Digital and others. The startup, who recently expanded overseas , says the funding would be used to grow its workforce and launch exciting new products, including a crypto savings account that earns interest and crypto-backed credit cards. Zac Prince, BlockFi CEO, spoke with Bitcoin Magazine, on the funding and the new product lines. He said the company plans to launch two separate credit cards. One would be similar to a prepaid card, where users will be able to spend funds that they receive from taking out a crypto-backed loan from BlockFi’s platform. “[The first] is like a debit or prepaid card where users can receive and spend loan proceeds from BlockFi. The amount they have access to will vary based on the amount of crypto they hold with BlockFi — similar to how our loans work now.” The other would be an unsecured card with a credit line. "Think of it like the Amex card, except that instead of cash back or airline miles — you would receive Bitcoin rewards," he said. Both cards would be available in selected locations where BlockFi operates, though the firm has yet to choose a credit card company partner. For the savings account, BlockFi would be using Gemini’s custody solution, which is the solution it uses currently for holding the cryptocurrency collateral for its loans. The company hasn't decided on the exact interest rate, but Prince said it would be higher than the interests that accrue on a traditional bank-held savings account. Story continues For Prince, the funding is a testament to BlockFi's growth. Despite a gloomy market that has seen trade volumes drop and prices fall, BlockFi has continued to improve its business on all fronts, he claims. "We have continued to grow all of our core metrics rapidly despite the bear market. We continue to operate with a long-term outlook and thoughtful approach — that generates confidence and trust from our investors and clients," he remarked enthusiastically. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Bitcoin Price Reverses as [Another] Breakout Attempt Fizzles Out: The bitcoin price failed to extend its bounce once again, weighed down by weak bulls.
TheBTC/USD rateon Thursday dropped as low as 5.38 percent from its intraday high at 3488-fiat. The pair at press time is forming lower lows towards 3300-fiat on a strong volume jump onCoinbase. It expects to extend its downside momentum even further, with the near-term momentum readings clearly entering inside the oversold area. A weak support wall is lingering at 3295-fiat which, if broken, would confirm a drop towards the 3210-3250-fiat area.
The US Dollar index is looking stronger on Thursday, specifically against commodities likegold. The speculation over the outcome of an upcomingFederal Reserve‘s monetary policy meeting is directly impacting the dollar’s behavior. Whether or not the Fed will increase the interest rates is on the agenda, and a tighter rate policy could benefit gold — as well as bitcoin — in the long-term.
We speculated on a falling wedge formationyesterdayfor a potential breakout, but that didn’t happen. We had also discussed a trend reversal scenario, which happened. As of now, we are looking at the same falling wedge pattern asbitcoinhints an extended selling action.
Ideally, the BTC/USD pair could break below its 2018’s low at 3210-fiat to test 3000-fiat as the long-term support — or bottom. The lower area should provide bulls enough opportunities to attempt a strong bounce back, again towards the upper trendline of the falling wedge formation, depicted in orange. In another case, the pair should keep falling, even below 3000-fiat, to look for a bottom towards 1500-2000-fiat area, aspredictedby other analysts.
The RSI momentum indicator is reading a strong selling sentiment on daily charts. The MACD indicator is also trending inside a negative area. That said, the bitcoin market would likely be the same — strongly bearish.
The latest drop has stopped weakly at 3300-fiat, which now serves as interim support level to day traders. To the upside, 3370-fiat is looking like a reasonable interim resistance, given its history of being one during the Tuesday trading session.
We are pretty much entering our initial positions inside the said range. A weak bounce back has allowed us to enter a long position towards 3370-fiat. Considering the low volume the bounce is exhibiting, we have also opened a stop loss order at 3290-fiat to minimize our losses in the event of an extended selling action.
Having said that, an extended sell-off could have us switch to our breakdown strategy. It means that on a break below the interim support, we will open a short position towards 3210-fiat as our primary downside target. A stop loss would be placed just $10 above the entry position to maintain our risk management.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postBitcoin Price Reverses as [Another] Breakout Attempt Fizzles Outappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Reverses as [Another] Breakout Attempt Fizzles Out: The bitcoin price failed to extend its bounce once again, weighed down by weak bulls.
TheBTC/USD rateon Thursday dropped as low as 5.38 percent from its intraday high at 3488-fiat. The pair at press time is forming lower lows towards 3300-fiat on a strong volume jump onCoinbase. It expects to extend its downside momentum even further, with the near-term momentum readings clearly entering inside the oversold area. A weak support wall is lingering at 3295-fiat which, if broken, would confirm a drop towards the 3210-3250-fiat area.
The US Dollar index is looking stronger on Thursday, specifically against commodities likegold. The speculation over the outcome of an upcomingFederal Reserve‘s monetary policy meeting is directly impacting the dollar’s behavior. Whether or not the Fed will increase the interest rates is on the agenda, and a tighter rate policy could benefit gold — as well as bitcoin — in the long-term.
We speculated on a falling wedge formationyesterdayfor a potential breakout, but that didn’t happen. We had also discussed a trend reversal scenario, which happened. As of now, we are looking at the same falling wedge pattern asbitcoinhints an extended selling action.
Ideally, the BTC/USD pair could break below its 2018’s low at 3210-fiat to test 3000-fiat as the long-term support — or bottom. The lower area should provide bulls enough opportunities to attempt a strong bounce back, again towards the upper trendline of the falling wedge formation, depicted in orange. In another case, the pair should keep falling, even below 3000-fiat, to look for a bottom towards 1500-2000-fiat area, aspredictedby other analysts.
The RSI momentum indicator is reading a strong selling sentiment on daily charts. The MACD indicator is also trending inside a negative area. That said, the bitcoin market would likely be the same — strongly bearish.
The latest drop has stopped weakly at 3300-fiat, which now serves as interim support level to day traders. To the upside, 3370-fiat is looking like a reasonable interim resistance, given its history of being one during the Tuesday trading session.
We are pretty much entering our initial positions inside the said range. A weak bounce back has allowed us to enter a long position towards 3370-fiat. Considering the low volume the bounce is exhibiting, we have also opened a stop loss order at 3290-fiat to minimize our losses in the event of an extended selling action.
Having said that, an extended sell-off could have us switch to our breakdown strategy. It means that on a break below the interim support, we will open a short position towards 3210-fiat as our primary downside target. A stop loss would be placed just $10 above the entry position to maintain our risk management.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView.
The postBitcoin Price Reverses as [Another] Breakout Attempt Fizzles Outappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Reverses as [Another] Breakout Attempt Fizzles Out: bitcoin price exhausted runner The bitcoin price failed to extend its bounce once again, weighed down by weak bulls. The BTC/USD rate on Thursday dropped as low as 5.38 percent from its intraday high at 3488-fiat. The pair at press time is forming lower lows towards 3300-fiat on a strong volume jump on Coinbase . It expects to extend its downside momentum even further, with the near-term momentum readings clearly entering inside the oversold area. A weak support wall is lingering at 3295-fiat which, if broken, would confirm a drop towards the 3210-3250-fiat area. bitcoin price chart The US Dollar index is looking stronger on Thursday, specifically against commodities like gold . The speculation over the outcome of an upcoming Federal Reserve s monetary policy meeting is directly impacting the dollars behavior. Whether or not the Fed will increase the interest rates is on the agenda, and a tighter rate policy could benefit gold as well as bitcoin in the long-term. BTC/USD Long-Term Indicators bitcoin price chart We speculated on a falling wedge formation yesterday for a potential breakout, but that didnt happen. We had also discussed a trend reversal scenario, which happened. As of now, we are looking at the same falling wedge pattern as bitcoin hints an extended selling action. Ideally, the BTC/USD pair could break below its 2018s low at 3210-fiat to test 3000-fiat as the long-term support or bottom. The lower area should provide bulls enough opportunities to attempt a strong bounce back, again towards the upper trendline of the falling wedge formation, depicted in orange. In another case, the pair should keep falling, even below 3000-fiat, to look for a bottom towards 1500-2000-fiat area, as predicted by other analysts. The RSI momentum indicator is reading a strong selling sentiment on daily charts. The MACD indicator is also trending inside a negative area. That said, the bitcoin market would likely be the same strongly bearish. BTC/USD Intraday Readings bitcoin price chart The latest drop has stopped weakly at 3300-fiat, which now serves as interim support level to day traders. To the upside, 3370-fiat is looking like a reasonable interim resistance, given its history of being one during the Tuesday trading session. Story continues We are pretty much entering our initial positions inside the said range. A weak bounce back has allowed us to enter a long position towards 3370-fiat. Considering the low volume the bounce is exhibiting, we have also opened a stop loss order at 3290-fiat to minimize our losses in the event of an extended selling action. Having said that, an extended sell-off could have us switch to our breakdown strategy. It means that on a break below the interim support, we will open a short position towards 3210-fiat as our primary downside target. A stop loss would be placed just $10 above the entry position to maintain our risk management. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView . The post Bitcoin Price Reverses as [Another] Breakout Attempt Fizzles Out appeared first on CCN . || Blockchain developer is the fastest-growing job in America, according to LinkedIn: Blockchain developer is this year’s fastest-growing job in the U.S., according to LinkedIn, which released its2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs reporton Thursday.
Despite reports that data science roles may be themost in-demand jobs, the professional social network found that “Blockchain developer” was the fastest-growing job over the last 12 months, with 33 times growth year-over-year, and demand coming from companies such as IBM (IBM), Consensys, and Chainyard in cities including San Francisco, New York, and Atlanta. Machine learning engineerranked second place, trailed by application sales executive, machine learning specialist, and professional medical representative, respectively.
Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) extreme volatility this year — its value has fallen from nearly $20,000 last December to under $4,000 as of Thursday — the cryptocurrency served as an excellent proof of concept for its underlying blockchain technology, with companies ranging from IBM (IBM) to Spotify (SPOT) experimenting with ways to deploy blockchain technology. IBM revealed this week that telecommunications firms in Indiacould soon be using its blockchain techfor mobile numbers and the Do Not Call registry. Spotify, meanwhile, is looking to use blockchain to match royalties with rights holders by integrating data such as timestamps.
What remains to be seen, however, is whether the demand for blockchain developers will remain over the next few years.It’s worth noting that “blockchain” didn’t appear anywhere in thetop 20 emerging jobs in 2017, while “machine learning engineer” topped the list last year.“Only time will tell what applications this still-nascent technology [blockchain] has, particularly outside of the cryptocurrency space and more generally in ordinary business functions,” LinkedIn Chief Economist Guy Bergertold Yahoo Financeon Thursday. “I think it’s still going to be a speculative set of skills and occupations until it [blockchain] takes more hold and turns from more of a venture to something more concrete.”
Meanwhile, LinkedIn reports that skills such as oral communication and people management remain in extremely high-demand, despite six out of the 15 top emerging jobs this year being related to artificial intelligence and ongoing chatter that robots are displacing human workers. Indeed, job candidates who excelled in both soft skills were hired at faster rates compared with people who lacked them, LinkedIn reported.
“We sometimes underestimate how important these skills are,” Berger added. “We think all the time about STEM skills, about tech skills, about learning to code. … But really soft skills are some of the most durable skills out there, because we’re always in our world going to need to be talking to people. In terms of addressing it, people can invest in speaking skills, in presentation skills. These are skills you need in every kind of job.”
Translation? Blockchain developer may be this year’s trendiest job, but mastering the ability to collaborate and communicate well in the workplace will likely get job seekers further, regardless of industry.
—
JP Mangalindan is the Chief Tech Correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings [email protected]. Follow him onTwitterorFacebook.
More from JP:
• Facebook loses top spot on ‘Best Places to Work’ list
• Silicon Valley’s racism problem is bigger than Facebook
• eBay exec explains why millennials are buying so much CBD oil
• Dan Lyons: Tech companies ‘just have to be lying’ when talking about diversity || LinkedIn: Blockchain developer is fastest-growing job: Blockchain developer is this year’s fastest-growing job in the U.S., according to LinkedIn, which released its 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs report on Thursday. Despite reports that data science roles may be the most in-demand jobs , the professional social network found that “Blockchain developer” was the fastest-growing job over the last 12 months, with 33 times growth year-over-year, and demand coming from companies such as IBM ( IBM ), Consensys, and Chainyard in cities including San Francisco, New York, and Atlanta. Machine learning engineer ranked second place, trailed by application sales executive, machine learning specialist, and professional medical representative, respectively. Source: LinkedIn Despite Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) extreme volatility this year — its value has fallen from nearly $20,000 last December to under $4,000 as of Thursday — the cryptocurrency served as an excellent proof of concept for its underlying blockchain technology, with companies ranging from IBM ( IBM ) to Spotify ( SPOT ) experimenting with ways to deploy blockchain technology. IBM revealed this week that telecommunications firms in India could soon be using its blockchain tech for mobile numbers and the Do Not Call registry. Spotify, meanwhile, is looking to use blockchain to match royalties with rights holders by integrating data such as timestamps. What remains to be seen, however, is whether the demand for blockchain developers will remain over the next few years. It’s worth noting that “blockchain” didn’t appear anywhere in the top 20 emerging jobs in 2017 , while “machine learning engineer” topped the list last year. “Only time will tell what applications this still-nascent technology [blockchain] has, particularly outside of the cryptocurrency space and more generally in ordinary business functions,” LinkedIn Chief Economist Guy Berger told Yahoo Finance on Thursday. “I think it’s still going to be a speculative set of skills and occupations until it [blockchain] takes more hold and turns from more of a venture to something more concrete.” Story continues Meanwhile, LinkedIn reports that skills such as oral communication and people management remain in extremely high-demand, despite six out of the 15 top emerging jobs this year being related to artificial intelligence and ongoing chatter that robots are displacing human workers. Indeed, job candidates who excelled in both soft skills were hired at faster rates compared with people who lacked them, LinkedIn reported. Source: LinkedIn “We sometimes underestimate how important these skills are,” Berger added. “We think all the time about STEM skills, about tech skills, about learning to code. … But really soft skills are some of the most durable skills out there, because we’re always in our world going to need to be talking to people. In terms of addressing it, people can invest in speaking skills, in presentation skills. These are skills you need in every kind of job.” Translation? Blockchain developer may be this year’s trendiest job, but mastering the ability to collaborate and communicate well in the workplace will likely get job seekers further, regardless of industry. — JP Mangalindan is the Chief Tech Correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings to [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter or Facebook . More from JP: Facebook loses top spot on ‘Best Places to Work’ list Silicon Valley’s racism problem is bigger than Facebook eBay exec explains why millennials are buying so much CBD oil Dan Lyons: Tech companies ‘just have to be lying’ when talking about diversity || Mainstream: 2018 Brought 54 Million New Crypto Users Despite Bear Market: bitcoin investors crypto The crypto market may have taken a tumble this year, but that has not diminished interest in the nascent technology. Crypto User Base Booms amid Price Decline According to a report by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, a research center at the University of Cambridge ’s Judge Business School, the number of crypto users has nearly doubled with the total number of users registered with cryptocurrency service providers rising from 85 million in 2017 to more than 139 million in the first three quarters of this year. “Combining public data and survey findings, we estimate that the total number of user accounts at service providers amounts to at least 139 million in late 2018,” says the report . crypto user base growth The number of verified users is now seven times higher than what it was two years ago and nearly twice the 2017 figure. In 2017, the number of verified cryptoasset users was 18 million while in 2016 it was five million. This year the report estimates the ID-verified userbase has hit the 35 million mark across the globe: “Using a combination of verified user data and the average share of ID-verified accounts described above, we also estimate there are currently at least 35 million ID-verified users globally.” Besides the rise in user numbers, there has also been a marginal increase in the number of active users. In 2016, the percentage of active users was 35%, and this rose by a percentage point in 2017 and another percentage point in 2018 to reach 38%. ‘What is Bitcoin’ Ranked Among Top Google Searches in 2018 https://t.co/m172I7aQSV — CCN (@CryptoCoinsNews) December 12, 2018 Another positive development that has occurred in the cryptosphere in spite of the bear market has been the rise in the number of cryptocurrency service providers who have added support for multiple digital assets. Story continues Crypto Exchanges & Wallets Support More Coins Among cryptocurrency exchanges, about 61% of them supported multiple coins in 2017, but this year the figure has surged to 89%. With regards to service providers in the cryptocurrency payment segment, multi-coin support rose from 35% in 2017 to 77%. The highest increase in multi-coin support was observed in wallets : “[W]allets with multi-coin support surged from 46% in 2017 to 90% in 2018, with 60% of wallets currently supporting more than 3 cryptoassets as opposed to only 10% in 2017.” The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance report also notes that the number of available trading pairs in the cryptocurrency market has increased to 9,000 in the fourth quarter of this year from about 6,500. Still, cryptoasset-only exchanges currently dominate the spot market, boasting 75% of crypto trading volume. With regards to crypto-to-fiat trading, the United States dollar dominates with more than 50% of the volume followed by the Japanese yen with 21% . The South Korean won is in the third position with 16% of overall fiat trading volume. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Mainstream: 2018 Brought 54 Million New Crypto Users Despite Bear Market appeared first on CCN . || Bitcoin Flat; Number of Crypto Users Doubled in 2018, Study Finds: Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were slightly lower on Thursday, as a report from Cambridge University found that the number of crypto users have nearly doubled this year. Bitcoin was mostly flat at $3,432.10 on the Investing.com Index, as of 8:43 AM ET (13:43 GMT). Digital coins have fallen dramatically in recent weeks traders worry about increased regulatory scrutiny and volatility. Cryptocurrencies overall inched down, with the total coin market capitalization at $109 billion at the time of writing, compared to $110 billion on Wednesday. Ethereum, or Ether, increased 0.7% to $90.08 and Litecoin was at $23.85, down 1.1%, while XRP inched down 0.15% to $0.30385. Even so, the volatility of the digital coin market was not enough to deter investors, a recent study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found. The number of users nearly doubled in 2018, from 18 million to 35 million, the report found. Still, users remain passive, the study stated. The industry is becoming more fluid, as the lines between exchanges and wallets are increasingly blurred and a multitude of cryptocurrencies, not just bitcoin, are now supported by a growing ecosystem, fulfilling an array of functions, Bryan Zhang, executive director of the center wrote in a statement. In other news, exchanges in the Netherlands will soon be regulated by the Dutch Central Bank. Cryptocurrency service providers in the Netherlands will be required to apply for a license and will need to adhere to know-your-customer rules, Dutch media site De Telegraaf reported. The policy aims to prevent the use of digital tokens in money laundering or funding terrorism. The bank did not specify any timeline for the implementation. Related Articles PAX Stablecoin Exceeds $5 Billion in Transactions in First 3 Months Blockstack Wont Need to Sell Bitcoin or Ether to Survive Crypto Winter UAE Remittance Firm Launching Ripple-Based Payments in Q1 2019 View comments || Bitcoin Flat; Number of Crypto Users Doubled in 2018, Study Finds: Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were slightly lower on Thursday, as a report from Cambridge University found that the number of crypto users have nearly doubled this year.
Bitcoin was mostly flat at $3,432.10 on the Investing.com Index, as of 8:43 AM ET (13:43 GMT).
Digital coins have fallen dramatically in recent weeks traders worry about increased regulatory scrutiny and volatility.
Cryptocurrencies overall inched down, with the total coin market capitalization at $109 billion at the time of writing, compared to $110 billion on Wednesday.
Ethereum, or Ether, increased 0.7% to $90.08 and Litecoin was at $23.85, down 1.1%, while XRP inched down 0.15% to $0.30385.
Even so, the volatility of the digital coin market was not enough to deter investors, a recent study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found. The number of users nearly doubled in 2018, from 18 million to 35 million, the report found. Still, users remain passive, the study stated.
“The industry is becoming more fluid, as the lines between exchanges and wallets are increasingly ‘blurred’ and a multitude of cryptocurrencies, not just bitcoin, are now supported by a growing ecosystem, fulfilling an array of functions,” Bryan Zhang, executive director of the center wrote in a statement.
In other news, exchanges in the Netherlands will soon be regulated by the Dutch Central Bank.
Cryptocurrency service providers in the Netherlands will be required to apply for a license and will need to adhere to know-your-customer rules, Dutch media site De Telegraaf reported.
The policy aims to prevent the use of digital tokens in money laundering or funding terrorism. The bank did not specify any timeline for the implementation.
Related Articles
PAX Stablecoin Exceeds $5 Billion in Transactions in First 3 Months
Blockstack Won’t Need to Sell Bitcoin or Ether to Survive Crypto Winter
UAE Remittance Firm Launching Ripple-Based Payments in Q1 2019 || Bitcoin Flat; Number of Crypto Users Doubled in 2018, Study Finds: Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were slightly lower on Thursday, as a report from Cambridge University found that the number of crypto users have nearly doubled this year.
Bitcoin was mostly flat at $3,432.10 on the Investing.com Index, as of 8:43 AM ET (13:43 GMT).
Digital coins have fallen dramatically in recent weeks traders worry about increased regulatory scrutiny and volatility.
Cryptocurrencies overall inched down, with the total coin market capitalization at $109 billion at the time of writing, compared to $110 billion on Wednesday.
Ethereum, or Ether, increased 0.7% to $90.08 and Litecoin was at $23.85, down 1.1%, while XRP inched down 0.15% to $0.30385.
Even so, the volatility of the digital coin market was not enough to deter investors, a recent study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found. The number of users nearly doubled in 2018, from 18 million to 35 million, the report found. Still, users remain passive, the study stated.
“The industry is becoming more fluid, as the lines between exchanges and wallets are increasingly ‘blurred’ and a multitude of cryptocurrencies, not just bitcoin, are now supported by a growing ecosystem, fulfilling an array of functions,” Bryan Zhang, executive director of the center wrote in a statement.
In other news, exchanges in the Netherlands will soon be regulated by the Dutch Central Bank.
Cryptocurrency service providers in the Netherlands will be required to apply for a license and will need to adhere to know-your-customer rules, Dutch media site De Telegraaf reported.
The policy aims to prevent the use of digital tokens in money laundering or funding terrorism. The bank did not specify any timeline for the implementation.
Related Articles
PAX Stablecoin Exceeds $5 Billion in Transactions in First 3 Months
Blockstack Won’t Need to Sell Bitcoin or Ether to Survive Crypto Winter
UAE Remittance Firm Launching Ripple-Based Payments in Q1 2019 || Unabashed Bitcoin Bull Thomas Lee Says the Market Is Wrong: (Bloomberg) -- It’s hard to keep a Bitcoin bull down. Back in May, Thomas Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors was predicting a rally to $25,000 by the end of the year. And despite things not playing quite in his favor -- the cryptocurrency is currently trading below $3,400 -- he’s sticking to his guns. Bitcoin’s fair value, given the number of active wallet addresses, usage per account and factors influencing supply, is between $13,800 and $14,800, he said in a note Thursday. His explanation for the divergence include last year’s meteoric rally, a “meltdown” in the macroeconomic climate and treasury sales during initial coin offerings. “Fair value is significantly higher than the current price of Bitcoin,” he wrote. “In fact, working backwards, to solve for the current price of Bitcoin, this implies crypto wallets should fall to 17 million from 50 million currently.” User adoption and Bitcoin’s acceptance as an asset class are the key factors that will drive it higher beyond 2018. If Bitcoin wallets approach just 7 percent of Visa’s 4.5 billion account holders, fair value would be $150,000 per Bitcoin according to his model, he said. “We are tired of people asking us about target prices,” he said, declining to update his year-end forecast. To contact the reporter on this story: Eddie van der Walt in London at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at [email protected], Dave Liedtka, Randall Jensen For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2018 Bloomberg L.P. || Unabashed Bitcoin Bull Thomas Lee Says the Market Is Wrong: (Bloomberg) -- It’s hard to keep a Bitcoin bull down.
Back in May, Thomas Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors was predicting a rally to $25,000 by the end of the year. And despite things not playing quite in his favor -- the cryptocurrency is currently trading below $3,400 -- he’s sticking to his guns.
Bitcoin’s fair value, given the number of active wallet addresses, usage per account and factors influencing supply, is between $13,800 and $14,800, he said in a note Thursday. His explanation for the divergence include last year’s meteoric rally, a “meltdown” in the macroeconomic climate and treasury sales during initial coin offerings.
“Fair value is significantly higher than the current price of Bitcoin,” he wrote. “In fact, working backwards, to solve for the current price of Bitcoin, this implies crypto wallets should fall to 17 million from 50 million currently.”
User adoption and Bitcoin’s acceptance as an asset class are the key factors that will drive it higher beyond 2018. If Bitcoin wallets approach just 7 percent of Visa’s 4.5 billion account holders, fair value would be $150,000 per Bitcoin according to his model, he said.
“We are tired of people asking us about target prices,” he said, declining to update his year-end forecast.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eddie van der Walt in London at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at [email protected], Dave Liedtka, Randall Jensen
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2018 Bloomberg L.P. || Unabashed Bitcoin Bull Thomas Lee Says the Market Is Wrong: (Bloomberg) -- It’s hard to keep a Bitcoin bull down.
Back in May, Thomas Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors was predicting a rally to $25,000 by the end of the year. And despite things not playing quite in his favor -- the cryptocurrency is currently trading below $3,400 -- he’s sticking to his guns.
Bitcoin’s fair value, given the number of active wallet addresses, usage per account and factors influencing supply, is between $13,800 and $14,800, he said in a note Thursday. His explanation for the divergence include last year’s meteoric rally, a “meltdown” in the macroeconomic climate and treasury sales during initial coin offerings.
“Fair value is significantly higher than the current price of Bitcoin,” he wrote. “In fact, working backwards, to solve for the current price of Bitcoin, this implies crypto wallets should fall to 17 million from 50 million currently.”
User adoption and Bitcoin’s acceptance as an asset class are the key factors that will drive it higher beyond 2018. If Bitcoin wallets approach just 7 percent of Visa’s 4.5 billion account holders, fair value would be $150,000 per Bitcoin according to his model, he said.
“We are tired of people asking us about target prices,” he said, declining to update his year-end forecast.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eddie van der Walt in London at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at [email protected], Dave Liedtka, Randall Jensen
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2018 Bloomberg L.P. || AT&T's Streaming Strategy Makes No Sense: AT&T(NYSE: T)is planning to launch anew streaming serviceat the end of 2019 featuring content from HBO and other WarnerMedia properties it acquired when it bought Time Warner. Last month, management revealed plans to offer three tiers of service: HBO licensed films, HBO originals, and Warner Bros. and Turner content.
Despite plans to launch its own streaming service, AT&T agreed to licenseFriendstoNetflix(NASDAQ: NFLX)for $100 million next year with an option to license it on a non-exclusive basis at a discount of about 25% in 2020 and beyond.
AT&T's streaming strategy varies slightly fromDisney's(NYSE: DIS), which will also offer three streaming services. But Disney's strategy seems very clear, while AT&T's is much more confused.
A still from HBO's Westworld. Image source: HBO.
The biggest difference between the two strategies is that AT&T is forcing users to bundle content,as it's wont to do, while Disney is letting consumers pick and choose which services appeal to them most. Disney management said it may offer customers the option to bundle its services together at a discount if they want.
Presumably, AT&T will keep non-HBO WarnerMedia content likeFriendsorWest Wingin the top tier of its streaming service. In other words, subscribers will have to sign up for all of the HBO content on top of everything in order to gain access to reruns of their favorite shows. While the bundle might seem like a great value to some customers who want a little bit of everything, it makes those who just want certain content feel like they're getting ripped off. After all, that's the whole impetus behind cord-cutting.
The push to bundle content on top of HBO may be a move by AT&T to get consumers to subscribe to HBO directly instead of through a cable provider. While AT&T is already the largest pay-TV provider in the country, it only accounts for around one-third of total subscribers. Forcing customers to subscribe to HBO directly in order to gain access to additional on-demand content means it can keep more of the revenue for itself instead of sharing with distributors. On the other hand, it could face antitrust backlash from such a move.
Additionally, theFriendscontract with Netflix indicates AT&T is considering allowing Netflix to keep some of its best content. IfFriendsis already on Netflix, it brings the value of that same content on WarnerMedia's service down to nearly zero. WarnerMedia's (and Disney's) streaming plans arenot a threatto Netflix.
Meanwhile, Disney has pulled back on all of its content licensing activity. Its contract with Netflix expires next year, and most of Disney's film releases will be off the service by the end of the year. Disney CEO Bob Iger notes the company willtake a hitin the short run, but forgoing licensing revenue today increases the chances its direct-to-consumer business will succeed over the long term.
It's worth pointing out HBO Now is already a success. The service has over5 million subscribers, and that's on top of the tens of millions of regular HBO subscribers who have access to the same content through the analog HBO Go service.
AT&T's streaming plans pose some risks to the HBO brand. While management hasn't specifically talked about branding, it wouldn't make sense for AT&T to move away from HBO considering how reliant the service is on its content library. The middle tier of the planned service is practically the same as HBO Now, so it would create a serious amount of confusion if it moved away from the HBO brand.
At the same time, sticking with HBO branding could dilute "HBO" by offering a version that only includes its licensed film library. The limited film library benefits from a direct relationship with Warner Bros. studios, but HBO could soon lose the rights to films from other studios includingTwenty-First Century Fox, which Disney will soon own, andComcast's Universal and DreamWorks studios.
Regular HBO subscribers might not mind too much, as it's HBO's originals that provide the real value for a subscription. But an HBO-branded service offering a small selection of on-demand films could hurt HBO's brand. AT&T will have to tread carefully with how it brands the service.
A better use of AT&T's existing assets would be to add content likeFriendsandWest Wingto HBO Now without any price increase. At $15 per month for HBO Now, the company would only have to sign up an incremental half-million subscribers for a full year to offset the licensing revenue it's receiving from Netflix next year. AT&T's insistence on making things more complicated than that makes no sense.
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Adam Levyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || AT&T's Streaming Strategy Makes No Sense: AT&T (NYSE: T) is planning to launch a new streaming service at the end of 2019 featuring content from HBO and other WarnerMedia properties it acquired when it bought Time Warner. Last month, management revealed plans to offer three tiers of service: HBO licensed films, HBO originals, and Warner Bros. and Turner content. Despite plans to launch its own streaming service, AT&T agreed to license Friends to Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) for $100 million next year with an option to license it on a non-exclusive basis at a discount of about 25% in 2020 and beyond. AT&T's streaming strategy varies slightly from Disney 's (NYSE: DIS) , which will also offer three streaming services. But Disney's strategy seems very clear, while AT&T's is much more confused. A scene of a man and a woman on horseback from HBO's Westworld. A still from HBO's Westworld. Image source: HBO. Big differences between AT&T's and Disney's strategies The biggest difference between the two strategies is that AT&T is forcing users to bundle content, as it's wont to do , while Disney is letting consumers pick and choose which services appeal to them most. Disney management said it may offer customers the option to bundle its services together at a discount if they want. Presumably, AT&T will keep non-HBO WarnerMedia content like Friends or West Wing in the top tier of its streaming service. In other words, subscribers will have to sign up for all of the HBO content on top of everything in order to gain access to reruns of their favorite shows. While the bundle might seem like a great value to some customers who want a little bit of everything, it makes those who just want certain content feel like they're getting ripped off. After all, that's the whole impetus behind cord-cutting. The push to bundle content on top of HBO may be a move by AT&T to get consumers to subscribe to HBO directly instead of through a cable provider. While AT&T is already the largest pay-TV provider in the country, it only accounts for around one-third of total subscribers. Forcing customers to subscribe to HBO directly in order to gain access to additional on-demand content means it can keep more of the revenue for itself instead of sharing with distributors. On the other hand, it could face antitrust backlash from such a move. Story continues Additionally, the Friends contract with Netflix indicates AT&T is considering allowing Netflix to keep some of its best content. If Friends is already on Netflix, it brings the value of that same content on WarnerMedia's service down to nearly zero. WarnerMedia's (and Disney's) streaming plans are not a threat to Netflix. Meanwhile, Disney has pulled back on all of its content licensing activity. Its contract with Netflix expires next year, and most of Disney's film releases will be off the service by the end of the year. Disney CEO Bob Iger notes the company will take a hit in the short run, but forgoing licensing revenue today increases the chances its direct-to-consumer business will succeed over the long term. What about the HBO brand? It's worth pointing out HBO Now is already a success. The service has over 5 million subscribers , and that's on top of the tens of millions of regular HBO subscribers who have access to the same content through the analog HBO Go service. AT&T's streaming plans pose some risks to the HBO brand. While management hasn't specifically talked about branding, it wouldn't make sense for AT&T to move away from HBO considering how reliant the service is on its content library. The middle tier of the planned service is practically the same as HBO Now, so it would create a serious amount of confusion if it moved away from the HBO brand. At the same time, sticking with HBO branding could dilute "HBO" by offering a version that only includes its licensed film library. The limited film library benefits from a direct relationship with Warner Bros. studios, but HBO could soon lose the rights to films from other studios including Twenty-First Century Fox , which Disney will soon own, and Comcast 's Universal and DreamWorks studios. Regular HBO subscribers might not mind too much, as it's HBO's originals that provide the real value for a subscription. But an HBO-branded service offering a small selection of on-demand films could hurt HBO's brand. AT&T will have to tread carefully with how it brands the service. A better use of AT&T's existing assets would be to add content like Friends and West Wing to HBO Now without any price increase. At $15 per month for HBO Now, the company would only have to sign up an incremental half-million subscribers for a full year to offset the licensing revenue it's receiving from Netflix next year. AT&T's insistence on making things more complicated than that makes no sense. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
[Social Media Buzz]
BTC,ETH,XRP
Last: 3244.34, 84.28, 0.29
High: 3335.39, 87.25, 0.30
Low: 3177.00, 82.20, 0.28
%: -0.02% , -0.01% , -0.03%
Total USDT: -51.38, -1.24, -0.01
#BTC #bitcoin #ETH #XRP #ripple #crypto #cryptocurrency #pricepic.twitter.com/ydbWx1NyJY || 最も安くBTC/JPYを買えるのは？(2018-12-15 01:00:04 現在)
Zaif 366510.00
Liquid 366537.14
bitFlyer 366595.00
coincheck 366749.00
bitbank 366863.00
BITPoint 367200.00 || 1. #BTC: $3311.69 (-3.27%)
2. #XRP: $0.30 (-1.8%)
3. #ETH: $86.15 (-3.9...
|
3236.76, 3252.84, 3545.86, 3696.06, 3745.95, 4134.44, 3896.54, 4014.18, 3998.98, 4078.60
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 33581.55, 34292.45, 35350.19, 37337.54, 39406.94, 39995.91, 40008.42, 42235.55, 41626.20, 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50, 44555.80, 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79, 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42, 44883.91, 45201.46, 46063.27, 44963.07, 47092.49, 48176.35, 47783.36, 47267.52, 48278.36, 47260.22, 42843.80, 40693.68, 43574.51, 44895.10, 42839.75, 42716.59, 43208.54, 42235.73, 41034.54, 41564.36, 43790.89, 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98, 53967.85, 54968.22, 54771.58, 57484.79, 56041.06, 57401.10, 57321.52, 61593.95, 60892.18, 61553.62, 62026.08, 64261.99, 65992.84.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-10-20]
Volume: 40788955582, RSI (14-day): 78.50, 50-day EMA: 51608.66, 200-day EMA: 44538.60
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1784.10, Gold RSI: 54.97
Oil Price: 83.87, Oil RSI: 79.27
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. Prices Upsized $127 Million Initial Public Offering: NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. (“Stronghold”) announced today the pricing of an upsized initial public offering of 6,687,305 shares of its Class A common stock at $19.00 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on October 20, 2021 under the ticker symbol “SDIG.” In addition, Stronghold granted the underwriters a 30-day overallotment option to purchase up to an additional 1,003,095 shares of Stronghold’s Class A common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on October 22, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Stronghold expects to receive approximately $114.8 million of net proceeds from the offering, or $132.5 million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full. Stronghold intends to contribute the net proceeds of this offering to Stronghold Digital Mining Holdings LLC (“Stronghold LLC”) in exchange for Class A common units of Stronghold LLC. Stronghold LLC will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including for acquisitions of miners and power generating assets. B. Riley Securities and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. is serving as lead manager, and D.A. Davidson & Co., Compass Point and Northland Capital Markets are acting as co-managers for the proposed offering. The offering of these securities will be made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the prospectus, when available, may be obtained from B. Riley Securities, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, 1300 North 17th Street, Suite 1300, Arlington, Virginia 22209, Phone: +1-703-312-9580, Email: [email protected] or from Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Phone: +1-833-297-2926, Email: [email protected] . A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and an additional registration statement relating to the offering was filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, which automatically became effective upon filing. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Story continues About Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. Stronghold is a vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company with an emphasis on environmentally beneficial operations. Stronghold houses its miners at its wholly owned and operated Scrubgrass Plant, a low-cost, environmentally beneficial coal refuse power generation facility in Pennsylvania. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the closing of the initial public offering and Stronghold’s use of proceeds from the offering, represent Stronghold’s expectations or beliefs concerning future events, and it is possible that the results described in this press release will not be achieved. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Stronghold’s control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Stronghold does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Stronghold to predict all such factors. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in the prospectus filed with the SEC in connection with Stronghold’s initial public offering. The risk factors and other factors noted in Stronghold’s prospectus could cause its actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Investor Contact: Matt Glover or Jeff Grampp, CFA Gateway Group, Inc. [email protected] 1-949-574-3860 Media Contact: [email protected] View comments || Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. Prices Upsized $127 Million Initial Public Offering: NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. (“Stronghold”) announced today the pricing of an upsized initial public offering of 6,687,305 shares of its Class A common stock at $19.00 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on October 20, 2021 under the ticker symbol “SDIG.” In addition, Stronghold granted the underwriters a 30-day overallotment option to purchase up to an additional 1,003,095 shares of Stronghold’s Class A common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on October 22, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Stronghold expects to receive approximately $114.8 million of net proceeds from the offering, or $132.5 million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full. Stronghold intends to contribute the net proceeds of this offering to Stronghold Digital Mining Holdings LLC (“Stronghold LLC”) in exchange for Class A common units of Stronghold LLC. Stronghold LLC will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including for acquisitions of miners and power generating assets. B. Riley Securities and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. is serving as lead manager, and D.A. Davidson & Co., Compass Point and Northland Capital Markets are acting as co-managers for the proposed offering. The offering of these securities will be made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the prospectus, when available, may be obtained from B. Riley Securities, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, 1300 North 17th Street, Suite 1300, Arlington, Virginia 22209, Phone: +1-703-312-9580, Email: [email protected] or from Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Phone: +1-833-297-2926, Email: [email protected] . A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and an additional registration statement relating to the offering was filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, which automatically became effective upon filing. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Story continues About Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. Stronghold is a vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company with an emphasis on environmentally beneficial operations. Stronghold houses its miners at its wholly owned and operated Scrubgrass Plant, a low-cost, environmentally beneficial coal refuse power generation facility in Pennsylvania. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the closing of the initial public offering and Stronghold’s use of proceeds from the offering, represent Stronghold’s expectations or beliefs concerning future events, and it is possible that the results described in this press release will not be achieved. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Stronghold’s control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Stronghold does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Stronghold to predict all such factors. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in the prospectus filed with the SEC in connection with Stronghold’s initial public offering. The risk factors and other factors noted in Stronghold’s prospectus could cause its actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Investor Contact: Matt Glover or Jeff Grampp, CFA Gateway Group, Inc. [email protected] 1-949-574-3860 Media Contact: [email protected] View comments || Asian Stocks Mixed, Earnings Help Ease Inflationary Pressure Concerns: By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed on Wednesday morning, with their U.S. equivalents finishing the previous session on an upward note. The latest corporate earnings also helped ease some of the concerns over global inflationary pressures.
China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.39% by 10:21 PM ET (2:21 AM GMT) and the Shenzhen Component inched down 0.03%. China released data, including theloan prime rate, earlier in the day.
Investors’ focus also remains on China’s regulatory tightening and China Evergrande Group's (HK:3333) debt woes, as well as the coal market as authorities study ways to curb rising prices and prevent shortages.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.51%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.61% and South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.23%.
In Australia, the ASX 200 rose 0.79%.
A deal could also be reached on U.S. President Joe Biden’s economic agenda within the week, which also boosted sentiment. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed above 1.65%, and Australia’s 10-year yield jumped as much as 13 basis points.
Investors also continue to digest the latest company earnings to gauge the impact of supply-chain bottlenecks and higher commodity prices. Johnson&Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) raised a profit forecast and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) subscribers jumped, while Procter&Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG) faced rising raw material and freight costs. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), and Tesla Inc (DE:TSLA) will all release earnings throughout the week.
Meanwhile, Fed GovernorChristopher Wallersaid that although the U.S. central bank will likely begin asset tapering in November 2021, interest rate hikes are probably “still some time off” as he expects inflation to moderate.
“I don’t think the Fed is going to act or hike very aggressively in part because they have this inflation view, but also because we are going to be in a slowing growth environment by the end of 2022,” FlowBank SA chief investment officer Esty Dwek told Bloomberg.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will also participate in a policy panel discussion on Friday.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is close to scaling the peak hit in April 2021, with the first Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund listed in the U.S. debuting as the second-most heavily traded fund on record.
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Asian shares advance on earnings optimism, yen slips to 4-yr low || Asian Stocks Mixed, Earnings Help Ease Inflationary Pressure Concerns: By Gina Lee Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed on Wednesday morning, with their U.S. equivalents finishing the previous session on an upward note. The latest corporate earnings also helped ease some of the concerns over global inflationary pressures. China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.39% by 10:21 PM ET (2:21 AM GMT) and the Shenzhen Component inched down 0.03%. China released data, including the loan prime rate , earlier in the day. Investors’ focus also remains on China’s regulatory tightening and China Evergrande Group's (HK:3333) debt woes, as well as the coal market as authorities study ways to curb rising prices and prevent shortages. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.51%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.61% and South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.23%. In Australia, the ASX 200 rose 0.79%. A deal could also be reached on U.S. President Joe Biden’s economic agenda within the week, which also boosted sentiment. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed above 1.65%, and Australia’s 10-year yield jumped as much as 13 basis points. Investors also continue to digest the latest company earnings to gauge the impact of supply-chain bottlenecks and higher commodity prices. Johnson&Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) raised a profit forecast and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) subscribers jumped, while Procter&Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG) faced rising raw material and freight costs. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), and Tesla Inc (DE:TSLA) will all release earnings throughout the week. Meanwhile, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that although the U.S. central bank will likely begin asset tapering in November 2021, interest rate hikes are probably “still some time off” as he expects inflation to moderate. “I don’t think the Fed is going to act or hike very aggressively in part because they have this inflation view, but also because we are going to be in a slowing growth environment by the end of 2022,” FlowBank SA chief investment officer Esty Dwek told Bloomberg. Story continues Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will also participate in a policy panel discussion on Friday. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is close to scaling the peak hit in April 2021, with the first Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund listed in the U.S. debuting as the second-most heavily traded fund on record. Related Articles Asian Stocks Mixed, Earnings Help Ease Inflationary Pressure Concerns Micron to build $7 billion plant in Japan's Hiroshima - report Asian shares advance on earnings optimism, yen slips to 4-yr low || U.S. crypto companies are at the crossroads of regulation: Cryptocurrencies are at a regulatory crossroad as the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government try to decide what path the oversight of programmable money should take.
Congress had somevague languagewithin its languishing infrastructure bill to manage crypto, but that bill is not certain to pass both houses. Meanwhile, the White House is considering an expansiveexecutive orderthat seeks to divvy up oversight of encrypted digital assets across various agencies of the executive wing. That order would also appoint a single regulatory ringmaster to lead the crypto circus.
This week, the first Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) was made available to U.S. investors. The first firm to secure clearance, ProShares, made its initial application to the SEC back in early August and recentlyfiled its amended prospectus–completing the necessary regulatory requirements for listing.
It’s worth noting that this ETF application was made under the Investment Act of 1940 and is linked to current Bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). That’s because Bitcoin has been available for futures trading on the CME since 2017, and Bitcoin options trading on the CME began in 2019. This suggests that the SEC seems to prefer well-worn paths rather than blazing new trails.
It’s a bit ironic that the first Bitcoin ETF approval needed to comply with a piece of legislation that’s more than 80 years old. The irony gets thicker when you consider that a Bitcoin-futures ETF opens the door for financial intermediaries such as online brokers or brokerage dealers to insert themselves–as well as corresponding fees and extended settlement delays–into the transaction process.
The stated purpose of the seminalwhite paperoutlining peer-to-peer payment in 2009–leading to Bitcoin’s creation–was to show a way to eliminate the need for monetary middlemen during financial transactions. Yet, that underlying principle is being paved over to spur mass adoption and the expected inflows of tens of billions in new money from institutional investors into cryptos as additional ETFs come online.
It’s unclear when or if the executive order will be issued, but make no mistake: Regulation is coming to crypto. In an effort to try and plot its own path forward, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange,Coinbase, resorted to preemptive policymaking by drafting its own proposedregulatory frameworkto govern crypto and blockchain.
While reading through the early sections of the regulatory blueprint, you get the sense that Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad sought to strike the right tone–assertive but not antagonistic, collaborative but not complacent. “We understand that high-level proposals don’t become law overnight–nor should they. But what they can do is evolve the debate in ways that are helpful for everyone, including members of Congress who are increasingly focusing on this area,” Shirzad wrote.
The wording got more pointed in his assertion that outdated policies haven’t kept pace with the times or tech, so Coinbase wants a regulatory reboot that starts from scratch. “Laws drafted in the 1930s to facilitate effective oversight of our financial system could not contemplate this technological revolution,” Shirzad wrote. “They do not accommodate the efficiency, seamlessness, and transparency of digital asset markets, and thus risk serving as an unintended barrier to current innovations in the digital asset economy.”
Coinbase clearly wants a seat at the regulatory discussion table, and it goes so far as to propose four “pillars” for regulating the crypto market. Most importantly, it wants digital assets to be regulated under a separate framework. Coinbase sees crypto as an asset class by itself, distinct from securities, bonds, and commodities. However, regulators may beg to differ and are unlikely to build a unique regulatory construct for crypto assets.
The company also wants to see one regulator designated to oversee the market for digital assets, efforts to protect and empower digital asset holders, and rules to promote interoperability and fair competition.
It remains to be seen what role crypto companies such as Coinbase will have in determining the direction of regulation, as well as whether regulators can lower their crosshair sights long enough to listen and collaborate with the industry. If you care about this issue, you should reach out to the offices of your congressional lawmakers.
It would be hyperbolic and premature to start speculating whether this is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for cryptocurrencies. But one thing is certain: Regulation is coming and cryptos’ path forward will never be the same.
Tor Constantino is a former journalist, current corporate executive, and business writer. Since 2017, he has also written about cryptocurrencies, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, and crypto's potential to revolutionize finance. His writing has appeared in outlets including Inc, Entrepreneur, DailyCoin, Success, Forbes, CEOWorld, and Yahoo! Finance. Hehas holdings in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and XRP. His views are his own.
• The immense rewardof banishing ‘no’ from your creative dictionary
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• America is hooked on seafood imports.We need to expand aquaculture in federal waters
• Two girls walk into a job fair (orwhy I raised a VC fund)
• Don’t underestimatethe role of generalists in innovation
This story was originally featured onFortune.com || U.S. crypto companies are at the crossroads of regulation: Cryptocurrencies are at a regulatory crossroad as the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government try to decide what path the oversight of programmable money should take. Congress had some vague language within its languishing infrastructure bill to manage crypto, but that bill is not certain to pass both houses. Meanwhile, the White House is considering an expansive executive order that seeks to divvy up oversight of encrypted digital assets across various agencies of the executive wing. That order would also appoint a single regulatory ringmaster to lead the crypto circus. This week, the first Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) was made available to U.S. investors. The first firm to secure clearance, ProShares, made its initial application to the SEC back in early August and recently filed its amended prospectus completing the necessary regulatory requirements for listing. Its worth noting that this ETF application was made under the Investment Act of 1940 and is linked to current Bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Thats because Bitcoin has been available for futures trading on the CME since 2017, and Bitcoin options trading on the CME began in 2019. This suggests that the SEC seems to prefer well-worn paths rather than blazing new trails. Its a bit ironic that the first Bitcoin ETF approval needed to comply with a piece of legislation thats more than 80 years old. The irony gets thicker when you consider that a Bitcoin-futures ETF opens the door for financial intermediaries such as online brokers or brokerage dealers to insert themselvesas well as corresponding fees and extended settlement delaysinto the transaction process. The stated purpose of the seminal white paper outlining peer-to-peer payment in 2009leading to Bitcoins creationwas to show a way to eliminate the need for monetary middlemen during financial transactions. Yet, that underlying principle is being paved over to spur mass adoption and the expected inflows of tens of billions in new money from institutional investors into cryptos as additional ETFs come online. Story continues Its unclear when or if the executive order will be issued, but make no mistake: Regulation is coming to crypto. In an effort to try and plot its own path forward, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase , resorted to preemptive policymaking by drafting its own proposed regulatory framework to govern crypto and blockchain. While reading through the early sections of the regulatory blueprint, you get the sense that Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad sought to strike the right toneassertive but not antagonistic, collaborative but not complacent. We understand that high-level proposals dont become law overnightnor should they. But what they can do is evolve the debate in ways that are helpful for everyone, including members of Congress who are increasingly focusing on this area, Shirzad wrote. The wording got more pointed in his assertion that outdated policies havent kept pace with the times or tech, so Coinbase wants a regulatory reboot that starts from scratch. Laws drafted in the 1930s to facilitate effective oversight of our financial system could not contemplate this technological revolution, Shirzad wrote. They do not accommodate the efficiency, seamlessness, and transparency of digital asset markets, and thus risk serving as an unintended barrier to current innovations in the digital asset economy. Coinbase clearly wants a seat at the regulatory discussion table, and it goes so far as to propose four pillars for regulating the crypto market. Most importantly, it wants digital assets to be regulated under a separate framework. Coinbase sees crypto as an asset class by itself, distinct from securities, bonds, and commodities. However, regulators may beg to differ and are unlikely to build a unique regulatory construct for crypto assets. The company also wants to see one regulator designated to oversee the market for digital assets, efforts to protect and empower digital asset holders, and rules to promote interoperability and fair competition. It remains to be seen what role crypto companies such as Coinbase will have in determining the direction of regulation, as well as whether regulators can lower their crosshair sights long enough to listen and collaborate with the industry. If you care about this issue, you should reach out to the offices of your congressional lawmakers. It would be hyperbolic and premature to start speculating whether this is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for cryptocurrencies. But one thing is certain: Regulation is coming and cryptos path forward will never be the same. Tor Constantino is a former journalist, current corporate executive, and business writer. Since 2017, he has also written about cryptocurrencies, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, and crypto's potential to revolutionize finance. His writing has appeared in outlets including Inc, Entrepreneur, DailyCoin, Success, Forbes, CEOWorld, and Yahoo! Finance. He has holdings in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and XRP . His views are his own. More must-read commentary published by Fortune : The immense reward of banishing no from your creative dictionary Healthcare sourcing for dummies : How to find the best benefits deals America is hooked on seafood imports. We need to expand aquaculture in federal waters Two girls walk into a job fair (or why I raised a VC fund ) Dont underestimate the role of generalists in innovation This story was originally featured on Fortune.com || Bitcoin returned to its record price of $ 64,000 and continues to rise after debut on the stock market as an ETF: Andre Francois vía Unsplash This Tuesday, Bitcoin made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as an ETF , after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission accepted the first exchange-traded BTC futures fund. This caused the cryptocurrency to reach its historical record price above $ 64,000 again today and it continues to rise! It may interest you: Jack Dorsey's Square will create an open source and clean energy Bitcoin mining system The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF began trading this Tuesday, October 19 under the BITO label. These are Bitcoin futures contracts backed by the CME Group and do not involve the direct purchase of the digital currency, as it is an asset that is not yet regulated. To better understand, an ETF is an Exchange Traded Fund , or a listed investment fund . They are securities that track an asset and can be bought or sold on the stock market. Thus, the bitcoin futures ETF would work like any ETF, but it would be linked to the variations in the price of the cryptocurrency: if the Bitcoin goes up, so will the ETF and if it goes down, too. ProShares rings the bell, launching the first US #bitcoin futures ETF $ BITO on the @NYSE . pic.twitter.com/A8DPLO30gZ - Bitcoin (@Bitcoin) October 19, 2021 This opens the door to invest in Bitcoin without actually buying the cryptocurrency. BITO will open bitcoin to investors who act through a broker or are comfortable buying stocks and ETFs, but do not want to have a relationship with a cryptocurrency provider and create a bitcoin wallet or are concerned that these providers are unregulated and subject to to security risks, said Michael L. Sapir, CEO of ProShares, in a statement. Story continues Also read: The United States becomes the largest bitcoin mining center surpassing China Bitcoin again surpassed $ 64,000 per token The mere news of the entry of Bitcoin to the New York Stock Exchange caused its price to begin to rise and since then it has been unstoppable. At the end of September, Bitcoin was hovering around $ 40,600 per unit. Then, in early October, it spiked to $ 55,000 thanks to billionaire George Soros , and yesterday, it broke the $ 60,000 barrier. During the trading session today, Tuesday, Bitcoin increased almost 4% more, in just six hours! At 9:30 a.m. (Central Mexico time), it registered a wreck of 61,827, and by 3:00 p.m. it finally returned to its historical maximum price , trading up to $ 64,277 each token , according to data from CoinMarketCap . This would add up to a rise of 58% in the last month and, at the close of this note, the trend continues to rise. Source: CoinMarketCap.com The entry of Bitcoin to the stock market is a historic step for both the cryptocurrency and the ETF industry, as it involves the validation of digital currencies by the US financial authority and the stock exchanges. On Friday, the Nasdaq Tech Index approved the listing of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF, as Grayscale, the largest digital currency manager, plans to turn its flagship product into a spot Bitcoin ETF, CNBC reported. We recommend: They mistakenly give away more than 90 million dollars in cryptocurrencies due to a failure in the Compound system || Bitcoin returned to its record price of $ 64,000 and continues to rise after debut on the stock market as an ETF: This Tuesday,Bitcoinmade its debut on theNew York Stock Exchange (NYSE)as anETF, after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission accepted the first exchange-traded BTC futures fund. This caused the cryptocurrency to reach itshistorical record price above $ 64,000again today and it continues to rise!
• It may interest you:Jack Dorsey's Square will create an open source and clean energy Bitcoin mining system
TheProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETFbegan trading this Tuesday, October 19 under theBITOlabel. These areBitcoin futurescontracts backed by the CME Group and do not involve the direct purchase of the digital currency, as it is an asset that is not yet regulated.
To better understand,an ETF is an Exchange Traded Fund, ora listed investment fund. They are securities that track an asset and can be bought or sold on the stock market. Thus, the bitcoin futures ETF would work like any ETF, but it would be linked to the variations in the price of the cryptocurrency: if theBitcoingoes up, so will the ETF and if it goes down, too.
This opens the door to invest in Bitcoin without actually buying the cryptocurrency.
“BITO will open bitcoin to investors who act through a broker or are comfortable buying stocks and ETFs, but do not want to have a relationship with a cryptocurrency provider and create a bitcoin wallet or are concerned that these providers are unregulated and subject to to security risks, ”said Michael L. Sapir, CEO of ProShares, in a statement.
• Also read:The United States becomes the largest bitcoin mining center surpassing China
The mere news ofthe entry of Bitcoin to the New York Stock Exchangecaused its price to begin to rise and since then it has been unstoppable.
At the end of September, Bitcoin was hovering around $ 40,600 per unit. Then, in early October,it spiked to$ 55,000thanks to billionaireGeorge Soros, and yesterday, it broke the $ 60,000 barrier. During the trading session today, Tuesday,Bitcoin increased almost 4% more, in just six hours!
At 9:30 a.m. (Central Mexico time), it registered a wreck of 61,827, and by 3:00 p.m. it finally returned to itshistorical maximum price, trading up to$ 64,277 each token, according to data fromCoinMarketCap.
This would add up to a rise of 58% in the last month and, at the close of this note, the trend continues to rise.
Source:CoinMarketCap.com
Theentry of Bitcoin to the stock marketis a historic step for both the cryptocurrency and the ETF industry, as it involves the validation of digital currencies by the US financial authority and the stock exchanges.
On Friday, theNasdaqTech Index approved the listing of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF, as Grayscale, the largest digital currency manager, plans to turn its flagship product into a spot Bitcoin ETF, CNBC reported.
• We recommend:They mistakenly give away more than 90 million dollars in cryptocurrencies due to a failure in the Compound system || Bitcoin returned to its record price of $ 64,000 and continues to rise after debut on the stock market as an ETF: This Tuesday,Bitcoinmade its debut on theNew York Stock Exchange (NYSE)as anETF, after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission accepted the first exchange-traded BTC futures fund. This caused the cryptocurrency to reach itshistorical record price above $ 64,000again today and it continues to rise!
• It may interest you:Jack Dorsey's Square will create an open source and clean energy Bitcoin mining system
TheProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETFbegan trading this Tuesday, October 19 under theBITOlabel. These areBitcoin futurescontracts backed by the CME Group and do not involve the direct purchase of the digital currency, as it is an asset that is not yet regulated.
To better understand,an ETF is an Exchange Traded Fund, ora listed investment fund. They are securities that track an asset and can be bought or sold on the stock market. Thus, the bitcoin futures ETF would work like any ETF, but it would be linked to the variations in the price of the cryptocurrency: if theBitcoingoes up, so will the ETF and if it goes down, too.
This opens the door to invest in Bitcoin without actually buying the cryptocurrency.
“BITO will open bitcoin to investors who act through a broker or are comfortable buying stocks and ETFs, but do not want to have a relationship with a cryptocurrency provider and create a bitcoin wallet or are concerned that these providers are unregulated and subject to to security risks, ”said Michael L. Sapir, CEO of ProShares, in a statement.
• Also read:The United States becomes the largest bitcoin mining center surpassing China
The mere news ofthe entry of Bitcoin to the New York Stock Exchangecaused its price to begin to rise and since then it has been unstoppable.
At the end of September, Bitcoin was hovering around $ 40,600 per unit. Then, in early October,it spiked to$ 55,000thanks to billionaireGeorge Soros, and yesterday, it broke the $ 60,000 barrier. During the trading session today, Tuesday,Bitcoin increased almost 4% more, in just six hours!
At 9:30 a.m. (Central Mexico time), it registered a wreck of 61,827, and by 3:00 p.m. it finally returned to itshistorical maximum price, trading up to$ 64,277 each token, according to data fromCoinMarketCap.
This would add up to a rise of 58% in the last month and, at the close of this note, the trend continues to rise.
Source:CoinMarketCap.com
Theentry of Bitcoin to the stock marketis a historic step for both the cryptocurrency and the ETF industry, as it involves the validation of digital currencies by the US financial authority and the stock exchanges.
On Friday, theNasdaqTech Index approved the listing of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF, as Grayscale, the largest digital currency manager, plans to turn its flagship product into a spot Bitcoin ETF, CNBC reported.
• We recommend:They mistakenly give away more than 90 million dollars in cryptocurrencies due to a failure in the Compound system || GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks gain as earnings provide some optimism; 10-yr yield climbs: (Updates with U.S. markets closing levels)
* All three major U.S. stock indexes end higher
* Oil, gold futures rise
* Dollar stumbles
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Stock indexes around the world jumped on Tuesday as U.S. technology shares extended recent gains and earnings reports were upbeat, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to its highest in more than four months.
The U.S. dollar was lower on the day as other currencies, including sterling, were supported by investor expectations that interest rates could be increased sooner than some had forecast.
On Wall Street, the technology sector boosted the S&P 500 the most, while recent stronger-than-expected results have bumped up the forecast for S&P 500 earnings for the third quarter.
Investors remain worried, however, about the impact that higher costs, supply disruptions and labor shortages are having on companies.
"The key for the market to going up from here will not be higher multiples, it will have to be higher earnings. That's why it's so important to pay attention to what those profit margins do going forward and what the trajectory of GDP looks like," said Eric Marshall, portfolio manager at Hodges Funds.
Among U.S. companies reporting results on Tuesday, insurer Travelers Cos Inc beat estimates for third-quarter profit and its shares rose. Johnson & Johnson raised its 2021 adjusted profit forecast and its shares jumped 2.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 198.7 points, or 0.56%, to 35,457.31, the S&P 500 gained 33.17 points, or 0.74%, to 4,519.63 and the Nasdaq Composite added 107.28 points, or 0.71%, to 15,129.09.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.33% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe < .MIWD00000PUS> gained 0.73%.
The MSCI index reached its highest in about a month.
The dollar index against a basket of other currencies was last down 0.22% on the day at 93.73, after earlier dropping to 93.50, the lowest since Sept. 28.
The euro gained 0.25% to $1.1640. Currencies, including sterling and the New Zealand dollar, are benefiting from rising interest rate increase expectations.
Bitcoin last rose 3.49% to $64,201.08.
In the U.S. Treasury market, the yield curve widened, reversing the recent trend.
In afternoon U.S. trading, U.S. 10-year yields were last up nearly six basis points at 1.6407%. The yield hit a 4-1/2-month peak of 1.6440%.
The U.S. 5-year yield, which has been on a tear the last two weeks, was last down at 1.1586%.
Oil prices climbed and were near multi-year highs as an energy supply crunch continued across the globe. Brent crude rose 75 cents to settle at $85.08 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 52 cents to settle at $82.96.
In other commodities, U.S. gold futures gained 0.15% to $1,769.70 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes in London, Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain in Bengaluru, Karen Brettell, Stephanie Kelly and Sinead Carew in New York, and Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Jason Neely, John Stonestreet, Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman) || GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks gain as earnings provide some optimism; 10-yr yield climbs: (Updates with U.S. markets closing levels) * All three major U.S. stock indexes end higher * Oil, gold futures rise * Dollar stumbles By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Stock indexes around the world jumped on Tuesday as U.S. technology shares extended recent gains and earnings reports were upbeat, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to its highest in more than four months. The U.S. dollar was lower on the day as other currencies, including sterling, were supported by investor expectations that interest rates could be increased sooner than some had forecast. On Wall Street, the technology sector boosted the S&P 500 the most, while recent stronger-than-expected results have bumped up the forecast for S&P 500 earnings for the third quarter. Investors remain worried, however, about the impact that higher costs, supply disruptions and labor shortages are having on companies. "The key for the market to going up from here will not be higher multiples, it will have to be higher earnings. That's why it's so important to pay attention to what those profit margins do going forward and what the trajectory of GDP looks like," said Eric Marshall, portfolio manager at Hodges Funds. Among U.S. companies reporting results on Tuesday, insurer Travelers Cos Inc beat estimates for third-quarter profit and its shares rose. Johnson & Johnson raised its 2021 adjusted profit forecast and its shares jumped 2.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 198.7 points, or 0.56%, to 35,457.31, the S&P 500 gained 33.17 points, or 0.74%, to 4,519.63 and the Nasdaq Composite added 107.28 points, or 0.71%, to 15,129.09. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.33% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe < .MIWD00000PUS> gained 0.73%. The MSCI index reached its highest in about a month. The dollar index against a basket of other currencies was last down 0.22% on the day at 93.73, after earlier dropping to 93.50, the lowest since Sept. 28. Story continues The euro gained 0.25% to $1.1640. Currencies, including sterling and the New Zealand dollar, are benefiting from rising interest rate increase expectations. Bitcoin last rose 3.49% to $64,201.08. In the U.S. Treasury market, the yield curve widened, reversing the recent trend. In afternoon U.S. trading, U.S. 10-year yields were last up nearly six basis points at 1.6407%. The yield hit a 4-1/2-month peak of 1.6440%. The U.S. 5-year yield, which has been on a tear the last two weeks, was last down at 1.1586%. Oil prices climbed and were near multi-year highs as an energy supply crunch continued across the globe. Brent crude rose 75 cents to settle at $85.08 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 52 cents to settle at $82.96. In other commodities, U.S. gold futures gained 0.15% to $1,769.70 an ounce. (Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes in London, Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain in Bengaluru, Karen Brettell, Stephanie Kelly and Sinead Carew in New York, and Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Jason Neely, John Stonestreet, Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman) || ProShares' bitcoin futures ETF sees the 2nd-heaviest debut volume on record with 24 million shares traded: • The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw big demand when it began trading on Tuesday.
• More than 24 million shares of the fund - ticker BITO - changed hands.
• That made it the second-biggest ETF debut on record.
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
The launch ofthe ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETFis officially a hit with investors.
The ETF, which gains exposure tobitcoinvia futures contracts rather than owning it outright, saw more than 24 million shares trade hands in its trading debut on Tuesday,according to Bloomberg data. That gives it the distinction of the second-most-traded fund launch of all time, generating more than $1 billion of turnover, Bloomberg found.
The launch easily beat the popularInvesco QQQ Trust ETFlaunch in March of 1999, when $265 million was traded on its first day. The best ETF launch of all time is the BlackRock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF, which launched in April of this year and saw a one-day turnover of more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
"It [ProShares Bitcoin ETF] has legit shot at $1 billion and top spot," senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunastweeted on Tuesday.
And first-year inflows into the fund could exceed $50 billion, according to a Monday note from Fundstrat's Tom Lee. Such strong demand for the ETFcould help drive bitcoin to $168,000, he said.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF trades under the ticker symbol "BITO" and has an annual expense ratio of 0.95%. The ETFtraded up as much as 5% in Tuesday trades, while bitcoin was up about 1%.
Read the original article onBusiness Insider || ProShares' bitcoin futures ETF sees the 2nd-heaviest debut volume on record with 24 million shares traded: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw big demand when it began trading on Tuesday. More than 24 million shares of the fund - ticker BITO - changed hands. That made it the second-biggest ETF debut on record. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell . The launch of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF is officially a hit with investors. The ETF, which gains exposure to bitcoin via futures contracts rather than owning it outright, saw more than 24 million shares trade hands in its trading debut on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg data . That gives it the distinction of the second-most-traded fund launch of all time, generating more than $1 billion of turnover, Bloomberg found. The launch easily beat the popular Invesco QQQ Trust ETF launch in March of 1999, when $265 million was traded on its first day. The best ETF launch of all time is the BlackRock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF, which launched in April of this year and saw a one-day turnover of more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. "It [ProShares Bitcoin ETF] has legit shot at $1 billion and top spot," senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted on Tuesday. And first-year inflows into the fund could exceed $50 billion, according to a Monday note from Fundstrat's Tom Lee. Such strong demand for the ETF could help drive bitcoin to $168,000, he said. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF trades under the ticker symbol "BITO" and has an annual expense ratio of 0.95%. The ETF traded up as much as 5% in Tuesday trades , while bitcoin was up about 1%. Read the original article on Business Insider || Cypherpunk Holdings Announces Corporate Update: New Corporate Branding and Website, and Update of Cryptocurrency Holdings and Investments
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 19, 2021) -Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. (CSE: HODL) (OTC Pink: KHRIF)("Cypherpunk" or, the "Company"), a sector leader for cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography focused investments, is pleased to provide corporate update.
New Corporate Branding & Website
Cypherpunk is pleased to announce that it has launched a new corporate website. The updated website was created as a part of a rebranding of the Company's corporate image and introduces Cypherpunk's new corporate logo. This logo symbolizes the Company's core belief in the distributed nature of cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography technologies and is inspired by a geometrical design. The updated website also includes a statement of the Company values and its mission statement of "Becoming a sector leader for cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography focused investments." To view the updated website with the new branding please use the following link:www.cypherpunkholdings.com.
Tony Guoga, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cypherpunk commented: "I am thrilled to announce the launch of our new website and introduce to investors Cypherpunk's new brand image. Cypherpunk has a core mission and our new website is intended to better position the Company to achieve its corporate goals and drive shareholder value."
Update of Investment Portfolio
Cryptocurrency Holdings
Cypherpunk currently holds an aggregate of 401 bitcoins (BTC) and 357 Ether (ETH).
Equity Holdings
Animoca Brands (Equity Investment)Animoca Brands is a company operating in the digital entertainment, blockchain and gamification sectors. It develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products using popular intellectual properties. The Company holds 2 million ordinary shares of Animoca Brands. Animoca is currently trading via Primary Markets on a matched basis viahttps://www.primarymarkets.com/trading-company/animoca-brands/.
Chia Network Inc. (Equity Investment)Chia Network is a developer of a blockchain and smart transaction platform, created by the inventor of BitTorrent, Bram Cohen.
zkSNACKS Limited (Equity Investment)The products of zkSnacks include Wasabi Wallet, which is an open source, non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet for desktop use.
NGRAVE (Convertible Debt)NGRAVE is a digital asset and blockchain security provider located in Antwerpen, Belgium. Its flagship product "ZERO" - also known as "The Coldest Wallet" - is a fully offline hardware wallet that features the world's highest security certification, EAL7, for its secure operating system.
Katana Cryptographic Ltd (Equity Investment)Katana Cryptographic has developed an advanced and secure mobile bitcoin wallet known as "Samourai". The goal of the Samourai wallet is to empower people with the cryptographic tools readily available today in order to enable individual financial independence and self-sovereignty.
Other Investments
IPv4 AddressesThe Company also holds a total inventory of 24,576 IPv4 addresses, which it leases to its customers.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information, and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to the Company's expectation or belief regarding its corporate mission, goals and investments. There is no assurance that the Company's plans or objectives will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward- looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by law. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
Officer/Director Contact:Daniel CawreyChief Operating [email protected]: 1-647-946-1300Investor Relations Contact:Veronika OswaldInvestor [email protected]: 1-647-946-1300
To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/100227 || Cypherpunk Holdings Announces Corporate Update: New Corporate Branding and Website, and Update of Cryptocurrency Holdings and Investments Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 19, 2021) - Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. (CSE: HODL) (OTC Pink: KHRIF) (" Cypherpunk " or, the " Company "), a sector leader for cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography focused investments, is pleased to provide corporate update. New Corporate Branding & Website Cypherpunk is pleased to announce that it has launched a new corporate website. The updated website was created as a part of a rebranding of the Company's corporate image and introduces Cypherpunk's new corporate logo. This logo symbolizes the Company's core belief in the distributed nature of cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography technologies and is inspired by a geometrical design. The updated website also includes a statement of the Company values and its mission statement of " Becoming a sector leader for cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography focused investments ." To view the updated website with the new branding please use the following link: www.cypherpunkholdings.com . Tony Guoga, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cypherpunk commented: "I am thrilled to announce the launch of our new website and introduce to investors Cypherpunk's new brand image. Cypherpunk has a core mission and our new website is intended to better position the Company to achieve its corporate goals and drive shareholder value." Update of Investment Portfolio Cryptocurrency Holdings Cypherpunk currently holds an aggregate of 401 bitcoins (BTC) and 357 Ether (ETH). Equity Holdings Animoca Brands (Equity Investment) Animoca Brands is a company operating in the digital entertainment, blockchain and gamification sectors. It develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products using popular intellectual properties. The Company holds 2 million ordinary shares of Animoca Brands. Animoca is currently trading via Primary Markets on a matched basis via https://www.primarymarkets.com/trading-company/animoca-brands/ . Story continues Chia Network Inc. (Equity Investment) Chia Network is a developer of a blockchain and smart transaction platform, created by the inventor of BitTorrent, Bram Cohen. zkSNACKS Limited (Equity Investment) The products of zkSnacks include Wasabi Wallet, which is an open source, non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet for desktop use. NGRAVE (Convertible Debt) NGRAVE is a digital asset and blockchain security provider located in Antwerpen, Belgium. Its flagship product "ZERO" - also known as "The Coldest Wallet" - is a fully offline hardware wallet that features the world's highest security certification, EAL7, for its secure operating system. Katana Cryptographic Ltd (Equity Investment) Katana Cryptographic has developed an advanced and secure mobile bitcoin wallet known as "Samourai". The goal of the Samourai wallet is to empower people with the cryptographic tools readily available today in order to enable individual financial independence and self-sovereignty. Other Investments IPv4 Addresses The Company also holds a total inventory of 24,576 IPv4 addresses, which it leases to its customers. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information, and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to the Company's expectation or belief regarding its corporate mission, goals and investments. There is no assurance that the Company's plans or objectives will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward- looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by law. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. Officer/Director Contact: Daniel Cawrey Chief Operating Officer [email protected] Office: 1-647-946-1300 Investor Relations Contact: Veronika Oswald Investor Relations [email protected] Office: 1-647-946-1300 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/100227 || Market Wrap: ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF Rises in Trading Debut, Sending BTC Higher: Bitcoin rose to a six-month high at around $63,000 as the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE: BITO), the first bitcoin-related exchange-traded fund to trade in the U.S., made its debut on Tuesday. BITO ended the trading day up 4.65% at near $41.80 per share. As of 4:02 p.m. ET, shortly after the close of U.S. stock markets on Monday, the ETF’s trading volume had reached 23.9 million shares, worth more than $1 billion based on the closing price, ranking the investment vehicle as one of the top ETF launches in history. Dave Nadig, director of research at ETF Trends, tweeted that trading in BITO appeared “orderly” and “stable” in the early moments after the ETF went live. BITO is structured to invest in bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, rather than investing in the cryptocurrency directly, which is one reason why some analysts don’t expect the fund to have a significant impact on BTC’s spot price. “We do not expect the introduction of futures ETFs to drive a price impact as significant as we would see from a pure spot Bitcoin ETF vehicle,” Christopher Brendler , managing director at asset management firm D.A. Davidson, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Brendler also mentioned that contango can cause losses for some investors in commodity ETFs that use futures contracts. Contango occurs when the futures price of a commodity is higher than the spot price. “But these losses can be avoided by buying ETFs that hold actual commodities,” Brendler wrote. Latest Prices Bitcoin (BTC): $64,016, +4.42% Ether (ETH): $3,810, +1.98% S&P 500: $4,519, +0.74% Gold: $1,769, +0.33% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.63% Bullish price action In the spot market, BTC was well bid, rising about 3% over the past 24 hours. Buyers remained active after quickly absorbing a large sell order on crypto exchange OKEx during Asian daytime trading hours on Tuesday, CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesma reported . And price action suggests bitcoin may be approaching another bullish rally. Story continues BTC recorded its highest weekly close on record last week, topping the $61,500 weekly close on April 6, according to crypto research firm Delphi Digital. “Last week was one of the most decisive uptrends since Jan. 2021,” the firm wrote in a blog post . Bitcoin options activity rises Trading volume in the BTC options market accelerated over the past week, rising to $1.5 billion as investors anticipated the bitcoin futures ETF launch on Tuesday. “Options trade volume has only reached levels this high on three prior occasions, all at similar price points [around $60,000 BTC] between March and May this year,” crypto data firm Glassnode wrote in a blog post . A majority of positions appear to be call options, which gives the option buyer the right to purchase the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined price. The chart below shows large open interest in call options with strike prices above $100,000 BTC expiring at the end of the year. That aligns with the overall bullish market sentiment, according to Glassnode. Altcoin roundup DraftKings to become Polygon validator: Sports betting giant DraftKings plans to work with the Polygon network to support the releases of custom non-fungible tokens and secondary-market transactions in its latest move to tap into the crypto industry, CoinDesk’s Eli Tan reported . The partnership will also allow DraftKings to contribute to Polygon’s governance, which gives token holders the option to suggest changes to the network after staking their tokens on the platform. Polygon expects DrafKing’s governance will start “in the next month,” a representative told CoinDesk. Facebook’s Novi wallet goes live with Paxos stablecoin: Novi, Facebook’s digital wallet subsidiary, will go live and allow users to trade the paxos dollar (USDP) in a pilot program in the U.S. and Guatemala. Crypto exchange Coinbase will provide custody services for the program, CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De reported . Facebook’s diem (formerly libra) stablecoin is expected to launch with Novi “once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” according to a Facebook press release. Sequoia Games Brings Augmented Reality to Board Games Using Algorand Blockchain: Algorand will be the digital ledger for Sequoia Games’ new Flex NBA product, an National Basketball Association-licensed board game that uses augmented reality, Eli Tan reported . Users create rosters using physical collectible tiles called “Flexagons,” which represent NBA players and are expressed as NFTs. It is the latest example of a company using blockchain technology in games. Relevant News Demand Spike on Binance Played Key Role in Bitcoin Rally: Kaiko Grayscale Files With SEC to Convert Its Bitcoin Trust Into an ETF How Riot Plans to Add Hashrate Without Adding Miners Chainalysis Adds Bitcoin to Balance Sheet Other markets Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): Aave (AAVE), +1.57% Bitcoin Cash (BCH), +1.16% Filecoin (FIL), +0.43% Notable losers: Dogecoin (DOGE), -3.33% Algorand (ALG), -3.05% Polygon (MATIC), -2.96% || Market Wrap: ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF Rises in Trading Debut, Sending BTC Higher: Bitcoin rose to a six-month high at around $63,000 as the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE: BITO), the first bitcoin-related exchange-traded fund to trade in the U.S., made itsdebuton Tuesday.
BITO ended the trading day up 4.65% at near $41.80 per share. As of 4:02 p.m. ET, shortly after the close of U.S. stock markets on Monday, the ETF’s trading volume had reached 23.9 million shares, worth more than $1 billion based on the closing price, ranking the investment vehicle as one of thetop ETF launchesin history.
Dave Nadig, director of research at ETF Trends,tweetedthat trading in BITO appeared “orderly” and “stable” in the early moments after the ETF went live.
BITO is structured to invest in bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, rather than investing in the cryptocurrency directly, which is one reason why some analysts don’t expect the fund to have a significant impact on BTC’s spot price.
“We do not expect the introduction of futures ETFs to drive a price impact as significant as we would see from a pure spot Bitcoin ETF vehicle,”Christopher Brendler, managing director at asset management firm D.A. Davidson, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
Brendler also mentioned thatcontangocan cause losses for some investors in commodity ETFs that use futures contracts. Contango occurs when the futures price of a commodity is higher than the spot price. “But these losses can be avoided by buying ETFs that hold actual commodities,” Brendler wrote.
• Bitcoin (BTC): $64,016, +4.42%
• Ether (ETH): $3,810, +1.98%
• S&P 500: $4,519, +0.74%
• Gold: $1,769, +0.33%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.63%
In the spot market, BTC was well bid, rising about 3% over the past 24 hours. Buyers remained active after quickly absorbing a large sell order on crypto exchange OKEx during Asian daytime trading hours on Tuesday, CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesmareported.
And price action suggests bitcoin may be approaching another bullish rally.
BTC recorded its highest weekly close on record last week, topping the $61,500 weekly close on April 6, according to crypto research firm Delphi Digital. “Last week was one of the most decisive uptrends since Jan. 2021,” the firm wrote in ablog post.
Trading volume in the BTC options market accelerated over the past week, rising to $1.5 billion as investors anticipated the bitcoin futures ETF launch on Tuesday.
“Options trade volume has only reached levels this high on three prior occasions, all at similar price points [around $60,000 BTC] between March and May this year,” crypto data firm Glassnode wrote in ablog post.
A majority of positions appear to be call options, which gives the option buyer the right to purchase the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined price.
The chart below shows large open interest in call options with strike prices above $100,000 BTC expiring at the end of the year. That aligns with the overall bullish market sentiment, according to Glassnode.
• DraftKings to become Polygon validator:Sports betting giant DraftKings plans to work with the Polygon network to support the releases of custom non-fungible tokens and secondary-market transactions in its latest move to tap into the crypto industry,CoinDesk’s Eli Tan reported. The partnership will also allow DraftKings to contribute to Polygon’s governance, which gives token holders the option to suggest changes to the network after staking their tokens on the platform. Polygon expects DrafKing’s governance will start “in the next month,” a representative told CoinDesk.
• Facebook’s Novi wallet goes live with Paxos stablecoin:Novi, Facebook’s digital wallet subsidiary, will go live and allow users to trade the paxos dollar (USDP) in a pilot program in the U.S. and Guatemala. Crypto exchange Coinbase will provide custody services for the program,CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De reported. Facebook’s diem (formerly libra) stablecoin is expected to launch with Novi “once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” according to a Facebook press release.
• Sequoia Games Brings Augmented Reality to Board Games Using Algorand Blockchain:Algorand will be the digital ledger for Sequoia Games’ new Flex NBA product, an National Basketball Association-licensed board game that uses augmented reality,Eli Tan reported. Users create rosters using physical collectible tiles called “Flexagons,” which represent NBA players and are expressed as NFTs. It is the latest example of a company using blockchain technology in games.
• Demand Spike on Binance Played Key Role in Bitcoin Rally: Kaiko
• Grayscale Files With SEC to Convert Its Bitcoin Trust Into an ETF
• How Riot Plans to Add Hashrate Without Adding Miners
• Chainalysis Adds Bitcoin to Balance Sheet
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• Aave (AAVE), +1.57%
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH), +1.16%
• Filecoin (FIL), +0.43%
Notable losers:
• Dogecoin (DOGE), -3.33%
• Algorand (ALG), -3.05%
• Polygon (MATIC), -2.96% || Market Wrap: ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF Rises in Trading Debut, Sending BTC Higher: Bitcoin rose to a six-month high at around $63,000 as the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE: BITO), the first bitcoin-related exchange-traded fund to trade in the U.S., made itsdebuton Tuesday.
BITO ended the trading day up 4.65% at near $41.80 per share. As of 4:02 p.m. ET, shortly after the close of U.S. stock markets on Monday, the ETF’s trading volume had reached 23.9 million shares, worth more than $1 billion based on the closing price, ranking the investment vehicle as one of thetop ETF launchesin history.
Dave Nadig, director of research at ETF Trends,tweetedthat trading in BITO appeared “orderly” and “stable” in the early moments after the ETF went live.
BITO is structured to invest in bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, rather than investing in the cryptocurrency directly, which is one reason why some analysts don’t expect the fund to have a significant impact on BTC’s spot price.
“We do not expect the introduction of futures ETFs to drive a price impact as significant as we would see from a pure spot Bitcoin ETF vehicle,”Christopher Brendler, managing director at asset management firm D.A. Davidson, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
Brendler also mentioned thatcontangocan cause losses for some investors in commodity ETFs that use futures contracts. Contango occurs when the futures price of a commodity is higher than the spot price. “But these losses can be avoided by buying ETFs that hold actual commodities,” Brendler wrote.
• Bitcoin (BTC): $64,016, +4.42%
• Ether (ETH): $3,810, +1.98%
• S&P 500: $4,519, +0.74%
• Gold: $1,769, +0.33%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.63%
In the spot market, BTC was well bid, rising about 3% over the past 24 hours. Buyers remained active after quickly absorbing a large sell order on crypto exchange OKEx during Asian daytime trading hours on Tuesday, CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesmareported.
And price action suggests bitcoin may be approaching another bullish rally.
BTC recorded its highest weekly close on record last week, topping the $61,500 weekly close on April 6, according to crypto research firm Delphi Digital. “Last week was one of the most decisive uptrends since Jan. 2021,” the firm wrote in ablog post.
Trading volume in the BTC options market accelerated over the past week, rising to $1.5 billion as investors anticipated the bitcoin futures ETF launch on Tuesday.
“Options trade volume has only reached levels this high on three prior occasions, all at similar price points [around $60,000 BTC] between March and May this year,” crypto data firm Glassnode wrote in ablog post.
A majority of positions appear to be call options, which gives the option buyer the right to purchase the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined price.
The chart below shows large open interest in call options with strike prices above $100,000 BTC expiring at the end of the year. That aligns with the overall bullish market sentiment, according to Glassnode.
• DraftKings to become Polygon validator:Sports betting giant DraftKings plans to work with the Polygon network to support the releases of custom non-fungible tokens and secondary-market transactions in its latest move to tap into the crypto industry,CoinDesk’s Eli Tan reported. The partnership will also allow DraftKings to contribute to Polygon’s governance, which gives token holders the option to suggest changes to the network after staking their tokens on the platform. Polygon expects DrafKing’s governance will start “in the next month,” a representative told CoinDesk.
• Facebook’s Novi wallet goes live with Paxos stablecoin:Novi, Facebook’s digital wallet subsidiary, will go live and allow users to trade the paxos dollar (USDP) in a pilot program in the U.S. and Guatemala. Crypto exchange Coinbase will provide custody services for the program,CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De reported. Facebook’s diem (formerly libra) stablecoin is expected to launch with Novi “once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” according to a Facebook press release.
• Sequoia Games Brings Augmented Reality to Board Games Using Algorand Blockchain:Algorand will be the digital ledger for Sequoia Games’ new Flex NBA product, an National Basketball Association-licensed board game that uses augmented reality,Eli Tan reported. Users create rosters using physical collectible tiles called “Flexagons,” which represent NBA players and are expressed as NFTs. It is the latest example of a company using blockchain technology in games.
• Demand Spike on Binance Played Key Role in Bitcoin Rally: Kaiko
• Grayscale Files With SEC to Convert Its Bitcoin Trust Into an ETF
• How Riot Plans to Add Hashrate Without Adding Miners
• Chainalysis Adds Bitcoin to Balance Sheet
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• Aave (AAVE), +1.57%
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH), +1.16%
• Filecoin (FIL), +0.43%
Notable losers:
• Dogecoin (DOGE), -3.33%
• Algorand (ALG), -3.05%
• Polygon (MATIC), -2.96% || Stock market news live updates: Strong earnings push stocks higher, S&P 500 ends with 5th straight day of gains: Stocks advanced on Tuesday as investors digested a slew of new earnings results that topped Wall Street's expectations, suggesting more companies were able to work through ongoing supply chain challenges and still generate solid profits.
The Dow gained nearly 200 points, or 0.6%, by the end of the trading day. Component stocks including The Travelers Companies (TRV) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) rose after posting stronger-than-expected earnings results, helping fuel the jump in the 30-stock index. The S&P 500 rose for a fifth straight session, marking its longest winning streak since August.
Consumer giant Procter & Gamble (PG) was also among the major companies to post estimates-topping quarterly results Tuesday morning, though the stock fell as the company also flagged the impact of rising materials and shipping prices. P&G said it expected to see $2.3 billion in after-tax expenses during the current fiscal year due to rising commodity and freight costs.
Companies including Netflix (NFLX) and United Airlines (UAL) are set to report results after market close.
The latest quarterly results, guidance and executive commentary from the broad array of companies still left to report are set to help illustrate the extent of how labor shortages, increasing input costs and lingering pandemic-related concerns have weighed on companies – and whether some firms have managed to more nimbly navigate this confluence of challenges.
"We're dealing with supply chain challenges because of the unique situation that we're in right now, where we've unleashed a lot of demand before businesses were really ready for it. That may persist for some time, drive volatility, raise some concerns," Brian Levitt, Invesco global market strategist of North America, told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday. "But ultimately I think the supply-demand imbalances will moderate, enabling this cycle to move on further."
"What you want to hear from businesses are those that continue to believe that demand is going to be strong, and continue to believe that they have some ability to work through the supply challenges and pass on some of those costs to consumers," he added. "It's not a rising tide that lifts all boats type of environment. It’s an economy that’s likely to slow some in here, and pricing pressures are going to be with us a bit ... Those businesses that can pass on these costs are going to be the winners."
The companies that have so far reported third-quarter earnings results — including the big U.S. banks and an assortment of other names like Domino's Pizza (DPZ) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) — have largely posted better-than-expected profits. Heading into this week, 8% of S&P 500 companies had reported third-quarter results, and 80% of these firms topped consensus estimates,according to FactSet.
And as Savita Subramian, Bank of America's head of U.S. and equity quant strategy, pointed out in a note on Monday, many of these companies had relatively little foreign sales exposure, or less than one-fifth of their overall revenue from international sources. Forthcoming earnings reports from companies with greater reliance international sales may provide an even more comprehensive view of the impact of the global supply chain challenges.
"Supply chain concerns are very, very real," Wells Fargo CEO and President Charles Scharf told Yahoo Finance's Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwerduring a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday."Inventory levels are down, and people are finding ways to compensate for that. So profit levels overall are very, very strong because people are raising prices, so there is inflation how long that goes on for we can debate, but it is very real."
"The supply chain problems aren't going to get solved overnight," he added. "They will get solved, but until then, I certainly worry about the evenness of [whether] small businesses versus large businesses be able to continue on the same trajectory."
—
Here's where the three major indexes closed out the session:
• S&P 500 (^GSPC): +33.17 (+0.74%) to 4,519.63
• Dow (^DJI): +198.7 (+0.56%) to 35,457.31
• Nasdaq (^IXIC): +107.28 (+0.71%) to 15,129.09
—
Bullishness among global fund managers fell to its lowest level in a year as expectations for economic and corporate profit growth deteriorated, according to Bank of America's latest Global Fund Manager Survey for October.
Global growth expectations turned negative for the first time since March 2020, with the net percentage of survey participants expecting a stronger economy in the next 12 months coming in at negative 6%. Meanwhile, 15% of respondents said they anticipated profit growth would slow, representing the worst outlook since May 2020, BofA added.
Fund managers also set aside more cash amid the weakening outlook. Cash allocations reached a one-year high of 4.7%, according to Bank of America.
—
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) made its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday to become the first-ever U.S. exchange-traded fund to offer investing in futures of the cryptocurrency.
As a derivatives-based product, the fund allows investors to bet on Bitcoin futures, or expected changes in the price of the token. While this gives traders exposure to the cryptocurrency's price action, it does not enable them to hold Bitcoin directly.
Bitcoin prices jumpedamid the debut, clearing $63,000 to near its all-time high.
—
Here's where markets were trading just after the opening bell:
• S&P 500 (^GSPC): +15.19 (+0.34%) to 4,501.65
• Dow (^DJI): +98.67 (+0.28%) to 35,357.28
• Nasdaq (^IXIC): +42.93 (+0.29%) to 15,065.35
• Crude (CL=F): -$0.23 (-0.28%) to $82.21 a barrel
• Gold (GC=F): -$0.90 (-0.05%) to $1,767.40 per ounce
• 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +2.8 bps to yield 1.612%
—
New homebuilding sank in September compared to August as labor scarcities and rising prices weighed on construction activity in the housing market.
Starts for new residential construction declined by 1.6% last month, theCommerce Department said in its monthly report Tuesday.This brought starts down to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.555 million, or the lowest in five months. August's housing starts were also downwardly revised, with these rising by just 1.2% versus the 3.9% increase previously reported. Consensus economists expected housing starts to come in unchanged on a month-over-month basis.
Building permits, which serve as an indicator of future construction, sank by 7.7% in September over the prior month, whereas consensus economists were looking for a drop of just 2.4%. August's building permits were also downwardly revised to show an increase of 5.6%, down from the 6.0% gain reported in the previous print.
—
Here's where markets were trading Tuesday morning:
• S&P 500 futures (ES=F): +25.25 points (+0.56%), to 4,502.75
• Dow futures (YM=F): +206 points (+0.59%), to 35,339.00
• Nasdaq futures (NQ=F):+68 points (+0.44%) to 15,358.50
• Crude (CL=F): +$1.06 (+1.29%) to $83.50 a barrel
• Gold (GC=F): +$12.40 (+0.70%) to $1,778.10 per ounce
• 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +0.8 bps to yield 1.592%
—
Here's where markets were trading Monday evening:
• S&P 500 futures (ES=F): -1.25 points (-0.03%), to 4,476.25
• Dow futures (YM=F): -12 points (-0.03%), to 35,121.00
• Nasdaq futures (NQ=F):-0.25 points (-0.00%) to 15,290.25
—
Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.Follow her on Twitter || Stock market news live updates: Strong earnings push stocks higher, S&P 500 ends with 5th straight day of gains: Stocks advanced on Tuesday as investors digested a slew of new earnings results that topped Wall Street's expectations, suggesting more companies were able to work through ongoing supply chain challenges and still generate solid profits. The Dow gained nearly 200 points, or 0.6%, by the end of the trading day. Component stocks including The Travelers Companies ( TRV ) and Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) rose after posting stronger-than-expected earnings results, helping fuel the jump in the 30-stock index. The S&P 500 rose for a fifth straight session, marking its longest winning streak since August. Consumer giant Procter & Gamble ( PG ) was also among the major companies to post estimates-topping quarterly results Tuesday morning, though the stock fell as the company also flagged the impact of rising materials and shipping prices. P&G said it expected to see $2.3 billion in after-tax expenses during the current fiscal year due to rising commodity and freight costs. Companies including Netflix ( NFLX ) and United Airlines ( UAL ) are set to report results after market close. The latest quarterly results, guidance and executive commentary from the broad array of companies still left to report are set to help illustrate the extent of how labor shortages, increasing input costs and lingering pandemic-related concerns have weighed on companies – and whether some firms have managed to more nimbly navigate this confluence of challenges. "We're dealing with supply chain challenges because of the unique situation that we're in right now, where we've unleashed a lot of demand before businesses were really ready for it. That may persist for some time, drive volatility, raise some concerns," Brian Levitt, Invesco global market strategist of North America, told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday. "But ultimately I think the supply-demand imbalances will moderate, enabling this cycle to move on further." "What you want to hear from businesses are those that continue to believe that demand is going to be strong, and continue to believe that they have some ability to work through the supply challenges and pass on some of those costs to consumers," he added. "It's not a rising tide that lifts all boats type of environment. It’s an economy that’s likely to slow some in here, and pricing pressures are going to be with us a bit ... Those businesses that can pass on these costs are going to be the winners." Story continues The companies that have so far reported third-quarter earnings results — including the big U.S. banks and an assortment of other names like Domino's Pizza ( DPZ ) and Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) — have largely posted better-than-expected profits. Heading into this week, 8% of S&P 500 companies had reported third-quarter results, and 80% of these firms topped consensus estimates, according to FactSet. And as Savita Subramian, Bank of America's head of U.S. and equity quant strategy, pointed out in a note on Monday, many of these companies had relatively little foreign sales exposure, or less than one-fifth of their overall revenue from international sources. Forthcoming earnings reports from companies with greater reliance international sales may provide an even more comprehensive view of the impact of the global supply chain challenges. "Supply chain concerns are very, very real," Wells Fargo CEO and President Charles Scharf told Yahoo Finance's Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer during a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday. "Inventory levels are down, and people are finding ways to compensate for that. So profit levels overall are very, very strong because people are raising prices, so there is inflation how long that goes on for we can debate, but it is very real." "The supply chain problems aren't going to get solved overnight," he added. "They will get solved, but until then, I certainly worry about the evenness of [whether] small businesses versus large businesses be able to continue on the same trajectory." — 4:05 p.m. ET: S&P 500 posts fifth straight day of gains in longest winning streak since August Here's where the three major indexes closed out the session: S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) : +33.17 (+0.74%) to 4,519.63 Dow ( ^DJI ) : +198.7 (+0.56%) to 35,457.31 Nasdaq ( ^IXIC ) : +107.28 (+0.71%) to 15,129.09 — 2:50 p.m. ET: Global Fund Managers are the least bullish since Oct. 2020: BofA Bullishness among global fund managers fell to its lowest level in a year as expectations for economic and corporate profit growth deteriorated, according to Bank of America's latest Global Fund Manager Survey for October. Global growth expectations turned negative for the first time since March 2020, with the net percentage of survey participants expecting a stronger economy in the next 12 months coming in at negative 6%. Meanwhile, 15% of respondents said they anticipated profit growth would slow, representing the worst outlook since May 2020, BofA added. Fund managers also set aside more cash amid the weakening outlook. Cash allocations reached a one-year high of 4.7%, according to Bank of America. — 9:38 a.m. ET: Bitcoin futures ETF debuts on the NYSE, becoming the first to hit a U.S. public exchange The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF ( BITO ) made its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday to become the first-ever U.S. exchange-traded fund to offer investing in futures of the cryptocurrency. As a derivatives-based product, the fund allows investors to bet on Bitcoin futures, or expected changes in the price of the token. While this gives traders exposure to the cryptocurrency's price action, it does not enable them to hold Bitcoin directly. Bitcoin prices jumped amid the debut, clearing $63,000 to near its all-time high. — 9:30 a.m. ET: Stocks gain, Dow adds about 100 points, or 0.3% Here's where markets were trading just after the opening bell: S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) : +15.19 (+0.34%) to 4,501.65 Dow ( ^DJI ) : +98.67 (+0.28%) to 35,357.28 Nasdaq ( ^IXIC ) : +42.93 (+0.29%) to 15,065.35 Crude ( CL=F ) : -$0.23 (-0.28%) to $82.21 a barrel Gold ( GC=F ) : -$0.90 (-0.05%) to $1,767.40 per ounce 10-year Treasury ( ^TNX ) : +2.8 bps to yield 1.612% — 8:30 a.m. ET: Housing starts unexpectedly declined in September to reach the lowest level since April New homebuilding sank in September compared to August as labor scarcities and rising prices weighed on construction activity in the housing market. Starts for new residential construction declined by 1.6% last month, the Commerce Department said in its monthly report Tuesday. This brought starts down to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.555 million, or the lowest in five months. August's housing starts were also downwardly revised, with these rising by just 1.2% versus the 3.9% increase previously reported. Consensus economists expected housing starts to come in unchanged on a month-over-month basis. Building permits, which serve as an indicator of future construction, sank by 7.7% in September over the prior month, whereas consensus economists were looking for a drop of just 2.4%. August's building permits were also downwardly revised to show an increase of 5.6%, down from the 6.0% gain reported in the previous print. — 7:33 a.m. ET Tuesday: Stock futures extend gains Here's where markets were trading Tuesday morning: S&P 500 futures ( ES=F ) : +25.25 points (+0.56%), to 4,502.75 Dow futures ( YM=F ) : +206 points (+0.59%), to 35,339.00 Nasdaq futures ( NQ=F ): +68 points (+0.44%) to 15,358.50 Crude ( CL=F ) : +$1.06 (+1.29%) to $83.50 a barrel Gold ( GC=F ) : +$12.40 (+0.70%) to $1,778.10 per ounce 10-year Treasury ( ^TNX ) : +0.8 bps to yield 1.592% — 6:02 p.m. ET Monday: Stock futures point to a lower open Here's where markets were trading Monday evening: S&P 500 futures ( ES=F ) : -1.25 points (-0.03%), to 4,476.25 Dow futures ( YM=F ) : -12 points (-0.03%), to 35,121.00 Nasdaq futures ( NQ=F ): -0.25 points (-0.00%) to 15,290.25 NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 16: People sit by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on September 16, 2021 in New York City. Despite a rise in retail sales, the Dow slipped lower on Thursday as investors continue to have concerns from the Delta variant and news of a slight rise in jobless claims. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Spencer Platt via Getty Images) — Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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62210.17, 60692.27, 61393.62, 60930.84, 63039.82, 60363.79, 58482.39, 60622.14, 62227.96, 61888.83
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 43798.12, 46365.40, 45585.03, 45593.64, 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79, 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42, 44883.91, 45201.46, 46063.27, 44963.07, 47092.49, 48176.35, 47783.36, 47267.52, 48278.36, 47260.22, 42843.80, 40693.68, 43574.51, 44895.10, 42839.75, 42716.59, 43208.54, 42235.73, 41034.54, 41564.36, 43790.89, 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98, 53967.85, 54968.22, 54771.58, 57484.79, 56041.06, 57401.10, 57321.52, 61593.95, 60892.18, 61553.62, 62026.08, 64261.99, 65992.84, 62210.17, 60692.27, 61393.62, 60930.84, 63039.82, 60363.79, 58482.39, 60622.14, 62227.96, 61888.83, 61318.96, 61004.41, 63226.40, 62970.05, 61452.23, 61125.68.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-11-05]
Volume: 30605102446, RSI (14-day): 54.53, 50-day EMA: 56275.16, 200-day EMA: 47038.36
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1816.40, Gold RSI: 59.41
Oil Price: 81.27, Oil RSI: 52.85
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Day 4 of Kleiman v. Wright: Craig Wright’s Testimony Delayed: MIAMI — Craig Wright – the Australian computer scientist best known for his widely disputed claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin – is now expected to testify in a Miami court on Monday. Wright was initially slated to testify Thursday, according to an earlier schedule drawn up for the jury by Judge Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. However, Wright’s defense team’s questioning of Ira Kleiman, the plaintiff in the case, went all day Thursday and is expected to spill over into late Friday morning. After Kleiman’s testimony wraps, the plaintiffs are expected to introduce pre-taped video testimony from two witnesses, including Wright’s ex-wife, Lynn Wright. Kleiman is suing Wright for what he alleges to be his brother Dave’s share of proceeds derived from business arrangements between the two men, including intellectual property and bitcoin that Ira says they mined together. Ira based these claims on information he received from Wright and others following Dave’s death in April 2013, as well as emails and other documents. However, it is unclear whether Wright has access to any of the alleged 1.1 million bitcoin (which would be worth over $67 billion). Much of it is in wallets associated with Nakamoto and other sources, but Wright has never been willing or able to demonstrate he controls the wallets of Bitcoin’s creator. Andres Rivero, lead counsel for Wright’s defense, focused his cross-examination of Ira on his strained relationship with his brother Dave before the latter’s death, in an attempt to depict Ira as purely motivated by financial gain. The defense also sought to downplay Dave’s purported role in the conception of Bitcoin by establishing a timeline of his poor physical health in 2008, the year the Bitcoin white paper was published. Under cross-examination by Rivero, Kleiman said he erased and overwrote data on all but one of the 14 devices that were recovered among David’s belongings, and threw another away. The defense argues that if Dave had any bitcoin or other information and Ira couldn’t find it, that’s his fault. Read more: In Craig Wright Trial, Plaintiffs Lay Out Pattern of Fraud, Deceit and Hubris || Day 4 of Kleiman v. Wright: Craig Wright’s Testimony Delayed: MIAMI — Craig Wright – the Australian computer scientist best known for hiswidely disputedclaim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin – is now expected to testify in a Miami court on Monday.
• Wright was initially slated to testify Thursday, according to an earlier schedule drawn up for the jury by Judge Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
• However, Wright’s defense team’s questioning of Ira Kleiman, the plaintiff in the case, went all day Thursday and is expected to spill over into late Friday morning.
• After Kleiman’s testimony wraps, the plaintiffs are expected to introduce pre-taped video testimony from two witnesses, including Wright’s ex-wife, Lynn Wright.
• Kleiman is suing Wright for what he alleges to be his brother Dave’s share of proceeds derived from business arrangements between the two men, including intellectual property and bitcoin that Ira says they mined together.
• Ira based these claims on information he received from Wright and others following Dave’s death in April 2013, as well as emails and other documents.
• However, it is unclear whether Wright has access to any of thealleged1.1 million bitcoin (which would be worth over $67 billion).
• Much of it is in wallets associated with Nakamoto and other sources, but Wright has never been willing or able to demonstrate he controls the wallets of Bitcoin’s creator.
• Andres Rivero, lead counsel for Wright’s defense, focused his cross-examination of Ira on his strained relationship with his brother Dave before the latter’s death, in an attempt to depict Ira as purely motivated by financial gain.
• The defense also sought to downplay Dave’s purported role in the conception of Bitcoin by establishing a timeline of his poor physical health in 2008, the year theBitcoin white paperwas published.
• Under cross-examination by Rivero, Kleiman said he erased and overwrote data on all but one of the 14 devices that were recovered among David’s belongings, and threw another away. The defense argues that if Dave had any bitcoin or other information and Ira couldn’t find it, that’s his fault.
Read more:In Craig Wright Trial, Plaintiffs Lay Out Pattern of Fraud, Deceit and Hubris || NYC Mayor-elect Eric Adams will get paid in Bitcoin: New York City major-elect Eric Adams has revealed he will get paid in Bitcoin (BTC) for his first three mayoral paychecks when he gets formally inaugurated on January 1 2022. Adams said on Twitter that he believes NYC is going to be the centre of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries during his tenure and then told his followers to just wait to see what he has planned. In New York we always go big, so Im going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait! Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) November 4, 2021 His decision to get paid in Bitcoin follows Miami mayor Francis Suarez to receive 100% of his paycheck in Bitcoin after being posed the question by serial entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano on Twitter. Adams has since vowed to match Suarez ambitions with cryptocurrencies within Miami which was the first to set up a so-called CityCoin token named MiamiCoin . He has a MiamiCoin that is doing very well. Were going to look in the direction to carry that out, said Adams in a recent interview with Bloomberg. Adams then vowed to look at whats preventing the growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in New York City. CityCoins were also the focus of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterins most recent blog post , which focused on the development of city tokens, the use of blockchains and transforming how governance is carried out using DAOs. || NYC Mayor-elect Eric Adams will get paid in Bitcoin: New York City major-elect Eric Adams has revealed he will get paid in Bitcoin (BTC) for his first three mayoral paychecks when he gets formally inaugurated on January 1 2022. Adams said on Twitter that he believes NYC is going to be the centre of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries during his tenure and then told his followers to just wait to see what he has planned. In New York we always go big, so Im going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait! Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) November 4, 2021 His decision to get paid in Bitcoin follows Miami mayor Francis Suarez to receive 100% of his paycheck in Bitcoin after being posed the question by serial entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano on Twitter. Adams has since vowed to match Suarez ambitions with cryptocurrencies within Miami which was the first to set up a so-called CityCoin token named MiamiCoin . He has a MiamiCoin that is doing very well. Were going to look in the direction to carry that out, said Adams in a recent interview with Bloomberg. Adams then vowed to look at whats preventing the growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in New York City. CityCoins were also the focus of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterins most recent blog post , which focused on the development of city tokens, the use of blockchains and transforming how governance is carried out using DAOs. || NYC Mayor-elect Eric Adams will get paid in Bitcoin: New York City major-elect Eric Adams has revealed he will get paid in Bitcoin (BTC) for his first three mayoral paychecks when he gets formally inaugurated on January 1 2022. Adams said on Twitter that he believes NYC is going to be the centre of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries during his tenure and then told his followers to just wait to see what he has planned. In New York we always go big, so Im going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait! Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) November 4, 2021 His decision to get paid in Bitcoin follows Miami mayor Francis Suarez to receive 100% of his paycheck in Bitcoin after being posed the question by serial entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano on Twitter. Adams has since vowed to match Suarez ambitions with cryptocurrencies within Miami which was the first to set up a so-called CityCoin token named MiamiCoin . He has a MiamiCoin that is doing very well. Were going to look in the direction to carry that out, said Adams in a recent interview with Bloomberg. Adams then vowed to look at whats preventing the growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in New York City. CityCoins were also the focus of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterins most recent blog post , which focused on the development of city tokens, the use of blockchains and transforming how governance is carried out using DAOs. || TradeStation Going Public With SPAC Merger: What Investors Should Know: Trading platform companyTradeStation Groupannounced a SPAC merger Thursday that could help grow the company’s brand awareness, customer accounts and revenue.
The SPAC Merger:TradeStationannounceda merger withQuantum FinTech Acquisition Corp(NYSE:QFTA).
The deal values the company at a pro forma enterprise value of $1.43 billion.
PIPE investors includeMonex Group(OTC:MNXBF),Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd(OTC:BRPHF),XBTO VenturesandAppian Way Asset Management.Monex Group is the parent company of TradeStation and will own around 80% after the merger.
TradeStation plans to trade on the NYSE with the ticker TRDE.
Public QFTA shareholderswill own12.6% of the company after the merger.
About TradeStation:Offering online brokerage and investment education, TradeStation has more than 145,000 accounts, as of March 31. The company offers trading of stocks, ETFs, options, futures and cryptocurrency.
TradeStation has more than $10 billion in customer assets, according to its presentation.
“Throughout TradeStation’s history, we have grown by providing our clients with a multi-asset trading platform, innovative new products and rich educational content that builds confidence among seasoned and first-time investors alike,” TradeStation CEOJohn Bartlemansaid.
Related Link:November SPAC Merger Calendar: Upcoming Votes, Earnings, Stocks To Watch
Growth Ahead:The company said it is seeking to build brand awareness of its online multi-asset trading platform.
Proceeds from the transaction are expected to go towards marketing, product development and IT spending.
TradeStation offers trading ofBitcoin(CRYPTO:BTC),Bitcoin Cash(CRYPTO:BCH),Ethereum(CRYPTO:ETH),Litecoin(CRYPTO:LTC) andUSD Coin(CRYPTO:USDC).
The company plans to offer additional cryptocurrencies in the future and expand its crypto trading support to non-U.S. accounts.
Financials:TradeStation had revenue of $189 million in fiscal 2020. The company is guiding for fiscal 2021 revenue to hit $219 million.
The company sees revenue growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 33% from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2024 with estimates of $219 million and $349 million for 2022 and 2023 respectively.
QFTA Price Action:QFTA shares were up 1.32% to $9.96 on Thursday at market close. Shares hit a new high of $10.22 earlier in the day.
Photo: Fabian Irsara viaUnsplash
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© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || TradeStation Going Public With SPAC Merger: What Investors Should Know: Trading platform company TradeStation Group announced a SPAC merger Thursday that could help grow the companys brand awareness, customer accounts and revenue. The SPAC Merger: TradeStation announced a merger with Quantum FinTech Acquisition Corp (NYSE: QFTA ). The deal values the company at a pro forma enterprise value of $1.43 billion. PIPE investors include Monex Group (OTC: MNXBF ), Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd (OTC: BRPHF ), XBTO Ventures and Appian Way Asset Management. Monex Group is the parent company of TradeStation and will own around 80% after the merger. TradeStation plans to trade on the NYSE with the ticker TRDE. Public QFTA shareholders will own 12.6% of the company after the merger. About TradeStation: Offering online brokerage and investment education, TradeStation has more than 145,000 accounts, as of March 31. The company offers trading of stocks, ETFs, options, futures and cryptocurrency. TradeStation has more than $10 billion in customer assets, according to its presentation. Throughout TradeStations history, we have grown by providing our clients with a multi-asset trading platform, innovative new products and rich educational content that builds confidence among seasoned and first-time investors alike, TradeStation CEO John Bartleman said. Related Link: November SPAC Merger Calendar: Upcoming Votes, Earnings, Stocks To Watch Growth Ahead: The company said it is seeking to build brand awareness of its online multi-asset trading platform. Proceeds from the transaction are expected to go towards marketing, product development and IT spending. TradeStation offers trading of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC ), Bitcoin Cash (CRYPTO: BCH ), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH ), Litecoin (CRYPTO: LTC ) and USD Coin (CRYPTO: USDC ). The company plans to offer additional cryptocurrencies in the future and expand its crypto trading support to non-U.S. accounts. Financials: TradeStation had revenue of $189 million in fiscal 2020. The company is guiding for fiscal 2021 revenue to hit $219 million. The company sees revenue growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 33% from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2024 with estimates of $219 million and $349 million for 2022 and 2023 respectively. QFTA Price Action: QFTA shares were up 1.32% to $9.96 on Thursday at market close. Shares hit a new high of $10.22 earlier in the day. Photo: Fabian Irsara via Unsplash See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Sports, News And Tubi: 3 Analysts Debate Fox Corporation's Q1 Revenue Beat Mythical Games Adds Binance, FTX, Michael Jordan, The Chainsmokers And Ryan Tedder As Investors In Playable NFT Gaming © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Cryptocurrencies should not be viewed as their own asset class and should be evaluated individually, an SEC director says: • Cryptocurrencies should not be viewed as their own asset class, said the director of the SEC's Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology
• Instead, they should be evaluated individually, Valerie Szczepanik said at the Chainalysis conference in New York Thursday.
• "I think digital asset is a representation of value, and you have to figure out what that value is," she said.
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Cryptocurrencies should not be viewed as their own asset class and should be evaluated individually, according to Valerie Szczepanik, director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology.
"It may be a misnomer to say that digital assets are an asset class," she said during a conference organized by Chainalysis in New York Thursday. "I think a digital asset is a representation of value, and you have to figure out what that value is."
And that is where the difficulty lies, as digital assets sometimes represent a commodity, a security, or a derivative, Szczepanik noted.
This is why cryptocurrencies should be evaluated individually, such as how they are bought and sold, she said, adding that her agency is going to regulate activity and not technology.
She also disputed the notion that there is a lack of regulatory clarity when it comes to crypto.
"I think there's clarity … we just have to figure out what the function is, what the asset is," Szczepanik said. "The problem is the technology has been very complicated."
Meanwhile, regulators have sent mixed signals on who should be the top crypto cop.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler has been saying many crypto assets should be considered securities, a definition that would place hundreds of coins under the agency's jurisdiction.
But Rostin Behnam, the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in October said the CFTC should be the main agency to oversee cryptocurrencies, rather than the SEC.
For its part, Bitcoin is regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act and is considered a commodity. But there are thousands of other coins in the industry, with many meme tokens sprouting up almost every day, that sit in a regulatory gray area.
Read the original article onBusiness Insider || Cryptocurrencies should not be viewed as their own asset class and should be evaluated individually, an SEC director says: Valerie Szczepanik, director of the SEC's Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology, is seated at right during the Chainalysis conference. Isabelle Lee/Insider Cryptocurrencies should not be viewed as their own asset class, said the director of the SEC's Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology Instead, they should be evaluated individually, Valerie Szczepanik said at the Chainalysis conference in New York Thursday. "I think digital asset is a representation of value, and you have to figure out what that value is," she said. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell . Cryptocurrencies should not be viewed as their own asset class and should be evaluated individually, according to Valerie Szczepanik, director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology. "It may be a misnomer to say that digital assets are an asset class," she said during a conference organized by Chainalysis in New York Thursday. "I think a digital asset is a representation of value, and you have to figure out what that value is." And that is where the difficulty lies, as digital assets sometimes represent a commodity, a security, or a derivative, Szczepanik noted. This is why cryptocurrencies should be evaluated individually, such as how they are bought and sold, she said, adding that her agency is going to regulate activity and not technology. She also disputed the notion that there is a lack of regulatory clarity when it comes to crypto. "I think there's clarity … we just have to figure out what the function is, what the asset is," Szczepanik said. "The problem is the technology has been very complicated." Meanwhile, regulators have sent mixed signals on who should be the top crypto cop. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has been saying many crypto assets should be considered securities, a definition that would place hundreds of coins under the agency's jurisdiction. But Rostin Behnam, the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in October said the CFTC should be the main agency to oversee cryptocurrencies, rather than the SEC. For its part, Bitcoin is regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act and is considered a commodity. But there are thousands of other coins in the industry, with many meme tokens sprouting up almost every day, that sit in a regulatory gray area. Read the original article on Business Insider || Square’s Cash App Generated $1.8B in Bitcoin Revenue in Q3: Payments firm Square said in itsthird-quarter earnings letterThursday that its peer-to-peer payment service, Cash App, generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue in the quarter and $42 million of gross profit, up 115% and 29% year over year, respectively.
• Bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased in the third quarter versus the second quarter, however, Square said, citing the “relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters.”
• Square also noted bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate in future quarters given changes in customer demand and bitcoin’s market price. It said that may be particularly the case “as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2020.”
• Square’s total net revenue was $3.84 billion in the third quarter, up 27% year over year, while gross profit was $1.13 billion, up 43% year over year.
• On its third quarter conference call, the company said it will release a white paper on Nov. 19 regarding TBD, its new division focused on creating an open developer platform to build a decentralized bitcoin exchange.
• Square also said on the call that the company doesn’t plan on offering users other cryptocurrencies outside of bitcoin. The company said it is focused on building its hardware wallet and continuingplans to allow individuals and businesses to mine bitcoin. CEO Jack Dorsey initially alluded to the latter plan in a tweet several weeks ago.
• Shares of Square were down about 4.9% in post-market trading following the release of its Q3 results.
UPDATE (Nov. 4, 22:03 UTC):Added call commentary along with updated share movement. || Squares Cash App Generated $1.8B in Bitcoin Revenue in Q3: Payments firm Square said in its third-quarter earnings letter Thursday that its peer-to-peer payment service, Cash App, generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue in the quarter and $42 million of gross profit, up 115% and 29% year over year, respectively. Bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased in the third quarter versus the second quarter, however, Square said, citing the relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters. Square also noted bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate in future quarters given changes in customer demand and bitcoins market price. It said that may be particularly the case as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2020. Squares total net revenue was $3.84 billion in the third quarter, up 27% year over year, while gross profit was $1.13 billion, up 43% year over year. On its third quarter conference call, the company said it will release a white paper on Nov. 19 regarding TBD, its new division focused on creating an open developer platform to build a decentralized bitcoin exchange. Square also said on the call that the company doesnt plan on offering users other cryptocurrencies outside of bitcoin. The company said it is focused on building its hardware wallet and continuing plans to allow individuals and businesses to mine bitcoin . CEO Jack Dorsey initially alluded to the latter plan in a tweet several weeks ago. Shares of Square were down about 4.9% in post-market trading following the release of its Q3 results. UPDATE (Nov. 4, 22:03 UTC): Added call commentary along with updated share movement. || Square’s Cash App Generated $1.8B in Bitcoin Revenue in Q3: Payments firm Square said in itsthird-quarter earnings letterThursday that its peer-to-peer payment service, Cash App, generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue in the quarter and $42 million of gross profit, up 115% and 29% year over year, respectively.
• Bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased in the third quarter versus the second quarter, however, Square said, citing the “relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters.”
• Square also noted bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate in future quarters given changes in customer demand and bitcoin’s market price. It said that may be particularly the case “as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2020.”
• Square’s total net revenue was $3.84 billion in the third quarter, up 27% year over year, while gross profit was $1.13 billion, up 43% year over year.
• On its third quarter conference call, the company said it will release a white paper on Nov. 19 regarding TBD, its new division focused on creating an open developer platform to build a decentralized bitcoin exchange.
• Square also said on the call that the company doesn’t plan on offering users other cryptocurrencies outside of bitcoin. The company said it is focused on building its hardware wallet and continuingplans to allow individuals and businesses to mine bitcoin. CEO Jack Dorsey initially alluded to the latter plan in a tweet several weeks ago.
• Shares of Square were down about 4.9% in post-market trading following the release of its Q3 results.
UPDATE (Nov. 4, 22:03 UTC):Added call commentary along with updated share movement. || Market Wrap: Analysts See Further Upside in Ether as Bitcoin Stalls: Bitcoin has traded mostly sideways over the past two weeks, prompting some traders to consider alternative cryptocurrencies such as ether for greater profit potential.
“Our models are still full risk-on ETH (whereas our bitcoin model started reducing exposure last week) but we are starting to see some slowing in conviction buying,” Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at quantitative research firmIDX Insights, wrote in a research report.
BTC’s price has been roughly flat over the past week, compared with a 4% rise in ETH and a 23% rise in Solana’s SOL token over the same period.
“Investors are likely looking for the next catalyst for another leg higher, but the absence of such is likely to leave bitcoin vulnerable to a break below $60,000,” Daniela Hathorn, an analyst atDailyFX, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
“Typically, we tend to see BTC sell off a bit after breaking to a new all-time high as traders front-run the hype,” crypto research firmDelphi Digitalwrote in a blogpost on Thursday, referring to traders dealing on advance information .
But some analysts expect further upside despite signs of slowing price momentum.
“WithMVRV[bitcoin’s market value relative to its realized value] currently trading at 2.72, far off from its recent peak of 3.96″ in February, crypto investment firmStackFundssaid in a report it is “expecting further room for growth as [MVRV] retests the 4.0 handle,” along with blockchain metrics showing strong bitcoin accumulation.
• Bitcoin (BTC): $61,162, -2.95%
• Ether (ETH): $4,486, -3.17%
• S&P 500: $4,675, +0.32%
• Gold: $1,793, +0.95%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.52%
Bitcoin’s two bull runs of 2021 have differed from those in past years. One key distinction has been decreased volatility expectation, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shenreported.
This metric, which shows the cryptocurrency’s expected price swings, did not spike when bitcoin’s price hit record highs in April and then in October, indicating that bitcoin may be evolving into a more mature investment asset.
Prior to 2021, bitcoin’s three-month implied volatility (IV) – investors’ expectation of how turbulent prices will be over the ensuing three months – spiked during both bull and bear runs, according to data from crypto data firm Skew. But this year, a similar spike only occurred when the market crashed in May.
Some analysts remain bullish on ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price reached an all-time high around $4,600 on Wednesday.
FundStrat, a global advisory firm,expectsether to rally as high as $4,951 “with little to no resistance” after outperforming bitcoin recently and breaking through September highs.
“While weekly and monthly momentum do show overbought conditions, this won’t be a big deal until near-term technicals begin to show evidence of upside exhaustion,”Mark Newton, FundStrat’s global head of technical strategy, wrote in a research note on Wednesday.
Newton also sees further upside in ETH relative to BTC (ETH/BTC price ratio) if price resistance near 0.08 is broken. “At present, the most likely outcome is a bit more outperformance, followed by a stall out,” Newton wrote.
• SHIB slumps amid speculation about large investor’s holdings:An increased SHIB sell-off on centralized exchanges occurred as the hype around the meme token has been tapering off, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shenreported. The canine-themed token has logged losses for three consecutive days after a SHIB whale (or large holder of the token) made a move on their holdings of 40 trillion SHIB, which was worth roughly $2.8 billion at the time.
• Ethereum alternatives and gaming tokens outperform:Tokens associated with Solana and Polkadot – both alternatives to the Ethereum blockchain – are outperforming along with gaming tokens like Axie Infinity’s AXS, CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesmareported. “Currently, it is a very mixed market, with coins moving pretty uncorrelated from each other,” said Patrick Heusser, head of trading at Crypto Finance AG. This presents more trading opportunities, Heusser said.
• Enjin forms $100M fund to support Metaverse projects:The Efinity Metaverse Fund will aim to support work onmetaverseprojects on Enjin and Polkadot, CoinDesk’s Jamie Crawleyreported. The fund will focus on cross-chain non-fungible token (NFT) assets, digital collectible applications, gaming that harnesses mixed reality, virtual events and building multi=chain infrastructure.
• In Craig Wright Trial, Plaintiffs Lay Out Pattern of Fraud, Deceit and Hubris
• MetaMask, Phantom Wallet Users Targeted in Crypto Phishing Scam: Report
• US Lawmakers Call for Bitcoin Spot ETF in Letter to SEC Chair Gensler
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• The Graph (GRT): +3.52%
• Aave (AAVE): +0.32%
Notable losers:
• Polygon (MATIC): -6.97%
• Algorand (ALGO): -4.84%
• Cardano (ADA): -4.58% || Market Wrap: Analysts See Further Upside in Ether as Bitcoin Stalls: Bitcoin has traded mostly sideways over the past two weeks, prompting some traders to consider alternative cryptocurrencies such as ether for greater profit potential.
“Our models are still full risk-on ETH (whereas our bitcoin model started reducing exposure last week) but we are starting to see some slowing in conviction buying,” Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at quantitative research firmIDX Insights, wrote in a research report.
BTC’s price has been roughly flat over the past week, compared with a 4% rise in ETH and a 23% rise in Solana’s SOL token over the same period.
“Investors are likely looking for the next catalyst for another leg higher, but the absence of such is likely to leave bitcoin vulnerable to a break below $60,000,” Daniela Hathorn, an analyst atDailyFX, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
“Typically, we tend to see BTC sell off a bit after breaking to a new all-time high as traders front-run the hype,” crypto research firmDelphi Digitalwrote in a blogpost on Thursday, referring to traders dealing on advance information .
But some analysts expect further upside despite signs of slowing price momentum.
“WithMVRV[bitcoin’s market value relative to its realized value] currently trading at 2.72, far off from its recent peak of 3.96″ in February, crypto investment firmStackFundssaid in a report it is “expecting further room for growth as [MVRV] retests the 4.0 handle,” along with blockchain metrics showing strong bitcoin accumulation.
• Bitcoin (BTC): $61,162, -2.95%
• Ether (ETH): $4,486, -3.17%
• S&P 500: $4,675, +0.32%
• Gold: $1,793, +0.95%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.52%
Bitcoin’s two bull runs of 2021 have differed from those in past years. One key distinction has been decreased volatility expectation, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shenreported.
This metric, which shows the cryptocurrency’s expected price swings, did not spike when bitcoin’s price hit record highs in April and then in October, indicating that bitcoin may be evolving into a more mature investment asset.
Prior to 2021, bitcoin’s three-month implied volatility (IV) – investors’ expectation of how turbulent prices will be over the ensuing three months – spiked during both bull and bear runs, according to data from crypto data firm Skew. But this year, a similar spike only occurred when the market crashed in May.
Some analysts remain bullish on ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price reached an all-time high around $4,600 on Wednesday.
FundStrat, a global advisory firm,expectsether to rally as high as $4,951 “with little to no resistance” after outperforming bitcoin recently and breaking through September highs.
“While weekly and monthly momentum do show overbought conditions, this won’t be a big deal until near-term technicals begin to show evidence of upside exhaustion,”Mark Newton, FundStrat’s global head of technical strategy, wrote in a research note on Wednesday.
Newton also sees further upside in ETH relative to BTC (ETH/BTC price ratio) if price resistance near 0.08 is broken. “At present, the most likely outcome is a bit more outperformance, followed by a stall out,” Newton wrote.
• SHIB slumps amid speculation about large investor’s holdings:An increased SHIB sell-off on centralized exchanges occurred as the hype around the meme token has been tapering off, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shenreported. The canine-themed token has logged losses for three consecutive days after a SHIB whale (or large holder of the token) made a move on their holdings of 40 trillion SHIB, which was worth roughly $2.8 billion at the time.
• Ethereum alternatives and gaming tokens outperform:Tokens associated with Solana and Polkadot – both alternatives to the Ethereum blockchain – are outperforming along with gaming tokens like Axie Infinity’s AXS, CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesmareported. “Currently, it is a very mixed market, with coins moving pretty uncorrelated from each other,” said Patrick Heusser, head of trading at Crypto Finance AG. This presents more trading opportunities, Heusser said.
• Enjin forms $100M fund to support Metaverse projects:The Efinity Metaverse Fund will aim to support work onmetaverseprojects on Enjin and Polkadot, CoinDesk’s Jamie Crawleyreported. The fund will focus on cross-chain non-fungible token (NFT) assets, digital collectible applications, gaming that harnesses mixed reality, virtual events and building multi=chain infrastructure.
• In Craig Wright Trial, Plaintiffs Lay Out Pattern of Fraud, Deceit and Hubris
• MetaMask, Phantom Wallet Users Targeted in Crypto Phishing Scam: Report
• US Lawmakers Call for Bitcoin Spot ETF in Letter to SEC Chair Gensler
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
• The Graph (GRT): +3.52%
• Aave (AAVE): +0.32%
Notable losers:
• Polygon (MATIC): -6.97%
• Algorand (ALGO): -4.84%
• Cardano (ADA): -4.58% || Market Wrap: Analysts See Further Upside in Ether as Bitcoin Stalls: Bitcoin has traded mostly sideways over the past two weeks, prompting some traders to consider alternative cryptocurrencies such as ether for greater profit potential. “Our models are still full risk-on ETH (whereas our bitcoin model started reducing exposure last week) but we are starting to see some slowing in conviction buying,” Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at quantitative research firm IDX Insights , wrote in a research report. BTC’s price has been roughly flat over the past week, compared with a 4% rise in ETH and a 23% rise in Solana’s SOL token over the same period. “Investors are likely looking for the next catalyst for another leg higher, but the absence of such is likely to leave bitcoin vulnerable to a break below $60,000,” Daniela Hathorn, an analyst at DailyFX , wrote in an email to CoinDesk. “Typically, we tend to see BTC sell off a bit after breaking to a new all-time high as traders front-run the hype,” crypto research firm Delphi Digital wrote in a blogpost on Thursday, referring to traders dealing on advance information . But some analysts expect further upside despite signs of slowing price momentum. “With MVRV [bitcoin’s market value relative to its realized value] currently trading at 2.72, far off from its recent peak of 3.96″ in February, crypto investment firm StackFunds said in a report it is “expecting further room for growth as [MVRV] retests the 4.0 handle,” along with blockchain metrics showing strong bitcoin accumulation. Latest prices Bitcoin (BTC): $61,162, -2.95% Ether (ETH): $4,486, -3.17% S&P 500: $4,675, +0.32% Gold: $1,793, +0.95% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.52% Why this bull run is different Bitcoin’s two bull runs of 2021 have differed from those in past years. One key distinction has been decreased volatility expectation, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen reported . This metric, which shows the cryptocurrency’s expected price swings, did not spike when bitcoin’s price hit record highs in April and then in October, indicating that bitcoin may be evolving into a more mature investment asset. Story continues Bitcoin three-month implied volatility. Credit: Omkar Godbole at CoinDesk/Skew Prior to 2021, bitcoin’s three-month implied volatility (IV) – investors’ expectation of how turbulent prices will be over the ensuing three months – spiked during both bull and bear runs, according to data from crypto data firm Skew. But this year, a similar spike only occurred when the market crashed in May. Ether to extend outperformance Some analysts remain bullish on ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price reached an all-time high around $4,600 on Wednesday. FundStrat, a global advisory firm, expects ether to rally as high as $4,951 “with little to no resistance” after outperforming bitcoin recently and breaking through September highs. “While weekly and monthly momentum do show overbought conditions, this won’t be a big deal until near-term technicals begin to show evidence of upside exhaustion,” Mark Newton , FundStrat’s global head of technical strategy, wrote in a research note on Wednesday. Newton also sees further upside in ETH relative to BTC (ETH/BTC price ratio) if price resistance near 0.08 is broken. “At present, the most likely outcome is a bit more outperformance, followed by a stall out,” Newton wrote. Altcoin roundup SHIB slumps amid speculation about large investor’s holdings: An increased SHIB sell-off on centralized exchanges occurred as the hype around the meme token has been tapering off, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen reported . The canine-themed token has logged losses for three consecutive days after a SHIB whale (or large holder of the token) made a move on their holdings of 40 trillion SHIB, which was worth roughly $2.8 billion at the time. Ethereum alternatives and gaming tokens outperform: Tokens associated with Solana and Polkadot – both alternatives to the Ethereum blockchain – are outperforming along with gaming tokens like Axie Infinity’s AXS, CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesma reported . “Currently, it is a very mixed market, with coins moving pretty uncorrelated from each other,” said Patrick Heusser, head of trading at Crypto Finance AG. This presents more trading opportunities, Heusser said. Enjin forms $100M fund to support Metaverse projects: The Efinity Metaverse Fund will aim to support work on metaverse projects on Enjin and Polkadot, CoinDesk’s Jamie Crawley reported . The fund will focus on cross-chain non-fungible token (NFT) assets, digital collectible applications, gaming that harnesses mixed reality, virtual events and building multi=chain infrastructure. Relevant news In Craig Wright Trial, Plaintiffs Lay Out Pattern of Fraud, Deceit and Hubris MetaMask, Phantom Wallet Users Targeted in Crypto Phishing Scam: Report US Lawmakers Call for Bitcoin Spot ETF in Letter to SEC Chair Gensler Other markets Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): The Graph (GRT): +3.52% Aave (AAVE): +0.32% Notable losers: Polygon (MATIC): -6.97% Algorand (ALGO): -4.84% Cardano (ADA): -4.58% || Stock Market Today: Tech Helps Nasdaq, S&P 500 Extend Streaks: Semiconductor Getty Images The stock market rally continued Thursday – though not for all indexes – as investors continued to process yesterday's Federal Reserve decision to taper as well as mixed messages about the economy. The result was a ninth straight day of gains for the Nasdaq Composite , while the S&P 500 ripped off its sixth consecutive advance. Yet again, the Labor Department reported pandemic-low weekly unemployment data, with 269,000 initial claims for the week ended Oct. 30 ducking under estimates for 275,000 filings and the prior week's revised 283,000. SEE MORE 12 of the Best Stocks You Haven't Heard Of Wilmington Trust Senior Economist Rhea Thomas anticipates a robust October jobs report tomorrow morning, telling Kiplinger that "high-frequency measures of small business employment suggest a solid employment gain in October. We look for 500,000-550,000, slightly stronger than consensus, which is at 450,000." On the less encouraging side, however, unit labor costs jumped 8.3% quarter-over-quarter in Q3; during the same period, U.S. labor productivity suffered its largest drop (5%) since 1981. While the market has been rising in unison of late, it put on a more stratified performance Thursday. Technology (+1.6%) shone on the back of big advances in chip stocks. Qualcomm ( QCOM , +12.7%), for one, rocketed higher thanks to an earnings beat and pleasantly surprising guidance. "In addition to as-expected growth from Apple thin modems, a key revenue driver in the quarter was Qualcomm’s Snapdragon integrated SoC solution for Android devices, where it is the dominant player," says Argus analyst Jim Kelleher (Buy), who adds that "QCOM has underperformed peers and the market in 2021 and appears to represent exceptional value." Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. Also heading higher were Nvidia ( NVDA , +12.0%) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD , +5.3%). The former's boost came on another bullish note involving the "metaverse," this time by Wells Fargo analysts, who raised their price target on NVDA to $320 from $245. Story continues "We see NVIDIA Omniverse as a key enabler/platform for the development of the metaverse across a wide range of vertical apps," the analysts say. They also believe Nvidia could capture up to $10 billion of the metaverse market over the next five years. Amazon.com ( AMZN , +2.8%) also finished strong to help the Nasdaq (+0.8% to 15,940) set another record and close near the 16,000 mark. The S&P 500 also benefited, improving by 0.4% to a new high of 4,680. However, a slump in financials (-1.3%) hampered the Dow Jones Industrial Average (off marginally to 36,124). Banks suffered as another international central bank indicated that looser policy might not be as quick to arrive as many hope. SEE MORE The 21 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2021 "Central bank commentary is once again driving much of today's action as rates move lower in response to the BOE," says Michael Reinking, senior market strategist for the New York Stock Exchange. "While the analyst views were split whether the central bank would raise rates either today or in December, markets were pricing nearly a 100% probability of a 15-basis-point rate increase today." (A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.) "Not only did the central bank not raise rates today, but BOE Governor Andrew Bailey pushed back hard against December as well, and when asked about market expectations for the benchmark rate to rise to 1% next year, he said he would 'caution against' that view." The small-cap Russell 2000 (-0.2% to 2,400) also cooled off two days after cracking through record highs set back in March. stock chart for 110421 YCharts Other news in the stock market today: U.S. crude futures fell 2.5% to finish at $78.81 per barrel, their lowest settlement since early October, after OPEC+ left its production target unchanged. Gold futures rose 1.7% to end at $1,793.50 an ounce. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rebounded by 2.3% to 15.4. Bitcoin cooled off by 2.6% to $61,217.40. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) Penn National Gaming ( PENN , -21.1%) was one of the worst stocks on the S&P 500 today after the casino company reported earnings. In its third quarter, PENN reported revenue of $1.51 billion, in line with what analysts were expecting, but earnings of 52 cents per share came in well below the consensus estimate of 85 cents per share. In its earnings call, Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden said "momentum slowed" starting in mid-August due to Hurricane Ida and "regional flare ups of the Delta variant." Accelerating the stock's slide was a Business Insider article alleging sexual violence by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has denied accusers' recounting of the events in the story. Penn owns a large stake in Barstool. Next Up in Our 401(k) Series: T. Rowe Price The pause in both the blue-chip Dow and the small-cap Russell could very well just be a breather. But regardless of what's coming, at least one fund provider appears positioned to help investors traverse the market's terrain. SEE MORE The 25 Best Low-Fee Mutual Funds You Can Buy Our annual exploration into the most popular mutual funds offered in 401(k) plans – which so far has included options from Vanguard and Fidelity – brings us to T. Rowe Price. Says Kiplinger's Nellie Huang: "T. Rowe Price's corporate symbol is the bighorn sheep: a sure-footed and agile climber, even in the roughest terrain. It was chosen to reflect investors' ability to rely on the firm's investment expertise to navigate all types of markets." And several of its mutual funds have long proven up to the task. Today, we delve into a dozen T. Rowe Price mutual funds that American workers are likeliest to find in their workplace retirement plans. We rate each one a Buy, Hold or Sell, including T. Rowe's target-date retirement funds, which we appraise as a single unit. Kyle Woodley was long AMD, AMZN and NVDA as of this writing. SEE MORE Best Online Brokers, 2021 You may also like Your Guide to Roth Conversions 7 Best ETFs for Rising Interest Rates The Best Funds to Buy for the Roaring ’20s || Stock Market Today: Tech Helps Nasdaq, S&P 500 Extend Streaks: Semiconductor Getty Images The stock market rally continued Thursday – though not for all indexes – as investors continued to process yesterday's Federal Reserve decision to taper as well as mixed messages about the economy. The result was a ninth straight day of gains for the Nasdaq Composite , while the S&P 500 ripped off its sixth consecutive advance. Yet again, the Labor Department reported pandemic-low weekly unemployment data, with 269,000 initial claims for the week ended Oct. 30 ducking under estimates for 275,000 filings and the prior week's revised 283,000. SEE MORE 12 of the Best Stocks You Haven't Heard Of Wilmington Trust Senior Economist Rhea Thomas anticipates a robust October jobs report tomorrow morning, telling Kiplinger that "high-frequency measures of small business employment suggest a solid employment gain in October. We look for 500,000-550,000, slightly stronger than consensus, which is at 450,000." On the less encouraging side, however, unit labor costs jumped 8.3% quarter-over-quarter in Q3; during the same period, U.S. labor productivity suffered its largest drop (5%) since 1981. While the market has been rising in unison of late, it put on a more stratified performance Thursday. Technology (+1.6%) shone on the back of big advances in chip stocks. Qualcomm ( QCOM , +12.7%), for one, rocketed higher thanks to an earnings beat and pleasantly surprising guidance. "In addition to as-expected growth from Apple thin modems, a key revenue driver in the quarter was Qualcomm’s Snapdragon integrated SoC solution for Android devices, where it is the dominant player," says Argus analyst Jim Kelleher (Buy), who adds that "QCOM has underperformed peers and the market in 2021 and appears to represent exceptional value." Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. Also heading higher were Nvidia ( NVDA , +12.0%) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD , +5.3%). The former's boost came on another bullish note involving the "metaverse," this time by Wells Fargo analysts, who raised their price target on NVDA to $320 from $245. Story continues "We see NVIDIA Omniverse as a key enabler/platform for the development of the metaverse across a wide range of vertical apps," the analysts say. They also believe Nvidia could capture up to $10 billion of the metaverse market over the next five years. Amazon.com ( AMZN , +2.8%) also finished strong to help the Nasdaq (+0.8% to 15,940) set another record and close near the 16,000 mark. The S&P 500 also benefited, improving by 0.4% to a new high of 4,680. However, a slump in financials (-1.3%) hampered the Dow Jones Industrial Average (off marginally to 36,124). Banks suffered as another international central bank indicated that looser policy might not be as quick to arrive as many hope. SEE MORE The 21 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2021 "Central bank commentary is once again driving much of today's action as rates move lower in response to the BOE," says Michael Reinking, senior market strategist for the New York Stock Exchange. "While the analyst views were split whether the central bank would raise rates either today or in December, markets were pricing nearly a 100% probability of a 15-basis-point rate increase today." (A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.) "Not only did the central bank not raise rates today, but BOE Governor Andrew Bailey pushed back hard against December as well, and when asked about market expectations for the benchmark rate to rise to 1% next year, he said he would 'caution against' that view." The small-cap Russell 2000 (-0.2% to 2,400) also cooled off two days after cracking through record highs set back in March. stock chart for 110421 YCharts Other news in the stock market today: U.S. crude futures fell 2.5% to finish at $78.81 per barrel, their lowest settlement since early October, after OPEC+ left its production target unchanged. Gold futures rose 1.7% to end at $1,793.50 an ounce. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rebounded by 2.3% to 15.4. Bitcoin cooled off by 2.6% to $61,217.40. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) Penn National Gaming ( PENN , -21.1%) was one of the worst stocks on the S&P 500 today after the casino company reported earnings. In its third quarter, PENN reported revenue of $1.51 billion, in line with what analysts were expecting, but earnings of 52 cents per share came in well below the consensus estimate of 85 cents per share. In its earnings call, Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden said "momentum slowed" starting in mid-August due to Hurricane Ida and "regional flare ups of the Delta variant." Accelerating the stock's slide was a Business Insider article alleging sexual violence by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has denied accusers' recounting of the events in the story. Penn owns a large stake in Barstool. Next Up in Our 401(k) Series: T. Rowe Price The pause in both the blue-chip Dow and the small-cap Russell could very well just be a breather. But regardless of what's coming, at least one fund provider appears positioned to help investors traverse the market's terrain. SEE MORE The 25 Best Low-Fee Mutual Funds You Can Buy Our annual exploration into the most popular mutual funds offered in 401(k) plans – which so far has included options from Vanguard and Fidelity – brings us to T. Rowe Price. Says Kiplinger's Nellie Huang: "T. Rowe Price's corporate symbol is the bighorn sheep: a sure-footed and agile climber, even in the roughest terrain. It was chosen to reflect investors' ability to rely on the firm's investment expertise to navigate all types of markets." And several of its mutual funds have long proven up to the task. Today, we delve into a dozen T. Rowe Price mutual funds that American workers are likeliest to find in their workplace retirement plans. We rate each one a Buy, Hold or Sell, including T. Rowe's target-date retirement funds, which we appraise as a single unit. Kyle Woodley was long AMD, AMZN and NVDA as of this writing. SEE MORE Best Online Brokers, 2021 You may also like Your Guide to Roth Conversions 7 Best ETFs for Rising Interest Rates The Best Funds to Buy for the Roaring ’20s || Bitcoin Miner Greenidge Generation Is Too Speculative to Truly Trust Yet: Greenidge (NASDAQ: GREE ) is a Bitcoin (CCC: BTC-USD ) mining company. It came public recently via a reverse merger with internet software company Support.com . After the reverse merger, SPRT stock became GREE stock and there was a reverse stock split to raise the share price of the new trading entity. GREE stock: a crypto mining rig Source: Mark Agnor / Shutterstock.com All the machinations around the reverse merger and share split created a great deal of trader interest. Some folks on Reddit were referring to the situation as a potential GameStop 2.0 (NYSE: GME ). Unfortunately for them, that did not happen. The merger and stock split failed to generate a durable short squeeze; instead, GREE stock lost the majority of its value within days of closing the deal. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The company isnt necessarily a goner just because its stock price performance has been dismal so far. In fact, Greenidge has a few positive traits going for it. What Sets Greenidge Apart First, Greenidge is a Bitcoin mining and power generation company. The second part is what makes it unique. Greenidge owns a 106 megawatt power generation facility in upstate New York. It is planning another unit in the 80 megawatt range for South Carolina as well. 7 Dividend Aristocrat Stocks That Should Grace Your Portfolio By owning its own power plants, Greenidge is able to control its cost of electricity and have clearer insight into its true cost of Bitcoin mining as opposed to rivals which rely on the general public power grid. Greenidge is not currently using the full capacity of its New York facility. However, it recently increased its order to 22,500 S19j Pro Bitcoin miners, representing 4.1 EH/S of mining capacity. The company anticipates receiving delivery of those mining units in mid-2022 and getting them online shortly thereafter. Going forward, the company aims to get to 500 megawatts of mining capacity by the end of 2025. It will likely need more capital to reach that goal. However, it did have $52 million in combined cash and cryptocurrency holdings as of the end of September, giving it some significant financial resources to work with. Story continues Came Public Through a Hairy Deal So why hasnt Greenidge faired better given these positive attributes? A big part of the underperformance is because the company came public in such an ugly way. Greenidge didnt have an initial public offering (IPO) or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Instead, it chose the incredibly convoluted method described above with its reverse merger. This gave folks the sense that something was off about the company. Admittedly, the SPAC window has closed a bit, as that sector has cooled off, so it makes sense skipping that route. Still, the company could have considered an IPO instead of this weird reverse merger operation if it wanted to generate a little more shareholder trust. Crypto Is Hot, But Bitcoin Is Not Another issue for Greenidge is that it mines Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin is not the part of the cryptocurrency universe that is attracting funds right now. Rather, traders are flocking into more alternative and speculative parts of the ecosystem. Things such as the various dog coins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and projects hosted on Solana (CCC: SOL-USD ) are where the action is at. Bitcoin, by contrast, doesnt have the same sort of capabilities in these newer areas of cryptocurrency. Its more of a brand and store of value at this point. However its high transaction costs and limited functionality leave it behind as far as innovation goes. As such, as long as the focus is on cryptocurrency uses such as decentralized finance DeFi and NFTs, Bitcoin is bound to underperform. At some point, the speculative excesses are likely to fade, and Bitcoin will get a safe haven bid. Particularly as more of the new projects such as the Squid Game token end up as rug pulls, that should cause traders to head back to the comfort of Bitcoin. For now, however, Greenidge is in the wrong place at the wrong time as there simply isnt much demand for mining firms. Thats especially true given the recent launch of Bitcoin-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs) . GREE Stock Verdict In the past, GREE stock likely would have ramped up simply from being one of the few ways to get crypto exposure on the stock market. That appeal is no longer there between the Bitcoin ETFs and other publicly traded crypto firms such as Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN ). Bitcoins recent weakness is also a hinderance. And Greenidges disastrous public rollout via its merger with Support.com left everyone with a bad first impression. Still, we shouldnt write off the company entirely despite its underwhelming debut. Theres potentially the core of an interesting business model here. The firms investments in its own power generation could give it a pivotal advantage versus other Bitcoin mining firms. Given the current headwinds, however, investors will need to see some solid earnings from Greenidge to really buy into the stock. On the date of publication, Ian Bezek did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . Ian Bezek has written more than 1,000 articles for InvestorPlace.com and Seeking Alpha. He also worked as a Junior Analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a $300 million New York City-based hedge fund. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek. More From InvestorPlace Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2
Says Buy THIS Now Analyst Who Found Microsoft at $0.38 Names #1 Pick for the AI Boom Americas #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar The post Bitcoin Miner Greenidge Generation Is Too Speculative to Truly Trust Yet appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Bitcoin Miner Greenidge Generation Is Too Speculative to Truly Trust Yet: Greenidge(NASDAQ:GREE) is aBitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) mining company. It came public recently via a reverse merger with internet software companySupport.com. After the reverse merger,SPRTstock became GREE stock and there was a reverse stock split to raise the share price of the new trading entity.
Source: Mark Agnor / Shutterstock.com
All the machinations around the reverse merger and share split created a great deal of trader interest. Some folks onRedditwere referring to the situation as a potential “GameStop 2.0” (NYSE:GME).
Unfortunately for them, that did not happen. The merger and stock split failed to generate a durable short squeeze; instead, GREE stock lost the majority of its value within days of closing the deal.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
The company isn’t necessarily a goner just because its stock price performance has been dismal so far. In fact, Greenidge has a few positive traits going for it.
First, Greenidge is a Bitcoin mining and power generation company. The second part is what makes it unique. Greenidge owns a106 megawattpower generation facility in upstate New York. It is planning another unit in the80 megawattrange for South Carolina as well.
• 7 Dividend Aristocrat Stocks That Should Grace Your Portfolio
By owning its own power plants, Greenidge is able to control its cost of electricity and have clearer insight into its true cost of Bitcoin mining as opposed to rivals which rely on the general public power grid.
Greenidge is not currently using the full capacity of its New York facility. However, it recently increased its order to22,500 S19j Pro Bitcoin miners, representing4.1 EH/S of mining capacity. The company anticipates receiving delivery of those mining units in mid-2022 and getting them online shortly thereafter.
Going forward, the company aims to get to500 megawattsof mining capacity by the end of 2025. It will likely need more capital to reach that goal. However, it did have$52 million in combined cashand cryptocurrency holdings as of the end of September, giving it some significant financial resources to work with.
So why hasn’t Greenidge faired better given these positive attributes? A big part of the underperformance is because the company came public in such an ugly way.
Greenidge didn’t have an initial public offering (IPO) or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Instead, it chose the incredibly convoluted method described above with its reverse merger. This gave folks the sense that something was off about the company.
Admittedly, the SPAC window has closed a bit, as that sector has cooled off, so it makes sense skipping that route. Still, the company could have considered an IPO instead of this weird reverse merger operation if it wanted to generate a little more shareholder trust.
Another issue for Greenidge is that it mines Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin is not the part of the cryptocurrency universe that is attracting funds right now. Rather, traders are flocking into more alternative and speculative parts of the ecosystem.
Things such as the various dog coins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and projects hosted onSolana(CCC:SOL-USD) are where the action is at. Bitcoin, by contrast, doesn’t have the same sort of capabilities in these newer areas of cryptocurrency. It’s more of a brand and store of value at this point. However its high transaction costs and limited functionality leave it behind as far as innovation goes.
As such, as long as the focus is on cryptocurrency uses such as decentralized finance “DeFi” and NFTs, Bitcoin is bound to underperform. At some point, the speculative excesses are likely to fade, and Bitcoin will get a safe haven bid. Particularly as more of the new projects such as theSquid Game tokenend up as rug pulls, that should cause traders to head back to the comfort of Bitcoin.
For now, however, Greenidge is in the wrong place at the wrong time as there simply isn’t much demand for mining firms. That’s especially true given the recent launch ofBitcoin-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In the past, GREE stock likely would have ramped up simply from being one of the few ways to get crypto exposure on the stock market. That appeal is no longer there between the Bitcoin ETFs and other publicly traded crypto firms such asCoinbase(NASDAQ:COIN). Bitcoin’s recent weakness is also a hinderance. And Greenidge’s disastrous public rollout via its merger with Support.com left everyone with a bad first impression.
Still, we shouldn’t write off the company entirely despite its underwhelming debut. There’s potentially the core of an interesting business model here. The firm’s investments in its own power generation could give it a pivotal advantage versus other Bitcoin mining firms. Given the current headwinds, however, investors will need to see some solid earnings from Greenidge to really buy into the stock.
On the date of publication, Ian Bezek did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.
Ian Bezek has written more than 1,000 articles for InvestorPlace.com and Seeking Alpha. He also worked as a Junior Analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a $300 million New York City-based hedge fund. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek.
• Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now
• Analyst Who Found Microsoft at $0.38 Names #1 Pick for the AI Boom
• America’s #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar
The postBitcoin Miner Greenidge Generation Is Too Speculative to Truly Trust Yetappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin Miner Greenidge Generation Is Too Speculative to Truly Trust Yet: Greenidge(NASDAQ:GREE) is aBitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) mining company. It came public recently via a reverse merger with internet software companySupport.com. After the reverse merger,SPRTstock became GREE stock and there was a reverse stock split to raise the share price of the new trading entity.
Source: Mark Agnor / Shutterstock.com
All the machinations around the reverse merger and share split created a great deal of trader interest. Some folks onRedditwere referring to the situation as a potential “GameStop 2.0” (NYSE:GME).
Unfortunately for them, that did not happen. The merger and stock split failed to generate a durable short squeeze; instead, GREE stock lost the majority of its value within days of closing the deal.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
The company isn’t necessarily a goner just because its stock price performance has been dismal so far. In fact, Greenidge has a few positive traits going for it.
First, Greenidge is a Bitcoin mining and power generation company. The second part is what makes it unique. Greenidge owns a106 megawattpower generation facility in upstate New York. It is planning another unit in the80 megawattrange for South Carolina as well.
• 7 Dividend Aristocrat Stocks That Should Grace Your Portfolio
By owning its own power plants, Greenidge is able to control its cost of electricity and have clearer insight into its true cost of Bitcoin mining as opposed to rivals which rely on the general public power grid.
Greenidge is not currently using the full capacity of its New York facility. However, it recently increased its order to22,500 S19j Pro Bitcoin miners, representing4.1 EH/S of mining capacity. The company anticipates receiving delivery of those mining units in mid-2022 and getting them online shortly thereafter.
Going forward, the company aims to get to500 megawattsof mining capacity by the end of 2025. It will likely need more capital to reach that goal. However, it did have$52 million in combined cashand cryptocurrency holdings as of the end of September, giving it some significant financial resources to work with.
So why hasn’t Greenidge faired better given these positive attributes? A big part of the underperformance is because the company came public in such an ugly way.
Greenidge didn’t have an initial public offering (IPO) or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Instead, it chose the incredibly convoluted method described above with its reverse merger. This gave folks the sense that something was off about the company.
Admittedly, the SPAC window has closed a bit, as that sector has cooled off, so it makes sense skipping that route. Still, the company could have considered an IPO instead of this weird reverse merger operation if it wanted to generate a little more shareholder trust.
Another issue for Greenidge is that it mines Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin is not the part of the cryptocurrency universe that is attracting funds right now. Rather, traders are flocking into more alternative and speculative parts of the ecosystem.
Things such as the various dog coins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and projects hosted onSolana(CCC:SOL-USD) are where the action is at. Bitcoin, by contrast, doesn’t have the same sort of capabilities in these newer areas of cryptocurrency. It’s more of a brand and store of value at this point. However its high transaction costs and limited functionality leave it behind as far as innovation goes.
As such, as long as the focus is on cryptocurrency uses such as decentralized finance “DeFi” and NFTs, Bitcoin is bound to underperform. At some point, the speculative excesses are likely to fade, and Bitcoin will get a safe haven bid. Particularly as more of the new projects such as theSquid Game tokenend up as rug pulls, that should cause traders to head back to the comfort of Bitcoin.
For now, however, Greenidge is in the wrong place at the wrong time as there simply isn’t much demand for mining firms. That’s especially true given the recent launch ofBitcoin-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In the past, GREE stock likely would have ramped up simply from being one of the few ways to get crypto exposure on the stock market. That appeal is no longer there between the Bitcoin ETFs and other publicly traded crypto firms such asCoinbase(NASDAQ:COIN). Bitcoin’s recent weakness is also a hinderance. And Greenidge’s disastrous public rollout via its merger with Support.com left everyone with a bad first impression.
Still, we shouldn’t write off the company entirely despite its underwhelming debut. There’s potentially the core of an interesting business model here. The firm’s investments in its own power generation could give it a pivotal advantage versus other Bitcoin mining firms. Given the current headwinds, however, investors will need to see some solid earnings from Greenidge to really buy into the stock.
On the date of publication, Ian Bezek did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.
Ian Bezek has written more than 1,000 articles for InvestorPlace.com and Seeking Alpha. He also worked as a Junior Analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a $300 million New York City-based hedge fund. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek.
• Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now
• Analyst Who Found Microsoft at $0.38 Names #1 Pick for the AI Boom
• America’s #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar
The postBitcoin Miner Greenidge Generation Is Too Speculative to Truly Trust Yetappeared first onInvestorPlace.
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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61527.48, 63326.99, 67566.83, 66971.83, 64995.23, 64949.96, 64155.94, 64469.53, 65466.84, 63557.87
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-09-29]
Volume: 13034629109, RSI (14-day): 21.73, 50-day EMA: 9853.63, 200-day EMA: 8768.17
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
LedgerX Claims ‘Personal Animus’ Drove Ex-CFTC Chair to Stall Approvals: LedgerX executives claim the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is treating them unfairly – because of a blog post. According to two letters obtained by CoinDesk via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, LedgerX believes former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo was personally biased against the company, and improperly used his position to delay the approval of an amended Derivatives Clearing Organization registration. “We have strong reason to believe that this unreasonable delay that is in clear violation of the Commodity Exchange Act is related to the Chairman’s animus towards a blog post written by our CEO,” the first letter, dated July 3, 2019, states. Related: How Leverage Can Help With Bitcoin’s Price Discovery Giancarlo could not be immediately reached for comment. We will update this article if we hear back. LedgerX CEO Paul Chou told CoinDesk in a phone call Saturday that the letters are accurate, and consist of only some of the messages sent to the agency. In the first letter, the company alleges that former Chair Giancarlo threatened the company, saying: “In January [2019], the Chairman called one of our board members and told him that he was going to make sure our DCO order was revoked within two weeks, due to a blog post written by myself the previous year implying that preferential treatment was being given to larger companies so he could ‘cement his legacy.’ This refers to the ICE / Bakkt approval, which was running into issues that were frustrating the chairman.” It is unclear which blog post specifically this letter refers to. Related: Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Already Open to Retail Investors, COO Says “This has been a long-going dispute,” Chou said, adding that the company was told in November 2018 that its DCO amendment application “would go very quickly,” and that he finds it suspicious that it has not yet been approved. CFTC spokesperson Michael Short told CoinDesk that he could not speak to the allegations in the letters, but generally, “the CFTC treats all registered entities equally,” and LedgerX’s business requires “extensive consideration.” Interference claims The CFTC asked LedgerX to acquire insurance and conduct a SOC 1 Type 2 audit, which aims to ensure that a company’s controls are sufficient for its legal or technical mandate. Both of these conditions “were entirely bogus,” LedgerX said in its letter. However, agency officials later realized that the audit “was not what they thought,” it continued. The letter alleged that a CFTC staffer tried to tamper with LedgerX’s audit, with the unidentified auditors reportedly “saying they had never seen this kind of thing before.” Story continues On Sept. 28, LedgerX COO Juthica Chou repeated the claim on Twitter , writing: “Previous chairman wanted to revoke LX license bc Bakkt efforts not moving along. Having no legitimate reason to revoke our license, staff resorted to contacting our independent auditors to tamper with audit to give commission reason to revoke license. Staff admitted & apologized” The agency’s insurance request also apparently caused issues, after agency staffers realized that “they would have to do consistent rulemaking across other potential applicants,” meaning ErisX and Bakkt would have to comply with the same standards. According to the letter: “We [LedgerX] had conversations with division level heads that discussed how much of a mess this was and that one of them told me that he felt like ‘a guard in a concentration camp, just following orders from the top.’ These orders were completely divorced from the regulatory framework designed to impartially judge an application’s merit and good standing, and in our view, was based entirely on a personal animus between [Giancarlo] and me because of my blog post.” This claim was repeated in the second letter, dated July 11, 2019, when LedgerX noted that its DCO amendment application had been outstanding for nearly 250 days (now more than 300 days). The CFTC has 180 days to approve or deny an application under federal law, though it is unclear what happens if it does not. The CFTC’s Short said that the review process “became prolonged due to repeated changes in the company’s licensing strategy.” Deference to ICE The letters also note that the CFTC’s swap data repository (SDR) requirements require LedgerX to report to the Intercontinental Exchange’s ICE Trade Vault, which last year announced it would be launching a competing product to LedgerX in the form of Bakkt. “At a meeting of the technology advisory committee an ICE employee admitted to me in private that they were watching our contract with great interest and they thought it to be the correct approach,” the July 3 letter said, adding: “Later, we have on voice recording, when ICE staffers thought they had muted their side, that they were instructed to delay support for our SDR reporting so that we could not start trading — something we consider incredibly anticompetitive. We filed a formal complaint regarding this anti-competitive aspect which was not answered at all. A division head later admitted, in person, to our COO that I was correct in stating that certain entities were being preferentially treated by the Chariman’s [sic] office.” These alleged actions are taking a toll on the company. According to the letters, LedgerX has “suffered considerable cost” and lost multiple employees due to these issues. LedgerX also claimed that an unnamed reporter “at one of the most respected journalistic institutions in the world” told the company that “government insiders” had been sharing information about the company’s plans with “large private sector competitors.” (Presumably, the competitor is ICE.) LedgerX called these actions “a gross violation” of the Chairman’s duty to enforce the law. Bakkt goes live LedgerX nearly beat Bakkt to launching physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts at the end of July. At the time, however, the CFTC contacted CoinDesk, which first reported the futures offering , to say the company had “not yet been approved by the Commission” to do so. As a result, ICE’s Bakkt became the first U.S. regulated company to offer the product earlier this month . These compounding issues seemingly triggered a series of tweets from Paul and Juthica Chou after Bakkt went live on Sept. 23. On Sept. 20, Fortune published a preview piece, writing that Bakkt would offer “the first physically delivered crypto-currency contracts ever traded on a federally regulated exchange.” LedgerX has offered physically-delivered options contracts since 2017. The Fortune article has since been updated to clarify that Bakkt offers “the first physically delivered crypto-currency futures contracts ever traded on a federally regulated exchange” (emphasis added). After the article was published, Juthica Chou asked the CFTC on Twitter if it was “going to issue a correction on this one.” After the Bakkt Twitter account shared a link to the article, she said in a subsequent tweet : “.@CFTC also are you going to make them delete this tweet? (or to be more precise, is head of enforcement going to call them for tweeting an article with incorrect information, like they did for LedgerX?)” Paul Chou told CoinDesk Saturday he was “fired” from the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee , which will meet next on Oct. 3. “They didn’t tell me why but I think it’s pretty obvious why they did it,” he said. “One of the issues they were going to talk about … was custody and LedgerX is essentially the only member that does custody right now so we were about to send Juthica.” The CFTC contacted him on Friday evening to tell him he was being removed, he said. Short told CoinDesk that the removal “was a unanimous decision by the Commission.” “Paul’s erratic and unprofessional behavior had the potential to distract from the important issues under consideration by the committee,” he added. Asked what his next steps are, Paul Chou only said: “I wish I knew.” LedgerX COO Juthica Chou image via CoinDesk archives Related Stories Bakkt Exchange’s Bitcoin Futures See Slow Start on First Day of Trading Bakkt Is Finally Launching Its Bitcoin Futures Today. Here’s What to Expect View comments || LedgerX Claims ‘Personal Animus’ Drove Ex-CFTC Chair to Stall Approvals: LedgerX executives claim the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is treating them unfairly – because of a blog post.
According totwo lettersobtained by CoinDesk via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, LedgerX believes former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo was personally biased against the company, and improperly used his position to delay the approval of an amended Derivatives Clearing Organization registration.
“We have strong reason to believe that this unreasonable delay that is in clear violation of the Commodity Exchange Act is related to the Chairman’s animus towards a blog post written by our CEO,” the first letter, dated July 3, 2019, states.
Related:How Leverage Can Help With Bitcoin’s Price Discovery
Giancarlo could not be immediately reached for comment. We will update this article if we hear back. LedgerX CEO Paul Chou told CoinDesk in a phone call Saturday that the letters are accurate, and consist of only some of the messages sent to the agency.
In the first letter, the company alleges that former Chair Giancarlo threatened the company, saying:
“In January [2019], the Chairman called one of our board members and told him that he was going to make sure our DCO order was revoked within two weeks, due to a blog post written by myself the previous year implying that preferential treatment was being given to larger companies so he could ‘cement his legacy.’ This refers to the ICE / Bakkt approval, which was running into issues that were frustrating the chairman.”
It is unclearwhich blog postspecifically this letter refers to.
Related:Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Already Open to Retail Investors, COO Says
“This has been a long-going dispute,” Chou said, adding that the company was told in November 2018 that its DCO amendment application “would go very quickly,” and that he finds it suspicious that it has not yet been approved.
CFTC spokesperson Michael Short told CoinDesk that he could not speak to the allegations in the letters, but generally, “the CFTC treats all registered entities equally,” and LedgerX’s business requires “extensive consideration.”
The CFTC asked LedgerX to acquire insurance and conduct a SOC 1 Type 2 audit, which aims to ensure that a company’s controls are sufficient for its legal or technical mandate. Both of these conditions “were entirely bogus,” LedgerX said in its letter. However, agency officials later realized that the audit “was not what they thought,” it continued.
The letter alleged that a CFTC staffer tried to tamper with LedgerX’s audit, with the unidentified auditors reportedly “saying they had never seen this kind of thing before.”
On Sept. 28, LedgerX COO Juthica Chourepeated the claim on Twitter, writing:
“Previous chairman wanted to revoke LX license bc Bakkt efforts not moving along. Having no legitimate reason to revoke our license, staff resorted to contacting our independent auditors to tamper with audit to give commission reason to revoke license. Staff admitted & apologized”
The agency’s insurance request also apparently caused issues, after agency staffers realized that “they would have to do consistent rulemaking across other potential applicants,” meaning ErisX and Bakkt would have to comply with the same standards.
According to the letter:
“We [LedgerX] had conversations with division level heads that discussed how much of a mess this was and that one of them told me that he felt like ‘a guard in a concentration camp, just following orders from the top.’ These orders were completely divorced from the regulatory framework designed to impartially judge an application’s merit and good standing, and in our view, was based entirely on a personal animus between [Giancarlo] and me because of my blog post.”
This claim was repeated in the second letter, dated July 11, 2019, when LedgerX noted that its DCO amendment application had been outstanding for nearly 250 days (now more than 300 days). The CFTC has 180 days to approve or deny an application under federal law, though it is unclear what happens if it does not.
The CFTC’s Short said that the review process “became prolonged due to repeated changes in the company’s licensing strategy.”
The letters also note that the CFTC’s swap data repository (SDR) requirements require LedgerX to report to the Intercontinental Exchange’s ICE Trade Vault, which last year announced it would be launching a competing product to LedgerX in the form of Bakkt.
“At a meeting of the technology advisory committee an ICE employee admitted to me in private that they were watching our contract with great interest and they thought it to be the correct approach,” the July 3 letter said, adding:
“Later, we have on voice recording, when ICE staffers thought they had muted their side, that they were instructed to delay support for our SDR reporting so that we could not start trading — something we consider incredibly anticompetitive. We filed a formal complaint regarding this anti-competitive aspect which was not answered at all. A division head later admitted, in person, to our COO that I was correct in stating that certain entities were being preferentially treated by the Chariman’s [sic] office.”
These alleged actions are taking a toll on the company. According to the letters, LedgerX has “suffered considerable cost” and lost multiple employees due to these issues.
LedgerX also claimed that an unnamed reporter “at one of the most respected journalistic institutions in the world” told the company that “government insiders” had been sharing information about the company’s plans with “large private sector competitors.” (Presumably, the competitor is ICE.)
LedgerX called these actions “a gross violation” of the Chairman’s duty to enforce the law.
LedgerX nearly beat Bakkt to launching physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts at the end of July. At the time, however, the CFTC contacted CoinDesk, whichfirst reported the futures offering, to say the company had “not yet been approved by the Commission” to do so.
As a result, ICE’s Bakkt became the first U.S. regulated company to offer the productearlier this month.
These compounding issues seemingly triggered a series of tweets from Paul and Juthica Chou after Bakkt went live on Sept. 23.
On Sept. 20, Fortune published a preview piece,writing that Bakkt would offer“the first physically delivered crypto-currency contracts ever traded on a federally regulated exchange.” LedgerX has offered physically-delivered options contracts since 2017.
The Fortune articlehas since been updatedto clarify that Bakkt offers “the first physically delivered crypto-currencyfuturescontracts ever traded on a federally regulated exchange” (emphasis added).
After the article was published, Juthica Chouasked the CFTCon Twitter if it was “going to issue a correction on this one.” After the Bakkt Twitter account shared a link to the article, shesaid in a subsequent tweet:
“.@CFTC also are you going to make them delete this tweet? (or to be more precise, is head of enforcement going to call them for tweeting an article with incorrect information, like they did for LedgerX?)”
Paul Chou told CoinDesk Saturday he was “fired” from theCFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee, which will meet next on Oct. 3.
“They didn’t tell me why but I think it’s pretty obvious why they did it,” he said. “One of the issues they were going to talk about … was custody and LedgerX is essentially the only member that does custody right now so we were about to send Juthica.”
The CFTC contacted him on Friday evening to tell him he was being removed, he said.
Short told CoinDesk that the removal “was a unanimous decision by the Commission.”
“Paul’s erratic and unprofessional behavior had the potential to distract from the important issues under consideration by the committee,” he added.
Asked what his next steps are, Paul Chou only said:
“I wish I knew.”
LedgerX COO Juthica Chou image via CoinDesk archives
• Bakkt Exchange’s Bitcoin Futures See Slow Start on First Day of Trading
• Bakkt Is Finally Launching Its Bitcoin Futures Today. Here’s What to Expect || What are the cryptocurrency habits in Colombia?: Cryptocurrency in Colombia is positively thriving. The overwhelming majority of the population is familiar with Bitcoin and other crypto-assets. The country now boasts a highly tech-savvy generation who are constantly on the lookout for new growth opportunities. According to a survey by Bitcoin trading platform Paxful, 80% of Colombians are open to investing in cryptocurrency. Many young people are already used to trading digital coins. In fact, almost half of the people surveyed between 25 and 40 years old own cryptocurrencies or plan to buy some soon. In 2019, Paxful alone has seen over $1 million in transactions from Colombian users. Cryptocurrency in Colombia is popular Many cryptocurrencies in South America are thriving as people look for alternative ways to counter inflation. This isn’t necessarily the case in Colombia however, since the inflation rate has been pretty stable this year. After surpassing the 7% milestone in 2016, the inflation rate has since come back down to lower values, recently reaching 3.42% . While 3.42% may still seem high for stable economies, that’s a low rate for South America. So, inflation alone isn’t driving Colombian people towards cryptocurrencies. Colombia’s case is different. The country has a recovering economy, and the population is open to new opportunities, such as cryptocurrency and fintech start-ups. In 2018, Bogotá ranked seventh in the list of top Bitcoin cities, with 87 active crypto businesses. Colombian authorities haven’t provided a legal framework for the crypto ecosystem to fully develop yet, but the population continues to invest in digital assets. The popularity of cryptocurrency in Colombia may also be a result of people’s reluctance to engage in traditional banking. As in most countries in Latin America, a significant part of the country’s population is “unbanked”. Many people don’t trust banks, don’t have a savings account, or simply prefer peer-to-peer alternatives for investing. Story continues Blockchain technology is also becoming more popular, as more organisations begin to implement pilot projects. The Colombian government is taking a welcoming approach to technology, and local and central authorities are also ready to implement blockchain solutions to solve their problems. Venezuelans in Colombia opt for cryptocurrency Another factor that may have changed the cryptocurrency habits in Colombia comes from other countries on the continent. Colombia has received almost 1.4 million Venezuelan refugees over the past few years. Refugees have significantly contributed to the adoption of cryptocurrency in Colombia. Venezuelans come from a country facing a severe economic and humanitarian crisis. Its government has experimented with the oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro , and Bitcoin and Dash are being used as both stores of value and payment methods. Many people from Venezuela are familiar with the benefits of using cryptocurrencies and they continue to use them even after reaching Colombia – for sending money back home, for example. Preference for Bitcoin South America seems to have developed a passion for Bitcoin, and Colombia is no exception. The Paxful report showed that 79% of locals preferred using Bitcoin to preserve their cash, followed by a great distance by Bytecoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrencies. Why Bitcoin? Besides the fact that everyone has heard about it, another reason may be the wide acceptance of this digital currency. Bitcoin is already an accepted form of payment for online shopping at many businesses. Moreover, many financial institutions and tech start-ups also rely on Bitcoin when developing crypto-products. Bitcoin ATMs are thriving as well People buy most cryptocurrency in Colombia either on peer-to-peer exchange platforms or directly from Bitcoin ATMs. As a general rule, the less they have to deal with third-party financial institutions, the better. Among the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges in Colombia are LocalBitcoins , Binance , and Kraken . Locals also seem to have a preference for platforms that allow users to buy cryptocurrency anonymously, such as Paxful or Coinmama . Moreover, the Bitcoin ATM market has been growing. Colombia hosts 54 Bitcoin ATM installations spread across the entire country. The highest concentration of machines is in Bogotà, with 32 ATMs, and Medellin, where people have access to 11 devices. Besides Bitcoin, most of the ATMs also sell Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, Zcash, and Dogecoin. Colombia has the most Bitcoin ATMs out of any Latin American country and currently ranks ninth in the world for Bitcoin ATMs. Final thoughts Colombia is a country with an appetite for innovation and blockchain-driven progress. Cryptocurrency adoption is on the rise, as well as blockchain-based projects that are meant to boost growth in this recovering economy. A massive majority of the population has heard about cryptocurrencies, and most people are open to investing in digital coins. Young people take the lead when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption, and the country offers considerable potential for crypto-related companies. The post What are the cryptocurrency habits in Colombia? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || What are the cryptocurrency habits in Colombia?: Cryptocurrency in Colombia is positively thriving. The overwhelming majority of the population is familiar with Bitcoin and other crypto-assets. The country now boasts a highly tech-savvy generation who are constantly on the lookout for new growth opportunities. According to a survey by Bitcoin trading platform Paxful, 80% of Colombians are open to investing in cryptocurrency. Many young people are already used to trading digital coins. In fact, almost half of the people surveyed between 25 and 40 years old own cryptocurrencies or plan to buy some soon. In 2019, Paxful alone has seen over $1 million in transactions from Colombian users. Cryptocurrency in Colombia is popular Many cryptocurrencies in South America are thriving as people look for alternative ways to counter inflation. This isn’t necessarily the case in Colombia however, since the inflation rate has been pretty stable this year. After surpassing the 7% milestone in 2016, the inflation rate has since come back down to lower values, recently reaching 3.42% . While 3.42% may still seem high for stable economies, that’s a low rate for South America. So, inflation alone isn’t driving Colombian people towards cryptocurrencies. Colombia’s case is different. The country has a recovering economy, and the population is open to new opportunities, such as cryptocurrency and fintech start-ups. In 2018, Bogotá ranked seventh in the list of top Bitcoin cities, with 87 active crypto businesses. Colombian authorities haven’t provided a legal framework for the crypto ecosystem to fully develop yet, but the population continues to invest in digital assets. The popularity of cryptocurrency in Colombia may also be a result of people’s reluctance to engage in traditional banking. As in most countries in Latin America, a significant part of the country’s population is “unbanked”. Many people don’t trust banks, don’t have a savings account, or simply prefer peer-to-peer alternatives for investing. Story continues Blockchain technology is also becoming more popular, as more organisations begin to implement pilot projects. The Colombian government is taking a welcoming approach to technology, and local and central authorities are also ready to implement blockchain solutions to solve their problems. Venezuelans in Colombia opt for cryptocurrency Another factor that may have changed the cryptocurrency habits in Colombia comes from other countries on the continent. Colombia has received almost 1.4 million Venezuelan refugees over the past few years. Refugees have significantly contributed to the adoption of cryptocurrency in Colombia. Venezuelans come from a country facing a severe economic and humanitarian crisis. Its government has experimented with the oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro , and Bitcoin and Dash are being used as both stores of value and payment methods. Many people from Venezuela are familiar with the benefits of using cryptocurrencies and they continue to use them even after reaching Colombia – for sending money back home, for example. Preference for Bitcoin South America seems to have developed a passion for Bitcoin, and Colombia is no exception. The Paxful report showed that 79% of locals preferred using Bitcoin to preserve their cash, followed by a great distance by Bytecoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrencies. Why Bitcoin? Besides the fact that everyone has heard about it, another reason may be the wide acceptance of this digital currency. Bitcoin is already an accepted form of payment for online shopping at many businesses. Moreover, many financial institutions and tech start-ups also rely on Bitcoin when developing crypto-products. Bitcoin ATMs are thriving as well People buy most cryptocurrency in Colombia either on peer-to-peer exchange platforms or directly from Bitcoin ATMs. As a general rule, the less they have to deal with third-party financial institutions, the better. Among the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges in Colombia are LocalBitcoins , Binance , and Kraken . Locals also seem to have a preference for platforms that allow users to buy cryptocurrency anonymously, such as Paxful or Coinmama . Moreover, the Bitcoin ATM market has been growing. Colombia hosts 54 Bitcoin ATM installations spread across the entire country. The highest concentration of machines is in Bogotà, with 32 ATMs, and Medellin, where people have access to 11 devices. Besides Bitcoin, most of the ATMs also sell Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, Zcash, and Dogecoin. Colombia has the most Bitcoin ATMs out of any Latin American country and currently ranks ninth in the world for Bitcoin ATMs. Final thoughts Colombia is a country with an appetite for innovation and blockchain-driven progress. Cryptocurrency adoption is on the rise, as well as blockchain-based projects that are meant to boost growth in this recovering economy. A massive majority of the population has heard about cryptocurrencies, and most people are open to investing in digital coins. Young people take the lead when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption, and the country offers considerable potential for crypto-related companies. The post What are the cryptocurrency habits in Colombia? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Cardano celebrates testnet launch with New Balance partnership: PLOVDIV, Bulgaria— Cardano , the world’s #12 largest blockchain platform, celebrated its second birthday today, with the announcement of a new partnership, with the New Balance sports brand, and an ambitious vision for the future. Earlier this week, the platform also launched its network test net. During the anniversary celebrations—which took place in socialist-era surroundings of the Agricultural University in Bulgaria’s second most populous city, Plovdiv—IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson announced that New Balance would now be using the Cardano blockchain to authenticate a premium line of training shoes for the company. “It provides a lot of things to New Balance that they’re really struggling with,” Hoskinson told Decrypt. “Last year New Balance confiscated around 25 million pairs of fake shoes. Authentication is a very expensive proposition for a bunch of brands. What we can bring to the table is not only a very better way for them to accommodate this but also potentially create a marketplace.” Last year, around $1.13 trillion was lost through counterfeiting, according to International Trademark Association figures. Hoskinson envisages that Cardano will not only be used to help establish provenance; it can also help to identify factories that are cheating and producing goods on the side; create an effective secondary market for luxury goods, by authenticating produce, and even produce royalties or fees that go back to the original manufacturer. “Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Gucci — if you work with these companies, you can dramatically reduce counterfeiting risk, create better supply chains and better markets for their goods,” said Hoskingson. “And, frankly, it can give them the ability to sell their goods at even higher prices—because they can have the authentic blockchain version of the bag, and they can mark it up considerably,” he added. A Cardano spokesman told Decrypt that further information about the project was strictly under wraps until the official announcement, by New Balance in October. But there was plenty more happening in Plovdiv. Story continues A tree planting ceremony formed the highlight of the anniversary celebrations, attended by the Cardano team, the wider community , and the general public. Earlier this week, Cardano made the first decentralized step in its evolution towards Hoskinson’s vision of the “universality of finance,” with the launch of the “Shelley” network testnet, a sandbox in which ideas are tested before they are implemented on the mainet. Currently, all nodes on the Cardano main net are controlled by the three companies who work on the project — the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO, as well as IOHK. But the introduction of Shelley is designed to make Cardano fully decentralized, and will eventually make the network 250 times more decentralized than Bitcoin, Hoskinson claims. The testnet release now allows IOHK and the wider community to run nodes and test the network’s performance, before the next stage, when network incentives are tested. In October or November, the launch of yet another testnet, the so-called “incentivised testnet,” will enable the community to stake and earn Cardano’s token, ADA. Even though it’s a testnet, the value of ADA staked by a holder will be pulled onto the mainnet, when Shelley is implemented there, David Esser, Cardano’s senior product manager told Decrypt. These staking rewards won’t be transferable until they are on the mainnet but are near the high end of typical staking rewards, which range from 6-12 percent, he added. And the testnets are leading up to a host of developments next year. “We’re about to embrace a major series of changes,” Hoskinson told delegates. A treasury system for Cardano is being implemented, he said, to oil the gears of innovation. It will be accompanied by a formal improvement proposal process. But he also warned the community not to expect super quick progress. “It’s not completely in our hands, that’s the magic of decentralization, “ he said. “This is no longer just a technological project or a science project, it’s a social project as well. As a consequence, it’s only done when we have hundreds, if not thousands, of stake pools, operating together, competing together, for your stake.” The vision is grand, the stakes are high and the seeds (as well as the trees) are now in the ground. || Cardano celebrates testnet launch with New Balance partnership: PLOVDIV, Bulgaria—Cardano, the world’s #12 largest blockchain platform, celebrated its second birthday today, with the announcement of a new partnership, with the New Balance sports brand, and an ambitious vision for the future. Earlier this week, the platform also launched its network test net.
During the anniversary celebrations—which took place in socialist-era surroundings of the Agricultural University in Bulgaria’s second most populous city, Plovdiv—IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson announced that New Balance would now be using the Cardano blockchain to authenticate a premium line of training shoes for the company.
“It provides a lot of things to New Balance that they’re really struggling with,” Hoskinson toldDecrypt.“Last year New Balance confiscated around 25 million pairs of fake shoes. Authentication is a very expensive proposition for a bunch of brands. What we can bring to the table is not only a very better way for them to accommodate this but also potentially create a marketplace.”
Last year, around$1.13 trillionwas lost through counterfeiting, according to International Trademark Association figures.
Hoskinson envisages that Cardano will not only be used to help establish provenance; it can also help to identify factories that are cheating and producing goods on the side; create an effective secondary market for luxury goods, by authenticating produce, and even produce royalties or fees that go back to the original manufacturer.
“Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Gucci—if you work with these companies, you can dramatically reduce counterfeiting risk, create better supply chains and better markets for their goods,” said Hoskingson. “And, frankly, it can give them the ability to sell their goods at even higher prices—because they can have the authentic blockchain version of the bag, and they can mark it up considerably,” he added.
A Cardano spokesman toldDecryptthat further information about the project was strictly under wraps until the official announcement, by New Balance in October. But there was plenty more happening in Plovdiv.
A tree planting ceremony formed the highlight of the anniversary celebrations, attended by the Cardano team, the wider community,and the general public.
Earlier this week, Cardano made the first decentralized step in its evolution towards Hoskinson’s vision of the “universality of finance,” with the launch of the “Shelley” network testnet, a sandbox in which ideas are tested before they are implemented on the mainet.
Currently, all nodes on the Cardano main net are controlled by the three companies who work on the project—the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO, as well as IOHK.
But the introduction ofShelleyis designed to make Cardano fully decentralized, and will eventually make the network 250 times more decentralized than Bitcoin, Hoskinson claims.
The testnet release now allows IOHK and the wider community to run nodes and test the network’s performance, before the next stage, when network incentives are tested.
In October or November, the launch of yet another testnet, the so-called “incentivised testnet,” will enable the community to stake and earn Cardano’s token, ADA. Even though it’s a testnet, the value of ADA staked by a holder will be pulled onto the mainnet, when Shelley is implemented there, David Esser, Cardano’s senior product manager told Decrypt.
These staking rewards won’t be transferable until they are on the mainnet but are near the high end of typical staking rewards, which range from 6-12 percent, he added.
And the testnets are leading up to a host of developments next year.
“We’re about to embrace a major series of changes,” Hoskinson told delegates. A treasury system for Cardano is being implemented, he said, to oil the gears of innovation. It will be accompanied by a formal improvement proposal process.
But he also warned the community not to expect super quick progress.
“It’s not completely in our hands, that’s the magic of decentralization, “ he said. “This is no longer just a technological project or a science project, it’s a social project as well. As a consequence, it’s only done when we have hundreds, if not thousands, of stake pools, operating together, competing together, for your stake.”
The vision is grand, the stakes are high and the seeds (as well as the trees) are now in the ground. || Bitcoin Dips Below 8,141.7 Level, Down 1%: Bitcoin Dips Below 8,141.7 Level, Down 1% Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $8,141.7 level on Saturday. Bitcoin was trading at 8,141.7 by 14:58 (18:58 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 1.31% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since September 27. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $147.1B, or 66.70% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $8,031.1 to $8,241.9 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a drop in value, as it lost 18.34%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $14.3B or 28.12% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $7,773.6040 to $10,075.0146 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 59.03% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Ethereum was last at $173.46 on the Investing.com Index, up 3.99% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.24245 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 1.18%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $18.8B or 8.52% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.5B or 4.77% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles ConsenSys and WWF Roll Out Platform for Transparency in Philanthropy Custody Services for Digital Assets: Everything You Need to Know The Story Behind the Explosive Growth of Crypto Funds || Bitcoin Dips Below 8,141.7 Level, Down 1%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $8,141.7 level on Saturday. Bitcoin was trading at 8,141.7 by 14:58 (18:58 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 1.31% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since September 27.
The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $147.1B, or 66.70% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B.
Bitcoin had traded in a range of $8,031.1 to $8,241.9 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a drop in value, as it lost 18.34%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $14.3B or 28.12% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $7,773.6040 to $10,075.0146 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 59.03% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017.
Ethereum was last at $173.46 on the Investing.com Index, up 3.99% on the day.
XRP was trading at $0.24245 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 1.18%.
Ethereum's market cap was last at $18.8B or 8.52% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.5B or 4.77% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
Related Articles
ConsenSys and WWF Roll Out Platform for Transparency in Philanthropy
Custody Services for Digital Assets: Everything You Need to Know
The Story Behind the Explosive Growth of Crypto Funds || Bitcoin Dips Below 8,141.7 Level, Down 1%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $8,141.7 level on Saturday. Bitcoin was trading at 8,141.7 by 14:58 (18:58 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 1.31% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since September 27.
The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $147.1B, or 66.70% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B.
Bitcoin had traded in a range of $8,031.1 to $8,241.9 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a drop in value, as it lost 18.34%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $14.3B or 28.12% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $7,773.6040 to $10,075.0146 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 59.03% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017.
Ethereum was last at $173.46 on the Investing.com Index, up 3.99% on the day.
XRP was trading at $0.24245 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 1.18%.
Ethereum's market cap was last at $18.8B or 8.52% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.5B or 4.77% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
Related Articles
ConsenSys and WWF Roll Out Platform for Transparency in Philanthropy
Custody Services for Digital Assets: Everything You Need to Know
The Story Behind the Explosive Growth of Crypto Funds || What Googles quantum computer means for Bitcoin: A document published and later deleted by NASA a few days ago revealed that we could soon be entering a new technological era: Google has achieved "quantum supremacy"supposedly. According to the Financial Times , Google claims to have successfully built the worlds most powerful quantum computer. What that means, according to Googles researchers, is that calculations that normally take more than 10,000 years to perform, its computer was able to do in about 200 seconds . Does that mean that we can say goodbye to that sweet cryptography that protects the integrity of Bitcoin and other digital currencies? Probably not. Heres why: For starters, sources at Google told Fortune over the weekend that NASA took down the paper because it might have been published without the proper scientific peer review. A scientific publication needs to be evaluated and studied by a panel of experts before its ready for publication. So, it might not even actually be ready. Brave says Google is (still) secretly sharing your personal data with advertisers But lets assume it is. What you need to know about Bitcoin to understand the potential threat of quantum computing is that its architecture relies on two algorithms: ECDSA for digital signatures and SHA-256 as a hash function. If you reuse a wallet address and make a transaction, you expose your public key. So, yes, a quantum computer could use Shors algorithm to get your private from your public key, as Jack Matier of the Quantum Resistant Ledger recently explained in a Medium post . But dont panic just yet. The most optimistic scientific estimates say that even if this were possible, it wont happen during this decade (enough time to fork Bitcoin and make it quantum proof). Also, considering that Googles machine is only 53 quantum bits (qubits)a measure of the computers quantum powera research paper on the matter published by Cornell University may give Bitcoin hodlers some peace of mind: Story continues A 160 bit elliptic curve cryptographic key could be broken on a quantum computer using around 1000 qubits while factoring the security-wise equivalent 1024 bit RSA modulus would require about 2000 qubits (emphasis added). By comparison, Google's measly 53 qubits are still no match for this kind of cryptography. And, once again, it's even only a theoretical threat assuming that you re-used your address, which was considered a bad practice even back in Satoshis day . And a SHA-256 cryptographic hash is a different thing altogether. It is so powerful that, according to crypto evangelist Andreas Antonopolulos, the amount of computational power needed to crack it is greater than the wildest speculation of what intelligence agencies might haveand thats assuming they have quantum computers. Whats more, not only can quantum-computing scientists not break Bitcoin yet, they dont seem too interested in doing so anyway. In fact, one of the most evident use cases for quantum technology appears to be to improve encryption and cybersecurity techniques, according to Googles own researchers. But that isnt to say that theres no cause for alarm at all . While the native encryption algorithms used by Bitcoin and other proof-of-work coins are safe for now, the fact is that the rate of advancements in quantum technology is increasing, and that could, in time, pose a threat. "We expect their computational power will continue to grow at a double exponential rate," Google researchers said in the since-deleted document. Thankfully, there are already companies and research teams working on new cryptography algorithms for a post-quantum era . And, with that in mind, it may not be a bad idea to start thinking about a potential Bitcoin hardfork in a few decades that improves its weak security algorithm. || What Google’s quantum computer means for Bitcoin: Adocumentpublished—and later deleted—by NASA a few days ago revealed that we could soon be entering a new technological era: Google has achieved "quantum supremacy"—supposedly.
According to theFinancial Times, Google claims to have successfully built the world’s most powerful quantum computer. What that means, according to Google’s researchers, is that calculations that normally take more than 10,000 years to perform, its computer was able to do in about200 seconds.
Does that mean that we can say goodbye to that sweet cryptography that protects the integrity of Bitcoin and other digital currencies? Probably not.
Here’s why:
For starters, sources at GoogletoldFortuneover the weekend that NASA took down the paper because it might have been published without the proper scientific peer review. A scientific publication needs to be evaluated and studied by a panel of experts before its ready for publication. So, it might not evenactuallybe ready.
But let’s assume it is. What you need to know about Bitcoin to understand the potential threat of quantum computing is that its architecture relies on two algorithms: ECDSA for digital signatures and SHA-256 as a hash function. If you reuse a wallet address and make a transaction, you expose your public key.
So, yes, a quantum computercould useShor’s algorithmto get your private from your public key, as Jack Matier of the Quantum Resistant Ledger recently explained in aMedium post. But don’t panic just yet.
The most optimisticscientific estimatessay that evenifthis were possible, it won’t happen during this decade (enough time tofork Bitcoinand make it quantum proof).
Also, considering that Google’s machine is only 53 “quantum bits” (qubits)—a measure of the computer’s quantum power—aresearch paperon the matter published by Cornell University may give Bitcoin hodlers some peace of mind:
“A 160 bit elliptic curve cryptographic key could be broken on a quantum computer using around1000 qubitswhile factoring the security-wise equivalent 1024 bit RSA modulus would require about2000 qubits” (emphasis added). By comparison, Google's measly 53 qubits are still no match for this kind of cryptography.
And, once again, it's even only atheoretical threatassuming that you re-used your address, which was considered a bad practice evenback in Satoshi’s day.
And a SHA-256 cryptographic hash is a different thing altogether. It is so powerful that,according tocrypto evangelist Andreas Antonopolulos, the amount of computational power needed to crack it “is greater than the wildest speculation of what intelligence agencies might have”—and that’s assuming they have quantum computers.
What’s more, not only can quantum-computing scientists not break Bitcoin yet, they don’t seem too interested in doing so anyway. In fact, one of the most evident use cases for quantum technology appears to be toimproveencryption and cybersecurity techniques, according to Google’s own researchers.
But that isn’t to say that there’s no cause for alarmat all. While the native encryption algorithms used by Bitcoin and other proof-of-work coins are safe for now, the fact is that the rate of advancements in quantum technology is increasing, and that could, in time, pose a threat. "We expect their computational power will continue to grow at a double exponential rate," Google researchers said in the since-deleted document.
Thankfully, there are already companies and research teams working on new cryptography algorithms for apost-quantum era. And, with that in mind, it may not be a bad idea to start thinking about a potential Bitcoin hardfork in a few decades that improves its “weak” security algorithm. || What Google’s quantum computer means for Bitcoin: Adocumentpublished—and later deleted—by NASA a few days ago revealed that we could soon be entering a new technological era: Google has achieved "quantum supremacy"—supposedly.
According to theFinancial Times, Google claims to have successfully built the world’s most powerful quantum computer. What that means, according to Google’s researchers, is that calculations that normally take more than 10,000 years to perform, its computer was able to do in about200 seconds.
Does that mean that we can say goodbye to that sweet cryptography that protects the integrity of Bitcoin and other digital currencies? Probably not.
Here’s why:
For starters, sources at GoogletoldFortuneover the weekend that NASA took down the paper because it might have been published without the proper scientific peer review. A scientific publication needs to be evaluated and studied by a panel of experts before its ready for publication. So, it might not evenactuallybe ready.
But let’s assume it is. What you need to know about Bitcoin to understand the potential threat of quantum computing is that its architecture relies on two algorithms: ECDSA for digital signatures and SHA-256 as a hash function. If you reuse a wallet address and make a transaction, you expose your public key.
So, yes, a quantum computercould useShor’s algorithmto get your private from your public key, as Jack Matier of the Quantum Resistant Ledger recently explained in aMedium post. But don’t panic just yet.
The most optimisticscientific estimatessay that evenifthis were possible, it won’t happen during this decade (enough time tofork Bitcoinand make it quantum proof).
Also, considering that Google’s machine is only 53 “quantum bits” (qubits)—a measure of the computer’s quantum power—aresearch paperon the matter published by Cornell University may give Bitcoin hodlers some peace of mind:
“A 160 bit elliptic curve cryptographic key could be broken on a quantum computer using around1000 qubitswhile factoring the security-wise equivalent 1024 bit RSA modulus would require about2000 qubits” (emphasis added). By comparison, Google's measly 53 qubits are still no match for this kind of cryptography.
And, once again, it's even only atheoretical threatassuming that you re-used your address, which was considered a bad practice evenback in Satoshi’s day.
And a SHA-256 cryptographic hash is a different thing altogether. It is so powerful that,according tocrypto evangelist Andreas Antonopolulos, the amount of computational power needed to crack it “is greater than the wildest speculation of what intelligence agencies might have”—and that’s assuming they have quantum computers.
What’s more, not only can quantum-computing scientists not break Bitcoin yet, they don’t seem too interested in doing so anyway. In fact, one of the most evident use cases for quantum technology appears to be toimproveencryption and cybersecurity techniques, according to Google’s own researchers.
But that isn’t to say that there’s no cause for alarmat all. While the native encryption algorithms used by Bitcoin and other proof-of-work coins are safe for now, the fact is that the rate of advancements in quantum technology is increasing, and that could, in time, pose a threat. "We expect their computational power will continue to grow at a double exponential rate," Google researchers said in the since-deleted document.
Thankfully, there are already companies and research teams working on new cryptography algorithms for apost-quantum era. And, with that in mind, it may not be a bad idea to start thinking about a potential Bitcoin hardfork in a few decades that improves its “weak” security algorithm. || How Leverage Can Help With Bitcoin’s Price Discovery: Bitcoin (BTC) is like any other asset class in that it captures value through organic price discovery conducted via trading activity on global exchanges.
Yet leverage andmargin trading, in general, can help “turbo-charge” demand for an asset. They can also free up capital, thus increasing liquidity within a given market as traders look to use their capital elsewhere.
It’s an investment strategy of using borrowed money for the use of various financial tools to increase the potential return of an investment.
Related:Iranian Bitcoiners Risk Fines, Jail Time as Government Regulates Mining
It’s also an efficient use of trading capital, valued by professionals because it allows them to trade large positions without committing 100 percent of their capital to a risky spot position.
For example, a trader that wanted to buy a thousand tokens at $1 apiece would only require a $100 of trading capital, depending on the leverage used, thereby leaving the remaining $900 available for additional trades.
Often touted as the most liquid cryptocurrency asset available, BTC benefits from leverage and margin trading activity by allowing investors and traders to lock in a position while maintaining a portfolio of other cryptos. It also provides professionals and retail investors with additional tools to capture value in the crypto market. In effect, greater demand on the asset class vastly improves the potential for more accurate value capture through organic price discovery.
Related:Bitcoin Approaching Biggest Weekly Price Loss of 2019
Participating in a live panel discussion at Invest: ASIA in Singapore, Lennix Lai, financial market director at OKEx told Coindesk:
“If you can only buy or sell particular underlying tokens of bitcoin and you don’t have the capability to short, basically speculate in another direction, then the market would be a lot more volatile because it would be entirely driven by sentiment.”
“For example, you can view bitcoin as being much more volatile before CME Futures were introduced … so we should have more financial instruments like options to assist further in the price discovery process in relation to volatility,” he said.
Greater access to capital means greater liquidity, without actually increasing the number of traders in a given market. It provides a means for increasing capital inflow without attracting any new money.
And while the total market capitalization of the crypto market has been on the slide alongside declining total volume, the pressures from a bear market can be offset through leverage and margin trading.
Of course, the rewards don’t come without inherent risks, as a loss can lead to the liquidation of a trader’s capital and force spot prices lower. Such an event recently took place in BTC’s futures market on Sept. 24 triggering a “long squeeze“.
If the cryptocurrency underlying a trade moves in the opposite direction to what was expected, leverage can greatly amplify the potential losses. To manage the risk associated, traders usually implement a strict trading style that includes the use of stop orders and limit orders designed to curb potential losses.
Also speaking on the panel in Singapore, Sunny Ray, head of global business development at the Kraken crypto exchange, explained how exchanges protect themselves from that risk:
“If there’s a lot of volatility in the market, if the value of the asset drops below 20 or 30 percent, there is something called a margin call that takes place where a company will actually liquidate the customer’s assets to cover some of those losses.”
There are currently eight major exchanges that offer the ability to leverage crypto, with several others offering margin trading accounts such as Kraken, Binance and Deribitm, whileBakkt’s releaseof its futures product on Sept. 23 adds to the opportunities for more authentic price discoveries.
Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.
Bitcoinimage via Shutterstock
• Binance Helped UK Police Investigate Criminal Involved in $50 Million Fraud
• Lightning Sucks, But It Could Help Build a Bitcoin Economy || How Leverage Can Help With Bitcoin’s Price Discovery: Bitcoin (BTC) is like any other asset class in that it captures value through organic price discovery conducted via trading activity on global exchanges.
Yet leverage andmargin trading, in general, can help “turbo-charge” demand for an asset. They can also free up capital, thus increasing liquidity within a given market as traders look to use their capital elsewhere.
It’s an investment strategy of using borrowed money for the use of various financial tools to increase the potential return of an investment.
Related:Iranian Bitcoiners Risk Fines, Jail Time as Government Regulates Mining
It’s also an efficient use of trading capital, valued by professionals because it allows them to trade large positions without committing 100 percent of their capital to a risky spot position.
For example, a trader that wanted to buy a thousand tokens at $1 apiece would only require a $100 of trading capital, depending on the leverage used, thereby leaving the remaining $900 available for additional trades.
Often touted as the most liquid cryptocurrency asset available, BTC benefits from leverage and margin trading activity by allowing investors and traders to lock in a position while maintaining a portfolio of other cryptos. It also provides professionals and retail investors with additional tools to capture value in the crypto market. In effect, greater demand on the asset class vastly improves the potential for more accurate value capture through organic price discovery.
Related:Bitcoin Approaching Biggest Weekly Price Loss of 2019
Participating in a live panel discussion at Invest: ASIA in Singapore, Lennix Lai, financial market director at OKEx told Coindesk:
“If you can only buy or sell particular underlying tokens of bitcoin and you don’t have the capability to short, basically speculate in another direction, then the market would be a lot more volatile because it would be entirely driven by sentiment.”
“For example, you can view bitcoin as being much more volatile before CME Futures were introduced … so we should have more financial instruments like options to assist further in the price discovery process in relation to volatility,” he said.
Greater access to capital means greater liquidity, without actually increasing the number of traders in a given market. It provides a means for increasing capital inflow without attracting any new money.
And while the total market capitalization of the crypto market has been on the slide alongside declining total volume, the pressures from a bear market can be offset through leverage and margin trading.
Of course, the rewards don’t come without inherent risks, as a loss can lead to the liquidation of a trader’s capital and force spot prices lower. Such an event recently took place in BTC’s futures market on Sept. 24 triggering a “long squeeze“.
If the cryptocurrency underlying a trade moves in the opposite direction to what was expected, leverage can greatly amplify the potential losses. To manage the risk associated, traders usually implement a strict trading style that includes the use of stop orders and limit orders designed to curb potential losses.
Also speaking on the panel in Singapore, Sunny Ray, head of global business development at the Kraken crypto exchange, explained how exchanges protect themselves from that risk:
“If there’s a lot of volatility in the market, if the value of the asset drops below 20 or 30 percent, there is something called a margin call that takes place where a company will actually liquidate the customer’s assets to cover some of those losses.”
There are currently eight major exchanges that offer the ability to leverage crypto, with several others offering margin trading accounts such as Kraken, Binance and Deribitm, whileBakkt’s releaseof its futures product on Sept. 23 adds to the opportunities for more authentic price discoveries.
Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.
Bitcoinimage via Shutterstock
• Binance Helped UK Police Investigate Criminal Involved in $50 Million Fraud
• Lightning Sucks, But It Could Help Build a Bitcoin Economy || How Leverage Can Help With Bitcoin’s Price Discovery: Bitcoin (BTC) is like any other asset class in that it captures value through organic price discovery conducted via trading activity on global exchanges. Yet leverage and margin trading , in general, can help “turbo-charge” demand for an asset. They can also free up capital, thus increasing liquidity within a given market as traders look to use their capital elsewhere. It’s an investment strategy of using borrowed money for the use of various financial tools to increase the potential return of an investment. Related: Iranian Bitcoiners Risk Fines, Jail Time as Government Regulates Mining It’s also an efficient use of trading capital, valued by professionals because it allows them to trade large positions without committing 100 percent of their capital to a risky spot position. For example, a trader that wanted to buy a thousand tokens at $1 apiece would only require a $100 of trading capital, depending on the leverage used, thereby leaving the remaining $900 available for additional trades. Why leverage matters for bitcoin Often touted as the most liquid cryptocurrency asset available, BTC benefits from leverage and margin trading activity by allowing investors and traders to lock in a position while maintaining a portfolio of other cryptos. It also provides professionals and retail investors with additional tools to capture value in the crypto market. In effect, greater demand on the asset class vastly improves the potential for more accurate value capture through organic price discovery. Related: Bitcoin Approaching Biggest Weekly Price Loss of 2019 Participating in a live panel discussion at Invest: ASIA in Singapore, Lennix Lai, financial market director at OKEx told Coindesk: “If you can only buy or sell particular underlying tokens of bitcoin and you don’t have the capability to short, basically speculate in another direction, then the market would be a lot more volatile because it would be entirely driven by sentiment.” “For example, you can view bitcoin as being much more volatile before CME Futures were introduced … so we should have more financial instruments like options to assist further in the price discovery process in relation to volatility,” he said. Story continues Greater access to capital means greater liquidity, without actually increasing the number of traders in a given market. It provides a means for increasing capital inflow without attracting any new money. And while the total market capitalization of the crypto market has been on the slide alongside declining total volume, the pressures from a bear market can be offset through leverage and margin trading. What’s the risk? Of course, the rewards don’t come without inherent risks, as a loss can lead to the liquidation of a trader’s capital and force spot prices lower. Such an event recently took place in BTC’s futures market on Sept. 24 triggering a “ long squeeze “. If the cryptocurrency underlying a trade moves in the opposite direction to what was expected, leverage can greatly amplify the potential losses. To manage the risk associated, traders usually implement a strict trading style that includes the use of stop orders and limit orders designed to curb potential losses. Also speaking on the panel in Singapore, Sunny Ray, head of global business development at the Kraken crypto exchange, explained how exchanges protect themselves from that risk: “If there’s a lot of volatility in the market, if the value of the asset drops below 20 or 30 percent, there is something called a margin call that takes place where a company will actually liquidate the customer’s assets to cover some of those losses.” There are currently eight major exchanges that offer the ability to leverage crypto, with several others offering margin trading accounts such as Kraken, Binance and Deribitm, while Bakkt’s release of its futures product on Sept. 23 adds to the opportunities for more authentic price discoveries. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing. Bitcoin image via Shutterstock Related Stories Binance Helped UK Police Investigate Criminal Involved in $50 Million Fraud Lightning Sucks, But It Could Help Build a Bitcoin Economy || Thomas Alvec Brings a New and Unique Digital Currency Infrastructure with Vexa Global: Driven by a passion to build innovations that apply intelligent technologies that ease complex solutions, Thomas Alvec has been known for assisting with co-creation of government projects for different countries implementing blockchain technology and helping the global adoption of digital currencies. TALLINN, ESTONIA / ACCESSWIRE / September 28, 2019 / While the waves of industrial revolution hit the new generation, among the emerging technologies, innovations based on blockchain technology are expected to single-handedly disrupt the industry. Thomas Alvec, who's known for his contributions and sharing his expertise as an external consultant since 2014, recently announced to introduce a new and unique infrastructure to support digital currencies and empower entrepreneurs from around the world who have been working on the tech to build innovative solutions. Has also has been helping create several major startups, some of which reached the top 100 industry list. Vexa Global, the platform created by Thomas Alvec aims to enable the blockchain ecosystem to facilitate faster integration of the IoT and will introduce a range of prospects for business entities, commercial organizations, and individuals to help them accelerate development and marketing. "We are working on several projects, assisting them to launch new platforms and products; the services described on our website are just a preview of what is going to come in the near future. Our primary focus at the moment is to produce an ATM network around the world in collaboration with our partners to boost the adoption of the technology," the young CEO says, sharing his vision. The company intends to build a next generation platform for the exchange of cryptocurrencies as well. "Our developers are building enterprise solutions powered by AI on the blockchain technology and we will be introducing our own digital wallet and token to ease what we do. It is also vital for us to educate our partners about blockchain technology, so we will be organising seminars across the globe, pushing the reach of our innovations further and further contributing to the worldwide adoption of web 3.0 projects and utilities," concludes the CEO. The 31 year old founder has also introduced one of the very first ATMs in the United States to allow people to buy and sell Bitcoin, three years ago. Story continues About Vexa Global Vexa Global is a Tallinn based IT enterprise founded in the year of 2019. Thomas Alvec created the company by assigning a team of specialists in information technology, internet of things and experienced developers. Vexa Global currently employs dozens of engineers, marketing specialists and experienced traders; the team also has people who work remotely. The initiative intends to provide the entrepreneurs and businesses who are engaging in the industry to build smarter innovations as it can be challenging to understand what the actual benefits of blockchain solutions without having an experienced company to work with. The team doesn't want Vexa Global to be recognised as a platform that provides specialist solutions, but as a firm that's being operated by technology enthusiasts in the industry who love their work and has a passion to help people adapt to the technology and make them reach the next level. More details about the platform and its CEO Thomas Alvec can be found at: https://vexaglobal.com. Media contact information Name: Thomas Alvec Company: Global partner LLC Email: [email protected] Website: https://vexaglobal.com Address: 501 SILVERSIDE RD STE 105, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, USA 19809 SOURCE: Global Partner LLC View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/561381/Thomas-Alvec-Brings-a-New-and-Unique-Digital-Currency-Infrastructure-with-Vexa-Global || Thomas Alvec Brings a New and Unique Digital Currency Infrastructure with Vexa Global: Driven by a passion to build innovations that apply intelligent technologies that ease complex solutions, Thomas Alvec has been known for assisting with co-creation of government projects for different countries implementing blockchain technology and helping the global adoption of digital currencies.
TALLINN, ESTONIA / ACCESSWIRE / September 28,2019/While the waves of industrial revolution hit the new generation, among the emerging technologies, innovations based on blockchain technology are expected to single-handedly disrupt the industry. Thomas Alvec, who's known for his contributions and sharing his expertise as an external consultant since 2014, recently announced to introduce a new and unique infrastructure to support digital currencies and empower entrepreneurs from around the world who have been working on the tech to build innovative solutions. Has also has been helping create several major startups, some of which reached the top 100 industry list.
Vexa Global, the platform created by Thomas Alvec aims to enable the blockchain ecosystem to facilitate faster integration of the IoT and will introduce a range of prospects for business entities, commercial organizations, and individuals to help them accelerate development and marketing. "We are working on several projects, assisting them to launch new platforms and products; the services described on our website are just a preview of what is going to come in the near future. Our primary focus at the moment is to produce an ATM network around the world in collaboration with our partners to boost the adoption of the technology," the young CEO says, sharing his vision. The company intends to build a next generation platform for the exchange of cryptocurrencies as well.
"Our developers are building enterprise solutions powered by AI on the blockchain technology and we will be introducing our own digital wallet and token to ease what we do. It is also vital for us to educate our partners about blockchain technology, so we will be organising seminars across the globe, pushing the reach of our innovations further and further contributing to the worldwide adoption of web 3.0 projects and utilities," concludes the CEO. The 31 year old founder has also introduced one of the very first ATMs in the United States to allow people to buy and sell Bitcoin, three years ago.
About Vexa Global
Vexa Global is a Tallinn based IT enterprise founded in the year of 2019. Thomas Alvec created the company by assigning a team of specialists in information technology, internet of things and experienced developers. Vexa Global currently employs dozens of engineers, marketing specialists and experienced traders; the team also has people who work remotely. The initiative intends to provide the entrepreneurs and businesses who are engaging in the industry to build smarter innovations as it can be challenging to understand what the actual benefits of blockchain solutions without having an experienced company to work with. The team doesn't want Vexa Global to be recognised as a platform that provides specialist solutions, but as a firm that's being operated by technology enthusiasts in the industry who love their work and has a passion to help people adapt to the technology and make them reach the next level. More details about the platform and its CEO Thomas Alvec can be found at:https://vexaglobal.com.
Media contact information
Name: Thomas AlvecCompany: Global partner LLCEmail:[email protected]:https://vexaglobal.comAddress: 501 SILVERSIDE RD STE 105, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, USA 19809
SOURCE:Global Partner LLC
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/561381/Thomas-Alvec-Brings-a-New-and-Unique-Digital-Currency-Infrastructure-with-Vexa-Global || Man fined $7,000 for using Russian supercomputer to mine Bitcoin: Denis Baykov, an employee at a Russian nuclear warhead facility, has been fined 450,000 rubles ($7,000) for illegally mining Bitcoin, a Russian court announced last week. Baykov and two other employees at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, attempted to mine cryptocurrency using a computer powered by one petaflop, which is equal to 1,000 trillion transactions per second. Baykov was convicted of illegally accessing the computer and violating rules against storing information. The plot was foiled last February. According to Russian media outlet Meduza, the other two employees implicated in the crime are awaiting sentencing. Tatyana Zalesskaya, a spokesperson for the institute, told Russian media outlet RBC at the time that the detainees illegally used “official computing power for personal purposes, including for the so-called mining." Sarov is a restricted area, protected by guards and barbed wire. The nuclear centre is federally owned. According to the BBC, the USSR’s first nuclear bomb was made at Sarov under Stalin. || Man fined $7,000 for using Russian supercomputer to mine Bitcoin: Denis Baykov, an employee at a Russian nuclear warhead facility, has been fined 450,000 rubles ($7,000) for illegally mining Bitcoin, a Russian courtannouncedlast week.
Baykov and two other employees at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, attempted to mine cryptocurrency using a computer powered by one petaflop, which is equal to 1,000 trillion transactions per second.
Baykov was convicted of illegally accessing the computer and violating rules against storing information.
The plot was foiled last February.Accordingto Russian media outlet Meduza, the other two employees implicated in the crime are awaiting sentencing.
Tatyana Zalesskaya, a spokesperson for the institute, told Russian media outlet RBC at the time that the detainees illegally used “official computing power for personal purposes, including for the so-called mining."
Sarov is a restricted area, protected by guards and barbed wire. The nuclear centre is federally owned. According to the BBC, the USSR’s first nuclear bomb was made at Sarov under Stalin. || Man fined $7,000 for using Russian supercomputer to mine Bitcoin: Denis Baykov, an employee at a Russian nuclear warhead facility, has been fined 450,000 rubles ($7,000) for illegally mining Bitcoin, a Russian courtannouncedlast week.
Baykov and two other employees at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, attempted to mine cryptocurrency using a computer powered by one petaflop, which is equal to 1,000 trillion transactions per second.
Baykov was convicted of illegally accessing the computer and violating rules against storing information.
The plot was foiled last February.Accordingto Russian media outlet Meduza, the other two employees implicated in the crime are awaiting sentencing.
Tatyana Zalesskaya, a spokesperson for the institute, told Russian media outlet RBC at the time that the detainees illegally used “official computing power for personal purposes, including for the so-called mining."
Sarov is a restricted area, protected by guards and barbed wire. The nuclear centre is federally owned. According to the BBC, the USSR’s first nuclear bomb was made at Sarov under Stalin.
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|
8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7708.99, 7790.15, 8036.49, 8200.64, 8071.26, 8253.55, 8038.77, 8253.69, 8790.92, 9330.55, 9818.35, 10058.80, 9888.61, 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40, 15178.20, 15455.40, 16936.80, 17415.40, 16408.20, 16564.00, 17706.90, 19497.40, 19140.80, 19114.20, 17776.70, 16624.60, 15802.90, 13831.80, 14699.20, 13925.80, 14026.60, 16099.80, 15838.50, 14606.50, 14656.20, 12952.20, 14156.40, 13657.20, 14982.10, 15201.00, 15599.20, 17429.50, 17527.00, 16477.60, 15170.10, 14595.40, 14973.30, 13405.80, 13980.60, 14360.20, 13772.00, 13819.80, 11490.50, 11188.60, 11474.90, 11607.40, 12899.20, 11600.10, 10931.40, 10868.40, 11359.40, 11259.40, 11171.40, 11440.70, 11786.30, 11296.40, 10106.30, 10221.10, 9170.54, 8830.75, 9174.91, 8277.01, 6955.27, 7754.00, 7621.30, 8265.59, 8736.98, 8621.90, 8129.97, 8926.57, 8598.31, 9494.63.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-02-14]
Volume: 7909819904, RSI (14-day): 47.77, 50-day EMA: 10849.64, 200-day EMA: 8883.32
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1355.50, Gold RSI: 63.70
Oil Price: 60.60, Oil RSI: 41.89
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
AT&T Is Doubling Down on the Bundle: AT&T (NYSE: T) surprised Wall Street when it reported 329,000 postpaid phone net additions in the fourth quarter. Management says it owes a large part of that number to its record low fourth-quarter postpaid phone churn of 0.89%. Moreover, that low churn is the result of its bundling strategy, packaging wireless and video together to save customers money. CFO John Stephens says AT&T added over 700,000 phone customers who bundled their wireless service with video in the fourth quarter. That seems to be primarily driven by AT&T's offer to save customers $25 on DIRECTV Now for Unlimited Choice subscribers. DIRECTV Now subscribers grew by 368,000 in the quarter, its best quarter yet. "We believe very strongly that combining video with our mobile product is a really important element, and you will see us continue to do that," CEO Randall Stephenson said on AT&T's fourth-quarter earnings call . In fact, with increased competition from T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) , Sprint (NYSE: S) , and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) , Stephenson says the company will "probably take it to new and different levels." Exterior of an AT&T store. Image source: AT&T. Everybody wants to bundle AT&T isn't the only carrier looking to bundle its wireless service with a video service. Both T-Mobile and Sprint introduced their own bundles last fall. T-Mobile One subscribers now get free access to Netflix, and Sprint's unlimited customers get Hulu. Verizon is actually the only major carrier that doesn't include a free streaming service subscription with its wireless service. AT&T subscribers get free HBO. Stephenson says the moves by T-Mobile and Sprint are "an indication that [AT&T's] having success." The benefits of the bundle are clear. AT&T's management says it's the second-biggest driver of customer retention after customer satisfaction. T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter explained, "To the extent that you can bundle more in, the retention characteristics in a multibundle situation are very different versus a single-product situation." And that's shown up in churn rates across the board, not just for AT&T and not just in wireless. Story continues AT&T is also bundling its home internet service with video and seeing positive retention results. DIRECTV satellite subscribers that also subscribe to AT&T's Fiber internet service churn at half the rate of those that don't bundle. As Fiber rolls out to more markets, AT&T has an opportunity to win more subscribers through bundling. Impact on margins Management is very upbeat about the profit potential from bundling. "Bundling allows us to have profitability from that combined account," Stephens said on the earnings call. "It also creates higher value, lifetime value, for each of those customers." While the customers might be profitable, they're not as profitable as they once were. EBITDA margin for AT&T's entertainment group, which includes its home internet and television businesses, fell 170 basis points to 19.1%. That may be due in large part to the influx of DIRECTV Now subscribers taking advantage of AT&T's generous $25 off bundle. AT&T notably changed the discount to $15 in the middle of the quarter. Meanwhile, AT&T's consumer mobility segment suffered a similar drop in EBITDA margin as service revenue continues to decline. Management says it expects service revenue growth to turn positive at some point this year on the back of improved subscriber retention. AT&T's shrinking margins don't compare well to Verizon's, which saw EBITDA margin improve nearly 3 percentage points last quarter. And remember, Verizon isn't using a bundling strategy. (Verizon also produced lower churn than AT&T.) So while the bundling strategy appears to be working in adding additional subscribers, those subscribers are less profitable than they once were. Of course, it's much better than losing subscribers and not growing at all. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levy owns shares of Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || AT&T Is Doubling Down on the Bundle: AT&T(NYSE: T)surprised Wall Street when it reported 329,000 postpaid phone net additions in the fourth quarter. Management says it owes a large part of that number to its record low fourth-quarter postpaid phone churn of 0.89%. Moreover, that low churn is the result of its bundling strategy, packaging wireless and video together to save customers money.
CFO John Stephens says AT&T added over 700,000 phone customers who bundled their wireless service with video in the fourth quarter. That seems to be primarily driven by AT&T's offer to save customers $25 on DIRECTV Now for Unlimited Choice subscribers. DIRECTV Now subscribers grew by 368,000 in the quarter, its best quarter yet.
"We believe very strongly that combining video with our mobile product is a really important element, and you will see us continue to do that," CEO Randall Stephenson said on AT&T'sfourth-quarter earnings call. In fact, with increased competition fromT-Mobile(NASDAQ: TMUS),Sprint(NYSE: S), andVerizon Communications(NYSE: VZ), Stephenson says the company will "probably take it to new and different levels."
Image source: AT&T.
AT&T isn't the only carrier looking to bundle its wireless service with a video service. Both T-Mobile and Sprint introduced their own bundles last fall. T-Mobile One subscribers now get free access to Netflix, and Sprint's unlimited customers get Hulu. Verizon is actuallythe only major carrierthat doesn't include a free streaming service subscription with its wireless service. AT&T subscribers get free HBO.
Stephenson says the moves by T-Mobile and Sprint are "an indication that [AT&T's] having success."
The benefits of the bundle are clear. AT&T's management says it's the second-biggest driver of customer retention after customer satisfaction. T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter explained, "To the extent that you can bundle more in, the retention characteristics in a multibundle situation are very different versus a single-product situation." And that's shown up in churn rates across the board, not just for AT&T and not just in wireless.
AT&T is also bundling its home internet service with video and seeing positive retention results. DIRECTV satellite subscribers that also subscribe to AT&T's Fiber internet service churn at half the rate of those that don't bundle. As Fiber rolls out to more markets, AT&T has an opportunity to win more subscribers through bundling.
Management is very upbeat about the profit potential from bundling. "Bundling allows us to have profitability from that combined account," Stephens said on the earnings call. "It also creates higher value, lifetime value, for each of those customers." While the customers might be profitable, they're not as profitable as they once were.
EBITDAmargin for AT&T's entertainment group, which includes its home internet and television businesses, fell 170 basis points to 19.1%. That may be due in large part to the influx of DIRECTV Now subscribers taking advantage of AT&T's generous $25 off bundle. AT&T notably changed the discount to $15 in the middle of the quarter.
Meanwhile, AT&T's consumer mobility segment suffered a similar drop in EBITDA margin as service revenue continues to decline. Management says it expects service revenue growth to turn positive at some point this year on the back of improved subscriber retention.
AT&T's shrinking margins don't compare well to Verizon's, which saw EBITDA margin improve nearly 3 percentage points last quarter. And remember, Verizon isn't using a bundling strategy. (Verizon also produced lower churn than AT&T.)
So while the bundling strategy appears to be working in adding additional subscribers, those subscribers are less profitable than they once were. Of course, it's much better than losing subscribers and not growing at all.
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• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
Adam Levyowns shares of Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Fossil Explodes Higher on Renewed Turnaround Hopes: Fossil Group(NASDAQ: FOSL)has worked hard to try to figure out how to get past the difficult conditions that have plagued both the retail industry at large and the watch business in particular.Strategic moveshave been a necessity to get Fossil moving in the right direction, but they've also beenpainful for investorswho've hoped to see more concrete evidence of a recovery from the watchmaker.
Coming into Tuesday's fourth-quarter financial report, Fossil investors were ready to see revenue and earnings declines, but they still wanted evidence that the watchmaker could reinvent itself in a sustainable and profitable way. Fossil's results were better than many had feared, and it offered an upbeat message that could spur further growth. Let's look more closely at Fossil Group and what's ahead for the watchmaker in the near future.
Image source: Fossil Group.
Fossil Group's fourth-quarter results offered hope that the worst might finally be behind the watchmaker. Revenue was down 4% to $921 million, but that wasn't as bad as the more than 7% decline most investors were looking to see on the retailer's top line. Substantial one-time hits from tax law changes and various restructuring and valuation charges resulted in a GAAP loss, but adjusted net income of $31 million resulted in adjusted earnings of $0.64 per share, far above the $0.40-per-share consensus forecast among those following the stock.
Tax reform had a substantial impact on Fossil's financials. The company saw an $86.4 million charge from repatriation taxes of foreign earnings, although that figure was offset by a $52.8 million release of deferred tax liabilities for future foreign earnings. Revaluation of deferred tax assets also led to a $28.9 million charge, and valuation allowances against deferred tax assets resulted in a $44.2 million expense.
Much more important was how Fossil performed operationally. Sales declines were fairly balanced across product lines, with watch revenue down 3%, leather products seeing 6% sales drops, and jewelry and other items seeing double-digit percentage declines. Yet global retail comparable sales were up 2% from the year-ago quarter, as gains in watches outweighed the downward impact from other products.
Geographically, Fossil also saw reasonably well-balanced performance. Sales in the Americas were down 14%, with the U.S. market causing most of the damage for the company. Revenue was down more modestly in Europe and Asia, both of which reported 3% declines on particular weakness in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Japan.
Even with the declines in key fundamentals, CEO Kosta Kartsotis remained confident. "While sales and earnings were challenged as expected," Kartsotis said, "we generated progress toward our objectives that include driving growth in wearables across our portfolio of powerful brands, leveraging our scale to lower supply chain costs, increasing our digital capabilities, and continuing the transformation of our business through New World Fossil." The CEO pointed to doubled revenue from wearables products.
Looking ahead,Fossil expects to be leaner but meaner. In Kartsotis' words, "Our priorities are focused on delivering innovative wearable and traditional watch styles while improving performance in the handbag and jewelry categories and driving increases in digital sales." North America will likely remain difficult, but the company is hopeful that other considerations will offset headwinds.
Fiscal 2018 guidance points to a slow recovery. Sales will probably fall 6% to 14% this year, but the company expects its pre-tax bottom line to be between a loss of $60 million and a profit of $40 million. First-quarter results will still be ugly, with sales declines of 6% to 12% and losses of $45 million to $70 million.
Yet Fossil investors seem to be happy with the news, and the stock has soared more than 50% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Apparently, shareholders believe that a transition toward wearable technology is the best path forward for Fossil, and despite theobvious competitive pressures in that niche, the watchmaker will at least have the chance to make a stand by staying true to its core brand and product lines.
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Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Fossil Group. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Fossil Explodes Higher on Renewed Turnaround Hopes: Fossil Group (NASDAQ: FOSL) has worked hard to try to figure out how to get past the difficult conditions that have plagued both the retail industry at large and the watch business in particular. Strategic moves have been a necessity to get Fossil moving in the right direction, but they've also been painful for investors who've hoped to see more concrete evidence of a recovery from the watchmaker. Coming into Tuesday's fourth-quarter financial report, Fossil investors were ready to see revenue and earnings declines, but they still wanted evidence that the watchmaker could reinvent itself in a sustainable and profitable way. Fossil's results were better than many had feared, and it offered an upbeat message that could spur further growth. Let's look more closely at Fossil Group and what's ahead for the watchmaker in the near future. Outside of a Fossil store looking in. Image source: Fossil Group. Fossil gets wound up Fossil Group's fourth-quarter results offered hope that the worst might finally be behind the watchmaker. Revenue was down 4% to $921 million, but that wasn't as bad as the more than 7% decline most investors were looking to see on the retailer's top line. Substantial one-time hits from tax law changes and various restructuring and valuation charges resulted in a GAAP loss, but adjusted net income of $31 million resulted in adjusted earnings of $0.64 per share, far above the $0.40-per-share consensus forecast among those following the stock. Tax reform had a substantial impact on Fossil's financials. The company saw an $86.4 million charge from repatriation taxes of foreign earnings, although that figure was offset by a $52.8 million release of deferred tax liabilities for future foreign earnings. Revaluation of deferred tax assets also led to a $28.9 million charge, and valuation allowances against deferred tax assets resulted in a $44.2 million expense. Much more important was how Fossil performed operationally. Sales declines were fairly balanced across product lines, with watch revenue down 3%, leather products seeing 6% sales drops, and jewelry and other items seeing double-digit percentage declines. Yet global retail comparable sales were up 2% from the year-ago quarter, as gains in watches outweighed the downward impact from other products. Story continues Geographically, Fossil also saw reasonably well-balanced performance. Sales in the Americas were down 14%, with the U.S. market causing most of the damage for the company. Revenue was down more modestly in Europe and Asia, both of which reported 3% declines on particular weakness in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. Can Fossil bounce back? Even with the declines in key fundamentals, CEO Kosta Kartsotis remained confident. "While sales and earnings were challenged as expected," Kartsotis said, "we generated progress toward our objectives that include driving growth in wearables across our portfolio of powerful brands, leveraging our scale to lower supply chain costs, increasing our digital capabilities, and continuing the transformation of our business through New World Fossil." The CEO pointed to doubled revenue from wearables products. Looking ahead, Fossil expects to be leaner but meaner . In Kartsotis' words, "Our priorities are focused on delivering innovative wearable and traditional watch styles while improving performance in the handbag and jewelry categories and driving increases in digital sales." North America will likely remain difficult, but the company is hopeful that other considerations will offset headwinds. Fiscal 2018 guidance points to a slow recovery. Sales will probably fall 6% to 14% this year, but the company expects its pre-tax bottom line to be between a loss of $60 million and a profit of $40 million. First-quarter results will still be ugly, with sales declines of 6% to 12% and losses of $45 million to $70 million. Yet Fossil investors seem to be happy with the news, and the stock has soared more than 50% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Apparently, shareholders believe that a transition toward wearable technology is the best path forward for Fossil, and despite the obvious competitive pressures in that niche , the watchmaker will at least have the chance to make a stand by staying true to its core brand and product lines. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Fossil Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Tencent Owns Stakes in These 4 U.S. Companies: Tencent(NASDAQOTH: TCEHY)is usually recognized as the maker of WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, and the biggest video game publisher in the world. However, the tech giant is also a major investor in other high-growth companies.
In China, Tencent holds double-digit stakes in online search companySogou, online classifieds platformWuba, app makerCheetah Mobile, e-commerce giantJD.com, and online-to-offline (O2O) real estate platform makerLeju.
Image source: Getty Images.
However, Tencent also holds significant stakes in four U.S. companies --Glu Mobile(NASDAQ: GLUU),Snap(NYSE: SNAP),Activision Blizzard(NASDAQ: ATVI), andTesla Motors(NASDAQ: TSLA).
Back in 2015, Tencent bought a 15% stake in Glu Mobile for $126 million. It gradually boosted that stake to nearly 21%. Tencent believed that the deal would bring some of its Chinese mobile titles westward, while introducing some of Glu's games to China.
However, Glu struggled over the past two years as interest in celebrity-backed games likeKim Kardashian: Hollywoodwaned. It eventually got its groove back with new titles likeCooking Dash,Covet Fashion,Deer Hunter,Design Home, andMLB Tap Sports Baseball, but its losses widened as it ramped up its sales and marketing efforts.
That's why shares of Glu have dropped about 40% since Tencent's initial investment. Nonetheless, brighter days could still be ahead, with analysts expecting 4% sales growth and a return to profitability this year.
Tencent made a smarter investment in Snap. It bought a 12% stake in the Snapchat maker late last November when the stock had fallen well below its IPO price of $17 on concerns about its slowing user growth, widening losses, and competition from Instagram.
Image source: Getty Images.
However, shares of Snaprecently soaredback above its IPO price after its fourth quarter report allayed some of those fears. Its year-over-year growth in revenue, daily active users, and average revenue per userall acceleratedfrom the third quarter thanks to a redesign of its platform and a switch to programmatic ad buys.
Snap remains deeply unprofitable, and the stock is pricey at nearly 30 times sales. But the bearish case against the stock has weakened, and it's rallied a whopping 30% since last November. It's unclear if Snap and Tencent's WeChat will ever integrate their features with each other, but Snap previously declared that it was open to sharing "ideas and experiences" with Tencent.
Tencent was one of several big investors that helped Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick repurchase the company's shares fromVivendiin 2013. Tencent still owns a 5% stake in Activision, which is worth about $2.5 billion after the stock's 400% rally over the past five years.
Back in 2015, Activision partnered with Tencent to bringCall of Duty Onlineto China as a free-to-play game with in-game micro-transactions. That partnership enhancesTencent's gaming business, which owns hit tiles likeLeague of Legends,Clash of Clans, andArena of Valor(Honor of Kings). The growth of those titles lifted Tencent's online gaming revenues by 48% annually last quarter.
Last March, Tencent bought 5% of electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Motors. The stock has risen about 12% since Tencent's investment, which complemented its stakes inChinese EV maker Nio(formerly known as NextEV) and ride hailing service Didi Chuxing, which bought Uber China and launched a research lab in the US.
Chinese OEMs manufactured 43% of the world's EVs in 2016, according to McKinsey & Company. EVs are also considered a major stepping stone toward fully autonomous vehicles, which are currently being tested on public roads in China.
Tencent's investments in EV makers and driverless vehicles complement itsAI investments. They also widen its moat against online search giantBaidu, which is expanding into thesame markets.
Last November,Barron'sAssif Shameen told investors to "think of Tencent as a sprawling tech conglomerate in the mold ofBerkshire Hathaway."
The comparison isn't perfect, since Berkshire usually pursues value as Tencent pursues growth, but the latter certainly represents a lucrative way for investors to gain exposure to a wide range of promising businesses.
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Leo Sunowns shares of Baidu, JD.com, and Tencent Holdings. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Activision Blizzard, Baidu, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), JD.com, Tencent Holdings, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Tencent Owns Stakes in These 4 U.S. Companies: Tencent (NASDAQOTH: TCEHY) is usually recognized as the maker of WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, and the biggest video game publisher in the world. However, the tech giant is also a major investor in other high-growth companies. In China, Tencent holds double-digit stakes in online search company Sogou , online classifieds platform Wuba , app maker Cheetah Mobile , e-commerce giant JD.com , and online-to-offline (O2O) real estate platform maker Leju . Bags of money. Image source: Getty Images. However, Tencent also holds significant stakes in four U.S. companies -- Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) , Snap (NYSE: SNAP) , Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) , and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) . Glu Mobile Back in 2015, Tencent bought a 15% stake in Glu Mobile for $126 million. It gradually boosted that stake to nearly 21%. Tencent believed that the deal would bring some of its Chinese mobile titles westward, while introducing some of Glu's games to China. However, Glu struggled over the past two years as interest in celebrity-backed games like Kim Kardashian: Hollywood waned. It eventually got its groove back with new titles like Cooking Dash , Covet Fashion , Deer Hunter , Design Home , and MLB Tap Sports Baseball , but its losses widened as it ramped up its sales and marketing efforts. That's why shares of Glu have dropped about 40% since Tencent's initial investment. Nonetheless, brighter days could still be ahead, with analysts expecting 4% sales growth and a return to profitability this year. Snap Tencent made a smarter investment in Snap. It bought a 12% stake in the Snapchat maker late last November when the stock had fallen well below its IPO price of $17 on concerns about its slowing user growth, widening losses, and competition from Instagram. A woman takes a selfie. Image source: Getty Images. However, shares of Snap recently soared back above its IPO price after its fourth quarter report allayed some of those fears. Its year-over-year growth in revenue, daily active users, and average revenue per user all accelerated from the third quarter thanks to a redesign of its platform and a switch to programmatic ad buys. Story continues Snap remains deeply unprofitable, and the stock is pricey at nearly 30 times sales. But the bearish case against the stock has weakened, and it's rallied a whopping 30% since last November. It's unclear if Snap and Tencent's WeChat will ever integrate their features with each other, but Snap previously declared that it was open to sharing "ideas and experiences" with Tencent. Activision Blizzard Tencent was one of several big investors that helped Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick repurchase the company's shares from Vivendi in 2013. Tencent still owns a 5% stake in Activision, which is worth about $2.5 billion after the stock's 400% rally over the past five years. Back in 2015, Activision partnered with Tencent to bring Call of Duty Online to China as a free-to-play game with in-game micro-transactions. That partnership enhancesTencent's gaming business, which owns hit tiles like League of Legends , Clash of Clans , and Arena of Valor ( Honor of Kings ). The growth of those titles lifted Tencent's online gaming revenues by 48% annually last quarter. Tesla Motors Last March, Tencent bought 5% of electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Motors. The stock has risen about 12% since Tencent's investment, which complemented its stakes in Chinese EV maker Nio (formerly known as NextEV) and ride hailing service Didi Chuxing, which bought Uber China and launched a research lab in the US. Chinese OEMs manufactured 43% of the world's EVs in 2016, according to McKinsey & Company. EVs are also considered a major stepping stone toward fully autonomous vehicles, which are currently being tested on public roads in China. Tencent's investments in EV makers and driverless vehicles complement its AI investments . They also widen its moat against online search giant Baidu , which is expanding into the same markets . Is Tencent the "Berkshire of Tech"? Last November, Barron's Assif Shameen told investors to "think of Tencent as a sprawling tech conglomerate in the mold of Berkshire Hathaway ." The comparison isn't perfect, since Berkshire usually pursues value as Tencent pursues growth, but the latter certainly represents a lucrative way for investors to gain exposure to a wide range of promising businesses. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Leo Sun owns shares of Baidu, JD.com, and Tencent Holdings. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Activision Blizzard, Baidu, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), JD.com, Tencent Holdings, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Fitbit Scoops Up Twine Health in Race Against Apple: Fitbit(NYSE: FIT)andApple(NASDAQ: AAPL)are two of the top vendors in the wearables space, grabbing nearly a quarter of the market combined in Q3, according to IDC. However, the market israpidly shiftingaway from basic wearables (like fitness trackers) toward smart wearables (like smartwatches).
Both companies are pinning their hopes on creating digital health platforms that provide users with detailed health data, which in turn can help users improve health as well as proactively monitor for potential health conditions. You could even call it a...wearables arms race. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
Image source: Fitbit.
To that end, Fitbit has just announced that it is acquiring Twine Health, a cloud-based health platform that includes coaching services. We're not just talking about workout coaching (likeFitbit Coach), either. Twine coaches help users comprehensively manage their health by keeping an eye on important metrics like blood pressure or managing chronic conditions, including diabetes and hypertension.
The service can also assist with things like losing weight or quitting smoking. Twine combines artificial intelligence with human coaches to help them scale and assist many patients. Certain parts of the coaching process are automated, complemented by human interactions.
The deal will help accelerate Fitbit's goal of becoming a comprehensive digital health platform -- well beyond just tracking steps and workouts.
The company has also long had aspirations of building a subscription business that would alleviate its reliance on hardware sales. Despite trying to grow subscription revenue for years, less than 1% of revenue comes from subscription-based premium services, suggesting that Fitbit Coach adoption is relatively poor. Twine Health will create "opportunities to increase subscription-based revenue," according to Fitbit.
Image source: Apple.
Twine also has a Workforce Health offering, partnering with employers for enterprise wellness programs that hope to reduce healthcare costs. Fitbit has been making enterprise inroads with its corporate wellness solutions business.
No financial terms were disclosed, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Apple continues to add more and more features to its own digital health platform, the Health app. The Mac maker launched a heart study a couple months ago to identify irregular heart rhythms. Just last month, the company announced that it was adding digital health records to the Health app in the next iOS update (11.3), while allowing participating hospitals and clinics to send patient data to the app so that users have easy access.
Apple doesn't offer any type of human-based health coaching services, but it's conceivable that the company could be interested in such an offering, given its currentemphasis on its services business. If anything, Fitbit acquiring Twine could raise the bar and serve as a catalyst for Apple to create such a service.
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Evan Niu, CFAowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Fitbit. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Fitbit Scoops Up Twine Health in Race Against Apple: Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are two of the top vendors in the wearables space, grabbing nearly a quarter of the market combined in Q3, according to IDC. However, the market is rapidly shifting away from basic wearables (like fitness trackers) toward smart wearables (like smartwatches). Both companies are pinning their hopes on creating digital health platforms that provide users with detailed health data, which in turn can help users improve health as well as proactively monitor for potential health conditions. You could even call it a...wearables arms race. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.) Woman working out wearing a Fitbit Ionic Image source: Fitbit. What is Twine? To that end, Fitbit has just announced that it is acquiring Twine Health, a cloud-based health platform that includes coaching services. We're not just talking about workout coaching (like Fitbit Coach ), either. Twine coaches help users comprehensively manage their health by keeping an eye on important metrics like blood pressure or managing chronic conditions, including diabetes and hypertension. The service can also assist with things like losing weight or quitting smoking. Twine combines artificial intelligence with human coaches to help them scale and assist many patients. Certain parts of the coaching process are automated, complemented by human interactions. How Twine fits in The deal will help accelerate Fitbit's goal of becoming a comprehensive digital health platform -- well beyond just tracking steps and workouts. The company has also long had aspirations of building a subscription business that would alleviate its reliance on hardware sales. Despite trying to grow subscription revenue for years, less than 1% of revenue comes from subscription-based premium services, suggesting that Fitbit Coach adoption is relatively poor. Twine Health will create "opportunities to increase subscription-based revenue," according to Fitbit. Health Records in Health app Image source: Apple. Twine also has a Workforce Health offering, partnering with employers for enterprise wellness programs that hope to reduce healthcare costs. Fitbit has been making enterprise inroads with its corporate wellness solutions business. Story continues No financial terms were disclosed, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter. Apple adds Health Records Meanwhile, Apple continues to add more and more features to its own digital health platform, the Health app. The Mac maker launched a heart study a couple months ago to identify irregular heart rhythms. Just last month, the company announced that it was adding digital health records to the Health app in the next iOS update (11.3), while allowing participating hospitals and clinics to send patient data to the app so that users have easy access. Apple doesn't offer any type of human-based health coaching services, but it's conceivable that the company could be interested in such an offering, given its current emphasis on its services business . If anything, Fitbit acquiring Twine could raise the bar and serve as a catalyst for Apple to create such a service. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Fitbit. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Litecoin creator says the upcoming fork is scam: Most people have absolutely no idea what Litecoin is, or that the sixth cryptocurrency of the world by market cap is about to get a fork of its own much like Bitcoin did last year. Some of those who are aware of Litecoin probably know that Litecoin Cash is coming soon, “sold” as a faster version of Litecoin when it comes to transaction times. Whatever the case, you should stay away from Litecoin Cash right now, as the actual founder of Litecoin sees it as a potential scam. Don't Miss : Amazon has $9.99 LED light bulbs that can be controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant One of the worries with cryptocurrencies these days and the number one reason why regulation is needed is that anyone can launch their own digital coin and scam people out of money. Rinse and repeat when you’re done, there’s no law to stop you. That’s probably why someone other than the Litecoin creator is now looking to launch a fork that has “Litecoin” in its name. As Business Insider explains, Litecoin owners will get 10 Litecoin Cash coins for each Litecoin unit they have when the forks will happen sometime next week. That sounds like a sweet deal, especially if you bought Litecoin token when the price was really low — the coin rose from $3.73 a year ago to $365 in December before plunging to $150-ish right now. But you should handle Litecoin Cash with immense care. Just because it has “Litecoin” in its name doesn’t make it a legit endeavor. The goal of the Litecoin Cash coin is, as stated before to increase “blood speed” to 2.5 minutes. That’s the speed at which the network can process transactions, which should be faster than Litecoin’s. On paper. But it’s not known who operates Litecoin Cash, other than the fact they hide behind the Litecoin Cash Foundation. Litecoin is currently trading at $157.06, some 0.12% lower than yesterday, so the incoming Litecoin Cash fork is yet to dent Litecoin’s market cap or reputation. BGR Top Deals: Amazon has $9.99 LED light bulbs that can be controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant $44 kit converts any car to LED headlights Story continues Trending Right Now: Ancient fossilized mammoth tracks tell a tragic tale, but reveal a family bond Researchers found an easy way to kill the flu virus The hottest iPhone and Android accessory we’ve covered in 2018 so far is only $37 on Amazon See the original version of this article on BGR.com || Litecoin creator says the upcoming fork is scam: Most people have absolutely no idea what Litecoin is, or that the sixth cryptocurrency of the world by market cap is about to get a fork of its own much like Bitcoin did last year. Some of those who are aware of Litecoin probably know that Litecoin Cash is coming soon, “sold” as a faster version of Litecoin when it comes to transaction times. Whatever the case, you should stay away from Litecoin Cash right now, as the actual founder of Litecoin sees it as a potential scam. Don't Miss : Amazon has $9.99 LED light bulbs that can be controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant One of the worries with cryptocurrencies these days and the number one reason why regulation is needed is that anyone can launch their own digital coin and scam people out of money. Rinse and repeat when you’re done, there’s no law to stop you. That’s probably why someone other than the Litecoin creator is now looking to launch a fork that has “Litecoin” in its name. As Business Insider explains, Litecoin owners will get 10 Litecoin Cash coins for each Litecoin unit they have when the forks will happen sometime next week. That sounds like a sweet deal, especially if you bought Litecoin token when the price was really low — the coin rose from $3.73 a year ago to $365 in December before plunging to $150-ish right now. But you should handle Litecoin Cash with immense care. Just because it has “Litecoin” in its name doesn’t make it a legit endeavor. The goal of the Litecoin Cash coin is, as stated before to increase “blood speed” to 2.5 minutes. That’s the speed at which the network can process transactions, which should be faster than Litecoin’s. On paper. But it’s not known who operates Litecoin Cash, other than the fact they hide behind the Litecoin Cash Foundation. Litecoin is currently trading at $157.06, some 0.12% lower than yesterday, so the incoming Litecoin Cash fork is yet to dent Litecoin’s market cap or reputation. BGR Top Deals: Amazon has $9.99 LED light bulbs that can be controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant $44 kit converts any car to LED headlights Story continues Trending Right Now: Ancient fossilized mammoth tracks tell a tragic tale, but reveal a family bond Researchers found an easy way to kill the flu virus The hottest iPhone and Android accessory we’ve covered in 2018 so far is only $37 on Amazon See the original version of this article on BGR.com || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks began Tuesday in the red but recovered by the end of the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) managed a third straight day of gains. Today's stock market Index Percentage Change Point Change Dow 0.16% 39.18 S&P 500 0.26% 6.94 Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Retail stocks did well today, with the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEMKT: XRT) rising 0.5%. As for individual stocks, Under Armour (NYSE: UA) (NYSE: UAA) rose after the athletic wear retailer reported earnings, while Henry Schein (NASDAQ: HSIC) and Patterson Companies (NASDAQ: PDCO) fell on news of a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Wall Street sign in front of New York Stock Exchange. Image source: Getty Images. Under Armour jumps on strong overseas sales Under Armour reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded expectations on the top line, and Class A shares surged 17.4%. Revenue grew 4.6% to $1.37 billion and the company broke even on an adjusted earnings per share basis. Wall Street was expecting breakeven adjusted EPS on sales of $1.31 billion. Revenue to wholesale customers declined 1%, while direct-to-consumer revenue rose 11%. Apparel revenue was up 2% to $952 million, footwear increased 9% to $246 million, and accessories sales grew 6% to $111 million. Revenue in North America fell 4%, but international sales soared 47%, led by a 56% boost in Asia-Pacific. Gross margin declined 150 basis points; selling, general, and administrative expenses increased 40.7%; and inventory grew 26%. The company announced further cost-cutting restructuring efforts that will result in $110 million to $130 million in charges this year. Despite continued challenges in the domestic market and a drop in margins, analysts were impressed the progress the company is making, especially in Asia and in footwear with the new Hovr brand. Looking forward , Under Armour expects 2018 to "end up looking similar to 2017," with revenue up low single digits and full-year adjusted EPS of $0.14 to $0.19, compared with $0.19 in 2017 and analyst expectations for $0.22. Another year of low expectations might actually lead to some more positive surprises in coming quarter. Story continues FTC bites down on Henry Shein and Patterson Companies Shares of dental supply companies Henry Schein and Patterson Companies sank 6.6% and 5.2%, respectively, after the FTC announced it was suing them and privately held Benco Dental Supply for allegedly violating U.S. antitrust laws. The FTC complaint alleges that the companies conspired to refuse to provide discounts or otherwise serve buying groups, which are comprised of solo and small-group dental practices that join together to increase their purchasing power for dental supplies and get lower prices. According to the FTC, the three accused companies control 85% of the $10 billion market for dental products. Henry Shein and Patterson Companies both immediately issued denials of the allegations and said they will vigorously defend themselves. Henry Schein, which was named one of "one of the 2018 world's most ethical companies" by the Ethisphere Institute the very same day that the FTC filed its complaint, said in a press release, "Contrary to the FTC's allegations, the Company was a leader in supplying buying groups, has consistently done business with buying groups, has a dedicated team to serve buying groups, and never entered into an agreement with others to refuse to do business with buying groups." Both companies said the matter will not have a material adverse effect on their financial condition, but investors weren't so sure. The stocks of both have been under pressure in recent months, due to fear that Amazon may step into the market, so it doesn't take much in the way of negative news to bring out the bears. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jim Crumly owns shares of AMZN and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AMZN, Under Armour (A Shares), and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks began Tuesday in the red but recovered by the end of the session. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)and theS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)managed a third straight day of gains.
[{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "0.16%", "Point Change": "39.18"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "0.26%", "Point Change": "6.94"}]
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Retail stocks did well today, with theSPDR S&P Retail ETF(NYSEMKT: XRT)rising 0.5%.
As for individual stocks,Under Armour(NYSE: UA)(NYSE: UAA)rose after the athletic wear retailer reported earnings, whileHenry Schein(NASDAQ: HSIC)andPatterson Companies(NASDAQ: PDCO)fell on news of a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Image source: Getty Images.
Under Armour reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded expectations on the top line, and Class A shares surged 17.4%. Revenue grew 4.6% to $1.37 billion and the company broke even on an adjusted earnings per share basis. Wall Street was expecting breakeven adjusted EPS on sales of $1.31 billion.
Revenue to wholesale customers declined 1%, while direct-to-consumer revenue rose 11%. Apparel revenue was up 2% to $952 million, footwear increased 9% to $246 million, and accessories sales grew 6% to $111 million. Revenue in North America fell 4%, but international sales soared 47%, led by a 56% boost in Asia-Pacific.
Gross margin declined 150 basis points; selling, general, and administrative expenses increased 40.7%; and inventory grew 26%. The company announced further cost-cutting restructuring efforts that will result in $110 million to $130 million in charges this year.
Despite continued challenges in the domestic market and a drop in margins, analysts were impressed the progress the company is making, especially in Asia and in footwear with the new Hovr brand.Looking forward, Under Armour expects 2018 to "end up looking similar to 2017," with revenue up low single digits and full-year adjusted EPS of $0.14 to $0.19, compared with $0.19 in 2017 and analyst expectations for $0.22. Another year of low expectations might actually lead to some more positive surprises in coming quarter.
Shares of dental supply companies Henry Schein and Patterson Companies sank 6.6% and 5.2%, respectively, after the FTCannounced it was suingthem and privately held Benco Dental Supply for allegedly violating U.S. antitrust laws.
The FTC complaint alleges that the companies conspired to refuse to provide discounts or otherwise serve buying groups, which are comprised of solo and small-group dental practices that join together to increase their purchasing power for dental supplies and get lower prices. According to the FTC, the three accused companies control 85% of the $10 billion market for dental products.
Henry Shein and Patterson Companies both immediately issued denials of the allegations and said they will vigorously defend themselves. Henry Schein, which was named one of "one of the 2018 world's most ethical companies" by the Ethisphere Institute the very same day that the FTC filed its complaint, said in a press release, "Contrary to the FTC's allegations, the Company was a leader in supplying buying groups, has consistently done business with buying groups, has a dedicated team to serve buying groups, and never entered into an agreement with others to refuse to do business with buying groups."
Both companies said the matter will not have a material adverse effect on their financial condition, but investors weren't so sure. The stocks of both have been under pressure in recent months, due to fear thatAmazonmay step into the market, so it doesn't take much in the way of negative news to bring out the bears.
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Jim Crumlyowns shares of AMZN and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AMZN, Under Armour (A Shares), and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Millions of Cryptocurrency Owners Could Be Making a Big Mistake: It's been a slow day for the major cryptocurrencies on Tuesday, with bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Cardano barely changed over the past 24 hours. After a multiday rally that sent all of the leading cryptocurrencies up by double digits over the past week, it appears that the market could be running out of steam, at least temporarily.
Despite the quiet cryptocurrency market, there could be trouble on the horizon for many investors, according to a new Credit Karma study. It appears that few investors are reporting cryptocurrency profits on their 2017 tax returns, which could lead to penalties and back taxes down the road.
Image source: Getty Images.
First, here's a quick look at the five largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours.
[{"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin (BTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$8.689.30", "Day's Change": "(1.6%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ethereum (ETH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$846.83", "Day's Change": "(2.6%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ripple (XRP)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$1.00", "Day's Change": "(2.9%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin Cash (BCH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$1,242.60", "Day's Change": "(2.4%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Cardano (ADA)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.37", "Day's Change": "0.7%"}]
Data source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of 3:30 p.m. EST on Feb. 13, 2018, and prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate.
Bitcoin's value increased more than tenfold in 2017, and many other cryptocurrencies performed even better. According to estimates, about 7% of Americans own cryptocurrencies, and a recent Credit Karma survey found that 57% of cryptocurrency owners have realized gains on their investments. So, it's safe to assume that a significant number of investors have made a profit from them.
However, you wouldn't know that based on their tax returns. Fewer than 100 out of 250,000 Americans who have filed taxes using Credit Karma have reported any taxable cryptocurrency gains for 2017. That's a rate of less than 0.04%. What's more, onlyone personout of the quarter-million tax returns disclosed a "significant" gain or loss.
To be fair, people with large capital gains who expect to owe money tend to file later in the season, so I expect an uptick in the number of returns with cryptocurrency profits as we get closer to the April tax deadline. Even so, 0.04% is an alarmingly low rate.
If you made any profits on the sale of cryptocurrencies, it's important to realize that they areconsidered to be capital gainsfor tax purposes. In other words, they are governed by the same tax rules that apply if you had sold stock for a profit.
Long-term capital gains -- if you held your cryptocurrency for over a year -- are taxed at more favorablerates, whileshort-term gainsare taxed as ordinary income. For example, someone who bought bitcoin and sold it a few months later at a $10,000 profit, and is in the 25% federalincome tax bracketfor 2017, would owe the IRS $2,500.
Finally, it's also important to realize that the IRS knows that there's money being made in cryptocurrencies, and is taking steps to come after people who don't pay taxes on their gains. Last year, for example, it sued Coinbase for access to customer records after only about 800 people reported any bitcoin gains or losses in 2015.
The IRS can and will come after people who made money on cryptocurrencies in 2017, and will not only send a bill for taxes due but can assesspenalties and interestfor underpayment of tax.
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Matt Frankelowns Ethereum tokens. The Motley Fool has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Millions of Cryptocurrency Owners Could Be Making a Big Mistake: It's been a slow day for the major cryptocurrencies on Tuesday, with bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Cardano barely changed over the past 24 hours. After a multiday rally that sent all of the leading cryptocurrencies up by double digits over the past week, it appears that the market could be running out of steam, at least temporarily. Despite the quiet cryptocurrency market, there could be trouble on the horizon for many investors, according to a new Credit Karma study. It appears that few investors are reporting cryptocurrency profits on their 2017 tax returns, which could lead to penalties and back taxes down the road. 1040 tax forms with a calculator, an open graph notebook, and black fountain pen on a green background. Image source: Getty Images. Today's cryptocurrency prices First, here's a quick look at the five largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours. Cryptocurrency Name (Code) Price in U.S. Dollars Day's Change Bitcoin (BTC) $8.689.30 (1.6%) Ethereum (ETH) $846.83 (2.6%) Ripple (XRP) $1.00 (2.9%) Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $1,242.60 (2.4%) Cardano (ADA) $0.37 0.7% Data source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of 3:30 p.m. EST on Feb. 13, 2018, and prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate. Few investors are paying cryptocurrency taxes Bitcoin's value increased more than tenfold in 2017, and many other cryptocurrencies performed even better. According to estimates, about 7% of Americans own cryptocurrencies, and a recent Credit Karma survey found that 57% of cryptocurrency owners have realized gains on their investments. So, it's safe to assume that a significant number of investors have made a profit from them. However, you wouldn't know that based on their tax returns. Fewer than 100 out of 250,000 Americans who have filed taxes using Credit Karma have reported any taxable cryptocurrency gains for 2017. That's a rate of less than 0.04%. What's more, only one person out of the quarter-million tax returns disclosed a "significant" gain or loss. Story continues To be fair, people with large capital gains who expect to owe money tend to file later in the season, so I expect an uptick in the number of returns with cryptocurrency profits as we get closer to the April tax deadline. Even so, 0.04% is an alarmingly low rate. Crypto profits are capital gains If you made any profits on the sale of cryptocurrencies, it's important to realize that they are considered to be capital gains for tax purposes. In other words, they are governed by the same tax rules that apply if you had sold stock for a profit. Long-term capital gains -- if you held your cryptocurrency for over a year -- are taxed at more favorable rates , while short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income. For example, someone who bought bitcoin and sold it a few months later at a $10,000 profit, and is in the 25% federal income tax bracket for 2017, would owe the IRS $2,500. Don't mess with the IRS Finally, it's also important to realize that the IRS knows that there's money being made in cryptocurrencies, and is taking steps to come after people who don't pay taxes on their gains. Last year, for example, it sued Coinbase for access to customer records after only about 800 people reported any bitcoin gains or losses in 2015. The IRS can and will come after people who made money on cryptocurrencies in 2017, and will not only send a bill for taxes due but can assess penalties and interest for underpayment of tax. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matt Frankel owns Ethereum tokens. The Motley Fool has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Twitter, AmerisourceBergen, and Chegg Jumped Today: Tuesday continued the market's upward momentum, with major benchmarks bouncing back from losses early in the morning session to end modestly higher. The Dow picked up about 39 points, and other stock indexes climbed between 0.25% and 0.5% as market participants appreciated the restoration of calmer trading conditions. With economic and geopolitical considerations all having found a rough equilibrium, many investors are focusing more closely on individual stocks, some of which enjoyed considerable gains today. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) , AmerisourceBergen (NYSE: ABC) , and Chegg (NYSE: CHGG) were among the best performers. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well. Twitter keeps singing a happy song Shares of Twitter rose another 8%, continuing a positive trend that has persisted throughout much of the past several months. Most investors in the social media giant focused on the company's quarterly financial release late last week , which featured huge increases in ad engagement and earnings per share. Even though user growth still remains subdued, guidance for the near future points toward expanded demand for advertising and a greater emphasis on data and enterprise solutions. With the stock having doubled just since September, it'll be important for Twitter to follow through on investor expectations in order to hold onto its gains. Screen of TWTR stock tickers with up arrows on a blue background. Image source: Twitter. For AmerisourceBergen, gains are as easy as A-B-C AmerisourceBergen stock climbed 9% after investors reacted to reports that Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) might be looking to purchase the drug distribution giant. Many industry followers have argued that given the competitive pressure from an e-commerce-led consortium seeking to make monumental changes to healthcare, traditional players in the industry would have to make moves to consolidate their operations and fight. A Walgreens-Amerisource deal would definitely qualify in that category, bringing together two giants that already have considerable power to negotiate and control costs. Yet some still fear that even a combination between two industry behemoths won't be enough to hold innovation at bay without further strategic moves, and so it'll be interesting to see whether this speculation results in an actual deal. Story continues Chegg hits the e-books Finally, shares of Chegg soared 17% . The educational specialist reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 financial results that included dramatic jumps in revenue, subscriber counts, and content views, reflecting a successful transition to a digital strategy for the former textbook specialist. Chegg celebrated a number of milestones over the past year, including acquisitions to broaden subject coverage and go beyond educational materials toward career services and alternative learning methods. If connected learning keeps gaining traction, then Chegg will find itself positioned well for what lies ahead for the industry. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Twitter. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Twitter, AmerisourceBergen, and Chegg Jumped Today: Tuesday continued the market's upward momentum, with major benchmarks bouncing back from losses early in the morning session to end modestly higher. TheDowpicked up about 39 points, and other stock indexes climbed between 0.25% and 0.5% as market participants appreciated the restoration of calmer trading conditions. With economic and geopolitical considerations all having found a rough equilibrium, many investors are focusing more closely on individual stocks, some of which enjoyed considerable gains today.Twitter(NYSE: TWTR),AmerisourceBergen(NYSE: ABC), andChegg(NYSE: CHGG)were among the best performers. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.
Shares of Twitter rose another 8%, continuing a positive trend that has persisted throughout much of the past several months. Most investors in the social media giant focused on thecompany's quarterly financial release late last week, which featured huge increases in ad engagement and earnings per share. Even though user growth still remains subdued, guidance for the near future points toward expanded demand for advertising and a greater emphasis on data and enterprise solutions. With the stock having doubled just since September, it'll be important for Twitter to follow through on investor expectations in order to hold onto its gains.
Image source: Twitter.
AmerisourceBergen stock climbed 9% after investors reacted to reports thatWalgreens Boots Alliance(NASDAQ: WBA)might be looking to purchase the drug distribution giant. Many industry followers have argued that given thecompetitive pressure from an e-commerce-led consortiumseeking to make monumental changes to healthcare, traditional players in the industry would have to make moves to consolidate their operations and fight. A Walgreens-Amerisource deal would definitely qualify in that category, bringing together two giants that already have considerable power to negotiate and control costs. Yet some still fear that even a combination between two industry behemoths won't be enough to hold innovation at bay without further strategic moves, and so it'll be interesting to see whether this speculation results in an actual deal.
Finally, shares ofChegg soared 17%. The educational specialist reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 financial results that included dramatic jumps in revenue, subscriber counts, and content views, reflecting a successful transition to a digital strategy for the former textbook specialist. Chegg celebrated a number of milestones over the past year, including acquisitions to broaden subject coverage and go beyond educational materials toward career services and alternative learning methods. If connected learning keeps gaining traction, then Chegg will find itself positioned well for what lies ahead for the industry.
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Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Twitter. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Reviewing David’s '5 Stocks to Buy Into the Teeth of the Bear,’ and Picking 5 More: When Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner recommends stocks on theRule Breaker Investingpodcast, you can be sure of one thing: He'll check back in regularly to tell you how they're doing compared to the market. Win or lose, he keeps score, and owns up to the results.
About two years ago, the market was in a bit of a trough, so our host offered up five smaller low-risk stocks to buy to feed the bear. While Wall Street has rebounded nicely since then, it looks like we're back in correction mode, which makes it an interesting moment to tally up the score. And even better, it's the perfect time to recommend another set of five low-risk stocks to buy -- but this time, he'll choose from among the market's giants.
A full transcript follows the video.
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This video was recorded on Feb. 7, 2018.
David Gardner:Welcome back toRule Breaker Investing. Hey, how about that stock market? It's been an interesting last week.
A week ago, I think I hit an all-time high for my portfolio. You might have done the same for yours. We talked about that -- how amazing the market had been. And one week later, for at least my portfolio, if I'm any kind of a bogey for you, I was down 8% from Monday to Monday. I'm taping this on Tuesday amid volatile markets, so it was a very bad week.
But let's be clear. One bad week is not a bear market. This is nothing compared to what a bear market sometimes can be or feel like. I don't think that you should start hunkering down, or think that the worst is past, or anything like that. I make no promises or predictions about the performance of the overall market going forward. I never do that -- I think you know that -- on this show. I don't think it's worth doing.
I will say when the stock market hits big headlines, it's usually negative. It's usually that the market's going down. That's why I tweeted out one of my favorite quotes a day or two ago. "Stocks always go down faster than they go up, but they always go up more than they go down."
I'll say that again. "Stocks always go down faster than they go up, but they always go up more than they go down."
You have to hold both of those seemingly opposed thoughts in your head to survive bull markets and bear. People can make bad decisions in both of them -- overspeculating in bull markets or failing to keep buying in bear markets. We don't do that as Rule Breakers. You and I -- we're committed regularly to investing in the market.
So what I would suggest that you do is that you should buy some stocks this week, and I was thinking the same last week and the week before. For a lot of us, we can't do it every week. Maybe we're getting a paycheck every two weeks. How about every two weeks, good markets and bad? I don't care where the Dow has been or where it will be going. Just buy and keep adding to the great companies that we talk about here, on this podcast, and in my servicesMotley FoolStock AdvisorandMotley FoolRule Breakers.
I'll mention I think we're running a special onStock Advisorright now. Last week, I hit a new high watermark. The average return of the stocks that I picked inMotley FoolStock Advisortipped over 500%. I think it's called something like the "DG 500 Celebration," and if you're not already aMotley FoolStock Advisormember, maybe google that, or call our Member Services. Sign up becauseMotley FoolStock Advisoris a tremendous service, and so isRule Breakers. I think the key to these services is that we keep recommending stocks every single month. It's just setting the right rhythm of investing.
Speaking of stocks, I am picking stocks this podcast. It's perfect timing, I think, because I'd already mentioned to you last week we were going to pick a five-stock sampler -- five stocks going forward this week -- but what fun, in a sense, that it's happening as the markets are volatile and have made a significant drop over the last week.
But I'm not just picking stocks this week. I'm also reviewing a five-stock sampler that I picked two years ago this week. Ironically enough, the name of that five-stock sampler two years ago -- you can go back and listen to it -- its name was picked by my producer, Rick Engdahl. I had a different name for it, but Rick put this name on. And it's so perfect now -- looking backward two years later --Five Stocks to Feed the Bear. So we're going to review, in a little bit, those five stocks and see how they've done before picking five new ones.
Now, one bookkeeping note before we get to it -- and you can file this one under "Dave is a fool." Quite a lot of the time, actually. And this makes me chuckle. I know it makes her chuckle, as well, what I'm about to share with you. But last week, on our mailbag, my biggest fan in the world, self-proclaimed, I was calling "Gum," a name that was spelled J-U-M-M. My correspondent who wrote into the mailbag -- and I shared it with you last week -- tried to explain how the name was pronounced, and so as I spoke to my "biggest fan" in the world last week, not only was I constantly mispronouncing Jumm as Gum, because sure enough, the name is J-U-M-M, but I was also saying he when, as it turns out, Jumm is a she.
So when you make mistakes, it's awfully nice -- isn't it? -- when somebody else comes along and picks you up off the floor. I received this note helping me out this week from Jumm. It reads like this:
David, thank you so very much for answering and responding to my mailbag. I'm writing this message to you because I think I failed at introducing myself to you properly.
Who was once -- maybe still is, I don't know -- but was once, anyway, my biggest fan.
Without further ado, let's strap ourselves into the Wayback Machine. Two years ago, the podcast was published February 10, 2016. At the time -- I listened again to it -- at the time, I was saying we're six months into a bear market, which was probably news to a lot of people and funny to look back on because, from August 2015 to February 2016, my portfolio had dropped 25%. I don't know about yours.
But that's a really bad six months, so I always smile when I hear people say we haven't had a bear market, [but] there's a bull market that's been going for eight or nine years. I can assure you, my fellow Fools, you were with me listening to my podcast back then, some of you. You'll remember that my portfolio, maybe yours, had lost one-quarter of its value in six months. Stocks likeApple(NASDAQ: AAPL),Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN), andDisney --all three of those companies had lost more than 20% of their value in the previous three months. And it was that very week, two years ago, that I picked five stocks.
In fact, I was using this phrase. I was saying, "So, let's pick stocks right into the teeth of this bear market." And there were two traits that we were focused on with the five stocks. The first was stocks with low risk ratings. Lower-risk companies. That always feels good going into a bear market -- to have lower-risk companies in your portfolio. All of these companies had risk ratings of five or six.
And if you're a longtime listener, you know that we do risk ratings. I've done a series, here in this podcast, about our Motley Fool risk ratings, and so I was intentionally picking five and six. That's a very low number on our zero to 25 point scale -- where higher is riskier -- so five and six are among the safest stocks that I think you can find.
I should mention that our definition of risk -- which isn't always a traditional one -- our definition of risk is the chance that if you [were to] hold this company for a significant amount of time, that you would lose a significant amount of your capital. That's how I think of risk. That's the risk I'm trying to avoid, so when I'm picking stocks that are at a five or six, we're saying there's a very low-risk chance of that.
The second trait, in addition to low risk, that we pick -- and it kind of fights against the first trait -- is that I was looking at small companies. All of these companies had market caps from $1 billion-$5 billion. Now, usually bigger companies are safer. They'reThe Unsinkable Molly Browns of the investment world. Companies like, let's say, Apple, Amazon, and Disney, which I just mentioned to you, had dropped 20% the previous three months before I did that podcast two years ago. Usually, those companies are safer bets.
To pick lower-risk companies that are small -- that's a very interesting set. And what I was saying two years ago is that since the stock market had performed so badly, often these kinds of companies can snap back faster and better from smaller market caps than the big dogs. So those were the two traits that I was picking toward, and now we're going to review, two years later, how they've done.
I should first mention that I did review their performance last year, so one year ago today, on this podcast, I went over it and they were doing really well. In fact, their average performance was up 51% in that year following vs. the market, which had also been very strong, up 25%. So pretty awesome. Those five stocks up 51%, on average, vs. the market's 25%, so we give ourselves a plus 26 in the win column for the average market-beating power of those stocks. Let's fast forward one more year and see how things are going.
Stock No. 1: The first one up isCarter's(NYSE: CRI). The ticker symbol is CRI. Carter's is the kids' apparel brand, and when I reviewed the five stocks last year, this is the only one that was down, so far. I'm happy to say Carter's has snapped back in the past year. Two years ago, I picked it at $84. Today it's at $116. That's even after a really bad market week, so Carter's is up 38%.
That's pretty good news. I'm glad that Carter's has come back. At the time, I was playing up its timeless brand, the way that you can find these clothes offline and online, domestically and internationally. I was playing up, even though it's a small company, the timelessness of its business and brand.
The good news is, it's up 38%. The bad news is, the market now, over the two years, is up 42%, so after another good market year, Carter's is actually behind the market. We have to put one in the loss column here. Carter's up 38%, the S&P 500 up 42%. That's a minus 4%.
Stock No. 2: Stock No. 2 isIPG Photonics(NASDAQ: IPGP). The ticker symbol is IPGP. Two years ago, the world leader in fiber lasers, which is what IPG Photonics is with its Russian-born, Russian-American founder, Valentin Gapontsev. Two years ago, the stock was at $80. Really happy to report to you today the stock, even after a really bad week, is at $235. So this stock is up 194%.
A pretty good two years for my second-favorite stock on this list. If it's up 194%, since we talked about on this podcast two years ago, with the market up 42% in the meantime, we can give ourselves a plus 152%. We've taken a strong lead now over the market with this group. We're at a plus 148% if you're keeping score with me at home.
At the time, I was saying that what I liked about IPG -- and I still do -- is it's a stellar, long-term performer. It has a strong balance sheet. And I did something when we first recommended it inMotley FoolRule Breakersabout 10 years ago. I did something I rarely do, which is that I picked it, and then it dropped, and then we re-recommended it and bought some more.
Any longtime Rule Breaker knows we tend not to add to our losers. However, when you do have a company with an excellent past, which IPG had at the time, and a strong balance sheet, it's OK, sometimes, to break our rules. We're Rule Breakers, after all, aren't we? It's OK, sometimes, to break our rules and I'm darn glad that we did with IPG Photonics. It has been a monster winner forRule Breakersmembers, lo, these past 10 years. In fact, from that lower position when we re-added it, it's now a 17-bagger.
Stock No. 3: Let's go next to stock No. 3. Stock No. 3 isEllie Mae(NYSE: ELLI). The ticker symbol is ELLI. By the way, all five of these companies remain active recommendations in eitherMotley FoolStock AdvisororRule Breakers. If you're a Supernova -- if you're aMotley FoolSupernovamember -- you'll recognize them all as members of ourSupernovauniverse, so they continue to be here years later.
Ellie Mae two years ago was at $62. This is the company that, through its Encompass platform, basically serves the mortgage industry. Mortgage originators. And in addition to being a leader at what it does, it took its whole business up into the cloud a few years ago, which was really smart. Good thinking ahead on their part. It's also a subscription business -- my favorite type of business model -- where people re-up from one year to the next if they're happy with you.
Ellie Mae I'm pretty happy with. The stock -- $62 two years ago. Today, $87. That's a nice 40% gain, but I can't be terribly happy with it, because I think you already know the market is up 42% over the last two years, so Ellie Mae is slightly losing to the market. That's a minus 2%. That brings our overall return number of plus 148% down to plus 146%. Keep up the good work, Ellie Mae! I trust we will beat the market with you over the next few years.
Stock No. 4: All right, Stock No. 4. "No Lunks." That's the phrase thatPlanet Fitness(NYSE: PLNT)has used a lot in order to democratize working out. Now, I don't know that that's an industry that needed to be, in my words "democratized," but if you think about something like Gold's Gym or those more intense gym brands and types of people who go to gyms, Planet Fitness is trying to be the gym for the rest of us.
It's certainly been a good stock. Two years ago, it was at $13 as I picked it on this podcast. Today, it's at $31, so take the numbers one, three and just transpose them -- and you get where Planet Fitness is today. That's a gain of 138%, so that's been a really good stock. In fact, that's 96% ahead of the market, which brings us up to a plus 242% -- a pretty staggeringly great total for these four stocks. Thank you, Planet Fitness!
You know, I love democratizing forces in the markets in business. Even something likeNetflixI think of in the same vein. Just think about how cheap Netflix is on a monthly basis, especially when you compare it to the cable bill you might have been paying. If you still are paying, you can see how Netflix has made more and better entertainment more and more affordable, not just domestically, but globally over the last 10 years or so. So democratizing forces. Companies that have a great product and bring it in at a lower price point -- these are sometimes some of our best companies.
Stock No. 5: Wait! Did I just say the phrase "best companies?" Best? Good, because we're coming up on the best stock pick that was made. Yup, we're saving the best for last. The fifth stock that I presented two years ago wasMercadoLibre(NASDAQ: MELI).
MercadoLibre, the founder-led leader in Latin American e-commerce. One of our longtimeRule Breakersholdings. This has been a monster stock. And these last two years -- I hope you were with me two years ago. And I hope, if you didn't already own MercadoLibre, I hope you bought that day, and if you did, you paid $89 a share. Really happy to say, even after a bad market week, the stock is at $348.5.
So if you're still with me on my running tally, we were at plus 242% before this one, but I'm happy to say that this stock, on its own, eclipses all of the other four put together. It's at pus 292%. That's exactly 250 points over the market.
This is almost embarrassing how good this list of stocks is. I mean, I have to be laughing a little bit as I share this with you, because I'm certainly not this good. I don't think anybody or anyone is this good, but two years ago, for one week on this podcast, we were this good.
Yup, add 'em up: 242 plus 250 is 292% ahead of the market for these five stocks. That's an average return of 140% -- again, with the market up 42% -- so we're absolutely and utterly destroying the market with ourFive Stocks to Feed the Bear.
Could there be any better advertisement for the stocks that I'm about to pick for you, theNext Five Stocks to Feed the Bear, than what you've just heard? I don't think there could be. I hope it doesn't sound like bragging, but we just need to let facts speak for themselves. It was an awesome podcast two years ago.
And now, five more stocks to feed the "new" bear market. I'm so glad that I'm able to recommend companies right in the teeth of what's happened over the last week or so, and as always, the stocks that I'm picking, I'm doing for the next three-plus years at a minimum. So, whether we've had a good one- or even two-year run, as we talked about earlier on the show, doesn't matter that much to me. We're playing the long game here at The Motley Fool and as Rule Breakers.
I'm going to switch up, though, the traits that I'm using for this set of stocks. I'm still going to stay with low risk. That feels good to me in down markets. But I'm going to go to the biggest of the big low-risk companies in our portfolio. It very likely means you will not see anything like the returns that patient, faithful, long-time listeners have enjoyed in "stocks that feed the bear market" of past podcasts. There's no way that the five companies I'm about to share with you could multiply in the same way that a company like IPG Photonics, or even better, MercadoLibre has done.
In fact, I was looking at a list of smaller companies, using the same traits that I picked two years ago, and the short list of companies had several of the ones that we've already covered, so if I used the exact same attributes, I would repick Carter's. I would repick Ellie Mae and Planet Fitness. One of the reasons I wouldn't be repicking MercadoLibre is when a stock almost quadruples, it's no longer going to have the market cap to stay as a small-cap company. But anyway, so a lot of the companies would just be repicked.
That's why I thought it would be more fun to have a fresh list of five new stocks for you. These are all companies with market caps of $150 billion or more, so the smallest of these is at least 30 times larger as a company, with its market cap, than any of the companies I picked two years ago.
And I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining or previewing these companies for you. I'm going to give you the short list pretty quickly, because most of us already know these companies and what they do. Alphabetically then:
Stock No. 1: Stock No. 1 to feed the bear market is Apple. I bet you've heard of it. I just spent a happy hour-and-a-half, or so, in the Apple store last week getting my iPhone replaced. My iPhone X had developed a scary, strong pink line right down the center from top to bottom, and I was happy to say that Apple said it's still under warranty, and here you go, Mr. Gardner.
You do have to wait an hour, though, which was kind of a bummer, but in the Apple store, if you do what I do, you just start walking around and you just buy stuff. So I started buying more stuff in the Apple store. It was a brilliant strategy. It may work on other customers besides just me. Anyway, Apple.
Stock No. 2: Stock No. 2 -- Amazon. Again, I bet you've heard of it. This is a great company to own through all markets. And as wonderful as Amazon has been, looking backward, all that really matters is what happens going forward from here, and I like Amazon to beat the market the next three-plus years.
Stock No. 3: This one is third, alphabetically, with its ticker symbol GOOG, but it is first alphabetically with its name, because GOOG these days is rocking the corporate name ofAlphabet(NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG). And so yes, Alphabet is another one of those massive companies that has done so well.
And yet, ask yourself who's going to win over the next five, 10, 15 years? Do you think the company that has spread itself out into lots of different businesses probably spends more R&D [research and development] and takes more risk than any other company at that scale that I can think of? Do you think they're going to beat the market as the world increasingly adds AI [artificial intelligence] to all kinds of products and services, and surrounds us with better intelligence? Pretty sure Google's going to do well, and since that's the crown gem of Alphabet, I feel really good about Alphabet stock the next three-plus years, bear market or not.
Stock No. 4: This company is the worldwide leader treating diabetes. It is not an American company. In fact, it is based... I am going to butcher this word. Anytime you spell a word B-A-G-S-V-AE-R-D, you're going to put me in a bad place, but let's go with Bagsvaerd, Denmark. The company isNovo Nordisk(NYSE: NVO). The ticker symbol is NVO. As I share it with you, I see the stock trading just above $48 a share. That tips the market cap scales at $122 billion.
Novo Nordisk I first picked forMotley FoolStock Advisorin September of 2015. It's up 6%. Bad news, though. The market's up about 50%, so this stock pick of mine is already 44% behind the market. But here we are. It's a new day. It's the next five stocks to feed the bear market, and I'm putting Novo Nordisk on that list, expecting better things in the three-plus years ahead.
Stock No. 5: And finally, stock No. 5. We're staying outside U.S. borders for this one, as well. The ticker symbol is TCEHY. It is one of our more recent picks. We picked this inMotley FoolRule Breakersin September of last year. The stock's up 24% so far against the market's about 5% return, soTencent Holdingshas been a solid pick forRule Breakers.
The company is one of the largest internet companies in the world. The WeChat mobile chat service dominates China. If you're a ChineseRule Breakerslistener, you already know WeChat. Even if you're not a ChineseRule Breakerslistener, you may well have heard of WeChat for a country that uses its mobile phones to do way more things than we in the U.S. have so far used our mobile phones to do. To pay for almost everything. To add new forms of convenience to our lives. Chinese consumers and Chinese investors are pretty happy with Tencent Holdings and WeChat, among other things.
There you have it, theNext Five Stocks to Feed the Bear Market. Closing it out, it was Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Novo Nordisk and Tencent Holdings.
And that's what I have for you this week. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you, in a good market or a bad market. That's what we do here atRule Breakers. We just keep investing. Finding great companies and trying to buy as much of them as we can and hold them over time.
Next week, we have a special guest -- Kevin Kelly, the co-founder ofWired. I'm going to be interviewing him at TheMotley Fool ONEconference in San Francisco, and that experience I will share with you directly through this podcast next week. His book,The Inevitable, is my topic. If you've not already readThe Inevitable, and you want to try it maybe with an Audible audiobook the next week or so, that's great prep reading for the interview you'll hear next week. It's an outstanding book about the future 12 technological forces that will shape our future.
In the meantime, Fool on!
As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing atRBI.Fool.com.
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.David Gardnerowns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Ellie Mae, IPG Photonics, MercadoLibre, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Carter's, Ellie Mae, IPG Photonics, MercadoLibre, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk and Planet Fitness. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Reviewing David’s '5 Stocks to Buy Into the Teeth of the Bear,’ and Picking 5 More: When Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner recommends stocks on the Rule Breaker Investing podcast, you can be sure of one thing: He'll check back in regularly to tell you how they're doing compared to the market. Win or lose, he keeps score, and owns up to the results. About two years ago, the market was in a bit of a trough, so our host offered up five smaller low-risk stocks to buy to feed the bear. While Wall Street has rebounded nicely since then, it looks like we're back in correction mode, which makes it an interesting moment to tally up the score. And even better, it's the perfect time to recommend another set of five low-risk stocks to buy -- but this time, he'll choose from among the market's giants. A full transcript follows the video. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This This video was recorded on Feb. 7, 2018. David Gardner: Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing . Hey, how about that stock market? It's been an interesting last week. A week ago, I think I hit an all-time high for my portfolio. You might have done the same for yours. We talked about that -- how amazing the market had been. And one week later, for at least my portfolio, if I'm any kind of a bogey for you, I was down 8% from Monday to Monday. I'm taping this on Tuesday amid volatile markets, so it was a very bad week. But let's be clear. One bad week is not a bear market. This is nothing compared to what a bear market sometimes can be or feel like. I don't think that you should start hunkering down, or think that the worst is past, or anything like that. I make no promises or predictions about the performance of the overall market going forward. I never do that -- I think you know that -- on this show. I don't think it's worth doing. Story continues I will say when the stock market hits big headlines, it's usually negative. It's usually that the market's going down. That's why I tweeted out one of my favorite quotes a day or two ago. "Stocks always go down faster than they go up, but they always go up more than they go down." I'll say that again. "Stocks always go down faster than they go up, but they always go up more than they go down." You have to hold both of those seemingly opposed thoughts in your head to survive bull markets and bear. People can make bad decisions in both of them -- overspeculating in bull markets or failing to keep buying in bear markets. We don't do that as Rule Breakers. You and I -- we're committed regularly to investing in the market. So what I would suggest that you do is that you should buy some stocks this week, and I was thinking the same last week and the week before. For a lot of us, we can't do it every week. Maybe we're getting a paycheck every two weeks. How about every two weeks, good markets and bad? I don't care where the Dow has been or where it will be going. Just buy and keep adding to the great companies that we talk about here, on this podcast, and in my services Motley Fool Stock Advisor and Motley Fool Rule Breakers . I'll mention I think we're running a special on Stock Advisor right now. Last week, I hit a new high watermark. The average return of the stocks that I picked in Motley Fool Stock Advisor tipped over 500%. I think it's called something like the "DG 500 Celebration," and if you're not already a Motley Fool Stock Advisor member, maybe google that, or call our Member Services. Sign up because Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a tremendous service, and so is Rule Breakers . I think the key to these services is that we keep recommending stocks every single month. It's just setting the right rhythm of investing. Speaking of stocks, I am picking stocks this podcast. It's perfect timing, I think, because I'd already mentioned to you last week we were going to pick a five-stock sampler -- five stocks going forward this week -- but what fun, in a sense, that it's happening as the markets are volatile and have made a significant drop over the last week. But I'm not just picking stocks this week. I'm also reviewing a five-stock sampler that I picked two years ago this week. Ironically enough, the name of that five-stock sampler two years ago -- you can go back and listen to it -- its name was picked by my producer, Rick Engdahl. I had a different name for it, but Rick put this name on. And it's so perfect now -- looking backward two years later -- Five Stocks to Feed the Bear . So we're going to review, in a little bit, those five stocks and see how they've done before picking five new ones. Now, one bookkeeping note before we get to it -- and you can file this one under "Dave is a fool." Quite a lot of the time, actually. And this makes me chuckle. I know it makes her chuckle, as well, what I'm about to share with you. But last week, on our mailbag, my biggest fan in the world, self-proclaimed, I was calling "Gum," a name that was spelled J-U-M-M. My correspondent who wrote into the mailbag -- and I shared it with you last week -- tried to explain how the name was pronounced, and so as I spoke to my "biggest fan" in the world last week, not only was I constantly mispronouncing Jumm as Gum, because sure enough, the name is J-U-M-M, but I was also saying he when, as it turns out, Jumm is a she. So when you make mistakes, it's awfully nice -- isn't it? -- when somebody else comes along and picks you up off the floor. I received this note helping me out this week from Jumm. It reads like this: David, thank you so very much for answering and responding to my mailbag. I'm writing this message to you because I think I failed at introducing myself to you properly. I know after you read this you would feel bad, but please do not. I am smiling as I type this, knowing you, the man with 'extreme ownership,' you would feel bad for mispronouncing my name, but I take full responsibility for not being clear in my previous email. My name is J-U-M-M and you do say it with the 'J' sound. When I told you that it sounds like 'gum,' I referred to the vowel sound of the 'uh' part of it. See, people always say my name with the 'ooh,' like J-O-O-M, so I just thought I would let you know it's not Joom. It's Jumm. More importantly, I failed to let you know that I am one of your female listeners. I didn't realize you called me a 'he' until I listened to the episode the second time. I was too excited to hear you read my email out loud [LOL]. Stocks and investing are somewhat perceived as male-dominated areas. I think you would be happy to know that you have female listeners and investors out there, as well. Thank you, again, for taking the time to read my email. Looking forward to more amazing episodes of Rule Breaker [Investing] . Signed, Jumm." Who was once -- maybe still is, I don't know -- but was once, anyway, my biggest fan. Without further ado, let's strap ourselves into the Wayback Machine. Two years ago, the podcast was published February 10, 2016. At the time -- I listened again to it -- at the time, I was saying we're six months into a bear market, which was probably news to a lot of people and funny to look back on because, from August 2015 to February 2016, my portfolio had dropped 25%. I don't know about yours. But that's a really bad six months, so I always smile when I hear people say we haven't had a bear market, [but] there's a bull market that's been going for eight or nine years. I can assure you, my fellow Fools, you were with me listening to my podcast back then, some of you. You'll remember that my portfolio, maybe yours, had lost one-quarter of its value in six months. Stocks like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) , Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) , and Disney -- all three of those companies had lost more than 20% of their value in the previous three months. And it was that very week, two years ago, that I picked five stocks. In fact, I was using this phrase. I was saying, "So, let's pick stocks right into the teeth of this bear market." And there were two traits that we were focused on with the five stocks. The first was stocks with low risk ratings. Lower-risk companies. That always feels good going into a bear market -- to have lower-risk companies in your portfolio. All of these companies had risk ratings of five or six. And if you're a longtime listener, you know that we do risk ratings. I've done a series, here in this podcast, about our Motley Fool risk ratings, and so I was intentionally picking five and six. That's a very low number on our zero to 25 point scale -- where higher is riskier -- so five and six are among the safest stocks that I think you can find. I should mention that our definition of risk -- which isn't always a traditional one -- our definition of risk is the chance that if you [were to] hold this company for a significant amount of time, that you would lose a significant amount of your capital. That's how I think of risk. That's the risk I'm trying to avoid, so when I'm picking stocks that are at a five or six, we're saying there's a very low-risk chance of that. The second trait, in addition to low risk, that we pick -- and it kind of fights against the first trait -- is that I was looking at small companies. All of these companies had market caps from $1 billion-$5 billion. Now, usually bigger companies are safer. They're The Unsinkable Molly Brown s of the investment world. Companies like, let's say, Apple, Amazon, and Disney, which I just mentioned to you, had dropped 20% the previous three months before I did that podcast two years ago. Usually, those companies are safer bets. To pick lower-risk companies that are small -- that's a very interesting set. And what I was saying two years ago is that since the stock market had performed so badly, often these kinds of companies can snap back faster and better from smaller market caps than the big dogs. So those were the two traits that I was picking toward, and now we're going to review, two years later, how they've done. I should first mention that I did review their performance last year, so one year ago today, on this podcast, I went over it and they were doing really well. In fact, their average performance was up 51% in that year following vs. the market, which had also been very strong, up 25%. So pretty awesome. Those five stocks up 51%, on average, vs. the market's 25%, so we give ourselves a plus 26 in the win column for the average market-beating power of those stocks. Let's fast forward one more year and see how things are going. Stock No. 1 : The first one up is Carter's (NYSE: CRI) . The ticker symbol is CRI. Carter's is the kids' apparel brand, and when I reviewed the five stocks last year, this is the only one that was down, so far. I'm happy to say Carter's has snapped back in the past year. Two years ago, I picked it at $84. Today it's at $116. That's even after a really bad market week, so Carter's is up 38%. That's pretty good news. I'm glad that Carter's has come back. At the time, I was playing up its timeless brand, the way that you can find these clothes offline and online, domestically and internationally. I was playing up, even though it's a small company, the timelessness of its business and brand. The good news is, it's up 38%. The bad news is, the market now, over the two years, is up 42%, so after another good market year, Carter's is actually behind the market. We have to put one in the loss column here. Carter's up 38%, the S&P 500 up 42%. That's a minus 4%. Stock No. 2 : Stock No. 2 is IPG Photonics (NASDAQ: IPGP) . The ticker symbol is IPGP. Two years ago, the world leader in fiber lasers, which is what IPG Photonics is with its Russian-born, Russian-American founder, Valentin Gapontsev. Two years ago, the stock was at $80. Really happy to report to you today the stock, even after a really bad week, is at $235. So this stock is up 194%. A pretty good two years for my second-favorite stock on this list. If it's up 194%, since we talked about on this podcast two years ago, with the market up 42% in the meantime, we can give ourselves a plus 152%. We've taken a strong lead now over the market with this group. We're at a plus 148% if you're keeping score with me at home. At the time, I was saying that what I liked about IPG -- and I still do -- is it's a stellar, long-term performer. It has a strong balance sheet. And I did something when we first recommended it in Motley Fool Rule Breakers about 10 years ago. I did something I rarely do, which is that I picked it, and then it dropped, and then we re-recommended it and bought some more. Any longtime Rule Breaker knows we tend not to add to our losers. However, when you do have a company with an excellent past, which IPG had at the time, and a strong balance sheet, it's OK, sometimes, to break our rules. We're Rule Breakers, after all, aren't we? It's OK, sometimes, to break our rules and I'm darn glad that we did with IPG Photonics. It has been a monster winner for Rule Breakers members, lo, these past 10 years. In fact, from that lower position when we re-added it, it's now a 17-bagger. Stock No. 3 : Let's go next to stock No. 3. Stock No. 3 is Ellie Mae (NYSE: ELLI) . The ticker symbol is ELLI. By the way, all five of these companies remain active recommendations in either Motley Fool Stock Advisor or Rule Breakers . If you're a Supernova -- if you're a Motley Fool Supernova member -- you'll recognize them all as members of our Supernova universe, so they continue to be here years later. Ellie Mae two years ago was at $62. This is the company that, through its Encompass platform, basically serves the mortgage industry. Mortgage originators. And in addition to being a leader at what it does, it took its whole business up into the cloud a few years ago, which was really smart. Good thinking ahead on their part. It's also a subscription business -- my favorite type of business model -- where people re-up from one year to the next if they're happy with you. Ellie Mae I'm pretty happy with. The stock -- $62 two years ago. Today, $87. That's a nice 40% gain, but I can't be terribly happy with it, because I think you already know the market is up 42% over the last two years, so Ellie Mae is slightly losing to the market. That's a minus 2%. That brings our overall return number of plus 148% down to plus 146%. Keep up the good work, Ellie Mae! I trust we will beat the market with you over the next few years. Stock No. 4 : All right, Stock No. 4. "No Lunks." That's the phrase that Planet Fitness (NYSE: PLNT) has used a lot in order to democratize working out. Now, I don't know that that's an industry that needed to be, in my words "democratized," but if you think about something like Gold's Gym or those more intense gym brands and types of people who go to gyms, Planet Fitness is trying to be the gym for the rest of us. It's certainly been a good stock. Two years ago, it was at $13 as I picked it on this podcast. Today, it's at $31, so take the numbers one, three and just transpose them -- and you get where Planet Fitness is today. That's a gain of 138%, so that's been a really good stock. In fact, that's 96% ahead of the market, which brings us up to a plus 242% -- a pretty staggeringly great total for these four stocks. Thank you, Planet Fitness! You know, I love democratizing forces in the markets in business. Even something like Netflix I think of in the same vein. Just think about how cheap Netflix is on a monthly basis, especially when you compare it to the cable bill you might have been paying. If you still are paying, you can see how Netflix has made more and better entertainment more and more affordable, not just domestically, but globally over the last 10 years or so. So democratizing forces. Companies that have a great product and bring it in at a lower price point -- these are sometimes some of our best companies. Stock No. 5 : Wait! Did I just say the phrase "best companies?" Best? Good, because we're coming up on the best stock pick that was made. Yup, we're saving the best for last. The fifth stock that I presented two years ago was MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) . MercadoLibre, the founder-led leader in Latin American e-commerce. One of our longtime Rule Breakers holdings. This has been a monster stock. And these last two years -- I hope you were with me two years ago. And I hope, if you didn't already own MercadoLibre, I hope you bought that day, and if you did, you paid $89 a share. Really happy to say, even after a bad market week, the stock is at $348.5. So if you're still with me on my running tally, we were at plus 242% before this one, but I'm happy to say that this stock, on its own, eclipses all of the other four put together. It's at pus 292%. That's exactly 250 points over the market. This is almost embarrassing how good this list of stocks is. I mean, I have to be laughing a little bit as I share this with you, because I'm certainly not this good. I don't think anybody or anyone is this good, but two years ago, for one week on this podcast, we were this good. Yup, add 'em up: 242 plus 250 is 292% ahead of the market for these five stocks. That's an average return of 140% -- again, with the market up 42% -- so we're absolutely and utterly destroying the market with our Five Stocks to Feed the Bear . Could there be any better advertisement for the stocks that I'm about to pick for you, the Next Five Stocks to Feed the Bear , than what you've just heard? I don't think there could be. I hope it doesn't sound like bragging, but we just need to let facts speak for themselves. It was an awesome podcast two years ago. And now, five more stocks to feed the "new" bear market. I'm so glad that I'm able to recommend companies right in the teeth of what's happened over the last week or so, and as always, the stocks that I'm picking, I'm doing for the next three-plus years at a minimum. So, whether we've had a good one- or even two-year run, as we talked about earlier on the show, doesn't matter that much to me. We're playing the long game here at The Motley Fool and as Rule Breakers. I'm going to switch up, though, the traits that I'm using for this set of stocks. I'm still going to stay with low risk. That feels good to me in down markets. But I'm going to go to the biggest of the big low-risk companies in our portfolio. It very likely means you will not see anything like the returns that patient, faithful, long-time listeners have enjoyed in "stocks that feed the bear market" of past podcasts. There's no way that the five companies I'm about to share with you could multiply in the same way that a company like IPG Photonics, or even better, MercadoLibre has done. In fact, I was looking at a list of smaller companies, using the same traits that I picked two years ago, and the short list of companies had several of the ones that we've already covered, so if I used the exact same attributes, I would repick Carter's. I would repick Ellie Mae and Planet Fitness. One of the reasons I wouldn't be repicking MercadoLibre is when a stock almost quadruples, it's no longer going to have the market cap to stay as a small-cap company. But anyway, so a lot of the companies would just be repicked. That's why I thought it would be more fun to have a fresh list of five new stocks for you. These are all companies with market caps of $150 billion or more, so the smallest of these is at least 30 times larger as a company, with its market cap, than any of the companies I picked two years ago. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining or previewing these companies for you. I'm going to give you the short list pretty quickly, because most of us already know these companies and what they do. Alphabetically then: Stock No. 1 : Stock No. 1 to feed the bear market is Apple. I bet you've heard of it. I just spent a happy hour-and-a-half, or so, in the Apple store last week getting my iPhone replaced. My iPhone X had developed a scary, strong pink line right down the center from top to bottom, and I was happy to say that Apple said it's still under warranty, and here you go, Mr. Gardner. You do have to wait an hour, though, which was kind of a bummer, but in the Apple store, if you do what I do, you just start walking around and you just buy stuff. So I started buying more stuff in the Apple store. It was a brilliant strategy. It may work on other customers besides just me. Anyway, Apple. Stock No. 2 : Stock No. 2 -- Amazon. Again, I bet you've heard of it. This is a great company to own through all markets. And as wonderful as Amazon has been, looking backward, all that really matters is what happens going forward from here, and I like Amazon to beat the market the next three-plus years. Stock No. 3 : This one is third, alphabetically, with its ticker symbol GOOG, but it is first alphabetically with its name, because GOOG these days is rocking the corporate name of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) . And so yes, Alphabet is another one of those massive companies that has done so well. And yet, ask yourself who's going to win over the next five, 10, 15 years? Do you think the company that has spread itself out into lots of different businesses probably spends more R&D [research and development] and takes more risk than any other company at that scale that I can think of? Do you think they're going to beat the market as the world increasingly adds AI [artificial intelligence] to all kinds of products and services, and surrounds us with better intelligence? Pretty sure Google's going to do well, and since that's the crown gem of Alphabet, I feel really good about Alphabet stock the next three-plus years, bear market or not. Stock No. 4 : This company is the worldwide leader treating diabetes. It is not an American company. In fact, it is based... I am going to butcher this word. Anytime you spell a word B-A-G-S-V-AE-R-D, you're going to put me in a bad place, but let's go with Bagsvaerd, Denmark. The company is Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) . The ticker symbol is NVO. As I share it with you, I see the stock trading just above $48 a share. That tips the market cap scales at $122 billion. Novo Nordisk I first picked for Motley Fool Stock Advisor in September of 2015. It's up 6%. Bad news, though. The market's up about 50%, so this stock pick of mine is already 44% behind the market. But here we are. It's a new day. It's the next five stocks to feed the bear market, and I'm putting Novo Nordisk on that list, expecting better things in the three-plus years ahead. Stock No. 5 : And finally, stock No. 5. We're staying outside U.S. borders for this one, as well. The ticker symbol is TCEHY. It is one of our more recent picks. We picked this in Motley Fool Rule Breakers in September of last year. The stock's up 24% so far against the market's about 5% return, so Tencent Holdings has been a solid pick for Rule Breakers . The company is one of the largest internet companies in the world. The WeChat mobile chat service dominates China. If you're a Chinese Rule Breakers listener, you already know WeChat. Even if you're not a Chinese Rule Breakers listener, you may well have heard of WeChat for a country that uses its mobile phones to do way more things than we in the U.S. have so far used our mobile phones to do. To pay for almost everything. To add new forms of convenience to our lives. Chinese consumers and Chinese investors are pretty happy with Tencent Holdings and WeChat, among other things. There you have it, the Next Five Stocks to Feed the Bear Market . Closing it out, it was Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Novo Nordisk and Tencent Holdings. And that's what I have for you this week. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you, in a good market or a bad market. That's what we do here at Rule Breakers . We just keep investing. Finding great companies and trying to buy as much of them as we can and hold them over time. Next week, we have a special guest -- Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of Wired . I'm going to be interviewing him at The Motley Fool ONE conference in San Francisco, and that experience I will share with you directly through this podcast next week. His book, The Inevitable , is my topic. If you've not already read The Inevitable , and you want to try it maybe with an Audible audiobook the next week or so, that's great prep reading for the interview you'll hear next week. It's an outstanding book about the future 12 technological forces that will shape our future. In the meantime, Fool on! As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing at RBI.Fool.com . John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. David Gardner owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Ellie Mae, IPG Photonics, MercadoLibre, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Carter's, Ellie Mae, IPG Photonics, MercadoLibre, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk and Planet Fitness. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || This Potentially Game-Changing News Sent AmerisourceBergen Corp. as Much as 14% Higher: Shares ofAmeisourceBergen(NYSE: ABC), a distributor of brand-name and generic drugs and a pharmacy supply chain management company, soared by as much as 14% Tuesday afterThe Wall Street Journalreported before the opening bell thatWalgreens Boots Alliance(NASDAQ: WBA)is considering a buyout bid for the company.
The stock is up about 9% as of 3:30 p.m. EST.
According to reports, Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina spoke with representatives of AmerisourceBergen CEO Steven Collis about the possibility of a buyout a few weeks ago. Walgreens already owns 26% of AmerisourceBergen. Though no official offer has been made by Walgreens Boots Alliance, the recent developments in a rapidly consolidating drug-distribution industry are certainly causing a stir.
Image source: Getty Images.
These rumors follow last month's announcement thatJPMorgan Chase,Amazon.com, andBerkshire Hathawaywere joining forces tocreate a nonprofit healthcare ventureto lower costs and improve healthcare services for their employees. They also come just a little over two months after rivalCVS Healthannounced that it would be purchasingAetnafor $69 billion. This fight for market share and lower costs could take a further toll on already-tightening margins, which could be the impetus behind Walgreens' attempt to feel out AmerisourceBergen.
Does a tie-up between these companies make sense? The answer is murky at best.
Clearly, purchasing AmerisourceBergen would give Walgreens a greater reliance on the U.S. market for profits and sales. Since the U.S. lacks a lot of the drug-pricing controls found in Europe, this would likely mean stronger profitability. But it's not clear what additional value adding AmerisourceBergen would have, considering that AmerisourceBergen is currently focusing on its own business-expansion opportunities. Not to mention that Walgreens' integration ofRite Aidand subsequent closure of around 600 stores could create combination hiccups if Walgreens pursues AmerisourceBergen.
For the time being, I wouldn't read too much into this chatter. Whatever your investment thesis was on AmerisourceBergen yesterday should still stand today.
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Sean Williamshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || This Potentially Game-Changing News Sent AmerisourceBergen Corp. as Much as 14% Higher: What happened Shares of AmeisourceBergen (NYSE: ABC) , a distributor of brand-name and generic drugs and a pharmacy supply chain management company, soared by as much as 14% Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported before the opening bell that Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) is considering a buyout bid for the company. The stock is up about 9% as of 3:30 p.m. EST. So what According to reports, Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina spoke with representatives of AmerisourceBergen CEO Steven Collis about the possibility of a buyout a few weeks ago. Walgreens already owns 26% of AmerisourceBergen. Though no official offer has been made by Walgreens Boots Alliance, the recent developments in a rapidly consolidating drug-distribution industry are certainly causing a stir. Prescription capsules lying atop hundred-dollar bills. Image source: Getty Images. These rumors follow last month's announcement that JPMorgan Chase , Amazon.com , and Berkshire Hathaway were joining forces to create a nonprofit healthcare venture to lower costs and improve healthcare services for their employees. They also come just a little over two months after rival CVS Health announced that it would be purchasing Aetna for $69 billion. This fight for market share and lower costs could take a further toll on already-tightening margins, which could be the impetus behind Walgreens' attempt to feel out AmerisourceBergen. Now what Does a tie-up between these companies make sense? The answer is murky at best. Clearly, purchasing AmerisourceBergen would give Walgreens a greater reliance on the U.S. market for profits and sales. Since the U.S. lacks a lot of the drug-pricing controls found in Europe, this would likely mean stronger profitability. But it's not clear what additional value adding AmerisourceBergen would have, considering that AmerisourceBergen is currently focusing on its own business-expansion opportunities. Not to mention that Walgreens' integration of Rite Aid and subsequent closure of around 600 stores could create combination hiccups if Walgreens pursues AmerisourceBergen. Story continues For the time being, I wouldn't read too much into this chatter. Whatever your investment thesis was on AmerisourceBergen yesterday should still stand today. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
[Social Media Buzz]
2018-02-14 19:30:00
6. NCT U
7. Bitcoin
8. SAVE
9. #BlackPanther
10. #BangkokRakStories2 || Latest price for BTC_XEM @ Poloniex is 0.00006053 [Wed Feb 14 22:28:00 2018] || 2月26日（月）19:00〜 池袋
暗号通貨投資を瞑想により勝ち抜く術！大公開！
https://www.facebook.com/events/187443812005841/ …
#bitcoin #altcoin #cryptocurrency #investment #ico #mining
#ビットコイン #アルトコイン #取引所 #仮想通貨 #暗号通貨 #投資 #マイニング #瞑想pic.twitter.com/dVntootXGP || 1 Bitcoin ( #BTC )
Dollar: 8,838.44$
1 Bitcoin Cash ( #BCH )
Dollar: 1,275.56$
1 Ethereum ( #...
|
10166.40, 10233.90, 11112.70, 10551.80, 11225.30, 11403.70, 10690.40, 10005.00, 10301.10, 9813.07
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 1272.83, 1223.54, 1150.00, 1188.49, 1116.72, 1175.83, 1221.38, 1231.92, 1240.00, 1249.61, 1187.81, 1100.23, 973.82, 1036.74, 1054.23, 1120.54, 1049.14, 1038.59, 937.52, 972.78, 966.72, 1045.77, 1047.15, 1039.97, 1026.43, 1071.79, 1080.50, 1102.17, 1143.81, 1133.25, 1124.78, 1182.68, 1176.90, 1175.95, 1187.87, 1187.13, 1205.01, 1200.37, 1169.28, 1167.54, 1172.52, 1182.94, 1193.91, 1211.67, 1210.29, 1229.08, 1222.05, 1231.71, 1207.21, 1250.15, 1265.49, 1281.08, 1317.73, 1316.48, 1321.79, 1347.89, 1421.60, 1452.82, 1490.09, 1537.67, 1555.45, 1578.80, 1596.71, 1723.35, 1755.36, 1787.13, 1848.57, 1724.24, 1804.91, 1808.91, 1738.43, 1734.45, 1839.09, 1888.65, 1987.71, 2084.73, 2041.20, 2173.40, 2320.42, 2443.64, 2304.98, 2202.42, 2038.87, 2155.80, 2255.61, 2175.47, 2286.41, 2407.88, 2488.55, 2515.35.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-06-03]
Volume: 1514950016, RSI (14-day): 70.35, 50-day EMA: 1835.00, 200-day EMA: 1267.29
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin exchange Coinbase seeks new funds at $1 billion valuation: Wall Street Journal: (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc is in talks with potential investors on a new round of funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
It is not clear which investors are committing to the round, which was described as targeting around $100 million or more, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/2rtMkk8)
That would represent the biggest funding round on record for venture-backed bitcoin companies, the report said.
A Coinbase spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company, has seen heavy traffic and trading on its platform in recent weeks as bitcoin reached all-time highs.
Demand for crypto-assets has soared with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain technology.
Coinbase said in January it raised $75 million from several major financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, USAA Bank and Spanish banking group BBVA. (http://reut.rs/2qKUcRm)
Earlier this year, Coinbase received a virtual currency and money transmitter license from the New York Department of Financial Services.
(Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase seeks new funds at $1 billion valuation: Wall Street Journal: (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc is in talks with potential investors on a new round of funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
It is not clear which investors are committing to the round, which was described as targeting around $100 million or more, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/2rtMkk8)
That would represent the biggest funding round on record for venture-backed bitcoin companies, the report said.
A Coinbase spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company, has seen heavy traffic and trading on its platform in recent weeks as bitcoin reached all-time highs.
Demand for crypto-assets has soared with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain technology.
Coinbase said in January it raised $75 million from several major financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, USAA Bank and Spanish banking group BBVA. (http://reut.rs/2qKUcRm)
Earlier this year, Coinbase received a virtual currency and money transmitter license from the New York Department of Financial Services.
(Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase seeks new funds at $1 billion valuation: Wall Street Journal: (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc is in talks with potential investors on a new round of funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. It is not clear which investors are committing to the round, which was described as targeting around $100 million or more, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/2rtMkk8) That would represent the biggest funding round on record for venture-backed bitcoin companies, the report said. A Coinbase spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company, has seen heavy traffic and trading on its platform in recent weeks as bitcoin reached all-time highs. Demand for crypto-assets has soared with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain technology. Coinbase said in January it raised $75 million from several major financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, USAA Bank and Spanish banking group BBVA. (http://reut.rs/2qKUcRm) Earlier this year, Coinbase received a virtual currency and money transmitter license from the New York Department of Financial Services. (Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) || Best Performing ETFs So Far This Year: They say the best perfumes come in the smallest bottles. Perhaps that holds true in ETFs, too—at least when it comes to short-term performance.
Investors poured more than $200 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs in the first five months of the year, bringing total U.S. ETF assets to almost $3 trillion. The most popular fund this year, theiShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), attracted some $14 billion in net inflows.
But the top 10 best-performing ETFs this year command only about $1.42 billion in total combined assets. Their net creations between January and May 2017 reached only $458.5 million split across 10 different funds.
And yet their year-to-date results stand out among the 2,000-plus ETFs listed in the U.S. today.
Story Lines Behind Performance
Behind these funds’ impressive performances so far this year are a few different story lines: historically low volatility in the U.S. stock market; a mind-boggling rally in bitcoin prices; a forging recovery in emerging markets; and across-the-board strength in the tech sector.
Leading with gains of more than 53% in five months is a complex volatility ETN, theVelocityShares VIX Short Volatility Hedged ETN (XIVH). The strategy—which includes both a large short exposure to near-term VIX futures and a small long and leveraged position—is built to benefit fromcontangoin CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) futures. In other words, it gains most when the VIX is going down.
By the end of May, VIX was trading just below 10—far off its 52-week high of 26.7, according to CBOE data, and it’s been below 10 at close of trading several times in the month of May alone. Volatility has been declining, making it the perfect setting for XIVH to flourish.
Bitcoin Booming
Another big story this year fueling a pair of ETFs has been bitcoin.
The Securities and Exchange Commission decision earlier this yearto deny permission for bitcoin ETFsto come to market only helped further fuel the bitcoin space. In the first five months of the year, bitcoin prices surged nearly 150%.
Those bitcoin gains are largely the reason two very smallARK Invest fundsare among the top-performing ETFs of the year. Bitcoin—owned through allocations to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—is theARK Innovation ETF (ARKK)and theARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW)’s biggest single holding, at about 8% and 8.2%, respectively.
Both funds also own names like Tesla, Amazon and Athena Health—all companies that have been delivering strong returns this year.
These ETFs are actively managed funds said to benefit from their portfolio managers’ strong “conviction” when it comes to owning specific stocks. They have on occasion bought into stocks that they believe in for the long haul even when they might seem out of favor in the near term—value plays that sometimes work wonders.
Emerging Markets Surging
Six of the 10 best performers are all linked to emerging markets. The region is coming off of four years of underperformance relative to developed-market equities, forging a bottom and gaining some ground. A weaker U.S. dollar, too, has helped in recent months, as have lower, attractive valuations relative to developed-market equities.
Leading the bunch with gains of roughly 41% is theEmerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ), which owns internet-related companies in almost 20 countries. The ETF isone of the year’s best tech funds, too, thanks to its sharp focus on the internet of things.
EMQQ’s performance is also linked to China, a country that represents nearly two-thirds of its portfolio.
The performance of China-focused ETFs hasn’t been that good this year, with different types of stocks—H-Shares (Hong Kong listed), N-Shares and A-Shares (mainland listed)—behaving differently. But strong earnings growth in some segments, particularly tech, has boded well for funds such as EMQQ. Companies like Tencent and Alibaba have been soaring.
Chinese & Indian Funds Gain
That scenario has also pushed theKraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB)to the top 10 list. The fund owns exclusively U.S.-listed Chinese software and IT services companies, and it’s up 39% in five months. KWEB is also the most popular fund among the year’s best performers, with inflows of some $186 million.
Technology has been the strongest sector in the S&P 500 so far this year, and it’s also a sector that’s standing out globally. Five of the best-performing ETFs in 2017 are directly linked to tech stocks.
Finally, there’s India.
India-linked ETFs, benefiting from the country’s strong GDP growth (above 7%), its pro-business leadership and positive demographic trends, have also done well. TheVanEck Vectors India Small-Cap ETF (SCIF)and theiShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF (SMIN)are among the year’s best returns.
[{"Ticker": "XIVH", "Fund": "VelocityShares VIX Short Volatility Hedged ETN", "Issuer": "UBS", "YTD 2017Total Return": "53.21", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "0.06", "2017 AUM($,M)": "53.45", "% of AUM": "0.11%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "0.00"}, {"Ticker": "ARKK", "Fund": "ARK Innovation ETF", "Issuer": "ARK", "YTD 2017Total Return": "43.99", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "23.62", "2017 AUM($,M)": "42.11", "% of AUM": "56.09%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "19.07"}, {"Ticker": "ARKW", "Fund": "ARK Web x.0 ETF", "Issuer": "ARK", "YTD 2017Total Return": "42.42", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "15.99", "2017 AUM($,M)": "40.19", "% of AUM": "39.79%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "11.73"}, {"Ticker": "EMQQ", "Fund": "Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF", "Issuer": "Exchange Traded Concepts", "YTD 2017Total Return": "40.98", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "60.49", "2017 AUM($,M)": "100.17", "% of AUM": "60.39%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "47.91"}, {"Ticker": "SCIF", "Fund": "VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF", "Issuer": "VanEck", "YTD 2017Total Return": "38.97", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "74.20", "2017 AUM($,M)": "316.31", "% of AUM": "23.46%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "37.61"}, {"Ticker": "KWEB", "Fund": "KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF", "Issuer": "KraneShares", "YTD 2017Total Return": "38.89", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "186.21", "2017 AUM($,M)": "481.47", "% of AUM": "38.68%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "121.99"}, {"Ticker": "GAMR", "Fund": "PureFunds Video Game Tech ETF", "Issuer": "ETF Managers Group", "YTD 2017Total Return": "35.79", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "5.88", "2017 AUM($,M)": "16.18", "% of AUM": "36.34%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "5.88"}, {"Ticker": "PGJ", "Fund": "PowerShares Golden Dragon China Portfolio", "Issuer": "Invesco PowerShares", "YTD 2017Total Return": "35.40", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "3.55", "2017 AUM($,M)": "177.27", "% of AUM": "2.00%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "11.49"}, {"Ticker": "CXSE", "Fund": "WisdomTree China ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund", "Issuer": "WisdomTree", "YTD 2017Total Return": "35.36", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "0.00", "2017 AUM($,M)": "9.66", "% of AUM": "0.00%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "0.00"}, {"Ticker": "SMIN", "Fund": "iShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF", "Issuer": "BlackRock", "YTD 2017Total Return": "35.10", "YTD 2017Net Flows ($,M)": "88.61", "2017 AUM($,M)": "184.04", "% of AUM": "48.15%", "May 2017 NetFlows ($,M)": "40.27"}]
Contact Cinthia Murphy [email protected]
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• Gundlach: Interest Rates & VIX Won't Stay Down
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Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || Best Performing ETFs So Far This Year: They say the best perfumes come in the smallest bottles. Perhaps that holds true in ETFs, too—at least when it comes to short-term performance. Investors poured more than $200 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs in the first five months of the year, bringing total U.S. ETF assets to almost $3 trillion. The most popular fund this year, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV ), attracted some $14 billion in net inflows. But the top 10 best-performing ETFs this year command only about $1.42 billion in total combined assets. Their net creations between January and May 2017 reached only $458.5 million split across 10 different funds. And yet their year-to-date results stand out among the 2,000-plus ETFs listed in the U.S. today. Story Lines Behind Performance Behind these funds’ impressive performances so far this year are a few different story lines: historically low volatility in the U.S. stock market; a mind-boggling rally in bitcoin prices; a forging recovery in emerging markets; and across-the-board strength in the tech sector. Leading with gains of more than 53% in five months is a complex volatility ETN, the VelocityShares VIX Short Volatility Hedged ETN (XIVH) . The strategy—which includes both a large short exposure to near-term VIX futures and a small long and leveraged position—is built to benefit from contango in CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) futures. In other words, it gains most when the VIX is going down. By the end of May, VIX was trading just below 10—far off its 52-week high of 26.7, according to CBOE data, and it’s been below 10 at close of trading several times in the month of May alone. Volatility has been declining, making it the perfect setting for XIVH to flourish. Bitcoin Booming Another big story this year fueling a pair of ETFs has been bitcoin. The Securities and Exchange Commission decision earlier this year to deny permission for bitcoin ETFs to come to market only helped further fuel the bitcoin space. In the first five months of the year, bitcoin prices surged nearly 150%. Story continues Those bitcoin gains are largely the reason two very small ARK Invest funds are among the top-performing ETFs of the year. Bitcoin—owned through allocations to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—is the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and the ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW )’s biggest single holding, at about 8% and 8.2%, respectively. Both funds also own names like Tesla, Amazon and Athena Health—all companies that have been delivering strong returns this year. These ETFs are actively managed funds said to benefit from their portfolio managers’ strong “conviction” when it comes to owning specific stocks. They have on occasion bought into stocks that they believe in for the long haul even when they might seem out of favor in the near term—value plays that sometimes work wonders. Emerging Markets Surging Six of the 10 best performers are all linked to emerging markets. The region is coming off of four years of underperformance relative to developed-market equities, forging a bottom and gaining some ground. A weaker U.S. dollar, too, has helped in recent months, as have lower, attractive valuations relative to developed-market equities. Leading the bunch with gains of roughly 41% is the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ) , which owns internet-related companies in almost 20 countries. The ETF is one of the year’s best tech funds , too, thanks to its sharp focus on the internet of things. EMQQ’s performance is also linked to China, a country that represents nearly two-thirds of its portfolio. The performance of China-focused ETFs hasn’t been that good this year, with different types of stocks—H-Shares (Hong Kong listed), N-Shares and A-Shares (mainland listed)—behaving differently. But strong earnings growth in some segments, particularly tech, has boded well for funds such as EMQQ. Companies like Tencent and Alibaba have been soaring. Chinese & Indian Funds Gain That scenario has also pushed the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) to the top 10 list. The fund owns exclusively U.S.-listed Chinese software and IT services companies, and it’s up 39% in five months. KWEB is also the most popular fund among the year’s best performers, with inflows of some $186 million. Technology has been the strongest sector in the S&P 500 so far this year, and it’s also a sector that’s standing out globally. Five of the best-performing ETFs in 2017 are directly linked to tech stocks. Finally, there’s India. India-linked ETFs , benefiting from the country’s strong GDP growth (above 7%), its pro-business leadership and positive demographic trends, have also done well. The VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap ETF (SCIF) and the iShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF (SMIN) are among the year’s best returns. Ticker Fund Issuer YTD 2017 Total Return YTD 2017 Net Flows ($,M) 2017 AUM ($,M) % of AUM May 2017 Net Flows ($,M) XIVH VelocityShares VIX Short Volatility Hedged ETN UBS 53.21 0.06 53.45 0.11% 0.00 ARKK ARK Innovation ETF ARK 43.99 23.62 42.11 56.09% 19.07 ARKW ARK Web x.0 ETF ARK 42.42 15.99 40.19 39.79% 11.73 EMQQ Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF Exchange Traded Concepts 40.98 60.49 100.17 60.39% 47.91 SCIF VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF VanEck 38.97 74.20 316.31 23.46% 37.61 KWEB KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF KraneShares 38.89 186.21 481.47 38.68% 121.99 GAMR PureFunds Video Game Tech ETF ETF Managers Group 35.79 5.88 16.18 36.34% 5.88 PGJ PowerShares Golden Dragon China Portfolio Invesco PowerShares 35.40 3.55 177.27 2.00% 11.49 CXSE WisdomTree China ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund WisdomTree 35.36 0.00 9.66 0.00% 0.00 SMIN iShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF BlackRock 35.10 88.61 184.04 48.15% 40.27 Contact Cinthia Murphy at [email protected] Recommended Stories Gundlach: Interest Rates & VIX Won't Stay Down We Are All Insurers Now Tech ETFs Retreat: Pullback Ahead? Swedroe: Solid Case For Active Mgmt Worst Performing ETFs Of 2017 Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Fretting over savings, Mrs Watanabe turns to bitcoin: By Minami Funakoshi and Joyce Lee TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Long the preserve of geeky enthusiasts, bitcoin is going mainstream in Asia, attracting Mrs Watanabe - the metaphorical Japanese housewife investor - South Korean retirees and thousands of others trying to escape rock-bottom savings rates by investing in the cryptocurrency. Asia's moms and pops, already regular investors in stock and futures markets, have been dazzled by bitcoin's 100 percent surge so far this year. In comparison, the broader Asian stocks benchmark has gained 17 percent over the same period. Even after a tumble from last week's record $2,779.08 high, bitcoin rose more than 60 percent in May alone - driven higher in part by investors in Japan and South Korea stepping in as China cooled after a central bank crackdown earlier this year. (For a graphic on bitcoin economy click http://tmsnrt.rs/2skLZ3c) Over the last two weeks, and encouraged by Japan's recognition of bitcoin as legal tender in April, exchanges say interest has jumped from the two countries. Bitcoin trades at a premium in both, due to tough money-laundering rules that make it hard for people to move bitcoin in and out. "After I first heard about the bitcoin scheme, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. It's like buying a dream," said Mutsuko Higo, a 55-year-old Japanese social insurance and labor consultant who bought around 200,000 yen ($1800) worth of bitcoin in March to supplement her retirement savings. "Everyone says we can't rely on Japanese pensions anymore," she said. "This worries me, so I started bitcoins." Asia has proved fertile ground for bitcoin due to the region's thriving retail investment culture, where swapping investment tips is already common. China, Japan and South Korea are home to several of the world's busiest cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a ranking by CoinMarketCap. "Right now, it's a form of speculation, like stocks," said Park Hyo-jin, a 27-year-old South Korean who owns around 3 million won ($2,700) of bitcoin. "I don't think anybody in South Korea buys bitcoin to use it." The risks, though, are rising too. Bitcoin is largely unregulated across Asia, while rules governing bitcoin exchanges can be patchy. In Hong Kong, bitcoin exchanges operate under money service operator licenses - like money changers - while in South Korea they are regulated similar to online shopping malls, trading physical goods. Often there are no rules on investor protection. BITCOIN WHEN YOU DIE Park and Higo were drawn into bitcoin by friends. Others are attracted through seminars, social media groups and blogs penned by amateur investors. Noboru Hanaki, a 27-year-old Japanese web marketer and bitcoin investor, said his personal finance blog gets around 30,000 page views each month. The most popular post is an explanation of bitcoin, he said, noting that when the bitcoin price surged last month, readership of the article doubled. Rachel Poole, a Hong Kong-based kindergarten teacher, said she read about bitcoin in the press, and bought five bitcoins in March for around HK$40,000 ($5,100) after studying blogs on the topic. She kept four as an investment and has made HK$12,000 tax-free trading the fifth after classes. "I wish I'd done it earlier," she said. Not everyone's making money. The bitcoin frenzy has spawned scams, with police in South Korea last month uncovering a $55 million cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that sucked in thousands of homemakers, workers and self-employed businessmen seduced by slick marketing and promises of wealth. Seminars in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong promote similar multi-level marketing schemes that require investors to pay an upfront membership fee of as much as $9,000. Members are encouraged to promote the cryptocurrency and bring in new members in return for some bitcoins and other benefits. One such Tokyo scheme offered members-only shopping websites that accept bitcoin, 24-hour assistance for car and computer problems, and bitcoin-based gifts when a member gets married, has a baby - or even dies, according to marketing materials seen by Reuters. Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong and a bitcoin investor, warned amateur investors against speculating in the digital currency. "Trading carries huge risk: there is no investor protection and plenty of market manipulation and insider trading. Some of the exchanges cannot be trusted in my opinion." Some larger exchanges have voluntarily adopted security measures and compensation guarantees, according to their websites, although there are dozens of smaller platforms operating more or less unchecked. In South Korea, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has set up a task force to explore regulating cryptocurrencies, but it has not set a timeline for publishing its conclusions, an official there said. In Japan - where memories are still fresh of the spectacular 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, the world's biggest bitcoin exchange at the time - the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it supervises bitcoin exchanges, but not traders or investors. "The government is not guaranteeing the value of cryptocurrencies. We are asking for bitcoin exchanges to fully explain the risk of sharp price moves," an FSA official said. Some professional investors say bitcoin can be a useful hedge to help diversify a portfolio, but investors should be cautious. "This is an extremely volatile and innovative asset class," said Pietro Ventani, managing director of APP Advisers, an asset allocation strategy firm. (Reporting by Minami Funakoshi in Tokyo and Joyce Lee in Seoul, with additional reporting by Michelle Price in Hong Kong and Yoshiyuki Osada, Takahiko Wada and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Writing by Michelle Price; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Ian Geoghegan) || Fretting over savings, Mrs Watanabe turns to bitcoin: By Minami Funakoshi and Joyce Lee TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Long the preserve of geeky enthusiasts, bitcoin is going mainstream in Asia, attracting Mrs Watanabe - the metaphorical Japanese housewife investor - South Korean retirees and thousands of others trying to escape rock-bottom savings rates by investing in the cryptocurrency. Asia's moms and pops, already regular investors in stock and futures markets, have been dazzled by bitcoin's 100 percent surge so far this year. In comparison, the broader Asian stocks benchmark has gained 17 percent over the same period. Even after a tumble from last week's record $2,779.08 high, bitcoin rose more than 60 percent in May alone - driven higher in part by investors in Japan and South Korea stepping in as China cooled after a central bank crackdown earlier this year. (For a graphic on bitcoin economy click http://tmsnrt.rs/2skLZ3c) Over the last two weeks, and encouraged by Japan's recognition of bitcoin as legal tender in April, exchanges say interest has jumped from the two countries. Bitcoin trades at a premium in both, due to tough money-laundering rules that make it hard for people to move bitcoin in and out. "After I first heard about the bitcoin scheme, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. It's like buying a dream," said Mutsuko Higo, a 55-year-old Japanese social insurance and labor consultant who bought around 200,000 yen ($1800) worth of bitcoin in March to supplement her retirement savings. "Everyone says we can't rely on Japanese pensions anymore," she said. "This worries me, so I started bitcoins." Asia has proved fertile ground for bitcoin due to the region's thriving retail investment culture, where swapping investment tips is already common. China, Japan and South Korea are home to several of the world's busiest cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a ranking by CoinMarketCap. "Right now, it's a form of speculation, like stocks," said Park Hyo-jin, a 27-year-old South Korean who owns around 3 million won ($2,700) of bitcoin. "I don't think anybody in South Korea buys bitcoin to use it." The risks, though, are rising too. Bitcoin is largely unregulated across Asia, while rules governing bitcoin exchanges can be patchy. In Hong Kong, bitcoin exchanges operate under money service operator licenses - like money changers - while in South Korea they are regulated similar to online shopping malls, trading physical goods. Often there are no rules on investor protection. BITCOIN WHEN YOU DIE Park and Higo were drawn into bitcoin by friends. Others are attracted through seminars, social media groups and blogs penned by amateur investors. Noboru Hanaki, a 27-year-old Japanese web marketer and bitcoin investor, said his personal finance blog gets around 30,000 page views each month. The most popular post is an explanation of bitcoin, he said, noting that when the bitcoin price surged last month, readership of the article doubled. Rachel Poole, a Hong Kong-based kindergarten teacher, said she read about bitcoin in the press, and bought five bitcoins in March for around HK$40,000 ($5,100) after studying blogs on the topic. She kept four as an investment and has made HK$12,000 tax-free trading the fifth after classes. "I wish I'd done it earlier," she said. Not everyone's making money. The bitcoin frenzy has spawned scams, with police in South Korea last month uncovering a $55 million cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that sucked in thousands of homemakers, workers and self-employed businessmen seduced by slick marketing and promises of wealth. Seminars in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong promote similar multi-level marketing schemes that require investors to pay an upfront membership fee of as much as $9,000. Members are encouraged to promote the cryptocurrency and bring in new members in return for some bitcoins and other benefits. One such Tokyo scheme offered members-only shopping websites that accept bitcoin, 24-hour assistance for car and computer problems, and bitcoin-based gifts when a member gets married, has a baby - or even dies, according to marketing materials seen by Reuters. Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong and a bitcoin investor, warned amateur investors against speculating in the digital currency. "Trading carries huge risk: there is no investor protection and plenty of market manipulation and insider trading. Some of the exchanges cannot be trusted in my opinion." Some larger exchanges have voluntarily adopted security measures and compensation guarantees, according to their websites, although there are dozens of smaller platforms operating more or less unchecked. In South Korea, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has set up a task force to explore regulating cryptocurrencies, but it has not set a timeline for publishing its conclusions, an official there said. In Japan - where memories are still fresh of the spectacular 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, the world's biggest bitcoin exchange at the time - the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it supervises bitcoin exchanges, but not traders or investors. "The government is not guaranteeing the value of cryptocurrencies. We are asking for bitcoin exchanges to fully explain the risk of sharp price moves," an FSA official said. Some professional investors say bitcoin can be a useful hedge to help diversify a portfolio, but investors should be cautious. "This is an extremely volatile and innovative asset class," said Pietro Ventani, managing director of APP Advisers, an asset allocation strategy firm. (Reporting by Minami Funakoshi in Tokyo and Joyce Lee in Seoul, with additional reporting by Michelle Price in Hong Kong and Yoshiyuki Osada, Takahiko Wada and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Writing by Michelle Price; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Ian Geoghegan) || SEC Reviews Bitcoin ETF: The Skyrocketing Cryptocurrency Explained: There has been a lot of interest in bitcoin of late, mainly due to its astronomical rise. The cryptocurrency is up more than 135% year to date. Looking at the longer-term performance, $100 invested in bitcoin 7 years ago would be worth about $75 million now, per CNBC. Bitcoin was also in focus because the hackers responsible for the massive WannaCry cyber-attack wanted ransom to be paid in bitcoin and they were able to get some payments. Investors have been hoping that the SEC would approve a bitcoin ETF, which would add legitimacy to the digital currency and also provide investors a convenient way of investing in the digital currency. What is Bitcoin? Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency not issued by a central bank. It is more like a peer-to-peer digital payment network. Creation and transactions in bitcoin are controlled through cryptography. And, while users remain anonymous, the record of these transactions is available on the bitcoin network. Why is Bitcoin Surging? Bitcoin is up almost 400% over the past one year.The main reason behind the surge is its limited supply, According to the Economist, there are about 16.3 million bitcoins, with only 1,800 new ones minted every day. On the other hand, demand has been rising due to geopolitical uncertainty. Many consider bitcoin a safe have asset. Due to its low correlation with other asset classes, it also acts as a portfolio diversifier. In April, Japanese regulators announced rules for bitcoin, establishing it as a legitimate method of payment in the country. It is difficult to arrive at a fair value for the bitcoin. I read about a model in FTthat is based on the presumption that bitcoin’s core utility value is serving as a currency for the dark economy. The model found the cryptocurrency to be grossly overvalued. What Are the Risks? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not regulated or backed by a central bank. Story continues The cryptocurrency is very volatile and usually goes through boom-bust cycles. Just last Thursday, it dropped by almost 19% from its all time high level. Due to users’ anonymity, it is used by criminals and in dark economy for illegal payment transfers and for purchase of illegal drugs. There have also been many instances of hackers stealing bitcoins Bitcoin ETFs In March, the SEC had rejected the ETF proposed by Winklevoss twins but they are now reviewing the decision again. This was not the only bitcoin ETF; there were two more going through the regulatory approval process. Another bitcoin ETF, proposed by SolidX Management, was also rejected in March. The third one proposed by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) is being reviewed and a decision is due by Sep 22. Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars? Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge. With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research. It's not the one you think. See This Ticker Free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SPDR-GOLD TRUST (GLD): ETF Research Reports ISHARS-GOLD TR (IAU): ETF Research Reports SPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || SEC Reviews Bitcoin ETF: The Skyrocketing Cryptocurrency Explained: There has been a lot of interest in bitcoin of late, mainly due to its astronomical rise. The cryptocurrency is up more than 135% year to date. Looking at the longer-term performance, $100 invested in bitcoin 7 years ago would be worth about $75 million now, per CNBC.
Bitcoin was also in focus because the hackers responsible for the massive WannaCry cyber-attack wanted ransom to be paid in bitcoin and they were able to get some payments.
Investors have been hoping that the SEC would approve a bitcoin ETF, which would add legitimacy to the digital currency and also provide investors a convenient way of investing in the digital currency.
What is Bitcoin?
Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency not issued by a central bank. It is more like a peer-to-peer digital payment network.
Creation and transactions in bitcoin are controlled through cryptography. And, while users remain anonymous, the record of these transactions is available on the bitcoin network.
Why is Bitcoin Surging?
Bitcoin is up almost 400% over the past one year.The main reason behind the surge is its limited supply, According to the Economist, there are about 16.3 million bitcoins, with only 1,800 new ones minted every day.
On the other hand, demand has been rising due to geopolitical uncertainty. Many consider bitcoin a safe have asset. Due to its low correlation with other asset classes, it also acts as a portfolio diversifier.
In April, Japanese regulators announced rules for bitcoin, establishing it as a legitimate method of payment in the country.
It is difficult to arrive at a fair value for the bitcoin. I read about a model in FTthat is based on the presumption that bitcoin’s core utility value is serving as a currency for the dark economy. The model found the cryptocurrency to be grossly overvalued.
What Are the Risks?
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not regulated or backed by a central bank.
The cryptocurrency is very volatile and usually goes through boom-bust cycles. Just last Thursday, it dropped by almost 19% from its all time high level.
Due to users’ anonymity, it is used by criminals and in dark economy for illegal payment transfers and for purchase of illegal drugs. There have also been many instances of hackers stealing bitcoins
Bitcoin ETFs
In March, the SEC had rejected the ETF proposed by Winklevoss twins but they are now reviewing the decision again. This was not the only bitcoin ETF; there were two more going through the regulatory approval process.
Another bitcoin ETF, proposed by SolidX Management, was also rejected in March. The third one proposed by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) is being reviewed and a decision is due by Sep 22.
Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?
Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.
With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.
It's not the one you think.
See This Ticker Free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportSPDR-GOLD TRUST (GLD): ETF Research ReportsISHARS-GOLD TR (IAU): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || SEC Reviews Bitcoin ETF: The Skyrocketing Cryptocurrency Explained: There has been a lot of interest in bitcoin of late, mainly due to its astronomical rise. The cryptocurrency is up more than 135% year to date. Looking at the longer-term performance, $100 invested in bitcoin 7 years ago would be worth about $75 million now, per CNBC.
Bitcoin was also in focus because the hackers responsible for the massive WannaCry cyber-attack wanted ransom to be paid in bitcoin and they were able to get some payments.
Investors have been hoping that the SEC would approve a bitcoin ETF, which would add legitimacy to the digital currency and also provide investors a convenient way of investing in the digital currency.
What is Bitcoin?
Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency not issued by a central bank. It is more like a peer-to-peer digital payment network.
Creation and transactions in bitcoin are controlled through cryptography. And, while users remain anonymous, the record of these transactions is available on the bitcoin network.
Why is Bitcoin Surging?
Bitcoin is up almost 400% over the past one year.The main reason behind the surge is its limited supply, According to the Economist, there are about 16.3 million bitcoins, with only 1,800 new ones minted every day.
On the other hand, demand has been rising due to geopolitical uncertainty. Many consider bitcoin a safe have asset. Due to its low correlation with other asset classes, it also acts as a portfolio diversifier.
In April, Japanese regulators announced rules for bitcoin, establishing it as a legitimate method of payment in the country.
It is difficult to arrive at a fair value for the bitcoin. I read about a model in FTthat is based on the presumption that bitcoin’s core utility value is serving as a currency for the dark economy. The model found the cryptocurrency to be grossly overvalued.
What Are the Risks?
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not regulated or backed by a central bank.
The cryptocurrency is very volatile and usually goes through boom-bust cycles. Just last Thursday, it dropped by almost 19% from its all time high level.
Due to users’ anonymity, it is used by criminals and in dark economy for illegal payment transfers and for purchase of illegal drugs. There have also been many instances of hackers stealing bitcoins
Bitcoin ETFs
In March, the SEC had rejected the ETF proposed by Winklevoss twins but they are now reviewing the decision again. This was not the only bitcoin ETF; there were two more going through the regulatory approval process.
Another bitcoin ETF, proposed by SolidX Management, was also rejected in March. The third one proposed by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) is being reviewed and a decision is due by Sep 22.
Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?
Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.
With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.
It's not the one you think.
See This Ticker Free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportSPDR-GOLD TRUST (GLD): ETF Research ReportsISHARS-GOLD TR (IAU): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || As Comey Testimony Looms, Here's Every President Who's Used Executive Privilege To Deny Congress Information: President Donald Trump may exercise a rarely used presidential legal authority to prevent former FBI director James Comey from testifying about conversations he had with the president in front of the Senate next week. Comey has said Trump pressured him to end an ongoing FBI investigation into potential ties between Trump’s former security advisor Michael Flynn and Russian officials. If Trump chooses, he could attempt to invoke executive privilege to keep Comey from testifying. Executive privilege is a controversial legal principle that allows the president and high-level members of the executive branch to withhold information from Congress, the judicial branch and the public. The idea of executive privilege is based strictly on precedent, as it does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. Related Link: For This Congress, Tax Cuts Are The Entree, Reform The Side Dish 221 Years Of Executive Privilege While executive privilege was made famous during the Watergate investigation of then-President Richard Nixon, a number of presidents have invoked executive privilege: George Washington (1796) refused to provide the House of Representatives with documents related to Jay Treaty negotiations with Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson (1809) refused to testify in the treason trial of Aaron Burr. Andrew Jackson (1833) refused to provide documents to the Senate related to the removal of deposits from the Second Bank of the United States during the Bank War , a political battle over the legitimacy of the Second Bank. Harry Truman (1948) refused to cooperate with the House of Representatives during the Alger Hiss investigation related to potential Russian spying. Dwight Eisenhower (1954) blocked Senate access to “any data about internal conversations, meetings, or written communication among staffers, with no exception to topics or people" during the anti-communism Army-McCarthy hearings. Richard Nixon (1974) attempted to invoke executive privilege to prevent Congress from gaining access to audio recordings made in the White House related to the Watergate break-in. In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that the public’s interest in the pursuit of criminal prosecution took precedence over the president’s general need for confidentiality and ordered the release of the tapes. Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) invoked executive privilege three times: to deny access to information related to Canadian oil leases, to withhold documents related to Superfudn enforcement practices and to withhold internal memos related to the nomination of Justice William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. George H.W. Bush (1991) invoked executive privilege to deny Congress access to documents related to an investigation into the Navy aircraft program. Bill Clinton (1998) invoked executive privilege 14 different times during his impeachment trial for perjury related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A federal judge denied Clinton’s attempt to prevent White House aides from testifying. George W. Bush (2001–2007) invoked executive privilege six times, withholding information related to FBI misuse of organized crime informants, Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy executives, former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and political director Sara Taylor, and the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Bush also denied a subpoena calling for senior advisor Karl Rove to testify in front of the Senate. Barack Obama (2012) invoked executive privilege to withhold documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking controversy and to withhold documents related to the implementation of the “net worth sweep” of Federal National Mortgage Association (OTC: FNMA ) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTC: FMCC ). Story continues Trump reportedly may have a tough time invoking executive privilege regarding his conversations with Comey. Trump has repeatedly discussed details of the conversations with Comey in public interviews. Therefore, it may be difficult to make the case that the content of the conversations should be withheld now that Comey is set to give his version of the story in front of Congress. Related Links: White House Says The Paris Climate Accord Hurt American Businesses; Do American Businesses Agree? Trump Confirms US Exit From Paris Accord: He's Right, It Is A Bad Deal _________ Image Credit: By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Director Provides Update on Orlando Shootings Investigation, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga Despite Historically High Valuations, Another 50% Upside Possible For Stocks Will Pricey Bitcoin Just Make The Rich Richer? © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || As Comey Testimony Looms, Here's Every President Who's Used Executive Privilege To Deny Congress Information: President Donald Trump may exercise a rarely used presidential legal authority to prevent former FBI director James Comey from testifying about conversations he had with the president in front of the Senate next week. Comey has said Trump pressured him to end an ongoing FBI investigation into potential ties between Trump’s former security advisor Michael Flynn and Russian officials.
If Trump chooses, he could attempt to invoke executive privilege to keep Comey from testifying. Executive privilege is a controversial legal principle that allows the president and high-level members of the executive branch to withhold information from Congress, the judicial branch and the public. The idea of executive privilege is based strictly on precedent, as it does not appear in the U.S. Constitution.
Related Link:For This Congress, Tax Cuts Are The Entree, Reform The Side Dish
221 Years Of Executive Privilege
While executive privilege was made famous during the Watergate investigation of then-President Richard Nixon, a number of presidents have invoked executive privilege:
• George Washington(1796) refused to provide the House of Representativeswith documentsrelated to Jay Treaty negotiations with Great Britain.
• Thomas Jefferson(1809) refused to testify in thetreason trialof Aaron Burr.
• Andrew Jackson(1833) refused to provide documents to the Senate related to the removal of deposits from the Second Bank of the United States during theBank War, a political battle over the legitimacy of the Second Bank.
• Harry Truman(1948) refused to cooperate with the House of Representatives during theAlger Hissinvestigation related to potential Russian spying.
• Dwight Eisenhower(1954) blockedSenate accessto “any data about internal conversations, meetings, or written communication among staffers, with no exception to topics or people" during the anti-communism Army-McCarthy hearings.
• Richard Nixon(1974) attempted to invoke executive privilege to prevent Congress from gaining access to audio recordings made in the White House related to the Watergate break-in. In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that the public’s interest in the pursuit of criminal prosecution took precedence over the president’s general need for confidentiality and ordered the release of the tapes.
• Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)invoked executive privilege three times: to deny access to information related to Canadian oil leases, to withhold documents related to Superfudn enforcement practices and to withhold internal memos related to the nomination of Justice William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court.
• George H.W. Bush(1991) invoked executive privilege to deny Congress access to documents related to an investigation into the Navy aircraft program.
• Bill Clinton(1998) invoked executive privilege 14 different times during his impeachment trial for perjury related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A federal judge denied Clinton’s attempt to prevent White House aides from testifying.
• George W. Bush(2001–2007) invoked executive privilege six times, withholding information related to FBI misuse of organized crime informants, Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy executives, former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and political director Sara Taylor, and the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Bush also denied a subpoena calling for senior advisor Karl Rove to testify in front of the Senate.
• Barack Obama(2012) invoked executive privilege to withhold documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking controversy and to withhold documents related to the implementation of the “net worth sweep” ofFederal National Mortgage Association(OTC:FNMA) andFederal Home Loan Mortgage Corp(OTC:FMCC).
Trump reportedly may have a tough time invoking executive privilege regarding his conversations with Comey. Trump has repeatedly discussed details of the conversations with Comey in public interviews. Therefore, it may be difficult to make the case that the content of the conversations should be withheld now that Comey is set to give his version of the story in front of Congress.
Related Links:
White House Says The Paris Climate Accord Hurt American Businesses; Do American Businesses Agree?
Trump Confirms US Exit From Paris Accord: He's Right, It Is A Bad Deal_________Image Credit: By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Director Provides Update on Orlando Shootings Investigation, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
See more from Benzinga
• Despite Historically High Valuations, Another 50% Upside Possible For Stocks
• Will Pricey Bitcoin Just Make The Rich Richer?
© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Here’s how often IBM’s Watson agrees with doctors on the best way to treat cancer: IBM Watson Office 27 (Hollis Johnson) We're starting to get a better picture of how artificial intelligence could help doctors better treat cancer. And in data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting , IBM Watson Health gave a snapshot of how it's playing out so far. The studies looked at concordance rates, or how often Watson for Oncology reached the same course of treatment as the cancer doctors at different cancer centers around the world. At Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Center in India, for 112 cases of lung cancer, there was 96.4% concordance between Watson and the doctors. For 126 cases of colon cancer it was 81% of the time, and for 124 cases of rectal cancer cases were 92.7%. The concordance was in line with what IBM expected in those cases: If Watson and the docs agreed all the time, there wouldn't be much value for adding AI to the picture. But it was a bit off when it came to Watson evaluating 185 cases of gastric cancer in South Korea. There, the concordance was 49% . Norden said that relates to the guidelines for gastric cancer being different in South Korea than at Memorial Sloan Kettering, the hospital where Watson for Oncology was trained. The data presented at ASCO are among the first that IBM Watson Health has presented at a medical conference. And while it sets the stage for what artificial intelligence can do to help doctors treat patients with cancer, many still have lingering questions. The biggest yet-to-be-answered question: Can using AI to determine cancer treatment actually extend patients' lives compared to oncologists alone determining their treatments? Andrew Norden, the deputy chief health officer at IBM Watson Health told Business Insider that the concordance data isn't " the ultimate endpoint we’re interested in," though it was the first they could get to relatively quickly. To get to studies that evaluate overall survival (that is, finding out whether using AI-powered treatment plans can increase patients' lives compared to traditional treatment plans) will take more time. Story continues NOW WATCH: HENRY BLODGET: Bitcoin could go to $1 million (or fall to $0) More From Business Insider French president excoriates Trump in English over US withdrawal from climate deal Elon Musk bails on Trump's advisory councils after US withdraws from Paris climate deal How leaving the Paris Climate Agreement could affect the US || Here’s how often IBM’s Watson agrees with doctors on the best way to treat cancer: (Hollis Johnson)
We're starting to get a better picture of how artificial intelligence could help doctors better treat cancer.
Andin data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, IBM Watson Health gave a snapshot of how it's playing out so far.
The studies looked at concordance rates, or how often Watson for Oncology reached the same course of treatment as the cancer doctors at different cancer centers around the world. AtManipal Comprehensive Cancer Centerin India, for 112 cases of lung cancer, there was 96.4% concordance between Watson and the doctors. For 126 cases of colon cancer it was 81% of the time, and for 124 cases of rectal cancer cases were 92.7%.
The concordance was in line with what IBM expected in those cases: If Watson and the docs agreed all the time, there wouldn't be much value for adding AI to the picture.
But it was a bit off when it came to Watson evaluating 185 cases of gastric cancer in South Korea. There, the concordancewas 49%. Norden said that relates to the guidelines for gastric cancer being different in South Korea than at Memorial Sloan Kettering, the hospital where Watson for Oncology was trained.
The data presented at ASCO are among the first that IBM Watson Health has presented at a medical conference. And while it sets the stage for what artificial intelligence can do to help doctors treat patients with cancer, many still have lingering questions.
The biggest yet-to-be-answered question: Can using AI to determine cancer treatment actually extend patients' lives compared to oncologists alone determining their treatments?
Andrew Norden, the deputy chief health officer at IBM Watson Health told Business Insider that the concordance data isn't "the ultimate endpoint we’re interested in," though it was the first they could get to relatively quickly.
To get to studies that evaluate overall survival (that is, finding out whether using AI-powered treatment plans can increase patients' lives compared to traditional treatment plans) will take more time.
NOW WATCH:HENRY BLODGET: Bitcoin could go to $1 million (or fall to $0)
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• How leaving the Paris Climate Agreement could affect the US || Blog Coverage British Oil Company Expected to Sign Azerbaijan Contract by June 2017; Existing Deal to Expire in 2024: Upcoming AWS Coverage on Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Post-Earnings Results LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2017 / Active Wall St. blog coverage looks at the headline from British Oil Company BP PLC (NYSE: BP ).The Company is expected to sign a contract at the end of June extending its production sharing deal for Azerbaijan's biggest oilfields until 2050, according to the Company's regional head's statement on May 31, 2017. With the existing deal set to expire in 2024, BP-led consortium and Azeri state oil firm SOCAR signed a letter of intent in December to continue developing the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly (ACG) offshore fields until 2050. Register with us now for your free membership and blog access at: http://www.activewallst.com/register/ . One of BP PLC's competitors within the Major Integrated Oil & Gas space, Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE: ANW ), announced on May 23, 2017, its financial and operating results for Q1 2017 which ended on March 31, 2017. AWS will be initiating a research report on Aegean Marine Petroleum Network in the coming days. Today, AWS is promoting its blog coverage on BP ; touching on ANW . Get all of our free blog coverage and more by clicking on the link below: http://www.activewallst.com/register/ . The Development Agreement On December 23, 2016, The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) signed a letter of intent for the future development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. The agreement included the development of the field until 2050 and will add significant resource potential to the middle of the century. The ACG Field ACG is a giant field located about 100 km east of Baku. The field covers an area of more than 432 square kilometers and is the biggest producing oil field in the Caspian Sea. The depth of the reservoir is around 2000-3500 meters and lies in the water depth of between 120 to 170 meters. The existing ACG PSA was signed in September 1994 for 30 years. Oil Production from the field began in November 1997, and as of December 23, 2016, the field has produced more than 3 billion barrels of oil with around $33 billion of investment. There are six producing platforms on ACG, linked with a world-class onshore terminal in Sangachai near Baku. From the terminal, oil is exported to world markets primarily by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline and the Western Export Pipeline to Supsa. British Oil Company currently is the operator acting on the behalf of AIOC and the Contractor Parties to the ACG Production Sharing Agreement. Story continues The BP-ACG Relation BP first arrived in Azerbaijan in June 1992, when it opened its first office in Baku. In the last 25 years, BP has partnered with the Government of Azerbaijan and its co-venturers, BP-operated projects, Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Shah Deniz, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), have contributed to the development of the Caspian Sea as a modern hydrocarbon province. In the Caspian, the Company operated two giant fields, namely, the ACG (Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli) and SD (Shah Deniz) gas fields. These fields are directly linked to the local and international markets via an expansive export system, including a complex subsea pipeline infrastructure and connected with the Sangachai terminal, three export pipelines with a total length of 3,300 km connected with marine export systems on the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Azeri's President, Ilham Aliyev, stated on May 31, 2017, that he expected the contract to be signed soon, speculating the final intent to reach an agreement with investors at the Caspian Oil & Gas Conference in Baku. Stock Performance On Thursday, June 01, 2017, the stock closed the trading session at $36.24, marginally up 0.25% from its previous closing price of $36.15. A total volume of 6.48 million shares have exchanged hands, which was higher than the 3-month average volume of 6.43 million shares. BP PLC's stock price surged 6.21% in the last three months, 8.11% in the past six months, and 15.63% in the previous twelve months. The stock is trading at a PE ratio of 55.16 and has a dividend yield of 6.62%. The stock currently has a market cap of $120.21 billion. Active Wall Street: Active Wall Street (AWS) produces regular sponsored and non-sponsored reports, articles, stock market blogs, and popular investment newsletters covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and micro-cap stocks. AWS has two distinct and independent departments. One department produces non-sponsored analyst certified content generally in the form of press releases, articles and reports covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and the other produces sponsored content (in most cases not reviewed by a registered analyst), which typically consists of compensated investment newsletters, articles and reports covering listed stocks and micro-caps. Such sponsored content is outside the scope of procedures detailed below. AWS has not been compensated; directly or indirectly; for producing or publishing this document. PRESS RELEASE PROCEDURES : The non-sponsored content contained herein has been prepared by a writer (the "Author") and is fact checked and reviewed by a third party research service company (the "Reviewer") represented by a credentialed financial analyst [for further information on analyst credentials, please email [email protected] . Rohit Tuli, a CFA® charterholder (the "Sponsor"), provides necessary guidance in preparing the document templates. The Reviewer has reviewed and revised the content, as necessary, based on publicly available information which is believed to be reliable. Content is researched, written and reviewed on a reasonable-effort basis. The Reviewer has not performed any independent investigations or forensic audits to validate the information herein. The Reviewer has only independently reviewed the information provided by the Author according to the procedures outlined by AWS. AWS is not entitled to veto or interfere in the application of such procedures by the third-party research service company to the articles, documents or reports, as the case may be. Unless otherwise noted, any content outside of this document has no association with the Author or the Reviewer in any way. NO WARRANTY AWS, the Author, and the Reviewer are not responsible for any error which may be occasioned at the time of printing of this document or any error, mistake or shortcoming. No liability is accepted whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential loss arising from the use of this document. AWS, the Author, and the Reviewer expressly disclaim any fiduciary responsibility or liability for any consequences, financial or otherwise arising from any reliance placed on the information in this document. Additionally, AWS, the Author, and the Reviewer do not (1) guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness or correct sequencing of the information, or (2) warrant any results from use of the information. The included information is subject to change without notice. NOT AN OFFERING This document is not intended as an offering, recommendation, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned or discussed, and is to be used for informational purposes only. Please read all associated disclosures and disclaimers in full before investing. Neither AWS nor any party affiliated with us is a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer with any agency or in any jurisdiction whatsoever. To download our report(s), read our disclosures, or for more information, visit http://www.activewallst.com/disclaimer/ . CONTACT For any questions, inquiries, or comments reach out to us directly. If you're a company we are covering and wish to no longer feature on our coverage list contact us via email and/or phone between 09:30 EDT to 16:00 EDT from Monday to Friday at: Email: [email protected] Phone number: 1-858-257-3144 Office Address: 3rd floor, 207 Regent Street, London, W1B 3HH, United Kingdom CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute. SOURCE: Active Wall Street View comments || Blog Coverage British Oil Company Expected to Sign Azerbaijan Contract by June 2017; Existing Deal to Expire in 2024: Upcoming AWSCoverage onAegean Marine Petroleum Network Post-Earnings Results
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2017 /Active Wall St. blog coverage looks at the headline from British Oil Company BP PLC (NYSE:BP).The Company is expected to sign a contract at the end of June extending its production sharing deal for Azerbaijan's biggest oilfields until 2050, according to the Company's regional head's statement on May 31, 2017. With the existing deal set to expire in 2024, BP-led consortium and Azeri state oil firm SOCAR signed a letter of intent in December to continue developing the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly (ACG) offshore fields until 2050. Register with us now for your free membership and blog access at:http://www.activewallst.com/register/.
One of BP PLC's competitors within the Major Integrated Oil & Gas space, Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW), announced on May 23, 2017, its financial and operating results for Q1 2017 which ended on March 31, 2017. AWS will be initiating a research report on Aegean Marine Petroleum Network in the coming days.
Today, AWS is promoting its blog coverage onBP; touching onANW. Get all of our free blog coverage and more by clicking on the link below:http://www.activewallst.com/register/.
The Development Agreement
On December 23, 2016, The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) signed a letter of intent for the future development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. The agreement included the development of the field until 2050 and will add significant resource potential to the middle of the century.
The ACG Field
ACG is a giant field located about 100 km east of Baku. The field covers an area of more than 432 square kilometers and is the biggest producing oil field in the Caspian Sea. The depth of the reservoir is around 2000-3500 meters and lies in the water depth of between 120 to 170 meters. The existing ACG PSA was signed in September 1994 for 30 years. Oil Production from the field began in November 1997, and as of December 23, 2016, the field has produced more than 3 billion barrels of oil with around $33 billion of investment.
There are six producing platforms on ACG, linked with a world-class onshore terminal in Sangachai near Baku. From the terminal, oil is exported to world markets primarily by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline and the Western Export Pipeline to Supsa. British Oil Company currently is the operator acting on the behalf of AIOC and the Contractor Parties to the ACG Production Sharing Agreement.
The BP-ACG Relation
BP first arrived in Azerbaijan in June 1992, when it opened its first office in Baku. In the last 25 years, BP has partnered with the Government of Azerbaijan and its co-venturers, BP-operated projects, Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Shah Deniz, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), have contributed to the development of the Caspian Sea as a modern hydrocarbon province.
In the Caspian, the Company operated two giant fields, namely, the ACG (Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli) and SD (Shah Deniz) gas fields. These fields are directly linked to the local and international markets via an expansive export system, including a complex subsea pipeline infrastructure and connected with the Sangachai terminal, three export pipelines with a total length of 3,300 km connected with marine export systems on the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
Azeri's President, Ilham Aliyev, stated on May 31, 2017, that he expected the contract to be signed soon, speculating the final intent to reach an agreement with investors at the Caspian Oil & Gas Conference in Baku.
Stock Performance
On Thursday, June 01, 2017, the stock closed the trading session at $36.24, marginally up 0.25% from its previous closing price of $36.15. A total volume of 6.48 million shares have exchanged hands, which was higher than the 3-month average volume of 6.43 million shares. BP PLC's stock price surged 6.21% in the last three months, 8.11% in the past six months, and 15.63% in the previous twelve months. The stock is trading at a PE ratio of 55.16 and has a dividend yield of 6.62%. The stock currently has a market cap of $120.21 billion.
Active Wall Street:
Active Wall Street (AWS) produces regular sponsored and non-sponsored reports, articles, stock market blogs, and popular investment newsletters covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and micro-cap stocks. AWS has two distinct and independent departments. One department produces non-sponsored analyst certified content generally in the form of press releases, articles and reports covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and the other produces sponsored content (in most cases not reviewed by a registered analyst), which typically consists of compensated investment newsletters, articles and reports covering listed stocks and micro-caps. Such sponsored content is outside the scope of procedures detailed below.
AWS has not been compensated; directly or indirectly; for producing or publishing this document.
PRESS RELEASE PROCEDURES:
The non-sponsored content contained herein has been prepared by a writer (the "Author") and is fact checked and reviewed by a third party research service company (the "Reviewer") represented by a credentialed financial analyst [for further information on analyst credentials, please [email protected]. Rohit Tuli, a CFA® charterholder (the "Sponsor"), provides necessary guidance in preparing the document templates. The Reviewer has reviewed and revised the content, as necessary, based on publicly available information which is believed to be reliable. Content is researched, written and reviewed on a reasonable-effort basis. The Reviewer has not performed any independent investigations or forensic audits to validate the information herein. The Reviewer has only independently reviewed the information provided by the Author according to the procedures outlined by AWS. AWS is not entitled to veto or interfere in the application of such procedures by the third-party research service company to the articles, documents or reports, as the case may be. Unless otherwise noted, any content outside of this document has no association with the Author or the Reviewer in any way.
NO WARRANTY
AWS, the Author, and the Reviewer are not responsible for any error which may be occasioned at the time of printing of this document or any error, mistake or shortcoming. No liability is accepted whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential loss arising from the use of this document. AWS, the Author, and the Reviewer expressly disclaim any fiduciary responsibility or liability for any consequences, financial or otherwise arising from any reliance placed on the information in this document. Additionally, AWS, the Author, and the Reviewer do not (1) guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness or correct sequencing of the information, or (2) warrant any results from use of the information. The included information is subject to change without notice.
NOT AN OFFERING
This document is not intended as an offering, recommendation, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned or discussed, and is to be used for informational purposes only. Please read all associated disclosures and disclaimers in full before investing. Neither AWS nor any party affiliated with us is a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer with any agency or in any jurisdiction whatsoever. To download our report(s), read our disclosures, or for more information, visithttp://www.activewallst.com/disclaimer/.
CONTACT
For any questions, inquiries, or comments reach out to us directly.If you're a company we are covering and wish to no longer feature on our coverage list contact us via email and/or phone between 09:30 EDT to 16:00 EDT from Monday to Friday at:
Email:[email protected]
Phone number: 1-858-257-3144
Office Address: 3rd floor, 207 Regent Street, London, W1B 3HH, United Kingdom
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
SOURCE:Active Wall Street || BlackBerry shares rocket on bullish analyst note: Shares of BlackBerry (Toronto Stock Exchange: BB-CA) spiked 10 percent on Thursday after a note from Citron Research setting a 24-month price target of $20 per share. The noted short seller sees new life in BlackBerry as an internet-of-things provider and a key player in the autonomous car market. Citron is bullish on BlackBerry's QNX operating system, which it says is a "potential game changer in autonomous driving." It names QNX's customers, which include Audi, Bentley, BMW, Buick, Chervolet, Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and more. Citron compared BlackBerry with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) noting that the two companies are participating in markets with plenty of growth potential. The firm addressed the bear case, in which BlackBerry's QNX technology may be quickly outclassed by tech titans such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) , which are also investing in autonomous car technology. "Citron believes if anything this validates BlackBerry's position and makes it ripe as an acquisition target for countless suitors," it said. "Qualcomm recently purchased NXP for its exposure in Automotive, Internet of Things, security and Networking." Citron said it's also bullish on BlackBerry because of its potential to have a big role in the internet of things, particularly as a company known for its security. Internet of things devices have a long history of being insecure, and BlackBerry is working to change that. More From CNBC Bitcoin may hit $4,000 by the end of the year: Analyst Elon Musk’s idea of merging machines with humans is ‘alarmist’, CEO of top A.I. firm says This start-up is offering $8,000 blood transfusions from teens || BlackBerry shares rocket on bullish analyst note: Shares of BlackBerry(Toronto Stock Exchange: BB-CA)spiked 10 percent on Thursday after a note from Citron Research setting a 24-month price target of $20 per share.
The noted short seller sees new life in BlackBerry as an internet-of-things provider and a key player in the autonomous car market.
Citron is bullish on BlackBerry's QNX operating system, which it says is a "potential game changer in autonomous driving." It names QNX's customers, which include Audi, Bentley, BMW, Buick, Chervolet, Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and more. Citron compared BlackBerry with Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA)noting that the two companies are participating in markets with plenty of growth potential.
The firm addressed the bear case, in which BlackBerry's QNX technology may be quickly outclassed by tech titans such as Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)and Google(NASDAQ: GOOGL), which are also investing in autonomous car technology. "Citron believes if anything this validates BlackBerry's position and makes it ripe as an acquisition target for countless suitors," it said. "Qualcomm recently purchased NXP for its exposure in Automotive, Internet of Things, security and Networking."
Citron said it's also bullish on BlackBerry because of its potential to have a big role in the internet of things, particularly as a company known for its security. Internet of things devices have a long history of being insecure, and BlackBerry is working to change that.
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• Bitcoin may hit $4,000 by the end of the year: Analyst
• Elon Musk’s idea of merging machines with humans is ‘alarmist’, CEO of top A.I. firm says
• This start-up is offering $8,000 blood transfusions from teens || The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: ARK Web x.0 ETF, Bitcoin Investment Trust, NVIDIA, Square and MercadoLibre: For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – June 01, 2017 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog includeARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW– Free Report), Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC– Free Report), NVIDIA (NVDA– Free Report), Square Inc. (SQ– Free Report)andMercadoLibre Inc. (MELI– Free Report).
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Best-Performing Stocks from the Best ETF in May
The technology sector, no doubt, has been leading the broad market rally and is a the clear winner this month as well. That said,ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW– Free Report)has topped the list of the best performing ETFs of May, with impressive returns of about 15.6% (read: 5 ETFs & Stocks to Ride the Tech Mania).The impressive rally was mainly driven by the emergence and extensive adoption of new technology such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, wearables, drones, virtual reality devices and artificial intelligence. Additionally, the surge in bitcoin prices is a big boon for this disruptive companies focused ETF. This is especially true as ARKW is the first ETF to add bitcoin to its roster and the move is paying off.Bitcoin, commonly known as a cryptocurrency, is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. Notably, the digital currency shot up to an all-time high of above $2,700, doubling its value since the start of May (read: Will We Finally See a Bitcoin ETF?).Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals of ARKW.ARKW in FocusThis is an actively managed fund focusing on companies that are expected to benefit from the shift in technology infrastructure to the cloud, enabling mobile, new and local services. These include companies that rely on or benefit from the increased use of shared technology, infrastructure and services in cloud computing, e-commerce, big data, social media, Internet of Things, new payment methods, media ecosystems, health care, point of sale, telecom and cryptocurrencies.The fund holds 39 stocks in its basket with none holding more than 7.6% share. From a sector look, Internet & mobile applications makes up for 29% of the portfolio while software & programming and Internet & direct marketing round off the next two spots with 13% exposure each. The ETF has amassed $40.1 million in its asset base and trades in a paltry average daily volume of around 10,000 shares. The expense ratio comes in at 0.75%.Though most of the stocks in the fund’s portfolio delivered strong returns, a few were the real stars having gained more than 20%. Below we have highlighted those best-performing stocks in the ETF with their respective positions in the fund’s basket (see: all the Technology ETFs here):Best Performing Stocks of ARKWBitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC– Free Report): Shares of GBTC have soared about 210% this month. GBTC is an open-ended grantor trust based in the U.S., sponsored by Grayscale Investments. It is quoted on the over-the-counter market and derives its value solely from the price of bitcoin. The Trust's objective is to track the market price of bitcoin. GBTC occupies the top spot in the fund’s basket with 7.5% of the total assets.NVIDIA (NVDA– Free Report): This stock takes the seventh position in the fund’s basket with 4.02% allocation. It has also delivered incredible returns of 39% in May. The stock has seem solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents for this fiscal year over the past one month with an expected earnings growth rate of 19.36%. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with a VGM Style Score of C and a solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 7% (read: 5 ETFs to Tap the Hot NVIDIA).Square Inc. (SQ– Free Report): This stock takes the seventeenth spot in the fund’s basket with 2.5% of assets. It gained 24.7% in May and has seen positive earnings estimate revision from a loss of 25 cents to a loss of 16 cents over the past one month for this year. As a result, its earnings are expected to grow 53.88% versus the industry average of 9.91%. Square currently has a Zacks Rank #3 with a VGM Style Score of B and solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 39%.MercadoLibre Inc. (MELI– Free Report): The stock has gained about 22.3% this month. It has seen solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents over the past one month for this year with an expected earnings growth rate of 34.05%. This is much higher than the industry average of 20.82%. MercadoLibre currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) with a VGM Style Score of D and a solid Zacks Industry Rankin the top 20%. The stock occupies the sixteenth position in the fund’s portfolio, making up for 2.5% share.
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Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News
Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportARK- WEB XO ETF (ARKW): ETF Research ReportsClick for Free NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Stock Analysis Report >>Click for Free Square, Inc. (SQ) Stock Analysis Report >>Click for Free MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) Stock Analysis Report >>To read this article on Zacks.com click here. || The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: ARK Web x.0 ETF, Bitcoin Investment Trust, NVIDIA, Square and MercadoLibre: For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – June 01, 2017 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include ARK Web x.0 ETF ( ARKW – Free Report ), Bitcoin Investment Trust ( GBTC – Free Report ), NVIDIA ( NVDA – Free Report ), Square Inc. ( SQ – Free Report ) and MercadoLibre Inc. ( MELI – Free Report ) . Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free . Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog: Best-Performing Stocks from the Best ETF in May The technology sector, no doubt, has been leading the broad market rally and is a the clear winner this month as well. That said, ARK Web x.0 ETF ( ARKW – Free Report ) has topped the list of the best performing ETFs of May, with impressive returns of about 15.6% (read: 5 ETFs & Stocks to Ride the Tech Mania). The impressive rally was mainly driven by the emergence and extensive adoption of new technology such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, wearables, drones, virtual reality devices and artificial intelligence. Additionally, the surge in bitcoin prices is a big boon for this disruptive companies focused ETF. This is especially true as ARKW is the first ETF to add bitcoin to its roster and the move is paying off. Bitcoin, commonly known as a cryptocurrency, is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. Notably, the digital currency shot up to an all-time high of above $2,700, doubling its value since the start of May (read: Will We Finally See a Bitcoin ETF?). Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals of ARKW. ARKW in Focus This is an actively managed fund focusing on companies that are expected to benefit from the shift in technology infrastructure to the cloud, enabling mobile, new and local services. These include companies that rely on or benefit from the increased use of shared technology, infrastructure and services in cloud computing, e-commerce, big data, social media, Internet of Things, new payment methods, media ecosystems, health care, point of sale, telecom and cryptocurrencies. The fund holds 39 stocks in its basket with none holding more than 7.6% share. From a sector look, Internet & mobile applications makes up for 29% of the portfolio while software & programming and Internet & direct marketing round off the next two spots with 13% exposure each. The ETF has amassed $40.1 million in its asset base and trades in a paltry average daily volume of around 10,000 shares. The expense ratio comes in at 0.75%. Though most of the stocks in the fund’s portfolio delivered strong returns, a few were the real stars having gained more than 20%. Below we have highlighted those best-performing stocks in the ETF with their respective positions in the fund’s basket (see: all the Technology ETFs here): Best Performing Stocks of ARKW Bitcoin Investment Trust ( GBTC – Free Report ) : Shares of GBTC have soared about 210% this month. GBTC is an open-ended grantor trust based in the U.S., sponsored by Grayscale Investments. It is quoted on the over-the-counter market and derives its value solely from the price of bitcoin. The Trust's objective is to track the market price of bitcoin. GBTC occupies the top spot in the fund’s basket with 7.5% of the total assets. NVIDIA ( NVDA – Free Report ) : This stock takes the seventh position in the fund’s basket with 4.02% allocation. It has also delivered incredible returns of 39% in May. The stock has seem solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents for this fiscal year over the past one month with an expected earnings growth rate of 19.36%. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with a VGM Style Score of C and a solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 7% (read: 5 ETFs to Tap the Hot NVIDIA). Square Inc. ( SQ – Free Report ) : This stock takes the seventeenth spot in the fund’s basket with 2.5% of assets. It gained 24.7% in May and has seen positive earnings estimate revision from a loss of 25 cents to a loss of 16 cents over the past one month for this year. As a result, its earnings are expected to grow 53.88% versus the industry average of 9.91%. Square currently has a Zacks Rank #3 with a VGM Style Score of B and solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 39%. MercadoLibre Inc. ( MELI – Free Report ) : The stock has gained about 22.3% this month. It has seen solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents over the past one month for this year with an expected earnings growth rate of 34.05%. This is much higher than the industry average of 20.82%. MercadoLibre currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) with a VGM Style Score of D and a solid Zacks Industry Rankin the top 20%. The stock occupies the sixteenth position in the fund’s portfolio, making up for 2.5% share. Story continues About Zacks Equity Research Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term. Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>. Get the full Report on ARKW - FREE Get the full Report on GBTC – FREE Get the full Report on NVDA - FREE Get the full Report on SQ - FREE Get the full Report on MELI - FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 [email protected] https://www.zacks.com/ Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ARK- WEB XO ETF (ARKW): ETF Research Reports Click for Free NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Stock Analysis Report >> Click for Free Square, Inc. (SQ) Stock Analysis Report >> Click for Free MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) Stock Analysis Report >> To read this article on Zacks.com click here. View comments
[Social Media Buzz]
$2546.31 at 22:15 UTC [24h Range: $2445.00 - $2584.34 Volume: 11066 BTC] || $2521.44 at 01:45 UTC [24h Range: $2445.00 - $2584.34 Volume: 11177 BTC] || BTC/NGN:
BitSSA - ₦950,010.00
Luno - ₦957,495.00
LB - ₦942,105.01
Average - ₦949,870.00 || Current price of Bitcoin is $2500.00. || #Monacoin 30.2円→[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ]
#NEM #XEM 24.52円↓[Zaif]
#Bitcoin 284,840円↑[Zaif]
06/04 02:00
口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO || $2489.78 at 02:30 UTC [24h Range: $2370.03 - $2496.00 Volume: 12507 BTC] || ...
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2511.81, 2686.81, 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63, 2717.02
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7343.90, 7271.21, 8197.69, 7978.31, 7963.33, 7680.07, 7881.85, 7987.37, 8052.54, 8673.22, 8805.78, 8719.96, 8659.49, 8319.47, 8574.50, 8564.02, 8742.96, 8209.00, 7707.77, 7824.23, 7822.02, 8043.95, 7954.13, 7688.08, 8000.33, 7927.71, 8145.86, 8230.92, 8693.83, 8838.38, 8994.49, 9320.35, 9081.76, 9273.52, 9527.16, 10144.56, 10701.69, 10855.37, 11011.10, 11790.92, 13016.23, 11182.81, 12407.33, 11959.37, 10817.16, 10583.13, 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-08-14]
Volume: 19990838300, RSI (14-day): 41.37, 50-day EMA: 10529.88, 200-day EMA: 8093.68
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1515.90, Gold RSI: 77.90
Oil Price: 55.23, Oil RSI: 48.42
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Winklevoss-Backed Flexa Expands Crypto Payments Service to Canada: Payment solutionFlexais going international with a Canadian market launch.
Flexa, which launched theU.S. editionof its SPEDN cryptocurrency wallet in mid-May, announced its Canadian expansion in an officialblogpost. Backed by cryptocurrency exchangeGemini, Flexa’s international movement is preceded by both support for cryptocurrencieslitecoinandzcashand the launch of an Android beta mobile app earlier this summer.
Functioning like a pipeline for commercial transactions, SPEDN processes regular purchases in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash or native tokenflexacoin.
Related:Winklevoss Twins’ Gemini Exchange May Join Facebook’s Libra Project
Today, SPEDN is now open to Canadians on both iOS and Android. The post claims 7,500 Canadian merchants will be on-boarded by early September.
With all funds insured and custodied by Gemini, Flexa says Canadian and U.S. users can use SPEDN in either country free of conversion fees or exchange rates issues.
Speaking with CoinDesk, Flexa co-founder Tyler Spalding said the payments processor plans on launching in a few more countries by the end of the year but cannot disclose the locations.
On-boarding additional coins is also in the works.
Related:Gemini to Apply for Broker-Dealer License in Bid to Trade Crypto Securities
“Regarding the market, we anticipate considerable growth of ‘spendable cryptocurrencies’ like stable coins and loyalty coins over the next year that will drive consumer demand for spending,” Spalding said. “We are working with multiple projects and intend to launch many new coins on the network shortly. For now, we’ve been really impressed with the current communities and their repeated use of the SPEDN app, particularly litecoin.”
Canadian cryptocurrency exchangeCoinsquarepartnered with Flexa for the launch.
Canada image via CoinDesk archives
• Gemini Hires 5 Former Coinbase Engineers for New Chicago Crypto Office
• You Can Now ‘Spedn’ Bitcoin at GameStop, Barnes & Noble and More || Winklevoss-Backed Flexa Expands Crypto Payments Service to Canada: Payment solution Flexa is going international with a Canadian market launch. Flexa, which launched the U.S. edition of its SPEDN cryptocurrency wallet in mid-May, announced its Canadian expansion in an official blog post. Backed by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini , Flexas international movement is preceded by both support for cryptocurrencies litecoin and zcash and the launch of an Android beta mobile app earlier this summer. Functioning like a pipeline for commercial transactions, SPEDN processes regular purchases in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash or native token flexacoin . Related: Winklevoss Twins Gemini Exchange May Join Facebooks Libra Project Today, SPEDN is now open to Canadians on both iOS and Android. The post claims 7,500 Canadian merchants will be on-boarded by early September. With all funds insured and custodied by Gemini, Flexa says Canadian and U.S. users can use SPEDN in either country free of conversion fees or exchange rates issues. Speaking with CoinDesk, Flexa co-founder Tyler Spalding said the payments processor plans on launching in a few more countries by the end of the year but cannot disclose the locations. On-boarding additional coins is also in the works. Related: Gemini to Apply for Broker-Dealer License in Bid to Trade Crypto Securities Regarding the market, we anticipate considerable growth of spendable cryptocurrencies like stable coins and loyalty coins over the next year that will drive consumer demand for spending, Spalding said. We are working with multiple projects and intend to launch many new coins on the network shortly. For now, weve been really impressed with the current communities and their repeated use of the SPEDN app, particularly litecoin. Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare partnered with Flexa for the launch. Canada image via CoinDesk archives Related Stories Gemini Hires 5 Former Coinbase Engineers for New Chicago Crypto Office You Can Now Spedn Bitcoin at GameStop, Barnes & Noble and More || Bitcoins Kimchi Premium Vanishes Again as Trading Range Tightens: The spread between the price of bitcoin on South Korean and U.S.-based crypto exchanges, which returned in June and hit 16-month highs , has disappeared once again. A measure of how much more South Koreans pay for bitcoin, the spread, known colloquially as the kimchi premium, has reached remarkable levels, peaking at 54.48 percent in January 2018, according to researchers at the University of Calgary. From then, it dropped and ultimately vanished into early 2019, only to return again recently, running at around 5 to 10 percent. But last week, local newspapers started to notice that bitcoin was back to trading lower in won terms. The Dong-a Ilbo, one of the countrys major publications, reported on August 5 that bitcoin was priced just 2.15 percent higher in dollar markets than in won on South Korean exchanges. Related: Shinhan Bank Teams With Kakaos GroundX for Blockchain Security Boost The deficit persists. On August 13, bitcoin was trading on Upbit at 13,678,000 won and quoted on CoinDesk at $11,429.14, which translates to 13,931,951 won, a difference of 253,951 ($208). Thats about 1.8 percent lower. At the end of the day on Tuesday in Korea, the gap had narrowed, but it remained. The Dong-a Ilbo believes that the end of the kimchi premium has something to do with the fall of the Korean won. Since the end of July, the local currency has lost almost 3 percent of its value against the dollar. At the same time, the regulatory environment is becoming more challenging for crypto exchanges in Korea. The banks are starting to more strictly apply AML guidelines and local regulatory requirements, such as real name accounts , while the authorities have recently said they are going to directly supervise the markets. The University of Calgary researchers argue in an April 2019 paper that the kimchi premium is largely structural. Transfers between markets can take time, and this makes arbitrage difficult. Related: Korea Prepaid Card Invests in Blockchain Startup Bezant Profiting on the price difference is a risky trade due to the delay and the volatility of the coin, so the volume of these price correcting transactions is often too low to close the gap. The researchers also said that high transaction costs might disincentivize moves between the markets. Exchange controls in Korea, though primarily administrative these days, do add friction and can slow the movement of funds needed to balance the arbitrage trade. The controls also have a way of making bitcoin more attractive to people in Korea, as the coin is transnational in nature and potentially a good vehicle for bypassing the exchange controls, the researchers added in their paper. Story continues Korean won image via Shutterstock Related Stories South Koreas SK Group Proposes Blockchain-Based Donation Platform and Two Tokens Korean Fintechs Are Creating a Blockchain for Trading OTC Securities View comments || Bitcoin’s ‘Kimchi Premium’ Vanishes Again as Trading Range Tightens: The spread between the price of bitcoin on South Korean and U.S.-based crypto exchanges,which returned in June and hit 16-month highs, has disappeared once again.
A measure of how much more South Koreans pay for bitcoin, the spread, known colloquially as the “kimchi premium,” has reached remarkable levels, peaking at 54.48 percent in January 2018,according to researchersat the University of Calgary. From then, it dropped and ultimately vanished into early 2019, only to return again recently, running at around 5 to 10 percent.
But last week, local newspapers started to notice that bitcoin was back to trading lower in won terms. The Dong-a Ilbo, one of the country’s major publications,reportedon August 5 that bitcoin was priced just 2.15 percent higher in dollar markets than in won on South Korean exchanges.
Related:Shinhan Bank Teams With Kakao’s GroundX for Blockchain Security Boost
The deficit persists. On August 13, bitcoin was trading onUpbitat 13,678,000 won and quoted on CoinDesk at $11,429.14, which translates to 13,931,951 won, a difference of 253,951 ($208). That’s about 1.8 percent lower. At the end of the day on Tuesday in Korea, the gap had narrowed, but it remained.
The Dong-a Ilbo believes that the end of the kimchi premium has something to do with the fall of the Korean won. Since the end of July, the local currency has lost almost 3 percent of its value against the dollar.
At the same time, the regulatory environment is becoming more challenging for crypto exchanges in Korea. The banks are starting to more strictly apply AML guidelines and local regulatory requirements,such as real name accounts, while the authorities have recently said they are going todirectly supervisethe markets.
The University of Calgary researchers argue in an April 2019 paper that the kimchi premium is largely structural. Transfers between markets can take time, and this makes arbitrage difficult.
Related:Korea Prepaid Card Invests in Blockchain Startup Bezant
Profiting on the price difference is a risky trade due to the delay and the volatility of the coin, so the volume of these price correcting transactions is often too low to close the gap. The researchers also said that high transaction costs might disincentivize moves between the markets.
Exchange controls in Korea, though primarily administrative these days, do add friction and can slow the movement of funds needed to balance the arbitrage trade. The controls also have a way of making bitcoin more attractive to people in Korea, as the coin is transnational in nature and potentially a good vehicle for bypassing the exchange controls, the researchers added in their paper.
Korean won image via Shutterstock
• South Korea’s SK Group Proposes Blockchain-Based Donation Platform and Two Tokens
• Korean Fintechs Are Creating a Blockchain for Trading OTC Securities || Bitcoin’s ‘Kimchi Premium’ Vanishes Again as Trading Range Tightens: The spread between the price of bitcoin on South Korean and U.S.-based crypto exchanges,which returned in June and hit 16-month highs, has disappeared once again.
A measure of how much more South Koreans pay for bitcoin, the spread, known colloquially as the “kimchi premium,” has reached remarkable levels, peaking at 54.48 percent in January 2018,according to researchersat the University of Calgary. From then, it dropped and ultimately vanished into early 2019, only to return again recently, running at around 5 to 10 percent.
But last week, local newspapers started to notice that bitcoin was back to trading lower in won terms. The Dong-a Ilbo, one of the country’s major publications,reportedon August 5 that bitcoin was priced just 2.15 percent higher in dollar markets than in won on South Korean exchanges.
Related:Shinhan Bank Teams With Kakao’s GroundX for Blockchain Security Boost
The deficit persists. On August 13, bitcoin was trading onUpbitat 13,678,000 won and quoted on CoinDesk at $11,429.14, which translates to 13,931,951 won, a difference of 253,951 ($208). That’s about 1.8 percent lower. At the end of the day on Tuesday in Korea, the gap had narrowed, but it remained.
The Dong-a Ilbo believes that the end of the kimchi premium has something to do with the fall of the Korean won. Since the end of July, the local currency has lost almost 3 percent of its value against the dollar.
At the same time, the regulatory environment is becoming more challenging for crypto exchanges in Korea. The banks are starting to more strictly apply AML guidelines and local regulatory requirements,such as real name accounts, while the authorities have recently said they are going todirectly supervisethe markets.
The University of Calgary researchers argue in an April 2019 paper that the kimchi premium is largely structural. Transfers between markets can take time, and this makes arbitrage difficult.
Related:Korea Prepaid Card Invests in Blockchain Startup Bezant
Profiting on the price difference is a risky trade due to the delay and the volatility of the coin, so the volume of these price correcting transactions is often too low to close the gap. The researchers also said that high transaction costs might disincentivize moves between the markets.
Exchange controls in Korea, though primarily administrative these days, do add friction and can slow the movement of funds needed to balance the arbitrage trade. The controls also have a way of making bitcoin more attractive to people in Korea, as the coin is transnational in nature and potentially a good vehicle for bypassing the exchange controls, the researchers added in their paper.
Korean won image via Shutterstock
• South Korea’s SK Group Proposes Blockchain-Based Donation Platform and Two Tokens
• Korean Fintechs Are Creating a Blockchain for Trading OTC Securities || Report: BitMEX traders flee as exchange sheds $524m in July: Anew reportfrom blockchain intelligence resource Token Analyst claims that many traders decided to ditch derivative trading platform BitMEX in July, taking with them funds worth half a billion dollars.
In the same month, rumors that BitMEX may be under pressure from regulators began circulating after a Bloombergreportclaimed the exchange was being probed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC.)
It’s alleged that U.S. citizens were allowed to trade on the platform despite beingblockedin compliance with January 2018 regulations. Last month,Decryptreportedon the simple ways in which traders may have been able to get around the U.S. trading ban.
Now, historical data from Token Analyst shows that the persistent rumors facing BitMEX appear to have had an impact on monthly Bitcoin flows. July’s loss of $524 million marks the culmination of a generally poor 2019, despite it being a year of recovery for the cryptocurrency market.
The 2019 data is in sharp contrast to 2018 figures, which show that $1.3 billion was brought into the exchange, with not one month having more outputs than inputs.
Notably, this satisfactory performance was throughout the long lasting crypto bear market. In 2019, with a marked improvement throughout the rest of the crypto industry, the situation has been reversed, with a constant outflow of funds from the exchange. And July’s data is now off the scale; it's more than five times any previous month’s outflow.
To be fair to BitMEX, net Bitcoin flow is only one metric.
And, there's evidence that BitMEX traders are generally a positive bunch. According toDataMishstatistics, also from July. Three quarters of those polled said theyexpected the price of bitcoin to go up in the short term. More than 77 percent had long positions—betting that the price will rise—while just 22 percent were shorting the market. || Report: BitMEX traders flee as exchange sheds $524m in July: A new report from blockchain intelligence resource Token Analyst claims that many traders decided to ditch derivative trading platform BitMEX in July, taking with them funds worth half a billion dollars. In the same month, rumors that BitMEX may be under pressure from regulators began circulating after a Bloomberg report claimed the exchange was being probed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC.) Its alleged that U.S. citizens were allowed to trade on the platform despite being blocked in compliance with January 2018 regulations. Last month, Decrypt reported on the simple ways in which traders may have been able to get around the U.S. trading ban. Now, historical data from Token Analyst shows that the persistent rumors facing BitMEX appear to have had an impact on monthly Bitcoin flows. Julys loss of $524 million marks the culmination of a generally poor 2019, despite it being a year of recovery for the cryptocurrency market. The 2019 data is in sharp contrast to 2018 figures, which show that $1.3 billion was brought into the exchange, with not one month having more outputs than inputs. Monthly net BTC flow on BitMEX exchange. SOURCE: Token Analyst Notably, this satisfactory performance was throughout the long lasting crypto bear market. In 2019, with a marked improvement throughout the rest of the crypto industry, the situation has been reversed, with a constant outflow of funds from the exchange. And Julys data is now off the scale; it's more than five times any previous months outflow. To be fair to BitMEX, net Bitcoin flow is only one metric. And, there's evidence that BitMEX traders are generally a positive bunch. According to DataMish statistics, also from July. T hree quarters of those polled said they expected the price of bitcoin to go up in the short term. More than 77 percent had long positionsbetting that the price will risewhile just 22 percent were shorting the market. || Is there a Bitcoin miner import scheme happening in Russia?: The Federal Customs Service (FCS) in Russia is investigating allegations of unpaid customs fees for over 6,000 Bitcoin miners imported into the country. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of mining electronic currencies using modern equipment and special programs that allow you to gradually accumulate Bitcoins and other digital coins. The relevance of cryptocurrency mining is as high as ever in Russia since the country is still working on regulation for the sector. The Russian government has taken a strict stance on cryptocurrencies since the arrival of Bitcoin in 2009, and as such many laws surrounding mining are still murky. Now it seems that some groups are attempting to exploit this grey area by importing Bitcoin miners illegally and evading taxation. The FCS tightens control The Russian FCS has demanded that subordinate customs authorities tighten control over the movement of equipment for cryptocurrency mining. Due to the fact that the equipment for cryptocurrency mining operates on the basis of certain cryptographic algorithms, it is subject to restrictions that apply to the import of goods with encryption and cryptography functions. Mining equipment imported by individuals as goods for personal use, including shipment by international mail, must be declared to customs officials. Also, according to information from the Office of Trade Restrictions, Currency, and Export Controls, cryptocurrency mining equipment is subject to two technical regulations regarding the safety of low-voltage equipment and the electromagnetic compatibility of technical equipment. A conformity assessment of such equipment is carried out by customs officials to ensure it adheres to these regulations. The main manufacturer of Bitcoin miners and ASIC devices is the Chinese company Bitmain. The production of graphics cards for mining is carried out by the American companies Nvidia and AMD. As such, these miners need to comply with certain requirements for foreign devices and must be declared and checked. Story continues Russian police investigate Most ASIC miners arrive in Russia using illegal import schemes. More than 70% of miners enter the country through these schemes as a way of evading tax. The FCS has launched a criminal investigation into the case of an alleged exporter of Bitcoin mining equipment called the Far Eastern Commercial and Industrial Company. The company is accused of not paying customs duties on 6,000 Bitmain ASIC miners amounting to around $1.2 million. The Bitmain ASIC miners in question are touted as energy-saving Bitcoin miners with high hash rates. It is alleged that the company also falsified documents which showed fake pricing. The representative of Bitmain in Russia, Julia Fetisova, suspects that the root of the problem is large resellers who are buying huge batches of ASIC miners from Bitmain at discounted prices, evading any import taxes, and then reselling the miners in Russia with quick delivery and no import fees. Unfortunately, it is more profitable for illicit companies to work in this way rather than wait until their delivery passes through customs. As such, these schemes are becoming more common. Conclusion The cryptocurrency boom and the growing popularity of mining have led customs officials in Russia to decide that all mining equipment needs to be controlled. This is in line with the requirements of the Eurasian Economic Union regarding the import and export of goods with encryption and cryptography functions. However, Bitcoin miner import schemes are now present in Russia as unscrupulous companies and individuals aim to evade customs taxation. With the FCS now aware and clamping down on such schemes though, it remains to be seen whether customs officials can fully eradicate the issue. Read more about Bitcoin mining with Coin Rivet here . The post Is there a Bitcoin miner import scheme happening in Russia? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Is there a Bitcoin miner import scheme happening in Russia?: The Federal Customs Service (FCS) in Russia is investigating allegations of unpaid customs fees for over 6,000 Bitcoin miners imported into the country. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of mining electronic currencies using modern equipment and special programs that allow you to gradually accumulate Bitcoins and other digital coins. The relevance of cryptocurrency mining is as high as ever in Russia since the country is still working on regulation for the sector. The Russian government has taken a strict stance on cryptocurrencies since the arrival of Bitcoin in 2009, and as such many laws surrounding mining are still murky. Now it seems that some groups are attempting to exploit this grey area by importing Bitcoin miners illegally and evading taxation. The FCS tightens control The Russian FCS has demanded that subordinate customs authorities tighten control over the movement of equipment for cryptocurrency mining. Due to the fact that the equipment for cryptocurrency mining operates on the basis of certain cryptographic algorithms, it is subject to restrictions that apply to the import of goods with encryption and cryptography functions. Mining equipment imported by individuals as goods for personal use, including shipment by international mail, must be declared to customs officials. Also, according to information from the Office of Trade Restrictions, Currency, and Export Controls, cryptocurrency mining equipment is subject to two technical regulations regarding the safety of low-voltage equipment and the electromagnetic compatibility of technical equipment. A conformity assessment of such equipment is carried out by customs officials to ensure it adheres to these regulations. The main manufacturer of Bitcoin miners and ASIC devices is the Chinese company Bitmain. The production of graphics cards for mining is carried out by the American companies Nvidia and AMD. As such, these miners need to comply with certain requirements for foreign devices and must be declared and checked. Story continues Russian police investigate Most ASIC miners arrive in Russia using illegal import schemes. More than 70% of miners enter the country through these schemes as a way of evading tax. The FCS has launched a criminal investigation into the case of an alleged exporter of Bitcoin mining equipment called the Far Eastern Commercial and Industrial Company. The company is accused of not paying customs duties on 6,000 Bitmain ASIC miners amounting to around $1.2 million. The Bitmain ASIC miners in question are touted as energy-saving Bitcoin miners with high hash rates. It is alleged that the company also falsified documents which showed fake pricing. The representative of Bitmain in Russia, Julia Fetisova, suspects that the root of the problem is large resellers who are buying huge batches of ASIC miners from Bitmain at discounted prices, evading any import taxes, and then reselling the miners in Russia with quick delivery and no import fees. Unfortunately, it is more profitable for illicit companies to work in this way rather than wait until their delivery passes through customs. As such, these schemes are becoming more common. Conclusion The cryptocurrency boom and the growing popularity of mining have led customs officials in Russia to decide that all mining equipment needs to be controlled. This is in line with the requirements of the Eurasian Economic Union regarding the import and export of goods with encryption and cryptography functions. However, Bitcoin miner import schemes are now present in Russia as unscrupulous companies and individuals aim to evade customs taxation. With the FCS now aware and clamping down on such schemes though, it remains to be seen whether customs officials can fully eradicate the issue. Read more about Bitcoin mining with Coin Rivet here . The post Is there a Bitcoin miner import scheme happening in Russia? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Is there a Bitcoin miner import scheme happening in Russia?: The Federal Customs Service (FCS) in Russia is investigating allegations of unpaid customs fees for over 6,000 Bitcoin miners imported into the country. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of mining electronic currencies using modern equipment and special programs that allow you to gradually accumulate Bitcoins and other digital coins. The relevance of cryptocurrency mining is as high as ever in Russia since the country is still working on regulation for the sector. The Russian government has taken a strict stance on cryptocurrencies since the arrival of Bitcoin in 2009, and as such many laws surrounding mining are still murky. Now it seems that some groups are attempting to exploit this grey area by importing Bitcoin miners illegally and evading taxation. The FCS tightens control The Russian FCS has demanded that subordinate customs authorities tighten control over the movement of equipment for cryptocurrency mining. Due to the fact that the equipment for cryptocurrency mining operates on the basis of certain cryptographic algorithms, it is subject to restrictions that apply to the import of goods with encryption and cryptography functions. Mining equipment imported by individuals as goods for personal use, including shipment by international mail, must be declared to customs officials. Also, according to information from the Office of Trade Restrictions, Currency, and Export Controls, cryptocurrency mining equipment is subject to two technical regulations regarding the safety of low-voltage equipment and the electromagnetic compatibility of technical equipment. A conformity assessment of such equipment is carried out by customs officials to ensure it adheres to these regulations. The main manufacturer of Bitcoin miners and ASIC devices is the Chinese company Bitmain. The production of graphics cards for mining is carried out by the American companies Nvidia and AMD. As such, these miners need to comply with certain requirements for foreign devices and must be declared and checked. Story continues Russian police investigate Most ASIC miners arrive in Russia using illegal import schemes. More than 70% of miners enter the country through these schemes as a way of evading tax. The FCS has launched a criminal investigation into the case of an alleged exporter of Bitcoin mining equipment called the Far Eastern Commercial and Industrial Company. The company is accused of not paying customs duties on 6,000 Bitmain ASIC miners amounting to around $1.2 million. The Bitmain ASIC miners in question are touted as energy-saving Bitcoin miners with high hash rates. It is alleged that the company also falsified documents which showed fake pricing. The representative of Bitmain in Russia, Julia Fetisova, suspects that the root of the problem is large resellers who are buying huge batches of ASIC miners from Bitmain at discounted prices, evading any import taxes, and then reselling the miners in Russia with quick delivery and no import fees. Unfortunately, it is more profitable for illicit companies to work in this way rather than wait until their delivery passes through customs. As such, these schemes are becoming more common. Conclusion The cryptocurrency boom and the growing popularity of mining have led customs officials in Russia to decide that all mining equipment needs to be controlled. This is in line with the requirements of the Eurasian Economic Union regarding the import and export of goods with encryption and cryptography functions. However, Bitcoin miner import schemes are now present in Russia as unscrupulous companies and individuals aim to evade customs taxation. With the FCS now aware and clamping down on such schemes though, it remains to be seen whether customs officials can fully eradicate the issue. Read more about Bitcoin mining with Coin Rivet here . The post Is there a Bitcoin miner import scheme happening in Russia? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Number barely go up—has Litecoin’s halvening had the intended effect?: The much anticipated Litecoin “halvening” finally occurred at 10:16 UTC on Monday, with block rewards sinking from 25 litecoins to 12.5. But is the six percent price surge that attended the halving a boom, or a bust? Crypto megabulls portray halvenings as seismic economic events in which the “shock” of the sudden supply drop spikes demand. A widely cited blog post , for instance, predicts that Bitcoin’s coming halvening, due in May 2020, will generate a 680 percent boost over the course of a year. But today’s Litecoin spike is a seven percent rise (at press time) from last year’s price—which would be great for Wall Street, but is meh for a halvening. Likewise, most of that movement took place before the surge—as a result of hype, not supply, as outlined in an article published last week by Bloomberg. And whatever increase there was dovetailed with a broader increase across the entire market: over the same time period, Bitcoin jumped 9 percent, and Ethereum jumped 6 percent. Did Bloomberg’s Joe Wiesenthal call it on Friday when he tweeted : “The ‘halvening’ is completely irrelevent [sic] as a price driver. You can't simultaneously believe that markets are smart/efficient and also believe that events literally everyone can see coming at the same time actually matter”? Though that tweet sparked fury on Twitter, he might have been right. “I was very disappointed with Litecoin's performance against both BTC and the USD,” said “ CryptoGainz ,” a veteran, pseudonymous crypto trader who was expecting an appreciation by at least 33 percent, in an interview. “I honestly expected buyers to be in control as the halving date closed in and for Litecoin to appreciate against Bitcoin, serving as a catalyst for a very small altcoin rally. Obviously, that didn't happen." It’s not exactly unusual for altcoins to outperform Bitcoin, which Litecoin itself managed to do regularly this year—but today of all days, it did not. Instead, says CryptoGainz, the halvening was “priced in”—that is, traders factored the event into the price before it occurred. This is the “efficient market” theory, the notion that the market value of an asset reflects all publicly available data and knowledge of future events; in crypto terms, that’s planned hard forks, halvenings, software upgrades. “Whenever you have an event that is well known in advance the market has a tendency to price it in advance,” eToro chief analyst Mati Greenspan told Decrypt. It might just be that there hasn’t been enough time for the market to properly settle, and that a future spike could be on the way. ”The strongest pumps are generally preceded by the harshest sell offs—it gets bought up and acts as a spring,” says CryptoGainz, noting the large crash that took place before today’s halvening. Story continues But if the slight gains in the past few hours are anything to go by, even the most recent spike was overvalued, and the market knows it. Already, the price has “corrected,” with the last two hours seeing $5 knocked off of Litecoin’s high of $104 this morning. CryptoGainz frames the problem in terms of Litecoin’s relationship with Bitcoin. Since traders use so-called “altcoins” mostly for their tendency to spike unexpectedly, Litecoin’s inability to rise more aggressively than Bitcoin—which itself saw a slight surge—makes the halvening a failure. “Any rise in altcoins that’s less than the rise in bitcoin during a given timespan is considered a loss,” said CryptoGainz. “It would’ve made more sense to simply hold Bitcoin during that time span.” If number keep trending downwards...it'll be more of a disappoint ing than a halvening. View comments || Number barely go up—has Litecoin’s halvening had the intended effect?: The much anticipated Litecoin “halvening” finally occurred at 10:16 UTC on Monday, with block rewards sinking from 25 litecoins to 12.5. But is the six percent price surge that attended the halving a boom, or a bust? Crypto megabulls portray halvenings as seismic economic events in which the “shock” of the sudden supply drop spikes demand. A widely cited blog post , for instance, predicts that Bitcoin’s coming halvening, due in May 2020, will generate a 680 percent boost over the course of a year. But today’s Litecoin spike is a seven percent rise (at press time) from last year’s price—which would be great for Wall Street, but is meh for a halvening. Likewise, most of that movement took place before the surge—as a result of hype, not supply, as outlined in an article published last week by Bloomberg. And whatever increase there was dovetailed with a broader increase across the entire market: over the same time period, Bitcoin jumped 9 percent, and Ethereum jumped 6 percent. Did Bloomberg’s Joe Wiesenthal call it on Friday when he tweeted : “The ‘halvening’ is completely irrelevent [sic] as a price driver. You can't simultaneously believe that markets are smart/efficient and also believe that events literally everyone can see coming at the same time actually matter”? Though that tweet sparked fury on Twitter, he might have been right. “I was very disappointed with Litecoin's performance against both BTC and the USD,” said “ CryptoGainz ,” a veteran, pseudonymous crypto trader who was expecting an appreciation by at least 33 percent, in an interview. “I honestly expected buyers to be in control as the halving date closed in and for Litecoin to appreciate against Bitcoin, serving as a catalyst for a very small altcoin rally. Obviously, that didn't happen." It’s not exactly unusual for altcoins to outperform Bitcoin, which Litecoin itself managed to do regularly this year—but today of all days, it did not. Instead, says CryptoGainz, the halvening was “priced in”—that is, traders factored the event into the price before it occurred. This is the “efficient market” theory, the notion that the market value of an asset reflects all publicly available data and knowledge of future events; in crypto terms, that’s planned hard forks, halvenings, software upgrades. “Whenever you have an event that is well known in advance the market has a tendency to price it in advance,” eToro chief analyst Mati Greenspan told Decrypt. It might just be that there hasn’t been enough time for the market to properly settle, and that a future spike could be on the way. ”The strongest pumps are generally preceded by the harshest sell offs—it gets bought up and acts as a spring,” says CryptoGainz, noting the large crash that took place before today’s halvening. Story continues But if the slight gains in the past few hours are anything to go by, even the most recent spike was overvalued, and the market knows it. Already, the price has “corrected,” with the last two hours seeing $5 knocked off of Litecoin’s high of $104 this morning. CryptoGainz frames the problem in terms of Litecoin’s relationship with Bitcoin. Since traders use so-called “altcoins” mostly for their tendency to spike unexpectedly, Litecoin’s inability to rise more aggressively than Bitcoin—which itself saw a slight surge—makes the halvening a failure. “Any rise in altcoins that’s less than the rise in bitcoin during a given timespan is considered a loss,” said CryptoGainz. “It would’ve made more sense to simply hold Bitcoin during that time span.” If number keep trending downwards...it'll be more of a disappoint ing than a halvening. View comments || SEC Guidance Gives Ammo to Lawsuit Claiming XRP Is Unregistered Security: The Takeaway: A new amended complaint against Ripple draws on the SEC’s framework for digital assets to outline how XRP might be a security – likely the first federal case to do so. The filing also cites California advertising law, in addition to federal securities law, to argue that investors were misled by Ripple’s promotion of XRP. While the case is a year old and has not yet received class-action status, the new complaint is the first that Ripple must respond to with a substantive answer. Ripple has until mid-September to file its response. ————————– Investors in the cryptocurrency XRP have filed a new complaint against Ripple that marshals the Securities and Exchange Commission’s own words to argue that the startup illegally sold unregistered securities. Related: XRP Price Charts First ‘Death Cross’ Since April 2018 The amended complaint , filed Aug. 5 in a year-old lawsuit against Ripple, includes several new arguments and may be the first federal case to cite the SEC’s guidance for applying existing law and regulation to crypto tokens. It also marks the first filing to which Ripple must directly respond by addressing the facts of the case. Four previous complaints were filed in California state court, but the company successfully moved to have these cases consolidated and shifted to federal court. Ripple has until Sept. 19 to file a response. “That filing will be the first time in the already-long history of this litigation that Ripple will substantively respond to the allegations around XRP,” said Jake Chervinsky, general counsel at crypto lending startup Compound Finance. The company has been in the legal crosshairs since May 2018, when investor Ryan Coffey filed the first of several lawsuits seeking class-action status against Ripple Labs, subsidiary XRP II, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and other individuals. XRP, which Ripple periodically sells, has “all the traditional hallmarks of a security,” Coffey claimed. Related: Ripple CEO Intends to ‘Press Advantage’ With New Investments Story continues Investors Vladi Zakinov , Avner Greenwald and David Oconer filed similar suits shortly thereafter. The lawsuits were combined and moved to federal court in November. While the suit has not yet been certified as a class action, law firms Susman Godfrey and Tayler-Copeland Law were appointed as co-lead counsel at the end of June, with investor Bradley Sostack being appointed as lead plaintiff. (Zakinov, Oconer and Greenwald were denied their own motion to be appointed as lead plaintiff.) The new amended complaint lays out “a strong case against Ripple,” said Chervinsky, noting that Susman Godfrey is “one of the best plaintiff’s law firms in the U.S.” In particular, he highlighted that the complaint claims XRP is a security under both federal and California state law. “This is important because California uses the ‘risk capital test’ in addition to the [federal] Howey test to determine whether a transaction qualifies as a security,” he explained. “The risk capital test is broader than the Howey test, meaning the plaintiffs could lose their federal securities claims and still win their state securities claims.” The plaintiffs’ complaint is trying to tie the XRP Ledger, the distributed network underlying XRP (and therefore the cryptocurrency’s price), back to Ripple, said Rebecca Rettig, a partner at the law firm of Fisher Broyles, which is not involved in the case. Ripple and Susman Godfrey declined to comment. SEC framework Perhaps the most important difference between the new complaint and its predecessors is the citation of the SEC’s framework for analyzing whether a digital asset qualifies as a security . “The Complaint reads like a love letter to the SEC,” Chervinsky said. “Although the SEC’s Framework is technically only non-binding guidance, the Court will likely give it significant weight in deciding how to apply the Howey test to the facts of this case.” Rettig agreed, telling CoinDesk that “this is the first time we have seen the SEC’s Framework applied in a case in federal court.” She added: “Although the framework on its own doesn’t have precedential value – meaning the court is not required to follow it – it will be very interesting to see how the court handles the utility of the framework in moving forward in determining whether XRP is a security.” The SEC published the guidance in April, providing for the first time a specific roadmap for how it might assess digital assets. Over the course of 11 pages, the amended complaint details how the plaintiffs believe XRP is a security based on the framework, stating that “XRP purchasers made an investment of money in a common enterprise”; “XRP investors had a reasonable expectation of profits”; and “the success of XRP requires efforts of Ripple and others”. “Lead Plaintiff and the Class invested fiat and other digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, to purchase XRP. As explained in the SEC Framework, investment of both fiat and digital currency meets the first prong of Howey,” the filing says. Ripple and its affiliated parties are the common enterprise, the complaint alleges, saying that any profit the potential class might see “are intertwined with the fortunes of Ripple.” The price of XRP is dependent on Ripple’s efforts, the lawsuit alleges. Investors would have expected the value of their holdings to grow based upon the efforts of the company. The complaint goes on to say: “Lead Plaintiff and the Class have entirely passive roles vis-à-vis the success of the XRP Ledger and XRP. Rather, as Defendants’ own marketing makes clear, the success of the XRP Ledger, and the profits the Class reasonably expected to derive from investing in XRP, are dependent on the essential technical, entrepreneurial, and managerial efforts of Defendants and their agents and employees.” Rettig noted that “each of the [factors in the SEC Framework] are based on underlying federal case law, so the litigants will likely rely upon these underlying cases and not simply the framework [itself].” Tweets as evidence Like past complaints, last week’s filing points to public statements made by Ripple executives such as CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CTO David Schwartz to bolster its argument. For example, Garlinghouse said in a 2017 CNBC interview that “people are looking at the success Ripple has been having as a company, and I think that’s increased the value of XRP,” according to the complaint. Elsewhere, the complaint says Garlinghouse “conceded” that Ripple’s own self-interest is tied up “with building and maintaining a healthy XRP market.” “The Complaint emphasizes Ripple’s own statements to prove that XRP investors had a reasonable expectation of profits flowing from Ripple’s managerial efforts,” Chervinsky noted. “This is similar to how the SEC framed its own Complaint against Kik,” the messaging app company that the SEC alleges violated securities laws when it raised $100 million during a 2017 token sale. Beyond interviews, the complaint cites tweets that the plaintiffs believe demonstrate that Ripple indicated XRP’s price would rise due to work the company was doing. Roughly 40 tweets are referenced in the filing, including tweets from the company, executives and other employees discussing exchange listings, Ripple’s XRP reserves and other marketing efforts. The complaint also references a Garlinghouse quote-tweet of a Motley Fool tweet which said companies using Ripple’s tools “could be a big deal for Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency” as an example. “I’ve never seen so many citations to Twitter in a complaint before,” Chervinsky said. (The suit also notes that Digital Currency Group, which holds a stake in Ripple, is also the parent company of CoinDesk, and cites a 2017 article on this website reporting that XRP’s price had risen above $1 for the first time ever as “one of many instances in which Ripple would promote XRP price movements.” For the record: CoinDesk operates independently from the parent company, working in separate offices and maintaining strict policies on editorial independence and transparency.) Beyond simply promoting XRP, the complaint hints that Ripple may have gone as far as to mislead the general public about which of its various products were being adopted. “On April 26, 2017, Ripple tweeted a link to an article on its own site, proclaiming: ‘#Ripple welcomes 10 additional customers to our #blockchain #payments network.’ Neither this tweet nor the article it linked to informed readers that the blockchain payments network did not refer to the XRP Ledger, but rather Ripple’s xCurrent enterprise solution,” the complaint said, adding in the next paragraph: “Just days later, on May 3, 2017, with the price of XRP continuing to rise, Ripple tweeted : ‘#Ripple adoption is sparking interest in XRP ‘which has had an impressive rally in the last two months’ via @Nasdaq.'” California claims Securities law aside, the lawsuit also adds new claims that have not appeared in previous filings in the case, Chervinsky noted. “For the first time, the plaintiffs now claim that Ripple violated California’s false advertising and unfair competition laws by making fraudulent statements about the genesis, circulating supply, and adoption of XRP,” he said. The fact that this complaint is in federal court may have helped the plaintiffs. Chervinsky explained: “Interestingly, the plaintiffs probably couldn’t have alleged those claims on behalf of a global ‘class’ — all persons or entities who purchased XRP — if Ripple had left the case in California state court instead of removing it to federal court.” According to the filing, Sostack and his fellow plaintiffs are looking for Ripple to reimburse them for their losses. For the lead plaintiff, those losses total $118,100, according to the complaint, but the full size of the losses allegedly incurred by the class has not yet been calculated. More significantly, the plaintiffs want the court to declare that XRP is a security, which could have an impact on Ripple’s ability to continue selling XRP from its reserves, as well as potentially limit who can acquire the token. Other prayers for relief include the plaintiffs wanting Ripple to pay for all legal fees and have the court award any other damages that might be warranted. Ripple now has 45 days from August 5 to answer the complaint, and could file a response (like Kik Interactive did to the SEC ) or a motion to dismiss. Image via CB Insights YouTube Related Stories Kik Says SEC Lawsuit ‘Twisted Facts’ About Startup’s $100 Million Token Sale R3 Doubles London Office Space for Blockchain Hiring Spree || SEC Guidance Gives Ammo to Lawsuit Claiming XRP Is Unregistered Security: The Takeaway:
• A new amended complaint against Ripple draws on the SEC’s framework for digital assets to outline how XRP might be a security – likely the first federal case to do so.
• The filing also cites California advertising law, in addition to federal securities law, to argue that investors were misled by Ripple’s promotion of XRP.
• While the case is a year old and has not yet received class-action status, the new complaint is the first that Ripple must respond to with a substantive answer.
• Ripple has until mid-September to file its response.
————————–
Investors in the cryptocurrency XRP have filed a new complaint against Ripple that marshals the Securities and Exchange Commission’s own words to argue that the startup illegally sold unregistered securities.
Related:XRP Price Charts First ‘Death Cross’ Since April 2018
Theamended complaint, filed Aug. 5 in a year-old lawsuit against Ripple, includes several new arguments and may be the first federal case to cite the SEC’s guidance for applying existing law and regulation to crypto tokens.
It also marks the first filing to which Ripple must directly respond by addressing the facts of the case. Four previous complaints were filed in California state court, but the company successfully moved to have these cases consolidated and shifted to federal court. Ripple has until Sept. 19 to file a response.
“That filing will be the first time in the already-long history of this litigation that Ripple will substantively respond to the allegations around XRP,” said Jake Chervinsky, general counsel at crypto lending startup Compound Finance.
The company has been in the legal crosshairs since May 2018, when investor Ryan Coffeyfiled the first of several lawsuitsseeking class-action status against Ripple Labs, subsidiary XRP II, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and other individuals. XRP, which Ripple periodically sells, has “all the traditional hallmarks of a security,” Coffey claimed.
Related:Ripple CEO Intends to ‘Press Advantage’ With New Investments
InvestorsVladi Zakinov, Avner Greenwald andDavid Oconerfiled similar suits shortly thereafter. The lawsuits were combined andmoved to federal courtin November.
While the suit has not yet been certified as a class action, law firms Susman Godfrey and Tayler-Copeland Law wereappointed as co-lead counselat the end of June, with investor Bradley Sostack being appointed as lead plaintiff. (Zakinov, Oconer and Greenwald weredenied their own motionto be appointed as lead plaintiff.)
The new amended complaint lays out “a strong case against Ripple,” said Chervinsky, noting that Susman Godfrey is “one of the best plaintiff’s law firms in the U.S.” In particular, he highlighted that the complaint claims XRP is a security under both federal and California state law.
“This is important because California uses the ‘risk capital test’ in addition to the [federal] Howey test to determine whether a transaction qualifies as a security,” he explained. “The risk capital test is broader than the Howey test, meaning the plaintiffs could lose their federal securities claims and still win their state securities claims.”
The plaintiffs’ complaint is trying to tie the XRP Ledger, the distributed network underlying XRP (and therefore the cryptocurrency’s price), back to Ripple, said Rebecca Rettig, a partner at the law firm of Fisher Broyles, which is not involved in the case.
Ripple and Susman Godfrey declined to comment.
Perhaps the most important difference between the new complaint and its predecessors is the citation of the SEC’s framework for analyzing whethera digital asset qualifies as a security.
“The Complaint reads like a love letter to the SEC,” Chervinsky said. “Although the SEC’s Framework is technically only non-binding guidance, the Court will likely give it significant weight in deciding how to apply the Howey test to the facts of this case.”
Rettig agreed, telling CoinDesk that “this is the first time we have seen the SEC’s Framework applied in a case in federal court.” She added:
“Although the framework on its own doesn’t have precedential value – meaning the court is not required to follow it – it will be very interesting to see how the court handles the utility of the framework in moving forward in determining whether XRP is a security.”
The SECpublished the guidancein April, providing for the first timea specific roadmapfor how it might assess digital assets.
Over the course of 11 pages, the amended complaint details how the plaintiffs believe XRP is a security based on the framework, stating that “XRP purchasers made an investment of money in a common enterprise”; “XRP investors had a reasonable expectation of profits”; and “the success of XRP requires efforts of Ripple and others”.
“Lead Plaintiff and the Class invested fiat and other digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, to purchase XRP. As explained in the SEC Framework, investment of both fiat and digital currency meets the first prong of Howey,” the filing says.
Ripple and its affiliated parties are the common enterprise, the complaint alleges, saying that any profit the potential class might see “are intertwined with the fortunes of Ripple.”
The price of XRP is dependent on Ripple’s efforts, the lawsuit alleges. Investors would have expected the value of their holdings to grow based upon the efforts of the company.
The complaint goes on to say:
“Lead Plaintiff and the Class have entirely passive roles vis-à-vis the success of the XRP Ledger and XRP. Rather, as Defendants’ own marketing makes clear, the success of the XRP Ledger, and the profits the Class reasonably expected to derive from investing in XRP, are dependent on the essential technical, entrepreneurial, and managerial efforts of Defendants and their agents and employees.”
Rettig noted that “each of the [factors in the SEC Framework] are based on underlying federal case law, so the litigants will likely rely upon these underlying cases and not simply the framework [itself].”
Like past complaints, last week’s filing points to public statements made by Ripple executives such as CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CTO David Schwartz to bolster its argument.
For example, Garlinghouse said ina 2017 CNBC interviewthat “people are looking at the success Ripple has been having as a company, and I think that’s increased the value of XRP,” according to the complaint.
Elsewhere, the complaint says Garlinghouse “conceded” that Ripple’s own self-interest is tied up “with building and maintaining a healthy XRP market.”
“The Complaint emphasizes Ripple’s own statements to prove that XRP investors had a reasonable expectation of profits flowing from Ripple’s managerial efforts,” Chervinsky noted. “This is similar to how the SEC framed its own Complaint against Kik,” the messaging app company that the SECalleges violated securities lawswhen it raised $100 million during a 2017 token sale.
Beyond interviews, the complaint cites tweets that the plaintiffs believe demonstrate that Ripple indicated XRP’s price would rise due to work the company was doing.
Roughly 40 tweets are referenced in the filing, including tweets from the company, executives and other employees discussing exchange listings, Ripple’s XRP reserves and other marketing efforts. The complaint also references a Garlinghouse quote-tweet of a Motley Fool tweet which said companies using Ripple’s tools “could be a big deal for Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency” as an example.
“I’ve never seen so many citations to Twitter in a complaint before,” Chervinsky said.
(The suit also notes that Digital Currency Group, which holds a stake in Ripple, is also the parent company of CoinDesk, and cites a2017 articleon this website reporting that XRP’s price had risen above $1 for the first time ever as “one of many instances in which Ripple would promote XRP price movements.” For the record: CoinDesk operates independently from the parent company, working in separate offices and maintaining strictpolicieson editorial independence and transparency.)
Beyond simply promoting XRP, the complaint hints that Ripple may have gone as far as to mislead the general public about which of its various products were being adopted.
“On April 26, 2017, Rippletweeteda link to an article on its own site, proclaiming: ‘#Ripple welcomes 10 additional customers to our #blockchain #payments network.’ Neither this tweet nor the article it linked to informed readers that the blockchain payments network did not refer to the XRP Ledger, but rather Ripple’s xCurrent enterprise solution,” the complaint said, adding in the next paragraph:
“Just days later, on May 3, 2017, with the price of XRP continuing to rise, Rippletweeted: ‘#Ripple adoption is sparking interest in XRP ‘which has had an impressive rally in the last two months’ via @Nasdaq.'”
Securities law aside, the lawsuit also adds new claims that have not appeared in previous filings in the case, Chervinsky noted.
“For the first time, the plaintiffs now claim that Ripple violated California’s false advertising and unfair competition laws by making fraudulent statements about the genesis, circulating supply, and adoption of XRP,” he said.
The fact that this complaint is in federal court may have helped the plaintiffs. Chervinsky explained:
“Interestingly, the plaintiffs probably couldn’t have alleged those claims on behalf of a global ‘class’ — all persons or entities who purchased XRP — if Ripple had left the case in California state court instead of removing it to federal court.”
According to the filing, Sostack and his fellow plaintiffs are looking for Ripple to reimburse them for their losses.
For the lead plaintiff, those losses total $118,100, according to the complaint, but the full size of the losses allegedly incurred by the class has not yet been calculated.
More significantly, the plaintiffs want the court to declare that XRP is a security, which could have an impact on Ripple’s ability to continue selling XRP from its reserves, as well as potentially limit who can acquire the token.
Other prayers for relief include the plaintiffs wanting Ripple to pay for all legal fees and have the court award any other damages that might be warranted.
Ripple now has 45 days from August 5 to answer the complaint, and could file a response (likeKik Interactivedid to theSEC) or a motion to dismiss.
Image viaCB Insights YouTube
• Kik Says SEC Lawsuit ‘Twisted Facts’ About Startup’s $100 Million Token Sale
• R3 Doubles London Office Space for Blockchain Hiring Spree || Private transactions are coming to Litecoin but need extra funding: The Litecoin foundation is looking to step up development of private transactions on the Litecoin network. To do so, it has posted a Litecoin wallet address for donations specifically to this cause. So far, the address has received 2.5 litecoin, worth $240. Normal cryptocurrency transactions involve making the transaction data publicly available. This has the downside that blockchain analytics providers can build up profiles of who is sending how much money to whom. Currently, crypto transactions are far less private that the current banking system—let alone cash payments. In contrast, private transactions use cryptography to hide the transaction data, enabling people to keep their financial transaction history private. Some blockchains already offer this ability including Monero , which makes transactions really difficult to follow along the blockchain, and Zcash , which uses such cryptography to fully hide transaction data—although few people use its privacy preserving features. However, paying people to research and code private transactions is expensive since the cryptography is so complex few people can get their head around it—let alone program it. And with the Litecoin Foundation spending its money on promotional deals with the UFC, it needs further funding to build out features for the network itself. Zcoin introduces private crypto transaction history without toxic waste It will also focus on developing the Lightning network , a second-layer scaling solution built on top of the Bitcoin network. Additionally, funds will go towards building standalone Litecoin wallet LoafWallet. In the past two months alone, the coin has been added to Binance’s Singaporean exchange, and been accepted for buying flights and hotels through a collaboration with TravelbyBit. But now it’s time for the hard graft to begin. || Private transactions are coming to Litecoin but need extra funding: The Litecoin foundation is looking to step up development of private transactions on the Litecoin network. To do so, it has posted a Litecoin wallet address for donations specifically to this cause. So far, the address has received 2.5 litecoin, worth $240. Normal cryptocurrency transactions involve making the transaction data publicly available. This has the downside that blockchain analytics providers can build up profiles of who is sending how much money to whom. Currently, crypto transactions are far less private that the current banking system—let alone cash payments. In contrast, private transactions use cryptography to hide the transaction data, enabling people to keep their financial transaction history private. Some blockchains already offer this ability including Monero , which makes transactions really difficult to follow along the blockchain, and Zcash , which uses such cryptography to fully hide transaction data—although few people use its privacy preserving features. However, paying people to research and code private transactions is expensive since the cryptography is so complex few people can get their head around it—let alone program it. And with the Litecoin Foundation spending its money on promotional deals with the UFC, it needs further funding to build out features for the network itself. Zcoin introduces private crypto transaction history without toxic waste It will also focus on developing the Lightning network , a second-layer scaling solution built on top of the Bitcoin network. Additionally, funds will go towards building standalone Litecoin wallet LoafWallet. In the past two months alone, the coin has been added to Binance’s Singaporean exchange, and been accepted for buying flights and hotels through a collaboration with TravelbyBit. But now it’s time for the hard graft to begin. || New Zealand’s ASB Bank Takes Stake in Trade Finance Blockchain Startup: A New Zealand bank has invested a “significant” amount in a startup working to put trade finance on a blockchain. Announced Tuesday, ABS Bank – an institution owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia – said it backed the TradeWindow platform after taking part in a pilot utilizing its tech to carry out a trade between a Korean importer and a New Zealand meat exporter last year. A.J. Smith, founder and CEO of TradeWindow said the undisclosed investment means his firm is one of the first tech companies in the country to backed directly by a New Zealand bank. Related: New Zealand Tax Office Makes It Legal to Pay Salaries in Crypto “The decision by ASB to invest in TradeWindow is a great vote of confidence. The bank is committed to accelerating the progress of New Zealand’s trade environment using new technology and recognises the potential our product has to streamline trading between Kiwi exporters and the rest of the world,” Smith said. The firm said the funding will be used to “fast-track” development of its platform. TradeWindow uses distributed ledger technology to create a “single trading window” that provides real-time insight into a trade for all participants. Changes to data can only be made “with the consensus of the majority of the network,” the firm said, meaning the risk of fraud and cyberattacks are greatly reduced. The most immediate benefit for clients, though, according to Smith, is the greater efficiencies and lower costs brought about by the real-time sharing of documentation. Currently, this is “couriered at significant cost” between all trade participants, he said. Related: Goldman Sachs Analysts’ Slide Suggests Now’s a Good Time to Buy Bitcoin As part of the funding deal, Nigel Annett, executive general manager of corporate banking at ASB Bank, will join TradeWindow’s board. “What began as collaboration through ASB’s innovation programme to solve a customer problem, is now a fully-fledged business ready to launch,” Annett said. Story continues TradeWindow is said to be finalizing partnerships that will see it acquire two New Zealand-based export companies, as well as having more pilot schemes in the pipeline. Ship and containers image via Shutterstock Related Stories This Bank Gave Bitcoin to Its Entire Staff. Now It’s Taking Crypto Clients Investment App Robinhood Wins License to Operate in UK || New Zealand’s ASB Bank Takes Stake in Trade Finance Blockchain Startup: A New Zealand bank has invested a “significant” amount in a startup working to put trade finance on a blockchain.
Announced Tuesday, ABS Bank – an institution owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia –saidit backed the TradeWindow platform after taking part in a pilot utilizing its tech to carry out a trade between a Korean importer and a New Zealand meat exporter last year.
A.J. Smith, founder and CEO of TradeWindow said the undisclosed investment means his firm is one of the first tech companies in the country to backed directly by a New Zealand bank.
Related:New Zealand Tax Office Makes It Legal to Pay Salaries in Crypto
“The decision by ASB to invest in TradeWindow is a great vote of confidence. The bank is committed to accelerating the progress of New Zealand’s trade environment using new technology and recognises the potential our product has to streamline trading between Kiwi exporters and the rest of the world,” Smith said.
The firm said the funding will be used to “fast-track” development of its platform.
TradeWindow uses distributed ledger technology to create a “single trading window” that provides real-time insight into a trade for all participants. Changes to data can only be made “with the consensus of the majority of the network,” the firm said, meaning the risk of fraud and cyberattacks are greatly reduced.
The most immediate benefit for clients, though, according to Smith, is the greater efficiencies and lower costs brought about by the real-time sharing of documentation. Currently, this is “couriered at significant cost” between all trade participants, he said.
Related:Goldman Sachs Analysts’ Slide Suggests Now’s a Good Time to Buy Bitcoin
As part of the funding deal, Nigel Annett, executive general manager of corporate banking at ASB Bank, will join TradeWindow’s board.
“What began as collaboration through ASB’s innovation programme to solve a customer problem, is now a fully-fledged business ready to launch,” Annett said.
TradeWindow is said to be finalizing partnerships that will see it acquire two New Zealand-based export companies, as well as having more pilot schemes in the pipeline.
Ship and containersimage via Shutterstock
• This Bank Gave Bitcoin to Its Entire Staff. Now It’s Taking Crypto Clients
• Investment App Robinhood Wins License to Operate in UK || Square's Cash App makes $125 million by selling bitcoin: Payments company Square released its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, revealing its crypto-friendly Cash App made $125 million in revenue from bitcoin this quarter. This is nearly twice as much as it made in the preceding quarter. The higher revenue led to a $2 million gross profit purely from bitcoin alone. In the earnings report, the explanation for this massive leap in sales is put down to increased trading volume in bitcoin, largely due to the recent pump in price. Square's bitcoin sales have been increasing, and accelerating, for the last five quarters. In Q1, 2019, it registered a record-high $65.5 million in revenue and $832,000 in profit. "We love you, Bitcoin, Jack Dorsey , head of Square and Twitter CEO, openly said it the earnings call to discuss the recent performance. While the investor in Lightning Labswhich is building a second layer scaling solution for the Bitcoin networkhas been relatively outspoken on Twitter and Joe Rogans podcast, this was the first time he had expressed such sentiment in an earnings call. The bitcoin community is trying to design the Satoshi symbol Dorsey himself may have contributed to the increase in revenue Cash App has seen this year. He told Marty Bent, on Tales from the Crypt, in March, that he had been buying bitcoin on Cash Appmaxing out his weekly limits. Square has also been upping its focus on crypto. Its crypto-focused subsidiary Square Crypto has been hiring blockchain engineers (paid in bitcoin if they wish) and designers to help make Bitcoin more user-friendly. It has also been engaging with the crypto community to discuss whether there needs to be a symbol for the smallest unit of bitcointhe satoshi. But so far, good suggestions have been few and far between . || Square's Cash App makes $125 million by selling bitcoin: Payments company Squarereleasedits second-quarter earnings on Thursday, revealing its crypto-friendly Cash App made $125 million in revenue from bitcoin this quarter. This is nearly twice as much as it made in the preceding quarter.
The higher revenue led to a $2 million gross profit purely from bitcoin alone. In the earnings report, the explanation for this massive leap in sales is put down to increased trading volume in bitcoin, largely due to the recent pump in price.
Square's bitcoin sales have been increasing, and accelerating, for the last five quarters. In Q1, 2019, it registered a record-high $65.5 million in revenue and $832,000 in profit.
"We love you, Bitcoin,”Jack Dorsey, head of Square and Twitter CEO, openly said it the earnings call to discuss the recent performance. While the investor in Lightning Labs—which is building a second layer scaling solution for the Bitcoin network—has been relatively outspoken on Twitter and Joe Rogan’s podcast, this was the first time he had expressed such sentiment in an earnings call.
The bitcoin community is trying to design the “Satoshi symbol”
Dorsey himself may have contributed to the increase in revenue Cash App has seen this year. He told Marty Bent, on Tales from the Crypt, in March, that he had beenbuying bitcoinon Cash App—maxing out his weekly limits.
Square has also been upping its focus on crypto. Its crypto-focused subsidiary Square Crypto has been hiringblockchain engineers(paid in bitcoin if they wish) anddesignersto help make Bitcoin more user-friendly. It has also been engaging with the crypto community to discuss whether there needs to be a symbol for the smallest unit of bitcoin—the satoshi. But so far, good suggestions have beenfew and far between.
[Social Media Buzz]
@IFI_Financial https://t.co/6pGu44Nd2B || $SC is now worth $0.00225 (-0.76%) and 0.00000021 BTC (0.00%) #SC
➡️ https://t.co/bx0KmAC84b || ⏰ 2019/08/14 14:30:05
💰 BTCドミナンス : 67.499%
🚧 未承認 : 4,550
💸 BitFlyer SPOT/FX/乖離
1,125,936 / 1,173,100 / 4.189%
💸 BitMex 調達率 ⌛ 21:00 / 5:00
BTC : 0.01% / 0.0141%
ETH : 0.0475% / 0.1066%
💸 Finex FRR
BTC : 1.186%
USD : 16.798% || @realDonaldTrump BUY BITCOIN || Bitcoin $BTC market overview | 24h high: ~$10,892 | 24h low: ~$10,030 | 24h ago: ~$10,818 ...
|
10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89, 8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42, 9729.80, 9795.94, 9865.12, 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00, 9633.39, 9608.48, 9686.44, 9663.18, 9924.52, 9650.17, 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49, 8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45, 8869.67, 8787.79, 8755.25, 9078.76, 9122.55, 8909.95, 8108.12, 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48, 5225.63, 5238.44, 6191.19, 6198.78, 6185.07, 5830.25, 6416.31.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-03-23]
Volume: 46491916000, RSI (14-day): 43.57, 50-day EMA: 7685.36, 200-day EMA: 8276.36
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1567.00, Gold RSI: 49.37
Oil Price: 23.36, Oil RSI: 26.91
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Ethereum Falls 10% In Selloff: Investing.com - Ethereum was trading at $120.33 by 20:03 (00:03 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Monday, down 10.18% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 16. The move downwards pushed Ethereum's market cap down to $13.60B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Ethereum's market cap was $135.58B. Ethereum had traded in a range of $120.33 to $122.39 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Ethereum has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 0.77%. The volume of Ethereum traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $12.51B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $109.6742 to $151.8461 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Ethereum is still down 91.55% from its all-time high of $1,423.20 set on January 13, 2018. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $5,731.8 on the Investing.com Index, down 7.93% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.14606 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 8.10%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $106.61B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $6.57B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Bitcoins Correlation With S&P500 At 2-Year High Amid the Coronavirus Crisis After BitMEX Meltdown, Should Shorting Be Banned on Crypto Exchanges? Binance US CEO: Coronavirus Quarantine Drove Volume Resurgence in Asia || Ethereum Falls 10% In Selloff: Investing.com - Ethereum was trading at $120.33 by 20:03 (00:03 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Monday, down 10.18% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 16.
The move downwards pushed Ethereum's market cap down to $13.60B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Ethereum's market cap was $135.58B.
Ethereum had traded in a range of $120.33 to $122.39 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, Ethereum has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 0.77%. The volume of Ethereum traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $12.51B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $109.6742 to $151.8461 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, Ethereum is still down 91.55% from its all-time high of $1,423.20 set on January 13, 2018.
Bitcoin was last at $5,731.8 on the Investing.com Index, down 7.93% on the day.
XRP was trading at $0.14606 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 8.10%.
Bitcoin's market cap was last at $106.61B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $6.57B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
Related Articles
Bitcoin’s Correlation With S&P500 At 2-Year High Amid the Coronavirus Crisis
After BitMEX Meltdown, Should Shorting Be Banned on Crypto Exchanges?
Binance US CEO: Coronavirus Quarantine Drove “Volume Resurgence” in Asia || The Gross Law Firm Announces Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of LK, BDX and CAN: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 22, 2020 /The securities litigation law firm of The Gross Law Firm issues the following notice on behalf of shareholders in the following publicly traded companies. Shareholders who purchased shares in the following companies during the dates listed are encouraged to contact the firm regarding possible Lead Plaintiff appointment. Appointment as Lead Plaintiff is not required to partake in any recovery.
Luckin Coffee Inc. (LK)
Investors Affected : November 13, 2019 - January 31, 2020
A class action has commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in Luckin Coffee Inc. The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) certain of Luckin's financial performance metrics, including per-store per-day sales, net selling price per item, advertising expenses, and revenue contribution from "other products" were inflated; (ii) Luckin's financial results thus overstated the Company's financial health and were consequently unreliable; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
Shareholders may find more information athttps://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/luckin-coffee-inc-loss-submission-form/?id=5769&from=1
Becton Dickinson & Company (BDX)
Investors Affected : November 5, 2019 - February 5, 2020
A class action has commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in Becton Dickinson & Company. The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) certain of Becton's Alaris infusion pumps experienced software errors and alarm prioritization issues; (2) as a result, the Company was investing in remediation efforts to address these product issues, rather than a software upgrade to "make enhancements;" (3) the Company was reasonably likely to face regulatory delays in connection with the software remediation; (4) as a result of the foregoing, Becton was reasonably likely to recall certain of its Alaris infusion pumps; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
Shareholders may find more information athttps://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/becton-dickinson-company-loss-submission-form/?id=5769&from=1
Canaan Inc. (CAN)
Investors Affected : publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering.
A class action has commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in Canaan Inc. The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers.
Shareholders may find more information athttps://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/canaan-inc-loss-submission-form/?id=5769&from=1
The Gross Law Firm is committed to ensuring that companies adhere to responsible business practices and engage in good corporate citizenship. The firm seeks recovery on behalf of investors who incurred losses when false and/or misleading statements or the omission of material information by a Company lead to artificial inflation of the Company's stock. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
CONTACT:The Gross Law Firm15 West 38th Street, 12th floorNew York, NY, 10018Email:[email protected]: (212) 537-9430Fax: (833) 862-7770
SOURCE:The Gross Law Firm
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/582014/The-Gross-Law-Firm-Announces-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders-of-LK-BDX-and-CAN || The Gross Law Firm Announces Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of LK, BDX and CAN: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 22, 2020 / The securities litigation law firm of The Gross Law Firm issues the following notice on behalf of shareholders in the following publicly traded companies. Shareholders who purchased shares in the following companies during the dates listed are encouraged to contact the firm regarding possible Lead Plaintiff appointment. Appointment as Lead Plaintiff is not required to partake in any recovery. Luckin Coffee Inc. ( LK ) Investors Affected : November 13, 2019 - January 31, 2020 A class action has commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in Luckin Coffee Inc. The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) certain of Luckin's financial performance metrics, including per-store per-day sales, net selling price per item, advertising expenses, and revenue contribution from "other products" were inflated; (ii) Luckin's financial results thus overstated the Company's financial health and were consequently unreliable; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Shareholders may find more information at https://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/luckin-coffee-inc-loss-submission-form/?id=5769&from=1 Becton Dickinson & Company ( BDX ) Investors Affected : November 5, 2019 - February 5, 2020 A class action has commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in Becton Dickinson & Company. The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) certain of Becton's Alaris infusion pumps experienced software errors and alarm prioritization issues; (2) as a result, the Company was investing in remediation efforts to address these product issues, rather than a software upgrade to "make enhancements;" (3) the Company was reasonably likely to face regulatory delays in connection with the software remediation; (4) as a result of the foregoing, Becton was reasonably likely to recall certain of its Alaris infusion pumps; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Story continues Shareholders may find more information at https://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/becton-dickinson-company-loss-submission-form/?id=5769&from=1 Canaan Inc. ( CAN ) Investors Affected : publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering. A class action has commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in Canaan Inc. The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. Shareholders may find more information at https://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/canaan-inc-loss-submission-form/?id=5769&from=1 The Gross Law Firm is committed to ensuring that companies adhere to responsible business practices and engage in good corporate citizenship. The firm seeks recovery on behalf of investors who incurred losses when false and/or misleading statements or the omission of material information by a Company lead to artificial inflation of the Company's stock. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: The Gross Law Firm 15 West 38th Street, 12th floor New York, NY, 10018 Email: [email protected] Phone: (212) 537-9430 Fax: (833) 862-7770 SOURCE: The Gross Law Firm View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/582014/The-Gross-Law-Firm-Announces-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders-of-LK-BDX-and-CAN || Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope: The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. From Boeing to bitcoin, in this week’s discussion we’re talking about our disrupted reality, the politically expedient path forward, why it almost certainly won’t work, the alternatives to it, what this means for bitcoin and what you can do to help. Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin is sponsored by eToro.com . If you’re a skilled audio editor with deep crypto knowledge consider applying for CoinDesk’s Deputy Podcasts Editor role . Related: Investors Look to Gold, Crypto After Fed Goes on QE Buying Spree This week on Let’s Talk Bitcoin we’re discussing the coming bailout-everything regime in a topic that’s both extremely timely but is also what originally forced many long-term bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasts to learn about money and become interested in cryptocurrency in the first place. As much of the world on an almost uniform and bipartisan basis shuts down to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prepares to bail out first financial markets and now basically everything that can’t work on a fully remote basis, we’re talking about crisis, bailouts, the limits of monetary policy and the real possibility that it’s not a straw that breaks the back of our money but rather the whole world suddenly jumping on. On today’s show we’ll discuss: The growing bipartisan and global shutdown then “bailout everything” movement The alternative to the bailout path we’re on The inability of even extraordinary monetary policy to resolve these issues and the markets’ growing cognitive dissonance The revival of the “system is breaking and when it does we’ll need something new that doesn’t share the same problems of being vulnerable to politically expedient overreactions” narrative that, frankly, drove my initial interest in bitcoin in the first place Some of the #CoronaEfforts we've heard about so far and how you can help And much more in this wide-ranging discussion… Story continues Today’s episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine. Related: Unlimited QE and Why Markets Can’t Price In COVID-19 This episode was sponsored by eToro.com and featured music by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas. Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm? Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections || Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope: The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. From Boeing to bitcoin, in this week’s discussion we’re talking about our disrupted reality, the politically expedient path forward, why it almost certainly won’t work, the alternatives to it, what this means for bitcoin and what you can do to help.
Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin is sponsored byeToro.com. If you’re a skilled audio editor with deep crypto knowledge considerapplying for CoinDesk’s Deputy Podcasts Editor role.
Related:Investors Look to Gold, Crypto After Fed Goes on QE Buying Spree
This week on Let’s Talk Bitcoin we’re discussing the coming bailout-everything regime in a topic that’s both extremely timely but is also what originally forced many long-termbitcoin(BTC) enthusiasts to learn about money and become interested in cryptocurrency in the first place.
As much of the world on an almost uniform and bipartisan basis shuts down to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prepares to bail out first financial markets and now basically everything that can’t work on a fully remote basis, we’re talking about crisis, bailouts, the limits of monetary policy and the real possibility that it’s not a straw that breaks the back of our money but rather the whole world suddenly jumping on.
On today’s show we’ll discuss:
• The growing bipartisan and global shutdown then “bailout everything” movement
• The alternative to the bailout path we’re on
• The inability of even extraordinary monetary policy to resolve these issues and the markets’ growing cognitive dissonance
• The revival of the “system is breaking and when it does we’ll need something new that doesn’t share the same problems of being vulnerable to politically expedient overreactions” narrative that, frankly, drove my initial interest in bitcoin in the first place
• Some of the#CoronaEffortswe've heard about so far and how you can help
• And much more in this wide-ranging discussion…
Today’s episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine.
Related:Unlimited QE and Why Markets Can’t Price In COVID-19
This episode was sponsored by eToro.com and featured music by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas.
Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm?
• Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections || Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope: The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. From Boeing to bitcoin, in this week’s discussion we’re talking about our disrupted reality, the politically expedient path forward, why it almost certainly won’t work, the alternatives to it, what this means for bitcoin and what you can do to help.
Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin is sponsored byeToro.com. If you’re a skilled audio editor with deep crypto knowledge considerapplying for CoinDesk’s Deputy Podcasts Editor role.
Related:Investors Look to Gold, Crypto After Fed Goes on QE Buying Spree
This week on Let’s Talk Bitcoin we’re discussing the coming bailout-everything regime in a topic that’s both extremely timely but is also what originally forced many long-termbitcoin(BTC) enthusiasts to learn about money and become interested in cryptocurrency in the first place.
As much of the world on an almost uniform and bipartisan basis shuts down to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prepares to bail out first financial markets and now basically everything that can’t work on a fully remote basis, we’re talking about crisis, bailouts, the limits of monetary policy and the real possibility that it’s not a straw that breaks the back of our money but rather the whole world suddenly jumping on.
On today’s show we’ll discuss:
• The growing bipartisan and global shutdown then “bailout everything” movement
• The alternative to the bailout path we’re on
• The inability of even extraordinary monetary policy to resolve these issues and the markets’ growing cognitive dissonance
• The revival of the “system is breaking and when it does we’ll need something new that doesn’t share the same problems of being vulnerable to politically expedient overreactions” narrative that, frankly, drove my initial interest in bitcoin in the first place
• Some of the#CoronaEffortswe've heard about so far and how you can help
• And much more in this wide-ranging discussion…
Today’s episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and Adam B. Levine.
Related:Unlimited QE and Why Markets Can’t Price In COVID-19
This episode was sponsored by eToro.com and featured music by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas.
Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm?
• Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections || The US Should Use Stablecoins for Emergency Coronavirus Payments: Catherine Coley is the CEO of Binance.US. Previously she was head of XRP Institutional Liquidity at Ripple after working for Morgan Stanley Foreign Exchange desks in Hong Kong and London. Amid the fear and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government is looking for ways to financially support Americans as soon as possible , even discussing the possibility of universal basic income payments. People need help. At the same time, they need to stay home to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. In delivering emergency payments, the government should be aware of the risks of asking people to pick up money at a bank or another physical location. It should distribute any stimulus package in a way that’s sterile, efficient and accessible. The government needs to look for ways to innovate the antiquated process of distributing checks by mail. In the interests of speed and safety, why not consider sending the stimulus in the form of stablecoins as a means to verify the transfer of assets? Because stablecoins can be distributed digitally, Americans would have immediate access to their funds, alleviating the need to spend hours at a bank to cash a check while removing oneself from a self-imposed quarantine. Related: Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections See also: Fed Stands Ready to Replace Infected Greenbacks With Clean Bills Because the digital asset space is new and relatively unknown outside the cryptocurrency community, there would, of course, be some pushback to this idea. A lack of understanding often translates into a lack of trust. Education should go hand in hand with distribution. Both government and citizens would need to be informed about how stablecoins work, how users exchange them into fiat money, and why they could potentially make money transfers easier in the future. Many advantages The advantages of using stablecoins are numerous. For starters, with digital assets, recipients do not need to own a house or even have a mailbox to receive them. Story continues Digital assets also prevent counterfeiting or lost checks. President Donald Trump has mentioned the idea of paying this stimulus in multiple installments. Digital assets can be put in escrow to be released at a certain time. Once the asset is addressed to its recipient, that person can send the money to themselves or others without any fees or a waiting period, providing a faster solution than traditional checks. Related: The US Needs a Wartime Effort to Win the Coronavirus Battle If the stimulus were delivered via digital assets, every American with internet access, a Social Security number and proof of address could have the ability to access their stimulus. These assets can be distributed to all persons and tracked by the government on a blockchain. Digital assets would be sent and received through U.S. regulated entities and monitored by financial institutions that are already subject to federal and state laws and regulations. By sending digital assets, the government would free up postal workers and resources needed to create and distribute physical checks or prepaid cards. These physical checks mean cashing or depositing at a time when everyone is expected to stay home. It’s also difficult to monitor possible COVID-19 contagion if mail and bank services are operating locally to process checks. Why would we encourage the hand delivery of hundreds of millions of stimulus checks? Whether Americans are self-quarantining or reducing human interaction, we need to actively look for ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Why would we encourage the hand delivery of hundreds of millions of stimulus checks ? This might even violate the government’s own shelter-in-place procedures. Digital assets can connect to existing banking systems without requiring in-person deposits. There are no fees for depositing them into any bank account from a digital marketplace or exchange. Anyone over 18 can access digital funds sent to them online, which would provide a solution for the thousands of college students who cannot go home for fear of spreading the disease unintentionally, and for parents who need to stay put. Through digital distribution, not only would the U.S. preserve the health of recipients and senders, it would provide more inclusive access and show the world we are still leaders in financial innovation. See also: How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis The cost of sending checks to every citizen is great, even if we consider that the government may be able drive bulk bargains for itself. Consider that mailing checks to 250 million adult citizens, at an estimated cost of 55 cents each, could potentially translate to $138 million. And this does not include labor costs to prepare and deliver that mail, fuel costs for last-mile delivery, and the health and benefits of employees. Nor does it include the fees for return-to-sender services, the costs of correcting any checks incorrectly sent, any staff hired to monitor and confirm the checks are sent appropriately to all persons, or the staff to gather addresses from the IRS. The direct-to-citizen stimulus would already cost about $350 billion. Why should we spend at least $138 million sending it? If the U.S. were to incorporate digital assets into this stimulus distribution, we would be the first-mover globally to use digital assets in such a way, ahead of other countries building their own digital currencies. We would send a clear signal the U.S. is prioritizing its citizens’ health while educating and adapting to this evolving digital world. Related Stories As This Crisis Worsens, Bitcoin Will Become a Safe Haven Again 4 Reasons Central Banks Should Launch Retail Digital Currencies || The US Should Use Stablecoins for Emergency Coronavirus Payments: Catherine Coley is the CEO of Binance.US. Previously she was head of XRP Institutional Liquidity at Ripple after working for Morgan Stanley Foreign Exchange desks in Hong Kong and London.
Amid the fear and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, theU.S. government is looking for ways to financially support Americans as soon as possible, even discussing the possibility of universal basic income payments. People need help. At the same time, they need to stay home to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. In delivering emergency payments, the government should be aware of the risks of asking people to pick up money at a bank or another physical location. It should distribute any stimulus package in a way that’s sterile, efficient and accessible.
The government needs to look for ways to innovate the antiquated process of distributing checks by mail. In the interests of speed and safety, why not consider sending the stimulus in the form of stablecoins as a means to verify the transfer of assets? Because stablecoins can be distributed digitally, Americans would have immediate access to their funds, alleviating the need to spend hours at a bank to cash a check while removing oneself from a self-imposed quarantine.
Related:Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections
See also:Fed Stands Ready to Replace Infected Greenbacks With Clean Bills
Because the digital asset space is new and relatively unknown outside the cryptocurrency community, there would, of course, be some pushback to this idea. A lack of understanding often translates into a lack of trust. Education should go hand in hand with distribution. Both government and citizens would need to be informed about how stablecoins work, how users exchange them into fiat money, and why they could potentially make money transfers easier in the future.
The advantages of using stablecoins are numerous. For starters, with digital assets, recipients do not need to own a house or even have a mailbox to receive them.
Digital assets also prevent counterfeiting or lost checks. President Donald Trump has mentioned the idea of paying this stimulus in multiple installments. Digital assets can be put in escrow to be released at a certain time. Once the asset is addressed to its recipient, that person can send the money to themselves or others without any fees or a waiting period, providing a faster solution than traditional checks.
Related:The US Needs a Wartime Effort to Win the Coronavirus Battle
If the stimulus were delivered via digital assets, every American with internet access, a Social Security number and proof of address could have the ability to access their stimulus. These assets can be distributed to all persons and tracked by the government on a blockchain. Digital assets would be sent and received through U.S. regulated entities and monitored by financial institutions that are already subject to federal and state laws and regulations.
By sending digital assets, the government would free up postal workers and resources needed to create and distribute physical checks or prepaid cards. These physical checks mean cashing or depositing at a time when everyone is expected to stay home. It’s also difficult to monitor possible COVID-19 contagion if mail and bank services are operating locally to process checks.
Why would we encourage the hand delivery of hundreds of millions of stimulus checks?
Whether Americans are self-quarantining or reducing human interaction, we need to actively look for ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19.Why would we encourage the hand delivery of hundreds of millions of stimulus checks? This might even violate the government’s own shelter-in-place procedures.
Digital assets can connect to existing banking systems without requiring in-person deposits. There are no fees for depositing them into any bank account from a digital marketplace or exchange. Anyone over 18 can access digital funds sent to them online, which would provide a solution for thethousands of college students who cannot go home for fear of spreadingthe disease unintentionally, and for parents who need to stay put. Through digital distribution, not only would the U.S. preserve the health of recipients and senders, it would provide more inclusive access and show the world we are still leaders in financial innovation.
See also:How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis
The cost of sending checks to every citizen is great, even if we consider that the government may be able drive bulk bargains for itself. Consider that mailing checks to 250 million adult citizens, at an estimated cost of 55 cents each, could potentially translate to $138 million. And this does not include labor costs to prepare and deliver that mail, fuel costs for last-mile delivery, and the health and benefits of employees. Nor does it include the fees for return-to-sender services, the costs of correcting any checks incorrectly sent, any staff hired to monitor and confirm the checks are sent appropriately to all persons, or the staff to gather addresses from the IRS. The direct-to-citizen stimulus would already cost about $350 billion. Why should we spend at least $138 million sending it?
If the U.S. were to incorporate digital assets into this stimulus distribution, we would be the first-mover globally to use digital assets in such a way, ahead of other countries building their own digital currencies. We would send a clear signal the U.S. is prioritizing its citizens’ health while educating and adapting to this evolving digital world.
• As This Crisis Worsens, Bitcoin Will Become a Safe Haven Again
• 4 Reasons Central Banks Should Launch Retail Digital Currencies || As This Crisis Worsens, Bitcoin Will Become a Safe Haven Again: Osho Jha is an investor, data scientist and tech company executive who enjoys finding and analyzing unique data sets for investing in both public and private markets. The week of March 9 was a ride regardless of what market you trade and invest in. Markets spiking up, markets spiking down, longs taking drawdowns, shorts getting stopped out on intraday bounces. While investor sentiment across markets was negative, there was also a sense of confusion as “there was nowhere to hide” in terms of assets. Interestingly, I’ve yet to speak with anyone who made a “real killing” in that week’s trading. The ones who fared best are the ones who moved out of assets and into USD/hard currency and now have many options as to where to vest that capital. On March 12, bitcoin (BTC), having already traced down from $9,200 to $7,700 and then to $7,200 in the prior few days, plunged from $7,200 to $3,800 before spiking up and settling in the $4,800 to $5,200. The move tested the resolve of bitcoin bulls who had expected the upcoming halving to continue to drive the price higher. Similarly, sentiment towards the crypto king and leading decentralized currency plunged, with many pointing to bitcoin’s failure to be a hedge in troubled times – something that was long assumed to be a given due to the “digital gold” nature of bitcoin. I, however, believe these investors are mistaken in their analysis and the safe-haven nature of bitcoin is continuing. Related: Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm? See also: Noelle Acheson: Why Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Narrative Has Flown Out the Window Earlier that week, I wrote a short post on my thoughts around the BTC drawdown from $9,200 to $7,700. In it, I pointed out that gold prices were also taking a drawdown along with stocks and rates. My suspicion was there was some sort of liquidity crunch happening causing a cascading fire sale of assets. This more or less played out exactly as one would expect, with all markets tanking later in the week and the Federal Reserve stepping in with a liquidity injection for short-term markets. This liquidity injection included an expansion of the definition of collateral. Story continues Repo markets: The canary in the coal mine Having worked in both rates and equities, I’ve noticed equities traders tend to ignore moves in rates and it’s, unfortunately, a waste of a very powerful signal. Specifically, “significant” or “odd” moves in short-term markets signal shifts in the underlying liquidity needs for market participants. While repo markets have many intricacies and dynamics, here is a general outline of what they do and how one might use them. For context, a repo (repurchase agreement) is a short-term loan – generally overnight – where one party sells securities to another and agrees to repurchase those securities at a date in the near future for a higher price. The securities serve as collateral, and the price difference between the initial sale and repurchase is the repo rate – i.e. the interest paid on the loan. A reverse repo is the opposite of this – i.e. one party buys securities and agrees to sell them back later. Related: Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package Repo markets serve two important functions for the broader market. The first is that financial institutions such as hedge funds and broker-dealers, who often own lots of securities and little cash, can borrow from money market funds or mutual funds that often have lots of cash. This liquidity crunch and ensuing government intervention is laying the foundation for bitcoin’s adoption as a safe haven asset. The hedge funds can use this cash to finance day-to-day operations and trades, and money market funds can earn interest on their cash with little risk. Mostly, the securities used as collateral are U.S. Treasurys. The second function for repo markets is the Fed has a lever to conduct monetary policy. By buying or selling securities in the repo market, it is able to inject or withdraw money from the financial system. Since the global financial crisis, repo markets have become an even more important tool for the Fed. Sure enough, the 2008 crash was preceded by odd movements in repo markets, showing what a good indicator of the future repo can be. The fragility of our current financial system With equities selling off in larger and larger moves and the markets becoming more volatile, the Fed injected liquidity into the short-term markets. While some headlines claim the Fed spent $1.5 trillion in a recent move to calm equities markets, those headlines are a bit sensationalist and are trying to equate last week’s actions to TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program, which allowed the Fed to purchase toxic debt from bank balance sheets along with said banks’ stocks). And I say this as someone with very little trust in the Fed. This wasn’t a bailout but was a move to calm funding markets and the money is now part of the repo markets making it a short-term debt. See also: Despite Bitcoin Price Dips, Crypto Is a Safe Haven in the Middle East Let’s take a step back and think about what that means – short-term markets where parties exchange very liquid collateral had a funding crisis, implying that market participants on aggregate didn’t have cash or didn’t want collateral in return for cash, and needed the intervention of the Fed to continue functioning. There is no way to cut this as a positive. This would go a long way in explaining the wild movements and unprecedented yields hit across the entire yield curve. To make matters worse, this is not a new phenomenon. There was a funding crisis in September 2019 as well. It is clear that the repo markets are struggling without the Fed’s intervention. Given the fire sale we saw recently, and the whipsaw in the Treasurys markets, I suspect some funds were caught off guard, especially by the move in oil futures, and were unable to get funding. This then led to a sale of assets to generate cash and then a cascade of sales across markets. What about BTC (and gold)? To clarify, I keep putting “and gold” in parentheses because the commentary applies to both markets given the nature of their fixed supply. I consider BTC to be a better version of gold as it is provably scarce, among other benefits. However, gold has enamored mankind since…well, the dawn of mankind. So while I think BTC is the better option, gold has a place in portfolios not quite ready for digital currencies. Bitcoin had a bad week, retracing much of 2019’s gains but remaining positive on a Y/Y basis (though it’s up again more recently). Here are the positives: Bitcoin and traditional safe-haven assets all sold off, bitcoin is now trading very cheaply on a USD basis, and the fundamental analysis and value proposition remains unchanged. Because of bitcoin’s newer, more volatile nature, the moves in this market will naturally be more extreme. Safe-haven status remains intact People think bitcoin lost its safe-asset use case but this liquidity crunch and ensuing government intervention is laying the foundation for bitcoin’s adoption as a safe-haven asset. It’s easy to talk about long-term theses and other “hopeium” in the face of this nascent market’s most extreme recent drawdown and ignore the fact that a ton of people lost a ton of money. So let’s consider the short-term thesis: A “first-level” analysis would conclude BTC went down while stocks went down, and so there is no “store of value,” nor does it function as a “safe haven.” I cannot stress how useless this commentary is, and masquerading it as “analysis” is somewhat insulting. Anybody with mediocre programming skills can plot two lines and point to a correlation – what value has this analysis added? None. That aside, consider gold in 2008. Gold prices fell sharply at the beginning of the financial crisis, only to rally after TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facilities), which was a program to increase credit availability and support economic activity by facilitating renewed issuance of consumer and small business asset-backed securities. Unlike TARP, TALF money came from the Fed and not the U.S. Treasury and so the program did not require congressional approval but an act of Congress forced the Fed to reveal how funds were lent. Other relief measures were implemented and then further bolstered by quantitative easing (QE), where central banks purchase a predetermined number of government bonds to increase the money supply and inject money directly into the economy. In the U.S. QE started in November 2008 and ended about six years and $4.5 trillion later. This serves to illustrate that safe-haven assets may sell off during a liquidity crunch but afterwards investors begin to see the need for assets with sound money properties that offer protection from currency devaluation. See also: Cash Is the New Safe Haven as Crypto, Gold Continue to Tank For cryptocurrency markets, the signs of a pullback were building. I personally watch Bitmex leveraged positions to get an indication of where the market is. Whenever leveraged positions build up to an extreme, the market tends to (possibly is forced to) move in the opposite direction and clear out the leveraged positions. There were over $1 billion in leveraged longs on Bitmex and from what I last read, roughly $700 million of those were wiped out during the week of the sell-off. It is a painful but necessary cleansing. Because bitcoin is a mined coin with model-able production costs, it is important for fundamental investors to follow miner behavior closely. Leading up to the crash, miner inventory had built up. Miners either sell coins to market or build up reserves to sell when prices are more favorable. This is called the MRI (miner rolling inventory). Chainalysis put out this fascinating chart that shows miners generated inventory vs. inventory sent to exchanges. One could assume miner hoarding is a sign that there is an expectation of a price increase, but a liquidity crunch throws all that out the window, AND historical data suggests that returns are better when miners are not hoarding. So where do we go from here? Losing money sucks, but when you invest or trade it’s something you should get used to. If you’re a stellar investor, you’re probably still losing money 40 percent of the time. So, the short term shows a buying opportunity as we saw a large capitulation last week. Alternative.me’s BTC Fear and Greed Index implies a startling change from last month flipping from a score of 59 (Greed) to 8 (Fear) showing that fear is currently the driving market force, and it’s almost always better to buy when others are fearful. But I would urge caution. Until we see BTC, gold and Treasurys dislocate from the S&P 500 i.e. break their recent correlation, I am cautiously deploying capital. On a long horizon, things are going according to plan. The halving is still some blocks and months away. Miners who are already feeling the pain of this price reduction will continue to struggle to be profitable as block rewards are halved. On Sunday, March 15 the Fed slashed baseline interest rates to 0 percent and announced the purchase of $700 billion in bonds and securities to calm financial markets and create an economic stimulus. After the recent pullback in stocks, many of us had assumed the Fed would engage in a new form of QE. If history serves us correctly, this is likely the first of many asset purchase programs. The money printer is coming, and when that starts, fixed supply assets such as BTC and gold will do well. The stock market has spoken, it is demanding an economic stimulus and has shown over the past year that, without government liquidity injections, it cannot sustain its current growth. Related Stories Bearish ‘Death Cross’ Price Patterns Loom for Both Bitcoin and US Stocks The US Needs a Wartime Effort to Win the Coronavirus Battle || As This Crisis Worsens, Bitcoin Will Become a Safe Haven Again: Osho Jha is an investor, data scientist and tech company executive who enjoys finding and analyzing unique data sets for investing in both public and private markets.
The week of March 9 was a ride regardless of what market you trade and invest in. Markets spiking up, markets spiking down, longs taking drawdowns, shorts getting stopped out on intraday bounces. While investor sentiment across markets was negative, there was also a sense of confusion as “there was nowhere to hide” in terms of assets. Interestingly, I’ve yet to speak with anyone who made a “real killing” in that week’s trading. The ones who fared best are the ones who moved out of assets and into USD/hard currency and now have many options as to where to vest that capital.
On March 12,bitcoin(BTC), having already traced down from $9,200 to $7,700 and then to $7,200 in the prior few days, plunged from $7,200 to $3,800 before spiking up and settling in the $4,800 to $5,200. The move tested the resolve of bitcoin bulls who had expected the upcoming halving to continue to drive the price higher. Similarly, sentiment towards the crypto king and leading decentralized currency plunged, with many pointing to bitcoin’s failure to be a hedge in troubled times – something that was long assumed to be a given due to the “digital gold” nature of bitcoin. I, however, believe these investors are mistaken in their analysis and the safe-haven nature of bitcoin is continuing.
Related:Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm?
See also: Noelle Acheson:Why Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Narrative Has Flown Out the Window
Earlier that week, I wrote ashort poston my thoughts around the BTC drawdown from $9,200 to $7,700. In it, I pointed out that gold prices were also taking a drawdown along with stocks and rates. My suspicion was there was some sort of liquidity crunch happening causing a cascading fire sale of assets. This more or less played out exactly as one would expect, with all markets tanking later in the week and the Federal Reserve stepping in with a liquidity injection for short-term markets. This liquidity injection included an expansion of the definition of collateral.
Having worked in both rates and equities, I’ve noticed equities traders tend to ignore moves in rates and it’s, unfortunately, a waste of a very powerful signal. Specifically, “significant” or “odd” moves in short-term markets signal shifts in the underlying liquidity needs for market participants. While repo markets have many intricacies and dynamics, here is a general outline of what they do and how one might use them.
For context, a repo (repurchase agreement) is a short-term loan – generally overnight – where one party sells securities to another and agrees to repurchase those securities at a date in the near future for a higher price. The securities serve as collateral, and the price difference between the initial sale and repurchase is the repo rate – i.e. the interest paid on the loan. A reverse repo is the opposite of this – i.e. one party buys securities and agrees to sell them back later.
Related:Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package
Repo markets serve two important functions for the broader market. The first is that financial institutions such as hedge funds and broker-dealers, who often own lots of securities and little cash, can borrow from money market funds or mutual funds that often have lots of cash.
This liquidity crunch and ensuing government intervention is laying the foundation for bitcoin’s adoption as a safe haven asset.
The hedge funds can use this cash to finance day-to-day operations and trades, and money market funds can earn interest on their cash with little risk. Mostly, the securities used as collateral are U.S. Treasurys.
The second function for repo markets is the Fed has a lever to conduct monetary policy. By buying or selling securities in the repo market, it is able to inject or withdraw money from the financial system. Since the global financial crisis, repo markets have become an even more important tool for the Fed. Sure enough, the 2008 crash was preceded by odd movements in repo markets, showing what a good indicator of the future repo can be.
With equities selling off in larger and larger moves and the markets becoming more volatile, the Fed injected liquidity into the short-term markets. While some headlines claim the Fed spent $1.5 trillion in a recent move to calm equities markets, those headlines are a bit sensationalist and are trying to equate last week’s actions to TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program, which allowed the Fed to purchase toxic debt from bank balance sheets along with said banks’ stocks). And I say this as someone with very little trust in the Fed. This wasn’t a bailout but was a move to calm funding markets and the money is now part of the repo markets making it a short-term debt.
See also:Despite Bitcoin Price Dips, Crypto Is a Safe Haven in the Middle East
Let’s take a step back and think about what that means – short-term markets where parties exchange very liquid collateral had a funding crisis, implying that market participants on aggregate didn’t have cash or didn’t want collateral in return for cash, and needed the intervention of the Fed to continue functioning. There is no way to cut this as a positive. This would go a long way in explaining the wild movements and unprecedented yields hit across the entire yield curve. To make matters worse, this is not a new phenomenon. There was a funding crisis in September 2019 as well. It is clear that the repo markets are struggling without the Fed’s intervention.
Given the fire sale we saw recently, and the whipsaw in the Treasurys markets, I suspect some funds were caught off guard, especially by the move in oil futures, and were unable to get funding. This then led to a sale of assets to generate cash and then a cascade of sales across markets.
To clarify, I keep putting “and gold” in parentheses because the commentary applies to both markets given the nature of their fixed supply. I consider BTC to be a better version of gold as it is provably scarce, among other benefits. However, gold has enamored mankind since…well, the dawn of mankind. So while I think BTC is the better option, gold has a place in portfolios not quite ready for digital currencies.
Bitcoin had a bad week, retracing much of 2019’s gains but remaining positive on a Y/Y basis (though it’s up again more recently). Here are the positives: Bitcoin and traditional safe-haven assets all sold off, bitcoin is now trading very cheaply on a USD basis, and the fundamental analysis and value proposition remains unchanged. Because of bitcoin’s newer, more volatile nature, the moves in this market will naturally be more extreme.
People think bitcoin lost its safe-asset use case but this liquidity crunch and ensuing government intervention is laying the foundation for bitcoin’s adoption as a safe-haven asset.
It’s easy to talk about long-term theses and other “hopeium” in the face of this nascent market’s most extreme recent drawdown and ignore the fact that a ton of people lost a ton of money. So let’s consider the short-term thesis:
A “first-level” analysis would conclude BTC went down while stocks went down, and so there is no “store of value,” nor does it function as a “safe haven.” I cannot stress how useless this commentary is, and masquerading it as “analysis” is somewhat insulting. Anybody with mediocre programming skills can plot two lines and point to a correlation – what value has this analysis added? None.
That aside, consider gold in 2008. Gold prices fell sharply at the beginning of the financial crisis, only to rally after TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facilities), which was a program to increase credit availability and support economic activity by facilitating renewed issuance of consumer and small business asset-backed securities.
Unlike TARP, TALF money came from the Fed and not the U.S. Treasury and so the program did not require congressional approval but an act of Congress forced the Fed to reveal how funds were lent. Other relief measures were implemented and then further bolstered by quantitative easing (QE), where central banks purchase a predetermined number of government bonds to increase the money supply and inject money directly into the economy.
In the U.S. QE started in November 2008 and ended about six years and $4.5 trillion later. This serves to illustrate that safe-haven assets may sell off during a liquidity crunch but afterwards investors begin to see the need for assets with sound money properties that offer protection from currency devaluation.
See also:Cash Is the New Safe Haven as Crypto, Gold Continue to Tank
For cryptocurrency markets, the signs of a pullback were building. I personally watch Bitmex leveraged positions to get an indication of where the market is. Whenever leveraged positions build up to an extreme, the market tends to (possibly is forced to) move in the opposite direction and clear out the leveraged positions. There were over $1 billion in leveraged longs on Bitmex and from what I last read, roughly $700 million of those were wiped out during the week of the sell-off. It is a painful but necessary cleansing.
Because bitcoin is a mined coin with model-able production costs, it is important for fundamental investors to follow miner behavior closely. Leading up to the crash, miner inventory had built up. Miners either sell coins to market or build up reserves to sell when prices are more favorable. This is called the MRI (miner rolling inventory). Chainalysis put out this fascinating chart that shows miners generated inventory vs. inventory sent to exchanges. One could assume miner hoarding is a sign that there is an expectation of a price increase, but a liquidity crunch throws all that out the window, AND historical data suggests that returns are better when miners are not hoarding.
Losing money sucks, but when you invest or trade it’s something you should get used to. If you’re a stellar investor, you’re probably still losing money 40 percent of the time. So, the short term shows a buying opportunity as we saw a large capitulation last week. Alternative.me’s BTCFear and Greed Indeximplies a startling change from last month flipping from a score of 59 (Greed) to 8 (Fear) showing that fear is currently the driving market force, and it’s almost always better to buy when others are fearful.
But I would urge caution. Until we see BTC, gold and Treasurys dislocate from the S&P 500 i.e. break their recent correlation, I am cautiously deploying capital.
On a long horizon, things are going according to plan. The halving is still some blocks and months away. Miners who are already feeling the pain of this price reduction will continue to struggle to be profitable as block rewards are halved. On Sunday, March 15 the Fed slashed baseline interest rates to 0 percent and announced the purchase of $700 billion in bonds and securities to calm financial markets and create an economic stimulus. After the recent pullback in stocks, many of us had assumed the Fed would engage in a new form of QE. If history serves us correctly, this is likely the first of many asset purchase programs.
The money printer is coming, and when that starts, fixed supply assets such as BTC and gold will do well. The stock market has spoken, it is demanding an economic stimulus and has shown over the past year that, without government liquidity injections, it cannot sustain its current growth.
• Bearish ‘Death Cross’ Price Patterns Loom for Both Bitcoin and US Stocks
• The US Needs a Wartime Effort to Win the Coronavirus Battle || As This Crisis Worsens, Bitcoin Will Become a Safe Haven Again: Osho Jha is an investor, data scientist and tech company executive who enjoys finding and analyzing unique data sets for investing in both public and private markets.
The week of March 9 was a ride regardless of what market you trade and invest in. Markets spiking up, markets spiking down, longs taking drawdowns, shorts getting stopped out on intraday bounces. While investor sentiment across markets was negative, there was also a sense of confusion as “there was nowhere to hide” in terms of assets. Interestingly, I’ve yet to speak with anyone who made a “real killing” in that week’s trading. The ones who fared best are the ones who moved out of assets and into USD/hard currency and now have many options as to where to vest that capital.
On March 12,bitcoin(BTC), having already traced down from $9,200 to $7,700 and then to $7,200 in the prior few days, plunged from $7,200 to $3,800 before spiking up and settling in the $4,800 to $5,200. The move tested the resolve of bitcoin bulls who had expected the upcoming halving to continue to drive the price higher. Similarly, sentiment towards the crypto king and leading decentralized currency plunged, with many pointing to bitcoin’s failure to be a hedge in troubled times – something that was long assumed to be a given due to the “digital gold” nature of bitcoin. I, however, believe these investors are mistaken in their analysis and the safe-haven nature of bitcoin is continuing.
Related:Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm?
See also: Noelle Acheson:Why Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Narrative Has Flown Out the Window
Earlier that week, I wrote ashort poston my thoughts around the BTC drawdown from $9,200 to $7,700. In it, I pointed out that gold prices were also taking a drawdown along with stocks and rates. My suspicion was there was some sort of liquidity crunch happening causing a cascading fire sale of assets. This more or less played out exactly as one would expect, with all markets tanking later in the week and the Federal Reserve stepping in with a liquidity injection for short-term markets. This liquidity injection included an expansion of the definition of collateral.
Having worked in both rates and equities, I’ve noticed equities traders tend to ignore moves in rates and it’s, unfortunately, a waste of a very powerful signal. Specifically, “significant” or “odd” moves in short-term markets signal shifts in the underlying liquidity needs for market participants. While repo markets have many intricacies and dynamics, here is a general outline of what they do and how one might use them.
For context, a repo (repurchase agreement) is a short-term loan – generally overnight – where one party sells securities to another and agrees to repurchase those securities at a date in the near future for a higher price. The securities serve as collateral, and the price difference between the initial sale and repurchase is the repo rate – i.e. the interest paid on the loan. A reverse repo is the opposite of this – i.e. one party buys securities and agrees to sell them back later.
Related:Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package
Repo markets serve two important functions for the broader market. The first is that financial institutions such as hedge funds and broker-dealers, who often own lots of securities and little cash, can borrow from money market funds or mutual funds that often have lots of cash.
This liquidity crunch and ensuing government intervention is laying the foundation for bitcoin’s adoption as a safe haven asset.
The hedge funds can use this cash to finance day-to-day operations and trades, and money market funds can earn interest on their cash with little risk. Mostly, the securities used as collateral are U.S. Treasurys.
The second function for repo markets is the Fed has a lever to conduct monetary policy. By buying or selling securities in the repo market, it is able to inject or withdraw money from the financial system. Since the global financial crisis, repo markets have become an even more important tool for the Fed. Sure enough, the 2008 crash was preceded by odd movements in repo markets, showing what a good indicator of the future repo can be.
With equities selling off in larger and larger moves and the markets becoming more volatile, the Fed injected liquidity into the short-term markets. While some headlines claim the Fed spent $1.5 trillion in a recent move to calm equities markets, those headlines are a bit sensationalist and are trying to equate last week’s actions to TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program, which allowed the Fed to purchase toxic debt from bank balance sheets along with said banks’ stocks). And I say this as someone with very little trust in the Fed. This wasn’t a bailout but was a move to calm funding markets and the money is now part of the repo markets making it a short-term debt.
See also:Despite Bitcoin Price Dips, Crypto Is a Safe Haven in the Middle East
Let’s take a step back and think about what that means – short-term markets where parties exchange very liquid collateral had a funding crisis, implying that market participants on aggregate didn’t have cash or didn’t want collateral in return for cash, and needed the intervention of the Fed to continue functioning. There is no way to cut this as a positive. This would go a long way in explaining the wild movements and unprecedented yields hit across the entire yield curve. To make matters worse, this is not a new phenomenon. There was a funding crisis in September 2019 as well. It is clear that the repo markets are struggling without the Fed’s intervention.
Given the fire sale we saw recently, and the whipsaw in the Treasurys markets, I suspect some funds were caught off guard, especially by the move in oil futures, and were unable to get funding. This then led to a sale of assets to generate cash and then a cascade of sales across markets.
To clarify, I keep putting “and gold” in parentheses because the commentary applies to both markets given the nature of their fixed supply. I consider BTC to be a better version of gold as it is provably scarce, among other benefits. However, gold has enamored mankind since…well, the dawn of mankind. So while I think BTC is the better option, gold has a place in portfolios not quite ready for digital currencies.
Bitcoin had a bad week, retracing much of 2019’s gains but remaining positive on a Y/Y basis (though it’s up again more recently). Here are the positives: Bitcoin and traditional safe-haven assets all sold off, bitcoin is now trading very cheaply on a USD basis, and the fundamental analysis and value proposition remains unchanged. Because of bitcoin’s newer, more volatile nature, the moves in this market will naturally be more extreme.
People think bitcoin lost its safe-asset use case but this liquidity crunch and ensuing government intervention is laying the foundation for bitcoin’s adoption as a safe-haven asset.
It’s easy to talk about long-term theses and other “hopeium” in the face of this nascent market’s most extreme recent drawdown and ignore the fact that a ton of people lost a ton of money. So let’s consider the short-term thesis:
A “first-level” analysis would conclude BTC went down while stocks went down, and so there is no “store of value,” nor does it function as a “safe haven.” I cannot stress how useless this commentary is, and masquerading it as “analysis” is somewhat insulting. Anybody with mediocre programming skills can plot two lines and point to a correlation – what value has this analysis added? None.
That aside, consider gold in 2008. Gold prices fell sharply at the beginning of the financial crisis, only to rally after TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facilities), which was a program to increase credit availability and support economic activity by facilitating renewed issuance of consumer and small business asset-backed securities.
Unlike TARP, TALF money came from the Fed and not the U.S. Treasury and so the program did not require congressional approval but an act of Congress forced the Fed to reveal how funds were lent. Other relief measures were implemented and then further bolstered by quantitative easing (QE), where central banks purchase a predetermined number of government bonds to increase the money supply and inject money directly into the economy.
In the U.S. QE started in November 2008 and ended about six years and $4.5 trillion later. This serves to illustrate that safe-haven assets may sell off during a liquidity crunch but afterwards investors begin to see the need for assets with sound money properties that offer protection from currency devaluation.
See also:Cash Is the New Safe Haven as Crypto, Gold Continue to Tank
For cryptocurrency markets, the signs of a pullback were building. I personally watch Bitmex leveraged positions to get an indication of where the market is. Whenever leveraged positions build up to an extreme, the market tends to (possibly is forced to) move in the opposite direction and clear out the leveraged positions. There were over $1 billion in leveraged longs on Bitmex and from what I last read, roughly $700 million of those were wiped out during the week of the sell-off. It is a painful but necessary cleansing.
Because bitcoin is a mined coin with model-able production costs, it is important for fundamental investors to follow miner behavior closely. Leading up to the crash, miner inventory had built up. Miners either sell coins to market or build up reserves to sell when prices are more favorable. This is called the MRI (miner rolling inventory). Chainalysis put out this fascinating chart that shows miners generated inventory vs. inventory sent to exchanges. One could assume miner hoarding is a sign that there is an expectation of a price increase, but a liquidity crunch throws all that out the window, AND historical data suggests that returns are better when miners are not hoarding.
Losing money sucks, but when you invest or trade it’s something you should get used to. If you’re a stellar investor, you’re probably still losing money 40 percent of the time. So, the short term shows a buying opportunity as we saw a large capitulation last week. Alternative.me’s BTCFear and Greed Indeximplies a startling change from last month flipping from a score of 59 (Greed) to 8 (Fear) showing that fear is currently the driving market force, and it’s almost always better to buy when others are fearful.
But I would urge caution. Until we see BTC, gold and Treasurys dislocate from the S&P 500 i.e. break their recent correlation, I am cautiously deploying capital.
On a long horizon, things are going according to plan. The halving is still some blocks and months away. Miners who are already feeling the pain of this price reduction will continue to struggle to be profitable as block rewards are halved. On Sunday, March 15 the Fed slashed baseline interest rates to 0 percent and announced the purchase of $700 billion in bonds and securities to calm financial markets and create an economic stimulus. After the recent pullback in stocks, many of us had assumed the Fed would engage in a new form of QE. If history serves us correctly, this is likely the first of many asset purchase programs.
The money printer is coming, and when that starts, fixed supply assets such as BTC and gold will do well. The stock market has spoken, it is demanding an economic stimulus and has shown over the past year that, without government liquidity injections, it cannot sustain its current growth.
• Bearish ‘Death Cross’ Price Patterns Loom for Both Bitcoin and US Stocks
• The US Needs a Wartime Effort to Win the Coronavirus Battle || How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by cognitive economistLeigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” to talk about mental health and cryptocurrency in a time of coronavirus crisis.
For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
People who struggle with anxiety, gambling addiction and a wide array of other other mental health issues may want to develop healthy habits for engaging with financial tools like cryptocurrency.
Related:Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope
Most American researchers agree these days that roughly2 percentof the population is estimated to be at high risk for gambling addiction. Case in point: When Texas Tech University Assistant Professor Devin Millssurveyed876 people who had gambled within the previous month, more than half of the respondents traded cryptocurrency.
“Our data suggests that around 40 percent of regular gamblers who traded cryptocurrencies in the past year reported elevated levels of either depression or anxiety, or both,” Mills said.
However, the frequency with which the respondents traded cryptocurrencies was positively associated with most other types of gambling. The data doesn’t suggestbitcoin(BTC) uniquely causes a gambling addiction, online harassment, or other mental health risks. It may simply be that people who already face these challenges are more likely to trade.
See Also: Leigh’sarticleabout how cryptocurrency can be used as a tool by survivors of sexual harassment and domestic abuse.
Related:State Power After Coronavirus, Feat. Peter McCormack
“There is a good Russian saying: The pig will find the dirt,” said New York therapist Yevgenia Mastyayeva, who specializes in gambling addiction. “The technology and society shape your addiction, give it a particular form, but it is you who are predisposed or not to develop addiction in the first place.”
There are also other mental health risks associated with cryptocurrency communities, namely habits that exacerbate anxiety disorders or expose users to anxiety-inducing harassment.
Psychiatrist turned crypto entrepreneur Prash Puspanathan said financial distress can fuel some people’s pre-existing anxiety disorders, which could contribute to suicides. And, regardless of whether someone has an anxiety disorder, routine online harassment is stressful.
Puspanathan also described online harassment related to “women sexually shamed… with occasionally devastating consequences.” According to aPew Research Centersurvey in 2017, nearly 20 percent of Americans reported online harassment damaged their relationships at home, work or school, sometimes making it more difficult to find housing or employment.
In short, a healthy bitcoiner should strive to find a balance of habits, minimized exposure to online harassers, and watch out for signs of erratic or addictive behavior. Some people might prefer to keep a separate budget for crypto investments versus household spending, plus use multisig wallets for long-term holdings, Mills said.
Mastyayeva agreed bitcoin custody setups and trading platforms that simplify “realization of the impulse” might not be the best choice for those who display signs of addictive behavior. Limiting screen time can be helpful.
What else do doctors suggest? Sleep. According to cognitive economist Leigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” it also might be prudent for people to avoid financial choices based mainly on Crypto Twitter.
For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 20, 2020
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 19, 2020 || How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by cognitive economistLeigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” to talk about mental health and cryptocurrency in a time of coronavirus crisis.
For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
People who struggle with anxiety, gambling addiction and a wide array of other other mental health issues may want to develop healthy habits for engaging with financial tools like cryptocurrency.
Related:Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope
Most American researchers agree these days that roughly2 percentof the population is estimated to be at high risk for gambling addiction. Case in point: When Texas Tech University Assistant Professor Devin Millssurveyed876 people who had gambled within the previous month, more than half of the respondents traded cryptocurrency.
“Our data suggests that around 40 percent of regular gamblers who traded cryptocurrencies in the past year reported elevated levels of either depression or anxiety, or both,” Mills said.
However, the frequency with which the respondents traded cryptocurrencies was positively associated with most other types of gambling. The data doesn’t suggestbitcoin(BTC) uniquely causes a gambling addiction, online harassment, or other mental health risks. It may simply be that people who already face these challenges are more likely to trade.
See Also: Leigh’sarticleabout how cryptocurrency can be used as a tool by survivors of sexual harassment and domestic abuse.
Related:State Power After Coronavirus, Feat. Peter McCormack
“There is a good Russian saying: The pig will find the dirt,” said New York therapist Yevgenia Mastyayeva, who specializes in gambling addiction. “The technology and society shape your addiction, give it a particular form, but it is you who are predisposed or not to develop addiction in the first place.”
There are also other mental health risks associated with cryptocurrency communities, namely habits that exacerbate anxiety disorders or expose users to anxiety-inducing harassment.
Psychiatrist turned crypto entrepreneur Prash Puspanathan said financial distress can fuel some people’s pre-existing anxiety disorders, which could contribute to suicides. And, regardless of whether someone has an anxiety disorder, routine online harassment is stressful.
Puspanathan also described online harassment related to “women sexually shamed… with occasionally devastating consequences.” According to aPew Research Centersurvey in 2017, nearly 20 percent of Americans reported online harassment damaged their relationships at home, work or school, sometimes making it more difficult to find housing or employment.
In short, a healthy bitcoiner should strive to find a balance of habits, minimized exposure to online harassers, and watch out for signs of erratic or addictive behavior. Some people might prefer to keep a separate budget for crypto investments versus household spending, plus use multisig wallets for long-term holdings, Mills said.
Mastyayeva agreed bitcoin custody setups and trading platforms that simplify “realization of the impulse” might not be the best choice for those who display signs of addictive behavior. Limiting screen time can be helpful.
What else do doctors suggest? Sleep. According to cognitive economist Leigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” it also might be prudent for people to avoid financial choices based mainly on Crypto Twitter.
For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS.
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 20, 2020
• Bitcoin News Roundup for March 19, 2020 || How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by cognitive economist Leigh Caldwell , author of The Psychology of Price, to talk about mental health and cryptocurrency in a time of coronavirus crisis. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . People who struggle with anxiety, gambling addiction and a wide array of other other mental health issues may want to develop healthy habits for engaging with financial tools like cryptocurrency. Related: Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope Most American researchers agree these days that roughly 2 percent of the population is estimated to be at high risk for gambling addiction. Case in point: When Texas Tech University Assistant Professor Devin Mills surveyed 876 people who had gambled within the previous month, more than half of the respondents traded cryptocurrency. Our data suggests that around 40 percent of regular gamblers who traded cryptocurrencies in the past year reported elevated levels of either depression or anxiety, or both, Mills said. However, the frequency with which the respondents traded cryptocurrencies was positively associated with most other types of gambling. The data doesnt suggest bitcoin (BTC) uniquely causes a gambling addiction, online harassment, or other mental health risks. It may simply be that people who already face these challenges are more likely to trade. See Also : Leighs article about how cryptocurrency can be used as a tool by survivors of sexual harassment and domestic abuse. Related: State Power After Coronavirus, Feat. Peter McCormack There is a good Russian saying: The pig will find the dirt, said New York therapist Yevgenia Mastyayeva, who specializes in gambling addiction. The technology and society shape your addiction, give it a particular form, but it is you who are predisposed or not to develop addiction in the first place. Story continues There are also other mental health risks associated with cryptocurrency communities, namely habits that exacerbate anxiety disorders or expose users to anxiety-inducing harassment. Psychiatrist turned crypto entrepreneur Prash Puspanathan said financial distress can fuel some peoples pre-existing anxiety disorders, which could contribute to suicides. And, regardless of whether someone has an anxiety disorder, routine online harassment is stressful. Puspanathan also described online harassment related to women sexually shamed
with occasionally devastating consequences. According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2017, nearly 20 percent of Americans reported online harassment damaged their relationships at home, work or school, sometimes making it more difficult to find housing or employment. In short, a healthy bitcoiner should strive to find a balance of habits, minimized exposure to online harassers, and watch out for signs of erratic or addictive behavior. Some people might prefer to keep a separate budget for crypto investments versus household spending, plus use multisig wallets for long-term holdings, Mills said. Mastyayeva agreed bitcoin custody setups and trading platforms that simplify realization of the impulse might not be the best choice for those who display signs of addictive behavior. Limiting screen time can be helpful. What else do doctors suggest? Sleep. According to cognitive economist Leigh Caldwell, author of The Psychology of Price , it also might be prudent for people to avoid financial choices based mainly on Crypto Twitter. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Bitcoin News Roundup for March 20, 2020 Bitcoin News Roundup for March 19, 2020 || Fed Stands Ready to Replace Infected Greenbacks With Clean Bills: The Federal Reserve is ready to flood the U.S. with coronavirus-free banknotes – but doesn’t anticipate that happening just yet, according to a spokesman for the central bank’s Philadelphia branch. For now, the Fed does not think that “cash destruction” will be necessary to stymie the spread of the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has quickly overtaken vast swaths of the east and west U.S. coasts, sending states into lockdown and forcing non-essential commerce to a blistering halt. But the spread is largely happening via “person-to-person contact,” not cash exchanges, said the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia spokesman, Joey Lee, citing Centers for Disease Control (CDC) findings. Related: Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections As such there’s no need to destroy potentially infected banknotes from hardest-hit regions, according to the Fed. The People’s Bank of China reportedly took that step last month when it seized all banknotes processed in high-risk COVID-19 zones, according to the South China Morning Post . “While the Federal Reserve is not considering cash destruction, the Federal Reserve System always has a contingency stock of new currency that can be circulated to the public and is staying in close contact with the CDC to ensure we are aware of the latest thinking on how COVID-19 spreads,” Lee said. Changing behaviors The Fed has unveiled a slew of programs , rate cuts and initiatives to keep the U.S. economy afloat in recent days. In addition to those macroeconomic policy actions, coronavirus is also changing the way the Fed handles its physical notes. Related: Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package For example, it has begun quarantining U.S. dollars shipped from overseas – first Asia and now Europe as well, according to Lee. “As a precautionary measure, cash handling procedures have been modified at Reserve Banks that receive currency shipments from Asia and Europe to provide for a longer holding period of 7 to 10 days before processing these deposits,” he said. Related Stories Coinbase Broke Traffic Records and Saw Massive Volume During Market Collapse Think a Privacy Law Will Stop Surveillance Capitalism? You Don’t Know Google || Fed Stands Ready to Replace Infected Greenbacks With Clean Bills: The Federal Reserve is ready to flood the U.S. with coronavirus-free banknotes – but doesn’t anticipate that happening just yet, according to a spokesman for the central bank’s Philadelphia branch.
For now, the Fed does not think that “cash destruction” will be necessary to stymie the spread of the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has quickly overtaken vast swaths of the east and west U.S. coasts, sending states into lockdown and forcing non-essential commerce to a blistering halt.
But the spread is largely happening via “person-to-person contact,” not cash exchanges, said the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia spokesman, Joey Lee, citing Centers for Disease Control (CDC) findings.
Related:Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections
As such there’s no need to destroy potentially infected banknotes from hardest-hit regions, according to the Fed. The People’s Bank of China reportedly took that step last month when it seized all banknotes processed in high-risk COVID-19 zones, according to theSouth China Morning Post.
“While the Federal Reserve is not considering cash destruction, the Federal Reserve System always has a contingency stock of new currency that can be circulated to the public and is staying in close contact with the CDC to ensure we are aware of the latest thinking on how COVID-19 spreads,” Lee said.
The Fed has unveiled a slew ofprograms,rate cutsandinitiativesto keep the U.S. economy afloat in recent days.
In addition to those macroeconomic policy actions, coronavirus is also changing the way the Fed handles its physical notes.
Related:Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package
For example, it has begun quarantining U.S. dollars shipped from overseas –first Asiaand now Europe as well, according to Lee.
“As a precautionary measure, cash handling procedures have been modified at Reserve Banks that receive currency shipments from Asia and Europe to provide for a longer holding period of 7 to 10 days before processing these deposits,” he said.
• Coinbase Broke Traffic Records and Saw Massive Volume During Market Collapse
• Think a Privacy Law Will Stop Surveillance Capitalism? You Don’t Know Google || Coinbase Broke Traffic Records and Saw Massive Volume During Market Collapse: Coinbase saw record site traffic and a massive surge in 24-hour trading volume during last week’s coronavirus-driven market swings, CEO Brian Armstrong said in a statement shared with CoinDesk. The San Francisco-based crypto exchange said it processed $2 billion in crypto last Thursday and Friday (for comparison, Coinbase saw $394 million in volume over the past 24 hours, according to Bitwise ). Last Thursday also beat Coinbase’s previous traffic record by over 50 percent, Armstrong said. Where other platforms experienced issues and outages, Armstrong noted that Coinbase remained operational, saying the exchange has been preparing for a crisis “for the last couple years.” Related: Fed Stands Ready to Replace Infected Greenbacks With Clean Bills “This hard work contributed to our stability last week while many platforms, in both crypto and traditional equities, struggled with the increased volume,” Armstrong wrote, crediting the company’s engineering team specifically. Jesse Pollak, the head of engineering for Coinbase’s consumer division, told CoinDesk in a phone call the platform has been preparing since the 2017 bull run, focusing on both the actual exchange’s matching engine as well as consumer products such as its API. Some of this work included horizontal scaling on the database end, Pollak said. The company said it was scaling out its databases to enable more reads without interrupting writes (meaning the exchange can view the data stored on its servers while simultaneously adding new data without either operation slowing down the other as transactions are executed). Coinbase’s COVID-19 response The move comes, of course, as Coinbase and other firms deal with coronavirus-induced remote work mandates. Armstrong has for weeks publicized his exchange’s pandemic response in a regularly updated blog series . California announced a statewide shelter-in-place order on Thursday. Related: Bitcoin Bumps Up, but for How Long? Pollak said that though Coinbase’s employees are currently remote (the exchange began implementing remote work last week in response to the COVID-19 outbreak), the engineering team used a combination of automated alerts and chatrooms to keep up with the spikes in traffic. Story continues “If we’re going to be hitting higher highs than what we’ve seen, we’ll generally pull together people into a hangout just have them available, ready, hanging out, chatting there, looking at all the metrics,” he said. Still, Pollak told CoinDesk that trading platforms are complex, and a lack of mistakes doesn’t necessarily mean a platform won’t experience any issues. “From an engineering camaraderie perspective, I think it’s just worth highlighting that scaling products is really freaking hard, and we put a lot of work into it and I think that paid off last weekend,” he said. Related Stories Think a Privacy Law Will Stop Surveillance Capitalism? You Don’t Know Google Traders Finding More Arbitrage Opportunities in Bitcoin || Coinbase Broke Traffic Records and Saw Massive Volume During Market Collapse: Coinbase saw record site traffic and a massive surge in 24-hour trading volume during last week’s coronavirus-driven market swings, CEO Brian Armstrong said in a statement shared with CoinDesk.
The San Francisco-based crypto exchange said it processed $2 billion in crypto last Thursday and Friday (for comparison, Coinbase saw $394 million in volume over the past 24 hours,according to Bitwise). Last Thursday also beat Coinbase’s previous traffic record by over 50 percent, Armstrong said.
Where other platforms experienced issues and outages, Armstrong noted that Coinbase remained operational, saying the exchange has been preparing for a crisis “for the last couple years.”
Related:Fed Stands Ready to Replace Infected Greenbacks With Clean Bills
“This hard work contributed to our stability last week while many platforms, in both crypto and traditional equities, struggled with the increased volume,” Armstrong wrote, crediting the company’s engineering team specifically.
Jesse Pollak, the head of engineering for Coinbase’s consumer division, told CoinDesk in a phone call the platform has been preparing since the 2017 bull run, focusing on both the actual exchange’s matching engine as well as consumer products such as its API.
Some of this work included horizontal scaling on the database end, Pollak said. The company said it was scaling out its databases to enable more reads without interrupting writes (meaning the exchange can view the data stored on its servers while simultaneously adding new data without either operation slowing down the other as transactions are executed).
The move comes, of course, as Coinbase and other firms deal with coronavirus-induced remote work mandates. Armstrong has for weeks publicized hisexchange’s pandemic responsein a regularly updatedblog series. California announced a statewideshelter-in-place orderon Thursday.
Related:Bitcoin Bumps Up, but for How Long?
Pollak said that though Coinbase’s employees are currently remote (the exchange began implementing remote work last week in response to the COVID-19 outbreak), the engineering team used a combination of automated alerts and chatrooms to keep up with the spikes in traffic.
“If we’re going to be hitting higher highs than what we’ve seen, we’ll generally pull together people into a hangout just have them available, ready, hanging out, chatting there, looking at all the metrics,” he said.
Still, Pollak told CoinDesk that trading platforms are complex, and a lack of mistakes doesn’t necessarily mean a platform won’t experience any issues.
“From an engineering camaraderie perspective, I think it’s just worth highlighting that scaling products is really freaking hard, and we put a lot of work into it and I think that paid off last weekend,” he said.
• Think a Privacy Law Will Stop Surveillance Capitalism? You Don’t Know Google
• Traders Finding More Arbitrage Opportunities in Bitcoin || Bitcoin Bumps Up, but for How Long?: As traditional markets continue to struggle with the coronavirus crisis, cryptocurrencies are seeing an upswing in both price and volume. Now crypto traders are wondering how long this new rally will last. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1 percent in the past 24 hours of trading, currently changing hands at $6,224 as of 19:00 UTC. The worlds largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization may be trending below its 10-day moving average in price, but its still above its 50-day average, the signal of a continued upward trend. On Coinbase, prices were as high as $6,993 on the U.S. exchange over the past 24 hours. Thats an 80 percent appreciation from its lows of $3,845 on March 12, which was hit, in part, by liquidations on BitMEX coronavirus-related news. Related: Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections We saw buying in large sizes from some larger players in the last couple of days from $5,000 and up, said Darius Sit, managing partner of Singapore-based trading firm QCP Capital. Over the past 24 hours, Bitfinex traded on its spot markets more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrencies, according to the exchange. This coincided with a price spread developing and arbitrage opportunities forming on exchanges like Bitfinex and BitMEX. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino told CoinDesk the action comes from a combination of multiple factors [including] halving, hedging against the traditional market and an important number of fiat inflows entering crypto markets to take advantage of the recent decline. See also: The Puell Multiple Is Turning Bullish on Bitcoin Related: Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package With the potential of government stimulus plans boosting economic activity, bitcoin has been very bullish. So where is bitcoins price going? Professional stakeholders, as usual, differ on opinions and strategies. Conditions look set for a stellar rise with unprecedented monetary easing and fiscal stimulus along with the halving narrative. So once there was a sense of some stabilization in the spread of the virus (0 cases in China yesterday) a frenzy of buying occurred, QCP Capitals Sit told CoinDesk. Story continues In terms of the recent recovery, if the trend will continue the next resistance will be around $7,200, said Constantine Kogan, a partner at crypto fund of funds BitBull Capital. However, Kogan also noted a lot might happen on a fundamental level with the coronavirus epidemic and subsequent market reaction. Both the S&P 500 index and bitcoin volatility are jumping to dramatic highs. See also: Bitcoin Is Now Undervalued, Suggests This Price Metric Seems like markets are having their relief rallies after a destructive week, said Michael van de Poppe, an Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency trader. So far I think its a bearish retest and weve got to test $5,500-$5,800 and perhaps $4,200-$4,400 The Nikkei 225 ended its trading session down a percent, while the FTSE 100 index in Europe closed up 1.5 percent. As of 19:00 UTC, the S&P 500 is down over 3 percent while gold is eking out less than a percent gain. Other top gainers in the crypto market today as of 19:00 UTC include dash (DASH) also in the green 9 percent Zcash (ZEC) up 5 percent and bitcoin SV (BSV) gaining 1 percent,. Downward pricing dogs in crypto include cardano (ADA) down 4 percent, NEM (NEM) also in the red 2 percent and IOTA (IOTA) down 4 percent. Related Stories Bearish Death Cross Price Patterns Loom for Both Bitcoin and US Stocks Australian Share Market Reveals Potential Storm for US Equities While Bitcoin Falls
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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6734.80, 6681.06, 6716.44, 6469.80, 6242.19, 5922.04, 6429.84, 6438.64, 6606.78, 6793.62
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-12-17]
Volume: 22363804217, RSI (14-day): 26.68, 50-day EMA: 7806.98, 200-day EMA: 8375.89
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1474.60, Gold RSI: 52.28
Oil Price: 60.94, Oil RSI: 65.51
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Chainalysis Report on PlusToken Scammers Blamed for Mondays Crypto Selloff: As bitcoin and ether prices fell below technically significant levels, some traders are citing fear emanating from a report about the alleged PlusToken Ponzi scheme as the reason for the plunge. The slide began at 18:28 UTC on Monday. In just seven minutes, bitcoin slipped 4 percent, to $6,800 from $7,085 according to data from Coinbase. In that time, ether took a bigger hit, dropping 7 percent from $140 to $130. Neither had seen such lows since Nov. 25, when the crypto markets suffered a temporary selloff. With little news to go on, the markets found at least one culprit: Chainalysis new report , published nearly four and a half hours earlier in the day, saying 20,000 BTC (now worth $137 million) and 790,000 ETH (now worth $102 million) remain likely controlled by PlusToken scammers. Related: Chinese City Warns Investors: Crypto Isnt Blockchain Further, Chainalysis claims $185 million in stolen bitcoin have already been liquidated by individuals related to PlusToken. Six people tied to PlusToken were arrested and extradited to China from Vanuatu, where Beijing claimed the company operated a Ponzi scheme. Chainalysis said it was able to track down $2 billion in cryptocurrencies taken from victims, with a lot of that going to other investors a hallmark of traditional pyramid schemes. The arrests occurred a little more than a week before bitcoin reached its 2019 peak of $12,575.90. Since then, the cryptocurrency, which represents the lions share of the sectors overall market cap, has drifted downward. While Chainalysis wouldnt say for certain that liquidations from PlusToken-related accounts sunk bitcoins price, the blockchain forensics firm was willing to claim that those cashouts cause increased volatility in Bitcoins price, and that they correlate significantly with Bitcoin price drops. A trader at an over-the-counter cryptocurrency broker attributed Mondays steep decline to jitters that more of PlusTokens ill-gotten bitcoin and ether was going to flood the market. Story continues Related: Bitmains Miner Manufacturing Subsidiary Had $680K in Assets Frozen in a Contract Dispute This [Chainalysis post] may have something to do with it, driving a little bit of fear among participants, he told CoinDesk, quickly adding: Its not news. Im not sure why that story is driving the market. People see stuff on Twitter and make their own conclusions. Its largely the tail wagging the dog. Related Stories Chinas SEC May Soon Have a Crypto-Savvy Department Chief: Report Implosion: MATIC Erases Four-Week Rally in Just Two Days || Chainalysis Report on PlusToken ‘Scammers’ Blamed for Monday’s Crypto Selloff: As bitcoin and ether prices fell below technically significant levels, some traders are citing fear emanating from a report about the alleged PlusToken Ponzi scheme as the reason for the plunge.
The slide began at 18:28 UTC on Monday. In just seven minutes, bitcoin slipped 4 percent, to $6,800 from $7,085 according to data from Coinbase. In that time, ether took a bigger hit, dropping 7 percent from $140 to $130. Neither had seen such lows since Nov. 25, when the crypto markets suffered a temporary selloff.
With little news to go on, the markets found at least one culprit:Chainalysis’ new report, published nearly four and a half hours earlier in the day, saying 20,000 BTC (now worth $137 million) and 790,000 ETH (now worth $102 million) remain likely controlled by PlusToken “scammers.”
Related:Chinese City Warns Investors: Crypto Isn’t Blockchain
Further, Chainalysis claims $185 million in stolen bitcoin have already been liquidated by individuals related to PlusToken.
Six people tied to PlusToken were arrested and extradited to China from Vanuatu, where Beijing claimed the company operated a Ponzi scheme. Chainalysis said it was able to track down $2 billion in cryptocurrencies taken from victims, with a lot of that going to other “investors” – a hallmark of traditional pyramid schemes.
The arrests occurred a little more than a week before bitcoin reached its 2019 peak of $12,575.90. Since then, the cryptocurrency, which represents the lion’s share of the sector’s overall market cap, has drifted downward. While Chainalysis wouldn’t say for certain that liquidations from PlusToken-related accounts sunk bitcoin’s price, the blockchain forensics firm was willing to claim “that those cashouts cause increased volatility in Bitcoin’s price, and that they correlate significantly with Bitcoin price drops.”
A trader at an over-the-counter cryptocurrency broker attributed Monday’s steep decline to jitters that more of PlusToken’s ill-gotten bitcoin and ether was going to flood the market.
Related:Bitmain’s Miner Manufacturing Subsidiary Had $680K in Assets Frozen in a Contract Dispute
“This [Chainalysis post] may have something to do with it, driving a little bit of fear among participants,” he told CoinDesk, quickly adding: “It’s not news. I’m not sure why that story is driving the market. People see stuff on Twitter and make their own conclusions. It’s largely the tail wagging the dog.”
• China’s SEC May Soon Have a Crypto-Savvy Department Chief: Report
• Implosion: MATIC Erases Four-Week Rally in Just Two Days || XRP Falls 11% In Rout: Investing.com - XRP was trading at $0.19261 by 22:41 (03:41 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Tuesday, down 10.66% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since September 24. The move downwards pushed XRP's market cap down to $8.78017B, or 5.08% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, XRP's market cap was $20.48129B. XRP had traded in a range of $0.19171 to $0.20570 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, XRP has seen a rise in value, as it gained 3.22%. The volume of XRP traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $1.13639B or 1.62% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $0.1917 to $0.2236 in the past 7 days. At its current price, XRP is still down 94.15% from its all-time high of $3.29 set on January 4, 2018. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $6,879.2 on the Investing.com Index, down 2.91% on the day. Ethereum was trading at $131.60 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 7.61%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $125.24976B or 65.49% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $14.47394B or 7.57% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles XRP Dips Below 0.19930 Level, Down 7% ETC Labs Core Rebrands to ETC Core to Clarify Difference With ETC Labs Int'l Regulator Basel Committee Calls for Prudent Rules for Crypto || XRP Falls 11% In Rout: Investing.com - XRP was trading at $0.19261 by 22:41 (03:41 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Tuesday, down 10.66% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since September 24.
The move downwards pushed XRP's market cap down to $8.78017B, or 5.08% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, XRP's market cap was $20.48129B.
XRP had traded in a range of $0.19171 to $0.20570 in the previous twenty-four hours.
Over the past seven days, XRP has seen a rise in value, as it gained 3.22%. The volume of XRP traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $1.13639B or 1.62% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $0.1917 to $0.2236 in the past 7 days.
At its current price, XRP is still down 94.15% from its all-time high of $3.29 set on January 4, 2018.
Bitcoin was last at $6,879.2 on the Investing.com Index, down 2.91% on the day.
Ethereum was trading at $131.60 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 7.61%.
Bitcoin's market cap was last at $125.24976B or 65.49% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $14.47394B or 7.57% of the total cryptocurrency market value.
Related Articles
XRP Dips Below 0.19930 Level, Down 7%
ETC Labs Core Rebrands to ETC Core to Clarify Difference With ETC Labs
Int'l Regulator Basel Committee Calls for Prudent Rules for Crypto || Authoritarian Airdrop: Maduro Gifts Petros to Venezuelans for Christmas: If 2019 saw bitcoin come together around the digital gold/digital SoV narrative, is 2020 poised for a resurgence of the idea of payments utility, thanks to Lightning powered applications? One beta test of a LN point-of-sale app suggests maybe. Derivatives continue to grow as an area of focus for both retail and institutional traders, with CoinFLEX bringing in some new talent to expand its derivative competitions and institution-focused ErisX sending notice that futures trading would begin tomorrow. Finally, Venezuelas President Maduro has announced that public employees and pensioners will be given a holiday bonus of half a petro. Sincere effort or another example of how digital currencies can be a tool of control? Related: Bitcoin-Savvy Retailers to Experiment With Point-of-Sale Lightning App in 2020 Topics for December 16, 2016 A Lightning-powered point of sale app is live in trials with physical retailers. CoinFLEX brings in ex-Binance talent to expand derivative competitions and ErisX poised to go live tomorrow. Venezuelan President Maduro announces holiday bonus airdrop. Related Stories MARKETS DAILY: Weird News Out of Canada and a Predicted Bull Run Venezuelas Maduro Says He Will Airdrop Half a Petro Each to Public Employees, Retirees Stone Bitcoins and Echoes From the Past || Authoritarian Airdrop: Maduro ‘Gifts’ Petros to Venezuelans for Christmas: If 2019 saw bitcoin come together around the digital gold/digital SoV narrative, is 2020 poised for a resurgence of the idea of payments utility, thanks to Lightning powered applications? One beta test of a LN point-of-sale app suggests maybe.
Derivatives continue to grow as an area of focus for both retail and institutional traders, with CoinFLEX bringing in some new talent to expand its derivative competitions and institution-focused ErisX sending notice that futures trading would begin tomorrow.
Finally, Venezuela’s President Maduro has announced that public employees and pensioners will be given a holiday bonus of half a petro. Sincere effort or another example of how digital currencies can be a tool of control?
Related:Bitcoin-Savvy Retailers to Experiment With Point-of-Sale Lightning App in 2020
Topics for December 16, 2016
• ALightning-powered point of sale app is live in trials with physical retailers.
• CoinFLEX brings in ex-Binance talent to expand derivative competitionsandErisX poised to go live tomorrow.
• Venezuelan President Maduro announces holiday bonus airdrop.
• MARKETS DAILY: Weird News Out of Canada and a Predicted Bull Run
• Venezuela’s Maduro Says He Will Airdrop Half a Petro Each to Public Employees, Retirees
• Stone Bitcoins and Echoes From the Past || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 12/16/19: BTC/USD drops heavily by some 4% as $7000 firmly loses ground Bitcoin price has come under heavy selling pressure in the latter stages of trading on Monday. The bears attacked the psychological $7000 price mark, which gave way, likely triggering some stops to the downside. Ethereum technical analysis: ETH/USD bearish flag structure breakout allows sellers to capitalize Ethereum price is trading in the red, down 0.15% the session on Monday. ETH/USD has fallen over $50 within the last six weeks of trading. The price runs the risk of the psychological $100 mark being tested to the downside. Litecoin Price Analysis: New wave low has been formed Litecoin has made a new low on the chart below. The price has not been this low since the first week of February 2018. On the weekly chart, the next support is 39.13 beyond that there is some at 36.11 and 34.38. Image Sourced from Pixabay 0 See more from Benzinga Bitcoin, Litecoin & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/21/19 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/14/19 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/13/19 © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 12/16/19: BTC/USD drops heavily by some 4% as $7000 firmly loses ground
• Bitcoin price has come under heavy selling pressure in the latter stages of trading on Monday.
• The bears attacked the psychological $7000 price mark, which gave way, likely triggering some stops to the downside.
Ethereum technical analysis: ETH/USD bearish flag structure breakout allows sellers to capitalize
• Ethereum price is trading in the red, down 0.15% the session on Monday.
• ETH/USD has fallen over $50 within the last six weeks of trading.
• The price runs the risk of the psychological $100 mark being tested to the downside.
Litecoin Price Analysis: New wave low has been formed
• Litecoin has made a new low on the chart below.
• The price has not been this low since the first week of February 2018.
• On the weekly chart, the next support is 39.13 beyond that there is some at 36.11 and 34.38.
Image Sourced from Pixabay
0
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Litecoin & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/21/19
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/14/19
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/13/19
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 12/16/19: BTC/USD drops heavily by some 4% as $7000 firmly loses ground
• Bitcoin price has come under heavy selling pressure in the latter stages of trading on Monday.
• The bears attacked the psychological $7000 price mark, which gave way, likely triggering some stops to the downside.
Ethereum technical analysis: ETH/USD bearish flag structure breakout allows sellers to capitalize
• Ethereum price is trading in the red, down 0.15% the session on Monday.
• ETH/USD has fallen over $50 within the last six weeks of trading.
• The price runs the risk of the psychological $100 mark being tested to the downside.
Litecoin Price Analysis: New wave low has been formed
• Litecoin has made a new low on the chart below.
• The price has not been this low since the first week of February 2018.
• On the weekly chart, the next support is 39.13 beyond that there is some at 36.11 and 34.38.
Image Sourced from Pixabay
0
See more from Benzinga
• Bitcoin, Litecoin & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/21/19
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/14/19
• Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/13/19
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || This Year’s Top 10 Crypto Narratives: This post is part of CoinDesk’s 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Ryan Selkis is the co-founder and CEO of Messari. The following is an excerpt from Messari’s “ Crypto Theses for 2020 .” 1. “Hyperbitcoinization vs. Digital Gold.” While you’ll see a great deal of chatter about the coming decade’s hyperbitcoinization if you read The Bitcoin Standard (which I recommend) and follow the hardcore libertarian crypto crowd on Twitter, it’s a mistake for everyone to keep hammering away at this currency narrative. It’s threatening and unnecessarily and prematurely hostile to the powers that be. It’s a harder narrative to grok for newcomers, and everyone that converts to crypto ends up hoarding bitcoin like digital gold, anyway. Practically speaking, we should go after the $7 trillion gold market first, see how that goes, then move up the value chain to the next milestone if we get there. Bitcoin as everyday cash will also always suck in a world with stablecoins because of the tax consequences of spending, and the public audit trail those transactions leave. 2. “Long Bitcoin, Short the Bankers.” In a world where every transaction has an associated cost basis and tax event, the real killer app for the industry is in collateralized lending. This is especially true in the U.S. with its crypto hostile tax regime. Rather than spend crypto and deal with accounting headaches, it’s becoming feasible to lend bitcoin in return for (tax free!) dollars out, at reasonably low interest rates! Of course, there is always liquidation risk in these products if your collateral declines in value, but borrowing against 10-20 percent of your holdings, for instance, is plenty of cushion for most people, especially if they’d be otherwise looking at 20-30 points of incremental capital gains tax liabilities in a sale. It’s nonsensical to take the tax hit on a big purchase (e.g. a down payment on a new house) if you can avoid selling. I’m waiting for one of the crypto tax software companies to collaborate with the lenders and create a calculator that runs through this logic for their customers. Borrow money from your own bank. Story continues Related: Blockchain Projects Work Better When Everyone Collaborates 3. “Stack Sats & Earn Crypto.” I’m disappointed in what has become of Earn.com and Streamium. (You’d have to be OLD to remember Streamium.) The potential to monetize your time via crypto is significant (an Airbnb or Uber for “spare time” is capital efficient), but it hasn’t hit yet. The potential for streaming metered payments is also there (telemedicine, international consulting, and of course, porn), but that hasn’t clicked either for some reason. I’m shocked we haven’t seen a BIG specialized payroll company that offers bitcoin payouts as a percentage of your paycheck (though Coinbase may be working on it). In the meantime, we put together an easy overview at Messari of how to earn “free bitcoin.” Perhaps the easiest method today is Lolli, a browser extension that sends users bitcoin rewards for online shopping. Honey just sold to PayPal for $4 billion. Lolli could be on a similar trajectory in the next bitcoin bull cycle. 4. “Unbank the Banked.” I love this quip. (I believe it originated with the OmiseGo team in mid-2017.) It’s SPOT ON. There’s building tech for the disenfranchised, who often need financial services, but don’t make tremendously compelling early customers because of their low CLV (customer lifetime value). Then there’s building tech for those who are on the inside already, but feel like they may be on the way out: the misfits, the tinkerers, and the dissidents. We desperately need more success stories from Latin America, and the Middle East, and other emerging or unstable markets, particularly in regions where the rule of law is weaker and there are security risks associated with having a healthy bank account. Bitcoin took off in the U.S. in large part because Wences Casares, Silicon Valley’s “patient zero,” was a successful entrepreneur from Argentina with a superhero backstory and a stunt that caught the attention of the rich. Bitcoin caught fire in the U.S. because he passed $250k of bitcoin around a table of Silicon Valley power brokers at an exclusive 2013 dinner, not because someone at the party bought LSD on Silk Road (ok, ok, maybe it was both). The only crypto communities that will survive in the long-term will have strong memes. 5. “Missionaries vs. Mercenaries.” The only crypto communities that will survive in the long-term will have strong memes. On the flipside, most attempts to bribe developers and users with airdrops and developer grants will fail (many already are), and most attempts to recruit insiders to a cause with pre-sale discounts and the (diminishing allure) of token flips will bring dysfunction and gridlock to projects that otherwise may have had a chance. We’re starting to see some teams come to terms with this reality. Stellar just burned 50 percent of its token supply because they quite literally can’t give it away. The EOS “cartel” has likely led to irreparable damage in that protocol’s reputation in developer circles (why build on infrastructure that will get hijacked by ruthless investors). And I’m predicting another bloodbath for privately funded token networks that come to market in 2020. We’re also intentionally avoiding coverage of many new competitive Layer 1 blockchains in these theses for this same reason: the vast majority are simply not interesting from a narrative standpoint. Related: Musicians Want to Break Free of Big Tech 6. “Bitcoin is a Platypus.” Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart had one of the all-time classic analogies for Bitcoin in a 2017 post: the platypus. He writes about the platypus’s history: “The platypus is perhaps the most bizarre creature on the planet. It’s a venomous, egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal. Those things simply aren’t supposed to go together. In fact, when leading scientists first read accounts of the platypus, they dismissed it as a joke – and for good reason: the platypus is a seemingly impossible animal that combines features from three different animal classes and four different animal orders. … Even once the platypus was broadly accepted as a real and legitimate animal, classification provoked arguments: What type of animal is it? As it turns out, the platypus isn’t good at being a duck, it’s not good at being an otter, nor is it good at being a beaver or a reptile. The platypus is, however, great at being a platypus! In the end, the platypus was so distinct that scientists had to create a new animal category to accommodate its unique features. The platypus is a category creator.” Bitcoin can be used for payments, has provable scarcity like a commodity, can split like a stock, and serves as a foundational protocol for other types of value transfer. We’d do well to capitalize on the limited time bitcoin has left being considered a punch line. When someone in power says “This isn’t money, it sucks as money. No one accepts it!” You should say, “You’re right!” When they say, “This isn’t digital gold, it sucks as a store of value.” You should say, “You’re right!” Please, please, please, let us hide in plain sight for one more bull run that gets us too big to fail. 7. “The Revolution Needs Rules.” I wrote last year that I thought Gemini’s controversial campaign was brilliant. A year older, wiser, and more disgruntled has made me an even bigger fan of the messaging, though perhaps my punch line is different than that of the Winklevoss twins. I believe they were trying to convey that Gemini is a regulated exchange that follows the law and sets the standard for what compliance should look like in crypto investment products. Good for them, but I take a less supplicant stance. When I think “The Revolution Needs Rules” I don’t think of placating U.S. regulators so much as I do of training a rag-tag militia. If we want to be better than the incumbents, then token teams: start disclosing insider sales; exchanges, clean up your wash trades; wallets, learn how to integrate with tax software systems and help your customers minimize their liabilities and pay only to Caesar that which is actually Caesar’s. The rules to the revolution shouldn’t all be defensive. Let’s play some fucking offense in the 2020s. I told [a] room full of ‘decentralized world computer’ fanatics it was stupid for the Ethereum community to build non-financial applications. 8. “ETH is money.” Back in May I spoke at Ethereal and told the room full of “decentralized world computer” fanatics it was stupid for the Ethereum community to build non-financial applications. Being the reserve currency for DeFi / Open Finance was plenty good enough, and things like low-value collectibles, gaming, and distributed applications were a complete distraction whose use cases they should forfeit to other blockchains. This was a good take, and a lot of other ETH fans are starting to fly that flag. Ethereum could power most major stablecoins, synthetic securities, and the vast majority of the programmatic crypto lending and derivatives market. C’mon, fam, FOCUS. Rebuilding literally the entire financial system would be a big enough win. Push the kitties to a separate blockchain. 9. “Dissident Tech.” Web 3 got real fast. I thought it would take years to get excited about “decentralized internet” applications, but perhaps it’s sooner than we think, especially if it’s getting the satirical treatment on Silicon Valley. The continued exploitation of user data from tech behemoths (looking at you, Zuck) is making the concept of dissident tech – coined by Maya Zehavi – not only relevant, but cool. And new generations of users tend to gravitate towards “cool” tech. The demand for privacy and freedom of expression sparked a proliferation of crypto solutions over the past year-plus, from decentralized hardware networks like Helium and Orchid to privacy-focused browsers like Brave, which provide a glimpse of what’s to come with the Web 3 data stack. I’m not too bullish on the projects sporting token-first models, but upstarts that apply token models to applications that already work are more interesting. What’s also intriguing is the rate at which investors are defining their investment theses around dissident tech, emphasized by funds such as Cyberpunk Holdings and the mysterious Unknown Fund. Demand for privacy and censor-resistant solutions will require a shift in user behavior, but “the undercurrents are growing” in the current environment. 10. “Ok, boomer,” but for crypto. Crypto has some pretty good memes for insiders. But I’m not sure how effective our narratives will be during the political battles ahead. Are any of the nine narratives above capable of winning elections? Every time I look at that bald, conniving ape Sherman, I see someone who will lead and win the narrative battle against crypto with the most powerful people we cannot afford to lose. It strikes me there’s a generational divide we must recognize in that battle, a frustration we can capture and turn back against leaders like Sherman. An “ok boomer” that provides an effective counter to the damaging narrative that crypto is for “frauds, terrorists, and criminals.” I don’t know what it is, but I like these 500+ efforts to get it right. My favorite: “The rich got bailouts. The people got bitcoin.” Related Stories Bitcoin Has Got Society to Think About the Nature of Money Dissidents and Activists Have a Lot to Gain From Bitcoin, if Only They Knew It || This Year’s Top 10 Crypto Narratives: This post is part of CoinDesk’s 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Ryan Selkis is the co-founder and CEO of Messari. The following is an excerpt from Messari’s “Crypto Theses for 2020.”
1. “Hyperbitcoinization vs. Digital Gold.”While you’ll see a great deal of chatter about the coming decade’s hyperbitcoinization if you readThe Bitcoin Standard(which I recommend) and follow the hardcore libertarian crypto crowd on Twitter, it’s a mistake for everyone to keep hammering away at this currency narrative. It’s threatening and unnecessarily and prematurely hostile to the powers that be. It’s a harder narrative to grok for newcomers, and everyone that converts to crypto ends up hoarding bitcoin like digital gold, anyway. Practically speaking, we should go after the $7 trillion gold market first, see how that goes, then move up the value chain to the next milestone if we get there. Bitcoin as everyday cash will also always suck in a world with stablecoins because of the tax consequences of spending, and the public audit trail those transactions leave.
2. “Long Bitcoin, Short the Bankers.”In a world where every transaction has an associated cost basis and tax event, the real killer app for the industry is in collateralized lending. This is especially true in the U.S. with its crypto hostile tax regime. Rather than spend crypto and deal with accounting headaches, it’s becoming feasible to lend bitcoin in return for (tax free!) dollars out, at reasonably low interest rates! Of course, there is always liquidation risk in these products if your collateral declines in value, but borrowing against 10-20 percent of your holdings, for instance, is plenty of cushion for most people, especially if they’d be otherwise looking at 20-30 points of incremental capital gains tax liabilities in a sale. It’s nonsensical to take the tax hit on a big purchase (e.g. a down payment on a new house) if you can avoid selling. I’m waiting for one of the crypto tax software companies to collaborate with the lenders and create a calculator that runs through this logic for their customers. Borrow money from your own bank.
Related:Blockchain Projects Work Better When Everyone Collaborates
3. “Stack Sats & Earn Crypto.”I’m disappointed in what has become of Earn.com and Streamium. (You’d have to be OLD to remember Streamium.) The potential to monetize your time via crypto is significant (an Airbnb or Uber for “spare time” is capital efficient), but it hasn’t hit yet. The potential for streaming metered payments is also there (telemedicine, international consulting, and of course, porn), but that hasn’t clicked either for some reason. I’m shocked we haven’t seen a BIG specialized payroll company that offers bitcoin payouts as a percentage of your paycheck (though Coinbase may be working on it). In the meantime, we put together an easy overview at Messari of how to earn “free bitcoin.” Perhaps the easiest method today is Lolli, a browser extension that sends users bitcoin rewards for online shopping. Honey just sold to PayPal for $4 billion. Lolli could be on a similar trajectory in the next bitcoin bull cycle.
4. “Unbank the Banked.”I love this quip. (I believe it originated with the OmiseGo team in mid-2017.) It’s SPOT ON. There’s building tech for the disenfranchised, who often need financial services, but don’t make tremendously compelling early customers because of their low CLV (customer lifetime value). Then there’s building tech for those who are on the inside already, but feel like they may be on the way out: the misfits, the tinkerers, and the dissidents. We desperately need more success stories from Latin America, and the Middle East, and other emerging or unstable markets, particularly in regions where the rule of law is weaker and there are security risks associated with having a healthy bank account. Bitcoin took off in the U.S. in large part because Wences Casares, Silicon Valley’s “patient zero,” was a successful entrepreneur from Argentina with a superhero backstory and a stunt that caught the attention of the rich. Bitcoin caught fire in the U.S. because he passed $250k of bitcoin around a table of Silicon Valley power brokers at an exclusive 2013 dinner, not because someone at the party bought LSD on Silk Road (ok, ok, maybe it was both).
The only crypto communities that will survive in the long-term will have strong memes.
5. “Missionaries vs. Mercenaries.”The only crypto communities that will survive in the long-term will have strong memes. On the flipside, most attempts to bribe developers and users with airdrops and developer grants will fail (many already are), and most attempts to recruit insiders to a cause with pre-sale discounts and the (diminishing allure) of token flips will bring dysfunction and gridlock to projects that otherwise may have had a chance. We’re starting to see some teams come to terms with this reality. Stellar just burned 50 percent of its token supply because they quite literally can’t give it away. The EOS “cartel” has likely led to irreparable damage in that protocol’s reputation in developer circles (why build on infrastructure that will get hijacked by ruthless investors). And I’m predicting another bloodbath for privately funded token networks that come to market in 2020. We’re also intentionally avoiding coverage of many new competitive Layer 1 blockchains in these theses for this same reason: the vast majority are simply not interesting from a narrative standpoint.
Related:Musicians Want to Break Free of Big Tech
6. “Bitcoin is a Platypus.”Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart had one of the all-time classic analogies for Bitcoin in a 2017 post: the platypus.He writesabout the platypus’s history:
“The platypus is perhaps the most bizarre creature on the planet. It’s a venomous, egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal. Those things simply aren’t supposed to go together. In fact, when leading scientists first read accounts of the platypus, they dismissed it as a joke – and for good reason: the platypus is a seemingly impossible animal that combines features from three different animal classes and four different animal orders. … Even once the platypus was broadly accepted as a real and legitimate animal, classification provoked arguments: What type of animal is it? As it turns out, the platypus isn’t good at being a duck, it’s not good at being an otter, nor is it good at being a beaver or a reptile. The platypus is, however, great at being a platypus! In the end, the platypus was so distinct that scientists had to create a new animal category to accommodate its unique features. The platypus is a category creator.”
Bitcoin can be used for payments, has provable scarcity like a commodity, can split like a stock, and serves as a foundational protocol for other types of value transfer. We’d do well to capitalize on the limited time bitcoin has left being considered a punch line. When someone in power says “This isn’t money, it sucks as money. No one accepts it!” You should say, “You’re right!” When they say, “This isn’t digital gold, it sucks as a store of value.” You should say, “You’re right!” Please, please, please, let us hide in plain sight for one more bull run that gets us too big to fail.
7. “The Revolution Needs Rules.”I wrote last year that I thought Gemini’s controversial campaign was brilliant. A year older, wiser, and more disgruntled has made me an even bigger fan of the messaging, though perhaps my punch line is different than that of the Winklevoss twins. I believe they were trying to convey that Gemini is a regulated exchange that follows the law and sets the standard for what compliance should look like in crypto investment products. Good for them, but I take a less supplicant stance. When I think “The Revolution Needs Rules” I don’t think of placating U.S. regulators so much as I do of training a rag-tag militia. If we want to be better than the incumbents, then token teams: start disclosing insider sales; exchanges, clean up your wash trades; wallets, learn how to integrate with tax software systems and help your customers minimize their liabilities and pay only to Caesar that which is actually Caesar’s. The rules to the revolution shouldn’t all be defensive. Let’s play some fucking offense in the 2020s.
I told [a] room full of ‘decentralized world computer’ fanatics it was stupid for the Ethereum community to build non-financial applications.
8. “ETH is money.”Back in May I spoke at Ethereal and told the room full of “decentralized world computer” fanatics it was stupid for the Ethereum community to build non-financial applications. Being the reserve currency for DeFi / Open Finance was plenty good enough, and things like low-value collectibles, gaming, and distributed applications were a complete distraction whose use cases they should forfeit to other blockchains. This was a good take, and a lot of other ETH fans are starting to fly that flag. Ethereum could power most major stablecoins, synthetic securities, and the vast majority of the programmatic crypto lending and derivatives market. C’mon, fam, FOCUS. Rebuilding literally the entire financial system would be a big enough win. Push the kitties to a separate blockchain.
9. “Dissident Tech.”Web 3 got real fast. I thought it would take years to get excited about “decentralized internet” applications, but perhaps it’s sooner than we think, especially if it’s getting the satirical treatment on Silicon Valley. The continued exploitation of user data from tech behemoths (looking at you, Zuck) is making the concept of dissident tech – coined by Maya Zehavi – not only relevant, but cool. And new generations of users tend to gravitate towards “cool” tech. The demand for privacy and freedom of expression sparked a proliferation of crypto solutions over the past year-plus, from decentralized hardware networks like Helium and Orchid to privacy-focused browsers like Brave, which provide a glimpse of what’s to come with the Web 3 data stack. I’m not too bullish on the projects sporting token-first models, but upstarts that apply token models to applications that already work are more interesting. What’s also intriguing is the rate at which investors are defining their investment theses around dissident tech, emphasized by funds such as Cyberpunk Holdings and the mysterious Unknown Fund. Demand for privacy and censor-resistant solutions will require a shift in user behavior, but “the undercurrents are growing” in the current environment.
10. “Ok, boomer,” but for crypto.Crypto has some pretty good memes for insiders. But I’m not sure how effective our narratives will be during the political battles ahead. Are any of the nine narratives above capable of winning elections? Every time I look at that bald, conniving ape Sherman, I see someone who will lead and win the narrative battle against crypto with the most powerful people we cannot afford to lose. It strikes me there’s a generational divide we must recognize in that battle, a frustration we can capture and turn back against leaders like Sherman. An “ok boomer” that provides an effective counter to the damaging narrative that crypto is for “frauds, terrorists, and criminals.” I don’t know what it is, but I like these 500+ efforts to get it right. My favorite: “The rich got bailouts. The people got bitcoin.”
• Bitcoin Has Got Society to Think About the Nature of Money
• Dissidents and Activists Have a Lot to Gain From Bitcoin, if Only They Knew It || Bitcoin-Savvy Retailers to Experiment With Point-of-Sale Lightning App in 2020: Its easy to see why litecoin creator Charlie Lee just invested an undisclosed amount in the lightning-friendly bitcoin wallet startup Breez: CEO Roy Sheinfeld is a hustler. Sheinfeld responds to messages 24/7 and executes just as quickly. Since the mobile wallet app launched in June, Breez integrated with shopping and payment apps like Fold, MoonPay and Bitrefill, just to name a few. According to company data shared with CoinDesk, Breezs ready-made lightning setup facilitated 4,273 transactions in October alone. That claim might be hard to swallow if whispers of Breez werent omnipresent among startups experimenting with bitcoin scaling solutions. Now Sheinfelds eight-man team is looking to help launch a point-of-sale app by the trading firm Iterative Capital, called Escher , in early 2020. Some retailers are already testing the beta version. Related: MARKETS DAILY: Weird News Out of Canada and a Predicted Bull Run We did a test run around a month and a half ago and it worked beautifully, said Perrin Ehlinger, owner of the video game store Station Retro in Alabama. Im hoping to get it integrated into the store by the end of December. Ehlinger said the process is shockingly easy compared to other self-custodied options for merchants. His small business cant handle bitcoins volatility and on-chain fees, so the wallet itemizes purchases made with the Lightning Networks signature low fees. I just get a statement every morning for what the lightning transactions were and make a quick bank transfer to the stores account, Ehlinger said. Its almost quicker than the credit card machine. Iterative Capitals managing partner, Chris Dannen, said this app will eventually offer a fiat on-ramp, via the banking app Zelle, as well. Plus, he added, the trading firm is working with the Silicon Valley startup Lightning Labs to smooth out some of the kinks in network flow. Related: A Year After Bottoming Out at $3,100, Bitcoin Is Up 127% Story continues You dont have to manage channels or any of that. You can settle the invoice with one task-flow, Dannen said. We can do a round-trip process with bitcoin buy, sell, settle in four seconds. Sheinfeld said they will start a pilot this month in Israel, where bureaucracy is discarded faster than bad hummus, as they build out Eschers on-ramps for American banks. Of course, anyone who prefers to use self-custodied bitcoin can also do so with Breez. We expect to generate serious revenue in one to two years as the network grows, Sheinfeld said, referencing adjacent plans to facilitate a channel management marketplace where a variety of providers handle routing on the backend, for a small fee. For those beyond the American banking system, Breez offers FastBitcoins vouchers that users can redeem for bitcoin that goes straight to the lightning wallet. According to FastBitcoins managing director Danny Brewster, over the last six months, this startup alone facilitated lightning payments worth more than 11 bitcoin ($78,210 at current prices). Most point-of-sale payments are driven by meetups that occur in retail locations where our services are available, Brewster said, adding it will take at least a decade to determine if this scaling solution actually works. The lightning network is still extremely new. But with more and more people building better infrastructure around it, the user experience is only going to (hopefully) improve. Perhaps thats why some lightning fans are predicting more merchants will experiment with crypto payments in 2020, when Escher will be compatible with most lightning wallets. Plus, Brewster said the British grocer Nisa will join the roster of FastBitcoins merchants in 2020. Bitcoin needs to move. It needs to become a currency in order for people to trust it more, said Ehlinger, the Alabama game store owner. I hope this encourages people to spend their bitcoin that they otherwise would not. Related Stories Can Dogfooding Altcoins Find Real Users in 2020? Bitcoin Risks Deeper Drop After Shallow Price Bounce || Bitcoin-Savvy Retailers to Experiment With Point-of-Sale Lightning App in 2020: It’s easy to see why litecoin creator Charlie Lee just invested an undisclosed amount in the lightning-friendly bitcoin wallet startup Breez: CEO Roy Sheinfeld is a hustler. Sheinfeld responds to messages 24/7 and executes just as quickly.
Since the mobile wallet app launched in June,Breezintegrated with shopping and payment apps like Fold, MoonPay and Bitrefill, just to name a few. According to company data shared with CoinDesk, Breez’s ready-made lightning setup facilitated 4,273 transactions in October alone. That claim might be hard to swallow if whispers of Breez weren’t omnipresent among startups experimenting with bitcoin scaling solutions.
Now Sheinfeld’s eight-man team is looking to help launch a point-of-sale app by the trading firm Iterative Capital, calledEscher, in early 2020. Some retailers are already testing the beta version.
Related:MARKETS DAILY: Weird News Out of Canada and a Predicted Bull Run
“We did a test run around a month and a half ago and it worked beautifully,” said Perrin Ehlinger, owner of the video game store Station Retro in Alabama. “I’m hoping to get it integrated into the store by the end of December.”
Ehlinger said the process is shockingly easy compared to other self-custodied options for merchants. His small business can’t handle bitcoin’s volatility and on-chain fees, so the wallet itemizes purchases made with the Lightning Network’s signature low fees.
“I just get a statement every morning for what the lightning transactions were and make a quick bank transfer to the store’s account,” Ehlinger said. “It’s almost quicker than the credit card machine.”
Iterative Capital’s managing partner, Chris Dannen, said this app will eventually offer a fiat on-ramp, via the banking app Zelle, as well. Plus, he added, the trading firm is working with the Silicon Valley startupLightning Labsto smooth out some of the kinks in network flow.
Related:A Year After Bottoming Out at $3,100, Bitcoin Is Up 127%
“You don’t have to manage channels or any of that. You can settle the invoice with one task-flow,” Dannen said. “We can do a round-trip process with bitcoin – buy, sell, settle – in four seconds.”
Sheinfeld said they will start a pilot this month in Israel, where bureaucracy is discarded faster than bad hummus, as they build out Escher’s on-ramps for American banks. Of course, anyone who prefers to use self-custodied bitcoin can also do so with Breez.
“We expect to generate serious revenue in one to two years as the network grows,” Sheinfeld said, referencing adjacent plans to facilitate a channel management marketplace where a variety of providers handle routing on the backend, for a small fee.
For those beyond the American banking system, Breez offers FastBitcoins vouchers that users can redeem for bitcoin that goes straight to the lightning wallet. According to FastBitcoins managing director Danny Brewster, over the last six months, this startup alone facilitated lightning payments worth more than 11 bitcoin ($78,210 at current prices).
“Most point-of-sale payments are driven by meetups that occur in retail locations where our services are available,” Brewster said, adding it will take at least a decade to determine if this scaling solution actually works. “The lightning network is still extremely new. But with more and more people building better infrastructure around it, the user experience is only going to (hopefully) improve.”
Perhaps that’s why some lightning fans are predicting more merchants will experiment with crypto payments in 2020, when Escher will be compatible with most lightning wallets. Plus, Brewster said the British grocer Nisa will join the roster of FastBitcoins merchants in 2020.
“Bitcoin needs to move. It needs to become a currency in order for people to trust it more,” said Ehlinger, the Alabama game store owner. “I hope this encourages people to spend their bitcoin that they otherwise would not.”
• Can ‘Dogfooding’ Altcoins Find Real Users in 2020?
• Bitcoin Risks Deeper Drop After Shallow Price Bounce || Bitcoin-Savvy Retailers to Experiment With Point-of-Sale Lightning App in 2020: It’s easy to see why litecoin creator Charlie Lee just invested an undisclosed amount in the lightning-friendly bitcoin wallet startup Breez: CEO Roy Sheinfeld is a hustler. Sheinfeld responds to messages 24/7 and executes just as quickly.
Since the mobile wallet app launched in June,Breezintegrated with shopping and payment apps like Fold, MoonPay and Bitrefill, just to name a few. According to company data shared with CoinDesk, Breez’s ready-made lightning setup facilitated 4,273 transactions in October alone. That claim might be hard to swallow if whispers of Breez weren’t omnipresent among startups experimenting with bitcoin scaling solutions.
Now Sheinfeld’s eight-man team is looking to help launch a point-of-sale app by the trading firm Iterative Capital, calledEscher, in early 2020. Some retailers are already testing the beta version.
Related:MARKETS DAILY: Weird News Out of Canada and a Predicted Bull Run
“We did a test run around a month and a half ago and it worked beautifully,” said Perrin Ehlinger, owner of the video game store Station Retro in Alabama. “I’m hoping to get it integrated into the store by the end of December.”
Ehlinger said the process is shockingly easy compared to other self-custodied options for merchants. His small business can’t handle bitcoin’s volatility and on-chain fees, so the wallet itemizes purchases made with the Lightning Network’s signature low fees.
“I just get a statement every morning for what the lightning transactions were and make a quick bank transfer to the store’s account,” Ehlinger said. “It’s almost quicker than the credit card machine.”
Iterative Capital’s managing partner, Chris Dannen, said this app will eventually offer a fiat on-ramp, via the banking app Zelle, as well. Plus, he added, the trading firm is working with the Silicon Valley startupLightning Labsto smooth out some of the kinks in network flow.
Related:A Year After Bottoming Out at $3,100, Bitcoin Is Up 127%
“You don’t have to manage channels or any of that. You can settle the invoice with one task-flow,” Dannen said. “We can do a round-trip process with bitcoin – buy, sell, settle – in four seconds.”
Sheinfeld said they will start a pilot this month in Israel, where bureaucracy is discarded faster than bad hummus, as they build out Escher’s on-ramps for American banks. Of course, anyone who prefers to use self-custodied bitcoin can also do so with Breez.
“We expect to generate serious revenue in one to two years as the network grows,” Sheinfeld said, referencing adjacent plans to facilitate a channel management marketplace where a variety of providers handle routing on the backend, for a small fee.
For those beyond the American banking system, Breez offers FastBitcoins vouchers that users can redeem for bitcoin that goes straight to the lightning wallet. According to FastBitcoins managing director Danny Brewster, over the last six months, this startup alone facilitated lightning payments worth more than 11 bitcoin ($78,210 at current prices).
“Most point-of-sale payments are driven by meetups that occur in retail locations where our services are available,” Brewster said, adding it will take at least a decade to determine if this scaling solution actually works. “The lightning network is still extremely new. But with more and more people building better infrastructure around it, the user experience is only going to (hopefully) improve.”
Perhaps that’s why some lightning fans are predicting more merchants will experiment with crypto payments in 2020, when Escher will be compatible with most lightning wallets. Plus, Brewster said the British grocer Nisa will join the roster of FastBitcoins merchants in 2020.
“Bitcoin needs to move. It needs to become a currency in order for people to trust it more,” said Ehlinger, the Alabama game store owner. “I hope this encourages people to spend their bitcoin that they otherwise would not.”
• Can ‘Dogfooding’ Altcoins Find Real Users in 2020?
• Bitcoin Risks Deeper Drop After Shallow Price Bounce || Bitcoin Cash releases smart contract and privacy upgrades: Last weekend, Richard Heart and Roger Ver had a really interesting conversation about Bitcoin Cash and the overall state of cryptocurrency. Much to my interest, Tai Zen, a crypto trader that I personally follow, also released a brand new interview with Mr Ver. They discussed how Bitcoin Cash works compared to Bitcoin and new features the project is implementing. The two interviews are worth a watch if you want to learn a thing or two about how Bitcoin used to be, how the space has grown, and some hurdles crypto still needs to overcome to achieve major adoption. You may also want to check out my interview with Roger Ver during Q1 2019, where we talked about the early days of Bitcoin, how adoption is being furthered, and the impact smart contracts will have on the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem. My goal today is to discuss how Bitcoin Cash is evolving. I will aim to go in-depth on the two most important features BCH is currently implementing: smart contract functionality and privacy through non-optional coin mixing. In my opinion, these features could take BCH to a whole new level as P2P digital cash, a goal Roger has been chasing since he joined the market in early 2011. Bitcoin Cash improving smart contracts At the time of writing, there are two major ways to implement smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. The first and most widely discussed in the media is CashScript . Essentially, CashScript is a high-level language that allows you to write Cash Contracts in a straightforward and familiar way. CashScript uses a script compiler, much like Ethereums Solidity, that allows users to basically write functions and compile them into bytecode in order to add data to a block in a transaction. The goal of smart contracts on the Bitcoin Cash network is to improve the networks functionality by allowing users to add additional logic to a transaction if this, then that. Another Bitcoin Cash smart contract implementation is Wormhole . Based on the Omni Layer protocol, Wormhole Cash makes it possible to issue tokens on BCH. Story continues By using Wormhole, it is possible to issue tokens as well as create NFTs, much like with the ERC-721 and ERC-777 standards. As described in the whitepaper: To enable function similar to that of the ERC-20 protocol, which enjoys great popularity on the Ethereum network with the OP_GROUP solution, the consensus rule of BCH has to be altered. Bitcoin Cash adding privacy Another key aspect discussed by Roger Ver is the fact BCH is adding a pretty useful privacy feature: coin mixing. The best part, however, is that the new privacy functionality will be standard on btc.com wallets. This means instead of having to choose to use a coin mixer, the feature will be forced upon users. Essentially, BCH will use a different approach than Bitcoin. For example, some wallets like Samurai give users the possibility to mix coins before sending. However, if you do not opt in, the coin mixer wont be used. In regards to the Bitcoin Cash approach, I think it does make more sense. By standardising coin mixing, most transactions will get mixed. Since coin mixers depend on network effects (the more users, the higher the privacy), by making mixing mandatory (unless you opt out), we can argue more users will effectively mix their coins before executing a transaction. Since enhanced privacy increases censorship resistance, I argue this is a great improvement. I sincerely hope more wallets adopt similar strategies in order to protect users privacy. The post Bitcoin Cash releases smart contract and privacy upgrades appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin Cash releases smart contract and privacy upgrades: Last weekend, Richard Heart and Roger Ver had a really interesting conversation about Bitcoin Cash and the overall state of cryptocurrency. Much to my interest, Tai Zen, a crypto trader that I personally follow, also released a brand new interview with Mr Ver. They discussed how Bitcoin Cash works compared to Bitcoin and new features the project is implementing. The two interviews are worth a watch if you want to learn a thing or two about how Bitcoin used to be, how the space has grown, and some hurdles crypto still needs to overcome to achieve major adoption. You may also want to check out my interview with Roger Ver during Q1 2019, where we talked about the early days of Bitcoin, how adoption is being furthered, and the impact smart contracts will have on the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem. My goal today is to discuss how Bitcoin Cash is evolving. I will aim to go in-depth on the two most important features BCH is currently implementing: smart contract functionality and privacy through non-optional coin mixing. In my opinion, these features could take BCH to a whole new level as P2P digital cash, a goal Roger has been chasing since he joined the market in early 2011. Bitcoin Cash improving smart contracts At the time of writing, there are two major ways to implement smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. The first and most widely discussed in the media is CashScript . Essentially, CashScript is a high-level language that allows you to write Cash Contracts in a straightforward and familiar way. CashScript uses a script compiler, much like Ethereums Solidity, that allows users to basically write functions and compile them into bytecode in order to add data to a block in a transaction. The goal of smart contracts on the Bitcoin Cash network is to improve the networks functionality by allowing users to add additional logic to a transaction if this, then that. Another Bitcoin Cash smart contract implementation is Wormhole . Based on the Omni Layer protocol, Wormhole Cash makes it possible to issue tokens on BCH. Story continues By using Wormhole, it is possible to issue tokens as well as create NFTs, much like with the ERC-721 and ERC-777 standards. As described in the whitepaper: To enable function similar to that of the ERC-20 protocol, which enjoys great popularity on the Ethereum network with the OP_GROUP solution, the consensus rule of BCH has to be altered. Bitcoin Cash adding privacy Another key aspect discussed by Roger Ver is the fact BCH is adding a pretty useful privacy feature: coin mixing. The best part, however, is that the new privacy functionality will be standard on btc.com wallets. This means instead of having to choose to use a coin mixer, the feature will be forced upon users. Essentially, BCH will use a different approach than Bitcoin. For example, some wallets like Samurai give users the possibility to mix coins before sending. However, if you do not opt in, the coin mixer wont be used. In regards to the Bitcoin Cash approach, I think it does make more sense. By standardising coin mixing, most transactions will get mixed. Since coin mixers depend on network effects (the more users, the higher the privacy), by making mixing mandatory (unless you opt out), we can argue more users will effectively mix their coins before executing a transaction. Since enhanced privacy increases censorship resistance, I argue this is a great improvement. I sincerely hope more wallets adopt similar strategies in order to protect users privacy. The post Bitcoin Cash releases smart contract and privacy upgrades appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin Cash releases smart contract and privacy upgrades: Last weekend, Richard Heart and Roger Ver had a really interesting conversation about Bitcoin Cash and the overall state of cryptocurrency. Much to my interest, Tai Zen, a crypto trader that I personally follow, also released a brand new interview with Mr Ver. They discussed how Bitcoin Cash works compared to Bitcoin and new features the project is implementing. The two interviews are worth a watch if you want to learn a thing or two about how Bitcoin used to be, how the space has grown, and some hurdles crypto still needs to overcome to achieve major adoption. You may also want to check out my interview with Roger Ver during Q1 2019, where we talked about the early days of Bitcoin, how adoption is being furthered, and the impact smart contracts will have on the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem. My goal today is to discuss how Bitcoin Cash is evolving. I will aim to go in-depth on the two most important features BCH is currently implementing: smart contract functionality and privacy through non-optional coin mixing. In my opinion, these features could take BCH to a whole new level as P2P digital cash, a goal Roger has been chasing since he joined the market in early 2011. Bitcoin Cash improving smart contracts At the time of writing, there are two major ways to implement smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. The first and most widely discussed in the media is CashScript . Essentially, CashScript is a high-level language that allows you to write Cash Contracts in a straightforward and familiar way. CashScript uses a script compiler, much like Ethereums Solidity, that allows users to basically write functions and compile them into bytecode in order to add data to a block in a transaction. The goal of smart contracts on the Bitcoin Cash network is to improve the networks functionality by allowing users to add additional logic to a transaction if this, then that. Another Bitcoin Cash smart contract implementation is Wormhole . Based on the Omni Layer protocol, Wormhole Cash makes it possible to issue tokens on BCH. Story continues By using Wormhole, it is possible to issue tokens as well as create NFTs, much like with the ERC-721 and ERC-777 standards. As described in the whitepaper: To enable function similar to that of the ERC-20 protocol, which enjoys great popularity on the Ethereum network with the OP_GROUP solution, the consensus rule of BCH has to be altered. Bitcoin Cash adding privacy Another key aspect discussed by Roger Ver is the fact BCH is adding a pretty useful privacy feature: coin mixing. The best part, however, is that the new privacy functionality will be standard on btc.com wallets. This means instead of having to choose to use a coin mixer, the feature will be forced upon users. Essentially, BCH will use a different approach than Bitcoin. For example, some wallets like Samurai give users the possibility to mix coins before sending. However, if you do not opt in, the coin mixer wont be used. In regards to the Bitcoin Cash approach, I think it does make more sense. By standardising coin mixing, most transactions will get mixed. Since coin mixers depend on network effects (the more users, the higher the privacy), by making mixing mandatory (unless you opt out), we can argue more users will effectively mix their coins before executing a transaction. Since enhanced privacy increases censorship resistance, I argue this is a great improvement. I sincerely hope more wallets adopt similar strategies in order to protect users privacy. The post Bitcoin Cash releases smart contract and privacy upgrades appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Terror group ISIS testing blockchain messaging app: The terror group ISIS is reportedly trying out a blockchain-based messaging app to escape scrutiny from its enemies. And chillingly, the use of blockchain could bring with it the ability to transfer cryptocurrency anywhere in the world. Until a recent law enforcement crackdown, the jihadists used Telegram to spread propaganda and send orders. But now it appears the extremists are exploring using the anonymous and encrypted BCM app. The apps core features of anonymity, encryption, and large group chat sizes also pose a great risk for adoption, Brenna Smith, a cryptocrime researcher, wrote in her Cryptosint newsletter last week. Extremists covet technologies that can get their message out to thousands all while concealing their identity. She added: A critical aspect of BCM is that it has a cryptocurrency wallet that lets users send, store, and receive Bitcoin and Ethereum a feature that could easily be abused by extremists. After the Telegram purge a couple weeks ago, terrorists are in search of a new online home, and @einfal found that they may be flocking towards a blockchain messaging app. Find out more in the latest CryptOsint: https://t.co/AfclFtKyg1 Subscribe here: https://t.co/QZ9HjPfDix Brenna Smith (@brenners_smith) December 10, 2019 Its been widely reported that crypto platforms with no user identification become cesspools for criminal activity. Compounded with BCM potentially launching its own exchange platform in the future, what would stop the app from becoming a major hub for terror financing? BCM did not comment on the presence of ISIS channels on its platform or whether it would be removing them. Earlier this month, Coin Rivet reported how crypto mining pools offer terrorists and criminals a golden opportunity to launder cash . Story continues The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), an independent think tank for international defence and security issues, says cloud-mining companies that take cash for crypto may be helping crooks hide their illicit gains. The post Terror group ISIS testing blockchain messaging app appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Terror group ISIS testing blockchain messaging app: The terror group ISIS is reportedly trying out a blockchain-based messaging app to escape scrutiny from its enemies. And chillingly, the use of blockchain could bring with it the ability to transfer cryptocurrency anywhere in the world. Until a recent law enforcement crackdown, the jihadists used Telegram to spread propaganda and send orders. But now it appears the extremists are exploring using the anonymous and encrypted BCM app. The apps core features of anonymity, encryption, and large group chat sizes also pose a great risk for adoption, Brenna Smith, a cryptocrime researcher, wrote in her Cryptosint newsletter last week. Extremists covet technologies that can get their message out to thousands all while concealing their identity. She added: A critical aspect of BCM is that it has a cryptocurrency wallet that lets users send, store, and receive Bitcoin and Ethereum a feature that could easily be abused by extremists. After the Telegram purge a couple weeks ago, terrorists are in search of a new online home, and @einfal found that they may be flocking towards a blockchain messaging app. Find out more in the latest CryptOsint: https://t.co/AfclFtKyg1 Subscribe here: https://t.co/QZ9HjPfDix Brenna Smith (@brenners_smith) December 10, 2019 Its been widely reported that crypto platforms with no user identification become cesspools for criminal activity. Compounded with BCM potentially launching its own exchange platform in the future, what would stop the app from becoming a major hub for terror financing? BCM did not comment on the presence of ISIS channels on its platform or whether it would be removing them. Earlier this month, Coin Rivet reported how crypto mining pools offer terrorists and criminals a golden opportunity to launder cash . Story continues The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), an independent think tank for international defence and security issues, says cloud-mining companies that take cash for crypto may be helping crooks hide their illicit gains. The post Terror group ISIS testing blockchain messaging app appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Venezuela’s Maduro Says He Will Airdrop Half a Petro Each to Public Employees, Retirees: Venezuelans including public sector workers, retirees and the military are set to receive a petro token handout this Christmas, so long as they register for the state’s crypto payments platform.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday that those groups would be airdropped 0.5 petro (said to be worth $30) as a holiday bonus this week,accordingto local news source El Universal.
To be eligible, citizens will first have to sign up to PetroApp, the official government crypto wallet that launched back in May. The only platform that supports the oil-backed cryptocurrency, PetroApp is designed to allow users to purchase goods and services from their phones, as well as for standard transfers.
Related:Stellar Tried to Give Away 2B XLM Tokens on Keybase. Then the Spammers Came
PetroApp can also be used to exchange other cryptocurrencies, too, meaning users may well use the app to swap their airdropped petro forthe currently supportedbitcoin, litecoin and dash.
Maduro said that the airdrop will be another opportunity to encourage Venezuelans to switch to the petro, which has been available to the public since October 2018. Considering the national minimum wage is less than $10 a month, eligible citizens will be strongly incentivized to register for the app.
During the same announcement, the president also said more than 500,000 petros would be paid out from the state’s own supply to support town and local governments across the country.
This is the latest in a series of efforts to push nationwide adoption. In September, Maduroorderedfuture funding for a social housing initiative to be paid out in petros. Back in the summer, herequestedthe Bank of Venezuela (BoV), one of the country’s largest banks, to make the token available to its customers. Despite a limited number of use-cases, the government has reportedly beenpayingstate pensions in petro for the past year.
Related:A Mysterious Airdrop Called EIDOS Is Clogging EOS to Make a Point
Although the petro has received strong government support and been in circulation for more than a year, it hasn’t found much organic growth across the Venezuelan economy. There were only 400 businesses that accepted petro payments as of last month,accordingto a government press release. In the same release, Maduro ordered businesses to begin integrating the petro so it can be as widely accepted as the nation’s fiat currency, the sovereign bolivar.
• Venezuelans Made Lightning-Savvy Hardware to Use Bitcoin During Blackouts
• Lock BTC, Get DAI: Lending Firm Bridges Bitcoin-DeFi Divide in Latin America
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7165.70, 6890.52, 6973.53, 6844.23, 7083.80, 7456.11, 6853.84, 6811.47, 6636.32, 6911.09, 7023.52, 6770.73, 6834.76, 6968.32, 7889.25, 7895.96, 7986.24, 8329.11, 8058.67, 7902.09, 8163.42, 8294.31, 8845.83, 8895.58, 8802.46, 8930.88, 9697.50, 8845.74, 9281.51, 8987.05, 9348.48, 9419.08, 9240.55, 9119.01, 9235.92, 9743.86, 9700.76, 9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94, 8441.49, 8504.89, 8723.94, 8716.79, 8510.38, 8368.83, 8094.32, 8250.97, 8247.18, 8513.25, 8418.99, 8041.78, 7557.82, 7587.34, 7480.14, 7355.88, 7368.22, 7135.99, 7472.59, 7406.52, 7494.17, 7541.45, 7643.45, 7720.25, 7514.47, 7633.76, 7653.98, 7678.24, 7624.92, 7531.98, 6786.02, 6906.92, 6582.36, 6349.90, 6675.35, 6456.58, 6550.16, 6499.27, 6734.82, 6769.94, 6776.55, 6729.74, 6083.69, 6162.48, 6173.23, 6249.18, 6093.67.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-06-26]
Volume: 3279759872, RSI (14-day): 32.46, 50-day EMA: 7294.97, 200-day EMA: 8272.14
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1256.60, Gold RSI: 25.16
Oil Price: 70.53, Oil RSI: 61.75
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
3 Surprises From Winnebago's Earnings Report: Investors had a few big concerns aboutWinnebago's(NYSE: WGO)business trends heading into this past week's report. For one thing, the recreational vehicle market is slowing in 2018 after expanding at a double-digit pace in each of the last eight years. And three months ago the manufacturer revealed profitability struggles in its motorized RV segment that could worsen due to rising prices on steel and aluminum.
The company put those concerns to rest in its fiscal third-quarter report last Wednesday, at least for the short term.
Image source: Getty Images.
Winnebago posted slowing backlog growth in late March, and that led Wall Street to project just a 14% sales uptick for the quarter. Winnebago outpaced that result, landing on an18% revenue gain, up to $562 million.
The growth was mainly due to a 33% spike in its towables division as both the Winnebago brand and the newly acquired Grand Designs brand gained market share. The motorized RV segment sped up slightly, too, rising to a 3% increase from 2% in the prior quarter. Most importantly, executives noticed healthy demand for Winnebago's latest product lineup. "Our new product launches are performing well," CEO Michael Happe said in a press release.
Gross profit expanded at a faster pace than sales, as did operating income, leading to increased profitability. Investors had been worried that margins would be headed in the other direction. After all, executives warned in March that investments in the motorized division would hurt results for at least the next few quarters. Winnebago's rivalThor Industries, meanwhile, revealed lower gross margin in its most recent report, and managementcomplained about rising pricestied to the announcement of new steel and aluminum tariffs.
Winnebago avoided that fate thanks to the combination of a few positive trends, including the shift in its sales toward higher-margin towable products, cost cuts, and targeted price increases that didn't send RV shoppers bolting to competitive brands.
The best news for investors in this report had to do with Winnebago's positive outlook. The company doesn't issue sales projections, but several metrics pointed to robust gains ahead. Backlog increased 15% in the towables segment, and management is confident enough about the long-term runway here that it is currently expanding its production capacity. The RV backlog jumped at an even stronger 30%
Winnebago's dealership inventory position is healthy, too, with inventory levels ticking up by less than 2%. That suggests dealers aren't under elevated pressure to cut prices, and the products sitting on lots today are some of its newest models.
The company's best guess today is that the industry will expand at a roughly 8% rate this year to mark just a modest slowdown from 2017. Winnebago expects to win market share, and so its sales gains should exceed that figure. Spiking raw material costs, in addition to rising interest rates and worsening consumer sentiment, remain risks to that growth performance.
On the plus side, Winnebago's new-product introductions, especially in the towables segment, might push sales gains and profitability higher. Looking further out, management is excited about the opportunity in its new marine market, and in the growing field of electric vehicles.
Yet for now its latest results appear to keep it on pace to meet its broader goals of steadily gaining market share while raising operating margin to 10% of sales by 2020, up from 7.7% two quarters ago and 8.6% today.
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Demitrios Kalogeropouloshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 3 Surprises From Winnebago's Earnings Report: Investors had a few big concerns about Winnebago 's (NYSE: WGO) business trends heading into this past week's report. For one thing, the recreational vehicle market is slowing in 2018 after expanding at a double-digit pace in each of the last eight years. And three months ago the manufacturer revealed profitability struggles in its motorized RV segment that could worsen due to rising prices on steel and aluminum. The company put those concerns to rest in its fiscal third-quarter report last Wednesday, at least for the short term. An RV being towed by a truck. Image source: Getty Images. Growth is holding up just fine Winnebago posted slowing backlog growth in late March, and that led Wall Street to project just a 14% sales uptick for the quarter. Winnebago outpaced that result, landing on an 18% revenue gain , up to $562 million. The growth was mainly due to a 33% spike in its towables division as both the Winnebago brand and the newly acquired Grand Designs brand gained market share. The motorized RV segment sped up slightly, too, rising to a 3% increase from 2% in the prior quarter. Most importantly, executives noticed healthy demand for Winnebago's latest product lineup. "Our new product launches are performing well," CEO Michael Happe said in a press release. Costs are under control Gross profit expanded at a faster pace than sales, as did operating income, leading to increased profitability. Investors had been worried that margins would be headed in the other direction. After all, executives warned in March that investments in the motorized division would hurt results for at least the next few quarters. Winnebago's rival Thor Industries , meanwhile, revealed lower gross margin in its most recent report, and management complained about rising prices tied to the announcement of new steel and aluminum tariffs. Winnebago avoided that fate thanks to the combination of a few positive trends, including the shift in its sales toward higher-margin towable products, cost cuts, and targeted price increases that didn't send RV shoppers bolting to competitive brands. Story continues A bright outlook The best news for investors in this report had to do with Winnebago's positive outlook. The company doesn't issue sales projections, but several metrics pointed to robust gains ahead. Backlog increased 15% in the towables segment, and management is confident enough about the long-term runway here that it is currently expanding its production capacity. The RV backlog jumped at an even stronger 30% Winnebago's dealership inventory position is healthy, too, with inventory levels ticking up by less than 2%. That suggests dealers aren't under elevated pressure to cut prices, and the products sitting on lots today are some of its newest models. The company's best guess today is that the industry will expand at a roughly 8% rate this year to mark just a modest slowdown from 2017. Winnebago expects to win market share, and so its sales gains should exceed that figure. Spiking raw material costs, in addition to rising interest rates and worsening consumer sentiment, remain risks to that growth performance. On the plus side, Winnebago's new-product introductions, especially in the towables segment, might push sales gains and profitability higher. Looking further out, management is excited about the opportunity in its new marine market, and in the growing field of electric vehicles. Yet for now its latest results appear to keep it on pace to meet its broader goals of steadily gaining market share while raising operating margin to 10% of sales by 2020, up from 7.7% two quarters ago and 8.6% today. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Demitrios Kalogeropoulos has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Where MGM Resorts Makes Its Money: MGM Resorts(NYSE: MGM)owns nearly half of the resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and has become synonymous with all things Las Vegas. But from an investment standpoint, the company may not be as Las Vegas-centric as you might think.
Macau is playing an increasingly important role for MGM Resorts' business and non-Las Vegas resorts in the U.S. like MGM Detroit, Borgata, and MGM National Harbor each generatemore revenue than most Las Vegas resorts. Here's where the money is coming from at MGM Resorts.
Image source: Getty Images.
Las Vegas is where MGM Resorts is headquartered and where most of its revenue comes from. But investors shouldn't lose sight of the fact that a quarter of revenue comes from other locations in the U.S. and nearly 20% comes from Macau.
[{"Region": "Las Vegas operations", "MGM Resorts Revenue (TTM)": "$5.61 billion", "Percent of Revenue": "51.6%"}, {"Region": "U.S. non-Las Vegas", "MGM Resorts Revenue (TTM)": "$2.69 billion", "Percent of Revenue": "24.7%"}, {"Region": "Macau", "MGM Resorts Revenue (TTM)": "$2.09 billion", "Percent of Revenue": "19.2%"}, {"Region": "Management", "MGM Resorts Revenue (TTM)": "$488.5 million", "Percent of Revenue": "4.5%"}]
Data source: MGM Resorts quarterly earnings report. TTM = trailing 12 months.
Revenue is one measure of how MGM makes money, but a better metric for investors is property EBITDA, a measure of cash flow coming from a resort. As you can see in the table below, Las Vegas' share of EBITDA is larger than its share of revenue, but that may mask changes taking place in the company's operations.
[{"Region": "Las Vegas operations", "MGM Resorts EBITDA (TTM)": "$1.75 billion", "Percent of Revenue": "55.1%"}, {"Region": "U.S. non-Las Vegas", "MGM Resorts EBITDA (TTM)": "$733.7 million", "Percent of Revenue": "23.1%"}, {"Region": "Macau", "MGM Resorts EBITDA (TTM)": "$530.6 million", "Percent of Revenue": "16.7%"}, {"Region": "Management", "MGM Resorts EBITDA (TTM)": "$162.8 million", "Percent of Revenue": "5.1%"}]
Data source: MGM Resorts quarterly earnings report. EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
What the two tables above don't account for are new resorts, like theopening of MGM Cotai in mid-February 2018. MGM Cotai contributed $85.0 million in revenue and just $5.9 million in EBITDA in a month and a half but will be a big contributor going forward.
Based on the performance of surrounding resorts, MGM Cotai should be MGM Resorts' biggest moneymaker once it's fully ramped up. It should beat the $2.0 billion in revenue and $525 million in EBITDA that MGM Macau, which is located in the Macau Peninsula region of Macau, which could make Macau the company's second-biggest market.
Rendering of MGM Osaka. Image source: MGM Resorts.
The success in Macau has also led MGM's management to make winning a gaming concession in Japan a top priority. Management recently highlighted its proposed project in a presentation to investors and hopes it will be the company's next great growth driver. With analysts predicting Japan's gaming market could be over$10 billion per year in revenue, those able to build a casino in the country will have strong odds of success.
What's clear right now is that Asia is an important, and growing, portion of MGM Resorts's business.
MGM Resorts is known as one of the biggest companies in Las Vegas. But the Strip is only about half of its business and will fall to less than 50% as MGM Cotai ramps up.
If you're looking for where the company can grow, investors should focus on Asia, where there are far more growth opportunities than there are in the U.S. Outside of Las Vegas is where the growth is today, a big shift from the Las Vegas Strip dominating all things gaming over the last three decades.
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Travis Hoiumhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Where MGM Resorts Makes Its Money: MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) owns nearly half of the resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and has become synonymous with all things Las Vegas. But from an investment standpoint, the company may not be as Las Vegas-centric as you might think. Macau is playing an increasingly important role for MGM Resorts' business and non-Las Vegas resorts in the U.S. like MGM Detroit, Borgata, and MGM National Harbor each generate more revenue than most Las Vegas resorts . Here's where the money is coming from at MGM Resorts. Panoramic of the Las Vegas Strip. Image source: Getty Images. Las Vegas is still king (for now) Las Vegas is where MGM Resorts is headquartered and where most of its revenue comes from. But investors shouldn't lose sight of the fact that a quarter of revenue comes from other locations in the U.S. and nearly 20% comes from Macau. Region MGM Resorts Revenue (TTM) Percent of Revenue Las Vegas operations $5.61 billion 51.6% U.S. non-Las Vegas $2.69 billion 24.7% Macau $2.09 billion 19.2% Management $488.5 million 4.5% Data source: MGM Resorts quarterly earnings report. TTM = trailing 12 months. Revenue is one measure of how MGM makes money, but a better metric for investors is property EBITDA, a measure of cash flow coming from a resort. As you can see in the table below, Las Vegas' share of EBITDA is larger than its share of revenue, but that may mask changes taking place in the company's operations. Region MGM Resorts EBITDA (TTM) Percent of Revenue Las Vegas operations $1.75 billion 55.1% U.S. non-Las Vegas $733.7 million 23.1% Macau $530.6 million 16.7% Management $162.8 million 5.1% Data source: MGM Resorts quarterly earnings report. EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. What the two tables above don't account for are new resorts, like the opening of MGM Cotai in mid-February 2018 . MGM Cotai contributed $85.0 million in revenue and just $5.9 million in EBITDA in a month and a half but will be a big contributor going forward. Story continues Times are changing Based on the performance of surrounding resorts, MGM Cotai should be MGM Resorts' biggest moneymaker once it's fully ramped up. It should beat the $2.0 billion in revenue and $525 million in EBITDA that MGM Macau, which is located in the Macau Peninsula region of Macau, which could make Macau the company's second-biggest market. Rendering of MGM Osaka. Rendering of MGM Osaka. Image source: MGM Resorts. The success in Macau has also led MGM's management to make winning a gaming concession in Japan a top priority. Management recently highlighted its proposed project in a presentation to investors and hopes it will be the company's next great growth driver. With analysts predicting Japan's gaming market could be over $10 billion per year in revenue , those able to build a casino in the country will have strong odds of success. What's clear right now is that Asia is an important, and growing, portion of MGM Resorts's business. MGM Resorts may not be the company you thought it was MGM Resorts is known as one of the biggest companies in Las Vegas. But the Strip is only about half of its business and will fall to less than 50% as MGM Cotai ramps up. If you're looking for where the company can grow, investors should focus on Asia, where there are far more growth opportunities than there are in the U.S. Outside of Las Vegas is where the growth is today, a big shift from the Las Vegas Strip dominating all things gaming over the last three decades. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Travis Hoium has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Qualcomm, Inc. to Tap TSMC for 7-Nano Chip Production: For several years now, wireless chip giantQualcomm(NASDAQ: QCOM)has relied onSamsung's(NASDAQOTH: SSNLF)contract chip manufacturing division to build its high-end Snapdragon 800-series smartphone processors.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company(NYSE: TSM)had previously manufactured those chips.
However, rumors have been swirling for quite a while now that Qualcomm's next 800-series Snapdragon processor, which is likely to be branded the Snapdragon 855, would be manufactured by TSMC using its7-nanometer chip technology.
Image source: Qualcomm.
According to DIGITIMES, which cites "industry sources," TSMC will, in fact, be manufacturing Qualcomm's next 800-series Snapdragon chip. Let's go over why this makes sense and what it means for TSMC, Qualcomm, and Samsung.
During TSMC's earnings conference call on April 19, company CEO C.C. Wei said that its 7-nanometer technology was already in mass production. By contrast, Samsung has yet to begin mass production of chips using its own 7-nanonmeter LPP technology.
While TSMC's technology uses traditional immersion lithography tools to build its 7-nanometer chips, Samsung's 7-nanometer LPP technology relies heavily on extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography tools for critical manufacturing steps.
According to microprocessor analystDavid Kanter, EUV lithography tools are "definitely not" in shape for high volume manufacturing. Indeed, according to Kanter, Samsung's yield rates on SRAM memory cells built using 7LPP are "very low," so Samsung's 7LPP technology is likely still a ways off from being ready for prime time -- it probably won't be ready for mass production by the end of the year at this rate, anyway, to support Qualcomm's product launch ambitions.
By contrast, TSMC is in mass production on its own 7-nanometer technology right now, which suggests that the company is able to build chips using this technology at reasonable yield rates.
Given that Samsung's 7-nanometer LPP technology looks a ways off from mass production and TSMC's 7-nanometer technology has been in volume production for several months now, it's not surprising to see Qualcomm return to TSMC for the next high-end Snapdragon.
The implications here for Qualcomm are simple -- thanks to its ability to pick the best chip manufacturer for the job, it'll be able to bring out its next-generation premium Snapdragon processors on time to stay competitive in the marketplace. This is all good news for Qualcomm.
For Samsung, this is obviously a negative -- Qualcomm is Samsung's biggest customer for leading-edge chip manufacturing technology outside of, perhaps, Samsung's internal chip development teams, so this shift is likely to lead to a meaningful drop in Samsung's contract chip manufacturing revenues.
That said, it's worth keeping in mind that Samsung's revenue from contract chip manufacturing is relatively small compared to the rest of its semiconductor business. Samsung's semiconductor business, which generates sales primarily from sales of memory products like DRAM and NAND flash, generated $66.8 billion in 2017 with about $54.2 billion of that coming from memory product shipments.
This means that Samsung's entire nonmemory chip business -- which includes Samsung's Exynos processor sales, contract chip manufacturing revenue, image sensor sales, and other chip component sales -- came in at just $12.6 billion for the year. I suspect that Snapdragon 800-series production is just one component of that revenue, which, in itself, is just a small part of Samsung's total chip business revenue.
So, Samsung as a whole should be fine, even if its contract chip manufacturing arm takes a hit from this seemingly temporary customer defection. Moreover, Qualcomm has already publicly said that it will be using Samsung's 7-nanometer LPP technology for future5G chips, so the pain for Samsung's contract chip manufacturing business should be temporary.
For TSMC, this looks to me like a temporary windfall -- the company should benefit from winning the upcoming premium Snapdragon processor manufacturing business, but given Qualcomm's public statements about how it'll use Samsung's technology for future chips, that revenue and profit boost should be temporary.
All told, from a stock perspective, this shift doesn't seem like that big of a deal as I suspect Qualcomm will ultimately shift its business back to Samsung as soon as it makes sense to.
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Ashraf Eassaowns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 5 Things You Didn't Know About Domino's Pizza: It's the global market-share leader in pizza, and its 15,000 locations churn out 2.5 million pies per day. But there's plenty aboutDomino's Pizza(NYSE: DPZ)that investors might not know.
Below, we'll highlight a few facts about this delivery giant that might surprise shareholders and pizza fans alike.
Image source: Getty Images.
Pizza has been around for well over a century, but there's nothing old-fashioned about Domino's business model. Over half of its sales are booked through digital channels, for example, and that rate reaches over 60% in the core U.S. market. The chain has a strong track record for leading in the e-commerce space, too, with an ordering platform that's spread far beyond its own app to include devices likeAmazon's Alexa products and theAppleWatch.
Recent offerings include a new Hotspot program that extends delivery options to places without addresses, like parks, sports fields, and beaches. And Domino's is currently testing drone and autonomous-vehicle delivery offerings. So investors can expect many more innovations in the pizza industry.
Many people know thatMcDonald'smakesmost of its profitsfrom rent and franchise fees rather than through food sales. Domino's operating setup also shields its business from those low-margin transactions. In fact, over 60% of the company's revenue comes from ingredient sales to franchisees from a supply chain that last year delivered 525 million pounds of dough to its pizza shops.
Domino's business is still highly dependent on the success of its franchisees, and that's why management is doing all it can to lift comparable-store sales, or sales at existing locations. Things arelooking up on that score, as growth accelerated to an 8% pace in the most recent quarter, which marked Domino's 28th consecutive quarter of growth in its core U.S. market.
Since they focus on delivery and carryout, Domino's stores are small and easy to launch and maintain. That efficiency has helped make it one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the world.
In fact, the chain is on track to cross 15,000 locations this year, up from 10,000 in 2012. Executives believe there's along runway for growth ahead, with space for an additional 3,000 locations in the U.S. and more than 5,000 in just its top international markets.
Domino's is the market share leader in pizza delivery, but has a smaller share of the industry's much larger carryout segment. The company is targeting that niche from two angles. First, it is remodeling its restaurants to make them more attractive for customer visits.
Image source: Getty Images.
Second, Domino's is blanketing regions with more locations to reduce a customer's travel time to six minutes or less.
The pizza chain makes heavy use of debt, with loans totaling over $3 billion as of the end of March, or almost one third of its $10 billion market capitalization. Its debt-to-earnings leverage is near the top end of management's goal, but executivesaren't worried about the burden.
Interest payments are high but manageable, after all. They're projected to be about $145 million this year, compared to operating earnings of over $500 million.
DPZ Net Total Long Term Debt (Annual)data byYCharts.
These loans are funding an aggressive expansion strategy that has allowed profits and revenue to soar over the last decade. As for the next 10 years, investors are likely to see the chain continue its push into the digital channel while blanketing the U.S. market, and international geographies, with its delivery-focused stores. That strategy forms the basis for management's long-term target that calls for overall growth of roughly 10% per year, split about evenly between a growing store base and higher sales at Domino's existing locations.
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Demitrios Kalogeropoulosowns shares of Apple, Amazon, and McDonald's. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 5 Things You Didn't Know About Domino's Pizza: It's the global market-share leader in pizza, and its 15,000 locations churn out 2.5 million pies per day. But there's plenty about Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ) that investors might not know. Below, we'll highlight a few facts about this delivery giant that might surprise shareholders and pizza fans alike. Friends sharing a delivered pizza. Image source: Getty Images. 1. It's a digital leader Pizza has been around for well over a century, but there's nothing old-fashioned about Domino's business model. Over half of its sales are booked through digital channels, for example, and that rate reaches over 60% in the core U.S. market. The chain has a strong track record for leading in the e-commerce space, too, with an ordering platform that's spread far beyond its own app to include devices like Amazon 's Alexa products and the Apple Watch. Recent offerings include a new Hotspot program that extends delivery options to places without addresses, like parks, sports fields, and beaches. And Domino's is currently testing drone and autonomous-vehicle delivery offerings. So investors can expect many more innovations in the pizza industry. 2. Where the dough comes from Many people know that McDonald's makes most of its profits from rent and franchise fees rather than through food sales. Domino's operating setup also shields its business from those low-margin transactions. In fact, over 60% of the company's revenue comes from ingredient sales to franchisees from a supply chain that last year delivered 525 million pounds of dough to its pizza shops. Domino's business is still highly dependent on the success of its franchisees, and that's why management is doing all it can to lift comparable-store sales, or sales at existing locations. Things are looking up on that score , as growth accelerated to an 8% pace in the most recent quarter, which marked Domino's 28th consecutive quarter of growth in its core U.S. market. Story continues 3. Expanding the store base Since they focus on delivery and carryout, Domino's stores are small and easy to launch and maintain. That efficiency has helped make it one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the world. In fact, the chain is on track to cross 15,000 locations this year, up from 10,000 in 2012. Executives believe there's a long runway for growth ahead , with space for an additional 3,000 locations in the U.S. and more than 5,000 in just its top international markets. 4. The carryout potential Domino's is the market share leader in pizza delivery, but has a smaller share of the industry's much larger carryout segment. The company is targeting that niche from two angles. First, it is remodeling its restaurants to make them more attractive for customer visits. A pizza slice. Image source: Getty Images. Second, Domino's is blanketing regions with more locations to reduce a customer's travel time to six minutes or less. 5. An aggressive debt load The pizza chain makes heavy use of debt, with loans totaling over $3 billion as of the end of March, or almost one third of its $10 billion market capitalization. Its debt-to-earnings leverage is near the top end of management's goal, but executives aren't worried about the burden . Interest payments are high but manageable, after all. They're projected to be about $145 million this year, compared to operating earnings of over $500 million. DPZ Net Total Long Term Debt (Annual) Chart DPZ Net Total Long Term Debt (Annual) data by YCharts. These loans are funding an aggressive expansion strategy that has allowed profits and revenue to soar over the last decade. As for the next 10 years, investors are likely to see the chain continue its push into the digital channel while blanketing the U.S. market, and international geographies, with its delivery-focused stores. That strategy forms the basis for management's long-term target that calls for overall growth of roughly 10% per year, split about evenly between a growing store base and higher sales at Domino's existing locations. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Demitrios Kalogeropoulos owns shares of Apple, Amazon, and McDonald's. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Qualcomm, Inc. to Tap TSMC for 7-Nano Chip Production: For several years now, wireless chip giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) has relied on Samsung 's (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) contract chip manufacturing division to build its high-end Snapdragon 800-series smartphone processors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) had previously manufactured those chips. However, rumors have been swirling for quite a while now that Qualcomm's next 800-series Snapdragon processor, which is likely to be branded the Snapdragon 855, would be manufactured by TSMC using its 7-nanometer chip technology . Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 platform broken down into sub-units. Image source: Qualcomm. According to DIGITIMES, which cites "industry sources," TSMC will, in fact, be manufacturing Qualcomm's next 800-series Snapdragon chip. Let's go over why this makes sense and what it means for TSMC, Qualcomm, and Samsung. Samsung is behind During TSMC's earnings conference call on April 19, company CEO C.C. Wei said that its 7-nanometer technology was already in mass production. By contrast, Samsung has yet to begin mass production of chips using its own 7-nanonmeter LPP technology. While TSMC's technology uses traditional immersion lithography tools to build its 7-nanometer chips, Samsung's 7-nanometer LPP technology relies heavily on extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography tools for critical manufacturing steps. According to microprocessor analyst David Kanter , EUV lithography tools are "definitely not" in shape for high volume manufacturing. Indeed, according to Kanter, Samsung's yield rates on SRAM memory cells built using 7LPP are "very low," so Samsung's 7LPP technology is likely still a ways off from being ready for prime time -- it probably won't be ready for mass production by the end of the year at this rate, anyway, to support Qualcomm's product launch ambitions. By contrast, TSMC is in mass production on its own 7-nanometer technology right now, which suggests that the company is able to build chips using this technology at reasonable yield rates. Story continues Given that Samsung's 7-nanometer LPP technology looks a ways off from mass production and TSMC's 7-nanometer technology has been in volume production for several months now, it's not surprising to see Qualcomm return to TSMC for the next high-end Snapdragon. Implications for Qualcomm, Samsung, and TSMC The implications here for Qualcomm are simple -- thanks to its ability to pick the best chip manufacturer for the job, it'll be able to bring out its next-generation premium Snapdragon processors on time to stay competitive in the marketplace. This is all good news for Qualcomm. For Samsung, this is obviously a negative -- Qualcomm is Samsung's biggest customer for leading-edge chip manufacturing technology outside of, perhaps, Samsung's internal chip development teams, so this shift is likely to lead to a meaningful drop in Samsung's contract chip manufacturing revenues. That said, it's worth keeping in mind that Samsung's revenue from contract chip manufacturing is relatively small compared to the rest of its semiconductor business. Samsung's semiconductor business, which generates sales primarily from sales of memory products like DRAM and NAND flash, generated $66.8 billion in 2017 with about $54.2 billion of that coming from memory product shipments. This means that Samsung's entire nonmemory chip business -- which includes Samsung's Exynos processor sales, contract chip manufacturing revenue, image sensor sales, and other chip component sales -- came in at just $12.6 billion for the year. I suspect that Snapdragon 800-series production is just one component of that revenue, which, in itself, is just a small part of Samsung's total chip business revenue. So, Samsung as a whole should be fine, even if its contract chip manufacturing arm takes a hit from this seemingly temporary customer defection. Moreover, Qualcomm has already publicly said that it will be using Samsung's 7-nanometer LPP technology for future 5G chips , so the pain for Samsung's contract chip manufacturing business should be temporary. For TSMC, this looks to me like a temporary windfall -- the company should benefit from winning the upcoming premium Snapdragon processor manufacturing business, but given Qualcomm's public statements about how it'll use Samsung's technology for future chips, that revenue and profit boost should be temporary. All told, from a stock perspective, this shift doesn't seem like that big of a deal as I suspect Qualcomm will ultimately shift its business back to Samsung as soon as it makes sense to. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Is Everyone Talking About iQiyi Stock?: When iQiyi (NASDAQ: IQ) had its market debut in March after being spun off from Chinese search-engine giant Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) , the stock stumbled out of the gate. It lost roughly 14% of its value on the first day of trading and briefly derailed some of the excitement surrounding the new streaming and multimedia offshoot. That didn't last too long, however. IQ Chart IQ data by YCharts Strong quarterly results in April and a string of encouraging announcements have propelled rapid gains in its share price. Even with recent sell-offs stemming from concerns over a potential trade war between the U.S. and China, the stock has climbed roughly 85% from its $18 initial public offering -- and more than 110% from the closing price on the day of its market debut. As you might expect, there's now no shortage of excitement surrounding the stock. The big gains themselves have been a part of the explosion of interest, but it's also worth looking at some of the underlying elements that have people talking. A person pointing a remote at a collection of screens displaying different images. Image source: Getty Images. The Netflix of China? Although management doesn't appear eager to encourage the comparison, iQiyi has sometimes been called the " Netflix of China." Given Netflix's incredible stock performance over the last decade and the tremendous growth potential in China, that's a moniker that has naturally attracted investor attention. CEO Yu Gong recently stated that rather than emulating Netflix's model, his goal is to build a business that's more comparable to Disney . That means becoming a content powerhouse for the Chinese market and exploring merchandising, video games, and other licensing opportunities. Whether iQiyi embraces the Netflix comparisons or not, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about the company's opportunities in the online-video space. China is already the world's largest streaming market, and somewhere around 40% of the country's population has yet to connect to the internet. Story continues The company claims about 420 million users across its platforms, and looks to have big expansion potential as it reaches new viewers and builds its paying-user base. Research firm IHS Markit estimates that the value of the Chinese streaming video market will have grown from roughly $3.5 billion in 2015 to $15.2 billion in 2020, and iQiyi looks to have significant growth potential in other multimedia markets. Strong quarterly results and guidance The company's first-quarter report, published on April 26, showed 57% year-over-year sales growth. Operating income fell 22% year over year, but much of that slide is attributable to iQiyi ramping up its content and marketing spending. The company also issued guidance for sales growth between 42% and 48% in the current quarter -- an indication that its growth engine is running at a high level and that shareholders can continue to look for strong double-digit sales growth. Promising partnerships In addition to its relationship with Baidu, which has marketing and data advantages, iQiyi has also been building partnerships with other companies in the tech and content spaces. On April 27, iQiyi announced that it had formed a partnership with Chinese e-commerce company JD.com that allows new members to sign up for a one-year subscription to either service and receive a one-year subscription to the other at no extra cost. Soon after, the streaming company said that the cross-promotion had resulted in more than a million new members for its paying-user rolls in just the first week. It's reasonable to expect that the deal will continue to boost paid membership. And iQiyi recently announced that it's partnering with rivals Tencent Holdings and Alibaba in content purchasing initiatives to keep down the costs of adding new shows and films across their respective platforms. Building a content empire If content is king, as the saying goes, iQiyi has made some significant progress in building its kingdom in streaming and multimedia. On May 8, the company said that it had reached a three-year deal with FilmNation (an independent American film studio known for recent hits like The Big Sick and Arrival ) for exclusive distribution rights to its films over the next three years. That development added to the company's already impressive list of content deals with companies including Netflix, Sony , and Time Warner . iQiyi's own film production efforts also appear to be progressing favorably. The company's internally produced film Blue Amber has been nominated for two awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival -- a sign that it can produce prestige content, which can benefit its brand and help attract top production talent. Its short film Taming the Rabbit was also nominated for an award. The company has even started opening brick-and-mortar theaters that will show its content -- a welcome development as total ticket sales in China climbed 13% last year and still have substantial room for growth. There's been plenty of news for iQiyi on the television front as well. The company announced on June 13 that its show Hot Blood Dance Crew had broken online-streaming advertising records, with the season finale recording 1.8 billion views and attracting eight brand partners. Hot Blood Dance Crew also registered strong viewership in Malaysia, indicating progress on exporting content outside its domestic market. And iQiyi has licensed the show for distribution in North and South American markets. Most recently, iQiyi said that it had secured exclusive online-streaming rights to the Professional Golf Association's major tournaments. That added to the company's existing lineup of golf content that included the Masters, the British Open, and the PGA Championship tournaments and makes the platform China's go-to source for streamed professional golf coverage. iQiyi is also making progress on fighting piracy and protecting the value of its content. The company announced on May 9 that its digital rights management (DRM) system was the first of its class to be approved by ChinaDRMLab, a subdivision of the state-sponsored Academy of Broadcasting Science. Artificial intelligence, VR, and short-form video Among entertainment companies, iQiyi looks to be leading the charge when it comes to integrating potentially transformative technologies into its business. It already uses an artificial intelligence (AI) system to assist in casting its productions, by having it estimate which actors and actresses are most likely to delight audiences for a given television program or film project. And its partnership with Baidu offers a wide range of potential marketing opportunities. Baidu's access to a trove of data and its world-leading position in AI suggest that casting assistance, content targeting, and other machine-learning-backed applications could become a significant long-term advantage. iQiyi is even a player in the tech hardware space. The company has already launched two lines of virtual reality (VR) headsets and is producing film, television, and video game content for VR. Although VR has been slow to take off so far, if and when it does, iQiyi is positioned to be a winner. CEO Yu Gong has also announced plans for a short-form video platform, saying it could be ready within one to three years. So far, it's been a perfect storm It seems like iQiyi has had a new partnership, growth opportunity, or content win to announce every few days since its April earnings release. With a stream of good news and the rapid growth of the Chinese streaming space, there's no shortage of reasons why the stock has been attracting so much interest. As evidenced by recent trade-war-related share-price declines, investors should proceed with the understanding that there might be significant bumps in the road. But for now, iQiyi looks well positioned to continue shaping and benefiting from the growth of streaming video and multimedia. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Keith Noonan owns shares of iQiyi and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu, JD.com, Netflix, Tencent Holdings, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends iQiyi. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Is Everyone Talking About iQiyi Stock?: WheniQiyi(NASDAQ: IQ)had its market debut in March after being spun off from Chinese search-engine giantBaidu(NASDAQ: BIDU), the stock stumbled out of the gate. It lost roughly 14% of its value on thefirst day of tradingand briefly derailed some of the excitement surrounding the new streaming and multimedia offshoot. That didn't last too long, however.
IQdata byYCharts
Strong quarterly results in April and a string of encouraging announcements have propelled rapid gains in its share price. Even with recent sell-offs stemming from concerns over a potential trade war between the U.S. and China, the stock has climbed roughly 85% from its $18 initial public offering -- and more than 110% from the closing price on the day of its market debut.
As you might expect, there's now no shortage of excitement surrounding the stock. The big gains themselves have been a part of the explosion of interest, but it's also worth looking at some of the underlying elements that have people talking.
Image source: Getty Images.
Although management doesn't appear eager to encourage the comparison, iQiyi has sometimes been called the "Netflixof China." Given Netflix's incredible stock performance over the last decade and the tremendous growth potential in China, that's a moniker that has naturally attracted investor attention. CEO Yu Gong recently stated that rather than emulating Netflix's model, his goal is to build a business that's more comparable toDisney. That means becoming a content powerhouse for the Chinese market and exploring merchandising, video games, and other licensing opportunities.
Whether iQiyi embraces the Netflix comparisons or not, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about the company's opportunities in the online-video space. China is already the world's largest streaming market, and somewhere around 40% of the country's population has yet to connect to the internet.
The company claims about 420 million users across its platforms, and looks to have big expansion potential as it reaches new viewers and builds its paying-user base. Research firm IHS Markit estimates that the value of the Chinese streaming video market will have grown from roughly $3.5 billion in 2015 to $15.2 billion in 2020, and iQiyi looks to have significant growth potential in other multimedia markets.
The company'sfirst-quarterreport, published on April 26, showed 57% year-over-year sales growth. Operating income fell 22% year over year, but much of that slide is attributable to iQiyi ramping up its content and marketing spending. The company also issued guidance for sales growth between 42% and 48% in the current quarter -- an indication that its growth engine is running at a high level and that shareholders can continue to look for strong double-digit sales growth.
In addition to its relationship with Baidu, which has marketing and data advantages, iQiyi has also been building partnerships with other companies in the tech and content spaces. On April 27, iQiyi announced that it had formed a partnership with Chinese e-commerce companyJD.comthat allows new members to sign up for a one-year subscription to either service and receive a one-year subscription to the other at no extra cost. Soon after, the streaming company said that the cross-promotion had resulted inmore than a million new membersfor its paying-user rolls in just the first week. It's reasonable to expect that the deal will continue to boost paid membership.
And iQiyi recently announced that it's partnering with rivalsTencent HoldingsandAlibabain content purchasing initiatives to keep down the costs of adding new shows and films across their respective platforms.
If content is king, as the saying goes, iQiyi has made some significant progress in building its kingdom in streaming and multimedia.
On May 8, the company said that it had reached a three-year deal with FilmNation (an independent American film studio known for recent hits likeThe Big SickandArrival) for exclusive distribution rights to its films over the next three years. That development added to the company's already impressive list of content deals with companies including Netflix,Sony, andTime Warner.
iQiyi's own film production efforts also appear to be progressing favorably. The company's internally produced filmBlue Amberhas been nominated for two awards at theShanghaiInternational Film Festival -- a sign that it can produce prestige content, which can benefit its brand and help attract top production talent. Its short filmTaming the Rabbitwas also nominated for an award. The company has even started opening brick-and-mortar theaters that will show its content -- a welcome development as total ticket sales in China climbed 13% last year and still have substantial room for growth.
There's been plenty of news for iQiyi on the television front as well. The company announced on June 13 that its showHot Blood Dance Crewhad broken online-streaming advertising records, with the season finale recording 1.8 billion views and attracting eight brand partners.Hot Blood Dance Crewalso registered strong viewership in Malaysia, indicating progress on exporting content outside its domestic market. And iQiyi has licensed the show for distribution in North and South American markets.
Most recently, iQiyi said that it had secured exclusive online-streaming rights to the Professional Golf Association's major tournaments. That added to the company's existing lineup of golf content that included the Masters, the British Open, and the PGA Championship tournaments and makes the platform China's go-to source for streamed professional golf coverage.
iQiyi is also making progress on fighting piracy and protecting the value of its content. The company announced on May 9 that its digital rights management (DRM) system was the first of its class to be approved by ChinaDRMLab, a subdivision of the state-sponsored Academy of Broadcasting Science.
Among entertainment companies, iQiyi looks to be leading the charge when it comes to integrating potentially transformative technologies into its business. It already uses an artificial intelligence (AI) system to assist in casting its productions, by having it estimate which actors and actresses are most likely to delight audiences for a given television program or film project.
And its partnership with Baidu offers a wide range of potential marketing opportunities. Baidu's access to a trove of data and its world-leading position in AI suggest that casting assistance, content targeting, and other machine-learning-backed applications could become a significant long-term advantage.
iQiyi is even a player in the tech hardware space. The company has already launched two lines of virtual reality (VR) headsets and is producing film, television, and video game content for VR. Although VR has been slow to take off so far, if and when it does, iQiyi is positioned to be a winner. CEO Yu Gong has also announced plans for a short-form video platform, saying it could be ready within one to three years.
It seems like iQiyi has had a new partnership, growth opportunity, or content win to announce every few days since its April earnings release. With a stream of good news and the rapid growth of the Chinese streaming space, there's no shortage of reasons why the stock has been attracting so much interest.
As evidenced by recent trade-war-related share-price declines, investors should proceed with the understanding that there might be significant bumps in the road. But for now, iQiyi looks well positioned to continue shaping and benefiting from the growth of streaming video and multimedia.
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Keith Noonanowns shares of iQiyi and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu, JD.com, Netflix, Tencent Holdings, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends iQiyi. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Huya Stock Took a Hit Monday: What happened China-based game-streaming platform company Huya (NYSE: HUYA) saw its stock pull back on Monday, falling as much as 14.6%. Shares finished the trading day down about 12.2%. The stock's decline comes amid a broader decline on Monday among Chinese internet stocks. Some investors were spooked when The Wall Street Journal said President Trump plans to stifle investment from Chinese businesses in U.S. technology companies and block technology exports to Beijing. The Journal cited "people familiar with administration plans" as its sources for the story. A chalkboard sketch of a chart showing a stock price falling Image source: Getty Images. So what While Huya doesn't market its online game-streaming platform in the U.S., macroeconomic factors resulting from a potential trade war could negatively impact business. Further, Huya listed its ability to "explore strategic investment, acquisition and overseas expansion opportunities" as one of its business strategies in its F-1 filing earlier this year. Trade tensions in the U.S. could make these initiatives more difficult. Huya stock has also been on a roll since its IPO earlier this year, making the stock more susceptible to a pullback. Even after today's decline, Huya stock is up about 100% since going public in May. Now what If these new stipulations come to fruition, they may limit companies with 25% or greater Chinese ownership from buying U.S. companies the White House deems "industrially significant technology," said the Journal . These new rules could be announced by the end of the week, the sources said. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Daniel Sparks has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Huya Stock Took a Hit Monday: China-based game-streaming platform companyHuya(NYSE: HUYA)saw its stock pull back on Monday, falling as much as 14.6%. Shares finished the trading day down about 12.2%.
The stock's decline comes amid a broader decline on Monday among Chinese internet stocks. Some investors were spooked whenThe Wall Street JournalsaidPresident Trump plans to stifle investment from Chinese businesses in U.S. technology companies and block technology exports to Beijing. TheJournalcited "people familiar with administration plans" as its sources for the story.
Image source: Getty Images.
While Huya doesn't market its online game-streaming platform in the U.S., macroeconomic factors resulting from a potential trade war could negatively impact business. Further, Huya listed its ability to "explore strategic investment, acquisition and overseas expansion opportunities" as one of its business strategies in its F-1 filing earlier this year.
Trade tensions in the U.S. could make these initiatives more difficult.
Huya stock has also beenon a rollsince its IPO earlier this year, making the stock more susceptible to a pullback. Even after today's decline, Huya stock is up about 100% since going public in May.
If these new stipulations come to fruition, they may limit companies with 25% or greater Chinese ownership from buying U.S. companies the White House deems "industrially significant technology," said theJournal.
These new rules could be announced by the end of the week, the sources said.
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Daniel Sparkshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Bitcoin Price Leads Monday Recovery as Market Fights Off Weekend Firesale: bitcoin price The cryptocurrency markets experienced a labored recovery on Monday after the deep bitcoin price sell-off that occurred over the weekend. Monero Price Headlines Monday Recovery Monero (XMR) has seen a huge rebound in the past 24 hours, up nearly 15% to $128.86. Monero saw a steep sell-off with the news out of the United States that the Secret Service recommended a crackdown on privacy cryptocurrencies , as CCN reported on June 22. The coin has also appeared recently in the news for its use in crypto-jacking malware. Lastly, speculation has swirled that Bitmain has dumped larch amounts of XMR coins as retaliation for the projects efforts to disable ASIC miners from using the blockchain. The beatings from all the poor news for monero in particular recently could have thus led to an oversold position, especially during the general market down-trend. Thus the steep ramp-up makes a bit more sense compared to other coins. monero price Recovery for Rest of the Market Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to as low as $5,800 yesterday but has since shot back up to $6,200, an almost 6.40% increase over 24 hours. With that quick rise, bitcoin is maintaining a clear support around $6,000, with very little movement below or above that line. It has traded sideways around the $6,000 range for over two weeks. bitcoin price Following the trend of previous market corrections, other coins and tokens have generally followed the same pattern as the bitcoin price. In early June, however, ripple (XRP) stood out as a token maintaining its price while bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash saw sell offs. Later this month, however, the bearish trend did catch up to ripple. Today, the recovery is nearly across the board. The top ten coins and tokens by marketcap are seeing strong gains, in addition to nearly all of the top 100 coins. Ethereum (ETH) has jumped 6.91% to $469.57 over the past 24 hours. ethereum price The $30 million Bithumb hack was partly of the decline across the market last week, as CCN reported . However, in light of other previous, large-scale hacks, the price drops were not as steep and Bithumb has already promised to reimburse customer funds. The bitcoin price remained within its $6,000 trading range. Story continues Despite the Bithumb hack, the steep price drops last week and into the weekend across the entire crypto market is contrary to the good news and sentiment overall. More and more large corporations are showing interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, as regulations become clearer. Additionally, a law firm also reported that Tether did in fact have the funds to match the amount of USDT that the company has produced. The question is whether the market recovery will continue or prices will remain within their monthly ranges. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Bitcoin Price Leads Monday Recovery as Market Fights Off Weekend Firesale appeared first on CCN . || Bitcoin Price Leads Monday Recovery as Market Fights Off Weekend Firesale: The cryptocurrency markets experienced a labored recovery on Monday after the deep bitcoin price sell-off that occurred over the weekend.
Monero(XMR) has seen a huge rebound in the past 24 hours, up nearly 15% to $128.86. Monero saw a steep sell-off with the news out of the United States that the Secret Service recommended a crackdown on privacy cryptocurrencies , as CCNreportedon June 22.
The coin has also appeared recently in the news for its use incrypto-jackingmalware. Lastly, speculation has swirled that Bitmain has dumped larch amounts of XMR coins as retaliation for the project’s efforts todisable ASIC minersfrom using the blockchain.
The beatings from all the poor news for monero in particular recently could have thus led to an oversold position, especially during the general market down-trend. Thus the steep ramp-up makes a bit more sense compared to other coins.
Bitcoin(BTC) dropped to as low as $5,800 yesterday but has since shot back up to $6,200, an almost 6.40% increase over 24 hours. With that quick rise, bitcoin is maintaining a clear support around $6,000, with very little movement below or above that line. It has traded sideways around the $6,000 range for over two weeks.
Following the trend of previous market corrections, other coins and tokens have generally followed the same pattern as the bitcoin price. In early June, however, ripple (XRP) stood out as a token maintaining its price while bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash saw sell offs. Later this month, however, the bearish trend did catch up to ripple.
Today, the recovery is nearly across the board. The top ten coins and tokens by marketcap are seeing strong gains, in addition to nearly all of the top 100 coins.
Ethereum(ETH) has jumped 6.91% to $469.57 over the past 24 hours.
The $30 million Bithumb hack was partly of the decline across the market last week, as CCNreported. However, in light of other previous, large-scale hacks, the price drops were not as steep and Bithumb has already promised to reimburse customer funds. The bitcoin price remained within its $6,000 trading range.
Despite the Bithumb hack, the steep price drops last week and into the weekend across the entire crypto market is contrary to the good news and sentiment overall. More and morelarge corporationsare showing interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, as regulations become clearer. Additionally, a law firm also reported that Tether did in fact have the funds to match the amount of USDT that the company has produced.
The question is whether the market recovery will continue or prices will remain within their monthly ranges.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postBitcoin Price Leads Monday Recovery as Market Fights Off Weekend Firesaleappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Leads Monday Recovery as Market Fights Off Weekend Firesale: The cryptocurrency markets experienced a labored recovery on Monday after the deep bitcoin price sell-off that occurred over the weekend.
Monero(XMR) has seen a huge rebound in the past 24 hours, up nearly 15% to $128.86. Monero saw a steep sell-off with the news out of the United States that the Secret Service recommended a crackdown on privacy cryptocurrencies , as CCNreportedon June 22.
The coin has also appeared recently in the news for its use incrypto-jackingmalware. Lastly, speculation has swirled that Bitmain has dumped larch amounts of XMR coins as retaliation for the project’s efforts todisable ASIC minersfrom using the blockchain.
The beatings from all the poor news for monero in particular recently could have thus led to an oversold position, especially during the general market down-trend. Thus the steep ramp-up makes a bit more sense compared to other coins.
Bitcoin(BTC) dropped to as low as $5,800 yesterday but has since shot back up to $6,200, an almost 6.40% increase over 24 hours. With that quick rise, bitcoin is maintaining a clear support around $6,000, with very little movement below or above that line. It has traded sideways around the $6,000 range for over two weeks.
Following the trend of previous market corrections, other coins and tokens have generally followed the same pattern as the bitcoin price. In early June, however, ripple (XRP) stood out as a token maintaining its price while bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash saw sell offs. Later this month, however, the bearish trend did catch up to ripple.
Today, the recovery is nearly across the board. The top ten coins and tokens by marketcap are seeing strong gains, in addition to nearly all of the top 100 coins.
Ethereum(ETH) has jumped 6.91% to $469.57 over the past 24 hours.
The $30 million Bithumb hack was partly of the decline across the market last week, as CCNreported. However, in light of other previous, large-scale hacks, the price drops were not as steep and Bithumb has already promised to reimburse customer funds. The bitcoin price remained within its $6,000 trading range.
Despite the Bithumb hack, the steep price drops last week and into the weekend across the entire crypto market is contrary to the good news and sentiment overall. More and morelarge corporationsare showing interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, as regulations become clearer. Additionally, a law firm also reported that Tether did in fact have the funds to match the amount of USDT that the company has produced.
The question is whether the market recovery will continue or prices will remain within their monthly ranges.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postBitcoin Price Leads Monday Recovery as Market Fights Off Weekend Firesaleappeared first onCCN. || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks tumbled Monday following escalating trade threats between the U.S. and China. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)was down by almost 500 points during the session, but recovered somewhat in the final hour. TheS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)lost a similar percentage.
[{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "(1.33%)", "Point Change": "(328.09)"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "(1.37%)", "Point Change": "(37.81)"}]
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Technology shares were hit hard today, with theTechnology Select Sector SPDR ETF(NYSEMKT: XLK)sinking 2.1%. Utilities moved higher, though; theUtilities Select SPDR ETF(NYSEMKT: XLU)rose 1.7%.
As for individual stocks,Harley-Davidson(NYSE: HOG)fell on news of the impact of tariffs, andCarnival(NYSE: CCL)dropped after issuing a weak outlook.
Image source: Getty Images.
Shares of Harley-Davidson fell 6% after the company submitted a filing to the SEC outlining the damage the European retaliatory tariffs are having on its business, and announcing it will shift some production from the U.S. to Europe.
Harley said in the filing that tariffs imposed by the European Union on its motorcycles, which went into effect June 22 in retaliation for U.S. levies on steel and aluminum, have increased from 6% to 31% and will add $2,200 to the average motorcycle. The company believes that it can't pass along those costs to buyers without having an "immediate and lasting detrimental impact" to its business in the region and affecting the sustainability of its dealers' businesses. It will therefore bear the costs of the tariffs itself, which will amount to $30 million to $45 million in additional cost in 2018 and $90 million to $100 million on an annual basis.
For the longer term, Harley-Davidson will cope with the tariffs by shifting production from the U.S. to its plants in Europe, with the production ramp expected to take nine to 18 months.
Harley's European business, which grew 8.1% and added 1.3% in market share in the latest quarter, is essential for thestruggling company. Tariffs are a double whammy for Harley, with the steel and aluminum levies expected to add an additional $15 million to $20 million in material costs, so the tariff action by the EU is hastening the company's steps towardmove production offshore.
Carnival stock fell 7.9% after the company reported second-quarter results that beatexpectations, but lowered its guidance for full-year profits due to rising fuel costs and unfavorable currency exchange rates. Revenue increased 10.4% to $4.36 billion and adjusted earnings per share jumped 30.8% to $0.68. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.60 per share on revenue of $4.32 billion.
Net revenue yield grew 4.8% in constant currency, which was well above guidance of 2.5% to 3.5%. Net cruise costs per available lower berth day (ALBD), excluding fuel, increased 3.6% in constant currency, which also beat the company's forecast of a 4% to 5% rise.
Looking forward, booking trends led Carnival to increase guidance for full-year revenue yields from 2.5% to 3%, but changes in fuel prices and exchange rates are expected to decrease EPS by $0.19 compared to guidancegiven in March. The company now expects to earn between $4.15 and $4.25, compared with Wall Street expectations of $4.35. Third-quarter EPS guidance is $2.25 to $2.29, 8% below the analyst consensus at the midpoint.
Carnival's CEO was upbeat after its reasonably strong quarter, saying it was on track to delivering a double-digit return on invested capital this year, and pointed to a recent raise in the dividend, which now pays a 3.4% yield. Investors were more focused on the pressure on the company's bottom line today, though.
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Jim Crumlyowns shares of Carnival. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks tumbled Monday following escalating trade threats between the U.S. and China. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was down by almost 500 points during the session, but recovered somewhat in the final hour. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) lost a similar percentage. Today's stock market Index Percentage Change Point Change Dow (1.33%) (328.09) S&P 500 (1.37%) (37.81) Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Technology shares were hit hard today, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLK) sinking 2.1%. Utilities moved higher, though; the Utilities Select SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLU) rose 1.7%. As for individual stocks, Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) fell on news of the impact of tariffs, and Carnival (NYSE: CCL) dropped after issuing a weak outlook. Red, downward arrow and stock graph. Image source: Getty Images. Harley shifting production offshore in response to tariffs Shares of Harley-Davidson fell 6% after the company submitted a filing to the SEC outlining the damage the European retaliatory tariffs are having on its business, and announcing it will shift some production from the U.S. to Europe. Harley said in the filing that tariffs imposed by the European Union on its motorcycles, which went into effect June 22 in retaliation for U.S. levies on steel and aluminum, have increased from 6% to 31% and will add $2,200 to the average motorcycle. The company believes that it can't pass along those costs to buyers without having an "immediate and lasting detrimental impact" to its business in the region and affecting the sustainability of its dealers' businesses. It will therefore bear the costs of the tariffs itself, which will amount to $30 million to $45 million in additional cost in 2018 and $90 million to $100 million on an annual basis. For the longer term, Harley-Davidson will cope with the tariffs by shifting production from the U.S. to its plants in Europe, with the production ramp expected to take nine to 18 months. Story continues Harley's European business, which grew 8.1% and added 1.3% in market share in the latest quarter, is essential for the struggling company . Tariffs are a double whammy for Harley, with the steel and aluminum levies expected to add an additional $15 million to $20 million in material costs, so the tariff action by the EU is hastening the company's steps toward move production offshore . Carnival cruises to a strong quarter, but warns of rising fuel costs Carnival stock fell 7.9% after the company reported second-quarter results that beat expectations , but lowered its guidance for full-year profits due to rising fuel costs and unfavorable currency exchange rates. Revenue increased 10.4% to $4.36 billion and adjusted earnings per share jumped 30.8% to $0.68. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.60 per share on revenue of $4.32 billion. Net revenue yield grew 4.8% in constant currency, which was well above guidance of 2.5% to 3.5%. Net cruise costs per available lower berth day (ALBD), excluding fuel, increased 3.6% in constant currency, which also beat the company's forecast of a 4% to 5% rise. Looking forward, booking trends led Carnival to increase guidance for full-year revenue yields from 2.5% to 3%, but changes in fuel prices and exchange rates are expected to decrease EPS by $0.19 compared to guidance given in March . The company now expects to earn between $4.15 and $4.25, compared with Wall Street expectations of $4.35. Third-quarter EPS guidance is $2.25 to $2.29, 8% below the analyst consensus at the midpoint. Carnival's CEO was upbeat after its reasonably strong quarter, saying it was on track to delivering a double-digit return on invested capital this year, and pointed to a recent raise in the dividend, which now pays a 3.4% yield. Investors were more focused on the pressure on the company's bottom line today, though. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Jim Crumly owns shares of Carnival. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Escalating trade fight weighs on global stocks, boosts Treasuries: By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock markets sank on Monday as the trade fight between the United States and other top economies escalated, and benchmark Wall Street indexes suffered their worst losses in more than two months while safe-haven investments gained. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said forthcoming investment restrictions would apply "to all countries that are trying to steal our technology," not just to China. Hours later, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro walked back Mnuchin's remarks, telling CNBC that the restrictions on investing in tech companies would just target China. “People are scared," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services in New York. "The market does not like uncertainty, and a trade war is something that is difficult, if not impossible, to handicap." On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 328.09 points, or 1.33 percent, to 24,252.8, the S&P 500 lost 37.81 points, or 1.37 percent, to 2,717.07, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 160.81 points, or 2.09 percent, to 7,532.01. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 2.19 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.41 percent. Technology stocks bore the brunt of the damage. The S&P technology index fell 2.3 percent, the most among the major S&P 11 sectors. Policymakers in China moved quickly to temper any potential economic drag from Beijing's dispute with the United States. Its central bank said on Sunday it would cut the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points to spur lending to smaller firms. The European autos sector was hit by trade tensions between Washington and Europe, falling 2.4 percent in a seventh straight day of losses after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he aimed to hike tariffs on European Union car imports by 20 percent. The index of global auto manufacturers fell 1.5 percent. A senior European Commission official said on Saturday the European Union would respond to any U.S. move to raise tariffs on cars made in the bloc. Harley-Davidson Inc said on Monday it would move production of motorcycles shipped to the European Union from the United States to its international facilities and forecast the trading bloc's retaliatory tariffs would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year. The growing disputes have led investors to take refuge on safer ground. Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury notes gained 5/32 in price to yield 2.884 percent, down from 2.900 percent late on Friday. The yield curve between 2-year and 10-year notes flattened to 33 basis points, the lowest level since 2007. Gold hovered near last week's six-month low as investors chose Treasuries over bullion. Oil fell as investors prepared for an extra 1 million barrels per day in output to hit the markets after OPEC and its partners agreed to raise production. U.S. crude fell 0.73 percent to settle at $68.08 per barrel and Brent settled at $74.73, down 1.09 percent on the day. In the currency market, the dollar index fell 0.22 percent, with the euro up 0.38 percent to $1.1699. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.21 percent versus the greenback, at 109.74 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.3279, up 0.08 percent. The Turkish lira rose on expectations of a stable government after Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party claimed victory in presidential and parliamentary polls. Bitcoin steadied after hitting seven-month lows over the weekend as the security of cryptocurrency exchange operators came under more scrutiny. (Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru and Karen Brettell and Stephen Culp in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler) || Escalating trade fight weighs on global stocks, boosts Treasuries: By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock markets sank on Monday as the trade fight between the United States and other top economies escalated, and benchmark Wall Street indexes suffered their worst losses in more than two months while safe-haven investments gained.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said forthcoming investment restrictions would apply "to all countries that are trying to steal our technology," not just to China.
Hours later, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro walked back Mnuchin's remarks, telling CNBC that the restrictions on investing in tech companies would just target China.
“People are scared," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services in New York. "The market does not like uncertainty, and a trade war is something that is difficult, if not impossible, to handicap."
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 328.09 points, or 1.33 percent, to 24,252.8, the S&P 500 lost 37.81 points, or 1.37 percent, to 2,717.07, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 160.81 points, or 2.09 percent, to 7,532.01.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 2.19 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.41 percent.
Technology stocks bore the brunt of the damage. The S&P technology index fell 2.3 percent, the most among the major S&P 11 sectors.
Policymakers in China moved quickly to temper any potential economic drag from Beijing's dispute with the United States. Its central bank said on Sunday it would cut the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points to spur lending to smaller firms.
The European autos sector was hit by trade tensions between Washington and Europe, falling 2.4 percent in a seventh straight day of losses after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he aimed to hike tariffs on European Union car imports by 20 percent.
The index of global auto manufacturers fell 1.5 percent.
A senior European Commission official said on Saturday the European Union would respond to any U.S. move to raise tariffs on cars made in the bloc.
Harley-Davidson Inc said on Monday it would move production of motorcycles shipped to the European Union from the United States to its international facilities and forecast the trading bloc's retaliatory tariffs would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year.
The growing disputes have led investors to take refuge on safer ground.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury notes gained 5/32 in price to yield 2.884 percent, down from 2.900 percent late on Friday. The yield curve between 2-year and 10-year notes flattened to 33 basis points, the lowest level since 2007.
Gold hovered near last week's six-month low as investors chose Treasuries over bullion.
Oil fell as investors prepared for an extra 1 million barrels per day in output to hit the markets after OPEC and its partners agreed to raise production.
U.S. crude fell 0.73 percent to settle at $68.08 per barrel and Brent settled at $74.73, down 1.09 percent on the day.
In the currency market, the dollar index fell 0.22 percent, with the euro up 0.38 percent to $1.1699.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.21 percent versus the greenback, at 109.74 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.3279, up 0.08 percent.
The Turkish lira rose on expectations of a stable government after Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party claimed victory in presidential and parliamentary polls.
Bitcoin steadied after hitting seven-month lows over the weekend as the security of cryptocurrency exchange operators came under more scrutiny.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru and Karen Brettell and Stephen Culp in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler) || Escalating trade fight weighs on global stocks, boosts Treasuries: By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock markets sank on Monday as the trade fight between the United States and other top economies escalated, and benchmark Wall Street indexes suffered their worst losses in more than two months while safe-haven investments gained.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said forthcoming investment restrictions would apply "to all countries that are trying to steal our technology," not just to China.
Hours later, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro walked back Mnuchin's remarks, telling CNBC that the restrictions on investing in tech companies would just target China.
“People are scared," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services in New York. "The market does not like uncertainty, and a trade war is something that is difficult, if not impossible, to handicap."
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 328.09 points, or 1.33 percent, to 24,252.8, the S&P 500 lost 37.81 points, or 1.37 percent, to 2,717.07, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 160.81 points, or 2.09 percent, to 7,532.01.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 2.19 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.41 percent.
Technology stocks bore the brunt of the damage. The S&P technology index fell 2.3 percent, the most among the major S&P 11 sectors.
Policymakers in China moved quickly to temper any potential economic drag from Beijing's dispute with the United States. Its central bank said on Sunday it would cut the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points to spur lending to smaller firms.
The European autos sector was hit by trade tensions between Washington and Europe, falling 2.4 percent in a seventh straight day of losses after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he aimed to hike tariffs on European Union car imports by 20 percent.
The index of global auto manufacturers fell 1.5 percent.
A senior European Commission official said on Saturday the European Union would respond to any U.S. move to raise tariffs on cars made in the bloc.
Harley-Davidson Inc said on Monday it would move production of motorcycles shipped to the European Union from the United States to its international facilities and forecast the trading bloc's retaliatory tariffs would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year.
The growing disputes have led investors to take refuge on safer ground.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury notes gained 5/32 in price to yield 2.884 percent, down from 2.900 percent late on Friday. The yield curve between 2-year and 10-year notes flattened to 33 basis points, the lowest level since 2007.
Gold hovered near last week's six-month low as investors chose Treasuries over bullion.
Oil fell as investors prepared for an extra 1 million barrels per day in output to hit the markets after OPEC and its partners agreed to raise production.
U.S. crude fell 0.73 percent to settle at $68.08 per barrel and Brent settled at $74.73, down 1.09 percent on the day.
In the currency market, the dollar index fell 0.22 percent, with the euro up 0.38 percent to $1.1699.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.21 percent versus the greenback, at 109.74 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.3279, up 0.08 percent.
The Turkish lira rose on expectations of a stable government after Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party claimed victory in presidential and parliamentary polls.
Bitcoin steadied after hitting seven-month lows over the weekend as the security of cryptocurrency exchange operators came under more scrutiny.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru and Karen Brettell and Stephen Culp in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
[Social Media Buzz]
June 26, 2018 08:00 AM EDT
Last 4 hours, BTC -0.38% ETH -1.44% LTC -1.04% XRP -0.62% BCH -0.55%
#cryptofinance #BTC #ETH #LTC #XRP #BCH || #TipusCanvi de #divises a les 18:00 del dia 26-06-2018
1 euro = 2,1327 roures
1 dòlar = 0,4006 roures
1 lliure = 0,5301 roures
1 yen = 0,0036 roures
1 franc suís = 0,4045 roures
1 bitcoin = 2.482,66 roures
#Criptomoneda a #SantEsteveDeLesRoures || Hoy Martes 26 de Junio
▼ USD - $ 20.09
▼ EUR - $ 23.41
▲ BITCOIN - $ 125,629.00
▲ ETHER - $ 9,012.01
▲ XRP - $...
|
6157.13, 5903.44, 6218.30, 6404.00, 6385.82, 6614.18, 6529.59, 6597.55, 6639.14, 6673.50
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8790.92, 9330.55, 9818.35, 10058.80, 9888.61, 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40, 15178.20, 15455.40, 16936.80, 17415.40, 16408.20, 16564.00, 17706.90, 19497.40, 19140.80, 19114.20, 17776.70, 16624.60, 15802.90, 13831.80, 14699.20, 13925.80, 14026.60, 16099.80, 15838.50, 14606.50, 14656.20, 12952.20, 14156.40, 13657.20, 14982.10, 15201.00, 15599.20, 17429.50, 17527.00, 16477.60, 15170.10, 14595.40, 14973.30, 13405.80, 13980.60, 14360.20, 13772.00, 13819.80, 11490.50, 11188.60, 11474.90, 11607.40, 12899.20, 11600.10, 10931.40, 10868.40, 11359.40, 11259.40, 11171.40, 11440.70, 11786.30, 11296.40, 10106.30, 10221.10, 9170.54, 8830.75, 9174.91, 8277.01, 6955.27, 7754.00, 7621.30, 8265.59, 8736.98, 8621.90, 8129.97, 8926.57, 8598.31, 9494.63, 10166.40, 10233.90, 11112.70, 10551.80, 11225.30, 11403.70, 10690.40, 10005.00.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-02-22]
Volume: 8040079872, RSI (14-day): 48.59, 50-day EMA: 10802.89, 200-day EMA: 9021.09
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1330.60, Gold RSI: 50.72
Oil Price: 62.77, Oil RSI: 53.88
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Wireless Carriers Sold a Third of All Apple Watches in the U.S. Last Quarter: In the smartphone market, wireless carriers are easily the most important distribution channel for smartphone OEMs. That even applies to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) , despite the fact that it has a huge network of retail stores where consumers can go buy an iPhone directly from the company. Most smartphone buyers still prefer to walk into their carrier's retail stores when it's time to upgrade, as the majority of smartphone OEMs don't have direct distribution. With Apple Watch getting cellular connectivity in the Series 3 models, it looks like carriers are going to play an increasingly important role in smartwatch distribution. Man wearing Apple Watch Series 3 Apple Watch Series 3 is a hit thanks to cellular connectivity. Image source: Apple. Carrier distribution matters Apple sold an estimated 2.9 million Apple Watches in the U.S. during the fourth quarter, according to Counterpoint Research (via FierceWireless ). Of those, a whopping 975,000 units -- over a third -- were sold through the four major wireless carriers, with Verizon leading the way. Big Red noted on its last conference call that it activated 550,000 other connected devices that primarily consisted of wearables. Analyst Jeff Fieldhack believes that about half of Apple Watch's U.S. unit volumes were sold directly through Apple Stores. Within carrier smartwatch sales, Apple accounts for approximately 90% of all sales, Fieldhack estimates, underscoring how strong Apple's grip is on the growing smartwatch market. While I had some initial doubts , adding cellular connectivity is turning out to be a meaningful demand driver . Apple is by no means the only company to offer a cellular smartwatch, but Android Wear has languished as a smartwatch platform . A new hope For U.S. carriers, cellular smartwatches represent a new potential avenue for growth, as the U.S. smartphone market is already pretty saturated. The overall market for subscribers isn't growing like it used to, and at $10 per month for a smartwatch cellular data plan, carriers have an opportunity to bolster phone bills while delivering a negligible amount of data. (No one watches video or browses the web on a cellular smartwatch.) Story continues That means the carriers themselves have a vested interest in helping distribute as many cellular-equipped Apple Watches as they can, which bodes well for Apple's distribution needs. Apple often discusses iPhone channel inventory on its earnings calls, but unfortunately doesn't share any information regarding Apple Watch channel inventory. The potential risk for both Apple and carriers is that users don't end up using the cellular connectivity as much as they initially thought they would, failing to justify the premium associated (both in up-front price paid to Apple as well as ongoing service fees paid to carriers). But for now, more distribution is a good thing. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and VZ. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Wireless Carriers Sold a Third of All Apple Watches in the U.S. Last Quarter: In the smartphone market, wireless carriers are easily the most important distribution channel for smartphone OEMs. That even applies toApple(NASDAQ: AAPL), despite the fact that it has a huge network of retail stores where consumers can go buy an iPhone directly from the company. Most smartphone buyers still prefer to walk into their carrier's retail stores when it's time to upgrade, as the majority of smartphone OEMs don't have direct distribution.
With Apple Watch getting cellular connectivity in the Series 3 models, it looks like carriers are going to play an increasingly important role in smartwatch distribution.
Apple Watch Series 3 is a hit thanks to cellular connectivity. Image source: Apple.
Apple sold an estimated 2.9 million Apple Watches in the U.S. during the fourth quarter, according to Counterpoint Research (viaFierceWireless). Of those, a whopping 975,000 units -- over a third -- were sold through the four major wireless carriers, withVerizonleading the way. Big Red noted on its last conference call that it activated 550,000 other connected devices that primarily consisted of wearables.
Analyst Jeff Fieldhack believes that about half of Apple Watch's U.S. unit volumes were sold directly through Apple Stores. Within carrier smartwatch sales, Apple accounts for approximately 90% of all sales, Fieldhack estimates, underscoring how strong Apple's grip is on the growing smartwatch market.
While I had someinitial doubts, adding cellular connectivity is turning out to be ameaningful demand driver. Apple is by no means the only company to offer a cellular smartwatch, but Android Wear haslanguished as a smartwatch platform.
For U.S. carriers, cellular smartwatches represent a new potential avenue for growth, as the U.S. smartphone market is already pretty saturated. The overall market for subscribers isn't growing like it used to, and at $10 per month for a smartwatch cellular data plan, carriers have an opportunity to bolster phone bills while delivering a negligible amount of data. (No one watches video or browses the web on a cellular smartwatch.)
That means the carriers themselves have a vested interest in helping distribute as many cellular-equipped Apple Watches as they can, which bodes well for Apple's distribution needs. Apple often discusses iPhone channel inventory on its earnings calls, but unfortunately doesn't share any information regarding Apple Watch channel inventory.
The potential risk for both Apple and carriers is that users don't end up using the cellular connectivity as much as they initially thought they would, failing to justify the premium associated (both in up-front price paid to Apple as well as ongoing service fees paid to carriers). But for now, more distribution is a good thing.
More From The Motley Fool
• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
Evan Niu, CFAowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and VZ. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || A golden opportunity just opened up for cryptocurrency traders: charts trader screen Lucas Jackson/Reuters Bitcoin is trading at a big premium in South Korea thanks to bullish news out of the country. That provides a golden opportunity for traders to make a profit. A golden opportunity just opened up for cryptocurrency traders. The price of bitcoin is trading at a big premium in South Korea relative to US markets, according to data from CoinMarketCap . The price of bitcoin is trading close to $11,800 a coin on Upbit and Bithumb, the two main South Korean exchanges. That's more than 13% higher than the price on GDAX, the US exchange operated by cryptocurrency company Coinbase. Such price differences are a darling of so-called arbitrage traders who can buy up the coin where it's trading lower and then sell where it's trading higher, and pocket the difference. The spread between different exchanges has tightened since the beginning of the new year, but bullish news in South Korea appears to have pushed its market higher. "While the threat of heavy regulation, or even a total ban on exchange trading, has hovered over bitcoin in recent weeks, reports this morning that the South Korean government are softening their stance have given traders confidence to buy," Dennis de Jong, a managing director at UFX.com, a brokerage, told Reuters . To be sure, taking advantage of price difference between exchanges in different countries is easier said than done. As noted by Bloomberg , South Korea's regulators require residents to file extensive paperwork to move more than $50,000 per year outside the country. Still, traders are a crafty bunch. Bloomberg outlined one trader's strategy that "involves buying ether in Korea, transfering it to an offshore venue, exchanging it for bitcoin, transferring the bitcoin back to Korea, and cashing out." Still, the strategy is only profitable if ether is trading at a smaller premium relative to bitcoin's premium. Related: NOW WATCH: Forget 'Make America Great Again' — Wharton professor says Trump has been terrible for America's brand See Also: Ex-JPMorgan trader turned bitcoin fund manager: 'There’s trench warfare going on between analogue and digital financial services' JPMORGAN: Cryptos face a major hurdle even if they become widely accepted as money Bitcoin is nearing $10,000 for the first time in 2 weeks View comments || A golden opportunity just opened up for cryptocurrency traders: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
• Bitcoin is trading at a big premium in South Korea thanks to bullish news out of the country.
• That provides a golden opportunity for traders to make a profit.
A golden opportunity just opened up for cryptocurrency traders.
The price of bitcoin is trading at a big premium in South Korea relative to US markets, according to data fromCoinMarketCap. The price of bitcoin is trading close to $11,800 a coin on Upbit and Bithumb, the two main South Korean exchanges. That's more than 13% higher than the price on GDAX, the US exchange operated by cryptocurrency company Coinbase.
Such price differences are a darling of so-called arbitrage traders who can buy up the coin where it's trading lower and then sell where it's trading higher, and pocket the difference. The spread between different exchanges has tightened since the beginning of the new year, but bullish news in South Korea appears to have pushed its market higher.
"While the threat of heavy regulation, or even a total ban on exchange trading, has hovered over bitcoin in recent weeks, reports this morning that the South Korean government are softening their stance have given traders confidence to buy," Dennis de Jong, a managing director at UFX.com, a brokerage,told Reuters.
To be sure, taking advantage of price difference between exchanges in different countries is easier said than done.
As noted by Bloomberg, South Korea's regulators require residents to file extensive paperwork to move more than $50,000 per year outside the country. Still, traders are a crafty bunch. Bloomberg outlined one trader's strategy that "involves buying ether in Korea, transfering it to an offshore venue, exchanging it for bitcoin, transferring the bitcoin back to Korea, and cashing out."
Still, the strategy is only profitable if ether is trading at a smaller premium relative to bitcoin's premium.
Related:
NOW WATCH:Forget 'Make America Great Again' — Wharton professor says Trump has been terrible for America's brand
See Also:
• Ex-JPMorgan trader turned bitcoin fund manager: 'There’s trench warfare going on between analogue and digital financial services'
• JPMORGAN: Cryptos face a major hurdle even if they become widely accepted as money
• Bitcoin is nearing $10,000 for the first time in 2 weeks || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks were set to turn in strong gains after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its January meeting, but major benchmarks retreated in the last hours of the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) moved above 25,000 but ultimately closed at 24,797.78. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) gave up about half a percentage point. Today's stock market Index Percentage Change Point Change Dow (0.67%) (166.97) S&P 500 (0.55%) (14.93) Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Interest-rate-sensitive real estate shares tumbled, with the Vanguard REIT ETF (NYSEMKT: VNQ) losing 2%. Energy producers were also hit hard today; the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSEMKT: XOP) dropped 2.4%. As for individual stocks, Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP) rose on a big earnings beat, and Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) fell after production problems hurt profit. Flags on the New York Stock Exchange Image source: Getty Images. Advance Auto Parts beats earnings expectations Retailer Advance Auto Parts announced fourth-quarter sales and earnings that beat estimates, and shares jumped 8.2%. Revenue declined 2.2% to $2.04 billion and adjusted earnings per share fell to $0.77 compared with $1.00 a year earlier. However, analysts were expecting the company to earn only $0.63 per share on sales of $2.02 billion. Comparable-store sales fell 2.6% and gross margin dropped 69 basis points, due primarily to increased supply chain costs. The company generated free cash flow of $171 million, far above earlier guidance of $60 million. "Through the strong dedication of our entire team, we continued to close the performance gap versus the industry and our laser focus on working capital enabled a 56% increase in free cash flow in a difficult sales environment," said CEO Tom Greco in the press release. "As we enter the second year of our transformation plan, we still have a lot that we want to accomplish." This was the second quarter in a row Advance Auto Parts has announced declining results that still beat estimates and revved up the stock. Management set a low bar for 2018 with sales guidance of $9.1 billion to $9.4 billion, compared with the analyst consensus of $9.5 billion. Story continues Devon shares drilled on profit miss Oil exploration and production company Devon Energy reported disappointing profit on lower-than-expected production levels in the fourth quarter, and the stock fell 11.8%. Revenue was up 42% to $3.98 billion, and well ahead of analyst expectations of $3.52 billion in sales. But core earnings per share came in at $0.38, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63. Devon produced an average of 548,000 oil-equivalent barrels (BOE) per day in Q4. Guidance from last quarter was for production to be between 551,000 and and 571,000. The company said that the shortfall was caused by timing issue with well tie-ins in the STACK shale play in Oklahoma and steam constraints in the Jackfish complex in Canada, both temporary issues. Looking forward, Devon expects full-year production to increase to a range of 552,000 BOE per day to 576,000 BOE per day, compared with 543,000 in 2017. But the company pointed out that its strategy is not based on growing production rapidly. "With our disciplined multi-year plan, Devon will accelerate value creation through the pursuit of capital-efficient cash-flow growth and portfolio simplification, not top-line production growth," said CEO Dave Hager in the press release. Devon expects to generate $2.5 billion in cumulative cash flow through 2020, and exited the quarter with $2.7 billion in cash on hand. Fourth quarter free cash flow was a negative $81 million, so the company has a way to go to meet its goals. But the market was ignoring the longer term today, and seemed to be more focused on short-term production. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Jim Crumly has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks were set to turn in strong gains after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its January meeting, but major benchmarks retreated in the last hours of the session. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)moved above 25,000 but ultimately closed at 24,797.78. TheS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)gave up about half a percentage point.
[{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "(0.67%)", "Point Change": "(166.97)"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "(0.55%)", "Point Change": "(14.93)"}]
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Interest-rate-sensitive real estate shares tumbled, with theVanguard REIT ETF(NYSEMKT: VNQ)losing 2%. Energy producers were also hit hard today; theSPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF(NYSEMKT: XOP)dropped 2.4%.
As for individual stocks,Advance Auto Parts(NYSE: AAP)rose on a big earnings beat, andDevon Energy(NYSE: DVN)fell after production problems hurt profit.
Image source: Getty Images.
Retailer Advance Auto Parts announced fourth-quarter sales and earnings that beat estimates, and shares jumped 8.2%. Revenue declined 2.2% to $2.04 billion and adjusted earnings per share fell to $0.77 compared with $1.00 a year earlier. However, analysts were expecting the company to earn only $0.63 per share on sales of $2.02 billion.
Comparable-store sales fell 2.6% and gross margin dropped 69 basis points, due primarily to increased supply chain costs. The company generated free cash flow of $171 million, far above earlier guidance of $60 million.
"Through the strong dedication of our entire team, we continued to close the performance gap versus the industry and our laser focus on working capital enabled a 56% increase in free cash flow in a difficult sales environment," said CEO Tom Greco in the press release. "As we enter the second year of our transformation plan, we still have a lot that we want to accomplish."
This was thesecond quarter in a rowAdvance Auto Parts has announced declining results that still beat estimates and revved up the stock. Management set a low bar for 2018 with sales guidance of $9.1 billion to $9.4 billion, compared with the analyst consensus of $9.5 billion.
Oil exploration and production company Devon Energy reported disappointing profit on lower-than-expectedproduction levelsin the fourth quarter, and the stock fell 11.8%. Revenue was up 42% to $3.98 billion, and well ahead of analyst expectations of $3.52 billion in sales. But core earnings per share came in at $0.38, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63.
Devon produced an average of 548,000 oil-equivalent barrels (BOE) per day in Q4. Guidance from last quarter was for production to be between 551,000 and and 571,000. The company said that the shortfall was caused by timing issue with well tie-ins in theSTACK shale playin Oklahoma and steam constraints in the Jackfish complex in Canada, both temporary issues.
Looking forward, Devon expects full-year production to increase to a range of 552,000 BOE per day to 576,000 BOE per day, compared with 543,000 in 2017. But the company pointed out that its strategy is not based on growing production rapidly. "With our disciplined multi-year plan, Devon will accelerate value creation through the pursuit of capital-efficient cash-flow growth and portfolio simplification, not top-line production growth," said CEO Dave Hager in the press release.
Devon expects to generate $2.5 billion in cumulative cash flow through 2020, and exited the quarter with $2.7 billion in cash on hand. Fourth quarter free cash flow was a negative $81 million, so the company has a way to go to meet its goals. But the market was ignoring the longer term today, and seemed to be more focused on short-term production.
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Jim Crumlyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Snap Wants to Copy One of Its Biggest Investors: Tencent(NASDAQOTH: TCEHY)has been an investor inSnap(NYSE: SNAP)since 2013, when it was still going by Snapchat. The Chinese company behind WeChat upped its stake significantly at the end of last year. Snap disclosed that Tencent had taken abouta 12% shareof the company.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has long regarded Tencent as a model worth emulating and expanded on that idea at a recent investors conference. "Tencent very early on understood the power of communication because it drives frequency," he said. "And if you can be the service that's most frequently used on someone's phone, you're able to develop a lot of other ancillary businesses around that engagement."
WeChat has turned into something of a Swiss army knife in China, supporting online and in-store payments, a feed of photos, videos, and posts from friends, and the ability to hail a taxi, all on top of its core messaging capabilities. It also feeds Tencent's growing gaming, video, and music businesses. Tencent generated nearly $10 billion in revenue in the third quarter thanks to its growing presence on people's smartphones.
Image source: Snap.
WeChat and Snapchat are both dominant forces on smartphones in their most popular markets.
Chinese users spend well over 60 minutes per day using WeChat and average over 10 sessions per day.Leaked datafrom Snapchat shows users averaged around 34 minutes per day last summer. Younger users spent more time -- Spiegel says users under 25 spend 40 minutes per day -- and they also open the app more often at a rate of 20 times per day versus 12 times for users over 25.
That frequency of use is extremely enviable.Facebook(NASDAQ: FB), for example, might have users spending a bit more time in its flagship app, an average of 40 minutes in the U.S., but users only average 5 or 6 sessions per day. Facebook's messaging apps, Messenger and WhatsApp, likely see much higher frequency.
Snapchat has already taken some steps that clearly emulate Tencent's efforts to monetize a communication service.
WeChat Pay is a primary source of payment for many consumers in China. In 2014, Snap experimented with a way to send money to friends calledSnapcash. The initiative failed to catch on, but no other messaging service -- including Facebook's -- has been able to emulate Tencent's success in payments, either.
Tencent also launched a video platform in 2011 as an offshoot of its popular QQ online portal. Snap launched Discover in 2015 as a platform for professional content publishers to reach its audience. Ads in Discover were one of Snap's earliest sources of revenue, and it paid out $100 million in revenue-sharing payments last year.
WeChat incorporated a feed -- Moments -- in 2013. It clearly drew a lot of inspiration from Facebook, but WeChat showed a feed can be part of a messaging app. Snapchat drew from that trend for itsredesign, which features an algorithm-sorted feed of content from friends, mixing direct messages and the stories format.
Snapchat remains a relatively small platform; its 187 million daily users is dwarfed by WeChat's 902 million daily users. Even bigger are Facebook's WhatsApp (1.5 billion MAUs) and Messenger (1.3 billion MAUs).
That makes Facebook a major threat to Snap, one Tencent doesn't have to worry about because Facebook doesn't operate in China. Facebook has already had a majorimpact on Snap's operationsby copying the Stories format in Instagram, and later expanding it to other apps. With hundreds of millions of users already using its apps, Facebook's ability to replicate features from Snapchat makes it hard for Snapchat to attract new users.
That said, the users Snapchat does have are highly engaged, which is, as Spiegel points out, very valuable. If Snapchat can expand like Tencent has, it could be able to generate a lot of revenue from its users. Tencent is generating around $10 billion per quarter, but it's worth remembering that most of its users are in China, where user monetization levels are well below North America and Western Europe -- which are the source of most of Snapchat's users.
The question for investors is, can Snapchat execute better and faster than Facebook? So far, it hasn't proven that's the case.
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Adam Levyowns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Tencent Holdings. The Motley Fool has the following options: short March 2018 $200 calls on Facebook and long March 2018 $170 puts on Facebook. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || This Upstart Cryptocurrency Exchange Is Making Inroads in Canada: Coinsquare Cryptocurrency and precious metals exchange Coinsquare is taking steps toward its goal of leading the cryptocurrency exchange market in Canada. On February 20, 2018, it announced a new partnership with Processing.com , after wrapping up a recent investment of $30 million, for a total $47 million raised in the last four months. The partnership with Processing.com will allow Coinsquare to facilitate instant fiat currency payments of digital currencies for the general public through debit and credit card transactions. In a release, Processing.com’s James Bergman said: “We are very excited to partner with such a respected and fast-growing trading platform as Coinsquare. As digital currencies increasingly make their way into the mainstream conscious, service providers have a responsibility to ensure the broader public can access the rapidly growing blockchain ecosystem.” Besides increasing its Canadian market share, Coinsquare also has plans to move on to establishing new exchanges internationally, initially in the U.S. and the U.K. Coinsquare CEO Cole Diamond acknowledges that he is continuing original owner Virgile Rostand’s marketing strategy of emphasizing Coinsquare’s Canadian foundations, with its economic and political stability and relatively light regulatory environment. Diamond said : “Virgile Rostand, Coinsquare's founder, was an early industry pioneer and blue-chip banking industry veteran. He built a custom platform that is unrivaled in Canada, boasting extremely high security standards." Coinsquare is also continuing Rostand’s unprecedented service to the French-speaking community. In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine , Diamond noted: “We are the only trading platform that we know of that has a French website. Five percent of our users view our website in French, and we have been commended for it and are proud of it.” A recent review of exchanges by education website Blockgeeks, placed Coinsquare in the top 10 exchanges. Forex also reviewed Coinsquare and gave it a thumbs up. Despite positive reviews, however, there have been some dissatisfied customers who have voiced concerns on social platforms and below the Forex review. Common complaints cite long wait times, lost funds, high fees and a non-responsive staff. Comments on other sites also mentioned an unclear fee structure and lack of customer support. Coinsquare has not responded to request for comment from Bitcoin Magazine regarding these concerns. Canadian compliance expert, Amber D. Scott, CEO of Outlier Solutions told Bitcoin Magazine : "With price volatility and a massive influx of new clients, most exchanges are likely having some growing pains and Coinsquare is likely no exception." Coinsquare, based in Toronto, Canada, wants to diversify its business beyond cryptocurrency holdings. The company already has its own mining operation with 2 MW of power and 1700 mining units in operation. They are planning to invest in two more mines. Canada, particularly the province of Quebec, is attracting lots of interest from mining companies based on inexpensive electricity and cooler temperatures. “Canada is about to become a central source,” explained Diamond in a recent interview with Global News . “I think there’s definitely a rush happening now. I think we’re going to have a significant amount of mining in the next few months.” Trading precious metals is also a part of Coinsquare’s diversified holdings. They trade in silver coins and silver and gold bars. Coinsquare is planning a Trading and Arbitrage division to take advantage of cross exchange and hedge opportunities. Also in the works is the launch of CoinCap Funds, a group of funds focused on investments across the digital asset landscape. According to Coinsquare, they store 98 percent of their assets in cold storage and their trading platform is based on the same technology as that used by the NYSE. While Bitfinex and Coinbase announced recently they are adopting SegWit, Coinsquare does not have any plans to follow suit just yet.“The decision to use Segwit is an ongoing discussion at Coinsquare and we are not for or against it at this time,” said Diamond. Meanwhile, they are working on developing trading platforms for international markets and white labelling and licensing its technology for markets around the world. Coinsquare offers trading in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Dogecoin and Litecoin and has a special OTC service for those wanting to trade large amounts. Scott is optimistic about the future for Coinsquare: “At this stage, Canada has taken a relatively light touch from a regulatory perspective. This has been a boon for exchanges like Coinsquare in many ways. They’ve been able to focus on managing their risks and building their business, rather than fitting into paradigms that weren’t built with them in mind.” Story continues Marketing Strategy Diversification as a Priority Security This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || This Upstart Cryptocurrency Exchange Is Making Inroads in Canada: Cryptocurrency and precious metals exchangeCoinsquareis taking steps toward its goal of leading the cryptocurrency exchange market in Canada. On February 20, 2018, it announced a new partnership withProcessing.com, after wrapping up a recent investment of $30 million, for a total $47 million raised in the last four months.
The partnership with Processing.com will allow Coinsquare to facilitate instant fiat currency payments of digital currencies for the general public through debit and credit card transactions.
In a release, Processing.com’s James Bergman said:
“We are very excited to partner with such a respected and fast-growing trading platform as Coinsquare. As digital currencies increasingly make their way into the mainstream conscious, service providers have a responsibility to ensure the broader public can access the rapidly growing blockchain ecosystem.”
Besides increasing its Canadian market share, Coinsquare also has plans to move on to establishing new exchanges internationally, initially in the U.S. and the U.K.
Coinsquare CEO Cole Diamond acknowledges that he is continuing original owner Virgile Rostand’s marketing strategy of emphasizing Coinsquare’s Canadian foundations, with its economic and political stability and relatively light regulatory environment.
Diamondsaid:“Virgile Rostand, Coinsquare's founder, was an early industry pioneer and blue-chip banking industry veteran. He built a custom platform that is unrivaled in Canada, boasting extremely high security standards."
Coinsquare is also continuing Rostand’s unprecedented service to the French-speaking community.
In an interview withBitcoin Magazine, Diamond noted:“We are the only trading platform that we know of that has a French website. Five percent of our users view our website in French, and we have been commended for it and are proud of it.”
A recentreview of exchangesby education website Blockgeeks, placed Coinsquare in the top 10 exchanges. Forex alsoreviewedCoinsquare and gave it a thumbs up.
Despite positive reviews, however, there have been some dissatisfied customers who have voiced concerns on social platforms and below the Forex review. Common complaints cite long wait times, lost funds, high fees and a non-responsive staff. Comments on other sites also mentioned an unclear fee structure and lack of customer support. Coinsquare has not responded to request for comment fromBitcoin Magazineregarding these concerns.
Canadian compliance expert, Amber D. Scott, CEO of Outlier Solutions toldBitcoin Magazine: "With price volatility and a massive influx of new clients, most exchanges are likely having some growing pains and Coinsquare is likely no exception."
Coinsquare, based in Toronto, Canada, wants to diversify its business beyond cryptocurrency holdings.
The company already has its own mining operation with 2 MW of power and 1700 mining units in operation.
They are planning to invest in two more mines. Canada, particularly the province of Quebec, isattracting lots of interestfrom mining companies based on inexpensive electricity and cooler temperatures.
“Canada is about to become a central source,” explained Diamond in a recentinterview with Global News. “I think there’s definitely a rush happening now. I think we’re going to have a significant amount of mining in the next few months.”
Trading precious metals is also a part of Coinsquare’s diversified holdings. Theytradein silver coins and silver and gold bars.
Coinsquare is planning a Trading and Arbitrage division to take advantage of cross exchange and hedge opportunities.
Also in the works is the launch of CoinCap Funds, a group of funds focused on investments across the digital asset landscape.
According to Coinsquare, they store 98 percent of their assets in cold storage and their trading platform is based on the same technology as that used by the NYSE.
While Bitfinex and Coinbase announced recently they are adopting SegWit, Coinsquare does not have any plans to follow suit just yet.“The decision to use Segwit is an ongoing discussion at Coinsquare and we are not for or against it at this time,” said Diamond.
Meanwhile, they are working on developing trading platforms for international markets and white labelling and licensing its technology for markets around the world.
Coinsquare offers trading in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Dogecoin and Litecoin and has a specialOTC servicefor those wanting to trade large amounts.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Another Robotics ETF Is Coming: Among thematic exchange-traded funds, two of the most popular focus on the artificial intelligence and robotics investment themes. At least one ETF issuer thinks there's room for another artificial intelligence and robotics fund.
Illinois-based First Trust on Thursday plans to launch theFirst Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence and Robotics ETF. That ETF will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ROBT.” The new First Trust ETF will track the Nasdaq CTA Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Index.
“The index, which is developed by Nasdaq and the Consumer Technology Association (“CTA”), is designed to track the performance of companies engaged in artificial intelligence (“AI”), robotics and automation,”according to a statementfrom First Trust.
Stiff Competition
The First Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence and Robotics ETF is entering a small, though competitive part of the ETF landscape. TheROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF(NASDAQ:ROBO), the first dedicated robotics ETF, topped $2 billion in assets under management last month andnow has $2.28 billionin assets. ROBO debuted in October 2013.
TheGlobal X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF(NASDAQ:BOTZ) turns two years old in September and that ETF has $2.29 billion in assets under management. BOTZ tracks the Indxx Global Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index.
TheAI Powered Equity ETF(NYSE:AIEQ) andBUZ ETFarealso in the AI space.
The new First Trust ETF could make inroads against its established rivals with a lower fee. BOTZ is the cheaper of the two existing robotics ETFs with an annual expense ratio of 0.68 percent, or $68 on a $10,000 investment. The First Trust statement doesn't mention an expense ratio for ROBT.
A Bet On The Future
Investors are embracing robotics ETFs due in part to an expected boom in demand in the years ahead for artificial intelligence and robotics technologies. An array of sectors, including healthcare, industrials and technology, are expected to increase use of robotics platforms and technologies in the coming year.
“Many of the technological developments taking place in AI, robotics, and automation are astounding, and we believe there are strong incentives, in both the public and the private sector, to find ways to harness these innovations,” First Vice President Ryan Issakainen said in the statement. “As a leading provider of thematic ETFs, we are excited to offer ROBT as a way for investors to gain exposure to this dynamic investment theme.”
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© 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Are Plunging Today -- Why?: Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is down 10% on Wednesday, pumping the brakes on the digital currency's impressive rally over the past couple of weeks. Most other cryptocurrencies are down as well, although there really isn't any bad news that appears to be causing the drop. Here's a rundown of Wednesday's cryptocurrency prices, as well as how seven traders were able to buy bitcoin for free, at least for a short while.
Here's a look at the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours.
[{"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin (BTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$10,548.00", "Day's Change": "(10%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ethereum (ETH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$834.76", "Day's Change": "(10.1%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ripple (XRP)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.97", "Day's Change": "(10%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin Cash (BCH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$1,299.20", "Day's Change": "(13%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Litecoin (LTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$213.21", "Day's Change": "(12%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Cardano (ADA)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.34", "Day's Change": "(7.4%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "NEO (NEO)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$119.01", "Day's Change": "(10.2%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Stellar (XLM)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.38", "Day's Change": "(6.8%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "EOS (EOS)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$8.27", "Day's Change": "(11.2%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Dash (DASH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$677.36", "Day's Change": "(7.6%)"}]
Data Source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of Feb. 21, 2018 at 2:15 p.m. EST, and prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate.
If it were just bitcoin (BTC-USD) that was pulling back, it could be attributed to profit taking or just a cooling-off of therecent rally. After all, bitcoin's price has risen from a low of $6,000 to a peak of well over $11,000 in just a couple of weeks. Even after Wednesday's 10% decline, the leading cryptocurrency is up more than 15% over the past week alone.
However, this is a broad cryptocurrency sell-off, as can be seen in the chart above. All of the top five digital currencies are down by double-digit percentages, and it is not until the 18th largest cryptocurrency (Tether) that one is in the green today.
Furthermore, Wednesday's sell-off is occurring without any major negative catalysts. There were a few minor international headlines concerning bitcoin regulation. Specifically, it was reported that local police in Bangladesh are cracking down on cryptocurrency users (cryptocurrencies are illegal there), andFortunereported that Iran's stance on cryptocurrencies may be significantly tougher than previously thought.
Image source: Getty Images.
One of the stranger bitcoin stories to come out recently occurred in Japan, where cryptocurrency exchange Zaif experienced a glitch that listed the current price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) at $0, and seven people noticed and took advantage.
While all but one of these transactions have been voided as of this writing (and the seventh is in the process of being resolved), this comes after fellow Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked and over $500 million of NEM coins were stolen.
Japan is the most active cryptocurrency market in the world, with 16 government-registered exchanges that plan to create a self-regulating body. Japan, unlike most countries, recognizes bitcoin as a legal method of payment and formally gave merchants permission to accept bitcoin payments in 2017.
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Matt Frankelowns Ethereum and Litecoin tokens. The Motley Fool has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Are Plunging Today -- Why?: Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is down 10% on Wednesday, pumping the brakes on the digital currency's impressive rally over the past couple of weeks. Most other cryptocurrencies are down as well, although there really isn't any bad news that appears to be causing the drop. Here's a rundown of Wednesday's cryptocurrency prices, as well as how seven traders were able to buy bitcoin for free, at least for a short while. Today's cryptocurrency prices Here's a look at the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours. Cryptocurrency Name (Code) Price in U.S. Dollars Day's Change Bitcoin (BTC) $10,548.00 (10%) Ethereum (ETH) $834.76 (10.1%) Ripple (XRP) $0.97 (10%) Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $1,299.20 (13%) Litecoin (LTC) $213.21 (12%) Cardano (ADA) $0.34 (7.4%) NEO (NEO) $119.01 (10.2%) Stellar (XLM) $0.38 (6.8%) EOS (EOS) $8.27 (11.2%) Dash (DASH) $677.36 (7.6%) Data Source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of Feb. 21, 2018 at 2:15 p.m. EST, and prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate. If it were just bitcoin (BTC-USD) that was pulling back, it could be attributed to profit taking or just a cooling-off of the recent rally . After all, bitcoin's price has risen from a low of $6,000 to a peak of well over $11,000 in just a couple of weeks. Even after Wednesday's 10% decline, the leading cryptocurrency is up more than 15% over the past week alone. However, this is a broad cryptocurrency sell-off, as can be seen in the chart above. All of the top five digital currencies are down by double-digit percentages, and it is not until the 18th largest cryptocurrency ( Tether ) that one is in the green today. Furthermore, Wednesday's sell-off is occurring without any major negative catalysts. There were a few minor international headlines concerning bitcoin regulation. Specifically, it was reported that local police in Bangladesh are cracking down on cryptocurrency users (cryptocurrencies are illegal there), and Fortune reported that Iran's stance on cryptocurrencies may be significantly tougher than previously thought. Story continues Stacks of gold coins with a bitcoin symbol on them. Image source: Getty Images. Is bitcoin going to $0? It did on one exchange -- by accident One of the stranger bitcoin stories to come out recently occurred in Japan, where cryptocurrency exchange Zaif experienced a glitch that listed the current price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) at $0, and seven people noticed and took advantage. While all but one of these transactions have been voided as of this writing (and the seventh is in the process of being resolved), this comes after fellow Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked and over $500 million of NEM coins were stolen. Japan is the most active cryptocurrency market in the world, with 16 government-registered exchanges that plan to create a self-regulating body. Japan, unlike most countries, recognizes bitcoin as a legal method of payment and formally gave merchants permission to accept bitcoin payments in 2017. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matt Frankel owns Ethereum and Litecoin tokens. The Motley Fool has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Are Plunging Today -- Why?: Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is down 10% on Wednesday, pumping the brakes on the digital currency's impressive rally over the past couple of weeks. Most other cryptocurrencies are down as well, although there really isn't any bad news that appears to be causing the drop. Here's a rundown of Wednesday's cryptocurrency prices, as well as how seven traders were able to buy bitcoin for free, at least for a short while.
Here's a look at the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and how much each has changed over the past 24 hours.
[{"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin (BTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$10,548.00", "Day's Change": "(10%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ethereum (ETH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$834.76", "Day's Change": "(10.1%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ripple (XRP)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.97", "Day's Change": "(10%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin Cash (BCH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$1,299.20", "Day's Change": "(13%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Litecoin (LTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$213.21", "Day's Change": "(12%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Cardano (ADA)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.34", "Day's Change": "(7.4%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "NEO (NEO)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$119.01", "Day's Change": "(10.2%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Stellar (XLM)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.38", "Day's Change": "(6.8%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "EOS (EOS)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$8.27", "Day's Change": "(11.2%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Dash (DASH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$677.36", "Day's Change": "(7.6%)"}]
Data Source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of Feb. 21, 2018 at 2:15 p.m. EST, and prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate.
If it were just bitcoin (BTC-USD) that was pulling back, it could be attributed to profit taking or just a cooling-off of therecent rally. After all, bitcoin's price has risen from a low of $6,000 to a peak of well over $11,000 in just a couple of weeks. Even after Wednesday's 10% decline, the leading cryptocurrency is up more than 15% over the past week alone.
However, this is a broad cryptocurrency sell-off, as can be seen in the chart above. All of the top five digital currencies are down by double-digit percentages, and it is not until the 18th largest cryptocurrency (Tether) that one is in the green today.
Furthermore, Wednesday's sell-off is occurring without any major negative catalysts. There were a few minor international headlines concerning bitcoin regulation. Specifically, it was reported that local police in Bangladesh are cracking down on cryptocurrency users (cryptocurrencies are illegal there), andFortunereported that Iran's stance on cryptocurrencies may be significantly tougher than previously thought.
Image source: Getty Images.
One of the stranger bitcoin stories to come out recently occurred in Japan, where cryptocurrency exchange Zaif experienced a glitch that listed the current price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) at $0, and seven people noticed and took advantage.
While all but one of these transactions have been voided as of this writing (and the seventh is in the process of being resolved), this comes after fellow Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked and over $500 million of NEM coins were stolen.
Japan is the most active cryptocurrency market in the world, with 16 government-registered exchanges that plan to create a self-regulating body. Japan, unlike most countries, recognizes bitcoin as a legal method of payment and formally gave merchants permission to accept bitcoin payments in 2017.
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• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
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Matt Frankelowns Ethereum and Litecoin tokens. The Motley Fool has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Blockchain is entering the valley of despair phase, and that’s a mistake: I’ve had a number of conversations with blockchain-focused people over the past few weeks. In some of those conversations — particularly with engineers — there is a palpable excitement and a belief that this technology is going to end up being their life’s work. As one blockchain hacker told me this past week, “It’s going to be a multi-decade long battle against the technologies that have been weaponized against us,” referring to the technology of the attentional economy. On the other hand, I’ve had significantly more morose conversations with investors who are starting to lose faith in blockchain as a medium for investment returns. ICOs are still happening of course , and investors are still clamoring to gain access to the best ones. But there is a remarkable cooling of the excitement thermometer, particularly from investors who were investing for financial returns rather than faith in blockchain as a decentralizing force. I see the past near-universal excitement around blockchain diverging along two arcs. The tinkerers and hackers exploring this technology have never been more enthusiastic, yet some of the financiers and investors exploiting the technology for profit are starting to lose interest and entering the valley of despair. But that’s a mistake since it follows the wrong arc forward. The excitement around blockchain over the past few years has been intensified by the convergence of these two groups working in parallel. For a disruptive technology, blockchain managed to capture the imagination of investors shockingly early compared to its antecedents. Take the internet, for instance. The early protocols and packet-switching technology was invented in the 1960s, and email roughly as we know it was developed throughout the 1970s. Yet, it wasn’t until 1995 that commercial websites were even authorized to run on the internet. Three decades passed before entrepreneurs and investors were able to invest in companies built on top of this technology. Compare that to Bitcoin, which kicked off the modern blockchain movement. The original Satoshi white paper on Bitcoin was released in late 2008. The first run-up in prices happens in mid-2011, then again in late 2013, and then the most recent peak in early December of 2017. So the technology got about three years before it was the focus of intense investment speculation, which really hasn’t abated since. We can see the difference in the arcs between the hackers and the financiers. The hackers of the internet played with this new technology, expanded its boundaries and functionality, and created new products on top of it for decades, mostly with no sign that any of their work would pay off monetarily. Today, the legacy of that work lies in the open-source community, which continues to push this technology forward. Story continues The financiers mostly ignored the software internet, instead funding the hardware infrastructure companies that produced packet-switching devices and other networking equipment. They didn’t show up until what would become the dot-com bubble of the 1990s. That sequential pattern of technology development was parallelize with blockchain. The hackers continue to tinker and expand the functionality of the technology. They are still exploring the possibilities here. The financiers though invested far earlier in the technology maturation process, and are suddenly finding out that blockchain is very, very early. No wonder some of them are running away at the first sign that the bubble wasn’t what they thought it might be. So we begin to enter the valley of despair, when the technology loses its charm among a certain type of investor who will complain that they lost their shirt in the market and that the technology is “dead” or whatever other metaphor they will use. You can already sense this in some of the media coverage of the technology , and it is only going to get more intense I fear. However, it would be an enormous mistake to hone in on the investor arc, and not center our attention on the hacker arc. Investors are not the story about blockchain, the engineers are. Engineers are going to keep playing with this technology, and they are the ones who will eventually discover the “killer apps” that ultimately drive the value here. That might happen this year, or it might happen a decade from now or longer. The potential of a disruptive technology like blockchain will take decades to fully understand. You don’t have to be a True Believer to participate in that progress, but you do need insatiable curiosity and an eye on the frontier. So don’t despair at the valley of despair. Instead, see it as an opportunity to flush out all the speculation (and the speculators themselves) and return the field back to the people who are actually going to be building the future rather than just trying to make a quick buck. Those fleeing investors will be back when we need them. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch . Related Video: View comments || Blockchain is entering the valley of despair phase, and that’s a mistake: I’ve had a number of conversations with blockchain-focused people over the past few weeks. In some of those conversations — particularly with engineers — there is a palpable excitement and a belief that this technology is going to end up being their life’s work. As one blockchain hacker told me this past week, “It’s going to be a multi-decade long battle against the technologies that have been weaponized against us,” referring to the technology of the attentional economy.
On the other hand, I’ve had significantly more morose conversations with investors who are starting to lose faith in blockchain as a medium for investment returns.ICOs are still happening of course, and investors are still clamoring to gain access to the best ones. But there is a remarkable cooling of the excitement thermometer, particularly from investors who were investing for financial returns rather than faith in blockchain as a decentralizing force.
I see the past near-universal excitement around blockchain diverging along two arcs. The tinkerers and hackers exploring this technology have never been more enthusiastic, yet some of the financiers and investors exploiting the technology for profit are starting to lose interest and entering the valley of despair. But that’s a mistake since it follows the wrong arc forward.
The excitement around blockchain over the past few years has been intensified by the convergence of these two groups working in parallel. For a disruptive technology, blockchain managed to capture the imagination of investors shockingly early compared to its antecedents.
Take the internet, for instance. The early protocols and packet-switching technology was invented in the 1960s, and email roughly as we know it was developed throughout the 1970s. Yet, it wasn’t until 1995 that commercial websites were even authorized to run on the internet. Three decades passed before entrepreneurs and investors were able to invest in companies built on top of this technology.
Compare that to Bitcoin, which kicked off the modern blockchain movement. Theoriginal Satoshi white paper on Bitcoinwas released in late 2008. The first run-up in prices happens in mid-2011, then again in late 2013, and then the most recent peak in early December of 2017. So the technology got about three years before it was the focus of intense investment speculation, which really hasn’t abated since.
We can see the difference in the arcs between the hackers and the financiers. The hackers of the internet played with this new technology, expanded its boundaries and functionality, and created new products on top of it for decades, mostly with no sign that any of their work would pay off monetarily. Today, the legacy of that work lies in the open-source community, which continues to push this technology forward.
The financiers mostly ignored the software internet, instead funding the hardware infrastructure companies that produced packet-switching devices and other networking equipment. They didn’t show up until what would become the dot-com bubble of the 1990s.
That sequential pattern of technology development was parallelize with blockchain. The hackers continue to tinker and expand the functionality of the technology. They are still exploring the possibilities here. The financiers though invested far earlier in the technology maturation process, and are suddenly finding out that blockchain is very, very early. No wonder some of them are running away at the first sign that the bubble wasn’t what they thought it might be.
So we begin to enter the valley of despair, when the technology loses its charm among a certain type of investor who will complain that they lost their shirt in the market and that the technology is “dead” or whatever other metaphor they will use. You can already sense this insome of the media coverage of the technology, and it is only going to get more intense I fear.
However, it would be an enormous mistake to hone in on the investor arc, and not center our attention on the hacker arc. Investors are not the story about blockchain, the engineers are. Engineers are going to keep playing with this technology, and they are the ones who will eventually discover the “killer apps” that ultimately drive the value here. That might happen this year, or it might happen a decade from now or longer.
The potential of a disruptive technology like blockchain will take decades to fully understand. You don’t have to be a True Believer to participate in that progress, but you do need insatiable curiosity and an eye on the frontier.
So don’t despair at the valley of despair. Instead, see it as an opportunity to flush out all the speculation (and the speculators themselves) and return the field back to the people who are actually going to be building the future rather than just trying to make a quick buck. Those fleeing investors will be back when we need them.
• This article originally appeared onTechCrunch.
Related Video: || Google Plays Catch-Up in the Enterprise: Android may be the dominant mobile operating system in the world on the consumer front, but the platform's position in the enterprise is much weaker. Nearly 90% of all smartphones globally run Android, according toGartner, butAlphabet(NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL)subsidiary Google only has about a 30% share of the enterprise market. Meanwhile,Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)continues to move deeper and deeper into the enterprise, growing its stable of partners.
Google is starting to push harder in the enterprise.
Image source: Getty Images.
The search giant has announced a new Android Enterprise Recommended program, which the company hopes will help address certain friction points that hinder Android adoption within companies. "Some of the top concerns we've heard from customers include the need for frequent security updates, reliable and consistent software experiences, and simplified device selection," Android Enterprise director David Still wrote in a blog post.
Under the new program, Google will validate and certify specific Android devices for use in the enterprise, while providing tools that will help enterprise customers select, deploy, and manage those devices. Some of the requirements include minimum hardware specs for Android 7.0, support of bulk deployment, and prompt software updates, among others.
The company lists nearly two dozen devices that are certified, including Google's own Pixel lineup, of course -- Google penned a separate blog post highlighting that Pixel and Pixel 2 had earned the Android Enterprise Recommended seal of approval -- but there is a particular smartphone OEM that is notably absent:Samsung. As the dominant Android vendor in the world, it seems peculiar, but Still says more certified devices will be added in the "coming weeks and months."
In recent years, Apple has been expanding aggressively in the enterprise, thanks in part to partnerships that bolster distribution with enterprise channel partners and foster enterprise app development. For example, the 2014 deal withIBMrepresented astrategic turning point, and in the years since, the Mac maker has added companies likeCiscoandAccentureto its list, among others.
A whopping 99% of enterprise organizations use iPhones and iPads, and 91% of those companies are now starting to adopt Macs, according to a report last year from Jamf, which makes enterprise mobile device management software. On the November earnings call, CFO Luca Maestri said, "Beyond our iOS devices, we're also seeing great traction for Mac in the enterprise market with all-time record customer purchases in fiscal year 2017."
One key reason Apple has been able to make such impressive progress is that its platform is far less fragmented, a notorious and long-standing problem with Android. Prompt software updates are particularly important, as they often include crucial security improvements. The new Android Enterprise Recommended program hopes to mitigate fragmentation by compiling a manageable list of devices for companies to choose from, but the search giant still has a long way to go to catch up with Apple in the enterprise.
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Evan Niu, CFAowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Accenture and Cisco Systems. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Google Plays Catch-Up in the Enterprise: Android may be the dominant mobile operating system in the world on the consumer front, but the platform's position in the enterprise is much weaker. Nearly 90% of all smartphones globally run Android, according to Gartner , but Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) subsidiary Google only has about a 30% share of the enterprise market. Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) continues to move deeper and deeper into the enterprise, growing its stable of partners. Google is starting to push harder in the enterprise. Businessman using a smartphone at an airport Image source: Getty Images. Google's new enterprise seal of approval The search giant has announced a new Android Enterprise Recommended program, which the company hopes will help address certain friction points that hinder Android adoption within companies. "Some of the top concerns we've heard from customers include the need for frequent security updates, reliable and consistent software experiences, and simplified device selection," Android Enterprise director David Still wrote in a blog post. Under the new program, Google will validate and certify specific Android devices for use in the enterprise, while providing tools that will help enterprise customers select, deploy, and manage those devices. Some of the requirements include minimum hardware specs for Android 7.0, support of bulk deployment, and prompt software updates, among others. The company lists nearly two dozen devices that are certified, including Google's own Pixel lineup, of course -- Google penned a separate blog post highlighting that Pixel and Pixel 2 had earned the Android Enterprise Recommended seal of approval -- but there is a particular smartphone OEM that is notably absent: Samsung . As the dominant Android vendor in the world, it seems peculiar, but Still says more certified devices will be added in the "coming weeks and months." Playing catch-up In recent years, Apple has been expanding aggressively in the enterprise, thanks in part to partnerships that bolster distribution with enterprise channel partners and foster enterprise app development. For example, the 2014 deal with IBM represented a strategic turning point , and in the years since, the Mac maker has added companies like Cisco and Accenture to its list, among others. Story continues A whopping 99% of enterprise organizations use iPhones and iPads, and 91% of those companies are now starting to adopt Macs, according to a report last year from Jamf, which makes enterprise mobile device management software. On the November earnings call, CFO Luca Maestri said, "Beyond our iOS devices, we're also seeing great traction for Mac in the enterprise market with all-time record customer purchases in fiscal year 2017." One key reason Apple has been able to make such impressive progress is that its platform is far less fragmented, a notorious and long-standing problem with Android. Prompt software updates are particularly important, as they often include crucial security improvements. The new Android Enterprise Recommended program hopes to mitigate fragmentation by compiling a manageable list of devices for companies to choose from, but the search giant still has a long way to go to catch up with Apple in the enterprise. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Accenture and Cisco Systems. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Nokia Makes a Surprising Comeback in Smartphones: Nokia(NYSE: NOK)Mobile sold 4.4 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2017 and claimed 1% of the global market, according to research firm Counterpoint. That figure seems tiny, but it makes Nokia the 11th largest smartphone brand in the world, putting it ahead ofHTC,Sony,Alphabet's(NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG)Google,Lenovo, andAsus.
Nokia's comeback was fueled by robust sales in the U.K., Russia, Vietnam, and most Middle East markets. It ranked in the top five across all of those markets and hit third place in the U.K. for the first time during the quarter.
Nokia 6. Image source: Nokia.
Nokia Mobile sold 8.7 million smartphones in 2017, its first full year after being "reborn" underHMD Globalin mid-2016. That's an incredible market debut compared with the iPhone and Nokia Lumia -- which sold 1.7 million and 2.9 million devices, respectively, in their first full year of sales.
This seems like great news for Nokia, but it only generates licensing revenue from sales of these smartphones, because of the convoluted history of its mobile brand. Let's look back at what happened to the Nokia brand over the past decade, and what its rebound in the mobile market means for investors.
WhenApple(NASDAQ: AAPL)launched the iPhone in 2007, Nokia controlled over half of the global market for smartphones, which were mostly considered pricey gadgets for enterprise users. In 2008, Google introduced Android, a free open-source operating system (OS) for original equipment manufacturers that wanted to quickly launch new devices to challenge the iPhone.
Image source: Getty Images.
Nokia realized that Apple was developing the iPhone as early as 2005, but it didn't launch a pre-emptive strike, because of the company's conservative management, overconfidence in its brand, and misplaced faith in its Symbian OS. Nokia also failed to understand that Apple and Google were pivoting smartphones toward mainstream consumers instead of enterprise ones.
By 2013, Nokia's share of the smartphone market had dropped to about 2%. The mobile market had become a duopoly between Apple and Google, while mainstream consumers and app developers shunned Symbian.
In 2014,Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT)bought Nokia's handset business as a first-party platform for Windows Phone, which was also struggling against iOS and Android. That eleventh-hour effort flopped, resulting in amultibillion-dollarwritedown for Microsoft a year later, and Nokia/Microsoft's share of the smartphone market plunged below 1%. Last October, Microsoft admitted that Windows Phone was a lost cause and announced that it wouldstop developingnew software and hardware for Windows 10 Mobile.
When Nokia sold its handset unit to Microsoft, it didn't sell its brand. Instead, it signed a non-compete agreement with Microsoft that barred it from selling Nokia-branded devices until the end of 2016. That's why Microsoft rebranded its Nokia Lumia devices as "Microsoft Lumia" in late 2014.
After sellling its handset unit to Microsoft, Nokia turned its attention toward its networking equipment business. It then formed a new unit, Nokia Technologies, which housed its brand licensing business. Since Nokia sold all its mobile device manufacturing facilities to Microsoft, it couldn't simply start producing smartphones again.
Yet Nokia remained interested in mobile devices. In late 2014, Nokia partnered withFoxconnto create the N1 Android tablet, a Nokia-designed device that Foxconn manufactured, distributed, and sold. Foxconn shouldered all the production costs and reaped the profits, while Nokia received licensing payments.
Nokia realized that it could apply the same strategy to smartphones after its non-compete agreement with Microsoft expired. That's why private equity fund Smart Connect formed a new company -- led by former Nokia executives -- called HMD Global in 2016.
Nokia 8. Image source: Nokia.
HMD obtained the exclusive global license (excluding Japan) to create Nokia-branded phones and tablets over the next decade, and it signed a contract to exclusively source the production of the devices to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile.
HMD and FIH Mobile then co-purchased Nokia's feature-phone business from Microsoft, completing the "rebirth" of Nokia's handset unit under a new banner.
HMD launched its first device, the Android-powered Nokia 6, for the Chinese market in early 2017. The market receptionwas surprisingly warm, and HMD subsequently launched the Nokia 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 in other markets.
Counterpoint's latest numbers suggest that these devices are winning over consumers, thanks to HMD's embrace of Android, low prices, positive reviews, and the nostalgic appeal of the Nokia brand.
Nokia Technologies' revenue rose 57% annually in fiscal 2017 and accounted for 7% of its top line. The unit's operating profit surged 94% and accounted for 43% of Nokia's operating income.
Nokia doesn't disclose how much of the total comes from HMD's licensing payments, but rising sales of its new smartphones would definitely bolster the business. The growth of that high-margin business would offset the softer growth of its core Nokia Networks business, which still faces tough competition from rivals such as Huawei andEricsson.
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Leo Sunhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Nokia Makes a Surprising Comeback in Smartphones: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Mobile sold 4.4 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2017 and claimed 1% of the global market, according to research firm Counterpoint. That figure seems tiny, but it makes Nokia the 11th largest smartphone brand in the world, putting it ahead of HTC , Sony , Alphabet 's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google, Lenovo , and Asus . Nokia's comeback was fueled by robust sales in the U.K., Russia, Vietnam, and most Middle East markets. It ranked in the top five across all of those markets and hit third place in the U.K. for the first time during the quarter. Four Nokia 6 phones stacked upright. Nokia 6. Image source: Nokia. Nokia Mobile sold 8.7 million smartphones in 2017, its first full year after being "reborn" under HMD Global in mid-2016. That's an incredible market debut compared with the iPhone and Nokia Lumia -- which sold 1.7 million and 2.9 million devices, respectively, in their first full year of sales. This seems like great news for Nokia, but it only generates licensing revenue from sales of these smartphones, because of the convoluted history of its mobile brand. Let's look back at what happened to the Nokia brand over the past decade, and what its rebound in the mobile market means for investors. 2007-2014: Losing the smartphone market When Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) launched the iPhone in 2007, Nokia controlled over half of the global market for smartphones, which were mostly considered pricey gadgets for enterprise users. In 2008, Google introduced Android, a free open-source operating system (OS) for original equipment manufacturers that wanted to quickly launch new devices to challenge the iPhone. A man in a suit looks at a red line crashing through the floor, indicative of a plummeting stock chart. Image source: Getty Images. Nokia realized that Apple was developing the iPhone as early as 2005, but it didn't launch a pre-emptive strike, because of the company's conservative management, overconfidence in its brand, and misplaced faith in its Symbian OS. Nokia also failed to understand that Apple and Google were pivoting smartphones toward mainstream consumers instead of enterprise ones. Story continues By 2013, Nokia's share of the smartphone market had dropped to about 2%. The mobile market had become a duopoly between Apple and Google, while mainstream consumers and app developers shunned Symbian. In 2014, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) bought Nokia's handset business as a first-party platform for Windows Phone, which was also struggling against iOS and Android. That eleventh-hour effort flopped, resulting in a multibillion-dollar writedown for Microsoft a year later, and Nokia/Microsoft's share of the smartphone market plunged below 1%. Last October, Microsoft admitted that Windows Phone was a lost cause and announced that it would stop developing new software and hardware for Windows 10 Mobile. 2015-2018: An unexpected comeback When Nokia sold its handset unit to Microsoft, it didn't sell its brand. Instead, it signed a non-compete agreement with Microsoft that barred it from selling Nokia-branded devices until the end of 2016. That's why Microsoft rebranded its Nokia Lumia devices as "Microsoft Lumia" in late 2014. After sellling its handset unit to Microsoft, Nokia turned its attention toward its networking equipment business. It then formed a new unit, Nokia Technologies, which housed its brand licensing business. Since Nokia sold all its mobile device manufacturing facilities to Microsoft, it couldn't simply start producing smartphones again. Yet Nokia remained interested in mobile devices. In late 2014, Nokia partnered with Foxconn to create the N1 Android tablet, a Nokia-designed device that Foxconn manufactured, distributed, and sold. Foxconn shouldered all the production costs and reaped the profits, while Nokia received licensing payments. Nokia realized that it could apply the same strategy to smartphones after its non-compete agreement with Microsoft expired. That's why private equity fund Smart Connect formed a new company -- led by former Nokia executives -- called HMD Global in 2016. An up-close detail of a Nokia 8. Nokia 8. Image source: Nokia. HMD obtained the exclusive global license (excluding Japan) to create Nokia-branded phones and tablets over the next decade, and it signed a contract to exclusively source the production of the devices to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile. HMD and FIH Mobile then co-purchased Nokia's feature-phone business from Microsoft, completing the "rebirth" of Nokia's handset unit under a new banner. HMD launched its first device, the Android-powered Nokia 6, for the Chinese market in early 2017. The market reception was surprisingly warm , and HMD subsequently launched the Nokia 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 in other markets. Counterpoint's latest numbers suggest that these devices are winning over consumers, thanks to HMD's embrace of Android, low prices, positive reviews, and the nostalgic appeal of the Nokia brand. What does this mean for Nokia? Nokia Technologies' revenue rose 57% annually in fiscal 2017 and accounted for 7% of its top line. The unit's operating profit surged 94% and accounted for 43% of Nokia's operating income. Nokia doesn't disclose how much of the total comes from HMD's licensing payments, but rising sales of its new smartphones would definitely bolster the business. The growth of that high-margin business would offset the softer growth of its core Nokia Networks business, which still faces tough competition from rivals such as Huawei and Ericsson . More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || All Markets Summit: Crypto Podcasts: Listen to theYahoo Finance Present Podcasthere or onApple Podcasts,Google PlayorStitcher.
It should come as no surprise that the CEOs of Blockchain and Chain, two leading companies in the bitcoin and blockchain industry, have both personally bought into cryptocurrencies. But their investing strategies sound different, and a lot more restrained, than the broader, vocal crypto crowd. At the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit: Crypto, Peter Smith and Adam Ludwin share their thinking with Yahoo Finance’s Dan Roberts.
There’s a new option when it comes to buying cryptocurrencies. Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group announced the launch of a digital large cap fund at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit: Crypto. Here’s Yahoo Finance’s Editor in Chief Andy Serwer with Barry Silbert.
There are few people who can generate the amount of excitement among the cryptocurrency community as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. At Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit: Crypto, Garlinghouse spoke with Yahoo Finance Editor in Chief Andy Serwer and Dan Roberts about his blockchain payment startup Ripple, the digital coin XRP, and why he’s long Bitcoin.
Invest at your own risk. That was the message from cryptocurrency pros at Yahoo Finance’s summit. Grant Fondo, a partner at Goodwin Procter, and Chamber of Digital Commerce President Perianne Boring told Rick Newman about how investors should protect themselves and what trends may shape the future for cryptocurrencies.
Listen to theYahoo Finance Present Podcasthere or onApple Podcasts,Google PlayorStitcher.
[Social Media Buzz]
De prijs van een #Bitcoin is momenteel USD $10160.00
#YourDailyBitcoin #BTC #CryptoCurrency #Blockchain #Yamacoins #XYCpic.twitter.com/YK5ruRdxSL || #BTC Average: 9971.23$
#Bitfinex - 9943.80$
#Poloniex - 9945.00$
#Bitstamp - 9960.00$
#Coinbase - 9930.00$
#Binance - 9925.07$
#CEXio - 10062.40$
#Kraken - 9940.00$
#Cryptopia - 9830.99$
#Bittrex - 9975.00$
#GateCoin - 10200.00$
#Bitcoin #Exchanges #Price || Cotizaciones al 22/02/2018 12:00 PM
Bitcoin (BTC): 55.061.945
Ethereum (ETH): 4.448.833
Li...
|
10301.10, 9813.07, 9664.73, 10366.70, 10725.60, 10397.90, 10951.00, 11086.40, 11489.70, 11512.60
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 665.30, 665.12, 629.37, 655.28, 647.00, 639.89, 673.34, 676.30, 703.70, 658.66, 683.66, 670.63, 677.33, 640.56, 666.52, 650.96, 649.36, 647.66, 664.55, 654.47, 658.08, 663.26, 660.77, 679.46, 673.11, 672.86, 665.68, 665.01, 650.62, 655.56, 661.28, 654.10, 651.78, 654.35, 655.03, 656.99, 655.05, 624.68, 606.27, 547.47, 566.35, 578.29, 575.04, 587.78, 592.69, 591.05, 587.80, 592.10, 589.12, 587.56, 585.59, 570.47, 567.24, 577.44, 573.22, 574.32, 575.63, 581.70, 581.31, 586.75, 583.41, 580.18, 577.76, 579.65, 569.95, 573.91, 574.11, 577.50, 575.47, 572.30, 575.54, 598.21, 608.63, 606.59, 610.44, 614.54, 626.32, 622.86, 623.51, 606.72, 608.24, 609.24, 610.68, 607.16, 606.97, 605.98, 609.87, 609.23, 608.31, 597.15.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-09-21]
Volume: 82776200, RSI (14-day): 45.09, 50-day EMA: 602.70, 200-day EMA: 550.14
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1326.90, Gold RSI: 51.07
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Flow Study Gets More Caribbean Students Closer to Examination Success: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 20, 2016) - As parents and students get fully into the new school term, Flow unveils its e-learning platform, Flow Study , an online portal to help students better prepare for the CAPE and CSEC examinations. One of the most significant features of Flow Study is that it offers access to a comprehensive range of educational materials, including exam strategies, past paper solutions, CyberPedia and virtual labs, that students can access from multiple devices including smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. The portal is also linked to video-based tutorials via Flow TV on Demand. Ricardo D. Allen , head of One On One Educational Services , is the founder and developer of the Flow Study program. For the last several years, his team has been preparing students for the CSEC mathematics exam, maintaining a 100 percent pass rate with an average of 83 percent of these students, attaining a grade one. Flow sees the partnership with One to One as an opportunity to twin the educational expertise and successful track record of One on One with Flow's world class technological platform to significantly expand access to e-learning to thousands more Caribbean students. "Our partnership with One On One Educational Services enables us to deliver the highest-quality educational content via our industry-leading technology, giving Caribbean students a better opportunity to excel," said Michele English, Acting President of Flow. "The platform supplements classroom learning and gives students the ability to study anytime, anywhere. It's the future of studying and we are pleased to offer this opportunity to our customers," she stated. The App offers free access to basic study materials to all Flow's broadband customers. Parents who want more specialized and detailed material for their children, can access additional subjects and content for a small fee that they will be able to pay through their Flow bill or prepaid balance. Story continues Getting started is simple -- visit www.flowstudy.co , 'login' to register for a free FLOW ID. Download the Flow Study app on your mobile device from the Google Play Store to access learning material and you're on your way to better grades. Flow Study is available across all Flow markets except Curacao. About C&W Communications CWC is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network - the most extensive in the region - in over 30 markets. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058430 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058433 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058436 || Flow Study Gets More Caribbean Students Closer to Examination Success: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 20, 2016) - As parents and students get fully into the new school term,Flowunveils its e-learning platform,Flow Study,an online portal to help students better prepare for the CAPE and CSEC examinations.
One of the most significant features ofFlow Studyis that it offers access to a comprehensive range of educational materials, including exam strategies, past paper solutions, CyberPedia and virtual labs, that students can access from multiple devices including smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. The portal is also linked tovideo-based tutorialsviaFlow TV on Demand.
Ricardo D. Allen, head ofOne On One Educational Services, is the founder and developer of the Flow Study program. For the last several years, his team has been preparing students for the CSEC mathematics exam, maintaining a 100 percent pass rate with an average of 83 percent of these students, attaining a grade one. Flow sees the partnership with One to One as an opportunity to twin the educational expertise and successful track record of One on One with Flow's world class technological platform to significantly expand access to e-learning to thousands more Caribbean students.
"Our partnership with One On One Educational Services enables us to deliver the highest-quality educational content via our industry-leading technology, giving Caribbean students a better opportunity to excel," said Michele English, Acting President of Flow. "The platform supplements classroom learning and gives students the ability to study anytime, anywhere. It's the future of studying and we are pleased to offer this opportunity to our customers," she stated.
The App offers free access to basic study materials to all Flow's broadband customers. Parents who want more specialized and detailed material for their children, can access additional subjects and content for a small fee that they will be able to pay through their Flow bill or prepaid balance.
Getting started is simple --visitwww.flowstudy.co,'login' to register for a freeFLOW ID.Download the Flow Study app on your mobile device from theGoogle Play Storeto access learning material and you're on your way to better grades. Flow Study is available across all Flow markets except Curacao.
About C&W CommunicationsCWC is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network - the most extensive in the region - in over 30 markets.
Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter.
About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points.
Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets.
For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com.
Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058430Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058433Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058436 || You're So Money: NY Judge Rules Bitcoin Qualify As 'Funds': A New York judge ruled bitcoin qualifies as money as part of a judgment related to a case over hacking attacks againstJPMorgan Chase & Co.(NYSE:JPM) and other companies, according to a report onFortune.
The report said U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected Anthony Murgio's bid to dismiss two charges regarding his alleged operation of Coin.mx. Prosecutors have called Coin.mx an "unlicensed bitcoin exchange."
Related Link:What Is Blockchain, And Why Should You Care?
But, Nathan ruled bitcoin satisfies the definition of a virtual currency.
"Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term. Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment," Fortune reported, quoting Nathan.
Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision.
Last year, prosecutors charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx and in April charged his father, Michael, with participating in bribery to support the exchange.
Full ratings data available on Benzinga Pro.
Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email [email protected] with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card!
See more from Benzinga
• On Deck Has 'More Powerful Future Operating Leverage'
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || You're So Money: NY Judge Rules Bitcoin Qualify As 'Funds': A New York judge ruled bitcoin qualifies as money as part of a judgment related to a case over hacking attacks againstJPMorgan Chase & Co.(NYSE:JPM) and other companies, according to a report onFortune.
The report said U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected Anthony Murgio's bid to dismiss two charges regarding his alleged operation of Coin.mx. Prosecutors have called Coin.mx an "unlicensed bitcoin exchange."
Related Link:What Is Blockchain, And Why Should You Care?
But, Nathan ruled bitcoin satisfies the definition of a virtual currency.
"Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term. Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment," Fortune reported, quoting Nathan.
Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision.
Last year, prosecutors charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx and in April charged his father, Michael, with participating in bribery to support the exchange.
Full ratings data available on Benzinga Pro.
Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email [email protected] with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card!
See more from Benzinga
• On Deck Has 'More Powerful Future Operating Leverage'
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || You're So Money: NY Judge Rules Bitcoin Qualify As 'Funds': A New York judge ruled bitcoin qualifies as money as part of a judgment related to a case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM ) and other companies, according to a report on Fortune . The report said U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected Anthony Murgio's bid to dismiss two charges regarding his alleged operation of Coin.mx. Prosecutors have called Coin.mx an "unlicensed bitcoin exchange." Related Link: What Is Blockchain, And Why Should You Care? But, Nathan ruled bitcoin satisfies the definition of a virtual currency. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term. Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment," Fortune reported, quoting Nathan. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. Last year, prosecutors charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx and in April charged his father, Michael, with participating in bribery to support the exchange. Full ratings data available on Benzinga Pro. Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email [email protected] with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card! See more from Benzinga On Deck Has 'More Powerful Future Operating Leverage' © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || NetCents Now Offering User Purchasing With Amazon, Overstock, Ebay, Shopify, Expedia: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 20, 2016 /NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) ("NetCents" or the "Company")is pleased to announce that its users are now able to make purchases online with some of the biggest names in retailers and travel companies such as Amazon, Overstock, Ebay, Shopify, and Expedia.
NetCents newly updated and innovative Digital Payment Platform closes the loop in becoming a full service payment processor. NetCents users can now purchase online with many of the well-known names that accept digital currency for their goods and services. NetCents' easy to use digital platform offers streamlined digital currency purchasing to companies such as Amazon, Overstock, Ebay, Bloomberg, Shopify, Dell, and Expedia.
"NetCents users are already making purchases online from companies such as Overstock.com, Amazon, Expedia, which is another step in our accelerated initiatives to make NetCents an industry leader. Our comprehensive Digital Currency Platform streamlines merchant processing and consumer payments. Our system reduces fees while providing ample space for emerging and existing companies to evolve with the least amount of growing pains," commented Clayton Moore, CEO and Founder of NetCents. "Over the last 18 months NetCents has partnered and integrated with some of the world's largest exchanges, PayPal, Apple Pay and have opened up consumer deposits in 194 countries. NetCents is fully registered and licensed processor that offers the easiest and quickest way to buy, sell and purchase with digital currencies like Bitcoin. Positioning NetCents as an industry leader in the digital currency space."
About NetCents
NetCents is an electronic payments technology company offering consumers and merchants online services for managing electronic payments by a variety of payments methods through its processing platform. NetCents works with its financial partners, mobile operators, exchanges, etc. to streamline the process and user experience of transacting online. The NetCents platform is integrated into the Automated Clearing House ("ACH") through the Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC", "Royal Bank"). NetCents is available for deposits from 194 Countries around the World, providing you with the freedom to choose to Pay. Your Way.
For more information, please visit the corporate website atwww.netcents.bizor contact Robert Meister, Capital Markets at Ph: 604.676.5248 or email:[email protected].
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
NetCents Technology Inc.Clayton Moore, Founder/CEO
NetCents Technology Inc.Suite 1500, 885 West Georgia StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6C 3E8
The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Information
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakesno obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
SOURCE:NetCents Technology Inc. || Your first trade for Tuesday, September 20: The " Fast Money " traders shared their first moves for the market open. Tim Seymour was a buyer of General Motors ( GM ) . David Seaburg was a buyer of Sarepta Therapeutics ( SRPT ) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of Apache ( APA ) . Dan Nathan was a seller of the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSE Arca: XHB) . Trader disclosure: On September 19, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, TLT, VXX, XLF, XOP, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY=. Dan Nathan is Long TWTR, long PYPL call calendar, Long FEZ Nov put spread, long EEM Nov put spread, long XHB jan put spread, long XLK Jan put spread, XLU Dec call spread. Tim Seymour is long APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GRMN, GE, INTC, LQD, M, MCD, MPEL, NKE, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, UA, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, HD, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short HYG, IWM, UAL. David Seaburg: Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. Diamond Offshore: an employee of Cowen and Company, LLC serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Offshore. EXPE, HZNP, VA – Not Approved. BofA Merrill Lynch's Jessica Reif Cohen: MLPF&S or one of its affiliates has a significant financial interest in the fixed income instruments of the issuer. If this report was issued on or after the 15th day of the month, it reflects a significant financial interest on the last day of the previous month. Reports issued before the 15th day of the month reflect a significant financial interest at the end of the second month preceding the report. MLPF&S or an affiliate was a manager of a public offering of securities of this issuer within the last 12 months. One or more analysts responsible for covering the securities in this report owns stock of the covered issuer. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, an investment banking client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates. MLPF&S or an affiliate has received compensation for investment banking services from this issuer within the past 12 months. MLPF&S or an affiliate expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking services from this issuer or an affiliate of the issuer within the next three months. MLPF&S or an affiliate has received compensation from the issuer for non-investment banking services or products within the past 12 months. MLPF&S or one of its affiliates has a significant financial interest in the fixed income instruments of the issuer. If this report was issued on or after the 15th day of the month, it reflects a significant financial interest on the last day of the previous month. Reports issued before the 15th day of the month reflect a significant financial interest at the end of the second month preceding the report. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, a non-securities business client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates: CMCSA, CBS, FOX. MLPF&S or an affiliate was a manager of a public offering of securities of this issuer within the last 12 months. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, an investment banking client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates. MLPF&S or an affiliate has received compensation for investment banking services from this issuer within the past 12 months. MLPF&S or an affiliate expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking services from this issuer or an affiliate of the issuer within the next three months. MLPF&S or one of its affiliates has a significant financial interest in the fixed income instruments of the issuer. If this report was issued on or after the 15th day of the month, it reflects a significant financial interest on the last day of the previous month. Reports issued before the 15th day of the month reflect a significant financial interest at the end of the second month preceding the report. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, a non-securities business client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates: SIRI || Your first trade for Tuesday, September 20: The "Fast Money" traders shared their first moves for the market open.
Tim Seymour was a buyer of General Motors(GM).
David Seaburg was a buyer of Sarepta Therapeutics(SRPT).
Brian Kelly was a buyer of Apache(APA).
Dan Nathan was a seller of the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF(NYSE Arca: XHB).
Trader disclosure: On September 19, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, TLT, VXX, XLF, XOP, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY=. Dan Nathan is Long TWTR, long PYPL call calendar, Long FEZ Nov put spread, long EEM Nov put spread, long XHB jan put spread, long XLK Jan put spread, XLU Dec call spread. Tim Seymour is long APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GRMN, GE, INTC, LQD, M, MCD, MPEL, NKE, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, UA, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, HD, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short HYG, IWM, UAL. David Seaburg: Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. Diamond Offshore: an employee of Cowen and Company, LLC serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Offshore. EXPE, HZNP, VA – Not Approved.
BofA Merrill Lynch's Jessica Reif Cohen:MLPF&S or one of its affiliates has a significant financial interest in the fixed income instruments of the issuer. If this report was issued on or after the 15th day of the month, it reflects a significant financial interest on the last day of the previous month. Reports issued before the 15th day of the month reflect a significant financial interest at the end of the second month preceding the report. MLPF&S or an affiliate was a manager of a public offering of securities of this issuer within the last 12 months. One or more analysts responsible for covering the securities in this report owns stock of the covered issuer. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, an investment banking client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates. MLPF&S or an affiliate has received compensation for investment banking services from this issuer within the past 12 months. MLPF&S or an affiliate expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking services from this issuer or an affiliate of the issuer within the next three months. MLPF&S or an affiliate has received compensation from the issuer for non-investment banking services or products within the past 12 months. MLPF&S or one of its affiliates has a significant financial interest in the fixed income instruments of the issuer. If this report was issued on or after the 15th day of the month, it reflects a significant financial interest on the last day of the previous month. Reports issued before the 15th day of the month reflect a significant financial interest at the end of the second month preceding the report. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, a non-securities business client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates: CMCSA, CBS, FOX.
MLPF&S or an affiliate was a manager of a public offering of securities of this issuer within the last 12 months. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, an investment banking client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates. MLPF&S or an affiliate has received compensation for investment banking services from this issuer within the past 12 months. MLPF&S or an affiliate expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking services from this issuer or an affiliate of the issuer within the next three months. MLPF&S or one of its affiliates has a significant financial interest in the fixed income instruments of the issuer. If this report was issued on or after the 15th day of the month, it reflects a significant financial interest on the last day of the previous month. Reports issued before the 15th day of the month reflect a significant financial interest at the end of the second month preceding the report. The issuer is or was, within the last 12 months, a non-securities business client of MLPF&S and/or one or more of its affiliates: SIRI || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange.
Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses.
But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition.
"Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment."
The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote.
Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision.
"Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added.
Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it.
Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people.
That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said.
Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed.
The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange.
Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses.
But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition.
"Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment."
The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote.
Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision.
"Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added.
Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it.
Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people.
That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said.
Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed.
The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) View comments || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) View comments || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) View comments
[Social Media Buzz]
21Sep2016 12:00 UTC #Bitcoin #Blockchain status - Last 24h: 141 blocks mined - 2,390,992 BTC output - 239,061 transactions || LIVE: Profit = $54.13 (11.22 %). BUY B0.89 @ $599.99 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $606.00 (#BitKonan) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org || $598.39 #bitfinex;
$598.28 #GDAX;
$594.50 #OKCoin;
$600.20 #btce;
$596.00 #bitstamp;
$596.07 #itBit;
#bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse || $596.57 #bitfinex;
$597.92 #GDAX;
$592.09 #OKCoin;
$602.00 #btce;
$594.09 #bitstamp;
$595.3...
|
596.30, 602.84, 602.62, 600.83, 608.04, 606.17, 604.73, 605.69, 609.73, 613.98
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57, 8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62, 8228.78, 8595.74, 8586.47, 8321.76, 8336.56, 8321.01, 8374.69, 8205.37, 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-11-03]
Volume: 21132220847, RSI (14-day): 58.32, 50-day EMA: 8924.37, 200-day EMA: 8693.21
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Germany says Bitcoin is ‘not real money’: The German Federal Parliament has claimed that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are “not real money”. The statement on Monday was essentially a formal response to the growing international concern over the economic effects of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency after the government was questioned on the subject by the Free Democratic Party. The government clarified the basic features of money as a means of payment, a store of value, and a unit of account. The statement also points to the fact that the volume of payments carried out using crypto is limited when compared to fiat currencies. Is Europe against cryptocurrencies? As reported by Coin Rivet last month, a number of EU member states such as Germany, France, and the UK have all hardened their stances against cryptocurrencies. Some governments now seem as though they’re starting to fear the real power of cryptocurrencies, especially as a means to store value. In addition, the topic of cryptocurrencies – mainly stablecoins – was addressed at this year’s G7 summit in France. The G7 member states argued that due to their potentially large size and reach, stablecoins could also pose challenges to fair competition, financial stability, monetary policy, and – in an extreme scenario – the international monetary system. These challenges stem in part from the fact that stablecoins could one day transform from a cross-border payment solution to assets with money-like features. Are stablecoins facing harder regulation? Last month, finance ministers in France declared that they will “block Facebook’s Libra project” as it poses a threat to monetary sovereignty. Portugal’s finance minister Mourinho Félix also underlined his country’s aversion to the project in a recent interview , saying: “Portugal shares the concern of other European countries regarding Facebook’s cryptocurrency.” Moreover, an influential British parliamentary committee wants to “probe” Facebook’s controversial Libra cryptocurrency project amid fears that the social media giant’s move into the financial sector will grant it too much power. Story continues In particular, the UK parliament is concerned about Facebook’s ability to safeguard the personal financial details of billions of users after a string of controversial privacy scandals. Ministers in Germany have also expressed concerns over how Libra may develop within the EU, given it would take power away from monetary and fiscal policies. It’s not only Western countries that are up in arms about stablecoins either. Russia has claimed that it may ban Facebook and Telegram if the US decides to block the launch of Libra. According to President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for IT, Dmitry Peskov, if Libra launches without sufficient control measures, “the likelihood of Facebook being blocked ” will increase in Russia. Will cryptocurrencies eventually be blocked? At the moment, it is still too early to tell what will happen in the long term. From a historical perspective, crypto-enthusiasts should expect harder regulation and a firmer stance on the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, or even stablecoins like Facebook’s Libra. Only time will tell how governments in the EU will react to the wider adoption of crypto coins. The post Germany says Bitcoin is ‘not real money’ appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Germany says Bitcoin is ‘not real money’: The German Federal Parliament has claimed that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are “not real money”. The statement on Monday was essentially a formal response to the growing international concern over the economic effects of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency after the government was questioned on the subject by the Free Democratic Party. The government clarified the basic features of money as a means of payment, a store of value, and a unit of account. The statement also points to the fact that the volume of payments carried out using crypto is limited when compared to fiat currencies. Is Europe against cryptocurrencies? As reported by Coin Rivet last month, a number of EU member states such as Germany, France, and the UK have all hardened their stances against cryptocurrencies. Some governments now seem as though they’re starting to fear the real power of cryptocurrencies, especially as a means to store value. In addition, the topic of cryptocurrencies – mainly stablecoins – was addressed at this year’s G7 summit in France. The G7 member states argued that due to their potentially large size and reach, stablecoins could also pose challenges to fair competition, financial stability, monetary policy, and – in an extreme scenario – the international monetary system. These challenges stem in part from the fact that stablecoins could one day transform from a cross-border payment solution to assets with money-like features. Are stablecoins facing harder regulation? Last month, finance ministers in France declared that they will “block Facebook’s Libra project” as it poses a threat to monetary sovereignty. Portugal’s finance minister Mourinho Félix also underlined his country’s aversion to the project in a recent interview , saying: “Portugal shares the concern of other European countries regarding Facebook’s cryptocurrency.” Moreover, an influential British parliamentary committee wants to “probe” Facebook’s controversial Libra cryptocurrency project amid fears that the social media giant’s move into the financial sector will grant it too much power. Story continues In particular, the UK parliament is concerned about Facebook’s ability to safeguard the personal financial details of billions of users after a string of controversial privacy scandals. Ministers in Germany have also expressed concerns over how Libra may develop within the EU, given it would take power away from monetary and fiscal policies. It’s not only Western countries that are up in arms about stablecoins either. Russia has claimed that it may ban Facebook and Telegram if the US decides to block the launch of Libra. According to President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for IT, Dmitry Peskov, if Libra launches without sufficient control measures, “the likelihood of Facebook being blocked ” will increase in Russia. Will cryptocurrencies eventually be blocked? At the moment, it is still too early to tell what will happen in the long term. From a historical perspective, crypto-enthusiasts should expect harder regulation and a firmer stance on the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, or even stablecoins like Facebook’s Libra. Only time will tell how governments in the EU will react to the wider adoption of crypto coins. The post Germany says Bitcoin is ‘not real money’ appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Germany says Bitcoin is ‘not real money’: The German Federal Parliament has claimed that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are “not real money”. The statement on Monday was essentially a formal response to the growing international concern over the economic effects of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency after the government was questioned on the subject by the Free Democratic Party. The government clarified the basic features of money as a means of payment, a store of value, and a unit of account. The statement also points to the fact that the volume of payments carried out using crypto is limited when compared to fiat currencies. Is Europe against cryptocurrencies? As reported by Coin Rivet last month, a number of EU member states such as Germany, France, and the UK have all hardened their stances against cryptocurrencies. Some governments now seem as though they’re starting to fear the real power of cryptocurrencies, especially as a means to store value. In addition, the topic of cryptocurrencies – mainly stablecoins – was addressed at this year’s G7 summit in France. The G7 member states argued that due to their potentially large size and reach, stablecoins could also pose challenges to fair competition, financial stability, monetary policy, and – in an extreme scenario – the international monetary system. These challenges stem in part from the fact that stablecoins could one day transform from a cross-border payment solution to assets with money-like features. Are stablecoins facing harder regulation? Last month, finance ministers in France declared that they will “block Facebook’s Libra project” as it poses a threat to monetary sovereignty. Portugal’s finance minister Mourinho Félix also underlined his country’s aversion to the project in a recent interview , saying: “Portugal shares the concern of other European countries regarding Facebook’s cryptocurrency.” Moreover, an influential British parliamentary committee wants to “probe” Facebook’s controversial Libra cryptocurrency project amid fears that the social media giant’s move into the financial sector will grant it too much power. Story continues In particular, the UK parliament is concerned about Facebook’s ability to safeguard the personal financial details of billions of users after a string of controversial privacy scandals. Ministers in Germany have also expressed concerns over how Libra may develop within the EU, given it would take power away from monetary and fiscal policies. It’s not only Western countries that are up in arms about stablecoins either. Russia has claimed that it may ban Facebook and Telegram if the US decides to block the launch of Libra. According to President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for IT, Dmitry Peskov, if Libra launches without sufficient control measures, “the likelihood of Facebook being blocked ” will increase in Russia. Will cryptocurrencies eventually be blocked? At the moment, it is still too early to tell what will happen in the long term. From a historical perspective, crypto-enthusiasts should expect harder regulation and a firmer stance on the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, or even stablecoins like Facebook’s Libra. Only time will tell how governments in the EU will react to the wider adoption of crypto coins. The post Germany says Bitcoin is ‘not real money’ appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Why Bitcoin is a perceived threat to the US dollar: The US dollar has been the world’s official reserve currency for several decades, yet many in the political sphere believe the rise of Bitcoin could end its global supremacy. During a recent Congress hearing regarding Facebook’s digital currency project Libra, US Congressman Brad Sherman warned Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have the potential to threaten the US dollar’s dominance over the global financial system. “Cryptocurrency either doesn’t work, in which case investors lose a lot of money, or it does achieve its objectives perhaps and displaces the US dollar or interferes with the US dollar being virtually the sole reserve currency in the world,” he said. Sherman claimed the US dollar’s dominance over other currencies brings multiple benefits for Americans, such as profits generated by the Federal Reserve for the US Treasury and the ability to influence other countries’ policies and actions through the use of economic sanctions. “We stand to lose all that because cryptocurrency is the currency of the crypto-patriot,” Sherman argued. Beating the dollar’s monopoly This isn’t the first time politicians have expressed concerns about the impact of Bitcoin on the US dollar. In a May 2018 interview with CNBC , St Louis Fed President James Bullard said while Bitcoin is not a threat at this point, “we don’t know how the future’s going to unfold”. He added: “The dollar has been the winner historically because it’s backed by the largest economy and a relatively stable policy in terms of low inflation, and that’s going to be tough to beat. But a lot of people here want to beat it.” Meanwhile, a Congressional report released at the end of 2013 warned that if greater use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies leads to multiple monetary units, the stability offered by a single, incumbent currency (the US dollar) could be threatened, particularly if new currencies continue to exhibit high volatility. The authors said that if Bitcoins are substituted for dollars on a systematic, long-term basis, it would decrease the need to hold dollars and increase the supply of fiat money. This could reduce the demand for dollars, which would affect the rate of circulation. Story continues “In this case, for the Fed to maintain the same degree of monetary accommodation, it would need to undertake a compensating tightening of monetary policy,” the report said. “At a minimum, a substantial use of Bitcoins could make the measurement of velocity more uncertain, and judging the appropriate stance of monetary policy uncertain.” Crypto appeal grows Although any potential threat to the US dollar looks a long way off, the substantial rise in Bitcoin’s value relative to the US dollar is likely to cause heightened concerns. Some analysts reckon the BTC/USD price could reach $100,000 by the end of 2021. Several countries around the world have also made moves to shift away from the US dollar’s influence. Iran, for instance, recently launched its own cryptocurrency, and a group of several West African states plan to adopt a single fiat currency called the eco by 2020. The biggest disruption to the US dollar’s influence, however, could be the issuance of a digital currency by a major central bank. If national digital currencies enable faster and cheaper international money transfers, they could be seen as realistic alternatives to the US dollar. Viable alternative Whether it is Bitcoin, a national digital currency, or another type of cryptocurrency, there is certainly a growing movement to replace a fiat-based, single-issuer global reserve currency with a sovereign-free, algorithm-based alternative. Many argue it would be more stable and trustworthy than the US dollar. The main arguments against Bitcoin as an alternative are, firstly, a global currency needs to have a flexible supply and, secondly, Bitcoin is too volatile to become a universal settlement token for trading contracts. Some experts, however, argue Bitcoin’s volatility can be overcome by hedging exposure – and not necessarily against the US dollar, but against currency issued by a central bank directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. At the moment, it seems unlikely that major businesses and governments will give up their preference for fiat, which gives them a degree of control. But as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies start to mature and gain wider acceptance, it’s easy to imagine a future in which the US dollar isn’t the world’s sole reserve currency. The post Why Bitcoin is a perceived threat to the US dollar appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Why Bitcoin is a perceived threat to the US dollar: The US dollar has been the world’s official reserve currency for several decades, yet many in the political sphere believe the rise of Bitcoin could end its global supremacy. During a recent Congress hearing regarding Facebook’s digital currency project Libra, US Congressman Brad Sherman warned Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have the potential to threaten the US dollar’s dominance over the global financial system. “Cryptocurrency either doesn’t work, in which case investors lose a lot of money, or it does achieve its objectives perhaps and displaces the US dollar or interferes with the US dollar being virtually the sole reserve currency in the world,” he said. Sherman claimed the US dollar’s dominance over other currencies brings multiple benefits for Americans, such as profits generated by the Federal Reserve for the US Treasury and the ability to influence other countries’ policies and actions through the use of economic sanctions. “We stand to lose all that because cryptocurrency is the currency of the crypto-patriot,” Sherman argued. Beating the dollar’s monopoly This isn’t the first time politicians have expressed concerns about the impact of Bitcoin on the US dollar. In a May 2018 interview with CNBC , St Louis Fed President James Bullard said while Bitcoin is not a threat at this point, “we don’t know how the future’s going to unfold”. He added: “The dollar has been the winner historically because it’s backed by the largest economy and a relatively stable policy in terms of low inflation, and that’s going to be tough to beat. But a lot of people here want to beat it.” Meanwhile, a Congressional report released at the end of 2013 warned that if greater use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies leads to multiple monetary units, the stability offered by a single, incumbent currency (the US dollar) could be threatened, particularly if new currencies continue to exhibit high volatility. The authors said that if Bitcoins are substituted for dollars on a systematic, long-term basis, it would decrease the need to hold dollars and increase the supply of fiat money. This could reduce the demand for dollars, which would affect the rate of circulation. Story continues “In this case, for the Fed to maintain the same degree of monetary accommodation, it would need to undertake a compensating tightening of monetary policy,” the report said. “At a minimum, a substantial use of Bitcoins could make the measurement of velocity more uncertain, and judging the appropriate stance of monetary policy uncertain.” Crypto appeal grows Although any potential threat to the US dollar looks a long way off, the substantial rise in Bitcoin’s value relative to the US dollar is likely to cause heightened concerns. Some analysts reckon the BTC/USD price could reach $100,000 by the end of 2021. Several countries around the world have also made moves to shift away from the US dollar’s influence. Iran, for instance, recently launched its own cryptocurrency, and a group of several West African states plan to adopt a single fiat currency called the eco by 2020. The biggest disruption to the US dollar’s influence, however, could be the issuance of a digital currency by a major central bank. If national digital currencies enable faster and cheaper international money transfers, they could be seen as realistic alternatives to the US dollar. Viable alternative Whether it is Bitcoin, a national digital currency, or another type of cryptocurrency, there is certainly a growing movement to replace a fiat-based, single-issuer global reserve currency with a sovereign-free, algorithm-based alternative. Many argue it would be more stable and trustworthy than the US dollar. The main arguments against Bitcoin as an alternative are, firstly, a global currency needs to have a flexible supply and, secondly, Bitcoin is too volatile to become a universal settlement token for trading contracts. Some experts, however, argue Bitcoin’s volatility can be overcome by hedging exposure – and not necessarily against the US dollar, but against currency issued by a central bank directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. At the moment, it seems unlikely that major businesses and governments will give up their preference for fiat, which gives them a degree of control. But as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies start to mature and gain wider acceptance, it’s easy to imagine a future in which the US dollar isn’t the world’s sole reserve currency. The post Why Bitcoin is a perceived threat to the US dollar appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Why Bitcoin is a perceived threat to the US dollar: The US dollar has been the world’s official reserve currency for several decades, yet many in the political sphere believe the rise of Bitcoin could end its global supremacy. During a recent Congress hearing regarding Facebook’s digital currency project Libra, US Congressman Brad Sherman warned Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have the potential to threaten the US dollar’s dominance over the global financial system. “Cryptocurrency either doesn’t work, in which case investors lose a lot of money, or it does achieve its objectives perhaps and displaces the US dollar or interferes with the US dollar being virtually the sole reserve currency in the world,” he said. Sherman claimed the US dollar’s dominance over other currencies brings multiple benefits for Americans, such as profits generated by the Federal Reserve for the US Treasury and the ability to influence other countries’ policies and actions through the use of economic sanctions. “We stand to lose all that because cryptocurrency is the currency of the crypto-patriot,” Sherman argued. Beating the dollar’s monopoly This isn’t the first time politicians have expressed concerns about the impact of Bitcoin on the US dollar. In a May 2018 interview with CNBC , St Louis Fed President James Bullard said while Bitcoin is not a threat at this point, “we don’t know how the future’s going to unfold”. He added: “The dollar has been the winner historically because it’s backed by the largest economy and a relatively stable policy in terms of low inflation, and that’s going to be tough to beat. But a lot of people here want to beat it.” Meanwhile, a Congressional report released at the end of 2013 warned that if greater use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies leads to multiple monetary units, the stability offered by a single, incumbent currency (the US dollar) could be threatened, particularly if new currencies continue to exhibit high volatility. The authors said that if Bitcoins are substituted for dollars on a systematic, long-term basis, it would decrease the need to hold dollars and increase the supply of fiat money. This could reduce the demand for dollars, which would affect the rate of circulation. Story continues “In this case, for the Fed to maintain the same degree of monetary accommodation, it would need to undertake a compensating tightening of monetary policy,” the report said. “At a minimum, a substantial use of Bitcoins could make the measurement of velocity more uncertain, and judging the appropriate stance of monetary policy uncertain.” Crypto appeal grows Although any potential threat to the US dollar looks a long way off, the substantial rise in Bitcoin’s value relative to the US dollar is likely to cause heightened concerns. Some analysts reckon the BTC/USD price could reach $100,000 by the end of 2021. Several countries around the world have also made moves to shift away from the US dollar’s influence. Iran, for instance, recently launched its own cryptocurrency, and a group of several West African states plan to adopt a single fiat currency called the eco by 2020. The biggest disruption to the US dollar’s influence, however, could be the issuance of a digital currency by a major central bank. If national digital currencies enable faster and cheaper international money transfers, they could be seen as realistic alternatives to the US dollar. Viable alternative Whether it is Bitcoin, a national digital currency, or another type of cryptocurrency, there is certainly a growing movement to replace a fiat-based, single-issuer global reserve currency with a sovereign-free, algorithm-based alternative. Many argue it would be more stable and trustworthy than the US dollar. The main arguments against Bitcoin as an alternative are, firstly, a global currency needs to have a flexible supply and, secondly, Bitcoin is too volatile to become a universal settlement token for trading contracts. Some experts, however, argue Bitcoin’s volatility can be overcome by hedging exposure – and not necessarily against the US dollar, but against currency issued by a central bank directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. At the moment, it seems unlikely that major businesses and governments will give up their preference for fiat, which gives them a degree of control. But as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies start to mature and gain wider acceptance, it’s easy to imagine a future in which the US dollar isn’t the world’s sole reserve currency. The post Why Bitcoin is a perceived threat to the US dollar appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Brazil under attack from multiple cryptocurrency scams: As reported last week by the Brazilian TV news channel Record, Brazil seems to be under attack from multiple cryptocurrency scams. In the news piece, the team investigated a company that has faced allegations of being a financial pyramid scheme. The report also focused on several investors who lost everything in fraudulent companies after being tempted in by the promise of easy money. Brazil is facing a wave of scams Victim testimonials given to Record about financial pyramids show a tendency to focus on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Presenter Eduardo Ribeiro points out that this relationship between cryptocurrencies and financial pyramids is a result of the age of technology. One interview highlights an investor who bought Bitcoins to invest in the HPX platform. However, when the man tried to withdraw his funds, he could not complete the process. According to the piece, HPXs business served to illustrate cases of financial pyramids occurring in Brazil. It pointed out that up to 50 companies are currently being investigated by a special task force targeting potential scams. This task force includes the Federal Police, the Public Prosecution Service, and the Treasury Attorney. One investor interviewed in the story says financial pyramids are widely publicised in the country through messaging applications such as WhatsApp and video platforms like YouTube in an attempt to dupe unsuspecting victims. Millions in losses accounted for already As recently reported by Agencia Publica (AP), One Life the parent company of OneCoin sold more than 2.5 million euros in fake cryptocurrencies to Brazilians between 2015 and 2016. The OneCoin cryptocurrency, however, has yet to show up on any cryptocurrency exchanges contrary to its promises to buyers. The company is now under international investigation for bank fraud, and the collective action taken by US victims has led to the arrest of a number of One Life associates. Story continues Founded in Bulgaria in 2014, the company rode the cryptocurrency wave. Within a year, it already had customers in more than 200 countries including Brazil, where it began operating in January 2015. Today, One Life claims to have more than 3.5 million customers worldwide. The report claims that other alleged financial pyramids such as FX Trading and Atlas Quantum are also being investigated. EU countries are also exposed to scams It has also recently been reported that the Public Prosecutor of Portugal is investigating a major potential pyramid scam in the country. In Portugal, cryptocurrency fraud is becoming increasingly common. The problem has become so prevalent that some of the countrys largest financial content portals have already started publishing articles to help their users stay away from common Bitcoin schemes, including pyramid schemes and social media scams. In Portugal, it was declared this year that cryptocurrency transactions are tax free, which could be the reason behind the increased number of cryptocurrency-related scams. How Portugal is leading the way for cryptocurrency By Pedro Febrero November 2, 2019 The post Brazil under attack from multiple cryptocurrency scams appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Brazil under attack from multiple cryptocurrency scams: As reported last week by the Brazilian TV news channel Record, Brazil seems to be under attack from multiple cryptocurrency scams. In the news piece, the team investigated a company that has faced allegations of being a financial pyramid scheme. The report also focused on several investors who lost everything in fraudulent companies after being tempted in by the promise of easy money. Brazil is facing a wave of scams Victim testimonials given to Record about financial pyramids show a tendency to focus on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Presenter Eduardo Ribeiro points out that this relationship between cryptocurrencies and financial pyramids is a result of the age of technology. One interview highlights an investor who bought Bitcoins to invest in the HPX platform. However, when the man tried to withdraw his funds, he could not complete the process. According to the piece, HPXs business served to illustrate cases of financial pyramids occurring in Brazil. It pointed out that up to 50 companies are currently being investigated by a special task force targeting potential scams. This task force includes the Federal Police, the Public Prosecution Service, and the Treasury Attorney. One investor interviewed in the story says financial pyramids are widely publicised in the country through messaging applications such as WhatsApp and video platforms like YouTube in an attempt to dupe unsuspecting victims. Millions in losses accounted for already As recently reported by Agencia Publica (AP), One Life the parent company of OneCoin sold more than 2.5 million euros in fake cryptocurrencies to Brazilians between 2015 and 2016. The OneCoin cryptocurrency, however, has yet to show up on any cryptocurrency exchanges contrary to its promises to buyers. The company is now under international investigation for bank fraud, and the collective action taken by US victims has led to the arrest of a number of One Life associates. Story continues Founded in Bulgaria in 2014, the company rode the cryptocurrency wave. Within a year, it already had customers in more than 200 countries including Brazil, where it began operating in January 2015. Today, One Life claims to have more than 3.5 million customers worldwide. The report claims that other alleged financial pyramids such as FX Trading and Atlas Quantum are also being investigated. EU countries are also exposed to scams It has also recently been reported that the Public Prosecutor of Portugal is investigating a major potential pyramid scam in the country. In Portugal, cryptocurrency fraud is becoming increasingly common. The problem has become so prevalent that some of the countrys largest financial content portals have already started publishing articles to help their users stay away from common Bitcoin schemes, including pyramid schemes and social media scams. In Portugal, it was declared this year that cryptocurrency transactions are tax free, which could be the reason behind the increased number of cryptocurrency-related scams. How Portugal is leading the way for cryptocurrency By Pedro Febrero November 2, 2019 The post Brazil under attack from multiple cryptocurrency scams appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin Cash ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis 02/11/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC in Recovery Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 1.39% on Friday. Following on from a 3.18% slide on Thursday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $277.61. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning intraday high $283.08 before hitting reverse. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $293.97, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid to a late afternoon intraday low $271.13. In spite of the pullback, Bitcoin Cash ABC steered clear of the first major support level at $270.79. Finding support through the afternoon, Bitcoin Cash ABC struck a 2 nd half of a day high $280.71 before sliding back. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.91% to $280.14. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise from an early morning low $277.81 to a high $282. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $281 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $283.41. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break back through to $283 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally on the day, the first major resistance level and Fridays high $283.07 would likely limit any upside. Failure to move through to $281 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC hit reverse. A fall back through the morning low $277.81 would bring the first major support level at $271.47 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$270 support levels. Litecoin Struggles at $59 Litecoin slipped by 0.09% on Friday. Partially reversing a 0.57% gain from Thursday, Litecoin ended the day at $58.34. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning low $57.52 before striking a late morning intraday high $59.0. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $59.85, Litecoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $56.66. Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $56.97 before finding support from the broader market. Story continues A recovery to $58.7 levels was short-lived, however, with a late pullback leaving Litecoin in the red for the day. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.29% to $58.17. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin rise to a morning high $58.54 before falling to a low $58.01. Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to hold onto $58 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $59.34. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to break out from Fridays high $59.00. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Litecoin would likely come up short of $60 levels for a 3 rd consecutive day. Failure to hold onto $58 levels could see Litecoin test the first major support level at $57.00 before finding support. Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, Litecoin should steer clear of Fridays low $56.66. Ripples XRP Eyes $0.30 Ripples XRP fell by 0.82% on Friday. Following on from a 0.11% decline on Thursday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.29312. Bearish through much of the day, Ripples XRP fell from an early morning intraday high $0.29571 to a late afternoon intraday low $0.28600. Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Ripples XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.28990. Holding above the second major support level at $0.28420, Ripples XRP recovered to $0.29 levels to limit the loss on the day. At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was up by 0.83% to $0.29554. A bullish start to the day saw Ripples XRP rise from an early morning low $0.29329 to a high $0.29607. Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $0.29607 would bring the first major resistance level at $0.2972 into play. Ripples XRP would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from $0.2970 levels. Barring an extended rally, Ripples XRP would likely fall short of $0.30 levels for a 3 rd consecutive day. Failure to move back through the morning high could see Ripples XRP hit reverse. A fall through to $0.2915 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2875 into play before any recovery. Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Ripples XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.29 levels on the day. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast US Dollar Pulls Back For The Week Gold Price Forecast Gold Markets Continue Consolidation Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast Natural Gas Markets Continue To Show Signs Of Bullish Pressure GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast British Pound Testing Major Level S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast Stock Market Makes All-Time Highs Natural Gas Price Prediction Prices Ease But Rally on the Week as Hedge Funds Exit Short Positions || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 02/11/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 1.39% on Friday. Following on from a 3.18% slide on Thursday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $277.61.
A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning intraday high $283.08 before hitting reverse.
Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $293.97, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid to a late afternoon intraday low $271.13.
In spite of the pullback, Bitcoin Cash ABC steered clear of the first major support level at $270.79.
Finding support through the afternoon, Bitcoin Cash ABC struck a 2ndhalf of a day high $280.71 before sliding back.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.91% to $280.14. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise from an early morning low $277.81 to a high $282.
Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, a move back through to $281 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $283.41.
Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break back through to $283 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally on the day, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $283.07 would likely limit any upside.
Failure to move through to $281 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC hit reverse.
A fall back through the morning low $277.81 would bring the first major support level at $271.47 into play.
Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$270 support levels.
Litecoin slipped by 0.09% on Friday. Partially reversing a 0.57% gain from Thursday, Litecoin ended the day at $58.34.
A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning low $57.52 before striking a late morning intraday high $59.0.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $59.85, Litecoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $56.66.
Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $56.97 before finding support from the broader market.
A recovery to $58.7 levels was short-lived, however, with a late pullback leaving Litecoin in the red for the day.
At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.29% to $58.17. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin rise to a morning high $58.54 before falling to a low $58.01.
Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to hold onto $58 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $59.34.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to break out from Friday’s high $59.00.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Litecoin would likely come up short of $60 levels for a 3rdconsecutive day.
Failure to hold onto $58 levels could see Litecoin test the first major support level at $57.00 before finding support.
Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, Litecoin should steer clear of Friday’s low $56.66.
Ripple’s XRP fell by 0.82% on Friday. Following on from a 0.11% decline on Thursday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.29312.
Bearish through much of the day, Ripple’s XRP fell from an early morning intraday high $0.29571 to a late afternoon intraday low $0.28600.
Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Ripple’s XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.28990.
Holding above the second major support level at $0.28420, Ripple’s XRP recovered to $0.29 levels to limit the loss on the day.
At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 0.83% to $0.29554. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise from an early morning low $0.29329 to a high $0.29607.
Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $0.29607 would bring the first major resistance level at $0.2972 into play.
Ripple’s XRP would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from $0.2970 levels.
Barring an extended rally, Ripple’s XRP would likely fall short of $0.30 levels for a 3rdconsecutive day.
Failure to move back through the morning high could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse.
A fall through to $0.2915 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2875 into play before any recovery.
Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.29 levels on the day.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below
Thanks, Bob
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Pulls Back For The Week
• Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Continue Consolidation
• Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Continue To Show Signs Of Bullish Pressure
• GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Testing Major Level
• S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Market Makes All-Time Highs
• Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Ease But Rally on the Week as Hedge Funds Exit Short Positions || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 02/11/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 1.39% on Friday. Following on from a 3.18% slide on Thursday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $277.61.
A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning intraday high $283.08 before hitting reverse.
Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $293.97, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid to a late afternoon intraday low $271.13.
In spite of the pullback, Bitcoin Cash ABC steered clear of the first major support level at $270.79.
Finding support through the afternoon, Bitcoin Cash ABC struck a 2ndhalf of a day high $280.71 before sliding back.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.91% to $280.14. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise from an early morning low $277.81 to a high $282.
Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, a move back through to $281 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $283.41.
Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break back through to $283 levels.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally on the day, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $283.07 would likely limit any upside.
Failure to move through to $281 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC hit reverse.
A fall back through the morning low $277.81 would bring the first major support level at $271.47 into play.
Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$270 support levels.
Litecoin slipped by 0.09% on Friday. Partially reversing a 0.57% gain from Thursday, Litecoin ended the day at $58.34.
A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning low $57.52 before striking a late morning intraday high $59.0.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $59.85, Litecoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $56.66.
Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $56.97 before finding support from the broader market.
A recovery to $58.7 levels was short-lived, however, with a late pullback leaving Litecoin in the red for the day.
At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.29% to $58.17. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin rise to a morning high $58.54 before falling to a low $58.01.
Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to hold onto $58 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $59.34.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to break out from Friday’s high $59.00.
Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Litecoin would likely come up short of $60 levels for a 3rdconsecutive day.
Failure to hold onto $58 levels could see Litecoin test the first major support level at $57.00 before finding support.
Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, Litecoin should steer clear of Friday’s low $56.66.
Ripple’s XRP fell by 0.82% on Friday. Following on from a 0.11% decline on Thursday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.29312.
Bearish through much of the day, Ripple’s XRP fell from an early morning intraday high $0.29571 to a late afternoon intraday low $0.28600.
Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Ripple’s XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.28990.
Holding above the second major support level at $0.28420, Ripple’s XRP recovered to $0.29 levels to limit the loss on the day.
At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 0.83% to $0.29554. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise from an early morning low $0.29329 to a high $0.29607.
Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $0.29607 would bring the first major resistance level at $0.2972 into play.
Ripple’s XRP would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from $0.2970 levels.
Barring an extended rally, Ripple’s XRP would likely fall short of $0.30 levels for a 3rdconsecutive day.
Failure to move back through the morning high could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse.
A fall through to $0.2915 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2875 into play before any recovery.
Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.29 levels on the day.
Please let us know what you think in the comments below
Thanks, Bob
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Pulls Back For The Week
• Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Continue Consolidation
• Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Continue To Show Signs Of Bullish Pressure
• GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Testing Major Level
• S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Market Makes All-Time Highs
• Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Ease But Rally on the Week as Hedge Funds Exit Short Positions || Gold Price Forecast – The Odds Favor One More Decline: October saw 128,000 jobs versus the expected 75,000, despite the GM strike. The August numbers were revised upward significantly to 219,000 from 168,000, and September jumped from 136,000 to 180,000.
Today’s report should have sent gold prices sharply lower – something doesn’t add up. Perhaps the weaker than expected ISM manufacturing numbers are keeping gold afloat. Whatever the case, the probabilities for a December rate cut plummeted from 22.1% to 12.5% on the news.
There is still a decent chance thatgoldprices will roll over and break the $1465 low, but those odds lessen each day gold remains above $1500.
I’ve noticed gold elects trend changes at the beginning of a month.
• July 1st, prices formed a short-term low at $1384.70
• August 1st, prices formed an interim low at $1412.10
• September 4th, gold peaked at $1566.20
• October 1st, prices created a lesser cycle low at $1465
The next potential turning point could arrive within the next few days. If gold doesn’t turn lower by the end of next week, I’ll begin looking higher instead of lower.
Overall, I believe gold is in a new bull market, and prices are heading much higher. For my long-term forecast please read,Gold Price Forecast for The Next Decade.
AG Thorson is a registered CMT and expert in technical analysis. He believes we are in the final stages of a global debt super-cycle. For more information, please visithttps://goldpredict.com/
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Pulls Back For The Week
• GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Testing Major Level
• Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue To Grind Sideways
• Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 02/11/19
• S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Market Makes All-Time Highs
• US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Surge Following Robust Employment Report || Gold Price Forecast – The Odds Favor One More Decline: EMPLOYMENT REPORT October saw 128,000 jobs versus the expected 75,000, despite the GM strike. The August numbers were revised upward significantly to 219,000 from 168,000, and September jumped from 136,000 to 180,000. Today’s report should have sent gold prices sharply lower – something doesn’t add up. Perhaps the weaker than expected ISM manufacturing numbers are keeping gold afloat. Whatever the case, the probabilities for a December rate cut plummeted from 22.1% to 12.5% on the news. GOLD DAILY CHART There is still a decent chance that gold prices will roll over and break the $1465 low, but those odds lessen each day gold remains above $1500. I’ve noticed gold elects trend changes at the beginning of a month. July 1st, prices formed a short-term low at $1384.70 August 1st, prices formed an interim low at $1412.10 September 4th, gold peaked at $1566.20 October 1st, prices created a lesser cycle low at $1465 The next potential turning point could arrive within the next few days. If gold doesn’t turn lower by the end of next week, I’ll begin looking higher instead of lower. Overall, I believe gold is in a new bull market, and prices are heading much higher. For my long-term forecast please read, Gold Price Forecast for The Next Decade . AG Thorson is a registered CMT and expert in technical analysis. He believes we are in the final stages of a global debt super-cycle. For more information, please visit https://goldpredict.com/ This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Pulls Back For The Week GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Testing Major Level Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue To Grind Sideways Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 02/11/19 S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Market Makes All-Time Highs US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Surge Following Robust Employment Report || Radar launches new product for deploying blockchain nodes: Blockchain startup Radar has announced the launch of DEPLOY, a service for developers to launch their own Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes. According to Radar, any service or application like wallets, DeFi apps, and exchanges can be built on DEPLOY. After speaking to developers in the blockchain space, Radar realized these developers needed a tool that has "blockchain infrastructure control panels; off-the-shelf solutions for spinning up, monitoring, and managing nodes with enough customization and control to work for anyone," so they built DEPLOY. "Right now, talented teams using blockchain are focused on figuring out how to manage nodes instead of their users," Radar CEO Alan Curtis said on Twitter. "This isn't working. These teams are struggling. Customers are suffering. Our industry is stuck. Teams need a safe and simple way to spin up and manage infrastructure." Radar has raised over $13 million in venture capital funding. The firm's product line includes Radar Relay, a non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange built on Ethereum and Radar Ion, a Bitcoin Lightning Network app store. || Radar launches new product for deploying blockchain nodes: Blockchain startup Radar hasannouncedthe launch of DEPLOY, a service for developers to launch their own Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes. According to Radar, any service or application like wallets, DeFi apps, and exchanges can be built on DEPLOY.
After speaking to developers in the blockchain space, Radar realized these developers needed a tool that has "blockchain infrastructure control panels; off-the-shelf solutions for spinning up, monitoring, and managing nodes with enough customization and control to work for anyone," so they built DEPLOY.
"Right now, talented teams using blockchain are focused on figuring out how to manage nodes instead of their users," Radar CEO Alan Curtis said on Twitter. "This isn't working. These teams are struggling. Customers are suffering. Our industry is stuck. Teams need a safe and simple way to spin up and manage infrastructure."
Radar has raised over $13 million in venture capital funding. The firm's product line includes Radar Relay, a non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange built on Ethereum and Radar Ion, a Bitcoin Lightning Network app store. || Suspect arrested over Bitcoin of the Middle East scam: A Canadian man accused of running scams including one involving a Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency has been arrested by cops in Dubai. Aziz Com Mirza, who lives in the Burj Khalifa, is now in Al Awir jail after an investigation by the Gulf News . The paper says Mirza was taken into custody by Bur Dubai Police on October 27 following a complaint from a UAE resident who lost over $150,000. Gulammohiyuddin Maskati, 43, filed a police complaint after investing in a firm called International Success Group (ISG) and the real estate-backed cryptocurrency Habibi Coin launched by Mirza as a Sharia-compliant currency. I invested $50,000 in ISG and $25,000 in Habibi, said Mastaki. John Barry from the US said he invested $500,000 in a scheme after spending a week with Com and talking with people who regarded him highly. It was all an illusion, he said. In April 2019, a Gulf News investigation uncovered how Com Mirza had allegedly tricked hundreds into investing in Ponzi schemes, shady real estate projects, and the now-worthless Habibi Coin, dubbed the Bitcoin of the Middle East. The complainants include people from all over the world, including the US, UK, Canada, and Greece. How to spot a Bitcoin blackmail email scam Mirza describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, investor, social media influencer, mentor, and philanthropist, and shares photos of his plush lifestyle with his 800,000 Instagram followers. This week, a Belgian financial watchdog announced cryptocurrency scams are on the rise and is urging investors to be wary. The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) recently updated its list of known cryptocurrency investment scams . The number of fraudulent websites known to exploit trusting victims has risen to 131. The post Suspect arrested over Bitcoin of the Middle East scam appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Suspect arrested over Bitcoin of the Middle East scam: A Canadian man accused of running scams including one involving a Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency has been arrested by cops in Dubai. Aziz Com Mirza, who lives in the Burj Khalifa, is now in Al Awir jail after an investigation by the Gulf News . The paper says Mirza was taken into custody by Bur Dubai Police on October 27 following a complaint from a UAE resident who lost over $150,000. Gulammohiyuddin Maskati, 43, filed a police complaint after investing in a firm called International Success Group (ISG) and the real estate-backed cryptocurrency Habibi Coin launched by Mirza as a Sharia-compliant currency. I invested $50,000 in ISG and $25,000 in Habibi, said Mastaki. John Barry from the US said he invested $500,000 in a scheme after spending a week with Com and talking with people who regarded him highly. It was all an illusion, he said. In April 2019, a Gulf News investigation uncovered how Com Mirza had allegedly tricked hundreds into investing in Ponzi schemes, shady real estate projects, and the now-worthless Habibi Coin, dubbed the Bitcoin of the Middle East. The complainants include people from all over the world, including the US, UK, Canada, and Greece. How to spot a Bitcoin blackmail email scam Mirza describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, investor, social media influencer, mentor, and philanthropist, and shares photos of his plush lifestyle with his 800,000 Instagram followers. This week, a Belgian financial watchdog announced cryptocurrency scams are on the rise and is urging investors to be wary. The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) recently updated its list of known cryptocurrency investment scams . The number of fraudulent websites known to exploit trusting victims has risen to 131. The post Suspect arrested over Bitcoin of the Middle East scam appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Suspect arrested over Bitcoin of the Middle East scam: A Canadian man accused of running scams including one involving a Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency has been arrested by cops in Dubai. Aziz Com Mirza, who lives in the Burj Khalifa, is now in Al Awir jail after an investigation by the Gulf News . The paper says Mirza was taken into custody by Bur Dubai Police on October 27 following a complaint from a UAE resident who lost over $150,000. Gulammohiyuddin Maskati, 43, filed a police complaint after investing in a firm called International Success Group (ISG) and the real estate-backed cryptocurrency Habibi Coin launched by Mirza as a Sharia-compliant currency. I invested $50,000 in ISG and $25,000 in Habibi, said Mastaki. John Barry from the US said he invested $500,000 in a scheme after spending a week with Com and talking with people who regarded him highly. It was all an illusion, he said. In April 2019, a Gulf News investigation uncovered how Com Mirza had allegedly tricked hundreds into investing in Ponzi schemes, shady real estate projects, and the now-worthless Habibi Coin, dubbed the Bitcoin of the Middle East. The complainants include people from all over the world, including the US, UK, Canada, and Greece. How to spot a Bitcoin blackmail email scam Mirza describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, investor, social media influencer, mentor, and philanthropist, and shares photos of his plush lifestyle with his 800,000 Instagram followers. This week, a Belgian financial watchdog announced cryptocurrency scams are on the rise and is urging investors to be wary. The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) recently updated its list of known cryptocurrency investment scams . The number of fraudulent websites known to exploit trusting victims has risen to 131. The post Suspect arrested over Bitcoin of the Middle East scam appeared first on Coin Rivet . || How Many More Birthdays Until Bitcoin Wins?: John Biggs is CoinDesk’s multimedia editor. The views expressed here are his own.
Bitcoin just turned 11and it’s worth looking at what this technology has achieved. First, some context.
Facebook is 14 while Twitter is 13. Linux is 28. The World Wide Web – the network you’re reading this on – is 30. TCP/IP is about 44 years old, depending on whom you ask.
Related:Bitcoin’s Defense of Major Support May Fuel Price Bounce to $9,600
If you’re into a bitcoin, you’re most likely18 to 34 years old, according to pollsters at the Global Blockchain Business Council. And you probably joined the bitcoin party about five years ago and own some fraction of or even a full coin. Some of you own many, many more.
I’m about as old as TCP/IP. I’m part of the generation that saw computing’s evolutionary bloom. If you’re younger, you’ve gotten used to modern networking technology and you don’t remember a time when everything wasn’t done on a screen. You were there for the birth of bitcoin.
But on the 11th anniversary of the white paper’s publication, we face a question: How long must we wait until bitcoin becomes like Twitter or Linux, something you use every day? Ten years? Twenty?
Bitcoin, from the vantage point of pure adoption, has been a failure. But it remains a beacon, the best chance we have for truly shaking up the status quo and, ultimately, changing the way we interact with our fellow global citizens.
Related:Bitcoin Price Slides 2% After Deribit, Coinbase Flash Crash
When will we be using bitcoin daily? When will the underlying technology embed itself into the fabric of our financial lives?
Shrug. We don’t know.
A billion people use Facebook every month. On Twitter, it’s 330 million. Both services ramped up quickly but really took off in the last few years. Linux is on 98 percent of servers worldwide – that took a while but ramped up after the dot-com boom. The web is everywhere, but that took a solid 20 years to happen.
How many people use bitcoin? It’s hard to gauge on a decentralized network designed for anonymity. For a rough proxy,CoVenture Researchsays there are “11.2 million bitcoin addresses that hold at least .001 BTC,” or about $9 worth.
That’s a big number, more than the number of people in New York, including the outer boroughs. Of course, a single user can, and often does, control multiple addresses. Yet if anything, this estimate may be too conservative. An April 2019 survey by Harris Poll, done for Blockchain Capital, found9 percent of Americans–27 million people– own bitcoin.
All told, it’s safe to say that if the crypto community were a country, it would be bigger than Belgium.
But it’s not 330 million and it’s not a billion. It’s enough that the average investor and programmer will take notice and it’s enough for Hollywood to consider the topic interestingenough for an awful movie. But 11 million in 11 years is not good for bitcoin.
If bitcoin were a startup it would exist in theValley of Death. In the startup world, an app with 11 million users is strong enough to generate some revenue but not interesting enough to attract massive investment. Bitcoin is like that. It works, but not enough to turn heads outside of a vocal minority.
So where is bitcoin going? Is 11 million enough? How many more years until we get to mass adoption?
Another shrug. Another unknown. We see the forward motion every day on CoinDesk – the various small changes that add up to a story of a platform. (Or is it a movement?)
This points to the primary problem that bitcoin and the wider crypto ecosystem has to accept. Facebook and Twitter achieved those numbers through investments far smaller than bitcoin’s $165 billionmarket cap. Linux and FOSS endeared themselves to developers enough that they happily contributed their time freely. The web grows by itself because it is trivial to join the party.
Bitcoin exhibits few of those traits. Bitcoin startup investment is cold. The crypto ecosystem is insular and self-involved, difficult for outsiders to join. The network grows by fits and starts, driven primarily by Number Go Up. We are in a vibrant early stage in which everyone is a pioneer and there is no clear way forward. Infighting turns developer against developer while crypto clowns hog the mainstream media’s attention. Only a small, dedicated group holds the center together.
This is bad for bitcoin.
By all rights, bitcoin shouldn’t survive another ten years. All the things that made Linux and Twitter and Facebook and the PS4 and Netflix commercial successes cannot be seen in bitcoin’s rise. You can’t spin up anAI that can write Harry Potter novelson bitcoin.
Bitcoin doesn’t move the world’s financial markets the way Twitter does nor does it get the same scrutiny that Facebook does. There is no “bitcoin and chill.”
Yet it still exists.
You will argue that it’s unfair to compare bitcoin to all of those things. But bitcoin is both a financial instrument and a technical product. It is, like a startup, a work in progress, an alpha product that may graduate to beta with a little more time. It is a good idea that needs another summer or two to germinate.
When I first looked at Spotify, 13 years ago, I saw the future of streaming music that freed me from CDs. When I stuck a copy of Mandrake Linux into my Pentium computer in 1998 I saw a future of machines freed from paid software. When I look at bitcoin through the eyes of an uninterested programmer I see numbers and hype and scams. But when I look at bitcoin through the eyes of someone who wants to catch the next big thing, I see the possibility that one day, not too far in the future, it will make banking and commerce vastly different.
All of the other services and tools I mentioned above are reaching their apex. It’s all downhill from here. Bitcoin, to quote the Joker, is just getting warmed up.
Bitcoin is a slow burn, one that will take another five or ten years to really explode. And when it does it won’t be visible like Facebook or Netflix. It won’t be one level removed from our browsers, hiding just out of sight, like Linux. It will be ingrained in our lives, in the interaction between our money and the world. It will be the currency used between humans and robots and between robots and robots. It will become so useful that it will disappear.
Bitcoin is 11. Where is it going? When will it win?
Shrug. We don’t know. But, compared with everything that came before it, there is little out there to stop bitcoin and a lot of energy driving it forward. It’s only a matter of time.
Bitcoin 2014 image via CoinDesk archives
• Bitcoin May See November Price Boost With Halving Due in Six Months
• Bitcoin Dissident Sees Dark Warnings in China’s Blockchain Push || How Many More Birthdays Until Bitcoin Wins?: John Biggs is CoinDesk’s multimedia editor. The views expressed here are his own. Bitcoin just turned 11 and it’s worth looking at what this technology has achieved. First, some context. Facebook is 14 while Twitter is 13. Linux is 28. The World Wide Web – the network you’re reading this on – is 30. TCP/IP is about 44 years old, depending on whom you ask. Related: Bitcoin’s Defense of Major Support May Fuel Price Bounce to $9,600 If you’re into a bitcoin, you’re most likely 18 to 34 years old , according to pollsters at the Global Blockchain Business Council. And you probably joined the bitcoin party about five years ago and own some fraction of or even a full coin. Some of you own many, many more. I’m about as old as TCP/IP. I’m part of the generation that saw computing’s evolutionary bloom. If you’re younger, you’ve gotten used to modern networking technology and you don’t remember a time when everything wasn’t done on a screen. You were there for the birth of bitcoin. But on the 11th anniversary of the white paper’s publication, we face a question: How long must we wait until bitcoin becomes like Twitter or Linux, something you use every day? Ten years? Twenty? Bitcoin, from the vantage point of pure adoption, has been a failure. But it remains a beacon, the best chance we have for truly shaking up the status quo and, ultimately, changing the way we interact with our fellow global citizens. Related: Bitcoin Price Slides 2% After Deribit, Coinbase Flash Crash When will we be using bitcoin daily? When will the underlying technology embed itself into the fabric of our financial lives? Shrug. We don’t know. Bigger than Belgium A billion people use Facebook every month. On Twitter, it’s 330 million. Both services ramped up quickly but really took off in the last few years. Linux is on 98 percent of servers worldwide – that took a while but ramped up after the dot-com boom. The web is everywhere, but that took a solid 20 years to happen. How many people use bitcoin? It’s hard to gauge on a decentralized network designed for anonymity. For a rough proxy, CoVenture Research says there are “11.2 million bitcoin addresses that hold at least .001 BTC,” or about $9 worth. That’s a big number, more than the number of people in New York, including the outer boroughs. Of course, a single user can, and often does, control multiple addresses. Yet if anything, this estimate may be too conservative. An April 2019 survey by Harris Poll, done for Blockchain Capital, found 9 percent of Americans – 27 million people – own bitcoin. All told, it’s safe to say that if the crypto community were a country, it would be bigger than Belgium. Story continues But it’s not 330 million and it’s not a billion. It’s enough that the average investor and programmer will take notice and it’s enough for Hollywood to consider the topic interesting enough for an awful movie . But 11 million in 11 years is not good for bitcoin. If bitcoin were a startup it would exist in the Valley of Death . In the startup world, an app with 11 million users is strong enough to generate some revenue but not interesting enough to attract massive investment. Bitcoin is like that. It works, but not enough to turn heads outside of a vocal minority. So where is bitcoin going? Is 11 million enough? How many more years until we get to mass adoption? Another shrug. Another unknown. We see the forward motion every day on CoinDesk – the various small changes that add up to a story of a platform. (Or is it a movement?) This points to the primary problem that bitcoin and the wider crypto ecosystem has to accept. Facebook and Twitter achieved those numbers through investments far smaller than bitcoin’s $165 billion market cap . Linux and FOSS endeared themselves to developers enough that they happily contributed their time freely. The web grows by itself because it is trivial to join the party. Bitcoin exhibits few of those traits. Bitcoin startup investment is cold. The crypto ecosystem is insular and self-involved, difficult for outsiders to join. The network grows by fits and starts, driven primarily by Number Go Up. We are in a vibrant early stage in which everyone is a pioneer and there is no clear way forward. Infighting turns developer against developer while crypto clowns hog the mainstream media’s attention. Only a small, dedicated group holds the center together. This is bad for bitcoin. Stay tuned By all rights, bitcoin shouldn’t survive another ten years. All the things that made Linux and Twitter and Facebook and the PS4 and Netflix commercial successes cannot be seen in bitcoin’s rise. You can’t spin up an AI that can write Harry Potter novels on bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn’t move the world’s financial markets the way Twitter does nor does it get the same scrutiny that Facebook does. There is no “bitcoin and chill.” Yet it still exists. You will argue that it’s unfair to compare bitcoin to all of those things. But bitcoin is both a financial instrument and a technical product. It is, like a startup, a work in progress, an alpha product that may graduate to beta with a little more time. It is a good idea that needs another summer or two to germinate. When I first looked at Spotify, 13 years ago, I saw the future of streaming music that freed me from CDs. When I stuck a copy of Mandrake Linux into my Pentium computer in 1998 I saw a future of machines freed from paid software. When I look at bitcoin through the eyes of an uninterested programmer I see numbers and hype and scams. But when I look at bitcoin through the eyes of someone who wants to catch the next big thing, I see the possibility that one day, not too far in the future, it will make banking and commerce vastly different. All of the other services and tools I mentioned above are reaching their apex. It’s all downhill from here. Bitcoin, to quote the Joker, is just getting warmed up. Bitcoin is a slow burn, one that will take another five or ten years to really explode. And when it does it won’t be visible like Facebook or Netflix. It won’t be one level removed from our browsers, hiding just out of sight, like Linux. It will be ingrained in our lives, in the interaction between our money and the world. It will be the currency used between humans and robots and between robots and robots. It will become so useful that it will disappear. Bitcoin is 11. Where is it going? When will it win? Shrug. We don’t know. But, compared with everything that came before it, there is little out there to stop bitcoin and a lot of energy driving it forward. It’s only a matter of time. Bitcoin 2014 image via CoinDesk archives Related Stories Bitcoin May See November Price Boost With Halving Due in Six Months Bitcoin Dissident Sees Dark Warnings in China’s Blockchain Push View comments
[Social Media Buzz]
@809392 最近垢買ってくれる人増えてきたしBTCももうそろ使えるんで1000人目指して抽選しまくりますよー！
こーらさん通知荒らすんで悪しからず || “One thing is true...we have a tendency to forget! Over and over in the Word of God we are implored to remember certain things and not to forget the Lord.”
#blockchain #Airdrops #ico #money #cryptocurrency #freecoins #bitcoin #platform #decentralize #coin #trx #tokens #technology || #bitcoin #thehalvingisnear https://t.co/EMy9TdaosN || $BTC | #BTC - bitcoin's Current Price: ▼ $9205.0225 | 1h ▼ : -0.13 % | 24h ▼ : -1.3...
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9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 44428.29, 47793.32, 47096.95, 47047.00, 46004.48, 44695.36, 44801.19, 46717.58, 49339.18, 48905.49, 49321.65, 49546.15, 47706.12, 48960.79, 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42, 44883.91, 45201.46, 46063.27, 44963.07, 47092.49, 48176.35, 47783.36, 47267.52, 48278.36, 47260.22, 42843.80, 40693.68, 43574.51, 44895.10, 42839.75, 42716.59, 43208.54, 42235.73, 41034.54, 41564.36, 43790.89, 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98, 53967.85, 54968.22, 54771.58, 57484.79, 56041.06, 57401.10, 57321.52, 61593.95, 60892.18, 61553.62, 62026.08, 64261.99, 65992.84, 62210.17, 60692.27, 61393.62, 60930.84, 63039.82, 60363.79, 58482.39, 60622.14, 62227.96, 61888.83, 61318.96, 61004.41, 63226.40, 62970.05, 61452.23, 61125.68, 61527.48, 63326.99, 67566.83, 66971.83.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-11-09]
Volume: 42357991721, RSI (14-day): 66.08, 50-day EMA: 57558.04, 200-day EMA: 47737.71
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1830.20, Gold RSI: 62.44
Oil Price: 84.15, Oil RSI: 60.98
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin, ether hit all-time highs as momentum accelerates: By Tom Westbrook and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Bitcoin and ether hit record peaks on Tuesday, with enthusiasm for cryptocurrency adoption and worry about inflation driving momentum and flows into the asset class. Though both virtual currencies pulled back from their highs in the U.S. session, their trajectory was clearly headed higher. Bitcoin rose as high as $68,564.40 and was last down 0.1% at $67,325 while ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, earlier hit $4,842.65 before trading down 0.7% at $4,774. Both have more than doubled since June and added nearly 70% against the dollar since the start of October. "This move is a culmination of months of net outflows from exchanges and coming off the market, coupled with increasing demand," said Martha Reyes, head of research at digital asset prime brokerage and exchange BEQUANT. "This creates a supply shock and we are far from levels where long-term holders, who make up a greater number of investors, start taking significant profits so $100,000 is on the horizon," she added. Market momentum has been gathering since last month's launch of a futures-based bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States raised expectations of flow-driven gains. Inflows into bitcoin products and funds have hit a record $6.4 billion so far this year, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed, and totaled $95 million last week. Huge pandemic savings and a more upbeat global growth prospects suggested that digital assets would remain well-supported, analysts said. 'WHERE THE FAST MONEY IS' Other pieces of positive news have also helped, including plans by Grayscale, the world's largest digital currency manager, to convert its flagship bitcoin trust into a spot-bitcoin exchange traded fund. Last week Grayscale also applied to list a "future of finance" fund that would track companies involved in the growing digital economy. Story continues "Crypto is where the fast money is at," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone. "(Ether) is trending like a dream and I'd be long and strong here," he added. "Clients are net long, with 79% of open positions held long, and I can sense the $5k party could get going soon." Others though flagged cause for some near-term caution on bitcoin, however, as the cost of funding long positions has crept higher in recent days, according to trading platform BitMEX - sometimes a precursor to a pullback. Still, the moves so far have carried the token more than 1,680% higher from its March 2020 lows and helped lift the total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies above $3 trillion, according to crypto price and data aggregator CoinGecko. CoinMarketCap put it slightly lower at $2.93 trillion. Either way true believers, or "hodlers" in crypto markets terminology, have felt vindicated and remain bullish. "They threw everything at the beast and still it moves," said payments strategist and sometimes host of the Around the Coin podcast, Brian Roemmele, on Twitter. "Next stop: #Bitcoin $72000." (Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Lincoln Feast, Muralikumar Anantharaman) || Bitcoin, ether hit all-time highs as momentum accelerates: By Tom Westbrook and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Bitcoin and ether hit record peaks on Tuesday, with enthusiasm for cryptocurrency adoption and worry about inflation driving momentum and flows into the asset class.
Though both virtual currencies pulled back from their highs in the U.S. session, their trajectory was clearly headed higher.
Bitcoin rose as high as $68,564.40 and was last down 0.1% at $67,325 while ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, earlier hit $4,842.65 before trading down 0.7% at $4,774.
Both have more than doubled since June and added nearly 70% against the dollar since the start of October.
"This move is a culmination of months of net outflows from exchanges and coming off the market, coupled with increasing demand," said Martha Reyes, head of research at digital asset prime brokerage and exchange BEQUANT.
"This creates a supply shock and we are far from levels where long-term holders, who make up a greater number of investors, start taking significant profits so $100,000 is on the horizon," she added.
Market momentum has been gathering since last month's launch of a futures-based bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States raised expectations of flow-driven gains.
Inflows into bitcoin products and funds have hit a record $6.4 billion so far this year, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed, and totaled $95 million last week.
Huge pandemic savings and a more upbeat global growth prospects suggested that digital assets would remain well-supported, analysts said.
'WHERE THE FAST MONEY IS'
Other pieces of positive news have also helped, including plans by Grayscale, the world's largest digital currency manager, to convert its flagship bitcoin trust into a spot-bitcoin exchange traded fund. Last week Grayscale also applied to list a "future of finance" fund that would track companies involved in the growing digital economy.
"Crypto is where the fast money is at," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone. "(Ether) is trending like a dream and I'd be long and strong here," he added.
"Clients are net long, with 79% of open positions held long, and I can sense the $5k party could get going soon."
Others though flagged cause for some near-term caution on bitcoin, however, as the cost of funding long positions has crept higher in recent days, according to trading platform BitMEX - sometimes a precursor to a pullback.
Still, the moves so far have carried the token more than 1,680% higher from its March 2020 lows and helped lift the total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies above $3 trillion, according to crypto price and data aggregator CoinGecko.
CoinMarketCap put it slightly lower at $2.93 trillion. Either way true believers, or "hodlers" in crypto markets terminology, have felt vindicated and remain bullish.
"They threw everything at the beast and still it moves," said payments strategist and sometimes host of the Around the Coin podcast, Brian Roemmele, on Twitter. "Next stop: #Bitcoin $72000."
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Lincoln Feast, Muralikumar Anantharaman) || Bitcoin, ether hit all-time highs as momentum accelerates: By Tom Westbrook and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Bitcoin and ether hit record peaks on Tuesday, with enthusiasm for cryptocurrency adoption and worry about inflation driving momentum and flows into the asset class.
Though both virtual currencies pulled back from their highs in the U.S. session, their trajectory was clearly headed higher.
Bitcoin rose as high as $68,564.40 and was last down 0.1% at $67,325 while ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, earlier hit $4,842.65 before trading down 0.7% at $4,774.
Both have more than doubled since June and added nearly 70% against the dollar since the start of October.
"This move is a culmination of months of net outflows from exchanges and coming off the market, coupled with increasing demand," said Martha Reyes, head of research at digital asset prime brokerage and exchange BEQUANT.
"This creates a supply shock and we are far from levels where long-term holders, who make up a greater number of investors, start taking significant profits so $100,000 is on the horizon," she added.
Market momentum has been gathering since last month's launch of a futures-based bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States raised expectations of flow-driven gains.
Inflows into bitcoin products and funds have hit a record $6.4 billion so far this year, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed, and totaled $95 million last week.
Huge pandemic savings and a more upbeat global growth prospects suggested that digital assets would remain well-supported, analysts said.
'WHERE THE FAST MONEY IS'
Other pieces of positive news have also helped, including plans by Grayscale, the world's largest digital currency manager, to convert its flagship bitcoin trust into a spot-bitcoin exchange traded fund. Last week Grayscale also applied to list a "future of finance" fund that would track companies involved in the growing digital economy.
"Crypto is where the fast money is at," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone. "(Ether) is trending like a dream and I'd be long and strong here," he added.
"Clients are net long, with 79% of open positions held long, and I can sense the $5k party could get going soon."
Others though flagged cause for some near-term caution on bitcoin, however, as the cost of funding long positions has crept higher in recent days, according to trading platform BitMEX - sometimes a precursor to a pullback.
Still, the moves so far have carried the token more than 1,680% higher from its March 2020 lows and helped lift the total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies above $3 trillion, according to crypto price and data aggregator CoinGecko.
CoinMarketCap put it slightly lower at $2.93 trillion. Either way true believers, or "hodlers" in crypto markets terminology, have felt vindicated and remain bullish.
"They threw everything at the beast and still it moves," said payments strategist and sometimes host of the Around the Coin podcast, Brian Roemmele, on Twitter. "Next stop: #Bitcoin $72000."
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Lincoln Feast, Muralikumar Anantharaman) || First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Hits Record High of Over $67.5K; Ether Also Sets New Mark: Good morning, Here’s what’s happening:
• Market Moves:Bitcoin passes $67.5K
• Technician’s Take:Indicators for bitcoin suggest an upside toward the $86K resistance level.
• Catch the latest episodesofCoinDesk TVfor insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis.
• Bitcoin (BTC):$$67,523.28
• Ether (ETH):$4,819.13
Bitcoinrose over 7% during the past 24 hours. The No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization had passed $67,500 on Monday at the time of publication to break its previous all-time high of $66,974.77 on Monday. Ether, the second-largest crypto by market cap, also hit a record high of over $4,800.
As bitcoin’s prices increased, the funding rates on major exchanges Binance and OKEx, or the cost of holding long positions in the perpetual futures on the exchanges, also elevated on Monday, according to data fromcoinglass. (Exchanges calculate funding rates every eight hours.) CoinDesk previouslyreportedthat rising funding rates are usually a sign that the market is becoming overheated.
Tokens associated with layer 1 blockchains that are similar to the Ethereum blockchain will continue to be worth monitoring on Tuesday because several of them – terra, solana and avalanche – hit record highs in the past two days. Many layer 1 blockchains are holding major events in the coming days – for example, Polkadot’s hotly anticipated parachain auctionson Nov. 11– that could boost their tokens’ prices, too.
“Retail and traditional investors lack the resources and skills necessary to analyze the wide variety of complex individual application tokens, so the tokens of layer 1 blockchains have essentially become the ‘lazy man’s index’ – a catch-all solution for betting on the overall growth of digital assets,” Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at fund manager Arca, wrote in his latestblog poston Monday.
Bitcoin Holds Support at $60K-$65K, Testing All-Time High
Bitcoin broke above a short-term downtrend and broke its record high. At the time of publication, bitcoin’s price had broken $67,500. The cryptocurrency rose more than 7% over the past 24 hours.
Upsidemomentumis improving after a two-week consolidation phase of between $60,000 and $64,000. A confirmed breakout from that consolidation would require at least two consecutive daily closes above $66,900.
Indicators suggest further upside for BTC’s price, initially toward the $86,000 resistance level. Seasonal strength in the fourth quarter could support continued bullish activity over the next two months.
For now, intraday charts appear to be overbought into Asian trading hours, although pullbacks should remain limited given strong support at around $60,000.
Be on the lookoutfor the following on Nov. 9:
• Housing Industry Association: Australia new home sales (October)
• 8:30 a.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (12:30 a.m. UTC): National Australia Bank’s Business Confidence (October)
• 1 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (5 a.m. UTC): Economic Watchers surveys on short-term economic trends (Japan)
• 5 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (9 a.m. UTC):Break Pointconference organized by the Solana Foundation to assemble cryptocurrency leaders.
In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of“First Mover”onCoinDesk TV:
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu on White House Stablecoin Report
“First Mover” hosts spoke with Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu about the White House’s report calling for bank-like oversight on stablecoins. Plus, the show included crypto markets analysis fromFTX.USPresident Brett Harrison.
Bank of China Reveals Machine That Converts Foreign Currency to Digital Yuan: Report
Shiba Inu Sees Record Speculative Frenzy, Snaps 5-Week Winning Trend
Crypto Exchange Huobi Global to Move Spot Trading Services to Gibraltar
Crypto Mining Stocks Rally After Bitcoin Surges Near Record, Ether Hits All-Time-High
Cadenza Ventures Launches $50M Crypto Fund for DeFi and Blockchain Projects
Craig Wright’s Latest Funhouse-Mirror Legal Adventure
NFTs Take Over NYC || First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Hits Record High of Over $67.5K; Ether Also Sets New Mark: Good morning, Here’s what’s happening:
• Market Moves:Bitcoin passes $67.5K
• Technician’s Take:Indicators for bitcoin suggest an upside toward the $86K resistance level.
• Catch the latest episodesofCoinDesk TVfor insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis.
• Bitcoin (BTC):$$67,523.28
• Ether (ETH):$4,819.13
Bitcoinrose over 7% during the past 24 hours. The No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization had passed $67,500 on Monday at the time of publication to break its previous all-time high of $66,974.77 on Monday. Ether, the second-largest crypto by market cap, also hit a record high of over $4,800.
As bitcoin’s prices increased, the funding rates on major exchanges Binance and OKEx, or the cost of holding long positions in the perpetual futures on the exchanges, also elevated on Monday, according to data fromcoinglass. (Exchanges calculate funding rates every eight hours.) CoinDesk previouslyreportedthat rising funding rates are usually a sign that the market is becoming overheated.
Tokens associated with layer 1 blockchains that are similar to the Ethereum blockchain will continue to be worth monitoring on Tuesday because several of them – terra, solana and avalanche – hit record highs in the past two days. Many layer 1 blockchains are holding major events in the coming days – for example, Polkadot’s hotly anticipated parachain auctionson Nov. 11– that could boost their tokens’ prices, too.
“Retail and traditional investors lack the resources and skills necessary to analyze the wide variety of complex individual application tokens, so the tokens of layer 1 blockchains have essentially become the ‘lazy man’s index’ – a catch-all solution for betting on the overall growth of digital assets,” Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at fund manager Arca, wrote in his latestblog poston Monday.
Bitcoin Holds Support at $60K-$65K, Testing All-Time High
Bitcoin broke above a short-term downtrend and broke its record high. At the time of publication, bitcoin’s price had broken $67,500. The cryptocurrency rose more than 7% over the past 24 hours.
Upsidemomentumis improving after a two-week consolidation phase of between $60,000 and $64,000. A confirmed breakout from that consolidation would require at least two consecutive daily closes above $66,900.
Indicators suggest further upside for BTC’s price, initially toward the $86,000 resistance level. Seasonal strength in the fourth quarter could support continued bullish activity over the next two months.
For now, intraday charts appear to be overbought into Asian trading hours, although pullbacks should remain limited given strong support at around $60,000.
Be on the lookoutfor the following on Nov. 9:
• Housing Industry Association: Australia new home sales (October)
• 8:30 a.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (12:30 a.m. UTC): National Australia Bank’s Business Confidence (October)
• 1 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (5 a.m. UTC): Economic Watchers surveys on short-term economic trends (Japan)
• 5 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (9 a.m. UTC):Break Pointconference organized by the Solana Foundation to assemble cryptocurrency leaders.
In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of“First Mover”onCoinDesk TV:
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu on White House Stablecoin Report
“First Mover” hosts spoke with Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu about the White House’s report calling for bank-like oversight on stablecoins. Plus, the show included crypto markets analysis fromFTX.USPresident Brett Harrison.
Bank of China Reveals Machine That Converts Foreign Currency to Digital Yuan: Report
Shiba Inu Sees Record Speculative Frenzy, Snaps 5-Week Winning Trend
Crypto Exchange Huobi Global to Move Spot Trading Services to Gibraltar
Crypto Mining Stocks Rally After Bitcoin Surges Near Record, Ether Hits All-Time-High
Cadenza Ventures Launches $50M Crypto Fund for DeFi and Blockchain Projects
Craig Wright’s Latest Funhouse-Mirror Legal Adventure
NFTs Take Over NYC || First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Hits Record High of Over $67.5K; Ether Also Sets New Mark: Good morning, Here’s what’s happening: Market Moves: Bitcoin passes $67.5K Technician’s Take: Indicators for bitcoin suggest an upside toward the $86K resistance level. Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis. Prices Bitcoin ( BTC ): $$67,523.28 Ether ( ETH ): $4,819.13 Market moves Bitcoin rose over 7% during the past 24 hours. The No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization had passed $67,500 on Monday at the time of publication to break its previous all-time high of $66,974.77 on Monday. Ether, the second-largest crypto by market cap, also hit a record high of over $4,800. As bitcoin’s prices increased, the funding rates on major exchanges Binance and OKEx, or the cost of holding long positions in the perpetual futures on the exchanges, also elevated on Monday, according to data from coinglass . (Exchanges calculate funding rates every eight hours.) CoinDesk previously reported that rising funding rates are usually a sign that the market is becoming overheated. Bitcoin's funding rates on Binance and OKEx. Credit: coinglass Tokens associated with layer 1 blockchains that are similar to the Ethereum blockchain will continue to be worth monitoring on Tuesday because several of them – terra, solana and avalanche – hit record highs in the past two days. Many layer 1 blockchains are holding major events in the coming days – for example, Polkadot’s hotly anticipated parachain auctions on Nov. 11 – that could boost their tokens’ prices, too. “Retail and traditional investors lack the resources and skills necessary to analyze the wide variety of complex individual application tokens, so the tokens of layer 1 blockchains have essentially become the ‘lazy man’s index’ – a catch-all solution for betting on the overall growth of digital assets,” Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at fund manager Arca, wrote in his latest blog post on Monday. Technician’s take Bitcoin Holds Support at $60K-$65K, Testing All-Time High Bitcoin broke above a short-term downtrend and broke its record high. At the time of publication, bitcoin’s price had broken $67,500. The cryptocurrency rose more than 7% over the past 24 hours. Story continues Upside momentum is improving after a two-week consolidation phase of between $60,000 and $64,000. A confirmed breakout from that consolidation would require at least two consecutive daily closes above $66,900. Indicators suggest further upside for BTC’s price, initially toward the $86,000 resistance level. Seasonal strength in the fourth quarter could support continued bullish activity over the next two months. For now, intraday charts appear to be overbought into Asian trading hours, although pullbacks should remain limited given strong support at around $60,000. Important events Be on the lookout for the following on Nov. 9: Housing Industry Association: Australia new home sales (October) 8:30 a.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (12:30 a.m. UTC): National Australia Bank’s Business Confidence (October) 1 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (5 a.m. UTC): Economic Watchers surveys on short-term economic trends (Japan) 5 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore (9 a.m. UTC): Break Point conference organized by the Solana Foundation to assemble cryptocurrency leaders. On CoinDesk TV In case you missed it , here are the most recent episodes of “First Mover” on CoinDesk TV : Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu on White House Stablecoin Report “First Mover” hosts spoke with Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu about the White House’s report calling for bank-like oversight on stablecoins. Plus, the show included crypto markets analysis from FTX.US President Brett Harrison. Latest Headlines Bank of China Reveals Machine That Converts Foreign Currency to Digital Yuan: Report Shiba Inu Sees Record Speculative Frenzy, Snaps 5-Week Winning Trend Crypto Exchange Huobi Global to Move Spot Trading Services to Gibraltar Crypto Mining Stocks Rally After Bitcoin Surges Near Record, Ether Hits All-Time-High Cadenza Ventures Launches $50M Crypto Fund for DeFi and Blockchain Projects Longer read Craig Wright’s Latest Funhouse-Mirror Legal Adventure NFTs Take Over NYC || GLOBAL MARKETS-Global stocks at new highs, crude rises on global growth outlook: (Adds closing market prices)
* Markets wary ahead of U.S. CPI, host of Fed speakers
* Oil gains after U.S. infrastructure bill passes
By Katanga Johnson
WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - World shares hit new highs on Monday as investors welcomed the passage of a U.S. infrastructure spending bill, while crude oil gained on the outlook for energy demand in an expansive global economy.
The benchmark S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq extended their run of all-time closing highs to eight straight sessions, while the blue-chip Dow notched its second consecutive record closing high.
In Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed at a record for the third straight day while MSCI's all-country world index closed higher for a six successive session.
A 4.9% decline in Tesla Inc shares weighed on the S&P 500. Tesla fell after Chief Executive Elon Musk's Twitter poll on whether he should sell about 10% of his stock in the electric automaker.
"The majority voted for him to sell, which effectively signals that he is going to dump stock on the market," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.06%.
World shares have rallied as relatively dovish talk from central bank officials last week and strong U.S. labor data on Friday bolstered investor optimism over solid earnings results on both sides of the Atlantic.
But a tight U.S. labor market along with the dislocation in global supply chains could result in a high reading for consumer prices on Wednesday. Strong inflation likely would rekindle talk of Federal Reserve raising interest rates earlier than expected.
Most U.S. Treasury yields rose after Congress passed a long-delayed $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Saturday, though a broader social safety net plan remains elusive. Demand was soft for three-year notes at auction.
The benchmark 10-year yield rose 4 basis points at 1.4932%.
Oil prices rose and the United States said it was weighing options to address high prices. Brent crude rose 69 cents to settle up at $83.43 a barrel. U.S. crude rose 66 cents to settle at $81.93 a barrel.
Short-term inflation expectations increased in October, according to survey findings released by the New York Federal Reserve on Monday, and consumers' expectations for how much money they will earn and spend over the next year rose to the highest level in eight years.
Median expectations rose in October to 5.7% for what inflation will be one year from now from 5.3% in September. It was the 12th straight monthly increase and a new high for the survey launched in June 2013. Medium-term expectations for what inflation will be in three years remained unchanged at 4.2% after three consecutive monthly increases.
The dollar dipped after hitting 15-month highs last week.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six currencies, fell 0.172% to 94.055.
The euro slid 0.01% to $1.1585, while the yen traded remained unchanged at $113.2200.
Gold rose to a two-month high, bolstered a weaker dollar and persistent inflation concerns.
U.S. gold futures settled 0.6% higher at $1,828 an ounce.
Cryptocurrencies, which like gold pay no coupon and are seen as a possible hedge against inflation, also rose. Ether hit a record peak and bitcoin jumped to a three-week high.
Bitcoin last rose 4.6% to $66,240.26.
(Additional reporting by Herbert Lash in New York, Danilo Masoni in Milan, Sujata Rao in London, and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Toby Chopra, Will Dunham, Anil D'Silva and David Gregorio) || GLOBAL MARKETS-Global stocks at new highs, crude rises on global growth outlook: (Adds closing market prices) * Markets wary ahead of U.S. CPI, host of Fed speakers * Oil gains after U.S. infrastructure bill passes By Katanga Johnson WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - World shares hit new highs on Monday as investors welcomed the passage of a U.S. infrastructure spending bill, while crude oil gained on the outlook for energy demand in an expansive global economy. The benchmark S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq extended their run of all-time closing highs to eight straight sessions, while the blue-chip Dow notched its second consecutive record closing high. In Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed at a record for the third straight day while MSCI's all-country world index closed higher for a six successive session. A 4.9% decline in Tesla Inc shares weighed on the S&P 500. Tesla fell after Chief Executive Elon Musk's Twitter poll on whether he should sell about 10% of his stock in the electric automaker. "The majority voted for him to sell, which effectively signals that he is going to dump stock on the market," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.06%. World shares have rallied as relatively dovish talk from central bank officials last week and strong U.S. labor data on Friday bolstered investor optimism over solid earnings results on both sides of the Atlantic. But a tight U.S. labor market along with the dislocation in global supply chains could result in a high reading for consumer prices on Wednesday. Strong inflation likely would rekindle talk of Federal Reserve raising interest rates earlier than expected. Most U.S. Treasury yields rose after Congress passed a long-delayed $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Saturday, though a broader social safety net plan remains elusive. Demand was soft for three-year notes at auction. The benchmark 10-year yield rose 4 basis points at 1.4932%. Oil prices rose and the United States said it was weighing options to address high prices. Brent crude rose 69 cents to settle up at $83.43 a barrel. U.S. crude rose 66 cents to settle at $81.93 a barrel. Story continues Short-term inflation expectations increased in October, according to survey findings released by the New York Federal Reserve on Monday, and consumers' expectations for how much money they will earn and spend over the next year rose to the highest level in eight years. Median expectations rose in October to 5.7% for what inflation will be one year from now from 5.3% in September. It was the 12th straight monthly increase and a new high for the survey launched in June 2013. Medium-term expectations for what inflation will be in three years remained unchanged at 4.2% after three consecutive monthly increases. The dollar dipped after hitting 15-month highs last week. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six currencies, fell 0.172% to 94.055. The euro slid 0.01% to $1.1585, while the yen traded remained unchanged at $113.2200. Gold rose to a two-month high, bolstered a weaker dollar and persistent inflation concerns. U.S. gold futures settled 0.6% higher at $1,828 an ounce. Cryptocurrencies, which like gold pay no coupon and are seen as a possible hedge against inflation, also rose. Ether hit a record peak and bitcoin jumped to a three-week high. Bitcoin last rose 4.6% to $66,240.26. (Additional reporting by Herbert Lash in New York, Danilo Masoni in Milan, Sujata Rao in London, and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Toby Chopra, Will Dunham, Anil D'Silva and David Gregorio) || Robinhood Shares Fall After Data Security Breach Revealed: Robinhood’s shares fell 3.1% in after-market trading on Monday after the stocks and cryptocurrencies trading app acknowledged a Nov. 3 security data breach in ablog post.
• “An unauthorized third party obtained access to a limited amount of personal information for a portion of our customers,” the popular trading platform said in the Monday blog post.
• After Robinhood contained the breach, the hacker(s) demanded an extortion payment, according to the company, which immediately contacted the authorities.
• The company said the unnamed third party obtained a list of email addresses for about five million people and full names for a different group of approximately two million people.
• Robinhood assured its customers the attack had been contained and that no personal information such as Social Security, bank account or debit card numbers were exposed.
• The company also stated that the breach didn’t cause financial loss for any customers.
• However, the company also said the hack had compromised the personal information of 310 accounts, including name, date of birth, and zip code, and exposed more extensive information for 10 customers.
Read More:Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report || Robinhood Shares Fall After Data Security Breach Revealed: Robinhood’s shares fell 3.1% in after-market trading on Monday after the stocks and cryptocurrencies trading app acknowledged a Nov. 3 security data breach in a blog post . “An unauthorized third party obtained access to a limited amount of personal information for a portion of our customers,” the popular trading platform said in the Monday blog post. After Robinhood contained the breach, the hacker(s) demanded an extortion payment, according to the company, which immediately contacted the authorities. The company said the unnamed third party obtained a list of email addresses for about five million people and full names for a different group of approximately two million people. Robinhood assured its customers the attack had been contained and that no personal information such as Social Security, bank account or debit card numbers were exposed. The company also stated that the breach didn’t cause financial loss for any customers. However, the company also said the hack had compromised the personal information of 310 accounts, including name, date of birth, and zip code, and exposed more extensive information for 10 customers. Read More: Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report || SEC Fines 'USO' Issuer $2.5M: The operator behind the popularUnited States Oil Fund LP (USO)has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle charges from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after halting creations during last April’s oil price meltdown.
Oil prices were depressed through the spring of last year, as the pandemic broadly curbed travel, and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia flooded the market with cheap oil.
Those factors put oil traders in a bind in late April as their front-month contracts approached expiry, and eventually they began paying other traders to take on those barrels for delivery. In effect, the price of oil was negative for the first time in history.
At one point on April 20, the price of oil reached -$37 per barrel.
At that time, USO’s sole broker refused to execute any new positions for the ETF, forcing it to refuse to take on new creation orders. The ETF’s managers made several changes to its portfolio in late April and early May to include contracts across the futures curve.
Those moves prompted the SEC tobegin an investigationlast August into whether investors were properly made aware of the changes to the fund’s prospectus before they went into effect.
USO’s issuer United States Commodity Holdings agreed to the fine without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings. The firm declined to comment.
Contact Dan Mika [email protected], and follow him onTwitter
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Permalink| © Copyright 2021ETF.com.All rights reserved || SEC Fines 'USO' Issuer $2.5M: The operator behind the popular United States Oil Fund LP (USO) has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle charges from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after halting creations during last April’s oil price meltdown. Oil prices were depressed through the spring of last year, as the pandemic broadly curbed travel, and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia flooded the market with cheap oil. Those factors put oil traders in a bind in late April as their front-month contracts approached expiry, and eventually they began paying other traders to take on those barrels for delivery. In effect, the price of oil was negative for the first time in history. At one point on April 20, the price of oil reached -$37 per barrel. At that time, USO’s sole broker refused to execute any new positions for the ETF, forcing it to refuse to take on new creation orders. The ETF’s managers made several changes to its portfolio in late April and early May to include contracts across the futures curve. Those moves prompted the SEC to begin an investigation last August into whether investors were properly made aware of the changes to the fund’s prospectus before they went into effect. USO’s issuer United States Commodity Holdings agreed to the fine without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings. The firm declined to comment. Contact Dan Mika at [email protected] , and follow him on Twitter Recommended Stories Kelly Files For ETH Futures ETF SEC Denies VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF SEC Halts Geared Bitcoin ETF Filings The Plumbing Behind GBTC's ETF Bid Permalink | © Copyright 2021 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Phunware Now Has $66 Million, Propelling PHUN Stock Higher: Phunware(NASDAQ:PHUN) is a mobile phone SaaS (Software as a Service) company that just raised a pile of cash. In a recent presentation that the company gave at a Benzinga conference, Phunware said thatit now has $66 million in cashon its balance sheet. That’s probably enough to justify its inflated $365 million market valuation with PHUN stock trading at $4.34 as of Monday, Nov. 8.
Source: Shutterstock
That might sound like a funny statement since there is no way that just having $66 million equals a $365 million valuation for a company. But in today’s Alice in Wonderland valuation world, cash becomes its own catalyst. I will explain what I mean in a bit, but first, let’s look at what Phunware does.
InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
Phunware builds out marketing software for companies for online mobile advertising campaigns. It calls itself an “Internet of Experiences” and a “Multiscreen as a Service” (MaaS) company. Essentially it builds out, supports and maintains cloud marketing initiatives for companies.
This kind of approach works well with political campaigns. The company is seen, according to the mainstream press, as a Trump associate, even though it ran just one campaign initiative in the past.
• 7 Superstocks That Have Returned Over 10,000% in 30 Years
Most of its revenue really comes from three sources: healthcare companies, media companies and retailers. It charges companies SaaS fees but also makes money from ad fees.Fox Corporation(NASDAQ:FOX) used to be a large portion of its revenue, but the company reported in itslatest 10-Kthat it has completed its statement of work with Fox. Since then the company has begun diversifying its revenue sources.
The problem is that as of June 30 it hadjust $3 million in net revenuefor its six months ending June 30. That does not add up to a $365 million valuation.
The fact that Phunware was able to raise over $60 million (it had just $2.7 million in gross cash at the end of June) is a testament to what investors think the possibilities are for this company.
In other words, raising so much cash, despite its dilutive effect on the existing holders, allows the company to have many more alternatives. It can acquire companies and acquireBitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD). This is exactly what it just did —$6.2 million more on Nov. 5, bringing its balance to $7.75 million at a cost of $61,238 per BTC token.
It can develop its own technology through more capex spending and it can invest in minority stakes in other companies. The range of possibilities is quite large with this amount of cash sitting on its balance sheet.
Moreover, there is another interesting thing that happens with companies that have a large amount of cash. Suddenly large potential customers are now willing to sign up with marketing campaigns.
This is because cash talks and everything else walks. Large potential customers now realize that Phunware can hire the necessary developers, technology and customer reps that it needs to take on a large media campaign. Moreover, the company is not going to go out of business anytime soon. Again, cash becomes its own catalyst. Its customers respect the fact that a large pile of cash represents security for a company.
Don’t write off PHUN stock just yet. Management may surprise with higher revenue and earnings over the next few quarters (not necessarily Q3) given how cash can enhance its financials.
The only problem is we can’t easily value the stock just yet. There are not enough metrics to justify its $365 million market value. This is not to say that there won’t be in the near future.
On the date of publication, Mark R. Hake did not hold any position (either directly or indirectly) in any of the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.
Mark Hake writes about personal finance onmrhake.medium.comand runs theTotal Yield Value Guidewhich you can reviewhere.
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The postPhunware Now Has $66 Million, Propelling PHUN Stock Higherappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Phunware Now Has $66 Million, Propelling PHUN Stock Higher: Phunware (NASDAQ: PHUN ) is a mobile phone SaaS (Software as a Service) company that just raised a pile of cash. In a recent presentation that the company gave at a Benzinga conference, Phunware said that it now has $66 million in cash on its balance sheet. That’s probably enough to justify its inflated $365 million market valuation with PHUN stock trading at $4.34 as of Monday, Nov. 8. a visualization of Internet communications superimposed on a photo of a city skyline Source: Shutterstock That might sound like a funny statement since there is no way that just having $66 million equals a $365 million valuation for a company. But in today’s Alice in Wonderland valuation world, cash becomes its own catalyst. I will explain what I mean in a bit, but first, let’s look at what Phunware does. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips What Phunware Does Phunware builds out marketing software for companies for online mobile advertising campaigns. It calls itself an “Internet of Experiences” and a “Multiscreen as a Service” (MaaS) company. Essentially it builds out, supports and maintains cloud marketing initiatives for companies. This kind of approach works well with political campaigns. The company is seen, according to the mainstream press, as a Trump associate, even though it ran just one campaign initiative in the past. 7 Superstocks That Have Returned Over 10,000% in 30 Years Most of its revenue really comes from three sources: healthcare companies, media companies and retailers. It charges companies SaaS fees but also makes money from ad fees. Fox Corporation (NASDAQ: FOX ) used to be a large portion of its revenue, but the company reported in its latest 10-K that it has completed its statement of work with Fox. Since then the company has begun diversifying its revenue sources. The problem is that as of June 30 it had just $3 million in net revenue for its six months ending June 30. That does not add up to a $365 million valuation. Why Raising Cash Helps the Stock The fact that Phunware was able to raise over $60 million (it had just $2.7 million in gross cash at the end of June) is a testament to what investors think the possibilities are for this company. Story continues In other words, raising so much cash, despite its dilutive effect on the existing holders, allows the company to have many more alternatives. It can acquire companies and acquire Bitcoin (CCC: BTC-USD ). This is exactly what it just did — $6.2 million more on Nov. 5 , bringing its balance to $7.75 million at a cost of $61,238 per BTC token. It can develop its own technology through more capex spending and it can invest in minority stakes in other companies. The range of possibilities is quite large with this amount of cash sitting on its balance sheet. Moreover, there is another interesting thing that happens with companies that have a large amount of cash. Suddenly large potential customers are now willing to sign up with marketing campaigns. This is because cash talks and everything else walks. Large potential customers now realize that Phunware can hire the necessary developers, technology and customer reps that it needs to take on a large media campaign. Moreover, the company is not going to go out of business anytime soon. Again, cash becomes its own catalyst. Its customers respect the fact that a large pile of cash represents security for a company. What Investors Should Do With PHUN Stock Don’t write off PHUN stock just yet. Management may surprise with higher revenue and earnings over the next few quarters (not necessarily Q3) given how cash can enhance its financials. The only problem is we can’t easily value the stock just yet. There are not enough metrics to justify its $365 million market value. This is not to say that there won’t be in the near future. On the date of publication, Mark R. Hake did not hold any position (either directly or indirectly) in any of the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . Mark Hake writes about personal finance on mrhake.medium.com and runs the Total Yield Value Guide which you can review here . More From InvestorPlace Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now Analyst Who Found Microsoft at $0.38 Names #1 Pick for the AI Boom America’s #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar The post Phunware Now Has $66 Million, Propelling PHUN Stock Higher appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?: It’s fairly common knowledge thatcryptocurrencyis a decentralized digital medium of exchange that isn’t issued by a government or bank. Most people are probably familiar with Bitcoin by now, and you might have heard of Ethereum, too. But those are just two of the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies vying to be the next big thing.
Beyond Bitcoin:Looking at Some Crypto Financial JargonSee:10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out
With that many out there, you might be wondering where they all come from?
No bank and no government means no printing and no minting — but none is needed. Although you can spend it like regular money, cryptocurrency is born from an entirely different process altogether.
Find Out:What Is Chainlink and Why Is It Important in the World of Cryptocurrency?
Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are “mined.” Others are not. More on that in a moment.
Read More:Millennials Own More Crypto Than Any Other Generation
No matter the origination process, all cryptocurrency is software that is created by code.That code determines absolutely every function associated with the cryptocurrency, from the way data are stored and how transactions are recorded to the distribution of mining rewards and the maximum supply of tokens to be produced.
Take a Look:The 10 Wildest Things Selling as NFTs
In almost all cases, the code is public and the software used to generate a given cryptocurrency is decentralized, just like the cryptocurrency itself. That public, decentralized software is hosted on individual computers all over the world instead of on a central server.
When cryptocurrencies are designed to be used as money, transactions are stored on a special kind of secure database called a blockchain, which serves as a ledger of all coded transactions. Think of it as a checkbook for cryptocurrency.
Discover:Should Crypto and NFTs Be Part of Your Retirement Plan?
Once entered into the blockchain, no one can ever change an entry in the database without meeting specific conditions. Everyone involved can see the public record of all transitions.
Blockchain technology, therefore, allows cryptocurrency to achieve its three most important defining features:
• Transparency
• Decentralization
• Immutability
The part of the code that represents what end-users know as “tokens” or “coins” is just a string of numbers stored on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are generated by algorithms, and those algorithms rely on cryptography — hence the name cryptocurrency.
More Economy Explained:Ethereum: All You Need To Know To Decide If This Crypto Is Worth the Investment
In most cases, the algorithms that fuel the cryptocurrency factory are written to award tokens to computers that add transactions to the blockchain. That process is known as mining. Miners use special hardware and the cryptocurrency’s public, decentralized software to add transactions to blockchains.
Read:What Are Altcoins — and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks?
In exchange for providing that critical blockchain maintenance, miners get paid in new cryptocurrency tokens. Most cryptocurrency coins or tokens are created this way.
Technically, anyone can be a miner, but it’s a largely fruitless endeavor for most. It’s complicated, competitive, expensive if you fail — which is highly likely — and it gobbles up an enormous amount of power.
Some cryptocurrency was never designed to replace fiat currency like the dollar. In other words, it was never meant to be used as money. This kind of non-mineable, unspendable cryptocurrency is usually generated to reward early investors in a new cryptocurrency launch, called an ICO (initial coin offering).
The Economy and Your Money:All You Need To Know
In other cases, a new cryptocurrency can be created through a deviation in a blockchain called a hard fork. Hard forks occur when blockchain protocols change so significantly that a new, unique branch is formed on the chain that is incompatible with the old chain. Bitcoin Cash, for example, was formed through a hard fork on the original Bitcoin blockchain.
Verification is at the core of crypto. Unlike fiat currency, the value of cryptocurrency is not based on trust. It’s based on one of two verification techniques: proof of work and proof of stake.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH):The Most Important Things You Need To Know About It
Most transactions are verified through proof of work. Algorithms create complex math problems that miners race to solve using special hardware. By solving the puzzle, a miner verifies a group of transactions called a block, which is then added to the larger blockchain ledger. The miner who pulls it off first is rewarded with cryptocurrency.
Proof of stake was developed to reduce the amount of power needed to verify transactions. With this method, someone has to prove they have skin in the game in order to check transactions and compete for rewards. Users have to “stake” their own existing cryptocurrency by locking it up in a communal vault to be allowed to verify transactions. The more you stake, the more transactions you’re allowed to verify and the more cryptocurrency you can earn.
This article is part of GOBankingRates’ ‘Economy Explained’ series to help readers navigate the complexities of our financial system.
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This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? || Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?: Jirapong Manustrong / iStock.com It’s fairly common knowledge that cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital medium of exchange that isn’t issued by a government or bank. Most people are probably familiar with Bitcoin by now, and you might have heard of Ethereum, too. But those are just two of the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies vying to be the next big thing. Beyond Bitcoin: Looking at Some Crypto Financial Jargon See: 10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out With that many out there, you might be wondering where they all come from? No bank and no government means no printing and no minting — but none is needed. Although you can spend it like regular money, cryptocurrency is born from an entirely different process altogether. Find Out: What Is Chainlink and Why Is It Important in the World of Cryptocurrency? All Cryptocurrency Is Software Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, are “mined.” Others are not. More on that in a moment. Read More: Millennials Own More Crypto Than Any Other Generation No matter the origination process, all cryptocurrency is software that is created by code. That code determines absolutely every function associated with the cryptocurrency, from the way data are stored and how transactions are recorded to the distribution of mining rewards and the maximum supply of tokens to be produced. Take a Look: The 10 Wildest Things Selling as NFTs In almost all cases, the code is public and the software used to generate a given cryptocurrency is decentralized, just like the cryptocurrency itself. That public, decentralized software is hosted on individual computers all over the world instead of on a central server. Algorithms, Cryptography and Blockchain Are at the Heart of It All When cryptocurrencies are designed to be used as money, transactions are stored on a special kind of secure database called a blockchain, which serves as a ledger of all coded transactions. Think of it as a checkbook for cryptocurrency. Discover: Should Crypto and NFTs Be Part of Your Retirement Plan? Story continues Once entered into the blockchain, no one can ever change an entry in the database without meeting specific conditions. Everyone involved can see the public record of all transitions. Blockchain technology, therefore, allows cryptocurrency to achieve its three most important defining features: Transparency Decentralization Immutability The part of the code that represents what end-users know as “tokens” or “coins” is just a string of numbers stored on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are generated by algorithms, and those algorithms rely on cryptography — hence the name cryptocurrency. More Economy Explained: Ethereum: All You Need To Know To Decide If This Crypto Is Worth the Investment Most Cryptocurrency Is Mined In most cases, the algorithms that fuel the cryptocurrency factory are written to award tokens to computers that add transactions to the blockchain. That process is known as mining. Miners use special hardware and the cryptocurrency’s public, decentralized software to add transactions to blockchains. Read: What Are Altcoins — and Are the Potential Rewards Worth the Risks? In exchange for providing that critical blockchain maintenance, miners get paid in new cryptocurrency tokens. Most cryptocurrency coins or tokens are created this way. Technically, anyone can be a miner, but it’s a largely fruitless endeavor for most. It’s complicated, competitive, expensive if you fail — which is highly likely — and it gobbles up an enormous amount of power. But Some Is Not Some cryptocurrency was never designed to replace fiat currency like the dollar. In other words, it was never meant to be used as money. This kind of non-mineable, unspendable cryptocurrency is usually generated to reward early investors in a new cryptocurrency launch, called an ICO (initial coin offering). The Economy and Your Money: All You Need To Know In other cases, a new cryptocurrency can be created through a deviation in a blockchain called a hard fork. Hard forks occur when blockchain protocols change so significantly that a new, unique branch is formed on the chain that is incompatible with the old chain. Bitcoin Cash, for example, was formed through a hard fork on the original Bitcoin blockchain. Proof of Work and Proof of Stake Verification is at the core of crypto. Unlike fiat currency, the value of cryptocurrency is not based on trust. It’s based on one of two verification techniques: proof of work and proof of stake. Bitcoin Cash (BCH): The Most Important Things You Need To Know About It Most transactions are verified through proof of work. Algorithms create complex math problems that miners race to solve using special hardware. By solving the puzzle, a miner verifies a group of transactions called a block, which is then added to the larger blockchain ledger. The miner who pulls it off first is rewarded with cryptocurrency. Proof of stake was developed to reduce the amount of power needed to verify transactions. With this method, someone has to prove they have skin in the game in order to check transactions and compete for rewards. Users have to “stake” their own existing cryptocurrency by locking it up in a communal vault to be allowed to verify transactions. The more you stake, the more transactions you’re allowed to verify and the more cryptocurrency you can earn. This article is part of GOBankingRates’ ‘Economy Explained’ series to help readers navigate the complexities of our financial system. More From GOBankingRates 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security 10 Reasons You Should Claim Social Security Early How To Use a Credit Card Like a Pro This Holiday Season Should You Refinance Now With the Low Mortgage Rates? This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? || Bitcoin supera los $66.000 y reanuda su tendencia alcista mientras caen los rendimientos de bonos reales: El precio de bitcoin se disparó el lunes y puso fin a un periodo de casi tres semanas de variaciones leves en las que la demanda persistía en torno a los $60.000. La criptomoneda supera los $66.000 y parecía dispuesta a desafiar el récord de $66.975 alcanzado el 20 de octubre, según datos de CoinDesk. Ether, el token nativo de la blockchain de Ethereum, también rompió su récord anterior a primera hora del lunes, cuando su precio superó brevemente los $4.700 alrededor de la 1:00 UTC, según los datos de CoinDesk. Bitcoin es la mayor criptomoneda del mundo por capitalización de mercado, mientras que ether es la segunda. Yuya Hasegawa, analista del mercado de criptomonedas del exchange japonés bitbank, dijo que el descenso del rendimiento de los bonos reales o ajustados a la inflación puede estar impulsando a bitcoin. La caída de los rendimientos reales por los temores de inflación puede haber causado el reciente repunte de BTC, dijo Hasegawa a CoinDesk en una declaración por correo electrónico. Los datos del Departamento del Tesoro de Estados Unidos muestran que el rendimiento real a 10 años cayó al -1,09% el viernes, el más bajo desde el 30 de agosto. Bitcoin es ampliamente percibido como un activo de reserva de valor, como el oro. Aunque el presidente de la Reserva Federal, Jerome Powell, reiteró la semana pasada que las presiones sobre los precios pueden ser transitorias, persiste el temor a que la inflación se descontrole. La narrativa de la inflación todavía domina los titulares y la gente está sintiendo el apuro a nivel mundial, dijo Coinbase en su correo electrónico semanal el viernes. Ya sea que se trate de los precios de la gasolina en los Estados Unidos, los precios de la energía en Europa o los precios de los alimentos en América Latina, las dificultades de la cadena de suministro y la reducción de la fuerza de trabajo tienen a los inversores en busca de una reserva de valor. Los datos de la blockchain también muestran señales alcistas para bitcoin a medio plazo, dijo Eddie Wang, analista principal de OKLink research, rama de investigación de datos del exchange cripto OKEx. El hashrate de la red, o potencia de cálculo, ha aumentado de forma constante desde julio; la dificultad de minería, una métrica que describe lo difícil que es para los mineros encontrar nuevos bloques de bitcoin y obtener ganancias, también ha aumentado ocho veces, y los mineros han acumulado más de 3.000 BTC en sus carteras desde septiembre, dijo Wang. Story continues El número de billeteras individuales con un saldo superior a cero ha vuelto a ser de 39 millones, cerca del récord de 39,28 millones de billeteras con más de cero en mayo, dijo Wang, citando los datos como un indicador de un ánimo favorable en el mercado. El aumento de las monedas vinculadas a bitcoin y de las stablecoins es también una señal de un mercado alcista, dijo Wang. El analista señaló que se imprimieron 6.022 wrapped bitcoins (WBTC) en Ethereum en los últimos siete días, y Tether imprimió 1.000 millones de ERC-20 USDT el 5 de noviembre. Los datos obtenidos por la empresa de análisis de blockchain Chainalysis muestran una nueva acumulación por parte de los grandes inversores, conocidos en el mercado como ballenas. Los inversores con al menos 1.000 BTC se hicieron con 142.000 monedas en la última semana de octubre, lo que eleva la cifra acumulada a casi 200.000 BTC, la más alta de 2021. Según Daniel Kukan, operador senior de criptomonedas de la empresa suiza Crypto Finance AG, el último movimiento alcista de bitcoin parece estar impulsado por el spot, ya que las tasas de financiación o el costo de mantener posiciones largas en el mercado de futuros perpetuos continuan siendo bajas. Los datos proporcionados por Coinglass.com muestran que la tasa de financiación media era del 0,0250% a primera hora del lunes, frente a 0,0589% del 3 de noviembre. Los exchanges calculan las tasas de financiación cada ocho horas. Una tasa de financiación muy alta, se considera, representa un exceso de apalancamiento alcista. Una combinación de costos crecientes y una evolución lateral de los precios suele obligar a los operadores a recortar las posiciones largas, lo que provoca un retroceso de los precios. Kukan dijo que la tendencia lateral observada en las últimas dos semanas era una pausa típica del mercado alcista. Fue una consolidación saludable y el mercado no ha puesto a prueba el soporte a corto plazo de $58.000, lo que es una señal fuerte, añadió Kukan. Veo cierto interés por vender ligeramente por encima de los $70.000, [pero] supongo que vamos a quitar ese nivel bastante rápido. El exchange japonés bitbank espera que el precio de bitcoin baje hasta los $58.000 y suba hasta los $76.000 esta semana. El anterior máximo histórico de bitcoin se produjo tras la aprobación de los primeros fondos cotizados en bolsa respaldados por futuros de bitcoin en Estados Unidos. || Bitcoin supera los $66.000 y reanuda su tendencia alcista mientras caen los rendimientos de bonos reales: El precio de bitcoin se disparó el lunes y puso fin a un periodo de casi tres semanas de variaciones leves en las que la demanda persistía en torno a los $60.000.
La criptomoneda supera los $66.000 y parecía dispuesta a desafiar el récord de $66.975 alcanzado el 20 de octubre, según datos de CoinDesk.
Ether, el token nativo de la blockchain de Ethereum, también rompió su récord anterior a primera hora del lunes, cuando su precio superó brevemente los $4.700 alrededor de la 1:00 UTC, según los datos de CoinDesk.
Bitcoin es la mayor criptomoneda del mundo por capitalización de mercado, mientras que ether es la segunda.
Yuya Hasegawa, analista del mercado de criptomonedas del exchange japonés bitbank, dijo que el descenso del rendimiento de los bonos reales o ajustados a la inflación puede estar impulsando a bitcoin. “La caída de los rendimientos reales por los temores de inflación puede haber causado el reciente repunte de BTC”, dijo Hasegawa a CoinDesk en unadeclaraciónpor correo electrónico. Los datos del Departamento del Tesoro de Estados Unidos muestran que el rendimiento real a 10 años cayó al -1,09% el viernes, el más bajo desde el 30 de agosto.
Bitcoin es ampliamente percibido como un activo de reserva de valor, como el oro. Aunque el presidente de la Reserva Federal, Jerome Powell, reiteró la semana pasada que las presiones sobre los precios pueden ser transitorias, persiste el temor a que la inflación se descontrole.
“La narrativa de la inflación todavía domina los titulares y la gente está sintiendo el apuro a nivel mundial”, dijo Coinbase en su correo electrónico semanal el viernes. “Ya sea que se trate de los precios de la gasolina en los Estados Unidos, los precios de la energía en Europa o los precios de los alimentos en América Latina, las dificultades de la cadena de suministro y la reducción de la fuerza de trabajo tienen a los inversores en busca de una reserva de valor.”
Los datos de la blockchain también muestran señales alcistas para bitcoin a medio plazo, dijo Eddie Wang, analista principal de OKLink research, rama de investigación de datos del exchange cripto OKEx. El hashrate de la red, o potencia de cálculo, ha aumentado de forma constante desde julio; la dificultad de minería, una métrica que describe lo difícil que es para los mineros encontrar nuevos bloques de bitcoin y obtener ganancias, también ha aumentado ocho veces, y los mineros han acumulado más de 3.000 BTC en sus carteras desde septiembre, dijo Wang.
El número de billeteras individuales con un saldo superior a cero ha vuelto a ser de 39 millones, cerca del récord de 39,28 millones de billeteras con más de cero en mayo, dijo Wang, citando los datos como un indicador de un ánimo favorable en el mercado.
El aumento de las monedas vinculadas a bitcoin y de las stablecoins es también una señal de un mercado alcista, dijo Wang. El analista señaló que se imprimieron 6.022 wrapped bitcoins (WBTC) en Ethereum en los últimos siete días, y Tether imprimió 1.000 millones de ERC-20 USDT el 5 de noviembre.
Los datos obtenidos por la empresa de análisis de blockchain Chainalysis muestran una nueva acumulación por parte de los grandes inversores, conocidos en el mercado como ballenas. Los inversores con al menos 1.000 BTC se hicieron con 142.000 monedas en la última semana de octubre, lo que eleva la cifra acumulada a casi 200.000 BTC, la más alta de 2021.
Según Daniel Kukan, operador senior de criptomonedas de la empresa suiza Crypto Finance AG, el último movimiento alcista de bitcoin parece estar impulsado por el spot, ya que las tasas de financiación o el costo de mantener posiciones largas en el mercado de futuros perpetuos continuan siendo bajas.
Los datos proporcionados por Coinglass.com muestran que la tasa de financiación media era del 0,0250% a primera hora del lunes, frente a 0,0589% del 3 de noviembre. Los exchanges calculan las tasas de financiación cada ocho horas. Una tasa de financiación muy alta, se considera, representa un exceso de apalancamiento alcista. Una combinación de costos crecientes y una evolución lateral de los precios suele obligar a los operadores a recortar las posiciones largas, lo que provoca un retroceso de los precios.
Kukan dijo que la tendencia lateral observada en las últimas dos semanas era una pausa típica del mercado alcista. “Fue una consolidación saludable y el mercado no ha puesto a prueba el soporte a corto plazo de $58.000, lo que es una señal fuerte”, añadió Kukan. “Veo cierto interés por vender ligeramente por encima de los $70.000, [pero] supongo que vamos a quitar ese nivel bastante rápido”.
El exchange japonés bitbank espera que el precio de bitcoin baje hasta los $58.000 y suba hasta los $76.000 esta semana.
El anterior máximo histórico de bitcoin se produjo tras laaprobaciónde los primeros fondos cotizados en bolsa respaldados por futuros de bitcoin en Estados Unidos. || Bitcoin supera los $66.000 y reanuda su tendencia alcista mientras caen los rendimientos de bonos reales: El precio de bitcoin se disparó el lunes y puso fin a un periodo de casi tres semanas de variaciones leves en las que la demanda persistía en torno a los $60.000.
La criptomoneda supera los $66.000 y parecía dispuesta a desafiar el récord de $66.975 alcanzado el 20 de octubre, según datos de CoinDesk.
Ether, el token nativo de la blockchain de Ethereum, también rompió su récord anterior a primera hora del lunes, cuando su precio superó brevemente los $4.700 alrededor de la 1:00 UTC, según los datos de CoinDesk.
Bitcoin es la mayor criptomoneda del mundo por capitalización de mercado, mientras que ether es la segunda.
Yuya Hasegawa, analista del mercado de criptomonedas del exchange japonés bitbank, dijo que el descenso del rendimiento de los bonos reales o ajustados a la inflación puede estar impulsando a bitcoin. “La caída de los rendimientos reales por los temores de inflación puede haber causado el reciente repunte de BTC”, dijo Hasegawa a CoinDesk en unadeclaraciónpor correo electrónico. Los datos del Departamento del Tesoro de Estados Unidos muestran que el rendimiento real a 10 años cayó al -1,09% el viernes, el más bajo desde el 30 de agosto.
Bitcoin es ampliamente percibido como un activo de reserva de valor, como el oro. Aunque el presidente de la Reserva Federal, Jerome Powell, reiteró la semana pasada que las presiones sobre los precios pueden ser transitorias, persiste el temor a que la inflación se descontrole.
“La narrativa de la inflación todavía domina los titulares y la gente está sintiendo el apuro a nivel mundial”, dijo Coinbase en su correo electrónico semanal el viernes. “Ya sea que se trate de los precios de la gasolina en los Estados Unidos, los precios de la energía en Europa o los precios de los alimentos en América Latina, las dificultades de la cadena de suministro y la reducción de la fuerza de trabajo tienen a los inversores en busca de una reserva de valor.”
Los datos de la blockchain también muestran señales alcistas para bitcoin a medio plazo, dijo Eddie Wang, analista principal de OKLink research, rama de investigación de datos del exchange cripto OKEx. El hashrate de la red, o potencia de cálculo, ha aumentado de forma constante desde julio; la dificultad de minería, una métrica que describe lo difícil que es para los mineros encontrar nuevos bloques de bitcoin y obtener ganancias, también ha aumentado ocho veces, y los mineros han acumulado más de 3.000 BTC en sus carteras desde septiembre, dijo Wang.
El número de billeteras individuales con un saldo superior a cero ha vuelto a ser de 39 millones, cerca del récord de 39,28 millones de billeteras con más de cero en mayo, dijo Wang, citando los datos como un indicador de un ánimo favorable en el mercado.
El aumento de las monedas vinculadas a bitcoin y de las stablecoins es también una señal de un mercado alcista, dijo Wang. El analista señaló que se imprimieron 6.022 wrapped bitcoins (WBTC) en Ethereum en los últimos siete días, y Tether imprimió 1.000 millones de ERC-20 USDT el 5 de noviembre.
Los datos obtenidos por la empresa de análisis de blockchain Chainalysis muestran una nueva acumulación por parte de los grandes inversores, conocidos en el mercado como ballenas. Los inversores con al menos 1.000 BTC se hicieron con 142.000 monedas en la última semana de octubre, lo que eleva la cifra acumulada a casi 200.000 BTC, la más alta de 2021.
Según Daniel Kukan, operador senior de criptomonedas de la empresa suiza Crypto Finance AG, el último movimiento alcista de bitcoin parece estar impulsado por el spot, ya que las tasas de financiación o el costo de mantener posiciones largas en el mercado de futuros perpetuos continuan siendo bajas.
Los datos proporcionados por Coinglass.com muestran que la tasa de financiación media era del 0,0250% a primera hora del lunes, frente a 0,0589% del 3 de noviembre. Los exchanges calculan las tasas de financiación cada ocho horas. Una tasa de financiación muy alta, se considera, representa un exceso de apalancamiento alcista. Una combinación de costos crecientes y una evolución lateral de los precios suele obligar a los operadores a recortar las posiciones largas, lo que provoca un retroceso de los precios.
Kukan dijo que la tendencia lateral observada en las últimas dos semanas era una pausa típica del mercado alcista. “Fue una consolidación saludable y el mercado no ha puesto a prueba el soporte a corto plazo de $58.000, lo que es una señal fuerte”, añadió Kukan. “Veo cierto interés por vender ligeramente por encima de los $70.000, [pero] supongo que vamos a quitar ese nivel bastante rápido”.
El exchange japonés bitbank espera que el precio de bitcoin baje hasta los $58.000 y suba hasta los $76.000 esta semana.
El anterior máximo histórico de bitcoin se produjo tras laaprobaciónde los primeros fondos cotizados en bolsa respaldados por futuros de bitcoin en Estados Unidos. || Microsoft’s Decentralized Identity Head Leaves to Join Square: Microsoft (MSFT) Decentralized Identity head Daniel Buchner announced he is leaving the company to join Square (SQ) to lead the payment company’s efforts in the emerging space where blockchain technology is used to verify identities online. “This decision wasn’t made lightly. Microsoft is a key player whose contributions have advanced the entire ecosystem. I chose to make this move now because I believe Square is primed to take Decentralized Identity technology into new areas that will help drive adoption,” Buchner tweeted on Monday. “I need to dig into Square’s use cases before discussing specifics, but going in, my intent is to leverage the great work the Decentralized Identity community has already done wherever it makes sense for Square. I am excited to start this new journey and will share more when I can,” he continued. GM. I have some personal news: 5 years after establishing Decentralized Identity at Microsoft, where I had the opportunity to work with great folks developing open source DID infrastructure (e.g. ION), standards, and products, I am joining Square to lead Decentralized Identity. pic.twitter.com/XKgWiIAh0D — Daniel Ƀrrr (@csuwildcat) November 8, 2021 The emerging field of decentralized identity offers an open-source, standards-based ecosystem for identifying individuals, organizations and devices through self-owned and independent IDs. Decentralized Identity could free users from having to use a mess of passwords, emails, text messages and authentication apps to verify identity. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s Decentralized Identity team launched the ION Decentralized Identifier (DID), which uses Bitcoin’s blockchain to create digital IDs for authenticating identities online. ION uses the same logic as Bitcoin’s transaction layers to verify an identity. A public key and its private key are used to confirm that the user owns the ID. Story continues Square hasn’t publicly detailed its decentralized identity plans. but the payments firm isn’t new to crypto. Square launched its peer-to-peer payment service Cash App in 2013, and late last year, added the ability to get bitcoin back on purchases. Last week, the company disclosed that Cash App generated $1.82 billion in bitcoin revenue during the third quarter. The company plans to release a white paper on Nov. 19 outlining TBD, its new division for creating an open platform to build a decentralized bitcoin exchange. Read More: Microsoft’s ION Digital ID Network Is Live on Bitcoin
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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64995.23, 64949.96, 64155.94, 64469.53, 65466.84, 63557.87, 60161.25, 60368.01, 56942.14, 58119.58
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7493.49, 8660.70, 9244.97, 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26, 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99, 7320.15, 7252.03, 7448.31, 7547.00, 7556.24, 7564.35, 7400.90, 7278.12, 7217.43, 7243.13, 7269.68, 7124.67, 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53, 7275.16, 7238.97, 7290.09, 7317.99, 7422.65, 7293.00, 7193.60, 7200.17, 6985.47, 7344.88, 7410.66, 7411.32, 7769.22, 8163.69, 8079.86, 7879.07, 8166.55, 8037.54, 8192.49, 8144.19, 8827.76, 8807.01, 8723.79, 8929.04, 8942.81, 8706.25, 8657.64, 8745.89.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-01-21]
Volume: 24097418512, RSI (14-day): 64.53, 50-day EMA: 7981.09, 200-day EMA: 8224.71
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1556.40, Gold RSI: 65.21
Oil Price: 58.34, Oil RSI: 42.35
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Gate.io launches annual review feature to celebrate Lunar New Year: Digital asset trading platform Gate.io has implemented a new annual review feature that allows users to see data on their best-performing assets and annual income. There will also be a metric that indicates which start-ups or ICOs have the highest amount of participation, which could spur a surge in the altcoin market. The new feature has been launched to celebrate Lunar New Year, with the exchange also offering rewards for users who check their balance and interact with Gate.io’s social media channels. Marie Tatibouet, CMO at Gate.io, said: “Users should follow the steps to earn rewards in GT between 21st Jan to 3rd Feb 2020. Gatechain Token (GT) is Gate.io’s native token, which will also be fuelling our upcoming public chain, GateChain. “To ensure fairness and transparency, we will screen-record the entire process of reward distribution and publish it on our social media channels.” The exchange will give away 200 Gatechain tokens to 100 users in the lucky draw contest, with users having to tweet Gate.io with their annual review alongside the hashtag “#GateioAnnualBalance”. Gate.io regularly exceeds $50 million in daily trade volume, with the likes of Bitcoin SV and EOS experiencing the majority of activity. For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . The post Gate.io launches annual review feature to celebrate Lunar New Year appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Gate.io launches annual review feature to celebrate Lunar New Year: Digital asset trading platform Gate.io has implemented a new annual review feature that allows users to see data on their best-performing assets and annual income. There will also be a metric that indicates which start-ups or ICOs have the highest amount of participation, which could spur a surge in the altcoin market. The new feature has been launched to celebrate Lunar New Year, with the exchange also offering rewards for users who check their balance and interact with Gate.io’s social media channels. Marie Tatibouet, CMO at Gate.io, said: “Users should follow the steps to earn rewards in GT between 21st Jan to 3rd Feb 2020. Gatechain Token (GT) is Gate.io’s native token, which will also be fuelling our upcoming public chain, GateChain. “To ensure fairness and transparency, we will screen-record the entire process of reward distribution and publish it on our social media channels.” The exchange will give away 200 Gatechain tokens to 100 users in the lucky draw contest, with users having to tweet Gate.io with their annual review alongside the hashtag “#GateioAnnualBalance”. Gate.io regularly exceeds $50 million in daily trade volume, with the likes of Bitcoin SV and EOS experiencing the majority of activity. For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . The post Gate.io launches annual review feature to celebrate Lunar New Year appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Peter Schiff blames blockchain after losing access to Bitcoin wallet: Peter Schiff, founder of the SchiffGold precious metals brokerage, has caused controversy among crypto enthusiasts after claiming that Bitcoin as a monetary system is broken. Schiff tweeted on Sunday that he has lost all his Bitcoin as his crypto wallet is “corrupted”. Schiff claims his BTC is now intrinsically worthless and has no market value. However, the real blow to the Bitcoin community came when Schiff commented: “I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad!” Erik Voorhees, long-time Bitcoin supporter and CEO of crypto exchange ShapeShift, gifted the Bitcoin to Schiff in 2018, worth $50 at the time. However, Voorhees claims that Schiff has simply forgotten the password to his wallet and didn’t back up the mnemonic phrase. Here's what happened: after debate in 2018, we went to dinner. Peter had never used bitcoin before (!) I helped him set up wallet on his phone (Edge or BRD?), told him to secure it if he ever held significant value on it, gave him $50. He forgot pw, and never recorded phrase. 😑 https://t.co/kcQkAyU9Rv — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020 In a scathing follow-up tweet which was undoubtedly directed at Schiff, Voorhees said: “Financial sovereignty: It’s not for everyone.” Financial sovereignty: it's not for everyone. — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020 Voorhees argues that the situation is the same as blaming precious metals as a foolish monetary system if he lost his gold. Technically, as Schiff’s funds are stored on the blockchain, there would be no issue accessing his holdings if he had retained the mnemonic phrase. As such, the Bitcoin community believe his claims are ill-founded. Story continues Antony Pompliano, founder of Morgan Creek Digital, argues that the wallet couldn’t have “forgotten” Schiff’s password and offered to help him recover the lost BTC. The software just executes the commands that humans give it. It can’t “forget” anything. Email me and I’ll try to help you recover the lost Bitcoin. — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) January 19, 2020 Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was also quick to criticise Schiff, saying that perhaps the gold expert should “stay in fiat”. Schiff responds to criticism Schiff was quick to respond to criticism, calling his detractors “Bitcoin pumpers” and questioning their integrity. Calling the controversy “fake news”, Schiff claims he didn’t forget his password, and instead the wallet malfunctioned and won’t recognise his credentials. Schiff tweeted: So much fake news about how I forgot my wallet password. Can't #Bitcoin pumpers be honest about anything? I was very clear that I didn't forget my password. My wallet no longer recognizes my correct password. Plus what's up with over 3K people liking that I lost my Bitcoin? — Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 20, 2020 Surprisingly, Schiff was supported by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, who commented: “I think we can afford to be forgiving of people who are really upset because they just lost a huge pile of money.” Buterin also claimed that the cryptocurrency community had a responsibility to create better wallet technology to make securing funds easier for novice users. Disappointed at people replying to this with "crypto is what it is, it's your job to be super-careful and write down backup seeds in three places". We can and should create better wallet tech to make security easier. Eg. here's a social recovery ERC WIP: https://t.co/tuSbHhXKgd https://t.co/hCBAJKbK41 — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 20, 2020 Schiff later downplayed the loss, tweeting: “Easy come, easy go.” You can read more about keeping your Bitcoin funds safe here . The post Peter Schiff blames blockchain after losing access to Bitcoin wallet appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Peter Schiff blames blockchain after losing access to Bitcoin wallet: Peter Schiff, founder of the SchiffGold precious metals brokerage, has caused controversy among crypto enthusiasts after claiming that Bitcoin as a monetary system is broken. Schiff tweeted on Sunday that he has lost all his Bitcoin as his crypto wallet is “corrupted”. Schiff claims his BTC is now intrinsically worthless and has no market value. However, the real blow to the Bitcoin community came when Schiff commented: “I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad!” Erik Voorhees, long-time Bitcoin supporter and CEO of crypto exchange ShapeShift, gifted the Bitcoin to Schiff in 2018, worth $50 at the time. However, Voorhees claims that Schiff has simply forgotten the password to his wallet and didn’t back up the mnemonic phrase. Here's what happened: after debate in 2018, we went to dinner. Peter had never used bitcoin before (!) I helped him set up wallet on his phone (Edge or BRD?), told him to secure it if he ever held significant value on it, gave him $50. He forgot pw, and never recorded phrase. 😑 https://t.co/kcQkAyU9Rv — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020 In a scathing follow-up tweet which was undoubtedly directed at Schiff, Voorhees said: “Financial sovereignty: It’s not for everyone.” Financial sovereignty: it's not for everyone. — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020 Voorhees argues that the situation is the same as blaming precious metals as a foolish monetary system if he lost his gold. Technically, as Schiff’s funds are stored on the blockchain, there would be no issue accessing his holdings if he had retained the mnemonic phrase. As such, the Bitcoin community believe his claims are ill-founded. Story continues Antony Pompliano, founder of Morgan Creek Digital, argues that the wallet couldn’t have “forgotten” Schiff’s password and offered to help him recover the lost BTC. The software just executes the commands that humans give it. It can’t “forget” anything. Email me and I’ll try to help you recover the lost Bitcoin. — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) January 19, 2020 Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was also quick to criticise Schiff, saying that perhaps the gold expert should “stay in fiat”. Schiff responds to criticism Schiff was quick to respond to criticism, calling his detractors “Bitcoin pumpers” and questioning their integrity. Calling the controversy “fake news”, Schiff claims he didn’t forget his password, and instead the wallet malfunctioned and won’t recognise his credentials. Schiff tweeted: So much fake news about how I forgot my wallet password. Can't #Bitcoin pumpers be honest about anything? I was very clear that I didn't forget my password. My wallet no longer recognizes my correct password. Plus what's up with over 3K people liking that I lost my Bitcoin? — Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 20, 2020 Surprisingly, Schiff was supported by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, who commented: “I think we can afford to be forgiving of people who are really upset because they just lost a huge pile of money.” Buterin also claimed that the cryptocurrency community had a responsibility to create better wallet technology to make securing funds easier for novice users. Disappointed at people replying to this with "crypto is what it is, it's your job to be super-careful and write down backup seeds in three places". We can and should create better wallet tech to make security easier. Eg. here's a social recovery ERC WIP: https://t.co/tuSbHhXKgd https://t.co/hCBAJKbK41 — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 20, 2020 Schiff later downplayed the loss, tweeting: “Easy come, easy go.” You can read more about keeping your Bitcoin funds safe here . The post Peter Schiff blames blockchain after losing access to Bitcoin wallet appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Peter Schiff blames blockchain after losing access to Bitcoin wallet: Peter Schiff, founder of the SchiffGold precious metals brokerage, has caused controversy among crypto enthusiasts after claiming that Bitcoin as a monetary system is broken. Schiff tweeted on Sunday that he has lost all his Bitcoin as his crypto wallet is “corrupted”. Schiff claims his BTC is now intrinsically worthless and has no market value. However, the real blow to the Bitcoin community came when Schiff commented: “I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad!” Erik Voorhees, long-time Bitcoin supporter and CEO of crypto exchange ShapeShift, gifted the Bitcoin to Schiff in 2018, worth $50 at the time. However, Voorhees claims that Schiff has simply forgotten the password to his wallet and didn’t back up the mnemonic phrase. Here's what happened: after debate in 2018, we went to dinner. Peter had never used bitcoin before (!) I helped him set up wallet on his phone (Edge or BRD?), told him to secure it if he ever held significant value on it, gave him $50. He forgot pw, and never recorded phrase. 😑 https://t.co/kcQkAyU9Rv — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020 In a scathing follow-up tweet which was undoubtedly directed at Schiff, Voorhees said: “Financial sovereignty: It’s not for everyone.” Financial sovereignty: it's not for everyone. — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020 Voorhees argues that the situation is the same as blaming precious metals as a foolish monetary system if he lost his gold. Technically, as Schiff’s funds are stored on the blockchain, there would be no issue accessing his holdings if he had retained the mnemonic phrase. As such, the Bitcoin community believe his claims are ill-founded. Story continues Antony Pompliano, founder of Morgan Creek Digital, argues that the wallet couldn’t have “forgotten” Schiff’s password and offered to help him recover the lost BTC. The software just executes the commands that humans give it. It can’t “forget” anything. Email me and I’ll try to help you recover the lost Bitcoin. — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) January 19, 2020 Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was also quick to criticise Schiff, saying that perhaps the gold expert should “stay in fiat”. Schiff responds to criticism Schiff was quick to respond to criticism, calling his detractors “Bitcoin pumpers” and questioning their integrity. Calling the controversy “fake news”, Schiff claims he didn’t forget his password, and instead the wallet malfunctioned and won’t recognise his credentials. Schiff tweeted: So much fake news about how I forgot my wallet password. Can't #Bitcoin pumpers be honest about anything? I was very clear that I didn't forget my password. My wallet no longer recognizes my correct password. Plus what's up with over 3K people liking that I lost my Bitcoin? — Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 20, 2020 Surprisingly, Schiff was supported by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, who commented: “I think we can afford to be forgiving of people who are really upset because they just lost a huge pile of money.” Buterin also claimed that the cryptocurrency community had a responsibility to create better wallet technology to make securing funds easier for novice users. Disappointed at people replying to this with "crypto is what it is, it's your job to be super-careful and write down backup seeds in three places". We can and should create better wallet tech to make security easier. Eg. here's a social recovery ERC WIP: https://t.co/tuSbHhXKgd https://t.co/hCBAJKbK41 — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 20, 2020 Schiff later downplayed the loss, tweeting: “Easy come, easy go.” You can read more about keeping your Bitcoin funds safe here . The post Peter Schiff blames blockchain after losing access to Bitcoin wallet appeared first on Coin Rivet . || After a weekend price fall, Bitcoin Cash sees signs of life: Bitcoin cash (BCH)—the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap—shot up by nearly five percent over the last 24 hours and wastrading at around $345this morning.
That price is down somewhat from BCH’s six-month high, on January 17, which was $370 per coin—the highest it had been since last July.
The currency is still traveling through the $300 range, but its momentum appeared to be slowing.
Perhaps support from Kim Dotcomcan change that. In a recent interview, the German-Finnish political activist and internet entrepreneur explained that the crypto industry is suffering from “infighting,” and that he supports Roger Ver—a proponent of bitcoin cash—as a leader in crypto innovation.
In addition, the asset is garnering newfound attention in South Korea.FXStreetreported that Ver’sBitcoin.com is joining hands with Mecon Cash, a distributor of cryptocurrency ATMs in South Korea. There are roughly 13,000 in South Korea, and all are set to offer support for BCH withdrawals.
“Through our partnership with Bitcoin.com, we will grow the presence of bitcoin cash throughout the Korean market starting with ATM withdrawal services,” Jo Joe Do—the chairman of Mecon—said in a statement. “We have huge applications coming up where the close collaboration between Mecon Cash and Bitcoin.com will see positive synergies in the upcoming future.”
For the most part, today marks a “green” turn for many of the industry’s top 20 cryptocurrencies, with assets like bitcoin SV (BSV) up nearly 16 percent and Dash (DASH) trading at 11 percent higher according to Messari. || After a weekend price fall, Bitcoin Cash sees signs of life: Bitcoin cash (BCH)—the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap—shot up by nearly five percent over the last 24 hours and was trading at around $345 this morning. That price is down somewhat from BCH’s six-month high, on January 17, which was $370 per coin—the highest it had been since last July. The currency is still traveling through the $300 range, but its momentum appeared to be slowing. Perhaps support from Kim Dotcom can change that . In a recent interview, the German-Finnish political activist and internet entrepreneur explained that the crypto industry is suffering from “infighting,” and that he supports Roger Ver—a proponent of bitcoin cash—as a leader in crypto innovation. In addition, the asset is garnering newfound attention in South Korea. FXStreet reported that Ver’s Bitcoin.com is joining hands with Mecon Cash , a distributor of cryptocurrency ATMs in South Korea. There are roughly 13,000 in South Korea, and all are set to offer support for BCH withdrawals. “Through our partnership with Bitcoin.com, we will grow the presence of bitcoin cash throughout the Korean market starting with ATM withdrawal services,” Jo Joe Do—the chairman of Mecon—said in a statement. “We have huge applications coming up where the close collaboration between Mecon Cash and Bitcoin.com will see positive synergies in the upcoming future.” For the most part, today marks a “green” turn for many of the industry’s top 20 cryptocurrencies, with assets like bitcoin SV (BSV) up nearly 16 percent and Dash (DASH) trading at 11 percent higher according to Messari. || After a weekend price fall, Bitcoin Cash sees signs of life: Bitcoin cash (BCH)—the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap—shot up by nearly five percent over the last 24 hours and wastrading at around $345this morning.
That price is down somewhat from BCH’s six-month high, on January 17, which was $370 per coin—the highest it had been since last July.
The currency is still traveling through the $300 range, but its momentum appeared to be slowing.
Perhaps support from Kim Dotcomcan change that. In a recent interview, the German-Finnish political activist and internet entrepreneur explained that the crypto industry is suffering from “infighting,” and that he supports Roger Ver—a proponent of bitcoin cash—as a leader in crypto innovation.
In addition, the asset is garnering newfound attention in South Korea.FXStreetreported that Ver’sBitcoin.com is joining hands with Mecon Cash, a distributor of cryptocurrency ATMs in South Korea. There are roughly 13,000 in South Korea, and all are set to offer support for BCH withdrawals.
“Through our partnership with Bitcoin.com, we will grow the presence of bitcoin cash throughout the Korean market starting with ATM withdrawal services,” Jo Joe Do—the chairman of Mecon—said in a statement. “We have huge applications coming up where the close collaboration between Mecon Cash and Bitcoin.com will see positive synergies in the upcoming future.”
For the most part, today marks a “green” turn for many of the industry’s top 20 cryptocurrencies, with assets like bitcoin SV (BSV) up nearly 16 percent and Dash (DASH) trading at 11 percent higher according to Messari. || CME Open Interest for Bitcoin Futures Up 100% Since Start of 2020: Open interest in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have doubled in the first few days of the year, as noted by data analytics firm Skew.
About $235 million worth of positions (5,329 contracts) were open on the CME on Jan. 17 compared to $110 million seen in early December. Open interest is the sum of all contracts that have not expired, been exercised or physically delivered.
Open interest has spiked alongside price, confirming an upward trend. Bitcoin bottomed out near $6,430 in mid-December and rose to a 2.5-month high of $9,188 on Sunday. At press time, the cryptocurrency changed hands at $8,600, representing a 20 percent gain on a year-to-date basis.
Related:CME’s Bitcoin Options See First-Day Volume of $2.3M
The bitcoin futures market witnessed increased activity in the runup to the launch of options trading. Open interest rose to more than 5,000 contracts in the first four trading days of the week.
Further, more than 17,000 contracts (equivalent to over 85,000 bitcoin) traded on Jan. 8 – five days before the options productwent liveand registered a first-day volume of $2.3 million, or 55 options contracts.
Options trading volume more than doubled to 122 contracts on Friday, amounting to a notional volume of 610 BTC, or $5.3 million, as each contract represents five bitcoins.
“BTC has seen remarkable growth in volume and customer interest with nearly 2.5M contracts traded to date and 4.9K+ contracts traded daily, “ the CMEtweetedon Dec. 17.
Related:CME Takes Its Bitcoin Options Live, Competing With ICE’s Bakkt
Further, nearly 6,400 futures contracts traded each day (equal to 31,850 bitcoin) at the exchange in 2019.
The ever-increasing numbers at the CME may reflect rising institutional interest in the cryptocurrency and could accelerate bitcoin’s evolution as a mature asset class.
“CME’s product has evolved over the last two years and is now one of the most liquid, listed bitcoin derivatives globally. We have seen strong participation from institutional investors, physical bitcoin traders and other clients who value the transparency, price discovery and risk transfer that only a regulated marketplace like CME Group can offer,” Tim McCourt, managing director at CME Group,wrotein a LinkedIn post in December.
Other exchanges also witnessed increased activity over the last few months. Total trading volume rose in futures listed across the globe to well above $25 billion on Jan. 14, according toSkew. That was the busiest day since Oct. 26.
• Bitcoin Futures Provider Bakkt Names Mike Blandina as New CEO, Adam White as President
• ErisX Takes on Bakkt With Launch of Physically Settled US Bitcoin Futures || CME Open Interest for Bitcoin Futures Up 100% Since Start of 2020: Open interest in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have doubled in the first few days of the year, as noted by data analytics firm Skew.
About $235 million worth of positions (5,329 contracts) were open on the CME on Jan. 17 compared to $110 million seen in early December. Open interest is the sum of all contracts that have not expired, been exercised or physically delivered.
Open interest has spiked alongside price, confirming an upward trend. Bitcoin bottomed out near $6,430 in mid-December and rose to a 2.5-month high of $9,188 on Sunday. At press time, the cryptocurrency changed hands at $8,600, representing a 20 percent gain on a year-to-date basis.
Related:CME’s Bitcoin Options See First-Day Volume of $2.3M
The bitcoin futures market witnessed increased activity in the runup to the launch of options trading. Open interest rose to more than 5,000 contracts in the first four trading days of the week.
Further, more than 17,000 contracts (equivalent to over 85,000 bitcoin) traded on Jan. 8 – five days before the options productwent liveand registered a first-day volume of $2.3 million, or 55 options contracts.
Options trading volume more than doubled to 122 contracts on Friday, amounting to a notional volume of 610 BTC, or $5.3 million, as each contract represents five bitcoins.
“BTC has seen remarkable growth in volume and customer interest with nearly 2.5M contracts traded to date and 4.9K+ contracts traded daily, “ the CMEtweetedon Dec. 17.
Related:CME Takes Its Bitcoin Options Live, Competing With ICE’s Bakkt
Further, nearly 6,400 futures contracts traded each day (equal to 31,850 bitcoin) at the exchange in 2019.
The ever-increasing numbers at the CME may reflect rising institutional interest in the cryptocurrency and could accelerate bitcoin’s evolution as a mature asset class.
“CME’s product has evolved over the last two years and is now one of the most liquid, listed bitcoin derivatives globally. We have seen strong participation from institutional investors, physical bitcoin traders and other clients who value the transparency, price discovery and risk transfer that only a regulated marketplace like CME Group can offer,” Tim McCourt, managing director at CME Group,wrotein a LinkedIn post in December.
Other exchanges also witnessed increased activity over the last few months. Total trading volume rose in futures listed across the globe to well above $25 billion on Jan. 14, according toSkew. That was the busiest day since Oct. 26.
• Bitcoin Futures Provider Bakkt Names Mike Blandina as New CEO, Adam White as President
• ErisX Takes on Bakkt With Launch of Physically Settled US Bitcoin Futures || CME Open Interest for Bitcoin Futures Up 100% Since Start of 2020: Open interest in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have doubled in the first few days of the year, as noted by data analytics firm Skew. About $235 million worth of positions ( 5,329 contracts ) were open on the CME on Jan. 17 compared to $110 million seen in early December. Open interest is the sum of all contracts that have not expired, been exercised or physically delivered. Open interest has spiked alongside price, confirming an upward trend. Bitcoin bottomed out near $6,430 in mid-December and rose to a 2.5-month high of $9,188 on Sunday. At press time, the cryptocurrency changed hands at $8,600, representing a 20 percent gain on a year-to-date basis. Increased activity ahead of options launch Related: CMEs Bitcoin Options See First-Day Volume of $2.3M The bitcoin futures market witnessed increased activity in the runup to the launch of options trading. Open interest rose to more than 5,000 contracts in the first four trading days of the week. Further, more than 17,000 contracts (equivalent to over 85,000 bitcoin) traded on Jan. 8 five days before the options product went live and registered a first-day volume of $2.3 million, or 55 options contracts. Options trading volume more than doubled to 122 contracts on Friday, amounting to a notional volume of 610 BTC, or $5.3 million, as each contract represents five bitcoins. Institutional participatio n BTC has seen remarkable growth in volume and customer interest with nearly 2.5M contracts traded to date and 4.9K+ contracts traded daily, the CME tweeted on Dec. 17. Related: CME Takes Its Bitcoin Options Live, Competing With ICEs Bakkt Further, nearly 6,400 futures contracts traded each day (equal to 31,850 bitcoin) at the exchange in 2019. The ever-increasing numbers at the CME may reflect rising institutional interest in the cryptocurrency and could accelerate bitcoins evolution as a mature asset class. CMEs product has evolved over the last two years and is now one of the most liquid, listed bitcoin derivatives globally. We have seen strong participation from institutional investors, physical bitcoin traders and other clients who value the transparency, price discovery and risk transfer that only a regulated marketplace like CME Group can offer, Tim McCourt, managing director at CME Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post in December. Story continues Other exchanges also witnessed increased activity over the last few months. Total trading volume rose in futures listed across the globe to well above $25 billion on Jan. 14, according to Skew . That was the busiest day since Oct. 26. Related Stories Bitcoin Futures Provider Bakkt Names Mike Blandina as New CEO, Adam White as President ErisX Takes on Bakkt With Launch of Physically Settled US Bitcoin Futures || Hamas looks to boost Bitcoin funding in wake of Iran crisis: As pressure from the international community mounts on Iran, Palestinian terror-group Hamas is pushing for more anonymous donations in Bitcoin through a website called cash4ps, according to the Jerusalem Post . An International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) report found that Hamas, which heavily relies on the Iranian regime for funding, has now turned to Bitcoin donations to make up for any funding shortfalls. The ICT report states that the cash4ps website has been established expressly to allow Hamas to send and receive money from Gaza while providing some anonymity to donors. Investigators noted an irregular increase in the scope of activity by the Hamas associated address, which has over 4,500 transactions to date totalling over $23 million in BTC. The Bitcoin Abuse Database has also identified the wallet as a Hamas fundraising account, and its believed that the Islamic National Bank has been associated with funds sent to the wallet. The funds have been used to finance paramilitary brigades to target Israeli interests as part of the Popular Resistance Committees operating under the Hamas banner. Crypto terrorist financing Unfortunately, the use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing is nothing new. In April 2019, Coin Rivet reported that a Syrian terror group was using Bitcoin as a means of exchange among its followers, as the cryptocurrency provided a level of anonymity and ease of use. The Syrian terror group even went so far as to promote Bitcoin in its weekly magazine, citing its lack of international restrictions as a benefit of its use. However, reports have also found that terrorists are far more likely to use cash rather than cryptocurrency to fund their activities, as to a large degree physical cash flows are even harder to trace than movements of cryptocurrency. Earlier this month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it would be assuming the role of the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing supervisor for illicit cryptocurrency activities in the UK. Story continues The FCA will focus on private sector firms to ensure money doesnt reach the hands of terrorists via cryptocurrency transactions. Other nations have also warned that cryptocurrencies can be used for terrorist financing. Australian lawmaker Peter Dutton claimed in November 2019 that terrorists are obfuscating their activities through cryptocurrency, citing North Korea as a particularly pressing threat. Nevertheless, theres some good news a CIA analyst found that members of terrorist groups are just as gullible to crypto scams as the average user, with many being caught out by elaborate schemes which pose as extremist groups to steal funds from their supporters. The post Hamas looks to boost Bitcoin funding in wake of Iran crisis appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Hamas looks to boost Bitcoin funding in wake of Iran crisis: As pressure from the international community mounts on Iran, Palestinian terror-group Hamas is pushing for more anonymous donations in Bitcoin through a website called cash4ps, according to the Jerusalem Post . An International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) report found that Hamas, which heavily relies on the Iranian regime for funding, has now turned to Bitcoin donations to make up for any funding shortfalls. The ICT report states that the cash4ps website has been established expressly to allow Hamas to send and receive money from Gaza while providing some anonymity to donors. Investigators noted an irregular increase in the scope of activity by the Hamas associated address, which has over 4,500 transactions to date totalling over $23 million in BTC. The Bitcoin Abuse Database has also identified the wallet as a Hamas fundraising account, and its believed that the Islamic National Bank has been associated with funds sent to the wallet. The funds have been used to finance paramilitary brigades to target Israeli interests as part of the Popular Resistance Committees operating under the Hamas banner. Crypto terrorist financing Unfortunately, the use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing is nothing new. In April 2019, Coin Rivet reported that a Syrian terror group was using Bitcoin as a means of exchange among its followers, as the cryptocurrency provided a level of anonymity and ease of use. The Syrian terror group even went so far as to promote Bitcoin in its weekly magazine, citing its lack of international restrictions as a benefit of its use. However, reports have also found that terrorists are far more likely to use cash rather than cryptocurrency to fund their activities, as to a large degree physical cash flows are even harder to trace than movements of cryptocurrency. Earlier this month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it would be assuming the role of the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing supervisor for illicit cryptocurrency activities in the UK. Story continues The FCA will focus on private sector firms to ensure money doesnt reach the hands of terrorists via cryptocurrency transactions. Other nations have also warned that cryptocurrencies can be used for terrorist financing. Australian lawmaker Peter Dutton claimed in November 2019 that terrorists are obfuscating their activities through cryptocurrency, citing North Korea as a particularly pressing threat. Nevertheless, theres some good news a CIA analyst found that members of terrorist groups are just as gullible to crypto scams as the average user, with many being caught out by elaborate schemes which pose as extremist groups to steal funds from their supporters. The post Hamas looks to boost Bitcoin funding in wake of Iran crisis appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Hamas looks to boost Bitcoin funding in wake of Iran crisis: As pressure from the international community mounts on Iran, Palestinian terror-group Hamas is pushing for more anonymous donations in Bitcoin through a website called cash4ps, according to the Jerusalem Post . An International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) report found that Hamas, which heavily relies on the Iranian regime for funding, has now turned to Bitcoin donations to make up for any funding shortfalls. The ICT report states that the cash4ps website has been established expressly to allow Hamas to send and receive money from Gaza while providing some anonymity to donors. Investigators noted an irregular increase in the scope of activity by the Hamas associated address, which has over 4,500 transactions to date totalling over $23 million in BTC. The Bitcoin Abuse Database has also identified the wallet as a Hamas fundraising account, and its believed that the Islamic National Bank has been associated with funds sent to the wallet. The funds have been used to finance paramilitary brigades to target Israeli interests as part of the Popular Resistance Committees operating under the Hamas banner. Crypto terrorist financing Unfortunately, the use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing is nothing new. In April 2019, Coin Rivet reported that a Syrian terror group was using Bitcoin as a means of exchange among its followers, as the cryptocurrency provided a level of anonymity and ease of use. The Syrian terror group even went so far as to promote Bitcoin in its weekly magazine, citing its lack of international restrictions as a benefit of its use. However, reports have also found that terrorists are far more likely to use cash rather than cryptocurrency to fund their activities, as to a large degree physical cash flows are even harder to trace than movements of cryptocurrency. Earlier this month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it would be assuming the role of the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing supervisor for illicit cryptocurrency activities in the UK. Story continues The FCA will focus on private sector firms to ensure money doesnt reach the hands of terrorists via cryptocurrency transactions. Other nations have also warned that cryptocurrencies can be used for terrorist financing. Australian lawmaker Peter Dutton claimed in November 2019 that terrorists are obfuscating their activities through cryptocurrency, citing North Korea as a particularly pressing threat. Nevertheless, theres some good news a CIA analyst found that members of terrorist groups are just as gullible to crypto scams as the average user, with many being caught out by elaborate schemes which pose as extremist groups to steal funds from their supporters. The post Hamas looks to boost Bitcoin funding in wake of Iran crisis appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Blockstream Co-Founder Joins Bitcoin-Only Start-up River Financial: Industry veteran Jonathan Wilkins, a co-founder of bitcoin tech start-up Blockstream, is joining up-and-coming bitcoin brokerage River Financial as chief security officer (CSO). River is a bitcoin-only financial institution for buying and selling the digital currency (emphatically not an exchange; it says it’s “for the long-term investor”). Currently available only to testers who have received invites, the San Francisco-based outfit is working on an interface it hopes will be as slick as Jack Dorsey’s Square Cash, equipped with automatic recurring buys. Wilkins brings C-level gravitas and cypherpunk bona fides to River. He was the CSO at Blockstream, an outfit dedicated to improving bitcoin technology with projects such as Liquid, for faster payments between exchanges and a system of satellites used to broadcast bitcoin block data from space. Related: Bitcoin Price Indicator Eyes First Bullish Turn Since August Early in his career he worked at Zero Knowledge Systems, which built a forerunner to the anonymizing Tor network. (His title there was “adversary,” according to his LinkedIn profile .) Later he was a security architect at Microsoft, Zynga and Yelp. Compared to other Blockstream co-founders who are outspoken on Twitter or often appear in the media, Wilkins has laid low. He’s joined River to shepherd the company’s security model, a particularly important part of the business, since it is custodial, taking care of users’ private keys. “By focusing on simplicity and what is best for users in the long term (dollar-cost averaging and holding) instead of pushing altcoins and encouraging more active trading in order to increase fees, River is closer to the historical ideal of a bank,” said Wilkins. “I wanted to be part of a company concerned with helping its community grow its wealth and providing an alternative to today’s more predatory financial institutions” River Financial has built its infrastructure from “the ground up,” founder and CEO Alexander Leishman said. Story continues Related: After Sudden 8% Drop, Bitcoin Bulls Must Defend Price Support at $8,460 “We’re in this in the long term,” Leishman said, adding that River has already made a couple of big decisions based on Wilkins’ “guidance,” such as not relying on third-party cloud computing services. “It’s a lot of work to not do that but we can build a system that we fully control,” Leishman said. Laser-like focus River Financial differs from many services used to buy and sell cryptocurrency in that it’s focused solely on bitcoin. “We believe bitcoin is going to be the most dominant cryptocurrency. If anything becomes a world money, it’s going to be bitcoin,” Leishman said. Even adding one cryptocurrency significantly increases the complexity of engineering a system, he said. Other companies managing many tokens are constantly “putting out fires.” Plus, working on bitcoin exclusively has allowed River to adopt some cutting-edge technology that other companies don’t have the time and energy to look into, Leishman said. “Bitcoin-only lets us take it to another level no one has ever taken things before.” River Financial is one of the earliest companies to adopt the lightning network, a speedier payment system that’s widely considered a key part of bitcoin’s future. In addition, Leishman said River relies “heavily” on Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBT) so that each user in a multi-signature transaction can sign it from a different hardware device. For those interested in the nitty-gritty, River Financial software engineer Philip Glazman tweeted a thread outlining many of the technologies it’s using and the decisions it made. Related Stories Bitcoin Falls Back After Briefly Breaking $9k Resistance Deribit Using New Trading Tools to Capture ‘Exploding’ Options Market || Blockstream Co-Founder Joins Bitcoin-Only Start-up River Financial: Industry veteran Jonathan Wilkins, a co-founder of bitcoin tech start-up Blockstream, is joining up-and-coming bitcoin brokerage River Financial as chief security officer (CSO).
River is a bitcoin-only financial institution for buying and selling the digital currency (emphatically not an exchange; it says it’s “for the long-term investor”). Currently available only to testers who have received invites, the San Francisco-based outfit is working on an interface it hopes will be as slick as Jack Dorsey’s Square Cash, equipped with automatic recurring buys.
Wilkins brings C-level gravitas and cypherpunk bona fides to River. He was the CSO at Blockstream, an outfit dedicated to improving bitcoin technology with projects such as Liquid, for faster payments between exchanges and a system of satellites used to broadcast bitcoin block data from space.
Related:Bitcoin Price Indicator Eyes First Bullish Turn Since August
Early in his career he worked atZero Knowledge Systems,which built a forerunner to the anonymizing Tor network. (His title there was “adversary,” according to his LinkedInprofile.) Later he was a security architect at Microsoft, Zynga and Yelp.
Compared to other Blockstream co-founders who are outspoken on Twitter or often appear in the media, Wilkins has laid low. He’s joined River to shepherd the company’s security model, a particularly important part of the business, since it is custodial, taking care of users’ private keys.
“By focusing on simplicity and what is best for users in the long term (dollar-cost averaging and holding) instead of pushing altcoins and encouraging more active trading in order to increase fees, River is closer to the historical ideal of a bank,” said Wilkins. “I wanted to be part of a company concerned with helping its community grow its wealth and providing an alternative to today’s more predatory financial institutions”
River Financial has built its infrastructure from “the ground up,” founder and CEO Alexander Leishman said.
Related:After Sudden 8% Drop, Bitcoin Bulls Must Defend Price Support at $8,460
“We’re in this in the long term,” Leishman said, adding that River has already made a couple of big decisions based on Wilkins’ “guidance,” such as not relying on third-party cloud computing services.
“It’s a lot of work to not do that but we can build a system that we fully control,” Leishman said.
River Financial differs from many services used to buy and sell cryptocurrency in that it’s focused solely on bitcoin.
“We believe bitcoin is going to be the most dominant cryptocurrency. If anything becomes a world money, it’s going to be bitcoin,” Leishman said.
Even adding one cryptocurrency significantly increases the complexity of engineering a system, he said. Other companies managing many tokens are constantly “putting out fires.”
Plus, working on bitcoin exclusively has allowed River to adopt some cutting-edge technology that other companies don’t have the time and energy to look into, Leishman said. “Bitcoin-only lets us take it to another level no one has ever taken things before.”
River Financial is one of the earliest companies to adopt the lightning network, a speedier payment system that’s widely considered a key part of bitcoin’s future.
In addition, Leishman said River relies “heavily” onPartially Signed Bitcoin Transactions(PSBT) so that each user in a multi-signature transaction can sign it from a different hardware device.For those interested in the nitty-gritty, River Financial software engineer Philip Glazmantweeteda thread outlining many of the technologies it’s using and the decisions it made.
• Bitcoin Falls Back After Briefly Breaking $9k Resistance
• Deribit Using New Trading Tools to Capture ‘Exploding’ Options Market || Blockstream Co-Founder Joins Bitcoin-Only Start-up River Financial: Industry veteran Jonathan Wilkins, a co-founder of bitcoin tech start-up Blockstream, is joining up-and-coming bitcoin brokerage River Financial as chief security officer (CSO).
River is a bitcoin-only financial institution for buying and selling the digital currency (emphatically not an exchange; it says it’s “for the long-term investor”). Currently available only to testers who have received invites, the San Francisco-based outfit is working on an interface it hopes will be as slick as Jack Dorsey’s Square Cash, equipped with automatic recurring buys.
Wilkins brings C-level gravitas and cypherpunk bona fides to River. He was the CSO at Blockstream, an outfit dedicated to improving bitcoin technology with projects such as Liquid, for faster payments between exchanges and a system of satellites used to broadcast bitcoin block data from space.
Related:Bitcoin Price Indicator Eyes First Bullish Turn Since August
Early in his career he worked atZero Knowledge Systems,which built a forerunner to the anonymizing Tor network. (His title there was “adversary,” according to his LinkedInprofile.) Later he was a security architect at Microsoft, Zynga and Yelp.
Compared to other Blockstream co-founders who are outspoken on Twitter or often appear in the media, Wilkins has laid low. He’s joined River to shepherd the company’s security model, a particularly important part of the business, since it is custodial, taking care of users’ private keys.
“By focusing on simplicity and what is best for users in the long term (dollar-cost averaging and holding) instead of pushing altcoins and encouraging more active trading in order to increase fees, River is closer to the historical ideal of a bank,” said Wilkins. “I wanted to be part of a company concerned with helping its community grow its wealth and providing an alternative to today’s more predatory financial institutions”
River Financial has built its infrastructure from “the ground up,” founder and CEO Alexander Leishman said.
Related:After Sudden 8% Drop, Bitcoin Bulls Must Defend Price Support at $8,460
“We’re in this in the long term,” Leishman said, adding that River has already made a couple of big decisions based on Wilkins’ “guidance,” such as not relying on third-party cloud computing services.
“It’s a lot of work to not do that but we can build a system that we fully control,” Leishman said.
River Financial differs from many services used to buy and sell cryptocurrency in that it’s focused solely on bitcoin.
“We believe bitcoin is going to be the most dominant cryptocurrency. If anything becomes a world money, it’s going to be bitcoin,” Leishman said.
Even adding one cryptocurrency significantly increases the complexity of engineering a system, he said. Other companies managing many tokens are constantly “putting out fires.”
Plus, working on bitcoin exclusively has allowed River to adopt some cutting-edge technology that other companies don’t have the time and energy to look into, Leishman said. “Bitcoin-only lets us take it to another level no one has ever taken things before.”
River Financial is one of the earliest companies to adopt the lightning network, a speedier payment system that’s widely considered a key part of bitcoin’s future.
In addition, Leishman said River relies “heavily” onPartially Signed Bitcoin Transactions(PSBT) so that each user in a multi-signature transaction can sign it from a different hardware device.For those interested in the nitty-gritty, River Financial software engineer Philip Glazmantweeteda thread outlining many of the technologies it’s using and the decisions it made.
• Bitcoin Falls Back After Briefly Breaking $9k Resistance
• Deribit Using New Trading Tools to Capture ‘Exploding’ Options Market || Palestinian Militant Group Has Received 3,370 Bitcoins in Donations Since 2015: Report: A Palestinian militant group took millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin donations to finance its operations, according to a new report.
Obtained by theJerusalem Postand reported Sunday, the report from the Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) found the al-Nasser Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), used bitcoin sent from overseas as a means of funding operations in and out of the Gaza Strip.
ICT researchers linked the group to the bitcoin wallet address, “1LaNXgq2ctDEa4fTha6PTo8sucqzieQctq,” which showed “an irregular increase in the scope of activity” with more than 4,500 transactions over the past four years.
Related:NJ Counterterrorism Chief Warns US Congress: Crypto Is Funding ‘Domestic Extremism’
The report claims the group – which the Jerusalem Post says has links to Hamas – used bitcoin to avoid sanctions, offer a degree of anonymity to donors from overseas and enable cross-border money transfers.
The wallet, which had received a total of nearly 3,370 BTC (almost $29 million atcurrent prices) between October 2015 and July 2019, was also linked to financial website “cash4ps.” Digging a little deeper, researchers found cash4ps had a bank account with the Islamic National Bank, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization in 2010 for its connection to Hamas.
The Bitcoin Abuse Databaselinkedthe wallet to Hamas in February 2019, saying it had been used for “collecting donations to a terrorist organization.”
The PRC is a coalition of various armed groups, affiliated with Hamas, that has fought for the total reclamation of a state of Palestine from Israel since 2000. Through the al-Nasser Brigades, it is generally considered to be one of the strongest factions in Gaza, with close links to Hamas and Hezbollah. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by both Israel and the U.S.
Related:CipherTrace’s Blockchain Forensics Service Now Covers 700 Crypto Assets
The al-Nasser Brigades has been active in numerous conflicts with Israel. It was part of a broader group, including Hamas, responsible for the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was released in 2011 following a prisoner exchange deal.
This isn’t the first time Palestinian militant groups have been found to be using cryptocurrencies. One Israeli blockchain analytics firmreportedin February 2019 that Hamas may be using a Coinbase wallet address to help with fundraising. The New York Times previouslysaidbitcoin had been used for “tens of thousands of dollars” worth of illicit transactions.
Iran has historically been one of the primary backers for many armed groups in Palestine. The country reportedly donated as much as $23 million every month to Hamas following the group’s 2006 victory in the Palestinian legislative elections. But much of this funding wascutin 2013 after Hamas continued supporting the revolution against the Iranian-backed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
The ICT researchers connected the bitcoin wallet to various Facebook posts from the al-Nasser-affiliated al-Baraq media, which appealed for support “due to lack of resources and Iran’s rejection to their request for support.”
As opposition efforts in Syria have faded, Iranian relations with Palestinian armed groups havebegunto warm over the past year. Just over a month after the last transaction on the identified bitcoin wallet, Iranincreasedits monthly payments to Hamas to $30 million in return for assistance gathering intelligence on the missile stockpiles of their “common enemy” Israel.
It’s unclear if Palestinian militants are continuing to focus on bitcoin as a fundraising mechanism now that many have re-developed stronger ties with Iran.
Economic isolation has also forced many Palestinian businesses to use cryptocurrency to send and receive international payments. CoinDesk previouslyhighlightedthat there were up to 20 bitcoin dealers operating in Gaza, each processing as much as $5 million to $6 million per month for clients including charities based overseas as well as domestic businesses or entrepreneurs.
One source at the time said that Hamas’ use of bitcoin may very well have helped raise awareness of bitcoin among Palestinians.
Disclosure: The author holds positions in bitcoin, as well as other crypto assets.
• What the Holy Land Reveals About Bitcoin
• In Palestine, Civilians Are Using Bitcoin More Than Hamas || Palestinian Militant Group Has Received 3,370 Bitcoins in Donations Since 2015: Report: A Palestinian militant group took millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin donations to finance its operations, according to a new report. Obtained by the Jerusalem Post and reported Sunday, the report from the Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) found the al-Nasser Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), used bitcoin sent from overseas as a means of funding operations in and out of the Gaza Strip. ICT researchers linked the group to the bitcoin wallet address, “1LaNXgq2ctDEa4fTha6PTo8sucqzieQctq,” which showed “an irregular increase in the scope of activity” with more than 4,500 transactions over the past four years. Related: NJ Counterterrorism Chief Warns US Congress: Crypto Is Funding ‘Domestic Extremism’ The report claims the group – which the Jerusalem Post says has links to Hamas – used bitcoin to avoid sanctions, offer a degree of anonymity to donors from overseas and enable cross-border money transfers. The wallet, which had received a total of nearly 3,370 BTC (almost $29 million at current prices ) between October 2015 and July 2019, was also linked to financial website “cash4ps.” Digging a little deeper, researchers found cash4ps had a bank account with the Islamic National Bank, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization in 2010 for its connection to Hamas. The Bitcoin Abuse Database linked the wallet to Hamas in February 2019, saying it had been used for “collecting donations to a terrorist organization.” The PRC is a coalition of various armed groups, affiliated with Hamas, that has fought for the total reclamation of a state of Palestine from Israel since 2000. Through the al-Nasser Brigades, it is generally considered to be one of the strongest factions in Gaza, with close links to Hamas and Hezbollah. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by both Israel and the U.S. Related: CipherTrace’s Blockchain Forensics Service Now Covers 700 Crypto Assets Story continues The al-Nasser Brigades has been active in numerous conflicts with Israel. It was part of a broader group, including Hamas, responsible for the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was released in 2011 following a prisoner exchange deal. Funding cut This isn’t the first time Palestinian militant groups have been found to be using cryptocurrencies. One Israeli blockchain analytics firm reported in February 2019 that Hamas may be using a Coinbase wallet address to help with fundraising. The New York Times previously said bitcoin had been used for “tens of thousands of dollars” worth of illicit transactions. Iran has historically been one of the primary backers for many armed groups in Palestine. The country reportedly donated as much as $23 million every month to Hamas following the group’s 2006 victory in the Palestinian legislative elections. But much of this funding was cut in 2013 after Hamas continued supporting the revolution against the Iranian-backed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. The ICT researchers connected the bitcoin wallet to various Facebook posts from the al-Nasser-affiliated al-Baraq media, which appealed for support “due to lack of resources and Iran’s rejection to their request for support.” As opposition efforts in Syria have faded, Iranian relations with Palestinian armed groups have begun to warm over the past year. Just over a month after the last transaction on the identified bitcoin wallet, Iran increased its monthly payments to Hamas to $30 million in return for assistance gathering intelligence on the missile stockpiles of their “common enemy” Israel. It’s unclear if Palestinian militants are continuing to focus on bitcoin as a fundraising mechanism now that many have re-developed stronger ties with Iran. Economic isolation has also forced many Palestinian businesses to use cryptocurrency to send and receive international payments. CoinDesk previously highlighted that there were up to 20 bitcoin dealers operating in Gaza, each processing as much as $5 million to $6 million per month for clients including charities based overseas as well as domestic businesses or entrepreneurs. One source at the time said that Hamas’ use of bitcoin may very well have helped raise awareness of bitcoin among Palestinians. Disclosure: The author holds positions in bitcoin, as well as other crypto assets. Related Stories What the Holy Land Reveals About Bitcoin In Palestine, Civilians Are Using Bitcoin More Than Hamas || Palestinian Militant Group Has Received 3,370 Bitcoins in Donations Since 2015: Report: A Palestinian militant group took millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin donations to finance its operations, according to a new report.
Obtained by theJerusalem Postand reported Sunday, the report from the Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) found the al-Nasser Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), used bitcoin sent from overseas as a means of funding operations in and out of the Gaza Strip.
ICT researchers linked the group to the bitcoin wallet address, “1LaNXgq2ctDEa4fTha6PTo8sucqzieQctq,” which showed “an irregular increase in the scope of activity” with more than 4,500 transactions over the past four years.
Related:NJ Counterterrorism Chief Warns US Congress: Crypto Is Funding ‘Domestic Extremism’
The report claims the group – which the Jerusalem Post says has links to Hamas – used bitcoin to avoid sanctions, offer a degree of anonymity to donors from overseas and enable cross-border money transfers.
The wallet, which had received a total of nearly 3,370 BTC (almost $29 million atcurrent prices) between October 2015 and July 2019, was also linked to financial website “cash4ps.” Digging a little deeper, researchers found cash4ps had a bank account with the Islamic National Bank, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization in 2010 for its connection to Hamas.
The Bitcoin Abuse Databaselinkedthe wallet to Hamas in February 2019, saying it had been used for “collecting donations to a terrorist organization.”
The PRC is a coalition of various armed groups, affiliated with Hamas, that has fought for the total reclamation of a state of Palestine from Israel since 2000. Through the al-Nasser Brigades, it is generally considered to be one of the strongest factions in Gaza, with close links to Hamas and Hezbollah. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by both Israel and the U.S.
Related:CipherTrace’s Blockchain Forensics Service Now Covers 700 Crypto Assets
The al-Nasser Brigades has been active in numerous conflicts with Israel. It was part of a broader group, including Hamas, responsible for the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was released in 2011 following a prisoner exchange deal.
This isn’t the first time Palestinian militant groups have been found to be using cryptocurrencies. One Israeli blockchain analytics firmreportedin February 2019 that Hamas may be using a Coinbase wallet address to help with fundraising. The New York Times previouslysaidbitcoin had been used for “tens of thousands of dollars” worth of illicit transactions.
Iran has historically been one of the primary backers for many armed groups in Palestine. The country reportedly donated as much as $23 million every month to Hamas following the group’s 2006 victory in the Palestinian legislative elections. But much of this funding wascutin 2013 after Hamas continued supporting the revolution against the Iranian-backed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
The ICT researchers connected the bitcoin wallet to various Facebook posts from the al-Nasser-affiliated al-Baraq media, which appealed for support “due to lack of resources and Iran’s rejection to their request for support.”
As opposition efforts in Syria have faded, Iranian relations with Palestinian armed groups havebegunto warm over the past year. Just over a month after the last transaction on the identified bitcoin wallet, Iranincreasedits monthly payments to Hamas to $30 million in return for assistance gathering intelligence on the missile stockpiles of their “common enemy” Israel.
It’s unclear if Palestinian militants are continuing to focus on bitcoin as a fundraising mechanism now that many have re-developed stronger ties with Iran.
Economic isolation has also forced many Palestinian businesses to use cryptocurrency to send and receive international payments. CoinDesk previouslyhighlightedthat there were up to 20 bitcoin dealers operating in Gaza, each processing as much as $5 million to $6 million per month for clients including charities based overseas as well as domestic businesses or entrepreneurs.
One source at the time said that Hamas’ use of bitcoin may very well have helped raise awareness of bitcoin among Palestinians.
Disclosure: The author holds positions in bitcoin, as well as other crypto assets.
• What the Holy Land Reveals About Bitcoin
• In Palestine, Civilians Are Using Bitcoin More Than Hamas
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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8680.88, 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7176.41, 7334.10, 7302.09, 6865.49, 6859.08, 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80, 7096.18, 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32, 7117.21, 7429.72, 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87, 7795.60, 7807.06, 8801.04, 8658.55, 8864.77, 8988.60, 8897.47, 8912.65, 9003.07, 9268.76, 9951.52, 9842.67, 9593.90, 8756.43, 8601.80, 8804.48, 9269.99, 9733.72, 9328.20, 9377.01, 9670.74, 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02, 9525.75, 9439.12, 9700.41, 9461.06, 10167.27, 9529.80, 9656.72, 9800.64, 9665.53, 9653.68, 9758.85, 9771.49, 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58, 9190.85, 9137.99, 9228.33, 9123.41, 9087.30, 9132.49, 9073.94.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-07-05]
Volume: 12903406143, RSI (14-day): 42.98, 50-day EMA: 9196.25, 200-day EMA: 8608.95
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Two Nigerians face US charges over online fraud worth 'hundreds of millions': US law enforcement is cracking down on a pair of alleged online fraudsters that appear to have been wildly successful. The United Arab Emirates has sent the US two Nigerian nationals,Ramon Olorunwa AbbasandOlakean Jacob Ponle, to face charges relating to large “business email compromise” scams. Abbas is accused of money laundering in schemes meant to pull in “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to the Justice Department. He reportedly helped with a plan to launder $14.7 million stolen from a “foreign financial institution,” helped take nearly $923,000 from a New York law firm and was even involved in a plot to steal roughly $124 million from anEnglish Premier Leagueclub.
Ponle, meanwhile, allegedly participated in several 2019 fraud campaigns that were worth “tens of millions of dollars,” including one Chicago-based company that sen a total of $15.2 million. According to the claim, Ponle had victims wire funds to money mules who converted the gains to Bitcoin and sent them to a digital wallet the mastermind controlled.
Both Abbas and Ponle could serve up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
US attorney Nick Hanna saw the move as evidence the US could hold online fraud perpetrators responsible “no matter where they live.” However, this is is also an illustration of how difficult it is to halt internet scams. American officials have beenidentifying foreign fraud campaignsfor years, and they only sometimes lead to arrests. Although these moves could send a message to scammers who think they can escape without penalty, they might not serve as practical deterrents. || Two Nigerians face US charges over online fraud worth 'hundreds of millions': US law enforcement is cracking down on a pair of alleged online fraudsters that appear to have been wildly successful. The United Arab Emirates has sent the US two Nigerian nationals, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas and Olakean Jacob Ponle , to face charges relating to large “business email compromise” scams. Abbas is accused of money laundering in schemes meant to pull in “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to the Justice Department. He reportedly helped with a plan to launder $14.7 million stolen from a “foreign financial institution,” helped take nearly $923,000 from a New York law firm and was even involved in a plot to steal roughly $124 million from an English Premier League club. Ponle, meanwhile, allegedly participated in several 2019 fraud campaigns that were worth “tens of millions of dollars,” including one Chicago-based company that sen a total of $15.2 million. According to the claim, Ponle had victims wire funds to money mules who converted the gains to Bitcoin and sent them to a digital wallet the mastermind controlled. Both Abbas and Ponle could serve up to 20 years in prison if convicted. US attorney Nick Hanna saw the move as evidence the US could hold online fraud perpetrators responsible “no matter where they live.” However, this is is also an illustration of how difficult it is to halt internet scams. American officials have been identifying foreign fraud campaigns for years, and they only sometimes lead to arrests. Although these moves could send a message to scammers who think they can escape without penalty, they might not serve as practical deterrents. || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – July 4th, 2020: Bitcoin fell by 0.30% on Friday. Following on from a 1.51% slide from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,073.2.
It was a relatively range-bound day for Bitcoin. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to a late morning intraday high $9,135.5 before pulling back.
Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $9,260.8, Bitcoin slid to a late morning intraday low $9,056.7.
Steering clear of the first major support level at $8,944.6, Bitcoin moved back through to $9,130 levels before easing back.
A bearish end to the day left Bitcoin in the red.
The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the recent pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.
Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday.
Cardano’s ADA reversed Thursday’s slide, with a 3.87% gain to lead the way.
Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.70%), EOS (+2.46%), Litecoin (+0.22%), Ripple’s XRP (+1.02%), and Tron’s TRX (+0.78%) also found support.
It was bearish for the rest of the majors, however.
Binance Coin (-0.59%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.44%), Ethereum (-0.61%), Monero’s XMR (-3.48%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.40%), and Tezos (-2.41%) struggled on the day.
Through the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Wednesday high $260.82bn before falling to a Thursday low $249.45bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $254.5bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 66.29% before falling to a Friday low 65.39%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 65.63%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.04% to $9,069.2. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $9,063.2 before rising to a high $9,086.6.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, it’s a mixed start to the day.
Binance Coin (-0.34%), Ethereum (-0.03%), Monero’s XMR (-0.02%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.01%), and Tezos (-0.20%) joined Bitcoin in the red.
It was a bullish start to the day for the rest of the majors. At the time of writing, Cardano’s ADA was up by 1.72% to lead the way.
Bitcoin would need to move through the $9,090 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,120.23.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $9,100 levels.
Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $9,135.5 would likely cap any upside.
In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin should break through the second major resistance level at $9,167.27 before any pullback.
Failure to move through the $9,090 pivot level could see Bitcoin struggle on the day.
A fall back through Friday’s low $9,056.7 would bring the first major support level at $9,041.43 into play.
Barring an extended crypto sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$9,000 and the 23.6% FIB of $8,900. The second major support level at $9,009.67 should limit any downside on the day.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Fail at Exhaustion Point
• Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Neutral Candle
• USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Continues to Migrate Around Same Level
• The Weekly Wrap – Positive Economic Data Supported Riskier Assets in the Week
• European Equities: A Week in Review – 04/07/20
• USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Range-Bound Trading Continues || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – July 4th, 2020: Bitcoin fell by 0.30% on Friday. Following on from a 1.51% slide from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,073.2. It was a relatively range-bound day for Bitcoin. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to a late morning intraday high $9,135.5 before pulling back. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $9,260.8, Bitcoin slid to a late morning intraday low $9,056.7. Steering clear of the first major support level at $8,944.6, Bitcoin moved back through to $9,130 levels before easing back. A bearish end to the day left Bitcoin in the red. The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the recent pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday. Cardano’s ADA reversed Thursday’s slide, with a 3.87% gain to lead the way. Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.70%), EOS (+2.46%), Litecoin (+0.22%), Ripple’s XRP (+1.02%), and Tron’s TRX (+0.78%) also found support. It was bearish for the rest of the majors, however. Binance Coin (-0.59%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.44%), Ethereum (-0.61%), Monero’s XMR (-3.48%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.40%), and Tezos (-2.41%) struggled on the day. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Wednesday high $260.82bn before falling to a Thursday low $249.45bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $254.5bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 66.29% before falling to a Friday low 65.39%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 65.63%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.04% to $9,069.2. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $9,063.2 before rising to a high $9,086.6. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it’s a mixed start to the day. Story continues Binance Coin (-0.34%), Ethereum (-0.03%), Monero’s XMR (-0.02%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.01%), and Tezos (-0.20%) joined Bitcoin in the red. It was a bullish start to the day for the rest of the majors. At the time of writing, Cardano’s ADA was up by 1.72% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through the $9,090 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,120.23. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $9,100 levels. Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level and Friday’s high $9,135.5 would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin should break through the second major resistance level at $9,167.27 before any pullback. Failure to move through the $9,090 pivot level could see Bitcoin struggle on the day. A fall back through Friday’s low $9,056.7 would bring the first major support level at $9,041.43 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$9,000 and the 23.6% FIB of $8,900. The second major support level at $9,009.67 should limit any downside on the day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Fail at Exhaustion Point Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Form Neutral Candle USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US Dollar Continues to Migrate Around Same Level The Weekly Wrap – Positive Economic Data Supported Riskier Assets in the Week European Equities: A Week in Review – 04/07/20 USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Range-Bound Trading Continues || Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core: A Bitcoin Core dev and her exchange partner discuss Bitcoin and privacy and how to incentivize more developers to contribute to the protocol.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode is sponsored byBitstampandCrypto.com.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for July 6, 2020
OKCoin and BitMEX recently came together to provide a $150,000 grant to Bitcoin Core developer Amiti Uttarwar.
See also:Summer 2020 Is Funding Season for Open-Source Bitcoin Development
In this conversation, Amiti and OKCoin CEO Hong Fang discuss:
• Why OKCoin believes it is essential for companies in the space to support Bitcoin Core development
• How OKCoin and BitMEX came together around this grant
• Why Amiti is focused on the P2P layer
• Why Amiti believes bitcoin should be private by default
• Why Bitcoin Core will better serve more populations if more populations are represented in who is building it
Find our guests online:
Related:What Artists Love About Crypto
Hong FangWebsite:https://www.okcoin.comTwitter:@hfangca
Amiti UttarwarTwitter:@amizi
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
• Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core
• Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core || Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core: A Bitcoin Core dev and her exchange partner discuss Bitcoin and privacy and how to incentivize more developers to contribute to the protocol. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Crypto.com . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for July 6, 2020 OKCoin and BitMEX recently came together to provide a $150,000 grant to Bitcoin Core developer Amiti Uttarwar. See also: Summer 2020 Is Funding Season for Open-Source Bitcoin Development In this conversation, Amiti and OKCoin CEO Hong Fang discuss: Why OKCoin believes it is essential for companies in the space to support Bitcoin Core development How OKCoin and BitMEX came together around this grant Why Amiti is focused on the P2P layer Why Amiti believes bitcoin should be private by default Why Bitcoin Core will better serve more populations if more populations are represented in who is building it Find our guests online: Related: What Artists Love About Crypto Hong Fang Website: https://www.okcoin.com Twitter: @hfangca Amiti Uttarwar Twitter: @amizi For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core || Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core: A Bitcoin Core dev and her exchange partner discuss Bitcoin and privacy and how to incentivize more developers to contribute to the protocol.
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
This episode is sponsored byBitstampandCrypto.com.
Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for July 6, 2020
OKCoin and BitMEX recently came together to provide a $150,000 grant to Bitcoin Core developer Amiti Uttarwar.
See also:Summer 2020 Is Funding Season for Open-Source Bitcoin Development
In this conversation, Amiti and OKCoin CEO Hong Fang discuss:
• Why OKCoin believes it is essential for companies in the space to support Bitcoin Core development
• How OKCoin and BitMEX came together around this grant
• Why Amiti is focused on the P2P layer
• Why Amiti believes bitcoin should be private by default
• Why Bitcoin Core will better serve more populations if more populations are represented in who is building it
Find our guests online:
Related:What Artists Love About Crypto
Hong FangWebsite:https://www.okcoin.comTwitter:@hfangca
Amiti UttarwarTwitter:@amizi
Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS.
• Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core
• Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core || Search for Yield Drives Ether’s Put-Call Ratio to One-Year High: Investors’ search for yield has pushed a widely tracked ether options market metric to its highest level in 12 months. The put-call open interest ratio, which measures the number of put options open relative to call options, rose to 1.04 on Thursday, a level last seen in July 2019, according to data provider Skew , a crypto derivatives research firm. A put option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. Meanwhile, a call option represents a right to buy. Open interest refers to the number of contracts open at a specific time. Related: Bitcoin Rises in Line With Stocks After Dip Below $9K The metric has nearly tripled in value over the last 3.5 months and has witnessed a near 90-degree rise from 0.84 to 1.04 in the last two weeks. “Typically this implies the market is more bearish as investors are buying puts to protect their portfolios from a fall in the underlying,” said Luuk Strijers, COO at cryptocurrency exchange Deribit , the biggest crypto options exchange by trading volumes. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, is flashing signs of uptrend exhaustion. Prices have failed multiple times in the last few weeks to keep gains above $240. As such, some investors may have bought puts. However, in this case, the put-call open interest ratio has risen mainly due to increased selling in the put options. “In this case, market makers have long options positions while the clients are net sellers of puts,” said Strijers told CoinDesk, and added that, “clients, in this case, are generating additional yields using their ETH holdings.” Related: Traders sell (or write) put options when the market is expected to consolidate or rally. A seller receives a premium (option price) for selling insurance against the downside move. If the market remains comatose or rallies, the value of the put option sold drops, yielding a profit for the seller. Story continues It’s quite likely that investors holding long positions in the spot market are writing put options to generate extra yield, given the market sentiment is bullish. See also: Ethereum Logged Its Busiest Week on Record “There’s a lot of excitement around new DeFi tokens and most of the collateral locked up across those platforms is in Ethereum. As that outstanding ether supply comes down and demand from Defi platforms hits escape velocity, ether will rally hard,” tweeted John Todaro , head of research at TradeBlock. Validating Strijers’ argument are negative readings on three-month and six-month skews, a sign call options are costlier than puts. Skew measures the price of puts relative to that of calls. Three and six-month skews would have been positive had investors been buying put options. One-month skew, too, was hovering at -4% on Thursday. While it has bounced up to 4.7% on Friday, the metric still remains well below highs around 10% seen on June 28. Volatility metrics also suggest that the market in general is dominated by option writers. “There seem to be more sellers in the market which is also visible in especially the shorter-dated implied volatility dropping to lowest levels since more than 1 year,” said Strijers. Ether’s one-month implied volatility or investors’ expectations of how volatile or risky ether would be over the next four weeks is seen at 47% at press time, the lowest since Skew began tracking data in April 2019. Option implied volatilities are driven by the net buying pressure for options and historical volatility. Stronger the buying pressure, greater is the implied volatility. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Related Stories Search for Yield Drives Ether’s Put-Call Ratio to One-Year High Search for Yield Drives Ether’s Put-Call Ratio to One-Year High || Search for Yield Drives Ether’s Put-Call Ratio to One-Year High: Investors’ search for yield has pushed a widely trackedetheroptions market metric to its highest level in 12 months.
The put-call open interest ratio, which measures the number of put options open relative to call options, rose to 1.04 on Thursday, a level last seen in July 2019, according to data providerSkew, a crypto derivatives research firm.
A put option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. Meanwhile, a call option represents a right to buy. Open interest refers to the number of contracts open at a specific time.
Related:Bitcoin Rises in Line With Stocks After Dip Below $9K
The metric has nearly tripled in value over the last 3.5 months and has witnessed a near 90-degree rise from 0.84 to 1.04 in the last two weeks.
“Typically this implies the market is more bearish as investors are buying puts to protect their portfolios from a fall in the underlying,” said Luuk Strijers, COO at cryptocurrency exchangeDeribit, the biggest crypto options exchange by trading volumes.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, is flashing signs of uptrend exhaustion. Prices have failed multiple times in the last few weeks to keep gains above $240. As such, some investors may have bought puts.
However, in this case, the put-call open interest ratio has risen mainly due to increased selling in the put options. “In this case, market makers have long options positions while the clients are net sellers of puts,” said Strijers told CoinDesk, and added that, “clients, in this case, are generating additional yields using their ETH holdings.”
Related:
Traders sell (or write) put options when the market is expected to consolidate or rally. A seller receives a premium (option price) for selling insurance against the downside move. If the market remains comatose or rallies, the value of the put option sold drops, yielding a profit for the seller.
It’s quite likely that investors holding long positions in the spot market are writing put options to generate extra yield, given the market sentiment is bullish.
See also: Ethereum Logged Its Busiest Week on Record
“There’s a lot ofexcitement aroundnew DeFi tokens and most of the collateral locked up across those platforms is in Ethereum. As that outstanding ether supply comes down and demand from Defi platforms hits escape velocity, ether will rally hard,”tweeted John Todaro, head of research at TradeBlock.
Validating Strijers’ argument are negative readings on three-month and six-month skews, a sign call options are costlier than puts. Skew measures the price of puts relative to that of calls.
Three and six-month skews would have been positive had investors been buying put options.
One-month skew, too, was hovering at -4% on Thursday. While it has bounced up to 4.7% on Friday, the metric still remains well below highs around 10% seen on June 28.
Volatility metrics also suggest that the market in general is dominated by option writers. “There seem to be more sellers in the market which is also visible in especially the shorter-dated implied volatility dropping to lowest levels since more than 1 year,” said Strijers.
Ether’s one-month implied volatility or investors’ expectations of how volatile or risky ether would be over the next four weeks is seen at 47% at press time, the lowest since Skew began tracking data in April 2019.
Option implied volatilities are driven by the net buying pressure for options and historical volatility. Stronger the buying pressure, greater is the implied volatility.
Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
• Search for Yield Drives Ether’s Put-Call Ratio to One-Year High
• Search for Yield Drives Ether’s Put-Call Ratio to One-Year High || Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act: Tensions between the Bitcoin and Ethereum tribes have been stirred by a trend that outsiders might see as a sign of harmony.
Throughout June, the amount of tokenized bitcoin on Ethereum, the bulk of it in WBTC, a special ERC-20 token known as “wrapped bitcoin,” soared from 5,200 BTC to 11,682 BTC – now worth around $108 million – according tobtconethereum.com.
As is their wont, each faction described the growth of WBTC tokens, whose value is pegged one-to-one against a locked-up reserve of actual bitcoin, as proof of their coin’s superiority over the other. The Ethereum crowd said it showed that even BTC “hodlers” believe Ethereum-based applications provide a better off-chain transaction experience than platforms built on Bitcoin, such asLightningor Blockstream’sLiquid. Bitcoiners, by contrast, took it as confirmation that people place greater value in the oldest, most valuable crypto asset, than in Ethereum’s ether token.
Related:Compound's 'Yield Farmers' Briefly Turned BAT Into DeFi's Largest Coin
You’re readingMoney Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.
Beneath the rivalry on Crypto Twitter, the bitcoin-on-Ethereum trend says more about complementarity than competition.
The data simultaneously highlight that bitcoin is the crypto universe’s reserve asset and that Ethereum’s burgeoning“DeFi”ecosystem is crypto’s go-to platform for generating credit and facilitating fluid exchange.
Though it’s too early to know who the eventual winners will be, I believe this trend captures the early beginnings of a new, decentralized global financial system. So, to describe it, an analogy for the existing one is useful: bitcoin is the dollar, and Ethereum isSWIFT,the international network that coordinates cross-border payments among banks. (Since Ethereum is trying to do much more than payments, we could also cite a number of other organizations in this analogy, such as theInternational Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA)or theDepository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).)
Related:
So, let’s dismiss claims like those of Ethhub.io co-founder Anthony Sassano. Hearguedthat because bitcoin token transactions on Ethereum deny miners fees they would otherwise receive on the bitcoin chain, bitcoin is becoming a “second-class citizen” to ether. You’d hardly expect people in countries where dollars are preferred to the local currency to think of the former as second class. And just as the U.S. benefits from overseas demand for dollars – viaseignorageor interest-free loans – bitcoin holders benefit from its sought-after liquidity and collateral value in the Ethereum ecosystem, where it lets them extract premium interest.
Still, to declare bitcoin the winner based on its appeal as a reserve asset is to compare apples to oranges. Ether is increasingly viewed not as a payment or store-of-value currency but for what it was intended: as a commodity that fuels the decentralized computing network orchestrating its smart contracts.
That network now sustains its financial system, a decentralized microcosm of the massive traditional one. It takes tokenized versions of the underlying currencies that users most value (whether bitcoin or fiat) and provides disintermediated mechanisms for lending or borrowing them or for creating decentralized derivative or insurance contracts. What’s emerging, albeit in a form too volatile for traditional institutions, is a multifaceted, market for managing and trading in risk.
This system is being fueled by a global innovation and development pool bigger than Bitcoin’s. As of June last year, there were 1,243 full-time developers working on Ethereum compared with 319 working on Bitcoin Core, according toa reportby Electric Capital. While that work is spread across multiple projects, the size of its community gives Ethereum the advantage of network effects.
Whether DeFi can shed its Wild West feel and mature sufficiently for mainstream adoption, the code and ideas generated by these engineers are laying the foundation for whatever regulated or unregulated blockchain-based finance models emerge in the future.
There are legitimate concerns about security on Ethereum. With such a complex system, and so many different programs running on it, the attack surface is large. And given the challenges the community faces in migrating toEthereum 2.0, including a newproof-of-stakeconsensus mechanism and ashardingsolution for scaling transactions, it’s still not assured it will ever be ready for prime time.
Indeed, the relative lack of complexity is one reason why many feel more comfortable with Bitcoin Core’s security. Bitcoin is a one-trick pony, but it does that trick – keeping track of unspent transaction outputs, or UTXOs – very well and very securely. Its proven security is a key reason why bitcoin is crypto’s reserve asset.
Base-layer security is also why some developers are building “Layer 2” smart contract protocols on Bitcoin. It’s harder to build on than Ethereum, but solutions are evolving – one fromRootstock, for example, and more recently, fromRGB.
And while Ethereum fans crow about there being 12 times more wrapped bitcoin on their platform than the mere $9 million locked in the Lightning Network’s payment channels, the latteris making inroadsin developing nations as a payment network for small, low-cost bitcoin transactions. Unlike WBTC, which requires a professional custodian to hold the original locked bitcoin, Lightning users need not rely on a third party to open up a channel. It’s arguably more decentralized.
At the same time, the inclusion of bitcoin in Ethereum smart contracts is inherently strengthening the DeFi system.
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which allow peer-to-peer crypto trading without centralized exchange (CEX) taking custody of your assets, have integrated WBTC into their markets to boost the liquidity needed to make them viable. Sure enough,DEX trading volumes leapt 70% to record highs in June. (It helped, too, that June saw a surge in“yield farming”operations, a complicated new DeFi speculative activity that’seasier to do if you maintain control of your assets while trading.)
Meanwhile, the recent move by leading DeFi platform MakerDAO toinclude WBTC in its accepted collateralhas meant it has a bigger pool of value to generate loans against.
This expansion in DeFi’s user base and market offerings is in itself a boost to security. That’s not just because more developers means more code vulnerabilities are discovered and fixed. It’s because the combinations of investors’ short and long positions, and of insurance and derivative products, will ultimately get closer to Nassim Taleb’s ideal of an“antifragile” system.
That’s not to say there aren’t risks in DeFi. Many are worried that the frenzy around speculative activities such as “yield farming” and interconnected leverage could set off a systemic crisis. If that happens, maybe Bitcoin can offer an alternative, more stable architecture for it. Either way, ideas to improve DeFi are coming all the time – whether forbetter system-wide dataor for a moretrustworthy legal framework. Out of this hurly burly, something transformative will emerge. Whether it’s dominated by Ethereum or spread across different blockchains, the end result will show more cross-protocol synergy than the chains’ warring communities would suggest.
Bitcoin might be a reserve asset for the crypto community but its recent price trajectory, with gains and losses tracking equities, suggest the non-crypto “normies” don’t (yet) see it that way. Given the COVID-19 crisis’s extreme test of the global financial system and central banks’ massive “quantitative easing” response to it, that price performance poses a challenge to those of us who see bitcoin’s core use case as an internet era hedge against centralized monetary instability. Far from complying with that “digital gold” narrative, bitcoin has performed like any other “risk-off” asset. Meanwhile, actual gold has shaken off its own early-crisis stock market correlation to chart an upward course. While bitcoin has repeatedly failed to sustainably break through $10,000, bullion has rallied sharply to close in on $1,800, levels it hasn’t seen since September 2012. Some analysts are predicting it will breach its all-time intraday high of $1,917, hit in the aftermath of the last global financial crisis in 2011. To add insult to injury, one Forbes contributor even stole from the crypto lexicon to describe the state of play, telling his readers that gold prices are“soaring to the moon.”
Two charts below show the divergent fortunes of these two would-be safe havens. Throughout 2019, bitcoin seems far less correlated with the S&P 500 stock index than gold is. Come the collapse in March 2020, they seem to swap circumstances.
How to reconcile this? Time.
Gold has had at least three millennia to establish itself as a store of value people turn to when social systems are in stress. Bitcoin has only existed for 11 years and while plenty of investors are willing to speculate on the possibility that it might supplant or compete with gold, the idea is far from ingrained across society. When will it be more widely accepted? Perhaps when the international crisis of global leadership unleashed by COVID-19 undermines the capacity of institutions like the Federal Reserve to sustain economic and social confidence. Whatever new institutions and systems we create going forward will need to address how the internet has upended society’s centralized systems of governance. When that happens, we’ll need a decentralized, digital reserve asset as the base value layer. As I said, it will take time. Meanwhile, the developers will keep building.
TRUST ME, BOND MARKET, PLEASE.James Glynn at The Wall Street Journal had apiece this weekabout how the Federal Reserve is considering following Australia’s lead in using “yield caps” as a policy tool to keep long-dated interest rates down. The thinking is that if the central bank explicitly signals it will always institute bond-buying if the yield on a benchmark asset such as the 10-year Treasury note rises above some predefined ceiling, the market will be less inclined to prematurely believe the Fed is going to start tightening monetary policy. In other words, we won’t see a rerun of the 2013“Taper Tantrum,”when the U.S. bond market, worrying that the Fed would start tapering off its bond-buying, or quantitative easing, drove down bond prices, which pushed up yields. (For bond market newbies, yields, which measure the effective annual return bondholders will earn off a bond’s fixed interest rate when adjusted for its price, move inversely to price.)
The yield cap policy would be new for the Fed, but it’s really an extension of an ongoing effort to do one thing: get the market to believe its intentions. The way monetary policy works these days, it’s meaningless unless the market behaves according to what the Fed wants. It’s not about what the central bank does per se; it’s about what it says and whether those words are incorporated into investor behavior. But the more it doubles down on this, the more the Fed creates situations in which it risks having its words held against it. And that puts it at risk of losing its most important currency: the public’s trust. Commitments to price targets are always especially risky – ask Norman Lamont, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had to abandon the pound’s currency peg in 1993 because the market didn’t believe the U.K. would back its promises. The Fed has unlimited power to buy bonds, but whether it always has the will to do so will depend on politics and other factors. Once it’s locked into a commitment, the stakes go up. For now, the markets – most importantly, foreign exchange markets – still trust the Fed. But, as the saying goes, trust is hard to earn, easy to lose.
ZIMBABWE ACCIDENTALLY LEAVES DOOR OPEN FOR CRYPTO.Here’s a recipe for creating a fertile environment for alternative payment systems: outlaw the system that everyone is currently using. When the Zimbabwean government made the nutty step of banning digital payments – used for 85% of transactions by individuals, due to severe shortage of cash – it clearly wasn’t trying to promote bitcoin. In forcing people to go to a local bank to redeem funds locked in popular payments apps such as Ecocash, its goal was to protect the embattled Zimbabwean dollar.In a statement,the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the move was “necessitated by the need to protect consumers on mobile money platforms which have been abused by unscrupulous and unpatriotic individuals and entities to create instability and inefficiencies in the economy.” The thinking is that Ecocash, which enables currency trading, is making it easier for people to dump the local currency. But here’s the thing: Ecocash, whichsaidit suspended cash-in-cash-out functions (presumably because its banking lines will be cut) is still keeping in-app payment facilities open. And it said nothing about stopping its fairly popular service allowing people to buy cryptocurrency. Not surprisingly, since the ban “demand for bitcoin has skyrocketed,” according to African crypto news site, bitcoinke, with “sources claiming bitcoin is now selling at at 18% premium above the market rate.”
OF MONEY AND MYTHS.I’m reading Stephanie Kelton’s book,“The Deficit Myth.” In a future edition of Money Reimagined, I’ll have more to say on the most influential modern monetary theory proponent’s explanation of its ideas. But for now I’ll just say that, while I’m not likely to be a convert to all its prescriptions, it seems clear that MMT is widely misunderstood by folks on both the left and the right – also, very much by the crypto industry. The latter is perhaps because people in crypto tend to skew more to themetallistschool of money, rather than tochartalism. Either way, a clearer grasp of what MMT is all about would, I believe, help improve the industry’s discussion around government, money, trust and how blockchain-based systems can integrate with the existing one.
How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed
How to place a value on bitcoin? Its data are unfamiliar territory for many investors. Nearly half of investors in a recent survey said a lack of fundamentals keeps them from participating.
In a 30-minute webinar July 7, CoinDesk Research will explore one of the first and oldest unique data points to be developed by crypto asset analysts: Bitcoin Days Destroyed.
We’ll be joined by Lucas Nuzzi, a veteran analyst and a network data expert at Coin Metrics. Lucas and CoinDesk Research will walk you through the structure of this unique financial metric and demonstrate some of its many applications.Sign up for the July 7 webinar “How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed.”
BIS Plans New Central Banking Fintech Research Hubs in Europe, North America. The Bank of International Settlements – the central bank to the world’s central banks – is getting serious about its money tech R&D centers, opening innovation hubs in Toronto, Stockholm, London, Paris and Frankfurt. A coordinated, standardized approach to developing central bank digital currencies? Danny Nelson reports.
Why the Stock-to-Flow Bitcoin Valuation Model Is Wrong. Maybe you shouldn’t be banking all your finances on a halving-driven appreciation in bitcoin this year. In this op-ed for CoinDesk, contributor Nico Cordeiro picks apart one of the most commonly cited theories for why many people expect bitcoin’s baked-in quadrennial money supply decelerations to boost its price.
DeFi’s ‘Agricultural Revolution’ Has Ethereum Users Turning to Decentralized Exchanges. DEX’s, often touted as a fairer and safer way to trade cryptocurrencies, might finally have their use case: yield farming. In the past, as Brady Dale reports, most people haven’t wanted to self-custody, preferring institutions to manage the risks of holding their keys for them. But in DeFi, where people undertake dual borrowing-and-lending schemes to make big, quick returns on incentives and high interest rates, is better if you control the keys during the trade. And decentralized exchanges are seizing the opportunity.
‘Money Printer Go Brrr’ Is How the Dollar Retains Reserve Status. Our columnist Francis Coppola is here to tell you that you don’t understand how quantitative easing works. The Fed is not on some self-destructive missione here. Inflation? Not going to happen. The dollar’s demise? On the contrary; the Fed’s monetary rescue mission is what will keep the greenback atop its throne.
Senate Banking Committee Remains Open to Idea of Digital Dollar in Tuesday’s Hearing. If you want a measure of how far things have come in terms of the acceptability of the digital dollar idea in Washington from something that a year or so ago would have been a nutty, fringe idea, read the opening paragraph to Nikhilesh De’s writeup of this hearing: “Not every U.S. lawmaker is on board with the idea of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or digital dollar, but no one explicitly rejected it during a hearing of the powerful Senate Banking Committee.”
• Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act
• Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act || Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act: Tensions between the Bitcoin and Ethereum tribes have been stirred by a trend that outsiders might see as a sign of harmony.
Throughout June, the amount of tokenized bitcoin on Ethereum, the bulk of it in WBTC, a special ERC-20 token known as “wrapped bitcoin,” soared from 5,200 BTC to 11,682 BTC – now worth around $108 million – according tobtconethereum.com.
As is their wont, each faction described the growth of WBTC tokens, whose value is pegged one-to-one against a locked-up reserve of actual bitcoin, as proof of their coin’s superiority over the other. The Ethereum crowd said it showed that even BTC “hodlers” believe Ethereum-based applications provide a better off-chain transaction experience than platforms built on Bitcoin, such asLightningor Blockstream’sLiquid. Bitcoiners, by contrast, took it as confirmation that people place greater value in the oldest, most valuable crypto asset, than in Ethereum’s ether token.
Related:Compound's 'Yield Farmers' Briefly Turned BAT Into DeFi's Largest Coin
You’re readingMoney Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.
Beneath the rivalry on Crypto Twitter, the bitcoin-on-Ethereum trend says more about complementarity than competition.
The data simultaneously highlight that bitcoin is the crypto universe’s reserve asset and that Ethereum’s burgeoning“DeFi”ecosystem is crypto’s go-to platform for generating credit and facilitating fluid exchange.
Though it’s too early to know who the eventual winners will be, I believe this trend captures the early beginnings of a new, decentralized global financial system. So, to describe it, an analogy for the existing one is useful: bitcoin is the dollar, and Ethereum isSWIFT,the international network that coordinates cross-border payments among banks. (Since Ethereum is trying to do much more than payments, we could also cite a number of other organizations in this analogy, such as theInternational Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA)or theDepository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).)
Related:
So, let’s dismiss claims like those of Ethhub.io co-founder Anthony Sassano. Hearguedthat because bitcoin token transactions on Ethereum deny miners fees they would otherwise receive on the bitcoin chain, bitcoin is becoming a “second-class citizen” to ether. You’d hardly expect people in countries where dollars are preferred to the local currency to think of the former as second class. And just as the U.S. benefits from overseas demand for dollars – viaseignorageor interest-free loans – bitcoin holders benefit from its sought-after liquidity and collateral value in the Ethereum ecosystem, where it lets them extract premium interest.
Still, to declare bitcoin the winner based on its appeal as a reserve asset is to compare apples to oranges. Ether is increasingly viewed not as a payment or store-of-value currency but for what it was intended: as a commodity that fuels the decentralized computing network orchestrating its smart contracts.
That network now sustains its financial system, a decentralized microcosm of the massive traditional one. It takes tokenized versions of the underlying currencies that users most value (whether bitcoin or fiat) and provides disintermediated mechanisms for lending or borrowing them or for creating decentralized derivative or insurance contracts. What’s emerging, albeit in a form too volatile for traditional institutions, is a multifaceted, market for managing and trading in risk.
This system is being fueled by a global innovation and development pool bigger than Bitcoin’s. As of June last year, there were 1,243 full-time developers working on Ethereum compared with 319 working on Bitcoin Core, according toa reportby Electric Capital. While that work is spread across multiple projects, the size of its community gives Ethereum the advantage of network effects.
Whether DeFi can shed its Wild West feel and mature sufficiently for mainstream adoption, the code and ideas generated by these engineers are laying the foundation for whatever regulated or unregulated blockchain-based finance models emerge in the future.
There are legitimate concerns about security on Ethereum. With such a complex system, and so many different programs running on it, the attack surface is large. And given the challenges the community faces in migrating toEthereum 2.0, including a newproof-of-stakeconsensus mechanism and ashardingsolution for scaling transactions, it’s still not assured it will ever be ready for prime time.
Indeed, the relative lack of complexity is one reason why many feel more comfortable with Bitcoin Core’s security. Bitcoin is a one-trick pony, but it does that trick – keeping track of unspent transaction outputs, or UTXOs – very well and very securely. Its proven security is a key reason why bitcoin is crypto’s reserve asset.
Base-layer security is also why some developers are building “Layer 2” smart contract protocols on Bitcoin. It’s harder to build on than Ethereum, but solutions are evolving – one fromRootstock, for example, and more recently, fromRGB.
And while Ethereum fans crow about there being 12 times more wrapped bitcoin on their platform than the mere $9 million locked in the Lightning Network’s payment channels, the latteris making inroadsin developing nations as a payment network for small, low-cost bitcoin transactions. Unlike WBTC, which requires a professional custodian to hold the original locked bitcoin, Lightning users need not rely on a third party to open up a channel. It’s arguably more decentralized.
At the same time, the inclusion of bitcoin in Ethereum smart contracts is inherently strengthening the DeFi system.
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which allow peer-to-peer crypto trading without centralized exchange (CEX) taking custody of your assets, have integrated WBTC into their markets to boost the liquidity needed to make them viable. Sure enough,DEX trading volumes leapt 70% to record highs in June. (It helped, too, that June saw a surge in“yield farming”operations, a complicated new DeFi speculative activity that’seasier to do if you maintain control of your assets while trading.)
Meanwhile, the recent move by leading DeFi platform MakerDAO toinclude WBTC in its accepted collateralhas meant it has a bigger pool of value to generate loans against.
This expansion in DeFi’s user base and market offerings is in itself a boost to security. That’s not just because more developers means more code vulnerabilities are discovered and fixed. It’s because the combinations of investors’ short and long positions, and of insurance and derivative products, will ultimately get closer to Nassim Taleb’s ideal of an“antifragile” system.
That’s not to say there aren’t risks in DeFi. Many are worried that the frenzy around speculative activities such as “yield farming” and interconnected leverage could set off a systemic crisis. If that happens, maybe Bitcoin can offer an alternative, more stable architecture for it. Either way, ideas to improve DeFi are coming all the time – whether forbetter system-wide dataor for a moretrustworthy legal framework. Out of this hurly burly, something transformative will emerge. Whether it’s dominated by Ethereum or spread across different blockchains, the end result will show more cross-protocol synergy than the chains’ warring communities would suggest.
Bitcoin might be a reserve asset for the crypto community but its recent price trajectory, with gains and losses tracking equities, suggest the non-crypto “normies” don’t (yet) see it that way. Given the COVID-19 crisis’s extreme test of the global financial system and central banks’ massive “quantitative easing” response to it, that price performance poses a challenge to those of us who see bitcoin’s core use case as an internet era hedge against centralized monetary instability. Far from complying with that “digital gold” narrative, bitcoin has performed like any other “risk-off” asset. Meanwhile, actual gold has shaken off its own early-crisis stock market correlation to chart an upward course. While bitcoin has repeatedly failed to sustainably break through $10,000, bullion has rallied sharply to close in on $1,800, levels it hasn’t seen since September 2012. Some analysts are predicting it will breach its all-time intraday high of $1,917, hit in the aftermath of the last global financial crisis in 2011. To add insult to injury, one Forbes contributor even stole from the crypto lexicon to describe the state of play, telling his readers that gold prices are“soaring to the moon.”
Two charts below show the divergent fortunes of these two would-be safe havens. Throughout 2019, bitcoin seems far less correlated with the S&P 500 stock index than gold is. Come the collapse in March 2020, they seem to swap circumstances.
How to reconcile this? Time.
Gold has had at least three millennia to establish itself as a store of value people turn to when social systems are in stress. Bitcoin has only existed for 11 years and while plenty of investors are willing to speculate on the possibility that it might supplant or compete with gold, the idea is far from ingrained across society. When will it be more widely accepted? Perhaps when the international crisis of global leadership unleashed by COVID-19 undermines the capacity of institutions like the Federal Reserve to sustain economic and social confidence. Whatever new institutions and systems we create going forward will need to address how the internet has upended society’s centralized systems of governance. When that happens, we’ll need a decentralized, digital reserve asset as the base value layer. As I said, it will take time. Meanwhile, the developers will keep building.
TRUST ME, BOND MARKET, PLEASE.James Glynn at The Wall Street Journal had apiece this weekabout how the Federal Reserve is considering following Australia’s lead in using “yield caps” as a policy tool to keep long-dated interest rates down. The thinking is that if the central bank explicitly signals it will always institute bond-buying if the yield on a benchmark asset such as the 10-year Treasury note rises above some predefined ceiling, the market will be less inclined to prematurely believe the Fed is going to start tightening monetary policy. In other words, we won’t see a rerun of the 2013“Taper Tantrum,”when the U.S. bond market, worrying that the Fed would start tapering off its bond-buying, or quantitative easing, drove down bond prices, which pushed up yields. (For bond market newbies, yields, which measure the effective annual return bondholders will earn off a bond’s fixed interest rate when adjusted for its price, move inversely to price.)
The yield cap policy would be new for the Fed, but it’s really an extension of an ongoing effort to do one thing: get the market to believe its intentions. The way monetary policy works these days, it’s meaningless unless the market behaves according to what the Fed wants. It’s not about what the central bank does per se; it’s about what it says and whether those words are incorporated into investor behavior. But the more it doubles down on this, the more the Fed creates situations in which it risks having its words held against it. And that puts it at risk of losing its most important currency: the public’s trust. Commitments to price targets are always especially risky – ask Norman Lamont, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had to abandon the pound’s currency peg in 1993 because the market didn’t believe the U.K. would back its promises. The Fed has unlimited power to buy bonds, but whether it always has the will to do so will depend on politics and other factors. Once it’s locked into a commitment, the stakes go up. For now, the markets – most importantly, foreign exchange markets – still trust the Fed. But, as the saying goes, trust is hard to earn, easy to lose.
ZIMBABWE ACCIDENTALLY LEAVES DOOR OPEN FOR CRYPTO.Here’s a recipe for creating a fertile environment for alternative payment systems: outlaw the system that everyone is currently using. When the Zimbabwean government made the nutty step of banning digital payments – used for 85% of transactions by individuals, due to severe shortage of cash – it clearly wasn’t trying to promote bitcoin. In forcing people to go to a local bank to redeem funds locked in popular payments apps such as Ecocash, its goal was to protect the embattled Zimbabwean dollar.In a statement,the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the move was “necessitated by the need to protect consumers on mobile money platforms which have been abused by unscrupulous and unpatriotic individuals and entities to create instability and inefficiencies in the economy.” The thinking is that Ecocash, which enables currency trading, is making it easier for people to dump the local currency. But here’s the thing: Ecocash, whichsaidit suspended cash-in-cash-out functions (presumably because its banking lines will be cut) is still keeping in-app payment facilities open. And it said nothing about stopping its fairly popular service allowing people to buy cryptocurrency. Not surprisingly, since the ban “demand for bitcoin has skyrocketed,” according to African crypto news site, bitcoinke, with “sources claiming bitcoin is now selling at at 18% premium above the market rate.”
OF MONEY AND MYTHS.I’m reading Stephanie Kelton’s book,“The Deficit Myth.” In a future edition of Money Reimagined, I’ll have more to say on the most influential modern monetary theory proponent’s explanation of its ideas. But for now I’ll just say that, while I’m not likely to be a convert to all its prescriptions, it seems clear that MMT is widely misunderstood by folks on both the left and the right – also, very much by the crypto industry. The latter is perhaps because people in crypto tend to skew more to themetallistschool of money, rather than tochartalism. Either way, a clearer grasp of what MMT is all about would, I believe, help improve the industry’s discussion around government, money, trust and how blockchain-based systems can integrate with the existing one.
How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed
How to place a value on bitcoin? Its data are unfamiliar territory for many investors. Nearly half of investors in a recent survey said a lack of fundamentals keeps them from participating.
In a 30-minute webinar July 7, CoinDesk Research will explore one of the first and oldest unique data points to be developed by crypto asset analysts: Bitcoin Days Destroyed.
We’ll be joined by Lucas Nuzzi, a veteran analyst and a network data expert at Coin Metrics. Lucas and CoinDesk Research will walk you through the structure of this unique financial metric and demonstrate some of its many applications.Sign up for the July 7 webinar “How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed.”
BIS Plans New Central Banking Fintech Research Hubs in Europe, North America. The Bank of International Settlements – the central bank to the world’s central banks – is getting serious about its money tech R&D centers, opening innovation hubs in Toronto, Stockholm, London, Paris and Frankfurt. A coordinated, standardized approach to developing central bank digital currencies? Danny Nelson reports.
Why the Stock-to-Flow Bitcoin Valuation Model Is Wrong. Maybe you shouldn’t be banking all your finances on a halving-driven appreciation in bitcoin this year. In this op-ed for CoinDesk, contributor Nico Cordeiro picks apart one of the most commonly cited theories for why many people expect bitcoin’s baked-in quadrennial money supply decelerations to boost its price.
DeFi’s ‘Agricultural Revolution’ Has Ethereum Users Turning to Decentralized Exchanges. DEX’s, often touted as a fairer and safer way to trade cryptocurrencies, might finally have their use case: yield farming. In the past, as Brady Dale reports, most people haven’t wanted to self-custody, preferring institutions to manage the risks of holding their keys for them. But in DeFi, where people undertake dual borrowing-and-lending schemes to make big, quick returns on incentives and high interest rates, is better if you control the keys during the trade. And decentralized exchanges are seizing the opportunity.
‘Money Printer Go Brrr’ Is How the Dollar Retains Reserve Status. Our columnist Francis Coppola is here to tell you that you don’t understand how quantitative easing works. The Fed is not on some self-destructive missione here. Inflation? Not going to happen. The dollar’s demise? On the contrary; the Fed’s monetary rescue mission is what will keep the greenback atop its throne.
Senate Banking Committee Remains Open to Idea of Digital Dollar in Tuesday’s Hearing. If you want a measure of how far things have come in terms of the acceptability of the digital dollar idea in Washington from something that a year or so ago would have been a nutty, fringe idea, read the opening paragraph to Nikhilesh De’s writeup of this hearing: “Not every U.S. lawmaker is on board with the idea of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or digital dollar, but no one explicitly rejected it during a hearing of the powerful Senate Banking Committee.”
• Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act
• Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act || Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act: Tensions between the Bitcoin and Ethereum tribes have been stirred by a trend that outsiders might see as a sign of harmony. Throughout June, the amount of tokenized bitcoin on Ethereum, the bulk of it in WBTC, a special ERC-20 token known as “wrapped bitcoin,” soared from 5,200 BTC to 11,682 BTC – now worth around $108 million – according to btconethereum.com . As is their wont, each faction described the growth of WBTC tokens, whose value is pegged one-to-one against a locked-up reserve of actual bitcoin, as proof of their coin’s superiority over the other. The Ethereum crowd said it showed that even BTC “hodlers” believe Ethereum-based applications provide a better off-chain transaction experience than platforms built on Bitcoin, such as Lightning or Blockstream’s Liquid . Bitcoiners, by contrast, took it as confirmation that people place greater value in the oldest, most valuable crypto asset, than in Ethereum’s ether token. Related: Compound's 'Yield Farmers' Briefly Turned BAT Into DeFi's Largest Coin You’re reading Money Reimagined , a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here . Beneath the rivalry on Crypto Twitter, the bitcoin-on-Ethereum trend says more about complementarity than competition. The data simultaneously highlight that bitcoin is the crypto universe’s reserve asset and that Ethereum’s burgeoning “DeFi” ecosystem is crypto’s go-to platform for generating credit and facilitating fluid exchange. Real-world parallels Though it’s too early to know who the eventual winners will be, I believe this trend captures the early beginnings of a new, decentralized global financial system. So, to describe it, an analogy for the existing one is useful: bitcoin is the dollar, and Ethereum is SWIFT, the international network that coordinates cross-border payments among banks. (Since Ethereum is trying to do much more than payments, we could also cite a number of other organizations in this analogy, such as the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) or the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) .) Story continues Related: So, let’s dismiss claims like those of Ethhub.io co-founder Anthony Sassano. He argued that because bitcoin token transactions on Ethereum deny miners fees they would otherwise receive on the bitcoin chain, bitcoin is becoming a “second-class citizen” to ether. You’d hardly expect people in countries where dollars are preferred to the local currency to think of the former as second class. And just as the U.S. benefits from overseas demand for dollars – via seignorage or interest-free loans – bitcoin holders benefit from its sought-after liquidity and collateral value in the Ethereum ecosystem, where it lets them extract premium interest. Still, to declare bitcoin the winner based on its appeal as a reserve asset is to compare apples to oranges. Ether is increasingly viewed not as a payment or store-of-value currency but for what it was intended: as a commodity that fuels the decentralized computing network orchestrating its smart contracts. That network now sustains its financial system, a decentralized microcosm of the massive traditional one. It takes tokenized versions of the underlying currencies that users most value (whether bitcoin or fiat) and provides disintermediated mechanisms for lending or borrowing them or for creating decentralized derivative or insurance contracts. What’s emerging, albeit in a form too volatile for traditional institutions, is a multifaceted, market for managing and trading in risk. This system is being fueled by a global innovation and development pool bigger than Bitcoin’s. As of June last year, there were 1,243 full-time developers working on Ethereum compared with 319 working on Bitcoin Core, according to a report by Electric Capital. While that work is spread across multiple projects, the size of its community gives Ethereum the advantage of network effects. Whether DeFi can shed its Wild West feel and mature sufficiently for mainstream adoption, the code and ideas generated by these engineers are laying the foundation for whatever regulated or unregulated blockchain-based finance models emerge in the future. Complexity vs. simplicity There are legitimate concerns about security on Ethereum. With such a complex system, and so many different programs running on it, the attack surface is large. And given the challenges the community faces in migrating to Ethereum 2.0 , including a new proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and a sharding solution for scaling transactions, it’s still not assured it will ever be ready for prime time. Indeed, the relative lack of complexity is one reason why many feel more comfortable with Bitcoin Core’s security. Bitcoin is a one-trick pony, but it does that trick – keeping track of unspent transaction outputs, or UTXOs – very well and very securely. Its proven security is a key reason why bitcoin is crypto’s reserve asset. Base-layer security is also why some developers are building “Layer 2” smart contract protocols on Bitcoin. It’s harder to build on than Ethereum, but solutions are evolving – one from Rootstock , for example, and more recently, from RGB . And while Ethereum fans crow about there being 12 times more wrapped bitcoin on their platform than the mere $9 million locked in the Lightning Network’s payment channels, the latter is making inroads in developing nations as a payment network for small, low-cost bitcoin transactions. Unlike WBTC, which requires a professional custodian to hold the original locked bitcoin, Lightning users need not rely on a third party to open up a channel. It’s arguably more decentralized. Toward anti-fragility At the same time, the inclusion of bitcoin in Ethereum smart contracts is inherently strengthening the DeFi system. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which allow peer-to-peer crypto trading without centralized exchange (CEX) taking custody of your assets, have integrated WBTC into their markets to boost the liquidity needed to make them viable. Sure enough, DEX trading volumes leapt 70% to record highs in June . (It helped, too, that June saw a surge in “yield farming” operations, a complicated new DeFi speculative activity that’s easier to do if you maintain control of your assets while trading .) Meanwhile, the recent move by leading DeFi platform MakerDAO to include WBTC in its accepted collateral has meant it has a bigger pool of value to generate loans against. This expansion in DeFi’s user base and market offerings is in itself a boost to security. That’s not just because more developers means more code vulnerabilities are discovered and fixed. It’s because the combinations of investors’ short and long positions, and of insurance and derivative products, will ultimately get closer to Nassim Taleb’s ideal of an “antifragile” system . That’s not to say there aren’t risks in DeFi. Many are worried that the frenzy around speculative activities such as “yield farming” and interconnected leverage could set off a systemic crisis. If that happens, maybe Bitcoin can offer an alternative, more stable architecture for it. Either way, ideas to improve DeFi are coming all the time – whether for better system-wide data or for a more trustworthy legal framework . Out of this hurly burly, something transformative will emerge. Whether it’s dominated by Ethereum or spread across different blockchains, the end result will show more cross-protocol synergy than the chains’ warring communities would suggest. Gold ‘To the Moon’ Bitcoin might be a reserve asset for the crypto community but its recent price trajectory, with gains and losses tracking equities, suggest the non-crypto “normies” don’t (yet) see it that way. Given the COVID-19 crisis’s extreme test of the global financial system and central banks’ massive “quantitative easing” response to it, that price performance poses a challenge to those of us who see bitcoin’s core use case as an internet era hedge against centralized monetary instability. Far from complying with that “digital gold” narrative, bitcoin has performed like any other “risk-off” asset. Meanwhile, actual gold has shaken off its own early-crisis stock market correlation to chart an upward course. While bitcoin has repeatedly failed to sustainably break through $10,000, bullion has rallied sharply to close in on $1,800, levels it hasn’t seen since September 2012. Some analysts are predicting it will breach its all-time intraday high of $1,917, hit in the aftermath of the last global financial crisis in 2011. To add insult to injury, one Forbes contributor even stole from the crypto lexicon to describe the state of play, telling his readers that gold prices are “soaring to the moon.” Two charts below show the divergent fortunes of these two would-be safe havens. Throughout 2019, bitcoin seems far less correlated with the S&P 500 stock index than gold is. Come the collapse in March 2020, they seem to swap circumstances. How to reconcile this? Time. Gold has had at least three millennia to establish itself as a store of value people turn to when social systems are in stress. Bitcoin has only existed for 11 years and while plenty of investors are willing to speculate on the possibility that it might supplant or compete with gold, the idea is far from ingrained across society. When will it be more widely accepted? Perhaps when the international crisis of global leadership unleashed by COVID-19 undermines the capacity of institutions like the Federal Reserve to sustain economic and social confidence. Whatever new institutions and systems we create going forward will need to address how the internet has upended society’s centralized systems of governance. When that happens, we’ll need a decentralized, digital reserve asset as the base value layer. As I said, it will take time. Meanwhile, the developers will keep building. Global Town Hall TRUST ME, BOND MARKET, PLEASE. James Glynn at The Wall Street Journal had a piece this week about how the Federal Reserve is considering following Australia’s lead in using “yield caps” as a policy tool to keep long-dated interest rates down. The thinking is that if the central bank explicitly signals it will always institute bond-buying if the yield on a benchmark asset such as the 10-year Treasury note rises above some predefined ceiling, the market will be less inclined to prematurely believe the Fed is going to start tightening monetary policy. In other words, we won’t see a rerun of the 2013 “Taper Tantrum,” when the U.S. bond market, worrying that the Fed would start tapering off its bond-buying, or quantitative easing, drove down bond prices, which pushed up yields. (For bond market newbies, yields, which measure the effective annual return bondholders will earn off a bond’s fixed interest rate when adjusted for its price, move inversely to price.) The yield cap policy would be new for the Fed, but it’s really an extension of an ongoing effort to do one thing: get the market to believe its intentions. The way monetary policy works these days, it’s meaningless unless the market behaves according to what the Fed wants. It’s not about what the central bank does per se; it’s about what it says and whether those words are incorporated into investor behavior. But the more it doubles down on this, the more the Fed creates situations in which it risks having its words held against it. And that puts it at risk of losing its most important currency: the public’s trust. Commitments to price targets are always especially risky – ask Norman Lamont, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had to abandon the pound’s currency peg in 1993 because the market didn’t believe the U.K. would back its promises. The Fed has unlimited power to buy bonds, but whether it always has the will to do so will depend on politics and other factors. Once it’s locked into a commitment, the stakes go up. For now, the markets – most importantly, foreign exchange markets – still trust the Fed. But, as the saying goes, trust is hard to earn, easy to lose. ZIMBABWE ACCIDENTALLY LEAVES DOOR OPEN FOR CRYPTO. Here’s a recipe for creating a fertile environment for alternative payment systems: outlaw the system that everyone is currently using. When the Zimbabwean government made the nutty step of banning digital payments – used for 85% of transactions by individuals, due to severe shortage of cash – it clearly wasn’t trying to promote bitcoin. In forcing people to go to a local bank to redeem funds locked in popular payments apps such as Ecocash, its goal was to protect the embattled Zimbabwean dollar. In a statement, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the move was “necessitated by the need to protect consumers on mobile money platforms which have been abused by unscrupulous and unpatriotic individuals and entities to create instability and inefficiencies in the economy.” The thinking is that Ecocash, which enables currency trading, is making it easier for people to dump the local currency. But here’s the thing: Ecocash, which said it suspended cash-in-cash-out functions (presumably because its banking lines will be cut) is still keeping in-app payment facilities open. And it said nothing about stopping its fairly popular service allowing people to buy cryptocurrency. Not surprisingly, since the ban “ demand for bitcoin has skyrocketed ,” according to African crypto news site, bitcoinke, with “sources claiming bitcoin is now selling at at 18% premium above the market rate.” OF MONEY AND MYTHS. I’m reading Stephanie Kelton’s book, “The Deficit Myth .” In a future edition of Money Reimagined, I’ll have more to say on the most influential modern monetary theory proponent’s explanation of its ideas. But for now I’ll just say that, while I’m not likely to be a convert to all its prescriptions, it seems clear that MMT is widely misunderstood by folks on both the left and the right – also, very much by the crypto industry. The latter is perhaps because people in crypto tend to skew more to the metallist school of money, rather than to chartalism . Either way, a clearer grasp of what MMT is all about would, I believe, help improve the industry’s discussion around government, money, trust and how blockchain-based systems can integrate with the existing one. How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed How to place a value on bitcoin? Its data are unfamiliar territory for many investors. Nearly half of investors in a recent survey said a lack of fundamentals keeps them from participating. In a 30-minute webinar July 7, CoinDesk Research will explore one of the first and oldest unique data points to be developed by crypto asset analysts: Bitcoin Days Destroyed. We’ll be joined by Lucas Nuzzi, a veteran analyst and a network data expert at Coin Metrics. Lucas and CoinDesk Research will walk you through the structure of this unique financial metric and demonstrate some of its many applications. Sign up for the July 7 webinar “ How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed .” Relevant Reads BIS Plans New Central Banking Fintech Research Hubs in Europe, North America . The Bank of International Settlements – the central bank to the world’s central banks – is getting serious about its money tech R&D centers, opening innovation hubs in Toronto, Stockholm, London, Paris and Frankfurt. A coordinated, standardized approach to developing central bank digital currencies? Danny Nelson reports. Why the Stock-to-Flow Bitcoin Valuation Model Is Wrong . Maybe you shouldn’t be banking all your finances on a halving-driven appreciation in bitcoin this year. In this op-ed for CoinDesk, contributor Nico Cordeiro picks apart one of the most commonly cited theories for why many people expect bitcoin’s baked-in quadrennial money supply decelerations to boost its price. DeFi’s ‘Agricultural Revolution’ Has Ethereum Users Turning to Decentralized Exchanges . DEX’s, often touted as a fairer and safer way to trade cryptocurrencies, might finally have their use case: yield farming. In the past, as Brady Dale reports, most people haven’t wanted to self-custody, preferring institutions to manage the risks of holding their keys for them. But in DeFi, where people undertake dual borrowing-and-lending schemes to make big, quick returns on incentives and high interest rates, is better if you control the keys during the trade. And decentralized exchanges are seizing the opportunity. ‘Money Printer Go Brrr’ Is How the Dollar Retains Reserve Status . Our columnist Francis Coppola is here to tell you that you don’t understand how quantitative easing works. The Fed is not on some self-destructive missione here. Inflation? Not going to happen. The dollar’s demise? On the contrary; the Fed’s monetary rescue mission is what will keep the greenback atop its throne. Senate Banking Committee Remains Open to Idea of Digital Dollar in Tuesday’s Hearing . If you want a measure of how far things have come in terms of the acceptability of the digital dollar idea in Washington from something that a year or so ago would have been a nutty, fringe idea, read the opening paragraph to Nikhilesh De’s writeup of this hearing: “Not every U.S. lawmaker is on board with the idea of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or digital dollar, but no one explicitly rejected it during a hearing of the powerful Senate Banking Committee.” Related Stories Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act || Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year: Cardano holders will soon be able to stake tokens securely at Coinbase Custody.
• At the Cardano Virtual Summit Friday, chief developer house IOHK announced it had signed an agreement with Coinbase Custody.
• From Q4 2020, users will be able to stake their ADA tokens from inside Coinbase’s cold storage.
• In proof-of-stake blockchains, like Cardano, blocks are verified by token holders (rather than miners as with blockchains like Bitcoin), who receive rewards in return.
• Cardano’s staking protocol, Shelley, is expected to come online later this month with staking rewards beginning in mid-August.
• Sam McIngvale, Coinbase Custody’s head of product said their regulated product would help projects, like Cardano, find more mainstream acceptance.
• Tezos inked asimilar staking agreementwith Coinbase Custody in November 2019.
• Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year
• Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year
• Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year
• Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year || Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year: Cardano holders will soon be able to stake tokens securely at Coinbase Custody. At the Cardano Virtual Summit Friday, chief developer house IOHK announced it had signed an agreement with Coinbase Custody. From Q4 2020, users will be able to stake their ADA tokens from inside Coinbase’s cold storage. In proof-of-stake blockchains, like Cardano, blocks are verified by token holders (rather than miners as with blockchains like Bitcoin), who receive rewards in return. Cardano’s staking protocol, Shelley, is expected to come online later this month with staking rewards beginning in mid-August. Sam McIngvale, Coinbase Custody’s head of product said their regulated product would help projects, like Cardano, find more mainstream acceptance. Tezos inked a similar staking agreement with Coinbase Custody in November 2019. Related Stories Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year Coinbase Custody to Support Secure Cardano Staking This Year || Bitcoins Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs: Ever since its inception, bitcoin has been dubbed digital gold, given it is durable, fungible, divisible and scarce like the precious metal. However, while gold has a strong track record of rallying in times of stress in the global equity markets, bitcoin is yet to build a similar reputation as a safe-haven asset. In fact, in recent months, the cryptocurrency has been increasingly correlated with the S&P 500, Wall Streets equity index and benchmark for global stock markets. Now, data suggests that relationship is stronger than ever, likely denting its appeal as digital gold. Related: First Mover: As Bitcoiners Watch Dollar, Deutsche Sees Trump Win Hurting Reserve Status The one-month bitcoin-S&P 500 realized correlation rose to a record high of 66.2% on June 30 and stood at 65.8% on Thursday, according to crypto derivatives research firm Skew , which began tracking the data in April 2018. While bitcoin and S&P 500 correlation is always a very good indicator of market movement, it never really maintains a consistent position. Bitcoin behaves more like a highly leveraged position and follows the market trends in a more volatile, dramatic up and down swings, said Wayne Chen, CEO and director of Interlapse Technologies, a fintech firm. The one-month metric oscillated largely in the range of -30% to 50% for 12 months before rising to record highs above 60% on June 30. The data indeed shows that bitcoins correlation with the S&P 500 is somewhat inconsistent. The one-year correlation has also risen to lifetime highs above 37%, according to Skew. One should note, though, that readings between 30% to 50% imply a relatively weak correlation between variables. Related: Bitcoin Rises in Line With Stocks After Dip Below $9K Bitcoin, by all accounts, is still a risk asset. Despite those who may tout its fundamental similarities to gold, it has not yet proven to be a sufficient hedge or a flight to safety in times of risk-off sentiment, said Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds. Story continues Risk assets are the those with fortunes tied to the state of the global economy. For instance, prices of stocks and industrial metals like copper tend to rise when the global economic growth rate is expected to pick up pace and falter during an economic slowdown. Bitcoin has more or less behaved like a risk asset this year. The cryptocurrencys price fell from $10,000 to $3,867 in the first half of March, as global equities cratered on coronavirus fears. It then rose back toward $10,000 in the following two months as the S&P 500 saw its fastest bear market recovery on record. However, being treated as a risk asset may be a blessing in disguise for bitcoin. Given that the correlation between BTC and equities is still so high, our expectation is that this is only bullish for bitcoin price in the short term, as global markets benefit from an unprecedented amount of monetary stimulus, said Dibb. Indeed, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and other major central banks are injecting massive amounts of fiat liquidity into their respective economies to counter the COVID-19 slowdown. As of last week, Feds balance sheet size was $7.01 trillion up 67% from $4.24 trillion in early March, according to data provided by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. HODLing keeps rising While bitcoin is struggling to establish itself as a haven asset, some investors remain undeterred. HODLers or long-term holders of bitcoin, as gauged by the number of addresses storing bitcoin for at least 12 months, rose to a lifetime high of 20.3 million in June. That surpassed the previous high of 19.52 million reached in May, as per IntoTheBlock , a blockchain intelligence company. With the halving just recently complete, many holders believe that Bitcoins median price should be a lot higher than the current value. This creates more of a hodl type of behaviour until the market starts building steam again, said Chen. The metric set a new record high for the 12th straight month in June. Notably, the number of holders is up 22% year-on-year, even though bitcoins price is down 25% over the same period. At press time, the cryptocurrency is trading at $9,110, having dipped to lows near $8,930 during the U.S. trading hours on Thursday. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Related Stories Bitcoins Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs Bitcoins Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs || Bitcoin’s Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs: Ever since its inception, bitcoin has been dubbed “digital gold,” given it is durable, fungible, divisible and scarce like the precious metal.
However, while gold has a strongtrack recordof rallying in times of stress in the global equity markets, bitcoin is yet to build a similar reputation as a safe-haven asset.
In fact, in recent months, the cryptocurrency has been increasingly correlated with the S&P 500, Wall Street’s equity index and benchmark for global stock markets. Now, data suggests that relationship is stronger than ever, likely denting its appeal as digital gold.
Related:First Mover: As Bitcoiners Watch Dollar, Deutsche Sees Trump Win Hurting Reserve Status
The one-month bitcoin-S&P 500 realized correlation rose to a record high of 66.2% on June 30 and stood at 65.8% on Thursday, according to crypto derivatives research firmSkew, which began tracking the data in April 2018.
“While bitcoin and S&P 500 correlation is always a very good indicator of market movement, it never really maintains a consistent position. Bitcoin behaves more like a highly leveraged position and follows the market trends in a more volatile, dramatic up and down swings,” said Wayne Chen, CEO and director of Interlapse Technologies, a fintech firm.
The one-month metric oscillated largely in the range of -30% to 50% for 12 months before rising to record highs above 60% on June 30. The data indeed shows that bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 is somewhat inconsistent.
The one-year correlation has also risen to lifetime highs above 37%, according to Skew. One should note, though, that readings between 30% to 50% imply a relatively weak correlation between variables.
Related:Bitcoin Rises in Line With Stocks After Dip Below $9K
“Bitcoin, by all accounts, is still a risk asset. Despite those who may tout its fundamental similarities to gold, it has not yet proven to be a sufficient hedge or a flight to safety in times of risk-off sentiment,” said Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds.
Risk assetsare the those with fortunes tied to the state of the global economy. For instance, prices of stocks and industrial metals like copper tend to rise when the global economic growth rate is expected to pick up pace and falter during an economic slowdown.
Bitcoin has more or less behaved like a risk asset this year. The cryptocurrency’s price fell from $10,000 to $3,867 in the first half of March, as global equities cratered on coronavirus fears. It then rose back toward $10,000 in the following two months as the S&P 500 saw its fastest bear market recovery on record.
However, being treated as a risk asset may be a blessing in disguise for bitcoin.
“Given that the correlation between BTC and equities is still so high, our expectation is that this is only bullish for bitcoin price in the short term, as global markets benefit from an unprecedented amount of monetary stimulus,” said Dibb.
Indeed, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and other major central banks are injecting massive amounts of fiat liquidity into their respective economies to counter the COVID-19 slowdown. As of last week, Fed’s balance sheet size was $7.01 trillion – up 67% from $4.24 trillion in early March,according todata provided by the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
While bitcoin is struggling to establish itself as a haven asset, some investors remain undeterred.
“HODLers” or long-term holders of bitcoin, as gauged by the number of addresses storing bitcoin for at least 12 months, rose to a lifetime high of 20.3 million in June. That surpassed the previous high of 19.52 million reached in May, as perIntoTheBlock, a blockchain intelligence company.
“With the halving just recently complete, many holders believe that Bitcoin’s median price should be a lot higher than the current value. This creates more of a hodl type of behaviour until the market starts building steam again,” said Chen.
The metric set a new record high for the 12th straight month in June. Notably, the number of holders is up 22% year-on-year, even though bitcoin’s price is down 25% over the same period.
At press time, the cryptocurrency is trading at $9,110, having dipped to lows near $8,930 during the U.S. trading hours on Thursday.
Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
• Bitcoin’s Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs
• Bitcoin’s Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs || Bitcoin’s Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs: Ever since its inception, bitcoin has been dubbed “digital gold,” given it is durable, fungible, divisible and scarce like the precious metal.
However, while gold has a strongtrack recordof rallying in times of stress in the global equity markets, bitcoin is yet to build a similar reputation as a safe-haven asset.
In fact, in recent months, the cryptocurrency has been increasingly correlated with the S&P 500, Wall Street’s equity index and benchmark for global stock markets. Now, data suggests that relationship is stronger than ever, likely denting its appeal as digital gold.
Related:First Mover: As Bitcoiners Watch Dollar, Deutsche Sees Trump Win Hurting Reserve Status
The one-month bitcoin-S&P 500 realized correlation rose to a record high of 66.2% on June 30 and stood at 65.8% on Thursday, according to crypto derivatives research firmSkew, which began tracking the data in April 2018.
“While bitcoin and S&P 500 correlation is always a very good indicator of market movement, it never really maintains a consistent position. Bitcoin behaves more like a highly leveraged position and follows the market trends in a more volatile, dramatic up and down swings,” said Wayne Chen, CEO and director of Interlapse Technologies, a fintech firm.
The one-month metric oscillated largely in the range of -30% to 50% for 12 months before rising to record highs above 60% on June 30. The data indeed shows that bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 is somewhat inconsistent.
The one-year correlation has also risen to lifetime highs above 37%, according to Skew. One should note, though, that readings between 30% to 50% imply a relatively weak correlation between variables.
Related:Bitcoin Rises in Line With Stocks After Dip Below $9K
“Bitcoin, by all accounts, is still a risk asset. Despite those who may tout its fundamental similarities to gold, it has not yet proven to be a sufficient hedge or a flight to safety in times of risk-off sentiment,” said Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds.
Risk assetsare the those with fortunes tied to the state of the global economy. For instance, prices of stocks and industrial metals like copper tend to rise when the global economic growth rate is expected to pick up pace and falter during an economic slowdown.
Bitcoin has more or less behaved like a risk asset this year. The cryptocurrency’s price fell from $10,000 to $3,867 in the first half of March, as global equities cratered on coronavirus fears. It then rose back toward $10,000 in the following two months as the S&P 500 saw its fastest bear market recovery on record.
However, being treated as a risk asset may be a blessing in disguise for bitcoin.
“Given that the correlation between BTC and equities is still so high, our expectation is that this is only bullish for bitcoin price in the short term, as global markets benefit from an unprecedented amount of monetary stimulus,” said Dibb.
Indeed, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and other major central banks are injecting massive amounts of fiat liquidity into their respective economies to counter the COVID-19 slowdown. As of last week, Fed’s balance sheet size was $7.01 trillion – up 67% from $4.24 trillion in early March,according todata provided by the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
While bitcoin is struggling to establish itself as a haven asset, some investors remain undeterred.
“HODLers” or long-term holders of bitcoin, as gauged by the number of addresses storing bitcoin for at least 12 months, rose to a lifetime high of 20.3 million in June. That surpassed the previous high of 19.52 million reached in May, as perIntoTheBlock, a blockchain intelligence company.
“With the halving just recently complete, many holders believe that Bitcoin’s median price should be a lot higher than the current value. This creates more of a hodl type of behaviour until the market starts building steam again,” said Chen.
The metric set a new record high for the 12th straight month in June. Notably, the number of holders is up 22% year-on-year, even though bitcoin’s price is down 25% over the same period.
At press time, the cryptocurrency is trading at $9,110, having dipped to lows near $8,930 during the U.S. trading hours on Thursday.
Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
• Bitcoin’s Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs
• Bitcoin’s Price Correlation With S&P 500 Hits Record Highs || The Crypto Daily – The Movers and Shakers – July 3rd, 2020: Bitcoin fell by 1.51% on Thursday. Reversing a 0.98% gain from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,100.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $9,266.2 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,322.13, Bitcoin fell to a mid-morning low $9,171.8. Steering clear of the major support levels, Bitcoin recovered to $9,260 levels before a 2 nd sell-off. The 2 nd sell-off saw Bitcoin slide to a late afternoon intraday low $8,950. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $9,133.53 and the second major support level at $9,027.17. Avoiding the 23.6% FIB of $8,900, Bitcoin recovered to $9,100 levels to limit the loss on the day. While breaking back through the second major support level, the first major support level at $9,133.53 pinned Bitcoin back. The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the recent pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Thursday. Cardano’s ADA slid by 4.03% to lead the way down. Binance Coin (-2.72%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-2.06%), Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.59%), Ethereum (-2.02%), Litecoin (-1.79%), Stellar’s Lumen (-2.48%), Tezos (-2.63%), and Tron’s TRX (-1.73%) also struggled. EOS (-0.71%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.83%) saw relatively modest losses. Monero’s XMR bucked the trend, rising by 1.19%. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Wednesday high $260.82bn before falling to a Thursday low $249.3bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $254.86bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 66.29% before falling to a Thursday low 65.63%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 65.81%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.12% to $9,110.8. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $9,083.0 before rising to a high $9,110.9. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Binance Coin (-0.02%), Ethereum (-0.11%), Litecoin (-0.05%), Monero’s XMR (-0.12%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.31%), and Tezos (-0.80%) struggled early on. It was a relatively bullish start for the rest of the majors. At the time of writing, Cardano’s ADA was up by 0.54% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall back through the $9,100 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,260.8. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Thursday’s high $9,266.2. Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level and Thursday’s high would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could test the second major resistance level at $9,421.6 before any pullback. Failure to avoid a fall back through the $9,100 pivot level could see Bitcoin struggle on the day. A fall back through to sub-$9,100 would bring the first major support level at $8,944.6 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid the second major support level at $8,789.2. The 23.6% FIB of $8,900 should limit any downside on the day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Stagnant Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rally on Soft Inventory Build American Airlines Takes Leap Of Faith With Increased Capacity Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Prices Retreat from Highs Ahead of Long Holiday Weekend USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Resistance At The 20 EMA Stays Strong USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Continues to Grind Sideways || The Crypto Daily – The Movers and Shakers – July 3rd, 2020: Bitcoin fell by 1.51% on Thursday. Reversing a 0.98% gain from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,100.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $9,266.2 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,322.13, Bitcoin fell to a mid-morning low $9,171.8. Steering clear of the major support levels, Bitcoin recovered to $9,260 levels before a 2 nd sell-off. The 2 nd sell-off saw Bitcoin slide to a late afternoon intraday low $8,950. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $9,133.53 and the second major support level at $9,027.17. Avoiding the 23.6% FIB of $8,900, Bitcoin recovered to $9,100 levels to limit the loss on the day. While breaking back through the second major support level, the first major support level at $9,133.53 pinned Bitcoin back. The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the recent pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Thursday. Cardano’s ADA slid by 4.03% to lead the way down. Binance Coin (-2.72%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-2.06%), Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.59%), Ethereum (-2.02%), Litecoin (-1.79%), Stellar’s Lumen (-2.48%), Tezos (-2.63%), and Tron’s TRX (-1.73%) also struggled. EOS (-0.71%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.83%) saw relatively modest losses. Monero’s XMR bucked the trend, rising by 1.19%. Through the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Wednesday high $260.82bn before falling to a Thursday low $249.3bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $254.86bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 66.29% before falling to a Thursday low 65.63%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 65.81%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.12% to $9,110.8. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $9,083.0 before rising to a high $9,110.9. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Binance Coin (-0.02%), Ethereum (-0.11%), Litecoin (-0.05%), Monero’s XMR (-0.12%), Stellar’s Lumen (-0.31%), and Tezos (-0.80%) struggled early on. It was a relatively bullish start for the rest of the majors. At the time of writing, Cardano’s ADA was up by 0.54% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall back through the $9,100 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,260.8. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Thursday’s high $9,266.2. Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level and Thursday’s high would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could test the second major resistance level at $9,421.6 before any pullback. Failure to avoid a fall back through the $9,100 pivot level could see Bitcoin struggle on the day. A fall back through to sub-$9,100 would bring the first major support level at $8,944.6 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid the second major support level at $8,789.2. The 23.6% FIB of $8,900 should limit any downside on the day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Stagnant Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rally on Soft Inventory Build American Airlines Takes Leap Of Faith With Increased Capacity Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Prices Retreat from Highs Ahead of Long Holiday Weekend USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Resistance At The 20 EMA Stays Strong USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Continues to Grind Sideways || There Are More DAI on Compound Now Than There Are DAI in the World: We might be entering into the era of genetically modified yield farming. Or maybe decentralized finance (DeFi) just doesn’t make sense anymore.
There are currently far more DAI in supply on Compound than there are DAI in the world, at least according to the numbers reported byCompound’s website. Assuming that nothing has gone awry there, the numbers seem impossible. But they might not be.
Liquidity on Compound is shifting dramatically between assetsas new rules for distributionof its governance token, COMP, take effect.
Related:Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act
Compound’s website reports a gross supply of 401 million DAI right now even though there are only 148 million DAI in existence, according toDAI Stats.
The supply of DAI on Compound has skyrocketed from$42 million Wednesday.
The most reasonable explanation for this is that Compound counts each deposit of DAI as additional gross supply, even if that DAI was just borrowed and re-deposited. So imagine there were 100 DAI and a user deposited 200 USDC. They could then borrow all that DAI and deposit again. Many users are probably running a few wallets to make this work more easily.
As Electric Capital’s Ken Deeter put it in an email to CoinDesk, “Note that this is actually what banks do with USD as well. If I deposit $100, and $90 gets lent out, someone gets paid with that $90 and they deposit it in the bank. Now there’s $190 in the bank even though there was only $100 to start with.”
Related:DeFi Insurer Nexus Mutual Maxed Out by Yield-Farming Boom
At about 21:00 UTC on Thursday, Instadapp put out the message that it wastime to move depositsfrom USDT to DAI in order to maximize yields and it seems like users took note.
As we previously reported, the addition of COMP yields makes thesemachinations very lucrative.
The price of COMP is $178.80, as of this writing.
A rules change went into effect Thursday that tweaked the incentives for those looking to mine new COMP.
Previously, the rules had favored the basic attention token (BAT) market because it had the highest interest rates after massive deposits into its liquidity pools. The rules now only count total borrowed and total deposit, ignoring interest rates. So there’s no longer incentive to game a high rate with a risky cryptocurrency.
The total supply to Compound has gonefrom $320to roughly $80, though yields on BAT remain strong, at 5.4%.
Read more:Compound Changes COMP Distribution Rules Following ‘Yield Farming’ Frenzy
At 7%, DAI has by far the strongest yield of any token on Compound right now, making it attractive to buy on the market and supply. With Tuesday’s change to the protocol – which went into effect today – all that counts for COMP earnings going forward are the total amount borrowed and lent.
Yield farmers will look for the best risk-adjusted return and since DAI has the highest yield with low volatility, it’s a very clear bet.
This was exactly what the MakerDAO community was worried about earlier this week. Cyrus Younessi, from MakerDAO’s risk team, wrote:
“There is a chance (likelihood, even) that we see an unprecedented demand for Dai. Much of the natural supply for Dai could also be locked up in COMP farming, thinning out sell-side order books.”
As forum user “Maker Man”put it todayin the MakerDAO chat, “Remember this whole COMP thing is a recycling issue – this is not necessarily draining DAI liquidity though it will tend to drive a siphon of it if it continues.”
UPDATE (July 3, 01:37 UTC):This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Compound reports more up-to-date figures on its main markets page than on individual token pages. CoinDesk reported in part from the latter, but has updated to the correct amounts.
• There Are More DAI on Compound Now Than There Are DAI in the World
• There Are More DAI on Compound Now Than There Are DAI in the World
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
|
9375.47, 9252.28, 9428.33, 9277.97, 9278.81, 9240.35, 9276.50, 9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 255.49, 253.18, 245.02, 243.68, 236.07, 236.55, 236.15, 224.59, 219.16, 223.83, 228.57, 222.88, 223.36, 222.60, 224.63, 235.27, 234.18, 236.46, 231.27, 226.39, 219.43, 229.29, 225.85, 225.81, 236.15, 232.08, 234.93, 240.36, 239.02, 236.12, 229.78, 237.33, 243.86, 241.83, 240.30, 242.16, 241.11, 236.38, 236.93, 237.60, 236.15, 236.80, 233.13, 231.95, 234.02, 235.34, 240.35, 238.87, 240.95, 237.11, 237.12, 237.28, 237.41, 237.10, 233.35, 230.19, 222.93, 225.80, 225.87, 224.32, 224.95, 225.62, 222.88, 228.49, 229.05, 228.80, 229.71, 229.98, 232.40, 233.54, 236.82, 250.90, 249.28, 249.01, 244.61, 245.21, 243.94, 246.99, 244.30, 240.51, 242.80, 243.59, 250.99, 249.01, 257.06, 263.07, 258.62, 255.41, 256.34, 260.89.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-07-04]
Volume: 15620400, RSI (14-day): 65.99, 50-day EMA: 242.99, 200-day EMA: 253.75
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
The thrilling life of a Kleiner Perkins fellow, where you go to sailboat parties and hear presentations by Silicon Valleys power players: 994866_586226841415626_1124324708_n (Kleiner Perkins) The KPCB fellows on a boat in San Francisco Bay. Roneil Rumburg, 22, is one of the youngest partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the iconic Silicon Valley VC firm founded in 1972. He joined the firm in April 2015, and now runs the Edge Fund, a seed-stage fund focused on emerging technologies like drones and virtual reality. But for Rumburg, a Stanford computer science grad, being a full-time VC was never part of his career plan, until just recently. If you had asked me 6 months ago if I would be here right now, I would have never guessed, Rumburg told Business Insider. So how did he get there? Rumburg took a rather uncommon, roundabout path which involved founding a not-so-successful bitcoin startup along the way. But he says a big reason for it is KPCB's summer fellowship program he took two years ago, where he was able to get his feet wet in the tech startup world and build strong relationships with KPCBs management team. My pre-existing relationship with Kleiner made it a lot easier for me to fit into this role, Rumburg said. The KPCB fellowship program gives college students a chance to intern at one of its portfolio companies, while providing a string of exclusive events and unfettered access to the firms leadership team. Its also one of the countrys most competitive fellowship/internship programs to get into: Only 84 fellows out of roughly 2,500 applicants were accepted this year. KPCB's fellowship isn't intended to nurture the next VCs of the world Rumburgs case is a rare one, as the program is designed for students pursuing careers in engineering, design, or product management. But in any case, the value of the program is clear: a unique opportunity to experience Silicon Valley's thriving tech culture and learn from some of the most powerful tech leaders in the world. Not just an internship Being a KPCB fellow doesnt mean you get to work at the firm. Instead, you become an intern at one of Kleiners portfolio companies, such as Uber, Flipboard, or Square (Slack will also be available from next year). Story continues The best part about it is all the exclusive events you get invited to. KPCB puts together a long-list of events only offered to the fellows throughout the three month program, such as a special dinner with its general partner John Doerr or a presentation by Nest cofounder Matt Rogers. There are also weekend excursions to a nearby island or kayak trips. "We probably had 2-3 events a week, and a weekend event which tended to be the fun, sailing trips. During the week, we'd visit Kleiner portfolio companies or go to dinners with partners like Mike Abbott," Rumburg said. The fellowship also helps KPCB's own portfolio companies. By putting the KPCB brand behind it, the fellowship program can help recruit some of the country's most talented students for startups that may not necessarily have the brand recognition of its bigger competitors. "If you're a student deciding between Google versus one of our portfolio companies, it's not that comparison anymore. It's Google versus KPCB's fellowship program," KPCB's partner Andy Chen, who leads the fellowship program told us. How to get in RRumburgHighRes (Kleiner Perkins) Roneil Rumburg was a 2013 fellow, and now runs the Edge Fund at KPCB. The fellowship offers three different tracks: engineering, design, or product management. Depending on which program you apply for, you get asked a different set of questions. Rumburg, who was an engineering fellow, said the application process was pretty standard with some questions about an engineering problem. Chen said product management fellows have to upload a video explaining a product that they like. Once you get past the first round, you do a more technical interview with a team leader of a KPCB portfolio company. Those who make it past this second round are the finalists, which usually amount to about 100 people, Chen told us. The finalists are then given a choice to pick from five Kleiner portfolio companies they'd like to work for. They go through a round of interview with each of those companies, and only the ones given an offer from them get into the fellowship program. The fellows don't get paid by KPCB, but the companies they end up interning at. That means the terms of compensation differ for each fellow depending on who they work for. In most cases, KPCB says they're individually negotiated. John Doerr (Michael Seto/Business Insider) Kleiner Perkins General Partner John Doerr Meeting John Doerr and Mary Meeker John Doerr and Mary Meeker, two of the most powerful KPCB partners, also make sure they get connected to the fellows. Doerr, for example, does an intimate Q&A session over dinner with the fellows, where he answers all kinds of questions, from investment and stock tips to even some personal ones. "He puts all the questions on the board and answers them one-by-one, all 84 fellows," Chen says. Meeker also gives a special presentation of her famous "Internet Trends" report, and spends hours afterwards to answer questions individually. "She stayed past 10PM just chatting with us. Getting her kind of off the record and hearing the unfiltered stuff, that was really cool," Rumburg said. Other presenters include Uber's Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden, Facebook's VP of Product Chris Cox, and Flipboard's VP of Design Marcos Weskamp. Star CEOs like Slack's Stewart Butterfield and Sportify's Daniel Ek were also available during this year's welcome reception. "One of the big things I took away from the fellowship was it kind of humanized all of these people you read and hear about," Rumburg says. "It was kind of surreal to be there, chatting with Mary Meeker, but she's actually just a super normal person." Stephanie He, a Princeton computer science grad, who interned at Square as part of the fellowship program last year, echoed the same sentiment. "People like John Doerr can seem intimidating at first, because theyre legendary in Silicon Valley, but theyre all very accessible, engaging with the fellows," she tells us. Life after the fellowship AChenHighRes (Kleiner Perkins) KPCB partner Andy Chen runs the fellowship program Rumburg, the KPCB partner, was an engineering intern at a cloud infrastructure startup called Nebula during his fellowship in 2013. Although Nebula went out of business earlier this year, Rumburg says the whole fellowship experience was so inspiring that it convinced him to finish college a year early and start his own Bitcoin startup called Backslash. Backslash didn't pan out the way he'd expected, but Rumberg's experience as an engineer and founder led KPCB to reach out to him with a VC position. "Roneil [Rumburg] was part of the program, and he kept in close touch with the team here, and that relationship enabled him to bounce into Edge," Chen says. "The Edge Fund team immediately thought of Roneil because they had that long-standing relationship." For Stephanie He, the 2014 fellow who interned at Square, it was about getting that startup experience and gaining the confidence to join a young company. She will start working at an early stage startup called Flux Factory this year. "I never had a chance to work at a startup before KPCB. If youre interested in exploring startups, then I highly recommend the fellowship program." Chen says 90% of the fellows end up receiving job offers from the companies they interned at. In some cases, like Rumberg, the fellows go on to become VCs or even launch their own startup. If you want to have the best bang for the buck, where you can meet the best people, work at the best company, and have the best experience, I think the fellowship program offers all of that, Chen said. NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants More From Business Insider Microsoft has a strange new mission statement 11 impossible tech interview questions you don't want to be asked How Mark Zuckerberg helps his friend, the CEO of $10 billion Dropbox || The thrilling life of a Kleiner Perkins fellow, where you go to sailboat parties and hear presentations by Silicon Valley’s power players: (Kleiner Perkins)The KPCB fellows on a boat in San Francisco Bay.Roneil Rumburg, 22, is one of the youngest partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the iconic Silicon Valley VC firm founded in 1972.
He joined the firm in April 2015, and now runs the Edge Fund, a seed-stage fund focused on emerging technologies like drones and virtual reality.
But for Rumburg, a Stanford computer science grad, being a full-time VC was never part of his career plan, until just recently.
“If you had asked me 6 months ago if I would be here right now, I would have never guessed,” Rumburg told Business Insider.
So how did he get there? Rumburg took a rather uncommon, roundabout path — which involved founding a not-so-successful bitcoin startup along the way. But he says a big reason for it is KPCB's summer fellowship program he took two years ago, where he was able to get his feet wet in the tech startup world and build strong relationships with KPCB’s management team.
“My pre-existing relationship with Kleiner made it a lot easier for me to fit into this role,” Rumburg said.
The KPCB fellowship program gives college students a chance to intern at one of its portfolio companies, while providing a string of exclusive events and unfettered access to the firm’s leadership team. It’s also one of the country’s most competitive fellowship/internship programs to get into: Only 84 fellows out of roughly 2,500 applicants were accepted this year.
KPCB's fellowship isn't intended to nurture the next VCs of the world — Rumburg’s case is a rare one, as the program is designed for students pursuing careers in engineering, design, or product management. But in any case, the value of the program is clear: a unique opportunity to experience Silicon Valley's thriving tech cultureand learn from some of the most powerful tech leaders in the world.
Being a KPCB fellow doesn’t mean you get to work at the firm.
Instead, you become an intern at one of Kleiner’s portfolio companies, such as Uber, Flipboard, or Square (Slack will also be available from next year).
The best part about it is all the exclusive events you get invited to. KPCB puts together a long-list of events — only offered to the fellows — throughout the three month program, such as a special dinner with its general partner John Doerr or a presentation by Nest cofounder Matt Rogers. There are also weekend excursions to a nearby island or kayak trips.
"We probably had 2-3 events a week, and a weekend event which tended to be the fun, sailing trips. During the week, we'd visit Kleiner portfolio companies or go to dinners with partners like Mike Abbott," Rumburg said.
The fellowship also helps KPCB's own portfolio companies. By putting the KPCB brand behind it, the fellowship program can help recruit some of the country's most talented students for startups that may not necessarily have the brand recognition of its bigger competitors.
"If you're a student deciding between Google versus one of our portfolio companies, it's not that comparison anymore. It's Google versus KPCB's fellowship program," KPCB's partner Andy Chen, who leads the fellowship program told us.
(Kleiner Perkins)Roneil Rumburg was a 2013 fellow, and now runs the Edge Fund at KPCB.
The fellowship offers three different tracks: engineering, design, or product management. Depending on which program you apply for, you get asked a different set of questions.
Rumburg, who was an engineering fellow, said the application process was pretty standard with some questions about an engineering problem. Chen said product management fellows have to upload a video explaining a product that they like.
Once you get past the first round, you do a more technical interview with a team leader of a KPCB portfolio company. Those who make it past this second round are the finalists, which usually amount to about 100 people, Chen told us.
The finalists are then given a choice to pick from five Kleiner portfolio companies they'd like to work for. They go through a round of interview with each of those companies, and only the ones given an offer from them get into the fellowship program.
The fellows don't get paid by KPCB, but the companies they end up interning at.That means the terms of compensation differ for each fellow depending on who they work for. In most cases, KPCB says they're individually negotiated.
(Michael Seto/Business Insider)Kleiner Perkins General Partner John Doerr
John Doerr and Mary Meeker, two of the most powerful KPCB partners, also make sure they get connected to the fellows.
Doerr, for example, does an intimate Q&A session over dinner with the fellows, where he answers all kinds of questions,from investment and stock tips to even some personal ones. "He puts all the questions on the board and answers them one-by-one, all 84 fellows," Chen says.
Meeker also gives a special presentation of her famous "Internet Trends" report, and spends hours afterwards to answer questions individually. "She stayed past 10PM just chatting with us. Getting her kind of off the record and hearing the unfiltered stuff, that was really cool," Rumburg said.
Other presenters include Uber's Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden, Facebook's VP of Product Chris Cox, and Flipboard's VP of Design Marcos Weskamp. Star CEOs like Slack's Stewart Butterfield and Sportify's Daniel Ek were also available during this year's welcome reception.
"One of the big things I took away from the fellowship was it kind of humanized all of these people you read and hear about," Rumburg says. "It was kind of surreal to be there, chatting with Mary Meeker, but she's actually just a super normal person."
Stephanie He, a Princeton computer science grad, who interned at Square as part of the fellowship program last year, echoed the same sentiment. "People like John Doerr can seem intimidating at first, because they’re legendary in Silicon Valley, but they’re all very accessible, engaging with the fellows," she tells us.
(Kleiner Perkins)KPCB partner Andy Chen runs the fellowship program
Rumburg, the KPCB partner, was an engineering intern at a cloud infrastructure startup called Nebula during his fellowship in 2013.
Although Nebulawent out of businessearlier this year, Rumburg says the whole fellowship experience was so inspiring that it convinced him to finish college a year early and start his own Bitcoin startup called Backslash.
Backslash didn't pan out the way he'd expected, but Rumberg's experience as an engineer and founder led KPCB to reach out to him with a VC position.
"Roneil [Rumburg] was part of the program, and he kept in close touch with the team here, and that relationship enabled him to bounce into Edge," Chen says. "The Edge Fund team immediately thought of Roneil because they had that long-standing relationship."
For Stephanie He, the 2014 fellow who interned at Square, it was about getting that startup experience and gaining the confidence to join a young company. She will start working at an early stage startup called Flux Factory this year.
"I never had a chance to work at a startup before KPCB. If you’re interested in exploring startups, then I highly recommend the fellowship program."
Chen says 90% of the fellows end up receiving job offers from the companies they interned at. In some cases, like Rumberg, the fellows go on to become VCs or even launch their own startup.
“If you want to have the best bang for the buck, where you can meet the best people, work at the best company, and have the best experience, I think the fellowship program offers all of that,” Chen said.
NOW WATCH:Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants
More From Business Insider
• Microsoft has a strange new mission statement
• 11 impossible tech interview questions you don't want to be asked
• How Mark Zuckerberg helps his friend, the CEO of $10 billion Dropbox || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly
LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin.
Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen.
New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros.
Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country.
"When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association.
"There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move."
But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely.
"A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe."
VOLATILE CURRENCY
That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile.
It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014.
This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917.
Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent.
Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal.
It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average.
On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens.
There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones.
But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday.
"Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest."
(Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || Best And Worst ETFs Of The Week Amid Independence Day Celebration: The holiday shortened week came to a close on light volume and unenthusiastic price action. Sellers managed to push theSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSE:SPY) over 1 percent lower this week, as Greek default worries led to marked declines in broad-based exchange-traded funds. Nevertheless, hope remains that this embattled nation will come to a truce with its creditors to restore fiscal order in the European continent.
The end of the quarter and mid-point of 2015 served as a reminder that very little progress has been made so far this year. TheSPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF(NYSE:DIA) is trading near the flat line, while theiShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF)(NYSE:IWM) notched the strongest gain of all the major indices with a total year-to-date return of 4.68 percent through June 30.
Related Link:Bitcoin: The Best Currency For Greece And Other Debt-Ridden Countries?
The following ETFs represent a sample of the best- and worst-performing funds over the last five trading sessions.
BEST: Volatility Futures
On Monday, SPY experienced its largest single day decline of 2015 with a drop of more than 2 percent. This sent volatility futures flying higher as traders scrambled to hedge their positions with options. TheiPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures TM ETN(NYSE:VXX) gained 15 percent this week after recent falling near its lows of the year.
This exchange-traded note is the largest dedicated VIX futures fund, with over $1 billion in total assets. VXX is designed to capitalize on swings in investor fear. Heightened selling and uncertainty in the market generally leads to a spike in the CBOE VIX Volatility Index.
WORST: Greek Stocks
The catalyst for a jump in VXX was spurred by headlines that Greece would be unable to meet an IMF debt repayment deadline and hadclosed the Athens Stock Exchange. This news led to a steep weekly decline of 10 percent in the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (Global X Funds(NYSE:GREK)).
GREK tracks the 20 largest stocks on the Athens Stock Exchange, and prior to this announcement, had been taking in atremendous waveof new assets, as global investors bet on a turn around. While GREK did manage to claw back some of its hefty losses this week, the fund remains a question mark for investors until the Greek stock market reopens and prices can adjust accordingly.
Image Credit:Public Domain
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© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Best And Worst ETFs Of The Week Amid Independence Day Celebration: The holiday shortened week came to a close on light volume and unenthusiastic price action. Sellers managed to push the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY ) over 1 percent lower this week, as Greek default worries led to marked declines in broad-based exchange-traded funds. Nevertheless, hope remains that this embattled nation will come to a truce with its creditors to restore fiscal order in the European continent. The end of the quarter and mid-point of 2015 served as a reminder that very little progress has been made so far this year. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE: DIA ) is trading near the flat line, while the iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF) (NYSE: IWM ) notched the strongest gain of all the major indices with a total year-to-date return of 4.68 percent through June 30. Related Link: Bitcoin: The Best Currency For Greece And Other Debt-Ridden Countries? The following ETFs represent a sample of the best- and worst-performing funds over the last five trading sessions. BEST: Volatility Futures On Monday, SPY experienced its largest single day decline of 2015 with a drop of more than 2 percent. This sent volatility futures flying higher as traders scrambled to hedge their positions with options. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures TM ETN (NYSE: VXX ) gained 15 percent this week after recent falling near its lows of the year. This exchange-traded note is the largest dedicated VIX futures fund, with over $1 billion in total assets. VXX is designed to capitalize on swings in investor fear. Heightened selling and uncertainty in the market generally leads to a spike in the CBOE VIX Volatility Index. WORST: Greek Stocks The catalyst for a jump in VXX was spurred by headlines that Greece would be unable to meet an IMF debt repayment deadline and had closed the Athens Stock Exchange . This news led to a steep weekly decline of 10 percent in the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF ( Global X Funds (NYSE: GREK )). GREK tracks the 20 largest stocks on the Athens Stock Exchange, and prior to this announcement, had been taking in a tremendous wave of new assets, as global investors bet on a turn around. While GREK did manage to claw back some of its hefty losses this week, the fund remains a question mark for investors until the Greek stock market reopens and prices can adjust accordingly. Story continues Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Home Construction, Treasury And Automobile ETFs To Watch This Week Best And Worst ETFs Of The Week Amid Agriculture Rally 3 Core ETFs For Growth Investors © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Peak Venture Group Adopts the BitShares Network: Peak Venture Group has announced the adoption of the BitShares 2.0 platform to integrate into their existing business LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2015 / " We're always looking for game-changing opportunities," smiled Steve Tiffany, CEO of Peak Venture Group. "BitShares has the potential to supercharge most of our existing businesses and revolutionize everything about how we start new ones." The Las Vegas based startup incubator has big ambitions that leverage remarkable synergies in the crypto currency, ATMs, remittance, video gaming, and network marketing industries. "BitShares turns out to be the missing catalyst needed to stimulate viral growth across our whole portfolio," said Tiffany. Mr. Tiffany went on to discuss his reasoning for the adoption. "Our original killer concept was to bring together a network of merchants and affiliate marketers by helping them to connect with each other in a double-sided marketplace. Merchants are always looking for ways to sell their products and affiliates are always looking for lucrative new things to sell. We put together a system that helps them find each other. We already have over 17,000 members on our video game site and 8500 marketers in our affiliate system the first year. Whoosh!" "Then one of those affiliates introduced us to BitShares," said Tiffany, shaking his head. "I thought it was just going to be a way to maybe make commission payments within our network a bit more automatic and trust-free. But after talking with BitShares Founder Dan Larimer, I realized his brainchild was going to change everything we do!" "What exactly is it that we do?" "We provide specialized training for an affiliate marketing force and broker connections to all kinds of products they'll find easy to sell. Then we go looking for startup companies with ideas worth investing in, and hand them a marketing outlet on a silver platter! Most startups focus on their products and services, leaving marketing as an afterthought. We deliberately invest knowing that we can add a powerful engine for customer acquisition on Day One. We look for startups that fit into that model, and then harness our marketing horsepower to their front end." Story continues "Take for instance the market we put together for the gaming industry," he said. "And I'm not talking gambling or anything like that. When we say gaming, we're referring to the video game community. One aspect I'm talking about is the Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) - video games in which a very large number of players interact within a virtual game realm. It's a $65B industry world wide!" "We created two symbiotic companies. Our gaming eCommerce store is one-stop shop for everything to do with video games, including ACME laser swords, valuable game items, rare related merchandise, gold, you name it. Then our affiliate program teaches gamers how to do their own viral network marketing of everything that we sell while preserving the gaming atmosphere for our affiliates to keep the fun intact. We motivate the industry's most passionate expert gamers to become its most productive marketers. They wind up building their own game and financial empire at the same time! And we do so by seamlessly integrating real world and game world currencies and empires." "You can see how this led us naturally to crypto currencies, and ultimately to BitShares," he traced a finger from dot to dot, as if the connection was obvious. Tiffany further explained, We needed a way to seamlessly transition real world currencies like dollars and euros and the unique digital currencies used inside many of the games we offer at the gaming site. I figured we could integrate a crypto currency wallet somehow and use that currency as the common denominator and a way to automatically pay affiliate commissions. But BitShares gave us a complete decentralized currency exchange network right out of the box. It even had built-in smart contracts to help automate our affiliate program. This helps us make sure every affiliate gets paid automatically for every transaction made by any member of her integrated game and financial empire. And BitShares can keep up with gaming speeds - Its average transaction time is about a second compared to, say, Bitcoin where it can take the better part of an hour to confirm a transaction. Gamers can't wait that long to get more ammo for their hypersonic reciprocating transmorgifyer when they are pinned down and really, really need it! No other cryptocurrency had all that. It completely changed how we now think about all of our start-ups." He then said, "We plan to use the same model to integrate the crypto universe," he waved as if it were a done deal. "Our Chief of Acquisitions and Visionary Officer, Justin LaFountain, has been spearheading a whole new crypto currency venture maybe even bigger than gaming. Its flagship website will soon debut as a one-stop education and shopping site for everything about crypto. The ultimate goal is to introduce new arrivals to the freedoms of the crypto universe and help spread that freedom across its physical and virtual counterparts. We hope that will lead to many loyal customers." "Originally, we thought crypto-evangelism meant teaching people about Bitcoin, how to get and use crypto currencies, wallets, mining support, and understanding the leading exchanges. But by integrating the industrial grade BitShares Exchange Network directly onto our web sites, there's much more value we can add." After a series of annoucements over summer of 2015, BitShares now has a network of complementary partners like CCEDK.com, BANX.io, Cryptonomex.com making the fusion of all our crypto-savvy products and services available to each other's customers. Transparently interoperable markets and freely interacting customers will exponentially magnify our combined network effect. When asked about what it all means in the end for Peak Venture Group , Steve broke it down to what reqally matters to his company. "Bottom line, our competitive edge as a startup incubator was to integrate affiliate marketing into every one of them. BitShares' smart contract services, financial products, and internal affiliate program will greatly amplify that. It all works together to turn existing customers into affiliate marketers and existing affiliate marketers into uber-productive affiliate mentors." Clearly inspiring himself, his gaze drifted off to the horizon, "Peak Ventures Group can leverage these same BitShares Exchange Network relationships to supercharge every Group of new Ventures we Peak!" Contact Peak Venture Group: Justin LaFountain 763-202-4305 [email protected] 101 Convention Center Drive. S 700 Las Vegas, NV 89109 SOURCE: Peak Venture Group || Peak Venture Group Adopts the BitShares Network: Peak Venture Group has announced the adoption of the BitShares 2.0 platform to integrate into their existing business
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2015 / "We're always looking for game-changing opportunities," smiled Steve Tiffany, CEO of Peak Venture Group. "BitShares has the potential to supercharge most of our existing businesses and revolutionize everything about how we start new ones."
The Las Vegas based startup incubator has big ambitions that leverage remarkable synergies in the crypto currency, ATMs, remittance, video gaming, and network marketing industries. "BitShares turns out to be the missing catalyst needed to stimulate viral growth across our whole portfolio," said Tiffany.
Mr. Tiffany went on to discuss his reasoning for the adoption.
"Our original killer concept was to bring together a network of merchants and affiliate marketers by helping them to connect with each other in a double-sided marketplace. Merchants are always looking for ways to sell their products and affiliates are always looking for lucrative new things to sell. We put together a system that helps them find each other. We already have over 17,000 members on our video game site and 8500 marketers in our affiliate system the first year. Whoosh!"
"Then one of those affiliates introduced us to BitShares," said Tiffany, shaking his head. "I thought it was just going to be a way to maybe make commission payments within our network a bit more automatic and trust-free. But after talking with BitShares Founder Dan Larimer, I realized his brainchild was going to change everything we do!"
"What exactly is it that we do?"
"We provide specialized training for an affiliate marketing force and broker connections to all kinds of products they'll find easy to sell. Then we go looking for startup companies with ideas worth investing in, and hand them a marketing outlet on a silver platter! Most startups focus on their products and services, leaving marketing as an afterthought. We deliberately invest knowing that we can add a powerful engine for customer acquisition on Day One. We look for startups that fit into that model, and then harness our marketing horsepower to their front end."
"Take for instance the market we put together for the gaming industry," he said. "And I'm not talking gambling or anything like that. When we say gaming, we're referring to the video game community. One aspect I'm talking about is the Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) - video games in which a very large number of players interact within a virtual game realm. It's a $65B industry world wide!"
"We created two symbiotic companies. Our gaming eCommerce store is one-stop shop for everything to do with video games, including ACME laser swords, valuable game items, rare related merchandise, gold, you name it. Then our affiliate program teaches gamers how to do their own viral network marketing of everything that we sell while preserving the gaming atmosphere for our affiliates to keep the fun intact. We motivate the industry's most passionate expert gamers to become its most productive marketers. They wind up building their own game and financial empire at the same time! And we do so by seamlessly integrating real world and game world currencies and empires."
"You can see how this led us naturally to crypto currencies, and ultimately to BitShares," he traced a finger from dot to dot, as if the connection was obvious.
Tiffany further explained, We needed a way to seamlessly transition real world currencies like dollars and euros and the unique digital currencies used inside many of the games we offer at the gaming site. I figured we could integrate a crypto currency wallet somehow and use that currency as the common denominator and a way to automatically pay affiliate commissions.
But BitShares gave us a completedecentralized currency exchange networkright out of the box. It even had built-in smart contracts to help automate our affiliate program. This helps us make sure every affiliate gets paid automatically for every transaction made by any member of her integrated game and financial empire. And BitShares can keep up with gaming speeds - Its average transaction time is about a second compared to, say, Bitcoin where it can take the better part of an hour to confirm a transaction. Gamers can't wait that long to get more ammo for their hypersonic reciprocating transmorgifyer when they are pinned down and really, really need it!
No other cryptocurrency had all that. It completely changed how we now think about all of our start-ups."
He then said, "We plan to use the same model to integrate the crypto universe," he waved as if it were a done deal. "Our Chief of Acquisitions and Visionary Officer, Justin LaFountain, has been spearheading a whole new crypto currency venture maybe even bigger than gaming. Its flagship website will soon debut as a one-stop education and shopping site for everything about crypto. The ultimate goal is to introduce new arrivals to the freedoms of the crypto universe and help spread that freedom across its physical and virtual counterparts. We hope that will lead to many loyal customers."
"Originally, we thought crypto-evangelism meant teaching people about Bitcoin, how to get and use crypto currencies, wallets, mining support, and understanding the leading exchanges. But by integrating the industrial grade BitShares Exchange Network directly onto our web sites, there's much more value we can add."
After a series of annoucements over summer of 2015,BitShares now has a network of complementary partners like CCEDK.com, BANX.io, Cryptonomex.commaking the fusion of all our crypto-savvy products and services available to each other's customers. Transparently interoperable markets and freely interacting customers will exponentially magnify our combined network effect.
When asked about what it all means in the end forPeak Venture Group, Steve broke it down to what reqally matters to his company.
"Bottom line, our competitive edge as a startup incubator was to integrate affiliate marketing into every one of them. BitShares' smart contract services, financial products, and internal affiliate program will greatly amplify that. It all works together to turn existing customers into affiliate marketers and existing affiliate marketers into uber-productive affiliate mentors."
Clearly inspiring himself, his gaze drifted off to the horizon, "Peak Ventures Group can leverage these same BitShares Exchange Network relationships to supercharge every Group of new Ventures we Peak!"
Contact Peak Venture Group:
Justin [email protected] Convention Center Drive. S 700 Las Vegas, NV 89109
SOURCE:Peak Venture Group || Big banks spending even more than VCs on future of finance: Financial technology startups are hot, red hot. The group raised almost $3 billion in the first quarter, according to CB Insights. And over the past 12 months, investors have poured almost $14 billion into 824 financings in the sector -- that's more deals than companies in sexier areas like cybersecurity and home automation completed. The fintech upstarts are challenging the status quo in seemingly every aspect of the financial markets, from banking and bill paying to asset management and payments processing. They're even venturing beyond the current system into areas like digital currency Bitcoin and equity crowdfunding. But the big banks aren't standing still. The establishment plans to spend $16.6 billion on its own set of digital initiatives this year, according to a report from IDC . So-called digital transformation spending still makes up less than one-quarter of all retail bank IT spending but is growing at about three times the rate of overall spending, IDC says. Big banks still have nearly all the customers -- as well as their cash -- right now, but the economy is changing quickly in ways that benefit the upstarts. Increasingly, online and mobile consumers don't have the same preferences that they used to. Only 23% of U.S. adults still use physical branches as their primary means of banking, while 51% prefer online or mobile, according to a recent survey sponsored by Bank of America ( BAC ). And while only 5% have made mobile payments with their phone, another 29% say they are interested. [ Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App ] The many upstarts are also able to focus on improving discrete parts of the banking experience. CB Insights counts 20 different significant companies trying to crack the payments and billings niche, 16 in personal finance and almost two dozen in lending. In many areas, the big banks may be dismissing the threat of upstarts along the lines of the classic disruption theory outlined by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen in his book "The Innovator's Dilemma." The startup firms frequently offer limited services or primarily target customers big banks see as unprofitable. Bank execs feel safe ignoring the new competitors while they focus on retaining their current customers. But eventually, as technology improves and customer needs change, the startups become appealing to an ever-increasing portion of the market. And some bank efforts, like Barclays' new $50 wristband for making mobile payments , seem more than a little misguided. Banks trying to catch up Others are off to a good start, at least. Bank America claims 31 million of its customers are active online banking users and 17 million on mobile apps. Most big banks are trying to speed up change, whether by investing in improved mobile apps, better online service or even by buying whole companies. Of the 211 upstarts that "exited" the venture capital world last year, only nine made it to the stock market on their own via IPOs. The select group of winners include online lender LendingCLub ( LC ) and bill paying facilitator Yodlee ( YDLE ). The rest were acquired, frequently by the large financial institutions that dominate the current market. For example, Simple set out to revolutionize online banking without a physical presence -- it was bought by Spanish bank BBVA ( BBVA ) last year for just $117 million. And that highlights another major challenge for the startups. Simple found the current capital and regulatory requirements too steep to continue on its own. The problems Uber has experienced with taxi regulators around the globe are nothing compared to the costly and forbidding array of rules and regulations facing new financial firms. The wild card is whether the biggest tech companies, such as Google ( GOOGL ) or Apple ( AAPL ), decide to jump into fintech. Those behemoths almost certainly have the resources and talent to navigate the regulatory thicket and Google's venture capital arm has already made numerous fintech investments. But the tech giants may not see a need to get involved more directly, at least not yet. With the big banks and the upstarts spending like crazy to innovate, it won't be easy to figure out who's going to prevail. But with better services and cooler apps emerging almost daily, customers should be winners either way. || Big banks spending even more than VCs on future of finance: Financial technology startups are hot, red hot. The group raised almost $3 billion in the first quarter, according to CB Insights. And over the past 12 months, investors have poured almost $14 billion into 824 financings in the sector -- that's more deals than companies in sexier areas like cybersecurity and home automation completed.The fintech upstarts are challenging the status quo in seemingly every aspect of the financial markets, from banking and bill paying to asset management and payments processing. They're even venturing beyond the current system into areas like digital currency Bitcoin and equity crowdfunding.But the big banks aren't standing still. The establishment plans to spend $16.6 billion on its own set of digital initiatives this year,according to a report from IDC. So-called digital transformation spending still makes up less than one-quarter of all retail bank IT spending but is growing at about three times the rate of overall spending, IDC says.
Big banks still have nearly all the customers -- as well as their cash -- right now, but the economy is changing quickly in ways that benefit the upstarts. Increasingly, online and mobile consumers don't have the same preferences that they used to. Only 23% of U.S. adults still use physical branches as their primary means of banking, while 51% prefer online or mobile, according to a recent survey sponsored by Bank of America (BAC). And while only 5% have made mobile payments with their phone, another 29% say they are interested.
[Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App]
The many upstarts are also able to focus on improving discrete parts of the banking experience. CB Insights counts 20 different significant companies trying to crack the payments and billings niche, 16 in personal finance and almost two dozen in lending.In many areas, the big banks may be dismissing the threat of upstarts along the lines of the classic disruption theory outlined by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen in his book "The Innovator's Dilemma." The startup firms frequently offer limited services or primarily target customers big banks see as unprofitable. Bank execs feel safe ignoring the new competitors while they focus on retaining their current customers. But eventually, as technology improves and customer needs change, the startups become appealing to an ever-increasing portion of the market. And some bank efforts,like Barclays' new $50 wristband for making mobile payments, seem more than a little misguided.Banks trying to catch upOthers are off to a good start, at least. Bank America claims 31 million of its customers are active online banking users and 17 million on mobile apps. Most big banks are trying to speed up change, whether by investing in improved mobile apps, better online service or even by buying whole companies. Of the 211 upstarts that "exited" the venture capital world last year, only nine made it to the stock market on their own via IPOs. The select group of winners include online lender LendingCLub (LC) and bill paying facilitator Yodlee (YDLE). The rest were acquired, frequently by the large financial institutions that dominate the current market.For example,Simpleset out to revolutionize online banking without a physical presence -- it was bought by Spanish bank BBVA (BBVA) last year for just $117 million.And that highlights another major challenge for the startups.Simple found the current capital and regulatory requirements too steepto continue on its own. The problems Uber has experienced with taxi regulators around the globe are nothing compared to the costly and forbidding array of rules and regulations facing new financial firms.The wild card is whether the biggest tech companies, such as Google (GOOGL) or Apple (AAPL), decide to jump into fintech. Those behemoths almost certainly have the resources and talent to navigate the regulatory thicket and Google's venture capital arm has already made numerous fintech investments. But the tech giants may not see a need to get involved more directly, at least not yet.With the big banks and the upstarts spending like crazy to innovate, it won't be easy to figure out who's going to prevail. But with better services and cooler apps emerging almost daily, customers should be winners either way. || Want to think like a VC? Read these books: In this installment of CNBC's summer reading series , we caught up with Bill Tai, a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and avid kiteboarder. He co-founded MaiTaiGlobal.org with Susi Mai, where they hold networking events all over the world for entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and athletes, centered around kiteboarding. So, what's he reading? This summer, I have several books on my list - three new ones and one that I am re-reading to build my knowledge base to build something cool. I am a voracious reader and travel a lot for my MaiTai gatherings, so, I typically will read on those long flights. Here's what's on my list: By Peter Ward " Out of Thin Air " is about the impact of variations in oxygen levels in the atmosphere on the evolution of animals. As an athlete, I am intrigued that slight advantages in a person's capacity to efficiently extract oxygen from the air can mean the difference between performing at the level of a world champion and being in the middle of the pack. After all, wasn't better oxygen utilization what Lance Armstrong was after by blood doping? This book touches on both our own evolution and what the impact might be of today's polluted atmosphere on our health. Read More MaiTai: The 'golf course' of Silicon Valley By Phil Lapsley " Exploding the Phone " is the back story of the "hacker culture" of the software-developer community. Apple ( AAPL ) co-founder Steve Wozniak wrote the forward because it was this community that drew him and Steve Jobs into the tech industry. Their first company was not Apple. Their first venture was building and selling little hacker boxes called "blue boxes" in an underworld of "phone phreaking," allowing users to play a tone into phones that allowed free long-distance phone calls. By Michal Casey and Paul Vigna " The Age of Cryptocurrency " was just published in April of this year. Recently, I got lucky by investing in and becoming a board member of BitFury, which has become one of the world's largest bitcoin-mining companies and I want to keep building my knowledge in this space. This book looks like it is the most current collection of stories on all the relevant players and their opinions on how Bitcoin and other digital currencies may affect the world of global finance as we know it. Story continues Read More Bitcoin could shift the balance of power in Greece By Hernando de Soto I am also re-reading a classic, " The Mystery of Capital ," which has new relevancy because of the rapid advances in software technology that enables the "sharing economy." De Soto, an advisor to 20 nations on economic policy and president of the Institute of Liberty and Democracy, basically lays out the fundamental reason capitalism works, where it works and why it has never rooted in "the other" countries that are home to 4 billion people. He offers recommendations about how to unlock the potential of those people. If we can do that, we will ignite an amazing period of growth and prosperity for the whole frigging world. With Michael Casey, a Wall Street Journal reporter and co-author of the book "The Age of Cryptocurrency," I was awakened to the idea that de Soto's ideas could be implemented in a very low friction, easy scalable form on the block chain, which is the underlying technology behind bitcoin. So I decided to do something about it with George Kikvadze, the vice chairman of BitFury. So, we organized a summit in May of this year with Sir Richard Branson and de Soto on Branson's island to come up with ways to make it happen. Read More Thrillers? Romance? What Wall Street is reading this summer It was MAGICAL to be with people who have the potential to effect so much positive change in this world going forward and to work with them hand-in-hand, leveraging my background in technology, to synthesize practical and implementable solutions. We assembled an amazing group of people, ranging from James Newsome (former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and Jason Weinstein (former deputy attorney general of the U.S. Justice Department), to Beth Moses (chief astronaut trainer of Virgin Galactic who runs a bitcoin operation as a hobby) and financial technology entrepreneurs. We even had Lucy Liu join by Skype video. The group got the ball rolling on the implementation of a number of things that could be tracked with the modern technology underlying cryptocurrency, ranging from a carbon-credit marketplace to a very low-cost mechanism to handle the titling of land ownership in Third World countries, to a worldwide system for digital birth certificates or passports, and even a genealogy system for digital music or photographs as they are shared and re-shared on the web. Commentary by Bill Tai, a partner at Charles River Ventures. Originally trained as a computer-chip designer, Tai has served on the board of seven publicly-listed companies he initially funded as start-ups, including Internet infrastructure operator iAsiaWorks, which he founded as CEO. He co-founded both IPInfusion, the leading provider of Linux-based routing software and Treasure Data, a Hadoop-based "big data" platform, as chairman. He also serves on the Tech Pioneer Committee of the World Economic Forum. Follow him on Twitter @kitevc . What are you reading this summer? Drop it in the comments box below. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Want to think like a VC? Read these books: In this installment ofCNBC's summer reading series, we caught up withBill Tai, a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and avid kiteboarder. He co-foundedMaiTaiGlobal.orgwith Susi Mai, where they hold networking events all over the world for entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and athletes, centered around kiteboarding. So, what's he reading?
This summer, I have several books on my list - three new ones and one that I am re-reading to build my knowledge base to build something cool. I am a voracious reader and travel a lot for myMaiTaigatherings, so, I typically will read on those long flights. Here's what's on my list:
By Peter Ward
"Out of Thin Air" is about the impact of variations in oxygen levels in the atmosphere on the evolution of animals. As an athlete, I am intrigued that slight advantages in a person's capacity to efficiently extract oxygen from the air can mean the difference between performing at the level of a world champion and being in the middle of the pack. After all, wasn't better oxygen utilization what Lance Armstrong was after by blood doping? This book touches on both our own evolution and what the impact might be of today's polluted atmosphere on our health.
Read MoreMaiTai: The 'golf course' of Silicon Valley
By Phil Lapsley
"Exploding the Phone" is the back story of the "hacker culture" of the software-developer community. Apple(AAPL)co-founder Steve Wozniak wrote the forward because it was this community that drew him and Steve Jobs into the tech industry. Their first company was not Apple. Their first venture was building and selling little hacker boxes called "blue boxes" in an underworld of "phone phreaking," allowing users to play a tone into phones that allowed free long-distance phone calls.
By Michal Casey and Paul Vigna
"The Age of Cryptocurrency" was just published in April of this year. Recently, I got lucky by investing in and becoming a board member of BitFury, which has become one of the world's largest bitcoin-mining companies and I want to keep building my knowledge in this space. This book looks like it is the most current collection of stories on all the relevant players and their opinions on how Bitcoin and other digital currencies may affect the world of global finance as we know it.
Read MoreBitcoin could shift the balance of power in Greece
By Hernando de Soto
I am also re-reading a classic, "The Mystery of Capital," which has new relevancy because of the rapid advances in software technology that enables the "sharing economy."
De Soto, an advisor to 20 nations on economic policy and president of the Institute of Liberty and Democracy, basically lays out the fundamental reason capitalism works, where it works and why it has never rooted in "the other" countries that are home to 4 billion people. He offers recommendations about how to unlock the potential of those people.
If we can do that, we will ignite an amazing period of growth and prosperity for the whole frigging world.
With Michael Casey, a Wall Street Journal reporter and co-author of the book "The Age of Cryptocurrency," I was awakened to the idea that de Soto's ideas could be implemented in a very low friction, easy scalable form on the block chain, which is the underlying technology behind bitcoin.
So I decided to do something about it with George Kikvadze, the vice chairman of BitFury. So, we organized a summit in May of this year with Sir Richard Branson and de Soto on Branson's island to come up with ways to make it happen.
Read MoreThrillers? Romance? What Wall Street is reading this summer
It was MAGICAL to be with people who have the potential to effect so much positive change in this world going forward and to work with them hand-in-hand, leveraging my background in technology, to synthesize practical and implementable solutions.
We assembled an amazing group of people, ranging from James Newsome (former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and Jason Weinstein (former deputy attorney general of the U.S. Justice Department), to Beth Moses (chief astronaut trainer of Virgin Galactic who runs a bitcoin operation as a hobby) and financial technology entrepreneurs. We even had Lucy Liu join by Skype video.
The group got the ball rolling on the implementation of a number of things that could be tracked with the modern technology underlying cryptocurrency, ranging from a carbon-credit marketplace to a very low-cost mechanism to handle the titling of land ownership in Third World countries, to a worldwide system for digital birth certificates or passports, and even a genealogy system for digital music or photographs as they are shared and re-shared on the web.
Commentary byBill Tai, a partner at Charles River Ventures. Originally trained as a computer-chip designer, Tai has served on the board of seven publicly-listed companies he initially funded as start-ups, including Internet infrastructure operator iAsiaWorks, which he founded as CEO. He co-founded both IPInfusion, the leading provider of Linux-based routing software and Treasure Data, a Hadoop-based "big data" platform, as chairman. He also serves on the Tech Pioneer Committee of the World Economic Forum. Follow him on Twitter@kitevc.
What are you reading this summer? Drop it in the comments box below.
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• Personal Finance || Your first trade for Wednesday, July 1: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades for June.
Pete Najarian was a buyer of GILD(NASDAQ: GILD).
Brian Kelly was a buyer of SPY(Singapore Exchange: SPY-SG)puts.
Karen Finerman was a buyer of KORS(NYSE: KORS).
Guy Adami was a buyer of KITE(NASDAQ: KITE).
Trader disclosure: On June 30, 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Karen Finerman is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, TACO, URI, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, DRI, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, URI calls, SPY puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, DKS, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls AAPL, ABX, BAC, BBY, C, DAL, ETFC, FCAU, GS, HYS, INVN, JPM, LULU, NUAN, OC, PNR, S, SPY, SXC, SYY, UAL, UBS, USB, VOYA, VZ, WYNN, XLF, ZIOP. Today he bought SPY calls and WYNN calls. Today he sold DE calls. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; TAN, TSL; he is short Euro, Yuan, and Yen. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Managing Dir. & Analyst Robert Peck: An affiliate of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. has received compensation for products or services other than investment banking services from the following company within the last 12 months: TWTR-US.
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• Personal Finance || Your first trade for Wednesday, July 1: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final trades for June. Pete Najarian was a buyer of GILD (NASDAQ: GILD) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of SPY (Singapore Exchange: SPY-SG) puts. Karen Finerman was a buyer of KORS (NYSE: KORS) . Guy Adami was a buyer of KITE (NASDAQ: KITE) . Trader disclosure: On June 30, 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Karen Finerman is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, TACO, URI, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, DRI, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, URI calls, SPY puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, DKS, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls AAPL, ABX, BAC, BBY, C, DAL, ETFC, FCAU, GS, HYS, INVN, JPM, LULU, NUAN, OC, PNR, S, SPY, SXC, SYY, UAL, UBS, USB, VOYA, VZ, WYNN, XLF, ZIOP. Today he bought SPY calls and WYNN calls. Today he sold DE calls. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; TAN, TSL; he is short Euro, Yuan, and Yen. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Managing Dir. & Analyst Robert Peck: An affiliate of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. has received compensation for products or services other than investment banking services from the following company within the last 12 months: TWTR-US. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Marathon Predicts Greece's 'Yes' Vote, Tsipras Out Next Month: With every passing minute, the Greece debt crisis seems to take a new turn. According to latest reports, the Greek government is seeking a last-minute deal from the eurozone. However, according to Bruce Richards, CEO of Marathon Asset Management, regardless of what happens, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be out soon.
Richards was a guest on Wall Street Week's latest edition. He was again onWall Street Week's 'Web Extra'recently to discuss the Greece debt crisis and the best case scenario for the country in the next few weeks.
Getting Very Dire
"Thirty days from now – Syriza party, which is Alexis Tsipras, who is the prime minister, probably won't be in office," Richards began. "He has taken the country to a point of brink where hopefully there's a point of return in terms of its economy turning around. But right now, it's getting very dire."
Related Link:Has Greece Had Its "Lehman Moment?"
The Best Case
Richards was asked his best case scenario for this crisis in the next few weeks. He replied, "So, what I think happens: There is a small probability he (Alexis Tsipras) resigns, small probability he strikes a deal. What's most probable is, you go to a referendum on Sunday, referendum that the people want to vote for. If the people vote yes, that is a very positive thing for Europe, it's a very positive thing for Greece and that's the base case."
He continued, "But over the course of the week, we are going to see all these polls come and we will see the polls come in at 70 percent or 78 percent or maybe it drops down to 65 percent. One poll is different from another poll. But I believe at the end of the day, they are going to vote the rational vote."
Related Link:Bitcoin Rises As Greece Falls...Coincidence?
Tsipras Is Out Either Way
"Greek people are smart; they are good business people, and they are going to vote for the most sane economic program for Greece, which is to stay on the euro. And if that were to happen, then that's a vote against the party of Syriza and Alexis Tsipras and so he's probably out either way," Richards concluded.
Image Credit:Public Domain
See more from Benzinga
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• Juno Therapeutics CEO Weighs In On Celgene Partnership, T-Cell Innovations
• Dupont Desires Continued Trian Relationship, Despite Rejecting Seats On The Board
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Marathon Predicts Greece's 'Yes' Vote, Tsipras Out Next Month: With every passing minute, the Greece debt crisis seems to take a new turn. According to latest reports, the Greek government is seeking a last-minute deal from the eurozone. However, according to Bruce Richards, CEO of Marathon Asset Management, regardless of what happens, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be out soon. Richards was a guest on Wall Street Week's latest edition. He was again on Wall Street Week's 'Web Extra' recently to discuss the Greece debt crisis and the best case scenario for the country in the next few weeks. Getting Very Dire "Thirty days from now – Syriza party, which is Alexis Tsipras, who is the prime minister, probably won't be in office," Richards began. "He has taken the country to a point of brink where hopefully there's a point of return in terms of its economy turning around. But right now, it's getting very dire." Related Link: Has Greece Had Its "Lehman Moment?" The Best Case Richards was asked his best case scenario for this crisis in the next few weeks. He replied, "So, what I think happens: There is a small probability he (Alexis Tsipras) resigns, small probability he strikes a deal. What's most probable is, you go to a referendum on Sunday, referendum that the people want to vote for. If the people vote yes, that is a very positive thing for Europe, it's a very positive thing for Greece and that's the base case." He continued, "But over the course of the week, we are going to see all these polls come and we will see the polls come in at 70 percent or 78 percent or maybe it drops down to 65 percent. One poll is different from another poll. But I believe at the end of the day, they are going to vote the rational vote." Related Link: Bitcoin Rises As Greece Falls...Coincidence? Tsipras Is Out Either Way "Greek people are smart; they are good business people, and they are going to vote for the most sane economic program for Greece, which is to stay on the euro. And if that were to happen, then that's a vote against the party of Syriza and Alexis Tsipras and so he's probably out either way," Richards concluded. Story continues Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Southern Co, The Supreme Court Ruling On EPA Regulations And Congress' Role In Policy Juno Therapeutics CEO Weighs In On Celgene Partnership, T-Cell Innovations Dupont Desires Continued Trian Relationship, Despite Rejecting Seats On The Board © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How Will Greece's Problems Affect The Fed?: The sudden sharp decline in Greece's bailout negotiations sent shock waves throughout international markets and gave investors reason to believe that the nation was headed for an exit from the eurozone.
In the U.S., markets remained relatively calm with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing just 1.95 percent on Monday following news of Greece's scheduled referendum vote.
Now, investors are turning their focus to the Federal Reserve to see if the bank will still raise interest rates despite the international turmoil.
Still Not A Problem
For now,many analysts saythat Greece's financial turmoil won't have much of an impact on the Fed's decision making when it comes to a rate hike.
Because Greece has been struggling to stay afloat for years, many believe the shock to markets will be minimal as most investors have already wound down their positions in the nation.
The Bank for International Settlements reported that U.S. banks have only invested about $12 billion in Greece, a figure that won't spell disaster if the nation exits the eurozone.
Related Link:Bitcoin Rises As Greece Falls...Coincidence?
Strong Dollar A Concern
One issue the Fed could face would be a stronger dollar. The dollar's recent rally has already taken a toll U.S.-based firms' bottom lines as it has made their foreign sales less profitable and their products more expensive than foreign competitors.'
The bank is likely to keep the greenback in mind when evaluating whether or not the U.S. can withstand a rate hike.
Time Will Tell
So far, Fed officials have been adamant that their decisions will be based on U.S. data and whether or not the nation's economic improvement warrants a rate increase. With most analysts expecting the bank to raise rates in September, the Fed will have plenty of time to see how the Greek situation plays out.
If the problems in Greece become a contagion affecting the global economy, then the bank will likely hold off on a rate hike. But if the issue passes without much impact on U.S. markets, the bank will likely proceed as planned.
See more from Benzinga
• Greece's Final Proposal Draws Criticism From Syriza
• Investors Tentatively Look To Europe
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How Will Greece's Problems Affect The Fed?: The sudden sharp decline in Greece's bailout negotiations sent shock waves throughout international markets and gave investors reason to believe that the nation was headed for an exit from the eurozone. In the U.S., markets remained relatively calm with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing just 1.95 percent on Monday following news of Greece's scheduled referendum vote. Now, investors are turning their focus to the Federal Reserve to see if the bank will still raise interest rates despite the international turmoil. Still Not A Problem For now, many analysts say that Greece's financial turmoil won't have much of an impact on the Fed's decision making when it comes to a rate hike. Because Greece has been struggling to stay afloat for years, many believe the shock to markets will be minimal as most investors have already wound down their positions in the nation. The Bank for International Settlements reported that U.S. banks have only invested about $12 billion in Greece, a figure that won't spell disaster if the nation exits the eurozone. Related Link: Bitcoin Rises As Greece Falls...Coincidence? Strong Dollar A Concern One issue the Fed could face would be a stronger dollar. The dollar's recent rally has already taken a toll U.S.-based firms' bottom lines as it has made their foreign sales less profitable and their products more expensive than foreign competitors.' The bank is likely to keep the greenback in mind when evaluating whether or not the U.S. can withstand a rate hike. Time Will Tell So far, Fed officials have been adamant that their decisions will be based on U.S. data and whether or not the nation's economic improvement warrants a rate increase. With most analysts expecting the bank to raise rates in September, the Fed will have plenty of time to see how the Greek situation plays out. If the problems in Greece become a contagion affecting the global economy, then the bank will likely hold off on a rate hike. But if the issue passes without much impact on U.S. markets, the bank will likely proceed as planned. Story continues See more from Benzinga Greece's Final Proposal Draws Criticism From Syriza Investors Tentatively Look To Europe © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
[Social Media Buzz]
Current price: 228.69€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-07-04 08:00:03 CEST || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 21 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,311.23 #bitcoin #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges:
Cryptsy: Error
Bittrex: 0.00000005
Average $1.3E-5 per #reddcoin
00:15:01 || 1 BTC = 250.00 USD at https://bleutrade.com/exchange/BTC/USD … #bitcoin #btc #Bleutrade || Current price: 231.84€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-07-04 20:00:04 CEST || #RDD / #BTC on ...
|
271.91, 269.03, 266.21, 270.79, 269.23, 284.89, 293.11, 310.87, 292.05, 287.46
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 5605.51, 5590.69, 5708.52, 6011.45, 6031.60, 6008.42, 5930.32, 5526.64, 5750.80, 5904.83, 5780.90, 5753.09, 6153.85, 6130.53, 6468.40, 6767.31, 7078.50, 7207.76, 7379.95, 7407.41, 7022.76, 7144.38, 7459.69, 7143.58, 6618.14, 6357.60, 5950.07, 6559.49, 6635.75, 7315.54, 7871.69, 7708.99, 7790.15, 8036.49, 8200.64, 8071.26, 8253.55, 8038.77, 8253.69, 8790.92, 9330.55, 9818.35, 10058.80, 9888.61, 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40, 15178.20, 15455.40, 16936.80, 17415.40, 16408.20, 16564.00, 17706.90, 19497.40, 19140.80, 19114.20, 17776.70, 16624.60, 15802.90, 13831.80, 14699.20, 13925.80, 14026.60, 16099.80, 15838.50, 14606.50, 14656.20, 12952.20, 14156.40, 13657.20, 14982.10, 15201.00, 15599.20, 17429.50, 17527.00, 16477.60, 15170.10, 14595.40, 14973.30, 13405.80, 13980.60, 14360.20, 13772.00.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-01-14]
Volume: 11084099584, RSI (14-day): 45.16, 50-day EMA: 13867.74, 200-day EMA: 8486.90
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
1 GOP Tax Change You Can Use on Your 2017 Tax Return: The majority of changes coming from the recently passed GOP tax reform bill won't go into effect until 2018, but there is one key exception. The bill expands the medical expense tax deduction for two years, and the expansion is retroactive to the 2017 tax year. When tax time rolls around, this change could help put more money back in the pockets of senior citizens and all Americans who paid high medical bills last year.
Only households with high amounts of unreimbursed medical expenses relative to their income can take the deduction. Before the passage of the tax-reform bill, only medical expenses that exceeded 10% of adjusted gross income, or AGI, qualified. Thetax bill lowersthe AGI threshold to 7.5%, where it stood until the 2013 tax year. It also makes the change retroactive to the 2017 tax year, meaning you can use it on the return you'll file in 2018. However, it will expire after the 2018 tax year, after which time the threshold goes back up to 10%.
Image source: Getty Images.
If you aren't familiar, AGI is your total, or gross, income, minus certain "adjustments". Common adjustments to income include traditional IRA contributions, student loan interest, and educator classroom expenses, just to name a few.
Here's an example of how this change could work. Let's say you're married with two children, and your AGI on your 2017 tax return is $70,000. We'll also say you paid total out-of-pocket medical costs of $8,000 for the year. (We'll get to what medical expenses qualify in the next section.)
Based on the 10% AGI threshold, you would have been able to deduct medical expenses greater than $7,000. If you had $8,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses, you would have been entitled to a $1,000 deduction.
Under the new tax law, you can deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of AGI, which translates to $5,250 in our example. Since our hypothetical couple paid $8,000 in medical expenses, they would now be entitled to a much greater deduction of $2,750.
The IRS has a long list of allowable medical expenses for the deduction, and my colleague Selena Maranjian published anexcellent listand discussion of some of the more common ones in a 2017 overview. Just to name a few, you can consider the cost of:
• Acupuncture treatments.
• Ambulance transportation.
• Medical supplies you purchase.
• Surgical expenses.
• Expenses of installing equipment or improving your home for medical purposes -- for example, construction of an entrance ramp to your home.
• Chiropractor expenses.
• Dental expenses.
• Eye exams and related expenses such as glasses and contact lenses.
• Fertility treatments.
• Hearing aids.
• Hospital care.
• Health insurance premiums, as long as you aren't already receiving a tax credit or deduction for them. This includes Medicare premiums you pay.
• Long-term care services.
• Prescription medications.
• Nursing home care.
• Transportation costs related to receiving medical care.
There are also some common expenses that don't count, such as cosmetic surgery, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, maternity clothes, and hair removal, just to name a few.
Obviously, this is good news, albeit temporarily, for anyone who pays high medical bills in 2017 or 2018. This group includes a disproportionately high number of senior citizens, particularly lower-income ones, and is likely to be a major beneficiary of this change.
Seniors, as a group, have higher medical costs than the rest of the population, and until the 2016 tax year, Americans 65 and older were subject to the 7.5% AGI threshold already, although it was set to expire. The new law extends the favorable medical-expense threshold and expands it to include the entire population.
It's also worth mentioning that taxpayers need to itemize to take advantage of the medical-expense deduction. In the 2015 tax year, almost 9 million Americans used the deduction, and the figure is unlikely to change significantly for 2017. However, the new higher standard deduction kicks in for the 2018 tax year, which will probably mean many people who previously qualified for the medical-expense deduction will no longer be able to use it.
Finally, to maximize your medical tax benefits, even if you can't use the medical-expense deduction, be sure you consider aHealth Savings Account(HSA) orFlexible Spending Account(FSA), which are smart ways to save money on a pre-tax basis for health expenses.
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The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 1 GOP Tax Change You Can Use on Your 2017 Tax Return: The majority of changes coming from the recently passed GOP tax reform bill won't go into effect until 2018, but there is one key exception. The bill expands the medical expense tax deduction for two years, and the expansion is retroactive to the 2017 tax year. When tax time rolls around, this change could help put more money back in the pockets of senior citizens and all Americans who paid high medical bills last year. What is changing? Only households with high amounts of unreimbursed medical expenses relative to their income can take the deduction. Before the passage of the tax-reform bill, only medical expenses that exceeded 10% of adjusted gross income, or AGI, qualified. The tax bill lowers the AGI threshold to 7.5%, where it stood until the 2013 tax year. It also makes the change retroactive to the 2017 tax year, meaning you can use it on the return you'll file in 2018. However, it will expire after the 2018 tax year, after which time the threshold goes back up to 10%. A stethoscope sits on top of a scattered pile of U.S. currency. Image source: Getty Images. If you aren't familiar, AGI is your total, or gross, income, minus certain "adjustments". Common adjustments to income include traditional IRA contributions, student loan interest, and educator classroom expenses, just to name a few. How much could this change save you? Here's an example of how this change could work. Let's say you're married with two children, and your AGI on your 2017 tax return is $70,000. We'll also say you paid total out-of-pocket medical costs of $8,000 for the year. (We'll get to what medical expenses qualify in the next section.) Based on the 10% AGI threshold, you would have been able to deduct medical expenses greater than $7,000. If you had $8,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses, you would have been entitled to a $1,000 deduction. Under the new tax law, you can deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of AGI, which translates to $5,250 in our example. Since our hypothetical couple paid $8,000 in medical expenses, they would now be entitled to a much greater deduction of $2,750. What expenses are eligible? The IRS has a long list of allowable medical expenses for the deduction, and my colleague Selena Maranjian published an excellent list and discussion of some of the more common ones in a 2017 overview. Just to name a few, you can consider the cost of: Acupuncture treatments. Ambulance transportation. Medical supplies you purchase. Surgical expenses. Expenses of installing equipment or improving your home for medical purposes -- for example, construction of an entrance ramp to your home. Chiropractor expenses. Dental expenses. Eye exams and related expenses such as glasses and contact lenses. Fertility treatments. Hearing aids. Hospital care. Health insurance premiums, as long as you aren't already receiving a tax credit or deduction for them. This includes Medicare premiums you pay. Long-term care services. Prescription medications. Nursing home care. Transportation costs related to receiving medical care. Story continues There are also some common expenses that don't count, such as cosmetic surgery, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, maternity clothes, and hair removal, just to name a few. Whom will this change help? Obviously, this is good news, albeit temporarily, for anyone who pays high medical bills in 2017 or 2018. This group includes a disproportionately high number of senior citizens, particularly lower-income ones, and is likely to be a major beneficiary of this change. Seniors, as a group, have higher medical costs than the rest of the population, and until the 2016 tax year, Americans 65 and older were subject to the 7.5% AGI threshold already, although it was set to expire. The new law extends the favorable medical-expense threshold and expands it to include the entire population. It's also worth mentioning that taxpayers need to itemize to take advantage of the medical-expense deduction. In the 2015 tax year, almost 9 million Americans used the deduction, and the figure is unlikely to change significantly for 2017. However, the new higher standard deduction kicks in for the 2018 tax year, which will probably mean many people who previously qualified for the medical-expense deduction will no longer be able to use it. Finally, to maximize your medical tax benefits, even if you can't use the medical-expense deduction, be sure you consider a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA), which are smart ways to save money on a pre-tax basis for health expenses. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . View comments || Crowds Throng to Tesla Store as Model 3 Goes On Display: On Friday, Tesla's Model 3 went on public display in only the second of its showrooms, attracting a crowd of gawkers big enough to generate long lines out the door.
The showroom, in Los Angeles' Century City, follows a Model 3 going on display in Tesla's Palo Alto showroom, reports to theLos Angeles Times. The Model 3 has been trotted out at car shows and Tesla events, but so far it's been hard for the public to get up close. Tesla now says display Model 3s will be spreading to showrooms around the country in the "near future."
Technology reporter Brooke Crothers posted two brief videos of the excitement at the debut, andcomparedthe line snaking out the door to the ones that form when launches a new phone.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune'stechnology newsletter.
The difference, of course, is that the people lining up at Apple stores are usually there to buy something -- but there's no chance anyone in the Tesla crowd was driving home in a Model 3. Tesla has received more than 450,000 preorders for the Model 3, andproduction bottlenecksmeant manufacturing got off to a slow start last year. More recentanecdotal evidencesuggests things are picking up, but anyone ordering a Model 3 today could still end up waiting years to get it.
So, it's no surprise the Model 3 hasn't gone on wide public display -- it's more important to get cars to the people who've already payed for them. In fact, it seems there might be more demand to just get close to the thing than Tesla can easily accommodate: the Century City store reportedly wasn't even offering test drives, and staff were described as anxious as visitors swarmed around the car.
See original article on Fortune.com
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• Tesla's New Trip Planner Gives You Free Insight to the Model 3 Experience || Crowds Throng to Tesla Store as Model 3 Goes On Display: On Friday, Tesla's Model 3 went on public display in only the second of its showrooms, attracting a crowd of gawkers big enough to generate long lines out the door. The showroom, in Los Angeles' Century City, follows a Model 3 going on display in Tesla's Palo Alto showroom, reports to the Los Angeles Times . The Model 3 has been trotted out at car shows and Tesla events, but so far it's been hard for the public to get up close. Tesla now says display Model 3s will be spreading to showrooms around the country in the "near future." Technology reporter Brooke Crothers posted two brief videos of the excitement at the debut, and compared the line snaking out the door to the ones that form when launches a new phone. Get Data Sheet , Fortune's technology newsletter. The difference, of course, is that the people lining up at Apple stores are usually there to buy something -- but there's no chance anyone in the Tesla crowd was driving home in a Model 3. Tesla has received more than 450,000 preorders for the Model 3, and production bottlenecks meant manufacturing got off to a slow start last year. More recent anecdotal evidence suggests things are picking up, but anyone ordering a Model 3 today could still end up waiting years to get it. So, it's no surprise the Model 3 hasn't gone on wide public display -- it's more important to get cars to the people who've already payed for them. In fact, it seems there might be more demand to just get close to the thing than Tesla can easily accommodate: the Century City store reportedly wasn't even offering test drives, and staff were described as anxious as visitors swarmed around the car. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com The ABCs of PRC GDP Bitcoin Consumes 30 Times More Electricity than Tesla Cars Elon Musk Wants to Build a Drive-In Theater at Tesla Supercharger Stations Watch a Tesla Model X Pull a Stuck Semi Truck on Snow-Covered Streets Tesla's New Trip Planner Gives You Free Insight to the Model 3 Experience || Qualcomm's Premium Smartphone Chip Problem: Wireless chip giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is the leading vendor of smartphone applications processors and cellular baseband processors (these components are often -- though not always -- integrated into a single chip). According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm had a 42% revenue share of the smartphone applications processor market in the first half of 2017. A significant part of Qualcomm's success in the smartphone applications processor market has been a result of its strategy of building a broad portfolio of processors with feature sets and cost structures tailored to everything from $100 smartphones all the way to $800-plus flagship phones. One problem that Qualcomm faces in the premium portion of the market -- a part of the market that highly values chip performance and features -- is that the most successful high-end smartphone makers are stepping up their efforts to design their own chips. A Qualcomm chip platfotrm. Image source: Qualcomm. The situation Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) , the most successful vendor of high-end smartphones, has designed its own applications processors for many years. Every iPhone shipping today includes an applications processor that was developed internally by Apple. It's unlikely that Apple is ever going to switch away from using internally designed processors to a third-party chip in the iPhone. Chinese smartphone vendor Huawei, which is now the third-largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, also uses its own applications processors exclusively in its high-end smartphones. Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) , which is the world's largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, uses internally designed processors (sold under the Exynos brand) as well as Qualcomm processors for its flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphone lines. Over the years, though, Samsung's Exynos processors have become increasingly competitive with Qualcomm's best across the board. In fact, in some ways, Samsung's top mobile processors have actually surpassed Qualcomm's. Story continues Take, for example, Qualcomm's recently announced Snapdragon 845 and Samsung's upcoming Exynos 9810. The Exynos 9810 supports 4K video capture at 120 frames per second, while the Snapdragon 845 supports 4K video capture at only 60 frames per second. The Exynos 9810 could also include a substantially more powerful CPU subsystem than the one in the Snapdragon 845. And, finally, the Exynos 9810 seems to have a more powerful (at least on paper) integrated LTE modem, capable of upload speeds of 200 megabits per second, which is quite a bit higher than the 150 megabits per second upload speeds that the Snapdragon 845's integrated modem is capable of. A drawing of a Samsung Exynos 9810 chip. Image source: Samsung. I wouldn't be surprised if, over the long term, Samsung were to entirely eliminate Qualcomm from its high-end Galaxy S and Note smartphones. Considering that Samsung's Galaxy S and Note smartphone lines ship in substantial volumes (not quite flagship iPhone volumes, but they're probably, collectively, the highest volume Android flagship devices on the market), such an eventual loss could really hurt Qualcomm's high-end smartphone chip business. Qualcomm's course of action Ultimately, Qualcomm's long-term strategy will need to be multifaceted. It has to continue to invest heavily in high-end applications processors in a bid to power flagship smartphones from smaller smartphone makers that don't have the resources or the business justification to build their own chips. Qualcomm is also going to need to double down in trying to gain share in high-end (but not premium flagship), mid-range, and low-end smartphones. The processor average selling price in those segments is lower than it is in the premium market, but the shipment volumes are potentially higher. On top of that, Qualcomm is working aggressively to capture additional content share in smartphones by building things like RF front end chips, fingerprint scanners, 3D sensing modules, and more. Qualcomm will probably need to double down there and try to enable low-end, mid-range, and high-end smartphone makers to put out devices that can compete with premium devices. Qualcomm should also enjoy a revenue boost from the additional components that it'll be supplying to a large volume of phones. In other words, if Qualcomm is getting shut out of the premium smartphone market, it should try its best to disrupt it from the bottom up. In addition to these smartphone-related actions, Qualcomm is, of course, trying to diversify beyond the smartphone chip business. That's why the company announced its intent to buy NXP Semiconductors , and that's why the company is going after new areas like Windows-based PCs and data centers . Qualcomm's position in the premium smartphone processor market is hardly enviable, and that's just one of many reasons that I'm a fan of Qualcomm's simply accepting the takeover offer that it received late last year from Broadcom . Qualcomm's board rejected the offer, but Broadcom has approached Qualcomm investors directly. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm and has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Qualcomm's Premium Smartphone Chip Problem: Wireless chip giantQualcomm(NASDAQ: QCOM)is the leading vendor of smartphone applications processors and cellular baseband processors (these components are often -- though not always -- integrated into a single chip). According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm had a 42% revenue share of the smartphone applications processor market in the first half of 2017.
A significant part of Qualcomm's success in the smartphone applications processor market has been a result of its strategy of building a broad portfolio of processors with feature sets and cost structures tailored to everything from $100 smartphones all the way to $800-plus flagship phones.
One problem that Qualcomm faces in the premium portion of the market -- a part of the market that highly values chip performance and features -- is that the most successful high-end smartphone makers are stepping up their efforts to design their own chips.
Image source: Qualcomm.
Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL), the most successful vendor of high-end smartphones, has designed its own applications processors for many years. Every iPhone shipping today includes an applications processor that was developed internally by Apple.
It's unlikely that Apple is ever going to switch away from using internally designed processors to a third-party chip in the iPhone.
Chinese smartphone vendor Huawei, which is now the third-largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, also uses its own applications processors exclusively in its high-end smartphones.
Samsung(NASDAQOTH: SSNLF), which is the world's largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, uses internally designed processors (sold under the Exynos brand) as well as Qualcomm processors for its flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphone lines.
Over the years, though, Samsung's Exynos processors have become increasingly competitive with Qualcomm's best across the board. In fact, in some ways, Samsung's top mobile processors have actually surpassed Qualcomm's.
Take, for example, Qualcomm's recently announcedSnapdragon 845and Samsung's upcoming Exynos 9810. The Exynos 9810 supports 4K video capture at 120 frames per second, while the Snapdragon 845 supports 4K video capture at only 60 frames per second.
The Exynos 9810 could also include asubstantially more powerfulCPU subsystem than the one in the Snapdragon 845.
And, finally, the Exynos 9810 seems to have a more powerful (at least on paper) integrated LTE modem, capable of upload speeds of 200 megabits per second, which is quite a bit higher than the 150 megabits per second upload speeds that the Snapdragon 845's integrated modem is capable of.
Image source: Samsung.
I wouldn't be surprised if, over the long term, Samsung were to entirely eliminate Qualcomm from its high-end Galaxy S and Note smartphones.
Considering that Samsung's Galaxy S and Note smartphone lines ship in substantial volumes (not quite flagship iPhone volumes, but they're probably, collectively, the highest volume Android flagship devices on the market), such an eventual loss could really hurt Qualcomm's high-end smartphone chip business.
Ultimately, Qualcomm's long-term strategy will need to be multifaceted. It has to continue to invest heavily in high-end applications processors in a bid to power flagship smartphones from smaller smartphone makers that don't have the resources or the business justification to build their own chips.
Qualcomm is also going to need to double down in trying to gain share in high-end (but not premium flagship), mid-range, and low-end smartphones. The processor average selling price in those segments is lower than it is in the premium market, but the shipment volumes are potentially higher.
On top of that, Qualcomm is working aggressively to capture additional content share in smartphones by building things like RF front end chips, fingerprint scanners, 3D sensing modules, and more. Qualcomm will probably need to double down there and try to enable low-end, mid-range, and high-end smartphone makers to put out devices that can compete with premium devices.
Qualcomm should also enjoy a revenue boost from the additional components that it'll be supplying to a large volume of phones.
In other words, if Qualcomm is getting shut out of the premium smartphone market, it should try its best to disrupt it from the bottom up.
In addition to these smartphone-related actions, Qualcomm is, of course, trying to diversify beyond the smartphone chip business. That's why the company announced its intent to buyNXP Semiconductors, and that's why the company is going afternew areas like Windows-based PCs and data centers.
Qualcomm's position in the premium smartphone processor market is hardly enviable, and that's just one of many reasons that I'm a fan of Qualcomm's simply accepting thetakeover offer that it received late last yearfromBroadcom. Qualcomm's board rejected the offer, but Broadcom has approached Qualcomm investors directly.
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Ashraf Eassaowns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm and has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Will 2018 Be Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s Best Year Yet?: In 2017,Ionis Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: IONS)proved its RNA antisense technology can produce a bonafideblockbuster drug. Spinraza sales are firing on all cylinders right now, but incoming competition might reverse the therapy's trajectory.
Luckily for Ionis,Biogen(NASDAQ: BIIB)invested heavily in Spinraza's development and commercial launch. That's why Ionis and its recently spun-off affiliateAkcea Therapeutics Inc.(NASDAQ: AKCA)still have plenty of cash to fund development of a huge clinical-stage pipeline, and perhaps launchtwonew drugs this summer.
Here's a closer look at reasons why 2018 could be the best year yet for Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
Image source: Getty Images.
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) may be the most common genetic cause of infant mortality in many developed nations, but it's still a rare disease with a limited patient population. In December 2016, Spinraza became the first and only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment that actually slows progression of the disease. If another drug enters the field, Biogen could have trouble marketing a treatment that costs $125,000 per dose and requires several doses each year.
Insurers and government end payers complained in public, but it looks like they've softened their stance where it matters. Just nine months out of the gate, Spinraza sales finished the third quarter at a stunning $1.1 billion annualized run rate. U.S. sales weremuch lowerthan expected, but rapid uptake in international markets made up the difference. As a result, Ionis thinks it finished 2017 with around $950 million in cash after its operations produced their first annual profit.
Looking ahead, there are some gene-therapy candidates that threaten to do Spinraza's job with a single application. In particular,AveXis, Inc.(NASDAQ: AVXS)has a candidate in late-stage testingthat could cause Spinraza's sharp upward trajectory to abruptly reverse course. We'll know more after AveXis meets with the FDA to discuss its candidate's application in the second quarter.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals got to where it is today by championing an aggressive partnership model that generally lets bigger companies do the heavy financial lifting. Using Biogen's global salesforce to launch Spinraza, after the bigger biotech paid for the most expensive stages of the drug's development, puts the company in an excellent position to launch its first fully owned drug, inotersen.
Earlier this month, the FDA accepted a new drug application for inotersen as a treatment for patients with hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis, a severe condition marked by the buildup of faulty transthyretin protein fragments. The agency granted a shortened review, and an approval decision is expected on or before July 6, 2018.
The drug could run headlong intocompetition from patisiran, a somewhat similar drug candidate fromAlnylam Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: ALNY). The FDA hasn't officially begun reviewing the application Alnylam completed late last year, but the company expects an approval decision around the middle of the year.
Image source: Getty Images.
Although inotersen could run straight into competition with patisiran, the FDA is reviewing an application for a former Ionis candidate that could be the first -- and only -- available therapy for patients with familial chylomicronemia syndrome, a life-threatening genetic disorder marked by extremely high triglyceride levels that lead to bouts of pancreatitis.
During the clinical trial supporting the candidate's application, volanesorsen lowered triglycerides by 77% and significantly reduced pancreatitis attacks. Reduced platelet levels and injection-site reactions led nearly a third of patients given volanesorsen to withdraw from the trial. Given the lack of available treatments for the life-threatening disease, though, a positive approval decision on or before the proposed action date this August seems reasonable.
Last summer, Ionis spun off volanesorsen and the rest of its lipid drugs into a separate company, Akcea Therapeutics. Despite the change in ownership, Ionis still stands to benefit greatly from any successful lipid drugs that emerge from its pipeline. Akcea is obliged to pay Ionis royalties in the mid-teens to the mid-20% range on all sales of the candidates it inherited from Ionis.
Unfortunately for bargain shoppers, I'm not the only investor to notice Ionis has set itself up for an exciting growth spurt. Ionis' market cap has swelled to about $6.7 billion, which is about 13.4 times the amount of revenue the company booked over the past year. Biotech stocks generally trade around mid-single-digit multiples of total revenue -- which means the stock could plummet if investors get nervous about the company's growth prospects.
Most analysts expect inotersen to take a backseat to Alnylam's patisiran, and generate annual sales around $300 million at its peak. Volanesorsen isn't expected to reach blockbuster status, either, but could allow Akcea to direct around $150 million in high-margin royalty revenue toward Ionis each year.
While I expect 2018 to be a banner year for Ionis, Spinraza jitters could also hammer the stock to a much more attractive entry point. With around a dozen candidates in mid-stage development, the company can be expected to have more new drug applications ready for the FDA in the years to come.
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Cory Renauerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool recommends Biogen. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Will 2018 Be Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s Best Year Yet?: In 2017, Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IONS) proved its RNA antisense technology can produce a bonafide blockbuster drug . Spinraza sales are firing on all cylinders right now, but incoming competition might reverse the therapy's trajectory. Luckily for Ionis, Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) invested heavily in Spinraza's development and commercial launch. That's why Ionis and its recently spun-off affiliate Akcea Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AKCA) still have plenty of cash to fund development of a huge clinical-stage pipeline, and perhaps launch two new drugs this summer. Here's a closer look at reasons why 2018 could be the best year yet for Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Person riding a rocket toward 2018. Image source: Getty Images. Exceeding expectations for now Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) may be the most common genetic cause of infant mortality in many developed nations, but it's still a rare disease with a limited patient population. In December 2016, Spinraza became the first and only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment that actually slows progression of the disease. If another drug enters the field, Biogen could have trouble marketing a treatment that costs $125,000 per dose and requires several doses each year. Insurers and government end payers complained in public, but it looks like they've softened their stance where it matters. Just nine months out of the gate, Spinraza sales finished the third quarter at a stunning $1.1 billion annualized run rate. U.S. sales were much lower than expected, but rapid uptake in international markets made up the difference. As a result, Ionis thinks it finished 2017 with around $950 million in cash after its operations produced their first annual profit. Looking ahead, there are some gene-therapy candidates that threaten to do Spinraza's job with a single application. In particular, AveXis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVXS) has a candidate in late-stage testing that could cause Spinraza's sharp upward trajectory to abruptly reverse course. We'll know more after AveXis meets with the FDA to discuss its candidate's application in the second quarter. Story continues Why biotechs partner Ionis Pharmaceuticals got to where it is today by championing an aggressive partnership model that generally lets bigger companies do the heavy financial lifting. Using Biogen's global salesforce to launch Spinraza, after the bigger biotech paid for the most expensive stages of the drug's development, puts the company in an excellent position to launch its first fully owned drug, inotersen. Earlier this month, the FDA accepted a new drug application for inotersen as a treatment for patients with hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis, a severe condition marked by the buildup of faulty transthyretin protein fragments. The agency granted a shortened review, and an approval decision is expected on or before July 6, 2018. The drug could run headlong into competition from patisiran , a somewhat similar drug candidate from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) . The FDA hasn't officially begun reviewing the application Alnylam completed late last year, but the company expects an approval decision around the middle of the year. Scientist examining a flask. Image source: Getty Images. Spun off, but not forgotten Although inotersen could run straight into competition with patisiran, the FDA is reviewing an application for a former Ionis candidate that could be the first -- and only -- available therapy for patients with familial chylomicronemia syndrome, a life-threatening genetic disorder marked by extremely high triglyceride levels that lead to bouts of pancreatitis. During the clinical trial supporting the candidate's application, volanesorsen lowered triglycerides by 77% and significantly reduced pancreatitis attacks. Reduced platelet levels and injection-site reactions led nearly a third of patients given volanesorsen to withdraw from the trial. Given the lack of available treatments for the life-threatening disease, though, a positive approval decision on or before the proposed action date this August seems reasonable. Last summer, Ionis spun off volanesorsen and the rest of its lipid drugs into a separate company, Akcea Therapeutics. Despite the change in ownership, Ionis still stands to benefit greatly from any successful lipid drugs that emerge from its pipeline. Akcea is obliged to pay Ionis royalties in the mid-teens to the mid-20% range on all sales of the candidates it inherited from Ionis. Great year, bad price Unfortunately for bargain shoppers, I'm not the only investor to notice Ionis has set itself up for an exciting growth spurt. Ionis' market cap has swelled to about $6.7 billion, which is about 13.4 times the amount of revenue the company booked over the past year. Biotech stocks generally trade around mid-single-digit multiples of total revenue -- which means the stock could plummet if investors get nervous about the company's growth prospects. Most analysts expect inotersen to take a backseat to Alnylam's patisiran, and generate annual sales around $300 million at its peak. Volanesorsen isn't expected to reach blockbuster status, either, but could allow Akcea to direct around $150 million in high-margin royalty revenue toward Ionis each year. While I expect 2018 to be a banner year for Ionis, Spinraza jitters could also hammer the stock to a much more attractive entry point. With around a dozen candidates in mid-stage development, the company can be expected to have more new drug applications ready for the FDA in the years to come. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Cory Renauer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool recommends Biogen. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 3 Stocks to Buy After Kohl's Blowout Sales Report: Last Monday, department-store giant Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) reported stellar sales results for the November-December holiday period. Comparable (comp) sales surged 6.9% year over year compared to a 1% decline in the first nine months of the fiscal year. Based on this strong performance, Kohl's boosted its full-year earnings per share (EPS) guidance range significantly. The company now expects to post adjusted EPS of $3.98-$4.08, up from its previous forecast of $3.60-$3.80. As a result, Kohl's stock has soared to a new 52-week high. KSS Chart Kohl's Stock Performance, data by YCharts . While Kohl's stock has risen by more than 70% since bottoming out in June, it could still have plenty of additional upside. Furthermore, Kohl's big acceleration in sales suggests that off-price leaders Ross Stores (NASDAQ: ROST) and TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) could be primed for strong sales and earnings growth -- driving their share prices higher, as well. Kohl's is just getting started During fiscal 2016, Kohl's posted EPS of $3.76. Its initial guidance for 2017 implied that EPS would be flat, or down, in the current fiscal year. By contrast, based on the midpoint of its updated guidance range, Kohl's now expects 7% EPS growth in fiscal 2017. Kohl's stock trades for about 15 times its increased 2017 EPS forecast. That might seem too generous, given the secular headwinds facing department stores. However, Kohl's recent sales momentum shows that it's well-positioned to capitalize on an uptick in retail sales growth. Very few of its stores are located in traditional malls. This gives Kohl's a convenience factor that's helping it gain share from department-store rivals and profit from store closings across the retail landscape. Management isn't resting on its laurels. Kohl's is working on a variety of initiatives to drive more traffic to its stores. It's also looking to sell or lease out space in lower-volume stores, both to bring in extra cash and to drive incremental traffic to those locations. Story continues The exterior of a Kohl's store Kohl's plans to lease out excess space in some of its stores. Image source: Kohl's. Continued comp-sales growth would allow Kohl's to start rebuilding its profit margin. In fiscal 2016, Kohl's reported an adjusted operating margin of 7.3%, down from 8.9% in fiscal 2014 and 9.8% in fiscal 2012. (The updated fiscal 2017 guidance implies that Kohl's full-year operating margin would be roughly flat year over year.) If a return to comp-sales growth were to boost Kohl's operating margin to 8.5% in 2018 -- well below the levels achieved a few years ago -- it would increase pre-tax income by 20%-25%. The recent reduction in the corporate tax rate will boost after-tax income by an additional 22% or so. Share buybacks would accelerate EPS growth even further. The net result is that Kohl's EPS could very easily sail past $6 in the coming year. Free cash flow would be even higher due to tax benefits, disciplined capital spending, and Kohl's ongoing inventory reductions. As a result, Kohl's stock could have plenty of room to run. Ross Stores has more upside, as well If Kohl's is benefiting from strong consumer spending and favorable off-mall store locations, chances are that Ross Stores is in even better shape. While the rest of fashion retail was down in the dumps during the first three quarters of fiscal 2017, Ross Stores posted 4% comparable-store sales growth. The exterior of a Ross Dress for Less store Ross Stores has posted stellar comp sales growth in the past year. Image source: Ross Stores. Ross Stores' guidance calls for a 2%-3% comp-sales increase in the fourth quarter. However, the company routinely blows past its forecasts . Considering that it posted a 4% comp-sales gain in the third quarter while facing its toughest year-over-year comparison -- in a bad quarter for fashion retail, no less -- it wouldn't be surprising if Ross Stores achieves high-single-digit comp-sales growth this quarter. Like Kohl's, Ross Stores is poised to get a roughly 22% earnings boost from tax reform. That would increase its baseline EPS for 2017 to around $4. If consumer spending remains strong in 2018, another 12%-15% EPS increase -- which has been routine in recent years -- should be achievable. That would push EPS past $4.50. Ross Stores' stock now trades for more than $80, so it isn't exactly a bargain. But management sees room to expand the store footprint by more than 50% in the coming years, providing ample growth opportunities to drive the stock even higher. Expect a turnaround at TJX Until 2017, TJX was performing just as well as its smaller rival, Ross Stores. However, in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, TJX's comp sales rose just 1%. Unfavorable weather and some merchandise missteps prevented a stronger performance. On the bright side, TJX is already addressing these issues. Furthermore, its subpar sales results over the past year have set up very easy comparisons, which could enable the company to post mid-high single-digit comp-sales growth in the coming year. Like Kohl's and Ross Stores, TJX will see a big EPS benefit from tax reform going forward, and the stock is significantly cheaper than that of Ross Stores. Indeed, TJX's EPS should comfortably surpass $5 in the upcoming year, giving the stock a modest valuation of 15 times forward earnings. As long as the company delivers steady sales and earnings growth for the next several quarters, TJX stock could race higher. If Kohl's holiday-season results are any indication, the current retail-sales climate makes this very achievable. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of Kohl's and is long January 2019 $50 calls on Ross Stores, long January 2018 $60 calls on The TJX Companies, and short January 2018 $90 calls on The TJX Companies. The Motley Fool recommends The TJX Companies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 3 Stocks to Buy After Kohl's Blowout Sales Report: Last Monday, department-store giantKohl's(NYSE: KSS)reported stellar sales results for the November-December holiday period. Comparable (comp) salessurged 6.9% year over yearcompared to a 1% decline in the first nine months of the fiscal year.
Based on this strong performance, Kohl's boosted its full-year earnings per share (EPS) guidance range significantly. The company now expects to post adjusted EPS of $3.98-$4.08, up from its previous forecast of $3.60-$3.80. As a result, Kohl's stock has soared to a new 52-week high.
Kohl's Stock Performance, data byYCharts.
While Kohl's stock has risen by more than 70% since bottoming out in June, it could still have plenty of additional upside. Furthermore, Kohl's big acceleration in sales suggests that off-price leadersRoss Stores(NASDAQ: ROST)andTJX Companies(NYSE: TJX)could be primed for strong sales and earnings growth -- driving their share prices higher, as well.
During fiscal 2016, Kohl's posted EPS of $3.76. Its initial guidance for 2017 implied that EPS would be flat, or down, in the current fiscal year. By contrast, based on the midpoint of its updated guidance range, Kohl's now expects 7% EPS growth in fiscal 2017.
Kohl's stock trades for about 15 times its increased 2017 EPS forecast. That might seem too generous, given the secular headwinds facing department stores. However, Kohl's recent sales momentum shows that it's well-positioned to capitalize on an uptick in retail sales growth.
Very few of its stores are located in traditional malls. This gives Kohl's a convenience factor that's helping it gain share from department-store rivals and profit from store closings across the retail landscape.
Management isn't resting on its laurels. Kohl's is working on a variety of initiatives to drive more traffic to its stores. It's also looking tosell or lease out spacein lower-volume stores, both to bring in extra cash and to drive incremental traffic to those locations.
Kohl's plans to lease out excess space in some of its stores. Image source: Kohl's.
Continued comp-sales growth would allow Kohl's to start rebuilding its profit margin. In fiscal 2016, Kohl's reported an adjusted operating margin of 7.3%, down from 8.9% in fiscal 2014 and 9.8% in fiscal 2012. (The updated fiscal 2017 guidance implies that Kohl's full-year operating margin would be roughly flat year over year.)
If a return to comp-sales growth were to boost Kohl's operating margin to 8.5% in 2018 -- well below the levels achieved a few years ago -- it would increase pre-tax income by 20%-25%. The recent reduction in the corporate tax rate will boost after-tax income by an additional 22% or so. Share buybacks would accelerate EPS growth even further.
The net result is that Kohl's EPS could very easily sail past $6 in the coming year. Free cash flow would be even higher due to tax benefits, disciplined capital spending, and Kohl's ongoing inventory reductions. As a result, Kohl's stock could have plenty of room to run.
If Kohl's is benefiting from strong consumer spending and favorable off-mall store locations, chances are that Ross Stores is in even better shape. While the rest of fashion retail was down in the dumps during the first three quarters of fiscal 2017, Ross Stores posted 4% comparable-store sales growth.
Ross Stores has posted stellar comp sales growth in the past year. Image source: Ross Stores.
Ross Stores' guidance calls for a 2%-3% comp-sales increase in the fourth quarter. However, the companyroutinely blows past its forecasts. Considering that it posted a 4% comp-sales gain in the third quarter while facing its toughest year-over-year comparison -- in a bad quarter for fashion retail, no less -- it wouldn't be surprising if Ross Stores achieves high-single-digit comp-sales growth this quarter.
Like Kohl's, Ross Stores is poised to get a roughly 22% earnings boost from tax reform. That would increase its baseline EPS for 2017 to around $4. If consumer spending remains strong in 2018, another 12%-15% EPS increase -- which has been routine in recent years -- should be achievable. That would push EPS past $4.50.
Ross Stores' stock now trades for more than $80, so it isn't exactly a bargain. But management sees room to expand the store footprint by more than 50% in the coming years, providing ample growth opportunities to drive the stock even higher.
Until 2017, TJX was performing just as well as its smaller rival, Ross Stores. However, in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, TJX's comp sales rose just 1%. Unfavorable weather and somemerchandise misstepsprevented a stronger performance.
On the bright side, TJX is already addressing these issues. Furthermore, its subpar sales results over the past year have set up very easy comparisons, which could enable the company to post mid-high single-digit comp-sales growth in the coming year. Like Kohl's and Ross Stores, TJX will see a big EPS benefit from tax reform going forward, and the stock is significantly cheaper than that of Ross Stores.
Indeed, TJX's EPS should comfortably surpass $5 in the upcoming year, giving the stock a modest valuation of 15 times forward earnings. As long as the company delivers steady sales and earnings growth for the next several quarters, TJX stock could race higher. If Kohl's holiday-season results are any indication, the current retail-sales climate makes this very achievable.
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Adam Levine-Weinbergowns shares of Kohl's and is long January 2019 $50 calls on Ross Stores, long January 2018 $60 calls on The TJX Companies, and short January 2018 $90 calls on The TJX Companies. The Motley Fool recommends The TJX Companies. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Warren Buffett's Disdain for Cryptocurrencies Isn't a Surprise, Given His Hatred of Gold: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett recently gave anominous warningto those who hope to make a fortune from buying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. "In terms of cryptocurrencies generally," Buffett told CNBC "I can say with almost certainty that it will come to a bad ending." In fact, he said that if it were possible to buy a five-yearput option-- which makes money as an investment loses value -- he'd do so "on every one of the cryptocurrencies."
In many ways, Buffett's sharp words against cryptocurrencies match those he's spoken against gold. That's not all that surprising, since the two share eerily similar characteristics.
Image source: Getty Images.
While Buffett has awell-documented hatred for gold, some of his most critical comments on the shiny metal came in his 2011 letter to shareholders ofBerkshire Hathaway(NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B). In that letter, he detailed three basic choices investors have to grow their wealth. One of the categories he described in detail are "assets that will never produce anything, but that are purchased in the buyer's hope that someone else -- who also knows that the assets will be forever unproductive -- will pay more for them in the future." He pointed out that "tulips, of all things, briefly became a favorite of such buyers in the 17th century" and that gold was "the major asset in this category" because "if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end."
The point is that these assets don't produce anything of value. They don't throw off a spendable income stream like commercial real estate or even a bond, they don't grow food like a farm, and they don't make goods or provide services like a business.
In short, these investments don't create wealth for investors by producing it. Instead, Buffett noted: "This type of investment requires an expanding pool of buyers, who, in turn, are enticed because they believe the buying pool will expand still further. Owners are not inspired by what the asset itself can produce -- it will remain lifeless forever -- but rather by the belief that others will desire it even more avidly in the future."
That sounds an awful lot like the current craze over cryptocurrencies.
Image source: Getty Images.
The similarities of cryptocurrencies with gold and other unproductive assets should be of grave concern to those tempted by them, given the history of unproductive assets. The reason Buffett picked on gold at the time was that it was a hot commodity, with its price rising roughly 200% in the five years leading up to that letter. That prompted Buffett to surmise that the "rising price has on its own generated additional buying enthusiasm, attracting purchasers who see the rise as validating an investment thesis."
However, he warned that "as "bandwagon" investors join any party, they create their own truth --for a while." In gold's case, it would notch another double-digit gain in 2012 before beginning a long descent in 2013, losing more than 40% of its value at one point. It's still down by about a quarter since the end of 2011.
Gold isn't the only unproductive asset that enjoyed a rapid price rise in the pastfor a while. Buffett noted that "both Internet stocks and houses have demonstrated the extraordinary excesses that can be created by combining an initially sensible thesis with well-publicized rising prices." However, again he warned that "bubbles blown large enough inevitably pop," which is exactly what he believes will happen with cryptocurrencies in the coming years.
Image source: Getty Images.
While it's possible to make a fortune buying and selling unproductive assets, it often takes more luck than skill, since timing needs to be perfect. That's why Buffett prefers to buy productive assets like businesses, farms, or real estate. He likened them to commercial "cows" that will "live for centuries and give ever greater quantities of 'milk' to boot." More importantly, "their value will be determined not by the medium of exchange but rather by their capacity to deliver milk." In other words, they won't rise in price just because someone else is willing to pay more but instead because production from these assets has increased, since owners can milk them for cash and reinvest it into additional productive assets and compound their wealth.
That's just what Buffett has done over the years, turning the cash flow from a failing textile company known as Berkshire Hathaway into a multibillion-dollar business empire by reinvesting the money into more profitable businesses. Buffett believes that "over any extended period of time, this category of investing will prove to be the runaway winner among the three we've examined. More important, it will beby farthe safest." So while there's a temptation to buy cryptocurrencies given their epic run -- which could continuefor a while --the safer and surer way of building lasting wealth is to invest in productive assets like businesses because they can compound it over time.
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Matthew DiLalloowns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Warren Buffett's Disdain for Cryptocurrencies Isn't a Surprise, Given His Hatred of Gold: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett recently gave an ominous warning to those who hope to make a fortune from buying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. "In terms of cryptocurrencies generally," Buffett told CNBC "I can say with almost certainty that it will come to a bad ending." In fact, he said that if it were possible to buy a five-year put option -- which makes money as an investment loses value -- he'd do so "on every one of the cryptocurrencies." In many ways, Buffett's sharp words against cryptocurrencies match those he's spoken against gold. That's not all that surprising, since the two share eerily similar characteristics. A chart with the names of several cryptocurrencies in the background with a graph moving up. Image source: Getty Images. Betting on hope While Buffett has a well-documented hatred for gold , some of his most critical comments on the shiny metal came in his 2011 letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) . In that letter, he detailed three basic choices investors have to grow their wealth. One of the categories he described in detail are "assets that will never produce anything, but that are purchased in the buyer's hope that someone else -- who also knows that the assets will be forever unproductive -- will pay more for them in the future." He pointed out that "tulips, of all things, briefly became a favorite of such buyers in the 17th century" and that gold was "the major asset in this category" because "if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end." The point is that these assets don't produce anything of value. They don't throw off a spendable income stream like commercial real estate or even a bond, they don't grow food like a farm, and they don't make goods or provide services like a business. In short, these investments don't create wealth for investors by producing it. Instead, Buffett noted: "This type of investment requires an expanding pool of buyers, who, in turn, are enticed because they believe the buying pool will expand still further. Owners are not inspired by what the asset itself can produce -- it will remain lifeless forever -- but rather by the belief that others will desire it even more avidly in the future." Story continues That sounds an awful lot like the current craze over cryptocurrencies. A big gold nugget sitting on $100 bills. Image source: Getty Images. Buying begets more buying -- until it doesn't The similarities of cryptocurrencies with gold and other unproductive assets should be of grave concern to those tempted by them, given the history of unproductive assets. The reason Buffett picked on gold at the time was that it was a hot commodity, with its price rising roughly 200% in the five years leading up to that letter. That prompted Buffett to surmise that the "rising price has on its own generated additional buying enthusiasm, attracting purchasers who see the rise as validating an investment thesis." However, he warned that "as "bandwagon" investors join any party, they create their own truth -- for a while ." In gold's case, it would notch another double-digit gain in 2012 before beginning a long descent in 2013, losing more than 40% of its value at one point. It's still down by about a quarter since the end of 2011. Gold isn't the only unproductive asset that enjoyed a rapid price rise in the past for a while . Buffett noted that "both Internet stocks and houses have demonstrated the extraordinary excesses that can be created by combining an initially sensible thesis with well-publicized rising prices." However, again he warned that "bubbles blown large enough inevitably pop," which is exactly what he believes will happen with cryptocurrencies in the coming years. $100 bills growing from the ground. Image source: Getty Images. Behold a better way While it's possible to make a fortune buying and selling unproductive assets, it often takes more luck than skill, since timing needs to be perfect. That's why Buffett prefers to buy productive assets like businesses, farms, or real estate. He likened them to commercial "cows" that will "live for centuries and give ever greater quantities of 'milk' to boot." More importantly, "their value will be determined not by the medium of exchange but rather by their capacity to deliver milk." In other words, they won't rise in price just because someone else is willing to pay more but instead because production from these assets has increased, since owners can milk them for cash and reinvest it into additional productive assets and compound their wealth. That's just what Buffett has done over the years, turning the cash flow from a failing textile company known as Berkshire Hathaway into a multibillion-dollar business empire by reinvesting the money into more profitable businesses. Buffett believes that "over any extended period of time, this category of investing will prove to be the runaway winner among the three we've examined. More important, it will be by far the safest." So while there's a temptation to buy cryptocurrencies given their epic run -- which could continue for a while -- the safer and surer way of building lasting wealth is to invest in productive assets like businesses because they can compound it over time. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matthew DiLallo owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Surprise! This $940 Credit Survived Tax Reform: During the debate on tax reform , a number of provisions were initially slated for the chopping block. Changes to popular tax breaks, like the state and local tax deduction, drew criticism from taxpayers in high-tax states, but public outcry eventually convinced lawmakers to pull back on their initial call to cut the deduction entirely. Nontraditional students got similar good news. After fears that the Lifetime Learning Credit would be a casualty of the tax-reform effort, Congress ended up leaving the tax break untouched in the final version of its bill. That leaves the credit available for future years, and could save millions of taxpayers an average of nearly $1,000 each on their taxes. Keyboard with blue tax key. Image source: Getty Images. What is the Lifetime Learning Credit? Many people don't know about the Lifetime Learning Credit because it's the less popular of the two major education tax credits . The American Opportunity Tax Credit is the first choice for traditional college students, offering up to $2,500 in annual credits for as many as four years of undergraduate education. However, the Lifetime Learning Credit is available in many more situations than the American Opportunity Tax Credit. In particular, you can take the Lifetime Learning Credit even if: You don't meet the half-time attendance requirement for the American Opportunity Credit. You're not enrolled in a formal degree program. You're in graduate school, or have been an undergrad for more than four years. You're getting formal training for job-related skills that aren't covered under other credits. The Lifetime Learning Credit plays an important role for many nontraditional students. Almost 2.5 million people claimed the credit in the most recent year for which IRS data is available, and they saved a total of almost $2.35 billion as a result. That works out to an average of $940 for each taxpayer who qualified for the credit. How much can I get? To calculate the Lifetime Learning Credit, you need to start by adding up the educational expenses permitted under the tax provision. That includes tuition, required fees, and mandatory course materials for the classes that you're taking. You can claim up to $10,000 in annual educational expenses at this stage. Story continues Then, multiply your allowed expenses by 20%. That yields a maximum credit of $2,000 per year if you spend $10,000 or more on education. Keep in mind, though, that there are income limits that apply to the Lifetime Learning Credit. For 2017 tax returns, if you have modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $56,000 as a single filer or $112,000 for joint filers, you'll lose part of the credit. If your MAGI is above $66,000 for singles or $132,000 for joint filers, the credit disappears entirely. Be smart with your credits The IRS doesn't let you have two bites at the same apple when it comes to educational tax credits . If you claim the more lucrative American Opportunity Credit, then you're not allowed to claim a Lifetime Learning Credit for the same student in the same year. What you can do is claim one credit for one student and the other credit for a different student on the same tax return. The credit maximums are per student and not per tax return. Nevertheless, for the millions of Americans who will never be eligible for the American Opportunity Credit, the prospects of also losing the Lifetime Learning Credit because of initially proposed tax changes were maddening. With the credit having survived, it's more important than ever to make sure you claim it if you're eligible, and make the most of the opportunity to get some money back for what you're investing in yourself and your future. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Surprise! This $940 Credit Survived Tax Reform: During the debate ontax reform, a number of provisions were initially slated for the chopping block. Changes to popular tax breaks, like the state and local tax deduction, drew criticism from taxpayers in high-tax states, but public outcry eventually convinced lawmakers to pull back on their initial call to cut the deduction entirely.
Nontraditional students got similar good news. After fears that the Lifetime Learning Credit would be a casualty of the tax-reform effort, Congress ended up leaving the tax break untouched in the final version of its bill. That leaves the credit available for future years, and could save millions of taxpayers an average of nearly $1,000 each on their taxes.
Image source: Getty Images.
Many people don't know about the Lifetime Learning Credit because it's the less popular of thetwo major education tax credits. The American Opportunity Tax Credit is the first choice for traditional college students, offering up to $2,500 in annual credits for as many as four years of undergraduate education.
However, the Lifetime Learning Credit is available in many more situations than the American Opportunity Tax Credit. In particular, you can take the Lifetime Learning Credit even if:
• You don't meet the half-time attendance requirement for the American Opportunity Credit.
• You're not enrolled in a formal degree program.
• You're in graduate school, or have been an undergrad for more than four years.
• You're getting formal training for job-related skills that aren't covered under other credits.
The Lifetime Learning Credit plays an important role for many nontraditional students. Almost 2.5 million people claimed the credit in the most recent year for which IRS data is available, and they saved a total of almost $2.35 billion as a result. That works out to an average of $940 for each taxpayer who qualified for the credit.
To calculate the Lifetime Learning Credit, you need to start by adding up the educational expenses permitted under the tax provision. That includes tuition, required fees, and mandatory course materials for the classes that you're taking. You can claim up to $10,000 in annual educational expenses at this stage.
Then, multiply your allowed expenses by 20%. That yields a maximum credit of $2,000 per year if you spend $10,000 or more on education.
Keep in mind, though, that there are income limits that apply to the Lifetime Learning Credit. For 2017 tax returns, if you have modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $56,000 as a single filer or $112,000 for joint filers, you'll lose part of the credit. If your MAGI is above $66,000 for singles or $132,000 for joint filers, the credit disappears entirely.
The IRS doesn't let you have two bites at the same apple when it comes toeducational tax credits. If you claim the more lucrative American Opportunity Credit, then you're not allowed to claim a Lifetime Learning Credit for the same student in the same year. What youcando is claim one credit for one student and the other credit for a different student on the same tax return. The credit maximums are perstudentand not per tax return.
Nevertheless, for the millions of Americans who will never be eligible for the American Opportunity Credit, the prospects of also losing the Lifetime Learning Credit because of initially proposed tax changes were maddening. With the credit having survived, it's more important than ever to make sure you claim it if you're eligible, and make the most of the opportunity to get some money back for what you're investing in yourself and your future.
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The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || The Retirement Savings Mistake That 68% of Baby Boomers Regret: As the baby boomers retire in large numbers, they're finally getting the chance to see how well their retirement planning (or lack thereof) has paid off. Unfortunately, many boomers aren't happy with the results: 68% wish they'd saved more, and only 24% are confident that they have enough money to last throughout their retirement, according to a study by the Insured Retirement Institute. The good news is that you can learn from the average boomer's mistakes. Here are some ways to make sure your savings will see you through retirement. Setting your retirement savings goal The best way to set a retirement savings goal is to come up with a list of all the expenses you'll face during retirement, add 10% for unexpected expenses and fun stuff, and use the total for the basis of your retirement planning. For example, if you add up all your expected retirement expenses and reach a total of $3,000 per month, then add 10% ($300) and multiply the sum by 12 to get your minimum annual retirement income goal: $39,600. Assuming you'll be able to take 4% of your entire retirement savings account balance as a distribution each year, (though the "4% rule" has its problems ), then you can turn your retirement income goal into a savings goal by dividing it by 4%. For example, divide the above goal of $39,600 by 0.04 to get a savings goal of $990,000. If you don't want to go through this process, or you're unsure what your expenses will be in retirement, then there are number of shorthand ways to find your retirement savings goal that, though less precise, will at least get you in the ballpark. Frustrated man looking at laptop Image source: Getty Images. Planning your contributions Once you have a savings goal in mind, you can work backwards to figure out how much you need to contribute to reach that goal. The good news is that you don't actually have to save $990,000 in order to accumulate that much money in your retirement savings accounts: Wisely investing the money you contribute will help you grow those funds by a significant percentage each year. The sooner you start contributing, the more time that money will have to grow. Story continues You can use a savings calculator to figure out how much you'll need to contribute to your retirement accounts each month in order to hit your savings goal. For example, let's say your goal is to have $990,000 by the time you retire, you plan to retire 30 years from now, and you have nothing saved so far. Assuming you can earn an average of 8% per year on your investments, a savings calculator will tell you that you need to save $8,092 per year -- approximately $674 per month -- to hit your goal. I can't save that much! If the contributions you'd need to make to reach your goal are way too high, you have a few options. The simplest option is to delay retirement by a few years. Returning to the above example, let's say you decide to retire in 33 years instead of 30 years. Delaying retirement by just three years would reduce your annual contribution goal from $8,092 to $6,281, which works out to $523 in contributions per month. You could hang on to $151 more each month while still ending up with the same amount of money when you retire. Another possibility is to reduce your savings goal by coming up with other sources of retirement income . For example, if you decide to get a part-time job during retirement and are sure you can make at least $1,000 per month at that job, then the amount of annual income you'll need from your retirement savings accounts will drop from $39,600 to $27,600. That means your new retirement savings goal will be $690,000. If you're retiring 30 years from today, you'll need to contribute $5,640 per year -- $470 per month -- to hit your new goal. Finally, you could boost your retirement savings contributions by finding more income today or reducing your current expenses. Increasing your income could mean getting a raise, lobbying for a promotion, switching to a higher-paid job, or supplementing your income with a part-time job or side gig. Reducing your expenses could mean making some short-term sacrifices, such as cutting back on entertainment expenses, to free up some more money. One extremely helpful way to reduce expenses is to pay off any credit card debt you're carrying. Getting rid of those monthly payments can save you a boatload in interest charges, freeing up that money for retirement savings. Saving money is a huge challenge for the average American, but that means you can be above average just by spending a little time on retirement planning. And once you retire, unlike those unfortunate baby boomers, you'll be confident that you have plenty of money to finance your retirement dreams. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || The Retirement Savings Mistake That 68% of Baby Boomers Regret: As the baby boomers retire in large numbers, they're finally getting the chance to see how well their retirement planning (or lack thereof) has paid off. Unfortunately, many boomers aren't happy with the results: 68% wish they'd saved more, and only 24% are confident that they have enough money to last throughout their retirement, according to a study by the Insured Retirement Institute.
The good news is that you can learn from the average boomer's mistakes. Here are some ways to make sure your savings will see you through retirement.
The best way to set a retirement savings goal is to come up with a list of all the expenses you'll face during retirement, add 10% for unexpected expenses and fun stuff, and use the total for the basis of your retirement planning. For example, if you add up all your expected retirement expenses and reach a total of $3,000 per month, then add 10% ($300) and multiply the sum by 12 to get your minimum annual retirement income goal: $39,600.
Assuming you'll be able to take4% of your entire retirement savingsaccount balance as a distribution each year, (thoughthe "4% rule" has its problems), then you can turn your retirement income goal into a savings goal by dividing it by 4%. For example, divide the above goal of $39,600 by 0.04 to get a savings goal of $990,000.
If you don't want to go through this process, or you're unsure what your expenses will be in retirement, then there are number of shorthand ways tofind your retirement savings goalthat, though less precise, will at least get you in the ballpark.
Image source: Getty Images.
Once you have a savings goal in mind, you can work backwards to figure out how much you need to contribute to reach that goal. The good news is that you don't actually have to save $990,000 in order to accumulate that much money in your retirement savings accounts:Wisely investingthe money you contribute will help you grow those funds by a significant percentage each year. The sooner you start contributing, the more time that money will have to grow.
You can use asavings calculatorto figure out how much you'll need to contribute to your retirement accounts each month in order to hit your savings goal. For example, let's say your goal is to have $990,000 by the time you retire, you plan to retire 30 years from now, and you have nothing saved so far. Assuming you can earn an average of 8% per year on your investments, a savings calculator will tell you that you need to save $8,092 per year -- approximately $674 per month -- to hit your goal.
If the contributions you'd need to make to reach your goal are way too high, you have a few options. The simplest option is to delay retirement by a few years. Returning to the above example, let's say you decide to retire in 33 years instead of 30 years. Delaying retirement by just three years would reduce your annual contribution goal from $8,092 to $6,281, which works out to $523 in contributions per month. You could hang on to $151 more each month while still ending up with the same amount of money when you retire.
Another possibility is to reduce your savings goal by coming up with othersources of retirement income. For example, if you decide to get a part-time job during retirement and are sure you can make at least $1,000 per month at that job, then the amount of annual income you'll need from your retirement savings accounts will drop from $39,600 to $27,600. That means your new retirement savings goal will be $690,000. If you're retiring 30 years from today, you'll need to contribute $5,640 per year -- $470 per month -- to hit your new goal.
Finally, you could boost your retirement savings contributions by finding more income today or reducing your current expenses. Increasing your income could mean getting a raise, lobbying for a promotion, switching to a higher-paid job, or supplementing your income with a part-time job or side gig. Reducing your expenses could mean making some short-term sacrifices, such as cutting back on entertainment expenses, to free up some more money.
One extremely helpful way to reduce expenses is to pay off any credit card debt you're carrying. Getting rid of those monthly payments can save you a boatload in interest charges, freeing up that money for retirement savings.
Saving money is a huge challenge for the average American, but that means you can be above average just by spending a little time on retirement planning. And once you retire, unlike those unfortunate baby boomers, you'll be confident that you have plenty of money to finance your retirement dreams.
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The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Where Is T-Mobile's Subscriber Growth Coming From?: T-Mobile(NASDAQ: TMUS)pre-releasedits fourth-quarter earnings results earlier this week, and once again, it topped 1 million postpaid net customer additions. It's the 19th straight quarter the wireless carrier added over 1 million net new customers. Meanwhile, competing carriersVerizon(NYSE: VZ),AT&T;(NYSE: T), andSprint(NYSE: S)have struggled to keep their most valuable subscribers on their service plans.
But one competing carrier is struggling more than others. While T-Mobile saw its porting ratios -- a good indicator of customer switching rates -- rise with all of its competitors, its ratio with Sprint increased significantly more than others in the fourth quarter. 1.5 Sprint customers ported their phone numbers to T-Mobile for each T-Mobile customer that went to Sprint. That's up from 1.25 in the previous quarter. T-Mobile's porting ratio with AT&T and Verizon went up by 0.1 off a higher base.
Image source: T-Mobile.
Sprint is facing a major challenge following the end of its merger talks with T-Mobile. Forced to go it alone, Sprint is now focusing on building out its wireless network, which lags well behind the competition. In the meantime, its only big differentiator, price, is going by the wayside.
Sprint has run several aggressive price promotions over the last few years. It started offering new subscribers a chance to "cut your bill in half" at the end of 2014, and it expanded the promotion at the end of 2015. Now it's offering afree yearof its unlimited data plan for new subscribers -- a promotion that was only supposed to last a limited time last summer but is still available today.
Sprint plans to move away from its aggressive pricing this year with a goal of reachingservice revenue growthby the end of 2018. Additionally, the largest cohort of customers that signed up on its "cut your bill in half promo" will see their promotional rates expire shortly, if they haven't already. The price increases are only going to put further pressure on gross additions while pushing the company's churn rate higher.
T-Mobile has already been a big beneficiary of disappointed Sprint customers in the fourth quarter. It's very likely T-Mobile -- and its focus on customer value -- will attract the lion's share of Sprint deserters in 2018 as well.
While Sprint's porting ratios jumped the most in the fourth quarter, the very fact that AT&T and Verizon have larger customers bases means that T-Mobile is actually gaining more subscribers from the duopoly than Sprint. It's also why it regularly exhibits higher porting ratios with the two market leaders compared to its smaller competitor.
AT&T has fared worse than Verizon, especially since Verizon introduced its new unlimited data plan. T-Mobile saw asignificant dropin its porting ratio with Verizon following the introduction of that plan, but AT&T;'s efforts tobundlenew services has had little effect on its ability to attract new customers from T-Mobile. Verizon has also seen a turnaround in its net postpaid phone subscriber additions and its service revenue since introducing its unlimited plan.
Overall, AT&T is likely the biggest donor of subscribers to T-Mobile, while Sprint may have seen the biggest percentage increase in subscribers lost to the Un-Carrier in the fourth quarter.
There are two sides to the net subscriber addition equation: gross additions and customer retention. T-Mobile posted its lowest fourth-quarter postpaid churn rate ever, coming in at just 1.18%.
Granted, this year's fourth quarter was one of the least competitive in recent history. Carriers have offered free iPhones and other discounts to woo new customers in the past, driving up churn rates across the board. This year was much more tame by comparison with limited discounts on flagship phones.
That said, T-Mobile took some steps on its own to ensure better customer retention. It beganbundlingNetflixwith its multiline unlimited data plans. It also promised it will never raise the rates on existing customers last year, which feeds into consumers' loss aversion. On top of that, it's still improving its network and making its core service better. All of that adds up to more loyal customers.
So, with all of its major competitors giving more than they take away, and T-Mobile holding onto more subscribers, it managed yet another stellar quarter of subscriber growth.
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Adam Levyowns shares of Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Where Is T-Mobile's Subscriber Growth Coming From?: T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) pre-released its fourth-quarter earnings results earlier this week, and once again, it topped 1 million postpaid net customer additions. It's the 19th straight quarter the wireless carrier added over 1 million net new customers. Meanwhile, competing carriers Verizon (NYSE: VZ) , AT&T; (NYSE: T) , and Sprint (NYSE: S) have struggled to keep their most valuable subscribers on their service plans. But one competing carrier is struggling more than others. While T-Mobile saw its porting ratios -- a good indicator of customer switching rates -- rise with all of its competitors, its ratio with Sprint increased significantly more than others in the fourth quarter. 1.5 Sprint customers ported their phone numbers to T-Mobile for each T-Mobile customer that went to Sprint. That's up from 1.25 in the previous quarter. T-Mobile's porting ratio with AT&T and Verizon went up by 0.1 off a higher base. T-Mobile storefront in Times Square Image source: T-Mobile. Sprinting away from Sprint Sprint is facing a major challenge following the end of its merger talks with T-Mobile. Forced to go it alone, Sprint is now focusing on building out its wireless network, which lags well behind the competition. In the meantime, its only big differentiator, price, is going by the wayside. Sprint has run several aggressive price promotions over the last few years. It started offering new subscribers a chance to " cut your bill in half " at the end of 2014, and it expanded the promotion at the end of 2015. Now it's offering a free year of its unlimited data plan for new subscribers -- a promotion that was only supposed to last a limited time last summer but is still available today. Sprint plans to move away from its aggressive pricing this year with a goal of reaching service revenue growth by the end of 2018. Additionally, the largest cohort of customers that signed up on its "cut your bill in half promo" will see their promotional rates expire shortly, if they haven't already. The price increases are only going to put further pressure on gross additions while pushing the company's churn rate higher. Story continues T-Mobile has already been a big beneficiary of disappointed Sprint customers in the fourth quarter. It's very likely T-Mobile -- and its focus on customer value -- will attract the lion's share of Sprint deserters in 2018 as well. Don't forget about AT&T and Verizon While Sprint's porting ratios jumped the most in the fourth quarter, the very fact that AT&T and Verizon have larger customers bases means that T-Mobile is actually gaining more subscribers from the duopoly than Sprint. It's also why it regularly exhibits higher porting ratios with the two market leaders compared to its smaller competitor. AT&T has fared worse than Verizon, especially since Verizon introduced its new unlimited data plan. T-Mobile saw a significant drop in its porting ratio with Verizon following the introduction of that plan, but AT&T;'s efforts to bundle new services has had little effect on its ability to attract new customers from T-Mobile. Verizon has also seen a turnaround in its net postpaid phone subscriber additions and its service revenue since introducing its unlimited plan. Overall, AT&T is likely the biggest donor of subscribers to T-Mobile, while Sprint may have seen the biggest percentage increase in subscribers lost to the Un-Carrier in the fourth quarter. Don't count out T-Mobile's efforts to retain subscribers There are two sides to the net subscriber addition equation: gross additions and customer retention. T-Mobile posted its lowest fourth-quarter postpaid churn rate ever, coming in at just 1.18%. Granted, this year's fourth quarter was one of the least competitive in recent history. Carriers have offered free iPhones and other discounts to woo new customers in the past, driving up churn rates across the board. This year was much more tame by comparison with limited discounts on flagship phones. That said, T-Mobile took some steps on its own to ensure better customer retention. It began bundling Netflix with its multiline unlimited data plans. It also promised it will never raise the rates on existing customers last year, which feeds into consumers' loss aversion. On top of that, it's still improving its network and making its core service better. All of that adds up to more loyal customers. So, with all of its major competitors giving more than they take away, and T-Mobile holding onto more subscribers, it managed yet another stellar quarter of subscriber growth. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levy owns shares of Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Is Corning Stock a Buy in 2018?: 2017 was a great year for glass and ceramics makerCorning(NYSE: GLW), which saw its stock rally 32% against the S&P 500's 19% gain. The 167-year-old company ended a five-quarter streak of annual revenue declines with five straight quarters of growth as most of its business units roared back to life.
But can Corning keep outperforming the market this year? Let's examine the company's strengths and weaknesses to decide.
Corning employees test a sheet of Gorilla Glass. Image source: Corning.
Many investors recognize Corning as the maker of Gorilla Glass, the chemically toughened glass used inconsumer electronics. Corning constantly upgrades the glass with tougher versions and new versions for adjacent markets -- like Gorilla Glass Auto and Gorilla Glass SR+ for wearables. Robust demand for Gorilla Glass turned Corning's specialty materials unit into its fastest-growing business with 26% annual sales growth last quarter.
Corning expects to keep dominating this market, since its short list of competitors -- including Asahi Glass' Dragontrail and Schott AG's Xensation -- lack Corning's brand recognition and scale. DuringCredit Suisse's Tech, Media, and Telecom Conference in November, Corning CFO Tony Tripeny said that he expected the glass supply to be "balanced or even tight" for the foreseeable future.
Corning's optical fiber. Image source: Corning.
Corning's second-fastest-growing business is its optical communications unit, which supplies optical network components for service providers. Demand for these components is booming thanks to the higher network demands of streaming media, cloud services, and other data-intensive tasks.
That's why the unit's revenue rose 15% annually last quarter, and Corning expects its annual revenues to rise from $3 billion in 2016 to $5 billion in 2020.
Corning also recently acquired most of3M's(NYSE: MMM)communication markets business, which sells optical fiber and copper passive connectivity solutions. Buying that unit, which generates roughly $400 million in annual sales, could make it even easier for Corning to hit its 2020 target.
Corning's life sciences unit is also posting steady growth thanks to strong demand for products like Valor Glass, a type of pharmaceutical glass packaging that reduces particle contamination, breaks, and cracks. Customers likePfizerandMerckare already using Valor Glass, and other pharmaceutical and biotech companies should follow suit over the next few quarters.
Corning's environmental technologies business is also generating stable returns thanks to strong sales of gas particulate filters (GPFs), which automakers use to meet emissions standards. Demand for GPFs should keep rising this year as governments tighten those standards and crack down onnon-compliantautomakers.
Corning's only soft spot is its display technologies business, which posted annual revenue declines over the past two quarters on weak demand and low LCD prices. During the Credit Suisse conference, Tripeny said that "to generate acceptable returns on new investment, glass pricing will need to improve even further."
Tripeny noted that TV demand in China "rebounded with mid single-digit unit growth during the Singles Day (Nov. 11) period," and that TV sales in the U.S. were also showing "signs of improvement driven by early Black Friday promotions."
However, those promotion-fueled sales are unlikely to spark a lasting rebound in LCD prices, so the business, which accounted for 28% of Corning's top line last quarter, should remain a weight on its near-term growth.
Yet Corning's other strengths easily offset the weakness of its LCD business. That's why analysts expect the company's revenue and earnings to have respectively risen 7% and 10% in 2017 (which ended on Dec. 31 but which hasn't been reported yet), followed by 3% revenue growth and 6% earnings growth in 2018. Corning's gross margin has also remained fairly stable over the past five years.
Source:YCharts
Corning currently pays a forward dividend yield of 1.9%, which is supported by a lowpayout ratioof 26%. Corning has increased its dividend by 29% over the past two years. For 2018 and 2019, it plans to boost the payout by "at least 10%" each year.
Corning also reduced its share count by about 29% over the past two years withbuybacks. During the Credit Suisse conference, Tripeny stated that buybacks were a "particularly important mechanism, because we continue to view Corning as undervalued relative to our growth opportunities."
However, Corning's insiders aren't eagerly buying the stock. Its insiders sold 2.15 million shares over the past 12 months, but only bought 4,000 shares -- which raises some questions about the "undervalued" nature of the stock.
I own shares of Corning. I think that the stock is still relatively cheap at 15 times earnings, which is lower than the industry average of 18 for electronic component makers.
Corning isn't a sexy growth stock, but the company has plenty ofirons in the fire, a wide moat, and its pays a decent dividend, which makes it a reliable investment for this frothy market.
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Leo Sunowns shares of Corning. The Motley Fool recommends 3M and Corning. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Is Corning Stock a Buy in 2018?: 2017 was a great year for glass and ceramics maker Corning (NYSE: GLW) , which saw its stock rally 32% against the S&P 500's 19% gain. The 167-year-old company ended a five-quarter streak of annual revenue declines with five straight quarters of growth as most of its business units roared back to life. But can Corning keep outperforming the market this year? Let's examine the company's strengths and weaknesses to decide. Corning employees test a sheet of Gorilla Glass. Corning employees test a sheet of Gorilla Glass. Image source: Corning. Corning's core strengths Many investors recognize Corning as the maker of Gorilla Glass, the chemically toughened glass used in consumer electronics . Corning constantly upgrades the glass with tougher versions and new versions for adjacent markets -- like Gorilla Glass Auto and Gorilla Glass SR+ for wearables. Robust demand for Gorilla Glass turned Corning's specialty materials unit into its fastest-growing business with 26% annual sales growth last quarter. Corning expects to keep dominating this market, since its short list of competitors -- including Asahi Glass' Dragontrail and Schott AG's Xensation -- lack Corning's brand recognition and scale. During Credit Suisse 's Tech, Media, and Telecom Conference in November, Corning CFO Tony Tripeny said that he expected the glass supply to be "balanced or even tight" for the foreseeable future. A roll of Corning's optical fiber. Corning's optical fiber. Image source: Corning. Corning's second-fastest-growing business is its optical communications unit, which supplies optical network components for service providers. Demand for these components is booming thanks to the higher network demands of streaming media, cloud services, and other data-intensive tasks. That's why the unit's revenue rose 15% annually last quarter, and Corning expects its annual revenues to rise from $3 billion in 2016 to $5 billion in 2020. Corning also recently acquired most of 3M 's (NYSE: MMM) communication markets business, which sells optical fiber and copper passive connectivity solutions. Buying that unit, which generates roughly $400 million in annual sales, could make it even easier for Corning to hit its 2020 target. Story continues Other growing businesses Corning's life sciences unit is also posting steady growth thanks to strong demand for products like Valor Glass, a type of pharmaceutical glass packaging that reduces particle contamination, breaks, and cracks. Customers like Pfizer and Merck are already using Valor Glass, and other pharmaceutical and biotech companies should follow suit over the next few quarters. Corning's environmental technologies business is also generating stable returns thanks to strong sales of gas particulate filters (GPFs), which automakers use to meet emissions standards. Demand for GPFs should keep rising this year as governments tighten those standards and crack down on non-compliant automakers. Corning's biggest weakness Corning's only soft spot is its display technologies business, which posted annual revenue declines over the past two quarters on weak demand and low LCD prices. During the Credit Suisse conference, Tripeny said that "to generate acceptable returns on new investment, glass pricing will need to improve even further." Tripeny noted that TV demand in China "rebounded with mid single-digit unit growth during the Singles Day (Nov. 11) period," and that TV sales in the U.S. were also showing "signs of improvement driven by early Black Friday promotions." However, those promotion-fueled sales are unlikely to spark a lasting rebound in LCD prices, so the business, which accounted for 28% of Corning's top line last quarter, should remain a weight on its near-term growth. Stable margins and shareholder-friendly moves Yet Corning's other strengths easily offset the weakness of its LCD business. That's why analysts expect the company's revenue and earnings to have respectively risen 7% and 10% in 2017 (which ended on Dec. 31 but which hasn't been reported yet), followed by 3% revenue growth and 6% earnings growth in 2018. Corning's gross margin has also remained fairly stable over the past five years. GLW Gross Profit Margin (Quarterly) Chart Source: YCharts Corning currently pays a forward dividend yield of 1.9%, which is supported by a low payout ratio of 26%. Corning has increased its dividend by 29% over the past two years. For 2018 and 2019, it plans to boost the payout by "at least 10%" each year. Corning also reduced its share count by about 29% over the past two years with buybacks . During the Credit Suisse conference, Tripeny stated that buybacks were a "particularly important mechanism, because we continue to view Corning as undervalued relative to our growth opportunities." However, Corning's insiders aren't eagerly buying the stock. Its insiders sold 2.15 million shares over the past 12 months, but only bought 4,000 shares -- which raises some questions about the "undervalued" nature of the stock. The key takeaways I own shares of Corning. I think that the stock is still relatively cheap at 15 times earnings, which is lower than the industry average of 18 for electronic component makers. Corning isn't a sexy growth stock, but the company has plenty of irons in the fire , a wide moat, and its pays a decent dividend, which makes it a reliable investment for this frothy market. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Leo Sun owns shares of Corning. The Motley Fool recommends 3M and Corning. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
[Social Media Buzz]
Korea price
Time: 01/15 09:11:00
BTC: 19,149,166 KRW
ETH: 1,895,716 KRW
XRP: 2584 KRW
#Bitcoin #Ethereum #Ripple || #Amsterdam Sign up for Luno and get EUR 5.00 worth of #Bitcoin when you buy or sell EUR 250.00, using https://goo.gl/HQ189k || 2018年01月14日 20:00
[DOGE建]
1XP=0.2926172円
24時間の最高値 0.3623352円
24時間の最安値 0.2567375円
[BTC建]
1XP=0.2843978円
24時間の最高値 0.3720256円
24時間の最安値 0.2493円
時価総額ランキング: 73 位 / 全 902 中
#XP $XP || Daftar di Luno dan dapatkan Bitcoin senilai MYR 5,00 ketika Anda jual atau be...
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13819.80, 11490.50, 11188.60, 11474.90, 11607.40, 12899.20, 11600.10, 10931.40, 10868.40, 11359.40
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 679.46, 673.11, 672.86, 665.68, 665.01, 650.62, 655.56, 661.28, 654.10, 651.78, 654.35, 655.03, 656.99, 655.05, 624.68, 606.27, 547.47, 566.35, 578.29, 575.04, 587.78, 592.69, 591.05, 587.80, 592.10, 589.12, 587.56, 585.59, 570.47, 567.24, 577.44, 573.22, 574.32, 575.63, 581.70, 581.31, 586.75, 583.41, 580.18, 577.76, 579.65, 569.95, 573.91, 574.11, 577.50, 575.47, 572.30, 575.54, 598.21, 608.63, 606.59, 610.44, 614.54, 626.32, 622.86, 623.51, 606.72, 608.24, 609.24, 610.68, 607.16, 606.97, 605.98, 609.87, 609.23, 608.31, 597.15, 596.30, 602.84, 602.62, 600.83, 608.04, 606.17, 604.73, 605.69, 609.73, 613.98, 610.89, 612.13, 610.20, 612.51, 613.02, 617.12, 619.11, 616.75, 618.99, 641.07, 636.19, 636.79, 640.38.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-10-14]
Volume: 58144600, RSI (14-day): 71.90, 50-day EMA: 611.69, 200-day EMA: 563.54
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1253.10, Gold RSI: 28.83
Oil Price: 50.35, Oil RSI: 62.31
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Traders take their position on bank stocks ahead of earnings: The " Fast Money " traders weighed in on the bank stocks ahead of earnings reports from Citigroup (NYSE: C) , Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) before the market open on Friday. Trader Brian Kelly said he's keeping an eye on the financial sector, but thinks the "banks are a sell here." Trader Tim Seymour disagreed and said investors should be looking at the banks and find companies with relatively "pristine balance sheets" and "earnings power." Trader Karen Finerman said she likes the valuation of the banks at current levels. Disclosures: TIM SEYMOUR Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM and short: SPY, XRT. His firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM KAREN FINERMAN Karen is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, long DB calls, short DB preferred, FB, FL, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI. Her firm is short IWM, MDY. Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || Traders take their position on bank stocks ahead of earnings: The "Fast Money" traders weighed in on the bank stocks ahead of earnings reports from Citigroup(NYSE: C), Wells Fargo(NYSE: WFC)and JPMorgan Chase(NYSE: JPM)before the market open on Friday.
Trader Brian Kelly said he's keeping an eye on the financial sector, but thinks the "banks are a sell here."
Trader Tim Seymour disagreed and said investors should be looking at the banks and find companies with relatively "pristine balance sheets" and "earnings power."
Trader Karen Finerman said she likes the valuation of the banks at current levels.
Disclosures:
TIM SEYMOUR
Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM and short: SPY, XRT. His firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM
KAREN FINERMAN
Karen is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, long DB calls, short DB preferred, FB, FL, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI. Her firm is short IWM, MDY. Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
BRIAN KELLY
Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen.
GUY ADAMI
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || SEC Approves Fund Liquidity Rules, Goes Easy On ETFs: WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The top U.S. securities regulator on Thursday approved rules designed to protect mutual fund investors from the effects of a sudden sell-off, but it left for another day some of the dicier issues involved. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules take aim at liquidity issues of the $18 billion traditional mutual fund market. But the agency deferred action on a separate plan to regulate the use of derivatives in funds and carved out significant exemptions for exchange-traded funds. Thursday's action was part of a sweeping set of reforms that SEC Chair Mary Jo White has sought in the asset management industry, which includes the open-end fund market. On Thursday, she said the SEC will finish rules on how the funds use derivatives "in the near term," and is also working on annual stress-testing for large investment advisors. ‘More Targeted Approach To ETFs’ White said the rules have been strengthened since they were first proposed more than a year ago. They are "better tailored to the liquidity risks faced by different kinds of funds, with an improved classification scheme for the liquidity of fund investments and a more targeted approach to ETFs," she said before the vote. But the mutual fund and ETF industry did win some major concessions. The three members of the SEC unanimously approved a final version that exempts "in kind" exchange-traded funds, those that honor redemptions in securities instead of cash, from some of its requirements. Several, but not all, ETF issuers asked to keep their products exempt from the rules because they often meet redemption requests from large sellers by handing over stocks or other securities, rather cash. The issuers had said the proposal better fit mutual funds that face pressure to raise cash when investors head to the exits. Three Fund Classifications Under the final rules, funds would have to classify investments into the categories of highly liquid, moderately liquid, less liquid and illiquid. They also would be permitted to classify investments by asset class. The first draft had proposed stricter definitions of categorizing investments. Story continues The new version also keeps in place a requirement that funds keep on hand a certain level of assets that can be converted into cash in three days, but leaves it to the funds' boards to decide how to rectify any dip below that threshold. The original proposal had blocked funds from buying any more assets until they got back up to the minimum. That change should reassure some ETF managers who said that being prevented from buying some assets could contradict their strategies. ETFs have faced fears that they cannot manage rampant selling. On Aug. 24, 2015, heavy demand to sell U.S. ETFs pushed many of their market prices far below the value they could have fetched if they had been redeemed by the issuer. But ETFs operate differently from mutual funds, because most individuals sell them in the public market and cannot redeem them directly with the issuers. Recommended Stories Swedroe: Cross Trading Boosts Mutual Funds Returns Dave Nadig's Deep Dive On New ETF Liquidity Rules SEC Approves Fund Liquidity Rules, Goes Easy On ETFs SEC Wants To Hear From You On Bitcoin ETF 6 ETFs To Gain From Money Market Mutual Fund Reform Permalink | © Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved || SEC Approves Fund Liquidity Rules, Goes Easy On ETFs: WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The top U.S. securities regulator on Thursday approved rules designed to protect mutual fund investors from the effects of a sudden sell-off, but it left for another day some of the dicier issues involved.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules take aim at liquidity issues of the $18 billion traditional mutual fund market. But the agency deferred action on a separate plan to regulate the use of derivatives in funds and carved out significant exemptions for exchange-traded funds.
Thursday's action was part of a sweeping set of reforms that SEC Chair Mary Jo White has sought in the asset management industry, which includes the open-end fund market. On Thursday, she said the SEC will finish rules on how the funds use derivatives "in the near term," and is also working on annual stress-testing for large investment advisors.
‘More Targeted Approach To ETFs’
White said the rules have been strengthened since they were first proposed more than a year ago. They are "better tailored to the liquidity risks faced by different kinds of funds, with an improved classification scheme for the liquidity of fund investments and a more targeted approach to ETFs," she said before the vote.
But the mutual fund and ETF industry did win some major concessions. The three members of the SEC unanimously approved a final version that exempts "in kind" exchange-traded funds, those that honor redemptions in securities instead of cash, from some of its requirements.
Several, but not all, ETF issuers asked to keep their products exempt from the rules because they often meet redemption requests from large sellers by handing over stocks or other securities, rather cash. The issuers had said the proposal better fit mutual funds that face pressure to raise cash when investors head to the exits.
Three Fund Classifications
Under the final rules, funds would have to classify investments into the categories of highly liquid, moderately liquid, less liquid and illiquid. They also would be permitted to classify investments by asset class. The first draft had proposed stricter definitions of categorizing investments.
The new version also keeps in place a requirement that funds keep on hand a certain level of assets that can be converted into cash in three days, but leaves it to the funds' boards to decide how to rectify any dip below that threshold. The original proposal had blocked funds from buying any more assets until they got back up to the minimum.
That change should reassure some ETF managers who said that being prevented from buying some assets could contradict their strategies.
ETFs have faced fears that they cannot manage rampant selling. On Aug. 24, 2015, heavy demand to sell U.S. ETFs pushed many of their market prices far below the value they could have fetched if they had been redeemed by the issuer.
But ETFs operate differently from mutual funds, because most individuals sell them in the public market and cannot redeem them directly with the issuers.
Recommended Stories
• Swedroe: Cross Trading Boosts Mutual Funds Returns
• Dave Nadig's Deep Dive On New ETF Liquidity Rules
• SEC Approves Fund Liquidity Rules, Goes Easy On ETFs
• SEC Wants To Hear From You On Bitcoin ETF
• 6 ETFs To Gain From Money Market Mutual Fund Reform
Permalink| © Copyright 2016ETF.com.All rights reserved || Bitcoin Services Inc. to Develop Online Marketplace Where Bitcoin Can Be Exchanged for Goods & Services: GRANDVILLE, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 13, 2016 /Bitcoin Services Inc., (OTC Pink: BTSC) announced today that it plans to develop an online marketplace where bitcoin can be exchanged for goods & services. Some of the goods will include real estate, cars, apparel, and electronics. The services will include plumbing, catering, and delivering. The advantages of users paying in Bitcoin is being able to send and get money anywhere in the world at any given time. Payments in Bitcoin can also be made and finalized without one's personal information being tied to the transactions. Due to the fact that personal information is kept hidden from prying eyes, Bitcoin protects against identity theft. Furthermore, Bitcoin protocol cannot be manipulated by any person, organization, or government. This is due to Bitcoin being cryptographically secure. In addition, there are currently either no fees, or very low fees within Bitcoin payments.
About Bitcoin Services Inc.:Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of three separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin escrow services, (2) bitcoin mining, and (3) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, providing escrow services for buyers and sellers of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers and effectively compete against similar companies.
Contact:
[email protected]
SOURCE:Bitcoin Services Inc. || Bitcoin Services Inc. to Develop Online Marketplace Where Bitcoin Can Be Exchanged for Goods & Services: GRANDVILLE, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 13, 2016 /Bitcoin Services Inc., (OTC Pink: BTSC) announced today that it plans to develop an online marketplace where bitcoin can be exchanged for goods & services. Some of the goods will include real estate, cars, apparel, and electronics. The services will include plumbing, catering, and delivering. The advantages of users paying in Bitcoin is being able to send and get money anywhere in the world at any given time. Payments in Bitcoin can also be made and finalized without one's personal information being tied to the transactions. Due to the fact that personal information is kept hidden from prying eyes, Bitcoin protects against identity theft. Furthermore, Bitcoin protocol cannot be manipulated by any person, organization, or government. This is due to Bitcoin being cryptographically secure. In addition, there are currently either no fees, or very low fees within Bitcoin payments.
About Bitcoin Services Inc.:Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of three separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin escrow services, (2) bitcoin mining, and (3) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, providing escrow services for buyers and sellers of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers and effectively compete against similar companies.
Contact:
[email protected]
SOURCE:Bitcoin Services Inc. || Bitcoin Services Inc. to Develop Online Marketplace Where Bitcoin Can Be Exchanged for Goods & Services: GRANDVILLE, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 13, 2016 / Bitcoin Services Inc., (OTC Pink: BTSC) announced today that it plans to develop an online marketplace where bitcoin can be exchanged for goods & services. Some of the goods will include real estate, cars, apparel, and electronics. The services will include plumbing, catering, and delivering. The advantages of users paying in Bitcoin is being able to send and get money anywhere in the world at any given time. Payments in Bitcoin can also be made and finalized without one's personal information being tied to the transactions. Due to the fact that personal information is kept hidden from prying eyes, Bitcoin protects against identity theft. Furthermore, Bitcoin protocol cannot be manipulated by any person, organization, or government. This is due to Bitcoin being cryptographically secure. In addition, there are currently either no fees, or very low fees within Bitcoin payments. About Bitcoin Services Inc.: Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of three separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin escrow services, (2) bitcoin mining, and (3) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, providing escrow services for buyers and sellers of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers and effectively compete against similar companies. Story continues Contact: [email protected] SOURCE: Bitcoin Services Inc. || C&W Communications Expands Network With Ericsson Across Caribbean and Panama: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 13, 2016) - C&W's customers to enjoy best-in-class high speed, high performance network to address increasing data traffic demands Expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016 Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core expansion includes both 3G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE), plus indoor coverage based on Ericsson Radio Dot System Ericsson ( NASDAQ : ERIC ) and C&W Communications (C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin American region, now part of Liberty Global (LiLAC Group) today announce the delivery of a complete network expansion for C&W across their operations in the Caribbean and Panama. The expansion includes hardware, software, licensing and services for C&W brands FLOW (Caribbean), BTC (Bahamas) and CWP (Panama). In addition, C&W's network expansion will provide all C&W markets across the Caribbean and Panama access to software upgrades and the opportunity to migrate to the Ericsson Software Model, which provides operators with the best available performance through a simple and transparent upgrade subscription. With 3G and LTE, C&W customers will benefit from a network capable of supporting advanced technologies and other high-speed features designed to provide a better user experience. "Ericsson is committed to providing C&W Communications with excellence in end-user satisfaction and delivering best-in-class results. In the journey that we envision undertaking with C&W, Ericsson will provide solid guidance and support throughout all of the project's critical phases, enabling C&W to provide its customers with the best in mobile connectivity solutions," said Clayton Cruz, Vice-president, Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean. "We are happy to once again partner with Ericsson in this network expansion project across all of our markets. Considering the clear trend in the growth of subscribers, mobile data and smartphone usage, C&W's key objective is to deploy a mobile network with world-class quality, performance and operational convenience in order to exceed our customers' expectations," said Carlo Alloni, Executive Vice-president and CTIO, C&W Communications. According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, by 2021, smartphone subscriptions in Latin America and the Caribbean will comprise 65% of all mobile subscriptions; LTE will account for approximately 30% of all mobile subscriptions, representing more than 250 million mobile subscriptions. In addition, mobile data traffic is expected to grow nine times in the region by 2021, reaching 75% of all mobile traffic. Story continues To meet these increasing traffic demands, C&W's network expansion increases site capacity, improves the performance of the existing network through hardware and software upgrades, facilitates the implementation of carrier aggregation, and allows for the addition of small cells. The expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016. Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets, including the US, Japan and South Korea, and handles the most global LTE traffic. In addition, 40 percent of the world's total mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. More than 270 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered by Ericsson worldwide, of which 200 are live commercially. NOTES TO EDITORS Cable & Wireless and Ericsson deliver world-class mobile broadband for Caribbean & Latin America Cable & Wireless partners with Ericsson and Cisco to enhance its Caribbean IP networks Ericsson core to enable Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE for Cable & Wireless in Panama For media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visit www.ericsson.com/press Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society -- a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future. Our services, software and infrastructure -- especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud -- are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities. With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions -- and our customers -- stay in front. Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2015 were SEK 246.9 billion (USD 29.4 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York. Ericsson has been present in Latin America since 1896, when the company established an agreement in Colombia and delivered equipment for the first time in the region. In the early 1900s, Ericsson increased its presence in Latin America by signing commercial deals in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Today, Ericsson is present in 56 countries within South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, which combined count the region as one of the few with complete Ericsson installations, including a Production Unit, R&D Center and Training Center. Ericsson is the market leading telecom supplier, with over 40% market share in Latin America and more than 100 telecom service contracts in the region. www.ericsson.com/jm www.ericsson.com/jm/news www.twitter.com/EricssonCarib www.facebook.com/EricssonLatinAmerica www.youtube.com/EricssonLatam www.slideshare.net/EricssonLatinAmerica FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Wendi Patrick, External Communications Phone: +506 2519 0800 E-mail: [email protected] About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . View comments || C&W Communications Expands Network With Ericsson Across Caribbean and Panama: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 13, 2016) -
• C&W's customers to enjoy best-in-class high speed, high performance network to address increasing data traffic demands
• Expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016
• Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core expansion includes both 3G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE), plus indoor coverage based on Ericsson Radio Dot System
Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) andC&W Communications(C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin American region, now part ofLiberty Global(LiLAC Group) today announce the delivery of a complete network expansion for C&W across their operations in the Caribbean and Panama. The expansion includes hardware, software, licensing and services for C&W brandsFLOW(Caribbean),BTC(Bahamas) andCWP(Panama).
In addition, C&W's network expansion will provide all C&W markets across the Caribbean and Panama access to software upgrades and the opportunity to migrate to the Ericsson Software Model, which provides operators with the best available performance through a simple and transparent upgrade subscription. With 3G and LTE, C&W customers will benefit from a network capable of supporting advanced technologies and other high-speed features designed to provide a better user experience.
"Ericsson is committed to providing C&W Communications with excellence in end-user satisfaction and delivering best-in-class results. In the journey that we envision undertaking with C&W, Ericsson will provide solid guidance and support throughout all of the project's critical phases, enabling C&W to provide its customers with the best in mobile connectivity solutions," said Clayton Cruz, Vice-president, Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean.
"We are happy to once again partner with Ericsson in this network expansion project across all of our markets. Considering the clear trend in the growth of subscribers, mobile data and smartphone usage, C&W's key objective is to deploy a mobile network with world-class quality, performance and operational convenience in order to exceed our customers' expectations," said Carlo Alloni, Executive Vice-president and CTIO, C&W Communications.
According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, by 2021, smartphone subscriptions in Latin America and the Caribbean will comprise 65% of all mobile subscriptions; LTE will account for approximately 30% of all mobile subscriptions, representing more than 250 million mobile subscriptions. In addition, mobile data traffic is expected to grow nine times in the region by 2021, reaching 75% of all mobile traffic.
To meet these increasing traffic demands, C&W's network expansion increases site capacity, improves the performance of the existing network through hardware and software upgrades, facilitates the implementation of carrier aggregation, and allows for the addition of small cells. The expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016.
Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets, including the US, Japan and South Korea, and handles the most global LTE traffic. In addition, 40 percent of the world's total mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. More than 270 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered by Ericsson worldwide, of which 200 are live commercially.
NOTES TO EDITORSCable & Wireless and Ericsson deliver world-class mobile broadband for Caribbean & Latin AmericaCable & Wireless partners with Ericsson and Cisco to enhance its Caribbean IP networksEricsson core to enable Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE for Cable & Wireless in PanamaFor media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visitwww.ericsson.com/press
Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society -- a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future.
Our services, software and infrastructure -- especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud -- are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities.
With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions -- and our customers -- stay in front.
Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in2015 were SEK 246.9 billion (USD 29.4 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.
Ericsson has been present in Latin America since 1896, when the company established an agreement in Colombia and delivered equipment for the first time in the region. In the early 1900s, Ericsson increased its presence in Latin America by signing commercial deals in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Today, Ericsson is present in 56 countries within South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, which combined count the region as one of the few with complete Ericsson installations, including a Production Unit, R&D Center and Training Center. Ericsson is the market leading telecom supplier, with over 40% market share in Latin America and more than 100 telecom service contracts in the region.
www.ericsson.com/jmwww.ericsson.com/jm/newswww.twitter.com/EricssonCaribwww.facebook.com/EricssonLatinAmericawww.youtube.com/EricssonLatamwww.slideshare.net/EricssonLatinAmerica
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACTWendi Patrick, External CommunicationsPhone:+506 2519 0800E-mail:[email protected]
About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region.
Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter.
About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points.
Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets.
For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. || Nadex Q3 2016: Interest Keeps Growing in Limited Risk Trading: Total number of trades up over 53% versus Q3 2015 Faster, easier deposits and withdrawals using bank debit cards on mobile devices Major updates for Android and iPhone apps New Market Filter gives traders greater control and precision CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2016 / Following the Trading Update for the quarter ending August 31, 2016 reported by parent company IG Group (LSE: IGG), Nadex reported over 37% growth in trade volume and over 53% growth in total trades of binary options during the third quarter of 2016 compared to Q3 2015. Nadex has seen quarterly increases in volume and total trades for 19 of the last 20 quarters. This sustained growth points to an important movement: demand for limited-risk alternatives to conventional trading. Individual traders are increasingly attracted to the low fees, low minimum opening balance, and guaranteed limited risk offered by exchange-traded binary options and spreads. Faster, Easier Deposits and Withdrawals The latest updates to the Nadex mobile apps make it easy and quick to open and manage an account from anywhere. Mobile users can upload application documents and deposit funds instantly. Members can withdraw funds to their checking accounts just as quickly and securely, anytime from PC or mobile. Powerful Market Filter Tool With over 10,000 contracts available daily, Nadex added a major new feature to its proprietary trading platform: Market Filter. Traders can search for markets and contracts to trade based on several criteria, including asset class, current trading price, length of contract, and time to expiration. For example, a trader can filter for crude oil binaries costing less than $40, to sell, with under an hour until expiration. Or for weekly euro binary options that are at or in the money. This feature, available in both the free demo and live platform with free real-time market data, allows traders to test a virtually limitless range of strategies. Growing Awareness of the Value of Regulated Exchanges The importance of trading binary options on a CFTC-regulated exchange has received mainstream acceptance. In 2013, the CFTC issued an advisory stating that only three exchanges, including Nadex, were legally authorized to solicit US clients. In early 2016, a major Cyprus-based binary options vendor found to have offered off-exchange contracts to US customers settled with the CFTC and SEC for $11 million and closed its US operation. Story continues Such developments have highlighted the contrast between illegal offshore vendors and regulated, US-based exchanges like Nadex. Nadex has emerged as a leading CFTC-regulated exchange offering limited-risk trading in binary options and spreads on multiple asset classes. "We're no longer just trying to introduce the concept of limited-risk trading," said Nadex CEO Timothy McDermott. "People are aware of it. Now our job is to get them asking, 'If I can trade the same markets with limited risk on a CFTC regulated exchange - with lower fees and capital requirements - why not?' Frankly, we hope everyone starts asking that question." Nadex: US-based, regulated, secure Nadex is the first and largest CFTC-regulated online exchange in the U.S offering binary options and spreads to individual traders seeking low-cost, limited risk ways to participate in the markets. Member funds are segregated and held in top-tier US banks. Using Nadex's online and mobile platforms, traders can trade short-term price movements in the most heavily traded currency, commodity, and stock index markets, as well as on economic events and the price of Bitcoin, with limited-risk hourly, daily and weekly contracts. Notes to Editors Nadex offers traders a trusted, secure way to trade binary options and spreads on a wide range of the most heavily traded forex, commodities and stock indices. Nadex is headquartered in Chicago, and is subject to regulatory oversight by the CFTC. Follow us on Twitter: @Nadex_US Like us on Facebook: nadexUS To learn more about Nadex, please visit https://nadex.com . For information on becoming a Nadex member, call 1-866-296-0167 or email [email protected] . Disclaimer: Trading on Nadex involves risk and may not be appropriate for all investors. SOURCE: Nadex || Nadex Q3 2016: Interest Keeps Growing in Limited Risk Trading: Total number of trades up over 53% versus Q3 2015 Faster, easier deposits and withdrawals using bank debit cards on mobile devices Major updates for Android and iPhone apps New Market Filter gives traders greater control and precision CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2016 / Following the Trading Update for the quarter ending August 31, 2016 reported by parent company IG Group (LSE: IGG), Nadex reported over 37% growth in trade volume and over 53% growth in total trades of binary options during the third quarter of 2016 compared to Q3 2015. Nadex has seen quarterly increases in volume and total trades for 19 of the last 20 quarters. This sustained growth points to an important movement: demand for limited-risk alternatives to conventional trading. Individual traders are increasingly attracted to the low fees, low minimum opening balance, and guaranteed limited risk offered by exchange-traded binary options and spreads. Faster, Easier Deposits and Withdrawals The latest updates to the Nadex mobile apps make it easy and quick to open and manage an account from anywhere. Mobile users can upload application documents and deposit funds instantly. Members can withdraw funds to their checking accounts just as quickly and securely, anytime from PC or mobile. Powerful Market Filter Tool With over 10,000 contracts available daily, Nadex added a major new feature to its proprietary trading platform: Market Filter. Traders can search for markets and contracts to trade based on several criteria, including asset class, current trading price, length of contract, and time to expiration. For example, a trader can filter for crude oil binaries costing less than $40, to sell, with under an hour until expiration. Or for weekly euro binary options that are at or in the money. This feature, available in both the free demo and live platform with free real-time market data, allows traders to test a virtually limitless range of strategies. Growing Awareness of the Value of Regulated Exchanges The importance of trading binary options on a CFTC-regulated exchange has received mainstream acceptance. In 2013, the CFTC issued an advisory stating that only three exchanges, including Nadex, were legally authorized to solicit US clients. In early 2016, a major Cyprus-based binary options vendor found to have offered off-exchange contracts to US customers settled with the CFTC and SEC for $11 million and closed its US operation. Story continues Such developments have highlighted the contrast between illegal offshore vendors and regulated, US-based exchanges like Nadex. Nadex has emerged as a leading CFTC-regulated exchange offering limited-risk trading in binary options and spreads on multiple asset classes. "We're no longer just trying to introduce the concept of limited-risk trading," said Nadex CEO Timothy McDermott. "People are aware of it. Now our job is to get them asking, 'If I can trade the same markets with limited risk on a CFTC regulated exchange - with lower fees and capital requirements - why not?' Frankly, we hope everyone starts asking that question." Nadex: US-based, regulated, secure Nadex is the first and largest CFTC-regulated online exchange in the U.S offering binary options and spreads to individual traders seeking low-cost, limited risk ways to participate in the markets. Member funds are segregated and held in top-tier US banks. Using Nadex's online and mobile platforms, traders can trade short-term price movements in the most heavily traded currency, commodity, and stock index markets, as well as on economic events and the price of Bitcoin, with limited-risk hourly, daily and weekly contracts. Notes to Editors Nadex offers traders a trusted, secure way to trade binary options and spreads on a wide range of the most heavily traded forex, commodities and stock indices. Nadex is headquartered in Chicago, and is subject to regulatory oversight by the CFTC. Follow us on Twitter: @Nadex_US Like us on Facebook: nadexUS To learn more about Nadex, please visit https://nadex.com . For information on becoming a Nadex member, call 1-866-296-0167 or email [email protected] . Disclaimer: Trading on Nadex involves risk and may not be appropriate for all investors. SOURCE: Nadex || A Harvard Professor Studied Infamous White-Collar Criminals. Here’s What He Learned.: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Eugene Soltes does, at least if the men are disgraced corporate executives. Soltes, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, struck up relationships--mainly by phone, email, and letter--with close to 50 prominent white-collar criminals in order to learn what made them tick, why they blew it all, and what, if anything, distinguishes them from us. He eventually got to knowPonzi schemers Bernard Madoffand Allen Stanford, former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, Enron CFO Andy Fastow, ImClone CEO Samuel Waksal, McKinsey partner Anil Kumar, KPMG partner Scott London, and many others.
The resulting book,Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal(Public Affairs, 447 pages), comes out October 11. For this article, Soltes also struck up a brief telephone relationship withFortunelegal affairs writer Roger Parloff, though he has not yet been convicted of anything.
Fortune: When did you start working on this project and why?
The project began almost a decade ago, although at the time it wasn't even a scholarly endeavor. It was just my curiosity. I was a graduate student, finishing my doctorate at the University of Chicago School of Business. One night I was working on my dissertation, which involved a large empirical dataset, and was waiting for some data output. I was watching TV and came across a show on MSNBC calledLockup--a cross between a reality and documentary show.
It was about criminals--mostly violent offenders. From this I started wondering: What about all the nonviolent offenders--like the executives I'd read about in the papers. That spurred me to write down the first ten questions that came to mind and to send letters to a number of prominent white-collar criminals. That led, down the road, to this project.
Were most the white-collar criminals fundamentally like you and me, or were they sociopaths?
By and large, they were like us. That's one of the main things I took away in this project.
Once they've been indicted or convicted, we tend to distance them from ourselves and say we'd never do this. We're not like them. But when we look at their errors more carefully, they're actually ones we are all susceptible to making. The main difference is that we are not generally in those types of leadership positions that when we make an error it actually has that kind of cataclysmic consequences on thousands or tens of thousands of people.
The main challenge that not just managers face, but that we all face as humans, is that we're not hardwired to detect harm that we're doing when the harm is distant. It's not enough to know the difference between right and wrong. One actually has to feel that one's actions are harmful to avoid going forward. So take something like insider trading. You don't see the victims. It's actually impossible in many instances to identify who those victims are. So it's not surprising that if you engage in insider trading, there's not going to be any internal alarm screaming out that you're engaging in some extraordinarily heinous crime.
So I could sit in a room all day with these executives and never be worried about them going into my back pocket and taking $5 out of my wallet. They're socialized. They wouldn't do that. Yet many of these individuals--I've held stock in some of their firms--they've taken actually far more than that out of my retirement account, or my stock account. But they don't feel any kind of deep harm in doing so. That's a discrepancy.
Was Bernie Madoff a sociopath?
Out of all the individuals I've spent time with, Madoff is different. Unlike other managers, Madoff knew his victims in intimate ways--they were family, friends, people in his religious circle.
Madoff is a brilliant individual. Cordial. Open. I see why he was such a successful manager in terms of bringing people into his fund and taking on this leadership position. But he doesn't feel a great deal of remorse for his actions. He’s simply less empathetic.
Did most people feel remorse?
Very few. That was something that did surprise me. That's something I found puzzling for awhile until I started appreciating the fact that it's hard to feel deep remorse if you don't actually see the people whom you've hurt. You read that you've harmed the integrity of the markets--but that doesn't resonate internally with us very well.
Do you think any of the people you met were actually innocent?
There were a couple cases where the penalties they faced seemed quite remarkable. One person that particularly resonated with me Scott Harkonen, the CEO of a biotech firm called InterMune. In his case they were developing a new drug for a fatal lung disease called IPF (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). They ran this trial. When the results came back, they found some things potentially working, and other things weren't quite so successful. They put together a press release describing all the technical detail, all the nitty gritty. But they started the press release at the top saying that the trial demonstrated that this had some success in treating IPF. A number of years later the government went after them for fraud, saying that "demonstrate" was misleading. And in his particular case, I'd say the word "suggest" would probably have been a more conservative way of framing it. But he faced up to 10 years in prison, which is what the government sought.
He received probation, but, still, the effects on his life and career are really extraordinary. He spent millions of dollars in defense. The loss of his license. The loss of his reputation.
And I look at the current political discourse, and some of the things that our potential leaders are saying, and how they frame them, and I think ofhow Scott Harkonen faced ten years in prisonbecause he used the word "demonstrate" rather than "suggest"?
The two major presidential candidates have each been accused by their critics of criminal wrongdoing. How do their personalities and temperaments stack up against those of the people in your book? [This interview took place beforedisclosure of the 2005Access Hollywoodvideoin which Republican candidate Donald Trump made lewd comments about groping women.]
There's a trait associated with being a leader of any large firm. We have people who are CEOs and CFOs come regularly to Harvard Business School and there's a lot of similarities. You don't become head of large firm by luck. There are some characteristics of temperament that allow you to get there. Temperament, discipline, and self-control are crucial.
I see momentary lapses of self-control and restraint as being one of the things that actually undermined the executives in my book. They showed discipline and self-control for decades. But we all have momentary lapses.
I think Secretary [Hillary] Clinton has said about her email server: This was a mistake. It was a lapse in judgment.
And then I think what we've seen from Mr. Trump is, he's struggling to maintain that discipline and temperament in any consistent way. It's actually being able to maintain discipline and control under stress, under different circumstances, which is, it seems to me, one of the most important characteristics of being a successful leader. This is what took down the people I've been speaking with, who are, in many cases, really remarkable individuals. Brilliant individuals. And when you see the mistakes they made, and how that has changed their lives and careers and harmed others, it is really remarkable and humbling.
So when I look at the political candidates, I think of that. It doesn't require very many mistakes to have really catastrophic consequences not only for their own careers, but for those around them. In the business context, the victims are shareholders. But in politics, the victims would be us, and citizens of the world.
See original article on Fortune.com
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• This is what white collar criminals do after prison || A Harvard Professor Studied Infamous White-Collar Criminals. Heres What He Learned.: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Eugene Soltes does, at least if the men are disgraced corporate executives. Soltes, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, struck up relationships--mainly by phone, email, and letter--with close to 50 prominent white-collar criminals in order to learn what made them tick, why they blew it all, and what, if anything, distinguishes them from us. He eventually got to know Ponzi schemers Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford, former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, Enron CFO Andy Fastow, ImClone CEO Samuel Waksal, McKinsey partner Anil Kumar, KPMG partner Scott London, and many others. The resulting book, Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal (Public Affairs, 447 pages), comes out October 11. For this article, Soltes also struck up a brief telephone relationship with Fortune legal affairs writer Roger Parloff, though he has not yet been convicted of anything. Fortune : When did you start working on this project and why? The project began almost a decade ago, although at the time it wasn't even a scholarly endeavor. It was just my curiosity. I was a graduate student, finishing my doctorate at the University of Chicago School of Business. One night I was working on my dissertation, which involved a large empirical dataset, and was waiting for some data output. I was watching TV and came across a show on MSNBC called Lockup --a cross between a reality and documentary show. It was about criminals--mostly violent offenders. From this I started wondering: What about all the nonviolent offenders--like the executives I'd read about in the papers. That spurred me to write down the first ten questions that came to mind and to send letters to a number of prominent white-collar criminals. That led, down the road, to this project. Were most the white-collar criminals fundamentally like you and me, or were they sociopaths? By and large, they were like us. That's one of the main things I took away in this project. Story continues Once they've been indicted or convicted, we tend to distance them from ourselves and say we'd never do this. We're not like them. But when we look at their errors more carefully, they're actually ones we are all susceptible to making. The main difference is that we are not generally in those types of leadership positions that when we make an error it actually has that kind of cataclysmic consequences on thousands or tens of thousands of people. The main challenge that not just managers face, but that we all face as humans, is that we're not hardwired to detect harm that we're doing when the harm is distant. It's not enough to know the difference between right and wrong. One actually has to feel that one's actions are harmful to avoid going forward. So take something like insider trading. You don't see the victims. It's actually impossible in many instances to identify who those victims are. So it's not surprising that if you engage in insider trading, there's not going to be any internal alarm screaming out that you're engaging in some extraordinarily heinous crime. So I could sit in a room all day with these executives and never be worried about them going into my back pocket and taking $5 out of my wallet. They're socialized. They wouldn't do that. Yet many of these individuals--I've held stock in some of their firms--they've taken actually far more than that out of my retirement account, or my stock account. But they don't feel any kind of deep harm in doing so. That's a discrepancy. Was Bernie Madoff a sociopath? Out of all the individuals I've spent time with, Madoff is different. Unlike other managers, Madoff knew his victims in intimate ways--they were family, friends, people in his religious circle. Madoff is a brilliant individual. Cordial. Open. I see why he was such a successful manager in terms of bringing people into his fund and taking on this leadership position. But he doesn't feel a great deal of remorse for his actions. Hes simply less empathetic. Did most people feel remorse? Very few. That was something that did surprise me. That's something I found puzzling for awhile until I started appreciating the fact that it's hard to feel deep remorse if you don't actually see the people whom you've hurt. You read that you've harmed the integrity of the markets--but that doesn't resonate internally with us very well. Do you think any of the people you met were actually innocent? There were a couple cases where the penalties they faced seemed quite remarkable. One person that particularly resonated with me Scott Harkonen, the CEO of a biotech firm called InterMune. In his case they were developing a new drug for a fatal lung disease called IPF (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). They ran this trial. When the results came back, they found some things potentially working, and other things weren't quite so successful. They put together a press release describing all the technical detail, all the nitty gritty. But they started the press release at the top saying that the trial demonstrated that this had some success in treating IPF. A number of years later the government went after them for fraud, saying that "demonstrate" was misleading. And in his particular case, I'd say the word "suggest" would probably have been a more conservative way of framing it. But he faced up to 10 years in prison, which is what the government sought. He received probation, but, still, the effects on his life and career are really extraordinary. He spent millions of dollars in defense. The loss of his license. The loss of his reputation. And I look at the current political discourse, and some of the things that our potential leaders are saying, and how they frame them, and I think of how Scott Harkonen faced ten years in prison because he used the word "demonstrate" rather than "suggest"? The two major presidential candidates have each been accused by their critics of criminal wrongdoing. How do their personalities and temperaments stack up against those of the people in your book? [This interview took place before disclosure of the 2005 Access Hollywood video in which Republican candidate Donald Trump made lewd comments about groping women.] There's a trait associated with being a leader of any large firm. We have people who are CEOs and CFOs come regularly to Harvard Business School and there's a lot of similarities. You don't become head of large firm by luck. There are some characteristics of temperament that allow you to get there. Temperament, discipline, and self-control are crucial. I see momentary lapses of self-control and restraint as being one of the things that actually undermined the executives in my book. They showed discipline and self-control for decades. But we all have momentary lapses. I think Secretary [Hillary] Clinton has said about her email server: This was a mistake. It was a lapse in judgment. And then I think what we've seen from Mr. Trump is, he's struggling to maintain that discipline and temperament in any consistent way. It's actually being able to maintain discipline and control under stress, under different circumstances, which is, it seems to me, one of the most important characteristics of being a successful leader. This is what took down the people I've been speaking with, who are, in many cases, really remarkable individuals. Brilliant individuals. And when you see the mistakes they made, and how that has changed their lives and careers and harmed others, it is really remarkable and humbling. So when I look at the political candidates, I think of that. It doesn't require very many mistakes to have really catastrophic consequences not only for their own careers, but for those around them. In the business context, the victims are shareholders. But in politics, the victims would be us, and citizens of the world. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Here's Who's Most Likely to Rip Off Their Employer Justice Department is setting its sights on white-collar criminals These hackers allegedly stole insider info to make big trades Bitcoin's first criminal goes to prison today This is what white collar criminals do after prison || 10 paid iPhone apps on sale for free for a limited time: Galaxy Note 7s are exploding... iPhones are exploding... it's time for some uplifting news and nothing is more uplifting than scoring a bunch of paid iPhone and iPad apps for free. Today's batch includes several solid apps as well as a few nifty sticker packs for iMessage, but these sales won't last so be sure to check them out right away. DON’T MISS: No matter what happens next, the Galaxy Note 7 is dead to us These are paid iPhone and iPad apps that have been made available for free for a limited time by their developers. There is no way to tell how long they will be free. These sales could end an hour from now or a week from now — obviously, the only thing we can guarantee is that they were free at the time this post was written. If you click on a link and see a price listed next to an app instead of the word “get,” it is no longer free. The sale has ended. If you download the app, you will be charged. Widget Calendar widget-calendar Normally $0.99. “Quotes: Widget & Watch” gives 2 beautiful quotes a day. “Memory: Your Memo” helps you remember everything by various colors. --- Widget Calendar shows the full calendar in widget. - See the calendar and the events in widget - Hide events of category that you don't want to see in widget - View all the reminders and manage it - Open Calendar app of the date - Open Reminders by touching the list name - Smooth transitions and no buggy moment The fastest way to check your calendar whenever you need to, even when the screen is locked! Download Widget Calendar Union union Normally $1.99. - "A professional image blending tool that’s actually easy to use." - TECHCRUNCH - "A quick and easy way to turn your iPhone or iPad into a photo manipulation tool." - GIZMODO - "The best image-blending app around." - CULT OF MAC *** From the creators of Fragment, Tangent and Matter, previous App Store Editors' Choice and App of the Week *** Union is an elegant image blending tool that lets you create superimposed, silhouetted, and double-exposed photos. Here's how it works. 1. Load a background image, solid color, or transparent layer 2. Load a foreground image, solid color, or shape 3. Efficiently erase areas of the foreground image using Union’s palette of intuitive, user-friendly tools 4. Adjust the position and size of the foreground image to reach desired composition 5. Make color adjustments on the background and foreground so they blend seamlessly 6. Save your work in full resolution and share your work with friends Also included in Union is Pixite Source, a free resource for professional quality images, textures, and overlays that you can use in your edits. Union invites professionals and hobbyists alike to explore image blending and photo editing. Story continues Download Union Election Stickers election-stickers Normally $0.99. Election Stickers: 2016 Edition Express your political views in iMessages with this U.S. Election sticker pack that contains our 2016 presidential candidates: Hillary and Trump. Quick tips on installing and using Sticker apps: • To access iMessage apps, tap the App Store icon alongside the compose field to see your most recently used iMessage app. • To continue browsing, tap the icon on the lower left corner which brings up the app drawer. From there, tap the plus icon to access the App Store for iMessage, where you can browse and download more apps. Here, you can also go to Manage where you can add your apps to your app drawer. • To use a sticker within a conversation, you simply tap to send or you can touch and hold to place them on top of bubbles, other Stickers, or even photos. It feels just like peeling and pasting a traditional sticker. • iPhone and iPad users (running iOS 10) and Apple Watch owners (running watchOS 3) can receive stickers. On Apple Watch, you can send any of the stickers you recently sent from iPhone or iPad. You can receive stickers on earlier versions of iOS and other platforms but they’re received inline as images and don’t support being pasted on top of text, photos etc. Express yourself in new ways with Election Stickers you can put anywhere in your chat. Scale, rotate, and layer stickers—even place them on photos you send and receive! • SEND stickers in chat • PLACE stickers anywhere on your iMessages • CUSTOMIZE your photos with stickers in chat • LAYER stickers over each other, in chat, and on photos • SCALE & ROTATE stickers Download Election Stickers Halloween halloween Normally $0.99. Halloween stickers for iMessage. Special price for launch only so download now and try it out! The pack contains 15 high quality ANIMATED stickers you can put everywhere on your messages. No in-app purchase. all stickers are included with the app! Download Halloween Mobdro Plus mobdro-plus Normally $0.99. Mobdro Plus is built for music lovers. This is the only outstanding music app for millions songs from YouTube. Get the app, discover, organise and play thousands of premium tracks or playlists seamlessly. Feature Sections of Mobdro app: Trending Songs & PlayLists - Realtime hottest official music tracks by Genres. - Trending premium songs on overall. - Season, spotlight and Index playlists. Search - One search button to continuously listen best songs on your favourite topics. - Easy to create playlist and add tracks to your library. - Search by track and playlist. PlayList - Organise unlimited number of playlists. - Play your list on your own favours : normal, repeat and shuffle. Player - Best optimised player for watch music mvs. - Best experiences on listening music, just like normal music app. Please do send your voices so we can get it and deliver your favourite features at the best manner. Download Mobdro Plus let's led lets-led Normally $0.99. Let’s Led turns your iphone/ipad into an ticker display. a time clock, and with over 100 symbol, you can send any message you want. Download let's led mixsuite mixsuite Normally $0.99. MixSuite allows you to mix your favourite tracks with your favourite videos effortlessly. This app allows you to select your video(s) from a variety of different areas, to make sure you never miss out on capturing the perfect video for your mood. Choose from YouTube, Vimeo, or even upload your own videos from your personal device! Now onto the Music - MixSuite brings through all your personal tracks from your native music app to allow for quick and easy selection of the tracks you wish to listen to. Now you can create your own Mix! Simply Double-tap the tracks from first to last to order them along with the selected video(s). MixSuite will even allow you to add a voiceover to the video - narrate over your favourite videos to give a truly unique mix. Tap save and you’re ready to listen to your mix! All mixes are saved to a dedicated library within the app to allow for playback at any time. Don’t forget to share the app to your friends for them to give it a try! Download mixsuite CryptoTrader cryptotrader Normally $2.99. CryptoTrader: Interactive, Real-Time Cryptocurrency Advisor! - Handy & clear chart optimized for mobile screens - Up-to-date real-time price data of digital coins and tokens - Historical price data to analyze trends - Current order book and recent trades - EMA and MACD indicators Supported cryptocurrencies: - Bitcoin (Bitfinex, Coinbase, Btc-e, Okcoin) - Ethereum (Poloniex, Kraken, Bitfinex) - Monero - Augur - Ripple - Dash - Steem - Litecoin - Ethereum Classic - and many more. Download CryptoTrader MORPH morph Normally $0.99. From the ominous dangers of a dark square world, MORPH an adorable little creature is propelled by adept chooses into the light, finding his way from world to world in this extremely astute puzzle game. Careful thought is necessary to avoid treacherous obstacles which would lead to a certain horrible death and find the hidden path to the portal leading to the light a symbol of your growing enlightenment. Download MORPH Clean&Clean cleanclean Normally $0.99. CLEANER MASTER FOR IOS … √ Clean&Clean Master – The World's Leading Cleaner & Optimizer for Mobile. √ "Memory Cleaner" helps you free up your RAM on device to boost performance. √ "Lightning Disk Cleaner": we bring the new technology for this feature to helps you clean junk/temp files on disk, which is faster than other apps same feature. Do you think your device is well organize? You will surprised how app can upgrade and make it more smooth & faster!!! Main Features: √ Find & Merge duplicate contacts, phone √ Delete multiple contacts √ One tap backup your contacts √ Quick find the contacts you need √ Show system statistics: memory, storage Download Clean&Clean Trending right now: Apple launches investigation as another iPhone goes up in flames Don’t expect a Surface Book 2 to take on Apple’s new MacBook Pro this year Tests show that one iPhone 7 model is actually slower than all the others See the original version of this article on BGR.com View comments || 10 paid iPhone apps on sale for free for a limited time: Galaxy Note 7s are exploding... iPhones are exploding... it's time for some uplifting news and nothing is more uplifting than scoring a bunch of paid iPhone and iPad apps for free. Today's batch includes several solid apps as well as a few nifty sticker packs for iMessage, but these sales won't last so be sure to check them out right away. DON’T MISS: No matter what happens next, the Galaxy Note 7 is dead to us These are paid iPhone and iPad apps that have been made available for free for a limited time by their developers. There is no way to tell how long they will be free. These sales could end an hour from now or a week from now — obviously, the only thing we can guarantee is that they were free at the time this post was written. If you click on a link and see a price listed next to an app instead of the word “get,” it is no longer free. The sale has ended. If you download the app, you will be charged. Widget Calendar widget-calendar Normally $0.99. “Quotes: Widget & Watch” gives 2 beautiful quotes a day. “Memory: Your Memo” helps you remember everything by various colors. --- Widget Calendar shows the full calendar in widget. - See the calendar and the events in widget - Hide events of category that you don't want to see in widget - View all the reminders and manage it - Open Calendar app of the date - Open Reminders by touching the list name - Smooth transitions and no buggy moment The fastest way to check your calendar whenever you need to, even when the screen is locked! Download Widget Calendar Union union Normally $1.99. - "A professional image blending tool that’s actually easy to use." - TECHCRUNCH - "A quick and easy way to turn your iPhone or iPad into a photo manipulation tool." - GIZMODO - "The best image-blending app around." - CULT OF MAC *** From the creators of Fragment, Tangent and Matter, previous App Store Editors' Choice and App of the Week *** Union is an elegant image blending tool that lets you create superimposed, silhouetted, and double-exposed photos. Here's how it works. 1. Load a background image, solid color, or transparent layer 2. Load a foreground image, solid color, or shape 3. Efficiently erase areas of the foreground image using Union’s palette of intuitive, user-friendly tools 4. Adjust the position and size of the foreground image to reach desired composition 5. Make color adjustments on the background and foreground so they blend seamlessly 6. Save your work in full resolution and share your work with friends Also included in Union is Pixite Source, a free resource for professional quality images, textures, and overlays that you can use in your edits. Union invites professionals and hobbyists alike to explore image blending and photo editing. Story continues Download Union Election Stickers election-stickers Normally $0.99. Election Stickers: 2016 Edition Express your political views in iMessages with this U.S. Election sticker pack that contains our 2016 presidential candidates: Hillary and Trump. Quick tips on installing and using Sticker apps: • To access iMessage apps, tap the App Store icon alongside the compose field to see your most recently used iMessage app. • To continue browsing, tap the icon on the lower left corner which brings up the app drawer. From there, tap the plus icon to access the App Store for iMessage, where you can browse and download more apps. Here, you can also go to Manage where you can add your apps to your app drawer. • To use a sticker within a conversation, you simply tap to send or you can touch and hold to place them on top of bubbles, other Stickers, or even photos. It feels just like peeling and pasting a traditional sticker. • iPhone and iPad users (running iOS 10) and Apple Watch owners (running watchOS 3) can receive stickers. On Apple Watch, you can send any of the stickers you recently sent from iPhone or iPad. You can receive stickers on earlier versions of iOS and other platforms but they’re received inline as images and don’t support being pasted on top of text, photos etc. Express yourself in new ways with Election Stickers you can put anywhere in your chat. Scale, rotate, and layer stickers—even place them on photos you send and receive! • SEND stickers in chat • PLACE stickers anywhere on your iMessages • CUSTOMIZE your photos with stickers in chat • LAYER stickers over each other, in chat, and on photos • SCALE & ROTATE stickers Download Election Stickers Halloween halloween Normally $0.99. Halloween stickers for iMessage. Special price for launch only so download now and try it out! The pack contains 15 high quality ANIMATED stickers you can put everywhere on your messages. No in-app purchase. all stickers are included with the app! Download Halloween Mobdro Plus mobdro-plus Normally $0.99. Mobdro Plus is built for music lovers. This is the only outstanding music app for millions songs from YouTube. Get the app, discover, organise and play thousands of premium tracks or playlists seamlessly. Feature Sections of Mobdro app: Trending Songs & PlayLists - Realtime hottest official music tracks by Genres. - Trending premium songs on overall. - Season, spotlight and Index playlists. Search - One search button to continuously listen best songs on your favourite topics. - Easy to create playlist and add tracks to your library. - Search by track and playlist. PlayList - Organise unlimited number of playlists. - Play your list on your own favours : normal, repeat and shuffle. Player - Best optimised player for watch music mvs. - Best experiences on listening music, just like normal music app. Please do send your voices so we can get it and deliver your favourite features at the best manner. Download Mobdro Plus let's led lets-led Normally $0.99. Let’s Led turns your iphone/ipad into an ticker display. a time clock, and with over 100 symbol, you can send any message you want. Download let's led mixsuite mixsuite Normally $0.99. MixSuite allows you to mix your favourite tracks with your favourite videos effortlessly. This app allows you to select your video(s) from a variety of different areas, to make sure you never miss out on capturing the perfect video for your mood. Choose from YouTube, Vimeo, or even upload your own videos from your personal device! Now onto the Music - MixSuite brings through all your personal tracks from your native music app to allow for quick and easy selection of the tracks you wish to listen to. Now you can create your own Mix! Simply Double-tap the tracks from first to last to order them along with the selected video(s). MixSuite will even allow you to add a voiceover to the video - narrate over your favourite videos to give a truly unique mix. Tap save and you’re ready to listen to your mix! All mixes are saved to a dedicated library within the app to allow for playback at any time. Don’t forget to share the app to your friends for them to give it a try! Download mixsuite CryptoTrader cryptotrader Normally $2.99. CryptoTrader: Interactive, Real-Time Cryptocurrency Advisor! - Handy & clear chart optimized for mobile screens - Up-to-date real-time price data of digital coins and tokens - Historical price data to analyze trends - Current order book and recent trades - EMA and MACD indicators Supported cryptocurrencies: - Bitcoin (Bitfinex, Coinbase, Btc-e, Okcoin) - Ethereum (Poloniex, Kraken, Bitfinex) - Monero - Augur - Ripple - Dash - Steem - Litecoin - Ethereum Classic - and many more. Download CryptoTrader MORPH morph Normally $0.99. From the ominous dangers of a dark square world, MORPH an adorable little creature is propelled by adept chooses into the light, finding his way from world to world in this extremely astute puzzle game. Careful thought is necessary to avoid treacherous obstacles which would lead to a certain horrible death and find the hidden path to the portal leading to the light a symbol of your growing enlightenment. Download MORPH Clean&Clean cleanclean Normally $0.99. CLEANER MASTER FOR IOS … √ Clean&Clean Master – The World's Leading Cleaner & Optimizer for Mobile. √ "Memory Cleaner" helps you free up your RAM on device to boost performance. √ "Lightning Disk Cleaner": we bring the new technology for this feature to helps you clean junk/temp files on disk, which is faster than other apps same feature. Do you think your device is well organize? You will surprised how app can upgrade and make it more smooth & faster!!! Main Features: √ Find & Merge duplicate contacts, phone √ Delete multiple contacts √ One tap backup your contacts √ Quick find the contacts you need √ Show system statistics: memory, storage Download Clean&Clean Trending right now: Apple launches investigation as another iPhone goes up in flames Don’t expect a Surface Book 2 to take on Apple’s new MacBook Pro this year Tests show that one iPhone 7 model is actually slower than all the others See the original version of this article on BGR.com View comments || Traders weigh opportunity in Deutsche Bank as European banks gain: The " Fast Money " traders debated whether it's time to buy Deutsche Bank (XETRA:DBK-DE) after the European banks (Mexico Stock Exchange: SX7P-MX) saw their best weekly performance in a month . Trader Karen Finerman said "the leverage and potential volatility in [Deutsche Bank] is enormous." She said she bought some call options in the stock. Trader Steve Grasso agreed and said he was tempted to buy the stock on Friday. Grasso said he feels Deutsche will be able to resolve its issues and that he sees positive headlines for the bank rolling in. Trader Guy Adami wasn't confident that was the case. He said the $14-billion opening position levied by the Justice Department in September came well after the stock had begun to decline. U.S.-listed shares of Deutsche have declined more than 52 percent in the past year. Disclosures: STEVE GRASSO Grasso is long: BA, CC, CHK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX. Grasso's children own: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY NO SHORTS. His firm is long VIRT, DVN, LDP, WDR, AVP, CVX, FCX, ICE, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OLN, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TEX, TITXF, URI, VALE, WDR, WYNN, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, MJNA, TITXF, NXTD, SPY, QQQ, DIA, XLI, BGCP, VIRT, JCP, GE, AIR, FP BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen. KAREN FINERMAN Karen is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, long DB calls, short DB preferred, FB, FL, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI. Her firm is short IWM, MDY. Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Traders weigh opportunity in Deutsche Bank as European banks gain: The "Fast Money" traders debated whether it's time to buy Deutsche Bank(XETRA:DBK-DE)after the European banks(Mexico Stock Exchange: SX7P-MX)saw theirbest weekly performance in a month.
Trader Karen Finerman said "the leverage and potential volatility in [Deutsche Bank] is enormous." She said she bought some call options in the stock.
Trader Steve Grasso agreed and said he was tempted to buy the stock on Friday. Grasso said he feels Deutsche will be able to resolve its issues and that he sees positive headlines for the bank rolling in.
Trader Guy Adami wasn't confident that was the case. He said the $14-billion opening position levied by the Justice Department in September came well after the stock had begun to decline. U.S.-listed shares of Deutsche have declined more than 52 percent in the past year.
Disclosures:
STEVE GRASSO
Grasso is long: BA, CC, CHK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX. Grasso's children own: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY NO SHORTS. His firm is long VIRT, DVN, LDP, WDR, AVP, CVX, FCX, ICE, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OLN, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TEX, TITXF, URI, VALE, WDR, WYNN, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, MJNA, TITXF, NXTD, SPY, QQQ, DIA, XLI, BGCP, VIRT, JCP, GE, AIR, FP
BRIAN KELLY
Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen.
KAREN FINERMAN
Karen is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, long DB calls, short DB preferred, FB, FL, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI. Her firm is short IWM, MDY. Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
GUY ADAMI
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Your first trade for Friday, October 7: The "Fast Money" traders shared their first moves for the market open.
Tim Seymour was a buyer of Total S.A.(Euronext Paris: FP-FR).
Brian Kelly was a seller of UnitedHealth(NYSE: UNH).
Dan Nathan was a buyer of Twitter(NYSE: TWTR).
Guy Adami was a buyer of CME Group(NASDAQ: CME).
Trader disclosure: On October 6, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM. Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, TLT, XOP, WTI, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY=, GBP=. Dan Nathan is long TWTR, long PYPL oct call, Long FEZ Nov put spread, long EEM Nov put spread, long XHB jan put spread, long XLK Jan put spread, long XLU Dec call spread, SMH Nov Put Spread. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
More From CNBC
• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Your first trade for Friday, October 7: The " Fast Money " traders shared their first moves for the market open. Tim Seymour was a buyer of Total S.A. (Euronext Paris: FP-FR) . Brian Kelly was a seller of UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) . Dan Nathan was a buyer of Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) . Guy Adami was a buyer of CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) . Trader disclosure: On October 6, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM. Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, TLT, XOP, WTI, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY=, GBP=. Dan Nathan is long TWTR, long PYPL oct call, Long FEZ Nov put spread, long EEM Nov put spread, long XHB jan put spread, long XLK Jan put spread, long XLU Dec call spread, SMH Nov Put Spread. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance
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$635.68 #OKCoin;
$640.00 #itBit;
#bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse || BITSTAMP LAST 632.22$ AVERAGE 634.00$ at 8:11 UTC #Bitcoin #BTCUSD || BTC-E LAST 580.00€ AVERAGE 578.04€ at 21:15 UTC #Bitcoin #BTCEUR || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$632.50/...
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638.65, 641.63, 639.19, 637.96, 630.52, 630.86, 632.83, 657.29, 657.07, 653.76
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 1804.91, 1808.91, 1738.43, 1734.45, 1839.09, 1888.65, 1987.71, 2084.73, 2041.20, 2173.40, 2320.42, 2443.64, 2304.98, 2202.42, 2038.87, 2155.80, 2255.61, 2175.47, 2286.41, 2407.88, 2488.55, 2515.35, 2511.81, 2686.81, 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63, 2717.02, 2506.37, 2464.58, 2518.56, 2655.88, 2548.29, 2589.60, 2721.79, 2689.10, 2705.41, 2744.91, 2608.72, 2589.41, 2478.45, 2552.45, 2574.79, 2539.32, 2480.84, 2434.55, 2506.47, 2564.06, 2601.64, 2601.99, 2608.56, 2518.66, 2571.34, 2518.44, 2372.56, 2337.79, 2398.84, 2357.90, 2233.34, 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43, 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12, 2730.40, 2754.86, 2576.48, 2529.45, 2671.78, 2809.01, 2726.45, 2757.18, 2875.34, 2718.26, 2710.67, 2804.73, 2895.89, 3252.91, 3213.94, 3378.94, 3419.94, 3342.47, 3381.28.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-08-10]
Volume: 1515110016, RSI (14-day): 67.74, 50-day EMA: 2711.64, 200-day EMA: 1964.53
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1283.70, Gold RSI: 67.92
Oil Price: 48.59, Oil RSI: 54.05
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Wall Street traders have had a tough year — and it's eating into their bonuses: (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
Less-than-stellar Wall Street trading results will likely have an impact on this year’s bonuses.
While investment bankers will probably see big jumps in their annual bonus, securities traders likely won’t get the same increase — and could even see a 5% drop, according to a new report from HR consulting firm Johnson Associates.
The data wasfirst reportedby Bloomberg News’ Sarah Ponczek:
Fees from advising on mergers and selling stocks and bonds for companies rose at four of the five biggest firms last quarter, offsetting lower trading results. Bankers who underwrite equity and debt will probably see annual bonuses surge 10 percent to 20 percent or more, while those in retail and commercial banking can expect raises of 5 percent to 10 percent.
As markets climbed steadily higher this year, the VIX volatility indexplunged to historic lows. Trading desks, once the powerhouse of banks’ profitability, took big hits because of the drop.
Goldman Sachs,JPMorgan, andBank of Americaall reported declines in fixed-income trading in the second quarter.Morgan Stanleywas the only bank to post trading gains, despite what the CEO called a "subdued environment."
Hedge fund employees can also expect their bonuses to increase up to 5% this year. That's despite some name brand funds not doing well. According to investor letters obtained by Business Insider, many major funds are struggling to find positive returns.
Maverick Capital, a $10.5 billion hedge fund manager,made no moneyon its flagship fund in the first half of 2017.The S&P 500, which the fund compares itself to, rose 9.3% over the same period.
NOW WATCH:Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Tech stocks are 'overvalued,' but you should still buy them
More From Business Insider
• One of the stock market's biggest opportunities is being ignored
• Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions
• 'It comes down to execution': Here's what Wall Street is saying about Tesla || Wall Street traders have had a tough year — and it's eating into their bonuses: sad NYSE trader (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid) Less-than-stellar Wall Street trading results will likely have an impact on this year’s bonuses. While investment bankers will probably see big jumps in their annual bonus, securities traders likely won’t get the same increase — and could even see a 5% drop, according to a new report from HR consulting firm Johnson Associates. The data was first reported by Bloomberg News’ Sarah Ponczek: Fees from advising on mergers and selling stocks and bonds for companies rose at four of the five biggest firms last quarter, offsetting lower trading results. Bankers who underwrite equity and debt will probably see annual bonuses surge 10 percent to 20 percent or more, while those in retail and commercial banking can expect raises of 5 percent to 10 percent. As markets climbed steadily higher this year, the VIX volatility index plunged to historic lows . Trading desks, once the powerhouse of banks’ profitability, took big hits because of the drop. Goldman Sachs , JPMorgan , and Bank of America all reported declines in fixed-income trading in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley was the only bank to post trading gains, despite what the CEO called a "subdued environment." Hedge fund employees can also expect their bonuses to increase up to 5% this year. That's despite some name brand funds not doing well. According to investor letters obtained by Business Insider, many major funds are struggling to find positive returns. Maverick Capital, a $10.5 billion hedge fund manager, made no money on its flagship fund in the first half of 2017. The S&P 500, which the fund compares itself to, rose 9.3% over the same period. NOW WATCH: Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Tech stocks are 'overvalued,' but you should still buy them More From Business Insider One of the stock market's biggest opportunities is being ignored Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions 'It comes down to execution': Here's what Wall Street is saying about Tesla || BARCLAYS: AMD can't be saved by cryptocurrencies: (Genesis Mining)
There is a lot of hype around cryptocurrencies right now, but it won't be enough to saveAMD.
Bitcoin has forked, bitcoin cash is higher than investors thought, and mostcryptocurrencies are growing at rates that are hard to keep track of. This hype has given a boost to companies like AMD andNvidia, who's graphics cards are selling like crazy as miners try to grab their piece of the cryptocurrency tidal wave.
But, cryptocurrencies are incredibly volatile, and interest in mining them isn't a reliable source of revenue for the chip makers, Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis said in a client note sent out on Tuesday.
"The release of the recent Mercury data showsthat AMD’s PC business was actually down in June (desktops only up slightly despite Ryzen launch and Mobile down) and therefore GPUs drove essentially all of the beat in June (and likely September too,)" Curtis wrote. "Investors should place very little value on this earnings stream."
Cryptocurrency mining works on a regular CPU, but a GPU that is traditionally used for gaming isgood at the type of math needed to verify paymentsfor a lot of cryptocurrencies. Adding a GPU to a mining setup will make it faster, giving a miner a higher chance of getting rewarded for helping to verify payments made through cryptocurrency platforms.
Investing in these chip companies is all aboutbelieving that their technology is better than the competition, and Curtis doesn't believe AMD is where it needs to be. AMD's data center and CPU chips don't stack up well against Intel and Nvidia's offerings, according to Curtis.
Even if AMD did have the best chip, buying one and only using it for cryptocurrency mining isn't really worth it anymore.
"By our math, it is already unprofitable to purchase a GPU at retail price for Ethereum mining let alone the 1.5-2x they are selling for," Curtis said.
AMD is up 12.86% so far this year, trading around $12.77 a share. Curtis is bearish on the stock and has a price target of $9.
(Markets Insider)
NOW WATCH:THE BOTTOM LINE: New record highs for stocks and a deep dive into Apple's iPhone
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions
• Bitcoin cash is crashing
• Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down || BARCLAYS: AMD can't be saved by cryptocurrencies: genesis ether enigma mining ethereum (Genesis Mining) There is a lot of hype around cryptocurrencies right now, but it won't be enough to save AMD . Bitcoin has forked, bitcoin cash is higher than investors thought, and most cryptocurrencies are growing at rates that are hard to keep track of . This hype has given a boost to companies like AMD and Nvidia , who's graphics cards are selling like crazy as miners try to grab their piece of the cryptocurrency tidal wave. But, cryptocurrencies are incredibly volatile, and interest in mining them isn't a reliable source of revenue for the chip makers, Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis said in a client note sent out on Tuesday. "The release of the recent Mercury data shows that AMD’s PC business was actually down in June ( desktops only up slightly despite Ryzen launch and Mobile down) and therefore GPUs drove essentially all of the beat in June (and likely September too,)" Curtis wrote. "I nvestors should place very little value on this earnings stream." Cryptocurrency mining works on a regular CPU, but a GPU that is traditionally used for gaming is good at the type of math needed to verify payments for a lot of cryptocurrencies. Adding a GPU to a mining setup will make it faster, giving a miner a higher chance of getting rewarded for helping to verify payments made through cryptocurrency platforms. Investing in these chip companies is all about believing that their technology is better than the competition , and Curtis doesn't believe AMD is where it needs to be. AMD's data center and CPU chips don't stack up well against Intel and Nvidia's offerings, according to Curtis. Even if AMD did have the best chip, buying one and only using it for cryptocurrency mining isn't really worth it anymore. "By our math, it is already unprofitable to purchase a GPU at retail price for Ethereum mining let alone the 1.5-2x they are selling for," Curtis said. AMD is up 12.86% so far this year, trading around $12.77 a share. Curtis is bearish on the stock and has a price target of $9. Story continues Watch AMD's stock price move in real time... amd stock price (Markets Insider) NOW WATCH: THE BOTTOM LINE: New record highs for stocks and a deep dive into Apple's iPhone More From Business Insider Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions Bitcoin cash is crashing Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down || Fidelity allows clients to see digital currencies on its website: By Anna Irrera NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments has started allowing clients to use its website to view their holdings of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies held through digital wallet provider Coinbase, the company said on Wednesday. The initiative, previously tested with the Boston-based money manager's employees, is a rare example of an established financial services company warming up to cryptocurrencies. Starting Wednesday, most Fidelity clients will be able to authorize Coinbase, one of the largest crypto-currency exchanges in the United States, to provide the fund manager with data on their holdings. Through the experiment, the company said it aims to learn more about digital currencies, which have been proliferating since the creation of Bitcoin, the oldest and most valuable of these assets. Coinbase enables users to buy and trade Bitcoin as well as competitor virtual currencies Ethereum and Litecoin. "This is an experiment in the spirit of learning what these crypto assets are like and how our customers may want to interact with them," Hadley Stern, senior vice president and managing director at Fidelity Labs, the company's innovation unit, said in an interview. Bitcoin hit a record high on Tuesday, with one unit of bitcoin trading at above $3,400 on Coinbase. The currency's rise in value is not a driving force behind the initiative, Stern said, noting that the integration is part of Fidelity's wider efforts around cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology blockchain. Many large financial institutions around the world have been investing in blockchain over the past two years, in the hopes that it can help them slash costs and simplify some processes. Blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet rather than a central authority. However, most established financial firms have shied away from associating themselves with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, because the sector remains largely unregulated. Story continues Fidelity's Chief Executive Officer Abigail Johnson announced the company's intention to launch the Coinbase integration at an industry conference in May. At the time Johnson also revealed that Fidelity had been accepting bitcoin payments in its cafeteria, but said the experiment had highlighted the technology's flaws as a means of payments. "But I am still a believer – and it's no accident that I'm one of the few standing before you today from a large financial services firm that hasn't given up on digital currencies," Johnson said at the time. (This version of the story has been refiled to remove "Inc" from Fidelity Inc's name) (Reporting by Anna Irrera; Editing by David Gregorio) || Fidelity allows clients to see digital currencies on its website: By Anna Irrera
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments has started allowing clients to use its website to view their holdings of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies held through digital wallet provider Coinbase, the company said on Wednesday.
The initiative, previously tested with the Boston-based money manager's employees, is a rare example of an established financial services company warming up to cryptocurrencies.
Starting Wednesday, most Fidelity clients will be able to authorize Coinbase, one of the largest crypto-currency exchanges in the United States, to provide the fund manager with data on their holdings.
Through the experiment, the company said it aims to learn more about digital currencies, which have been proliferating since the creation of Bitcoin, the oldest and most valuable of these assets.
Coinbase enables users to buy and trade Bitcoin as well as competitor virtual currencies Ethereum and Litecoin.
"This is an experiment in the spirit of learning what these crypto assets are like and how our customers may want to interact with them," Hadley Stern, senior vice president and managing director at Fidelity Labs, the company's innovation unit, said in an interview.
Bitcoin hit a record high on Tuesday, with one unit of bitcoin trading at above $3,400 on Coinbase.
The currency's rise in value is not a driving force behind the initiative, Stern said, noting that the integration is part of Fidelity's wider efforts around cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology blockchain.
Many large financial institutions around the world have been investing in blockchain over the past two years, in the hopes that it can help them slash costs and simplify some processes. Blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet rather than a central authority.
However, most established financial firms have shied away from associating themselves with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, because the sector remains largely unregulated.
Fidelity's Chief Executive Officer Abigail Johnson announced the company's intention to launch the Coinbase integration at an industry conference in May.
At the time Johnson also revealed that Fidelity had been accepting bitcoin payments in its cafeteria, but said the experiment had highlighted the technology's flaws as a means of payments.
"But I am still a believer – and it's no accident that I'm one of the few standing before you today from a large financial services firm that hasn't given up on digital currencies," Johnson said at the time.
(This version of the story has been refiled to remove "Inc" from Fidelity Inc's name)
(Reporting by Anna Irrera; Editing by David Gregorio) || Initial coin offerings have raised $1.2 billion this year and now surpass early stage VC funding: The amount of money raised by cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups via so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs) has surpassed early stage venture capital (VC) funding for internet companies for the past two months.
ICOs are a way for start-ups to raise money from users, similar to crowdfunding, by allowing them to buy a stake. In return, the user will receive a token or digital currency, which are equivalent to shares in the firm. ICOs are popular among cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups and have exploded in the past few months.
The total amount of money raised via ICOs in April was just under $100 million, but by May this had more than doubled to almost $250 million, according to Coinschedule, a website that tracks such data. In June, ICO funding had hit over $550 million and it was the first month ever that it surpassed angel and seed VC funding. This was noted by Goldman Sachs in a note released Tuesday.
Angel and early VC funding in June was just under $300 million, Goldman noted, according to CB Insights data. In July, ICOs were just over $300 million, while angel and early VC funding was just over $200 million.
In 2017, there has been 92 ICOs which collectively have raised $1.25 billion.
A number of companies have raised a large amount of money via ICOs. A start-up called Tezos raised over $230 million. The company has created a new blockchain — the technology that underpins the likes of bitcoin or ethereum. Another company called Bancor raised $153 million.
But ICOs have received a lot of criticism and are under scrutiny from regulators. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS),said in a recent statementthat ICOs are "vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing risks due to the anonymous nature of the transactions, and the ease with which large sums of monies may be raised in a short period of time."
And the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)said last monththat the country's securities laws may apply to the sale of new digital coins.
Meanwhile, a start-up called CoinDash started an ICO, butwas eventually hackedlast month with the funds being stolen.
"Strict regulation comparable to the IPO business to protect investors is required," Oliver Bussmann, a former chief information officer at UBS, and now head of a fintech advisory firm, told CNBC by email.
But Bussmann was confident that ICOs will continue.
"ICO as a new business model leveraging blockchain technology will sustain as the digital way, combining crowdfunding and (a) new hybrid asset class of equity ownership and currency," Bussmann said.
More From CNBC
• Vantiv seals $10.4 billion merger with Worldpay
• Tesla investors need a 'bipolar outlook' on the stock, analyst says
• Bitcoin breaks through $3,500 to hit fresh record high, now up 264% this year || Initial coin offerings have raised $1.2 billion this year and now surpass early stage VC funding: The amount of money raised by cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups via so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs) has surpassed early stage venture capital (VC) funding for internet companies for the past two months. ICOs are a way for start-ups to raise money from users, similar to crowdfunding, by allowing them to buy a stake. In return, the user will receive a token or digital currency, which are equivalent to shares in the firm. ICOs are popular among cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups and have exploded in the past few months. The total amount of money raised via ICOs in April was just under $100 million, but by May this had more than doubled to almost $250 million, according to Coinschedule, a website that tracks such data. In June, ICO funding had hit over $550 million and it was the first month ever that it surpassed angel and seed VC funding. This was noted by Goldman Sachs in a note released Tuesday. Angel and early VC funding in June was just under $300 million, Goldman noted, according to CB Insights data. In July, ICOs were just over $300 million, while angel and early VC funding was just over $200 million. In 2017, there has been 92 ICOs which collectively have raised $1.25 billion. A number of companies have raised a large amount of money via ICOs. A start-up called Tezos raised over $230 million. The company has created a new blockchain — the technology that underpins the likes of bitcoin or ethereum. Another company called Bancor raised $153 million. But ICOs have received a lot of criticism and are under scrutiny from regulators. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said in a recent statement that ICOs are "vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing risks due to the anonymous nature of the transactions, and the ease with which large sums of monies may be raised in a short period of time." And the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said last month that the country's securities laws may apply to the sale of new digital coins. Story continues Meanwhile, a start-up called CoinDash started an ICO, but was eventually hacked last month with the funds being stolen. "Strict regulation comparable to the IPO business to protect investors is required," Oliver Bussmann, a former chief information officer at UBS, and now head of a fintech advisory firm, told CNBC by email. But Bussmann was confident that ICOs will continue. "ICO as a new business model leveraging blockchain technology will sustain as the digital way, combining crowdfunding and (a) new hybrid asset class of equity ownership and currency," Bussmann said. More From CNBC Vantiv seals $10.4 billion merger with Worldpay Tesla investors need a 'bipolar outlook' on the stock, analyst says Bitcoin breaks through $3,500 to hit fresh record high, now up 264% this year || What Like Ahead for Telecom ETFs?: The U.S. telecommunications industry is currently balanced with almost equal proportions of positive and negative influences. This year, we expect this industry to witness growth more or less in line with the broader market. Positive Factors At present, the U.S. telecom industry enjoys several positive attributes. First, the new telecom regulatory body Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given enough indications that it will be less stringent compared with the Obama administration and is likely to roll back several regulations of the previous regime. Second, the less restrictive nature of the FCC will aid mergers and acquisitions which are likely to spur growth in 2017. Third, President Trump has decided to improve broadband availability in rural areas. Rural broadband development will be an element of his ambitious $1 trillion infrastructure plan he will submit to the Congress soon. (Read: Bitcoin Soars to Record HighFork, Futures and ETFs Explained) Negative Factors However, several near-term headwinds prevail in the telecom industry. The chief ones include growing price competition for wireless services that are likely to reduce carriers' revenue growth in 2017. Leading cable MSOs (multi service operators) have decided to enter the wireless field this year, which is likely to intensify competition in an already saturated market. Further, capital spending by U.S. telecom carriers may be muted in 2017. 4G LTE wireless penetration is currently 83% in North America. This can primarily be attributed to most carriers intention to upgrade to the 5G wireless network standard which requires massive investment. However, a full phased 5G network deployment is unlikely before 2020. Internet of Things (IoT): The Next Growth Driver IoT, which enables any physical electronic device with a valid IP-address to transfer data seamlessly over a wireless network, is fast gaining market traction and bringing about fundamental changes in business models. Next-generation superfast wireless networks (4G LTE, LTE-A, upcoming 5G) will provide the primary impetus to the telecom industry. In this context, IoT holds the potential to be the numero uno factor in driving growth in the space. Superfast 5G mobile networks will be of utmost importance in the management of exponential growth in IoT. (Read: 5 Smart Beta ETFs with Brilliant Returns) Story continues Unlimited Data Plan War Wireless consumers pay millions extra in the form of added surcharges, taxes, monthly fees and carrier price hikes every year. The practice seems to have peaked and carriers are still looking for ways to fetch more from their customers. Several consumer groups have criticized extra fees because these are easily overlooked and lead to higher-than-advertised price payments. The U.S. telecom market continues to witness intense pricing competition as success depends largely on technical superiority, quality of services and scalability. (Read: Q2 Earnings Effect--4 Must-See ETF Charts) ETFs to Tap the Sector Against this backdrop, investors seeking to tap the growth potential of the highly competitive telecom sector may take a closer look at the ETF approach to reap maximum benefit from investing in this sector. This technique can help to spread out assets among a wide variety of companies and reduce company specific risks for a very low cost. Below, we highlight the ETFs in this sector in greater detail for Telecom ETF investors: iShares Global Telecommunications ETF (IXP) IXP is one of the most popular Telecom ETF available in the market. Launched in Nov 2001, this ETF tracks investment results before fees and expenses corresponds to the price and yield performance of the S&P Global 1200 Telecommunications Sector Index. The fund has nearly $331.72 million of assets under management and an average trading volume of roughly 26,660 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 47 basis points a year. The fund holds 31 stocks in its portfolio and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 71.16% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and Vodafone Group Plc. with asset allocation of 18.72%, 15.40% and 6.03%, respectively. Integrated Telecommunication Services, Wireless Telecommunication Services and Alternative Carriers are the three major sectors with asset holdings of 71.78%, 26.45% and 1.36% respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 3.76%. Vanguard Telecommunication Services ETF (VOX) Another popular fund in the Telecom ETF space is VOX. Launched in Sep 2004, this ETF seeks to track the performance corresponding to the benchmark MSCI US Investable Market Telecommunication Services 25/50 Index. It has assets under management of nearly $1,346.40 million and an average trading volume of roughly 105,491 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 10 basis points a year. The fund holds 28 stocks in its portfolio and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 69.70% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top three stocks in the ETF are AT&T, Verizon and Level 3 Communications Inc. Integrated Telecommunication Services, Alternative Carriers and Wireless Telecommunication Services are the three major sectors with asset holdings of 61.80%, 23.20% and 15.00%, respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 3.33%. SPDR S&P Telecom ETF (XTL) Incepted in Jan 2011, XTL ETF tries to match the returns of the S&P Telecom Select Industry Index, before expenses. The fund manages an asset size of nearly $72.20 million and an average trading volume of roughly 12,222 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 35 basis points a year. The fund holds 52 stocks in total in its basket. However, this ETF is not following any concentrated approach as the top ten stocks hold only 25.33% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include Applied Optoelectronics Inc., Infinera Corp. and Ubiquiti Networks Inc., with asset allocation of 3.45%, 2.55% and 2.52%, respectively. Communications Equipment, Integrated Telecommunications Services, Alternative Carriers and Wireless telecommunication Services are the four sectors with asset holdings of 62.21%, 15.26%, 12.92% and 9.39% respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 1.23%. iShares US Telecommunications ETF (IYZ) Incepted in May 2000, IYZ ETF tracks investment results before fees and expenses corresponds to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones US Select Telecommunications Index. The fund manages assets worth of more than $474.49 million and an average trading volume of roughly 479,580 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 44 basis points a year. The fund holds 20 stocks and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 63.09% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include AT&T, Verizon, and Level 3 Communications with asset allocation of 10.50%, 10.45% and 6.37%, respectively. The three major sectors of this ETF include Integrated Telecommunication Services, Wireless Telecommunication Services and Alternative Carriers with asset holdings of 50.77%, 27.30%, and 21.86% respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 2.85%. Fidelity MSCI Telecom Services Index ETF (FCOM) Incepted in Oct 2013, FCOM ETF tracks investment results before fees and expenses corresponds to the performance of the MSCI USA IMI Telecommunication Services 25/50 Index. The fund manages assets worth of nearly $115.80 million and an average trading volume of roughly 40,778 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 8 basis points a year. The fund holds 27 stocks and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 72.08% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include Verizon, AT&T and Level 3 Communications, with asset allocation of 23.96%, 22.88% and 4.41%, respectively. Diversified Telecommunication Services and Wireless Telecommunication Services are the two major sectors of this ETF with asset holdings of 84.91% and 13.67%, respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 2.75%. More Stock News: Tech Opportunity Worth $386 Billion in 2017 From driverless cars to artificial intelligence, we've seen an unsurpassed growth of high-tech products in recent months. Yesterday's science-fiction is becoming today's reality. Despite all the innovation, there is a single component no tech company can survive without. Demand for this critical device will reach $387 billion this year alone, and it's likely to grow even faster in the future. Zacks has released a brand-new Special Report to help you take advantage of this exciting investment opportunity. Most importantly, it reveals 4 stocks with massive profit potential. See these stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report FID-TELECOM (FCOM): ETF Research Reports VIPERS-TELE SVC (VOX): ETF Research Reports ISHARS-US TELE (IYZ): ETF Research Reports SPDR-SP TELCM (XTL): ETF Research Reports ISHARS-GLB TELE (IXP): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || What Like Ahead for Telecom ETFs?: The U.S. telecommunications industry is currently balanced with almost equal proportions of positive and negative influences. This year, we expect this industry to witness growth more or less in line with the broader market.
Positive Factors
At present, the U.S. telecom industry enjoys several positive attributes. First, the new telecom regulatory body – Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – has given enough indications that it will be less stringent compared with the Obama administration and is likely to roll back several regulations of the previous regime. Second, the less restrictive nature of the FCC will aid mergers and acquisitions which are likely to spur growth in 2017. Third, President Trump has decided to improve broadband availability in rural areas. Rural broadband development will be an element of his ambitious $1 trillion infrastructure plan he will submit to the Congress soon. (Read: Bitcoin Soars to Record High—Fork, Futures and ETFs Explained)
Negative Factors
However, several near-term headwinds prevail in the telecom industry. The chief ones include growing price competition for wireless services that are likely to reduce carriers' revenue growth in 2017. Leading cable MSOs (multi service operators) have decided to enter the wireless field this year, which is likely to intensify competition in an already saturated market. Further, capital spending by U.S. telecom carriers may be muted in 2017. 4G LTE wireless penetration is currently 83% in North America. This can primarily be attributed to most carriers’ intention to upgrade to the 5G wireless network standard which requires massive investment. However, a full phased 5G network deployment is unlikely before 2020.
Internet of Things (IoT): The Next Growth Driver
IoT, which enables any physical electronic device with a valid IP-address to transfer data seamlessly over a wireless network, is fast gaining market traction and bringing about fundamental changes in business models. Next-generation superfast wireless networks (4G LTE, LTE-A, upcoming 5G) will provide the primary impetus to the telecom industry. In this context, IoT holds the potential to be the numero uno factor in driving growth in the space. Superfast 5G mobile networks will be of utmost importance in the management of exponential growth in IoT. (Read: 5 Smart Beta ETFs with Brilliant Returns)
Unlimited Data Plan War
Wireless consumers pay millions extra in the form of added surcharges, taxes, monthly fees and carrier price hikes every year. The practice seems to have peaked and carriers are still looking for ways to fetch more from their customers. Several consumer groups have criticized extra fees because these are easily overlooked and lead to higher-than-advertised price payments. The U.S. telecom market continues to witness intense pricing competition as success depends largely on technical superiority, quality of services and scalability. (Read: Q2 Earnings Effect--4 Must-See ETF Charts)
ETFs to Tap the Sector
Against this backdrop, investors seeking to tap the growth potential of the highly competitive telecom sector may take a closer look at the ETF approach to reap maximum benefit from investing in this sector. This technique can help to spread out assets among a wide variety of companies and reduce company specific risks for a very low cost. Below, we highlight the ETFs in this sector in greater detail for Telecom ETF investors:
iShares Global Telecommunications ETF (IXP)
IXP is one of the most popular Telecom ETF available in the market. Launched in Nov 2001, this ETF tracks investment results before fees and expenses corresponds to the price and yield performance of the S&P Global 1200 Telecommunications Sector Index. The fund has nearly $331.72 million of assets under management and an average trading volume of roughly 26,660 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 47 basis points a year.
The fund holds 31 stocks in its portfolio and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 71.16% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and Vodafone Group Plc. with asset allocation of 18.72%, 15.40% and 6.03%, respectively. Integrated Telecommunication Services, Wireless Telecommunication Services and Alternative Carriers are the three major sectors with asset holdings of 71.78%, 26.45% and 1.36% respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 3.76%.
Vanguard Telecommunication Services ETF (VOX)
Another popular fund in the Telecom ETF space is VOX. Launched in Sep 2004, this ETF seeks to track the performance corresponding to the benchmark MSCI US Investable Market Telecommunication Services 25/50 Index. It has assets under management of nearly $1,346.40 million and an average trading volume of roughly 105,491 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 10 basis points a year.
The fund holds 28 stocks in its portfolio and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 69.70% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top three stocks in the ETF are AT&T, Verizon and Level 3 Communications Inc. Integrated Telecommunication Services, Alternative Carriers and Wireless Telecommunication Services are the three major sectors with asset holdings of 61.80%, 23.20% and 15.00%, respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 3.33%.
SPDR S&P Telecom ETF (XTL)
Incepted in Jan 2011, XTL ETF tries to match the returns of the S&P Telecom Select Industry Index, before expenses. The fund manages an asset size of nearly $72.20 million and an average trading volume of roughly 12,222 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 35 basis points a year.
The fund holds 52 stocks in total in its basket. However, this ETF is not following any concentrated approach as the top ten stocks hold only 25.33% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include Applied Optoelectronics Inc., Infinera Corp. and Ubiquiti Networks Inc., with asset allocation of 3.45%, 2.55% and 2.52%, respectively. Communications Equipment, Integrated Telecommunications Services, Alternative Carriers and Wireless telecommunication Services are the four sectors with asset holdings of 62.21%, 15.26%, 12.92% and 9.39% respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 1.23%.
iShares US Telecommunications ETF (IYZ)
Incepted in May 2000, IYZ ETF tracks investment results before fees and expenses corresponds to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones US Select Telecommunications Index. The fund manages assets worth of more than $474.49 million and an average trading volume of roughly 479,580 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 44 basis points a year.
The fund holds 20 stocks and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 63.09% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include AT&T, Verizon, and Level 3 Communications with asset allocation of 10.50%, 10.45% and 6.37%, respectively. The three major sectors of this ETF include Integrated Telecommunication Services, Wireless Telecommunication Services and Alternative Carriers with asset holdings of 50.77%, 27.30%, and 21.86% respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 2.85%.
Fidelity MSCI Telecom Services Index ETF (FCOM)
Incepted in Oct 2013, FCOM ETF tracks investment results before fees and expenses corresponds to the performance of the MSCI USA IMI Telecommunication Services 25/50 Index. The fund manages assets worth of nearly $115.80 million and an average trading volume of roughly 40,778 shares a day in the last 3 months. The fund charges an expense ratio of 8 basis points a year.
The fund holds 27 stocks and has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 72.08% of the asset base invested in them. Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include Verizon, AT&T and Level 3 Communications, with asset allocation of 23.96%, 22.88% and 4.41%, respectively. Diversified Telecommunication Services and Wireless Telecommunication Services are the two major sectors of this ETF with asset holdings of 84.91% and 13.67%, respectively. This ETF offers a dividend yield of 2.75%.
More Stock News: Tech Opportunity Worth $386 Billion in 2017
From driverless cars to artificial intelligence, we've seen an unsurpassed growth of high-tech products in recent months. Yesterday's science-fiction is becoming today's reality. Despite all the innovation, there is a single component no tech company can survive without. Demand for this critical device will reach $387 billion this year alone, and it's likely to grow even faster in the future.
Zacks has released a brand-new Special Report to help you take advantage of this exciting investment opportunity. Most importantly, it reveals 4 stocks with massive profit potential.See these stocks now>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportFID-TELECOM (FCOM): ETF Research ReportsVIPERS-TELE SVC (VOX): ETF Research ReportsISHARS-US TELE (IYZ): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-SP TELCM (XTL): ETF Research ReportsISHARS-GLB TELE (IXP): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || GUNDLACH: 'Markets have been coiling' and there's one big thing that could unleash volatility: jeff gundlach (Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital thinks you should be keeping an eye on the 10-year Treasury as you await market volatility.REUTERS/Brendan McDermid) To "bond king" Jeffrey Gundlach , the market hasn't simply been sitting still. It's been coiling. In other words, under a seemingly placid surface, the co-founder and CEO of DoubleLine Capital sees conditions brewing that could eventually unleash price swings upon a market so starved for them. As for a potential trigger , Gundlach has singled out the 10-year Treasury note . "One way or another, its going to have to break," Jeffrey Gundlach, co-founder and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said in an interview on CNBC. "I think itll break to the upside. If it happens, that will introduce volatility into the market." He's specifically eyeing a threshold at 2.42%, a level that hasn't been breached since March. The 10-year sits at 2.27% as of 1:14 pm ET on Tuesday, and has tested but not exceeded 2.42% on two separate occasions in the past five months. "It sounds like you're calling a bond yield-fueled stock market correction," replied interviewer Scott Wapner. While Gundlach did not repeat the phrase back to Wapner, he simply replied "yes," before diving into his views on the stock market, as well as the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX which serves as a fear gauge for the S&P 500 . Gundlach made waves two weeks ago when he purchased some five-month put options on the S&P 500, calling it "free money." He expanded upon the trade and those comments on CNBC, stressing that the investment was less of a bear call on the S&P 500, and more of a bull call on the VIX, which has sunk to record lows in recent weeks. It traded as low as 9.52 on Tuesday. "With all of the shorting of the VIX thats out there, I think you could have a big shock higher from offsides positioning," he told CNBC. "When we get whatever correction is coming, the VIX will easily go to 20." The way he looks at it, stock market volatility is so low right now that the S&P 500 only has to drop 3% by the time the options expire for the trade to be profitable. He thinks that should be enough to spur an outsized VIX move. Story continues "Ill be surprised if we dont make 400% on those puts," he said, before trotting out what's quickly becoming his new catch phrase. "Going long the VIX is free money." NOW WATCH: Stocks have shrugged off Trump headlines to hit new highs this week More From Business Insider Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions These 4 companies look Amazon-proof GoPro surges after cost cuts lead to earnings beat || GUNDLACH: 'Markets have been coiling' and there's one big thing that could unleash volatility: (Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital thinks you should be keeping an eye on the 10-year Treasury as you await market volatility.REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
To "bond king"Jeffrey Gundlach, the market hasn't simply been sitting still. It's been coiling.
In other words, under a seemingly placid surface, the co-founder and CEO of DoubleLine Capital sees conditions brewing that could eventually unleash price swings upon a market so starved for them.
As for apotential trigger, Gundlach has singled out the10-year Treasury note.
"One way or another, it’s going to have to break," Jeffrey Gundlach, co-founder and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said in an interview on CNBC. "I think it’ll break to the upside. If it happens, that will introduce volatility into the market."
He's specifically eyeing a threshold at 2.42%, a level that hasn't been breached since March. The 10-year sits at 2.27% as of 1:14 pm ET on Tuesday, and has tested but not exceeded 2.42% on two separate occasions in the past five months.
"It sounds like you're calling a bond yield-fueled stock market correction," replied interviewer Scott Wapner.
While Gundlach did not repeat the phrase back to Wapner, he simply replied "yes," before diving into his views on the stock market, as well as theCBOE Volatility Index— or VIX — which serves as a fear gauge for theS&P 500.
Gundlach made waves two weeks ago when hepurchased some five-month put optionson the S&P 500, calling it "free money."
He expanded upon the trade and those comments on CNBC, stressing that the investment was less of a bear call on the S&P 500, and more of a bull call on the VIX, which has sunk to record lows in recent weeks. It traded as low as 9.52 on Tuesday.
"With all of the shorting of the VIX that’s out there, I think you could have a big shock higher from offsides positioning," he told CNBC. "When we get whatever correction is coming, the VIX will easily go to 20."
The way he looks at it, stock market volatility is so low right now that the S&P 500 only has to drop 3% by the time the options expire for the trade to be profitable. He thinks that should be enough to spur an outsized VIX move.
"I’ll be surprised if we don’t make 400% on those puts," he said, before trotting out what's quickly becoming his new catch phrase. "Going long the VIX is free money."
NOW WATCH:Stocks have shrugged off Trump headlines to hit new highs this week
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions
• These 4 companies look Amazon-proof
• GoPro surges after cost cuts lead to earnings beat || Bitcoin hits a record high near $3,500 ahead of a big change in its software: (The opening of Hong Kong's first bitcoin retail store.Reuters/Bobby Yip)
Bitcoin's foray into record territory continued Tuesday as the cryptocurrency reached nearly $3,500 a coin. Early buying propelled bitcoin to a high of $3,486 before sellers managed to push it back down to the unchanged line near $3,390.
The gain came ahead of a big change in bitcoin's network.
On Tuesday, bitcoin's blockchain network will begin adopting new software called Segregated Witness, or SegWit.
"SegWit is a clever solution that essentially increases transaction capacity," according to Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, a bitcoin technology company.
The software was devised years ago as a solution to the cryptocurrency's scaling problem, which divided bitcoin power brokers for years and led toa split on August 1.
Investors were virtually unfazed by the split, which resulted in the creation of a clone coin called bitcoin cash. Selling on that day dropped bitcoin to a low of $2,643. But it has rallied by about 30% since its August 1 bottom.
As for how high bitcoin can go, Sheba Jafari, the head of technical strategy at Goldman Sachs, said back in late July that the cryptocurrency had the "scope to reach 3,691." Jafari has been spot on with her bitcoin call, earlier predictinga big drop was coming.
Dennis Porto, a bitcoin investor and Harvard academic, told Business Insider that over the long term he had noticedbitcoin's price was following Moore's law, a first for a technology's price, and said he thought bitcoin could reach $100,000 by 2021 as long as that continued.
"This poses a unique opportunity for investors: Whereas it was difficult to invest in circuits or internet speeds, it is easy to buy a bitcoin," Porto told Business Insider.
(Markets Insider)
NOW WATCH:Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Tech stocks are 'overvalued,' but you should still buy them
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• Bitcoin cash is crashing
• Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down
• Bitcoin is expected to 'fork' today, and its price could take a dramatic hit — here's what that means || Bitcoin hits a record high near $3,500 ahead of a big change in its software: Bitcoin (The opening of Hong Kong's first bitcoin retail store.Reuters/Bobby Yip) Bitcoin 's foray into record territory continued Tuesday as the cryptocurrency reached nearly $3,500 a coin. Early buying propelled bitcoin to a high of $3,486 before sellers managed to push it back down to the unchanged line near $3,390. The gain came ahead of a big change in bitcoin's network. On Tuesday, bitcoin's blockchain network will begin adopting new software called Segregated Witness, or SegWit. "SegWit is a clever solution that essentially increases transaction capacity," according to Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, a bitcoin technology company. The software was devised years ago as a solution to the cryptocurrency's scaling problem, which divided bitcoin power brokers for years and led to a split on August 1 . Investors were virtually unfazed by the split, which resulted in the creation of a clone coin called bitcoin cash. Selling on that day dropped bitcoin to a low of $2,643. But it has rallied by about 30% since its August 1 bottom. As for how high bitcoin can go, Sheba Jafari, the head of technical strategy at Goldman Sachs, said back in late July that the cryptocurrency had the " scope to reach 3,691 ." Jafari has been spot on with her bitcoin call, earlier predicting a big drop was coming . Dennis Porto, a bitcoin investor and Harvard academic, told Business Insider that over the long term he had noticed bitcoin's price was following Moore's law , a first for a technology's price, and said he thought bitcoin could reach $100,000 by 2021 as long as that continued. "This poses a unique opportunity for investors: Whereas it was difficult to invest in circuits or internet speeds, it is easy to buy a bitcoin," Porto told Business Insider. Bitcoin (Markets Insider) NOW WATCH: Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Tech stocks are 'overvalued,' but you should still buy them More From Business Insider Bitcoin cash is crashing Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down Bitcoin is expected to 'fork' today, and its price could take a dramatic hit here's what that means || Bitcoin hits a record high near $3,500 ahead of a big change in its software: (The opening of Hong Kong's first bitcoin retail store.Reuters/Bobby Yip)
Bitcoin's foray into record territory continued Tuesday as the cryptocurrency reached nearly $3,500 a coin. Early buying propelled bitcoin to a high of $3,486 before sellers managed to push it back down to the unchanged line near $3,390.
The gain came ahead of a big change in bitcoin's network.
On Tuesday, bitcoin's blockchain network will begin adopting new software called Segregated Witness, or SegWit.
"SegWit is a clever solution that essentially increases transaction capacity," according to Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, a bitcoin technology company.
The software was devised years ago as a solution to the cryptocurrency's scaling problem, which divided bitcoin power brokers for years and led toa split on August 1.
Investors were virtually unfazed by the split, which resulted in the creation of a clone coin called bitcoin cash. Selling on that day dropped bitcoin to a low of $2,643. But it has rallied by about 30% since its August 1 bottom.
As for how high bitcoin can go, Sheba Jafari, the head of technical strategy at Goldman Sachs, said back in late July that the cryptocurrency had the "scope to reach 3,691." Jafari has been spot on with her bitcoin call, earlier predictinga big drop was coming.
Dennis Porto, a bitcoin investor and Harvard academic, told Business Insider that over the long term he had noticedbitcoin's price was following Moore's law, a first for a technology's price, and said he thought bitcoin could reach $100,000 by 2021 as long as that continued.
"This poses a unique opportunity for investors: Whereas it was difficult to invest in circuits or internet speeds, it is easy to buy a bitcoin," Porto told Business Insider.
(Markets Insider)
NOW WATCH:Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Tech stocks are 'overvalued,' but you should still buy them
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin cash is crashing
• Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down
• Bitcoin is expected to 'fork' today, and its price could take a dramatic hit — here's what that means || SinglePoint Inc. Announces Purchase of $Weed as Money from Joint Venture Partner First Bitcoin Capital: SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2017) - SinglePoint Inc. ( OTC : SING ) announces its purchase of $Weed which is one of the newest fiat currencies floated in the booming Cryptocurrency markets. The large block purchase is from crypto industry leader, First Bitcoin Capital ( OTC : BITCF ). After many months of collaboration, the two companies have decided this initiative is the starting point for a much larger play in the cryptocurrency markets. Weed "Coin" is a crypto currency geared toward solving the payment problems found in the cannabis industry. The coin recently had its ICO launch resulting in an impressive yet illiquid market cap of close to $60,000,000. Currently WeedCoin is already listed on three exchanges. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital plan to list and market the coin on many more exchanges soon. Additional listings and marketing efforts could generate greater interest levels found in such competitors as PotCoin as part of a partnership to move towards a massive consumer first approach. The consumer first approach overcomes the traditional issues of making a payment at dispensaries using cryptocurrencies. A big barrier in making a payment at cannabis retail stores using cryptocurrency is the consumers do not yet have a wallet set up. This takes time and slows down this entire process. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital plan to invest heavily in getting the consumers to sign up first, making sure they have the ability to quickly go in and make a purchase from a dispensary, painlessly. The consumer approach also lets the companies build in multiple programs such as loyalty, special offers, and the ability to track what kinds of products people are buying which leads to a massive database of what is popular, how much it is being sold for on average and many more insights to the cannabis industry. The companies both believe that with the proper execution, users should find a similar experience to using Starbucks' mobile payment system. An easy preload of your card, which enables you to purchase $Weed as money, instantly, then the employee at point of sale rings up your total and the consumers scan a barcode from their smart phone or tablet. Story continues If you would like to acquire $Weed as a digital coin you can participate through any of the following three exchanges: https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Exchange/?market=WEED_BTC http://omnichest.info/lookupmarket.aspx?spa=191&spb=1 CoinQX.com - Must have a registered account to view trade data. About the Company SinglePoint, Inc. (SING) has grown from a full-service mobile technology provider to a publicly traded holding company. Through diversification into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued subsidiaries, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary company SingleSeed the company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry. Connect on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobile https://twitter.com/_SinglePoint_ https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/165982/ For more information visit: www.SinglePoint.com About First Bitcoin Capital Corp First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com . We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital crypto currencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development: www.CoinQX.com cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FinCEN. https://www.omniwallet.org/assets/details/309 Latest Active ICO for Loyalty (FLY) www.altcoinmarketcap.com market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities. www.Alphabitcoinfund.com world's first crypto ETF. www.strain.ID cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain. www.iCoiNEWS.com real time cryptocurrency and Bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.cc providing mining pool management services. www.2016coin.org online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. www.bitcannpay.com Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries. List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe Third (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. || SinglePoint Inc. Announces Purchase of $Weed as Money from Joint Venture Partner First Bitcoin Capital: SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2017) - SinglePoint Inc. (OTC:SING) announces its purchase of $Weed which is one of the newest fiat currencies floated in the booming Cryptocurrency markets. The large block purchase is from crypto industry leader, First Bitcoin Capital (OTC:BITCF). After many months of collaboration, the two companies have decided this initiative is the starting point for a much larger play in the cryptocurrency markets. Weed "Coin" is a crypto currency geared toward solving the payment problems found in the cannabis industry. The coin recently had its ICO launch resulting in an impressive yet illiquid market cap of close to $60,000,000.
Currently WeedCoin is already listed on three exchanges. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital plan to list and market the coin on many more exchanges soon. Additional listings and marketing efforts could generate greater interest levels found in such competitors as PotCoin as part of a partnership to move towards a massiveconsumer firstapproach. Theconsumer firstapproach overcomes the traditional issues of making a payment at dispensaries using cryptocurrencies.
A big barrier in making a payment at cannabis retail stores using cryptocurrency is the consumers do not yet have a wallet set up. This takes time and slows down this entire process. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital plan to invest heavily in getting the consumers to sign up first, making sure they have the ability to quickly go in and make a purchase from a dispensary, painlessly. The consumer approach also lets the companies build in multiple programs such as loyalty, special offers, and the ability to track what kinds of products people are buying which leads to a massive database of what is popular, how much it is being sold for on average and many more insights to the cannabis industry.
The companies both believe that with the proper execution, users should find a similar experience to using Starbucks' mobile payment system. An easy preload of your card, which enables you to purchase $Weed as money, instantly, then the employee at point of sale rings up your total and the consumers scan a barcode from their smart phone or tablet.
If you would like to acquire $Weed as a digital coin you can participate through any of the following three exchanges:
https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Exchange/?market=WEED_BTChttp://omnichest.info/lookupmarket.aspx?spa=191&spb=1CoinQX.com- Must have a registered account to view trade data.
About the Company
SinglePoint, Inc. (SING) has grown from a full-service mobile technology provider to a publicly traded holding company. Through diversification into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued subsidiaries, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary companySingleSeedthe company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry.
Connect on social mediaat:https://www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobilehttps://twitter.com/_SinglePoint_https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/165982/
For more information visit:www.SinglePoint.com
About First Bitcoin Capital Corp
First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital crypto currencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development:
www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FinCEN.https://www.omniwallet.org/assets/details/309Latest Active ICO for Loyalty (FLY)www.altcoinmarketcap.commarket capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities.www.Alphabitcoinfund.comworld's first crypto ETF.www.strain.IDcannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain.www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and Bitcoin news site.www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services.www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins.www.bitcannpay.comOpen Loop merchant services for dispensaries.List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrSSecond Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXeThird (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK
Forward-Looking StatementsCertain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. || SinglePoint Inc. Announces Purchase of $Weed as Money from Joint Venture Partner First Bitcoin Capital: SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2017) - SinglePoint Inc. (OTC:SING) announces its purchase of $Weed which is one of the newest fiat currencies floated in the booming Cryptocurrency markets. The large block purchase is from crypto industry leader, First Bitcoin Capital (OTC:BITCF). After many months of collaboration, the two companies have decided this initiative is the starting point for a much larger play in the cryptocurrency markets. Weed "Coin" is a crypto currency geared toward solving the payment problems found in the cannabis industry. The coin recently had its ICO launch resulting in an impressive yet illiquid market cap of close to $60,000,000.
Currently WeedCoin is already listed on three exchanges. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital plan to list and market the coin on many more exchanges soon. Additional listings and marketing efforts could generate greater interest levels found in such competitors as PotCoin as part of a partnership to move towards a massiveconsumer firstapproach. Theconsumer firstapproach overcomes the traditional issues of making a payment at dispensaries using cryptocurrencies.
A big barrier in making a payment at cannabis retail stores using cryptocurrency is the consumers do not yet have a wallet set up. This takes time and slows down this entire process. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital plan to invest heavily in getting the consumers to sign up first, making sure they have the ability to quickly go in and make a purchase from a dispensary, painlessly. The consumer approach also lets the companies build in multiple programs such as loyalty, special offers, and the ability to track what kinds of products people are buying which leads to a massive database of what is popular, how much it is being sold for on average and many more insights to the cannabis industry.
The companies both believe that with the proper execution, users should find a similar experience to using Starbucks' mobile payment system. An easy preload of your card, which enables you to purchase $Weed as money, instantly, then the employee at point of sale rings up your total and the consumers scan a barcode from their smart phone or tablet.
If you would like to acquire $Weed as a digital coin you can participate through any of the following three exchanges:
https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Exchange/?market=WEED_BTChttp://omnichest.info/lookupmarket.aspx?spa=191&spb=1CoinQX.com- Must have a registered account to view trade data.
About the Company
SinglePoint, Inc. (SING) has grown from a full-service mobile technology provider to a publicly traded holding company. Through diversification into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued subsidiaries, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary companySingleSeedthe company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry.
Connect on social mediaat:https://www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobilehttps://twitter.com/_SinglePoint_https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/165982/
For more information visit:www.SinglePoint.com
About First Bitcoin Capital Corp
First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital crypto currencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development:
www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FinCEN.https://www.omniwallet.org/assets/details/309Latest Active ICO for Loyalty (FLY)www.altcoinmarketcap.commarket capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities.www.Alphabitcoinfund.comworld's first crypto ETF.www.strain.IDcannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain.www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and Bitcoin news site.www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services.www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins.www.bitcannpay.comOpen Loop merchant services for dispensaries.List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrSSecond Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXeThird (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK
Forward-Looking StatementsCertain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. || Cryptocurrency market cap nears $120B amid monster Bitcoin rally: Cryptocurrency market cap nears $120 billion Investing.com - The total value of all publicly traded cryptocurrencies climbed to an all-time high on Monday, as a monster rally erupted amid growing optimism over the future of digital currencies. The value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation was at around $117 billion in early trade, just above its previous all-time high of $116.2 billion set on June 12. Bitcoin, arguably the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, surged to a record high of $3,426, amid easing concern over the digital currency's future following last week's relatively uneventful 'hard fork' split. The cryptocurrency has now more than tripled in value for the year, taking the total value of Bitcoin in circulation to about $55 billion. Ethereum reached a market cap of roughly $25 billion, as prices rose nearly 3% to the $270-level. Ripple, with a market cap of close to $7 billion rounds up the top three largest cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the one-week old Bitcoin Cash rallied almost 30% to $256. The coin, which was created after Bitcoin split into two on August 1, has already amassed a market cap of $4.4 billion, ranking it as the fourth largest cryptocurrency. Related Articles Lithium processors prepare to meet demand in era of electric car Hearst invests in emerging markets streaming video provider Bitcoin hits fresh record high, Bitcoin Cash also higher || Cryptocurrency market cap nears $120B amid monster Bitcoin rally: Cryptocurrency market cap nears $120 billion Investing.com - The total value of all publicly traded cryptocurrencies climbed to an all-time high on Monday, as a monster rally erupted amid growing optimism over the future of digital currencies. The value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation was at around $117 billion in early trade, just above its previous all-time high of $116.2 billion set on June 12. Bitcoin, arguably the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, surged to a record high of $3,426, amid easing concern over the digital currency's future following last week's relatively uneventful 'hard fork' split. The cryptocurrency has now more than tripled in value for the year, taking the total value of Bitcoin in circulation to about $55 billion. Ethereum reached a market cap of roughly $25 billion, as prices rose nearly 3% to the $270-level. Ripple, with a market cap of close to $7 billion rounds up the top three largest cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the one-week old Bitcoin Cash rallied almost 30% to $256. The coin, which was created after Bitcoin split into two on August 1, has already amassed a market cap of $4.4 billion, ranking it as the fourth largest cryptocurrency. Related Articles Lithium processors prepare to meet demand in era of electric car Hearst invests in emerging markets streaming video provider Bitcoin hits fresh record high, Bitcoin Cash also higher
[Social Media Buzz]
Bitcoin trading at 3341.00.
Don't miss out on the action! Automate trades with ModoBot.
http://www.ModoBot.com #BTC #Bitcoin || Bitcoin - BTC
Price: $3,330.25
Change in 1h: -0.24%
Market cap: $54,944,379,394.00
Ranking: 1
#Bitcoin #BTC || #Bitcoin 0.09%
Ultima: R$ 11190.18 Alta: R$ 11199.00 Baixa: R$ 10800.01
Fonte: Foxbit || 1 BTC Price: BTC-e USD Bitstamp 3431.00 USD Coinbase 3433.12 USD #btc #bitcoin 2017-08-10 10:30 pic.twitter.com/muO54XmCjs || 2017-08-10 00:00
1 BTC son: 18.460.749Gs...
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3650.62, 3884.71, 4073.26, 4325.13, 4181.93, 4376.63, 4331.69, 4160.62, 4193.70, 4087.66
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39, 5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53, 5399.37, 5572.36.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-04-23]
Volume: 15867308108, RSI (14-day): 77.21, 50-day EMA: 4692.08, 200-day EMA: 4761.06
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1269.30, Gold RSI: 35.81
Oil Price: 66.30, Oil RSI: 73.69
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
The Ledger: Binance's Secret Sauce, Fake Satoshi, Waiting on Bakkt: I’ve written about the tech industry for ten years but never can I recall a firm becoming so dominant so fast as Binance. The exchange came out of nowhere in mid-2017 and rapidly gobbled up a huge share of the crypto trading business, while also launching its own currency—Binance Coin—that now has a market cap over $3 billion, and is the seventh most valuable cryptocurrency in the world.
How did Binance pull it off? A big part of its success lies in a feat ofregulatory arbitrage, which has seen Binance skip from country to country in order to avoid serious scrutiny from governments. In doing so, Binance further minimized its legal exposure by focusing on crypto-to-crypto trading and avoiding the heavily regulated fiat banking system.
Steering clear of regulators is only one reason for Binance’s success. Another key factor is its launch of a cryptocurrency that’s actually useful. In a shrewd move, the company tied the use of Binance Coin to trading discounts, and also introduced a so-called “burn” program to purchase and destroy batches of the coins at regular intervals—a policy akin to share buybacks. More recently, Binance has made holding the currency a prerequisite to participate in its Launchpad platform, which offers a curated list of crypto projects to investors.
“What’s unique about Binance Coin is it’s so much easier to value than other tokens,” says Jeff Dorman, a former Wall Street trader who is now Chief Investment Officer at crypto investment firm Arca in Los Angeles. The burn program, for example, “means you could use the same discounted cash flow metrics used to value traditional companies,” he adds.
This month, Binance’s ambitions got even bigger as the company plans to nudge companies tomove their token operationsfrom Ethereum to Binance’s own blockchain—where they’ll pay fees in, you guessed it, Binance Coin. If CEO Changpeng Zhao can pull this off, Binance will be richer and more formidable than ever.
But one other thing I’ve learned in a decade of covering tech is that market dominance can be transient, and barriers to competition can be an illusion. Overnight success stories can collapse as fast as they rise.
This, then, will be Binance’s next big test: It has market power but will it have staying power? If Zhao’s company is still on top a year from now, we could have the crypto version ofFacebookorGoogle—monopolists protected by powerful network effects—on our hands. More news below.
***
Speaking of giant crypto companies, our inauguralBrainstorm Financeconference will feature a conversation between the CFOs of the two biggest—Binance and Coinbase—who will tell us what it’s like holding the finance reins. Come join us in Montauk, New York on June 19-20.
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Send feedback and tips to [email protected], find us on Twitter@FortuneLedgeror email/DM me directly at the contact info below. Please tell your friendsto subscribe.
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1. THE LEDGER’S LATESTTrading App eToro Launches Crypto Versions of 8 Major Currenciesby Jeff John RobertsWhat You Need to Know About T-Mobile’s No Fee Mobile Checkingby Aaron PressmanStripe Backs $40 Million Investment in A.I. Accounting Service Pilotby Jeff John Roberts
2. DECENTRALIZED NEWSTo the Moon…ConsenSysseeks $200 millionfrom global investors. Arca asks SEC to approvetokenized T-Bills. New VC fund Proof of Capitalraises $50Mto back blockchain startups. Chainalysis Series B roundreaches $36M. Coinbase expands to11 more countriesand countsSerenaas an investor. Shrem and the Winklevoss twinssettle$26M suit. A real-world $1 millionBitcoin scavenger hunt. AVenmo credit card. JP Morganexpandsuse of blockchain.…Rekt.Blockchain journalismmeets SURVIVOR. Online lendersfear winter is coming. Coinbase revenue for 2018 is60% belowprojections. Krakenboots Bitcoin SVcoin. U.S. Bitcoin traderfaces death penaltyafter Thai navy seizes ‘Seasteader’ home.
3. BUBBLE-O-METER$434,000,000That’s the fall-off in total crypo investments from Q4 of 2018 ($465M) to Q1 of 2019 ($31M). A quarter-to-quarter change is just that, however, and doesn’t tell the full story. The bulging Q4 figure consists mostly of Coinbase’s Series E and, even in the midst of the so-called crypto winter, investors are still on the prowl for deals. AsCB Insights(source of the figures above) notes, new hot sectors include “Ethereum killers,” privacy and custody. The research firm also supplied a list of the most active VC investors. The top three: Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Union Square Ventures.
4. MEMES AND MUMBLESFake Satoshi Smackdown.Crypto Twitter brimmed with delight when Binance CEO CZ delisted an alt-coin created by Craig Wright, a controversial entrepreneur who says he is Satoshi and threatens to sue those who claim—with ample evidence—that he’s not. It didn’t take long for the smackdown memes to roll in:
5. FOMO NO MO’NYSE’s long wait for Bitcoin. The venerable New York Stock Exchange made a splash in 2018 with its plans to getinto the Bitcoin businessthrough a subsidiary called Bakkt. It’s more than nine months later and the project is hopelessly tangled in a regulatory morass with no launch in site. What happened? In an interview with the Chair of the CFTC,Coindesk providesa painstaking portrayal of the specific problems. In short: Bakkt’s initial plan to store bitcoin in its own digital “warehouse” fell afoul of complex custody rules, while also making clearinghouses uncomfortable.undefinedWe hope you enjoyed this edition of The Ledger.Find past editions here, andsign up for other Fortune newsletters here. Question, suggestion, or feedback?Drop us a line. || The Ledger: Binance's Secret Sauce, Fake Satoshi, Waiting on Bakkt: I’ve written about the tech industry for ten years but never can I recall a firm becoming so dominant so fast as Binance. The exchange came out of nowhere in mid-2017 and rapidly gobbled up a huge share of the crypto trading business, while also launching its own currency—Binance Coin—that now has a market cap over $3 billion, and is the seventh most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. How did Binance pull it off? A big part of its success lies in a feat of regulatory arbitrage , which has seen Binance skip from country to country in order to avoid serious scrutiny from governments. In doing so, Binance further minimized its legal exposure by focusing on crypto-to-crypto trading and avoiding the heavily regulated fiat banking system. Steering clear of regulators is only one reason for Binance’s success. Another key factor is its launch of a cryptocurrency that’s actually useful. In a shrewd move, the company tied the use of Binance Coin to trading discounts, and also introduced a so-called “burn” program to purchase and destroy batches of the coins at regular intervals—a policy akin to share buybacks. More recently, Binance has made holding the currency a prerequisite to participate in its Launchpad platform, which offers a curated list of crypto projects to investors. “What’s unique about Binance Coin is it’s so much easier to value than other tokens,” says Jeff Dorman, a former Wall Street trader who is now Chief Investment Officer at crypto investment firm Arca in Los Angeles. The burn program, for example, “means you could use the same discounted cash flow metrics used to value traditional companies,” he adds. This month, Binance’s ambitions got even bigger as the company plans to nudge companies to move their token operations from Ethereum to Binance’s own blockchain—where they’ll pay fees in, you guessed it, Binance Coin. If CEO Changpeng Zhao can pull this off, Binance will be richer and more formidable than ever. Story continues But one other thing I’ve learned in a decade of covering tech is that market dominance can be transient, and barriers to competition can be an illusion. Overnight success stories can collapse as fast as they rise. This, then, will be Binance’s next big test: It has market power but will it have staying power? If Zhao’s company is still on top a year from now, we could have the crypto version of Facebook or Google —monopolists protected by powerful network effects—on our hands. More news below. *** Speaking of giant crypto companies, our inaugural Brainstorm Finance conference will feature a conversation between the CFOs of the two biggest—Binance and Coinbase—who will tell us what it’s like holding the finance reins. Come join us in Montauk, New York on June 19-20. GOT TIPS? Send feedback and tips to [email protected], find us on Twitter @FortuneLedger or email/DM me directly at the contact info below. Please tell your friends to subscribe . Jeff John Roberts @jeffjohnroberts [email protected] THE LEDGER’S LATEST Trading App eToro Launches Crypto Versions of 8 Major Currencies by Jeff John Roberts What You Need to Know About T-Mobile’s No Fee Mobile Checking by Aaron Pressman Stripe Backs $40 Million Investment in A.I. Accounting Service Pilot by Jeff John Roberts DECENTRALIZED NEWS To the Moon… ConsenSys seeks $200 million from global investors. Arca asks SEC to approve tokenized T-Bills . New VC fund Proof of Capital raises $50M to back blockchain startups. Chainalysis Series B round reaches $36M . Coinbase expands to 11 more countries and counts Serena as an investor. Shrem and the Winklevoss twins settle $26M suit. A real-world $1 million Bitcoin scavenger hunt . A Venmo credit card . JP Morgan expands use of blockchain. …Rekt. Blockchain journalism meets SURVIVOR . Online lenders fear winter is coming . Coinbase revenue for 2018 is 60% below projections. Kraken boots Bitcoin SV coin. U.S. Bitcoin trader faces death penalty after Thai navy seizes ‘Seasteader’ home. BUBBLE-O-METER $434,000,000 That’s the fall-off in total crypo investments from Q4 of 2018 ($465M) to Q1 of 2019 ($31M). A quarter-to-quarter change is just that, however, and doesn’t tell the full story. The bulging Q4 figure consists mostly of Coinbase’s Series E and, even in the midst of the so-called crypto winter, investors are still on the prowl for deals. As CB Insights (source of the figures above) notes, new hot sectors include “Ethereum killers,” privacy and custody. The research firm also supplied a list of the most active VC investors. The top three: Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Union Square Ventures. MEMES AND MUMBLES Fake Satoshi Smackdown. Crypto Twitter brimmed with delight when Binance CEO CZ delisted an alt-coin created by Craig Wright, a controversial entrepreneur who says he is Satoshi and threatens to sue those who claim—with ample evidence—that he’s not. It didn’t take long for the smackdown memes to roll in: FOMO NO MO’ NYSE’s long wait for Bitcoin . The venerable New York Stock Exchange made a splash in 2018 with its plans to get into the Bitcoin business through a subsidiary called Bakkt. It’s more than nine months later and the project is hopelessly tangled in a regulatory morass with no launch in site. What happened? In an interview with the Chair of the CFTC, Coindesk provides a painstaking portrayal of the specific problems. In short: Bakkt’s initial plan to store bitcoin in its own digital “warehouse” fell afoul of complex custody rules, while also making clearinghouses uncomfortable. undefined We hope you enjoyed this edition of The Ledger. Find past editions here , and sign up for other Fortune newsletters here . Question, suggestion, or feedback? Drop us a line . || Bitcoin Price Won’t See New Lows – Mike Novogratz is 85% Sure: ByCCN: AsBitcoinlooks to eke out the highest daily close since 2018, crypto market sentiment is getting more and more bullish. Recently,CCN notedthat technical analyst Willy Woo believes that there’s only a 5% chance the Bitcoin price hits a new low during the current market cycle.
In another blockbuster tweet, Woo compiled a list of prominent cryptocurrency influencer opinions on this issue. Headlined by Galaxy Digital’sMike Novogratz, most see an exceptionally high probability that the floor is now in place.
This methodology is a great way to gauge the mood of the industry. While there is plenty of scope for these people with vested interests to be overly bullish, the question of “is the floor in?” should focus the mind. Willy Woo is asking them either yes or no, and it’s easily quantifiable.
Mike Novogratz reportedly said there’s an 85% chance the Bitcoin price won’t sink below its late 2018 low. | Source: Yahoo Finance
It’s not like sayingBitcoin will hit $1 millionat some point in the infinite reaches of time. If you are Mike Novogratz saying there is an 85% chance it’s in, it would be a significant hit to your credibility if you are wrong.
Indeed, Mr. Novogratz has beenintimatingfor some time how positive he is feeling about the price action.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin Price Won’t See New Lows – Mike Novogratz is 85% Sure: ByCCN: AsBitcoinlooks to eke out the highest daily close since 2018, crypto market sentiment is getting more and more bullish. Recently,CCN notedthat technical analyst Willy Woo believes that there’s only a 5% chance the Bitcoin price hits a new low during the current market cycle.
In another blockbuster tweet, Woo compiled a list of prominent cryptocurrency influencer opinions on this issue. Headlined by Galaxy Digital’sMike Novogratz, most see an exceptionally high probability that the floor is now in place.
This methodology is a great way to gauge the mood of the industry. While there is plenty of scope for these people with vested interests to be overly bullish, the question of “is the floor in?” should focus the mind. Willy Woo is asking them either yes or no, and it’s easily quantifiable.
Mike Novogratz reportedly said there’s an 85% chance the Bitcoin price won’t sink below its late 2018 low. | Source: Yahoo Finance
It’s not like sayingBitcoin will hit $1 millionat some point in the infinite reaches of time. If you are Mike Novogratz saying there is an 85% chance it’s in, it would be a significant hit to your credibility if you are wrong.
Indeed, Mr. Novogratz has beenintimatingfor some time how positive he is feeling about the price action.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin Price Wont See New Lows Mike Novogratz is 85% Sure: Billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz reportedly said that he's 85 percent certain that the Bitcoin price has already bottomed. | Source: Bloomberg/YouTube By CCN : As Bitcoin looks to eke out the highest daily close since 2018, crypto market sentiment is getting more and more bullish. Recently, CCN noted that technical analyst Willy Woo believes that theres only a 5% chance the Bitcoin price hits a new low during the current market cycle. In another blockbuster tweet, Woo compiled a list of prominent cryptocurrency influencer opinions on this issue. Headlined by Galaxy Digitals Mike Novogratz , most see an exceptionally high probability that the floor is now in place. I surveyed notable influencers, analysts and traders for their probability that the bottom is in for this bear market. Here are the results: 95% @woonomic (Adaptive Capital / On-chain Analyst) 90% @jespow (Kraken founder) 90% @arjunblj (Analyst) 85% @novogratz (Galaxy Digital) Willy Woo (@woonomic) April 22, 2019 Mike Novogratz Headlines Bullish Bitcoin Calls in Willy Woo Survey This methodology is a great way to gauge the mood of the industry. While there is plenty of scope for these people with vested interests to be overly bullish, the question of is the floor in? should focus the mind. Willy Woo is asking them either yes or no, and its easily quantifiable. bitcoin price mike novogratz Mike Novogratz reportedly said theres an 85% chance the Bitcoin price wont sink below its late 2018 low. | Source: Yahoo Finance Its not like saying Bitcoin will hit $1 million at some point in the infinite reaches of time. If you are Mike Novogratz saying there is an 85% chance its in, it would be a significant hit to your credibility if you are wrong. Indeed, Mr. Novogratz has been intimating for some time how positive he is feeling about the price action. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Vitalik: Upcoming ETH PoS Algorithm will adopt higher staking rewards: Ethereum funder Vitalik Buterin recently posted onGithubthat Ethereum will use a higher staking reward metric after the deployment of Proof of Stake.
Buterin’s proposal charts out the estimated annual returns for different amounts of validating ether.
For example, if 1 million ether is staked, a maximum amount of 181,019 new ether would be issued annually with a max return rate of 18.1%. The chart caps at a total of 134,217,728 validating ether, which is accompanied by a maximum issuance of 2,097,152 new ETH per year and a return rate of 1.56%. To be sure, the yield doesn't include revenue from transaction fees so staker revenue is likely several percentages higher.
Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, followed up with Buterin’s post on Github and explained the rationale behind the proposal.
“Targeting 2^25 ETH at stake (~32m ETH) for the long term feels about right for strong security,” wrote Drake. “In such conditions, the base inflation would be ~1% and the base return ~3.2%.”
Thus, with an ambitious 32 million ether staked, Ethereum’s 1% inflation rate will rival that of Bitcoin’s, which currently sits at 3.94%.
So far, the proposal has received mostly positive responses on Github and Reddit after it was posted. Previously, Ethereum community members had expressed concerns around the attractiveness of Ethereum’s initial Proof of Stake reward structure when taking into the opportunity cost of lending via entities like BlockFi, which is currently offering 6.2% APR on ether deposits, and the hardware costs required to maintain a validator node.
The table below shows the rewards assumptions before the hike of thestaking reward. || Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 22: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange.
Legendary tennis player Serena Williams disclosed that she has invested in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase through her investmentbusinessSerena Ventures.
South Korean investors are using low crypto prices to buy more. Their average investment has increased by about64%compared to 2017, according to a survey by Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation. It is interesting to note that the most common crypto investors are in their 50s, followed by the 30–40 age group. This shows that crypto has touched one and all.
Fundstrat Global Advisors founder Tom Lee expects a bull market tostartin Bitcoin. His assumption is based on the reading of the Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI), that is at levels not seen in this bear phase. The BMI reading has skyrocketed to 89, which is way above the previous high of 67. However, such elevated levels have previously resulted in a correction, averaging about 25%. Therefore, Lee expects a drop in Bitcoin but remains bullish as he expects the price to turn around and reach new highs once again. Unlike previous occasions, he has not committed to a specific time frame for a new high.
What does our analysis say? Let’s find out.
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading close to the overhead resistance of $5,404.82. A breakout of this level can push the price towards the next overhead resistance zone of $5,674.84–$5,900. We anticipate a stiff resistance at $5,900, hence, traders can book profits on 50% of their remaininglongpositions above $5,600 and keep the stop loss on the rest at $4,800. Both the moving averages are trending up and the RSI is close to the overbought zone, which confirms that the bulls are in command.
Contrary to our expectation, if theBTC/USDpair reverses direction from either of the overhead resistances, it can again correct to $4,914.11. This is a strong support. The pair remains positive as long as the price sustains above this.
But if the bears sink the digital currency below $4,914, it will be a spoiler and can result in a quick fall to $4,255. We expect a large range move within the next 3–4 days.
The bulls are unable to push Ethereum (ETH) above the overhead resistance of $187.98. This suggests profit booking closer to $180. However, the positive thing is that the price has sustained above $167.32 for the past four days. The 20-day EMA is also close to this level, hence, we expect the bulls to defend it strongly.
A rebound from the current levels will again try to rise above the overhead resistance of $187.98. If successful, a rally to $251.64 is likely. There are slew of resistances between $220 and $251.64. Hence, we might suggest booking profits on the position if we find theETH/USDpair struggling to move up.
Contrary to our assumption, if the bears sink the pair below the 20-day EMA, it can fall to the 50-day SMA. Therefore, traders can keep their stop loss on the remaininglongpositions at $150. With both the moving averages sloping up and the RSI in positive territory, the path of least resistance is to the upside.
Ripple (XRP) again took support at the 50-day SMA on April 21. Currently, the bulls are attempting to hold this level. Both the moving averages are flat and the RSI has dipped into the negative territory. This points to a balance between the buyers and sellers.
If the bulls provide buying support at the current levels and carry theXRP/USDpair above $0.34835, it can move up to $0.38. The pair will pick up momentum if it breaks out of the overhead resistance at $0.40. We suggest long positions on a breakout above $0.35. The stop loss can be kept at $0.31.
On the other hand, if the bears sink the digital currency below the 50-day SMA, it can drop to the next support of $0.27795.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has dipped to the 20-day EMA where buying has emerged. However, the bulls have not been able to push the price higher. This shows the probability of a breakdown below the 20-day EMA. If that happens, the digital currency can drop to the critical support of $255.
The 20-day EMA is flattening out and the RSI is gradually dropping towards the center. This suggests that the pair might remain range bound for a few more days.
But if theBCH/USDpair rebounds sharply from the current levels, it can move up to $363.30. If this level is crossed, it is likely to pick up momentum and rally to $451.32.
After holding the 20-day EMA for the past few days,EOSplunged below it on April 21. However, a small consolation is that the price rebounded from the lows and closed at the 20-day EMA on that day.
Currently, the bulls are again trying to push the price back above the 20-day EMA. If successful, the digital currency will try to move up to $6.0726 and above it to $6.8299. Both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI is just above 50, which suggests that the bulls have a minor advantage.
But if the bulls fail to sustain theEOS/USDpair above the 20-day EMA, it might dip to the 50-day SMA. The zone between $4.4930 and $3.8723 is a critical one. We anticipate buying in this zone. We shall wait for the pair to rebound from the supports or wait for a breakout above $6.8299 before recommending a trade in it.
Litecoin (LTC) had been trading in a tight range of $74.6054–$84.3439 for the past few days. On April 21, though the bears broke below the support of the range, they could not sustain it. At close (UTC time frame), the price was back in the range. This suggests demand at lower levels. Currently, the bulls are attempting to sustain the price in the range.
The 20-day EMA is flattening out and the RSI is close to the midpoint. This indicates equilibrium between the buyers and the sellers.
A breakout and close above $84.3439 will tilt the advantage in favor of the bulls. Therefore, we retain the buy recommendation given in thepreviousanalysis. However, if the bears sink theLTC/USDpair below $73, a fall to the 50-day SMA is probable.
Binance Coin (BNB) is trading near lifetime highs. Though it did not make a new high on April 20, it came very close. The positive thing is that it has not given up much ground since then, which shows that the bulls are not booking profits aggressively as they expect higher levels.
Both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI continues to trade in the overbought zone. This shows that the bulls are in command. If theBNB/USDpair breaks out and sustains above the previous lifetime high of $26.4732350, it will be a bullish sign. The next target on the upside is $32.
However, if the pair makes a new high but fails to sustain it, that will be an indication of profit booking at higher levels. It will turn negative on a breakdown below the 50-day SMA. Though bullish, we do not find a trade set up that has a good risk to reward ratio. Hence, we are not suggesting a trade in it.
Stellar (XLM) has declined to the 50-day SMA, which is likely to provide some support. The 20-day EMA is gradually turning down and the RSI has fallen into the negative zone. This suggests that the bears are making a comeback.
If theXLM/USDpair breaks down and closes below the immediate support of $0.1090, the fall can extend to the uptrend line. This is a critical support. If this is breached, it will complete a breakdown of the wedge, which is a negative sign.
On the upside, the pair will show signs of strength on a breakout and close above $0.12039489. However, we shall wait for the price to sustain above the downtrend line and the overhead resistance of $0.14861760 before turning positive.
Cardano (ADA) has broken down of the critical support of $0.075920. It can now slide to the 50-day SMA, which might act as a strong support. The 20-day EMA has started to turn down and the RSI has dropped below 50. This suggests that the bears are at an advantage in the short term.
TheADA/USDpair is currently trading inside a descending channel. If the bulls fail to defend the 50-day SMA, the pair can decline to the support of the channel.
On the upside, a breakout of the channel will be the first signal that the correction is over. Any up move will face resistance at $0.082952 and above it at $0.094256. We shall wait for a buy setup to form before proposing a trade in it.
After failing to breakout of the overhead resistance at $0.02815521, Tron (TRX) is facing selling pressure. It has dropped down to the 50-day SMA, which is a critical support. A breakdown of this can plummet the price to $0.02094452.
The 20-day EMA has started to turn down and the RSI has also dipped into the negative territory. This shows that the bears are gaining an upper hand in the short term.
Nonetheless, if the bulls defend the 50-day SMA support, theTRX/USDpair might remain range-bound between the 50-day SMA and $0.02815521 for the next few days. The pair will turn bullish if it rebounds strongly from the current levels and breaks out of $0.02815521. For now, the traders can retain the stop loss on thelongpositions at $0.0240.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange. Charts for analysis are provided byTradingView.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 17
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 10
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 19
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 15 || Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 22: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange.
Legendary tennis player Serena Williams disclosed that she has invested in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase through her investmentbusinessSerena Ventures.
South Korean investors are using low crypto prices to buy more. Their average investment has increased by about64%compared to 2017, according to a survey by Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation. It is interesting to note that the most common crypto investors are in their 50s, followed by the 30–40 age group. This shows that crypto has touched one and all.
Fundstrat Global Advisors founder Tom Lee expects a bull market tostartin Bitcoin. His assumption is based on the reading of the Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI), that is at levels not seen in this bear phase. The BMI reading has skyrocketed to 89, which is way above the previous high of 67. However, such elevated levels have previously resulted in a correction, averaging about 25%. Therefore, Lee expects a drop in Bitcoin but remains bullish as he expects the price to turn around and reach new highs once again. Unlike previous occasions, he has not committed to a specific time frame for a new high.
What does our analysis say? Let’s find out.
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading close to the overhead resistance of $5,404.82. A breakout of this level can push the price towards the next overhead resistance zone of $5,674.84–$5,900. We anticipate a stiff resistance at $5,900, hence, traders can book profits on 50% of their remaininglongpositions above $5,600 and keep the stop loss on the rest at $4,800. Both the moving averages are trending up and the RSI is close to the overbought zone, which confirms that the bulls are in command.
Contrary to our expectation, if theBTC/USDpair reverses direction from either of the overhead resistances, it can again correct to $4,914.11. This is a strong support. The pair remains positive as long as the price sustains above this.
But if the bears sink the digital currency below $4,914, it will be a spoiler and can result in a quick fall to $4,255. We expect a large range move within the next 3–4 days.
The bulls are unable to push Ethereum (ETH) above the overhead resistance of $187.98. This suggests profit booking closer to $180. However, the positive thing is that the price has sustained above $167.32 for the past four days. The 20-day EMA is also close to this level, hence, we expect the bulls to defend it strongly.
A rebound from the current levels will again try to rise above the overhead resistance of $187.98. If successful, a rally to $251.64 is likely. There are slew of resistances between $220 and $251.64. Hence, we might suggest booking profits on the position if we find theETH/USDpair struggling to move up.
Contrary to our assumption, if the bears sink the pair below the 20-day EMA, it can fall to the 50-day SMA. Therefore, traders can keep their stop loss on the remaininglongpositions at $150. With both the moving averages sloping up and the RSI in positive territory, the path of least resistance is to the upside.
Ripple (XRP) again took support at the 50-day SMA on April 21. Currently, the bulls are attempting to hold this level. Both the moving averages are flat and the RSI has dipped into the negative territory. This points to a balance between the buyers and sellers.
If the bulls provide buying support at the current levels and carry theXRP/USDpair above $0.34835, it can move up to $0.38. The pair will pick up momentum if it breaks out of the overhead resistance at $0.40. We suggest long positions on a breakout above $0.35. The stop loss can be kept at $0.31.
On the other hand, if the bears sink the digital currency below the 50-day SMA, it can drop to the next support of $0.27795.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has dipped to the 20-day EMA where buying has emerged. However, the bulls have not been able to push the price higher. This shows the probability of a breakdown below the 20-day EMA. If that happens, the digital currency can drop to the critical support of $255.
The 20-day EMA is flattening out and the RSI is gradually dropping towards the center. This suggests that the pair might remain range bound for a few more days.
But if theBCH/USDpair rebounds sharply from the current levels, it can move up to $363.30. If this level is crossed, it is likely to pick up momentum and rally to $451.32.
After holding the 20-day EMA for the past few days,EOSplunged below it on April 21. However, a small consolation is that the price rebounded from the lows and closed at the 20-day EMA on that day.
Currently, the bulls are again trying to push the price back above the 20-day EMA. If successful, the digital currency will try to move up to $6.0726 and above it to $6.8299. Both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI is just above 50, which suggests that the bulls have a minor advantage.
But if the bulls fail to sustain theEOS/USDpair above the 20-day EMA, it might dip to the 50-day SMA. The zone between $4.4930 and $3.8723 is a critical one. We anticipate buying in this zone. We shall wait for the pair to rebound from the supports or wait for a breakout above $6.8299 before recommending a trade in it.
Litecoin (LTC) had been trading in a tight range of $74.6054–$84.3439 for the past few days. On April 21, though the bears broke below the support of the range, they could not sustain it. At close (UTC time frame), the price was back in the range. This suggests demand at lower levels. Currently, the bulls are attempting to sustain the price in the range.
The 20-day EMA is flattening out and the RSI is close to the midpoint. This indicates equilibrium between the buyers and the sellers.
A breakout and close above $84.3439 will tilt the advantage in favor of the bulls. Therefore, we retain the buy recommendation given in thepreviousanalysis. However, if the bears sink theLTC/USDpair below $73, a fall to the 50-day SMA is probable.
Binance Coin (BNB) is trading near lifetime highs. Though it did not make a new high on April 20, it came very close. The positive thing is that it has not given up much ground since then, which shows that the bulls are not booking profits aggressively as they expect higher levels.
Both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI continues to trade in the overbought zone. This shows that the bulls are in command. If theBNB/USDpair breaks out and sustains above the previous lifetime high of $26.4732350, it will be a bullish sign. The next target on the upside is $32.
However, if the pair makes a new high but fails to sustain it, that will be an indication of profit booking at higher levels. It will turn negative on a breakdown below the 50-day SMA. Though bullish, we do not find a trade set up that has a good risk to reward ratio. Hence, we are not suggesting a trade in it.
Stellar (XLM) has declined to the 50-day SMA, which is likely to provide some support. The 20-day EMA is gradually turning down and the RSI has fallen into the negative zone. This suggests that the bears are making a comeback.
If theXLM/USDpair breaks down and closes below the immediate support of $0.1090, the fall can extend to the uptrend line. This is a critical support. If this is breached, it will complete a breakdown of the wedge, which is a negative sign.
On the upside, the pair will show signs of strength on a breakout and close above $0.12039489. However, we shall wait for the price to sustain above the downtrend line and the overhead resistance of $0.14861760 before turning positive.
Cardano (ADA) has broken down of the critical support of $0.075920. It can now slide to the 50-day SMA, which might act as a strong support. The 20-day EMA has started to turn down and the RSI has dropped below 50. This suggests that the bears are at an advantage in the short term.
TheADA/USDpair is currently trading inside a descending channel. If the bulls fail to defend the 50-day SMA, the pair can decline to the support of the channel.
On the upside, a breakout of the channel will be the first signal that the correction is over. Any up move will face resistance at $0.082952 and above it at $0.094256. We shall wait for a buy setup to form before proposing a trade in it.
After failing to breakout of the overhead resistance at $0.02815521, Tron (TRX) is facing selling pressure. It has dropped down to the 50-day SMA, which is a critical support. A breakdown of this can plummet the price to $0.02094452.
The 20-day EMA has started to turn down and the RSI has also dipped into the negative territory. This shows that the bears are gaining an upper hand in the short term.
Nonetheless, if the bulls defend the 50-day SMA support, theTRX/USDpair might remain range-bound between the 50-day SMA and $0.02815521 for the next few days. The pair will turn bullish if it rebounds strongly from the current levels and breaks out of $0.02815521. For now, the traders can retain the stop loss on thelongpositions at $0.0240.
Market data is provided by theHitBTCexchange. Charts for analysis are provided byTradingView.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 17
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 10
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 19
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 15 || Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 22: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Legendary tennis player Serena Williams disclosed that she has invested in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase through her investment business Serena Ventures. South Korean investors are using low crypto prices to buy more. Their average investment has increased by about 64% compared to 2017, according to a survey by Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation. It is interesting to note that the most common crypto investors are in their 50s, followed by the 3040 age group. This shows that crypto has touched one and all. Fundstrat Global Advisors founder Tom Lee expects a bull market to start in Bitcoin. His assumption is based on the reading of the Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI), that is at levels not seen in this bear phase. The BMI reading has skyrocketed to 89, which is way above the previous high of 67. However, such elevated levels have previously resulted in a correction, averaging about 25%. Therefore, Lee expects a drop in Bitcoin but remains bullish as he expects the price to turn around and reach new highs once again. Unlike previous occasions, he has not committed to a specific time frame for a new high. What does our analysis say? Lets find out. BTC/USD Bitcoin ( BTC ) is trading close to the overhead resistance of $5,404.82. A breakout of this level can push the price towards the next overhead resistance zone of $5,674.84$5,900. We anticipate a stiff resistance at $5,900, hence, traders can book profits on 50% of their remaining long positions above $5,600 and keep the stop loss on the rest at $4,800. Both the moving averages are trending up and the RSI is close to the overbought zone, which confirms that the bulls are in command. Story continues BTC/USD Contrary to our expectation, if the BTC/USD pair reverses direction from either of the overhead resistances, it can again correct to $4,914.11. This is a strong support. The pair remains positive as long as the price sustains above this. But if the bears sink the digital currency below $4,914, it will be a spoiler and can result in a quick fall to $4,255. We expect a large range move within the next 34 days. ETH/USD The bulls are unable to push Ethereum ( ETH ) above the overhead resistance of $187.98. This suggests profit booking closer to $180. However, the positive thing is that the price has sustained above $167.32 for the past four days. The 20-day EMA is also close to this level, hence, we expect the bulls to defend it strongly. ETH/USD A rebound from the current levels will again try to rise above the overhead resistance of $187.98. If successful, a rally to $251.64 is likely. There are slew of resistances between $220 and $251.64. Hence, we might suggest booking profits on the position if we find the ETH/USD pair struggling to move up. Contrary to our assumption, if the bears sink the pair below the 20-day EMA, it can fall to the 50-day SMA. Therefore, traders can keep their stop loss on the remaining long positions at $150. With both the moving averages sloping up and the RSI in positive territory, the path of least resistance is to the upside. XRP/USD Ripple ( XRP ) again took support at the 50-day SMA on April 21. Currently, the bulls are attempting to hold this level. Both the moving averages are flat and the RSI has dipped into the negative territory. This points to a balance between the buyers and sellers. XRP/USD If the bulls provide buying support at the current levels and carry the XRP/USD pair above $0.34835, it can move up to $0.38. The pair will pick up momentum if it breaks out of the overhead resistance at $0.40. We suggest long positions on a breakout above $0.35. The stop loss can be kept at $0.31. On the other hand, if the bears sink the digital currency below the 50-day SMA, it can drop to the next support of $0.27795. BCH/USD Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ) has dipped to the 20-day EMA where buying has emerged. However, the bulls have not been able to push the price higher. This shows the probability of a breakdown below the 20-day EMA. If that happens, the digital currency can drop to the critical support of $255. BCH/USD The 20-day EMA is flattening out and the RSI is gradually dropping towards the center. This suggests that the pair might remain range bound for a few more days. But if the BCH/USD pair rebounds sharply from the current levels, it can move up to $363.30. If this level is crossed, it is likely to pick up momentum and rally to $451.32. EOS/USD After holding the 20-day EMA for the past few days, EOS plunged below it on April 21. However, a small consolation is that the price rebounded from the lows and closed at the 20-day EMA on that day. EOS/USD Currently, the bulls are again trying to push the price back above the 20-day EMA. If successful, the digital currency will try to move up to $6.0726 and above it to $6.8299. Both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI is just above 50, which suggests that the bulls have a minor advantage. But if the bulls fail to sustain the EOS/USD pair above the 20-day EMA, it might dip to the 50-day SMA. The zone between $4.4930 and $3.8723 is a critical one. We anticipate buying in this zone. We shall wait for the pair to rebound from the supports or wait for a breakout above $6.8299 before recommending a trade in it. LTC/USD Litecoin ( LTC ) had been trading in a tight range of $74.6054$84.3439 for the past few days. On April 21, though the bears broke below the support of the range, they could not sustain it. At close (UTC time frame), the price was back in the range. This suggests demand at lower levels. Currently, the bulls are attempting to sustain the price in the range. LTC/USD The 20-day EMA is flattening out and the RSI is close to the midpoint. This indicates equilibrium between the buyers and the sellers. A breakout and close above $84.3439 will tilt the advantage in favor of the bulls. Therefore, we retain the buy recommendation given in the previous analysis. However, if the bears sink the LTC/USD pair below $73, a fall to the 50-day SMA is probable. BNB/USD Binance Coin ( BNB ) is trading near lifetime highs. Though it did not make a new high on April 20, it came very close. The positive thing is that it has not given up much ground since then, which shows that the bulls are not booking profits aggressively as they expect higher levels. BNB/USD Both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI continues to trade in the overbought zone. This shows that the bulls are in command. If the BNB/USD pair breaks out and sustains above the previous lifetime high of $26.4732350, it will be a bullish sign. The next target on the upside is $32. However, if the pair makes a new high but fails to sustain it, that will be an indication of profit booking at higher levels. It will turn negative on a breakdown below the 50-day SMA. Though bullish, we do not find a trade set up that has a good risk to reward ratio. Hence, we are not suggesting a trade in it. XLM/USD Stellar ( XLM ) has declined to the 50-day SMA, which is likely to provide some support. The 20-day EMA is gradually turning down and the RSI has fallen into the negative zone. This suggests that the bears are making a comeback. XLM/USD If the XLM/USD pair breaks down and closes below the immediate support of $0.1090, the fall can extend to the uptrend line. This is a critical support. If this is breached, it will complete a breakdown of the wedge, which is a negative sign. On the upside, the pair will show signs of strength on a breakout and close above $0.12039489. However, we shall wait for the price to sustain above the downtrend line and the overhead resistance of $0.14861760 before turning positive. ADA/USD Cardano ( ADA ) has broken down of the critical support of $0.075920. It can now slide to the 50-day SMA, which might act as a strong support. The 20-day EMA has started to turn down and the RSI has dropped below 50. This suggests that the bears are at an advantage in the short term. ADA/USD The ADA/USD pair is currently trading inside a descending channel. If the bulls fail to defend the 50-day SMA, the pair can decline to the support of the channel. On the upside, a breakout of the channel will be the first signal that the correction is over. Any up move will face resistance at $0.082952 and above it at $0.094256. We shall wait for a buy setup to form before proposing a trade in it. TRX/USD After failing to breakout of the overhead resistance at $0.02815521, Tron ( TRX ) is facing selling pressure. It has dropped down to the 50-day SMA, which is a critical support. A breakdown of this can plummet the price to $0.02094452. TRX/USD The 20-day EMA has started to turn down and the RSI has also dipped into the negative territory. This shows that the bears are gaining an upper hand in the short term. Nonetheless, if the bulls defend the 50-day SMA support, the TRX/USD pair might remain range-bound between the 50-day SMA and $0.02815521 for the next few days. The pair will turn bullish if it rebounds strongly from the current levels and breaks out of $0.02815521. For now, the traders can retain the stop loss on the long positions at $0.0240. Market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Charts for analysis are provided by TradingView . Related Articles: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 17 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 10 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 19 Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, Binance Coin, Stellar, Cardano, TRON: Price Analysis April 15 || Crypto exchanges need to figure out a transparent process for delisting coins: Watching the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (SV) delisting drama play out last week was interesting theatrics. The controversial cryptocurrency came under renewed scrutiny after one of its promoters, Craig Wright, began threatening legal action on people who rebuked his claims of being the true Satoshi Nakamoto. But it also served as a reminder of the ever-present chasm between traditional equities exchanges and their crypto counterparts. As a former staffer at the Nasdaq Stock Market, I remember ad nauseam the standards and requirements for listing and delisting stocks. In crypto however, virtually no standards exist, and if they do, they aren’t transparent. As we saw last week, Kraken delisted Bitcoin SV following the release of a twitter poll, effectively illustrating that it’s figuring out the delisting process as they went. Join Genesis now and continue reading, Crypto exchanges need to figure out a transparent process for delisting coins ! || Crypto exchanges need to figure out a transparent process for delisting coins: Watching the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (SV) delisting drama play out last week was interesting theatrics. The controversial cryptocurrency came under renewed scrutiny after one of its promoters, Craig Wright, began threatening legal action on people who rebuked his claims of being the true Satoshi Nakamoto. But it also served as a reminder of the ever-present chasm between traditional equities exchanges and their crypto counterparts.
As a former staffer at the Nasdaq Stock Market, I remember ad nauseam the standards and requirements for listing and delisting stocks. In crypto however, virtually no standards exist, and if they do, they aren’t transparent. As we saw last week, Kraken delisted Bitcoin SV following the release of a twitter poll, effectively illustrating that it’s figuring out the delisting process as they went.
Join Genesis nowand continue reading,Crypto exchanges need to figure out a transparent process for delisting coins! || Monthly report: crypto to crypto trading volumes surged by 70% in March; Malta dominates: Cryptocurrency market data provider CryptoCompare recently released its March 2019 Exchange Review , surveying trading data across major crypto exchanges. The report highlights an increase of 47.5% in total crypto exchange spot volume and a spike of 70% in crypto to crypto exchange trading volume, illustrating the recent resurgence in the once subdued crypto markets. Meanwhile, trading volume from exchanges that offer fiat pairs was down 8% to 58 million USD since February. Other notable findings include: Malta dominates: Malta-registered exchanges, which include the likes of giants like Binance, represented the majority of total trading volume, increasing by 56% since February. CME hot streak: Bitcoin derivative product volumes were still dominated by CME, whose futures product volume decreased by 29%. Overall, average trading volume of regulated bitcoin futures products plumped in March. Crypto-to-crypto is king: Top crypto to crypto exchanges witnessed an average surge of 66% in monthly trading volume. The top three exchanges were OKEx, ZB, and Binance, with a monthly volume of 31.2 billion (up 85%), 27.3 billion (up 51%), and 24.7 billion (up 30%) USD respectively. Top fiat to crypto exchanges, however, saw a general decrease in their monthly trading volume. Tether tops fiat: The monthly trading volume of BTC to USDT surged by 43%, totaling 8.9 million BTC in March. Meanwhile, trading volumes of BTC to other currencies experienced a general decline, with BTC to USD down 26.2% and BTC to Japanese Yen down 47%. One of the few major outliers is BTC to South Korean Won, which increased by 41% in total monthly volume since February. || Monthly report: crypto to crypto trading volumes surged by 70% in March; Malta dominates: Cryptocurrency market data provider CryptoCompare recently released its March 2019Exchange Review, surveying trading data across major crypto exchanges. The report highlights an increase of 47.5% in total crypto exchange spot volume and a spike of 70% in crypto to crypto exchange trading volume, illustrating the recent resurgence in the once subdued crypto markets. Meanwhile, trading volume from exchanges that offer fiat pairs was down 8% to 58 million USD since February. Other notable findings include:
• Malta dominates:Malta-registered exchanges, which include the likes of giants like Binance, represented the majority of total trading volume, increasing by 56% since February.
• CME hot streak:Bitcoin derivative product volumes were still dominated by CME, whose futures product volume decreased by 29%. Overall, average trading volume of regulated bitcoin futures products plumped in March.
• Crypto-to-crypto is king:Top crypto to crypto exchanges witnessed an average surge of 66% in monthly trading volume. The top three exchanges were OKEx, ZB, and Binance, with a monthly volume of 31.2 billion (up 85%), 27.3 billion (up 51%), and 24.7 billion (up 30%) USD respectively.Top fiat to crypto exchanges, however, saw a general decrease in their monthly trading volume.
• Tether tops fiat:The monthly trading volume of BTC to USDT surged by 43%, totaling 8.9 million BTC in March. Meanwhile, trading volumes of BTC to other currencies experienced a general decline, with BTC to USD down 26.2% and BTC to Japanese Yen down 47%. One of the few major outliers is BTC to South Korean Won, which increased by 41% in total monthly volume since February. || Trading cryptocurrency: Bollinger Bands explained: What are Bollinger Bands? Bollinger bands are a tool commonly used in technical analysis. The idea was originally conceptualised by John Bollinger in the 1980s. Beginning his career as an independent trader in 1980, he later joined Financial News Network where he worked as the Chief Market Analyst between 1984 and 1990, presenting regular technical analysis pieces on the channel. He is both a CFA Chartered Financial Analyst and CMT Chartered Market Technician, and now runs his own investment firm Bollinger Capital Management. The term Bollinger Bands was originally coined by Bollinger himself during a live broadcast. Unprepared for the question when asked the name of the bands he was presenting, his reply was: Lets call them Bollinger Bands. The basic concept of Bollinger Bands involves two lines, X number of standard deviations above and below an n period moving average, to create an envelope. This was an adaptation of Keltner channels another technical analysis indicator showing a central moving average line, with channel lines above and below. According to Bollingers website , The defaults today are the same as they were 35 years ago, 20 periods for the moving average with the bands set at plus and minus two standard deviations of the same data used for the average. However, these can be adjusted to suit what the analyst is attempting to monitor. What are Bollinger Bands used for? Bollinger was looking to find a more adaptive indicator, based on volatility. The bands can then be combined with other indicators in order to obtain buy and sell signals. A basic assumption when using the bollinger bands is that when the price breaks upwards towards the upper band, the market is overbought and this represents a sell signal. Conversely, when the price trends down towards the lower band, this represents oversold conditions and represents a buy signal. These are, of course, generalisations and should be combined with other data and indicators. Some traders do, however, use this as a continuous trading strategy. Story continues When a security closes outside of the bands, this is generally a continuation signal, rather than a reversal signal. So in this instance, it would be more likely to not return to the centre line. A signature concept of the Bollinger Bands is the squeeze. This is when the two bands come close together around the moving average. This represents low volatility, meaning a higher volatility period will follow. However, there is no way of knowing from this indication alone when the volatility will increase. The opposite of this effect is when the bands get further apart from each other. This represents higher volatility, so a lower volatility period will follow at some point. This makes the Bollinger Bands great for visualising the volatility of a security, or cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. Bollinger himself recommends using his bands alongside other technical indicators, such as moving average divergence/convergence (MACD), on-balance volume and relative strength index (RSI). He also points out that 88-89% of the price action should be within the bands, so anything outside of the bands has particularly significance. What is the future of Bollinger Bands? Over the years, having faced many queries about his indicator, John Bollinger has created 22 rules that answer many of the questions posed to him. At nearly 70 years of age, he is still active in financial circles and speaks regularly about his passions trading and the indicator he conceived, the Bollinger Bands. The full list of his 22 rules can be found on his website . As with all trading analysis tools, they should be used with caution and an overall understanding of markets. No concept, including Bollinger Bands, are guaranteed to be successful. So as many in the crypto community warn, DYOR or Do Your Own Research! Want to know more about cryptocurrency trading? To find out more about trading crypto, make sure you download this definitive guide. It gives you all the inormation you need to know about exchanges, strategies, and security. The post Trading cryptocurrency: Bollinger Bands explained appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Trading cryptocurrency: Bollinger Bands explained: What are Bollinger Bands? Bollinger bands are a tool commonly used in technical analysis. The idea was originally conceptualised by John Bollinger in the 1980s. Beginning his career as an independent trader in 1980, he later joined Financial News Network where he worked as the Chief Market Analyst between 1984 and 1990, presenting regular technical analysis pieces on the channel. He is both a CFA Chartered Financial Analyst and CMT Chartered Market Technician, and now runs his own investment firm Bollinger Capital Management. The term Bollinger Bands was originally coined by Bollinger himself during a live broadcast. Unprepared for the question when asked the name of the bands he was presenting, his reply was: Lets call them Bollinger Bands. The basic concept of Bollinger Bands involves two lines, X number of standard deviations above and below an n period moving average, to create an envelope. This was an adaptation of Keltner channels another technical analysis indicator showing a central moving average line, with channel lines above and below. According to Bollingers website , The defaults today are the same as they were 35 years ago, 20 periods for the moving average with the bands set at plus and minus two standard deviations of the same data used for the average. However, these can be adjusted to suit what the analyst is attempting to monitor. What are Bollinger Bands used for? Bollinger was looking to find a more adaptive indicator, based on volatility. The bands can then be combined with other indicators in order to obtain buy and sell signals. A basic assumption when using the bollinger bands is that when the price breaks upwards towards the upper band, the market is overbought and this represents a sell signal. Conversely, when the price trends down towards the lower band, this represents oversold conditions and represents a buy signal. These are, of course, generalisations and should be combined with other data and indicators. Some traders do, however, use this as a continuous trading strategy. Story continues When a security closes outside of the bands, this is generally a continuation signal, rather than a reversal signal. So in this instance, it would be more likely to not return to the centre line. A signature concept of the Bollinger Bands is the squeeze. This is when the two bands come close together around the moving average. This represents low volatility, meaning a higher volatility period will follow. However, there is no way of knowing from this indication alone when the volatility will increase. The opposite of this effect is when the bands get further apart from each other. This represents higher volatility, so a lower volatility period will follow at some point. This makes the Bollinger Bands great for visualising the volatility of a security, or cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. Bollinger himself recommends using his bands alongside other technical indicators, such as moving average divergence/convergence (MACD), on-balance volume and relative strength index (RSI). He also points out that 88-89% of the price action should be within the bands, so anything outside of the bands has particularly significance. What is the future of Bollinger Bands? Over the years, having faced many queries about his indicator, John Bollinger has created 22 rules that answer many of the questions posed to him. At nearly 70 years of age, he is still active in financial circles and speaks regularly about his passions trading and the indicator he conceived, the Bollinger Bands. The full list of his 22 rules can be found on his website . As with all trading analysis tools, they should be used with caution and an overall understanding of markets. No concept, including Bollinger Bands, are guaranteed to be successful. So as many in the crypto community warn, DYOR or Do Your Own Research! Want to know more about cryptocurrency trading? To find out more about trading crypto, make sure you download this definitive guide. It gives you all the inormation you need to know about exchanges, strategies, and security. The post Trading cryptocurrency: Bollinger Bands explained appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bullish Crypto Indicator Puts Near-Term Target for Bitcoin to Hit $6,000: Bitcoin price could have an upside of $6,000 in the near-term. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN.com : According to a cryptocurrency trader known as “Crypto Rand,” a technical indicator suggests the bitcoin price is en route to achieving $6,000 in the near-term. #Bitcoin looking solid here. Bullish pennant on the making. Target over the $6,000 region. pic.twitter.com/3WMFkuKzBN — Crypto Rand (@crypto_rand) April 22, 2019 Throughout the past 30 days, the bitcoin price has recorded a significant surge in value from $3,975 to $5,311 by more than 33 percent in most major markets. Some analysts have become cautious on the prospect of the cryptocurrency market due to the sideways price movement of bitcoin, expecting the dominant cryptocurrency to remain stable while alternative cryptocurrencies weaken . What Can Push Bitcoin Upwards in the Near-Term? While there are no clear fundamental catalysts for the bitcoin price and the rest of the cryptocurrency market in the weeks to come, there are some events on the horizon that historically led the bitcoin price to increase by a large margin. In less than two weeks, it officially becomes a year before the next scheduled block reward halving for bitcoin in May 2020. In a block reward halving, the rate in which new bitcoin is mined by miners on the blockchain network is reduced, leading to a decline in the potential circulating supply of bitcoin. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Bullish Crypto Indicator Puts Near-Term Target for Bitcoin to Hit $6,000: ByCCN.com: According to a cryptocurrency trader known as “Crypto Rand,” a technical indicator suggests the bitcoin price is en route to achieving $6,000 in the near-term.
Throughout the past 30 days, the bitcoin price has recorded a significant surge in value from $3,975 to $5,311 by more than 33 percent in most major markets.
Some analysts have become cautious on the prospect of the cryptocurrency market due to the sideways price movement of bitcoin, expecting the dominant cryptocurrency to remain stable while alternative cryptocurrenciesweaken.
While there are no clear fundamental catalysts for the bitcoin price and the rest of the cryptocurrency market in the weeks to come, there are some events on the horizon that historically led the bitcoin price to increase by a large margin.
In less than two weeks, it officially becomes a year before the next scheduled block reward halving for bitcoin in May 2020.
In a block reward halving, the rate in which new bitcoin is mined by miners on the blockchain network is reduced, leading to a decline in the potential circulating supply of bitcoin.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bullish Crypto Indicator Puts Near-Term Target for Bitcoin to Hit $6,000: ByCCN.com: According to a cryptocurrency trader known as “Crypto Rand,” a technical indicator suggests the bitcoin price is en route to achieving $6,000 in the near-term.
Throughout the past 30 days, the bitcoin price has recorded a significant surge in value from $3,975 to $5,311 by more than 33 percent in most major markets.
Some analysts have become cautious on the prospect of the cryptocurrency market due to the sideways price movement of bitcoin, expecting the dominant cryptocurrency to remain stable while alternative cryptocurrenciesweaken.
While there are no clear fundamental catalysts for the bitcoin price and the rest of the cryptocurrency market in the weeks to come, there are some events on the horizon that historically led the bitcoin price to increase by a large margin.
In less than two weeks, it officially becomes a year before the next scheduled block reward halving for bitcoin in May 2020.
In a block reward halving, the rate in which new bitcoin is mined by miners on the blockchain network is reduced, leading to a decline in the potential circulating supply of bitcoin.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Former E&Y blockchain big hitter quits overcrowded crypto space: The brilliantly named Angus Champion de Crespigny spent more than a decade at Big Four accounting firm Ernest and Young, focusing on blockchain during his last couple of years there. In 2018, he left the company to focus on other projects, stating that he was disillusioned with the blockchain space. And now he is no longer working in the Bitcoin/crypto industry, having taken a new role outside of it. Champion de Crespigny made the announcement on Twitter. Some news: I am no longer working full time in the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry, and have taken a role outside it. I’ve had a number of people ask why, or seem surprised, so I thought I’d lay out my rationale in case it is of interest to others. — Angus Champion de Crespigny (@anguschampion) April 19, 2019 Whilst there are “some fantastic companies making great strides with Bitcoin adoption in the institutional and consumer space”, the market has become overcrowded. “You also can’t rush people to believe that something has value.” He added: “I have believed for the past few years that there would be a ‘great cleansing’, where over a period of a year or two, people would slowly withdraw from all the useless blockchain projects going on. I’m losing confidence the market will become rational any time soon.” He stressed, however, that he was not saying bye bye to Bitcoin. “I’ll always be involved in one way or another.” And he maintains his belief that the cryptocurrency can radically transform the world. Just don’t place your bets on that happening any time soon. I’m as confident in Bitcoin’s ability to radically transform the world as I ever have been. However I believe the time horizon to do that is very long, and I believe my best bet in the industry is to simply buy and hold. — Angus Champion de Crespigny (@anguschampion) April 19, 2019 The post Former E&Y blockchain big hitter quits overcrowded crypto space appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Former E&Y blockchain big hitter quits overcrowded crypto space: The brilliantly named Angus Champion de Crespigny spent more than a decade at Big Four accounting firm Ernest and Young, focusing on blockchain during his last couple of years there. In 2018, he left the company to focus on other projects, stating that he was disillusioned with the blockchain space. And now he is no longer working in the Bitcoin/crypto industry, having taken a new role outside of it. Champion de Crespigny made the announcement on Twitter. Some news: I am no longer working full time in the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry, and have taken a role outside it. I’ve had a number of people ask why, or seem surprised, so I thought I’d lay out my rationale in case it is of interest to others. — Angus Champion de Crespigny (@anguschampion) April 19, 2019 Whilst there are “some fantastic companies making great strides with Bitcoin adoption in the institutional and consumer space”, the market has become overcrowded. “You also can’t rush people to believe that something has value.” He added: “I have believed for the past few years that there would be a ‘great cleansing’, where over a period of a year or two, people would slowly withdraw from all the useless blockchain projects going on. I’m losing confidence the market will become rational any time soon.” He stressed, however, that he was not saying bye bye to Bitcoin. “I’ll always be involved in one way or another.” And he maintains his belief that the cryptocurrency can radically transform the world. Just don’t place your bets on that happening any time soon. I’m as confident in Bitcoin’s ability to radically transform the world as I ever have been. However I believe the time horizon to do that is very long, and I believe my best bet in the industry is to simply buy and hold. — Angus Champion de Crespigny (@anguschampion) April 19, 2019 The post Former E&Y blockchain big hitter quits overcrowded crypto space appeared first on Coin Rivet .
[Social Media Buzz]
04-23 23:00(GMT)
#SPINDLE price
$SPD (BTC)
Yobit :0.00000014
HitBTC :0.00000013
LiveCoin:0.00000012
$SPD (JPY)
Yobit :0.09
HitBTC :0.08
LiveCoin:0.07 || ₿ #BTCUSD #Bitcoin = 5.494,51 #Dolar Güncelleme Saati : 08:00 || 現在の1ビットコインあたりの値段は625,854.7646円です。値段の取得日時はApr 23, 2019 14:07:00 UTCです #bitcoin #ビットコイン || Market Cap: $184,144,571,568
BTC Dominance: 53.74%
BTC: $5603.67117156
ETH: 0.03098513 BTC
XRP: 0.00005796 BTC
BCH: 0.05311971 BTC
EOS: 0.00094187 BTC
24.04.2019 00:13:33
Power...
|
5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14, 5247.35, 5350.73, 5402.70, 5505.28, 5768.29
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 9341.71, 8820.52, 8784.49, 8672.46, 8599.51, 8562.45, 8869.67, 8787.79, 8755.25, 9078.76, 9122.55, 8909.95, 8108.12, 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48, 5225.63, 5238.44, 6191.19, 6198.78, 6185.07, 5830.25, 6416.31, 6734.80, 6681.06, 6716.44, 6469.80, 6242.19, 5922.04, 6429.84, 6438.64, 6606.78, 6793.62, 6733.39, 6867.53, 6791.13, 7271.78, 7176.41, 7334.10, 7302.09, 6865.49, 6859.08, 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80, 7096.18, 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32, 7117.21, 7429.72, 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87, 7795.60, 7807.06, 8801.04, 8658.55, 8864.77, 8988.60, 8897.47, 8912.65, 9003.07, 9268.76, 9951.52, 9842.67, 9593.90, 8756.43, 8601.80, 8804.48, 9269.99, 9733.72, 9328.20, 9377.01, 9670.74, 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2020-05-24]
Volume: 32518803300, RSI (14-day): 47.24, 50-day EMA: 8539.11, 200-day EMA: 8196.75
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Prance Gold Holdings Enables Portfolio Growth to Overcome Economic Uncertainty Caused by the Recession: TOKYO, JAPAN / ACCESSWIRE / May 23, 2020 /Volatility has been one of the characteristics of digital asset prices. In early May 2020, for example, price levels have reached thehighest price since "Black Thursday"even amidst the current economic situation. It is challenging for some investors and traders to keep on pushing especially with the current volatility that can pose threats to growing one's portfolio. Nonetheless, some trading strategies can still help ensure profits during these trying times.
For most digital asset traders, holding appears to be the safest method. This is when a trader holds on to the asset for a long time. Holding requires patience, and unfortunately, it can take years to actually get a profit. Take Bitcoin as an example. People who have held onto the coin for years ended up as the biggest winners. However, the challenge with this technique is knowing whether it is the right time to sell.
Trading, on the other hand, can be extremely risky and is accompanied by a massive amount of stress. It is a very dangerous game especially if there's not much knowledge about it. Traders must stand the mental pressure and can say "stop" at the right time while waiting for a price bounce. Many traders who are trying to compensate for their losses can end up losing more than their accumulated capital.
Is there any strategy that does not involve a long and uncertain wait or risk of severe losses? Yes. There exists a strategy that is both low-risk and short-term.
Increasing digital assets through arbitrage trading
"Arbitrage is the concurrent buying and selling of an asset on different markets to profit from the price difference. This is the best strategy for trading, especially when there are so many price movements and asymmetries in the market," says Andre Gerald, Chief Executive Officer ofPrance Gold Holdings, a trading platform specializing in algorithmic trading.
Significant price differences arise for the same digital asset on multiple exchanges because there arehundreds of different exchangeson the market to date. These price differences can range from 3% to 5% on average, although it can go as high as 20% in some cases. These price discrepancies allow traders to generate a huge profit with little to no risk and no advanced market knowledge. "The main purpose of arbitrage is to maximize investors' profits, based on their assets, with zero risks," according to theJournal of International Studies.
However, this process is time-consuming and requires traders to have the right equipment to fully take advantage of all the arbitrage opportunities in different markets, especially with digital assets.
Leveraging on digital asset arbitrage
The most basic and straightforward way to start arbitrage in digital assets is to do everything manually. You can monitor exchanges for price differences and then place trades and transfer funds accordingly.
However, "What these programs do is to initiate a trade instantly once an arbitrage opportunity is spotted. This offers traders reduced risks and increased profitability of their digital assets", explains Jeffrey Guo, Fintech Veteran and Seed Investor ofPrance Gold Holdings.
In addition, there are two distinct methods of arbitraging in digital assets: regular and triple-directional arbitrage. The former refers to buying and selling the same coin on different exchanges with significant price differences. The latter involves three coins in the same exchange.
"Triple-directional (also referred to triangular arbitrage) is the act of exploiting an arbitrage opportunity resulting from a pricing discrepancy among three different assets or currencies in the exchanges. This strategy involves three trades, exchanging the initial digital currency for a second, the second currency for a third, and the third currency for the initial," says Prance Gold Holdings' Gerald.
Arbitraging manually can be tedious and requires a lot of time. To fully take advantage of this strategy, there are arbitrage bots that are designed to make it as easy as possible to leverage these price differences. This means there will be no need to hold on to a coin for years. You can grow digital assets short term with little to no risk.
The takeaway
Among all digital asset trading strategies, arbitrage can be proven as a sustainable way to grow one's portfolio. Although it requires a lot of information to process and to make the strategy work for you. Fortunately, there are certain platforms you can take advantage of that offer software or trading bot to help you find arbitrage opportunities.
Arbitrage takes advantage of multiple small gains from price differences in markets. Therefore, it will generate profits even amidst volatility and even through economic uncertainties. For traders, this will be an opportunity to take advantage of the asymmetric nature of markets.
About Prance Gold Holdings
Prance Gold Holdings is a technology firm focused on the growth of digital assets for retail and corporate firms through transparent, short to mid-term cryptocurrency arbitrage on world-renowned major exchanges around the world. The company offers everyone ultra-short-term investment opportunities as short as seven hours, simply by parking their idle balances in its high performance and secure platform for risk-free arbitrage trading to grow their individual wealth.
Media contact
For inquiries, please get in touch with Linda Fairbrother [email protected].
Image credit:Pxfuel
SOURCE:Prance Gold Holdings
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/590856/Prance-Gold-Holdings-Enables-Portfolio-Growth-to-Overcome-Economic-Uncertainty-Caused-by-the-Recession || Prance Gold Holdings Enables Portfolio Growth to Overcome Economic Uncertainty Caused by the Recession: TOKYO, JAPAN / ACCESSWIRE / May 23, 2020 / Volatility has been one of the characteristics of digital asset prices. In early May 2020, for example, price levels have reached the highest price since "Black Thursday" even amidst the current economic situation. It is challenging for some investors and traders to keep on pushing especially with the current volatility that can pose threats to growing one's portfolio. Nonetheless, some trading strategies can still help ensure profits during these trying times. For most digital asset traders, holding appears to be the safest method. This is when a trader holds on to the asset for a long time. Holding requires patience, and unfortunately, it can take years to actually get a profit. Take Bitcoin as an example. People who have held onto the coin for years ended up as the biggest winners. However, the challenge with this technique is knowing whether it is the right time to sell. Trading, on the other hand, can be extremely risky and is accompanied by a massive amount of stress. It is a very dangerous game especially if there's not much knowledge about it. Traders must stand the mental pressure and can say "stop" at the right time while waiting for a price bounce. Many traders who are trying to compensate for their losses can end up losing more than their accumulated capital. Is there any strategy that does not involve a long and uncertain wait or risk of severe losses? Yes. There exists a strategy that is both low-risk and short-term. Increasing digital assets through arbitrage trading "Arbitrage is the concurrent buying and selling of an asset on different markets to profit from the price difference. This is the best strategy for trading, especially when there are so many price movements and asymmetries in the market," says Andre Gerald, Chief Executive Officer of Prance Gold Holdings , a trading platform specializing in algorithmic trading. Significant price differences arise for the same digital asset on multiple exchanges because there are hundreds of different exchanges on the market to date. These price differences can range from 3% to 5% on average, although it can go as high as 20% in some cases. These price discrepancies allow traders to generate a huge profit with little to no risk and no advanced market knowledge. "The main purpose of arbitrage is to maximize investors' profits, based on their assets, with zero risks," according to the Journal of International Studies . Story continues However, this process is time-consuming and requires traders to have the right equipment to fully take advantage of all the arbitrage opportunities in different markets, especially with digital assets. Leveraging on digital asset arbitrage The most basic and straightforward way to start arbitrage in digital assets is to do everything manually. You can monitor exchanges for price differences and then place trades and transfer funds accordingly. However, "What these programs do is to initiate a trade instantly once an arbitrage opportunity is spotted. This offers traders reduced risks and increased profitability of their digital assets", explains Jeffrey Guo, Fintech Veteran and Seed Investor of Prance Gold Holdings . In addition, there are two distinct methods of arbitraging in digital assets: regular and triple-directional arbitrage. The former refers to buying and selling the same coin on different exchanges with significant price differences. The latter involves three coins in the same exchange. "Triple-directional (also referred to triangular arbitrage) is the act of exploiting an arbitrage opportunity resulting from a pricing discrepancy among three different assets or currencies in the exchanges. This strategy involves three trades, exchanging the initial digital currency for a second, the second currency for a third, and the third currency for the initial," says Prance Gold Holdings' Gerald. Arbitraging manually can be tedious and requires a lot of time. To fully take advantage of this strategy, there are arbitrage bots that are designed to make it as easy as possible to leverage these price differences. This means there will be no need to hold on to a coin for years. You can grow digital assets short term with little to no risk. The takeaway Among all digital asset trading strategies, arbitrage can be proven as a sustainable way to grow one's portfolio. Although it requires a lot of information to process and to make the strategy work for you. Fortunately, there are certain platforms you can take advantage of that offer software or trading bot to help you find arbitrage opportunities. Arbitrage takes advantage of multiple small gains from price differences in markets. Therefore, it will generate profits even amidst volatility and even through economic uncertainties. For traders, this will be an opportunity to take advantage of the asymmetric nature of markets. About Prance Gold Holdings Prance Gold Holdings is a technology firm focused on the growth of digital assets for retail and corporate firms through transparent, short to mid-term cryptocurrency arbitrage on world-renowned major exchanges around the world. The company offers everyone ultra-short-term investment opportunities as short as seven hours, simply by parking their idle balances in its high performance and secure platform for risk-free arbitrage trading to grow their individual wealth. Media contact For inquiries, please get in touch with Linda Fairbrother at [email protected] . Image credit: Pxfuel SOURCE: Prance Gold Holdings View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/590856/Prance-Gold-Holdings-Enables-Portfolio-Growth-to-Overcome-Economic-Uncertainty-Caused-by-the-Recession || Central Bank Digital Currencies Need Decentralization: Igor Mikhalev is an expert principal at BCG helping clients develop business models with blockchain technologies and digital currencies. Kaj Burchardi is a managing director with BCG and leads the blockchain practice of BCG/Platinion globally. Digital currencies hold a long-term promise to change the way nations, corporations and people transact value. Some of them – combining both cryptocurrency benefits (disintermediation, high speed and low cost of transactions) as well as qualities of traditional currencies (e.g. price stability and being able to act as legal tender) – challenge traditional financial systems at the core. While first-generation digital currencies deployed by consortia of industry players may only deliver incremental changes such as the reduction in money movement prices and lowering the cost of capital for unbanked, adoption across nations through CDBC 2.0 holds the potential to unlock significant value available for first movers to capture. In our recent work , we have analyzed key notable projects and developments around digital currencies, distilling them into key Digital Currency archetypes (see exhibit 1). Related: To See Libra’s Potential, Look at the Philippines, Not the US Throughout our analysis, we have developed and applied the Total Social Impact framework (see exhibit 2) to understand the societal value chain impact of the introduction of digital currencies as well as potential effects of adoption by nations, central banks, corporations and individual users. Specific underlying drivers have been defined and evaluated for each TSI dimension. CDBC 2.0 is the second step in the evolution of CBDCs: a new, most impactful (see exhibit 4) form of money issued digitally by one or many central banks using blockchain technology, interoperable and programmable by design. Currently, the responsibility for the monetary system lies under the jurisdiction of nation-states and international agreements. For a digital currency to be adopted in any state, it must first comply with the regulations of the state. Central banks, while curious about CBDCs, are wary of digital currencies that introduce decentralization of ownership or governance, and that makes traditional centralized governance a challenging task. Story continues See also: Ajit Tripathi – 4 Reasons Central Banks Should Launch Retail Digital Currencies Related: Spiritual Reflections on the Bitcoin Halving But CBDCs will fail if they don’t implement and benefit from arguably the most revolutionary aspect brought by bitcoin and blockchain technologies: decentralization. Initial CDBC projects create incrementally better alternatives to the current financial system by enabling peer-to-peer transactions, but they are still keeping the governance centralized and circulation controlled. The major incentives for consumers to adopt a central bank-issued cryptocurrency will be based on decentralized governance and open circulation system. Public trust in government and banking institutions has dropped since the financial crisis of 2008. Therefore, there is room for a digital currency that has no central authority in its usual central bank sense which determines e.g. the borrowing rate or supply of money in circulation. Central banks wield a high level of power over national currencies. Average consumers have no influence over or knowledge of central bank activities or which parties are asserting influence over policy decisions. A CBDC 2.0 will be issued and decentrally governed (exhibit 3) either on a national or on a supranational level, across multiple jurisdictions. This implies a different set of legal, monetary, and fiscal policies, some of them automated, required to be codified and put in place across nations. CBDC 2.0 will supplant the need for multiple other digital currencies intended for specific use cases such as mortgages, lending, trade finance, real estate, and so on. The CBDC 2.0 will have to be interoperable on a protocol level. Data exchange and functionality should be easily accessible and transferable from protocol to protocol. Decentrally governed CBDC 2.0 will bring multiple advantages for an average consumer, including fast and cheap cross-border transactions, pseudonymity, personal data protection, and international operability. It will arguably eliminate the risk of hyperinflation because issuance will be automated via an algorithmic “issuance system.” All the transactions will be recorded on an immutable (supra) national ledger open to everybody, with no risk of double spending and reduced chance of illicit transactions. CBDC 2.0 will supplant the need for multiple other digital currencies intended for specific use cases such as mortgages, lending, trade finance, real estate, and so on. Banks will have easier access to credit, meaning the money will move through channels faster. Cross-border transactions will require less documentation and time to settle. This will enable faster trade across the world and disempower monopolies. And traceability will allow nations to reduce criminal activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, and drug trafficking. Last but not least, the currency will be interoperable on a supranational level, meaning that emerging economies could suffer less from purchasing power inequality. During our workshop on CBDCs at Consensus 2020, we asked guests to list the benefits of decentralized CBDCs. They gave the following three. First, that CBDCs could improve democracy and distribution of power, and reduce political influence on decision-making. Two, they could reduce currency volatility, particularly in emerging economies. Three, they could cut the cost payments, notably cross-border. The takeaway Central banks are traditionally centralized institutions, and not without a good reason. They have been created as independently governed bodies and entrusted significant power, to ensure long-term financial stability. They enforced constraints when a king wanted to issue or alter coins to uphold the credibility of their currency. This approach worked for centuries, limiting a national leader’s ability to debase the currency and ultimately contributed to a common good through financial stability. As blockchain technologies mature, leaders should decide how to restructure existing financial institutions and policies to benefit from decentralization of governance and subsequently realize the discussed benefits introduced by CDBC 2.0. First movers will be rewarded by an increase in competitiveness of their (supra)national currencies through improved democracy and distribution of power, reduced corruption and manipulation as well as more efficient and secure payments. Related Stories Finance and the Real Economy Can’t Stay Out of Sync Forever What I Learned the First Time I Lost a Million Dollars || Central Bank Digital Currencies Need Decentralization: Igor Mikhalev is an expert principal at BCG helping clients develop business models with blockchain technologies and digital currencies. Kaj Burchardi is a managing director with BCG and leads the blockchain practice of BCG/Platinion globally.
Digital currencies hold a long-term promise to change the way nations, corporations and people transact value. Some of them – combining both cryptocurrency benefits (disintermediation, high speed and low cost of transactions) as well as qualities of traditional currencies (e.g. price stability and being able to act as legal tender) – challenge traditional financial systems at the core. While first-generation digital currencies deployed by consortia of industry players may only deliver incremental changes such as the reduction in money movement prices and lowering the cost of capital for unbanked, adoption across nations through CDBC 2.0 holds the potential to unlock significant value available for first movers to capture.
In ourrecent work, we have analyzed key notable projects and developments around digital currencies, distilling them into key Digital Currency archetypes (see exhibit 1).
Related:To See Libra’s Potential, Look at the Philippines, Not the US
Throughout our analysis, we have developed and applied the Total Social Impact framework (see exhibit 2) to understand the societal value chain impact of the introduction of digital currencies as well as potential effects of adoption by nations, central banks, corporations and individual users. Specific underlying drivers have been defined and evaluated for each TSI dimension.
CDBC 2.0 is the second step in the evolution of CBDCs: a new, most impactful (see exhibit 4) form of money issued digitally by one or many central banks using blockchain technology, interoperable and programmable by design.
Currently, the responsibility for the monetary system lies under the jurisdiction of nation-states and international agreements. For a digital currency to be adopted in any state, it must first comply with the regulations of the state. Central banks, while curious about CBDCs, are wary of digital currencies that introduce decentralization of ownership or governance, and that makes traditional centralized governance a challenging task.
See also:Ajit Tripathi – 4 Reasons Central Banks Should Launch Retail Digital Currencies
Related:Spiritual Reflections on the Bitcoin Halving
But CBDCs will fail if they don’t implement and benefit from arguably the most revolutionary aspect brought bybitcoinand blockchain technologies: decentralization. Initial CDBC projects create incrementally better alternatives to the current financial system by enabling peer-to-peer transactions, but they are still keeping the governance centralized and circulation controlled.
The major incentives for consumers to adopt a central bank-issued cryptocurrency will be based on decentralized governance and open circulation system. Public trust in government and banking institutions has dropped since the financial crisis of 2008. Therefore, there is room for a digital currency that has no central authority in its usual central bank sense which determines e.g. the borrowing rate or supply of money in circulation.
Central banks wield a high level of power over national currencies. Average consumers have no influence over or knowledge of central bank activities or which parties are asserting influence over policy decisions.
A CBDC 2.0 will be issued and decentrally governed (exhibit 3) either on a national or on a supranational level, across multiple jurisdictions. This implies a different set of legal, monetary, and fiscal policies, some of them automated, required to be codified and put in place across nations.
CBDC 2.0 will supplant the need for multiple other digital currencies intended for specific use cases such as mortgages, lending, trade finance, real estate, and so on. The CBDC 2.0 will have to be interoperable on a protocol level. Data exchange and functionality should be easily accessible and transferable from protocol to protocol.
Decentrally governed CBDC 2.0 will bring multiple advantages for an average consumer, including fast and cheap cross-border transactions, pseudonymity, personal data protection, and international operability. It will arguably eliminate the risk of hyperinflation because issuance will be automated via an algorithmic “issuance system.” All the transactions will be recorded on an immutable (supra) national ledger open to everybody, with no risk of double spending and reduced chance of illicit transactions.
CBDC 2.0 will supplant the need for multiple other digital currencies intended for specific use cases such as mortgages, lending, trade finance, real estate, and so on.
Banks will have easier access to credit, meaning the money will move through channels faster. Cross-border transactions will require less documentation and time to settle. This will enable faster trade across the world and disempower monopolies. And traceability will allow nations to reduce criminal activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, and drug trafficking.
Last but not least, the currency will be interoperable on a supranational level, meaning that emerging economies could suffer less from purchasing power inequality.
During our workshop on CBDCs at Consensus 2020, we asked guests to list the benefits of decentralized CBDCs. They gave the following three. First, that CBDCs could improve democracy and distribution of power, and reduce political influence on decision-making. Two, they could reduce currency volatility, particularly in emerging economies. Three, they could cut the cost payments, notably cross-border.
Central banks are traditionally centralized institutions, and not without a good reason. They have been created as independently governed bodies and entrusted significant power, to ensure long-term financial stability. They enforced constraints when a king wanted to issue or alter coins to uphold the credibility of their currency. This approach worked for centuries, limiting a national leader’s ability to debase the currency and ultimately contributed to a common good through financial stability.
As blockchain technologies mature, leaders should decide how to restructure existing financial institutions and policies to benefit from decentralization of governance and subsequently realize the discussed benefits introduced by CDBC 2.0. First movers will be rewarded by an increase in competitiveness of their (supra)national currencies through improved democracy and distribution of power, reduced corruption and manipulation as well as more efficient and secure payments.
• Finance and the Real Economy Can’t Stay Out of Sync Forever
• What I Learned the First Time I Lost a Million Dollars || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -23/05/20: Bitcoin rose by 1.14% on Friday. Partially reversing a 4.68% slide from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,162.4. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $8,935.4 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level at $8,726.9, Bitcoin bounced back to a late afternoon intraday high $9,269.0. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,475.7, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$9,200 levels late on. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from the 62% FIB of $10,034 to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a bullish day on Friday. Cardano’s ADA rallied by 8.20% to lead the way. EOS (+5.24%), Ethereum (+4.39%), Tezos (+6.07%), and Tron’s TRX (+4.67%) also found strong support. Binance Coin (+3.17%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+3.26%), Litecoin (+3.66%), Monero’s XMR (+2.37%), Ripple’s XRP (+3.30%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+2.31%) trailed the front runners. Bitcoin Cash SV saw a modest gain of 1.48% on the day. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday high $268.43bn before falling to a Thursday low $239.96bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $253.79bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 68.31% before falling to a Friday low 66.90%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 67.03%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.89% to $9,243.5. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $9,162.3 to a high $9,266.7. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Binance Coin (+1.05%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.87), and Ethereum (+0.84%) led the way early on. Bitcoin Cash SV (-0.31%) and Tezos (-0.15%) bucked the trend at the start of the day. Story continues For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid sub-$9,200 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,309.13 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $9,269.0. Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside. In the event of an extended crypto rally, the second major resistance level at $9,455.87 would likely come into play. Resistance at $9,500 may limit any upside, however. Failure to avoid sub-$9,200 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse. A fall back through to sub-$9,120 levels would bring the first major support level at $8,975.53 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $8,788.67. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Preview – Earnings Resume on Tuesday May 25, After the Memorial Day Holiday Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Straddling Key 50% Level at $1727.50 EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – 23/05/20 Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Gain Back Some Losses Crude Oil Price Update – Major Retracement Zone at $36.07 – $40.50 Providing Resistance Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Show Signs of Resistance || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -23/05/20: Bitcoin rose by 1.14% on Friday. Partially reversing a 4.68% slide from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,162.4.
A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $8,935.4 before finding support.
Steering clear of the first major support level at $8,726.9, Bitcoin bounced back to a late afternoon intraday high $9,269.0.
Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,475.7, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$9,200 levels late on.
The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000.
For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from the 62% FIB of $10,034 to form a near-term bullish trend.
Across the rest of the majors, it was a bullish day on Friday.
Cardano’s ADA rallied by 8.20% to lead the way.
EOS (+5.24%), Ethereum (+4.39%), Tezos (+6.07%), and Tron’s TRX (+4.67%) also found strong support.
Binance Coin (+3.17%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+3.26%), Litecoin (+3.66%), Monero’s XMR (+2.37%), Ripple’s XRP (+3.30%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+2.31%) trailed the front runners.
Bitcoin Cash SV saw a modest gain of 1.48% on the day.
In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday high $268.43bn before falling to a Thursday low $239.96bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $253.79bn.
Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 68.31% before falling to a Friday low 66.90%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 67.03%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.89% to $9,243.5. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $9,162.3 to a high $9,266.7.
Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.
Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day.
Binance Coin (+1.05%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.87), and Ethereum (+0.84%) led the way early on.
Bitcoin Cash SV (-0.31%) and Tezos (-0.15%) bucked the trend at the start of the day.
Bitcoin would need to avoid sub-$9,200 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,309.13 into play.
Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $9,269.0.
Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside.
In the event of an extended crypto rally, the second major resistance level at $9,455.87 would likely come into play. Resistance at $9,500 may limit any upside, however.
Failure to avoid sub-$9,200 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse.
A fall back through to sub-$9,120 levels would bring the first major support level at $8,975.53 into play.
Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $8,788.67.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
• S&P 500 Preview – Earnings Resume on Tuesday May 25, After the Memorial Day Holiday
• Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Straddling Key 50% Level at $1727.50
• EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – 23/05/20
• Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Gain Back Some Losses
• Crude Oil Price Update – Major Retracement Zone at $36.07 – $40.50 Providing Resistance
• Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Show Signs of Resistance || Louisiana State Senate to Consider Crypto Business Licensing Bill: The Louisiana State Senate is about to consider a bill to regulate and license virtual currency businesses.
Sponsored by state Rep. Mark Wright (R-77), HB701 sailed through the state House of Representatives with unanimous approval, and is being referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs.
If passed,the legislationwould establish Louisiana’s first crypto licensing regime.
Related:New Jersey Lawmaker Wants to Create a Crypto License
Crypto businesses would have to apply with the state’s Office of Financial Institutions (OFI), fork over executives’ fingerprints, subject their “experience, character and general fitness” to investigation – and perhaps the business premises as well – and pay a nonrefundable registration fee, among other requirements.
Registrants licensed by states with comparable regimes would not need a Louisiana license under the bill. Individuals dealing with less than $35,000 annually would only need to register with OFI.
OFI projected charging a $2,000 application fee and $1,000 for annual renewal. Louisiana’s budget gurusestimatedthe bill would cost the agency nearly $150,000 in its first year and about $1.3 million over five as OFI ramped up enforcement.
Bill sponsor Rep. Wright first called upon the OFI to study virtual currency regulation in 2019,according to The Advocate. During that session, he also introduced adifferent crypto licensing bill.
Related:Luxembourg Passes Bill to Give Blockchain Securities Legal Status
That bill died in the House committee.
Andrew Hinkes, a lawyer with Carlton Fields, said the 2020 bill appears to derive from the Virtual Currency Business Act (VCBA), alicensure regimeby the non-partisan Uniform Law Commission (ULC).
ULC drafts model laws meant to bring statutory uniformity across state lines. California, Oklahoma and Hawaii are all considering versions of the VCBA, he said.
See also:The Uniform Law Commission Has Given States a Clear Path to Approach Bitcoin
“The ULC releases model laws which sometimes are quickly adopted by multiple states and sometimes are not adopted at all,” he said. “State legislatures ultimately make policy decisions for their states and decide whether model laws are appropriate.”
The 23-page bill has ‘significant’ differences from the ULC’s 50+ page VCBA. Hinkes said it does not include reporting requirements, enforcement mechanisms, compliance programs and consumer protections that the VCBA put forth.
Rep. Wright did not immediately return a request for comment.
• US Lawmaker Reintroduces Bill Seeking ‘Safe Harbor’ for Some Crypto Startups
• Wyoming Lawmakers Advance Blockchain ‘Sandbox’ Bill || Louisiana State Senate to Consider Crypto Business Licensing Bill: The Louisiana State Senate is about to consider a bill to regulate and license virtual currency businesses. Sponsored by state Rep. Mark Wright (R-77), HB701 sailed through the state House of Representatives with unanimous approval, and is being referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs. If passed, the legislation would establish Louisiana’s first crypto licensing regime. Related: New Jersey Lawmaker Wants to Create a Crypto License Crypto businesses would have to apply with the state’s Office of Financial Institutions (OFI), fork over executives’ fingerprints, subject their “experience, character and general fitness” to investigation – and perhaps the business premises as well – and pay a nonrefundable registration fee, among other requirements. Registrants licensed by states with comparable regimes would not need a Louisiana license under the bill. Individuals dealing with less than $35,000 annually would only need to register with OFI. OFI projected charging a $2,000 application fee and $1,000 for annual renewal. Louisiana’s budget gurus estimated the bill would cost the agency nearly $150,000 in its first year and about $1.3 million over five as OFI ramped up enforcement. Bill sponsor Rep. Wright first called upon the OFI to study virtual currency regulation in 2019, according to The Advocate . During that session, he also introduced a different crypto licensing bill . Related: Luxembourg Passes Bill to Give Blockchain Securities Legal Status That bill died in the House committee. Source law Andrew Hinkes, a lawyer with Carlton Fields, said the 2020 bill appears to derive from the Virtual Currency Business Act (VCBA), a licensure regime by the non-partisan Uniform Law Commission (ULC). ULC drafts model laws meant to bring statutory uniformity across state lines. California, Oklahoma and Hawaii are all considering versions of the VCBA, he said. See also: The Uniform Law Commission Has Given States a Clear Path to Approach Bitcoin “The ULC releases model laws which sometimes are quickly adopted by multiple states and sometimes are not adopted at all,” he said. “State legislatures ultimately make policy decisions for their states and decide whether model laws are appropriate.” Story continues The 23-page bill has ‘significant’ differences from the ULC’s 50+ page VCBA. Hinkes said it does not include reporting requirements, enforcement mechanisms, compliance programs and consumer protections that the VCBA put forth. Rep. Wright did not immediately return a request for comment. Related Stories US Lawmaker Reintroduces Bill Seeking ‘Safe Harbor’ for Some Crypto Startups Wyoming Lawmakers Advance Blockchain ‘Sandbox’ Bill || Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian: We are entering a 'crypto spring': Amid the economic uncertainty sparked by coronavirus, bitcoin appears to have new momentum.
The price of the largest cryptocurrency isup 90% since March 16, when widespread U.S. school closures and stay-at-home orders began. The crypto community cheered the arrival of thethird bitcoin halving on May 11, the event every four years in which the reward for mining bitcoin gets slashed in half as a measure to control the creation of new bitcoins. And there’s big attention (including heavy scrutiny from lawmakers) on projects like the Facebook-led Libra Group, in which Coinbase and other big crypto companies, along with tech investment firms, are members.
Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit cofounder and an early investor in Coinbase, believes it all adds up to a new “crypto spring.”
“I try not to track prices, I can’t predict any of that stuff,” Ohanian told Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. “What I can say is we really do see a crypto spring right now in terms of top-tier engineers, product developers, designers, building real solutions on top of the blockchain. And that to me is the most interesting part... We’re seeing really top-tier talent building on the infrastructure.”
Despite saying he doesn’t watch the price closely, Ohanian has not failed to notice, he says, that “We’re kissing up toward $10,000.” So, does bitcoin’s price ride during the pandemic prove out its value as a safe haven investment? Billionaire hedge fund pioneerPaul Tudor Jones thinks so. In a note to clients this month, Jones said he’s investing in bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. “The best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse,” Jones wrote. “My bet is it will be bitcoin.”
That was seen as another noteworthy sign of support from a big Wall Street name, though the list of big names in investing that have vociferously shunned bitcoin remains long, including Jamie Dimon,Warren Buffett,Charlie Munger, Mark Cuban, Paul Krugman, and Nouriel Roubini.
“I’ve had a percentage of my wealth in crypto for quite some time now and I still feel pretty good about it, I don’t want to change too much of it,” Ohanian says. “Because I do think it’s a prudent hedge. It’s interesting to see OGs of Wall Street now getting into crypto and buying bitcoin. It’s increasingly showing that it’s here to stay.”
—
Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and closely covers bitcoin and blockchain. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.
Read more:
Bitcoin is up more than 90% during coronavirus quarantine
What the third bitcoin halving means for crypto investors
Bitcoin tumbles along with stocks from coronavirus, questioning 'safe haven' theory
Facebook-led Libra Association has lost 8 'founding members'
IRS adds specific crypto question to 2019 tax form
Cryptocurrency CEO who paid $4.6M for lunch with Buffett: 'It might be unrealistic'
Exclusive Yahoo Finance investigation: SEC quietly widens its crackdown on ICOs
Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit. || Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian: We are entering a 'crypto spring': Amid the economic uncertainty sparked by coronavirus, bitcoin appears to have new momentum. The price of the largest cryptocurrency is up 90% since March 16 , when widespread U.S. school closures and stay-at-home orders began. The crypto community cheered the arrival of the third bitcoin halving on May 11 , the event every four years in which the reward for mining bitcoin gets slashed in half as a measure to control the creation of new bitcoins. And there’s big attention (including heavy scrutiny from lawmakers) on projects like the Facebook-led Libra Group, in which Coinbase and other big crypto companies, along with tech investment firms, are members. Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit cofounder and an early investor in Coinbase, believes it all adds up to a new “crypto spring.” “I try not to track prices, I can’t predict any of that stuff,” Ohanian told Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. “What I can say is we really do see a crypto spring right now in terms of top-tier engineers, product developers, designers, building real solutions on top of the blockchain. And that to me is the most interesting part... We’re seeing really top-tier talent building on the infrastructure.” Bitcoin price from March 16 through May 19, 2020 (Yahoo Finance) Despite saying he doesn’t watch the price closely, Ohanian has not failed to notice, he says, that “We’re kissing up toward $10,000.” So, does bitcoin’s price ride during the pandemic prove out its value as a safe haven investment? Billionaire hedge fund pioneer Paul Tudor Jones thinks so . In a note to clients this month, Jones said he’s investing in bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. “The best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse,” Jones wrote. “My bet is it will be bitcoin.” That was seen as another noteworthy sign of support from a big Wall Street name, though the list of big names in investing that have vociferously shunned bitcoin remains long, including Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffett , Charlie Munger , Mark Cuban, Paul Krugman, and Nouriel Roubini. Story continues “I’ve had a percentage of my wealth in crypto for quite some time now and I still feel pretty good about it, I don’t want to change too much of it,” Ohanian says. “Because I do think it’s a prudent hedge. It’s interesting to see OGs of Wall Street now getting into crypto and buying bitcoin. It’s increasingly showing that it’s here to stay.” — Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and closely covers bitcoin and blockchain. Follow him on Twitter at @ readDanwrite . Read more: Bitcoin is up more than 90% during coronavirus quarantine What the third bitcoin halving means for crypto investors Bitcoin tumbles along with stocks from coronavirus, questioning 'safe haven' theory Facebook-led Libra Association has lost 8 'founding members' IRS adds specific crypto question to 2019 tax form Cryptocurrency CEO who paid $4.6M for lunch with Buffett: 'It might be unrealistic' Exclusive Yahoo Finance investigation: SEC quietly widens its crackdown on ICOs Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Flipboard , LinkedIn , YouTube , and reddit . || Blockchain Bites: Iran and Russia Revisit Crypto Regulations, Bitcoin Pizza Day 10 Years Later: Laszlo Hanyecz has the honor of conducting thefirst commercial bitcoin transaction: trading 10,000BTCfor about $30 worth of pizza.
Ten years later, those bitcoin would be worth $91 million. He apparently hasno regrets. “It was a really interesting system but nobody’s using it,” Hanyecz said. “If nobody’s using it, it doesn’t matter if I have it all.”
You’re readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.Blockchain Biteswill publish next on Tuesday, May 26. Happy Memorial Day to our U.S. readers.
Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Could Get a Boost From Central Bank Digital Currencies
This one transaction, conducted about a year after bitcoin’s inception, was the proof-of-concept necessary for a whole emergent economy to blossom. Ten years – to the day – later, bitcoin is looked at as a legitimatehedge against the Fed, ameans of paymentand averitable worldview.
While Hanyecz has said if it wasn’t him it would have been someone else, today we recognize his sacrifice and experiment.
Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!
Iranian Crypto MiningIranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), energy department and information and communication technology ministriesto draft a renewed national strategy for the crypto miningindustry. The news comes days after the Iranian parliament published a bill proposing to apply the country’s strict foreign exchange and currency smuggling regulation to cryptocurrencies. It’s unclear why the nation’s crypto policies are being revisited, though some speculate its to prevent value from escaping the nation’s borders.
Related:Crypto Long & Short: Innovation Cycles, Crypto Venture Funds and Institutional Investors
Tough DraftsHarsh new rules making many uses of digital assets punishable with fines or prison might soon become law in Russia. Two draft bills setting out how Russia should regulate cryptocurrencies weresent to the country’s parliament, the State Duma, earlier this week. The first of which would prohibit the issuance and transaction of digital currencies in the nation, while the second would impose new sanctions for the illegal use of digital assets. The draft bills have not been finalized, according a high ranking official at the Duma.
Quarterly LossCanaan has reporteda net loss of $5.6 millionand shrinking cash reserves for the first quarter of 2020. Revenues are up 44% quarter over quarter after the firm slashed prices, but it also incurred $9.3 million and $5.9 million expenses in cost of goods sold and R&D, respectively. Canaan’s next generation miners will hit shelves next quarter, though the firm has not provided a business outlook citing the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-Bitcoin halving.
Libra-like StablecoinTop Chinese political advisers have proposeda regional digital currency to facilitate regional tradethat would be backed by four major Asian currencies including the Japanese yen, Korean won, Hong Kong dollar and the yuan, with the People’s Bank of China leading the proposed effort. The basket of underlying collateral would be weighted based on its nation’s economy, resembling the original vision for Facebook’slibra.
Next of Kin
• The kin cryptocurrency mayleave its own fork of Stellar for the Solana blockchain. “The fork of Stellar enabled Kin to reach millions of consumers, but we knew it would not be a long-term solution,” a draft Kin Improvement Proposal reads. “Stellar has five-second block times, so irrespective of network load, a consumer could be seeing five-second latency on their transactions – not what we would deem a great consumer experience.” The draft proposal claims switching to Solana would lead to an 84% reduction in kin’s latency.
• The Kin Foundationpublished a transparency reportThursday, laying out its structure and operations, in a partnership with Messari and its disclosure database. Notably, 28 million users have acquired kin in the last three years across more than 50 different apps, and are spending 300 million kin per day, the report claims. The foundation’s tokens are vested at a rate of 20% per year.
Blockchain Bill of RightsThe World Economic Forum revealed a “blockchain bill of rights” to protect a crypto user’s right to “manage consent of data stored in third-party systems, port data between interoperable systems” and “revoke consent for future data collection.” Called the Presidio Principles, the document includes signatories from the Government of Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys, Electric Coin Company, CoinShares and the United Nations’ World Food Program, just to name a few.
Breadcrumbs…Anchorage now hassix executives in its C-suite, hiring a head of finance and head of sales with experience in both tech and Wall Street. With the new hires, this will be the first time the custodian has employees with “this deep of a bench” running the sales and finance sides of the business, President Diogo Mónica said. “It’s pretty obvious that Anchorage has larger ambitions than its current set of services,” he said. “I think you can start following the breadcrumbs.”
ADAM Hires BlockingerADAM, a 15-member crypto trade group, hired Jeffrey Blockinger, a former hedge fund legal chief, as its first chief executive. The agency write codes of conduct for the industry. “I look forward to expanding our leadership role in shaping the future of the digital assets markets by building consensus for the entire industry,” Blockinger said in a statement. (The Block)
Hack TrackWhale Alert has tracked 28.3 bitcoin ($260,000) stolen in a Bitfinex hack four years ago moving to an unknown wallet. (Decrypt)
Crypto TravelsTravala, a crypto travel booking platform, has been merged with Binance’s TravelbyBit, which also provides travel services. The merged company aims to provide offerings for 2 million hotels and 600 airlines. (The Block)
Crypto ‘Gray’ Markets Could Be Unintended Consequence of FATF Travel RuleThe Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule,” an attempt to extend prescriptive banking regulations to the crypto market,may lead to a bifurcation of the market.“We are going to see white crypto; we are going to see gray crypto. And those different forms of crypto will most likely trade at different prices,” said Bakkt President Adam White at Consensus: Distributed. Other commenters noted that the rule could lead to increased use of privacy coins and regulatory arbitrage between nations that choose to turn a blind eye on exchanges ignoring this global standard.
Finance and the Real Economy Can’t Stay Out of Sync ForeverJill Carlson, co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, arguesthe imbalance between stock prices, spurred by Federal stimuli, and record-levels of unemployment will rectify sooner than later.“[W]hen I look at the impacts of COVID-19, I see as much slowing down or creaking to a halt as I see speeding up. Our way of life has slowed. Economic time has stopped. For now, financial time has carried on. But there is good reason to think that may slow soon, too, as we realize our spendthrift habits don’t always serve us well,” she said.
‘Dismantle the Euro to Save Europe’ Feat. Tuomas MalinenTuomas Malinen, CEO of GnS Economics, a macroeconomic advisory firm, joins NLW to discuss how theCOVID-19 pandemic is putting pressure on the legitimacy of the European Unionand the euro.
• 10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets
• Blockchain Bites: Satoshi’s Sword of Damocles || Blockchain Bites: Iran and Russia Revisit Crypto Regulations, Bitcoin Pizza Day 10 Years Later: Laszlo Hanyecz has the honor of conducting thefirst commercial bitcoin transaction: trading 10,000BTCfor about $30 worth of pizza.
Ten years later, those bitcoin would be worth $91 million. He apparently hasno regrets. “It was a really interesting system but nobody’s using it,” Hanyecz said. “If nobody’s using it, it doesn’t matter if I have it all.”
You’re readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.Blockchain Biteswill publish next on Tuesday, May 26. Happy Memorial Day to our U.S. readers.
Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Could Get a Boost From Central Bank Digital Currencies
This one transaction, conducted about a year after bitcoin’s inception, was the proof-of-concept necessary for a whole emergent economy to blossom. Ten years – to the day – later, bitcoin is looked at as a legitimatehedge against the Fed, ameans of paymentand averitable worldview.
While Hanyecz has said if it wasn’t him it would have been someone else, today we recognize his sacrifice and experiment.
Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!
Iranian Crypto MiningIranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), energy department and information and communication technology ministriesto draft a renewed national strategy for the crypto miningindustry. The news comes days after the Iranian parliament published a bill proposing to apply the country’s strict foreign exchange and currency smuggling regulation to cryptocurrencies. It’s unclear why the nation’s crypto policies are being revisited, though some speculate its to prevent value from escaping the nation’s borders.
Related:Crypto Long & Short: Innovation Cycles, Crypto Venture Funds and Institutional Investors
Tough DraftsHarsh new rules making many uses of digital assets punishable with fines or prison might soon become law in Russia. Two draft bills setting out how Russia should regulate cryptocurrencies weresent to the country’s parliament, the State Duma, earlier this week. The first of which would prohibit the issuance and transaction of digital currencies in the nation, while the second would impose new sanctions for the illegal use of digital assets. The draft bills have not been finalized, according a high ranking official at the Duma.
Quarterly LossCanaan has reporteda net loss of $5.6 millionand shrinking cash reserves for the first quarter of 2020. Revenues are up 44% quarter over quarter after the firm slashed prices, but it also incurred $9.3 million and $5.9 million expenses in cost of goods sold and R&D, respectively. Canaan’s next generation miners will hit shelves next quarter, though the firm has not provided a business outlook citing the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-Bitcoin halving.
Libra-like StablecoinTop Chinese political advisers have proposeda regional digital currency to facilitate regional tradethat would be backed by four major Asian currencies including the Japanese yen, Korean won, Hong Kong dollar and the yuan, with the People’s Bank of China leading the proposed effort. The basket of underlying collateral would be weighted based on its nation’s economy, resembling the original vision for Facebook’slibra.
Next of Kin
• The kin cryptocurrency mayleave its own fork of Stellar for the Solana blockchain. “The fork of Stellar enabled Kin to reach millions of consumers, but we knew it would not be a long-term solution,” a draft Kin Improvement Proposal reads. “Stellar has five-second block times, so irrespective of network load, a consumer could be seeing five-second latency on their transactions – not what we would deem a great consumer experience.” The draft proposal claims switching to Solana would lead to an 84% reduction in kin’s latency.
• The Kin Foundationpublished a transparency reportThursday, laying out its structure and operations, in a partnership with Messari and its disclosure database. Notably, 28 million users have acquired kin in the last three years across more than 50 different apps, and are spending 300 million kin per day, the report claims. The foundation’s tokens are vested at a rate of 20% per year.
Blockchain Bill of RightsThe World Economic Forum revealed a “blockchain bill of rights” to protect a crypto user’s right to “manage consent of data stored in third-party systems, port data between interoperable systems” and “revoke consent for future data collection.” Called the Presidio Principles, the document includes signatories from the Government of Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys, Electric Coin Company, CoinShares and the United Nations’ World Food Program, just to name a few.
Breadcrumbs…Anchorage now hassix executives in its C-suite, hiring a head of finance and head of sales with experience in both tech and Wall Street. With the new hires, this will be the first time the custodian has employees with “this deep of a bench” running the sales and finance sides of the business, President Diogo Mónica said. “It’s pretty obvious that Anchorage has larger ambitions than its current set of services,” he said. “I think you can start following the breadcrumbs.”
ADAM Hires BlockingerADAM, a 15-member crypto trade group, hired Jeffrey Blockinger, a former hedge fund legal chief, as its first chief executive. The agency write codes of conduct for the industry. “I look forward to expanding our leadership role in shaping the future of the digital assets markets by building consensus for the entire industry,” Blockinger said in a statement. (The Block)
Hack TrackWhale Alert has tracked 28.3 bitcoin ($260,000) stolen in a Bitfinex hack four years ago moving to an unknown wallet. (Decrypt)
Crypto TravelsTravala, a crypto travel booking platform, has been merged with Binance’s TravelbyBit, which also provides travel services. The merged company aims to provide offerings for 2 million hotels and 600 airlines. (The Block)
Crypto ‘Gray’ Markets Could Be Unintended Consequence of FATF Travel RuleThe Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule,” an attempt to extend prescriptive banking regulations to the crypto market,may lead to a bifurcation of the market.“We are going to see white crypto; we are going to see gray crypto. And those different forms of crypto will most likely trade at different prices,” said Bakkt President Adam White at Consensus: Distributed. Other commenters noted that the rule could lead to increased use of privacy coins and regulatory arbitrage between nations that choose to turn a blind eye on exchanges ignoring this global standard.
Finance and the Real Economy Can’t Stay Out of Sync ForeverJill Carlson, co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, arguesthe imbalance between stock prices, spurred by Federal stimuli, and record-levels of unemployment will rectify sooner than later.“[W]hen I look at the impacts of COVID-19, I see as much slowing down or creaking to a halt as I see speeding up. Our way of life has slowed. Economic time has stopped. For now, financial time has carried on. But there is good reason to think that may slow soon, too, as we realize our spendthrift habits don’t always serve us well,” she said.
‘Dismantle the Euro to Save Europe’ Feat. Tuomas MalinenTuomas Malinen, CEO of GnS Economics, a macroeconomic advisory firm, joins NLW to discuss how theCOVID-19 pandemic is putting pressure on the legitimacy of the European Unionand the euro.
• 10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets
• Blockchain Bites: Satoshi’s Sword of Damocles || Blockchain Bites: Iran and Russia Revisit Crypto Regulations, Bitcoin Pizza Day 10 Years Later: News ‘Diet’ Laszlo Hanyecz has the honor of conducting the first commercial bitcoin transaction : trading 10,000 BTC for about $30 worth of pizza. Ten years later, those bitcoin would be worth $91 million. He apparently has no regrets . “It was a really interesting system but nobody’s using it,” Hanyecz said. “If nobody’s using it, it doesn’t matter if I have it all.” You’re reading Blockchain Bites , the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here . Blockchain Bites will publish next on Tuesday, May 26. Happy Memorial Day to our U.S. readers. Related: First Mover: Bitcoin Could Get a Boost From Central Bank Digital Currencies This one transaction, conducted about a year after bitcoin’s inception, was the proof-of-concept necessary for a whole emergent economy to blossom. Ten years – to the day – later, bitcoin is looked at as a legitimate hedge against the Fed , a means of payment and a veritable worldview . While Hanyecz has said if it wasn’t him it would have been someone else, today we recognize his sacrifice and experiment. Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! Top Shelf Iranian Crypto Mining Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), energy department and information and communication technology ministries to draft a renewed national strategy for the crypto mining industry. The news comes days after the Iranian parliament published a bill proposing to apply the country’s strict foreign exchange and currency smuggling regulation to cryptocurrencies. It’s unclear why the nation’s crypto policies are being revisited, though some speculate its to prevent value from escaping the nation’s borders. Related: Crypto Long & Short: Innovation Cycles, Crypto Venture Funds and Institutional Investors Tough Drafts Harsh new rules making many uses of digital assets punishable with fines or prison might soon become law in Russia. Two draft bills setting out how Russia should regulate cryptocurrencies were sent to the country’s parliament, the State Duma, earlier this week . The first of which would prohibit the issuance and transaction of digital currencies in the nation, while the second would impose new sanctions for the illegal use of digital assets. The draft bills have not been finalized, according a high ranking official at the Duma. Quarterly Loss Canaan has reported a net loss of $5.6 million and shrinking cash reserves for the first quarter of 2020. Revenues are up 44% quarter over quarter after the firm slashed prices, but it also incurred $9.3 million and $5.9 million expenses in cost of goods sold and R&D, respectively. Canaan’s next generation miners will hit shelves next quarter, though the firm has not provided a business outlook citing the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-Bitcoin halving. Story continues Libra-like Stablecoin Top Chinese political advisers have proposed a regional digital currency to facilitate regional trade that would be backed by four major Asian currencies including the Japanese yen, Korean won, Hong Kong dollar and the yuan, with the People’s Bank of China leading the proposed effort. The basket of underlying collateral would be weighted based on its nation’s economy, resembling the original vision for Facebook’s libra . Next of Kin The kin cryptocurrency may leave its own fork of Stellar for the Solana blockchain . “The fork of Stellar enabled Kin to reach millions of consumers, but we knew it would not be a long-term solution,” a draft Kin Improvement Proposal reads. “Stellar has five-second block times, so irrespective of network load, a consumer could be seeing five-second latency on their transactions – not what we would deem a great consumer experience.” The draft proposal claims switching to Solana would lead to an 84% reduction in kin’s latency. The Kin Foundation published a transparency report Thursday, laying out its structure and operations, in a partnership with Messari and its disclosure database. Notably, 28 million users have acquired kin in the last three years across more than 50 different apps, and are spending 300 million kin per day, the report claims. The foundation’s tokens are vested at a rate of 20% per year. Blockchain Bill of Rights The World Economic Forum revealed a “ blockchain bill of rights ” to protect a crypto user’s right to “manage consent of data stored in third-party systems, port data between interoperable systems” and “revoke consent for future data collection.” Called the Presidio Principles, the document includes signatories from the Government of Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys, Electric Coin Company, CoinShares and the United Nations’ World Food Program, just to name a few. Breadcrumbs… Anchorage now has six executives in its C-suite , hiring a head of finance and head of sales with experience in both tech and Wall Street. With the new hires, this will be the first time the custodian has employees with “this deep of a bench” running the sales and finance sides of the business, President Diogo Mónica said. “It’s pretty obvious that Anchorage has larger ambitions than its current set of services,” he said. “I think you can start following the breadcrumbs.” ADAM Hires Blockinger ADAM, a 15-member crypto trade group, hired Jeffrey Blockinger, a former hedge fund legal chief, as its first chief executive. The agency write codes of conduct for the industry. “I look forward to expanding our leadership role in shaping the future of the digital assets markets by building consensus for the entire industry,” Blockinger said in a statement. ( The Block ) Hack Track Whale Alert has tracked 28.3 bitcoin ($260,000) stolen in a Bitfinex hack four years ago moving to an unknown wallet. ( Decrypt ) Crypto Travels Travala, a crypto travel booking platform, has been merged with Binance’s TravelbyBit, which also provides travel services. The merged company aims to provide offerings for 2 million hotels and 600 airlines. ( The Block ) Weekend Reads Crypto ‘Gray’ Markets Could Be Unintended Consequence of FATF Travel Rule The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule,” an attempt to extend prescriptive banking regulations to the crypto market, may lead to a bifurcation of the market. “We are going to see white crypto; we are going to see gray crypto. And those different forms of crypto will most likely trade at different prices,” said Bakkt President Adam White at Consensus: Distributed. Other commenters noted that the rule could lead to increased use of privacy coins and regulatory arbitrage between nations that choose to turn a blind eye on exchanges ignoring this global standard. Finance and the Real Economy Can’t Stay Out of Sync Forever Jill Carlson, co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, argues the imbalance between stock prices, spurred by Federal stimuli, and record-levels of unemployment will rectify sooner than later. “[W]hen I look at the impacts of COVID-19, I see as much slowing down or creaking to a halt as I see speeding up. Our way of life has slowed. Economic time has stopped. For now, financial time has carried on. But there is good reason to think that may slow soon, too, as we realize our spendthrift habits don’t always serve us well,” she said. The Breakdown ‘Dismantle the Euro to Save Europe’ Feat. Tuomas Malinen Tuomas Malinen, CEO of GnS Economics, a macroeconomic advisory firm, joins NLW to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is putting pressure on the legitimacy of the European Union and the euro. Who Won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories 10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets Blockchain Bites: Satoshi’s Sword of Damocles View comments || Money Reimagined: Designer Money for a Machine-Run Post-COVID World: A headline in MIT Technology Review caught my attention this week: “The pandemic is emptying call centers. AI chatbots are swooping in.” COVID-19’s perfect storm – a global public health crisis, an economic meltdown and a surge in online connectivity – could accelerate what World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution . In creating imperatives for both cost-cutting and software-dependent innovation, the pandemic is bringing us closer to an economy dominated by integrated networks of digital devices. This raises all sorts of vital questions. But here we’ll just drill down into one: what kind of money will this new society need? Related: USV’s Albert Wenger on the World After Capital It’s likely that long-term unemployment will be a defining condition of this emerging machine-dominant economy. We’re not just talking about cyclical, recessionary layoffs but net job losses that are structural and permanent. You’re reading Money Reimagined , a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here . If so, the situation could confirm the so-called “end of work” thesis, which foresees new technologies leaving employers with an ever-declining need for human labor. It proved largely unfounded during the 20th century, as each fresh technological wave created new jobs that offset the old ones. But the thesis is gaining weight again in response to a new, self-advancing phase in computer technology. Machine-learning algorithms mean our periodic competitions with new technologies are no longer one-off events. Humans are now engaged in an endless battle with computers that are constantly getting smarter. As machines acquire the very cognitive and creative skills that previously allowed us to reinvent our employment opportunities, the battle may be unwinnable. Story continues UBI’s moment If we are indeed approaching the end of work, expect a surge of interest in universal basic income. Related: Where Bitcoin Fits in the New Monetary Order UBI is the idea that the government should pay a basic living wage to all citizens. It has been thrust into public consciousness by COVID-19 and the sudden, massive expansion in unemployment that came with it – 36 million alone in the U.S. On Thursday, its advocates got a boost when Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced a $5 million donation to former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s Humanity Forward nonprofit , which is using $250 microgrants to make the case for UBI. We don’t have space here for a deep debate about UBI. Just please don’t narrow-mindedly reject it as “socialism.” UBI backers range from liberals who want to expand public safety nets to conservatives who see potential to reform inefficient and highly politicized welfare distribution. Others see UBI as correcting for the power of big tech by redistributing revenue gained through personal data mining. The system should compensate them for those vital resources. If UBI is to be part of our new digital economy, it would seem logical to make it digital too. We’ve already seen U.S. lawmakers propose that, rather than mailing out checks for COVID-19 relief, funds should be sent directly as digital dollars via special Federal Reserve wallets. The proposal didn’t pass, but having central banks establish a digital currency for social distribution payments is, remarkably, now a mainstream topic. There are clear benefits to digitizing UBI: Direct-to-consumer payments could improve efficiency, prevent confiscation by middlemen, create parity for the “unbanked,” and, provided the rollout goes smoothly, legitimize the direct connection between a government and its people. Programmability could also allow authorities to constrain how the funds are used. Software designs could, say, allow supermarkets or landlords to accept the funds, but not barmen. (To be sure, this is inconsistent with the spirit of pure UBI, but it would likely to resonate with some politicians.) On the other hand, as European Central Bank executive board member Yves Mersch noted in a presentation to Consensus Distributed last week, citizens could see their civil rights undermined if central banks don’t build privacy protections into direct-to-consumer digital currency accounts. With this infrastructure, central banks could directly manipulate the value of people’s personal money, creating a more powerful mechanism for managing consumer spending and inflation than the current solution, which relies on banks and financial markets as indirect conduits for monetary policy. Whether you think that’s a good thing depends on how you feel about central banks’ being empowered to manipulate the value of money to manage economic conditions. Another challenging issue is that involving central banks in governments’ fiscal distributions may make their economic policymaking dependent on political interests. That would be a radical departure from the independence principles upon which central banking has been founded for the past four decades. It might make central bankers more accountable to the public interest, as their actions would directly impact voters’ pocketbooks. But they could also be forced to pursue the self interests of politicians. You get the idea: Inevitable or not, digital currency-based UBI brings many complications. Machine money I hate to say this, but we humans aren’t the only constituents in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We must also consider the interests of the digital machines. As social distancing becomes normalized, expect cities to ease ordinances on things like delivery robots, self-driving taxis and other autonomous devices. Next, expect urban planners to draw up sweeping blueprints for smart cities that combine the data generated by such devices with network-driven dynamic pricing so that everything from traffic flows to renewable energy sharing can be managed in a self-correcting system. To optimize such systems, devices owned by different individuals and companies would be given autonomy to interact and exchange data, goods and valuable services, and to receive, hold and send digital, programmable money as standalone entities. For this to happen, the system’s unit of value, its currency, must function as a digital token exchanged peer-to-peer – in this case, machine-to-machine – without the interference of a banking intermediary. Whether such a system would use central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, native blockchain tokens like bitcoin, or all three is yet to be determined. China is surging ahead with such a model, incorporating its Digital Currency Electronic Payment system, or DCEP, into a network of smart cities that deploy tools provided by the national Blockchain Services Network . In due time, the efficiencies China extracts from that will put competitive pressure on Western countries to follow suit. When that happens, we must ensure that optimizing such systems doesn’t compromise the interests of those they are supposed to serve. The money of the future can serve the interests of machines, but only if they align with the interests of us humans. How to scale blockchains? Ask the internet You know how it is: life in lockdown has you staring constantly at a screen. Not just 9-to-5, but always. Almost every single human interaction outside of your immediate family and almost every commercial transaction you make is done online. And how many more hours of streaming videos are watching? So, how much more busy is the internet these days? John Graham-Cumming, the Chief Technology Officer of Cloudflare, answered that question by treating the traffic flowing through his network security company’s systems as a proxy for overall usage. Sure enough, global traffic is up 40% on the year, as per the chart above that Cloudfare provided us. In a blog post addressing earlier data last month , Graham-Cumming highlighted what this says about the resilience of the internet, which has had no real interruptions despite the surging usage. “Overall the Internet has shown that it was built for this: designed to handle huge changes in traffic, outages, and a changing mix of use,” he wrote. There are lessons here for blockchains. To scale them, look to the layered design of the internet. The base layer protocol, known as TCP/IP, is sometimes described as a one trick pony. It only does data switching, but it does it really well. The single task design means it can deal with the challenges of heavy traffic. All the other functionality of the internet – email, web sites, file transfer, etc. – isn’t forced on that main load-bearing system but enabled by higher level open protocols such as SMTP and HTTP, and then by proprietary applications even further “up the stack.” It’s relevant to the bitcoin versus ethereum debate, with the latter more sophisticated, multifaceted and powerful for running things like smart contracts but, according to its critics, entailing a complexity that makes it more prone to breakdowns and security breaches. The global town hall $91 million. That’s the current value of the 10,000 bitcoin Laszlo Hanyecz gave up to purchase two pizzas on this day 10 years ago. It was the first time bitcoin was spent on a good or service, giving the event canonical relevance in the cryptocurrency’s history. Ever since, it has been memorialized on this date as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” The outside world tends to focus on the massive fortune Hanyecz left on the table by not “HODLing” his bitcoin, which after exchanging them for $25 worth of pizza were valued at a mere quarter of a cent at the time. He tends to respond with a shrug, arguing that he did something to help legitimize bitcoin. And, indeed, his act helped set off a price rally that has continued to today. But Hanyecz’s pizza order is also important for the value it ascribed to bitcoin for its utility as a payment vehicle. Hanyecz has continued to take an interest in initiatives to help make bitcoin more usable for payments, even as the narrative has shifted toward its value proposition as “digital gold.” Two years ago on this day he made a point by using the Lightning Network, which seeks to make bitcoin transactions more efficient and viable for low-value transactions, to make a certain, iconic purchase: a pizza. The Fed is “not out of ammunition by a long shot.” So said the man in charge of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, in a gloomy interview on CBS 60 Minutes last Sunday . Markets rallied in response, which should have left heads scratching. I mean, of course, the Fed has loads more ammunition left – it has unlimited printing power. The question is whether that ammunition is effective. Is it firing blanks? The bigger risk is that the real limit to its effective power won’t reveal itself until some indeterminate time in the future, when it’s too late. But at some point – after the Fed has flooded trillions of dollars into markets, after it has acquired huge swaths of corporate debt to find itself politically compromised, after it has restored the wealth of hedge funds but has left ordinary Americans living hand to mouth – confidence in the dollar will disappear. At that moment, everyone will finally realize that the ammunition was useless all along. Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, is one of the most influential financial journalists of all time . So when an article of his comes out with the title “Why inflation might follow the pandemic” it’s time to sit up and take notice. The headline suggested a countervailing view to that of the economic mainstream, with its persistent argument that the demand contraction from the COVID-19 crisis will produce long-lasting deflation. But if you’re expecting this to align with the forecasts of those in the crypto community who believe the central banks’ aggressive stimulus will result in debased money and hyperinflation, think again. Wolf puts all the variables on the table – huge government debt ratios, rapidly expanding broad money supply measures potentially offset by a slowing money velocity, and the end of the disinflationary effect of globalization – to argue, that inflation might finally return, but also might not. Bottom line: we live in chartered territory. No one really knows. Not even someone who earned himself a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for his services to financial journalism. Related Stories Money Reimagined: No, Secretary Summers, Financial Privacy Is a Vital Freedom The Rise of the Dollar Killers || Money Reimagined: Designer Money for a Machine-Run Post-COVID World: A headline in MIT Technology Review caught my attention this week:“The pandemic is emptying call centers. AI chatbots are swooping in.”
COVID-19’s perfect storm – a global public health crisis, an economic meltdown and a surge in online connectivity – could accelerate what World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab calls theFourth Industrial Revolution. In creating imperatives for both cost-cutting and software-dependent innovation, the pandemic is bringing us closer to an economy dominated by integrated networks of digital devices.
This raises all sorts of vital questions. But here we’ll just drill down into one: what kind of money will this new society need?
Related:USV’s Albert Wenger on the World After Capital
It’s likely that long-term unemployment will be a defining condition of this emerging machine-dominant economy. We’re not just talking about cyclical, recessionary layoffs but net job losses that are structural and permanent.
You’re readingMoney Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here.
If so, the situation could confirm the so-called “end of work” thesis, which foresees new technologies leaving employers with an ever-declining need for human labor. It proved largely unfounded during the 20th century, as each fresh technological wave created new jobs that offset the old ones. Butthe thesis is gaining weight againin response to a new, self-advancing phase in computer technology. Machine-learning algorithms mean our periodic competitions with new technologies are no longer one-off events. Humans are now engaged in an endless battle with computers that are constantly getting smarter. As machines acquire the very cognitive and creative skills that previously allowed us to reinvent our employment opportunities, the battle may be unwinnable.
If we are indeed approaching the end of work, expect a surge of interest in universal basic income.
Related:Where Bitcoin Fits in the New Monetary Order
UBI is the idea that the government should pay a basic living wage to all citizens. It has been thrust into public consciousness by COVID-19 and the sudden, massive expansion in unemployment that came with it – 36 million alone in the U.S. On Thursday, its advocates got a boost when Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced a$5 million donation to former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s Humanity Forward nonprofit, which is using $250 microgrants to make the case for UBI.
We don’t have space here for a deep debate about UBI. Just please don’t narrow-mindedly reject it as “socialism.” UBI backers range from liberals who want to expand public safety nets to conservatives who see potential to reform inefficient and highly politicized welfare distribution. Others see UBI as correcting for the power of big tech by redistributing revenue gained through personal data mining. The system should compensate them for those vital resources.
If UBI is to be part of our new digital economy, it would seem logical to make it digital too.
We’ve already seen U.S. lawmakers propose that, rather than mailing out checks for COVID-19 relief, funds should be sent directly asdigital dollars via special Federal Reserve wallets.The proposal didn’t pass, but having central banks establish a digital currency for social distribution payments is, remarkably, now a mainstream topic.
There are clear benefits to digitizing UBI: Direct-to-consumer payments could improve efficiency, prevent confiscation by middlemen, create parity for the “unbanked,” and, provided the rollout goes smoothly, legitimize the direct connection between a government and its people. Programmability could also allow authorities to constrain how the funds are used. Software designs could, say, allow supermarkets or landlords to accept the funds, but not barmen. (To be sure, this is inconsistent with the spirit of pure UBI, but it would likely to resonate with some politicians.)
On the other hand, as European Central Bank executive board memberYves Mersch noted in a presentation to Consensus Distributedlast week, citizens could see their civil rights undermined if central banks don’t build privacy protections into direct-to-consumer digital currency accounts.
With this infrastructure, central banks could directly manipulate the value of people’s personal money, creating a more powerful mechanism for managing consumer spending and inflation than the current solution, which relies on banks and financial markets as indirect conduits for monetary policy. Whether you think that’s a good thing depends on how you feel about central banks’ being empowered to manipulate the value of money to manage economic conditions.
Another challenging issue is that involving central banks in governments’ fiscal distributions may make their economic policymaking dependent on political interests. That would be a radical departure from the independence principles upon which central banking has been founded for the past four decades. It might make central bankers more accountable to the public interest, as their actions would directly impact voters’ pocketbooks. But they could also be forced to pursue the self interests of politicians.
You get the idea: Inevitable or not, digital currency-based UBI brings many complications.
I hate to say this, but we humans aren’t the only constituents in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We must also consider the interests of the digital machines.
As social distancing becomes normalized, expect cities to ease ordinances on things like delivery robots, self-driving taxis and other autonomous devices. Next, expect urban planners to draw up sweeping blueprints for smart cities that combine the data generated by such devices with network-driven dynamic pricing so that everything from traffic flows to renewable energy sharing can be managed in a self-correcting system.
To optimize such systems, devices owned by different individuals and companies would be given autonomy to interact and exchange data, goods and valuable services, and to receive, hold and send digital, programmable money as standalone entities. For this to happen, the system’s unit of value, its currency, must function as a digital token exchanged peer-to-peer – in this case, machine-to-machine – without the interference of a banking intermediary. Whether such a system would use central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, native blockchain tokens like bitcoin, or all three is yet to be determined.
China is surging ahead with such a model, incorporating itsDigital Currency Electronic Paymentsystem, or DCEP, into a network of smart cities that deploy tools provided by the nationalBlockchain Services Network. In due time, the efficiencies China extracts from that will put competitive pressure on Western countries to follow suit.
When that happens, we must ensure that optimizing such systems doesn’t compromise the interests of those they are supposed to serve.
The money of the future can serve the interests of machines, but only if they align with the interests of us humans.
You know how it is: life in lockdown has you staring constantly at a screen. Not just 9-to-5, but always. Almost every single human interaction outside of your immediate family and almost every commercial transaction you make is done online. And how many more hours of streaming videos are watching?
So, how much more busy is the internet these days?
John Graham-Cumming, the Chief Technology Officer of Cloudflare, answered that question by treating the traffic flowing through his network security company’s systems as a proxy for overall usage. Sure enough, global traffic is up 40% on the year, as per the chart above that Cloudfare provided us.In a blog post addressing earlier data last month, Graham-Cumming highlighted what this says about the resilience of the internet, which has had no real interruptions despite the surging usage. “Overall the Internet has shown that it was built for this: designed to handle huge changes in traffic, outages, and a changing mix of use,” he wrote.
There are lessons here for blockchains. To scale them, look to the layered design of the internet. The base layer protocol, known as TCP/IP, is sometimes described as a one trick pony. It only does data switching, but it does it really well. The single task design means it can deal with the challenges of heavy traffic. All the other functionality of the internet – email, web sites, file transfer, etc. – isn’t forced on that main load-bearing system but enabled by higher level open protocols such as SMTP and HTTP, and then by proprietary applications even further “up the stack.” It’s relevant to the bitcoin versus ethereum debate, with the latter more sophisticated, multifaceted and powerful for running things like smart contracts but, according to its critics, entailing a complexity that makes it more prone to breakdowns and security breaches.
$91 million.That’s the current value of the 10,000 bitcoin Laszlo Hanyecz gave up topurchase two pizzason this day 10 years ago. It was the first time bitcoin was spent on a good or service, giving the event canonical relevance in the cryptocurrency’s history. Ever since, it has been memorialized on this date as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” The outside world tends to focus on the massive fortune Hanyecz left on the table by not “HODLing” his bitcoin, which after exchanging them for $25 worth of pizza were valued at a mere quarter of a cent at the time. He tends to respond with a shrug, arguing that he did something to help legitimize bitcoin. And, indeed, his act helped set off a price rally that has continued to today. But Hanyecz’s pizza order is also important for the value it ascribed to bitcoin for its utility as a payment vehicle. Hanyecz has continued to take an interest in initiatives to help make bitcoin more usable for payments, even as the narrative has shifted toward its value proposition as “digital gold.” Two years ago on this day he made a point by using the Lightning Network, which seeks to make bitcoin transactions more efficient and viable for low-value transactions, to make a certain, iconic purchase: a pizza.
The Fed is “not out of ammunition by a long shot.”So said the man in charge of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell,in a gloomy interview on CBS 60 Minutes last Sunday. Markets rallied in response, which should have left heads scratching. I mean, of course, the Fed has loads more ammunition left – it has unlimited printing power. The question is whether that ammunition is effective. Is it firing blanks? The bigger risk is that the real limit to its effective power won’t reveal itself until some indeterminate time in the future, when it’s too late. But at some point – after the Fed has flooded trillions of dollars into markets, after it has acquired huge swaths of corporate debt to find itself politically compromised, after it has restored the wealth of hedge funds but has left ordinary Americans living hand to mouth – confidence in the dollar will disappear. At that moment, everyone will finally realize that the ammunition was useless all along.
Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, is one of the most influential financial journalists of all time. So when an article of his comes out with the title“Why inflation might follow the pandemic”it’s time to sit up and take notice. The headline suggested a countervailing view to that of the economic mainstream, with its persistent argument that the demand contraction from the COVID-19 crisis will produce long-lasting deflation. But if you’re expecting this to align with the forecasts of those in the crypto community who believe the central banks’ aggressive stimulus will result in debased money and hyperinflation, think again. Wolf puts all the variables on the table – huge government debt ratios, rapidly expanding broad money supply measures potentially offset by a slowing money velocity, and the end of the disinflationary effect of globalization – to argue, that inflationmightfinally return, but also might not. Bottom line: we live in chartered territory. No one really knows. Not even someone who earned himself a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for his services to financial journalism.
• Money Reimagined: No, Secretary Summers, Financial Privacy Is a Vital Freedom
• The Rise of the Dollar Killers || 10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets: If you owned a share of an experimental technology, how much of it would you give up to help that technology grow? Startup founders do this calculus whenever they raise capital. Ten years ago today, a developer named Laszlo Hanyecz did it with bitcoin.
Hanyecz is known as the first person to usebitcoinin a commercial transaction. On May 22, 2010, when bitcoin was a little over a year old, hebought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. The day is now known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” With one bitcoin now worth $9,500, this is apparently a joke and Hanyecz’s $45 million pizzas are the punchline.
The joke is also a parable, illustrating the competition and interplay between three potential uses of bitcoin. The first is speculation. Bitcoin’s nosebleed-inducing decade of upward price movement is what drives CNBC headlines and motivates participation: People see it as a way to get rich. “Bitcoin is a way to harness greed,” said Hanyecz in a recent interview from his home in Jacksonville, Fla. It’s greed that underpins the delicate balance of incentives that keeps bitcoin running.
Related:Blockchain Bites: Iran and Russia Revisit Crypto Regulations, Bitcoin Pizza Day 10 Years Later
Hanyecz understands that balance well, having been a contemporary of bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto (he says they messaged a few times), and an early bitcoin miner whotinkered to mine more efficientlyand earn more bitcoin.
“Speculation” is sometimes treated as though it were not a legitimate use. It is, and it has been, an important part of bitcoin’s DNA from birth. Even U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has spoken respectfully of bitcoin’s role as a “speculative store of value.”
The volatility that makes bitcoin attractive to investors also makes it difficult to use as money, or “electronic cash,” as theBitcoin white paperspecifies. Hanyecz’s solid-gold pizzas show us that if CoinDesk paid me in bitcoin, one of us would likely get rekt.
Or would we? Hanyecz works for apparel brandGORUCKas a developer and, partly because he is internet-famous, the e-commerce company is one of a handful that accepts bitcoin. It’s a small volume, about two or three orders per week over the past two years, Hanyecz told me. But it’s working out.
Related:He Paid How Much?! CoinDesk Releases ‘Bitcoin Pizza Day’ Price Tracker
“We’ve just been holding it and we’re actually up a significant amount,” he said. “We had some people check out at $3,000, we had some people check out at $11,000. The dollar cost averaging people talk about, it works really well.”
That doesn’t mean bitcoin for everyday purchases is really a thing most businesses can support, although there are projects,like Lightning Pizza, to make it easier for consumers.
“It’s common knowledge that anybody who held for four years is in the money,” Hanyecz said. “But businesses can’t generally afford to just hold for four years and not pay their rent.”
Bitcoin as digital gold, or a store of value to accumulate and hold for the long term, has proven more attractive than commerce, as a pair of recent events underscore. First,bitcoin’s halvingshowed in real time bitcoin’s inviolable issuance schedule all while central banks test just how much money they can print on demand. Then, on Wednesday, as I was writing down questions for Hanyecz and trying to home-school my kids,someone moved bitcointhat had been sitting in the same place since February 2009.
Hodling is part of what drives the value of bitcoin up, as low velocity can do for any currency. But low velocity can’t be the whole story, as Hanyecz realized early on, looking at bitcoin as an experiment.
“It was a really interesting system but nobody’s using it,” he said. “If nobody’s using it, it doesn’t matter if I have it all.”
As widely known and held as bitcoin may be, it’s still an experiment. Withhedge fund household names placing long-term betson its viability as “digital gold,” that narrative seems set in stone. In fact, it’s malleable, like the metal. Ten years from now, it may seem as absurd as a $45 million pizza.
• Bitcoin Pizza Day 2: How A Lightning Payment Made History
• Bitcoin in the Headlines: Rolling With the Punches || 10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets: If you owned a share of an experimental technology, how much of it would you give up to help that technology grow? Startup founders do this calculus whenever they raise capital. Ten years ago today, a developer named Laszlo Hanyecz did it with bitcoin. Hanyecz is known as the first person to use bitcoin in a commercial transaction. On May 22, 2010, when bitcoin was a little over a year old, he bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC . The day is now known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” With one bitcoin now worth $9,500, this is apparently a joke and Hanyecz’s $45 million pizzas are the punchline. The joke is also a parable, illustrating the competition and interplay between three potential uses of bitcoin. The first is speculation. Bitcoin’s nosebleed-inducing decade of upward price movement is what drives CNBC headlines and motivates participation: People see it as a way to get rich. “Bitcoin is a way to harness greed,” said Hanyecz in a recent interview from his home in Jacksonville, Fla. It’s greed that underpins the delicate balance of incentives that keeps bitcoin running. Related: Blockchain Bites: Iran and Russia Revisit Crypto Regulations, Bitcoin Pizza Day 10 Years Later Hanyecz understands that balance well, having been a contemporary of bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto (he says they messaged a few times), and an early bitcoin miner who tinkered to mine more efficiently and earn more bitcoin. “Speculation” is sometimes treated as though it were not a legitimate use. It is, and it has been, an important part of bitcoin’s DNA from birth. Even U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has spoken respectfully of bitcoin’s role as a “speculative store of value.” The volatility that makes bitcoin attractive to investors also makes it difficult to use as money, or “electronic cash,” as the Bitcoin white paper specifies. Hanyecz’s solid-gold pizzas show us that if CoinDesk paid me in bitcoin, one of us would likely get rekt. Story continues Or would we? Hanyecz works for apparel brand GORUCK as a developer and, partly because he is internet-famous, the e-commerce company is one of a handful that accepts bitcoin. It’s a small volume, about two or three orders per week over the past two years, Hanyecz told me. But it’s working out. Related: He Paid How Much?! CoinDesk Releases ‘Bitcoin Pizza Day’ Price Tracker “We’ve just been holding it and we’re actually up a significant amount,” he said. “We had some people check out at $3,000, we had some people check out at $11,000. The dollar cost averaging people talk about, it works really well.” That doesn’t mean bitcoin for everyday purchases is really a thing most businesses can support, although there are projects, like Lightning Pizza , to make it easier for consumers. “It’s common knowledge that anybody who held for four years is in the money,” Hanyecz said. “But businesses can’t generally afford to just hold for four years and not pay their rent.” Bitcoin as digital gold, or a store of value to accumulate and hold for the long term, has proven more attractive than commerce, as a pair of recent events underscore. First, bitcoin’s halving showed in real time bitcoin’s inviolable issuance schedule all while central banks test just how much money they can print on demand. Then, on Wednesday, as I was writing down questions for Hanyecz and trying to home-school my kids, someone moved bitcoin that had been sitting in the same place since February 2009. Hodling is part of what drives the value of bitcoin up, as low velocity can do for any currency. But low velocity can’t be the whole story, as Hanyecz realized early on, looking at bitcoin as an experiment. “It was a really interesting system but nobody’s using it,” he said. “If nobody’s using it, it doesn’t matter if I have it all.” As widely known and held as bitcoin may be, it’s still an experiment. With hedge fund household names placing long-term bets on its viability as “digital gold,” that narrative seems set in stone. In fact, it’s malleable, like the metal. Ten years from now, it may seem as absurd as a $45 million pizza. Related Stories Bitcoin Pizza Day 2: How A Lightning Payment Made History Bitcoin in the Headlines: Rolling With the Punches || 10 Years After Laszlo Hanyecz Bought Pizza With 10K Bitcoin, He Has No Regrets: If you owned a share of an experimental technology, how much of it would you give up to help that technology grow? Startup founders do this calculus whenever they raise capital. Ten years ago today, a developer named Laszlo Hanyecz did it with bitcoin.
Hanyecz is known as the first person to usebitcoinin a commercial transaction. On May 22, 2010, when bitcoin was a little over a year old, hebought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. The day is now known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” With one bitcoin now worth $9,500, this is apparently a joke and Hanyecz’s $45 million pizzas are the punchline.
The joke is also a parable, illustrating the competition and interplay between three potential uses of bitcoin. The first is speculation. Bitcoin’s nosebleed-inducing decade of upward price movement is what drives CNBC headlines and motivates participation: People see it as a way to get rich. “Bitcoin is a way to harness greed,” said Hanyecz in a recent interview from his home in Jacksonville, Fla. It’s greed that underpins the delicate balance of incentives that keeps bitcoin running.
Related:Blockchain Bites: Iran and Russia Revisit Crypto Regulations, Bitcoin Pizza Day 10 Years Later
Hanyecz understands that balance well, having been a contemporary of bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto (he says they messaged a few times), and an early bitcoin miner whotinkered to mine more efficientlyand earn more bitcoin.
“Speculation” is sometimes treated as though it were not a legitimate use. It is, and it has been, an important part of bitcoin’s DNA from birth. Even U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has spoken respectfully of bitcoin’s role as a “speculative store of value.”
The volatility that makes bitcoin attractive to investors also makes it difficult to use as money, or “electronic cash,” as theBitcoin white paperspecifies. Hanyecz’s solid-gold pizzas show us that if CoinDesk paid me in bitcoin, one of us would likely get rekt.
Or would we? Hanyecz works for apparel brandGORUCKas a developer and, partly because he is internet-famous, the e-commerce company is one of a handful that accepts bitcoin. It’s a small volume, about two or three orders per week over the past two years, Hanyecz told me. But it’s working out.
Related:He Paid How Much?! CoinDesk Releases ‘Bitcoin Pizza Day’ Price Tracker
“We’ve just been holding it and we’re actually up a significant amount,” he said. “We had some people check out at $3,000, we had some people check out at $11,000. The dollar cost averaging people talk about, it works really well.”
That doesn’t mean bitcoin for everyday purchases is really a thing most businesses can support, although there are projects,like Lightning Pizza, to make it easier for consumers.
“It’s common knowledge that anybody who held for four years is in the money,” Hanyecz said. “But businesses can’t generally afford to just hold for four years and not pay their rent.”
Bitcoin as digital gold, or a store of value to accumulate and hold for the long term, has proven more attractive than commerce, as a pair of recent events underscore. First,bitcoin’s halvingshowed in real time bitcoin’s inviolable issuance schedule all while central banks test just how much money they can print on demand. Then, on Wednesday, as I was writing down questions for Hanyecz and trying to home-school my kids,someone moved bitcointhat had been sitting in the same place since February 2009.
Hodling is part of what drives the value of bitcoin up, as low velocity can do for any currency. But low velocity can’t be the whole story, as Hanyecz realized early on, looking at bitcoin as an experiment.
“It was a really interesting system but nobody’s using it,” he said. “If nobody’s using it, it doesn’t matter if I have it all.”
As widely known and held as bitcoin may be, it’s still an experiment. Withhedge fund household names placing long-term betson its viability as “digital gold,” that narrative seems set in stone. In fact, it’s malleable, like the metal. Ten years from now, it may seem as absurd as a $45 million pizza.
• Bitcoin Pizza Day 2: How A Lightning Payment Made History
• Bitcoin in the Headlines: Rolling With the Punches || Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys Sign On to WEF’s ‘Blockchain Bill of Rights’: The token economy just gained an organized structure for collaborating with world leaders.
The World Economic Forum revealed its Presidio Principles on Friday, a “blockchain bill of rights,” according to the nonprofit focused on fostering diplomacy and international business partnerships. The document includessignatoriesfrom the Government of Colombia, Deloitte Consulting LLP, ConsenSys, Electric Coin Company, CoinShares and the United Nations’ World Food Program, just to name a few.
“We supported the creation of the Presidio Principles – as well as guidelines and design principles for public institutions – because we wanted to ensure that progress can continue rapidly and responsibly, ensuring that basic characteristics like security and data privacy are secured for our citizens,” Victor Munoz, Colombia’s presidential advisor on economic affairs and digital transformation, said in a press statement.
Related:Thailand Turns to Blockchain to Boost Renewable Energy Push
Read more:Why the World Economic Forum Is Creating a Blockchain ‘Bill of Rights’
The principles include a user’s right to “manage consent of data stored in third-party systems, port data between interoperable systems” and “revoke consent for future data collection.”
Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin encouraged crypto startups to become signatories and join the WEF’s open dialogue. In a press statement, he said he hopes “all builders of Ethereum-based projects – and across the blockchain landscape – will sign on to demonstrate their commitment to the users of their systems and applications.”
Indeed, Aya Miyaguchi of the Ethereum Foundation was involved. Greg Medcraft of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Delia Ferreira Rubio of Transparency International also contributed to the project.
• RenBTC Quietly Goes Live in Latest Bid to Bring Bitcoin to Ethereum
• US Military Is Falling Behind China, Russia in Blockchain Arms Race: IBM, Accenture
• Staking Will Turn Ethereum Into a Functional Store of Value || Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys Sign On to WEF’s ‘Blockchain Bill of Rights’: The token economy just gained an organized structure for collaborating with world leaders. The World Economic Forum revealed its Presidio Principles on Friday, a “blockchain bill of rights,” according to the nonprofit focused on fostering diplomacy and international business partnerships. The document includes signatories from the Government of Colombia, Deloitte Consulting LLP, ConsenSys, Electric Coin Company, CoinShares and the United Nations’ World Food Program, just to name a few. “We supported the creation of the Presidio Principles – as well as guidelines and design principles for public institutions – because we wanted to ensure that progress can continue rapidly and responsibly, ensuring that basic characteristics like security and data privacy are secured for our citizens,” Victor Munoz, Colombia’s presidential advisor on economic affairs and digital transformation, said in a press statement. Related: Thailand Turns to Blockchain to Boost Renewable Energy Push Read more: Why the World Economic Forum Is Creating a Blockchain ‘Bill of Rights’ The principles include a user’s right to “manage consent of data stored in third-party systems, port data between interoperable systems” and “revoke consent for future data collection.” Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin encouraged crypto startups to become signatories and join the WEF’s open dialogue. In a press statement, he said he hopes “all builders of Ethereum-based projects – and across the blockchain landscape – will sign on to demonstrate their commitment to the users of their systems and applications.” Indeed, Aya Miyaguchi of the Ethereum Foundation was involved. Greg Medcraft of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Delia Ferreira Rubio of Transparency International also contributed to the project. Related Stories RenBTC Quietly Goes Live in Latest Bid to Bring Bitcoin to Ethereum US Military Is Falling Behind China, Russia in Blockchain Arms Race: IBM, Accenture Staking Will Turn Ethereum Into a Functional Store of Value
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02, 9525.75, 9439.12, 9700.41, 9461.06, 10167.27, 9529.80, 9656.72
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7379.95, 7407.41, 7022.76, 7144.38, 7459.69, 7143.58, 6618.14, 6357.60, 5950.07, 6559.49, 6635.75, 7315.54, 7871.69, 7708.99, 7790.15, 8036.49, 8200.64, 8071.26, 8253.55, 8038.77, 8253.69, 8790.92, 9330.55, 9818.35, 10058.80, 9888.61, 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40, 15178.20, 15455.40, 16936.80, 17415.40, 16408.20, 16564.00, 17706.90, 19497.40, 19140.80, 19114.20, 17776.70, 16624.60, 15802.90, 13831.80, 14699.20, 13925.80, 14026.60, 16099.80, 15838.50, 14606.50, 14656.20, 12952.20, 14156.40, 13657.20, 14982.10, 15201.00, 15599.20, 17429.50, 17527.00, 16477.60, 15170.10, 14595.40, 14973.30, 13405.80, 13980.60, 14360.20, 13772.00, 13819.80, 11490.50, 11188.60, 11474.90, 11607.40, 12899.20, 11600.10, 10931.40, 10868.40, 11359.40, 11259.40, 11171.40, 11440.70, 11786.30, 11296.40, 10106.30, 10221.10, 9170.54.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-02-01]
Volume: 9959400448, RSI (14-day): 32.51, 50-day EMA: 12487.10, 200-day EMA: 8947.31
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1344.30, Gold RSI: 61.66
Oil Price: 65.80, Oil RSI: 68.01
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Revealed: The Top 10 Stocks in the Fool 100 Index: Finding the best stocks in the market can dramatically enhance your investing returns. The Motley Fool has made it its core mission to help the world invest better, and for a quarter-century, it has worked with its members to discover those top investments.
For more than 15 years, Fool members have had access to proprietary stock recommendations from co-founders Tom and David Gardner and their team of analysts. Now, The Motley Fool has created itsFool 100 Index-- and revealed some of the top stocks that have led to huge success over the years.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Without further ado, here are the 10 stocks in the Fool 100 with the top market capitalizations, based on data as of Dec. 29, 2017.
[{"Company": "Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "8.8%"}, {"Company": "Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "7.6%"}, {"Company": "Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "6.6%"}, {"Company": "Amazon.com(NASDAQ: AMZN)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "6%"}, {"Company": "Berkshire Hathaway(NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "5%"}, {"Company": "Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "4.9%"}, {"Company": "Johnson & Johnson(NYSE: JNJ)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "3.8%"}, {"Company": "Visa(NYSE: V)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "2.6%"}, {"Company": "UnitedHealth Group(NYSE: UNH)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "2.2%"}, {"Company": "Home Depot(NYSE: HD)", "Weighting in Fool 100": "2.1%"}]
Data source: The Motley Fool. Data as of Dec. 29, 2017.
These stocks represent the largest components of the new index, which seeks to include high-quality companies with the best prospects to outperform the market over the long run. In order to get into the Fool 100, a stock has to be issued by a U.S. corporation and listed on a major U.S. stock exchange. More importantly, it must either be a current buy recommendation from one of the five Motley Fool research publications, or among the top 150 stocks in the Fool IQ stock research database. That narrows the thousands of stocks available down to a more manageable list for investors to consider.
The most obvious thing about the Fool 100's top 10 stocks list is its tilt toward technology companies. Five of the top six constituents are tech stocks, and they span the gamut from hardware and software to internet services, social media, and e-commerce. Given the fact that The Motley Foolemphasizes an innovative spirit in the stocks it recommends, it's not surprising that the fast-moving tech sector is overrepresented in the index.
Data source: Motley Fool. Chart by author.
But you can see that companies in other industries also play key supporting roles. Whether it's insurance, healthcare, retail, or payment systems, the companies at the top of the list offer a good cross-section of the best opportunities in the stock market right now.
Moreover, the broader Fool 100 offers a mix of stocks based on the various strategies that its contributing research publications use. Some of those are focused on high-growth innovators, both among up-and-coming small companies and in the larger-capitalization stock universe. Other Fool research publications take a different view of how to earn top returns, focusing instead on factors like valuation in comparison to growth potential, current dividend and income distributions, or simple fundamental prospects to drive their selections.
The Fool 100 will evolve over time. The Motley Fool uses a long-term stock selection approach, but when conditions warrant changes in its recommendations, the analyst teams overseeing those stock picks don't hesitate to make appropriate moves. More importantly, the services are always looking for good new stock candidates, so you can expect competition between existing index constituents and newer recommendations that could have even greater potential for gains.
Learn more about the Fool 100 index by visiting theFool 100 website. With stocks like the 10 listed above, this new index could be a powerful tool to guide your investing strategy.
More From The Motley Fool
• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
• 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018
• 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing
• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today
• The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss
• Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft.Dan Caplingerowns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Apple, and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, and Visa. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple, short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple, short May 2018 $175 calls on Home Depot, and long January 2020 $110 calls on Home Depot. The Motley Fool recommends Home Depot and UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Revealed: The Top 10 Stocks in the Fool 100 Index: Finding the best stocks in the market can dramatically enhance your investing returns. The Motley Fool has made it its core mission to help the world invest better, and for a quarter-century, it has worked with its members to discover those top investments. For more than 15 years, Fool members have had access to proprietary stock recommendations from co-founders Tom and David Gardner and their team of analysts. Now, The Motley Fool has created its Fool 100 Index -- and revealed some of the top stocks that have led to huge success over the years. Motley Fool headquarters from the top floor balcony. Image source: The Motley Fool. The top 10 stocks in the Fool 100 index Without further ado, here are the 10 stocks in the Fool 100 with the top market capitalizations, based on data as of Dec. 29, 2017. Company Weighting in Fool 100 Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) 8.8% Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) 7.6% Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) 6.6% Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) 6% Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) 5% Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) 4.9% Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) 3.8% Visa (NYSE: V) 2.6% UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) 2.2% Home Depot (NYSE: HD) 2.1% Data source: The Motley Fool. Data as of Dec. 29, 2017. These stocks represent the largest components of the new index, which seeks to include high-quality companies with the best prospects to outperform the market over the long run. In order to get into the Fool 100, a stock has to be issued by a U.S. corporation and listed on a major U.S. stock exchange. More importantly, it must either be a current buy recommendation from one of the five Motley Fool research publications, or among the top 150 stocks in the Fool IQ stock research database. That narrows the thousands of stocks available down to a more manageable list for investors to consider. A focus on technology The most obvious thing about the Fool 100's top 10 stocks list is its tilt toward technology companies. Five of the top six constituents are tech stocks, and they span the gamut from hardware and software to internet services, social media, and e-commerce. Given the fact that The Motley Fool emphasizes an innovative spirit in the stocks it recommends , it's not surprising that the fast-moving tech sector is overrepresented in the index. Story continues Pie chart showing Fool 100 index representation by sector. Data source: Motley Fool. Chart by author. But you can see that companies in other industries also play key supporting roles. Whether it's insurance, healthcare, retail, or payment systems, the companies at the top of the list offer a good cross-section of the best opportunities in the stock market right now. Moreover, the broader Fool 100 offers a mix of stocks based on the various strategies that its contributing research publications use. Some of those are focused on high-growth innovators, both among up-and-coming small companies and in the larger-capitalization stock universe. Other Fool research publications take a different view of how to earn top returns, focusing instead on factors like valuation in comparison to growth potential, current dividend and income distributions, or simple fundamental prospects to drive their selections. What will this list look like next year? The Fool 100 will evolve over time. The Motley Fool uses a long-term stock selection approach, but when conditions warrant changes in its recommendations, the analyst teams overseeing those stock picks don't hesitate to make appropriate moves. More importantly, the services are always looking for good new stock candidates, so you can expect competition between existing index constituents and newer recommendations that could have even greater potential for gains. Learn more about the Fool 100 index by visiting the Fool 100 website . With stocks like the 10 listed above, this new index could be a powerful tool to guide your investing strategy. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. Dan Caplinger owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Apple, and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, and Visa. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple, short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple, short May 2018 $175 calls on Home Depot, and long January 2020 $110 calls on Home Depot. The Motley Fool recommends Home Depot and UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Apple Earnings: What to Expect Tomorrow: Tomorrow after the close,Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)will report fiscal first-quarter earnings for the all-important holiday shopping season. We're talking about the quarter in which the company launched its iPhone X, the new $1,000 flagship packed with 3D-sensing and facial recognition capabilities. It's going to be an incredibly important report for investors.
Here's what to expect -- and what to look for.
Image source: Apple.
For starters, it's worth remembering Apple'sofficial guidance. Here's the forecast the Mac maker provided in November:
[{"Metric": "Revenue", "Guidance": "$84 billion to $87 billion"}, {"Metric": "Gross margin", "Guidance": "38% to 38.5%"}, {"Metric": "Operating expenses", "Guidance": "$7.65 billion to $7.75 billion"}, {"Metric": "Other income/(expense)", "Guidance": "$600 million"}, {"Metric": "Tax rate", "Guidance": "25.5%"}]
Data source: Apple.
That top-line prediction would set an all-time record for Apple, beating the prior record of$78.4 billion in revenue set a year ago, which was driven by 78.3 million in iPhone unit sales. Analysts are expecting revenue to come in at the high end, with the consensus estimate looking for $87.06 billion in revenue. The Street is modeling for $3.83 in earnings per share.
There have been a flurry of reports suggesting iPhone X demand is weak, reportedly resulting in Apple cutting production in recent weeks. It's possible that CEO Tim Cook will address the rumors, ashe has done in the past, and he may indicate whether or not Apple has reached supply-demand balance for iPhone X.
Unlike other parts of Apple's business, the company's services business is largely immune to seasonal factors. A year ago, Apple set a goal ofdoubling its services businessin four years, which translates into a target of about $50 billion in services revenue in 2020. For context, services have generated $30 billion in revenue on a trailing-12-month basis.
Image source: Apple.
Now that a year has passed, it will be useful to check in on this goal and get an update from management regarding progress. Apple recently acquired music-recognition service Shazam, and hopefully Apple will provide some insight into how the deal willhelp grow Apple Music. Speaking of Apple Music, the last report on the subscriber base was 30 million in September; hopefully Cook and Co. will give investors an update here, as Spotify announced earlier this month that it hit 70 million paid subscribers.
Congress enacted sweeping tax reform last year, which imposes a one-time 15.5% tax on foreign earnings held as cash, regardless of whether that cash is actually repatriated back to the U.S. or not. Apple estimates that its tax bill associated with foreign earnings will be $38 billion, and the company recently announced it would use some of this money to build a new corporate campus, as part of$30 billion in planned domestic capital expendituresover the next five years.
What Applehasn'tdetailed is exactly how much it plans on repatriating. Chances are it will be in excess of $200 billion. There are meaningful implications to Apple's balance sheet. How much Apple does or doesn't bring home will determine the scope of its capital return program, which is due for an update next quarter, as well as how Apple will fund those capital returns.
The company has been funding capital returns through debt, accumulating $104 billion in term debt since 2013, as a way to circumvent repatriation taxes. This debt strategy will no longer be needed following tax reform, and hopefully Cook or CFO Luca Maestri will shed some light on how much cash the company plans to repatriate.
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• 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices
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Evan Niu, CFAowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Apple Earnings: What to Expect Tomorrow: Tomorrow after the close, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will report fiscal first-quarter earnings for the all-important holiday shopping season. We're talking about the quarter in which the company launched its iPhone X, the new $1,000 flagship packed with 3D-sensing and facial recognition capabilities. It's going to be an incredibly important report for investors. Here's what to expect -- and what to look for. Tim Cook shaking a customer's hand at an Apple Store Image source: Apple. Forecast calls for sunny sales For starters, it's worth remembering Apple's official guidance . Here's the forecast the Mac maker provided in November: Metric Guidance Revenue $84 billion to $87 billion Gross margin 38% to 38.5% Operating expenses $7.65 billion to $7.75 billion Other income/(expense) $600 million Tax rate 25.5% Data source: Apple. That top-line prediction would set an all-time record for Apple, beating the prior record of $78.4 billion in revenue set a year ago , which was driven by 78.3 million in iPhone unit sales. Analysts are expecting revenue to come in at the high end, with the consensus estimate looking for $87.06 billion in revenue. The Street is modeling for $3.83 in earnings per share. There have been a flurry of reports suggesting iPhone X demand is weak, reportedly resulting in Apple cutting production in recent weeks. It's possible that CEO Tim Cook will address the rumors, as he has done in the past , and he may indicate whether or not Apple has reached supply-demand balance for iPhone X. Services growth Unlike other parts of Apple's business, the company's services business is largely immune to seasonal factors. A year ago, Apple set a goal of doubling its services business in four years, which translates into a target of about $50 billion in services revenue in 2020. For context, services have generated $30 billion in revenue on a trailing-12-month basis. Customer trying Animoji on iPhone X Image source: Apple. Now that a year has passed, it will be useful to check in on this goal and get an update from management regarding progress. Apple recently acquired music-recognition service Shazam, and hopefully Apple will provide some insight into how the deal will help grow Apple Music . Speaking of Apple Music, the last report on the subscriber base was 30 million in September; hopefully Cook and Co. will give investors an update here, as Spotify announced earlier this month that it hit 70 million paid subscribers. Story continues How much cash is Apple repatriating? Congress enacted sweeping tax reform last year, which imposes a one-time 15.5% tax on foreign earnings held as cash, regardless of whether that cash is actually repatriated back to the U.S. or not. Apple estimates that its tax bill associated with foreign earnings will be $38 billion, and the company recently announced it would use some of this money to build a new corporate campus, as part of $30 billion in planned domestic capital expenditures over the next five years. What Apple hasn't detailed is exactly how much it plans on repatriating. Chances are it will be in excess of $200 billion. There are meaningful implications to Apple's balance sheet. How much Apple does or doesn't bring home will determine the scope of its capital return program, which is due for an update next quarter, as well as how Apple will fund those capital returns. The company has been funding capital returns through debt, accumulating $104 billion in term debt since 2013, as a way to circumvent repatriation taxes. This debt strategy will no longer be needed following tax reform, and hopefully Cook or CFO Luca Maestri will shed some light on how much cash the company plans to repatriate. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 3 Big-Brand Stocks to Buy Now: What's in a name? Well, for many companies a name can be everything. Some brand names are so beloved that consumers will gravitate toward a brand's products practically without thinking of the alternatives. That's a serious competitive advantage for a company, and one that can be worth billions of dollars. Investors looking to capitalize on the competitive advantages afforded by a big brand would do well to look into these three stocks. Walt Disney Studios logo Image source: Disney. The most magical place on Earth Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is a media conglomerate that houses several popular brands. There's its flagship brand, Disney, which includes its film studio, cable television channel, theme parks, and consumer goods. It also owns ESPN -- "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" -- which is the driving force behind its media networks. Oh, and it owns Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, ABC, and 30% of Hulu -- all big brands in and of themselves. Disney's brands give the company exceptional pricing power. ESPN, for example, charges the highest carriage fees of any cable network by far. If you and the family want to spend a couple days at Disney World, you can easily spend around $1,000. Disney is able to monetize its popular characters through box-office sales, its theme parks, and consumer goods. It makes new experiences at its theme parks, new films based on old characters , and a continual stream of new toys. It also licenses its brands and intellectual property like Marvel to other content creators. Disney is about to make the next step in leveraging its strong brands. It's going to offer direct-to-consumer streaming video services for both its ESPN brand and its Disney brand. Disney's strong brand and content library should make the Disney platform a success, and the ESPN platform should shore up the declining subscriber base of its cable networks. Finally, Disney's brand could get even stronger with the acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox 's (NASDAQ: FOXA) film and television properties. Fox is a strong brand itself, and the acquisition should add considerable pricing power in Disney's media networks segment while bringing even more new characters to its theme parks. Story continues Continued box office dominance, a parks business that keeps raking in visitors, and a strong presence in every cable package make Disney stock a buy. A Starbucks barista holding this year's holiday cup. Image source: Starbucks. The coffeehouse on every corner Starbucks ' (NASDAQ: SBUX) brand is not only one of the most recognized in coffee, but in all of the restaurant industry. Besides Starbucks Coffee, Starbucks also owns Tazo Tea and Teavana. Starbucks is in the process of closing its Teavana stores , but the brand will continue to live on in Starbucks stores and in grocery aisles. Starbucks' started fiscal 2018 with worse-than-expected earnings. Its same-store sales grew just 2% last quarter, while management was guiding for growth of 3% to 5% for the year. And guidance for "soft" comparable sales in the second quarter means that it'll be lucky to reach the bottom end of that range. As a result of the weak earnings, Starbucks shares pulled back . That may present a buying opportunity for investors interested in the strong brand. The poor results are not a reflection of any problems with Starbucks' brand. Management attributed the problem with its holiday offers not resonating (as they haven't changed much in several years), a decrease in mall traffic as more people do their holiday shopping online, and pressure on non-Starbucks Rewards members. Management is taking steps to resolve the issues it has control over, including onboarding new Rewards members through a co-branded credit card later this year and opening digital payments to non-Rewards members. But the big brand story remains in China , where the company is expanding rapidly and taking full advantage of its brand strength. Sales in China increased 30% last quarter, and its comparable-store sales were up 6%, driven entirely by an increase in transactions. The company opened 300 new stores in the region, bringing its total to 7,800. What's more, management expects the acquisition of East China, which brought 3,100 Starbucks stores under corporate's control, will accelerate growth in the region going forward. With the tremendous growth potential in China and slight improvements coming in U.S. operations, Starbucks shares could be a great opportunity for investors right now. A selection of products from Procter & Gamble. Image source: Procter & Gamble. Shaving its brand portfolio Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) has shed the majority of its brands in recent years, dropping from 170 in 2014 to 65 today. Still, it's the owner of familiar household names like Gillette, Pampers, Head & Shoulders, and Tide. While capital appreciation has been practically nonexistent as it shed those brands, the company is now poised to benefit from greater focus on its higher-return brands. Management reported 3% sales growth during the second quarter of fiscal 2018, indicating the efforts to drive greater sales from a smaller brand portfolio are starting to pay off. The company can now focus its marketing efforts on a few select products. That said, Procter & Gamble is still facing an ultra-competitive environment. Its brand strength should support modest sales increases, and the introduction of higher-margin premium products from its most popular brands like Tide should help improve gross margin. P&G should be able to drive profitable growth through continued cost-cutting efforts. Management expects to extract another $10 billion in efficiencies through reduced overhead, lower cost of goods sold, and marketing efficiencies. The strength of its brands is key to those last two points, as they allow the company to benefit from increased scale. The addition of activist investor Nelson Peltz to the board of directors should ensure management stays on course in its efforts to improve profitability, but I don't think it necessarily means we'll see a significant change in the company's current strategy. P&G is a much more conservative investment, representing a noncyclical consumer goods company. The fact that it's lagged the market in recent years as other companies have boomed is no surprise, but when the next economic downturn hits, P&G is poised to outperform, held up by the strength of its brands. In the meantime, the stock pays out a very nice dividend, yielding about 3.1% with annual raises from management. Big brands worth buying It's worth noting that none of these three big-brand companies are without faults: Disney's media networks are losing subscribers, Starbucks' stores in the U.S. aren't growing sales as quickly as anticipated, and P&G is losing market share. But those problems are what make them great buys today, because the brand strength of each of these companies should help them overcome those problems. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levy owns shares of Procter & Gamble and Starbucks. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 3 Big-Brand Stocks to Buy Now: What's in a name?
Well, for many companies a name can be everything. Some brand names are so beloved that consumers will gravitate toward a brand's products practically without thinking of the alternatives. That's a serious competitive advantage for a company, and one that can be worth billions of dollars.
Investors looking to capitalize on the competitive advantages afforded by a big brand would do well to look into these three stocks.
Image source: Disney.
Walt Disney(NYSE: DIS)is a media conglomerate that houses several popular brands. There's its flagship brand, Disney, which includes its film studio, cable television channel, theme parks, and consumer goods. It also owns ESPN -- "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" -- which is the driving force behind its media networks. Oh, and it owns Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, ABC, and 30% of Hulu -- all big brands in and of themselves.
Disney's brands give the company exceptional pricing power. ESPN, for example, charges the highest carriage fees of any cable network by far. If you and the family want to spend a couple days at Disney World, you can easily spend around $1,000.
Disney is able to monetize its popular characters through box-office sales, its theme parks, and consumer goods. It makes new experiences at its theme parks,new films based on old characters, and a continual stream of new toys. It also licenses its brands and intellectual property like Marvel to other content creators.
Disney is about to make the next step in leveraging its strong brands. It's going to offer direct-to-consumerstreaming video servicesfor both its ESPN brand and its Disney brand. Disney's strong brand and content library should make the Disney platform a success, and the ESPN platform should shore up the declining subscriber base of its cable networks.
Finally, Disney's brand could get even stronger with the acquisition ofTwenty-First Century Fox's(NASDAQ: FOXA)film and television properties. Fox is a strong brand itself, and the acquisition should add considerable pricing power in Disney's media networks segment while bringing even more new characters to its theme parks.
Continued box office dominance, a parks business that keeps raking in visitors, and a strong presence in every cable package make Disney stock a buy.
Image source: Starbucks.
Starbucks'(NASDAQ: SBUX)brand is not only one of the most recognized in coffee, but in all of the restaurant industry. Besides Starbucks Coffee, Starbucks also owns Tazo Tea and Teavana. Starbucks is in the process ofclosing its Teavana stores, but the brand will continue to live on in Starbucks stores and in grocery aisles.
Starbucks' started fiscal 2018 with worse-than-expected earnings. Its same-store sales grew just 2% last quarter, while management was guiding for growth of 3% to 5% for the year. And guidance for "soft" comparable sales in the second quarter means that it'll be lucky to reach the bottom end of that range.
As a result of the weak earnings,Starbucks shares pulled back. That may present a buying opportunity for investors interested in the strong brand.
The poor results are not a reflection of any problems with Starbucks' brand. Management attributed the problem with its holiday offers not resonating (as they haven't changed much in several years), a decrease in mall traffic as more people do their holiday shopping online, and pressure on non-Starbucks Rewards members. Management is taking steps to resolve the issues it has control over, including onboarding new Rewards members through a co-branded credit card later this year and opening digital payments to non-Rewards members.
But the big brand story remains inChina, where the company is expanding rapidly and taking full advantage of its brand strength. Sales in China increased 30% last quarter, and its comparable-store sales were up 6%, driven entirely by an increase in transactions. The company opened 300 new stores in the region, bringing its total to 7,800. What's more, management expects the acquisition of East China, which brought 3,100 Starbucks stores under corporate's control, will accelerate growth in the region going forward.
With the tremendous growth potential in China and slight improvements coming in U.S. operations, Starbucks shares could be a great opportunity for investors right now.
Image source: Procter & Gamble.
Procter & Gamble(NYSE: PG)has shed the majority of its brands in recent years, dropping from 170 in 2014 to 65 today. Still, it's the owner of familiar household names like Gillette, Pampers, Head & Shoulders, and Tide.
While capital appreciation has been practically nonexistent as it shed those brands, the company is now poised to benefit from greater focus on its higher-return brands. Management reported3% sales growthduring the second quarter of fiscal 2018, indicating the efforts to drive greater sales from a smaller brand portfolio are starting to pay off. The company can now focus its marketing efforts on a few select products.
That said, Procter & Gamble is still facing an ultra-competitive environment. Its brand strength should support modest sales increases, and the introduction of higher-margin premium products from its most popular brands like Tide should help improve gross margin.
P&G should be able to drive profitable growth through continued cost-cutting efforts. Management expects to extract another$10 billionin efficiencies through reduced overhead, lower cost of goods sold, and marketing efficiencies. The strength of its brands is key to those last two points, as they allow the company to benefit from increased scale. The addition of activist investor Nelson Peltz to the board of directors should ensure management stays on course in its efforts to improve profitability, but I don't think it necessarily means we'll see a significant change in the company's current strategy.
P&G is a much more conservative investment, representing a noncyclical consumer goods company. The fact that it's lagged the market in recent years as other companies have boomed is no surprise, but when the next economic downturn hits, P&G is poised to outperform, held up by the strength of its brands. In the meantime, the stock pays out a very nice dividend, yielding about 3.1% with annual raises from management.
It's worth noting that none of these three big-brand companies are without faults: Disney's media networks are losing subscribers, Starbucks' stores in the U.S. aren't growing sales as quickly as anticipated, and P&G is losing market share. But those problems are what make them great buys today, because the brand strength of each of these companies should help them overcome those problems.
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Adam Levyowns shares of Procter & Gamble and Starbucks. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || What to Expect From Amazon.com, Inc. in 2018: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) had an incredible 2017. It consistently beat earnings estimates, bought Whole Foods Market , and its stock price increased about 56%. Along the way, CEO Jeff Bezos became the wealthiest person in the world, surpassing $100 billion in net worth. But investors don't buy shares of a company based on what happened in the past; they buy based on expectations for the future. Here's what investors can expect from Amazon in 2018. An Amazon warehouse worker. Image source: Amazon. More video spending Amazon launched Prime Video globally at the end of 2016, opening up the video streaming service to an additional 190 or so countries. The global launch provides additional scale for Amazon to leverage its video content spending, which reached an estimated $4.5 billion last year. Investors should expect Amazon to spend even more on video content in 2018. Video is a key part of Amazon Prime. CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts the video business "continues to drive better conversion of free trials, higher membership renewal rates for existing subscribers, and higher overall engagement." Prime members who watch video also spend more on Amazon, according to Olsavsky. Prime members streamed more video in 2017 than ever before. Investors should expect that trend to continue this year as Amazon continues to invest in content and it makes partnerships with hardware makers. Growing the advertising business Amazon's ad business is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. While Amazon started its ad business about 10 years ago and used it as a way to offset the cost of Kindle devices, it's quickly becoming a multibillion dollar business. The company generated $2.8 billion in ad revenue last year, according to an estimate from J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth. Citi analyst Mark May thinks Amazon's ad business could bring in over $10 billion this year. The advertising business benefits from the growth of Prime and Amazon as a destination for product searches . But Amazon still has room to expand its ad products to other publishers' websites. It remains in the very early stages of displaying ads on third-party websites, so look for Amazon to expand its ad products and improve its self-serve ad-buying platform. Story continues More moves in groceries Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods last year shows how serious Amazon is about selling groceries. AmazonFresh -- the company's fresh grocery delivery service -- has been around for about a decade, but it hasn't expanded to very many cities. Nonetheless, Amazon's grocery sales have continued to climb as more shoppers embrace online grocery shopping. Amazon has already made a big move in its efforts to win grocery sales by opening its Amazon Go store to the public. The convenience store relies on cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence to do away with checkout clerks. The idea is to replace marginal costs like employees with fixed costs to improve the long-term profitability of the brick-and-mortar store. Amazon could extend some of Amazon Go's technology to Whole Foods. Additionally, Whole Foods provides the scale needed to expand AmazonFresh to a lot more markets. That could enable Amazon to lower the subscription price for Fresh, lower the minimum order threshold, or both. Such a move could result in a lot more people buying groceries on Amazon.com. An Amazon Echo device on a bookshelf. Image source: Amazon. Alexa in everything Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, has been a surprise hit. The Echo Dot was Amazon's most popular item during the holiday season last year. Investors should look for Alexa to start showing up in even more devices as it licenses the technology to manufacturers. At CES this year, Alexa showed up in cars, smart glasses, and even a smart toilet (because that's necessary). Expect for even more devices to integrate Alexa technology this year. The smart speaker trend is just getting started , and 2018 promises to be even bigger than 2017. What's more, Amazon's early moves in the space provide it with a moat, as most Alexa-enabled device owners say they'll buy another Alexa-enabled device. Alexa provides a platform for Amazon to increase sales for both its retail operations and its advertising business. More private labels Amazon's private-label business is accelerating as the retailer dives into more and more verticals. From snack food to furniture to baby wipes, Amazon's labels generated about $450 million in sales last year. The addition of Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value brand has been a big hit with Amazon.com customers so far. Private-label products generally come with higher profit margins, so it behooves Amazon to continue expanding into new areas. Its data on shoppers provides some of the best information to inform product and label decisions, ensuring Amazon hits the mark more often than not. Amazon is also at an advantage when it comes to promoting its own products, highlighting them in search results. Amazon's private label business should continue to expand in 2018, but it's still an extremely small part of Amazon's total sales. Already off to a great start Amazon investors are probably happy with the stock performance through the first month of 2018. The share price is already up another 20% after a stellar 2017. As long as Amazon continues to execute across its wide array of businesses, there's no reason the stock can't continue to outperform the market in 2018. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy owns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What to Expect From Amazon.com, Inc. in 2018: Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN)had an incredible 2017. It consistently beat earnings estimates,bought Whole Foods Market, and its stock price increased about 56%. Along the way, CEO Jeff Bezos became the wealthiest person in the world, surpassing $100 billion in net worth.
But investors don't buy shares of a company based on what happened in the past; they buy based on expectations for the future. Here's what investors can expect from Amazon in 2018.
Image source: Amazon.
Amazon launched Prime Video globally at the end of 2016, opening up the video streaming service to an additional 190 or so countries. The global launch provides additional scale for Amazon to leverage its video content spending, which reached an estimated $4.5 billion last year.
Investors should expect Amazon to spend even more on video content in 2018. Video is a key part of Amazon Prime. CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts the video business "continues to drive better conversion of free trials, higher membership renewal rates for existing subscribers, and higher overall engagement." Prime members who watch video also spend more on Amazon, according to Olsavsky.
Prime members streamed more video in 2017 than ever before. Investors should expect that trend to continue this year as Amazon continues to invest in content and it makes partnerships with hardware makers.
Amazon's ad business is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. While Amazon started its ad business about 10 years ago and used it as a way to offset the cost of Kindle devices, it's quickly becoming a multibillion dollar business. The company generated $2.8 billion in ad revenue last year, according to an estimate from J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth. Citi analyst Mark May thinks Amazon's ad business could bring in over $10 billion this year.
The advertising business benefits from the growth of Prime and Amazon as a destination forproduct searches. But Amazon still has room to expand its ad products to other publishers' websites. It remains in the very early stages of displaying ads on third-party websites, so look for Amazon to expand its ad products and improve its self-serve ad-buying platform.
Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods last year shows how serious Amazon is about selling groceries. AmazonFresh -- the company's fresh grocery delivery service -- has been around for about a decade, but it hasn't expanded to very many cities. Nonetheless,Amazon's grocery saleshave continued to climb as more shoppers embrace online grocery shopping.
Amazon has already made a big move in its efforts to win grocery sales by opening its Amazon Go store to the public. The convenience store relies on cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence to do away with checkout clerks. The idea is to replace marginal costs like employees with fixed costs to improve the long-term profitability of the brick-and-mortar store. Amazon could extend some of Amazon Go's technology to Whole Foods.
Additionally, Whole Foods provides the scale needed to expand AmazonFresh to a lot more markets. That could enable Amazon to lower the subscription price for Fresh, lower the minimum order threshold, or both. Such a move could result in a lot more people buying groceries on Amazon.com.
Image source: Amazon.
Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, has been a surprise hit. The Echo Dot wasAmazon's most popular itemduring the holiday season last year.
Investors should look for Alexa to start showing up in even more devices as it licenses the technology to manufacturers. At CES this year, Alexa showed up in cars, smart glasses, and even a smart toilet (because that's necessary). Expect for even more devices to integrate Alexa technology this year.
The smart speaker trend is just getting started, and 2018 promises to be even bigger than 2017. What's more, Amazon's early moves in the space provide it with a moat, as most Alexa-enabled device owners say they'll buy another Alexa-enabled device.
Alexa provides a platform for Amazon toincrease salesfor both its retail operations and its advertising business.
Amazon's private-label business is accelerating as the retailer dives into more and more verticals. From snack food tofurnitureto baby wipes, Amazon's labels generated about $450 million in sales last year. The addition of Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value brand has been a big hit with Amazon.com customers so far.
Private-label products generally come with higher profit margins, so it behooves Amazon to continue expanding into new areas. Its data on shoppers provides some of the best information to inform product and label decisions, ensuring Amazon hits the mark more often than not. Amazon is also at an advantage when it comes to promoting its own products, highlighting them in search results.
Amazon's private label business should continue to expand in 2018, but it's still an extremely small part of Amazon's total sales.
Amazon investors are probably happy with the stock performance through the first month of 2018. The share price is already up another 20% after a stellar 2017. As long as Amazon continues to execute across its wide array of businesses, there's no reason the stock can't continue to outperform the market in 2018.
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Adam Levyowns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Facebook Just Banned Ads for Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies: Facebook will no longer allow ads for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the social network announced Tuesday. According to an article posted to Facebook Business by Product Management Director Rob Leathern , the new policy prohibits ads for “ financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, and cryptocurrency.” Facebook says the policy is designed to protect Facebook users from the scams so frequently associated with initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrencies, and binary options. Facebook says this initial policy is intentionally broad until the company can develop a better system to detect fraudulent advertising practices. “This policy is part of an ongoing effort to improve the integrity and security of our ads, and to make it harder for scammers to profit from a presence on Facebook,” writes Leathern. The policy is also likely at least partially a response to Facebook’s public admission that the Russian government used the social network in an effort to influence the 2016 US election. Bitcoin has been the talk of the town in recent months. The value of a single bitcoin skyrocketed to more than $19,850 in December ( today that value sits at around $9,942 ). But as hot a commodity as Bitcoin has come, rumors of scams and fraudulent offerings in the world of cryptocurrencies abound. South Korea recently banned anonymous trading in response to these rumors, reports The Independent , and UK Prime Minister Teresa May has spoken about the possibility of adopting a similar policy. At the World Economic Forum last week, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also voiced concerns about Bitcoin. “My number-one focus on cryptocurrencies, whether that be digital currencies or Bitcoin or other things, is that we want to make sure that they’re not used for illicit activities,” Mnuchin said. One thing’s for sure: If you want to get rich off of Bitcoin, don’t expect to do it on Facebook. Story continues Have you invested in cryptocurrency? Tell us @britandco ! (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty) You Might Also Like New Research Finds That Fake News Barely Affected the 2016 Election In Germany, Facebook Can Now Get FINED for Failing to Delete Hate Speech Facebook’s New Facial Recognition Feature Could Have Creepy Repercussions || Facebook Just Banned Ads for Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies: Facebook will no longer allow ads for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the social network announced Tuesday. According to an article posted to Facebook Business by Product Management Director Rob Leathern , the new policy prohibits ads for “ financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, and cryptocurrency.” Facebook says the policy is designed to protect Facebook users from the scams so frequently associated with initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrencies, and binary options. Facebook says this initial policy is intentionally broad until the company can develop a better system to detect fraudulent advertising practices. “This policy is part of an ongoing effort to improve the integrity and security of our ads, and to make it harder for scammers to profit from a presence on Facebook,” writes Leathern. The policy is also likely at least partially a response to Facebook’s public admission that the Russian government used the social network in an effort to influence the 2016 US election. Bitcoin has been the talk of the town in recent months. The value of a single bitcoin skyrocketed to more than $19,850 in December ( today that value sits at around $9,942 ). But as hot a commodity as Bitcoin has come, rumors of scams and fraudulent offerings in the world of cryptocurrencies abound. South Korea recently banned anonymous trading in response to these rumors, reports The Independent , and UK Prime Minister Teresa May has spoken about the possibility of adopting a similar policy. At the World Economic Forum last week, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also voiced concerns about Bitcoin. “My number-one focus on cryptocurrencies, whether that be digital currencies or Bitcoin or other things, is that we want to make sure that they’re not used for illicit activities,” Mnuchin said. One thing’s for sure: If you want to get rich off of Bitcoin, don’t expect to do it on Facebook. Story continues Have you invested in cryptocurrency? Tell us @britandco ! (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty) You Might Also Like New Research Finds That Fake News Barely Affected the 2016 Election In Germany, Facebook Can Now Get FINED for Failing to Delete Hate Speech Facebook’s New Facial Recognition Feature Could Have Creepy Repercussions || Facebook Just Banned Ads for Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies: Facebook will no longer allow ads for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the social network announced Tuesday. According to an article posted to Facebook Business by Product Management Director Rob Leathern , the new policy prohibits ads for “ financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, and cryptocurrency.” Facebook says the policy is designed to protect Facebook users from the scams so frequently associated with initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrencies, and binary options. Facebook says this initial policy is intentionally broad until the company can develop a better system to detect fraudulent advertising practices. “This policy is part of an ongoing effort to improve the integrity and security of our ads, and to make it harder for scammers to profit from a presence on Facebook,” writes Leathern. The policy is also likely at least partially a response to Facebook’s public admission that the Russian government used the social network in an effort to influence the 2016 US election. Bitcoin has been the talk of the town in recent months. The value of a single bitcoin skyrocketed to more than $19,850 in December ( today that value sits at around $9,942 ). But as hot a commodity as Bitcoin has come, rumors of scams and fraudulent offerings in the world of cryptocurrencies abound. South Korea recently banned anonymous trading in response to these rumors, reports The Independent , and UK Prime Minister Teresa May has spoken about the possibility of adopting a similar policy. At the World Economic Forum last week, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also voiced concerns about Bitcoin. “My number-one focus on cryptocurrencies, whether that be digital currencies or Bitcoin or other things, is that we want to make sure that they’re not used for illicit activities,” Mnuchin said. One thing’s for sure: If you want to get rich off of Bitcoin, don’t expect to do it on Facebook. Story continues Have you invested in cryptocurrency? Tell us @britandco ! (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty) You Might Also Like New Research Finds That Fake News Barely Affected the 2016 Election In Germany, Facebook Can Now Get FINED for Failing to Delete Hate Speech Facebook’s New Facial Recognition Feature Could Have Creepy Repercussions || CEO of alleged $600 million crypto fraud: ‘I can sleep at night knowing that I did my best’: Crypto-currencies are, to put it mildly, exploding right now. The rise of Bitcoin is thoroughly documented, but a hundred thousands other companies are piling it to get a share of the hottest thing in tech. Increasingly they’re turning to initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a way to innovate, as well as raise capital.
Unfortunately, whenever there’s money, there’s scams, and ICOs are no exception. The Securities and Exchange Commission took enforcement action against a “crypto-bank” last week, freezing the assets of AriseBank and halting its ICO. AriseBank CEO Jared Rice isn’t giving up, however, and in a message to ICO supporters through Telegram last night, Rice said he’s still holding firm.
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“Many people’s dreams fail over time, it’s simply a circumstance that surrounds us when we’re trying to do something that can and will change the world,” Jared Rice told supporters in messages obtained byBusiness Insider. “AriseBank was and STILL IS a project that I gave my entire life to. I’m not hiding. I’m proud of what we’ve built and regardless of what happens, I can sleep at night knowing that I did my best, I gave it my all and I did it with all the right intentions.”
AriseBank was intended to be the world’s first “decentralized” bank, where customers could get traditional banking services denominated in cryptocurrency. The bank aimed to raise $1 billion in working capital through sales of its own coin, AriseCoin. Before its assets were frozen, AriseBank claimed to have raised $600 million from investors.
From an economic standpoint, the idea of AriseBank was far from fraudulent. But according to the SEC filings, the company lied in public materials to investors, as well as failed to file required documentation. The SEC sees AriseCoin as a security being offered to investors, which requires registration with the SEC, which was not done. AriseBank also claimed in marketing materials that it had acquired “100-year-old commercial bank” with an FDIC license, meaning Arise would be able to offer customers accounts insured by the federal government. According to the filings, that wasn’t the case.
As it currently stands, the SEC has successfully frozen the assets of AriseBank under emergency provisions, and the court has appointed a receiver to manage the assets and ensure they can’t be liquidated.
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See theoriginal version of this article on BGR.com || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks seesawed Wednesday but ultimately closed the month on a positive note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) both posted small gains. Today's stock market Index Percentage Change Point Change Dow 0.28% 72.50 S&P 500 0.05% 1.38 Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Healthcare stocks had a tough day, with the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLV) falling 1.4%. Gold moved higher on a weakening dollar, and the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSEMKT: GLD) gained 0.7%. As for individual stocks, Shutterfly (NASDAQ: SFLY) flew higher after reporting a strong quarter and a big acquisition, and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) slumped despite beating Q4 expectations and raising its outlook. Collage of stock graphs. Image source: Getty Images. Shutterfly snaps up school photography company Lifetouch Shares of Shutterfly soared 27.8% after the company announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and the acquisition of school photographer Lifetouch for $825 million in cash. Sales increased 5.8% to $594 million and non-GAAP earnings per share jumped 18.3% to $3.11. Excluding a one-time tax benefit, GAAP earnings were $3.37 per share. The company had guided to revenue of between $538 million and $536 million, and GAAP EPS of between $2.60 and $3.00. For the full year, revenue was up 5% to $1.19 billion and adjusted EPS more than doubled to $1.05. Privately held Lifetouch is the national leader in school photography, photographing 25 million school children annually in over 50,000 schools. In its most recent fiscal year, it had revenue of $964 million and EBITDA of $111 million. Shutterfly will finance the purchase with new debt and will suspend its share repurchase program after having bought back $110 million of its stock in 2017. The Q4 results would have probably been enough to give the stock a pop on their own, as the company's strategy of slimming down and simplifying its offerings by shutting down less-productive sites is obviously working to make big boosts to profit and cash flow despite some lost revenue. But investors also rightly cheered the acquisition, priced at less than one times sales and holding plenty of potential for cross-selling across the two customer bases. Story continues Eli Lilly beats estimates, raises outlook Pharma giant Eli Lilly reported earnings that soundly beat Wall Street expectations and raised guidance for 2018 profit, but still saw shares slump 5.4%. Revenue increased 6.9% to $6.16 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $1.14, excluding a $1.9 billion charge due to the new tax law. Analysts were expecting Lilly to earn $1.07 on sales of $5.94 billion. The company raised guidance for 2018 adjusted EPS about 5% to a range of $4.81 to $4.91, which would represent growth of 12% to 15%. Analysts had been expecting $4.68. Revenue guidance of $23 billion to $23.5 billion remained unchanged. "Lilly's new products, including Trulicity, Taltz and Jardiance, continued to drive solid revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2017, while we maintained flat operating expenses," said Chairman and CEO David A. Ricks in the press release. "Momentum continues for our innovation-based strategy. We recently received approval for Taltz in the U.S. and European Union for active psoriatic arthritis, are encouraged by early use of Verzenio for breast cancer and expect further pipeline progress in 2018 in areas of significant patient need, including cancer, immunologic disorders, diabetes, neurodegeneration and pain." It's hard to find anything to complain about in Lilly's Q4 results, and indeed the stock began the day higher before slumping in the opening minutes. Sales of newly released drugs more than doubled, and Lilly reported that it may use more than $9 billion in cash held by global affiliates thanks to the new tax law. But investors are nervous about the future of drug prices , and most big pharma stocks were caught in a downdraft today. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Jim Crumly has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks seesawed Wednesday but ultimately closed the month on a positive note. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)and theS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)both posted small gains.
[{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "0.28%", "Point Change": "72.50"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "0.05%", "Point Change": "1.38"}]
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Healthcare stocks had a tough day, with theHealth Care Select Sector SPDR ETF(NYSEMKT: XLV)falling 1.4%. Gold moved higher on a weakening dollar, and theSPDR Gold Shares ETF(NYSEMKT: GLD)gained 0.7%.
As for individual stocks,Shutterfly(NASDAQ: SFLY)flew higher after reporting a strong quarter and a big acquisition, andEli Lilly and Company(NYSE: LLY)slumped despite beating Q4 expectations and raising its outlook.
Image source: Getty Images.
Shares of Shutterfly soared 27.8% afterthe company announcedbetter-than-expected fourth-quarter results and the acquisition of school photographer Lifetouch for $825 million in cash. Sales increased 5.8% to $594 million and non-GAAP earnings per share jumped 18.3% to $3.11. Excluding a one-time tax benefit, GAAP earnings were $3.37 per share. The company had guided to revenue of between $538 million and $536 million, and GAAP EPS of between $2.60 and $3.00. For the full year, revenue was up 5% to $1.19 billion and adjusted EPS more than doubled to $1.05.
Privately held Lifetouch is the national leader in school photography, photographing 25 million school children annually in over 50,000 schools. In its most recent fiscal year, it had revenue of $964 million andEBITDAof $111 million. Shutterfly will finance the purchase with new debt and will suspend its share repurchase program after having bought back $110 million of its stock in 2017.
The Q4 results would have probably been enough to give the stock a pop on their own, as the company's strategy of slimming down and simplifying its offerings by shutting down less-productive sites is obviously working to make big boosts to profit and cash flow despite some lost revenue. But investors also rightly cheered the acquisition, priced at less than one times sales and holding plenty of potential for cross-selling across the two customer bases.
Pharma giant Eli Lilly reported earnings that soundly beat Wall Street expectations and raised guidance for 2018 profit, but still saw shares slump 5.4%. Revenue increased 6.9% to $6.16 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $1.14, excluding a $1.9 billion charge due to the new tax law. Analysts were expecting Lilly to earn $1.07 on sales of $5.94 billion.
The company raised guidance for 2018 adjusted EPS about 5% to a range of $4.81 to $4.91, which would represent growth of 12% to 15%. Analysts had been expecting $4.68. Revenue guidance of $23 billion to $23.5 billion remained unchanged.
"Lilly's new products, including Trulicity, Taltz and Jardiance, continued to drive solid revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2017, while we maintained flat operating expenses," said Chairman and CEO David A. Ricks in the press release. "Momentum continues for our innovation-based strategy. We recently received approval for Taltz in the U.S. and European Union for active psoriatic arthritis, are encouraged by early use of Verzenio for breast cancer and expect further pipeline progress in 2018 in areas of significant patient need, including cancer, immunologic disorders, diabetes, neurodegeneration and pain."
It's hard to find anything to complain about in Lilly's Q4 results, and indeed the stock began the day higher before slumping in the opening minutes. Sales ofnewly released drugsmore than doubled, and Lilly reported that it may use more than $9 billion in cash held by global affiliates thanks to the new tax law. But investors are nervous about thefuture of drug prices, and most big pharma stocks were caught in a downdraft today.
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Jim Crumlyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson's Stock Fell 10.4% Today: What happened Shares of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) fell as much as 10.4% on Wednesday, goosed by a mixed fourth-quarter earnings report. So what The Swedish telecom equipment and services veteran's fourth-quarter sales fell 12% year over year, landing at 57.2 billion Swedish crowns or $7.3 billion. On the bottom line, the year-ago period's earnings swung to an adjusted net loss of $0.15 per American depository share. Analysts had been looking for earnings of $0.03 per share on sales near $7.1 billion, so Ericsson exceeded one target but fell far short of the other. LM Ericsson's corporate logo atop the Stockholm HQ building, bright white against a black sky. Image source: LM Ericsson. Now what Management admitted that these results were "far below our long-term ambition," due to continued weakness in LTE network sales to China. Ericsson slashed its workforce by 10%, or 10,000 employees, during the quarter, while selling a 51% ownership stake in its Media Solutions business to private equity firm One Equity Partners. This is a company in crisis, and management is acting accordingly. CEO Borje Ekholm is working on a turnaround based on the upcoming need for 5G wireless infrastructure tools. Ekholm's long-term targets include $25 billion of top-line revenues in fiscal year 2020 with a 10% net margin. Ericsson is already there in terms of top-line sales but revenues are trending downward at the moment. The net margin goal is more ambitious, since that metric dropped to a negative 17% in 2017. The 5G-based business model looks like the right path forward, but the company has a lot of work to do. I wouldn't be a buyer of Ericsson today, even at a sudden 10% discount. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson's Stock Fell 10.4% Today: Shares ofTelefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson(NASDAQ: ERIC)fell as much as 10.4% on Wednesday, goosed by a mixed fourth-quarter earnings report.
The Swedish telecom equipment and services veteran's fourth-quarter sales fell 12% year over year, landing at 57.2 billion Swedish crowns or $7.3 billion. On the bottom line, the year-ago period's earnings swung to an adjusted net loss of $0.15 per American depository share. Analysts had been looking for earnings of $0.03 per share on sales near $7.1 billion, so Ericsson exceeded one target but fell far short of the other.
Image source: LM Ericsson.
Management admitted that these results were "far below our long-term ambition," due to continued weakness in LTE network sales to China.
Ericsson slashed its workforce by 10%, or 10,000 employees, during the quarter, while selling a 51% ownership stake in its Media Solutions business to private equity firm One Equity Partners. This is a company in crisis, and management is acting accordingly.
CEO Borje Ekholm is working on a turnaround based on the upcoming need for5G wirelessinfrastructure tools. Ekholm's long-term targets include $25 billion of top-line revenues in fiscal year 2020 with a 10% net margin. Ericsson is already there in terms of top-line sales but revenues are trending downward at the moment. The net margin goal is more ambitious, since that metric dropped to a negative 17% in 2017.
The 5G-based business model looks like the right path forward, but the company has a lot of work to do. I wouldn't be a buyer of Ericsson today, even at a sudden 10% discount.
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Anders Bylundhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Trump promises to lower drug prices, but resists action: Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., accompanied by Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., speaks to members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 8, 2107, following their meeting with President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) President Trumps State of the Union address on Tuesday struck a tone that attempted to unite, at least when it came to some policy issues. One issue, near to the hearts of many congressional Democrats, has been getting prescription drug prices under control, something that Trump held up as a major campaign issue. One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States, Trump said. That is why I have directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down. To some of the Democratic members of Congress who had met with Trump to discuss ways to solve the problem, these remarks rang hollow. I was stunned by the complete and utter disconnect between his words and reality, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) said in a statement emailed to Yahoo Finance. More than any other Member of Congress, I have tried over and over and over to work with him. Cummings, along with Rep. Peter Welch (Vt.) had an apparently successful and productive meeting at the White House last April, in which the two lawmakers outlined a draft bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate directly. In other words, the art of the deal. In an interview with Yahoo Finance last spring, Welch described a magnanimous Trump as knowledgeable, and felt he had taken it seriously, especially given that the two lawmakers were proposing free-market moves such as importing prescription drugs from Canada and allowing negotiation, something that routinely happens in business. It would be like him needing a thousand mirrors and paying the same per unit cost, said Welch. He was animated about it. All Stetson and no cattle After the positive meeting, Cummings said he sent three follow-up letters and received no reply. Since then, the only action by the administration has been a few small moves to lower costs for Medicare recipients , though not drug prices. As Carolyn Y. Johnson noted in the Washington Post, the Trump administration appears to have taken special care to avoid confronting the biggest player in the debate: drug companies. Story continues Instead, his actions have gone in exactly the opposite direction tapping a pharmaceutical executive to lead HHS and giving drug companies one of the biggest tax breaks in history despite their already record profits, Cummings said. These arent just empty promises, they are obvious falsehoods. In a press release, Welch noted that Trump says he wants to bring down the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, but has proposed no concrete plan to do so. Without majorities in either chamber of Congress, Democrats like Cummings and Welch are unable to proceed without the bully pulpit of a sympathetic president they had hoped for. Still, Cummings said he is ready at anytime to accept President Trumps initiative, should it come as promised. I must keep up hope that the president will finally change course, and I stand ready to work with him or anyone else should that happen, Cummings said. Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann . Confidential tip line: FinanceTips[at]oath[.com]. People are taking Equifax to small-claims court and winning Meet the man behind all those Bitcoin Genius ads Trumps tax bill will make 2018 a wild year for divorce Elizabeth Warrens bill would thrash Equifax for another data breach The crypto boom may have made criminals richer How to stop people tracking whether youve opened their email || Trump promises to lower drug prices, but resists action: President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday struck a tone that attempted to unite, at least when it came to some policy issues. One issue, near to the hearts of many congressional Democrats, has been getting prescription drug prices under control, something that Trump held up as a major campaign issue.
“One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States,” Trump said. “That is why I have directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down.”
To some of the Democratic members of Congress who had met with Trump to discuss ways to solve the problem, these remarks rang hollow.
“I was stunned by the complete and utter disconnect between his words and reality,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) said in a statement emailed to Yahoo Finance. “More than any other Member of Congress, I have tried over and over and over to work with him.”
Cummings, along with Rep. Peter Welch (Vt.) had an apparently successful and productive meeting at the White House last April, in which the two lawmakers outlined a draft bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate directly. In other words, the art of the deal.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance last spring,Welch described amagnanimous Trump as “knowledgeable,” and felt he had taken it seriously, especially given that the two lawmakers were proposing free-market moves such as importing prescription drugs from Canada and allowing negotiation, something that routinely happens in business.
“It would be like him needing a thousand mirrors and paying the same per unit cost,” said Welch. “He was animated about it.”
After the positive meeting, Cummings said he sentthreefollow-uplettersand received no reply. Since then, the only action by the administration has been a few small moves to lower costsfor Medicare recipients, though not drug prices. As Carolyn Y. Johnsonnotedin the Washington Post, the Trump administration appears to have taken special care to avoid confronting the biggest player in the debate: drug companies.
“Instead, his actions have gone in exactly the opposite direction — tapping a pharmaceutical executive to lead HHS and giving drug companies one of the biggest tax breaks in history despite their already record profits,” Cummings said. “These aren’t just empty promises, they are obvious falsehoods.”
In a press release, Welch noted that Trump “says he wants to bring down the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, but has proposed no concrete plan to do so.”
Without majorities in either chamber of Congress, Democrats like Cummings and Welch are unable to proceed without the bully pulpit of a sympathetic president they had hoped for. Still, Cummings said he is ready at anytime to accept President Trump’s initiative, should it come as promised.
“I must keep up hope that the president will finally change course, and I stand ready to work with him or anyone else should that happen,” Cummings said.
—
Ethan Wolff-Mannis a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@ewolffmann. Confidential tip line: FinanceTips[at]oath[.com].
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How to stop people tracking whether you’ve opened their email || 3 Stocks That Doubled in Just the Last 6 Months: It takes the average stock about seven years to double in value while the S&P 500 typically gains about 10% each year. However, three stocks accomplished that feat in just the past six months: Bristow Group (NYSE: BRS) , W&T Offshore (NYSE: WTI) , and California Resources (NYSE: CRC) . But before you run out to buy them in hopes of riding their current momentum, it's important to know the reason why they've rocketed higher and if they still have enough fuel to keep going. Taking flight Shares of helicopter services company Bristow Group soared 104% in the last six months, but not before investors had to first endure a bumpy ride. In the three years before that rally, the stock had tumbled nearly 90%, including crashing more than 33% last May after the company reported disappointing quarterly results. Shares, though, have since bounced sharply off that bottom. A helicopter taking off from an offshore oil rig. Image source: Getty Images. Several factors ignited the rally, including the release of expectation-beating quarterly results in November, which alone fueled a jaw-dropping rally of nearly 45% that day. While the company gave back some ground a month later after issuing new debt , it has recovered since then by riding the coattails of scorching-hot oil prices, which have risen by a third in the past six months. The reason for this rebound is the belief that higher oil prices should cause oil companies to increase their offshore drilling activities, which could fuel demand for the company's helicopter services as it ferries more oil workers to those rigs. That said, if crude takes a tumble, it could cause the turbulence to return to Bristow's stock. Striking oil at just the right time W&T Offshore's stock has been on a tear for the last six months, climbing more than 135% over that period and about 40% in the past month. That has helped it begin crawling back from its nearly 85% tumble during the oil market downturn. The offshore oil producer's stunning run started in September after the company provided the market with an operational update following Hurricane Harvey. W&T Offshore noted that it only deferred about 43,000 barrels of oil equivalent production in the wake of the storm and that none of its production platforms sustained any damage. As a result, it quickly restarted operations and returned to pre-storm production levels. A subsequent update in late December added more fuel to the rally when the company noted that it struck oil in two of its three most recent exploration wells. One of those wells is already producing and the other should come on line in the next year. This flurry of production is happening just as oil prices are improving, which should provide the company with a gusher of cash flow in the coming year if crude prices hold up. Story continues An oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Image source: Getty Images. Riding the oil wave higher California Resources led this trio with a remarkable 157% gain in the last six months as the company began the long road to recovery after crashing 90% in the previous three years due to plunging oil prices. Those much lower prices had a dramatic impact on the California oil producer's operations. Because of its elevated debt levels, it wasn't producing enough cash to meet its financial obligations and invest into maintaining its production. In fact, output through the third quarter of last year was down 8% versus the same period in 2016 because the company was using much of its cash flow to pay down debt instead of investing in new oil wells. However, with crude prices bouncing back, California Resources should begin generating enough cash to both meet its financial obligations and grow production again. That has already started easing market fears that this still-deeply indebted oil company will survive the market downturn without having to restructure through bankruptcy. What oil gives it can quickly take away One single factor fueled the triple-digit rebound in these stocks: oil. The rapid rebound in crude prices in the last six months has provided them all with more cash flow to improve their financial situations, which is causing investors to buy up their beaten-down shares. Consequently, these companies need oil to continue going higher to maintain their momentum. Meanwhile, if crude gives back some of its gains, these three will undoubtedly give back a substantial portion of theirs. That's why investors are better off avoiding this troubled group and instead consider investing in oil stocks that can thrive even if oil heads much lower . More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matthew DiLallo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 3 Stocks That Doubled in Just the Last 6 Months: It takes the average stock about seven years to double in value while theS&P 500typically gains about 10% each year. However, three stocks accomplished that feat in just the past six months:Bristow Group(NYSE: BRS),W&T Offshore(NYSE: WTI), andCalifornia Resources(NYSE: CRC). But before you run out to buy them in hopes of riding their current momentum, it's important to know the reason why they've rocketed higher and if they still have enough fuel to keep going.
Shares of helicopter services company Bristow Group soared 104% in the last six months, but not before investors had to first endure a bumpy ride. In the three years before that rally, the stock had tumbled nearly 90%, includingcrashing more than 33% last Mayafter the company reported disappointing quarterly results. Shares, though, have since bounced sharply off that bottom.
Image source: Getty Images.
Several factors ignited the rally, including the release of expectation-beating quarterly results in November, which alonefueled a jaw-dropping rally of nearly 45%that day. While the company gave back some ground a month later afterissuing new debt, it has recovered since then by riding the coattails of scorching-hot oil prices, which have risen by a third in the past six months. The reason for this rebound is the belief that higher oil prices should cause oil companies to increase their offshore drilling activities, which could fuel demand for the company's helicopter services as it ferries more oil workers to those rigs. That said, if crude takes a tumble, it could cause the turbulence to return to Bristow's stock.
W&T Offshore's stock has been on a tear for the last six months, climbing more than 135% over that period andabout 40%in the past month. That has helped it begin crawling back from its nearly 85% tumble during the oil market downturn.
The offshore oil producer's stunning run started in September after the company provided the market with an operational update following Hurricane Harvey. W&T Offshore noted that it only deferred about 43,000 barrels of oil equivalent production in the wake of the storm and that none of its production platforms sustained any damage. As a result, it quickly restarted operations and returned to pre-storm production levels. A subsequent update in late December added more fuel to the rally when the company noted that it struck oil in two of its three most recent exploration wells. One of those wells is already producing and the other should come on line in the next year. This flurry of production is happening just as oil prices are improving, which should provide the company with a gusher of cash flow in the coming year if crude prices hold up.
Image source: Getty Images.
California Resources led this trio with a remarkable 157% gain in the last six months as the company began the long road to recovery after crashing 90% in the previous three years due to plunging oil prices. Those much lower prices had a dramatic impact on the California oil producer's operations. Because of its elevated debt levels, it wasn't producing enough cash to meet its financial obligations and invest into maintaining its production. In fact, output through thethird quarterof last year was down 8% versus the same period in 2016 because the company was using much of its cash flow to pay down debt instead of investing in new oil wells.
However, with crude prices bouncing back, California Resources should begin generating enough cash to both meet its financial obligations and grow production again. That has already started easing market fears that this still-deeply indebted oil company will survive the market downturn without having to restructure through bankruptcy.
One single factor fueled the triple-digit rebound in these stocks: oil. The rapid rebound in crude prices in the last six months has provided them all with more cash flow to improve their financial situations, which is causing investors to buy up their beaten-down shares. Consequently, these companies need oil to continue going higher to maintain their momentum. Meanwhile, if crude gives back some of its gains, these three will undoubtedly give back a substantial portion of theirs. That's why investors are better off avoiding this troubled group and instead consider investing in oil stocks that canthrive even if oil heads much lower.
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Matthew DiLallohas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
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Price: $9,670.10
Change in 1h: +0.86%
Market cap: $162,830,945,860.00
Ranking: 1
#Bitcoin #BTC || Cotizaciones al 01/02/2018 10:00 AM
Bitcoin (BTC): 52.235.663
Ethereum (ETH): 6.250.671
Litecoin (LTC): 828.806
Monero (XMR): 1.401.027
Dash (DASH): 3.535.656
ZCash (ZEC): 2...
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8830.75, 9174.91, 8277.01, 6955.27, 7754.00, 7621.30, 8265.59, 8736.98, 8621.90, 8129.97
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59, 287.72, 284.65, 281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47, 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51, 257.98, 211.08, 226.68, 235.35, 232.57, 230.39, 228.17, 210.49, 221.61, 225.83, 224.77, 231.40, 229.78, 228.76, 230.06, 228.12, 229.28, 227.18, 230.30, 235.02, 239.84, 239.85, 243.61, 238.17, 238.48, 240.11, 235.23, 230.51, 230.64, 230.30, 229.09, 229.81, 232.98, 231.49, 231.21, 227.09, 230.62, 230.28, 234.53, 235.14, 234.34, 232.76, 239.14, 236.69, 236.06, 237.55, 237.29, 238.73, 238.26, 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31, 249.51, 251.99, 254.32, 262.87, 270.64, 261.64, 263.44, 269.46, 266.27, 274.02, 276.50.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2015-10-23]
Volume: 29442500, RSI (14-day): 72.95, 50-day EMA: 248.96, 200-day EMA: 251.72
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1163.30, Gold RSI: 55.14
Oil Price: 44.60, Oil RSI: 43.53
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
C&W Business Develops Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plans to Complement Industry-Leading Disaster Recovery as a Service Solution: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 22, 2015) - C&W Business, part of C&W Communications , announced today that it has completed the development of a portfolio of Disaster Recovery Plans for each of the platforms on which it delivers Disaster Recovery as a Service. With this development, clients that utilize C&W Business Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution not only receive the most comprehensive managed solution for business continuity on the market, but they also get a complete roadmap of processes and procedures to ensure they are following international best-practices for business continuity. The C&W Business DRaaS Solution, which was recently placed in the first Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service 1 , protects business data and applications from all types of disasters, from natural to man-made. Thanks to the ability to failover and failback in mere minutes, companies minimize any risk to their data, applications, or business with this fully-managed service. With an easy-to-use, secure online portal that allows companies to manage and track real-time activity and system health, businesses can rest-assured that their most important information is always secure. Now, C&W Business is also delivering a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan with each instance of DRaaS. These plans help businesses understand the complete benefits of the DRaaS solution beyond the technological advantages. These Disaster Recovery Plans, which are tailored directly to the platform the client utilizes, provide dynamic tools to document recovery plans at the information technology level, so businesses can manage their resources more proactively. Developed using international standards used by the Disaster Recovery International Institute (DRII), BCI, ISO 22301, and ITIL, C&W Business Disaster Recovery Plans spell out specific roles and responsibilities for each party throughout the disaster recovery process. With detailed instructions on what needs to be done before, during, and after a business interruption, businesses utilizing these tools are well-prepared to deal with all types of interruptions to their business mitigating the risk of valuable data loss. Story continues "For years, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solutions were viewed as a major drain on companies and their IT organizations. At C&W Business, we're focusing our efforts to change this perception. By including these specialized Disaster Recovery Plans, customized based on the technologies our customers are using, we now can help to protect our customers' networks, secure their valuable data, and assist in developing their best-practices company-wide. We feel that this, coupled with the most comprehensive managed Disaster Recovery solution on the market, will be a real game-changer for our customers," said John Maduri, President of C&W Business. With an impeccable track record and a growing list of highly satisfied users in the Caribbean and Latin American markets, C&W Business' DRaaS solution is the industry leader in managed disaster recovery in the region. To find out more about C&W Business' DRaaS solution and to read the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, visit www.cwcbusiness.com/draas . 1 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, John P Morency, Christine Tenneson, April 21, 2015 Disclaimer Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Source: Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service," April 21, 2015 About C&W Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers. Through its business division, C&W provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km - the most extensive in the region - as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity and a growing suite of wholesale managed services. C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include: LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programs. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . || C&W Business Develops Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plans to Complement Industry-Leading Disaster Recovery as a Service Solution: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 22, 2015) - C&W Business, part of C&W Communications , announced today that it has completed the development of a portfolio of Disaster Recovery Plans for each of the platforms on which it delivers Disaster Recovery as a Service. With this development, clients that utilize C&W Business Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution not only receive the most comprehensive managed solution for business continuity on the market, but they also get a complete roadmap of processes and procedures to ensure they are following international best-practices for business continuity. The C&W Business DRaaS Solution, which was recently placed in the first Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service 1 , protects business data and applications from all types of disasters, from natural to man-made. Thanks to the ability to failover and failback in mere minutes, companies minimize any risk to their data, applications, or business with this fully-managed service. With an easy-to-use, secure online portal that allows companies to manage and track real-time activity and system health, businesses can rest-assured that their most important information is always secure. Now, C&W Business is also delivering a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan with each instance of DRaaS. These plans help businesses understand the complete benefits of the DRaaS solution beyond the technological advantages. These Disaster Recovery Plans, which are tailored directly to the platform the client utilizes, provide dynamic tools to document recovery plans at the information technology level, so businesses can manage their resources more proactively. Developed using international standards used by the Disaster Recovery International Institute (DRII), BCI, ISO 22301, and ITIL, C&W Business Disaster Recovery Plans spell out specific roles and responsibilities for each party throughout the disaster recovery process. With detailed instructions on what needs to be done before, during, and after a business interruption, businesses utilizing these tools are well-prepared to deal with all types of interruptions to their business mitigating the risk of valuable data loss. Story continues "For years, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solutions were viewed as a major drain on companies and their IT organizations. At C&W Business, we're focusing our efforts to change this perception. By including these specialized Disaster Recovery Plans, customized based on the technologies our customers are using, we now can help to protect our customers' networks, secure their valuable data, and assist in developing their best-practices company-wide. We feel that this, coupled with the most comprehensive managed Disaster Recovery solution on the market, will be a real game-changer for our customers," said John Maduri, President of C&W Business. With an impeccable track record and a growing list of highly satisfied users in the Caribbean and Latin American markets, C&W Business' DRaaS solution is the industry leader in managed disaster recovery in the region. To find out more about C&W Business' DRaaS solution and to read the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, visit www.cwcbusiness.com/draas . 1 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, John P Morency, Christine Tenneson, April 21, 2015 Disclaimer Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Source: Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service," April 21, 2015 About C&W Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers. Through its business division, C&W provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km - the most extensive in the region - as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity and a growing suite of wholesale managed services. C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include: LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programs. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . || Global Arena Holding Sub Explores Secured Blockchain Voting: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Oct 22, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc. (the "Company") (OTC PINK:GAHC), announced today, that its subsidiary,Global Election Services, Inc. ("GES"), is exploring expansion opportunities offeringsecured blockchain votingapplications developed by Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC").
"We have a sizable, longstanding client list, which speaks volumes to the quality and reputation of our elections services," statedMs. Maralin Falik, President of GES and Chairwoman of the Mediation and Arbitration Division. "Our intended expansion usingsecured blockchain votingplatforms, however inviting it may be, must maintain the surety of a safe and secure voting process -- the caliber of which GES' team is known for.
"We're confident, that if there is any such technology that can support the expansion of GES andadvance ballot elections into a high-tech world, 'the blockchain' is it."
GES, which has been a major contributor to the Company's bottom line, has explored the possibility of expansion through the use ofsecured blockchain votingapplications since the Company began acquisition talks with BTC. Management indicated that growth opportunities are abound for GES, if successfully aligned with BTC, setting the stage for GES to become a leading election management company.
Mr. John Matthews, CEO of the Company, stated, "Ms. Falik has participated in over 7,000 plus elections and processed over 40,000,000 ballots in her 30 plus years of election administration. I believe this affords her some authority to suggest what the future of ballot election services could resemble, with the implementation of the right technology."
"I too support an evolved voting process. Faster. More secure. Accurate. Non-tamperable and foolproof. Most important, 'electronic,' making it convenient and globally accessible. I'm quite positive, there are a many advocates that would agree, if there is any technology that couldadvance ballot elections into a high-tech world, 'the blockchain' is it."
Executive teams at BTC and GES have already begun conceptually augmenting the process of registered mail ballots, in-person registrations, tabulations and internet voting. With an extensive background in government elections and a working knowledge of elections for Labor Unions, Associations, etc., BTC certainly brings strength to GES family.
Ms. Falik concluded, "The possibilities here are truly amazing! We are firmly committed to deliveringsecured blockchain votingapplications, to the election services industry."
For more information on what this news means for the Company, visit:http://wp.me/p6Nf5M-CL
About Global Arena Holding
The Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc. and GAHI Acquisition Corp. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology.
For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com
Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding
Safe Harbor Statement
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || Caribbean Students to Benefit From Flow, One-on-One Education Partnership: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 21, 2015) - Cable & Wireless, operator of the Flow and LIME brands, has signed a landmark five-year exclusive partnership with One on One Education Services aimed at offering Caribbean students greater access to a wide variety of study materials for GSAT, CSEC and CAPE examinations.
One on One Education Services will provide a variety of educational materials including video tutorials for full online courses, video lectures, and past paper solutions, as well as other examination preparation materials such as notes, question and solutions banks. This education programme will also include a Digital Encyclopaedia, Virtual Labs -- a unique visual and interactive way of learning.
As part of this partnership, Flow customers will receive the basic education package at no additional cost with their Broadband service and will be able to upgrade at exclusively discounted prices. The education content will be available seamlessly across a Flow Study website, exclusive Flow Study apps, as well on the Flow Video On Demand TV platform.
"This is yet another demonstration of our commitment to technology investment for the development of the region," said John Reid, President of C&W Consumer Group. "Through initiatives such as One on One we have a tremendous opportunity to provide our customers with access to high quality education tools across multiple platforms that would have otherwise been costly and unattainable," he added.
Reid also said, "We went through a vigorous process to determine which provider had the best overall education solution in the region. Our quest led us to One on One, and we are truly delighted to be able to deliver the best to our customers."
Ricardo D. Allen, President & CEO of One on One Educational Services, also noted, "We are very excited about this partnership with Cable & Wireless/Flow. This will propel our education programme to new heights, new markets and provide access that was considered unattainable." Allen further explained that in just a few years, his Company has enabled over 2,000 students in Jamaica alone, to enhance their performance at the CSEC/CAPE examination. He stated that several students have gained scholarships and grants toward their tertiary education.
Allen added, "Our vision has always been to expand our business model through enabling greater access to our products as well as to continue in our effort to create even more online learning content which we will be doing through this deal. Cable & Wireless Communications is the market leader in the Caribbean for the provision of mobile, broadband and TV and therefore this deal fits nicely into our strategic objective to educate students anywhere, at any time. Through this deal, in addition to Internet access, students will be able to prepare for their exam from the comfort of their living room, on their TV, or on-the-go via Flow's mobile platform.
The partnership is expected to continue the efforts of past initiatives of One on One to reduce the cost of education and increase the participation rate of children, and adults in learning. "Our objective is to have everyone learning something; now it's GSAT, CSEC & CAPE and tomorrow it may well be CPA, ACCA & CFA. Wherever there is learning, Flow & One on One will be your partner," Allen stated.
About C&W CommunicationsCable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers.
Through its business division, C&W provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity and a growing suite of wholesale managed services.
C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include: LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes.
Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit:www.cwc.com. || Caribbean Students to Benefit From Flow, One-on-One Education Partnership: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 21, 2015) - Cable & Wireless, operator of the Flow and LIME brands, has signed a landmark five-year exclusive partnership with One on One Education Services aimed at offering Caribbean students greater access to a wide variety of study materials for GSAT, CSEC and CAPE examinations. One on One Education Services will provide a variety of educational materials including video tutorials for full online courses, video lectures, and past paper solutions, as well as other examination preparation materials such as notes, question and solutions banks. This education programme will also include a Digital Encyclopaedia, Virtual Labs -- a unique visual and interactive way of learning. As part of this partnership, Flow customers will receive the basic education package at no additional cost with their Broadband service and will be able to upgrade at exclusively discounted prices. The education content will be available seamlessly across a Flow Study website, exclusive Flow Study apps, as well on the Flow Video On Demand TV platform. "This is yet another demonstration of our commitment to technology investment for the development of the region," said John Reid, President of C&W Consumer Group. "Through initiatives such as One on One we have a tremendous opportunity to provide our customers with access to high quality education tools across multiple platforms that would have otherwise been costly and unattainable," he added. Reid also said, "We went through a vigorous process to determine which provider had the best overall education solution in the region. Our quest led us to One on One, and we are truly delighted to be able to deliver the best to our customers." Ricardo D. Allen, President & CEO of One on One Educational Services, also noted, "We are very excited about this partnership with Cable & Wireless/Flow. This will propel our education programme to new heights, new markets and provide access that was considered unattainable." Allen further explained that in just a few years, his Company has enabled over 2,000 students in Jamaica alone, to enhance their performance at the CSEC/CAPE examination. He stated that several students have gained scholarships and grants toward their tertiary education. Story continues Allen added, "Our vision has always been to expand our business model through enabling greater access to our products as well as to continue in our effort to create even more online learning content which we will be doing through this deal. Cable & Wireless Communications is the market leader in the Caribbean for the provision of mobile, broadband and TV and therefore this deal fits nicely into our strategic objective to educate students anywhere, at any time. Through this deal, in addition to Internet access, students will be able to prepare for their exam from the comfort of their living room, on their TV, or on-the-go via Flow's mobile platform. The partnership is expected to continue the efforts of past initiatives of One on One to reduce the cost of education and increase the participation rate of children, and adults in learning. "Our objective is to have everyone learning something; now it's GSAT, CSEC & CAPE and tomorrow it may well be CPA, ACCA & CFA. Wherever there is learning, Flow & One on One will be your partner," Allen stated. About C&W Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers. Through its business division, C&W provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity and a growing suite of wholesale managed services. C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include: LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . || What to Expect from Overstock.com's (OSTK) Q3 Earnings?: Overstock.com Inc. OSTK is expected to report third-quarter 2015 results after the closing bell on Oct 22. Last quarter, the company posted a negative earnings surprise of 46.15%. Let us see how things are shaping up for this announcement. Factors to Consider Overstock’s second-quarter 2015 earnings of 7 cents missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a significant margin while revenues of $398 million beat the consensus mark of $387 million. Overstock, a Bitcoin supporter, hopes to reinvent the public stock market using cryptosecurities, or virtual stocks based on Bitcoin's blockchain technology. Bitcoin is a digital currency platform with no central regulating authority involved in the transactions. It is also called crypto currency because it utilizes military-grade cryptography to protect users against fraud. Bitcoin and other cryptocurencies operate on blockchain which is a distributed public ledger. Cryptosecurities will likely bring the next major change in the stock market. With the SpeedRoute deal, Overstock will enter a new financial technology space. SpeedRoute’s infrastructure and underlying technologies will help the company to connect t0 securities trading platform with the entire U.S. equity market. This will enhance transparency and efficiency of the existing capital markets, which was the basic idea behind t0.com. The blockchain technology allows investors and buyers to trail down their purchases and ownership of cryptosecurities, ensuring complete transparency. Moreover, the t0.com blockchain technology facilitates same-day settlement of the securities. In June, Overstock offered its first corporate bond, worth US$25 million, as cryptosecurities to qualified institutional investors. This revolutionary development is part of the company's larger cryptofinance initiative known as Medici. Stocks to Consider Here are some companies, which you may consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter: Here are some companies which you may consider instead, as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter: Pandora Media, Inc. P with an Earnings ESP of +50.00% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Anika Therapeutics Inc. ANIK, with an Earnings ESP of +2.94% and a Zacks Rank #1. SkyWest Inc. SKYW, with an Earnings ESP of +4.55% and a Zacks Rank #1. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SKYWEST INC (SKYW): Free Stock Analysis Report PANDORA MEDIA (P): Free Stock Analysis Report ANIKA THERAPEUT (ANIK): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research View comments || What to Expect from Overstock.com's (OSTK) Q3 Earnings?: Overstock.com Inc.OSTK is expected to report third-quarter 2015 results after the closing bell on Oct 22. Last quarter, the company posted a negative earnings surprise of 46.15%.
Let us see how things are shaping up for this announcement.
Factors to Consider
Overstock’s second-quarter 2015 earnings of 7 cents missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a significant margin while revenues of $398 million beat the consensus mark of $387 million.
Overstock, a Bitcoin supporter, hopes to reinvent the public stock market using cryptosecurities, or virtual stocks based on Bitcoin's blockchain technology. Bitcoin is a digital currency platform with no central regulating authority involved in the transactions. It is also called crypto currency because it utilizes military-grade cryptography to protect users against fraud. Bitcoin and other cryptocurencies operate on blockchain which is a distributed public ledger.
Cryptosecurities will likely bring the next major change in the stock market. With the SpeedRoute deal, Overstock will enter a new financial technology space. SpeedRoute’s infrastructure and underlying technologies will help the company to connect t0 securities trading platform with the entire U.S. equity market. This will enhance transparency and efficiency of the existing capital markets, which was the basic idea behind t0.com.
The blockchain technology allows investors and buyers to trail down their purchases and ownership of cryptosecurities, ensuring complete transparency. Moreover, the t0.com blockchain technology facilitates same-day settlement of the securities.
In June, Overstock offered its first corporate bond, worth US$25 million, as cryptosecurities to qualified institutional investors. This revolutionary development is part of the company's larger cryptofinance initiative known as Medici.
Stocks to Consider
Here are some companies, which you may consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Here are some companies which you may consider instead, as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Pandora Media, Inc. P with an Earnings ESP of +50.00% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Anika Therapeutics Inc. ANIK, with an Earnings ESP of +2.94% and a Zacks Rank #1.
SkyWest Inc. SKYW, with an Earnings ESP of +4.55% and a Zacks Rank #1.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportSKYWEST INC (SKYW): Free Stock Analysis ReportPANDORA MEDIA (P): Free Stock Analysis ReportANIKA THERAPEUT (ANIK): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Is The Video Subscription Space Saturated?: The way consumers watch TV has changed drastically over the past few years as the popularity of Internet video sites like YouTube have skyrocketed. Dedicated streaming services like Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX ) and Hulu emerged and their warm reception from American viewers caused traditional broadcasters to rethink their own operations. Now, several big name networks have created their own online, subscription-based services in an effort to give customers more choices for web-based viewing. However, with so many fragmented viewing options out there, many are wondering if the space is starting to become crowded. The All Important Millennial The younger generation is increasingly switching to online viewing, a troublesome sign for traditional cable. Services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of content geared toward that demographic and have become popular choices for Millennials who are cutting the cord. Related Link: Why Netflix's Initial Selloff Was "Correct" However, in an effort to maintain a youthful audience, firms like NBC Universal and CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS ) have launched their own subscription services with content aimed at younger viewers. Stiff Competition NBC Universal recently unveiled a new streaming offering called Seeso, which will focus on comedy programming. The firm has been working together with non-traditional media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox to attract younger viewers, but the firm will have to compete with a host of other networks that are all doing the same thing. Dish Network's Sling TV, CBS' All Access service and Time Warner's HBO Now are just some of the many online subscription services that Seeso will have to compete with. Cutting The Cord While online viewing is gaining popularity, most agree that at the present moment there is no good way to cut the cord completely. Subscribing to the many online services that have saturated the streaming space would typically cost more than paying a traditional cable bill, so most consumers are choosing one or two online services to enhance their programming. That makes it difficult for new entrants like Seeso as more established names like Netflix are often a top choice. Story continues Image Credit: By Taro the Shiba Inu [ CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally 21 Inc's Bitcoin Computer Seeks To Redefine The Internet © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Is The Video Subscription Space Saturated?: The way consumers watch TV has changed drastically over the past few years as the popularity of Internet video sites like YouTube have skyrocketed.
Dedicated streaming services likeNetflix, Inc.(NASDAQ:NFLX) and Hulu emerged and their warm reception from American viewers caused traditional broadcasters to rethink their own operations.
Now, several big name networks have created their own online, subscription-based services in an effort to give customers more choices for web-based viewing. However, with so many fragmented viewing options out there, many are wondering if the space is starting to become crowded.
The All Important Millennial
The younger generation is increasingly switching to online viewing, a troublesome sign for traditional cable. Services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of content geared toward that demographic and have become popular choices for Millennials who are cutting the cord.
Related Link:Why Netflix's Initial Selloff Was "Correct"
However, in an effort to maintain a youthful audience, firms like NBC Universal andCBS Corporation(NYSE:CBS) have launched their own subscription services with content aimed at younger viewers.
Stiff Competition
NBC Universal recentlyunveileda new streaming offering called Seeso, which will focus on comedy programming. The firm has been working together with non-traditional media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox to attract younger viewers, but the firm will have to compete with a host of other networks that are all doing the same thing.
Dish Network's Sling TV, CBS' All Access service and Time Warner's HBO Now are just some of the many online subscription services that Seeso will have to compete with.
Cutting The Cord
While online viewing is gaining popularity, most agree that at the present moment there is no good way to cut the cord completely.
Subscribing to the many online services that have saturated the streaming space would typically cost more than paying a traditional cable bill, so most consumers are choosing one or two online services to enhance their programming. That makes it difficult for new entrants like Seeso as more established names like Netflix are often a top choice.
Image Credit: By Taro the Shiba Inu [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
See more from Benzinga
• Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset
• Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally
• 21 Inc's Bitcoin Computer Seeks To Redefine The Internet
© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || October Treat: Junk Bonds and Gold ETFs Pop: The stock market rebound continued this week as the S&P 500 touched its highest level in nearly two months. TheSPDR S&P 500 (SPY | A-99)is now up 5.8 percent in October, a strong performance in a month that has historically been the second-worst of the year (after September).
Gold & Silver Miners Dominate Jump
On Monday, we highlighted thebest-performing exchange-traded funds of October. Those funds, comprising mostly copper and energy producers, are still doing well in the month.
However, a new group of ETFs have bullied their way into the top 10: gold and silver miners. In fact, precious-metals-related funds now make up six of the top 10 positions for October, as can be seen from the table below.
Top 10 ETF Of October
[{"Ticker": "SILJ", "Fund": "PureFunds ISE Junior Silver (Small Cap Miners/Explorers)", "Return (%)": "27.86"}, {"Ticker": "COPX", "Fund": "Global X Copper Miners", "Return (%)": "25.61"}, {"Ticker": "PLTM", "Fund": "First Trust ISE Global Platinum", "Return (%)": "25.30"}, {"Ticker": "CU", "Fund": "First Trust ISE Global Copper", "Return (%)": "25.23"}, {"Ticker": "SLVP", "Fund": "iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners", "Return (%)": "25.07"}, {"Ticker": "SGDM", "Fund": "Sprott Gold Miners", "Return (%)": "24.04"}, {"Ticker": "KWT", "Fund": "Market Vectors Solar Energy", "Return (%)": "23.29"}, {"Ticker": "RING", "Fund": "iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners", "Return (%)": "23.28"}, {"Ticker": "GDX", "Fund": "Market Vectors Gold Miners", "Return (%)": "22.60"}, {"Ticker": "SIL", "Fund": "Global X Silver Miners", "Return (%)": "22.41"}]
Considering the big jump in gold prices this month, the performance of these ETFs hasn't been surprising. The yellow metal hit the highest point since mid-June this week, leading theSPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100)to a gain of 5.7 percent in October.
Miners tend to be much more volatile than the underlying metal, which explains their significant outperformance. Yet even as these ETFs rally, investors haven't been too keen on buying into them.
None of the top 10 price performers saw significant inflows, and in fact, investors pulled out $429 million from theMarket Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX | C-79)during the first half of the month.
Investors Buying BondsWhile ETF investors haven't been too enthusiastic about miners, they did show interest in gold itself. So far this month, GLD has attracted $483 million in inflows, putting it just outside the top 10 inflows list for the month.
One salient theme that has emerged during October is the idea that the Federal Reserve will hold off on hiking interest rates this year due to global slowdown concerns and the recent string of weak U.S. economic data.
That's propelled gold higher, as well as bonds. In fact, bonds are the asset class that's attracted the most capital this month.
As can be seen from the table below, generated using theETF.com fund flows tool, a number of bond ETFs made the top 10 inflows list:
Source: ETF.com Fund Flows Tool
TheiShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF | A-51)was a big winner, with nearly $1 billion in inflows. To the extent that the Fed's overnight interest rate stays lower for longer, that puts pressure on the longer end of the yield curve as well (supporting bond prices).
Even more popular than IEF were corporate bond ETFs like the SPDR BarclaysHigh Yield Bond ETF (JNK | B-68)and theiShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77). In addition to support from low interest rates, corporate bonds benefited from speculation that defaults may not be as high as feared.
That's particularly true for the junk bond space, which was hammered in August and September, sending yields to their loftiest level since 2011. Investors may be seeing those yields as attractive now that the stock market has stabilized and the Fed looks to be on hold.
In addition to the bond ETFs, other funds that saw notable inflows were the tech-heavyPowerShares QQQ (QQQ | A-66)and the large-capiShares Russell 1000 Value (IWD | A-90).
In terms of sectors, investors liked theIndustrial Select SPDR (XLI | A-92)and theConsumer Discretionary Select SPDR (XLY | A-91).
Contact Sumit Roy [email protected].
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• Twitter Chatter Packed In New Index
Permalink| © Copyright 2015ETF.com.All rights reserved || October Treat: Junk Bonds and Gold ETFs Pop: The stock market rebound continued this week as the S&P 500 touched its highest level in nearly two months. The SPDR S&P 500 (SPY | A-99) is now up 5.8 percent in October, a strong performance in a month that has historically been the second-worst of the year (after September). Gold & Silver Miners Dominate Jump On Monday, we highlighted the best-performing exchange-traded funds of October . Those funds, comprising mostly copper and energy producers, are still doing well in the month. However, a new group of ETFs have bullied their way into the top 10: gold and silver miners. In fact, precious-metals-related funds now make up six of the top 10 positions for October, as can be seen from the table below. Top 10 ETF Of October Ticker Fund Return (%) SILJ PureFunds ISE Junior Silver (Small Cap Miners/Explorers) 27.86 COPX Global X Copper Miners 25.61 PLTM First Trust ISE Global Platinum 25.30 CU First Trust ISE Global Copper 25.23 SLVP iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners 25.07 SGDM Sprott Gold Miners 24.04 KWT Market Vectors Solar Energy 23.29 RING iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners 23.28 GDX Market Vectors Gold Miners 22.60 SIL Global X Silver Miners 22.41 Considering the big jump in gold prices this month, the performance of these ETFs hasn't been surprising. The yellow metal hit the highest point since mid-June this week, leading the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100) to a gain of 5.7 percent in October. Miners tend to be much more volatile than the underlying metal, which explains their significant outperformance. Yet even as these ETFs rally, investors haven't been too keen on buying into them. None of the top 10 price performers saw significant inflows, and in fact, investors pulled out $429 million from the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX | C-79) during the first half of the month. Investors Buying Bonds While ETF investors haven't been too enthusiastic about miners, they did show interest in gold itself. So far this month, GLD has attracted $483 million in inflows, putting it just outside the top 10 inflows list for the month. Story continues One salient theme that has emerged during October is the idea that the Federal Reserve will hold off on hiking interest rates this year due to global slowdown concerns and the recent string of weak U.S. economic data. That's propelled gold higher, as well as bonds. In fact, bonds are the asset class that's attracted the most capital this month. As can be seen from the table below, generated using the ETF.com fund flows tool , a number of bond ETFs made the top 10 inflows list: Source: ETF.com Fund Flows Tool The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF | A-51) was a big winner, with nearly $1 billion in inflows. To the extent that the Fed's overnight interest rate stays lower for longer, that puts pressure on the longer end of the yield curve as well (supporting bond prices). Even more popular than IEF were corporate bond ETFs like the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK | B-68) and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77) . In addition to support from low interest rates, corporate bonds benefited from speculation that defaults may not be as high as feared. That's particularly true for the junk bond space, which was hammered in August and September, sending yields to their loftiest level since 2011. Investors may be seeing those yields as attractive now that the stock market has stabilized and the Fed looks to be on hold. In addition to the bond ETFs, other funds that saw notable inflows were the tech-heavy PowerShares QQQ (QQQ | A-66) and the large-cap iShares Russell 1000 Value (IWD | A-90) . In terms of sectors, investors liked the Industrial Select SPDR (XLI | A-92) and the Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR (XLY | A-91) . Contact Sumit Roy at [email protected] . Recommended Stories Gundlach: Sell Junk Bonds, Buy India Bitcoin Rally Benefiting ETFs NatGas Investing Not For Faint Of Heart October Treat: Junk Bonds & Gold ETFs Pop Twitter Chatter Packed In New Index Permalink | © Copyright 2015 ETF.com. All rights reserved
[Social Media Buzz]
One Bitcoin now worth $276.00@bitstamp. High $280.19. Low $273.00. Market Cap $4.072 Billion #bitcoin || 1 #bitcoin = $4675.00 MXN | $284.68 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 16.42MXN http://www.bitapeso.com || LIVE: Profit = $1,136.62 (1.24 %). BUY B334.00 @ $273.18 (#BTCe). SELL @ $277.37 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges:
Cryptsy: 0.00000003
Bittrex: 0.00000003
Average $8.0E-6 per #reddcoin
00:15:00 || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$277.22/$277.45 #Bitst...
|
281.65, 283.68, 285.30, 293.79, 304.62, 313.86, 328.02, 314.17, 325.43, 361.19
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 380.29, 379.47, 378.26, 368.77, 373.06, 374.45, 369.95, 389.59, 386.55, 376.52, 376.62, 373.45, 376.03, 381.65, 379.65, 384.26, 391.86, 407.23, 400.18, 407.49, 416.32, 422.37, 420.79, 437.16, 438.80, 437.75, 420.74, 424.95, 424.54, 432.15, 432.52, 433.50, 437.70, 435.12, 423.99, 421.65, 410.94, 400.57, 407.71, 414.32, 413.97, 414.86, 417.13, 421.69, 411.62, 414.07, 416.44, 416.83, 417.01, 420.62, 409.55, 410.44, 413.76, 413.31, 418.09, 418.04, 416.39, 417.18, 417.95, 426.77, 424.23, 416.52, 414.82, 416.73, 417.96, 420.87, 420.90, 421.44, 424.03, 423.41, 422.74, 420.35, 419.41, 421.56, 422.48, 425.19, 423.73, 424.28, 429.71, 430.57, 427.40, 428.59, 435.51, 441.39, 449.42, 445.74, 450.28, 458.55, 461.43, 466.09.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-04-26]
Volume: 78971904, RSI (14-day): 80.99, 50-day EMA: 428.33, 200-day EMA: 387.59
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1242.20, Gold RSI: 51.95
Oil Price: 44.04, Oil RSI: 65.15
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
What Awaits Overstock.com (OSTK) this Earnings Season?: Overstock.com Inc.OSTK is expected to report first quarter 2016 results on Apr 25. It is an online retailer that sells brand-name merchandise at deep discounts. Its offerings include bed-and-bath goods, kitchenware, watches, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods and designer accessories.
Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.
Factors at Play
Overstock has been engaged in legal battles with several brokerage firms over issues of stock price manipulation, most recently with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch eventually settled by paying $20 million to Overstock.com and its co-plaintiffs. The Goldman Sachs case was dismissed by the court.
Overstocks’ continuous efforts to reduce illegal stock manipulation and reform capital markets is likely to boost its share price and results in the to-be-reported quarter.
Overstock has been a Bitcoin supporter for two years and has successfully leveraged the blockchain technology.
Bitcoin is a digital currency platform with no central regulating authority involved in the transactions. It is also called crypto currency because it utilizes military-grade cryptography to protect users against fraud. Bitcoin and other cryptocurencies operate on blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger.
The t0.com blockchain technology allows investors and buyers to track their purchases and ownership of crypto securities, ensuring complete transparency. Moreover, it facilitates same-day settlement of securities.
However, the company has not yet achieved the expected level of synergy between blockchain and cryptocurrency and may separate them in the near future.
Stocks to Consider
Here are some companies that can be considered as our model shows that they have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Equifax Inc. EFX with an Earnings ESP of +1.74% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
SkyWest Inc. SKYW has an Earnings ESP of +16.00% and a Zacks Rank #2.
Fidelity National Information Services, Inc.FIS with an Earnings ESP of +2.70% and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportSKYWEST INC (SKYW): Free Stock Analysis ReportEQUIFAX INC (EFX): Free Stock Analysis ReportFIDELITY NAT IN (FIS): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || What Awaits Overstock.com (OSTK) this Earnings Season?: Overstock.com Inc. OSTK is expected to report first quarter 2016 results on Apr 25. It is an online retailer that sells brand-name merchandise at deep discounts. Its offerings include bed-and-bath goods, kitchenware, watches, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods and designer accessories. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement. Factors at Play Overstock has been engaged in legal battles with several brokerage firms over issues of stock price manipulation, most recently with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch eventually settled by paying $20 million to Overstock.com and its co-plaintiffs. The Goldman Sachs case was dismissed by the court. Overstocks’ continuous efforts to reduce illegal stock manipulation and reform capital markets is likely to boost its share price and results in the to-be-reported quarter. Overstock has been a Bitcoin supporter for two years and has successfully leveraged the blockchain technology. Bitcoin is a digital currency platform with no central regulating authority involved in the transactions. It is also called crypto currency because it utilizes military-grade cryptography to protect users against fraud. Bitcoin and other cryptocurencies operate on blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger. The t0.com blockchain technology allows investors and buyers to track their purchases and ownership of crypto securities, ensuring complete transparency. Moreover, it facilitates same-day settlement of securities. However, the company has not yet achieved the expected level of synergy between blockchain and cryptocurrency and may separate them in the near future. Stocks to Consider Here are some companies that can be considered as our model shows that they have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank to post an earnings beat this quarter: Equifax Inc. EFX with an Earnings ESP of +1.74% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Story continues SkyWest Inc. SKYW has an Earnings ESP of +16.00% and a Zacks Rank #2. Fidelity National Information Services, Inc.FIS with an Earnings ESP of +2.70% and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SKYWEST INC (SKYW): Free Stock Analysis Report EQUIFAX INC (EFX): Free Stock Analysis Report FIDELITY NAT IN (FIS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Earningspalooza: 6 trades to make right now: Several companies reported disappointing earnings after the bell Thursday. The "Fast Money" traders debated the names they would buy or sell on the news. Trader Brian Kelly said that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) , which posted a miss on same-store sales, isn't exactly his favorite name, but he has a lot of respect for its CEO. "I would never, ever, ever bet against Howard Schultz . The guy's amazing. Look at what he's done with the company," Kelly said. "But what I would bet against in this space, based on this news, is Dunkin' Brands (NASDAQ: DNKN) , because it seems to me if you can translate that weak economy to the other places, Dunkin' Brands hasn't executed," Kelly said. Guy Adami also isn't convinced on Starbucks, though he said it's been a good stock to buy on dips. "Yes, the comps are concerning, but again on every pullback, the stock's been a buying opportunity. My sense is that this one is as well," he said. Another stock that did not perform well after hours Thursday was Visa (NYSE: V) , after the company amended the terms of its deal so that it would be required to pay, roughly, an additional $1.98 billion. Adami noted Visa is trading at close to 26 times forward earnings, which makes it expensive enough that anything less than stellar reports "get the stock whacked." While many of these stocks rallied ahead of earnings, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is dipping before it reports April 28. Adami thinks it's time to take money off the table with the online retail giant. Trader Karen Finerman agreed and thinks that in general the FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google), will also begin to show signs of weakness the way Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) -owner Alphabet did on Thursday. Disclosures: Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Karen Finerman Karen is long BAC, C, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY puts, URI. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, BOKF, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Story continues Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar, UUP; he is short Aussie Dollar, BLK, CS, DB, Euro, EWA, EWH, FRC, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, Yuan, 5-Year Note Futures Dan Nathan Dan is long XLF may/ sept put spread. Dan is long AAPL April Put Fly, long PFE, long TWTR, long GE May 28 puts, long JPM April puts, long INTC April puts , long QCOM April put spreads, long HYG June puts, long IWM May and September puts, long XHB June put spread, long XLE April/June put spread. QCOM long May put spread. FXI Long Aug Puts, SMH Long Aug puts More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Earningspalooza: 6 trades to make right now: Several companies reported disappointing earnings after the bell Thursday. The "Fast Money" traders debated the names they would buy or sell on the news.
Trader Brian Kelly said that Starbucks(NASDAQ: SBUX), which posted a miss on same-store sales, isn't exactly his favorite name, but he has a lot of respect for its CEO.
"I would never, ever, ever bet againstHoward Schultz. The guy's amazing. Look at what he's done with the company," Kelly said.
"But what I would bet against in this space, based on this news, is Dunkin' Brands(NASDAQ: DNKN), because it seems to me if you can translate that weak economy to the other places, Dunkin' Brands hasn't executed," Kelly said.
Guy Adami also isn't convinced on Starbucks, though he said it's been a good stock to buy on dips.
"Yes, the comps are concerning, but again on every pullback, the stock's been a buying opportunity. My sense is that this one is as well," he said.
Another stock that did not perform well after hours Thursday was Visa(NYSE: V), after the company amended the terms of its deal so that it would be required to pay, roughly, an additional $1.98 billion.
Adami noted Visa is trading at close to 26 times forward earnings, which makes it expensive enough that anything less than stellar reports "get the stock whacked."
While many of these stocks rallied ahead of earnings, Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN)is dipping before it reports April 28. Adami thinks it's time to take money off the table with the online retail giant. Trader Karen Finerman agreed and thinks that in general the FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google), will also begin to show signs of weakness the way Google(NASDAQ: GOOGL)-owner Alphabet did on Thursday.
Disclosures:
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BAC, C, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY puts, URI. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, BOKF, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar, UUP; he is short Aussie Dollar, BLK, CS, DB, Euro, EWA, EWH, FRC, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, Yuan, 5-Year Note Futures
Dan Nathan
Dan is long XLF may/ sept put spread. Dan is long AAPL April Put Fly, long PFE, long TWTR, long GE May 28 puts, long JPM April puts, long INTC April puts , long QCOM April put spreads, long HYG June puts, long IWM May and September puts, long XHB June put spread, long XLE April/June put spread. QCOM long May put spread. FXI Long Aug Puts, SMH Long Aug puts
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• Top News and Analysis
• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || Murray Stahl Talks Investments Made Through FRMO: - By Bram de Haas Guru Murray Stahl ( Trades , Portfolio ) is the CEO and chairman of FRMO Corp. (FRMO). Together with CFO Steven Bregman, they report on the investments made through FRMO on a quarterly basis. There is no transcript available yet for the most recent call, but you can listen to the archived call. Warning! GuruFocus has detected — Warning Sign with WMT. Click here to check it out. FRMO –5-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of FRMO Peter Lynch Chart of FRMO The call can be a little bit chaotic if you are a new shareholder, but they are absolutely worth listening too. Stahl and Bregman are full of valuable insights into the markets and readily share wisdom related to their unconventional approach to value investing. Balance sheet The call starts out with them commenting on the balance sheet. Equity went down by a meaningful amount and the duo got several questions from shareholders about why it went down and whether the decline would be permanent. A meaningful part of the reduction in book value is due to current assets decreasing by $–– million. A deferred tax liability was decreased and the securities sold, not yet purchased program was expanded a little bit. This is a post where they account for short positions in path dependent ETFs. The way I understand it, they had to take their gains in these positions, which triggered a tax. Afterward they initiated the positions again with a new cost basis. The HK multistrategy fund declined in value. Over the calendar year, the fund didn’t do so bad (-–—%), but throughout the reporting period the fund went down by —5%. There were also some redemptions, although they were quick to point out March had been a very good month. Digital Currency Group Stahl talked a little bit about a new investment in the Digital Currency Group. DCG is a corporation devoted to crypto currencies. Stahl expects cryptocurrencies will become a legitimate asset class. DCG owns various venture investments in technologies involved with digital currencies. They own equity in Coinbase (an exchange), Ripple (utilizes blockchain for cross-border transactions) and Grayscale (a money manager of crypto currencies). Governments around the world historically had the tendency to inflate asset prices or currency. Little by little you are purchasing power, a constant threat in history. Being on a metallic standard has historically also caused inflation.� Story continues The blockchain is a ledger and the coins can’t be counterfeited. If more transactions are done in a currency it raises its value. If Bitcoin were to become the new gold (Stahl doesn’t necessarily agree, but raises it as a possibility suggested by others), Bitcoin would appreciate by –………x in value. If it were to become currency for the world, you would make —…………x your money. Even though it is a very small investment, Stahl views it as a really important strategic investment. It's possible the stake would be expanded. Market outlook If oil went to $45 by end of the year, CPI would go to —.‘% and the Fed would have its hand forced and would need to raise rates. This would cause problems in the market. You have to diversify away from stocks. Over the last ‘5 years, interest rates came down and stocks were successful. FRMO is now operating on the premise that two guys picking stocks isn’t going to cut it going forward. The firm keeps a lot of cash on the balance sheet and views it as optionality. When the next crash (Stahl doesn’t actually use the word crash) comes, the firm will profit by having lots of liquidity. One of the reasons they like small exchanges so much is that the optionality embedded in them is huge. If big mergers go through like the one between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Borsche, these players raise prices and clients are angry and want to move business. Meanwhile there are few licensed exchanges and the small ones are suddenly very well positioned. ETFs Stahl views it as very dangerous to be invested in big dominating companies. Big liquid companies pay out a little bit of dividend and throw the rest at buybacks. These companies have defined benefit pension plans, but the stock has to rise or the company has to put extra money into these plans. This means that when the flows into large cap liquid companies is starting to slow, the effect can be dramatic. Big liquid stocks make up huge allocations in focused ETFs. What’s wrong with that? You take a lot of individual security risk by buying this ETF. At some point an event will make that apparent to lots of people invested in these type of securities. Something else he doesn’t like is the typical dividend ETF. Earnings of the constituents of these products are ever so slightly declining. They have record margins right now, and can’t go up or down by much. These companies are currently saving a lot on the commodity side and not passing this on to the consumer. The risks in ETF land are exacerbated because ETF providers aren’t making money and can’t make a lot of money on these products because the fees are too low. This structure of the industry leads to only a few companies being a major part of all ETFs. An index was supposed to take out risk, and now you are taking on risk by buying into them. Everyone owns the same companies.� Indexation is not in the early innings, it’s in the late innings. It will possibly go into extra innings. This article first appeared on GuruFocus . Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with WMT. Click here to check it out. FRMO 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of FRMO Peter Lynch Chart of FRMO || Murray Stahl Talks Investments Made Through FRMO: - By Bram de Haas
GuruMurray Stahl(Trades,Portfolio) is the CEO and chairman of FRMO Corp. (FRMO). Together with CFO Steven Bregman, they report on the investments made through FRMO on a quarterly basis. There is no transcript available yet for the most recent call, but you can listen to the archived call.
• Warning! GuruFocus has detected — Warning Sign with WMT. Click here to check it out.
• FRMO –5-Year Financial Data
• The intrinsic value of FRMO
• Peter Lynch Chart of FRMO
The call can be a little bit chaotic if you are a new shareholder, but they are absolutely worth listening too. Stahl and Bregman are full of valuable insights into the markets and readily share wisdom related to their unconventional approach to value investing.
Balance sheet
The call starts out with them commenting on the balance sheet. Equity went down by a meaningful amount and the duo got several questions from shareholders about why it went down and whether the decline would be permanent. A meaningful part of the reduction in book value is due to current assets decreasing by $–– million. A deferred tax liability was decreased and the securities sold, not yet purchased program was expanded a little bit. This is a post where they account for short positions in path dependent ETFs. The way I understand it, they had to take their gains in these positions, which triggered a tax. Afterward they initiated the positions again with a new cost basis.
The HK multistrategy fund declined in value. Over the calendar year, the fund didn’t do so bad (-–—%), but throughout the reporting period the fund went down by —5%. There were also some redemptions, although they were quick to point out March had been a very good month.
Digital Currency Group
Stahl talked a little bit about a new investment in the Digital Currency Group. DCG is a corporation devoted to crypto currencies. Stahl expects cryptocurrencies will become a legitimate asset class. DCG owns various venture investments in technologies involved with digital currencies. They own equity in Coinbase (an exchange), Ripple (utilizes blockchain for cross-border transactions) and Grayscale (a money manager of crypto currencies). Governments around the world historically had the tendency to inflate asset prices or currency. Little by little you are purchasing power, a constant threat in history. Being on a metallic standard has historically also caused inflation.�
The blockchain is a ledger and the coins can’t be counterfeited. If more transactions are done in a currency it raises its value.
If Bitcoin were to become the new gold (Stahl doesn’t necessarily agree, but raises it as a possibility suggested by others), Bitcoin would appreciate by –………x in value.
If it were to become currency for the world, you would make —…………x your money.
Even though it is a very small investment, Stahl views it as a really important strategic investment. It's possible the stake would be expanded.
Market outlook
If oil went to $45 by end of the year, CPI would go to —.‘% and the Fed would have its hand forced and would need to raise rates. This would cause problems in the market.
You have to diversify away from stocks. Over the last ‘5 years, interest rates came down and stocks were successful. FRMO is now operating on the premise that two guys picking stocks isn’t going to cut it going forward.
The firm keeps a lot of cash on the balance sheet and views it as optionality. When the next crash (Stahl doesn’t actually use the word crash) comes, the firm will profit by having lots of liquidity.
One of the reasons they like small exchanges so much is that the optionality embedded in them is huge. If big mergers go through like the one between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Borsche, these players raise prices and clients are angry and want to move business. Meanwhile there are few licensed exchanges and the small ones are suddenly very well positioned.
ETFs
Stahl views it as very dangerous to be invested in big dominating companies. Big liquid companies pay out a little bit of dividend and throw the rest at buybacks. These companies have defined benefit pension plans, but the stock has to rise or the company has to put extra money into these plans. This means that when the flows into large cap liquid companies is starting to slow, the effect can be dramatic. Big liquid stocks make up huge allocations in focused ETFs. What’s wrong with that? You take a lot of individual security risk by buying this ETF. At some point an event will make that apparent to lots of people invested in these type of securities.
Something else he doesn’t like is the typical dividend ETF. Earnings of the constituents of these products are ever so slightly declining. They have record margins right now, and can’t go up or down by much. These companies are currently saving a lot on the commodity side and not passing this on to the consumer.
The risks in ETF land are exacerbated because ETF providers aren’t making money and can’t make a lot of money on these products because the fees are too low. This structure of the industry leads to only a few companies being a major part of all ETFs.
An index was supposed to take out risk, and now you are taking on risk by buying into them. Everyone owns the same companies.�
Indexation is not in the early innings, it’s in the late innings. It will possibly go into extra innings.
This article first appeared onGuruFocus.
• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with WMT. Click here to check it out.
• FRMO 15-Year Financial Data
• The intrinsic value of FRMO
• Peter Lynch Chart of FRMO || Rocky Mountain Ayre Launches HempCoin: DOVER, DE--(Marketwired - Apr 21, 2016) - Rocky Mountain Ayre, Inc., a holding company ( OTC PINK : RMTN ), is pleased to announce that it has officially launched HempCoin, its Crypto-Currency, on two Crypto-Currency exchanges. President of RMTN, Tim Ayre, says, "We are extremely pleased to have started trading on two very well-known exchanges and we expect to trade on several more in the near future." The two exchanges trading HempCoins are C-Cex and Yobit . In addition, Ayre says, "We have completely remade our website, www.hempcoin.com . The website offers plenty of information for users looking to purchase or mine the coins. We wanted it to be sophisticated in scope yet still be user friendly and I believe we have succeeded there." Every 10 HempCoins are backed by 1 share of RMTN. About HempCoin HempCoin (HMP) runs on its own peer to peer blockchain like BitCoin (BTC) but at a faster rate because it is using the script technique like LiteCoin. So in addition to having the advantage of being able to move HMP around faster than BTC, HMP is backed by the marketable securities of RMTN. BTC is strictly a fiat currency like the US Dollar, however, BTC has the potential to go up in value against the Dollar because of supply and demand factors and HMP has this same built in advantage because unlike the Dollar, both BTC and HMP have a limited amount of coins in circulation, while the Dollar is ever increasing in supply. About Rocky Mountain Ayre, Inc. Rocky Mountain Ayre is a publicly traded company listed on the OTC markets under the "RMTN" trading symbol. It is a holding company increasing its asset and revenue base through acquisition and/or creation of operating entities. The Company currently has two entities in its portfolio and is focusing its efforts on its Crypto-Currency, HempCoin, at this time. Safe Harbor Statement This Press Release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "potential" and similar expressions. These statements reflect the Company's current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or advise in the event of any change, addition or alteration to the information catered in this Press Release including such forward-looking statements. || Rocky Mountain Ayre Launches HempCoin: DOVER, DE--(Marketwired - Apr 21, 2016) - Rocky Mountain Ayre, Inc., a holding company (OTC PINK:RMTN), is pleased to announce that it has officially launched HempCoin, its Crypto-Currency, on two Crypto-Currency exchanges. President of RMTN, Tim Ayre, says, "We are extremely pleased to have started trading on two very well-known exchanges and we expect to trade on several more in the near future." The two exchanges trading HempCoins areC-CexandYobit. In addition, Ayre says, "We have completely remade our website,www.hempcoin.com. The website offers plenty of information for users looking to purchase or mine the coins. We wanted it to be sophisticated in scope yet still be user friendly and I believe we have succeeded there." Every 10 HempCoins are backed by 1 share of RMTN.
About HempCoin
HempCoin (HMP) runs on its own peer to peer blockchain like BitCoin (BTC) but at a faster rate because it is using the script technique like LiteCoin. So in addition to having the advantage of being able to move HMP around faster than BTC, HMP is backed by the marketable securities of RMTN. BTC is strictly a fiat currency like the US Dollar, however, BTC has the potential to go up in value against the Dollar because of supply and demand factors and HMP has this same built in advantage because unlike the Dollar, both BTC and HMP have a limited amount of coins in circulation, while the Dollar is ever increasing in supply.
About Rocky Mountain Ayre, Inc.
Rocky Mountain Ayre is a publicly traded company listed on the OTC markets under the "RMTN" trading symbol. It is a holding company increasing its asset and revenue base through acquisition and/or creation of operating entities. The Company currently has two entities in its portfolio and is focusing its efforts on its Crypto-Currency, HempCoin, at this time.
Safe Harbor Statement
This Press Release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "potential" and similar expressions. These statements reflect the Company's current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or advise in the event of any change, addition or alteration to the information catered in this Press Release including such forward-looking statements. || What to Watch in the Day Ahead - Thursday, April 21: (The Day Ahead is an email and PDF publication that includes the day's major stories and events, analyses and other features. To receive The Day Ahead, Eikon users can register at . Thomson One users can register at RT/DAY/US. All times in ET/GMT) Alphabet Inc is expected to report a rise in first-quarter revenue that is likely to beat analysts average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. Investors will be looking for continued growth at Alphabet's Google unit, which has been driven by strong mobile advertising sales. Investors will also be keen to gather more information on the company's Other Bets business, which includes glucose-monitoring contact lenses and Internet balloons. Capital expenditures in the business are expected to increase this year, although no concrete details have been offered. Microsoft Corp is expected to post an increase in third-quarter revenue, which will also beat analysts consensus estimates, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. The company is expected to benefit from growing demand for its cloud products and services. Though Chief Executive Satya Nadella has focused on cloud services and mobile applications, to offset slower growth in its traditional software business, the company is still heavily reliant on PCs. Research firm IDC expects Microsoft's Windows business, which has 270 million active users eight months after launching, will improve later this year as companies that had delayed replacing machines before upgrading to Windows 10 make the switch. Analysts and investors will be looking whether the company has been able to sustain growth in its cloud business, and any impact from a stronger dollar. Visa Inc is expected to report a decline in first-quarter profit as a volatile global economy and the strong dollar cut into revenue from customers outside the United States. Consumers in some slowing economies around the world have been reining in spending. Some analysts say, however, that payment volumes are still likely to grow at Visa due to strong consumer spending in the United States. Story continues Schlumberger Ltd is expected to report a fall in first-quarter profit, hurt by weak drilling activity. The world's largest oilfield services provider, which recently closed its acquisition of Cameron International Corp, warned last month that its revenue would fall by about 15 percent from the fourth quarter. Verizon Communications Inc is expected to report first-quarter profit and revenue in line with analysts average expectations. The No.1 U.S. wireless phone service provider has benefited from heavy promotions as it counters rivals such as AT&T in a crowded U.S. wireless market. The focus will be on commentary around a possible bid for faded Internet pioneer Yahoo's core assets as well as any updates to financial guidance for the remainder of 2016. New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits likely rose last week, but remained well below a level associated with a buoyant labor market. Last week's claims covered the survey period for April nonfarm payrolls and will be dissected to see if there was any impact from the Verizon strike. While striking workers do not qualify for unemployment benefits, some have filed applications in the past. According to a Reuters survey of economists, initial claims for jobless benefits probably rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 263,000 for the week ending April 16. That would leave claims slightly above the March payrolls survey week. (0830/1230) Separately, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve business survey is expected to show manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region expanded in April for a second month. (0830/1230) Starbucks Corp will release its results for the second-quarter. Starbucks has the high-class problem of having to meet investors' outsized expectation that it will continue reporting industry-leading sales growth. Any stumble, real or perceived, will likely be punished. General Motors Co will announce first-quarter results. The company said on Friday it was recalling nearly 1.04 million newer pickup trucks for a seat belt flaw. The company said the recall in the United States includes 895,232 vehicles and a stop-sale of about 3,000 new 2014 and 2015 model year pickups still on dealer lots. The recall includes about 142,000 vehicles outside the United States. Union Pacific Corp and Norfolk Southern Corp, the No.1 and No.4 U.S. railroad operators, will post first-quarter results. With coal freight volumes still in freefall across the industry thanks to low natural gas prices and the strong dollar, analysts will be watching to see how the railroads are managing costs through furloughs, back office layoffs and mothballing locomotives. Biogen Inc is expected to report a largely in-line first-quarter as prescriptions written for its multiple sclerosis drug remain unchanged in the United States. Management previously noted that the uptick in scripts may not be seen until the second quarter. Investors will also look for more details on the Massachusetts-based drugmaker's hemophilia assets, which the company is said to be looking to sell. Travelers Companies Inc, the first big U.S. insurer to report quarterly results, is expected to report a decline in first-quarter profit due to weak underwriting gains and lower returns from its energy investments. Travelers, which competes with AIG for the title of biggest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurer, has felt a sting in recent quarters from a steep fall in oil prices as they drag on energy investments made through private equity funds. BB&T Corp, Fifth Third Bancorp and KeyCorp are likely to report a decline in first-quarter profit as they put aside more money for sour energy loans. Many lenders have ramped up reserves in recent months, concerned by the increasing number of energy companies that have gone bankrupt and defaulted on loans as oil prices stay stubbornly low. U.S. homebuilders including D.R. Horton Inc and PulteGroup Inc report their quarterly results. D.R. Horton and PulteGroup are expected to report a higher profit for the second and first quarter, respectively, helped by higher home sales. Johnson Controls Inc reports second-quarter earnings amid a pending merger with Ireland-based Tyco International Plc. The merger would save Johnson Controls $150 million a year in taxes. Sportswear maker Under Armour Inc is expected to report first-quarter profit below analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. Under Armour's gross margin in the quarter is expected to have been hit by higher promotions to clear excess inventory and slowing apparel sales growth, the company's largest source of revenue. A fall in the average price of its running footwear and a shift in sales mix towards lower-margin footwear are also expected to hurt margins. Investors will look for an update to the forecast, inventories, and comments on the Sports Authority bankruptcy. Advanced Micro Devices Inc is expected to post first-quarter revenue below analysts average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. Investors will be looking for an update on its Polaris graphic processing units, which it plans to ship in the middle of this year. Mexican cement company Cemex SAB de CV reports first-quarter results. Investors will be looking at the impact of the peso depreciation on the company's debt load as well as any recovery in its U.S. business. European Central Bank (ECB) holds interest rate decision. Economists say lackluster demand, not inadequate credit, is holding the euro zone economy back. They say the ECB is unlikely to cut its deposit rate further from the current -0.40 percent. That too underscores the diminishing returns from monetary policy, especially since the ECB is well over a year into its trillion-plus euro stimulus program, has cut rates several times and pledged longterm loans to banks, with little pick-up in inflation so far. The U.S. government and Volkswagen AG face a court deadline to come up with a plan to address excess emissions from 580,000 diesel vehicles sold in the country. Despite robust talks, EPA officials have expressed skepticism if the sides would agree to a deal by the deadline set forth by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. A judge will read out the verdict in the bribery trial of Canadian Senator Mike Duffy, whose high-profile case helped reduce the popularity of former prime minister Stephen Harper and contributed to his defeat in an October 2015 election. The Liberals of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the case as an example of how they said the Conservatives had been corrupted during their near-decade run in office. Duffy was tried on 31 criminal charges related to activities after Harper appointed him to the Senate, the upper chamber of Parliament. LIVECHAT - BITCOIN'S FUTURE with Anatoliy Knyazev, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Exante brokerage company We talk about the outlook for Bitcoin and its potential role in combating money laundering and financial crime with Anatoliy Knyazev, executive director and co-founder of Exante, a next generation brokerage company that aims to give its clients access to a broad range of financial instruments and markets. (0503/0903) To join the discussion, click here http://bit.ly/1kTxdKD (Compiled by Sourav Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza) || What to Watch in the Day Ahead - Thursday, April 21: (The Day Ahead is an email and PDF publication that includes the day's major stories and events, analyses and other features. To receive The Day Ahead, Eikon users can register at . Thomson One users can register at RT/DAY/US. All times in ET/GMT) Alphabet Inc is expected to report a rise in first-quarter revenue that is likely to beat analysts average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. Investors will be looking for continued growth at Alphabet's Google unit, which has been driven by strong mobile advertising sales. Investors will also be keen to gather more information on the company's Other Bets business, which includes glucose-monitoring contact lenses and Internet balloons. Capital expenditures in the business are expected to increase this year, although no concrete details have been offered.
Microsoft Corp is expected to post an increase in third-quarter revenue, which will also beat analysts consensus estimates, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. The company is expected to benefit from growing demand for its cloud products and services. Though Chief Executive Satya Nadella has focused on cloud services and mobile applications, to offset slower growth in its traditional software business, the company is still heavily reliant on PCs. Research firm IDC expects Microsoft's Windows business, which has 270 million active users eight months after launching, will improve later this year as companies that had delayed replacing machines before upgrading to Windows 10 make the switch. Analysts and investors will be looking whether the company has been able to sustain growth in its cloud business, and any impact from a stronger dollar.
Visa Inc is expected to report a decline in first-quarter profit as a volatile global economy and the strong dollar cut into revenue from customers outside the United States. Consumers in some slowing economies around the world have been reining in spending. Some analysts say, however, that payment volumes are still likely to grow at Visa due to strong consumer spending in the United States.
Schlumberger Ltd is expected to report a fall in first-quarter profit, hurt by weak drilling activity. The world's largest oilfield services provider, which recently closed its acquisition of Cameron International Corp, warned last month that its revenue would fall by about 15 percent from the fourth quarter.
Verizon Communications Inc is expected to report first-quarter profit and revenue in line with analysts average expectations. The No.1 U.S. wireless phone service provider has benefited from heavy promotions as it counters rivals such as AT&T in a crowded U.S. wireless market. The focus will be on commentary around a possible bid for faded Internet pioneer Yahoo's core assets as well as any updates to financial guidance for the remainder of 2016.
New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits likely rose last week, but remained well below a level associated with a buoyant labor market. Last week's claims covered the survey period for April nonfarm payrolls and will be dissected to see if there was any impact from the Verizon strike. While striking workers do not qualify for unemployment benefits, some have filed applications in the past. According to a Reuters survey of economists, initial claims for jobless benefits probably rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 263,000 for the week ending April 16. That would leave claims slightly above the March payrolls survey week. (0830/1230) Separately, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve business survey is expected to show manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region expanded in April for a second month. (0830/1230) Starbucks Corp will release its results for the second-quarter. Starbucks has the high-class problem of having to meet investors' outsized expectation that it will continue reporting industry-leading sales growth. Any stumble, real or perceived, will likely be punished.
General Motors Co will announce first-quarter results. The company said on Friday it was recalling nearly 1.04 million newer pickup trucks for a seat belt flaw. The company said the recall in the United States includes 895,232 vehicles and a stop-sale of about 3,000 new 2014 and 2015 model year pickups still on dealer lots. The recall includes about 142,000 vehicles outside the United States.
Union Pacific Corp and Norfolk Southern Corp, the No.1 and No.4 U.S. railroad operators, will post first-quarter results. With coal freight volumes still in freefall across the industry thanks to low natural gas prices and the strong dollar, analysts will be watching to see how the railroads are managing costs through furloughs, back office layoffs and mothballing locomotives.
Biogen Inc is expected to report a largely in-line first-quarter as prescriptions written for its multiple sclerosis drug remain unchanged in the United States. Management previously noted that the uptick in scripts may not be seen until the second quarter. Investors will also look for more details on the Massachusetts-based drugmaker's hemophilia assets, which the company is said to be looking to sell.
Travelers Companies Inc, the first big U.S. insurer to report quarterly results, is expected to report a decline in first-quarter profit due to weak underwriting gains and lower returns from its energy investments. Travelers, which competes with AIG for the title of biggest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurer, has felt a sting in recent quarters from a steep fall in oil prices as they drag on energy investments made through private equity funds.
BB&T Corp, Fifth Third Bancorp and KeyCorp are likely to report a decline in first-quarter profit as they put aside more money for sour energy loans. Many lenders have ramped up reserves in recent months, concerned by the increasing number of energy companies that have gone bankrupt and defaulted on loans as oil prices stay stubbornly low.
U.S. homebuilders including D.R. Horton Inc and PulteGroup Inc report their quarterly results. D.R. Horton and PulteGroup are expected to report a higher profit for the second and first quarter, respectively, helped by higher home sales.
Johnson Controls Inc reports second-quarter earnings amid a pending merger with Ireland-based Tyco International Plc. The merger would save Johnson Controls $150 million a year in taxes.
Sportswear maker Under Armour Inc is expected to report first-quarter profit below analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. Under Armour's gross margin in the quarter is expected to have been hit by higher promotions to clear excess inventory and slowing apparel sales growth, the company's largest source of revenue. A fall in the average price of its running footwear and a shift in sales mix towards lower-margin footwear are also expected to hurt margins. Investors will look for an update to the forecast, inventories, and comments on the Sports Authority bankruptcy.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc is expected to post first-quarter revenue below analysts average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. Investors will be looking for an update on its Polaris graphic processing units, which it plans to ship in the middle of this year.
Mexican cement company Cemex SAB de CV reports first-quarter results. Investors will be looking at the impact of the peso depreciation on the company's debt load as well as any recovery in its U.S. business.
European Central Bank (ECB) holds interest rate decision. Economists say lackluster demand, not inadequate credit, is holding the euro zone economy back. They say the ECB is unlikely to cut its deposit rate further from the current -0.40 percent. That too underscores the diminishing returns from monetary policy, especially since the ECB is well over a year into its trillion-plus euro stimulus program, has cut rates several times and pledged longterm loans to banks, with little pick-up in inflation so far.
The U.S. government and Volkswagen AG face a court deadline to come up with a plan to address excess emissions from 580,000 diesel vehicles sold in the country. Despite robust talks, EPA officials have expressed skepticism if the sides would agree to a deal by the deadline set forth by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer.
A judge will read out the verdict in the bribery trial of Canadian Senator Mike Duffy, whose high-profile case helped reduce the popularity of former prime minister Stephen Harper and contributed to his defeat in an October 2015 election. The Liberals of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the case as an example of how they said the Conservatives had been corrupted during their near-decade run in office. Duffy was tried on 31 criminal charges related to activities after Harper appointed him to the Senate, the upper chamber of Parliament.
LIVECHAT - BITCOIN'S FUTURE with Anatoliy Knyazev, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Exante brokerage company We talk about the outlook for Bitcoin and its potential role in combating money laundering and financial crime with Anatoliy Knyazev, executive director and co-founder of Exante, a next generation brokerage company that aims to give its clients access to a broad range of financial instruments and markets. (0503/0903) To join the discussion, click herehttp://bit.ly/1kTxdKD(Compiled by Sourav Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza) || Benton Capital Acquires Lithium and Graphite Projects and Changes Name of Company: THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Apr 20, 2016) - Benton Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BTC) ("Benton" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors have unanimously agreed to refocus the Company's efforts toward a 100% green-energy exploration and development company. The main focus will be the acquisition and development of high quality Lithium and Graphite projects which the Company considers to be the necessary metals of the future as demand and growth continues worldwide driven by green technology. This includes lithium ion batteries used in electric cars, smart phones, tablets, and home and industrial power storage along with many other applications. Companies such as Tesla launched their home storage lithium-based Powerwall battery system which sold out in August 2015 and Tesla has said it will aim to source raw materials locally in North America where responsible mining laws are in effect which will reduce the environmental footprint.
Pursuant to this new direction and subject to regulatory approval, Benton will subsequently change its name to Alset Energy Corp. and in is the process of applying for a new trading symbol.
Given the Company's new focus it would also like to announce that it has acquired by staking a 100% interest in the Wisa Lake Lithium deposit located 80km east of Fort Frances, Ontario. The property is connected to Highway 11 (Trans Canada) located 65 kilometres north via an all weather paved road that crosses the centre of the project. The property is comprised of 2 claims totaling 30 units and covers the Wisa Lake deposit that is host to a historical resource of 330,000 tonnes grading 1.15% Li2O (Lexindin Gold Mines Ltd., Manager's Report, 1958; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 6285, Report of Activities 2012). In 1956 Lexindin completed a total of 20 drill holes (packsack and AQ-sized core) over a strike length of 335m and to a depth of approximately 65m to outline the Wisa Lake lithium mineralization. The diamond drill log of the most easterly hole intersected 6.4m containing 20% of the lithium-bearing mineral spodumene suggesting the mineralization is open at depth and to the east. It should be noted that the historical resource estimate for the deposit was calculated prior to CIM National Instrument 43-101 guidelines and as such should only be considered from a historical point of view and not relied upon. A qualified person has not completed sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources. Further diamond drill programs are required to bring the mineralization into a proper NI 43-101 compliant category.
The Company has also agreed to acquire a 100% interest in the Champion Graphite project from Benton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BEX) (a company related by common directorships) for a payment of 1 million shares to Benton Resources Inc. and subject to a 2% NSR. Benton Capital will have the option to buy back 1% of the NSR for $500,000. The Champion Graphite project represents a non-core asset of Benton Resources Inc. and the related party directors of each of the respective companies abstained from voting to approve the acquisition. The retained NSR provides Benton Resources Inc. with the opportunity to participate in any future success of the project. The Champion Graphite project is located north of Kenora, Ontario and consists of 29 units in 2 claims. The ground covers a large concentration of airborne electromagnetic anomalies hosted in metasediments. The airborne survey was conducted by Dighem Surveys & Processing Inc in 1989 on behalf of Champion Bear Resources Ltd. Dighem describes the anomalous area as consisting of numerous sub-parallel bedrock conductors of variable strength associated with a highly complex magnetic unit (MNDM assessment files). A year prior to the airborne geophysical survey, historical trenching was conducted by Bellwether Resources Ltd. in 1988. The trenching uncovered graphite occurrences where channel samples returned weighted average grades of up to 1.76% carbon over 25.0m (MNDM assessment files).
Stephen Stares, Company President and CEO stated "we are excited to embark on this new strategic course aimed at providing shareholder value and growth. The importance of exploration and development of metals used in green technology cannot be understated and Benton looks forward to acquiring and developing quality assets in this space".
All of the above transactions are subject to TSX.V and regulatory approvals.
Benton Capital is well funded with approximately $1 million in cash.
Clinton Barr (P.Geo.), V.P. Exploration for Benton Capital Corp., is the qualified person responsible for this release and has reviewed and approved all scientific and technical data and disclosures in this release.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Capital Corp,
Stephen Stares, President
THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements."
Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections. || Benton Capital Acquires Lithium and Graphite Projects and Changes Name of Company: THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Apr 20, 2016) - Benton Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BTC) ("Benton" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors have unanimously agreed to refocus the Company's efforts toward a 100% green-energy exploration and development company. The main focus will be the acquisition and development of high quality Lithium and Graphite projects which the Company considers to be the necessary metals of the future as demand and growth continues worldwide driven by green technology. This includes lithium ion batteries used in electric cars, smart phones, tablets, and home and industrial power storage along with many other applications. Companies such as Tesla launched their home storage lithium-based Powerwall battery system which sold out in August 2015 and Tesla has said it will aim to source raw materials locally in North America where responsible mining laws are in effect which will reduce the environmental footprint. Pursuant to this new direction and subject to regulatory approval, Benton will subsequently change its name to Alset Energy Corp. and in is the process of applying for a new trading symbol. Given the Company's new focus it would also like to announce that it has acquired by staking a 100% interest in the Wisa Lake Lithium deposit located 80km east of Fort Frances, Ontario. The property is connected to Highway 11 (Trans Canada) located 65 kilometres north via an all weather paved road that crosses the centre of the project. The property is comprised of 2 claims totaling 30 units and covers the Wisa Lake deposit that is host to a historical resource of 330,000 tonnes grading 1.15% Li 2 O (Lexindin Gold Mines Ltd., Manager's Report, 1958; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 6285, Report of Activities 2012). In 1956 Lexindin completed a total of 20 drill holes (packsack and AQ-sized core) over a strike length of 335m and to a depth of approximately 65m to outline the Wisa Lake lithium mineralization. The diamond drill log of the most easterly hole intersected 6.4m containing 20% of the lithium-bearing mineral spodumene suggesting the mineralization is open at depth and to the east. It should be noted that the historical resource estimate for the deposit was calculated prior to CIM National Instrument 43-101 guidelines and as such should only be considered from a historical point of view and not relied upon. A qualified person has not completed sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources. Further diamond drill programs are required to bring the mineralization into a proper NI 43-101 compliant category. Story continues The Company has also agreed to acquire a 100% interest in the Champion Graphite project from Benton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BEX) (a company related by common directorships) for a payment of 1 million shares to Benton Resources Inc. and subject to a 2% NSR. Benton Capital will have the option to buy back 1% of the NSR for $500,000. The Champion Graphite project represents a non-core asset of Benton Resources Inc. and the related party directors of each of the respective companies abstained from voting to approve the acquisition. The retained NSR provides Benton Resources Inc. with the opportunity to participate in any future success of the project. The Champion Graphite project is located north of Kenora, Ontario and consists of 29 units in 2 claims. The ground covers a large concentration of airborne electromagnetic anomalies hosted in metasediments. The airborne survey was conducted by Dighem Surveys & Processing Inc in 1989 on behalf of Champion Bear Resources Ltd. Dighem describes the anomalous area as consisting of numerous sub-parallel bedrock conductors of variable strength associated with a highly complex magnetic unit (MNDM assessment files). A year prior to the airborne geophysical survey, historical trenching was conducted by Bellwether Resources Ltd. in 1988. The trenching uncovered graphite occurrences where channel samples returned weighted average grades of up to 1.76% carbon over 25.0m (MNDM assessment files). Stephen Stares, Company President and CEO stated "we are excited to embark on this new strategic course aimed at providing shareholder value and growth. The importance of exploration and development of metals used in green technology cannot be understated and Benton looks forward to acquiring and developing quality assets in this space". All of the above transactions are subject to TSX.V and regulatory approvals. Benton Capital is well funded with approximately $1 million in cash. Clinton Barr (P.Geo.), V.P. Exploration for Benton Capital Corp., is the qualified person responsible for this release and has reviewed and approved all scientific and technical data and disclosures in this release. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Capital Corp, Stephen Stares, President THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections. || Bitcoin is dead, says prominent fintech exec: Exactly three months ago, a well-known bitcoin developer, Mike Hearn, wrote a post on Medium that rocked the community of people who believe in the future of the digital currency and its technology. Bitcoin, he wrote, has failed. It has failed because the community has failed
Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse. The post led to screaming headlines about the end of bitcoin. And yet, the industry plugs along. The currency is trading at $430 USD. Transaction volume (the number of bitcoin transactions per day) is higher now than it was before Hearns post, according to a tracker at Blockchain.info . Just this week, the Wall Street Journal profiled a top ETF (exchange-traded fund) attorney who is advocating for a bitcoin ETF, the same effort that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are pushing. Barry Silbert , CEO of the Digital Currency Group, reflected this week , Hearnado is over. @barrysilbert Close your eyes and click you heel 3 times..then keep saying to yourself, "Bitcoin is dead, bitcoin is dead, bitcoin is dead" Trev Daniel (@TrvDaniel) April 15, 2016 Maybe not. If you ask Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of international-payments app TransferWise, Bitcoin, I think we can say, is dead. There is no traction, no one is using bitcoin. The bitcoin experiment, I think we can say, is over. Hinrikus made the comments in an interview with Yahoo Finance, during a visit to discuss his companys service launching in Mexico this week . What really happened was a gold rush, he continued. People bought bitcoin because they thought it would be worth more tomorrow. And a lot of people got lucky. But were not seeing real people use bitcoin. And we dont know what problem it solves. Now, blockchain, I think, is a genius advancement in technology. But Im not sure were seeing yet where to apply it. Im pretty excited about R3 and Digital Asset Holdings . I think there are many areas where using blockchain is great, but its still early days. Story continues Hes not alone in either opinion: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, for one, has also said that bitcoin is doomed, and has also drawn a distinction between the currency and its underlying ledger technology, the blockchain. His bank, along with more than 40 others, has signed on to a consortium to test blockchain technology for their transaction rails. Of course, TransferWise isnt a bitcoin company. But the companys proposition to customers is faster transfer times, and smaller transfer fees, on international remittances. Bitcoin, as a technology, has the same appeal (among many other uses): instant transfers and tiny fees, circumventing big, expensive, sluggish banks or wire services. Startups like TransferWise, and Dwolla, and a host of others that have nothing to do with bitcoin are nonetheless in the same general pool of financial technology, or more specifically, digital payments. The bold claim about bitcoins death would mean more, and be more alarming or divisive among the bitcoin community, coming from a bitcoin executive. (After all, one could make the case that bitcoin is a competitor to TransferWise, which deals in fiat currency.) But Hinrikus is no newcomer to fintech: TransferWise has raised nearly $100 million from huge names in tech investing like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Richard Branson, and before co-founding TransferWise, Hinrikus was the first hire at Skype and worked there five years as its director of strategy. When asked about bitcoin, Hinrikus began by saying, Weve certainly paid lots of attention to bitcoin and blockchain. If tech entrepreneurs like Hinrikus feel they no longer need to keep paying attention, that could be a problem for the coin and its future viability. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: Bitcoin community disputes use of the term Internet of Money How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain Heres how you can invest in the blockchain Bitcoin's biggest investor just bought its biggest news site || ‘Bitcoin is dead,’ says prominent fintech exec: Exactly three months ago, a well-known bitcoin developer, Mike Hearn, wrotea post on Mediumthat rocked the community of people who believe in the future of the digital currency and its technology. Bitcoin, he wrote, has failed. “It has failed because the community has failed… Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse.” The post led to screaming headlines about the end of bitcoin.
And yet, the industry plugs along. The currency is trading at $430 USD. Transaction volume (the number of bitcoin transactions per day) is higher now than it was before Hearn’s post, according toa tracker at Blockchain.info. Just this week, theWall Street Journalprofiled a top ETF (exchange-traded fund) attorney who is advocating for a bitcoin ETF, the same effort that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are pushing.
Barry Silbert, CEO of the Digital Currency Group,reflected this week, “Hearnado is over.”
Maybe not. If you ask Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of international-payments app TransferWise, “Bitcoin, I think we can say, is dead. There is no traction, no one is using bitcoin. The bitcoin experiment, I think we can say, is over.”
Hinrikus made the comments in an interview with Yahoo Finance, during a visit to discuss his company’s servicelaunching in Mexico this week. “What really happened was a gold rush,” he continued. “People bought bitcoin because they thought it would be worth more tomorrow. And a lot of people got lucky. But we’re not seeing real people use bitcoin. And we don’t know what problem it solves. Now, blockchain, I think, is a genius advancement in technology. But I’m not sure we’re seeing yet where to apply it. I’m pretty excited aboutR3 and Digital Asset Holdings. I think there are many areas where using blockchain is great, but it’s still early days.”
He’s not alone in either opinion: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, for one,has also saidthat bitcoin is “doomed,” and has also drawn a distinction between the currency and its underlying ledger technology, the blockchain. His bank, along with more than 40 others, hassigned on to a consortiumto test blockchain technology for their transaction rails.
Of course, TransferWise isn’t a bitcoin company. But the company’s proposition to customers is faster transfer times, and smaller transfer fees, on international remittances. Bitcoin, as a technology, has the same appeal (among many other uses): instant transfers and tiny fees, circumventing big, expensive, sluggish banks or wire services. Startups like TransferWise, and Dwolla, and a host of others that have nothing to do with bitcoin are nonetheless in the same general pool of financial technology, or more specifically, digital payments.
The bold claim about bitcoin’s death would mean more, and be more alarming or divisive among the bitcoin community, coming from a bitcoin executive. (After all, one could make the case that bitcoin is a competitor to TransferWise, which deals in fiat currency.)But Hinrikus is no newcomer to fintech: TransferWise has raised nearly $100 million from huge names in tech investing like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Richard Branson, and before co-founding TransferWise, Hinrikus was the first hire at Skype and worked there five years as its director of strategy.
When asked about bitcoin, Hinrikus began by saying, “We’ve certainly paid lots of attention to bitcoin and blockchain.” If tech entrepreneurs like Hinrikus feel they no longer need to keep paying attention, that could be a problem for the coin and its future viability.
--
Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.
Read more:
Bitcoin community disputes use of the term ‘Internet of Money’
How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain
Here’s how you can invest in the blockchain
Bitcoin's biggest investor just bought its biggest news site || ‘Bitcoin is dead,’ says prominent fintech exec: Exactly three months ago, a well-known bitcoin developer, Mike Hearn, wrotea post on Mediumthat rocked the community of people who believe in the future of the digital currency and its technology. Bitcoin, he wrote, has failed. “It has failed because the community has failed… Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse.” The post led to screaming headlines about the end of bitcoin.
And yet, the industry plugs along. The currency is trading at $430 USD. Transaction volume (the number of bitcoin transactions per day) is higher now than it was before Hearn’s post, according toa tracker at Blockchain.info. Just this week, theWall Street Journalprofiled a top ETF (exchange-traded fund) attorney who is advocating for a bitcoin ETF, the same effort that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are pushing.
Barry Silbert, CEO of the Digital Currency Group,reflected this week, “Hearnado is over.”
Maybe not. If you ask Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of international-payments app TransferWise, “Bitcoin, I think we can say, is dead. There is no traction, no one is using bitcoin. The bitcoin experiment, I think we can say, is over.”
Hinrikus made the comments in an interview with Yahoo Finance, during a visit to discuss his company’s servicelaunching in Mexico this week. “What really happened was a gold rush,” he continued. “People bought bitcoin because they thought it would be worth more tomorrow. And a lot of people got lucky. But we’re not seeing real people use bitcoin. And we don’t know what problem it solves. Now, blockchain, I think, is a genius advancement in technology. But I’m not sure we’re seeing yet where to apply it. I’m pretty excited aboutR3 and Digital Asset Holdings. I think there are many areas where using blockchain is great, but it’s still early days.”
He’s not alone in either opinion: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, for one,has also saidthat bitcoin is “doomed,” and has also drawn a distinction between the currency and its underlying ledger technology, the blockchain. His bank, along with more than 40 others, hassigned on to a consortiumto test blockchain technology for their transaction rails.
Of course, TransferWise isn’t a bitcoin company. But the company’s proposition to customers is faster transfer times, and smaller transfer fees, on international remittances. Bitcoin, as a technology, has the same appeal (among many other uses): instant transfers and tiny fees, circumventing big, expensive, sluggish banks or wire services. Startups like TransferWise, and Dwolla, and a host of others that have nothing to do with bitcoin are nonetheless in the same general pool of financial technology, or more specifically, digital payments.
The bold claim about bitcoin’s death would mean more, and be more alarming or divisive among the bitcoin community, coming from a bitcoin executive. (After all, one could make the case that bitcoin is a competitor to TransferWise, which deals in fiat currency.)But Hinrikus is no newcomer to fintech: TransferWise has raised nearly $100 million from huge names in tech investing like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Richard Branson, and before co-founding TransferWise, Hinrikus was the first hire at Skype and worked there five years as its director of strategy.
When asked about bitcoin, Hinrikus began by saying, “We’ve certainly paid lots of attention to bitcoin and blockchain.” If tech entrepreneurs like Hinrikus feel they no longer need to keep paying attention, that could be a problem for the coin and its future viability.
--
Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.
Read more:
Bitcoin community disputes use of the term ‘Internet of Money’
How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain
Here’s how you can invest in the blockchain
Bitcoin's biggest investor just bought its biggest news site || Penny Stocks To Buy: Four Trending Small Cap Stocks on Tuesday April 19: MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / April 19, 2016 / Daily Stock Reporter is issuing a report on four stocks to watch. AVRN, MNTR, CHZP, and AGHI have been added to our watch list today. Continue reading to find out why. - To get daily alerts on top stocks on the OTC, Nasdaq and NYSE subscribe to our newsletter at DailyStockReporter.com. Avra Inc. ( AVRN ) offers a range of solutions that streamline and modernize businesses & merchants by integrating Bitcoin payments & acceptance. As of 10AM EST on Tuesday April 19, the stock has seen well above average volume and increased price movement. From a previous close of $0.13 on Monday (4/18), shares of AVRN rose as much as 54% following early morning highs of $0.20 on Tuesday. Since the beginning of March the stock has increased in price by as much as 785%. Stay Informed and Up To Date On The Hottest Small Cap Nasdaq & OTC Plays . Get Them Here . Mentor Capital, Inc. ( MNTR ) announced earlier in April that it has acquired the international patent for the smokeless administration of THC, CBD and Cannabinoids, from its developer R.L. Larson through Larson Capital, LLC. "We started this patent related effort in 2012, before the cannabis boom, with an eye toward easier more discrete use by cancer patients and the elderly," says R.L. Larson. "As an inventor and cancer survivor with long public company leadership experience, and now as a Mentor shareholder, I am pleased to be working with Mentor Capital because of their medical bias in the cannabis space and solid approach to public company operation." As of 10AM EST the stock has seen early trading volume and intra day price movement of as much as 0.10 above its opening price of $0.54. Enjoy picks like this? Get These Alerts and More on top small cap Companies before They Rally, Text the phrase "StockAlerts" to 635-66 Chess Supersite Corp. ( CHZP ) whose primary business is the development and operation of the chess portal www.chesssupersite.com , announced on Tuesday April 19 that the Company has been selected to broadcast both US Men's and Woman's Championships held in the US capital of chess, St. Louis, Missouri. The U.S. Championship will culminate with the top three players competing in a special blitz round- robin format against legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov. The round- robin tournament will take place over two days upon the conclusion of the Championships. For a little over one week, shares of CHZP have begun to climb in price. On April 11 the stock opened at $0.20 and this morning (4/19) the stock has seen a high of $0.48 to mark a total move to this point of 140%. Volume has also begun to increase in comparison to previous weeks. Story continues Stay Informed and Up To Date On The Hottest Small Cap Stocks; Free To Join Now . Agora Holdings, Inc. (AGHI) announced earlier in April that the company had signed an engagement letter with an independent accounting and auditing firm, BF Borgers CPA PC. The signing of the engagement letter represents a significant step forward for Agora Holdings in becoming a fully reporting entity. Agora Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiary Geegle Media and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, TV, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. During the last 3 months, shares of AGHI have seen price as high as $0.49 with the highest daily volume being 967.4K shares. Small Cap Stock Alerts: Get Them straight to your Cell Phone. To Receive Our Winning Small Cap Stock Alerts For Free, text "StockAlerts" to 63566. ABOUT US: www.DailyStockReporter.com monitors and scans the markets for stock related signals as well as any external factors that might bring trading opportunities. Through a vast network of IR professionals www.DailyStockReporter.com is often in the know of several large investor awareness campaigns being deployed. Timing is everything when trading Penny Stocks. You can subscribe to the www.DailyStockReporter.com newsletter and start receiving daily alerts. To subscribe by phone and receive messages directly to a mobile phone, text the phrase "StockAlerts" to 63566. Legal Disclaimer Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. A full disclaimer can be found at www.DailyStockReporter.com/disclaimer. EGM FIRM INC which owns www.DailyStockReporter.com, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. EGM FIRM INC, which owns www.DailyStockReporter.com, may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. EGM FIRM INC which owns www.DailyStockReporter.com, may be compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation or equity securities in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. CONTACT: Company: DailyStockReporter.com Contact Email: [email protected] SOURCE: DailyStockReporter.com || Penny Stocks To Buy: Four Trending Small Cap Stocks on Tuesday April 19: MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / April 19, 2016 /Daily Stock Reporter is issuing a report on four stocks to watch.AVRN, MNTR, CHZP,andAGHIhave been added to our watch list today. Continue reading to find out why. - To get daily alerts on top stocks on the OTC, Nasdaq and NYSE subscribe to our newsletter at DailyStockReporter.com.
Avra Inc. (AVRN)offers a range of solutions that streamline and modernize businesses & merchants by integrating Bitcoin payments & acceptance. As of 10AM EST on Tuesday April 19, the stock has seen well above average volume and increased price movement. From a previous close of $0.13 on Monday (4/18), shares of AVRN rose as much as 54% following early morning highs of $0.20 on Tuesday. Since the beginning of March the stock has increased in price by as much as 785%.
Stay Informed and Up To Date On The Hottest Small Cap Nasdaq & OTC Plays. Get Them Here.
Mentor Capital, Inc. (MNTR)announced earlier in April that it has acquired the international patent for the smokeless administration of THC, CBD and Cannabinoids, from its developer R.L. Larson through Larson Capital, LLC. "We started this patent related effort in 2012, before the cannabis boom, with an eye toward easier more discrete use by cancer patients and the elderly," says R.L. Larson. "As an inventor and cancer survivor with long public company leadership experience, and now as a Mentor shareholder, I am pleased to be working with Mentor Capital because of their medical bias in the cannabis space and solid approach to public company operation."
As of 10AM EST the stock has seen early trading volume and intra day price movement of as much as 0.10 above its opening price of $0.54.
Enjoy picks like this? Get These Alerts and More on top small cap Companies before They Rally, Text the phrase "StockAlerts" to 635-66
Chess Supersite Corp. (CHZP)whose primary business is the development and operation of the chess portalwww.chesssupersite.com, announced on Tuesday April 19 that the Company has been selected to broadcast both US Men's and Woman's Championships held in the US capital of chess, St. Louis, Missouri. The U.S. Championship will culminate with the top three players competing in a special blitz round- robin format against legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov. The round- robin tournament will take place over two days upon the conclusion of the Championships. For a little over one week, shares of CHZP have begun to climb in price. On April 11 the stock opened at $0.20 and this morning (4/19) the stock has seen a high of $0.48 to mark a total move to this point of 140%. Volume has also begun to increase in comparison to previous weeks.
Stay Informed and Up To Date On The Hottest Small Cap Stocks;Free To Join Now.
Agora Holdings, Inc. (AGHI)announced earlier in April that the companyhad signed an engagement letter with an independent accounting and auditing firm, BF Borgers CPA PC. The signing of the engagement letter represents a significant step forward for Agora Holdings in becoming a fully reporting entity. Agora Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiary Geegle Media and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, TV, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. During the last 3 months, shares of AGHI have seen price as high as $0.49 with the highest daily volume being 967.4K shares.
Small Cap Stock Alerts: Get Them straight to your Cell Phone. To Receive Our Winning Small Cap Stock Alerts For Free, text "StockAlerts" to 63566.
ABOUT US:
www.DailyStockReporter.commonitors and scans the markets for stock related signals as well as any external factors that might bring trading opportunities. Through a vast network of IR professionals www.DailyStockReporter.com is often in the know of several large investor awareness campaigns being deployed.
Timing is everything when trading Penny Stocks. You can subscribe to the www.DailyStockReporter.com newsletter and start receiving daily alerts. To subscribe by phone and receive messages directly to a mobile phone, text the phrase "StockAlerts" to 63566.
Legal Disclaimer
Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. A full disclaimer can be found at www.DailyStockReporter.com/disclaimer.
EGM FIRM INC which owns www.DailyStockReporter.com, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release.
EGM FIRM INC, which owns www.DailyStockReporter.com, may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice.
EGM FIRM INC which owns www.DailyStockReporter.com, may be compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation or equity securities in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two.
CONTACT:
Company: DailyStockReporter.comContact Email:[email protected]
SOURCE:DailyStockReporter.com
[Social Media Buzz]
1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes:
$465.65/$466.45 #Bitstamp
$457.20/$458.00 #BTCe
⇢$-9.25/$-7.65
$468.29/$468.30 #Coinbase
⇢$1.84/$2.65 || Someone just paid $136,996.85 to send 5¢ with Bitcoin. Swapped variables in script. Don't code when fatigued, boys. https://t.co/Nm1ZMaSZgr || 1 KOBO = 0.00001101 BTC
= 0.0051 USD
= 1.0155 NGN
= 0.0740 ZAR
= 0.5162 KES
#Kobocoin 2016-04-26 14:00 pic.twitter.com/MEPw557vRa || Bittrex STV/BTC Vol.:$ 558(100.00 %) Cryptopia STV/BTC Vol.:$ 0(0.00 %) Cryptopia S...
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444.69, 449.01, 455.10, 448.32, 451.88, 444.67, 450.30, 446.72, 447.98, 459.60
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